Balthazar Carlton, or simply Thaz as she preferred, stretched in the sleek leather chair The Agency provided for her. She brushed back the blue locks in which she dyed in her wild teenage years and squeezed the anger management ball out of boredom until it split in half. When such boredom crept up on a person, they found themselves dwelling on the weirdest things. For instance, Thaz was currently speculating on the odds of how long she could balance on a log in the middle of a lake. It was a random thought that has no justification whatsoever and her mind continued to wander to queerer things until a knock on her desk drew her out. It was that secretary who worked for Heinz – [i]like the ketchup[/i].

“Hi, Karen, what can I do for you today?” Thaz asked, not bothering to put on a smile, but instead offering a friendly wave of her hand.

“It’s Lizzie.” The secretary corrected, crossing her arms.

“It’s irrelevant.” Thaz replied earnestly.

“Mr. Harper wants you for a meeting.” The other reported as quickly as she could as she had other things she needed to tend to and she still needed to contact Conor. “If you will excuse me, I should be going.”

“Okay.” Thaz shrugged, uncaring if Karen – [i] Lizzie[/i], she reminded herself absentmindedly – left or not. Once the woman was gone, she struggled into her jacket and brushed her blue bangs from her eyes and got a move on.

Balthazar had a few errands to run before the meeting, but eventually she found her way to Heinz who teleported her, along with the others, to a general debriefing room. Thaz sprawled into a chair and waited for the debriefing to begin. Heinz brought up a hologram, holograms were never easy to dispel, and began to explain their new mission.

“A few weeks from now, the Electronic Entertainment Expo is going to start in New York, with four MMO developers, Akira Kariya, Elizabeth Cortes, Anya Tarnova, and Ken Saddler, joining. Why does this merit Agency attention, you ask?” – “We didn’t ask.” Balthazar inputed though was otherwise ignored. – “Because one of those developers is trying to create an [i]MMO that traps people in the virtual world.[/i] If people’s videogame selves die in said virtual world, they die in Real Life, and that’s a bad thing because MMOs have millions, or perhaps even billions, of users.”

He continued, “Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find that fucker, and neautralize him, dead or alive, before he traps millions of people inside a videogame just to satisfy his own God Comples. You have free choice of gadgets and methods, just don’t overly expose yourselves; you’re secret agents, not superheroes. Don’t drag the Agency through the mud, or further certain…stereotypes about us.” 

“The E3 Convention, thankfully, has been moved to New York due to the…personal preferences of the Convention’s sponsor, [i]Arcana Unlimited[/i]. This gives the suspicion that ArcU is somehow involved, which isn’t surprising, as despite their dominions in the Developing World, their headquarters is still legally in Troy; close to New York City. This means that you have to be on watch for corporate goons.”

“And, finally, despite the transfer, E3 is an exclusive convention; only people with a connection to the videogame industry are allowed to come in. So, your covers are as reporters for PCGamer Magazine. I trust that you two are good at cameras and creative writing?”

Balthazar answered noncommittally, “I’m good at bullshitting.” 

Soon, many files were installed into her head and she mentally scanned over them for a few seconds, but she would revisit the dossiers later. “Memorize them; again, you have a few weeks.” 

[i][b]A few weeks later…[/b][/i]

Balthazar had been organizing herself since the debriefing and had spent the time acquiring her favorite gadgets which included a nice, inconspicuous new gun model. Now, the day had finally come and she gathered all of the members of the mission. They all stood cramped around her desk and she knocked on her desk for their attention.

“We will be meeting in an hour to the meeting spot. The meeting spot is a small café called [i]Parabola[/i], if you’re late, you’re dead.” Balthazar informed, grinning ear to ear and the excitement of the mission. “Great.”

With nothing better to do, Balthazar teleported to [i]Parabola[/i] in hopes of getting to finish a small meal before the others showed up. She sat down at a small table and began to dig in, but alas she was only half-way through when the hour was up.