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The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 88 [November 2010]
Manhattan
–Axle Riddle–
Okay, this has gone on long enough. He never expected the universe to throw this curve ball at him in the shape of a baby but he felt as if his entire attention was being taken by this one single problem for a long while now.
He was sick and tired of the universe not letting him take a breath in peace without having another problem thrown on top of his already large pile. It was bad enough that he got to see what the city would have to face if he ever left it, even for a small period of time, but now there was some sort of radiation warning, something that could devastate the entire city.
No, not on his watch.
"Okay, Tony, what is happening?" His paper avatar spoke even as he made sure that additional material was summoned from the nearby warehouses that had been stocked with solid lead, lead polymers, and more, just in case a radiation emergency occurred, just as it was happening right now.
The area around the warehouses was a ghost town right now and more were being evacuated, with him controlling the flow of traffic and making sure that no road was clogged, which made the process go much faster than normal.
A single SHIELD agent remained outside the premises but he was already in heavy radiation shielding gear so he let the agent be, but remained ready to fling him far into the city if the need arose.
"I-I don't know. One moment, it was fine, the radiation was being purged from Betty's body and was being harmlessly released into the air but then–" Tony spoke even as his hands continued to fly across the keyboard, his armoured hands making it very difficult but he had to make do with that.
"It's the baby. The baby is now releasing pulse after pulse of gamma radiation that are now being taken out into the air. The thing is, Ms.Betty is in an enclosed space with all that radiation in the air. The fibres are still doing their job, they are not near their limit but the sealed space will soon be at its limits." Dr.Cho informed him as she too, tried to find a solution to their problem.
Bruce was a complete nervous wreck, his fingers flying across the keyboard even as he saw Bruce's fingers twitch whenever he looked at the glass that speared both of them as if he was contemplating just breaking the glass.
The perks of already being Gamma enhanced meant that Bruce didn't exactly need any protection from any radiation that might spill over from the sealed space that Betty was in.
"Can we move them?" He ended up asking the question that he dreaded the most. If he could, he would not let them out of his sight, not until Bruce's child was strong enough to protect himself or Bruce himself was established as someone who was not to be trifled with, but if the choice was between possible risk to Betty and definite risk to the city, he would unflinchingly choose the former.
Unfortunately, Tony dashed all his hopes, "No. It is too late now. Moving them might jostle the fibres out of their place and we don't want Betty to suffer from catastrophic organ failure, which is what will happen if her body is flooded with that much gamma radiation, all at once."
Oh. Well, that complicated things. He could guarantee the non movement of the fibres until they remained in his range but after that, he would not be able to do anything.
"Wait!" Dr.Cho's shout turned everyone towards her as she continued to type across the hologram that was in front of her.
"Look, I've sent you the data." She said as Tony and Bruce both turned back to their displays.
"..What the.." Tony whispered as his hands seemingly froze at the information he was seeing, same with Bruce whose body trembled.
"What is happening?" his avatar asked, even as he noted that the signal integrity to the phone was being compromised, probably due to the cloud of solid lead that now surrounded the warehouse, ready to be deployed at a moment's notice.
It was Bruce who answered with a wide smile on his face, "I-It's a feedback loop."
A what now?
"The baby is sending out more gamma radiation which is then absorbed by the fibres and then part of that is released into the enclosed space and part of that is turned into the life force and pumped back into Betty's body," Bruce answered as he slumped down on one knee, the pressure finally being relieved from his mind.
"So, Betty is fine?" He asked them tentatively, the scientific jargon flowing above his head but he realised one thing. The Gamma radiation excess was creating CHI from the fibres which was pumped back into Betty, which healed Betty of all the damage.
But still.. "What about the gamma radiation? I mean staying in that saturated environment can't be healthy for Betty. I reckon the baby itself will be fine but…"
His worries were waved off by Tony, "Oh, don't worry about that. We have plenty of ways of flushing out the radiation from the enclosed space. What we were worried about was the way Betty's body would react negatively, if there was no additional healing done to her body. How were we supposed to know that the thing was so potent."
"Yes, and I can see her cell structure changing in real time. The Gamma radiation feedback along with the stem cells that the baby is undoubtedly sending its mother, combined with the life giving rays of the fibre, Betty's body is changing at a pace never seen before. I think..I think she will become a positively enhanced person before the pregnancy is over." Cho's words made sense to him but apparently, were like thunderclaps in the ears of both Bruce and Tony who immediately scrambled over to Cho's display which showed the latest scans being taken of Betty from the custom equipment that Tony and Bruce had built for this purpose.
It basically ignored Gamma Radiation in the air but still, no matter how much they tried, they could not get a completely accurate picture of the baby inside Betty.
"What the…" Tony whispered even as Bruce remained shell shocked at the piece of information.
"Latest DNA sample?" Tony prodded and Dr.Cho nodded at the same.
"...So, She-Hulk?" Everybody's necks robotically tuned to his paper avatar which shrugged at the accusing glares.
"So, is it safe to call everyone back? Or do we still need the lead lining around the warehouse because I gotta tell you guys, I have to actively hold back all the dust so that it doesn't poison the air and water around us and it is a chore."
"Dude, read the room." Tony of all people said to his paper avatar as he and Bruce both turned back to gawk at the changes that were happening in real time to Betty. THey even got scans of her muscles and bones which were changing near simultaneously.
It was not that hard to make the connection to him, having meta knowledge that all these peasants in front of him did not.
What made the first super soldier? Super Soldier Serum but without the Vita Rays.
Second Super Soldier? SSS and Vita Rays.
Hulk? Gamma Radiation and inherent Gamma gene. Some had even theorised that the mere existence of the Hulk in any future timeline was so powerful that its repercussions were felt across the timeline, essentially meaning that Bruce would turn into the Hulk in that Gamma Explosion simply because in some future, the Hulk existed.
Keeping that aside, Blonsky's creation needed the SSS and Bruce's blood.
Now, Betty had Gamma Radiation, Gamma gene (in the form of the baby and the stem cells), Vita Rays (Term coined by Erskine because he probably didn't know what CHI was), and Bruce's DNA.
All in all, quite the potent combination to become the super soldier serum because even if Betty's body couldn't handle the strain, the baby will ensure that its mother was given enough resources to be healed, along with the seemingly endless Gamma being absorbed by the fibres and being outputted as CHI straight into the vital organs in her body.
Damn, the Ancient One played very well when she wanted to.
It made him wonder why she fought like a pansy in the movie which led to her death, being killed by falling from all things. Fighting demon lords, Dormammu, Mephisto, and any number of reality altering threats and then dying to something as pedestrian as falling from a height, granted after being severely injured was the height of not going out with a bang.
"She's safe. Betty is safe." He didn't know if Bruce was telling it to the people in the room or reassuring himself.
It was probably the latter.
"Call everyone back, Mayor. The issue is resolved." He transmitted the news and assembled the solid lead back into one of the adjoining warehouses, along with the not insignificant amount of lead dust that was gathered by him and sealed in an airtight box.
It would not do to recreate the lead poisoning from the eras back. It led to a permanent decrease in American IQ that he would not like to be repeated.
There were enough dumb people as is, without some outside intervention.
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