When Daisy steered the conversation toward science, Reed perked right up. Science was his native language. As a walking encyclopedia of human knowledge, he could talk shop for twenty-four hours straight without flagging.
He cleared his throat. "I'm aware of Miss Johnson's work in quantum physics. What I'm observing isn't cosmic radiation in the conventional sense—it goes beyond that."
"High-energy cosmic storms drove the early evolution of life on this planet. I've already detected an energy cloud on a trajectory that will pass through Earth's orbital path, though the precise timing still needs to be calculated. This energy cluster could help us understand the composition of human genetics—why we became what we are. If we can fully analyze it, we could eliminate disease and dramatically extend human lifespan—"
Daisy hesitated. "But cosmic radiation has been studied extensively by the scientific community for years. As far as I know, no documented cases of human mutation have ever come from it."
Reed raised a hand, urgent. "No, no—you're working from incomplete data. The known breakdown is roughly 89% protons, 10% helium nuclei. What are we missing? That remaining 1% — unknown to science, for various reasons no one's been able to analyze it. That 1% is the key."
He smacked the table.
"Smack!"
The drowsy little lion and Ben both flinched.
"The cosmic radiation I'm going to observe originated deep in space. It's primordial. It's beautiful. And it holds the answers to most of the questions that have stumped humanity."
Reed was entirely absorbed now. Daisy thought it over, then shook her head. "I'll grant you that the 1% exists. But the particles within it are highly unstable. I genuinely can't picture what introducing even a fraction of them into living tissue would do. Humanity needs universally applicable results—not one-off, sudden outcomes."
Reed had been so successful for so long that it had been ages since anyone actually pushed back on him. He completely forgot why he'd come in the first place and launched into a debate.
Midway through, he reached for paper and pen to diagram a concept.
Daisy told him not to bother. With a light snap of her fingers, Danger projected a three-dimensional simulation of cosmic radiation between them.
She sorted through it like she was tossing out trash. "These are protons. These are helium nuclei. These are neutrinos, electrons..."
Reed wasn't particularly surprised by the holographic interface—many research institutions had similar systems. Hers did look more refined than most, though he himself still worked with pen and paper. He adapted to it immediately and plunged into a debate with Daisy over the composition of what he was planning to observe.
Ben Grimm, meanwhile, had nothing to do. He cast his gaze around the villa's interior, and his eyes happened to land on Big Orange.
The lion's eyes landed on him at the same moment.
Man and lion read the same expression in each other's gaze: boredom.
Daisy's real interest wasn't cosmic radiation. It was human enhancement, genetic engineering. But she steered the conversation skillfully, using Reed's own line of thinking as a guide. Some of his answers came naturally; others he had to work through—but even then he could sketch a research direction. Daisy was thrilled. That nickname of Reed's wasn't just hype. With his frameworks to work from, Danger finally made a modest breakthrough in refining the Inhuman bloodline model.
At the end of it, Daisy did something she almost never did: she walked her guests to the door.
"Ben—you see that?" Back in the car, riding shotgun, Reed was still buzzing from the exchange. Getting the better of Daisy—who had argued every point—felt like a genuine victory.
They drove a few blocks before Ben spoke, a little hesitantly. "Weren't we looking for investors? Miss Johnson seems pretty well off. And she clearly has an interest in your research..."
He hesitated because Ben was, at heart, a decent man. Beneath that blunt face and shaved head was someone who genuinely didn't like taking advantage of people. Stiffing her on the supercomputer fee already felt bad enough—and now asking her to fund the project on top of that? He had his doubts. Privately, he'd never been sold on the cosmic radiation angle. As far as he was concerned, this project was a money pit, and asking anyone to invest in it was asking them to lose their money.
Reed didn't share those doubts about the science. But the unpaid supercomputer bill was weighing on him too. He only knew about Daisy at all because of Johnny—Susan's younger brother had mentioned her offhandedly, which had led him to look into her and discover she had a supercomputer. Hence today's visit.
The villa suggested she had money. But an orbital observation project of this scale required serious capital—a hundred million, two hundred million, wouldn't even scratch the surface.
"Let me think about it. Her financial situation may not be as strong as it looks..."
After she'd seen them off, Daisy instructed Danger to begin preliminary modeling for a bloodline purification protocol based on Reed's theoretical framework.
"Miss, Mr. Richards's cosmic radiation calculations do offer some useful reference points—the radiation should significantly enhance human physiology. Shall we include it as a variable?"
Daisy could only laugh at that. Space was vast and full of variables. She trusted that Reed's calculations in the original timeline had been correct—and they still ended up wrong. Trying to model a storm from the cosmic depths using human instruments left too many unknowns.
From the perspective of current human knowledge, Danger confirmed Reed's math was flawless. But the real outcome had been wildly different.
"Too many variables. Flag it as reference only." In the original timeline, four people were hit by the radiation and all four were transformed—a 100% mutation rate on paper. But what role did protagonist's luck play in that? And three of the four could revert to human form. Ben Grimm couldn't. That had to be factored in. What if her DNA mutated the wrong way and she ended up as a stone statue? Her current power was more than enough for self-defense. There was absolutely no reason to take that kind of gamble.
Still, she wasn't about to let this opportunity pass. The spacesuits were also contaminated with cosmic radiation. If she could get them back and cross-reference the data against her own genetic profile, she could study the effect without throwing herself directly into a space station radiation bath.
The question was how to get herself involved in the mission in a way that made it possible.
Two days later, Reed came to her office to formally activate the supercomputer access. The brilliant scientist had, in the end, been defeated by money. He brought it up with studied casualness, asking whether she might consider investing.
"This project will generate incalculable benefits for the future of humanity. It really is a worthwhile investment." Reed could talk about science for hours without pausing, but money turned him into a broken record—he kept cycling back through the same few talking points.
Was Reed Richards's space-based cosmic radiation project worth investing in? Daisy's answer: a ten-thousand-percent guaranteed loss. His old classmate, rival, and lifelong nemesis Victor Von Doom had believed in it—and look what it cost him. A space station worth several hundred billion dollars, destroyed. His industrial empire, bankrupted overnight. He'd been completely ruined.