Spider-Man One Shots

Field trip from the tour guide's PoV

I take out a badge to show them the layout. "As you can see, they are pretty simple. They only contain a person's name printed to identify them and a QR code. Each code is unique and is scanned by those machines over there." I signal the scanners we will head over soon. "They're made this way to avoid reprinting badges each time a worker gets promoted to a higher level. As you may know already, SI focuses on helping the Earth, not only the people, and one way of doing it is by reducing the amount of residues we produce. Because of this, we only reprint badges if a person changes their name.

"You have tour badges, so they have a sticker with you name and temporary information in the QR code. As soon as the badge is scanned at the end of the tour, your information is erased and then later replaced with its next occupant's," I explain by heart. Another hand gets raised, this time by a dark-skinned boy. I nod his way, encouraging to ask away.

"So, with the badges you will give us we can go anywhere in the entire tower?"

"Nope." His face drops. "There are eight different levels of badges that give you clearance to enter different parts of the tower. Clearance eight, the lowest, is the one you have. These badges have a deadline, are reusable and are only meant for visitors like you. A particular feature about them is that you have access to all the places we will see in the tour, including some floors with important labs, but only if the tour guide scans their badge before you.

"Clearance seven is meant for the press, so they can access the conference rooms and the museums that are open for everyone with access to the tower.

"Now, clearance six is meant for people from other enterprises that have partnerships with SI, so they can access conference rooms.

"Interns have clearance level five. They are supervised by low level workers, who have clearance four. Other regular workers have clearance three.

"Then there's the head scientists, security and medical personnel, who have badges level two, which, unlike the others, allows them to access any floor of the tower except the top ten. The doctors and guards only get partial access to those ten floors when they are needed, because otherwise it could cause a serious security breach.

"As you are probably guessing, in between floor ninety and one hundred are the Avengers living quarters, along with their personalized training rooms and other stuff we're not allowed to know. This level has two subdivisions: omega, belonging to all the Avengers, who have clearance to enter the entirety of the tower except for the high-tech labs in the pent-house to avoid destruction; and alpha, belonging to only Pepper Potts, Bruce Banner, Tony Stark and another person whose identity is classified, and they can access the whole tower."

Once I finish the infinite explanation, I take a long, deep breath. Making us tour guides say it in every tour is truly inhumane.

No, I'm not dramatic.

Anyway, the whole group seems excited to start, even more when I mentioned the Avengers. Except for that one kid, who now looks even more nervous if that's possible.

"Now we have to get on with the tour." I start doing rollcall and hand out the badges as I do so, only to reach the name 'Peter Benjamin Parker' and realize there's a note beside it saying he already has a badge. I brush it off and continue giving out the remaining ones. That's when I notice that the boy I am suspicious about is the one that seems to own a badge.

How interesting.

We head over to the scanners and I show them how to proceed.

"You have to put the badge close to this QR reader, and then your name and clearance level will be shown in the screens above from both sides, but you won't be able to enter if you don't scan your hand too here, just to assure that a person doesn't use another's badge.