The S.H.I.E.L.D. Base in New York that Agent Hill took Toriana was located underground, beneath two city blocks of Manhattan. The seven floors of the Base were split up between Research and Development Labs, office space, storage space and training space for the newer recruits. Toriana had been led from the Stark Penthouse and into a blacked out car. She was sure it had driven in circles before pulling into an underground parking garage. From the garage, she was shuffled by Agent Hill and four other black-clad agents who joined them in the car into a stainless steel lined elevator that carried them down to the second-to-last floor.
Stepping out of the elevator, Maria led Toriana down a long corridor lined with windows and doors that led into labs that were decked out in the best equipment possible for whatever was being worked on in each room. The labs that were passed contained mostly chemical labs, so for as much as there was to be seen, nothing was obvious enough to actually tell what was being worked on in the labs. There were a multitude of people in the rooms, all dressed in what had to be issued outfits of white lab coats and black slacks, white button-ups could be seen poking out of the coats and most people were even wearing ties as well.
Toriana followed the agents silently, barely holding onto her self-control to not roll her eyes at the theatrics, as if catching glimpses of the labs would have an effect on whether she would say yes or no to whatever it was they were going to ask her when they got where they were going. For all Toriana knew, the labs were being faked, the equipment not in working condition and only had people in them for her benefit; how would she really know?
As she walked Toriana, thought of the scene Agent Hill made in the apartment.
The knock on the door was a surprise, especially when JARVIS was overridden and the front door opened before Toriana could make the entry way. The woman who stood in the doorway was tall, brunette, and had a no-nonsense look on her face as she gazed at the penthouses tenant.
"And you are?" Toriana asked mildly, eyeing the woman.
"Agent Maria Hill of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division." The woman answered stepping into the apartment and closing the door behind her. "Miss Stark, we have much to talk about."
Rolling her eyes at the woman, "Please, do come in." Toriana led the woman into the dining room and gestured for her to sit at the table while taking a seat herself pulling one foot up to rest on the seat of the chair. "And what does the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division want with me?"
"We know what you've been working on, Miss Stark." The agent told her point blank.
"It's Doctor Meijer, actually, and I haven't a clue what you are talking about, I've not been working on anything since my father went missing and I left the research group I was a part of." Toriana straightened in her seat, her foot dropping to the floor and raising her chin defiantly, as if daring the Agent to question her.
"I assure you, Doctor Meijer that we at the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division know what you've been working on." The agent's emphasis on her name and title was laced with sarcasm, proving that she didn't truly believe Toriana. Perhaps about her last name, or about her title, either way though, it didn't make a difference the scorn the other woman felt for Toriana was obvious. "The Director has a proposition for you; he'd like to meet you."
Toriana and Agent Hill spent nearly an hour going back and forth at Toriana's dining table before Agent Hill managed to coerce the girl into meeting with Director Fury at a Base in Manhattan.
When the group came to a halt in front of a lab door just like every lab door that they had already passed except for the small blind on the bad blocking the window Agent Hill gestured for Toriana to open the door and enter. The younger woman rolled her eyes at the elder and pushed her way into the room and let the door close behind her with a clunk.
State of the art equipment was spread out around the room, desks and tables stacked with packages of fresh vials, petri dishes, pipets and test tubes. The room was spacious, the large tables surrounded by open walkways. The air smelt of disinfectant and was cool from the air conditioner that was humming quietly in the background.
A man dressed entirely in black, black cargo pants, a black leather jacket that hung down passed his knees with a black turtle neck underneath, stood against the blank back wall of the laboratory. The man's dark skin was scarred around a leather eye patch that covered his left eye, though smooth everywhere else that was visible. His head was shaved bald but he had a neatly trimmed mustache and goatee.
Agent Hill pushed into the room with a scowl on her face and sneered lightly at Toriana at the door closed behind her.
"Welcome to the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, Doctor Stark." The man, clearly Director Fury, announced as soon as the door fell closed behind Agent Hill. "My name is Nick Fury, and I am the Director of this operation. What do you think of our facilities?"
Toriana threw her gaze around the room once more, taking note of the high end logos on the product packaging and equipment. The stainless steel tabletops gleamed in the artificial light. Most of it was the same, or equivalent to what she had in her home lab. "It's not bad, no better than my lab at home though. And my name is Meijer, not Stark. He may have adopted me, but I never changed my name."
Fury nodded his head in acceptance without comment, "Though here you would have access to more than just what you see. There are databases of information that you wouldn't have been able to access before and as many lab techs at your disposal for help with your experiments."
"And if I prefer to work alone?" Toriana raised a brow and tilted her chin to the side.
"Then the lab is yours alone." Fury raised his hands in a half shrug. "There's no reason for you to work along except preference, but if you choose to do so, you can."
Toriana turned from the man and walked through the room contemplatively, running her fingertips over the counters. "You would provide me with any materials I deem necessary to my work?"
"Of course, Doctor." Fury assured her.
"And who would have access to my work?" She didn't face him when she asked, busy inspecting one of the many boxes on the table nearest to her.
"You, me, and anyone you deem necessary." The man answered. "Unless you are working on an assignment, in which case the access will be to anyone who is granted authorization." Fury walked closer to Toriana, his single eye focused intently on her. "You will be given a server to work on while here you are here, encrypted and password protected. With a password of your choice, of course."
"And I can grant access to as much or as little of my research as I choose." Toriana bargained. "Accept that and you have yourself a deal."
"We haven't discussed salary yet." Fury reminded her.
"My father is Tony Stark. I'm not worried about the money." Toriana deadpanned.
"Then welcome to the team, Doctor." Fury replied while holding out his right hand to shake.
Toriana shook the man's hand. "It seems we do."
Working with S.H.I.E.L.D. came with a contract that was seemingly a mile long that required so many places to be initialed or signed that by the end Toriana joked that her hand had gone numb somewhere around the middle. Once she finished signing her life away she was given access to a private server to store her work and keys to the lab that she first met Director Fury in and access codes to enter the underground structure and start the elevator.
Over the following weeks she made leaps and bounds in her research with the unrestrained access to the information databases that she had previously had to skulk around in discreetly. Despite the advances she made, there were so many possibilities and variables that there were still years of work to be done.
Toriana had been working at S.H.I.E.L.D. for two months when the portable JARVIS she had installed on her Stark Phone pulled her out of her work with a news report from a Stark Industries warehouse in California.
The projected screen from the phone glowed blue slightly as it showed footage of the Arc Reactor building, first with the glass shattering and figures visible on the roof and then with the reactor itself exploding. A blue banner ran across the bottom of the screen declaring "Stark Industries Building Explodes After Robotic Prototype Malfunctions."
After a few run-throughs of the footage that was taken last night the report shifts to a news anchor who announces that they are going to go live to a press conference held by Colonel James Rhodes of the U.S. Air Force. Toriana shifted her stance to lean against the table behind her as the anchor continued to speculate on the events at the warehouse and what will be said at the press conference.
When the scene changed for a third time it came up on Rhodey standing behind a podium looking out over a large crowd of finely dressed men and women, each holding note books, recorders or cameras.
"You all have received the official statement of what occurred at Stark Industries last night." Rhodes announces to the press. The man glances between the podium and the crowd, making eye contact with the cameras that dotted the edges of the crowd.
"There have been unconfirmed reports of a robotic prototype malfunctioned and caused damage to the arc reactor." He paused and looked down at his notes closely for a moment. "This is true; fortunately a member of Tony Stark's personal security was able to confine the damage to a small area using another robotic prototype." Rhodes let little emotion into his voice as he went through the speech he wrote earlier that day and waited patiently for Tony to come out and say his piece. "At this time it is confirmed that the malfunctioning unit was destroyed in the blast from the Arc Reactor exploding."
Toriana huffed out a breath and let her head drop back to look at the ceiling above her. There is no way that dad didn't have anything to do with that. No way. Shaking herself when the reporters began to talk over each other to try and get their questions answered. Facing the screen she could see Tony walking up the center aisle to the podium where Rhodey still stood. When Tony got to the stage Rhodes clapped his shoulder and told the crowd, "Mr. Stark will be giving a statement, but not taking any questions at this time." before stepping out of the way so that Tony could take his place behind the podium.
"Uh, it's been a while since I've been in front of you, so I figure I'll stick to the cards this time." The aforementioned man half-mumbles to the microphone while pulling a set of blue cue cards from the inside breast pocket of his suit jacket. Tony pauses to shuffle the cards slightly while the assembled men and women chuckle.
"There's been speculation that I was involved in the events that occurred on the freeway and the roof top." Tony began.
From near the front of the crowd a woman's hand shot up and was quickly followed by a voice. "I'm sorry, Mr. Stark, but do you honestly expect us to believe that that was a bodyguard in a suit? That conveniently appeared, despite the fact that-"
"I know that it's confusing, one thing to question the official story and another entirely to make wild accusations or insinuate that I am superhero." Tony cut in over the reporter's voice.
"I never said you were a superhero." The woman stated succinctly.
"Didn't you?" Tony asked, surprised, but the reporter just shook her head jauntily back and forth. "Well good, because that would be outlandish and, uh, fantastic." Tony tensed as he looked down at the cards to see what he was supposed to be reading from, his body language showing just how uncomfortable he was with the whole thing he was. "I-I'm just not the hero type. Clearly. With this laundry list of character defects, the mistakes I've made, largely public." He stumbled over the beginning of what was clearly still not what was written for him to be saying. Toriana could practically hear Pepper shaking her head and whispering for Tony to "Just read the cards!" from where ever she was off camera.
Colonel Rhodes leaned over to his longtime friend and whispered into Tony's ear, clearly telling him to just read the cards and finish. Once he had leaned back out of Tony's personal space, Tony pulled the blue papers up into his light of sight once again and seemed to start with what was written finally, "The truth is-" but his voice trailed off before finishing the sentence. The dark haired man stared hard at the cards for a moment he looked over the crowd and cameras before stating exactly what the cards didn't have written on them. "I am Iron Man."
The reporters are immediately out of their seats and surging towards the stage shouting question after question at the billionaire.
Toriana watched as the Colonel tensed and grabbed Tony by his shoulders to haul him out of the large room and away from the prying eyes of the cameras. Smirking to herself lightly Toriana felt smug that she had called the lie for what it obviously was. All that she really wanted to know now was what – who – exactly Tony was fighting on the roof last night.