Chapter One: April 19, 2045 4:00 PM
The silver-haired man made a few more adjustments to the engine with the wrench. He double-checked his alterations to a hand-drawn diagram, assuring perfection in his work. Satisfied, he shut the engine cover and screwed it in place. The flightr circuits were now installed. "Ready to roll, Clara?"
Clara Brown, the beautiful school teacher he had fallen for, laughed and curtsied to her scientifically romantic husband. "Of course, Emment!"
Little Verne raced up, bouncing with excitement. "Daddy, Mommy! I found some shale!" Verne and Jules, named for the visionary writer Jules Verne, took after their parents in the scientific areas. Verne showed interests in all living things. This included geology, since he was fascinated with the extinct flora and fauna of long ago. Jules preferred the non living- physics, chemistry, meteorology and math.
"Very good, Verne!"
"Where are we going now, Dad? Not back to Japan? I hate sushi!"
The parents laughed as Verne screwed up his face, obviously in agreement with his older brother. "Actually, I believe it was time we looked Marty up in 1985."
"Who's Marty, Daddy?"
"Well, it's a long story, son . . ." As the time machine blasted off, a lone spectator peered out from behind a building.
"'Time we looked Marty up in 1985?'" she muttered, "What the heck does that mean? You can't go back in time!" Brunehilde Tannen was the daughter of Griff, the Great-granddaughter of Biff, and she was worse than the two put together- indeed, she most closely resembled her ancestor Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen. Quick on the draw and unashamed of it, with a fiery temper and a killer right hook. She shook her red head in puzzlement and turned to go.
Then the glint of gold caught her eye. It was a book. A diary, with gold leaf initials. ELB. Normally, She hated reading. Normally, she'd throw it to the ground and not look back.
But if you saw a flying train, which was odd since trains were extinct and not in use since 2015, and if you heard an old man say something about time travel . . .
She opened and began to read.
*** April 19, 2045 5:00 PM
"Yo, Hilda!" She spun and glared at Zotz, the idiot of the gang.
"I told you never to call me that! Where's Lindy, Zippo, Derrick, and Khan?"
"Right here." The four teens stepped into the light. Derrick was their technology wizard. A rare catch in gangs, he was their MVP- Most Valuable Person. Khan was huge- so huge he couldn't fit in an average doorway. Lindy was rather pretty- beautiful, even. Being the only female besides Bruna was hard sometimes- but it paid off.
"Hi Lindy," breathed Zotz. It was obvious he had a crush on his fellow gang member.
Lindy ignored the dork. "McFly didn't want to do the sting."
Momentarily distracted from her prime objective, Bruna looked to Zippo, her burly second, for confirmation. He nodded. "Stubborn twerp. Khan beat him up good. Stupid fool, just like his jerk of a great-granddad."
Bruna smiled and twirled her revolver, a birthday present from her father Griff, the most feared gangster in Hill Valley. After her, of course. "I got something that will make us all rich. Richer than the McFly's." All the gang gasped. Murmurs of disbelief raced through them. She silenced them with a shot into the air. "It's true. Just do what I say when I say it and we're rich as kings."
*** April 20, 2045 4:00 PM
A brilliant flash of light lit up the alley. Lindy spoke into her walkie-talkie. "There they are!" The train landed and shut down in a cloud of steam.
"Clara, come on hon!" A wild-haired man, closely followed by two children and a beautiful woman. "We need those spare parts in case the flying circuits short out again."
Talking and laughing, the family of four vanished into the smoke. "Break!" Bruna, closely followed by her gang, burst from their concealment and squeezed into the time machine. "How does it work, Zip?"
The undersized teen took a minute to figure it out, then typed a date into the keypad- November 12, 1955 PM 8:28
"Ninety years ago," breathed Zotz.
"Shudd up," Khan snapped. Zippo launched the traininto the air,and with a whoop of exhilaration sent himself and the gang 90 years into the past.
***November 12, 1955 PM 8:28
With a rather loud bang the train skidded to a stop. "Zippo, you said you could drive!" Bruna snapped.
"I didn't know you wanted me to drive a train!" he shot back.
"Yeah, you've been close about this plan of yours!" Khan said.
Bruna twirled her revolver and began to check the laser charges, ensuring they were fully loaded. "According to the diary I found, at a point in time, my great-grandfather, as an old man, stole a time machine, went back in time, and gave himself a sports almanac documenting all the wins from 1950-2000. Since he gave it to him self at the age of 17, he was unable to use it for four years. But when he came of age, he made a huge fortune by betting on the teams he knew would win."
Her team stared at her. "Um . . . do you feel alright?"
"I wasn't finished!" she snarled, aiming her gun at him. He shut up. "Marty McFly- yeah, you heard me right-Marty McFly decided to end the party and stole the book from him, destroying our hard-earned fortune! Tonight is the night we retake what is ours!"
"And . . . how do we do that?" practical Lindy asked, "And how did you know they'ed be back?"
"They dropped a diary that would be disatrous in the wrong hands. And I saw the serial number on the box of flight circuits. They were faulty and would have to return to get new ones eventually. And as for regaining the almanac . . ."
Bruna smiled, the very smile many had seen before she killed them in cold blood.
November 12, 1955 PM 8:33
"Hey! Get off my car man!" Marty ignored Biff, working his way up the car until- yes! He grabbed the almanac and pushed off. Biff cursed and floored the accelerator. Marty waited as Biff zoomed at him, then leaped aside at the last moment. The almanac safely in his hand, he swerved the hoverboard to get back to the Doc.
"Freeze!" He rotated in the air and saw a girl holding a gun aimed at his nose. "Drop it!" she snapped, gesturing at the almanac. He shook his head no. Whoever they were, they probably didn't know what a hover board was. He put on a sudden burst of speed, going out of range of her revolver. The other gang members shouted and fired uselessly at him, but Bruna's words had a bigger effect than any bullet could possibly get. "You gonna run? What's the matter- chicken?"
Marty froze. He rotated in the air to face her, brown eyes hard. "Nobody calls me chicken!"
With out a second thought, she opened fire. The laser charges ripped through his leather jacket like a hot knife through butter. She walked over to his dying form and kicked him contemptuously, wrenching the almanac and the walkie-talkie from his hands. "Well, I just did."
A crackly voice emitted from the walkie-talkie. "Marty? MArty? Come in, Marty. I heard gunshots. Are you hurt?"
Marty pulled himself up, blood flowing from the numerous wounds on his chest. "Doc-"
"Shut him up, Khan."
The giant nodded and wrapped his fingers around Marty's throat, cutting off his air and blood supply.
Bruna raised the walkie-talkie to her mouth. She spoke- but not with her voice. "Yeah, I'm fine Doc. I got the almanac. It's burned."
"Good work, Marty! Now get back over here so we can go on home!"
She pumped off more shots with her revolver, speaking with Marty's voice as she did. "They found me Doc! Run- AAAHGHH . . . " she trailed off and ended with a convincing gurgle.
"Marty? Marty? Marty! Come in-" Bruna tossed the walkie-talkie into the air and cooly hit it in the center of the speaker. It exploded in a flash of light. She turned to Khan.
"Is he dead?"
Khan nodded. "He's dead all right. No pulse."
She narrowed her eyes at the corpse. "Well, just to be safe-" she drove her dagger into Marty's throat. It stuck there, quivering. She walked over to Biff, still dazed in the manure. She handed him the almanac, and he looked at her, a confused look on his face.
"It's worth a fortune! Why are you giving that kind of money to me? Is there a catch?"
"Let's just say I'm a distant relation. And no catch- just get rich."
Biff watched her go. He had a feeling that she was more than she seemed.