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The RV started moving again. Clark sat in the passenger seat, while the girl who had stowed away in the back went to rest in the cabin.
"My name is Mary," she said, wanting to thank the boy who had spoken up for her. "Thanks for sticking up for me back there."
"It was nothing," Clark replied. "To be honest, even if I hadn't said anything, Logan wouldn't have just left you out there."
"Clark, you talk too much," Logan grumbled from the driver's seat, feeling a bit awkward under their teasing gazes.
"Well, thank you too, Logan," Mary said with a small smile.
"Tsk..." Logan grunted in response. Though he was ancient, being called "uncle" by anyone still felt strange, but he didn't correct her.
Just then, Mary's stomach let out a loud growl. The sound made Logan realize that in the day since he'd met Clark, he hadn't seen the boy eat or drink anything.
"The next rest stop is a ways off. You two should eat something," Logan said. He reached into the glove compartment, pulled out two bags of chips, and tossed one to each of them. "There's water in the back if you need it."
Clark was fine. Even without his powers fully restored, his Kryptonian biology meant he didn't really need to eat. But Mary was clearly starving. She immediately pulled off her gloves and began to tear into the bag.
As she did, both Clark and Logan noticed her hands, which were pale and damp with sweat. Logan silently turned on the cab heater. Clark, noticing the gesture, leaned over. "Logan turned the heat on. You can warm your hands by the vent."
The simple offer seemed to frighten her.
When Clark gestured toward her, Mary instinctively pulled her hands back to avoid any chance of contact.
"Whoa, I just wanted to show you where the heat was," Clark said quickly, thinking he had scared her.
Logan chimed in, "You don't really think this kid, who's not even ten, is going to hurt you, do you?"
"No! It's not that..." Mary realized how her reaction must have looked. Especially since she knew Logan wasn't ordinary, she quickly tried to explain. "I'm just… I'm afraid of hurting you. In the past, whenever someone touched my skin, they would get hurt. It's… like your claws in the tavern. I think I have some kind of strange ability, too."
She hastily pulled her gloves back on, not wanting to harm the two people who had shown her kindness.
"Is that so?" Logan said.
Though her explanation was vague, neither of them pressed the issue. After all, she was just getting a ride to the next town.
After a period of silence, Mary, no longer hungry, couldn't help but look at Logan, her eyes fixed on the joints of his fists.
"Does it... hurt? When your claws come out?"
It was a simple question born of curiosity, but Logan felt the genuine concern behind it. In all his years of wandering, he had helped many people, but no one had ever seemed to care if he felt pain.
"Every time," Logan answered, his voice flat. But saying the words aloud felt like a weight had been lifted from his heart. He glanced at Clark, then at Mary. Maybe the last fifteen years of wandering hadn't been for nothing if they led him to these two.
The distance between the three of them closed quickly after that, and a comfortable harmony settled in the small cab.
But in a vehicle carrying a man who had lived for over a century, a young mutant girl with a dangerous power, and a Kryptonian, a peaceful journey was never going to be in the cards.
Not long after, Logan was driving through a sparsely populated forest. Clark had gone to the back of the RV, and Mary was now in the passenger seat.
"You should really wear your seatbelt," she pointed out, noticing Logan had his foot to the floor. Clark had tried to convince him of the same thing yesterday, with no success.
"I don't need you to remind me—"
Before Logan could finish his sentence, a massive tree by the side of the road suddenly crashed down, blocking their path. He slammed on the brakes, but it was too late.
The RV smashed head-on into the fallen tree.
Mary was held in place by her seatbelt, and Clark was thrown around in the back, but Logan, unrestrained, was launched through the windshield. He flew more than ten meters before landing hard in a snowdrift.
"What… happened?" Clark groaned, pulling himself up inside the wrecked cabin. He looked out the shattered windshield and saw Logan lying motionless in the snow.
A moment later, Logan began to stir. He pushed himself up, but a severe blow to his head had affected his coordination, and he staggered as he tried to walk back.
At the same time, the rear of the RV caught fire. The flames spread with terrifying speed, moving toward the gas tank. Clark knew instantly that without his powers, he had no chance of putting out a fire that large.
"Mary, get out! The RV is on fire, it's going to explode!" Clark yelled. He then saw that the force of the crash had jammed her seatbelt buckle, trapping her in the seat.
"Are you alright?" Logan had made it back, the deep, bone-exposing gash on his forehead already sealed into a thin red line. Clark was stunned; the only healing factor he knew of that was even close to this was his own, and it wasn't this fast.
But now was not the time to be amazed.
"The car's on fire, and the gas tank is next! Mary is stuck!" Clark shouted.
"Dammit!" Logan knew the RV was a lost cause. He immediately moved to rescue her.
Just as he got close to the passenger door, a primal instinct screamed danger. He threw his arms up, claws shooting from his fists with a sharp snikt.
"Someone's out there," he snarled.
Clark realized it too. The heavy snow and crackling fire were masking the enemy's scent, leaving Logan blind. But Clark was different. Even weakened, his senses were far superior to a human's. He closed his eyes, filtering out the blizzard and the flames, and focused until he pinpointed the faint sound of hidden breathing.
"Logan, left!"