Chapter 1: Unwelcomed Surprises

Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Doctor Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator, and vanished. He awoke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear; and so, Doctor Becker finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping that each leap will be the leap home.

Before Sam could even comprehend that he had leaped, he heard a ferocious array of snarls assaulting him from all sides. He looked down and saw before him quite a large scrap of meat, then allowed his eyes to drift northward until they settled upon one of the many owners of the snarls, a barbaric looking black-furred wolf with piercing emerald eyes which stood like a hellish demon before him. Sam saw this and he felt his stomach leap up into the base of his throat, for he had always heard stories of the wickedness of the wolf, and wondered now just what he had gotten himself into. On the verge of panic, he allowed his eyes to dart rapidly about his vicinity and found that he was surrounded on three sides by these evil creatures, then finally chanced a glance behind him and found that he had been backed into a wall. Sam swallowed hard and allowed his eyes to turn to the front once more, then closed his eyes.

"Oh boy."

A&Ω/QL

Being a time traveler can have its advantages, and it can certainly have its drawbacks, but I've come to realize that more often times than not, there is always a surprise waiting around every corner. I've been leaping around for quite a while now, taking the forms of many different and often times unexpected bodies, but never before had anything like this occurred.

Α&Ω/QL

The wolves laughed at his fear and pressed closer, now within only eight feet of him.

"Sam," Doctor Becket heard a wanted and familiar voice whisper from beside him.

Sam's eyes shot open and he turned quickly to the side.

"Al," he whispered loudly in both relief and surprise, "Al what's going on?"

"Shut up, mutt," the wolf before him growled, "you ought to have known that you could never steal from us and live to see the next day."

Sam was shocked by what he had heard.

"You- you can understand me?" he asked the wolf apprehensively, keeping a careful eye on the other two.

The wolf scoffed.

"Don't play dumb, kid," he demanded, "of course we understand you."

Sam glanced over to Al, silently begging him for his help, but he seemed oddly distracted by what he assumed was his chosen form; how he hoped that this form wasn't another attractive woman.

"What is the matter, Al?" Sam asked shakily, pressing himself further against the face of the rocky formation of upon which he had been forced.

"I- I don't believe it," Al mused, obviously astounded by what was going on and clicked on his remote.

"Al," Sam called desperately.

It was at this moment that the wolf before him made his move, launching himself at the doctor with his claws and fangs bared, ready to rip him apart. Acting quickly by using the skills he had learned in Karate, he countered the wolf's attack and struck him hard in the face, but what surprised him was what he had for a fist- a grey paw.

His eyes widened.

"Holy crap Al," Sam cried, averting another attack from the wolf of his right, "I'm a wolf!"

His adversary struck ground and picked himself up while the third launched into action, taking advantage of Doctor Becket's brief window of distraction and delivering a forceful blow to the side of his face. Being struck so unexpectedly, Sam fell to the ground, but as the wolf made another move to attack him, he swept his assailant's legs and knocked him to the ground.

Knowing that he did not have much time, Sam scrambled to his paws, finding a sort of new stability upon the realization that he had been transformed into an animal, and began to quickly figure out ways to utilize this new body of his.

Another wolf took a swing at him, but he deflected the blow and delivered one of his own to the wolf's chin then gripped his shoulders by digging his claws into the flesh and grappled him into a second, knocking the both of them to the ground. They rose, but were hesitant to attack him again.

"What are you waiting for?" the black wolf demanded with a growl, "get him!"

The two shook their heads, temporarily relieving themselves of their fear and began to approach Sam once again, growling menacingly with their gums writhed back to the roots of their fangs.

Sam was frightened out of his mind still, but disguised it well by putting out what he hoped looked like an intimidating snarl, but clearly it was not enough, for the two lunged at him again.

Sam waited until the absolute last moment before making his move, and when the two were so close that he could smell their breath, he ducked beneath them and kicked one in the side of his face as soon as he landed and threw an elbow into the other as he turned, knocking both of them out.

It was then that Doctor Becket turned his attention to the black wolf, but as it turned out, he was a coward. Knowing that he could not match the wolf before him, he turned and fled, leaving his comrades behind to suffer whatever fate his enemy planned for them.

Relieved that he had actually won, Sam lowered his head and began to breathe heavily.

"These two will be awake in a few minutes," Al informed quickly, "we'd better be out of here before they come to."

Sam nodded in agreement and began to walk quickly in any direction he saw fit, for he had not a clue where he was or what was going on, but knew that staying would be suicide.

He padded along, though awkwardly, for, though he knew the general gist of how his paws functioned in relevance to his body, he still experienced difficulties in not tripping over his feet.

"So tell me, Al," Sam began, glancing over to his holographic counterpart, "what exactly is going on?"

Al furrowed his brows together and clicked on his remote, but frowned when all he received was an obnoxious wail of white noise rather than the text which would explain for both of them the situation at hand; however, with a single forceful bump against his palm, the device began to function properly and he nodded, but as he began to read, his face once again melted into a frown.

Doctor Becket picked up on this immediately with his new canine sense and turned to him.

"Al?" he asked perturbed.

"Eh- Ziggy can't make heads or tails of this," Al began, lowering the device and turning down to Sam, "and neither can I. None of us ever thought something such as this was even possible."

Sam turned forward once more, taking a moment of silence to collect his thoughts, then saw that they were approaching a small creek. With a sigh, he approached and sat down at the water's edge, staring at his reflection intently, studying his keen, golden eyes and matted, grey fur. He saw that he was abnormally lean, likely malnourished, which would probably be the reason why he had stolen from the wolves he had tangled with earlier. He was amazed, confused, and frightened at the same time.

"Why a wolf," Sam asked, continuing to stare at his reflection, "I mean, what sort of significance could one wolf make in the grand scheme of things?"

Al shrugged.

"I don't know, Sam, Ziggy's working on it as fast as he can, but in the meantime, you need to keep your head down a d stay out of trouble. I'll be back in touch," he said, opening the door to his time.

"Wait, Al," Sam called, turning to him quickly before he could disappear, "what am I supposed to do in the meantime? Where do I go, I don't know how to be a wolf."

Al sighed.

"I'm not sure, Sam," he replied matter-of-factly, "just, walk around or something, or... I don't know, just do as you think a wolf would do until I get back and we'll get this whole things straightened out."

He turned and stepped into the white rectangle of light which was the passage back to his time and pressed the button, beginning to close the door.

"Wait, Al!" Sam called, rising to his paws, but the door shut and Al was gone, leaving the doctor alone with still so many questions swirling about in his head.

He sighed and turned down to his reflection once more, contending himself by staring silently at it, mentally asking himself questions, but for each question he asked, he had no answer, so he decided to cease the assessments for now and set his mind upon other things, like figuring out how to become fully one with the body he was now in.