Location: Stark Mansion - Malibu, California
Timeline: three Weeks After First Contact
Tony Stark had seen a lot of impossible things in his life.
He'd built a miniature arc reactor in a cave with a box of scraps. He'd flown through a wormhole and back. He'd fought gods and monsters and his own demons.
But watching Squirtle glow was somehow still ranking in his top ten weirdest experiences.
"JARVIS, tell me you're recording this."
"Every sensor is active, sir. Though I should note that the energy readings are... extraordinary."
Squirtle stood in the center of the testing facility, his small body wrapped in white light that was growing brighter by the second. The turtle had been in the middle of a training exercise—practicing his Water Gun accuracy against moving targets—when he'd suddenly stopped, looked at Tony with wide eyes, and started glowing.
"Is he okay?" Tony asked, taking a step forward. "Squirtle, buddy, talk to me. Are you in pain?"
The light pulsed, and Tony felt energy wash over him—not dangerous, just there. Like standing next to a generator.
Through the brilliance, Tony could see Squirtle's silhouette changing. Growing. The curve of his shell becoming more pronounced. His tail extending. His ears—when had he gotten ears?—lengthening into something more prominent.
"Sir, I believe this is the evolutionary process you hypothesized about based on the genetic analysis. The dormant DNA sequences are activating."
"He's evolving," Tony breathed. "Right now. In front of me."
The light intensified until Tony had to shield his eyes. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, it faded.
Where Squirtle had stood, there was now a creature that was recognizably the same but fundamentally different. Taller—maybe three feet now. More muscular, with a streamlined build that suggested power and speed. The shell was larger, more protective. Two streams of vapor trailed from the tail, which had grown into something elegant and fluid, curving like a cresting wave.
And those ears—prominent, pointed, alert.
The creature blinked, looked down at itself, then up at Tony.
"Wartortle!" The voice was deeper, more resonant than Squirtle's had been, but still carried that same enthusiasm.
Tony stared. "Holy shit."
Wartortle—because that's clearly what he was now—took a tentative step forward, testing his new body. He looked down at his hands, flexing webbed fingers that seemed larger, more capable. Touched his shell, feeling the increased size and weight. Swished his tail experimentally, and the vapor streams responded, leaving elegant trails in the air.
Then he looked at Tony with an expression that was pure anxiety.
Do you still like me?
Tony's chest tightened. "Hey. Hey, come here."
He knelt down, and Wartortle rushed forward, pressing against him. The turtle was heavier now, more solid, but the gesture was the same one Squirtle had made a hundred times.
"You're still you," Tony said quietly, running his hand over the new shell. "Just... bigger. More awesome. Still my partner."
"War-tor-tle," the Pokemon said, and Tony could hear the relief.
"JARVIS, full diagnostic. I want to know everything that just changed."
"Already running, sir. Preliminary results show a thirty-seven percent increase in muscle mass, significant enhancement to the shell's defensive capabilities, and the vapor production from the tail suggests advanced water manipulation abilities. The DNA has fully expressed the secondary genetic pattern we identified."
Tony stood, studying his partner with new eyes. "Show me what you can do."
Wartortle's eyes lit up. He turned toward the training area, planted his feet, and opened his mouth.
The Water Gun that emerged was not the controlled stream Tony had grown used to. This was a Hydro Pump—a massive column of water that hit the reinforced target with enough force to send it flying backward into the far wall.
Tony's eyebrows shot up. "Okay. That's new."
Wartortle looked back at him, clearly surprised by his own power.
"Let's try that again," Tony said, already pulling up holographic controls. "But this time, let's test precision. JARVIS, deploy the moving target array."
What followed was two hours of the most fascinating testing Tony had done since building the Mark I. Wartortle's abilities had evolved along with his body:
Water Gun had become more powerful and more preciseHydro Pump was available now—devastating but energy-intensiveAqua Tail was a new technique where his tail glowed with water energy and could strike with surprising forceRapid Spin let him withdraw into his shell and spin at high speeds, both for defense and offenseAnd most impressively, Withdraw now provided such effective protection that Tony's repulsor beams at 30% power barely made him flinchBut it wasn't just about power. Wartortle was smarter now. More tactical. When Tony set up complex obstacle courses, the Pokemon analyzed them, planned his route, and executed with precision that Squirtle had been working toward but hadn't quite achieved.
"You're not just stronger," Tony observed, watching Wartortle navigate a course that required timing, water control, and spatial awareness. "You're better at being you."
Wartortle finished the course and bounded over, clearly pleased with himself.
Tony sat down on the floor, and Wartortle settled beside him—though now the turtle was large enough that his head came up to Tony's shoulder.
"You know what this means, right?" Tony said. "If you can evolve once, you can probably evolve again. There's a third form waiting in that DNA of yours."
Wartortle nodded slowly.
"And if you're evolving, that means others probably can too. Whatever else is out there—if there are others like you—they might have the same potential." Tony pulled up holographic displays, his mind already racing ahead. "This changes everything. We're not just dealing with creatures that appeared—we're dealing with creatures that are still changing. Growing. Adapting."
"Wartortle," his partner said, and the tone suggested: Is that bad?
"No," Tony said after a moment. "No, it's not bad. It's just... we need to be ready. For whatever comes next."
He looked at his partner—no longer a cute turtle he'd found in his garden, but a warrior in his own right. Still loyal. Still eager. Still fundamentally good.
"Come on," Tony stood, offering his hand. "Let's go tell Pepper. She's going to lose her mind when she sees you."
Wartortle took his hand, and together they walked out of the training facility.
Behind them, JARVIS compiled his data, cross-referencing the evolutionary process with every biological database available. The AI's conclusion was simple and profound:
These creatures weren't just visitors from another dimension.
They were becoming something new. Something that existed nowhere else but here, on Earth-616, transformed by their partnerships and their experiences.
Evolution in action.
And this was only the beginning.