Super

13 - pt1 - The Internship

"A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you."

― Elbert Hubbard

✩ Annie ✩

I stared open-mouthed at the teenager in front of me. Tall, attractive, blond, and green-eyed. And the name. It had to be him. Fingers shaking, I tapped out a quick text to Lila without even glancing down at my phone. The teenager, completely oblivious to my shock, just continued to ramble on about the agar they used to study the bacteria in supers' blood.

Remember Uncle Clyde? And remember how I said he was always helping me out, be it getting my mom to raise my allowance or offering me an internship? Well good old Uncle Clyde owned several very successful businesses, including a mattress shop, a music store, and a metaphysiology lab called Blaze Labs, and he offered me my choice of internship at any of the three. I didn't think twice before I said yes to Blaze Labs. 

Ever since the job was invented a year and a half ago, I wanted to be a metaphysiologist. The definition of metaphysiology (or the Spark Notes version anyways) is the study of supers. That's right. I could make a living by studying super heroes: how they thought, worked, and how they got their powers. Not much was known about supers at the time but I was determined to change that.

Generally, in a normal human being, neurotransmission is used to send messages through the central nervous system. An electrical impulse travels down the axon (the body of the neuron) and releases neurotransmitters, which cross the synapse (the gap between two neurons) and fit into receptor sites on the postsynaptic membrane. Think of it like a key fitting into a lock. Once the key is in, you unlock the door, and that's when the message is delivered, telling you to move, sleep, eat, etc.

In supers, however, something extraordinary happens when the neurotransmitters fit into receptor sites. When us mere mortals want to use normal body functions, the brain uses neurotransmission to tell our arms and legs to move. With supers, the brain uses an advanced form of neurotransmission to unlock their powers. By studying deceased supers' brains, metaphysiologists discovered supers actually have an extra neurotransmitter, which they aptly named metadopamine, and just like dopamine, too much can lead to euphoria; that's what gives supers the extra kick: their high metabolism, fast reflexes, and the elated, happy feeling they get when using their powers. Long story short, that's the study of metaphysiology, and it's what I wanted to do with my life.

Now, Uncle Clyde had introduced me to one of the other teenagers interning at Blaze Labs and ordered him to show me around. I was still gaping at him when Lila arrived, panting and sweaty, yelling, "I GOT YOUR TEXT. WHAT'S THE EMERGENCY?" Luckily, I had told her to come as Lila and not as the Claw, which raised suspicion in itself.

"Umm..." I looked pointedly at the boy in front of us. He smiled at Lila, ran a hand through his styled blonde hair, and stuck his hand out for a handshake.

"Hi, I'm Finn. Are you another new intern?" Lila's jaw dropped to the floor. Finn watched her with an expectant smile, but when it was clear she made no move to shake his hand, he let his hand fall awkwardly to his side. Lila shook her head a little and gave him her most winning smile.

"Lila," she took his hand from his side and gave it a hearty shake, "and no, I'm just here to wish Annie luck."

"Oh, that's cool then," Finn grinned. OH THE RHYME. He grabbed a pair of safety goggles and latex gloves, and then pointed to a coat rack full of lab coats. "Try a medium. The smalls, I swear, are for children. You can't be in here without the proper safety gear just because of the bacteria on the agar, and all that."