Chương 70: Chapter 70: Grand Ambitions 

"Unknown energy detected within the ice layer. The intensity is extremely high. Weapons are unable to breach the ice!" Saturday's synthesized voice echoed inside Tony's helmet. 

"So, what options do we have?" Tony asked calmly, watching the ground rapidly approaching on his HUD. 

"Uh, currently out of ideas, Boss." 

"Looks like someone needs a hand?" Megatron's deep voice suddenly transmitted over their comms. Tony adjusted his micro-cameras and spotted a miniature, cybernetic jet diving right alongside his frozen armor. 

"Couldn't you go find your boss to restore your proper size first?" Tony grumbled. 

"Shut up. One more word and I'll let you shatter on the ground," Megatron snapped back. A metallic grappling hook shot out from the jet, firmly latching onto Tony's icy armor. 

"Are you absolutely certain your little claw can hold my weight?" 

"Let's find out." Megatron initiated a steep climb, his rear thrusters continuously blasting highly concentrated energy particles to fight their downward momentum. 

"I'm going to have to use a little trick," Megatron noted grimly, realizing his miniaturized thrusters weren't providing enough deceleration. 

Suddenly, several intricate magical arrays composed of pure dark energy materialized in the air around the tiny jet, rapidly interlocking and shifting. 

"What kind of spell is that?" Tony asked curiously. 

"The Bolts of Balthakk." 

"That doesn't sound like a rescue spell," Tony muttered, suddenly feeling a profound sense of impending doom. 

"It's definitely not a rescue spell. In fact, Kamar-Taj doesn't really have any rescue spells," Megatron stated flatly. Timing his descent perfectly, he unleashed the devastating magic. 1

A terrifyingly powerful bolt of dark lightning shot out, arcing violently through the air before positioning itself directly below Tony's falling ice block. 

"This next part might be a little bumpy," Megatron warned, instantly detaching the grappling hook and releasing Tony. 

"Motherf—" 

Before Tony could finish cursing, he slammed face-first into the massive lightning bolt. 

The sheer, explosive kinetic force of the spell drastically killed his downward velocity and violently shattered a significant portion of the magical ice encasing his armor. 

"You're saved." Megatron swooped back in, snagging Tony out of the air. 

"Uh, I think my knees hurt a little," Tony groaned. 

"Feeling pain is a good thing. It's when you don't feel pain that you should be worried." 

Saturday automatically initiated a wide-range tactical scan. "I am not detecting any traces of the target designated 'Reindeer Games'." 

"Seriously, where the hell did he run off to?" Tony activated his global tracking system. Seeing that the homing beacon he had embedded in Loki was still transmitting, he breathed a sigh of relief. 

"Luke, what's the situation on your end?" Tony asked over the comms. 

"Uh, we're about to make an emergency crash-landing," Luke replied. He looked down at the hundreds of spectral clones hovering beneath the massive Helicarrier, confirming their spells were fully charged. 

"Brace for impact!" Luke yelled into the public channel. He strained, pushing the colossal Shield of the Seraphim upward to slightly reduce the Helicarrier's dangerous tilt. 

Taking advantage of the stabilized angle, the clones below unleashed their magic. 

The Winds of Watoomb! 

Dozens of clones cast the spell simultaneously. A massive, unnatural hurricane erupted beneath the ship, the sheer wind pressure nearly uprooting the entire forest below. But even a hurricane could only serve as a mild decelerator for an eighty-thousand-ton flying aircraft carrier plummeting from the sky. 

But it was enough to bleed off the terminal velocity. 

Shield of the Seraphim! 

The remaining clones cast their defensive shields, chaining the massive, glowing magical discs together to form a colossal, angled slide leading down to the earth. 

"I really hope S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't cut corners building this hull," Luke muttered, guiding the belly of the Helicarrier directly onto the magical slide. 

"Whoa!" Steve Rogers blocked a devastating punch from the Hulk, only to find himself involuntarily floating upward into the air. Looking across the lab at the equally bewildered, floating green behemoth, the Captain yelled out. 

"This reminds me of the last time I went to sleep!" 

"Well, you can't afford to sleep for decades this time!" Thor, also floating weightlessly, grabbed Steve's arm, oriented himself toward the shattered window, and launched them both outside. 

Rather than staying trapped inside the unpredictable, crashing Helicarrier, it was infinitely safer to fly outside and assess the situation. 

Elsewhere in the lab, Natasha stared at the bound Hawkeye. She tapped his chest lightly with the severed, metallic haft of Loki's scepter, but it had absolutely no cognitive-resetting effect. 

"Damn it, how is this thing supposed to work?" Natasha stared at the glowing Mind Stone, completely speechless. But the very next second, a wave of weightlessness hit, and she began floating toward the ceiling. 

"This does not feel good." Natasha looked down at Hawkeye—who remained firmly strapped to his gurney and wasn't floating—and accidentally let the scepter slip from her grasp. 

Natasha's eyes narrowed as she tried to swim through the air to grab the floating artifact, but a split second later, the Helicarrier violently slammed onto the first Shield of the Seraphim. 

Gravity instantly reasserted itself. The floating Hulk slammed brutally into the floor, looking incredibly miserable. Natasha crashed heavily directly on top of Hawkeye, and the heavy metallic scepter dropped straight onto Hawkeye's forehead, instantly knocking the master archer out cold. 

"Oh... is that how you're supposed to use it?" Natasha muttered in genuine confusion. 

Thor and Steve had flown out of the Helicarrier a split second earlier. They hovered in the air, watching in awe as the massive warship slid down a colossal, glowing magical slide. 

"It's almost exactly like my crash," Steve murmured to himself. He looked down at the massive trench being carved into the earth. "Speaking of which... why didn't I just grab a parachute and jump out back then?" 1

Suspended in mid-air, Steve suddenly felt an inexplicable, overwhelming urge to travel back in time and slap his past self. 

Watching the Helicarrier safely convert its catastrophic gravitational potential energy into forward kinetic momentum, Luke dismissed all his spectral clones, coalescing their remaining dark energy into a single, colossal shadow giant. 

"Stop it!" Luke issued the final command. 

The giant instantly broke apart into massive, incredibly thick shadow-cables. One end wrapped securely around the Helicarrier's hull, while the other anchored deep into the bedrock of the earth. 

Amidst the ear-piercing, teeth-grinding shriek of warping metal, Luke watched the shadow cables expend the absolute last of their energy to finally grind the Helicarrier to a complete halt. 

"Well, that should be everything taken care of." Luke wiped imaginary sweat from his forehead. He had absolutely secured the MVP title for this match. 

"ROAR!" 

A massive green figure suddenly leaped out of the ruined Helicarrier, bellowing its fury at the surrounding forest. 

"This guy really has way too much energy," Luke sighed helplessly, floating down and landing directly in front of the Hulk. 

"Easy now, alright?" Remembering how the Hulk had just blindly run away last time, Luke decided to try communicating first. 

"HULK! SMASH!" The Hulk completely ignored him, violently lunging forward. 

"Punk, you think I'm scared of you?!" Luke glared at the incoming behemoth. He quickly gathered a surge of magical energy into his hand and slapped it directly onto the Hulk's chest. 

SLAP! 

Two translucent, spectral figures were instantly blasted completely out of the Hulk's body. The colossal, green physical form immediately collapsed limply to the dirt. 

"What is happening?!" Bruce Banner stared at his transparent hands in absolute shock. He looked at Luke, then noticed another spectral figure floating directly next to him. It was the Hulk! 

The Hulk, also in a spectral form, stared blankly at Banner. A translucent but incredibly sturdy ethereal chain linked their two souls together. 

"WTF!" 

Luke looked at the two confused souls and nodded in satisfaction. "It's nothing. Just giving you guys a quick hard reset." 

Watching the massive physical body on the ground rapidly shrink back down into Bruce Banner, Luke yanked his hand back, magnetically pulling the two souls back into Banner's physical form. 

"The quality of your pants is seriously impressive," Luke commented, giving a thumbs-up to the famously indestructible purple trousers that were still perfectly intact. 

Banner sat up, still in a total daze. "Was that... my soul just now?" 

Luke nodded. Banner stared into the distance, dazedly recalling the distinct, separate soul of the Hulk he had just seen. 

'Looks like he might have just had an epiphany,' Luke thought, glancing at the stunned scientist before dragging him along the massive trench the Helicarrier had carved into the earth. 

Reaching the Helicarrier, Luke admired the massive warship that had just been showing off its flight capabilities before violently crashing. 'Well, now it officially qualifies as a sea-land-air hybrid battleship, considering it just went on a major land cruise.' 

Watching the crew scrambling out of the wreckage, Luke instantly spotted the familiar 'egghead' in the crowd. 

"How is it? Is the carrier totaled? You could always sell it to me as scrap metal. I'll generously give you fifty cents a pound." 

Luke walked up to Fury, grinning ear to ear, openly gloating. 

"Forget it. It'll still fly after some repairs," Fury grumbled, his heart bleeding as he looked at the massive, battered vessel. The ship had only been in the air for a little over a month! How could it be wrecked already?! 

If the World Security Council found out about this, they might completely cut the funding for the three new 'Project Insight' Helicarriers currently under construction! 

'Wait... what if I just quietly 'borrow' some materials and engines from the Project Insight shipyards to fix this one?' 

Fury's single eye narrowed as he immediately started plotting how to secretly embezzle classified military assets. 

Seeing the gears turning in Fury's head, Luke knew the pirate was definitely plotting something incredibly shady. He quickly slipped away before Fury could try to extort him for repair funds. 

"Hey, Tony! How did you end up frozen in a block of ice too?" Luke walked over just as Megatron flew in, dangling a massive, shivering ice block from his tow cable. 

Steve shot Luke a look, feeling inexplicably offended by the 'frozen in ice' joke. 1

Luke didn't notice. He walked up and knocked on Tony's icy prison, finding it incredibly thick. 

"Loki was holding some glowing square box and blasting freezing air everywhere! The range was ridiculous; I couldn't dodge it," Tony complained defensively over the suit comms. "Your 'nephew' really doesn't respect his elders. You need to teach him a lesson." 

Luke nodded in understanding. He had almost forgotten that Loki had run away from Asgard with the Casket of Ancient Winters. He hadn't expected Loki to use it so creatively in a dogfight. 

Knowing this ancient magical ice wouldn't melt in the sun anytime soon, Luke released a wave of dark energy to completely eradicate the block. 

"Damn it, why did that ice drain so much power?" Tony grumbled, stepping out of the frozen armor and looking miserably at his flickering arc reactor. 

"Looks like you need a much more powerful, sustained energy source," Luke nodded, glancing over at Thor. 

"Uh, I really must take the Space Stone back to Asgard once we retrieve it. We absolutely need it to repair the Bifrost," Thor interjected quickly, perfectly guessing what Luke was about to suggest. 

Fine. 

Luke nodded, then suddenly remembered something. 

He pulled out a '10-Million Point' Dark Energy Crystal and tossed it to Tony. 

"Why don't you try using this?" 

"Your dark energy?" Tony examined the glowing, pitch-black crystal curiously. However, stranded out in the wilderness, he didn't have the proper diagnostic equipment to scan it safely. He pocketed the crystal, planning to study it meticulously later. 

Looking at the heavily damaged, battered 'Saturday' armor beside him, Tony suddenly thought of the AllSpark sitting safely in Stark Tower. 

"Luke, can you bring the AllSpark over here for a second? I want to repair Saturday." 

Repair? 

Fury, immediately triggered by the keyword 'repair,' whipped his head around to look at the group. He watched enviously as Luke casually opened a magical portal, retrieved a massive, glowing metallic cube, and gently tapped it against the damaged Iron Man armor. 

Instantly, all the deep gouges, dents, and structural damage on 'Saturday' perfectly healed, returning the armor to a pristine, glowing, factory-new state. 

"That's incredible," Fury muttered, quietly sidling up to Luke and staring greedily at the AllSpark. 

"Can I borrow that for a second to fix my Helicarrier?" 

Luke gave Fury an incredibly strange, bewildered look. "Are you absolutely sure about that?" 

"Will this thing not be able to fix the big guy?" 

"Oh, it definitely can repair it. However, it might also cause some... unforeseen side effects." Luke shot a glance at Tony. Tony's eyes were practically screaming, 'LET HIM DO IT!' 

He really just wants to watch the world burn. 

Fury glanced at Tony's eager expression, sensing that things weren't that simple. But looking back at his completely wrecked, grounded Helicarrier... how much worse could it possibly get? 

It's not like the massive thing is going to grow legs and run away, right? 2

Making his decision, Fury gave Luke a firm, definitive nod. 

Afraid the 'egghead' might literally bow to the ground to beg, Luke quickly handed the AllSpark to Fury. 

"Just go tap the hull with it. But you need to evacuate every single person inside the ship first. You can leave the equipment inside." 

Luke made sure Fury did the tapping himself, ensuring the Director couldn't blame him for the catastrophic consequences later. 

Luke led Tony and the others over to some folding chairs provided by the Shadow Ninjas, and they all sat down to eat slices of magically chilled watermelon. 

"What's going on?" Steve asked, looking at Luke in confusion. 

Luke just offered a highly meaningful, wicked smile. "You'll see in a minute." 

Fury ordered his search teams to pull the last few crew members out of the wreckage. Glancing at the newly expanded 'watermelon-eating spectator squad,' he nervously approached the Helicarrier. 

Just tap it. No weird passwords required. 

Fury recalled Luke's instructions. He raised the AllSpark and gently tapped the hull of the Helicarrier. 

A massive, blinding surge of lightning violently erupted from the AllSpark, rapidly washing over the entire colossal vessel. 

Watching all the massive gouges, structural damage, and snapped rotors seamlessly repair themselves, leaving the Helicarrier looking brand new, Fury was so overjoyed he almost jumped into the air. 

However, the very next second, the deafening, hyper-complex screech of shifting, grinding mechanical gears filled Fury's ears. 

"Motherf—" 

Fury dropped his signature catchphrase, staring in absolute, unadulterated horror as the Helicarrier violently folded, shifted, and stood up, transforming into a colossal, several-hundred-meter-tall mechanical titan! 

The spectator squad and the surrounding S.H.I.E.L.D. agents stared in absolute shock at the sky-blotting giant. The slices of watermelon literally fell out of the Avengers' hands. 

Luke nudged Megatron beside him. "Could you beat that thing in a fight?" 

Megatron audibly gulped, staring up at the monstrosity that was easily ten times his original size. 

"If I use... magic... maybe...?" 

"This era is getting stranger by the minute," Steve murmured, completely unable to process the absurdity. 

However, the person struggling the most to accept reality was Fury, who was currently standing directly beneath the giant's massive metallic foot. 

Standing beneath it, Fury felt the absolutely crushing, terrifying presence of the mechanical god. 

"How did you... actually grow legs...?" 

The mechanical giant slowly lowered its massive head to look at the tiny humans below. Since its personality matrix was completely blank and it had just been born, it instinctively crouched down to examine its creators closely. 

"Straining my neck to look up is getting a little tiring," Luke casually remarked, looking up at the colossal figure. 

Golden magical arrays began spinning rapidly around Luke's hands. A massive, complex array instantly enveloped the mechanical titan. Just as the panicked giant began deploying thousands of automated weapon batteries preparing to fire blindly in fear, the spell activated. 

The several-hundred-meter-tall titan was instantly, violently compressed down to about ten meters tall—the absolute physical limit of the compression spell on something with that much mass. 

Fury let out a massive, soul-deep sigh of relief. Looking at the robot—which was still huge, but no longer carrying an apocalyptic, sky-blotting presence—he shot Luke an intensely appreciative 'good job' look and bravely marched up to the mechanical giant. 

Hiding his true intentions and basking in his unearned glory, Luke casually sat back down, only to find Tony staring at him with a strange expression. 

"I honestly thought you were going to just snatch the giant robot and run away with it," Tony said, taking a loud slurp of his remaining watermelon slice. 

"Do I look like someone with that little integrity?" Luke asked defensively. 

Tony thought about it for a second, then nodded solemnly. 

"Then you're overthinking it." Luke shook his head. 

His actual target wasn't this Helicarrier. A single carrier couldn't satisfy him. His real targets were the three new carriers Project Insight was currently building! 

Once he secretly used the AllSpark to animate those three Helicarriers, they would become Transformers with the ability to scan and mimic new forms. He could just take them out into deep space, find some high-tech alien warships, and have them scan those! 

That way, he would instantly acquire four massive, fully sentient, fully automated cosmic battleships! Hand them over to Megatron to train, and he'd have his own personal space armada! 

For now, he just needed to earn Fury's complete trust. When Project Insight eventually launched the three new Helicarriers, he would secretly steal them, 'expose' HYDRA's infiltration to Fury, and flawlessly pin the massive theft on HYDRA! 

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