A Bird And A Phantom!

"AAAAAHH" A scream echoed through the room of a 5 story office. In reality, the home sale office was just a front for them to deal with properties they use to hide weapons and drugs and sometimes those they kidnap.

The man who screamed was held by a pale hand made of bones with some shadows seemingly leaking through them, while a face covered in bloody bandages crept near him. The man felt a chilly breath on his face, and then heard a ghostly voice, "Where are they?"

"Wh-what.. are..?"The man tried to say but was stopped by the screeching ghostly figure.

"WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN??" The man was utterly scared and answered in a whimper.

"The... the docks at the warehouse. Owned by Kingstien Seas. Ready to be transported to different cities or sold to organ traffickers or brothels." The man answered.

The ghost figure stayed silent for a while then asked, " You.. have a son. Why don't I send him there?"

"NO. PLEASE. HE DOESN'T HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THIS," The man pleaded.

"NEITHER DID THE OTHER KIDS, BUT YOU SENT THEM, WHY SHOULD I NOT?" The ghost screeched. "After all, it's only fair you feel the pain their parents felt," The figure said, clawing the wall beside him.

"No, please. I joined as a normal employee. When I found what they did, they forced me to continue or they would kill my family. I had no other choice, please." The man begged. He closed his eyes waiting for the ghostly figure to say something, but the screeching never came. He opened his eyes, only to find himself in his office, right on his chair, as if he was sleeping.

"What the-?" The man questioned himself. All that happened felt so real, yet... he found no signs of the place being raided. But he did find the place eerily quiet. Hurriedly opening his drawer, he found all the files missing, with a single note, "The company will shut soon. You better change jobs, or the next place you'll be going in my mouth" The man read the texts, which were written in red ink which almost looked like blood to him. But he understood one thing. What that happened was indeed real. He didn't know if he should feel scared for the... thing threatening him or helping him out of the loop. But he couldn't care anymore. The man quickly locked the building and rushed home to send his family away.

*On a nearby rooftop*

"You know, if they find he sent his family away, they would get suspicious." a man wearing a black costume with a blue-bird logo on his chest said.

"Not if they and the other bosses have to deal with something else," Another figure answered. He looked more like a thief if anything, dressed in black from head to toe, except for his ski goggles.

"Oh, and what's that?" rightwing asked the boy beside him.

"I edited the memory of the people from the previous two warehouses to make it seem like they were the ones who gave into fear and ratted them out. And since I got one of the minor boss' names from the guy who just ran, all I have to do is small suggestion planting to consider him insignificant to even kill, as he didn't give any information, as far as he knows," Ben answered him.

"...You are using the mental suggestion thing a lot," Nightwing said to him, a bit cautious.

"You know, powers are like another limb to us, and not using it much can lead to internal frustrations. So it's better to do things like these, isn't it?" Ben said, while Nightwing just nodded. He never had powers, but what Ben said did make sense. Plus, what he did would send the gang on a wild goose chase, except, the plan would derail if, "and what if they have someone who would realize what you're doing? You know, like a telepath or something?'

Ben slowly turned towards Nightwing, and then back towards the building they were looking at, then facepalmed. How could he not consider that even once? Normal people may not notice anything strange, but those with high perception may notice something wrong, in case the story Ben was making them hear had some holes Ben didn't know about.

And a telepath would derail it entirely as Ben wasn't good enough to hide his alteration from other telepaths, as he didn't have that much experience since he just couldn't just brainwash someone just for his experiments.

"That,... may be a problem. I never considered metahumans involved with them," Ben answered.

"So it seems. I have not seen one in the two months I was here, but we should take precautions just in case. I doubt the DEO's office situated here is just to observe Superman's cousin." Nightwing answered, which caused Ben to double-take. "What, Batman told me about her before I decided to come here,"

"*sigh*Of course he did," Ben sighed and said.

Nightwing chuckled at his reaction, "We still have work to do, so let's fool around later. I still have a job you know," He said to Ben.

"Yeah. I wonder if I should graduate early?" Ben wondered.

"I don't think so, that would just increase your workload," Dick said.

"Fair point," Ben said, and jumped from the building, following Dick. Nightwing stretched his arm, showing glider-like wings between them, while Ben did the same as well, the only difference was the glow it gave, which was engraved with runes of elevation, and his feet had propulsion-related ones, making traversal much easier.

They both flew towards the next warehouse, under the cover of shadows, making no one spot them.

*Next Day*

Ben adjusted his dress and checked the gravity bands he wore, as a side training to make him comfortable and grow stronger. His anodite state was still unlocked, so he deduced his physical body needs to cross a threshold to accomplish that, so after remembering the basic trope that aliens are usually strong because the gravity on their planets is stronger, Ben decided to build a gravity chamber and gravity bands for himself.

And after one month of wearing this stuff, Ben started enchanting even his uniform with additional weight. Though he doesn't like the fact that he has to balance himself with an opposite force or the ground around him cracks because of it. Other than training, Ben also practiced various martial arts in the room. And he was really glad of his adaptability. It may not be broken to Doomsday level, but it was still a cheat to abuse the hell out of.

And except just tempering his body, the act of making sure the surroundings aren't affected by the heavy gravity also made for daily mana and telekinesis training, boosting his mana reserves a lot. Ben even managed to enter equivalent speed and reaction time to make the world look like it playing in slow motion, like Flashtime. But it came at a cost of an exhausted body in extreme pain due to overuse of every nerve and muscle, and also an empty mana reserve. And at the fact that he was barely able to stay in the state for two minutes, w.r.t Ben. The surroundings have barely crossed the 5-second mark by then.

His strength is enough to bench press a train easily, and tactile telekinesis made it even more busted. Reviewing his progress, Ben focused on the current project in hand, forming an elemental core. Ben was able to manipulate elements through magic, or with raw mana, but he needed ways in which a more experienced magic user blocks him. And forming an elemental core was the best decision.

His constant training in astral projection had already solidified his connection to it, which he could turn of whenever needed, and made his telepathy and telekinesis independent of mana. He could add it to increase its power, but Ben prefers training it without mana, which his adaptability was... slowly helping with. They were mostly based on brainpower, so training them excessively usually lead to a complete mental shut down for a while and a bloody nose.

Making his way towards the gate, Ben noticed kara and Alex, and went to greet them, but stopped seeing someone else. That, someone, looked like a shy boy with round glasses, making him look like a nerd, but the reality was anything but that. Ben could feel the solar energy radiating through him. The amount was more or less equal to Kara's, but his aura was still different, and Ben knew exactly why. Because of that boy's human DNA. And his theory was proven correct by the fact that the boy ahead of him was more resistant to magic than Kara and he felt like he was born not too long ago.

'Great, now I have to deal with Superboy of all people, but why or how the heck is he even here?' Ben cursed in his mind.