"Dr. Banner," Helen nodded as she exited the staircase. Bruce gave a small nod in return and stepped away to let her pass through.
"Uh, should I..." He gestured towards the bag in woman's hand, "do you want me to put that away for you or..."
"No, it's fine," She curtly refused, she face becoming more serious. "What happened?"
Bruce led her through the small living space, passing the living area (a large aquarium in the corner, she noted,) and into his workstation. Now, though it was a small cramped space, it was still amazing.
Prothetics could be found neatly tucked away, some were un full display on a metal rack, some upright in on rods, and some were being worked on over the numerous counters.
Bruce led her attention to the pile of books, bars, and pillows. She could see him frown as he tugs the edge of a bathtowel that was seemingly wrapped around something.
It was a baby.
Her eyes widened at the sight.
"I was hoping you could help him." Bruce pleaded. "He doesn't have a voice, no ears, no eyes... nothing."
She stepped closer, breathing deeply, and looks at Bruce for permission. "May I?" At Bruce's curt nod and quick 'sure,' she took the infant in her arms to further look at him.
"The Cradle doesn't make new tissue. It only aids the body to regrow them.* The body knows how to repair itself, but for his case... those muscles and tissue aren't regenerative, they don't know how to grow back.*"
"I was hoping. But even if those areas don't, the skin should be able to be fixed, right? If he is left like this, he might contract something. I just want to... protect him more."
Helen took another look at the child.
"Yes. The skin could be restored," she gave him a gentle smile, "I'll do everything that I can."
--
"Where did you find him?" Helen asked, unloading the rest of the Cradle.
"We uh, thought he was a casualty. I was... I was the one that was supposed to bag him up." Bruce explained. "Why?"
"Oh, it helps me understand him more," Helen started, "also, you seem a little too tense over there. I wouldn't want you to faint." She joked.
"You know... you know about the green guy?"
"Oh yes," She spoke, twisting a part till it snap into place, "not that it affects me in any way." She smiled. "Where did you find him?"
"Under a collapsed apartment. He was the only one without an adult or anyone nearby."
"Have you checked for any other injuries? He was collapsed on."
"I checked. Thrice even. Nothing else stands out. He had a few cuts, but miraculously, he doesn't have any bruises."
"That's good."
Helen only hummed as she continued her work.
"You're lucky. He's still small, which means we can cover up a large area quickly." She brushed her fingers on the finished Cradle. "But the Cradle is still in development. There are a lot of improvements to do. He's still a baby, and I'm afraid that if we begin on the regeneration of all skin and muscles immediately he might undergo some sort of shock. Though it is his own skin, the immediate addition might cause rejection."
"Where should we start then?"
"Possibly the membrane first. It would do better than this crocodile wrap he has on right now."
Bruce blinked. "Cr-crocodile wrap..."
"I'll focus on the membrane first. The membrane is thin, aand though it covers a large area, it'll be manageable. The skin and other tissues, well, we'd have to do that in parts."
"How long?"
"The membrane should take about 2 hours to complete. He's still a kid." She motioned to the Cradle's bed. Bruce scooped up the tiny child gently in his arms and carefully laid him down on the Cradle.
The whirring of the Cradle could be heard as a long armature suddenly emitted rays of light and projected themselves into the child's body, more specifically on the shoulder.
Bruce watched as from those rays, a thin, translucent layer began to grow.
"The procedure would finish in 2 hours. You might want to find something to do. Perhaps your prosthetics?"
Bruce blinked for the second time.
"Uh... right. I'd better get on with that." He spun around to head to his work. Helen followed, making sure to keep the Cradle in her sights.
"I'm curious of your work, Dr. Banner. What made you transition to prosthetics?"
"Not much." He spoke as he slumped on his chair. At her silence, he continued. "I just thought I could help more this way."
"Your prosthetics, are they shallow or, do they have electronics or anything?"
"Some do, some don't. We don't have portable energy sources everywhere we go. They eventually deplete, rendering the device useless. That's why I try to make them articulate by attatching them to certain muscles in the shoudlders or the arms. It's a little less realistic, but they remain useful." He smiled. He pulls out a large graphing paper.
"I took down his measurements last night. He's still a small kid, so I'm making it a little bigger. I might give it to him when he's a few months old." She inspects the workspace even more.
"Is that what I think it is?"
"Huh? Yes. It's a printer. It's kind of hard to make the parts from scratch. It's possible, but the intricate ones are a bit..."
"I've seen one of these, they weren't very useful for the large pieces. I make my prototypes out of metal usually, I actually prefer them."
"Oh, I had it tweaked a bit. I got an old model from a junkshop, semi-hollowed out. I had a friend of mine, Teshhi, to make one for me. *"
"Interesting." She mused. "What else do you have here?"
Notes:
(Hey guys, apparently 3D printing has been here for quuuuiittttteeee while now, but peaked / boomed during around 2009. Iron Man came out in 2008 and the second movie in 2010. So yeah, the first parts of the fic take place between 2008 and 2010. Yep. Avengers were a thing in 2012. Just so you know where we are. For the younglings out here... that's the timeline.
(I'm not saying that I'll follow the order of the movies exactly, i'm just saying that these were the things going on at those years and I might base the fic on those facts. The events of the movies aren't going to play out exactly like the movies because of the tiny tweak I made at the start okay? Some events will happen earlier without prior notice...)
2008:
Peter is born
Tony fight Obadiah
3D printers were kind of a thing
--
2009:
3D printers are now a thing
Tony fights the weird shadows
Bruce adopts peter
--
2010:
Iron Man 2
Touchscreens, phones, and tablets are a thing.
--
2012:
Avengers (1) yeah
--
2013:
Frozen was a thing.
--
Explanation about the Cradle.
I may have tweaked the Cradle a tiny bit. In this story, Helen hasn't created the best version of the cradle yet. Since it's so early in the timeline, the Cradle is merely a prototype which she happened to demonstrate in a convention. The one convention where she and Bruce met.
*This cradle doesn't JUST print tissue. It does, in a sense print tissue, but the thing is, it speeds up the regrowth/healing/regeneration process. But to make it fit the story better, I also added another bit. It aids the body in healing, but the catch is, the ability to regrow that body part must be in one's DNA. For example, she can reprint Hawkeye's skin and tissue because there are skin and tissues around it AND it is actually possible for the skin and tissue to regrow, because our body actually does it.
*For Peter's case, the Cradle cannot regrow limbs, since humans cannot regrow limbs. The Cradle also cannot regrow Peter's skin, since there is no skin present in his body. More info in next chapters.
*The 3D printer thing is a real story. A teacher/engineer from a university in my country (I had the pleasure of meeting him) made his own from scratch and it actually works! Like, so cool. Also, the name Teshhi is the name of my old classmate. Take a guess where he's from.
Damn, that's a long note. Sorry I cut this chapter this way, but I was running out of ideas on how to interact with people.