"How can matters involving extraordinary individuals be compared to torches or lighters?" Johnny Storm's face turned red as he stammered a retort to Peter Parker, though he didn't seem very confident.
"Alright, let's analyze who's stronger later. Right now, the most important thing is to figure out what's going wrong between you and the Extremis virus!" Tony Stark interrupted, cutting off the playful atmosphere that was about to rise. He turned to Johnny and spoke seriously.
Tony Stark had a good understanding of Johnny's abilities and some knowledge of the Extremis virus. After reviewing Killian's research on Extremis, Tony had learned even more. But the more he learned, the less he understood Johnny's current condition. While Killian's data provided useful insights, it also brought confusion.
"Oh! Okay!" Hearing Tony's words, Johnny stopped joking. The Extremis virus was critical to his future power growth, so he quickly followed Tony, even helping to carry the experimental equipment and research materials.
Seeing Johnny's behavior, the Avengers smiled. Even Peter Parker, who had been dealing with the Venom defect, hadn't shown such eagerness.
"At home, he never offers to help clean up. He doesn't even bother going out to buy stuff..." Susan Storm joked from the side.
"If you had the chance to enhance your powers, you wouldn't pass it up either..." Johnny replied, overhearing his sister's comment. Before Susan could retort, he quickly ducked into the lab.
The research on the Extremis virus began swiftly. Robert had even brought some samples from Killian's equipment. With these samples and Killian's notes, recreating the Extremis virus was no problem for geniuses like Tony Stark and Reed Richards.
In fact, as they researched the Extremis virus, Tony and Reed even found a way to eliminate its side effects and neutralize its impact entirely, essentially creating an antidote. If someone who injected Extremis feared losing control and self-destructing, this antidote could completely remove the virus from their system.
However, this also meant that all the benefits of the Extremis virus would be erased, returning the person to normal.
Yet, despite reaching this stage, Tony and Reed had not been able to develop a version of the Extremis virus without defects, one that could bestow the powers of the virus while allowing complete control of its effects. Creating a perfectly stable, 100% successful transcendent product was proving incredibly difficult. If it weren't, military projects like the Gamma Corps wouldn't be so limited in numbers.
As for Johnny's issue with completely suppressing the powers of Extremis users, Tony and Reed figured it out. It had to do with Johnny's unique flame abilities. Simple fire wouldn't have much of an effect—just applying pressure on Extremis users—but Johnny's flames had explosive properties.
When unstable Extremis users faced Johnny's explosive flames, it was like a ticking bomb waiting to go off.
In Tony's calculations, if a perfect Extremis user existed, they wouldn't be so easily ignited by Johnny, and their strength might not be much less than his. In fact, their survival abilities would likely surpass Johnny's since Johnny's flame form was an active ability that drained his energy. He couldn't maintain his flame form for long in battle.
For instance, when fighting Venom or the Kryptonian, Johnny could only unleash two powerful strikes before exhausting his strength, and once that happened, he couldn't reignite until he recovered.
The Extremis virus, on the other hand, granted a passive lava-like form. Unless the heart or brain was completely destroyed, the virus' regenerative abilities made it nearly impossible to die. In theory, a perfect Extremis user might even achieve near-immortality.
Now that Johnny's issue was resolved, the research returned to its original challenge: replicating the Extremis virus in a more stable form. Tony and his team could recreate the virus, but creating a perfect version was beyond their reach. The success rate and risks were still higher than with the Super Soldier Serum.
It was clear that Killian had lost many followers in his trials, as his version of the Extremis virus had an even lower success rate than what Tony and Reed had managed to achieve.
"So, any new progress? You said the Extremis virus didn't conflict with your abilities. How's it going now?" Robert asked, noticing Johnny's recent mix of excitement and frustration.
"There's some progress, but it's still far from Tony's ideal perfect virus. Tony said that for my safety, he won't let me inject it until it's perfected and the success rate is guaranteed..." Johnny sighed.
Despite being studied and having his blood drawn, Johnny hadn't been idle. He had been working hard to improve his strength. Though his progress wasn't dramatic, he remembered Robert's advice: to break past his limits, he needed to exhaust himself and recover, pushing himself further each time.
Lately, Johnny had been exhausting his power daily, then slowly recovering, trying to break through his limits. However, he had yet to see any signs of significant improvement.
"Right, I forgot to mention the Flame Biochemical concept to Tony. Isn't success rate the biggest issue right now? If we could study Flame Biochemicals, it might help advance the Extremis research!" Robert suddenly recalled an idea from their encounter with Killian and rushed to Tony's lab.
"Flame Biochemical?" Tony looked surprised. Despite the battle with the Chitauri, the Avengers hadn't pursued creating artificial beings. Previously, they had cloned experimental bodies to help Bruce Banner separate from the Hulk, but those bodies had been destroyed afterward, as the Avengers felt it was disrespectful to life.
But if they started studying biochemicals now, it would mark a new, groundbreaking step for the Avengers.
"A perfect transcendent path isn't easy to find. It seems like there are rules in place limiting the development of powers like these. If a self-sufficient transcendent path thrived, wouldn't that threaten the existence of other dimensions?" Robert said, noticing Tony's hesitation.
Robert had previously tried teaching others to cultivate "Qi," a path to transcendence without side effects. But only Peter Parker had succeeded, and even he eventually transitioned to using lightning power through Thor's hammer. Others like Jackie Chan and Jade Chan initially practiced Qi, but later found themselves on different paths. Even Steve Rogers, a naturally talented warrior, couldn't cultivate Qi.
Robert realized that those who already had transcendent abilities were absorbing and transforming the Qi into their own power, preventing others from mastering it. It seemed like there were cosmic forces at play, limiting the spread of such pure transcendent paths.
Since pure transcendence was out of reach, combining technology and supernatural powers seemed like the way forward. After all, Tony's latest suits were already blending technology and the extraordinary, with materials like Vibranium and the mystical N-metal, far beyond conventional science.
"Are you saying our tech tree is being locked?" Tony frowned.
"Not exactly. Compared to cosmic civilizations, our technology is still lacking. I'm only referring to pure supernatural powers..." Robert clarified.
"Since the Extremis virus has reached a bottleneck, even a perfect version won't guarantee success. Why not merge the Extremis virus with Chitauri technology to create Flame Biochemicals and draw inspiration from them?"
"As you've said before, we need to encounter more civilizations and powers to truly innovate."
Reed Richards, listening from the side, nodded. "That's what you told me before. But it seems the Saiyans understand this better than us."
"So, you're on board too?" Tony hesitated.
"Why not? The Extremis virus has hit a wall. As long as we don't perform mass experiments on living beings, it's worth trying," Reed said.
Tony sighed. "I just feel like creating life crosses a line."
"Not if you don't give them consciousness. Let Jarvis control them—half-mechanical, half-living. What do you think?" Reed's eyes lit up.
"Are we heading toward artificial humans now? Is there a difference between biochemicals and artificial humans?" Robert thought but stayed silent. He had given them the idea—now it was up to Tony and Reed.
"Half-mechanical, controlled by software… that's not too different from controlling armor. Maybe that could work..." Tony muttered, slowly warming up to the idea.
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