"Luca! Luca!"
Staring at the hellscape outside the window, Luca felt a wave of genuine fear wash over him. Even with the experiences from his past life, facing a literal alien invasion was terrifying.
But hearing his parents' panicked shouts from downstairs snapped him back to reality. He had to do something.
Before he could even answer them, however, he saw it.
A beam of deep purple energy shot straight toward his building.
In the next instant—
BOOM!
The violent shockwave sent Luca flying.
Flames filled his vision, and the entire building shuddered from the blast.
Luca slammed into the wardrobe behind him. The first thing he felt wasn't pain from the impact, but a piercing ringing in his ears and a dizzying sensation threatening to knock him out.
In a daze, Luca used the overturned desk beside him to pull himself upright.
Looking around, the most striking sight was the massive hole blown through the exterior wall of their duplex, connecting the upstairs and downstairs.
The floor of the second story—including his bedroom—had partially collapsed, crashing down onto the first floor.
Smoke and dust choked the air.
The acrid smell of gunpowder filled his nose and mouth.
Large chunks of masonry and debris continued to slide down the rubble.
His hearing hadn't fully recovered, but Luca ignored the dust in his mouth and shouted for his parents.
"Gina! Hermann?! Are you guys okay?!"
No matter how loudly he yelled, there was no response from the ruins below.
Even though Luca was just a transmigrator who had inherited this body's memories and might not have had a deep emotional bond with these parents yet...
Whether for his own survival or for the sake of this family, he didn't want anything to happen to them.
Without wasting another second, Luca yanked open the wardrobe, grabbed his backpack, and slung it over his shoulder.
Then, he slid down the slope of the collapsed floor toward the first level.
As soon as he landed amidst the wreckage, before he could even start searching, two snarling Chitauri soldiers crawled out of the massive hole in the wall and charged at him.
It was too late to fish the [Pencil Missile] out of his bag or crouch down to activate the [Kick-Enhancement Shoes].
But then—
BANG! BANG!
Two loud gunshots rang out from behind him.
The heads of the two Chitauri soldiers exploded like watermelons, spraying flesh and fluid everywhere.
As the headless bodies slumped to the ground, Luca spun around.
Amidst the rubble, his mother, Gina, was propped up against a doorframe, struggling to keep her upper body upright.
In her hand was a high-caliber pistol—one of their company's experimental prototypes.
"Mom! Where's Dad?"
He rushed over to support her.
Only then did he realize that while Gina was holding onto the doorframe, her entire lower body was pinned under a collapsed wall.
Luckily, the fallen wall had formed a small triangular pocket with other debris, so she hadn't been crushed to death instantly.
But on the other side of the rubble, when Luca reached out to check on his father, Hermann, who had been hit by the same debris... he found no pulse. Hermann was already gone.
Ignoring whatever his mother was trying to say, Luca bent down and shoved against the wall pinning her, trying to lift it.
But his mechanical prosthetic arm, recently installed, was nothing like the Winter Soldier's military-grade tech.
Its output was weaker than a normal human hand, let alone strong enough to lift a massive slab of concrete.
"Luca! Luca! Listen to me!"
"Take this gun. Your father and I taught you how to use it!"
"Forget about me! Go hide! The pantry is reinforced. Stay there! Do not come out!"
Seeing Luca's futile attempts to move the stone, Gina, who had just regained consciousness and was still delirious from the blast, spoke rapidly, urging her son to run.
She thrust the strange-looking pistol toward him. Only then did Luca notice the faint white glow emanating from the gun—the same glow as a "Core Component."
He didn't take the gun immediately. Instead, the white glow triggered a realization.
The Kick-Enhancement Shoes aren't just for momentary bursts of power!
The thought flashed through his mind like lightning.
Luca immediately crouched down and used his left hand to twist the white dial on the side of his right shoe.
Instantly, visible arcs of electricity sparked across the red and white sneaker, and his right foot seemed to be coated in a shimmering, rainbow-colored aura.
Feeling a surge of power he had never experienced before coursing through his leg, Luca carefully wedged the tip of his shoe into a gap in the rubble.
As he slowly applied pressure with his right leg...
The collapsed wall, which he couldn't budge with all his might just moments ago, was lifted effortlessly by his single foot.
Surprisingly, he didn't feel much pressure or discomfort on the bridge of his foot.
Even his left foot, which wasn't "powered up," seemed to have gained multiplied grip and support stability, making balance a non-issue.
Under Gina's stunned gaze—
BOOM!
The massive slab of concrete was flipped aside entirely.
Luca moved fast, scooping up his mother and carrying her away from the spot.
"Luca? What was that?"
Gina, still shaken but no longer dazed, stared blankly at the giant stone her son had just kicked away.
Luca, however, just offered a vague, slightly awkward explanation.
"Just a little invention of mine."
He couldn't exactly explain his cheat ability right now, so he glossed over it. He needed to get his mother to the reinforced pantry she had mentioned.
Staying here was dangerous; another attack could hit them at any moment.
But before they could take more than a few steps—
A figure in red and gold armor plummeted from the sky, shot through the hole in the wall, and smashed into the floor with a loud CLANG.
The already ruined floor cratered under the impact. The figure plowed a long trench through the ground, kicking up debris, before sliding to a stop right in front of them.
Seeing Iron Man drop from the sky, the mother and son, who had just started to calm down, were startled. Both instinctively raised their weapons at the figure lying on the ground.
Gina held the company's experimental pistol, while Luca pulled out the [Pencil Missile] he had "crafted" earlier from his backpack.
"Whoa, whoa, relax, ma'am! I don't think this counts as breaking and entering, does it?"
Seeing the guns pointed at him, Tony Stark didn't seem nervous at all. He stood up, looking a bit battered, and spoke gently to comfort them.
However, his voice, processed through the helmet's speakers, sounded cold and distorted.
Seeming to realize this, the metal faceplate popped open with a click, revealing Tony Stark's face.
"Relax, you two. Find a place to hide. Trust me, those knock-off Predators out there will be dealt with soon enough~"
Tony winked at Luca and flashed what he thought was a charming smile.
"And kid, next time remember, a pencil case can't protect you~"
With that, the faceplate snapped back down.
Iron Man spun around, thrusters in his palms and feet igniting. He shot toward the hole in the wall he had crashed through, intending to fly back out.
But then...
BOOM!
A violent explosion rocked the air.
The armor had barely flown two meters out of the room when a laser blast hit it square in the face.
The explosion and shockwave sent him flying backward.
In an instant, Iron Man tumbled back into the room even faster than he had left, crashing in front of the mother and son again.
Immediately after, several Chitauri hover-chariots swooped in, floating just outside the building. Each chariot carried two or three soldiers.
Dozen of laser weapons aimed directly at the hole in the wall.
Startled by the explosion, Luca and Gina shielded their faces from the dust and debris.
Then, moving in sync, they raised their weapons again, aiming at the Chitauri hovering outside.
Gina fired first, blowing the head off one of the Chitauri drivers with a single shot.
Luca, holding the [Pencil Missile], was half a beat slower.
The lids on both sides of the pencil case in his hand snapped open, revealing rows of missile-like "pencils" inside.
Simultaneously, a grip and a muzzle extended from the bottom and front of the case, transforming it into a firearm.
Gripping the handle with his left hand, Luca didn't even bother aiming carefully. He just swept the [Pencil Missile] across the field of enemies.
A series of beeps signaled target locks, and Luca pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
A dozen pencil missiles shot out, trailing exhaust fumes. They moved like winding snakes, twisting through the air toward their locked targets.
In a split second, every Chitauri soldier was hit.
But the expected fiery explosions didn't happen. Upon impact, the missiles burst into massive globs of sticky liquid, completely plastering the enemies.
Blinded and glued in place, the soldiers lost control, and the hover-chariots began to wobble and plummet toward the ground.
"What the f—?"