Night settled over the city.
On the rooftop of his new apartment building, Lucas Kane finished his training session. After the last strike, he tugged at his athletic shorts and sat down beside a ventilation pipe, grabbing a can of cola from the ground and taking a long drink.
The night air was cool.
After a moment, Lucas seemed to remember something.
He set the can aside and opened his right hand.
Earlier that day, Gwen had noticed a patch of freshly healed skin in the center of his palm.
Now it was completely gone.
Since unlocking his Cosmo, every aspect of his body had changed.
Strength.
Speed.
Durability.
Even without actively igniting his Cosmo, his physical abilities had already moved far beyond human limits.
He could shatter stone with his bare hands, tear through reinforced walls, even bend steel.
When he pushed himself, his speed could approach the sound barrier.
His body was just as remarkable. Impacts that would instantly kill an ordinary person barely affected him, even without the protection of a Saint Cloth. And if he did get hurt, his accelerated healing allowed him to recover quickly from fatigue or minor injuries.
The fragment from the centrifuge earlier that day was proof.
If he hadn't stepped in, Gwen would have had no chance of surviving.
The high-speed shard would have struck her directly.
Instead, it hit his palm.
Lucas ran his fingers over the spot where the pain had been.
The skin felt perfectly normal now.
He frowned slightly, lost in thought.
Then his phone rang.
Lucas blinked in surprise.
Since buying a SIM card, the phone Gwen had given him had barely been used.
He answered.
"Hello?"
A brief pause.
"Yeah, it's me. You're there already?"
Another pause.
"Alright. I'll be there in a minute."
He ended the call and stood.
In a blur of motion, Lucas vanished from the rooftop.
A second later he appeared beside the emergency stairwell, slipped through a window into his apartment, and opened his backpack. From inside, he pulled out five hundred dollars in cash.
His computer had arrived.
Ten minutes later, Lucas reached the entrance of Bridge Park across the street.
The park was quiet at this hour.
He glanced around before pulling out his phone and dialing the only number saved in his call history.
Nearby, a parked van flashed its headlights.
Lucas looked up.
The driver's door opened.
A young Asian woman stepped out, long brown hair falling past her shoulders. She looked no older than twenty. She raised her phone and waved it slightly.
Lucas studied her face and raised an eyebrow.
Skye.
The woman leaned casually against the side of the van.
"You Lucas?"
"Yeah."
Skye nodded and pulled a laptop from inside the vehicle.
"Same specs we talked about earlier. Three years old, but still in great condition. I wiped the system and reinstalled everything. Check it first, then pay."
Lucas accepted the laptop and opened it.
Five hundred dollars wasn't a trivial purchase.
If he hadn't felt awkward asking, he might have tried borrowing a computer from Gwen instead.
But there were limits.
Even if he had accepted the phone she gave him.
Lucas powered the laptop on and tested a few programs. Everything worked smoothly.
Satisfied, he closed the lid and handed Skye five hundred-dollar bills.
She counted them quickly.
A moment later she tucked the money away and extended her hand.
"Pleasure doing business."
Lucas shifted the laptop to his other arm and shook her hand.
"Same here."
No small talk.
Just a transaction.
Skye climbed back into her van, started the engine, and drove off into the night.
Lucas returned to his apartment.
Inside, he placed the newly purchased laptop on his folding table. Beside it, he set the phone Gwen had given him.
He looked at both devices for a moment.
Then shook his head.
Focus.
Lucas connected the laptop to the phone's hotspot.
His next target appeared on the screen.
Quantico.
He opened a satellite map and navigated to the military base.
Certain facilities were blurred or hidden from public view, but that didn't matter.
Within seconds, Lucas spotted what he was looking for.
A ruined structure surrounded by temporary fencing.
He spent half an hour confirming it through various sources online.
The abandoned laboratory where Bruce Banner's gamma experiment had exploded.
Information about Banner was easy to find now.
After the Avengers became public figures, details about his past had spread across the internet—including how he became the Hulk.
There were even gossip articles about his old relationship with Betty Ross.
Lucas ignored those.
Instead, he studied the satellite image.
One hand rested against his chin while the other moved across the trackpad.
His eyes settled on the damaged laboratory.
Slowly, his expression hardened.
It seemed the line he had tried not to cross might break sooner than expected.
The problem was simple.
Lucas didn't have money.
And even if he did, the military wasn't going to sell him Gammaion.
But he needed it.
Without Gammaion, obtaining a Saint Cloth would remain impossible.
Which left him with only one option.
If they wouldn't give it to him…
He would take it.
Still, stealing from Quantico was very different from stealing something like Vibranium from Wakanda.
If someone exposed Wakanda's Vibranium stockpile, the world would turn its attention toward Wakanda itself. Global powers would demand access immediately.
But Quantico was a U.S. military base.
Breaking in would bring the entire government down on him.
Lucas stared at the satellite map.
The ruins of Banner's laboratory remained fixed on the screen.
No matter the risk…
He needed that Gammaion.
And he intended to get it.