Every visit to the future was, in it's own way, ever so slightly different than the last. Sometimes, he's come and the world was bright, new, like something off an assembly line. Other times, it didn't seem quite so foreign at all, like nothing much had even really wanted to change, at least, in the surface, anyway. This was one of those trips, it seemed. There was... A unique lack of the usual sci-fi trappings here in this version of the 21st century. Granted, the cars and clothes had an uncanny peculiarity to them, but not because they flew or contained a great deal of electronic components. This would have worried the temporal traveler, long ago, but now? Well... Emmett Brown considered himself far more matured on the subject these past 12 years than he had ever been while he was trying to build the thing. It was something you could chalk up to experience, and having the free time to actually delve into the theory, rather than just trying to make the damn thing work in the first place. Changes weren't a sign of mistake, this far ahead, it was merely a symptom of existing, seen only by those who could go forward to check.
The changes, though, did find a way to present a problem to him in another sense. While this updated Hill Valley had its fair share of various tech and the retail it was distributed in, none of it was quite at the level he needed the technology to be. Oh, he'd picked up a few delightful curiosities. A cheap drive no bigger than his thumb that could hold whole gigabytes was a surprising find, for one, and he looked forward to playing with it later, but it wasn't what he'd looking for in coming here. No, his shopping trips to the future tended to revolve around the types of things in the more obviously advanced futures. Holographic interfaces, powerful electromagnets in hover kits, and generators beyond what a person living in the 1980s could even dream of. If you could help it, you really did want more than one fusion reactor. You could work miracles with steam, he'd come to find while living in the past, but by Newton some days it could be inconvenient. A stay-at-home inventor should try to be efficient where he can, after all.
"I'm sorry, a what?" Asked the clerk on the other end of the payphone which, curiously, had been a nightmare trying to locate. Next time, he noted, he ought to bring along one of those cell phones he's seen. There was no guarantee, though, it'd be compatible with the next trip in.
"I was asking about the availability of any small reactors in your store." Replied Emmett, calmly. He had a sense of the answer he'd get, given the other conversations he'd had today.
"What kind?" Came the hesitant reply, a bit bewildered as to what this baffled old man wanted.
"Fusion?" He clarified.
And, there it was. Pleasant laughter and then "No, I'm sorry, sir, we don't carry that here."
"Ah, of course. Thank you anyway." Emmett hung up with a sigh. Despite the natural course of changes, things usually didn't deviate quite so drastically as what he'd been seeing all day. Perhaps he would shoot a century further, next time... Either way, it was back to the train with what he had already found. He probably wanted to leave now anyway to make it back before it became much too late in the day. Another one of the things he missed about the late DeLorean was its inconspicuousness. Not compared to cars in general, naturally, it stood out on it's own right, but the train engine filled with retrograde technology was another level entirely. You just couldn't park it anywhere close by without too much attention. Cloaking technology, however, was a different trip to prepare for altogether. In the meantime, he'd just have to walk the half-hour to where he'd hidden it. He didn't especially mind it all that much, once he was on his way. It was good space to think, and he probably needed it anyway, you just had to keep an eye out.
Arriving at the train, he set his purchases down on the pavement to haul the door open. The Jules Verne time train was an elegant mechanical beast, if he did say so himself, backlit behind a low billboard, and just a little difficult to make out in the fading light. Perfect for the unseen traveler.
Door open, he gathered his things back up, and stopped to appreciate a light breeze before stepping into the darkened interior. Despite the windows, you couldn't see all that much, but for Emmett, he knew the interior like a second home, partly because that was what it was sometimes used for. He shed the jacket and glasses he'd been wearing onto the main console, and reached for the great electric switch to power the whole thing on.
It was then, that the figure who had been soundlessly waiting in the shadowed corners finally decided to pounce.
Emmett was pinned halfway under the console by someone light, but strong. The figure's hand was pressed over his mouth, as it looked around the inside of the train with a intensity, well, usually reserved for Emmett himself.
"Shh! Sh! Knock it off." Snapped the figure, smacking away the hand he had just tried to use to free himself. "I'm here to help y-... I said stop it! You ungrateful..." The figure, an older male it seemed from the voice, froze stock still, other than to look around for another couple seconds and keep him from moving either. Satisfied with whatever it was he was waiting or watching out for, he turned his attention back to Emmett, and gave a dramatic sigh. "I'll let you up in a second, just, just know that, that if you try anything, I'm gonna... You're gonna get your ass kicked. Got it?"
Emmett, up til this point, couldn't do much more than breathe, struggle, and try to see who exactly had broken into his time machine. It was hard to pick out any specific features, but he could get a basic shape from the outline. Wild, light hair, and some sort of long, light coat, as well as the overpowering scent of liqueur seemed to be key traits.
"Well?" Said the man. "You good with that? or am I gonna have to-..." He trailed off into stammering. It occurred to Emmett that this man must not be entirely lucid, and was most likely some sort of delinquent who'd found the inside of the train by happenstance. If he could just get up, he could probably be able to take him and then get him out without any issues, if he had to. It was only surprise that had put him on such a disadvantage in the first place. As clearly as he could, given his current situation, Emmett nodded his acquiescence.
His captor took a breath, and, after a carefully stern glare, removed his hands and moved off of the inventor. Doc sat up, rubbing at the back of his neck. "I don't have much of monetary value, if that's what-..."
He was cut off short by the man's laughter, a wild, harsh sound, even if he did seem to be trying to be more quiet about it. "Ahaha! Hah! First of all, I call BS on that. Look at this thing! It's got all kinds of valuable tech components all wrapped up in steampunky garbage. It's an entire, ergh, an entire steam train engine! You know what a guy could sell this thing for?" After pausing long enough to get a concerned look from his captive, he continued. "Second of all..." He stopped again, looking like he was trying to pull himself together. How intoxicated was he? "Second of all, I'm not here for that, you idiot. I'm here for you, 'Doc Brown', or whatever it is they usually call you."
A million thoughts and possibilities raced through Emmett's mind. How much did this stranger know? And how? He usually tried to keep his identity as unremarkable as possible when outside his own time. He pushed himself to his feet, and then finally hit the power switch on the train.
His attacker, now illuminated, was not that much older than himself. His hair was a strange tint of grey, and his coat recognizably of the ilk worn in laboratories, not very unlike his own either. His eyebrows formed a single, connected line across his forehead, which was scrunching over a pair of bright and intense eyes, currently focused on something in his hands. It looked... Like a checkout scanner, but the man clearly regarded it with some importance. All at once, his arms shot up and he fired some type of energy ray from it, right past Emmett's shoulder. Doc whirled around with a yelp, expecting mild injury or damage to the console, but was instead faced with a swirling green vortex. What it was, nor what was behind it, he couldn't see. He certainly could tell there was a kind of depth to the swirling...substance... as though it stretched back much farther than the apparent plane on which it existed. He even leaned back behind it to check. The console was untouched, at any rate.
"My name is Rick Sanchez." Said the man, pocketing the ray-gun as Emmett turned back around to watch him. "And I'm only gonna explain everything once. If you're all you're cracked up to be, that's all you'll need anyway. Now come on." he said, grabbing Doc's wrist. "W-we gotta get you out of this dimension!"