"This…this…this is Jake's car!" shouted Sarah looking at the thing. Jake nodded.
"Yeah it's my car what's the point?" he asked walking over to the driver's side door.
"No! It's the Jake from my time period's car!" she shouted.
"I don't follow," said Jake getting inside and twisting the ignition. The car failed to overturn so Jake popped the hood and rummaged through the engine.
"Jake, the Jake from my time period has a time traveling Lamborghini as well that has a license plate reading FUTURE2! You're him!" said Sarah. "I knew it! I just knew it!"
Jake looked at her like she was nuts.
"Kid I can't be this Jake Whitacre person, I'm from the 29th Century. The fact that another Jake Whitacre would exist and own a car with the same license plate really isn't that unbelievable," said Jake nodding his head. "After all, time travel has essentially been around for 800 years or so and as a result the statistics really aren't that impossible."
"Fine," said Sarah shaking her head not believing a word of it. "Presumably we're going back to 1906 right?"
"Yes," said Jake as he closed the hood. He got back in the driver's seat and twisted the ignition. The car roared to life and Sarah got in the passenger's seat.
"Go to the outside of the town when we get there and let's have a little experiment," said Sarah. Jake shrugged.
"Whatever," he said. The wall behind the car retracted and revealed the darkened sky behind it.
"Gentlemen, we're history," said Sarah with a smile. Jake looked at her bewildered as the car rose into the air, backed out of the building, and tore off into the sky. As the wall retracted back, Marty entered into the room rubbing his eyes. He looked around and noticed that no one was there. At first fear gripped him, but he decided that Jake and Sarah would return. In the meantime, he could search this time period for a gift for Jennifer. It wasn't the best situation, but he'd make the most of it. Marty whistled and left, anxious yet nervous to explore this new era.
1906: Three sonic booms went off as the Lamborghini appeared out of thin air on the outskirts of the city and landed nearby.
"Use your temporal scanner to try and locate the other Lamborghini," said Sarah. Jake shrugged and pulled it out. Instantly the thing went off. Jake read it before shutting it off.
"Piece of junk," said Jake.
"What's wrong?" asked Sarah confused. Jake hit the reboot button.
"It said that you were one of the temporal criminals in my files," said Jake laughing. "Of course you're not because I scanned you earlier when you and Marty were walking down the road and nothing came up. I guess the quake somehow damaged it."
"That's a relief," said Sarah shaking her head. Jake rebooted it and adjusted the scan to time machines.
"Okay, looks like it's half a mile that way," said Jake pointing down the road. He gunned the engine and the car rolled forward along the ground.
Future: Marty emerged from the building and walked down the desolated streets. Tall buildings rose up on all sides of the street but they were all damaged in one way or another. Various pieces of debris littered the roadway as well, probably from various battles that had never been cleaned up. Marty looked for whatever stores he could find that were still intact, but since he hadn't been to San Francisco in a long time he wound up wandering lost for several minutes. It was finally after an hour of walking did he spot a small group of what looked like teenage individuals walking down one of the roads…armed with heavy weaponry. Marty quickly caught up with them.
"Who're you?" one of them asked.
"I'm Marty," said Marty with a grin. The five teenagers looked at him strangely.
"Must be a junky to be so cheerful," said one of them. "I say we waste him."
"We're not wasting anyone," said a voice. They all turned to see yet another teenager emerged from the shadows holding another piece of heavy weaponry. Marty gulped as this teenager looked identical to his Jennifer, except somewhat battle hardened.
"Besides," 'Jennifer' asked. "I think he looks cute."
1906: "You're right, the resemblance is uncanny," said Jake nodding. The two Lamborghinis were currently sitting next to each other among the bushes.
"Will you now accept that you will become the Jake Whitacre that I know?" asked Sarah. "Like I've suspected all along?"
Jake shook his head. "I'm sure your talking about him will pique my interest enough to give him the car on one of my trips through time. Besides, you clearly prefer the thing so maybe I did it to thank you for helping me apprehend those crooks, which we will do momentarily."
"Do you have a knife?" Sarah asked. Jake nodded and pulled out a switchblade.
"Thanks," said Sarah. She took the knife and moved towards Jake's Lamborghini.
"What're you doing?" he asked nervously. "You're not going to ruin the paintjob on my car!"
"Quit acting so vain!" responded Sarah. "Besides, it'll prove once and for all if these two cars are the same."
"Isn't there some other way? I went through a lot of time making sure the paintjob was perfect on this thing," said Jake.
"Get a hobby," said Sarah shaking her head.
"This was my hobby remember?" Jake asked. Sarah rolled her eyes. She then scratched the front wing of the car. She then ran over to the other Lamborghini, but to her dismay the wing was still undamaged.
"Great so it was all for not," said Sarah dejected.
"Sorry kid," said Jake. "I wish I was your friend but I'm not. Now I'll have to repaint it when I get back home."
"Yeah," said Sarah distracted. "…Wait! That's it!"
"What's it?" Jake said getting back into his car.
"You clearly repainted it when you got back to the future thinking the cars weren't the same and as a result, that's why it didn't show up on this future version!" Sarah shouted.
"You and your conspiracy theories," said Jake shaking his head. He gunned the engine and the car roared to life.
"Let's go!" he said as the city began trembling in the background. Sarah ran to the car when she noticed something.
"Oh Jake," she said.
"There's no time," said Jake as the car lifted up into the sky.
"It'll just take a second," Sarah assured him. Jake sighed and stepped out and walked to the front of the car. Sarah pointed at the license plate.
"I didn't know your car had an authentic 2015 license plate sticker on it," she said with a big grin.
"That proves nothing," said Jake trying to scowl but realizing the hopelessness of his argument with this turn of events. "Let's go!"
They both got into the 2015 Lamborghini and it tore off into the sky.
Future: "So…Marty, what brings you to Hell's Den?" asked the Jennifer look alike, who was conveniently named Jennifer of all possible names.
"Hell's Den?" asked Marty bemused. Jennifer shrugged.
"Hell's Kitchen is in New York, down here its Hell's Den," said Jennifer as the armed group of teenagers walked down the road.
"Oh," said Marty. "That makes sense."
"We've never seen you around before, where're you from?" asked Scott, another member of the gang.
"Hill Valley," said Marty. The group stopped.
"Hill Valley?" asked Tony. "That place was firebombed during the war."
"There are still some houses left and I like to call it home," said Marty trying to cover things up and hope that they were true.
"What do you eat?" asked Danni, the only other female in the group.
"Whatever comes along," said Marty trying to act tough.
"So what brings you to the city?" asked Jennifer.
"Figured I needed a change of scenery," said Marty shrugging. "And I was looking for some gifts and trinkets."
"For who?" asked Jennifer, somehow feeling jealous but having no idea why.
"For my girlfriend," said Marty before he realized the impossibilities of that happening in this time period. "Well…to honor the anniversary of her death."
The others nodded glumly. "Yeah we've all lost someone at some point or another."
"What did she look like?" asked Jennifer. Marty looked up at her.
"Don't take this the wrong way, but she looked a lot like you," said Marty. He produced his Jennifer's photograph and the other Jennifer looked at it shocked.
"Wow the resemblance is uncanny," she said. "But how come the background is so perfect?"
"Digital manipulation," said Marty taking back the photo. The others nodded.
"What did she like?" asked Jennifer.
"I'm slowly forgetting. What would you like? After all, if the resemblance is the same, maybe your likes and dislikes would be as well," said Marty feeling somewhat helpless.
"C'mon I know a place," said Jennifer. The group was heading down the roadway when a roar was heard. The group bolted while Marty looked at them confused when a blur flew by overhead and an explosion went off flinging debris everywhere at the shocked Marty. After the blur vanished, the gang appeared again.
"Wow, you are brave," said Jennifer clearly impressed.
"Yay," said Marty still shocked by what had happened.
"Standard hit and run. Probably Hawaiian in origin," said Dan looking at the destruction.
"Hawaiian?" asked Marty shocked. "So they're no longer in the USA?"
"Boy you don't get out much do you?" asked Scott. "Hawaii was captured 150 years ago. Call it redemption for the destruction of Honshu."
Marty shook his head at the madness of it all. "Guess my head is still stuck in the 20th Century."
"Go figure," said Jennifer as they continued walking down the ruined street.
1906: "There they go!" said Sarah pointing. The SUV roared through the sky just above the skyline. Jake handed Sarah his scanner.
"Quick, trace their destination!" he said. Sarah fumbled with the thing when it went off again signaling that there was a criminal in the car. Sarah slammed the thing against the side of the car and the alarm died. Sarah snapped up the scanner and scanned the SUV as it vanished.
"Got it!" she said triumphantly. "It'll take a moment to figure the destination though."
The Ford Falcon was promptly seen tearing through the sky and vanishing into the future as well.
"Déjà vu, déjà vu," said Sarah nodding. Below them the town was slowly collapsing.
"All that devastation," said Sarah shaking her head sadly.
"God I hate time travel! I just hate it!" said Jake.
"It's your fault for joining this profession," said Sarah reading the scanner.
"Yeah," said Jake nodding. "I never learn."
Sarah laughed.
"What?" Jake demanded.
"My Jake says the exact same thing all the time," said Sarah laughing. Jake growled.
"I'm…not…him," he said angrily. "Now where're we going?"
"Oh no," said Sarah once the destination came up. She began fake hitting her head on the dashboard.
"Where?" Jake demanded.
"November 5, 1955," said Sarah groaning. "God what the hell is the deal with that moment in time that makes it such a magnet in the space-time continuum?"
"We'll try my scanner and see what is up when we get there," said Jake gunning the engine as the car began accelerating to 88 mph.
"Jake," said Sarah looking at the scanner. "Could this thing detect variances in the continuum?"
"Of course that's its primary function," said Jake as the car roared into the past. "Why do you ask?"
"No reason," said Sarah leaning back in her chair and whistling. The car roared above San Francisco at midnight.
"They here yet?" asked Jake. Sarah consulted the scanner.
"Nope, not yet," she said, trying to correctly interpret the broken device's readings.
"Alright we'll settle down for now and wait for them to show up," said Jake. Sarah nodded, further convinced that this was the Jake Whitacre she knew and was constantly learning more and more about him based on his actions.
The Future: The gang entered into a destroyed storefront along the side of the vaporized bay.
"Behold our home base of operations," said Jennifer. Marty nodded.
"Aren't you taking a big risk? How do you know I'm not a spy sent to root you out?" asked Marty.
"The government doesn't care about us, you know that," said Danni.
"Besides, I have a good feeling about you," said Jennifer. Marty shook his head wondering about whether or not his time traveling made it so that there was someone from every time period who would be attracted to him. There was 2015, but Marty hadn't spent a lot of time there to have anyone latch onto him. The only person he'd seen for awhile from that time period was Sarah, but Marty knew that Jennifer was the only woman for him and Sarah didn't seem to care about him either, what with having her own boyfriend and all. Marty was grateful for this as he didn't need any complications in his stress filled life right now.
"Feel free to look around," said Dan. "We need to go shopping for supplies later anyway so we'll see if we can't find anything for your girl."
"Yeah thanks," said Marty nodding. Marty decided that he needed to get a better look at the remains of the bay so he left the store and went to the edge of the bay, which was practically a drop off. Marty sighed and sat down looking down at it depressed.
"Bet this was something before the war," said Jennifer sitting down next to him.
"It was," said Marty softly.
"So what was your girlfriend like?" asked Jennifer finally. Marty looked up at the vaporized bay.
"Smart, funny, attractive, madly in love with me, nothing could come between us," said Marty sighing. Although Jake's boss had promised them a ride home, Marty had no idea if he'd get it or not. When he got back, Marty promised to swear off the future's original idea of having their lives be a sham and do everything in his power to make it as happy as possible. After seeing what a wreck it was here, Marty knew that things would never get as bad between him and Jennifer.
"So how about you?" Marty asked. "Surely you've had boyfriends before now."
"Yeah," said Jennifer nodding just as solemnly. "But the war has claimed them over the years. Now I just try and survive pretty much on my own."
"So what're you doing here? Why the Great City by the Bay, why now?" asked Marty. Jennifer laughed.
"I was, and probably you are as well, one of the illegal births. I don't know who my parents were or what happened as to why I was born to them, but my first memories were of being in a government controlled camp for the illegal children. I was taught a variety of things, but living there was extremely harsh as since we were illegal children we technically weren't citizens either. That of course means no rights so as soon as we could, those of us who could break free did and we've been like that ever since," said Jennifer. "How about you?"
"I just remember growing up," said Marty. "No camp for me but no real parents either that I'm aware of. Don't know how I survived exactly but I did."
"Go figure," said Jennifer sighing. "We're not going to make it are we?"
"I wish Sarah was here with some movie quote," thought Marty. "It's in our nature to destroy ourselves."
"An evolved species my ass," said Jennifer.
"We're constantly learning," said Marty.
"Yeah but now there's no more time to learn because it's all going to end soon," said Jennifer with some tears coming out. Marty looked depressed as well since in the end he would be leaving this place for the past while these six would either die in the thermonuclear devastation to come or starve to death. Jennifer immediately hugged Marty as more tears came out. Marty figured he'd try and comfort her like he would do with Jennifer by just stroking her hair and hoping that his Jennifer would understand much less hopefully never find out. Together they sat in silence looking out at the destroyed remains of the Golden Gate Bridge in the swirling darkness.
1955: The Lamborghini roared down the road amidst all of the older cars of the era. They got a few strange glances from various people but most figured it was new from New York or something like that.
"Your future counterpart would never have done this," said Sarah shaking her head at some more people giving the vehicle a strange stare.
"Maybe this will convince you that we're not the same person. Once they show up I intend on being on them immediately, not wasting time running out to the Lamborghini parked on the outskirts of town to then chase after them and hope we can still catch up to them," said Jake as he pulled the car into a parking spot next to a hotel. The two exited the car and were immediately confronted by a pair of cops who had been loitering nearby.
"Hold it sir, is that thing street legal?" asked one of the cops.
"Yeah it looks like a tank!" said the other. Jake sighed and pulled out his Temporal Investigators ID that instantly holographically changed to a military ID.
"Lt. Jake Whitacre, this is Private Sarah Malone. Yes this vehicle is street legal, it's an experiment in urban warfare. Now if you'll leave us alone we'll conduct our experiment without any outside interference," said Jake. The cops shrugged.
"So long as it won't kill anyone," they said before walking off. Jake sighed as he watched them leave before reaching back into his car and pulling out the scanner while Sarah closed her door.
"Do you think you can get me one of those?" Sarah asked laughing. Jake shook his head before tossing her one. Sarah looked at it shocked.
"You could just give these out?" she asked incredulously.
"Why not, in my time they don't have any value whatsoever, only physical IDs do," said Jake shrugging.
"Wow," said Sarah as the two entered into the hotel. Jake walked up to the clerk.
"I'd like two rooms please," he said. The clerk looked up at him and his strange garb before looking down at his register.
"Sorry, we only have one room available," said the clerk clearly not caring for either of them.
"Fine we'll take it," said Jake. The clerk looked at the two of them.
"Couples rate?" asked the clerk. Sarah and Jake looked at him grossed out.
"You must be joking," he said. "We're brother and sister."
"You do know two singles in a room is more expensive than a couples right?" asked the clerk. "If you're trying to hide something record wise…"
"It's not like that!" said Jake. "We have IDs."
Jake tossed his license on the counter while Sarah tossed hers and both phased to read: Jake Whitacre and Sarah Whitacre, not married.
"I stand corrected," said the clerk as Jake and Sarah collected their IDs. Jake paid the man and together the two went up to their room, Room 327.
"Just our luck, a single bed," said Sarah.
"I get the bed," said Jake immediately. Sarah looked at him shocked.
"What?" she said. "No, no, no, I get the bed. It's the etiquette of a gentleman to offer it to the woman."
"Screw that," said Jake. "You get to sleep in a down bed all the time. I have to sleep in either damaged or destroyed beds, the floor, or my car. This is a rare treat for me to sleep on a real bed and I intend on taking it!"
Jake walked over and laid down on the bed while Sarah growled and laid down on the other side.
"Get off," said Sarah.
"No past girl," said Jake refusing to budge. Sarah grumbled something. However, before she could offer another retort, Jake was already asleep. Sarah sighed, but moments later she was asleep as well.
Midnight: Three sonic booms went off as the SUV emerged from the time stream. It landed in the same parking lot as the Lamborghini and Kara, Tom, and Sera exited and walked towards the hotel. Thanks to their sleepiness of having to avoid Jake during the previous frame of time day, they failed to notice the vehicle, which practically blended into the night anyway. The trio went into the hotel.
"Got any rooms?" Tom asked yawning. The clerk nodded.
"Yep, one just opened up. Room 328," said the clerk. Tom nodded and paid his dues and the trio went up to their room.
The Future: "Let's go shopping," said Jennifer. The five others and Marty nodded and together they all proceeded out onto the streets while fifteen miles away, a small EAAA invasion force slowly approached intent on severally damaging the city.