The Incident

After saying goodbye to Chloe, Dilos climbed into the Lamborghini and sped toward the nursing home as fast as he could.

Vroom! Vroom! Vroom!

The engine's roar, which usually sounded like thunder, did nothing to stir Dilos's blood. Instead, it fanned the flames of anger burning in his chest.

Though his anger continued to grow, his thoughts became increasingly clear.

Dilos had noticed that whenever something unusual happened in town, it was almost always connected to Green Kryptonite. If Harry Fok really had reappeared as a young man after disappearing by the lake, as Chloe had suspected, then there was a chance Green Kryptonite could be found where he'd vanished.

As Dilos mulled over the cause and effect, he arrived at his destination before he even realized it.

He quickly got out of the car, ignoring the strange looks from the nurses nearby, and headed straight for the small lake where Harry Fok had disappeared.

The lake was surrounded by green trees that had a calming effect. The air was fresh, and the scenery was beautiful. A long, sturdy wooden bridge, winding across the lake, offered a full view of the landscape, enough to soothe anyone's mind.

That was right: scenery that soothed the mind. Dilos had heard that nature could affect people's emotions, but he'd never expected to experience it himself. Under the spell of the breathtaking view, the anger in his chest gradually cooled, then finally died away.

"Of course, it'd be even better if there weren't those ugly pieces of Green Kryptonite at the bottom of the lake and on the submerged parts of the surrounding rocks." Dilos pursed his lips and glanced at the fragments of Kryptonite glowing faintly on the rocks, his expression complicated.

"So de-aging really is possible..." Dilos rubbed his chin. "How ironic. Humanity has pursued it for countless years, and here it's been achieved so easily."

Dilos took out the newspaper clipping he'd gotten from Chloe. It explained why Harry Fok had killed someone all those years ago.

To put it in Dilos's words, it boiled down to two sentences: Harry Fok's piano teacher hadn't given him the chance to attend the Metropolis Conservatory of Music, so he'd killed the teacher's child.

Dilos didn't feel much about it. The newspaper article could help him figure out what Harry Fok planned to do now that he was young again. Once he knew, he could get ahead of him, make his own arrangements, and take him down!

Dilos took out this morning's paper and compared the information about the unfortunate victim Harry Fok had killed with the details in the clipping, piece by piece.

Dilos noticed the list of names from the jury at the time. He didn't recognize most of them, but he knew a few. One was the father of the unfortunate man who'd been killed yesterday. Another was Clark's adoptive father, Jonathan Kent's father, Harlan Kent. The last was Pete Ross's grandfather, Wayne Ross.

"I think I have a pretty good idea what this guy's after," Dilos muttered, his face darkening.

Harry Fok had come for revenge. This time, he was targeting the descendants of the jurors who'd sent him to prison! And if Dilos remembered correctly, Pete and Clark had both been to the nursing home yesterday, where they'd met Harry Fok in the dining room.

In that case, there was no guarantee Harry Fok didn't know who they were.

"Damn it! How did they not put this lunatic down back then?!" Dilos cursed and hurriedly pulled out his phone to call Pete.

"Pete! Are you there?!" Dilos shouted, but all he heard from the phone was the busy signal. He grew frantic. "Just my luck! The line's busy at a time like this!"

Dilos tried calling Jonathan and his wife, but both their phones were busy too! As for why he didn't call Clark, first, Clark's physique probably made him the safest of them all. Second, because of his family's financial situation, the guy had never had a phone!

By now, the situation had become troublesome. Without a word, Dilos dashed out of the nursing home, jumped into his car, and sped away.

The fastest and most effective thing to do was drive to their homes and check that they were safe.

Vroom! Vroom! Vroom!

The roar of the engine didn't put Dilos at ease. He just wished he could go faster.

On the road, Dilos swerved around cars and drifted through every turn. His dangerous driving drew a string of furious curses from nearby drivers, but he didn't care.

Emotionally, those people didn't mean as much to him as Chloe and Gabe did, but he couldn't just stand by and let them die. The reason was simple: they'd treated him well throughout the more than ten years he'd known them!

The tires shrieked as Dilos's Lamborghini left a long skid mark on the road. He put on the glasses hanging from his collar and activated X-Ray Vision. A moment later, he breathed a small sigh of relief. Within his field of vision, he saw nothing alive inside the house, only its structure.

"Could Pete have an elective at school today?" Dilos muttered, then glanced around the house, his heart tightening.

The phone line, some of the other wiring, and the circuit breaker at Pete's house had all been destroyed. From the marks left behind, it was clearly the work of a person.

Dilos got out of the car and looked around, his expression grave, trying to find any tracks that might show where the other person had gone. Unfortunately, he knew too little about tracking to learn anything useful.

He tried Pete's phone again, but the line was still busy. Dilos gritted his teeth.

Suddenly, a phone number came to mind. There was only one number he hadn't tried: the one for Torch Newspaper!

He deftly pulled out his phone and quickly dialed the number. After it rang for a while, Dilos finally got through.

"Hello, this is Torch School Newspaper." It was Pete's voice on the other end. As soon as Dilos heard him, he shouted.

"Pete, are you okay?!"

"Dilos?" Pete murmured, sounding puzzled. He couldn't understand why Dilos sounded so worried.

"Yeah, it's me," Dilos replied hastily. "What happened to your phone? Why couldn't I reach you? Has anyone strange shown up at school? Like that young blond stranger you and Chloe ran into at the restaurant?"

Dilos fired off several questions in a row, leaving Pete momentarily stunned. Only when Dilos suddenly shouted his name did he hurriedly reply.

"Okay, okay. That stranger we ran into yesterday accidentally knocked my phone out of my hand. Something went wrong with it, and some of the features stopped working. It's being repaired now."

"That guy isn't at school. I haven't seen him either. What happened?"

Hearing the urgency in Dilos's voice, even Pete, slow as he was, realized something serious had happened.

"That guy's a murderer!" Dilos gritted his teeth and shouted. "He's hunting down the descendants of the jury who sent Harry Fok to prison decades ago. One of those descendants is you!"

There was no time to explain more, so Dilos added, "Whatever you do, don't be alone today. Stay with other people. And where's Clark? Is he there?"

When he heard that he was being hunted, Pete was momentarily terrified. He pressed his lips together, then quickly replied, "He's not here. He should've gone to the nursing home today."

"Okay." Dilos said nothing more. He swung onto his motorcycle and sped toward Clark's house. At the same time, he left Pete with one more instruction: "Stay at school. Go wherever there are lots of people."

Dilos hung up, his expression shifting between dark and troubled. Pete's parents were nothing to worry about, since there were plenty of people at their workplace. Pete should be fine too. People were always moving through the school corridors, and the Torch School Newspaper office was no exception. As long as he didn't do something stupid like deliberately staying somewhere deserted, then no matter how brazenly Harry Fok showed up at the school, he wouldn't get a chance to strike.

That left only Clark's home.

Before long, Dilos reached Clark's house. As he'd expected, the wires and circuit breaker had all been cut. The once-plain living room was in disarray, and Jonathan and his wife were nowhere to be seen.

"Tch! Where are they?" Dilos clicked his tongue in frustration, then quickly searched the surrounding area with his glasses' X-Ray Vision. Soon, he spotted the skeletal images of three people moving around inside a warehouse.

"Found them!"