Lost Boys

You gotta have heart

Well, turns out I was able to bring my laptop after all.  Hallelujah, right?

So here's a new chapter for my long-suffering, ever-patient readers.

If anyone's reading this, that is.

*********

"...You just need to plug it into your gun, and it'll open a portal right where you need to go."

It definitely sounded too good to be true.

Stan forced himself to keep his expression neutral, hoping his eyes hadn't given away how his heart was suddenly pounding in his chest.

"How do we know they're genuine?" Ford asked, expression definitely more wary.

Teller held out the coordinates; briefly her sisters looked like they wanted to stop her, but Ford had already accepted the disc.

He frowned at it, turning it back and forth. Then he looked over at Vera, which just so happened to have a tiny slot where a floppy disc-like guidance system could be inserted.

The Pines twins looked at each other.

And Stan handed over Vera with a nod.

********

Ford inserted the disc into the guidance system, and in examining the rest of the gun he figured out quickly how to start it up. As he did, he couldn't help marveling a little at the craftsmanship of the device. Oh, it was definitely somewhat...unorthodox in how it had been cobbled together, but somehow all the pieces blended in ways you wouldn't expect just by looking at it. He really wanted to meet whoever created this and shake his hand one day. And probably apologize for Stanley stealing it from him.

At the back there was a small computer screen which gave you the coordinates that the portal was opening into, and told you what dimension it was. The technology, however, wasn't quite sophisticated enough to control what your destination would be; to do that you needed outside coordinate input, like the kind that was being plugged in right now. Otherwise it was all just a matter of trial and error.

Ford checked over the information, and rechecked it. He couldn't help a small rush of excitement; it did genuinely seem to be opening a portal back home! Despite his primary goal of finding and destroying Bill, the chance that he could finally go home in the end, instead of probably dying somewhere in the multiverse, was suddenly very appealing.

And then, to his surprise, Stanley looked over his shoulder at the screen too.

"...What are you doing?" he asked.

Stan gave him a slightly annoyed look. "Checking to make sure the figures are right. Just like you're doing."

Ford was... a little taken aback. He wasn't used to Stan understanding things like this, instead of just leaving them to him to figure out. Of course, his memories were probably more than a little biased, he could admit this even to himself, but-

Stan had tapped a few places on the screen, and was nodding and even smiling a little at the flow of information that was being revealed.

"These not only take us to our dimension, but they'll send us right back into m-your basement! Nice!"

He really does understand the calculations.

But then a thought came to Ford, and he pulled the coordinates out of the gun, glaring at the three women suspiciously.

"What exactly do you want us to retrieve for you?"

They looked at each other uncomfortably. Then Hera said, "It's not important-"