When Elliot and Penny got to the elevator everyone was quiet and Craig was typing away at his tablet.

"Ah, Penelope, Elliot good you guys finally joined us." Mr. Herrington said. In a half stern voice.

He was probably upset that they lagged behind, but was holding back on his anger. He was probably nervous to lecture Elliot since last time he was proved wrong by Olivia.

"Sorry sir, we won't lag behind again." Penny said, trying to make him turn away.

"I would hope not," he finally said, walking up to the front of the group.

"Alright guys I have very good news" Craig said finally looking up. "Miss Potts herself gave us permission to go to higher levels of the tower. This means you guys get to see the more skilled interns lab, specifically the lab where I spend my time." The class started getting really excited.

"Um, guys Craig isn't finished, don't make him take back his word." Mr. Herrington said, trying to hide his excitement to continue playing the good cop bad cop game he and Ms Burnard had going on.

"Thank you, now remember what I said about the badge colors. Light blue interns work on things that are out to the public, dark blue interns work on things that haven't been released yet. This means that you can't have your phone out in the labs. If you take out your phone I will carry it for the rest of the time in the lab, this is just to make sure no one takes photos. Also you can't tell people what you see, in your slips you sign that if anything confidential comes up you will not reveal it to anyone." Craig put on a more serious tone for that speech. And he's right, if you break a stark contract people will probably come to hunt you down.

Everyone nodded and put away their phones either in their pocket or some even in their backpacks.


The elevator dung and everyone spilled out. The differences between the light blue's and dark blue's intern labs aren't very noticeable.

The dark blue intern lab's windows have a panel allowing the windows to be transparent or not. And the floors were white instead of gray making the place look bigger and cleaner.

Craig walked up to a lab that didn't have see-through windows. He entered an 8 digit pin to open the door

As they walked into Craig's lab he made sure that no one had their phones out and introduced the group to the other interns.

"Hey guys, know how I was put on tour duty today, well I got permission to take them to this level. It was out of nowhere so I didn't plan anything. Is it ok if we spend time here? I'll do all the talking yall just keep working." The information that Craig let out made Peter and Elliot trade some looks.

They started signing, it was clear that if they whispered their teachers would quickly shut them up, given the place.

What did he mean this was out of nowhere? Peter started.

I'm not sure, you think it has to do with what Nat told us? Elliot hoped it wasn't.

What do you mean? Peter asked, giving her a confused look.

Don't you remember, Nat said something strange will happen by the end of the day today. This is probably one of the last places we will visit before we settle down for the day. Elliot said hoping what might happen won't.

Shoot your right. Our time is coming, what do you think is going to happen? Peter was starting to look concerned for his dignity.

I'm not sure I mean these are the upper levels anyone could easily come down he- "Elliot, please pay attention to what Craig is talking about. You know what come stand next to me, you can talk to Peter afterwards." Ms Bernard whispered as to not interrupt Craig.

She did what she was told and went to Ms Bernard's side. But Peter and Elliot kept shooting each other looks.

"-so those are the rules of being in this lab. I know they're stricter than the ones that you had in the last lab but there are more dangerous things in here." Eliot only caught the last part of Craig's instructions but she's been in labs even more "dangerous" than in here. Bruce made sure that the lab safety rules were grinded into her head.

The rules applied to any and every lab. The levels didn't matter, if you're careless even a simple screw driver can get you hurt. That was a lab story she won't forget anytime soon.


She was in the middle of putting together a watch that could allow Evan, her suits AI, be protable while also being subtle. This was difficult since an AI requires a lot of different ,complicated, things to be able to even turn on, much more to do all the stuff Evan does while she does her patrols. Scanning the surroundings, tapping in on police radios, scanning her vitals (to Bruce and Tony's request), etcetera.

Peter didn't know this though so he wanted to surprise her when she was in the middle of doing surgical-procedure level movements in this sensitive chip.

She always hated how most of the time the most advanced technology is always the most fragile. She made sure there was a back up surver for Evan cause this was RISKY, a small tap in the wrong area could make the whole thing overheat and explode.

And that's exactly what happened. Peter scared her with a "boo" from behind. She, of course, flinched and it made the sensitive part of the unit go off and it exploded in her face.

Peter said, between laughs and apologies, that she looked like a cartoon character with the black residue caked on her face. When she just stared back blank faced he wheezed some more. She didn't want Peter to win so while he was cackling, Elliot thought of evey sad moment in her life to not crack a smile.

Of course Bruce was also there he was her mentor after all, plus it was his lab. He checked to make sure Elliot wasn't hurt then he laughed a her. She finally gave in and laughed with them.

After that Peter got an ear full about how "he should take the lab safety rules more seriously" and "today was a small example but next time it could be more tragic" even a "you're just as bad as Tony."

Elliot pretended to sulk and be upset at Peter like it was the end of the world. Of couse she wasn't that mad, she was only around 40 minutes in, and she's lost a lot more progress by making dumb mistakes in the past anyways.

Now, just in case, she always puts out a sign that says "I'm doing sensitive stuff, don't scare me, PETER". He gets pretend-mad whenever the sign comes out. He showers her with "It was only one time" or "it won't happen again".

Nope, she lost all trust in him.


Peter and Elliot weren't really feeling this lab. The dark blue interns were always more quiet and serious. It might be because they were older, or more tired. But sometimes it felt like they were just annoyed at their presence when they did stop by.

Plus they were working on the famous, stark phone. Let's be honest it wasn't out yet but people keep memeing about it, that's where most of the promotion is coming from. Like when Elon Musk released the tesla cyber truck.

Nor Peter or Elliot cared about that kind of stuff so they stayed on the sidelines until their time was up. They mostly tried to come up with theories of who is gonna come down and embarrass them. They also just tried to prepare, mentally at least.


"Alright guys, it's time to move on." Craig said, snapping everyone out of thought. "Let's head over to the elevator to go to our last stop of the day."

There were alot of grumbles when the students realized that their day was coming to an end. It made sense, it was getting late, they had to get dinner, and they still had to get settled in the rooms they'll stay in.

Every step Peter and Elliot took the further their stomachs dropped. They got nervous at every door that opened and every sudden movement. Their fight or flight instincts activated. Elliot hated feeling this way, the things that anticipation came with, her stomach hurt from how much it's dropped, her heart sped up, and she felt every single thing in the hall move. It felt like when horror movies were hinting at a jump scare but you don't actually know when it's going to happen. They didn't know why but they could feel someone was gonna come by.