A dimensional strike: Iron Man's understanding shattered

The air in the underground explosion-proof room was as heavy as lead.

Tony Stark's prized "Anti-Magic Armor" was now groaning under its strain. This Dark Gold Mech, equipped with High-Frequency Energy Reverser and capable of withstanding Tactical Nuke, looked like a soda can being gripped tightly by an invisible giant hand under Wanda's Scarlet gaze.

"Warning. External gravity has surged to forty times the normal level on Earth. Minor cracks have appeared in the chest armor plate."

JARVIS's monotone electronic voice echoed inside the helmet. Tony gritted his teeth, tasting a faint metallic flavor of blood on his tongue. The anti-pressure gel inside the mech was being injected frantically, but he still felt the air being squeezed out of his lungs bit by bit.

"Pull the Anti-Gravity Thrusters to maximum! Cut off her energy field!" Tony roared, his eyes fixed on the Scarlet Witch in mid-air.

"Sir, the thrusters are fully loaded. But this energy... is rewriting the physical constants of reality. The countermeasures are ineffective."

The Arc Pulse Cannon in the palm of the armored mantle, which had been shining with a blinding blue light, flickered violently a few times like a candle in the wind before going out.

"This is impossible!" Tony's eye twitched. The pinnacle of technology couldn't even decipher a woman's rage?

"Tin Can, you've picked the wrong opponent."

A white blur swept past from the side. Gwen Stacy hung upside down on the broken steel bar, and with a flick of her wrist, "whoosh—" two strands of high-pressure Specialized Silk shot out precisely, instantly sealing the heat dissipation vents on the back of the armor and the leg joints.

Unable to dissipate the high temperature, the temperature indicator light inside the mech instantly turned red. The smell of burnt synthetic rubber mixed with the pungent odor of burning engine oil instantly filled the cramped basement.

Tony was completely immobilized. His prized Iron Man Armor couldn't even last three seconds against these two women.

"You just said..." Wanda slowly floated towards Tony, dark red Chaos Particles like venomous snakes coiling around the seams of his armor's neck. She tilted her head slightly, her tone soft yet filled with absolute killing intent, "You're going to knock him out and take him away?"

A piercing metallic crack echoed from the neck of the armor. The high-strength alloy was being forcibly twisted and torn apart by Chaos Magic. Tony's breathing became increasingly difficult, but he did not beg for mercy; he simply stared intently at the man on the hospital bed not far away.

S.H.I.E.L.D..'s intelligence is absolutely wrong. This isn't some "mind-controlled agent" at all; this is clearly a forbidden being fiercely protected by two world-destroying beasts!

Just as the armor's neck shield was about to be completely ripped open, and Tony's neck was about to be exposed to the Chaos Particles, in that split second...

"Ahem... That's enough, Wanda."

A very faint, even somewhat hoarse cough came from the hospital bed.

Lynn leaned against the pillows, his face as pale as paper, the bandage on his chest a stark, dark red. He seemed to lack even the strength to lift his hand, his deep eyes calmly fixed on the Witch in mid-air.

The word "Come back" was uttered without any magical fluctuation, and the volume wasn't even increased.

But a miracle happened.

Wanda, who was about to crush Iron Man like Deity of destruction just a second ago, suddenly froze. The Scarlet in her eyes faded instantly, and the violent Gravitational Field vanished without a trace like a burst bubble.

Without even glancing at Tony again, she landed directly beside the bed, like a child who had done something wrong, carefully wiping the blood from Lynn's lips with her fingertips, her voice filled with deep remorse. "I'm sorry, I disturbed your rest..."

"Bang!"

The Anti-Magic Armor, now free from the effects of gravity, crashed heavily to the ground, leaving Tony kneeling on one knee. He gasped for breath, his mask automatically popping open to reveal a face covered in cold sweat.

He stared at the starkly contrasting scene before him, and his mind went blank for a moment.

A terrifying Witch could dismantle Helicarrier with her bare hands and crush Special Alloy with her mere presence, suddenly turned into a docile sheep because of this man's cough?

"Mr. Stark," Lynn patted Wanda's hand, gesturing for her to step back. Then, he turned his gaze to Tony on the ground, a faint smile playing on his lips, "Your Anti-Magic Armor is ingeniously designed, but in the face of 'rules,' physical defense is a joke."

Tony propped himself up on his knees and ripped the charred Silk off his back. He stared at Lynn, the flippancy in his eyes completely gone, replaced by extreme wariness.

"Who exactly are you?" Tony asked in a deep voice. "Fury said you're a variable. But to me, you're more like a mastermind behind a woman."

"Who I am is unimportant." Lynn slightly adjusted his posture, the movement causing his wound to twitch and make him frown slightly. "What matters is that you've been used as a pawn. Tony Nick Fury sent you to arrest me simply to cover up the rotten truth within S.H.I.E.L.D.."

"Whether S.H.I.E.L.D. or not, I'll investigate myself," Tony sneered. "But what I'm seeing now is an extremely dangerous supernatural group entrenched in the Outskirts of New York."

"Oh? So you found your name, Tony Stark, in the Source Code of ' Project Insight '?" Lynn threw out his first card.

Tony's pupils constricted slightly.

"Did you find out that Hydra's half-century-old arms factory is hidden beneath the Triskelion of S.H.I.E.L.D..?" Lynn continued to press, his voice not loud, but every word was piercing.

Tony didn't refute it. Just hours earlier, three Helicarriers had been torn to shreds over Washington, D.C., and the scattered data intercepted by JARVIS did indeed point to Hydra.

"It seems you've already guessed some things." Lynn looked at Tony's expression and sighed softly. "You're a genius, Tony. But you're too arrogant, arrogant enough to think you can control everything. Unfortunately, in the eyes of true schemers, you're nothing more than a cash cow and an arsenal to be sacrificed at any time."

Lynn held up two fingers and tapped them on the tactical terminal on the bedside table.

"Bite."

A notification sounded on the Internal Communications channel of the Tony armor. An encrypted data packet had been forcibly transmitted to JARVIS's database.

"What is this?" Tony frowned.

"A gift." Lynn leaned back against the pillows, his gaze becoming extremely profound. "The surveillance footage from that Long Island highway on December 16, 1991. And the list of assassins brainwashed by Hydra, equipped with a metal left arm."

The moment those words were spoken, the temperature in the basement seemed to plummet to freezing.

Tony's breath hitched. December 16, 1991, was the day his parents, Howard Stark and Maria Stark, died in a car accident.

"JARVIS, open it." Tony's voice trembled slightly, a rare occurrence.

"Sir, the data packet has been decrypted."

A blurry black-and-white video began playing on Tony's retinal screen: a car veering off the road, a cold figure on a motorcycle, a metal arm smashing a car window, and the brutal scene of Howard being beaten to death.

Tony stared intently at the screen, his eyes instantly bloodshot. Every muscle in his body was taut to the limit, and the creaking of gears meshing echoed from inside his armor.

"Who...?" Tony jerked his head up, staring intently at Lynn, his voice hoarse like that of a wounded Beast, "Who is that bastard with the metal arm?!"

"The Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes. Hydra's ultimate weapon." Lynn dropped the final bombshell, "And he was also Captain America Steve Rogers' best friend. S.H.I.E.L.D.., or rather Hydra, kept him hidden in an ice coffin."

The information asymmetry, a dimensional Dimensionality-Reduction Strike, hit the mark perfectly.

Tony's arrogance was instantly shattered, replaced by overwhelming rage and the humiliation of betrayal. He finally understood that all these years of providing S.H.I.E.L.D.. with technology and funding had actually been handing a knife to his father's killer.

"Why are you giving me this?" Tony forced himself to calm down, but his trembling hands betrayed him.

"Because we need to cooperate," Lynn said calmly. "Hydra may be badly weakened, but a centipede doesn't die easily. Fury isn't exactly a saint either. You need revenge, and I... need a quiet environment to recover. Help me fend off the flies from S.H.I.E.L.D.. and the military, and I'll provide you with the coordinates of all Hydra's secret bases."

Tony fell silent. He looked at Lynn, then at Wanda and Gwen Stacy, who were watching him intently.

This man, with just a few words and a video, completely turned the situation around. He not only dispelled the man's hostility but even turned him into a shield.

"You're a monster, Lynn." Tony pulled his mask back, his voice regaining its cold, metallic tone. "I'll investigate these things. If the video is fake, I'll bring back the entire Iron Legion and blast you to smithereens."

The thrusters reignited, Anti-Magic Armor, with a heavy roar, shot into the sky through the hole in the ceiling and disappeared into the night.

Lynn only let out a long sigh of relief after Tony's radar signal completely disappeared.

The psychological warfare was won. Iron Man, for now, was in his grasp.

"Why did you let him go?" Gwen Stacy jumped down from the shadows, retracting her Silk, her tone tinged with displeasure. "He saw our location."

"He won't tell anyone," Lynn said with a smile, patting Gwen Stacy's head. "Right now, he hates S.H.I.E.L.D.. more than anyone else."

Wanda snorted and used Chaos Magic to seal the hole in the ceiling again, "Next time Tin Can flies in, I'll rip its heart out."

Lynn smiled helplessly, just about to say a few words of comfort.

Suddenly, a piercing alarm sounded from the system deep within his mind, making his temples throb.

[Beep--! Serious Warning!]

[Higher-Dimensional Space Folding detected! An abnormal disturbance in the Timeline detected!]

[An unknown Spiritual Entity is forcibly penetrating the system's shield, attempting to read the host's soul fluctuations!]

Lynn's smile froze instantly. His Top-tier Spider-Sense went into overdrive, alarming him wildly. The chilling feeling of being watched intently by an absolutely superior being sent shivers down his spine.

This is neither Hydra nor S.H.I.E.L.D..

The space in front of the hospital bed suddenly began to distort. Golden sparks flew out of thin air, rapidly spinning and expanding, outlining a circular portal exuding an ancient magical aura.

Behind the portal was a bald woman wearing a bright yellow Monk's Robe, with her hands behind her back.

She wore an eye-shaped pendant that emitted a ghostly green light around her neck. She didn't look at Wanda, who was on high alert, nor at Gwen Stacy, who was poised to strike.

Her gaze pierced through all defenses, locking onto Lynn on the bed.

"You should never have existed in this Timeline, Mr. Lynn." The Ancient One's voice was ethereal and vast, seemingly resounding from all directions simultaneously. "Your 'death' is tearing apart the foundations of the Multiverse."