Bucky, coming up behind Steve, patted his shoulder. Steve, with his hands on his hips, shook his head and said:
"At first, when Tony told me he arranged for Venom and Thor to engage with Shiller, I was uneasy. An alien symbiote with a somewhat abnormal mind and a god king from Asgard, how can they possibly have a therapeutic effect?"
"However now, it seems maybe our thinking was too limited. Human thinking is too emotional, and we were too circumspect in dealing with Shiller due to our friendship with him."
"What Thor said makes sense, but if it were me, I wouldn't be able to say such words when facing Shiller in such a poor condition."
At this point, Professor X wheeled himself forward, removed his earpiece, and said, "I could sense a momentary emotional fluctuation from Shiller. That's very rare for individuals on the spectrum."
"The inability to empathize is a typical manifestation of autism spectrum disorders. Often, what you see, their joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, are all performed, and occasions when they genuinely experience emotional fluctuations are few and far between."
Charles rubbed the side of his earpiece and said, "Some patients with mild symptoms can gradually recover to normal with age, but the severity of Shiller's condition is clearly not something we can leave to its own devices."
"By the way, why is Tony making us monitor this equipment here, when he's absent?" Steve, furrowing his brow, said, "In the past few days, he, Steven, and Loki have been acting mysteriously. I don't know what they're up to…"
"Maybe he's arranging the next steps for the treatment…" Charles guessed, shaking his head, but soon, he frowned and said, "Hold on, something seems wrong."
Seeing Charles's increasingly somber face, both Steve and Bucky approached him. Charles furrowed his brows deeper and closed his eyes, evidently using his ability to investigate something.
After a while, he opened his eyes and looked at Steve, saying, "This is the thing. Tony wanted me to use my power to monitor Shiller's emotional changes constantly to observe the treatment effect."
"But I wouldn't use my mind-reading ability to monitor anyone for prolonged periods. It's against morals and ethics."
"However, I also think that we should closely observe the emotional fluctuations of a psychiatric patient to prevent them from suddenly losing control and causing any danger. So I've taken a middle-of-the-road approach."
"Before, the Luminous Alliance set up a base in the mind space. Everyone has a pathway between their mind space and the public space, I can monitor the mental fluctuations indirectly through that pathway."
"This monitoring is passive. If there are no intensive mental fluctuations, I won't receive any notification. I will not see any details from their mind space or secrets."
Upon hearing this, Steve sincerely praised, "Professor, your moral standards never cease to amaze me. I can't imagine who else, after obtaining such a powerful ability as yours, could still regulate themselves so strictly…"
Charles only offered a bitter smile but didn't say anything else. Instead, he continued, "Based on my monitoring just now, there was nothing wrong with the mental fluctuations Shiller transmitted. However …"
Charles had a somewhat troubled expression, and Bucky, with sharp senses, caught on something. He asked, "Did something happen to someone else?"
Charles was a tad surprised but confirmed with a nod, "I don't know if it's a problem with my ability, but I felt pain and weakness from Tony Stark…"
Steve was slightly taken aback, then said, "It must be the pain he feels because of Shiller's condition, right?"
Charles shook his head, saying, "No, he's experienced pain several times before, especially when he saw Shiller on the streets. But that's different from now. His pain is currently intense, and his mental fluctuations are fading. Simply put, he may be in danger …"
The words Charles uttered were conservative and tactful, but they were enough to startle Steve, who almost jumped in his place, "Professor, are you sure? Tony may be in danger? What is he doing right now? My God! I knew they would surely stir up trouble!"
Saying this, he turned to put on his gear, picked up his shield, and immediately wanted to leave. It was Bucky who stopped him and then turned to ask, "Professor Charles, where is Tony Stark now? Are there any enemies around him?"
"He's in the laboratory in the Stark Building, and there are no enemies around." Charles hesitated a bit but eventually slightly breached his moral code to help Steve and Bucky find Stark's location.
"Do you need me to assist you there?" Charles asked. He turned to look at the playground of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, which was now empty because many mutants had followed Magneto to intern in the Andromeda Galaxy.
Steve stood in place, took a deep breath to calm himself down, then said, "No, Professor. You stay here to monitor Shiller's condition. I'll handle Tony's matter. We cannot afford to panic."
Charles nodded, thinking that what Steve said made sense. Whether it was Tony Stark or Shiller Rodriguez, both were important to humans and mutants, and no mistakes could be afforded.
After Steve and Bucky left Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, they immediately rushed towards the Stark Building. Usually, Steve could go directly into the building and take the private elevator to the floor where Stark was located.
However, today, he was stopped by the security robot before he could even approach the building. The robot emitted two "beeps," then said, "Sorry, the Stark Building is currently in full lockdown. Any uninvited personnel are not allowed in. Please leave right away…"
Steve tapped his shield and asked, "Am I not an invitee?"
Security robots were merely repeating those sentences. Bucky tugged on Steve's arm and said, "It might be because of me that you can't get in. I'll stand farther away, then they should let you in."
Steve thought that Stark probably hadn't had time to update the security program's whitelist, and considering the past conflict between him and Bucky, it was unlikely for Stark to let Bucky into the Stark Building.
So, after a moment's thought, Steve asked Bucky to step back a bit and tried to walk in himself.
Unexpectedly, as Steve was about to step in, the security robot's arm emitted a series of sparks. Steve instinctively rolled sideways to avoid being electric-shocked.
He furrowed his brows deeply saying, "What the hell is Tony doing?! He isn't trying to keep me out, is he? Damn it, he must be up to something big!"
Then, Steve took two steps back joining Bucky. They whispered a bit and then, raising one hand, said, "Okay, okay, seems we've come at a wrong time, we'll leave right now…"
As they retreated, the security robots did the same, but the next second, a shiny shield cut through the air, hitting the head of the robot with a bang, then both figures rushed into the Stark Building.
In an instant, the Stark Building's reception was in chaos as all sorts of robots collapsed one after the other under the onslaught of Captain America and the Winter Soldier.
Both quickly rushed to the elevator. Steve shouted, "Jarvis! Open the door!"
As expected, there was no response. Annoyed, Steve stamped his foot and swung his head saying, "Take the stairs! It's just a few dozen floors!"
They charged towards the stairs but were soon met with more obstacles. Although none of the robots had lethal weapons, dealing with the endless stream of robots kept them busy for a while.
Steve used his shield to block a punching robot, then he forcefully struck forward, throwing it to the ground, and quickly turned to cover for Bucky. As Bucky's mechanical arm swung, it left trace upon trace of afterimages. Many robots, with sparks flying, fell and rolled down the stairs.
"What the hell is Stark doing?! Why is he using these electronic scraps to block our way?!" Steve yelled angrily.
"He's stalling for time," said Bucky coolly, "These robots don't have any weapons, but they're durable and tough. And he knows we don't have any large-scale attack approaches…"
Steve snorted and said to Bucky, "Stand back!"
Bucky immediately grabbed a ventilation duct with his mechanical arm and jumped to the other side of the stairwell.
Steve swung his shield, embedding a sparking robot on the edge of the shield, then swung with all his strength.
"ZZzzllaa——!!!!"
A massive outbreak of sparks occurred, instantly, the robots crowding the corridor all collapsed, emitting black smoke. Steve waved his hand and said, "Go!"
On the following journey, the two of them were continuously mopping up the Robot Army. In one night, the Stark Building had become like the nest of evil robots; every few floors they had to stop for at least ten minutes.
By the time they finally reached the floor of the target laboratory, almost an hour had passed.
Steve's uneasy premonition was getting stronger, and he didn't care about conserving energy, ignoring all robot attacks and charging straight for the lab.
Bucky called from behind, "No! Steve! Be careful!!!"
Just as Steve reached the lab door, "boom," a massive robot landed in front of him, raising its fist towards him.
Steve, still in a running posture, couldn't block in time. With wide-open eyes, he watched as the giant iron fist descended from above his head.
But just as the shadow was about to touch his head, suddenly, all the robots stopped their attacks and went silent.
Amid the gradually dimming lights and the gradually extinguishing sounds of mechanical friction, Steve distinctly heard the inorganic bodies emitting a mourning wail like a gust of sea breeze.
Passed the massive defensive robot, the laboratory door slowly opened in front of Steve.
What appeared before his eyes was a bare-chested Tony Stark leaning on the laboratory table, with smoking electrode patches on his heart area. He had already stopped breathing.