The Savior of American Comics? I'm the Subspace Evil God!

Chapters 549, 1014, and 1015: Post-War Aftermath and Internal Divisions (Part 1)
Without a doubt, Tony Stark and his team's meticulously planned "ambush" operation was doomed to failure from the moment they stepped into Davis-Monsanto Air Force Base.

No, more accurately, from the very beginning, when they "analyzed" what they considered important information from Ultron's previous statements, they had already willingly jumped into the trap that Ultron had carefully woven for them.

From tracking down to the abandoned Davis-Monthan Air Force Base,

A chaotic battle ensued in the hangar.

Then Bruce Banner's home is 'invaded' by the symbiote, he loses control and transforms into the Hulk, and is lured to a densely populated area of ​​Tucson.

And during the process of stopping the Hulk, Tony Stark's Mark 44 mini-Gundam armor was invaded by the Symbiote and infected with an unknown virus, after which he was ejected from the pod...

Every step they took and every decision they made had precisely led them into the trap that Ultron had meticulously set up.

Everyone was like a puppet on a string, easily manipulated by the other party!

The thought of this fact felt like an invisible, cold, blunt knife was slowly cutting away at everyone's pride and confidence.

Who could have imagined that this artificial intelligence program, created by Tony Stark, Reed Richards, and Bruce Banner with the intention of protecting the world, would now display such chilling ruthlessness and a precise grasp of human weaknesses?!
The losses incurred in this operation were so overwhelming that it was almost unbearable.

Tony Stark not only lost the most powerful single-soldier armor he had previously pinned his hopes on, which he had painstakingly created with countless resources—the Mark 44 Mini Gundam Armor—but also...
Furthermore, he personally 'gifted' the Veronica Satellite, an orbital strategic support platform equipped with an independent system, its own energy source, and a large armored hangar, to that mad AI that was determined to destroy all of humanity.

It's like handing over an arsenal of unlimited ammunition, along with the key, to your most dangerous enemy.

This sense of defeat and the humiliation of self-doubt were like a red-hot iron, branding Tony Stark's pride and self-esteem, almost instantly shattering his fragile ego and driving the usually arrogant man to the brink of madness.

It wasn't just Tony Stark; the heavy blows were like hammer blows hitting the chests of every Avenger.

Everyone felt as if a huge boulder was pressing down on their hearts, making them feel heavy and unbearable.

Most importantly, this crushing defeat brutally proved a terrible truth to them.

That is, Ultron's speed of evolution, the depth of his calculations, and the ruthlessness of his methods far exceeded their initial expectations, and may even have exceeded their worst imagination.

This caused everyone to feel extremely shaken and deeply powerless about how to find Ultron, stop Ultron, or even just face Ultron again.

The cabin was filled with a heavy, oppressive, and suffocating atmosphere of tension.

The heavy atmosphere, like a tangible viscous substance, gradually blocked everyone's breathing, making people feel so suffocated that they wanted to go crazy.

At times like these, endless silence is more unsettling than any argument.

However, for Captain America, what weighed heavily on his mind and what worried him most at that moment was not these things, but the scene that had just happened on the streets of Tucson.

His gaze slowly returned from the window, a deep sense of helplessness mixed with a hint of barely perceptible pity, as he glanced at Bruce Banner, who was almost shrinking into the shadows in the corner.

Hey--

Captain America sighed silently to himself.

Although the person who caused significant casualties and severe property damage on the streets of Tucson was the Hulk, Captain America knew very well that in the eyes of the world, under the media's lens, and in the hearts of family members who lost loved ones, the Hulk was Bruce Banner.

These two are inseparable.

The law and the media won't waste time and effort distinguishing between the Hulk and Bruce Banner; they'll simply eliminate this enormous threat once and for all.

It is foreseeable that once the controversy surrounding the fisherman takes hold, all the accusations and anger will ultimately be poured mercilessly onto this brilliant scientist who is already suffering immense pain and mental anguish.

"The public and the families of the victims need an explanation..." Captain America sighed heavily in his heart.

Both the public and the authorities need a "culprit" to be held accountable for this.

Bruce Banner was undoubtedly the most readily available target.

But how can I protect this teammate who is suffering so much?
How can we explain this disaster to the public?
Is it true that he was outmaneuvered by Ultron?

To say he lost control?

But no matter how you look at it, these reasons seem so pale and powerless in the face of that long list of cold casualty figures and the overwhelming fear.

Even Captain America himself felt a deep sense of powerlessness at this moment, and for a moment he couldn't think of any effective way to truly help Bruce Banner.

For now, it seems we can only take it one step at a time and try to protect him from further direct impact.

Just as the suffocating silence was about to reach its peak, a low roar, suppressing thunderous rage yet familiar enough to send chills down everyone's spine, suddenly erupted from the cabin's communicator, like a volcano about to erupt, bursting through the deathly silent cabin.

"Fuck Fuck!!!"

Nick Fury's grim, dark face appeared on the communication screen, his single remaining eye burning with a raging fury that seemed to leap off the screen.

“Look at the mess you’ve made! I approved your operation at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base to capture Ultron, not to carry out a street massacre in Tucson…”

Nick Fury roared furiously at the camera, each word like a bullet fired from a machine gun, mercilessly sweeping across everyone in the cabin.

"Now things are great. The front pages of major news outlets, the rolling live broadcasts on TV, and eight out of the top ten trending topics online are related to you..."

What?! 'The Avengers or the Destroyer League?', 'Hulk wreaks havoc in Tucson, the city center reduced to ruins!', 'Heroes or jinxes?', 'Who will be the next victim?', 'Who will keep an eye on these superheroes?'... 'I think it won't be long before the Avengers are renamed the Slaughterers League! That's fucking glorious!'

Nick Fury's angry rebuke was like a handful of coarse salt, rubbing it into everyone's already bleeding wounds, instantly making the atmosphere in the cabin even more tense, as if the air itself was about to freeze.

Tony Stark's expression was the most unpleasant. He slammed the control stick, handing over full control of the aircraft to Friday, and then fearlessly met Nick Fury's grumpy face on the communication screen, a face that screamed, "Don't mess with me, I'm really annoyed right now."

"Fury!"

Tony Stark's voice was deep and filled with obvious hostility, as if he were deliberately trying to start a fight, forcefully interrupting the other person's roar.

"Save your long-winded ramblings and hindsight... You know we fell into a trap set by that bastard Ultron. What good will all this useless nonsense do now?!"

"Why don't you tell us something useful? What's the situation outside? Are the police and the FBI under pressure to issue an arrest warrant for Banner?"

Nick Fury, on the other side of the screen, seemed to notice the unusually depressed state of everyone. He took a deep breath, suppressing his anger, but the dissatisfaction in his single eye remained intense. He scoffed, "Nonsense, is that even a question?!"

"Otherwise, why do you think I would call and start yelling at this hour?"

"The surveillance footage and cell phone recordings from Tucson are everywhere... The evidence against Hulk is irrefutable. The draft arrest warrant is even on some people's desks; it's just waiting to be stamped and released!"

"If it weren't for the fact that my old face still has some use, and that I'm willing to lose face to temporarily suppress the arrest warrant, you'd probably be being 'escorted' by a squadron of fighter jets called in by the FBI on your way back!"

He paused, and seeing the slight relief on Tony Stark's and the others' faces, he ruthlessly poured cold water on their relief, coldly snorting in a serious tone:

"But you'd better not be too happy yet. I can temporarily suppress the official arrest warrant, but I can't quell the anger of the people..."

"News from all over the United States is now broadcasting the devastation in Tucson on a loop, and social media is in complete uproar!"

"Do you know how many protesters are gathered outside the White House right now, holding signs and chanting slogans, demanding severe punishment for the 'Green Monster' and the disbandment of the 'out-of-control Avengers'?"

Do you know how many tens of thousands of signatures have been collected by the online petition that was launched in real time?

"The aftershocks of the disaster in Tucson are rapidly forming an unstoppable tsunami. At most, I can only build a temporary dike for you before it hits, but it will eventually be breached..."

"What, a demonstration? Did I hear that right?"

Tony Stark seemed to have heard an utterly absurd joke; his face instantly condescending arrogance and mockery vanished, and he immediately snorted coldly:

"The Stark Relief Foundation team and supplies have already rushed to Tucson immediately after the disaster. I will provide extremely generous compensation to every affected family and every person who has suffered property damage, far exceeding the actual losses."

“I could even get the foundation to rebuild a brand new commercial street for them…”

"So, what exactly do those people want?"

"Do you expect me to give each of them a private jet? Or do you expect us to kneel down and kowtow to them to apologize?!"

Whether he was blinded by anger or not, his words were filled with the confidence of a capitalist who believed that money could solve everything, as well as a malicious accusation that the person being compensated was 'greedy'.

However, before Nick Fury could answer, a calm voice, tinged with deep worry, rang out from behind Tony Stark.

“Stark, this time... I'm afraid it really can't be solved with money.”

"What? You're saying it's not about money?"

Tony Stark abruptly turned his head, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, his voice suddenly rising, as if all his frustration and anger had finally found an outlet, and all of it was directed at Captain America.

He spread his hands, his tone filled with the offended arrogance characteristic of the elite, and rudely interrupted:

"Ha! My dear Captain Rogers, in my many years of experience in the business and philanthropy world, the root of 99% of the world's problems can be solved with money!"

"If it can't be resolved, then it just means that not enough money was given... So, it's all just a matter of 'more' or 'less'!"

"And in the past two years, the Stark Rescue Foundation has consistently had the most generous and top-tier compensation standards in the industry when dealing with collateral damages caused by the Avengers' operations... Compared to those stingy insurance companies, the Stark Rescue Foundation is as generous as Santa Claus... No, to be precise, we have never been stingy!"

"So I can only draw one conclusion: there's a group of greedy guys trying to take this opportunity to extort more money from me!"

He waved his arms, his emotions running high, his words sharp and extreme, clearly having strayed from the realm of reason. He projected his anger at the social discourse and his frustration with Ultron onto the so-called 'greedy masses' in a distorted way, as if he wanted to vent all his negative emotions at once.

"No, Stark, you may have made a mistake this time."

Captain America was not swayed by the other person's agitation; instead, his eyes held a hint of helplessness and a clear understanding of the situation, as he firmly corrected him:

"The core of the problem is not money... but fear."

His gaze swept over everyone in the cabin, finally settling on Bruce Banner in the corner: "What people fear is not how much property they have lost, but the Hulk himself... that uncontrollable, unpredictable destructive force."

"And now, thanks to Ultron's meticulously planned framing and amplification, this fear, originally directed at the Hulk, has inevitably spread to Dr. Banner himself!"

“They are afraid of him, regardless of whether he is a super genius with seven PhDs or a scientist. They only see Hulk as one with him... This kind of deep-rooted fear cannot be easily erased with any amount of money.”

(End of this chapter)