Beneath a seaside cliff on the outskirts of Metropolis.
The silver-white Escape Pod was firmly wedged between two rocks.
Shane sat in the open hatch, sorting a bundle of fishing gear and several bottles of crude homemade sauces.
He had scavenged all of them from the cabin Tom had left behind.
"Bringing that stuff was completely pointless."
Rachel sat on a wave-battered rock, her boots off and her pale feet soaking in the seawater.
She watched Shane bustle about with dead-fish eyes, her voice full of snark.
"You've gone into the sea to catch fish yourself every day for the past two days. You don't need those nets or rods at all. They just take up space."
Shane didn't answer right away. He focused on the task at hand, only setting the fishing gear down once he had sorted everything into categories.
He gathered the pile of firewood he had collected yesterday. Though the damp sea air had left the wood moist, he still carefully arranged it in a crisscross stack.
Pressing his thumb against his middle finger and pointing his index fingertip toward the firewood, Shane frowned in contemplation for a moment.
Then a few indistinct murmurs escaped his lips.
Snap!
With a snap of his fingers, a nearly invisible spark landed on the pile of firewood. Then, against all reason, a wisp of smoke rose from the moisture-soaked wood.
"Ha! I knew I had a talent for magic."
Watching the wisps of smoke turn into a small flame, Shane happily clapped his hands together.
The gust he produced promptly blew out the sickly little flame.
Rachel stared with her mouth open for a long moment, then closed it helplessly.
In truth, Shane didn't have even the slightest talent for magic.
Although his Viltrumite physiology, which defied conventional understanding, and its resonance with the emotional spectrum had allowed him to absorb the Golden Apple's magic that day.
From Rachel's perspective, however, Shane's body was like a solid slab of iron. She couldn't find where any of that magic or divine power had been absorbed.
Yet Shane had eagerly asked Rachel to teach him, convinced that since he had magic inside him, he ought to be able to learn a minor spell or two.
Unable to resist his pleading, Rachel had taught him a few incantations.
They were extremely easy spells meant for magicians' children to play with.
Shane had learned the incantations quickly.
But without being able to access his magic, he couldn't cast them at all.
That tiny spark just now had come purely from Shane's strength.
When he snapped his fingers, the friction had heated the air between his fingertips. Combined with a little sawdust clinging to his hand, the incantation had produced a spark with an extremely faint magical quality.
It could barely ignite damp wood, and a gust of wind would put it out.
Rachel pointed a finger, not even bothering with an incantation. With a roar, the extinguished firewood burst into flames, lighting up Shane's face as his smile vanished.
A moment later, the two gathered around the fire and began shaking fish out of the net.
"It's nice to change things up sometimes. I can't always catch fish with brute force. Besides, these seasonings are pretty good. They make grilled fish smell better."
Shane finally answered Rachel's earlier complaint.
Of course, the net was purely a container. Shane had caught all the fish by jumping into the sea, grabbing them with his bare hands, and tossing them inside.
Rachel sat cross-legged beside the campfire, her mouth twitching as she watched Shane pull out the brightly colored sea fish.
"No matter how good it smells, it's still fish. I've eaten so much fish these past few days I'm about to throw up."
She rolled her eyes, her tone resigned.
"Your lifestyle is so primitive I'm starting to miss the days when I stole bread. At least I didn't have to face fish every single day."
Shane took a fish knife from Tom's collection and smiled as he scraped off the scales.
"I wasn't planning to live like this forever. When I dived down yesterday, I found some ruins on the seabed. They looked like a lost outpost of Atlantis. There was plenty of jewelry inside, too."
"Then where's the jewelry?"
A little light returned to Rachel's dead-fish eyes.
Jewelry could be exchanged for money, and money meant they could go to a restaurant in the city and eat a proper feast.
Shane skewered the cleaned fish, set them over the fire, then spread his hands.
"Uh, for some reason, the jewelry crumbled as soon as it touched the air. It was completely useless."
As he spoke, he shook his head regretfully.
The jewelry had glittered brilliantly in the deep sea. He had thought he could trade it to Bruce Wayne for a fortune, never expecting it to be so fragile.
The light in Rachel's eyes faded again, and her dead-fish eyes went back to staring at the dead fish's eyes roasting over the fire.
Just as Shane picked up a jar of sauce of unknown flavor and prepared to drizzle it over the fish.
The communicator beneath his backside suddenly let out a rapid series of beeps. Its screen lit up, displaying the Justice League's emergency communication symbol.
The two exchanged a glance. Shane hurriedly pulled out the communicator and pressed the answer button.
Batman's low, grave voice came from the other end, carrying clearly through the electronic transmission to their ears.
"Queen Hippolyta of Themyscira has sent the Justice League a distress signal. Wonder Woman may have been kidnapped. She's been out of contact for two days."
The transmission ended, and silence instantly fell around the campfire.
"Your teacher got kidnapped?"
Rachel lowered her head and continued watching the grilled fish, asking offhandedly.
Shane stood up, confusion in his eyes.
Even Wonder Woman could get kidnapped?
How long had I even been on Earth? A month? And I'm already running into something this big?
The communicator suddenly beeped twice. Batman had opened an encrypted channel that only Shane's communicator could receive.
"Shane, this may involve the two of you. Queen Hippolyta said the kidnappers came from the Divine Realm. They left a piece of parchment demanding that the sinners who stole the Golden Apple come to the Divine Realm in person to atone."
Shane's confusion vanished instantly.
Apparently, this wasn't some major incident, just a bunch of old thugs calling themselves gods who wanted to pick a fight with him.
He replied into the communicator.
"Understood. I'll come over too. The Hall of Justice in New York?"
"No, the Watchtower. Bring Aquaman up with you while you're at it. He can't fly."
Huh?
The call ended abruptly. Before Shane could puzzle over it, Rachel, who had stood up at some point, patted his shoulder and gestured toward the distant horizon with her chin.
A white wave appeared on the horizon, then raced toward the sea cliff where Shane and Rachel were.
A dozen or so seconds later, a man clad in glittering gold leaped straight out of the sea amid a great spray of water.
Aquaman landed with a thud on the rock Rachel had been sitting on. He planted the Golden Trident beside him, looked up at Shane, and gave him a slightly teasing smile.
"You visited some underwater ruins yesterday, didn't you, kid?"
"Oh, great. You didn't get any money, and now the owner's come knocking."
Rachel delivered the sarcastic words in a flat monotone and silently stepped back twice, leaving Shane in front of her as a shield.
Before Shane could answer, Aquaman cheerfully waved a hand.
"The people of Atlantis enchanted all that jewelry. It can only circulate underwater. It crumbles when it comes into contact with oxygen—looks like you've got it pretty rough, living here."
Aquaman casually tossed over two objects that glittered in the sunlight. Shane caught them and took a look.
They were two pearls, one black and one pink, each as big as his thumb.
"Consider that your fare. Please keep the flight steady when you take me up later. I might be a little afraid of heights."
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