Chapter 98
Since I can't be the light, I'll be the fire that burns everything away.
Clang!
A piercing metallic clang echoed in the alley behind Stark Tower.
Several boxes of scattered parts were ruthlessly dumped on the asphalt road.
"I am also very sorry, Miss Williams."
Happy stood on the back door steps, straightened his suit collar, and looked down at the disheveled girl below.
"If you try to approach the building again, or harass Mr. Stark with those unauthorized half-finished products, I think the Department of Justice's lawyer's letter will arrive sooner than your next meal."
"That's not a half-finished product! That's the future!" Lily roared, her throat hoarse from the argument. "Just give me even ten minutes..."
"If you are truly talented, Mr. Stark will see it."
"But he didn't see it, understand?"
Happy didn't want to waste any more words, so he turned around and pressed the close button.
The explosion-proof iron door slowly closed, completely cutting off the last lights.
boom.
The world has fallen into darkness.
As if to match this damned atmosphere, a light drizzle began to fall from the sky.
Rainwater mixed with New York's distinctive dust pattered against Lily's face, making her look both comical and pathetic.
Lily stood there blankly, while passersby cast strange glances at her, their eyes filled with disdain and mockery, and even a hint of fear as if she were a madwoman.
"What are you looking at! Haven't you ever seen a mechanic before?!"
Lily, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, roared at the passersby.
The crowd scattered in alarm, pointing and whispering from a short distance away.
"Damn it! Damn Stark! Damn rich people!"
He was consumed by rage.
Lily raised her foot and kicked the steel-heart-marked breastplate on the ground with all her might.
Boom!
A muffled thud.
This was followed by the excruciating pain of bone hitting hard metal.
"Hiss! Fuck fuck!"
Lily hopped on one leg in the rain, clutching her foot, her face contorted in pain.
thump!
She lost her balance and tumbled awkwardly into the pile of waterlogged garbage.
Sewage splashed all over him, ruining his already filthy work pants.
At that moment, she felt like a complete joke.
"That must be the most powerful kick I've ever seen, full of anger, but it also exposes your ignorance of the hardness of metal."
A male voice suddenly pierced through the rain.
Ignoring the pain, Lily sprang to her feet, grabbed a hydraulic hose, and glared fiercely at the source of the sound.
"Who?!"
"Don't try to laugh at me, I will not be giving interviews!"
In the shadows at the alley entrance, a black limousine was parked, its paint gleaming coldly under the streetlights.
A middle-aged man in a white bespoke suit is slowly walking towards us, holding a black umbrella.
His leather shoes stepped into the puddles without splashing a single drop of mud.
His hair was combed back meticulously, and his eyes held not the mockery of passersby, but rather the gleam of a hunter scrutinizing his prey.
Kyrian.
"Don't be nervous, little girl."
Killian stopped three meters away, his gaze sweeping over the pile of scrap metal on the ground before finally settling on Lily's face, which was etched with resentment.
"If it were those paparazzi looking for attention, they wouldn't be interested in something Stark threw out like trash."
"You're here to laugh at us?" Lily gripped the steel pipe tightly, her arm muscles tense. "Get lost, or I'll blow your head off."
"joke?"
Killian chuckled, ignoring Lily's threat, and strolled leisurely to the pile of wreckage.
He squatted down, not caring at all that his expensive trousers were covered in mud.
He stretched out his long, slender fingers and gently stroked the hydraulic pipe that Tony had torn off, then tapped the energy core.
"Tony Stark said it was industrial waste because all he saw was the ugly shell."
Killian's voice was soft, but every word struck Lily's heart.
"His conceit-filled brain overlooked one thing: within this rudimentary core, you've adopted a new energy recirculation algorithm."
"This algorithm is not designed for stability, but for explosive growth."
Lily was stunned.
The steel pipe in his hand slowly drooped down.
Even Stark was just mocking her hardware garbage; no one has ever understood the madness she buried in her software logic.
"You...you can understand it?" Lily's voice trembled slightly.
"I don't know much, but I do know what ambition is."
Killian stood up, took a snow-white handkerchief from his breast pocket, and handed it to Lily.
"Wipe your tears; those high and mighty people won't care about them."
Lily hesitated for a moment, then roughly grabbed a handkerchief and wiped her face haphazardly.
"Who are you?"
"An Avenger, just like you, who was once discarded like trash on a cold night."
Killian turned around and looked at the brightly lit Stark Tower in the distance, raindrops dripping from the edge of his umbrella.
"New Year's Eve in Bern, Switzerland, 1999."
Killian's voice turned low.
"I waited on the rooftop for an hour. I wanted to show Stark my work and tell him that I could change the world too."
"But what about him? He didn't even come."
"I was freezing like a dog in the cold wind, while he was downstairs partying with a beautiful woman."
As Lily listened to these words, a certain resonance grew wildly in her blood.
She looked at Killian's profile and felt as if she were seeing herself just a few minutes earlier.
The humiliation of being trampled on by their idol and abandoned by the world turned into a flame that burned deep in their eyes.
"Tony Stark is a genius." Killian turned his head.
"But his biggest flaw is arrogance. He thinks he is a god and can judge the wisdom of mortals like us at will."
"What do you need, Miss Williams?"
Killian extended his hand to Lily, palm up—an invitation of equality, not charity.
"Money? I have plenty of money. Resources? AIM has state-of-the-art biological laboratories."
"But I can give you much more than that."
Killian took a step closer, his voice filled with seductive allure.
"I can give you a chance to prove Stark wrong, a chance to make him kneel before you and beg to admit that you are the real genius."
Lily looked at the hand.
He glanced back at the building that represented authority and glory.
That was a cloud she could never reach, and also the place she most wanted to blow up with her own hands at that moment.
Clang.
The steel pipe in his hand fell to the ground.
Lily stretched out her oil-stained hand and gripped Killian tightly.
"If you dare to lie to me, I'll tear you apart too."
"Deal." Killian's smile widened.
"Get on board, let's go see the world of the winners."