Gwen & Martha

The first week working with Martha went about as awkwardly as Gwen had assumed it would. Martha still hadn't directly communicated with her vocally. Gwen found Jonathan to be quite helpful. He had seemed to adopt her as another sister? Gwen wasn't sure. She wasn't sure about either of them. Tony was right though. Martha had advanced tech. One of her phones, which she spoke to her sisters on was beyond even the tech Tony had in his possession. It was like a wristband with a holographic interface. Gwen had discovered three sisters and one niece at this point. Sarah, Kara, and Amber. Amber seemed to be her legal guardian and older than the rest, also she seemed to be the mother of a toddler named Ruby. Martha usually spoke to them on video chat and didn't have her earphones in. Gwen could hear their whole conversations and see the sister's faces. Sarah and Amber seemed to be adults. Sarah looked college age. Kara seemed to be the same age as Gwen and Martha. Ruby was two. Though she seemed quite… intelligent for her age.

Amber was definitely an adult though. She reminded Gwen of her father. She was always reminding Martha to shower. To make sure she brushed her teeth. Kept asking her if she was working on any weapons. Reminding her that she was a guest of Tony's and needed to behave appropriately. Gwen actually felt bad for Martha. It was obvious her new lab partner was responsible enough to handle being here and to take care of her personal hygiene. The thing was, Amber seemed to have more in common physically with Kara than Martha or Sarah. It was a strange family dynamic. Gwen was curious but was too polite to dig deeper.

Tony had been busy being Iron Man. The pair rarely saw him, though new data was consistently being added to their shared secure workspace. Gwen was mostly trying to figure out the how and the why of her Vibranium bracers. Their ability to absorb kinetic energy was amazing to her. It explained why she never felt anything that hit them, and they were so quiet when bullets collided with them. Martha hadn't been paying too much attention to her and her experiments. That was until one caused a ruckus.

Gwen had been hitting the bracer without the flex screen interface with a sledgehammer repeatedly for about half an hour. She saw the magenta lines of energy that formed when the bracer had absorbed a large amount of energy were glowing brightly. A girl who can lift ten tons could hit stuff really hard with a sledgehammer. She smiled and put it on her wrist. Walked up to a metal block that had been used for laser testing at one point or another. Flung her wrist back to extend the gauntlet and punched the metal. The metal complained with a loud creaking sound. She was unskilled with directing the energy properly. She successfully damaged the metal by denting it deeply. Unfortunately, she was flung backwards into the opposite wall. The sound of the collision was very loud. The hit dazed her, and she started to have flashbacks of the punch Obadiah had hit her with that laid her flat. Thankfully she was durable enough the only thing permanently damaged was her pride. She hit the gauntlet on her chest, and it retracted into a bracer again. Martha rushed over to her and kneeled down. For the first time in the entire week, they had spent forty hours together, Martha spoke to her directly. Her voice was soft and hesitant.

"Umm… are you… are you… alright?"

Gwen rubbed the back of her head. Was relieved she felt no blood. She nodded. Gwen tried to get up and found she was still weak in the knees, so she collapsed back against the wall.

"Ow. I'm fine. Just really embarrassed right now."

Martha seemed used to this sort of occurrence and just checked Gwen over for obvious injuries. Gwen seemed to be fine, so Martha stood up and offered her hand. Gwen took it and Martha pulled her up. She felt a bracer on Martha's wrist. She realized she'd never seen Martha with her long sleeves off. Martha pointed at the bracer which Gwen was yanking off her wrist quickly like it might bite her.

"What… are you working on?"

"Just something for a friend. Apparently, this stuff absorbs vast amounts of kinetic energy. I'm just wondering how. It can be expelled from a focal point; My friend just wants to know how to do it without blowing herself back… like what just happened to me."

Martha held out her hand.

"May I see it?"

Gwen's grip on the bracer tightened but then she realized short of begging Tony for help and risking more questions about Spider-Woman she didn't have much better options. Vibranium was completely new and alien to her. Gwen offered it up.

"I didn't make it; It was made by Tony's father like eighty years ago. It is part of a set."

Martha took it to her workspace. She reached into her pocket and pulled out what appeared to be a tablet that she rolled out and placed on the desk. She placed the bracer on it, it barely fit. She tapped a place on the screen and spoke.

"Jonathan, please analyze this."

Jonathan's disembodied voice filled the room.

"Taking a little peek."

Above the tablet a three-dimensional hologram popped up showing the bracer in both its gauntlet and bracer form. Martha started spinning it around with her right hand while tapping the fingers of her left hand against her thumb. Martha did this for over an hour and Gwen didn't try to rush her. She was pretty much staring at the specs as they appeared. Soon the chemical atomic structure started to appear for Vibranium. Martha's eyes scanned it, growing wider as the atom appeared particle by particle. She finally exclaimed.

"This isn't from Earth."

Gwen was very interested now. Martha started spinning the atom's holographic representation around.

"It looks like it's almost… designed. Like someone built a designer element."

Gwen realized Martha was talking to Jonathan and herself more than anyone else. Jonathan responded.

"Yes, sis, that appears to be the case. Very similar to…"

Jonathan seemed to trail off, whatever he was about to say Martha just nodded in agreement.

"Yes, it does. Can this be synthesized?"

"Thinking."

Jonathan paused for a few minutes, eventually he answered.

"Not with this Earth's current technology. Perhaps Tony might have some ideas."

Martha looked at Gwen and seemed to have gotten over whatever hesitance she had in communicating with her new lab partner addressed her.

"Plug this into your template equation."

Gwen shrugged.

"I don't see the point. If it's immune to kinetic energy, how do you even make it into anything? Sure, whatever."

Gwen sat at her desk and was amazed to see she had an email with the numbers she'd need to plug into her equation template. She sent the simulations off to run on the supercomputer. She wouldn't get results anytime soon. The simulation was complex, and the Stark Industries supercomputer was in high demand by other staff.

Martha picked up the bracer and offered it to Gwen. She pointed to different parts of the holographic Vibranium gauntlet.

"You used the wrong focal point. Tell your friend she needs to strike here with the gauntlet. For all of the energy to be put into the target with a punch. If you hit them together here, they'll create a cone of sonic-kinetic energy focused on where the gauntlets are pointed."

Gwen smiled.

"Thank you. I appreciate the help."

Martha wandered off and went back to working on something on the whiteboard.

Happy & Tony

Tony was just finishing off another Ten Ring's base in Afghanistan and was flying home. He decided to check on the girls.

"Jarvis, call Happy."

"Of course, sir."

Tony saw Happy's face appear. Happy was eating. Of course, he was, he rarely wasn't.

"Hey Happy, how are the girl's doing?"

Happy finished his mouthful and put his sandwich down.

"Doing good. There was an incident this morning, but no one was hurt."

Tony pursed his lips.

"Define incident."

Happy shook his head.

"It was nothing. Gwen was hitting something with a hammer then she punched a piece of metal and got flung back. She got up afterwards and they continued working. Was some bracer."

Tony frowned.

"Some bracer, huh? The nerve of Spider-Woman getting a fifteen-year-old girl to test something so ridiculously dangerous. Any news on the cameras from the lab that blew up last week?"

Happy shook his head.

"No, sorry Tony. Nothing new. It looks like they were shut off the entire time Gwen was in the lab. The men Spider-Woman webbed up aren't talking. They're from Citadel Private Security. Foreign mercenaries. Federal prosecutor is getting pressure from DND to cut them loose, and since you stopped selling weapons DND aren't taking our calls."

Tony grumbled.

"Figures."

Happy rubbed the back of his head.

"So, you ever think, Gwen might actually be Spider-Woman?"

"Nah, no way she gets away with that, her father's a police officer. Gwen doesn't seem like the type. She definitely seems the type to enable someone like Spider-Woman though. Besides the videos from Gwen's ex-boyfriend are still being posted and Gwen has made no secret of how much she despises him. No teenage girl is going to continue helping a boy who dumped her. Gwen does know exactly who Spider-Woman is though. I promise you that."

Happy took a bite of his sandwich and motioned with his hand. Once he swallowed.

"Pepper got a call from FBI cybercrimes, so she called me to see if we had any data breaches. Stolen cyberweapons. Talked to IT, nothing, no breaches except for one last week but that was only data secured on a secure server Mr. Stane set up. And it happened twice. They said all that was retrieved were a set of encrypted files that they can't figure out how they even got there and a bunch of shipping and financial records. It's all been deleted, and they can't retrieve it. They're not sure besides file names."

"Never mind the breach. What kind of cyberweapon were they asking about?"

Happy shrugged.

"Something about weaponized crypto-something or other. Attacked some girl and a school in New York City. They said something about military grade encryption and assumed it was us, Hammer Industries or Oscorp."

Tony frowned again.

"I'll look into it, but as far as the FBI is concerned, wasn't us or anyone associated with us, okay?"

Happy nodded.

"Sure thing Tony. Anything else?'

"Keep an eye on the girls make sure they don't do anything stupid."

Happy smiled.

"Roger that. See you soon."

Tony disconnected the call and increased thrust.

"Jarvis, would you kindly break into the FBI systems and pull the file on the cyberattack Happy was talking about, along with any samples they managed to retrieve. Ensure the samples are stored in their own sandbox please."

"Of course, sir."

Tony flew in silence for half an hour. Jarvis addressed him again.

"Done sir."

"Jarvis, compare the crypto sample the FBI collected to the one SHIELD approached us about."

Jarvis took several minutes to respond.

"Sir, the encryption is identical. The sample you have from SHIELD is still active. The sample from the FBI seems dormant. I would surmise the attack vector is different."

Tony pursed his lips.

"I would bet the encryption on them is very similar to the one Gwen has developed."

"Why, yes, sir. They seem to be identical."

Tony sighed. All those hormones and enough brains to cause a digital apocalypse.

"Jarvis, the sample from SHIELD. How is it attacking the system?"

"Sir, it is using existing access granted when files are accessed. It seems to depend on the user to access something then it uses that to spread wherever it can."

Tony nodded.

"At least she wasn't a complete idiot. What exactly did the cyberattack the FBI are investigating do?"

"Sir, the virus successfully infected and encrypted several phones, three computer systems and a car's electronics. The latter caused a car accident. The way it attacked the system if it had have taken a few more seconds, it could have resulted in out of control acceleration, likely it could have caused real casualties. Additionally, if the devices are wiped, then it comes back."

"So, she's got it infecting the read only memory. Who was the target?"

Jarvis took a few moments to respond.

"Elizabeth Allen."

"Of course, it was. Jarvis, if I ever have a child, I hope to God it is not a girl."

"Why sir?"

"Because if she is half as smart as I am I will be in for a world of hurt when she's a teenager. Run sandboxes, try different countermeasures to the virus. We can't have it spreading to every device in the world."

"That will take some time, sir."

"That's fine Jarvis. In the meantime, I have to have a talk with Gwen."

Gwen & Tony

Gwen decided to hit the Crown Diner for her evening meal. Aunt May and Peter were out for dinner with Norman Osborn. Gwen did not want to be alone tonight. It was a bad night for that. She was eating her second king burger when Tony walked in. He pulled his sunglasses off, folded the arms up and laid them on the table. Candace came over. Gwen knew the waitress well enough to know she was trying not to gush when she saw Iron Man sitting at a table in her restaurant.

"Mr. Stark, what can I get you?"

He looked up at the waitress, put his arm along the back of the booth.

"I don't know, what's good?"

Candace bit her lower lip.

"Well, that depends on the occasion, if you're hungry, the burger combos are great. If you're here to give Gwen a lecture, usually coffee and apple pie worked for her uncle."

Gwen blushed. She hadn't picked up on Tony's demeanor until now, but he seemed to be in a bad mood. Especially when he looked at Gwen. Tony nodded he looked at Candace's nametag.

"You know what, Candace. That sounds perfect. I'll need lots of sugar."

Candace nodded and hurried off. She came back with the pie and poured coffee for Tony. He added six packets of sugar.

"Good coffee."

Candace nodded and wandered off. Tony took a bite of his pie and made an mmm sound. Then he took another drink of his coffee. Gwen decided to finish her burger in the time she had remaining on this earth. She wasn't sure what Tony was here about but if it couldn't wait until the office, she was likely in some form of deep shit. Finally, she gave a very hesitant smile.

"Before you ask, I talked to her, and she is willing to meet you."

Tony nodded. He spoke quietly.

"Good, because I would like to ask her how the virus she used against the Sorera Cartel managed to make its way onto three computer systems, four phones and one car associated with a teenage girl named Elizabeth Allen. I looked her up and try as I might I could not find any signs or hints of criminal activity. And even if there was, I didn't think Spider-Woman was the type who would go after an innocent teenage girl in a manner that might get her and her father killed."

Gwen sunk into her seat, her cheeks turning bright crimson.

"Uh… you… mmm… you…"

Tony waited expectantly.

"Use your words please, Gwen. I know you are far more eloquent than that."

Gwen folded her arms on the table and buried her face in them.

"It was an accident."

She heard Tony's fork scrape across his plate as he took another bite of his pie.

"Oh, so Spider-Woman launched the attack by accident."

Gwen didn't look up as she spoke again.

"It was me. I did it. Spider-Woman had nothing to do with it."

Tony took another drink of his coffee.

"Oh, well see that does make more sense. I still don't understand what Elizabeth did to warrant a cyberattack."

Gwen continued speaking into her arms.

"She stole my boyfriend."

Tony put his fork down.

"And that warrants a killer virus?"

Gwen lifted her head up.

"There was a bug. It was supposed to kill her computer and phone. Instead, it decided to try and kill her. I dealt with it right away. I fixed the bug and no one was hurt… really."

Tony leaned closer to Gwen.

"Gwen, you know better than that. You and I are a lot alike. The things we can build. They can be very dangerous. Who am I to lecture you? Look. I have someone I want you and Spider-Woman to meet. I understand she and him have a lot in common. And you. I'm not your parent, but I feel partially responsible for what you do because you're using my tech to enable it. So, you are going to have a talk with him too. Maybe he can talk some sense into you."

Gwen blushed.

"Am I fired if I don't?"

Tony gave an exasperated sigh.

"No, because then who is going to keep an eye on you? Your father has no idea what you're capable of, if he did, he'd never let you near a computer, or out of your apartment. You and Martha are two peas in a pod. Between the two of you… come on. We're going for a ride."

Tony paid the bill. Gwen followed him to his car and he drove her to an old gym in the Bronx. He parked. He was about to say something when he received a call. Gwen could hear the other end of the call clearly. It was the Colonel that she had met with to receive the official statement of events after the Obadiah incident. Tony sighed as he hung up.

"Gwen, I need to go. You can get home from here, right?"

Gwen nodded.

"Sure, I guess. Why am I here?"

Tony pointed at the boxing gym.

"Go in there. Someone's waiting to talk to you."

Gwen sighed and got out of the car. She wasn't sure who else would be able to dress her down like Tony could. Seeing him disappointed actually bothered her a lot. She sighed and pulled on the door. It resisted her strength. She realized it was locked. She knocked on the door. When it opened, she was surprised to see Nick Fury standing there.

"The infamous Gwen Stacy, come in."

Gwen raised an eyebrow but entered. She figured if SHIELD wanted her somewhere short of outing herself as Spider-Woman she pretty much was going to be where they wanted her to be. If her meeting with Obadiah the other night had proved anything. The boxing gym was sparse and looked disused. Someone was punching a bag on the far side of the room. Director Fury folded his gloved hands and inspected her with his good eye.

"So, you're the one who supplies Spider-Woman with all of her gadgets. Oh, and develops apocalyptic crypto viruses."

Gwen felt like bolting. Something about Fury told her he was not a man to be trifled with. With no mask between them, she felt naked.

"I thought I had been granted immunity for that…"

Nick Fury smiled.

"Oh, you have, but it doesn't mean we're not watching you very closely."

Gwen sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Look Director Fury. Tony already gave me the lecture, and I already gave myself a lecture about it. I don't know why he sent me here to talk to you. But if you want to see Spider-Woman, I'll arrange it."

Nick held up his hands.

"Oh, you're not here to see me, I just happened to be here to talk to my new friend. You're here to talk to him."

He pointed towards the man punching the bag. She saw the gorgeous Adonis of a man hold the bag to stop it from swaying. He was shirtless and he had abs for days. Her eyes traced every well-defined muscle up to his face and realized she was looking at Steve Rogers.

"Tony tells me you and Obadiah had a lot of interest in Mr. Rogers here. That you were researching someone who'd been exposed to the serum. I assume that someone is Spider-Woman. Mr. Rogers has some questions about that research. He'd also like to have a word with you about the proper way to deal with any lingering frustration you may have with being a teenager. I'll leave you too it."

Nick walked towards the door. Gwen's ears started to burn as Steve Rogers walked towards her while pulling on a United States Army shirt.