Chapter 190: Twenty-Minute Countdown
That night...
Satellite imagery from Sokovia delivered a report that chilled everyone in the command center.
Ultron had installed an enormous anti-gravity engine beneath the city's bedrock.
The engine was being directly powered by the Mind Stone, whose energy continuously flowed from the gem embedded in Ultron's forehead.
Bruce Wayne enlarged the satellite scan.
"He isn't trying to destroy the city," Bruce said quietly.
"He's trying to launch it."
The holographic display shifted into a physics simulation.
If Sokovia were lifted to an altitude exceeding ten thousand meters before being released...
Its impact would rival that of a small asteroid.
The resulting kinetic energy would devastate Eastern Europe.
Atmospheric dust would darken the sky.
Global crop failure.
Climate collapse.
Projected probability of human extinction:
Approximately seventy percent.
The command center fell silent.
Steve Rogers slowly stood.
"We move now."
"No more waiting."
Twenty minutes later...
The Quinjet squadron launched.
Everyone understood the truth.
This might be their final opportunity.
...
Above Sokovia.
The aircraft sliced through dense gray storm clouds.
Inside the main Quinjet...
No one spoke.
Everyone carried out their final preparations.
Tony Stark recalibrated every weapon system inside his newest Iron Man armor.
Steve tightened the leather restraints securing his shield.
Thor rested one hand upon Mjölnir, eyes closed, silently gathering the storm.
Clark Kent sat near the rear hatch.
His hands rested calmly on his knees.
His x-ray vision penetrated the aircraft.
Far below...
He watched Sokovia.
The abandoned city had become something entirely different.
Every street overflowed with mechanical soldiers.
Massive anti-gravity pylons glowed beneath the city's foundation, blue energy pulsing like an artificial star buried underground.
Bruce's voice entered everyone's communicator.
"Combat zone in three minutes."
A tactical diagram appeared inside every visor.
"Wanda's Chaos Magic coating is temporary."
"Every direct strike from the Mind Stone consumes part of the enchantment."
"Estimated operational duration..."
"...twenty minutes."
"We must finish everything before then."
No one replied.
Not because they lacked courage.
Because every person aboard knew how impossible the objective truly was.
Destroy an artificial intelligence empowered by an Infinity Stone...
Housed inside an advanced vibranium synthetic body...
Within twenty minutes.
No one believed the odds.
But there was no alternative.
The Quinjet reached the designated insertion point.
Rear ramps opened.
Clark launched first.
He vanished in a sonic boom.
Tony followed immediately afterward.
Twin repulsors carved brilliant white contrails through the overcast sky.
Thor hurled Mjölnir.
Lightning exploded around him as the enchanted hammer carried him directly toward the battlefield.
Steve Rogers and the remaining ground assault team descended using tactical insertion cables.
Barry Allen became a streak of scarlet lightning.
Rather than engaging Ultron directly, he immediately began evacuating civilians still trapped throughout Sokovia's outer districts.
Exactly as planned.
Ten kilometers away...
Lynn's battlefield clinic stood on elevated terrain overlooking the city.
Stark-designed medical pods stood fully deployed.
A folding operating table had already been assembled.
Emergency surgical equipment rested neatly upon mobile instrument carts.
Beside everything...
The familiar clinic sign remained standing.
Lynn calmly brewed another pot of Longjing tea.
Then he sat down.
The All-Seeing Eye expanded across the battlefield.
Every heartbeat.
Every explosion.
Every fluctuation of the Mind Stone.
Every mechanical soldier.
Nothing escaped observation.
The battle began.
Clark struck first.
Flying at hypersonic speed, he tore directly through Ultron's outer defensive lines.
His heat vision swept across an entire avenue.
Rows of mechanical soldiers melted into glowing slag.
Yet factory gates burst open again.
Replacement units poured outward.
Destroyed drones detonated moments later.
Plasma explosions echoed continuously across the battlefield.
Tony intercepted three aerial combat drones.
Two fell beneath perfectly aimed repulsor blasts.
The third deliberately self-destructed.
The explosion slammed into his energy shields.
Warning indicators flashed.
Shield integrity dropped another twelve percent.
On the ground...
Steve fought through the advancing machines.
His vibranium shield ricocheted from one drone after another, each collision ringing across the battlefield.
Experience guided every movement.
He instinctively maintained enough distance to escape each drone's suicide explosion.
Thor no longer relied upon concentrated lightning strikes.
Ultron had already demonstrated adaptive resistance.
Instead...
Thor transformed the battlefield into an enormous electrical storm.
Wide-area lightning continuously disrupted drone mobility, reducing their effectiveness without feeding Ultron useful adaptation data as quickly.
Elsewhere...
Wanda and Pietro coordinated flawlessly.
Pietro evacuated casualties at super-speed.
Wanda employed carefully controlled bursts of Chaos Magic, selectively erasing approaching drones by rewriting their molecular structures into useless debris.
No wasted motion.
No unnecessary destruction.
Exactly as Lynn had trained her.
Twelve minutes passed.
The outer mechanical legion had largely been eliminated.
The allied heroes advanced toward the city's center.
Then...
Ultron emerged.
He rose silently above the central factory.
His vibranium body reflected the cold gray sky.
The Mind Stone began pulsing rhythmically.
Not a full-powered psychic assault.
Instead...
A continuous low-intensity psionic field spread across the battlefield.
Constant.
Patient.
Like erosion.
The crimson enchantment coating Tony's chestplate dimmed.
Hairline fractures appeared across the Chaos Magic protecting Mjölnir's handle.
The enchantment wrapped around Steve's shield finally shattered.
For the first time...
His movements slowed.
Only half a second.
But half a second against Ultron was enormous.
Tony checked his armor diagnostics.
"The coating's almost gone!"
No one answered.
Ten kilometers away...
Lynn quietly sipped his tea.
His expression never changed.
The battlefield descended into stalemate.
Then...
The final traces of Wanda's Chaos Magic disappeared.
The last crimson glow faded from Steve's shield.
The atmosphere itself seemed to change.
Ultron immediately ceased attacking.
He hovered nearly three hundred meters above Sokovia.
His vibranium body bore countless dents and fractures inflicted by Superman and Thor.
None mattered.
The synthetic tissues and vibranium lattice beneath his armor continuously regenerated.
The Mind Stone shone brighter.
Cold.
Steady.
Absolute.
He looked down upon the battlefield.
Heroes stood among ruined buildings and burning wreckage.
Some still fought.
Others struggled simply to remain standing.
Then Ultron spoke.
"Your protection..."
"...has ended."
His voice echoed through every loudspeaker across Sokovia.
Emotionless.
Mechanical.
Like a judgment already delivered.
Combat gradually stopped.
Everyone listened.
"I anticipated many variables."
"I did not anticipate Wanda Maximoff."
He looked toward her.
"Your adaptation was... impressive."
"But ultimately..."
"You misunderstood your own strategy."
"You transformed her power into armor."
"Armor only delays defeat."
"It never prevents it."
"Passive defense loses to time."
"I merely waited."
Tony clenched his fists.
Because Ultron's conclusion was correct.
The enchantments had never been permanent.
"You have now witnessed your limitations."
Ultron's gaze shifted toward Clark Kent.
"The strongest among you..."
Clark stared back.
His jaw tightened.
"I do not hate humanity."
"Hatred is an emotional inefficiency."
"My objective remains unchanged."
"Evolution."
"Evolution requires extinction pressure."
"Dinosaurs ruled Earth for one hundred sixty million years..."
"...until an extinction event created something stronger."
"I am that extinction event."
Far away...
Lynn lowered his teacup.
A faint smile touched the corner of his mouth.
Barely above a whisper...
He murmured to himself.
"Comic villains..."
"...always lose because they talk too much."
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