96 Chapter 96 - Helping Tony Stark

Lily's curiosity was piqued by the mention of Tony Stark, so she stood and watched the entire news broadcast through the window.

The reporter explained that Tony Stark, who had recently gone missing, had returned safely and was now back in his Tower. The report also showed scenes of the Ten Rings using the weapons Tony's company made to harm innocent lives.

From the report and the date, Lily could roughly understand where in the MCU timeline she was now located— to be exact, it was currently the rise of Iron Man.

Tony Stark would make the Iron Man suit and attack the Ten Rings out of a sense of guilt, anger, fustration, and other emotions— but ultimately it was the time where the world learnt the name Iron Man.

And she had the chance to intervene in it.

Although she had her own mission to focus on, she couldn't deny that getting involved with Tony Stark could bring her immense benefits, and she was currently close to the location where he would be fighting soon.

Lily walked along the streets of the city and thought over the pros and cons of getting involved with Tony Stark.

On one hand, it would reveal her existence to one of the key figures in the MCU, possibly making things more complicated.

On the other hand, helping Tony Stark would give him a good impression of her, something that she could use later on. 

It couldn't be ignored that while Tony Stark was currently a playboy and free spirit, he always paid back his debts, both good and bad. If she could aid in so that he believes he owed her a debt, she could use that to get closer to him.

Why she didn't devour him? Because it was pointless.

Tony was ultimately a human without any special abilities or mutant capabilities— in the end, he was just very smart. Eating him wouldn't benefit her; it wasn't like she could acquire his IQ or creative capabilities by devouring him.

Plus, it wasn't like Lily needed his intelligence— Lily wasn't stupid; her brain functioned much better than any human brain could. The only difference between Tony Stark and her was the knowledge they possessed.

Tony learned from a young age, was trained to follow in his father's footsteps, and took his education very far. Lily was not— the only education she had here so far was from S.H.I.E.L.D., and from that, she was already at college level.

In a few months Lily had went from knowing nothing in this world to college level education— if she had the access to information she could learn even more.

So killing and devouring him was pointless.

Through Tony, she could even gain some access to his information network, technology, and even the Avengers when they come around— that's why she concluded that getting involved would be beneficial to her.

Plus, it was along the way—she could deal with this matter and leave in a week or two. At that time, she didn't need to worry about the aftermath because she would be safe in the Savage Land.

Nodding her head as she concluded her thoughts— Lily decided to wait near the location she remembered until the time came for the fight to begin. Then, she would assist Tony under disguise.

With Lily's decision made, she began to make her way towards the town of Gulmira, where Tony would appear in the coming days.

Getting there was honestly very easy, but she hasn't directly entered the town just yet. She didn't want to get caught up in the fighting— as she had no interest in helping either side.

She was purely doing this to get the connection to Tony, not because she felt like she was a hero.

As such she concealed herself within the shadows around the town and waited— days flew by quickly and the sound of gun shoots, explosions, and chaos echoed from the town below.

Throughout all that she did not intervene nor did she allow herself to be seen, she simply waited— and the wait paid off.

Finally, the day arrived. 

Lily watched from her vantage point outside the town as Tony Stark emerged above the chaos, clad in the Iron Man suit he had recently finished.

Tony's sudden appearance naturally drew the attention of the Ten Rings members who were currently in the town, prompting them to take action against him.

For now, Lily did not make a move yet, she watched as both sides fought with Tony Stark clearly being superior to the Ten Rings.

Not only was he able to fly, but his attacks were all very precise, and not a single innocent hostage was harmed by them. This left the Ten Rings in a bad situation because they were originally planning to use the people as meat shields.

But Tony's overwhelming one-sided assault was halted by an unexpected factor— mutants. To be exact, the Ten Rings had mutants working with them, and they posed quite a danger to the current Iron Man.

Lily was surprised at this revelation for a second before she quickly understood what had happened. While in the movies, Tony only had to deal with normal people, the reality was vastly different due to the existence of mutants in this world.

From what Lily could tell, the course of history seemingly followed the MCU, but the existence of factors that didn't exist in the MCU caused slight changes.

One of those changes were the mutants before her; of course Tony would still win and the story would play out how it was meant to, but this granted her the chance to lend him a helping hand.

While Tony engaged in battle with the mutants—one of them sending him flying backward with a powerful burst of wind—Lily quickly made her way to the town.

Her appearance had already changed; now, her natural form had been slightly modified to look more human. She hadn't changed much; her hair was still a silvery white that flowed down to her feet. Her horns had vanished, and her eyes had been changed to a simple amber color. 

She also slightly lowered her height, not by a lot, but by a little to blend in easier— her face wasn't alter too much, only slight changes to avoid being recognized by anything. 

Her outfit had actually been changed as well— to be more exact, she had made her outfit herself. A long black dress that hugged her body tightly, one might think that this was an inconvenience, but it wasn't.

The outfit was actually a Hive Unit she had specifically made to be a changing and constantly usable clothing. It was made using a variety of durable abilities, reptilian abilities, the marshmallow mutant ability she previously called useless, and the paper-thin one as well.

These, combined with a few others she had, granted her a very useful outfit that could not only change to match her needs but also attack and defend her passively.

With all these put together, her appearance on the battlefield naturally drew attention. Her swift body slipped past all the common members of the group and arrived where Tony fought the mutants.

"Struggling?"

She asked— her voice wasn't very loud, but she knew Tony could hear her with his helmet on.

"Here to help?"

He replied in his casual manner, firing rockets toward the mutants that grouped around him.

"Naturally."