Above Stark Industries, Thursday afternoon

[heroic_jawline]

Steve was still sifting through the file photos of the Chinese Theater explosion when his phone rang. "Rogers," he said, sounding distracted.

"Click the link I'm sending you right now," Natasha said in his ear.

"Should I be worried?"

"Just watch it."

And that was why Tony was probably hearing some distinctly un-PG words coming out of Captain America's mouth as he watched his Tony threaten the Mandarin live on international television.

Comments

[heroic_jawline]

"Terrible," Steve said succinctly. "Call me back if you get anything good, Rhodey?" he asked, then disconnected. "How does Extremis work?"

[imafuturist]

"The pure version that Maya and FuturePharm created was meant as a technological version of the super soldier serum," Tony replied. "Nano-technology that reprograms a subject on the cellular level."

He took a breath, rubbing his forehead.

"One soldier to take down all resistance in a city by themselves."

[heroic_jawline]

Steve made a face. "Great. And what did the stuff that didn't work do?"

[imafuturist]

"The paired down version is the one I programmed for myself using her last sample of the injection." Ahem. No big.

[heroic_jawline]

Steve made another face. "What did Extremis do before it was pared down?"

[imafuturist]

"Enhanced strength, speed, regenerative capabilities, uh... breathing fire." That one had sort of puzzled Tony, but hey. Different strokes. "I got the feeling it was just a hodgepodge of powers go see what stuck?"

[heroic_jawline]

"And what happened if it doesn't work correctly?" Steve asked, turning off the stream of vaguely panicked commentators babbling about the death of Tony Stark.

[imafuturist]

"Psychosis," Tony said, finding absolutely no way to soften that one. "It's... see, with you and even Schmidt, they only enhanced the possible limits of human capabilities. With this guy, it was everything and the kitchen sink. Not something the human brain can adapt to all at once."

[heroic_jawline]

Steve winced. "So anyone they've experimented on will need to be stopped entirely? Or is there a way to reverse the psychosis?"

[imafuturist]

"I don't know," Tony replied. "This strain could be different. Butterfly effect and all that. And I didn't really get a chance to try with the other test subject back home."

Nope, just blew his head off and panicked a lot.

[heroic_jawline]

"I'm wondering if the bombings are linked to failed experiments," Steve mused. "Take someone who's going to die anyway, strap a bomb to 'em...gets rid of your evidence..."

[imafuturist]

"That would fit the Mandarin's MO," Tony replied slowly. "If Extremis is involved... you don't need to build a bomb. A subject could be one."

[heroic_jawline]

Steve's eyes went wide. "They can blow themselves up?"

He tilted his head at Tony. "You're not going to blow yourself up, right?"

[imafuturist]

"What? No, I reprogrammed it." On pain mess, with one hand shattered. Tony, look at your life, look at your choices. "But it's possible to do. With the right tweaking yo the code."

[heroic_jawline]

"Anything that could tell us that they're doing that?" Steve asked, reaching back for the SHIELD file.

[imafuturist]

"Do we have a reconstruction?" Tony asked, settling in for a little science and a little sleuthing. "Or video I could pull one from."

[heroic_jawline]

Steve nodded, handing over a flash drive. "I trust you," he said with a small smile. "Oh, a warning. Happy Hogan was one of the victims at the Chinese Theater--he's still alive, but in the hospital. Didn't want seeing him to be a shock for you."

[imafuturist]

Tony went still for a moment, looking at the drive before nodding and taking it. He perfectly capable of compartmentalizing this.

And subtly checking on his Happy and Pepper. No big.

"We'll get this figured out."

[heroic_jawline]

"Of course we will," Steve said. "Let's make it sooner than later."

[imafuturist]

"Don't underestimate what I'm capable of, Rogers," Tony shot back with a quick smile that nearly reached his eyes.

[heroic_jawline]

"Only made that mistake once," Steve replied, smiling back.

[imafuturist]

"Keep me informed," Tony said, heading for his lab to, undoubtedly, come to the exact same conclusions as his counterpart had.

Weird, right?

[heroic_jawline]

Eerie! Or something!

"Will do," Steve said, going back to scanning his files.