Extremis Virus (Earth 1)

## History

### Origin

The Extremis was a super soldier project developed by a biotech company called FuturePharm, subsidiary of Stark Industries. Alongside Maya Hansen, Dr. Aldrich Killian developed the nanite technology called Microsurgery Experimental Robotics. The project was funded by the U.S. military. However, when the military pulled the plug, Hansen and Killian stole samples and sold them to a militia terrorist faction, but a guilt-ridden Killian confessed afterwards in a suicide note.

### Extremis on the Loose

In an attempt to regain the stolen serum, Stark, as Iron Man, was injured battling a domestic terrorist, Mallen, who had been altered by the Extremis drug into a superhuman killing machine. Seeing no other option, he took a modified dose of Extremis to heal his injures and improve his neural interface with the armor and other technologies. The revitalized Iron Man then set out after Mallen. After killing the terrorist without choice, Stark discovered that Maya was the accomplice of Killian in stealing Extremis, and she was put into custody.

Learning about the possibilities of Extremis, the Mandarin infiltrated the U.S. government with a cover identity of Tem Borjigin, CEO of the Prometheus Corporation, specializing in bio-weaponry, manipulating Maya into helping him perfect Extremis after faking her death to deflect attention. Having determined that Extremis was only effective on those who possessed a specific gene sequence that was only found in 2.5% of the population, the Mandarin intended to release it en masse, believing that, after the deaths of the 97.5% who lacked the ability to cope with Extremis, the survivors would be left stronger, smarter and immune to age and disease. However, Iron Man was able to defeat the Mandarin's scheme by redirecting the Extremis missiles into the upper atmosphere, where the nanobots that would have delivered the virus were destroyed by the extreme cold of the jet stream.

Years later, Maya was kidnapped by A.I.M. and forced to duplicate the virus before killing her. The new samples of Extremis were then sold in an auction to four different bidders, whose names were forcibly given to Stark by the head of the auction, Colin Forty-Four, in order to retrieve the Extremis from them by any means necessary.

### Extremis 3.0

The recently-discovered long-lost foster brother of Tony, Arno Stark started working on a new, more stable version of Extremis after being contacted by Tony, much to the latter's dismay. When Bruce Banner was shot in the head and suffered brain damage, his neural tissue was fixed with Arno's Extremis. Another application of Extremis, now tweaked by Banner, allowed him to increase the intelligence of the Hulk, unleashing a new personality called "Doc Green."

During World War Hate, a magic spell caused the inversion of Tony Stark's moral axis. The new egocentric and determined Tony Stark released a modified "Extremis 3.0" to San Francisco, giving the people the option of physical perfection for free by way of a wireless application. However, as they found out, this was merely a free trial period, and keeping their "perfect" bodies would require a payment of $99.99 every day. Stark himself appeared to have taken this version of Extremis, allowing him to have close combat abilities capable of taking on and even defeating Daredevil in hand-to-hand combat in terms of strength and reflexes.

Daredevil later discovered the Extremis app wasn't what it appeared to be, Stark had contaminated San Francisco's water supply with the virus, and the Extremis app merely served as a trigger for the Extremis virus to be activated inside a person by generating a certain subsonic frequency. However, Stark prevented Murdock from acting on this discovery by inflicting minor brain damage that would erase Matt's memory of this revelation, also intended to reprogram Extremis to be activated by a signal that Murdock couldn't detect.

### King in Black

After Knull dropped Eddie Brock from the Empire State Building, only a Symbiote could save his life. So Iron Man used extremis to procure one of the Symbiote Dragons for Eddie's cure by disconnecting it from the Hive through changing its genetic code.

## Properties

### Original Extremis

The original Extremis serum gives its user:

* **Superhuman Strength:** An Extremis subject's strength can be increased to superhuman levels, providing the user enough strength to toss cars and people with relative ease, break someone's skull with a single punch, counter Iron Man's superhuman physical blows, break Iron Man's bones with ease through the suit, rip the highly durable suit apart without effort, and even use the "blade" of a bulldozer as a blunt force object.
* **Superhuman Speed:** An Extremis subject can move and run at incredible speeds up to 300 mph, although it is unknown if this is the top speed an Extremis subject can move at.
* **Superhuman Stamina:** The virus grants its user almost unlimited stamina, with no need to eat, drink or breathe air.
* **Superhuman Durability:** Extremis-enhanced beings have greater resistance to physical injury than an ordinary human. They are able to withstand bullet impacts and direct fire of Repulsor Blasts without feeling pain, at a potency higher than which a Repulsor Blast needs to have to cut through metal, only suffering minor wounds. Iron Man's uni-beam only caused Mallen great discomfort without injury.
* **Fire-Breathing:** At the user's discretion, his/her lungs fill with fire plasma which he/she can exhale through his/her mouth. Mallen torched a lobby full of people through this method.
* **Claw-like pincers:** An Extremis subject can unsheathe stingers from his/her fingertips. They are very durable, and in conjunction with super-strength, they can be used by the Extremis subject to claw through a converter box.
* **Electrical discharge:** Extremis-enhanced beings are able to discharge extremely powerful electrical currents through his/her hands which seemed to emanate from his chest through his arms.
* **Healing Factor:** Extremis-enhanced beings can also heal wounds at an incredible speed, in a matter of hours.

### Tony Stark's Modified Extremis

Tony Stark reconfigured the last Extremis dose created by Futurepharm in order to heal himself after being fatally injured by an Extremis-powered terrorist, and "become one" with his armor, gaining the following abilities:

 File:Iron Man Vol 4 6 Textless.jpg
* **Direct Cybernetic Interface:** The Extremis virus has fused Stark's armor to his body. Initially, the inner layers of the Iron Man armor were stored in the hollows of his bones, but later his entire exo-armor would be contained within carbon nanotubes. He is able to manifest and control the armor through direct brain impulses and even utilize some of its powers when unsurfaced. He has direct, cyberpathic control over the communication devices, scanning equipment, and recording devices located in his helmet.
	+ **Wireless Communication:** He was also able to remotely connect to external communications systems such as satellites, cellular phones, and computers throughout the world. Stark is also capable of projecting his voice through transmitting sound systems, such as cellular phones, via electric transmissions from his central nervous system.
* **Nanotech Armor Manipulation:** Due to the Extremis, Tony could store the nanoparticles of his suit within the hollows of his bones and summon it at will. He could also command the nanoparticles to reshape and even repair itself.
* **Augmented Physiology:** Extremis also bolstered Stark's biophysical frame, enabling him to consciously adapt himself on a limited scale both internally and externally.
	+ **Superhuman Reflexes:** The Extremis virus granted him enhanced speed reactions and movements.
	+ **Regenerative Systems:** Stark was capable of biologically heal himself and repair the armor.
* **Enhanced Endurance:** The Extremis virus was mentioned to have increased Tony's natural endurance.
* **Significantly Enhanced Brain Function:** With the Extremis virus, Tony's brain function greatly increased, allowing him to process information and connect data together like a supercomputer. As Tony's brain thought processes were still at a standard level, this was shown to cause hallucinations which provided him with information that his conscious mind was unable to keep up with.

### Arno Stark's Modified Extremis

Arno Stark's version of the Extremis virus helps repair brain damage as it did with Bruce Banner. Banner later altered the Extremis Arno injected into his body to boost the intelligence of the Hulk.

* **Augmented Physiology:** Arno's variant of the Extremis virus allowed him to rewrite his body's cellular structure so as to function much more efficiently and even gains one new superhuman abilities.
	+ **Regenerative Systems:** Arno's variant of the Extremis virus was able to regenerate his damaged biology, enabling him to function and even walk without the need of life support.
	+ **Sleeplessness:** Arno's variant of the Extremis virus had removed his body’s need for sleep.
	+ **Limited Self-Control:** Arno's variant of the Extremis virus had given him level of control over his own physiology which he used to reach instant meditation so as to prevent himself from being crushed by a stampede.

### Extremis 3.0

After his moral inversion, Tony Stark created a new Extremis called "Extremis 3.0" that grants the following abilities:

* **Appearance Alteration:** It allows people to have a form of shape-shifting, as they can alter their appearance to their own desires.
* **Regenerative Healing Factor:** Tony Stark claimed the virus allows people to heal at an accelerated rate and heal from injuries that they normally couldn't heal from. There is some truth to this as the Extremis was able to heal Daredevil of his blindness.
	+ **Immortality:** Tony Stark claimed that the Extremis provided a form of immortality. It is possible that it may be through either halting of the aging process or rapid regeneration of body's cellular structures.
* **Enhanced Strength:**
* **Enhanced Agility:**
* **Enhanced Reflexes:**

### Other Versions

Numerous different types of Extremis were produced over the time, some of them are like Stark's, allowing easier usage of technology. Others adapted it to enable themselves survival in hostile environments, further still have been used to transform normal humans into brainwashed mindless beasts. One of the more beneficent uses of said artificial pathogen was to effect medication affectation for incurable diseases and the like, but had been twice unsuccessful until Stark came and modified it.

## Application

Created as a nano-tech serum, the Extremis liquid biotech complex is inserted into graphitic nanotubes, suspended in a carrier fluid and stored in an applicator specially designed, created and developed from similar prototypes previously marketed by Futurepharm.

 File:Extremis virus process from Iron Man Vol 4 1 001.jpg
The virus is injected in the back of the subject's head. If properly injected up to the cervical nerves, the fluid is passed into the bloodstream and permeates the nervous system, accessing the body's recovery center, the portion of the brain that has the complete mapping of the human body and all their features, and initially identifies possible future failures, such as cuts, injuries and varied stimuli which are repaired with enzymes. Extremis takes control of this region of the brainstem and overwrites all of this mapping with the information about how the body should truly be.

Once the modification is made, the body's system evaluates the entire human body as erroneous and injured, sending the information to the brain that the entire body, externally and internally, is wrong, completely transforming it into an open wound to be healed and changed by and for the Extremis' standards.

 File:Anthony Stark (Earth 1) transformed by the Extremis virus process from Iron Man Vol 4 4 001.jpg
The first instants of pain processing are fulminated, and the liquid carrier of the genetic code is expelled from the body orally. A side effect of the expulsion of the liquid is the loss of considerable amount of blood that ends up giving the subject a frail, pale and sick appearance. This stage lasts, however, only a few moments before the cardiac activity is reduced and the person in whom the drug was injected in enters to a state of prolonged sleep.

 File:Anthony Stark (Earth 1) transformed by the Extremis virus process from Iron Man Vol 4 4 002.jpg
The standard protocols for insertion of the Extremis virus imply that, at this stage of processing, the user should be kept under constant observation and unremitting care, put on a constant life support and receive nutrition intravenously every hour. After a period of time, the brittle skin of the user begins to break into low-grade scabs. The wounds gradually release low quantities of blood which upon contact with air and become solid. In order to protect the body, the crust is enhanced throughout the body. After eight or nine hours, almost the whole body has become covered with this layer of protection, or cocoon. This stage is maintained for about forty-eight to seventy-two hours, in which all the nutrients and body mass are reshaped, creating new stronger, more powerful and resilient body parts, such as muscles and nerves, in order to fulfill their duties more efficiently. This stage of the application of the serum seems to deteriorate or abolish the vestments worn by the user, because after the cocoon they're protected by breaks, they are naked.

 File:Anthony Stark (Earth 1) transformed by the Extremis virus process from Iron Man Vol 4 4 003.jpg
After the subject regains consciousness and awareness, the cocoon is violently cracked into many pieces, slowly freeing the user from itself.

## Owners

### Previous Owners

* Maya Hansen
* A.I.M.
* The Circle
* Eli Warren

## Notes

* The Extremis-enhanced people can be known as *Homo extremis*.