The Hunted: Part 3

• Writer - Frank Tieri
• Penciler - Sean Chen
• Inker - Norm Rapmund
• Lettering - Richard Starkings
• Lettering - Comicraft
• Lettering - Saida
• Colorist - Raymund Lee
• Ass't Editor - Mike Raicht
• Editor - Mike Marts
• Editor in Chief - Joe Quesada

Summary

  A normal-looking Beast is getting brutally beaten up by Creel, a prisoner. Wolverine steps in to defend Beast and fight Creel. Wolverine threatens to kill Creel, while the Wrecker threatens to kill Beast if Creel isn't set free by Wolverine. The warden of the jail, with some of his prison guards, steps in to break up the fight. Wolverine has a heated exchange-of-words with "Reb", the warden's right-hand man. The fight is broken up, and Wolverine and Beast are led back to their cells under supervision.

  Logan talks a bit about their ordeal, and how they found themselves in this prison known as "The Cage", located on a French island in the middle of nowhere, where all convicts inside are mentally dampened to prevent any of them from using any of their mutant superpowers. He makes a mention about the different "class" system among the convicts inside, and how their system now falls to the cons with the best fighting skills being the most powerful, even if in the outside world, they may be the weakest supervillians with the weakest superpowers, and makes a brief rundown of all the various supervillians in the facility.

  Back in their cell, Wolverine finds a note taped to his bed. The note, written by his friend and fellow Weapon X partner Maverick, mentions that he found that all the people that were being murdered recently, including the senator that Wolverine supposedly had assassinated, had a connection: all had mysterious inaccessible file which connected them all together, though what those files are remained to be seen. He also mentions that Sabretooth had also been kidnapped, though whether it was related or not, he was still investigating. Logan wonders what he had gotten himself into.

  Back to S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters, where Director Carter praises Agent Jackson for his capture of Logan and Beast, but is disappointed in the way he handled using Nick Fury's image to capture the two. Nick walks in, and promptly delivers a punch to Jackson, knocking him out cold.

  To the prison again, where Logan and Beast are having lunch. Another inmate, Peepers, asks to join them at their table. Beast remembers Peepers as a member of Mutant Force in the past. Peepers, also a mutant, seeked comfort in the fact that he wasn't one of the only mutants there anymore. As they were talking, Logan is dropped another note with the words "You are the connection" on it. He looks around to see who had delivered him the note. As he looked in the direction of Aryan and his men, Aryan thinks that Logan was eyeing him. One of Aryan's men pushes Peepers' face into his food. This prompts a brawl to break out. The prison guards begin to step in to break it up until Reb stops them, letting the situation play out for now since he thought this may be the chance for them "... to rid themselves of [their] little mutie problem." Axe, thinking that this was the way they could collect their "bounty", rushes in with a shard of glass to stab Logan from behind. Logan turns the guy that he was strugling with around, and that person ends up with the shard of glass stabbed into his head. This leads to Aryan and his men to attack Axe, No Money, and their gang. Reb and his men move in to break up the fight. Logan is tasered by multiple prison guards to subdue him.

  Meanwhile, Sabretooth is seen stirring from the operation table, after a successful adamantium-bonding process. Sabretooth tries to attack the shadowed figure, only to fall to the ground. The shadowy figure tells Sabretooth he was mentally inhibited from attacking himself or his men, mentioning to Sabretooth to listen to the offer he had to give to him.

  Back at the prison, as Reb and one of his men are yelled at by the warden, who blames them for losing control of the prisoners. The warden tells them he wants no more favors from the prisoners, and find a way to not involve the guards into it because they've been getting enough inquiries about prison riots lately. Reb and the other guard leaves the office. The other guard wonders how they could be able to stage two accidental deaths. Reb takes the guard to a locked up facility ... one which only he knew about ... to show him what he thinks would be their solution to ridding themselves of "the mutant problem".

  Logan, chained, is dragged and dumped into "The Hole", a type of lockdown facility, where Logan would be unable get out of. Logan fears that Beast, now by himself out there, is going to end up a dead man without his protection. Beast, now accompanied by Peepers, is surrounded by three prison inmates, who threatens to kill him. One other inmate leaps in to "save" Beast by taking out the three prisoners who had surrounded Beast. Beast thanks him for his generosity in saving him. The "rescuer" mentions that he wasn't going to let those prisoners cash in on the price for Beast's head ... when he could do it himself. He pulls out a daggar and propmtly guts Beast. Beast lies on the floor, gutted and unconscious, with Peepers trying to wake Beast up.