Black

"It was Lex Luthor."

Tina's voice came out rough and masculine, her tone flippant.

She shifted back to her normal form, idly playing with her hair with some regret.

"Too bad the signature gave me away. Otherwise, I wouldn't have had to snatch it yesterday."

"You told me you'd stop using that ability!"

Her daughter had really robbed a bank. Catherine's lips trembled with anger, her voice heavy with grief.

"I did it for us. After Dad died, we've been scraping by on this forgotten little antique shop on the corner. We can barely afford food and clothes anymore."

Tina tried to convince her mother, her pupils dilating with excitement, her face flushing red.

"Look at all this money. This is just the start. Soon I'll be living the same kind of life as Lana."

Both ran shops, but Aunt Lana's flower shop made way more money than this rundown antique store. Lana had always been the one Tina envied deeply growing up—the girl from a well-off family.

"Enough. I don't want to see you get hurt!"

"Hurt?"

She laughed as if it were a joke.

"That bank security guard shot me twice in the back. All he did was ruin one suit."

"Tina, no one's life is perfect." Catherine tried to keep her voice calm.

"Lana's is!"

Tina's face went cold as she cut her off.

She'd heard that line countless times since she was a kid.

Lana was like a white swan—wealthy, beautiful, liked by everyone, the center of attention wherever she went. Meanwhile, she was just a drab, ugly duckling by the roadside.

"This money is stolen."

Not wanting to argue with her daughter anymore, Catherine's face darkened as she stomped angrily down the stairs.

"I'll give it back. I'll say I found it by the garbage truck."

"Don't do that, Mom. Why can't we just be happy?"

Tina rushed forward impatiently, grabbing at the backpack to snatch it back.

Thump, thump, thump!

In the struggle, she put too much force into it. Catherine lost her grip on the bag, stumbled backward, and fell down the stairs. Her aging body tumbled several times before her head slammed hard against the wall. She lay unconscious, her condition unknown.

"Mom!"

Tina's eyes went wide. She dashed downstairs, dropped the backpack, and reached for the phone to call for help. But as she picked it up, something crossed her mind. She hesitated, her face gradually turning cold, and set it back down.

Before gym class.

Everyone was changing into their sports clothes in the locker room.

"Ah!"

Clark's vision suddenly blurred. He rubbed his eyes hard, then opened them again—and was so startled he let out a scream.

The room was filled with skeletons wrapped in flesh, the purple veins even visible beneath the muscle, like a scene straight out of a horror movie.

"Clark?"

Pete, standing nearby, wondered why he'd screamed.

But in Clark's eyes, a fleshy skeleton had just turned its head. He stumbled back in fright.

"My eyes! My eyes..."

"What's wrong?"

Another skeleton, built like a Greek sculpture carved from muscle, turned its head and frowned.

David, who had just pulled on his shirt, asked the suddenly screaming Clark.

"I..."

As Clark stumbled back in panic, his gaze suddenly pierced through the wall and into the girls' locker room next door.

Girls in their underwear were changing clothes. Among them was a familiar figure—Lana.

Black...

The future Superman's eyes slowly went glassy, as if he'd stumbled upon a beautiful sight. A grin spread across his face, showing his white teeth.

"What's wrong with your eyes?"

Pete asked again. What was up with Clark? First he freaked out, then he stared blankly at the wall, grinning like an idiot.

"Nothing."

Clark snapped back to attention, shook his head, and quickly dealt with Pete.

Once Pete had left, he still took his time changing clothes, his gaze lingering reluctantly on the wall.

David glanced at the wall that led to the girls' locker room, then at Clark's eyes practically glued to it, and immediately figured out what was going on.

"You're bleeding, Clark."

A sudden voice cut through.

Lost in thought, Clark fumbled at his nose in panic, but his hand came back clean.

"No way, would I actually get a nosebleed?"

He looked up to find David standing with arms crossed, watching him with a knowing smirk that seemed to see right through him.

Under that gaze, Clark felt like a caught thief, utterly uncomfortable. A wave of inexplicable guilt made him look away, shifting his eyes elsewhere.

Why hit me with that out of nowhere?

Did David know about the weird new thing he'd developed?

"You're saying you've got another new ability—to see through people and things?"

Martha's face was uneasy as she watched Clark sitting on the living room couch.

Jonathan gently rubbed his wife's back to ease her worry, listening quietly nearby.

David leaned against the dining table with his arms crossed, a faint smirk on his lips. Clark didn't dare meet his eyes.

From Clark: Guilt +11, Shame +12...

"Sometimes I see through things, like an X-ray."

Sitting on the couch, Clark hung his head, pretending to be downcast, his voice muffled as if he had a towel in his mouth.

"Can't you control it?"

Sensing his wife's concern, Jonathan frowned.

Unlike before, Clark's new abilities had been popping up way too often lately.

Just two days ago, he'd suddenly developed floating, though it hadn't happened again since.

This string of changes hit like a sudden storm breaking the calm, stirring an instinctive unease.

"I don't know how to control it."

Clark glanced up at David.

"Really?"

David let out a cold laugh.

"Before gym class, you were staring right through that wall, and your new ability didn't fail once."

He added meaningfully, "Some things just depend on whether you want to or not."

The future Superman awakening his super vision and using it first thing to peek into the girls' locker room—truly a noble God Among Men, and he still had the nerve to lecture him.

Too bad he hadn't brought a camera this morning.

"Your eyes have muscles too, like blinking or focusing. You can try to control it, Clark."

Puzzled about what wall his youngest son was referring to, but father Jonathan didn't press further, offering a serious reminder instead.

"I'll try."

Clark agreed, a flicker of hesitation crossing his face.

After a few words of comfort and caution to Clark, making sure he'd be careful—luckily this ability wasn't dangerous—mother Martha went to gather clothes, ready to head out.

Jonathan also left the room to feed the cows on the farm.

Tap, tap.

"What else were you going to say, Clark?"

Footsteps approached as David walked over. He'd noticed Clark's earlier expression and grinned. "Thinking of confessing your actions to your parents?"

He drew out his words, "After all, being honest isn't wrong, right?"

"My strength has been growing faster these past two days."

Hearing that familiar tone, Clark coughed, his face reddening. Seeing his parents were gone, he lowered his voice.

One new anomaly popping up was already enough to worry them, so he hadn't brought it up earlier.

"Strength growing faster."

David raised an eyebrow. That caught him off guard.

"What do you think's causing it?"

Unlike the super vision, which he knew was bound to show up, he had no clue about this one yet.

"Maybe it's late puberty—after all, puberty is when the body develops fastest."

Clark paused, analyzing himself.

At eighteen, a person is in the midst of the intense transition from adolescence to adulthood.

"You're not an alien?"

A flicker of realization passed through David's eyes—he'd forgotten such a simple possibility—but he still said aloud.

"Can't aliens have puberty?!"

"True, they can."

David said with a knowing smile, his tone suggestive. Clark's expression once again turned somewhat embarrassed.