American comics: Starting with Luke the Maker

Luke wasn't in a good mood. The old bat from Hebron, that "meritorious" figure who had struggled back from the brink of death multiple times, had finally succumbed and passed away. Even though Luke currently had many options, high-quality and resilient materials like the old bat were becoming increasingly rare. With a sense of gratitude, Luke still performed one last experiment on the old bat's corpse.

He didn't know if his final experiment was a success or a failure, but he did obtain something extraordinary.

Or rather, a material.

A crystal-like formation of indeterminate material, about the size of an infant's fist. It was a translucent, blackish-gray color, and felt warm and alive to the touch. Simple instrument analysis revealed it to be a crystal of an unknown material, containing some kind of unique energy within.

After the experiment, the old bat's corpse turned to dust with a gentle touch, leaving behind only this translucent, blackish-gray crystal. After conducting numerous studies on the crystal and performing extensive scanning analysis with instruments, Luke came to a conclusion.

This was the crystallized essence of the old bat. The unique energy within the crystal was also the dark energy that originally resided within the old bat's body.

This was the goal Luke wanted to achieve with this experiment.

Next up, another experiment.

"Holy Light!"

Luke called out, and a gentle, golden light appeared in his hand.

Of course, he hadn't become a mage or a so-called paladin, nor did he have any of those messy energies inside his body. He could do this purely because of the energy conversion device in front of him.

A canister-like metal creation was fixed to the ground, surrounded by scattered wires. At the top of this canister-like metal creation was embedded a translucent, blackish-gray crystal. A silver metal ring on Luke's right index finger served as the terminal for this energy conversion device.

"Darkness."

With a thought, the gentle, golden holy light in Luke's hand transformed into its opposite, the attribute of darkness. Luke could clearly and distinctly feel the insidious nature of this energy. After experimenting a few times, he dissipated the energy in his hand, reopened the instrument, removed the blackish-gray crystal from the energy conversion device, and retested it.

The test results showed that the energy within the crystal had barely diminished, and the consumed energy was even slowly replenishing itself at an extremely slow rate. This intrigued Luke. Because he also wanted to know, where did this replenishment come from? And was it controllable?

Luke had also considered cutting the blackish-gray crystal, but despite appearing as fragile as glass, it was surprisingly sturdy. Some conventional cutting methods could only shave off a layer of powder from the crystal. Unconventional methods were effective, but the crystal would react like a living thing, automatically consuming its internal energy to resist.

In general, cutting was possible, but it would damage the quality of the crystal, causing some of its internal energy to be wasted needlessly. And the resulting effect might not be satisfactory.

For example, a nail-sized piece of crystal that Luke had cut off contained almost no energy inside. It was more like it had consumed the energy in that area and didn't resist being cut off. The color had also changed from the original blackish-gray to a lighter gray. Before Luke could figure out where this crystal material could be used, he unexpectedly discovered that the symbiotes seemed extremely interested in it.

Little Habu and Mistletoe were still young, and they were just drooling over the nail-sized grayish-white crystal. But Quiet and Venom, as well as the other symbiote Nick Fury had sent over, almost came to blows over the crystal. Not only did Venom finally dare to bare his fangs at Quiet, but even the rogue symbiote, who had been physically tamed by Venom after arriving at Hebron, couldn't help but start rebelling against his boss.

Quiet, who was bonded with Gwen, and Venom, with his mechanical body specially customized by Luke, nearly tore down Luke's symbiote laboratory regardless of the occasion. Luke, who rushed over, forcibly stopped them, and locked Venom back in his jar, depriving him of his precious freedom once again. Quiet was also cut off from her food supply for a week, and she cried and wailed, even almost bursting out of Gwen's body, her claws scratching at the metal door of the laboratory, staring at Luke with pleading eyes. But in the end, Gwen, who regained control of her body, forcibly dragged her away.

In the end, Luke cut the nail-sized grayish-white crystal into two equal halves and threw them to Little Habu and Mistletoe respectively. The two little guys pounced on them like hungry tigers, covering the grayish-white crystal with their entire bodies and firmly enveloping it within themselves, contentedly squatting down without moving.

Venom's eyes turned red with envy at this scene, and he grumbled, accusing Luke of being too biased, always supplying the two little guys with all the good stuff! He was clearly the main fighting force in this laboratory! Hardworking and willing to be parasitized by anyone, doing whatever he was told, and remembering to come home on time when he went out, he had both credit and hard work, but no rewards.

Annoyed by Venom's nagging, Luke simply threw all the previous crystal powder to him.

This time, the rogue symbiote that had just been transferred to the symbiote laboratory couldn't help but feel resentful. Unfortunately, according to his new boss Venom and the boss's big sister Quiet: you haven't dedicated yourself to Hebron, you haven't fought for Hebron, you haven't even put your heart and soul into Hebron, what qualifications do you have to demand treatment?

In the following period, the two younglings, Little Habu and Mistletoe, as well as Venom, became Luke's key observation targets. He couldn't see anything from Venom, perhaps the powder didn't have a substantial effect on Venom. Although according to Venom, he felt stronger and had more strength, and if he had more, he could soon grow to surpass Riot and be comparable to Quiet's strength level.

But Venom always liked to exaggerate. Just like Quiet, who could lie without principles for a bite to eat. It was hard to say how much truth there was in his words.

However, the two younglings, Little Habu, had indeed grown a lot, increasing in size by about a third from the size of a palm, feeling a bit overnourished. Luke even worriedly gave the two little guys a thorough physical examination, and after confirming that everything was normal for the time being, he stuffed the grayish-white crystal that they hadn't finished digesting back to them.