[User]
<image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image>
Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
The Pink Mink - part 1: Day of the Pink Psychos
In a stark room, surrounded by armed men in sealed environment-suits, the Pink Mink is protected by the very latest technology… and then some. Appearing to be a furry, bright, pink cloth, which writhes like a fish, the Pink Mink “swims” in a transparent sphere, which is filled with pink energies. The sphere is held mid-air by its base, keeping it from touching anything. Titanium bars. Sonic cannons. Cutting-edge bio-psychic barriers. A labyrinth of deadly steel, lethal ingenuity, high trained personnel with surprisingly little concern for their own physical well-being. But today… none of it is enough. A building noise alerts the Pink Mink’s guards but it is too late. With a gigantic sound, the sphere bursts and the Pink Mink is free.
A well-dressed man enters the remains of the room that once housed the Pink Mink. In the center of the room, standing atop the base that held aloft the Mink’s sphere, he sees a young woman, scanning the remains with a small hand-held device. Addressing her, the man asks if there’s some kinda’ problem. Turning to face the man, the woman scowls from behind her glasses. Addressing the man as Mister Wolverine, she tells him that it’s more than just a problem. They’ve had a break-in of uncanny proportions. And, she continues, she’d like to state that she’d rather this case were handled by someone more… someone more regular. Taking the woman’s meaning, Wolverine completes her thought… someone who ain’t a lousy mutant?
The woman lowers herself from the base to the room’s floor. As she does so, she clarifies… Many of them wanted to destroy that horrid pink, mutant monstrosity… but, no, that wasn’t politically correct, was it? No, Wolverine replies. It wasn’t. Bearing his eyes down at the woman, Wolverine changes the subject and suggests that she start talking about the Pink Mink, as in… what the hell is it? A little taken aback, the woman pauses. After a moment, her frown turns into a smile and she lets out an innocent ’kay as she leads Wolverine away.
Leading Wolverine into another room, the woman draws his attention to a gigantic screen, upon which the Pink Mink’s image is displayed. Referring to the Mink, the woman tells Wolverine that scientists are unable to agree but it seems to be connected to the whole “Mutant X-gene” phenomena, engendered in an entire golden bough literature of legend and myth, culminating in stories of a beautiful pink lady. What they do know, she continues, is that it’s dangerous. People – particularly his kind of people – are affected by it; visions… manias.
Staring at the image of the Mink, Wolverine lets out a rare “wow” and admits that the “piece of fur” is startin’ to give him the jitters. A little incredulous, the woman tells Wolverine that she’s not sure he’s taking this entirely seriously. Still viewing the image, Wolverine informs her that she obviously doesn’t know him too well. When she begins to reply, Wolverine interrupts: he’s on her side, believe it or not. Drawing his attention back to her, he tells her to talk.
A new image appears on the screen; it is of a young, red-haired man in a straightjacket. His right eye is swollen and his mouth is open in a vacant expression. Pointing to the man, the woman informs Wolverine that they captured one of the culprits. Two died, the rest got away but they captured this one. Snarling at the man’s image, Wolverine proclaims that he wants to rap wid’ that pretty boy. Viewing the man’s image as well, the woman replies that they’ve tried. They’ve interrogated him and used the latest psychological techniques, to no avail. He’s in some kind of hypnotic trance. Obviously skilled in all manner of mind and body control… there’s no way he can get through to him. Leaning in close to the woman’s ear, Wolverine tells her that it is like he said: she obviously doesn’t know him too well.
Pink. the man declares. So very… utterly… unimpeachably… pink. He is the Collector and he knows what he likes. He like it to be authentic. Hanging on one wall of the large room is the Shroud of Turin, swapped for the medieval copy that the fools carbon-dated. He has the real Mona Lisa. The actual copy of Aristotle’s poetics, rather than the mass-produced lecture notes. In the middle of this room of trophies, the Collector gloats over his latest acquisition. Atop a base from which erupts a twenty-foot pink flame, the Pink Mink writhes in a twisted glass structure. Neither the structure nor the Pink Mink is consumed. Flanked by his bodyguards, the Collector now has what he really wants. Or deserves.
Thanks to the flash of lightening, which is followed by a crack of thunder, the Collector becomes aware of a dark figure with claws about to crash through his stained-glass window. As the figure crashes through, the Collector yells out for his guards. However, as they spring into action against the assailant, the Collector cannot help but admire the magnificence of Wolverine. So entranced by the visage, the Collector orders his men to not damage his surface, as he wants to stuff him and hang him next to Geronimo. Already at work slicing up the guards and their firearms, Wolverine tells the Collector that it’s the best offer he’s had all day. With this, he leaps into further action, taking down men and dodging bullets, some of which break open a glass frame, which holds the Constitution of the United States.
Almost defying gravity, Wolverine leaps from one position high above to another, dodging automatic weapon’s fire. In mid-air, he manages to slice in half a sarcophagus, which’s top half, now sliced from the bottom, slides off, to the ground below. Succumbing to the will of gravity, the sarcophagus falls of the base of the Pink Mink’s latest prison, turning it over and bringing the glass structure to the ground. Not designed for the impact, the structure shatters, depositing the Pink Mink onto the ground. In horror at what has happened and eyeing the pink mist, which rises from the Mink’s inert form, the Collector cries in dread and calls Wolverine and idiot. The Pink Mink, he tells Wolverine, must not be exposed to the air!
Unconcerned, Wolverine tells the man to quit blubbering. It is just a piece of old fur with a rinse. Wolverine’s declaration begins to ring hollow as he picks up the apparent stole. Does he feel it? As though it’s trying to pull away? To escape? And there’s that smell. That… pink smell. And that noise… Not so much heard but felt… Maybe it’s dust from the mink, laced with some narcotic. Maybe the lightening has triggered off the Collector’s feraliminal lycanthropizer, a sound device that stimulates animal and sexual instincts.
Drowning in sensations that he cannot explain, Wolverine releases the Mink, which floats out of his hands. Simultaneously, high above him, the image of a woman appears. She is naked, pink in color and smiling broadly. Her hair is composed of every shade of pink and fills the room and Wolverine’s senses, wrapping itself around him. The Pink Lady opens her arms out to Wolverine, as she floats high above him, and is silhouetted by the rain in the might sky behind her.
Wolverine sits in the windowsill where the Pink Mink had escaped hours before. Now sitting in the new day’s sunshine, he regards the woman from the Pink Mink’s earlier prison. When she suggests that he imagined the vision, Wolverine quickly retorts that he didn’t imagine nothin’. She was there, he says, right in front of him. She smiled at him. She… she took the Mink from him. Her hands on her hips in disbelief, the woman supposes aloud that she just disappeared with a stroke of lightening. That’s exactly what she did, Wolverine replies. Turning her back on Wolverine, the woman retorts that she was assured that, unlike many of his kind, he had a good, deductive mind. Clearly she was misled. He allowed the Collector to steal the Mink back from under his nose. As she walks out, the woman informs Wolverine that their own people will take over from there. He can forget about the Pink Mink.
But how can he forget out it? How can he forget about… her? How could he ever think about anything else again? Wolverine tries all of the usual tricks. Booze. Sleeping pills. Work. When nothing works, Wolverine wonders who can he turn to? Who does someone like Wolverine, the fearless hunter, whose genes repair and renew any damage his flesh and organs suffer… who does a man such as this turn to?
Speaking in a language few understand, Doop floats several feet from the floor and uses his stunted arms to pull the skin away from his eye sockets, causing his eyes to seem to bulge. Confused, the officer asks Guy Smith what did he… or it… say? “Day of the Pink Psychos.” Guy replies simply. Doop comes out with stuff like that all the time. Of course, Guy continues, Doop doesn’t mean psychos in the normal sense, short for psychopath. It’s short for psychosomatic. Pointing to the three nearby tanks encasing pink-skinned zombified people, the officer replies that it still doesn’t explain why some citizens, including one of his own officers, are turning pink and talking gibberish, Mister…. Smith, replies Guy, cross-armed. It’s because psychosomatics are mutants.
Disbelieving Guy, the officer replies that he’s known Officer Halloran for twenty years and is the godfather to his kid. If he were a mutant, he’d know about it. Replying simply, Guy states that he almost certainly didn’t even know about it himself. Jumping into the conversation, X-Statix’s employer, Spike Freeman, explains that psychosomatics carry an incredibly low-level mutant gene that usually only kicks in if something particularly big or weird goes down. They go about their lives being teachers or cops, moaning about their taxes and eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches… then one day… Kaboom! They’re a mutant. In a sense, Guy adds, Officer Halloran is a mutant barometer of the zeitgeist. Damn, the officer replies. He thought he was a Catholic.
An unearthly howl comes from the captive Officer Halloran as he writhes in pain. Seeing his friend in evident pain, the officer asks Guy to get some more sedatives in him before he hurts himself. Guy asks for them to wait… Halloran is trying to show them something. Seeing Halloran shake his right hand in agony, Guy tries to guess what he is trying to say. Where’s he trying to point them? Suddenly, from the above the knuckles of each hand three metallic-looking claws shoot out, each making a familiar snikt sound as they do so. While their visiting officer looks in horror, Guy Smith and Doop manage a knowing glance at each other.
(two weeks later)
At the door of a remote house, which overlooks a cliff, Wolverine asks Doop if he thinks this is where the Collector’s been hanging out. While the two are not sure, this location is the culmination of two weeks of tracking and hunting and tying together loose ends. Pointing to the doorknocker, Doop utters a word in his language. Understanding Doop’s speech, Wolverine replies that he is right; the doorknocker is an ancient Egyptian ankh. Maybe they are getting warm and maybe now he’ll find out if he was duped and the Collector did take the Mink from him. Or maybe the legends of the beautiful Pink Lady are true. She really is summoned from some other dimension when the Mink is exposed to the air. With this, Wolverine and Doop break down the door and walk into the darkness within. Thinking back to the possibilities, Wolverine also adds that maybe old Wolverine has finally gone funny in the head. To this possibility, Doop glances at his old friend from the corner of his eye. It is a look that Wolverine returns.
The two mutants enter a room in chaos. The room is littered with dead bodies, the furniture is torn apart and pink paint has been poured over everything. Taking it all in, Wolverine tells Doop that he’s getting kinda sick of this color. Doop speaks something in his language, followed by a statement of affirmation by Wolverine. Investigating a corpse closer, Wolverine announces that it looks like they were poisoned or they poisoned themselves. Then, they were splattered with cheap pink paint. Kinda comforting, he muses, to know that he ain’t the only one getting a little cranky.
Noticing a rope tied to the ceiling and disappearing behind a paneled curtain, Doop investigates and discovers a hanging man, his head covered with a paint bucket. Wolverine agrees with Doop’s pronouncement… the Collector is now extinct. He should be preserved and displayed in a museum. Seeing Doop pick up and read a note that was attached to the corpse, Wolverine asks what it says. After Doop replies, again in his language, Wolverine is shocked: She’s real? The Note says… she’ real?
Later, sitting at their table in the bar, Wolverine looks through the glass of his mixed drink with misgivings. He asks Doop to tell him that he ain’t imagining it and that the drink is really… pink. Seeing Doop holding up another glass of the same drink and smiling, Wolverine asks in rhetorical disbelief that he really ordered him and cocktail called a Pink Lady. For an amorphous green blob of dubious sexual and moral proclivity, Wolverine states to Doop, he’s got quite a sense of humor.
No longer concerned by his cocktail and enjoying the backrub being given to him by a scantily clad brunette, Wolverine returns to the issue at hand. The Collector… what does it prove? That he went nuts? Maybe another collector stole the Mink from him and left that note to send them on a wild goose chase. Or maybe… Wolverine catches something out of the corner of his eye. Moving abruptly, he slams his drink down sloshing it and startling the young woman behind him. Over a crowd of people, from across the bar, Wolverine sees to smoky tendrils that resemble the hair of the Pink Lady.
As Doop exclaims something incomprehensible, Wolverine launches himself over the table and begins forcibly making his way through the crowd of people between he and the Pink Lady. All the while, he yells out her name. Did he imagine her? Was she a chimera wrought of the smoke, the pulsing light and the alcohol in his bloodstream? One would think he’d feel stupid or embarrassed calling out that name but Wolverine’s expression does not show it. As he continues to follow the gaseous trail of his quarry, Wolverine does not look the kind of man who gives a damn what these bruised and boozed denizens of the night think of him.
Finally making his way into the alley, Wolverine yells out into the night air the name of who he is tracking but cannot find: Pink Lady! A soft and pink voice addresses Wolverine as soldier and tells him to keep his voice down. Does he want to wake the whole neighborhood? Appearing before Wolverine is the Pink Lady from the Collector’s house. No longer naked, she is clothed only in a fur coat, which seems to be made from the Pink Mink. Then again, she says, smiling broadly as she runs her hands through her ephemeral hair, ain’t too much sleeping going on in this town. Dumbstruck by her presence, Wolverine stammers the obvious… she’s real. Replying wryly, she tells Wolverine that she’s been called worse. She invites him to touch her if he doesn’t believe his eyes. Seeing Wolverine subdued and stupefied by her beauty, she entices him to go on… she doesn’t bite. At least, not on the first date.
Wolverine begins to rub his hand across the Pink Lady’s dark-pink skin. Still entranced, he nevertheless manages to inform her in a stammer that he has to take that Pink Mink. Replying with a grin that she knows, she replies in kind that he knows she ain’t gonna just hand it over to him. His eyes drooping from his altered mental state, Wolverine replies that he… knows… Some distance away, Doop emerges from the bar and into the alley. Looking toward the street, he sees an amorphous pink cloud hovering on the other side of a lamppost, upon which rests a sign that Wolverine is lovingly caressing.
It’s really gotten that bad, asks Guy Smith, as he looks at Doop’s image on the X-Statix monitor board. After Doop replies in his language, Spike Freeman swears. Who would have thought? The great Wolverine carrying the Code-X: the regressive gene that can render some mutants dangerously unstable. On the small monitor that is emerging from his torso and the infinite space contained therein, Doop hears the suggestion from Guy that, maybe, there’s another explanation. They have to be positive before they take any action. Drooping his head, Spike replies that Guy is right and suggest to Doop that he push a little, turn up the heat and see if he sweats. And then, if in his analysis, Wolverine is indeed suffering from the early symptoms of Code-X… there’s only one thing for it: Wolverine must die! The transmission finished, Doop takes the small monitor/transmitter and places it back into his torso, closing it once again. Ready to exit the bathroom and return to the bar, Doop takes a moment to wipe a tear from his face.
Some time and many drinks later, the Pink continues to swirl in Wolverine’s eye, as much as his mind. He saw her again, he tells Doop. Then, she was gone again. Telling his friend that he thinks she’s trying to get inside his head, Wolverine wonders: just what is it he’s after? He’s supposed to be tryin’ top keep his reputation in order by recovering the Pink Mink, which everyone thinks he let slip from his fingers. But maybe… maybe he doesn’t care about the Mink. Maybe he doesn’t care about his reputation. Maybe all he’s interested in is her.
Rising to his feet, Wolverine attempts relatively unsuccessfully to balance himself. After a few words from Doop, Wolverine replies that, nah, it’s his round. And this time… he continues, no pink cocktails. As Wolverine stumbles toward the bar, Doop rears a soft, pink voice telling him that, though his friend is cute, he should let his hair down… and keep those sharp claws in. Turning to the speaker, Doop sees the Pink Lady, clad only in the coat made of the Pink Mink, lounging seductively atop the pool table. Her legs are crossed in a provocative manner and the coat barely covers her bosom, which displays ample cleavage. As ever, the Pink Lady’s hair wasps like living smoke and encircles Doop, who grins uncontrollably and dumbstruck.
As he repeats the same thing in glee, the Pink Lady tells Doop that she could say the same thing about him. Let’s face it, she tells him, neither of them is gonna make president. His eyes wide, Doop reaches out inquisitively and asks the Pink Lady something. She replies that, no, he cannot touch her there. And, she continues with a smile, it’s very naughty of him to even ask. Over at the bar, Wolverine finishes paying for his drinks. Looking back at Doop’s location, he sees his friend floating next to a mop, drooling in affection and longingly brushing his hand across the mop’s head.
In the bathroom, Wolverine is in telepathic conference with Professor X. So, the Professor realizes, it’s finally come to this. Wolverine tells the Professor that he did it like he said. He played it like he was losin’ it… kept on an’ on about this Pink Lady junk. He even pretended he was talkin’ to her… and he bought right into it. The poor, beautiful, green blob’s out there talking to the freakin’ mop. He’s gone, Professor.
He’d hoped it had merely been propaganda, the Professor counters. As he knows, he tells Wolverine, Doop has many enemies, especially among their own people. But, Xavier continues, he wants to make sure that he is suffering from Code-X. Wolverine must squeeze him a little more and then, if he cracks, there is no other choice. Wolverine knows what must be done. With this, the telepathic connection ends. Ready to exit the bathroom and return to the bar, Wolverine takes a moment to wipe a tear from his face.
Wolverine reenters the bar to find it in the middle of a brawl. Pink-skinned patrons, including a gun-firing policeman, attempt to tackle Doop, who yells aloud in his language. Responding to Doop’s announcement, Wolverine joins the fight and agrees: they are all pink psychos… but where the hell did they come from? To this, Doop grits his teeth and spits an answer.
The fight concluded and the two of them the only ones standing/floating, Wolverine suggests that they go somewhere a little more salubrious for a nightcap. They’ve got a long day ahead of them. Dusting his hands satisfactorily, Doop replies in his speech with a smile. Ya know, Wolverine says, as they make their way down the street, he’s got a feeling this case is goin’ ta get a lot more… complicated before it’s over. Doop replies with a wry smile, which is followed by Wolverine’s promise to watch his back. As the two make their way down the street, arm in arm, each holds a weapon behind their back with their free hand. Wolverine bares one set of claws and Doop holds a broken bottle. Each is ready, if necessary, to make their move.


[User]
<image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image>
Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
The Pink Mink - part 2: Cherchez La Femme
The next, the man announces, is Loch Ness, Scotland, back in the early sixties. He’d been on the trail of the monster for months. Traveling through the lake with his sub, he used radar scanning, depth charges and his own personal hunting techniques which, he admits, he isn’t predisposed to share… He followed the shapes and sounds deeper into that deep cold stretch of Godless water. Suddenly, there it was: the latest of a long line of prehistoric anachronisms, a pregnant cow monster about to give birth to another generation of „little Nessies„ to keep scientists arguing and the local economy booming for years to come. He had to be careful not to damage its head. It was the head he was after, see. The scavengers at the bottom of the loch could feed on the rest of her. It was, at this moment, that the torpedoes had been launched and raced toward the peacefully gliding form of the Loch Ness Monster.
Gesturing to that same monster’s head, now stuffed and mounted upright so that it seems to be rising out of the castle’s floor, the hunter laughs that people wondered why later expeditions to find the Loch Ness Monster didn’t find squat! Admiring the trophy, which stands among the countless dozens of other stuffed and mounted creatures filling the massive stone room, the young lady from the Pink Mink’s former prison tells Hunter Joe that she has seen quite enough. He is clearly the man they need to bring them back the Pink Mink. Still interested in showing more, Hunter Joe motions to the head of a unicorn, mounted and hung on a wall and ask the woman if she wants to hear how be bagged it. He specialized in mythical and speculative quarry, he points out. Replying that she does know, the woman adds that that’s why they want to hire him. And no, she’d rather not hear how he… "bagged" the unicorn.
Drawn back to the subject of the Pink Mink, Joe longingly eyes a set of shackles and proclaims that he’s been itching to get his manacles and dead traps onto that blushing filly who wears the pink mink for some time. Taken aback, the woman asks Joe incredulously if he means that he believes the legend of the Pink Lady, who appears when the Mink’s chemicals mixes with oxygen. Believe? Hunter Joe counters. He believes in every creature that’s ever dreamed about or feared or made up… mainly because he’s tracked down, killed and skinned most of them… right about where she’s standing now, he adds.
Stepping off of the grated drain through which blood of slaughtered animals must flow, the woman informs Joe that he can do what he’d like with the Pink Lady… whether she exists or not. All she wants is the Pink Mink. But, she adds, she must warn him. He might have to deal with those preposterous creatures known as Wolverine and Doop. Taking his fur beret and placing it upon his bald head, Hunter Joe smiles a toothy grin. His white teeth and fangs are matched in color with his forked beard but are in contrast with his sickly green skin color, around which flies buzz. Leave them to him, he tells the woman, who is still unnerved by the drain. Straightening his cap with his dark green serpentine-like tongue, Joe adds that he’s got plans for all of ‘em.
While Doop sleeps on an abandoned mattress, which lies in an alley, Wolverine has climbed a nearby fire escape to get a little privacy. Through his telepathic link with Professor Xavier, Wolverine attempts to get clarification for Xavier’s order: He wants him to create a fictional character? Yes, Xavier replies. He is to pretend that there is a character who has studied the Pink Mink all his life and can help him with his research. Understanding a little, Wolverine clarifies: like that guy in the Dracula movie. What was his name? Professor Van Helsing, Xavier states. Greeted by an affirmation, Xavier changes the name for their character: Professor Van Hosen. And then, Wolverine continues, if Doop starts believing in Van Hosen, they’ll know he’s got the Code-X crazies. That’s the plan, Xavier states coldly.
Changing the subject slightly, Wolverine asks Xavier if he can figure out something that’s always bugged him: in all of those Dracula movies… after Van Helsing tells the hero and heroine how to waste the vampires, how come he, like, waits a few minutes before sundown to find the coffin and shove the stake in? Why don’t the idiots get crackin’ straight after breakfast? Then they’d have all day to do the necessary. Pausing in consideration, Xavier replies that it’s a good question. Subsequently announcing that he has the answer, Xavier postulates that if they set off to kill Dracula after breakfast, they’d succeed too easily… and they’d run out of story.
Having descended from the sky, passing by the conversing Wolverine, a small pink dove lands upon the head of the newly awakened and stretching form of Doop. Amazed at the sight of his new friend, Doop places it on his finger and watches transfixed as it perches there. Sensing the approaching Wolverine, Doop speaks to him in his language. Wolverine agrees; it is a sign. Wolverine promptly recoils in slight disgust as Doop goes to work on the dove, causing feathers to fly in all directions. Unnerved slightly, Wolverine asks Doop if it is entirely necessary? There might be children and pregnant women watching!
Finally, Doop’s work bears fruit and, from within the pink dove, a matchbook as pink as the bird’s plumage emerges. The word "Blush" is written on its cover. Rhetorically asking Doop if it is a book of matches, Wolverine proclaims that this just gets weirder and weirder. Reading the cover, the X-Man announces that it comes from a nightclub called Blush from across town. After Wolverine suggests that they make it their next port of call, Doop speaks a few unintelligible words. Understanding Doop’s speech, Wolverine disagrees; if he doesn’t mind, he would feel slightly less ridiculous if he drove. After Doop lets the still very-much alive pink dove go, the two climb aboard their motorcycle and take off. From around a nearby corner, Hunter Joe snarls. Heads they lose, he mutters, heads he wins.
Watching Wolverine and Doop’s progress through a camera seeing through one of Doop’s fingers, Spike Freeman and Guy Smith of X-Statix take stock of the situation. Now, Spike tells Guy, if Logan finds the nightclub called Blush, they know for sure he’s suffering from incipient Code-X fever. Because no such nightclub exists? Guy asks. Well, duh, Spike counters. He made it up.
There’s this guy, Wolverine tells Doop as he races down the street on the bike. His name… he continues, stuttering, is Professor Van Hosen. He’s the all-time expert on the Pink Mink and all its many legends. Asked by Wolverine if he has heard of the guy, Doop, who is not so much riding the bike behind Wolverine as hanging on and floating like a balloon behind it, answers in his cryptic tongue. Understanding his words, Wolverine asks Doop to verify what he has just said: He’s actually met Professor Van Hosen? Steeling his eyes forward with the realization of the meaning of Doop’s claim, Wolverine manages to mutter a disingenuous "go figure."
Still watching from the X-Statix HQ, Spike asks Guy what is Wolverine talking about? Van Hosen? Wasn’t that some crappy eighties rock band? Almost in speculation, Guy guesses that Doop is humoring Wolverine, going along with whatever fantasy world his Code-X riddled mind is conjuring up. The green guy, Guy continues, is going to have to be careful. This is a very volatile situation. Speaking of volatile, Spike says, changing the subject, what’s the deal with these… what are they called… Pink Psychos? Guy responds that they are from all over the continent, from La Paz to Labrador. They’ve been leaving their jobs and families and quietly, resolutely congregating in, of all places, Toronto. When asked by Spike to remind him where Doop and Wolverine are, Guy answers with one word: Toronto. Thought so, Spike retorts.
As they race down the road at top speed, the front wheel to Wolverine and Doop’s motorcycle comes off of the axle, causing the pair to be launched forward. Acting swiftly, Doop manages to expand his body into a makeshift air cushion, upon which Wolverine lands safely. As Doop works to reabsorb his new mass into his normal volume, Wolverine investigates the motorcycle, learning that some "lowlife with a death wish" has tampered with the wheel-nuts. After an angry exclamation from Doop, Wolverine retorts that it will not be so if he gets his hands on him first.
Suddenly, almost as abruptly as the wreck with the motorcycle, Doop and Wolverine leap out of the way of a meat van, which appears out of nowhere, almost running them over. At the wheel of the truck is Hunter Joe, who laughs that he hasn’t had so much fun since he throttled that Siberian albino tiger in San Diego. As an afterthought, he also recalls how uncomfortable the cat’s pelt made for underpanting.
Some time later, Wolverine and Doop stand outside of Club Blush. Amazed at the club’s actual existence, Doop points at the sign with wide eyes and comments to Wolverine his amazement. ‘Course the nightclub’s real, Wolverine comments. It’s what it said on the matchbook, ain’t it? As the two approach the door, however, it opens of its own accord. Carrying a book, a small gray-haired, old man with large circular glasses greets them. Eying the man with suspicion, Doop speaks a few words. The old man, speaking with a thick German accent, informs the two mutants that he has been waiting for them and that they have not a moment to lose. The situation is growing exceedingly grave.
Taking in the situation, Wolverine realizes aloud that Professor Van Hosen… is real? As Doop’s expression conveys the „obviousness„ of Wolverine’s statement, Van Hosen continues. He is ze vorld’z leading expert in ze matter of ze Pink Mink und all zundry periphenomenology. Pointing to a picture in his book, Van Hosen states that "a vood carving from Bavaria, zirca zirteen hundred and zix" is the "earliest known refrenz to die Pink Mink."
Ignoring the professor, Wolverine eyes Doop with newfound suspicion. He’s real, Wolverine repeats. Doop responds curtly. And so is the nightclub, Wolverine then states. Again, Doop provides a curt reply. Which can only mean one thing… Wolverine continues. Without another word, Wolverine and Doop erupt into a fight, grabbing and punching each other with wanton disregard. Their brawl moves into the nightclub, where their clash knocks over a table of two young women. Shouting his accusation, Wolverine tells Doop that he must have made up the nightclub name to test him! Gritting his teeth, Doop spits out a similar accusation. Understanding all too well, Wolverine realizes that Doop thought that he was Code-X. Calling him a sneaky little… Wolverine hauls back his right arm and punches Doop with all of his strength, causing both of Doop’s eyes to pop out of their sockets like in a cartoon.
Both exhausted from the brawl, Wolverine and Doop attempt to recover. As Doop replaces his eyes inside their sockets, Wolverine informs Doop that he was testing him too. He and the Professor invented the fictional guy with the dumb name, "Professor Van Hosen." Following this logic to its end, Wolverine now realized what this means: they both flunked the sanity exam. They’re both under the illusion that the nightclub and the expert are real. Mostly recovered and helped "up" by Wolverine, Doop replies to Wolverine’s theory. In turn, Wolverine agrees. It looks that they’ve both got a touch of Code-X fever. Now asking his friend what he thinks, Wolverine suggests that they should eliminate each other before their conditions get too unstable. Finishing putting his right eye back in its socket, Doop replies to this idea, to which Wolverine counters that he didn’t think so.
Finally speaking again, Professor Van Hosen, now in the nightclub again, informs the two that neither of them is insane. He is real and so is the nightclub. Cut him and he will bleed. Telling the two of them to order a beer, Van Hosen informs them that it will be served in a dirty glass by a limping trans-sexual waitress. Illustrating Van Hosen’s words, a waitress, matching his description, serves him a glass of beer.
When confronted by Wolverine of the fact that they made him up, Van Hosen retorts that they thought they did. This, he says, is not untypical when dealing with the Pink Mink. It tends to engender an uncannily high degree of synchronicity and coincidence. Okay, Wolverine states, they are sane. And he is saying that the Pink Minks really exists? Yes, Van Hosen replies, having taken a draught from his dirty beer glass, but she may not exist in any shape or form for much longer. A wretched "uebermensch" known as Hunter Joe got there before they did and took the Pink Lady and the Pink Mink. Holding up a small scrap of pink fur, smaller in size than a rag, Van Hosen informs the two that only a little tuft of pink fur remains from the gallant struggle she put up. With resolute eyes examining the tuft of pink fur, Wolverine and Doop stare in silence.
In the institute that once kept the Pink Mink, the female technician types into her computer. Off in the distance a boom is heard. That boom is then repeated with a louder one and, finally, a third is heard and felt, as the wall to the room implodes. Standing (and hovering) in the newly formed hole is Wolverine and Doop. Behind them are the unconscious forms of the institute’s security staff. Trying to rise from the floor where she has just been knocked, the technician tells them that they win and to stop their rampaging. She’ll tell them where Hunter Joe’s hideout is. Of course, she’ll tell them where his hideout is, Wolverine thinks to himself. It’s exactly what Hunter Joe wants her to do.
Elsewhere, in his dungeon, Hunter Joe grins malevolently at his latest acquisition: the Pink Lady. Stripped naked, the Pink Lady wears a locked iron corset and hangs from one-piece manacle, in which her hands are bound. To prevent her from moving at all, her feet are likewise bound in a one-piece shackle. Holding up a spoon in illustration, Hunter Joe mockingly tell the Pink Lady that he is so delicious, so… skinable, plump and pretty pinkity that he wants to eat her with it.
Defiantly, the Pink Lady replies that she’s had worse propositions. It isn’t a proposition, he retorts. It isn’t an idle metaphor. He really will eat her with a spoon. Not her head, of course, he continues. And not until he has helped him add Wolverine and Doop to his trophy collection. Turning a wheel near the wall, Hunter Joe causes the chain upon which the Pink Lady is hanging to move nearer to the roaring furnace in the center of the room. Explaining his actions, Hunter Joe informs her that he likes his meat warmed through. Still defiant, the Pink Lady warns Joe that if he eats her he’ll poison himself. Undeterred, Joe replies that he has a strong constitution. Popping his claws, Wolverine tells Joe that he’d better have. Accompanied by a battle-ready Doop, Wolverine informs Hunter Joe that his hunting days are ov…
Wolverine’s words are cut short by the eruption of hooked cables, which crash from the dungeon’s floor. With alarming swiftness, the cables wrap themselves around Wolverine and Doop’s bodies, trapping them despite their best efforts. His arms crossed in confidence, Hunter Joe tells Wolverine and Doop that they sure took their time. He then asks them to let him show them a technique he developed while hunting the Mexican wolf-woman… and one he picked up at Club Med. With these words, the cables are charges with electricity, frying the captive Wolverine and Doop.
(later)
Back to back, Wolverine and Doop are bound together by a chain that wraps around them. His head lowered in shame, Wolverine tells his friend that, maybe, if they’d been more honest with each other, they wouldn’t find themselves in this predicament. A little remorseful himself, Doop replies with a similarly toned admission. Wolverine agrees. Grinning wryly, he asks Doop if he knows what he’d give anything for? One night with her, the pink chick. Just one night, then he’d be happy.
Appearing out of a doorway, Hunter Joe informs Wolverine that he’ll spend many nights right beside her… well, at least his head will. Wolverine and Doop look on at Hunter Joe, who appears upside down to them. Actually, it is they who are now hanging upside down, suspended from the ceiling by the same chain that binds them. In Joe’s hands, he holds a handheld circular saw, which he turns on. Wolverine braces for the sharp pain of the saw at his throat but the pain does not come. Instead, Joe is distracted by a loud crash. Turning toward the sound, Joe rhetorically asks what it is. To his surprise, as well as to both Wolverine and Doop, the dungeon is quickly filled with the naked and very pink bodies of the Pink Psychos.
Like characters drifting in a pointless plot line, the Pink Psychos, who are low-level mutants that act as a kind of zeitgeist barometer, have found a purpose at last and are suddenly motivated. Using that motivation, they attach Hunter Joe and overwhelm him with their numbers. Taking advantage of Hunter Joe’s predicament, Doop extends his tongue to the dungeon floor, where it wraps around the handle of Joe’s circular saw. Instructed by Wolverine to be careful, Doop turns on the saw and proceeds to cut through the chain that holds them. Once free, Wolverine and Doop make good their escape with the Pink Lady and the Pink Mink, while the Pink Psychos continues to tear apart the very helpless Hunter Joe.
At Club Blush, Professor Van Hosen tells Wolverine and Doop, in his thick accent, that it is not so surprising that the Pink Psychos saved them… though it is best not to ask how or why the pink ones did this. They dance to a different tune, he continues, "vun played by ze myzteriouz Pink Mink." Which he still has to take back, Wolverine tells the group. His reputation depends on it. Sitting between Wolverine and Professor Van Hosen at their circular table, the Pink Lady smiles coolly. Clad only in the Pink Mink, she lounges in her chair like it was an erotic action, eying her cognac glass, which is cradled in her hand. Her hair seems to float above her head like a stationary luminous pink cloud. Across the table and "sitting" between Van Hosen and Wolverine, Doop lays his "head" on his arms, which he has crossed on the table.
Knowing that Wolverine was speaking more to her more than the rest of the room, the Pink Lady changes the subject, asking Wolverine to remind her what he was saying about spending the night with her? As Wolverine begins to stutter uncharacteristically, the Pink Lady continues her offensive, moving in close to him and playing with his cheek with a lithe finger. Sexily, she asks him if he knows what happens when the Mink is locked away again and its magical chemicals are no longer mixing with the air? Answering her own question, she tells Wolverine that she slips back into mythical, semi-real status. He wouldn’t want that, would he? Where’s the fun in that? Echoing her thoughts and words, a few strands of the Pink Lady’s hair separates from her hair’s mass and contorts until it forms the outline of a heart.
Seeing Wolverine’s love-struck demeanor, Doop leans into his friend’s ear and speaks a few words. Not liking Doop’s apparent intentions, Wolverine tells him to back off and not even try to compete; he ain’t her type. Incensed by Wolverine’s tone, Doop exclaims another set of incomprehensible statements and launches into a brawl with Wolverine, who pops his claws in response. Shrugging her shoulders in a "whatever to do" tone, the Pink Lady innocently tells the two "boys" to not fight over her. She’d hate top come between best buddies. Still, the fight continues, knocking over the table. Now without a place to sit, the Pink Lady and Professor Van Hosen rise, dusting themselves off.
As the whomping, slicing, bludgeoning and dicing continue, the Pink Lady tells Van Hosen that, if the two can’t make up their minds, it looks like she will have to look for her entertainment elsewhere. Asked by the Pink Lady if he would like to join her, the professor smiles from behind his thick glasses and exclaims that he would be delighted. In fact, he has some very groundbreaking anthropological theories that he’d like to run past her… "over a game uv scvabble und a bottle of liebfraumilch." Sounds wild, the Pink Lady says as she accompanies the professor out of the bar.
The two are halted by the deliberate sound of a throat clearing. Looking back, the two see that Wolverine and Doop, both worse for the wear from the brawl, have ceased hostilities. Asked by the Pink Lady if they have settled their differences, Wolverine replies that they realized that they were fighting over nothing. It was just a simple misunderstanding. See, Wolverine continues, he thought that they both wanted to spend a night of passion with her. But, his pal Doop here, it ain’t her he’s got the hots for… it’s that pink thing ‘round her neck. Surprised by this revelation, the Pink Lady closes one eye, almost in consideration of whether she has been insulted or not. Meanwhile, Doop looks longingly at the Pink Mink she is wearing.
The next morning, Wolverine, clad only in a bathrobe, stands on the balcony outside his and the Pink Lady’s room, enjoying the sun’s first rays. Inside the room, the Pink Lady stirs from the bed as she watches Wolverine. She admires how he glows and how his side-whiskers seem a little more bristly today and how his claws snkk with a little more snap than they did eight hours ago. Rising from the bed she shared the night with Wolverine in, the Pink Lady takes the covers off of it, wrapping her naked body in a makeshift toga and proceeds to join Wolverine on the balcony.
Shortly, they are joined by Doop, who, like Wolverine, is dressed in a bathrobe and sports a satisfied grin. Seeing this, Wolverine tells Doop that it seems like the both had the night of their lives. Noticing that Doop is concealing something behind his back, Wolverine asks what it is. With a few words and wide grin and eyes, Doop reveals not one Pink Mink, but two. Asked by the Pink Lady what Doop said, Wolverine informs her that, while Doop didn’t go into detail (thank God), the Pink Mink asexually reproduced. Ech, the Pink Lady exclaims. Disgusting! Maybe, Wolverine states, but it means he can take the copy back and keep his reputation, and she can keep the original Pink Mink! All thanks to Doop! Asking God to bless him, the Pink Lady gives Doop a kiss.
(later)
Addressing him as "Mr. Wolverine," the technician tells him that they at the institute cannot thank him enough for returning the Pink Mink. Watching the second Mink swirl around inside the containment sphere, Wolverine suggests that next time they have a little faith and don’t go running to sadistic losers like Hunter Joe. Apologizing profusely, the technician tells Wolverine that he is right. Changing the subject abruptly with a stammer, the technician abruptly asks Wolverine if he would like to go out to dinner… a peace offering? Brushing her off equally as abruptly, Wolverine tells her maybe another time.
A little later, back at the X-Statix HQ, the team lounges around the pool. Half submerged in the swimming pool, Guy asks Doop if he is sure that Logan is free from any signs or symptoms of Code-X. At the pools edge, Doop lies on a beach towel, shades on his eyes and a cold mixed drink sitting on his stomach. Behind him, Dead Girl attempts to rub sunscreen lotion on his head, but is distracted by Vivisector trying to sneak a DOA tag on her toe. Answered by Doop in his cryptic language, Guy replies that that’s a relief. Noticing something a little different about his teammate, Guy informs Doop that he seems a little greener and asks what has he been up to? With a single eye, Doop glances over the rim of his sunglasses, eying Guy with a knowing stare.
A little later, in his den, Doop lounges in a recliner chair. On his television screen, which doubles as a communications monitor, he sees the image of Wolverine. Wolverine informs Doop that it is the same with him; he told Professor Xavier that he was clear of the Code-X stuff. Realizing something, Wolverine asks Doop if he knows if Hunter Joe’s body was ever found. Receiving a short reply from Doop, Wolverine shrugs it off; it’ll show. With this, Wolverine tells his buddy so long and cuts off the communication.
Although the monitor is off, Doop continues to look ahead, a wry grin on his face. The grin turns into a beaming smile as he reclines the chair more and looks at the wall high above him. Protruding from a mount is the inert and severed form of Hunter Joe’s head. His eyes are wide in horror and his jaw dropped in a fear filled expression. Raising his glass in salute, Doop offers a toast to the fallen enemy. Almost in answer, a swirl of pink wafts through the air, much to Doop’s surprise. After it is gone, however, Doop’s smile returns as well as his knowing expression.


[User]
<image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image>
Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Victims Part 1: In Harm’s Way
“I’m not a butcher. I’m not a kid. Nor yet, a foreign skipper. But I’m your own true loving friend. Yours truly… Jack the Ripper.”
Until he sent this mocking stanza to the newspapers, he didn’t even have a name. But, for three months in the autumn of 1888, the good people of London, England, feared for their wives and daughters. Jack the Ripper killed at least six women with an unidentified knife. Then, without warning or reason, in November of the same year, he stopped. He was never caught.
Over one hundred years later, the good people of London once again fear for their wives and daughters. An unidentified assailant has already killed four women. Despite a massive effort from Scotland Yard, tonight the number of victims will rise again.
England, London. Night time…
A lone woman runs scared through the city. Ending up in a dead end alley, she is faced against a wall. Turning her body around to look her killer in the eye, the woman freaks out when she sees a masked, clawed person.
In the streets nearby, several people hear the woman scream. As they follow the sound of the loud cry, the people find the woman dead in the alley. May God have mercy on her… may God have mercy on them all.
Nearby, unnoticed by any of these people, the murderer escapes by running over the rooftops.
Nighttime, half a world away…
Gambit has managed to open up someone’s safe, and sticks his hand through it so he can steal some jewelry. Unfortunately, the Cajun gets interrupted by a very familiar voice to him, wondering what that old saying is: “Once a thief, always a thief.” It’s Rogue, who can’t let Gambit get away with this. While charging up some cards, Gambit jokingly says that he doesn’t remember giving Rogue a choice.
Rogue quickly flies towards Remy, punching him in his stomach and causing him to drop the card. She pushes them both out of the window, with Gambit reminding her that they are forty stories up!
As they fall down, still fighting each other, Gambit knows that including Rogue in this was a mistake. Rogue thinks that’s because Gambit was probably afraid to get pinched in the act. Remy denies that. They fall on the floor, and Gambit ends the Danger Room simulation, which included Rogue.
Gambit gets up, and lights on a cigarette. He states that it has come down to this: he is spending time with a hologram of the woman he loves. He admits that he is trying to be understanding; that she needs some time alone, wherever she is. But, Gambit also realizes, everyone has their secrets, people they cared about before he and Rogue met each other. Remy thinks it’s time he checked up on one or two of them.
Later, at the New York to London plane flight…
Gambit could sure use a smoke right now, but he notices a sign that forbids smoking on the plane. A stewardess approaches Remy, asking if she can help him with something. Remy asks her if the “no-smoking sign” shouldn’t be off by now. The stewardess apologizes for the inconvenience, but this is a non-smoking flight. The whole way.
Remy lies to himself that he doesn’t care, because smoking is a filthy habit anyway and can quit anytime. He tries to build a house of cards to kill the time, but gets impatient every second that passes and he can’t smoke.
He starts to read some newspapers about the murders in London. They say that, over in the States, the media has been having a field day: a serial killer stalking ladies in the streets of London. They show horrific images of once-beautiful women sliced up. Remy knows those pictures help sell the papers. He sees a photo of the latest victim, woman number five. She was a female detective working undercover: Detective Alexandra Davies. She was so young. So much promise. All taken away.
Gambit gets tired a bit, and after a while falls asleep. A young girl next to him notices the awful pictures and gets scared, calling for her mother. The mother calls out to the stewardess, the call waking up Gambit. Gambit apologizes for doing this. After a long time, Gambit finally arrives in London airport and gets off the plane.
Later that night, at the local police station…
Remy has broken into the station by climbing through the window, and searches through some files about the murders. He discovers that five women have been murdered so far, but apparently there is no connection between them. But, the Cajun believes, in the killer’s mind, there has to be a link. He also reads that the murder weapon was curved and razor sharp. There have been traces of bone fragments been found in the entry wounds. “Bone?” Remy wonders.
A police officer enters his office and demands to know what Gambit is doing in there. Thinking the officer wouldn’t believe him if he told him, Remy throws a charged up card at the officer and, as it hits him, Gambit escapes back through the open window. He can’t help but think about the word “bone,” mocking that’s just his luck.
Nights turn into day…
Gambit “arranges” for transportation. Procuring a motorbike for himself, he drives sixty miles outside of London to a town called Chinchester. It eats Remy. Instead of names, the victims have been given file numbers: “File nr. 1, 2, 3…” It’s as if the victims didn’t have families. As if they weren’t remembered. But he knows otherwise.
Remy stops nearby a house, belonging to Alexandra’s parents. The grieving parents open the door, welcoming Gambit inside and ask for his name. After introducing himself, Gambit claims that he’s looking for some answers.
Some time later, while drinking some coffee, Gambit has already mentioned that he’s working on Alexandra’s case, and wants to know if she has said anything to her parents that might help him. Alexandra’s dad is surprised that London officers still don’t carry guns. He can’t imagine this day and age with the police still not carrying guns. He was so proud when Alexandra was made detective. Both he and his wife were, but she was always worried for their daughter’s safety.
The mother asks Gambit if he has children. Remy denies that, but admits that he knew Alexandra. The mother finds that funny, as she doesn’t recall her daughter ever mentioning him. She notices the Remy accent and asks if it’s French. Gambit corrects that it’s actually Cajun. The woman looks a bit intrigued at her husband. Gambit notices this and gets up, thinking he has taken enough of the parent’s time and drives away. As they watch Gambit leave, the mother thinks it’s best they call inspector Andrews about Remy.
Night comes again to the streets of London…
As he walks through the streets, Gambit realizes he hasn’t slept, or had a cigarette, since he arrived. He wonders why there’s always someone who thinks, “this can’t happen to me.” Seeing him, a woman becomes scared by Gambit and screams, thinking he’s the Ripper. Gambit tries to stop her, but then a flashlight shines on him: it’s a set-up!
It’s the police, who tell Gambit to put his hands in the air. Gambit does so and tries to explain that he came here to help. An angry officer doesn’t think they’ll be needing Gambit’s help. Hesitant, Gambit admits that he was a… friend of Alexandra’s and wasn’t even in this country when the murder happened. The officer doesn’t even let Remy finish his sentence and punches him in the face!
The officer recognizes Gambit, as he broke into his office earlier and also assaulted him so he could escape. He states that, anything Gambit has to say, he can say in jail. Gambit gets up and charges up some cards, telling the officer that he got a lucky punch but won’t get another one. He asks if perhaps now, they can talk. The officers get scared, as they weren’t prepared for a “mutant freak.”
Another loud scream is heard, somewhere nearby.
Gambit uses his bo-staff to help jump over the officers and head to an alley. There, a clawed person is about to kill another woman. The officers and Gambit order the killer to stop and to get out of the shadows, declaring that this ends here and now. The killer ignores the warning and starts slicing Gambit through his uniform and coat! Gambit notices how fast his opponent is. He moves just like…- The Cajun has had enough. He charges up some cards and tells the killer to step into the light so they can all have a look at him.
The “killer” does, and is revealed to be… Wolverine?! Wolverine wonders if Gambit, if that really is him, if he has gone without tobacco or something. Gambit, stunned to find his teammate here, recalls that Logan has been on the edge of late, living outdoors of the mansion and all, but reminds Logan that there is blood – blood on his claws!  Gambit demands that Logan explains the blood.
Logan claims he can’t do that. He doesn’t know about the blood, or even how he got to London in the first place. And, Logan adds, if Gambit is looking for him to say he has nothing to do with those dead women: he can’t!
The officers shout at both Gambit and Wolverine to hold it right there, and point their guns at the mutants. Gambit mocks that this is another fine mess Logan has gotten them into. Logan doesn’t even know who invited Gambit to this, explaining that the officers are C.I.D. anti-terrorist and loaded for bear.
Elsewhere, at an unknown headquarters…
A mysterious foe observes Wolverine and Gambit on his viewing screens, and sinisterly laughs.
- I’m not a butcher. I’m not a kid. Nor yet, a foreign skipper. But I’m your own true loving friend. Yours truly…


[User]
<image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image>
Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Victims Part 2: In Deep
London, where it has started to rain…
Police officers have both Wolverine and Gambit at their gunpoint. Gambit, holding charged up cards ready, tells Logan he’ll take the cops on the left, leaving the rest for Logan. That’s fine by him, Gambit replies.
Suddenly, they hear a car approaching. None of the officers know who the driver is. A brown-haired woman wearing black leather and holding a gun in hand tells the two X-Men that help has arrived. The woman drives between the two fighting parties, not giving the officers a clear shot at her. Gambit asks Wolverine if this is a friend of his, but he denies that, joking that he would remember her. The woman thinks she better puts it in another way, and orders the two mutants to GET IN THE BLOODY CAR!
The woman opens fire on the officers so Gambit and Wolverine can jump in her car. Gambit smirks that she sure knows how to use a gun, and Logan admits that she’s a piece of work. The woman jokes that she wishes the boys could move as fast as they blab. As the officers defend themselves and return fire, Logan gets in the car, but still isn’t sure about this. But, they need an out, and the woman is their ticket. As the woman gets in as well, the car suddenly becomes crowded. Logan jokes that she could have brought a bigger car. Gambit smiles that this looks cozy to him.
The woman claims that Gambit is every bit as charming as Fury said he’d be. Starting the car up, Logan tells the woman she’s got a lot of explaining to do if she works with Fury. The woman introduces herself as Martinique Jason and says she works for Interpol. Logan’s friend, Nick Fury, wanted her to pluck the two X-Men out of the C.I.D. mess and give the two a chance to breathe. Logan wonders how Fury could possibly know about this.
Suddenly, the back window of the car gets smashed in. Gambit realizes it’s more C.I.D. attacking, and tells Logan that those officers are very good. He almost regrets what he is about to do to them.
He puts his head out of the window, charges up some playing cards and throws them at the police cars following them. As the explosion causes the pursuing cars to flip over, Logan, sitting behind the wheel, wonders if this plan is to keep joy riding all night. Martinique, with a serious look in her eyes, orders Logan to turn right now. Logan quickly does, and they emerge into the heart of Piccadilly Square. Unfortunately, the C.I.D. are still on their trail. Gambit mocks that if it’s all the same to his two companions, he’ll get off on the next corner.
Logan threatens that the Cajun isn’t going anywhere. He tells Martinique to take over the wheel, as there comes a time when you’ve got to take the bull by the tail and face the situation! Wolverine pulls his head out of the window as well, snikts out his claws and shreds through one of the police cars. He realizes that won’t hold the cops for long, but at least it will buy them some time. The officers lose control over their car and slam into a bus. The other cops stop as well to help their comrades.
As they continue their drive over a bridge, Martinique reminds the boys that she doesn’t need to tell the boys they’re in pretty deep. It’s bad enough half the world is terrified of the Legacy Virus and Muir Island being quarantined. Now, Scotland Yard thinks it has a mutant serial killer loose. Martinique notices a lot of police cars up ahead, forming a roadblock! As she steps on the breaks, Gambit remarks that it looks like London has half of their force on them!
Logan also spots more C.I.D. coming in their back door. Wolverine tells Martinique to hold on to something. Gambit warns Logan not to do this, fearing they won’t make it. Logan smirks that, in that case, he hopes that the Cajun wasn’t planning on living forever. Logan takes back control over the wheel, and drives the car off the bridge, diving it into the river below!
The astonished officers step out of their cars, believing that nobody can survive a fall like that. Inspector Andrews doesn’t entirely agree. He thinks that, maybe, that is what the mutants want them to think. He wants every available boat from Harbor Patrol down there now. They’re going to dredge that river, until they find that car, or the bodies. Preferably both. Andrew sighs deeply, knowing that a very long night just got a world longer.
Later, at an unknown location…
Gambit calls out to Logan, who lights up a match. Remy asks him if he knows where they are but Logan replies that he doesn’t. Remy charges up a card, so they can get more light and hopefully they can find out where they are. As Gambit looks down, he finds Martinique… dead?! And Logan has his claws out!
Gambit angrily pushes Logan against a wall, demanding to know why he did it. He wonders if Logan is that much of an animal that there is nothing left of the man. Logan points one of his claws into the Cajun’s face, warning him not to push his luck. Logan checks Martinique’s body out, admitting he doesn’t know about the others. But this woman seems to be dead. Gambit asks Logan what he means by “seems.” Logan believes that something… or someone… is messing with his senses.
Remy asks Wolverine if he can trust his senses. Logan thinks he has to. Gambit charges up another playcard, admitting that all he knows is they’re not going to be sure of anything if they sit tight and wait. He throws the card at the wall behind them, and blows a hole in it! Remy asks Logan if he wants to go first. Logan can hear water twenty, thirty feet down. It smells like a sewer line. Remy says that Logan is sure about that, to which Logan asks Remy if he’s asking him that question, or just telling. Gambit jokes he’ll go first, and they both jump through the hole, into the unknowing.
They really fall into a sewer flow, and land in a fast current. Wolverine quickly gets up and, after coughing and catching his breath, he calls out to Gambit, asking if he’s okay. However, as he finds the Cajun, he’s unconscious and Logan panics a bit. Logan grabs Gambit’s coat, saying that this isn’t going to end in a sewer under London. He’s going to bring Remy out, if for no other reason than to prove he didn’t kill those women. Every muscle, every tendon stretches beyond its limit as Wolverine fights the raging current, gripping to what is tantamount to Gambit’s dead weight.
Logan pulls them up to a catwalk, and Gambit wakes up, having caught his breath. Logan jokes that at least one problem is solved now: the Cajun won’t be needing mouth-to-mouth. The two X-Men walk down the catwalk, and Gambit asks Logan if he knows where they’re heading. Logan jokes they’re just heading into some direction and, if Gambit needs more than that, he’s welcome to take the lead.
The two suddenly stop walking, as they both recognize the place they’re at now: they’re back from where they started! This doesn’t make a lick of sense! They also find a spot of blood, but the body of Martinique is… gone?! Logan believes if the body was ever really there. He thinks somebody has been running them around like rats in a maze.
A voice believes the boys are referring to her. It’s Martinique! Gambit is stunned. Martinique, holding a gun ready, admits that she doesn’t work for Interpol, but knows all about Wolverine’s victims, and she’s just out for a little justice. Wolverine angrily growls at Martinique, and uses her claws to slice right through her neck! Gambit tries to stop him, but is too late. As “Martinique” falls down, Remy notices all the robotic parts hanging out of her “body”. Remy wonders how long Logan knew this about her, but he doesn’t think it matters.
Elsewhere, at a mysterious headquarters…
The mysterious foe has observed everything on his monitors, including the second “death” of Martinique. He laughs that this is truly rich. He hears Wolverine telling Gambit that they’ve played this game long enough. The foe disagrees with that statement. He tells the real Martinique, who’s standing behind him, that she really has to come and enjoy the show! Wolverine has gone and killed her again. The foe has to say that Martinique’s daddy would have been proud of her right now.
Martinique steps out of the shadows, and walks over to… Arcade?! She agrees with what the villain just said about her daddy, as that’s why she took his name. Somebody had to carry on the twisted tradition of… Mastermind!


[User]
<image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image>
Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Victims Part 3: No Way Out
There are few things that excite Gambit as much. A breathless kiss from a young woman’s lips. How she rolls her nylons off so easily. The way perfume hangs in the air long after she has left. These things have their momentary attraction. But, the fine art of stealing fine art – that makes Gambit’s heart race. It is never about the crime. Anyone can do the crime. The trick – the thrill – is getting away with it.
Some people, they call it “déjà vu.” That inescapable feeling you’ve lived this moment previously. Long before Remy LeBeau became the X-Man known as Gambit, he was a thief. Young, charismatic and some would call him fool-hardly. What he can’t escape is the feeling that he has lived this moment before, and for the first time, he knows he’s about to get caught.
Years ago, somewhere in London…
Gambit uses his powers to charge up a small knife, so he can easily cut through a painting to steal a scroll hidden behind it. He opens a window and jumps through it, ignoring the fact they’re many stories up. Gambit safely lands on his feet on the streets below and feels content about himself.
Unfortunately, he gets snuck up by a female police officer, who orders Remy to put his hands where she can see them – now! The agent smiles that she got a tip about Gambit, and it seems he’s been cleaning lots of other people’s houses in this area when he hasn’t been asked to. Gambit wants to assure the officer that once she has heard his side of the story, she won’t be so quick to judge him by his actions.
The officer handcuffs Gambit and notices his accent, asking if he’s a Frenchman. Gambit corrects that he’s a Cajun. The officer tells the Cajun that he’s a long way from home and picked the wrong city to break the law in. And that’s all she needs to know. Gambit realizes the officer has no reason to believe him, but he claims he’s not responsible for the other thefts in this area. The officer explains to Gambit that, back at the station, she’s got a computer to run a check on him. And, if she finds so much as an unpaid ticket, he’ll be going to jail for a very long time. Gambit doesn’t like that.
He turns around and asks the officer for her name, to which the officer introduces herself as Alexandra Davis. Gambit finds that a lovely name. Alexandra isn’t impressed, and explains that the wagon will be here any minute. As he hears the police sirens coming closer, Gambit wants to say something about the painting he… acquired this evening. It was stolen from a Frenchman by the Nazis during the war. It has changed hands several times since then but, after tonight, it would have been returned to its rightful owner.
Alexandra corrects that Gambit has still broken the law. Gambit knows that. But, he cannot go to jail. Alexandra can believe him: he would never survive jail. He asks about the “tip” Alexandra got about him. Not letting her finish, Gambit asks if the tip Alexandra got came from a woman. Alexandra admits that, but… Not letting her finish, Gambit says he already assumed that. He has been “set up.” He’s only asking for a favor. He wants Alexandra to throw this little fish, and tomorrow night she will catch a much bigger one. Gambit knows that in Alexandra’s own eyes, she sees herself as a gambling woman. She has to take this chance on him.
Gambit disappears into the fog and, a few seconds later, quickly throws the handcuffs back at Alexandra, leaving her thinking.
The next morning, the police station…
Alexandra has stared at the phone half the morning. It only makes her feel more like a fool. Alexandra tells the phone to ring, wondering why she believed Gambit. She also wonders how he got out of those handcuffs. Detective Andrews approaches her with some coffee, asking her if it’s true. When Alexandra asks what he’s talking about, Andrews states that a painting was stolen last night, on the beat she was walking on. Alexandra is afraid so. Pouring her some coffee, Andrews tells her she’ll never make “detective” if she lets them slip through her fingers. Alexandra thanks Andrews for his insight, and walks back over to her desk.
While Alexandra was talking, Gambit snuck unseen through the open window and left her a note. It’s a playcard, on which stands “Pier 27, 5 A.M.”
Later that night, 5 A.M…
Standing on the docks, Andrews believes that this is a waste of time. He doesn’t know how Alexandra talked him into coming here with her in the middle of a cold, damp night. Alexandra jokes that it’s only ten past, and suggest Andrews gives it a little more time. She hears someone running toward them!
It’s Yukio! While running, Yukio is impressed by the nine successful heists she pulled. She can say good-bye to London now, and say hello to Tokyo. She almost regrets having to tip off the cops about LeBeau, but somebody had to take her fall. Unseen by anyone, Gambit throws a charged up card between Yukio’s feet, causing her to trip and fall down. She also drops her back of stolen jewels, which roll to the feet of Andrews. He has Alexandra arrest her.
Gambit recalls that there has never been a great deal of love between him and Yukio. She’s a thief as well, but less… particular about her victims. He also knows that this little “turn-about-is-fair” will do little to help that situation.
The following night, on a rooftop in the city…
Gambit, while smoking a cigarette, tells Alexandra they did well together. Alexandra confirms that, with Yukio’s arrest, Andrews put through the paperwork to make her “detective.” And Andrews might even make Inspector off this case. Gambit believes that this could work. He could work one side of the fence, while Alexandra works the other. It could be… beneficial for the both of them.
Alexandra doesn’t think so. She means, she can see how it would be beneficial for LeBeau, but she could never live with herself, no matter what he gave her in exchange. Gambit, moving closer to Alexandra’s body, smiles to her that people can change. Alexandra smiles back that she doesn’t think Gambit will change. She thinks he’s a dangerous man, and maybe that’s why she is attracted to him, even though it goes against her every rational instinct. But Gambit can make no mistake: he has no future here. They share a kiss before saying their final goodbyes.
Today…
Gambit recalls that this was one hundred proof swagger. Pure false bravado. The truth was that this woman had trusted him, and trust was something Remy hadn’t experienced in a long, long time. He needed that. He’d been on his own so much, been such a loner, that maybe he forgot how important it was. Alexandra reminded him of that, and because of that, he owes her. That is when this terrible illusion of the kiss fades away, and a horrible memory of Alexandra’s death haunts him now.
Gambit is left with only a promise he made to himself that he will find Alexandra’s true killer. He doesn’t understand how. But he’s been living… reliving… a memory from a time he first came to London. A young man with a crush on an honest police-woman. Years later, she was found dead. Brutally murdered in the line of duty, bringing Remy back to London. And all the evidence led to his teammate, the X-Man known as Wolverine!
Imagining he’s holding Alexandra’s skeleton, Gambit recognizes Wolverine’s shadow on the wall behind him. Getting furious at Logan, Gambit calls out to her, promising he’ll come for him. Remy starts to run, only to disappear into the shadows.
At his headquarters…
Arcade cheerfully laughs, having witnessed everything happening to Gambit. He compliments the “author” of this “story”: Martinique. She thanks him for the compliment. Arcade promises Mastermind that this is far, far superior to anything her daddy could come up with (God rest his soul). Martinique, going to stand behind Arcade, doesn’t think God has anything to do with this. She suggests they start with act two. Arcade can’t wait, and tells her to raise the curtains.
Arcade rigs a virtual reality headset that can psi-link with Mastermind’s illusions. In other words, what she sees is what he gets. And now, it’s time for another show.
Some time in Japan…
Wolverine has all the time in the world. He doesn’t know what he did to deserve this much happiness. But, when he’s holding his Mariko in his arms, it truly feels like he’s got all the time in the world. And yet, after spending the night making sweet love to Mariko, something is making him crazy. As they lay in bed together, Logan can’t sleep, as he’s trying to remember a name that’s on the tip of his tongue, but can’t pull it through.
As right as all this feels, being there in Japan, he can’t shake off the feeling that it isn’t right. He notices that Mariko is also still awake. Talking to her in Japanese, Logan claims that he has never been this happy his whole life. And he doesn’t want to jinx it, but he keeps wondering how long it can last. Mariko smiles and explains to Logan-san that ghosts of the past are merely that. They cannot harm them in all of the tomorrows. Mariko thinks the love she and her husband share will last forever. Logan doesn’t doubt about that for a second. Logan tells her to get a little sleep, as she feels like getting a little air. Sporting an evil grin on his face, Logan leaves, not hearing Mariko begging him not to go.
Wolverine recalls that ghosts are very important to the living here in Japan. It makes him kind of wonder if Mariko is trying to warn him of something. Logan is confident there’s an opponent for him out there. He’s keeping downwind, making it hard for Logan to pinpoint the guy. But Logan can tell his foe is out there in the dark. He smells… tobacco?
Going to stand nearby a tree outside, Logan calls out to his foe that he might as well can come out now. Suddenly, Logan gets hit by a charged-up bo-staff! Getting hit by it several times, Logan’s face is quickly covered in blood. Growing angrier, Logan admits that first blood is for his enemy. He hopes that was the guy’s best shot because he won’t get another one. He looks up, and recognizes his enemy… it’s Gambit!
Gambit states that this is about the blood. The blood of all the women he killed back in London. Remy claims that the ghosts of those women will haunt them forever if they don’t go back there. Logan refuses to go back. Whatever he may did or didn’t do, Logan shouts there’s no way he’s going back! And the Cajun isn’t half the man who can make him go back.
Taking Gambit’s staff away from him, Logan punches the Cajun in his face and tells him to leave before he does something they’ll both regret. He tells Gambit he shouldn’t have come here. Logan explains he found something there. A piece of what he thought was gone forever. Here, he can still be a man and not the animal he was becoming. He asks Gambit to go, now that he still can.
Arcade and Mastermind smile at this.
Gambit claims that he isn’t giving Logan a choice in this. Angrily growling at his teammate, Logan snikts out his claws, ready for another battle. Wolverine states to himself that he can’t say he never warned the Cajun. He has all the time in the world, and it is never going to be right again. Furious, Logan sticks his claws right through Gambit’s stomach! With his final breath, Gambit calls out to Logan.
Mastermind compliments Logan at this. Arcade grins, wondering who said theater is dead!


[User]
<image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image>
Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Victims Part 4: A Woman Scorned
Arcade fantasizes. It was just a game. Like shooting marbles. Shooting dice. Shooting your parents. You know. A game! Every game has a winner. And a loser. Fair is fair. But every time we played, he always won. And I had Locke to thank for it. My lovely Locke.
The villain has sent several Wolverine-robots after the real Logan. In a stormy night, the look-a-likes climb in the trees nearby Logan and fire a net at him! Trapping Logan inside it, they activate electro-shocks until Logan is sedated. Arcade laughs.
Reality…
Martinique wants to know what that was, but Arcade claims not to know what she’s talking about. She reminds Arcade that they were psi-linked, and she saw something in his head. She saw something… disturbing. Arcade jokes that “disturbing” in his head could be just about anything. Martinique doesn’t think so. She recalls that Arcade told her Wolverine killed Locke. That’s why she agreed to help him. Arcade claims that they don’t have any secrets. She can look at his beautiful face to see he’s telling the truth. That maniac Wolverine slashed him when he was trying to save Locke! His lovely, lovely Locke…
Elsewhere, in a dark cell…
Wolverine believes that something is wrong. Or maybe, just maybe, something’s right for a change. He notices Gambit lying unconscious next to him. Logan tries to wake the Cajun up, explaining that they aren’t in Japan and Remy isn’t dead. And if they want to get out of here, now is the time.
Gambit wakes up, having a bid of a headache. He had the weirdest dream. He caught up with Logan in Tokyo and… he went crazy. Logan angrily claims that wasn’t real. But, it wasn’t a dream. They’ve been played. Logan got pushed to a place he got under control. Gambit asks “what now?” Logan replies that he’s wound pretty tight. But their enemies made some mistakes. Like in “Japan,” Gambit was smoking and Logan noticed Gambit didn’t have a cigarette since he was in London. He notices the destroyed robotic body of Alexandra Davis lying next to them, and checks it out.
Wolverine asks Gambit if he can charge up something as big as the body. Gambit hesitates, because that’s the person Logan killed. Logan reminds the Cajun that they’re looking at a robot here, and nothing more. He repeats his question. Gambit can. He charges the body up and, after a huge explosion, a hole is created in their cell!
Logan grins this was a piece of cake. He walks through the hole and finds a long tunnel. He picked up a scent. It’s their “friend,” Martinique. Definitely. He also picked up someone else. Gambit wonders who it could be. Logan tells the Cajun to use his head. The games. The robots. Making him patsy. Gambit realizes who’s behind all this: Arcade. Gambit follows Logan into the tunnel, with neither of the two realizing they are being stalked by lots of Wolverine-robots.
Gambit suddenly hears something and, after quickly charging up a playing card, he throws it at the robots. He hits one of them, and corrects that they are dealing with androids, made out to look just like Wolverine. Remy wonders if he could have been wrong about Logan all along. If that’s so, he doesn’t like being taken for a fool. Not one bit. He charges up his staff, and destroys another android with it!
Wolverine eliminates the remaining androids, until they are all taken care off. He starts to growl and his eyes turn red of fury. He growls. Remy asks his teammates if he’s okay. Logan states that he isn’t.
Meanwhile, Martinique asks Arcade why she should trust him. Arcade jokes “trust, schmust.” They’ve got much bigger problems on their hands right now, with the system of their viewing monitors having gone off-line. When Martinique demands the truth, Arcade agrees to tell her, but later. The monitors go back on-line, but only to show Arcade that his prisoners are no longer in their cell. Martinique uses her powers to invade Arcade’s mind involuntarily, promising him he won’t find it very pleasant. Arcade shouts at Martinique to understand the situation: their prisoners have escaped!
Gambit and Wolverine show up behind the two. Gambit attacks Martinique with his playing cards but, as he throws them at her, it’s revealed Remy was merely attacking an illusion, which quickly fades away. Wolverine angrily grabs Arcade by his hair and angrily points his claws at him. Logan wants Arcade to give him one reason why he shouldn’t jam his claws through his sick little skull. Frightened, Arcade agrees to let Logan win. Logan’s eyes turn furiously red when he hears that. He growls, shouting at Arcade that he went inside his head, found things he thought he could never have again.
Remy holds Logan’s arm, telling him that’s enough. He admits that maybe he was doubting Logan killed those women. Maybe. But, the Cajun states, if Logan can show him the man is still in control of his body, he won’t have any doubts anymore at all. Logan snikts his claws back in. Gambit tries to say something, but Logan tells him to save it, as he didn’t do it for him.
Arcade tries to crawl into safety, mocking that “you win some, you lose some.”  “All is fair in love and war.” “Last one out is a rotten egg”. He bumps into an angrily Martinique, who tells the little man that he made a big mistake. Martinique admits that she has no love for these… X-Men. She shares her father’s disgust for them. She now realizes that her “partner” took advantage of that. He took advantage of her! Martinique uses her powers to psi-link herself with Wolverine, Arcade and Gambit. She tells Arcade to open up his most private thoughts. Wolverine didn’t kill those five women. Arcade captured Logan and framed him for those murders. When Gambit came to London, Arcade seized the opportunity to up the stakes. So, he included Martinique in his conspiracy. She wants to know why.
Arcade shows them. He explains. “It was just a game. And Locke… my…lovely…Locke… She understood it was a game. We played like this before, you know. But this time, I… we… she… went to far. My lovely Locke…”
Through Martinique’s psi-link, Wolverine and Gambit can see how Miss Locke first used a knife to destroy half of Arcade’s face, and Arcade himself later used another knife to kill Locke!
Martinique psychically explains that Arcade couldn’t admit he killed Locke. And so, he made up another game. Using Wolverine’s auto-matons, Arcade created a modern day “Jack the Ripper,” stalking the women of London. By leaving Locke’s body, in the streets, she was hidden from the victims.
As Wolverine holds Arcade captive, Gambit grabs Martinique’s arm, telling her she has to pay for her part in this. Martinique warns Gambit to take his hand away from her. He and the likes of him can’t judge her. Five women. Five women lost their lives needlessly. She can promise that Arcade will pay for that dearly. She creates an illusion that she fades away into thick fog. Gambit tries to stop her, but she ignores the call. Martinique concludes that, as for her, the blood on her hands will haunt her forever in ways men cannot imagine. Gambit tries to throw a charged-up card at Martinique, but it flies right through her illusion, as the real Martinique is already gone.
A few mere moments later, Gambit and Wolverine sit on a bench, surrounded by fog. Logan is stunned, and asks Gambit what just happened, but he isn’t sure. He looks up, and realizes that they are back in London! He wonders if both villains got away. Logan denies that, as Arcade is sitting next to him, but acts a little crazy, as he keeps saying “Good morning, Miss Locke. Fourth floor, please.” Gambit wonders what Martinique did to him. Logan recalls her saying something about making Arcade pay.
Out of nowhere, Inspector Andrews meets up with the two X-Men, understanding that the two want to speak with him. He is glad that this case is closed. It is the only thing about the entire matter that doesn’t turn his stomach.
Later, at the cemetery…
Detective Alexandra Davis was buried in the town she grew up in outside of London. Gambit and Wolverine visit her grave. Remy says hello to Alexandra, and introduces her to his friend Logan. He apologizes for the fact she never got to meet him. He jokes that, like her, Logan has a very strong belief in what’s right and wrong. That makes it hard to be with him for any kind of length of time. But he believes Logan and Alexandra would have gotten along just fine.
Logan whispers the word “victims.” When Gambit asks what he just said, Logan claims that he was just wondering if either of them will find a woman to settle down with. Gambit thinks that maybe people like them aren’t meant for that. He tells Logan that they aren’t like Arcade. They can’t hide from the things they’ve done. So they deal with it… like everything else. Logan agrees with that, thinking that after all that’s happened, maybe he… can’t be that person again… who could fall in love.
Gambit lights up a cigarette. Logan asks the Cajun if he’s going back to tobacco. “For now,” Remy states. Logan jokes it’s a nasty habit. Remy figures he’ll quit some day. He mentions that he’s… heading back to Xavier’s, and asks Logan if he’s coming with him. Logan guesses so. Remy wonders if Logan’s planning on living outside still. Logan confirms that, at least for now. He figures he’ll move back in someday.
The London psychiatrist institute. Ward 9…
Behind a door with the warning sign of “Danger! Room is to be kept locked at all times” sits a dangerous inmate captive. Arcade, sitting tied up, keeps insanely repeating “Good morning, Miss Locke. Fourth floor please. Fourth floor. Good morning, Miss Locke. Fourth floor please.”
In his mind, Arcade can only see himself, and lots of versions of Miss Locke, operating an elevator.
Everyone involved with the “Ripper” murders will have nightmares for a very long time. Especially Arcade, as he is the man who committed the murders.


[User]
<image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image><image>
Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Untitled
Years ago, ca. World War II, narrated by Hercules:
It was Paris, before the Vichy Regime, and even before the invasion of 1940. But still, these were tense times in the city of lights. The Nazis were looming right around the corner, capable of an attack any day. One such day, people are enjoying the beautiful weather as they relax at a café, when tremors suddenly occur, knocking their drinks over - before a large robotic foot comes crashing down upon them. The day of the Nazi was upon them, as a robot, bigger than the Eiffel Tower, controlled from on top by Nazi officer Baron Strucker, was sent by the Nazis to “soften” the city before their arrival. The robot unleashed some sort of electrical charge at the fleeing civilians.
Strucker smirks as the French army arrived on scene, but their bullets just ricocheted off of the robot, useless. Nothing could stop it. Strucker prepared to slam the robot’s arm down on the army below - they duck, too late to flee - but the army do not get squashed, as something intercepts - it was Hercules! The Scion of Olympus! The Prince of Power!
“Present” (actually some years ago):
Inside the Sign of the Lion Bar, in New York City, ‘Wait…back up a bit’ Wolverine a.k.a. Logan tells Hercules as they sit at their table, several empty beer glasses lay on the table. ‘Why were ya running around in green speedos again?’ Logan asks. Hercules sighs, before asking ‘Don’t you even listen when I talk?’ to which Wolverine replies ‘Most of the time, no’. ‘Oh please. You love my stories’ Hercules winks at Logan, who looks sideways and replies, so long as he does not have to hear the one about Hercules and Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution again. ‘Deal’ Hercules assures his friend, but suggesting that Logan retires his story about him and Rita Hayworth in the bathroom at the Brown Derby.
Hercules continues with his story, reminding Wolverine that he already explained that Zeus did not permit the Olympians to get involved in the war, as some things are too important for men not to sort out themselves, as Zeus put it. ‘But you ignored that, of course’ Wolverine remarks. ‘Of course. My involvement would just have to be of the more covert variety’ Hercules smiles, adding that, to that end, he was secretly instrumental in the forming of the Greek Underground, and it was in that capacity why he was in Paris, meeting a contact. ‘So then when Strucker and his robot attacked the city…’ Hercules begins, ‘Ya posed as the Sub-Mariner so ya old man wouldn’t catch on to ya. Hence the green underwear’ Logan concludes. ‘Hence the green underwear’ Hercules confirms. ‘Hmn’ Wolverine remarks. ‘What’ Hercules asks him. ‘Nothing. Just that…’ Logan begins, before launching into his own story.
Years ago, ca. World War II, narrated by Wolverine:
As it turns out Wolverine and Hercules sort of crossed paths before either of them thought they did. For as Strucker and his robot began devastating Paris, a Nazi officer watched with a smile on his face from the balcony of a nearby building - until someone crept up behind him and slashed his throat open with a knife. The Nazi fell to the balcony floor, as Logan wiped the blood off the knife. He had a Nazi emblem on his shirt as he posed as a Nazi supporter.
“Present” (actually some years ago) continued:
‘You don’t say…’ Hercules remarks after Logan finishes his story. ‘And here I was thanking Namor all these years for that distraction’ Wolverine reveals as he drinks more beer, while Hercules points out that, knowing Namor, he would have been more than willing to take the credit. ‘Pfft. You ain’t kidding’ Logan agrees, before Hercules motions to the bar around them and reminds Wolverine that this is the place where they first “officially” met, and where their glorious friendship began. ‘Yeah…though I wouldn’t say our “glorious friendship” got off to such a great start, if ya remember’ Logan remarks.
Hercules replies that he remembers, and recalls that it was over a woman. ‘Yeah, some red-head. Ya know me and red-heads’ Logan mutters, to which Hercules smiles and leans towards Wolverine ‘I’ll let you in on a little secret, old friend…me and that woman…the next night? You know what I’m saying…’ he reveals. ‘Good for you!’ Logan exclaims, before he lets Hercules in on a little secret: ‘Me and that woman…that night. You know what I’m saying’. ‘Liar!’ Hercules exclaims. ‘You wish’ Logan replies casually, before knocking back another beer, and remarking ‘Regardless, me and you - the Canadian Wildman and the Greek God - drinking buddies since then. Some pair we make, huh?’
Hercules slaps Wolverine on the back and points out that it is not all that surprising really. ‘After all, how can two men have so many things in common and not be friends?’ he asks. Looking towards two women sitting at a table nearby, Hercules remarks ‘Our love of the fairer sex, for instance’ and holds up his glass of beer, ‘Or of the occasional cocktail’ he points out, before clenching his fists and declaring ‘Not to mention our enjoyment of a bit of roughhousing from time to time’. Logan looks at Hercules and tells him that he forgets the most important thing they have in common - the fact that they are immortals. ‘Well, I’m immortal. The jury’s out on what you are’ Hercules replies. Logan hangs his head and reveals that he has been thinking about his mortality lately, or rather, his lack of it. ‘Is this why you called me for a drink?’ Hercules asks.
As an image of a gray-haired Wolverine standing over the grave stones of his friends flashes through Logan’s head, he replies ‘Sort of. It’s been weighing on my mind lately. My friends…the X-Men. I’m gonna have to bury all of ‘em, ain’t I?’ Somewhat surprised, Hercules stutters: ‘I…er, that is to say…’ before asking why they are talking about such things. ‘What is this all about?’ he ask Logan. Hanging his head, Wolverine reveals that this is all about the fact that on this day, several years ago, he once had to do that - bury someone he cared about a great deal.
‘And now, after tonight…I’m gonna bury her for good’ Wolverine declares, while remembering how he held the poisoned Mariko in his arms, and ending her pain by shoving his claws through her stomach. Wolverine informs Hercules that Matsu’o Tsurayaba took Mariko away from him, and because of it, he has taken Matsu’o - year by year - bit by bit - and Wolverine remembers instances of this, slicing off Matsu’o’s arm one year, and an ear another year - and shoving his claws through Matsu’o another year. ‘But after tonight…I want it all’ Logan declares.
At that moment, in his apartment, Matsu’o holds up a note that reads: It ends tonight – Logan. ‘Come, Logan. I welcome your arrival’ the warrior declares, before dropping the note to the floor as he stands up, announcing that he tires of the battles, and tires of the pain, but mostly he tires of the dreaded anticipation for Logan’s annual arrival. ‘Yes, tonight I welcome the end to all this…but I will not welcome it quietly’ he declares, taking a sword. A ninja approaches Matsu’o and announces that his agents have been dispatched. ‘They will fail’ Matsu’o replies. ‘My lord?’ the ninja asks, confused. Matsu’o replies that he commands but one division left in the Hand, it is what he has left, so it was what he threw at Wolverine. ‘But make not mistake about it, it will not be enough. Wolverine will becoming’ he declares.
Back at the bar, ‘Friends of yours?’ Hercules asks as he and Wolverine find themselves under attack by a contingent of ninja. Wolverine doesn’t respond, he just slices his way through the ninjas, while Hercules remarks that they do not present him with much of a problem, and declares that in the old days, before his invulnerability they might have. ‘I remember when I sacked Troy before the war, I was cornered by a legion of -’ Hercules begins, but Logan tells him to shut up. ‘Excuse me?’ Hercules replies as he takes a drink of beer. ‘Just shut up and fight!’ Logan exclaims as he continues to battle the ninja.
Elsewhere, a high-rise apartment towers over the city below, a man with a ring through his nose and carrying a wooden box approaches an door, where a large man stands in front of it. ‘Can I help you?’ the large man asks. The man with the ring in his nose explains that he is here to see Matsu’I, but the thug replies that Matsu’o is not seeing anybody right now - especially strange men with boxes. The man with the ring through his nose gets annoyed, and tells the thug not to worry about what is in his box. ‘Now are you letting me in or not?’ he demands. ‘Not’ the thug replies, pushing the man back. ‘Arrogant, mortal idiot!’ the man with the ring through is nose declares, taking the thugs arm, he breaks it with ease. Several other thugs race into the corridor: ‘Just before you get hurt, my friend’ one of them remarks, ‘Let’s not get into something we don’t have to’ another suggests. ‘No. LET’S!’ the man with the ring through his nose exclaims, as he snaps the lower part of the arm from the first thug.
Back at the bar, the ninjas lie defeated on the floor, while Hercules picks one of them up and orders him to talk. ‘Who sent you?’ Hercules demands. But Wolverine tells him not to bother, for one thing the ninjas are not going to be around long enough to cooperate. ‘Zounds!’ Hercules gasps as the men ninjas all vanish in a glow of green energy. ‘For another, I already know who sent ‘em. A dead man!’ Logan declares as he knocks back another drink and unsheathes his claws.
Back at the apartment, ‘My lord!’ the ninja exclaims as he approaches Matsu’o. ‘That commotion…it’s him, isn’t it?’ Matsu’o exclaims, before ordering the inja to send him in so they can get this over with. ‘My lord, you’re not understanding…it’s not Logan!’ the ninja exclaims - ‘It’s a minotaur!’ he declares, as standing over the bloodied bodies of the thugs, the man with the ring through his nose has indeed been transformed into a minotaur, with one horn sliced neatly off, he still carries the box. The minotaur approaches the ninja, and bonks him on the head, ‘Minotaur? How dare you mistake me for that basket case? I’ll have you know I am Achelous. God of the Rivers themselves!’ he declares.
‘Minotaur, River god, whatever you are, do not come any closer’ Matsu’o warns him, holding his sword up. Achelous returns to his human guise and tells Matsu’o to put the sword down. ‘I know you were prepared to die this night…but it won’t be by my hand. And if you listen to me, it won’t happen at all’ Achelous remarks, before Matsu’o realizes that he recognizes his “guest” from television. ‘I’m afraid that’s most likely the case. A reality show…’ Achelous begins, before launching into his story:
Illustrative images, narrated by Achelous:
Achelous explains that he and the great King Eurtheus of Mycae attempted to destroy their mutual enemy Hercules by having him perform his legendary twelve labours, only updated for the modern era. ‘The result was…disappointing, to say the least’.
“Present”:
Matsu’o declares that he does not have time for this. ‘You don’t know what I’m facing -’ he begins, but Achelous interrupts, ‘Oh, but of course I do’ he replies.
Illustrative images, narrated by Achelous:
Achelous remarks that Wolverine is a warrior of such renown that his name is whispered even in the halls of Olympus. “Surely he must be a lost child of the hated Gorgons” Acehlous reveals that the Olympians say. He declares that they know that is not the case, as Gorgons are the old mythology - the mythology of centaurs and oracles and cyclopses. ‘And Wolverine? He’s part of the mythology that’s replaced it. The “new” mythology of mutants and mad scientists and super-soldiers’.
“Present”:
Achelous places the box down on a table, and remarks that he can be called nostalgic, but feels that it is time for out with the new and in with the old. ‘What are you talking about’ Matsu’o asks. Achelous grabs the sword from Matsu’o and declares that he is talking about uncovering the grave sites of the ancient world’s most fearsome myths, where Matsu’o’s Hand organization can bring them back to life, putting them against Wolverine and Hercules. ‘You…would be avle to do such a thing?’ Matsu’o asks, intrigued. ‘No’ Achelous replies, as he slices the lock open on the box. Suddenly, a voice from within the box exclaims ‘Not him. ME!’ - Achelous and a surprised Matsu’o look into the box and see the severed head of Eurytheus!