The Paradox Corridor

Chapter 30: A New Possible Reality

"Holy cow," said Andrew, "What the heck happened to her? Are you saying that we have that gene? Because in that case, I would like you to know that I do not want that to happen to me. That looked like it hurt!"

"What happened to her was that emergency teleport-away-from-danger thing that I told you about earlier," said the Paradox Corridor, "Her gene must have reacted to her being in inescapable danger, and transported her away."

"So...we have that gene?" asked Amber, still not believing all of this.

"Yes, yes you do," replied Lyle, "This is the first time in a million recorded years that not one, not even two, but three people have been born at the same time with this randomly mutated gene. When you add in the fact that all three of you were born on the same planet AND are all best friends...well, its nothing short of a miracle."

"So let me get this straight," said James, holding up his hands, indicating that he wanted no interruption, "So all three of us luckily have this incredibly rare gene that protects us from the effects of time travel. Because of this, we are the perfect candidates for saving the world from paradoxes that will affect our world in less than two hours. But we have no other special skills to speak of, and we just learned about all of this stuff today. Am I missing anything?" he asked. Then, he started; "Wait a minute, how did you guys know we had the gene?" Lyle answered,

"The Paradox Corridor invented a scanner that looks for any sign of this gene. It went off three times in one year, and we managed to get the records of your DNA from your blood with a lot of paperwork involving your doctors."

"Anything else?" asked James.

"You're missing the fact that we've been attacked by a robot and an alien shapeshifter for absolutely no reason at all." put in Amber.

"Other than that, though, you haven't missed anything." said the Paradox Corridor. James sighed.

"Great..." he said wearily.

"Don't worry, though," added Lyle, trying to cheer him up, "Its not like we're going to send you in without any help or tools. The Paradox Corridor has another unique ability I forgot to mention earlier: when it sends people through time, it provides them with some pretty impressive skills. Remember earlier when the Paradox Corridor increased all of your athletic abilities? It was able to increase your abilities based on your situation. However, when it sends people through time, it doesn't just enhance any old abilities: it enhances abilities that are prevalent to that specific time period. For example, if you got sent to the future, you would suddenly be able to fly a spaceship perfectly, as well as shoot laser guns and laser cannons and cool stuff like that."

"Soooooo basically it temporarily gives us useful super powers." stated Andrew.

"Yup!" said the Paradox Corridor, "Isn't that cool!"

"I guess so," replied Amber, still not sure if she was willing to put herself in danger, "but can you guarantee that we will be safe? That we will get back to our families in one piece?"