The night smells different up in Canada, he thinks. It’s the North Wind blowin’ down all that arctic air, air that was charged by the Aurora Borealis. Air that gusted across fields o’ ice that ain’t ever felt the tread o’ human feet. It sets Wolverine to thinkin’ and dreamin’ which are two things the ol’ canuckle-head shouldn’t be doin’ when he’s pushin’ his scoot (motorcycle) on an all-night run to Ottawa. It slows down his reaction time something fierce. It’s the same thing that happened to the fox he swerved to miss, which results in a wreck.
The fox was too intent on runnin’ down the rabbit, wasn’t payin’ attention, and it ruined his day. It didn’t do much good for Wolverine’s day either. As he picks himself up off the ground, he thinks that it ain’t nothin’ really, droppin’ a bike. Scrapin’ off a square foot o’ hide? Nothin’ a cold six won’t cure. The ol’ fox is another story. He’s banged up pretty bad, or else he would’ve dragged his prey off with him. Wolverine knows that he’s gotta do somethin’ for him. Sniffing the air, it’s apparent to him that his ol’ sniffer ain’t what it used to be. He’s going to have to track the fox by eye, and his vision’s gettin’ foggy. The fox is hurtin’ and it wants to get home. Aren’t they all?
Just then, Wolverine hears a whole pack o’ things behind him howlin’, runnin’, hungry dogs. Strays, abandoned mutts, runaways, runnin’ feral. They’re not interested in the likes o’ him at all. Turns out the ol’ fox ain’t gonna make it home, after all. Wolverine thinks to himself that maybe he and the fox are two of a kind. He’s all used up and hurtin’ and he sure wants to go home before all the wild things come snappin’ after him.
At that moment, three bikers ask Wolverine, short-round, if that is his scoot. Wolverine hears shoot? Did he say shoot? Yes, it’s a threat. The wild things are already catchin’ up to him. But he is Wolverine, he is still the best at what he…. When he pops his claws, it doesn’t sound right, it don’t feel right. Looking at his claws he screams in pain when he sees that they’re bones and they hurt. When he sits on the ground in shock, the bikers are in awe of what they just witnessed. As they wonder who the bone-clawed guy is, another recommends that they check his wallet.
In midtown Manhattan, at the Parvenue Towers, Yuriko Oyama asks Ronald Parvenue why they are going to a boring place like Canada. Ronald tells her that it’s a surprise. Yuriko informs him that she doesn’t like surprises. Ronald replies that she has to have patience, she’ll like this one. Yuriko tells him that she doesn’t like to play games. Ronald tells her that a man crossed the border at Thousand Islands, coming off Route 81 with a Canadian passport registered to Logan W. Logan. The name doesn’t show up on any files. It’s a phony, but the passport is real. It was a short guy on a motorcycle. He thought she might like to know. Yuriko tells him thank you and flashes an evil smile. Ronald then informs her that there’s a limo waiting for her at the border. He then tells her happy hunting.
In Ottawa, Ontario, at 138A Laurier Drive, Heather Hudson answers her door. She comes face to face with a biker who asks her if she is Heather Hudson. When she confirms that she is, the biker tells her that her old man dropped his scoot out on 401. He had outlaw written all over him, so they thought he might prefer goin’ home over some place where Mounties be askin’ questions. They stuck him on the back of his scoot and bungeed him to the sissy bar. One of his buddies, Diana, drove his Harley. When they bring Wolverine up to Heather’s door, they give her his keys and wallet. Heather asks that they did all this for a stranger? The biker tells her that he looked like bro to him.
The next day, a limo rides down the road in Canada. Inside, Yuriko Oyama, Lady Deathstrike, orders the driver to stop. When she gets out of the car, she sniffs the air and says that the cycle of life plays out at that spot. Looking upon the rabbit that was killed by Wolverine’s motorcycle, she says that things are born into crowds and they die alone. Deathstrike gets back in the car and says that he’s on this road all right, she can smell his blood.
Standing next to a car, Wolverine realizes that he’s just walkin’ through his dreams again. This one ain’t so bad though. He’s a big bad secret agent again. He has a bottle, a gun, and a car – Canadian rye whiskey, a Colt 1911A1, and a Lotus Seven. He knows somethin’ bad happened to him in the car, what was it? When three agents show up shoot him, he remembers that’s what it was. He decides to skip the next few nightmares. Everything just goes downhill from there.
All that time in the tank at the Weapon X project, livin’ a floatin’ dream about a plain o’ spikes. A world o’ pain. A place where redemption and mercy are lost is a sea o’ terror. A hole in the bottom of hope, where you scream the name of the one you love – Mariko! Your own voice bounces back at you, like it was echoin’ through the eye sockets of a giant skull. As he holds the bones close to him, they crumble until he is faced with Magneto! While Magneto hovers above him, he tells Wolverine that bones are only brittle calcium. Such is the mortal framework, but Wolverine is possessed of a more enduring infra-structure – adamantium. With that, he wrenches the inner core from Wolverine. As he does, he tells him that it is what makes him what he is. Wolverine calls out no, he is…
… he’s more than that. When Wolverine wakes up, Heather is comforting him. She tells him that it’s all right. She tells him that he’s in her house and that everything is all right. It was just a bad dream. Wolverine tells her that she’s wrong, the worst parts were real. He asks how long he has been… Heather informs him that the bikers brought him to her door two days ago. Wolverine says that’s funny, he’s still tired.
Later, as Wolverine is shaving, Heather asks him that there’s something wrong with his healing factor, isn’t there and mentions his terrible scars. Wolverine tells her that Magneto did that to him. He ripped the adamantium clean out o’ him and sent his healin’ factor into overload but it kept him alive, that and somethin’ he had to stick around to do, but he thinks he maxed it out. While he shaves, he cuts himself and laments that there was a time when he could just stand there and watch the cut just scab over and disappear. Now, he has to T.P. his mug like everybody else. Heather asks him if that is so bad, being like everybody else, she means. Wolverine tells her no, maybe it’s time for him to do all those things that everybody else has been doin’. Maybe it’s time for him to have a life or what’s left of it.
In another section of Canada, Yuriko’s driver tells her that they’ve been driving around the blasted countryside for two days, wouldn’t it be more efficient to go back to New York and hire some private eyes to do the boring legwork? Yuriko informs him that they wouldn’t find him, they don’t have the soul. Just then, Yuriko tells the driver to stop outside a bar by the name of the Country Bunker. She mentions that he’s been there, the scent of him is there. She then goes up to a motorcycle and finds his blood.
Inside the bar, she announces to the patrons that the one she seeks is not there, but there are those there who have given him aid. Holding up a sissy bar she asks which of them claims the piece of junk. Wiley and one of his fellow bikers charge Deathstrike and threaten that they’re gonna… With one swipe of her claws, she kills the bikers and approaches another and tells her that she will tell her where the gaijin dog known as Logan is, or she will wind her guts like a kite string.
Sitting in front of her computer, Heather Hudson informs Logan that she wouldn’t do this for anybody else; it’s too close to snooping. She adds that she has a special pass code from Alpha Flight that gives her entrée into the Canadian government data banks. Once she gets into the main directory, she asks what heading she should look for. Logan tells her ministry of agriculture, pest control section. Heather informs that she found nothing. Logan asks what about Shiva or the address in Windsor for the warehouse. Heather again tells him nothing. Logan starts naming names. The Professor isn’t enough to go on so what about Cornelius, Hines and Ferro.
As Heather begins the search, Logan puts his hand on her shoulder. Heather then tells him that they got two hits. An Aldo Ferro shows up on the Treasury records. He did some song and dance with some large sums of money involving research grants. There are twenty-seven listings for Hines, but one of them has a security flag on it. Monica Hines, Dr. Monica Hines, wrote a major paper on immunology. She did research on the apparent effect of complex metallic salts on the immune system and tissue regeneration. Logan says complex metallic salts alloys? He then asks if Heather can pull up the article and do a word search on it. Heather asks what word to which Logan replies adamantium.
Heather completes the search and finds that word exactly and asks Logan what gives. Logan informs her that without the adamantium, his immune system doesn’t work. It’s linked somehow. He thought he might be able to find the original work on him at the project or before, but now he knows who it was and she’s dead. Heather holds his hand and begins to ask him can’t the X-Men…
Just then, Puck interrupts them and informs Logan and Heather that they have some suspicious company. A big ol’ limo has been cruising around the block half the morning so he thought he had better change into fighting togs and give a hand. Logan asks a limo, who could…? Just then, Lady Deathstrike crashes through the window and tells him that she could and would.
