Gwen was dressed in a business style skirt and blouse. She had a sweater hanging over one of her arms. This was the first day of her week at Stark Industries. She'd gone out of her way to appear professional. Erica had woken up early even though she was on an afternoon shift. Her father was still sleeping. Apparently since Gwen knew they were together; The couple had taken it as a sign that Erica could stay over whenever they felt like it. Gwen was over it now. She couldn't change it. So, she just dealt with it. Erica had helped her pick the outfit. Gwen didn't want her to help, but she didn't really have anyone else. Erica had even invaded the Thanksgiving celebrations at Uncle Ben and Aunt May's house. Gwen still hadn't told Aunt May why she had been so upset at her father. Gwen and her father had settled into a cold war of sorts. She ignored him. He just looked sad when he saw her.
Gwen hadn't gone out crime fighting since the first night. A conversation over breakfast on the Monday afterward where there was a picture that had been in the newspaper of her hanging off a wall at the fire where she rescued Chrissy and her brother had cured her of that right quick. It was too easy for her to be identified and she did not want to be the freak at the school. Especially since she was in the inner circle of popular seniors. Liz was so jealous.
On the boyfriend front, Flash had been evasive for a week after her father's melt down, but by thanksgiving he was once again back to being her full-time boyfriend. That was more due to her tutoring him at her apartment while her father was there. She hadn't risked getting too touchy feely. Flash had been the perfect gentlemen though. Besides a few hugs and kisses he hadn't even tried to go further.
Gwen still had a few mysteries to solve, the first being who had told her father about her and Flash. She was pretty sure if she were to ever be arrested, it would probably be the day after she figured that out. She still wasn't sure exactly what the particle accelerator had done to her. The changes seemed to have stopped though, she still had a massively accelerated metabolism which was concerning. More recently she was also concerned about who the man was that confronted her the day of her mother's funeral. Then there was Peter and Miles. No matter how much she met with Miles she couldn't shake that sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. Finally, the mystery of her mother's death. She had decided to just let it go when it happened but now, with all these new abilities at her disposal, maybe she could get justice where the police had failed.
Erica was fixing Gwen's collar. When Erica spoke she pulled Gwen out of her musings.
"You are looking really professional Gwen. Older."
Gwen nodded. She'd pretty much learned to tolerate Erica's presence. She was practically living with them so at this point resistance was futile. Erica had seemed to take steps to avoid appearing to try and replace Gwen's mother, no matter what agenda Gwen's father was trying to push. Gwen always knew Erica was a smart woman. Gwen looked down at herself.
"You're sure it's not too much?"
"It is fine. My mother always told me, its better to be dressed up then to not dress up enough no matter what the event."
The front door buzzer went off. Gwen gathered her backpack and moved to leave. Erica waved.
"Good luck, Gwen."
Gwen gave a half-hearted wave and made her way down. Her ride was a black town car and the driver got out and opened the door for her. He was a young man with a clean haircut his dark skin was contrasted by his very white shirt.
"Ms. Stacy, sit back and enjoy the ride."
"Before you said my name, I thought you might be waiting for someone else. Thank you for opening the door."
Gwen got in the car. He smiled as he got in.
"No, I'll be your driver for the week. Mr. Stark was very clear. You're to be treated like a VIP. You must be pretty important."
Gwen blushed.
"No, I'm just an intern."
The driver laughed.
"I think you don't think highly enough of yourself. I'm Toby by the way."
Gwen smiled at him.
"Well, you know my name."
"Oh, Ms. Potts told me to tell you to review the hiring package on the way there. It's in that black leather folder there. Which you can keep."
Gwen nodded. After pulling on her seat belt, she lifted up the folder and unzipped it. It looked expensive. Inside was an ID badge with her picture. She'd been asked to take one and send it a week ago. There was a non-disclosure agreement she'd already signed with her father. It also held a copy of her employment contract which her father had signed on her behalf. She hadn't really gone through it in detail. When she saw how much they were going to pay her for her time her eyes almost popped out of her head. She knew what her father made, and it was more than he would make in a month. It was clear why he signed and returned it so fast. She'd thought it was just to keep her happy. Finally there was one of the new Stark Tablets. With a piece of paper folded into the case that held it. She unfolded the paper.
Welcome to Stark Industries, as part of your hiring bonus, you have received the latest version of our tablet. This is yours to keep. Welcome to the family.
Gwen stared at it wide-eyed. This wasn't even on the market yet. Apparently, the facial recognition was already set up on it. There were a couple of pre-installed apps. One was a map of the Stark Industries campus. The other was a virtual tour of the planned Stark Industries expo. Toby looked back when he stopped at a red light.
"Oh yes, those tablets are amazing. I gave mine to my son. He loves it."
Gwen looked at Toby.
"You work for Stark Industries?"
"Yes, of course. Its my job to drive executives around."
"So, everyone got one of these?"
Toby nodded.
"Yes, it was a Christmas present from the company. If you ask me though I think they just want us to show them off so people will be jealous and want to buy them."
Gwen smiled and nodded.
"Well, its not a bad idea."
Gwen pulled the sim card from her current tablet which was probably older than most sixth graders and slid it into the new one. It connected to her cellular network. Gwen breathed a sigh of relief; She did not want to try and convince her provider to provision this not released tablet. She started browsing her favorite social media sites as she rode in the car. Toby cleared his throat when they pulled up to the main building.
"As I understand it, you finish at three, yes?"
Gwen nodded.
"Well, I will find out what building you're in and meet you there at three. Have a good day, Gwen."
He opened the door for Gwen. She waved to him and walked inside. Pepper was waiting for her by the security desk. Pepper smiled warmly when she saw Gwen.
"You look so good today, Gwen. Tony is sorry he couldn't meet you himself. He's in a meeting which should have been over ten minutes ago. Follow me to his office."
Gwen glanced at Pepper.
"I think I might not understand how things work. Mr. Stark… Tony, said you were a Vice President, but you seemed to be acting like an assistant. Did I misunderstand something?"
Pepper laughed softly.
"Yea. He made me a VP, what he failed to disclose before I accepted the position was that I'm the VP of whatever Tony wants and needs. He's sort of a man-baby, but don't tell him I said that."
Pepper winked. Gwen giggled. The pair reached Tony's office. Pepper paced back and forth while seeming to answer a myriad of emails on her tablet. Gwen leaned on a wall. A bald man with a thick beard came out. He was almost as big as Gwen's father. Gwen recognized him, he was often on the news when it discussed Stark Industries. It was Obadiah Stane. He noticed Pepper right away.
"Pepper, he's in a mood."
Pepper looked up from her tablet.
"He's always in a mood Obadiah."
The man turned and saw Gwen.
"Who's this? A little young for Tony, isn't she?"
Gwen wasn't quite sure what he was referring to, so she just smiled and offered her hand.
"Mr. Stane, I'm Gwen Stacy, I'm just a new intern. I'm so glad to meet you."
Obadiah smiled and took her hand. His handshake was firm.
"Welcome, I hope you learn a lot in your time here."
"Thank you, Mr. Stane."
Obadiah straightened his suit and walked down the hallway to his office. Pepper motioned for Gwen to go inside. Tony smiled when he saw Gwen and motioned for her to sit.
"Good to see you again Gwen, I trust your ride in was good?"
Gwen nodded. Pepper paced behind Gwen still typing furiously at her tablet. Tony stood up and pulled a drink out of a mini fridge.
"You want anything?"
Gwen shook her head.
"No, thank you, just eager to get started."
Tony cracked his energy drink open and took a long drink.
"Well, I'm sorry to say my original plans for you aren't going to work."
Gwen's heart fell. Tony seemed to notice.
"No, no, you're still going to be working here, just not shadowing myself, or Pepper. Obadiah asked me to go to Afghanistan instead of him, so guess that's my week. Unfortunately, Pepper needs to head to our LA branch, so that's going to leave you here alone. I'll be honest, most of our staff are off for the holidays already. We tend to shut down what we can for Christmas. I have a big job for you, but it's manual labor. So, I apologize for that. Requires a lot of attention to detail."
He finished the last of his energy drink and stood up. He pulled his suit jacket closed and buttoned it up. He motioned for her to follow. He looked around outside his office and spotted a man reading a tablet.
"Happy, come here for a minute."
Happy approached the trio. Pepper was barely paying attention to what was going on. Happy was a larger man too. He wore a black suit, and black button up shirt. He looked pretty serious for someone named happy. He had dark eyes and hair.
"What do you need Tony?"
"Happy, I'm going to Afghanistan, this young lady is our newest employee. I'm going to get her to start cleaning out and sorting the trove. While I'm gone can you supervise her, please?"
"Tony, do I look like a babysitter? If you're going to Afghanistan I should go."
"Rhodes is going with me. No use ruining your plans. So, will you? Pretty please? For me?"
Happy frowned.
"Fine."
He looked down at Gwen.
"You don't cry, do you?"
Gwen tried not to laugh at the question.
"I'll try not to."
Tony laughed.
"Gwen, this is Happy, he's head of Stark Industries security. He's also going to be your boss until Pepper and I get back. If you keep him fed, watered and don't get him too much sun he'll be fine. Happy this is Gwen. She's smarter than the both of us combined."
Happy frowned at Tony. Then looked back to Gwen.
"Be on time and we'll have no trouble."
Gwen nodded.
"Happy could you get the car?"
Happy nodded and walked off. Pepper continued answering emails on the drive over and followed Tony and Gwen to the Trove, whatever that was. Tony swiped his badge and the door unlocked. He hit a switch and the lights started coming on. What they revealed was a small warehouse of shelves of strange devices. Stacked at one end were plastic crates. Beside them was a desk, with a computer and a label printer. Tony opened his arms as if to show off the room.
"Gwen, welcome to the trove, or the Island of Misfit toys as my father used to call it. These are all prototypes. Most of them failed to go into production for one reason or another. Some of it is staying, some of it is going to Stark Tower, and some is just going in the garbage."
Gwen was immediately drawn to bolts of black and white fabric. She reached out to touch it but hesitated. Tony laughed.
"Go ahead, nothing in here is particularly dangerous besides some sharp edges."
Gwen touched the fabric it was silky soft to the touch. She looked at the label on the end of it. It read Class 37.
"What is this? It's so soft."
Tony walked over and looked at the labels.
"Oh, this is iron silk ballistic weave. Not a complete failure, but too expensive to mass produce. Class 37 means its going into the trash and is safe for disposal at a normal garbage dump."
"Too expensive?"
Tony nodded.
"Cost forty thousand per square inch to produce."
Gwen snatched her hand back.
"And you're just throwing it out?"
Tony nodded.
"Its just wasting space, never going to be used in anything, we have comparable materials that we can produce for forty cents per square inch."
"So, it's bullet proof?"
Tony nodded.
"Shrapnel, knife, bullet, anything that cuts or penetrates. Of course, it's useless on its own. Stops the penetration but won't stop the kinetic energy behind the bullet. I thought it might be useful as bullet proof suits. Turns out a bullet that doesn't penetrate thin cloth will still shatter bones and turn organs to jelly."
"So uh, if say I wanted to, maybe take something home that was going into the garbage anyway… could I?"
Tony glanced at Pepper.
"What's the legality of that Pepper?"
Pepper answered without looking up from her tablet.
"So long as it is Class 37, or Class 38 it would be no different than someone diving into a dumpster after it. I do not think it would be a problem. Of course, any electronic devices with data storage would need to be wiped and verified by IT."
Gwen tugged on the fabric. There were a couple of different textures across the bolts of fabric. A plan started to form in her mind. This would be perfect. Some were like spandex, and another was a heavier material. Tony watched her.
"I see the wheels turning. What do you want to do with it?"
"It's so soft. I was thinking I could make some really nice clothes with it."
Tony nodded.
"Well as my father would say, fill your boots."
"I don't want someone to think I'm stealing something, could you write something down."
Tony nodded. He walked over to the printer, pulled a page out and picked up a pen. He wrote a quick note. The gist of it was that Gwen could take whatever she wanted with her off campus from the room provided it was within the parameters that Pepper had advised. Tony handed it to Gwen who folded it and put it in the side pocket of her backpack. Tony took one last glance at the Trove and sighed.
"Well, I need to get on a plane. Pepper will fill you in on exactly what you need to do. If you need anything this is Happy's phone number."
He pulled out another piece of paper and scribbled a number down.
"Lots of interesting things in here. Hope you enjoy yourself. See you on Friday."
Tony walked out. Pepper finally locked her tablet.
"Sorry, email is a never-ending battle."
Pepper sat down at the desk and pointed to an icon on the desktop.
"This is an easy job. Most of it should be labeled. Anything that isn't make a note of the lot number and location. Anything that is garbage, that is Class 37, goes into the big grey bins with wheels. Leave it outside the room and facilities will make sure it gets where it needs to go. Big yellow bin with wheels is for Class 38, those are things that can be recycled. Again facilities will make sure those get to where they belong. Class 39 contains toxic, or unstable substances. You'll put those in the grey bins and label each one as Class 39 as they get filled up. Class 40 also go in those bins, but you label them Stark Tower. Class 41 stay on the shelves where they are. If you think something might be misclassed you can go into this spreadsheet and reference the lot number and location and it will give you a link to the white paper, those will tell you what it is and was intended to do. If you confirm it should be labeled, differently make a note on the spreadsheet. If you need more of the smaller bins, you can get them from Storage Room 8B just down the hall. Once you remove an item from the shelf, mark it done in the spreadsheet. Clear as mud?"
Gwen had followed all of it, but she knew she'd forget something along the way. Pepper pointed to a document on the desktop.
"Everything I said is explained in here if you need a reference."
Gwen looked around.
"It looks like someone already started on this."
Pepper nodded.
"Me. It's my fault you're doing this. I told Tony if he doesn't find someone to deal with this instead of me, I was going to quit."
Gwen smiled. Pepper stood up.
"It is pretty easy work, just long. You can feel free to play music as loud as you want here. You're off the beaten path. If anything seems off though, call Happy right away. He seems a bit gruff, but he's really good at his job and he takes it very seriously."
Gwen nodded. She kept running the iron silk between her fingers. Pepper continued.
"Also, I took the liberty of ordering you lunches for the week. They'll be delivered around noon."
Gwen quirked her head to the side.
"How did you know what I like?"
Pepper smiled.
"You take a lot of pictures of food."
Gwen blushed.
"I did go through a phase when I was thirteen."
"We all have those phases. Anyway, this is goodbye for me too. I'll be back on Wednesday. If you get really confused, or roadblocked, email me, I'll see what I can do remotely."
Gwen waved.
"Have a safe flight."
Pepper nodded. She gathered up her tablet and left Gwen too her own devices. Gwen quickly pulled the bolts of iron silk off of the shelf and leaned them against the wall by the door. She could probably make a few outfits with them. She sat down at the computer and found the search function for the spreadsheet and ran a search for iron silk. She found six hits. They covered all eight bolts of cloth. The other two were interesting. She clicked on the link for iron silk cable dispensers.
Iron Silk Cable Dispenser & Associated pressurized canisters.
Purpose: Disposable portable high tensile strength cabling that can be deployed as a compressed liquid.
Notes: Tensile strength per strand several orders of magnitude higher than comparable steel cable.
Status: Research discontinued. While tensile strength was far above project requirements the material was unstable once deployed decays after approximately 100 minutes. In addition, the substance is quite sticky making it challenging to work with in a lifting environment. Unstable nature of the strands make material unsuitable for field deployment.
Location: B12, Lot: 9, Class 38
Gwen was definitely starting to form a plan now. Being able to stop someone without beating them to a pulp would go a long way to making her feel more comfortable about this using her abilities to fight crime. She moved to the shelf that held the dispenser. It was rather large and so were the canisters. She bit her lower lip. She carried both canisters of the liquid iron silk and the dispenser back and put them in the recycle bin. She decided to snap pictures of the process to create the sticky web and the schematics for the dispensers. With any luck she could make more of it and design a smaller launcher. Might take her some time but she couldn't walk around with a giant tank and a web shooting gun.
Gwen was fairly sure that Tony and Pepper had not intended her to use this place like a personal shopping mall for seemingly useless gadgets. But she was totally going too. Using the excuse that she was going to familiarize herself with the layout of the Trove she walked all the way to the back and started looking through the shelves. The first ones were basically ancient technology, at least to her eyes. Vacuum tubes gauges and the like. None of this was classified. It looked like Pepper hadn't made it this far back. She noted each lot number and shelf down. When she moved a bit closer to the front the items shifted to the things one might see looking in a World War two museum.
It was here she came across an interesting find. It was an uncategorized item. It looked like the makings of a medieval style shield. After inspecting it more closely she realized it really was a shield. Only a quarter of the front had metal plates filled in. They were red, white and blue. In the center was a star. The rest of it was unfinished. The metal seemed to be on a spring assembly. She shrugged and put it back down. She made a note of the location. On the same shelf she found a pair of bracers and a sword. All made of the same metal as the shield. The sword was classified as a forty-one. Stay where it is. The bracers were listed as thirty-eight. She tried them on. They weren't much to look at, but she could see them looking stylish as part of a costume. Since she was a teenage girl, stylish won. She marked them as recycled and stuffed them into her backpack.
Gwen moved back to where she was and kept poking and looking through things. She decided this was a good process. She could make a list of uncategorized items while she searched. When she reached the more modern area, the early nineties she found a pair of goggles that appeared opaque. They were a class thirty-eight. She pulled them on. They were apparently one way and she could see perfectly fine out of them. There was a plastic bag with what looked like a thin film in it attached to the strap. She looked at the lot and shelf number and walked back to the computer. And searched the goggle's up.
Infrared LIDAR Shatter resistant Goggles with Augmented Reality HUD.
Purpose: Testbed to investigate LIDAR as a replacement for conventional nightvision.
Notes: Extremely high detail resolution. Exceeded project specifications.
Status: Project cancelled. While the prototype exceeded detail resolution requirements the processing power required strained current technology to the limits. Device is not man portable due to processing requirements. Update: Aug 4, 2010. Revisited project. Modern mobile phones are capable of handling the data processing, however devices powerful enough not suitable for field deployment. Made a blue tooth capable flex-LCD screen. Was effective at controlling goggles. Still, there are modern optics that are far superior. While an interesting idea the infrared lasers will make anyone wearing the goggles a beacon to any infrared detection schema.
Gwen found an attached app designed for Stark Devices. She installed it on her tablet. She connected the goggles and the flex screen to their respective chargers and wandered off to do some actual work. That was the limit of her useful finds for the day. She had a final interesting find. It was a larger version of the orb weaver she ran into in the particle accelerator room preserved in resin. It was a thirty-seven and she figured it would be something interesting for her desk. She put in a good effort and was able to fill several bins. The fact she didn't tire easily and was realizing she might be strong enough to lift a car went a long way to making the job easier. When it came time to leave, she ran into Happy who didn't look pleased to see her carrying the eight bolts of iron silk weave and preserved spider.
"Where are you going with all that, Gwen?"
Gwen looked around the large bolts of cloth.
"Taking them home."
"Since when can you just walk out of a place of work with random products that belong to said place of work?"
Gwen tried to get the letter from Tony from her bag. She found she couldn't without dropping something, so she motioned to the left side of her backpack.
"Tony gave me a letter."
Happy frowned deeply but opened the pocket of the bag and unfolded the paper.
"This is my phone number."
Gwen sighed.
"Sorry, other side then."
Happy refolded the paper and put it back in the pocket. He opened the other pocket and pulled out the letter. He moved it back and forth as if trying to focus. He murmured the words as he read them. With a suspicious glance at Gwen he put it back in the pocket.
"Put them down, lets make sure this is all legitimate."
Gwen sighed and put everything down except for the spider. Happy pulled a pair of reading glasses out of the inside pocket of his jacket. Looked over each tag carefully. He put his glasses away. Gave Gwen a very serious look.
"Looks like everything is in order."
Gwen started picking everything back up. Happy held up his hand.
"Hold up."
He nudged Gwen aside and picked up the bolts of cloth for her.
"You're my responsibility can't have you hurting yourself on Stark Industries property."
Gwen watched him waddle while he tried to carry it all. The cloth itself was light, there was just so much of it, the whole pile likely weighed in excess of two hundred pounds, including the metal that the fabric was wrapped around. Happy was obviously struggling but he was trying really hard to not show it. By the time they reached Toby's car Happy was red faced and sweating. He leaned them on the bumper. He sat on the bumper and fanned himself.
"Sorry, I had some peppers just before I came to see you off. So hot."
Gwen nodded along with him. Toby popped the trunk. Gwen wasn't thinking or she would have pretended to struggle with the bolts of cloth. Unfortunately, she didn't so she made Happy look even worse. Happy blinked at Gwen in disbelief. Gwen smiled at him and shrugged.
"I go to the gym a lot."
Toby came out to see what was going on. Happy fanned himself a few more times and stood up. He closed the trunk and motioned towards the car.
"Have a good night. I will see you tomorrow."
Gwen waved.
"You too Mr. Hogan."
When she called him Mr. Hogan he stood up a little straighter. He closed her door for her and stepped back and Toby drove Gwen home.