Peter in his civilian clothes quickly went to the entrance of the Hammer building while putting his labcoat and employee ID on; "Peter; Glad to see you on time and not a moment too soon! We have the new workers here ready to be greeted and welcomed to our little Hammer family..." Mason told him cheerfully as he went up to Peter to put his hand to his shoulder.
"I am all set and ready Mr Mason..." Peter told him with a big smile as they walked together and his smile quickly fell with a sinking feeling in his stomach. "I hope..." Peter thought in his head as they went to the special entrance and found the new young workers gathered.
"Welcome one and all to your first day here at Hammer Industries where we put the hammer down on making the world a better place! My name is Phineas Mason and I will be your supervisor and this here will be your co-worker Peter Parker who will help show you around." Mason then greeted them as they just stared awkwardly at the speech and Peter faced Mason in disbelief. "The speech was chosen by the PR team and approved by Ms Hammer herself so we have to deal with..." Mason then whispered to Peter and then shoving his way to the front was a figure all too familiar to Peter...
"...It's your boy Flash Thompson; bestselling author of Flashpoint, MIT student and now I am here working at Hammer Industries! I will be given all of you part of the Flash Mob an inside look and see if they have been working on anymore robots since the days of the Stark Expo that long ago... Hey!" Flash Thompson said facing the crowd as he had his phone out recording while looking at the camera so his viewers could get a good look at the building only to have the phone snatched away by a security guard that Mason motioned for.
"You all signed a NDA that clearly stated that unauthorised photos or videos inside the facility was strictly forbidden. The projects and work that you will be working on can't be shared with the public until they are ready." Mason then sternly told Flash who was protesting.
"Come on... I promised my Flash Mob an inside look to see if they actually have any working Iron Man armors and I lost enough enough followers when I was denounced by that Sloth Baby Productions when she decided that I didn't know what I was talking about in my book..." Flash protested to snickers from the gathered mob and Peter decided to put his own answer in.
"That is a question for someone who cares about that question..." Peter stated as Flash just stormed off back to the group embarrassed as they then faced the crowd again. "If you can arrange yourself in an orderly fashion, we can help show you all the way in to your workplace..." Peter then said leading them in with Flash glaring as he passed him.
As he got to the letting the last of the group in a voice said "Don't focus too much on Flash; he just likes getting attention and it's the same since we had to endure high school together..." Peter's eyes widened as he turned to face MJ there in the flesh next to Ned. "You can call me MJ and... Have we met as I think I recognise you from somewhere..." MJ asked as she looked at him closely and he was close to panicking and then had to notice her wearing the necklace that he gave her.
"Well uh... I once bought coffee from you at your job... When you got accepted to MIT and he was there..." Peter then quickly explained with a look as their eyes widened as they tried to think about that.
"Wow... You must have some memory... I barely have an idea as to what you are talking about... I'm Ned..." Ned then greeted taking Peter's hand to shake as he then showed them in.
"They don't remember and they never will about all we had been through..." Peter thought in his head as he just followed them in. They went to the workplace with the lab tables, materials and on a table behind a restricted line was the modified rebuilt Vulture backpack only coloured orange now.
"Is that like the Falcon's wings... Or Cap's wings now..." asked one of the new workers eyed wided.
"Looks more like the Vulture wings... If only I still had my phone..." Flash muttered as Mason then got in front of them to block off access.
"Yeah; this part of the lab is only for approved personnel but this pack is to being designed to help revolutionise air rescues... To be used with the specialised suit..." Mason then said and then showed a a special wardrobe of sorts with different dark blue body armor with orange armor plates over them and orange hoods. There was also yellow coloured helmeted masks. "The special suit that has been affectionally called 'the Hobgoblin' and the helmet has been designed with infra ray vision to spot for weak points to safely get through the rubble as well as buildings to get to the most direct routes..." Mason said as they took in the design of the suit.
"You sure that this is designed for rescues and not combat? Doesn't help that it looks like you were actively making a supervillian suit..." MJ then noted with some chuckled as Mason looked uneasily as Peter and everyone who worked there didn't fail to notice how creepy the suit looked.
"It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who said that 'A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds!' We will be challenging theboring consistency of drab unappealing uniforms and looking to make the world a better place with style! As the heroes like the Avengers shows; to be noticed doing good is to look good while doing it!" snapped a voice and in came a scientist with grey hair and a grey goatee who looked displeased at what MJ said as he stared her down.
"I am pretty sure that the point that Emerson made with that quote no way relates to what he made it out to be..." MJ whispered to Ned who held back a laugh as Mason went up to the man.
"Everyone; this is Doctor Roderick Kingsley a senior scientist here at Hammer who personally designed the Hobgoblin uniform and is a little protective of his designs so he and all of us would appreciate it if you would please show some care when discussing it..." Mason then said pleadingly.
"as if these small minded fools can truly appreciate my work... Just like my parents... Shot down my ambitions and designs... Threw my notebook and drawings in the fire and told to focus on science... God had forsaken me when he cursed me with this high IQ when fashion is my passion..." Kingsley then said as they took this in and then Mason called them to get their assignments.
Peter just shook his head through it all; "Let me guess... This was the far from the first time that you had to hear him rant like that?" Ned asked Peter who shook his head as MJ gave a snort as she smiled.
"yeah... Not a day at the lab without him making a dramatic speech... Listen; do you want to hang out later after work..." Peter then decided to ask as they looked at him.
"Peter, is it... No offense but we just met basically and don't really know you so this is kind of too soon..." Ned told him and Peter sighed.
"Yeah, you're right... We're basically strangers..." Peter then admitted as they then went to get their assignments. Peter then went to do his own assignments for the day.
In an apartment in Brooklyn, New York; there was Aaron Davis in small workplace lab. He was working on some equipment that he had gotten. He then looked to his phone after hearing it ring and put it on audio. "Uncle Aaron... We still up for some hoops later..." a boy's voice asked as Aaron looked towards it.
"Sorry Miles but I can't; I am busy tonight... Got a job to do..." Aaron then said apologetically as the boy's voice sighed.
"Got it Uncle Aaron... Just hoped that we could since you were missing and silent for that time and I wanted us to catch up... Dad thought that you had run to do something not good..." Miles then said sounding disappointed.
"Well your old man knows me too well and where I was... Hard to explain and I know you won't believe me... I promise that we can catch up later... Love you..." Aaron then said as they said goodbye to eachother. Then a text came from a contact called 'MIDDLE MAN' which read:
THE BOSS WANTS TO KNOW IF YOU CAN BE COUNTED ON DELIVERING THE GOODS, AFTER YOUR DISSAPPEARING ACT!
Aaron looked like he was tempted to just throw it across the room but then quickly texted back:
It will be done.
He then sighed as he then looked towards a certain purple suit that he had.
The design of the Hobgoblin suit (only with the helmet mask coloured yellow) comes from the Marvel's Spider-Man cartoon and that's also where the quote was also used; by Norman Osborn as an explanation for the motif of the identity that he came up with for Harry to use. While the show isn't really good; I did like ideas and designs from it and the design works well for the Hobgoblin. Plus I decided to introduce Roderick Kingsley as an eccentric failed fashion designer so he could be the creator of the Hobgoblin design here.
The gag with Flash and his phone and Peter's little response was inspired by and in the case of the latter unquestionably unapologetically taken from when Julia was greeted by Chris McLean in the first episode of the Total Drama Island revival from this year (yes REVIVAL and it's not a reboot despite what even the show claimed; media that are clearly revivals and yet being called reboots is a strong pet peeve of mine). Plus I think it will be the only time in history where Spider-Man would ever quote Chris McLean and if you not familiar with the TD franchise wants to get an idea of Chris especially post the first season then imagine all the worse qualities of every single mean sadistic reality TV show host and put them together times a hundred and whatever comes out would think that Chris was a jerk.
Talking on that since I have a fic that I had been dying to want to get to based on my favourite season of the show the Ridonculous Race (despite knowing full well that I struggle with large ensemble casts), it might take a while for me to update this and also to work out the details for the second half of the story. Same with this new Sonic story that I started and also want to work on with the Race story.