Author's note: This BTTF fan fic takes place in the animated series universe of Hill Valley, California. This is the first episode of a third season I am writing for the animated series. I will write twelve more stories for my third season. The Brown family and Marty are all in this episode but it mainly focuses on Verne (Doc's youngest son). Enjoy
Disclaimer: I do not own the Back to the Future Trilogy or the animated series. All the characters (except the occational Tannen I make up) belong to Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale.
Random BTTF Quote: "When this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you're gonna see some serious shit." -Doctor Emmett Brown
Hill Valley, California
June, 3 1992
1:35 PM
In Hill Valley California it was the sweet summer of '92. The town was busting at the seams with tourists and that meant bad traffic.
"Pop how long till we get home?" Verne Brown asked. He was a trouble-making boy of about nine-years-old with blond hair covered by a coon skin cap.
"Depends on how bad this traffic is and if other drivers even bother excelerate their automobiles," Verne's father said. Verne's father was Doctor Emmett L. Brown: Hill Valley's residential scientist (or in narrow-minds Hill Valley's residential lunatic). "Doc" as his friend Marty Mcfly called him, was in his late 60's but very energetic for his age. He had shoulder-length white hair and wild intelligent brown eyes. Doc was the one driving the truck back from Hill Valley University. He had this day job were he would get called by townsfolk to do any job that required a scientist. Verne had come along because it was too hot to do anything else. "Why are you so anxious to get home Verny?"
"No reason," Verne said rather quickly. Actually there was a reason. Today (June 3rd, 1992) was Verne's tenth birthday. Ten was Verne's favorite number and turning ten also meant he would be a big kid! But there was more to be excited about…
Last month, Verne was walking down the hall when he hear his parents' voices behind their bedroom door. Normally Verne wouldn't eavesdrop but he heard one of his parents say his name in the conversation so he quickly fetched a glass and listened in.
"That sounds like a wonderful idea Emmett," Verne's mother said. "Are you sure it's not too much?"
"I'm sure," Doc said. "I have thought it all out and I've made plans and everything. The boys will absolutely love it, especially Verne!"
"And when will you reveal your surprise?" Verne's mother asked.
"June 3rd of course!" Doc said and Verne yelped a little. That was his birthday! His parents must be hiding a big birthday surprise for him. Verne ran away from the door giggling with excitement.
Doc's truck pulled into the Brown family driveway an hour later. Verne was super glad they were home because he had been drinking root beer while they were in traffic and now he really had to pee.
"Verny where are you going?" Doc called to his son as he lifted something heavy looking out of the truck.
"Gotta take a leak pop!" Verne yelled as he opened the door.
After Verne relieved himself he went into the kitchen. He saw his mother Clara Clayton Brown preparing something that smelled really sweet. Clara was a beautiful woman in her late 30's with dark brown hair and a pretty face. She was wearing an apron.
"Hi mom!" Verne yelled loudly enough that his mother dropped the wooden spoon she was using.
"Verne Newton Brown don't scare me like that!" Clara scolded as she picked up the spoon and proceded to wash it off. "Where's your father?"
"Outside," Verne answered.
Just then Verne's older brother Jules Brown came into the kitchen. He didn't even notice Verne because he had his nose in a book. Jules was eleven-years-old and a little scrawny for his age. He looked a lot like his mother but had the intelligence of his father.
"Jules put down that book, you've been reading it all day," Clara said. She had resumed stirring the bowl of delicious smelling stuff.
"But mother this novetization of physics is fascinating," Jules said as he sat down.
"Fine just one more chapter and then you clean your room."
"CLARA, JULES, VERNE COME TO THE LAB!" Doc shouted from outside the house.
This is it, Verne thought. This must be his big birthday surprise. Eagerly Verne rushed out of the kitchen and to the lab.
"Surprise!" Doc yelled as they entered the lab.
It was a surprise all right. But not the surprise Verne had expected and hoped for. He had expected a surprise party with balloons, a cake, and a banner that said HAPPY BIRTHDAY VERNE. But if that wasn't it at least there would be a present. But all Verne saw in the lab was a stupid piece of electronic crud.
"Remember when I helped the University with those faulty microscopes? Well they finally gave me this master computer in appreciation." Doc said with a smile.
"Father it's beautiful," Jules said as he admired the computer. Verne just stood there, open-mouthed that the surprise had nothing to do with him turning ten.
"I told you the boys would like it," Doc said to his wife. "Look at Verne, his mouth's agape!"
"Pop this was your big surprise?" Verne asked. "This is what you've been planning' since last month?"
"Why yes Verny," Doc said looking a little confused.
"This is all you had planned for June 3rd, 1992?"
"Yes."
"Nothing else?"
"No."
"Is something wrong Verne?" Clara asked noticing the dissapointment on her youngest son's face.
"And mom you weren't making a cake?"
"No I said that we were going to be eating healthy this summer," Clara said.
"We are?" Doc asked, he didn't get the memo.
"So you guys have only been planning only for this computer thingy and nothing else?"
"Yes," Doc and Clara said in unison. They had absolutely no idea what their youngest son was getting at.
"Verne tell me what's wrong," Clara said as she wrapped her arms around Verne. He squirmed out of her grasp and declined the hug. He was ten after all, not two.
"Nothing," Verne said as he sighed. "I guess it's not important."
Verne stomped off after that with his hopes wrecked. He couldn't believe it. His own parents forgot his birthday! Even his own super genius brother didn't pick up the hint of what today was! What skunkheads he had for a family. As the boy went outside, he spotted the DeLorean time machine in the drive way.
"I bet if they did remember they wouldn't care," Verne vented. "I bet they wouldn't even care if I was outta here!"
Verne hopped into the DeLorean and closed the gull wing door. He set the destination time for Hill Valley: June 3rd, 2022 and stepped on the gas pedal.
After Verne stomped off in a huff, Clara turned to his first born son.
"Jules do you know why our brother is upset?" Clara asked.
"No mother I do not," Jules answered. "I would estimate that Verne would be absolutely excited considering today is the celebration of is birth."
Clara's eyes widened and she cast a grim look at her husband, whom slapped his own forehead.
"Great Scott! Today is Verny's birthday and your mother and I completely forgot!" Doc said, surprised at his own stupidity.
"Jules…um, how old is he turning?" Clara asked awkwardly.
"Mother you of all people should know!" Jules said.
"I do…I do," Clara said but Jules could tell she wasn't sure.
"Ten mother," Jules sighed. "Today is the tenth celebration of Verne's birthday."
"My youngest son turned ten and we missed it," Clara said as she looked at Emmett. He looked at her with the same expression.
Doc left the lab in search of his son. He nearly got two feet out before he saw Verne revving up the DeLorean.
"Verny get out of the DeLorean!" Doc yelled but his youngest son couldn't hear him over the roar of the engine. The DeLorean backed out and speeded up to 88 and disappeared.
"VERNE!" Doc yelled.
Hill Valley, California
June 3, 2022
4:00 PM
The DeLorean time machine appeared in the sky of Hill Valley after three sonic booms. All the other flying cars zoomed out of its way. One guy yelled something obscene at Verne as Verne flew the DeLorean past him.
"Now I just gotta land this thing," Verne said as he pulled at the controls. Verne had taken a couple joy rides in the DeLorean in the past…and future, so he was pretty good at driving it. Verne landed it in a secluded alley just like his father did on his and Marty's trip to 2015.
Verne got out of the car and glanced around. Hill Valley had always managed to stay simple yet progress with the times. Courthouse Square was dilapidated and old and some men wearing jet packs were making repairs. The men were careful to leave the clock alone. Verne wandered around town a bit, still steamed about his so-called family.
"I can't believe those skunkheads actually forgot my birthday." Verne said as he crossed the street. He was even too glum to look at the future Hill Valley. Verne did howerever look up to see a video game arcade, which perked him up a bit.
"Cool an arcade!" Verne dashed inside.
"So what's up Doc, why'd you call me here?" Marty Mcfly asked as he took a seat. Doc, his best friend, was pacing back in forth nervously. The scientist was a little pale and his brow was wrinkled with worry.
"Verne's gone," Doc said. "He took the DeLorean and ran off to an unknown time."
"Why'd Verne run away?" Marty couldn't help asking.
"Clara, Jules, and I forgot that today is his birthday," Doc said.
"Geez Doc we all know you can be absent-minded sometimes but forgetting your kid's birthday!" Marty said incredulously.
"I know, I know but it completely slipped my mind. Clara and Jules feel terrible about it. Because Verne probably ran away thinking we didn't care about him. Well if that was true Clara wouldn't be crying and I wouldn't be pacing like this and Jules wouldn't be searching every century for him!"
Suddenly the time train burst into the lab. Marty and Doc had to cover their eyes from the great flash of light. Like the DeLorean, the time train left a trail of fire and Doc had to grab an extinguisher to put it out.
"Sorry father!" Jules called from the conducter's place in the train. He was dressed like a pirate with a pirate hat, puffy shirt, black boots, striped pants, and a fake earing to complete the look. Jules jumped down from the train and brushed some dirt off of his pirate pants.
"No serious harm done," Doc said as he put out the last of the fames. "Did you find your brother?"
"Negative," Jules said. "I've checked all the way up to the eighteenth century but I couldn't find Verne. I have hypothesized that Verne is not in the past, as we suspected, but in the future."
"The future?" Marty said. "Go figure."
"Do you know when in the future?" Doc asked.
"My estimation is the year 2022," Jules said. "Verne said something about wanting to visit that year last month."
"2022!" Doc gasped as he sat down for a moment.
"You all right Doc?" Marty asked as he took a long look at his friend. The scientist was rubbing his temples and suddenly looked his age. Marty guessed that having your youngest son thirty years into the future because you forgot his birthday scored big on the parental stress meter.
"To be truthful I won't be all right until we go to the future and get Verne," Doc said as he stood up, straightened his lab coat, and headed toward the time train. Marty and Jules followed suit and hopped aboard the locomotive. Doc started up the train and the three blasted into the future.
Verne was playing the 37th anniversary addition of "Wild Gunman". Lucky for him, Verne was the only kid in the arcade and he could play all he wanted without people bugging him for a turn. As he aimed the cowboy gun, Verne couldn't help thinking about his family.
Were they worried about him? Was him mother crying and his father pacing back and forth nervously? Or did they just shrug him off and go see a movie? Did they miss him? Was Jules moving all of Verne's toys and stuff out of their play room? Was his dad coming to get…
"Hey butthead!"
Verne turned around to see three teens in the arcade. The biggest one was someone Verne seemed to recognize yet not know. The big teen's eyes burned into little Verne's.
"Are you related to a guy named Biff Tannan?" Verne asked. He really hoped not, a decendant of Biff Tannan was all he needed.
"What if I am? And how does a little dumb kid know my great-grandpa's name?" the Tannan said as he stepped in the arcade. His goons were right behind him and they spread out to surround Verne. One of them had blue hair and a painted blue face. The other had green hair and wore metallic gloves with spikes on the knuckles.
"This is MY arcade kid," Tannan growled. "No one comes in here without my permission. Every kid in Hill Valley knows that! What are ya stupid?" He paused to laugh with his gang.
"Good one Flick!" spiked knuckles said.
"One person can't own an arcade!" Verne said, annoyed at how big kids always seemed to "own" everything.
"Oh yeah?" Flick Tannan said as he stepped menacing towards Verne. "I own EVERYTHING in this town! The playground, the candy store, the levitating ball pit, and I won't let a little butthead tell me otherwise!"
The three teens started closing in on Verne. The ten-year-old took the cue and tried to flee the scene but there was no way to escape! Verne was getting more and more scared as Tannan pulled out a device and releashed a bright red gas. The gas made Verne suddenly feel very sleepy.
"Come on guys, let's take the sleepyhead on a little tour of my nice town."
This was the last thing Verne heard before he passed out.
The time train broke the time barrier as it soraed threw the sky. Doc had skillfully choosen a future skyway that was hardly used. The train headed down towards Hill Valley Park and landed carefully.
"Nice spot Doc," Marty said as he jumped out of the train. Jules jumped out next to him and looked around.
"The park looks exactly the same as it does in our present time period," Jules said as he examined the foliage. "I was a little worried that there wouldn't be any trees in the future since we're the only people that reclycle."
"Jules stop observing and focus on the task at hand," Doc said as he directed them to town out of the park. "Now where do you think Verne would go once he came to this year?"
"Sorry father but Verne and I don't think alike, we are vastly different from each other." Jules said.
"Yes, yes of course you are," Doc said as he paused to think. "Marty what would you do?"
"Well if I was ten-years-old I would probably go see if there were any good video games in this century," Marty stated and Doc grinned.
"That sounds like something Verne would do," the scientist said and sped up his walking pace. "Let's go."
They got to the arcade without pausing to look at the year 2022 and all it's innoventions. You would think that Doc, as a scientist, would be fascinated by all the technology but Doc wasn't just a scienctist he was a father, a worried father. Only two young men were in the arcade by the time they got there.
"Excuse me," Doc said as he walked up to them. "I'm looking for my son. He's about four feet tall with blonde hair, blue eyes, and he wears a coon skin cap. Did he come in here at all?"
"Nope," said one guy.
"Are you sure?" Marty asked a little exasperated.
"Yep," the same guy said.
As his father tried to get some information about Verne's whereabouts, Jules waited outside the arcade. It was hot here just like it was back in '92 and felt himself sweating in his puffy shirt. Several people stared at him as they went by and Jules decided to move to the alley beside the arcade where it was cooler. In the alley, Jules overheard a conversation:
"Zach did you hear what Flick Tannan did today?" said a boy that looked to be about Jules' age.
"Nope what'd he do?" said another boy at least two years older.
"Well some little kid in a fury old hat came into the arcade without permission. So Flick gased the kid and took him all around town and the kid was unconscious but Flick put sunglasses over the kid's eyes so nobody could tell. Smart huh? Then I saw 'em take the kid up to the courthouse and steal one of the jet packs. They went all the way to the top of the courthouse and put the boy, still out like a rock, right next to the clock. Boy when that kid wakes up he'll be so freaked! I bet he'll fall right off!"
"Didn't anybody see him up there?" the older kid asked, he probably wasn't buying his friend's story.
"No town's not too busy today and if someone does see that kid up there, they'll probably just think he's a lazy worker," said the boy as he giggled. "Hey we should go there, I want to see the kid go splat on the ground!"
"Nah, we got to get home Billy. Mom said dinner is going to be at six sharp and we don't want to tick off the robot. It already has malfunctions."
The two boys rode off on hover boards.
"FATHER, FATHER!" Jules shouted as he ran right into Doc and knocked him down.
"Jules you're not three-years-old anymore, it is time to stop doing that," Doc said as he got up and brushed off his shirt.
"No father you misunderstood me," Jules said as he caught his breath. "While you and Marty were talking to those gentlemen in the arcade, I was in the alley eavesdropping on a conversation. The two people conversing said that Verne was at the clock tower."
"Really? The clock tower? Verne has seen that thing fifty times why would he be sight seeing there?" Doc said.
"Um, he's not exactly sight seeing father," Jules said.
Verne slowly opened his eyes to see…darkness. Where was he? Verne's head hurt and he could still smell that red gas in his nose. He reached up to his eyes and discovered that he was wearing sunglasses. Verne pulled them off and blinked a couple times.
He was looking straight up and all he saw was sky. Verne could of sworn he was in the arcade but clearly he was outside. He sat up and looked down.
GREAT SCOTT HE WAS ON TOP OF THE CLOCK TOWER!
One thing Verne had always been afraid of was heights. One time when his family lived in the eighteen hundreds, Verne had climbed a huge oak tree at school to impress his friends. He had climbed all the way to the top when he looked down and screamed in fright. Verne remembered how hard his friends laughed when his mother had to climb up and get him.
The ten-year-old felt his guts tighten with fear as he saw how high he was. Looking at the ground made him feel extremely dizzy and Verne quickly gripped the side of the clock tower for dear life.
"VERNE!" someone yelled from down below. It sounded a lot like his dad but Verne didn't dare look down to see if it was.
"Dad is that you?" Verne yelled without moving an inch.
"Yes it's me Verny!" Doc called up. "Jules and Marty are here too. Don't worry we're going to get you down!"
"Hurry!" Verne yelled, he was starting to sweat and that made his grip slippery.
Meanwhile on the ground Doc, Marty, and Jules were hurridly thinking of a way to get Verne down. Marty glanced at the jet packs lying abandoned by the clock tower repair men.
"Hey Doc I have an idea!"
"I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die," Verne said as he pushed himself harder against the wall. He was now standing and trying to remain perfectly still so he wouldn't fall off the edge. The ten-year-old looked down at his feet and noticed that he was standing on a weak spot. Verne tried to slide carefully over to another spot but suddenly his sweaty hands lost their grip on the side of the clock tower and Verne felt himself falling!
"AAAAHHHH!" Verne screamed as he waved his arms wildly. Now he was really going to die. But then he felt somebody grab him tightly and he opened his eyes.
"You wouldn't think I would let you fall would you Verny?" Doc said as he used the jet pack he was wearing to land them safely on the ground. Verne was still shaking from his near-death experience and Doc covered his youngest son with his lab coat.
"Thanks pop," Verne said as his father picked him up and piggy backed him all the way to the time train. Maybe his dad did care about him after all.
Hill Valley, California
June 3rd, 1992
9:08 PM
The time train returned to its spot in the lab and everyone got off of it. Verne was now walking along side his borther and father (Marty had gone home) as they trudged toward the house in the darkness. The lights were on in the kitchen and Verne thought he could see the siloueete of his mother at the table with a box of tissues.
When Doc entered the house and called out to Clara that they "all" were back, the distraught woman nearly tripped over herself to get to her son.
"Verne Newton Brown…" Clara began angrily but then she caved and hugged Verne as tightly as she could. "Never ever do this to us again."
Doc and Clara gave Verne one of the sternest lectures that the ten-year-old had ever received. They were really angry that Verne had behaved so irresponsibly and selfishly. He was grounded for a whole month with no T.V. or video games. After the parents had finished their lecture it was 11:00 and they sent Verne straight to bed.
The next morning Verne trudged down the stairs gloomily in his pajamas. He went to the bathroom and then into the kitchen to have a bowl of Captain Crunch cereal.
"SURPRISE!" his family shouted as Verne entered the kitchen. Doc, Clara, Jules, Einstein, and Marty were all standing there smiling. Clara was holding a white frosted cake in her hands and Jules was holding a present from all of them. There was a banner strung acroos the kitchen wall that read: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
"But my birthday was yesterday," Verne said as he looked around. "ANd I thought I was being punished?"
Marty came up to him and knelt down to Verne.
"Well you see Verne we all felt bad that we missed your birthday so we're celebrating it today. Your dad's the one that made the banner and your mom made an awesome cake."
"Your still grounded Verne," Jules said. "But mother and father remembered we never had the birthday party."
Verne realized then and there how much his family cared about him. I mean how many families would search through centuries in a time traveling locomotive or use a jet pack to save you from falling off a clock tower? Yep, Verne realized how lucky he was to have them.
