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Contagion chapter three: Someone they can hate
Wolverine is flanked on both sides by two deranged, crazy, unkillable murderers. Victor Slaughter stands on his left and Suicide to his right, with both raining led into his torso. Wolverine takes it for a moment but then lashes out, eviscerating them both. Bleeding profusely, Wolverine isn’t allowed to recover for long before Scavenger flies at him and sends him flying with a two-fisted punch. Once the X-Man is down, Scavenger pummels him again and again, pausing only to remark that he doesn’t feel a thing. He also finds that he can’t make a fist anymore. Laughing insanely, he raises his right leg to bring it down on Wolverine’s face, only to find his left leg sliced off at the top of his boot.
Logan then stands and wanders along the corridor, groaning in pain. He comes across a beautiful Asian woman, Yi Yang, who offers to help him. She kneels down and holds his cheek, looking into his eyes. “All that pain. Years of it. Decades. Your past. You revel in it,” she says. She tells him that there is so much to live for now. So much pain to live for now. She kisses him, passing on a poisonous compound to which he responds by sinking his claws into her stomach. She stretches backwards and throws her arms behind her head. She thinks a moment like this can relieve the boredom of centuries. If only it wasn’t so fleeting, like the lightest of kisses.
Wolverine growls but he turns and sees Ms. Brink standing behind him. She asks him not to go feral and go with her and then leads him along a corridor, telling him that time is an issue. They’ll need to hurry. Wolverine doesn’t want to, and Ms. Brink knows that, but she asks him to anyway. Her powers of persuasion are impossible to resist. Wolverine manages to recover the power of speech and he tells Ms. Brink that she shouldn’t ride him. He’s just saying he doesn’t like it. Ms. Brink understands. It’s against Logan’s nature to be agreeable… let alone malleable. His psychology is a factor and Jackson Day’s sweat is not a magic potion.
Monitoring a stop watch and speaking into a dictaphone, she points out that his healing factor raises additional concerns. He resisted the test dose well at the club, so somehow they need to counter his mental and physical resistance. Wolverine reckons this sucks. He can't believe he got played like this. Ms. Brink is certain that it does suck, but they need to weaken his healing factor… overtax it, and an intimate application of Day’s sweat (courtesy of Yi Yang’s kiss) has done that. Her solution was to simply paint the bullets with the Corruptor’s compound, but the others prefer more theater. She opens a door and asks him to step inside. As he goes through the door, Ms. Brink asks him to follow one more suggestion and fall asleep. Wolverine replies that he’s not even tired but, as he finishes the sentence, he collapses and falls unconscious.
Ms. Brink is met inside by Winsor. She tells him that it’s good they hurried as the effect lasted 11.3 seconds less than she estimated. He tries not to be condescending but assures her that she was never in any danger. Mortigan Goth approaches and Winsor tells him he should be cross with him. He should let Mr. Slaughter eat some of him. Goth, nursing a hangover, is told by Yi Yang that she could pollute it for him if he likes. Goth thinks not. He’s always pleasantly surprised when it makes an appearance; like seeing an old friend. Ms. Brinks finds it fascinating that his better nature survives the absence of his soul. “A case study that would confound many a Theologian,” adds Winsor.
Victor Slaughter joins them and asks if he heard he could take a bite out of Mr. Hoity-Pants. Mortigan replies that his blood cures vampirism. He wonders how much he could eat before reverting and turning to dust. Slaughter says he ain’t that kind of vampire. Finally, Madcap joins the party as Wolverine slowly begins to regain consciousness, asking if he missed anything. He carries his severed head in his hand. Mortigan tells him he tried to do a good deed and Mephisto tortured him for it. Slaughter adds that he had his head sliced like cheese. Yi Yang tells him she Frenched Wolverine and poisoned him.
“I love this place,” replies Madcap.
Winsor asks about the others. Madcap informs him that Suicide is fishing Sikes’ head out of the pool and Scavenger is looking for his leg. He might have hid it from him… Winsor would like him to go and recover it but Madcap would rather not. He enjoys seeing him crawling around looking for it. Of course, he can fly, but he's too stupid to realize he doesn’t need both legs to fly. Logan groans and Ms. Brinks realizes she’s underestimated him again. She’ll have to adjust several assumptions. Winsor agrees, but in the meantime, he asks Slaughter to get Wolverine settled, Macap to fetch Scavenger’s leg and for Yi Yang to accompany him.
(later)
Wolverine is awake. He is chained to a seat with his arms out before him. His clenched fists are aimed at the captive whose head is covered with a sack. Winsor asks if any of this requires explanation. It’s clear on the face of it, but naturally some of it needs to be filled out. Who is he? What does he want? Who are all these strange people and what are their places in his nefarious plot? However, the basic concept doesn’t need any fleshing out. Winsor’s unkillables are all watching proceedings. Wolverine tells him it’s clear enough; he’s gonna kill him. Winsor thinks that would be problematic, but they can address those problems another time. He introduces his henchmen, and points out that the thing they have in common is that they are more or less unkillable. They are also highly motivated by some form of self-interest. Loathsome or sympathetic, and points in between. For his own motivations, he continues, they must delve into a sad mythology of popular culture.
He despises when actors are interviewed about playing villains and their responses mention something about no one thinking of themselves as being evil and how they are all heroes in their own stories. He can assure Wolverine that this is not the case here. He is not interested in conflicted antagonists, nor is anyone else. People want a bad guy that they can hate unequivocally, someone whose brutal demise they can cheer without remorse. Sadly, life seldom treats them to such a luxury. His henchmen are the actors here, trying to muddy things with moral complexity.
#### that, he says. He is not the hero in this story. He is the bad guy! He has no end that justifies his means. There are no skeletons in his closet, no abusive childhood or inciting misery that might expiate his vile behavior. Nor is he insane, he adds. He knows the difference between good and evil and is fully capable of empathizing with the emotional and physical pain of others. He isn’t a sociopath. He simply prefers bad over good, wrong over right - the opposite of what most people feel is correct.
Wolverine tells him that he’s crazy… crazy to believe he can keep himself safe with his freak show pack of unkillables. They chop up just like regular people and he figures Winsor isn’t that much different. Winsor reckons that if Wolverine was at liberty, he might prevail. “You are, after all…” he says. “The best there is at what you do.” His unkillables join in with the sentiment.
Winsor then removes the sack from his captives head and says he’s forgotten to introduce his utterly innocent, mortally ill, son, or to mention the fact that only Wolverine can save him. When the sack is removed, the boy is revealed to be disfigured, with half his face distorted and his enlarged brain on display. Naturally, adds Winsor, as an alternative to saving him, Wolverine could put him out of his misery. “Please,” says the boy, almost begging for Wolverine to unleash his claws. Winsor tells him that one little snikt is all it would take. It’s a package deal, he adds. Once he dies he will have no more need for Wolverine. He will render him unconscious and they will disappear from his life as suddenly as they manifested.
Victor Slaughter says he would do the little ####. Madcap states that in a mad world, what’s the life of one Elephant Kid? Yi Yang says that the memory of killing a child can linger for decades. Scavenger can only imagine what it would feel like for the kid. Suicide tells him that some of them would pay to die any way at all. Mortigan Goth reserves judgment for fear of what it might do to his soul and Ms. Brinks points out that Wolverine’s restraints have been angled to ensure a nearly instantaneous death. Winsor moves in close to Logan and says the boy begs to die. He will have his freedom and no one there will judge him. On the other hand… he could enlist in a struggle to save the fruit of his loins. It’s an endeavor that guarantees to be long, arduous and excruciatingly painful. It’s a struggle that will most likely end in failure and a hellish death for the boy. He pauses to see if Wolverine reacts, but he remains silent. Winsor seems slightly annoyed that it’s a no on the merciful death.
Wolverine asks what the deal is, then. Is he supposed to lead his team of misfits into the jaws of death to recover some formula or amulet that can heal the kid? “Get him,” replies Slaughter. “He thinks he’s in the Dirty Dozen, haw!” Suicide thinks he’s talking more ‘Magnificent Seven.’ The Wild Bunch, reckons Scavenger. “Peewee’s Big Adventure,” adds Madcap. Everyone looks at him with disdain. Madcap asks if they don’t get it. Wolverine is short and this is an adventure. “Is this thing on?” he jokes. Winsor decides to answer Logan’s question. He will not be setting off on a quest. Aside from any other issues, he has no doubt that if he sent him into the field he would kill his minions and then return to wreak his vengeance. So, he will be staying where he is where he can do the most good.
Winsor walks over to a table and picks up a hi-tech collar. He wants it on the record that he never meant to have a child. Apologizing to his son, Flip, for telling him the truth, he says he feels that now he has discovered he has offspring, it is his duty to make some effort to keep him alive. He owes it to his family line - a responsibility he takes seriously. They are very rare, almost never growing to maturity… the sad result of a weak bloodline. He finds inbreeding scandalous but habitual amongst the upper classes of his home. He turns to his son and informs Wolverine that Flip is a scandal. It’s not that he is illegitimate, as Winsor admits he was a bastard himself, but it’s that his mother is of no relation to him at all. He is new blood, and in many ways all the more valuable, but lacking certain qualities… certain resistances.
Winsor leans over and attaches the collar to Flip’s neck. He informs Logan that it is an explosive collar that will blow poor Flip’s head off, should it be fooled with in any manner. It will also explode if Wolverine decides to leave, attack one of his unkillables, withhold his assistance or in any way undermine his efforts to cure his son. Winsor wants Logan to believe that given the choice between allowing him to die in agony from his infection or giving him a sudden and painless death, he’ll blow his #### head off in an instant. Only the slim hope that Wolverine’s involvement hold out will prevent him from killing his son, absent him and that hope, he will be better of explosively decapitated.
Logan asks what he is infected with. Winsor admits that it’s embarrassing, but he’s actually infected with himself. Pustule that he is, he is beyond all scope of genetic viability. He is a stew of exotic and nigh impossible contagions. He is also enormously anemic. He would die from a paper cut, much less from a slashing from one of Wolverine’s claws. If he bled to death, he would release a vast legion of plagues and pestilence with perverse consequences. Thus, he adds, turning to his colleagues, these hearty few are regularly employed as they can endure extended stays in his presence. Their radically varied immune systems offer some hope of isolating antibodies which might cure his son.
He has had no luck with this so far, so perhaps Wolverine’s healing factor will yield answers when peeled back layer by layer. It might reveal a cure for the virulent intelligence with which he has infected his son. Radical cellular and synaptic growth beyond the capacity of his skull means that soon enough, there will be no need for him to use bomb to blow it up.
Winsor concludes by stating that he’s hired all kinds of unkillables - those with healing factors, the unnatural, supernatural, radioactive… He’s bought, harvested and stolen a catalogue of infectious and regenerative genetic materials. He has learned a great deal. Not least of all, he has learned that all self-healers heal differently and that understanding comes from extensive experimentation, varied and exhaustive. He aims a pistol at Wolverine’s face and just before pulling the trigger, says, “But let’s just begin with the basics.”


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[Assistant]
Contagion chapter four: All that life
After being shot in the face by Winsor, Wolverine lies on a slab, slowly healing from his injuries. Monitoring his progress is Marjorie Brink, who asks him his name to see if he actually knows. Logan replies and Ms. Brink then asks if he knows where he is. Logan replies that he’s at Hunter’s Point with a bunch of crazy unkillables in a secret lab. He’ll be making them uncomfortable when he figures out what their scam is and make sure the kid doesn’t get hurt.
Brink writes some notes up and she explains that he was shot through the eye with a .40 caliber frangible bullet. When it hit the interior surface of his adamantium skull, it shattered into over a dozen slivers of lead and copper, which began to ricochet through his brain. To remove those fragments, she was required to dig through his healing eye, essentially sifting through his grey matter, and pack it back in as best she could. And yet, she adds, he knows who he is. Wolverine begins to sit up and replies that as long as it took him to find out, he isn’t going to forget in a hurry.
Ms. Brink has one question. How does he know? She opens the book and shows him pictures of his brain. She explains that his brain was diced and scrambled but it regrew. That’s simply the nature of Wolverine’s mutation. But his memories? She wonders if his tissue reformed in a pattern that predetermined specific electro signals to re-encode his memories. Or, is some measure of his endurance embodied in a metaphysical form that stores these memories for him? Is his healing a mutation or a spiritual endowment?
Logan says she’s the doctor. She can tell him. Ms. Brink replies that she’s not a doctor. She is a librarian. She read a bit about brain surgery, most of which was useless as it involves cutting open the skull. “Going for your mad scientist merit badge soon?” he quips. No, she replies sternly. But, she thinks that it’s possible that she is destined to lead the last of mankind in their final battle against the demon sun. While she has thousands of years left, there is a great deal to learn if humanity is to survive.
Wolverine says he was about to call her crazy, but he’s seen futures weirder than that. Ms. Brink points out that he remembers them along with everything else, and it isn’t just him. She shows him pictures of the other unkillables in the book along with annotations. She explains that all the others manifest the same phenomenon. None are invulnerable, all can be hurt or at least damaged but, no matter how their brains heal, their memories and personalities remain intact. Mortigan Goth volunteered to be burned to ash. They found him that night, re-coalesced, raiding Winsor’s liquor cabinet as louche as ever. Wolverine replies that he was right first time. She is crazy.
Ms. Brink changes out of her blood-splattered clothes and tells Logan that she has spent a great deal of time alone with her books. Decades. It’s made her a little eccentric and socially awkward. She gets caught up in things and forgets the impression she is making. Logan doesn’t really care. He just wants a shirt to wear. Yang Yi arrives and informs him that he won’t need a shirt. Plunging three blades into his torso, she tells him it would be a waste. In over three thousand years of life, she has made an intimate study of human anatomy and the limits to which it can be stretched. He tries to slash her with his own claws but they simply sink into her hand and out the other side. She ignores them and lifts him from the ground before smashing him back onto the slab. She figures with a subject like him, she’ll be able to add to that knowledge.
She slices him apart; blood spurting all over the lab. He growls but she tells him to shush. He must be calm and docile and cooperative. He doesn’t want the sweet child to lose his precious head. She motions to a window where Flip is seated, looking a little bored. Ms. Brink tells Wolverine that Yang Yi isn’t lying. It’s crude methodology, but she is meant to be testing the limits of his healing factor. Technically, she adds, it’s within the bounds of his compliance agreement with Winsor. The boy’s life is forfeit if he doesn‘t. Logan replies that he’s playing along, but it ain’t gonna last. She can put that in her notebook. Yang Yi grabs a blowtorch and says it’s nice that they’ll be able to work together amicably. Logan tells her to do her worst and not to be surprised if he doesn’t scream. Yang Yi replies that she’ll do her best. Using the claws and the blowtorch she begins to go to work on him. She asks how she looks. “Look like… somthin‘… somthin’ I’m gonna.. Kill.” he replies, weakly. She starts again and this time, Logan screams.
Watching events on a monitor are Winsor and Victor Slaughter, along with the rest of the unkillables. Vic says he’s got to get himself some of that. Winsor replies that he’s afraid he won’t get the opportunity to abuse Mr. Wolverine. He’ll be asking him to eat a small but of him, but just enough to determine how digestion affects the tissue. Slaughter replies that he means Yang Yi. That chick is hot. Winsor replies he would feign an appalled reaction, but he does see the attraction. Mortigan Goth says she’s a total Asian cougar with a serious S&M thing on the side. Suicide says she’s a three thousand year old cougar. There must be a better euphemism. For the record, he tells Slaughter and Scavenger that they are sick ####. Madcap agrees, but then gets into a pointless argument with Scavenger about his sister with each man threatening the other. Winsor interjects, trying to calm things down, and explains what he is thinking.
Lying back in his chair, he says he is thinking about a virus, a retrovirus, fast and aggressive. One that kills several key bacterium of the lower intestines causing a severe loosening of the bowels. Infected with the virus, a person would literally #### themselves to death in less than an hour… first solids, then loose stool, then blood. Self-healers like them wouldn’t die, but, it being rather more subtle than a knife wound, their systems would not recover quickly. Indeed, he continues, the person who died after a single hour might be considered luckier than the self-healer who would have to endure a day or more. A day or more of blood-####. Winsor closes his eyes. He can see it quite early now - the form of this virus and its components. He is well served by the years of isolation in his uncle’s laboratory. He reckons deep meditation and focus are skills best mastered in solitude.
Winsor adds that, with enough practice, one’s body becomes responsive to one’s thoughts. The mind can employ all the physical tools at hand. The compendium of contagion that is in his DNA is excellent source material for an educated and imaginative child with time on his hands. He digs deep within himself and finds what he’s looking for… Meyer lemon, ambergris, civet urine, paint thinner and a hint of bile duct. It’s an acquired taste, no doubt. He tells them that if he was to cough now, the virus would dislodge from the back of his throat where it has cultured. Before they could leave the room it would nestle happily on their lips or in the cilla of their nostrils. Soon, they would be searching for the bathroom cabinets for ### tampons, which they do not have.
Madcap and Scavenger step away from each other and Scavenger says he’s cool. Madcap admits he is curious about what that experience might be like but he’s gonna take a pass as he’s down to his last pair of drawers. Winsor stands up and tells them all that he has no illusions about the volatile mixture of personalities that he’s brought together, but he won’t tolerate undo friction. Something might ignite, there would be chaos and chaos is an element in which Wolverine is very much at home. He informs Scavenger that he can take over when YangYi finishes up. The rest of them can leave the room for now. Scavenger smiles. He’s been waiting for this.
Winsor wanders over to where Sikes is cowering in the corner of the room. Winsor tells him that having concocted the bug, he would hate not to see it work. Unfortunately for Sikes, he is the only one with a healing factor strong enough to recover quickly. “Gunnhunah?” replies Sikes. Madcap jokes that he loves that about Sikes - always a snappy comeback. Winsor tells Mortigan Goth that even he would find it unpleasant. Goth has no doubts he would. Blood-#####? It’s too esoteric even for him. Once outside, he hears Winsor cough up the bug and Sikes screams.
Back inside the lab, Yang Yi finishes off by telling Wolverine that she doesn’t dwell on the past, of which she has plenty. She exists in the moment, and only hopes the pearl of her existence glowed brightly enough to distract him as it passed by. Wolverine doesn’t reply as he’s almost comatose. She licks some of his blood and asks him to remember not to dwell on their time together. She asks him to relax before departing. Scavenger enters immediately and tells Wolverine that he hates him. He hates what he just went through, not just because people think he’s so cool, but because he himself has been robbed of every physical sensation. He doesn’t hate him because he’s lived so long and felt so much. He hates him because he breathes. He is warm. He has people who care about him. So, he’s gonna take all that away from him, chew it up and spit it back in his face. Logan is unable to move as Scavenger places his clawed hand over his face and proceeds to drain his life force. “It doesn’t make you happy anyway,” he growls, “So give it to me, ####.”
Scavenger is overwhelmed by the power of Wolverine’s life force, and wonders how he doesn’t love life with all that inside him. He has so much energy and sensation inside him. What a waste. Standing over Wolverine’s emaciated body, he tells him that he has all that inside him and he spends all his time moping. He doesn’t deserve life, thinks Scavenger. He asks Logan to do the universe a favor and give it to somebody who does. He places his hand on Logan’s face once again and feeds. He does this all night, eleven times in all.
(the next morning)
Winsor is with Ms. Brink. She explains that Wolverine’s recovery periods decreased with each successive absorption as Scavenger became sated. “He is never sated,” replies Winsor. Brink feels that bloated might be a better word for it. He vomited at one point. Winsor finds a surfeit of life force interesting. Brink explains that Scavenger required greater intervals to regain his appetite as Wolverine healed more quickly. “Resistance?” asks Winsor. Brink says he displayed a similar reaction to Yang Yi’s ministrations. As she employed increasingly baroque techniques, he healed at a complementary increased rate.
Winsor finds it remarkable, though it does validate Marjorie’s theory. Brink agrees. It indicates a correlation between the strength of his healing and the demands put upon it, but the testing has been far from scientific. Still, replies Winsor, her eye for detail in the written record has helped. She says it’s been difficult to glean details about his medical records, injuries sustained, time elapsed between eyewitness accounts etc, but it seemed that his self-healing was becoming far stronger over time. It’s as though his mutation was adapting to the ever-increasing strains put upon it.
Victor Slaughter emerges from the lab having digested some of Wolverine’s flesh. He hands the result to Ms. Brink as she and Winsor deduce that if Wolverine can become resistant to Scavenger’s power, he should develop resistances to anything. Marjorie doesn’t want to overstate the possibilities, but Winsor tells her that her conservative nature flatters her. As Slaughter walks off he tells them that Logan must live on tequila and jalapenos. That burned like hell!
Mortigan Goth visits Logan and offers him a drink; not that it will help a great deal, but the centuries cannot erase the manners that go with good breeding. Wolverine doesn’t respond, and Goth explains that his thirst will return. His did. Then again, he adds, he was only drained once by Scavenger. He volunteered so that Ms. Brink could get a baseline measurement from another self-healer… one who could give her a verbal account. Sikes had been useless. He recovered even quicker than Logan but couldn’t comment on the experience. He looks at a container which holds a section of the Lizard’s tail. He finds Ms. Brink very resourceful. Her research not only allowed Winsor to expand his collection of self-healing and infectious ephemera, but she also recovered relics as obscure as himself and Yang Yi. Sikes, however, is genuinely unique. From what he gathers, he once drank the only dose of an immortality serum and promptly fell into a pit of quicksand. He is quite possibly the most potent self-healer in the world and it seems, as dumb as a stump even before he went mad. Though, adds Goth, there is a vintage wanted poster that proclaims him ‘Public Enemy #1 of 1953.’
Wolverine asks him to do whatever he’s gonna do to him before he gets his #### together. Goth feels that due to being tortured by a sadist with three thousand years experience and having his life force consumed eleven times in one night, he is experiencing a high level of existential despair. It’s sourceless anxiety, he adds, always particularly alienating for individuals rooted in the physical. He hands Logan a jacket and says it helps not to be naked. Logan thanks him and takes the bottle. Goth asks him to help himself. He has cases of the stuff. Logan asks if the stuff is going to get Goth’s soul tortured. Goth says no. Ultimately, he is just passing the time. He doesn’t particularly have Logan’s wellbeing at heart. Logan tells him it’s good to know. He doesn’t want to be slowed down by regrets when he comes to rip his guts out. Goth replies that he is feeling like his old self already.
Winsor and Ms. Brink appear at the door and Winsor thanks Goth. He tells Wolverine that one thing they’ve learned about the Scavenger’s psychological effect is that victims recover more quickly in the presence of some degree of human warmth. Goth asks Logan to keep the coat. He adds that if it smells familiar, it’s because it came off the corpse of a man Logan killed several years ago back when he used to keep count. If anyone needs him, he will be in his room, drinking away his self-loathing. Winsor informs Logan that it was a guard at the Hellfire Club. They had to go back in the records and find specific mention of ‘claw-like lacerations.’ Ms. Brink looks at a book and tells Logan that such notations are fairly common now. Hundreds of autopsies mention similar wounds. They’re often redacted by S.H.I.E.L.D. but time and effort can bring just about anything to light.
Between Winsor and Brink, they add that newer corpses carrying his DNA were easy enough to track down. But, they needed an older sample for comparison. It’s amazing how much tissue gets lost in ‘super battles.’ All those explosions, flames, lasers, impacts of unearthly force. People will scoop just about anything blown off a hero or a villain. It’s the cult of celebrity at work. Winsor opens a case which has several samples inside. He explains that Wolverine is known as a ‘fan-favorite,’ though truth be told, he’s left so much of himself scattered around his prices are somewhat bargain basement. The Hulk’s toenail cost more than Logan’s entire catalog, Ms. Brink interjects. The Hellfire Club guard was a very rare find. It was one of his only kills in an extended period and an excellent place to look for his DNA.
Ms. Brink then continues to point out that it’s very rewarding that they have a sample from Weapon X. They’re easy enough to come by and there is little change in his mutation between that and a bit from his early X-Men period. However, since then there seem to have been some radical changes. His senses, speed, strength and healing factor in particular have all undergone additional mutation. Winsor thinks it’s evolution, as if, the more Wolverine has been beaten and burned, the faster he heals from the burns and beating, until, dropped from orbit naked, he survived both the heat of re-entry and terminal velocity impact. He has developed resistance and he is very interested in that.
Logan stands and tells Winsor that he’s done. He asks what Winsor did to make the kid, watching from behind the window, smell like his son. Winsor replies that records suggest he has a thing for father-son relationships. Logan asks if the records mention how he isn’t a guinea pig for bad guys to harvest x-genes from so they can cure their own damn sickness. Flip laughs and then apologizes for doing so. He tells Logan that he’s so wrong it‘s not even funny. Winsor places his hand on Logan’s shoulder and asks him what if there were a virus, very specific. An x-gene resistant virus that caused an allergic reaction?
Logan asks what if Winsor didn’t have a head. Winsor replies that he would die but, as mentioned earlier, so would a sizeable percentage of the local population. It would be better if Logan wanted to kill him that he choke him to death and seal his corpse in lead and concrete. “Thanks for the tip,” replies Logan. Winsor then mentions his allergy virus. Logan asks what virus is that. “Adamantium, of course,” he smiles. Wolverine grabs his throat and warns him that if he coughs, he dies. “Logan, truly, I’m sorry,” Winsor tells him as Wolverine’s skin rapidly bubbles and he collapses to the ground. “But I’ve been breathing in this room for several minutes now." Flip sighs. “Seriously, so wrong.”


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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Contagion chapter five: Looking for a Way Out
Wolverine has been placed in a cell where he is attacked by the noxious chemicals that Winsor has infected him with. He has developed several allergies, all of which cause him a great deal of distress. He is now allergic to his own hair, to his own blood, to his skin, his lungs and even to oxygen. Finally, he becomes allergic to his own thoughts. His body keeps on regenerating, but it’s a horrible way to pass the time. Yi Yang congratulates Winsor, but he admits that he’s uncomfortable with praise. However, he is rather proud of that last one. It took a special effort. Mortigan Goth asks him to take comfort in the knowledge that he is unimpressed. Yi Yang thinks Goth’s ennui is tiresome, but Goth replies that he’s allergic to his own soul. In comparison, Logan’s afflictions seem like something you could take a pill for.
Ms. Brink flicks through a book and says that referencing the D.S.M, it appears that Wolverine has, in the last few days, exhibited symptoms of any number of mental illnesses. She lists depression, bipolar disorder, mania, Alzheimer’s, Tourette’s, psychogenic fugue, narcolepsy, O.C.D. and sleep terrors. “What,” replies Mortigan Goth. “No paranoia? Um wait. Someone really is out to get him.” Winsor notes that some were the direct result of specific infections. Some were side effects but all are receding with increasing rapidity. Brink agrees. Even Wolverine’s healing factor for his brain chemistry is adaptive. Goth reckons that at least he’ll come out of this with a healthy ego. “Come out of this,” laughs Winsor. “Truly Mortigan. You are so very amusing.” Goth quips that they all thought Madcap was the jester.
Speaking of whom, Madcap visits Wolverine in his cell. He finds Logan naked but conscious and pretty much fully healed again. He uses an old knock knock joke to break the ice.
Knock Knock.
Who’s there?
Orange.
Orange who?
Orange you glad I didn’t say knock knock again?
Wolverine is distinctly unimpressed. Madcap asks him for one.
“Knock Knock,” says Wolverine.
Yeah, yeah. Who’s there?
The fourth horseman of the apocalypse.
The fourth horseman of the apocalypse who?
“Death,” replies Logan. Madcap loves it. He thinks it’s hi-lair. As Madcap departs, Logan reckons that, if he wasn’t full of Corruptor juice, he’d kill the guy. Flip, watching from behind a window nearby, says please. Logan thinks he still wants him to kill him. He tells Flip that he knows he’s in pain, but he ain’t gonna put him out of his misery. No matter who he is or how he’s involved. His guess is that Winsor infected him with a virus that made him smell like his son. “Please,” Flip repeats again. Logan says that he can’t do it. Even with a skinful of the Corruptor’s sweat, it’s against his nature. This time Flip gets to complete his sentence. Grimacing, he tells Logan to please stop being so #### stupid all the time.
Logan barely flinches at the insult. He simply replies that he ain’t stupid. He can trust him on that. They’ve got him all acquiescent on account that they’ve dosed him with Corruptor stuff. It makes him seem a little simple, but he ain‘t. “Oh...  my... God,” replies Flip, though Logan continues speaking regardless not really listening to Flip at all. Flip asks Logan if he’s ever heard of Stockholm Syndrome. He informs Logan that Stockholm Syndrome is the phenomenon wherein hostages show signs of sympathy with their captors. Patty Hearst is the most famous example, he continues, actively participating in a bank robbery and other crimes with the members of the S.L.A who had taken her hostage.
Logan, not listening to Flip, says that his friggin’ restraining collar thing keeps him from using his senses. It’s disorienting as hell. You go through most of your life, over a century, able to smell a man’s fear in his spit, and when you cut that off, it’s like losing a whole part of your brain. It’s a big piece of how you think about things.
Flip bangs his fists on the window and screams for him to take the #### thing off. Logan looks back at him, thinks for a moment and then simply snaps the collar in two. Flip informs him that it’s a placebo collar. The idea of it was supposed to keep Logan from popping his claws and cutting his way out of his cell. A real collar would have inhibited his healing factor and ruined Winsor’s experiments. “Moron.”
Logan snikts a claw and replies that he’s heard of Stockholm Syndrome. Flip reckons it requires tremendous stress. Being kidnapped is enough for a normal person, and Logan’s not normal. Getting him to feel aligned with his tormentors required an ordeal. Logan asks about the needle they kept hitting him with which was supposed to be full of the Corruptor formula. Flip explains that it was a glucose solution. They needed his system to be clean for accurate results. It was another placebo. Throw in the collar and it was a major mind ####.
Logan grins and replies that thinking ain’t his strong suit. But, he knows some really smart people. Has he ever heard of Mr. Fantastic? Tony Stark? Heck, he adds, even his boy Xavier’s no idiot. What he’s saying is, if Flip helps him out, he won’t need Winsor to cure him. Any one of them could fix him up.
Flip tells Logan that just talking to him is so boring... so boring that just to keep from strangling himself he’s thinking in Urdu, translating what Logan says into Hindi, transcribing their conversations into cave paintings, creating a binary code that would describe those images, visualizing how that would feel as Braille and then speaking it in English. That, he adds, keeps a little over one-percent of his brain occupied, which means he only needs about eighty similar puzzles to dumb him down to the level of his buddies until his brain grows some more, which is growing all the time.
Logan reckons he must be smart enough to cure himself. So, once he kills Winsor, he can run around this lab and make himself a healing potion. Flip replies that he can’t do that. Logan says in that case, he’ll start with getting him away from these people. Flip barks back that he is one of these people. Winsor gave him the infection so he could cure him! Logan says the cure for him is that he kills him. “No,” replies Flip. Logan asks now who’s got Stockholm Syndrome? Flip reckons it’s not Stockholm Syndrome when you’re sympathizing with your dad. Logan admits he thought that was just part of the mind #### and he doesn‘t like that. Flip replies, sarcastically, that his dad’s a #### who purposefully infected him to make him smart enough to help him. “So what? He’s my #### dad! Virally smart doesn’t equal emotionally mature, okay?”
Logan asks what they did with the Corruptor. Flip explains that they moved him to a cell somewhere. Logan reaches for some pants and asks if his dad’s deal is that he’s experimenting with healing factors to cure all his diseases. Flip thinks it’s something like that. “Oh! Hey!” says Flip, just as Logan leaves, “I just discovered a Mersenne prime number with over ten million digits. “Congratulations, Flip,” replies Winsor who appears at the door with Scavenger and Suicide. He wishes Flip would stay focused on the task at hand. Splitting his mental energies like that is distracting. Plus, it makes him chatty with the help.
Logan asks Winsor to give the kid a break. He pulls on a pair of gloves and adds that it was only a matter of time before he got himself together and realized he was playing him hard. He admits that he’s surprised to find that he’s really his boy. He then puts on a pair of goggles as a mist cloud wafts its way through the room. Logan tells him that he’s not surprised to find out that he’s tooling Flip for his own benefit. That kinda thing pisses him off. Winsor smiles and put his fingers to his eyes to imitate the goggles. He doesn’t think Logan can really pull them off. Logan replies that he has a lot of work to do and he’s gonna need them to keep the blood out of his eyes.
Logan looks around and informs them that whatever they’re looking to gas him with, he can keep his breath plenty long enough. Winsor says he might want to take one whiff to see if there’s anything familiar. Wolverine snikts all of his claws and passes on breathing Corruptor fumes for now. The gasses begin to form teeth behind him. It’s actually Victor Slaughter, but Logan doesn’t know that without sniffing the air.
Flip, watching from his booth, can’t believe Wolverine is so stupid. He admits to his father that he had to do something to get him out of there before he drove him #### crazy with how stupid he is. Winsor asks him not to be rude. Logan is a clever fellow. He just happens to be wrong more often than he is right. As Logan looks one way, Slaughter’s face appears on the opposite side and he sinks his teeth into Logan’s neck. Winsor then shoves Suicide and Scavenger into the battle, Suicide with two large knives, one in each hand.
Wolverine manages to throw off Slaughter, just in time to twist around and shove his claws into Scavenger’s stomach. He pushes him to the floor, grabs his crown jewels and Scavenger breathes in Victor Slaughter’s gaseous form as he gasps. Wolverine eviscerates him while he is distracted, and then turns his attention to Suicide. Marjorie Brink, watching on a monitor, notes Slaughter’s vampiric anti-lifeforce as having an interesting effect. Suicide swings at Logan, but he evades the attack and slices his right arm off. Suicide raises his other arm, but loses that in quick succession. Wolverine tells him he’s slow, not very strong and can’t fight. What the hell is he doing there? Suicide tells him he wants to die. He’s just looking for a way out. Logan puts his fist to Suicide’s head and snikts his claws. They go through Suicide’s head and the wall behind him. “Sorry. That’s the best I can do,” he replies.
Logan wipes some blood off the goggles and reckons he was right about those. Winsor looks around at the mess Logan’s left behind and tells him, “I’m physically weak.” He adds that, due to the anemia, he can’t risk injury – not even a scraped palm from a slight fall. “Imagine,” replies Logan, not really that interested. Winsor fiddles with his cane which he raises up to point at Logan. “Gausse-gun-rocket-launcher-cane,” he says. Logan doesn’t understand but, when Winsor fires it at him, the projectile hits him square in the chest and explodes. Winsor uses the opportunity to make a clean getaway.
When Logan comes round, he tells Flip not to worry. He’ll be back for him. Flip sighs. “Almost interesting.” Logan dashes after Winsor, but when he rounds into a corridor, he finds himself confronted by Yi Yang who is carrying two large scimitars. She asks if they should consummate their affairs. “Let’s do that,” replies Logan, claws at the ready.


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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Contagion chapter six: The Tortures of Good Deeds
Wolverine and Yi Yang are locked in combat. Yi Yang thrusts her scimitar into Logan’s chest and Logan reciprocates by sticking his claws into her chest, locking them in place. She tells him that only her beloved Night Raven has touched her so deeply; deep enough to drive her thoughts from this mundane existence onto a higher plane. And he, she adds, he required a small nuclear device to do so. Wolverine separates his claws, slicing Yi Yang in two and leaving her for dead. He replies that he’s gifted that way.
Elsewhere, Ms. Brink is with Winsor, otherwise known as Contagion. Harry Sikes cowers in the corner. She informs Contagion that it isn’t right. Flip’s intelligence seemed to preclude the possibility of his introducing chaos to the scenario. He asks her not to fret. He blames himself. Flip is far beyond the curves of normalcy at this stage. A rampant and growing intellect is doomed by its own expansion. As he opens a case containing small missiles for his cane, Winsor says he wishes he could freeze the moment when his head finally explodes and encase him in amber. What a tremendous #### that would be to Damien Hirst.
He doesn’t mind, though. Flip fulfilled his most essential role simply by sharing his DNA. His usefulness as a human computer is debatable, but he doesn’t blame him for boring of the exercise and trying to introduce a greater level of unpredictability. Ms. Brink asks if she should begin flooding the corridors with Corruptor gas. Winsor thinks not. They’ve known all along that their system tends towards entropy and chaos at an obscene rate. Recapture would simply encourage greater sloppiness and restart the cycle. He reckons they’re better off pressing to the finale now. After all, he adds, Logan is weeding their most unstable elements. Soon it will be only the two of them… reliable variables, who remain. He is comfortable that they will be able to maneuver him as needed. “Until he blinds us,” replies Ms. Brink. Winsor looks at the monitor and sees Wolverine standing in front of an open junction box. Winsor understands.
Ms. Brink asks once again if she should use the gas, but Winsor believes the controls from the gas system run through that junction. Ms. Brinks checks the schematics and agrees. Winsor suggests that she arm herself.
(meanwhile)
Mortigan Goth takes a swig from a bottle of booze. Before him is a mirror covered by a white sheet. He asks why he always tries to self-ruin. He is comfortably set up and positively wallowing in all he could hope for. It is an absolute sty of malevolence, perversity, madness, foul humors, nefarious intentions, necrophilia, outright cannibalism… and there he is, contemplating how to ruin it all. “I asked where is he?” Wolverine repeats. Goth apologizes, but he wasn’t paying any attention. He was distracted by his impulses towards self-destruction. Wolverine tells him he’ll be giving him a shove in that direction if he doesn’t tell him where Winsor is. Goth rambles on about how all that is required of him is that he succumbs to obscenity and vice. He has only to abandon his humanity and he will have peace. He will spare not only himself but his captive soul as well.
Wolverine doesn’t understand what he’s mumbling about and he ain’t got the time. He has to get to Winsor before he starts spewing God knows what viruses. He needs help. Goth knows that and he finds it a noble goal. What pleasure it must be to give in to such impulses. Wolverine gives him one last chance to speak. Goth informs him that Winsor has taken on a new name: Contagion. It’s something he’s been dreaming of since he was five. He has infected them all. He gave his own son, Flip, a literal infection. The rest of them he infected with satiation of their own desires. Slaughter got money, food and power. Suicide he gave the ability to die, to sleep and so on. Yi Yang received new experiences. Scavenger was given bodies to feed him and physical sensation. Marjorie Brink was given the knowledge to help her become a savior of the future. Madcap was give a venue that caters to his beliefs, and as for himself, he has filth in which to balm his fair intentions. He stands and reaches for the white sheet.
Through gritted teeth, he adds that it’s quite unfair that his soul should suffer the tortures of his good deeds. He tries to spare it. But inevitably, he weakens. He mirror reveals Wolverine’s reflection. Wolverine says he isn’t leaving until he tells him where Winsor is. He advises Logan to head down the hall, widdershins for three turns and go for the obvious door. Wolverine warns him that he’ll come back for him. “#### off you #### hero you,” replies Goth.
Once Logan has departed, Goth talks to the mirror. He apologizes for what ‘he’ has endured. It was a charitable moment for him, but another eternity of Mephisto’s attentions for him. He wants to make it up for him. He can take something in return. A doppelganger then crashes through the mirror and leaps at Mortigan Goth.
Elsewhere, Logan discovers the blue-skinned Corruptor, hanging upside down connected to a machine. He notes that Winsor has been giving him a fever to keep that psycho actively-suggestive sweat flowing and evaporating into the collectors, making sure he has a reservoir on hand to make someone do what he wants. He could do with a little himself. He admits that when he finds someone in a situation like that he usually helps them out. However, Beast mentioned that the Corruptor was a total scumbag so he’s gonna have to wait.
Meanwhile, whilst loading a pistol, Marjorie Brink asks Contagion when they might have some reinforcements. He replies it won’t be soon enough. He’s afraid that Suicide’s healing factor is rather slow and severe tissue trauma to the brain will take some time to heal. The bisection that Yi Yang suffered will require that she maneuver her upper half into alignment with her lower before she can begin to heal. Ms. Brink thinks that Scavenger and Slaughter are stuck in something of a feedback loop. Scavenger is draining Slaughter of negative lifeforce, which, in turn, sucks his own positive lifeforce into Slaughter. It might continue like that until they are dragged apart. Contagion asks about their other helpmates. She replies that the last time she saw Mortalis (Goth), he was extremely drunk and talking to his mirror again. Madcap, she assumes, is at loose ends. Contagion states that Ms. Brink is therefore his last line of defense. She aims a pistol at an imaginary target and replies that she’ll try her best.
(elsewhere)
Also aiming a gun is Madcap, his target being Wolverine who has come across him. He tries to hypnotize Logan but he’s already prepared and covered his eyes with some dark cloth. He tells Madcap that he doesn’t really like hurting crazy people so he wants to smell him getting out the way. He replies that it’s fine. Wolverine can’t really hurt him. “Look.” He shoots himself with his weapon which unleashes colorful balls of energy that swirl around his head. He tells Logan that he is a chunk of human silly putty he can slice and dice. Logan, meanwhile, is a feral berserker warrior with an alloy skeleton and the stature of a munchkin. “Think of the fun we could have #### each other up!” He likes the idea of the reality show they could pitch. All he has to do to get started is look into his eyes and relax.
His eyes begin to swirl and he adds that he doesn’t even need to do that. His crazy is strongest in his eyes but what it really requires is focus. It could be the gun or it could be his colorful outfit. Or, he continues, it could be his voice making Logan jut unstable enough for him to do something really out of character. Like, for instance, letting a super nutso enemy get right next to him without mincing him first. He has a crazy idea. Why doesn’t Wolverine just peel off that blindfold and look directly into his eyes without blinking for maybe a second or two and they’ll go find a groovy bunny costume he can wear from now on? A Playboy Bunny costume, that is.
Wolverine reaches up and puts his eyes underneath Madcap’s mask. He wants to make his own suggestion. He informs Madcap that the universe is not meaningless. It has order. There’s a plan and every act has consequences. And you all pay for your sins. “Think about that.” Madcap’s eyes grow wider and he gasps, “Katy? What have I done?” He runs off down the corridor screaming, allowing Wolverine to continue his quest with his claws now extended.
As soon as he approaches the door, Ms. Brink shoots through it, blasting him in the chest. As she reloads, Logan warns her that if she shoots him again he’s going to forget that she’s mostly harmless. As he enters the room, she tells him that she can’t believe he can stop her shooting at least once more. He replies that he smells something funny. He’s been smelling it for a while, now. It’s hard to say for sure seeing he doesn’t really know her, but it smells to him like she’s been acting out of character the whole time he’s been there. She tells him that if she is to fight the demon sun, she must be willing to go to any extreme to learn anything. Logan says that’s the other thing that he’s been smelling. She smells of Corruptor sweat. It’s like she been drinking it.
She aims her pistol at him and warns him she’s the last line of defense. Logan looks over at Winsor, who is still sat in his chair, cane at the ready. He says that he must confess that he has been giving Ms. Brink a bit of a Corruptor roofie. He apologizes to her, but tells her that, left to her own devices, her own personal motive would only have allowed her to indulge a slightly moral flexibility. Tears begin to trickle from her eyes as she realizes she’s been played, yet she is barely unable to do anything about it. He adds that if the future is going to be able to rely on her for leadership, she’ll have to become much more thick-skinned. He only managed to nurse her through the last few days by tripple-dipping her pencils in Corruptor compound.
Marjorie looks away for a moment and tells Logan that she told him. She’s not usually like this. She turns the gun on herself and says she’s sorry, only for Logan to grab it before she pulls the trigger. He points to the side of the room and tells her to go stand there. He then looks at Winsor and lets him know that he’s feeling better than he did in the lab. Shoot another rocket at him, he’s gonna miss and he‘ll be mad. Winsor replies, in that case, he’ll have to make certain he jumps in front of it. He shoots a rocket towards Marjorie Brink and Logan has no option but to put himself in the middle. The blow knocks them both to the floor.
Winsor says to Marjorie that he must thank Logan when he wakes for freshly dousing her before his gloves dried. He asks her how long it took for him to recover the last time he shot him. Complying once again, she replies just over a minute. He asks her to subdue him. This has spun more out of control than he desired. As Ms. Brink aims her pistol at Logan’s eye, she is about to add something to her statement, but Wolverine’s healing factor has already compensated for his injuries and he knocks her hand away as she fires. Winsor realizes he is alone. Wolverine leaps at him with his claws out and Winsor puts his hands up. “No claws! No claws! I’m a human biological weapon of mass destruction! No #### claws!” Wolverine puts away his claws and is about to punch Winsor, but he responds by vomiting on him.
Logan drops to the floor, covered in gunk. Winsor smiles and informs him that it contained camelpox, hemorrhagic fever, Kilham’s rat virus, tumor virus, syphilis, zoysia, mosaic virus, WVU virus 2937, AIDS, oropouche and Mengele virus. Wolverine’s face begins to heal almost immediately and he replies that it’s a good thing he’s had so many infections lately. He punches Winsor hard in the gut, flooring him. Winsor continues his concoction. “Mumps, echovirus 9, Australian bat lascivious, klongo, Marburg, smallpox, sowbane, Kaposi’s and dengue.” Logan grabs him by the collar and drags him across the floor. He tells Ms. Brink that she’s gonna be okay. She should do some good. The future needs saving. As he departs, she turns and looks over at Harry, sitting in the corner, drooling.
Winsor adds a few more ingredients as Logan drags him into the room where the Corruptor is residing, hooked to the machine. He vomits on Logan once again, only to be told to shut up and try some of the sweat himself. He pushes his head against the Corruptor’s chest and tells him that now he’s feeling all suggestive, there’s something he wants him to do. He orders him to brew a new virus; one that eats all the bad stuff in his DNA. “Heal yourself!” He then cuts the Corruptor down and he lands on Winsor hard. He tells him that now Winsor’s blood can’t make anyone sick any more, he can make him bleed. He’s not up to it right now. He leaves Winsor in the Corruptor’s capable hands and departs.
Back in the other room, Marjorie Brink grabs one of the pencils that Winsor used on her and apologizes to Harry. She should have thought of this before, but she wasn’t feeling herself. She puts it in his mouth, allowing the juice to flow. She tells him that he doesn’t have to be sick. That’s his gift. He just needs to be told to use it. “Feel better,” she commands. A few moments later and Harry comes round. “Lady,” he says, “I feel like a million bucks.”


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Broken Quarantine, Chapter One: Immediate Future Me
‘It’s not the physical symptoms themselves that I’m worried about. Rotted flesh, a collapsed lung, liver cancer. By now, I’m quite accustomed to seeing him recover from such things. But this. There is no precedent for this’ Dr Henry McCoy a.k.a. the Beast remarks as he points at some DNA strands that appear in a holo projector. ‘Multiple infections that are attacking his DNA directly.’
‘An X-gene virus. Have we identified the source? How imminent is the threat?’ Scott “Cyclops” Summers enquires. The Beast tells Scott to take it easy, as it doesn’t appear to be targeting the x-gene. ‘Can you be sure?’ Scott asks. The Beast announces that he is quite sure, as something like that would be almost banal by comparison. ‘This is attacking the entire DNA structure. Reengineering it to its own needs’ he explains. ‘Which are?’ Cyclops asks. ‘Do I look psychic?’ the Beast snarls in reply.
‘He was speaking to me, Henry’ a voice calls out across the room. It’s Emma Frost, who stands unimpressed as she looks into a room off the laboratory. ‘Thus my straight line’ the Beast remarks as he and Cyclops walk across the lab to join Emma. The Beast adds that he is almost embarrassed that Cyclops missed such a blunt conversational handoff. ‘Yes, banter is generally considered one of my two main powers, but I’m distracted just a bit as I’m currently employing the other’ Emma mutters. ‘My dear, your two main powers are currently threatening to poke someone’s eyes out. Shall I turn down the air conditioning?’ the Beast asks, as Emma folds her arms over her front. ‘What’s it look like in there?’ Cyclops asks. ‘Unpleasant’ Emma responds.
As Emma enters the mind of Wolverine a.k.a. Logan, she sees the horrible things that have recently happened to him. The creatures who had him in their possession. ‘Not that I’m squeamish. Not typically. But without going into overmuch detail - we can safely assume that Logan had an unusually difficult time of it lately’ Emma tells the others. ‘Or does that go without saying?’ she adds.
Cyclops asks Emma if there is any sign of Purifiers, but Emma tells him there is not, however they will want to search for data on a human mutate named Winsor. ‘Tall, pale, very thin?’ the Beast asks. ‘He’s in the system?’ Cyclops enquires. ‘No. Logan gave a vague description of someone he’d had some trouble with’ the Beast explains.
‘He was dissected’ Emma announces, averting her eyes from Wolverine’s decayed and ruined body lying on a table in the next room. ‘It’s happened before’ Cyclops states. The Beast tells him that is all the more reason not to be callous about it. ‘I only mean he’s recovered from it before’ Scott explains. ‘Psychically’ Emma points out. ‘Not in the manner that I or the Professor might delicately peel back the layers of ego, superego and ID’.
Emma continues, declaring that it is more in the manner that one might squeeze his brain from his ears and then pan the meat for bits of his personality thy could play marbles with. ‘When people have messed with Logan’s personality in the past -’ Cyclops begins, as the Beast points out that he has become unstable. ‘I was going to say psychotic’ Scott declares.
Emma has completely turned away from the window into the other room as she tells the men that Wolverine is plenty psychotic, enough to have given her a headache. She announces that she is going for an aspirin. Wolverine’s rotting body lies still, blood seeping from festering wounds that crawl with maggots. ‘Lock down the medical bay’ Cyclops instructs. ‘I’m not certain we need to -’ the Beast begins. ‘Is he going to recover?’ Cyclops asks. ‘I’ve yet to see him not recover from anything’ Hank tells Scott, who once again instructs his long-time teammate to lock down the bay. ‘Scott’ Hank remarks. ‘Yes?’ Scott asks.
‘If Logan recovers, his DNA may be littered with new infectious agents. We need a quarantine’ the Beast explains. ‘Quarantine the bay’ Cyclops instructs him. ‘Scott’ Hank says once more. ‘The level’ Scott amends. ‘Scott’ the Beast calls out. ‘The base’ Scott tells him. ‘Yes’ Hank agrees. ‘Emma and I had dinner plans in the city’ Scott remarks. ‘A shame’ the Beast mutters. ‘She’s going to be very upset, Hank’ Scott points out. ‘I sympathize’ Hank claims. ‘I’m going to blame you’ Scott announces. ‘I exist to serve’ Hank responds, as Wolverine suddenly opens his eyes.
Later, a figure lurks through the X-Men’s base, passing a room where the Beast sits in an armchair, reading a magazine and examining data on a laptop. ‘Well now, that new sequence looks almost vaguely normal. K-Fed. You are looking largish’ the Beast declares, dividng his attention between the magazine and the laptop.
In her quarters, Emma is naked and lies on her bed. Clenching a pillow with one hand, the other touching her lips, she asks ‘Do you know how hard it is to get a reservation at Poultice?’ Cyclops responds by asking ‘With or without psychically manipulating the maitre d’?’ Emma tells him that how she makes her reservations is beside the point, and that the thread for the gown that she was going to wear tonight was the product of worms with a genome she commissioned three months ago to produce an ivory silk that perfectly complimented both her skin tone and the red booth-leather at the restaurant. ‘The effect would have been snow on blood’ she remarks. Cyclops tells Emma that, had he known, he would have told Wolverine to choose another night to become patient zero for a plague. ‘You joke, but it was bound to happen. All of the filthy places he runs off to’ Emma comments. ‘He’s a big boy. So to speak’ Cyclops replies. ‘You need to concentrate on your apology’ Emma pouts.
‘I’m apologizing as quickly and as neatly as I can’ Cyclops replies as he paints Emma’s toenails with nail polish. ‘Yes, but now your apology needs to be applied in a northerly direction’ Emma tells him. ‘I think you mean westerly’ Scott points out. ‘Upwardly, is what I meant’ Emma explains, to which Scott tells her that she is on a horizontal. ‘Enough geometry and geography. My lips are up here, come apologize to them’ Emma orders. She rolls onto her front and adds that then they will talk about what else needs an apology.
Suddenly: ‘Oh. Oh damn. Henry, we need you’ Emma calls out. ‘Emma, I owe you an apology, and Hank is an old friend, but there are some things I won’t do’ Scott declares. ‘We need to go to the kitchen’ Emma announces. Scott tells her that if she expects him to cook, she will be the one who is sorry.
And shortly, Scott and a near-naked Emma meet the Beast in the kitchen. ‘Oh filth’ Emma gasps, putting her hands to her face. The trio look into the kitchen and hear strange noises - kneeling on the floor is Wolverine, chomping into a chicken, food scattered all around him - along with his rotting outer layer of skin which he has shed. ‘Hungry’ Logan manages to utter as he stares at the trio. ‘If he’s gone feral, he’ll break for the door. I’ll hold here. Hank, you -’ Scott begins to instruct the others, as Hank leaps over the counter and says ‘Provide a nice animalistic distraction for his predator instincts to focus on? Yes, Logan and I enjoy tearing one another to ribbons. We do it so well’. ‘Do it with fewer words’ Cyclops tells him, as he starts to instruct Emma on what he wants her to do, but Emma interrupts him: ‘Put up a psychic inhibitor on his berserker nature. Yes, I do so love getting a close look at the heaped dead bodies in his subconscious guilt-closet’.
‘You know what I love about X-Babies? They shut up and follow orders’ Cyclops snaps. ‘Familiarity, Slim. You remember what that breeds?’ Wolverine asks as he continues to devour the chicken. ‘Speaking of which, must have been too long since we all tussled. I go feral, I ain’t making for the exits. I’m looking for fresh meat’. He tells Hank with all due respect that the only time he ever got the upper hand on him was when he got devolved to a girly boy. He informs Emma that he felt her poking in his head before, and offers her some advice: ‘That wasn’t the worst of it. Jar something’ loose, I might lose track of where I am. Get ugly’. Tearing apart the chicken, Logan turns to his teammates and points outs that he has the ugly market cornered just now. He adds that he is going to finish filling his belly and suggests that anyone who doesn’t want to puke should leave.
Scott, Emma and Hank turn and leave the kitchen. ‘Hank, I want to know -’ Scott begins, as Hank interrupts: ‘How he got out of the quarantine tank without sounding an alarm? I’m guessing he employed his decades of experience as a covert agent and assassin’. ‘Emma, as soon as you can, I want -’ Scott starts to say, but Emma knows what he is going to ask: ‘A Cerebra reading on Wolverine so we know if he’s going to kill us all in our sleep?’ But Scott tells her that he was going to say that he wants her to put on some clothes. ‘No you don’t’ Emma remarks. ‘Just while we’re out of our room. The rest of the time, as you wish’ Scott replies. The Beast casually remarks that he was hoping nudism might become the new vogue for X-Men and Women at their leisure. Emma tells Hank that he has both the figure and the pelt for it, but that there are some X-Men she would prefer to remain covered, no matter how infirm their sense of fashion.
‘Yes, gossip in the workplace! Let us name names and heap humiliation upon our fellows without their knowledge’ the Beast suggests. Cyclops asks the others not to make fun of team unity, to which Emma points out that seeing another person naked is a bonding experience. Hank remarks that he and Scott have known each other since late adolescence, so they have seen it all. ‘Hank’ Scott protests. Hank adds that the curiosity when he first became blue and furred was uncomfortable, and Jean, of all people, put an actual bounty on the first viewing of his equipment. ‘Consider my interest piqued’ Emma declares. Hank adds that in those days, before the mansion had been repeatedly demolished and remodeled, the boys shared a locker room and showers. ‘Warren’s wings must have been difficult to accommodate in the shower’ Emma points out. ‘Warren’s wings were the least of it, Emma’ Hank remarks. ‘I’ve heard as much’ Emma replies. ‘You’ve not heard it all’ Hank tells her. ‘Hank!’ Scott repeats. Emma tells Henry to just think the rest, and she will get the picture, while in the kitchen, Wolverine continues to devour more food.
‘Better and better’ Hank remarks to himself as he looks at the DNA hologram, while in their quarters, Emma and Scott are back in bed. ‘Oh, oh, Warren, your wings are soooo big’ Emma mocks. ‘Not funny’ Scott replies.
In the bathroom off his quarters, Logan stares in the mirror. ‘Crap. Crap. You look like crap, bub’ he tells himself as his body slowly regenerates. ‘Take that’ Logan snarls as he punches the mirror, shattering it. He has put some underwear on and stands in front of his closet. ‘Bub. You got to get some new things to wear’ Logan decides.
Wearing just his dressing gown, he goes into the living area and sits on a sofa. ‘I don’t know. Just sometimes you get sick of yourself, right? Sight of yourself, smell of yourself. Sick of the idea of yourself’ he remarks to a blonde woman sitting on a sofa nearby. Logan drinks some beer, his hair is starting to grow back, and he wipes his lips. ‘Sick of twitching like a dead frog’s leg every time someone hits you with a little current. Wolverine: wind him up and watch him kill!’ Logan declares, raising his can of beer. ‘Why are you talking to me? You never talk to me. Why are you talking to me now? ‘Alison Blaire a.k.a. Dazzler asks, seated nearby. ‘Like I said. Ya get sick of the idea of yourself sometimes, Dazzler ol’ girl. What am I gonna say to the others I ain’t said before?’ Logan asks. He points out that Scott, Hank, Kurt and even Peter have heard it all before, and that Frost has been in his head so much she has seen stuff. ‘See, you, you’re a woman, right?’ Logan asks Dazzler. Unimpressed, Dazzler frowns: ‘Please don’t let this be a come-on’ she asks.
Wolverine tells her that talking with Kitty was easy, because she was a kid, there was no danger. ‘Set a pattern of me, talking to kids, like, what are they gonna say that’s gonna challenge me?’ Logan asks. He continues, ‘But a full-grown woman? What do I ever say to a woman? I’m either stumbling over my own tongue, pledging eternal love, or stabbing them in the gut’. That is what he knows to do with women.
‘I really, really hope this isn’t a come on’ Dazzler remarks. Wolverine ignores her comment and looks at his beer can, stating that he is talking to her because he has never talked to her before, and he is sick of the idea of himself. ‘So it’s not a come-on?’ Dazzler asks, changing the television channel with the remote control. Logan continues to heal, looking better as time passes, and remarks that the funny thing is, he doesn’t know how much of him is actually him. ‘Just now, in less than a night, I’ve replaced like a quarter of my mass. Healing factor broke down what I ate, metabolized it, turned it to muscle and bone and whatever. A fourth of me wasn’t even in me a few hours ago’.
‘This beer, there’s immediate future me in there’ Logan remarks. Dazzler looks unimpressed still and looking at the television remarks ‘If this show had been on when I started, I would have kicked ass. I mean, they want soulful bubble gum techno disco pop? I invented that sound’. She laments that they just hand you a contract, no lousy club dates, no gropey managers, no embarrassingly bad bio-pics and no years of fighting gangsters and evil mutants and monsters. ‘They just hand it to you’. Logan looks over at Dazzler and tells her ‘They’d have killed ya’. ‘Please, have you even heard me sing? I’m amazing’ Dazzler declares. Logan tells her that he means literally. ‘Things are bad for mutants now, they were worse then. The lynching years. Mutant on TV, they’d have killed you’. Dazzler points out that she isn’t a feeb and would not have used her power or anything - just her voice - it is all she would have needed. ‘That’d made it worse. Someone would have outed ya, and people would have gone bitter over being fooled’ Wolverine suggests.
Dazzler reveals that she had a gig tonight. ‘Canceled?’ Logan asks. ‘Quarantine’ Dazzler points out. ‘Right. Sorry about that’ Logan tells her. Dazzler asks him if he is going to offer her a beer, so Logan tosses a can to her and announces that he has to get out. ‘Don’t let me keep you. One beer won’t get me loose enough for a big make-out session on the couch’ Dazzler replies. Wolverine points out that he can’t go, to which Dazzler asks ‘If you can’t break quarantine, who can?’ But Logan tells her that isn’t it. ‘I got nothing to wear’ he explains, adding that everything in his closet makes him want to puke. ‘Man, I hate this commercial’ he mutters, looking at the television.
‘Show me your room’ Dazzler orders, standing up and putting her hands on her hips. ‘Gonna miss the final vote’ Logan points out. ‘Tivo’ Dazzler replies, to which Logan tells her that he is not going to make out with her. ‘You barely have lips’ Dazzler reminds him as they walk out of the living room. Logan tells Dazzler that just because his self-esteem is low, she can’t take advantage. ‘Your virtue is safe’ Alison assures him.
They pass Hank’s room, where he is sleeping his armchair, magazine and laptop resting on him. Emma and Scott lie tangled in their sheets in their bed.
‘This is weird’ Logan remarks. ‘Why? Because you never did anything but bad-mouth me before?’ Alison asks. ‘I’ve never tried this kind of thing’ Logan explains. ‘You said you wanted something new’ Dazzler reminds him. ‘Feels loose’ Logan declares as he stands in front of a mirror wearing an all-black leather outfit with long trench coat. ‘You said you were still replacing mass’ Alison smiles. ‘You think my ass is big normally?’ Logan asks. ‘You do not, sorry to be the one to tell you, have the ass of a twelve-year old boy’ Dazzler declares. Logan asks if he is supposed to want the ass of a twelve-year old boy, to which Dazzler replies ‘Not unless you’re a runway model’. ‘So I’m -’ Logan begins. ‘Acting like a bitchy little runway model? Yes’ Dazzler declares. ‘Hn’ Wolverine mutters.
Logan follows Dazzler out of his room and tells her that she dropped some stitches here, as he adjusts the coat. ‘You ever alter flexible ballistic compound with pinking shears and a sewing needle?’ Dazzler enquires. ‘No’ Logan replies. ‘Then #### off, Naomi’ Dazzler exclaims. ‘Say, about all that bad-mouthing I have you in training. I saw your movie once. It sucked’ Wolverine tells Dazzler. ‘I’ll add your review to the others’ Dazzler mutters. ‘But you were real good. And I remember thinking that’s a woman could be something if she wanted to’. Logan adds that maybe he pushed a little harder than he needed to. ‘That’s the sweetest non-apology I ever received from a man in my life’ Dazzler smiles. ‘I’m an eloquent ######’ Wolverine replies.
As Logan walks down the hallway, Dazzler asks him where he is off to. ‘Got a girl to see’ Wolverine tells her. ‘She going to get the love pledge or the gut-stab?’ Dazzler enquires, to which Wolverine tells her that he is still deciding. ‘Very weird little interlude there. Oh damn. I’m having horny thoughts about Wolverine’ Dazzler mutters.
Wolverine messes with some wires, then drives out of the X-Men headquarters, as Dazzler enters Scott and Emma’s room. She calls out to them, and from under the sheets, Emma mumbles ‘Lover, kill whoever that is’. ‘Kill her yourself’ Scott replies, to which Emma reminds him that she could psychically compel him to kill her. Scott and Emma then look up from under the sheets and Scott calls out ‘Come in’. Dazzler asks them if they ever do anything else with their free time. Scott asks her what is going on. ‘Um, Logan. He’s acting a little weird’ Dazzler replies. ‘Weird how?’ Scott asks. ‘Talking-to-me-like-I’m-a-person-weird’ Dazzler explains. Scott starts to get dressed, and Emma stands up, sheet wrapped around her, she asks Dazzler if it has to be so bright inside her mind. ‘Oh no’ Emma utters. ‘Has he gone feral?’ Scott asks. ‘He played dress-up with her’ Emma announces. ‘Tell Hank to meet us in the medical bay’ Scott instructs Dazzler.
Wolverine meanwhile, has arrived at another location, the sun rising over the hills creates an eerie pink glow. ‘Are you going to kill me?’ the woman Logan has come to visit asks. ‘Rule of thumb: if you have a reason to ask me that question and I haven’t already killed you, you’re probably gonna be okay’ Logan replies. “Probably” the woman, Driver Reese quotes. Logan tells her that he doesn’t make promise he can’t keep. ‘Too bad. I thought you might kill me before this head cold does’ Driver replies, before asking Logan to come inside. Logan follows her up some stairs into the living area and asks ‘Winsor knew where you could pick me up?’ to which Driver tells him that he must have, as Winsor told her to drive that stretch of the Thirty-Seven at that time. ‘Ask him’ she adds. Logan tells her that it is too late. ‘So you?’ Driver asks. ‘I didn’t. but I left him with someone who had about as much reason as I did’ Wolverine replies.
Driver sits on a sofa and rubs her nose with a tissue, telling Logan that she is sorry, that things got very bad that night, and whatever Winsor gave them, what they came to the parties for, it was stronger that night. She adds that it was morning before she realized how bad it had been, and she was worried about him, but didn’t know what to do. ‘I thought he wanted an X-Man at his party. Because it would be cool, you know. I didn’t know he was some kind of…’ her voice trails off. ‘Super villain’ Wolverine remarks. ‘Really? You really call them that?’ Driver enquires. ‘If the shoe fits’ Wolverine tells her. ‘I was pawned by a super villain. That’s either impossibly cool or severely dorky’ Looking at some artwork on the woman’s wall, Logan tells her that Winsor is finished now, but he needs to find some stuff he had, as it is dangerous.
‘Yes. Anything I can do. I want to help. I had, you know, my, it’s stupid, my biggest regret was, you know, I really liked hanging out with you and. So. Anything I can do. Yes’ Driver replies, before sneezing. ‘Gesundheit’ Wolverine tells her, while green gunk starts to seep from the woman’s nostril. ‘Thanks. Hey, you really look great. I love that jacket’ Driver smiles. ‘Thanks’ Wolverine replies, turning to her, he suddenly goes wide-eyed and shouts ‘Driver!’ as the young woman smiles back at Wolverine, and tells him that she likes him - as a golden falcon suddenly smashes through the window and beheads Driver with its sharp wing as it flies by her. Claws outstretched, Logan lunges to Driver, but her head drops to the floor, glass shattered all around them.
Green energy starts to pulse from Driver’s eyes and mouth. Wolverine looks on, confused. Turning to the rest of her body, he sees more of the green energy rising. ‘Little man’ a voice calls out. ‘Back away there with tour knives’ the voice adds, referring to Wolverine’s claws. By now, the energy has risen to form a large techno-organic, necrotic spider. Logan turns to the two men who have appeared in the room. The golden falcon rests on a man dressed in a pink and blue costume with a long pink cloak. Another man leans against the banister, he wears a low-cut black top with large white sleeves and grey pants. He smirks at Wolverine and tells him to leave this to the professionals. They are Monark Starstalker and Paradox!


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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Broken Quarantine, Chapter Two: #### Spacemen
The home of Driver Reese, whose decapitated body lies on the floor. ‘I like you, X-Man Logan Wolverine’ Driver’s head declares. ‘You’re my favorite hero’ she adds. As green techno-organic energy spills upwards from her body to the form of a large necrotic spider that looms over Wolverine and the two men that have mysteriously appeared.
‘Looks like we’re on the right trail here!’ The man in a pink and blue costume, Monark Starstalker, calls out as he fires his gun at the necrotic spider. His robot falcon, Ulysses, rests on his shoulder. The other man, Paradox, asks ‘Do you think? Was it perhaps this monstrous crime against all that is beautiful that tipped you off?’ he asks. ‘Faaaavoooriiiteeee’ Driver’s head utters, to which Paradox asks if someone can do something about that awful shrieking.
Logan lunges into the air, as the necrotic spider moves about, causing cracks in the roof. Driver’s head starts to scream, and suddenly, the necrotic spider shoves one of its razor-sharp legs through Logan’s chest. ‘Noble effort, little man’ Paradox remarks, as Driver’s head continues to screech. ‘But less than effective’ Paradox declares, covering one ear with a hand, he points his other hand forward. ‘Allow me to end the misery’ he remarks, firing a blast of energy at Driver’s head, destroying it. ‘Relief at last’ Paradox mutters, turning to Monark Starstalker, who has his gun raised at the necrotic spider, he asks ‘Planning to use that at some point, are you?’ to which Monark Starstalker points out that the necrotic spider is not infecting him. Several more strands of techno-organic spikes have been raised around Wolverine’s body. ‘And he doesn’t seem to be dying either’ Paradox comments. ‘I’m going to save him’ Monark boasts. ‘Or kill him, either would be humane’ Paradox suggests. ‘Save. He may know something’ Monark decides, firing his gun, he strikes the techno-organic strands that skewers Wolverine, breaking it, Logan falls to the floor.
‘Is it me?’ Paradox asks. ‘No’ Monark responds. ‘Or is it… getting larger?’ Paradox enquires as the necrotic spider does increase its form before them. ‘Yes’ Monark confirms. ‘We should -’ Paradox begins. ‘Yes’ Monark agrees. ‘Leave’ Paradox concludes. ‘Yes’ Monark remarks. He sends his golden falcon, Ulysses, into the air, ‘I’ll get - the - little - man!’ Paradox declares as he leaps into the air and flips backwards with great skill, firing energy at the necrotic spider, and dodging its techno-organic strands. Logan roars as he pulls the broken techno-organic spike out of his chest, blood splattered on his chest, Logan looks unimpressed and leaps forward, claws ready. ‘Or perhaps - he’d prefer to stay’ Paradox supposes.
Logan starts to slice and dice the necrotic spider, while Paradox leaps out the broken window, while the necrotic spider starts to reform its body after Wolverine slices through it. Monark drops down through a hole in the floor, while Paradox lands on the street below the building. The necrotic spider has reformed itself around Wolverine, as Monark races through a corridor, Wolverine is fully trapped inside the necrotic spider. ‘Oh’ Paradox gasps. ‘####’ Monark remarks as he reaches his partner and they stare up at the building. ‘Was this in the -’ Paradox begins. ‘No’ Monark tells him ‘Dossier?’ Paradox asks. ‘No’ Monark replies. ‘Because I don’t remember reading anything about this’ Paradox points out as they stare at the building, completely destroyed, as the necrotic spider has increased its mass so much that the building crumbles around it. Its large legs start to move about, breaking the ground with their sharp spikes.
‘Containment grenade’ Paradox suggests as he and Monark fall to the side, dodging one of the legs. ‘Too big’ Monark Starstalker points out. ‘Too big?’ Paradox asks as he fires a blast of energy up at the necrotic spider. ‘We let it get too big’ Monark points out as he fires his gun. They stand back to back and continue to fire, ‘Well, we’d have killed the little man if we’d used the grenade in there’ Paradox remarks. Monark tells Paradox that he is glad they made the effort to save his life, as it turned out so well. ‘So now we…?’ Paradox enquires. ‘Need to make it smaller’ Monark explains. The horrid necrotic spider creature looms over them, tendrils and spikes extended from its body. ‘That seems unlikely’ Paradox points out, when suddenly, the body of the necrotic spider explodes, as Wolverine shoves his clawed hand through. He leaps up, growling, shoving his claws into the necrotic spider again. ‘Then again’ Monark remarks. ‘Tough bastard’ Paradox points out. ‘Little man!’ he calls out, getting Wolverine’s attention, Logan looks down and Paradox shouts up to him, informing him that they need to make it smaller.
So, Logan starts slashing away at the creature once more, and Paradox announces that he thinks they are getting some legitimate reduction here. He starts to tell Monark to have that grenade ready, when suddenly, ‘Oh, damn me’ Paradox utters as one of the necrotic spider’s spikes are shoved through his shoulder. ‘Damn me again’ Paradox declares as another spike is shoved through his other shoulder. ‘Triple damn me’ he exclaims as one pierces his thigh. ‘Paradox!’ Monark Starstalker exclaims, concerned, he rushes over to his partner. ‘Get loose, damn you’ Monark declares, trying to free Paradox. ‘Damn me. Damn me. Damn meeeee’ Paradox calls out as he is flung into the air. ‘Targets, Ulysses!’ Monark exclaims as a flaming sword materializes in his free hand. ‘Acquiring’ Ulysses responds, and as it darts about, it identifies several targets. ‘Fire pattern resolved’ the bird states. ‘Weapon change’ Monark declares, as he fires his gun at the targets on the necrotic spider that Ulysses has identified. The weapon is changed to a containment grenade, which materializes in Monark’s hand, replacing the gun.
With the necrotic spider injured, Paradox falls to the ground, ‘Clear target’ Monark tells Ulysses as he uses his sword to block any of the spikes that try to reach him or Paradox. Ulysses flies over to Wolverine and announces that this area is subject to imminent containment by a Technos Group D/R569 technocratic-hazard containment grenade and all matter within the containment area will be neutralized. Ulysses adds that this announcement constitutes fair warning and releases the Technos Group from any and all liability resulting from loss of life or property within the containment area. Wolverine looks confused, to which Paradox shouts ‘Little man!’, and Monark tells him that it means he should jump, as he throws the grenade at the necrotic spider, Wolverine leaps from it. A small silver bubble appears, and expands, covering the necrotic spider as Logan lands a safe distance from it.
The necrotic spider and its spikes and tendrils have all been frozen by the containment grenade, Monark tends to Paradox. ‘We contained the stem servers. It’s replicating the containment protocol to all infected materials’ Monark explains. ‘Yes, but -’ Paradox begins, asking if it won’t transmit to a new infection. ‘I mean, will it? I’d love to be wrong on this, any daylight would be welcome’. Paradox’s body starts to change, techno-organic material appearing on his body. ‘No, it won’t’ Monark assures him. ‘Quadruple damn me’ Paradox exclaims. ‘I can…’ Monark begins. They look into each other’s eyes and Paradox asks ‘You can what? Touch me and get infected and have it spread through your whole nanological system in less than a picosecond?’ Monark tells him that he can’t, but he can make his blade near infinitely thin and cut away the infected areas. ‘Monark, all due thanks, but #### you’ Paradox replies.
‘He gonna die or what?’ Logan asks. ‘Little man, you’re alive. I’d say that made it all worthwhile, but I’d be lying horribly’ Paradox declares. ‘How long’s he got? I know people’ Wolverine announces. Monark reports that the infection will replace his nervous system in less than a minute, and then he will become infectious himself. ‘Get away from me’ Paradox suggests. ‘I can kill you if you want. Fast’ Wolverine offers. ‘I sad get away’ Paradox repeats. Smoke rises from his body, and he announces that he is about to become very hot. Monark and Wolverine step back, as flames rise around Paradox, who adds ‘As if I’m not always very hot’, and then, he stands up, his body healed. Naked, the smoke and flames subside, the techno-organic virus is nowhere to be seen and the spikes are gone. ‘What a relief, I wasn’t at all sure that would work’ Paradox announces.
‘What did you -?’ Monark asks his partner. Paradox explains that he turned himself into a Mercurian, that his core body temperature over seven-hundred degrees Fahrenheit and burned the infection out. ‘There’s people on Mercury?’ wolverine asks, surprised. ‘Not in this monkey-verse, but where I’m from, we’ve colonized all the planets’ Paradox announces. Monark tells Paradox not to brag, and boasts that in his universe they have colonized a good chunk of the galaxy. ‘Crap. You’re from space’ Logan mutters. ‘Well, we’re all from “space” when you get right down to it’ Paradox remarks. ‘We’re from alternate universes’ Monark announces. ‘We’re from Space-Time’ Paradox adds, as he turns and starts to walk down the street, still naked. ‘Crap. You’re spacemen’ Logan sighs. Paradox explains that, strictly speaking, neither of them are men. ’I’m a genegineered paranormal’ Paradox reveals.  Monark explains that he is a Technos Group nanotool with free will, and that they are here to find a criminal dealing in illegal technocratic materials.
Monark turns and follows Paradox as they pass the frozen necrotic spider, and Ulysses hovers overhead. ‘Although I’m more interested in finding a new outfit just now’ Paradox announces. Monark informs him that Ulysses is tracing the T-N signature, and they will have to go north. ‘Perhaps we’ll find a little boutique as we go’ Paradox hopes. Monark announces that they will have to return to the ship so he can replenish the nanites he lost making that grenade. Paradox sighs and supposes that his tired old wardrobe will have to do. Wolverine follows them, and mutters ‘#### spacemen’.


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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Untitled
Wolverine wanders around the space ship whilst Paradox sleeps and Monark Starstalker meditates. Ulysses, the golden robot owl flies around, providing Logan with details of what they are doing there in outer space.
The lengthy explanation is that their organization, VEGS (Venture Executives for Galactic Security), acts in a non-governmental capacity in an environment that encourages risk and imagination and which needs growth and development, to cultivate secure territories in which business and capital may flourish. Logan listens but all he can think about is how much space sucks and how bad Paradox’s clothing collection is. Ulysses continues to say that VEGS has, amongst other things, averted terrorist actions and alternate dimension incursions. This has opened up market access to over a trillion customers.
VEGS, it adds, is looking to branch out into this corner of the cosmos, laying the groundwork for future investment. Logan soon has enough of its explanations and asks for details about the current mission. Ulysses replies that it can’t do that, as the information is private, so Logan asks instead for the skinny on his two new companions. As he prepares to press a switch on the control panel, Monark appears and asks him not to touch it. Logan presses it anyway, figuring he could survive the consequences. He asks what it does, but Monark admits he hasn’t a clue. As far as he knows, it generates a black hole in the nearest gravity well. Logan looks out the window and nothing happens, which he figured. He asks Monark what happens if he touches him.
He replies by asking what he means by “him.” Does he mean him in the solid format before him or as a disbursed nano-cloud? He’d need to pierce his shields and armor to find out if there’s anything solid behind it. By then, he adds, Ulysses would be all over Wolverine with his weapons systems, which are geared towards battlefield conditions. Finally, if Logan really hurt him, he’d have to worry about his nanites cohesing into a self-destruct device in order to protect their proprietary technology. But, as with the ship, he doesn’t really have a clue because he’s new to being a nano-tool. The owner’s manual is a foot thick, virtually. “Similar to your skull in that respect,” adds Paradox who is now out of bed.
Paradox says that all he can tell Logan is that he is from the Terrain calendar 2181 A.D. He asks Logan what year it is. Logan tells him it’s 2011. Paradox informs Monark that he is from an alternate 2181 with the approximate technological accomplishment of 2030. Monark corrects him, explaining that he’s from a parallel alternate space-time stream where it’s only 2022, and his body is still more advanced than Paradox’s crappy gun. Paradox asks Wolverine to decide whose body is more technically advanced. Wolverine tells them that they’re both pretty so they should stop fighting. He wishes to know what kind of job their bosses have them doing on planet Earth.
Monark tells him it’s client-privileged information. Paradox adds that they are bounty hunters looking for a crazy guy with some controlled weapons-grade material. Monark can’t believe he just told him that but cannot stop him opening his mouth. Paradox continues to explain that they’re after a technecrotic virus which, according to their brief, is a variation on Technarcy DNA, akin to the Phalanx mutation but not really alive. Logan is all too familiar with Technarcy and the Phalanx. “Not really alive?” he asks. Paradox reckons it’s like an undead mutation. “Zombie techno-organic material?” asks Logan. Monark interjects and asks Ulysses to give them the low-down.
The robot informs them that while the Technarcy are self-replicating techno-organic life forms and the Phalanx a mutation thereof, technecrotic material is a techno-organic virus that infects organic and non-organic hosts, imbuing them with a semblance of “life.” Paradox says he likes to call them zombies, as they’re mindless killing things with no heartbeats. Wolverine asks what happened to Driver Reese. Where did she catch the infection? Monark thinks that’s a good question and essentially the reason they brought Logan with them. That, adds Paradox, and the fact the he seems adept at killing big things and is also immune to the technecrotic zombie stuff. “Virus” Monark reminds him. “Whatever,” replies Paradox.
Logan thinks he has a pretty good idea how she got infected. He tussled recently with a guy who called himself Contagion. He collected stuff like that and she spent some time around his place. They ask if he can be specific about the location but Logan tells them it doesn’t matter. Contagion’s no longer a concern. However, he had some nasty employees and he has a feeling one of them may have grabbed this technecrotic stuff. Paradox asks if he cares to share. They could pay a small finder’s fee. Logan replies that he can take his money and shove it. He won’t say any more until he knows more about who they’re working for.
They inform him that they came through the Fault. They’re space-time refugees, or St’rugees. Logan asks what the Fault is. Ulysses explains that it’s a hole in the fabric of space-time that lies along the border between the Shi’Ar and Kree empires, seven parsecs at its widest point. It was created by the detonation of the T-Bomb. It appears to serve as a portal for life forms and objects to pass from alternate physical-temporal dimensions.
Monark spills the beans on how he got there. He hitched a ride through on a lost Nova Corps vessel. He didn’t realize where or when he was going and it’s too late now. He can’t go back. The good news is that in this space-time, he is self-aware and self-determining. He’s almost the man he thought he was. Monark Starstalker… swashbuckling bounty hunter. Turns out, though, he is a Technos Group shill. Every bounty he ever collected back there and every job was to extend Technos’ interests. He didn’t know the word Nanotool until he found out he was one.
Paradox then explains that he is a spy. Technically, he’s there to spy on this Monkey-verse and gather what intelligence he can. He feels that the Interplanetary Security Agency views him as a loose cannon and flushed him through the Fault in the hope that he’d never return. He reckons it’s their loss as he was by far their best agent and all he ever got out of it was a kinky paranormal body that slows his inevitable demise from radiation poisoning.
Between them, they explain how they met at a St’rugee bar in Shi’Ar space. Paradox was in a seductive female form and Monark inevitably kissed her before Paradox revealed himself to his new friend. Monark realized he didn’t mind this situation and even took advantage of the shape-shifting possibilities Paradox offered. They eventually formed a partnership which, mostly, has worked. Logan asks where VEGS comes in. Monark explains that they were offered a job which suited a couple of St’rugees.
Monark heads to the computers to see if he can find the Terra Grid again. Logan asks Paradox if Monark can’t run his own ship. He explains that the ship isn’t his, to which Monark adds that they needed a ship in order to book the job. Logan asks, in that case, whose is it? At that moment, Ulysses warns them of incoming hostiles. They turn to see another ship outside and four smaller craft coming from it heading their way. Paradox can’t believe that the ship’s owners found them so fast. Logan looks at the computers, figuring there must be a weapons system somewhere. Outside, General Kosrouschah orders them to surrender his vessel immediately. If it remains intact, he adds, he promises them no more than an eternity of pain. Paradox informs Logan that he’s a kinky piece of cybernetics and maybe just a little bit peeved that he misrepresented himself to him. “And you stole his ship,” replies Logan.
The general warns them that, if they force him to damage his ship, he will wrack their soul on the wheels of dismay. Paradox points out that the General actually gave him the ship as a wedding present. The fact he thought he was giving it to a woman who looked unhealthily similar to his mother is beside the point. Logan asks how tough these guys are. Monark replies, “Oh, very.” He looks at the four small craft heading towards them. He explains that the pinkish thing is a P’tah. Their whole race was exiled for meanness. The golden space suit thing is a Pheragot… hugely strong. The General is a sadist, in case Logan hadn’t gathered and the one with the claws is a Scatter. It barely has a mind and exists to kill and eat. He warns Logan not to let it scratch him.
The general tells them that their silence speaks their doom! As the P’tah approaches the window riding a space shark, Logan asks if there’s a vacuum suit around. Monark admits he hasn’t looked as he’s a robot. “You have to breathe?” asks Paradox. “Occasionally,” replies Logan. Paradox morphs into a more muscular being and asks Logan to hold his breath as the shark that the P’tah is riding crashes through the window into the ship. “#### spacemen,” sighs Logan.
Logan snikts his claws and jams them into the floor to prevent him from being sucked out into space, whilst Paradox blasts the P’tah with some kind of energy bolt, slicing him in two. Monark takes on the Pheragot, slicing him through the chest with his sword as Logan thrusts his other claws into the Scatter’s body. Ulysses makes itself useful by attacking the shark.
The battle rages on in an oxygen-free vacuum. Paradox does well but Monark Starstalker has to be helped out by Ulysses, who sinks its talons into the Pheragot’s skull. Unfortunately for Wolverine, the Scatter unleashes a horde of spidery creatures on him, which immediately begin to bite into his flesh. Paradox decapitates the Scatter, using one of the flying craft and then proceeds to stamp on the critters, calling them nasty, disgusting beasts. Ulysses erects an emergency force field and stabilizes the atmosphere as Monark blasts more of the creatures into oblivion.
Monark asks Logan and Paradox if any of them scratched him. Paradox replies that in the form he is in it would take an orbital laser to scratch him. Good, replies Monark, as all they have to do to lay eggs inside of you is scratch the skin. Logan looks down and with impending realization replies, “Eggs?” A second later, hundreds of the creatures begin to hatch from his body and begin to overrun him.