Just another day

Just another day

Niaki stirred her coffee sluggishly, resting her head on the table%u2019s edge.

She had come in to the office from her sophomore history class, exhausted from a day%u2019s work at school.
Waiting for her in her cubicle were three top-priority holo-notes.

The first note was orders for her to go on an apocalypse-aversion mission. This required her to go inside a videogame%u2019s world, using a complex magical technique that the company she worked for had trained her for.
For some absurd reason, a former member of the same company had taken it into his head to play well-meaning-warlord, and had tried to conquer the world she was being sent to. Niaki had responded to the emergency notice that ordered her to bring the law down upon him by using her favorite plan of attack; she appeared quietly out of the shadows from behind his throne. After silently taking off one of her uniform%u2019s fingerless gloves, she moved out from behind the throne, swinging to slap her target forcefully in the face. Niaki had a perfect hit-miss ratio%u2014never before had she ever missed a shot. While the target was still dazed from the fact that an angry young girl had just appeared out of nowhere and slapped him like a hormonally charged teenager would, she had opened a portal back to his home world and pushed him gingerly through. Niaki then returned to her office. It wasn%u2019t her job to place magical restrictions on his portal-access powers. That was Jack%u2019s job, from the cubicle across the way.

The second holo-note had instructions to go and rescue a young college student from a world filled with machine guns and handsome young elves. Or rather, Niaki thought, save the elves from her.

Niaki had been forced to drag her through a portal to the student%u2019s home world by her ankles. Niaki had a bruise on her ribs where the teenager had been kicked by her, and when the teal-clad high-schooler had glanced back, there were long deep grooves in the dirt marking her charge%u2019s attempts to escape her. A tall, muscular elf-man watched while the older girl hissed and spat in her attempts to return to him. He had clutched the machine-gun fearfully to himself and squeezed his eyes shut, only opening them when the younger girl assured him that the scary lady was finally gone.

Niaki lifted her head from the table for a moment, checking her pocket%u2014yes, the clip of ammo he had given her in thanks was still there. She hadn%u2019t been sure what he was trying to say when he had thrust it in her direction, but his large, relieved blue eyes spoke his gratitude in several silent languages at once.
Niaki put the clip back into her pocket, and rested her head on the table again.

The third note waiting for her had been orders to track down another former company-member. This person had been reported to be smuggling bottles of G9 magic to a T-23 verse. T-23 verses only allowed C-3 bottles to be sold in its markets%u2014this person was smuggling them illegally.
This task was the most difficult of the three. Niaki had known it was going to be strange when she discovered that the informant she was to visit was living in a trailer shaped like a potato. When her informant himself had turned out to be a heavily mascara%u2019d, angst-wielding thirteen-year-old, things had only gone downhill.

The spoon she was stirring her coffee with slipped from her fingers with a clatter. Propping her elbows on the table, she rubbed her eyes as though they ached her. Why couldn%u2019t teenagers these days be reasonable? This was why it had taken her three times the work to get a job here%u2014her superiors had given her two extra examinations besides the ordinary portal-aptitude test, before they would even review her application.
Teenagers were so unreasonable. They were loud, whiney, rude, and prone to hormone overloads.

Thankfully, Niaki was not like that. No, she thought, stirring her coffee in the break-room%u2019s silence. She was responsible, and able to get the job done. She wasn%u2019t a silly little girl with a high-pitched giggle. She was mature.

The silence was broken by the sound of activity down the hall. Giggling and footsteps. Niaki put her spoon down abruptly, and began to take large gulps of her bitter drink. Those fresh-out-of-college-students coming this way would be her coworkers, back from a %u2018lunch%u2019 in a dark restaurant with loud music. She was sure%u2014it had happened before. Small details that she never seemed to find before they left were always present when they returned%u2014disheveled clothing, and slightly giddy expressions never escaped her sharp eyes.

Niaki left the room through a different door, taking her coffee wit her. Her coworkers hadn%u2019t entered the room yet, and she didn%u2019t want to be there when they did. She found them to be too loud, as though they were slightly deaf from their little adventure. Niaki wouldn%u2019t have been surprised if they were%u2014she had gone to one of those restaurants before, and her ears had been ringing from the music for hours.

Maybe it wasn%u2019t just teenagers that needed work, the sixteen-year-old decided. The room%u2019s back door clicked shut behind her. Maybe it was anyone who hadn%u2019t finished being a teenager.

Yes, Niaki thought. A sigh escaped her, losing itself into the resigned darkness as she felt her way through it. That must have been it.

%u201CNiaki Cermox, you have one message!%u201D She jerked involuntarily in surprise, whirling to face the gleeful electronic voice that was coming up behind her. A holo-note had appeared, and it was casting weak blue light while it floated quickly towards her.
Another sigh was heard.

The note read,

[I]%u201CRescue carebear from an R-rated anime verse before mental trauma involving tentacles occurs. You have one hour.
-The Management.%u201D

%u201CWhat the f%u2014%u201C Where did these missions even come from? Was there a giggling lunatic (or perhaps a child on pixie-sticks) hired specifically to think these missions up, instead of the high-tech supercomputer she had been told there was? True, on occasion there were truly sophisticated missions that even her superiors had a hard time deciphering. The rest of the time, though%u2026

Niaki held the glowing note in front of her, using its dim light to show her the way and speed her progress down another hall. Another task, another dime.

This was just another day at the office.