"This is so cool!" April said, practically beaming as she leaned over the workstation, watching the two men transfer parts and upgrades into the professor's timer. Quinn just smirked over at her, pointing at a specific part as he spoke.
"You see this here? This is one of the many safety parameters installed to ensure safe travel. This particular part is called the densitometry circuit. It prevents us from exiting the gateway into walls or solid objects"
She looked at it in awe, her expressions reminding Quinn of the first time Wade saw his sliding equipment. He recalled the words 'bat cave' and couldn't help but laugh to himself.
"Yes, and this part here was invented by myself and Mr. Mallory's double. We call it the Quantum Scanner. It allows us to scan the multiverse for Quantum Signatures that match our own"
She smiled up at him, and feeling his heart melt a little Arturo smiled back. He was thankful that she no longer feared him, thankful to Wade for explaining the situation to her. This young girl did not deserve the terror and stress forced upon her young shoulders and he did not want to contribute to that, even unintentionally.
"What are the two of you doing?" April asked, clearly interested in anything they were willing to share. Arturo turned to regard her as he replied.
"Well you see, Ms. Collins, it would seem Mr. Mallory's timer received some recent upgrades that mine does not possess, such as the ability to track wormholes or store dimensional coordinates. Seeing as my timer contains the Quantum Scanner and can open wormholes at any time, we agreed it made the most sense to transfer the upgrades to my timer."
"Don't forget your timer contains a higher quality laser-based geographic-spectrum stabilizer compared to the inferior sonics-based stabilizer Logan put in our original timer," Quinn added.
"This really is like Star Trek," April muttered, "what's the difference between the two?"
"The laser-based stabilizer has a short range of 2 miles, ensuring we always land in San Francisco. The sonics-based stabilizer has a much larger range of 400 miles, meaning we could land anywhere between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Several times in the past few months we landed in the middle of nowhere" Quinn replied.
She nodded, watching in silence as she worked up the nerve to ask them one more question.
"Um, I was wondering, whenever you plan to leave, would it be okay if I watched you slide?" April asked nervously.
"You can activate the timer, if you like" Quinn replied, smirking at her once more.
For a moment she looked shocked, then the biggest smile the two men had seen so far stretched across her face. Her eyes lit up like stars.
"Really?" She asked breathlessly.
"Of course" Quinn answered, chuckling at her excitement and turning back to work on the timers.
After completing the parts transfer and rebuilding the timer, Quinn and his friends spoke with the resistance leader, offering to assist in any way possible before they slid. The following two weeks flew by, the sliders helping in intercepting several drug shipments. Slowly, people in the area began to realize what had been done to them. Quinn's double received news from several other resistance groups around the united states, each stating that they too were successful in intercepting the drug shipments.
Now, Quinn and his friends stood across from the recently reunited Collins family, Quinn's double and Daelin standing a respectful distance away to watch them depart. Turning to her new friends April approached them, hugging each of them.
"Thank you for everything" she whispered, Wade, reaching down to return the embrace. Quinn knelt down next to her, offering her the professor's timer. Taking the device Quinn walked her through the activation process, her eyes lighting up once more as a swirling blue vortex opened across from them.
As the others began jumping into the vortex, Quinn fished the Egyptian Timer from his jacket pocket, slipping it into April's hand as he took the professor's timer back. As she noticed the Egyptian timer in her hands her eyes widened in disbelief.
"It doesn't work anymore, but I figured you might want to keep it," Quinn told her, smiling as happy tears began to fall from her eyes, "Who knows, one day you might fix it and become a slider yourself. Just don't open the gateway early, or you'll end up like us!"
"Awesome?" April questioned, causing Quinn to laugh.
"Lost, but I suppose awesome fit's in just as well. If anything, make sure you have a Quantum Scanner before you ever enter the gateway, just to be safe. I bet you could figure it out!"
Grinning he got back to his feet, placing a hand on her shoulder as he looked over to his double and Daelin. Both watched the gateway in awe, turning to him as he waved his goodbyes. Patting April's shoulder, he turned and leapt into the vortex, ready for another adventure with his sliding family.