In the car, little Lorna sat alone in the back seat, occasionally touching her emerald-green hair with a look of distaste. It was this hair that had driven her away from her family, away from her friends, and made her a target of widespread hostility. Now she'd been reduced to living with some strange older sister.
Thinking about the uncertainty ahead, Lorna hugged her backpack, curled her legs up tight, and sat in solitary silence.
Daisy and the maid sat up front.
"Are you planning to adopt her?" the maid asked quietly.
"We'll see. I honestly don't know..." Between the continuous fighting, levitating the airplane, and rescuing people, Daisy was utterly exhausted. She leaned back in her seat and was asleep within seconds.
She didn't wake until they were back at the apartment. Yawning as she walked through the door, she was caught completely off guard when Tangbao the lion cub pounced and bowled her over.
Lorna shuffled in behind her in a daze. Seeing Daisy get tackled to the ground, confusion flickered across her face.
Tangbao had been taken from the African savanna, and Daisy had been spoiling him rotten to make up for it. With no siblings competing for food—and the food in Daisy's household being especially good—the little lion had been eating too much and exercising too little. He'd gotten noticeably pudgy, and Lorna couldn't immediately tell what kind of animal she was looking at. Tangbao lifted his head at the same moment, seemingly puzzled by this stranger, and locked eyes with Lorna.
Then the terror hit. Lorna wanted to let out a full-throated scream, but she was too small and lacked the lung power. What came out sounded more like a cat's meow—not exactly intimidating. She screamed again for good measure.
"Ahhh—run! Run!" She wanted Daisy to flee. At the same time, she thrust out her right hand, trying to use her power the way she'd controlled the airplane—not expecting miracles, just enough to move some metal and buy them time. But her ability played hide-and-seek with her this time, refusing to activate no matter how hard she strained.
Daisy, who'd been playing with the cub, blinked in surprise. She and Tangbao exchanged a look, then both turned to stare at Lorna.
"Ahem. Lorna, it's fine—this is Tangbao, my pet." Daisy scratched the lion cub's head. He wasn't pleased, twisting away with an indignant huff that clearly meant: Don't touch my head.
But Lorna was frozen in sheer panic, completely deaf to Daisy's words. She'd reached the point of seeing nothing, hearing nothing. As if practicing some strange energy-draining technique, her fingers splayed open mechanically, grasping for that elusive feeling of magnetic control. Sweat beaded on her forehead, but the power simply wouldn't come.
Daisy called out twice. When it became clear Lorna couldn't hear her, she curled her middle finger and flicked a tiny vibration wave at the girl—very gentle, barely a whisper of force.
Hm? The familiar sensation, that familiar push, snapped Lorna out of it. She quickly realized it was Daisy's power. The strange tactile feeling combined with the surge of emotion perfectly replicated what had happened on the plane, and the metal objects around the room began to sway.
"Stop!" Daisy barked, jolting the girl out of her magnetic trance.
At the same time, the small pulse of vibrational energy Daisy had injected quickly dissipated. Without emotional fuel and without that external push, Lorna's magnetic control cut out again.
"Sorry, sorry." She didn't know what else to say. Years of ingrained habit made her apologize stiffly, almost mechanically.
"You didn't do anything wrong. Come on—shake hands with Tangbao. He's a blast." Daisy brushed the magnetic incident aside and introduced Lorna to the lion cub.
Big cats were generally beautiful creatures, and with Tangbao's current chubby physique, he looked less fierce and more friendly. Lorna cautiously touched the lion. When nothing terrible happened, the bold streak she'd inherited from Magneto surfaced on its own. Following Daisy's lead, she reached up and petted Tangbao's head.
Tangbao, now conditioned by Daisy's constant head-patting, let out a reflexive growl of protest. Lorna froze for two seconds, then realized this guy was just a big tsundere. She finally relaxed.
While sorting out Lorna's room, Daisy became acutely aware of a problem: this apartment was way too small.
The downstairs gym had been claimed by Tangbao. The two upstairs bedrooms were taken by her and the maid respectively. With Lorna's arrival, the only option left was the dressing room.
Little Lorna didn't mind. The dressing room was small, but it was a room of her own—already better than what she'd had before.
The new housemate settled in without complaint, but Daisy felt embarrassed. The space was cramped, and on top of that, finding a proper location for the supercomputer couldn't be put off any longer.
Time to buy a house. A big house.
It wasn't just her anymore—even the maid had become a significant figure in New York.
The legal world and real estate industry had extensive business overlap. A few phone calls from the maid, and by that evening, several real estate agents were at the door with portfolios in hand.
The subprime crisis had left the entire real estate market in the gutter. The agents who'd come calling were the cream of the crop—the unqualified competition had already been weeded out. In fact, from the moment Daisy expressed interest, the agents had already gone through a round of cutthroat elimination among themselves.
Listening to their pitches, Daisy carefully sifted through the options.
Manhattan properties were still outrageously expensive. Even if she bought one, she couldn't guarantee it wouldn't be leveled by the Chitauri in a few years. And even without the Chitauri, Marvel's endless parade of villains made urban living a gamble.
Watching a hundred-million-dollar property get blasted to rubble by aliens would give her a heart attack. To avoid dying of cardiac arrest mid-battle, she decided to follow the lead of this world's wealthy elite and opt for a sprawling suburban estate.
Especially since she was housing a lion and a rhino—keeping those in the city was a recipe for catastrophe.
The two agents specializing in Manhattan properties were eliminated first.
She consulted the household for opinions—not that there was much of a household to consult.
The maid was fine with anywhere. No opinion whatsoever.
Little Lorna still couldn't figure out why they needed to buy a house. Had her arrival put so much financial pressure on Daisy that they had to move out to the suburbs?
As for the lion cub, he couldn't talk and couldn't be seen by ordinary people anyway. And the rhino was still snoozing in the garage.
With all household members abstaining, Daisy made the executive decision. Her preliminary pick was a villa at the southernmost tip of Long Island.
Long Island's environment was superb—ocean on three sides, forests on the island, abundant rainfall, mild summers. Plenty of wealthy people owned property there. Most importantly, it was far from Manhattan, separated by the entire borough of Queens. Surely the Chitauri wouldn't bother targeting a beachside villa way out there?
The real estate agent offered to drive them out for a viewing. Daisy waved him off—she'd already cleared it with Colonel Rhodes of the Air Force and had a flight permit. For this house-hunting trip, she'd specifically borrowed a helicopter from S.H.I.E.L.D.