The Jean Grey School:
Standing outside, Storm looks at a fob watch, waiting for somebody or something.
Melita Garner sits in the kitchen, waiting until she is greeted by Hank McCoy, who introduces himself. Melita points out they met about a dozen times. Hank apologizes. Logan introduced him to a lot of people over the years. She’s sure, Melita mutters, looking at the gathering storm clouds outside. She’s become something of an expert on Logan’s many faces of late.
Hank realizes she is talking about her book on Wolverine. She tells him that her on the record answer is she is honoring Logan’s wishes. Hank interrupts he is aware of Logan’s concerns and the cease and desist order he sent her. Personally, he finds it fascinating and a truly touching gesture, but who is he to suggest she should break the law? Or to suggest such a book might be of special use in a closed environment? An academic one, for example.
She asks if he is going for glib or coy here. Hank spells it out. She wants to show the world who Wolverine was, right? He can’t speak for the world, but he can speak for these children. He shows her a hologram space in the atrium Logan created to honor their dead. Curating that space is never easy. Choosing what story to tell… and in his case it’s nigh impossible. Which version of Logan do they honor here? Will it inspire the students? Will it warn them? Their doors are open to her, he addresses Melita. Whatever she needs is hers. They need her to finish his story. He asks her to please help them tell it.
Melita looks at the hologram then agrees. And what better time than now. She asks Hank what he most remembers about him. Hank is nonplussed. If he knew how to summarize Logan, he’d have her job. Logan was… was well-meaning, he stammers.
Iceman slides in to join them and snarks she knows all that. He was a headache! A ten alarm migraine! He quips that half the time he only stayed here out of fear Logan was going to stab one of the kids and cost them their insurance. Henry protests weakly. Bobby cuts him off. Melita didn’t come all this way for them to dance around the truth. Isn’t it clear they all thought he was amazing? They followed him here, after all.
But sometimes, Iceman continues, it was like living with a runaway wheat thrasher. Remember that Thanksgiving when he tried to deep-fry that bird he caught in the Savage Land? The Pterodactylus, Henry recalls with a grin. Oh that smell! Bobby laughs. He never knew what burning feathers smelled like before Logan.
Henry recalls the time with the karaoke machine when covered with Bamfs Logan was slaughtering “Everybody Hurt Sometimes.” That wistful faraway look in his eyes! he gasps, like he was stuck in traffic. Bobby sinks to his knees laughing.
Rachel Grey joins them and cautiously asks if they are okay. Bobby asks her to do her Logan impression. When he thought she was reading minds to cheat at poker. Rachel grumbles “damn Summers… no integrity! Make me look like a damn fool! Grr. Boohoo snickety snik.”
Bobby reminds them how paranoid he used to get. Like there were ninjas everywhere. They become wistful as Bobby admits he already misses the hell outta him.
Later, Melita joins Hisako Ichiki aka Armor in a lab where she is trying to rebuild her psychic armor. Hisako tries to politely brush her off. Melita tells her they can talk when she is ready and is about to leave. Hisako asks her to wait. She tells her that Logan really did believe in this place. Some of the others might tell her it’s a joke or that he built it out of guilt. He knew that mutantkind needed him to be more than their sword. They needed a shield. Interview ended, she returns to her work.
When asked what he remembers most about Logan, Eye-Boy admits he was kind of confusing. He recalls all his sides and suggests maybe he was kind of confused.
When Melita passes Logan’s office, Fantomex is inside and offers her some answers and whatever of Logan’s whiskey he has managed to liberate from the Bamfs. Melita remarks that all the killing he did as a member of X-Force seems to be his only bond to Logan. Yet here he sits now, a “teacher.”
Downing some whiskey, Fantomex remarks she herself knows the seductive power of the man’s labored snorting and grunting. She was once romanced by Logan, oui? Undeterred, she continues, Logan asked him back into Evan’s life and so he came? After everything that’s happened between them?
Rhetorically, he asks her if she knows loss well. But what does she know of theft? He is quite the expert on the subject. In his own way, so was her beloved Logan. A theft is very different than a loss. It is an invasion. It makes one become hard inside, fearful, angry. It will make some of them do anything to regain what they have lost to fill the holes in their soul. He holds up the tiny World. Logan had convinced himself that such pain could be squelched. He challenged Fantomex to do the same. To be better and he only came here to remind him that he is not. He leaves.
In the cafeteria, Kid Gladiator, Glob Herman and another boy speculate on the identity of the villain who finally brought Wolverine down, while Melita wants a talk with Evan Sabahnur aka Genesis. Evan asks if she believes her book will change the world’s opinion on Logan. She isn’t sure. It might be silly to even try. Evan disagrees. He believes they have to change the world.
Melita is about to reply when there is an announcement that the cafeteria is now the Danger Room. The session begins. The kids have to fight and Genesis focuses on getting Melita out through a hole onto the roof. Melita demands if that was a class. What the hell was wrong with Logan?! Evan muses they are mutants. A danger room exam is next to nothing to what expects them in the real world. Logan wanted them to adapt to that world. No one was better at that than him but, once the world made its mind up about him, there was nothing he could do to stop it or change it. Maybe Mr. Logan was wrong and it is the world that needs to change.
At a quiet moment, Melita asks Idie Okonkwo what she most remembers about Logan. Idie isn’t sure how to answer. She recalls a day when they were taking a class photo and Logan had to drag Quentin Quire to join and threatened to carve a smile on his face while choking him. Quentin spat he’d rather be dead. Logan gave the order to do this before he loses what’s left of his mind.
Idie recalls them fighting Sentinels, Brood and an evil circus. When he came back from an attack, he heard the kids laughing, figuring they just wanted to relax on Youtube. When he entered the room, the kids were actually practicing their powers. Idie asked if he had been the victim of another ninja attack. Does he need some help? With a smile, he told her everything was all right.
Melita finds Broo doing engineering work and accuses him of being distracted. Dr. McCoy is worried about him. He’s been working nonstop since… Broo points out energy must be put to use. He pressed a button and they are surrounded by a holographic image of the cosmos. Amidst the stars flies a Starshark and in it are the Brood.
He explains they are predators. Among them, he is the weakest. He changes the surroundings to a snowy wilderness. Once, he thought himself doomed. He was an outcast among them. And then he met Mr. Logan and found hope he’d make peace with lesser parts of his nature. That he might be and do better. Science tells them that the possibilities of the multiverse are endless. The man they knew is gone. But his energy is still out there, changing… growing… still doing what he does best.
Melita takes a break in the patio, drinking a coffee. Soon she finds herself surrounded by hopeful Bamfs demanding whiskey. They teleport her away and she finds herself expected by Nightcrawler, who welcomes her to Harry’s Hideaway, the first church of James Logan Howlett. He introduces her to some of the regulars, who are some of Logan’s dearest friends. They asked him tonight to lead them in a very special communion. Together, they drink to Logan.
Later, she sits outside, talking to her cam recorder. She still has to talk to Quire, which isn’t going to be easy. But that’s not even the big one. That moment, she is addressed by Storm, who announces it is time they talked…
