Clark's parents had still refused to approve his request to join the football team.
Feeling frustrated and defeated, Clark grabbed his backpack and stepped outside the farmhouse. The morning air felt cooler now, and the long dirt road stretching away from the farm was empty.
He glanced down at the ground.
Two fresh tire tracks ran along the road, carved clearly into the dust.
The school bus had already passed.
At this point, it was probably halfway to school.
Clark exhaled slowly and curled his lips in annoyance.
"As long as nobody sees me… it should be fine."
He tightened the strap on his backpack.
Then he moved.
In the blink of an eye, his body shot forward like a cannonball. He disappeared into the endless cornfields beside the road, running faster than a bullet leaving a rifle barrel.
The violent rush of air created a shockwave that rippled across the tall crops.
From the sky above, the sea of green corn seemed to split apart as if a giant invisible hand were carving a path through it.
Meanwhile, the school bus had briefly slowed earlier when the driver stopped to talk with someone whose car had broken down along the road. That small delay had wasted several minutes.
Now the bus rolled into town and arrived right on schedule in front of Smallville High School.
The students stepped off one by one, chatting in small groups as they walked toward campus.
After stepping down from the bus, Victor paused for a moment and glanced toward a weathered roadside sign nearby.
The faded lettering sat beneath an image of a meteorite.
WELCOME TO SMALLVILLE — METEOR CAPITAL OF THE WORLD
More than a decade earlier, a devastating meteor shower had struck this small town. The disaster had destroyed homes and farmland, but it had also left behind something unusual.
Opportunity.
Over the years, the residents of Smallville had tried to promote the town as a tourist destination using the meteorite event as a selling point.
Unfortunately, the results were less impressive than hoped.
Victor looked down the town's main street, which could be crossed in just a few steps. The low buildings and quiet storefronts told the whole story.
He slid his hands into his pockets and walked toward the school grounds.
Cherry blossoms had begun to bloom along the campus pathways, their soft petals drifting slowly through the spring air.
"In a meteor city like this," Victor thought quietly, "Clark is going to suffer a lot in the future."
Those so-called meteorites were actually fragments of kryptonite that had arrived on Earth alongside the Kryptonian spacecraft.
And everyone knew what kryptonite meant to Superman.
Once exposed to it, Superman would experience weakness and intense pain almost immediately. Prolonged exposure could even become fatal.
A small green crystal was enough to bring a being powerful enough to shift continents to his knees.
As Victor grew older, he realized just how much kryptonite existed in Smallville.
To exaggerate slightly, he could probably kick a few pieces loose just by walking down the street.
In the future, any villain planning to fight Superman would never have trouble finding the material.
"Morning!"
Chloe and Pete stepped off the bus and quickly caught up with him.
The three of them walked toward the school entrance together.
"Hey, good morning Chloe, Pete."
A familiar voice suddenly appeared beside them.
Clark stood there holding a few textbooks, dressed in jeans and his usual thick blue plaid shirt. He looked completely relaxed, as if he had arrived at school long before everyone else.
Chloe blinked in confusion.
"Wait… didn't David say you were still behind us?"
Her curiosity radar immediately activated.
Clark scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
"I took a shortcut," he said quickly. "Left early."
He wrapped one arm around Victor's shoulders and forced a friendly grin.
"You know David," Clark joked. "He never really pays attention to me anyway."
"Really?"
Chloe and Pete both looked at Victor suspiciously.
They clearly remembered Victor saying earlier that Clark had been arguing with his parents about football tryouts.
Victor calmly brushed Clark's arm away and continued walking toward the school building.
"Believe whatever you want."
As he walked, Victor briefly considered whether he should carry a small piece of kryptonite with him in the future.
It would make a convenient lie detector.
Behind him, Clark quietly let out a breath of relief.
As someone who lived with him every day, Victor obviously knew Clark wasn't normal.
Fortunately, his younger brother had never exposed his secret.
Clark watched Victor's back and smiled slightly.
Even though he had discovered Victor was unbelievably powerful—faster than sound itself—Clark had never felt jealous of him.
Victor was still his younger brother.
That never changed.
But that kind of secret strength wasn't always helpful.
Clark's smile slowly faded.
"Hiss—"
Without warning, his strength suddenly drained away.
Clark staggered as if all the energy had been ripped from his body. His legs gave out beneath him and he collapsed onto the ground, his books scattering across the pavement.
Whitney Fordman happened to walk past at that moment with Lana beside him.
Whitney glanced down at Clark with open contempt.
Lana, however, stopped immediately.
She bent down to help gather the fallen books. One of the covers caught her attention, and she smiled slightly as she read the title.
"Thus Spoke Zarathustra… Nietzsche?"
She looked at Clark curiously.
"So Clark… do you think you're an ordinary person… or a Superman?"
Hearing the conversation behind him, Victor glanced back.
His eyes drifted briefly toward Lana's chest.
Hanging around her neck was a crystal necklace.
A glowing green crystal.
"I… I don't know."
Clark quickly turned his head away, avoiding the kryptonite pendant entirely. His voice sounded uncomfortable as he answered awkwardly.
The "Superman" Lana mentioned wasn't the heroic identity Clark would one day adopt.
She was referring to Nietzsche's philosophical idea of the Übermensch—a person who transcended conventional morality and created their own path.
Victor rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"Well," he thought, "speak of kryptonite and kryptonite appears."
He abandoned his earlier idea about carrying kryptonite around.
Clark was already miserable enough.
Every time he stood near Lana, the kryptonite necklace weakened him so badly that he could barely speak properly.
"Let's go."
Whitney noticed Lana talking with Clark and immediately felt a flicker of jealousy.
He didn't start a scene in front of his girlfriend, though. Instead, he kissed Lana lightly and wrapped an arm around her shoulders before walking away.
Clark remained standing there awkwardly with his books.
"David?"
Footsteps approached.
Clark looked up hopefully as Victor walked over.
For a moment, he thought his brother was going to help him gather the books.
Victor looked down at him calmly.
"That's rough, Clark."
He shook his head sympathetically.
Then he turned and walked away.
Clark stared at his retreating figure in disbelief.
"Seriously?"
After collecting the books himself, Clark followed the others into the school building.
Inside the hallway, students gathered around lockers, chatting energetically. The atmosphere buzzed with restless teenage energy.
Boys tried to act impressive in front of girls, while girls pretended not to notice the attention.
Spring had arrived.
Victor looked around and sighed quietly.
"Spring is here."
"You mean the Spring Dance?" Chloe asked immediately.
She blinked at him curiously.
"Do you already have a partner, David?"
Pete laughed.
"David's never been interested in that stuff."
He turned to Chloe with a playful grin.
"How about going with me instead? Purely as friends."
"At least that way neither of us has to be awkward."
Chloe rolled her eyes.
"What about you, Clark?"
Clark froze.
The four of them continued chatting as they walked into the classroom.
Classes passed normally through the morning.
By noon, school ended for the day.
"David… uh… you should go home first today."
Clark spoke awkwardly as students gathered their things.
"I'm going to the field with Pete for football tryouts," he said seriously. "Just to support him."
"With Pete?"
Victor looked him up and down with obvious disbelief.
He sneered slightly.
"Clark, you know I'm not that easy to fool."
Ignoring Clark's embarrassed expression, Victor shoved his hands into his pockets and walked away.
A few minutes later he boarded the school bus.
As the vehicle rolled down the road, Victor watched the scenery passing outside the window.
Clark wasn't going to the field to support Pete.
He was going because the cheerleading squad practiced there.
Specifically—because Lana would be there.
Unfortunately for Clark, the football team would also be there.
Which meant a lot of uncomfortable jealousy and romantic tension.
"Walking straight into trouble," Victor thought.
Inside the bus, Chloe sat nearby with her notebook open.
She leaned against her backpack and wrote rapidly.
The article she was working on matched her usual sharp style.
Its title read:
"Football: Sport or Savagery?"
It was an editorial criticizing the football team's rough traditions, and it would appear in the next issue of the school newspaper.
Traffic was light as the bus crossed a bridge leaving town.
The driver steered smoothly across the asphalt road.
He never noticed the broken steel fragment lying in the road ahead.
It had fallen from the car that broke down earlier that morning.
Screech!
The bus tire burst instantly.
Bang!
The vehicle lost control and skidded violently across the pavement.
The driver desperately tried to correct the steering wheel, but it was too late.
With a deafening crash, the school bus smashed through the bridge guardrail.
Then it plunged off the bridge.
For a moment the entire vehicle hung in midair.
"Ahhh!"
The sudden weightlessness sent students flying upward from their seats as screams filled the bus.
Victor's expression changed.
Before anyone could react further—
The bus crashed into the river below.
A massive splash erupted across the water.
The heavy vehicle, weighing more than ten tons, sank rapidly toward the riverbed.
Water rushed into the bus through cracks and broken panels. Within seconds the icy current had filled the interior up to everyone's knees.
"Help! Someone help!"
Students staggered to their feet, still dizzy from the impact. Panic spread instantly as they pounded on the windows and screamed.
Chloe's face turned pale.
She was shouting in terror.
She couldn't swim.
"I don't want to die! Somebody save me!"
Fear spread through the bus like wildfire.
The freezing river water climbed higher and higher.
Victor stood there calmly as the water soaked his clothes.
He looked around slowly.
"Tough luck."