Smallville, Kansas was over four-hundred miles from Pickettstown, Colorado. Clark ran that distance in a few minutes. Once he arrived at the outskirts of the town, he took out his phone and called his best friend.

"I'm here," he said. "It's quiet."

"Even to your ears?" asked Chloe on the other end.

"Yeah." Even in a small town like this, he should normally be able to hear cars honking or people talking. It was silent, although not in a way that it had been before Clark's incredible hearing had developed. There were still sounds like the wind, running water, or wild animals, but no people.

"You see any clues?" She asked, and he started walking around to investigate.

"Checking for them now." He scanned the buildings with X-ray vision and was greeted by the sight he'd feared most. Each house was littered with corpses, days old at most. The majority of them had holes in their bodies, the wounds shaped like something had burst out of them.

Clark shut his eyes at the sight of a child's corpse, too mangled to distinguish any features. What stood out more was that it lacked an exit wound like the others. Instead, beside him was the body of a dead woman. She had a wide tear in her abdomen.

Clark's imagination filled in the blanks. The phantom must have possessed the woman and killed her child. Why? Sick pleasure? Instinct?

Did it even matter? This phantom had been locked up in the Phantom Zone for a reason. Only the worst criminals in Krypton's history had been imprisoned there, and even after becoming a practically formless phantom, this one had killed dozens of people.

They must have been frightened and confused. Nobody could have expected an alien to possess them and go into a rampage. Not even Clark.

"Hey . . . you alright?" Chloe's question brought Clark out of his morbid thoughts.

"It's bad," he answered. "So many people . . . if I hadn't-

"Stop it Clark." She took a commanding tone. "This isn't your fault. Blame Zod or Brainiac. Not yourself."

"Right. Right," he replied, although he couldn't muster the confidence that she had in him. The only reason the phantoms had found their way to Earth was because they'd followed him during his own escape from the Zone. If he'd been careful, if he hadn't fallen into Brainiac's trap, then these people would still be alive.

No. Stop it. Right now, he had to focus. Clark steeled himself and searched the town with his keen vision. It wasn't likely that the phantom would stay here for long before moving on to another town, but there was still a chance it was still present.

On the opposite side of the town, a dark figure floated above.

"I see it! I'll call you back later." He hung up and quietly sped between the buildings to approach it while keeping out of sight. The creature looked exactly like the phantoms Clark had encountered in the Zone, a shadowy shape that had a head and arms, but no legs. Just indistinct mass below, like a black curtain made of fog.

Be careful my son, the phantoms are dangerous. They pose a threat even to you.

Jor-El's warning for dealing with them was clear, and Clark scowled at the voice in his head. Intrusive, just like so much of the Kryptonian technology he'd encountered before. He didn't have a choice though, Kryptonian tech was the only thing that could send it back to the Phantom Zone.

The only Kryptonian tech he had at the moment was a blue crystal shield no bigger than the palm of his hand, the crest of the House of El emblazoned in an irregular pentagon. The crest was a winding curve, which looked a lot like the letter 'S'.

Clark approached the phantom, knowing with absolute certainty that he kept his footsteps quiet. Somehow, it still noticed his presence. Its head turned toward him for a brief moment, then it fled. It streaked through the air at an alarming speed.

Clark zoomed after it. He'd outraced bullets before, this phantom wasn't going to get away.

The chase led to the forest out of town. Clark needed to be more careful with his footing, but he still kept pace and closed in.

If he leaped, he'd reach it. Now, just a little bi-

"Agh!" He yelled. His speed dwindled and he tripped, falling clumsily to the ground. What had happened? He groaned, writhing in the grass in pain. His blood felt hot, burning like acid as it flowed through his veins. Each breath felt like needles stabbing his throat.

Only one thing could cause this kind of pain. Kryptonite. But kryptonite? Here, in the middle of Colorado? Where had it come from?

He didn't have any time to think about it, the phantom had noticed that he'd stopped chasing after it. It turned back, and with Clark's now sluggish senses, its speed was blindingly quick.

Clark could barely even muster the strength to crawl away, but he couldn't let the phantom possess him. The thought of the devastation it could wreak with his powers was nightmarish. The phantom wouldn't leave either, his body was far more durable than a human's, capable of surviving the possession indefinitely.

With a pained grimace, he used all of his remaining strength to raise the crystal. The phantom raced at him, flying too quickly at him to change its direction. Eager for his body maybe, if emotions like that even applied to the monster.

The moment the phantom collided with the crystal, the device emitted a blinding blue light, and the two vanished from the forest.

\\\\\

Clark landed hard on the ground, and tumbled, momentarily disoriented. Hitting the ground didn't stop his movement, he was still falling on a rocky slope.

His body bounced off the ground and tumbled, but it didn't even hurt. His strength had returned too, and he shoved an arm into the rock to halt his descent.

His red jacket was dirtied and ruined, and his jeans weren't in the best shape either. He frowned and looked around. The sun and sky were the right colors, and he still had his powers, so he wasn't in the Phantom Zone. He was still on Earth.

The only clues to where was that he was currently on the side of a mountain, thousands of feet above a forest below.

Clark turned his attention back up, and took a sharp breath. The phantom, there were four now. How was that even possible?

That didn't matter, he had to focus on putting them back in the Zone. They were headed somewhere, ignoring him. Where were they going?

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Clark looked to the distance, combined telescopic and X-ray vision allowed him to see through the trees to a location several miles away. There were people there. Loggers, it looked like, whose lives would be in danger if he didn't stop the phantoms.

With a burst of strength, he pushed off the mountainside and landed with a boom in the forest thousands of feet below. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he flashed between the trees. He needed to get there, fast, and he pushed himself to reach them before the phantoms.

It took him two seconds.

"Run! Get out of here, you're all in danger!" He yelled once he reached them. They stopped working, but didn't move. Shocked at his sudden appearance.

After a few moments, the first person to react was a middle-aged, heavyset man at the base of a nearby tree. He wore a yellow hardhat and blue overalls and had been directing a group of several other loggers who were holding chainsaws.

The man walked up to him. "Look kid, I don't know where you came from, but you can't just scare us like that in the middle of our work. We're safe. The whole area's already been scouted for Grimm, and we have a few huntsmen on watch just in case."

Grimm? Huntsman? What in the world was he talking about?

Damn it, Clark couldn't waste any time, he needed to get them safe. He'd already shown his face, but he'd have to accept that. He wouldn't let these people die to keep his secret.

He moved as fast as he could without hurting them, he'd have to carry the workers out to safety. Hopefully, far enough away that he'd be able to deal with the phantoms alone.

First was the man who'd approached him. At the speed Clark moved at, everything around him might as well have been frozen. Even the falling tree that another group had worked on before he'd arrived.

Clark went up to the first man and rotated his body sideways to carry more easily. He spotted a clearing about a mile away, and it took Clark a fraction of a second to bring him there. Starting with the closest ones, he brought more of them to the clearing.

But he wasn't fast enough, he'd only transported about twenty people when the phantoms arrived. A couple dozen people remained, and quickly realized the danger they were in. They ran in full panic. Seeing the black silhouettes of the phantoms flying down for them, they abandoned their equipment and sprinted to their vehicles.

"Grimm! Grimm!" Several of them screamed. Clark didn't know why, but at least it got everyone moving.

"No," he whispered to himself once he realized: there were only two phantoms here. Where had the other two gone?

He clenched his fists once the phantoms split paths. That would make it harder, but he could still stop them. He had to.

He raced to the further phantom. The loggers had been running to a white flatbed truck loaded with logs for cover, but Clark got to the vehicle first. He readied himself and pushed on the truck. A few logs fell off, but the truck skid until it lay between the phantom and the loggers. Hopefully, it would delay it long enough for Clark to deal with the other one, which was getting dangerously close to one of the workers. If it touched the logger, it would possess him.

He dashed away again, holding up the crystal to send the phantom back to the Zone. At full sprint, he slammed into it with the crystal.

It disappeared in a flash of blue light.

Clark had no time to celebrate before he returned to the truck he'd propelled, and repeated the process, using the crystal to capture the phantom.

He stopped, scanning the area for the final two. He pushed his vision to the utmost limit to thoroughly scour the area within several miles. But no luck, he couldn't see them anywhere.

Clark turned to the frightened workers, who were still cowering in fear behind the truck. A few of them were still rushing to other vehicles in order to escape.

He raised his hands, walking towards them and speaking calmly. "It's okay now, there aren't any more of those creatures nearby, but you should still leave. It might be dangerous."

He pointed in the direction of the other loggers. "Some of your people are in a field about a mile in that direction. Now, I'm sorry, but I need to go."

He ran off, heading to the nearest town. If the phantoms weren't nearby, they must have found people to possess. According to Jor-El, it would be similar to how Zod had used Lex as a vessel. Lex had gained Kryptonian abilities even more powerful than Clark's when he'd been possessed, there was a chance these phantoms might alter their victims in the same way.

That was what he'd have to depend on to find them if they were possessing people. His X-ray vision wouldn't help him. He'd have to check the news for any strange disappearances or deaths. Like he had with the first phantom.

Clark bit his lip in frustration, if he'd just been careful and watched out for any kryptonite, he could have captured a phantom without any problem. He couldn't have known that there was kryptonite in Colorado, but that wasn't an excuse. The meteor shower last year had brought even more of it to Earth, and he'd known about obscure sources of kryptonite like the temple in China for years. The phantom must have been attracted to the town for a reason too, and kryptonite should have been one of the first things that had come to mind concerning aliens.

He'd been careless, and because of that, people would suffer.

It did little to reassure him when he realized that he'd now have a better idea of their locations. Before, they might have been scattered all over the world. Now, they were almost certainly within miles of the area.

And two people within that area would have their bodies invaded and controlled. Because of his mistake.

Clark's nails dug into his palm. So hard that even he felt pain from it. He wanted to chase after them, but he had no way of identifying them. Even if he did, they could kill their human hosts in their attempts to escape.

His only choice was to meet back up with Chloe and track down the phantoms like they had before.

He approached the town, and slowed down before he was visible. His speed dropped until he approached it while walking at a human pace. He'd shown his powers in front of the loggers, but he'd still keep them as much of a secret as he could.

He looked down at the crystal in his hand curiously, why had it sent him and several extra phantoms to a mountainside? Could the kryptonite have done that too? He remembered that his ship had been affected by small amounts of kryptonite, and the kryptonite key had actually destroyed it. The crystal must have malfunctioned too.

But why had it brought more than one phantom? Had the one he'd been chasing split somehow? Or was there some sort of resonance that had affected all of them? That could be useful in finding them, but he had no idea how to use it that way.

Besides, if it could be used like that, why hadn't Jor-El told him?

Clark shook his head. His biological father's motivations were still as much of a mystery as ever. Maybe withholding the information had been some sort of test for him to prove himself by finding the phantoms on his own.

He pushed those thoughts aside, he needed to call Chloe. She could help track down the phantom. He took out his phone, but there was no signal.

What? He was pretty close to the town now, how could he not get a signal? It seemed to be pretty much in the middle of nowhere, but it was a decent size.

It was surrounded by walls too. Where was he?

\\\\\

"I'm gonna be honest with you Oz, I think this is a load of bull." Qrow handed back the report of a Grimm attack on a logging company along the eastern edge of Vale. "From their descriptions, it sounds like they were attacked by Geists. Which is pretty rare." Qrow shrugged. "But it happens. The rest of it though . . ."

"Yes, I know what you mean," Ozpin replied. "These workers' accounts of a mysterious young man are quite hard to believe."

The headmaster picked up the files and began listing off their claims. "He appeared and disappeared at will, and it seems that he'd tried to bring them to a field a mile away for safety from the Grimm. In addition, he apparently threw a truck full of logs at one of the Grimm."

Qrow nodded. "Uh-huh, I know, I read it. What must have happened is that someone came in and dealt with the Grimm, and whatever he did got exaggerated. Don't see why you needed to call me here."

"I did so because this tale may not be as exaggerated as you think. These workers had huntsmen protecting them, and they discovered that about twenty of the very confused workers had been brought to a field a mile away, and a truck trailed by skid marks had been tipped over. Along with footprints that went deep into the forest."

Qrow blinked a couple times at that. "Okay . . . that's interesting. You want me to check it out?"

Ozpin sipped from his cup before answering. "Yes, I'd like you to investigate these claims, and find this young man. If there's even a kernel of truth in these tales, he could be a very useful asset against the Grimm. I'd also like it done as soon as possible, preferably before the second semester begins, so once you get down, you'll find a Bullhead with a pilot who already knows the location."

"Gotcha." Qrow left Ozpin's office and went down the elevator.

The report had mentioned that this mystery man had been over six feet tall with black hair and had worn a red jacket and jeans. Not very distinctive, but Qrow would have to work with it.

A Bullhead would get him near the area of the attack in a few hours, and Ozpin had called him in early in the morning, so he'd have the whole day to look for this guy.

Ozpin must really want him, and if the report was telling the truth, then Qrow understood why.