Fury rubbed his bare scalp. He was genuinely optimistic about Stark's potential—but the man wasn't giving him the time of day, and right now he was out of angles.
"Agent Johnson. What's your recommendation?"
"...I need to know which you actually value more—Stark the person, or Stark Industries as a corporate entity?"
"Give me both. You've had more contact with him than most people here, and your read tends to be practical." A rare compliment from Fury.
"If it's the man you want: make an emotional investment. With his personality, the moment we're in real trouble he'll show up on his own. If it's the company you want: now is the moment. It's a public company with a lot of shares trading on the open market. We accumulate a position quietly, pick up additional shares from board members over time—majority control is achievable."
Majority control of Stark Industries was something Daisy herself could never pull off. The company was too large; her money would barely make a ripple. But S.H.I.E.L.D. was a different story entirely. In the comics they'd actually held a controlling stake in Stark Industries before. Getting in early now—whether for investment returns or eventual control—wouldn't lose money either way.
"If the weapons market isn't occupied by friendly hands, it will be occupied by hostile ones. Iron Man cannot stop wars. We could lean on the Stark board to continue weapons development—keep that market under our influence. It would be better for global stability. It would also permanently freeze our relationship with Tony."
Daisy watched Fury thinking and threw in a few more thoughts for good measure.
Fury fell silent. The logic was clean, the choice clear: choosing Stark Industries meant short-term results; choosing Tony Stark the person meant a long-term investment.
"Let me think about it." His eye moved toward the door. You can go.
He needed to weigh person versus company. Daisy said her goodbyes with a small pang of regret.
She would obviously have preferred a corporate acquisition—the timing was perfect right now. If she'd been handed the acquisition mandate herself, she could have washed out most of her illegal income in the process, then turned around and sold her existing Stark shares to S.H.I.E.L.D. at a premium and bought them back at a discount. The setup would have been elegant.
But from the look of it, Fury was leaning toward Tony Stark the person.
While the media continued worshipping at the altar of the Fantastic Four, Daisy and her maid kept buying. And the Danger Room experiments had finally reached their conclusion.
Whatever corner of the universe this cosmic radiation had drifted in from, its enhancement properties were exceptional—it could supercharge any genetic structure, without exception.
The test results showed that baseline humans responded best. A hybrid like Daisy—human genetics blended with alien heritage—could still be enhanced, just to a lesser degree.
"My calculations indicate your genome already outpaces a baseline human's," Danger reported as her final conclusion. "The probability of a disruptive mutation like the Thing's is very low."
The radiation levels had been steadily declining. This was the last viable exposure window. Daisy called her maid in.
"Maki. Come get enhanced with me. It's what you've earned."
Her maid trained harder than almost anyone Daisy knew—but human beings had a ceiling, and without enhancement, Maki's lifetime ceiling was fixed.
"Miss—Matsumoto Maki is prepared to give her life in your service!" The maid was overcome; she switched to Japanese in her agitation.
The one generous, the other utterly devoted. Daisy's manner fit every ideal Maki had ever held about the samurai code. What followed between them was genuinely moving—a stirring lord-and-vassal bond playing out in full.
What also followed, unfortunately, was the kind of twist that deflated the drama completely.
As Daisy and Maki prepared to enter the specially constructed circular metal chamber and undergo the radiation exposure, Danger issued a quiet clarification.
Danger's voice carried no inflection whatsoever. "Pardon me—my calculations indicate clothing will provide some interference. If you wish to maximize the enhancement effect, it would be optimal to remove your garments."
Daisy glanced sideways at her maid. Her maid's face was pink.
"Maybe I should go next time?" Maki suggested.
"Come on—together." There was only this one chance, and Daisy wasn't going to push Maki out over a moment of awkwardness. That would be unconscionable. In her mind it would be like bathing or swimming together—nothing to it. They'd shared living space for more than two years; they knew each other well enough by now.
When they'd removed their underwear and walked into the metal room, though, it turned out to be different from what Daisy had pictured.
The chamber had been designed small so the radiation could saturate every corner. The moment they stepped inside, the confined space pressed in immediately.
She cleared her throat—her maid's gaze had been growing more and more off, and she needed to say something.
"Yes! Focusing! Absolutely focusing!" Her maid announced loudly.
Standing face to face was obviously unworkable. Daisy sat cross-legged on the floor, then found the position unbearable for reasons she couldn't quite articulate, and shifted into a formal kneeling posture instead. For Maki a proper kneel was effortless; they ended up sitting across from each other, both of them looking vaguely ridiculous.
"Miss, you have such a wonderful—"
"So do you. Ahem. Let's begin, Danger."
Light blazed through the specially constructed apparatus—numerous wavelengths beyond the range of the human retina—and refracted into the metal chamber.
Actually quite striking. That was Daisy's first impression. The radiation hit her skin and produced a faint prickling sensation, nothing more. No violent physical transformation, no agonizing purge—none of what she'd anticipated.
She was beginning to wonder whether it would work on her at all when the voice from across the room shattered the quiet.
"It hurts— it feels like my bones are dissolving!" Maki rolled onto the floor, drenched in sweat, every muscle locked at full tension.
Daisy abandoned any attempt at dignity and scrambled across to check on her. "Danger—what's happening?"
"Everything is within normal parameters. This phase is a necessary preliminary to enhancement."
There was nothing Daisy could do. She crouched beside her maid and kept talking. "Maki. I'm right here. Hold on."
Whatever else you could say about the Japanese capacity for endurance, Matsumoto Maki had it in full. She pushed through the pain by sheer will, slowly forced herself upright again, and signaled she could continue.
She was gritting her teeth, trembling violently from head to foot. Within twenty seconds her hair was soaked as though she'd dunked her head in water. Daisy kept encouraging her in Japanese.