I jumped. I blacked out. When I awoke, head ringing and eyes spotted with colours, he turned round slowly.

"You ever heard of an Ox Bow Lake?"

"nuhuh" I said. Mind you, the gag would have rendered the same result as a Shakespeare soliloquy. 

"sahwiwochee" Hell, it was different. Maybe if you were a dentist, this conversation would be less one sided. I eyed the man who had broken in to the lab, wondering if he'd had orthodontist training. He knew his way round a physics lab alright, but fiddling with the quantum accelerator probably wasn't the best idea. That thing could trip the city's grid if mishandled. 

"You see," said his perfectly white teeth, "time is like a river, and if you change its course you can leave stuff behind. The bank collapses, and what was a bend is now stranded. Separate. Apart." 

I nodded. "Fchuh Nigioch. Geg Arah fruh tha swich!" It seems he wasn't a dentist. He was a fucking idiot after all.

"I'm here to see that that doesn't happen." He flicked the main breaker.

A spark cracked and the lights flared and blew.

I jumped. I blacked out. When I awoke, head ringing and eyes spotted with colours he turned round slowly.

"You ever heard of an Ox Bow Lake?"