Intern at S.T.A.R. Labs

Adrian enters the room and takes in his surroundings as he walked. An attempt was made to fool any visitor into thinking the lab is tidy but a seasoned eye can tell it was a rushed job, a bit too clean. Like when your mother told you to clean your room before she gets back home and you remember it too late and just dump all the stuff in drawers, under the bed or behind the shelves. Despite that our protagonist could only see it with green tinted glasses; scientific , advanced, technological and … lovely.

Another bespectacled beauty, 'Dammm, this place really is the Best' he thought.

"Welcome" the voice broke Adrian out of his daydream. Now looking at its source , a somewhat short guy. Spanish or Latin American , hair tied in a ponytail, wearing a blazer over a T-shirt which read 'Keep Calm and remember Han Shot First'. Definitely a nerd . He was a spitting image of a stereotypical Silicon Valley entrepreneur.

"Have a seat Mr. Brown ."

"Thank you. Please call me Adrian. "

"Would you like some water, Mr. Brown?"

"No thank you ma'am."

"So Adrian. Quite the impressive resume you got here. Already having two patents to your name, five hackathon wins with a record breaking completion time win for one of them." The interviewer went along while the lady , maybe his assistant had her face dug into her notepad, scribbling away.

"Yes , I'm quite confident with my tech and my speed handling said tech.. sir."

"Name's Cisco Ramon, but call me Cisco. This here is Ms. Powell from HR. So Adrian here's a simple test. Identify as many on board components as you can , write down their names and specs , within the time limit of ..let's take 3 minutes."

'Classic hardware test,no biggie , you got this'.' Like a bullet Cisco's words flew in , cutting through the air and our protagonist's feeble confidence.

"So , red pill or blue pill?" the questions didn't stop.

"What?"

"Ah ah ah, no looking up. Answer the questions and complete the list of components. We are noting your time , Mr. Fastest technician."

'Shit'. "Why not both?" he fumbled. Probably.

"Interesting." Adrian went on labelling the comps while writing their manufacturer, series number, and simultaneously answered Cisco's quickfire trivia having questions with topics being two extremes, from the specifications of the Millennium Falcon to optimal way to resolve work place conflict. A rather odd combination of fields ; one could clearly tell which question was prepared by which of the interviewer.

Adrian barely gets through it, arms and mind exhausted. Considering the nervous wreck he was and hour ago Adrian was breezing through the interview. All until the last question.

"What would you do in case of the Particle Accelerator experiencing Critical Meltdown?"

He froze, this was not something he could answer at a whim. He went through the deepest recess of his mind , exploring his pool of social engineering (more like puddle lol) to conjure up and answer. He thought..

'Do they want and actual answer in case of emergency to test my problem solving, but what if I answer and they think I doubt the Particle Accelerator and the geniuses who made it. But if I just say that it can never fail it would seem disingenuous, that I am not prepared for the impossible ,also that's a very kiss-ass answer. The fuck do I do?'. A cruel joke by his mind that his thoughts and tongue seem to have disconnected as he immediately blurted out

"I don't know".

"Okay then. That was a good interview. Thank you Adrian for your time. We will contact you later about the..."

Their voices were not reaching the broken protagonist. Time seemed to have slowed down, everything seemed to have gone blurry and all he could think of was regret.

'Shit fuck shit shitttttf. WHY TF DID I SAY THATT. Literally staying shut would have been better . What do I do now? Beg them for one for retake? My dream job, working on the greatest invention of our times with the greatest minds of our generation, slipped through my fingers..'

Finger snaps.in the face of our protagonist waking him up.

"Don't go 404 on me pal. Did you hear what I said?"

"Huh? Pardon?"

"Currently we have some imports from Mercury Labs so we don't have any free workstations. You would have to share. Is that alright?"

'I got the interview? Uhh respond , now'

"Yes sir, I good at sharing." 'Dumbass'

"Good to know. Powell you mind showing our new intern around?" Cisco turned to Ms. Powell as she got up.And just walked out of the room.

"Rude. I guess I'll show your around Intern."

Adrian still in shock that he actually cracked it barely noticed the woman leave. They got up and walked out. A new chapter has begun for our protagonist, let's see where it leads us.