Roxxon Energy Corporation was far better at this kind of commercial warfare than Stark. It mobilized its enormous network everywhere, obstructing approvals through every possible channel and claiming that the Arc Reactor posed major safety risks.
Local lawmakers across the country came forward to oppose it, and the public followed their lead. The news media joined in as well, predicting disaster from every direction: clean energy would cause cancer, clean energy would destroy huge numbers of jobs, and so on. For a while, every sort of opportunist crawled out of the woodwork. It was quite a spectacle.
They even arranged for seven or eight children of different ethnicities to rush at Stark and Pepper Potts during a public event and call him "Dad," leaving Pepper painfully embarrassed.
The energy war involved the lives and welfare of people around the world as well as the interests of countless people, so Daisy had no intention of joining in. Aside from going to work as usual, she stayed home and studied the Tesseract.
Her plan was simple: wait for her genes to finish developing, then borrow a spacecraft from the Inhumans. When she had free time with nothing else to do, teasing Wanda was pretty entertaining too.
Wanda thought having a job looked interesting and wanted to find one for herself. But when Daisy asked what kind of work she could actually do, Wanda discovered that she did not know how to do anything.
Daisy scratched her head. Letting Wanda watch cartoons and study magic every day really was rather monotonous. Wanda had recently become fascinated with wilderness survival programs, which probably reflected at least some desire to experience life outside the villa.
At the same time, she was bad at dealing with people and afraid of strangers. She wanted to stay safely at home, yet also wanted to travel around and see the world. Those contradictory impulses both existed in her at once.
"So what kind of work do you want to try?" Daisy asked, troubled.
Wanda's small face fell. She did not know what she could do either, but while looking at the television program, she hesitantly said, "I want to try this..."
Daisy turned to look at the screen and asked uncertainly, "A wilderness survival show?"
That sort of program would challenge an ordinary person, but would it challenge Wanda? Tigers and venomous snakes would probably give her a wide berth, and it was not as though Dormammu could suddenly jump out of the wilderness.
Then again, given the uncontrollable nature of Chaos Magic, Wanda's biggest challenge in the wild might actually be keeping herself alive.
Arranging the show itself was effortless. Skye Pictures had all the filming equipment and personnel they could need. The only real problem was that Wanda needed physical training. Someone who had to rest after walking for half an hour was not ready for wilderness survival.
Putting her directly on television might draw Baron Wolfgang von Strucker's hostility, but a little makeup could disguise her. People in this world were remarkably bad at recognizing faces anyway. Even if Wanda was discovered, so what? She was never destined to be a hothouse flower. If the Fenris twins came after her once she was energetic and both her stamina and magic had improved dramatically, it was anyone's guess who would end up killing whom.
To prepare her for the program, Daisy designed a harsh training regimen for Wanda: running, sit-ups, jumping rope, swimming, and more.
Wanda did not like long outdoor runs, so Daisy custom-ordered two treadmills, one for Wanda and one for Tangbao, the little lion cub. It had gotten far too fat and needed exercise too. Otherwise, if Daisy ever took it back to the African savanna, its own parents might not recognize it.
Daisy lay on a lounge chair in the courtyard, sunbathing and staring into space while urging the two trainees to run faster.
Wearing an athletic tank top with her hair tied into a ponytail, Wanda stepped onto one treadmill with heroic resolve. The utterly reluctant Tangbao climbed onto the other, and the two began exercising.
Wanda kept telling herself that she had to become stronger, starting with strengthening her body. Her will was strong, but her body was simply too weak. She had become exhausted after less than an hour of walking in the underground tunnel, never mind running.
"Huff... huff..." Her chest rose and fell violently, and her legs felt as heavy as lead. Tangbao was not doing much better on the other treadmill; its tongue was already hanging out.
Grinding her teeth, Wanda endured another ten minutes. Heat billowed off the top of her head as if she were a steamer, and Miss Wanda's determined expression began to crumble. She secretly glanced at Daisy.
Daisy, wearing a shirt and shorts, looked as though she had fallen asleep. Wanda stared at Daisy's long legs, encouraged herself again, and forced herself through another five minutes.
This time she truly could not keep going.
Then she witnessed something miraculous. A training cane floated into the air by itself, seemed to hesitate for a moment, swayed from side to side, and finally smacked Tangbao hard on the rear twice.
Daisy coughed at exactly the right moment, making it clear to both of them that she had done it and had not been asleep at all.
Run! Keep running! Just as Wanda and Tangbao were almost numb from running, Daisy tossed a snake onto the treadmills, terrifying Wanda and Tangbao—and, truth be told, the poor snake as well.
"Anything can happen in the wilderness! Snakes are one of the most ordinary situations you'll face. Here, hold it the way I do." Daisy demonstrated how to handle a snake. Wanda could hardly throw a fireball every time she saw one.
Wanda learned quickly, but the slippery texture still made her nervous. Seeing Daisy hold the snake as casually as a toy only made her admire Daisy even more.
"As for you..." Daisy turned toward her pet. Tangbao immediately put on an ingratiating expression, leaving her almost speechless. She remembered that the cub had been fairly agile back in Africa. How had she managed to raise it into something so fat and timid?
In truth, Tangbao was not afraid of snakes. It had simply been startled by the sudden appearance of one. Seeing its aggrieved little face, Daisy could not bring herself to be too harsh.
The training continued. After lunch, Wanda declared that she genuinely could not run another step and only wanted to lie down.
Daisy dragged her out to swim instead. Wanda did not know how to swim, so Daisy first had to teach her.
Throwing her straight into the Atlantic Ocean would be suicidal, but fortunately the villa had a swimming pool. The two changed into swimsuits, and Daisy took Wanda to the pool.
Off to the side, Tangbao looked immensely relieved and prepared to rest as well. Daisy suddenly ran into a problem. She could model Wanda's training on S.H.I.E.L.D. agent training courses, but how did you train a lion? S.H.I.E.L.D. did not have a curriculum for that.
Feeling mischievous, Daisy went online and found a circus training manual. Fine then. Flaming-hoop jumping!
Using magnetism, she formed a metal hoop. Then, with a light lift of her palm, a ring of blazing fire appeared in front of Tangbao.
At first, the cub simply stared in confusion. Only when Daisy gestured for it to jump through did its face transform into absolute horror.
Daisy still had to teach Wanda to swim, so she could not spare the attention to keep an eye on Tangbao. Letting the cub get burned would create another headache.
Just then she saw Lorna Dane coming home from school and trying to sneak quietly into the villa. Daisy reached out and called the girl over.
"Big Sis Daisy, I'm really busy with school. That means I don't have to train, right?" The girl spoke with the utterly reasonable tone of someone saying, "Don't interfere with my studies."
Lorna had been dressing more and more masculine lately: T-shirts and jeans every day. Phil Coulson had tactfully suggested that Daisy pay more attention to how she was being raised, but Daisy saw no problem with it. In her opinion, masculine clothes were perfectly fine. Long pants and boots were useful for running away, if nothing else.
Daisy gave her a mysterious smile. Lorna's intention to avoid training was painfully obvious, but that was hardly enough to stump Daisy.