Luca coughed up another small mouthful of blood, but he still had a smile on his face.
If it hadn't been for the fact that he hadn't yet adjusted to his right arm and instinctively used the prosthetic arm to block that last attack, he might've had to say goodbye to his left arm as well by now.
That's why he was actually happy and meant he made the right move.
He ignored the intense pain and weakness spreading throughout his body. He looked into the distance and saw that there were only two Chitauri left near Tony.
Due to the earlier explosion, Luca had no idea where his Chitauri staff had ended up.
Then, he grabbed his right prosthetic arm with his left hand, pulled it off, and threw it forward.
Then, with a sudden burst of strength from his right leg, the Power-Enhancing Kick Shoes lit up with electric arcs once again.
In the very next moment—
"BANG!"
The broken prosthetic, moved from beneath Luca's foot, dashed across more than ten meters in a flash before slamming straight into the skull of one of the Chitauri.
The Chitauri, who had been hit by the "prosthetic arm", tilted his head and, without even a grunt, collapsed to the ground without even making a sound.
Nearby, Tony Stark had just taken down the last Chitauri near him. He looked over and saw Luka standing tall with his right arm missing, blood was coming from his mouth, but he was still smiling.
Tony froze for a second, surprised.
"This kid..."
Even with all his experience, Tony found himself at a loss for how to describe the boy in front of him.
Before Tony could say anything, a voice came through his helmet's speaker:
"Stark! Do you hear me? You have a missile headed straight for the city."
Upon hearing Nick Fury's information, the expression beneath Tony Stark's helmet immediately turned grim.
He glanced briefly at Luca, who had sat down leaning against a wrecked car, then quickly responded:
"How long?"
"Three minutes, max. The payload will wipe out Midtown."
Hearing that, Stark didn't dare waste another second. He shouted toward Luca in the distance:
"Kid! Find a place to hide! Stay put!"
As soon as he said that, a fire blasted from his suit, and he shot up into the sky.
After watching Iron Man fly off, Luca gave a crooked, strained smile, clearly not taking the warning to heart.
He pushed himself up with one hand, standing again with effort, but his eyes locked intensely on the distant Stark Tower with excitement that hadn't been there before.
"A nuclear missile, huh? Then I'd better hurry up too~"
Perhaps even Luca himself hadn't noticed—somewhere along the way, the thrill of moving toward his goal had started to feel even stronger than his fear of dying.
He picked up the backpack that had fallen nearby and searched a nearly-new Chitauri Staff from the corpse of a Chitauri.
Luca curled his lip in mild disdain.
"Not even a single storage… I'm really putting shame on the title of 'transmigrator.'"
In the next two minutes, Luca didn't engage with a single Chitauri directly.
Even though he felt a little too pumped up and excited, Luca still knew the difference between having fun and doing something reckless.
He did his best to avoid enemy patrols along the way, occasionally picking off one or two with a sneak shot.
Along the way, Luka saw Iron Man flying straight into the sky, carrying a missile.
He also saw the huge hole in the sky finally close.
Afterwards, the Chitauri all started dropping to the ground like a broken puppet with no power.
The enormous Leviathan came crashing to the ground while the once-speeding Chitauri Chariot spun out of control, slamming into buildings and streets.
The few people still remaining on the streets went from stunned silence to cheers and finally to tearful, hysterical laughter.
It seemed like everyone was celebrating this victory but everyone—except Luca, who had already made his way swiftly to the base of Stark Tower.
"So that's how those guys got up to the rooftop, huh?"
He watched as the Hulk jumped to the top of the tower with Iron Man and Captain America.
Right behind him, Thor arrived twirling Mjölnir, carrying Hawkeye in his other arm.
'How the hell did they all manage to do that dramatic pose in front of Loki before he even woke up?'
The question that had puzzled Luca for so long was finally answered.
'Was that really necessary...'
He shook his head, but he immediately noticed another red-and-gold figure silently flying toward the top of the building.
'It's starting...'
He only glanced at it for a second before looking away.
Luca's attention was now focused more on the first floor of Stark Tower directly in front of him.
The Chitauri had only just been taken care of, and the lobby inside was still in complete chaos.
The police and emergency responders hadn't arrived yet, and most of the people on-site were Stark Tower employees and nearby civilians.
There were some people trying to run out to get help, while others rushed inside to find a safe place.
The few remaining security guards doing their jobs couldn't hope to manage the overwhelming crowd.
If Luka wanted to sneak inside right now, it would have been extremely easy.
However, Luca also knew that it wouldn't be long before S.H.I.E.L.D. agents arrived on the scene—and for now, he had no intention of exposing himself to those people.
Moreover, if he wanted to stop Loki from stealing the Tesseract, Luca might not even need to go inside the building.
After searching around briefly, Luca found a perfect spot outside the building where he could clearly observe the entire first floor of Stark Tower.
There, Luca waited silently.
It wasn't long before a large number of agents started helping people and trying to bring order to the chaos.
...
Luca noticed something up on the tower.
The Tony Stark from the future suddenly jumped down from the tower and landed in a hidden corner.
Soon after, a heavily armed "S.H.I.E.L.D. agent" in tactical gear emerged from the very spot where Stark had vanished.
However, the white glow covering Future Tony's body was just too noticeable.
"A nanotech suit, huh? That's really convenient."
Luca watched as the disguised Tony walked into the building. He also saw Loki, escorted by the Avengers, take the elevator down and appear in the lobby.
At that, Luca reached down and twisted the dial on his [Enhanced Mobility Shoes].
Luka turned the dial on his 'Power-Enhancing Kick Shoes', getting ready.
He also reached into his backpack and pulled out his 'Monkey Bomb', which was missing one of its Hextech, from his backpack.
However...
Just as Luca finished doing this, he suddenly noticed something strange...
The noise around him, cars, sirens, people yelling, all of it suddenly stopped.
It was like someone hit a mute button on the whole city.