Chapter 11: Amii

Amii woke up as the pilot announced their imminent approach into Seoul. She saw Tony lying face down on the bed and she took a moment to study his face. She saw deep dark circles under his eyes and his cheeks had sunken in and it made her feel sad and at the same time her resolve to help cure him strengthened. She gently ran her fingers through his hair and kissed him on the forehead as he stirred. "We're beginning our approach into Seoul. We should be landing in about half an hour" she told him as he stirred and half-opened his eyes. "Five more minutes" said Tony as he turned over and covered his face with the sheets. Amii smiled, kissed him again and headed for the bathroom. She had showered and was getting dressed when Tony walked in, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Hello, beautiful" he said giving her a hug and a kiss "I'll be out in a jiffy" he added heading for the shower.

The steward was serving coffee and breakfast when Tony walked in looking dapper in a tailored suit and happier than she had seen him in a long time. "Hmmm…that smells good" he said as he sat down opposite her. The steward poured him a glass of chlorophyll and Tony waved him away "No, I want to have a normal meal not that shit. Get me some bacon and eggs, please" he added. "But what about the blood toxicity" Amii said. "Don't worry, it's not going to kill me if I don't drink the stuff once" Tony said with a smile as he ate his food, "and by the end of the day I should be back to normal and we can have a nice dinner together" he added as the monitor on the plane pinged. "What's up J.A.R.V.I.S?" Tony asked. "Message from Dr. Cho for you, sir" said the AI and a video popped up on screen. Dr. Cho was instructing someone in the background in Korean and she turned to the camera and said "Good morning, Mr. Stark. We have got everything ready for you at my lab. Thank you for sending all the details about your condition and your test results. From what I see, I am confident that we will have you patched up in no time. My assistant, Dr. Kim (a photo of the man popped up on screen), will be waiting at the airport for you and Dr. Singh and he will transport you to the facility. We will see you shortly". The message terminated as the pilot announced "We will be landing in Seoul in 10 minutes. Please put on your seatbelts".

They were met at the tarmac by Dr. Kim, who was a diminutive middle-aged guy with really sharp eyes that seemed to observe and absorb everything. He shook their hands and pointed them towards a large white van that stood a few meters away "We have got all the equipment in there and we will be running tests on you on the way, Mr. Stark. It will take us about an hour and half to get to the lab and we don't want to waste any time" he smiled. They got into the back of the van and the driver pulled out of the airport.

It looked like a mad scientist's lab inside and Amii felt a little nervous as Dr. Kim instructed Tony to take his jacket and shirt off and strapped him into a chair that was bolted to the floor. He drew some blood from Tony's arm, injected it into a test-tube, added some chemicals and put it into a centrifuge. He also had a portable MRI scanner of sorts that he used to transmit detailed scans of Tony's body to Dr. Cho and the team back at the lab. He took a long time pointing the scanner this way and that at Tony's chest as he captured every detail of the reactor, the lodged shrapnel and the chest cavity. The images were transmitted in real-time and the monitor at one end of the van showed a team of doctors and scientists plugging the data into computers and discussing between themselves. Dr. Cho came to the camera and began relaying instructions in rapid-fire Korean to Dr. Kim. He took out the vial of blood from the centrifuge and put it in another machine that began analyzing it and the results were apparently available to Dr Cho at the other end almost instantly. She seemed pleased at the results "Your tests look good, Mr. Stark. Your toxicity levels are manageable though we will have to conduct a blood purification process – it's like dialysis – to remove the toxin." The van stopped, the doors opened, and Dr. Cho waved at them in person as a team of doctors and nurses moved around and Dr. Kim transferred Tony to a stretcher, a nurse started an IV drip, and began wheeling him to the operation theater. "We will be doing that during the surgery to remove the shrapnel and the reactor from your chest" she continued "Thank you for the schematics for the electromagnet, Dr. Singh", she added, "that will help us immensely in the operation". She proudly pointed at her invention "We will put Tony in the Regeneration Cradle which will reconstruct his chest cavity once we remove the reactor. You will need to spend about 6 hours in the Cradle, Mr. Stark" she added "when you come out, you will be good as new!"

Amii had been holding on to Tony's hand all the time and she was reluctant to let go. "Don't worry Dr. Singh, we will have him back in no time" said Dr. Kim with a knowing smile and a nod. Tony smiled at her and squeezed her hand once "I will take you to the best restaurant in town for dinner, promise" he said as he was wheeled in to the room and the doors whooshed shut. Amii closed her eyes and said a silent prayer as she watched Dr. Cho and her team prep Tony for surgery.