Marinette sighed as she placed the helmet back on her head and pulled the VR screen into place. Powering it on with a flick of the switch, she leaned her body back in her gaming chair and focused her mind as she launched PHENOM.
She felt the familiar pulling in her gut and the burst of adrenaline as she fell from the sky and dropped to the middle of the park. The soft grass buckled against the hard landing of her feet. She straightened her knees and began to look around.
She only had an hour to get in and get Kim. His mother was very specific that he needed to be returned from the PHENOM world in an hour or Marinette would not be getting paid.
Glancing to the left and to the right, her black hair fell in her face and she frowned. Black hair wouldn't do. Marinette walked across the grassy clearing of the park to the nearest store. As the door opened and she stepped inside, a customization window popped up after a PHENOMbot fed her some stale dialogue about whatever shop it was. iPerfect/i she thought, grinning.
Using the allowance of NOM-Coins she had been given for this mission, she elected to change her hair to blonde, and added length into a long ponytail. She also purchased a 10NC tan to mask her normally pale and freckled countenance. Kim's type was ChloƩ, Marinette remembered. The closer she could make herself appear to the stuck-up blonde, the more success she would have. This would be a job she would finish in fifteen minutes.
Changing her clothes to something more form-fitting and, dare she think it, sexy, Marinette's PHENOM persona reflected in the mirror looked just as unlike her as she could get. A devious smirk crossed her lightly made up lips. She made a few expressions in the mirror, pouting her lips this way and widening her eyes just so to convey surprise.
Thankfully she hadn't had to purchase much as far as cosmetic enhancement. She knew she was cute, and she already owned a few makeup packs in her inventory.
The blonde hair and tan skin would be enough to confuse Kim. He's a simple man.
Satisfied with the stranger staring back at her in the mirror, she left the customization shop.
The heels she wore clacked noisily against the cobblestones ground, and she had to be careful where she stepped to avoid the heel sinking between the poorly animated ground. Agreste and the PHENOM team had a lot of strengths, but some of their background work was shoddy, she thought.
Heading straight for the track field, knowing that Kim would be there flexing his pre-purchased muscles for equally enhanced women, she pushed her shoulders back. If there was anything Marinette had learned, it was that boys her age were so distracted by a confident beautiful woman.
They would let their guard down enough for her to grab them and drag them back to reality out of the PHENOM. She would collect the checks and game coins from their parents, they would be grounded for weeks, and she would be living pretty until another kid got stuck there for too long.
Being a virtual reality "assassin" of sorts had its downfalls, and one of which was how shallow and sad it really loved the opportunities it provided her monetarily, don't get her wrong, but she felt a little sorry for those boys. Their own lives were so grossly unfulfilling, they had to buy enhancers for personality and looks instead of trying to create it out in the real world.
She reached the top of the bleachers and slunk down the concrete steps until she was pressed suggestively against the fence. She saw Kim, along with a few others she recognized, and she let out a low wolf-whistle.
"Hey there, soldier. Care to spend some time with me?" she intoned in a breathy, nasal voice. None the wiser, Kim's persona started strutting toward her and she tried hard not to laugh as he climbed the stairs to her position. He honestly thought he was God's gift to the world.
She turned her body just so it would appear he was backing her into the fence. She knew his kind of guy. The one that loved to feel power over women. He shot a wide smile her way. "Don't mind if I do, gorgeous." He brought a (slightly sweaty) hand up to her face to brush a few flyaways from her tanned cheek. "Let's take a walk and get away from these other clowns. Kim doesn't like to share his toys."
Fighting the urge to roll her eyes and pretend to vomit from disgust at his comments, she nodded prettily. He placed his hand on her lower back and he escorted her back up the bleachers, his palm sticking to the satin of her dress. She simpered up toward him on the brisk walk to the park, the sun beginning to dim behind them in the sky.
The sunset bled hues of orange and yellow, the light flickering off the nearby chrome buildings in a beautiful display. Marinette kept her focus on that and not on the male chattering to himself at her side. Once they reached the park, they chose a bench a little off the path in a secluded area. The light filtered through the trees.
"So, what's a lady like you doing out here?"
"I just wanted to see the man I've heard so many people talk about. You look even stronger than they say!" She giggled to emphasize her point, widening her eyes dramatically.
He smirked and flexed his biceps, wiggling his eyebrows. "I am pretty impressive."
She coyly glanced away, and then back at him. "Y'know...the girls also say...no, I'm too embarrassed!"
"What? It's okay, I won't make fun of you. You can tell me."
"Well...they say you're a good kisser, and I was wondering if you were better at that, too." She looked up at him from underneath her eyelashes, fluttering them and biting her lip briefly, before flashing her eyes to his lips, and then returning to make eye contact.
He grinned. "Let's find out."
Internally, she smirked. This was too easy! As he was leaning in and closing his eyes, she pretended to follow suit. Just before their lips made contact, Kim heard a snapping sound. His eyes jolted open and he looked at the cool metal encircling his wrist. The short chain connected it to her wrist.
It took him five whole seconds to realize what was happening. Marinette knew because she counted. The expletive he let out as he jumped up and tried to break free of the handcuff was hilarious. Marinette quickly changed shoes in her inventory while he jumped around. Instead of the impractical heels that were there moments before, she was wearing her heavy combat boots.
She began stomping back to the middle of the park, large man in tow yelling at her. It was a normal Thursday night for her.
"Damn it, Marinette! Why? Every single time!"
She smiled. "I don't know, Kim. Why do you make it so easy?"
"I hate you."
"I know."
Reaching the main point at the fountain, Marinette pulled them both back to their reality. She opened her eyes in her room and pulled the helmet off her head, glad to be out of the PHENOM for the night. Her phone lit up seconds later, signalling the payment from her mission was received. Kim was going to be grounded for a week.
She slowly stretched her aching limbs and rolled her tense neck. It had been a long day and pretending to romance Kim- as lucrative as it was- was not her idea of a good time. Checking the time, Marinette saw it only took her 17 minutes. She was good at her job. Or...her freelance services she lent out to disgruntled parents. Technically, what she did wasn't legal in terms of game rules. But it paid well to cheat the system, and she was smart enough to do it.
"Marinette? Could you come downstairs? You have a visitor." Her mother's muffled voice came through the floor. She stood from her chair and opened her door. The hall light shone off the hardwood flooring, and she squinted.
Plodding down the stairs, one socked foot after the other, she rounded into the kitchen. Her eyes first caught sight of her parents with a bit of apprehension and nerves in their eyes. Glancing further around the space, she could see why.
Sitting at her dining room table was a man roughly as large as her father, but with a less gentle face. And in front of that man, whom she presumed to be a bodyguard, was Gabriel Agreste. As in, founder and C.E.O. of Agreste technologies and creator of the PHENOM system and all offshoots. As in, probably the third most successful technological giant of modern times, behind people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. As in, her parents' boss.
She balked nervously. "Um...Mr. Agreste...what brings you here?"
He stared at her, no emotion present in his gaze from behind red-framed horn rimmed glasses. "Miss Marinette, was it?" She nodded. "I have been informed that you have been engaged in...the bringing of persons back from inside the PHENOM beta."
Her cool expression belayed the terror in her mind. iI messed up. My parents are fired. They're sending me to prison. How can I talk my way out of this. Think, Marinette, think!/i
She opened her mouth to speak but was silenced with a raised palm. "Do not presume to lie to me, Miss Dupain-Cheng. I am aware of your activities as a rogue of the system and have been for some time. But that is precisely why I am here. Your services are required. Now, before I tell you what I need, let me be clear: what I am divulging is of the utmost top-secret. If you tell anyone- and I do mean any person at all outside of this house, you will be pulled immediately from PHENOM, banned for life, and your parents will no longer have jobs. Do you understand?"
The weight of the world was suddenly dropped on Marinette's shoulders, but she affirmed again with a nod, not trusting her voice. "I need you to bring someone back. Someone who has been stuck for a while. His body in this world has been stuck in a coma, and I fear that if we don't get him back to reality soon, he will die."
She sucked in a breath. She had never heard of that happening before.
Still, her curiosity got the better of her. "Who, sir?"
"My son, Adrien."
