Face to face, Wolverine and his archenemy Sabretooth are inches from each other. However, rather than locked in battle, they are each strapped to metal tables, with various gadgets and sensor arrays locked onto them, probing and scanning. Silently remarking to those below that are monitoring the data, Logan thinks to himself that it’s a fine thing that his old pals James and Heather Hudson came all the way down from Ottawa to check up on him… an’ all he can think of is how bad he wants to rip out Sabretooth’s guts. He then whispers to Sabretooth that he may have pulled the wool over the eyes o’ everybody else but he ain’t fooled him for a second. In his soul, Logan knows that wounded look is about as convincin’ as Sylvester with a mouthful o’ Tweety but he’s really workin’ on it, ain’t he?
Observing them, Heather Hudson informs Professor Charles Xavier, Beast, and her husband James Hudson that Logan and Creed’s blood sugar graphs are almost identical. They have a number of matching anomalies in the neural configuration comparison. She adds that the similarities in their systems are amazing. This comparative analysis is going to prove far more rewarding than they had thought. Xavier replies that it’ll be reward enough if they find any clue as to the origins of Logan’s mysterious regression. Beast pipes in that indeed it will. He then asks Guardian, James Hudson, if he ever ran across the spikes in Logan’s alpha wave index before. James informs him that they were always evident, but never with this degree of prominence. He then asks Heather if she can run up those before and after x-ray holograms of Sabretooth.
Laying there, Logan thinks to himself that Creed must be doin’ that Stanislavsky stuff – method actin’. But that stuff only works if ya ever actually experienced the emotions ya been tryin’ to reproduce and Creed’s version o’ compassion bites it big and forgiveness? He ain’t got a clue. Logan then whispers to Creed not to push it, he has another fistful o’ claws just waitin’ for him.
At that moment, Heather shows the holo-scan that was taken of Creed’s head right after Logan punched a claw through it. She tells those around to look at the size of the intrusive trauma. Major tissue damage, ossial fragmentation, even the sinuses have collapsed. The frontal lobes have been pierced with enough force to create arterial rupturing in both hemispheres. She finishes that if Creed didn’t possess a mutant healing factor, he would be dead. Showing another scan, James points out that in the most recent diagnosis, the trauma is no longer evident. The path of the trauma can only be discerned by faint scarring and the frontal lobes have regenerated. Any behavioral and perceptual changes caused by the traumatic lobotomy may be temporary, or it may not. This is still unexplored territory. Upon hearing that, Logan looks over at Creed and whispers to him rehabilitated, in a pig’s eye. Creed shoots back with no response, only an evil grin.
With the tests complete, Beast unhooks Creed while Heather unhooks Logan. Beast tells Creed that they’re through with him for the day. It’s time to run Logan through his individual battery of tests. Creed lets out a sigh and Logan sarcastically says to himself if that was such a strain on his poor, hurt bod. As Beast asks Logan if he’s ready for round two, Boomer pops in and says that she thought she’d, like, skip on down and walk Sabretooth back to his room if they’re finished down there. Heather tells her that’s very considerate.
Hearing all of that, Logan grinds his teeth in anger. Boomer hears it and asks what the weird grinding noise is. Logan thinks to himself that they all think he’s losin’ it. He’s gotta prove to ‘em he’s not but it’s frightful hard. Just then, Boomer takes Creed’s hand and tells him that she sure hopes having to be around him hasn’t stressed him out too much and recommends that he just doesn’t even look at him. His blood boiling, Logan thinks it’s hard all right and wonders in all this time, did Jubilee ever take his hand like that. The answer – no.
Beast then informs Logan that it’s time to get over to the Danger Room. Once there, Logan is strapped with some monitors and placed inside of it with James and Heather Hudson. James informs Logan that they are going to simulate environments and gauge how his senses and reflexes curve from the known norm. Logan tells them to make it snappy, somethin’ about the wires an’ plugs all over him is givin’ him the creepy-crawlies.
In the control room Beast informs Xavier that the sensor array itself is triggering some deep-seated memory response – perhaps the Weapon X project. Xavier adds that it is a topic Logan has repeatedly declined to elucidate upon. With that, Xavier presses a button and loads the arctic ice storm module. He tells Beast to monitor Logan’s adrenaline levels closely. When the simulation commences, Logan notices that the cold an’ the wires and thinks that it’s like wakin’ up an’ half-remeberin’ a dream or a fragment of a nightmare. Just then, he pops his claws as he sees James and Heather standing in front of him toting rifles. James calls out to Heather to look out for the claws.
As Logan leaps towards them, the red rage wells up outta his insides and there’s a fury tryin’ to bust outta his head like a black ball o’ pure blood lust. All he knows is, nothin’ better stand in his way! Seeing Logan’s reaction, Xavier terminates the simulation and calls out to Logan that he’s in the Danger Room and there is no real threat. James tells Logan to relax while Heather reaches out to him. She adds that they’re all friends there and for him to put away his claws. Frozen, Logan wonders what he was about to do. They’re the best friends he has in the whole world and he was about to… It’s like the door to a secret attic swung open for a second and he caught a glimpse. It’s fadin’, wisp-like, dream-like, fallin’ away – it’s a glimpse o’ the wild time.
(flashback)
When he was roamin’ Buffalo Wood like an animal. The carcasses of the dead animals he found were just left to rot. Their teeth, liver and claws were gone. He wonders what kind o’ beast kills and doesn’t eat. Logan recalls that it was a beast called man – a two-legged predator with the stink o’ fear on him and the sound o’ thunder at his fingerprints. They are many; they chase him like a pack o’ starvin’ wolves. He circles around behind them and he comes on two he takes to be stragglers. The smell ain’t quite right, but they’re human so he attacks. Logan tells Heather back then that he tried to…
(present)
He thought her and Mac were poachers because o’ their smell. He then tells her that he has to get outta there. Heather tells him to wait, doesn’t he see. This proves that he wasn’t a total berserker animal when they found him. There was a reason behind his attack even if it was mistaken. Running out of the Danger Room and the building, Logan tells her sorry but he has to get some air. Heather calls out to him to stop but listen he does not.
Outside Logan runs. Under the cover o’ night, he bolts for the woods, away from the friends he knows are tryin’ t’help him and the overwhelmin’ stench o’ people. Back in the Danger Room, Heather and James Hudson discuss Logan’s situation. Heather tells her husband that they can’t just let him go running off in his present state. James asks her what the alternatives are. Lock him up and restrict him more than Sabretooth? Heather replies of course not, he’s no cold-blooded killer. Even in his wild state, he’s still a human being full of compassion and the ability to empathize, he’s no animal.
In the control room, Professor Charles Xavier and Beast continue to monitor Logan’s actions. Beast says that at least on the outside and, while he’s still plugged into the monitoring system, they can feed the transmitted data into a holo-display and observe the physiological changes he’s experiencing on the inside. He then points out some spikes on the graph and adds that Logan’s mutant senses are reaching an ultra-heightened animalistic state. Xavier replies that can only mean the animal is taking control of the man.
Perched on a hill overlooking the road, Logan thinks to himself this is better. He can’t get away from the stink o’ car fumes but at least the night wind from the north still has the tang o’ Canada to it. Just then he hears an old Harley chuggin’ up the grade from the Auger Inn, a rat panhead with custom pipes. He also knows the rider’s scent. He played punch-for-punch with him once and he let him use his brass knucks. Logan then hears somebody else comin’ down the grade way too fast. Detroit iron, shocks shot, brake shoes worn, tires bald. That driver’s scent is familiar as much as he can sniff through the alcohol vapor. He realizes they’re gonna meet at the blind curve. Not good. With that, Logan heads down the hill to intervene.
Inside the control center of the Danger Room, Beast generates a magnified contour graph map from Logan’s inputs. Xavier replies that he has a fix on his location and that he’s moving uphill on Graymalkin Lane, towards the blind curve. James Hudson adds that he’s moving at a good clip too and that he’s fast as ever, maybe faster. He then asks if they can switch the contour mapping to infrared, he’d like to see a heat map. Beast brings it up and points out the heat signature on the heart and lungs – he’s really pumping. Xavier says that Logan is emanating intense psionic waves of concern and distress – he senses danger. Beast wonders aloud if it is to himself or to another. Heather mentions that Logan’s vision has coned down to high-adrenaline tunneling with extended pupil dilation and that his hearing has equalized itself to midtone ranges and they’re getting a major olfactory sensory overload – he’s primed for action.
Back at the blind curve, Logan lands on his feet in front of the speeding car. He recognizes the driver as the neighbor, the creep who uses his wife’s head for a speed bag. He should just let natural selection do its own thing here but the girl ridin’ pillion on the bike has got a lot more tomorrows comin’ to her. With that, Logan calls out to the driver to stop. The driver, however, sees Logan before him and recognizes him as the weirdo buttinsky from the Xavier joint. He wuz gonna kill him if those other freaks hadn’t pulled him offa him. He then speeds up and tries to run Logan down. Logan realizes this and tries to get out of the way, but it’s too late.
As the car runs over Logan, Beast tells Xavier to look at the readings. Xavier replies there is an overwhelming psi-surge. James adds that half the bones in Logan’s body are snapping. Heather says he is also suffering spleen damage, kidneys, liver, heart… Xavier points out the pain, waves of pain vibrating through the whole psi-spectrum. Beast asks if he can damp it out, he needs his help on the monitors. Xavier answers that he’s got it under control. At that moment, Heather mentions to Beast to look at the organ function readouts, they’re back to normal. They were almost flatline a few seconds ago. James adds that his body temperature is way up, as is respiration and heartbeat.
He then points out his white cell count. Heather replies it’s his mutant healing factor, but it’s working at a tremendously accelerated pace. Beast then mentions that he’s standing up. Beast then says they have complete knitting of the skeletal fractures. He asks if this is being recorded, he wants a full-time log. Xavier says this must be the true rate of the healing factor when it isn’t compensating for the adamantium. James mentions but the pain… Heather finishes his thought and says that it must be unbearable. Reaching out to the hologram, she says she wishes she could… Before she can finish her thought, Logan pops his claws. In horror she asks what he is going to do.
Over at the blind curve, Logan approaches the burning car of the neighbors with his claws extended. Trapped in his car, the man cries out to Logan, asking what’s he gonna do to him? Using his claws, Logan slashes the car door off, saving the man’s life. As he does, he thinks to himself that the animal in him says to let the creep fry for what he does to his wife, get what he deserves. But he ain’t no animal, no matter what’s happenin’ to him. At least, that’s what he wants to believe.
As Logan reaches into the burning car and pulls a beer out of it, Xavier says they needn’t have worried, his psi-patterns are stable again.
When the motorcycle Logan spied earlier pulls up, the biker’s girl asks if they are going to stop and help the guy whose car is on fire. The biker answers “no way.” That little dude is trouble on a stick. With that, Logan begins to drink his beer. As they watch him imbibe via sensors, Beast tells the group that that’s the first time he’s ever seen Logan doing that from that angle. To this, Heather smiles and says she’s shutting down the sensors; he’s earned his privacy.
Back at the blind curve, Logan finishes his beer and looks behind him. He swears that somebody was back there. Seeing nobody, he tosses his beer can on the road and tells himself he’s too paranoid. With that, he walks away. As the beer can rolls down the road, it is stopped by somebody’s foot. The foot belongs to a man who tells his partner, Zoe Culloden, that she said their aura-cloaking dampers, infrared shields and psi-suppresors would render them completely undetectable. Zoe replies that it does: to a normal human, an electronic sensor or a psi-talent, but apparently not to Wolverine. Patching herself through to a another party elsewhere, she tells them that they have Logan under observation and that he is ready. The command is then given for her to proceed.
