Getting to work
The next few days are...transitional. I spend a lot of time in the conference room until my furniture arrives as scheduled. Sigurd loves it; when there's somebody in with me or it's quiet, he goes out to play around in the forest. Periodically I see him running flat out, playing with Thor or one of the others. He quickly becomes very popular. Even Stark spends time with him.
The day after I arrive, Fury presents me with a stack of textbooks on textile technology, so when I'm not looking at peoples' stuff, I start learning about my new field. At night, I plow through the anatomy and physiology textbooks. I want a good grounding in the body before I get into cell biology. Which is probably going to be sucky, I think, I'm a hard sciences kind of gal. Bio is too squishy for me, but I am quite motivated.
First up, I take another look at Cap's shield. It's pristine and I gloat to myself for a full minute. The molecular structure is almost perfect, and I'm happy with that. I make a few notes based on what I see in terms of alloys I'd like to try and where I think I can substitute vibranium atoms. I take his notes on its performance and what his ideal shield would be like. I start thinking about getting a forge going; my hands are itchy and it's not some new weird skin condition, it's just idleness taking its toll. Then I contact a patent lawyer. I want to use my kick-ass solar panels (Seattle is a lot sunnier than you'd believe if you've never spent a lot of time there) and there's no way I'm letting Stark take control of my tech. It's actually the only "tech" thing I've made and it doesn't even rely heavily on my unique abilities. I wouldn't have figured it out if I couldn't see the bonding and push things around now and then, though. I wait until the lawyer files for the patent before ordering the stuff I need to make them, and chat with Fury about where I can put my forge. It's pretty easy; he just shrugs and tells me to pick a site as long as it isn't where there is active construction. My trailer is at the end of the "street", so I put it out in back of that. If we get more supers, they're going to start on another street. It's the world's first superpower trailer park. I go to home improvement stores and order the quantities of things I'll need. I'm going to make it nicer than the one in the jungle; I'll retain the kiln-like structure around the forge, but make a nice workshop that is nearby.
The day the cinderblocks arrive for the kiln/forge, the others are in a briefing for an op, and since that's not my job, I go supervise the placement of my building materials. It's still winter, but mild, so I've made some adjustments to the mortar I'll use to stick them together. I think it will work, but if it doesn't, I'll just dink around with changes until either it works or it's warm enough to use regular mortar. I'd had the little site graded the day before, took a couple hours, but it's pretty level. Enough that I don't have to worry about making adjustments. I bring Sigurd's dog bed out so he can watch, and start laying cinderblocks. I start the walls around the pile of cinderblocks; it's easier to work from the inside, and most of the cinderblocks will be used in the construction, so it's no big deal. I cut a bunch of them in half before things get really busy so that I don't have to stop and start.
It goes up pretty fast; the wall is up to my hip when the others come over after their meeting. "What are you doing?" Cap asks, then takes a second look, recognizing the basic structure. "Oh. Can I help? Looks like it's going up pretty fast."
"I won't turn down a hand, thanks," I say, and soon he's bringing me cinderblocks. I slap on a layer of mortar, we repeat. Peter is curious about the whole thing but he hasn't had a lot of exposure to manual labor so he observes and asks questions. Sam cuts more cinderblocks, and Thor, who like Peter has never done construction, plays with Sigurd, who is utterly bored. Hawkeye checks for level and takes over with the mortar so I can make more, keeping up with demand. Stark just watches. It doesn't take any time at all, practically, to get the walls up and Thor, as the tallest one, sets the metal beams to support the roof. These are quickly surrounded by bricks so that the building will be pretty tight and retain the heat when I need it to. We all take a break and eat pizza for lunch, then Natasha and I pass metal sheets up to Wanda, who rivets them into place. Then there's a roll of underlayment and Natasha helps Wanda put on the shingles. It's a pretty small building and the roof has a gentle slope, so the work again goes pretty fast. The shingles are there mostly to keep the metal roof from reflecting too much heat onto the back side of the solar panels. I wish I could come up with a device to capture the thermal energy, but let's be realistic; the solar panels are my great accomplishment with tech, and that's basically because I got lucky.
"Now what?" Clint asks as Natasha and Wanda hop down. He's energized by the activity.
"Tomorrow the door will arrive," I say, and he immediately volunteers to help put it in.
It's so weird to have all this help. But nice. Nice/weird. Cap and Thor find out when I'm expecting my anvil and other heavy equipment to be delivered and promise to put them where I want. Another construction party is planned to help assemble the workshop, which is prefab and will be delivered in pieces. I listen in bemusement as the Avengers squabble over who will do what. Peter is eager to to join the older guys in the work. Fury comes up beside me.
"A team can be unexpectedly helpful," he observes. "Everybody gets help. It's not just about what one member can provide to the rest." He smiles and walks over to where Stark is trying to goad Cap into using his shield as a Frisbee for Sigurd.