Untimely

Part 3: Oblivion

2024: The year of the dragon

The tall, slim woman sat at her desk with her legs crossed and her hands folded in her lap. Her eyes held sympathy as she watched the person sitting across her desk, his expression defeated and upset. "You'll get this months pay, but after that we can no longer afford to support your excellent work. I'm sorry, Kreg". Her voice was what you would expect of a 30 year old. Smooth, calm and collected.

The man cupped his hand over his face, attempting to wipe away the red anger beginning to appear. Despite the news of firing, it seemed he had forgotten that that meant he could go home. "Why?" He seemed hoarse, his black, well combed hair becoming ruffled as her ran his hands through it.

The woman pushed her brown hair behind her shoulder as she sighed, leaning her elbows onto the glass top of the desk. "This corporation can't afford your experiments. However, " she perked up, excited to deliver the news to this poor gentleman. "The Stark Labs have reviewed your application and are already preparing for your work.. If you want to go there, of course"

The mention of a second, better paying job lit his eyes as a smile spread from cheek to cheek as his sitting position quickly adjusted, and a glass face was pushed by his outstretched arm. With quick reflexes, the woman reached forward and caught it to save from cleaning shattered pieces off the floor. "Sorry.." He apologized before adding "Thank you, Hayley. Thank you so much". He stood, his full height being 6'3, and shook Hayley's hand as she stood after him, showing him to the door.

"You're welcome to volunteer anytime, Mr. Grem. Please, feel free" she smiled as he began walking down the hallway with a skip in his step, as if he were going to a party he had been waiting for for months.

Once out of sight, Hayley returned to the inside of her office, sitting in the black leather swivel chair and shuffling the papers on her desk into three neat piles. Three neat piles that were several inches thick.

The sight made her slump her shoulders as she lifted her pen and began reading, signing, and enveloping into mail. Reading, signing, mailing. Reading, rejecting, mailing. Reading, signing, mailing.

This was her job. She was the CEO of the RX Corporation. A unit of science labs focusing around the usage of immortal cells. Mr. Kreg Grem was her head experimental scientist. Aside from his large experiments, he also would help the woman with choosing which new science labs to sponsor or donate to, and which to decline.

This was all her work now, but she didn't start it. Instead, she pulled out her iPhone and dialed for her old friend.

The phone rang once before it beeped. "Leave a message for me". Hayley couldn't help but laugh at how straight forward it was.

"Hey, it's me, pick up" she ordered, glancing over proposals as she spoke. After a second of nothing, "it only rang once, Stark, hit that little green button"

Finally, the line was picked up. "Hayley, Pepper took Tony jr. for a walk" Tony responded flatly, sounding exasperated at the thought of the woman calling.

"Shut up" she laughed, suddenly, she gave a sheepish grin as she held the phone to her ear. "I've got a very intellegent-"

She never got to finish, "Another? Hayley, you're killing me. I can't afford all of these people!". She was silent, refusing to even respond to the statement. "Maybe I can" he continued after seeing that she wasn't falling for it, "but the last one I accepted flunked because I was- egotistic? And I quote 'too egotistic to do proper scientific things'. Which! Is not true because I'm still Iron Man. I think that's proper science, dont you?"

Hayley's expression was straight as she opened her mouth to say something but shut it again. "Kreg Grem was the head in the experimental unit"

"Well then why would you let him go?" The man questioned.