Uncanny X-Men, The (1981 series) #237

The Genoshan magistrates pursue the aircraft that Wolverine and Rogue escaped in, but find no trace of them on their sensors. As they get closer to leaving international waters, the magistrates try and board the aircraft. As soon as they open the hatch, the aircraft explodes, knocking the magistrates for a loop and confirming that Rogue and Wolverine were not onboard! The Genegineer is convinced that the X-Men are spies sent to discover their way of life and commands his forces to double down their efforts to find them. The one bit of information they did discover from their initial tests on their captives was that Wolverine’s red blood cell count is abnormally low, meaning that without his healing factor, he’ll soon die! Speaking of Wolverine, while laying low he catches an informational tape about Genosha and their way of life, claiming to be a free, progressive, self-made country when he knows that’s far from the truth. Wolverine spots some magistrates abusing one of their mutant slaves, when Carol (in Rogue’s body) catches back up with him.

Knowing their stolen IDs are most likely useless now, they stroll into a bar hoping to score some new information. While Carol distracts everyone in a revealing outfit, the Genegineer’s son Phillip gets cut off at the bar and attacks a magistrate. Wolverine capitalizes on this and starts a full-on bar brawl, using the confusion to pickpocket as many magistrates of their IDs as possible. He and Carol sneak out of the back just in time to see Phillip getting thrown out and beat up. They overhear the magistrates talking about putting him on the “Mute Train” and decide to tail them to find out what that is. They end up discovering a special train that mutants are loaded onto to be sent off far away from the main city, and watch Phillip get loaded onto it, and the two hitch a ride as well. Back at the Citadel, the Genegineer meets with a scared and confused Jenny Ransome and he tells her that she’s really a mutant and needs to fulfill her lawful duty to Genosha. He admits that Genosha needs the mutants they have to maintain their way of life and that the way they are maintained is a matter of self-preservation. His men let him know that they’re about to start testing on Madelyne and he commands that Jenny be readied for final processing.

In the psionics examination lab, Madelyne is loaded into one of the skinsuits used to distinguish and control mutants. They bring in a mutant telepath to probe Madelyne and she does her best to resist. Elsewhere on the island, the rest of the X-Men finally arrive there via one of Gateway’s portals. They’re immediately spotted by a magistrate force and while Colossus shields his teammates, Storm generates a wind to sweep the magistrates off their feet. Havok destroys their vehicles and a combination of Psylocke, Dazzler, and Longshot’s talents take care of the rest. Storm then commands Psylocke to probe the magistrates’ mind for any information they may have and then scramble their memories of the X-Men’s arrival. Just before she can, however, Psylocke experiences a huge psychic shockwave from a source she can’t identify! At that same time, the Genegineer responds to a distress signal at the psionics lab and discovers everyone in the room dead aside from Madelyne…

Back on the mutant train, Wolverine and Carol make their way inside, while Carol can tell Wolverine is getting worse by the hour! Given they’re dressed in magistrate disguises, their presence is none too welcome on the train. They quickly locate Phillip before they get surrounded by a bunch of the mutants, who seem primed to attack. The train is then stopped, and a bunch of actual magistrates get onboard, admonishing the mutants for daring to threaten a magistrate. Carol and Wolverine make the guy in charge aware of Phillip’s identity and presence on the train and while they ride off with him, the magistrates punish the mutants. Feeling disgusted at everything he’s seen, Wolverine swears that he’s going to bring the whole country of Genosha down! To be concluded!