Marvel: The Infinite Crown

{Chapter: 151 - The Lonely Genius}

Chaos unfolded the instant the student's body turned to ice.

Screams echoed through the hallway as everyone scattered. Chairs clattered to the floor, textbooks were flung aside, and half-finished coffee cups spilled across linoleum tiles. The sharp, unnatural crack of rapidly forming frost silenced the crowd like a gunshot.

The boy—the one who had been nervously waiting to present a science project just moments ago—was now a statue, locked mid-motion with his eyes wide open. A soft mist of vapor drifted from his frozen skin as a layer of crystalline frost covered him from head to toe.

Jemma was the first to rush forward, her mind already cycling through a dozen emergency procedures.

"Find exposed skin! He's still alive under there," she said sharply to Fitz, not even needing to look at him. "We need to inject glucose to raise his body's internal freezing point. We can stabilize his core temperature and slow cellular damage if we act fast!"

Fitz slid to his knees beside the ice-bound boy, his breath fogging the air as he examined him. "Jemma... I don't think there is any exposed skin."

Jemma's heart sank.

The ice was too dense. Too complete. Even the thin layer over the eyes had frosted solid, hiding every sign of life.

She dug into her medkit and pulled out a hardened surgical awl. "Try breaking through near the neck. If we're lucky, the carotid is still viable."

But before Fitz could even angle the tool, the air shifted.

Heat.

A wave of it rolled through the place—not oppressive, not wild, but deliberate. Controlled.

Aiden stepped forward, his black coat swaying like a shadow cut from the void. Flame danced along his knuckles, not in a blaze but in a soft, pulsing rhythm. Like a heartbeat made of fire.

Jemma turned, both relieved and tense. "Aiden—don't melt him all at once! He's still metabolizing—"

"I won't," Aiden said calmly, cutting her off with a voice that didn't raise in volume, but carried weight. "I've got it."

He extended a single finger, and a flame barely larger than a match lit at the tip, but it radiated intensity far beyond its size. The small fire floated from his hand and gently touched the surface of the ice.

The reaction was immediate.

Not a hiss or an explosion, but a slow, meticulous unraveling. The ice began to melt, starting at the heart and moving outward, vaporizing into harmless steam without soaking the clothes or causing a shock to the system.

"Now," Aiden said without looking back, his tone confident.

Jemma didn't need another prompt. She knelt quickly and injected the glucose straight into the thawing vein, guiding it with the precision of someone who had done this a hundred times. "Come on, come on…"

The ice finished dissolving, leaving the student slumped, wet but alive. He inhaled sharply—once, twice—and then fell forward with a loud gasp.

Quake—Daisy—approached as Fitz and Jemma steadied the boy..

The leftover frost around the student's body shattered and fell away like brittle glass.

The place was silent for a moment before erupting into applause. Students who had previously scattered now clapped with nervous relief, cheering at the dramatic rescue.

Aiden stepped forward and crouched before the boy, his dark eyes intense but not unkind.

"What's your name?"

"D-Donnie," the boy said, still trembling. "Donnie Gill…"

"Do you know who attacked you?" Aiden asked.

Donnie shook his head. "No… I—I didn't even see them."

Aiden gave a slow nod and rose to his full height. "All right. Get some rest. You'll be okay now."

Donnie was escorted away, still shivering, his eyes darting between the agents like they were otherworldly. Jemma watched with a deep frown as the student was led down the hall, visibly haunted.

Then she turned to Aiden. "Do you have any idea what that was? That kind of precision cryogenics doesn't just pop up in a freshman's science kit."

Aiden's response was slow, almost careful. "Let's just say... I've seen this kind of situation before. But I'd rather wait to see how the pieces fall into place before jumping to conclusions."

Jemma narrowed her eyes. "So you do know."

"I have suspicions," he said with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "But it's better for the story to play out naturally. You'll learn more soon."

He doesn't have any hunch because he knows what happened. Of course, he wants to wait for the development that happened in his memory so he does not intend to intervene.

Jemma was a bit disappointed since Aiden had helped complete missions several times making her somewhat dependent. What's more, this was happening in the academy which is related to her schoolmates.

Jemma clenched her jaw. "That's not how science works, Aiden."

A few feet away, Daisy had been silently observing him. She finally stepped closer, her arms crossed casually but her tone playful.

"You always this cryptic, or is that just a me thing?" she asked with a smirk.

Aiden looked her over with a gaze that was unreadable but definitely not indifferent. "Only with people who can handle it."

Daisy's lips curved, and she tilted her head slightly, brushing her hair behind her ear. "Careful. I might take that as a challenge."

"You're welcome to," he said smoothly, matching her tone. "You seem like someone who doesn't back down easily."

Behind them, Jemma coughed—louder than necessary.

Aiden turned his head just slightly and flashed Jemma a grin. "No offense, Simmons. I'm still a fan of brains over brawn. And you're one of the sharpest here."

Jemma's smile was brittle, her eyes flickering from Aiden to Daisy. "Flattery doesn't always mask deflection."

Fitz raised a brow but said nothing. He'd seen enough tension between teammates to recognize the spark when it flickered.

Trying to salvage the situation, Jemma asked again, more grounded this time, "What should we do now?"

Aiden looked at her with a seriousness that restored his earlier gravity. "You question. Ask around. Students, teachers, assistants. Find out who knew what. I'll go with Fitz to Donnie's dorm. There might be something… revealing."

"Be careful," Jemma said, her voice tight. "He may be more than just a victim."

Aiden gave her a small nod before walking toward the exit with Fitz in tow. Daisy started to follow, but Jemma stepped forward just enough to block her path for a heartbeat.

"I think they've got it covered," she said sweetly, her eyes cool.

Daisy raised a brow but smirked. "Right. Wouldn't want to intrude."

As the two women stood there in the soft hum of tension, the air between them was no longer just professional—it was personal.

And the academy had just become a lot more complicated.

---

Donnie Gill. Eighteen years old. IQ of 190.

A prodigy.

Though nowhere near the level of geniuses like Jemma Simmons or Leo Fitz, Donnie's intellect was still formidable by any standard. Within S.H.I.E.L.D.'s scientific community, he was a name known well enough to warrant attention. He had been identified early on and inducted into the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy of Science and Technology. His instructors believed his future was promising—so much so that a post-academy assignment had already been lined up for him: a secure research outpost codenamed The Sandbox.

But for all his mental acuity, Donnie was emotionally unmoored. That IQ came with a heavy price: isolation.

From early childhood, he'd struggled to connect with others. His mind moved too fast, too erratically, for the people around him to keep up. Classmates didn't understand him. Teachers praised him but never looked at him like he was just a kid. Even at the Academy—a place designed for exceptional minds—Donnie remained a solitary figure, constantly on the outside looking in.

That isolation made him vulnerable.

Vulnerable enough to be exploited.

His classmate, Seth Dormer, had seen an opportunity in Donnie—a brilliant mind, untethered and desperate for recognition, validation, or even just basic human connection. Seth hadn't been interested in Donnie's friendship. He was interested in using him. And unfortunately, Donnie didn't realize that until it was too late.

The incident at the pool had been the beginning of it all. At first glance, it had seemed like a tragic accident. Seth had been "injured," and Donnie's cryokinetic powers had emerged suddenly, freezing part of the water around him. But Aiden knew better. The pool stunt was staged. A calculated performance meant to force a reaction—from Donnie, from the instructors, from Fitz, who was already known as the most gifted student in the Academy.

Seth's goal wasn't recognition—it was profit. He wanted to sell a prototype energy device, but the model they had built wasn't stable enough. Not yet. What they needed was a genius to fix the core energy problem. That's where Donnie came in. And Fitz? Fitz was just bait.

Fitz and Donnie were alike in too many ways—introverted, unappreciated, and dangerously curious. Seth had counted on that. He'd bet that Fitz would get involved, try to help, maybe even repair the device himself. That involvement would make the tech legitimate.

But Aiden was watching.

He had spoken to a few students on campus, quietly collecting details, tracing the timeline, and eventually shadowing Donnie to his quarters. There, behind the reinforced door of a dorm room, Aiden waited—silent, still, calculating.

Sometime after nightfall, Aiden heard muffled voices outside. He moved quickly to peek out the sliver of the door just in time to catch Seth slipping into Donnie's room with a sense of urgency.

"Fitz hasn't gone yet?" Seth hissed.

"No," Donnie replied. "He wanted to check the device again. He's suspicious."

Seth's tone turned cold. "We can't let him blow this. We'll have to stun him."

Aiden's eyes narrowed. This wasn't how it played out in his memory of the timeline. Something had changed. Or maybe… this was always how it was meant to be. Either way, Fitz was in danger.

Several minutes passed.

Then Seth and Donnie left the room—carrying the unstable prototype with them.

Aiden slipped into the dorm after they were gone and found Fitz lying on the ground, unconscious but breathing.

He knelt beside him. "You're going to be alright, Leo," he muttered under his breath, hoisting the young engineer up onto the bed and activating a distress beacon.

He hated doing this to Fitz. The guy had been nothing but kind to him—generous even, gifting him custom suits and sharing high-level theories that other students would have hoarded. But Aiden had no choice. If Donnie didn't hit rock bottom, if he wasn't betrayed and disillusioned now, he'd never awaken the version of himself that Aiden needed—the version known later in the comics as Blizzard.

Sometimes, the only way forward was through the storm.

---

By the time the S.H.I.E.L.D. transport plane arrived, chaos had already begun to unravel across the campus. Donnie and Seth were on the run, and the device was still unstable.

Aiden returned to the Bus, where he met with Agent Phil Coulson and the ever-watchful Melinda May. Coulson, just returned from an overseas mission, wore a grim expression as he processed the field reports.

"I read the debrief. The device is unstable," Coulson said gravely. "We need to find them before this turns into another John Garrett situation."

"Agreed," May said, her arms folded, gaze cutting through Aiden. "You were there. What did you see?"

Aiden didn't flinch. "They're trying to supercharge the core. Probably testing it somewhere remote. Fitz was used as a distraction."

Fitz stirred on the med-bench nearby. His eyes fluttered open, dazed but lucid.

"I should've seen it sooner…" Fitz muttered bitterly. "Donnie didn't even want to hurt anyone. It was Seth. He used Donnie's need to be seen—manipulated it."

There was no venom in his voice, just disappointment.

"He's not a bad kid," Fitz added. "He just wants someone to believe in him."

"Belief won't stop a meltdown," Coulson said flatly.

Aiden stepped forward. "Let me go. I know where they are."

Coulson raised a brow. "You do?"

"I didn't before," Aiden admitted. "But I do now. The pattern in their behavior, the campus blueprints, the stress points in the power grid—it all adds up. There's only one place they can run the device without blowing themselves up immediately. And I saw it clearly."

"Then what are we waiting for?" May asked.

Aiden nodded and turned toward the ramp.

Before he exited, Fitz called after him. "Aiden."

He paused. "Yeah?"

Fitz gave him a small, sad smile. "Just… be careful with him. He doesn't need another enemy."

Aiden nodded solemnly. "He won't get one from me."

*****

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