[A few days later] [Tony's lab]
Tony had been staring at the same data stream for five straight minutes without blinking.
That alone made it interesting.
He was analyzing the mutation crystal that the Widows recovered from Oscorp, way back before the fall of the company.
He rotated the red crystal slowly between two magnetic containment fields, watching how it reacted to stimulus instead of forcing answers out of it.
"Alright," Tony muttered. "Let us see what you actually do."
He pulled up the Widows' recovered files again, skimmed past the glossy executive summaries, and jumped straight to raw data: blood samples, gene sequencing, and failed containment attempts. Oscorp had tortured a teenage boy for years, causing his mutation to evolve, and then extracted his mutation, killing him in the process.
Tony tried to use his Reality Gem to revive the boy, but it didn't work. All he got was a little information from the Mind Gem, telling him that the soul he's trying to bring back doesn't exist. So, he gave up and decided to look into his power. He's gone, but his power was still here. Tony thought of just keeping it in a box and burying it somewhere, but that would be a waste. Maybe he could use it for something good.
Tony did not stop digging.
He queued a secondary scan, this time mapping the crystal's interaction with exotic genetic markers instead of trauma response. The results were really surprising. Tony hasn't seen or heard of anything like this before.
"That is not healing," he said quietly. "That is control."
He reached for a sealed vial marked MUTANT SAMPLE A. The blood belonged to a low-level pyrokinetic. Active X-Gene.
Tony released a single drop.
The blood fell onto the crystal's surface.
Nothing exploded or glowed dramatically. There was no energy spike or backlash.
There was simply no visible effect.
Tony leaned forward.
On the molecular display, the X-Gene signature collapsed in real time. "Would you look at that?" He mumbled to himself.
The DNA associated with mutation expression unraveled like a program receiving a hard kill command. Cellular activity normalized. The blood reverted to baseline human parameters within milliseconds.
Tony's fingers froze over the controls.
"No," he said. "You gotta be kidding me."
He ran the test again with a different sample. This one was telekinetic with higher complexity and slightly unstable.
Same result.
The moment the blood made contact, the mutation ceased to exist functionally. The X-Gene remained present but inert, like a switch welded permanently to off.
Tony exhaled slowly.
"Nullification," he said. "It's like Leech's power. But are you only limited to mutation nullifying?"
Tony pulled out Banner's blood sample and dropped it on the crystal. This time, instead of nullifying the gamma radiation, it removed the radiation mixture, turning the blood normal. "Hahaha! Fuck!"
He ran simulations at speed, feeding the system hypothetical exposures, proximity fields, and aerosolization.
Every outcome ended the same way.
Mutations stopped working, toxins and bad genetics healed almost instantly. It was like his universal cure, but the speed was much faster.
Tony stared at the crystal for a long moment, then straightened in his chair.
"Alright," he said quietly. "Let us get irresponsible."
He isolated a controlled thread of cosmic energy, the kind that barely registered on any danger scale. It drifted out from the containment system like a faint golden wisp. Tony guided it toward the crystal, watching every variable at once.
The instant the energy touched the surface, it vanished.
It simply ceased to exist, as if reality had decided it was an invalid entry.
Tony's eyebrows lifted.
"Well, that is rude."
He ran the test again with a slightly higher density. It was the same result. The crystal nullified it completely.
Tony leaned forward. "Okay. That answers one question and raises about forty I did not want."
He did not hesitate after that.
The Space Gem came out first.
He focused, carefully, and attempted to open a micro-portal around the crystal.
Nothing happened.
Tony frowned and increased precision, adjusting the spatial constants manually. The Space Gem responded instantly everywhere else in the room, but the moment its influence touched the crystal's perimeter, the effect collapsed.
He fired a narrow beam of Space energy directly at it.
The beam hit the surface and died without consequence.
Tony stared. "You are officially on my nerves."
Next came the Power Gem.
He dialed it down to a level that would barely dent reinforced alloy and released a focused pulse.
The energy struck the crystal and vanished just like everything else.
Tony slowly closed his hand and sent the Gems back into their pocket dimensions. He leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling, silent for a long moment.
"A mutation that can heal, nullify gamma radiation, genetic instability, raw cosmic force," he said finally. "Even the Infinity Gems."
He let out a breath that sounded halfway between awe and disbelief.
"That is not supposed to exist."
The thought settled heavily in his mind, refusing to be ignored.
If this crystal could erase the influence of Infinity Gems, then it was not just a cure or a weapon. It was a hard counter to the fundamental tools that held the universe together.
Tony rubbed his face with both hands and laughed once, quietly.
"Now, what should I do with you?" He mumbled to himself before looking down at the crystal. "Humm..."
He straightened up and decided to do one final test.
"I wonder... How are you gonna react to my DNA? What would happen if I fuse you with my DNA? Will I go through another evolution and gain new powers or just lose all my cosmic powers, but gain this new All-Immunity power?"
Tony cut his finger and dropped blood on the crystal, and looked at the screen for a readout. But the crystal shot out of the containment field and exploded, releasing the mutation in a red mist.
"Shit!"
Tony raised a forcefield around him using the nanites in his body, but it was useless. The red mist pierced through the barrier, shut down all technology and power around the room, and entered Tony's body through his skin pores.
"Fuck!"
Tony blacked out on the spot before he could react.
When Tony woke up, four hours had passed.
He pushed himself upright too fast, then stopped and stayed still, breathing carefully. The first thing he did was reach inward and reach for his cosmic energy. A ball of cosmic energy appeared in his palm. Then he reached out for the Infinity Gems and his connection to them was still stable. He was able to summon them as usual.
"Okay," Tony muttered. "That is already better than expected... Humm..." He tried to feel the nanites in his bloodstream, but got nothing.
He ran a full-body scan using the remote scanner.
"No," he said quietly. "No, no, no. I've just upgraded them a few days back."
The nanites were gone.
Every single one that had been circulating in his bloodstream had been completely erased, down to the last atom. There was no residue or corruption signature. It was as if they had never existed.
Tony ran the scan again.
Same result.
His heart rate picked up as he pulled deeper data. The mutation had fused with his biology at a fundamental level. It had not layered itself on top of his genome or altered it in the usual sense. It had integrated, rewriting cellular rules rather than breaking them.
"It registered the nanites as foreign particles and removed them... A natural safety trigger? Interesting," Tony said.
The mutation had done exactly what it was designed to do. It had identified an external influence that did not belong to baseline human biology and erased it without hesitation.
Tony flexed his fingers and then clenched his fist.
For the first time in years, he was just standing there in his own body, with nothing artificial inside him.
"That is going to be a lifestyle adjustment," he said flatly. "But kinda feels great... Hard to explain, but I feel stronger."
He continued scanning, testing every system, every organ, every cellular pathway. His immune system was no longer reactive in the traditional sense. It was absolute. Anything classified as toxin, corruption, instability, radiation, or foreign energy that could harm him was instantly neutralized on contact.
"Looks like I got a massive upgrade. Sadly, no more blood nanites..." Tony thought for a moment. "What if I can control this power like my cosmic energy? At the moment, this mutation is in auto mode. All I gotta do is somehow gain the manual control and baam! I'm a fucking walking nullifier."
His eyes went toward the second containment box that had the symbiote.
A wild idea formed in Tony's head...
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