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Chapter 46: Clark Burned by Little Martian
Night fell, stars hung high in the sky, and dark clouds drifted silently, obscuring half the moon.
Rickman returned home after a long afternoon of company affairs.
A fire was lit in the fireplace, and in the firelight, he sat in his armchair, his expression shifting between grim and uncertain, like a beast poised to strike.
Ever since gaining his abilities from that meteor shower over ten years ago, Rickman had been on a smooth upward trajectory. He was no longer a junior salesman anyone could boss around, almost fired, but now he was successful and renowned.
"The feeling of being threatened, the humiliating feeling, I haven't experienced it in a long time, Blue-clad man!"
The small clumps of soil found on the living room floor from shoe soles had already been sent for testing, and results were expected by tomorrow.
"Send the soil from these farms to the geological survey bureau for comparison. It won't be hard to confirm which farm you're connected to."
Rickman's eyes were fierce as he fiddled with several sealed test tubes. These were soil samples he had secretly retrieved from those farms that afternoon. Soil testing was a complex matter; the organic and inorganic substances, as well as bacteria and viruses, contained in soil from different locations would yield different data. Especially farmland soil – some farms raised cattle and sheep, with manure mixed into the soil, some grew corn, some grew wheat, and some grew fruits and vegetables, using different fertilizers and brands.
"From this, it won't be hard to track you down, Blue-clad man!"
From signing the land acquisition contract to the Blue-clad man suddenly appearing in his home and threatening him at noon, it was only a matter of a few hours, and in a small rural town. He didn't believe that guy was a masked vigilante who occasionally heard about such matters and came to uphold justice!
"He's definitely connected to those farm owners."
A gust of wind blew, lifting the curtains, and moonlight streamed into the room like a silver veil.
On the sofa in the room, a figure had appeared at some point.
"You are quite meticulous."
A low voice came from the figure.
"Who?"
Rickman sprang up from his chair near the fireplace like a startled bird, pulling out a silver pistol from beneath the seat and pointing it at the figure on the sofa. After being threatened by the Blue-clad man in his home, if it happened once, it could happen again. He had hidden firearms in many places around his home that afternoon, just in case.
"What goes around comes around."
On the sofa, the figure seemed unfazed by Rickman's pistol, muttering to himself.
"It seems someone is pleased to be one step ahead of me, forgetting other things."
David, upon hearing Rickman planned to send the soil to the geological survey bureau for comparison, could easily guess what had happened. Perhaps a certain son of Krypton was a bit too pleased with himself, or perhaps it was his first time doing something like this and he was a bit nervous, not realizing he had left a clue.
"Someone almost caught your little tail!"
He slowly stood up, revealing a cold face from the shadows.
"Who are you?"
With purple skin, Rickman's eyes widened, and the gun in his hand offered no sense of security. After fusing with the second template, David's chin lines had disappeared, but his skin still showed purple when he utilized his formidable Eternal physique. His skin color had appeared due to his near-supersonic entry.
David moved, appearing before Rickman. Before he could react, David grabbed him by the neck and took him out of the villa.
Rickman struggled to breathe, his vision blurring. After a few seconds, with a dizzying sensation, he was thrown onto the cold concrete ground.
It was a dark, deserted alley.
"Where is this?"
He stood up in panic, vaguely recognizing it as a street in Metropolis.
"Your burial ground."
"Who exactly are you?"
Gazing at the figure emanating a terrifying aura, Rickman's heart skipped a beat, his hair standing on end, a mix of fear and rage.
Creak!
"You don't need to know who I am."
Purple energy beams shot from David's eyes. Rickman's gun was now in David's hand. With a grating sound, the gun was effortlessly crushed into scrap metal and melted into a dazzling stream of molten iron that flowed through his fingers.
"You... you..."
Rickman, whose fear had briefly turned to anger, was now speechless, unable to believe what he was seeing.
"You just need to know that you made a couple who shouldn't have to worry and fret argue all morning."
"You just had to set your sights on property and land you shouldn't have."
This matter should absolutely not end with reclaiming the land and property, nor be dismissed so casually.
David said coldly.
"Mistakes come with a price."
"I have plenty of money, I can give it all to you, just spare my life."
Looking at the figure whose eyes glowed with purple light, sending shivers down his spine, Rickman's voice trembled. He didn't understand why simply using his powers to seize land from a few small-town farmers had brought such disaster upon him.
He had never experienced anything like this before when he acted as he pleased in Metropolis.
First, there was the blue-clad man who was incredibly fast, and now, this purple-skinned person who was as strong as a monster.
"Thirty million, no, eighty million...!"
Before he could finish.
David's face remained unmoved. Two beams of light shot from his eyes, tearing through the darkness and incinerating the pleading Rickman into a pile of ash that drifted down the cold, damp, dirty alley.
He turned and vanished from the spot.
...
"David, you know what's going on, don't you?"
The next day, after leaving home, at the school entrance.
Clark blocked David, his face full of worry.
"This morning, Mom, Dad, and a few farmers went to the police station to report it, only to find out that Rickman had gone missing."
"Did you kill someone again?" He didn't want to jump to that conclusion, but a detective had recently disappeared under David's watch, making it hard not to suspect.
He knew why David had been so calm yesterday, completely unlike his usual self.
As he spoke, Clark's voice couldn't help but carry a hint of anger.
"He was afraid of being exposed once you saw through his secret, so it's normal for him to flee Metropolis, right?"
David shrugged indifferently.
"Anyway, with his abilities, he can thrive anywhere he goes."
"No..."
Clark tried to say more.
As David walked into the campus, he casually pulled a fist-sized, pockmarked meteorite from his pocket, forcing Clark to retreat helplessly.
"David, I just asked you a couple of questions, and you're using a meteorite against me."
Under the meteorite's radiation, Clark, feeling sick and distressed, stumbled backward, looking at his brother in disbelief.
"Don't misunderstand. Didn't you forget Mr. Reagan's geography homework assignment?"
David weighed the meteorite in his hand.
"He asked us to collect various rocks using the identification methods he taught us. I was assigned to collect meteorites and rose quartz."
It would be absurd for a geography teacher elsewhere to assign students to collect meteorites as homework, but in Smallville, a town that boasted of being the meteorite capital of the world, meteorites were found everywhere.
Fearing the meteorite, Clark could only watch his brother leave, planning to ask him again after school that afternoon.
When school ended in the afternoon, and he stepped out of the classroom, dark clouds had gathered overhead, as if a torrential downpour was imminent.
Clark looked up at the sky dejectedly.
At dismissal, Chloe had pulled him aside, asking for his help proofreading and editing the school newspaper draft. David had already disappeared.
Having missed the school bus, he had no choice but to walk home.
Most of the time, Clark disliked his own unusual abilities. He decided to just walk home for now and worry about the rain if it actually started.
"On the way, I can think about how to ask David about that matter."
About ten minutes later, as he walked onto the bridge.
Clark inadvertently looked up, his expression changing drastically.
"Avery, what are you doing?"
A cold wind blew, and a defiant figure stood on the bridge railing, headphones on, looking down at the dam below, tossing pebbles from his bag down in a fit of frustration.
Clark recognized his classmate, Avery Reagan, the son of their geography teacher.
However, Mr. Reagan, the geography teacher, had always instructed Avery not to call him "Dad" at school, insisting he be called "Teacher." Just that afternoon, in front of the entire class, he had reprimanded his son without hesitation for only completing half of his homework.
"Get down quickly, it's dangerous!"
Clark shouted.
But Avery, wearing headphones playing loud rock music, had a grim expression and a rebellious glint in his eyes, completely failing to hear him.
Crackle!
A bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, followed by a rumble of thunder.
Clark rushed forward and hugged the dangerous figure standing in the wind, trying to pull him off the bridge to prevent him from falling or being struck by lightning.
Wearing electronic equipment on his head, standing in a high place made him an easy target for lightning.
Crack!
Just then, a bolt of lightning struck, hitting both of them.
The meteorite in Avery's backpack, which was for his geography homework, shone brightly, turning the lightning connecting the two into a green color.
Zzzzt!
"Ahhh..."
After a brief electric shock that left him stiff, Clark cried out in pain and collapsed onto the ground.
Avery also fell to the ground, the lightning splitting his clothes, leaving residual sparks.
"Are you okay, Avery?"
Clark felt fine, only experiencing a slight tingling sensation.
He tried to help Avery, who had fallen on his back, up, seeing that he wasn't injured.
Unexpectedly, the sparks on Avery's clothes, from the electricity that had dazed him, burned Clark.
"Ah!"
Completely caught off guard, Clark cried out in pain, snatching his hand back as if electrocuted. He stared in disbelief at his reddened, blistering hand.
"It was just a small spark, why?"
Looking up again, he saw sparks burning on Avery's chest. Avery, however, seemed completely fine, just a bit dazed and groggily waking up.
"Clark?"
The update is a bit late. I've added an extra 800 characters. Please continue reading. (〃'▽'〃)
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