#collaborative character

The shadowy figure stepped from the glowing portal and removed his goggles, glaring at the all-too-familiar underground room in which he stood. I’m back. Blast it, why am I back?

As he glared, a dim someone appeared in the door to the control room. “It worked!” the someone cried, and began to rush at him. “Oh, it’s so good to see—”

Ford’s instinct of justified paranoia kicked in instantly. Before the someone could come any closer, Ford slid one of his guns out of his coat and leveled it at the approaching figure in a single motion. “Stop right there!”

She (it did seem to be a she) faltered back and stopped, holding up her hands. “Whoa, whoa, what are you doing?”

“Who are you?” barked Ford, arm steeled. “What are you doing in my lab?”

The young woman looked at him, squinting in the light, bewildered and almost incredulous. “Mr. Stanford, don’t you recognize me?”

Ford thought this dubious at best. The few girls he would recognize and trust to be in his lab were all in other dimensions. This sandy-haired girl, he was sure, wasn’t one of them.

But the title she used. “Mr. Stanford”. Strangely, that rang a bell, small but audible. As he glanced her over, he noticed that she wore no shoes. No shoes, that was familiar too. Who was…

A summer past suddenly clicked into place in his mind. His eyes widened slightly. “You… your name was Meier… San-Sandi Meier, wasn’t it? That friend of Shermie’s?”

The girl smiled, a little wistfully. “Looks like the Mystery Man is finally back.”

That’s right, she did call me that. Back during that summer, when I was practically swamped with curious children. That’s not her anymore, though, he added, noting the shifts and changes in her appearance, trying to match up the differences and similarities with what he remembered. She had changed.

Seems so long ago, now. Seems things like summers and children shouldn’t exist anymore.

Ford quickly shook these thoughts from his head. Seems I’m starting to think like a sentimental old granny. His weapon had lowered a little in his reverie; he gripped it tight again. The only changes that mattered were in his surroundings—and not just his.

“Sandi, how did you find this room? What are you doing down here?”

“Bringing you home! We knew—”

We. Oh, he remembered the “we” now.

“—that you went through the Portal—”

Ford rubbed his eyes with a finger and thumb, mostly ignoring her now. I should’ve known.

“—but since it was off, we—”

“SHERMAN!”

Ford stormed past the young lady, shouting furiously. “Sherman, come out this instant! I know you’re around here somewhere! COME OUT!”

“Wha— why are you yelling for—”

“I want to give him a good thrashing for this idiot idea of his. SHERMAN!”

“Mr. Stanford, I-I don’t understand…”

“Oh, come on,” Ford frowned, glancing over his shoulder at her and pausing his pace for a moment, “you were never involved in wild schemes like this unless he talked you into it. Besides,” he added, turning away again, “he’s probably the only one left who could pull it off.” The only one left Bill hasn’t gotten to, that is, he growled in thought. Even Fiddleford was affected by him, and fled. Smart.

“Well, Shermie was the one who started the project, yes, but—”

“I knew it.” Ford stalked to the lab door, and shouted, as he stepped through, “Sherman, if you’re in this control room, I want you to come out RIGHT NOW!” However, sticking his head inside, he found it empty.

“H-he’s not there,” murmured Sandi, quietly unhelpful.

“Well, then would you be so kind as to assist me?” Ford responded sharply, turning to face her again. “Where is he hiding?”

Instead of answering the question, she mournfully avoided his gaze, shaking her head. “You’ve been gone such a long time. So much has happened…”

This is getting nowhere. “Sandi, would you please give me a straight answer?” She shut her eyes, lips tight. Ford felt about to explode from frustration, and gestured to the side with his gun. “Stop acting like you’re hiding something! Where is Sherm—”

“He’s DEAD, okay?!” she burst out suddenly, then covered her mouth with her hands. “I-I’m sorry, Mr. Stanford, I…” Her hands went up and covered the rest of her face.

The words drained all his anger away like a black hole sucking away light. Utter shock fell heavily in its place. “What?” Dead? He… no, he can’t be. Not Sherman.

Hands lowered, Sandi’s eyes searched the ground, and she spoke quietly. “My husband—Shermie—he’s dead.”

“Your—” A second shock struck through him. “You two—” He blinked quickly, trying to take in this double blow. How? His little brother, married, married to young Sandi, and now… now dead. How much had he missed? How much life was now empty to him? Ford put a hand to his forehead, and his voice shook without his leave. “S-Sandi, I—“

Sandi raised her eyes to him at last. They were obscured by tears. With a little sob, she closed the distance and flung her arms around Ford.

For a moment, he stood there, uncertain of how to react, overwhelmed by a million shades of surprise and bewilderment and grief. Then, his gun clattered to the ground. With a shuddering breath, he returned the embrace of the little girl he had once known in years past, in an old summer, in one of the last times in his life he had felt he had a home.

“Oh, Stanford…” He felt her hand shift on his coat. “You have no idea how much I’ve missed you.”

With that, a horrible, jolting shock coursed through him from the small of his back, filling his veins with electric pain. If he cried out, he couldn’t hear it. The form that had clung to him moments before suddenly slipped away, and he toppled to the ground, stunned.

In his last moments of consciousness, he lifted his closing eyes to look at the sandy-haired figure that stood over him. Her hand held a small device—the source of the jolt. Her eyes were wide and dry now, and she grinned.

Even with the blue blaze of Portal-light behind her, he could still make out the cruel yellow glow in her eyes.

“No idea,” a horribly familiar voice repeated gleefully, even as all sound echoed away into darkness.

~~*~~

[Y’see, it’s funny cuz the embrace was a lie. Also funny because this is the first time I’ve used a fanfiction OC for this thing, even if it’s not technically mine.]

@oc-growth-and-development