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The alarm buzzed, the leopard blearily opening his eyes as he looked at the display screen on his alarm clock cheerily tell him that it was time to get up. He sighed and hit the snooze button, only to remember that a recent prank had made that turn on the radio instead. "Good morning Monvale!" the overly-enthusiastic voice said as the feline groaned and put his pillow over his head. "Today is Monday, June twelfth and this is your eight am news! Local police are still searching for the suspects at the break-in of the Monvale Mall early in the-"

"Alright, you win!" the leopard cried out as he turned off his entire clock and blearily got up. "I'm going to kill Terry for doing that..." the young man pulled himself out of his bed and scratched his boxer-covered thighs before plodding over to his bathroom. He went through his usual morning routine and put on his military fatigues, his bulletproof vest, lacing up his boots, and adjusting the pin that read his name, Daniel Jefferies, before heading out the door.

Though he wasn't on a military base he tried to dress and act like he was on one, keeping his demeanor and attitude in order to represent his branch. In reality though he was one of the few soldiers there at the Monvale Advanced Research Initiative, one of the leading facilities studying everything from quantum computing to AI building all the way down to robotics and structural engineering. It was a pretty sweet gig, the feline thought to himself as he made his way down the hall to the private mess hall for security personnel, there wasn't really any action and the only reason they had a military presence at all was because they had government projections. When he walked inside he saw the wolf responsible for the prank on his alarm clock sitting at their usual table along with two others that also appear to have just gotten in.

"I still can't believe you eat that garbage," the black-furred lupine said as Daniel pulled out a box of Cinnamon Chocolate Squares, pointing an oatmeal covered spoon at him. "I have to requisition that every month and every month I get the same response wondering if we're all getting soft up here. Makes me wonder how you're not four-hundred pounds."

"Probably all the riding you do on me," Daniel replied as he sat down after grabbing a bowl, spoon, and milk as well. "C'mon man, it's like my one vice, just be thankful I don't do drugs or something. Plus maybe I would eat a healthy breakfast if I wasn't tired all the time from someone tampering with my alarm clock all the time!"

Terry nearly laughed so hard that he spit oatmeal as Daniel opened his box of cereal. "That's still getting you?" the wolf said once he stopped to breathe. "I did that like two weeks ago! I thought you had it fixed?"

"Apparently not," Daniel replied. "Either way now I'm just going to have to get you back twice as hard for it." The wolf just scoffed and the leopard shook his head, only to stop when something fell out of it and plopped down onto the pile he created that caught him by surprise. "The hell?"

"Huh, didn't know they were giving out fortune cookies as prizes," Terry commented as Daniel picked it up and looked at it. "It's not even wrapped."

"Terry, I swear if this is another prank of yours..." Daniel said, looking at the wolf who just shook his head with a grin still on his face. The leopard sighed and decided to just open it and see what was inside, putting the half of the cookie in his mouth as he read it out-loud. "When your find that your luck is low, turn your sails to where the winds will blow..."

"How inspirational," Terry said as he Daniel looked at the back to see the lucky numbers. "Ohh, we can play the lottery now too."

Terry attempted to grab the fortune but Daniel managed to pull it out of the way, putting it in his pocket as he shot the wolf a look and proceeded to eat his cereal. They talked about what the daily duties were for them today. For the leopard it was all about perimeter checks, walking through the facility to make sure that everyone was where they were supposed to be and that there wasn't anyone else. It was fairly dull but he was thankful he didn't have to pull barracks cleaning duty or anything like that. Plus it gave him a chance to work off all the sugar he just ingested as he cleaned his dishes and went out for his rounds.

About an hour later in he was in the aeronautics wing of the facility, listening to the music on the wireless headphones he had hidden in his ears. Just as he was about to get to the hall that separated this section from genetics however he saw something that caused him to pause. It looked like a shadow that had moved down the last hallway before the switch over, but since that was all offices and no one would normally be there during work hours. It was enough suspicion to go and investigate and as per protocol he pulled out his taser and kept it at his side.

"Hello?" He said, looking around the empty hallway before turning the corner where he thought he saw the shadow move. "If you're out there and don't want to be tased you'll identify yourself right now!"

When there was no response Daniel sighed and turned back around to start back on his rounds, only to have one of the office doors swing open and nail him in the forehead with the corner. "Mother F..." was all he managed to get out before he crumbled to the ground. Though he didn't black out completely his vision swam as pain rocketed through his entire body, even his hearing sounding like he was underwater as he heard someone shouting at him.

Something loomed over Daniel and as his eyesight began to reassert itself he saw that it was some sort of leonine man standing over him, saying something that he couldn't quite understand before his senses finally returned to him. The leopard must have mumbled something because the lion repeated himself clear enough that he could hear him. "I said, how many fingers am I holding up?" he asked as Daniel looked from the hand to the lion and back again.

"You're holding up fingers?" Daniel replied blearily as the other man helped lift him up to his feet.

"Yeah, I think you may have a concussion," the scientist said as the soldier turned him around. "I'll take you to the infirmary, they'll get you patched up. Just because I have Doctor in front of my name doesn't mean that I know how to practice medicine!"

The feline laughed at his own joke and Daniel winced, though it was mostly from the pain that such a loud noise called. Thankfully he didn't talk much more to him as he practically dragged him towards the medical bay, getting him there after accidently taking two wrong turns. "Sorry about that," the lion apologized as he finally got him into the infirmary and put him on one of the examination tables. "I'm new here and I don't quite know my way around."

You also hit me in the face with a door, Daniel thought to himself as he continued to rub his head as he waited for one of the actual doctors in the facility to come in. Eventually a deer that Daniel knew only as Dr. Buck, a nickname from his first day in the infirmary, walked in and asked what the problem was. "This guy got taken down by a door," the lion explained while the doctor got out a chart. "I think he might have a concussion."

"I think it would be best if I determined that," the doctor replied, doing a few tests and writing down the results on the electronic tablet that was next to him. "You were very lucky Mr. Jefferies, you seem to have avoided any major complications. Just let me give you something for the pain and then you can go back to your normal duties."

"Thanks Dr. Buck," Daniel replied, watching the cervine tap on the first two autoinjectors before taking the third and putting it up to his neck. "A little liquid aspirin?"

"Something a bit stronger than that," Dr. Buck replied with a chuckle. "Nothing crazy, just a painkiller mixed with a small amount of anti-inflammatory." Daniel bared his neck and felt the tip of the pen-like device press past his fur and into his skin for a second before pulling away. "Why don't you lay down for a few minutes until the medicine takes effect, if you need anything or feel any sudden dizziness or nausea I've just started my shift so just come find me."

The leopard thanked Dr. Buck once more and then laid back on the examination table, hearing him start to move around as he went about his daily duties. After about a few minutes the pain did start to go away, but as Daniel tried to sit up in order to leave he found himself unable to even lift his body or even his arms. As he suddenly started to feel sleepy he tried to turn his head to call out for the doctor everything started to go dark. The last thing he heard before he completely went unconscious was someone rushing over to his side...

When his eyes opened again he took a sharp intake of air and sat up, seeing not only the concerned face of the doctor but also that of Darren Kingsley, the head of operations for the entire facility. "Well look who finally came around," Dr. Buck said as he helped the leopard sit up. "I profusely apologize, somehow you were given sophril-B instead of what I had intended to give you. I really don't-"

"You can save the speech for an apology card," the equine said as he reached out a hand to get Daniel on his feet. "This man has a mission he needs to prep for."

"I do?" Daniel asked in confusion.

"Yep," Darren said as he began to walk out of the infirmary. "Save the world."

The words that the leopard heard made him think that he may actually have a concussion, though by the time he realized that they weren't the mustang was already out the door and down the hall. "So save the world you say," Daniel said once he had caught up with him once again. "Is this going to be before or after lunch?"

"Ha, that joke never gets old," Darren replied as he kept his stride. "Listen, I don't have any new information on this but they got the one that brought this all to our attention here as well as ten people whose combined IQ is high enough to be a prize amount on a game show. I'd say we just see what they have to say and then we can start the dance from there."

Daniel still had no idea what he was doing but at this point he figured it would be better to just go with the flow as they entered into the conference room. Those in the lab coats he recognized in varying degrees from the departments that they worked at. Along with them was someone he didn't recognize, a lupine creature with saber teeth and dragon wings and horns that sat near the front of the table. "Ladies and Gentlemen," the ferret in front of the room said as she adjusted her glasses. "What we are facing right now is an unprecedented crisis both so extraordinary and unthinkable that I didn't think it was possible either."

"Don't bury the lead Margaret," a hippo said as he adjusted his lab coat. "You said that the end of the world is about to occur... when you expect this cataclysmic event to occur?"

"Fifty years ago... tomorrow," the ferret replied, causing a huge stir as people began to talk to one another before Margaret managed to calm them down. "Listen, I know that it sounds unbelievable but what we have here is a very real crisis! I present to you footage that we got with a quantum camera that we were using to view temporal anomalies; now normally all we got was static or brief glimpses of the future but when we focused it on precisely June thirteenth at two thirty-seven p.m..."

The ferret stepped aside and the projection screen began to roll, showing what appeared to be the parking lot of the facility with the words Project Foresight, Official Test Footage stamped on the bottom of it. Everyone was practically leaning in on their seats as they watched for what was going to happen next. Suddenly as it clicked over to two thirty-seven on the clock the entire scene shifted, changing from a normal parking lot to a desolate landscape complete with charred trees and the twisted, rusted remains of what looked like vehicles. It caused an immediate uproar which Darren had to actually quell by bellowing for them all to shut their mouths before sitting down again.

"This is preposterous!" the hippo once more spoke up. "How do we know that isn't some sort of glitch?"

"Because I've seen it," the sabrewolf that had been sitting quiet said, looking up from his hands to stare straight at the researcher with his green eyes. "I happened to be researching something similar when I noted the anomaly and decided to interject myself for a more... front-side seat."

"This is Serathin," Margaret introduced. "He works for a research center called the SHIFT Institute that is able to travel among different timelines, which also by the way proves our multiverse theory."

The ferret shot the hippo a look as the sabrewolf stood up and cleared his throat before continuing. "What you're seeing here is what we like to call a temporal overlap," Serathin explained as he froze the image of the blasted landscape. "Which means that something in your past caused what would essentially be the end of the world but was fixed by someone from here using time travel."

"But time travel isn't possible!" a male kangaroo said as he shot up from his seat. "Plus even if we could somehow travel to when this cataclysmic event occurred we shouldn't even exist since the end of the world would have already happened! Did you really just gather us all here and take away from our valuable project time with this farce?!"

The sabrewolf looked at the angry scientist for a few seconds before putting a finger to his muzzle. "Shhh... adults are talking now," he said before immediately turning to the rest of the group. "As Margaret will soon explain to you her team has recently discovered the means to teleport someone through the reaches of time to the day in question. I will let her explain the details."

As Serathin sat back down and stuck his tongue at the kangaroo, which Daniel could see was so angry that steam was practically coming out of his ears, the ferret scientist once more took the stage. "We do have what we believe to be a personal time and space manipulation transport device," she explained. "While it's never been tested before it appears that we don't have a choice, from what Serathin has explained and backed up by our data if we do not fix this anomaly now then our world will slip back into the post-apocalyptic landscape you saw in the footage. Now from we've gathered there was only one event at that time that could have caused an extinction-level event; the Yuthir-Eckbart reactor scare."

"Oh I know about that," Daniel said, suddenly feeling all the eyes on the room turn towards him as he felt his anxiety spike. "It was the world's first antimatter reactor, there was something wrong with it that nearly caused it to blow and they said like tens of millions of people would have gotten killed." Though his explanation was correct he could still feel the eyes of many of them wondering where he had gotten such information from. "What, I saw the movie they made of it."

The explanation caused several small groans and eye rolls before they turned their attentions back to Margaret. "In any case we believe that using our device we can send someone back to the Yuthir-Eckbart reactor and try to stop the meltdown from happening," she stated as the projection changed to a complicated series of schematics. "We will be sending one of our top physicists and expert in antimatter theory, Dr. Edward Martin, using the device to the travel back to the day of the incident in the morning so that he can be in position when the reactor scare happens."

"Actually I'm going to have to override you on that one," Darren stated, taking the researcher by surprise as the mustang stood up and pointed to Daniel. "I've already got our volunteer, Captain Daniel Jefferies, ready to go."

The leopard nodded before he realized what just happened and he stopped mid-nod before looking between Darren and Margaret. "Wait, what?"

"Not only is this brave soul ready to stare at the jaws of death and laugh but he can be prepped in ten minutes, Darren boasted as all the others looked between the two in confusion as well, all except for Serathin who just sat there with a smug look on his face. "I mean, your expert won't be here for another ten hours, right?"

"Well... yes..." Margaret admitted. "He's on a plane heading here right now, but how-"

"Look, from what was explained to me the longer we sit here and wait the more this temporal anomaly thing is going to get worse," Darren stated. "If we don't send someone now then we may lose our only chance to fix this before our future is the one that we saw in that screen, and unless we're all fans of giant mutant cockroaches and fighting in fetish gear I suggest we pick up the pace!"

The mustang looked around at the others still looking around for an answer before slamming his hand down on the table and shouting to start moving now. Daniel watched chairs practically get knocked over as everyone started moving, running to their stations as Darren motioned for the leopard to get up and follow him. Once everyone had left Daniel and Darren waited for a few minutes before they started moving as well, heading towards the one elevator that was used to head towards the restricted levels of the facility. Even security personnel needed special permissions to get down there, though with the head of operations that wasn't a problem as he slid his key card in and pressed the button to go down.

"Look at this," Darren said as he picked up a hat and scarf. "They all probably came running down here like a pack of jackrabbits after I scared them off. Anyway I have to say that I'm proud of you for doing this, testing an experimental machine that may tear you from limb from limb or even atom by atom in order to save the world is very noble."

"Wonderful speech sir," Daniel replied as he tried not to scream out that he didn't want to do any of this. "I hope that you are able to give me another one when I come back and am not demolecularized or whatever."

The horse nodded and the two remained in silence for a little while longer until they finally reached the bottom floor, which wasn't even marked on the elevator as the doors open and they stepped outside. Daniel couldn't help but gasp as he saw things that looked like they came straight out of science fiction movies; everything from fully autonomous humanoid robots to underwater suits that didn't appear to have any tanks. His attention was diverted towards the middle of the room that looked like a testing platform for ballistic weapons, walking over small craters in order to get to the middle where the others were. What they didn't see was the machine itself, both horse and leopard looking around before asking where it was.

"We are almost done with the calibrations," the ferret said as the others stepped aside and revealed that she was holding what looked like a Mylar tailor bag that was partially unzipped to reveal a full body suit. "For now we have to have you put this on, it's lined with temporal induction padding to try and stabilize your body during the trip."

"Wait, so the whole atom ripping thing is real?" Daniel stated in shock. "I thought Mr. Kingsley was just really bad at motivational pep talks. I mean, he still is, but I thought he was exaggerating!"

The scientists just looked down and away and refused to make contact with the feline as he narrowed his eyes at them and grabbed the heavy suit from his hands and went to change. It felt like the suit was made of lead as he put it on and it caused him to immediately start to sweat even before he zipped it up. Part of him wished that he could go commando but he was told that he needed to wear something underneath it, though that didn't stop Daniel from grumbling to himself as he walked out with it on. There was also a helmet but he wasn't going to put it on until he was ready to go as he walked over to the edge of the ballistics testing area.

"You nervous?" Darren asked, Daniel shaking his head and asking why. "You are sweating like a madman right now."

"Because this thing is a million degrees!" the leopard finally shouted as he slid out of the top part of the suit and pulled off his flak jacket, setting it on some boxes before wiping his head fur of some of the dampness. "How am I going to save the world if I boil alive in this suit before I get there?"

"Huh..." the equine said as he held up part of the heavy suit to look inside. "I thought Margaret said that they installed cooling units in this thing." Darren just shrugged and patted the leopard on the back before shaking the perspiration off of his hands. "Oh well, I'm sure that you can take it off once you get to your destination of fifty years ago."

Though Daniel wondered if he could sweat enough to drown in this suit he was at least glad that his fatigues were waterproof so he could just step out of them once he arrived, but what really caused him concern was what the equine had just said about his destination. He was possibly going to be traveling fifty years in the past, something that no other person has done in order to fix a problem that had already happened but didn't at the same time. Did that mean he succeeded, or was there a possibility for failure? He didn't even start to pretend that he knew the rules of what was about to happen, he only hoped that those who studied it for a living did as they were called over.

Right before they were about to walk back to the middle of the ballistics testing ground Daniel heard his name and turned his head to see Serathin calling him over. "I just wanted to wish you good luck," the sabrewolf said as he shook the leopard's hand, pulling him in a bit closer mid-shake. "Remember, everything needs to be as it should be, not a step out of place. You got it?"

"Uh... yeah," Daniel said before his hand was let go, leaving the strange hybrid who waved at him. "Wierdo..." Once he was back in the huddle of the scientists he saw the device that would send him back in time, which looked like nothing more than a wrist computer complete with a display that showed both the date and time as well as geological coordinates. They explained to him that with the rarity of the fuel, which ironically was antimatter, they needed to power such a device he was going to have one bite of the apple, he had to get to the facility and make sure the reactor stays fixed by two thirty-seven pm.

They also gave him a PDA with the data on all the information that had been gathered on the Yuthir-Eckbart reactor scare. Most of it was gibberish to Daniel, which made him wonder if they maybe didn't want to wait for the world-renowned physicist or maybe even one of the still smart scientists that were in the building. But all the leopard could do was remain quiet as they strapped the device, which they dubbed the Quantlet, onto his arm and primed it for him to the exact date and coordinates he needed to go. The second that it was ready Margaret and the other scientist looked at each other before they put in the final command and immediately ran back out of the ballistics testing ground.

The second that the two were clear Daniel watched as they lowered the cage of clear plastic down around him, which despite being able to see through was strong enough to withstand most explosions. It gave the leopard little confidence as even afterwards they backed up a bit more as his hand hovered over the glowing blue button that would activate it. A growing part of him wondered why he was doing this, testing an experimental device that could rip him apart was way above his paygrade. His fingers began to pull away before he saw something out of the corner of his eye, and when he looked up he saw something that caused him pause.

It looked like the scientists outside the cube were screaming, and when Daniel glanced over at where they were looking he saw someone in military fatigues and a mask running forward firing what looked like a pistol at them! Panic suddenly griped his entire body as he saw all of them duck and Darren pull out his own gun, though by this time it looked like the intruder had gotten close to the control box for the ballistics lab. Was someone trying to stop the experiment? If that was the case Daniel couldn't afford to stick around and pressed the button, the scene around him melting away just as the masked assailant was shot three times by the mustang and hit the ballistic glass...

The next time that Darren blinked he found himself in a small field, the sun beating down on him as he looked around in confusion. In the distance he could hear the sounds of the city, probably the one that housed the Yuthir-Eckbart reactor if their calculations were correct. When he looked down at the Quantlet is showed that he was at the time that they had sent him too, though there could have been a malfunction and sent him to any field in any time period whatsoever. He also saw that the time period he had just come from had been shifted to the top, moving perfectly in sync with the current time on the display. They had explained that it would automatically return him to that time once he was finished, all he had to do was hit the button and activate the device once more.

"You'd think they would have given me a list of time traveling rules," Daniel said to himself as he shed the extremely heavy and now moist suit, though he knew he had to take it with him for the return trip. "They always have rules for time traveling, like don't kill your own grandpa or step on a bug that wasn't supposed to be stepped on. I suppose though since I'm the first I have to kind of play it by ear..."

The leopard gave himself a few minutes to allow his fur to dry off, pulling off his waterproof fatigues and making sure everything was dry while he came up with a game plan. When he looked at the time once more he realized that he had the night to get situated, then infiltrate the facility in the morning. This was good since he had no identification that would work in this time period, another thing that he wished they would have thought of instead of just shooting him willy-nilly backwards in time. Either way it was something he would have to deal with now as he put his clothes back on and dragged the suit towards the sounds of the city.

As soon as he crested the hill and saw the town on the other side he realized he was truly in the past, seeing technology being used that he had seen in history books like cell phones and laptops. It was almost surreal in a way, like he had landed on an alien planet as he tried not to draw attention to himself when he walked among them. Thankfully army fatigues hadn't changed much in the last fifty years, and though people gave him a look or two from the suit he was dragging around or the device on his wrist it appeared he blended in easily enough. What he didn't see though was the antimatter reactor that was supposed to be built in the area, and when he finally asked someone where it was he was shocked to find that it was actually not in the town but a several hour drive up into the mountains!

Daniel groaned and put his hand on his head as he figured out just how far he was away from it. It was too far for him to walk without being too late and he didn't have a clue how to operate the vehicles that were driving down the streets. He needed a way to get up there, and after finding a discarded duffel that was large enough to fit the suit he began to run in the direction of the reactor while trying to hitch a ride. With the sun starting to set behind the mountains there weren't many that were stopping for him, especially as started to walk out of the city and towards the mountains.

Just as the leopard began to consider climbing up the cliffs himself he heard a beep and saw a vehicle slow down to a stop next to him. "Hey army boy," the german shepherd man shouted as he poked his head out of the window. "Where you heading?"

"Hopefully the same place you're going," Daniel replied as he tried not to look too eager. "Yuthir-Eckbart reactor?"

"Indeed I am," the canine replied. "You stationed up there?"

"Supposed to be," Daniel lied. "Unfortunately my ride never showed up and I've got to report in at sunrise. Mind sparing a seat?"

"Soon as I see some identification," the german shepherd replied. "Can't be too careful you know."

The leopard tried not to swallow hard as he reached into his pockets and looked for his military identification card, which he normally never carried on him when he was on base. Thankfully he found it in his back pocket, breathing a mental sigh of relief as he handed it to him. "Well that is one fancy card you got there," he said, Daniel wondering if he may have celebrated too early before the canine and smiled and handed it back. "Well hop on in Daniel, name's Walter, Walter Carlson."

Walter Carlson... as the feline hopped into the car it sounded familiar and when the german shepherd wasn't looking he pulled out the PDA and did a name look-up. It was one of the reactor team that was on duty at the time of the incident, another stroke of good luck on what was starting to find was a cursed mission. He quickly put the tiny computer away and then put on his seatbelt, smiling at the scientist as they started driving again. Along the way Walter thanked Daniel for his service, which the leopard nodded and continued to sneak peeks of the information along the way.

It turned out that the reactor was even further away than he had thought, Daniel falling asleep after talking to Walter for a while. When he woke up again it was to the sun shining in his face, the leopard snorting when he realized that it was morning once again. He looked down at his Quantlet to see that it was seven in the morning, and when he asked how much longer it would be he was informed that there were still two more hours and that the german shepherd had pulled over at a rest stop to sleep himself. Though he couldn't show it he cursed at himself mentally for not being awake to offer to drive, now knowing that he would have only at most five hours and change to prevent the end of the world.

When they arrived at the reactor Walter used his identification to get them both in, another obstacle that he managed to circumvent as they drove in and he parked his car in one of the spots. As Daniel got out and looked around it felt like a typical day, no dark clouds or ominous feelings... but he supposed if that was the case they probably wouldn't need him to intervene. In the end it was a sunny day as the two walked together up to the door and once more Daniel got access to the inside of the building. He thanked Walter and shook his hand, then as they parted ways he went straight for the reactor control room.

While the antimatter reactor was a sprawling complex the reactor control room was right at the heart of it, though Daniel couldn't take the direct route as he avoided other people and cameras to his destination. By the time he got to the main access tunnel it was already almost noon, which meant there was only two hours and thirty-seven minutes until the end of the world. He also found his first real road-block, a sealed door that needed not only biometric but also a complete face scan in order to get inside. There were also a number of cameras in the area that prevented him from tampering with the lock, which meant he had to find some way to fake his access inside.

"Great... where's Walter when you need him..." Daniel said as he scratched his head before gasping and snapping his fingers. "Wait, that's it!"

As quickly as he could without drawing suspicion to himself the leopard speed walked back towards the closest lunch room, scanning the crowd for any sign of the canine. He looked for nearly half an hour before he saw Walter walking in with his lunch, and when he did he steeled his nervous and took a deep breath before attempting to act nonchalant as he walked by the table the german shepherd sat at. "Oh hey, army boy!" Daniel heard, giving his best look of surprise when he saw Walter waving at him. "Come on over, don't be a stranger now!"

"Oh hey, Walter!" Daniel replied with a smile on his face, sitting down opposite him. "It's been so long since we last talked."

"It certainly seems so," Walter said with a chuckle. "So they get you all situated? Hope you weren't late but I needed to catch at least twenty winks before working a shift."

"I'm fine," Daniel stated. "They briefed me and got me my room before lunch, actually have me guarding the control room today once I finished up."

"Well no kidding!" Walter exclaimed. "If you have your hour break we can go and walk back together, be lunch buddies."

"Great..." the leopard tried to say enthusiastically as he looked down at the time on his wrist computer and saw it was twelve thirty-five. "An hour for lunch..."

Approximately an hour later the two walked down the hallway, Daniel trying to mentally will Walter to move faster as they got to the door that prevented him access. When Walter asked if he wanted to do the honors Daniel grinned sheepishly and stated that they said it might take a while to get into the system and didn't want to slow them down. That seemed to be enough for the canine and used his own credentials, once more the leopard making sure to stay out of sight of the cameras as best he could as he waited. When the door unlocked the feline had to restrain himself from knocking Walter over as they went up the stairs to the elevated platform.

"Here, let me show you to my workstation," Walter said enthusiastically as he motioned for Daniel to follow him. Though the leopard looked around worriedly he was now in the belly of the beast, which meant that at any moment this whole thing could go up in a mushroom cloud that destroys most of the planet. "So this is the lens alignment station, here we make sure that all the lasers that are fueling the reaction are properly focused."

"Huh, neat," Daniel said as he looked down at his PDA, trying to see if it was important only to have to shove it back into his pocket as Walter looked up and looked at him in question. "Oh hey, what's this?" He said as he picked up a small black casing.

"That right there is the first piece of antimatter we ever collected," Walter explained with a grin, Daniel looking down in surprise. "It's nothing special really, only a fragment of a fragment... still will knock your socks off if you crack the case open, you can even test it on a voltmeter at that terminal on the end." Walter continued to talk about it but the leopard's attention had been grabbed by two people arguing over something on their screen. He asked the german shepherd about it and was told that was the core temperature stabilization unit, which as he looked down at the time and saw it was almost two pm went over to investigate.

It turned out that the two were arguing over a bit they had made the night before, hearing them argue about sports teams that caused Daniel to turn back. With every minute that passed he could feel his stomach tighten into a knot; now not only was he potentially responsible for the end of the world but he was standing right at ground zero! As the clock ticked over to a quarter past two he needed to find out what was going to happen and soon, otherwise it might be too late for him to change anything. But he also couldn't act too suspicious, or else someone might actually ask for his credentials besides and when they ran his military id find out he hasn't even been born yet.

"Uh... hey guys," one of the scientists said at two twenty pm. "I'm showing an abnormal temp spike in sector two of the reactor. I think we may have a containment breach."

"A full containment breach?" another asked, going over to look at the screen. "Have you tried to put up the electromagnetic field to stop the bleed?"

"I already tried that," the first scientist said, his look of panic increasing as two of his screens began to flash with warning indicators. "We're going to need to go to red alert, sound the alarms right now! Evacuate sector two immediately and prepare for full containment lockdown!"

Everyone immediately began running and Daniel knew this was his moment, taking out the PDA in the confusion and looking at the screen. It took him a few minutes but he quickly scrolled down to where they had talked about the sector two containment breach and the steps that they had taken in order to stop the entire reactor from going into total annihilation mode. Just as he was about to try and grab someone to tell them what to do however the scientist had shouted for everyone to stop. He informed everyone that the teams managed to boost the field in the reactor long enough to stop the reaction and isolate the antimatter inside. The leopard stood there and looked around in confusion as the alarms went off and left the confused feline to sit there and wonder.

He went over to the other side of the platform and scratched his head as he tried to think of the reasoning for why things turned out fine despite his lack of involvement. As he looked over at Walter he wondered if it had something to do with the canine picking him up, but it didn't look like Walter even did anything to help with the containment. It all felt... anti-climactic in a way, and when he looked at his timer he saw that it was still two thirty-three pm. That's when he saw Walter's screen flashing, something that he was quick to point out to the canine.

"Hmmm?" Walter said as he looked down to see that it was flashing that the sector two lenses were misaligned. "Oh, that's just the fact they had to adjust the antimatter containment unit, with the reactor shut down there's no need to worry about that."

"Okay... I see your point..." Daniel stated as he saw his clock click over to two thirty-four. "But... let's just say hypothetically, the reactor wasn't off?"

"Well in that hypothetical this reactor explodes very soon," Walter replied with a chuckle as he gestured to the celebrating scientists. "Don't worry though, there's no way that the reactor could still be on and they don't know about it."

Daniel had a feeling that was exactly what was happening though as he put a hand on Walter's shoulder. "Maybe, just to be sure," the leopard suggested as he pointed at the screen. "We should go ahead and fix this right now?"

"Well that's the thing," Walter replied as he pointed to a space of six boxes at the bottom of the screen. "It will take me hours to figure out the exact points to put the lenses to properly focus the lasers along with a team down at the site itself to tell me if I'm on point, so even if you were right there's no way we could fix it now unless you got some lucky numbers in your pocket."

Daniel could feel his teeth clenching as the clock ticked over to two thirty-five, knowing that if Walter was right they were doomed and he failed to stop the apocalypse. Even if he knew exactly where in the data he had seen something about alignment numbers he wouldn't just be able to find them in two minutes unless he was in fact lucky... lucky... lucky numbers...

The leopard slowly put his hand in his pocket and reached around until he found the fortune from the cookie in his cereal, more importantly the lucky numbers on the back. Six numbers... but there was no way that those could be the ones, could they? "Hey," he said to Walter, pointing to the boxes on the screen. "If I gave you six numbers could you put them in for me?"

"Hey buddy, I'm not going to just put in six random numbers because-" Walter started to say before Daniel grabbed him by the collar.

"Put. In. The. NUMBERS!" the leopard said as he increased the pressure on his neck with his hand, seeing the screen on his arm tick over to two thirty-six. "NOW!"

Though Walter was practically trembling he nodded and turned around, punching in the numbers as Daniel gave them to him. Once the last one was finished the leopard could feel himself sweat as the words on the screen blinked. "ALIGNING..." it continued to flash, Daniel swallowing hard as he saw the others staring at him in confusion and knew if this didn't work he was in a lot of trouble... though the reactor exploding would render that all moot anyway. "ALIGNMENT COMPLETE, ANTIMATTER CHAMBER STABLE."

"Oh my god..." Walter said as he put his hand to his muzzle while Daniel practically collapsed after seeing his clock tick over to two thirty-seven. "They hadn't moved the chamber like they said... this whole thing would have blown in a matter of minutes. But how... those numbers..."

When the canine turned around Daniel had already bolted, the others watching him run out the door that was mercifully not locked from this side. The second he found a bathroom he went in and pulled on his suit as fast as possible, first kissing the fortune cookie slip before putting it in his pocket and pulling up the protective garment. "I don't know how it happened," he said as he put on his helmet. "But it's time to get the hell out of here!"

The second that Daniel pressed the button to return him he was hit with a blast of acrid air, the leopard suddenly surrounded by a blasted, ruined landscape. "What the..." he said as he looked down at the control panel on the Quantlet to see that he was at the right time and place where he had left only to find that it had shunted him to the nearest available location since where he wanted to go was unavailable. "This... isn't possible... the reactor didn't explode..."

Once more Daniel stripped off his suit and walked around, trying to find some semblance of the building he called home. Since MARI wasn't established until twenty years ago if the apocalypse happened it meant that it wouldn't be here, and that's exactly what the leopard found. With no trace he decided to at least see if the city that was nearby was still around. As he walked down the path and around the bend he did see the city that had been next to his work... or at least what was left of it.

The very air caused Daniel to cough as it burned his throat while he walked along the destroyed streets, trying to find what happened. Anything that could have given him a clue was gone and there was no power, much less computers that he could look up what happened. It was hard to understand why it looked like he succeeded in his mission but yet came back to the opposite outcome, though at the moment his mind was more focused on survival. He didn't know what other hazards besides choking air there was and needed a base of operations to figure stuff out if he was going to try and do this alone.

Except as he continued to walk he found that he was not in fact alone as he saw several shadows moving past him in the alleys. He slowly put his hands up and tried to look as non-threatening as possible, and when he did he saw several people slowly approaching him with handmade weapons. "No way..." he said as he saw a familiar equine step out among them, the others seemingly stepping back out of respect for him. "Of course he would also be running things in a post-apocalyptic landscape, just needs to ride a giant cockroach and have on fetish gear."

"You're... definitely not from around here," Darren said as he looked up him and down. "Are you from some sort of fallout shelter? A safe haven the disaster did not touch?"

"I'm... from the past I guess?" Daniel tried to explain, keeping his hands raised. "I actually came from a scientific institute that you were the boss of a bunch of scientists that saw the end of the world and tried to stop it by sending me to the antimatter reactor that exploded. I thought that I had succeeded... but it appears that I failed somehow even though I stopped it from going off today... err... fifty years ago today."

There was a murmur among the crowd that was quickly silenced by the equine, holding up his hand to stop the others from talking before he moved forward. "You say that you're some sort of time traveler?" Darren said, looking down at him as the leopard found himself swallowing hard. "Hmmm... well, you're too clean to be a scavenger and if you were a cannibal you'd be dead by now. I think that perhaps it's time we take you to the doc."

Daniel continued to keep his posture as passive as possible while following Darren into one of the nearby buildings that used to be a mall. Even though he was having trouble keeping track of where he was in the city he remembered that he used to go to this place, though it was slowly dying due to the advent of on-line delivery. Now it appeared to be a place where those who wished to live had huddled in order to avoid the choking ash and heat of the outside world. When Daniel was escorted in he saw that there were dozens of others, all of them eyeing him up like he was about to sprout wings and breath fire.

Thankfully it appeared that no one would make a move on their paranoia, the group walking down the broken escalator to one of the stores on the bottom level. When they walked inside Daniel couldn't help but gasp at what he saw. "Dr. Margaret?" he stated, causing the ferret to stop hastily scribbling on one of the many chalkboards she was surrounded by and walked over to him.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" the ferret asked as she looked him up and down, adjusting the leather jumpsuit that she had adopted instead of her usual lab coat he had seen her in. "No one has called me Dr. Margaret in decades, just doc." Daniel found himself taking a step back as she looked him over, her gaze halting as she saw the device on his wrist. "Where did you get this..."

"From you, actually," Daniel replied, the ferret adjusting her cracked glasses as she looked up at him. He proceeded to tell her the entire story of what had happened, from getting the Quantlet to going back in time and stopping the antimatter reactor from exploding only to end up here. He had to repeat himself several times since he could tell that a lot of the time she wasn't even listening to him and staring at the time travel device instead.

"Fascinating..." she said once she heard the entire story. "You know, I had read on the internet, when there was still enough power to access it, that there was someone that was shouting in the town near the reactor a few hours before the explosion that the reactor was going to explode. I even saw a video that someone had taken to mock him... some believed he was a prophet, and though it wasn't you there I certainly recognize the device that he had been wearing on his wrist."

"There was... someone else?" Daniel asked, the ferret nodding. "But as far as I know there was only one Quantlet. How is that even possible?"

"I don't know," Margaret replied with a sigh. "All I know is that the morning of the explosion a man was running through the town that was next to the Yuthir-Eckbart reactor; he kept screaming that his name was Dr. Edward Martin and that if someone didn't get him to the reactor soon everyone-"

"Wait..." Daniel interrupted, his mind flashing with recognition. Dr. Edward Martin... Edward Martin... where had he heard that name before? Then it came to him, it was Dr. Margaret that had said they were going to send a Dr. Edward Martin back through time! Except... they didn't, Darren had voluntold him for the mission instead since time was of the essence. How could it possibly be that he was a part of a timeline that wasn't supposed to happen because someone else went back in time, even though he was the one standing there with the Quantlet?

"Why..." he thought to himself, startling the ferret slightly. "Think Daniel... just think about the situation and work backwards. Darren said that Dr. Martin would have taken ten hours to arrive... which meant he probably got to the town later... and even if he had gotten there at the same time as me Walter might not have picked him up because he didn't have any identification..."

The leopard was practically pulling his head fur out as he felt his brain was about to implode. "Why me then?" he started to rant. "I wasn't even supposed to be at that meeting! If I hadn't gotten knocked out I would have continued my rounds and then went... off-base..."

Slowly the gears of his mind began to work as he pulled out the fortune from the cookie that was still inside his pocket. "I had everything that I needed in order to go back and complete the mission..." the pieces slowly began to fall into place as he looked over to Dr. Margaret, who had backed away slightly when he had started to shout at himself, and then held up the Quantlet. "Do you think that you could recharge this?"

"Recharge it?" Dr. Margaret replied. "I... don't know anything about it! Sorry, I know you said that I designed it but I wouldn't know where to begin, I was just going through college when the reactor blew."

"You have to try," Daniel said as he took off the device and handed it to her. "Just think of what you would do to build a time machine and then work your way backwards from that. The Dr. Margaret I knew had graduated top of her class and gotten her doctorate in theoretical physics before most were on their master's degree."

"There's one more thing..." she said as she held up her hands. "You also mentioned that this runs on antimatter, and I know you're not from around here but we don't exactly have batteries of the stuff lying around."

Daniel frowned as he realized that Dr. Margaret was right, he had spent the last of its juice getting to this point in the future not expecting he would need to find some antimatter gas station. But he told himself that he had to get back and then remembered that he might have a battery after all. He whispered a silent prayer as he reached into his pocket and wrapped his hand around something, immediately breathing a sigh of relief. The object he pulled out of his pocket was the shard of antimatter from the reactor, and though he felt bad about taking Walter's souvenir he was going to save his life and the lives of everyone past and present as he handed it to Dr. Margaret.

The ferret decided to give it a shot and Daniel went off to talk to a few others, mainly Darren, about what had happened after the reactor explosion. It turned out that while it hadn't destroyed the world it got pretty close; the portion of the planet that hadn't been completely decimated after the chain reaction were forced to deal with no power and little sunlight. Even in this area that had been somewhat sheltered by the mountains starvation and the harsh environment had taken its toll to reduce the population to what it was now. As he continued to listen he lost all track of time, not even knowing how long it was until Dr. Margaret had called him back to her room.

"You should be glad that I had enough foresight to put in an adapter port to transfer antimatter charge," the ferret said as Daniel looked at the glowing button on the device excitedly. "Unfortunately there wasn't enough charge there to get you back to the reactor, or really anywhere, at any time in the past."

"That's fine," Daniel replied, taking the Quantlet and putting it back on his arm. "How long were you able to get me back?"

"Twelve... hours..." the ferret replied, holding her head down as Daniel began to suit up. "I'm sorry... that was all that I could get out of it..."

"Don't be sorry," he said as he finished up, looking down at the clock to see that it was currently four in the afternoon. "If my theory is right this is all the time I'm going to need." Once he finished gearing up he looked at Dr. Margaret and motioned for her to back up. "Alright, if this works I'll never see you again... at least not this version of you."

"I think I prefer the version of me you were talking about," the ferret replied. "Good luck!"

Daniel nodded and immediately pushed down on the button, feeling the wrenching feeling of being pulled back in time once more. It didn't last long however, in fact it only took a blink and he found himself standing on the polished floor of an art supply store. There was no ferret, no debris, nothing of anything really since it appeared this store had been out of business. What the most important thing was however was that he was no longer in the apocalypse, he was back in the good timeline at four in the morning the day before the reactor explosion fifty years ago.

"It worked!" Daniel shouted, holding his hands in triumph as he looked around. "I did it, I'm back in my old timeline!" As the reality of where he was continued to settle around him it dawned on him where he was. "...and I'm in the mall, of course, Dr. Margaret said she couldn't adjust the location at all."

With time ticking away he didn't have time for subtlety, heading to the back of the empty store and kicking down the back door. Sirens immediately began to blare in his ears as he ran to the nearest exit and pushed his way through it, running from the area as fast as he could. Fortunately the mall area was bordered by woods on one side, the same woods that were also on the perimeter of the SARI building that he worked on. As he ran his way through the thick underbrush he could hear the sound of sirens pulling up to the mall, luckily he would be long gone before they even would think about searching the woods as he continued to his destination as fast he could...

By the time Daniel emerged from the words the sun had just started to peek over the horizon, the leopard picking burrs and twigs out of his fur as he did so. He had ditched the suit a while ago, keeping only the Quantlet as he carefully made his way to the perimeter of the building. Thankfully he actually did have an identification card as he opened the door and carefully walked through the darkened hallways. It was almost six-thirty now and there was very few people mulling around since most security checks started at seven. His current objective was to head to Darren's office, but as he did he passed by the break room for military personnel that caused him to stop dead in his tracks.

This was where he found the fortune, he thought to himself as he walked inside the empty room. He went and grabbed his box of cereal from the shelf and looked inside, finding no fortune cookie hiding there for him to find. "This is stupid..." he thought to himself. "I'm here now, why don't I just put the fortune in my own pocket?"

Not a step out of place... the words of the sabrewolf echoed in his head. He didn't know how or why but somehow him finding this cookie in this cereal box was important enough for him to go through the work to put it here. The leopard went over to the fridge and rummaged around the leftovers, finding some Chinese food that from the smell of it had turned a while ago. More importantly though he found a fortune cookie, taking it and unwrapping it before he tossed it in the cereal box.

Before he did though he noticed something that wasn't right; when he had found the cookie in the first place the fortune was completely inside, this piece of paper was sticking out of it. He grabbed the cookie once more and carefully pulled out the paper, seeing a completely different fortune than the one on his paper. "Well that would have caused the end of the world," the leopard muttered to himself as he crumpled it up and tossed it in the trash. "But if that's the wrong one... then where's the right slip?"

It took him a few seconds to think about it before he reached into his pocket and once more pulled out the slip of paper with the numbers on it that would save humanity. Even though nothing about this seemed right he knew he was running out of time and carefully slipped the paper into the cookie before sealing up the box and putting it back on the shelf. Just as he walked out he had to duck into the bathroom as he saw a black-furred lupine turn the corner to head towards the kitchen. He waited a few minutes for them to pass so that they didn't tell his past self that they had seen him earlier, but that also brought up the reminder that he actually had to go to breakfast. Normally he woke up so late that he would just skip breakfast... a problem that he was going to have to rectify.

At seven twenty-two he used his own key card to gain entry to his room, sneaking over to his nightstand and taking the alarm clock off of it. It was bizarre to look down at himself as he fixed the wiring in the same manner that Terry had done so that the snooze would activate the radio. As he watched himself turn over in his sleep it was like a mirror whose reflection didn't follow you, something that caused him to shudder. Part of him wondered what would happen if he woke up just now and saw himself... probably cause the world to implode he thought as he put the modified clock back down. Once he was sure that it was in the same spot he crept back out of the room, looking down at his clock while moving off further down into dorm.

"Alright, if I did that right then I should be going to breakfast and getting my fortune cookie so I can save the world..." he muttered to himself. "If I keep going with what happened to me that day then I would do patrols, until..." remembering what happened next caused him to rub his forehead. "Oof, glad that it's not me that has to go through this again..."

A few hours later Daniel found himself in the aeronautics section of the lab, carefully following himself as his past self did his rounds. Though he wasn't quite sure what to do at this point he knew that he would get knocked out by the door and helped up by the lion who did it, then it was a quick sprint to the infirmary. As he turned the corner to keep behind he saw something down the other hallway that caused him to pause. Even though he knew it couldn't be he had to check it out and ran down the other way to see if he could confirm what he thought he had seen.

It took a few minutes to catch up but when he did what stood there was something that caused him to freeze in his tracks. It was the lion from before... the one that is supposed to be in the office to knock him out. Was it possible that he had his timing wrong? Daniel quickly ran back through the hallways to catch up with where he imagined that he would be, trying to get ahead so that he would be able to gauge how long it was until he was supposed to get hit. As he passed by the windows that showed the courtyard from the two buildings he stopped when he saw his shadow race forward and reflect on the other corridor wall.

At first maybe he thought that he had stopped himself in time, but he suddenly heard footsteps coming towards him that indicated this would not be the case. From the leopard's recollection of the events he would soon be turning the corner, which Daniel figured would not be good if he just suddenly saw himself. Thankfully one of the first doors that he came across was not locked, sliding inside and quickly but carefully closing the door behind him. He breathed a sigh of relief before taking a look around his surroundings. As he took in the features of the office of one of the scientists he realized something that caused his face to fall in both shock and dismay...

"No..." he whispered to himself. "It couldn't be me... could it?"

For a few seconds Daniel paused dead in his tracks as he heard the past version of himself run by, staying frozen in place with his ear to the door. "Hello?" He heard his own voice say from the outside, the current Daniel cursing as he slowly opened the door a hair before letting go of the doorknob. "If you're out there and don't want to be tased you'll identify yourself right now!"

The current Daniel did a mental five-count before he took a step back and kicked the door open as hard as he could. "Mother F-..." he heard before the sound of someone collapsing on the ground, the leopard peeking his head out to see himself flat on his back. It was clear that he was out for the count, but he didn't have too long to stand there as he could hear the lion that would rescue him running up on their position.

After whispering an apology to himself he closed the door and ran, turning the corner just as the good Samaritan came and looked over his past self. With that checked off his list he ran as fast as he could and made a loop, changing the direction of several of the arrows to the infirmary in order to buy himself more time. He managed to get there first and found it empty, Dr. Buck not having been called down yet. It wasn't enough that he had knocked himself out, he thought as he rummaged through the drawers trying to find what he was looking for, he had to make sure he was down for the count.

Finally he found the autoinjector capsule for the sedative that the doctor said was accidently used on him, then went to the autoinjector pens in order to replace the cartridge... only to find six sitting on the table. This wasn't good, Daniel thought to himself, if he didn't get the right one then who knows what would happen? With his past self making his way here he closed his eyes and concentrated, trying to remember where Dr. Buck's hand was when he picked up the autoinjector.

"One... two..." he said, replaying the interaction he had with Dr. Buck while holding his hand over each one. He watched in his mind as he mimicked the doctor's hand as best he could until he believed he was in the right spot. "Three..."

He picked up the third one and opened the canister, quickly replacing the metal cylinder with the one he had taken before putting it back in its proper place. It wasn't a moment too soon; Daniel had to duck behind the counter as he heard the lion haul his past self into the room and onto the exam table, followed by the doctor. Though it was hard to see from his hiding place he saw that he had made the right choice as Dr. Buck used the tampered autoinjector to administer the drug and then left to do his rounds. The second that he saw his own form pass out on the table Daniel made a run past the table, not even stopping as he took out his military identification and threw it on him for later.

"This whole time thing is giving me a headache..." Daniel said once he was clear of the infirmary, looking at the Quantlet to see what time it was. "Alright, time to go and talk to Darren and convince him that I should be on the mission. I must say something very inspirational..."

A few hours later Daniel watched as his tactics came out into play, hearing Darren mention everything he had told him like wanting to volunteer and not waiting for the expert to come in and do it. That left only one thing left to do... but that involved access that he didn't have. Luckily there were a whole mess of people that were access it for him, all he had to do was sneak into the group and blend in. As the meeting was about to come to a close Daniel went over to a nearby intersection they would have to use and grabbed a lab coat... then as he realized that they might recognize his face from the meeting also grabbed a scarf and hat hanging there and put it on as well.

Just as he got it wrapped around his face he heard the hoard of scientists making their way to the restricted section, which was Daniel's queue to do so as well. Everyone was so preoccupied with the mission they hardly noticed gaining an extra member or that the extra remained behind after they had spread out through the section once the elevator reached the bottom. Daniel pulled off the hat and scarf and snuck over to another area of the lab to look for the protection suit that they would present him with shortly. It didn't take long, the metal case gleaming near the ballistics testing site.

"Man, I am just being cruel to myself..." he muttered to himself as he pulled out the suit and searched for the cooling unit. "What does this have to do with me going through time? I'm already on the mission, do I have to be extra sweaty for it to work?"

Despite his reservations he reassured himself that at least he wouldn't be doing it anymore as he ripped the cooling unit out of the suit and packed it back up. He quickly but quietly moved over to the other side of the lab as the other scientists moved to get the unit just as he saw them grab the compromised suit. "I guess all that's left to do now is wait..." he said to himself once he had maneuvered himself to the other side of the room away from the testing area.

"Wait for what?" A voice said behind him, Daniel feeling a chill go down to the bone as he turned and saw the draconic sabrewolf standing behind him. "Aren't you supposed to be... you know..." he gestured over to where they could clearly see his past self standing there putting on the suit. "Over there?"

"It's..." Daniel said as he felt himself swallow hard. "Complicated..."

"Not really..." Serathin said casually. "You're from the future whose come to this point to ensure that you get back in time. Right?"

"Uh... yeah, actually..." Daniel replied. "How did you know?"

"It happens more often than you think," Serathin stated. "So are you done yet or is there more meddling you need to do?"

"I think that-" Daniel started to say before he realized something that caused him to gasp. "No wait, you need to tell me something about everything needing to be as it should be, that I can't have a step out of place! It's how I figured out what was happening in the first place!"

Serathin nodded and gave Daniel a salute as he walked over to the ballistics testing area where his former self was getting set-up to tell him what he had just said. That was it... Daniel thought with a little laugh, he had done it! He watched as the shielding went up with his past self in the middle of it, waiting for the other Daniel to press the button. The seconds passed and there was still a bit of hesitation... and the longer it went on with his past self hovering his hand over the button the more he wondered what could possibly be going wrong...

"That's right..." he said suddenly, snapping his fingers. "There was someone that started shooting in the lab, and I thought that we were under attack and that prompted me to press the button." His eyes went wide as he looked from his past self to Darren, then over to a case that held various weapons. "Wait... that means I'm going to get shot!"

Daniel's heart leapt into his chest as he could almost start to feel the timeline starting to slip, but he knew that the horse was a crack shot and likely put one between his eyes if he came out firing. Was he really going to have to sacrifice himself for the sake of the future? He knew it had been a possibility, but right now his past self was wondering if this was even worth it and might stall out the entire test. If that happens he might not get there in time to meet Walter, which means that he wouldn't get to the reactor in time... and then he wouldn't have a future at all.

The leopard knew what choice he had to make and ran over to the gun case, opening it and taking out one of the pistols as well as a clip. His hands were practically shaking as he starting running for the control panel, yelling and firing the gun into the air. Almost immediately everyone started screaming as he continued his push, knowing that on the other side of the glass his past self was seeing his own future unfold before his eyes. As he continued to run forward everything seemed to slow down; Daniel could see Darren slowly unholster his own weapon as he passed the corner of the ballistics testing ground. Just as Daniel closed his eyes he saw something on the boxes in front of him that caused him to reach forward just as the barrel of the stallion's weapon pointed straight at him.

Daniel brought the flak jacket that had been sitting there and held it up to his head just in time to catch the bullet from hitting him square in the forehead, though the force still caused him to fly backwards and hit his head against the reinforced glass. He slumped to the ground as darkness quickly overwhelmed him, feeling something dripping from the back of his head. He was out before he hit the ground, the last thing he remembered was Darren standing over him with his gun drawn for a split second. The stallion shouted something, but by that time the leopard had completely faded into unconsciousness...

*************************************

When Daniel's eyes opened again he found himself in the hospital bed of the infirmary, Dr. Buck checking his vitals before turning to see him wake up. "Well look who returned to the land of the living," he said with a small grin. "Darren is going to be very happy that you're up, he's been here every day to give you a hero's welcome and apologize for shooting you."

"A... hero's welcome?" Daniel said as he winced, bringing his hand up to where gauze was wrapped around his head. "Wait... what day is it?"

"June thirteenth," Dr. Buck replied as he slid the chart down into the slot at the front of his bed. "You stay there and I'll get you something to drink as well as call Darren and the others down. Even though the flak jacket saved you the bullet caused your head to hit the glass pretty hard, you were lucky your skull wasn't fractured."

All Daniel could do was nod, his head throbbing even with the drugs being pumped into him as the deer left. Once he was gone another figure entered into his vision, a smile on the face of the sabertooth muzzle. "It appears that your mission was a success," Serathin stated. "I just came by to wish you congratulations, that must have been quite the ordeal. I have to head back to SHIFT but you've definitely given me something to talk about when I get back."

"Yeah... I suppose so..." Daniel said, watching the draconic sabrewolf start to walk away before he sat up and pointed at him. "Wait!" Serathin stopped and turned around, grin still on his face. "I still have so many questions; like how did I get the fortune if I was the one who planted it or how I knew I would have to tamper with the protective suit so that I would leave behind my flak jacket?"

"Still thinking of time like that are we?" Serathin replied with a chuckle. "The sooner you realize that time is merely a construct the faster you can start breaking these rules that you've all imposed on yourselves. You can only imagine how time after time I have to explain that to people... but I think if you stick with Dr. Margaret you'll find out soon enough, I have the feeling the Quantlet is far from being retired."

Daniel looked down as he tried to process what the hybrid said, but when he did think of a question and brought his head back up the creature was gone. He scratched his head, which caused him to wince, then laid back down in the bed. It was more questions than answers running through his mind, but as he laid there alone he hoped he would get to the bottom of it. He hoped that Dr. Margaret would let him use the Quantlet again...

"She does," a familiar voice says as Daniel felt the presence of another, his eyes widening as he bolted upright to see someone standing there with the Quantlet on his arm and dressed in a far sleeker full-body protective suit than before. When the visor of the helmet was pulled up his jaw dropped seeing his own face, save for a bit older and with a scar on his muzzle as his future self held out hand. "Get up Daniel, we've got a lot more work to do this time..."