The first factory room

Pepper fought unsuccessfully to keep from blushing as she showed the reporters into the next room, where she stood with her back firmly against the wall, most of which was taken up by a large window.

"Behind me you can see our latest innovation in sustainable power." she told them, gesturing to a large glowing device behind the window, a tall cylinder stood with electricity crackling around it, and various contraptions connected to it showed readouts or fed energy in and out. "It taps into the magnetic core of the Earth itself to generate electricity. Admittedly it isn't entirely stable, so we haven't been able to roll it out yet, but we're sure that..."

"Not entirely stable?" Christine Everhart called from the group of reporters.

"No..." Pepper admitted with a sigh, "the energies we are tapping can be unpredictable, and we need to make sure that any surges are dealt with."

"Dealt with? Not contained?"

"Well, if we contained them all it could cause a dangerous build-up, so instead when it begins to reach a too-high level there's a relatively harmless outlet that..."

A needle on a dial on the device shot into the red zone, and an arm sticking out from the body of it glowed white for a moment. Pepper half-turned, realising she was standing too close, but not before the white glow bathed her body, burning her jacket to ash which fell to the ground around her feet.

"That... that..." Pepper stuttered, shocked at the loss of half her suit, "That's relatively harmless. I'm completely fine."

"Except your jacket."

"Except my jacket." Pepper nodded, and gulped, "Shall we continue?"