Somewhere in the dreamscape.
Wandering through dark alleyways Jean Grey is calling out for her teammate Wolverine. Following a weak cry for help Jean finally finds him lying on the ground and badly hurt. She looks at him in horror and shared agony as the Phoenix raptor flares around her and he once more begs her to help.
Reality:
Jean sits at the breakfast table spaced-out and collapses. As the other X-Men gather around her, she asks if anyone has heard from Wolverine. She thinks he might be in trouble…
Hell’s Kitchen:
Wolverine is in trouble. Lying on the ground, deeply wounded with several Adamantium bullets almost having found the way though his skull. The mystery woman who wants him dead is kneeling above him, ready to fire another shot. Neither she nor her men seem particularly impressed by Hell’s Kitchen’s hero, Daredevil, who has just told them to leave. People live here, he tells them and adds that they are going to put down their guns or he’ll put them down. Tara warns him to back off. This is government business. That man is a mutant who is wanted for murder. Daredevil interrupts her explanation. He knows she’s lying.
The men cock their guns but, before the first shot can fall, Spider-Man swings in. Tara orders her men to fan out. Daredevil angrily calls Spidey an idiot and covers him as the bullets start flying. Both of them take cover behind one of the agents’ van and Spidey uses his webbing to drag Wolverine over to them.
Daredevil tells them that they’ll have to get way from the van. “You go first,” Sundance, Spidey suggests sarcastically. Daredevil doesn’t get the reference, but tells him that the van is going to explode. He grabs Wolverine and moves away while Spidey jumps up high, only to be caught in the shockwave of the explosion.
‘My tush is now singed,’ he complains as he joins Daredevil and the still exhausted Wolverine in a back alley. He hopes they are both happy now, he babbles on, only to ask again what is going on. Daredevil curtly tells him to be quiet, while Wolverine digs the Adamantium bullets out of his forehead much to Spidey’s disgust. Once he has burrowed them out, the wounds instantly start healing.
That was the single most disgusting thing he’s ever seen, the boy complains… ‘and he has cable’ Wolverine completes the line beating Spidey to it. What are they talking about, Daredevil inquires. Didn’t he see it, Spidey, who perches on the wall a bit above Daredevil, asks. The other man just asks him to please not sit on his head.
Addressing Spidey, Wolverine is amazed that he came back and thanks him for it. Spidey once again complains about getting shot at all the time whenever he hangs with Wolverine. And these people, Daredevil adds, referring to the mystery agents, have no problem shooting up a city like this, with no care about the innocent bystanders. Wolverine takes a good look at the disaster area around them and wonders where the police are. Welcome to Hell’s Kitchen, Daredevil replies sardonically and then goes on to explain that this probably all seems like a drug tiff to someone not looking and that kind of thing goes on here every weekend.
Spider-Man is about to make another quip but Daredevil asks him to be quiet. They’re still here, Wolverine states and Daredevil agrees. How does he know, Spidey wants to know. Can he see them? There are seven, Daredevil reveals. They are talking on walkie-talkies. They’re using code words for mission scenarios and they are arguing about whether they should regroup or try another day. They’re low on ammo. But back-up’s coming.
For what it’s worth, he’s sorry about this, Wolverine tells them. He has to take this out of the city, Daredevil demands. He didn’t bring it, the X-Man shoots back. Why doesn’t he calls the X-Men, Spidey interjects. He’s an X-Man? DD asks. The hairy one, Spidey explains.
Wolverine asks what the agents are saying now. They’re on radio silence, DD informs him. Whispering. They really hate Wolverine. He can really hear them whispering from over there? Spidey asks incredulously. Not with Spider-Man shouting in his ear, Daredevil deadpans. Spidey sulks and Wolverine decides that he has had it. It’s time for him and that broad -- She’s the leader, Daredevil states, and she’s heading towards the roof. The others are running in another direction. Wolverine asks Spider-Man to get him up there. He and the road are gong to have some words.
The woman called Tara orders the men to fan out and hit the Rocco 7 rendezvous point.
With her guns drawn, she climbs up a fire ladder to a roof, only to find Wolverine expecting her, claws unsheathed. She fires at him and misses while he drags her over by her hair and throws her to the ground hard. Perching over her, he threatens her with his claws, demanding answers. Who is she? Full of hate, she spits that she’s gonna kill him. A moment later, she shouts into his face that she is his wife!
One moment of surprise and she uses it to hit Logan in the face, wildy snarling that she will kill him. Why is she doing this, he asks. Who is she? Standing a bit back Spider-Man nervously suggests she answer him.
Last chance, Wolverine threatens. Okay, she says. Please, no – she’s his sister! His mother! His cousin! Calling him an animal, she shouts that she’ll never tell! He’ll never know. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. Does he think that she isn’t ready to die? That she’s scared? She would love nothing more than for him to kill her right here. She dares him to do it, shouting that she has trained for this her whole life! Why him? he demands. She just tells him to die.
About to snap, Wolverine screams and apparently wants to kill her. Spider-Man begs him not to do it. Suddenly, helicopters close in and flare at them. Wolverine looks up for a split-second, and the woman uses the distraction to hit him and run for it. The choppers start strafing the roof. Spidey saves himself with a jump, while Wolverine once again gets hit. Tara jumps up and grabs hold of the ladder one of her men throws at her. She makes her escape while the two heroes helplessly watch.
Breaking the silence, Spidey states that, if Logan isn’t going to ask her out, he is.
Sinking to his knees, Wolverine moans in pain and Spidey has had it. He’s got to get him to a hospital. Why is he punishing himself like this? That’s the way he works, Wolverine replies. He’s got this. Did he ever think that if he didn’t have this healing ability he wouldn’t be so prone to end up like this, Spidey points out. Daredevil interrupts their interplay, informing them that, two blocks away, an old woman got shot in the leg because of all of this. He’ll take care of it, but Spidey has to get Wolverine out of the city. Now!
Spider-Man turns back to Wolverine, asking him why he doesn’t involve the X-Men. Does he know who Charles Xavier is, Wolverine asks. Xavier’s going to create a better world and Wolverine doesn’t know many people like that. He’s done some really bad things and that’s just the things he knows about. There’s an entire lifetime of things that he doesn’t know about. But he’s got to take responsibility for what he did, whatever it may be. He doesn’t think Xavier deserves having to deal with that. Xavier took him in on a lie and Wolverine has done nothing to earn what Xavier gave him.
Wolverine moans in agony, still insisting that he is not going to involve the Professor. Spidey holds him as he falls, telling him that Wolverine is probably going to be pretty mad at him when he wakes up. Because, before, when he couldn’t find him, he made a call… Suddenly a light shines and the other X-Men emerge from the X-plane.
