During the last United Nations meeting, Clark's dismissive expression left a deep discomfort in Aldrich Killian's heart. As soon as the meeting ended, Killian immediately returned to his country to begin development on the fourth generation of the Extremis virus.
But clearly, things weren't going smoothly.
While some test data met Killian's expectations for the new version, the success rate of injections and the severe side effects after activation left him disappointed.
The low success rate wasn't the main issue—money could always buy more subjects. But the fact that these test subjects could explode at any moment made Killian hesitate to deploy Extremis in real combat. Who could predict when one of them would go boom? A single explosion could level the lab—or even the entire base.
After all, the base's guards were all Extremis soldiers.
"Killian, there's just not enough data. I think we've reached the limits of what Extremis can do,"Maya Hansen said, reviewing the data from a subject that had just exploded.
"Right now, we've found a balance between the body's limits and the virus's potential. As long as we don't push that balance, we're okay."
But the fourth generation was different. The enhanced Extremis had pushed well past what a normal human could endure. Even without outside stimulation, the virus would begin burning from within, building heat until the body could no longer withstand it—and then: BOOM.
Maya hesitated. She wanted to convince Killian to abandon the fourth-gen project. It was too dangerous.
Back when she named it "Extremis," Maya had envisioned a virus that would give hope to the hopeless—such as regrowing limbs for amputees.
But Extremis had a darker side. While healing the body, it burned life energy. Once the internal temperature passed a certain threshold, the subject would explode.
Fortunately, Maya had long ago acquired a modified version of the virus from Tony Stark during a one-night stand. After extensive research, she created the second generation of Extremis.
Though it reduced the risk of explosion to an extent, Maya knew it was still far from perfect. But she lacked funding. Without a major backer, she couldn't keep refining it.
Still, Maya never gave up. Extremis was her life's work.
She sought funding everywhere, but no one believed in her project. Not even Oscorp, the biotech giant, was willing to invest—no one wanted to touch a virus that might make people explode.
Eventually, a company named Pioneer Tech took interest. Its founder was a disabled man, but that didn't stop him from securing heavy funding. After joining them, Maya's research rapidly advanced. Within a few years, she created the third generation of Extremis.
But once it was done, Maya realized too late that Pioneer Tech never intended to help the world.
Under the guidance of the man named Aldrich, they kept the virus's heat buildup feature intact—not to prevent explosion, but to convert it into power for the host.
In other words, successful subjects now gained superhuman regeneration, endurance, and heat control—though at the cost of becoming human time bombs.
The solution? Keep injecting new Extremis doses to stabilize the body.
What Maya didn't know was that, after returning from that UN meeting, Killian had rushed into developing the fourth generation—a version so unstable that even she feared it would be lethal to ordinary humans.
"Not enough data…"Killian ignored Maya's warnings. He only latched onto the first thing she said.
To him, lack of data was an easy fix.
"If we don't have enough data," he said, turning to Eric,"Then go collect more. Recruit soldiers with combat injuries—amputees. I think they'll be thrilled to get their limbs back."
"But if these unstable test viruses detonate… it could attract the Avengers," Eric said cautiously.
Even someone like him couldn't help but shudder at the thought of attracting non-human Avengers—and that was no exaggeration.
Killian, however, wasn't afraid."Then we'll distract them," he said, smirking sinisterly.He had an idea.
BOOM!
"Ow!"
Back at Circle Lake, Godzilla let out another miserable howl.
Why another? Because for the past few days, every day at exactly 1:00 PM, Clark had dragged him out of the water, beat him up, and thrown him back in.
Godzilla had tried to run. But reality was brutal.
Nick Fury had set up extensive surveillance and warning systems around the lake—partly to keep people out, partly to track Godzilla's movements.
Any attempt to flee would immediately alert Clark's emergency response system in New York. And since Circle Lake was only 2,000 km away, Clark could arrive in about a minute.
And in that single minute, Godzilla couldn't even get over the hills—before being tackled out of the sky, dragged back, and beaten senseless again.
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