Early in the morning, Michael Peterson arrived at the hospital to visit the person he had saved.
Holding a bouquet of flowers, Michael Peterson pushed open the door to the hospital room.
The woman lying in bed looked at him in surprise and said, "You're... You're that man."
With a smile on his face, Michael Peterson replied, "You look well. That's great."
The woman accepted the flowers from Michael Peterson and thanked him, saying, "Thank you. These flowers are beautiful."
Just then, the doctor who had just finished checking on her saw someone visiting the patient and left the room.
As soon as the doctor left, the woman's expression changed. Her voice turned cold as she asked, "What are you doing here?"
Michael Peterson looked at her and said, "I don't know where else to go."
"Things are getting worse. I know what's right; I know."
"But no one wants to listen to me. I volunteered for the experiment because they said it would make a difference."
The woman stood up from her bed, staring at Michael Peterson as she said, "You said you could control yourself."
"Our first test subject lost control and walked into the lab with a bomb."
Michael Peterson responded, "I'm not like him."
The woman, still cold, replied, "Then go tell that to your supervisor in the ICU."
It was clear she didn't believe a word Michael Peterson said. To her, Michael was no different from the man who self-destructed.
Michael Peterson, now agitated, grabbed her arm and said, "I saved you."
But she retorted, "You exposed me."
Pulling her arm away from Michael's grip, she glanced out the window to ensure no one was eavesdropping before continuing, "You exposed the plan."
"The people who gave me this technology aren't playing games."
"They don't want to be exposed, and Michael Peterson must disappear."
Michael Peterson looked at her, suddenly finding her a stranger.
"You're right, I'm not him anymore."
"I'm someone else now."
Hearing this, the woman sighed in frustration and said, "Please, you're getting too excited, Mike."
"And you're losing control, just like the last person."
"This is turning into a disaster."
Michael Peterson slowly walked to the hospital room's window. Standing on the windowsill, he turned back to look at her.
"No, this is the origin story of a hero."
With that, he jumped out of the window from several stories up.
…
Meanwhile-
May and Skye had driven the car back to the alley where it was previously parked. Skye began adjusting the equipment in the car and spoke into the radio to Fitz:
"The audio will be sent over shortly."
"It's not compressed yet, so it might take a while."
On the other side, Fitz was also adjusting the equipment and responded, "Okay, okay, I'm receiving it."
"When you get back, I'll show you my thing."
Realizing how that sounded, Fitz quickly clarified, "I mean, not me—my hardware."
"My equipment."
Fitz became even more flustered and ended the call, saying, "Let's just hang up."
After ending the communication, Coulson, observing Simmons working, asked, "Wasn't the alien metal supposed to be an explosive?"
Simmons, still examining the alien metal, replied, "I thought the fracture pattern and dispersion meant it was, but it's just dripping with gamma radiation."
As the drill continued to penetrate the alien metal, it started oozing a viscous liquid.
"Oh my, it's actually starting to drip now. Interesting."
Just then, Ward appeared and asked, "What clues do we have?"
Fitz responded, "Skye is transmitting her encrypted files about Centipede to us, and we've already got her audio files. I've loaded them."
Coulson turned to Fitz and said, "Nicely done."
Fitz, excited, moved to a nearby console and explained some technical details before saying, "I'll present the data to you using a virtual image. It's like magic, but this is science."
With Fitz's operation, a virtual reconstruction of the scene before the explosion appeared before them.
As they observed the scene, Ward asked, "Was the explosive in the briefcase?"
Fitz began playing the audio he had cleaned up, and they heard the conversation between two men.
"Please calm down. Let me check your vitals," said one man.
The virtual scene showed a man, agitated, shouting at another man in a lab coat:
"I feel great! I want to feel even better. Where's the doctor? Where is she?"
The man in the lab coat replied, "If you don't calm down, I'll have to sedate you."
The agitated man grabbed a chair and smashed it against the table, shouting, "Where is she?"
At this point, Fitz paused the playback and said, "Wait, did you guys notice what's on his arm?"
They zoomed in on the figure, revealing something on his arm.
Ward identified it, "A centipede."
Simmons then walked over, adding, "It's a blood filter implanted in his veins."
"Sir, this viscous substance is very similar to the serum Dr. Erskine developed in the 1940s, used for…"
Before Simmons could finish, Coulson interjected, "A super soldier."
Simmons continued, "I've detected alien metal, gamma radiation, serum—every known source of superpowers is mixed together."
Coulson instructed Fitz, "We need to check the origin of the explosion. Fast forward to the last recorded moment."
Fitz immediately complied, and soon the scene of the explosion was reconstructed. The man's body began to glow orange before turning into a fireball and exploding.
Seeing this, Coulson remarked, "That looks like Extremis virus, very unstable."
It was clear that after his revival, Coulson had quickly caught up on significant events, including the Extremis virus, the Mandarin incident, and the forces behind them.
Simmons lamented, "This poor guy didn't have any explosives."
"Which means," Ward added, "Michael probably has the same substance in his body."
"And from how strong he appears," Ward continued, "he's got even more of it."
Fitz suddenly realized, "That means Michael could explode at any moment…"
"Everyone within a two-block radius would be killed," he concluded.
Coulson turned to Ward and said, "You wanted to defuse a bomb? Here's your chance."
###
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