Chapter 9
Monday, January 13th
10: 30 P. M.
It took a while to explain everything to the stunned humans. Doc, Louis and Magnus did most of the talking while the other vampires cleaned up. Marty called his parents to explain what was going on. Natalie kept a tight grip on Henry, who now looked rather nervous.
Finally, the narrative was finished. The humans gaped in wonderment, trying to process all this new information. Then, slowly, Joey spoke. "Actual vampires. Amazing."
"And they call us real vampires," Chris joked. A few people smiled, effectively dissipating most of the tension. "I never would have guessed."
"Do you want to remember that we're vampires in truth?" Louis asked, his arm now fully healed. "Or should I do what I usually do and have you forget?"
"You're giving us a choice?"
"I figure our secret's safe with you guys."
The humans conferred for a moment. "We want to remember," Joey announced. "We want to help you in fighting the soulless vampires."
"We can hold our own in battles; you just saw we could," Sarah added before any of the vampires could protest. "Those soulless vampires are a nightmare come true. You'll need all the help you can in stopping them."
"You're our friends. You just saved our lives," Jay F. Wallace, the regular who had spotted Henry, pointed out. "It wouldn't be right if we didn't help."
"Plus, there's the small matter pertaining to the fact we live here too," Tina grinned.
Louis looked at Doc and Magnus. "If they can take care of themselves in battle, I think we should let them help," Doc admitted. "The greater numbers will definitely be an asset to us."
"We do need all the help we can get, Louis," Magnus added.
Louis thought a moment. Then he nodded at the humans. "You're in. We do rather desperately need help."
The humans smiled. "Glad to be of service," said a member of the band. "This is wicked, being able to work with real vampires. What do we do first?"
"Hire a professional cleaner to get out all the blood stains," James spoke up. "We're really sorry about wrecking your club. This would have never happened if those soulless vampires hadn't found us. We'll all chip in for the cleaning bill."
"Actually, those stains go with the decor," Joey commented, looking around. "But what will we do with those vampire bodies?"
"We interrogate one first, to learn Biff's plans," Doc told him. "Then we burn them in the local crematorium and scatter the ashes."
Sarah looked at him funny. "How do you interrogate a dead body, pray tell?"
"None of them are dead," Doc explained. "Vampires have amazing endurance. Our cells grow back at astonishingly fast rates. Example - despite the fact we were just in a fierce fight for our lives, not one of us is cut or bruised. And Louis's broken arm has healed perfectly." He indicated a soulless vampire. "If I were to remove that stake, that vampire would come back to life. Same if I replaced the head on one that was decapitated. Only external combustion can kill a vampire once and for all."
"Please tell us he's babbling," a young woman spoke up, clearly disturbed by this news.
"I'm afraid he's telling the truth," Mysteria said, coming to stand beside him. "I've been staked a few times myself. After an hour or two, you're able to pull it out. But don't worry, we plan to cook them way beforehand."
"What about him?" someone else asked, pointing to the still-captive Henry. "Didn't Dr. Brown yell something about him being responsible for all this?"
Doc repeated what Henry had told him, eyes glowing with fury. Natalie slapped Henry as he ended. "You opportunistic leech," she hissed.
"I did what I needed to to survive," Henry growled back. Doc noted with satisfaction he didn't seem so sure of himself.
"You did what you needed to to destroy my future husband!" Mysteria snapped. "You're a snake! A traitor! One of them!"
"You could have killed everyone in this club!" James snarled. "Our friends, our confidantes!"
"Your blood banks," Serena added with a teasing grin, going up to Louis. Louis rolled his eyes and squeezed her.
"He doesn't care," Doc reminded them. "He's a self-centered brain lacking a conscience that happens to be housed in a vampire body."
"He's a Biff," Marty snapped, feeling it was the ultimate insult. "I say we stake him and burn him with the others."
"You can't kill a fellow souled vampire," Henry said smugly.
"You're not one of us," Louis growled. Henry's grin vanished. "Marty's right. You belong with your real friends." He reached down and snapped off a leg from the overturned table. Joey made a noise of protest. "Relax, I can pay for it." He handed the makeshift stake to Doc. "Would you do the honors?"
"Gladly." Doc took the stake and walked over to Natalie and Henry, holding it tight. The look of naked fear on Henry's face made up for every insult, even that crack about him and Marty. He raised the stake, then slammed it in as hard as he could. Henry barely had time to scream before he fell. Doc contemplated yanking the stake out and driving it back in, just for the hell of it, but refrained. He didn't want to sink to Henry's level.
Serena looked with disgust at the staked body, then smiled at Louis. "My own real vampire," she purred, nuzzling him. "I'd like to be a vampire for real."
"Me too," added Jay. A few others from the club nodded their assent as well, grinning eagerly. "After seeing you guys, pretending to be a vampire doesn't cut the mustard."
"I say pretending has its benefits," Sarah said. "You don't have to worry constantly about soulless vampire attack. You don't have to drink blood. And you can make yourself any kind of vampire you want. Once you change, you're tied down to that type."
"But you're a vampire!" someone protested. "A real live vampire! You can control people, fly, read minds, turn into bats-"
"Sorry, no shape shifting," Doc interrupted. "We're evolved beings, but we haven't gotten to the point where we can change our atomical structure. I warn you, becoming a vampire is though. You become extremely sick, then go into a coma for 3 days. The McFlys thought I was dead and buried me."
These revelations damped almost everyone's enthusiasm. Jay and Serena, however, didn't seem too bothered. "Hey, I've got no family, and all my friends are club regulars. I'm willing to do what it takes to join the night."
"Louis, I love you," Serena told him, holding his hands. "If I stay human, we'll eventually be apart. I want to stay with you for eternity."
"What if you change your mind after you Change?"
"I'm a lot like Jay. It'll be safe to change me. Please, Louis. I want to know what it's like to bite you."
"Do you two really want it?" Jay and Serena nodded. "Okay. I'll Change you."
"If it's okay with you, Louis, I'll Change Jay," Natalie spoke up. The souled vampires smiled at one another. It was common knowledge Natalie had a crush on Jay. "That way you'll only have to deal with one becoming vampire."
"Fine with me." He sent a shy-looking Jay to Natalie's side. Natalie smiled at him and squeezed his hand.
Doc had a thought. "Hey, do any of you want to be Partials?"
"What are those?"
"Me and Jennifer," Marty said. "Somebody who drank vampire blood. You get some of the advantages of being a vampire without having to Change. It's cool."
"I'm willing to go for that," said a former vampire wanna-be. Many of the others nodded. "Any disadvantages?"
"Just pick someone you like," Jennifer said, smiling at Mystie. "You get linked to the vamp you choose."
"It's called blood-linking," Doc added helpfully. "You can read their thoughts, feel their heart-beats. . . ."
Doc stopped as he noticed that all the wanna-be partials were avoiding him and Mystie. Mysteria glared at them. "Well, I'm insulted!"
"Not that we don't like you, Mystie," Sarah attempted to reassure them. "We'd just feel more comfortable with someone-um-"
"I can read minds," Doc snapped, hearing, "someone who's not dating a lunatic." "Don't reject Mysteria simply because she's my fiancé."
"Let them," Mystie said. "I love you, and if they can't handle that, forget them." She kissed him, then went back to looking pissed. "I just thought it would be nice for someone to offer to be ours. . . ." She looked at Chris and Tina, who were hanging back. "Don't you want to be Partials?"
"We're fine with drinking each other's blood," Tina politely declined. "And anyway, you two seem so close to Marty and Jennifer, we don't want to break those special bonds."
Doc looked at Marty. Now that he thought about it, Tina was right. His bond with Marty was something he wouldn't want to share. He smiled at the teen, feeling their hearts beating together. "You're right. We've already got all the Partials we need."
"Amen to that," Mysteria agreed, holding out her arms. The teens gladly joined them for a group hug. "It's nice to know we have real friends in this place."
"I can tell you he's perfectly okay up there," Marty yelled to the others, annoyed over their reaction to his best friend. "Technical at times, but perfectly sane."
"No pyromania? No schizophrenia?" Sarah asked disbelievingly.
"Nope. He's fine. He just loves to experiment with stuff."
"Like that nutty DeLorean of his?" asked Jay, grinning.
"Yes, I did make a few improvements on it," Doc admitted. "That 'Mr. Fusion' is just for fun, though. I made it from a Krupp coffee grinder."
"I figured that."
"Quick thinking, Doc," Marty complimented.
"He's still weird," Sarah mumbled.
As the humans blood-linked, Doc sought out Magnus. "Magnus, thank you very much for protecting Marty."
"That's what friends are for, Dr. Brown," Magnus told him. "I know how close you two are. And I know what it's like to lose a Partial to premature death. I didn't want for you to have to experience that."
"Well, thank you." Doc shook hands with Magnus.
"My pleasure, Dr. Brown."
"Call me Doc, Magnus."
"Okay- Doc. And you can call me Matt."
"Fine with me, Matt."
Louis clapped his hands to get everyone's attention. "Now that that's out of the way, we need to get down to business. Specifically, finding out what Biff has up his sleeve." He went over to the staked leader female. "Magnus, Dr. Brown, could you come over here, please? I'll need help holding her."
"You're unstaking her?" Chris asked, backing away.
"I have to. She's the only one who could tell us Biff's plans." He took a deep breath and yanked out the stake. Doc and Magnus immediately clamped her to the floor. The wound healed within minutes, and soon she was raring for a fight again. All the humans and Partials stayed well away.
"Where's Biff's headquarters?" Louis demanded.
"Go to hell, you souled freak," the female snarled, trying to lash out at her captors. Doc, his eyes glowing again, caught it and held it painfully.
"We can do this the easy way or the hard way," he growled. "One of your kind nearly tortured both me and my best friend to death. I'm not against returning the favor." To prove his point, he twisted the arm a little. The soulless vampire let out a yelp of pain. "When is Biff's next attack on Hill Valley?" When she hesitated, he added, "You're going to die anyway. You may as well make it quick."
The female cracked. "He's holed up at Peabody's farm. He plans to get the film festival and make all there soulless. Happy?" she snapped.
"Quite," Louis assured her. With a single smooth motion he drove the stake back in. "Terrific! All we need to do is head down to Peabody's new farm."
"That would be a kamikaze mission, Louis," Doc warned. "We would be fighting them on their ground. We'd be surrounded and killed quickly."
"So our best bet is to stop the film festival attack," said Mysteria logically. "I guess Biff does have a brain. Almost all of Hill Valley attends that film festival."
It hit Doc like a ton of bricks. "'Almost all of Hill Valley attends that film festival,' " replayed itself in his mind - right over a memory of Hell Valley. "Great Scott, that has to be it!"
He motioned Marty, Jennifer, and Mystie over. "This is it. This next fight is the one that decides our future. If Biff wins, Hill Valley is lost. And so are we."
"Oh, man, this is heavy," Marty moaned.
"There's no way we can let Hell Valley become a reality," Mysteria snapped, speaking for all of them. "No fate but what we make. I'd die to keep Hill Valley safe."
"Me too," agreed Jennifer. They all clasped hands briefly. "This one's for the future."
"What are you guys talking about?" asked Natalie, wandering over to them.
"The repercussions of Biff's actions on the future," Doc answered truthfully. "If he succeeds, we're all dead. Let's dispose of the bodies and start our battle plans."