Legend's Apprentice

Unexpected

I went in and the security guard called HR for me. A guy who looked like a high school student came to get me; he was the chatty type and he was indeed working there over the summer. He led me to the same office where I'd interviewed yesterday (only yesterday?), where I showed my social security card and drivers license and got all my paperwork taken care of, my ID badge made, and policies reviewed. The man smiled at me as he peeled off a bright pink post-it from the file cover. "One more stop and we'll take you to Dr Reynaud's office," he said with satisfaction, and led me out, down the hall, and to an elevator. We went all the way to the top, and I started to get a bad feeling.

I followed the HR guy down a hall-nice, but not overly plush--to a waiting area with a personal assistant. She nodded at him, sized me up, taking the file from the HR guy, and tapping on the door before going inside. I heard a murmur of voices, and to my surprise, Damian trailed the assistant out. He had a sulky look on his face which turned into surprise when he saw me, but before he could say anything, the assistant told me to go on in.

It wasn't a big surprise at this point to see Mr Wayne behind a big wood desk. He stood as I walked toward him and gestured to a seat. The office was nice, everything looked well-made and quietly expensive, but nothing was flashy, as you might expect the office of such a powerful man to be. The only real personal touches on display were two degrees from Yale, a bachelors and a JD, nicely framed. The man himself was physically powerful; his tailor must be a magician to make his suit fit over broad shoulders and a tiny waist without exaggerating anything or looking ridiculous. He wore a light musk scent, which seemed strangely one-dimensional for a sophisticated man. "Have a seat, Miss Barnes," he said, and I slid the messenger bag off my shoulder and perched in a chair.

He studied me, and his impassive face cracked a hint of a smile. "No, I usually don't meet new interns on their first day," he said. "But then, there's been an unusual amount of activity regarding your hire." I frowned. "Last night I had a call from Emma Harrington-Barnes, who claimed to be your aunt. We had a conversation about your employment here. Then Tony Stark called, saying that there'd been a misunderstanding and it would be smoothed out so you wouldn't be working here. My HR department reported that one Sam Quick, who is in loco parentis, called to verify that the job offer was legitimate." I cringed at what he said about Emma and Mr Stark. "Perhaps you'd like to tell me what's been going on." There was no judgment in his tone, and although I felt he was taking my measure, his gaze wasn't overly curious or demanding. It was a nice change from my previous employment.

"I was a lab assistant at Stark Tech," I said quietly. "I worked in Mr Stark's lab, and he had me working on a project, which he wanted me to do so he could write a good letter of recommendation when I start to fill out college applications next semester. He came in, said that...he didn't have time for the project anymore, and took me down to HR to have me reassigned to another lab. But they already had enough help and my hours were cut. I ran into a friend of mine on the way out and she told me that the school's careers counselor might be working since it was open for summer school, so I went there, told her what happened, and she was able to get me an interview here." I figured he could find out for himself what happened here in his own company. He nodded.

"This project, what was it?"

"It was a robot that would do inventory in like a chemistry or robotics lab on its own by weighing parts. I'm not a computer person, so Mr Stark wrote the code. All I had to do was assemble and test it."

"That sounds interesting."

"Well, I only had about a week to come up with the idea, but honestly, I don't know if I could have come up with anything better if I'd had more time. Robotics isn't really my thing."

"And what were you doing with the robot yesterday?"

"I was testing it, running it through some commands. I thought there was a bug in the program and wanted to find its parameters before reporting it to Mr Stark. I'd put the balance and the arm I'd built onto a cart, hooked up the computer on the shelf below. and the motor below. He came into the lab, was irritated that I hadn't found the flaw, which apparently he put in as a challenge."