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The scientists’ report lit a fire in the officials standing nearby.
“Good,” one senior official said.
“If we can stabilize it, refine it, and turn it into battlefield medicine, our military advantage becomes absolute.”
The scientists went still.
The official realized he had said the quiet part out loud.
He coughed, shot them a warning look, and they all dropped their eyes back to their instruments.
“Sir,” one scientist said after a shaky breath, “our readings show no active threat from the object.
It should be safe to move.”
That was all the official needed.
He pointed at the security team.
“You and you.
Take a squad in there.
Get a harness around it.
We’ll have a helicopter lift it out.”
“Yes, sir.”
Six men crossed the perimeter with ropes and heavy straps.
They approached the glowing cocoon step by step, then reached for it.
“Stop!” Tony shouted from above.
He was too late.
The instant their hands touched the green shell, their bodies locked.
One second later, they came apart.
Not burned.
Not crushed.
Decomposed.
Flesh, bone, uniforms, equipment, all of it dissolved into fine particles and flowed into the cocoon.
The scientists stumbled back in horror.
“You said it was safe!” the official screamed.
The scientist who had said it went white.
Then the instruments began to chirp.
One screen refreshed again and again, displaying a scan with a red point pulsing at the center of the cocoon.
“Let me see.” Tony landed and stepped closer.
He pulled a small device from his armor and flicked it onto the cocoon.
The probe stuck to the surface, and a holographic scan bloomed over his palm.
Inside the green shell was a human outline.
Tony’s expression tightened.
“That’s a person.”
“Or an alien,” someone whispered.
The ground shook before Tony could answer.
He turned as the giant bear smashed through the trees, charging straight for the crater.
Spider-Man swung after it.
“No idea why it turned around,” he called.
“It just came back!”
The bear roared and lunged.
Tony rose into the air and opened fire, but every wound he made began healing almost immediately.
Then a shriek split the sky.
Wind slammed into the clearing.
Trees bent, snapped, and tore free as the massive bird descended.
It landed in front of the cocoon.
The bear broke away from the fight and planted itself behind it.
Two mutated giants.
Two guardians.
Tony and Spider-Man stared.
“Whatever that thing is,” Tony said, “it’s bigger than it looks.
I’m calling Fury.”
He opened a secure line to S.H.I.E.L.D.
Nick Fury answered before the first ring finished.
“I’m already on my way, Stark.
Keep the situation contained.”
Inside the cocoon, Evan Reed lay on his back, bored out of his mind.
“This is taking forever.”
The green tendrils had wrapped him in the night before, and he had fallen asleep inside the shell.
When he woke, the cocoon was still there and his body did not feel that different.
But his mind did.
Something new had appeared there.
A language.
Not English.
Not any language he recognized.
Not even human.
“Master, don’t worry,” a deep, rumbling voice said inside his skull.
“It won’t be much longer.”
Evan blinked.
“Big Bear?
I hope you enjoyed this chapter.