[ WP ] You are a genius inventor , however every time you are about to publish your work someone else does it before you leaving you with no credit . Suddenly , you have the idea to invent a time machine and go back in time to steal your own finished work before others do .

There is no one I hate more than Zinbeil. No one as arrogant, as asinine, and as outright audacious as him- and yet, he's managed to outsmart me at every turn. Each time I create an invention, he's at the patent office first, touting an *ever so slightly* modified version of my design. 
 
 My first invention was a Freezewave- a microwave that made food cold instead of hot near instantly. But when I brought the design to the patent clerk, she pointed to a design submitted two days before. I gritted my teeth as I recognized my own hard work, my own creation replicated near word for word. That invention had earned millions- millions I could have spent upon new inventions, but instead went to Zinbeil, who eagerly accepted the stolen money. 
 
 My next invention was a teleportation gun. As soon as the last screw was set, I teleported myself to the patent office. Guess who was already there? A smirking Zinbeil. 
 
 `` What's wrong, Twen?'' He laughed, twirling his own teleportation gun on his index finger, the clerk flinching back as the barrel spun in her direction, `` You'll have to stand behind me in line- I just got here ten minutes ago, courtesy of *my* new invention!'' 
 
 `` How?'' I stuttered in shock, reevaluating my home's ramped up defenses in my mind. Ever since he had taken my first invention, I had reinforced my lab to be stronger than Fort Knox, and had my internet routed through more countries than were in the EU to derail spies. It should have been impossible to penetrate. 
 
 `` Sheer brilliance,'' he responded, his voice mocking, `` One day, maybe you'll have a touch of it!'' 
 
 Then he blasted a wormhole into the air, and stepped through, leaving me and my recently outdated invention behind. 
 
 It happened with my shrink ray. Then my antigravity sphere. And even my flying car! Ninety-nine inventions he stole from me, until he walked in the circles the richest men on earth, receiving their praise as if he had been the creator. But for invention number one hundred, I would n't let him win. 
 
 So I created a time machine, and traveled back in time to right before I had created the first invention he had stolen, my Freezewave. And on his way into the patent office, I captured Zinbeil., shrinking him down to the size of a baseball with my shrink ray and putting him into my pocket, then locking him in a hamster cage at my home. 
 
 `` You think you're so smart,'' I asked as he sat behind bars, reclining on a hamster wheel, `` You think you can steal my invention and get away with it? Well, you do n't know it yet, but you stole ninety eight others before I became so fed up I traveled back in time to stop you!'' 
 
 `` You did?'' He said, with the same smile on his face as when he stole an invention, `` Oh, how clever of your, Twen.'' 
 
 `` What are you smiling about?'' I asked, suspicious, `` I've foiled your plan. I've won!'' 
 
 `` Have you though?'' He asked, `` Maybe you should travel back into the future, and see just how well you are doing. Five years should do, go on, you do n't have to go the full twenty that you traveled back.'' 
 
 `` How, how did you know how long I traveled back in time?'' 
 
 `` That's not important right now,'' He answered, and made a shooing motion, `` Go on! I'll be here when you get back.'' 
 
 I frowned, and did as he said, traveling five years in the future, excited to see all that I had accomplished without Zinbeil in my way. My time machine landed in my front yard and when I stepped out, my eyes widened. 
 
 Overgrown plants clustered throughout the yard. In the driveway was a Ferrari, the side scraped in a fender bender but never replaced. So I crept forward and stared in the window to my living room and saw myself passed out on the couch. I'd gained weight- at least forty pounds, and usually at this time I would be hard at work in the lab instead of napping. Then I slid inside the door, careful not to awaken myself, and snuck into my lab. 
 
 I should have had twenty inventions along with several more in production in the five years! But my shelves were bare, all except for my first invention, the Freezewave. And even that was dusty, as if I had n't touched it in years. 
 
 So time traveled back, to where Zinbeil was still trapped in the hamster cage, my voice shaking with anger as I spoke. 
 
 `` What, what did you do to me? In the future, how did you sabotage me?'' 
 
 `` Me? I did nothing to you, you did that to yourself! You see, after you received the money from the Freezewave, you grew complacent. You bought a new car, went on a few vacations, got yourself into some serious debt by the end of the first year. And you grew soft, Twen. You stopped working- heck, without someone to push you along, you did n't do anything at all!'' 
 
 `` What do you mean,'' I said, `` When you were stealing my inventions, I kept making more of them. No one helped me then.'' 
 
 `` Ah, but *I* did,'' He protested, `` I kept you on your toes! I kept you moving, kept you chasing the prize in order to beat me, your enemy! You see, Twen, I'm the reason you are who you are. And I want to show you something, your one hundred and first invention.'' 
 
 `` You already stole that too?'' I hissed, `` I have n't even created it!'' 
 
 `` Precisely. It's your most important one, though. I call it, *you* call it, the Masker! It does only one thing, and that is to disguise a face of the person holding it. Right now, I'm turning it off.'' Then he pulled a small device from his pocket, tapping a button as I watched the skin over his face morph. And I gasped as I recognized the face, as I saw *my own face* staring back from where his had been. 
 
 `` For you see, Twen, I never was Zinbeil. I am *you* from the future, using the time machine you just created. And now, it's time for you to become Zinbeil and to go steal some of your past inventions. Your good, *our* good, depends on it.'' 
 
 Then he smiled, and winked, and pulled his teleportation gun out to exit the cage. And after an hour of thought, I began drawing up plans for invention one hundred and one. 
 
 The Masker. 
 
 *** 
 
 By Leo 
 
 If you enjoy Sci FI, check out my best work, [ The Bridge ] ( https: //leonardpetracci.com/2016/08/03/the-bridge/ ). The premise is a starship is struck by an asteroid on its way to colonize a distant planet. Now, hundreds of years later, the inhabitants must learn to survive deep space without technology or perish.
