CEO??

Chapter 25

Harley raised his hand, surprising everyone, including me. Charles just smiled victoriously and I knew he was working hard to get Harley into shape before he retired. "I have been reviewing applications for Lab Directors, and Charles has been looking at the intern applications. We are not lowering our standards in what we look for in our employees, so we are having a bit of difficulty finding enough interns and LDs to meet the quota in the amount of time," he reported, looking to me.

I hummed. "Expand the age range. High school aged students can apply. Send out tests to nearby schools that hold the information needed. Then choose and do a background check on those with the top scores and offer them to take the entry exam. If they pass, assign them to the lab they would work best in. Rather than hire all new LDs, try to promote some interns and replace them with the new hires," I said. "How's Operations doing with hiring?"

"Not terrible so far," Sophia said. "Assistants are fairly easy to hire. Just some background checks and training. We need a few tour guides so our current assistants can focus on their jobs. I am communicating with Angelina and Daniel to hire workers for HR and IT, and we are up to full staff in Operations."

"Wonderful. Landon, is Lab Seven working out well?"

"Oh, yes! We have been able to get twice as much done as before using our office space for designing and researching and the lab for working on prototypes and testing!" he said cheerfully.

"I'm glad. Does anyone else have anything to report?"

"Yes," Alice said. "We have seen an increase in revenues and profits since you have taken over as CEO. As a whole, Marketing wants to thank you. We have seen what your changes have done for this company financially, as well as personally."

I smiled genuinely as everyone else voiced their agreement, some even saying that their employees had never been more enthusiastic and happy. "I'm glad to hear I'm doing well. I want what's best for this company and its employees. When I first learned that I had been made CEO, I was concerned that my lack of experience would be a disadvantage."

Harley smiled at me. "You're doing great, darlin'."

I smiled back. "Is there anything business related left that we need to address?"

"Yes, I have a question, actually."

"Go ahead, Charles."

"What are your personal interns working on? Those in my labs are getting curious."

I laughed lightly. "Anything. Timothy is working on a formula to help Bruce with the Hulk. Sarah is working on high quality, accessible medical equipment. Connor is working on a multitude of projects he designed. Eleanor is mainly working on Avengers equipment and other small side projects. Samuel is working on ecological recovery. Besides that, they work on projects with me or on other projects."

"Why don't you have them working in departments?" Landon asked.

"Simple. Those five were putting out the same results as a lab with twenty people. They are literal geniuses and it's a miracle they got put in a lab together and I found them. If they were churning out work as high quality and quickly as four times the people, then think of what they can do with creative freedom.

"I gave them a test. They were given scraps in my lab and told to build something in a certain amount of time that would impress me. When they were given the creative freedom, they made more advanced technology than I could've expected from overworked and sleep deprived interns. They impressed me, which is difficult to do.

"If you would like, I can have them work more closely with you. I can give them clearance to act as LDs and such if needed. They are not in a department because they work best together, but each has a specialty. They will obviously communicate with you for ideas and might shoot some projects your way. Would you like to meet them?"

Most of the heads nodded, saying they wanted to meet the people who managed to impress me so much.

"Alright, I'll talk to them about it. Darren, would you—"

"Already done, Mr. Parker," he assured me. "I have set a reminder to set up a time to introduce them."

I smiled and nodded. "Thank you, Ren. Now, Harley, if you are not busy, would you join me to talk to the gang?"

He looked at Charles for confirmation before nodding happily. "Of course! I was going to ask Tim about that AI he made."

I smiled again and we ended the meeting. Ren handed me another protein bar. "Where are you getting these?" I mumbled as I quickly ate it.

Harley looks at Ren, impressed that he was getting me to take care of myself despite whatever was going on with me. Ren answered with a large smile. "I got Loki to enchant a pouch for me. It will hold whatever I want and all I have to do to get it back is to think of what I want. No one else can use it."

I chuckled. "That's a smart idea, Kid."

He beamed at the praise and quickly sent a text to, who I assumed was Loki. "Thank you, Sir! I got it from Hermione's bag in Harry Potter."

We returned to the lab after grabbing an actual meal for Harley and Ren. We made it back up to the lab and walked in to find something I didn't expect.

Tim was desperately trying to get Sarah to calm down as she yelled at Connor. Sam was watching with a shit eating grin as he filmed it and Eleanor was just ignoring them while reading on her tablet with earbuds in.

We stared with wide eyes until I finally snapped out of my shock. "What is going on here?" I asked.

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Thoughts?