Lost Boys

When slugs attack

The Pines twins moved silently and stealthily for the most part, though Ford was admittedly swaying on his feet a little. Three weeks moldering in a dungeon living off whatever scraps they bothered to feed him wasn't exactly conducive towards his physical health, and he also thought his limbs needed to get some of their circulation back.

He was also a little taken aback.

He had not been expecting a full-out, sincere, completely-taking-responsibility apology. Not from Stanley. It wasn't like his twin had never apologized to him for anything, but he had never done it like that. No beating around the bush or trying to weasel out of it or making dumb excuses; just raw, unrestrained contrition. It had smashed down all Ford's heated, righteous-wrath-filled words before he could unleash all the rage and frustration he'd been holding in for so long. And maybe it was backward of him, but he felt a little annoyed by it.

He decided, however, that they could worry about that later, when they were out of danger.

Stanley seemed to have remarkably little trouble making his way to where the lab was; Ford wondered if he'd discovered a map or something. There were more than a few times where they had to dodge both courtiers and security cameras (for the first time Ford felt annoyed with himself for designing and implementing those), before they came to it.

It was the crown jewel of the palace, with state-of-the-art scientific, magical and even alchemical equipment inside, and even an automatic jelly bean dispenser as an extra nice touch. The idea of that seven-fingered twit being able to get inside, and undoing all the hard work he'd accomplished with his quantum destabilizer, made Ford's blood boil.

They made their way towards the door. It wasn't as ostentatious as you'd expect for such an important place; simple and white, with a security code and retinal and handprint scanners to only allow a few authorized personnel. Unfortunately, since Ford was not the only one with access to the lab (he'd organized a small team of fellow scientists, despite his past experiences with including others in his research), it was possible that someone had changed the combination and/or locked him out of the system by now.

Stan removed one of the guns from his belt; before he could aim, Ford smacked his hand.

"You can't shoot that, you idiot! It's got an automatic defense mechanism!"

Stan gave him an acidic glare. "I was going to break the security camera, and then cover your back while you hack into it or whatever. I'm assuming you can, since you built this thing."

After a second, Ford growled, "Get out of my way, then."

"Again, don't bother to thank me for being willing to watch your back." But Stan fired at the camera so it was stuck pointing away from them, before standing aside. Ford bit back a scathing retort so he could focus on the door, hoping they had enough time before someone came to investigate.

********

It would be so much easier if he had some equipment with him...thank goodness he hadn't followed through with his idea of installing a device to shock all unauthorized personnel who touched the security pad, he thought as he opened it up.

To his relief, the security code was unchanged. As he was considering whether he dared trying either of the scanners, though, he heard the sound of slithering coming down the hall.

Giant carnivorous slugs, in addition to being more vicious than the average gastropod, are a lot faster. They're also frighteningly tenacious and have an excellent sense of smell, so even if you could outrun one, it would continue to follow your trail almost nonstop until or unless something more tasty-looking caught its interest. And here was one bearing down on them right now, mucus-filled saliva dripping from its gaping maw, eyestalks waving back and forth hungrily.

"Ford..." Stan said warningly. "You wanna try getting us in? Like right now?"

"I don't know if it will work!" Ford said in a bit of a frantic whisper. "If I've been removed from the people who can open the lab, it's going to go on lockdown-hey!"

A few seconds later his face was being roughly squashed against the retinal scanner, and he heard the roar of a blaster being fired, followed by a shrill scream and a splattering noise. Something slimy-sounding and smelling slightly charred slapped into the back of his head and slid down his shirt.

The retinal scanner, even though he was closer to it than he needed to be, chimed and glowed green.

********

Ford managed to pull back, and press his hand against the other scanner-green, again. The door clicked open.

Slowly he turned; Stanley's front was caked in unappetizing green goo, which he was trying to wipe off his face onto his equally-smeared sleeve.

"This stuff's not poisonous or anything, right?" he asked.

"I would not attempt to ingest it," Ford said with just a touch of snidity as he stepped into the lab.

Right into a glowing blue cage which sprang up around him on all sides and then closed on top like a trap.

He barely heard his twin's alarmed cry, as his senses focused on the smiling face in front of him.

"I knew you'd probably come here," said Ronald.

********

Dum DUM DUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!