Insects Eagerly Seeking Mates

Someone was watching them.

David sensed it and cast his gaze over. The others turned to look as well.

A man in a black jacket with slicked-back blond hair stood there, his expression cold, like a predator at the top of the food chain, a detached hunter whose eyes seemed to hold no regard for the four of them at all. He turned and walked off in the direction Lana had gone.

"Was that cool guy Gregg?"

It took a few seconds after the man had passed before Pete turned his head, stunned.

"It took me a few seconds to recognize him," Chloe said, equally shocked.

She'd worked with Gregg before on some insect science articles for the Torch Report, the paper she ran.

But the man she'd just seen was nothing like the Gregg she knew—the one who couldn't even make eye contact with a girl.

"It's not just the glasses and the clothes. He's completely changed."

Chloe rubbed her arms suspiciously. "He gave me goosebumps."

It wasn't awkwardness or shyness. It was a primal discomfort, like a fawn spotting a hyena—her body instinctively warning her to stay away.

David and Clark, on the other hand, didn't feel that way at all.

The four of them kept chatting as they headed toward the classroom.

Chloe tapped the newspaper and brought up another strange story she'd seen.

"Check this out. Jeremy Kree. He was a student at our high school over a decade ago. After the Meteor Shower, he was found in a coma. Then, during a medical equipment short-circuit accident, he vanished from State Hospital. Yesterday, he was found at the entrance of our Town Hospital."

"So someone stole a vegetable from the hospital and then dumped him at our hospital's front door?" Pete frowned. What was the point of that?

David and Clark exchanged a glance. Clark looked a little nervous.

"I'm putting this on my Wall of Weird."

In the activity editorial office the school had given her, Chloe had a Wall of Weird covered in all kinds of bizarre stories.

"Ahem. Nothing weird about this," Clark said, a little uneasy.

"The interesting part is that no one paid attention to this vegetable before. But after this incident, some doctors noticed he hadn't aged a day in over a decade. No one knows why."

As they talked, they reached the editorial office. Chloe opened the storage room inside and pinned the newspaper to the wall.

The entire wall was plastered with similar newspapers and magazines, all covering strange events caused by the meteor shower.

One magazine cover caught their attention.

"It's Lana."

A flicker of pain passed through Clark's eyes.

The cover showed a young Lana in a cute pink princess dress, holding a fairy wand, dressed as if waiting for her parents to take her to an amusement park.

But she looked like she'd just been through a disaster—dirty, crying in sorrow.

The magazine title: After the Meteor Shower, the Heartbroken Angel.

The meteor shower over a decade ago had caused a catastrophe. Some people died, including Lana's parents.

That was how Clark had first noticed Lana. After secretly watching her for a while, he'd developed feelings for her.

"Insects. Arthropods among invertebrates. They are the most numerous animal group on Earth.

For example, cockroaches, ants, bees..."

"Class, don't look down on these little creatures. Insects have immense potential. They can easily do things we humans find incredible.

But most of them live short lives, like shooting stars, not even lasting a summer.

So once an insect becomes an adult, driven by strong genetic instincts, it usually quickly starts looking for a mate, doing everything to defeat competitors, and producing offspring..."

A day of school passed in a flash, after one boring biology class.

It was time for afternoon dismissal.

The horizon was faintly tinged with dusk as David, Clark, and the others walked out of the school gate.

At the gate, Gregg—who had looked so cold and aloof at noon—was now wearing a smile, saying something to Lana, who looked exhausted.

"Lana, you seem really down.

I heard there's a nice café in town. Want to go sit together?"

He waved the homework in his hand.

"I was hoping you could help me with my literature report."

"Gregg, I told you at noon. I really like the butterfly you gave me.

But I'm not in the mood for invitations right now. Can you just let me be?"

Whitney, anxious to win back his girlfriend, had been pestering her all over campus, but it only made Lana officially ask for some time apart.

Having just gone through a breakup, she was physically and emotionally drained.

"Well... okay."

Gregg's smile stiffened a little.

Lana nodded to David and Clark as a quick greeting, then turned and walked away wearily, clutching her books.

"Gregg might look different, but he still has no clue how to talk to girls."

Chloe shook her head, a teasing note in her voice.

"Dude, I think standing here is the last thing you should be doing."

Pete clapped Clark on the shoulder with a wink.

What a rare opportunity.

"David..." Clark's eyes lit up as he caught on, a little embarrassed. "Tell Mom and Dad I'll be home late."

David crossed his arms, looking unsurprised, and brushed past him as he spoke.

"If you run into some thugs on the way home with a girl, I'd advise you to protect yourself first, Clark."

Lana had put that Kryptonite necklace back on.

If some cliché scene played out where someone jumped out to harass Lana, Clark trying to play the hero might end with him hitting the ground first.

If the future Superman, leader of the Justice League, got beaten to death by punks in a back alley while trying to save a damsel in high school, that would be a joke.

"I know."

Used to his brother's peculiar brand of cold sarcasm by now, Clark sighed and jogged off after Lana.

David and the others got on the school bus and left.

"If you don't want to end up stuffed in a trash can, you insect freak..."

At the school gate, Gregg watched Clark chase after Lana with a cold expression, his thoughts unreadable.

Suddenly, someone slapped him hard on the shoulder and muttered a threat.

"Stay away from my girlfriend!"

After dropping that warning, Whitney turned to go after Clark and give him another piece of his mind.

But a powerful hand grabbed his shoulder, stopping him in his tracks.

"A failed competitor should at least have the grace to accept defeat."

Gregg's hand squeezed like a hydraulic press, making Whitney's bones creak in pain. He twisted in agony and fury, swinging an elbow at Gregg's face.

"Let go of me!"

"You're out of the game, Whitney."

The words were ice-cold, like something from a soulless creature. Before Whitney could react, Gregg flung him backward. Whitney flew like a weightless stuffed toy, crashing into the trash can by the gate and crumpling to the ground, unconscious.

Ignoring the startled cries around him.

Gregg glanced expressionlessly at Clark, who had caught up to Lana and was trying to talk, then shot a look at the departing school bus.

"The one who wins the mate will be me alone." He turned and walked away.