Her overnight delivery had arrived before she woke up. She saw it sitting on the kitchen table. Her dad was staring at it. She reached over and snagged it and yanked it into her arms.

"Thanks for getting this dad."

He looked up to her. The bags under his eyes told her he had not slept a wink.

"It has your mother's name on it."

Gwen blushed.

"She designed some clothes for me before she… for school this year. I ordered the patterns and she still had money in her Stark App account. I hope you don't mind."

He shook his head. It was like just seeing her mother's name had brought her mother's ghost back to haunt him. She threw the sealed package of patterns into her hope chest and started to get ready for work. Her father had eggs ready for her. They were a bad attempt at over easy. She ate them. He offered her a lunch bag. She held up her hands.

"No, no Pepper ordered lunches in for me since I'm basically on campus alone besides Happy."

Her father put the brown paper bag on the table.

"Happy? They have a dog with you or something?"

Gwen laughed.

"No dad, he's the head of security for Stark Industries. He's my supervisor this week. Everyone else is on holidays or off at another building or something."

He rubbed the back of his neck.

"What do they have you doing anyway?"

"Just organizing a bunch of old research projects. In a warehouse. Pretty fun I get to see all their interesting experiments. They have stuff from the thirties in there."

Gwen's stomach was already complaining. She reached down and took the lunch her father had prepared.

"You know what, just in case lunch doesn't come or something."

Gwen glanced out the window. She saw Toby pulling up. She smiled at the fresh dusting of snow that covered everything. She hadn't done it in months but it felt right so she kissed her father on the cheek.

"See you after work dad."

He stood up as she was reaching for the door.

"Don't you want a ride?"

Gwen quirked her head to the side.

"No, Toby is already here to pick me up."

She waved and slipped out of the apartment. She hopped down the stairs. Toby was waiting outside the car and opened the door for her. She crawled into the car and pulled her seatbelt on. Toby got in and shifted the car into gear. He had to navigate a few police barriers to get out of Queens. He glanced back at Gwen.

"Quite an exciting night last night around here, hmm?"

Gwen shrugged.

"I guess."

"So, you haven't seen the video?"

Gwen shook her head. Toby glanced back at her like she had been living under a rock.

"A woman took out two armed men. One had a flamethrower! Then the police tried to shoot her. It was all caught on someone's security camera. It was so exciting. Everyone's saying she's the same woman who rescued two children from a fire. Do you think we have a real superhero now?"

Gwen waved her hand dismissively.

"Probably fake news."

"She looked real enough to me."

Gwen shook her head and looked out the window she spoke without really thinking.

"Maybe she was just upset the attackers had interrupted a call with her boyfriend."

She smiled and then continued.

"Or maybe she's not a hero at all. Maybe she just likes hitting things. These days who knows what is going through someone's mind."

Toby laughed.

"You can be a pessimist. I choose to believe in the inherent good in people."

Gwen smiled at him and pulled out her tablet. She glanced at the video it had definitely gone viral. No hiding her abilities now. The camera caught her hanging off the front of a house like she was a spider. Flash would be texting her soon as he woke up to brag. She was surprised he hadn't already. She decided to watch the snow-covered scenery pass.

Her day at Stark Industries was less of a shopping trip and more like actual work today. It was slow going. There were a lot of things in here. She was one hundred percent sure even if she could add superspeed to her list of powers this would still take months. It was just before noon when she received an email from Obadiah. It was a short one, he just asked her to come to his office at two for a meeting. She spent the rest of the day working hard but half panicked that he was going to tell her she wasn't needed or something.

Two o'clock rolled around and she headed to the campus's main building. She realized just how deserted the campus was today. The only two people she'd seen today were Toby and Happy. Happy had just peeked in to check she was working and left her be. She walked up the curved staircase and into the offices proper. Obadiah's office was right beside Tony's. The door was open she knocked on it. Obadiah smiled when he saw her and motioned her inside. He was talking on his phone, using the speaker. Gwen did her best to ignore the conversation. She did catch the gist though. Some General for the US army was trying to get a lower price on a type of missile and Obadiah was stonewalling him. Eventually the call ended with a draw. Obadiah looked at Gwen.

"Have a seat."

Gwen sat down. Her knuckles were white as she clutched the edge of her tablet.

"Did I do something wrong, Mr. Stane?"

He shook his head.

"No, nothing like that. You can call me Obadiah."

He stood up and reached into a humidor on his desk and picked up a cigar. He cut the end of it off with a golden guillotine. He lit the cigar and sat on the edge of his desk closest to Gwen. He smiled and pointed the butt of the cigar at her.

"I did some reading up on you, Gwen Stacy. Your transcripts read like you're the perfect student. Except for physical education of course."

Gwen nodded along with him. He took a pull from his cigar.

"You know, I have a daughter, just a little older than you. Just turned sixteen last week. Asked me for a Porsche for her birthday. Do you know how many days she's worked in her life?"

He shook his head.

"None. Not a single day. Nor does she think she needs to. Spoiled rotten. Yet here you are, fourteen years old, asking for work. And using your mother to poke at Tony's soft spot."

Gwen made a move to speak. Obadiah held up his hand.

"No need. I'm impressed. Took guts to do that. You tried a play and it worked out for you. Good on you. You know we get eggheads from the best universities and colleges in the world coming here to work. You know what ninety percent of them have in common?"

Gwen shook her head.

"They're hopeless around people. Half the R&D meetings I go to, I fall asleep. Do you know why we held that contest you took part in?"

"No, I have no idea. I thought it was for advertising or something. Or some deduction or something."

Obadiah nodded.

"Definitely part of it, but the real reason we did it was to find people like you. Just a little bit of backstory. Last year about this time Tony comes to me and he says, Obadiah, we're wasting money. That got my attention. I asked what he was talking about. He says to me. We spend all these hiring bonuses to attract graduates from the best schools, and they're all useless. We need ideas, not engineers. Maybe one in one hundred of the people we hire is an idea person."

Obadiah looked to see if Gwen was following him. He took another pull from his cigar and let out a cloud of smoke.

"So, he builds this online exam and tells me, we're going to go out to high schools and we're going to tell them we have a contest. If your class gets the highest marks you get an invite to this Research Park for a tour. All expenses paid, hotel if need be. Also give out some free tickets for Stark Expo. We'll send out T-shirts or other swag for participation. He says, that way we catch the idea people early and can nurture them. I was skeptical. Then I saw your file. I thought God damnit, Tony is always right. You're probably wondering why I'm telling you all this."

Gwen nodded. He put his cigar in his mouth and inhaled, then let out another puff of smoke.

"I wanted to see if Stark Industries can extend your employment past the end of this week. Tony felt bad for you, so he threw you a bone. You have your foot in the door. I'm opening it for you. Would you be interested in continuing your employment here, part time, on weekends and school holidays? Same pay rate, same everything. Ride here and back until you can drive. Same deal we give to summer interns. Full ride scholarship, school of your choosing."

Gwen took a few seconds to process what she'd just heard. Finally, she asked.

"What would I be doing?"

"You'd be working directly for me. Think of me like a mentor. We have eight empty labs in the building you're working in. I'm going to give you one of them. You'll split your time between working in the storage room and the lab. I want you to add a step to your work in the storage room. I'd like you to reevaluate each project and prototype. Use that big brain of yours to see if with modern technology they could make for a sellable product. Create a report for each. In the lab I want you to let your imagination run wild. See what you can come up with. From time to time I may send an ongoing project your way, see what you think."

Gwen was floored once again.

"Mr… Obadiah, I'm only fourteen."

"Does that mean, you're saying no to my offer?"

Gwen shook her head.

"Its just, I don't want to disappoint you."

He took another pull from his cigar.

"You won't. You know what Tony said to me about you before he left when I asked him why he hired you?"

Gwen shook her head. Obadiah pointed his cigar at her as he spoke.

"That girl could replace me one day. I agree with him. So, what do you say?"

He stood up and offered Gwen his hand. Gwen blushed and took it. She shook firmly. Obadiah smiled.

"Good. I know you have half an hour left but I'll call Toby. I think your father needs some good news about now."

Gwen nodded. He picked up his phone and pressed a button. He asked his assistant to arrange a pickup. He looked at Gwen as she started to make her way out of his office.

"Gwen?"

Gwen turned to look at him.

"Yes, Obadiah?"

"Come to my office tomorrow morning when you get in. I'll try to do it every morning your in. It will be informal, you can tell me how your work is going, let me know if you need anything. Have a good night."

Gwen nodded.

"Thank you, Obadiah."

Gwen did her best not to do a happy dance until she was out front of the building waiting for Toby to show up. Sure, she was excited by having access to a fully equipped lab. She had to admit she was probably more excited to start work on her costume. She made small talk with Toby on the ride home, but she was focused on tearing open the package with her costume pattern in it. Once Toby had dropped her off she rushed into her walk-up and bounded up the stairs.

Gwen was halfway to her room after kicking off her shoes and dumping her backpack by the door when she noticed Erica and her father were sitting on the couch untangling Christmas lights. Her father actually smiled at her. She sighed when she remembered she promised that the three of them could decorate the tree. She smiled at them.

"Gonna get changed out of my work clothes."

Gwen looked longingly to where she had secured her costume pattern. She pulled off her business clothes and hung them up. She went with leggings and a baggy sweater for the evening. The apartment was pretty chilly, and the wind was howling outside. She walked into the living room and pulled up one of the boxes of mixed ornaments.

She started doing what her mother and she had done every year for as long as she could remember. She started separating them out into distinct colors. Erica and her father were laughing as they ended up tugging on both ends of a set of lights. Gwen forced back the anger that was threatening to rise up in her. It was difficult but then she just pictured Aunt May telling her that sometimes you just have to be the bigger person to get along in life. Erica smiled at Gwen.

"How was work?"

Gwen shrugged.

"It was alright."

Gwen pulled two blue ornaments aside. Gwen's father and Erica were looking at her expectantly. Gwen shrugged.

"I threw stuff in the garbage."

She pulled out a moose ornament and looked at it strangely before she put it in the autumn colors pile. Then she remembered she did have news. She pulled out another ornament.

"Obadiah, Mr. Stane offered me a part time job, offered to mentor me."

Erica and George both looked at her slack jawed. George recovered first.

"Obadiah Stane? The one who was on the cover of people magazine last month?"

Gwen nodded and sorted a red ornament into a pile. George was blinking in disbelief. Erica nudged his knee with her hand. George rubbed the back of his head.

"That's great. Did you say yes?"

Gwen nodded. George glanced at Erica who nodded very slightly. He looked at Gwen.

"Well, I see no problem with it, as long as your marks don't suffer."

Gwen thought to herself, I wasn't asking permission. Guess you didn't notice that. She picked up the first string of lights that had been untangled and started at the bottom of the tree. She strung the last two sets as the pair finished. An hour later her father, who was the only one who could reach, put the star on top. As soon as it was lit up, she bolted towards her room. Her father watched her go.

"Something wrong?"

Gwen shook her head.

"No! no. I just want to get started on my clothes."

Her father scratched his head.

"What clothes?"

"That pattern that got delivered today?"

He made an oh sound and turned his attention back to Erica. Gwen dove for her bed and snagged the pattern. She tore it open and started looking at the patterns. She was bouncing on her toes while she did it. She folded them back up and put them back into the plastic bag they came in. She wrapped her arms around the bag and went towards her mother's sewing room. That was where she lost steam. She just stood there staring at the door like if she went inside the room might swallow her whole. Her dad stepped up behind her.

"Everything okay?"

Gwen shook her head while still staring at the door. Her father spoke quietly.

"She'd want you to use it. She wouldn't have designed the clothes if she didn't want you to wear them."

"But I've never been allowed in there alone."

He put his big hands on her shoulders.

"Like you said this morning. She's not here anymore. Go on inside."

Gwen reached out her hand and turned the knob. Everything was just as her mother had left it. She was halfway through several ballet costumes. Gwen took a hesitant step inside, then another. Her father reached in and turned the lights on. It was getting dark already. Gwen put the bag down on the fabric cutting table. She walked around the room, running her hand over everything. Eventually she moved to her room to get the iron silk ballistic weave. Erica was cooking supper. For that Gwen was thankful. Her dad could make eggs. That was it. Eggs. Erica was making some chicken and pasta. Gwen grabbed all the bolts of fabric in one go and leaned them against the wall in the sewing room one after another. Her father peeked in.

"Where did all of that come from? Did you get paid already?"

Gwen shook her head.

"No, it was… they were throwing it out at Stark Industries and I liked the texture so I grabbed it. They said I could have it."

Her father shrugged and wandered off again. Gwen picked up one of the bolts and rolled it out on her workspace. She took a pair of her mother's shears and tried to cut the fabric. She found it was resistant so she used all of her strength. All she managed to do was break the bolt that held the shears together. She also managed to chip the cutting edge. She gently put the pieces down and scratched the back of her head. She recalled Tony saying that the ballistic weave was pretty much immune to being cut or punctured. She sat down in her mother's old sewing chair and rubbed her face. She couldn't help thinking how much of an idiot she was for not realizing that sooner. She got up and left the room, she locked the door and slipped the key into her bra. Erica was calling out to say supper was ready anyway.

After she finished eating Gwen fished her tablet out of her backpack and swiped through her photos until she found the white paper for the ballistic weave. She scanned methods for manufacture and saw there had been another item attached to the iron silk project. A pen sized ultraviolet laser that was a prototype for cutting it. Defeated, she sat down and called Flash who she talked to for the next two hours.

Her morning meeting with Obadiah went really well. He seemed excited to see what she would come up with. When they discussed what she would do for the rest of the day she said she would split her day in half. Half in the storage room and half in the lab. The first thing she did when she got to the storage room was to search for the pen laser. It had fallen under the shelf. She slipped it into the pocket on the inside of her jacket. Though if she realized the damage it could do, she likely would have chosen differently. She moved on to the actual work she needed to get done. She always worked better with music. Eleven o'clock found her bouncing and singing along to a song by a band called the Headstones, called Tweeter and the Monkey Man. She pretended she was doing the drums for it and singing her heart out as she looked over the specs for a backpack chemical analyzer. It was basically a mass spectrometer that someone could carry on their back. Howard Stark had made it in nineteen forty-two. The military didn't want it because it was too bulky. It was marked for disposal, but she decided to set it aside to put it in her lab/office. It was pretty genius. She could probably reproduce it with modern tech so it would fit in someone's palm. She was singing the last verse of the song when she saw Obadiah with his hands in his pockets watching her. She blushed and put her tablet down. He walked into the storage room and poked the chemical analyzer.

"What is this?"

Gwen bit her lower lip and decided to go with the layman's version.

"Portable mass spectrometer. Let's you analyze chemicals. I'm sure the ones in the labs here are an order of magnitude better but I mean they weigh three or four hundred pounds and cost a lot. If I used modern tech…"

Obadiah nodded.

"Go on."

"Well, you could probably fit it in your palm. You'd still need the big ones, but if you're needing an analysis that is eighty percent accurate… The reason it's so bulky is there were no microchips."

He tapped one of the vacuum tubes.

"Let's see what you can do. Build me one."

Gwen blinked a few times.

"I'd need circuit boards, chips, I'd need to program the rom… Could you get someone to show me how to order what I need?"

Obadiah laughed.

"Order? Fabricate it. Each of the tech labs has a full suite of fabrication equipment. You can print circuit boards, chips, everything you need to make that is in there. I guarantee it. Tony designed the labs. Impress me, I know you can."

Gwen swallowed hard and nodded. The song ended and a DJ came on.

"Did you hear? Reports are saying Tony Stark was just killed by an IED in Afghanistan."

Obadiah glanced at her phone which she was using to listen to internet radio. Gwen gasped. Even in her shock something about Obadiah's reaction to the news bothered her. Did he just smile? No, he wouldn't have.

"I need to go Gwen."

Gwen nodded. Obadiah walked off. She watched him go. She shook her head. She was just imagining things. She slid into the chair at the desk that occupied the front of the storage room. She barely knew Tony Stark, but his death hit her hard. Her lunch arrived and she ate it in a daze. She decided to just get on with things and went to her lab. It was the one closest to the back of the building she was in. She turned the lights on. The fluorescent bulbs flickered from disuse. When they finally came on the harsh white light illuminated millions of dollars of fabrication equipment. She realized given enough time she could build almost anything here. She started pulling the plastic covers off of various 3D printers. She even had a precision metal cutting table. She ran her hand along the edge of the circuit board printer. This was amazing. She put the chemical analyzer down on a workbench and unfolded the yellowed paper that provided a circuit layout. It wouldn't be hard to translate it into a modern circuit board. She bit her lower lip and looked over at the chemical storage.

Gwen was in a lab coat and was wearing a pair of safety glasses and trying to reproduce the disposable iron silk cable when Happy walked in. He had a brown paper bag and sat down on one of the chemistry stations. Gwen looked at him over her safety glasses. He didn't say anything he just took a big bite of his sandwich.

"If you're going to stay, you should really put on some safety glasses, Mr. Hogan."

He looked at her, sort of like a lost puppy. Or someone who had just watched their puppy get hit by a car. She wasn't sure which to classify it as.

"Oh, why?"

"Because you're sitting in a lab with a fourteen-year-old who is playing with volatile chemicals."

She threw him a pair of safety glasses and he put them on. Gwen went back to mixing her chemicals. She jumped back when there was a loud hiss. She hadn't been expecting that reaction. Her attempt had turned into a sickly green ball that looked like it was made of jelly. She poked it with a stir stick. It jiggled.

"Well, that's not right."

Happy took another bite of his sandwich and chewed it slowly while staring off into space.

"Do you think it's true? Do you think Tony's dead?"

Gwen poked the jelly ball with her gloved finger.

"I guess. Why would they say he's dead if he wasn't?"

Happy shrugged.

"Maybe they're trying to get him out of the country safe so its better if people think he's dead."

Gwen shook her head.

"I'm sorry I'm pretty sure he's gone, Mr. Hogan."

Happy nodded sadly his shoulders slumping further.

"You know I've been working for Tony since twenty-ten?"

Gwen picked up the jelly ball and squeezed it gently. She found she couldn't pull her fingers off. The glove was stuck fast to it. The surface seemed perfectly slick, but any pressure and it would stick.

"I did not."

Gwen started shaking her hand towards the interior of the fume hood she was working under. The ball finally gave way, it tore the fingers off of the glove. The jelly ball hit the back of the fume hood and there was an explosion that sent Happy diving for cover and Gwen covering her face with her forearms. When she peeked between her arms, she saw that there was damage to the fume hood and the green jelly had not only exploded but turned into a thermite type substance melting whatever it landed on. She shook her head.

"Definitely got something wrong there."

Happy's hands appeared over the edge of the chemistry bench he had been hiding behind.

"Is it safe to come out?"

Gwen took a further step back from the smoldering fume hood. She just imagined if this had happened at her school, or worse, her apartment. She tried to wave away the gathering smoke. Happy noticed the fire and rushed in with a fire extinguisher. Gwen held her arm out.

"No, you don't want to do that. It will go out. God, I hope this doesn't get me fired."

Happy patted her on the back.

"I can assure you. Tony has done far worse."

She went to her tablet and tapped the formula she'd tried. She marked it as unsuitable. Then she realized she may have just made something that would impress Obadiah. She dusted her hands off. Once she was sure the melting had stopped, she started the clean-up. There wasn't much that could be done about the fume hood, it was a complete write-off. She played back the video she had been taking with a camera. She saved it to a file and attached it to an email to Obadiah. In the body she apologized profusely for the damage to the lab and accepted full responsibility.

She was shocked to see Obadiah show up in her lab thirty minutes later. Happy had spent those thirty minutes talking about the glory days with Tony. Gwen just let him talk, nodding along and asking short questions here and there. He was obviously in shock. He made some excuse about checking on the source of the explosion before retreating from the lab. Obadiah walked up and stood beside Gwen.

"Alright. I'm impressed. Not even an hour and you've invented a new explosive. Next time it would be better if we used it on one of the test ranges and not a fume hood."

He crossed his arms.

"So, tell me, what were you trying to make."

Gwen bit her lower lip.

"Well, I ran into this liquid cable project when I was cleaning up storage. They cancelled it because it was unstable and had a very bad shelf life. I thought we could give it a nearly infinite shelf life if we were to design it to be deployed as a two-part reaction. Letting it react and solidify in one step. Well, I had the two parts but when I did the reaction it made a sphere of green jelly that was slippery on the surface but if you pressed past the surface tension it was like super glue. And obviously it was shock sensitive because when I tried to get it off my glove and it hit the fume hood with force it exploded and turned into a thermite like substance."

Obadiah nodded and uncrossed his arms motioning to the fume hood.

"Can you reproduce it?"

Gwen nodded.

"I tracked every step."

"How much of it did you mix?"

Gwen looked at her tablet.

"Half a gram of each of the reactants."

"A gram of what you made, did that?"

Gwen nodded. Obadiah smiled.

"Send me the formula and process. And package up your two reactants in secure, shock resistant containment. I'll get someone working on this after the Christmas break."

He rubbed his hands together and then patted her back.

"Good work. I'll get this fixed."

Gwen looked up at him.

"I'm not fired because I'm not working on the chemical analyzer and blew up the lab?"

Obadiah laughed.

"Of course not. We're a weapons manufacturer! I'll take bombs over chemical analyzer's any day of the week. You did exactly what I hired you to do. Keep it up. Just try and avoid blowing anything else up in the lab. We have a bomb range for that."

Gwen breathed a sigh of relief. She finished out her day reworking the formula. She really didn't want a high explosive attached to her wrists. Toby was quite subdued on the ride back to New York City. He barely spoke a word to Gwen. The apartment was empty when she got home. She assumed her father had gone to the hospital to check on the police officer that had been shot on Monday night. She rushed to change and get back to her costume now that she had a proper cutting tool.

Her entry into her mother's sanctum was a little more urgent tonight. She wanted to get as much cutting done as she could before her father got home. She unraveled three feet of the white ballistic fabric and swept the laser along the edge. She couldn't see a beam, but the fabric parted easily as it passed. As she finished the first cut, she started to notice the smell of burning plastic and wood. She lifted up the fabric. The table was fine. She smelled the edge of the fabric. It smelled burnt but it wasn't plastic. Then she noticed a black line across the vinyl flooring and that it had cut into the wood beneath. She panicked a little bit and tried to find something to cover it up. The laser was a little more dangerous than she had anticipated. It was quite clear by now why the fabric came on metal bars instead of cardboard ones. She shook her head and wondered why it had to be so difficult to make a superhero costume.