Wrath of the HAND
Matsu'o Tsurayaba has the
Hand reanimate Omega Red, though it kills twenty-five of
their operatives. Matsu'o says that he financed Omega Red’s rebirth for one thing, the capture of Wolverine, who Omega
Red remembers from his past.
Meanwhile at the Xavier institute
Moira MacTaggert has nightmares, plagued with feeling guilty for having tried to condition Magneto’s behavior while
he was in her care on Muir Island. Moira wakes up screaming and Cyclops,
Banshee, and Professor Xavier come to her room to see what’s the matter. Banshee can’t talk from getting his jaw
broke so Xavier creates a mind-bridge between the three of them and Moira. Banshee tries to comfort her and talk her out of
leaving the mansion, although to no avail because later she calls a taxi and leaves, leaving Banshee behind. Outside, Gambit
and Jubilee are winning a non-mutant power game of basketball against Wolverine and Rogue. Wolverine’s team starts to
use their mutant powers so Gambit evens the odds using his power to charge the basketball up and throw it at Rogue who goes
crashing through one of the windows.
Later Gambit and Rogue are
leaving on a date when Beast, Jubilee, and Wolverine try to tag along following them. On their bike, Gambit tries to outrun
the other three X-Men and doesn’t notice a trap in the road.
The Hand and Omega Red capture
both him and Rogue, and they cause the jeep of the other three X-Men to explode. Surprisingly
they come out of the fire unharmed and start fighting the Hand, but Omega Red’s death spores take them out as well.
Shortly before fainting out, Wolverine remembers the smell from his past. The unconscious X-Men are loaded into an ambulance,
making it look like a typical car accident to any passers by.
Beast wakes up in an ambulance
along with Rogue, Gambit, and Jubilee. They manage to break free, but can’t stop a second ambulance that they believe
is carrying away Wolverine.
At the War Room in Xavier‘s
Mansion, Forge picks up a signal from Cerebro that a new mutant signature has been detected. Cyclops, Psylocke, and Colossus
go to find the source of the signature. Colossus and Cyclops arrive in enough time to stop the other ambulance from getting
away, but the Hand causes it to explode. In the debris they find Wolverine’s mask, but they know it’s a red herring,
trying to lead them in the wrong direction and they head back to the mansion.
In a briefing, the X-men decide
that the Gold team will head to help Emma Frost at her academy to save her from the
attack of the Reavers, while the Blue team will go after Wolverine. Beast finds that the
airplane carrying the new mutant signature was headed towards Berlin.
At Fenris’ secret lab
in Berlin, Wolverine is being held hostage while Dr. Cornelius examines his memories to find what Logan, Victor Creed
(Sabretooth) and Maverick have done with the Carbonadium
Synthesizer they had stolen thirty years ago from this same lab. Meanwhile Maverick is watching all this from the
ventilation system and shuts down the lights in the facility, giving Wolverine the chance to break free. He quickly disposes
of most of the guards, leaving only him and Omega Red standing. Wolverine knows that he would
not win, so he runs from the fight and jumps out a window and drops ten stories down where Maverick rescues him.
Meanwhile the Blue team breaks
into the facility to try to save Wolverine.
In Malibu, Lila Cheney tries to get Dazzler
to remember her life with the X-Men. Suddenly Longshot arrives, hunted by Spiral, who is trying to take him back to Mojo and
Lila teleports away with her friends.
The X-Men are at Fenris secret lab in Berlin trying to rescue
Wolverine. They have divided in two teams, but Beast, Cyclops and Jubilee run into Omega Red and the three get defeated without
effort.
The other X-Men are in a different
corridor fighting off the The Hand when Fenris attacks Gambit, removing him from the fight and Matsu'o Tsurayaba takes control
of Psylocke’s mind that in turn takes Rogue out with her psi-blade. A couple of blocks away in a subterranean cavern
Maverick is trying to save Wolverine’s life. While Wolverine is unconscious he remembers his past, thirty years ago
when he worked with Team X trying to run from Omega Red. Regaining consciousness, Logan hears the parameter alarm go off and sees Creed (Sabretooth) on
a video screen going into Fenris’ lab. Maverick decides to move Wolverine and take him back to the German Embassy to
figure out where the Carbonadium Synthesizer is, from there. Sabretooth though, was brought in by Matsu‘o
Tsurayaba to hunt Wolverine down, so him and Psylocke go off to find Wolverine. Logan
senses them coming for him, and tells Maverick that unless he wants to face the two of
them on his own he had better release him from his handcuffs. So Maverick releases Wolverine in enough time, Sabretooth shows
up and the battle only lasts around thirty seconds. Later Matsu‘o Tsurayaba sees Sabretooth dragging Wolverine and Maverick
through the sewers, and Matsu‘o is pleased.
Elsewhere Longshot, Dazzler,
and Lila Cheney find themselves trapped in the Mojoverse, as Major Domo is blocking
Lila's powers. They run from Mojo to find the freedom rebels base and there they start to plan their next attack on Mojo.
Sabretooth is carrying Maverick to a holding facility and mysteriously keeps repeating the same sentence over and
over again. In the labs, Dr. Cornelius and Matsu‘o Tsurayaba are monitoring Wolverine
as they try to read his past memories again. Matsu‘o Tsurayaba gets mad and accuses
the doctor of not going fast enough and the Dr. Cornelius explains that too fast of a
memory extraction could kill Wolverine. Tsurayaba doesn’t care and forces him to speed the extraction up. Wolverine
remembers the past when he placed the Carbonadium Synthesizer in Janice’s lifeless body to hide it from the rest of
Team X. Matsu‘o now knows where the synthesizer is and commands Dr. Cornelius to kill Wolverine. As Wolverine screams
Psylocke stops her ruse of being under Tsurayaba‘s influence and attacks Omega Red and Tsurayaba.
Elsewhere Maverick hears the
commotion and breaks free of his captors. Turns out that Sabretooth was under Psylocke’s mental hold the whole time.
Maverick and Sabretooth reach the X-men’s prison and they try to free them, but as Psylocke
get defeated. Sabretooth becomes himself again and fights Maverick. Luckily Beast breaks free releasing Jubilee in the process
and she blinds Sabretooth with her powers. The escaping X-men get to Logan and Psylocke in time, as they are being torn apart
by Omega Red.
Together they defeat Matsu'o
Tsurayaba, Omega Red, and Fenris and escape in the Blackbird as the base explodes. They go to the German Embassy where Maverick
and the X-Men part ways. Wolverine has some unfinished business though and next we see the Hand trying to dig up Janice’s
body, but Wolverine was waiting for them and attacks them saving the Carbonadium Synthesizer and giving it to Maverick.
In the Mojoverse, Dazzler
witnesses both Lila Cheney and Longshot getting captured by Mojo, she decides that she needs help to battle him. Wherein Mojo 2 the Sequel asks Dazzler to help him overthrow Mojo. The plan is to get higher ratings
than Mojo by broadcasting Dazzler and the rebels fighting Mojo. She agrees and the two of them head off through the Mojo Gardens sub-corridors
to try to reach Mojo. While inside Mojo’s Dome the X-Men begin to fight against one another.
During the battle though Xavier
is able to break Psylocke’s mind control and she in turn helps Cyclops free himself from Mojo’s controls. Cyclops
tries firing at Mojo through his shielding but to no avail so they change their plans and Cyclops shoots Rogue sending her
through the Dome and out of Mojo’s range of control. Psylocke mentally informs Rogue that they are freeing the X-Men
one by one and Jubilee is up next. Mojo figures out what Psylocke and Cyclops are doing and sends Gambit to make them break
their concentration, which he does.
Elsewhere though, Jubilee
forces Wolverine to break Mojo’s control, and he also tries to crash through Mojo’s shielding. The earlier attacks
weakened the forcefield enough to the point that Rogue is able to break it. Although Mojo defeats Rogue, but that little bit
of hope causes the rebels to fight Mojo. The X-Men come in also and Longshot gets mad after seeing Mojo killing more rebels.
Longshot then picks up a sword, leaps, and plunges it into Mojo’s chest, apparently killing him.
Xavier later tells Dazzler
and Longshot that they both will soon be parents as he senses a child within Dazzler. Later Longshot suggests to Dazzler that
they name the baby Shatterstar and the X-Men agree to leave with Lila Cheney after a short
celebration.
Meanwhile, Maverick tries
killing Warhawk but finds that his skin is made of Omnium and the bullets just bounce off
of him. Warhawk sends Maverick through a wall and into a secret part of the lab. There Maverick hides behind some equipment,
while Warhawk and Ryking search for him. Maverick notices a nail gun and jumps to reach it. He shoots Warhawk against the
wall causing the liquid fuel in his body to leak out, which kills both him and Ryking, who was pleading to Maverick to save
him because he did not know what happened to the Xavier file. Maverick walks away saying how he hates his job more and more
every day.
