THE MOMENT
"It's not exactly a public-facing position, but with your Superpower, Starla would love to have you join her lab," Orion explained with a pleasant smile. It was mid afternoon and brilliant sunlight flooded his 35th floor office through the large floor to ceiling windows. He was an Executive at Chroma Corp. and Arnold was thrilled someone so high on the chain requested an appointment after he got his powers evaluated. He thought he was heading in straight to a leadership position, but now he was having doubts.
Arnold liked to think of himself as a Master Iterator, even before he got his Super license. Chroma Corp. had regular Super screenings every month for free, and he finally found enough reason to try and join the Hero's League. More than the money he very much needed, he also wanted to play with their advanced technology. He imagined himself waltzing in and upgrading all their equipment.
"But, it's still at the League Headquarters, right?" Arnold asked.
"No, I'm afraid Starla has a private lab she maintains for Chroma Corp. as a whole, not limited just to the Hero's League. It's too big to fit in the League building," he smiled. That sounded intriguing, but it wasn't the goal he'd walked in with.
"Are you sure I couldn't do more good helping out the League directly? Chroma Corp. said I had 'Iterative Technological Development', I make things better every iteration! I can upgrade all their equipment and even the whole base, probably!"
Despite his opinion of his capabilities, he hadn't done much to streamline his own life. It was part of the reason he was in a rough patch. His innate ability to know how to make things better didn't always translate to action. It'd taken over half a decade for him to get his powers appraised. When Chroma Corp. first appeared five years ago, super powers were revealed and almost everyone went and got checked. At the time, he'd been deep into another creative iteration process and assumed he'd get around to it some day, and that day was almost two weeks ago.
The day after that he received the appointment from Orion, and spent the next period feeling extremely hopeful and not wanting to start any new projects so he could be ready to jump on the first thing they needed him to do.
"They don't do anything in house," Orion nodded. "All their gear comes from Starla's lab. And, as an aside, your power isn't particularly 'fast activating'," he said. "You're able to iterate effectively.. but not notably faster per iteration, you're still essentially human with no other Super aspects. You'd be safer at Starla's as well."
"Oh,. that changes things," Arnold nodded. He knew he wasn't any faster, and he wasn't overly concerned about danger. But he wanted to work at the main gear source, and that was being offered, even if it wasn't the setup he expected. "Yes, I'd like that," he said.
"That's wonderful," Orion stood and Arnold stood with him as they headed to the door of his office. "I'll prepare you on the way," he said. "Starla's appearance sometimes surprises people."
"Wait, why? Is she... deformed or something?" He had to actively avoid using the word 'ugly' at the last minute, and realized 'deformed' wasn't any better. Fortunately, Orion laughed as they emerged into the long, narrow chrome hallway.
"She's a real cow."
