Disclaimer: I don't own anything that has a relation to these movies.
Author's Note: Yeah, here I am again to torment you with my stories. I thought it was about time that I uploaded something I wrote over the past month... don't you all agree? I'm currently stranded in the start of the next story, but Racing Through Time is written and only needs to be uploaded yet, so you'll be sure to recieve another chapter some time from now.
2: Chapter Two
Emmett couldn't hold back a gasp as the light around the truck faded. Confused, he looked around, wondering where he was. Part of the answer to that question came nearly right away, as something red and oddly shaped suddenly raced right towards them, popping up at the front window looking like it was only a foot or so away. Marty twisted the steering wheel to the right to avoid it, and narrowly managed that. "Phew" the teen muttered, before looking out of the window, balling his left hand into a fist and shouting: "Where did you get your flying lessons, at the local madhouse?"
The older man leaned back into his seat. "Marty?" he asked. "What… what on earth was that?"
"Oh, nothing important" Marty replied, having returned to his regular calm self. "Some drunk driver. One of these days, they ought to take their hover conversions and smash them into pieces. You wonder what kind of IQ they have, considering it's not all that complicated to fly."
Emmett stared at his friend for a moment, then looked out of the window, causing him to gasp. There were flying cars all around them. It was like they were on a road in the sky, with lane markers and everything. There were signs telling the speed and the distances to nearby locations. And everything, every single thing, was flying.
"A drunk driver?" Jennifer repeated, paying more attention to Marty's story. "In the sky? Where are we!"
"Considering spatial displacement is currently impossible, we are not too far away from the place we just left" Marty responded. "We're currently somewhere between eight hundred and nine hundred yards away from the city centre of Hill Valley, California, in the United States of America."
"All right Marty, then when are we?" Emmett pressed on. "This doesn't look like home, if cars are flying."
"Well," Marty replied, "Considering that I told you last night where I was going and that I also told you that we were going to the times that haven't arrived yet from the world's current perspective, or actually not current since they are now current but from the perspective of the world we just left…"
"Marty?" Emmett interrupted, knowing his friend could go on for ages if he wanted to.
"Oh, yes, sorry. Anyway, considering the information I gave you and the fact that I intended to take you along on my next journey, you should know where we are, roughly."
Emmett pondered that thought. He remembered what Marty had told him – the teen wanted to go exactly as far forward as he'd previously gone back. He had gone back to 1955 from 1985, that was thirty years. 1985 and adding thirty…
"Two thousand fifteen" he whispered, stunned. "We're in the year 2015!"
"Saturday, October 31st, 2015, at 3:30 P.M., to be exact" Marty replied. "But yes, the year is correct."
"Emmett, what are you talking about?" Jennifer wanted to know. "How could we be in the year 2015? That's thirty years from now! It's impossible!"
Marty and Emmett exchanged glances. "Uh, Jennifer," Marty began, "I am not aware of any correct manner being in existence to inform you of the current situations, but…"
"…you're in a time machine" Emmett finished.
Jennifer stared at him, for a moment disbelieving, but then she looked outside and realization that this had to be the truth began to appear. "And this is the year two thousand fifteen?" she asked, stunned.
"October thirty-first, two thousand fifteen" Marty prompted.
Jennifer gasped, and was silent for a moment, unable to say anything. Then, she finally replied: "Marty, I knew you were smart, but… really? Did you build a time machine?"
"It's a temporal field warping and displacement machine" Marty corrected. "But yes, I built it and… Great Scott! Seatbelts on, everyone!"
"Now what is that good for all of a sudden?" Emmett asked Marty, who was already putting on his own belt.
"I'll tell you in a moment" Marty responded, sharp. "Just do it, okay?"
Emmett nodded, confused, and put his seatbelt on. Jennifer did the same. They then passed a big sign, which sent a bend of red light towards them as they came past it. The sixty-five-year-old frowned. "All right, what was that light about?"
"That's the automatic seatbelt-scan" Marty told him. "They have one every mile on the skyway. With the invention of flying cars, having accidents has become much easier, so this is a necessary precaution to ensure that everyone wears their belt."
Emmett nodded. "You're the Doc, Marty."
"Not yet – here's our exit!" Marty called out, and he took the truck to the right, flying down a side lane. As Emmett peeked out of the window, he could see that they passed another flying sign, which read: 'Welcome to Hill Valley, California. Population 200.000. Goldie Wilson Jr. Mayor. A nice place to live. Please Fly Carefully. Seat Belts Save Lives.' Emmett smiled at the last one, remembering what Marty had just said. They then descended further and entered a familiar looking alleyway.
As the truck began it's final few feet of descent to the ground, Emmett noticed a strange buzzing sound. He looked outside and saw that the wheels went back into their normal position, or at least, into what was a normal position as far as a 1985 person was concerned. The truck then landed with a bump.
"Well, we've arrived" Marty said, turning to the others. "I'm sorry for acting so rushed earlier, but I didn't want anybody to see the temporal field warping and displacement machine and potentially recognize it for what it is. I trust you two with the knowledge, but outside that, I am unaware of whether people should be trusted. I considered revealing the machine to mankind earlier, but I don't think I'm going to do that."
"Yeah, it doesn't sound very smart" Jennifer said. "It is pretty cool that you built a time machine, Marty, and it would be kind of funny to see everyone gawk at it, but others could use it for the wrong purposes. Something might go wrong with that."
"Exactly" Marty said, relieved that his friends understood his motives. "I have no intentions to let any more people know about the machine than those that are currently aware of the vehicle. It is just too dangerous. Who knows what kind of disaster it could cause? Imagine if the machine were to fall into the hands of someone who intends to disrupt history? Even if your intentions are good, chances are that disaster strikes anyway. I've been too close to that in 1955 when I almost erased myself from existence."
"Excuse me, what did you do?" Jennifer replied, astonished. "You went to 1955? When? Why!"
Marty and Emmett looked at each other. "Well, to be honest, that was the first trip I took" Marty replied. "It happened last night. It's a long story which we can explain to you later, but for now it should suffice that I ended up going back in time instead of forwards due to some accident, and that I interfered with my parents' courtship."
"He was Clint Eastwood" Emmett provided. "This probably sounds weird to you, considering everything I've told about him even before Marty was born…"
"It definitely does" Jennifer muttered. "Granted, it would have been worse if I had been in Hill Valley at the time you visited, Marty… but are you telling me that you were the one to date your mother that night? That's what I heard from Emmett, at least…"
"It's true" Marty replied. "As you probably realize, it was not intentional, but it was a necessary action that had to be done in order to bring my parents together. Emmett knew about my true origins all the time – I had gone to him for a place to stay – but I told him not to tell anybody about it. Again, this was done just in case the time machine would fall in the wrong hands."
"But you could've let him tell me, at least" Jennifer said, clearly a bit hurt. "I wouldn't misuse that knowledge."
"I know, but at the time, I could hardly tell Emmett" Marty reminded her. "In 1955, he was still unaware of your existence, and I couldn't tell him that he could tell his wife, since that would have included telling him that he would have a wife, and thus endanger history."
Jennifer nodded, even though she didn't entirely appear to get it. "So Emmett had to live with that secret for thirty years?" she deduced, surprised. "That sounds incredibly hard to me. And to think that he had to wait all that time for you…"
"Actually, I've just gone through a month of not seeing him either" Marty replied. "So I know the feeling a bit – and it's not nice, I agree."
"A month?" Emmett said, stunned. "You just left last night!"
"You're not thinking fourth-dimensionally, Emmett" Marty gently reminded him. "Yes, I did leave last night, or actually not last night but the night before the morning we departed from 1985, but I have spent a long time in the future. That's what I told you on the parking lot, remember? About how I might be away for a long time and come back right after I left?"
"Oh yeah" Emmett replied, indeed recalling something like that.
"I spent three weeks in the year 2015 until yesterday evening in this time period" Marty continued. "Then, I left on an expedition of roughly nine days through the entire twenty-first and early twenty-second century, spending a day or two in each time period. It was very exhausting, I can tell you that."
"I suppose so" Jennifer muttered. "What years did you visit?"
Marty leaned back, recalling them. "First, I went to 2045, where I spent two days. Then, I went ahead to 2115 where I spent the same time. Then, I went back to 2070 for a day, to 2130, to 2050, to 2000, to 2115 again, then a short trip to 2030 before finally returning to 1985 to pick you up. Or, in fact, to pick up Emmett, since I wasn't aware that you would come along at that point in time."
"I see" Emmett said. "So, what did you bring us here for? I doubt that you were going to let us sit in the car all the time. Or let me sit in the car all the time, if you intended to bring only me."
"I was going to take you on a trip through the Square, which I have no reason to cancel now" Marty responded. "So, as you correctly pointed out, we should be leaving. First, though, I've got something for you, Emmett."
"What?" Emmett asked, as Marty exited.
"Take a look for yourself" Marty replied. Emmett nodded, and exited the car, taking a breath of the surprisingly nice air of 2015. He looked over to Marty, who had taken a bag out of the truck's trunk. "Future clothes" the teen informed him. "Your pants don't stand out too much, especially for an older person like you are, but you should put on the vest and the shoes to blend in the crowd."
"Since when have you been concerned with blending into the crowd?" Emmett replied, smirking.
"All for the good of the space-time continuum" Marty replied, smirking back. "Fitting in is one of the primary measures that have to be taken in order to be inconspicuous. We can't risk anybody noticing that we're a time traveler. And in the past, there is the additional problem of altering history to consider. What if someone took a moment to gawk at us, and thus arrived home later than he did in the original timeline, and as a result, he arrived late enough to see the beginning of a house fire, instead of not noticing it and dying in the fire as in the original timeline?"
"Well, that's good, isn't it?" Jennifer said. "We'd have saved a life."
"Jennifer…" Emmett whispered, painfully, but it was already too late. Marty turned his gaze towards her. "Altering history is never good, no matter what you do. Certainly, good can result from it, and the changes I made in 1955 don't appear to have destroyed the universe, but anything can happen if you travel through time, and even if things appear good at first, they can be disastrous. But, if you insist, I can present you with an alternate scenario: What if the man arrived early enough in the original timeline to stop the fire, and he arrived later in the new timeline, thus causing the fire to have already spread and kill his wife and children?"
"You're installing a lot of confidence in this man here" Emmett quipped.
"It's a purely hypothetical situation" Marty replied. "Which doesn't take away the fact that it could happen when time travelling, and that we should take care at all time, even in the future."
"Yeah, right" Jennifer replied. "But on another note, how about my clothes?"
"I don't have anything for you, sorry" Marty replied. "If you really stick out, we can buy something later, but I don't think you do. I have seen enough of the fashions of this decade to be sure that you blend in fine with these clothes. Everyone seems to be obsessed with the 1980s at the moment."
"Really?" Emmett asked, having pulled on the vest and staring at it, confused about why it was so big and why this beep sound was coming from it.
"Yeah, really" Marty replied, as he pushed a button on Emmett's vest which caused the vest to stop beeping and shrink to Emmett's size, with a cheerful: "Size adjusting… fit." "I don't know why, but everything is dedicated to the 1980s. Advertisement of movies from our time period at the cinema, clothes from the time at the front in clothing shops, there's even a café in the Square which is called the Café 80s."
"No kidding" Jennifer said.
"I'm not kidding" Marty responded. "It's not done very well, though. Either that is because some events have yet to come from our perspective, but otherwise, the people in it didn't study the history books. It looks too futuristic to be truly representing the decade which we are from."
"Well, I guess we'll soon be able to judge that for ourselves" Jennifer replied. "We're going to the Square, aren't we? If the Café is there…"
"It's on the same place as Lou's system of physical conditioning designed to enhance circulatory and respiratory efficiency that involves several forms of intense physical exercise studio is in our time" Marty informed her.
"As what is?" Jennifer responded, unable to figure out most of the terms that Marty had just used.
"Lou's Aerobics Studio, I believe they call it" Marty said. "Anyway, it doesn't matter, we'll find out through the natural course of time." He looked at Emmett. "Have you put the shoes on?"
"Yeah, I have" Emmett replied, standing up and inspecting himself at all angles. "You should've told me right away that they laced out of themselves, though. It scared me a bit. So did the vest shrinking, in fact."
Jennifer sent a flirtatious smile towards him. "I think you look quite cute in that outfit" she said, trying to cheer him up. "You should wear it at home too."
"That's not advisable, unless you want to draw unnecessary attention and suspicion towards you" Marty pointed out.
"And I wouldn't like it anyway" Emmett muttered, pulling at the vest and staring at it suspiciously as if it was going to do something again. "It's just freaky."
"You can stand wearing it now, can't you?" Marty replied. "I ensure you that nothing strange is going to happen with you as long as you stay out of any unordinary situations."
"All right, I suppose I can manage" Emmett replied. "Are we going now, then?"
"We should" Marty agreed. "Is everybody ready?"
A nod from Jennifer and one from Emmett told him enough. Marty smiled, as they walked off into the Courthouse Square, ready to face the world of the future.