Temporary Respite

"Really? Well, how should I address you usually—should I call you Wonder Woman like on TV?"

For someone who had never met him before yet was willing to invest time and energy to teach him, Shane was happy to maintain sufficient respect.

"Oh, I think you can call me Ms. Prince."

Behind her, Bruce silently pressed a hand to his forehead. Wonder Woman shot him a warning look, then turned back to Shane with a hint of expectation.

"Teacher Prince."

Shane first called out the title as she'd hoped, then showed a puzzled expression.

"Doesn't that word mean 'prince'? Can it also mean 'princess'?"

"Pfft."

Bruce Wayne let out a sound he couldn't hold back.

Diana's face darkened, but considering Shane had indeed just arrived on Earth, and recalling how many of her own actions when she first entered human society now seemed naive and foolish, she could only suppress her irritation at having her surname teased.

Glaring at Bruce Wayne, who had quickly composed his expression, Diana raised a hand to her forehead.

"Prince is just my surname. Do you have anything you need to pack?"

Shane was about to say he had nothing but an old bag of clothes, but Bruce Wayne suddenly cut him off.

"Hold on a moment. This kid does have some luggage."

Shane was startled for a second, then thought the Gotham billionaire might be generously offering a starting fund to help him adapt to Earth quickly.

Instead, Bruce led Shane and Diana to an underground warehouse.

Inside sat a gleaming, fully refurbished—

Escape Pod.

This completely caught Shane off guard. There was no disappointment from a shattered fantasy—just a trace of shock.

"How did this thing get here?"

Shane stepped forward and touched the silver shell of the Escape Pod.

Seeing the vehicle that had carried him out of hell and toward hope again stirred a complex mix of emotions in his heart.

"Wayne Enterprises' space satellite happened to catch this thing. I put in some effort to bring it back and patched it up a bit."

Bruce said it casually, like he'd fished out some spare change for a hot dog from a street vendor.

But Shane remembered that when the black Superman had taken him from the Escape Pod, it was still a considerable distance from Earth.

It felt like he'd suddenly owed Bruce tens of millions of dollars.

Though, considering Bruce's true identity, the man had probably only brought the Escape Pod back to dismantle and study it—

Trying to dig out more information about Shane and Viltrum from inside this space vehicle.

Too bad, because this thing had absolutely nothing to do with Viltrum.

It came from a planetary civilization conquered by the Viltrumites.

And the one who'd completed that conquest mission was Shane, along with several other Viltrumite comrades participating in this "bloody rite of passage."

"By the way, there's something I need to tell you."

Bruce, standing behind Shane, suddenly turned serious.

"When I was repairing this ship, I took a look at the flight log data inside."

"Part of the data turned into unreadable gibberish. That means during your unconscious drift through space, you might have lost a period of time."

Shane slowly stood up from his crouch beside the Escape Pod, a confused look on his face.

"That doesn't matter, right? I remember the Escape Pod only had enough energy to sustain three years of power..."

Bruce shrugged.

"The universe is a strange place. Energy consumption doesn't absolutely indicate the timescale you spent in space. But since we can't decode that gibberish right now, we're just letting you know."

Under the night sky, two figures—one large, one small—streaked swiftly across the darkness.

The small one was Diana; the large one was Shane, carrying the Escape Pod.

"Teacher, where do you usually live? New York?"

"You've watched too much TV. Not everyone has to live in New York. I live in Boston, Massachusetts."

The city below gradually sharpened from blurry lights into clear shapes. Red-brick row houses stood in neat rows, the Charles River wound through the city like a silver ribbon, and the dome of Harvard University glowed with a faint golden outline under the moonlight.

"That's Vanessa's house up ahead."

Diana's voice cut through the wind as she dove toward a five-story building hidden behind a grove of camphor trees.

On the way, Diana had already mentioned Vanessa to him—one of the few people in the human world who knew Wonder Woman's true identity.

Of course, Vanessa's mother was also Diana's roommate and landlady.

I heard he's even a professor at Harvard University.

Shane followed closely behind, deliberately restraining most of his strength as he landed, his feet touching the ground with only a faint sound.

The small building was covered in green ivy on its outer walls, and a warm yellow light shone from the first-floor windows.

Just as Diana pressed the doorbell, the door swung open, and a young girl with brown curly hair, wearing a loose knit sweater, poked her head out—it was Vanessa.

When she saw Shane behind Diana and the silver-white streamlined pod he held in both hands, there was no surprise in her eyes; instead, she smiled and waved.

"Diana, you're back? Is this the little friend you mentioned?"

"His name is Shane. He's from another planet."

Diana introduced him simply.

"He doesn't have a place to stay for now, so I want to put his spaceship on the rooftop."

"The rooftop's free to use. My mom's in the study preparing lessons."

Vanessa stepped aside to let Diana in. The stairwell was carpeted in dark red, muffling all footsteps.

A middle-aged woman with gold-rimmed glasses and a refined, scholarly air walked down the stairs—Vanessa's mother, Julia.

Julia saw the nervous Shane at the door and the escape pod in his hands, pushed up her glasses, and gave a gentle smile.

"You're the alien friend Diana brought, right? Welcome to Boston. The rooftop is very safe, and hardly anyone goes up there. Feel free to settle in."

Her tone was as natural as if she were welcoming an ordinary guest, without the slightest unease over his "alien" identity.

Shane froze for a moment, then instinctively said, "Thank you."

He had expected his alien identity to provoke caution, but instead found such openness, which let his tense nerves relax a little.

Vanessa smiled and pointed at the ceiling.

"This thing of yours probably won't fit through the door. Want Diana to help you take it up?"

"Huh? Oh, no need. I can fly myself."

Shane lifted the escape pod and rose into the air. Vanessa cupped a hand over her forehead like a visor, clicking her tongue in amazement.

"Why does it feel like aliens being able to fly is practically a standard skill? Makes me feel like human evolution is lagging behind."

Julia, the Harvard professor, urged her on.

"Hurry up and help, or do you want to come upstairs and do some homework?"

Vanessa rolled her eyes, and as she hurried past Diana, she jabbed her with an elbow.

Diana pretended to be hurt, clutching her ribs, and complained to Vanessa.

"What was that for? Last time you said to bring back a handsome roommate next time."

"This one's clearly underage! But hey, improvement—last time it was that grass spirit, and the whole room smelled like dirt."

Vanessa clearly wanted to argue back, but in the end, she just gave Diana a thumbs-up as encouragement, then thumped up the stairs.

The rooftop was paved with non-slip tiles, and in the corner sat a few pots of thriving succulents.

Shane placed the escape pod in the shadow of the platform's edge, while Vanessa, panting, brought over a tan waterproof tarp and handed it to him.

"Cover it with this. It'll keep the rain off and won't stand out."

"Thank you."

Shane thanked her politely, took the tarp, and quickly covered the escape pod, pressing the edges down with bricks.

He opened the hatch and looked inside. The cryo pod's indicator lights were in standby mode, and the interior was lined with a soft cushioning pad—lying down in it was actually quite comfortable.

Vanessa circled the escape pod once, staring at the open hatch as if she wanted to peek inside, but held herself back.

She had known Diana for three whole years, and this was the first time Diana had brought back a roommate who looked completely human and was male.

She couldn't scare him off.

After circling a few times, she just called out a greeting, saying Shane could come down for dinner later.

Then Vanessa hurried away.

Shane didn't pay much attention to what was happening outside. He tidied up a bit, placing his few changes of clothes into the pod's storage compartment, and settled in for now.