[Zimera, Zimera]

A rough looking gorilla was walking through the ‘streets’ of Zimera as he was bringing a letter. He passed through the hanging bridge that leads to the King’s Palace, and on the way, he greeted the bystanders who were walking to the market near the palace. He looked calm, but a bit afraid of what might be the King’s reaction to it.

As he arrived at the front gate of the palace, the guards halted him. He showed his seal to the guards, and they let them in. He continued to traverse the compact palace to the throne room. When he arrived there, he saw the king, sitting lazily in the throne room, listening to the elders bicker, like always.

“My king!” he shouted, with the gorilla’s own voice this time, not through a speaker.

The elders turned to the messenger, along with the king.

“What is it, soldier?” The king raised his brow.

“A message, from the west.” he said, walking towards the king, not forgetting to bow slightly.

The king took the letter, and tore it apart. “Can’t they just send it through an email or something? This is just mocking us at this point..” the king scoffed.

“An email is too vulnerable my king.. the humans haven’t developed a good security system for their network..”

“True..” the king hummed. He opened the letter, and read it slowly. He skimmed through the letters, but then froze.

The elders and the messenger gulped at the sight. “M- My king? Is there something wrong? Do humans dare to declare war now?”

“No.. Elders..” the king grinned. “Tell our scientists to pack their bananas, we’re going on a vacation.”

“My king?” The elders are confused.

The king just threw the letter to the table of the elders, revealing a Stark Expo logo on top of the letter.

The elders just looked at the king, who was exiting the throne room with a whistle, and instantly told their subordinates to prepare the departure.

—

[Queens, New York]

Helios and Gwen were sitting on the dining table. On the table were many pieces of uncolored figurines of Warhammer 40k, along with opened boxes scattered around them. There were many pieces already done, Orks, Space Marines, and many more.

Helios was fully focused on colouring the figurines, but Gwen? She was watching something else. She was watching Pluto and Thena, who was reviewing papers in front of a woman, and that woman was Maya Hansen.

“Honestly Ms. Hansen, you’re just going to put people to sleep if this is what you’re presenting at Stark Expo.”

“I’m not good at this Mr. Smith..” Maya massaged her head in frustration. “Can’t you just do it instead of me?”

“Well, I’m not the head of Smith Medicals,” said Pluto, leaning against the sofa. “You are.”

“Well I can’t.. talk.. in front of a lot of people..” Maya complained.

“It’s your invention honey, you need to present it yourself.” commented Thena, drinking some tea.

“I mean, could I just.. ask my assistant?” Maya questioned softly, a bit embarrassed.

“You’re kidding.” Pluto slapped his own forehead. “I swear Ms. Hansen, I’ll fire you if you try to get away with this again.”

“I can’t do this Mr. Smith..” Maya said again. “The Extremis project is really hard to explain to the masses, it deals with complicated mathematical equations, as well as the ‘hacking’ of the genetic operating system.. I would rather present this to a room of old men that knows what I’m talking about instead of a public crowd.”

Pluto sighed as he massaged his nose bridge. “How about this? The project’s done right? It just needs to find a way to make it affordable to people?”

“Yes.”

“Then okay, how about you explain what the Extremis project is, then show the video proof of it actually working. Do we.. have proof that it’s actually working? Without the exploding side-effects of course..”

“Yes, I managed to make it temporary, so after a couple of hours, if someone has a missing limb.. or cancer.. they should be able to recover at that time.”

“Good.” Pluto nodded. “You can find a test subject that’s willing, and record how the process works for the presentation, just remember to make them sign some papers so they won’t sue us.”

“And then what?”

“Then done.” Pluto shrugged. “It’s just a presentation Ms. Hansen, not a full breakdown of how the Extremis works..”

“But I must say..” Thena interrupted. “Isn’t this.. a bit dangerous to spread it to the public? I mean.. disease prevention, limb generation, etc, etc.. that reminds me of another project by the government..”

“What do you mean.. Mrs. Smith?” Maya frowned.

“He’s talking about the serum that made Captain America to, well, captain America.” Pluto hummed. “Are you absolutely sure that you’ve tamed it? We need to be careful when we present it, otherwise people might get the wrong idea that we’re trying to build Captain America 2.0..”

“Yes, I’ve taken countermeasures.” Maya nodded. “Like I said, the virus has a relatively short lifetime, so once it enters the body, it’ll die in about two hours or so. I also weakened the capability so it won’t regenerate instantly. And I wrote the formula in papers, not digital.”

“Good.” Pluto nodded. “I guess we’re done here Ms. Hansen.”

“Mr. Smith, I hope you reconsider–”

“Nope, you’re presenting.” Pluto instantly denied the request. “Ms. Hansen, you’re beautiful, Smartest person I’ve ever met besides Tony and some others, and good at what you’re doing, you’ll be fine. You’ll probably make many fans after the presentation..”

Maya sighed. “Very well Mr. Smith.. I’ll do my best..”

Gwen was watching this with curious eyes. He tapped Helios’s shoulder, and asked him. “Theo.. That woman.. Who is she?”

“That’s Miss Hansen..” answered Helios, still focusing on the uncoloured Space Marines on his hands. “He works for that.. Smith Medicals division..”

“Medicals?”

“Yeah, she researches how to cure diseases and stuff..”

“So she helps a lot of people?”

Helios shrugged. “I guess..”

Gwen hummed as she watched the woman leaving. The woman smiled as she saw Gwen, to which she smiled back.

“Can she cure cancer?” Gwen asked again.

“I don’t know.. why?”

“Dad was talking with mom about it..” Gwen murmured. “Apparently mom has cancer..”

Helios stopped painting the figure for a second before turning to Gwen with worry on his face. “Are you okay?”

“Hm? Yeah I’m okay.. it’s nothing to worry about..” Gwen answered dismissively, not wanting to say anything further.