Meeting
By some miracle, Alex got to the tower at exactly 8:30. Perfect timing thank god.
Entering through the automatic doors, he is met with an extremely busy lobby. Looking around, everyone was in some kind of business attire. Women wearing heels and blouses and men in suit pants and button up shirts. His first thought was that he was in some kind of corporate hell. His second thought was that he was severely underdressed.
Taking a deep breath and grounding himself, he walks up to the front desk where a friendly looking woman was attending. Putting on his best smile he spoke to her.
“Alex Simons, I’m starting an internship today”. He tells the secretary.
“Perfect, right on time! Here are some forms I need you to fill out before we start” The employee says as she hands him a tablet. “You’ll also need to scan your hand and finger prints, the tablet will give you the instructions” She adds before gesturing for him to sit down in the waiting area.
Nodding, Alex takes the tablet and goes take a seat.
The tablet was extremely advanced compared to what Alex was used to. He was fighting the urge to jailbreak the tablet to see how it programmed. But he figured he’d be handling some form of tech soon enough so he decided not to.
It only took him around 5 minutes to complete all the forms. The questions that had had to answer were straightforward like ‘do you have lab safety training?’ (yes), ‘do you have first aid training’ (yes), etc. He had already answered most of these questions in his interview but he guessed that they needed the form for legal reasons.
After the form was completed, he had to scan his hand on the tablet. Apparently that’s all he needed to have access to the tower instead of a key card. He had no idea how it worked.
After submitting everything, Alex got up and went back to the receptionist.
“Great!” She said taking back the tablet. “Dr Banner and Mister Stark should be in the labs. You can take the elevator up”
Alex smiles and thanks her before moving to the elevator. As the door closed a loud voice came from nowhere “please scan your id card.” Not expecting to hear a voice, Alex jumped. “Who said that” he said in a slightly panicked tone .
“My name is F.R.I.D.A.Y. I am the towers AI program.” The bodiless voice replies.
Alex let out a sigh of relief. He had a tendency to be jumpy. He scanned his hand on a screen built into the wall.
“Alex Simons level 9, what floor would you like to go to?”
”Uhh, the labs?” Alex answered, he was never told what floor number the labs were on. Apparently the AI understood because he then felt the elevator start moving up.
After a few seconds, the elevator opened to a large hallway with doors leading to rooms with glass walls so you could see into each room. Alex counted six labs in total on the floor. Right by the elevator was a large window overlooking the New York skyline. He had never been up so high. He quickly pulled out his phone and caught a few pictures before hearing a voice behind him
“Best view in New York”
Alex quickly turned around to see a smug looking man leaning against one of the glass lab walls smirking.
“You must be our new intern, Alex right?”
“Yes sir that’s me, it nice to meet you” Alex said extending his hand.
“No need to call me sir, I’m not that old. Just call me Tony”. The man said as he shook Alex’s hand
“Sorry I couldn’t make it to your interview, bur from what Bruce told me, you’ll fit in perfectly here.” Tony added. He seemed genuinely nice compared to how the media portrayed him.
“C’mon inside, I’m exited to get to know you.” Said the older man as he put a hand on Alex’s shoulder leading him into the lab.
Maybe this won’t be as bad as he thought.