A few weeks went by and Jessica had run out of excuses. Damn it. "Fine, you can go play."

John threw his arms up! "WAHOO!"

She gripped his limb and held him up! "But the MOMENT you start bleeding from ANYWHERE you call me and let me know, you hear!? No more of this 'ignoring injuries' or 'hurting yourself' stuff is allowed, got me?"

He nodded, completely unconcerned that he was being held a foot off the ground. "No problem sis! Besides, my System's shut down most of my abilities because I kept hurting myself anyway."

Nope, not even a shred of remorse or guilt there. "And you are healed? Enough for some outdoor activities at least?"

John winced. "Mostly? I mean, physically yeah! But uh… Yeah, need more time for my abilities to unlock themselves. And some training to use them right."

Jessica sighed. "The MOMENT you feel sick or hurt or damaged or something? Stop, stay calm, and call me. My number is saved in your new phone under 'Big Sis', remember?"

He nodded. "Yes ma'am."

Heh. "Good boy. Now get."

Instead of dashing outside as expected however, the child fidgeted. "About my abilities… You know the ones I used to bring us here and keep stuff safe? I've been trying out different stuff and um… Do you want a bit of Pocket?"

She blinked. Huh? "I'm sorry?"

John seemed to flicker in place, here and not and elsewhere. "Well, because I put you in my Pocket that makes you M̮̰̝i҉̗̤̞͖̼n͉̠̱̰̥̮͜è̞ and I can trust you and stuff."

Mental note: Look into that obsessive possession thing going on later, when his health recovered more. Maybe bring it up later when her younger brother wasn't half dislocating himself from reality and feeling mixed emotions?

His existence was too large and didn't exist. "So I won't be GIVING you my Pocket, but more… Lending some to you? Just a bit?"

Jessica cautiously knelt down to his eye level. "John, I don't feel like I understand what you are offering to me right now."

He glanced up and down at the same time while looking away and nervous. "I… I'm going to give some of my Pocket to you. A bit just to hold you while we Transfer to another Realm or Dimension or whatever, and a bigger chunk for storing stuff. But not forever, okay!? Because it is MY Pocket and I NEED it, alright!?"

She cautiously gripped his shoulder, helping him calm down. "I would not take something of yours, John. That would be stealing and that would be wrong." Her eyebrow rose. "Besides, it sounds less like a gift and more like a… Loan? Just lending me this 'Pocket' space, right?"

And his face lit up with happiness! "Yeah! I'm just sharing it a bit! And… And you won't take it away forever because you are my older sister and family shouldn't take things from their family." He nodded to himself. "Yeah, it will be fine. Right? Fine. And she wouldn't betray me, because she shared her fries with me and we ate pizza together and she helped me fine Spike and stuff. It will be fine."

Jessica didn't react to the paranoia or the fear she could feel from the child under her hand. "That's right. And you don't have to loan me 'Pocket' space at all, if you don't want to."

John shook, then seemed to realign to the floor and walls and such. "No, no… You need this. Last time was emergency Transfer protocols, and you only survived by shunting most of the damage to unused resources. A dedicated Pocket allocation for your Concept and Mind and Soul and Body is needed at a minimum for long term travel, at minimum."

That… Huh. "Well, I guess you would know best." Not like she had ever learned interdimensional travel tech in the past. Most of her expertise was focused on social manipulation, interspecies networking, and 'aggressive negotiations'.

AKA: Blam Blam, thank you ma'am diplomacy.

Field agents weren't researchers or lab workers after all, they needed to face the public and collect information for the other teams to work with… Maybe with a side of actually APPLYING the solutions they create to the various problems at hand.

John seemed to still feel hesitant. "Alright, here you go… Oh, and if you feel your brain getting hot or your spine shrinking, tell me like SUPER quick, alright?"

Jessica blinked. "Wait, whaaaaaAAaaaaa͕a͟a̜̻̻̘̮̤̺͠a̸̭͇ͅa̪̩̲!?"

Colors! An ocean of colors that couldn't be seen!

Textures! Unrestricted to surface or material, untouched yet known!

Tastes! Too complicated for flavors, too strange for context!

Her back carried a weight of nothingness, heavy and nonexistent, massive yet without space, and her mind grew into that lack of existence! Every blob of empty allocation was known and understood and examined and…

Distantly she heard an 'Oops' and the raw information dropped down to… A blue floating grid?

But the grid was invisible, untouchable, and not in any way real.

Yet she could taste it, and hear it, and smell it and… And not.

Her attention was brought back to the young boy looking worried and waving a hand. "Sis? Are… Are you alright now?"

Yeah. "Murple."

John winced. "Oh crap, hang on…"

And the grid became a memory. Still not there, still known and somehow a part of her innate understanding of her surroundings, but no longer a spike in her mind. "Ow. My head."

John wilted. "Sorry, sorry… I had already heavily reduced the feedback and connection rate initially so I thought it would be fine, but apparently 'normal' humans only use parts overlapping sections of their brain at a time in pulses through chemical stuff and not ALL of it at ALL times, and I may have left some of the synesthesia compatibility modules enabled because it's more comforting to… Uh. It should be fixed now?"

Jessica blinked. When had she fallen to the floor? "I… It feels better I think?"

Her brother sighed with relief. "Oh good, and you don't seem to be melting or whatever." I'm sorry, what? "Here, put this in your Pocket."

And he handed her one of those toxic holiday stockings she'd brought from work. "Huh? How do I…"

Wait, no. It was obvious, wasn't it?

[[Pocket.]]

And one of those memories of a grid now had a filled square.

Though… It wasn't actually a square? It more represented a bubble somewhere or nowhere, one that perfectly contained that holiday stocking and now B̡̢͓e̡̛̜̣̹̬̘̣̤̼̻͡l̵̸̖͇̤̳̲̕ơ̢̪̭̝̻͓̹͔ń̷͙̝̦̙g̡̛̗̞̣̼̗͟éͅd̶̞̪̳̀͠ in that space.

Less than a thought and the soft material was in her hand… Then gone again. Then back. "Wow… That's actually really amazing!"

John grinned, looking at something unknown and seeming far less worried. "Isn't it? It's only safe enough for stuff we don't care about getting lost, since it only prevents the corruption of materials, the passage of time, and the shifting of temperature and all that stuff. None of my good defenses though, not on the Storage allocated for your access."

Huh? "What do you mean 'good defenses'?"

And for a moment, a different 'memory' flickered in her mind. A space that was for her, to be safe and K̴̯͉͢e̯̻͘p̣̳̗͞t̵̠͔̞͎̹͟͞ between worlds and realities, a Pocket that could ignore the end of many things including causality and fate.

If her memory grid was a lattice of soap bubbles, this Pocket cell was an entire reality folded into itself. It carried its own rules and laws, it didn't rely on any power or ability to continue to exist indefinitely.

Jessica felt her grip on reason slip a little bit… This almost felt like designing an entire country to protect a single sugar packet.

Well, since she WAS that sugar packet she wouldn't be complaining, but… Holy crap. "Never mind, I see what you mean."

John however was already running to the door! "Alright! Call me if you start to feel strange or whatever, I'm going to go exploreAndSeeWhatIsGoing…"

And he was gone as she sat on the floor, feeling a connection to a memory of Storage.

When her everything stopped feeling so wonky, she'd probably get up, drink four or five cups of coffee, and then start to plan how to properly take advantage of this new ability from her younger brother.

Right now though, she was just going to rest a moment.

Ow.

~~~Pocket System~~~

Sis was fine, right?

[[Full access to Pocketee's 'Guest Storage' will procedurally progress over the course of…]]

But she was FINE, right!?

[[...Confirmed. Enabling new access node and control hub via Guest will however, as documented, require a significant 'adjustment' period with minor and inconvenient amounts of temporary discomfort.]]

Well… That sucked, but as long as she was fine. And he had to do this eventually ANYWAY or the next time they traveled to another Realm or Dimension her strained existence would actually crack or even shatter.

Still, he hadn't expected granting her partial access to one of his abilities to actually hurt her. HE hadn't felt anything too bad when his components and units and stuff were being burned and rebuilt and stuff!

[[HOST's pain tolerance levels are abnormally high. Other users would likely have mentally broken down or developed a variety of long term neurosis.]]

Oh. But not sis, right?

[[Correct. The scope and limit of the modifications are well within targets tolerance ranges and age group related statistical boundaries.]]

Dang it, he still felt guilty. "Maybe I should do something for sis? Like as an apology?"

Yeah! Something small since they were trying to 'be on the down low', but still heartfelt and showing that he was sorry for almost exploding her brain (even though he had tried really hard NOT to do that and stuff)!

But what should he do?

John tapped his foot on the sidewalk outside his new secret base/infiltration point/home, considering his options.

Get her a Pocket pal? No, other people didn't need to validate their own existence like he did.

A snack? But she didn't really seem obsessed about candy or whatever, or even that interested in sweet things compared to savory.

OH! Maybe some sort of awesome hat! Agents needed a fedora after all!

John's thought process was suddenly interrupted by a young girl in a transparent inflatable ball nearly squashing him.

"WATCH OUT BELOW!" DOING! "SORRY!"

And she was gone.

Huh.

…Yeah, let's go see what THAT was all about!

~~~Pocket System~~~

Phineas Flynn and his brother Ferb Fletcher winced when one of the 'Boosted Bouncing Balls' nearly hit a kid on the street. "Oooh… That was too close. Ferb, pull in the attraction field, we can't risk people getting hurt or kids put in danger."

His sibling nodded and adjusted the controls while Phineas moved to the other side of the observation platform/ball launch tower. "I still don't know how the safety scanners didn't detect him… I'll be right back, I'm going to make sure he is okay!"

The other neighborhood kids were mostly unaware of the near incident, although Isabella was clearly shaken up… He'd make sure she was alright too, after trying to find out why his safety mechanisms seemed to avoid the new kid on the block.

One rapid fire pole drop later and he managed to get close to the boy. "Hey, are you alright? That was a near miss just now!"

The child shaped whatever-he-was turned and had an eager expression. "Did you see how HIGH she bounced!? That was amazing!"

Yes, everything was following the estimated bounce heights and average vector velocities calculated. Still, he couldn't help but feel a bit of pride. "Yeah, Ferb and I had to do some complicated math to ensure proper elasticity… Too sturdy and it can cause damage, anything else and it loses velocity pretty fast. But really man, are you alright?"

The concern was clearly misplaced as the worry was waved off. "Oh, if she had actually hit me I might break a few bones or something but compared to Conceptual damage that is trivial to medicate. But holy cow, what a cool ride you guys made!"

Yeah, that wasn't a standard human response. Not clearly supernatural either like the giant floating baby head, nor alien like Meap. Didn't seem to be magical like Klimpaloon (the magical old-timey bathing suit who lives in the Himalayas) either!

His name was John right, from the Smith family? "Thanks? And I'm glad you aren't in shock or something."

Assuming whatever he was could GO into shock. Something to investigate later.

Well, whatever. Everyone had their own story in the end… So why not put his best foot forward? "Hey, your name is John, right? I'm Phineas, and the guy up on the observation platform is my brother, Ferb! We're the ones who organized this whole bouncy ball pit experience thing. You want to come hang out and play with us?"

And suddenly something unreal about John faded away and the innocence of childhood shone like the sunrise! "Can I!?"

Why not? They could always use some more friends! "Sure! Come on, I want to scan you first to find out why my security systems didn't prevent anything dangerous from happening near you in the first place. Then we can hook you up and let you have a bounce or two! Sound like a plan?"

From the frantic nodding, Phineas assumed yes!