A few hours later.
Osborn Tower's underground biology lab.
Tony stared at the holographic projection before him. The coffee in his hand had long gone cold, but he had not taken a single sip.
The dim blue light fell across his face, highlighting his tightly furrowed brows.
"What the hell is this thing?"
After a long while, Tony finally swore as he looked at the Skrull scan results on the screen.
"Calm down, Tony."
Banner pushed up the black-rimmed glasses that had slipped down his nose and said,
"Take a look at this."
Tony leaned closer at once.
On the screen beneath the microscope was a cluster of cells writhing frantically.
They resembled a pool of living liquid metal. One second, they were standard biconcave disc-shaped red blood cells; the next, they stretched and warped, sprouting spikelike protrusions that did not belong to humans.
"Do you see it?"
Banner's voice was somewhat hoarse.
"Their cellular structure and genetic chains exist in an incredibly bizarre free state. As long as they want to, they can directly restructure themselves at the molecular level."
Banner looked up at Tony.
"In other words, this is not a disguise at all."
Banner swallowed.
"This is complete reconstruction.
From the perspective of physics and biology, when he became James Rhodes, he was James Rhodes. His fingerprints, retina, DNA, even the cholesterol level in his blood—everything was exactly the same."
That was truly a conclusion that made one want to curse.
Tony scratched his head irritably.
The technology he had always been so proud of had been thoroughly crushed by this alien race's innate talent.
It was like taking apart a pile of LEGO bricks and using identical pieces to build another car.
Under this universe's laws of physics, it was real.
In other words, with humanity's