Chapter Three: Two of a Kind/In the Midst of Mutants

And here's Chapter Three, our first combined scene chapter! We're getting closer to meeting the X-Men!

I acknowledged the passing of Stan Lee's passing in the first chapter, and now, I must acknowledge another tragic passing: Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of one of my favorite cartoons, SpongeBob SquarePants, died from ALS at the age of 57 on November 26, 2018. I know that this isn't really the right place to talk about it, but I couldn't help it. As a young adult, I cherish the things I loved as a child, which of course includes cartoons. I also loved Teletubbies as a kid, so hearing about the passing of Simon Shelton, the second Tinky Winky performer in the original show, hit me just as hard.

But with this said, let's carry on with the new chapter for this story.

So far, I got one review! A mister/miss Agentwalkoff simply said that they loved this story. Well, I'm glad, my friend. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men.

The Wolverine got into his truck and started driving. He had no real destination, as usual. He just drove around until he found someplace interesting.

After a while, he heard some scuffling in the back. In addition to his claws, he had heightened senses of smell and hearing, like an animal. He stopped his truck and got out. He looked in the attached cart and found a blanket that was covering something. He poked at it, and it moved. Frowning, he lifted the blanket to find the hooded girl from the tavern.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked her. She sat up.

"I'm sorry. I needed a ride," she said. She had an accent that he vaguely recognized as Southern American, like Mississippi or Louisiana. "Thought you might help me."

"Get out," said Wolverine roughly. He picked up what appeared to be the girl's bag and tossed it on the ground.

"Where am I supposed to go?" the girl asked as she reluctantly got out.

"I don't know," he said, uninterested.

She raised an eyebrow. "You don't know or you don't care?"

Wolverine rolled his eyes. "Pick one." He stuck his cigar back in his mouth and headed for the driver's seat of his truck.

"I saved your life!" the girl called to him.

"No, you didn't," he rebuked without looking back. He started up his truck and began driving away. As he was driving, he started feeling guilty, which annoyed him. But even he knew that he shouldn't leave a girl stranded on the road in the snowy weather, especially not when there could be dangerous people, or even dangerous mutants out in the open. Sighing, he stopped his truck.

"You don't have anything to eat, do you?" Without answering her, he reached over to the glove compartment, took out some beef jerky, and placed it on her lap. While keeping his eyes on the road, he snuck glances at her as she slipped her gloves off and ate the dried meat almost ravenously. He wondered when the last time the girl had a decent meal was.

After she ate some jerky, she pushed her hood back, revealing long brown hair and a pale, youthful face. She looked no older than seventeen. "I'm Rogue."

Again, Wolverine said nothing, continuing to drive and smoke his cigar. Rogue looked at his chest and saw a dog tag that read the numbers 458 25 243 above the name 'Wolverine'. "Were you in the army?" she asked. "Doesn't-doesn't that mean you were in the army?"

Keeping his silence, he tucked his dog tag under his shirt. Rogue sighed. He clearly didn't want to talk, but she couldn't just sit in awkward silence. She turned around and looked through the small window between the seats.

"Wow!" From what she saw, he wasn't much better off than her. But at least he had a truck.

"What?"

She jumped when Wolverine finally spoke. She sat back and said, "Suddenly my life doesn't look that bad."

He rolled his eyes. "Hey, if you prefer the road –"

"No, no!" she said quickly. "It looks great." He turned to look at her, and she looked away and ate some more beef jerky. "Looks cozy."

He watched her rub her hands together. He turned the heater on and said, "Put your hands on the heater." But when he reached for her hands, she jerked them away, suddenly looking frightened. He started feeling a bit concerned. "I'm not gonna hurt you, kid."

Rogue shook her head. "It's nothing personal. It's just that...when people touch my skin, something happens."

Now he was interested. "What?" he asked as she put her gloves back on.

"I don't know," she said vaguely, looking uncomfortable. "They just get hurt."

Wolverine nodded slowly. "Fair enough." So she was a mutant, too. He took out his cigar and gripped the steering wheel with both hands. Rogue couldn't help but stare at his knuckles.

"When they come out," she asked carefully, "does it hurt?"

He closed his eyes for a bit. "Every time."

Rogue had been right, after all. It seemed that they were both mutants, both with dangerous abilities. She started feeling less nervous and afraid, and strangely more safe around the Wolverine.

"So," he began, "what kind of a name is 'Rogue'?"

"I don't know," she said, shrugging. "What kind of a name is 'Wolverine'?"

He nearly chuckled. He didn't want to admit it, but he was starting to like her. He said, "My name's Logan."

Rogue wanted to smile. Somehow, knowing his real name made him seem more human to her. "Marie."

After sharing a friendly glance, they soon slipped into another silence, though this time, they didn't feel as uncomfortable.

As Logan drove on, Rogue suddenly realized that he wasn't wearing his seat belt.

"You know, you should wear your seat belt," she said. Logan rolled his eyes again.

"Look, kid," he started, "I don't need advice on auto safety from –" But before he could finish, he crashed the truck into a fallen tree. And because he wasn't wearing his seat belt, he was sent flying through the windshield and slid across the snow.

Rogue nearly injured her face as her seat was dislodged. In the back of the truck, one of Logan's clothes caught flame and slowly grew. She looked up to see Logan stand up and walk towards the truck. She began panicking as she realized that she couldn't unbuckle her seat belt. As Logan stopped in front of the truck, she saw that he had a nasty gash above his right brow. He just gritted his teeth and rolled his head, and she saw that gash slowly disappear.

"You all right?" he called, but she just stared. "Kid, are you all right?" This snapped her out of her daze.

"I'm stuck!" she called back.

He walked around the truck and saw the tree trunk that had tipped over. But how did it tip over, he wondered. It couldn't have been just from his truck. His heightened senses began alerting him of danger. He looked around, his claws out.

There was silence. Then suddenly, an animal-like roar was heard and Logan found himself being thrown into a smaller tree. He landed on the snow as the tree branches landed beside him.

Rogue was scared again. Then she felt a sudden heat behind her. She looked around and saw a fire in the back of the truck, and it was growing.

Logan got back up and attempted to study his adversary. He caught a glimpse of a wild-looking man with long, shaggy blonde hair, fangs, and a fur coat before he swung the thicker tree branch at him, sending him flying. This time, he landed on the hood of his truck, right in front of Rogue. His claws retracted, and he was still.

Rogue saw the other man walking towards the truck. She tried to pry herself free, but she just couldn't undo her seat belt. She began crying in fear, and coughing from the smoke of the fire.

But then a wind began blowing towards the wild man's back. He knew that this wind wasn't natural. He snarled, sniffing around him. He saw the falling snow get sucked behind him, and he turned around. He and Rogue saw two people standing there: a man with a strange-looking visor covering his eyes, and a dark-skinned woman with long white hair and glowing white eyes. Both were wearing black leather suits, the woman's with a cape, and the wild man could faintly see small X's on them.

The snowy wind was blowing stronger and stronger towards him, and the man with the visor placed his right hand to it. A bright red laser beam shot out towards the wild man, and he jumped out of the way, the beam hitting the larger tree trunk instead. He had used this opportunity to flee, clutching Logan's dog tag he'd managed to rip off.

Rogue wanted to feel relieved that these people sent the man away, but she was still struggling to free herself, while coughing from the smoke of the fire that nearly engulfed the back of the truck. Then the door of the truck opened and she stared at her saviors. She first saw the woman, whose eyes looked normal now, before the man stepped forward. She gasped a little, her heart skipping a beat. In any other situation, she may have begun thinking about how attractive this man was (stupid teenage hormones!), but right now, she was still afraid for her life. The man touched his visor and shot a smaller beam at her seat belt, freeing her. The woman now stepped forward, offering her hand. Seeing that she too was wearing gloves, Rogue didn't hesitate to grab it and be led out of the truck, clutching the handles of her bag.

While the white-haired woman led her away, the handsome man with the visor heaved Logan's body off of the hood of the truck and hauled him away just as the truck exploded.

And there's Chapter Three! Storm and Cyclops saved the day! And yeah, even though Rogue is trying to stay alive, what with her jammed seat belt keeping her from escaping the fire, she can't help but find one of her saviors attractive, lol. Like she said, stupid teenage hormones!

I should probably address how I'm going to refer the characters by their names. Basically, I call them by their codenames when they're in uniform, and by their human names otherwise. Rogue is obviously an exception, as is Jean Grey (for now), and I'm gonna refer to Xavier as Professor Xavier or 'the professor' during school scenes. I'll refer to him as Charles or Xavier during other scenes.