Chapter 13: Temporary Refuge
"Really? Um, how should I address you normally? Should I call you Wonder Woman like on TV?"
For someone he had never met before yet was willing to invest time and effort to teach him, Luka was prepared to show them due respect.
"Oh, I think you can call me Ms. Prince."
"Ms. Prince," Luka nodded.
"Do you need to pack anything?"
Luka was about to say he had nothing but a bag of old clothes when Bruce Wayne suddenly interrupted.
"Hold on. This kid does have some luggage."
Luka was momentarily taken aback. For a split second, he wondered if Gotham's richest man was about to show his generosity and hand him some startup money to help him adapt to life on Earth.
Instead, Bruce led both him and Diana down into an underground warehouse.
Inside stood a gleaming, newly refurbished escape pod.
The sight completely caught him off guard. Luka felt no disappointment from shattered fantasies, only mild shock.
"How did this thing get here?" Luka stepped forward and touched the escape pod's silver hull.
Seeing the vessel that had carried him from hell to hope stirred complex emotions within him.
"Wayne Enterprises' space satellites happened to detect it. I put in a bit of effort to retrieve it. Did some repairs while I was at it." Bruce said casually, as if he'd just picked up a hot dog from a street vendor.
But Luka remembered clearly that when the black-suited Superman had pulled him from the escape pod, it was still a considerable distance from Earth.
He suddenly felt like he owed Bruce tens of millions of dollars.
Though, considering Bruce's true identity, there was a good chance he had retrieved the pod simply to dismantle and study it, hoping to extract more information about Luka and about Viltrum.
Unfortunately, the craft had absolutely nothing to do with Viltrum.
It originated from a planetary civilization conquered by the Viltrumites.
The mission to conquer that world had been carried out by Luka and several other Viltrumites who participated in the bloody coming-of-age ritual.
"By the way, there's something I need to tell you," Bruce said, his expression suddenly turning serious as he stood behind Luka.
"While repairing the spacecraft, I checked the navigation logs. Part of the data has become unreadable gibberish, which means you may have lost track of a stretch of time during your unconscious drift through space."
Luka slowly stood up from his crouched position beside the pod, a look of confusion crossing his face.
"That's not important, is it? I remember the escape pod only had enough energy to last about three Earth years..."
Bruce shrugged.
"The universe is full of mysteries. Energy consumption doesn't necessarily correlate directly with the time you've spent in space. But since we can't decipher the corrupted data, I'm just letting you know."
…
Beneath the starlit night sky, two figures streaked swiftly across the darkness.
The smaller one was Diana. The larger was Luka, carrying the escape pod in one hand as he flew.
"Ms. Prince, where do you usually live? New York?"
"You watch 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 distinct shapes. Red-brick row houses stood in orderly rows, the Charles River snaked through the city like a silver ribbon, and in the distance, the dome of Harvard University glowed with a faint golden outline under the moonlight.
"Vanessa's house is just ahead," Diana's voice cut through the wind as she swooped down toward a five-story building hidden behind a grove of camphor trees.
During their flight, Diana had mentioned Vanessa, one of Wonder Woman's few human friends who knew her true identity.
Of course, Vanessa's mother was also Diana's roommate and landlady, a professor at Harvard University.
Luka followed closely, deliberately suppressing most of his power as he landed, his feet touching the ground with barely a sound.
The building's exterior walls were covered in green ivy, and warm yellow light spilled from the first-floor windows.
Diana had barely pressed the doorbell when the door swung open. A young woman with curly brown hair, wearing a loose-knit sweater, peeked out. It was Vanessa.
She showed no surprise at seeing Luka behind Diana, holding the sleek, silver-white capsule aloft. Instead, she smiled and waved.
"Diana, you're back! Is this the 'little friend' you mentioned?"
"His name is Luka, and he's from another planet," Diana explained simply. "He doesn't have a place to stay for now, so I thought we could put his spacecraft on the roof."
"The roof's all yours. Mom's in the study preparing her lectures." Vanessa stepped aside to let Diana in. The staircase was carpeted in dark red, muffling every footstep.
A middle-aged woman with an elegant, scholarly air, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, came down the stairs. Julia, Vanessa's mother.
Julia saw the nervous Luka and the escape pod in his hands at the doorway. She adjusted her glasses and smiled warmly.
"A friend from another planet brought by Diana? Welcome to Boston. The rooftop is very safe; hardly anyone goes up there usually. You can place it there without worry."
Her tone was as casual as if she were welcoming an ordinary guest, showing no hint of unease at his alien origins.
Luka was taken aback for a moment before saying, "Thank you."
He had expected his alien identity to trigger suspicion, but Vanessa's casual acceptance eased his tense nerves slightly.
Vanessa smiled and pointed to the ceiling.
"This thing probably won't fit through the doorway. Want Diana to help you get it up there?"
"Ah? Oh, no need. I can fly it myself."
Luka lifted the escape pod and rose into the air. Vanessa shaded her eyes with one hand, clicking her tongue in admiration.
"Why does it feel like flying is a standard skill for aliens? Makes human evolution seem a bit behind."
Julia, the Harvard professor, urged her along.
"Go help instead of standing there. Or would you rather go upstairs and do some studying?"
Vanessa rolled her eyes and bumped Diana's arm as she hurried past.
Diana clutched her ribs dramatically, feigning injury, and complained, "What was that for? You told me to bring back a hot roommate next time!"
"He's clearly underage! But progress. Last time, that grass spirit always made the room smell like dirt."
Vanessa clearly wanted to retort, but instead gave Diana a thumbs-up in encouragement before bounding up the stairs.
The rooftop was paved with non-slip tiles, and several pots of thriving succulents clustered in the corners.
Luka placed the escape pod in a shadowed spot near the edge. Vanessa, slightly out of breath, brought over a khaki waterproof tarp and handed it to him.
"Cover it with this. It'll keep the rain off and make it less noticeable."
"Thank you," Luka replied politely, taking the tarp and swiftly covering the escape pod, securing the edges with bricks.
He opened the hatch and went inside. The cryogenic chamber's indicator lights were in sleep mode, and the interior was lined with a soft cushioning pad, making it surprisingly comfortable to lie down in.
Vanessa circled the escape pod, her gaze fixed on the open hatch, as if she desperately wanted to peek inside. But she restrained herself.
She had known Diana for three years, and this was the first time Diana had brought back a roommate who looked completely human and was male.
She couldn't risk scaring him off.
After pacing around a bit, she simply called out that Luka could come downstairs for dinner later, then hurried away.
Luka paid no attention to the outside world. He quickly tidied up, placing his few changes of clothes in the pod's storage compartment, settling in for the time being.