Chapter Text
Ned immediately waves me over looking like an over-excited puppy.
“Hey man! You made it just in time!” Ned says, our hands interlocking with our Best Friend Handshake™.
Filing onto the bus, excited murmurs flowing through the small crowd as Mr Harrington attempts to take attendance before promptly giving up and letting everyone settle down in their own time. Which, honestly, I think anyone with common sense would be able to tell is a terrible idea, like, a group of ‘nerdy’ teens are going to visit one of the biggest tech companies in the world, there is no way that the class is going to calm down by itself.
I sit down next to Ned pressing my face against the cold window, hoping that if anything goes wrong today, which with my ‘Parker Luck’ something will, that it has nothing ,and I mean nothing, to do with the Avengers.
“Seriously though, do you actually have any idea whether we will see any Avengers or like Tony Stark?” Ned asks me, still looking overly hopeful.
“I wish I had an answer to that one but they were all refusing to tell me what they were doing today. I tried so hard to get any answers from anyone, but they were surprisingly good at keeping their mouths shut on any pranks or ways to show up and embarrass me.”
“You do remember that two of them are trained spies, right?” MJ says leaning over our seats as she sat behind us, “Also, Ned, you are terrible at whispering.”
“Well, we knew you were behind us so we didn't need to whisper, right Peter?” Ned nudges my arm.
“I mean I’m pretty confident no one here actually cares to listen in on us, but yeah maybe we aren't the most careful,” I admit, “Also! You haven’t seen how easily Clint gives up information when snacks are involved, so really it’s more surprising that he didn’t say anything after I offered him as many packs of doritos as he wanted (which technically means as many as I can afford within a month.”
“Why would he need that many Doritos when he could just buy his own?” MJ looks deeply confused as if she doesn’t understand the fact food tastes better when it’s free.
“I don’t know, I thought it would work!”
“What kind of person thinks someone living with Tony Stark needs free food?” She retorts jokingly.
“I panicked and wanted answers, okay?”
Ned and I start to laugh and MJ smiles, holding back laughter, which is pretty good considering she normally doesn’t laugh at anything Ned or I say.
“You won’t be laughing when we get there, Parker. Soon your whole fake internship will be exposed and then you’ll be kicked off of the trip and never have a chance at working somewhere where actual geniuses belong!” Flash barks out confidently.
Shrinking back into my seat the laughter between us dies out and Ned gives Flash a dirty look before turning back to me to continue talking.
“You know Flash, before I had met you, I actually believed common sense was common, but it’s become apparent that you clearly lack any semblance of it. How sad.” MJ quips back at him before reminding me to ignore him under her breath.
It isn’t that I can’t stand up for myself, but if Flash is here making fun of me then it won’t happen to anyone who couldn’t handle his idiocy. It is much better this way for everyone, even if it means getting humiliated on the way to my house and occasionally pretending I’m too weak to hurt a fly when he decides that he needs me as a punching bag.
༺☆༻
Everyone’s faces begin to light up as we enter the large, modern entry for the tower. The glass of the revolving doors slightly distorting the view of everyone inside. Even Mr Harrington seems excited about being in the same building as some of the world’s greatest people.
“Stick together everyone, I don’t want to repeat myself but I will if it ensures this opportunity goes smoothly. I don’t want any trouble from any of you, this is a work environment, do not bother anyone, and listen to the guide, understood?” Mr Harrington asks, already tired of our class, looking desperately at us to behave.
A chorus of, “Yes sir.” is muttered before we all continue to chatter and stand in a cluster of impatience and wonder. Well, I could certainly wait for this trip to begin, but I won’t let my disdain for today affect the generally positive atmosphere around me.
“Hello Midtown High and welcome to Stark Industries! Are we all ready to start our tour?” A young woman with long cherry red hair, straightened and brushed to what looks like perfection, smiles and scans our class. Her eyes land on me with a questioning look, before quickly ignoring the fact I am standing right in the middle of a cluster of excited high schoolers.
Enthusiastic nods and affirmations follow her welcome and the conversations die down while I’m left wondering if I’m about to get socially embarrassed before we even get through security checks.
“Well then, let's get started! My name is Cleo, I will be your guide today and I am also an intern in the Legal Department of Stark Industries!” Cleo is extremely sweet, she bakes for her department all the time, and more often than not, I end up sneaking one or two muffins from the Legal Team.
“Hopefully your other guide will show up soon or else I may have to start the tour without him.” She mutters, her words would imply annoyance at our other guide, but her face shows nothing but fondness, which makes me think it's Elijah from the marketing and social media team, but that’d be unusual of them to be late.
Cleo pulls aside Mr Harrington, probably to explain some rules or to double check that the information about his class on her clipboard was correct, like allergies, medical needs etc.
“Sorry! Sorry! Didn’t mean to hold anyone up, there was an incident with meeting scheduling earlier today.” A man no older than Cleo rushes over to us carrying a box labeled ‘TOUR GROUP STUFF’. Very formal of the biggest tech company, isn't it? He gets closer and it becomes awfully obvious it’s Elijah because of the mop of short golden-blond, frizzy hair that covers part of his eyes as he rushes over.
“Well look who the cat’s dragged in? Eli, dude you were meant to get here five minutes early not late,” Cleo laughs taking the box from him placing it onto the long reception desk lining the back wall where we’re standing.
“My bad! It’s not my fault some people don’t know how to end meetings when scheduled!” They laugh and turn now facing us, thankfully not seeing me pressed between MJ and Ned.
“Hi guys, I’m Elijah and I’m helping Cleo to tour guide you today,” He smiles awkwardly, “I’m relatively new here but I can still answer any questions you lot have, and if I have no clue what you’re on about, we can just ask Cleo cause she’s like been here forever.”
“Well, that was a nice introduction, but I don’t want to keep your eager minds waiting for any longer than we have to, so here are your badges,” Cleo smiles, grabbing each pass and reading out peoples names waiting for them to collect it. “You will need these to get anywhere in this tower, so please for everyone’s sake keep these on and visible at all times.”
Most of the class has a badge now all flipping it over in their hands and analysing the writing on the badges that read:
[DR/MS/MR/MX] [FIRST NAME] [SURNAME]
[PRONOUNS]
[DEPARTMENT NAME]
[POSITION: EMPLOYEE, INTERN, HEAD OF DEPT, ETC.]
Followed by a photo of you on the right hand side, and a stripe of colour across the top of the badge indicating your access levels.
“Your badges can be hooked onto your clothing, as you guys are guests your badges won’t have photos and are single use, yes, that means that it deactivates after today, so yes, you may take it home with you,” Elijah says, looking knowingly at us, because most groups are probably eager to have a souvenir from here.
“Employees here have the same type of badges as you guys, but permanent and with department positions labelled on them,” Cleo demonstrates by pointing out her badge to the class. A long stripe of yellow running along the top.
Beginning to line up to go through the standard security entrance, Ned wanders back to me, having been one of the last people to get his badge he had stayed closer to the front of the group while the badges were being sorted out.
“What do the badge colours mean again?” He asks, even though I told him briefly before, I don’t mind explaining it again because it’s something simple to explain and gives me something to do, consequently calming my nerves.
“Oh well yours means guest of some variety, like tour groups, press for avengers stuff ya’know?” I move my hands around in small abstract gestures.
“Yeah but what is the yellow on your one, I swear it’s gold normally?”
“I asked it to be changed out for a normal intern badge for today and Happy gave me this one.” I point out the section that mentions ‘R&D intern’ on it.
“Sick, so you can just have any access level if you asked?” Ned asks curiously.
“Well I’d rather not, and I’m pretty sure Happy would be pissed at me for the amount of badges and how it’s a safety hazard, along with the fact I only need my normal access… but in theory, yeah!”
“Okay, everyone I’m going to need you all to listen up. We are about to go through security, so please put your bags onto the conveyor here,” Elijah points at the long conveyor not dissimilar to one you’d see at an airport only a bit higher tech, “While your bags go through, you’re going to have to walk through the machines, like an airport if you’ve ever been.” He states.
“Ha bet you have no idea about that Penis, you probably haven’t even seen this one, after all we can clearly tell you haven’t got an internship here.” Flash points out sniggering.
Unfortunately, that nickname draws Elijah’s attention to Flash and subsequently, me. Eyeing me cautiously, as if to ask if they need to intervene, I manage a subtle shake of my head knowing MJ would handle Flash anyway.
“Shut up Flash– you’re only going to make a fool of yourself in the long run.” MJ rolls her eyes at him, already sick of his bullshit, and let’s be honest so am I.
Cleo steps through security first calmly awaiting the class's reaction to how the tower’s entrance works.
“Cleo Jacobs, Legal. Access: YELLOW 1.”
Mr Harrington follows her through the security.
“Roger Harrington, Visitor. Access: GREY 1,” F.R.I.D.A.Y states in the monotonous voice she uses for visitors.
“Woah!”
“Who the fuck was that?!”
Cleo glares at our huddle, trying to figure out who thought it was a good idea to swear like that at the beginning of a tour, before stopping on Flash’s group and shaking her head.
A variety of reactions to F.R.I.D.A.Y make me laugh, I’m so used to her voice that it’s easy to forget that other people might be horrified by her presence.
“That was F.R.I.D.A.Y. She is Tony’s AI, who also plays a large role in the company, as you saw that is a defaulted security response. F.R.I.D.A.Y cannot be accessed by regular employees, and therefore won’t often respond to us, unless it is an emergency for example.” Cleo says, while my class all look up as if F.R.I.D.A.Y comes from the ceiling.
Why does everyone think she’s in the ceiling!?
“Sally Avril, Visitor. Access: GREY 1.”
“Ned Leeds, Visitor. Access: GREY 3.”
“Eugene Thompson, Visitor. Access: GREY 1.”
“Michelle Jones, aliases: ‘MJ’, Visitor. Access: GREY 3.”
Bags are rolling through the conveyor with no issues, Jason’s the only person left until it’s my turn now. Fuck, I hope F.R.I.D.A.Y responds to the badge and not me.
“Jason Ionello, Visitor. Access: GREY 1.”
Here goes nothing I guess?
“Peter Parker, R&D and others, aliases: Pete, The Kid & [REDACTED x4] Access: [REDACTED].” I wince and grab my bag from the conveyor sneaking a look at the screen. It is all redacted out and the security is about to start getting back up (I can see it on his face, the way his brows scrunch up and he starts looking me up and down) when Kevin walks over and types something into the computer, smiles at me and leaves.
Goddamnit F.R.I.D.A.Y.
Well, at least most of it was redacted…?
Could’ve been worse, she could’ve given me the usual welcome, but I’m guessing it has something to do with using the public security that prevents it, similar to the redacted elements of the profile.
Mr Harrington gives me what can only be described as a death stare and I reach to my hand spinning the rounded metal beads on my bracelet, hoping he was the only one to pick up on it.
“Wait!” Flash yells.
“Please refrain from yelling Flash, that was extremely inappropriate from you.” Mr Harrington distracts himself from my embarrassment of an entrance.
“Yes young man?” Cleo asks clearly trying to uphold the standard of ‘no question is a stupid question’ for the group.
“Why does Pen-Peter Parker get a special badge? You might wanna get that checked y’know. He has a history of bad field trips and I wouldn’t be shocked if this was no different!” He says confidently, his smirk sitting on his face as if he owned every room he walked into; he doesn’t.
“Interns are assigned their own badges, so I think you can fill in the gaps here: If Peter has an intern badge then he is probably…?” Cleo looks at him expectantly.
Flash remains silent and defiant.
“An intern.” Cleo finishes her sentence, mild frustration visible on her face.
“He’s so lying.” Flash mumbles to his mates.
Betty raises her hand and has the look, (aka she is in journalism mode now and absolutely no one can stop it – gotta love her enthusiasm though), “Excuse me, sorry to bother but you said questions were welcome and I wanted to know what the badges colours mean?”
Elijah perks up, I’m assuming he’s as happy to move on from that subject as much as I was, “Yeah! That’s a great example of how we should use our curiosity, people!” Taking a verbal jab at Flash before continuing, “Well each colour has levels 1-3 in it showing more detail about your role here. The first group is Grey, being guests, visitors etc. 1 is a tour group, 2 is press, and 3 is family or friends of residents.” He gestures for us to walk with him and Cleo before continuing.
“Blue is for all kinds of maintenance work like receptionists, food hall staff, museum employees, and more. Green is for our security. Yellow is for main employees, department is specified in the badge details, but 1 is an intern, 2 is general employees, and 3 are the heads of departments. Red is for The Avengers, and Gold is all access.”
“Who has all access then?”
“That’s mostly classified but It is naturally Ms Potts, Mr Stark, the head of security Mr Hogan & Mini-Boss. Morgan is too young for an access level yet and is accompanied by someone at all times,” Cleo clarifies.
“Wait, who is the Mini-Boss if it isn’t Morgan Stark?” A few people ask collectively, looking at Cleo and Elijah for answers.
“As I said some information is Classified but be assured Mini-Boss is loved in all departments here.” Cleo’s eyes meet mine with a small smile on her face.
“Now, kids, I think that’s enough of an introduction, considering that it took a whole 15 minutes. Please continue the tour, apologies for the lengthy questions,” Mr Harrington says apologetically.
Elijah brushes off Mr Harrington’s statement smoothly saying, “No problem! We love enthusiasm here! Now let’s get moving shall we?”