Closest Friends
- So, this is the car my father turned into a working Time Machine?
- Yeah. I really wonder why he never involved you in…
- Mother says I should stay clear from science. Dad approves it.
- Nothing's really changed, huh?
- What do you mean?
Marty stopped a moment: could he tell Gene how he's involved in his parents first meeting?
Gene schrugged his shoulders:
- I guess it's something that could causa a major space-time continuum collapse…
- How do you know?
- In order to warn me about the risks of time-jumps…
- Pop taught you those things without mom knowing it, right?
- Correct. Well, let's see what this lil' jewel got…
Gene opened up the driver's door and sat inside.
- You don't think that could upset your mother?
- Dad told me grandpa didn't approve his passion for science.
- So you choose to ignore your mother's opinions?
- Exactly. Can I tell you a secret?
- I'm afraid I've already guessed…
Gene smiled:
- You do. I'm a scientist myself, but my parents ignore it.
- Have you already… Invented stuffs?
- Of course I did! Would you like to see?
- Where?
- Just come aboard, Marty…
Gene was inviting Marty to take the passenger's seat. A bit anxious, Marty sat down, and Gene started the engine.
- Just a question, Gene… Do you have your driver's licence?
- No need.
- WHAT?!
The DeLorean rolled then.
Gene stopped next to an abandoned store.
- Here we are, my friend…
- Holy crap, Gene! You drive without a license? Do you want to kill us?
- Father learned me, don't be so terrorized!
- Father, father… What did your father never taught you?
- How to do time-travels, and other minor things.
Gene left the car. Marty followed him, curious about what he was going to discover in Doc's son Alibaba's cave…
- Do you own this place, Gene?
- Of course not. I'm only fourteen, I just earn dimes on new year's day.
- Sooo… You are a sort of…
- Shh! We're not alone…
Marty couldn't see anyone else around, but Gene quickly took him by the shoulder and closed the doors behind them.
- Let me light your fire, baby!
- Who are you talking with…? Oh!
Gene had turned a lamp on, enlighthning a part of the room.
- Did you think I was talking to you?
He turned three other lamps, illuminating the whole place.
- Whoa! Gene, you're your father's legitimate son…
- You like it?
- Yeah, but… What's this? A bunch of badges?
- Portative communicators.
- Portative what?
Gene took two of his "communicators", placing one on Marty's temple, one other on his own head:
- Now, we're able to communicate long distance simply by caressing those "badges".
- What?
Gene gently touched his "communicator", and Marty heard a voice in his head:
See? My thoughts to your thoughts… Try, it's fun!
It's craziness! He invented a telepathic stuff!
Gene smiled, highly satisfied of the effect this demonstration: Marty could sense more than his simple thoughts, but his emotions too… And being here, with a sort of confidant among all this stuff he's been secretely created, was clearly electrifying him. Marty took the "communicator" off his head.
- I'm sorry, Gene, but… It's a bit difficult to… Sense everything you sense…
- I should have known it would hurt you.
- No, no… I just think it's like violating…
Gene shrugged his shoulders:
- Violating what? I authorized you to enter!
- It's not usual, Gene, you have to understand…
- You'll get used to it.
- How can you know that?
- Man always gets used to anything. It's a matter of ti…
He had stopped brutally. Marty hadn't no need to read his mind: he knew what he was up to do…
- Gene, it's madness. Doc… Your father… Never told you it's wrong to know too much…
- About my own future? Yeah. A million times. But I don't care.
- You should, I assure you.
- So you're not coming with me?
- Wait… You thought I would like to do a time-jump with you?
Gene seemed really hurt:
- Does that mean you don't want to share anything with me?
- No, no… I meant… You don't have your license, and you don't know how to do it…
- I'll figure it out by myself. I don't need you.
- Gene, I'm sorry…
- Don't give me that.
Gene was turning the lights off. Marty took back the "communicator" Gene gave him and placed it on his temple again:
I will do with you, Gene.
Gene turned on him, astonished by the fact Marty accepted to use his "telepathic stuff".
Why… Thanks… It would be much more fun with you!
I don't know if it's right…
Gene smiled:
I can hear what you're thinking!
So can I, Gene.
I know.
He patted his communicator, breaking the mental transmissions:
- So, let's do it!
Gene took a few inventions of his and plunged the room into darkness:
Don't move, I'm calibrating my sensors… Yay!
What the heck…?
I wear nightvision glasses, you sense what I sense. It's almost like you were wearing those glasses too.
Amazing!
You start to like it! Thank you!
Marty felt Gene was holding him in his arms and kissing his forehead.
Erm… Gene…?
Oh! Excuse me, my emotions overflow… Let's go to the DeLorean!
Marty could follow Gene without running into anything, and Gene shivers:
- Gene Brown!
It's mom! Quick, Marty!
Marty took the driver's seat and let Gene enter after closing his laboratory:
So when are we going?
- Go out of that car right now!
Edna was running to them, and Marty could sense Gene's anxiety…
Three decades later, please, quick!
Marty set the time circuits and speeded up the DeLorean to the 88 miles per hour limit…
This 2016 didn't look as Marty first knew it… Right, every car could fly, and it seemed Brown's airborne devices stores had made their way out of Hill Valley… But the roads were deserted…
Hum… Gene… There was a lot of people when I jumped a year before…
I don't understand… Hill Valley still exists… So where are all the citizens?
You think they've faded away?
It doesn't make sense, Marty!
Gene let Marty hide the Time Machine and took the additional stuff he brought from his laboratory:
By the way, Gene… What are those things for?
This is an efficient neutralizing weapon. This one for you!
Gene threw a curious stick of iron, and Marty could just juggle with it like it was burning:
WHAT?! You've built weapons?
Don't worry, it's not dangerous at all!
Gene tapped his communicator and pointed the stick on his own head. Seconds laters, he vanished on the asphalt.
Gene!
Marty took his pulse: everything seemed normal.
Marty… Set yours on "wake"…
Wake? Wake… Oh…
Marty had just noticed a white stripe on the stick with three positions: "Sleep", "Wake" and…
Mezmerizing?
Don't care… It's a trick… Wake… Caress the band with your finger…
Marty obeyed, pointing at Gene, and the young inventor opened his eyes.
Gosh, you want me to have an attack?
Don't worry… I would have wake up four hours after being touched by those alpha waves' projection.
Alpha wave's projection… Is this a sort of sonoinductor?
Yes! How did you guess that!
Gene, you've invented a thing that should have been created decades later!
Gene smiled, ultimately pleased:
Without a single time jump.
Do you realize that this, in wrong hands, could have cause Humanity's extinction?
Gene opened bug eyes:
You're right… God, what have I done…
Marty took a look around and noticed a light behind two shutters.
He tried to comfort Gene, patting his shoulder:
Look! I think somebody's here…
Yes, maybe…
Gene followed Marty, and what they saw by a peek shocked the young inventor:
How is this possible? This can not be human, it's a mass of grease!
Look, Gene… Her temple…
A "communicator" was shining over the "mass of grease" left ear:
God… I understand…
Can you go throught this for me?
It's simple: People actually get used to communicate with my invention… Without a limit.
So nobody moves his ass off?
Basically, yes. I turned Humanity into obese monsters…
Marty gently caressed Gene's back, trying to comfort him again:
This hasn't already happened… Maybe we could…
Don't think about it! If we do so, the cause of our second time jump will be erased, causing a major space-time…
Colapse, I know. But who cares? We'll do it for everyone's good!
That's what I wanted to do when I invented this communicator…
Marty was submerged by Gene's deep feelings of fear, guilt…
Carry on, Gene! This is not catastrophic: mimmicks ago, you thought you indirectly killed everyone with your inoffensive weapon…
You're right… But do you really think we can… Fix things up?
You know what I think.
Marty was smiling.
Gene smiled in return, and Marty shook his hand:
Let's do it, my friend.
Gene was enjoying the word… And the contact. Marty couldn't help himself releasing his hand.
What's wrong?
Erm… Nothing… Just a question: do you have other friends?
Never had one but yourself, Marty.
That explained some weird things in his behavior:
I'm used to speak and act entirely as I feel in my lab… And I don't know why, I feel I can…
Gene, I don't think it's the time to talk about friendship's effects on you.
Time? We're time travelers, we've got all the time in the world!
Listen to me, Gene… Five hours ago, you didn't even know who I was…
That was five hours ago, exactly!
Marty couldn't stop a thought:
He's as sensitive as his father… Holy crap…
Sensitive? What do you mean?
You know, your father… Tends to let his heart…
Speaking instead of his head?
I would have said "yelling out", but you get the idea…
Gene whispered:
You know my father even more than I know him…
We've been friends… Of all times.
I can't expect it between us?
Let the time doing… Jesus! Down, Gene!
What?
Marty plunged in a dark one-way road, pushing Gene in order to make them invisible. A few feet away by the square, two men were laughing alone.
- You're a bat, Gene!
- And you're a rat!
They shook their hands in a curious way, yelling at the same time:
- BATRAT!
Gene looked on the two men and on Marty:
Are those two guys… Our future selves?
I think so… I wonder what they… What we are doing…
Alone in a desert town populated by overweight people…
I thought about it too. And we're not obese… That's not…
Normal?
Gene shooked his head to confirm the term.
- Once again, you found a way to save the World.
- A simple trick to amaze fatties.
I think I know what we're talking about…
- HELP ME! I'M ABLE TO WALK AGAIN!
A young man was running from nowhere.
He disappeared round a corner, and the older Marty and Gene laughed:
- It may be a trick, but it works!
- The precise way I wanted it to.
- I know.
Are we making fun of people suddenly recovering a healthy weight?
It seems we are. But we are doing good things for them, no?
Marty pointed their older selves: older Marty was holding older Gene in his arms.
- I like you, bat… Everything's funny with you.
- I like you too, rat.
We seem very close to each other…
Does it comfort you?
I don't know… What are we supposed to do?
Marty looked at Gene:
I know, you think suppressing the cause of people overweight could erase our friendship…
That's why it's never good to know too much about the future…
Yes… Gene… I don't know what will make us that close… But the problem is almost solved.
Because our older selves get the remedy?
In fact, yes…
Gene shook his head:
I have a bad feeling about this… I may have turned wrong…
You're just like your father. He used to worry too much.
You think we should let our older selves doing the job?
Suddenly, Marty felt something wrong. It was not Gene's feelings, he could bet on it.
We're following us, Gene.
Gene was wondering why Marty changed his mind as they managed to stay on their future selves' steps without being seen.
- Ready to save the planet, bat?
- You know it, rat!
Older Gene placed a massive device on the ground, pointing the courthouse's clock with the telescopic riffle barrel that appeared as he was caressing it.
Marty wondered why all Gene's inventions seemed to work by touching it so… Sensually…
Science is my passion, Marty. I guess you will understand in a few years…
Older Gene shot, and a wire propulsed by this action reached the clock's longest pointer, turning four times before returning to the expeditor:
- We're almost there, rat.
- Okay, but don't you injure yourself, bat…
Gene couldn't figure out where this "bat"-"rat" thingy could have come from…
It's not relevant, Gene… Hey! What are you doing?!
Future Gene was climbing up to the clock.
Why am I not just entering the courthouse?
I guess you like extreme sports…
- Hey, watch out, bat!
Older Marty seemed petrified: the wire was betraying older Gene.
God! I will probably…
Older Gene crushed down the road as he had almost reached the clock. Older Marty hadn't the time to save him, and he was benting down, hesitating to touch his friend:
- Hey, Gene… Gene… Answer me, please…
He placed a sort of portative scanner upon older Gene.
By taking a look on what the scanner was revealing, he bursted out of crying:
- Dead… You leave me alone in there…
The scanner was printed something. Older Marty took the picture and threw it away, so Marty and Gene could see the multiple severe fractures in older Gene's skeleton:
Wow, that's serious…
Older Marty was still crying.
Marty put the picture in his pocket:
I seem actually affected… Gene?
Gene couldn't stand the inside vision of his own death. Marty could sense it.
Gene, I'm sorry you had to see it…
Gene was shivering so bad that Marty thought he was about to faint:
I think I will never be able to take this picture out of my mind…
Marty didn't know if his own thoughts were sinking in Gene's emotions, or if this event and this horrified child's vision were affecting him…
Gene… It will never happen, I promise you.
How can you swear that? You know what we've seen!
We'll fix things up. In no time at all.
He took Gene's hand and urged him to go back to the DeLorean…
So, the plan is…
To find out what will reinforce our relationship in order not to compromise it, then figure out how to prevent Humanity from becoming a mass of grease…
Gene was still shocked. He gasped:
And erase my own death at the same time… I get it.
Okay.
They were back in the Time Machine.
First: when will we become close friends?
Hard question… I don't know if it's relevant, but have you noticed our older selves didn't wear my portative communicators, and yet seemed to know the other's thoughts?
Hey, you're right! They were talking, not communicating in a "telepathic" way… That reveals…
We will be friends for decades before this year?
Marty shook his head to confirm:
That's what I was about to think…
They glanced at each other:
Marty… I think my communicators reinforce…
Our mental connexion ?
In an unexpected way, yes.
Marty's and Gene's thoughts were almost mixed together in a single one at this point.
That means our friendship to be…
… Comes directly from those communicators…
… And more precisely the use we have of them.
Marty smiled:
Now I know why my older self called yours "bat".
Gene smiled in return:
And I know why mine called yours "rat".
But suddenly, he realized that their friendship was not due to a long mutual frequentation…
That's sad for you…
Yes, because before showing you these communicators…
You did like me, bat?
Gene shrugged his shoulders: why Marty needed to ask?
Okay, Gene. I know what I have to do.
Marty disconnected his communicator and did the same for Gene.
- But… What are you doing?!
- Don't you hear what I think?
- Of course not! We're no longer… Huh?!
Marty grabbed Gene's hand:
- You hear a little, I know it.
- You do?
- Yes.
- That means our relationship is already like it will be in this year.
- We know each other for a very short time.
That's what Gene thought too.
- You really believed that technology could completely create a friendship out of nothing?
- Out of nothing?
- I did like you, rat. You remind me your father when he was seventeen.
- What did you just say?!
- Ouch… I shouldn't have told you that…
Gene looked Marty directly in his eyes:
- You are telling you did a time jump in the 1930's, then you met my father, and you became a close friend of his?
- We've been closest friends of all time… Since I was thirteen!
- So, before dad invented this Time Machine… You don't like me for who I am…
- Gene, I want to tell you… I'm responsible of your whole existence.
Gene opened bug eyes:
- My parents met because of you?
- It was accidental. And I tried to make them break up, because in the timeline I had jump from, they had turned Hill Valley into zombie city…
Gene whispered.
- I'm sorry… In the timeline I'm from, you're not supposed to be born.
Gene did not answer.
- Your father is supposed to marry a teacher from 1885, and having two boys… Who really don't look like you, I must admit. I just tried to fix things up… And your parents didn't have children in the zombie Valley I wanted to overwrite… I had no idea a genius like you would born…
Gene was still not responding.
- Gene…?
He turned his head, smiling:
- Now, we're close friends, rat.
- What? I've just told you I tried to erase you, and you still want to be my friend?
- As you told it, you had no idea I would born. And… It's not that I like congratulations… But you're the first person who thinks I'm a bit…
- Intelligent?
Gene shrugged his shoulders:
- My parents never thought I could be clever enough to understand the risks of science. But I'm clearly an example of those "risks".
- Maybe they just believe you're too…
- Crazy?
- Basically… Yeah.
Gene whispered, satisfied:
- I guess I'm a little batty. My own future death showed it to me.
- Batty… That's clearly why I'll call you "bat".
- What about my propensity to climb wires?
- Could be a part of it, bat.
- So, what are we going to do?
Marty shook his head:
- We know when we became close friends, now.
- Rhetorical… So, the second step is preventing this town to become fatty city.
- We both know it's because of some inventions of yours.
- Clearly the communicators. I've seen this terrified man running for a few seconds, but I noticed he was wearing one of them.
Gene shook his head to confirm an inner thought:
- We have to destroy the communicators.
- All of them?
- They're no good. One day, they'll be out of my control, and together, we'll try to correct my mistake, then I'll…
- No, Gene, I told you this won't happen. I think your idea is sound… Let's do it now…
The DeLorean appeared in front of the abandoned store.
- It's already morning? I thought we left at sundown…
- Correct. I decided to retard our time jump for a few hours, so my mother won't be there anymore.
- Very clever, Gene.
Gene was about to open the doors, but he stopped:
- What's wrong… Your mother?
Gene's breath was erratic: he looked as afraid of his mother as Doc was of his father.
- I think she's inside… The inside shutters weren't closed.
- So, what are we doing now?
- I will tell you what you are doing.
- Mrs. Brown?
- Mother?
Edna held her wrists on her hips. Gene was shivering, and Marty could sense he was afraid that his death would come earlier than he thought…
- Hug me, my son!
Edna wrapped Gene in her arms, gently caressing his red untamed hair:
- Mother…? You're not upset?
- Upset? Why would I be upset? My son is a pure genius, just like his father…
Marty red in Edna's gaze the same lightning of madness she had when she tried to erase Doc's brain…
- Gene… Back away from her…
- Why?
Marty took Gene's arm, but Edna was holding him too tightly.
- Why do you want to take my son from me?
- Okay, you leave me no choice…
Marty enters the laboratory, found the other communicators and showed them to Edna:
- That's what you want, right? And those sticks?
- What do you think you're doing?
- Just wait and see…
Marty threw the communicators -even those Gene and him wore before their time jump-, and crushed them all with his feet.
Edna suddenly released her son and meanly stared at Marty:
- What have you done?
- I know what you were going to do with those inventions… The same you would have done in this year if I didn't intervene in 1931.
- What? Marty, are you sure…?
- You know I know her all too well, Gene. She wants to have total control on Hill Valley!
Gene looked alternatively to his mother and Marty, a little confused. Marty shook his head:
- Trust me, Gene…
In a nanosecond, Gene had grabbed his weapon and neutralized his mother.
- Wow, you're fast!
Gene smiled:
- Thanks.
He looked down on his mother:
- Now, we know why my inventions will do this to Hill Valley…
- I'm sorry for you, Gene. I wouldn't tell you that if we weren't true friends… But she's crazy.
- I guess she is. So, what was the third step?
- Avoiding your death. And I believe there's only one way to do it…
- So do I…
- Why, my son… Why do you have to break all your inventions…?
- In order to prevent you form using them the wrong way. And some of them last, in fact.
- True?
- I selected some stuff I could keep without fearing your influence. At least, I realized you wanted to lead me the wrong path…
- I'm your mother! You have to listen to me!
Gene shook his head:
- If I listened to you, I would never have invented anything, and…
He had figure out the contradiction in his own statements:
- If I listened to you…
Gene whispered:
- I'm sorry, mother… You tried to keep me clear from your own madness.
He helped his mother to come back on her feet and hugged her:
- I love you, mom…
Edna seemed really confused about this behavior. Then, she caressed her son's hair:
- I love you too, Gene…
- Okay… I'll let you… Going on…
- You're leaving, Marty?
Marty was looking at the picture the older Marty's scanner printed in 2016:
- I guess our tentative to erase fatty city is a success.
- What do you mean?
- I'll tell you that later. You're a little busy, I think…
- Well… Where will I find you?
- Here's my address. And the phone number. If you're willing to, call me or come in person…
Marty came back home, admiring his father's flying car:
- That's pretty much more stylized than your rocket car, Doc…
- You're there, Marty! Did you find the store?
- Yes, dad… And something even more important…
- What do you have here?
- This? Nothing at all, dad…
Marty put the scanner's print on his desk : it was just a blank sheet, now…
