Chapter 48
The jet returned to Avengers Tower a short time later.
Adam stood near the back as the doors opened. Clint was awake. The hit had taken a lot out of him. Steve had the scepter with him, and Tony was already walking like the lab was calling his name.
Adam watched him from the side of the room.
He already knew what came next.
Dr. Helen Cho's team was already waiting when the team entered the tower. They took Clint toward the lab area while Maria Hill walked in from the other side.
"Lab's all set up, boss," Maria said.
Tony looked at her and pointed at Steve.
"Uh, actually, he's the boss. I just pay for everything, and design everything and make everyone look cooler."
Adam stayed there for only a few seconds after that.
He did not need to stand around for the rest of the talk. His eyes had already moved toward the direction Tony was going. The scepter was the real problem now. Strucker was done. The twins would come later. Ultron was the thing waiting right in front of them, and Adam needed to reach that moment before it slipped away.
After some time, Adam stood beside Clint's table.
Clint was lying on his back while Helen worked near his side. Natasha sat close enough to watch every movement. Her face stayed calm as her eyes followed Helen's hands and the tools near Clint's wound.
Clint lifted his head a little and looked at the treated area.
"So what now?" Clint asked. "My skin is rubber?"
Helen kept working. "It will still be your own tissue after it heals, and someone close to you would not be able to tell."
Clint blinked. "I don't have someone close like that."
"Then I cannot help with that part," Helen said.
Adam almost smiled at that. Then his attention slipped away again.
Tony and Bruce were moving farther into the lab. Tony had the kind of look Adam had seen before in movies. It was the look of a man who had found a locked door and had already decided the door belonged to him.
Natasha noticed Adam watching them.
"And you?" she asked.
Adam turned to her. "Me?"
Natasha tilted her head a little. "What is your plan? Are you going to talk to the person you like, or are you going to keep standing around and looking at her?"
Adam opened his mouth.
For a second, nothing came out.
Fighting aliens had become easier than this. Even standing in front of guns felt simple compared to answering Natasha while she looked at him like that. He had expected danger today, not this kind of question.
Then he saw Tony and Bruce disappear deeper into the lab.
"Maybe," Adam said. "Maybe I will."
He turned away before Natasha could push him further.
Clint looked at Natasha after Adam left and kept quiet for once.
Adam brought the Omnitrix close to his body as he walked. He did not hit it like he did during a fight outside. He pressed it with two fingers and kept his arm near his chest.
Green light moved over him in a thin layer.
It did not flash across the room. It did not shake the floor. Most people would have missed it unless they were already looking at him.
His body barely changed. His head became a little larger. The change stayed small enough to hide from across the room.
A weight settled inside his skull.
His mind opened behind his eyes. His thoughts became quick and sharp. It felt as if every idea had found its own wire and every wire had a place to go.
Brainstorm.
Adam did not say the name out loud.
He had tested this form during the past year. After the Triskelion incident, his fame had pushed the system forward faster than before. The giant form had made the world look at him, and that attention had given him two new choices.
Humungousaur had been easy.
Brainstorm had taken time.
For almost an hour and a half, Adam could think in a way that did not feel fully human. That was why he had spent the past year reading anything he could find about artificial intelligence and technology. His normal brain had struggled with most of it. In this form, the same knowledge settled into place.
Tony was speaking when Adam reached the lab.
Bruce stood beside him, looking at the image above the table. The scepter's inner structure moved on the screen. Lines of light folded into each other.
It did not look like a weapon anymore.
It looked like a mind that had not woken up yet.
Adam stopped beside the transparent screen.
"I can help," he said.
Tony turned his head. His eyes moved over Adam's face.
"So this one comes with a skin upgrade?" Tony asked. "Are you extracting that, or is that the whole show?"
Adam did not answer the joke.
He stepped closer to the screen. His fingers touched the glass, and the data stopped feeling random. He could see where the model was failing. The program was trying to read the thing inside the gem like it was only code.
That was wrong.
Adam opened a new panel and started writing.
His fingers moved fast. The symbols on the screen changed with each command. The model above the table shifted. The outer shape stayed in place. Inside it, the pattern opened into layers the first model had not shown.
Bruce stepped closer without speaking.
Tony's smile slowly appeared.
The program ran again. The image changed, and the hidden paths inside the model became clearer. It showed a way to reach what was inside the gem without tearing the whole structure apart.
Tony and Banner looked at each other.
Then Tony looked back at Adam.
"Welcome to the mad scientist club, Adam."
Adam kept his hand on the glass.
Tony moved to the next console. Bruce took the other side of the table.
The three of them began working on Ultron.