Intern at S.T.A.R. Labs

"So , how exactly are people's lives in danger?" Adrian muttered in a dry tone.

"If the PC doesn't work I can't run analysis simulations for my research. The research we talked about how the particle accelerator would revolutionize cardiac arrest—" Sarah seemed a bit tense.

"Did you try turning it off and back on?"

"Obviously silly, it just wouldn't turn on".

"You do know there is the IT department, at least I think there is one."

"There is, it's on the other corner that's why you didn't come across them yet, but they all seemed busy and tense. Someone said something about D Dogs or something I didn't quite catch it".

Adrian blankly staring at Sarah, he knew she will easily fold he just hoped staring at her will work.

"If you help I'll treat you to lunch for 3 days" Sarah raises.

'Hitting me right at my core huh, I'm broke as hell now and I brought buttered toast for lunch which I was going to eat with the FREE office coffee. Hmm fine'

"Deal, bump on it"…"That's where you first bump me—" first bump agreement done.

'Well power LED is ON, the fan is spinning only a black screen, might be the display cable'. Adrian notices Sarah's clicking feet and nail biting stare.

" Is something bothering you Sarah?" Adrian politely inquired.

"No no.. yes .. kindaa" Sarah spun in her chair contemplating.

"I presume it's not just the PC that's giving you trouble" Adrian deduced (successfully?)

" Cait- Dr.Snow wants me divert focus on the other projects that we have pending and start working on this one after the accelerator is online" Sarah expelled.

(successfully)

" and what might the other projects entail?" Adrian volleyed.

" Consumer stuff, high calorie food bars , burn ointments, pain killers, stuff like that" Sarah still spinning.

" Doesn't that already exist?"

"No she wants them to be 100 times more dense and effective"

"So like a protein bar where if I take a nibble of it I'll be full for the day? Sounds dope, probably for rations in wars or affected areas". Adrian guessed still sitting and tinkering with the PC.

"I tried making a batch of it, let's just say it would be as expensive as one of those big machines at your fab-lab" Sarah pointed.

"What! Ow" Adrian shocked bumping his head on the table.

"I don't even know why we need them, Dr. Wells just gave her the targets and didn't explain anything." Sarah groaned.

"Why can't you just do both at the same time then?" Adrian recklessly asked.

" Silly I only have two hands , I barely got a week to test my research and provide at least the simulations results. That was 6 days ago, I've tested 169 samples and configurations and I know this time I can get it to work, if the PC works." Sarah paused to look at Adrian.

"Oh this, yeah just give me a minute." He rushed to his workplace yanked his HDMI cable from his PC setup.

"What in the world are you doing?" Harold questioned.

"Hi Harold, Bye Harold, bit busy" Adrian runs off.

After fixing the cable in the port, restart and viola.

"Here you go, it works . Now about that lunch, I would love a –" Sarah whoosed past him immediately sitting with her notebook and starting the simulations.

"You go girl" he smiled as knew, she's one of the good one, one's willing to help the world any way they can.

Adrian walked back to the fab-lab, greeting Harold again and after sitting in his chair he realised he can't work on his PC.

"Always help yourself before you help others" Harold said pokingly as he slurped his coffee.

"WELL we are the fabrication department, it's good to get your hands dirty" Adrian said as he got back up again.

"Sit down and read the remaining manuals, you won't be touching even a strand of solder wire before you get through them all" Harold sternly instructed.

"Fine!" "stupid rules and stupid stuck up" he muttered under his breath.

A few hours pass and it's now lunch time. Adrian again sat next to Harold much to his dismay while both wondered why Sarah was no where to be seen.

"Well she does have a deadline to meet today" Adrian guessed.

" I see. By the way, is that your lunch, toast and coffee?" Harold mocked him.

"Yeah, why?"

"People have breakfasts that are more nutritious than that". Harold couldn't contain his laughter now.

"Hey I'll let you know, people in 1800 used to consider this a luxury and they still were able to do hard labour" Adrian countered.

"Mate, they also died to the plague due to their shit immune system" Harold corrected.

"Oh"

" Pftt hahahaha, just don't come across any rats , hahahaha, oh wait, Sarah has rats all over her lab hahahah" Harold started tearing up from laughing so hard.

"The lab is sanitized and the rats probably are too, I'm sure" Adrian trying his best clap back.

" Yeah mate, I'm sure the rats aren't covered in un-safe test drugs and their own feces haaahhaaahaha"

"Whatever, I'll get a decent lunch tomorrow, hopefully".

"What , are you going to pray to the gods for a bountiful harvest because of your good deeds?" Harold joked, again.

"Jokes on you cause I will be getting it because of my good deeds by the medicine goddess named , Sarah. Pfttt". Both burst in laughter.

" You fast friends with her now or something ?" Harold asked.

" Naw, she just owes me one. You've been working here for a while what is she like normally." Adrian asked biting into his last piece of toast.

" Beats me, the first time I saw her was when you sat down at lunch couple days back. Although, she does give off that American vibe." Harold pointed out.

" What's the American vibe supposed to be?" Adrian said sipping his coffee.

" Cheerfulness and naiveté that come from Freedom. Which as a 24 year old Southener is very enviable." Harold preached.

"True, the British are pretty doom and gloom sometimes, other times they just wizarding around like Harry Potter right?". Adrian poked back.

" Speaking of wizards , guess the apothecary witch is here" Harold pointed .

Sarah marched up to their table, stood next to it and just ordered

"Get Up." She said looking at Adrian.

"Wh-what why?"

"Just get up." Sarah insisted.

Adrian stood up and immediately got glomped by her, almost falling back into his chair, trying to maintain his balance as Sarah still hugging him and jumping simultaneously.

"It worked, It worked, It worked, It worked. Yaayyy" Sarah full of glee.

"Sarah, calm down ." Sarah finally letting go of Adrian.

"I'm over the clouds , over seventh heaven,I feel like nothing can stop me". Sarah said with the biggest smile on her face.

" Congratulations, I presume your research sims bore fruits"

"Yes, the test results were not potent enough till yesterday. But today they just worked somehow, I got 3 potential results and Cait said that these are good enough for now and I can continue with chance of future funding heheeee." Sarah squeelinng with joy.

"You go gurl" "See that, best fixer out there" Adrian said to Harold waving his hands in front of his face.

" Our job is to make things better and or make new inventions" Harold injected.

"Anyways, congratulations on your successful research Sarah".

"Thanks, Harold" they shook hands in agreement.

" You can't argue now that I'm not the best fixer now" Adrian joked half seriously.

"Shut up" Harold sighed. They argument continued while Sarah sat and laughed at their bickering.

Meanwhile in the other corner of S.T.A.R. Labs, the IT Department. There stood a man facing the consequences of his negligence and in front of him any office workers nightmare , an angry CEO.

"Have you finally found it?" Dr.Wells asked sternly suppressing his rage .

"Ye-yes sir, it was logs of the S.T.A.R. archives and inventory from the past 6 months" the man stuttering in fear.

" The logs, of course . GREAT , now who knows which criminal has the entire list of materials and gadgets we have in our storage. All because you were too ignornant and careless enough to let a D-DOS attack escalate to a full data breach." Dr.Wells fuming with murderous intent.

"I'm sorry Sir , it won't happen ever again—" the employee trying to maintain some composure.

"Won't happen again haha. Why do you think I have you all hired here, so nothing like this EVER happens , not twice or once, NEVER. I have a particle accelerator to launch with barely 2 months left and I cannot have any more setbacks caused unnecessarily."

"Yes sir I understand and I'm deeply sorry, we'll get to reverse tracing the breach source right away—"

"WE won't be doing anything anymore, they will. Leave your ID and badge you are fired effective immediately. You have 10 minutes to gather your stuff before security kicks you out". Dr. Wells walks away leaving the employee in tears.

Dr. Wells walks off to the elevator, calls it , gets in and grabs a notepad out of his pocket.

" Information leak has occurred a few weeks before expected, guess they found someone or my 'assistant' got a little busy. Let's see if they have what it takes to follow through." Dr. Wells smiles as he flips through the notepad and sees the final written sentence,

'Lightning will strike'.