Stark put down his phone and walked over to the dinner table, where Aisha was busy cutting the steak on her plate. He sat opposite her, rested his arm on the table, waved his hand and said, "Honestly, little girl, isn't it stressful to have a dad like this?"
"He makes you do this, he makes you do that, everything is within his expectations." Stark sighed lightly.
He didn't intend to brainwash Aisha, it was just a casual complaint. But for someone adept at manipulation, controlling others had become an instinct. Every action, every word, everything unintentionally revealed in words and demeanor were preparations for manipulation.
So, instinctively, Stark observed Aisha's reaction, but she just kept her eyes straight on the steak in her plate.
A bit surprised, Stark frowned and leaned forward, looking down at Aisha from above his eyes. He could tell that this little girl had some behavioral issues.
Stark carefully observed Aisha, scrutinizing her with his body language and gaze, trying to pressure her.
Typically, children with autism can become very uncomfortable under such pressure, but Aisha had no reaction, which made Stark uncertain.
"What are you thinking about?" Stark asked.
"Eat it? Don't eat it?" Aisha muttered.
"Eat what? Your food? Of course, you can eat it. Or, don't you like it?"
"Can I eat it?" For the first time, Aisha looked up at Stark, her eyes filled with an anticipation that Stark didn't understand.
Stark nodded awkwardly after a moment's pause. He didn't understand why Aisha would have such a question. Wait, it couldn't be that Batman abused her in the past...
Just as Stark was thinking about this, with a crunch, crunch, crunch, when Stark came back to his senses, he was the only one left sitting in the dining room.
He looked to his right and then to his left, finally looking down at Aisha who was standing by his leg. He read something from her bright eyes.
"No, you can't chew on my..."
Crunch, crunch, crunch!
"...chair."
Sitting on the fragments of the broken chair, Stark looked bewildered while Aisha happily burped, stretched and then ran to the sofa to sit down.
The entire open-concept dining room looked like it had been hit by a tornado. Aside from Stark himself, there was nothing left intact.
At this time, the sound of high heels approaching could be heard.
In a conditioned reflex, Stark jumped up and tried to run out of the kitchen, but before he could, Little Pepper appeared in front of him, her eyebrows raised high.
"Tony, what dangerous experiments have you been doing in your lab again?!!! How many times have I told you..."
Furious Little Pepper could be deadly. As Stark was about to pacify her, Aisha called out and successfully drew Pepper's attention.
"This is Aisha, the daughter of a friend..." Stark explained as he followed behind, "He was in a hurry and asked me to look after her for a few days. Yes, that's it."
Pepper gave him a suspicious glance as she walked past, but Stark just smiled back at her.
Pepper's expression started to soften a bit, but the next second, she screamed, hurried over to Aisha and hugged her.
Stark flinched, thinking that Pepper had discovered something unusual about Aisha. However, Pepper looked back at Stark and asked, "What did you feed her?"
"Um, the steak from the kitchen."
"How well done?"
"I don't know. The usual for me."
"You fed a kid this young a medium steak?! Tony Stark! And you didn't put a bib on her or wipe her mouth!"
"Uh... I've never had a child before..."
Pepper picked up Aisha and turned to leave. Stark stretched out his hand helplessly, praying in his heart that Aisha would soon show her extraordinary qualities, like the whirlwind she caused that destroyed the dining room just now, so that Pepper might get scared and run off.
But Aisha obediently lay in Pepper's arms, blinking sleepily and not uttering a word, while Stark watched them leave helplessly.
Of course, he could persuade Pepper to stay, or find a way to make Aisha stay. But on some level, if Aisha could help him hold off Pepper, then his plan would be considered successful.
If Aisha could distract Pepper's attention, then the pressure from within the company would greatly decrease, and Stark wouldn't have to worry about being caught all the time.
So, the next step was to start dealing with external issues. Stark didn't bother with the chaotic kitchen and went back to the computer. His next target was the overly nosy Osborn Group.
Of course, the conspiracy theories that Bruce mentioned were all framed to blame the Osborn Group. The reality was that the one conducting the biochemical experiments was Stark himself.
Or it can't be considered a biochemical experiment really. The White Can didn't need any large-scale human trials to produce a virus. Stark's genius allowed him to create things out of thin air like the origin of all disasters - the Ultimate Virus.
Ultimate Iron Man's story is quite simple. As we mentioned before, his sense of good and evil was reversed during the Ethics Axis Event, turning him into the Evil Iron Man.
And after he became the Evil Iron Man, he did an extremely cunning thing, he modified the Ultimate Virus, then released it into San Francisco's water supply.