The Reality Hopper (May Change in the Future)

The Scientist

Finn was standing at the chalkboard twirling the piece of chalk between his fingers. It was the same equation he'd been working on for the last 10 years. Or rather he'd been fantasizing about it, he'd only really been working on it consistently for the good part of a few months now. He was receiving funding from a smaller up and coming tech company: Mediocre Tech, which was run by a close friend of his, Banner Demo, and his friends. The equation when he finished would hopefully give him the answer to what was needed for Interdimensional Communications. Or rather that's what Banner and his PR guys marketed the research to the media as. Not that Finn had an issue with that. It's just he and Banner had different reasons as to why they took an interest in this particular topic. Finn's mother died a few years ago in a freak accident. Finn who at the time was already infatuated with the idea of being able to communicate with others in different dimensions, used his mother's passing as motivation to further his research. He glanced over at the clock positioned above the doorway. 2:32. Just about time to stop fawning over the lab chalkboard for a while and pick up Joelle from work. His girlfriend of 5 years. She worked as a Bartender at "The Open Secret". A bar so eloquently named and run by Gustavo Diaz, a suspected fence, but nonetheless a good guy all around. Finn grabbed his coat off the coat rack as he walked out of the lab. He locked the door to the lab as he stepped out into the main hallway. He wouldn't be coming back tonight, he had a date with Joelle later on. He looked around the dimly lit hallway. There were several doors that lead to several different rooms a few of the doors had light seeping out from the crack between the bottom of the door and the floor, So he knew that there were others in the building. It was kind of an unspoken rule that if you don't work in the room you don't bug the ones in the room unless there's an emergency. There were a few exceptions to this rule of course. Finn shook his head of his thoughts before walking out the main entrance/exit sliding a cigarette from the pack he had tucked into his jacket pocket. He lit the cigarette and took a deep puff sighing with relief as he exhaled. He hadn't had a cigarette in the last 5 to 6 hours...Or however long he was cooped up in the lab. They didn't like people smoking in the building for several reasons. He twirled the lighter in between his fingers for a minute as he walked towards his car. It was a dark red 1980 Charger that he and his dad had fixed up into working condition after they bought it when Finn was 16 shortly before he had started dating Joelle. He slipped into the driver's seat starting the car he sat there in the car for a few seconds listening to the engine. Though he and his dad had fixed pretty much everything in the car there were still a few small things that weren't 100% with it. Like the A/C didn't always work when turned on. He'd have to turn it off and on a few times to get to to work sometimes, and there was a touch of rust sprinkled around the bottom of the doors. Finn smiled slightly thinking of when he and his dad worked on the car after school, before pulling out onto the road, and drove towards the bar. (Though it was technically a Bar and Grille.) Finn went through two cigarettes before making it to the to the bar. He grabbed a couple of pieces of gum from the center console and popped them into his mouth as he got out and walked towards the door of the bar. Finn walked in and looked around the room.

"Busy as ever huh, Gus?" Finn called out to Gustavo, who was busy cleaning some cups, and turned around when heard Finn.

"Oh yeah, busier'n we've ever been." Gus said with a loud laugh as he slung the towel he was using to dry the cups over his shoulder.

"Not a lot of business anymore huh?"

"No not really... Ever since that shithead Jin came in and bought out pretty much everything and started marketing his Alcohols of the World Bar bullshit, everyone's been spending all their time there. Wider variety or some shit." Gustavo said rolling his eyes leaning against the counter. "At least now I have more time to fence some of my shit at least. Which reminds me." Finn laughed a bit as Gustavo jogged to the backroom. After a minute Joelle came out slipping her jacket on.

"What's Gus doing in there...?" She asked

"Oh he's probably trying to find something to sell me...again."

"Leave before he gets out?" Joelle asked with soft laugh.

"Yeah. I'm actually kinda scared of what he's going to produce from that room." He said taking Joelle's hand as they walked out of the bar to the car.

"So my contact found this beaut cleaning out a storage unit of some big shot several towns over and thought-" Gustavo was mid sentence as he walked out of the backroom holding a silver engraved revolver. "Well shit...I'll get him next time...Hopefully...Might just keep this one for myself though..." He said to himself looking over the gun.