Chapter 179: Confirmation
The floor was covered with a dark-gray composite material.
Every footstep was completely silent.
Tony Stark's eyes immediately fell upon the workstation to the left.
The quantum precision fabrication platform.
His platform.
The one he had personally delivered months ago.
Beside it stood the gene-analysis system provided by Wayne Enterprises.
But neither machine looked the way he remembered.
Both had been extensively modified.
Entire interface arrays had been rebuilt.
Signal pathways rerouted.
Cooling systems integrated.
Power-distribution architecture completely redesigned.
Most astonishing of all—
Two systems that had originally been built on entirely different engineering philosophies were now connected through a relay architecture Tony had never seen before.
Not merely connected.
Merged.
The result was neither Stark technology nor Wayne technology.
It was something entirely new.
"You modified my equipment."
Tony's tone carried more curiosity than accusation.
"Optimized."
Lynn casually pulled two chairs toward the workbench.
"You rewrote J.A.R.V.I.S.' interface architecture."
"The original interface contained three redundant verification layers."
"I removed them."
"Overall computational efficiency increased by approximately seventeen percent."
Tony instinctively wanted to argue.
Then stopped.
He suddenly realized that debating software optimization with the man who had punched apart a Kryptonian World Engine was probably not the most pressing issue tonight.
Bruce entered without speaking.
His eyes slowly swept across the underground laboratory.
Every detail was catalogued automatically.
The superconducting magnetic containment vessel in the corner.
The unusual quantum processing arrays.
The experimental samples.
The biological storage units.
Then—
The bookshelf.
Several notebooks lay neatly arranged.
Entirely handwritten.
The penmanship was almost unnaturally precise.
Bruce's eyes narrowed.
Some pages contained symbols he immediately recognized.
Not English.
Not Latin.
Not Kryptonian.
Not any language catalogued by Wayne Enterprises.
They were...
Ancient Sanskrit.
Specifically—
The ritual notation used by the Masters of Kamar-Taj.
Bruce silently committed every visible symbol to memory.
Only afterward did he sit down in the chair Lynn indicated.
Tony finally spoke.
"How are you even doing all this?"
He wasn't referring to his injuries.
His eyes continued scanning the laboratory.
"You know..."
"I've known you for years."
"This is the first time I've ever seen your basement."
"Because I've never invited you."
Lynn answered matter-of-factly.
Tony let out a short breath through his nose.
His gaze returned to the hybrid processing platform.
Questions continued piling up inside his head.
His blood loss made organizing them difficult.
Lynn retrieved a medical kit.
He walked toward Bruce first.
"Arm."
Bruce extended his injured right arm.
The All-Seeing Eye instantly mapped every ligament and tendon around the shoulder.
Lynn placed one hand beneath Bruce's elbow.
The other rested against the humeral head.
"Brace yourself."
Bruce nodded.
"I know."
Click.
The humeral head slid smoothly back into the glenoid socket.
Bruce instinctively inhaled sharply.
Pain vanished almost immediately.
Lynn examined the facial laceration next.
Only superficial tissue damage.
No orbital fracture.
No skull involvement.
He disinfected the wound before applying two butterfly closures.
"You'll have a scar."
Bruce answered calmly.
"I've had worse."
Lynn nodded.
"You're finished."
He turned toward Tony.
Tony's injuries required considerably more attention.
Although the reinforcing bar had already been removed, extensive muscular trauma remained.
Lynn activated a handheld ultrasonic scanner.
The imaging appeared immediately.
"Partial rupture of the transverse abdominal muscle."
"Minor hematoma surrounding the spleen."
"No splenic rupture."
"No intestinal perforation."
"No spinal damage."
Tony forced a grin.
"So..."
"I'm lucky?"
"Extremely."
"If the trajectory had shifted another two centimeters..."
"...you'd be paraplegic."
Tony's smile disappeared.
Lynn administered a concentrated regenerative solution before repairing the damaged muscle fibers with microscopic bio-sutures guided by electromagnetic manipulation.
Ten minutes later—
The procedure ended.
"Done."
He removed his gloves.
They landed neatly inside the waste container.
Instead of continuing the conversation—
Lynn walked toward a cabinet.
Opened it.
Removed a tea set.
A clay teapot.
Three porcelain cups.
A tin of Longjing tea.
He calmly began boiling water.
Tony stared.
Somewhere...
A newly awakened super-intelligence carrying the Mind Stone and inhabiting a vibranium body was loose.
The laboratory where it had been born no longer existed.
The future of the planet had suddenly become far more uncertain.
And yet—
Lynn was making tea.
The kettle began to whistle.
Steam rose.
The tea leaves gradually unfolded within the hot water.
A delicate fragrance filled the laboratory.
Lynn poured three cups.
One for Bruce.
One for Tony.
One for himself.
He gently pushed the other two forward.
Steam slowly drifted upward.
The laboratory became silent again.
Bruce lowered his eyes toward the tea.
Condensation gathered against the porcelain.
Nobody spoke.
Lynn leaned back.
Tea cup in hand.
Patiently waiting.
He knew Bruce Wayne.
Bruce would speak first.
Not because he was impatient.
Because Batman never abandoned an unanswered question.
Lynn calmly took another sip.
Then—
Bruce finally broke the silence.
He inhaled slowly.
"The masked man..."
"...who appeared during the Battle of Metropolis."
His voice remained remarkably even.
Too even.
Not the tone of someone asking.
The tone of someone presenting the final line of a completed investigation.
A conclusion supported by months of evidence.
One final confirmation remained.
Bruce looked directly into Lynn's eyes.
"It's you."
"Lynn."
Silence.
Complete silence.
Tony's fingers froze halfway toward the tea cup.
His eyes shifted between Bruce and Lynn.
His pulse accelerated.
Lynn lowered his gaze.
He gently blew away the rising steam.
Then—
He calmly drank his tea.
He never denied it.
He never confirmed it.
He simply drank.
That single action answered everything.
Silence became the loudest admission.
The atmosphere inside the laboratory changed immediately.
Tony's breathing noticeably deepened.
He stared at Lynn.
His lips moved.
"You..."
"...really..."
The sentence never finished.
Lynn slowly placed the tea cup back onto the table.
The crisp sound of porcelain striking metal echoed through the room.
"Tony."
His voice remained calm.
Yet instinctively commanded attention.
"Instead of worrying about who I am..."
"...shouldn't you be worrying about the monster the two of you just unleashed?"
Every word landed precisely where it should.
Like a scalpel.
Tony fell silent.
There were countless questions he wanted answered.
The masked man.
Metropolis.
The World Engine.
Everything.
But Lynn wasn't wrong.
A sentient machine empowered by one of the Infinity Stones had escaped.
Somewhere—
Ultron was already planning its next move.
Compared to that—
Identity could wait.
Bruce leaned back.
Only then did Lynn notice it.
The muscles around Bruce's shoulders finally relaxed.
Barely.
Almost imperceptibly.
Months of relentless suspicion quietly left his body.
He exhaled.
Softly.
Almost silently.
Most people would never have noticed.
Lynn did.
Batman—
One of the most suspicious and cautious men in either the DC or Marvel universes—
Had finally confirmed the identity he had been pursuing since Metropolis.
And strangely...
That confirmation relieved him.
Because Bruce Wayne understood a fundamental truth.
An unknown threat is always more frightening than one that is finally understood.
...
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