Inside the Hand's underground Dragon Bone cave.
Luca stared blankly at the rapidly vanishing silver star in front of him, his mind in complete disarray.
Just moments ago, a portal had opened abruptly in front of him.
Then, three girls ran out of it in a panic.
The leader looked relatively normal—a young woman of clear Latin descent wearing a jacket with a Stars and Stripes pattern. Luca recognized her vaguely as the hero known as "Miss America."
But right after her came a girl in a pink Deadpool suit who looked 70-80% like Gwen. She rushed out just as crazily.
As soon as they met, she started babbling neurotically, complaining one moment about how this world couldn't "turn the page," and the next moment acting like she had an epiphany about needing to "drag the progress bar" or some nonsense.
And the last one to come out was the real heavy hitter.
Appearance-wise, she seemed to be just a slightly chubby girl with short brownish-orange hair, wearing a pair of brown squirrel ears on her head and sporting a giant squirrel tail behind her.
Aside from the little grey squirrel following her, she didn't look much different from an ordinary cosplayer.
However, the moment this girl stepped out of the Star Portal, Luca felt as if the surrounding gloomy, eerie art style suddenly became lively and cheerful.
This wasn't some "beauty filter" caused by a crush. It was literal—when the Squirrel Girl appeared, the surroundings were genuinely bathed in a layer of warm, fuzzy light.
Even more ridiculous was that when the Squirrel Girl discovered the unconscious Kate, Luca watched with his own eyes as she pulled a massive, cutely-styled defibrillator—taller than herself—out of her fluffy tail.
Then, moving as if teleporting, she appeared beside Kate with the giant defibrillator in the blink of an eye.
With a series of chaotic moves that completely disregarded medical common sense, she somehow "saved" the unconscious Kate and woke her up.
If it were just that, it would have been fine.
Luca would have just assumed she had "Super Speed," "Super Strength," and a bit of "Spatial Ability."
But when Luca saw her hands turn into a blur while "treating" Kate, followed by Ding-Ding sound effects and clouds of smoke being "rubbed" out of Kate's body...
And when solid text characters like "Ding" and "Bang" popped out of the smoke, only to be picked up and played with by the crazy Pink Deadpool girl...
Luca knew he absolutely could not mess with these three women!
Finally, after Kate woke up, the four girls chattered noisily for a while, repeating things like "Thank you," "You're a good person," and "We'll come play with you later." Only after they all jumped back into the portal and disappeared did Luca finally breathe a sigh of relief.
He had been wearing his full "Ascension Armor" for safety, albeit without the helmet. But with his look hovering between demon and god, if those girls had mistaken him for a villain, Luca felt he would have been skinned alive.
Screw that! I hate these gag characters the most!
Luca was genuinely afraid that the squirrel would pull out a "100-ton Hammer" and smash him with it.
So, when am I going to collect the full set of Gray Wolf items?!
Still feeling a lingering fear, Luca didn't plan to stay there any longer. He stepped straight into his own portal and returned to the Aurantius Tower.
However...
"So, their little group is called the West Coast Avengers?"
In his office, Luca held his earpiece with one hand, listening to the intermittent information being transmitted back.
Yes, as mentioned earlier, Luca had only "almost" lost his composure in front of those girls.
The "almost" meant that at the last moment, Luca had seized the opportunity to secretly toss a "Cross-Plane Probe" into their Star Portal.
This gadget was originally a small tool Luca and Tony built together to explore the Hell Dimension.
However, due to low efficiency and extremely unstable data transmission, the project was scrapped.
But this time, given the chance to peek into another parallel universe, Luca naturally didn't mind tossing a probe over to try his luck.
Of course, this was just a spur-of-the-moment decision. He had no intention of leaving his comfort zone right now.
Maybe I can go to that world later to mooch some benefits or something?
Putting that matter aside for now, Luca called his secretary, Raina, and instructed her.
"I recall we saved Lawyer Foggy's contact info before, right?"
"Give him a call and tell him to come pick up Mr. Murdock. Remember to tell him that his current condition is only temporary, and I'll arrange for someone to send him a recovery serum later."
Since the "Second Gen Hawkeye"—the visitor from another world—was gone, Luca didn't plan to hand the shrunken Daredevil over to S.H.I.E.L.D. Calling his friend to pick him up saved Luca the trouble.
One week later.
As promised, Luca sent the "APTX4869 Antidote"—newly produced by Sherry—to Pepper and Daredevil respectively.
However, this time, he didn't go personally to laugh at Tony.
Not only was Luca incredibly busy these days, but on the phone, "Tiny Tony" sounded mysterious, as if he was working on some big project himself.
Meanwhile, having confirmed that the "foreign object expulsion" side effect of APTX4869 was likely a concept-level ability, Sherry became much bolder in her research on the [Blacklight Virus].
At least for now, even without Luca—the holder of "Blacklight Supreme Authority"—being present personally, relying on the effects of APTX4869 was enough to ensure the safety of the researchers.
Luca even set aside a small portion of the [Blacklight Virus] to consume part of the Dragon Bone while the bio-team was cloning the Dragon Blood.
He hoped that maybe this portion of the Blacklight Virus could use its gene assimilation and evolution ability to produce a "Blacklight Dragon" for him to play with.
Time flew by unnoticed.
America continued to struggle in chaotic disorder, while Luca's various projects progressed steadily.
And today, instead of holing up in his workshop to modify the "Boxer Gundam," Luca enthusiastically carried the cooler box Sherry had just delivered to a secret chamber on a lower level.
"Hehe, first draw a circle~ Dragon Blood~ Demon Soul Crystal~ And then..."
He placed the blue cube "sealing" [Mephisto's Blessed Apple] in the center of the magic circle, then dripped a few drops of clear water onto it.
Watching the blue light flash, Luca pressed both hands onto the edge of the circle and chanted in his mind.
Synthesize!
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