"How is this kid still alive?"
Toad had held back from intervening in the fight between Sabretooth and Logan not just to let Sabretooth have his fun, but because he'd been watching from the shadows. He'd seen Clark take the full force of a gas tank explosion at close range. An eight-year-old shouldn't have survived that. Even Sabretooth would have been stunned for at least a minute. So how had this kid survived?
"Is he a mutant?" Toad wondered. He didn't feel any sense of camaraderie with Clark. The Brotherhood of Mutants claimed to fight for mutant rights, but aside from Magneto and Mystique, most of its members were ruthless criminals. They didn't truly care about their so-called brethren; they only obeyed Magneto because his power gave them protection.
"Haven't you had enough fighting? I'll leave this brat to you," Toad sneered, taking a step back.
If Magneto were here, Clark might have piqued his curiosity and been spared for his courage. But Toad had no such notions of respect or compassion. Of course, Clark wouldn't have cared, because he wasn't a mutant at all—he was a Kryptonian from another universe.
Facing the approaching Sabretooth, Clark clenched his fists, shaking them in preparation, then charged. He threw a series of punches into the monster's abdomen, his height only allowing him to reach below the man's chest.
But Clark's superpowers were still depleted. The fighting skills he'd learned on Paradise Island were useless. He dodged two of Sabretooth's claw strikes before the monster grabbed him by the head and lifted him into the air.
"Agh!"
The pressure was excruciating. With one hand, Sabretooth squeezed Clark's head, and Clark felt like his skull was about to explode. He was powerless to resist.
"Clark!"
Rogue screamed his name, but she was still stuck in the passenger seat. All she could do was reach through the shattered window and shake Logan, trying to wake up the unconscious man. But a person who has been knocked out is not so easily roused.
Everything seemed lost until a single ray of sunlight pierced through a gap in the trees and landed squarely on Clark. His body, driven by the instinct to survive, instinctively began to absorb the sun's energy. After a brief moment of exposure, his eyes glowed red.
"Aaaah!"
With a roar, a blast of heat vision erupted from his eyes, hitting Sabretooth and forcing him back. The intense heat of the beam burned Sabretooth's skin and flesh faster than his healing factor could keep up. Without an adamantium skeleton to protect him, Sabretooth would have died right there.
"What!"
Clark's sudden power display startled Toad, who was reminded of a very troublesome old friend. He saw that if this continued, Sabretooth would be killed. The toad shot out his tongue, wrapped it around Clark's feet, and yanked him to the ground. The blast of heat vision immediately stopped. It had been a temporary burst of power, and now that it was broken, Clark couldn't use it again.
Feeling the threat of death, Sabretooth didn't hesitate. He rushed forward and kicked Clark in the neck. With a sickening snap, Clark's cervical vertebrae broke. He collapsed, convulsing on the ground. The day's worth of slowly accumulated energy was gone, and Clark, completely powerless, could no longer breathe. He finally understood the feeling of suffocation—a feeling of helplessness, like being trapped in an abyssal depth.
Seeing his broken neck, Toad and Sabretooth no longer cared about Clark. He was as good as dead. They turned their attention back to the RV, but at that moment, the snow began to fall much more heavily.
Realizing something was wrong, the two men spun around. In an instant, a blizzard had erupted, and through the swirling snow, they could see two figures in tight combat suits.
"Roar!" Sabretooth bellowed instinctively, but Toad had already leaped into the forest. He wasn't a fool; he knew who these two were and that he couldn't stand a chance in a head-on fight.
As the blizzard blinded Sabretooth, one of the figures—a man—gently tapped a high-tech visor on his face. A crimson beam of pure energy, uncannily similar to Clark's heat vision, shot out and tore a hole through Sabretooth's abdomen.
"Roar!"
The wounds from Clark's attack had not fully healed, and this new injury was too much. Sabretooth howled in pain and retreated into the woods.
As the enemies left, the blizzard subsided, revealing the X-Men: Cyclops and Storm.
Cyclops immediately went to the RV and used his optic blast to cut Rogue free from the wreckage. Meanwhile, Storm knelt beside Clark to check his injuries.
"What happened to Clark? Is there any hope?" Rogue asked anxiously as she ran to his side.
Storm nodded, then shook her head. "He still has vital signs, but the suffocation is too severe. We have to go now!"
"Let's go!" Cyclops said without hesitation. He hoisted the unconscious Logan over his shoulder, and the group boarded a stealth fighter jet, flying out of the Kansas forest. They returned to the X-Mansion in New York, but on the way, Clark's breathing stopped completely, his life hanging by a thread.