Two months passed in the blink of an eye. Including the month before that, half of Clark's first year of high school had already gone by, and Dilos was now sixteen.
During that time, people around town had been on edge. The reason was three Metahuman crimes in the past three months.
The first Metahuman crime had been Jeremy's case. Because of it, the police and various agencies had spent the first two months investigating. But since nothing else had happened during that time, they were already preparing to give up and leave town.
Then, just as they were about to go, two more Metahuman crimes took place in quick succession.
Lana Lang had been secretly admired by a man with insect powers. Driven by raging hormones and other factors, he kidnapped her. The man's name was Gary Alkin. This deranged bastard had used his powers to kill his own mother and devour her flesh. After kidnapping Lana, he had nearly killed her boyfriend, Whitney, when he came after her. In the end, thanks to the good-hearted Clark Kent stepping in and providing information, the police reached the scene and shot Gary dead.
When Dilos saw the news, he pursed his lips. He couldn't say for sure, but in his personal opinion, there was a good chance the police had been able to kill Gary so quickly because Clark had secretly used his powers to help. Otherwise, if the police had foolishly driven up with their sirens blaring, they would've alerted Gary, who would have made his escape early.
The other case involved a football coach at Smallville High School. He had the power to raise the temperature of anything he touched. He could instantly heat an object to its ignition point, then control the flames that sprang up and use them as he pleased. His only drawbacks were that it took a long time to activate his power and that doing so was extremely tiring.
The coach had committed all kinds of crimes to protect his career as a star coach. He had used his position and connections to get exam questions so his players could cheat, and he had nearly burned the hardworking, good-hearted principal to death with his powers.
Dilos hadn't felt much about any of it, aside from some pity for the poor victims. But what he couldn't stand was that this despicable, turtle-headed bastard had tried to burn Chloe alive!
It was because Chloe had accidentally caught him using his powers to threaten and abuse one of his players.
If Clark, who had sensed something was wrong, hadn't shown up in time with a fire extinguisher he'd gotten from who knew where, his dear little sister Chloe would have been gone!
Afterward, the two of them reported the coach to the police. There hadn't been much evidence, so the police normally wouldn't have been able to arrest him. But the recent Metahuman incidents had left people terrified, so the police had no choice but to take the matter seriously. When they went to arrest the coach, the two sides immediately clashed. The coach's flames kept the police from getting close, and they tried everything to capture the Metahuman criminal. They used smoke bombs, shotguns, and fire hydrants. In the end, the repulsive coach couldn't control his powers properly. Furious, he lashed out wildly, trying to burn everything around him. He didn't manage to kill anyone else; instead, he lost control and burned himself to death.
Dilos only found out about it after it was all over. The police had informed him as a victim's family member and brought him to the scene, where he learned what had happened. If they hadn't, who knew how long Chloe would have kept it from him?
"It's just a shame he got off so easily." Thinking about how much danger Chloe had been in, Dilos felt a pang of fear, while murderous rage kept churning in his chest.
"If I'd been there, I would've made him feel his blood flow backward and watch himself bleed from every orifice as he slowly died, letting him feel every bit of that despair and pain." When Dilos had learned what happened, he'd wanted to rush to the hospital morgue and drag out the bastard's charred corpse to give it a good beating.
After the incident, Dilos started school nearly half a month early. As far as he knew, Metahumans were usually scattered all over the world. It was unheard of for three to appear in a row in a town like Smallville. If his guess was right, judging by the information Chloe had collected at the Wall of Weird and the circumstances surrounding how these Metahumans had gained their powers, they had most likely all gotten their abilities from exposure to Kryptonite.
Still, Dilos wasn't planning to think through the causes and effects just yet. He had other things to deal with. After all, something this serious had happened, and Chloe had kept it from him. If the police hadn't notified him as her family, he'd still be in the dark.
"Come on, don't be mad. I just didn't want you to worry. Dad's already stopped being angry, but you've been mad for two weeks. Keep it up and you'll age before your time~" Chloe tried to soothe the scowling Dilos with an awkward smile. "Besides, I wasn't hurt, was I?"
"That's right. You weren't hurt." Dilos drove, pursing his lips in displeasure. To keep Chloe from getting into trouble like that again, he had started driving her to and from school like a parent.
Seeing his expression, Chloe gave an awkward smile, then changed the subject. "Seriously, Dilos, are you sure you want to wear those glasses? You don't even need them. They make you look kind of..."
"Dorky." Dilos finished her sentence. "I have to keep a low profile. Besides, don't you think the face I reveal when I casually take off my glasses is bound to attract girls?"
Dilos smiled smugly at that, and Chloe rolled her eyes. "Sure, sure~ The second you take off your glasses, you leave all the girls at school completely smitten. Do you really think it's fun to tease them like that? You take off your glasses and give them a wink. Then they get flustered after their hearts start racing. You've been blacklisted by a bunch of guys already. If they could beat you, they'd have pounded you by now."
"They deserve it." Dilos pursed his lips impatiently. "You haven't seen how they look at me when I'm wearing glasses. I can tell what nasty things they're thinking without even using my powers. Thinking it is one thing, but they go out of their way to spread malicious rumors about me. What did I ever do to them? How else am I supposed to get back at them?"
"Besides, I'm making a sacrifice to help those guys see what these women are really like. Look at the women I've messed with—they're practically rutting animals. If they see a handsome guy, they go running after him, and plenty of them end up sleeping with him. Girls like you and Lana, though, I respect." Dilos even slipped in a compliment at the end, leaving Chloe both annoyed and amused.
Chloe knew her cousin's personality all too well. That was exactly why she felt helpless. "Dilos, you're never going to get a girlfriend acting like that."
"It's fine," Dilos said, unconcerned. "I want a good girl I can spend my life with, not a bunch of rutting animals. If I don't find someone I like, I can just stay single forever." He glanced at Chloe.
"Besides, you're hardly one to talk. Clark likes Lana, and you're going to stay single forever because you secretly pine for him and ignore every other good guy."
"You!" Chloe gritted her teeth, stung by the jab. In the end, she said with a woeful face, "You're picking on me. I'm not talking to you anymore."
"Hahaha!"
Teasing Chloe cheered Dilos up a little. If nothing went wrong, they would be home in a few minutes.
Yes, if nothing went wrong.
Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding!
A piercing alarm caught Dilos and Chloe's attention. He looked toward the sound and saw an utterly unbelievable sight.
"Is it April Fools' Day?" Even Chloe looked baffled.
They saw Lex Luthor running out of a bank, carrying an M500 Revolver and sprinting with a backpack whose zipper was left open.
A rich man like Lex Luthor robbing a bank at gunpoint? It sounded about as likely as Colonel Sanders grabbing a butcher knife and robbing his own restaurant for the fried chicken it produced.
"No, that's not Lex!" Dilos shouted. The moment he saw the bizarre scene, he had already extended his powers to sense the man.
He sensed anxiety and fear, but also realized that the man's brainwaves were nowhere near Lex's. He even used X-Ray Vision through his glasses and saw that a large portion of the man's bones was green.
"He's definitely not Lex. Could he be a Metahuman with shapeshifting powers?" Dilos watched the fleeing "Lex," thinking to himself. As Chloe cried out in alarm, he immediately threw the car into reverse and spun around. He absolutely couldn't let the man get away, or Lex would take the fall!
Dilos drove the Lamborghini, its engine roaring, and quickly caught up with "Lex," closing the distance between them. His gaze turned steely, and he pulled a civilian tactical self-defense pen from his pocket.
His muscles tightened and his arm flexed as he flung the self-defense pen out the driver's window like a dart.
With a whoosh, the pen cut through the air and caught up with "Lex," striking him squarely in the back of the head~
With a thud, "Lex" collapsed unconscious. Before the shocked eyes of the onlookers, his skin and bones visibly changed. In a few short seconds, he transformed into a pale-faced, suit-wearing cutie.
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