Not Terribly Portable.

[nullofscience]

That was how he descriibed it, after Enzo's excitement of the car that Dot was getting him. He told the boy that they needed to go back to Mainframe in order to show him... Bob obliged in sending them back, and soon they were zipping back before the Principal Office, through to the main doors where naturally they had access. As they proceeded down the halls...

"Best place to hide a gift until the time is right."

Because now that he was a full Guardian, he could come and go as he pleased, but before...

Comments

[nullofscience]

Yeah, there are other reasons. Good ones. Welman stepped over to the entryway keypad and entered a code. Directly after this, the machine scanned him, then produced a polite 'Ding' sound, like that of an elevator arriving. And then, the door opened...and opened, and opened, and opened... Inside, Enzo would find a portal machine that looked somewhere in the neighborhood of Welman's own...but also that of the Fenton ghost portal.

[a1enzo]

At first, Enzo thinks he's just seeing the Gateway command. Then he realizes that this is a new, or modified, device, and his jaw slackens.

It's...

It is.

Is it?

[nullofscience]

Welman doesn't SAY anything. He just steps over to the controls and - in the words of Herr Doktor - throws the switch, activating the smaller monitor attached to the device.

[passthefudge]

The screen lights up, displaying three faces who just bid them farewell a few nanoseconds ago, albeit considerably less colourful than they were at the graduation.

"Hello, Internet!" Jack Fenton might be said to look far too pleased with himself, if the accomplishment weren't genuinely astounding.

[ami_imperfect]

Sandwiched between her father and her mother, Dani rolls her eyes. "Dad," she groans with a little shake of her head.

[a1enzo]

Enzo is too overwhelmed for even Jack Fenton to spoil the moment. Slowly moving closer, he stares at Dani, then at her parents, and then tears his eyes away to stare at his own father.

"You did it."

[ami_imperfect]

"This is much better than a moose," Dani comments with a wry grin.

[passthefudge]

Hush, you. He was under pressure.

[a1enzo]

"They did it. You did it. They..."

Enzo tears his thoughts out of a potential infinite loop and, tentatively, approaches the main control panel. "How do I...?" He points at the portal itself.

[nullofscience]

Well, the control panel isn't actually that complex. A few buttons and switches, nothing fancy. Hey, it only has one destination. Welman turned to the controls as he explained them.

"For the time being, it has limited authorization, but I'm importing a Friends List. Place your icon on the scanner."

He would push a button once this was done in order to scan it into memory. Next, Welman indicated a shiny candy-like red button, which would activate the machine. He would then be scanned again to verify who he was, and the portal opened to reveal a chamber within...

"Once activated, you step into the conversion chamber to allow metamorphosis from sprite into User. The other side of it will open once this is completed, allowing you to enter through the Fenton side of the portal."

[a1enzo]

Enzo silently takes it all in, pressing the button and letting the machine take his checksum. He all but stumbles into the... airlock? Reality lock.

The door slides shut behind him. "Converting to matter," announces the calm female voice which announces such things in Mainframe. Lasers flash out of apertures in the walls, and there's the same sensation he gets when using the digimat in Milliways, and then "Conversion complete" and the door in front of him is opening and he steps through and he's in FentonWorks and holding Dani's hands and he was just at home.

[ami_imperfect]

And Dani's holding his hand and she's so excited that she can't even speak; all she can do is giggle intermittently.

[a1enzo]

It takes a while before he can get words out, too.



"Hi."

[ami_imperfect]

"Hey."

[a1enzo]

His eyes are still glued to her face, but he addresses the portal's monitor.

"Dad? Can you... come here?"

Presumably it can handle Welman's ghost form. They must have tested it somehow before letting Enzo try it. One would think so, anyway... Maybe that should have been his first question. Oh, well.

[nullofscience]

Welman pressed a different button to set up a null-scan for his latent code, activated the machine, squiggled out of his suit into the chamber and...voila'! Exiting the other side of the portal was the hovering ghost of Welman's past.

"We tested it thoroughly beforehand."

[a1enzo]

Enzo releases Dani's hands reluctantly. Apologetically, even. Then... Welman had better be solid, or Enzo'll end up bear-hugging himself.

"Good. Hugging your suit sucks."

[nullofscience]

Don't worry, it's hovering that he forgot to check this time. Father and son hugged in a proper 'Awwww' moment now. And since this was a Moment, it stands to reason that someone has a camera ready, right?

[notjustcookies]

And that someone would be Maddie, who snaps a couple pictures of this touching father/son moment.

[a1enzo]

"Thank you, Dad. Thank you so much."

Careful with that camera, Maddie, you and Jack are next.

"You guys are the best."

[passthefudge]

Aw. Jack returns an even more bearlike hug. "Yes, we are."

[notjustcookies]

"You're very welcome, Enzo." Maddie's hug isn't as powerful as Jack's, but the affection behind it is just as strong.

[a1enzo]

"We guessed you were working on it, but we didn't know you'd actually... that you..."

Enzo is totally not tearing up. Really.

[ami_imperfect]

Hey, no one here will fault Enzo if he lets a few tears slip. Not today, not now. And certainly not Dani.

She waits a little bit before saying, "Okay, my turn!"

[passthefudge]

Jack eagerly shows her how to work it (the security on this side is biometric). It can even convert multiple subjects at once. "You won't end up with a fly's head or anything!"