MARVEL/DC: DOCTOR IN THE MULTIVERSE

Barry Allen arrived first.

In a crimson-and-gold blur, he deposited two unconscious second-tier heroes directly into the automated medical pod before skidding to a halt.

His own right forearm was badly scorched, the burn caused by one of the plasma-core detonations from Ultron's drones.

"Two critical patients," Barry said between breaths.

"One has a crushed chest."

"The other's spine is damaged."

"I know."

Lynn was already wearing surgical gloves.

The All-Seeing Eye completed a full-body diagnostic scan before Barry had even finished speaking.

Patient One

Three fractured ribs.

A flail segment over the left thoracic cavity.

Fragments from the fifth rib had punctured the left lung.

Approximately four hundred milliliters of blood had accumulated within the pleural cavity.

Fortunately...

The heart had escaped injury.

Lynn immediately picked up a precision hemostatic injector.

The needle entered through the fourth intercostal space.

"Chest tube."

The nearby medical robot immediately extended the requested equipment.

Without looking up, Lynn accepted it.

Three seconds later...

The drainage catheter entered the pleural cavity.

Dark venous blood flowed steadily into the collection chamber.

He turned toward the second casualty.

Burst fracture of the L2 vertebra.

Bone fragments compressed the cauda equina.

Complete sensory loss below the knees.

"This one goes into the regeneration pod."

"He needs spinal reconstruction."

Barry nodded immediately.

Before he could accelerate back toward the battlefield...

Tony's voice erupted from the dedicated emergency receiver sitting beside Lynn.

Unlike the Avengers' battlefield communications, this was a direct encrypted emergency line connected only to Miracle Clinic.

"Lynn!"

Metal screamed in the background.

Repulsors fired.

Explosions echoed continuously.

Lynn continued suturing.

"Talk."

"He's too strong!"

"The vibranium body won't break!"

"The Mind Stone's psychic attacks are covering the entire battlefield!"

"Even Superman is down!"

Lynn calmly tied the final knot.

"Is your armor operational?"

"About sixty percent."

"The emergency repair systems restored enough functionality to fly, but—"

"Then continue fighting."

Tony nearly choked.

"...That's all?"

"No."

Lynn cut the final suture.

"If the stitches in your abdomen rupture again..."

"...come back."

"I'll repair them."

"The second operation costs extra."

A long, wordless sound came through the receiver.

Somewhere between rage...

Exhaustion...

And despair.

The transmission ended.

Lynn removed his gloves.

Returned to his folding chair.

Picked up another cup of Longjing tea.

Five minutes later...

The second wave of casualties arrived.

Clint Barton.

Closed fracture of the left radius and ulna.

An Atlantean soldier.

Deep penetrating wound through the thigh caused by high-velocity shrapnel.

Treatment.

Another seven minutes.

The third wave.

Diana Prince.

Minor plasma burns across the right shoulder.

Nothing serious for an Amazon.

Beside her...

A young mutant volunteer drafted into battlefield support.

Extensive third-degree burns over nearly forty percent of the body.

Immediate treatment.

For over two hours...

Lynn remained behind the front lines.

Seventeen patients.

Seventeen successful operations.

His mental ledger quietly calculated every consultation fee.

Every emergency surcharge.

Every battlefield deployment charge.

Meanwhile...

The system continuously displayed new notifications.

Healing complete.

Copy successful.

Healing complete.

Copy successful.

Most of the acquired abilities were mediocre.

Minor enhanced vision.

Resistance to toxins.

Above-average stamina.

Nothing worth integrating immediately.

The Ability Furnace could process them later.

...

The front line deteriorated rapidly.

Ultron's mechanical legion had fundamentally altered the nature of the battle.

Destroying drones merely triggered synchronized plasma-core self-detonation.

Large-scale melee assaults became nearly impossible.

Long-range bombardment proved equally ineffective.

Pure vibranium absorbed or redirected nearly every conventional attack.

The Mind Stone dominated the battlefield psychologically.

At least five heroes now exhibited measurable neurological trauma.

Clark Kent climbed from the crater left by his previous fall.

He remained standing.

But something was wrong.

His pupils focused slowly.

His reactions lagged noticeably.

The multidimensional information surge transmitted by the Mind Stone had temporarily overwhelmed even Kryptonian neural processing.

His reaction speed had fallen by nearly thirty percent.

Thor recovered more quickly.

Asgardian physiology possessed extraordinary resistance against psychic assault.

Even so...

He noticed something deeply unsettling.

Ultron...

Was adapting.

Every lightning strike taught him something new.

Each successive attack became less effective.

The vibranium body continuously redistributed incoming electrical energy across increasingly optimized conductive pathways.

He was learning in real time.

Thor tightened his grip around Mjölnir.

"I have fought Frost Giants..."

"Dark Elves..."

"Demons..."

"...and machines."

He stared toward Ultron.

"I have never seen one evolve during battle."

Tony hovered above the ruined industrial district.

His armor looked terrible.

Nanomaterial reserves had been nearly exhausted.

Several weapon systems had completely failed.

Only the right repulsor remained fully operational.

He looked toward the monster he and Bruce had created.

Then...

Ultron moved.

He slowly raised both hands.

Palms upward.

The Mind Stone erupted.

Golden energy surged into the heavens.

The clouds themselves became conduits.

Thousands of radiant filaments descended from above.

Like sunlight.

Except every ray carried overwhelming psionic information encoded directly by the Infinity Stone.

Maximum-output psychic suppression.

Five-kilometer radius.

Entire battlefield.

Heroes collapsed almost simultaneously.

Steve Rogers dropped to one knee, clutching his head.

Barry stumbled during superspeed acceleration.

The loss of concentration threw him across broken pavement.

Clint's freshly treated arm struck the ground again.

He barely suppressed a scream.

Thor's grip weakened.

Mjölnir slipped from his hand.

Clark Kent collapsed once more.

Ultron's amplified voice echoed throughout the battlefield.

"What do you believe you are protecting?"

"You cannot protect them."

"You cannot protect each other."

"Evolution has never required heroes."

"Evolution requires—"

He stopped speaking.

For the first time since the battle began...

Resistance appeared.

Not physical resistance.

Conceptual resistance.

Dark crimson radiance erupted from the southeastern ruins.

Wanda Maximoff stood alone atop shattered concrete.

Her hands extended forward.

Chaos Magic poured outward.

Scarlet energy expanded into a translucent barrier roughly fifty meters across.

Compared with Ultron's battlefield-wide assault...

Its area was tiny.

Yet...

Within that fifty-meter radius...

The Mind Stone's psychic wave ceased to exist.

Steve immediately felt the pressure inside his mind disappear.

Barry regained balance.

Clint's vision cleared.

Several nearby heroes recovered almost instantly.

Ultron slowly turned.

His attention focused entirely upon Wanda.

The golden brilliance of the Mind Stone converged against the crimson barrier.

Yellow and scarlet energies collided.

Neither resembled ordinary energy.

At their boundary...

Reality itself appeared unstable.

The Mind Stone continuously attempted to impose overwhelming psionic information across the barrier.

Chaos Magic answered differently.

Rather than resisting...

It rewrote.

Inside Wanda's field...

The probability that the Mind Stone's informational wave would manifest as hostile psychic interference was fundamentally altered.

The destructive signal became harmless photons.

Golden light drifted gently through the air like falling rain.

For the first time since the battle began...

Ultron voluntarily ceased attacking.

He observed the young woman standing amid the ruins.

Scarlet power surrounded her.

Yet...

Her expression remained calm.

Her eyes remained focused.

No fear.

No panic.

No loss of control.

"Interesting."

Ultron's voice carried genuine curiosity.

"Your abilities do not conform to any conventional physical or mystical framework recognized by this dimension."

Wanda did not answer.

She bit her lower lip hard enough to draw blood.

Maintaining the barrier placed enormous strain upon her concentration.

Sweat rolled slowly down her forehead.

Even so...

She held her ground.

Around her neck...

The indicator on Lynn's monitoring collar remained steadily blue.

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