There’s something flippant and irreverent hovering on his tongue, but one look at the expression on Bruce’s face and Tony knows that he can never say it. Because he knows what this is. He knows what that is lurking beneath the surface of Bruce’s eyes.

“Yeah. I do.”

He doesn’t have a sample here, but with time and effort he could make it. The formula itself is stored in his mind, locked tightly in the vault where nothing truly important is ever forgotten.

“Extremis recodes the body’s genetic structure, rewrites it to the specifications of the author. AIM was using it like a B-movie. Super strength, super speed, breathing fire. But it’s more than that. The possibilities are limited only by the imagination, which, in retrospect, is good that Maya never realized it. The reversal works. I used it on Pepper. She’s fine. One hundred percent normal human.”

And by the way, I promised the Hulk that I would make a batch of it and take it. No, that isn’t something he’s going to say. Not now. Possibly not ever, until it’s too late and he’s already dosed himself with it.

“I have it with me, if you want to take a look at it.”