It has been a little over one and a half years since Kal'thal had come to Earth.
In his time, he saved a few people and robbed the Vibranium Klaue had in store, but he didn't kill the man, the thief had managed to escape.
He did, however, create five bracelets that he was sure could hold the infinity gems.
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|AN: Approximately translates to: "Shield of the Child of Justice"|
It was the last bracelet that Kal'thal especially celebrated. He was sure that he had somehow managed to create a legendary artifact when he was finished - as even the chat panel had immediately given it a name spelled in Ancient Thalassian. It was by far his greatest creation to date.
And it somehow managed to gain an effect he wished for the most, protection against people like Wanda and the Skrulls: protection for his mind. He couldn't be sure his defenses were absolute because the powers in the Marvel world worked differently than the ones of the Old Gods.
For his studies into the arts of Enchanting, Kal managed to reach a height even his uncle had not. He was able to imbue the use of a skill into an item. As such, he had enchanted several simple rings with healing spells and given them out to his allies - unconcerned that they could figure out the enchantments' secrets and reverse-engineer them.
"Are you even listening?" Stark asked as he presented a new weapon to Kal.
A sort of energy blade reminiscent of the infamous HALO Energy Sword.
"You're here because you cut yourself, didn't you?" Kal asked in return as he ignored the sword.
Stark's cocky smile turned wry for a moment and the billionaire made his armor retract from his leg.
[Skill used: Lifebloom]
"That's pretty deep. Let me guess. The sword can retract into your armor and you didn't account for it to spring out at a certain angle when you were checking your reflection in the mirror or something equally stupid," Kal idly commented as Stark grit his teeth with his flesh and skin re-knitting itself.
"Hey! I resent that accusation! The release wasn't properly configured and got sprung early," Stark sheepishly explained as the heal-over-time spell continued to run its course.
"How's your scavenger bot build going?"
"Almost done and not stored in Stark Tower like you asked." Stark shook his head, "I still don't understand why you made me build so many robots that can pick up scrap metal. Is there a junkyard in my near future?"
"You'll know..."
"You're lucky I need you to live out my life like a reckless idiot," Stark quipped and let the matter rest. Kal never told him what he wanted to know anyway. "Got any food in the house?"
— — —
"Are you sure about this, Mister Dorei?"
"Peter, I swear upon my pointy ears that I will find a way to take away your spider powers if you don't start calling me by my first name," Kal promised with narrowed eyes as the three teenagers in front of him visibly paled.
"Pete, quick. Call him Kal!" Gwen urged as she held Peter's arm.
"Yeah, man. If there's someone who can do that, it's him," Miles agreed with a shaky smile.
All three teenagers had gained spider powers two months ago during an excursion at Oscorp - or rather, Miles got his powers while tagging a wall in a subway station beneath Oscorp's headquarters later that same day.
So far, there were no other spider-people. For example, Silk: the closest living Cindy Moon in Peter's life was a 45 year old pediatrician in New Jersey whom he never met.
It was still one of the most notable changes to the MCU canon that Kal had found to date. Three spider people. At a different age compared to the original MCU Peter. And since Spiderman used to be his favorite back when he was an earthling, Kal kept an eye on him through his aunt - who was immediately made aware of his powers when he got them.
To spare Peter from future heartache and to get into Aunt May's panties. Kal, that is, not Peter.
"Now put on the suits. I didn't ask for all of your measurements to be a creep," Kal ordered with a roll of his eyes.
Once they were done, all three came out in their new spidersuits. Classic red and blue for Peter Parker. White, black, and a few mint green and pink accents for Gwen Stacy together with the hood the other two outfits lacked. And, of course, black with the red webbing for Miles Morales.
"These feel so awesome!" Peter praised as he jumped around like a child on a sugar rush.
"These color schemes are so sick, dude. How did you decide on them, Kal?" Miles asked as he ran to the mirror to pose.
"You're saying Tony Stark made these for us? Why?" Gwen calmly inquired as she started walking on the wall in circles.
"He made them for me who asked for them for you. But yes, Tony Stark made them. The colors were decided on a whim. Find Stark in his new tower if you want it changed. Ah, he told me he put in a training wheel program for the three of you. Check it out at your leisure," Kal advised before turning to the red and blue Spiderman in the room. "Peter, you finished the web fluid formula, right?"
"We did," Gwen confirmed before Peter could answer.
"Training wheel program?" Miles asked and immediately followed it up with a "WOAH! Guys! There's a voice talking to me in my suit, and an interface popped up inside the mask!"
The other two spiderpeople followed suit and started discussing the different settings as they systematically found many of the features.
"In any case. Peter, Gwen. This machine here allows you to refill the web fluid cartridges I had Stark design more easily. The training wheel program comes with a way to order the needed ingredients for the webbing through my account and delivered discretely to anywhere you want. And be sure to help out Miles here. You're better off as a team," Kal offered as he placed what looked like a fancy espresso machine on the table.
"You think I'm too stupid to get it done on my own?" Miles asked in exasperation as he turned to Kal.
"I'm thinking you're an artist at heart, not a scientist, and those two brainiacs would get into MIT at the age of 13 if their guardians had allowed it," the elf countered. "No need to begrudge being less smart than them. We all come with different strengths and weaknesses."
"Oh yeah? Are you smarter or dumber than them?" Miles asked with a cocky smirk on his face that bled into his voice so much, Kal didn't need to see it hidden behind the mask.
"You all play video games or D&D because you're nerds, right?" All three kids nodded "My intelligence stat is much higher than yours in my estimation. But I'm hundreds of years older than all three of you put together. So my wisdom stat heavily outranks all of yours to a stupid degree. And I'm not saying I'm smarter than these two when it comes to physics, chemistry, so on and so on," Kal offered with a shrug. "There's different kinds of intelligence in the real world. Book smarts, battle smarts, talent with numbers, talent for memorization. The list goes on and on."
"So I'm smarter than them if it comes to music and art?" Miles asked with a tilted head.
"Sure buddy," the elf waved away and put one of his hands into a pouch he brought along. "Catch!"
All three of them had a spider-sense, so they effortlessly caught what he had thrown at them.
"Is this some kind of way for you to propose to all three of us? Sorry, I'm not into that kind of thing," Miles awkwardly excused as he looked at his palm.
"Is this something from your culture? An initiation gift of some kind?" Gwen asked at the same time as she shoved the pendant around in her palm with a finger.
"I might be an alien to your kind, but I'm not a cult leader or anything," Kal drawled with a roll of his eyes. "You three want to jump into all kinds of dangers, so I prepared something for you to survive until you can call for help when you bite off more than you can chew."
"What do these things do? It's just a ring and a necklace?"
"Put the ring on and when you wish for it, it heals whoever it touches for enough that any fatal injury is stopped until more help arrives or I do," Kal explained before Peter could interrupt him again. "Keep in mind it works once and then needs a recharge from me."
"And the necklace?" Peter asked as put the ring on his pinky.
"How is that even possible?" Gwen incredulously inquired as she stared at Kal with wide eyes.
"Do you need another demonstration of my magic, Gwen? Did you get a zit or something?" Kal scoffed but cast Cleanse Toxins on her anyway.
"That's not why I said what I said," Gwen shyly rebuffed.
"Hey, what about the necklace?" Peter repeated as he waved to gain their attention.
"It helps in your natural regeneration when you're in the sun, and it tells me where you are at all times," Kal explained.
"Woah! Your magic can track our locations?" Peter asked as he put the necklace over his suit.
"No."
Gwen looked at the elf, then the necklace, and finally at the elf again and asked, "No?"
"It has a GPS tracker in the pendant for when you're not wearing the suit," Kal quipped cheekily. "I'm not a savage."
"Hey, wait a minute. Aunt May has a ring just like that," Peter suddenly shouted as he pulled up his mask to take a closer look at his pinky with the ring on it.
It wasn't his turn to tell Peter why May had such a ring, not that he was embarrassed by it. But Kal still changed the subject and asked, "You got your martial art lessons with Romanoff, right?"
"Yeah, she handed our asses to us. Is it fine for her to know about us?"
"I promised her something very significant for her troubles and I saved the life of her sister. She will take your powers and identities with her to the grave. At most, she'll tell Agent Barton, and he owes me even more, even if he doesn't know it yet," Kal confirmed Miles' question with a small nod.
"And we're still not getting sword and archery lessons from you? We saw you shoot those drones out of the air without looking back at the Stark Expo," Peter asked, having forgotten all about his aunt's ring and ignoring Kal's weird wording.
"Don't take on too much at once. Get your powers under control and learn regular close quarter combat. I'll show you archery once you finish the training wheel program," Kal offered with an indulging smile.
"Yeah, exams are coming up. We shouldn't spread ourselves too thin," Gwen immediately agreed.
"Wow, nerd alert," Miles whispered under his breath.
"Heh, send me a selfie with you and your parents in it after you tell them you got a C in something, nerd," Kal countered with a disdainful smile for Miles and his overprotective patrol cop dad and nurse mom.
The elf looked at his three protégés for a while as they joked around before he got their attention with a clap.
"We'll see each other the day you hear about people in Manhattan getting evacuated in and around Stark Tower. Tell your guardians not to go there to help out before we're done, especially your dads. And when they inevitably don't listen to you, tell them to stay safe," Kal explained as he looked at Miles and Gwen who both had fathers in the NYPD, before zeroing in on Peter. "We can't and shouldn't stop it before it happens. It would make everything much, much worse. So all we can do is reduce the damage as much as possible. Instead of fighting, I want you three to get as many people out of harm's way as you can."