The clash between Rory and Steve Rogers was explosive.
Peggy Carter couldn't help but wonder, why was Steve so familiar with this man?
Howard Stark, however, picked up on something else entirely.
"Heh… wait a second, you two just said what? Technology beyond this era?"
Steve froze.
"Sorry, Howard. Peggy. I need to speak with him alone."
Out of respect and trust for Captain America, Peggy and Howard, despite a thousand questions swirling in their heads, granted Steve his request.
Once they stepped out, Steve closed the door firmly behind them.
"Rory," he began, "I don't want you conducting any dangerous experiments."
Funny how people like him worked.
When you played by the rules, they'd suppress you with power.
But when you defied those rules, they suddenly wanted to reason with you.
Steve wasn't a fool, he just conveniently stood on the side that benefited him most.
Righteousness, fairness? Those were merely tools.
Rory had stopped trying to reason.
"Let's cut the crap, Steve. What do you really want? Do I now need your permission to do anything at all?"
"Of course not. But I do have a duty to oversee you."
Steve didn't understand time travel, not really.
He simply believed that history should stay on course, that the world should unfold exactly as it had.
Never mind that he himself was now part of that changed history.
Rory chuckled bitterly.
"So I'm just supposed to be a regular guy now? Is that it? Tell me, Steve, when Dr. Erskine injected you with the Super Soldier Serum, did you ever think about this moral dilemma you're shoving in my face?"
Erskine had created Red Skull, a monster. Yet his work was hailed as heroic.
Click.
Rory snapped his briefcase shut and stood up.
"That's enough. You do what you want. I don't owe you explanations.
If you believe I'm a villain, then go ahead and find some proof.
But if you think I'm not, then please… do me a favor and stay out of my life. I'd really appreciate that."
He stepped past Steve, pulled open the office door, and glanced at the two waiting outside.
"Mr. Howard Stark," Rory said calmly, "I'll be seeking other investors for this project. I'll return every cent Stark Industries gave me.
As for our cooperation, this is the end of the line."
And with that, he was gone.
Peggy entered and gently patted Steve's shoulder.
"Don't worry," she said. "I'll assign someone to keep tabs on him.
If anything goes sideways, we'll take him down immediately."
"I'm fine. Thanks, Peggy."
Outside the tower, Rory exhaled deeply.
As expected, Steve wasn't done with him.
The man had benefited from the Super Soldier Serum, yet denied anyone else the right to pursue similar advancement.
Rory found it… deeply ironic.
Luckily, New York City, the Big Apple, was full of opportunity and greedy investors.
With the right product in hand, someone was bound to bite.
He spent the day pitching to multiple firms.
Most gave him the standard line: "We'll get back to you."
By nightfall, Rory finally returned to the South Port Dock, where his lab was hidden in a defunct rubber factory.
Clang,
The moment he opened the lab door, his heart sank.
"What the hell?!"
The place looked ransacked.
Test tubes shattered. Beakers in pieces.
The steel enclosure that once housed his test mouse now had a gaping hole.
The mutant mouse? Gone.
"Shit…"
Then he spotted it, behind the test bench, the mutated corpse of the escapee.
He donned gloves and lifted it onto the table for examination.
The creature's front teeth had fallen out, replaced by rows of razor-sharp fangs.
Its once-white fur had turned dull gray, the strands stiff like wires.
Claws like knives… matching the deep gouges in the steel.
"Severe physical mutation. Genetic sequencing has been altered. Possibly a form of aberration."
"Cause of death: two possibilities.
One, energy depletion. It escaped but burned out its metabolic reserve and starved to death.
Two, genetic rejection. Organs couldn't handle the transformation. System failure."
Rory ran a blood analysis.
The data confirmed his fears.
"It couldn't properly carry the encoded genetic data. The DNA sequence collapsed. Extreme risk of instability…"
He suited up in full protective gear and started cleaning the disaster zone.
But as he reached for a shattered flask, something strange caught his eye.
Inside the broken glass remained a trace of glowing fluid.
It shimmered faintly blue.
Tiny lights flickered within, like stars trapped in a bottle.
It pulsed.
Like it was breathing.
Rory's instincts kicked in.
He carefully transferred the substance into a test tube, extracted a drop, and placed it on a slide.
The mess on the floor would have to wait. He rushed to the microscope.
"What the hell… This is unreal."
What he was looking at wasn't just another batch of serum.
This was Thanos's blood-derived compound, but something had changed.
Maybe the mouse knocked over something during its rampage, triggering a spontaneous reaction.
An unknown compound fusion.
If Thanos's chromosome was a vault…
Then this new element was the key.
The vault was open.
Inside: the supergene that made Thanos what he was.
And Rory now had full access.
"This is it…"
He could extract that gene, embed it within a carrier agent that mimicked Rory's own DNA, and create a growth factor that bore his genetic signature on the outside… but carried Thanos's power within.
It would integrate flawlessly with Rory's body.
Only problem?
It was a one-off.
Whatever caused the mutation, whatever accidental fusion occurred, Rory couldn't reproduce it.
The test bench had over a hundred variables. He had no idea which combination caused it.
But the serum he had?
It was enough for one human dose, plus a little extra for final testing.
He worked through the night.
By dawn, the modified serum was ready.
Its glow had faded, its energy stabilized.
Rory stared at the vial, pride swelling in his chest.
"This could be the last live trial...
Let's begin."
He fetched a new test subject.
Rebuilt the containment unit from scratch.
And pressed the switch.