Kade had gotten an advance on his Stark Industries salary, but not a big one. Nowhere near enough to buy anything decent in a city where a closet-sized apartment in Manhattan cost more per month than most people's cars.
As for the SHIELD liaison pay, three thousand a month sounded fine until he learned the payout was delayed by two months. Advances? Not a chance. The world's most powerful intelligence organization ran payroll like a government DMV.
Hell's Kitchen sat right next to Manhattan's gleaming heart, but the two neighborhoods might as well have been different countries. Like a shadow cast by the skyline. Low, grimy, impossible to ignore. Cheap rent was the only selling point. Everything else was a liability.
"Sir, I can't go any further." The cab driver pulled over with his eyes glued to the rearview mirror. "You'll need to get out here."
It wasn't about Kade. It was about the group of tattooed men on the corner ahead. Anyone who drove a cab near Manhattan knew Hell's Kitchen's reputation. The driver wanted no part of whatever was past that intersection.
Kade paid and stepped out.
The tattooed men noticed him immediately. Clean clothes, briefcase, walking alone into their territory. Might as well have had "rob me" written on his face. In Hell's Kitchen, looking like you had money and no backup was an open invitation.
Kade wasn't worried about the gangs. He was worried about what would happen if he had to deal with them. He'd just arrived in the country on Tony Stark's arm, already conspicuous. Starting fights in Hell's Kitchen would put him on SHIELD's radar, and SHIELD was something he wanted to avoid provoking until he was strong enough to handle whatever they threw at him.
Before the situation could develop, a heavyset blond man pushed through the group and came over with a warm smile.
"Hi there. I'm Foggy. Foggy Nelson." He stuck out his hand. "You must be Mr. Lawson?"
"That's me. Nice to meet you, Mr. Nelson."
"Foggy. Please. Mr. Nelson is my father, and he's a much less fun person to hang out with."
Kade shook his hand. Foggy had one of those faces that was impossible to distrust. Open, friendly, the kind of guy who'd give you his shirt and then apologize that it wasn't ironed.
"I have to say, Foggy, I didn't expect renting an apartment to need a lawyer showing up in person."
In America, lawyers and expensive were practically the same word. Kade had found the listing online and figured it'd be a form and a signature. A lawyer handling a five-hundred-dollar rental was like hiring a surgeon to put on a Band-Aid.
"The landlady's an older woman whose English isn't great," Foggy explained. "I'm just helping out."
"For free? That doesn't sound like a New York lawyer."
"Well, not completely free. She made me a Brazilian home-cooked meal. Honestly worth more than my hourly rate."
"Foggy, you're a good person."
"Funny. That's exactly what the first girl I confessed my feelings to said." Foggy's expression was perfectly deadpan. "Right before she told me she thought of me as a brother."
Kade laughed. He liked this guy. And it was obvious Foggy carried weight in Hell's Kitchen. The tattooed men had taken one look at him and lost interest in the new arrival entirely. Having a neighbor like that would save a lot of headaches.
Foggy led him through the streets to a run-down apartment building. The exterior was rough. Peeling paint, rust-stained fire escape, front door that had clearly been kicked in at least once. But inside it was clean and maintained.
Mrs. Cardenas met them at the door. Small, weathered Brazilian woman, maybe sixty, with kind eyes and a limited English vocabulary that she filled in with hand gestures and the occasional burst of Portuguese.
She was a tenant, not the owner. Struggling with rent. Subletting the ground floor and basement was her solution: keep the upstairs for herself, rent the lower half to offset costs.
Kade looked it over. The ground floor was simple. Main room, small kitchen. The basement was the real draw. Private, enclosed, no windows. Perfect for work that needed to stay out of sight.
"Place looks good. Let's do the contract."
Foggy produced a pre-drafted lease from his briefcase with the speed of a man who'd had it ready since breakfast. Kade reviewed it. Straightforward, no surprises. Signed. Three months prepaid, fifteen hundred total.
Mrs. Cardenas grabbed Foggy in a hug so fierce the lawyer's feet nearly left the ground. Over her shoulder, Foggy shot Kade a helpless look.
"Oh. Lawson, we're having dinner at Mrs. Cardenas's place tonight. One of my colleagues is coming too. You just moved in, want to celebrate?"
Kade didn't mind. Building good relationships with his neighbors was practical, and Foggy clearly knew how to navigate this place.
"Sounds great. I just got to America from Afghanistan. Don't have many friends yet."
"You're military?" Foggy's eyebrows went up.
"Used to be. Work at Stark Industries now."
"Not a bad career change. And hey, being alive after a war zone is a win all by itself."
They chatted a few more minutes before Kade begged off to unpack. Foggy and Mrs. Cardenas took the hint and left.
The moment the front door was locked, Kade went straight to the basement.
He opened the black briefcase. Twelve palladium blocks, each sealed in a lead-lined case, arranged in two rows. Enough for one Energy Activator with two blocks to spare.
He picked up the first block and turned it over.
[Palladium block. Nuclear-grade material. Cost: 1,000 AllSpark energy + 10 palladium blocks to construct one Energy Activator.]
Ten blocks per Activator. A single block of palladium could power an Arc Reactor for months. The energy consumption was staggering. Not just expensive. A bottomless pit.
But there was no alternative. The Activator was the only path to Stage 2.
Kade arranged ten blocks in his hands and pushed.
AllSpark energy drained from his reserves in a steady flood. The palladium blocks began to glow. Not heat, not radiation, but a deep luminous blue, as if the metal was dissolving into pure energy. The ten blocks broke apart at the atomic level, their matter converting into something that had never existed in nature.
The blue motes spiraled inward, condensing and crystallizing. In seconds they fused into a perfect hexagonal crystal. Small enough to fit in his palm, blue as a sapphire, lit from within by a steady pulse that matched his heartbeat.
No radiation. No heat. Every joule of energy perfectly contained. It was less like technology and more like something dreamed into existence.
[Energy Activator online. AllSpark energy capacity: 1,000 → 2,000. Recovery rate: 1/sec → 2/sec.]
PLZ Throw Powerstones.