Marvel: Starting with Iron Man in the Apocalypse

The eerie blue portal suddenly closed behind Chen Haotian and Tony, completely shutting out the piercing alarms, flashing red lights, and intense gunfire from the UBCS elite squad within the Hive base. A brief but intense spatial distortion swept over them, as if their internal organs were being gripped and kneaded by an invisible hand, only to be abruptly released.

"Bang! Bang!"

With two muffled thuds, the two men landed somewhat awkwardly on the hard, cold floor. A familiar scene came into view—the top floor of Stark Tower, inside the private laboratory where they had been before their departure. Soft, intelligent lights automatically illuminated the spotless alloy walls and various cutting-edge instruments and equipment. A faint smell of cleaning agents and machine oil filled the air, a stark contrast to the oppressive stench of disinfectant, blood, and decay that permeated the Hive.

"Cough...cough cough!" Tony was the first to prop himself up. His nanotech armor quickly retracted into the reactor on his chest like flowing liquid, revealing his slightly pale face. He rubbed his chest and spat, "This feels fucking awful! More dizzying than doing a hundred somersaults in a row!"

Chen Haotian quickly adjusted his posture, circulating his internal energy to forcefully suppress the intense discomfort caused by the spatial teleportation. He immediately checked the securely fixed metal storage box behind him, confirming that the T-virus sample and the valuable hard drive data were intact before finally letting out a sigh of relief. He looked around; the familiar, peaceful environment slightly relaxed his tense nerves, but the faint, almost exhausted feedback from the teleportation rune in his sea of ​​consciousness made him feel uneasy. This forced opening of the return channel had consumed far more energy than expected.

"Welcome home, gentlemen." Jarvis's ever-calm, polite British accent rang out in the laboratory. "Vital signs scan complete. Apart from mild spatial adjustment disorder, no obvious signs of trauma or abnormal infection were found."

"Thanks, Jarvis." Tony swayed as he stood up, walked to the control panel, picked up a glass of ice water that Jarvis had prepared, tilted his head back and gulped it down, letting out a long sigh. "Home-cooked water tastes the best. The air in that godforsaken place smelled like a virus."

"How long have we been gone, Jarvis?" Chen Haotian asked, carefully placing the storage box on a specially made isolation table while stretching his stiff neck.

"From the time you initiated the interdimensional teleportation to your return, four hours, seventeen minutes, and thirty-three seconds have passed in the main universe," Jarvis reported the time precisely.

"More than four hours..." Tony put down his water glass, raising an eyebrow. "We've been messing around over there for at least half a day. It seems there is indeed a difference in the flow of time, but it's not too exaggerated."

Chen Haotian nodded; this result was within his expectations. He walked to the isolation platform and activated the scanning program. Blue beams swept across the storage box, conducting a preliminary security check. "The UBCS elites that Red Queen last mobilized have a very unique modus operandi; they don't seem like ordinary mercenaries."

“That’s right,” Tony walked over, his expression serious. “Their tactical coordination, their equipment, especially that… ruthless efficiency that disregards life and only cares about achieving the objective, reminds me of some unpleasant memories.” He pointed to his chest, where an electromagnet had once been used to stop shrapnel from entering his heart, marking a dark past of being kidnapped by terrorists. “They’re like soldiers who have undergone rigorous brainwashing or… some kind of ‘re-engineering’. Umbrella’s waters run deeper than we imagined.”

"Moreover, we've been exposed." Chen Haotian looked at the scan results, which showed no active biological contamination on the sample and hard drive surface, but the internal situation required further analysis. "Red Queen definitely recorded our combat data, especially your armor techniques and my... fighting style. Next time we go back, we'll probably be facing more than just an elite squad."

"Therefore, these things we brought back are of paramount importance." Tony's eyes sharpened as he looked at the storage boxes on the isolation table. "We must master their technology, or even... surpass it, before they develop countermeasures. Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated. This saying holds true everywhere."

"Jarvis," Chen Haotian ordered, "Establish a top-level biosafety zone. Analyze all samples and data brought back, following the standard operating procedures for handling alien virus samples. Prioritize assessing the activity, stability, and potential risks of the T-virus stock solution."

"Command confirmed. BSL-4 laboratory is ready, isolation procedures initiated." The wall on one side of the laboratory silently slid open, revealing a separate space completely isolated by transparent high-strength glass. Various precision instruments inside began self-checking, emitting a low hum.

Chen Haotian and Tony donned high-grade protective suits and entered the isolation laboratory through an airtight door. They carefully placed the T-virus sample into a multi-functional analyzer and connected the hard drives downloaded from the Hive database to a separate supercomputing terminal, physically isolated from the main network.

"Initiating gene sequence analysis..." Tony personally operated the control interface, his eyes gleaming with the unique light of a mad scientist. "Let me see what's so special about this little thing that has plunged the whole world into apocalyptic frenzy."

On the enormous holographic screen, the incredibly complex DNA helical structure began to rapidly appear, rotate, and magnify. Countless base pair sequences cascaded down like a waterfall, accompanied by real-time annotation and analysis from Jarvis.

"The structure is unusually active, with a strong tendency to self-replicate and mutate... Some fragments show traces of artificial splicing, and are not products of natural evolution..." Tony muttered to himself, his fingers flying across the virtual keyboard to bring up more analysis modules.

Chen Haotian, however, was more concerned with the data. The hard drive contained an enormous amount of information, including complete research records on the evolution of the T-virus from its progenitor, various experimental data, clinical (or rather, inhumane live-human experimentation) reports, as well as a large number of development files on BOW (organic biological weapon), including preliminary designs and testing data for projects such as Licker and Tyrant. He even saw snippets about the "G-virus," but the core content seemed to have been blocked or moved by higher-level authorities.

"The Umbrella Corporation has quite the ambition," Chen Haotian said, a cold smile playing on his lips as he quickly scanned the page. "They're not just researching viruses; they're practically building a biological army. If this technology were to leak out..."

"So we absolutely cannot let them fall into the hands of Hydra or anyone with ill intentions." Tony replied without looking up, his attention completely absorbed by the T-virus's genetic map. "Huh? This energy response pattern... Jarvis, compare it to the virus sample data we brought back from the Walker world."

"Comparing..." Jarvis replied after a moment, "Sir, although both viruses cause the host to 'resurrect' after death and are highly aggressive, they are fundamentally different at the genetic level. The virus in the zombie world has a relatively simple and stable structure, more like a specific parasite targeting the nervous system. The T virus... its structure is much more complex, extremely aggressive and mutable, and... its core seems to be wrapped with a weak signal of a unique, non-Earth-known energy system."

"An energy signal?" Chen Haotian was also drawn to the question.

"Yes, Mr. Chen. This energy signal is very subtle, but it does exist. It seems to promote the rapid mutation of the T-virus and its forced fusion with the host's genes." Jarvis visualized the comparison results. The gene chain representing the zombie virus appeared as a deathly gray-green, while the gene chain of the T-virus resembled a colorful, twisted serpent, surrounded by extremely fine, constantly flashing dark red energy threads.

"It seems that the 'rules' of different worlds are not only reflected in macroscopic physical constants, but may even extend to the microscopic biological and energy levels," Chen Haotian mused. He thought of the internal energy he cultivated and the Arc Reactor energy that Tony's armor relied on—both products of the Marvel Universe's rules. And the T-virus clearly bore the unique "mark" of the Resident Evil world.

"Interesting..." Tony licked his lips, his eyes growing increasingly excited. "So, what if we combined this T-virus, which bears the mark of another world's rules, with some of the 'specialties' of our world?"

As he spoke, he took out a small metal container from the cryogenic safe next to him. Inside were a few drops of liquid that looked like molten gemstones and emitted a faint orange glow—a sample of the Extremis virus.

"You want to fuse them?" Chen Haotian immediately understood Tony's idea. The Extremis virus can greatly stimulate the human body's potential, granting it powerful self-healing abilities and the ability to manipulate high temperatures, but it is extremely unstable and has huge side effects. The T-virus is also known for its uncontrollable mutations and destruction.

"Theoretically feasible!" Tony pointed to the data on the holographic screen. "Look, this alien energy characteristic of the T-virus might act as a 'catalyst' or 'stabilizer' to help us solve the problems of energy dissipation and host rejection of the Extremis virus! Of course, the risks are equally huge. The fusion of two extreme viruses could be a disaster if not handled carefully."

"Risk and opportunity coexist." Chen Haotian walked to Tony's side, looking at the dazzling yet dangerous Extremis virus, then at the grotesquely writhing T-virus gene chain on the screen, a sharp glint in his eyes. "But we have a reason to do this. The Red Queen and her protectors, and Hydra possibly lurking in the shadows, won't give us a chance to develop slowly. We need stronger power, we need... to cheat."

He patted Tony on the shoulder. "Let's get started, bro. We'll begin with theoretical simulations and a very small-scale in vitro fusion experiment. Jarvis, monitor the whole process. If the energy reaction exceeds the threshold, immediately initiate the emergency freeze and annihilation procedures."

"Command confirmed. Simulation program loading... In vitro fusion experiment ready." Jarvis's voice remained calm, but the atmosphere in the laboratory suddenly became tense and full of anticipation.

Inside a transparent isolation chamber, one robotic arm precisely extracts a microliter of the T-virus stock solution, while another robotic arm extracts an equal volume of the specially diluted Extremis virus. These two liquids, representing the pinnacle of danger in different worlds, slowly approach each other within a miniature reaction chamber protected by a high vacuum and energy shield…