Becoming the boss

"Who are you? Here for an autograph?" Tony asked, showing Fury the burger in his hand.

"If you want a burger, you'll have to get one downstairs. I don't do deliveries."

Fury glanced at Luke and said to Stark, "Perhaps you could ask the man beside you."

Tony looked at Luke, giving him a questioning look.

"Nick Fury, the big boss of S.H.I.E.L.D.," Luke said casually, though he didn't mention that S.H.I.E.L.D. had another hidden big boss.

"That's in the past now. You can call it S.H.I.E.L.D. now," Fury said after Luke.

(A correction: I noticed you all thought S.H.I.E.L.D. here should have been written as Hydra S.H.I.E.L.D.???)

"A lot of employees complained that our name was too long, so we changed what we called it."

Tony nodded. "All right, Director Fury. What do you want with us?"

"Besides exchanging some intelligence with my consultant, I have something to discuss with you."

Luke glanced at Fury, wondering why the man was being so serious.

"Luke, do you know where Bruce Banner is?" Fury asked him.

"Bruce Banner, the Hulk?" Luke looked at Fury in puzzlement.

"What do you want with him?"

"General Ross has made some new moves lately. He may have found the Hulk. I need to prepare in advance to ensure the safety of nearby residents when they act. That's also S.H.I.E.L.D.'s responsibility. But General Ross believes someone within S.H.I.E.L.D. would tip off the Hulk, so he won't share intelligence with us."

"Interesting." Luke nodded, realizing Fury really believed he had returned from outer space with alien technology at his disposal. Otherwise, he couldn't have found Tony so quickly.

But what if Fury came looking for him whenever something happened? One lie needed more lies to cover it, so Luke simply said:

"My technology was accidentally damaged when I returned to Earth. I barely managed to scan the globe, but I detected a powerful energy signature at a beverage factory in Brazil. It might be the Hulk. There's also a very powerful energy source in Antarctica. That's all I know, so stop bothering me."

Fury nodded. "In other words, you won't be providing me with intelligence support anymore?"

"What, isn't this intelligence enough?" Luke waved a hand, telling Fury to stop bothering him.

"It's enough." Although he knew there were plenty of holes in the man's story, Fury was already delighted with today's gains.

Leaving the Hulk aside, that energy source in Antarctica reminded him of a certain famous person.

As for Luke, there was plenty of time ahead and no shortage of ways to get intelligence out of him.

He turned to Stark.

"I imagine someone has already told you a few things about S.H.I.E.L.D. We won't give you preferential treatment because of that connection, but if you're in trouble, we'll help you."

"Oh, please. Would I, Tony Stark, ever need anyone else's help?" Tony said with a laugh, but Fury tapped his own chest, making Tony's smile slowly fade.

"Come to me if you're in trouble," Fury said, turning to leave.

Luke looked at Tony. Had he already discovered the damage palladium was doing to his body?

Tony composed himself and turned to Luke. "What did you mean earlier? What alien technology?"

Luke shook his head helplessly. See? This was exactly what happened.

"I'm an Earthling who was abducted by aliens and taken to another planet. I only returned a little while ago and brought back some alien technology. Unfortunately, all of it broke, so I just threw it away."

Tony raised an eyebrow. "You were lying to him, weren't you?"

"Yes," Luke admitted with a nod. "I don't know why Fury believed me, though I do happen to know a few things."

"I hope you can keep fooling him," Tony told Luke.

"By the way, what did Fury mean just now? What's wrong with you?" Luke asked, playing dumb.

Tony fell silent for a moment. "What could possibly be wrong with me?"

"You certainly don't look like nothing's wrong. But if you don't want to talk, I'll respect your privacy. Still, I hope you'll be honest with me."

Luke couldn't do anything about the new element either. He could only tell Tony at the last moment if Tony still hadn't figured it out, and he had no way to make it for him in advance.

Telling Tony now might lead to all sorts of questions. He might as well let Tony try for himself, which would also clear up his misunderstanding about his father.

Thinking of Tony's father gave Luke a headache, reminding him of the Avengers' future civil war. But that was so far down the road that he could only see how things went for now.

The two chatted for a while longer before parting ways.

Luke returned to his little home, switched to another set of coordinates, and continued digging. Seeing no enemy alerts from the system, he left it alone.

He would focus on steady development for the next few days. The Hulk was coming soon, and he needed to see whether the troop types he unlocked next could be useful.

As for his current Blade Soldiers and Ninja Soldiers, they probably couldn't do much damage to the Hulk or Abomination.

A few days later, Luke checked the coordinates in his notebook and confirmed that he had finished digging at all of them. Looking at his 1,000 Ninja Soldiers and 200,000 energy, he felt a headache coming on.

The upgrade requirement had appeared again, but it required 500,000 energy. He had already drained all his current dimensions, so he needed to ask Ancient One for coordinates.

He drew a portal back to Kamar-Taj's square and saw a group of mages training.

"Hey, Luke, you're back!" Mordo said, spotting Luke's sudden arrival.

"Yes. What's up?" Luke was a little confused. He actually came back quite often and had become fairly familiar with everyone.

"The Sorcerer Supreme is still in seclusion, revising those spells. She asked me to give you this booklet." Mordo took out a booklet and handed it to Luke.

"Anything else?" Luke asked, looking at Mordo.

"The Sorcerer Supreme also wanted me to tell you that medium dimensions can change their own coordinates, so you'll have to search for dark dimensions yourself."

Mordo gave Luke a small book.

"She also said that many of these small dimensions already have owners. Extracting their energy will inevitably lead to battle. You can leave a portal to your dimension in this square, and we can fight for you as payment for using your dark energy."

Seeing that these people no longer spoke of dark energy with utter hatred left Luke deeply impressed by Ancient One's ability to rally people.

"Ancient One told me to leave a portal?" Luke asked.

"Yes. She said every cause has an effect. We can't use your energy for nothing; we have to do something for you in return."

Mordo glanced at the newly trained mages behind him, then leaned closer and said, "It'll also give these fellows a little combat experience."

Luke looked at the mages and nodded. They were all excellent helpers.

With these mages guarding the Shadow World while his ninjas went over to cut down monsters, wouldn't that work out perfectly?

"How fast do you consume energy now?"

Luke checked his current recovery rate. It was 1,000 points per second, leaving 997 after the amount he supplied to Ancient One.

That rate should allow Ancient One a little more freedom to act, but Luke had no idea how much energy these mages would consume.

Mordo didn't know either, so he simply took Luke aside to test it.

After signing a contract, Mordo could also receive dark energy from Luke. Luke could cut off the supply at any time, just as with his contract with Ancient One.

The two tested the consumption of various spells and eventually concluded that an ordinary mage didn't need energy outside combat. Ancient One needed it to sustain her lifespan. In battle, a high-level mage casting at a normal frequency would consume 100 energy points per second. But mages couldn't be fighting all the time, so Luke could let them use his stored dark energy. He was recovering energy constantly anyway.

He currently had a reserve of 200,000 energy points. Combined with his energy recovery, that could support a group of twenty high-level mages in battle for more than three minutes.

Luke nodded and asked Mordo to bring over some elite mages first.

Soon, Mordo returned with a group of elite mages. Luke recognized many of them from the Doctor Strange movie.

After signing contracts with them and letting them familiarize themselves with his dark energy, Luke followed Mordo to the portal hub.

A month earlier, Luke had traveled to the Big Apple from here.

Mordo worked a device for a while, and a doorframe appeared.

Mordo explained to Luke, "Link the space of your Shadow World to this place, and this portal can be fixed here."

Luke nodded and pressed his hand against the doorframe. A layer of black energy appeared in its center.

Slowly, that layer of energy triggered a spatial resonance, connecting the Shadow World to this place.

"Remember to cover yourself in dark energy when you enter, or you'll be assimilated by it."

After telling Mordo that, Luke stepped inside.

He was the master of this space, the Dark Lord. The dark energy wouldn't hurt him.

Once inside his own dimension, Luke rose into the air.

This space was no longer as small as it had been at the beginning. Luke now had an energy capacity of 200,000, and the space had expanded to twenty times its former size.

Opening the booklet, Luke selected a target dimension and told Mordo, who had come in to look around, to fetch the others.