A Little Invention

"Luca! Luca!"

Looking out the window at the hellish scene, even Luca, who had seen his share of turmoil in his previous life, couldn't help feeling terrified now that he was facing an actual alien invasion.

But the anxious cries of his parents downstairs immediately made him realize he had to do something.

Yet before Luca could even answer his parents' calls,

a deep-purple beam of light shot rapidly toward their home.

The next moment,

"BOOM—"

The violent blast sent Luca flying.

Blazing flames filled his vision, and the entire building shook violently from the explosion.

Luca slammed into the wardrobe behind him, but the first thing he felt wasn't the pain of the impact.

Instead, it was the piercing ringing in his ears and the intense dizziness filling his head.

In a daze, Luca braced himself against the fallen desk beside him and struggled to his feet.

Looking up, the most striking sight was a huge hole blasted right through the outer wall of their duplex, spanning both floors.

Nearly half the second-floor floor, including the floor of Luca's bedroom, had collapsed into the first floor.

Dust billowed everywhere.

The thick stench of gunpowder filled his nose and mouth.

Huge chunks of brick and rubble kept sliding down.

Luca's hearing hadn't fully recovered, but he didn't care about the dust in his mouth. He immediately shouted his parents' names.

"Gina! Herman?! Are you all right?!"

But no matter how loudly Luca called, there was no answer from the ruins of the house.

Although Luca, a transmigrator who had only inherited his predecessor's memories, might not have shared a particularly deep bond with his parents,

he didn't want either of them in danger, whether for his own sake or for the sake of their family.

With no time to think, Luca quickly opened the wardrobe behind him, took out his backpack, and slung it over his shoulders.

Then he slid quickly down the slope formed by the collapsed floor.

Luca had only just reached the first floor. He hadn't even had time to search the wreckage when two roaring Chitauri Soldiers crawled through the huge hole in the wall and charged at him.

There was no time for him to take the Pencil Missile out of his backpack, or even crouch down to activate his Power-Enhancing Shoes.

But then—

"BANG! BANG!"

Two loud gunshots rang out behind him.

The heads of the two Chitauri Soldiers before him burst like watermelons, spraying flesh and gore everywhere.

Only after watching their headless bodies crumple to the ground did Luca turn around.

In the wreckage, his mother, Gina, was lying beside a doorframe, struggling to prop up her upper body as she looked toward him.

In her hands was a powerful firearm still in the experimental stage at her company.

"Mom! Where's Dad?"

He rushed over and helped his mother.

Only then did Luca notice that behind the doorframe Gina was leaning against, her entire lower body was pinned beneath the collapsed wall.

Fortunately, the fallen wall had formed a small angle with the surrounding rubble, so Gina hadn't been crushed to death immediately.

But his father, Herman, had been struck by rubble on the other side of the wreckage. When Luca reached out to check on him, he found that Herman had already stopped breathing.

Without stopping to listen to what his mother was saying, Luca immediately bent down and strained to lift the wall pinning her.

But the mechanical prosthetic he'd only recently had installed was nothing like the Winter Soldier's military-grade arm.

It was even weaker than a normal, healthy right hand, let alone strong enough to move such a huge slab of stone.

"Luca! Luca! Listen to me!"

"Take this gun. Your father and I taught you how to use it!"

"Forget about me! Find somewhere to hide! The storage room has been specially reinforced. Stay there! Don't come out!"

Watching Luca struggle in vain to lift the rubble, Gina hurriedly urged her son on. She had only just come to after being knocked unconscious by the explosion, and she was still somewhat disoriented.

As Luca looked at the strange-looking pistol held out to him, he finally noticed that it, too, gave off the same faint white glow as the Core Component.

But Luca didn't take the pistol right away. Instead, the glow on it reminded him of something.

The Power-Enhancing Shoes don't just boost my instantaneous explosive strength!

The thought flashed through his mind like lightning.

Luca immediately crouched down and twisted the white knob on the outside of his right shoe.

A visible arc of electricity flashed across the red-and-white sneaker. His entire right foot seemed to be coated in a shimmering, multicolored glow.

Feeling an unprecedented surge of strength flow from his right foot through his entire leg, Luca carefully wedged his toes into a gap in the rubble.

As he slowly pushed with his right leg,

the collapsed wall, which he hadn't been able to budge even with all his strength, was effortlessly lifted with one foot.

He barely felt any pressure or discomfort on the top of his right foot as he did so.

Even his left foot, which hadn't been "powered up," seemed to have several times its usual grip and support. He didn't even need to worry about keeping his balance.

Gina stared at him in astonishment.

With a crash,

Luca flipped the massive slab of rubble aside.

Quick as a flash, he scooped up his mother and carried her away from where she'd been trapped.

"Luca? What was that?"

Still shaken, Gina was no longer dazed. She stared blankly at the massive chunk of rubble her son had flipped away with one foot.

But Luca could only reply awkwardly,

"Just a little invention of mine."

He couldn't explain his cheat ability in a few words, so he brushed it off and prepared to take his mother to the storage room she'd mentioned.

They shouldn't linger here. The Chitauri might attack again and hit the house.

But before Luca could help Gina take more than a few steps,

a figure in red-and-gold armor plummeted from the sky, passed through the hole blasted in the outer wall, and slammed into the room with a clang.

The already battered floor was smashed into a shallow crater. The figure carved a long furrow across the ground, sending rubble flying, and only came to a stop right in front of them.

The sudden arrival of Iron Man startled the mother and son, who had only just begun to calm down. In unison, they drew their weapons and aimed at the figure lying on his back.

Gina had pulled out the experimental pistol made by her company, while Luca had taken out the Pencil Missile he'd "made" and had been carrying in his backpack.

"Whoa, take it easy, take it easy, ma'am! I don't think this counts as trespassing, does it?"

Tony Stark didn't seem the least bit nervous at having a gun pointed at him. He just got to his feet somewhat clumsily and tried to reassure them.

But his voice, altered by the helmet into an electronic monotone, sounded rather cold and distorted.

Perhaps noticing the problem himself, Iron Man's metal faceplate snapped open with a click, revealing Tony Stark's face as he continued to calm the mother and son.

"Relax, you two. Find somewhere safe to hide. Trust me, those fake Predators out there will be dealt with in no time."

As he spoke, Tony Stark winked at Luca and flashed what he thought was a charming smile.

"And kid, remember next time: a pencil case can't protect you."

With that, his metal faceplate closed again.

Iron Man immediately turned around, flames shooting from his palms and feet as he flew out through the hole in the wall he'd crashed through.

But—

"BOOM—"

A deafening explosion rang out.

Iron Man had barely flown two meters out of the room when a laser beam shot straight at him and struck him in the face.

The blast and shock wave sent him flying.

In an instant, Iron Man came tumbling back even faster than he'd left.

He crashed down in front of the mother and son once more.

Then several Chitauri hovercraft quickly arrived and floated outside the house, each carrying two or three Chitauri Soldiers.

More than a dozen laser weapons all pointed at the hole in the room.

The explosion startled the mother and son as well. They first covered their faces with their hands to shield themselves from the dust and gravel thrown up by the shock wave.

Then, in unison, they quickly raised their weapons and aimed at the Chitauri outside their home.

Gina struck first, blasting the head off one Chitauri "pilot" with a single shot.

Luca, holding the Pencil Missile, was a fraction of a second slower.

The lids on either side of the pencil case in Luca's hands sprang open, revealing a row of pencil-shaped missiles inside.

At the same time, gun components resembling a grip and barrel extended from the bottom and front of the case.

Luca gripped the handle with his left hand. He didn't even bother to aim, simply sweeping the Pencil Missile across all the enemies in front of him.

The beeping that signaled a successful lock-on sounded one after another, and Luca didn't hesitate to pull the trigger repeatedly.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

Flames poured from the backs of more than a dozen Pencil Missiles. They twisted through the air like serpents, each homing in on its own target.

In an instant, every Chitauri was hit.

But instead of the violent explosions Luca had expected, each missile burst into a large glob of sticky fluid on impact, coating the enemies completely.

Blinded and stuck fast, the hovercraft began wobbling and dropping toward the ground.

"What the fudge?!"