Clark pushed the fallen tree off of himself. "Gah." He groaned and felt his chest, that phantom's energy blast had packed a punch. Luckily, he hadn't dropped the crystal. It was still in his other hand, and he put it in his pocket. He'd probably need both hands for this.

"So it's true how you Kryptonian filth are affected by a yellow sun." The phantom had launched Clark hundreds of feet away, but flashed by easily. "No matter, even with the abilities it grants you, you will die. And you will know the name of the one who killed you. I am Baern."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Why?!" Baern snarled and ran at him at superspeed. His fists glowing purple as he attacked.

Clark blocked his punch, but the force of it still pushed him back.

"Your father and the rest of your kind imprisoned me in that hell. No doubt you intend to do the same, and you ask why I wish to kill you?"

He brought his arms together, and this time Clark was prepared. He sped to the side and dodged the blast, which this time only lasted for a second.

"In time, I would have exterminated all of your kind, but you will suffice. Last son of Krypton."

Clark ran at Baern, testing the phantom's durability with a few jabs. Clark dodged and blocked the returning attacks, and made sure that the purple energy didn't touch him. The phantom didn't show any sign of pain from the hits, and Clark started to gain more confidence, putting serious strength behind them.

The light from Baern's fists intensified, and Clark stepped back. Widening the distance between them, but still remaining close enough to react in case the phantom tried another one of those blasts.

"Is that all you have?" Baern sneered. "Truly, you are weak."

"Then why don't you kill me already?"

"Oh, I will." Baern launched himself at him again.

Clark ducked under the phantom's fists. As they fought, the lessons Miss Goodwitch had ingrained in him during his crash course came to mind. Baern's footing was off, and his attacks were wild. He leaned into his punches. Even though Clark didn't have the advantage of speed in this fight, he could still see how Baern's muscles prepared for an attack. Letting him dodge them with some effort.

Clark was being careful, since he didn't know how the phantom would use his glowing hands, but it wouldn't be too hard to trip him up. The phantom might not be able to control his body properly either, since he had only possessed it for a couple of weeks at most.

Baern tried to elbow his side, and Clark let him.

Clark exhaled sharply. There was enough strength behind it to sting, but he could take it.

"Hah!" Baern was momentarily distracted from the hit he'd landed, and Clark used it to his advantage.

He grabbed Baern's arm and punched him in the face. Hard. The phantom flew back into a tree, his back hitting it with a heavy thud.

Yet he still remained standing, and his face was twisted in anger. No blood either, or bruising. Which was good, Clark had punched the phantom a little weaker earlier, but Baern had just shrugged it off.

This punch had been to the head, and Baern swayed from side to side. This was his chance! Clark ran up to him, readying the crystal to capture him.

Just before he reached him, Baern brought his arms together again. Firing another energy blast into Clark.

Again, he was pushed back into the trees. The trunks exploding into splinters as he was flung through them.

Clark fell, and spat out the dirt that had gotten in his mouth.

Baern had energy blasts? Fine, Clark had them too. He looked back up to the phantom, who was already running towards him. His dizziness had been a ruse.

Clark fired his heat vision at him, but didn't put in nearly as much heat as he could. He wanted to push Baern back, not melt him. He succeeded, the phantom was launched into the air and landed flat on his back.

Clark ran to him and inhaled quickly to use super-breath to pin the phantom and his arms down. A fraction of a second later, air burst out of Clark's mouth.

Baern closed his eyes as he was pushed on the ground, and Clark could hear the wind rush through the trees around them. He had to keep Baern in place, couldn't let him get another energy blast off, or even move a muscle.

After a few moments, Clark's eyes widened in shock and he stopped blowing. Still, the phantom was kept in place.

Baern's body was covered in a thick layer of ice, only his neck and head free.

"What is this trickery?! Damn you!"

Baern's hands glowed again, and the ice started melting around his hands.

"Oh no you don't!" Clark held the crystal to the base of the phantom's neck.

"NO!" Baern started convulsing, and since most of his body was still covered in ice, only his head and arms spasmed. His eyes rolled back in their sockets.

His face flickered, and turned to black. The phantom was being forcibly ejected from its host. The moment it was fully expelled, it tried to fly away. Yet the force of the Kryptonian cyrstal's vortex pulled it back, crushing the phantom until it was contained within. The device shone briefly, and returned to its normal state.

Clark picked up the crystal, wincing at the outline of burned skin it had left behind on the man. That was unavoidable, the same had happened to Lex. Fortunately for him, it shouldn't take long to fade.

He freed the unconscious man from the ice with heat vision. Widening the beam so that he could melt all the ice at once. Once Clark was finished, he looked him over. The man didn't have any serious injuries. A few bruises, the burn, and the wind-blasted hair might do some damage to his ego. But he'd be fine.

X-ray vision showed that he wasn't carrying a wallet or anything else that might have his ID. He had a scroll in his pocket, but when Clark tried to use it, he found that it wasn't charged.

Clark shifted his hands so he wouldn't drop the man when he raced him to the hospital closest to the first power plant that had been attacked. Hopefully, he lived somewhere nearby.

\\

Cedar Monroe. That was the red-haired man's name. He'd been identified a few hours after his arrival at the hospital, and was still unconscious. It was nighttime now, and the man's family had come to visit him.

Clark had needed to come up with a story about how he'd found the man unconscious on the bank of a nearby river. Which had been necessary to explain why the man had been dripping wet. Cedar had been missing for over a week, and when they'd arrived, the family had thanked Clark profusely for finding him.

But it was hard to accept their gratitude when it was his fault in the first place.

He dialed Mr. Branwen's number. Preferring to use voice rather than video call.

"Clark?"

"Yeah."

"So, how's the ghost-hunting going?"

"I've caught the phantom, and it won't be hurting anyone anymore. I'm going to stay here for a while though, just to check on a few things." He'd have to deal with the possibility that Mr. Monroe might still remember something, and he'd need to learn more about the ice . . . thing he'd done.

"Any idea how long?"

"Maybe a day or two. Hopefully not any longer than that."

"Alright, thanks for the heads up."

"You're welcome."

Clark raced out of the town. Before he investigated his ice power, he needed to check up on something first.

\\

The doorbell rang.

It rang again.

A few seconds later, the visitor knocked loudly on the wooden door.

Dan Wesley woke up and groaned. Who the hell was at the door at, he glanced at the clock by his bedside, one in the morning?

"I'll get it." He told his wife. Who was still fast asleep.

He wasn't one to care too much about appearances. So he'd greet whoever it was while wearing his white undershirt, pajama pants, and slippers. If they didn't like it, they should have chosen a better time to knock.

"Hello?" he said with a yawn as he opened the door.

He shivered, why was it so cold? He looked around, was a window open or-

"Ahhh!" He screamed as he realized he was surrounded by trees. Now wide awake, he realized he was in the middle of a forest in only his nightclothes and slippers.

A fire roared to life in front of him. There'd been a pile of logs he hadn't seen in the darkness.

"I'm sorry, but I need to ask you a few questions." A deep voice said.

A figure in black appeared. He hadn't walked out from the trees. No, he'd suddenly just appeared in front of him. Dan couldn't see his shadowed face, since the figure stood in front of the flickering flames.

"Wh-where am I?"

"The forest surrounding Maston."

This had to be a dream. A dream. He was probably still in bed, snoring away.

But the biting cold of the air and the warmth of the fire felt too real. The wind rustling through the trees, the insects chirping. It was all too real.

"Calm down." The figure commanded. "I'll bring you back to your home once I'm finished. First, I'd like to show you something."

The figure disappeared, and reappeared again near a tree. He put his hands on the sides of the tree, and lifted it. Uprooting it entirely, then, he threw the tree into others, knocking them over.

He reappeared at the same spot in front of the flames. "Now that you've seen that, you should believe me when I say that I've taken care of the creature who was attacking the power plants. They're safe now."

The thing attacking the power plants? This guy had killed it? From the footage, that monster had seemed unstoppable. But whoever this figure was, he looked like he was just as fast. Dan turned his eyes to the felled trees, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to question him on it.

"The creature took the appearance of a man named Cedar Monroe, who lives about thirty miles northeast of here in a town called Haviston." The figure said. "He's innocent. I do not want people after him. Understand?"

Dan nodded immediately. No way he was gonna put his neck on the line.

The figure seemed to accept his response. "Good. Now for my first question. Why did you hide the truth of the power plant massacres?"

"It wasn't me! I didn't make the decision." Dan answered quickly. "They told me to keep it under wraps."

The figure tilted its head. "They?"

"The Council of Vale."

"Why?"

"T-to prevent panic." Dan's teeth chattered, and not just from the cold.

"To prevent panic?" The figure raised his voice in anger, and even in the dark, Dan felt his powerful gaze boring into him."Dozens of men die, and your government thinks they can just hide it? Don't you have freedom of press?"

"We do, but it's superseded by the Grimm defense clauses."

"What does that have to do with this?"

"B-because we have to do what we can to minimize negative emotions. People are already upset over the loss of power. It'll just get even worse if they learn that someone's attacking our power plants while dodging bullets and snapping necks with nobody able to stop it. The panic will attract Grimm."

"So your Council chose to stay quiet about it?" The figure had seemed to calm down somewhat. "Just let their power plants be attacked without anyone knowing?"

"I was told that they had a plan to trap the attacker with huntsmen, but that's all I know."

"I see . . . thanks for the help. Again, I'm sorry for bothering you. Oh, and one last thing. Make sure to tell the Council to leave Cedar Monroe alone. Otherwise . . ." The figure pointed in the direction of the smashed trees.

Suddenly, Dan was back at his home. Standing right in front of the door.

He jumped at the sound of a hooting owl, and looked around with wide eyes. Was the figure still here? What if he changed his mind?

Dan hurriedly opened the door, running up the stairs in his mud-stained slippers. Too frightened to take them off or worry about his wife's future complaints about ruining the carpet.

\\

Clark sighed as he entered the elevator. He'd tried to be somewhat nice last night, but he'd still given the police captain quite a scare. He didn't like having people terrified of him, but the intimidation would protect Cedar Monroe. Even so, Clark would have to check every few days to make sure the guy wasn't harassed. It was the least he could do.

Last night had also been a good opportunity practice for Clark to practice his freeze breath, his new power. Useful for putting out the fire he'd made, but not really that much more effective than super-breath alone would have been. The fight against Baern had shown that it was great at immobilizing enemies though.

He'd gotten a good hang of controlling it last night, although there had been a few blunders like the lake. Now though, he was at the level where he was confident he could use it against the last phantom. And maybe some criminals back in Vale would be getting some nice surprises, like their feet getting stuck in ice.

"Come on Cedar, you have to eat. Stop exaggerating about how bad the hospital food is." A woman spoke in hospital room 7E. Clark was close enough to the door that he didn't even need his acute hearing to catch the words.

"Clark?"

He turned to the right, where he'd heard footsteps approaching for a while now. They belonged to a thin, middle aged woman with graying red hair. Cedar's mother. "Oh, hello Mrs. Monroe."

"Why are you waiting outside?"

"Well, I thought it would be impolite to intrude on their reunion."

She waved his answer away. "It's fine, we've been fussing over him all day. You're the one who found him, it's not an intrusion at all."

"I shouldn't . . ." He insisted, but she started pushing him in the door anyway.

"There's no point in waiting outside, I'm sure a young man like you is busy." She said, and interrupted a blond woman trying to feed the injured man. "Cedar, Amanda, this is Clark. He's the one who found you."

"Really?" The woman, Amanda, came up and held his hand in both of hers and shook enthusiastically. "Thankyou. The police couldn't find any clues as to who'd taken him or what had happened, and I've just been out of my mind this whole week. Really, thank you."

"I just did what anyone else would have done if they'd found a man unconscious," said Clark.

"Still, my girlfriend and I are really grateful." Cedar said with a smile.

"It was the least I could do. By the way, if you don't mind me asking, do you remember anything?"

"In that whole week I've apparently been missing?" Cedar shook his head. "Nope. The last thing I remember is heading home after work, and the next thing I know, I'm waking up in a hospital bed with everyone around me."

"I see." That was good. Clark wasn't sure how he would have kept the man quiet about the phantoms. "Are you hurt? It had looked like you'd taken a nasty fall when I found you."

"The doctors say it's just a few bruises and that strange burn on his neck." Cedar's mother answered. "He should be fine to leave later today. They say that he's not malnourished or dehydrated either after spending a week in god-knows-where."

That was interesting, the phantom sucking out the energy from the power plants had actually nourished the host.

Clark soon excused himself. He wasn't comfortable in hospitals. There, all it would take would be a blood test or a doctor's examination to notice something different about him. And his super-hearing made it hard to ignore the sounds of people in pain all over the building.

He raced back to Vale, and when he arrived, he heard new sounds. As always, a city this big almost always had crime going on somewhere, and he could always hear it. Although it took focus to pick out details.

Was there more than there had been before? He guessed that a couple days of inactivity might have given some criminals confidence.

I guess it's up to me to show them otherwise. He thought with a grin.