On a freighter somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, coming from Vietnam, Wolverine sits in a cold storage room, covered with a blanket. He thinks to himself that he can feel it all around him - like a fog. Death - real death. It keeps whispering to him in the dark, soothing him, telling him that it will take all of the pain away. Telling him that this might be his only chance and that he’s a fool if he doesn’t take it. Wolverine doesn’t accept that! He’s not dying! Not today at least. Not until he saves his son. He rises defiantly and tosses the blanket away, exposing the still open sword slash across his chest.
Wolverine holds his head and thinks to himself that he needs to get it together, that he needs to get focused. He ought to be freezing to death, instead he feels like he’s being burned alive. His wound, the cut he got from the Muramasa blade, isn’t healing like normal. At least not normal for him. He has plenty of scars, but it looks like this one is going to be on the outside.
He grabs some ice off one of the shrimp boxes and puts it on the wound. He screams in agony. If he didn’t know better, he’d swear he was seasick, like he is swaying back and forth between getting better and worse. Like his healing factor is trying to kick in - but it can’t. He’s never felt anything like this - no. He has felt this before.
Back in Dallas Texas in 1963, a younger Wolverine is in his old Team X uniform, and behind bars. He calls out to the bald-headed gentleman standing outside his cell that he did what they wanted and that he know wants to know why he is being held. After all, he’s supposed to rendezvous with the rest of his team in... Before he can finish, he is cut off by the gentleman who informs him, Agent Logan, that he will receive his orders shortly. Logan responds that he already got his orders. He wants to know what kind of bull...
He is cut off by a voice coming from the speaker in his cell. It indicates that Agent Logan has performed admirably in his mission and that their objective here is complete. Logan candidly responds that is “yippee” for them and that he now wants to be let out of this box before the wrong people start asking the wrong quest... He is cut off again by the voice coming from the box, who tells him that there is one more thing that he needs to do. As he speaks, there is a small capsule being slid under the door of Logan’s cell. They want him to ingest it.
Logan reaches for the red pill and holds it up to his mouth. He asks the voice if it is something they want smuggled out of the country and then where he needs to deliver it too. He pops the pill into his mouth as the voice tells him that he’s not delivering it anywhere. All of a sudden, Logan doubles over and grabs his stomach in pain. He thinks it is poison until he is informed that it is not poison - it is carbonadium.
The door to his cell is opened and in walks four men armed with machine guns and the bald-headed gentleman enter Logan’s cell. The voice asks him if his men are in position. The answer is yes. The voice informs them to fire. Fire they do, unloading their machine guns into Logan’s body. Once they are done, they check Logan’s pulse. At fifteen hundred hours and forty-one minutes, subject X is confirmed dead. Case study three-oh-five, effects of carbonadium on mutant regenerative capabilities, commences now.
Wolverine is awakened from his trip down memory lane by the sound of the freighter being boarded. For quite some time, he’s been trying to figure out how to take his son down - get him out of this whole mess - without killing him. Carbonadium’s the key. However, it doesn’t occur naturally, it has to be synthesized. For that, he has to find Maverick. First, he needs to get off of the boat. So he can remain unrecognized, he removes his pants and rips them, making a mask that covers his face.
When he reaches the deck of the ship, he notices that the captain isn’t being very cooperative with the U.S. Coast Guard. No surprise there. For all the captain knows, he still has thirty kilos of heroin hidden in the forward compartment. Even though Wolverine would love to see his face when he finds out that he doesn’t, he will be long gone by then. Undetected, Wolverine heads up to the control room and rips out the ship’s radio and leaps into the ocean with it.
Over on the Coast Guard cutter, the coastie standing guard is radioed and instructed to call in some support boats - his fellow coasties on the ship are having some problems conducting with the search. He informs them that he will and, when he turns around, he is punched out by Wolverine. The coasties on the freighter hear the motor of the cutter kick on and see it speeding away, its crew in the ocean. They yell for the cutter to stop, but their cries fall on deaf ears.
At the S.H.I.E.L.D. anti-terror taskforce division, central records office, Dum Dum Dugan sits at his desk reading a file. Across the room, two young S.H.I.E.L.D. agents start talking about the old man. One of the agents tells the other that he has been busting his stones ever since he got there! He thought that he was a hotshot field commander and asks what he is doing in records. The other agent informs him that he is the one who was in charge when the attack on the White House went down. Top brass sent him down there to push papers, probably hoping the old coot would resign. Either that, or he would blow his own brains out from sheer boredom. Little does he know, Dugan is standing behind him.
The young agent stammers to Dugan who instructs him to go change his pants. When the one agent leaves, Dugan asks the other one why a certain report wasn’t flagged. The young agent looks at the report and reads it. A Coast Guard cutter was hijacked while attempting to search an inbound freighter. It looks like what they have is that they believe it was one of the crewmembers from the freighter, possibly in an attempt to avoid... He is cut off by Dugan, who informs him that he can read. He then asks the young agent what the cross-entry reads. The agent informs him that it says the cutter was found less than twelve hours later, adrift in Puget Sound. No prints other than those of the crew were found. After hearing that, Dugan orders the young agent to put him in touch with the Seattle field office - now!!
In Eastern Washington state, Wolverine stands in plain clothes next to a pay phone inside a diner. He is thinking to himself that he needs to concentrate when the phone rings next to him. He picks it up and informs the person on the other end of the line that he needs help finding somebody and that it’s important. He barely finishes his thought when the person on the other end of the line informs him that he is in New York City - in Queens. Wolverine thanks Emma for everything and hangs up the phone.
Upon hearing this information, he mentions to the man that was on the phone next to him that he overheard that he would be heading out to the east coast and asks him for a ride. When the man asks Wolverine what he’s going to give him for the ride, Wolverine informs him that it isn’t really what he gives him that matters. He pops his claws and tells him that it’s what he will let him keep. As they head out to his truck, the man informs Wolverine that he can take him as far as Buffalo. His boss will fire him if he... Wolverine cuts him off and tells him that he’s going to take him to Queens. The man reluctantly agrees.
Suddenly, Wolverine catches a scent of something but can’t quite place it. With the diesel fumes and exhaust so thick in the air he can’t get a bead on it. It’s probably nothing anyway. It’s just that it smelled familiar. As they drive away, a shadowy figure watches them go.
Three days later, Wolverine arrives in Queens and enters an office building. When he gets there, a guard asks him if he has an appointment. Wolverine says that he does as he scopes the place out. The place is empty, so it shouldn’t be a problem taking this guy out. The guard asks him what his name is when the phone rings. The guard answers it and tells Wolverine to go right up. Wolverine is shocked and wonders what this place is. When he gets up to the next level he sees a lot of people he knows sitting on cots. They’re all mutants, at least they used to be. He searches for a scent and finds it almost immediately. The man he is looking for - one of his old Team X partners. Christopher Nord - Maverick. He catches another scent as well. This time there’s no mistaken whose it is.
From around the corner, Jubilee comes out of an office and informs Wolverine that she saw him on the security camera. She asks him what he is doing there. Wolverine rushes to her and orders her to get down - now!!! He tackles Jubilee and covers her from the blast that ensues. Wolverine smelled him, but it was too late - Arkady Rossovich - Omega Red!!!! From the blast area, Omega Red emerges with troops behind him. He is after Maverick - who will give him what is his now!!
