Shane had never expected to play a round of Gala Gim inside Mon-El's memories.
Memories should, by rights, have followed a predetermined course. Shane should have been nothing more than a helpless spectator.
He had no idea how Mon-El had done it, actually placing the choice of how this story would unfold into his hands.
After silently calling Mon-El's name several times without receiving an answer, Shane had no choice but to make his own decision.
He refused the Phantom King.
This was no rash decision. Through observation, Shane had discovered that the Phantom King and his handful of Kryptonian Prisoners-far fewer than he would command later-were all still ordinary people.
Without the Yellow Sun Bracelet invented by Mon-El, these Kryptonians were not much stronger than humans.
Their only advantages were the genes their advanced civilization had engineered before their birth, and personalities almost devoid of serious flaws.
Yes, after genetic engineering, these Kryptonians were rarely lazy, nor did they devote most of their material desires to pleasure.
For them, "conquest," "force," and "military discipline," already written into their genes, were the sources of happiness.
Yet none of those things could help them survive in the Phantom Zone.
The harsh environment of this Red Continent, which Shane would later smash apart with his fists and feet, was sheer hell for these still-feeble Kryptonians. Scorching heat, aridity, and strange monsters that could spring out at any moment.
The last of those was particularly deadly.
So the Phantom King was bound to crave Mon-El's-Shane's-technology to help them survive.
Sure enough, Shane's refusal to cooperate did not immediately provoke the Phantom King into murderous intent.
He merely ordered his men to take Shane away and lock him in a cell, then came back at intervals to try to persuade him.
Shane played along