(MCU) Forged Reality: Chapter 3 - Extreme Measurements

Chapter 3 - Extreme Measurements

Summary: The extreme measure is debated, and the results will change a lot of things.

Wanda, curious like everyone else, looked into the opened suitcase to see inside a single vial with some dense red liquid inside.

Hawkeye was the one to voice what probably all of them were thinking. "Umm sir, what exactly is that and how do you expect it to help Tony?"

Fury pulled out the vial from the case and held it tightly in his fist and said blankly, "Extremis."

The man in the other Iron Man suit stepped closer to Fury and snapped at him, "Are you out of your mind, Fury?! Where did you even get this?"

Before Fury could reply, Banner spoke in a calm and reassuring voice, "Rhodey, this isn't just Extremis as you know it; this is version 3. Tony extracted a sample from Pepper's blood so he could fix it. I helped him and we did, but Tony decided to take it one step further."

Thor was now seemingly interested as well and he asked, "What do you mean, Friend Bruce?"

Bruce nodded toward the vial. "Tony and I saw the potential of Extremis. Version 2 could heal wounds without the explosive result, but we worked harder, and version 3 will bring someone from the brink of death to top shape, without any overheating and so on. Right now, this is the only thing that can save Tony's life."

Thor's voice boomed inside the room. "Then we shall proceed with haste!"

"Wait a minute, Thor." Rogers's voice stopped everyone. He then turned his attention to Fury and asked calmly, "Is there more of this... stuff?"

Banner shook his head slowly. "No. We worked with everything we could get out of Pepper's blood, but since the fall of SHIELD, Tony didn't have enough time to reverse engineer it."

There was a short moment of silence before the Widow spoke emotionlessly, "We can't use it on Stark; we need to keep it in case of emergency."

Fury's eye snapped toward the redhead, as well as Thor's and Rhodey's. But it was Hawkeye that asked in a voice full of shock, "What the hell are you talking about, Nat? Tony will die without it; I call that an emergency."

Rogers didn't even bat an eye at the argument and responded in the same calm tone as before, "We have to consider the purpose of this chemical for the greater good."

Fury's eye narrowed at the captain, and he growled out, "This cure is meant to save a fallen Avenger."

The Widow's response was smooth and blunt. "Stark is not an Avenger; he is a consultant."

That shocked everyone in the room, Wanda included. Did she like Stark? Of course not, but by what she saw, the man was more of a leader than Rogers.

It was Stark that was willing to sacrifice something he cared a lot about for a chance to defeat Ultron. It was Stark that first came up with the plan to counter Ultron in a major way, by stopping him from accessing any nuclear codes. It was Stark that was first to face Ultron on that ship, and it was Stark that suggested the plan to save the people under Sokovia.

All the while, Rogers just kept punching and strong-arming his way through any issue showing up with little regard to consequences. She saw a lot of people of this type in Hydra and could now easily spot them.

Banner let out a dark chuckle, and Wanda could feel the rage bubbling under his skin as he answered, "Neither am I, Romanoff. I never wanted a part of this group, and I stand behind it. But it does explain why you were so quick to push me to my death."

That made everyone pause again. Romanoff faked a hurt look on her face and said in a soft voice with what seemed like a seductive undertone, "We needed the Hulk, Bruce. You have to understand without him we..."

"Bullshit." Banner cut her off with a growl.

Romanoff blinked twice and asked hesitantly, "Bruce?"

Banner glared at her. "Don't give me any of your lies, Romanoff. As far as I know, the Hulk comes out because of my anger, not fear. So, pushing me off that cliff was a very risky bet on your side; according to the information you had, it was more likely I would have fallen to my death than the Hulk reacting to my fear."

Romanoff looked like a kicked puppy, and Rogers was quick to come to her defense. "Bruce, you can't talk to Nat that way; she cares about you and knows you. She did what she had to do. You have to forgive her and be nice."

Banner scoffed, and Hawkeye came to his side. "I have to agree with the doctor, Cap. Nat didn't exactly work with logic on this one."

All this time, Wanda and Pietro stayed out of the conversation; after all, it's not like they have real stakes or know anything about the situation. Also considering that since they met the Avengers, both of them did nothing but spit on Stark's name, she would guess their opinion mattered very little.

That was the reason she was so surprised when her brother's voice cut off the argument that was about to break between the supposed team. "Hey, there is someone dying, so start injecting or I will do it myself before any of you can blink."

Wanda turned to look at Pietro with wide eyes. He was going to save Stark's life? Sure, maybe he wasn't as bad as they thought he was, but he was still a monster, the same one that took their family away. She wasn't about to go there and kill him or anything, but going out of her way to help save him wasn't in her plans either.

Fury gave a short nod and ignored the objections of Rogers and Romanoff as he followed Agent Parker into the operation room.

When Rogers tried to follow him in, she wasn't sure for what reason, Thor stood in his way, blocking it. When the American idol tried to push his way through, the god of thunder only shoved him slightly back, but with his strength, it was enough to cause Rogers to stumble back into his seat.

Thor remained in his place, blocking the entrance to the room while uncomfortable silence filled the room.

It was about ten minutes or so later when Fury stepped out of the room, but even then, he didn't say a word.

Banner seemed to be the most impatient of them all and asked, not toward Fury but toward his phone, "Friday, what is Tony's status?"

A calm and slightly relieved Irish voice came out of the phone's speakers immediately. "Extremis 3.0 has been injected into Boss's system seven minutes ago. The drug was infused with his system four minutes ago. Boss's body has begun to repair itself with the aid of the Extremis. As of right now, he is no longer in fatal danger; full recovery anticipated in ten to thirteen minutes."

Banner let out a deep sigh before asking gently, "Has the infusion gone smoothly?"

This time there was a moment of silence before the Irish voice answered, a hesitant tinge to her tone, "There were some side effects..."

The AI didn't say it in an ominous or even afraid tone; instead, her tone conveyed more of a feeling the AI itself had a hard time believing the results she was reporting. Well, now even Wanda was intrigued.

FR FR FR FR FR

Tony felt disoriented for a long moment. He couldn't even bring himself to open his eyes yet.

But he could hear the familiar sound of medical machines beeping in the background. He could smell the sterile smell he associated with either operation rooms or his labs. Each one of his breaths was as smooth as any other man and...

Wait a moment! His breath was smooth?! His breaths weren't this easy since Afghanistan. The arc reactor took a good portion of his lung's capacity; in the beginning, just breathing was hard and painful. Thankfully, in time as he got used to the metal in his chest, breathing came easier to him. Though panic attacks and even the occasional sneeze was hell on his chest.

Even after removing it three years ago, his body seemed to get used to the pain, not helped by the fact that even if he removed the arc reactor, he couldn't just regenerate the bones and organs that were cut out to install it, so the phantom pain was very real and very often.

Tony took a deep breath, testing his newly found freedom to do so, and there was no pain. Actually, Tony could feel more air entering his lungs than it did in the past six years, and he could actually feel all the bones in his chest, which shouldn't be possible considering a part of it is artificial.

Tony squirmed a little in his bed for a moment until he noticed a few other things.

After years working in his labs for decades and injuring his hands in many ways, even his spine had its toll to pay, he had aches in many of his joints. Something that was more nuisance than painful and Tony usually ignored. But now he couldn't help but notice that there weren't even the smallest hints of discomfort coming from any bone in his body.

Even his left arm, that would ache constantly since the tank hit him there on his first flight back to Afghanistan, wasn't projecting anything.

Tony just couldn't understand what was going on; it felt like he regenerated all of his bones and organs overnight.

Then a thought of one thing that he could think would cause such a thing popped to his mind. Extremis. But still, the 3.0 version should heal all wounds and repair the body to its best condition, even if it shouldn't be able to make the amount of changes Tony feels in his body.

Tony's musing was interrupted when he began hearing voices coming from the direction of the door to the room, which shouldn't be possible in a room like that where the door should be thick so the doctors won't be distracted by noises from the hallway.

Maybe the door was open? Tony had to wonder, and after a short moment forced his eyes to open.

When the blinding light subsided and Tony could make out his environment, he noticed the door was closed, but he could still hear the voices on the other side of it.

His eyes then swept the room, and he noticed that he could read small writing on a clipboard that was quite a way from him. It wasn't like he had some super sight, but Tony guessed that he could now see just as sharply as Clint always bragged about. Which again was very odd.

Senses improvement wasn't a trait he associated with Extremis either. Was there a newer drug, better than Extremis 3.0 that was used on him?

The closest thing Tony could think of would be the Cradle project he worked on with Helen Cho, but the doctor was in medical care herself now after the entire Ultron fiasco, so he hardly thinks she was the one to help, and she would be the only one with the knowledge of the project.

Tony's train of thought was cut off again when the door opened, and a few people entered the room. The first one was Nick, his form as imposing as usual.

The ex-director was quickly followed by Rhodey and Bruce, with Thor and Clint not too far away from them. Tony had to hold back a frown when he noticed neither Steve nor Natasha joined them. Tony could feel his eyebrows raise slightly when he noticed the Maximoff siblings entering the room but staying close to the door.

Tony gave all of them a forced smile he was used to wearing and asked lightly, "So how's everything going out there?"

Tony noticed how everyone but Nick looked at him as if he was crazy. Fury, used to his tendencies, just rolled his eye before replying, "After you were shot..." Generous and underwhelming description. "Friday and Thor completed your plan and blew the city out of the sky with no damage done to the surrounding cities. Vision found and destroyed Ultron's final unit. The Helicarrier is now en route to a designated Sokovian relief center."

Tony nodded. Everything seemed to end in the best way they could hope it would after Ultron raised the city to the sky and threatened to erase the entire world with another asteroid strike.

There was a silence for a long moment in the room, and Tony noticed the odd looks everyone was giving him. Clint even rubbed his eyes twice as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Eventually, Bruce asked carefully, "Tony, how do you feel?"

That question brought Tony's thoughts back in a full circle, and it took him a moment to respond. "Fine. Actually, I feel better than I felt in years. It's like Afghanistan and everything since then didn't happen."

Bruce shifted a little uncomfortably in his place before saying slowly, "Umm... Tony, I think it's more than just that."

Tony tilted his head in confusion at his science-bro and was about to ask for more details when Nick pulled a mirror from one of the tables in the room and handed it to Tony.

Still confused about the entire thing, Tony complied and looked at his reflection; the moment he saw himself, he almost dropped the mirror to the floor.

In front of him wasn't the image of himself he remembered from even a week ago, before all the shit hit the fan, but an image of someone he hadn't seen in so many years now.

His skin looked much healthier than Tony could remember it being, as if years of alcoholism and so many other bad habits didn't pale it.

The bags under his eyes, earned by decades of lab work without any sleep, were gone as well.

His graying hair, thanks to years of stress, was now as deep brown as the rest of his hair.

All in all, Tony looked like he was in his early 20's again. Looking over the mirror at the rest of his body, he amended himself, a more muscular version of his 20-year-old self.

While he was a far cry from Steve's wide and powerful build, Tony's body looked like the one he had honed in recent years thanks to his superhero work and increased combat training.

What Tony couldn't figure out was one thing, and before he could even realize it, the question slipped from his mouth. "How?"

Nick let out a heavy sigh as if anticipating a backlash to his next words. "Extremis."

Tony's eyes narrowed at the man, and he hissed, "I thought I made my choice on that matter clear, Fury."

Nick's form stiffened, but he glared right back at Tony saying, "I would not allow you to die so easily, Stark; extreme measures had to be taken."

Tony shook his head. He had many words he wanted to yell at Nick, but he couldn't right now, not without revealing many of their secrets, including their true relationship. Instead, he settled on changing the subject. "But how could Extremis do all of this? It wasn't designed for this."

"Well..." Tony looked at Bruce as the shorter man spoke while scratching his chin. "I'm not so sure you're right about that, Tony."

Tony looked at his science-bro with a raised eyebrow, so Bruce gave him a small smile and asked, "Do you remember what you said when we finished working on version 3?"

Tony frowned in thought before he answered, "It will return the body to peak condition."

Bruce nodded quickly before speaking with some excitement in his voice. "Yes! But we underestimated how true this statement is. Instead of just returning the body to its best form before the injury, it's just resetting the body to the best condition it was ever in."

Tony was about to consider the meaning of that, but Bruce beat him to it by saying immediately, "We need to take a new blood sample and run a few more tests; I wonder how deep the changes go."

Tony winced a little before slumping back in his bed. Seeing the faces of all of his friends promised him that it was a fight he wouldn't win, so all he could do was lie down and take it.