Into the Vanessaverse

The sheer number of random artifacts Vanessa collected would make even the most hardcore connoisseur of magical relics blush. Not all of them carried value in her mind, many of them winding up in her attic, in what could be described as an interdimensional hoarding problem. Still, Vanessa did enjoy the hunt for weird things-and she did find a use for some mundane objects.

The laptop she held, for example. She was hardly computer savvy, barely able to handle most technology beyond a television set. She was, however, friends with people who actually were capable of using technology to their greatest ability, and it was this line of thought that led her to drop the laptop directly into Agent’s lap.

He was playing a game at the time, distracted from the mashing of buttons by the sudden weight forced onto his legs. He paused his game, looking up at the witch in curiosity and bemusement.

“Is there a reason for this?” he asked.

“None whatsoever,” Vanessa explained. “I did some exploring, found a laptop someone so carelessly discarded, and thought you might want it.”

“Right,” Agent said, nodding. He looked it over in curiosity. “Though in most circles, people would call this ‘stealing’.”

“I mean that someone apparently got a better one,” Vanessa shrugged. “There was a box that looked like it held a very sleek one inside before, and this was in it.”

“I already have a laptop, though,” Agent protested mildly. “Plus, this one is pink and looks like it was from the nineties.”

It was true. It was a clunky computer, pink in color. It even had a few slightly-worn stickers on the chassis, a rainbow and what looked like a sort of tropical fruit. More to the point, it had seen its fair share of action, with scratches and slight dents on the frame. If it even turned on, it would be a miracle, and it was doubtful it could match the speed of his own.

“Always mouthing off to the gift-horse,” Vanessa said, mangling that analogy. “And if I remember correctly, you’ve not exactly been on speaking terms with your masculine side anyway. I just have a good feeling about it, is all.”

Agent sighed, recognizing there was no point in arguing. She also had a point about the color situation, and how it really didn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things. He supposed it could be repurposed or scrapped for parts, anyway. No harm in looking it over.

He lifted the lid, hearing a well-worn creaking noise as he did so. The power button was there by the monitor half; he pressed it with only minor hesitance.

No sooner than he pressed the button did the computer flash to life, booting up and accessing the crisp, modern desktop within seconds. Agent blinked. The whole process took half the time of his current rig, and looked like it ran smoother to boot. He browsed the storage; several terabytes were still available for use. The processor, according to the computer’s data, was a top-of-the-line device. No, not just top, nonexistent. This sort of power should not have been possible for anything short of government facilities.

“Incredible,” Agent mused, now fully invested in the find. “I’ll spend a bit of time looking it over.” He smiled to Vanessa, appreciative. “Thank you, really.”

“You’re welcome, darling,” Vanessa said, patting Agent’s head with a smile. “Now go play with your new toy.”

Agent nodded, getting up and carrying the new-ish laptop to his room in the manor. He even left the console on, the game still paused exactly as he left it. Vanessa glanced at the screen, then at the controller, uncertain if she should touch it at all.

She spent a few seconds cautiously twisting around the control stick with one finger, as though it were some sort of insect she was turning over onto its back. There was no real point to it, beyond sheer curiosity-and she was easily swayed from her fidgeting when she felt a sudden wave of power surge through her. It wasn’t strong enough to knock her down, or do anything more than brush her hair slightly. It did, however, give her pause.

“Huh,” she remarked, baffled. She certainly didn’t intend on doing anything of the sort, but it was definitely powerful. Something quantum related, perhaps.

Her confusion was compounded when a portal suddenly opened in the living room, a jagged blue tear in reality itself. From the new hole stepped in a scientist-looking human male, much too focused on a device in front of him to notice his new surroundings. He was fairly unremarkable-a white lab coat over a green shirt, black hair, a curious temperament. He reminded her of Agent, in a way. She was more curious as to how he even got inside her manor.

She tolerated a minute’s worth of him examining every surface, even accidentally shoving the device in her face, before she spoke up. “Can I help you?” she asked. She wasn’t angry; if anything, she was curious.

The male lifted his head up in surprise, lowering his device. “Oh!” he said. “Sorry about that, miss. I was a bit too into my investigation there.” He coughed into his hand, embarrassed. “My name is John. I’m a researcher and inventor by trade.”

“Charmed,” Vanessa said with a polite nod. “How and why are you in my manor? This is a place beyond time and space, darling, so most mortals cannot access it unless I want them to.”

“Oh, is that where we are?” John, again, expressed surprise. “I was following a signal across dimensions and I guess it led me here.” He snapped his fingers in thought. “Hey, maybe you could help me? Have you seen anything unusual lately?”

“Everything is unusual with me,” Vanessa said. She had to admit, for a mortal to come strolling into her manor uninvited, by complete accident, it was no small feat. She was listening intently now, leaning in. “Can you provide more details about it?”

“I can try,” John said. “See, the signal is identical to the energy found within quantum rifts. It’s not strong enough to actually make rifts, but it’s enough to cause temporal changes the longer it is present in a universe it doesn’t belong to.”

“Ah, so a temperamental artifact of sorts,” Vanessa nodded. She did actually understand John’s lingo, and the concept of quantum rifts. It was her stock and trade, although she did question whether something like that could influence her own dimension.

“Exactly, and leaving it in an unknown dimension could have severe implications on the native inhabitants,” John agreed. He waved his device around. “That’s what this quantum tracker is for, to isolate the source of the radiation.”

He paused his waving when his device made a loud beep. John raised an eyebrow; again he moved it, slower this time, across Vanessa’s hands. The device beeped again, consistently. He looked up to Vanessa.

“This is important,” he said, with utmost seriousness. “Have you handled anything extradimensional lately? Anything that could have strange residual effects associated with quantum rifts?”

“Well…” Vanessa paused in thought. Surely not, she thought to herself. Surely it couldn’t be that device. Yet try as she might, there was nothing else recently that could have brought about such change.

“There was a laptop,” she explained. “I found it on my travels and gave it to my friend upstairs. He’s probably playing with it now.” She did feel nervous about the implications. “Could a laptop really contain such energy, do you suppose? I thought technology couldn’t retain rift energy.”

“Actually, if it’s what I’m thinking of, that particular laptop would be the biggest source of rift energy this side of the multiverse,” John said. He, too, looked worried. “That laptop skipped through rifts too, you see. It’s like a conduit of universal chaos.” He lifted his device higher, towards Vanessa’s head. “And it looks like it’s already started pulsing.”

Vanessa lifted a hand towards her head, namely her hair. She paused, then began to sweat. How did she not notice this? She conjured a hand-mirror to look at herself; her face was fine, but her hair was vastly different now. Her usual black styled color, with the signature red streak, was gone. In its place was a punk-ish style, yellow and blue stripes adoring the hair, in a more aggressive shape. Not that she didn’t like it, of course; she rather liked what was happening.

Still, she did recognize the severity of the situation. “If it can warp a reality warper, it needs to go,” Vanessa agreed. “It should be upstairs still. I just wonder if it affected Agent any.”

“If he’s at ground zero, probably,” John nodded. He walked with her, Vanessa leading the way. “Actually, I think I knew an Agent before. Not sure if he’s yours or mine, though. Temporal science isn’t exact.”

It was something to speculate for later, Vanessa thought, as she walked up the stairs. The rug felt soft underfoot, perhaps too soft, as though she were sinking into it. She heard the sound of crunching rocks eventually, and she had to look down. The floor was transitioning into sand progressively, the manor walls shifting and eventually fading the longer they walked down the halls. In its place was open air and trees, the gothic manor visibly becoming a tropical paradise the deeper they went. It was worse than she thought. Much worse.

John and Vanessa eventually reached what was presumably Agent’s room, marked by a door not held up by any frame, and nonexistent walls that revealed a ramshackle hideaway. There was certainly something on the other side, likely Agent, and he was playing on the laptop. Already, however, he looked certainly different. He didn’t even look like a “he”, nor an adult. Agent seemed to have de-aged a few years, even taking on a slightly animalistic appearance. Her hair was now blonde with a large curl in front, and even her clothes were different, looking less like the usual red shirt and blue jeans and more like a torn set of overalls atop a casual white shirt. She looked like a bandicoot, particularly.

She gave a wave when Vanessa and John came in. “Hey!” she greeted. “You’re just in time! Almost about to get the world record on Planet Bashers 7, on camera!”

“No idea what that is,” Vanessa said. “Agent, I need you to concentrate–“

“It’s Coco,” the developing bandicoot said, confused. “Or, y’know, KickassCoco on Flex and Chirper. You know this.”

Vanessa looked to John, who merely shrugged. “Being in direct proximity to the laptop meant he changed faster,” he said. “And more intensively. But if we remove the laptop from him–“

“Are you trying to sabotage my perfect run?” Coco asked, surprised and offended. “You’re not removing anything.”

“But–” Vanessa protested. Before she could continue, or even move, another pulse of rift energy struck everyone in the area. This time, being so close to cosmic energy on such a level was enough to cause Vanessa to stumble backwards. John, too, took a light tumble from the force. Coco, however, remained nonplussed.

Once the wave passed, Vanessa opened her eyes to take stock. Coco, it seemed, had changed even deeper, growing younger, into a complete teenager. The bandicoot transformation was complete, as were the clothing adaptions, making Agent’s body into a full one-to-one form of Coco, mind and body. Nor was Vanessa spared.

Again, the witch pulled out her mirror to look over herself. She, too, was gaining toony bandicoot features, albeit at a different design and wardrobe option. Larger ears on the side of her head, plus a few earrings more than she typically held. An adventurer’s outfit of some kind, rather than the typical gothic two-piece she so loved. She wasn’t a fan of the neon palette, but the curves and muscles helped offset the disappointment.

Looking to her side, Vanessa looked to John. Given that he initially avoided the first blast, he was completely normal prior. Now, however, he was rapidly changing, clutching his stomach. He was shrinking by the second, height decreasing by several inches. His skin was changing to an unusual color, a light blue shade overtaking him entirely. Even the lab coat was warping, changing his clothing into a sort of school uniform, complete with a tie and skirt. Perhaps the most striking change were John’s hands, now wearing gloves-very massive gloves at that, made of metal, practically the size of his head.

“Holding up okay?” Vanessa asked John. His, or her, head shot up to reveal the extent of the changes, namely a new set of buck-teeth directly in front. Oddly, there was also a lowercase ‘n’ on her vastly larger forehead. It seemed that neither of them would be getting through unscathed, Vanessa a replica of a version of Tawna, and John having become the aspiring mad scientist Nina Cortex.

“I’m FINE,” John, now Nina, protested with an increased ice to her voice. “But I’m feeling so much pent-up aggression right now. We’ve gotta get rid of that bandi-dork’s laptop, right now.”

“Wow, rude,” Coco dismissed; her form and Nina’s own seemed to possess some history, Vanessa found. There was definitely animosity, yet familiarity. “You’re just jealous because I have better strats, Nina.”

There was a sudden loud noise, and one of the metal hands had launched itself outwards, causing Coco to leap back in shock. Nina’s hand gripped the laptop tight, taking care not to actually destroy it. Then it retracted back to the awaiting Nina, who gave a confident smirk.

“We’ve gotta get out of here!” she told Vanessa. “Back to the portal!”

She started to dash away from the shack, clutching the laptop tight to her chest. Vanessa, as Tawna, rushed to keep up, just as an incensed and furious Coco started to give chase.

Every second that passed just made the quantum rift energy soak deeper into the manor’s very being, no sign of a structure remaining-just the jungle expanse, the coastal island they were now a part of, remaining in its place. It was impossible to tell exactly where the poral would be as a result, not that it would stop Nina and Tawna from dashing in any direction they could to both find it, and to evade their pursuer. Coco would not let up, keeping pace and leaping over every obstacle in her path.

The chase led them deeper into the new jungle, past fallen logs and the local wildlife. Tawna made some close calls when faced with some of the carnivorous plants growing within, whereas Nina simply bashed them without remorse. Tawna couldn’t access her magic anymore, she found, the rift energy too strong for such exploits. They had to solve it manually-if they could.

They both looked behind them, as they continued to run. There was at least one silver lining, they realized-Coco was no longer behind them. They had at least some breathing room, then. Good, Tawna thought. She looked at the laptop in Nina’s hands, and she felt pity for Coco. The one time she gave a gift, and it backfired so intensely, and then she had to steal it back. It was for her own good, she knew.

“Almost there, you think?” Nina grumbled in irritation. “We’ve been running forever!”

There was a soft sound of leaves shifting in the wind, something gliding across vines. Then there was a leap, followed by Coco diving from the above canopy from a vine rail. She tackled Nina directly, the two teens rolling in a heap as they clung to each other fiercly.

Eventually they got their bearings, as Coco held a grip on the laptop. Nina, too, held the other side tight, both gritting their teeth as they pulled as hard as they could. Neither would budge, and Tawna stood nearby, worried as they saw the two fight.

“Give it up, bolt-brain!” Coco demanded, tugging on the laptop. “It’s mine!”

“Who are you calling bolt-brain, you dork?” Nina shouted right back. “Let go!”

The strain was too much; both girls fought hard over the laptop without any give. So much so, in fact, that the laptop gave out first. With a fierce groan, the pink computer tore apart, and Coco and Nina fell backwards, each with a piece of their quarry. Some fragments of the motherboard fell onto the jungle floor, mere scraps that once were part of a sophisticated mechanical creation. Both Coco and Nina stared at their halves in shock, barely able to comprehend what had happened. Their shock melted into pure anger.

“LOOK WHAT YOU DID!” they shouted at each other. They aggressively approached each other, about to come to blows-when Tawna stepped in between them.

“Girls, enough,” she said, her face resigned; so much for getting the laptop to the rift in time. “It’s over. We’ll get you a new one, Coco.” She addressed Nina, who was still pouting at Coco. “How much would this impact putting the fix on my manor?”

“I dunno, a lot, probably,” Nina said, huffing grumpily. “Forever, maybe. All that energy just would flow everywhere since it doesn’t have a conduit anymore.”

Tawna sighed, putting her hand on her face. How it hurt to be the voice of reason for two teens. “At least I’m hot,” she reasoned with herself. She sat down between Coco and Nina, using her arms to restrain them from each other. Coco pulled her eyelid down mockingly at Nina. Nina gave a raspberry to Coco. And Tawna remained in place, looking out between the trees and foliage towards the ocean and the horizon, taking stock of their new reality.

---