Running around with Cavendish and Dakota, Orton had been able to find a lot of inspiration for his show. He couldn't wait to get back to his own time period and get to work. The world was at stake now, so he'd been trying to put his curiosity and inspiration on hold. He may not be able to do an awful lot to help take on the pistachions, as he wasn't a fighter or an experienced time traveler, but he'd been trying to hold himself back at least to not distract his new friends.

When they went to enlist the help of a man named Professor Time, or Heinz Doofenshmirtz, Orton had a hard time holding on to his restraint. The man was a scientist, an inventor, and a person with a very interesting personality. After being at his home for only five minutes, Orton didn't think he'd be able to keep himself from asking questions. There were so many strange inventions with odd names hanging around. Orton desperately wanted to have the chance to pick at Doofenshmirtz' brain, even if just for a few minutes. Orton thought he'd be able to get a lot of ideas for his show from this man. Doofenshmirtz' home looked like a place where science fiction came to life.

Orton couldn't ask as the moment though. Doofenshmirtz was busy as work building a time machine, and they couldn't really afford distractions. Orton couldn't even question Cavendish and Dakota, because the two of them were helping him. Dakota was using his supercomputerness to get access to blueprints and instructions to make a time machine. Cavendish apparently wasn't much of an inventor, but he was dashing all over the lab, grabbing every little thing that Doofenshmirtz requested, including a couple of snacks.

Not wanting to get in the way, but feeling the need to do something productive, Orton went out onto the balcony and looked out over the city. He could see a lot from up here. Maybe not little details, but with nobody on the streets at the moment, he'd be able to tell right away if pistachions were on their way, or if Milo was coming back.

As Orton looked out over the city, he hummed what Milo had said was going to be the theme song to his show. As Orton hummed he pulled out his notebook and began to look over all the notes he'd made so far. He knew he wanted to have time traveling in his show, but he wasn't entirely sure what to do with Dr. Zone's traveling companion. All he knew was that he wanted it to be something weird.

A few minutes later Orton still hadn't gotten anywhere with Dr. Zone's companion. He didn't even know whether he should have one consistent companion, or switch it up every once and awhile. He was almost ready to move on to something else when Dakota stumbled out onto the balcony to join him.

"Any sign of him?" Dakota asked. If Orton didn't already know that Dakota was a computer, he wouldn't have believed it after hearing his tone like this. Dakota sounded very vulnerable and distressed. Orton had met parents who weren't nearly as concerned about their children as Dakota was about Milo.

"I'm afraid not," Orton said apologetically. Dakota groaned and leaned against the railing. "It's only been a few minutes though, hasn't it? Give him time."

"I know," Dakota said. "I just...he shouldn't even be out there. I feel like there should be something that I could have done differently so he wouldn't have ended up in this mess in the first place."

Orton didn't know what to say to that. Maybe there was something that they all could have done differently, but it couldn't be healthy to focus so much on it. Orton didn't think that anybody, not even time travelers, should be so focused on the past.

Orton didn't know how to fix something like this, but one thing that he was really good at was distracting people from their worries and problems. That was why he had gone into television show making in the first place. "Did you ever watch my show?"

Dakota looked confused for a moment before he shook his head. "I can immediately access all the information about your show, but technically, no, I haven't watched it." Orton wasn't even disappointed to hear it. He had heard a lot about his show from Milo, but maybe he shouldn't be told everything. If he was just told exactly what he should make, then could he really claim that Dr. Zone was his show?

"Well, maybe you can help me anyways," Orton said. "I don't know what I should do with Dr. Zone's companion. I figured if I was going to base Dr. Zone off of Cavendish, then you could be the inspiration for his partner."

Dakota didn't seem completely invested in the conversation, as he was busy looking over the balcony for Milo, but he gave Orton a look to show that he was at least listening. Orton continued. "I want there to be something weird about him, but I didn't want to just go with a supercomputer like yourself."

Dakota hummed slightly. "With science fiction, the sky's the limit. You get to make up the rules of your world. If you don't want something to be human, there are a lot of possibilities."

Orton nodded. He was aware of that, but he needed something to go off of. "What's your favorite non-human or computer creature? Real or fictional." A small smile slipped onto Dakota's face. It seemed like distracting him was working, at least a little bit.

"I like animals," Dakota said quietly. "We don't get very many of them in the future. Any animals that aren't extinct are kept away in a secure location so they're not put at risk, so…"

Orton's eyes widened in horror. "You don't have animals?" He hadn't thought a whole lot about animals. He didn't hate them, but he wasn't exactly the biggest fan either. But hearing that animals were practically extinct in the future, it was completely terrifying. "Well, what kind of animals do you like?"

"Uh, all kinds of them," Dakota shrugged. "If you want the animal companion to catch on and be accepted by general audiences, you should probably use either an extremely cute animal, or one that while not human, looks and acts a lot like one."

Orton hummed. He didn't think he wanted something especially cute. It just didn't fit in with his vision. He wasn't the most original person with ideas, so the first humanoid animal that came to his mind was the animal that was most closely related to humans. "What about a monkey, or an ape?"

Dakota grinned. He looked really happy with the idea. "A time traveling ape...you know, I kinda like it." Orton grinned and began to sketch out the ape in his sketchbook. He didn't want it to be completely naked, because it was still a humanoid figure, and it just didn't seem appropriate, but if he had it wearing too many clothes, it would just look like a hairy person instead of an animal. So the ape needed clothes, but definitely not too much. He settled for just a pair of shorts that resembled Dakota's style.

Dakota leaned over and watched as Orton drew. It definitely looked like an ape, but Orton wasn't quite satisfied. It didn't look quite weird enough. It just looked like an ape wearing shorts. "It needs something,"

Dakota looked around the balcony as though for inspiration. A moment later he grinned and went back inside, grabbing a tacky old clock from the wall. Dakota faced Orton and held it up in front of his face. "What about adding something that makes it clear that it's a time traveler?"

"Weird," Orton gave a small laugh as he erased his ape head and began to sketch a clock in its place. "I like it,"

Dakota grinned, but then he suddenly stiffened. He grabbed Orton's hand and pulled him down to the ground. "Pistachions are heading this way."

"What?" Orton lowered his voice. He knew there wasn't that big of a chance that they would be overheard, but it was his instinctive reaction. "How can you tell?"

"I've been keeping an eye on the city's traffic cam system, just in case," Dakota said. Pistachions are just a few blocks away, and coming this way."

"And you think they'll come here?" Orton whispered anxiously. "Do they know we're here?"

"I don't think so," Dakota said. "I think they're here for Doofenshmirtz. If we know he can help us, they might know he can do something to stop them."

"We need to leave," Orton began to crawl away from the balcony. Dakota followed him.

"No, we need to get the time machine finished." Dakota said. "The city's under the pistachion's control. Anywhere we go, they could find us. The best way to get away from them is to retreat into the time stream."

"But I thought we needed time juice," Orton frowned. Dakota scowled.

"We'll have to go get Milo," Dakota said. Orton knew that at least part of his motivation was because he was concerned about the boy being out on the streets, but he did have a good point.

"Do you know where Milo lives?" Orton asked. Dakota nodded. "Then the two of us should head there and meet up with Milo. You can use your sources to help us avoid the pistachions."

Dakota grinned, looking sincerely relieved. "I can do that," Dakota seemed to want nothing more than to feel like he could help Milo. He'd been really upset when Cavendish had suggested that he stay behind because he would be more useful with them than with Milo.

Before they left, they checked in really quickly on how the time machine was gong. "How soon do you think you'll be done?" Dakota asked.

'Shouldn't be long now," Doofenshmirtz said. "We just have some finishing touches and the time juice."

"We're going to go get that now," Dakota said. "We're going to try to be quick. Pistachions are coming this way."

"Pistachions?" Cavendish looked incredibly concerned. Dakota nodded and his eyes flashed. A moment later Cavendish flinched, not necessarily from pain, but from surprise. "Ah, I see where they are."

Orton raised an eyebrow. It seemed as though Dakota had transmitted an image over to Cavendish. Fascinating. Orton made a mental note of it. He hoped he remembered to put it into his notebook when he had the time.

"Does the time machine look okay?" Doofenshmirtz asked before they could leave. Dakota barely glanced in towards it.

"You're a skilled inventor. You have my basic blueprints, and you have your skills." Dakota said. "As long as you don't include a self destruct button, we should be fine,"

Doofenshmirtz huffed unhappily. "I still don't see why I can't have a self destruct button. What if pistachions try to steal the time machine and use it against us? How else are we supposed to stop them?"

"I can hack into and overwhelm the systems," Dakota said impatiently. "But I told you, Murphy's Law won't mix well with a self destruct button," Doofenshmirtz didn't look happy, but he didn't argue more about it. "We'll be back as soon as we can." Dakota said as he grabbed Orton's hand and pulled him towards the exit.

Because Dakota knew exactly where the pistachion threat was, the two of them were just able to rush out of the building towards Milo's house. Orton wasn't used to running with so much urgency. He liked the thought of action and adventure, but he didn't know how to react to real danger. It was a lot different from make-believe adventures that he was completely responsible for creating and had total control over. Orton didn't want to let the world down, so even though he was tired, a little sore, and very scared, he just continued following Dakota.

After about five blocks of running, Orton heard a dog barking. It was the first other living creature he'd heard since they'd arrived in this time period, so even though it wasn't an especially threatening sound, Orton felt scared. He grabbed Dakota's arm and pulled him to a stop. Dakota didn't look even a little concerned. He looked relieved.

"Diogee," Dakota knelt and a moment later a dog came running around the corner, right into Dakota's arms. Dakota laughed as the dog jumped and licked him enthusiastically. "Your owner here with you?"

"Diogee, don't run off like that," Milo came out from where the dog had come. He looked surprised but thrilled to see them. "Dakota, Orton, what are you doing here?"

"Pistachions are on their way," Orton said. "We need to get going."

"I was so worried about you, kid," Dakota stood up and put an arm around Milo's shoulders. "Don't do that again." Dakota had definitely been more worried about Milo's safety than their mission to save the world.

"Sorry," Milo apologized. "I got the clock, though." He pulled away from Dakota and grabbed the clock from his backpack.

"You did great, kiddo," Dakota said as he grabbed the clock from the boy. Milo grinned broadly. He seemed so happy to have Dakota's approval. "Now let's go before the pistachions get to Doofenshmirtz place."

Milo bent down and picked up the dog. "Come on, Diogee. I'm really glad you were at home, for once, but it's not safe there anymore. Stay here with us." Diogee looked ecstatic about this idea. The dog looked like there was nowhere else he would rather be than at his owner's side.

The strange teal platypus that had accompanied Milo made a chattering noise as he gestured to Doofenshmirtz' building in the distance. Orton had never thought that he would ever follow a platypus' lead, but there was a first time for everything.

Perry the Platypus moved ahead of the group, constantly looking back to make sure that they were following, and keeping an eye out for a potential threat. Orton had never thought that animals could actually be secret agents, but seeing Perry the Platypus at work, it was believable.

Things went well for a few minutes, but unexpectedly a tall tree fell from a nearby yard. Dakota and Milo seemed to react as one. Dakota grabbed Orton's arm and pulled him out of the way of the tree. Milo leapt back and tightened his grip on his dog.

"Milo!" Dakota rushed towards the fallen tree, which was covering the entire street. Orton had no idea who thought it would be a good idea to have a tree this massive in the middle of the city. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Milo said. "It was just Murphy's Law. Something was bound to happen sooner or later,"

"It couldn't wait another two minutes?" Dakota growled, his eyes flashing irritably. "That's all we needed!" They were just a few yards from the entrance to Doofenshmirtz' building. They were so close.

"I'm sorry, Dakota," Milo said, sounding truly distressed at upsetting his friend. "I can't control Murphy's Law. It just happens."

Dakota groaned and ran a hand through his hair. "I know kid, I know, just…" Dakota sighed. His eyes flashed again and he looked down a neighboring street in alarm. "We're running out of time. "Milo, can you climb up and over?"

"Uh…" Milo didn't sound so sure. "It's a pine tree. There aren't any branches I can grab on to."

"The pistachions will be here in a minute," Dakota said. "We need to get into the time stream."

Orton looked at the clock in Dakota's hands. If the pistachions truly didn't know they were here, and they were just here for Doofenshmirtz, then maybe Milo could find a place to hide away for just a little bit. "Milo, do you know of anywhere safe you can go?" Dakota turned and gave Orton a look of disbelief.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Milo said. He seemed to understand what Orton was saying. "You guys go and get time traveling. Don't worry about me."

"Wha-Milo!" Dakota moved like he was going to try to climb over the tree himself. "Milo, don't even think about it."

"Sorry, Dakota," Milo said quietly before they could hear the sound of him running in the other direction.

"Milo!" Dakota sounded equally furious and terrified. Orton had to grab his arm to pull him back. They definitely didn't have time for this. They had to go.

"He'll be fine," Orton said, but Dakota wasn't listening. Dakota knew better than Orton did that the pistachions were practically right on top of them, and yet he was more concerned about being separated from Milo. Orton didn't know what to do. He wasn't going to leave Dakota, but he wouldn't be able to get upstairs and get the time machine going in time if Dakota was fighting him every step of the way.

Orton needed Dakota to be able to move, but not have the will to go after Milo. He remembered when they'd been trying to get away from the television studio, when Dakota's programs had been messed with and Cavendish had been pulling him along as they'd escaped. Orton thought it would be helpful if Dakota was like that again, except that the only reason that the supercomputer had been like that was because he'd basically been hurt.

Orton didn't want to hurt Dakota, but right now, he didn't see any other choice.

He grimaced and bent down to his shoe. His left shoe was supposed to look metallic, but he couldn't actually wear a metal boot, so they'd just added a metallic paint and actual metal accessories to the boot. Because they'd been in a hurry, they'd just stuck the metal to his boot through magnets. They stayed on firmly, but if pulled on, they could easily come off.

Orton grabbed a magnet from his boot and straightened. He looked at Dakota apologetically. Computers were a relatively new concept in his time period. Orton certainly knew of them, but he'd never used one before. He'd heard about them, and one thing that he'd heard was that magnets could mess with them. He just hoped the information wasn't false, and that whatever this did wasn't actually too harmful. After all, Orton didn't want to permanently ruin Dakota's systems, just make them falter for a moment.

"I'm sorry," Orton said. Dakota turned towards him slightly, but before he could see what he was doing Orton brought the magnet up to Dakota's head. Orton knew that Dakota's actual computer was with Milo and Cavendish, but maybe the Dakota in front of him still had at least some systems in him. Orton sure hoped so, otherwise this wouldn't work, even if the magnet thing was even true.

Dakota grimaced and his form seemed to waver and glitch for a moment. Orton was alarmed to see a rainbow color on Dakota's head. It didn't look right. After a moment Dakota turned to Orton looking incredibly concerned. "How did we get out here?"

"I'll explain later," Orton frowned. He felt horrible, but they needed to save the world, as well as themselves. "We need to get upstairs and get the time machine going before the pistachions show up, which will be any minute now." Perry was watching them anxiously. Orton hadn't known that a platypus could even look anxious.

"I guess we'd better go," Even when Dakota didn't have any idea what was going on, he was determined to continue on with the job at hand. Or maybe it was because he didn't know what was going on that he was so determined. He didn't seem aware that Milo was in potential danger, and right now that was what they needed.

Dakota lead the way upstairs. Perry looked back towards the fallen tree, where Milo had been. The platypus then gave Orton a stern, almost scolding look before hurrying after Dakota. Orton, pushing away the guilt he was feeling, followed behind them.

They reached Doofenshmirtz' home in record time. Orton locked the door behind them. He took the clock from Dakota and gave it to Doofenshmirtz. "Are we ready to go. The pistachions are coming." Dakota had said they were coming. He would have been able to tell.

Dakota blinked and watched as Doofenshmirtz drained the time juice from the clock. "Wait...didn't Milo go get that clock?" Dakota looked around. The rainbow color had faded from his head. Whatever Orton had done, it was wearing off. "Where's Milo?"

Cavendish was eying Dakota with concern. The man wasn't wearing his hat, and was rubbing the back of his head. What had affected Dakota was felt, at least subtly, by Cavendish. "Yes, where is Milo."

"He's safe," Orton assured them. It wasn't something that he could know for sure, but it was a fairly educated guess. Milo was a resourceful child, he would be fine. Orton took Dakota's hand and pulled him onto the time machine. Cavendish looked confused, but he climbed on as well. Perry the Platypus was chattering to Doofenshmirtz. Neither of them looked very happy, though Orton thought that Doofenshmirtz was more upset about Dakota's insistence that they not include a self destruct button. "Are we ready to go?"

"Ready enough," Doofenshmirtz said. "We may want to test it out first," The five of them turned when they heard thuds and pounding outside the door.

"We don't have time," Cavendish rushed to the activation button and pressed it. Just as they saw a pair of pistachions break down the door they slipped into the time stream.

A/N: This chapter was kinda fun. I don't know if Orton was in character, but I like him, even if he did kinda hurt Dakota a little bit. You know, when I first started this story, I wasn't planning on having so many characters think that it's okay to treat Dakota like he's more of a computer that doesn't have feelings than a human who does. It's kinda weird.

I took some creative liberties with Dakota's reaction to magnets. I know that computers' memories are messed up by magnets, but Dakota himself isn't the computer, he's just a physical manifestation that the computer in Cavendish's head makes. My sister, who is more familiar with computers than I am, said that Dakota as a Squip would be a software while the Squip in Cavendish's head is the hardware, which would be the part that would be affected by a magnet. Also, I don't know if damage to computers can wear off, let alone this quickly, but Dakota is a fictional type of supercomputer from the future. I think it's okay to take creative liberties.

I actually asked my dad and siblings about the computer magnet memory thing (they actually do programming and work with computers), so my basic level of knowledge comes from them. I think I worried my dad for a moment though when I started asking him how computers can be temporarily damaged, or what exactly magnets do to them. I had to reassure him that it was all completely hypothetical.