The morning of the day that it happened, Gancena had woken up not expecting much of anything to happen. After all, she had a routine, even if she had mixed feelings about said routine. Structure and expectation were grounding and safe, but, well…

Gancena was twenty-five years old and, for honest lack of a better word, a NEET—not in education, employment, or training. After gritting through high school, she'd tried all three in some form, and every time, some form of existential anxiety ultimately built up way too much and got the better of her. Her parents understood this, and let her continue to live with them.

Life was pretty okay. With nothing to do but look after the dogs, take walks in the neighborhood, and browse the Internet, it was far more ordinary than she'd dreamed, but she'd long since decided she'd rather be bored than stressed out in a bad way. In her mind, there were plenty of good stresses: fighting a tough boss, completing that errand in that game before time ran out, aching through the sad parts of a story to get to the beautiful ending. She could go on.

If she were asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, she would nowadays consistently answer with "An interdimensional hero." And if she were asked what she meant, she'd say "A hero who travels between worlds." If she were asked to elaborate, she'd basically tell you about all the stories she'd ever written and some of the parts that were still only in her head. She could go on.

But the morning of the day that it happened, Gancena wasn't expecting that dream to actually come true. At least not on that day. Someday, certainly, ideally after she'd received a clear sign that it was going to happen.

She got that sign, at least.

It was pretty lucky, really. Gancena had multiple games on her phone. Very naturally, one of them was Pokémon GO. The day before, she'd found a Raid Battle that she could actually get to. As it turned out, there were others there, too, coordinating via a chat app. After the battle, Gancena was invited to that group, allowing her to know about all the Raid Battles in her county with just a few taps.

She hadn't had the app before, but she knew she was going to use it. She wanted to move it next to all her games. But she had a routine to finish first.

And it had changed a bit, recently. It was heavily centered around the care of two precious little dogs—Mom was often up by the time they woke up, so she gave them breakfast. But Gancena was in charge of walking them and making sure they stayed out of trouble while Mom continued to mind the house and her businesses. The pups napped through the early afternoon, and Gancena and her mom had begun to use that time for some yoga—chosen for its relative ease on the body, considering they didn't exercise regularly, and Gancena had also taken to walking a full mile to the front of her neighborhood to take advantage of the PokéStop there.

Both had only started over a week before, and Gancena was already reaping benefits. She felt better—physically and mentally—than she had even a month prior.

She hoped it would only be upward from there.

It happened in her bedroom that night, after the sweet little dogs had been put in their crates for the night. Gancena's room was decently sized, each wall lined with furniture: a desk with her laptop and an extra shelf by her door, taller shelves and the window across from that, and two dressers and her bed lined up on the other walls.

She had an extensive collection of video games and their merchandise. While the bigger consoles were kept in the basement with the really good TV, she'd taken to keeping her Switch up here. Bless Nintendo. She also had her 3DS up here, with the design from Fire Emblem Fates on it. She kept it charged on her dresser next to literal stacks of boxed figurines. The 3DS games had their own shelf cubbies by her desk. Pokémon plushes overflowed from some of the top shelves at the back, and she shared her bed with even more plushes, most of which were Five Nights at Freddy's, some of which were Pokémon, the rest of which had various game origins. A spare set of Five Nights at Freddy's bedding sat by a coat rack between one of the tall shelves and one of the dressers. The set on her bed was mismatched, with a zebra stripe mattress cover and sheet with a floral comforter.

It was a little messier than she would have liked, too. Mostly, she wanted to vacuum the carpet, but the bed being perpetually unmade and a couple books, plushes too big for shelves or the bed, her old college backpack, her purse, and her rolled-up yoga mat being strewn around the floor was completely normal. It'd be cleared for a moment whenever she got around to vacuuming anyway.

But Gancena wasn't actively thinking about cleaning her room. She was sitting at her desk messing around in her mobile games when she finally remembered to move the chat app to the same page like she wanted.

So she returned to the home screen on her phone and swiped over to the page the app was on. There, next to it, was an even newer app with a very familiar logo: A rainbow-colored circle cut into uneven quarters. It was labeled "Multiverse Navigator."

Gancena stopped. She definitely didn't download that. What was it and why did it look like the Smash Ball? Was this… something just for her?

To eliminate any other explanations, Gancena went to her phone's app store and entered the app's name. The only result she got was a mobile TV app. She turned to her laptop and searched for the same thing. She found several professional online profiles, but none of them seemed to have anything to do with the app.

Then she added Super Smash Brothers to her search. Virtually all of the results were about the games, sometimes outright crossing out the words "Multiverse Navigator".

Excitement built in her stomach, tingling through her limbs. This might have been it. This might have been that which would start the adventure she'd been dreaming of for over half her life. It had to be. Something very similar had kicked off the plot in a recent game Gancena had played, and she had asked for a clear sign that she was about to have the adventure of her life, and this was about as clear as a cloudless day!

But should she tap the app now or try to prepare before she did anything?

Gancena took a deep breath and tapped. The Super Smash Brothers logo briefly enlarged before it faded to what appeared to be an empty map, with nothing but a marker in the center of the screen.

A box of text appeared, saying:

Welcome to the Multiverse Navigator. With this, you can find and travel between small rips in the fabric of space-time that connect otherwise separate universes.

Continue

Gancena tapped. A circle came around the marker and another box appeared.

This is your current location. Whenever you use the Multiverse Navigator, a rip will appear in the place you transported from. Once created, these rips cannot be repaired. While it's possible to make rips in multiple locations, it is strongly recommended to pick only one place to create a rip and mark it as home. You will be given this option upon your first use of the Navigator.

Continue

Then a tab at the bottom of the screen labeled "Maps" was highlighted.

Tap here to examine the maps of all worlds you have access to via rips.

Gancena tapped it. Multiple small maps appeared, each labeled not with a name, but a symbol—symbols Gancena recognized.

From here, you may select which world you wish to go to and examine all of its rips. Rips that are safe to access will be purple. Unsafe rips are grayed out. Rips that are occupied by others are red.

Continue

You may notice that some of these maps are actually different regions of the same world. They are grouped a certain way for quicker reference. For now, tap the Mushroom Kingdom. You should already know which it is.

Gancena swallowed and tapped the mushroom symbol.

The app zoomed in on what appeared to be a bird's-eye silhouette of a small house and the immediate surrounding area. What looked like a purple cut was just in front of the porch steps.

Tap the rip.

Gancena did so.

Use this rip? You will be able to return to this location anytime.

Yes No

Gancena realized she still had a moment and a chance to come back home. Yes! She briefly placed her phone on her desk and began to scramble around her room.

On an adorable set of pastel platforms in the skies above Yoshi's Island with a pleasant rendition of Yoshi's theme to match, Pikachu appeared from a Poké Ball on one side and Donkey Kong burst out of a barrel on the other side as a deep voice counted down from three.

They had never seen each other or this place before. They'd never been in battle like this before.

And yet both of them knew exactly what they needed to do and how they were supposed to do it.

Donkey Kong let himself fall from the platform he was on. Pikachu took one jump, sending several Thundershocks ahead of himself. Donkey Kong took them all, only briefly twitching and slowing down. He began to spin his punching arm, but Pikachu let out a smash attack to interrupt before grabbing and throwing him towards the edge. Donkey Kong only flew mere inches before trying to grab Pikachu, only to be met with his shield.

A capsule dropped on the opposite end of the stage. Donkey Kong rolled past Pikachu to grab it. Pikachu released his shield as Donkey Kong threw it, hitting Pikachu in the face and almost knocking him to the edge of the stage. Out came a Star Rod, which Pikachu grabbed while Donkey Kong finished winding up his punch.

Pikachu swung the Star Rod and sent Donkey Kong back briefly, but he leaped to the highest platform, making Pikachu follow, swinging the rod again and missing. Donkey Kong began a Hand Slap on the ground, sending Pikachu backwards and onto the lower platform.

Pikachu ran to the center of the stage and called upon Thunder, striking Donkey Kong and sending him to the lower platform on the opposite side. Pikachu charged forward, leaping forward with the Star Rod. Donkey Kong retaliated with another smash attack. Pikachu flew back, releasing the Star Rod, and Donkey Kong ran forward.

Then Donkey Kong unleashed his Giant Punch and sent Pikachu flying off the stage far too fast for him to do anything about it. With a shout, Pikachu was knocked out of bounds.

This game's winner was Donkey Kong.

Gancena's rush for an adventuring ensemble started by choosing an outfit. The black and white basketball shorts and purple socks she already had were okay, but she wanted to change her shirt from the worn college logo tee to something… better.

She flipped through lines of shirts in her closet, immediately deciding that a graphic t-shirt was a no-go. Too many questions. But what else did she have that would immediately convey her style? The purple shirt she wore in the story she wrote had tiny holes in its front, and the other one she found was too long and fancy for adventuring. She came across a gray top with a white pattern and was about to pull it out to see if it was what she wanted when she realized she still had plain gray shirts in her dresser. She pulled one out and changed immediately.

The next concern was equipment and supplies. Necessities wouldn't be much of an issue if she could just come home, but she didn't know exactly how long she'd be out. She looked in her purse, which was probably too fancy for this, and decided to keep her wallet, a stick of lip balm, two bottles of hand sanitizer, a packet of tissues, and a pair of sunglasses.

But then it struck her that she was still carrying character charms on that purse! Romantic character charms! She couldn't bring those! Too many questions! But she couldn't stand the thought of taking them off, either… she glanced at the coat rack and immediately saw a plainer black shoulder satchel hanging there—no doubt only retired because Mom asked her to. Perfect! She yanked that off and filled it with her chosen contents.

Oh! A water bottle would be important. And maybe a snack, too. Those would be downstairs. Her shoes, too. Her mom, too.

Gancena froze exactly one step outside her door, stomach sinking. Mom.

Gancena had indeed decided a long time ago that she was still willing to take on an adventure if it meant never seeing her mom again, but… now that it was happening, she was hesitant. Mom would freak out if Gancena disappeared for too long. She'd call the police. She'd call Dad. She'd call the entire extended family and friends and whoever would listen to her heartbreak… But Mom also knew that it was how Gancena felt. Even if it hurt, Gancena had said it before in earshot of her, talking to therapists and lawyers and judges alike about it.

Gancena took a deep breath. She had to push that aside as much as she could.

But how was she supposed to say goodbye, even if it wasn't forever?

She went downstairs to the kitchen slowly. Mom was on the phone, back to Gancena, earbuds in place, speaking to one of their relatives. She wore gray dress-like pajamas and had her almost tiger-striped hair in a ponytail—highlights she'd been getting since Gancena was a kid. Gancena approached and touched her shoulder. Mom turned, smiled, and hugged her immediately, kissing her head.

Gancena took a moment to revel in it, squeezing Mom back, laying her head on her shoulder. Mom. Mom. Mom. This was what she treasured about Mom.

They let go and smiled at each other before Gancena turned to the pantry to get her water and a protein snack pack. When she exited, she turned away from the kitchen towards the other side of the stairs. She slipped her shoes on, a somewhat dirty white pair with a couple of lace bits missing, and returned upstairs. Mom wouldn't question it if Gancena didn't bring attention to it.

Gancena returned to her room and shut the door and went straight back to thinking of if she needed—or wanted—anything else. She figured she shouldn't overencumber herself. She had a backpack, but she knew that would look weird in certain worlds. Nor was she actually carrying much. The purse would be fine.

Should she bring her 3DS? It seemed appropriate enough. Should it carry Animal Crossing? Gancena immediately decided to swap it out with Super Smash Bros. Maybe it'd help, somehow… And if she was bringing her 3DS and her phone, she'd want to have their chargers, too. Of course, there was no telling when she'd be able to actually charge them, but it was important to have them.

Slipping the 3DS in her purse and zipping it closed, Gancena decided she was as ready as she'd ever be. Heck, if this really was her adventure starting, she was incredibly lucky she'd gotten a chance to prepare at all!

Gancena closed her laptop and shut off her lights, using the light of the phone to guide her back to the center of her room.

Use this rip? You will be able to return to this location anytime.

Gancena tapped "Yes".

And then it happened.