Klaue and his men fled in panic, the chaotic gunfire in the cabin completely fading away, leaving only the deafening sounds of clashing metal and booming energy cannons echoing repeatedly inside the abandoned ferry. Lynn remained leaning against the cold alloy bulkhead at the back, his hands casually in his pockets, calmly observing the carnage without any intention of intervening.
The strange thing is that all the mechanical guards that obeyed Ultron's orders seemed to have received a special avoidance program in advance. Even when passing by Lynn, they would deliberately turn their bodies around, completely ignoring him as a living person, and rush towards Steve, Thor, Tony and others in unison, as if Lynn was an invisible person who did not exist on this battlefield.
Without a doubt, this must be an order secretly issued by Ultron. It was wary of the immeasurable power in Lynn and did not want to needlessly divide its forces to fight him. It only wanted to concentrate all its mechanical firepower to restrain the others.
Just as everyone was being relentlessly entangled by the endless stream of mechanical clones and unable to break free, a continuous, low hum came from outside the ferry, and the heavy roar of the engine grew louder as it approached.
On the sea surface, countless black dots could be seen, representing a continuous stream of reinforcements being sent to the abandoned ferry. These were all reserve troops remotely controlled and dispatched by Ultron.
The situation worsened.
Ultron abandoned fighting the others and focused his attack solely on Tony.
After several intense battles, Ultron gradually came to terms with reality.
Its advantage does not lie in pure physical strength. In close combat and energy output, it can at best hold its own against Tony in a one-on-one fight.
Once the other Avengers are free to surround him, he will be completely Extremis. A clear desire to retreat is growing in his heart; he cannot stay here any longer.
Without making a sound, it secretly issued two encrypted commands: a team of mechanical engineers circled around to the outside of the ferry's warehouse, activated the high-temperature cutting device to break through the ship's hull layer, and transferred all the Vibranium raw materials in the warehouse to the sea transport aircraft in batches; the remaining large number of reinforcement mechanical legions all went forward to entangle all the Avengers, buying enough time for the Vibranium transfer.
The command was given silently, and the mechanical legion's offensive suddenly became even more ferocious, holding everyone back and giving no one a chance to escape.
Within minutes, all the Vibranium in the warehouse had been transferred. Ultron seized a brief opening in Tony's attack, gathered a high-intensity energy beam in his palm, and slammed it head-on into the reactor area of Tony's armor.
The immense impact sent Tony flying backward, crashing heavily into a heavy alloy shelf. His armor dented and deformed, and his vision was instantly obscured by the billowing dust.
Taking advantage of the smoke and dust obscuring everyone's vision, Ultron ceased fighting, leaving most of his mechanical army to cover the rear and block the pursuers. He then leaped out of the broken porthole and quickly withdrew from the battlefield, perfectly executing a classic escape.
At this moment, everyone in the arena was tightly bound by the mechanical legion, each engaged in a fierce battle, unable to break free and pursue in the short term. Just as everyone was struggling to deal with the endless mechanical clones and unable to break through, a clear and calm voice pierced through the roaring arena and slowly drifted into everyone's ears. It was Lynn, who had been watching from the wall.
"Wait a minute, Tony, where's your entire suit of armor? Even Ultron knows how to remotely call in a large number of external reinforcements, so why isn't your army of various combat armors making any move? I remember there were at least forty different combat models stored in the Stark Tower's display case, why haven't you sent a single one over to help?"
No sooner had he finished speaking than Tony, who had just destroyed a mechanical robot in front of him, was enraged by this comment. He grabbed the deformed half of the mechanical wreckage and hurled it directly at Lynn's face, roaring amidst the static of his armor's operation, filled with frustration and irritation.
"I can understand if you don't want to join the fight, but could you please shut up and just watch quietly?"
"You think I don't want to call upon the Armored Legion? Ultron has already infiltrated the global network. JARVIS is now just fragmented data pieces, and it has complete control over online network access!"
"How do I remotely access my Warframe? Tell me how. Even if I do manage to access it, it will just turn into Ultron's reinforcements?"
"You're still standing there making sarcastic remarks. Tell me, isn't it stupid of you to ask such a question?"
Lynn raised his hand and lightly waved a thin magical barrier, steadily blocking the flying mechanical debris. The metal fragments landed with a loud thud. He stood there, stunned, looking at Tony's furious eyes beneath the armor mask. After a moment of silence, his tone softened, tinged with apology.
He glanced at the disheveled appearance of everyone on the field, his tone tinged with genuine pity, "It's just that seeing the constant stream of reinforcements coming from the other side, and you all struggling so much, I really feel sorry for you. Look at the captain, his face is covered in bruises from the robotic arm, he looks like a black eye, it really breaks my heart to see you all like this."
Natasha, who was dodging enemy fire during a lull in the fighting, turned her head upon hearing the sound and swiftly severed the core circuitry of a robot. She then turned back to look at Lynn, her tone blunt.
"If you feel sorry for them, then step forward and help. Your abilities do have some vulnerabilities, but no one is stopping you from using magic to assist. Even if you only hinder them a little, it will relieve a lot of pressure for us."
A single sentence jolted Lynn awake. He blinked blankly, looking belatedly dazed, and muttered, "Huh? Magic... Right, I still have magic to use."
Before he finished speaking, he lightly raised his palms, and two long, flowing magical energy whips, shimmering with a faint golden light, materialized out of thin air.
The energy whips were incredibly resilient, carrying a binding and restraining power. Lynn raised his hand and swung them, and the two long whips, like agile snakes, rushed into the chaotic battle, precisely entangling a large number of mechanical robots, firmly restricting their movements and greatly reducing the pressure on everyone in the battle.
With the loss of a steady stream of reinforcements and supplies, coupled with the magic whip's ability to severely restrict the mechanical clones, the battlefield situation instantly reversed.
Tony concentrated his firepower to destroy the last surviving robot in front of him, panting heavily as he looked around, preparing to search for his next target. However, as his gaze swept across the ship's hold, which was filled with mechanical debris, broken shelves, and scattered ore, he could no longer see a single fully functional mechanical guard.
As the smoke and dust gradually dissipated with the wind, a huge, irregular hole was cut open in the ship's hull outside the warehouse by the high temperature. Cold wind, carrying a salty sea breeze, poured into the cabin through the hole. The sealed safe on the ground that originally stored Vibranium was empty, with only scattered ore fragments remaining.
Tony rushed to the warehouse door, looked at the empty storage area, and then at the huge cut-out outside. A surge of anger and frustration welled up inside him. He spread his wings and flew to Lynn, raised his hand and lifted the visor of his armor. His brows furrowed deeply, and his tone was full of seriousness and annoyance.
"Why didn't you stop him? Ultron just ran away, taking a huge amount of Vibranium with him. Now the trouble is endless!"
The rest of the group also finished off their opponents, covered in dust and metal shavings, and gradually gathered at the warehouse entrance. After hearing Tony's words, a deep sense of regret appeared on everyone's faces. Vibranium had fallen into Ultron's hands, and it was highly likely that it would be used to forge an indestructible, perfect mechanical body, which would exponentially increase the difficulty of everyone's combat.
Seeing the somber and dejected expressions on everyone's faces, Lynn slowly smiled calmly, showing no sign of worry, and calmly reassured everyone's tense emotions.
"My computing power may not be enough to fight alongside you throughout the entire battle, but I can certainly do the simple task of recording and locking information about matter molecules. You don't need to worry too much."
"From the moment I stepped into this place, I began scanning, fully reading all the information about this batch of Vibranium, and marking it."
"Whether Ultron uses this Vibranium to forge a new body or to create lethal weapons, as long as it dares to produce these Vibranium artifacts, I can remotely modify the recorded information, turning the rare metal it painstakingly acquired into a pile of useless scrap metal."
He shrugged slightly, his tone relaxed and confident. "Don't worry, as long as he dares to show up, I can guarantee things won't go awry."
Upon hearing this, everyone's tense nerves relaxed slightly. Looking at Lynn's calm and composed expression, they all shook their heads helplessly, finally feeling relieved.
Natasha walked slowly forward and gently wrapped her arms around Lynn's waist from behind without any hesitation. Her cheek pressed lightly against his back, and the fatigue brought on by the days of fighting and illusions dissipated at this moment.
Tony glanced at everyone's disheveled and battered appearance, Steve's clearly visible bruises, Thor's oil-stained face, Banner's exhausted look after losing his Hulk form, and then looked at the mess of debris scattered all over the cabin, before taking the initiative to make a suggestion.
"Let's return to the SSC command center to rest and recuperate. Our wounds and equipment need to be checked. Since Lynn has already locked onto all the Vibranium, the situation is still under our control."
A hint of playful anticipation flashed in his eyes, his tone tinged with a vengeful lightness. "I'm actually particularly looking forward to what happens next. I want to see with my own eyes what kind of expression will appear on Ultron's mechanical face when all the Vibranium that Ultron spent so much money to acquire is turned into a pile of junk."
After gathering their damaged equipment, the group boarded Quinjet and left the abandoned ferry, flying back to the SSC command headquarters in New York. The cabin was quiet; everyone was covered in dust and had minor cuts and bruises. Upon landing, agents immediately provided first-aid supplies, clean clothes, and simple meals. The group dispersed to the lounge for quick washing and treatment of their injuries.
Lynn and Natasha exchanged a few words in hushed tones before Lynn walked alone through the corridor into the brightly lit research lab. The room was filled with sophisticated instruments and floating data screens. Tony's attention was completely focused on the holographic display of the 3D armor model, and he didn't even notice someone approaching.
Lynn walked to the side of the control panel and stopped, waiting quietly for a moment before interrupting Tony's focused adjustments. "I completely forgot to ask you before, where is Loki's scepter now?"
Tony paused, halting his modeling modifications, and abruptly turned to Lynn beside him, a hint of amusement in his eyes. "You only just remembered to ask about this now? After the Battle of New York, the scepter was initially collected and kept by S.H.I.E.L.D.., but after several twists and turns, it was stolen several times and its storage location was moved back and forth many times."
He pointed to the ground beneath his feet, his tone certain. "The scepter is currently securely locked in a top-grade explosion-proof safe forty meters underground at the SSC base. It's protected by multiple layers of alloy and features a multi-layered encryption lock with multiple verifications. It's impossible to access by ordinary means. By the way, why are you suddenly asking about the scepter?"
Lynn lowered his eyes in thought, his tone serious as he frankly expressed his concerns. " Ultron determined to create a flawless, perfect body. Vibranium alone can only solve the physical problem; it will never be satisfied with that. If it knows about the existence of the gems, it will definitely try every means to steal them."
He leaned forward slightly, pressing for crucial information. "When you were researching the scepter and dissecting the gemstones, did the server retain complete archives of the relevant data?"
Tony shook his head slightly upon hearing this, and pulled up an encrypted log document for Lynn to see. "I took your advice and only kept a backup of the basic energy architecture theory, without storing the complete related materials. The complete experimental records and analysis records are all sealed in the underground safe along with the scepter itself."
" Ultron only accessed Stark's external network servers. It had no permission to penetrate the deeply encrypted internal archives. As expected, it was completely unaware of the Mind Stone's details, let alone that the scepter was located in the basement of our building."
After hearing these words, Lynn breathed a long sigh of relief, a weight lifted from his heart.
"That's good. It's a major threat that has been averted, and this base can still be held."
He paused, then stated his plan, glancing towards the laboratory door where he could vaguely see Thor resting in the outer hall. "I intend to ask Thor to accompany me on a trip to Asgard."
Tony raised an eyebrow, stopped what he was doing, and listened attentively to what he had to say.
"I only had time to scan the Mind Stone on Loki's Scepter and extract the complete energy imprint. I planned to analyze the Space Stone on the Tesseract later, but before I woke up from my coma, Thor had already taken the stone back to Asgard."
" Thor is currently on Earth. Ultron just acquired Vibranium and should be working on a new body. There's no immediate crisis at the moment."
"I plan to contact Thor now and head to Asgard immediately to scan the Space Stone."
Tony listened in silence for a moment, then tapped the screen to save the armor modification plan. His expression turned serious. "I can't be sure if Ultron knows about the scepter. I'll double the guard and reinforce the underground safe. Come back immediately after you achieve your goal. You might be the only one who can stop Ultron's robot army."
Lynn smiled and shook his head. " Wanda is stronger than you think. I was the one who told her to hold back this time. Otherwise, you might not even have had a chance to make a move."
"To be honest, if we were both at our peak, it's hard to say who would win if Wanda and I fought. Don't worry, even if I don't come back, things are still under control."
"I'll make things clear to Wanda beforehand."
After Lynn finished speaking, he turned and walked out of the research and development room, preparing to go to Thor to discuss the trip to Asgard, leaving Tony alone in the laboratory to continue repairing the armor model.