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The gleaming ring traced an arc through the air.
"What's this?"
Herman caught it.
He turned the oddly shaped ring over in his hand. It wasn't heavy, and the ancient patterns carved into its surface were exquisitely detailed.
"Press the symbol on top." Kara shut the hatch of her ship with some force, then stepped forward eagerly to guide him.
She had to tilt her head back just to see his face. The young Kryptonian girl stood under one-sixty in height—whether it was just her age or some quirk of Kryptonian growth, she looked small beside him.
"Got it."
Herman pressed the S-shaped emblem on the ring.
At once, a black outfit burst forth from it.
The suit moved as if guided by an unseen intelligence, wrapping itself onto Herman's body. Some kind of nano-tech adjusted its size automatically, and within moments it fit him perfectly.
It wasn't just warm.
It looked incredible.
The pure black material had the sheen of leather. A bold S stood out across the chest, and a flowing black cape unfurled down his back.
"The battle suit of a Kryptonian super soldier?" Herman raised a brow.
"That's right."
Kara didn't question how he knew—she simply assumed he had seen it through her memories.
But the truth was very different.
Herman recognized the suit because, long before he ever crossed into this world, he had loved DC and Marvel films. He had admired this particular costume even back then.
When Superman wore it, he radiated sheer, commanding authority.
Other versions of Superman might appear as a compassionate hero. But in this black suit, he was a god among men.
That oppressive presence—one gaze enough to make mortals feel like ants before divinity—was what countless DC fans loved most about it.
Herman was no exception.
"You're right. I do like this gift."
He wasn't sure why Kara had such a distinctly male uniform, but he guessed she had brought it along as a set of clothes for her cousin. Either way, it had now fallen to him.
And it fit perfectly. His physique, sharp and proportioned like golden sculpture, filled out the suit with a striking, powerful beauty. Herman admired the way the black armor clung to him, thoroughly satisfied with the gift.
It wasn't only the look he appreciated.
In past fights against Ghost Rider and others, his clothes had been torn to shreds. He'd been wanting a suit that could actually survive combat.
He had once considered the Hulk's famously indestructible pants, but this was far better—a Superman-style black battle suit that was not only stylish and durable but also self-repairing.
Kryptonian technology truly was something else.
"Wait here."
Glancing at the empty streets sealed off by S.H.I.E.L.D., Herman didn't bother with the Raven's Teleportation. Instead, he wrapped himself in Telekinesis and shot into the sky.
As he ascended, he took in the world below from above, savoring the change in perspective.
Whoosh—
He hovered above the clouds with the blazing sun at his back, his body casting a shadow across its light. The black cape roared in the wind behind him.
At that moment, New York sprawled beneath him like a map no bigger than his palm, as if he could wipe it away with a single gesture.
"I wouldn't be that cruel."
After savoring the moment, Herman descended back to the ground. While he'd been soaring above, Kara had gone back to fiddling with the small spacecraft.
"How's it going?"
Kara kicked the craft lightly, then turned to face Herman as he landed. Seeing him clad in the Kryptonian battle suit, she thought he looked downright majestic. Clearly, she hadn't chosen the wrong gift. Kara silently gave herself a pat on the back for her taste.
"Great suit. Thanks."
Herman smiled and nodded.
Great was an understatement.
Wearing it, he'd nearly shouted something overdramatic like Homelander's "God loves the world, and I love this world!" while flying.
"The emblem is my family crest. On our planet, it symbolizes hope." Kara blurted it out, then paused, momentarily puzzled.
She wasn't sure why she'd suddenly explained it—almost as if she wanted to remind the man before her of something.
Her mind flickered with confusion, and she wondered if it was just another odd aftereffect of spending over twenty years trapped in the Phantom Zone.
Kara brushed it off, keeping her thoughts to herself.
"A fine meaning..."
Herman nodded, playing along. He already knew this Kryptonian detail. On Krypton, Superman's family truly had been the symbol of hope.
"This thing won't be repaired anytime soon..." Kara tucked the small spacecraft into a ring. After carefully slipping the ring onto her finger, she glanced at Herman a little sheepishly.
"You mentioned before that you'd give me a place to stay?"
Her big, watery eyes looked up at him. It wasn't that she was desperate to cling to him—it was simply that Herman was the only good person she'd met on Earth.
"Of course. I never break my word."
Herman pressed the ring again, and the battle suit dissolved neatly back inside. The mechanism was still a mystery to him, but he straightened the creases in his suit jacket and led Kara back to Stellar Tower.
"Boss, you brought back another girl?"
Quicksilver was lounging on a bench outside the elevator, hastily hiding the book he'd been reading. His gaze flicked curiously to Kara behind Herman.
"Hi!"
Kara, cheerful as ever, greeted him first.
"Uh, hi, hi." Quicksilver waved it off halfheartedly. Girls under an F-cup didn't interest him in the slightest.
"You've been here the whole time?"
Herman gave him a skeptical look.
"Of course! I like staring at the elevator."
Quicksilver's guilty tone didn't help his case.
"Then you didn't hear anything?"
Herman's expression grew even more dubious.
"Nope."
Quicksilver shook his head blankly.
It wasn't just him.
Inside, Herman asked Skye, Aunt May, and Carrie as well. He couldn't believe it—his whole staff must have something wrong with their ears. With all the chaos outside earlier, not a single one of them had rushed to the windows, let alone gone out to check.
"Ridiculous! Absolutely ridiculous!"
Herman honestly wondered if, one day, when the Chitauri invaded Earth, his employees would sit in the office oblivious to the war outside.
"Everyone, come here. Let me introduce our new member."
He introduced Kara as a distant relative who had come to New York to study and would be staying with him.
"You have white relatives?"
Aunt May blinked in surprise at Herman, whose Chinese heritage was unmistakable.
"My seventh great-uncle's second aunt's nephew settled in America. Kara is his daughter."
The explanation was such a tongue-twister that Aunt May muttered it to herself for a while but still couldn't make sense of the relationship.
"Hello, everyone. I'm Kara Zor-El."
Kara cooperated fully, giving a proper introduction. She had no intention of revealing she was an alien. The distant-relative cover story had actually been her suggestion on the way upstairs.
"Hello!"
"What a sweet girl!"
"Wow! You're the boss's relative? You're gorgeous!"
No one suspected a thing. They warmly helped Kara settle into a room, letting her feel the friendliness of Earth.
"Thank you, thank you."
Kara kept repeating her thanks. Everyone quickly realized she was an exceptionally polite girl. Once she was settled, Skye invited her to watch TV.
"Tonight's Unsolved Mysteries is about aliens from Andromeda who supposedly came to Earth ten thousand years ago!"
Skye excitedly shared the bit of pulp lore with Kara.
They say only people earning two thousand a month fall for this stuff, but even though she made over ten thousand dollars a month, Skye still loved shows like this.
"Aliens from Andromeda?"
Kara sat down beside her, clearly intrigued.
On Krypton, research into and the search for other civilizations had gone on for ages. Naturally, Kryptonians were passionate about the subject.
"Yeah! Do you believe in aliens? I'm telling you—they definitely exist!" Skye turned the TV volume up.
"Of course I believe in aliens!"
Kara thought she herself was the best proof aliens existed. To Earthlings, she was as real as it got.
"See? You think so too? Finally, someone who gets it!" Skye was thrilled Kara didn't scoff like the others and immediately launched into sharing all the "knowledge" she'd picked up from pulp books.
Kara listened with rapt attention, even marveling at Skye's supposed breadth of knowledge.
"There are alien ruins on Earth?" Kara was floored by Skye's claims. To think Earth had something called pyramids, supposedly built by aliens.
"Yeah, not just pyramids. The Bermuda Triangle is also an alien base. Planes used to crash there all the time."
Skye spoke with total conviction.
Kara listened intently, already wondering if those so-called alien sites might contain advanced materials or technology to help repair her little spacecraft.
"Tsk, tsk."
Not far away, Herman watched the two girls discussing aliens.
He couldn't help but laugh to himself.
Two aliens on Earth, talking about aliens?
Honestly.
It was quite the scene.
...
Midnight came quickly.
The two girls who had been watching TV in the living room each went back to their rooms to sleep.
Herman, however, remained in his office, browsing through online news to see if there were any anomalies on Earth similar to Kara's.
"Good... nothing unusual reported."
After skimming the headlines, Herman let out a quiet breath of relief. He really was worried that others from the DC universe might have crossed over besides Kara.
If it were superheroes, fine. But if DC's villains had found their way into the Marvel universe, no one could predict the kind of disaster that would bring.
"...A group of people in California struck dead by lightning?"
That was the only odd report he found, though experts online were already offering explanations.
At the time, the weather had been rough—thunder and lightning everywhere—and the victims all came from the same farm.
That farm, as it turned out, was a cult compound. Experts firmly concluded that those people had simply taken advantage of the storm to perform some ritual. Herman didn't find that suspicious at all. The States were full of cults.
And cults often staged mass suicides.
"Knock, knock~"
Suddenly, there was a knock at his door.
"Come in."
Herman called out.
The door opened, and a small head peeked inside—it was Kara, hugging a pillow. She looked like something was weighing on her mind.
"What is it? Can't sleep?"
Herman closed the news page and turned his attention to the girl. She had changed into the pajamas Skye lent her, a set that made her look like she was wrapped in a raccoon's fur.
Adorable, really.
"I remember you said you knew a really amazing scientist. Do you think he could actually fix my ship?" Kara asked, her voice tinged with doubt.
So that was what kept her up—still worrying about her spacecraft.
"He'll definitely be able to fix it. He just needs time to study it." Herman had no doubt Tony Stark, the great inventor, wouldn't refuse a request from his company's major shareholder.
Besides, after saving his life, asking him to repair a spaceship wasn't much, was it?
After soothing Kara and walking her back to her room, Herman returned to his office. Meanwhile, more than a hundred kilometers away...
"Achoo!"
Inside Stellar Tower, Tony Stark—busy tinkering with a new Iron Man suit—sneezed suddenly.
"Are you catching a cold?"
Pepper Potts asked, looking at him with concern.
"My body's fine."
Tony's hand instinctively went to his chest. Beneath his shirt, black and purple veins spread across his skin.
Palladium poisoning. He knew the signs well. It wouldn't be long before the arc reactor in his chest—the device that kept him alive—also became the thing that killed him. The only solution was to stop using the Iron Man armor.
But that wasn't something Tony could do.
Since returning home, he'd developed panic attacks. He couldn't even sleep without being inside the suit.
It was part of his PTSD, but Tony refused to see a doctor. He wasn't willing to show weakness, and besides, he was addicted to his creation. He loved the identity of Iron Man.
"Gulp, gulp~"
He grabbed a bottle of vegetable juice and downed it.
It helped relieve some of the damage from the palladium poisoning.
Of course, it was only a temporary fix.
"You've been drinking a lot of that lately. You used to refuse even apple juice," Pepper remarked, surprised at his new habit.
"Maybe I had an encounter that taught me eating more vegetables is good for you? You know how it is—Afghanistan isn't exactly overflowing with produce."
Tony deflected with a weak excuse, then quickly changed the subject.
"By the way, did you send out the invitations I asked for?"
Pepper nodded right away.
"They've already been delivered to the major shareholder's company. Honestly, this is the first time I've seen you put so much importance on another man."
Her expression was curious.
"Some things are hard to explain. All I can say is—our major shareholder is no ordinary man." Tony's eyes flickered with unease. After his clash with Herman Chu over the company shares, he had wasted no time digging into Herman's background.
The results of that investigation had overturned his worldview. Now, he was desperate to see for himself whether a "walking nuclear bomb" truly existed.
"It shouldn't be possible. After all... that's not scientific."
...
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