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Sakaar. The arena.
The cheering died like a switch had been thrown.
Jake's question — Where is the big green guy? — hung in the silence. Every eye in the stadium turned upward to the VIP box.
The Grandmaster's smile had frozen into something resembling dried cheese. He still held his Melt Stick — the golden rod he used to liquefy subordinates who annoyed him — and his eyes darted with the particular calculation of a man deciding whether to answer honestly or murder the person asking.
"The big green guy? Which one? I don't recall." He winked at his guard captain, Topaz. His tone cooled. "It seems our new champion is a bit... emotionally unstable. Cool him down. Which is to say — execution."
Topaz pressed the red remote.
The entire arena floor was buried with a high-voltage shock grid — enough current to paralyze a Chitauri Leviathan. Blue lightning erupted across every surface.
ZZT—!
"JAKE! Watch out!" Thor shouted. He'd been on the receiving end of that grid. It wasn't fun.
Jake stood at the epicenter of the current. Not a hair moved.
"Electricity?"
The Omnitrix projected a spherical energy shield — soft green light, enveloping Jake and Thor in a bubble of calm while lightning raged around them.
"Yesterday, this might have been a problem. But the Omnitrix is in permanent Master Control Mode now."
His fingers slid across the dial.
"Since you like playing with electronics, Grandmaster — let me introduce you to a real hacker."
Green flash.
Upgrade. Galvanic Mechamorph.
Black-green liquid metal. One massive eye. A body made of living circuitry.
"Data access... firewall formatting."
Upgrade's form liquefied — flowing like sentient oil, seeping into the arena's underground electrical network through the conductive floor plates. His consciousness spread through every wire, every circuit, every system on Sakaar's entertainment grid.
The arena lights went berserk — flickering from blue-purple to an eerie black-green. On every screen, the Grandmaster's face was replaced by a giant green hourglass symbol.
[ALERT: System compromised. Administrator privileges transferred.]
The remote in the Grandmaster's hand sparked, smoked, and exploded with a sad little pop.
"WHAT?!" He leaped onto his chair. "My system! That firewall cost thirty million Star Coins!"
Below the arena. Detention level.
Hundreds of gladiators — forced fighters, captured warriors, aliens who'd been dragged through wormholes and thrown into death matches — felt the Obedience Disks on their necks flash green.
Then unlock.
Then fall off.
Korg — the gentle stone man built like a small building — picked up his dropped disk and looked at it thoughtfully.
"Hey, Miek." His soft, pleasant voice was entirely at odds with his appearance. "The new guy seems to have unlocked our collars. I think that means... the revolution has begun?"
BOOM!
Every cell door on the detention level opened simultaneously.
Hundreds of freed gladiators poured into the arena like a dam breaking. Roaring. Fighting. Tearing apart every piece of the Grandmaster's authority they could reach.
"FREEDOM!"
Steve stood in the stands, watching the chaos below with a helpless smile. "This is reckless."
A pause.
"But very effective."
"CATCH THEM! Don't let them escape!" The Grandmaster waved the Melt Stick uselessly.
Scavenger fighter ships dove from the sky, machine guns targeting Jake and Thor.
"Air force is mine." Gwen swung between the stands on a web-line, kicked a guard off a platform, grabbed his energy rifle, and started picking off ship engines with the precise aim of someone who'd been shooting webs at moving targets since she was fifteen.
Then—
VROOM—!
A ship — red and white, engines roaring, side cannons blazing — dove from high altitude and blasted two Scavenger ships out of the air before they could fire.
"Friendlies?" Thor blinked.
The ship hovered. The hatch opened.
A woman stepped out — silver armor, blue cape, a sword called Dragonfang on her hip, and a half-empty bottle of something extremely strong in her hand. She moved with the particular grace of someone who was simultaneously deadly and drunk.
Scrapper 142. Valkyrie.
"Hey! Shapeshifter!"
She took a swig and pointed at Jake below. "The Grandmaster promised me free drinks for life if I stayed out of it. But that fight you just had with the modified freak?" She grinned. "That was satisfying."
"So?" Upgrade's single eye looked up at her.
"So I'm raising my price."
Valkyrie jumped from the ship and attacked.
"I want to see how strong you really are — and if you can help me kill someone."
"You want to spar? Lady, you're drunk."
Jake pulled out of the floor, detransformed, and retreated. Steve stepped forward, photonic shield raised, catching Dragonfang on its edge.
CLANG!
"Ma'am — we're not enemies." Steve held steady, studying the warrior in front of him. Fast. Precise. Ancient technique beneath the alcohol haze. "Your swordsmanship is noble. Asgardian?"
"Once." Valkyrie's eyes dimmed. She kicked off the shield, backflipped to the ground. Her gaze found Thor — and something complicated crossed her face.
"I don't deal with the House of Odin. But Vilgax..." The name came out like poison. "I don't like conquerors. They remind me of Hela. And that squid has wrecked this planet so badly I can't even find a decent bar anymore."
She sheathed her sword. Looked at Jake.
"You asked where the green guy went?"
"You know?"
"I'm the one who brought him here." A boozy hiccup. "But he's not on Sakaar anymore. He wasn't captured. Didn't run."
"Then where?"
Valkyrie pointed at the sky — at the chaotic star region beyond the atmosphere, where wormholes churned like a nest of cosmic whirlpools.
"He's fighting a war."
Silence.
"Vilgax's fleet showed up three days ago. That squid wanted Sakaar as an outpost. The Grandmaster — spineless as always — sold his champions to Vilgax for experimentation. Every single one. Except the Hulk."
"Hulk refused?" Thor asked.
"Hulk doesn't refuse. Hulk just... hates the squid's face. And Vilgax knocked over his bathwater."
Valkyrie shrugged.
"So Hulk hijacked a battleship and flew into the wormholes. He's been out there for three days — alone — blocking one of Vilgax's splinter fleets. Smashing things. Having the time of his life."
"He's not a champion anymore. He's the Guardian of Sakaar. Though he probably doesn't know it."
Jake couldn't help but grin.
That was so Hulk. Playing real-life Space Invaders against an alien armada, alone, in the middle of a wormhole field, because someone knocked over his bath.
"Change of plans." Jake turned to Steve and Gwen. "No prison break needed — this place is already in chaos."
"We're going to support Hulk."
He looked at the sky — the Grandmaster's guard ships assembling overhead, and beyond them, the faint shadows of Vilgax's warships lurking in the distant wormholes.
"Steve — lead the gladiators. Control the ground. Seize the Grandmaster's armory. This revolution needs a general."
"Gwen — civilian cover. Keep the non-combatants alive."
"I'm heading up." Jake looked at Valkyrie. "Mind giving me a ride?"
"Get on." She tossed the empty bottle. "Help me blow up Vilgax's flagship and I'll consider joining your circus."
"It's called the Plumbers."
Jake pressed the Omnitrix.
"But first — I need to clear a path."
Green flash.
A massive alien encased in yellow armor plates, built like a bowling ball the size of a truck.
Cannonbolt. Arburian Pelarota.
"Everyone — WE'RE ROLLING OUT!"
Cannonbolt curled into a high-speed sphere — an indestructible wrecking ball of kinetic energy — and launched upward, smashing through the arena's dome like a reverse meteor, ripping a hole in the ceiling wide enough for Valkyrie's ship to fly through.
In the ruined stands, Loki crawled out from under his chair, checked that nobody was watching, and began sneaking toward the Grandmaster's private hangar.
"Madmen. They're all madmen." He muttered as he ran. "I need to get out of here. But I need a bodyguard first. Maybe the green one is in a good mood? Or... that Earthling?"
He shuddered at the second option and ran faster.
[Sakaar Uprising — triggered!]
[Hulk location confirmed: Solo engagement against Vilgax splinter fleet.]
[Key ally gained: Valkyrie (status: NEUTRAL — INTRIGUED).]
[Korg is distributing revolutionary pamphlets.]
[Mission: Break atmosphere. Rendezvous with Hulk. Face Vilgax.]
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