Disclaimer: Don't own anything, as usual.
I'VE WATCHED THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY! And Star Wars: Episode III. Ah, now my life is complete. ;P
This should be the second-last chapter, excluding the epilogue. The next update won't take long, if all goes well... It was meant to be part of this chapter, but it would've been too long. I've got it more or less written out in my head, so it's just a matter of finding time to write and type and edit it. Meanwhile, I've got random tests and stuff in school, as well as this day where we're allowed to dress up as random movie characters. (Me and two of my friends wanted to go as Jedi, but we didn't have anything that could be used as robes. The closest one of them had was a bathrobe, but for some reason she didn't like my idea of us wearing bathrobes and carrying towels and trying to pass off as hitchhikers. I admit that it could get quite a lot of strange looks, though, especially considering that there aren't many H2G2 fans in my school.)
To add to that list of full names: Steven Allan Spielberg, John Christopher Depp II, Zooey Claire Deschanel, Andrew Paul Wachowski, Susan Alexandra Weaver (Sigourney Weaver), Richard Frank Oznowicz (Frank Oz), Alec Guinness de Cuffe, Dante Terrell Smith (Mos Def), Carrie Frances Fisher, Peter Wilton Cushing. And I know most of their birthdays by heart too. Yay.
They landed, putting down on one of the large metal catwalks. Doc got out of the driver's seat and moved over to the rest. A quick glance around was all he needed to assess the situation.
"Can you find your way back home from here?" he asked Neo.
Neo hesitated, then shook his head. "No. I'm sorry...I don't exactly live in the city itself. I live on a ship - hovercraft - and it could be anywhere now."
"Do you know how to find it?"
"No."
Doc took a deep breath. "Great Scott," he muttered softly. His eyes hovered over the group of four in the cabin, then settled briefly on the injured Ted.
They were running out of time, and he knew it. They were in a time machine, and they were running out of time, in a situation in which the only possible option seemed to be to wait; wait and see if perhaps some new opportunity might come their way, or if the Improbability Drive decided to lend them a hand once more so they could get out of...
Four sonic booms suddenly shook the air.
"What the..."
The five travellers cast stunned looks at each other, then Doc opened the door and leapt out of the train with surprising agility for someone of his age. Marty made to follow him, only to be stopped by his friend.
From the doorway, Marty watched as an unfamiliar vehicle shifted out of hover mode and came to rest on the ground not very far from them. Its door opened, and a young man got out. Glancing at the train, he walked over to Doc. "Doctor Emmett L. Brown?" he asked.
"Yes," Doc answered warily. "And who may you be?"
The stranger smiled. "I'm Dan Shannon. Remember me? I thought you might need some help."
There was a moment's hesitation... then recognition dawned on Doc and a slow grin spread across his face. "Dan Shannon? From Paratech Industries?"
"Yep, that's me."
Standing in the doorway of the train, Marty blinked. "Who?" he mouthed, but Doc didn't see him.
"What took you so long?" Emmett asked.
Dan shrugged. "Well, between me keeping the Goa'uld from killing the Sailor Scouts, the Borg from assimilating the Battlestar Galactica, and having the Evil Dead along with the Necronomicon Ex Mortis eradicated from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry... I've been very busy, don't ya think?"
Doc nodded. "I see. And how did you get here?"
"Same way you did. Well, not quite... my time machine has a teleportation device installed in it. It made things a lot easier."
"I would think so. How did you know where we were?"
"I have my ways," Dan replied enigmatically. "And I guess you're Marty McFly, huh?" he asked the teen.
Marty just stared. "Doc, who's he?"
Emmett smiled. "A friend. And our way out of here."
Marty remained sceptical. "Are you sure? Don't you think it's kind of a strange coincidence that he shows up just when we needed help? How'd you know Keith isn't involved in this?"
"You'll just have to trust me," Dan said.
Wait a sec, Verne suddenly thought. This didn't have to happen! We shouldn't have gone into Zion when the sentinels were still there! We could have gone in when the sentinels were gone, because the tunnel would still be there... and we can get out that way now! We don't need Dan's help!
"You don't?" Dan asked confusedly, and vanished in a poof of logic.
The world suddenly started to spin around and get fuzzy. What had happened was a rare occurrence that could only have been brought about by the Improbability Drive - the author suddenly had a new idea after writing one quarter of the chapter. This had happened once before, and was the reason why Frank Bannister was still alive and not dead as was originally intended. But that instance had been facilitated by the breaking down of the author's computer, resulting in the loss of the original chapter that then needed to be rewritten, and really wasn't the same thing at all.
Climbing over Verne, Marty came over to join them. "Doc wants to know where we should land," he asked Neo, sitting down on one of the benches and glancing at Ted.
"Ask Verne. I've never been here before. I don't know the place any better than you."
"What? I thought you lived h..."
"No. Keith got me when I was on a hovercraft in one of the old sewer systems. You can get to them either from Zion or from the surface, but that's more dangerous."
Marty blinked, taking in the information. "Okay... so how are you going to get there?"
"I don't know."
Not knowing what else to do, the both of them stared at Verne. The boy suddenly developed an intense fascination with the floor.
The fuzz cleared, and Verne looked up. He stared. What the zarking photon had just happened? Looking around wildly, he discovered that he was still in the train, but seemed to be the only one puzzled by that. As the initiator of the strange time warp, he had been the only one who regained his memory of the future that might have been... Jumping out of his seat, he dashed over to his father's side.
"Dad!" Verne said. "We can go back out now!"
"What?" Emmett asked. "We haven't even dropped Neo off..."
"You can't drop him off here! He doesn't live in the city, he was from a hovercraft, and he doesn't know where it is now... we could always go back and get Ted to a hospital first, then come back here..."
"You want to go through all that again?"
"We didn't have to get into Zion with the sentinels! We could have gone in when they were dead after the EMP blast, because the tunnel would have still been here..."
Emmett looked at his son. "Why didn't you tell me earlier?"
"I forgot..."
The inventor sighed. "Fine. We're going back. How much later do you think we need to arrive for them to be gone?"
"Try two hours..."
Doc entered in the last time departed into the destination time and added two hours. "Is Neo fine with this?"
"I think so..."
Emmett nodded and hit the accelerator.
The electric blue cleared and they emerged into the empty space above Zion. Below them, sentinels lay in piles and humans cheered. None of them paid much attention to the time train as it zoomed upwards back through the tunnel.
Eventually, they got out onto the surface. Doc set the dimensional coordinates, and the train headed home.
November 8, 2030
Room 926A, Hill Valley General Hospital
Hill Valley, California
The evening light filtered through the gap in the curtains, filling the dim hospital room with a cool radiance.
On the bed, Ted Logan stirred. He opened his eyes and lay there for a while, trying to remember where he was and how he'd got there. He must have blacked out somewhere along the way...
The teenager sat up in bed and examined his right leg. It felt more or less okay now... just a slight pain when he moved it and a thin scar running down the leg were all that remained of the sentinel attack.
Ted slowly got off the bed and hobbled towards the soundproof windows, pushing aside the curtains for a better view.
"Whoa," he whispered in awe, taking in the futuristic scene. High above the town, hovercars swooped along the busy skylanes that weaved around the tall buildings, each one lit up brightly and displaying the occasional holo-advert. Down below, few people walked the streets, most of them heading home.
There was a buzzing sound, and the room's door slid open to let Doc in.
"I see you're up," Emmett said.
Ted turned at the sound of the voice.
"Feeling better?" Doc asked.
Ted smiled. "Yeah."
"Ready to go?"
"Sure."
The two of them headed out of the room together and onto the people mover that ran the length of the corridor. "Did they ask what happened to me?" Ted asked.
"Yes."
"Did you tell them?"
"Yes."
"What'd they say about it?"
"I know one of the doctors here," Doc replied. "She'll take care of it. A few people had to have bits of their memories erased, but they'll be fine. I think," he added as an afterthought.
"Where are Marty and the others?"
"We checked into a hotel room for the night because we weren't sure how long you'd take. I'll send you home tomorrow."
"Thanks."
"You're welcome."
Room 31-02A, Lone Pine Hotel
"Give me the pizza," Neo said in a dangerously soft voice, fingers closed protectively over half of the crust of the sole remaining pizza slice.
"You had it the last time," Verne said, fingers closed protectively over the other half of the crust of the sole remaining pizza slice.
"I only had half a slice then. And most of the toppings had fallen off. This is the last pizza I'm ever going to have in my life."
"There's breakfast tomorrow."
"No one has pizza for breakfast," Neo stated matter-of-factly.
"I'm telling Dad that you tried to grab my pizza."
"It's not your pizza."
Verne scowled. "You had three slices. I only had two."
"Mine were small slices."
"Oh yeah?"
Neo stared at the seven-year-old. "Do you know what kind of food I eat back home every single meal? It's this gooey, mushy white nutrient mix that doesn't taste of anything."
"Mouse said it tasted like Tastee Wheat. I saw the movie."
"And Tastee Wheat doesn't taste like anything. It's not the least bit tasty. Therefore..."
Marty looked away from the peephole at the door. "Cut it out, guys. They're back."
"Not until he gives me my pizza."
"It's not your pizza."
The door opened and Doc and Ted came in. Neo reluctantly released the pizza and went off to sulk while Verne happily finished off the slice.
"Verne, it's past your bedtime," Doc said as the door shut.
The boy's face fell. "But it's only..."
"Taking into account the discrepancy between our time and now, it's almost eleven. Finish off that pizza and go to bed."
Room 31-02B, Lone Pine Hotel
Neo realised that this was the first real shower he had ever taken in his life: in an actual bathroom, with actual soap and shampoo - neither of which were present in Aragorn son of Isildur's vocabulary - and actual hot water. Washing facilities on the Nebuchadnezzar were limited; you sort of just splashed about under pitiful excuses for showerheads until your got clean. And the water was never warm enough.
Whereas now... this was heaven. Neo figured that he could just stand there under the shower for another hour or so. He'd never get the chance to do so again.
After a while, though, common sense kicked in and he regretfully turned off the water. Pushing aside the shower curtain, Neo got out and grabbed on of the most massively useful things in the universe off the rack to dry himself off with.
It may have been the future, but nothing can ever replace a good towel, neither hairdryers nor the blow-dry machine thingies like the one that dried Marty off in Back to the Future II. Towels will forever remain an important part of life, whether on Earth or anywhere else in the galaxy. This is a fact.
The bathroom door made a beeping sound, and a small green light flashed by the lock. The door slid open and Ted walked in. "Hey, Neo... Doc asked me to ask you if..."
Neo yelped and covered himself with the towel. "I LOCKED THAT DOOR!" he yelled.
Ted glanced at the sophisticated fingerprint recognition lock by the doorway with instructions on its usage and programming. "Oh," he said. "Sorry, dude. I just stuck my thumb there and the thing opened, so... Anyway, Doc asked..."
"Ted?"
"Yeah?"
"Can you go out and let me change?"
"Nah, you can go ahead, dude. There's nothing I haven't seen bef"
"Ted?"
"Yeah?"
"Go out."
The teen shrugged and complied. Minutes later, Neo came out with a towel draped over his shoulder like a froody hitchhiker. Next to the door that led to the adjoining room where Doc, Marty and Verne were was a television screen set into the wall, which, by a wholly remarkable coincidence, was currently showing the opening credits of the 2005 movie The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
The view on screen was that of an underwater scene, with a bunch of dolphins swimming about. The sound of percussion and trumpets reached a crescendo, and the invisible band and choir launched into the opening song:
"So long, and thanks for all the fish
So sad that it should come to this
We tried to warn you all but oh dear..."
Neo glanced over at Ted sitting on the bed, eyes glued to the movie. "What did you want?" he asked.
"...which might explain your disrespect..."
"Um, Doc wanted to talk to you. Something about how you're getting home tomorrow."
"So long, so long, and thanks for all the fish."
"Right," Neo said. He dried off his hair, threw his towel onto the other bed, then went through the adjoining door into the other room. The lights were mostly off that side, and from the small extra bed came the gentle sounds of Verne breathing in his sleep.
At the other end of the room, Doc and Marty were sitting at a table talking, a single lamp lighting up the area with a warm glow. They looked up as he arrived.
"You wanted to see me?"
"Yes," Doc said. "We've got to discuss how you're going to go home."
Neo pulled up a chair and sat down.
"Verne told me you lived on a hovercraft, and you don't know where it may be."
"Yeah, that's right."
"Do you know any way to contact it?"
Neo shook his head. "Someone at Zion should be able to," he said after some hesitation. "But there would definitely be a lot of questions..."
"That doesn't matter," Doc said. He took out a small device from his pocket that bore some resemblance to the sleep-inducing alpha rhythm generator he had used on his first trip to the future. "I got this just now from the hospital. It can erase the recent memory of any individual by identifying and destroying any neural connections made in the selected timeframe. They use it in hospitals here to help some patients forget traumatic incidents. Usually it's not available to outsiders, but I know someone at the hospital and she sold me one. If people have to know the whole story in order to help us, we'll tell them everything then wipe their memories when it's over."
"Does it work?" Neo asked.
Emmett looked faintly offended. "Of course!"
"We can test it on you if you want," Marty said. He grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and passed them over to Neo. Marty glanced at his watch. "Write something," he said. "Something only you would know."
Warily, Neo picked up the pen, thought a moment, then scribbled down his parents' names: John Anderson and Michelle McGahey.
Marty took the paper and glanced at his watch again. "Fifteen seconds, Doc."
Emmett set the timer on his device, and then brought it up and flashed it in Neo's eyes.
Neo's first thought was that something was off in the movie music coming faintly through the adjoining door. One moment there had been something about wanting a tasty fish, then all of a sudden the words had come back in mid-sentence:
"...ome one and all... man and mammal..."
Neo blinked, then remembered the question he had been going to ask. "Does it work?"
Marty grinned. "We just showed you."
"What?"
Marty pushed the paper over to him, and Neo stared down at his own handwriting. For a brief moment he thought that Ted might have written it, but he realised that wasn't possible; he doubted that the teen knew what his parents' names were.
"Are you convinced now?"
Neo just continued staring at the paper, feeling strangely disoriented and, for some reason, vulnerable. "Okay," he said. "So what's the plan?"
"Tomorrow after breakfast, we go back to 1985 and drop Ted off first," Doc said. "Then I'm sending Marty home, and..."
"No," Marty interrupted quietly. "I'm coming with you, Doc. You never know what might happen."
Doc looked at his young friend, who just hours ago had been so keen to get home. "Are you sure?"
Marty nodded. "Yeah."
"Okay. So after that I'll send Verne home, then we'll head back to Zion and get in the same way, only at a later time when the sentinels are gone. We travel six months back to the time you were taken, find someone who can contact your ship and erase memories where necessary, and you'll be back where you originally were."
There was a moment's silence as the other two took this in.
"Sounds too easy," Neo said softly.
"It won't be."
Behind the door, the music reached its final crescendo.
"So long, so long, so long, so long, so long
So long, so long, so long, so long, so long
So long, so long and thanks! for all the fish."
Room 31-02A, Lone Pine Hotel
10:31 pm
It felt good to be home, Marty thought as he lay in bed. Well, maybe he wasn't technically at home yet, but he was at least in the correct universe and correct town. It was just like another one of the many time travelling adventures he'd gone on with Doc. He was on familiar ground once more, and the feeling was a comforting one.
Tomorrow he'd be home again, if all went well - which he hoped it would. Home... Keith and all that Back to the Future stuff seemed so far away. He missed Frank, but even he might have never happened. The past few days felt sort of surreal; memories that were already starting to fade.
Doc had fallen asleep, and was snoring slightly on his bed. Next to him on the extra bed, Verne rolled over, murmured something, and was silent again.
For the first time in a long while, Marty felt safe.
He'd be home tomorrow.
TO BE CONTINUED...
HyperCaz: Yep, didn't know what Journey of the Sorceror is... It sounds familiar, though. I might have read it somewhere in one of those books about H2G2. Madagascar. I watched that. There's a zebra named Marty in it.
Stoko: There's a website dedicated to Towel Day somewhere on the Internet; it has pictures of people celebrating Towel Day and stuff. What's with the different bottle songs? 'You take one down, pass it around...' that just sounds wrong.
Inspector Brown: Okay. Have a nice day.
flux capacitor...fluxing: Yep, Arthur needs tea. Tea makes him happy. ;P
The Hobbit Lass: Nope, this isn't over. There's still about two chapters more to go, and after that there's the novelisation which I'm trying to finish by the end of next year. And yeah, I think there will be sequels. I'm planning a trilogy, but I'm not sure if I'll have the stamina to pull it off. I'll probably take a break and write some original fic in between. Thanks for reviewing:D
Back to Front: Sugar is good. And yeah, I guess nothing doesn't have to do with mice. ;P
Anonymous-cat: READ HITCHHIKER'S! It's funny. It's probably the most random book out there, and it was better than the movie.
Gijinka Renamon: Yep, Elijah Wood was in the BTTF movies. He was one of the two young boys playing video games in Part II's 2015 who talked to Marty.