Chương 64: Chapter 64: The Birth of Saturday 

Early the next morning, Luke arrived at Stark Tower accompanied by his new Decepticon lackeys. To his absolute shock, Tony Stark was still awake, intensely staring at the same holographic data streams from the night before. 

"Are you the reigning champion of pulling all-nighters or something?!" Luke asked incredulously, walking over to Tony's workstation. 

Looking at the hyper-complex, rapidly scrolling streams of professional jargon and quantum energy readings on the monitors, Luke felt a wave of intense sleepiness wash over him, even though he had just woken up a few hours ago. 

Tony, looking completely unfazed and remarkably fresh, took a sip of highly concentrated espresso and turned to Luke. 

"I'm used to this. Anyway, did you bring the... WHAT THE F*CK?!" Tony yelled, jumping back as he noticed the imposing, jagged mechanical robots standing silently behind Luke. 

"Who built these?! The structural complexity and material composition are incredibly high-tech!" 

Completely ignoring Luke, Tony immediately rushed over to the Decepticons, his eyes wide with manic scientific curiosity. He poked Barricade's chassis and even pinched the robot's cheek to test the tactile feedback. 

"Wait... what kind of garbage alloy is this? The tensile strength is ridiculously low compared to the design complexity," Tony frowned, inspecting the intricate internal servos visible through the armor gaps. 

"Can these things transform?" Tony asked, turning back to Luke, his eyes shining. 

"Yeah, they can transform into various vehicles and machinery, though their alternate modes are restricted by their total mass," Luke nodded, gesturing to the Decepticons. 

Following Luke's silent command, Barricade and Blackout immediately initiated their transformation sequences, smoothly shifting into a sleek police cruiser and a massive, heavy-duty industrial scanner (the alternate mode they had used most frequently while translating books over the past six months). 

"That is genuinely incredible. Why have I never heard of this technology before?" Tony asked, his mind racing with possibilities. 

Luke shook his head. "Because they aren't human technology. They're an alien species. I just grabbed a few to use as personal assistants." 

Reaching into the Dark Dimension, Luke casually pulled out the massive, glowing AllSpark cube. He completely ignored the furious glare Megatron shot him and handed the artifact directly to Tony. 

"This cube emits a unique form of energy that can forcefully animate mundane mechanical objects and grant them the ability to transform," Luke explained. Seeing Tony stare at the AllSpark with a look of intense, overwhelming scientific confusion, Luke offered some comfort. 

"Don't worry about it, Tony. There are countless things in this universe that human science currently can't explain. Adding one more magical alien cube to the list isn't a big deal." 

But Tony's expression turned incredibly serious. He looked Luke dead in the eye. 

"Those other 'humans' might not understand it, but I am Tony Stark. I will absolutely figure out exactly how this thing works. Uh... you don't mind if I hold onto this for a while, right?" 

"Go ahead," Luke shrugged dismissively. 

During his six months in Kamar-Taj, Luke had experimented with the AllSpark hundreds of times. He fully understood its core functions: condensing pure dark energy into solid crystals, and animating mundane machines. He had already milked its primary uses; it was essentially just a fancy battery charger to him now. 

He had also discovered that, just as Ratchet predicted, animating machines that didn't contain Megatron's reverse-engineered technology resulted in completely neutral, blank-slate robots without aggressive Decepticon personalities. However, neither Luke nor the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj had any desire to keep an army of robotic pets, so Luke had just been casually tossing the newly animated, neutral robots through a portal back to the Transformers universe to let Optimus Prime deal with them. 

"Foolish, arrogant humans. Always clinging to your pathetic delusions," Megatron sneered from his corner of the room, intentionally loudly broadcasting his utter disdain for Tony's scientific ambition. "Even during the absolute peak of Cybertron's Golden Age, our greatest minds could not fully comprehend the miraculous mechanisms by which the AllSpark granted life. What right does a primitive inhabitant of this mudball have to claim he can decipher it?!" 

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Who's the rusty trash-can talking trash behind my back?" Tony yelled, immediately marching around Luke to confront the source of the insult. 

Megatron stood up straight, crossing his arms and glaring down at Tony. 

"Is it you, little guy?" Tony scoffed, looking at the meter-tall, dwarf-sized Megatron with absolute derision. 

"I don't know what this 'Cybertron' civilization is, but considering you're currently standing here as a captive pet belonging to my friend, you clearly aren't that impressive." 

Megatron glanced down at his dwarfed, miniaturized chassis, his red optics burning with intense fury. "If the Sorcerer Supreme had not forcefully compressed my physical form, I would crush you into scrap metal and teach you the true terror of Cybertron!" 

"Sorcerer Supreme? You mean the one Luke mentioned? Isn't she also just a human?" Tony smirked mockingly. 

"You dare compare yourself to the Sorcerer Supreme?!" Megatron roared, genuinely offended on behalf of his new master. 

"Alright, alright! Both of you, shut up!" Luke intervened, physically stepping between the squabbling billionaire and the tiny alien warlord. "Megatron, be polite to my friend. And Tony, focus! We actually have serious business to handle today!" 

Tony shot Megatron one final, dismissive glare before his expression softened. He turned his attention back to the AllSpark. 

"You really should consider a factory reset for that guy. I can provide the service for free," Tony muttered, carrying the AllSpark over to his main diagnostic workbench. 

"Jarvis, initiate a full-spectrum deep scan of this artifact. I want a complete structural breakdown." 

A few seconds later, Jarvis's voice echoed with a hint of digital frustration. "My apologies, Sir. My scanning arrays are completely unable to penetrate the outer casing or analyze the internal structure." 

"Now that is interesting," Tony murmured, his eyes lighting up with genuine scientific obsession. He began intensely analyzing the cube from every angle, looking for an entry point. 

"Tony, focus! We have to head over to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier today, remember?" Luke reminded him urgently. 

"Relax. Going over there right now is completely pointless," Tony waved him off without looking up. "I already skimmed Fury's entire briefing packet last night while you were sleeping. Right now, Banner—who is arguably the only other remotely intelligent guy on that flying tin can—is currently running algorithms to track Loki and those two ugly freaks accompanying him. If we head over there tonight, we might actually get some actionable intelligence." 

'Loki and two ugly freaks?!' 

Luke frowned. 'The plot changed again?!' 

"Jarvis! Send me the mission briefing files Tony received last night. I need to do some catching up," Luke ordered. 

"Transmitting files now, Mr. Luke." 

Luke's phone buzzed immediately. He handed the phone to Barricade, ordering the Decepticon to project the files as a large hologram. 

Watching the brief, blurry security footage S.H.I.E.L.D. had managed to capture, Luke's expression grew incredibly heavy. 

'Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight are here too?!' 

However, after a moment of thought, Luke relaxed slightly. While the two members of the Black Order were lethal assassins, they weren't entirely unbeatable. As long as he understood their fighting styles, they could be dealt with. 

Glancing at Tony—who was completely ignoring everything in favor of aggressively poking the AllSpark—Luke looked down at his brand-new, polished leather shoes, silently formulating a battle plan. 

Meanwhile, in a heavily fortified, secret underground base... 

Loki was glaring at the two terrifying aliens standing in front of him, looking as though he was a millisecond away from snapping. 

"The Mad Titan explicitly ordered you to follow my commands!" Loki snarled. 

Corvus Glaive offered a sickening, contemptuous sneer. "The Master also explicitly stated that, if the situation requires it, we are authorized to use you as a hostage to secure the Space Stone. Do not overestimate your value, 'Prince.' You do not command Proxima or myself." 

Loki's mechanical right hand violently clenched around the haft of his scepter, his knuckles screeching under the immense pressure. He absolutely despised the two Black Order generals Thanos had forced upon him. 

They refused to obey any of his tactical orders. Instead, they shadowed his every move, constantly monitoring him. He knew without a doubt that if he showed even a hint of hesitation or failure, they would instantly drag him back to Thanos to be traded like a piece of meat. 

Furious, Loki turned on his heel and stormed out of the room, heading toward the main laboratory where Dr. Selvig was constructing the portal generator. 

Ever since he had made the "impulsive" decision to flee Asgard during the invasion, he had inevitably encountered Thanos in the deep cosmos. Thanos had promised him that if he successfully retrieved the Space Stone (the Tesseract) from Earth, he would be granted command of the Chitauri army, allowing him to conquer Earth and finally rule as a King. 

However, Thanos had also cruelly informed Loki that his current physical power was "insufficient" for the task. As a "gift," Thanos had brutally amputated Loki's right arm, replacing it with a highly advanced, terrifyingly powerful cybernetic prosthetic! 

The mechanical arm possessed immense physical strength, capable of easily crushing solid steel into powder, and it could channel cosmic energy to fire highly concentrated, lethal plasma beams. 

But Loki despised it. He wanted his original, biological arm back! Thanos had promised to restore his biological arm using advanced cosmic technology... but only after he delivered the Space Stone. 

Looking down at his mechanical limb, Loki's eyes burned with intense, hateful fury. But he was utterly helpless. The sheer, overwhelming cosmic might of Thanos was far beyond anything he could challenge. 

However, Loki still had one final, desperate safety net: Asgard. His father, Odin. 

Thanos didn't dare actively threaten Loki's life, because if Odin found out Thanos had murdered his son, the Mad Titan would be hunted to the ends of the universe and ground into dust. 

In fact, according to the whispers among the Chitauri commanders, Odin had recently been aggressively mobilizing the Asgardian fleets, furiously searching every corner of the galaxy for Thanos's armada. The relentless pressure from Asgard had made Thanos incredibly impatient and agitated. If Loki didn't produce results on Earth quickly, his situation was going to become incredibly perilous. 

Using his illusion magic, Loki casually disguised his terrifying mechanical arm to look like his normal, biological limb. He pushed open the doors to the sterile clean-room where Dr. Selvig was working. 

"What else do we require?" Loki asked the mind-controlled astrophysicist. 

"We have successfully acquired the vast majority of the necessary components," Dr. Selvig replied mechanically, his eyes glowing with the faint blue light of the scepter's control. "We only require a significant quantity of Iridium to act as a stabilizing agent for the portal array." 

"Very well. Where can we acquire Iridium?" Loki turned to Clint Barton, the mind-controlled S.H.I.E.L.D. operative. 

Hawkeye silently pulled up a tablet, displaying a detailed dossier on a specific target. 

"What do you need for the extraction?" Hawkeye asked professionally. 

"I need a distraction," Loki mused, a cruel, theatrical smile forming on his lips. "And... an eyeball." 

'A distraction?' Loki nodded to himself. His plan was coming together perfectly. 

"Then let us not waste any more time. We leave immediately." 

"WHOA! THIS IS INCREDIBLE!" 

Tony's voice echoed through the penthouse, filled with sheer, unadulterated joy. He was currently wearing the Mark VI armor, which he had just intentionally exposed to the AllSpark's animating energy. 

"Is this really necessary?" Luke sighed, watching Tony practically bouncing around the room. "Does wearing a sentient, living suit of armor really feel that different?" 

"You have no idea! You should absolutely try this!" Tony yelled, shimmying his shoulders excitedly. "Saturday is currently giving me a full-body deep-tissue massage! His technique is unbelievably professional!" 

Tony suddenly let out a weird, suppressed giggle as the armor apparently hit a ticklish spot. 

Luke shook his head in absolute exasperation. 

Once Tony had grasped the basic animating function of the AllSpark, he had immediately gone completely wild. He started systematically animating dozens of random machines and appliances around the penthouse, turning them into living, mechanical pets. 

Glancing over at Barricade and Blackout—two terrifying, elite Decepticon warriors who were currently exhausted, desperately trying to corral and 'babysit' a chaotic swarm of sentient blenders, toasters, and vacuum cleaners—Luke was utterly speechless. 

And of course, Tony had immediately decided to animate his primary combat suit. Because it was the Mark VI (Six), he naturally named the newly birthed AI intelligence 'Saturday.' 

'Does that mean the Mark 50 is going to be named 'Friday the 50th'?!' 

Seeing Tony actively goofing off while wearing a multi-billion dollar sentient weapon of mass destruction, Luke finally walked over and grabbed the armor by the shoulder, forcing Tony to stop dancing. 

"Tony, seriously! We have a crisis to deal with! Remember?!" 

Tony's faceplate immediately retracted, revealing a perfectly serious expression. "Of course I remember. Actually, I've been highly productive this entire time." 

Tony tapped a command onto his gauntlet. "Jarvis, bring up the global feed." 

Instantly, dozens of holographic screens materialized in the air around them. 

"While I was taking a short break earlier, I wrote a specialized facial recognition algorithm," Tony explained casually. "Right now, every single Starkphone and '67' brand smartphone sold globally is acting as our personal, decentralized surveillance network, actively scanning the globe for Loki and his ugly friends." 1

Luke stared at the holographic screens, watching thousands of blurry, moving faces flash past every single second. Since he couldn't process data at the speed of a supercomputer, he just sat back down in his chair, feeling incredibly bored. 

Seeing Luke looking bored, Tony ordered 'Saturday' to disengage, stepping out of the sentient armor and walking over to the bar. 

"You seem incredibly invested in finding this 'Loki' guy," Tony noted, pouring himself a drink. 

Luke offered a helpless smile. "Well... technically speaking, I'm kind of his Uncle." 

"Wait, what? How does that work? Isn't he an alien? Or was all that stuff you mentioned earlier actually true?" 

Seeing Tony's genuine confusion, Luke quickly gave him a highly condensed summary of the events that had occurred in New Mexico six months ago. 

"Oh. Odin? Thor? Loki?" Tony nodded slowly, taking a sip of his drink. "I honestly assumed those were just weird codenames S.H.I.E.L.D. made up. I didn't realize they were literally the aliens from the myths." 

Tony sounded remarkably calm. 

"You aren't surprised at all?" Luke asked, raising an eyebrow. 

"Honestly? Finding out the Norse gods are actually just highly advanced aliens is incredibly easy for me to accept," Tony shrugged dismissively. "It's your weird, reality-bending sorcerer friends in Kamar-Taj that completely break my understanding of physics." 

"Why do the sorcerers surprise you? Theoretically, technology and magic are just two different methods of manipulating the same fundamental energy of the universe," Luke argued, pointing over at Megatron, who was currently sitting in the corner, intensely reading a levitating spellbook. 

"Look at him! He's a giant alien robot, and he's an official Sorcerer!" 

"Wow. I didn't realize the entry requirements for Kamar-Taj were so incredibly low," Tony smirked. "Maybe I should apply to become a Sorcerer Supreme." 

"Uh... you could probably try?" Luke muttered, suddenly remembering countless fan-theories and alternate-universe comic plots where Tony Stark actually did become the Sorcerer Supreme. Given Tony's unparalleled genius, he would probably be terrifyingly good at it. 

"We can schedule my magical enrollment later. Right now, we need to deal with your delinquent nephew. Speaking of which, since I'm older than him, does that mean your nephew has to call me 'Uncle Tony'?" 

Just as Tony was plotting to extort respect from a literal god, Jarvis's voice interrupted them. 

"Sir. The facial recognition algorithm has acquired a positive match on the primary target." 

A high-definition image of Loki, dressed in a sleek suit and carrying his glowing scepter, appeared on the main holographic screen. 

"Looks like playtime is over," Tony said, stepping backward as the 'Saturday' armor fluidly reassembled itself around him. 

"You change moods faster than a teenager," Luke rolled his eyes. 

Luke stood up. A swirl of dark energy enveloped him, instantly condensing into his signature, pitch-black hooded combat attire. A Shadow Ninja silently emerged from the floor and handed him a small, sleek tactical pouch containing several high-capacity Dark Energy Crystals.  bình luận

Luke strapped the pouch to his waist and cracked his knuckles. 

"Let's go. I specifically bought these new shoes just to kick my nephew's ass."