First story:
A naked Logan is once again undergoing a field test. He trudges through the snow tracking his mark. On his head, he wears a helmet through which he can be better controlled. He is within one hundred yards of the target, and has made his way through the snow quicker than before. The Professor is impressed. Cameras follow Logan’s progress and they see that Logan has the animal’s scent. The claws on his right hand extrude from his skin and blood is noted. Cornelius figures that they need some kind of terminal there; something to keep the flesh apart.
Logan is within fifty yards and the target is heading towards him, having noticed Logan, too. Logan’s heart rate rises, and his adrenal rises with carpal flux. His left claws pop out of his hands and Cornelius calls for camera ten. Their screen switches to see Logan come face to face with a large bear, baring its teeth as it stands on its hind legs. “This is it!” remarks Cornelius as he asks Hines to keep things running. They won’t get a second chance.
Logan strikes with his claws, stabbing the bear with his first attack. He then whips both arms upwards, and the bear’s head is decapitated. The Professor is pleased. An utterly impeccable killing. The time has come, he feels. Their weapon is primed and perfect. Cornelius agrees that it was pretty hot stuff, but he’s unsure about the helmet. It’s cumbersome and cuts Logan’s vision thirty percent both sides. Also, the battery packs weigh nearly ten pounds apiece. Everything’s so clunky and in the way. Hines asks if she should retract Logan’s claws, and does so. He is then led away by the wranglers.
The Professor stands behind the bearded Dr. Cornelius. They do have the weapon under control. That is what they planned. Cornelius fiddles with some switches as he replies that he isn’t so sure about that. He feels they need more psych tests. The Professor disagrees. He wants action now! Cornelius asks if chopping a grizzly into bloody pieces isn’t action enough for him. The Professor says he didn’t create this weapon to be some… imbecilic game warden. Cornelius asks what he’s saying, then. All they need is a little more time to iron out the kinks in his system. That’s all he’s asking for.
The Professor asks Cornelius what the greatest test of all is. Cornelius pauses, and Carol Hines replies, “Bengal Tiger, with a stick up its...” The Professor interrupts her, and informs them that it is man, of course. Cornelius replies with a little sarcasm that they don’t have any in stock right now. The Professor tells him that they’ll have to get some in, won’t they? Cornelius asks if he’s serious. The Professor replies that he’s deadly serious. He knows what he wants and will brook no arguments. He retires to his control room, leaving Dr. Cornelius bemused.
Cornelius, meanwhile, doesn’t like the sound of this. He paces the control room and speaks to Carol, though he’s really talking to himself. First, he was told they were creating a kinda super-soldier from Experiment X. Then it turns out to be some sorta animal thing, and the adamantium bonding sends him cuckoo. However, the Professor talked him around and he was sucked in. He was virtually blackmailed into this whole affair. He wants to know what this thing can do. Is it gonna protect them from the commies or something?
Carol turns to a technician named John and asks him to take his coffee break. John replies that he’s on duty until six, but Carol orders him to take a break. Cornelius continues to point out that he’s not big on soul-searching, but he’s got some sense of responsibility. He doesn’t have murder inside him, not like the Professor.
Meanwhile, the wranglers place Logan back in his lab and remove the helmet from his head. The Professor has told them to remove that, but to keep him wired on the points. One of them wonders if they should leave the batteries on, and the other says yes. They decide to set the in-line alarm and leave him. However, before they depart, Logan stirs. The adamantium claws shoot from his hands and his eyes open. Instinctively, he thrusts his claws through one of the wranglers and then attacks the other. The image appears on screen and both Hines and Cornelius watch horrified as Logan stab the wrangler in the chest.
Cornelius calls the Professor who asks what it is. Cornelius asks, “How could you? You’re insane.” The Professor doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He switches on his monitor and sees Logan with a dead wrangler at his feet. He replies that this isn’t his doing. He is not in control! He watches as Logan’s fist punches through the door of lab 2.
Third story:
(Brazilian rainforest, dusk)
Sunspot is powered up. He picks up a tree that has trapped a young woman named Christina Aguilara. The tree appears to have been sawn through, so this was no accident. He asks her to roll out from under it as he can’t hold it much longer. Christina is a little freaked out, both at the tree and his appearance. He asks her to hurry and to forget the way he looks. The leaves are blocking the sunlight from powering his mutant strength. Christina rolls out just as Roberto’s power shuts off, and the tree lands with a bompf.
She can’t find her shoe, but he asks her not to worry about something so trivial. She then notices her engagement ring is missing, too. Roberto figures she must be all right if she noticed that. He helps her look for it; a ring with two diamond hearts entwined. After an extensive search, the ring is nowhere to be found, and Christina says her wedding will be ruined. Roberto figures her fiancé will marry her, wedding ring or not. He reminds her that she doesn’t have enemies, but half the world is against him. That tree trunk was cut purposely and probably meant for him. He wants to find out who did this, and why. She should be glad she’s alive and loved, and not hounded just because you’re different like he is… a mutant.
(supper time at the Aguilar villa)
Christina’s mother and father are seated at the table along with Christina and Roberto. Christina’s younger sister, Euphy, is on serving duty. Papa asks Roberto to excuse his stilted and formal attempt at speaking Roberto’s adopted second language of English, but he thanks him for saving his daughter’s existence so that they might attend her happy nuptials at long last. Christina asks him not to tease, but her mother asks her to let him have his fun. Her sister Euphy shall simply be instructed to serve him no food.
Roberto tells him it seems that he is in a corner. How does he plan to get out of that so he can eat with the rest of them? Euphy replies that Papa needn’t worry about not eating while in the doghouse, as she knows well, since she has been there her whole life, especially since Christina’s engagement. She could drop dead and no one would pay attention to her. Mama tells her that she and Papa build their own doghouses through a lack of holding their tongues.
Suddenly, Euphy gets a little careless and the silver dish begins to slip from her grasp. Mama grabs it, and says she must learn to hold her tongue and a platter of dog food at the same time. Euphy complains that it’s so heavy and hot, and Mama replies that perhaps a heavy hand should heat her bottom. Christina covers her mouth as she giggles, and Euphy notices that her wedding ring is missing.
Before anyone can ask her about it, their door is kicked in and several thugs barge in carrying baseball bats. A large man overturns their dinner table, whilst another punches Papa to the ground. “Just like we heard,” snaps one, “A mutie-loving dinner.” The large man asks if ordinary humans aren’t good enough for them, or are stinkin’ muties the only ones they break bread with. Roberto stands and replies that he gets no rest from lowlifes like them. He warns them to get out while they still can. Papa’s assailant says with loaded sarcasm that the sweet mutie pumpkin’s going to tell them where real humans can come and go. Well, they want in on their exclusive feast.
Two green-haired twins grab Christina and Euphy, and Roberto powers up. His body blackens as the power kicks in, but suddenly it vanishes as quickly as it appeared. He hasn’t had enough sunlight to power it up. The guy who hit Papa slams Roberto in the stomach hard, knocking the wind from him. The big guy then lays him out with a right cross and a third man then smacks him on the back of his head with a baseball bat which puts him on the floor. He then sits on Roberto, kneeing him in the small of the back, pulling his hair back and grabbing his nose in his fist.
He explains to Roberto that this is Homo sapien and Homo superior equality. It goes to show that a mutant without its power is no better than the rest of them. In fact, he adds, they’re less than human. They’re nothing but fist food. He tells Roberto to open his eyes and look. Roberto immediately notices Christina’s wedding ring on his finger. He’s the one who tried to kill them in the forest. That’s where he got it. Clenching his fists, he feels the anger rise within him. He asks the guy why he tries to tear his kind in half just because they’re born with a genetic x-factor, which gives them super powers. Is he so afraid of the unfamiliar?
Suddenly, due to his anger, his power kicks in and he changes into Sunspot. “Is violence the only way we can communicate?” he asks, as he sends the guy crashing through the window outside. Sunspot proceeds to bang heads together, informing them that he didn’t choose to be a mutant, and he didn’t choose this fight, either. But, if they wish to talk the most common, most vulgar language, they can have it their way.
(twilight)
The fight is over and there was only ever one winner once his powers came in. An officer leads the thugs into the back of a police truck, but not before Roberto recovers Christina’s engagement ring. He hands her it back and she smiles with delight. She thanks him. This is twice today that he’s saved something for her: first her life, and then the token of her love. They head inside to join the rest of her family.
A meal is slapped together, and the family sit on the floor to eat it. Roberto apologizes for the fact that his being a mutant has endangered them. Those bigots see him as a mutie, and them as mutie lovers. Mama asks him to have any sorrow. They all have problems but they face them together. Euphy brings some more food in, but spills it all over her father. Euphy says she is sorry, but with all the excitement and the fuss over Christina’s ring, she feels lost in the shuffle; like she doesn’t belong in this family anymore.
Roberto tells her that she should be thankful that she has a family. What has she to be upset about? Euphy replies that it’s just that Christina is so beautiful and she’s getting married. She just serves the food and can’t speak. She becomes a little flustered and stops talking. Roberto reminds her that he’s a mutant. He’s always hiding. She will grow up more beautiful than she is now and then she’ll marry, too. Her tender tragedies elude him. He will always be hated and hounded with humanity’s savagery; always exposing to harm those close to him. She should be glad for what she has.
Euphy tells him that she appreciates what she has, but he shouldn’t belittle her feelings just because she’s not a super hero with super hero problems. Her problems matter just as much to her as his do to him. Does he understand? Roberto stands up and heads for the door. He says that he realizes that he doesn’t belong there. He wishes he could understand the feelings of humans and the feelings of family. Maybe those creeps were right. He doesn’t understand his own feelings, and he can’t risk her family’s safety. He leaves, and Christina shouts after him not to go. Mama and Papa hold her, and Papa thinks that perhaps he will return in the morning. His mind is heavy, and for now, human and mutant alike, the night falls on them all.
