A man named O.Z. Chase reads a letter he received from
Dazzler back when the X-Men were staying at Alcatraz. Dazzler assures him that
the X-Men are not criminals as the news suggests, just as he was not when she
helped him out of a bind not too long ago. She recounts the story, starting
with training in the Danger Room not long after she became an X-Man. Part way
through, Wolverine crashes her session to try to get her to learn to deal with
unexpected distractions in the field. Dazzler ends up depleting her store of
energy and getting herself caught by the robots she was fighting, thereby
failing the training. She complains that Wolverine didn’t help her but he
insists she needs to learn to do some things for herself. Later, she vents her
frustrations to Rogue and Psylocke, and Rogue admits that Logan means well and
was just as hard on her when she first joined. Psylocke then mentions an odd
story in the paper about a murderer in Florida purported to be a werewolf.
Dazzler recognizes the man in the article as her old bounty hunter friend O.Z.
Chase and determines to head to Florida to see what’s going on. Wolverine feels
she should have some backup, but Dazzler is determined to go alone.
Meanwhile, in Pentonville, Florida, an old couple has
their truck stolen by a mysterious figure, blasting the husband to a crisp when
he tries to stop the carjacker! Dazzler then makes the long trip down to
Florida, only to find Wolverine already there waiting for her! Logan decided to
come help after seeing what it meant to her, and Dazzler clarifies that O.Z.
has a large dog, Cerberus, that could have inflicted the wounds described in
the article. Dazzler heads to the police station while Wolverine doubles back
and catches a guy who he noticed following them. Wolverine knocks out the guy,
while in the police station, the local cops are refusing to let Dazzler see
O.Z. Knowing something’s up, Dazzler goes poking around the impound lot for
O.Z.’s car and finds his large dog Cerberus happy to see her!
Back at the hotel they got, Dazzler and Wolverine
compare notes, and Wolverine identifies the man he captured as a KGB agent.
Wolverine then wanders around the street, feigning being drunk until he’s
caught by the police and thrown into the same cell block with O.Z. Not long
after, a couple of other Russian agents show up to dispose of O.Z., prompting
Wolverine to take them out and break himself and O.Z. out. Back at the hotel,
O.Z. explains how he wound up in this whole mess. Back in L.A., the police had
busted a big drug dealer who then skipped bail. O.Z. was hired to track him
down, following him all the way to Florida. When O.Z. finally located him, the
dealer revealed he had powers and blasted O.Z. before escaping. O.Z.’s
bulletproof vest prevented him from dying but when he woke up, the police found
him amidst the bodies of the other men killed there, and arrested O.Z. for it
while Cerberus fled. Wolverine recognizes the drug dealer as a man named
Vladimir Semyanovitch Zaitsev that he had some run-ins with in the past.
The trio then hear a knock at the door which turns out
to be Henry Peter Gyrich. Gyrich reveals that Zaitsev had been working for the
U.S. government after defecting from Russia, used as a window into their
Russian mutant program as a double agent. However, Zaitsev then double crossed
both Gyrich and the KGB and fled to become a drug lord, leading to the present.
Gyrich asks Wolverine to bring Zaitsev back to him alive and Dazzler and O.Z.
end up tagging along too. They quickly find Zaitsev after he killed some of the
KGB agents after him as well. After some back and forth pursuing him, they finally
corner him and he and Wolverine deeply injure each other. Zaitsev flees,
yelling out to Gyrich that he’ll return if Wolverine, Dazzler, and O.Z. are
executed! Cerberus responds by jumping on Zaitsev and mauling him to death!
They return to an unpleased Gyrich, the day saved with Dazzler hoping she never
becomes as cynical as Gyrich. In the present, O.Z. finishes reading the letter
while processing the news that the X-Men are dead. He toasts a lonely drink to
his, as far as he knows, dearly departed friend.
For the special marvelite in you