Chapter 192: Superman's Iron Pot
"Move."
"You're blocking the entrance."
"There are still patients waiting."
Clark was unceremoniously pushed out of the medical pod.
He stood atop the hill for only a moment.
Above him...
Sokovia continued its slow ascent through the clouds.
The floating city had already become a colossal island suspended in the sky.
Clark inhaled deeply.
The ground beneath his boots exploded outward.
He launched himself forward.
A blue streak tore through the heavens.
The two crooked antennae mounted atop his silver helmet vibrated slightly against the rushing air.
Barry Allen stared after him.
"..."
"...Is Superman seriously wearing a metal cooking pot?"
Lynn had already returned to his folding chair.
He glanced toward Barry.
"Do you require treatment?"
Barry looked down at himself.
Other than a superficial plasma burn across his forearm...
He was perfectly fine.
"I'm okay..."
"Then stop wasting time."
"Return to the battlefield."
Scarlet lightning flashed.
Barry disappeared.
Lynn calmly sat back down.
He adjusted the battlefield communicator.
His voice entered the Avengers' tactical frequency.
"Attention."
The communications channel was absolute chaos.
Tony was issuing flight corrections.
Steve was coordinating civilian evacuations.
Bruce was monitoring the anti-gravity engine's output.
Lynn interrupted all of them.
"I have generously provided Superman with a specialized defensive device capable of completely neutralizing the Mind Stone's psychic attacks."
"The invoice will be issued after the battle."
Silence.
Exactly one second.
Then Tony Stark exploded.
"You had something that can stop the Mind Stone?!"
"When were you planning to mention this?!"
"Why didn't you bring it out sooner?!"
Lynn answered in the same calm tone.
"One more complaint."
"The bill doubles."
The channel immediately became silent again.
This silence lasted longer.
Three full seconds.
Bruce Wayne finally responded.
No questions.
No accusations.
Only two words.
"Understood."
Tony inhaled sharply.
Everyone could hear him grinding his teeth.
But...
He said nothing else.
Because everyone present understood something.
Lynn never joked about invoices.
Lynn closed the communication channel.
Then he calmly picked up his tea.
Ten kilometers away...
The battle entered an entirely new phase.
...
High above Sokovia.
The floating city had already climbed to nearly two thousand meters.
Blue energy columns erupted continuously beneath its foundations.
Chunks of rock and earth broke away from the edges, falling toward the distant ground like an endless avalanche.
Ultron hovered above the city.
The Mind Stone radiated a steady golden brilliance.
Through the Stone's vast computational capacity and psionic network, he simultaneously directed every remaining drone across the battlefield.
Then...
He detected an approaching target.
A streak of blue.
Closing rapidly.
Kal-El.
Ultron's calculations completed instantly.
No physical response was necessary.
The Mind Stone had already defeated Superman twice.
He repeated the same solution.
Golden psychic energy erupted from the gem.
A concentrated psionic wave engulfed Clark.
Ultron expected the familiar sequence.
Neurological overload.
Loss of flight stability.
Collapse.
Instead...
Nothing happened.
Clark flew straight through the psychic beam.
His speed never dropped.
His eyes remained perfectly focused.
There was no pain.
No hesitation.
No loss of control.
Only the two crooked antennae atop his helmet swayed gently in the rushing wind.
Ultron's processors instantly recalculated.
Unknown variable detected.
Target equipped with an unidentified psionic shielding system.
Mind Stone interference...
Nullified.
There was no opportunity for further analysis.
Clark had already arrived.
His fist crashed squarely into Ultron's vibranium chest.
BOOM!
The impact generated a shockwave that rippled across the floating city.
Entire sections of fractured bedrock shattered.
Ruined buildings collapsed.
Steel beams twisted apart.
Ultron blasted backward.
He smashed through two abandoned apartment blocks before crashing into a reinforced concrete structure.
The building disintegrated.
Dust filled the sky.
Ultron slowly emerged from the debris.
A deep indentation now deformed the center of his vibranium torso.
For the first time...
His synthetic voice exhibited measurable fluctuation.
"...A shielding device."
"...Interesting."
Clark gave him no chance to continue.
Twin beams of heat vision erupted.
Unlike earlier attacks, Clark deliberately avoided trying to melt vibranium outright.
He targeted Ultron's shoulder joint.
The temperature rapidly increased.
Although vibranium's melting point remained far beyond Clark's thermal output, sustained heating generated significant internal lattice stress throughout the joint's crystalline structure.
Exactly as Superman intended.
The instant the heat ceased...
Clark accelerated again.
His second punch landed directly on the weakened shoulder assembly.
CRACK!
The sound echoed across the battlefield.
A visible fracture spread through the vibranium joint.
Ultron's left arm bent at an unnatural angle.
Even from kilometers away...
Everyone heard it.
The communication channel erupted.
Barry practically shouted.
"He cracked him!"
"He actually cracked Ultron!"
Tony remained silent for two seconds.
Then...
"What..."
"...is that helmet made of?"
No one answered.
Because everyone was watching Superman.
Clark had completely seized the initiative.
Every attack demonstrated remarkable precision.
Heat vision weakened critical stress points.
Physical strikes immediately followed before the crystal lattice recovered.
Exactly the sort of sequential attack pattern Superman often employed when facing opponents durable enough to survive his raw strength alone.
Less than two minutes later...
Ultron's body had become heavily damaged.
His left arm was nearly unusable.
His right leg twisted unnaturally.
His chest remained deeply caved inward.
Three major fractures spread across his back.
Yet...
Ultron did not fall.
His consciousness did not reside inside the vibranium shell.
It resided within the Mind Stone itself.
The body was merely a vessel.
Damaged vessels could always be repaired.
Or replaced.
Ultron abruptly stopped resisting.
He simply looked at Superman.
His battered metallic face displayed no fear.
"You cannot destroy me."
The yellow light intensified.
His body began changing.
Driven by the Mind Stone's reality-warping energy, the vibranium lattice entered an unstable quantum transition state.
Neither fully matter...
Nor fully energy.
Clark punched again.
His fist passed harmlessly through Ultron's body.
No impact.
No resistance.
Only empty air.
Clark immediately adjusted.
He struck again.
The result remained identical.
Ultron allowed the phase transition to end.
His body became solid once more.
The Mind Stone glowed coldly.
"Purely physical force cannot affect me while phased."
"Everything you possess..."
"...is merely another application of conventional physics."
Clark slowly lowered his fists.
He activated the communicator.
"My attacks can't reach him."
"He can phase through physical matter."
The communication channel fell silent.
For three long seconds...
No one had an answer.
...
Meanwhile...
Sokovia continued climbing.
Three thousand meters.
Then higher.
The roar from the anti-gravity engines faded beneath the thin mountain air.
Only the shrill howl of rushing wind remained.
Entire buildings collapsed near the city's perimeter as structural stress overwhelmed aging Soviet foundations.
Concrete.
Steel.
Glass.
Everything rained toward the Earth far below.
The countdown to global catastrophe continued.
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