Chapter 1: Welcome!

	You were at the testing facility bright and early today. Wanted to make a good impression on your first day of sciencing! You enter the doorway and scan your ID.
"Alright, mister Anon, go on through."
You smile and walk on through. The men in lab coats greet you, one of them being an old colleague from Stanford University.
"Anon! Good to see you friend!"
"Hey, Phil, what's good?"
He sets his clipboard down with various scribblings on it.
"Nothing much friend! You here for the teleportation experiment?"
You nod and he points you to a door.
"Right that way Anon! Happy trails! Or whatever it is you say in America."
You chuckle at his attempt to make an American joke and jog off to the test area.

	You slip on the helmet of your PME suit and the HUD flickered to life. They still haven't figured out how to make a good HUD system yet? No matter. You had a test to run! The suit was brown with green joints. It was a military project after all. You tested out the suit and all the servos worked like they should. Didn't know what was on the other side, since no successful recovery has been made. That is, until today. You were tasked with taking an ATV with a trailer of supplies through this portal. You would set up a return portal and do recon of the area. This would give the guys back home some time to locate your portal and establish a stable connection. The announcer comes on the intercom.
"Anon. To. Sector. H. Teleportation. Lab."
The automated announcer cuts out and you jog off to the lab.

	You reach the lab and see the ATV and cart sitting by the ramp. It was a Gator UTV with an enclosed cab and a long 4 wheeled trailer attached to it. The scientist operating the portal controls got on your coms.
"Ah yes, Anon I presume? Just step into the Gator and I'll walk you through what we're going to do."
You nod and open the door, grabbing the keys from the seat and hopping inside. You grabbed the battery sitting in the passenger's seat and connect it to your suit's input. You feel your suit jolt and the HUD slowly went up from 0 to 25 percent power. The suit's announcer spoke up.
"Power twenty, five, percent."
It was almost like the announcer dude listed off numbers and they just called it a day. Probably was knowing Gamma Industries. The portal in front of you shook before ripping open, glowing blue with white outlines.
"Alright Anon, the portal is open. Start the Gator and proceed through the portal. It should pull you in once it comes in contact with you."
You turn the key and the little engine sputters to life. It sounded very angry, like it had chihuahua syndrome or something. You chuckle at that and proceed towards the portal. You stop suddenly, forgetting something.
"Anon! Remember your safety belt!"
Right. Need to buckle up or the space police might come knocking. You buckle the seat belt and continue onward, stopping at the edge of the portal. You look behind you and the scientist gives you a thumbs up.
"See you guys later, hopefully."
You go forwards and the portal sucks you through.

	You expected it to suck you in, but you didn't expect it to be so violent. It felt like you were being thrown into the seat as it pulled you forwards. You black out.



	You're jolted awake by your suit's nagging.
"Warning! Vital signs critical!"
You look and see your state of being is not doing very well. The suit displayed your well being as 'health' and it was at about 15 percent. You immediately felt why. Your legs felt like they were crushed and your left arm felt like jello. You grabbed the medical kit from the top of the UTV and hooked it up to your suit. It pumped some green liquid into your suit and your legs felt good enough to walk. You grabbed the door handle and pulled, making a metallic THUNK as it pushed the door open. You limped back to the bed of the Gator and picked up 3 medical kits. You injected all 3 of them and your health read 100 percent.
"Vital signs, normal. Have a very safe day."
You chuckle at the enthusiasm of the announcer man. You look around you and take in the environment. It was a dark forest and you were next to a pond. It must be night by the look of things. Speaking of night, you were still incredibly tired from getting up so early. Guess you can set up the pop tent and sleep until morning. You grab a pop tent from the bed of the Gator and toss it on the ground. It inflates and you lean against the Gator.
"I wonder what the atmosphere's like."
You check your PME suit's atmosphere diagnostics and revealed the atmosphere was almost identical to earth's. Meaning you could take this fucking helmet off. You unclip the helmet clips and twist, pulling it off once you did. You take a breath of air and it seemed fine. It smelled damp, but that's probably because you were near a pond. You weren't thirsty or hungry and your suit said you had enough calories to last a few days. You could go to sleep without dying at least. You opened the pop tent up and unrolled the bedroll, setting yourself on top of it. You closed your eyes and fell asleep almost immediately.

	You awake to the faint sound of birds chirping and frogs croaking. You've never heard real frogs before, considering you were raised in the city. You smile and crawl out of the tent, hoping to get some work done today.

	You have set up your camp and the teleporter. It didn't take much time, considering the teleporter was mostly complete when you unpacked it. Just needed to put a few bits together and push the transmit button. You also set up the solar panels and collected some water for drinking. The microbes were almost identical to pond scum on earth, according to your PME. This was very convenient. You are looking through your hard cases that were in the back of your Gator. You found quite a few useful things as well as some things you weren't expecting. Some trail cams, a large bore rifle of some kind, a regular AR-15 with an auto sear and ACOG sight, trip flares, ammunition, a couple of revolvers, a month's worth of MREs, some climbing gear, a jumpsuit, binoculars, and some grenades. Wait, grenades? Climbing gear? What the fuck were they planning on sending you to? Iraq? Well, whatever. You had em, so you might as well keep em. You take a closer look and see a severed rifle stock with instructions rubber banded to it. It showed you that there was a little 22 rifle inside. That's cute! You take a closer look at the revolvers and see one of them is massive. You flick open the cylinder and see why it's so big. The size of the chambers were a half inch wide. Seriously, what the fuck is the point of something this big? You grab some of the massive rounds from the hard case in the bed of your Gator and drop 5 of them into the chambers. You flick it closed and put it onto the magnetic holster.
	The other revolver was much tamer. It was a 357 magnum with walnut grips and a matte black finish. You flicked it open and saw it was already loaded. Lucky you. You put it on the magnetic holster in place of the massive 50 caliber revolver. You grab the big bore rifle and look it over quickly. It was an elephant gun. A Ruger Hawkeye chambered in, wait, is that right? It says 458 Winchester magnum. Were these fucks trying to blow your arm off? Then you remembered. PME suit. Riiight. You pull the bolt back and grab a box of ammo, loading a stripper clip of 3 rounds into the magazine before putting the clip back into the box. You put the box of ammo into your pack on your back, taking 2 clips and putting them in your belt storage pouch. You grab the 22 rifle-in-a-stock and put that in your backpack before setting up a charging station.
"This should keep me going for a while."
You connect the charger to your port and it starts to pump a mixture of hyper-conductive fluid and electrical energy into your suit's reservoirs. When you were completely filled up, you head out, hoping to find something.

	You had been walking for almost an hour now, but your suit was making it easy. You had the rifle in your hands as you walked. You also put the helmet back on because you felt like having a flashlight on your head. You felt at ease, walking through the woods. The birds singing away, the crickets chirping. You were enjoying yourself. That was until you heard a rustle in the bushes. You raised your rifle and pointed it towards the sound. You instantly felt like you were being watched. More rustling came from the bush in front of you.
"Hello? Who's there?"
The thing hiding in the bush burst out, slapping you to the side like a rag doll. You check your health and it's still at 100. Your energy went down from 100 to 89 from that one hit. Holy shit. You aim the rifle at what had slapped you and immediately thanked whoever gave it to you. It was an 8-foot tall grizzly bear, on its hind legs. It came back down to the ground and roared, charging. You take aim with the massive rifle and squeeze the trigger. A massive bang echoed through the trees and the round slammed into the bear. It stumbled before falling over, not dead but not able to get up either. You rack the bolt and get off the ground, rushing up to the wounded creature. It was trying to flail its arms at you, so you leveled the gun with its head.
"Sorry friend, but you drew first."
You squeeze the trigger and fire a shot into its skull, making it fall limp. You rack the bolt back again, and turn back around, wanting to get back to your camp before any more bears try to make you lunch.

	You reach your camp and immediately feel something is off. You drop to the floor and crawl towards your camp. You find out why your spidey sense was tingling. Somebody was walking around your camp. They were poking around your Gator. You crawled a little closer and saw it wasn't a person. It looked like an animal of some kind. But it was standing on 2 legs! You slowly get up, leveling your rifle with the creature.
"HEY!"
It wheels around and you see what it is. A white-tailed deer anthro in a flannel shirt and jeans was staring at you with a shotgun in hand.
"DROP IT!"
They drop the gun on the ground and raise their hands into the air. Then they speak.
"W-who are you? What're you d-doing here?"
It was female. A doe.
"I'm, uh, camping! What are you doing?"
She's shaking like a leaf now.
"I-I was j-just going f-for a hike! N-nothing much!"
You sigh, slinging your rifle.
"Do you have a name?"
She's slightly less scared now since you weren't pointing a gun at her.
"M-my name's Samantha b-but you can call me Sam."
You reach up to your helmet and undo the clips. You twist the helmet and pull it off you, revealing your face to her. She sees it and screams bloody murder.
"OH MY GOD WHAT ARE YOU!?"
You're a bit offended by her rudeness.
"I could ask you the same thing!"
She hyperventilates a bit before calming back down again.
"S-sorry, I just, I'm sorry."
You sigh, putting your helmet back on, clicking it in place.
"It's fine, lot's of people react to me like that."
You feel a singular tear make it's way down your face, making its way over all the scar tissue before pooling at the bottom of the helmet.
"W-wait, are you, an ALIEN?"
You snap out of your self-pity and chuckle.
"That's one way to put it."
You hold out a hand and let her take it.
"Name's Anon. Nice to meet you, Sam."
She smiles at that, having calmed down now.

	You were sitting around a campfire with Sam while she asks you questions.
"What's that thing over there?"
She points to your teleporter.
"It's a teleporter, well, sort of. It's more like a beacon. It tells the scientists back on my homeworld where I am and allows them to bring me back. But it's going to be a while before they find the beacon so I have time to explore."
She nods before asking another question.
"What's that you're wearing? It looks like something out of a video game."
You smile, happy to nerd out about your PME suit. But first, you need to take this helmet off. The filtered air is starting to get to you. You unclip the clips and take the helmet off, a slight hiss coming from it. You set the helmet to the side and look back to Sam. Her ears flick back and her jaw tightens, obviously not comfortable with your look yet.
"This."
You point to your suit.
"Is the PME suit Mark 7. The acronym stands for Protective Mobility Enhancement. With it, I can jump higher, run faster, and I'm protected from most kinds of hazards."
You pull out your magnum and hand it to her.
"I'll demonstrate."
You put your helmet back on and stand up pointing at your chest.
"Shoot me."
Her ears go flat.
"W-what!? No! You could get hurt!"
You smile under the helmet.
"Sam, I'm protected by so many rare earth metals and hyperconductive fluid that it would make a tank blush. Believe me, a .357 magnum isn't going to put a dent in it."
You slap your chest again.
"Now shoot!"
She points the gun at you and pulls the trigger harshly. The round impacts your chest plating and you fall over from the force. You hear the gun drop and her footfalls rushing towards you.
"OH MY GOD ARE YOU ALRIGHT!?"
You put your thumb up and the suit helpfully informs you.
"Warning! High impact reactive armor: Activated!"
"I'm good!"
The HUD's power dropped from 89 to 81 and you smile before getting up.
"See, totally fine!"
She smiles with an open mouth, impressed that you could take such a massive impact and live.
"That's amazing!"
You offer her a seat next to you by the fire when your suit starts freaking out.
"Warning! Sensor anomaly detected!"
That's not good. You grab your big revolver from the back of the Gator and check to see it's still loaded. You go back to the campfire and immediately feel watched. You speak in a hushed tone.
"You feel that?"
She looks to you, suddenly worried.
"F-feel what?"
"We're being watched."
She immediately brings her shotgun to bear on the woods, sharing your sense of dread now. It was like this before an ambush back on earth. You shudder at the memory and push it to the back of your head. Your thoughts then rush to plausibly deniable creatures of American myth. A feeling deep inside you told you it was true, but your logic said it was bull crap. You were going to trust your gut on this one.
"If this is what I think it is, don't shoot until you have a shot. It'll toy with us before going for the kill."
Her ears flatten and you see the shotgun shake in her hands.
"W-what is it?"
"I don't know what it's called here but back where I come from, we call them skinwalkers."
Her eyes go wide and she scoots closer to you.
"I'll get the pop tent if you want to hide in there. I can handle myself."
You slap your armor again and her ears raise slightly.
"I-I'd like that."
"DANGER! Sensor anomaly approaching!"
You rush over and grab the pop tent, dragging it over by the fire and opening the canvas door.
"Hop in."
She dives in and you close the door. You hear the snapping of twigs and childlike laughter. It's definitely what you thought it was. Shadows began to dance just outside your vision. But you had a plan. A very stupid plan. So stupid that it just might work. You grab a bucket of water from your Gator and toss it over the fire, putting it out immediately. Step one complete. You flick on your night vision and scan the woods. It was like looking into a daylit forest. You saw it, the lanky thing with a pale face and massive eyes. You track it with your big ass revolver and it moved out of your line of fire. You track it the whole way, trying to convey that it's fucked. It's permanent smile switches to a frown as it realizes it's being watched. You flick the hammer back and squeeze the trigger.
BANG
The massive revolver flips up and pushes you back from the sudden recoil. Then, an ear piercing screech comes from the woods. You look to where it was and see it hopping from tree to tree. It's main advantage, the darkness, being stripped of it. It was trying to confuse you by jumping around the place. You take aim again and flick the hammer back. When it lands in the next tree, you pull the trigger, letting a 50 caliber slug fly into the spook. It lets out another screech, scampering from the tree back off into the woods. You smile, content with it fucking off. You flick off your night vision and turn the suit's flashlight on. It illuminates the pop tent and you wave Sam from the tent. She squints her eyes and picks her shotgun from the ground.
"Is it gone?"
You nod.
"Yeah, I got 2 good shots on it."
She smiles before hugging you.
"Thank you!"
You're taken aback by the sudden gesture.
"I, uh, you're welcome?"
You pat her head and she lets go. You point to your Gator before speaking.
"Are there any towns around here? I can take you there in my Gator."
She nods and you smile, opening the door up for her.
"Ladies first."
She blushes and hops inside.
"Th-thanks."
You close the door and walk to the other side, getting inside before turning the key. The engine turns over and starts up before you flick on the lights. They illuminate the woods in front of you and Sam points to the right.
"Just keep going that way and we'll reach the town I live in. I hope my roommate won't mind me bringing a friend home."
You put the Gator in high and speed off, leaving the teleporter and other things behind.

	You enter the town at about midnight, passing by various buildings and shacks. It looked relatively normal aside from all the animals walking on 2 legs.
"Stop!"
You step on the brakes and look around to see if you hit something.
"We're here."
You sigh, confirming that you didn't hit anything.
"Mind if I take my bags inside? I don't feel like leaving them out here in the open."
She smiles at you.
"Of course! You did save my life after all."
You really hope this doesn't end in sex. You don't want to get some random deer girl pregnant. You snap out of your train of thought when you realize she's already at the top of the stairs. Oops. You open your door and grab your hard cases, closing it with your foot. You feel your rifle clatter against the metal of the hard cases as you hop up each step. When you reach the top, you see the door is open already. You step through and see it's pitch black inside. Fuck that, flashlight time. You turn the flashlight on your shoulder to half power and it illuminates the hallway. You see a deer girl staring at you, fiddling with some keys.
"Hold on a second, I just gotta, got it!"
She sticks the key in the lock and turns, making the door click.
"Danny, I'm back!"
Danny? A dude? A decidedly female voice responds.
"Sam! Where the hell were you! I was worried I'd need to pay rent by my self!"
You chuckle at Danny's lack of sympathy and walk over to introduce yourself. You see a cheetah girl standing in the doorway and set your hard cases down, offering a hand.
"Ooooh! Sam finally coming out of her shell! Who's the buck? Does he have antlers?"
"I'm afraid I have no antlers and I'm not a buck. I'll be happy to show you my face once we get inside, but for now, I'm Anon."
You wave your hand and put it back in front of you before Danny takes it.
"Oh, well, nice to meet you Anon! Sounds mysterious!"
She sure is excitable. You smile and pick up your cases, Danny moving out of your way. Your rifle clanks on the hard cases as you walk inside. Danny asks a question.
"Is he moving in with us? Can he help with rent?"
"W-well, no, he isn't exactly from here. Like, not from anywhere around this star system."
The room goes dead silent as you set your hard cases down by the couch. You get a look around the room and see it's very 90's esque. Big box TV on a massive entertainment stand in front of the couch, a coffee table made of wood and a white plastic computer on a desk hooked directly to a phone line. You shudder remembering the dial-up tone of AOL. But this all begs the question.
"Uh, excuse me, what year is it?"
Sam looks back from Danny and smiles.
"It's 1999."
Wow. At least they have the same time system as you do. In fact, most of the things you've seen so far are almost identical to your world. That's kind of a buzz kill. Thought you were going to see some Aliens type stuff.
"What year is it back where you come from Anon?"
You smile, knowing what's coming next.
"The year back where I live is 2020."
They both gasp, eyes lighting up like the fourth of July. A flurry of questions followed.
"Oh my god! What are cars like in the future!?"
"What happens to video games!?"
"Are we on Mars yet!?"
You put your hands up and laugh.
"Whoa, slow down! I just got here and haven't even introduced myself properly to Danny. I can answer your questions later."
Danny looks puzzled, having shaken your hand.
"What? I thought you introduced yourself earlier? Is this some sort of alien tradition?"
Whoa, she's really open to the idea of you being an alien. Must be nerds, considering the internet connection and computer.
"You're going to want to sit down for this."
Ren and Stimpy plays in the background as Danny walks over to the couch, sitting down.
"You're not going to have a dick for a head are you?"
This makes you laugh.
"Heh, dickhead. That's funny. But no, I just don't want you to pass out and hurt yourself. Are you ready?"
She nods her head eagerly. You smile, hoping she won't be too horrified. You unclip the helmet and pull it off quickly. Her reaction switches from excitement to disgust in a second.
"Ew gross! You said you wouldn't have a dick head!"
She looks back at you and her expression changes from disgust to curiosity.
"Wait a second, don't tell me you're a-"
She gets up and studies your face, running her fingers over your scars before beaming.
"A HUMAN! OH, MY GOD, THEY'RE REAL!"
She does a fist pump and runs into her room. You have a feeling that you may have just made a huge mistake. You look back at Sam who's also beaming.
"What's this all about?"
She's practically vibrating with how fast she's jumping. Then you have an epiphany. A very disturbing epiphany. These ladies might be the anthro equivalent of furries. You look around and it only confirms your fears. Pictures of humans drawn at vastly differing skill level. You cringe hard and realize that you just entered the worst place a man could walk into here. A goddamn human fetishist home.
"Now hold on just a second. I don't want to be someone's body pillow replacement. Can you just cool your fangirling for a second so I can explain things?"
She stops bouncing and must've realized how autistic she must look.
"S-sorry, I just got really excited that humans are real. People kept telling me that I should find a nice buck and settle down but, I just couldn't! I knew humans were real! I knew it!"
Danny rushes out of her bedroom and holds a camera up to your face.
"Say cheese!"
She presses the button on top and the camera clicks. She pulls a floppy disk from inside the camera and rushes over to the computer. God dammit they have digital cameras?
"I'm gonna upload the photo to our chat room! Don't use the phone please!"
Sam just nods frantically and you just sigh.
"I'm going to take this suit off real quick. Do you have a bathroom I could use or-"
Danny answers.
"You can use mine! It's in my room!"
You nod and take out a jumpsuit from a hard case. This is going to be the end of you.

	You are finally in your jumpsuit and have your PME suit locked upright. Even if they do manage to get inside it, they won't be able to use it at all. You know they're going to want you to sleep with one of them and you have no intentions of doing that. Getting raped was not very high on your priority list right now. You exit the bedroom and see Sam and Danny huddled around the computer screen. A familiar AOL tone was heard and you walk over to the computer.
"YOU'VE GOT MAIL!"
"Check it later! We got things to post!"
You sigh, going back to the couch and laying on it.
"Either of you mind if I use the couch tonight? I don't feel like getting torn apart by mythical creatures tonight."
Sam laughs.
"Sure Anon, I'll get a blanket."
She walks over to a closet and gets a blanket out and throws it over to you. It smelled like fabric softener and lavender. You drape it over you and begin to drift off to sleep to the clattering of keys and wacky sound effects of Ren and Stimpy.

	You wake up to the Recess theme song. You smile, it bringing back memories of simpler times. You open your eyes and see all the characters replaced by various anthros. Cool. You stretch, yawning away the remaining tiredness. You look up at the clock and see it's about 8 AM. Looking behind you towards the computer, you see Danny has her head in her arms. Must've fallen asleep last night waiting for something. You pull the blanket off you and get off the couch, walking over to Danny. You don't dare read the chat, lest your eyes melt from the pure cringe of early internet slang. You shake her shoulder and she groans.
"Nooooo, five more minutes."
"Well, you gotta get up some time. Might as well be now."
She instantly bolts awake and looks up at you.
"It wasn't a dream!? YAY!"
She pulls you into a hug and you look away, uncomfortable with the fact that an apex predator is giving you a hug. She lets you go and her ears go flat.
"Sorry, I get really excited sometimes. B-but we have food! You guys eat, right?"
You nod. She must have ADHD or something.
"I have food in one of my hard cases I can share with you two."
She gets off the computer, turning it off and spinning around in the desk chair. You are already at one of your cases before she gets up. You pull out 3 MREs and set them on the coffee table before knocking on Sam's door.
"Sam, you up?"
Scrambling is heard on the other side of the door. Guess that's a yes.

	You pour water inside the FRH and watch it steam up before closing it. They tried to feed you ramen noodles, but you already said you had your own food. These poor girls are probably fresh out of college with no money for real food. They were both amazed by the FRH.
"How does it work?"
"I honestly have no idea. It could be magic for all I know."
Sam was thoroughly disappointed with your explanation. By the time you had gotten some more water for the drinks, the FRHs were burnt out and your meals heated.
"It's not gourmet by any stretch, but it's better than eating ramen every day."
You pull out your chili-mac and start chowing down.

	When the girls were done with there food, they looked content. Hopefully, Danny won't try to eat you and Sam now.
"Well, I gotta get in my suit and get back to the teleporter. I've got more science to do."
Danny eats the rest of the wheat snack bread before responding.
"CAN WE COME!?"
"Ow, inside voices, please. And yes, if you don't shout like that all the time."
Her ears go flat and she whispers.
"Sorry."
You smile and walk into the bedroom, slipping into your PEM suit. It was nice not needing a team of technicians to get inside for once. You grab your helmet and flick the switch on your hand, engaging the suit's power assists. You grab your keys and cases and call them over.
"It's gonna be tight, but you 3 should fit."
"Is that a fat joke?"
"No, it's only designed for 2 people. Even though there are 3 seatbelts, the third is mainly for a child."
You adjust the grip on your cases and walk out the open apartment door.

	You reach the camp sight in about a half hour. It wasn't as tight as you expected, Sam sitting in the middle and Danny sitting in the passenger's seat. The other anthros gave you disgusted looks as you passed by. They must think you look like a burned monkey or something. Sam had told you she was also a scientist and that today was a day off. Danny was a software engineer for a computer firm similar to Apple. Why they still lived in an apartment eating ramen was a mystery to you. You got out of the Gator and turned it off, grabbing your cases from the rear and setting them down on the ground. You saw the scientists had been able to pinpoint your location and send a message, but they were having trouble getting a solid connection. This gave Sam an idea.
"Try boosting the signal from your antenna by hooking up more power. Like, try using the alternator from the Gator to give it some more juice. They might be able to get a solid connection then."
You slap yourself mentally for not thinking of it yourself. You grab some wires from the trailer and hook them up to the alternator, starting the engine once Sam connected them to the antenna.
"Give it some gas!"
You steadily press down on the pedal and the engine revved more and more. Sam watched the tracker on the teleporter as the signal became stronger and stronger. Just before you reached maximum RPM she got a solid lock and returned the signal. The teleporter rotors start spinning and increase in speed. You put your helmet on just in case things start to go wrong. They start to glow as the phase 2 emitters come online. Oh shit, the stage 2 emitters!
"GET BACK NOW!"
You hop out of the Gator and rush over to Sam who's still typing away on the keyboard. You grab her and throw her back before the blast throws you forward. You slam into a tree before everything starts to fade.

	You wake up on the ground, suit beeping frantically.
"EMERGENCY! User death imminent!"
You cough and feel liquid fly from your mouth. Your head is spinning and you slap the button on your chest.
"Morphine administered."
You immediately feel the pain go away and get yourself off the ground, coughing up more blood as you walked over to the trailer. You grab a medical kit and attach it to your suit, draining the green liquid from the canister before dropping it. Your health readout said 27. Holy shit balls you just barely made it. You use 3 more of the kits and get yourself back to 'full health' before checking around for your friends. Sam was laying on the ground with Danny standing over her. You run over to them and slide down by Sam, checking for a pulse. Your PME suit detects a pulse and you breathe a sigh of relief.
"She's alive, just knocked out."
Danny looks at you and gives you a hug.
"Thank you, Anon. I thought you both died!"
You turn back to the portal and see it's locked now. All the science team had to do now was stabilize the connection and come through. You pick up Sam and carry her to the pop tent you have set up and set her inside, letting her rest on the inflated mattress.

	You left a medical kit by Sam with instructions, just in case she actually was hurt. You leave the pop tent and decide to go back to town. Before you leave, you give Danny your magnum and some extra speed loaders in case she came across any bears. You brought some gold with you to trade for money at a bank so you could pay for stuff. You rode off to town to get some better food from a local store.

	You entered the bank and took off your helmet out of respect. You immediately regret your decision. Everybody who sees you either screams, backs away, or gets in front of a loved one. God dammit.  You walk up to the counter where the clerk is counting up some kind of money. You clear your throat and she looks up at you.
"How can I he-JESUS CHRIST!"
You set a small bar of gold on the counter and speak.
"How much would this be worth in your money?"
She looks to you and back down to the gold bar. She gets out a scale and takes the bar from the counter, weighing it before figuring it weighs about 5 pounds. Her mouth widens and she looks back up to you.
"Where did you find this?! Did you steal it?!"
Your expression soured.
"I didn't come here to get insulted, ma'am. I just want to know how much my gold is worth."
She realizes the rudeness of her question and shrinks back a bit.
"Y-your gold is worth about 93 thousand dollars."
You smile, knowing the scientists back home would treat you well.
"Do you have that much money here or do I need to go somewhere special to sell it?"
"No! We have the money here, just give me a moment."
She takes the gold bar and runs into the back. When she returns, she's holding a large duffel bag of money.
"Here, now go, please. You're scaring the customers."
You sigh and leave, hefting the multi-pound sack of cash to your Gator before tossing it inside. When you get inside, you start it up and go over to the supermarket for some real food.

	You slap a wad of money on the counter as well as all your food. You bought about 20 pounds of meat, various different veggies, and some candy as well. When Sam woke, she was going to need some sugar. You also bought some ammunition that you honestly didn't expect to see in the supermarket. You tell the cashier to keep the change and not bother to ring any of it up. 2k would definitely be enough for all of this. The customers behind you all sighed in relief and you walked out the door with your cart full of food and ammo. When you get outside, you realize that there are some rather shady looking characters looking around your Gator. You pretend not to notice them and walk up to the Gator with your helmet on. When one of them steps in your way, you realize it's a jackal and he's about the same size as you. He speaks up first.
"Hey buddy, I don't know if you know, but this is white jackal territory. We don't like no green and brown assholes coming and buying up all our meat. So hand it back over or there's gonna be trouble."
You see one of his buddies draw a snub nose revolver and another takes out a knife. You smile underneath your helmet.
"Alright, I'm going to enlighten you, delinquents, before I have to kick your asses, okay? First. This suit is bulletproof and can even take a fucking rocket before failing. So that little peashooter that you're holding, isn't gonna do shit. Secondly. If you so much as try and stab me, I will break your arm in 5 different places and crush your fucking hands into a red paste. Finally. I'm on a tight schedule. One of my friends is in serious trouble in the woods. I'm bringing her food so she doesn't fucking die. So please, do what's best for all of us and go be a thug somewhere else."
They all flatten their ears before the leader chuckles.
"You're bullshitting us. Look at this nerd cos-playing in shitty video game armor!"
They all begin to laugh and their resolve increases. You sigh and the man holding the revolver aims at you and fires. The shot bounces off and you flinch. When you open your eyes again, all you can see is sand and 3 jihadis holding you hostage. You disarm the one with the revolver and toss it behind you, the next one goes in for a stab, but you take control of the blade and kick him back. The last one rushes you with a hammer, screaming as he went. He swung the hammer and you grabbed it mid-swing. His eyes open wide as you rip the hammer from his hands and crack him in the side of the head. He falls to the ground, limp. You let the one who had the gun flee, he posed no threat to you. You come back to reality and see a jackal bleeding on the ground and another embedded in a car. The last one is running away screaming like a little girl. You smile and get into your Gator, leaving before the police could arrive.

	You come back to the camp where Sam and Danny were waiting for you. It was getting dark out and you doubt you'd make it to town before dark, so you decided to just stay there and camp for the night. Sam came up to you and gave you a hug.
"Anon! You're back! We were getting worried when you had been gone for almost the entire day!"
You smiled at them and patted Sam on the head.
"I had to go into town to sell some gold and get money. Bought about 20 pounds of meat as well as some veggies and candy for you two. Got shot at and had to beat up some thugs from the, uh, white jackals?"
Sam's ears go flat when you mention them.
"Oh god, what happened? Did they hurt you? Did they steal anything? Did-"
"Sam, I'm fine. They tried to shoot me but I pushed their shit in. Why? Are they really that big of a deal?"
She nods violently.
"They terrorize anyone who dares to take any meat from the supermarket! It's terrible!"
So that's why they still live off of ramen.
"Well, I think I almost killed one, the second one is stuck in a car and the third one ran. They won't be causing any trouble anymore."
"Anon, that's not it! They are massive! They're like a crime syndicate!"
She's getting a little too excited.
"Calm down Sam, they won't hurt you two while I'm around."
She smiles at this.
"I know, I just don't want them to hurt you is all."
You slap your armor again.
"I'm a literal walking tank, Sam. I think I'll be fine."
She giggles at this.
"I guess you're right. Now let's eat, I'm starving!"

	You ended up making a roast over the fire, fending off bugs until you decided to throw some leaves on the fire. Sam told you she was able to eat meat, so she ate along with Danny and you. You decided to inform them about the money.
"Okay, so I went to the bank today, and the lady told me my gold bar was worth over 93 thousand dollars."
Sam dropped her plate on the ground and stared at you.
"What?"
Danny almost drops her plate, but she's a little bit less dramatic.
"I guess the scientists back home didn't know how much I'd need. So they just gave me a fucking huge bar of gold. But that's not all. People were so terrified of me, the clerk kicked me out after I got my money because everyone was freaking out. Why is everybody so impolite?"