I Am Soul - Spider-Man / Peter Parker [2]

Epilogue/Post-Credit Scene

M30 000 had haunted Maria for months now. The last gift Tony had left her was inside the lab he had made for her that Maria knew was stationed somewhere in the garage. But she had not been able to enter the garage for such a purpose never mind the room. Any of her work had been done in Tony's lab instead of her own. She just couldn't bring herself to do so. But she couldn't hide from it forever.

Maria often found herself stood outside the garage door looking at the wooden doors with apprehension. The wind would whip around her as she stared it down, hoping for what she did not know.

Today was different. It had been exactly 5 months 12 days and 3 hours since Maria had lost her father, since the world had returned ... and Maria finally felt like it was time for her to step into this place.

She stood in her usual spot staring at the wooden doors with her arms crossed across her chest, holding her limbs tight. She could do this. Taking a deep breath, Maria moved. She lifted her right foot and took a step forward followed by another one and another one until she was within reaching distance of the door's handle. Quickly, so as not to give herself a chance to back out, Maria grabbed the handle of the door and placed her thumb at the centre of the handle. A green light buzzed under her figure before flashing green and the mechanism unlocked. Maria pulled open one of the doors and squeezed her way into the garage.

The moment she pulled the door closed behind her the garage came to life. Lights knocked on and the garage was revealed. Inside was a couple of cars and a workbench for DIY. It looked like any other garage but out of sight was a computer system. FRIDAY was hiding away and unknown to Maria she had identified her and set one of her creators last orders in motion.

Maria however was looking at the garage a little confused. Pepper had said that her lab was in the garage but where. As Maria looked around a voice suddenly spoke

"Hey pumpkin."

Maria froze. That nickname. That voice...

That sounded exactly like her father. Spinning around Maria was shocked to find a holographic image of her father before her. It was just like the message he had left in his helmet. Maria felt her breathing quicken as she watched Tony stand before her with a smile gracing his features. He had left her a message.

"If you're watching this, your insane plan worked with my help of course" the recording spoke and moved around as Tony would have in real life. Maria couldn't help but smile at the sight. "And your home. As a welcome back present I have a surprise for you." Maria already knew this but she was confused as to where the surprise was.

"As you know nothing in this world is at it seems, neither is this wall" Tony said as he gestured to the wall that had a range of shelves full of bits and bobs before his hologram disappeared. Maria moved over to the shelves and gently placed her hands against the wall that was beneath the three shelves. She pushed it lightly and the wall gave way. It slid backwards and collapsed into the floor before her. Maria went to step forward only to be blinded by a spray of blue lights that scanned her body.

"Could have warned me it had a scanner dad" Maria mumbled in annoyance as she rubbed her eyes.

"Scan complete. Access granted. Welcome, Miss Maria Stark."

FRIDAY's robotic Irish voice said before the dark corridor was lit up to reveal a short staircase down into a lower basement that opened up into the biggest lab Maria had seen. Buried beneath the house was something Maria had not expected.

"Whoa" she whispered as she stepped into the space. The place was massive and was every superhero's dream work space with everything one could ever need when being a hero.