Marvel: I am Iron Man

S.H.I.E.L.D. quickly established a camp at a safe distance from the out-of-control AIM base. Agent Coulson, along with Bruce Banner, also arrived at this temporary base.

This was the closest they could get to observing and collecting information about the out-of-control gamma base. Banner also quickly obtained all the data he needed using Aegis equipment.

"How is it, Dr. Banner?" Coulson asked with some concern.

Banner's expression was grim: "It's not looking good. The owners of this base—whoever they are—look like they've built a gamma reactor. I can't be 100% sure from the available data, but I can roughly guess what mistakes they've made."

They employed a radical "resonance confinement" scheme to compress the gamma field. In pursuit of that few percent energy conversion efficiency, they extensively used tantalum-181 alloy within the core barrier. Under gamma-ray bombardment at specific energy levels, its reaction cross-section would increase exponentially...

Banner wanted to continue explaining, but he quickly realized from the blank stares of everyone in the room, including Agent Coulson, that no one understood him at all.

So he sighed and went straight to the point: "The reactor switch is broken, and it's getting stronger every second."

Coulson thought for a moment: "What if we destroy it directly with firepower?"

"That's like throwing a whole tank of pure oxygen into an already out-of-control forest fire," Banner said irritably. "Any form of explosive attack is not a solution, but rather pressing the final accelerator button for this disaster."

No one asked any more questions, but everyone looked at Banner with expectant eyes.

"Alright, alright, maybe I can think of a way... You guys are lucky, I've been working hard on how to eliminate gamma energy for years."

Banner's tone was somewhat self-deprecating.

"No one in the world knows more about gamma rays than I do right now. I can build a device... a resonance canceller. Install it on the reactor, and theoretically, it can cancel out all the gamma energy released into essentially harmless radiation, allowing us to proceed with further processing."

"That's great, wonderful," Coulson said. "Is there anything you need?"

"Of course, I need manpower, I need help, and I need equipment and materials," Banner said bluntly. "Gather all the experts and engineers you can find; I need to give them emergency training."

Banner then spent about two hours explaining his ideas to all the experts S.H.I.E.L.D. could find temporarily.

Banner spoke of it casually, but in fact, the design of this "resonance canceller" he mentioned encompassed the culmination of his years of painstaking thought.

The Hulk was a product of gamma experiments, so Banner naturally thought of eliminating him by destroying gamma energy. This included his recent attempt to eliminate the Hulk with the help of a gamma professor named Samuel Stan. Although the attempt ultimately failed, Stan's ideas provided him with further inspiration.

Unfortunately, as a leading genius in the global scientific community, Dr. Banner's insights are clearly not so easily digested.

Although the people S.H.I.E.L.D. recruited were all big names in the scientific community, no one present could follow his train of thought after Banner gave a preliminary overview of his plan.

Except for one "uninvited guest" who was also a leading figure in the world of science, just like Banner.

That's Tony.

...

Tony used a little trick to get S.H.I.E.L.D.'s attention to the gamma incident, but of course he couldn't just hand everything over to S.H.I.E.L.D. so easily afterward.

So afterwards, he hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s channel and "borrowed" a camera and a computer speaker from the temporary camp to monitor the progress.

In the Avengers movies, Tony hacked S.H.I.E.L.D.'s system in no time, stealing Fury's so-called "top secret" about using the Tesseract to build weapons. He even complained to Fury in front of him that their firewall was as fragile as paper and could be broken with a single poke, giving Fury a resounding slap in the face.

In fact, Tony's complaint was quite accurate. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s security really does emphasize "it's a pleasure to have friends coming from afar," basically anyone can come and go as they please.

The airship is touted as "the safest place in the world," but even Deputy Director Hill complained that his bicycle, which he bought when he was 19, is still in good condition, while this thing seems to fall off three to five times a week.

Access control and firewalls are even more fantastical, with a design philosophy emphasizing "on-demand allocation." Whoever needs to enter can enter—we still don't know how Captain America, a centenarian who can't even figure out a modern combination lock, managed to steal the supposedly "top secret" energy weapon prototype from a bustling floating mothership.

But then I thought about it again, since S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra are already so close that they're practically inseparable, there's really no question of whether or not secrets are leaked.

So instead of wasting unnecessary funds on cybersecurity, it would be better to save them for an even bigger fireworks display by the airship next week.

Tony considered the systems at SHIELD headquarters to be of a mediocre level, let alone the makeshift camp, which he could essentially hack with his eyes closed. Aside from remaining completely silent, he was practically part of Banner's think tank.

So while the S.H.I.E.L.D. experts were still sweating profusely, trying to digest Banner's ideas and the bunch of gamma formulas he wrote on the whiteboard, Tony had already had a sudden realization, even feeling like he had been enlightened.

He wanted to say that Bruce Banner was a true genius.

Although Banner taught a formula for counteracting gamma rays, it contained the important results of his years of painstaking research. With Tony's level of expertise and understanding, he immediately realized that these techniques could not only be applied to dealing with this incident, but would also be of great benefit to him.

With slight modifications, this knowledge can be fully applied to his arc reactor.

Tony grew increasingly excited, pacing around the lab while muttering to himself, "Controlled gamma radiation in the plasma confinement ring of the arc reactor can artificially create 'controllable quantum instability,' breaking through the original energy output bottleneck. All we need to do is integrate a miniaturized gamma field generator on the outer ring of the reactor, ensuring precise and stable control..."

In fact, in the original comics, Iron Man does have a connection with Hulk, and gamma energy, when used properly, can amplify the energy output of the armor.

A similar concept was also used in an early season of the IP-based competitive game "Marvel's Arena". When players on a team selected both Iron Man and Hulk, Iron Man's reactor would receive a gamma energy boost, giving him a super-powerful firepower mode.

"Dr. Banner is truly a genius. Did you memorize the formula, Jarvis?" Tony asked.

Jarvis: "Of course, sir. Should I include it in the armor enhancement file?"

"Sure, why not?" Tony said cheerfully. "Cheer up, Jarvis, we might be getting another upgrade soon. Oh, of course, we need to prioritize the immediate problems."