"Excuse me? Sir?"

The man at the bus stop looked up from his scroll. A black-haired young man had approached him. "Yeah?"

"If you don't mind me asking, have you noticed anything strange around here lately?"

"Strange? Like what?" He answered impatiently.

"Well . . . people acting differently, or mysterious disappearances. That sort of thing?"

"No." The man answered and returned to scrolling on his device.

"I see, thank you." Clark walked off with a disappointed sigh.

Honestly, what had he expected by coming here? Greening was a town about twenty miles from the Highwood area Clark had first arrived in. So far, he'd been here for a few hours investigating. He'd known it was probably pointless, but he'd held out some small hope that he might find some clues.

He had to do something after all. Reading news articles wasn't working. It hadn't taken long to find Baern. He'd made his presence obvious, but this last phantom was still out there. It was true that it had taken weeks to track the first one back on Earth to Colorado, but Clark couldn't help feeling unsettled by the lack of activity. It had to be doing something. It was supposed to be one of the most dangerous criminals in the universe. Clark had even tried looking for reports of Geist Grimm since the phantom sort of resembled them, but nothing had turned up. Was it hiding?

Clark frowned, if it was, that was both good and bad. It probably wasn't hurting anyone if it was trying to avoid attention, but that also meant he had no way to track it.

If he didn't find it, Clark would have no way of getting back home.

Over the past couple months, the Kryptonian crystal had become a familiar sensation in his pocket. Clark took it out once more and stared at it. As always, he was in awe of the complexity his enhanced vision could pick out. Despite how simple it looked at first glance. It was one of the few connections he had left to his home. True, Krypton was almost completely alien to him, but at least it was in the same dimension as Earth. In this place, a piece of his birth world was a familiar comfort.

Clark didn't have anything to support it, but he hoped that after he caught the last phantom, Jor-El would think it would be the right time to speak to him. There was a good chance that catching the phantoms was one of his tests. After he'd succeded, he'd have a way to get back home. It was his only hope.

He placed the object back in his jacket pocket and continued on his way. He'd already looked through the local news. He could have done from his scroll back in Vale, but he'd thought that going to the source might have helped.

It hadn't. So his remaining option was to continue asking the locals whether they'd noticed anyone acting strange or unexplained incidents.

Then, he'd move onto a few other towns in the region.

\\

"This is all rather elaborate sir." Winter noted. When General Ironwood had asked her to come here to train her Semblance, she hadn't expected engineers and military vehicles with missile launchers to also be present. "May I ask why?"

"This is all necessary, Specialist." The general replied. "I can't disclose to you the exact reasons why."

"Very well, but I must ask, how are they supposed to assist me with training my time dilation glyph?" She watched as the engineers set up cameras and readied the weapons. Were they going to test them here? If so, this was a suitable region in the Emerald Forest with few Grimm and much open space. A nearby mountain was available as well to test their destructive power.

"I want you to use your glyphs to stop, or at least slow down, these missiles."

"Sir?" Winter's eyes were widened slightly, although if she were less disciplined, she would have had a much stronger reaction. "Missiles? Until now I've been working with droids and cars, I'm not ready to attempt those."

"I know, and forgive me, but you must at least try." Ironwood said, and Winter could detect the strain in his voice. He hid it well, but it was there, and even now his eyes darted over their surroundings, as if they could be under attack at any moment. What threat was he expecting?

She nodded. "I understand sir. I will."

"Thank you." Like his fear, the general's relief was subtle. "They should be ready soon. Stand where they tell you to and they'll give you the specifics on the speed and weight of the missiles. Today, you'll try putting glyphs ahead of them, but do you think you'll be able to react quickly enough to place your glyphs under them as they're traveling?"

"I don't understand the need for that sir, won't they be travelling in a straight line? I should be able to place glyphs in front of them regardless."

Ironwood shook his head. "Our enemies will not be that predictable Specialist. I'll need you to react quickly, to stop them in their tracks. Not place glyphs in front of them that they could dodge. However, for now we're working with missiles. Do you think it will be possible?"

Winter's lips formed a thin line. "I don't know sir," she answered. "If I can, I will need much practice. Months or even years of it."

"Then we should begin as soon as possible, but make sure not to overexert yourself." The general stated, and he looked back to the trucks. "Seems like it's time to begin, good luck Winter."

"Yes sir." She saluted, and made her way to the engineers who placed her in between a rock face and a missile launcher.

One of the engineers came up to her, he looked to be somewhat younger than her and like the others he'd removed his helmet. "Ma'am, we're going to start off with HB-146 rockets. They have a length of 1.4 meters, weigh about 400 kilograms, and will reach a speed of around 150 kph by the time it reaches your glyph. The flags will indicate the direction we aim."

Winter nodded and turned her head to the small triangular flags and the camera aimed at them. She considered her task. The missile wasn't too heavy, she'd worked with heavier objects, but the speed would make it difficult. Kinetic energy increased with the square of velocity, if an object moved three times faster, it had nine times the energy, and therefore became nine times harder for her to stop. While halving the mass would only ease her burden by half.

She readied herself, and signaled the engineers.

"Fire!" The engineer who'd spoken with her yelled.

Meters away, her glyphs formed with a white glow, the elaborate patterned circles rotating above the flags. The missile launched, the high-speed camera recording its entrance.

Winter grit her teeth, the missile slowed, the propellant was still firing and but at a slower rate. Even so, it continued to move through and flew by. She might have shattered her glyphs if she'd tried to put more force into them.

She did so several times that afternoon when she pushed herself. There were several variables they changed, the launcher was moved farther back so it would accelerate more before reaching her glyphs, the missiles were fired at different angles, she was even provided gravity Dust. Which assisted her greatly.

There were brief breaks, and the general had even reluctantly provided aura boosting substances. They were dangerous in excess, and usually used to help huntsman heal, rather than give them an edge in combat or training. The fact that he would suggest them was surprising, and caused Winter's curiosity to grow.

Hours later, Winter was out of breath and covered in sweat. She would have been able to do a few more trials, but the general put a stop to them when he'd seen the state she'd been in.

"I apologize, I shouldn't have pushed you so far." Ironwood said with concerned eyes as she gulped down water from a provided bottle.

She let out a satisfied breath. "No need to be, sir. I trust that you consider this necessary."

"You're a good soldier Winter, you did well today."

"Thank you." She'd felt how her ability to hold her glyphs had strengthened, and the cameras would provide exact quantitative data on how she'd done.

"I think you should rest tomorrow," he suggested. "Take time to recover, especially from the boosters."

"Oh no, there's no ne-

"Winter, that's an order." He had a stern tone, but his kind smile indicated his concern for her welfare.

Her lips curled upwards as well and she nodded. "I suppose I have no choice then." It would be a nice time to bond with her sister without having to train. While Weiss was eager to work on summons, after this grueling session, Winter didn't want to see even a trace of a glyph tomorrow.

\\

Neo, thanks to General Ironwood, Clark knew the name of the woman who'd attacked him. She couldn't talk, apparently for psychological reasons rather than a physical injury, and she was a little ball of nuisance to her interrogators. She wasn't giving up any information when given some paper and pencil. They were used, but only to crack jokes or draw useless doodles.

Her trial was going to be in a few days, and she was going to be charged with aiding and abetting Roman Torchwick and assault for attacking Beacon students. Torchwick was such a notorious criminal that even associating with him might get her decades in prison. She wouldn't be tried for assaulting Clark, since nobody knew that she had because he didn't want to bring attention to himself. The official story was that Atlas soldiers had apprehended her.

"And that's basically it." Qrow finished his run-down of the situation with Neo. He took a sip of the coffee Clark had prepared.

Clark nodded. "Thanks for telling me. It's so weird though, I still can't figure out why she'd attack me. She didn't know that I was the Dart. She tried to fight me head on."

Qrow snorted. "That must have been a sight. I almost feel sorry for her since I know how hard you can hit."

"I didn't do anything too rough." Clark replied. "I just tried asking her a few questions and then knocked her out when she didn't answer."

"I still want some details. Was she shocked? I heard that she ran rings around my niece for a little while, what did she do against you?"

Clark described the woman's weapons, her technique of dodging and jabbing, and her momentarily confusing Semblance. When asked, he also told Qrow how he'd let her hit him and just grabbed her arms to stop her.

"Wow, I'm not sure what would be worse when fighting you. Getting my aura depleted in a single hit, and I still remember how it felt when you did that. Or having none of my attacks work on you. You're a monster."

Clark's eyebrows furrowed at the insult. "Really?"

Qrow held up his hands. "Whoa there, I didn't mean it in a bad way. Come on, you handled Neo without even using your speed. And you go through Grimm like a . . . I guess a non-lethal knife through butter. Hell, it's amazing."

The young man blinked a couple times. "Oh. Well, thank you I guess. Sorry for misunderstanding, but you already know I'm not much of a fighter."

"Yeah, another thing I remember is your lack of technique when Goodwitch and I trained you for a little bit. You were a pretty fast learner though. Don't you want to do more? I could teach you between missions, and Goodwitch has some time between classes."

Clark shrugged. "I think I know enough to at least pose as a normal huntsman for short fights. I can use the basics you taught me, and just adjust my speed and strength accordingly if any more people like Neo show up."

Qrow laughed. "Yeah, normally I'd call that arrogant, but you can actually do that. It's not like anyone's ever gonna be a challenge for you to fight."

"Actually, there is still the last phantom out here somewhere. The last one gave me some trouble." Clark said. "By the way, do you have any idea when the general's people can start trying to track down the number for the scroll?"

"I don't have the exact date, but it'll be soon. They're getting some serious hardware for that." Qrow answered. "What are you going to do after you find them?"

"Confront them and give them to the police. I looked it up, and offering a reward to kill me is solicitation of murder, and they're also responsible for what happened to Argenta."

The older man nodded. "It's good that you're not doing anything rash. Seriously, I'd be pretty pissed if someone tried to get me killed."

"I'm not really bothered by that, it's not like they would have succeeded. I'm more upset that an innocent person was used as bait."

"Yeah." Qrow finished his coffee and stood up. "Anyway, I need to go, see ya later."

"Bye."

The moment the huntsman walked out the door, Clark heard conversation from the other side.

"Um, who are you?" asked Qrow.

"Hi! I'm Penny!"

The robot girl? Clark hadn't seen her since their talk over a week ago. What was she doing here?

"Okay, you waiting for someone?"

"Yes, I was going to knock on this door and wait for my friend Clark to answer."

"You're his friend?"

Clark opened the door to the sight of a suspicious huntsman and a cheerfully oblivious robot. "Hey Penny." She waved in response, and fortunately, her military attendant was nowhere nearby. Clark turned to explain to Qrow. "Yeah, she's a friend. General Ironwood introduced her to me, and she knows about me."

Qrow's eyes shifted between the two of them. "You told her?"

"She can be trusted." Clark answered. "And she kind of has her own secret, which you can ask the general about."

"I'll make sure to do that, but I guess it's okay if she hasn't said anything yet. Anyway, bye again." Qrow strolled down the hall to the elevator.

Clark invited Penny inside to the dining room. "So is there anything I can help you with?"

"Yes. Firstly, I have a few questions about your Dart activities. May I ask them?"

"Um . . . sure." He agreed hesitantly, he hadn't expected her enthusiasm.

She leaned forward with bright eyes. "What does the S stand for?"

Clark reached into his pocket and laid the crystal out on the table. "You've already seen it on my crystal, but it's not an S. It's the crest of my alien birth family. I decided to use it as a sort of signature."

"I see." She nodded. "How do you etch the symbol into various surfaces? It's been seen on asphalt, concrete, even metal."

"Oh, you know, I have my ways." Clark put the crystal back into his pocket, and her eyes followed it. Maybe she'd think he used that. "Anyway, I didn't know you were a Dart fan. When did that start?"

"I've been reading with interest of your exploits." She answered. "I find them admirable, and while I am curious, many of my questions were prompted by my friend Ruby. Who is much more involved with all things concerning the Dart. We talk about you often."

Why did he have a bad feeling about this? "You didn't tell her anything about me, Clark Kent specifically, did you?"

"Was I not supposed to?" She asked with an innocent expression.

"Penny . . ." Clark groaned and brought a hand to his forehead. If he worked quick, his secret might be salvageable. Qrow's niece hadn't blurted out anything to the public about him yet. Hopefully the huntsman would be able to keep her under control.

There was a soft sound of laughter, with strange mechanic overtones that only Clark could hear, and he turned his eyes to a smiling Penny.

"I am sorry, that was a joke."

He sighed in relief. "I'll admit it was a good one, you had me worried there for a second."

"Thank you, I've been trying to understand humor. Although I was trying to go for sarcasm. Which actually brings me to my next point!" Penny said cheerfully with a raised finger. "Your advice for acting more natural was a great help! Thirty-two strangers responded when I greeted them as you suggested, much more than I'd managed before in the same amount of time!"

"I'm glad to hear that." Clark said with a considerate smile.

"Yes, so I'd like to ask you for more advice. We're both nonhuman, but you are obviously much more experienced at interacting with people. I came to learn more as soon as I had the opportunity."

"Really? You must be really busy, it's been a while since we last saw each other."

"I had other duties, but there was another problem why I couldn't meet with you. After our last meeting, the reaction to the time I was unaccounted for was . . . unfortunate." Penny's eyes fell. "Despite the general's efforts. Ciel was ordered to watch over me more closely, and you and I are unable to speak freely around her. However, thanks to my good behavior, the general and my father were able to allow me to roam unsupervised for a short while." Her expression lifted at the last comment.

"So that's why she's not here with you." Clark realized. "How long do you have?"

"Two hours, and I must check in every thirty minutes."

He frowned. "That's not enough time to teach you much. The reason I'm good at blending in with people is because I've spent my entire life with them. I actually used to think I was human for a while, and I didn't learn that I was an alien until my parents showed me the ship I arrived in years ago." If Clark hadn't been found by his parents and made friends, maybe he would have turned out like the few other Kryptonians he'd met. Arrogant and dismissive of humans.

Kryptonians had their own social structures though. It wasn't really a fair comparison between him as an alien and Penny as a robot. She probably didn't have her own instincts for how to socialize like humans or Kryptonians would.

"Do you have anyone else who could teach you?" Clark didn't want to reject her outright, but teaching a robot how to socialize, even a nice one like Penny, didn't mesh with his skillset.

"Most Atlas technicians are more interested in my other functions than teaching me how to speak and act naturally." Penny explained. "I'd like to learn more, it raises questions about my nature when I show ignorance of things any human would know."

"Yeah, I get the problem now." Clark had experience having to hide his ignorance on what people meant. When he'd been very young, he hadn't known how his powers made his life different from others. The things his parents had done had confused him. Why they sweat, what they meant when it felt cold, and it had been a mystery why his parents struggled to reach under the couch or fridge instead of just lifting it above their head. Usually, the only time Clark felt physical pain was when he was exposed to kryptonite.

"I'll do what I can to help, but I'm not really an expert." Clark said. "If you'd told me ahead of time I could have at least read up and arranged something, but I guess I'll wing it."

"Wing it?" She asked with a tilt of her head.

"It's an expression, it means to go ahead without a set plan." He explained.

"I've heard the word 'wingman' before, is it related to that?"

"No, that's different, a wingman is someone who assists a friend. Usually for helping to pick up women." He hoped that would be her last question for now, because it would be a long two hours if he was going to have to explain every expression or phrase she'd ever come across. And there were probably a bunch in this world that he didn't know, although the only ones he'd found so far related to Dust and Grimm and were fairly easy to figure out.

"Anyway, you can probably just look up any sayings you don't know online." He added.

"I'll make sure to do that. If you are going to 'wing' it, then will you need time to come up with lessons?"

"Yeah, just give me some time to think."

"Okay."

Alright, so teaching a robot how to socialize. Where was he supposed to begin? People watching? He could watch and listen in on conversations from far away, but Penny probably wouldn't be able to. Besides, it was kind of creepy to eavesdrop. Even if it would have been an easy way to have Penny see people's natural reactions and mannerisms.

"How about we move to the living room?" Clark suggested.

Penny gave him a questioning look, but followed and sat down on the couch when he prompted her to.

Clark held the remote on his hand and turned the TV on and flipped channels and tried to find a suitable show. He stopped on a comedy show that was called Hot Mess.

"Clark, why are watching television?"

"I thought that it might be a good idea to start off with you trying to read the actors' expressions and the mood and tone of conversation. I'll answer any questions you have about them." It was the best Clark could come up with on the spot, and it probably wasn't too bad of an idea. The show seemed like it had decent acting, and a little bit of exaggeration would probably help Penny. The soundtrack would also help point out when the characters were sad, angry, or whether something was supposed to be funny or not.

He turned on the subtitles, since she was going to ask questions and he planned to point out things to help her out. Even if he wasn't particularly enthusiastic about it, he was actually going to help. Not plop her down in front of a TV for two hours.

"Yeah, I sort of . . . took the car." The teenage guy at a party said on the phone. The character was supposed to be sixteen, although the actor had to be in his mid-twenties at least.

"You what?!" His mother shouted from the other half of the screen, which showed her inside a different house.

"Dad said I could!"

"Dan!" The mother shouted. "Did you give our son permission to take the car when I specifically said that I needed it! Did you forget our other one's in the shop!"

The father's face peeked sheepishly from the doorway. "Maybe?" He shrugged and gave an apologetic smile.

"That's a good one." Clark pointed out and paused the show. "Tell me why he did that."

"I'm not certain. Is he unsure of whether he had actually forgotten or not?"

Clark chuckled. "No, he knows heforgot and that he's in trouble. Him doing this." Clark mimicked the actor's shrug and facial expression. "Is kind of exaggerated for comedic effect, but he's trying not to get his wife too upset."

"I don't understand, why would that calm her?"

"Well, it's funny, and the way he smiles means he's sorry, although it might end up having the opposite effect."

Penny only seemed more lost by his explanation. "But why is it funny? How does the way he smiles indicate an apology?"

Oh boy. He wasn't really sure how to answer the first question besides 'it's funny', not unless he wanted to search up theories of comedy. So he began with her second question, explaining how the muscles around actor's eyes and the twist of his lips were meant to be interpreted. Along with how the shrug really emphasized his tone. Clark recommended also they keep watching for more funny moments to help her see what was funny about them.

Fifteen minutes in, Clark had to excuse himself. It was the afternoon, but he'd decided to be more active as the Dart now, and he heard a fire in northeast Vale. He told Penny to keep watching and save her questions until he got back.

The stores there were packed tightly, and luckily, he'd arrived before the fire had spread far. At the moment, only a couple stores were affected, but a crowd was already forming. Most pointed or tried to record it with their scrolls, but a few just stared with hopeless expressions. It was probably their livelihoods that were being burned up.

Clark waited in an alley and listened for sirens, which were still far away. The fire could get a lot worse before they got here. Clark took a deep breath, and he rushed in too quickly for any person or security camera to see. He flashed by and let out puffs of freeze breath and super breath on the flames.

The murmurs from the crowd stopped suddenly when he extinguished the flames. Most were stunned, but a few recovered quickly and walked in to investigate.

That distracted them long enough for Clark to carve the crest of El into the side of a building. His fingernails weren't particularly sharp, but they were hard. Easily able to chisel into the brick. Normally, he would have used heat vision to burn it in, but considering he'd just stopped a fire . . . it seemed in bad taste.

Clark waited for a few minutes, and after he was satisfied that everything was okay, he sped back to his room in Beacon.

"So, do you have any questions for anything that happened?" He asked when he returned.

"Yes, there are a couple moments I'm not sure about. I'll rewind back to them."

It went on like that for a while. Clark pointing out things like sarcasm, body language, or certain jokes, and answering any questions she had. Stopping at moments where he heard something and left to deal with something.

He didn't only deal with criminals anymore. He helped out at a construction accident where he helped clear the rubble at superspeed and left behind dumbfounded workers and policemen. There had been a car accident that he'd only heard after it happened, but he was able to safely carry the injured to the nearest hospital.

After all, there was more he could do than punch or tie up bad guys.

Penny also had to talk with someone from Atlas every half hour, and she told him that the transmitter built into her also told them her position.

Really? Was it too much to allow her some freedom? Penny didn't seem too bothered by it, but that could have been because that was the way she'd lived her whole life.

At around five o'clock, her two hours were up.

"I must say Clark, this has been very helpful. Thank you." She said with a wide smile.

"You're welcome. Tell me beforehand if you want to do this again so I can prepare something better, okay?"

"I will. Also, would it be possible for me to spar with you again?"

"Maybe." He answered hesitantly. Clark wasn't particularly eager to fight like Penny, or as his time with team CFVY had shown him, apparently most huntsmen-in-training. But if she thought the experience would help her in future fights, then he'd agree. "I'll call you when I have some free time."

"Understood. Goodbye Clark, and thank you." She closed the door lightly on her way out.

After she left, Clark started to prepare dinner. He didn't feel hungry. He hardly ever did anymore, but he still wanted to eat. It was more than just the taste of the food. He tried to maintain three meals a day because it just felt right. Although, he always made sure to make small portions for himself, there was no point in being greedy.

Tonight was grilled chicken and split peas with buttered rolls. Sometimes, when he felt like experimenting or trying to control his powers better, he tried cooking with heat vision. Or when he was in a rush, he would use superspeed for a few steps, but there were things that couldn't and shouldn't be rushed. Like baking the bread, although it wasn't really the same as his mom's.

Tonight, like most nights, he didn't use any of his powers. Well, except to take out the hot tray from the oven with his bare hands. He didn't have mitts, and he didn't really need them.

After he finished eating, he planned to go into the city to patrol. Then he could come back sometime in the middle of the night and catch up on some news articles. Then, he'd sleep for a couple hours.