The Labs
The moment they were back in the elevators Peter had already a feeling that they were going into the labs and the moment Harley pressed the button he knew he was right.
He really liked the labs and was hoping they would do something cool up there, but he was scared of who they might meet in them.
This was the place where 90 percent of the people he knew worked and spent most of their time.
Maybe he would be lucky, just this one time. After a lifetime of his luck that would only be fair.
Well, the moment he stepped out he realised that the world was in fact not fair!
Right there, in the middle of the lab stood Dr. Bruce Banner aka. the famous Hulk. The Midtown students erupted into pure excitement.
Everyone tried to get as close to Bruce as they could. In the labs they weren’t allowed to take pictures. That meant everyone tried to get an autograph or ask a question.
Peter wasn’t interested in either of the two. Instead he went into one of the corners of the lab and looked at the stuff in said.
There stood a transmission electron microscope on a table.
Peter recognized it as one of Dr. Banner's cancer projects. He spent some time on the project too, but they got stuck on it and during time Peter spent less and less time with it.
In his defence it wasn’t really his fault. If it was anyone’s fault it was Mr. Stark’s.
He wanted to do like 20 projects at once and just took all of Peter’s time for it. For him it was just not imaginable that some people had other things to do as well.
After two weeks like that May banned him from the lab until he caught up on all his homework.
This was the first and last time Mr. Stark did this, but that wasn’t because he saw reason. No it was because Pepper threatened to ban him from the lab for at least a week. And to let him sleep on the couch for just as long.
And to quote the billionaire: “That is a risk we can and will not take. Understood? So for both our sakes do your homework!”
Anyway looking at this transmission electron microscope Peter got kinda sad he abandoned this project as well.
Maybe he should ask Dr. Banner and Mr. Stark if he could rejoin said project.
Before Peter could dive deeper into his thoughts Ned touched his shoulder and brought him back to reality.
“Hey, Dr. Banner said we could try out the transmission electron microscope over there. Look at some cells, mitose and stuff”, Ned explained.
Peter nodded even though he wasn’t sure if that was what Ned expected from him.
The teenager followed his friend to another corner of the lab and joined his class at the transmission electron microscope.
Everyone was fascinated by the latest tech of the microscope, but for Peter it wasn’t something special.
So when Harley said it was time to move on he wasn’t too heart broken.
The class went back into the elevators and went to the next stop, the R&D labs.
The teenager had spent quite some time here. Most of the interns worked down in this part.
The people who worked here were closest to Peter in age and he liked to brainstorm ideas with them.
Mr. Stark usually didn’t mind him going down there. He even said it was good to work together with them.
Peter’s focus right now was: Stay under the radar!
“Okay, so welcome to our lower R&D labs! Most of our interns work right here, especially the younger ones.
Don’t hesitate to go and look a bit around. You are allowed to ask questions, but please understand that some of them may not have that much time. That’s why I’m asking you to understand that and then leave them alone.
Now go, look around and have fun”, Harley said to them.
“Uh and learn a bit of course”, he added while looking at their teacher.
Everyone including Mr. Harrington swarmed out in the lab to look at all the different projects.
Ned practically ran towards the section with the latest Stark phones.
MJ on the other hand wasn’t so enthusiastic. She slowly walked over to a group of young women. They were working on one of the bigger projects.
They were working on a system to efficiently create starch film as a new wrapping for the Stark phones.
Peter new that Mr. Stark was interested in it because it was a good way to reduce the company’s plastic consumption.
Unlike his friends Peter didn’t wander off.
“Not interested in looking at the stuff here”, Harley joked.
Peter smiled at him and looked around to see what his classmates were doing.
“Hey you know what I will look around a bit. Haven’t really had time for that lately. So either you join someone or you just stand here like some idiot”, Harley decided.
Peter thought that the first one was indeed the better option and then went to join some of the interns.
He had helped them on their project before and hoped that maybe they would need his help or something like that.
Turned out that they didn’t really have any complications anymore, but were merely working on their report on the project.
That may not have been Peter’s favourite part of the job, but he decided to help them anyway.
The team was half through said report when Harley assembled them back at the elevator.
“Okay I hope you enjoyed your time here. It’s midday, which means our next stop is the cafeteria. And I can already tell you that it won’t be like the one you’re used to from your school!” Harley announced.
The class streamed back into the elevators. Those took them down a few floors and they stepped out into the large cafeteria.
For Peter it was nearly as new as to everyone else since he mostly ate on Mr. Stark’s floor.
But he understood the big eyes his classmates had since he first had them too.