Chp 2: Another Step

"They wont pay you to catch flies with your mouth little boy" sounded a velvety smooth voice , waking Adrian who had been gawking at the exhibit hall for a whole minute. Wiping his drool he noticed the woman who paced away, heels clacking and booty jiggling. 'Nice view down here too' he thought. "Well enough sightseeing , onward and upward!!" he said.

Finally our protagonist has started marching towards his destination ,Section B/10, taking big steps towards acheiveing his dream , nothing can stop him,

"Excuse me sir, you seem troubled" and he already got distracted. Adrian noticed a few employees seated next to mic-speaker setup. Two of them stood up not speaking anything while the one with casual clothes was still seated beside the setup, 'Guess he is the senior here, despite his age'.

"Oh nothing too much a Harvard graduate can't handle--- ZINGGGG" as soon as the words left the man's mouth, almost as to retort the machine let out an ear piercing cry. 'That's a speaker peaking if I've ever heard one'. "Sir have you read the manual for this?" he said to the seated man.

"haha Have I read the manual, kid we are the ones who usually make the manuals, tell him Jerry" as he pointed to the standing staff member, of which now only one was present. Larry laughed in agreement.

"Then you must surely know that the Lui-menoion 80 mic is not built for a loud speaker setup , well unless you want to talk at dog frequency".

"Oh""Ohhhhhh since it captures low frequency as well which --""—amplifies all the surrounding sounds too. Yup. Those are usually used by Youtubers for ASMR" said Adrian.

"So we need a new mic or a preamp. Terry go to the workshop and get the broken cro kit".

"Wait Derry, .. sir. The cro uses full AC and a preamp from it could fry the mic. Lucky for y'all I have a custom preamp right here. It even allows you to adjust for voltage and a display." He took out a gizmo from his backpack, which he actually bought a few of, mainly for show and tell in his interview.

"Thanks my guy" the man finally stood up, short hair, handsome, somewhat muscular but like a papa bear. "I'm Ronnie. Ronnie Raymond" "I'm the intern" they shook hands. "Oh cool."

"You can keep that for the hour, I'll come back to get it after my interview". He said as he started to leave and turned to Ferry.

"Where did the other guy go?" "Oh Tim, he disappears a lot, he's barely visible when we need him". Adrian gave him an awkward smile, suddenly the most advanced facility in the country started to feel more ragtag. He took off again.

"Thanks Intern dude, ill put in a good word for you, good luck." Ronnie said as Adrian turned and gave him a nod. 'I doubt a Mr. Raymond a semi-competent mic technician has much say in the ups and downs of S.T.A.R. Labs'. Onward and upward.

As he walked passed the event area he noticed several flex and posters, "The Particle Accelerator is completely harmless" "It is ring shaped due to these reasons" " The future is now" and many more, all seemingly pandering to a low intellect vocal minority which is plaguing the reputation of this establishment. 'Frickin cultists' he scoffed and moved on finally, B/8, B/9, there B/10. And the elevator right below the sign. The doors opened and he walked in to what felt like a bedroom sized elevator "Woah. this is the size my whole room" we know you broke ass student. It was then he realized, he doesn't know what floor to go to ."I'm sure the top floor is the main area" he stopped as he was about to press the button "200?" Yes the facilty was quite deceptive in its height , although half the 130 of those floors were underground leading to the accelerator.

"Floor 175" he heard the artificial voice again. A scanner near the buttons which scanned his ID for permitted areas, due to it being a temporary pass only for an interview he was allowed only one floor.

Ding, 0 to 60 in 3.5 , the elevator had already zoomed to its destination. Our protagonist now had the nerves.. again. He walked through the curved hallway to reach a waiting area of sorts , chairs arranged in a row , a single vase with tall plant, a janitor cleaning the floor and another man sitting in the row, way calmer than the nervous wreck of a protagonist. Adrian sat next to him.

"So , you come here often?" a great start to a conversation by our protagonist who had no semblance of the word small-talk. Even the janitor let out a chuckle.

"Just recently. Although, I don,t plan on sticking around". The man had a cool , mysterious aura and had already established himself as the cool guy. "Well that's not a great attitude to be in before an interview". And that's out protagonist for you ladies and gentlemen.

"Ya funny kid. Someone like I is not the type to get a JOB. Either way me was just here to talk to a friend." twanged the burly man. "I see. Hope you have a good chat".

"Ya too kiddo, break some legs in the interview" the man got up to leave.

"Isn't it break a leg?"

"If the interview go south, ya ain't gonna just sit and be rejected by them are ya?" he turned as he asked the question. Staring in Adrian's eyes, hoping to find something, a spark perhaps.

Adrian just smiled and nodded back. As the man left he looked at the janitor and circled his index finger besides his head only to be silently stared at by the janitor too. Well that was awkward.

The door opened and a lady in a lab coat walked out, smiling. "Hello, you must be for the interview" "Ah yes ma'am" "No need to call me ma'am, sorry to keep you waiting though, he's ready for you".

"Thanks , miss" , she waved and left ' She cute. Nope not right now'.

He stood in front of the door, 'Let's do this'.