Who knew that getting the right room would be difficult in a skyscraper? Apparently not Petra. It was beyond irritating to keep seeing the wrong room, or even the wring floor. Eventually, it got so irritating that Petra gave in and decided to ask for directions.
A man in pajamas wasn't exactly reassuring that she had the right place to ask, but there were surprisingly few people roaming Avengers Tower at eleven o clock in the night. "Hey, do you know were Stark is?" she called form a balcony. She wasn't sure what to expect for a response, but him opening the balcony door wasn't it.
"Isn't it a bit late for house calls?" he said, eyes roaming over her figure or suit, she couldn't tell which.
"Well yes, but I don't particularly want to give Stark trouble by associating him with a vigilante without his approval beforehand. Wait, are you building security?"
"And why do you want to know?"
"If I'm being escorted out of the building, I would like to know so that I can avoid future visits. Are you of aren't you security?"
"I give, I'm not security"
"Well is he here?"
"What do you want with him"
"Are you certain that you aren't security because you are certainly starting to sound life it"
"I just said that I'm not!" after taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down, he continued, "I'm a friend of his who's allowed in his labs, and I am not going to let someone else in without a reason"
"Oh, if that's all, then I think that with the Avenger crazed media it would be prudent to see if we could come to an agreement. I didn't know that anyone else would be there during the, the whatever it was in Manhattan. I would like to know whether I'm considered part of the team and if there's anything else along those lines so that were on the same page for that."
"Alright, that's a good reason" he relented, "but why weren't you here yesterday, or any other time beforehand? He would have liked to see you sooner, and he is out tonight"
"Should I have come here right after the battle? Sorry, but I had run out of web fluid, and it's a long walk from Queens to Manhattan, and that would let everyone know where I was, and that's a bad idea bar any number of reasons that I could tell you"
Wincing slightly at the mental image, he agreed "Alright, bad idea. But you actually can run out of webs? I thought that you produced them yourself?"
No longer having a reason to be upset at him, Petra was more than willing to brag. "Somewhat. I do Produce the compound that make the web naturally, but I have to mix, assemble, and load the stuff manually. See, I load it into these cartridges, and then I attach them here" She was so busy being proud at what she had managed to make, she had been careless showing it off. "What…"
He had grabbed her arm and was inspecting the web shooter carefully. Used to the feeling of being prodded at, her arm went limp obligingly as soon as she realized what he was doing. She waited patiently for a few minutes as he observed the devise and the cartridges, some marked with different symbols. She only started to protest when he tugged off that hand's glove. "Hey what are you doing?" He still didn't respond at first, too caught up in seeing how the strange devise worked. He noticed when she started to tug her hand away. Realizing what he had just been doing, he was quick to apologize.
"Sorry, but it's fascinating", he replied, clearly sheepish about his action.
"Well", she said carefully, "I don't mind, but you should have asked for permission first. And what were you going to do with my glove mister…"?
"Doctor, actually. You can call me Bruce" he said.
"Ha, trying to make up for that blunder? But seriously, if you want to poke at the tech, get to a table where I can see what you are doing first, please."
"I'll take you up on that" he said, somewhere between embarrassed and pleased. He quickly led her inside, closing the door on the way and showing her to the lab table he had left. Conversation died out after that, as Petra was lost in evaluating the equipment around her and Bruce was occupied in seeing how the web shooter worked. Conversation resumed abruptly when Bruce altogether removed the web shooter and tried to use it. "How do you shoot it?" Bruce asked, confused by the lack of response from the machine.
"You just have to pull the to rings apart from each other" Petra said, refocusing on what he was doing. "It takes around thirty pounds of force to trigger, so if you aren't getting a reaction you might want to pull harder". She didn't expect him to be able to do it, so it was a surprise when he launched it one at the wall.
"I'm detecting a perimeter disturbance" a voice called from seemingly nowhere. Hearing this, Petra jumped startled, and realized that she had been lured inside a building she had no immediate escape from with someone who had taken her web-shooter and glove, both of which were essential to her travel home. This certainly did not feel safe or everyday anymore. More than a little threatened, she decided to leave as soon as possible and come back later, if at all.
"Not that I didn't enjoy this visit, but … my curfew is soon and I need to get back" she quickly said the first plausible excuse that came to mind, simultaneously trying to get up and collect her web shooter.
"Why…" Bruce trailed of, noticing her fearful tone and trying to think of an explanation for her behavior and temporarily loosening his grip on the web-shooter, giving her a chance to snatch it and put it on before he could question further. Petra yanked her glove back on over the web shooter and practically ran to the door. It was locked.
"Can you please let me out?" she asked in a quiet voice, hesitant on whether she would be able to escape at all. Fortunately, while she had been panicking and trying to get away, Bruce had recognized her expression as he fallowed, and felt somewhat guilty he made someone else feel in need of running. He quietly opened the door when she asked and barely heard her say on her way out "I'll probably come back tomorrow" and as soon as he wasn't blocking the doorway say, as she jumped out of the building, "Bye"