Aiko, a professional magical girl, had always been really into the whole “cartoons” thing. There were a few friends of hers that did like anime and american cartoons, but it had never really struck a chord with them as much as her. Which of course, by laws of irony, meant that she was the one called to fight the new Corrupt Being, calling himself “The Cartoonist” that was currently tearing up a downtown street.
The young woman got through the barricade quick enough, flashing Magical Girl Identification; the police were mostly keeping civilians and wannabe heroes from getting through rather than containing the villain, because there wasn’t all that much the mundane police could actually do against a magical attack besides run or be hurt (or transformed, or whatever else that particular magic does).
“So what does a cartoonist villain actually do with people? Turn them into kids?” Aiko asked her mission control and twin sister, Chihiro over a magical link.
“N-No, that was Mother's Day-themed Corrupt Being from a bit back, remember?” Chihiro said, “I b-bet they suck them into TVs or turn them into merchandise or something.”
“I think it’s ‘or something’...”
The street had begun to look… strange. The walls had changed from the mottled red and grey of an old city district to a far more saturated palette, as well as the scenery starting to look exaggerated. Aiko walked up to a fire hydrant and poked at it, and it bent backwards before wobbling back towards her, finally settling. The buildings seemed to have their doors painted on, and were outlined as if they were two dimensional shapes.
“You should keep going…” Chihiro said.
Aiko nodded. “Don’t worry, I’ll stay safe!”
The surroundings got more and more ridiculous as they went - more saturated colors, and Aiko could swear the sun had winked at her.
It was around then they saw the first person… probably. They had probably once been a person, but now their features were dramatically exaggerated; long spindly legs and arms with triple sized hands and feet, and an oversized head with eyes that took up a significant portion of it. Like their surroundings they seemed oversaturated, like they were made of colored ink rather than flesh. The man didn’t seem to mind much though, with a goofy grin with his tongue lolling out and the odd laugh coming from him.
He didn’t seem to notice the girl’s presence, too occupied by some odd gag involving a mailbox and a cat, and Aiko winced and moved on. As she walked, she found more and more such scenes - men and women turned into caricatures of themselves and acting their parts in a fantasy. It wasn’t quite like anything Aiko or Chihiro had seen before; the ‘Cartoonist’ seemed more interested in his fantasy than in the usual “convert all humans”, and the transformed individuals didn’t pay the magical intruders mind if they didn’t interrupt them.
It took another twenty minutes of searching through the increasingly strange land that Aiko heard a mad cackle down the street. “That’s gotta be him this time, right?”
“I’m detecting a strong corruption signature in that direction! It’s gotta be him!”
Aiko started running, and caught up just in time to see the Cartoonist paint a new cartoon into being, this one a woman who repeatedly ran into an opening window. Giggling like mad, he turned to her.
The Cartoonist was a tall, anthropomorphic mouse; complete with black fur and whiskers, huge ears, but instead of, well, nothing, he was wearing a painter’s smock and a bandolier of colored ink pens, and had quite human hands with which to carry out his craft. Like his victims, his colors were oversaturated and he seemed to have an outline, like he’d been drawn into the world. “My my my, another muse for my wonderful animation! Ahaha, do you see what I did here? It’s such a hilarious animation, look at how her body keeps going while her head’s stopped! God, this is why I love my job, hahaha!”
Aiko wasn’t used to Corrupted Beings in the process of a change being so friendly, if vaguely threatening, and was taken a little off guard. But she recovered rapidly, straightening and summoning her magical weapon, a large two-headed battleaxe. “If you surrender now, I can make this painless!”
“Hahahaha! Where’s the fun in that? Pain is hilarious!” as if to demonstrate, he pulled a frying pan from midair and tossed it. It hit a man who had been hiding nearby dead on the head, seemingly flattening his face. Far from crying out though, the man started to laugh.
Aiko grit her teeth. “Cartoons are for fun, not to turn against people! I’m coming for you!” shouted, charging forward. As she did so, she realized exactly what she was doing wrong - but too late.
The cartoonist sidestepped her at the last second, sticking out a foot to send her falling past him. “¡Olé!” the Cartoonist shouted, a red cape he’d produced from thin air swishing with the wind of her passing. “Now now, temper temper my dear magical girl! Like you just said, this is supposed to be fun!”
“This isn’t a cartoon! You can’t turn that around on me!” Aiko shouted. She charged again, stopping short this time and swinging the axe down. Instead of cleaving through the mouseman though, he stretched against it like a rubber band, before snapping back hard. The axe was snapped out of Aiko’s hands by the force, sending it flying to embed itself in a wall (which promptly said “OW!”).
“Hahaha! Well I don’t know what you think is going on, but I’m certainly a cartoon~! You can’t hurt me like that, you know how cartoons wooork~!” The Cartoonist said, wrapping a spindly arm around her.
“A-Aiko, get out of there, he’s starting some kind of attack-” Chihiro stammered.
“Tooo laaaaate!” The Cartoonist said, as if he’d heard Chihiro. He pulled a giant tablet from behind his back and swung it overhead like a hammer, crashing down on Aiko’s head.
One moment, she was on an open street; the next, Aiko was in a white void. She looked around, trying to see what had happened - or she tried to, but it was the same everywhere.
“Hmmmm, I think I need to some changes to this design…” said the Cartoonist’s disembodied voice.
“I’ll make changes to your des-MMMMPH!” Aiko’s ranting was interrupted as a large pencil came from nowhere and erased her mouth. She couldn’t speak, and it was difficult to make noise.
“Hmmm… bringing up a reference here…” the voice said, and a copy of Aiko appeared next to her, although stock still, “And a few here…” a few images of cartoon women, some with animal features, appeared on her other side. No matter how Aiko moved, they were in the same places. “And… pause!”
Aiko froze in her position, unable to move anymore, as a black stylus came down. “Right… let’s get the head to the proper size…” it moved, and she felt her head stretch out, “And increase the right features to fit…” Eyes were now huge, and her nose small.
“Hmmm, good start. Let’s fix that body - way too realistic.” The stylus lowered down, and Aiko felt more stretching and pinching. Her breasts ballooned out and her hips and ass followed suite, while her waist pinched to a waspy thinness. The rest of her body continued to be changed, a figure of exaggerated maturity and sexuality. “Mmmm, really nice, I’d love to see you on the TV~” the Cartoonist said, as he made his last additions - a pair of cat ears and a tail were drawn onto her body, roughly at first but becoming more detailed and fine.
The last step was drawing her mouth back on. She felt so strange - she could see herself, kinda, a sultry looking catgirl that kind of resembled herself. But it was her. She was a cartoon now, and she’d always loved cartoons… wasn’t that great? It was kinda funny, anyway, and she started to laugh. As she heard her own mad cackle, she knew her mind was being effected, and that was even funnier. She was a toon! Like the one she’d come to beat up! Hahaha!
“Now let’s get you out of there, Ai-Ai~” the Cartoonist said, and she felt herself pulled from the drawing screen and back into the world.
Ai-Ai stumbled as she was pulled out in all her toony glory, bright pastel colors and inky texture in stark contrast with the 3D world. And she grinned, laughing like a loon. “Hehehehe~”
“What’re you laughing at sweetheart? Got a good idea for your first trick~?” The Cartoonist said, wrapping an arm around her.
“Hehehehe, yep I do, ‘sweetheart’...” she tittered… as her smile suddenly turned vicious. She snatched the tablet from the Cartoonist’s hands and smacked him in the face with it - instantly, he was sucked back into it.
“I bet I know how this woooorks…” Ai-Ai sing-songed as she made her changes. It had been stupid of the Cartoonist to let her keep a will; she was a toon now, and ran on the same rules. And a cat, at that, when he was a mouse. Emphasis was.
She pulled the newly edited toon out of the tablet, a catgirl identical to her but for black hair instead of bright red. The former Cartoonist giggled madly.
“Now, Catty, we can get moving… I have so many wonderful ideas~” Ai-Ai said, before laughing in an even more insane manner than the Cartoonist before her. A voice called at her over a magical link, but she ignored it. It was telling her to do something other than have a good time, and was as such irrelevant.