"I could heal Stark and have him give me an initial capital of money... but Iron Man 2 just happened, and the element he created will fix his poisoning for him. I could kill Klaue and use the Vibranium for myself or use it to get access to Wakanda. I could go to Asgard with Thor and become their champion. I could make Fury contact Carol Denvers and use her to stop Thanos before he even gets his hand on a second Infinity Stone... I could gather them myself to get back to Azeroth???"
Kal'thal's eyes flashed. Yes. If the Ancient One couldn't help, then the Infinity Stones were the only things in the MCU he knew of that had the slightest chance to catapult him back to what he recognized as his own homeplanet by now. Azeroth.
"I have nobody I love that I could trade for the Soul Stone in this world... so I will have to wait until Thanos does it like he did in canon. If this is the MCU. Tricking a righteous individual into doing it just to get the stone from them is not in my character. Too bad for Gamora, though... but if it is to be her fate, I am not responsible."
More and more, he was piecing together bits and pieces from his spotty memories about this world that he didn't think about for centuries. Little details about the many plots shown in movies, shows, and comics. And late nights browsing wiki entries. It was all slowly coming back to him since yesterday. Like an ancient archive of scrolls slowly getting cleaned and catalogued by archeologists, his brain started offering him more memories the more he thought about this world in particular.
Kal'thal hovered in the clouds above the site where S.H.I.E.L.D. was about to construct a small facility after finding Thor's hammer.
Hundreds of people in pickup trucks were gathering around it to see if they could get that 'meteorite'/'satellite' to move. Kal'thal himself was wondering if he should test his worthiness now or wait. Mjolnir would be a brutal weapon in his hands if used in conjunction with Hammer of Wrath.
"My best bet to start my quest for the stones will be the invasion of New York. Space and Mind Stone in one place... but how do I make the humans believe it is in their best interest to leave them with me?"
Kal'thal's thoughts eventually reached his Jewelcrafting profession, and he started laughing a sinister laugh completely unbecoming of a prince of the blood elves.
"That could work!" He joyfully concluded while still laughing. "Time to build the rapport of a well-adjusted friendly neighborhood elf in the eyes of the most suspicious being alive: Nick Fury."
In under an hour, Kal'thal reached Malibu after flying west and being lucky by deciding to move south once he reached the coast. Another 10 minutes later, he finally found the beach side home of Tony Stark. Its opulence was unmistakable among the rest of the dwellings near the ocean. That, and it was teeming with agents among the collateral damage of a small but destructive battle.
The owner of the house was currently sitting on Stark Manor's ocean view patio, drinking with the one-eyed Nick Fury.
Kal'thal's arrival was soundless, and none of the agents looked up, only to the sides. He dismounted with a thought after hearing where in their conversation they were and heavily landed in front of the two men in his imposing paladin plate armor.
"Wow. You need a new interior designer," the elf quipped jovially as he looked around the broken home where Tony just had a fight with Colonel Rhodes the night before.
Fury and every S.H.I.E.L.D. agent present immediately pointed their guns at Kal'thal, but he remained unbothered by it. Not even dwarven muskets that are able to pierce dragon scales were able to wound him while in his armor unless wielded by a powerful hunter. Mere human pistols didn't put any fear into Kal'thal.
"Identify yourself," Coulson ordered as he appeared just behind the paladin with his gun held to the elf's back.
"Hello, future allies. I'm... Kal Dorei," Kal'thal introduced himself using a fake name. One he would keep for the duration of his stay on Earth.
Ravencrest and Theron were both storied family names, but he couldn't choose just one. So he decided why not use the Elven word for 'child' as his last name since he was both a Sindorei and a Kaldorei at this moment - racial names that included the word. Additionally, 'Kal'thal' sounded too alien to humans he learned when he talked to Jane, Erik, and Darcy.
"And what are you 'Kal Dorei'?" Agent Coulson asked in an even tone of voice.
"Just Kal is fine. And what I am is many things... but to you four, I am an ally," Kal'thal offered as he looked back at Coulson, then to Stark, then to Fury and finally to Romanoff trying to hide at the side.
"There's more than four people here," Fury wondered out loud.
"Yep, and I don't know those other faceless drones. They could be Hydra agents for all I know," Kal'thal pointed out with a shrug. "See that guy flinch a little? Definitely, Hydra. Please remove him from my presence before I explain anything else to you."
Fury narrowed his eyes dangerously at the agent that flinched and gave Romanoff a discrete signal that made the beautiful redhead escort the other agents away. Immediately after, three gunshots rang a room away but Kal paid it no mind. His nonchalance was both oddly reassuring and equal parts unsettling for the three people still looking at the tall elf dressed in resplendent armor.
"Listen here, Goldilocks. If you're here for an autograph on your cosplay armor and came to the master, I'm not in the mood," Stark quipped as he nursed his iced drink against his head without a care in the world once he decided he didn't yet care about the gunshots since that woman pretending to be a legal assistant at his company surely had things under control. Or else there would have been a bigger commotion.
Kal'thal looked in the direction of the agents that left for a short moment before coming to the same conclusion and cast Cleanse Toxins on the budding superhero.
"That was one of the reasons I came here. Hangover gone, right? Take a look at your chest?"
Stark hastily pulled down his collar and looked where his heart was covered by the arc reactor in his chest. To the surprise of both Stark and Fury, all the lines from the palladium poisoning were gone.
"What did you do to me?" The billionaire curiously inquired after he touched his body all over. He felt amazing. For the first time since forever.
"Let's say that magic is real," the elf explained as he summoned his giant greatsword, stuck in the ground and unequipped it again to show off a little. "Fury should know."
"You know my name? Curious," Fury wondered but never lowered his gun.
Kal rolled his eyes and quipped, "Ugh, this is getting old. Coulson, shoot me."
Agent Coulson looked bewildered for a fraction of a second and gave Fury a look, who merely shrugged. Stark raised his hand and quickly tried to stop the man, "Hey, hey. I know I'll need to replace the carpets and maybe seal the room where she-devil did whatever she did, but I don't want any more blood in my home! Especially not the blood of such a miracle worker!"
With a sigh, Kal'thal grabbed Coulson's arm much faster than the agent could react and pressed the trigger for him.
*BANG*
The bullet hit his breastplate and fell to the ground without even a spark.
"Yes, your bullets do nothing, so put down your pistols. Yes, headshots won't do much either. Yes, Hydra is still active. Stern is part of Hydra. Sitwell is, too. All your agents in Sokovia are Hydra or are too stupid to notice it. But that's not what I'm here for either. Tony Stark. I am not on this planet out of my own free will, and I will have to stay on Earth for a few more years, I fear. To do that in comfort, I will need some money from you so as to not cause too much of a commotion among your common populace," Kal'thal stated with a friendly smile.
"Not of your own free will? Did you take acid or something, buddy? Were you roofied in a space bar? Where would you rather be?" Stark inquired with a playful grin.
"I trust none of you three, and Jarvis especially, will catalog what I'm about to say next into a file?" Kal'thal asked as he mainly focused on Fury and Stark.
After seeing them nod and hoping that they would at least document it where nobody would find it in the short term after his warning, Kal'thal continued his explanation as he pointed to his eyes and ears, "I'm an elf from a planet called Azeroth. More than that, I'm both a night elf and a blood elf, but none of that matters to you. And no, just because they are called blood elves does not mean we are all vampires. Only some of those loyal to the Scourge are, which I am not. I'm fairly certain I arrived here due to a space anomaly within a space anomaly, and I doubt Azeroth is part of this universe. As such, I will need to find a way back home that's a little outside of your paygrade because it's supernatural in nature. But since I'm alone, you can be sure I'm not here to dominate or subjugate your race."
"And how can we trust that?" Fury asked as his eye scanned Kal'thal's armor. It looked a little too pristine... too... mighty.
"Trust is earned. It's why I'm here," the paladin shrugged. "I won't tell you the limits of my powers, tell you how I know what I know, give you my blood for research, or even help you kill your enemies the moment you point a finger. But I could try and fix your eye?"
Fury, in an effort to get more information, deliberated out loud, "You speak like you're highly educated in politics. What is your role among the... night elves and the blood elves?"
The elf rolled his eyes and cast both Cleanse Toxins and Word of Glory on Fury in an effort to fix the master spy's eye and explained, "Among the blood elves, I was raised a prince and protector on the behest of my uncle, their leader. Among the night elves, I am a general of the Sentinel faction, working my way up the ranks steadily one campaign after the other. Though I am a warrior, I seek peace and prosperity for my race."
Fury lifted his eye patch curiously to show the nasty scar that was clearing a little, and the grey pupil slowly gained a little color.
"Still hazy," the spy commented dryly, and Kal'thal could only roll his own eyes again.
"How long ago was that eye maimed? I'm not a holy paladin... well, not truly..."
The paladin concentrated a little and inwardly recited more spells that he used on both Stark and Fury.
[Skills used: Cleanse Toxins, Blessing of Light, Holy Light, Blessing of Wisdom]
"Sorry, never learned a spell just to heal eyes. I'm more the guy on the front lines," Kal'thal apologized with a cocky smirk.
"I feel like I'm twenty years younger again," Stark threw in and looked Kal'thal in the eyes. "Do that every time I have a hangover, and I'll give you a yearly salary of $10 million."
"I'd rather you give me something for the favor done already, and I'll be on my merry way. You may pay half of whatever you feel you owe me in precious metals, stones, and other curiosities I may ask of you in the future. Better yet, build me a home worth my station in the vicinity, and I'll deal with those nasty shrapnels near your heart."
"How can I contact you?" Stark immediately asked with a pleased smirk. The playboy billionaire had already decided on his course of action before the elf had even offered.
"Throw me a contact method and use that," Kal'thal offered with a carefree shrug.
Stark took out his own phone, fiddled around with it for a moment and threw it over to the elf with a warning, "Don't pretend to be me when someone tries you for a booty call."
"It'll be hard to confuse me with you the moment I stand in front of them," Kal'thal countered with a grin and consciously made his eyes glow gold. "Good luck recreating the element your daddy found. I'm sure you'll do splendidly now that your head's clear."
[Skill used: Summon Royal Thalassian Charger]
The paladin jovially waved at the people present and jumped on his mana construct.
"See you soon, Agent Coulson!"
— — —
Kal, as he now went, looked down at Agent Coulson and his team building a perimeter around Mjolnir.
"I should have maybe taken Coulson here on my charger to get some brownie points with the man," the elf pondered out loud and unequipped his armor once more - though he kept his cloak and donned its hood.
He silently landed next to Jane's home/garage/research center again and looked at Erik and Thor having a verbal fighting match as they were day-drinking.
"Wow, I thought I'd never see you again," Darcy quipped as she appeared behind Kal.
"Had to get a phone," Kal joked and held up the device Stark had thrown at him. "Here, give me your number."
"Ooooh, I like my chances for another booty call!" Darcy purred with a wide grin. "Last night was truly something else. The girls on your planet must be really lucky."
"In times of peace they are," Kal countered with a serene smile and took his phone after Darcy finished adding her contact.