MATCH
Abel waited as patiently as she could as the scanner moved back and forth slowly over her singed top, picking up traces of blood left behind by the explosion. Even though most of the DNA was hers, Abel could tell by the data on the monitor that the shirt had blood samples from the man.
"Alright," Abel said and sat at the computer desk to start the test. "It's gonna take a couple minutes, but we should be able to find out by his blood samples If I have any relations to this case." She looked over her monitor at Tony and saw him hard at work. "How's the virtual crime scene coming along?"
As she said those words, Tony pulled the projection from his monitor and enlarged it onto the floor. Essentially recreating the scene with fine detail and information files on the side for him to look through.
Leaving the blood sample to be analyzed, Abel joined Tony on the computer-generated crime scene. She stepped onto the virtual floor, right where she was at the time of the explosion.
"Is this all the information we have on the Mandarin?" Abel asked while scanning over the floating files.
"It is. All drawn from SHIELD and C.I.A.," Jarvis answered.
Tony frowned at the lack of information. "Abel, if you had to guess, how hot do you think the blast was?"
Abel crossed her arms over her chest and thought about it for a moment. "Hard to say. Taking into consideration the state my body was in…I imagine 2…maybe 3000 degrees Celsius. If my body wasn't already tougher and more resilient than an average human…I most likely would've been vaporized instantly."
Tony grimaced at those words. "It's a good thing you're not really normal," he said, hanging his head.
Abel nodded eagerly. "Yes, for once…I'm glad I'm immortal." She walked up to the files and scanned over them, seeing if she could recognize any of the faces. "We're missing something. I just don't know what it is." She turned back to the virtual crime scene and walked over to a holographic version of herself. She had her hand up to shield her face, which is where most of her wounds were.
"And you're sure there wasn't a bomb attached to him or anything. Like…he really was the bomb," Tony asked, wanting to make entirely sure they had the right story.
"He glowed from the inside like a lantern and blew up. I can't get any more descriptive than…that?" Abel cocked a brow. She moved her head to the side to see what was behind her virtual self. "Tony, come here."
Tony turned away from the files and walked over to where Abel was. He crouched beside her over the virtual crime scene and saw a set of military dog tags. Slightly burned but still able to be reconstructed.
"Jarvis, was there any military people at the scene?" Abel asked as Tony lifted up the virtual dog tags to investigate.
"No, ma'am. There wasn't."
This immediately got Abel to scratch her head. "Then are these his?" She thought back to the previous day and could recall him fiddling with something before he was approached. Probably being dog tags.
"Bring up the thermogenic signatures again, factor in three thousand degrees." Tony ordered and stepped onto his equipment and sat down to get a bird's eye view. He scooched over to the side and held Abel's hand as she climbed up beside him.
"The oracle cloud has completed analysis. Accessing satellites and plotting the last twelve months of thermogenic occurrence now," Jarvis said as he created a map of all the known locations of bomb attacks.
"Take away everywhere that there's been a Mandarin attack." Tony waited as the scope narrowed, but what caught his eye was an attack in Rose Hill, Tennessee, where the heat signatures reached the same levels at the theater. "That. You sure that's not one of his?" Tony asked while pointing.
Abel pondered on it while rubbing her chin. "I remember that case. It predates any known Mandarin attack. The incident was the use of a bomb to assist a suicide." She extended her hand and pulled the case file over to them. "Heat signatures the same. Reaching three thousand degrees Celsius.
"That's two military guys," Tony realized. "Jarvis, ever been to Tennessee?"
"Creating a flight plan for Tennessee," Jarvis said.
Abel snapped her finger and shut down the virtual crime scene. She jumped down from the equipment and walked back over to her computer. Sitting down at the desk, she looked over the scan and saw that it wasn't done analyzing. It still needed a couple more minutes.
As Tony jumped down from his equipment, he heard his front doorbell go off. "Are we still at 'ding-dong'? We're supposed to be on total security lock down. Come on, I threatened a terrorist. Who is that?" he complained.
"Tony, there is only so much we can do when you quiet literally gave your address to the whole world," Abel said. "It was such a spectacular stunt of recklessness that my elder sister actually called me this morning."
Tony flinched at the thought of having to deal with Cain. "And, uh…did she say anything?"
"She called you a record-breaking lunatic and asked if she needed to come down. I said I had everything under control and to not worry." Abel lifted her head and heard the doorbell go off again. "Go answer the door, I'll let you know when the results of the blood sample come back," she said and ushered him away with a flick of her hand.
Tony grumbled under his breath and began reluctantly heading upstairs. He stopped halfway up though and quickly ran back down, briskly stepping into his prototype Ironman suit before heading back up.
Even though it was a clear sign of paranoia, Tony was going about it in such an odd way. Like he had never experienced such a thing before. Abel never seen someone act like that, so it made her chuckle a little.
"Jarvis, how much longer until the samples are done being analyzed?" Abel asked while taking her cardigan off the chair and wrapping it around herself.
"Two to three minutes, ma'am," Jarvis answered.
Abel nodded and sat back in her seat, staring at the loading bar as it inched along slowly. Each millimeter was a heavy heartbeat in her chest, causing her muscles to ache and her hands to turn clammy. She tapped her fingers against the desk, progressively getting faster and louder the closer the scan got to being done.
"Are you nervus?" Jarvis spoke up suddenly.
Abel jumped a little, placing a hand over her startled heart. "Perhaps a little. I mean…the thought of someone achieving immortality from alternate means is both astonishing...but frightening," she huffed. "I never understood the obsession that people had with eternity. Outliving all your loved ones, every person you ever met...and facing the devastation of a planet. It's...an incredibly lonely experience," Abel said solemnly while running her fingers through her hair.
Abel didn't speak a word after that and stared intently at the screen as the loading bar moved along painfully, stretching as far as it could until finally reaching the end. There was an eternal long pause on the screen before it shifted to the results. Once everything was displayed before her very eyes, Abel's lips quivered, and she dropped her head onto the table.
"Ma'am, it appears to be a match between your blood sample and the victim," Jarvis replied.