Chapter 195 – Don't Forget to Pay the Bill
The battle was over.
From the moment the masked man appeared to the moment Ultron ceased functioning...
Less than three minutes had passed.
An enemy empowered by the Mind Stone, housed inside a vibranium body jointly engineered by Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne, and capable of overwhelming the combined forces of the Avengers and the Justice League...
Had been dismantled as effortlessly as if it were nothing more than a training dummy.
Tony hovered above the ruined streets.
His armor was scorched beyond recognition.
Several panels had been blown away, sparks still crackling from exposed circuitry. Numerous systems displayed red warning icons, and the arc reactor struggled to maintain stable output.
His mouth opened.
Then slowly closed again.
There was simply nothing left to say.
Not after everything he had witnessed.
Bruce stood several dozen meters away.
His Batsuit was torn almost beyond repair.
One shoulder plate had completely melted under Ultron's focused energy beam.
Dust mixed with blood across his face.
He looked toward Tony.
Tony looked back.
Neither spoke.
Months.
Billions of dollars.
Countless sleepless nights.
The finest scientific achievement either Wayne Enterprises or Stark Industries had ever produced.
It had survived...
Less than three minutes.
Bruce lowered his eyes.
His thoughts drifted unwillingly toward the Alpha-Zero Contingency.
Every simulation.
Every probability tree.
Every tactical branch.
Every weakness he had painstakingly identified.
The highest projected success rate against the masked man...
Thirty-three percent.
Now...
Even that figure felt absurdly optimistic.
Watching the battle with his own eyes had changed everything.
The masked man had not defeated Ultron through greater strength alone.
He had directly neutralized every fundamental advantage Ultron possessed.
The Mind Stone.
Quantum phasing.
Vibranium durability.
Network consciousness.
Every trump card had simply... stopped working.
Not countered.
Stopped.
Bruce had spent twenty years preparing for enemies stronger than himself.
For the first time...
He found himself facing an opponent who appeared to operate outside every framework he understood.
High above the battlefield...
The masked man examined the glowing Mind Stone resting in his palm.
The yellow gem pulsed steadily, no longer linked to Ultron's consciousness.
Then...
He looked down.
His gaze settled precisely upon Bruce Wayne.
Even from thousands of meters away, Bruce felt it.
Without speaking...
The masked man casually flicked his fingers.
The Mind Stone shot across the sky like a meteor.
Bruce instinctively raised one hand.
The gem landed perfectly in his armored palm.
Its warm golden radiance illuminated the black gauntlet.
Bruce looked down at it silently.
When he raised his head again...
The masked man was already leaving.
Golden sparks blossomed in the air.
A circular portal opened.
The black-robed figure stepped through without hesitation.
The portal closed.
Only scattered golden particles remained, drifting away on the high-altitude wind.
Silence covered the battlefield.
Nearly ten full seconds passed.
Finally...
Barry Allen broke it.
"...So..."
"It's over?"
Nobody answered.
No one had fully processed what they had just witnessed.
Ten kilometers away.
Field Clinic.
The medical pod's hatch opened.
Lynn emerged once more wearing his familiar white coat.
His gold-rimmed glasses were spotless.
His expression was as gentle and composed as ever.
The line of wounded personnel waiting outside immediately looked toward him.
Lynn smiled apologetically.
"Sorry for the delay."
"The next patient may come in."
The injured agents exchanged puzzled looks.
One of them checked his watch.
Only four or five minutes had passed.
"Doctor Lynn..."
the man asked while holding his bleeding arm.
"What were you doing just now?"
Lynn answered naturally.
"I went to the restroom."
"I drank too much tea."
No one questioned it.
He returned inside the medical pod.
Fresh gloves.
Sterile instruments.
Everything resumed exactly as before.
Then...
He activated a separate encrypted communication channel.
Only two recipients existed.
Tony Stark.
Bruce Wayne.
Lynn spoke calmly.
"The operation has concluded."
"I've already sent today's invoices to both of your encrypted email accounts."
"Each expense is itemized separately."
"Please arrange payment at your earliest convenience."
He paused briefly before continuing.
"Also, according to the contract we signed before the operation..."
"I'll require delivery of Ultron's remaining vibranium body, together with all associated design data, combat telemetry, and research records involving the Mind Stone interface."
"Thank you for your cooperation."
The channel fell silent.
Three seconds later...
Tony finally spoke.
"...You are officially the most expensive doctor on Earth."
Lynn smiled faintly.
"I'll accept that as professional recognition."
He disconnected the channel.
Then he turned toward the waiting patient.
"Let's look at your arm."
Meanwhile...
Above Sokovia...
The greatest danger had not yet ended.
Ultron was gone.
His drone army had collapsed.
But the city itself was still falling.
Although Steve Rogers' team had successfully disabled the anti-gravity engine, Sokovia had already been lifted several kilometers into the atmosphere.
Without continuous propulsion from the engine, gravity reclaimed the floating landmass.
Residual gravitational distortion from the damaged engine slowed the descent...
But it could not stop it.
A city-sized mass of bedrock, reinforced concrete, steel infrastructure, and thousands of buildings still weighed millions of tons.
If it struck the ground intact...
The resulting devastation would rival the impact of a major asteroid fragment.
Bruce recovered first.
He immediately switched frequencies.
"All units."
His exhausted voice echoed across the battlefield.
"The city is still descending."
"Estimated impact in fifteen minutes."
"Mission isn't over."
"Move."
Nick Fury immediately assumed operational command.
"Rogers."
"Lead Team Alpha."
"Clear every unstable structure near the perimeter."
"Superman."
"Thor."
"Reduce the mass."
"Break apart the largest sections before impact."
"Flash."
"Continue civilian evacuation."
"Everyone else..."
"Assist however you can."
After only two seconds...
Steve answered.
"Copy."
"Avengers—move!"
Clark shot forward.
He was still wearing Lynn's improvised anti-telepathy helmet.
The awkward vibranium helmet—with its unmistakably crooked antennae—looked completely out of place atop the iconic Kryptonian uniform.
Ordinarily...
Clark would have found it embarrassing.
Now...
He could not have cared less.
Without that helmet...
Ultron would never have been defeated.
He accelerated toward an enormous collapsing office tower.
One punch.
The structure exploded into hundreds of smaller fragments.
Nearby...
Thor swung Mjölnir.
Lightning erupted around the enchanted hammer.
Unlike ordinary electricity, Thor's lightning carried mystical properties tied to the Odinforce, allowing it to shatter massive sections of reinforced concrete while driving the fragments away from populated areas.
Tony joined them.
His armor was nearly finished.
Repulsor output had dropped below thirty percent.
Half his flight stabilizers no longer responded correctly.
Nevertheless...
He continued firing precise repulsor bursts, cutting massive concrete slabs into much smaller pieces that would lose far more energy to atmospheric drag before reaching the ground.
On the streets below...
Barry Allen became a streak of crimson lightning.
He raced between collapsing buildings faster than human eyes could follow.
Each trip carried another trapped civilian beyond the danger zone.
Even while running...
He found time to complain over the communications channel.
"You know..."
"If that masked guy can tear Ultron apart like a toy..."
"Why didn't he just solve this part too?"
Silence.
No one answered.
Inside his damaged helmet...
Tony grimaced.
Because he knew the answer.
Could Lynn solve it?
Almost certainly.
Would Lynn do it?
Of course.
After sending an invoice.
Tony remembered the contract Bruce had signed.
Unlimited intervention fees.
The number alone made his stomach hurt almost as much as his surgical wound.
"No."
Tony muttered to himself.
"We're handling this one."
He increased repulsor output despite multiple overheating warnings.
The emergency operation continued for nearly forty minutes.
Superman and Thor systematically shattered the largest masses of bedrock suspended beneath the city.
Steve directed rescue teams with characteristic precision, ensuring unstable buildings were dismantled before they could collapse onto evacuation routes.
Barry evacuated the final civilians from the impact zone.
Despite everyone's efforts...
Not every loss could be prevented.
Countless buildings were destroyed.
Entire districts became uninhabitable.
Factories, roads, bridges, and decades of infrastructure vanished beneath mountains of shattered concrete.
Sokovia had been saved from extinction...
But it had not escaped tragedy.
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