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The Enemies Of My Enemies…
The Watchtower:
It is an anti-mutant medical research facility. They want to destroy Homo superior – people born with extraordinary gifts and abilities – and they will use any scientific means available to do so: cloning, power replication or vivisection, it doesn’t matter. But this hidden facility, which is so sadistically proud of its ability to slice and dice the human body, has just met the best there is at what they do: the X-Man known as Wolverine!
The feral mutant fights his way through the facility, killing every Watchtower security guard in his sight. Wolverine has been looking for a reason to get back here, and once he was able to work through all those various security systems that disrupted his enhanced senses, he caught a familiar scent and wanted to check it out. Wolverine grows impatient and lets one of the guards live to tell him where that person is. The guard refuses to talk, so Wolverine puts his claws against the guards’ back, in the hope that he’ll talk. The plan works and, almost without air to speak, the guard informs Logan that the one he is looking for is captured in sub-level two, where the Watchtower keeps all of their test subjects. But the guard is confided that Wolverine will never make it there, because he has called reinforcements!
That’s just fine for the X-Man. Wolverine keeps on fighting until every guard is killed and, once that is done, he decides to go for sub-level two. He catches the familiar scent so he doesn’t have a hard time finding the level. But Wolverine is caught by surprise, as an out of control and mutated Caliban attacks him! Caliban hesitates for a moment, and Wolverine realizes why: Caliban must recognize his scent as well. But Caliban continues the fight nonetheless. Wolverine tries to explain that he is here to rescue him, but Caliban doesn’t seem to hear a word he says. Wolverine punches Caliban a few times, in the hope that he will knock him down so that he can drag him outside. Wolverine succeeds, but for a moment gets caught in his feral state and triumphs over his victory, growling like a true wolf.
Shatterstar appears and attacks Wolverine. Wolverine can’t believe that he is actually seeing Shatterstar and asks the warrior why he is here. Wolverine jokes that he must be one of the security guards now. Shatterstar angry tells Logan to stop talking and to just fight. The two fight for a while, until Wolverine gets the upper hand. He asks the defeated Shatterstar again why he is here, but Wolverine is surprised by a materializing Cable, who gives Wolverine a quick punch to the back of the room. With Wolverine down, Cable informs him that Shatterstar came here to protect Caliban, just like Cable came to do, and the rest of… X-Force! Cable asks Logan what he is doing here. To do the exact same thing, Wolverine says. Cable sarcastically says that he thought so, seeing all the cuts Caliban has on him. Wolverine knows for sure that for Caliban that he’ll heal, just like him.
Caliban hugs Meltdown, recognizing her. With all said and done, Wolverine asks Cable what his agenda is this time. Cable explains that he is recruiting for a preemptive strike against a threat called the Skornn. And, unlike Wolverine, Shatterstar says, he and his friends don’t attack their allies, with the exception of Cannonball of course, a few days ago. Wolverine can’t believe that X-Force fought with his teammate. Cable explains that it was all just a misunderstanding. He says that Sam preferred not to join this particular mission. “Preferred not to join you,” Wolverine says. Wolverine calls that good judgment. Yes, Cable continues to say, because by the time the X-Men lift a finger, half of all the mutants on Earth will have been eaten. Wolverine asks Cable to say that again: eaten?” Suddenly, a blast from above hits Cable!
Everyone looks surprised up and find the culprit: the Administrator! Shatterstar, not knowing the villain, asks who the man is. The Administrator introduces himself, revealing that he is part of the Watchtower and that they all are trespassing. Wolverine laughs at that remark. The Administrator informs that once he had a little talk with Cable, he might choose to work with them. Wolverine doubts that, especially after the Administrator blasted him down like that. Nonetheless, the Administrator continues, he has also recently learned of the Skornn. He reveals that since the Watchtower had begun to study mutants by learning about their biology and seeking a way to replicate it, the group decided to use bloodhounds such as Caliban to ferret out the Skornn before they hatched. The Administrator has discovered that at least one has already hatched, so their second option is to unleash a cleansing Scourge to eradicate them.
Meltdown doesn’t like the word eradicate and uses her powers against the Administrator. Trying to stand up, Cable tries to stop Tabitha’s attack. Wolverine tells her that Nathan is right, as she’ll only make things worse. Shatterstar refuses to sit idly by while guns are pointed at them and starts a battle. The Administrator easily knocks Shatterstar down.
Wolverine asks the Administrator that, if these Skornn are such a threat to mutants, why the Watchtower would stop them? Wolverine thought that the Administrator wanted to do that as well. The Administrator says that he and his group needs mutants to serve as their first and best line of defense. Wolverine believes that the Administrator only wants to find out what makes the Skornn so angry, so that he can eventually find a way to use that knowledge against mutants. Naturally, the Administrator says, while preparing to fight Wolverine. But that is a future that will not concern Wolverine, the Administrator adds.
Wolverine asks why. Because, the Administrator smiles, tonight, Wolverine… will die! The two enemies begin to fight each other, with the Administrator giving Wolverine a few hard punches. The Administrator finds it a shame that Wolverine resists himself so much against him, because he could have been so useful. Wolverine continues to fight, while the Administrator adds that Logan continues to impress him. Even knowing that Wolverine is incapable of stopping him in his new battle suit, the Administrator notices that Wolverine keeps his claws sheathed while he fights, because, the Administrator thinks, that just maybe he will be needed to help mutants kill the Skornn.
The Administrator keeps Wolverine in his grip, making Logan have to ask Cable for help. But Cable had to leave for a second, but no worries, Wolverine got someone else to help him out: Deadpool! With Shatterstar on his side, Deadpool joins the fight. He explains to Wolverine that since shortly, when Cable does a Bodyslide, he appears right next to him. And Deadpool has noticed that Cable uses that to his advantage sometimes, but he doesn’t care, because Cable gives him a big paycheck instead. And besides, Deadpool adds, he has helped Wolverine before against that mutant with the “horrible breath.”
Deadpool tries to slash the Administrator with his blade, but a quick-reacting Administrator punches Deadpool unconscious, as he does again with Shatterstar. The Administrator touches their unconscious bodies, planning to use both of their healing factors, combined with Caliban’s tracking skills, to his advantage. But, before the villain can do that, he gets blasted through his chest!
No… Cable recognizes the power, but… it can’t be! Not now! “Yes,” an evil voice says. And with what better time and place than this for Stryfe to return!? And as long as he is here, Stryfe thought to bring along some old friends: the Mutant Liberation Front!


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Revelation
The Imperial Guard has received a message that there was a threat in the Tellarian Expanse, a part of the Shi’Ar Empire, which separates the warring Skrull Empire from the Shi’Ar Imperium. A band of Warskrulls attempted to smuggle weapons into Shi’Ar territory. But the Imperial Guard make quick word of the villains and knock them all out with ease. But more problems arise at the horizon.
The Gladiator receives an incoming message from the Praetor. As the Guardians fly back to their mother ship, Smasher suspects that the Phoenix Force is attacking again. The Gladiator knows otherwise and realizes that what the Shi’Ar has feared has come true: the Skornn has returned! The Shi’Ar scientists confirm this. Gladiator wants all three hundred Imperial Guards members gathered for a massive attack, despite the fact that the Shi’Ar has a non-aggression treaty with Earth at the moment. Gladiator wants that his orders are fulfilled and also plans to contact Majestrix Lilandra about the situation.
Meanwhile on Earth, outside the doors of a Hellfire Club satellite office, the Skornn and one of the Helix members materialize. The villains panic the people, who all run away into safety. The Skornn knows that mutants are present, but in hiding. The Helix confirms, and explains to the Skornn what he has learned from the history vides about the Hellfire Club: that it is a century old association for the aristocracy and that the leadership of the Club exists out of mutants. The Helix opens his eyes wide, and finds out that there’s a party going on inside the Hellfire Club, for young people reaching adulthood.
The Skornn refuses to wait any longer and jumps through the Club’s window inside it and attacks the guests. The Skornn eats them all, but still hasn’t enough. The Helix promises to bring the Skornn as many mutants as he needs, if that makes him help safe their future, before Nathan Summers finds out what it takes to kill the Skornn.
Cable and his X-Force team stare at the just-arrived Mutant Liberation Front. Cable tells Stryfe that there is no reason for them to fight. Stryfe replies that they’ve got every reason to fight, but doesn’t want to fight him today. Shatterstar defends Cable, but Stryfe commands Shatterstar to stay down or else he’ll kill him. But Stryfe realizes that won’t serve the greater goal.
Hearing this, Cable realizes that this Stryfe isn’t the original one. That Stryfe’s body was ash, and his soul dust. Cable asks Stryfe who he is. Stryfe says that he’s a friend, if Cable will have him. And an ally too, Stryfe adds, because Cable will need him. Cable wants to know how Stryfe was able to recruit Cannonball, Sunspot and Spectre. Stryfe claims by telling them the truth, something that Cable was never good at.
Cable is confused, since he did tell them about the mission, and about the menace that Skornn is. And it was Spectre who convinced Sam and Roberto not to believe him. Stryfe says that he pretty much told Cannonball and Sunspot the same thing. Cable doesn’t see why they believed that Stryfe’s story was real. Stryfe says that’s because, unlike Spectre, the villain could confirm what Cable had to say and also tell them things that he wouldn’t. Things about tomorrow. About how the Skornn could come to dominate the coming days. Stryfe told them about their struggle for life and death. Theirs, and his. With this, Stryfe takes off his helmet and reveals his true identity!
But, that can’t be according to Cable, because Stryfe died in his arms! And Stryfe remembers Cable’s final words: “I’m sorry.” And Stryfe died angry at Cable, because those weren’t the words Stryfe wanted to here. Cable can’t understand how Stryfe can be… DOMINO?!
The hair is gray. The eye patch has lost its inky darkness. The skin is an even paler shade of white. But she, Stryfe, really is Domino. Cable’s trusted ally and only friend. A future version of herself. Which is quite confusing to the time-traveling soldier, since in his memory… Domino never lived long enough to reach that future! “Surprise,” Domino says. Cable thinks about an alternate timeline from the one he experienced. One in which she didn’t die, and the Skornn defeated and killed him, making him force her to assume the mantle of responsibility and, in her timeline, Domino won, or lost. Either way, Cable guesses that Domino came here to confirm that the Skornn doesn’t succeed.
He asks if he’s correct. “Yes,” “no” and “maybe,” Domino replies. Cable wants to know where she got the Stryfe armor. Domino tells Cable that he gave it to her as a gift. Cable wants to know why Domino’s skin is white now, since it wasn’t before. Domino answers that she was using a holographic masking shield. Cable notices it, and that she looks taller now, too. When Domino asks Cable if that bothers her, Cable admits that he actually kind of likes it.
Cable asks Domino if she knows that the Helix have come back to regenerate the Skornn. Domino suspected that the Helix would try that. All she knew for certain was that a temporal juncture was a perfect storm of activity. She explains that it was a watershed moment in the history of countless timelines. Actions taken – or not taken – could save or damn mutants and humans for countless generations. Domino reveals that she came here knowing what she knew and, wearing this armor, in order to recruit allies to the cause. She wanted the kind of warriors who they both knew would never followed Cable in battle otherwise. Domino wants Cable and his team to step over to her.
Cable wants to know if the MLF will still follow Domino now that they’ve seen who she is. Domino knew that she had to convince Cable quickly, since they don’t have any time to waste. But, just in case, Domino asks Cable to erase the MLF members of what they have just seen. And also to prevent this timeline’s Domino from knowing the truth about her. Cable doesn’t know if he can do that, since his telepathy and telekinesis have severely weakened lately. He suggests that he can try a telepathic push, something very primitive, like he did with Cannonball during their battle. Cable will do that in a minute, after they all have taken their minds off of what they have just seen.
Cable proudly raises the Five Fingers of Annihilation into the air and gives a speech to both X-Force and the Mutant Liberation Front. He says that the only hope for their people, and for the entire civilization rest with two things: the blade he holds, and all of them! Cable wants that they all work together for a mutual goal: their survival! Cable admits that some might die; others will live to see another day. But if they won’t fight, Cable knows that they will die alone. Cable knows that Stryfe knows this, that’s why the alliance between their two groups have been offered.
Cable stops talking, and telepathically enters everyone’s mind and commands them to forget what they have seen. The plan works, and Cable and “Stryfe” both shake hands. Spectre says that they understand the greater goal, but that doesn’t mean that they trust Cable. Cannonball admits that he won’t go as far as Spectre would, but says that knowing what he knows now, about all the tragedy that awaits them, Sam just wants Cable to know that they won’t fight to die some heroic death, no, they will fight to survive! Meltdown doesn’t think that anyone would have it any other way. Zero opens a teleportation portal and everyone steps through it, including Wolverine and Deadpool.
Meanwhile, back in Manhattan, the Thing and the Human Torch have come to the rescue. It’s clobberin’ time for the two famous heroes as they jump at the Skornn the second they see him. Ben grabs the Skornn from behind and outbalances him for a while, and Johnny next tries a flame attack in an attempt to harm Skornn. The Skornn is stronger than that and not harmed one scratch! The Skornn grabs both Ben and Johnny and throws them into the air! As they stand up, the cavalry has arrived. X-Force and the Mutant Liberation Front stand ready. Wolverine jokingly asks the Thing if he maybe needs a hand, claw or sword?!


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Blood Sacrifice
X-Force and their allies have been fighting the Skornn for two hours now. Since then, half of their numbers have fallen, and the Skornn has fed of their mutant energies and the team has found out that the Skornn also has come to like the cosmic radiation that powers the Thing and the Human Torch. Cannonball notices Cable hesitating, but hopes that they’ll eventually find a way to win.
Cable and the Skornn confront each other. The Skornn recalls that Cable killed him before, but realizes that it was only by luck. But not by Cable’s memory, who’s confident that he will do it again. Cable has distracted the Skornn long enough and, now that the heroes have caught their breath, they attack the monster again at full strength! Cannonball knows that it’s never going to end. There will always come another person for them to fight, with the fate of the world on their shoulders.
They notice the defeated Spectre and Meltdown getting up again, and ready to join the battle. Sam is a little tired of the fighting. He used to dream of the stars when he was young, but never thought he would be responsible for keeping them in the sky! The Skornn realizes that this is the endgame, but isn’t scared. He has faced Mycenaean hordes and Macedonian deceits, so why should he fear Cable and his friends?
Every mutant and hero left standing attacks the Skornn with all the power they’ve got, but Cable realizes that it won’t be enough. Sam wonders what it’s going to take to defeat the Skornn. He has fought both Apocalypse and Magneto themselves in his time, and even fought on Asgard, but seeing the Skornn he wonders. Cable catches Sam thinking while they fight. Cable realizes that, though he hates it, Sam realizes that he is born to lead and only thinks about winning this battle.
The Skornn notices Tabitha getting up, so he grabs her and wants to feed off her again. Sam sees and flies at full strength at the monster and slams into him real hard. The Skornn is confused about the thing the humans call “love,” which seems to be enough to enhance their ability to survive. Wolverine takes advantage of Sam’s punch and slashes the Skornn with his claws. The Skornn isn’t harmed by them and tries to slash Wolverine in return, but Cannonball manages to rescue his former teammate just in time.
Shatterstar and Spectre also recover. They notice one of the Helix members still standing and attack him. The Helix tells his foes to accept their fate and surrender. Specter isn’t impressed, as he comes from a time where the Helix are long defeated, so he should accept his fate! The Helix doesn’t let the revelation stop him, as he is here to make his own destiny. The Helix and Spectre fight, and the Helix wins.
Shatterstar confronts the Helix. The Helix still isn’t impressed, and informs Shatterstar that he has studied him in the future and knows every move he has and knows when he’s going to make them, even before Shatterstar does. The Helix throws a Billy club at the warrior, who quickly slashes it using his swords. The two fight each other for a while and, as hard as it is to believe, the Helix is stronger than Shatterstar and swipes the floor with him! The Helix says that he is empowered by the will of humanity throughout time, so no mere mutant shall be able to take him down.
Meltdown picks up Shatterstar’s swords, and two more Helix teleport in. Tabitha quickly attacks and mentions that she has been training. The Helix don’t know what they’re dealing with, when Tabitha defeats them with ease! She channels her timebombs through Shatterstar’s sword, and detonates them inside the Helix! Meltdown realizes that the Helix probably didn’t bother to study her in the future, so that’s why she was able to win.
Cable jams his Psimitar into the Skornn’s body, and green blood comes out of it. Witnessing this, Sam suddenly hears a message in his head from Cable’s thoughts, talking to the Skornn: “I’m die to destroy you!” The Skornn screams and throws Cable away from him. Sam suspects that the Skornn is actually afraid of Cable, but wonders why. Cable takes out the Five Fingers of Annihilation, and cuts his hands with it. The blood touches the blade, and Nathan Summers literally glows with new, wild power! Cable realizes that the power that was given to the blade by the ancients who forged it bonds together with his own mutant abilities.
Cannonball suddenly stands behind Cable. Sam tells his former mentor that he won’t let him do it. Cable realizes that Sam has figured it out, and that the only thing that’s capable of destroying the Skornn is something he doesn’t understand. Everything Cable ever tried to teach Sam and the rest of the team: sacrifice. Cable tells Sam it’s everything he already knew. Cable knows he always did. Sam apologizes for mistrusting Cable. He understands it, as Cable admits that he sometimes got sick of the fighting too when he was Sam’s age. Sam asks what Cable did to get over that. Cable jokes that he traveled back in time, ran away from his misery and ran into the Skornn. They both realize that the fighting is never going to stop, and fly at the Skornn to make one final attack.
Cable strikes the blade through the Skornn several times. The Skornn is hurt by it, but not enough to die. Cable recalls his first battle with the Skornn. He remembers D’Narda explaining to him, that in order for making the blade take a life, another should be put in return. Cable decides to just do that, and both he and the Skornn disappear!
Above Earth’s atmosphere, the Imperial Guard has almost made it to Earth. One of their scientists informs Gladiator that their sensors have picked up a Celestial teleportation matrix that was just opened on the planet. Gladiator fears then that they are too late, and that the Terrans have once again found a way to delay the Skornn’s attack. The scientist agrees with that, and wonders what price was paid.
On Earth, Cannonball, Domino and Spectre mourn about Cable’s loss. Domino and Spectre can’t believe he’s really gone. Sam tells his friends that Cable did what he had to do, but is sure that he managed to survive somehow. Sam recalls what Cable told him once. That this was a “time for men of action.” Sam admits he always thought that was more of Cable’s macho attitude. Sam didn’t get it then, and doesn’t want to now. He knows that there is work to be done. Work no one else wants to do. Hard, ugly work. Sam knows that Xavier fights for a dream. But Cable fought so that they could dream. Both fights never end. And, Sam concludes, both fights are well worth… the cost.


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Angels and Demons: Part 1 of 6
Angel's Aerie. The Colorado Rocky Mountains...:
If someone had asked Wolverine two months ago if he had ever been to Colorado, he would have said no. Until recently, most of his past was a mystery to him. His memories were erased by a mad scientist who had a nasty bedside manner and twisted ideas about how weapons were made. Recently, Wolverine got his memories back. The feeling, he says, is like waking up from a long night of drinking: the stuff he remembers is pretty good. It's the parts of the night he would rather not remember that he has to learn from his friends the next day.
Before he got his memories back, Wolverine constantly searched for clues to his missing past. He wanted to know where he came from, what he had done, and what he had lost. I needed to know who I was and who I really am, he thinks. But as it turns out, I knew more about myself before I got my memories back. Ain't that a bitch.
Cyclops finds Logan standing on the balcony outside of Angel's Aerie, drinking a beer and staring at the Rocky Mountains. Logan turns around. His eyes instantly focus on Rahne Sinclair, who stands in the corner by the door. Logan asks what she is doing there; he thought Cyclops wanted to talk in private. He does want to talk in private, Cyclops says. The reason for Rahne's presence is complicated.
Changing subjects, Logan asks why Cyclops wants to see him. Cyclops explains how, seventeen hours earlier, a man turned himself in to a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility in North Dakota. This man—Reverand Matthew Risman, the leader of the Purifiers—marched into the base and told the agents he wanted to confess his sins. As it turns out, he only went there to commit more of them. Risman approached the armory in the company of one of his inside-men, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jeremy Latcham. After Latcham apologized to the armory guard Josh for what he was about to do, he executed him in cold blood. Less than an hour after Risman turned himself in, he and his men had killed sixteen S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.
William Stryker and his Purifiers killed more students in a single night than the Xavier Institute lost in all the years since its doors opened, Cyclops says. However, the Purifiers have always targeted mutants, such as Professor Xavier, the X-Men, the students, and the baby. For them to suddenly attack baseline humans, at a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility no less, indicates an unprecedented escalation in their actions. Cyclops realizes that the Purifiers must have had several high-ranking members inside the government, hence S.H.I.E.L.D.'s non-involvement during the Purifier assault on the X-Mansion and the attack on the Cooperstown Hospital in Alaska. This attack, however, is one S.H.I.E.L.D. cannot ignore—no matter how many men Risman has within its ranks.
Wolverine asks why Risman did it. He was after something, Cyclops says; something so important, he risked everything to get it. The Purifiers made their way to the dangerous artifacts chamber in the S.H.I.E.L.D. facility, cut their way through the vault door, and found the object they sought. Cyclops believes it is only a matter of time before the Purifiers use this object against the world's remaining mutants.
"Well," Wolverine says, leans against the banister, "if those nut-jobs are dumb enough to come after us again, we'll take 'em down. Hard." This time, Cyclops states, they do things differently. He refuses to wait until there are more dead mutants on their doorstep. He orders Logan to hunt down Risman and the Purifiers before they have a chance to carry out their plan, and put a stop to them—permanently. He will not go alone, however; Cyclops wants him to reassemble X-Force. Wolverine doesn't know if he should be impressed at Scott's assertiveness, or worry he has snapped. He asks what Emma has to say about all of this.
"Emma... doesn't need to know," Cyclops answers. That settles it for Logan: he's impressed. Regardless, he reminds Scott that it's a moot point, since X-Force doesn't exist anymore. After the Purifiers killed Caliban, James Proudstar went missing. "No, he didn't," Cyclops says. "I know where he is."
Outside Camp Verde, Arizona...
The sun sets over the desert, casting James Proudstar as a silhouette alongside several cacti and a funeral pyre. Kneeling before the pyre, James, the X-Man known as Warpath, speaks to his dead brother, John. Being an X-Man has taken so much from him, yet left him with an unfulfilled legacy. James says. It took John; James buried him here, along with the rest of their murdered tribe. Now, it's taken his friend Caliban, whose body James now lays beside the spirit his dead brother. "You could have saved him, Johnny," James says. "You could have saved them all. I need you here. I need you to teach me, to guide me on my quest." James cuts the palm of his hand with a hunting knife. He lets his blood fall over a photograph of his old teammates on X-Force: Cable, Meltdown, Cannonball, Caliban, and himself. "And if Caliban is with you," he tells his brother, "tell him I'm sorry. I'm sorry he died for me. But I can give his spirit vengeance."
"I swear this blood oath to you," Warpath says to the body of Caliban, which rests on a pyre within a large stone outline of the thunderbird, "...the Purifiers will die."
Angel's Aerie...
"With or without X-Force, Warpath is going after the Purifiers," Cyclops says to Wolverine. "And X-23 is—"
Logan stops him right there. If Jimmy wants to join X-Force, that's fine by Logan; it's his decision. Laura, on the other hand, does not know how to choose. Logan brought her to Xavier's so she could start a new life, and maybe learn how to be a real person. Even after everything that went down with the kids, Logan refuses to ask her to kill again. He tells Cyclops to forget it. "You don't have to ask her," Cyclops tells Wolverine. "I already did. She's inside the S.H.I.E.L.D. facility right now."
North Dakota...
X-23 performs a full situational analysis as she enters the infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. armory. It has one entrance and one exits, she notes. It's missing seven weapons, all high-velocity rifles with explosive rounds. She smells the lingering death scent of one white male, age 28-30, who had high cholesterol.
She suddenly gets a whiff of a familiar scent: Purifiers. In her mind, Laura Kinney recreates their movements in the room, following the scents they left like ghosts. She identifies one of the infiltrators as Matthew Risman, a white male age 34-36, who, according to O*N*E and S.H.I.E.L.D. files, was previously an assassin-for-hire. Risman was present during the Purifier attack on the Institute, Laura notes, and was therefore personally responsible for the deaths of 42 students in a single rocket strike. Risman had an inside man named Jeremy Latcham, Laura concludes. A white male, age 32-34, with no family, Latcham identified as a Christian and followed the teachings of Reverend William Stryker.
Manning a computer, Laura notes that the Purifiers introduced a computer virus into the mainframe that deleted all the data regarding the object they stole. She suggests tracking Agent Latcham for more information, but then sees something on the monitor that changes her mind. It is a security recording from after the Purifiers completed their mission at the facility. It shows Matthew Risman congratulating Latcham on a job well done. Latcham then says his final prayers, turns his shotgun on himself, and pulls the trigger. X-23 cannot track Jeremy Latcham because he performed a self-termination to protect mission intelligence. Given the current data, she cannot identify the stolen item either. However, she has Risman's scent; she can track him. Via com-link, she asks Cyclops for her next assignment.
At Angel's Aerie, Cyclops tells X-23 to proceed with tracking Risman and report back once she finds his location. He commends her good work and signs off. Immediately, Logan punches him across the face. "Laura is my responsibility. You should have come to me first, Summers," Logan says. What kind of person has Cyclops become? He just uses people now? He's willing to set Warpath down the same road as his dead brother? He's willing to pull Rahne Sinclair into this twisted world? If he wants Risman dead, he was right to come to Wolverine. He was wrong to think Wolverine could not do it alone.
"This team is happening, Logan. You think I don't know the line I'm crossing? I do," Cyclops says, feeling his aching jaw. "This isn't X-Men work. This is X-Force. No one can know." He reminds Logan he is not asking for his permission; this team must happen. “And for the record,” Cyclops adds, “Rahne came to me.”
Logan marches inside. He walks right past Rahne, who stands coyly by the door. She attempts to speak to Logan as he walks by, but he refuses to acknowledge her. She doesn't want to do this, Logan tells her. Whatever personal baggage she has, she should just lose it and forget about it. After he leaves, Rahne stares ahead sternly. "I can't," she says. "I have to know." Something nearby catches her attention. She transforms into her werewolf form and growls.
Outside Fargo, North Dakota. A church of the Reverend William Stryker...
"Reverend Stryker was given a gift from the Lord," Matthew Risman says, "—a holy messenger called Nimrod that would tell the faithful of the future and light our way to the path of redemption." Nimrod showed Reverend Stryker many visions of many possible futures. The future seemed to change before his very eyes. He vowed to turn the tide against what he called the darkness. He believed he was returning Eden to humanity and driving back Satan's mutants. Then, Risman says, Stryker was taken from them. When they struck out against the "Children of Satan" they cut Stryker down, filling his body with black, cancerous tumors. Those that survived the battle returned to find their church destroyed, their brothers dead and their messenger stolen. Eventually, they recovered Nimrod from the wreckage of a mutant stronghold in Texas, but they did not find him in time; his connection to the future had already been severed, and they could not restore his power. "But you, brother Eli," Risman says, carrying a metallic jar labeled 070109, "you have given us new hope."
From a distance, X-23 watches this church through a rifle scope equipped with night vision. “He's here, with James Proudstar,” she says into her headset. Continuing, she states Risman and the stolen item are inside the church. Seven concealed Purifiers guard the church's exterior. Its layout is similar to the Washington, D.C. location, with the sub-level entrances most heavily guarded. The seven men guarding the church will have to be killed in order to gain entry without triggering any alarms, X-23 says aloud. They will have six minutes to complete this task before someone notices the radio silence.
Wolverine and Warpath stand behind her. "Well, hello to you, too," Warpath says. Without hesitation, Wolverine implores the two young mutants to walk away from this mission immediately. He doesn't care what promises Cyclops has made to tempt them. If they go through with this, they will not be X-Men anymore. They may remain on the team, they may stand right next to Beast and Angel and Iceman, but they will not be the same as those guys.
Addressing Laura, Wolverine tells her if she continues down this path, any shot she had at being human will slip even further away. If she does this, she will become X-23 again.
He turns to James. Now that he has no purpose in life, he decides to return to revenge? It didn't work for him before and it certainly will not work for him this time. "You're a big tough man, I know," Wolverine says. "But you do this, and you're something else. You're just a killer."
Wolverine gives them one last chance to walk away. X-23 shoulders her sniper rifle. Warpath stares straight ahead and says nothing. "Fine," Wolverine says as he pulls on his mask. "Your lives."
Inside the church, Risman continues praising Eli. He informs Eli he is the first of their brothers to seek them out. All the others, Reverend Stryker recruited himself. Stryker found each of them and put them on the path to salvation. Eli, on the other hand, sought out the Purifiers and directly led them to the device that can restore Nimrod, their visitor from the future. Nimrod's future is similar to their own. In its timeline, mutants were practically extinct. The machines of mankind had taken the world back from them. When Nimrod found Reverend Stryker, he connected to his timeline and showed him how the actions of the Purifiers could change the future. The obituaries Nimrod possessed in its database allowed Stryker to save the lives of those that should otherwise have died. Stryker recruited these people in the fight against his enemy.
While he speaks to Eli, the rest of the Purifiers work to attack a robotic head to the body of Nimrod, which hangs suspended from a steel cross in the laboratory. Risman continues. He explains that Nimrod is not just a messenger from the future, but a warrior designed solely to slay mutants, whom he terms "demons". With Nimrod's help, they can turn the tide against the mutant threat, just as Nimrod accomplished in its own timeline. Until Eli found them, the Purifiers believed this to be the only occasion in which Nimrod visited the past. Now, they understand that Nimrod had been there before—that while leaping back in time, this era was but its first stop. Nimrod continued moving further back in time and arrived on a second occasion, many years earlier. In that past time, it fought against mutants and eventually merged with a machine called Master Mold, and became something far greater than the being they see before them. It became Bastion. Now, with the pieces of their fallen oracle, they restore him to new greatness. "Today, we join the body of Nimrod to the head of Bastion, and give life to—"
The Bastion/Nimrod unit suddenly whirrs to life. Its eyes glow yellow and it addresses the Purifiers present. WARNING: MUTANTS DETECTED, it says.
Outside, Wolverine, Warpath and X-23 slash their way through the Purifiers. Armed with a pair of hunting knives, Warpath initially attacks using non-lethal force, leaving the heavy hacking and slashing to his blood-soaked, uninhibited teammates. When a Purifier pulls a gun on X-23's back, however, Warpath leaps to her aid, plunging one of his knives through the back of the man's head and out his mouth. "He was going to kill you," Warpath says to Laura. "So, I—I killed him." Yes he did, X-23 calmly states.
Suddenly, she gets a whiff of a familiar scent and realizes Matthew Risman has arrived—but is not alone. Wolverine concurs; he smells her too. Out of nowhere, Risman appears and orders the X-Men to stand down. In his right hand, he holds a dog-leash. In his left, he holds a gun, aimed at the head of his hostage, Rahne Sinclair. If they don't stand down, Rahne dies, he says. "She dies, you follow her one second later, Risman," Wolverine says. X-23, meanwhile, calls Risman's bluff; he doesn't want to kill Rahne. Despite Wolverine's pleas that she desist, X-23 lunges toward Risman, eviscerating the two Purifiers in her way.
She doesn't make it in time. With his battle-scarred face, Risman looks at X-23, tells her he doesn't bluff, and pulls the trigger of the gun aimed at Rahne Sinclair.


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Angels and Demons: Part 2 of 6
Outside Fargo, North Dakota. The Church of the Reverend William Stryker. Now...
"The Purifiers attack us inside our own base and when we catch up to them 76 hours later, this is what we find," Agent Morales says while examining the charred corpses in the burnt-out remains of the Purifier base. "I want to know why, and I want to know who's responsible." A fellow agent points out the heat from the fire liquefied the mortar in the walls—something that doesn't happen during regular fires. Whatever started this was government grade or better. Morales tells her men to spread out and find answers. While they scour the area for clues, she puts in a call to S.H.I.E.L.D. Deputy Director Maria Hill and informs her that they will not be able to identify any of the bodies in the church, including Risman's—if he is even there. Hill asks Morales to keep her updated. Director Stark wants the entire situation kept silent until they identify any other Purifiers planted within S.H.I.E.L.D. Suddenly, Agent Morales's operatives discover even more bodies underground—bodies that didn't die from the fire.
Eleven hours earlier...
Warpath screams when Matthew Risman pulls the trigger. Risman just laughs. After all the mutants he killed at their institute, did they really believe he wouldn't kill one more?
Wolverine narrows his eyes as Risman speaks. Risman is a dead man, he thinks. He recounts how Cyclops ordered X-Force to take down the Purifiers. Rahne wanted in, but Wolverine said she couldn't come. So, she came by herself, ahead of the rest of the team, and got captured. Now, she has a bullet in her knee. At best, she'll walk out of this situation with a limp. At worst, she won't walk out at all.
Lying on the floor in chains, Rahne groans. X-23 detects heroin in her blood system almost immediately. Again, Risman laughs. "Fortunately for your friend, I am a man of God and decided to show her mercy not deserving of your kind," Risman says. "But I am only human and have my limits. So, surrender now—or she begins her eternal suffering in hell tonight." He points the gun at her head.
Wolverine drops to his knees and puts his hands behind his head. He tells X-23 to do what Risman says. Laura still believes Risman is lying. Wolverine refuses to risk Rahne's life on a hunch. Stand down, he says. X-23 complies, but tells Risman he and all of his men will soon be dead. A Purifier approaches and clubs her in the stomach with the butt of his gun. Winded, X-23 doubles over—but keeps her eyes locked on Risman's. "You have the eyes of a killer, girl—not like Wolverine," Risman says. "No, he's just an animal. But you... you were bred for murder. And right now you're thinking of eleven different ways to kill me, aren't you?"
"No," X-23 says. "Twenty-seven." Risman chuckles; he believes her. X-23, on the other hand, still doesn't believe Risman. She knows he will not kill Rahne. Regardless, Wolverine curses at her and once again orders her to stand down. Even when she finally complies and sheathes her claws, she insists it is a mistake.
Crap like this is why I'm no leader, Wolverine says as a Purifier shoves his face into the floor. Any other time, this particular Purifier would have lost his hand for that move. Any other time, Wolverine would have succumbed to the beast within and ripped Matthew Risman and the Purifiers to shreds. Now, he can't do that; he's responsible for the safety of others.
The Purifier who binds X-23's hands notices her clutching something. By the time he realizes what the object is, it is too late. Despite Wolverine's objections, X-23 activates the hand-held detonator, inciting an enormous explosion that obliterates the entire church.
The Purifiers look up in time to see the bright flames of destruction heading their way. Wolverine braces himself. Meanwhile, X-23, having activated the mission's contingency plan, notices her target Risman alive and on the run. She picks herself up, grabs a nearby handgun, and follows in pursuit.
Meanwhile, Wolverine removes a shard of stained-glass from his chest. It hurts a lot more coming out than going in, he thinks. With Laura already after Risman, he decides to rescue Warpath. He finds him buried under a pile of charred timber and broken beams. Fortunately for him, the Purifiers absorbed the brunt of the explosion. "Well, at least they're good for something," Wolverine says as he helps Warpath out from under the rubble. They hurry after X-23, hoping to stop her before she gets Rahne killed.
Outside, Matthew Risman approaches his helicopter with Rahne in tow. He tells his men that X-23 is following him, and orders them to kill her. However, X-23 kills each of them with her handgun before they even have the chance to fire. With her targets eliminated, she keeps her eyes locked on Risman as he boards the helicopter. She fires at him, but one of his faithful Purifiers takes the bullet—Laura's last bullet. She watches helplessly as the helicopter lifts off. However, she takes note of its four occupants, two of whom she can identify, and two she cannot. She fails to even catch a visual on the remaining passenger.
Wolverine and Warpath finally arrive, screaming Rahne's name. "I failed," X-23 says.
"I'm gonna kill Summers," Wolverine groans.
Angel's Aerie. The Colorado Rocky Mountains. Now...
Now safely back at their base of operations, Logan berates Laura for her reckless contingency plan. Did she forget to mention she had wired the entire church to blow? Sure, she and Logan can survive explosions like that, but neither James nor Rahne can. They don't have healing factors. "They survived," Laura says. James asks Laura what her problem is. Risman still has Rahne, and now, he might kill her. "Saving Wolfsbane was not my mission," Laura states. Logan asks what the hell that is supposed to mean.
Cyclops steps in and explains. Laura means exactly what she said; her mission was to eliminate Matthew Risman, not perform a search-and-rescue for Rahne Sinclair. Besides, he blames the Rahne's current situation entirely on Logan. Logan asks how he figures that. If Logan had only let Rahne explain what she was after, he would have realized how determined she was to get inside that church. In Scott's opinion, if anything now happens to Rahne, it's on Logan's conscience.
Wolverine begins a rebuttal, but stops mid-sentence when Angel arrives. Logan looks up at the winged mutant and comments on his sneaky, downwind arrival. When his home is being used for clandestine meetings, he can do sneaky, Warren says. Now that he has their attention, he asks about whom they're talking. Logan tells him to ask Xavier Junior—referring to Cyclops. He's the guy calling the shots. Cyclops looks at Warren and tells him the situation is complicated. When someone's life is in danger, it can't get any less complicated, Warren insists. Once again, Cyclops asks Warren to stay out if it. Warren stands his ground. Lives are in danger and Cyclops won't even tell him whose—or even what's happening?
Warpath suddenly interjects; he tells Warren that Rahne has been captured by the Purifiers. "Dammit, Warpath," Cyclops says. In a panic, Warren asks why they are wasting time talking. They have to contact the other X-Men and find her! "No, we don't," Cyclops insists. At this point, they know the Purifiers only care about killing mutants, be they children, babies, or even former mutants. However, for some currently unknown reason, they have captured Wolfsbane yet kept her alive. Cyclops thinks they are dealing with something else entirely. Since Rahne is safe for now, they can worry about recovering her later. If they get the X-Men involved, however, they only put Rahne at further risk—and maybe even guarantee one of their own will die.
James wonders why Rahne would even do this. Why go after the Purifiers by herself? Cyclops asks his teammates what they know about Reverend Craig. "He's the sadistic bastard who raised Rahne," Logan says. "He beat religion into her and forced her to believe she was evil because she was born a mutant." Correct, Cyclops says. He informs them that Rahne just recently learned Reverend Craig joined the Purifiers. Laura concludes Rahne wanted revenge. James doesn't think so; the Rahne he knew would never indulge in a feeling revenge.
James recalls how, when he and Rahne first me, they used to share stories. James told Rahne about his older brother John, while she shared stories about Reverend Craig. Apparently, Craig believed Rahne was a test from God. To him, Rahne represented a living sin, sent to him for cleansing. She discovered the harsh truth about Reverend Craig on her own: that he was not just the man who raised her, but was, in fact, her biological father.
Elsewhere...
In the center of a dark room, Rahne Sinclair sits under a spotlight, strapped to a chair, her bloodshot eyes pried wide open by an inhumane device. She looks around the room to the best of her ability, but has no idea where she is.
Suddenly, a familiar voice splits the darkness. "Are ye awake now, sinner?" Reverend Craig asks. Rahne identifies the voice of her father, calls out to him, and tries to look his way. "No. Ye are not my flesh and blood. Satan's daughter ye are, demon. And ye will address me as Reverend," he says. Rahne asks why he came. What does he have to do with Purifiers? Craig answers by telling her he recognized her nature from the moment of her birth. He thought he was alone in fighting her kind. Now, he knows there are others on his side. He pulls out a syringe and injects it into her IV; Rahne asks what he is doing. "Now I've learned why I was made to suffer your existence," Craig says. "I am to be your Inquisitor. I will listen to your sins, and ye will make amends to the Lord for poisoning Eden with your wickedness.”
Nearby...
Eli notices Matthew Risman's anxiety. He asks what bothers him. Is it Reverend Craig? He does seem rather unstable, Eli says. Risman thanks Eli for his concern, but explains the cause of his concern is not Craig; they will get what they need from Craig without any hassle. No, the thing that bothers Risman is Bastion, who will not even meet with him, let alone speak to him. Bastion has effectively taken over the Purifiers, and isn't informing Risman, their leader, of his plans.
Bastion enters unexpectedly and commands Risman's attention. What does he think he’s doing with Rahne Sinclair? Risman explains that Reverend Stryker left very specific instructions for Rahne. “Kill the mutant,” Bastion commands. Risman asks for a moment to explain; the Purifiers have their own plan. Bastion informs him they have already analyzed the plan and concluded it has a 99.74 percent probability of failure. In fact, its failure has already begun. The X-Men have sent their killers—Wolverine, Warpath, and X-23—after Risman. They are currently raiding Purifier bases, torturing and killing every Purifier they encounter, all to recover their missing teammate. Eventually, Bastion says, they will find and kill Risman.
Meanwhile, X-Force travels from Omaha, Nebraska to Wichita, Kansas to Tulsa, Oklahoma, crippling every Purifier base they encounter and leaving a bloody trail of death. In Tulsa, Wolverine binds a Purifier to a chair and heats one of his claws over the torch of a flamethrower. While X-23 and Warpath watch in anticipation, Logan tells the Purifier it's going to hurt a little. The Purifier claims he is not afraid. "I wasn't talking about you, bub. You're not going to feel a thing," Wolverine says as his claw glows white-hot. "The claw... it gets so hot that when I slice off your ear, your nervous system will just... shut down. Your hands, your nose, an eye... the wounds will cauterize, and I'll keep you alive until you give me what I need. 'Course, getting a date after this is going to be a little rough."
Nearby, James Proudstar looks at the blood covering his own hands. He acknowledges that he will do whatever it takes to recover Rahne. However, he wonders how Laura and Logan can remain so indifferent to all this killing, all this blood. Laura does not understand his question. James tells her to forget it. Finally, Wolverine finishes with the Purifier. He extracted a location.
The Purifier Headquarters...
Continuing his confrontation with Bastion, Risman explains how Reverend Stryker entrusted him with two specific tasks: to protect the Oracle and to create the Choir. He intends to do just that. Bastion states that William Stryker was a flawed man. Risman reminds him it was that very man who engineered Bastion’s resurrection.
"Are you defective, Matthew Risman?" Bastion asks. He holds out his hand, pointing its deadly palm toward Risman. Risman asks what he means. "We know how to eliminate mutants," Bastion says, "…but you do not listen to us. Yet your mission is to eliminate mutants. Why will you not obey your own mission? Are. You. Defective?"
Eli grows nervous for his friend. In the face of this deadly machine, Risman concedes his point. He is not defective; he will listen to Bastion. As his eyes grow deep red with immense energy, Bastion outlines his analysis. They concluded, as did Reverend Stryker, that the X-Men are the greatest threat in their timeline, or any other. They also concluded that no existing terrestrial force can guarantee the total elimination of the X-Men. Risman asks if that means there is no way to stop them. "Incorrect," Bastion says. "We said there was no terrestrial solution, Matthew Risman."
Meanwhile, in a submarine on the bottom of the ocean, a group of Purifiers searches for something. They slow down as they near its coordinates.
Back at the Purifiers HQ, Bastion explains to Risman that before his restoration, he learned of a creature with the ability to infect and absorb organic matter, converting it into sustenance or infusing it with its own sentience. The X-Men, however, reduced this creature to a nascent form and left it the bottom of the ocean. It has remained there ever since, growing, evolving and replicating. Risman asks how they will find it. Bastion says it will find them.
On the ocean floor, the Purifier submarine comes across the alien life-form. They scream in terror as it attacks their vessel.
And if this creature is so deadly, won't it just kill whoever comes after it? Risman asks. No, Bastion says; he gave the Purifiers a beacon—a single word—to which the creature will responds: "Warlock".
The Purifiers on the ocean floor transmit the signal. The attack ceases.
Risman asks if Bastion's creature has a name. Oh, yes, Bastion says.
At the bottom of the ocean, the Purifiers shine their ship's light on their quarry. A thick blanket of techno-organic matter covers the ocean floor. The glowing black cables tether various marine animals, such as whales and octopi, to the ocean’s floor. Several yellow cables even reach out for the submarine. Elsewhere, life-forms infected with the techno-organic virus swim freely.
This creature indeed has a name: Magus.


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Angels and Demons: Part 3 of 6
Prague...
No matter how many times Donald Pierce screams at them, the people pounding at the door refuse to leave. They have chased him across two continents. He has no idea what they want, but fears the worse. He urges his cybernetic mechanic to finish working on his body as soon as possible, despite the mechanic's insistence that he's working as fast as he can. Finally, Pierce's patience runs out, and he fires his arm cannon at the door.
He walks toward the charred hole in the splintered door with his gun extended. They knew his name, Donald says; therefore they should have known not to mess with him. Once he steps outside, however, Pierce finds himself surrounded by men in dark robes imprinted with crosses. They point their guns at his head, lighting up his face with laser sights. "Donald Pierce," the Purifiers say, "...your presence has been requested."
Guatemala...
A priest, speaking in Spanish, reads the Leper Queen her last rights. She sits in an electric chair, her head turned downward, her burned face betraying no emotion. Behind her, one of the prison guards asks the other if he thinks the Leper Queen "feared evil" when she butchered that little girl. “You mean girls,” the other guard says, correcting his associate; word just came in that the sister isn't going to survive.
When the priest finishes, the hooded executioner, who holds the switch in his hand, asks the Leper Queen if she has any last words. She only regrets not living to see the other mutant girl die. With that, the executioner pulls the switch. Instead of electrocuting the Leper Queen, however, the room goes dark. The sound of gunshots intermingled with screams reverberate through the execution chamber. When the lights return, everyone—including those in the mirrored viewing room—is dead. Everyone, that is, except for the priest. He places a plain, white mask on the Leper Queen's scarred face. She has been summoned, the priest says. She asks by whom. "The Lord," the Purifier says.
Mount Everest...
A jet with vertical lift-off capability approaches one of the peaks surrounding Mt. Everest, the world's tallest mountain. It lands near the edge of a large crater. Two Purifiers emerge. As they approach the ledge, Sister Mary, a blonde woman with a beautiful face scarred by two parallel slashes over her eyes, asks her traveling companion if he detects anything. He does indeed; their quarry is here. "The Oracle will be pleased," Sister Mary says. "It's time to come home, Mr. Hodge."
Washington, D.C....
A shovel goes ever deeper into the moist dirt of an open grave. "We've found him," the Purifier in charge of the grave-robbing operation says. "What's left of him, anyway." He tells his men to move the coffin into the van, and quickly. With their assignment complete, these Purifiers step away from the former resting place of Graydon Creed.
Elsewhere...
Matthew Risman explains to Brother Eli how he first met Reverend William Stryker. He was in the middle of a job when Stryker contacted him and claimed the Lord had sent him an urgent message, and that lives would be lost should Risman ignore his warnings. At first, Risman assumed Stryker was crazy, but after one of his prophecies saved the lives of Risman's wife and daughter, he agreed to follow him. Eli should now understand why he feels he owes Stryker everything, Risman says. Only Stryker could have saved Matthew Risman’s family, and now only Matthew Risman can complete Stryker's crusade. Stryker's plans against the X-Men are already in motion; Risman cannot allow them to be stopped. "But Bastion gave you specific orders," Eli says.
"And the Oracle's orders will be carried out—but not at the cost of William Stryker's mission," Risman says. Changing subjects, he asks Reverend Craig how it felt delivering Wolfsbane to the Lord. Craig answers with just one word: righteous.
East of Missoula, Montana...
My name is James Proudstar. I am Apache. These are Blackfoot lands, he says, referring to the gothic-looking village centered on a darkened church, ...and these lands are about to get a $#!^load of blood spilled on them. Purifier blood.  Wolverine signals to his teammates, X-23 and Warpath, and they head toward their destination.
Inside, the Purifiers stand in tight, military formation in a large, empty room. The Purifiers have killed children—babies—just because they were mutants, Warpath says. They even killed his friend, Caliban. Warpath promised he would make them pay. The Purifiers, have made it even worse for themselves, because now, they've taken Rahne too.
Wolverine leaps through the grass and approaches a door under a large church. He and X-23 have killed and tortured their way across the Midwest in search of Rahne. Warpath has also done things in the last few days that he didn't think himself capable of doing. When Cyclops called them X-Force, Warpath held his tongue. The way he sees it, X-Force was a team of kids turned into soldiers. But this—what the three of them are currently doing—is something different entirely. At this moment, Warpath is okay with that.
The Purifiers stand at attention as Bastion enters. Through the video camera outside the door, he sees X-23 cutting the lock and Warpath waiting to enter. Bastion remains calm. He turns toward the large, metal door in front of him.
Warpath digs his fingers into the metal door. When he finds the Purifiers—when he finds the man who put a bullet in Rahne Sinclair—it will not be Wolverine or X-23 who takes him down; it will be him. With his fingers buried deep in the metal door, Warpath jerks his arm backward, ripping the door clean off its hinges. X-Force steps inside. In the almost cavernous room before them, they find exactly what they were looking for: Rahne Sinclair.
Chicago...
A jet lands at a private airport in Chicago. As it approaches the hangar, Bastion scans it for mutants, but finds no mutant presence. Rahne is not on board, he tells the Purifiers. One of Bastion’s men reports that only the three—Eli, Matthew Risman, and Reverend Craig—are coming.
The Purifiers address Reverend Matthew Risman as "Father" as he emerges from the jet. Risman greets Bastion and asks if this Purifier base meets his needs. Ignoring this divergent question, Bastion asks if the mutant is dead.
Montana...
Warpath cuts Rahne free of her ropes. Not again, he cries.
Chicago...
"Those were your orders," Risman says in response to Bastion's query. Bastion repeats his question. Did he kill her?! "Yes," Risman answers.
Montana...
Rahne opens her eyes after James cuts her free. She groans as the sweat pours down her face. Warpath takes her in his arms and runs for the exit. Rahne's alive, he says, but they need to get her medical attention immediately.
Chicago...
Bastion leads Risman and Eli down a long, sparse corridor. Risman asks Bastion where he is taking them. "Incorrect. The question is, where are we taking you? The outsider is not coming with us," Bastion says. Eli, stopping in his tracks, asks Bastion to clarify. Bastion pivots and steps right into to Eli's face. "Eli Bard," Bastion begins, "Real name: unknown. Former aliases: unknown. Identity: unknown. Legal Status: unknown. Place of birth: unknown. Marital Status: unknown. Base of operations: unknown. Group affiliations: unknown. First appearance: unknown. You call yourself ‘Eli Bard’ but we have no record of you, present or future." Bastion puts his hand around Eli's throat and lifts him off the ground. "We do not know you, and we do not trust you."
Risman interjects. He reminds Bastion that it was Brother Eli who led the Purifiers to Bastion. Bastion deems this fact irrelevant. Eli, meanwhile, grows worried as runs out of air. Risman continues. Since Bastion knows nothing about Eli Bard, why kill him now? He asks that Bastion let him discover Eli's true identity. If he discovers Eli is an enemy of the Purifiers, Risman vows to kill him. This, Bastion deems acceptable. He releases his grip.
Risman remains behind for a moment after Bastion and his escorts leave. He promises Eli, who kneels on the floor gasping for breath, that he will get him out of this mess.
Risman follows Bastion into a room that resembles a morgue. A series of bodies in black bags rests atop a row of steel tables. "What in Heaven's name..." Risman says as he enters, using a figure of speech. Bastion, taking his comment literally, informs him that heaven has nothing to do with this. This, Bastion says, is the work of man.
Near the end of the row, an irate Donald Pierce lies strapped to a table. He screams at Bastion as he passes; he has friends in powerful places! Bastion tells Pierce he knows all about his friends. Why else would he be here? The Leper Queen lies strapped to the table adjacent to Pierce's, but she remains characteristically calm. She asks if this is the Apocalypse again, and if so, if it will hurt. Horrified, Risman asks Bastion who these people are, and what Bastion has in store for them. The next thing he sees, however, takes his breath away.
An orb hangs suspended by several cables in the center of the room. Inside its glassy exterior, Risman sees a mass of black, shifting mass of cables and circuitry, its living structure highlighted by glowing yellow components. Bastion understands Risman's reaction; he forgets how unsettling it can be to see a techno-organic creature for the first time. "This is Magus," he says to Risman. "Or, perhaps more accurate, a mindless offspring of Magus." Bastion supposes it is best the creature does not possess its father's intellect; it will be much easier to rewrite its programming this way.
He grabs hold of the controls. The Magus-offspring squeals. "Now we/Self am/are in control," Bastion states, adopting the foreign speech patterns of the techno-organic creature. "Now Self/we are/am Technarchy/not Technarchy." Bastion then commands the techno-organic creature to infect the other bodies in the room. Using its tentacles, it reaches out and pierces each of the bodies lying strapped to the cadaver tables—including those of the agonized Leper Queen and Donald Pierce.
From behind a crack in the door, Eli Bard observes this ungodly scene.
Colorado...
Blanketed in the darkness of night, X-Force returns to their interim hideout at Angel's Aerie. Warren stands on the balcony awaiting their return. To his surprise, Warpath leaps out of the jet as it passes overhead, landing with Rahne held safely in his arms. Warren asks if she’s okay. “Does she look okay, Worthington?” James asks. “She’s seizing!” Rahne froths at the mouth while her eyes roll back in her head. Rushing her inside, James rushes her inside and holds her on the couch to restrain her erratic gyrations. Warren asks what happened. James explains that the Purifiers injected her with an overdose of heroin—but not quite enough to kill her. They should have realized it was not a lethal amount, he adds. As Logan and Laura enter, Warren asks how he can help. If he wants to help, Logan says, then he can go find Elixir right away. Warren takes off flying immediately. As he departs, his avian image is reflected in the watchful eye of Rahne Sinclair.
Chicago…
Matthew Risman questions the unholy thing Bastion has done. Bastion reminds him he explained that there was no terrestrial force that could guarantee the total elimination of the X-Men. However, he has created a terrestrial solution—one that will save the world from the global mutant threat. Now that the first stage is complete, the operation must expand, he says.
He leads Risman into a conference room and orders him to take his place at the table. “This is the future of humanity,” Bastion says. At the table sit the bodies of some of the worst enemies of mutantkind, reanimated by the techno-organic virus: Graydon Creed, founder of the Friends of Humanity; Donald Pierce, the Leader of the Reavers; Stephen Lang, the head of Project: Armageddon; Reverend William Stryker, the Archbishop of the Purifiers; the Leper Queen, leader of the Sapien League; Cameron Hodge, founder of the Right; and finally, Bolivar Trask, inventor of the Sentinels.
The Purifiers in attendance cheer and raise their fists. “This,” Bastion says, “is the end of mutantkind.”


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Angels & Demons: part 4 of 6
Colorado Rocky Mountains, Angel’s Aerie
Inside Angel’s home, nestled in the Rocky Mountains, Rahne, face strained and pouring sweat, lets out an agonized grunt of pain as the X-Men’s resident healer, Elixir, works his mutant magic. Rahne’s wounds, suffered at the hands of Matthew Risman, his Purifiers and her father, Reverend Craig, are grievous. She was shot, tortured and doped up with heroin, but despite all that it looks like she’s going to make it.
Warpath wants to know what’s happening, how things are progressing. Her leg is healed, Elixir reports back, then moves his hands to her forehead and wrist and goes about purging the drugs from her system. He tries separating the heroin from her blood cells, but can’t get it all. Elixir tells Warpath and Angel she’ll be ok physically. Angel volunteers to tell Logan the news, but Warpath says he’s going.
While outside, X-23 stares intently at her progenitor, she being a clone of Wolverine.  She believes their mission is at risk, their mission handed down by Cyclops to kill Matthew Risman. Now, she feels her teammates’ emotional connection to Sinclair is putting them at odds with their objective.
The aforementioned Wolverine, gazing out over the snow-capped mountains, finally breaks the silence. He tells X-23 that Rahne was one of the first kids Xavier brought to the mansion after he got there, someone he helped train. X-23 says she should have known better then.
The scent of Wolverine changes the instant the words leave her mouth. He turns his head, angry, then grabs her and slams her up against a tree. He screams at X to shut up and listen. He tells her Rahne has two things they’ll never get back, hope and innocence, and that she’s who they save, she’s why they risk their lives, and she’s who they die for.
X-23 stares at him, emotionless. Warpath comes on scene and grabs the furry Canadian around the neck, pulling him off X-23 and lifting him into the air. Wolverine doesn’t stop scolding her, though, telling X Rahne is more important than either of them, and their lives are worth nothing compared to hers. Warpath asks the old man if he’s gone nuts, then tells him Rahne is going to be fine.
Wolverine’s not through, though. Still getting held back by James, he points an accusing finger at X-23 and yells, “You hear me, X?!” Warpath starts dragging him away telling him to cool off. Wolverine finally agrees, saying he needs a beer. Still standing there amongst the snowy backdrop, detached, unmoving is the trained killer X-23.
Inside the aerie, Elixir tries bringing Rahne back into the world of the conscious. He calls out her name a few times until finally her eyes open and she lets out a small moan. Remember me, Elixir asks, followed by Angel who wants to know how she’s feeling.
Rahne’s eyes dart over to Warren, a slow growl begins emanating from her throat. She instantly transforms into her wolfen form, knocking Josh out of her way, scraping her claws across his chest in the process. The blood spray is fierce and Elixir goes down, but it’s Angel who’s the actual target. The maniacal Rahne leaps, howling, arms outstretched at the shocked and unmoving Warren.
Outside, X-23 has wandered off a bit questioning all the stuff Wolverine was yelling at her about. She doesn’t understand, she doesn’t understand, she doesn’t understand… and each time she repeats this in her mind she takes the tip of her claw and makes a small incision into her forearm. Over and over again she carves small X’s into her skin. Rivulets of blood stream down her arm dropping into the snow and forming small pools of red slushiness.
Then she catches a scent of blood, not hers, but Elixir’s, Angel’s. X springs to her feet and races toward Angel’s pad. She realizes Wolverine’s out of range, and isn’t sure of Warpath’s enhanced senses, so figures she’s all that’s left. Amongst the sounds of the attack she can hear Josh’s labored breathing, meaning he isn’t the target, Angel is.
X-23 nears the building and leaps onto the deck. She can now hear the sounds of muscle being torn from bone and flesh, the attack not emotional, but strategic, the lacerations sounding almost surgical. X is at the glass door in seconds, but stands transfixed by the sight before her. Two of her fellow X-Men lay seemingly dead amidst blood and feathers, one of her former teachers standing over Warren with one of his wings clenched tightly between her fangs.
Popping her claws, X moves into an offensive posture. She knows Wolfsbane isn’t going to stop and will have to be put down. Then Wolverine pops into her mind and all his talk about Rahne and how important she is, and how their lives are nothing compared to hers. X-23 declaws and relaxes, just standing there. Rahne isn’t so timid, rushing X and gnawing on her neck.
X-23 falls to the ground. As her abdomen is being ripped open she continues to replay Wolverine’s speech in her mind, “She’s who we save. She’s why we risk our lives. She’s who we die for.” X drifts into unconsciousness and with no more opposition Rahne transforms back into her human self. She pulls out a cell phone and lets the other end know she’s in possession of the demon’s wings. The voice coming from the speaker tells her Reverend Craig will be pleased.
Chicago, Purifier’s base
“…proceed as planned.” Risman finishes and hangs up the phone. Standing behind him is Eli and Risman orders him to meet up with Sinclair and take her to the Facility base where they’ll meet up with a man named Adam Harkin, who’s in charge of the Choir. Eli asks if he’s coming. Risman says he’ll be there as soon as he can, but has to get back to them first.
When he says them, he’s referring with disdain to Bastion and his new techno-batch of mutant haters. He enters their conference room and approaches Bastion, aka the Oracle. If a cyborg is capable of expressing derision Bastion comes pretty close asking Risman what he wants. Risman tells him there’s much day-to-day business he must attend to with the Purifier army. Bastion agrees, saying the groundwork must be laid for Stryker’s return. Risman pauses, taking it in. He looks at his former leader, now a techno-organic construct, and replies, “…the Reverend. Yes, of course.”
The Oracle continues, explaining Stryker will soon again take control of the Purifiers in preparation for “The Day.” He asks Risman if he has his instructions. When Risman says he does he excuses Risman from the room. Bastion watches with seeming distrust as Matthew walks away.
St. Louis, S.H.I.E.L.D. field office
Agent Morales is at her desk looking over a photo. This photo shows a young Purifier, dead, missing his nose and with part of his cheek gouged out. She knows she’s seen these types of wounds before, but has no time to reflect on it further as another agent comes over with a report of Purifier activity hot off of Interpol, though several days old.
“Days?” Morales responds and asks how that’s possible as they always get Interpol data before they do. Someone on the inside wiped the data from the S.H.I.E.L.D. mainframe the other agent assumes.
Morales looks over the data: a still frame of a video from a Guatemalan jail showing the Purifiers breaking out the Leper Queen, and a traffic camera that caught some Purifiers converging on a building in Prague, the last known location of Donald Pierce. Morales takes the picture she was holding and nibbles on the corner of it. First they take Bastion’s head, she recounts, then bust out an anti-mutant militia leader and an outlaw cyborg. “Whatever the Purifiers are up to, I think they’re just getting started,” Morales states.
Colorado Rocky Mountains, Angel’s Aerie
Smack! Wolverine slaps Elixir across the face yelling his name. The young mutant finally comes to and immediately starts healing himself. Still groggy he asks what happened. Wolverine tells him he has three seconds to get himself together and then rips him from the chair and drags him over to Angel.
Kneeling down next to the wingless Warren Josh gets right to work telling Angel to hold on. X-23 watches this display from the other side of the room. She used to be Josh’s teammate at the Xavier Institute and has firsthand knowledge of his healing capabilities. She knows Warren will survive and thinks they should be tracking Wolfsbane right now. Knowing how Wolverine will feel about this, though, she keeps these thoughts to herself.
With the healing underway, Wolverine asks Josh how this all happened. Josh, working on Warren’s neck at the moment, explains everything was fine right after Rahne woke up, then she set her sights on Angel and all hell broke loose. Warpath asks if Warren’s going to be fine. Josh says he’s healed his neck and chest wounds, but as far as the wings go he’ll have to regrow them.
Warpath log rolls Warren’s body toward Josh so he can get a better look. Josh attempts the regrowth process, but immediately runs into a problem. His powers aren’t working, something’s blocking them. It’s as if Warren’s cells aren’t human or mutant, or even organic for that matter. Some foreign matter is blocking him.
Facility Red Lab, north of the Canada/North Dakota border
One and a half hours later
In a brightly lit, sterile room with white walls and not much else hang Warren’s bloodied wings suspended in the air. “He finally did it,” Adam Barkin proclaims staring at the same set of wings. He tells how the first time Stryker brought him a set of wings they were just big and red, feather and bone, nothing special. Not like these, he clarifies.
Risman asks Barkin if he found the Apocalypse strand in the blood. Not only did he find it, but every cell in the wings is a strand, he explains. Barkin inserts a syringe into the wings and pulls back a small amount of blood. He moves over to a tray extended from one of the walls and dangles the needle just above a tray. Plip, a drop of blood falls from the needle tip. Once it hits the tray it immediately spike up into a three foot techno-organic construct. “Lord!” Reverend Craig exclaims.
Once the construct retracts what remains is a metallic feather. Barkin smiles, pleased with himself and explains once the cells run out of blood, the growth stops. Risman asks how soon he can have the test subject ready. Barkin says he was so excited he had him prepped before they even landed.
They relocate to the control booth where they can see Gabriel, the test subject, lying face down on a chiropractic-type table. A large device with dozens of arms, each equipped with a needle and a red sight, drops down from the ceiling. Barkin comments on how he likes that the Purifiers are very committed, and prompt with their payments, but smiles, admitting he probably would have done this for a significant discount.
Risman orders him to proceed. On a monitor in the operating room Barkin’s face appears. He warns Gabriel it might hurt a little. “Praise be to God,” is Gabriel’s response. And with that the process begins, the arms going to work on the stalwart Purifier’s back.
Colorado Rocky Mountains, Angel’s Aerie
Warren lies still, recovering in his bed. He awakens and sits up, letting out an anguished yell of pain.
Facility Red Lab, north of the Canada/North Dakota border
The trio of Risman, Barkin and Bard check on Gabriel post-op. They’re surprised to discover the metal wings growing out of Gabriel’s wings and shoulders don’t hurt at all. Barkin says he’s almost disappointed, as Gabriel’s DNA is being rewritten by what looks like alien technology.
Colorado Rocky Mountains, Angel’s Aerie
Angel continues yelling in agony. Warpath and Wolverine are with him trying to hold him still, but they’re having difficulty. Laura and Josh watch from the other side of the room, Josh saying he wants to help. Laura says Warren  wouldn’t let him anyway, that the type of pain he’s in he’s more likely to kill him.
Warren’s thrashing gets worse and he tosses Warpath and Wolverine aside like they were rag dolls. Warr starts screaming to make it stop and then doubles over on his bed. “Oh, crap” Josh utters, watching as the bandages around Warren’s back burst open. Warren screams even louder.
Facility Red Lab, north of the Canada/North Dakota border
Gabriel, techno-organic wings fully formed, informs his leader he’s ready to serve. Risman looks at him pleased and tells him he’s the first of the Choir, and that he will lead the charge in striking down Satan’s spawn with God’s own might. Risman then inquires about the rest. “You wound me, Risman,” Dr. Barkin replies.
Barkin leads Bard and Risman to another area of the facility, where multiple multi-legged machines hang suspended from the ceiling. Lifting a remote in his hand, Barkin presses a button and begins the infusions. Dozens of men with shaved heads begin to undergo the procedure.
Colorado Rocky Mountains, Angel’s Aerie
Warren continues to yell. Everyone else just stands and watches unsure of what’s happening. Wolverine asks Elixir what he knows, but he admits he’s not sure what’s going on.
Facility Red Lab, north of the Canada/North Dakota border
The procedure continues as batch after batch of Purifiers take their turn. Those of the Choir with their wings fully grown watch in muted anticipation.
Colorado Rocky Mountains, Angel’s Aerie
“It’s getting worse,” Elixir states. Then it stops. Warren is no longer. All that remains is Archangel and he’s infuriated. Wolverine did not include him on the list of the people they should die for, X-23 thinks, but that may not matter…


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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

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Ain’t No Dog (1st story) Hunters & Killers (2nd story)
1st story:“Hate that. ‘Nuff to drive a man crazy, huh?” Logan says, referring to the fly that just landed on the nose of his prisoner. The man winces, but the fly doesn’t budge. Since the man’s hands are currently tied up, Wolverine offers to take care of the fly for him. The man can say nothing. Taking his silence for consent, Wolverine swiftly passes his claws in front of the man’s face, slicing off the fly’s wings. It falls. “There, that’s better,” Wolverine says. “Ain’t it, bub?”
The man, hanging by his feet from a chain, still can say nothing because of the duct tape over his mouth. An unmasked Logan sits in front of him, cross-legged and covered in blood. All around them lay the eviscerated bodies of men in dark robes. There is nothing worse than having an itch that cannot be scratched, Wolverine says. The man says something, but it gets garbled by the duct tape in his mouth. As Logan sits, he holds a hand to his belly to stop the bleeding. His guts are slippery, he tells his captive. People talk about healing factors and all, but intestines just don’t want to put themselves back inside the body once they’ve escaped. Logan asks the man if he has ever seen skin heal around a yard or two of intestines sticking out of someone’s torso. “Trust me,” Logan says, “it’s nasty.”
He lifts a bloodied hand and asks the man if he has a baby wipe. When the man doesn’t answer, Wolverine wipes his blood on the man’s robe, apologizing for his rudeness. It’s just that the stuff clots so quickly and he can’t have it clogging his claws.
Suddenly, a pack of cigarettes slips out of the suspended man’s pocket. Logan picks them up. Sniffing one of the cigarettes, he says there was once a time when he would have killed for one of these coffin nails. “Ah, who’m I kiddin’,” he smiles. “Been times I have killed for one. But not no more. Got ridda that monkey.” Besides, he tells the man, there are plenty of better things to kill for these days. Logan presses his fingers to the man’s nose and partially unsheathes his claws, which now rest the shortest of distances from the man’s mouth.
Flashback…“Cute,” Logan says to Cyclops. Scott, arms folded, tells Logan that isn’t how he would describe it. Wolverine, sitting at his laptop computer on the floor, doesn’t even look up at the man. “Yeah, well, you’re a humorless ####, ain’t ya? And ya ain’t the one goin’ out on this, are ya?”
Scott says nothing. Logan asks himself why he should even care. It’s not like he hasn’t killed before. Scott asks if he wants a team for this job, at which point Logan takes back what he said earlier. “You’re not humorless,” Logan smiles. “But you’re still a ####.”
“Well, Logan,” Scott says as he walks toward the door, “I wouldn’t want you to be the only #### in the room.” The door opens. Scott steps aside and allows Logan to exit first. He does.
“Now who’s the only #### in the room, Bub?” As they walk, Scott reiterates to Logan that he is serious about providing backup. He could even send Pixie. Logan, mock-laughing, reaches into his jacket pocket. Scott asks if he’s looking for something in particular. Nope, Logan tells him. It’s just that he’s had so many bad habits over the years, that when mission like this one comes around, he forgets which of his habits he’s quit.
After they leave, Logan’s computer screen displays an image of a network of circuits opposite two strands of DNA.
present…“Oh, no. Not again,” Wolverine says. “Looks like your friends are back.” Amidst the unified chants of “kill, kill, kill”, a canister of tear-gas bounces into the room. Wolverine is in no condition to stand tall. He may require a hand getting off the ground. After lobbing the tear-gas canister back at the attacking mob, Logan grabs onto the suspended prisoner’s belt. The tear-gas canister, meanwhile, soars over the incoming squad of Purifiers and hits a button on the machinery’s control panel. Once activated, the machinery hoists the chain tied to the captive into the air. Wolverine travels upward with him, out of the reach of the Purifier army.
He now hangs by one hand over a room full of men who want nothing more than to kill him. He asks his captive how it feels being so wanted. Once again, the man garbles out an indecipherable response.
Although most of the Purifiers came equipped with swords, they also carry tear-gas and grenades. They begin lobbing liquid fire and smoking canisters at Logan. Crap, Logan says. He pulls on his mask; it looks like he might have to do something about this situation. “I’d say it’s been good ta know ya,” he says to the bound and suspended Purifier as he releases his grip, “but I’d be lyin’ like a dog. An’ I ain’t no dog.”
As he falls, the Purifiers hit him with Molotov cocktails. Wolverine catches fire. Even so, he descends into the mound of Purifiers headfirst, his claws fully extended. He absolutely loves this.
He leaves a trail of fire as he submerges beneath the horde of violent, religious fanatics. Severed body parts begin erupting from the center of the pile. The Purifiers, spattered with the blood of their cohorts, keep attacking Wolverine. They ain’t innocent, Logan says as he slashes his way through the Purifiers. Mean ta say, none of us is innocent. Not these pathetic psychos. And leastways, not me. Me, I can’t spell innocent without I got a dictionary to look it up. But ya ask me, some are a little lighter on the whole innocence thing than others. Some slobs, they got maybe a little less in the tank than most. Not that I’m one ta judge whose hands are clean.
Wolverine continues cutting through the mass of robed men. They begin reaching for the gray-haired man hanging from the center of the room. Wolverine intervenes and slices off their hands.
With everyone in the room finally dead, Wolverine sits atop the pile of bodies beneath the suspended man and takes a moment to relax. He tells the man this was some kind of show he put on here. Logan has had some traps sprung on him before, but this—this was a doozy.
The captive man’s eyes widen. To the best of his ability, he repeatedly shouts the word “no”. Logan tells him not to ruin their perfect relationship with lies. “See, Summers, he may be a ####, but he’s got ways ‘a knowin’ things,” Wolverine says. For instance, Summers knew about the chip implanted in the man’s head that broadcasts what looks like a mutant brain signature. He places his pointer finger on the man’s forehead.
Moving on, he says Summers also knew about how these Purifiers volunteered for a nanochip implantation in their brains that would let their master control them. They essentially volunteered to let him turn them into berserkers—and their boss promised them a special paradise for their sacrifice. Splattered in blood, Wolverine looks back at the captive man and tells him he played the jig well; it truly looked like the Purifiers had captured him and were coming to kill him. However, even if Cyclops had not filled him in on the deal, Logan would have figured out the truth. “See, ya never smelled afraid, Bub,” Wolverine says, grinning deviously. “Not like you do now, anyway.”
He puts his finger to the man’s nose. The good news, he tells him, is that Summers says he needs the experimental chip intact. The bad news? He left it to Logan to get his hands on it. With one fell swoop, Logan slices off the top of the man’s skull.
Wolverine reaches for the fallen cigarettes again. “Ya mind, bub?” he asks. “‘Course ya don’t.” As he prepares to light the cigarette, however, something comes over him and he tosses it off the mound of dead bodies. He’d better not smoke; Kitty would come back and kill him if she saw him doing something bad.
2nd story:A few days ago…When James Proudstar was a boy on the Rez, he learned the difference between hunters and killers. The Apache have always been hunters. When an Apache kills a deer, he puts every piece of it to use. An Apache strings his bow with the tendons. He makes tools from the bones. He makes buckskin from the hide. An Apache hunts to survive, and nothing he kills goes to waste.
The white man, on the other hand, kills for sport, for pleasure, for spite. The white man massacres. The white man slaughters without reason. Some men hunt. Some men simply kill. The difference is clear. The only question is, James says with a bloodied knife in his hand, which one have I become? He looks around the room at the bodies of the Purifiers he just sliced and gutted.
Angel’s Aerie, Colorado. Now…James Proudstar, the X-Man known as Warpath, follows a trail of footprints. Grizzly bear footprints—12,000 pounds, he deduces. It’s only ahead of him by a couple minutes.
Last night, the bear killed a stray dog James had taken in. The bear didn’t just kill the dog, but gutted it and ripped it to shreds. Part of James wants to be the hunter, true to the old ways of his tribe. Bear meat, however, is loaded with parasites; it’s a pain to prepare. Besides, he has no use for trinkets made of bone or claw. The other part of him just wants to see the bear die. As if I don’t have enough deaths on my conscious already.
Warpath knows how to kill—both with his knife and with his bare hands. Cable and Logan both saw to that over the years. What they never taught him, however, was to live with himself afterwards. Whenever James closes his eyes, he sees them: the victims of his rampages. He remembers a guy in Wichita whose eyes stretched wide with terror as he mumbled a final, futile prayer. He remembers the boy in Tulsa, barely old enough to shave, who coughed up blood as he hissed a curse. He remembers them going slack beneath his knife. He remembers their death rattles, the names they cried, the Hells to which they damned him. He remembers each one in vivid detail. Although he tells himself he did the right thing—that they were Purifiers, that they were in the business of killing, that it was them or him—it doesn’t make the burden any easier to bear. Maybe someday, he will be able to lay down that burden.
A twig snaps behind him. Before Warpath can turn around to investigate, he is struck from behind by something powerful. It thrusts him forward. His hunting knife flies out of his hand. He lands on the ground with a slash torn out of his back. Stupid, James. Really stupid, he says. He turns around to see the huge, roaring grizzly bear standing over him.
Once on his feet, Warpath lunges for his hunting knife. The bear roars once more and slashes at him. James ducks, and the bear’s massive paw tears a chunk out of a nearby tree instead. He tumbles toward his knife and picks it up off the ground before getting back on his feet.
He remembers there are hunters and there are killers; the difference between them is clear. However, a hunter can sometimes lose his way. Facing the bear, James tells it to pick on someone his own size for a change. The bear doesn’t respond. James notices something wrapped around its hind leg: barbed wire. He recalls that sometimes, when the hunter is hurt, he may lash out. When the hunter is threatened, he’ll kill anything that stands in his way. If no one is ever there to help him, he’ll lose his way forever—and forget the man he was.
Warpath lowers his knife. My name is James Proudstar, he thinks, and I kill because I’m fighting for self-preservation. He fights for a better world. Once that fight ends, he prays he will be able to hang his knives up forever.
Calmly, James approaches the bear, coaxing it to relax. He slices the barbed wire off its ankle. The grizzly bear turns and leaves.
Once the world is at peace, maybe then he can take the time to finally figure out what he is supposed to be: Thunderbird, Hellion, Warpath, X-Man, Apache, mutant, soldier, hunter, killer or none of the above. Before he ever gets to that point, however—before he ever has the luxury of knowing peace—one thing remains certain: there’s still a lot more killing to do.
Warpath begins carving something into the tree. Suddenly, Wolverine approaches and tells him the time has come to get into uniform—assuming he still has the heart for it. If not, he needs to tell Wolverine right away. “Just hold your damn horses, Logan,” James says.
Wolverine asks what all the markings on the tree indicate. James tells him each notch represents a man he has killed. He doesn’t want forget them—any of them—ever. “Trust me, kid,” Logan says, “—you won’t.” As James walks into the shadows, Logan lingers a moment to look at the tree. Aside from claw marks the grizzly bear cut across it, the otherwise healthy tree stands marked by dozens—maybe hundreds—of notches in its trunk.