It was not what I thought. I anticipated people dressed in suits and nice clothes. What I was met with was a bunch of people dressed in either sweatpants or jeans in t-shirts or sweatshirts rushing around in a panic. It seemed more like a college dorm during finals week then one of the most advanced facilities in the world. I stare around dumbly and only startle when someone bumps into me on their way out the door.
"Sorry," I say but she's gone before I even start speaking.
I spot the front desk and see that there's a man sitting there in a suit, seeming to be the only one formally dressed. I make my way to the desk while dodging people with stacks of paper, tools, and machine parts.
"Um, excuse me? I'm here for the first day of my internship? I'm a bit early but was told it would be fine," I say and he laughs.
"No need to worry. I was told to expect you and bring you to your work space. Just give me a moment to call in my replacement," He says and I nod.
I look around the lobby and soon a woman in stiletos comes clicking up to the desk. The first man and woman talk for a few moments before she sits in the chair and the man walks around the desk.
"Sorry about that Peter. We can go up now," The man says and I nod.
"Uh, sorry but what is your name?" I ask and the man laughs.
"Nate," The man says and I frown.
"How long have you been working here?" I ask.
"Since I was in my freshman year of college, about eleven years. Nothing goes on in this place without me knowing. I might even know more than Mrs. Stark about this tower," Nate says and I continue frowning.
"Don't worry, not everyone knows as much as I do," Nate says and I nod.
Good, let's hope he didn't know as much as he thought he did. It would be disastrous if I was exposed for being an enhanced that didn't sign the accords, even worse if they find out I am a wanted vigilante.
"Are you ok? You just went pale," Nate says and I nod.
"Just thinking," I say and absently rub the large burn mark on my arm.
When I was first bitten, it must have gotten infected or something. At first, it was red and angry and then it started to turn black. By that point, I had already been started to experience my powers so I knew what was going on. I couldn't have gone into the emergency room. By that time Ross had already started taking enhanced in for 'questioning' but no one came back. I had read you could burn an infection out so I did. Heated up a pan and pressed it into my skin. Hurt like a B but the blackness went away and I got better. Now I only had a scar from between my thumb and finger to halfway up my forearm.
"Are you sure you're ok? You look a bit sick. You can leave for the day and come back another day if you need to," Nate says and I shake my head.
"I'm sure, I think I just had a weird breakfast," I say and Nate hessenitently takes my word.
"Do you know what you are going to be working on?" Nate asks and I shrug.
"Dunno, I'll be working in R&D. I was told that I would be a flout intern? Not quite sure what that is exactly but told I would be moving around from project to project and around fields," I say and Nate frowns.
"What do you mean? Normally an intern has one project they work on and they certainly don't move around the fields," He says and I shrug.
"On the test, I did pretty well in a few areas. Harley told me that I would be moving around until I either found a field I liked more or that I was better at than the others," I say and Nate really frowns.
"Harley Stark?" Nate asks while pushing the up button for the elevators we had walked to by now.
"Yeah, said I was the only high schooler and he was the only who could give me the tests. Is there something wrong with that?" I ask and Nate shakes his head.
"No, not at all. I'm just surprised. He's usually pretty busy," he says while starting to tap on his watch.
"Oh," I say and we fall into silence.
The elevator goes up and up and up. Finally, we stop on the fifty-eighth floor. I feel a sharp pain at the base of my skull just before the doors open and I get ready for anything. Anything appears to be a piece of glass zooming towards Nate's eye. I instinctively put my hand out and instead of taking out Nate's left eye, it embeds itself into my palm. I wince and look over to the source and see a frazzled looking woman getting up from the floor.
"Is everyone ok?!" She yells and everyone responds yes.
"Peter!" Nate yells and I look at my hand to see it dripping blood.
"I'm fine, just a little cut," I say and wince when I see it isn't little at all.
"Come over here," The woman says while grabbing a pair of tweezers and a clean rag.
She gasps once she can see the damage and I smile.
"It's fine, I've had worse," I say and bite back a yelp when the woman plucks the glass out of my hand and stops the flood of blood once it's removed.
"Here," Nate says and hands the woman gauze and some kind of wrap.
The woman removes the towel and replaces it with the gauze and wraps my whole hand up.
"Are you ok?" I ask and notice the slight cut on her cheek.
"Am I ok? Are you ok?" She asks and I nod.
"Just fine," I say and I can already feel my skin knitting itself back together.
"Are you sure? You can always go up to medbay," The woman says and I shake my head.
"I'm sure. I just want to get started," I say and the woman laughs.
"They told me you were eager but I thought they were exaggerating, I guess not," she says and I laugh.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After getting my hand patched up, the woman, Andrea, who was the intern supervisor set me up with everything I would need. I even have my own corner I get to work in after I asked for a corner work station. I do better when I can see the whole room and all entrances and exits.
Andrea had put me in charge of figuring out what was wrong with a battery design and I had finished it in an hour or two. So Andrea put me on something about a propeller and then something else and something else. She finally let me pick what I wanted to do so I started on trying to shrink down the arch reactor down in size while increasing the power output.
After a mini-explosion, Andrea set me up in a 'safe lab'. A lab that has reinforced walls that could withstand a bomb, that's why Andrea put me in here.
"Peter?" Andrea pages into the room and I look up.
"It's safe to come in," I say and she unlocks the large door.
"I wanted to talk to you about something," She says and I ut down the mini screwdriver I had in my hand.
"Sure," I say and feel uneasy.
It was my first day and I had done a lot that I could have messed up already.
"Normally it takes a few weeks or at least days for normal interns but I think you can start working on what you want to work on now," She says and I frown.
"I am, I'm really interested in the arc reactor project," I say pointing to the work station.
"That's not what I mean. You would be able to do your own work here, use the resources here for your own projects that you come up with," Andrea says and I grin.
"Really? I do what I want?" I ask and she nods.
"Awesome! Ok, um, this is almost done, I just need some palladium to test it," I say and Andrea looks surprised.
"Seriously? You've only been in here for a few hours," Andrea says but I shrug.
"I had been trying to make a smaller version myself but I wasn't able to actually put it into action because I never had the materials or a safe environment to test it in case it went haywire," I say and she grins.
"Well, there's a lot of paperwork to be filed for the use of that material as its very dangerous material. It will take a few days but there shouldn't be a problem," Andrea says and I smile.
"So I can start work on my own project now?" I ask and Andrea nods.
"Yes, you will just need to make a list of the materials you will need as well as submitting progress reports when you hit milestones," Andrea says and I grin.
"I can get you the list in ten minutes. One question, is there anytime we have to leave by? I know it says from eight to six but can I stay longer than that?" I ask and Andrea smiles.
"You can stay as long as you need or want to. The lower cafeteria has food and drinks, mostly coffee, that you can use whenever. You can use your access card to purchase the food," Andrea says and I nod.
"I leave at five so you'll probably be alone. Most of the interns scatter once they can," Andrea says and I nod, already thinking of what I'm going to need.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Andrea was right, everyone scattered once the clock hit five. I didn't understand it in the least. If it was up to me, I would live here forever. But with what I was about to ask for, that might not last long. I had started to develop a fabric that acted as a bulletproof vest out of Darwin Bark spider silk. Of course, it wasn't original Darwin Bark spider silk, but of a synthesized version.
I had made about a dozen versions of the formula and a few dozen more of the type of weave in the past few hours and I was almost there. I had used a 3-D printer to create the fabric and I was looking crazy with pieces of fabric hanging, cups of coffee, bags of chips and the wrappers of sandwiches all over my corner. Now I just needed a few more tools to test the latest version out.
"Um FRIDAY?" I ask and wait hopefully for a response.
Andrea told me about FRIDAY. She said that FRIDAY helps out sometimes but it depended on the day and time and if she was in the mood to help.
"Yes, Mr. Parker?" FRIDAY asks and I smile.
"Can you tell me who I would go to now to get approval for some more....dangerous testing equipment?" I ask and there is silence.
"I would advise talking to Harley. He is currently located in the upper cafeteria, would you like me to direct you?" FRIDAY asks and I nod.
"Yes, please," I say and grab the latest version of the fabric which is around the size of a dinner plate.
FRIDAY leads me to the elevator and then up to the upper cafeteria. When I reach the cafeteria, it's mostly dark but in the corner was Harley sitting with a coffee cup and a load of paperwork around him.
"Um, Harley?" I ask while approaching him carefully.
"Hmm?" He hums while looking up.
"Peter, what are you still doing here? It's like one in the morning," He says and I look at my watch and sure enough, he's right.
"I got a little caught up in a project I was working but it's nearly done! I just need some equipment to test it," I say and Harley looks at me in apprehension.
"What do you need?" Harley asks carefully and I shift around.
"Oh, nothing much," I say and he frowns even more.
"Peter, what are you asking for?" He asks and I scratch my head.
"I need a gun. I'm working on a fabric that should be around ten times stronger the kevlar. It's withstood me stabbing at it and a small explosion but I need to test if it will actually stop a bullet," I say and Harley laughs.
"That's it? I thought you would be asking for a machine that costs thousands of dollars. Yeah, I can get you a gun, how about we take that up to the shooting range so you can test it tonight," He says and I nod like crazy.
He stands up and leaves his forgotten coffee and papers behind as he leads me to the elevators and up to the eighteenth floor. We walk out and down some halls until we reach a door that seems to be soundproof and fortified. There is a hand scanner along with a keypad and Harley quickly unlocks the door.
"Should I be in here?" I ask and look around once we are inside.
It seems to be an armory of sorts. There are multiple different kinds of guns locked in wire cages and an entire corner of safety gear. Harley walks over to the corner and grabs a pair of safety glasses and earmuffs for both me and him.
"What kind do you want to test first?" Harley asks and I think.
"How about a nine mill? Those hurt like a bitch," I say without thinking.
"What?" Harley asks and I snap out of it.
"What?" I ask hoping to confuse him.
"What did you say?" He asks and I force myself to make a confused face.
"What?" I ask again dn he shakes his head.
"Never mind," Harley says, seeming very confused.
Harley grabs a gun off of the rack and goes over to a lockbox to grab a mag of ammo and loads the magazine and inserts it into the gun.
"Ever shot a gun?" He asks and I shake my head.
He marches over to the shooting lane thing and attaches the fabric to some kind of target holder thing. He sends it to the end of the lane and turns around, shooting me a grin.
"Why don't you watch for a shot or two and then you can try," Harley says and I nod, with what must be the dumbest grin on my face
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, my fabric stood the test. My mind, may not have faired so well. Durning teaching me how to shoot, Harley asked me out on a date. Three hours later and I was still grinning like an idiot. I do belive Aunt May is worried about me.
So, rushed ending. So what? I'm lazy and have been trying to write for months. I bariley have. So, NaNoWriMo is coming up in November and I'll be ignoring this story even more, as a heads up, see ya!