Title: The Chronic Argonauts
Author: AtradiesHikari a.k.a. Sanura Dayshaun
Rating: PG-13 for mild swearing.
Chapter: 1- 'Kids Steal the Darnedest Things'
Date Chapter Started/Finished: 11/24/2009
Word Count: 1,584
A/N: Sorry for the delays guys, but life took over right after I started my rewrite, and in a couple weeks I'm moving across the country... Again. At least it's not to Colorado.
Three sonic booms echoed as a car materialized suddenly a field, the tires screeched as the break was stomped upon. The wheel was cut violently to the left to avoid going over the road and into the water trench that lay on the other side. The rear swung around in a wide arc and the car came to a complete stop in the left hand lane of the two-way road. The wheels were stopped but the screeching continued and an inhuman volume.
"EMMETT!!! Where th' HELL did you learn to drive?!" a young woman raged from the passenger seat… well… from the lap of the person in the passenger seat.
"EMMETT!!!" turned to look at the passenger seat to look at his frazzled sister and wide-eyed-this-close-to-having-a-heart-attack friend and blinked in obvious confusion. "Dad?" he offered as an answer.
The girl groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose under the nose-pieces of her small, square, frame-less glasses. She turned to face the door with every intention of getting out, but screeched again as she caught sight of the large black Toyota pick up coming straight at them. Emmett's eyes widened briefly before he tapped the clutch and threw the DeLorean in reverse. Crunching the gas, he cut the wheel and shot them back into the field they had appeared in.
As soon as the vehicle has stopped once again, the girl pushed the gull-wing door up and scrambled out as fast as possible. Laying face down on the ground, she proceeded to mutter a string of curses at her clearly insane and reckless brother.
"Now, really Minnie, I think you're over-reacting…"
"Over…. Reacting…? Are you zipped?! I think I'm under reacting considering I was just 'temporally displaced', wrecked, and flattened!" She shrilled, sitting up and staring wide-eyed at her brother. Minnie stood and brushed some dead grass off of her skirts before making her way back to the DeLorean. She was getting ready to crawl back in, when she noticed the still-blank look on the face of the other occupant of the car.
Waving her hand before his face, she called, "Jr.? You there?" When she didn't get any response she look up accusingly at Emmett. "You broke him."
"I doubt I broke him, I'm sure he's just in a mild state of shock."
"Of course he i- Wait… So it's okay for him to be in a state of shock, but not me?!"
Emmett just nodded, and smiled at her as he re-started the car. Minnie glared at him and climbed back in, sitting, once again, on Jr.'s lap. She had barely gotten the door down before Emmett floored it back onto the road.
"So, which way do you suppose Hill Valley is?" Emmett asked pulling a pair of rear-view visor glasses from the dashboard. Minnie looked over at him and narrowed her eyes.
"You don't know which direction we're supposed to be going?" She groaned and rolled her eyes as he nodded in response. She unclipped a small pocket-watch looking device from the thick polymer/leather blend belt, flipped it open, and studied it for a moment.
"We're going the right way, just follow the road and don't take any 'shortcuts' through any fields… and we should be fine." She stated as she closed the compass and let it fall back into position on her belt.
The drive into the city was relatively quite, littered with Minnie's random remarks about the country land around them and attempts at snapping Jr. out of his zoned state.
They pulled in past the "Welcome To Hill Valley" sign and peered out, it really didn't seem that different.. Except the lack of hover cars, technology, and general sense of fashion. Emmett paralleled in front of what appeared to be a large shopping plaza, and pulled the key from the ignition. He pushed his door up, nearly clipping a car diving too close to the parking lanes, and stepped out into the road, more or less oblivious to any danger he might be in.
Minnie pushed her door up as well, avoiding hitting anyone or anything. Looking around she realized how much they would stick out if they were to walk down the street. Climbing back in, and over the still zoned Jr. she reached behind the driver's seat into the only space not taken up by machinery and grabbed a large, shiny, lime green duffel bag. She brought the bag forward and set it on Jr.'s lap, using him as a table. She rummaged through until she found a large manila envelope, and opened it to be sure of the contents. Small bundles of various green bills were packed tightly inside. She pulled a stack out and check the print dates on each bill before slipping them into the pouch hanging next to her compass.
She threw the bag across the console into the driver's seat and turned to say something to Emmett, only to find that he had already wandered off. Oh damn it Em. She groaned and glanced at Jr. one more time before pulling the door closed and stepping down the street to see if she could find her estranged brother. She sighed in relief when she saw he had only wandered a short distance.
Emmett was crouched next to a boxy looking car inspecting the wheels. Minnie groaned again before stooping down and grabbing Emmett's arm and dragging him away from the vehicle.
"What do you think you're doing?!"
"Looking at a car?"
"No! You can't go wandering off like that! Just being here we're running the risk of un-creating ourselves or worse, imploding the universe." She said as she turned to stare off into the sky, her eyes widening incredibly.
"Wow, you really need to cool it, you're gonna die before you hit sixty." He groused before going back towards the DeLorean. She grumbled and rubbed her temples before muttering "I hate you so much sometimes Em. I really do" under her breath. Making her way back to where her blonde brother was leaning on the car, she glanced down the street at the shops trying to locate a clothing store of some sort. She stopped at the car and pulled the door open, dislodging Emmett from where he was leaning.
"If you plan on staying here and exploring, I suggest we find some new clothes. Especially considering half of what we're wearing hasn't been invented yet." Minnie said, glancing at Jr.'s power-laced shoes and electronic SmartJacket ©™. Emmett made some vague noise of agreement, his attention on the wheeled board a kid was riding down the opposite sidewalk.
Minnie rolled her eyes and reached in the car to shake Jr. "Jr.! Wake up! Up, now!" she growled slightly at the lack of response, and shook him harder. "Jr.! Marty! Martin! Snap out of it! It wasn't even that traumatic! It's not like you haven't been through worse experiments with us! Ugh!" She leaned across him to snatch up the duffel bag again. Pulling the magnetized sides apart she reached in and pulled out a plastic bottle of water.
"Sorry about this Jr., but at least your jacket is self drying, right?" She said as she pulled the top off and splashed the contents of bottle across his face. God this is so clichéd. She thought as she watched her friend finally snap out of his trance and start coughing.
"Uhngr…" Jr. gurgled, his voice cracking and nasally. "Did we just do what I think we did, Minnie?"
"Quite possibly, what do you think we did?"
He laughed nervously, "Use an old DeLorean we found in your dad's garage to travel back in time?"
"That sounds about right," Emmett said, his attention on the other two now that the skate-boarder had turned a corner. "And if the deal-y on the dash is right, we're in 1985."
Jr. blinked and shook his head a little, "Right, just checkin'"
"You're okay now?" Minnie asked, still not sure he was really grasping the situation.
"Yeah, wild."
"Not gonna' zone out again, are you?" she was still fairly unsure.
"Nope, I'm good."
"Well… C'mon, then." She said as she stepped away from the car so Jr. could get out, and he really did try but, he nearly dislocated his shoulder trying to get out of the car before undoing his seat belt. He fell back in the seat with a huff and fought with the manual clasp for a moment before accidentally hitting the release button and freeing himself. He stepped unevenly out of the car and looked around, marveling at how similar yet different Hill Valley was.
"Come on you two, we need different clothes." Minnie said taking in Jr.'s shoes, jacket, and those God-awful inside-out jeans; and Emmett's hideously wonderful orange leather trench coat.
Of course, she thought, I'm not much better off. And indeed she wasn't , in her shiny white foil skirt, lime green tights, and power-laced white combat boots. Not to mention the belt that held enough futuristic devices to give any sci-fi writer an aneurysm.
And Emmett just had to pick the day we're all wearing our 'Class of '16 ' shirts.
Emmett and Jr. nodded in agreement, and stared at her, waiting for her to take the lead. She stared back at them,
"What? Like I know where anything is!"
When they continued to stare at her, she sighed, turned, and started walking down the street hoping they would find a clothing store before too many people saw them.
Ending A/N: Very little was changed in this, let me know if anyone spots a continuity error between this and the new prologue. 3 Guys.