"Sir,"
The oceanographer's face was pale white. "The high-concentration leading edge... at the fastest... six to eight weeks. Dispersion and dilution cannot solve the root problem. Long-lived nuclides will accumulate... the top of the entire North Pacific Ocean food chain... will suffer a devastating blow. Fisheries... are finished. Ecological disaster... irreversible."
Only heavy breathing and the monotonous beeping of instruments remained in the Command Center.
As the heavy airtight alloy door slid open, the low grinding sound it issued somehow carried the meaning of tearing apart despair.
Tony Stark, encased in a gold-and-red iron armor with sharp, aggressive lines, strode into the space enveloped by the shadow of death like an alien envoy entering a tomb.
The armor's joints emitted the powerful hiss unique to precision hydraulic systems in operation. Its metal soles struck the alloy floor in a steady, cold rhythm, utterly out of place amid the stifled gasps and beeping in the Command Center.
"Sorry, everyone."
Tony's voice came through the armor's external speakers, carrying a trace of forcibly suppressed agitation. His usual flippancy was gone, and beneath the metallic texture lay an unmistakable heaviness. "Giving this new armor a full radiation-proof coating took longer than expected. The situation now..."
His words were cut off by a shrill alarm that suddenly rang out from inside the armor.
"Sir!" Even J.A.R.V.I.S.'s ever-calm British accent had acquired a hint of urgent metallic sharpness. "Warning! Ambient gamma and neutron radiation levels are rising sharply! At a distance of three meters from your current position, the instantaneous dose rate has exceeded the Safety Threshold by 1,243 times! Strongly recommend immediately activating full-seal protection mode! I repeat, activate immediately!"
"Damn it!"
Tony let out a low roar, reacting almost instinctively.
He suddenly threw both arms wide. The gold-and-red streamlined plates on the armor's