The Irony of it All

41

Bruce found himself running to the lab after a particular concerning broadcast was sent specifically to his room. By concerning broadcast, I am referring to Tony hysterically screaming incomprehensible words across Friday's speakers. So in his panicked urgency, Bruce skipped the elevator, took the stairs, and was quite out of breath, his glasses in his hand, and part of his shirt untucked from running by the time he reached Stark's lab.

         He would have burst through the door at an alarming speed but instead when he pressed his hand against the fingerprint ID while simultaneously pushing himself forward, the fingerprint ID was denied and his body bounced off the door. He could see the eccentric billionaire through the soundproof, bulletproof, and radiation proof glass, already panicked, and now locked out, Bruce wasn't about to do a sweet three tap knock. His loud, pounding, banging rivaled the police force at your door in the early hours of the morning. He even managed to startle Tony who had been expecting him.     

       "Oh! Friday! Unlock the lab!" Tony yelled as he ran across the room. The door had just barely opened when Tony grabbed Bruce and hauled him back over to his desk.

      "What is going on?!" Tony swiped up on his holographic screen, bringing up just one of the results.

       "Look."

        Bruce put his glasses on so he could see the words and numbers a little more clearly. "You okay?" Tony asked, doing a double take as he finally looked at his teammate. "You've got a…" He gestured to his own face. "Glow."

        "It's called sweat, Stark. I thought someone died the way you were screaming."

        Tony shrugged. "I wouldn't have screamed if someone was dead."

       He first saw a capture of cells, cells he immediately recognized as super soldier serum blood cells. His eyes scanned the rest of the transparent screen, falling on what was obviously the main point. His jaw went slack and his eyes widened behind the lenses.

        Erskine Serum: POSITIVE

        He turned to Tony, his face still showing shock. "You got a blood sample."

        Tony beamed at him and nodded, confirming Bruce's statement. The shock started to wear off as Bruce turned back to the screen, a huge smile of joy and relief breaking out across his face. "Ha! We can save him! We can save Barton!"

        "I've been doing a couple calculations", Tony said, pulling up a secondary screen. "But I'm not too good at biochemistry. You think you can make an antidote?"

         "You got a place for me to work?"

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        "So how does this work?" Tony asked.

        Bruce was nearly done with the antidote. He'd isolated all the key components he needed, and then he added Vitamin C for collagen synthesis, Vitamin B for carbohydrates and energy production, Zinc for protein and tissue regrowth, Copper for the metabolism, Iron for increasing the body's oxygen production, and potassium for the heart, nerves, and producing electrolytes. Now all he needed to do was carefully combine it at a temperature between -335⁰F and -333⁰F. Not a lot of room for error.

       Tony had provided a large canister of liquid nitrogen, so while Bruce was putting on his safety gear, he answered the question.

        "The Erskine serum has regenerative properties. If Steve lost half a lung, like most people he'd die, except if kept alive long enough the lung will grow back and it'll be as if nothing happened.