"Lex Luthor did it."
Tina said it in a rough, masculine voice, her tone flippant.
After speaking, she returned to her original form, playing with her hair with a hint of regret.
"It's a shame the signature gave me away. Otherwise, I wouldn't have had to steal it yesterday."
"You promised you wouldn't use that ability anymore!"
Catherine's lips trembled with anger, her heart aching as her daughter had actually robbed a bank.
"I did it for us. After Dad died, we've been relying on this forgotten antique shop on the street. We're even having trouble affording food and clothing."
Tina tried to persuade her mother, her pupils dilating with excitement, her face flushing red.
"Look at this money. This is just the beginning. Soon I'll be able to live the same life as Lana."
Both ran shops, but Aunt Lana's flower shop earned much more than this dilapidated antique shop. Tina had always deeply envied Lana, whose family was well-off, since childhood when her own family struggled.
"That's enough. I don't want to see you get hurt!"
"Hurt?"
She acted as if she'd heard a joke.
"That bank security guard shot me twice in the back. It only ruined one of my suits."
"Tina, no one's life is perfect." Catherine tried to soften her tone.
"Lana's is!"
Tina's expression turned cold, and she directly interrupted.
She had heard these words countless times since she was little.
Lana was like a swan, with a wealthy family and great beauty. She had been liked by everyone since childhood, the center of attention wherever she went. Meanwhile, Tina felt like a scruffy, ugly duckling by the roadside.
"This money is stolen."
Not wanting to argue with her daughter any further, Catherine's face darkened, and she angrily walked downstairs.
"I'll return it to them. I'll just say I found it next to a garbage truck."
"Don't be like this, Mother. Why can't we have happiness?"
Tina impatiently grabbed at the backpack, wanting to snatch it.
Knock, knock, knock!
During the struggle, she used too much force. Catherine couldn't hold onto the backpack and fell backward down the stairs. Her aged body tumbled several times, and her head finally hit the wall with a heavy thud. She fell unconscious, her life hanging in the balance.
"Mom!"
Tina's eyes widened. She rushed downstairs, dropping the backpack. She reached for her phone to make an emergency call, but as she picked it up, she suddenly thought of something. After a moment of struggle, her expression gradually turned cold, and she put the phone down.
...
Before gym class.
Everyone was changing into their sportswear in the locker room.
"Ah!"
Clark's vision suddenly blurred. He rubbed his eyes hard, and when he opened them again, he was startled and cried out.
The entire room was filled with skeletons wrapped in flesh and blood. Even the bruised blood vessels were clearly visible within the flesh, like a scene from a horror movie.
"Clark?"
Pete, standing nearby, was confused as to why he screamed.
But in Clark's eyes, a flesh-and-blood skeleton turned its head. He recoiled in fear.
"My eyes! My eyes..."
"What's wrong?"
Another flesh-and-blood skeleton, with a physique as robust as a sculpture from ancient Greece, turned its head and frowned.
Seeing Clark suddenly cry out, David asked as he put on his shirt.
"I..."
As Clark stumbled back in panic, his vision suddenly pierced through the wall, revealing the girls' locker room next door.
Girls in their underwear were changing clothes. Among them, he saw a familiar figure – Lana.
Black...
The future Superman's eyes gradually went blank, as if he were seeing a delightful and beautiful landscape. A smile, revealing pearly white teeth, involuntarily appeared on his lips.
"What's wrong with your eyes?"
Pete asked again. Clark's sudden yelp and then his staring blankly at the wall, even grinning foolishly, made Pete wonder what was going on.
"Nothing."
Clark snapped back to reality, shook his head, and quickly dealt with Pete.
After Pete left, he was still slowly changing his clothes, reluctantly looking at the wall.
David glanced at the wall of the women's locker room, then at Clark's eyes, which seemed glued to the wall, and immediately guessed what was going on.
"You've got a nosebleed, Clark."
A voice suddenly called out.
Distracted, Clark fumbled at his nose in a panic, finding nothing on his hands.
"That's weird, why would I get a nosebleed?"
He looked up to see David watching him, arms crossed, his gaze playful and as if he could see right through him.
Under that gaze, Clark felt as uncomfortable as a caught thief and guiltily shifted his gaze elsewhere.
Why would he suddenly say that?
Did David know about his new, strange ability?
...
"You're saying you've developed another new ability, one that lets you see through people and objects?"
Looking at Clark, who was sitting on the sofa at home, Martha looked uneasy.
Jonathan gently patted his wife's back, telling her not to worry too much, and listened quietly.
David leaned against the dining table, arms crossed, a faint smile on his lips. Clark didn't dare to meet his gaze.
[Clark's guilt +11, shame +12...]
"Sometimes I can see through them, like X-rays."
Sitting on the sofa, Clark looked down, feigning dejection, his voice muffled as if he had a towel in his mouth.
"Can't you control it?"
Sensing his wife's worry, Jonathan frowned.
It was different from before; Clark's new abilities had been appearing too frequently lately.
Just two days ago, he'd suddenly levitated, though it hadn't happened again since.
The series of changes felt like a surprise attack, disrupting the peace and instinctively causing unease.
"I don't know how to control it."
Clark looked up and glanced at David.
"Really?"
David sneered.
"Before gym class, you were staring at the wall, using your X-ray vision. I didn't see your new ability fail."
He said meaningfully, "Some things only happen if you want them to."
The future Superman awakening his super vision and immediately using it to peep into the women's locker room—what a noble, divine being, yet he still dared to lecture others so often.
It was a shame he hadn't brought a camera this morning.
"Eyes have muscles too, like blinking and focusing. You can try to control it, Clark."
Uncertain what his younger son was referring to by "the wall," his father, Jonathan, didn't ask further questions at the moment, reminding him earnestly.
"I'll try."
Clark agreed, a flicker of unspoken words crossing his face.
After offering some comfort and advice to Clark.
Ensuring Clark would be careful, and fortunately, this ability wasn't dangerous, Martha, his mother, went to collect clothes, preparing to go out.
Jonathan also left the room to feed the cows on the farm.
Tap, tap.
"What were you going to say just now, Clark?"
A brief sound of footsteps, and David walked over. He had noticed Clark's expression earlier and said with a smile, "Were you going to confess your actions to your parents?"
He drew out his words, "After all, there's nothing wrong with being a sincere person, right?"
"My strength has been growing faster these past two days."
Hearing the familiar words, Clark coughed, his face flushing. Seeing that his parents were not around, he lowered his voice.
The sudden emergence of a new abnormality was already worrying his parents, so he hadn't said more just then.
"Strength growing faster."
David raised an eyebrow; this did surprise him.
"What do you think is the reason for that?"
Unlike the super vision that was known to appear inevitably, he had no immediate thoughts on the possible cause for this.
"Perhaps it's the tail end of puberty. People develop physically the fastest during puberty."
Clark paused, analyzing himself.
Eighteen was a critical age when people transitioned from adolescence to adulthood.
"You're not an alien?"
David's eyes flashed with realization. He'd forgotten about such a simple possibility, but he still said, "Can't aliens have puberty too?"
"Right, they can."
David chuckled playfully, implying something, and Clark's expression turned a little embarrassed again.
-----------
Machine Translation by: https:// randomtranslator.com/
Read 777+ original & fanfic translations in English, Español, Português, Deutsch, Français, or Русский at: https:// randomtranslator.com/
Join our Discord: https:// discord.gg/NSWvfN7vua
-----------