| abstract | - John Howlett, Jr. was born in 1885 to John, Sr. and Elizabeth Howlett, when John was little, his father took a family picture. When his family toured the Howlett Estate when it was under construction, John learned that he was going to have a sibling, his grandfather criticized the land. A picture of Elizabeth and her newborn son, James, was made after the infant's birth. John was drawn to the infant James, sensing a strong connection, like they were two of a kind. He then glimpsed his mother kissing the gardener Tom Logan. John confronted his mother about this, but as he became overly excited, he popped his claws for the first time, inadvertently slashing his mother's side. Seeking to protect his son's family from the scandal that such a deviant child would produce, John Sr.'s father took John Jr., vowing to provide the very best that medicine had to offer. As John began to calm down, he was taken away in a carriage, taken to an asylum, and chained up to a wall. John was believed to have died by everyone, even a gravestone and a burial site were placed. John was sure his parents would come for him and find him when word got out of where he had been taken, but no one came, and he stayed there for years until he couldn't remember how or when or why he had come there. After the deaths of the other Howletts, banks took over their estate. The place was abandoned, and all of the money went missing. Eventually John was taken by researchers as their first subject, "X". They told John there had been an injustice, that he had been betrayed, and that they were the only ones he could trust. John was tested and questioned on the origins of his abilities, and he accepted it all and began to evolve. Then one day, John gained the power to become intangible and broke free and took vengeance on his attackers, saying that they "asked him one too many questions". John was also planning on killing his family for what had been done to him, but discovered that they had all died when James' powers surfaced. According to John, Professor X knew about him, but kept the knowledge from James, who by then had become Wolverine/Logan. John further stated that Xavier played the two men against each other. At Sabretooth's funeral nearing the end of the 21st century, Emily Rand, the attorney for Creed's estate, gave the now aged Logan an envelope that carried the scent of the old Howlett Estate. There Logan found a book, "The Ghosts of Japan, The Lost Rituals of Kanaguri". Logan suspected that Weapon X was behind this, and made his way to Japan. There, he tracked down the Kanaguri cult and learned the name of their leader: Kitsunebi seconds before his source was slain by a poison blow dart. Logan then traveled to the Hiragana-san mountain, just beyond the Tarikana village, some 50 miles north of Kyoto, to the west of the Shuzuoka Prefecture, following the legends of Yurei demon, Kitsunebi. Legends described Kitsunebi as a twilight beast of silent white that hides in the snowfall, waiting to blind and freeze those who seek audience with Hiragana-san's mountain god. It also described him as a treacherous mountain god. Upon reaching the idol of the mountain god, some 2000' up the mountain, Logan shouted that he knew someone had been following him for the last 200 years, and demanded that person show their face. The White Ghost appeared as a featureless figure, battering Logan repeatedly, proving untouchable to Logan's assaults. Refusing to answer why he had summoned him there or why he was attacking him now, the White Ghost told him he wanted him to know that he could have defeated him anytime in the last 200 years, then vanished, leaving Logan to wonder "Why didn't you". Near death, Logan was located by the White Ghost's servants and brought to his fortress. After recovering, Logan was brought to the White Ghost himself, who called him James. Logan challenged the White Ghost, and the two sparred for a time, with the White Ghost noting he was Logan's predecessor and superior. When Logan slashed the White Ghost's abdomen with his claws, the White Ghost adopted his immaterial form. Again battering Logan with immunity, the White Ghost announced that he had just wanted to make sure that he understood the pecking order, then embraced Logan and revealed himself to be Logan's older brother. John showed Logan the picture of his mother holding James as a baby, then brought him to the old Weapon X tank in which they had both been experimented on. John revealed that Weapon X had long since closed down, and a frustrated Logan shattered the equipment. John then shared his own history with Logan and promised to fill in the missing pieces of Logan's memory if Logan joined with him against the rest of the world. Apparently unbeknown to John, Logan had long harbored Xavier's astral self within him, and Xavier warned Logan against throwing his life away for a brother he never really knew. When John came out to check on Logan's decision, Logan ambushed John and shoved his claws in his back, and then pushed off of the mountaintop. John survived the fall and escaped before he could be found. Logan knew that John had survived, denying police conclusions to the contrary. The current X-Men joined the investigation, and John's base was raided and his followers arrested. Logan then travelled to Las Vegas and went to a bar associated with John's scent, then took down the Ratpack, a group of men who attacked him when he started asking about John. Logan forced one of the men to reveal that he could find John at the Medieval, next to the old Bellagio. The Ratpack's Pete Randle warned John's agents that Logan was coming for him. John determined to slay Logan himself, as he would never die until he ran into someone better. John observed Logan's progress in invading his Las Vegas facility and was frustrated when Logan duped them into thinking he was on a rail-car while he sneaked in on foot. John finally caught up with Logan as Logan approached "Ecstacy", a nuclear bomb with which John intended to blow a hole in Nevada to cause the US economy to crumble, setting it up for a hostile takeover. John invited Logan to join him one last time, but Logan condemned him for claiming to seek freedom and liberation, but really being out for profit. John taunted Logan, mocking his life and threatening his offspring, but Logan destroyed the bomb's trigger device and then fled the base. John attacked Logan as he departed in a rail-car, and the two battled savagely again, with John again taunting Logan with knowledge of his past, including a mutant son he didn't even know he had, a son that he would convince to accept him as his father after Logan's death. John planned to construct a new trigger and defeating Logan (or to have his men do it while they were both in police custody), but his next blow struck a power box with his claws, and both men were sent flying out of the rail-car. As they landed, Logan's claws impaled John through the chest. Dying, John told Logan that he was glad that it had happened this way but that he wished he had more time to tell him about Rose. With his last breath, John told Logan that he had always been so proud of him.
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