Gwen and Helen Cho

What was Helen Cho, Tony's old acquaintance and a top scientist, doing at this very moment?

"Baby, why are you so down? Cheer up, okay? This is the first time we've gone for a walk alone together." A dignified scientist was actually saying something like that while rubbing Li Stark's face. If Tony Stark saw this, his jaw would drop.

To outsiders, the scientist seemed aloof and cold, yet she was so enthusiastic toward Li Stark. Even Li himself found that enthusiasm hard to withstand. He wanted to resist, but for some reason, whenever he tried to resist a woman, his body would go weak without fail.

Therefore, even though he was far stronger than Helen Cho, he had no way to resist. He could only let Helen Cho hold his hand as she took him shopping. From the pedestrians' perspective, it looked like a mother taking her oversized son out.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, they arrived in Queens.

"Aunt Helen, didn't you say we were going shopping? Why did we come to my school?" Li Stark's heart skipped a beat, and he had a bad feeling.

Midtown High School, the school Li Stark currently attended. Besides that, he had a classmate named Gwen. The two got along very well. Although Spider-Gwen did not exist in the movie universe, Li felt that was merely the butterfly flapping its wings a little. Occasional differences were perfectly normal.

A mysterious curve lifted at the corner of Helen Cho's lips. Her fingertip brushed across Midtown High School's gates, and as if they had received some command, they swung open.

"You little rascal, shopping was just a pretext. Hmph, did you think I didn't know? You and your classmate Gwen have been tinkering with some time-travel teleportation device. I really don't know what you two were thinking. Even Mr. Tony has never been so wildly imaginative." Helen Cho suddenly leaned close, her fragrant breath brushing over his ear. "And next time, you must tell me whatever you're doing, okay? Otherwise, I'll lock you at home and keep you from going to school. After all, strictly speaking, I'm your real guardian now. I could guide you through the rest of your high school courses myself."

The moment she finished speaking, Li Stark felt embarrassed. He truly had no idea how Aunt Helen knew he and Gwen had been working on inventions, and judging from her tone, wasn't she clearly jealous?

Before he could think any further, Li could only follow Helen Cho.

When they reached the basement entrance, Li knew that although Midtown High School had not had a basement before, this was definitely Helen Cho's handiwork.

Helen Cho lightly swiped her fingertip over the sensor area on the doorframe. The metal door panels silently retracted into the walls on both sides, revealing an iris scanner hidden behind the brick wall. She gently pressed Li's wrist against the sensor. The instant a pale blue beam swept over the boy's pupils, the entire school's foundation emitted a low-frequency tremor. The fountain in the middle of the lawn suddenly began rotating counterclockwise, revealing a spiral staircase leading underground.

"This is one of the bases Auntie prepared for you, you little brat." Helen Cho held Li's shoulder and guided him down. Her heels tapped out crisp echoes on the metal steps. "A year ago, I reinforced the load-bearing structure with Vibranium concrete. Its radiation shielding is now comparable to Tony's underground lab."

At the bottom of the stairs stood a pair of blast doors, their surfaces etched with Stark Industries' early gear logo. When Helen Cho said, "Activate Baby1," Li watched in astonishment as a holographic keypad appeared over the door handle, every key projected in the shape of a miniature reactor. As the password was entered, cold white fluorescence seeped through the gap between the doors, as though a moon had been trapped underground.

The basement was far more expansive than he had imagined. Bionic daylight panels floated several meters beneath the domed ceiling, illuminating the entire space as brightly as day. On the left wall were displayed the arc reactor cores of first-generation Mark armor. At the center of the circular workbench, a silver humanoid silhouette beneath a dust cover made Li's pupils contract sharply—it was unmistakably the torso frame of the Mark I, with a blue-glowing energy crystal pulsing in its chest.

"Don't be nervous. This is only the first experimental prototype." Helen Cho took off her lab coat and draped it over Li's shoulders, its cuffs still stained with wet mechanical material. "Tony attempted a consciousness digitization project years ago. This vessel was originally prepared for J.A.R.V.I.S... but now it has a new mission."

She walked to the console and tapped the screen. The mechanical body suddenly gave off an electrical hum, and the mechanical joints at its shoulder armor slowly unfolded. Li noticed that the object on its forehead was not the Mind Stone, but a mysterious metal plate covered in Sanskrit, with scorch marks still lingering around its edges.

"A few weeks ago, when you and Gwen were welding the teleporter in the garage, the welding torch's temperature exceeded the limit by 1,200 degrees." Helen Cho pulled up surveillance footage that clearly showed the two scrambling to put out flying sparks. "If an operational mistake of that level happened during an experiment..."

Before she could finish, Baby1 suddenly raised its hand. A pale violet beam shot from its palm, projecting a three-dimensional star map onto the floor. Li recognized it as the portal model they had designed, but every node had been marked with a red warning symbol.

"Aunt Helen, you've been monitoring us this whole time?!" Li took half a step back, his lower back pressing against the cold, hard workbench.

"Not monitoring. Protecting." Helen Cho pressed a button on the remote, and a miniature particle collider rose from the center of the star map. "Starting today, your project will be conducted here. Mark will monitor the energy fluctuations throughout the process, and I..." She suddenly leaned close to the boy's ear, warm breath carrying the scent of cedar perfume. "I'll personally guide you through every calculation—just as Tony guided me back then."

Li's gaze involuntarily fell on the metal plate in the chest cavity. The Sanskrit characters were now glowing faintly, vaguely forming patterns resembling magic. He suddenly remembered the shattered spacetime he had once seen in a dream: a faceless man radiating white light, stepping on someone beneath his feet, surrounded by ruined walls and rubble.

The basement's ventilation system suddenly started, stirring Helen Cho's hair until it brushed over Li's hand. Only then did he notice the silver ring on her little finger, its face engraved with the tiny letters "J.A."—the abbreviation for J.A.R.V.I.S.

"After this," Helen Cho said, picking up a wrench and placing it in Li's palm, its metal handle still warm from her touch, "we'll start by correcting the portal's external anchor points. Remember, you must report the coordinates to Baby1 before every experiment... otherwise, I'll have it cut the power directly, just like it cut off the power to your game console before."

Li Stark's heart skipped a beat. Had she become some kind of yandere already? How was he supposed to get along with Gwen after this?

If he had known what would happen next, he would only have said at this moment, "Aunt Helen is still the better one."