The Great Chase

by EmmettMcFly55 and bttf4444

As Cliff steals Doc's time machine - with Jennifer - Doc and Marty follow him to 2017. After meeting up with Griff and picking up more girls, they hop into other universes - as Doc and allies chase him. Includes universes by EmmettMcFly55 and bttf4444.

18. Chapter 17

August 10, 2017
4:40 PM PDT
SmartMarty Universe

The shaky transition from one universe to the other easily woke up Marlene McFly. The girl looked around, confused, and tried to come to her senses. Where was she? And what was going on here?

As she then opened her eyes, she felt a lot more shock and confusion overcome her. As she looked around, she noticed that she was surrounded by a lot of other versions of her - and she was restrained, and sitting in a train! Next to her was Suzy, who looked very horrified at what she was seeing.

Then, Marlene started to remember what happened - and how, after some initial resistance, she'd been taken down by Griff Tannen and Amy Needles. She growled, as she wished that she was still asleep. Most likely, what she was facing here would be worse than a nightmare. She hadn't really travelled through time a lot, like her father had - but she knew that, if it wasn't for time travel, Dr. Brown had never met Clara Clayton... and the ravine originally was called Clayton Ravine after her. Anyway, she knew that time travel could bring some good, but apparently it could bring bad things too, if it was true what she suspected and there really was time travel involved. Why would all the versions of her come from, otherwise?

As Marlene tried to keep herself from fainting, she then heard her own voice talking to her. "Are you okay?" the other Marlene said, concerned. "It's always hard for the new ones."

"I'm... I'm okay, I guess" Marlene said, glancing at the person in question. She felt very confused. "All right, what's going on here?"

"Cliff Tannen" a girl who looked a lot like Marlene's mother, but then teenaged, said. "He stole the time machine in 1987, kidnapped me - that's right, I'm Jennifer Parker - teamed up with Griff Tannen, and managed to recruit Amy Needles, and later Xiff Tannen, as allies too. He's been kidnapping girls related to the McFly and Brown families and isn't planning to stop."

"As much as I happen to be disgusted with Cliff, Griff and Xiff" an unfamiliar girl sighed, "I can't help but feel the most uncomfortable and horrified by Amy being there as well. I'm Stephanie Stebbs, by the way - and I was the first captured by Cliff, when Amy was also with them. The first of the EJ worlds, that is. I can understand that, in the PF worlds, you've all known Amy Needles to be an awful bully - but in our kind of worlds, she's a very nice girl."

"PF?" Marlene said, feeling even more confused now. "EJ? What's going on here?"

"Sorry, you don't know" the girl - Stephanie - said. "Apparently, there are two kind of worlds - PF worlds and EJ worlds. We've been switching PF and EJ around and around, now, to balance things out - well, I suppose that's what Cliff wants. Cliff and Griff are from the EJ worlds, by the way... and Amy and Xiff from the PF ones. Also, while Cliff is from thirty years ago, Xiff is from thirty years into the future."

Suzy shook her head. "Unbelievable" she said.

"You must've just underestimated me" a Tannen said - probably Cliff. "You'd better adjust to this, miss MacArthur - as we aren't going to get away now."

"I can't believe this, either" another Tannen said, with a sigh. "When we find a world with a Suzy MacArthur, I really did not go with you. I should've gone along. Not that things here weren't fun, but capturing a Suzy might've been just as much fun."

"I know, dear grandson" Cliff said, with a smirk. "That's exactly why we've hopped to a PF world again. That way, you can have the best of both things. We are in control of where to go, after all. Well, I am - but I do try to appease all of my allies."

"Yeah, thanks" Xiff said, smiling. "Thank you, Gramps. I never really grew up around you - you were around when I was born, but you died in '38. You couldn't afford a rejuvenation, you know."

"I did?" Cliff said, horrified. "Holy shit!" He put a hand on his forehead, looking actually upset. "The thought that I... that I was dead in 2047..." His expression then brightened. "Well, first of all, with a time machine at my hands, and with almanacs waiting to be bought, I don't doubt that soon, I won't have to worry about rejuvenation expenses anymore. Secondly, while you're from a PF world, I'm from EJ. I might have a longer lifespan than my.. counterwhat's it."

"Counterpart" Suzy said. "Bojo."

Cliff simply glared at her, and wanted to say something, when Griff frowned, looking at the time circuits. "Say, Dad... why did we go to PF #99? That sounds like a very far away place!"

Cliff smiled. "Oh, it is" he said. "However, I wanted to try something different. We've got dozens of girls already - and while I'm not quite ready to give up capturing girls, and hope that there will be some, in this world, I'm anxious to make the most out of this trip. Go a little sight-seeing, if you know what I mean."

"All right, Dad" Griff said, with a smirk. "That should be awesome."

"Certainly" Amy said, smiling at Cliff. "I'm looking forwards to exploring this world. Maybe we could try to get some information out of our captives - most likely Suzy, Marlene, and maybe Maria, and maybe even Julie - and get them to tell what this world is like, before we punch them unconscious?"

"Sounds like a good plan" Cliff said. "I'll have to steer to our old place to land, first, though." With that, he headed back to the front.

Marlene then glanced at her co-captives. "Who are all of you, anyway?" she asked.

"As I said, I'm Stephanie Stebbs" Stephanie Six said. "Most of the versions of me are with my twin sister, Stacy. In our worlds, we're dating the Marty Junior's - and the Stacy's are dating a cousin or brother of his. In one world, though, she was dating Todd Brown - while in another one, it was Ryan Nelson. None of them exist in my world - or at least, not in that form. I wonder why."

"I can't believe this" Suzy said, with a sigh. "I always thought that Marty McFly Junior was the one for me - especially after he rescued me from Griff Tannen. I guess that in your world, you were the one to be rescued? Boy, this is so disappointing... I know that Marty, my Marty, probably meant well, but the thought of him being with another girl..."

"Oh, poor girl" Amy said, with a smirk. "I really do feel sorry for you. Having such a terrible boyfriend..."

"Go away" Stephanie Nine said. "Leave us alone! I mean... why are you even on this train? You don't want anything from us, like the Tannen's do!"

"Oh yes I do" Amy said, still optimistic. "I want to beat you up. Also, before we tie you up, we always do remove the money out of your pockets. We got a lot now. And why wouldn't I be along on this? This is really a lot of fun. The thought that there are currently McFly's and Browns, worried sick about you, really is great."

"You're so terrible" Suzy muttered. "I wish that you were more like your older sister. Roberta, at least, is decent - which you most certainly aren't."

Amy's smiling face changed into a scowl as she heard the name of her sister. "Roberta is a wimp" she said. "Takes after that idiot of a mom of ours. At least Dad managed to bring me up well - and he really did teach me how to have a great life, and ignore what others think of it, and whether it's legal or not."

Marlene felt awful. While she really did understand how it was to enjoy something that others didn't, she most certainly didn't take it quite as far as Amy did. She looked up, and saw that the girl walked back to the front. She really did feel hopeless.

Stephanie Fifteen looked at Suzy. "You know, it's not really the Marty's fault" she said. "In most of the worlds where we exist, you don't - and where you exist, I don't. However, I have to tell you a little more unpleasant news - there are also three worlds, where Marty Junior is dating neither of us. In two of them, he's dating Harmony Brown, Doc Brown's granddaughter - and in the third, he's dating a Susan Brown, who is really Doc's great-granddaughter. However, you can't exist while she does, since you share a mother."

Suzy looked up. "Yvette Manchester?" she said, stunned.

"That's correct" an unfamiliar girl said. "I'm Susan, by the way - and Yvette is indeed my mother."

Suzy raised an eyebrow. "Strange, I suppose" she said. "Although it's no stranger than the thought of time travel and dimensional travel."

"I'm Harmony Brown" another unfamiliar girl said. "In my worlds, I'm also dating Marty Junior, like you - and I only exist in one other world. In both worlds, I'm dating MJ."

"Well, you've got it less bad than I do, Harmony" a girl who looked a lot like Jennifer Parker said. "I'm Melody McFly, and I only exist in world four. I resemble my mother - as I'm the younger sister of Marlene and Marty Junior."

Suzy shook her head. "Unbelievable" she whispered. "Marty Junior's only got one sister - Marlene - in our reality. I guess that's the case with most of the worlds." That was received by a lot of nods. "I see. So, which of the Marlene's is your sister, Melody?"

"Believe it or not - me" a girl who looked exactly like a teen Lorraine Baines said. "I guess that you thought that I was a Lorraine Baines from the fifties, right?" Marlene nodded. "Well, I am not. I really am Marlene Four - which makes our reality be even more different from the others."

"Poor Marly" Amy said.

"Shut up" the Marlene replied. "I still can't believe you're this evil."

"Me? Evil?" Amy said, with a smile. "Why, that's not true. The true evil is that butthead father of yours. And your brother. Griff and I had a lot of fun during the times that we occassionally joined up, but then your butthead brother had to ruin it by throwing him into jail. And your father had to go and stand up to my Dad back in '85." She glared at Marlene. "And you're going to pay for all that."

Marlene sighed. "We certainly have a great position here, don't we guys?"

"Oh, certainly" Harmony One said. "I've been here from the start, so I can agree with that."

"I was here earlier" Jennifer argued. "I was kidnapped by Cliff before this whole mess started."

"Let's not get in discussions about insignificant details now" an unfamiliar girl said. She turned to Marlene. "I'm Maria Brown, by the way. In my world, I'm the daughter of Dr. Emmett Brown."

Suzy frowned. "You're Maria Brown?" she said, somewhat astonished. "Really? We do know you, in our world - but there, you're much older. You were born in October 1990, if I'm not mistaken."

"Yeah, that's right" Marlene agreed. "October 1990 it was. I have no idea why this is apparently different in your world."

"I was born in October all right" Maria said. "October 27, 1997. If your world's version of me was born in '90, wouldn't she be in-between Verne and Martin? Or was Martin Brown not born in your universe?"

"Oh yes, he was" Marlene said, becoming more confused. "November 12th, 1986."

"1986?" Maria repeated, eyes wide. "That's - that's two months after Jules' birthday! If Martin is still the third child... how could that have happened? Dad only invented the time machine in 1985! Were Jules, Verne and he triplets or something?"

Suzy saw the bigger picture first. "You mean, your version of Emmett Lathrop Brown went directly home from 1885 to 1985 and didn't spend ten years in the old west first?"

"Did that happen in your world?" Maria said, astonished. "Why would Dad do that? Or, wait... your reality must be one of the worlds where Marty Junior didn't come along on the trip, isn't it?" She shook her head. "This is all so weird."

"Well, apparently, several worlds also have a version of you around" Stephanie Fifteen said. "So you don't have to feel that bad. And in world fourteen, Dr. Brown apparently also directly got home from 1885. So you aren't an exception."

"But the newbies aren't an exception either" Marlene One pointed out. "There are several persons on here who came from a world where Doctor Brown was stuck in the 1880s for several years. Me, for example, and Three, and Four, and you of course. There is the difference that in some worlds, it was nearly nine years, and in other world, it was little over ten - but the principle is the same."

"I see" Marlene muttered. "Anyone else that I need to be introduced to?"

"Well, you already know Maria Five" a Maria said. "I'm Maria Seven, and in my world, I'm dating a George Emmett McFly, who is the look-alike cousin to Marty McFly Junior. He's actually more a half-brother, though - thanks to a really confusing situation involving multiple timelines and a Biff-horrific world."

"I guess I don't want to know" Suzy said, groaning.

"Well, I thought that the story was lovely" Cliff said, with a smirk. "I'd love to encounter a world like that someday."

"Someday?" Amy repeated.

"Who knows?" Cliff said, with a smirk. "I'm planning to dimension-hop until the train is filled to the top and I have a pile full of girls. We're only pausing after a certain amount of girls, not quitting for good."

"You're disgusting" Suzy whispered.

"I'd say 'you are, too' but then I would be lying" Cliff said. "You really are beautiful, miss Suzy Q."

Suzy's face went red. "Mind your own business" she hissed.

"You girls are my business" Cliff pointed out. "I've kidnapped you, and I'm holding all of you hostage. So, yes, you are my business."

Suzy rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean" she muttered. "Just go land this thing and get outta here."

For the first time, Cliff actually seemed to obey Suzy - however Marlene figured that the fact that he did that was not so much Suzy forcing him, but himself losing interest in pursuing the subject. She herself wisely did the same, and concentrated herself on the former discussion idea. "Who's next?" she asked.

"That would be me" another unfamiliar girl said. "I'm Julia Belle Rundgren. I understand that the name is completely unfamiliar to you, most likely, but in my world, I'm the daughter of Jennifer Parker and Vincent Rundgren. My father and aunt, Julia, who's married to Marty Senior, are from the world where Marty McFly and Dr. Emmett Brown are just characters in a movie trilogy named..."

"Back to the Future" most of the girls finished, being clearly familiar with the subject.

Marlene, however, wasn't. "A movie trilogy about Dad and Doc?" she squeaked, surprised. Suzy was just as stunned.

"That's right" Julia confirmed. "I'll tell you more later - for now, you'd better go on with the introductions, so that we know who all is here when Cliff and Amy get out of here... and Xiff, most likely."

"Sure" Xiff agreed, with a smile. "We did land here to get another Suzy MacArthur, after all."

Julia glared at him. "Jerk."

Marlene, in the meantime, looked at a red-haired girl. "I don't believe I've seen you before" she said. "Who are you, if I may ask? And how are you related to the McFly or Brown family?"

The red-haired girl smiled. "You may ask that" she said. "I'm Lisa Jung. I'm almost a hundred percent certain that you have no idea who I am, but in our world, I'm dating a Mike McFly, who's the twin brother of Alex McFly, who naturally is the cousin to Marty McFly Junior. I originally came from 1986, but after a complicated incident, I decided to settle in 2016. I used to be a good friend of your mother, Jennifer Parker - but I guess that, in your world, she doesn't know me, right?"

"That's right, um, Lisa" Marlene said. "I've never heard mom talk about anyone named Lisa Jung - while she has, in fact, told me about her old friends."

"That's right" Suzy said. "Marty Junior has never told me about you either. Not that he does talk about his mom's old friends a lot, but still. So, either Mrs. McFly stopped thinking about you as a friend - which I highly doubt, as you seem to be a nice person... you have to be nice, or else that Mike McFly fellow wouldn't date you. Anyway, either that happened, or you really don't exist in our world - not as a friend of Jennifer Parker, at least. And I'd hate to say it, but I guess the latter should be true."

"It's okay" Lisa said. "I'm kind of used to me not existing by now, I guess. It's a weird phenomenon, but it's true. At least I exist - well, most likely - in some of the other worlds."

"All right" Marlene said. "So, who's left?"

"That would be us" a girl who looked a lot like Maria Brown said. "My name is Sarah Brown - Sarah One, actually, or at least, that's what I'm mostly called - and I'm from the year 2047. I guess that I most likely won't exist in the future of your world, since in our world, Dr. Emmett Brown stayed in the past."

"Why would he stay in the past?" Marlene said, stunned. "I mean, he was initially torn on whether to go back or not, but he did eventually decide to do so, for Dad's sake, and because it would offer more opportunities to his kids - and also, he was not supposed to exist back in 1895, and therefore, he would do best to return to the future - whether that would be 1985, 1986 or even 1995."

"Wait, that's not true as far as I know" Marlene Four said. "Even though Dr. Brown did go back, there was nothing about hesitating. That seems inhuman of other him, to me. I mean, after Dr. Brown went away, and Dad thought that he'd never see him again, Dad really did start to cry, and remained crying until Dr. Brown returned, which was about an hour later."

"What kind of a weird tale is that?" Marlene Three exclaimed. "Sure, Dad was indeed upset - but he wasn't crying."

"Refusing to admit that your Dad is such a crybaby, huh?" Amy said, smirking. "The difference between the two groups really is amusing. I don't doubt though that, in our world, McFly also ended up crying, when he thought that he'd never see that crackpot again. I wonder why anyone would cry about that - as opposed to being happy about that. Then again, McFly really is a butthead too - and he is kind of nuts as well."

"Quit insulting my Dad!" Marlene Five exclaimed. "And secondly, I happen to come from the same world as you do, and I know for a fact that this didn't even happen to Dad. He got home along with Dr. Brown and Mrs. Clayton-Brown."

"So?" Amy said. "For the other worlds, my point still stands - and I'm sure that McFly would've done the same thing, in our world."

Marlene rolled her eyes, and turned towards Sarah One. "So, who's your father?" she asked.

"Verne Brown" Sarah One replied. "He travelled from 1910 to 2020. Grandpa didn't move back until 2045, and then he came from 1925. So, without having spent almost ten years in the west, and then skipping twenty, I suppose that my Grandpa is about as old as your world's version of him, even though he's from 2047, and not from 2017 like yours."

"Weird" Marlene muttered. "What about the extra version of you, though? Or is she your twin?"

"No, she's my counterpart, you're right in that" Sarah One said. "I'm actually from a Griff-dominated world - much like the Biff-dominated world that I'm sure your father saw. My Dad was shot in 2034, one year after Marty Senior being committed, and two years after Marty Junior was killed. We managed to escape and restore the right reality, and, after a trip to 1925, got Doc back in the process. I'm dating the alternate version of Marty McFly III, while my 'sister' here is dating his local self. And then there's Jennifer McFly, who's also from our world. She's the sister of Local Marty III."

A girl who looked a lot like Jennifer Parker nodded. "That's me all right - whoa!"

The sentence finished with an exclamation as Cliff proved once again that he wasn't that great in flying a train. On their old spot, the time train smoothly landed, and Cliff turned to Griff with a smirk.

"You can stay here, as always" he said. "In the meantime, Xiff, Amy and I will see what kind of girls we can find here."

"We know that already, don't we?" Xiff said. "A Suzy and a Marlene."

"Yeah, you have a point there" Cliff said, smiling. "Still, we could see another Maria... or a PF equiva-what's-it of Julia Belle Rundgren. Also, we're in PF #99. The possibilities are endless."

"Well, good luck, Dad" Griff said, with a smirk. "I guess I'll see you again soon."

"Oh, you sure will" Cliff said. "This shouldn't take too much time, unless the girls here are really uncooperative. And after that - well, shall we wait for the Brown's and McFly's to show up again? After we've got the girls, we then can explore this world some more - and see what we can find. Perhaps, we can even entertain ourselves by watching the faces of those Brown nutcases again, if they confront us again. That should be so much fun..."

As Marlene heard those last words, she groaned, as she realised that her chance of getting out of this place was close to zero. She sighed, and leaned backwards, hoping to be rescued soon. She wasn't counting on it, though. As she heard the footsteps of three bullies moving away, she realised that now, with Griff and them alone, the real trouble would probably start.

oooooooo

Cliff Tannen felt very much excited, as he was walking up to the Courthouse Square. Once more, he was planning to capture as many girls as he could get - but, for this world, he actually had two companions again, namely Xiff and Amy. He grinned, as he realised that, with three enemies to face, the girls now really didn't stand a chance anymore of getting away from them.

As he then walked up to the town, he found the differences to be very intriguing. In this world, apparently, technology seemed to have advanced a lot more. There were no more just driving cars, instead all flying, and all of them seemed to have something called 'Fusion' on top. While Cliff knew that Fusion was being worked on, it wasn't exactly used in all of the cars just yet. He wondered what was going on here.

As he then entered the Courthouse Square, he noticed, to his relief, that the mall was all right, so not so much had changed as in the world where the McFly butthead had made himself rich. That would most likely make it easier for him to capture the girls that were around.

"So, where are we off to, now?" Xiff said. "I must say, it's a convenience that all the girls we intend to capture are in the Courthouse Mall, or in the surroundings of the mall. It does make things so easy, that I'm barely able to believe it. The relative ease with which we can capture the girls is just amazing."

"Oh, it most definitely is" Amy agreed, with a bright smile. "Also, those wuss girls give us quite a laugh, by actually thinking that Bill Tannen, Cliff's nephew from the EJ worlds, has actually turned against them. It really is so sad to think that, in the EJ worlds, Cliff has a nephew who allies against us with the McFly's, and my other selves do so, too. I'm glad that Bill doesn't exist in the PF worlds."

"Yeah, if I had to find a permanent place to settle somewhere, it'd most definitely be a PF world" Cliff said. "No Bill, and a great version of you. You're a great girl, miss Needles."

"Thank you" Amy said. One could almost detect a blush coming onto her face.

"But Gramps, didn't you say that this was world PF 99?" Xiff then pointed out. "That might mean that the PF worlds have changed so much from how we know them, causing there to actually be a Bill here... or a wuss version of Amy. Then again, on the other hand, it might just be enough to create a world, which is unfamiliar compared to both types of world that we already know."

"Dimensional travel is a confusing thing, I admit" Cliff said. "Still, even if there aren't any Suzy's or Marlene's here, we'll have had a nice little detour. But if there are, we could profit from the opportunity and try to capture them. I'm not sure what to expect here, but we'll see... we'll see."

"Yeah" Xiff said, nodding. "So, anyway - are we going to the Courthouse Mall, now? That's the place the girls mostly are in, and if we want to try to capture them, going in would be the soonest way. Also, if we want to have some snacks, that would be a good option - and since I wasn't around from the start, I'd like to have an eclair as well, like the girls had."

"Oh, yeah, those were quite delicious" Cliff said, as he thought back to that event. "I remember that. While I really liked eating them, I wanted to save some for the girls, of course - enabling them to eat the eclairs as well, and therefore getting more kisses."

"Yeah, I understand" Amy said. "But, really, I thought that we were going to purchase some ice cream instead? I'd love to have a little of that. I like chocolate ice cream, a lot. Strawberry, as well. Vanilla, not so much - that's for wimps. I like my ice cream tasty."

"Agreed" Xiff said. "Granted, I like banana ice cream - but I definitely dislike vanilla."

Cliff had been thinking for a moment, and then, his face broke into a smirk. "I've got an idea" he said, simply. "What if, instead of insisting that the girls shall kiss us in order to get an eclair, which is beginning to get rather hard and the girls protest a lot against it, maybe we could, instead, go eat the eclairs in front of them - and drink some drinks... boy, we don't have got anything to drink, have we? Oh, right, the Pepsi's - and after a few dimensions, they'll be offering more and more kisses just to stop the hunger and get more and more tinier and smaller pieces of eclair."

"Brilliant plan, Granddad!" Xiff exclaimed. "They'll probably accuse us of being evil again - but why should we let that get to us?"

"That's right, my dear grandson" Cliff said, as the three villains walked into the mall. "It doesn't matter, after all - we know what's right, don't we?" His features than changed to a smile. "Look!"

As Amy and Xiff looked, they saw what Cliff had seen. In front of them was an ice cream shop. They'd probably seen it before, but now, it came to mind as they'd just talked about ice. Grinning at each other, they walked up and went in.

Inside, however, they faced someone that Cliff hadn't expected to see there - a familiar girl who looked a lot like Amy and was, most likely, Roberta Needles. Amy let out a short shriek at the sight of her sister, and Xiff was mindful enough to hide - they couldn't justify being seen with two Tannen's in a world where Bill Tannen didn't exist, after all. Amy was about to follow him, when Roberta noticed her.

"Amy!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing here? I thought you'd be out visiting Dad!"

Amy knew she had to make up a lie. "Um, well - I thought that I'd visit your shop for a moment" she made up. "How are you doing?"

Roberta raised an eyebrow. "Amy, since when have you been interested in what I was doing?" she asked, obviously suspicious. She then took a good look at the person next to her sister, and gasped. "Oh no, Griff Tannen! Amy, did you bust him out of jail?"

Amy sighed, tired from having to make up excuses, then tried to think of something. "Um... he's Griff's second cousin" she quickly said. "From Grass Valley." She was sure that her sister, no matter if it was an alternate version of her, wouldn't know Tannen family history that well.

That suspicion was proven correct, as Roberta nodded. "Oh" she said. "Weird that he looks so much alike, then... then again, most of the people in this town do." She looked at her not-sister. "You want to order something?"

"Ten boxes of ice cream - five chocolate, three strawberry, two banana" Cliff ordered.

Roberta's eyes widened for a moment, then she nodded. "That'll be nine hundred and fifty-two dollars and seventy-five cents" she said, as she went to collect the boxes. Cliff simply put his thumb to the plate, knowing better than to once more argue about the price. After a few seconds, the ice cream was paid for, and the two villains took the boxes, which were kept cold by futuristic devices, and prepared to take them along with them.

However, that turned out to be a hard task. Both Cliff and Amy struggled under the weight of the boxes, and Amy dropped one of them. Roberta slapped herself on the forehead, as she watched the event. "Ain't I a bad clerk" she said, laughing. "I forgot to get you the anti-gravity machine!"

She headed into the back of the shop, as Cliff and Amy exchanged glances. "The what?" Cliff said.

"I don't know" Amy admitted.

Roberta returned a moment later, with some buttons which she placed on the boxes. She then put the boxes on each other, and smiled satisfied. "Well, have a nice day" she said, giving a remote to Amy.

"Um... what's this?" Amy asked, confused.

Roberta looked at her sister, and rolled her eyes. "Sis, don't tell me you don't know what that is."

"Of course I don't" Amy protested. "I've never seen this device before in my entire life!"

"But we've got it in our homes!" Roberta protested. "The great inventor Marty McFly came up with it two years ago, and it's been part of one's every day life ever since!"

The look on the face of the villains was priceless. Too bad that Roberta couldn't notice it, though, as she was too focused on the anti-gravity machines. Within a few moments, she pressed on a knob, and the boxes lifted up. Glancing confused at her sister, she instead handed the device to Cliff.

"Works like every anti-gravity device" she said. "Pull up to go forwards, pull down to go backwards, and pull to the sides to go in those directions." Cliff nodded, and then somehow managed to steer the boxes out of the shop.

As he exited, he glanced at Amy. "What do you think is going on here?" he said. "Your sister was talking about Marty McFly as an inventor!"

"Maybe he took up helping butthead Brown" Amy said. "But these devices... I dunno about them. Never seen them before in my whole life, and this is supposed to be my native time period."

"I haven't, either, and I'm from thirty years ahead" Xiff said. "They look kind of cool, though. Much like a hoverboard, but... simpler, and used for carrying. I wonder why it's not in our worlds, though."

Cliff thought some more about that, then shrugged it off. "It's not important" he said. "We have other things to do. Let's put an end to this discussion."

"Well, where are we going to go next, then?" Amy said. "Try to capture the girls?"

"Yeah, I suppose" Cliff said. He looked around, and his eyes then widened once more. "Xiff, look!"

His grandson did so, and smiled. "Suzy MacArthur" he said, with a grin. "Well, this version won't become Suzy McFly."

"Oh, she definitely won't" Cliff agreed, smirking as well. He glanced at Amy and his grandson, and then started to head over to the girl, who was along with Marlene in front of a restaurant of some sorts. He figured that it wouldn't matter how many attention it would stir when the girls would be kidnapped - they were headed back for the train anyway.

Cliff, Xiff and Amy then reached the restaurant, and stood guard outside it, Amy taking the boxes of ice cream, holding them with the special device. The teenager then was plagued by the troubling thought that, now Suzy and Marlene would've already eaten by the time they were captured, they would be less resisting to the ice cream. He set his mind at ease by reminding himself that the other girls, specifically those that had been on this trip for as long as he or Griff was, were very much hungry indeed. Cliff smirked. This was, once more, going to be a lot of fun.

oooooooo

Marie McFly felt very much accomplished, as she was eating her meal. In about an hour time, she'd managed to get just what she wanted, and had managed to get Suzy to purchase every single item that she had aspired to buy. Her intelligence, inherited - partly - from her father, had enabled her to draw a scheme that would allow her to do what she'd just done. Now, they would be able to go home a few minutes from now, after eating the food, and be home right on schedule.

Marie then looked at Suzy, and the sight of her brother's girlfriend made her think of her own boyfriend. Clint Martin Brown was the now almost twenty-year-old son of Emmett Lathrop Brown Junior, and resembled his father and grandfather a lot. Clint was about the same age as she herself was, and would in fact be twenty very soon, on August 15th. Given the fact that both Dave McFly's and Clint's birthday would be very soon - Dave's birthday was today, but the celebration wasn't - Marie had selected today to go shopping for both of them.

"Well, I think we've got everything" Suzy said, smiling. "Marlene, your father really is a genius, by thinking up these anti-gravity buttons. They really are useful in every-day life."

"Yeah, he's definitely smart" Marie said, nodding. "You know, Dad never really had an easy life. At school, some people singled him out for being a genius. I remember that he was once beaten up by someone who'd getten an F while Dad had gotten an A. Since he was bumped up a few grades, his classmates weren't the same age, and were able to defeat him easier."

"Yeah" Suzy said. "That sounds so unfair. At least you weren't bumped ahead - however you could've risen a grade or two, like Marty did."

Marie nodded, as she thought of her brother, Martin Einstein McFly, who had graduated in 2014 as opposed to 2016, after being bumped up two grades. She knew that, while she wasn't all that inferior to her brother in intelligence, she was in fact more social and out-going. That really was the major difference between the two siblings, which dominated their lives sometimes. However, Marie and Marty Jr - as Martin Einstein was mostly called - did get along, most of the time, and were both smart enough not to argue about each other's intelligence or way of life enough to make their friendship stop. Marie's friendlyness towards Suzy, who after all was dating Marty, was clear evidence of that fact.

On the other side of the table, Suzy then finished eating her meal, and Marie, who had been distracted in thoughts, rapidly ate her food as well. She did want to stay within her schedule. Only when she didn't have anything to do at all, she allowed herself to stay out a scheme and just enjoy herself. Most of the times, Marty would look at her and be confused as to why she allowed herself to go to parties and other festivities, but sometimes, he allowed her or Suzy to drag him into real life as well - which was just as well, as without that, his relationship wouldn't have had the slightest bit of a chance.

"You want some dessert?" Suzy then asked, once more distracting Marie. "A milkshake, or some ice cream perhaps..."

Marie thought about that for a moment, then shook her head. "No" she decided. "I've got some ice cream at home. We could eat some of that, perhaps, if Dad hasn't decided to use it for one of his experiments yet."

Suzy chuckled, as both girls knew how Marty Senior could sometimes do the weirdest things when it concerned objects or liquids that he could use in one of his chemic or physics experiments. "Yeah, I sure hope that he hasn't done that, yet" she said. "Just a moment, Marie... waiter!"

A waiter noticed her calls, and walked over to the table. "What can I do for you two?" he said, voice a little gruff.

"We'd like to pay the bill" Suzy pointed out.

"Chips for two persons... that'll be one hundred and seventy-nine dollars and forty cents" the waiter said. Marie realised that prices weren't that important in the world of today, where a smaller amount of cash was used in one's normal life, as thumb payment more than supplied for most things. However, cash was certainly still around, as there were a lot of occasions where thumb-payment simply wasn't working - one could not expect a tramp to have a thumb-pad, after all. Therefore, people still had wallets and cash around, and Marie figured that it was also better that way.

As Suzy then paid, Marie started thinking of what they'd do next. They had got the things they wanted for both Uncle Dave and Clint, so they could perhaps go home right away. On the other hand, Marie felt quite happy with what they'd done today, and wasn't looking up to going home so soon. Either way, on the journey home, they could think about it some more.

They then walked out of the shop, and towards the place they had entered moments before. Marie felt very optimistic about how the day should be going.

Her optimism then suddenly ended, as someone grabbed her arm. As Marie looked in the face of the person who had done just that, she couldn't believe it. It was none other than Griff Tannen!

"Well, lookee what we have here" Griff said, with a smirk. "Nice to see you girls again." As Marie then looked better, she noticed that there were two of Griff, who looked almost similar. She thought that she could be dreaming, but first Griff's strong grip on her arm made that belief go away. As she then looked farther, she also noticed Amy Needles. While Amy had always been bad, she now was tugging on Suzy's arm in a rather villanious way - more evil than Marie was used from her.

"What's going on here!" Suzy protested. "We did nothing to you! Can't you just leave Marie and I alone?"

First Griff frowned. "Marie?" he repeated.

"That's my name" Marie said, rolling her eyes at the Tannen's stupidity. "Marie Marlene McFly. And I repeat what Suzy said - how come there's two of you? And what do you want from us?"

"Marie?" Second Griff said. "Stupid name. It's probably not important, though."

"Yeah, one version of the McFly butthead just decided to give his daughter another name" Amy said, with a shrug. "No big deal."

Marie and Suzy felt very confused, but First Griff interrupted. "And to answer your question, what else would we want?" he said, simply. "Well, since you girls are so stupid, I'll tell you. We want to take you along with us, kiss you and do other so-called 'inproper' things to you seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year, hundred years per century!" He smirked. "And since you're obviously going to love this, why don't you come along with us right away?"

"No way" Suzy muttered. "How did you escape from jail, anyway? And get a clone?" She gave another tug to the grip that Amy had on her, only to have Second Griff grab her other arm.

First Griff smirked, which was an unsettling sight - not so much because it was so evil, but because the fact that he smirked, and had been smirking all the time now, meant that something bad was going to happen. And it was. "Well, I think that the reasoning for this would be very simple" he said. "Haven't you girls ever heard of time travel?"

Both Marie and Suzy were shocked, as memories replayed through Marie's head about the tales that her father had always told her of Biff Tannen and the world that he had created. "You... you've taken one of the time machines?" she said, gulping. This did not sound good.

"Look, there really is someone trying to be smart" First Griff said. "And - yeah. I've got a time machine, now. Took it from 1987. I'm not the person that you know - my name is Cliff Tannen, miss. In fact, neither of us are Griff, as the other person is Xiff, my beloved future grandson."

Marie felt even more horrified. "You let us go, and you let those temporal machines go right now!" she exclaimed. "Don't you realise which kind of potential damage you could cause to the space-time continuum?"

Cliff shook his head. "No" he simply said. "And I don't care either."

And with that, he held a cloth in front of Suzy's mouth. The girl was horrified, and tried to resist, but within a few moments, she passed out. The Tannen that Cliff had said to be Xiff smirked. "Ah, it's lovely capturing a Suzy."

"I have to agree with you there" Amy said, with a smile. "We're both from Suzy-containing worlds, so I have to admit that I certainly prefer the PF worlds over the EJ worlds. Those are good, though - and I enjoy visiting them. Still, seeing a wuss version of me is beginning to get annoying."

Marie had no idea where Amy was talking about, but she figured that the girl was being nuts again - Amy Needles wasn't the sharpest or the sanest knife in the drawer, after all. Deciding to take her chance, she broke free of Cliff, and ran back into the restaurant.

However, while running away from a Tannen seemed to be a very good idea, it wasn't when said Tannen was accompanied by two others. Marie tried to reach the toilets, but Cliff reached them first, and took a solid hold of her.

"I thought that you could've cooperated kindly, so that we wouldn't have been forced to take these measures" he said, smiling. "However, I'm afraid that we'll have to do so, anyway." He took the cloth, and pushed it into Marie's face.

The girl resisted as heavy as she could, kicking Cliff and his allies as hard as she could. Then, for a moment, she got a very slight piece of hope, as some customer actually seemed to have noticed them, and the waiter that had been helping them either, also saw them, and ran over to the telephone, trying to not have Cliff, Amy or Xiff spot her.

Marie felt relieved that she was going to be rescued, apparently, but that relief also brought with it that she relaxed a bit, and gave in to the chloroform. A last struggle as she realised what was going on didn't help either. Within a few moments, the dizziness became more and more apparent as she passed out into Cliff's arms, and entered dreamland, which was certainly nicer than the future which she now was facing, even if she'd have a nightmare. After all, she was now about to enter a living nightmare - the captives' train.

oooooooo

Marty McFly Junior Sixteen felt mixed, as the time train crossed the interdimensional barrier, or whatever it was called, and entered the new world. On one hand, he was feeling excited about entering a new dimension, and getting a chance to get closer to the captured girls. On the other hand, he was also scared to get too close to Cliff and Griff, who would see that as something to provoke them to act even worse towards the girls. He figured that a lot of occupants on this bus would have had those mixed feelings for a long time by now.

"Well, we made it once again" Doc Three announced. He then groaned, as he realised that this pattern really was getting long. "Well, I can't believe this! I mean, we've been at this for a few days by now - and one'd imagine that we would've been able to rescue the girls. However, seeing as Cliff is also threatening to harm the girls, we can't do anything! And my poor train..." He thought about that for a moment, then shook his head, firmly. "Well, that's not important! I'd gladly give away my train and build three more for Cliff's allies, if I could just get the girls back!"

"You're right, Doc" Marty Senior Three said, bitterly. "I'd gladly give up my beautiful mansion and all my money if it would bring back even just one of the girls. I... I just don't want to leave them alone. Marlene is my own daughter, my very own child, and I can't help but feel so helpless about... her situation. I was probably one of us who had the chance to prevent the kidnapping, or rescue my daughter later."

"Yeah, that's right" Marty Junior Three said. "I mean, you got Marlene on the phone before she got kidnapped, Calvin III from world eight actually got to chase them. We probably all had some bit of a chance, but we all blew it."

"And sometimes, even their own works helped them" Doc Five said. As everyone else looked at him in confusion, he explained: "I'm sure that, if the girls hadn't been kidnapped in world three, Doc Three wouldn't have come over to the house of his Marty, and if he'd been at home, he'd be able to prevent the capture of his train, and perhaps even rescue the girls."

"All these possibilities" Doc Fifteen agreed. "It's better to simply face the future, though. If you put your mind to it..."

"...you can accomplish anything" everyone in the bus finished.

"Right" Marty Junior Sixteen muttered. "But that still doesn't get Marly and Suzy back... or at least, not right away."

The Doc's exchanged glances, and Doc Sixteen walked over to his best friend's son. "I know" he said, putting an arm around Marty Junior's shoulder. "But we'll get over this. And when we'll capture those Tannen's, we'll punish them hard before... before..." He looked up. "You know, I still don't know what you are planning to do with Cliff and Griff. And Amy, and Xiff of course."

Doc Three looked at Doc One, who looked back. "I don't know" Doc '87 admitted. "We've been talking about it, yeah, but not that much - I mean, we wouldn't want our hopes to get up too soon. Granted, we get the brief hope every dimension that in this world, we'll be able to rescue the girls, but... punishment for bullies is not exactly what I, or most of us, are in the mood for right now."

"I understand" Marty Senior Sixteen said. "You want to wait before we capture them first, right?"

Doc '87 nodded. "Yeah" he said. "It's like how that saying goes - don't sell the bear's skin before you've shot the bear. Now, I'm not planning on shooting any bears, however Cliff, Griff, Xiff and Amy are certainly just as terrible, but well... you get what I mean."

"Yeah, I suppose" Clara B Two agreed. "This is just so terrible. I can't believe that this has actually happened. I mean, we were expecting it to be a rather peaceful day."

"I don't think that anyone of us saw this coming" Doc Four said, with a scowl on his face. "If we would've, we might've been able to stop Cliff and Griff. However, that didn't happen."

"So, anyway," Doc Six said, "where did we just end up?"

"Apparently, this world is PF #99" Doc Three said, checking the time circuits. "Well, you already knew that... but for now, I can't see much difference."

"Wait, Doc" Marty Senior Three observed. "Take a look at those cars. All of them have Fusion engines on them, while that technology hasn't even been invented yet in our world. I thought that you said that Jules would invent Fusion in the mid- to late twenties, right?"

"Yeah" Doc Three said. "This is very unusual, for a PF world."

"In our world, Jules shall end up inventing Fusion as well" Doc Five said. "Or at least, that was what I saw, when I went to the future. I remember how, when Marty - Junior - and I travelled to the future, I explored the new future a bit while Marty was at the hospital getting his rejuvenation done, and I had just finished hover-converting the new DeLorean. I didn't see all that much, but I did look up Marty, and saw that he was living in a beautiful mansion out of town, and that was all that I really wanted to know, as I didn't want to find out too much."

"Understandable" Chris Two said, having found out himself what future knowledge could cause.

"Well, that wish wasn't fulfilled" Doc Five said. "While I tried desperately not to find out anything, I was kind of curious to see just what exactly the mansion that Marty owned looked like, and I figured that a quick look wouldn't hurt. And it shouldn't have. However, while visiting the house, I actually flew the DeLorean past a billboard advertising for Jules' Fusion industries. I was very shocked, especially considering the fact that the Jules that I knew was just a toddler. When I checked later, I saw something similar to what happened in your world. However, we were lucky to have gone a little later and not to 2030, as in our world, fusion won't be ready until 2029, and that's the test model - it won't be in production up until a few months after I arrived in twenty-thirty. That's because Jules was born later in our world, I think."

"In our worlds, fusion is already invented" Doc One said, and Doc Two, Four, Six, Nine, Ten, Twelve, Fourteen and Fifteen nodded approvingly. "And, no, '87, I won't tell too much - but I can assure you that I did not personally invent it." He glanced over at Doc '87, and sighed nervously. "I really don't like wanting to tell something and knowing I can't."

"Sorry" Doc '87 said. "If I'm bothering you too much, maybe we should sit in the back..."

"Or on the roof" TeenMarty suggested. "It won't be that nice, but I've been through worse before."

"Racing away from Libyan terrorists at Twin Pines or Lone Pine Mall" Marty Senior One agreed.

"Racing up to the clock tower to catch the lightning bolt" Marty Senior Three added.

"A major hoverboard chase over the Courthouse Mall pond" Marty Senior Five said.

"Facing Biff Tannen with a gun" Marty Senior Seven agreed.

"Yeah, that definitely counts too" Michael Brown said, nodding. "Granted, it wasn't physically exhausting, but more mentally... Great Scott Dad, we do talk alike now!"

The Marty Senior's chuckled, including Michael and Chris Two. "You finally realise it" Chris Two said, with a smirk.

"Yeah, I guess so" Michael said, sighing. "Boy, this is... abnormal. I've never really paid attention to it, though."

"Well, we've repeatedly tried to make you do so, but you never listened" Calvin Arthur McFly said, with a smirk. "When you choose not to believe something, you can be really stubborn in getting us to persuade you."

"And you're saying you can't?" Michael said, eyeing his counterpart. "You're another version of me, after all."

"Interesting discussion, but we really do have something more important to do" Doc Two said. "I'm sorry if that sounds a little forcing, but it's true. So, if you two would quit that, then we could go on."

"Yeah" Doc Three said. "We must try to find Cliff and the others. Or at least our other selves."

"Do you think that the girls have been captured yet?" Doc Thirteen said, obviously worried.

"I hope not" Doc Three said. "I'm not guessing on it, though. I suppose that going to our other self's house is the easiest option that we have, especially since we don't know where the other selves of the girls - most likely Suzy and Marlene, at least that is consistent - are supposed to be."

Marty Senior Three glanced at his Doc. "Um, Doc?" he asked. "Do you think that we'll ever capture Cliff and his allies?"

Doc Three looked at him, thought about that for a moment, then nodded, sincere. "Yeah, I think so" he said. "Cliff has to take a break at some point, and then, we'll most likely have a better chance of freeing the girls than we have now. We must try to go on, though."

"Yeah" Doc One said. "And we have been successful - a little. We did manage to save Melody and Jamie in my world and in world number four."

"I guess that I'm lucky" Jamie said. "I mean - I'm not really feeling happy of course, with Melody - my world's Melody - and Marlene and Harmony being captured, and all these other girls... but you - well, Gramps and Marty - know what happened to me."

"I know" Doc Four said. He put an arm around the girl's shoulder. Doc One did the same with Melody. "Well, anyway," he said, to the crowd, "every time we feel helpless, I suppose that we should remind ourselves of Melody and Jamie."

Marty Junior Sixteen wondered what happened to the girl named Jamie, and, from what he witnessed in her reaction, perhaps also to Melody. It was probably something terrible, and he figured that the girl didn't want to talk about. Sighing, he looked towards the front again.

The bus went on at a relatively slow pace, giving the teenager time to think. He wondered just who some of his other selves were. Even though he'd certainly seen them, he'd never gotten befriended very much.

"Could you tell something about yourselves?" he asked, addressing all of the versions of himself, not one in particular. "I mean, I know that you guys - well, most of you - are me, but I'm not sure who you are. Are there any weird things that are inconsistent and that I should know?"

The Marty's exchanged glances. "Well, there is the fact that we're mostly dating different girls" Marty Junior Two said. "That was something that freaked me out, mostly. Granted, I understand that, if things had gone different, I maybe would've dated another girl. But I really was shaken up by what me One told me, especially about the fact that he had, in fact, met my girlfriend."

"Wait a moment, let's get this straight" Marty Junior Sixteen said, stunned. "Are you actually telling me that some of you are dating someone who's not Suzy?"

"That's right" Marty Junior Three said. "I understand what you're thinking, and I think it's freaky myself. At least most of the PF us-es are dating a Suzy MacArthur."

"PF us-es?" Marty Junior Sixteen repeated.

"Some of us are from worlds with an EJ-dimensional code" Marty Junior Five explained. "That would be One, Two, Four, Six, Nine, Ten, Twelve, Fourteen and Fifteen. All of them are not dating Suzy."

"That's a majority" Marty Junior Sixteen managed to count out. "Nine against seven - well, eight, this world included, but even then they're still with more."

"Not that that is really important" Marty Junior Six said. "Then again, neither is what we're discussing now. Anyway - me Two, Six, Nine, Ten, Twelve, Fourteen and Fifteen, so that's the majority of the EJ worlds, are dating Stephanie Stebbs. That makes seven versions of her."

"Your girlfriend is shared by me, me Five, me Seven and me Eleven, and me Thirteen is married to her" Marty Junior Three said. "That makes five Suzy's that are being dated, and one that is married."

"That would be me" a familiar voice said. Marty Junior Sixteen gasped as he looked into the face of an older woman who resembled his girlfriend and was her, as well. This was very freaky.

"That makes six" he finally settled on. "So, Stephanie Stebbs, whoever she is, has a slight majority - but what about the other three? There are sixteen of me here, after all..."

"I'm dating a Harmony Brown" Marty Junior One said. "Me Four is as well. She's Doc Brown's granddaughter."

"And I'm dating a Susan Brown" Calvin Klein III said. "Then again, I'm not really a version of you either - as both my first and last name - I don't really think middle names matter that much - are different."

"But my name is different too" Marty Junior Nine said. "I'm Marty Klein."

"That's one different name, as opposed to two for me" Calvin III pointed out. "So what I said still goes."

"Yeah, I guess so" Marty Junior Nine said.

Marty Junior Sixteen looked at One and at Calvin III. "Say, what relation are these Harmony and Susan Brown girls to Doc, anyway?" he said. "I've never heard of either of them. As far as I'm concerned, Doc only has one daughter - Maria Brown. Jules is unmarried at the moment, and Verne just has a son, Clint Martin Brown." He smirked at the astonished faces of the others. "What can I say? Mr. Brown always was impressed by Dad's stories."

"Yeah, we have a Clint Martin Brown in our world too" Marty Junior Three said. "So, at least to me, it's not unfamiliar."

"To me it is, though" Marty Junior Four said, with Marty Junior One nodding. "In our world, Harmony Brown is Jules' daughter."

Marty Junior Sixteen felt his eyes widen at that news. "Really?" he squeaked. "Jules has a daughter in your world?"

"Aged nineteen, if you want to believe it" Marty Junior One said, with a smirk. "Jules got married to Patti Franklin at age nineteen already. The next year, Harmony was born. That was in 1998, and Jules was born in 1978. He was a young father - Verne's kids were much younger."

"Weird" Marty Junior Five muttered. "And Calvin, what was the matter with Susan again?"

"Doc's great-granddaughter" Calvin III said. "I know, it probably sounds nuts, but it's true. Verne got his son - Albert Brown, Susan's father - really young. Also, Susan's mother, Yvette Manchester..."

"That's Suzy's mother" Marty Junior Sixteen whispered, pale.

Calvin III smiled at him. "Yeah, I suppose so. Weird." He shook his head. "But by now, nothing surprises me anymore."

"I think all of us can second that" Marty Junior Four said.

Just then, the bus turned on a corner, and flew down, as Marty Junior Sixteen figured that, once more, they had returned to his house. He looked outside, wondering what was going on.

However, as he looked, he saw something really astonishing. As he wanted to look outside, a car flew past the bus, and landed down below as well. As the bus flew closer, the person inside the car exited, and Marty Junior Sixteen got a better look at his face, and gasped. The boy looked like a teen version of Doc Brown!

As the bus then landed, Marty Junior Sixteen took a deep breath. Obviously, something weird was going on here. And soon, he was going to found out just what that was.

oooooooo

Martin Einstein McFly felt very worried, as he was sitting in the living room of his house. Marie, his only sibling, had, according to a waiter at one of the dining facilities in the Courthouse Mall, been kidnapped by two people who appeared to be Griff Tannen. While his father had sometimes been occupied with making cloning work, it wasn't a daily activity of his so it was far from completed. He therefore wondered how two versions of Griff could actually be in existence.

As Marty then looked up, he could clearly identify his father pacing through the room, like he always did when he was deep in thought. "I can't comprehend this" Marty Senior muttered. "As far as my current knowledge is concerned, it is completely impossible for there to be two incarnations of the person publicly identified as Griff Tannen. While it might be a slight possibility that either one - a scientist unknown to me and this planet has developed a manner of reproducing human beings, and not shared it with his colleagues, like I myself didn't with the temporal field warping and displacement vehicle, or two - Griff has accidentally encountered a doppelganger of himself who apparently broke him out of prison and is exactly the same in character as he is, I highly doubt that either of these speculations could hold the truth. However, since I can currently not come up with other possible speculations surrounding this subject, I'll have to..."

"Father, please!" Marty Jr muttered. He usually called his father 'Dad', but now, he wanted to be sure to get his father's attention. "While I am feeling entirely confused myself about what might've occurred, isn't it better that we should focus our thought processes on getting Marie and Suzy back, which might solve the 'second Tannen' mystery as well?"

Marty Senior looked at his son, and nodded. "I guess that what you're saying is correct" he said. "You know how I react in scenario's like this, though."

"Yeah, you go into the extreme scientifically, trying to find a way to explain this" Marty Junior's mother said, entering the room. Clara Parker-McFly walked over to her husband and put an arm around his shoulder. "But we'll find out what happened. Trust me. And then, we'll be able to rescue the girls."

Marty Senior smiled at his wife. "Yeah, I suppose so" he said. "But I can't just sit here and do nothing. Great Scott, what... what if that other Griff character is really a clone, and does something to hurt my direct descendant one generation removed, or my future direct descendent-in-law one..."

"Dad!" Marty Junior interrupted, once again.

"Sorry, I apologise" Marty Senior responded. "I just can't comprehend this." He looked towards the back of the house. "What did Emmett and Jennifer make out of all this?" Marty Sr had invited his best friend and wife to come over and help think of something to solve the mystery. Also, Clint - Emmett's grandson and Marie's girlfriend - should be over soon.

"They haven't thought up anything either" Clara said, as their friends, obviously having heard the mention of their name, walked in. "They're probably leaving the thinking work up to you."

"Well, you are the smartest man in Hill Valley, whether you like it or not" Emmett said, with a smile. "So, we figured - how much of a help could I be, if you're able to solve the mystery with ease?"

Marty Senior nodded. "Yeah, I might've been able to do such a thing, if this had been a normal mystery" he said. "However, seeing as what is occurring here, I thought that I'd need all the aid that I could possibly receive - aid that is aware of the temporal field warping and transportation vehicles, that is."

"Good point" Clara said. "I'd hate to involve someone else in this. If this is already a situation dealing with something scientific, then revealing the time machines would possibly make matters worse."

Marty Junior and Senior then both gasped, glanced at each other, and then Marty Senior looked at his wife, face pale. "I think I found it" he muttered. "What if that second Griff is Griff's son from the times that have yet to come from the world's current perspective? Or Griff's paternal ancestor once removed from some yet to be determined point in the already elapsed temporal sequence?"

"If he's from the past, you should know" Emmett said. "I doubt that you wouldn't have noticed if the time machine was gone."

Marty Senior looked at Emmett with a smug grin. "Emmett, you're - once again - not thinking fourth-dimensionally! The potential thief could've returned one minute after he left and we wouldn't even have noticed it! Granted, knowing the holders of the Tannen surname, they probably would've left behind some damage, and I don't remember any of that, but this could've been an exception."

Emmett had no answer to this, but his wife had. "But if he took Marie and Suzy, wouldn't you know it?" she pointed out.

Marty Junior shook his head. "No" he said. "Probably, we are living in the original future, one that bases itself on what would've happened if the events of 1987 would continue to run their course into 2017. And I highly doubt that the space-time continuum would figure out that Cliff Tannen, if he's the thief, would take any girls back with him. And besides, since he's still making up this future, how do we know for certain that he's planning to take these girls back with him at all?"

As Jennifer muttered something about time travel being so confusing, Marty Senior looked at his son with obvious anger and determination. "It doesn't matter what he's planning" he said. "Either way, whoever we're facing, we have to stop them. I'm not leaving behind my direct descendant and her companion in the hands of some thugs surnamed Tannen! The Tannen's are worse than those awful police officers who shot Emmett at the Twin Pines... Lone Pine Mall! At least those creatures had a reasoning behind their execution process - not a very valid one, but a reason nonetheless! These Tannen's are out only for their own well-being and don't care about other human individuals and their wishes!"

"Well said, Dad" Marty Junior said, equally determined. "Come on, let's get the truck and go off looking for them."

Just as Marty Senior looked at him, obviously wanting to correct him for not making up a proper plan first, the sound of a klaxon of some sort sounded. Marty Senior looked up, surprised. "What was that?" he muttered.

"It sounded like a klaxon" Emmett noticed.

"Um, I think he knew that already" Jennifer said.

Marty Senior nodded. "Yeah, I actually meant to say - who was that? And for what reason is he doing such a thing?"

"Clint?" Emmett said. "He wanted to come over..."

"He can simply ring the door bell if he wants to come in" Marty Senior said. "Or knock, even though there's a valid chance that we might not hear that if we would be in another part of the building. No, I highly doubt that the person who made that noise was your grandson, Emmett."

"Maybe it's the persons that kidnapped Marie and Suzy?" Clara said, feeling somewhat frightened.

Her husband shook his head. "Unlikely" he told her. "After all, these individuals would not want to face the probability of us gaining them back."

"Maybe they'd want to negotiate about something" Jennifer suggested.

"Could be.." Marty Junior muttered. He and his father then walked towards the front door, and opened it, Clara, Emmett and Jennifer following close behind. And what they saw then was not what they had expected.

Behind Clint's car, where the latter was sitting in, staring dumb-founded to what was in front of him - well, from his perspective - a large bus was hovering there - not flying, but simply hovering about a feet above the ground. Marty Junior frowned as he recognised someone who looked just like him looking through the windows. "Great Scott... did something happen? What's going on here? And since when does Dad have a bus?"

Marty Senior gasped with recognition. "Great Scott!" he exclaimed. "I believe I'm experiencing an occurance of the phenomenon of a repeated experience, which, however, has no valid proof to base it on and appears to base itself on some uncertain and perhaps uncorresponding facts!"

Emmett stared at him, obviously lost. "What?" he muttered.

Marty Senior sighed. "Sorry, sorry... still learning to speak in common language" he apologised. "I know, it's been forty years, but still... um... what about 'I think I'm having an experience of déjà vu?'"

"Much better" Emmett said, smiling slightly.

The bus door opened, and another version of Emmett appeared. He looked at Marty Senior strangely, then turned to Emmett. "Good afternoon" he said, smiling a bit. "I suppose that you're wondering why I'm here, right?"

"Um... yeah" Emmett agreed. "What's going on here? Why's there another version of Marty Junior inside? Are you from the future?"

"No" Other Emmett said. "It's a confusing story, but I'll tell you later. First, I have a question to ask - are you missing some girls? Possibly some that are related to either Marty or myself?"

Marty Junior frowned. Something was not right here. Emmett was still using relatively normal terms, but they were a lot like the terms that Marty Senior would use. He highly doubted that his father from the future had invented something that would improve his friend's intelligence... not only was he staunchly opposed to messing with someone's brain, also, this Emmett said that he wasn't from the future. He wondered what was going on, then.

In the meantime, Marty Senior answered the question. "Yes, we are indeed missing two individuals" he said. "One is my daughter, and one is Marty Junior's female companion. Their names are Marie Marlene McFly and Suzy Catherine MacArthur."

Other Emmett's mouth had opened wider and wider as Marty Senior talked. "Missing individuals..." he muttered. "Female companion... Marie McFly?"

"Named after Marie Curie, the famous female scientist who discovered radium and polonium" Marty Senior confirmed. "You have knowledge of that particular factual phenomenon, Emmett."

That confirmed it. "Great Scott!" Other Emmett exclaimed. "You're the version of Marty that fixed my time bus in 1988! You're smart Marty!"

Marty Senior's eyes widened. "You're Doc Brown!" he exclaimed. "Great Scott - what are you doing here? Have you encountered a similar problem again? And what do the missing females have to do with this?"

"Doc Brown?" Marty Junior commented, confused. He wasn't sure who 'Doc' Brown was. After all, Emmett Brown, neither Senior or Junior, wasn't a doctor like his father - and, most likely, one day he himself.

Marty Senior looked at his son. "It's a complicated story" he muttered. He then looked at 'Doc'. "So, why are you here?"

"That, too, is a complicated tale" Doc said. "If you all would like to come in, we can better explain it - but I must warn you, there's a lot of you's in here."

Marty Senior eyed Doc hesitantly. "All with inferior intelligence?" he asked, nervous.

The inventor nodded. "Yeah" he said. "If you don't want to come..."

"If it's about the girls, I'll go anywhere!" Marty Senior exclaimed. He stepped forwards and entered the bus. Emmett, Jennifer, Clara and finally Marty Junior followed him.

However, as Marty Junior entered the bus, he soon realised that he would need all scientific interest in the multi-dimensional possibilities, as well as all of his curiosity and his eagerness to rescue the girls, to keep himself from not going back. There were an amazing amount of him's, Emmett's and a lot of versions of his father on board, and a lot of people that looked unfamiliar. There were two women who looked a lot like Jennifer, and two that resembled his mother, Clara Parker-McFly. There were a lot of unfamiliar boys who wore name tags declaring themselves 'Mike Hartford'. Every single occupant on the bus was wearing name tags, for that matter, and as Marty Junior looked at his other selves, he saw that while about half was really Marty Junior, the others all had different name tags saying names including 'Alex', 'Emmett' and 'George'.

As Marty Jr then looked farther, he had to surpress a cry of astonishment, as he recognised some boys whom he'd never expected to see here - they looked a lot like Griff Tannen, except for a lack of bionic implants. He looked at Other Emmett, who was wearing a name tag saying 'Doc Three'. "Are they..." he muttered, pointing.

"Bill Tannen, cousin of Griff, belongs to the good guys" Marty Junior Two prompted.

Marty Junior frowned. "Really?" he said. He was very unfamiliar with good Tannen's, but if his other self said so, he had few reasons to doubt that.

"Trust me, he's telling the truth" Marty Junior Five said. "It was kind of hard to adjust to for me as well, but he hasn't done anything bad yet so I assume that they're right and he does indeed belong with the good guys."

Bill Four nodded. "Yeah, I do" he said. "I'm even dating Jamie Brown, who was raped by my cousin. Not to profit from the horrible things that happened to her - but I suppose that should prove to you that I'm not in cahoots with my cousin."

"All right, I suppose I understand" Marty Junior said, shaking his head. "This certainly is a strange occurrance, though. I had never suspected even one single individual belonging to the Tannen family to be on the opposite side of the good-bad phenomenon than he would be expected to belong."

A lot of other versions of him blinked, including the Marty Senior's and Doc's. "What?" Marty Junior Five muttered.

Marty Senior Three then realised something, and looked at his other self with more and more nervousness, taking a step back. "Uh-oh" he muttered, looking at his 'Doc'. "It's him, isn't it?" The lack of an answer, instead a faint smirk on Doc Three's face, proved him right. "Oh man, this is heavy..." Marty Senior Three sat down, groaning.

"Wait a minute!" Doc Five called out, confused. "What's going on! What's making your Marty so upset?"

"I suspect it's not so much being upset as it is being 'freaked out', so to speak" Doc Three said. "Doc Five, Eight, Eleven, Thirteen and Sixteen, since Marty and I introduced ourselves to you before we met up with the locals from this universe, I think I'm going to provide you and the EJ natives except for Doc One and his crew with quite the surprise. We've finally landed in the world where Marty's intellectual capacities are switched with mine."

Almost all of the Doc's and Marty Senior's looked like they were somewhere in-between disbelief and fainting. Doc One, however, was the first to speak. "You mean that this is the reality that you talked about back in 1990? The one with Marty inventing the time machine and me running a horse ranch?"

Thanks to the complete astonishment of all, silence remained as a stunned Doc '87 was too dumb-founded to complain to his older self about 'no man should know too much about their own destiny', allowing Marty Senior to speak. "Yes, that is correct" he confirmed. "If you mean the dimension where I have an IQ of approximately 208, you're in the correct place here."

This time around, a response did come, from Doc Five. "Two... hundred... eight" he muttered, his face whiter than paper.

And then he fainted.

The shock from seeing Doc Five collapse and hit the ground - gently, as Marty Junior Five managed to get a hold on his arm on the last moment - was enough to bring the rest of the bus back to life. Doc Three rushed over, wanting to check his other self's pulse, but Emmett passed him.

"I might not be as intelligent as my counterparts" he said, "but I've at least got some experience with medical stuff - healing my horses when they're ill - which I suspect that you don't!" With those words, he leaned down next to his other, smarter self, and inspected him and his heart beat for a few moments.

As he looked up again, his face was a slight bit happier looking, but not too much. "He's out-cold" he reported. "Should remain that way for two hours at least, without outside interferance."

"Interfer... hey, you said that word the right way!" Marty Senior exclaimed.

Emmett grinned. "I guess you're learning me things even at my age of 95" he said, with a smirk.

Marty Senior Three looked at his other self. "Do you have some smelling salts?" he asked.

"We should" Marty Junior said before his father could say something. "I'll show them to you." He exited the bus, his not-so-father following close behind.

While Marty Senior Three had maybe expected to get some rest with this relatively easy job, he did not get it. "Why aren't you and the other versions of Dad so smart as my Dad is?" he asked as they walked back to the large McFly mansion. "And what's going on, anyway?"

"I really wouldn't know" Marty Senior Three said, shrugging. "I'm not a scientist after all, like your Dad is. And as for the second question, we'd better tell you that when we're all together, so your Mom and Dad and the others can hear it as well." He smirked. "So, your mother is Clara Parker, right?"

"Yeah" Marty Junior said, as they walked up to the kitchen. "Aren't you married to her?"

Marty Senior Three admired the interior of his other self's house, which was mostly filled with science awards, for a moment before replying. "No" he said. "I'm married to someone who looks just like her - Jennifer Parker. I'm not sure whether they're related, as your mom is from the Old West and my wife isn't."

Marty Junior looked at him with a confused look in his face. "If you're not married to my mother, how do you know she's from the Old West?" he asked.

"I've been here before" Marty Senior Three said, as he reached out to grab the smelling salts that the boy that wasn't his son pointed out to him. "Back in 1988. Doc and I were hopping through dimensions with a malfunctioning time machine. Hasn't your father told you about that?"

Marty Junior shook his head. "No" he said. "Dad has told me a lot of things about his time travelling adventures, but not about that one. I'd like to hear some more about that."

"Well, maybe later" Marty Senior Three said, as he closed the cabinet again and exited the kitchen. "For now, I'd like to have a quick look around before heading outside again." He walked over to one of Marty Senior's awards, a plaquette saying 'Special science award given to Martin Seamus McFly of Hill Valley, California, USA, for inventing hover-technology. Date: March 2, 1994, six months after the release of said technology.'

The not-inventor shook his head as he looked at the plaquette, and chuckled. "Doc should see this" he muttered. "Or MJ. Or Jennifer. This is so heavy."

Marty Junior frowned. "I doubt that father would like it very much if you'd carry the plaquette outside and take it along with you" he said. "He never likes it when someone messes around with his awards."

Marty Senior Three smiled at him reassuringly. "I figured so" he said. "But I'm not planning to." With that, he took a small camera out of his pocket, and took a picture of the award. He looked at the camera with a grin. "I took this along in order to have something memorable on this trip at least - and I had it on me anyway. And I don't think that I'll find anything more memorable than this. Well, besides that picture that I took of almanac me's house."

"Of what?" Marty Junior said, confused.

"Never mind" Marty Senior Three said, looking at the camera. "It's not that important."

Marty Junior looked at the camera as well, then shook his head. "That's an old model" he said.

Astonished, the other version of his father looked at him. "It was made last year!" he exclaimed.

"In our world, that camera model was invented in 2005" Marty Junior said. "I guess that's another one of those amazing differences between our world."

Marty Senior Three smirked. "You do take after your father" he commented. "Only he or one of the Doc's would speak like that."

"Thanks, I guess" Marty Junior said, flashing a smile as they went outside again, and boarded the bus.

"What took you so long!" Doc Three complained. "We don't have all day!" He took the smelling salts and moved over to his other self. Once there, he stuffed it under Doc Five's nose."

"I don't think that he's going to like this very much" Marty Junior Six said.

Doc Three shrugged. "The important thing is that he wakes up" he said. "We have to go on or we'll have a major delay."

"Which we can make up by time travelling" Marty Junior Nine pointed out.

"Yeah, but still" Doc Three insisted. "I was hoping to confront Cliff here."

After a few times of smelling the awful smelling salts, Doc Five blinked and opened his eyes. "Take that away!" he exclaimed. As Doc Three removed the salts, the other inventor looked at his surroundings, then focused on Marty Senior and let out a groan. "I was hoping that I had a nightmare" he muttered. "In this world, Marty really is smarter than we are - than any of us are?"

"Apparently so" Marty Senior said, with a blush. "And Marty Junior here takes after me. Clara apparently provided intelligent genes as well."

"Clara?" Marty Junior Fifteen repeated, a strange look in his face.

Marty Senior nodded. "Yes, Clara" he said, with a proud smile. "Clara Parker-McFly - my beloved wife."

One of the women that looked a lot like Marty's mother gasped. "I'm married to you in your world?" she said.

"If your commonly used name is Clara Parker, yes" Marty Senior said, puzzled. "I thought that my spouse was known as Jennifer in the other worlds? And why are you so confused about the prospect of a potential counterpart of yours being married to me?"

"Because I'm Jennifer Parker's twin sister in our world" Other Clara said. "I'm Clara Parker-Nelson - I'm married to Zach Nelson, who's the Pinheads' lead bassist in our worlds. I suppose that he doesn't exist in yours? By the way, I am from the past. I was rescued from drowning in Rusty River."

"Never heard of it" Marty Senior said. "Nor of Zach Nelson, however that is no more than logical as I've never formed a band, let alone one named 'the Pinheads'. I met my wife when rescuing her from falling off a cliff that towers over Clayton Ravine. Originally, she was attacked by snakes who trapped her in a corner and she ran onto the cliff. However, she accidentally fell into the ravine. Since the ravine already got a name, it was decided to honour Clara in another way, by renaming the cliff 'Parker Cliff'. When Emmett and I went back in time, I killed the snakes before they could trap her on the cliff. Later, I used the cliff in one of my plans, and it was renamed 'Einstein Cliff' as I used the name of Albert Einstein in 1885."

"How original" Marty Junior Five commented.

"I guess that the 'Clara' issue has gotten way more confusing now" Alex J McFly commented. "We now have to use one more different name tag for you, Mrs. McFly... what about Clara M?"

"Um, that would be fine" Clara said, slightly confused. "I guess that the two Clara B's are married to other versions of Emmett?"

"Yeah" one of the Clara's said. "Who's married to him in your world, then, if Marty was the one to get his wife in the Old West?"

"Me" Jennifer said. "I'm Jennifer Clayton-Brown, and Emmett and I met in 1965. I loved him right away, but he was a little hesitant whether he liked me or not. Eventually, he did fall in love with me, and we had three kids - Emmett Junior, Clara and Martin."

"I'm Emmett Junior's son, by the way" Clint said. "I'm Clint Martin Brown."

Mike McFly smiled. "I guess the name 'Martin' is very common in your world" he quipped.

"Like 'Calvin' in world Eight" Alex P reminded him.

"What do you mean?" Marty Junior said, slightly confused. "Who's Calvin?"

"In our world, I was stuck in the past" a familiar voice said. Marty Junior turned to look at someone who resembled his father, just a little older. "I'm Calvin - Calvin Martin Klein. I was stuck in the year 1955 and I had to wait out the time for 1985 to roll around. My son was Calvin Junior, and my grandson Calvin III. I would've liked to name my son Marty, but seeing as my younger self was born to George and Lorraine just a few days earlier, I couldn't do that."

Marty Junior shook his head. "Weird" he muttered.

"I think we can all agree on that."

"Now that the most important things are done, what's going on here?" Emmett demanded. "I mean - what's happened to Marie and Suzy?"

"Marie?" Marty Junior Four said, raising an eyebrow.

"It's Marlene's name in their world" Doc Three explained. "Apparently, Marlene is still Marie's middle name, though."

"I liked the name" Marty Senior said, with a shrug. "I really wanted to name my daughter after Marie Curie, though. She was such a great scientist, I couldn't simply pass her. I considered naming Martin Einstein Jules Verne instead. Emmett, however, persuaded me not to do that."

"I have nothing against the name, but I don't think that 'Jules Verne' really fits for a baby born in the late '90s" Emmett explained. "Besides, Jules Verne McFly doesn't sound really nice, I think."

"Well, I think it sounds good" Marty Senior protested.

"Boys, let's not get into that issue again" Clara said, interrupting. "Let's see if we can get an answer to Emmett's question instead."

Doc One nodded. "So, anyway, I'll tell you the short version" he said. "Cliff Tannen from the year 1987 has stolen my younger self's DeLorean, kidnapped Jennifer Parker and moved into the future. There, he joined up with Griff and started hopping through dimensions. You're the seventeenth that we're visiting by now. In the meantime, Cliff has picked up Amy Needles and Xiff Tannen and visited the future - that's where Xiff is from by the way, he's Griff's future son. We've seen the weirdest kinds of worlds but up until now we've failed to catch Cliff as he's using our beloved ones against us. Once or twice, he has threatened to throw one out and I'm not guessing on him lying."

The locals gasped. "Great Scott" Marty Senior whispered.

"This is heavy" Emmett agreed.

"Well, I don't know about the others, but I'm definitely helping you" Marty Senior said, firmly. "I said that I'd go anywhere if it's about the girls, and that includes other dimensions."

"Agreed" Clint said. "Marie's my girlfriend, and I'm not leaving her with Cliff Tannen!"

"She is?" Mike H One said, jaw dropping. "This is heavy... at least Vincent looked like us and has the same mom and grandma. You, however, are an entirely different person from us. This is weird."

"Definitely" Clint muttered. "I take it that you're dating Marie... I mean Marlene in your world? Worlds, I guess?"

"That's correct" Mike H Two said. "While the Marlene of the PF worlds is single, I'm dating her in all the EJ worlds."

"PF?" Marty Junior repeated, confused. "EJ? What does that mean?"

Mike H Two shook his head. "Sorry, you don't know" he said. "There are, apparently, two kinds of worlds which we're travelling through - one EJ, and one PF. They are seperate from each other in things like names of the Pinheads band members, or the existence of me. It has to do with the Back to the Future movies."

"The what?" Clint said, astonished.

"Back to the Future" Mike H Two said. "I suppose that it's natural that you don't know them, but apparently, there's a series of movies about your Grandpa and Marty McFly Senior travelling through time in one of the other worlds somewhere out there."

"That's right" Doc One said. "Marty has travelled to the Family Ties Universe - yes, there is a universe where that show is for real - and there he was just a fictional character himself. And Three here apparently bumped into such a universe as well."

Marty Senior seemed thrilled. "Fascinating" he whispered. "I wonder whether I could see those movies - it sounds like a very intriguing amount of information! Great Scott, to be a movie character..."

"Calm down" Emmett said, simply. "Remember to breathe." Marty Senior shot him a sarcastic look at that.

"Emmett - boy, that sounds weird - is right, you know" Marty Senior One said. "And by the way - Doc Three, don't we have to go on now?"

"We are" Doc Three said. "If I'm not misreading, then my time tracker is saying that our beloved enemies are not too far from here."

That immediately caused concern to the locals. "What do you think we should do, Doc?" Marty Senior Five said. "Confront him? Not confront him?"

Doc Three shrugged. "I don't know" he said. "I think that most of us know how things went the last times that we've tried to confront them."

"Don't even start about it" Emmett D Brown said, shaking.

"I'd say we confront him" Marty Senior said, obviously angered. "I have some phrases to say to this low-life creature. But it's your bus."

"Actually, it's One's" Doc Three corrected him. "I'm simply in control because I'm native to one of the PF universes and therefore can probably find my way better here." He looked at Marty Senior, a little curious. "If you want to confront Cliff, though - go ahead. I'm kind of curious as to what you're going to try, to be honest."

"I am, too" Marty Senior said, with a grin that was immediately replaced by an angry scowl again. "But it's not going to be good."

"We'll see." Doc Three lifted the bus off the ground, and started flying it through the sky, in the direction of the place where the time machine of their enemies apparently was.

After about three minutes of flying, something came in sight in the distance, and Marty Junior gasped as he faced a beautiful flying steam train, 'ELB' painted on the side. As the teen then looked at his father, it seemed like Marty McFly Senior was about to drool.

"This is fascinating" he muttered, starting to talk more and more rapidly. "I knew that you were intelligent, Emmett Three, but this... Great Scott, imagine all that work! And that steam-powered flux capacitor... you've told me about it, but that certainly isn't like seeing it right here. How do you make it work? How did you ever manage to get steam power to generate the necessary 1.21 gigawatts? This is, like Emmett would say, heavy! And you made the train actually fly! Take a look at those circuits and levers and... Great Scott!"

"Marty, focus" Emmett said. "Remember that there's a group of evil time travellers in there that have kidnapped your daughter and future daughter-in-law."

For a moment, the words didn't seem to have any effect. Then, though, Marty Senior recovered, and sighed. "You're right, you're right" he muttered. "Great Scott, this really is amazing... too bad that there's a madman at the controls, I would've liked to have a look inside."

Doc Three smiled. "Maybe you'll have that, once we finish our mission and get the girls out of there."

In the meantime, the train had slowed down, apparently noticing that they were once again being chased. Doc Three did so as well, and after a few moments, the two vehicles were hovering a few yards from each other in mid-air, and the cab door was opened.

Cliff Tannen, Marty Junior noticed, looked indeed very much like his future son, and lacked only the bionic implants that the advanced technology made possible for his son to have. He smiled unfriendly. "Ah, the Browns have decided to stop me again" he said. "What's going on this time?"

"It wasn't me, if you want to know" Doc Three growled. "It was the Marty McFly Senior of this world who wanted to have a few words with you."

"Oh yeah" Cliff said, rolling his eyes. "I remember that this world's Marlene, which is apparently named Marie after some weird scientist, told me that her father invented the time machine. How stupid."

Marty McFly Senior stepped forwards. "You are about to find out that you are stupid yourself" he said, face still calm but apparently on the verge of exploding in anger. "Trust me, you do not want to face the inventor of the hover conversion and the fusion reactor. I might be scientifically orientated in my work, but I know a lot about machinery - weapon-related ones - as well. Let those girls go, Tannen. NOW."

Cliff smirked. "Why should I?" he said. "I'm not afraid of your knowledge about weaponry. And I trust you not to use it - as you might harm those girls. You'd better back off yourself, or I might see myself forced to do some things to the girls that they wouldn't like."

Marty Senior now seriously began to get mad. "You monster" he hissed. "You inexcusable low-life creature! If you do not immediately let those female individuals go, then you shan't end this solar day in complete possession of all your usual capabilities!" His voice became louder. "LET THOSE GIRLS GO, TANNEN! NOW! OR I'LL TAKE CONTROL OF THIS BUS AND RAM YOU OUT OF THE SKY!"

The reaction was immediate. Amy and Griff, who had come to look what the fuss was all about, seemed pale. In the bus, no one was very enthusiastic either. It was Amy who was the first to speak, after a few moments. "Boy, you're weird" she muttered. "You're crazy, McFly."

"Says who" Marty Senior said, with a smirk. "Impressed, huh? Well, I'll display you some more." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black box. Marty Junior figured that it was a new invention, as he'd never seen his father use it before.

Cliff looked at it and shook his head, chuckling. "You're going to attack me with that box?"

In response, Marty Senior swiftly moved it up, and pressed a button. A flash of light went out of it and hit a tree close by. For a moment or two, the light made it hard for both villains and rescuers to see anything. Then, the smoke cleared, and all what remained was a little tree of about a feet tall.

"Shrinking device" Marty Senior said, with a smile. "Invented it three months ago." He glared at Cliff. "I don't know which language you want it in, but let those girls go. Laissez ces filles partir. Lassen Sie jene Mädchen gehen. Laat die meisjes gaan. English, French, German and Dutch. That clear enough to you, Tannen? LET THEM GO."

Cliff looked at him. "You wouldn't use that machine" he said, although obviously a little unsure. "You can't. The girls would get hit as well. I doubt you'd want them to get hurt, or be shrunk."

Marty Senior rolled his eyes. "First of all, this most certainly isn't harmful" he said, with a smile. "Secondly, I can make them grow all the same." He raised the shriking box again. But you want me to prove it? Face being shrunk, Tannen." As Cliff, for the first time in the entire journey, seemed to actually get fear, Marty Senior smiled - and activated the machine.

And then, nothing happened.

The inventor looked at his machine puzzled. "What's going on here?" he muttered to himself.

And then he saw it. A message flashed accross the screen. A simple, short message, but here, it was the most important one that he could've ever gotten.

BATTERIES EMPTY. NEED REFUELING IN ORDER TO WORK AGAIN.

Marty Senior groaned. "I can't believe this" he muttered. Sighing, he put the box back in his pocket.

Over at the train, Cliff wasn't sure what had happened, but obviously, he felt secure again. "Guess I'm back in control of the situation" he said, with a smile. "Now, since I think you might deserve a reward for making such an impression on us..." With that, he disappeared back into the train. A few moments later, he dragged out Marie.

"Dad" Marie whispered, seeing her father. "Marty!"

Marty Senior's eyes filled with tears about the condition that his daughter was in. "Honey..." he whispered. "Tannen, leave her alone!"

"You mean I've got to stop holding onto her?" Cliff said, with a smirk, holding Marie out of the train. Down below, the Clayton Ravine could be easily seen.

Marty Senior sighed, and backed off a few steps. "Don't" he muttered. "If you'd drop my daughter, then I'd... I'd." For a moment, his anger rose again. "You won this round, Tannen. But I promise me, if I ever see you hurt my daughter or do anything else you won't want, I'll chase you until the end of my days, until I catch up to you!"

Cliff shrugged, as he hauled Marie back in. "Do what you want" he said. "I've got some more girls to catch." With that, he closed the cab door. Moments later, the train started moving off again.

As the train was out of sight, Marty Senior immediately headed over to his seat and sat down again. "And all because of those stupid batteries" he muttered, softly.

Doc Three walked over to him and patted him on the back. "It's not that bad" he muttered. "We tried to let him give up the girls as well, but it didn't work. And... well, you did do quite a good job. It was just a coincidence that the shrinking device failed."

"Still" Marty Senior insisted. "I should've been able to do this. I was able to fix your problem in '88. I should be able to do it now in 2017."

"This isn't mechanical" Doc Three reminded him. "This involves a human being, a terrible one, but a human nonetheles, who can use the girls against us. We're not talking about a broken time machine here."

"He fixed your time machine?" Doc Thirteen said, astonished. "The one that I couldn't fix and all, back in 1988? Marty McFly fixed your time machine?" One look at his face made Marty Jr think of him as being in the same position that Doc Five was in - right before he fainted.

Doc Three nodded. "Yes, he did - and don't faint on me now!" he called out. "I won't have a repeat of the situation with Five here."

Doc Thirteen blinked a few times, then chuckled. "Yeah, I suppose I understand" he said. "Boy... I just can't believe this. Even though my Marty did invent a time machine in the future, this is a rather weird situation."

"Oh yeah" Marty Senior said, nodding. "Three here had a conversation with me about that issue. It was intriguing to realise that, while not having the same intellectual capabilities as I do, another version of myself was capable of inventing a temporal field warping and displacement vehicle."

Doc Five shook his head. "It sounds weird, hearing you talk like that."

"Well, it sounds abnormal to me as well" Marty Senior pointed out. "I'm used to Emmett not understanding what I'm saying. With you actually doing so, it does make me feel uncomfortable."

Doc Seven nodded. "I suppose" he muttered. "It's still strange, though."

Then, Doc Three's time tracker went off, startling everyone. He quickly put it off, and looked down.

"Where did they go, Doc?" Marty Junior Three asked.

"August 10th, 2017, 6:50 PM, Hill Valley, California, EJ #62" Doc Three said. "Back to a normal world than."

"Hey!" Emmett exclaimed.

"Sorry" Doc Three said, with a smile. "Anyway - do you want to come along? It might be a little weird for you all to board, and for the other selves that we're likely to pick up, but I think that you might be able to help us some more, Marty."

Marty Senior rolled his eyes. "I failed last time" he pointed out. "Why would I be able to help you now?"

"Well, it might happen" Doc Three said, with a shrug. "Do you want to come?"

"All right" Marty Senior said, nodding slowly. "I think I'll come. I can't leave the girls alone, after all. What are our names going to be?"

"Well, this is world seventeen" Alex J McFly said. "So that would be Marty Senior Seventeen, Doc... I mean Emmett Seventeen, and Marty Junior Seventeen." Alex looked at Marty Junior with a frown. "Is your name really Marty Junior, by the way? Given your father's habits..."

"Dad mentioned it before" Marty Junior said. "I'm Martin Einstein McFly - named after Albert Einstein, of course. However, I'm mostly called Marty Junior anyway, since I've got the same first name - and that's the most important."

"See?" Calvin III said, with a smirk. Marty Junior Nine stuck out his tongue at that, causing Marty Junior to wonder what was gong on.

"Anyway," Alex J said, "there's still the matter of the names. Marty Junior Seventeen, then... Clara M and Jennifer B."

"Jennifer B?" Jennifer said, frowning.

"Well, there's already another Jennifer on board" Alex J pointed out, as Jennifer Parker smiled and waved at her namesake. Jennifer Brown then waved back.

"All right, I guess that's it" Doc Three said. "Anything else that you need to discuss with us before we're going into the next world?"

"Actually, yes" Doc Five said. "I heard that you, Marty Senior Seventeen, said that you were the one to build the time machine. How on earth did you manage to do that? And what happened next?"

Marty Senior blushed. "It's a long story" he said. "I'm not sure if we'll have the time."

"We're in a time machine here" Doc Five pointed out. "And I really don't want to face Cliff again for quite some time."

"All right" Marty Senior said. "I came up with the idea for time travel in 1978, after getting knocked out when busy with an experiment. I spent the next seven years working on the device. In 1985 I tested my temporal truck, in which the electronics were build. It was an apparent success, as I managed to send one of Emmett's horses one minute into the future. Unfortunately, then some cops showed up, telling me that I was arrested for stealing trash for my Fusion reactor. Emmett helped me and they shot him. I then raced off in the truck and got transported back in temporal space to the approximate temporal location of November 5th, 1955. Then I..."

"Wait a minute" Doc Five said, dumb-founded. "You stole trash? And my other self was killed for that?"

Marty Senior blushed. "Apparently, there was a secret microchip missing and they thought that it was in my trash and that I was involved" he said. "Anyway, I was trapped in 1955 and had to get my parents to fall in love with each other as my mother was infuated with me instead. I finally managed that and returned to the point in time where I belonged, where I attempted to save Emmett with a bullet-proof vest only to find that he'd decided to listen to me after all and get a vest."

"Marty always was very insistent on not changing history, but I figured that if he really wanted it, it couldn't be bad" Emmett said. "So I read the letter he wrote me, and with that, he saved my life. Up to this day, Jennifer, Emmett Junior and I have been very grateful for that."

"I can understand that" Doc Five said, giving Marty Senior Five a thankful smile. "Without Marty here, I would've died on that parking lot."

Marty Senior nodded. "Anyway, I went to the future and found out that my children were in trouble for something that involved Emmett. I picked him up from 1985 and took him to the future. We got into a complicated issue involving Biff Tannen and a sports almanac and before we knew it we were back on November twelfth, 1955 - I suppose that it might be the junction point of the entire space-time continuum - and Emmett was hit by lightning while in the truck and was sent back to 1885."

"That's what happened to most of us, too!" Doc Four exclaimed. "Did you write a letter to Marty?"

"Yeah, I did" Emmett said. "Marty had talked to me a little about what he would do if he was stuck in the past, back at Lone Pine Mall. I profited from that and followed his advice.

"I still have that letter, by the way" Marty Senior said, pulling an old, dusty letter out of his back pocket. "It reminds me of that first weekend."

"May I see it?" Doc Five asked.

Marty Senior shrugged, and handed him the letter. "Go ahead" he said.

Doc Five took a look at his other self's letter. The letter, which was relatively short compared to his own, read:

Dear Marty,

If I remember well where the truck was hit by lightning, then you should recei – recie – get this letter at the place where you are and about a minute after the lightning strike.

First of all, let me thank you for giving me this advice about writing a letter earlier on when we were still in 1985. I've remembered it well and now I'm profiting from it, apparently.

Secondly, I'm alive, living in the year 1885. The truck apparently had that on the display – you really ought to fix that glitch – and sent me here.

Initjiallie, I wanted to stay here 'cause the Old West has always been one of my favourite hysterical era's and it's freaking awesome here. However I eventually came to realise that I'd miss Jenny and the horses too much, and you of course.

Therefore I did what you said and wrote this letter, and I hid the truck in the Delgado Mine. I hope that you will find it there with help of a map that I drew to go with it.

After you fix the truck come back here as soon as possible and pick me up. I'm a blacksmith here, by the way.

Your friend in the space-time thingy,

Emmett Lathrop Brown, September 3rd, 1885.

Doc Five frowned at the amount of spelling mistakes and at what was in the letter. "You mean, you sent this letter on September 3rd?" he asked, slightly confused.

Emmett nodded. "That's what happened" he said. "The major wanted me to pick up a school teacher on the next day, but I knew I had to be home then to wait for Marty. So, while I accepted the offer, I eventually didn't go and pick her up. However, the major didn't come to complain, nor did the school teacher. Granted, I wasn't in the west for much longer after that event, but still. I would've expected that teacher to come and complain."

Doc Five smiled a little. "That teacher was my wife" he muttered. "Clara Clayton Brown. I guess that, with you already being married, it would've been a confusing situation anyway if you picked her up, but I can't believe that she died there." He looked at Clara. "You're lucky, you know. The only universe where you exist, and you get saved from falling down a cliff."

Clara blushed. "What's the name of that cliff in your reality, by the way?" she asked. "I guess that it's not Parker or Einstein, and it didn't have a name before I almost fell in."

"They gave it a name in 1887" Doc Eleven said. "They decided to name it after the ravine, so it became Eastwood Cliff - or Clayton, in the original reality."

"Don't talk about that" Clara said, putting an arm around the other version of her husband. Doc Eleven eyed his wife, Susan Clayton, nervously, and then, reassured, he smiled at Clara. "You know, even though you aren't my wife, I do feel sad about this" he said. "Knowing that your life was ended in such a way - I'd like to correct it, but I don't think that Susan would like it very much."

"Well, seeing another version of you fall in love with this Clara person would make anyone hesitant" Susan pointed out.

"True, true."

Doc Three looked at Marty Senior. "Are you going to finish your story?" he asked.

Marty Senior nodded. "Yeah, I will" he said. "Anyway, we ended up having some trouble with the flying circuits in 1885, and with the engine. Then, I came up with a plan involving some kind of a catapult. After a messy ride, we ended up back in 1985 unharmed - well, mostly - and alive."

"Sounds familiar" Marty Senior Thirteen said, glaring at Doc Thirteen, who simply smiled. "Not the catapult part, but 'a messy ride' sounds familiar. In our world, Doc tried to have the time train get up to 88 by falling off a hill."

A lot of Marty Senior's were silenced. "You're... you're kidding" Marty Senior Ten eventually said.

"I'm not" Marty Senior Thirteen responded.

"Very interesting, all of this" Doc One said, obviously wanting to help his other self, "but I think it's about time for us to depart. Three, you set the circuits, right?"

"I did" Doc Three reported. "They're ready to take us to the next world."

"All right" Doc One said. He looked at Marty Senior. "Are you ready to go to a world where you're not an inventor?"

Marty Senior shrugged. "If I have to, I'll have to" he said. "If you put your internal functions to it, you can accomplish whatever you want."

Doc One smirked. "Yeah, that's right" he said. He walked over to the front, and started up the engine. The bus, which had been simply hovering in the sky ever since they'd faced Cliff, now started up again and began to move away. Marty Junior leaned back, almost relaxed, as the bus started to accelerate faster and faster.

"Hold on, guys" Marty Senior Sixteen warned. "I've experienced it only once before by now, but apparently, time travel isn't quite the same as dimensional travel."

Marty Junior groaned a bit and held on to his seat as well as he could. The bus rapidly sped up, and he could see his father next to him calculating the speed. Faster and faster they went, and eventually, familiar flashes of light appeared and sonic booms shattered the sky. Marty Junior's last thoughts appeared in his mind. They were simple, and somewhat desperate: Will we ever make it home from this adventure again?

And then, the time bus broke the temporal and dimensional barrier, and vanished from the world of Smart Marty, leaving behind nothing but some simple fire trails as it hopped through dimensions once again.