Unlimited Marvels #5 (Featuring Wolverine)

[fan4]

Unlimited Marvels #8
Dog of War, Part 3:
Weapon X
Featuring Wolverine

Written by Daniel Dyer
Edited by Aaron Martel

Where...? thinks a groggy Logan as he wakes. The feral mutant looks around, seeing himself in a cage, like an animal. Around the room are many crude devices. Devices that look to be out of a medieval torture chamber. The far wall is where Logan can see a giant computer. It is quite advanced for the later 40's.

“The runt’s awake, Doctor,” yells Sabretooth. He is sitting at a table, leaning back in his chair with his feet propped up on the table.

A sinister man in a lab coat steps up to the cage.

“Ah. I see that, Victor. Hello... Logan.”

Logan, on impulse, jumps forward, shaking the cage and growling. “Who the hell are you?!” he finally yells.

“I am Dr. Nathan Millbury. I am the head of this facility.”

“And what does this ‘facility’ do, exactly?” growls Logan.

“This is a very special camp. One specially designed for your kind. We run experiments on mutates.”

Logan glances to a lab table. On it are pliers, tweezers, and many other surgical tools. All soaked in blood. Dry blood, but a few have fresh blood on them. “And I’m one of those experiments?”

“You are very special, Logan. You are going to become the perfect weapon.”

Logan looks over at Sabretooth. “What about him?”

“He’s our backup.”

“Backup?” questions Sabretooth.

The sinister doctor doesn’t turn from the cage. “Yes. In case Logan here’s healing factor isn’t as strong as I theorize.”

Sabretooth lets out a roar that echoes through the facility and lunges at Millbury. Nathan does not flinch and does not turn. As Creed is about to slash the doctor, he hits an electrical force field, which blasts Sabretooth across the room.

“Now, now, Victor,” Nathan says as he finally turns away from the cage, “I can’t have you acting in such a manner.”

As the doctor begins to step towards Creed, his image flickers for a minute. Creed can see a pale figure with a red jewel on his forehead. But it is only for a second. Victor chalks it up to a hallucination before he passes out.

“Quickly,” Millbury orders his security force, “There is no telling how quickly his healing factor will reawaken him.”

Nathan then turns back to Logan’s cage. “Now, we shall begin to test the limits of your healing factor.” And the Doctor picks up a bone saw.

[fan4]

Over two decades later

Logan sets against the bars of his cage. Blood covers his entire form. Dried and fresh blood. No visible wounds. He hasn’t seen Sabretooth since that first day... not that Logan would remember him.

All I can remember is pain. Each and every day, they cut me open... and I heal. How do I heal? How did I get here? Was I born here? Born to this misery? The doctors come in hourly, cutting me open. I heal almost instantly, but the pain... Did they do this to me?

Then enters Nathan Millbury, not looking a day older than when he captured Logan decades before. “How’s he doing?” he asks one of the technicians.

“I’m doin’ fine,” answers Logan. “Could use a room with a view, though.” He doesn’t speak to me. He never speaks to me.

“His healing is off the charts. It is believed that we could literally skin him alive and he’d regrow his skin.”

A grin forms on Millbury’s face. “Perfect. Have you tested poisons on him? How does he cope?”

“Barely any reaction to any substance we’ve introduced to his immune system,” answers the technician.

“What about introducing lead... or other metallic substances to his bloodstream?”

“We’ll get to work on that, Sir,” the technician answers.

“Good, good. See that you do.”

“Sir, what are we waiting for?”

“Excuse me?” answers Millbury.

“Well, it’s just... we’ve been testing the subject for a couple of decades now. He’s stood up to everything. Shouldn’t we proceed further?”

“Ah, I see your concern. Not to worry. I merely want to see if anything can hurt him. If there is, I need to know for a failsafe Besides, it matters little how long it takes. I have time.”

“Yes, sir.”

As Nathan Millbury starts to leave, he glances at Logan, then continues on.

Millbury... you’ll be mine one day. Count on it, bub.

[fan4]

Decades later. More precisely, 15 years ago...

Nathan Millbury stands on a platform overlooking a pool of liquid. Next to him stands Professor Thornton, his second in command.

“This is the moment, Professor. Our Weapon X Program is about to reach fruition.”

“Yes, Dr. Millbury. The mutant has been prepped and everything is ready to proceed.”

Millbury smiles and looks out to where a table is hanging over the pool. On it is Logan. He is lost in a feral rage. He has been lost in this state for a few years. The testing and torture had been too much.

They were unsure if he would ever fully recover on his own. No matter, though. All Millbury or Thornton needed was a weapon they could program. And so they did, implanting false memories to replace the ones he had lost. Unfortunately, those memories became buried in Logan’s psyche as well. Almost as if his power was healing over his mind, protecting it from the horrific memories of his ordeals. No one was completely sure what the case was, though.

“Lower him,” states Nathan.

Logan is lowered into the pool and the final experiments begin. It takes hours, days, weeks. The pain is excruciating. Logan roars at every puncture, every prod. The man is gone and the beast is all that remains.

[fan4]

It has been over a month. The operations are over. Logan is being kept in a cylinder filled with the same liquid substance of the pool. A team of scientists is working around him in the lab, and Professor Thornton walks in.

“Has the upload begun?”

“Yes, sir. New implanted memories have begun uploading into the subject’s mind.”

“Good, good. Millbury wants the subject ready.”

Thornton looks over the cylinder that contains Logan. “The liquid is keeping him sedated?”

“Yes, sir. It’s the only substance that his healing factor doesn’t automatically neutralize.”

“Good. I’ll inform...” Before Thornton can finish his sentence, he notices Logan twitch. “What...?”

Just then a snikt! is heard as on Logan’s right hand, three 6 inch claws extend. The bone has been coated with a metallic substance.

“He’s awake!” yells Thornton and he heads for the door.

Another snikt! is heard and three more claws extend on Logan’s left hand. Instantly, Logan bursts from the cylinder. “ROOOAAAARRR!!!!!”

The scientists begin scampering around, trying for the exits as Logan starts slashing and attacking like an animal.

[fan4]

Nathan Millbury watches the scene from the lab on a monitor and smiles. Nathan knew that Logan would eventually escape. He simply wanted to set events in motion so that Logan could possibly become a key player against an immortal foe who had changed Nathan’s life forever.

“Dr. Millbury!” yells Thornton as he barges in.

“Yes, Professor?”

“Logan’s loose!”

“I know,” he says as the image of Dr. Nathan Millbury fades. In his place stands a man with chalk white skin and a red jewel on his forehead.

“M...Millbury?”

“Mr. Sinister, Professor Thornton,” is Sinister’s reply.

Before Thornton can ask any more questions, he finds himself beheaded with one slash of Logan’s metallic claws.

The feral mutant sniffs the air. He knows the man who stands before him and he howls.

“You cannot hurt me, animal!”

But that doesn’t stop the beast. Logan begins to claw at Sinister, withstanding Sinister’s electrical force field. Pain means nothing to the mutant, but as he claws at Sinister, Logan stops as he sees that Sinister heals even more rapidly than Logan himself. For a minute, the man emerges, but only for a minute.

“Farewell, animal,” says Sinister as he begins to fade away.

Logan lunges for the vanishing Sinister but misses. With Sinister gone, the animalistic mutant can only howl at the moon, denied of his revenge.

The end?