Disclaimer: The Avengers, its characters and The Marvel Cinematic Universe belong to Marvel Studios and The Walt Disney Company, among many others. Marvel's Agents of SHIELD and its characters belong to ABC Studios, Marvel Television, Mutant Enemy Productions, among many others. What If…? belongs to Marvel Studies and The Walt Disney Company, among many others. I'm only a fan, writing this for my love of this film/television franchise.
A.N.: I'll be honest, I'm not entirely happy with how this chapter rolled out, but I can't figure out why and I'm posting it before it drives me completely nuts with the tweaking/re-tweaking I've been doing almost nonstop. I hope you can enjoy it anyway and I'll work better on the next one.
Avengers Initiative: Reset
07. Researching
With Skye hacking into U-GIN Genetical Research Facility and Natasha guiding her through what exactly they needed, it wasn't long before the team was able to gather the data they'd been searching for. As Fitz-Simmons received it and loaded the specs onto the holotable they quickly scanned through the information there and started working on it right away.
"This is amazing," Jemma said in a breathless voice as she read through the research material. "They are working with printing tissue technology. Not just building biomimetic scaffolding, but literally printing actual human cells into biodegradable scaffolds. The final results are still a little ways away and I think we can improve on this design, don't you, Fitz?"
"Oh definitely," her lab partner replied from beside her where he was going through the engineering specs on the model for something called a regeneration cradle. "I've already spotted a couple of areas of improvement, such as switching out the power source to optimize the output for the whole process but you're right. Overall this is astounding work."
"Well, Helen Cho is a leading expert in genetics and biotechnology in South Korea," Tony commented as he watched them work, feeling a little put out that he wasn't able to interact with the holotable seeing as he was a hologram himself. "Stark Industries was working with her company to revolutionize the healthcare industry in our efforts to expand our portfolio and areas of interest. We were hoping that in the next few decades we would no longer need living donor organs or tissues at all."
"I'd say you're well headed that way, from what I can see," Jemma concurred with a nod.
"But most importantly, this resolves our issue for the LMD design," Fitz said. "We can actually use your DNA─"
"Which we have in our database, thanks to Natasha," Jemma added quickly with a smile at the aforementioned agent.
"─to print tissues and organs so that it actually would look no different than a human body." Fitz continued with his explanation seamlessly, as he and Jemma were so used to talking around each other.
"The complicated aspects are the vascular system, naturally, since organ perfusion is still such a complex area of study." Jemma continued the discussion. "And given that we would need to upload the AI system into it, we can't actually just print a human body."
"We'd need to create a hybrid with an electrical mainframe to store the information in it." Fitz added next.
"So basically, an android," Skye said, raising her eyebrows, a little surprised at herself at being able to follow their discussion considering she'd dropped out of high school and had no in-depth training in biotech.
"Yes," Fitz-Simmons said at the same time with a nod to her.
"I was also thinking we could incorporate the Iron Man suit into this design somehow," Tony said as he walked up and down in front of the holotable as he thought out loud. "Maybe some nanotechnology to store components for the suit within the internal mainframe and that I could manifest outside when needed."
"That would be the perfect solution, really." Jemma noted, impressed by this idea. "You'd no longer need to walk around with a suitcase with the armor in it. You could just summon it out to cover your body when engaged in battle."
"Now we need to work on creating this cradle," Fitz said, pulling up the specs for the whole design and breaking it down into smaller parts.
"And run simulations on which metal alloys would work best for the internal mainframe and the suit nanoparticles." Jemma added with a nod as she walked away and pulled up a simulator in a separate workbench.
"Yeah, I was using a gold-titanium alloy to solve the icing problem while flying in high altitudes, but I'm not sure how well that would mesh with the biocomponents." Tony commented as he walked up to where she was now.
"Well, it might work given that gold and titanium especially have been used extensively in surgeries as implants or stabilizing pins, for instance." Jemma said, putting in the specifications to run the simulation using gold and titanium.
"Yes, but you're right, we should still run simulations to test out the best components, considering we'd also need to incorporate the miniature arc reactor in it, I assume." Fitz commented by the holotable where he was still going through all the parts for building the cradle.
"Well, then we've run into a problem." Tony said, turning to him with a frown and they all stopped what they were doing to look at him. "The arc reactor uses a palladium core that was poisoning me. I mean, I'm sure we could keep regenerating tissue using this printing technology, but I'm not sure that would overall be a good solution, long-term."
"Have you tried substituting it with─" Jemma started to suggest, but was quickly cut off.
"I've tried every combination, every permutation of every known element." Tony said with a dismissive and emphatic hand wave. "There is no suitable replacement."
"That you know of." Fitz muttered, narrowing his eyes at him, not taking kindly to his dismissive attitude towards his lab partner.
"There isn't!" Tony exclaimed, throwing his arms up in a frustrated gesture.
"Well, according to Director Fury, you haven't tried them all." Coulson said, as he walked back into the lab carrying a grey SHIELD storage box and placing it in front of Tony.
"What's this?" The hologram asked, arching an eyebrow.
"That's what we were trying to give you back in California before Hank Pym interrupted our plans." Natasha commented as she stepped up, curious about the box as well.
"It belonged to your father." Coulson explained, motioning at the words 'PROPERTY OF H. STARK' printed on the top. "Fury left it here and suggested you go through it, as it's supposed to help with your research."
"This was my father's?" Tony said, still frowning in confusion. "Why does SHIELD have my father's stuff?"
"Coulson told me Howard was one of the founding members of SHIELD." Steve commented as he joined them as well, looking at him with raised eyebrows as Tony fairly reeled before that piece of news. "You didn't know that?"
"I had no idea," Tony said in a soft voice, making a hand motion as if to reach out to touch it before he remembered he wasn't tangible and wouldn't be able to open it by himself.
"Steve, Natasha, help Tony go through the materials in there and see what you can find." Coulson said, motioning at the box and the two of them nodded and immediately set to work, reaching for the box and opening it up. "Fitz-Simmons, focus on building this regeneration cradle with the specs from Dr. Helen Cho's research and you can leave the simulations running in the background in the meantime."
"Yes, sir." The duo nodded back at him.
"What about me?" Skye asked with a frown. "What am I supposed to do now that I'm done with the hack?"
"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll find something for you soon," Coulson said with a quiet smile. "In the meantime, Agent May and I will take you back to your van in Atlanta to get your things and get you properly settled here at the base."
"Alright. Lead the way." She said with a nod, following him out of the lab and heading towards the hangar.
After opening the box and finding some old rolls of film in it, Natasha texted Koenig and he said there was an old projector that was supposed to be somewhere in the base which he would look for while she and Steve went through the notebooks with Tony.
"Howard's handwriting," Steve commented with a smile as he turned through the pages, Tony's eyes following and quickly reading. "It remained just the same. I remember deciphering his notes whenever he sent us a new piece of equipment in our campaigns across Europe."
"Uh-huh," Tony muttered in a supremely disinterested tone of voice. "Hold up, go back one page. Ok, got it."
"What is all this? Do you know what his notes refer to?" Natasha asked as they continued to flip through the pages.
"It's about a potentially limitless energy source," Tony said with a furrowed brow. "My guess is he's talking about the Tesseract."
"The Tesseract?" Steve turned to him with a frown. "I thought that was lost. At least, it fell from the Valkyrie even before I crashed it in the arctic."
"Yeah, they managed to find that one way faster than you from what I can gather here," Tony explained. "My dear old dad was experimenting with it ─ for SHIELD, no doubt ─ for a long time, but his notes indicate he lacked the materials to actually be able to stabilize it."
"But I don't understand," Steve interjected. "HYDRA was able to use it to produce weapons. How did they have access to these materials and your father didn't?"
"He wasn't interested in making weapons," Tony said. "Which is ironic considering the family fortune that was built on it. No, he's talking about an energy race that would be revolutionary to the world and that would even dwarf the arms race. He saw the Tesseract had potential to build so much more than just weapons."
His voice trailed off, as Tony wondered how much of his father he had really known while they were both still alive. Somehow Howard Stark had realized a long time ago the same thing Tony did only recently, about how they had the potential to create so much more than just weapons for people to kill each other.
"He always said that ending the war was just the first step," Steve commented, bringing the AI out of his reverie. "After that, we'd need to rebuild everything and create a better world."
Tony huffed softly at that. "Right. That doesn't sound like dad."
Steve paused and looked at him for a moment. "What was he like, as a dad? I'm curious, 'cause I could never see Howard settling down, at least not in the near future. Or the distant past… You know what I mean." He finished with an exasperated eyeroll.
"Yeah, I can see what you mean," Tony said rather absentmindedly. "I don't know what to tell you though. Honestly, I don't think I was his favorite person."
"Really?" Steve said, a little taken aback.
"He couldn't wait to get rid of me. I swear, his happiest day was when he shipped me off to boarding school." Tony muttered dispassionately, motioning for Steve to turn another page of the notebook in his hands.
"Hmm," Natasha made a sound in the back of her throat that could've been interpreted as 'I can understand the sentiment', causing Tony to glare at her and she merely smiled placidly back at him.
"That doesn't sound like the Howard I knew," Steve commented as he did as asked and flipped to another page.
"Yeah, it always seemed like dealing with someone with a case of multiple personalities. To me, he was cold, calculating. I don't think he ever even told me he liked me." Tony said, his voice growing a little rougher. "And everybody else was always going on about how he was the life of the party, how he was such a ladies' man when he was young and what a reputation as an irreverent jackass he'd had."
"I guess I can see who you take after, then." Natasha deadpanned.
Thankfully, just then Billy walked into the lab with a projector in hand. "Found it. Guys, we need to dim the lights a little, is that okay?" He said, raising his voice and asking the others in the room.
"Oh yeah, go ahead," Fitz said as he shut off the holotable. "I've got the prints and the specs that I need and I'm actually headed to the workshop to check out which parts we have here and which ones I would need you to get for us."
"Oh right, then I'll join you," Jemma said as she got up from her workbench. "I left the simulations running and I can get the results in my pad and help you out for now."
The duo gathered their things and left the R&D lab, heading out towards a separate area of the base that had been converted into a workshop where they would be able to use other tools and have ample space to assemble the cradle, Koenig leaving after them to take any notes in case there were materials or parts they needed that weren't readily available.
The remaining trio turned on the projector and watched a series of takes of Howard's recordings for the 1974 Stark Expo. Natasha noted how it stirred different emotions in them, with Steve looking a little mystified at seeing an older version of his friend looking so serious and proper, until he cracked a smile at some of Howard's remarks and antics, such as showing his ass to the camera in one of the outtakes that made it into the video. Tony, on the other hand, seemed even more stoic and unmoved than ever, as if he'd actually become a robot version of himself along with the hologram.
That is, until a little kid version of Tony had made an impromptu appearance into the screen and after a moment Howard addressed himself directly to his future son through the camera lens.
"I built this for you," Howard in the film projection said, gesturing at the model of Stark Expo behind him. "And someday you'll realize it represents a whole lot more than just people's inventions. It represents my life's work. This is the key to the future. I'm limited by the technology of my time, but one day you'll figure this out. And when you do, you will change the world. What is and always will be my greatest creation is you."
The film rolled out, the image going white and the projector came to an abrupt stop as they'd reached the end of the recordings. Natasha turned to look at Tony and noticed how his eyes seemed just a little brighter in the hologram image.
"This is great," he murmured softly, hand going up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Just fucking great. Fantastic, even. So I was supposed to figure this out all on my own and now I've actually managed to die before anything got accomplished. You think he could've left better, clearer instructions or he could've said something while we were both still alive!"
He made a frustrated gesture, as if wanting to throw out the projector and the box of his father's belongings away, but his hand merely passed through the solid objects, causing him to turn and walk up and down the length of the lab to blow off some steam instead.
"Tony," Steve said, holding his hands out in a placating gesture. "Okay, calm down. Take a deep breath."
"Take a deep breath?!" Tony cried out as he turned with incredulous and wide eyes to him. "Don't you get it? I can't actually breathe! I'm not really alive!"
Steve could only wince before this outburst and his previous choice of words. This was a very strange situation and he still needed to get used to─ well, everything, really. But how was he supposed to help someone who wasn't actually there? How do you comfort someone who wasn't really dead but wasn't exactly alive either? At least not in a tangible way.
"Tony, stop," Natasha said in a deadly quiet and calm voice. "You're spiralling down. This isn't Steve's fault and you know it."
"No," Tony said as he turned and glowered back at her. "I guess it comes down to you again. You, Nick Fury, my father, Hank Pym and SHIELD. You know, I never asked for any of this, to be involved in any of this crap."
"None of us did," Natasha countered, raising her voice just a little. "You're right. It fucking sucks, but it's the way things are right now. And you can either scream and rage and be here feeling helpless and frustrated, or you can get your shit together and actually do something about it."
"What could I possibly do about this now?" Tony exclaimed with a wide gesture of his arms. "I find out he left me some legacy to a dream I wasn't even aware existed in the first place and I only got it after I don't even have a body anymore. I can't sit down and make notes or work on things, which is what I used to do when I needed to think. Now I just stand around and pace and snap my fingers and watch other people do the things that I was supposed to be doing myself."
"Okay, let's just…" Steve as he walked up to him again, pausing and taking a breath himself. "Take a break. We've been at it for many hours now and I think we've hit a wall. There are no windows in this base, so it's hard to see the day going by but it's actually now ─ close to one in the morning." He said, looking down at his wristwatch.
"You're right," Natasha said with a nod. "Maybe we should just stop for the day and regroup in the morning, after we all get some rest."
"Yeah, maybe you're right," Tony muttered as he also nodded, suddenly seeming to completely deflate compared to his previous explosive stance. "There's clearly nothing productive coming out of this right now. Let's all just recharge, as it were."
Steve and Natasha were somewhat relieved that he'd accepted this suggestion so easily. On the one hand it seemed to have taken the wind out of his sails and got them all back to a safer ground. On the other, it could just give Tony the opportunity to just bottle it all up again, which didn't really seem like the healthiest option, even if it probably would turn out to be the more productive one ─ and truthfully neither Steve nor Natasha were used to dealing with quite complicated feelings in such an open manner.
It had actually been a great day, all things considered. They'd managed to retrieve the data they'd been looking for the past couple of days, they had a new member added to their team that promised to be a great asset and overall they were making progress with their plans. Yet it didn't stop a strange heavy feeling from settling down in their chests as Steve and Natasha turned away to rest for the day and Tony shut down his own hologram.
A.N.: One thing that annoys me to no end is this tendency in the MCU to use a technology once and then it completely disappears from that universe, as if everyone's forgotten it was developed in the first place ─ the biggest one being Helen Cho's regeneration cradle. It's like Ultron stole it to create Vision and then no one knew how to build one again, which is just ridiculous (along with no one other than Hank Pym knowing how to create Pym particles; what, no one ever heard of patents in that universe? I get that he didn't want the technology falling into the wrong hands, but there had to be records of how he created it somewhere). Seriously, this cradle technology could've been used to save Coulson's life at the end of Season 5 of AOS or regenerate Rhodey's spinal injury at the end of Civil War, for instance, or even Stephen Strange's hands after his accident (but that would create a whole problem with how he becomes a sorcerer, then). I mean, they were all living in the same universe, for chrissake. /end rant