Chương 65: Chapter 65: Meet-and-Greet in the Cabin 

"Loki has been located at these coordinates. Can you open a portal there?" Tony asked, pulling up the map display. 

Luke leaned in to look at the holographic projection. "Ah, Stuttgart, Germany. I've never actually been there, so I don't have a spatial anchor. Looks like we're flying." 

Tony hovered off the ground, retracting his faceplate to shoot Luke a smirk. "Flying slowly? Sorry, buddy, but I plan to be there in under thirty minutes." 

With a deafening sonic boom, Tony rocketed out of the penthouse window and vanished into the night sky. 

Luke watched the glowing repulsor trail rapidly shrinking in the distance. He raised an eyebrow and turned to Megatron, who was currently standing at his miniature, one-meter height. 

Channeling a surge of dark energy, Luke quickly drew a complex magical array on the floor around Megatron. 

"Ah. It seems you have finally mastered this specific spell," Megatron said, a terrifying, metallic grin spreading across his face as he felt his physical form begin to rapidly expand. 

'Watch out, Iron Man. Let's see who you call 'little guy' now!' 

Meanwhile, Tony was currently breaking multiple sound barriers as he flew across the Atlantic Ocean. 

"Saturday, is Luke keeping up?" 

"Woohoo! Currently, there is no visual or radar contact with the anomaly designated 'Luke.' However, Jarvis is reporting that the alien entity known as 'Megatron' has just undergone massive physical expansion. Probability suggests they will initiate pursuit shortly," Saturday's enthusiastic, newly animated voice replied. 

"He thinks he can catch us? Not a chance. Reroute auxiliary power to the thrusters! We absolutely cannot lose to that dwarf!" Tony laughed. 

He was incredibly satisfied with Saturday. Not only did the suit possess all the advanced weaponry and durability of the Mark VI, but it now possessed genuine, emotional sentience, allowing for dynamic interactions and independent tactical adjustments. 

He was already seriously considering using the AllSpark to animate Jarvis's mainframe and the upcoming Mark VII deployment pod. 

"Uh, Boss? Proximity sensors are detecting a high-speed aircraft approaching rapidly from our six!" Saturday suddenly reported. 

"An aircraft? I already filed our flight plan with the FAA. They shouldn't be intercepting us," Tony frowned, checking his rear-view HUD. 

To his absolute shock, an incredibly sleek, terrifyingly advanced jet fighter was rapidly closing the distance. As the jet pulled alongside him, Tony zoomed in on the cockpit. 

Luke was sitting comfortably in the pilot's seat, waving cheerfully at him. 

The jet abruptly pulled up, performing a flawless, physics-defying barrel roll directly over Tony's head. As the underside of the jet passed over him, a massive, metallic face morphed out of the hull, staring directly at Tony. 

"Who are you calling 'little guy' now, insect?! You are as slow as a Cybertronian turbo-snail!" 

The face instantly vanished back into the smooth hull. The jet's massive, cybernetic thrusters flared with a blinding purple light, and the aircraft violently accelerated, leaving Tony tumbling in its turbulent wake. 

"Damn it!" Tony cursed, quickly engaging his stabilizers to correct his flight path. "Saturday! Maximum thrust! 100% capacity! We are not losing to that oversized scrap pile!" 

"Understood, Boss!" Saturday cheered. The armor plating on Tony's legs shifted and locked together, transforming his dual boot-thrusters into a single, massive, high-output propulsion rocket. 

With a massive surge of speed, Tony rocketed after Megatron. 

"Director, satellite radar is tracking two unidentified, hyper-sonic bogeys departing from New York, heading directly toward the target coordinates in Germany," a S.H.I.E.L.D. technician reported. 

Nick Fury, standing on the bridge of the Helicarrier, nodded calmly. "It's them. Ignore it. Is Captain Rogers' Quinjet on approach?" 

Thanks to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s invasive global surveillance network, their facial recognition algorithms had spotted Loki on a random ATM security camera in Stuttgart long before Tony's newly deployed Starkphone network had. 

Fury offered a faint, predatory smile. 'An ant? Let's see who the real ant is tonight.' 

In Stuttgart, Germany. 

Dressed in a pristine, elegant tuxedo, Loki casually strolled into a highly exclusive, luxurious gala. He merely waved a hand at the security guards at the entrance, and their eyes glazed over, stepping aside to let him pass. 

Listening to the elegant classical music echoing through the grand hall, Loki leisurely scanned the crowd. He had already identified his target. Now, he was simply waiting for Barton's signal that the extraction team was in position outside. 

'How much longer?' Loki impatiently gripped his cane. 

Unlike Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight, who arrogant believed they were invincible, Loki was acutely aware that Earth housed a terrifyingly powerful anomaly: his 'Uncle' Luke. 

However, considering Thanos possessed a massive, galaxy-spanning armada, Loki was fairly confident his Uncle wouldn't stand a chance in a full-scale war. 

'Actually... I could probably manipulate this situation to my advantage. Perhaps I can use the humans and my dear Uncle to crush those two annoying flies Thanos attached to me!' 

A wicked, brilliant scheme formulated in his mind, and Loki's smile grew wider. Suddenly, his earpiece crackled. Barton signaled that the team was ready. 

Loki locked eyes with his target and walked purposefully across the room. 

Aboard the stealth Quinjet hovering high above the gala. 

Captain America stood near the cockpit, watching the live security feed from inside the building. 

"The target is making his move. Why didn't you inform the local authorities to evacuate the civilians or set up a perimeter?" Steve Rogers asked, frowning deeply. 

Natasha Romanoff, sitting in the co-pilot seat, didn't flinch. "Director Fury feared that alerting local authorities would spook the target. Besides, we are only three minutes away. He shouldn't be able to cause mass casualties in—" 

On the monitor, Loki casually flipped a man onto a marble table, pulled out a terrifying, specialized mechanical device, and violently plunged it directly into the man's eyeball. 

Natasha smoothly amended her sentence. "—It should just be the one casualty." 

Steve's frown deepened, clearly unhappy with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s ruthless pragmatism, but he didn't argue. He turned to the pilot. 

"ETA?" 

"Three minutes, Captain." 

"Push it to maximum speed. Get us there now." 

Natasha covertly pressed a hidden button on her console, transmitting a brief signal. 

Back on the Helicarrier, Fury received the signal and nodded in satisfaction. Thus concluded his psychological evaluation of Steve Rogers. The man was still exactly the same Captain America he had always been. 

Having successfully extracted the target's biometric retinal data and transmitted it to Barton, Loki casually dropped his magical disguise. His tuxedo melted away, replaced by his ornate, heavily armored Asgardian leathers and his iconic, golden horned helmet. 

Watching the terrified gala attendees screaming and stampeding out the front doors into the plaza, Loki smirked and followed them outside. 

'Why not give my future subjects a brief demonstration of their new King's power?' 

With a casual flick of his scepter, Loki fired a blast of cosmic energy, instantly vaporizing a responding police car. 

Using localized illusion clones, Loki rapidly corralled the screaming, panicked crowd into the center of the plaza like terrified sheep. 

"Meow!" 

Loki coughed, violently clearing his throat and trying to ignore the humiliating verbal slip-up. 

"KNEEL!" he roared, commanding absolute authority. 

High above the plaza, the stealth Quinjet moved into position. Looking down at the massive, terrified crowd kneeling before the 'god,' Steve Rogers's expression grew incredibly grim. If Loki decided to open fire on a densely packed crowd like that, the casualties would be catastrophic. 

Even if Steve dropped down to engage him, the resulting panic and stampede would likely kill dozens of people. 

Just as Steve was trying to formulate a tactical insertion plan, a new voice unexpectedly patched into their encrypted comms channel. 

"Agent Romanoff. Long time no see." 

Natasha smiled faintly. "It has been a while, Luke. Are you here to discipline your wayward nephew?" 

"Of course. I flew all the way out here to teach him some manners. Hold your position. I'm initiating the operation now." 

Steve looked at Natasha in confusion. "Is that the 'Lord of Shadows' the Director briefed me about?" 

Natasha nodded. Seeing Luke was on the scene, she relaxed significantly. A hostage situation like this was absolute child's play for him. 

Down in the dimly lit plaza, the terrified elites of Stuttgart knelt trembling on the cobblestones, forced to listen to Loki's arrogant, impromptu speech regarding the 'natural human desire to be subjugated.' 

However, entirely unnoticed by the panicked crowd or the arrogant 'god,' the shadows stretching from the surrounding buildings were unnaturally deepening, silently creeping toward the center of the plaza. 

Furthermore, a small, terrifyingly ugly, multi-eyed bat-like creature was currently hanging upside down from a nearby tree, silently sweeping the entire plaza with localized, magical echolocation waves. 

"The perimeter is secure. Ready to initiate," Luke said, standing on the rooftop of an adjacent building. He glanced over at Tony, who had just landed next to him in the Mark VI armor. 

"Ugh, fine. But I really hate this sneaky, stealthy approach. I prefer making an entrance," Tony complained. 

Luke ignored him, his eyes locked on an elderly, courageous man in the plaza who was slowly, defiantly standing up to challenge Loki's speech. 

'Now.' 

Loki glared furiously at the old man who dared to defy his direct command. 'You dare challenge me?! A pathetic, mortal insect?!' 

Loki raised his scepter and fired a lethal blast of energy directly at the old man. 

But before the energy blast could connect, a pitch-black figure violently erupted from the ground right in front of the old man. A Razor Claw assassin swung its massive, serrated blade, attempting to deflect the energy beam. 

However, the energy beam had been significantly amplified by the Mind Stone embedded in the scepter. The cosmic energy effortlessly melted through the shadow-blade and struck the Razor Claw squarely in the chest, violently destabilizing its physical form and shattering it into a cloud of dark mist. 

The crowd screamed in absolute panic, but before a stampede could begin, hundreds of Shadow Ninjas simultaneously erupted from the ground, firmly but gently restraining the civilians and preventing them from moving. 

Simultaneously, hundreds of heavily armed Shadow Ninjas formed a massive, impenetrable circle around Loki. 

"Oh? My dear Uncle. Wherever could you be hiding?" Loki sneered confidently, slowly raising his hands in a mocking gesture of surrender. 

Several Shadow Ninjas silently lunged forward. However, they completely ignored the Loki standing in the center of the plaza. Instead, they dove toward a seemingly empty patch of air several yards to the right! 

"How did you find me?!" 

The 'Loki' standing in the center of the plaza flickered and vanished—a mere illusion. The real Loki, who had been cloaked by incredibly advanced invisibility magic, suddenly materialized where the ninjas had struck, his eyes wide in absolute shock. 

"Your old tricks don't work on me anymore, kid." 

Luke materialized directly behind the real Loki. Without a second's hesitation, Luke delivered a brutal, full-power kick squarely to Loki's back. 

"ARGH! YOU BASTARD!" Loki screamed as the sheer kinetic force launched him into the air. 

However, he didn't fly very far. The Shadow Ninjas immediately grabbed his limbs mid-air, violently pinning him face-down on the cobblestones. 

Luke reached out, accepting a high-end digital camera from a nearby ninja, and checked the photo he had just snapped of Loki flying through the air with a terrified expression. 

"Not bad. Excellent framing." 

"HOW DARE YOU INSULT ME LIKE THIS?!" Loki roared furiously, struggling desperately against the overwhelming strength of the ninjas. The agonizing pain radiating from his spine was rapidly eroding his arrogant composure. 

"How dare I?" Luke scoffed, strolling over and violently grabbing Loki by the jaw, forcing him to look up. 

"I am your father's sworn blood-brother. I am a Prince of Asgard, and I am your Uncle. Is that enough justification for you?" Luke smirked, watching Loki's eyes widen in sheer disbelief. "Oh, and by the way, even Thor respectfully calls me Uncle now." 

Using the plaza's PA system, Tony broadcasted his voice to calm the remaining civilians, allowing the Shadow Ninjas to safely escort them out of the danger zone. Having secured the area, Tony flew down and landed next to Luke. 

"Actually, he might have to call me 'Uncle' too," Tony quipped, his faceplate retracting. "Since I am good friends with your Uncle Luke, by the transitive property of respect, you should technically call me 'Uncle Tony'." 

"You guys can come down now!" Luke yelled, ignoring Tony's terrible attempt at extortion and waving at the empty sky above them. 

"Looks like the situation is handled," Natasha said, nodding to the pilot. 

The Quinjet decloaked, smoothly descending from its hovering position behind a nearby building. Because S.H.I.E.L.D. stealth jets were incredibly quiet, Loki hadn't even realized they were there. 

"It seems we have a very eccentric, but highly capable new ally," Steve noted, deeply relieved that the hostage situation had been resolved with zero civilian casualties. 

After ensuring the plaza was completely evacuated, Luke grabbed Loki by the collar and casually dragged him onto the Quinjet. Megatron, having shrunk back down to his dwarf size, dutifully followed them aboard. 

"Hello, Captain," Luke smiled, extending a hand to Steve Rogers. He genuinely respected the legendary super-soldier, although he couldn't help but wonder why the guy hadn't just grabbed a parachute and jumped out of the freezing bomber seventy years ago. 

"There's no need for formalities. Just call me Steve," Captain America replied warmly, shaking Luke's hand. 

"The photograph has been developed," Megatron suddenly stated, holding up a freshly printed Polaroid. 

"Excellent. This photo is going to have significant historical value," Luke grinned, taking the photo from Megatron and handing it directly to Steve. 

Steve looked at the photo. Because of Megatron's internal printer settings, the photo had printed in classic black-and-white. 

"A black-and-white photograph. This feels incredibly nostalgic," Steve smiled, a hint of genuine warmth in his eyes. 

"Old relics always appreciate vintage things, don't they?" Tony remarked dryly, walking up the ramp. 

"You must be Tony. Howard's son, right?" Steve asked, his smile widening. Seeing the son of his old friend made him feel a little less isolated in this terrifyingly modern era. 

Tony, however, did not share the sentiment. Seeing a man who physically looked younger than him staring at him with the nostalgic, proud eyes of an elderly grandfather was deeply unsettling. 

"You can just call me Iron Man," Tony replied stiffly, his faceplate slamming shut. 

"I am Megatron. A Cybertronian mechanical organism. Or, as your species would call me, an extraterrestrial," Megatron introduced himself, deciding he shouldn't be left out of the introductions. 

"I am Saturday. I am a sentient artificial intelligence, and I was literally born three hours ago," Tony's armor suddenly chimed in with its enthusiastic, synthesized voice. 

"Uh... is this some kind of bizarre intergalactic meet-and-greet?" Natasha frowned, looking around the crowded cabin. Where did Luke keep finding these terrifying alien robots?! And why was Tony Stark's armor suddenly talking like a hyperactive toddler?! 

Luke chuckled, preparing to make a sarcastic comment, when he suddenly felt a distinct, pulsing surge of magical energy through his contract. Odin was trying to contact him. 

Using the basic, clumsy communication spell he had learned over the past six months, Luke sent a brief 'acknowledgement' pulse back. 

He sighed helplessly. "Well, it looks like this actually is turning into a meet-and-greet." 

Glancing down at the furious, bound Loki, Luke raised his hand and casually drew a glowing, golden Sling Ring portal in the center of the cabin. 

Thor, wearing his full Asgardian armor, stepped through the portal. 

"It has been a while, Uncle! When did you leave Asgard?" Thor asked cheerfully. 

"Is your Rainbow Bridge still broken? It was only a small crater, right?" Luke asked, recalling that the bridge hadn't been completely shattered like in the movie. 

"Unfortunately, yes. The Bifrost is constructed from condensed spatial energy primarily harvested from the Space Stone's ambient radiation. It is incredibly difficult to synthesize," Thor shrugged helplessly. 

He looked around the cabin, noting the bizarre assortment of individuals—two humans in strange tactical gear, a man in a metal suit, a tiny robot, and a man dressed in the colors of the American flag. He politely introduced himself to the group. 

"You seem to have matured quite a bit over the past six months," Luke noted, seeing that Thor's arrogant, hot-headed demeanor had significantly mellowed. 

"I had no choice. With Father constantly leaving the realm to hunt down Thanos's fleet, I was forced to assume the daily administrative duties of the throne," Thor sighed. While Frigga handled the actual, complex political decisions, Thor had been forced to sit in endless, boring council meetings. 

(Translation: I just sat on the throne and blindly signed whatever documents my mother handed me.) 

"Anyway, I came here primarily for Loki. Heimdall informed me he had arrived on Midgard," Thor said, his expression turning serious. "Though I do not know his exact location." 

Luke shot Thor an incredibly weird, pitying look. He silently stepped aside, revealing the bound, furious Loki lying on the floor directly behind him. 

"LOKI!" 

Thor's serious, regal composure instantly vanished. He tackled Loki, pulling him into a massive, bone-crushing bear hug. 

Tony and Steve stared at the sudden, bizarre display of brotherly affection in complete bewilderment. 

Luke, however, breathed a massive sigh of relief. For a terrifying second, he thought Thor had actually developed intelligence and emotional maturity. Seeing the idiot prince revert to his standard, 'brother-obsessed' default state was incredibly comforting. 

Looking around the cabin, Luke smiled. Aside from the massive, green rage-monster and the guy with the bow, the core Avengers team had officially assembled for the first time. 

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