First Story :
This main story reprints X-Men (1st series) #102, however there are three additional pages :
One page extends the flasback of the Munroe’s house in Cairo being hit by an out of control jet in some military conflict.
Another page shows Ororo enjoying her weather powers she manifested while walking from Cairo to Kenya. When local tribes asked her to combat the drought that ravaged the land, she did not even consider turning them down and used her elemental control to make it rain.
The third added scene follows Xavier seeing the alien face in the mirror. Suddenly he sees himself no lonegr in the hospital, but in an alien sky, the figure in front of him. Both are confused, and as they try to touch hands the vision ends. Xavier has fallen out of the wheelchair, and Scott deoesn’t know what to make of it. Moira helps the professor and tells Scott that these seizures are the reason why Xavier called for her. She thinks that either the telepath’s mind has become unbalanced and he is slipping into madness, or another consciousness is interfacing with that of Xavier.
Second Story :
Wolverine is in New York, at Times Square. The X-men have some downtime and he wants to familiarize with the big city. He doesn’t like it much, thinking it too crowded and noisy. He lits his cigarette, but suddenly somebody grabs it from his mouth. Logan blames himself for letting his guards down, he quickly does a 360 degree check of the people around him, but doesn’t see the attacker. Then somebody is behind him, laughing in his ear and asaying “Tag, Sucker – you’re it ! “ Logan turns around, but again nobody’s there. He decides to leave, as Times Square is too crowded and has too many scents and noises that confuse him. Logan runs across a street full of cars and quickly makes it to a roof, using a fire ladder. He runs across town, giviong whoever was targeting him a wild chase.
In Chelsea, Logan enters a pub. Not too many customers inside, apparently nobody is a threat. He chooses a table in a corner, so that he has full view of the room, and orders a drink. The bartender notices that Logan is looking for trouble, so he asks him to take it outside. Wolverine drinks his whiskey and takes in the sensations of the pub. He smells the cigarettes, hears the billard balls klacking into each other, smells the alcohol, looks at the faces and one girl is even flirting with him. Suddenly through the window he sees a smile, the next moment it’s gone. The opponent is still after him and waiting outside.
Logan storms out of the pub, almost running over the flirting girl, but again nobody is there. Francie, the girl, angrily leaves and the bartender doesn’t allow Logan in again. Suddenly they hear a scream and find Francie dead around the corner. Logan knows that she was killed by his stalker and a whisper in the wind tells him he is next. Logan enters the subway tunnels through a maintenance. He rides a bypassing subway train to the next station, and keeps moving through New York always looking over his shoulder, and always seeing nothing.
In the morning he reaches Battery Park. With his back to the sea he switches into costume. Somehow this whole game of tag, the laughter and the way the woman was killed seem familiar, but he does not quite remember. He pops his claws waiting for whoever is following him. Suddenly a figure rises from the water and attacks him from behind. Sabretooth’s clawed hands are seen, closing around Logan’s neck and cutting the throat open. “Tag again, Sucker. You’re it – you are out !“ He throes Logan into the water and laughs.
An hour later, Wolverine clims aboard the Staten island Ferry. He knows that by right he should have suffocated, bled to death or drowned, but his healing factor saved him again. His foe understimated the healing factor, but probably won’t do so next time. The animal Wolverine was no match for him, the were fighting on Sabretooth’s terms the whole time. Logan knows that to survive, he will have to change. He needs to accept who and what he is and grow from it, but he is not sure wether he can.
