Doctor Pheobe ARNie! - Head of Development of the Chainsman Institute
Dr. Pheobe ARNie's position as Head of Institutional Development makes
her second only to CEO Grimbor Chainsman in the Institute's hierarchy. She
is responsible for the development of new programs and technologies at the
Institute, the apprasial of externally developed therapies and tools that
could be useful to the Institute and the promotion of the Chainsman Institute
to the world. So her position oversees Research and Development, Purchase and
Acquisitions and Public Relations. In fufilling the last of these duties she
has become our official spokeswoman and the face of the Chainsman Institute to
the outside world.
Dr. ARNie was originally the head research scientist at Infinite Horizons,
Inc., a Research and Development Lab and a wholly owned subsidiary of the
GENOM Corporation. Infinite Horizons was tasked with developing both mecha
and macro bioweapons intended to curb Mega Tokyo's increasingly violent
vigilante activity that was cutting further and further into GENOM's profit
margin. Dr ARNie pursued her difficult yet vital task with dedication matched
by her lab assistants enthusiasm.
United in their common purpose the team produced a wide variety of
creations but unfortunately while it was often a close contest all fell short
of accomplishing their goal. Under pressure from GENOM to produce a winner or
be dismissed Dr. ARNie threw herself into the work with an almost holy zeal.
She laboured night and day to the point that her assistants were becoming
concerned about her but these efforts were not in vain as she created her
masterpiece. Punsaurus! Sadly both her triumph and her creation were short
lived.
Even more unfortunately while Punsaurus was seen as a heroic martyr by
the public GENOM had a different opinion. Having their corporate eyes fixed
solidly on the bottom line and given their poor record in employee relations
it should not have been too unexpected what followed. Announcing that as
Punsaurus had been unable to accomplish her original mission, had proven to
be uncontrollable and had perished in unscheduled action Dr. ARNie had failed
to accomplish her assignment. With that GENOM wrote off the wrecked lab as a
tax loss and informed the staff of Infinite Horizons that their services
were no longer required.
This was a devastating blow to Dr. ARNie and her assistants as their
rather specialised field had few openings. It was at this low point that Mr.
Grimbor Chainsman made Dr ARNie an offer. He had heard that Punsaurus was
originally designed to take on paranormal vigilantes and that fit in with his
own goals. Mr. Chainsman was well aware that for an Institute that accepted
involuntarily commited superhumans was going to have some difficuties in
executing the commitment orders. New acquisition techniques would be needed
which Dr. ARNie's talents would be very useful in developing.
Dr. ARNie accepted, conditional on her assistants also being hired. The
bargin was accepted and Mr. Chainsman and Dr. ARNie began their collaboration.
While they continued to work together for some time Dr ARNie's assistants
were subsequently reassigned to fill vacancies in the Research and Development
division. While sorry to see them go as the duties of her position evolved
Dr. ARNie found herself taking on more and more administrative duties and
having less time for experimentation as the Chainsman Institute moved from
being a theoretical concept to an actual facility. She discovered that she
had a talent for promoting the Institute and enjoyed the work making it
inevitable that she would become our official spokeswoman. In addition she
subsequenty took on the role of dealing with our external hardware developers
but more about this later. Returning to the early days despite her workload
Dr. ARNie definitely did not abandoned labwork entirely.
After the initial problems of setting up the Chainsman Institute and
opening for business were taken care of she was finally able to begin work on
a long delayed project, Punsaurus 2
Punsaurus 2 quickly became the darling of the staff and the Institute's
mascot but since then Dr. ARNie has abandoned pursuing further biomech creation
efforts and concentrated her research expertise on the internal development of
new institution technologies and on the examination and assessment of new
restraint technologies that have been created outside the Institute. To
fufill the latter duty requires frequent trips to meet external or third party
developers and determine if their wares can be used by the Institute in their
existing form or if they could be useful additions to our supplies with
modifications or augmentations that she will outline.
Once Dr. ARNie has determined which products could be useful additions to
the Institute's supplies she always insists on giving them a personal trial
run. Often Dr. ARNie's willingness to give any device an initial test
surprises many of our suppliers. Especially as many have members of their own
staff prepared to perform these demonstrations. But even in these cases she
insists on participating which she views as a sign of good faith on behalf of
the Institute to signal that their products will be fully assessed at the
Institute by our Quality Assurance personnel rather than dumped in a storeroom
and forgotten. She has also stated that she hopes that for the developers to
witness her participating in these demonstrations with or without members of
their own staff will help to inspire them to continue their work. As an
example here you see her testing an experimental meta-metal straitjacket
designed to be both lightweight and nigh unbreakable (theroretically it
should be able to withstand a Kryptonian wearer's struggles though this has
yet to field tested) along with a member of the designer's staff.
As a consequence of participating in these initial trials Dr. ARNie often
finds herself unable to conduct business during these periods of her visits.
Therefore she is usually accompanied by her Executive Assistant, Isabella
Valentine, who can take Dr. ARNie's place when necessary and continue any
negotiations and contract talks while she is indisposed. Ms. Valentine has
proven herself to be an accomplished negotiatior and has Dr. ARNie's full
confidence to close deals in her name. Ms. Valentine is also always willing
to lend a hand to aid Dr. ARNie's participation in any trials she undertakes.
