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A week had gone by since Newlyn had gone to the New You Day Spa and he definitely felt the aftereffects of such a relaxing day. Those that he worked with in the chemistry research lab had told him that he seemed completely rejuvenated and the rubber snow leopard couldn't agree more. He wasn't sure why but it felt like he had gotten more than just a few special treatments at the spa, it felt like his entire life had improved. Overall he just felt... really good about himself, like he was exactly where he needed to be in life.

As he got home he put down the food he had bought to make dinner and noticed that his answering machine was blinking. It informed him that he had two new messages, and as he put his perishables in the refrigerator he listened to it. "Hey Altrus," the voice said on the machine, a gruff male one that he had never heard before that caused him to stop and turn towards the machine. "What the hell man, I just got three notes here from three different doctors that you didn't come and visit on your scheduled appointment times! Here I am busting my tail trying to get you something for a new route and now suddenly you're not even trying anymore, if you don't call me back tomorrow I'll make sure that you never rep for any company ever again!"

Newlyn just blinked as the message ended with a very loud bang which caused him to jump slightly. "Man, I'd hate to be that Altrus guy," he said as he continued to unload his food. "Sounds like he gave a fake number just to avoid his boss."

"Hello, this is Marlene Quaros down at the New You Day Spa," a female voice started to speak as the synthetic snow leopard realized the second message had begun to play. "We're calling you because there may have been a glitch in your treatment and need you to come back in order for us to make an asset adjustment. Please call me back at your earliest convenience to set up an appointment, we would appreciate a prompt and timely response before things get too far out of hand."

The number to call to set up the appointment followed the initial message, which Newlyn wrote down in order to call back. Just as he took out his cell phone to put in the numbers, though, it started ringing, seeing his friend Daytona ringing him up. "Hey Daytona," he said after he had answered the call. "What's up?"

"Hey, we're thinking about going out to the bar for a few drinks after Marcus gets done with his shift," the voice on the other end said. "He just found out he got a promotion to swing shift supervisor at the lab so everyone is trying to get a party together for him. You in?"

"Yeah I can swing that," Newlyn replied. "I'm just going to eat first and I'll meet you there."

After a few more minutes to hammer out the details the rubber snow leopard set down the phone and continued to cook. In the back of his mind a little voice said that he was forgetting something but couldn't remember what it was, but after a few minutes he just shrugged and continued about his evening. After food was finished and dishes were done he watched a little television before it was time to leave. Just as he was about to exit the door he heard his landline ring again that caused him to pause at the door frame, but as he looked down at his watch he realized that he needed to get going and closed the door behind him just before his machine clicked and the same woman from before came over the speaker.

About an hour later Newlyn was at his favorite bar, one he and his friends went out to all the time that also happened to be where his co-workers at the lab liked to hang out. As a result his circle of friends and co-workers had mixed quite well as he opened the wooden door and walked inside. There he could see Marcus in the middle of a table surrounded by the other lab technicians from both swing and first shift. Newlyn ordered a drink before he headed over just as there was another round of cheers from the group that he participated in.

"Congrats on the promotion!" Newlyn said as he patted the painted equine male on the shoulder, which caused both him and the rest of the group to look up at him with a look that caused the rubber snow leopard to be slightly confused. "I know that they picked the right person for the job, you've been eyeing that spot up ever since Evelyn left."

"Yeah, thanks..." Marcus said as he looked up at Newlyn before glancing at everyone else. "I'm sorry, but... do I know you from work? Are you a new hire on the night shift?"

"Wh-what?" Newlyn said with a nervous chuckle as he suddenly felt all eyes on him like he was some sort of rabid predator that had just wandered into a herd of prey animals. "You're pulling my tail, right?" When no one gave him any form of recognition he could feel his panic begin to increase. "I... I'm Newlyn, I've been working on day shift at the chemical research division for five years now. I just got my tier two certification a few months ago and we celebrated right here in this bar."

When no one responded with anything but looks of confusion and irritation at what they likely assumed was a drunk that had stumbled into their celebration, he suddenly heard a voice from one of the booths. There he saw Daytona and two more of his non-work friends sitting there with them gesturing for him to come over there. He bashfully excused himself and went over to the other area with his drink in his hand. Though their revelry resumed once he had left he couldn't help but look over at the other lab technicians and wondered what was possibly going on. His entire face felt hot with embarrassment as he slid in next to Daytona and put his head in his hands after he had set down his drink.

"You must be taking this rather rough," the female ocelot said as she put her arms around him. "I know we came out here to console you for getting fired, but if we had known you were going to pre-game beforehand we would have just gotten drunk at your place."

"I just don't know why-" Newlyn started to say before he looked up at turned to her. "Wait, fired? What do you mean fired?"

Once again he got the same looks of confusion as his friends looked at him worriedly before Daytona motioned that she would take care of this. "Now I know Mr. Stevens shouldn't have sent the fact that you were terminated to the entire pharma sales crew, but you did apparently miss all your meetings right after you were on thin ice from losing your route to Bernard," she explained. "Either way maybe this is a good thing, your career there was already on life support and now that you got fired you can collect unemployment until you find something new, maybe something you'll enjoy more. Just know that we're all behind you, Altrus."

Newlyn's head began to spin as he tried to wrap his head around what he had just been told. Not only was one of his best friends talking about some job that he didn't have, but now they called him by another name? He felt like he was on some sort of prank show where they try and pull one over on people except that everything felt far too real. Before his friends could say anything else he excused himself and stumbled his way to the bathroom. At this point his vision was swimming like he had drank way more than he had thought, a sentiment backed up by his stomach as he managed to get to the men's room and slam the door shut behind him.

As soon as he was inside he went to the sink and splashed some water on his face to try and wake himself up or to get things to make sense again. His head had begun to throb as he tried to figure out what was happening, why had his work friends ignored him and his other friends said he was fired? Nothing seemed to match in his mind as he took several paper towels and wiped off his dripping wet face. When he finished drying himself and looked up in the mirror he shouted in surprise at the red fox looking back at him in the reflection before he dived into one of the stalls and sat there with his hands braced against the metal walls.

"This isn't happening... this isn't happening..." he said as he squeezed his eyes shut. "That fox... he looked so familiar... but I don't know him..." his body continued to rock back and forth before he suddenly felt everything stop shifting around him. It was a similar feeling to when you finally manage to pop your ears after taking off or landing in an airplane, and as Newlyn slowly stood up he peeked out of the stall and then out of the bathroom itself.

Everything was the way it was before; the people he thought were his co-workers were still around one of the larger tables and his friends were in one of the booths talking to one another. He couldn't handle this anymore, he decided as he began to make a beeline out the door. If what his friends said was true then they wouldn't fault him for suddenly darting out of there, and when he called Daytona again he could just say he was distraught. As soon as he passed by the party table he heard a voice call out that caused him to stop and slowly turn back around.

"You're not leaving already are you, Newlyn?" Marcus said which caused a tremor to run down the synth snow leopard's spine.

"I... uh..." Newlyn attempted to reply. "No... I just was going back... to the bar. Yeah, I figured I wanted something else to drink and thought I would get it quick."

"He's celebrating harder than you, Marcus," Tony, a male crocodile who worked as an inventory supervisor, said which caused the rest of the group to laugh.

"Well grab your old drink and come back here," Marcus said. "I'm going to do a sappy toast and I want to make sure that you're here for it so you can get embarrassed with everyone else."

Once again a chuckle ran through the group as he searched for his glass, which turned out to be right next to Daytona who grinned and nodded for him to go join them. When he did so the painted horse and got up to raise his glass, Newlyn looking around nervously before he did the same. He proceeded to thank each of them for being such great co-workers and talked about how much their belief in him made him strive towards getting this promotion. It felt very strange to Newlyn to be in a group that had just rebuked him and said that they had no idea who he was, especially when Marcus looked straight at him.

"This guy right here," the equine said with a grin as he pointed right at the latex feline. "Last week he took my shift so that I could go down to the corporate headquarters in order to take the training that helped get me my job. I know that you were dying to try out that new tier two certification you got, but thank you, Newlyn, it really meant a lot to me. Now to the rest of you, it's Friday night and I got a raise, so the next two rounds are on me!"

There was a loud series of cheers as Newlyn tried to figure out was going on. Even as he was patted on the back and given a drink by his co-workers he was still stuck on the fact that not more than a few minutes ago they had completely shunned him before he went into the bathroom. Even if it was some bizarre joke from before no one had said anything about it when he came back, everyone just continued to go about their business celebrating. He shook his head and went over to Daytona and the others who waved him over once he had broken away from the rest of the group.

"Well that was a touching tribute he gave you," the female ocelot said as she slid his drink back to him. "By the way, are you going to be able to get off on Thursday? With the launch of the new beta-blocker they want us to push on Friday they gave us the day off beforehand and we were thinking of spending some time together."

"Um... I think so?" Newlyn replied as he stared at his friends, which they seemed to quickly picked up on and looked at him back funny. "Do you guys... uh... remember Altrus? A fox that got fired from the sales division?"

The group looked at one another before they all shook their heads or shrugged. "I'm sure if someone had gotten fired that dick Bernard would have known about it," she said as she sipped her drink. "Why, did you hear something in research about our division?"

Newlyn was about to continue on when he just shut his muzzle and shook his head. Everyone seemed to regard him as the latex snow leopard that was the researcher in the lab instead of... whatever was going on with that fox. It was a scary thought that his life could be as horrible as what he just caught a glimpse of, yet in the back of his mind he felt like that bizarre timeline was still out there waiting for him. As he was deep in thought he hadn't even realized that Daytona had been talking this entire time until she snapped him back to attention.

"So what are you thinking, Newlyn?" Daytona asked once she had gotten his attention again. "We were thinking of either going to the movies or possibly try out that new arcade area that has the laser tag."

"What about my idea?" A giraffe said as she crossed her arms in a huff.

"I... really don't think the guys are going to be into that," Daytona said with a sheepish grin. "I mean I'm all for a spa day, but I think we need-"

"The spa..." Newlyn said suddenly as he remembered the message that had played on his machine. The woman on the other end of the line had said something about a problem with his treatment and that he may need an asset adjustment, could what she had been talking about be something in regard to what was happening with him? Either way it was a potential lead, and after he told them to call him about what they decide on for plans he quickly got up and left. The first thing he did was attempt to see if he could access the message on his phone, but as he tried to access his machine he found himself unable to, and as he made his way to his apartment he cursed that he didn't put the number in his phone beforehand.

Just as he got to the building the world spun around him once again and it caused him to literally fall to his knees with how dizzy he was. In a minute the sensation passed and Newlyn knew that it became imperative to try and find that number since things seemed to be getting worse around him. When he finally got to his apartment he pulled out his key, only to have it not fit into the lock. "The heck..." The snow leopard said as he continued to attempt to try and fit the small piece of metal into the slot only to find it not going inside at all. "Why won't you go in..."

Suddenly the door knob disappeared from view as the door was opened suddenly, Newlyn staring face to face with a rather angry looking equine whose nostrils flared at seeing him. "You have three seconds to explain what you're at my door before I call the cops." He said as he continued to look at him angrily.

"I... uh..." Newlyn said as he swallowed hard. "live... here... I thought..."

"Well I've lived here for three years so I think I would know if I had a fox for a roommate," the stallion snorted. "Get out of here, you drunk."

While Newlyn was thankful he wasn't about to get his butt kicked as the bigger male closed the door in his face he realized that the bizarre shift in reality happened once more. As he looked down at himself he still saw shiny silver rubber, but every so often when he blinked he could see it replaced with bright red fur. It was enough for him to run out of the building in a panic, attempting to find something that would give him the phone number that could possibly fix the situation. At this point he was thinking about going to the New You facility right now even though it was the middle of the night.

"Newlyn!" A voice shouted, the synthetic snow leopard turning to see a familiar female rubber cheetah running towards him. "Thank goodness you're alright!"

"Sam?" Newlyn replied right before he was given a huge hug from the other feline. "Hey! How did you find me?"

"You gave me your contact information back at the spa and I used friend finder," Sam said with a slightly embarrassed look on her face. "I think you can agree that we have more important things on our hands right now, like why everyone in my social circle thought that I was an overweight property investment guy instead of the latex cheetah woman I know I am... at least, I'm pretty sure I am. You see me as that, right?"

Newlyn looked over the shiny feline and was about to say yes when his vision blurred for a second and he saw an older buck, one with a severe look on his face of someone that has been overworked before things returned to normal. "That was weird..." the latex snow leopard said as he blinked a few more times. "I was about to say yes and then I suddenly saw someone else... someone that was familiar, but at the same time... not really. I think his name was Ferril?"

"That's what everyone kept calling me!" Samantha said as she sighed and rubbed her head. "And from the sound of it you might have been having a similar situation?"

Newlyn nodded and explained about his alter ego and how he was some sort of failing sales person as well as a non-synthetic fox. He then told her about the call he had gotten from the spa that they had met at, the one that gave them their rubber rejuvenation treatment, and they had said to call them as soon as possible. "That's got to be it somehow!" Samantha said excitedly. "Quick, let's go to your apartment!"

"Well... that's the thing..." Newlyn said as he looked back up at the building that had been his home before. "Whatever reality shift has changed where I lived, and while I'm not sure if it's switched back or not, I don't want to have to try and figure this out while in jail."

The cheetah paused for a second and thought about it, then seemed to get an idea. "Well reality seems to be warping around this strange dual timeline we have, right?" she said, the snow leopard nodding. "Well let's assume that the New You spa knows this or is not a part of the switching back and forth thing and you got the message in that life as well. That means..."

"It might be on the answering machine at my apartment!" Newlyn exclaimed once he figured it out with a grin before it fell once again. "But I don't even remember where I lived in this bizarre timeline, unless..." he pulled out his wallet and looked at the driver's license, and though he didn't like seeing the face of the fox that might have been him at one point, it did give him an address that they could go to.

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

About an hour later the two latex creatures managed to arrive at the building that was on Newlyn's license, the two looking up at the apartment complex. "I used to live... here?" he said as he put a hand on the crumbling brick that lined the outside of the patio. "I was definitely not a good sales rep it seems."

Samantha hurried him to go in and when Newlyn used his key on the door he found that it unlocked rather easily, the two rushing inside and heading up the stairs to the apartment marked on the piece of plastic. It was up three flights of stairs and they ran them all, eventually getting to his door where the key he had attempted to use on his old space slid in and turned to the side with a loud click. When they walked inside they found that at the very least the old snow leopard was rather tidy, the small space definitely well-lived in as they walked inside. On one of the walls was a map of the city with various lines scribbled on it, no doubt the routes that the fox had attempted to make in order to generate his commissions.

"I found it!" Sam said as she waved over for Newlyn to come listen. "It's blinking too, seems you got a message. Hopefully it's them..."

Newlyn took a deep breath and pressed the button, the machine saying that it had one new message and two saved messages before clicking over to the new one. "Altrus, you lazy-ass vulpine!" the voice on the other end shouted. "I told you that the next time you missed an appointment that was going to be it! If you thought that just because Daytona was going to save your hide you are sorely mistaken, and I am very happy to say that YOU'RE FIRED!"

The last words literally shook the machine as they were said and as Newlyn looked down he felt a latex hand press against his shoulder. "Don't worry Newlyn," she said as confidently as possible. "This isn't your life, we're going to get this fixed."

Though the synthetic snow leopard managed to put on a brave face he began to wonder. What if this was what his life was supposed to be and he was just in some sort of dream? Or from the look of it maybe he had a nervous breakdown or something... though that wouldn't explain Samantha. As they looked down at the answering machine Newlyn remembered that he had listened to the message before in his previous life and crossed his fingers as he hit the play saved messages button. The first one was him getting yelled at, the two looking at each other as Sam gave him a comforting pat on the back once more before it switched to the next message.

"That's it!" Newyln said excitedly as he heard the woman on the machine. As the voice on the machine talked he quickly pulled out his phone and punched in the phone number as soon as she said it. Though as he looked at the clock and saw how late it was he was surprised to hear the phone pick up after the second ring and identify herself as Marlene. "Mrs. Quaros, my friend Samantha and I were told to call you and, well, something weird is going on."

"I am aware," the female voice said. "I need you to come to the New You Day Spa as soon as possible, I'm afraid the situation is much worse than we could have imagined..."

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

By the time Newlyn and Samantha got off the bus it was already the middle of the night and it appeared whatever was happening to them was starting to get worse. Newlyn's phone had a number of different messages on them, half were from various people talking to him about coming back to the party or going elsewhere while the other half were giving him their condolences about being fired. A similar situation was happening to Samantha and the two latex creatures could almost feel their worlds crashing around them. Though they still looked the same to themselves, every once in a while Newlyn also saw the buck that Samantha used to be and she was the same seeing the fox in him. It prompted them to quicken their pace to the spa and before they got close to the door they saw a female orca in a business suit waving them in.

"Wait... I remember you," Newlyn said as he ran inside, pointing his finger at her while he and Samantha walked into the darkened atrium of the Spa. "You were the orderly that helped me when I came here in the first place!"

"You have a good memory, Newlyn," the orca said as she locked the doors after they got inside. "Quickly now, we need to get to my office. I'm sure you have a lot of questions and I have the answers for them."

The two followed the orca past the reception desk and up a few flight of stairs until they arrived at her office, which was almost as big as Newlyn's nice apartment and had a view that overlooked the entire spa. It was strange for Newlyn to see everything down on the main floor so quiet, no workers or anyone moving around except for the occasional cleaning robot that went about. The snow leopard was quickly called over to the large desk that the orca sat behind, asking if they wanted a drink of any sort before they continued on. Both of them ended up getting sparkling waters that they nervously drank as the orca typed on her computer.

"Newlyn and Samantha... you two were one of our first cases here at the New You Day Spa," Marlene said as she turned her screen around to show them their current pictures as well as the photos of the people they recognized as their former selves. "Both extremely unhappy in your current occupations and in need of a serious life change, you were selected as test candidates for our recently-acquired reality altering software. Basically it looks into what you want in life and shapes you accordingly, which I have to say the rubber bit was an interesting touch, but who am I to argue?"

"Reality altering software?" Newlyn repeated as both he and Samantha looked at one another with looks of disbelief before turning back to the orca. "I know some weird stuff is happening to us, Mrs. Quatos, but you can't expect us to believe that you have the ability to alter everything just so that we can be happier."

"Oh really?" Marlene said with a smirk as she pushed a button on her computer. Almost instantly that vertigo returned for the briefest of seconds before disappearing, and when Newlyn looked down at himself he was no longer Newlyn. Everything about his old life came flooding back to him, how he was named Altrus and he had been plodding along in his failing career path before he came here. When he looked over he saw that the rubber cheetah had winked out of existence as well, replaced with the buck he had seen before as their jaws hung open.

"I... remember..." the stag said as he rubbed his head. "The doctor said I was two bad sales away from a heart attack, I was snapping at everyone... my friend bought me a pass to this place and said that he hoped it would change my life."

"Yeah, Daytona purchased my pass for me," the fox said as well as he looked down. "I think she knew I was about to get fired and wanted me to be prepared for it... of course I don't think she expected me to become a rubber snow leopard and become a chemical technician. This is all so bizarre, it's like I remember two lives."

The orca just chuckled and pushed the button once again, restoring the two back to their shiny latex bodies. "That's because as of your time here those were your new lives," she said before she leaned back and took a drink of her scotch. "At least that's what it was supposed to be, however there was a glitch in the software that caused your other timeline to remain and continue to progress even though you couldn't sense it. Now the one we created for you is degrading, and though I got the one who sold me the technology to fix it, he said that while your timelines are being repaired you'll have to stay in a place where we can make sure to monitor your progress and that there aren't any more post-temporal anomalies."

"Oookay," Samantha said. "And where would that be, Mrs. Quatos?"

"Right here at the New You Day Spa of course," she said with a bit of a grin as she typed in a new set of commands on her keyboard and two sets of contracts came up. "Also you can call me Marlene, I'm not a fan of the formal. Anyway here's the deal, if you stay here for the duration of your treatment and work for us, not only will everything be free, but I've arranged to put a little bonus in for you, plus as far as those outside your lives are concerned you were gone at a conference in your respective fields."

"Wait, you guys screwed up and we're expected to work for you?" Newlyn said.

"This treatment is not cheap nor is putting you up here," Marlene replied. "Plus I can only imagine if you just hung around here you'd be bored to tears, there's only so much you can do. I also need a plausible explanation for you to hang around here. Of course if you don't want to you are both free to walk out the door... you'd just be returning to your miserable old lives."

The two looked at each other and then both dived for the pen, both of them not able to sign the contract fast enough before Marlene took their contracts and signed them herself. "Welcome to the New You payroll," she said as she filed them away. "I guarantee that you've made the right decision, and to show you what I mean why don't I bring you two to your rooms? I was going to use this to sweeten the pot, but I have a feeling I had you both at your miserable old lives..."