> "All right," Alex said calmly. "Now we can begin, right?"
His tone was even, almost casual, but there was a quiet gravity in his words that made both teenagers stiffen on instinct.
He took a slow step toward Whitney, the cave light casting sharp shadows across his face. His expression was unreadable—cool, distant, almost inhuman in its composure.
> "I'll ask. You answer."
Whitney didn't dare hesitate, not even for a heartbeat.
The memory of being lifted like a rag doll was still too fresh.
He nodded frantically, his voice trembling as he stammered,
> "Ask whatever you want! As long as I know, I'll tell you everything!"
Beside him, Lana stood frozen, her hands clenched tightly at her sides.
The atmosphere in the cave felt heavy—oppressive even.
She'd grown up in Smallville, a town where the wildest thing that usually happened was a tractor tipping over in a storm.
To see someone smash through solid stone and toss a two-and-a-half-meter rock monster like it was paper?
That was the kind of thing you only saw in movies.
For an ordinary high school girl like her, this was sheer nightmare fuel.
Her instincts screamed at her to run, but her legs refused to move.
> "First question," Alex said, his voice low but firm.
"Where did these rocks come from? Why does Smallville have so many of them?"
He already had a theory in mind, but confirmation never hurt.
Whitney and Lana exchanged a quick, uneasy glance.
That alone told Alex plenty.
No local would ever ask that question.
> "More than ten years ago," Whitney said finally, choosing his words carefully,
"there was a meteor shower that hit Smallville. These rocks came with it."
Alex nodded slightly, his expression thoughtful.
The timeline matched perfectly.
It was the same number of years as Clark Kent's current age.
There was no longer any doubt.
Those "meteors" that fell on Smallville weren't random space debris at all—
they were fragments of Krypton, scattered across Earth when the planet exploded and baby Kal-El's ship crash-landed here.
> "Second question," Alex continued without pause.
"What exactly are these 'meteor freaks' I've been hearing about?"
Whitney blinked, confused.
To him, it was obvious—how could someone not know that?
He'd assumed this guy was one of them.
But the calm, probing tone in Alex's voice said otherwise.
If anything, it felt like Alex was a scientist, dissecting the truth piece by piece.
Could it be that he'd just gained his powers recently?
A new arrival in town, still figuring out how everything worked?
> "Those green stones contain some kind of… energy," Whitney said cautiously.
"They can affect certain people—give them powers."
"The people who got abilities from the meteor shower… we call them 'meteor freaks.'"
Alex nodded again, slowly.
Exactly as he'd suspected.
So the "meteor freaks" were essentially humans mutated by Kryptonite radiation.
The stones didn't just poison Kryptonians—they warped the physiology of Earthlings too,
injecting their bodies with a distorted form of cosmic energy.
Alex focused his senses and could actually feel a faint residue of that energy pulsing inside Whitney's body—
like a candle flickering in the dark.
> I wonder if I can absorb it…
The thought flashed across his mind almost instinctively.
Without hesitation, Alex raised his hand toward Whitney.
> "W-what are you doing?!" Whitney yelped, stumbling back in alarm.
Duang!
He slammed straight into an invisible wall—an unseen telekinetic barrier that sealed off the exit.
The sound echoed through the cave, making Lana flinch.
Whitney turned pale. He was trapped.
Alex's hand pressed down gently on his shoulder.
> "Relax," Alex said with a faint smile. "I don't eat people."
Whitney was on the verge of tears.
But when Alex didn't crush him—or rip his powers away with some horrible ritual—he exhaled shakily,
his brain trying to rationalize what just happened.
> Why's he touching me like that? he thought nervously.
He's not… you know… right?
It's not my fault I'm good-looking!
Then, suddenly—
> "W-what the—?!"
Whitney's eyes widened in horror.
That strange, overwhelming force inside him—his "gift," the power to move stone—was gone.
Snuffed out like a candle.
He tried to focus, tried to command the rocks to rise,
but nothing happened.
No matter how much he strained, the world remained still.
> "What did you do?!" he shouted, panic breaking through his voice.
"Why is my power gone?!"
Alex's smile was faint but chillingly calm.
> "That's right. Your ability's gone."
Because he'd already absorbed every trace of cosmic energy inside Whitney's body—
cleanly, completely, leaving nothing but a hollow echo behind.
Whitney's jaw dropped. He didn't know whether to be relieved or terrified.
On one hand, the curse that had warped his body was gone.
On the other—this stranger had just stolen his power as easily as taking a breath.
> "Last question," Alex said, his tone neutral once again.
"Are there many 'meteor freaks' in this town?"
Whitney hesitated, then shook his head.
> "I'm… not really sure. Most of them hide who they are. They're scared people will see them as monsters."
Alex exhaled through his nose, mildly exasperated.
He didn't understand that logic.
If you had power—real, undeniable power—why hide it?
In his mind, power was meant to be used, shaped, mastered.
Whitney hesitated again, then added quickly:
> "But I do remember this—
when the meteor shower hit years ago, a lot of people went to the hospital afterward to get checked out."
Alex nodded slowly. That was a useful lead.
> "Got it," he said simply. "You can go."
The moment those words left his lips, Whitney didn't wait another second.
He grabbed Lana's wrist, and the two of them bolted out of the cave like startled rabbits,
their footsteps echoing down the tunnel until they faded into silence.
Alex remained still for a long moment, staring at the dimming glow of the Kryptonite shard in his hand.
When he'd absorbed Whitney's energy, he'd noticed something curious—
the energy itself was clean, untarnished. No radiation, no poison.
That shouldn't have been possible.
> Could it be that the toxins stayed behind in his body?
Or maybe the mutation process filtered them out somehow?
He wasn't sure.
But one thing was certain—
it was possible to separate Kryptonite's toxic radiation from its pure energy essence.
That discovery alone was enough to make this trip worthwhile.
With a living example in front of him,
he finally had a path forward—
a way to safely harness Kryptonite's power.
> "Looks like I'll be staying in Smallville for a while," he murmured, eyes glinting faintly in the dark.
A faint smile tugged at his lips.
> "First things first—find a place to live."
Decision made, Alex turned and strode out of the cave, his figure disappearing into the cool night air.
---
The quiet streets of Smallville were bathed in soft orange lamplight.
Store signs flickered lazily; a pickup truck rumbled in the distance.
It was peaceful—almost too peaceful.
Alex planned to stop by a real estate office, buy some cheap property,
and set up a temporary base of operations while he studied Kryptonite further.
But fate, it seemed, had other plans.
Before he even reached Main Street, a familiar silhouette appeared at the far end of the road—
tall, broad-shouldered, walking with the easy confidence of someone who didn't yet realize how powerful he truly was.
Clark Kent.
Even from a distance, Alex could feel it—
the faint hum of Kryptonian energy hidden beneath the surface.
Though Lana was dating Whitney, Clark still cared deeply for her.
So when he heard she'd been frightened by something strange in the caves,
he came running without hesitation.
And when he found out the stranger inside had been asking about the meteor shower from ten years ago—
the very meteor shower that brought him to Earth—
he knew something wasn't right.
The young Superman couldn't just ignore it.
Alex stopped walking, his brow arching slightly.
> Superman, huh?
He'd only just arrived in Smallville, and already the universe was throwing him straight into Clark Kent's orbit.
Coincidence? Hardly.
He had a few guesses about what was really going on.
Still, when Clark approached, Alex's face showed no hint of concern.
He slipped easily into a mask of calm indifference.
> "Yeah," Alex said smoothly, feigning casual politeness.
"This is my first time here."
Then, as if nothing were the least bit unusual,
he struck up a conversation with Clark Kent—
two strangers meeting in the quiet heart of Smallville,
each hiding a secret the other could barely imagine.
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