It was preparation time.
"Alright, Jordan. You've spent the last few months on this part, so tell me what we need." Sonjya was referring to the tools and resources we would need in order to survive in the new environment we were going to encounter. I was more prepared than you could ever imagine.
"We should only need the shirts on our backs, for the most part. Their atmosphere is oddly similar to ours. In fact, it's scarily close." She looked at me, obviously intrigued by what I was saying. That's what I loved about her. With anybody else, if I talked this way, I'd be the nerd. With her, I'm a scientist. "Remember that your cell phone won't work, and neither will the Wi-Fi on your laptop." She then looked sadly to her Macbook Pro, which she'd had for years. "You can still bring it for documentation, though, it won't last very long on the battery."
She grinned again. "Just let me take care of that." She picked up her Macbook and set it inside of a rather large book bag that had been sitting across the room. It was weird that I never noticed it. "Okay then." I continued. "We'll be good when it comes to food. Neopia is like our world in that their food supplies are nearly unlimited."
"But will we be welcome?" Sonjya went from playful to concerned almost instantly. "I don't want to get there, only to be attacked by locals." I got serious for a moment. "I can't promise you anything," I began, "But I can tell you that I won't let anything bad happen to you." She smiled, which in turn made me smile. "So, for the most part, I think we're ready to go."
"Right now?" She asked, "But you don't even have any things for you to bring!"
I laughed, because I thought she knew me better than that. I took her outside and showed her the bed of my truck. She laughed. "You're always prepared, aren't you?" I nodded. Sitting in the back of my truck were three large bags, all containing everything we would need for the long trip.
Once back inside, I gave her the smaller of my three bags. She now had her bag and the one that contained the first aid kit. I carried the food rations and research materials, as well as some spare clothing for myself. I knew that she already had some. It was time, but I never expected it to happen this way. "Oh no." I just had a realization. "How are we going to close the portal after we enter it?" Sonjya was obviously way ahead of me, for she pulled out a larger device with some switches on it. "This remotely controls the portal's mechanics. The instant we're on the other side, I have to quickly shut it before we go out of range." I understood. It wasn't going to be easy; time travel via portal is the fastest form. But if anybody could do it, Sonjya could.
"I'm ready if you are." She sounded confident. I knew now that this was our destiny. We didn't spend the past five years of our lives searching for this only to not go. I took a deep breath, and took her hand. It was time.
I stepped onto the platform sitting in front of the portal. The "portal" itself wasn't exactly what you envision when you think of one. It's very box shaped, and bright. No colors, just white. It sat on the floor rather than standing upright, meaning that we had to fall into it instead of walk inside of it. Not to mention, the hole wasn't huge. Squeezing the both of us in there presented quite a challenge. We could go one at a time, but this technology is so unstable. You could literally end up anywhere. We had to go together. "Jesus Christ." I mumbled. "This sucks, eh?"
"We can do it. Just suck it in." Sonjya breathed in hard to demonstrate. I did the same, and we each took a step forward. Once on the ledge, we both made a tiny hop, and we fell into the portal.