At the Cole residence back in Miniborough, MN, a couple of worried parents felt concern about the whereabouts of their daughter who hadn't returned home in over a day now. There was a message on the machine, and it was from the psychiatrist known as Dr. Sheila Hillenbrandt.
"Hello, Lexi, this is Dr. Hillenbrandt ... I notice you missed your appointment today ... I tried your cell phone as well but got no answer, just wanted to make sure everything's okay ... give me a call back when you can, please ... thank you."
Lexi's mom furrowed her brow and sighed
"Most kids just go out and party..." Lexi's mom lamented, "our kid becomes a superhero..."
"We don't know that that's what she's doing..." Lexi's dad sighed, also in the same boat as far as marveling at the incredulousness of the situation as of late. "Maybe she slept over Leah's?"
"We tried calling her and no answer ..." Lexi's worried mother replied
"Wait..." Lexi's dad paused, hearing a very faint chatter from just outside the door. "Do you hear that?"
On the other side of the front door were two bickering friends named Leah Henderson and Joshua James.
"I don't see how you're going to explain this..." Leah scoffed, shaking her head in dismay. Even she wasn't sure what occurred despite being a spectator in it. Both Leah and Josh had tried to call Lexi and got no response. It was like she vanished off the grid entirely.
"Look, we'll find her ... and in the meantime, we'll just say ..." Josh began, but Leah gave him a nervous look and pointed behind him to indicate that Lexi's dad was already wise to them and standing in the doorway that was now open. Josh turned and gave a nervous wave.
"You'll just say what?" an unusually miffed Lexi's father asked
"Oh... well uh ... no big deal..." Leah gulped nervously
"We'll be the judge of that..." Lexi's mom added, encroaching on the doorway as well, "where in the world is our daughter?"
"Okay ... well... that is ... that is a valid question..." Josh stammered
"Extremely valid. So valid" Leah nodded in stark agreement
"You're stalling..." Lexi's dad sighed
"Well ... in order to figure out where Lexi is ... we have to figure out where she's not..." Josh said. It seemed like a smart idea before he said it, but after having said it, he felt a little foolish.
"Please get to the point..." Lexi's mom groaned in dismay, "do we need to call the police or not? Yes or no?"
"I... I'm not sure the police are really going to be able to help here..." Leah said nervously
"See, there was kind of this ... portal thing...?" Josh stammered, trying his best to explain what he saw through the drone cam footage, "and ... well ... Lexi went through it and ... uh ... we don't know where she is..."
"A ... portal thing..." Lexi's mom sighed, rubbing her forehead as her mind raced with horrible thoughts of where her daughter could be. "So ... you're saying our daughter is lost somewhere in the COSMOS and could be ANYWHERE?"
"Well... when you say it like that ..." Josh gulped
"Don't worry, hon..." Lexi's dad sighed, "she's tougher than we realize ... whereever she is, I'm sure she'll be able to figure it out..."
"You think so?" Lexi's mom shrieked, getting more and more upset by the moment, "she's totally lost out there! She could be miles and miles from home! She's probably scared out of her mind right now!!"
----
"This ... is so cool!" an enthusiastic Lexi squealed, laying her eyes upon a row of sleek looking cars ... or cruisers as they were known in the Quartzaria realm.
"You've um... never seen a cruiser before, huh?" Ruby shrugged, noticing Lexi's excited expression as if she were a kid at a candy store as she looked left and right across the nearly identical row of vehicles which varied in color, although the colors were all quite vibrant, ranging from a lime green, to a deep orange, but most striking of all was the final car in the row, a compact sporty car that featured shiny purple chrome.
Lexi would carefully approach the beautiful vehicle as it stood in the line. Something about it spoke to her.... the shiny rims, the beautiful striking purple color, the way the variable light reflected off its titanium alloys, but even upon a closer inspection of the inside, she'd notice levers and features that no car in her world ever had... the shift stick in particular seemed to have extra settings on it. She'd lean against the glass of the passenger window, almost fogging it up with how much she was internally hyperventilating and turn to Vektor who had suddenly poofed to right behind her.
"Oh!" Lexi yelped, feeling as nervous and awkward as a young woman in a lame romantic comedy to see him standing there so suddenly, "Um... I ... uh .. I'll take this one ... I guess..."
Lexi gulped, trying to play off how excited she was. She realized the car was merely a rental and it was for a very serious purpose (a life threatening one, as Ruby and Emerald had been so quick to point out, a number of times) but ... dang if she hadn't been craving an opportunity to drive again. It had been quite a while ... she had her license but hadn't driven much in the past year or so ... a fact that she wasn't very open about sharing to her suddenly in need warrior friends from the other dimension she found herself.
"If this is the chariot the fair maiden wants... then it is what she shall have!!" Vektor decreed, stomping his foot as if making some great command, even though it was only the 3 ladies and himself in the room to hear it as his deep voice echoed around the large garage like chamber. A platform slid under the car, taking it away from Lexi and the others as sounds of mechanical adjustments could be heard.
"The car!" Lexi yelped, "I mean ... uh ... wh-where did it go, Vector?"
Ruby and Emerald rolled their collective eyes. She still couldn't quite get Vektor's name right.
"Worry not, ShrinkGirl, is it?" Vektor asked, referring to her superheroine name now. Lexi simply nodded as Vektor's bulky onyx boots hit the metallic surface, a small clacking with each step resonating outwardly, "It is simply being adjusted to your likeness and your abilities..."
"Wh-What, like customized?" Lexi asked, confused, "but I didn't even tell you what I wanted..."
"Worry not, Lady Lexington..." Vektor continued, "it will be magically modified in ways you never dreamed possible... and you will be well equipped for the battle!"
"And here I couldn't even get extra cup holders in mine..." Ruby muttered under her breath, playfully elbowing her colleague Emerald who just scoffed. It was rare to see the women show any sort of emotion outside of anger or some form of despondence so Lexi actually giggled at the quip, even as it was at her expense.
"W-Wait...." Lexi stuttered, seemingly being led away from the ladies anyway by the authoritative Vektor, "did you just call me ... Lady Lexington?"
The nickname, while more serious for the people in this kingdom, she suspected, actually traced back to Lexi's childhood but even Vektor couldn't have known that. It was a playful nickname Leah gave her years ago when they used to play their various fantasies about knights and fairies. Still, was weird hearing the name spoken in a more serious context. Then again, weird was just the tip fo the iceberg for Alexis Cole these days.
"Lexi..." Vektor said, as a steel door slammed between them and the other two warriors who just shrugged at this fact. "My apologies if I've throw all this at you ... if this battle is too much, I'd be happy to ..."
"What?" Lexi smirked, "keep me in the bird cage until the heat dies down?"
"N-No ... I wasn't going to..."
"I'm kidding..." Lexi shrugged, drawing a brief, in not forced smile by the stoic knight himself, Vektor. "I ... I want to help .. I'll admit, I'm not sure if I CAN help ... but I've dealt with some things"
"Really now?" Vektor nodded, "I know very little of you, but I don't doubt you either ... however I am curious ... what brought you to this life of ... superheroing, you would call it?"
"Ummm... heh..." Lexi shrugged, sitting down on a nearby bench and peering around the surroundings she found herself in. Whereas the last room was much bigger and filled with various vehicles ranging from sporty cars to smaller motorbikes and even some large supercomputers, this room was a lot smaller, functioning more like a walk in closet, but with a series of buttons on the walls resembling Star Trek-esque control panels. One thing was for sure about this new dimension. Lexi knew nothing about it. It was both medieval and technological and yet seemed to have a strange reliance on gem stones, as symbolized by the girls' names, the red gem encrested in Vektor's armor and just the general architecture resembling massive pieces of jewelry come to life. "Well ... I uh ... don't exactly have as noble a cause as yourself... Ve...Vector"
"You're getting closer on the name" Vektor nodded, "But that's non-sense Ms. Alexis ... we all have our causes, we all have our purposes, I do not look down on a single one ... although if it is personal, I certainly won't ..."
"Well well no ... it's not personal ... not anymore anyway..." Lexi sighed with a half chuckle, "It kind of started as a ... science thing of sorts, anyways, it's not important how it started, I have these ... these weird powers..."
"I wouldn't say so" Vektor interjected, "here in Quartzaria, your powers are impressive but not unprecedented ... anyways, proceed..."
"Um... yeah..." Lexi shrugged, still concentrating on where she was, what has happening and why she was in this strange smaller room with the male knight, "Well ... long story short, I uh ... started to use my powers for good... yknow... at least I thought it was good ... saving people, stopping crimes... but like any superhero ... well I don't know if you have superheroes here, but in our world, superheroes aren't supposed to be known ... or rather, they wear masks..."
"That is most peculiar..." Vektor commented, "Here, we adore our heroes... we make statues to them! We tell their stories!"
"Heh yeah ... well in MY world... they usually get arrested or threatened..." Lexi shrugged, "it's a ... whole ordeal"
"It sounds simply dreadful" Vektor nodded, sitting down on the bench next to Lexi, something which caused the young woman pause.
"Uh... wh-whatcha doing Vector?"
"S-Sorry!" Vektor stopped abruptly, "I was simply offering comfort but .. you're right ... now is not the time... we have great business to attend to ... the trip to the citadel will be a most dangerous one ... even with our enhanced vehicles.... but if we stay together as a team, we should be able to make it ... all of us..."
Lexi nodded after thinking about it. She didn't want to add more doubts to the prospective mission by letting anybody know she was scared so she simply gave Vektor as strong of a smile as she could muster and a little thumbs up to add to the optimism.
"Of course ...!" Lexi nodded, also gesturing to the belt she wore, "and this uh ... this belt ... this EMBLEM... is uh ... supposedly magic proof, or at least safe from dark magic ... I got it... from a Fairy colony..."
"Ah, so maybe you ARE part fairy after all!" Vektor nodded, "no shame in it, of course ... I have a cousin twice removed who's half fairy on his mothers side... turned out totally normal ... although ocasionally fires off sparkles for no particular reason..."
"No! No... not fairy..." Lexi chuckled nervously, "not that there's anything wrong with that but no, I'm just an average ... normal ... human person thing..."
"Oh I'd say you're far more than that, Alexis" Vektor said in a sincere tone that somehow made Lexi even more uncomfortable.
"So uh ,... these things we're fighting?" Lexi asked, trying to hastily change the topic. Vektor appeared a bit disappointed by her hastiness but he obliged nonetheless, "what can you tell me about them?"
"Some of them are simply savage..." Vektor nodded, typing in something on a control pad that popped out from underneath him. Whatever he was doing appeared routine to him, but to Lexi, she was understandably confused, looking around for a robot arm or something to pop up at any moment, "some of them ... well, some of them have sentience ... they are actual residents of ours in another form..."
"Oh" Lexi nodded, noting that some machinery was moving around her but none of it was close enough to concern her ... just yet anyway. "You mentioned something about that ... the paradox crystal or something?"
"Crystals... plural" Vektor sighed, "And as long as they're out there, we're all at risk ..."
"Even you?" Lexi asked curiously
"Thankfully I was able to fit my armor with this impedence gem..." Vektor replied, tapping the red gem on his chest, "as long as I have this I'm immune to such things ... I equipped all my warriors with the same power but the gems were destroyed in battle and rendered useless ... although just to make things more confusing, even those shapeshifted into others can have the APPEARANCE of having their red gems secured on them"
"So ... I could be talking to a fake Vektor right now?" Lexi asked
"Hypothetically, I suppose" Vektor sighed, "but you'll just have to take my word for it..."
"Trust the weird knight who's been hitting on me from another dimension and given me only vague hints of what's going on? What could possibly go wrong?" Lexi thought, feeling extremely grateful right now that Vektor didn't seem to have mind reading powers.
Lexi glanced down to now notice a couple of small helicopter like devices shooting infra-red rays at her body
"Ummmm, should I be worried?" Lexi chuckled nervously, noticing the sensation didn't hurt but it was still odd nonetheless.
"Oh not at all, Ms. Alexis" Vektor replied, looking at a display on his video monitor that showed Lexi's body generating as a wireframe, with heartrate, biometric information and more. Lexi glanced over his shoulder to get a better look, chuckling nervously.
"That uh ... that thing tells you everything about me, huh?" Lexi chuckled, "just so you know, I'm probably heavier than I really am ... because of uh ... the metal belt ... that scale is inaccurate, probably..."
"Fear not, fair maiden..." Vektor replied, with a bit of a chuckle that he attempted futilely to stifle, typing in some parameters, Lexi would watch as a sort of set of armor digitized itself onto her skin.
"Uh..." Lexi stuttered a bit, more intrigued than anything while also wondering what was going on.
"Worry not, Ms. ShrinkGirl" Vektor said confidently, hitting a button to initalize the sequence, affixing a sort of more medieval version of Lexi's ShrinkGirl suit. The new outfit was more like a set of purple and gold armor that crisscrossed her torso with an intricate woven pattern. The back of the outfit had a "vertebrae" of gems along her back, to act as protection but also featured one of the red shiny gems that adorned Vektor for protection against the paradox crystal curse.
Lexi turned and noticed a mirror that had lowered itself as if to show her the transformation as she watched her clothes digitizing and changing into a new look. While her belt remained the same, instead of her usual skirt, she now had a more metallic styled one, with longer pieces that extended down her thighs. This wasn't something she was used to at all, but somehow the metal felt sturdy yet lightweight, not impeding her movement too much as she flexed her arms a bit to get used to it.
"Okay ... um... wh-what is this?" Lexi chuckled a bit, admiring herself in the mirror. She looked like some kind of futuristic knight from a hyper energetic anime. She wasn't hating it.
"Worry not, Alexis..." Vektor confirmed, affixing a small arm cannon onto one of Lexi's gauntlets, which had also changed into a more sophisticated version of her usual output. "I'm simply optimizing you with a Quartzarian battlesuit that will mold to your unique abilities.... and worry not, this suit will modify its size along with you ... you're welcome to test it out if you'd like"
"Um... no? No, that's alright..." Lexi chuckled, turning to the side to get a look at herself, wondering how jealous the guys from Dungeons and Dragons would be if they could see her now. "This is ... this is kinda ... badass..."
"Badass?" Vektor queried, "is this a ... positive term in your homeworld?"
"For sure" Lexi chuckled, letting herself get absorbed in the moment for the time being. Between the super enhanced suit, the upgrades and the sleek purple car ... er cruiser, Lexi felt like she was in some kind of fantasy video game, except this was real. She was still anxious but she couldn't help but feel a bit excited about the opportunity.
As she got swept up in the grandiose scale of it all though, she missed the look on Vektor's face as she departed the changing chamber. It was one of satisfaction ... but perhaps something more...
Giantess World
