Five Days Later.
Midtown High School.
The physics teacher was lecturing at the front of the classroom.
Meanwhile, seated by the window near the back, Kael was scribbling three names into his notebook:
Orichalcum
Gammanium
Star Silver Sand
Individually, these materials might not mean much to anyone. But together? Anyone familiar with a certain universe would recognize them instantly.
The Cloth.
The sacred armor of a Saint worn to connect to one's constellation and massively amplify combat power.
And to forge such armor, those three materials were essential.
The good news?
In this universe, Kael was the only one capable of igniting the Microcosm. He didn't need to physically forge anything himself. As long as he found the materials, his constellation would naturally absorb and refine them, creating a unique Cloth aligned with his destiny.
The bad news?
How the hell was he supposed to find materials that only existed in the Saint Seiya universe while living in Marvel?
Kael rubbed his temples in frustration.
Thankfully, he still had time. He hadn't awakened his constellation yet, so there was no immediate need for a Cloth.
But...
Better to prepare now than panic later.
It was smarter to hunt for these things ahead of time than to scramble after his constellation lit up.
So...
Kael stared at the word Orichalcum written in his notebook and then scribbled something beside it:
Vibranium?
In Greek mythology, Orichalcum was a legendary alloy, said to resist ordinary physical impact one of the three core materials needed to forge a Cloth.
Coincidentally, Vibranium in the Marvel Universe was also a mythical metal and one of the most advanced.
It shared a similar trait: the ability to absorb and redirect force nearly infinitely.
Captain America's shield was made from it. One-of-a-kind. Unmatched in the world.
Vibranium was essentially priceless more legend than commodity.
But…
Kael knew exactly where to find a massive reserve of it in this world. Enough, honestly, to forge forty-eight Bronze Cloths, twenty-four Silver, and even twelve Gold Cloths and still have plenty left over.
Yes, he meant that place. The so-called "isolated and impoverished" African nation pretending to be on the brink of starvation just to receive U.N. aid.
Wakanda.
If Vibranium really could substitute for Orichalcum...
Then Kael was absolutely going to get it.
What if Wakanda refused?
Heh.
He didn't care.
If someone stood in the way of his evolution, that wasn't just a disagreement. That was a conflict of Dao.
And a Dao struggle...
Ends only when one side falls.
With that thought, Kael moved on to the next word in his notebook: Star Silver Sand. He paused briefly, then wrote down: Meteorite.
The name said it all silver sand forged from crushed stardust, ground from celestial bodies.
And what were meteorites, if not fallen stars?
If he could find one, then burn it with his Microcosm, he could refine it into Star Silver Sand.
Simple enough.
But then there was...
Gammanium.
This one?
If Orichalcum gave the Cloth its flexibility, and Star Silver Sand, forged in the fire of the Microcosm, gave it its self-repairing properties...
Then Gammanium was the soul.
It was the medium that fused the other two, imbuing the armor with life and awareness.
In short?
Orichalcum and Star Silver Sand were not enough.
Gammanium was the true key.
Without it, the armor would be just a lifeless shell shiny, yes, but ultimately useless.
With it, it became a true Saint's Cloth.
Kael frowned deeply. He scribbled the word Gamma Radiation beside it, then added a cautious question mark.
If Gammanium was responsible for giving life to the Cloth...
And its name began with Gamma...
Then there was one very obvious connection: the "mother" of the Hulk gamma radiation.
Bruce Banner had been bathed in it. The Hulk was born from it.
In a way, gamma radiation had created life. That made it, metaphorically, Hulk's mother.
Of course...
If Banner had been a woman, then gamma radiation might've been called his father.
Semantics.
The point was: even if gamma radiation wasn't Gammanium, there was likely some crucial link between the two.
Kael closed his eyes. He tapped his pen lightly against the notebook, deep in thought.
That was when he felt a nudge.
He opened his eyes to see Gwen gently elbowing him.
"Mr. Anderson's calling you."
"…Oh."
Kael blinked, a little stunned. He looked up at the lectern.
Mr. Anderson, the graying physics teacher, smiled at him. "Kael, why don't you answer this one?"
Ah. Caught spacing out in class.
But...
Kael stood up and answered the question after only a moment of thought perfectly.
This time, it was Mr. Anderson's turn to look surprised.
Still, since the answer was correct, he gave Kael a you got lucky this time kind of look and let it go.
Kael nodded and sat back down.
He was about to continue thinking through the connection between Gammanium and gamma radiation when a note slid across his desk.
He glanced at it.
"Has your emancipation hearing been confirmed yet?"
Kael picked up his pen and neatly wrote below:
"Yeah. This afternoon."
Then he slid the note back.
His apartment had been destroyed violently by aliens. The city still hadn't arranged a new public housing unit for him.
And honestly? Kael doubted they ever would.
New York bureaucracy was famously slow. He wasn't the only orphan waiting, and by the time his number came up, it might be next year.
And by then, he'd be eighteen.
So...
He'd been scouting low-rent apartments on his own.
No way was he going to keep living like a refugee, crammed into one of those reeking emergency shelters, constantly worried about angry, homeless insurance claimants losing it.
Might as well move now.
But since he wasn't legally an adult yet, landlords weren't exactly lining up to hand him a lease.
That's why he'd been spending his afternoons at Queens Family Court filing for early emancipation.
Gwen knew about it. Not because Kael told her he wasn't exactly the chatty type.
It was just part of her job.
Kael was a student.
Gwen Stacy was a student assistant.
And, unfortunately, assigned to his grade level.