Uncanny X-Men, The (1981 series) #216

After freaking out and running off last issue, following Jean Grey’s scent trail leads an out-of-his-mind Wolverine to the middle of a road where he’s hit by an oncoming truck! The poor couple driving run outside, unsure what they hit, but only find a huge dent in their bumper and the grill all slashed up! Wolverine ends up running through the forest, losing more and more of his humanity as he slips back into a purely feral state, and lets out a fierce howl! Elsewhere in the forest, Storm hears the howl and mistakes it for a wounded animal. She takes stock of her situation, deciding she needs to keep her companion, Priscilla, alive even if she doesn’t much like the girl. Storm reasons that the speedster Super Sabre will likely find them first and decides to lay a trap for him. She sets up a wire draped loose across the road connected by two trees. When Super Sabre gets close she plans to pull the wire taut so that it will take his head off when he runs into it but when the time comes, she finds she can’t go through with it and lets him run past while they hide. Priscilla is not happy with this but Storm tells her their best chance of survival is together and directs them to a nearby ridge.

Meanwhile, a couple days earlier, the other X-Men arrived on Muir Isle. Psylocke scans the island and finds no trespassers but discovers that a couple more of the injured they were transporting died during the night. Rogue flies out to meet a very irate Moira MacTaggert and explains the situation. Back in the forest, Crimson Commando and Stonewall find the abandoned trap and realize that Storm must have spared their comrade. Stonewall begins to have doubts about hunting down Storm, but Crimson Commando still feels they’re only doing what’s right and that they only have Storm’s word that she’s innocent. Super Sabre quite literally runs into them and they show him the trap that could have killed him. Crimson Commando predicts where Storm is likely heading and Super Sabre runs to cut her off. He reaches the top of the ridge, only to discover that Storm got there first when she tackles him from behind and holds onto him to prevent him from escaping. They begin to tumble down the slope and Priscilla takes the opportunity to push some of the rocks over the edge, hoping to bury them both in the resulting rockslide!

Not far away, Priscilla runs into the couple that hit Wolverine earlier. Hidden in the forest, the feral Wolverine watches her grab the woman’s gun and shoot the couple before driving off in their truck. The realization that he could have stopped the murder snaps Wolverine out of his animal-like state. Meanwhile, Crimson Commando and Stonewall dig through the rubble and conclude that Super Sabre and Storm both died. Priscilla’s escape vehicle ends up breaking down and Storm grabs her, later using her to lure in Stonewall. She flips him into some mud which turns out to be quicksand, and ends up pulling him out before he drowns. Priscilla is about to kill a tired Storm when she’s killed by the arrival of Crimson Commando. Wolverine holds off Stonewall while Storm and Crimson Commando fight it out. Storm wins and refuses to kill him, provided they turn themselves in to pay for their crimes. They agree, earning Storm a moral victory over the hunters. Storm and Wolverine drive off, debating the future of the X-Men. Storm suggests they take a more proactive approach against the Marauders and their other enemies, and Wolverine warns that that’s a slippery slope, and could end up undoing the moral victory they won today!