Years ago, Grant Park, Connecticut, a fertility clinic:
While a nurse calls in a woman, Wolverine’s team infiltrates the clinic, trying to find out what “Mothervine” is. Logan orders Armstrong and Reese to secure the computers and Norris to give them cover. SHIELD wants to know what those freaks are up to.
One of the scientists gives the order to shut it down and purge all the data. Reese hits him, while Armstrong aims her guns at them. She is looking for a volunteer to get her copies of vital Project Mothervine files. And by volunteer, she means person who wants to live to see tomorrow.
Wolverine smells something else. The woman in red is surprised as well. Last she heard, he was dead, same as her, but here they are. Hopefully their agendas are complementary to one another…
Port St. Lucie, Florida, now:
Black Box hopes they didn’t just commit a crime by leaving the reservation just so Jimmy could see his folks. He needs to see them one last time, Jimmy replies.
Hidden, they watch James Hudson looking at his boat.
That’s his old man? Black Box asks. He thought he was Wolverine’s kid. That’s his whole gimmick! Jimmy explains that James Hudson raised him. He and his mom are the only parents he knows.
Heather joins James, teasing a girl might get bent out of shape when her husband misses a hot dinner three times in a row so he can work on a boat. She’s starting to think he doesn’t like her cooking. She hands him a beer.
James apologizes. He lost track of time. Heather reminds him that they agreed to sell the boathouse. James stammers. Heather knows working on the boat was his thing with Jimmy. But they know he isn’t coming back. He can‘t.
James tries to comfort them by pointing out that, even if all of that hadn’t happened, Jimmy would be gone now. Attending college, getting a job, maybe getting married too young. Heather sighs she’d prefer any of those options. With all that’s been happening to the mutants, she just wants to know he’s all right. James insists they raised a good kid. They taught him the difference between right and wrong. They gotta trust wherever he is, he’s okay. They head inside.
Garab suggests Jimmy say hello. Jimmy reminds him of the standing order to turn mutants over to the authorities. His dad is a cop. He’d never turn them over. Btu he won’t put his parents through that. He’s put them through enough already. They leave.
Miami, Florida. The Miami County fertility clinic at night. Jimmy and Garab break in. Jimmy worries that this is all just a weird prank Wolverine left behind.
They are unaware that they are being watched by some men who’ve been monitoring the place for days. Masked men with omega symbols on their masks and a blond guy with crazy eyes. Kyle Gibney aka Wild Child.
The masked men suggest the boys are harmless and ask if they should kill them. Wild Child wants to learn more. Contract calls for them to clean up the mess those jokers left behind all those years ago. If there are any loose ends, he’d like to tie them into a nice little bow…
The boys enter the abandoned place. Garab announces they know nothing about the place except it’s creepy. They find a heavily protected door, but Garab easily breaks the code. Give him something harder next time, he laughs.
Jimmy summarizes whatever this doctor’s office was it was a front for whatever the hell went on downstairs. He asks if Garab thinks all the addresses they found on Wolverine’s holographic message were fertility clinics like this one. Just like this? Garab wonders. This place is kind of a tomb. Whoever bugged out left a lot of equipment, Jimmy muses. Maybe they planned to open business again. Garab scoffs the tech belongs in a museum. Jimmy asks if he can make it work. Tell him why his father was storing all this data. Yeah, Garab replies, it’s kind of like talking to a doddering old grandpa at a nursing home. But yeah.
He concentrates and explains some sort of signal unlocked the hidden data in Wolverine’s little puzzle box. Whatever that signal was, it was designed to act like a virus… erase all the Mothervine data before it fell in other hands. This old equipment was spared from an infection but anything on the net would be scrambled. Except for Jimmy’s device.
He muses this organization was into some weird stuff. Biological warfare, gene tampering, embryo enhancement. They were breeding mutants… programming abilities to activate aggressively on command. They were trying to weaponize mutations. What is he saying? Jimmy demands. They called the program Project: Mothervine, and for whatever reason Wolverine wants Jimmy to know about it.
Not bad for a couple of amateur detectives, Wild Child remarks behind them. The Hardy Boys would be proud. Of course, he can tell which of them is the brains and which is the dumb muscle. They are under orders to sway anyone who sticks their nose where it doesn’t belong. He figures they can’t be working alone. So they’re gonna take the brains with them… see what he knows. And muscles… go ahead with what he is dying to say. “Over my dead body,” right? Jimmy unsheathes his claws. No. over yours!
Wild Child does the same with his fingernail claws. They come at each other and slash each other. Jimmy announces that he doesn’t want to hurt anyone. Wild Child laughs.
Garab tries to create a diversion with the holographic device. One of the guards hits him. Suddenly, identical images of Wolverine’s message appear, distracting the men.
Jimmy slices through some of Wild Child’s claw. Is he some kind of Wolverine Jr.? Wild Child asks and slices him in the torso. He’s been studying Wolverine for years. He was the best there was. And Jimmy ain’t even close.
Interested, he watches the writhing boy, wondering if he has a healing facto. He’d be happy to go at it again. He promises once they are done with Black Box, they’ll quickly put him out of his misery.
Suddenly, there is a whooshing noise and the men holding Black Box are skinned. A moment later, Wild Child’s neck is broken. Their rescuer informs Jimmy he shouldn’t be wallowing on the floor. “Let me help you, brother,” Quicksilver offers.
Years ago:
Wolverine faces his opponent. You! he exclaims. Last time she checked, the brunette in the tight red outfit smiles. It’s good to see him again. Wolverine sheathes his claws and ask what she is doing here… Magda. They share a passionate kiss…
