Bloodsport: Pt. 2 of 3

• Writer - Frank Tieri
• Penciler - Dan Fraga
• Inker - Norm Rapmund
• Lettering - Richard Starkings
• Lettering - Comicraft
• Lettering - Saida
• Colorist - Raymund Lee
• Editor - Mike Marts
• Editor in Chief - Joe Quesada

Summary

  Among many onlookers of the match (which includes two band members of N'Sync, Justin Timberlake and Chris Kirkpatrick), the curtain arises from the cage that the previous match had taken place in, and Mr. X presents himself to the public as the victor of that match. Backstage, as Mr. X meets with Viper, Wolverine bursts in and demands to find out from Mr. X why he was the mysterious "friend" that had been assisting him during his and Beast's capture in the high-security prison (last story arc). Mr. X's reasoning for interceding was, in his word, to prevent Wolverine from getting "credit for a crime you [Logan] did not commit" and that "it isn't in good taste for artistes such as ourselves [Logan and Mr. X] to have our 'stats' [kills] padded for us." Mr. X revealed that he had had connections also in the government that had revealed Weapon X had targeted Wolverine, but that to himself, Mr. X believed Wolverine was his to deal with and himself alone.

  Logan takes off to prepare himself for the match against Mr. X. As he walked off, Mr. X asks Blok whether he was okay as Blok looked phased for a minute. At that moment, some kind of smoke transfers itself from Blok to Mr. X. Mr. X continues his conversation with Viper, and warns her of bigger concerns than her worries about Logan.

  Back inside the ring, Wolverine faces off against Puma inside an electrified cage. Jae Lo gives Logan a bottle of water to drink before the fight begins. As the fight begins between Logan and Puma, Logan suddenly feels woozy, and realized that he had been drugged. With Puma fighting hard, Logan had no choice but to go on the defense as his healing factor was working overtime to rid his body of the drug that was slowing him down. Puma tries to take advantage of the situation by leaping towards Logan, but Logan dodges, and Puma flies into the electrified fence, knocking him unconscious. With the match over, Logan grabs Jae Lo and demands to know from him who had drugged his water. He says a "major player" had given him some poison to affect Logan. Logan looks around and his eyes meets Viper, realizing that Viper had been the one who drugged the water. She blows a kiss towards Wolverine.

  Mr. X was up next, and his fight was against the Taskmaster. The object of their fight was that whomever gets out of the cage first wins. Taskmaster tries everything in his power to beat Mr. X, but Mr. X had somehow anticipated all of his moves, and quickly beats Taskmaster out of the cage. Mr. X throws the defeated Taskmaster to the floor of the cage, and Mr. X was declared the winner. Mr. X was not satisfied that he did not get his kill, and he kills the ringside official instead for stopping the fight.

  The main event, as Logan faces off against Mr. X in a match of whomever finds the corner with the belt wins the match. Once again, Mr. X had an answer to every single one of Wolverine's moves, which baffles Wolverine. Underneath the ring, Taskmaster fires an arrow from under the ring in an attempt to kill Mr. X. Unfortunately, both Logan and Mr. X dodges the arrow. A ring of fire bursts in the center of the ring. Logan thinks to himself how Mr. X would have been able to know the arrow was going to come out of the ring, and then it hits him: Logan realizes that Mr. must be a telepath. As he thinks about it more ... how in Mr. X's story that the first time he became obsessed with Death was when he looked at the life draining out of a lady's eyes, and how that was very similar to Jean Grey and when her telepathic abilities had been activated after a little girl died in her arms. But without a Professor X to guide him, Mr. X had went nuts with his powers. Logan realizes that the only chance he had to beat Mr. X was to let his Berserker side get the best of him as the last time it happened, he had almost beat Mr. X, and even himself could not anticipate his own moves. He unleashes his berserker side, and proceeds to hack away at Mr. X. Mr. X falls into the corner with the belt, and realizes that he had defeated Logan once again. Logan approaches Mr. X with one set of his claws extended, and was just about to stab it through Mr. X's skull before Blok intercedes. At that moment, the floor on the ring collapses from the fire. When Logan gets back up, Mr. X and Blok were both long gone.

  Later that day, as Logan packs his stuff to prepare to catch the flight back to the States, Viper walks in to tell Logan in a desparate voice that Ogun was back.