After receiving news that his mother was safe and sound, Clark returned to his usual optimistic self, beaming from ear to ear.
He was filled with hope, like the sun at seven or eight in the morning.
"Friends, I want to thank you!"
Clark flew down from the sky, looking deeply moved, but no one paid any attention to the touching scene.
"Oh, give it a rest. If you have time, figure out where to lock these guys up! Quit making such sappy speeches!"
Now that they knew each other well and had become bad-influence friends, there was no need for politeness. Miao Mu pointed directly at the Kryptonian warriors he had planted in the ground.
"Think of something! You don't want your family farm to plant one Kryptonian today and harvest a whole bunch of Kryptonians next fall, do you?"
Only then did Clark react. "I... I just defeated a Kryptonian. I'll go catch him right now!"
After saying that, Clark turned and flew away.
He searched all along the route they had come from. The marks scraped into the ground and the damaged facilities were all still there.
But Udom Say, the captain of the Kryptonian advance team who had taken a beating from him, seemed to be... gone. There was no sign of anyone nearby.
Only the residents in the distant houses, pressed against their windowpanes and looking over curiously, seemed to know something.
Clark hurriedly flew over, flashing his signature smile. "Hello, did you see the guy I knocked down earlier?"
The two children behind the glass had little stars of admiration in their eyes, but when they heard Superman's question—
They both shook their heads in unison. Clark turned and swept the area with his X-ray vision, but found no trace of him either.
So