While the group was chatting, Tony Stark walked over, carrying a soccer ball. He tossed it to Luca with a teasing smile.
"I checked it. It's clean. No bombs or alien viruses. Here you go."
"Since when do you carry a soccer ball everywhere you go, kid?"
Tony pulled up a chair and sat down in front of them, completely at ease.
This made Gwen Stacy and Harry Osborn visibly nervous.
Luca was a "rich high schooler," sure, but he was their peer. They could joke around with him.
But Tony Stark? The richest man in the world and an Avenger? Even though Gwen and Harry came from privileged backgrounds, meeting Iron Man in the flesh was intimidating.
Luca ignored their nervousness. He caught the ball, his eyes spinning as he concocted a lie on the spot.
"I don't carry this one everywhere. You mentioned Pym Particles and compression tech before, right? I was trying to make something portable."
"But this is the best I could come up with so far."
As he spoke, Luca tapped his belt buckle again. POP. Another inflatable soccer ball shot out.
Tony caught it mid-air. His eyes lit up for a second, then dimmed with disappointment.
"It's just an inflatable ball? That's a far cry from spatial compression."
Luca rolled his eyes and snatched the ball back.
"What do you know? Look at the belt buckle, then look at the thickness of the deflated ball. Do you think you can just stuff it in there by letting the air out? And you call yourself a genius."
"Besides, this is just a prototype. A failed experiment. I'll figure out Pym-level shrinking eventually."
"Want me to send you a belt to study later?"
Tony waved his hand dismissively.
"Forget it. Keep your toys. I could build that in my sleep."
Then, Tony's gaze shifted to the small red-and-white sphere Luca was holding in his other hand.
"What's that? Planning a career change to Pokémon Trainer?"
Yes, the red-and-white sphere in Luca's hand was a classic Poké Ball.
Hearing Tony's joke, Luca's eyes narrowed. He looked Tony up and down, slowly, deliberately.
It was the look of a predator assessing prey.
Tony shivered. "What's with that look?"
Luca withdrew his gaze and smiled innocently.
"Just a collectible toy. Thought it was cute, so I'm keeping it as a desk ornament."
He pressed the button on the ball. CLICK. The top half popped open.
Inside sat a tiny, ordinary Pikachu doll. A cheap speaker played the Pokémon theme song.
Seeing it was just a toy, Tony relaxed.
Must have been my imagination. This brat is weird.
What Tony didn't know was that in Luca's vision, this "toy" was glowing white, with a blue system panel floating above it.
---
[Pal Sphere]
Source: Palworld (1/5)
Creator: Pal Tamer
Status: Core Component (Toy Poké Ball)
Synthesis Materials Needed: 1 Wood, 1 Stone, 1 Crystal containing spatial energy.
Item Description: A unique "capture sphere" from Palworld. It can capture Pals when they are weakened. The more injured the target, the higher the capture rate. Captured Pals will obey the owner of the sphere and can be summoned or recalled at will.
Warning: In Palworld, humans can also be captured by Pal Spheres. Just saying.
---
Luca had found this item in the pile of junk The Spot vomited out.
Judging by the other items (chalkboard, students), The Spot had sucked these things up randomly during his multiverse travels.
Whether the toy was originally a Core Component or became one because it was soaked in The Spot's spatial energy didn't matter.
What mattered was the Warning.
Humans can be captured.
If I beat Tony half to death and then throw a Pal Sphere at him... that would be the most cost-effective capture ever, right?
Most superheroes or villains were either too strong to beat or not useful enough to keep.
But Tony? His physical body was weak (easy to bully). He was super rich. He was a super genius. And he could build and pilot armor for combat.
He is literally the God of Cost-Performance. A Natural-Born Pal.
Of course, Luca was joking. (Mostly.)
He and Tony were friends now. He wouldn't enslave his business partner.
There were plenty of other candidates in the Marvel universe better suited to be "Worker Pals."
Shaking off the intrusive thoughts, Luca turned the conversation back to business.
"That guy can teleport through space. Can SHIELD hold him? Don't let him escape and come back to haunt me."
Before SHIELD arrived, Luca had pumped The Spot full of extra tranquilizer darts just to be safe. He almost used the Dehydration Gun to turn him into a cube, but that would have been too hard to explain.
"Don't look at me. I'm not with SHIELD," Tony said. "But Maria Hill said they're keeping him sedated 24/7 until they figure out a containment method."
"They have a protocol for slippery multiverse invaders now."
Luca nodded. Then he added a thought.
"By the way, when we were fighting him, he mentioned something. He said the spatial fluctuations around here felt unusually active. I don't know if he meant New York in general or specifically this school."
"If it's New York, fine. The portals are still unstable. But if he meant the school specifically... SHIELD might want to keep an eye on this place."
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CaveLeather
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