"Who are you? Did you come for an autograph?" Tony asked, leaning back against the rooftop unit and gesturing with his half-eaten burger. "Because if you want a cheeseburger, you're going to have to walk downstairs and order one yourself. We don't deliver."
Fury glanced at Luke, his single eye completely unamused. "Perhaps you should ask the kid next to you."
Tony turned to Luke, raising an eyebrow in question.
"Nick Fury. The big boss of S.H.I.E.L.D.," Luke replied casually, omitting the fact that there was currently a secret, even bigger Hydra boss operating right under Fury's nose.
"That acronym is a thing of the past. You can just call us S.H.I.E.L.D. now," Fury corrected smoothly. "We had too many agents complaining that the full name was a mouthful, so we officially changed it."
Tony nodded slowly, though he clearly didn't care. "Alright, Director Fury. What can we do for you?"
"Aside from exchanging some classified intelligence with my Security Consultant here, I have a few things to discuss with you as well."
Luke eyed Fury warily. He didn't like the sudden serious tone.
"Luke, do you happen to know where Bruce Banner is?" Fury asked suddenly, fixing his gaze on the teenager.
"Bruce Banner? The Hulk?" Luke looked at Fury, feigning confusion. "Why are you looking for him?"
"General Thaddeus Ross has recently mobilized his forces. It's highly likely he's located the Hulk. I need to prepare countermeasures in advance to ensure the safety of the civilian population if Ross triggers a rampage. It falls under S.H.I.E.L.D.'s jurisdiction. Unfortunately, General Ross believes someone within our agency is leaking intel to Banner, so the military is completely freezing us out of their operations."
"Interesting." Luke nodded. He realized Fury actually believed his improvised lie about returning from space with alien technology; otherwise, Fury wouldn't be asking him to track someone as elusive as the Hulk.
But if he agreed to help now, what was to stop Fury from coming to him every single time someone went missing? A lie needed constant upkeep and more lies to maintain it. Luke decided to just nip it in the bud.
"Look, my alien tech got severely damaged during atmospheric re-entry," Luke lied effortlessly. "I barely managed to run a single, rudimentary global scan before the system fried completely. During that scan, I detected a massive biological energy signature in a bottling plant in Brazil. That's probably your Hulk."
He paused, throwing in a freebie to secure his alibi. "Oh, and I also detected a highly unique energy source buried deep in the ice somewhere in the Arctic. Aside from those two things, my tech is completely dead, so don't bother asking me to find anything else."
Fury's eye widened slightly. "So you're saying I can't expect any further intelligence support from you?"
"What, giving you the exact locations of the Hulk and Captain America isn't enough?" Luke waved a hand dismissively. "Stop bothering me."
"It's enough."
Despite knowing the kid's story was likely full of holes, Fury was absolutely ecstatic with today's harvest. Finding the Hulk was a massive win, but locating the frozen remains of Captain America? That was a monumental discovery.
As for Luke? The kid was young and clearly planning to stick around. Fury had plenty of time—and a million different methods—to extract more secrets from him in the future.
Satisfied, Fury turned his attention back to Tony.
"I'm sure someone has already briefed you on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s history with your father. We won't give you preferential treatment because of that connection, but if you ever find yourself in a situation you can't handle, we will help you."
"Please," Tony scoffed, flashing his signature arrogant grin. "Does Tony Stark look like he needs help from anyone?"
Fury simply reached out and tapped a single finger against the glowing Arc Reactor embedded in Tony's chest.
Tony's smile instantly vanished, his face paling slightly.
"If you run into trouble, call me," Fury said softly. Without another word, he turned, his black trench coat billowing, and walked back into the shadows of the rooftop stairwell.
Luke watched Tony carefully. 'Has he already realized the palladium core is slowly poisoning his blood?'
Tony quickly composed himself, burying his anxiety under a layer of annoyance. He turned to Luke. "What the hell was that about? Alien technology?"
Luke shook his head helplessly. See? This is exactly why lying was exhausting.
"I'm an Earthling who was abducted by aliens. I just got back recently. I brought some alien tech with me, but it broke, so I threw it in the trash," Luke deadpanned.
Tony raised an eyebrow, entirely unconvinced. "You're lying to him."
"Obviously," Luke admitted without hesitation. "I just happen to know a few secrets, and for some reason, Fury bought the alien abduction excuse."
"Well, for both our sakes, I hope you keep fooling him," Tony muttered. He took another bite of his burger, but his appetite was clearly gone.
"So, what was that chest tap about?" Luke asked, pretending to be clueless. "Are you okay?"
Tony fell silent for a long moment, staring out at the city skyline. "I'm fine. What could possibly be wrong with me?"
"You don't look fine. But if you don't want to talk about it, I respect your privacy. Just know that if it gets bad, you can tell me."
Luke genuinely couldn't help with the palladium poisoning. The only cure was the new element Howard Stark had hidden in the Stark Expo diorama, and Luke had no way of synthesizing it early. If he told Tony now, it would just lead to endless interrogations about how he knew. It was better to let Tony hit rock bottom and discover his father's hidden message on his own; it was a crucial step in resolving his daddy issues anyway.
They chatted idly for a few more minutes before Tony flew back to Malibu, and Luke returned to his hotel room.
Pulling out his System, Luke punched in the coordinates for a new micro-dimension. Seeing that no hostile entities were detected, he immediately set his ninjas to work.
He needed to focus on grinding for the next few days. The Hulk incident was approaching rapidly, and he wanted to see if unlocking a new combat unit would give him an edge. As it stood, neither the Shadow Ninjas nor the Razor Claws had the raw kinetic output to seriously injure the Hulk or the Abomination.
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A few days passed in a blur of relentless mining.
Luke stared at the Ancient One's ledger, crossing off the very last micro-dimension coordinate. He checked his reserves: his army now consisted of 1,000 Shadow Ninjas and 50 Razor Claws, and he had stockpiled exactly 200,000 Energy Points.
But he had a massive headache.
The requirement for the next [Stat Enhancement] had appeared, but it demanded a staggering 500,000 Energy Points. He had completely exhausted his supply of micro-dimensions. It was time to go back to Kamar-Taj.
Drawing a portal, Luke stepped onto the sunlit training grounds of Kamar-Taj. A large group of novice sorcerers was currently practicing martial arts in the courtyard.
"Hey, Luke! You're back!" Karl Mordo called out, walking over with a warm smile.
"Yeah, just dropping by," Luke replied. Over the past few months of occasional visits, he had become quite familiar with Mordo and the senior masters.
"The Sorcerer Supreme is still in seclusion, rewriting the foundational spell matrices. But she anticipated your arrival and asked me to give you this." Mordo pulled a small, leather-bound booklet from his robes and handed it over.
"Did she leave any other instructions?" Luke asked, flipping through the new coordinates.
"She mentioned that the medium-sized dimensions listed in here possess the ability to shift their spatial coordinates, so you'll have to actively track them down before you can breach them."
Mordo handed Luke another, slightly thicker book.
"She also warned that many of these smaller dimensions have already been claimed by various entities. Attempting to harvest their energy will inevitably trigger a territorial war. She suggested that you anchor a permanent portal to your Shadow Dimension here in the courtyard. That way, we can send sorcerers to fight on your behalf as payment for utilizing your dark energy."
Luke blinked, genuinely impressed. The fact that these devout sorcerers were now casually discussing using dark energy without immediately trying to murder him was a testament to the Ancient One's absolute authority and influence over Kamar-Taj.
"She specifically told you guys to fight for me?" Luke asked.
"Yes. She said that every action has a consequence. We cannot simply siphon your energy for free; we must provide equivalent exchange to maintain the cosmic balance."
Mordo glanced back at the courtyard full of novices. "Besides, it's a perfect opportunity for the younger disciples to gain actual combat experience against extra-dimensional threats without risking permanent death in the material world."
Luke nodded enthusiastically. 'Free, highly trained magical mercenaries? Yes, please!'
If these sorcerers defended his Shadow Dimension, he could send his immortal ninjas straight through the rifts to permanently tie down the enemy forces. It was a flawless strategy!
"How fast do you guys actually consume energy?" Luke asked, pulling up his System.
His current regeneration rate was 1,000 points per second. After automatically routing 3 points per second to the Ancient One to sustain her immortality, he had a net positive regeneration of 997 points per second.
That was more than enough for the Ancient One to casually flex her powers, but he had no idea how much a standard sorcerer burned through during combat.
Mordo wasn't entirely sure either, so they decided to test it.
After forming a magical contract, Mordo successfully linked his sling ring to Luke's energy reserve. Just like his contract with the Ancient One, Luke could unilaterally sever the connection at any time with a single thought.
They spent an hour testing various spells. Ultimately, they discovered that while idle, a sorcerer consumed absolutely zero energy; the Ancient One was a unique exception due to her immortality spell. However, during active, high-intensity combat, a senior Master of the Mystic Arts consumed roughly 100 Energy Points per second.
Since sorcerers weren't fighting 24/7, Luke realized he could easily support them using his massive stockpile of stored energy.
With 200,000 points currently sitting in reserve, plus his passive regeneration, he could comfortably sustain a strike team of twenty elite Masters in constant, heavy combat for nearly four straight minutes before his reserves ran dry. And if they took brief pauses between casting, they could fight indefinitely.
Satisfied with the math, Luke asked Mordo to gather a team of elites.
Mordo quickly returned with a dozen senior Masters, many of whom Luke recognized as background characters from the Doctor Strange movie.
After signing magical contracts with all of them and giving them a few minutes to acclimate to drawing power from his dark energy, Luke followed Mordo into the main sanctum's transit hub.
This was the same room Luke had originally used to travel to New York a month ago.
Mordo manipulated a heavy brass mechanism on the wall, causing a massive, freestanding wooden doorframe to slide into the center of the room.
"If you link the spatial coordinates of your Shadow Dimension to this specific focal point, the portal will remain permanently anchored here," Mordo explained.
Luke nodded. He placed his hand flat against the center of the empty doorframe. A swirling vortex of pure, pitch-black energy instantly materialized within the wood.
Slowly, the dark energy resonated with the ambient space, forming a stable, permanent gateway linking Kamar-Taj directly to his Shadow Dimension.
"Before you enter, make sure you actively cloak yourselves in the dark energy I provide, otherwise the ambient environment will rapidly corrode your physical bodies," Luke warned the gathered Masters.
With that, he stepped through the portal.
As the Lord of the Shadows, the corrosive dark energy felt as warm and comforting as a gentle breeze. He levitated off the ground, looking around his domain.
Since his maximum energy capacity had increased to 200,000 points, the physical size of his Shadow Dimension had expanded proportionally, now roughly twenty times larger than its original state.
Opening the Ancient One's ledger, Luke began browsing the new list of target dimensions while Mordo headed back through the portal to organize the combat roster.