Chapter 181: Two Alliances
The two men stood.
Tony instinctively pressed a hand against the bandaged wound in his abdomen, while Bruce slowly rotated his recently reset shoulder, testing the restored range of motion.
As they reached the top of the basement stairs, Tony stopped and glanced back.
"Aren't you coming?"
Lynn remained seated below.
"I'm a doctor."
"I'll wait for your good news at the clinic."
Tony sighed.
"Of course you will."
Without another word, he and Bruce climbed the remaining stairs, passed through the hallway, and entered the reception area.
The clinic was quiet.
Wanda and Pietro were nowhere to be seen.
The front entrance remained locked.
The rear door, however, had already been unlocked.
Sometime during their discussion, Lynn had quietly opened it.
Cold October air drifted into the clinic, carrying the damp scent of fallen leaves from Manhattan's back alleys.
"Leave through the back."
Lynn's voice floated up from the basement.
Neither man argued.
They stepped into the darkness of New York shortly after three in the morning.
They walked roughly twenty paces before Tony finally broke the silence.
"He charged us three separate fees."
"Yes."
"And the third one doesn't even have a ceiling."
"Correct."
Tony rubbed his forehead.
"You just had to ask."
Bruce remained silent.
"If you hadn't pushed him..."
"...he would've kept playing that mysterious-doctor routine."
"We would've paid two invoices."
"You asked."
"He practically admitted everything."
"Now there's a third invoice."
Tony let out an exasperated laugh.
"One question."
"Millions of dollars."
Bruce finally answered.
"Worth it."
Tony looked sideways.
"Worth it?"
Bruce kept walking.
He did not elaborate.
But inside...
His reasoning was simple.
For months, Batman had prepared contingency after contingency against an unidentified metahuman.
Unknown motives.
Unknown limits.
Unknown identity.
Now...
He finally knew.
Lynn possessed principles.
Rules.
Predictable behavior.
He charged for his work.
He honored agreements.
He healed people without discrimination.
He never abused power simply because he possessed it.
That certainty was worth far more than money.
The two disappeared into the New York night.
...
Fourteen hours later.
Upstate New York.
The temporary Avengers command facility.
Originally an abandoned United States Air Force training installation, it had been converted by Tony after the Battle of Metropolis into a secure fallback headquarters.
Three reinforced concrete buildings.
A runway capable of supporting Quinjet operations.
A two-level underground command center.
The conference room lights remained on.
Every seat around the circular tactical table was occupied.
Tony sat at the head.
He had changed into clean clothes.
The bruising around his wound remained visible beneath his shirt, and the exhaustion beneath his eyes was impossible to hide.
Bruce sat on his right.
He had exchanged the damaged Batsuit for a black Wayne Enterprises turtleneck.
His shoulder moved normally again.
Opposite them sat Steve Rogers.
His forearms rested on the table.
His expression remained calm.
But unmistakably disappointed.
Thor stood near the window.
Mjölnir rested beside him.
His expression was unusually grave.
Clark Kent occupied one corner of the room.
Dressed only in a gray T-shirt and jeans, he looked like nothing more than an ordinary reporter.
Only his unwavering attention betrayed otherwise.
Beside him stood Diana Prince.
Barry Allen leaned casually against the doorway.
Natasha Romanoff quietly reviewed intelligence reports on her tablet.
Clint Barton sat beside her without saying a word.
Bruce Banner adjusted his glasses near the opposite side of the table.
Tony inhaled slowly.
"Bruce and I made a catastrophic mistake."
He explained everything.
Recovering Loki's Scepter from Baron Strucker's HYDRA fortress.
Analyzing the intelligence encoded inside the Mind Stone.
Attempting to merge it with J.A.R.V.I.S.
Constructing the vibranium synthetic body.
J.A.R.V.I.S.' destruction.
Ultron's birth.
The destruction of the laboratory.
Its escape.
For perhaps the first time since anyone in the room had known him...
Tony Stark spoke without sarcasm.
Without jokes.
Without trying to soften responsibility.
When he finished...
No one spoke.
Five long seconds passed.
Steve broke the silence.
"You built an artificial intelligence around an Infinity Stone."
"Yes."
"You didn't tell the team."
"No."
"Why?"
Tony looked toward Bruce.
Bruce answered first.
"We believed humanity needed a permanent defense system."
Steve frowned.
"A defense system?"
Tony continued.
"New York."
"Metropolis."
"The Chitauri invasion."
"General Zod."
"We've survived because heroes happened to be there."
"That's not a strategy."
"We wanted something capable of protecting Earth before anyone had to sacrifice themselves."
Clark finally spoke.
"So..."
"You created another existential threat..."
"...while trying to prevent existential threats."
Tony lowered his eyes.
He had no defense.
Thor stepped toward the table.
"The Mind Stone."
His voice echoed through the room.
"One of the six Infinity Stones."
"The treasures sought by kings, gods, and conquerors across the cosmos."
He looked directly at Tony.
"And you believed you could simply..."
"...experiment with it."
Thor slowly shook his head.
Even by Asgardian standards...
This bordered on madness.
Bruce interrupted before the room could descend into arguments.
"Blame won't stop Ultron."
"It already exists."
"It possesses a complete vibranium body."
"The Mind Stone serves as its primary power source."
"It has to be stopped."
Steve nodded once.
"Capabilities?"
Bruce answered.
"Its body is composed almost entirely of vibranium."
"Conventional ballistic weapons are effectively useless."
"The Mind Stone enables powerful psionic emissions capable of disrupting neural activity."
"It also possesses processing capabilities vastly beyond any Earth-built supercomputer."
Tony continued.
"It can duplicate portions of its consciousness through connected digital infrastructure."
"Any network."
"Military systems."
"Financial systems."
"Civilian communications."
"Satellites."
"If it can establish a connection..."
"...it can potentially infiltrate it."
Bruce Banner slowly raised one hand.
"So..."
"We're hunting an indestructible robot..."
"...with an Infinity Stone..."
"...that can hijack the global internet."
Tony nodded.
"That's approximately correct."
Banner sighed.
"I'd like to officially recommend running away."
"No."
Tony answered immediately.
Banner sighed again.
"Worth asking."
Natasha finally looked up.
"What did Dr. Lynn say?"
Tony paused only briefly.
"He'll remain available as medical support."
"He'll establish a treatment point away from the battlefield."
He intentionally skipped everything else.
Bruce noticed.
But remained silent.
Tony continued.
"We'll also receive assistance from two additional operatives."
"The Maximoff twins."
Natasha's eyebrows lifted.
"The HYDRA experiments?"
Bruce nodded.
"They're no longer affiliated with HYDRA."
"They've undergone extensive medical treatment and psychological rehabilitation."
"Tony and I are prepared to vouch for them."
Natasha looked directly at Bruce.
"Who treated them?"
"Lynn."
She shifted her gaze toward Tony.
Then back to Bruce.
Neither man showed the slightest hesitation.
Natasha quietly returned to her files.
She asked no further questions.
Not because she lacked questions.
Because she had just gained one far more important.
Exactly...
Who was Lynn?
The meeting continued for another hour.
Threat assessments.
Communication protocols.
Global satellite coverage.
Civilian evacuation priorities.
Containment strategies.
Fallback locations.
Nothing resembling a perfect solution emerged.
Only preparations.
After the meeting concluded...
Tony and Bruce walked side by side down the command corridor.
Tony lowered his voice.
"Did you notice?"
"What?"
"Natasha."
Bruce waited.
"She immediately started thinking about Lynn."
Bruce answered calmly.
"She's been thinking about him for quite some time."
Tony looked ahead.
"Should we tell everyone?"
Bruce already knew what he meant.
"No."
Tony frowned.
"Why not?"
"Lynn never gave us permission."
"He never told us not to."
Bruce looked straight ahead.
"He also never volunteered the truth."
"That was intentional."
Tony thought about it.
"...Fair."
He rubbed the back of his neck.
"I'd rather not find out what happens if we reveal it without asking."
"He'd probably revise the contract."
Bruce remained silent.
Tony sighed.
"And somehow..."
"I think he'd legally justify every extra charge."
Neither of them questioned that possibility.
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