"Tsk, tsk."
Tony murmured softly, a playful curve forming at the corner of his mouth. He had the calm of a scientist observing an experimental subject, along with a trace of delight at a successful prank. "It seems our dear Agent 'Brock' is having a somewhat... painful time adapting to personal hygiene and laboratory environmental standards?"
He had deliberately used Rumlow's official cover surname.
With a light tap of his finger, he brought up the log interface and spoke clearly. "Record: Deep Sea Barrier Human Tolerance Observation Log, seventy-third routine update. Subject C, Rumlow Brock, continues to display significant psychological stress responses to the high-intensity biological isolation protocols and accompanying monitoring measures. Specific manifestations: non-instructed physical contact with the isolation chamber walls observed inside the chamber, force index moderate, accompanied by a peak disruption in breathing patterns, plus twenty-two percent above baseline. Target emotional index: agitation. Tolerance assessment: C-minus, continuing downward trend. Recommendation: maintain the current monitoring protocol intensity and observe the critical point of his behavioral patterns."
After finishing the entry, Tony turned his gaze to several other Split Screens.
On one of the screens, Steve sat at a cold alloy table in the communal lounge, quietly flipping through a thick stack of printed material—probably some obscure scientific report Tony had given him.
He sat perfectly straight, his expression focused. Most eye-catching was how completely he ignored his surroundings—four Sentinel suits hovered like silent steel vultures in the three corners behind him and at the center of the ceiling, their Sensor Arrays flashed with cold red light as they silently locked onto him.
Their presence was overwhelming enough to unsettle anyone, yet Steve seemed to have entered a state of flow, shutting out every disturbance around him, physical and psychological alike.
His physiological data stream appeared on Tony's screen