Finding the Stark Expo had been much easier than the elf originally believed despite never setting foot in New York before. His large frame turned quite a few heads, but nobody recognized his black clothed form as an alien - they likely just assumed for a short moment the lithe, but muscular frame of the giant belonged to a professional basket player out and about in the city.
Kal had a jovial whistle on his lips - he had taken both arms from the Destroyer when nobody was looking since Agent Barton appeared just minutes after the elf came back from healing the injured agents giving him ample time. And, the Asgardians were already gone, leaving the giant metal body behind.
Justin Hammer was about to announce something at around 6pm at the Stark Expo, which was when the villain of Iron Man 2 would take over the drones brought by Hammer Industries and kill civilians at random. War Machine, later rebranded as Iron Patriot, who was controlled by Colonel Rhodes should also be present and have his Iron Man armor taken over and remote controlled against his wishes. That was the extent of Kal's memories on this plotline disregarding some minor tidbits floating around in his mind.
"Mister Dorei? I've been instructed to give you this all access pass on Miss Rushman's orders," a gorgeous brunette finally stopped him in his tracks as he stalked around the entrance. "I've also been instructed to guide you toward Miss Rushman if it is alright with you."
"Lead the way," Kal agreed as he hung the lanyard with the pass over his chest without having to think it over. Walking around at the entrance was done on purpose to give these agents the time to find and invite him in.
A minute later, the elf stood in front of the redheaded agent pretending to be Pepper Potts' assistant Natalie Rushman from 'legal'.
"Miss Rushman," Kal greeted politely.
"Mister Dorei," the black widow greeted back and looked around a little. "Thank you for not outright exposing me."
"I figured it wouldn't do anything but antagonize you. She was with S.H.I.E.L.D. too, no?"
"Very perceptive," Agent Romanoff praised with a charming smile as she gave the brunette agent who brought Kal over a signal to retreat a little.
"There's no need to act in front of me. So please speak freely," Kal countered as he lowered his glasses to show his glowing amber eyes.
"Why are you here?" The black widow asked as her face fell into an expressionless mask with the flip of a switch. Everything in the elf's demeanor and the way he carried himself to the former Russian spy that none of her usual flirting would do anything to help.
"This is a thriving metropolis and an important hub of humanity's different cultures, no? Why wouldn't I come to New York and learn more about your people?"
"I thought you already knew everything?"
Kal gave her a wry smile admitting to himself that he should say more and explained, "Alright, I came here because something interesting is about to happen."
"Care to share?"
"With my intervention, not a single casualty will happen, except for maybe the aggressor. No need to save him," Kal offered in explanation with a disinterested smile.
"Aggressor?"
"You won't let up, huh? Vanko is his name I believe. The Russian man who attacked Stark."
"He's alive? How do you know? Is it your doing?"
"Miss Rushman, please," Kal breathed out with a small scowl.
Black Widow smiled sweetly and quipped, "Can't blame a girl for trying..."
"Anything else you wish to pry out of me subconsciously before I mingle with the humans?"
"May I ask you to stay by my side to protect me?" The redhead asked as she batted her eyelids at Kal. It seemed to her that it couldn't hurt to try one last time, seeing real emotion on his face for the first time when the tall alien appeared exasperated.
"If you ever want to get physical with me just to get physical, ask me again. If you just want to collect some DNA samples or semen to check if our races can cross breed or if you can find a virus to deal with me if necessary, I'm not interested. I take too much pride in my prowess as a lover to waste it on somebody with a mission," the elf expressed with disdain and walked off. "And I'm 100% certain that I'm impervious to any biological weapon you can conjure up. I've beaten the Scourge."
Eventually, as he walked around the busy expo grounds and looking around in mild curiosity, Kal heard someone shout, "Peter! Don't run off too much!"
He turned around since Peter Parker, future Spiderman, had famously been at the Stark Expo at this time as an elementary-school-aged kid who was saved by Iron Man at the last moment. Or so the commonly believed lore of the MCU went.
It took him no time to spot the beautiful MCU-era Aunt May in the crowd, but he had to do a double take because Peter, if it was him, was not around 8 or 9. He already looked 13, maybe 14 or 15 since he was a little scrawny.
"So, not the actual MCU? I expected as much since Thor and the Destroyer appeared seemingly a little early," Kal whispered to himself in Darnassian. "I'll need to keep an eye out on any and all changes... especially mutants. MCU I can deal with, but Phoenix Force level shenanigans with the X-Men is not something I want to live through. And don't get me started on mind readers... at least I have some defenses because we needed them to fight the Old God's influence back in Ahn'Qiraj for C'Thun and Ulduar for Yogg-Saron..."
With nothing more exciting to do, he followed Aunt May and Peter around, who were eventually joined by an NYPD Captain and his young blonde daughter.
Captain Stacy, Gwen's father, didn't seem to like Peter very much for whatever reason and took that apparent dislike to mean he didn't want to socialize either as the adults trailed behind the young brilliant teenagers exploring the new exhibits of the expo.
Poised to find out more, the towering form of Kal began to stop random people and ask questions like, "Anything cool happen in Harlem recently?"
He learned the Hulk and the Abomination hadn't destroyed Harlem yet.
"Ever heard of Charles Xavier and his school for the gifted?"
Nobody did, but that didn't mean much.
"Heard of Reed Richards?"
Yes they did, but he was 'just' a guy with 10+ doctorates, not a superhero.
It seemed not much else was different, though. Steve Rogers was still Captain America who was still missing. It was not Peggy Carter instead, for example.
It didn't help that despite retaining a remarkable amount of comic book knowledge, Kal wasn't 100% sure about names, places and origin stories - especially if they weren't featured in the MCU's more popular movies. Even with his ridiculous memory he couldn't recall everything.
When Hammer's presentation started, Kal sat at the very edge of the crowd so that he wouldn't block the view of whoever had the misfortune of sitting right behind him. But as luck would have it, that is exactly where May Parker sat as well. Peter and Gwen sat two rows in front, and Captain Stacy was standing off to the side as he talked to someone working security.
"Oh my, you're a tall fella, huh?" May suddenly quipped as they waited for the show to start. "Are you by any chance a famous NBA player or something?"
"Nope, just a regular 'tall fella'," Kal answered with a polite smile.
"Sorry, it's just, you don't see people as tall as you often. I'm May, by the way, May Parker," she apologized with a slightly awkward smile.
"It's all good, Miss May Parker. I'm Kal," the elf introduced with a small nod.
"Carl?"
"No, Kal - short for Kal'thal."
"Oooh, sounds exotic! May I ask where that name is from?"
"It's Thalassian," Kal answered and quipped good-naturedly, "No need to look so distraught. I bet less than ten people on this planet heard about it."
"Oh, thank goodness. Here I thought myself to be well educated..."
"I'm a weirdo with green hair. You could have just assumed I made that up, no?"
His long hair was faintly sticking out of the hoodie, but most people were stuck on the fact that he was almost seven feet tall.
"Weirdo? Hmm, I guess~"
Before the two could continue talking, Justin Hammer strutted onto the stage with a little dance number and gave a completely cringe worthy speech about him revolutionizing modern warfare. When he ended the keynote on his famous 'the press will run out of ink'-problem that nobody found particularly amusing in the auditorium and only earned scattered claps, the lights dimmed and a 'patriotic movie' played on the large screen behind the stage.
Kal was the only one who enthusiastically clapped before the drones started rising from the floor. May gave Kal a suspicious look as the elf in disguise clapped loudest among the crowd around them, but he merely grinned when he saw her questioning looks. He liked living through this cringe because it reminded him of simpler times.
When War Machine was introduced, the elf leaned down to May's side, and whispered, "Get your nephew and his girlfriend out safely."
Before May could retort, she found Kal's seat empty. Something about his warning, however, made May stand up and move toward her nephew.
As she tried to convince Peter to stand up, Kal was standing in stealth on top of a beam where the flood lights for the stage were installed above the crowd.
Using the advantage of the many shadows in the dimly lit auditorium where only the stage was well lit, Kal was able to use the Kaldorei racial ability Shadowmeld and combined it with the subtlety specialization's Shadow Step to arrive where he was.
With his trusted bow in hand, Kal waited for Stark to arrive, which didn't take long. The philanthropist billionaire was first discussing stuff with Rhodes, then he questioned Hammer and it didn't take long for the drones to stop saluting and priming their weapons.
"May Elune watch over me," Kal whispered in Darnassian and drew his bow for the first time tonight.
A drone aiming in the middle of the crowd was his first target. The Arcane Shot imploded the explosive charge in the drone's chest and people started to try and rush out in panic.
Just then, War Machine started shooting at Iron Man and the two started taking their fight outside. But them fleeing and being followed by twenty drones resulted in the glass ceiling crashing down.
[Skill used: Barrage]
Tens of ethereal arrows started shooting the biggest glass pieces as Kal calmly took stock of what was happening down below. It was full-blown panic as chairs were pushed to the sides and doors proved to be too slim to fit the frightened crowd's efforts of fleeing the scene. Several people were trampled and unable to flee on their own, but he couldn't take care of them just yet.
11 of the original 32 drones were still standing on the stage and aimed their cannons around aimlessly as they closed in on the crowd menacingly. Kal shot several missiles out of the air and started picking off more drones.
When they were down to just five drones in the auditorium, they prepared to flee but Kal was now bored out of his mind. These automatons were less impressive than anything a Gnomish master craftsman could concoct.
[Skill used: Volley x2]
Two volleys made quick work of the remaining drones and destroyed their explosive charges. Kal jumped from the beam holding the lights and moved to the first wounded person.
A deep laceration across his back from a glass shard with several people stepping on him that ended up with him being impaled by the solid shard had practically crippled the old man.
[Skill used: Lifebloom]
[Restoration profile partially integrated]
He used the Lifebloom heal over time on the man several times as he slowly pulled out the piece of glass buried the man's back.
Then there were several people either concussed or with busted ankles or hips, but Kal didn't want to heal them all one by one.
[Skill used: Lunar Efflorescence]
A shiny silver, ethereal flower appeared in the auditorium as pale silver specks of light started floating to the injured people from the magic plant. The spell was taught to him by Tyrande Whisperwind herself and only worked with the blessing of Elune, Goddess of the Moon watching over you. Or, well, if it was night and the moon was out.
And the moon was out, shining its light strongly on the flower from the giant hole Ironman and his best friend Warmachine crashed into the ceiling.
A regular Efflorescence any other druid could cast would 'merely' heal three injured allies before its power was used up, his version was much more powerful - but also limited in the fact that it healed over time and didn't take care of immediate fatal injuries like the laceration of the old man he healed first.
Still hidden from the eyes of regular people, Kal calmly walked outside and aimed another Arcane Shot without looking that took care of another drone. His eyes searched the crowd for Peter Parker and his companions for the day, but he only found Captain Stacy yelling out orders with a deep gash on his head.
He walked past the NYPD police officer, left him a Lifebloom to deal with the cut and continued on as he shot Arcane Shot after Arcane shot to take down runaway drones. By now, he was no longer invisible because the space outside the auditorium was brightly lit by floodlights as if it was day.
"Help! I need help!" A young girl suddenly shouted and Kal looked in her direction.
"Oh... I guess that didn't happen originally," Kal whispered with a sigh and walked over.
May was stuck under a piece of concrete, her leg likely entirely mangled or partially severed under the jagged broken part of the building that trapped her. Peter was doing his all to lift the stone but couldn't make it budge an inch as May already resigned herself to leave some last words of wisdom for her nephew.
Another Arcane Shot took care of a drone that flew close to them and Kal kneeled down with his head above May's. His bow was unequipped for the moment to leave his hands free.
"Please calm down, Miss May Parker. This is your nephew Peter?" He asked in an almost casual tone of voice that calmed down the crying woman but incensed Peter who angrily demanded, "Help me get her out of there!"
"Young man, do you know the major artery running through a human's leg?"
"Of course I do! But what does that have to do with anything!?"
"Please press down on it while I lift the stone from your aunt. We don't want her bleeding out before what I do next takes effect," Kal ordered with a serene smile that finally calmed Peter down.
Under the sobbing and distraught stares of Gwen, Peter grabbed one hand of his aunt as the other reached for her thigh as he used the hand and his knee to put pressure on the artery as ordered.
"Okay you two, look away," Kal instructed and easily lifted the concrete slab to reveal the crushed leg that was more paste than anything. When he tossed the offending piece of building away, the elf noticed that neither of the two kids had listened to him and looked at May's leg in horror.
"Ugh, of course you two wouldn't listen. At least promise me you won't tell anyone about this," Kal said and finished casting the third Lifebloom on May Parker.
Fifteen seconds later where the bleeding had stopped more and more over time, May's leg suddenly started knitting itself together as the woman wailed in pain. The process wasn't pleasant at all.
Kal stood up, equipped his bow once more and shot another two drones out of the air that were further away as he moved to May's head with a small step past Peter.
"I know it hurts. But it's your leg rebuilding itself. The pain will be worth it, Miss May Parker," Kal softly explained as one of his hands caressed the woman's hair and infused 'Nature Energy' into her to soothe the pain a little.
The leg had nearly rebuilt itself but still looked ghastly with the skin not fully put back together and the blood everywhere, so Kal cast another three Lifeblooms on the woman for good measure.
With narrowed eyes, he thought about it and used another three, different spells to make sure the leg was truly okay. He didn't want to see Peter lose both Uncle Ben and Aunt May as a teenager. If Uncle Ben was even gone already or not.
[Skills used: Living Seed, Regrowth, Nature's Cure]
Just as he was about to stand up and walk away, Kal reached into a small pouch hanging off his belt and took out a necklace in the shape of a crescent moon that he crafted out of silver earlier.
[
The sentinel gently put it in May's hand and advised, "Wear it while the moon is out. You'll feel better in no time."
With one last nod to Peter and Gwen, Kal placed his finger in front of his lips and made a shushing motion as he walked away to deal with the rest of the drones.