"You remember standing up Loki, don't you?"
Stark nodded stiffly, replying, "But I didn't mean to, Jarvis told me about the meeting too late, I had to order a cake, and notify the other Avengers..."
"No need to explain," Shiller raised a hand, "Did you or did you not stand her up?"
"What does that have to do with me standing her up?" Stark pointed at the little girl, his normally sharp mind struck dumb.
Loki is furious—nearly hysterical," Shiller gently placed the girl on the table, encircling her with his arms to prevent her from running off, and then said seriously, "As you know, Thor dotes on his sister and let her use his weapon, Mjölnir, for protection."
"In the past, Thor became the God of Light, and he merged the first thunderbolt in the cosmos into Mjölnir, enhancing the power of this Divine Artifact. Simultaneously, the first thunderbolt symbolizes rebirth, providing Mjölnir's thunder the ability to ignite the fire of life."
Stark's gaze landed on the little girl, and gradually he came out of shock, starting to carefully study the girl.
She was very young, seemingly unable to walk yet, cute and beautiful like a doll, yet imposing an immediate resemblance to a young Loki.
Despite this, what confused Stark was the fact that the little girl had spikes on her shoulders, sides of her neck, and ankles, which made her look less human and more like some strange beast. Furthermore, her eyes were vertical pupils and when she laughed, sharp fangs could be seen.
Doomsday's characteristics were well exhibited, except for the brutal muscularity, everything else was there.
Upon closer inspection of the child, Stark finally focused on the Reactor embedded in her chest. "Wait, this isn't the latest version of the Reactor... This... Isn't this the one you took for hall lighting?"
"That's the problem," Shiller replied innocently, "I recently obtained a monster egg, but the soul within had disappeared, so it couldn't hatch, that's why I placed it in the basement of my hospital."
"I installed your Reactor in the center of my hall, but who would've guessed that when Loki swung her hammer seeking revenge against you, the Rainbow Bridge landed nearer to my hospital. She mistook the bulb for your armor and struck it with Mjölnir."
"Unexpectedly, after striking the bulb hanging from the ceiling, it fell through the hospital's floor, going directly into the egg."
"Even more coincidental, Mjölnir, possessing the rejuvenating force of the cosmos' first thunderbolt, ignited the flame of the soul in the egg that had lost its soul, resulting in it hatching."
"But your Reactor ended up in the embryo. Perhaps this new life didn't know what to do with the bulb, eventually, she incorporated it into her body."
"Since the igniter of the soul-flame was Loki, she resembles her. And since your Reactor just happened to get into her body, therefore..."
Shiller extended his hand, pointed to the little girl, indicating to Stark, this is how it happened.
"Wait a minute! What did you say to me before coming? You're giving her to me?? Damn it, you've got to be kidding me, I'm not even married, how am I supposed to raise a child?!"
"No matter, if you don't want her, I can just take her for a spin over New York. After all, over 90% of New Yorkers recognise your Reactor. Tomorrow's headline could be 'Iron Man irresponsibly fathers an illegitimate daughter and cruelly abandons her on the streets…'"
"I..." Stark was choked up, he responded, "But they should know, how could a baby born from me come with a reactor??"
"You can go explain that to the media and journalists…"
Saying this, Shiller was about to leave with the little girl, but Stark quickly went to stop him, saying, "No! Wait! You can't tarnish my reputation like this!... Alright, I know I don't have much of one, but you can't do this..."
Without hesitation, Shiller shoved the girl into Stark's arms. Stark fumbled to hold the child, clearly not knowing how to hold her - holding the little girl like she was a mechanical part.
After trying and failing to adjust his hold, Stark simply took the girl in his arms, stretching his arms as far away as possible and pulling his head back so much he had a double-chin, squinting at the little girl.
All of a sudden, he leaned his neck forward, his eyes widening as he carefully examined her, treating her like he would a new toy.
"You don't have to fuss over the details, what's done is done. Do you think you can shove her back in now? Cause I definitely can't."
Stark turned to glare at Shiller, who nonchalantly shrugged, "From an ethical standpoint, you really should be her parent. Before this, the soul in the egg had vanished. In other words, the embryo within the egg was already dead."
"The 'software' that resurrected this embryo was Loki's thunderbolt, she rekindled the soul fire of the embryo, and the 'hardware' was your Ark Reactor. Even though I'm not sure why she absorbed the bulb, perhaps... this is the bond between father and daughter…"
Hearing the term "father and daughter", Stark grimaced, violently pulling his lips downward to form an upside down U, as seen in cartoons, and continuing to intently stare at the little girl.
"So, what sort of egg is that?" Stark asked.
"Would you believe me if I said I don't know?" Shiller started, and as Stark was still riveted on him, Shiller had to continue: "All I can say is, it was originally a very, very powerful beast. For some reason, it died within its egg, so her body is that of this beast, but her soul seems to have been reborn."
Stark put down the little girl and, nursing a headache rubbed his forehead, saying, "If I knew this would happen, I wouldn't have given you that Ark Reactor...."
"Still, the cause of all this is you. If you hadn't let Loki go free, she would never have struck you, right? If she hadn't struck you, someone else wouldn't have mistakenly been hit."
"No, I'm not talking about the birth of this child. The problem is that the Ark Reactor I gave you was not the latest version; there are lots of issues with it," Stark stared at the reactor in the little girl's chest as he talked. "Moreover, she's still just a child. Do you think this reactor might be a bit too big for her?"
"There are many issues taken into account when mechanical implants are inserted into carbon-based lifeforms its subsequent maintenance is also bothersome, regardless if she isn't human. This forceful combination of the reactor and body, is bound to cause problems."
Considering Shiller's ability came down to nothing more than changing a lightbulb, Stark had no choice but to give a detailed explanation. He said, "After obtaining Vibranium as a material, I found that it combines very well with the bodies of carbon-based life forms. Many design structures that were previously impossible due to weight, density or safety issues can now be realized using this material."
"So after acquiring Vibranium, I gave the Ark Reactor a full upgrade. It looks similar on the outside but internally it's very different."
"The one on her is an old version of the Ark Reactor. The casing is made from Oscillating Gold Alloy. Since it has too many flaws, I've already phased it out. If you hadn't said you needed it just for lighting purposes I wouldn't have given it to anyone."
Shiller also bent over to look closely at the device on the little girl's chest.
The Ark Reactor itself is actually not that big. The one on Iron Man's chest seems larger because Stark added a lot of external mechanical structures. Basically, it was to look cool. The functional part of it though, could fit in one hand.
While this size isn't problematic for an average size adult, successful implantation wouldn't significantly impact daily movement.
But this little girl, transformed from the Doomsday Beast, is even smaller than Aisha, who was transformed from the Parallax. Perhaps this is because the Time Difference Monster that transformed into Aisha was already an adult, and the Doomsday Beast was still in its egg. Thus, the little girl transformed from the Doomsday Beast is at an age where she's just learning how to walk, even smaller than Aisha.
In this case, the fist-sized Ark Reactor is very large relative to her body. It takes up her entire chest cavity and the way it is attached doesn't seem scientifically sound.
Shiller hadn't anticipated that the embryo of the Doomsday Beast would fuse with the Ark Reactor on its shell. He felt that Stark's explanation was plausible, suspecting that the lightning strike may have driven the Ark Reactor from the outside to the inside of the egg.
The Doomsday Beast, in the process of hatching, may not have known how to deal with this foreign object and thus incorporated it into its body. This aligns with the Doomsday Beast's characteristic of infinite evolution.
Stark furrowed his brows deeply and said, "Anyhow, this mode of fusion is unlikely to work. Even if it does, it's best to replace it with the latest version. Otherwise, when this technology becomes obsolete, I will have no spare parts left for maintenance."
"So, are you agreeing to adopt her?"
"Well..." Stark was taken aback, his expression shifting through various shades of surprise, he pinched the bridge of his nose and said, "No, I'm not ready at all. I knew I would have a daughter in the future, but not so soon. Now it's too early, I'm just not... "
"At present, only you can adopt her. She inherits your Ark Reactor in her chest. As you said, it may need improvement and maintenance, and these aren't things that can be done in a one-off... "
"If you're sure you can't do it, I will find Loki and ask her to take the child back to Asgard."
"No." Stark instinctively refused. After refusing, he was taken aback for a moment, and then spoke his mind instinctively:
"Asgard is not a good place at all. Their education system is a mess. Thor is reckless, Loki lacks love, Odin is a traditional patriarchal father, and Queen Frigga is probably the overly pampering type of mother. It won't work...."
Then he took a deep breath and said, "Alright, it's a mess I made. I'll clean it up myself."
He was silent for a while, murmuring softly to himself: "Stark.....you can do it, of course. You won't be the same as him, you'll do better. You'll definitely raise excellent children..."
"In fact, you don't need to put so much pressure on yourself. This child's talents might far exceed your expectations." Shiller picked her up again, gently swaying her. The little girl seemed to be very happy and raised her hands high, shouting with joy.
And then, Stark saw a dazzling glow shining from her eyes and hands——
It was the brilliance of magic.