Manhattan, at the docks:
Logan’s group addresses another mutant, a superstrong homeless man, who has also been attacked by the government group. However, he has instead thrown a car at the mutants.
Creed tells him they are like him. No one is like him! the stranger snarls. Holo sarcastically states a crazy superstrong hobo is exactly what they need on this team. He retorts that the feds were after him like they went after her. They couldn’t just let them take him. Holo is horrified when she sees Creed injured, his bones all twisted. Logan tells her he’ll heal and suggests she watch her own—
Imperius Rex! the stranger roars and tosses a street lamp at Logan. A fed warns him off. Yeti tries to calm the stranger and is hit next.
The fed introduces himself as Fred Duncan. Logan believes he belongs to the group who’s been after them. Duncan assures him he’s been trying to convince the bureau that they should be allies, not enemies. Their intel says fire can hurt this guy.
Logan orders Anthony to create a fireball. The stranger grabs Logan. Now! Logan commands and Bomb obeys. They get out and figure the stranger didn’t make it. Damn shame, Logan muses. Guy was hurting but they couldn’t let him kill half the city. Besides, they’ve got more immediate concerns.
Duncan orders his soldiers to stand down. When they protest, he reminds them that those mutants saved their asses and hundreds of civilians. Mutants, is that what they are calling them now? Logan snarls. Real classy! But he admits Duncan doesn’t seem to be the complete jerkweed he thought he was. He asks Holo to cover them from Duncan’s men as they leave.
Mahone warns Duncan that Trask’s not going to like this. Does he look like he cares? Duncan asks. What about their target, Mahone asks, the one they came for? Staring at the water, Duncan points out it’s been five minutes… he’s done for. Unless he can breathe water.
Sometime later, when everybody’s gone, the hobo appears again, wondering why water is so familiar. He can almost remember, he needs to clear is head… he needs a drink…
Back at Logan’s cabin, Holly worries about Creed, whose bones grew back twisted. He explains it’s the downside of a healing factor. The bones set wrong, he’s gotta re-break them. He orders her to get back to the cabin, she doesn’t wanna see that. He breaks his leg and she screams. She suggests she could make him an illusion to take his mind of it. A happy memory. If he had any, he’d take her up on that. She asks if there is anything she can do. Getting ready to break his right arm, he asks her to tell him about herself, where she’s from.
Unable to look, she begins she was born in Havre de Grace, Maryland. Her mom left when Holly was five. Her dad said she left. He was kind of scary. Does she remember her? Creed asks. Little things, the way she smelled… a necklace… When she was eleven, she started making images of her mom, taking care of her. One day her dad saw. He started charging people to come over and have Holly create whatever fantasy they wanted. A lot were bad.
Scum! Creed rasps, he’ll kill him! Too late, Holy reveals, he overdosed when she was fifteen, she’s been on her own ever since. Until now. They kiss.
In the cabin, Logan has taken up a katana. Anthony and Ben wonder if the fed is gonna square things for them. Ben reminds Anthony the feds kidnapped his brother. How do you square that?
Logan agrees. Even if Duncan is a stand-up guy, he is just a cog in the machine. But if he’s thinking about a change of course it means what they are doing is working. He knows how these bureaucrats work. It’s all about budget. They gotta make it so that hunting “mutants” is too expensive. They already shut down one base… cost ‘em a lot of money. Time to do it again. They are going after Yeti’s brother. He’s got a lead on where they might be keeping him. He tracked Duncan to Pennsylvania. He wants them both mission-ready by sunup and he needs Yeti’s head in the game. Logan then cuts off some of the young man’s long hair with his sword. When Yeti protests, Logan replies he was making a point. If he lets himself get distracted, he is killing his brother and them. Remember that.
Logan walks up to Creed’s room and gets angry when he can smell Holly in there. He orders them to come out. Angrily, he berates Creed he is crossing a line. “Jailbait” he called Holly the night they met!
Creed retorts she is eighteen and old enough to make her own decisions. Logan points out that they are also the kids’ squad leaders. Creed decides to solve this by quitting and taking Holly along. They got too much heat on them!
The heat’s ‘cause they are winning! Logan insists. They got a chance to do something big here. So does he, Creed retorts. The last time he thought about settling down and having a real life was never. He accepted a long time ago that he was a monster but now he has a shot at something better. He feels it too, doesn’t he? The hair on the back of his neck standing up … the instinct to go to ground? Logan insists that is the instinct of an animal unused to staying somewhere long.
Holly interrupts. She knows how Vic is feeling. For the first time, they’ve got a home, a place to belong. She wants to give that to others, who have never had that. Does Logan really think he can pull that off?
Logan is unsure but agrees. They got the best chance they’re ever gonna have. For them, and everyone like them. But only if they stand and fight. They back down now, their foes’ll smell weakness and will never leave them alone.
Holly announces she’ll stay. How about Victor? He agrees but warns Logan he damn well better be right about this.
At the Pentagon, Private Charles Xavier listens to the news about the mutant case. He is asked into his superior’s office. While it is supposed to be secret, Xavier quickly learns from the colonel that anyone with his level of IQ gets flagged, but when he enlisted his blood tested as normal human.
Of course, Xavier reveals, it was the doctor’s blood. Now let him get back to his fiancée before she leaves him.
Considering the tragic loss of his brother, the colonel offers him compassionate leave or even discharge.
Xavier sees the file on his desk: “The mutant menace” from Bolivar Trask. More telepathy and his superior offers him an assignment stateside with greater responsibility. A friend of his is in charge of a special top secret FBI project. Xavier thanks the colonel and tells him to make it so.
Pennsylvania: Project Chimera:
Bolivar Trask accuses Fred Duncan of being a mutant. Duncan reminds him they all were genetically screened. Then he is incompetent or a traitor to his race, Trask raves. He had Logan and his monsters dead to rights and let them go! What he had was a standoff with five mutants at full power, Duncan points out, against a team that had been beaten to pulp by the target Trask sent them after over Duncan’s protest. He will not stand here and be second-guessed by someone who was never in the field.
Director Hartfield tells them to stop. Does Duncan think he can get Logan and his people to work with them willingly? Duncan admits they don’t trust them.
Who cares? The mutant parasite Virus sneers. Logan and Creed are loose cannons. They must be treated like volatile explosives, not reasonable men. He promises Hartfield he will solve his problem and add their power to his ranks in controlled form. But he will need a new mount. This one is running on fumes.
Hartfield has a prisoner brought in, the somewhat simple-minded Forrest Goldendawn, Yeti’s missing brother. Virus takes over the strong young man and a horrified Fred Duncan looks away as Forrest screams.
Suddenly, there is a perimeter breach.
Elsewhere, not too far away, Yeti screams in pain, sensing the agony through his link with his brother. Let’s do this! Logan orders as the strikeforce attack them. But the men in the command center see them only attacking empty air. They realize too late this is Holo’s work, even as Logan’s team is already behind them.
Duncan warns them not to do anything stupid. Not while they are holding their people, Logan replies. They can start talking after they let them out, starting with his friend’s brother.
“Ask and you shall receive.” Virus comes in, literally mounted atop Forrest like a horse’s rider. He tosses Logan and Creed aside. Virus has Forrest inform them they should join him. He loves his job.
Angrily, Bomb manifests some energy, believing Forrest a traitor. Yeti asks him not to hurt his brother. Bomb replies if he is as tough as Yeti he will be fine. The freak riding him though… he throws a bomb at them.
Virus throws a table back, pointing out that even to his own kind think he is a freak. He isn’t like them. His mutation didn’t make him handsome or strong. Just better able to survive!
Let’s test that! Logan shouts as he severs the tendrils connecting Virus to Forrest. He tells Yeti to take care of his brother while Logan, Creed and Bomb free the other prisoners, namely three strange looking boys of different ages.
Creed mocks they are dead weight in a fight. Right back at you, old man, one of them laughs and flies around them.
Outside, they join Holo, who tells them she can’t keep it up much longer. Creed takes her hand, telling her there’s no need for illusion anymore. He’s taking her home. They all leave.
Back at the safehouse, Logan admits that they all did well. If the feds are smart, they’ll start talking about a deal. They just gave themselves the best chance they’re ever gonna have for a future. If they play their cards right, they’ll look back on this day as the day things turned around.
Virus tells the feds that the seed has been planted. Soon the mutants will be theirs…
