Chapter 257: Extremis
Chapter 257: Extremis
Chapter 257: Extremis
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Taking the elevator a few floors down, Peter escorted Steve through the halls and security checkpoints before arriving in a spacious laboratory, filled with all sorts of healthy-looking plants.
"Maya, are you here?" Peter called out and moments later a beautiful woman in a lab coat peeked her head out of an office door.
Maya Hansen.
"Is there a problem?" Maya asks as no one but Tony visits her lab.
Speaking of...
Just as Peter was about to speak, the doors behind him swung open and Tony came strolling in
"Hey, I came to check-" Tony froze when he found Peter and Steve in front of him. "What are you two doing here?"
"Good timing." Peter says as he walks over to a nearby table and plugs in a flash drive. "Gather around."
Tapping the table a few times, everyone watched as a projection of a brain appeared in the air.
"What happened to the Limbic System?" Maya noticed the damage immediately.
"It's fried?" Tony commented with a frown.
"This is Bucky's brain." Peter reveals as Tony's frown deepens. "I cracked open the data I stole from Zola and learned what they did to make him like that."
"Who's Bucky?" Maya asks in confusion.
"That's not important right now." Peter says as Tony speaks up.
"They cooked his brain, huh?" He asked.
"Yes, probably beyond repair." Peter says as Maya nods in agreement.
Steve frowned at Peter and Tony's poor choice of words.
"Is this person even alive?" She asks curiously and receives a nod from Peter.
Tapping the table a few times, everyone watched as the live cameras from Bucky's cell appeared.
"That's him." Peter says.
"It's a miracle that he's not a vegetable..." Maya comments as she watches Bucky pace back and forth in his cell.
Captain America's fists tighten at the way they're talking about his best friend.
"Can you heal him?" Peter asks.
After dealing with the whole Extremis situation, Maya was hired as a scientist for the Avengers.
Ever since then, she and Tony have been working on Extremis together, as she wanted all those years ago.
Of course, Pepper wasn't so happy in the beginning, as Maya and Tony had sexual relations in the past, but she soon got over her possessive feelings.
Especially since Maya started dating a certain man, though that's not important right now.
"Maybe..." Maya answers unsurely as she hits a few buttons on the table.
Instantly, a video of an armless monkey projected into the air.
"This is Bubbles." She says as she gestures to the holographic video. "He lost his arm in the local zoo when a tiger escaped into the chimpanzee habitat. Watch..."
Bubbles was strapped down to a table and seemed to be heavily sedated.
Suddenly, a pair of arms appeared in the frame, holding a syringe with a golden honey-like liquid inside.
Screwing the needless syringe into an IV, which was already connected to the monkey's bloodstream, a short countdown was heard before the plunger was pushed in, injecting the golden fluid into the monkey.
"Eek! Eek! Ohhhhh!" Instantly, Bubbles was woken from his sedation and screamed in excruciating pain.
Its body seemed to glow in a red hue for a moment before something miraculous happened.
The stub on its left shoulder that used to be a hairy arm began to morph and grow at an extremely rapid pace.
Within seconds, the monkeys missing arm was grown back and the red hue on its skin simmered down until it completely disappeared.
"Wow..." Steve muttered in awe.
Although the arm was currently hairless, which didn't match the rest of the monkey's body, it was back and looked better than ever.
"Is Bubbles still alive?" Peter asks as he knew the usual end of those who are given Extremis.
"Follow me." Maya says as she leads everyone to an empty room, where a one-way mirror showed a small makeshift habitat for a monkey.
Inside this habitat, Peter could see Bubbles with both of his arms, playing on a tire swing that was attached to a fake tree.
"We've run every test and found nothing wrong with him." Maya says with a proud look on her face. "It's completely stable-"
As she said this, Bubbles suddenly let out a loud burp, though that wasn't the only thing he let out.
A long stream of golden fire shot out of his mouth, shocking everyone in attendance.
"-though we haven't been able to remove the fire powers yet." Maya admits as she planned to make a form of Extremis that only heals, leaving out the superpowers so that the general public could make use of its miraculous healing properties.
"Have you tested it on humans?" Steve asks hopefully. "Because Bucky isn't a monkey."
"..." The look on Maya's face said it all.
They haven't started human trials yet...
"No, but Chimpanzees are our closest relatives in the animal kingdom." Peter says as he turns to Maya and Tony.
"What are the odds of it working on Bucky without a problem?" Peter asks, as they knew more about Extremis than him, though he would look into their research soon enough. 'Fire powers and regeneration would be useful...'
Looking at one another, Tony and Maya communicate with their eyes.
"85%" Maya revealed after a moment of thought.
"That's not good enough." Steve instantly disagreed. "I just got Bucky back and I won't risk his life as a lab rat."
"Steve, 85% is really good." Peter tries to reason with him. "It's better odds than a lot of major surgeries out there."
"..." Steve turned silent and contemplative at Peter's words. "What if someone else tests it first? Would the odds go up then?"
"Yes, but you would be risking your life for no reason." Tony answers with a frown.
'True, but he also gets more superpowers out of it so the pros and cons even out...' Peter thought as he looked at Steve seriously. "Are you sure that you want to do this? You just reunited with Peggy. She would be heartbroken if you were to leave her so soon."
"85% is good odds, right?" Steve throws Peter's words back in his face. "Besides, I can't let Bucky get an edge over me. It wouldn't be right."
Peter couldn't help but chuckle.
"Alright, Maya prep the lab." Peter nods and turns to Maya.
"We're doing it now?" She asks in confusion.
"Yup." Peter says as he turns back to Steve. "Go and talk to Peggy. We'll be ready in an hour."
"Make it two!" Maya yelled as she rushed off to set everything up.
"You heard the lady." Peter says as Steve nods and runs off as well.
"So, we're going to give the trained super assassin that killed my parent's fire powers?" Tony asks sarcastically.
"Yeah, pretty much." Peter responds dumbly.
"Great..." Tony sighs as he follows after Maya to help with the prep work.
-Two Hours Later-
After setting everything up, Steve and Peggy came walking into the lab together, right on time.
"If he dies, there will be hell to pay." Peggy whispers as she passes Peter with a serious yet worried look on her face.
"Is everything ready?" Steve asks as he stood in front of a large padded table, which was covered in all sorts of straps.
"Yeah, take your clothes off and hop on." Maya says and Steve starts pulling his shirt off.
Just as he got to his boxer briefs, Maya spoke up in a hurry.
"That's enough. You can keep your underwear on." She says with a light blush on her cheeks while receiving an evil glare from Peggy.
After all, Steve has the perfect human body, thanks to the Super Soldier Serum, so any woman would feel... attracted.
"Ahem..." Peggy clears her throat. "You won't find my boyfriend's eyes down there."
"S-Sorry..." Maya turns away as Tony laughed at her plight.
"...get on the table." Tony says as he held back his laughter.
"..." Silently doing as he's told, Steve lays on the table, which instantly came to life and strapped him down tightly.
"Comfy?" Tony asks.
"Not at all." Steve admits.
"Good." Tony says as he opens a nearby lab fridge and pulls out a syringe filled with a familiar golden liquid.
"Hold still please." Maya says as she expertly puts an IV into Steve's left arm, and turns to Tony. "Ready when you are."
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Peter asks before Tony could connect the syringe to the IV.
"Do it." Steve answers resolutely.
"Sadly, sedation doesn't work when it comes to this, so you'll have to stay conscious throughout the whole process." Tony explains as he screws the needless syringe into the IV.
"Hit me with your best shot." Steve says, eliciting a smile from Tony.
"Someone's been catching up on their music." Tony says as he presses the plunger, injecting the golden liquid into Steve's arm.
"!" Before Steve could utter another word, he felt a searing pain run up his arm and spread throughout the rest of his body at a rapid pace. "Uggghhh!"
Within seconds, Steve's skin began to glow red, as if he were a cartoon character that ate a very spicy pepper.
"Is that normal?" Peggy asks in worry as she rushes to Steve's side.
"Yes, it should be over soon..." Maya explained as she and Tony nervously watched their work in action.
"Aaahhhhh!" Steve yelled in pain, shooting a long stream of fire from his mouth, as his skin sizzled and smoked with heat.
"..." Everyone watched in silence, hoping for success.
After all, the monkey didn't shoot fire out of its mouth in the video.
...
Almost a minute later, Steve's screams settled down and the redness on his skin slowly faded.
"Ow!" Peggy yelped as she grasped his hand, feeling just how hot he really was. "This will go away, right?"
"Yes." Maya replied as she and Tony started using the many machines in the lab to scan Steve's body.
"D-Did it work..." Steve asks as he groggily tries to stand up, straining against his bindings.
"Yes, but stay on the table!" Maya shouts as she heard the metal restraints groan from Steve's strength.
Steve didn't listening and continued to try and stand, though thankfully Peggy was there to help.
"Steve. Steve, look at me!" She gets his attention by grasping his head and burning her hands in the process. "You need to relax, okay..."
As Peggy was doing her work, Maya and Tony ran every scan they could, looking for the slightest red flag.
Thankfully, they found none.
Once Steve's body cooled down, they took multiple samples, such as blood, flesh, hair, and saliva.
Peggy watched in awe as Steve healed instantly after the blood and flesh were taken.
"Amazing..." She muttered.
"How is it?" Peter asks as Tony and Maya look over the data from the samples.
"It worked..." Maya says proudly as she collapses into her chair with a relieved sigh.
"Of course, it worked." Tony says with his trademark smirk.
"Good." Steve speaks up as he lifts his head to look Peter in the eyes. "Because it's Bucky's turn now."
A/N: 1865 words
?Hand over the?STONES?and I'll give you this Chocolate Chip Cookie?Wow, what a great deal??
?DONT FORGET MY STONES!?