> "All those people who vanished from Smallville over the years—
they were being held in Smallville itself?
Right under our noses?"
The news anchor's voice trembled with disbelief, the studio lights reflecting off her tense expression.
Her co-host sat stiff beside her, tapping his pen, trying to maintain composure while shock rippled beneath his professional mask.
> "It's unbelievable. Who could've orchestrated something like this?"
His voice cracked slightly—he knew this story would shake the entire country.
This wasn't the usual missing-persons case.
This was something far darker, webbed into the very ground they lived on.
> "Today, all of Smallville is waiting for an answer."
The broadcast screen filled with images of flashing police lights, barricaded fields, and frantic reporters.
The small rural town had suddenly become the eye of a national storm.
---
Quietly, without so much as stirring a leaf outside his doorway, Alex returned to his newly purchased home.
He moved like a shadow, each step effortless, leaving no trace behind.
In the basement, the air shimmered with faint green light—
stacked neatly before him were the Kryptonite fragments he had taken during the raid.
Stones that could kill Superman…
now stored casually like bowls of rice in his cellar.
To eliminate evidence, Alex extended his telekinesis.
The stolen truck compressed like clay beneath invisible pressure, metal groaning in surrender until it was flattened into a steel sheet no thicker than a rug.
Then—with the same casual ease—he hurled it into a distant river, where it sank without a sound.
Only after ensuring the last detail had been erased did Alex finally turn his attention to the television.
Just as expected, the exposed underground facility had detonated into a political and media tornado.
Officials scrambling.
Residents panicking.
Rumors multiplying like wildfire.
But nothing connected any of it to him.
Everyone in the facility had been knocked unconscious within seconds.
All surveillance equipment was destroyed before it could capture his presence.
The meteor freaks never regained consciousness until long after he left—
they remembered nothing except confusion and cold glass.
And Clark Kent…
Clark wouldn't speak of it.
Not just because he couldn't prove anything—
but because he believed Alex didn't intend to harm anyone.
After a quick, precise internal check, Alex leaned back.
Yes.
He was completely safe.
He had no idea, of course, that from the moment he walked into the lab to the moment he left—
someone else had been watching.
Recording.
Studying.
Lex Luthor—
the man who saw patterns where others saw chaos.
But even if Alex had known…
He wouldn't have cared.
> What could anyone do to him?
Who on Earth could stop him?
No one.
He shifted his attention away from the television.
The noise of the world was beneath him now—background static.
His thoughts sharpened like a blade.
> "That settles it."
His expression grew focused—almost predatory.
He opened his senses.
A wave of sound swept into his mind—thousands of voices, thousands of heartbeats, stretching across Smallville, across the open plains, across Metropolis.
The world unfolded to him in one breath.
Then his eyes brightened.
> "Found you…"
"So it really was you, Lex Luthor."
No shock.
No outrage.
Just calm recognition.
Lex Luthor.
The man who stood opposite Superman on every battlefield that mattered.
The architect of human defiance.
Of course he would be behind the lab.
Of course he would be experimenting on meteor freaks.
Of course he would be studying Kryptonite.
Everything aligned.
And Alex's next move became obvious.
> "Perfect," he murmured, lips curving into an easy, confident grin.
"Decision made."
BOOM.
He vanished.
---
Luthor Manor
Lex Luthor sat in a high-backed leather chair, fingers pressed to his temples, shoulders stiff with exhaustion.
The aftermath of the lab raid had been brutal.
Dozens of phone calls.
Political pressure.
Damage control woven between threats and negotiations.
He had just barely forced the situation back into the shadows.
He sipped his coffee slowly, letting bitterness settle on his tongue as his eyes drifted to the frozen image on his monitor.
The face of the young Asian man.
The one who shattered his security.
Destroyed his creation.
Walked through his decades of planning like it was nothing.
Lex didn't feel anger.
Not anymore.
He felt exhilaration.
This man represented something he had always believed in but rarely seen—
The next step.
The proof that a human—or something akin to human—could surpass limits.
> "Who are you, really…?" Lex whispered, eyes sharp with obsession.
---
> "Didn't expect you to think about me so fondly."
The voice was light—almost amused.
Lex froze.
That voice wasn't coming from the speakers.
It wasn't an echo.
It was behind him.
> "Who's there?!"
His heart lurched—but his mind stayed razor-sharp.
He turned.
And there he was.
The man from the footage.
Standing in the room.
Unannounced.
Unstoppable.
For one second, Lex's breathing stuttered.
Then, with practiced discipline, he steadied himself.
> "So you're the one who destroyed years of research," Lex said, voice controlled.
"And now you've come directly to me." "Clearly you planned this from the beginning."
His posture remained confident, chin slightly raised.
He refused to look weak—no matter what stood before him.
> "Tell me," Lex said quietly,
"What did I do to attract your attention?"
Alex chuckled softly, eyes glinting.
> "Planned? You're giving yourself too much credit."
No need to explain the raid.
No need to justify anything.
He simply spoke the core of the matter.
> "I'm here for two things.
First—use every resource you have to locate the remaining meteor freaks.
Second—study the Kryptonite for me."
Lex blinked—then huffed a soft, disbelieving laugh.
> "That's exactly what I've already been doing."
He leaned back slightly.
"Seems we have common interests. Cooperation is possible."
Alex shook his head once—slow, dismissive, absolute.
> "No. Our goals are not the same."
His tone shifted—calm, but unyielding as unbreakable steel.
> "You'll find them. Just find them."
"No experiments. No modifications. No conversions."
And then—
> "The Kryptonite—"
"You'll study it to solve my problem. Not create more."
Lex went still.
Then a thin smile carved across his lips.
> "And let me guess…"
"You don't think I have a choice in this, do you?"
Alex's eyes gleamed—not with anger—
but with the effortless certainty of a man who had never once been denied.
> "You're starting to understand.
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