Issue 8: Stan's the Man

[Will Stanton]

Will headed down to the South of campus, and entered Stan's labs.

[Stan Bowen]

Stan was running through some processes with a a giant robot arm, and a freshman who apparently had the mutant ability to avoid giant robot arms at will.

Seeing Will out of the corner of his eye, he turned and gave him a smile and a small salute, before continuing.

[Will Stanton]

Will waited for an opening.

"And what does this test?"

[Stan Bowen]

"Superstrength. But Alex here is telekinetic. It's a little tough to get a good grip."

Chuckling, he turned the arm off.

"Take five, Alex."

[Will Stanton]

"Sounds nasty."

[Stan Bowen]

"Thanks for stopping by, Will. I know things are pretty tense right now, getting ready for the deployment," Stan said, leading will to his office area.

[Will Stanton]

"Not a problem, Professor...what's up?"

[Stan Bowen]

"Two things," he replied, tossing Will a small wristband with metal components.

"Wear this when you go through the rift, will you?"

[Will Stanton]

"Gosh, Doc, it's swell, but I'm already married," Will joked, examining the wristband.

[Stan Bowen]

"god forbid I mess with Saras good thing, then," he said, chuckling.

"It's a passive sensor array. It will gather data over a wide range of spectrums, telling us how that dimension differs from our own. and you being your malleable, tough to hurt self, I think it will be safest in your hands."

[Will Stanton]

"I'll do my best to bring it back in one piece, then..." Will said, looking it over.

[Stan Bowen]

"Also... Keep an eye out for your teammates.. And Bobby. As a favor to me, ok?"

[Will Stanton]

"Of course, Dr. Bowen. I wouldn't dream of doing otherwise."

[Stan Bowen]

"Thanks. I know he plays distant, sticking to his garage. But he's going on the mission. I know him that well, at least."

[Will Stanton]

"Yeah..." Will said, quietly.

[Stan Bowen]

"having some reservations of your own?" He asked, caringly.

[Will Stanton]

"Yeah..." Will sighed.

[Stan Bowen]

Stan pulled out another chair, and bid will take a seat.

he then listened closely.

[Will Stanton]

"Down in the holding cells, there's a me..." he sighed. "Probably same thing everyone is worried about."

[Stan Bowen]

"He's not hurting anyone ever again, Will. he's toothless.. you'll see. At at the first sign of trouble, the inhibitor collar goes on."

[Will Stanton]

"Yeah, but...there for the grace of God...

...makes me worry about the mission."

[Stan Bowen]

Stan listened, letting will continue.

[Will Stanton]

"He's...he says stuff. They get under my skin--they shouldn't, he's...he's NOT me, but..."

[Stan Bowen]

"You are afraid he might have been you... If one or two things went different, one or two choices were reversed?"

[Will Stanton]

"Yeah....and, well...he's not...I mean, he knows things..." he said, shaking his head. "It's...it's not right."

[Stan Bowen]

Stan placed a friendly hand on will's shoulder.

"if I have to, I'm going to throw him back in the rift myself. And superglue it shut afterwards."

[Will Stanton]

"Do rifts respond well to superglue?" Will chuckled, weakly.

[Stan Bowen]

"As well as they need too."

smiling, he patted Will's back.

[Will Stanton]

Will half-smiled, unbelivingly.

[Stan Bowen]

"Will, I know you well enough to know youmwill beat this demon, and be the better for it."

[Will Stanton]

"I suppose...it's tough. It's....I mean, you've been in the business a long time--you ever encounter, I dunno, an evil double?"

[Stan Bowen]

"Surprisingly, no. I've had rivalries with others who were in the same skill set as I was, But that was more of an Indiana Jones/ Belloq kind of thing... Never a genetic duplicate. You'd think so, given how long I've been around. And I know with the past few days, there is probably at least one running around. but hopefully we'll never meet."

[Will Stanton]

"Yeah, not to worried about old guys," Will half-heartedly teased.

[Stan Bowen]

Stan chuckled at that.

"Yeah, hopefully my evil double has already blown himself up decades ago."

[Will Stanton]

"There we go. There's a plan."

[Stan Bowen]

Stan nodded, moving back to the other students.

"Thanks for coming by, Will. Be careful, but don't be afraid."