Apocalypse stood up. His face was scorched. Actually damaged. The Starktonium blast had hurt him.
"You continue to surprise me." His voice carried grudging respect. "Even now. Even broken. You fight like a god."
Tony forced himself to stand. Used his working arm to support his weight. "Not a god. Just a man who refuses to quit."
"A man?" Apocalypse laughed. "You stopped being just a man the moment you became evolved. You are evolution incarnate. Whether you admit it or not."
'Two seconds. Convergence imminent. Time to end this.'
Tony reached to his chest with his working hand. Pulled out the Mind Echo core. The yellow crystal pulsed with power.
His last trump card. The final piece of the plan.
Apocalypse saw it. His eyes widened. "Another one? You had two?"
Tony smiled through the blood. Don't worry, this is the last one."
He crushed the Mind Echo in his palm.
Crack!
Yellow energy exploded outward. Not an attack. A disruption field. The Mind Stone's signature washed over everything within two hundred meters.
Every piece of technology glitched. Every electronic system stuttered. Every computer crashed and rebooted.
And Apocalypse's Celestial enhancements were technology. Alien. Advanced. But still technology.
His eyes went wide. System errors cascaded through his body. The programming that gave him god-tier power failed. Stuttered. Crashed.
"What have you done?" His voice distorted. Multiple tones overlapping. His systems trying to reboot.
"Leveled the playing field." Tony's voice was steady despite the pain. "And bought the time I needed."
Across Cairo, four separate events occurred simultaneously. Synchronized to the microsecond.
The quantum resonators reached 100% capacity. Fifty devices all pulsing in perfect harmony. The feedback loop they'd been building activated. Targeted the Ascension Device's exact frequency.
The energy collection array completed its charge. Massive amounts of power from rewired conduits all flowed in one direction. Straight into the Ascension Device's core systems.
Doctor Strange completed the dimensional severance ritual. 127 mystic bolts fired simultaneously. Each one targeting a different dimensional anchor. Severing the connections one by one.
The telepathic network peaked. 127 heroes' minds all connected through Cyclops' coordination. M.A.R.V.E.L.'s quantum processors used that distributed computing power. Calculated the perfect moment. Sent the signal.
Everything triggered at once.
The Ascension Device screamed. The massive machine's energy flow reversed violently. Instead of spreading corruption outward, it began pulling energy inward.
Specifically, it pulled from Apocalypse.
The ancient mutant staggered. "No. This isn't possible. How did you..."
Tony stood straighter despite his injuries. "I planned for this. Every mission I assigned. Every order I gave. They all built toward this moment."
The resonators created a feedback loop that amplified the Ascension Device's reversal. The power array fed it energy to sustain the drain.
The dimensional severance trapped Apocalypse in normal space so he couldn't draw replacement power. And the telepathic network coordinated everything with perfect timing.
Apocalypse's Celestial armor began to crack. Energy leaked from the fissures. His power was being drained faster than he could compensate.
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