> "B–Big brother?"
Clark Kent blinked in disbelief, thrown completely off balance by Alex's words.
He looked him up and down—blue eyes narrowing with suspicion.
> Why do I feel like you're just messing with me right now?
Even if Clark was still figuring out his identity, he wasn't that gullible.
He might look naive, but he wasn't stupid.
He folded his arms.
> "You don't actually expect me to believe a few words and call you 'big brother,' do you?"
Alex just gave him a relaxed, knowing smile—the kind that made you want to punch him and listen to him at the same time.
> "Whether you recognize me or not doesn't matter. It doesn't change the truth."
"You can deny it all you want—your big brother will still be right here."
Clark: "…"
The smugness radiating off Alex could've powered a small town.
For a long moment, Clark just stared at him—part disbelief, part exasperation.
Finally, he sighed.
> "Homelander," Clark said, tone shifting from annoyed to serious,
"why are you here in Smallville? And what did you do to Davis?"
He decided to stop arguing about the "family" nonsense and get to the point.
Alex shrugged casually, spreading his hands in a mock gesture of innocence.
> "That's not a very polite tone for asking questions, little brother."
"But fine. If you must know—I didn't hurt Davis, did I?"
Clark hesitated.
He hated to admit it, but Alex wasn't lying.
He'd captured Davis, yes—but hadn't harmed him.
The boy had walked away in one piece.
And now that he thought about it… it was the same with everyone else.
Lana, Whitney, even that meteor-infected thug last week—
Alex never went too far.
He pushed, he intimidated, he controlled the situation,
but he hadn't killed anyone.
Clark's moral compass spun uneasily.
Because that single truth changed everything.
Alex was dangerous.
But not… evil.
At least, not yet.
And Clark Kent had always believed—
there was good in everyone.
> "Goodbye, Clark," Alex said lightly, his tone almost teasing.
"Come by my place sometime. We'll talk more… as brothers."
Then—
BOOM!
He vanished in a blur of sound and wind, leaving only swirling dust in his wake.
Clark stood frozen, staring at the empty space where Alex had been.
The faint echo of that smug grin lingered in his mind.
For a long moment, he said nothing.
Then his expression hardened slightly.
> "You're hiding something, Homelander…" he murmured.
With that, he turned and vanished too—
leaving nothing but a gust of air and fluttering leaves behind.
---
Later that night.
Inside his newly bought Smallville home, Alex sat in silence, lost in thought.
Stacks of green crystals glowed faintly around the dimly lit room.
> "Absorbing meteor freaks' energy is still too damn slow…"
He drummed his fingers against the table, irritated.
Yes, the cosmic energy he absorbed from them was pure—clean, potent, and completely safe for him.
But it wasn't enough.
Each meteor freak only carried a small reservoir of energy.
For someone like Alex, it was like sipping raindrops from a desert cactus.
> "One or two every few days?" He snorted.
"At this rate, I'll still be here when Clark graduates college."
He leaned back in his chair, eyes glinting in thought.
> "Meteor freaks are a stopgap. The real problem… is the Kryptonite."
The toxic radiation wasn't just weakening him—it was interfering with his absorption rate.
He needed to purify it somehow.
But he didn't yet understand the science—or magic—behind it.
Smallville was strange, but he hadn't yet peeled back all its layers.
So for now, patience.
Mining. Tracking. Learning.
His days settled into a deceptive calm.
He mined more Kryptonite,
absorbed a few stray meteor freaks,
and mapped out half the town with his enhanced senses.
No breakthroughs.
No threats.
Just… quiet progress.
Until—
> "Wait… what the hell?"
Alex froze midair, eyes narrowing.
His X-ray vision zoomed in on a structure near the edge of Smallville—
a massive, reinforced underground complex hidden beneath an old industrial plant.
His expression sharpened instantly.
> "There are this many meteor freaks in one place?!"
He counted—
dozens. Maybe more.
Each radiating cosmic energy like flickering green fireflies.
> "Jackpot."
Now it made sense why he'd been finding fewer and fewer meteor freaks lately.
Someone had been collecting them.
And when he looked deeper—
he saw even more.
> "And there it is…" he muttered, voice low.
"Kryptonite. In bulk."
Dozens of canisters filled with green shards, sealed in radiation-proof containers.
Alex's smile turned cold.
> "So that's how it is. A secret lab experimenting on meteor freaks—and storing Kryptonite?"
"Unlucky for them… they just made my to-do list."
His eyes gleamed with predatory light.
> "Since my generous hosts are practically throwing gifts at my doorstep…"
"It'd be rude not to accept."
---
Midnight.
The night sky split with a low boom as Alex descended upon the facility like a ghost.
Two armed guards stepped forward.
> "Stop right there! This is private—"
Whoosh!
Before they finished the sentence, both were sprawled on the ground—unconscious.
A few seconds later, so were the rest.
ZAP!
A thin line of heat vision sliced cleanly through the door's electronic lock.
It hissed open.
Alex stepped inside as if strolling into his own living room.
At a glance, it looked like a standard factory—production lines, machinery, workers in safety vests.
But his X-ray vision peeled away the illusion instantly.
Beneath the surface—
a sprawling network of reinforced chambers, labs, and containment pods.
> "Cute."
> "Who are you?! You can't be in here!"
Whoosh.
By the time the guards blinked, Alex was already gone.
When they looked down, they were lying on the ground—out cold.
The next floor down, alarms erupted.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Red lights flashed as he descended the stairwell step by step, calm as ever.
A full tactical squad waited at the bottom—
armored, armed, and terrified.
BOOM!
One sonic burst later—
they were all down.
No bullets fired.
No screams.
Just silence.
Then Alex walked to the heart of the lab—
a massive sealed chamber.
He tore the steel door open like it was paper.
Inside—
Row after row of transparent pods lined the chamber walls.
Men and women floated inside—eyes closed, bodies motionless,
each one pulsing faintly with green cosmic light.
Alex stopped.
A slow grin spread across his face.
> "Bingo."
He stepped forward, eyes reflecting the eerie glow.
> "Looks like I just found my personal buffet."
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