It was another day and a half before Cho let Virgil out of the medical bay. Tony had fashioned a leg brace for him, to help with the healing muscles. (Alan had convinced him to make it green, much to the man's confused amusement.) Virgil's leg, despite being far more healed than it should be after less than a week, was far from being up to much and Cho had insisted on the brace to keep him from straining the healing muscles, or tearing his stitches (of which there were many).
He didn't have much ability to bend his knee yet, but Cho and Tony were both sure that in the next couple of days he'd regain all movement. The cradle technology was fabulous and Virgil had been very happy to discuss it with Cho for hours.
She was almost ready to hand him an honorary medical degree by the end of those discussions.
Once he was free of the medical bay, Virgil had taken a very long shower, shaved, and dressed in comfortable clothes. And then he'd had nearly an entire pot of coffee, feeling alive again for the first time in days. Alan made fun of his obvious caffeine addiction, and Virgil rolled his eyes.
Tony, though, had finally gotten permission to take a look at HEMERA. He'd been fascinated by the design and application and had helped Alan set her up to take a look at how her code had evolved.
And it had definitely evolved.
The Replicators had likely had a lot to do with it, as it looked like she'd swallowed the coding for the alien beings and incorporated it into her own coding. HEMERA was definitely the one in charge, with her focus being protection and getting the boys home, but her sublevels were rather primal.
For an AI, her processes weren't as logical as one would expect. Animalistic was the word that Tony had used, and Alan found it pretty accurate. Chances were, HEMERA would never be human enough to be considered a daughter, like EOS was to John, but more of an incredibly intelligent pet. But not a pet? He wasn't sure how to describe that one and decided to just let it go. But her processes had intrigued both Tony and Peter by being more emotion based than logical.
FRIDAY and Karen displayed little emotion, still being rather young themselves. JARVIS had managed emotion, but only after nearly a decade of 'life'. That EOS (who they'd been told about) and HEMERA seemed to be based around emotional response was something that they hadn't even thought possible.
Alan hadn't been entirely happy to find that the raptors had had a significant effect on HEMERA too, though. She, apparently saw them as the ultimate predator, and therefore the ultimate protector. FRIDAY, at her asking, had shown her more movie clips from the Jurassic Park series, since HEMERA had been so obsessed with the beasts, and now HEMERA's processes had shifted to incorporate a more raptor-like feel to them.
Alan hadn't been pleased but hadn't tried to change anything. He knew better than to mess with established sentient code.
Virgil, with Tony's aid, had focused on the machine itself. Nearly four days in this world and it hadn't charged at all. It turned out that HEMERA had fried quite a few of her circuits when she'd forced the charge on Isla Nublar. There was quite a bit that needed to be replaced.
Tony had been happy enough to help out and had even thrown in the idea of using nanobots as built-in repair units, in case something like this happened again. Nanobots wouldn't be able to fix everything, but they'd be able to keep HEMERA running. Both Tracys had been intrigued, as nanobots weren't really a thing in their world (although Brains was working on that idea, as far as they knew) and they, Tony and Peter had started up an excited discussion that lasted until Pepper came in and reminded them all that Virgil and Alan were still recovering and Peter had school the next day.
To which Peter had grumbled and groaned, because he actually had a field trip to some surprise location. And he had a serious dislike of field trips. But he had left, taking some of the proposed ideas for the nanotech with him to work on in his spare time, and Pepper had ushered the rest of them to bed, muttering about geniuses with no life skills.
Alan and Virgil thought that maybe they should be offended by that. They let it go, though, once they saw it was nearly midnight.
Midmorning of the next day, though, Virgil had HEMERA's components laid out carefully in front of him on a worktable. Alan was sprawled on the couch, tucked under that fuzzy blanket that he now knew had the cartoon symbols of the Avengers. The couch itself was a ratty piece of furniture but an incredibly comfortable place to work on HERMERA's code. He was trying to get her to recognize their names, instead of just titles. It was slow going.
Tony wandered in, looking a bit unsure, which was odd for the usually confident man. "So," he said, dropping the box he'd been holding onto a worktable. The two brothers looked at him warily. "I've been talking to King Kitty-Cat about you two."
"Who?" Virgil asked with a frown.
Tony blinked. "Right. You wouldn't know him. King T'challa of Wakanda."
"Wakanda," Alan repeated slowly, getting to his feet and coming over to the table. "I don't think we have a Wakanda. Where is it?"
"Africa," Tony said, waving it away. "Anyway, I've been talking to him about a few things." Mostly things that Alan had brought up about the Scarlet Witch. Tony wasn't stupid; he knew where the rogues were hiding. And with Alan's theories being so practical, he'd thought he'd give the Black Panther a heads up. "And I mentioned a bit about how you popped in. Don't worry, I didn't say anything about other worlds or whatever." Because that was something that they really, really did not need getting out. The idea of anyone—especially someone like Hydra—getting the ability to travel (or send others) to another world was terrifying. "But I mentioned not knowing what to do with the beastie that you guys brought with you."
Virgil grimaced. "Burn it," he said, his hand dropping to rub carefully at his aching thigh.
"I did," Tony nodded. He'd taken some DNA samples, because he was Tony Freaking Stark and it had been an actual dinosaur, but he had no plans to recreate the thing. And he really didn't want anyone else getting any ideas along those lines either. "However, T'challa suggested keeping some pieces. Proof you survived kind of thing."
"We have the scars," Virgil said monotonously. Because the scarred grooves across the back of his shoulder from the Rex, and the massive, scarred tracks across his thigh—those weren't going away. Cradle technology was amazing, but it couldn't hide the damage, only fix it.
"Scars mean you survived," Tony nodded. He knew all about scars, his own hand hovering over his chest. He dropped his hand and tipped the box over, a mess of teeth, bone and claws scattering across the table. "This means you won."
"But you're the one who killed the thing," Alan mumbled, poking at a massive toe claw with one finger.
Tony shrugged. "I didn't go up against them," he pointed out. "Consider it closure. If you don't want them, I'll find something to do with them, but I think you should at least consider it."
Virgil was frowning, staring at the pieces of bone thoughtfully. "What would you suggest?" he asked, glancing at Tony.
"Don't know," the man shrugged. "This was all the Kitty-King's idea." He paused, grabbing up a short bone that fit comfortably in his grasp. "Let me make you a couple weapons," he said. "Low tech. Just knives with bone handles. Something for you to have in the next worlds. I'll even make them vibranium."
Alan blinked at him, still fiddling with the big toe claw. Those two claws had to be over eight inches long each and seeing them up close was only comforting in that they were no longer attached to the beast that had wielded them so effectively before. "I thought you said vibranium is extremely hard to get."
Tony grinned a smug grin, throwing his arms wide. "I'm Tony Stark," he said in reply. "And if I need more, I'll just melt down Cap's shield." It was viciously said, but clearly not meant if the emotion flashing through Tony's eyes meant anything.
The man grabbed a few other bone pieces, leaving the claws and teeth. And then he left the table, heading for another corner of the workshop. "T'challa recommended jewelry," he called over his shoulder. "Do with them what you want, though."