"Whoops."
The afternoon sky had turned dark and heavy, and a cold wind drifted through the streets of the town. Thick clouds gathered above, hinting that rain would soon arrive.
Martha had gone out to buy groceries, and Clark and Victor followed along to help carry everything. The weather made people hurry along the sidewalks, each pedestrian moving quickly as if trying to beat the approaching storm.
Clark had just lifted two large buckets of discounted laundry detergent from the supermarket and placed them into the car when his vision suddenly flickered.
The world around him shifted.
Everything faded into black and white, like an old silent film. The colors disappeared entirely, leaving only stark shades of gray. The people walking nearby no longer looked like ordinary residents of the town.
Instead, Clark saw skeletons wrapped in flesh and veins.
A woman carrying a basket of vegetables walked past him casually, unaware of the strange scene playing out in Clark's eyes. Startled, Clark instinctively leaned away to avoid bumping into her.
Victor glanced at him immediately and understood what was happening.
His brother's super vision had activated again.
"Control your talent with your mind," Victor said calmly. "Don't fear it and don't resist it."
When General Zod had first arrived on Earth and been exposed to sunlight, he had adapted to multiple new powers within a single minute. Of course, Zod had been a highly trained warrior, which made the process easier for him.
But he was still Kryptonian.
Zod didn't possess extra limbs or organs compared to Superman, and his potential wasn't greater than Clark's either.
"Think back to gym class earlier," Victor continued. "Remember why you were able to control it then."
Clark looked uncomfortable as he tried to process the advice.
Victor suspected the issue might actually be psychological.
Clark had always resisted the strange abilities appearing within him. Every time they surfaced, they reminded him that he wasn't completely human. That internal resistance probably made his powers unstable.
"I…"
Clark was about to respond when something suddenly caught his attention.
Not far away, a strange skeleton appeared within his vision.
All the other people around them looked like ordinary X-ray images, gray bones surrounded by dark shadows of flesh. But this skeleton was different.
It glowed faintly green.
Like…
"A meteorite?"
Clark immediately remembered the strange green rocks that had arrived on Earth at the same time he did. For reasons he didn't understand, those meteorites weakened him whenever he got too close.
"What's wrong, Clark?" Martha asked as she came out of the supermarket carrying a bag. "Is it happening again?"
Seeing that her son looked uncomfortable, she immediately grew worried.
"Let's just go home."
"No, I'm fine," Clark replied quickly.
He watched as the glowing green skeleton walked into a small shop across the street.
Taking a deep breath, Clark tried Victor's suggestion. Instead of fighting the strange sensation, he relaxed his mind and let the ability settle.
Two seconds later, his vision returned to normal.
"Victor was right," Clark said with a grin. "I can control it if I stop resisting."
Although he felt relieved, he also felt a bit frustrated when he glanced at his calm younger brother.
The ability belonged to Clark, yet Victor seemed to understand how it worked better than he did.
Victor, however, wasn't surprised.
"As everyone knows," he thought quietly, "Superman is a rather idealistic creature."
Martha smiled with relief when she saw Clark gaining control over his new power. At least this ability didn't seem dangerous.
"Mom," Clark said suddenly, "weren't you planning to visit an antique shop?"
He had just seen the glowing skeleton walk into the antique store across the street.
"Yes," Martha replied as she began walking that direction. "The lamp in our bedroom broke. I was hoping Catherine could help repair it."
After walking a short distance down the street, Martha led her two sons into the shabby antique shop.
Jingle.
The door opened, and a small bell rang above the entrance.
Inside, the store was packed with objects.
Glass cabinets displayed porcelain pieces and old metal trinkets. Oil paintings, antique wall clocks, and colorful embroidered tapestries hung along the walls. In the corners sat small statues carved in the style of ancient African tribes.
Victor looked around quietly.
If this place truly contained real antiques, he would have been surprised.
An antique shop that had resorted to repairing household appliances probably didn't have many valuable items left.
"Most of this stuff came in just last week," a voice said.
"Ah… Martha Kent, how have you been?"
Catherine walked out from the back of the shop.
Her movements were brisk, but there was a brief flicker of nervousness in her eyes before she forced a polite smile onto her face.
"How's business?" Martha asked warmly.
She didn't notice anything unusual. The woman standing in front of her looked exactly like the Catherine she had known for years. Her eyes, nose, and even the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes were identical.
"Not bad," Catherine replied.
After exchanging a few friendly words, Martha got to the point.
"I came about a lamp."
"The desk lamp?" Catherine asked.
Meanwhile, Clark quietly attempted to activate his special vision again.
He focused carefully, trying to control the muscles around his eyes the way his father had suggested. After several seconds of effort, his vision shifted once more.
Behind the counter stood a skeleton glowing with meteorite-green light.
Clark frowned slightly.
"But… why are you shorter?"
The skeleton looked different from the one he had seen earlier. The figure earlier had been tall and slender like a young woman. This one appeared hunched and shorter.
"Could there be two of them?"
Clark remembered that Catherine had a daughter named Tina who also attended the town's high school, though they weren't in the same class.
"The mahogany lamp Jonathan broke," Martha explained.
After hearing that, Catherine seemed to remember.
"Oh, right. Let me go get it."
She turned and walked into the back room.
Victor suddenly sniffed the air.
"What's that smell?"
A faint odor drifted into his nose.
Clark inhaled as well but didn't notice anything unusual. Besides super hearing and super vision, Kryptonians possessed other senses far stronger than those of ordinary humans. Perhaps Clark simply hadn't awakened those yet.
Martha didn't notice anything at all.
"I'm sorry, Martha," Catherine said as she returned a moment later. "The lamp still isn't repaired yet. Could you come back next week?"
"That's fine," Martha replied with a friendly laugh.
She turned to leave with her two sons.
Just then, a bundle of cash sticking out from beneath a cabinet near the stairs caught her eye.
She bent down and picked it up.
"What's this?"
Catherine's expression stiffened for a moment before she quickly took the money.
"Thank you, Martha," she said hurriedly. "I must have dropped it earlier."
"A customer paid in cash today," she continued nervously. "I searched for it everywhere and didn't realize it was here."
"You should be careful," Martha said kindly. "That's a lot of money."
After a few more words, she left the store with Clark and Victor.
Once they were outside on the street, Martha lowered her voice.
"That stack of money had a Town Savings and Loan band around it."
The small-town bank had just been robbed yesterday.
And now a bundle of ten thousand dollars from that same bank had appeared inside Catherine's store.
It was difficult not to make a connection.
"Catherine said a customer paid it," Martha continued quietly, "but we all know that antique shop hasn't had much business lately."
"I doubt Aunt Catherine's shop sees ten thousand dollars very often," Victor said.
When he had noticed the money earlier, the woman posing as Catherine had looked visibly panicked.
"The person who stole that money is probably connected to her," Victor concluded.
"I saw something too," Clark said suddenly.
He turned his head and looked back toward the antique shop.
Through the wall, his vision revealed a shocking scene.
Inside the shop, the hunched figure suddenly straightened. Her body stretched taller, her back straightening as she transformed into the young woman Clark had seen earlier.
More importantly—
Inside a standing cabinet nearby lay another body.
An elderly woman.
Her back was crooked, her skin pale and lifeless. Her heart had stopped beating, and the blood in her body had already begun to coagulate.
"I don't think the person we just met was Aunt Catherine," Clark said slowly.
"Then who was it?" Martha asked, alarmed.
Clark hesitated before explaining what he had seen.
Realizing that someone she had known for years might already be dead—and that the body had been hidden just a few steps away from her—Martha felt a chill run down her spine.
She decided they should return home immediately and discuss the situation with Jonathan.
Even though Clark possessed extraordinary abilities, she didn't want her son getting involved in something dangerous.
Back inside the antique shop, the door closed with a soft click.
The woman's skin rippled again like soft clay.
Within seconds, the disguise melted away, revealing Tina's true appearance.
She remembered the uneasy expression on Martha's face when the money had been discovered.
Without emotion, she walked to the door and flipped the sign to "Closed for a break."
Her cold voice echoed quietly through the empty shop.
"No one can stop me from being happy."
....
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