Disclaimer: I don't own Back to the Future.
Author's Note: So this is the next chapter. Features Driff Tannen, a character I made up but who doesn't really have character traits divergent from the other Tannens besides those necessary to make him fit into the 1920s. They're Tannens, they're not all that inclined to change. It's not all that great, but I hope you'll enjoy it anyway. Feel free to add constructive criticism. Please read and review!
Chapter Twenty
Wednesday, March 24, 1920
09:05 AM PDT
Hill Valley, California
Marty sighed, as he was walking over to the Tannen house. He had no idea when Doc would come, or if Doc would even come in the near future – for all he knew, the inventor might simply stay with Clara and his supposed kids for a while once he found them, and forget about him. It didn't sound too plausible, but Marty knew there was a precedent for it – November 12th 1955, when he had been forced to wait for Doc's arrival to rescue him from the garage for hours. The inventor had eventually shown up just about a minute late.
The teen walked over to a few bushes next to the Tannen house after checking the window – he couldn't see anyone there, fortunately. He hid in the bushes and from there, he was about to start moving over to the side window when he saw Biff walk up.
The elderly bully might be in better shape than he was in 2015, the last time he saw old Biff (for Marty little over a week ago, for Biff himself almost a year ago), but he still didn't look too great. Every once in a while, he would stop to rub his leg or wince and place a hand on his shoulder. It was understandable, considering how he'd needed to run to evade Marty in the hospital. However, he did manage to walk up to the house eventually, and rang the bell.
After he and Biff had spent half a minute waiting a man opened the door, and Marty gasped. This fellow looked exactly like Biff – 1985 Biff, of course – except for a moustache. Even the guy himself was surprised at the resemblance. "Who are you?" he called out.
"Now, is that a nice way to greet your visitor?" Biff said. "You're Driff Tannen, right?"
"That's right" Driff said, twirling his moustache. "Son of Buford Tannen, fastest gun in the west. What's the matter? You family or something?"
"You could say so" Biff said cryptically. "I've got something to tell you, Driff. Can I come in?"
Driff looked skeptically. "Any reason you can't tell me on the porch?"
"It's a rather long story, and I'd prefer to sit down" Biff replied. "But don't worry. I'll be back out in just half an hour, and then you will have information you can use to become the most powerful man in Hill Valley."
Driff laughed. "And why should I believe that?" he asked.
"Isn't it worth the gamble?" Biff said. "I'm family, so why would I lie to you?"
Driff thought about that, then shook his head. "All right, come in. But I'm warning you, don't take too long. I've got a busy day ahead."
"I'll be back out before you know it" Biff said, as he followed Driff inside. Marty watched the door shut, then moved through the bushes and towards the house. He saw Driff lead Biff into the room, and winced. He had to stop Biff from giving his ancestor future information, or the world in 2016 would still be messed up.
The seventeen-year-old cautiously crept behind the bushes around the house, rapidly diving over to each one of them when he was in front of a window. By doing this several times, Marty managed to get to the back of the house, where he discovered a back door.
For a moment, Marty wondered what to do. Should he just get in, and risk being discovered by Driff and Biff – in which case his fate wouldn't be too great – or should he stay out here and wait, only to face Biff telling all the future's secrets to his ancestor? Marty shook his head. He couldn't do that.
Slowly, he crept towards the door, which was fortunately open, and headed inside. The door squeaked softly, but the occupants of the main room fortunately couldn't hear any of that, as they were engaged in a vicious debate.
"It can't be true!" Marty heard Driff calling out. "Certainly, you resemble me and you've got these real-looking future newspapers, but you can't really be from the future!"
"Haven't I shown you enough information then?" Biff called back. "Fine, here you got more! Look, a picture of my family! In color! And here's one of you, too!"
Marty heard Driff sighing. "This can't be happening" he muttered. "Why? Why did you come here?"
"Because I need to tell you something" Biff replied. "We need to work together on this. The Tannens cannot suffer the trouble they did in the original timeline."
Marty gasped softly. This was it! Biff was going to tell Driff about his future, and if they didn't stop this, all would be ruined. He needed to do something, now!
"What was that?" Driff said.
"What?" Biff replied.
"I heard something back there" Driff muttered.
Marty winced. He had been making too much noise, hadn't he? He looked around for a place to hide, and found a big cabinet right there. Smiling, he opened the doors and dived in. He, however, didn't notice the knob his hand was moving over until he'd already pressed it.
With some loud noise, the cabinet came to life. The floor fell away under Marty, and for a moment, the teen thought that he was headed for the centre of the earth, like in Doc's Jules Verne book. Then, he landed on a pillow of some sorts, and looked around to see the basement. It was hidden, and for a good reason too.
This basement contained all sorts of materials that would get Driff Tannen on a one-way track towards prison. There were bottles of booze, stored in crates going up to twenty or thirty of them each, and there were at least five crates. "And that's supposed to be a beginning alcohol dealer" Marty muttered. There were also a lot of guns, combined with automatic weapons. Marty was sure he even saw a grenade among them. There weren't as many exemplars of the guns as there were of the alcohol, but Marty could understand why Driff kept everything hidden.
As he was musing about all this, Marty heard footsteps above him in the hallway he'd just been in. "I don't know what it might have been" Driff was just muttering. "I doubt it'd be a burglar, though. No one robs Driff Tannen in Hill Valley. Nobody."
"Oh no?" Marty heard Biff's voice. "Then what's that supposed to be?"
Driff gasped. "Did I – I didn't leave that door open!" he exclaimed. "You're right, it must have been a burglar! That cabinet stores the secret passageway to my…"
"What?" Biff asked.
"Never mind" Driff replied. "You stay here. Better yet, go back to the living room. I'll be back in a second after I've investigated this mess. Then, we can talk some more about your future stuff."
Biff grumbled, but seemed to comply, and Marty heard Driff get into the cabinet. For a moment, he panicked, not knowing what to do. Then, his eye fell on one of the bottles. Smiling – it was true that one got the best plans when one was desperate – he took the bottle and aimed it.
Driff arrived on the ground a minute later. Though Marty had been prepared for his approach, he wasn't exactly prepared for the angle. Driff saw him first, and was enraged. "What the – what do you think you're doin' with my booze!" he exclaimed.
Marty tried to hit him, but missed, and narrowly managed to dodge a punch from Driff. "You know, I thought this was illegal!" he exclaimed.
"It is," Driff replied, "but you ain't gonna tell about it!" He ran towards his guns, but Marty was quicker. He took the heaviest gun and attacked Driff with it, slamming it on his head. He managed to hit Driff several times, significantly delaying his reaction to further kicks. Then, Marty slammed him in the face. The Tannen ancestor stared at him for a couple more seconds, then fell down in a deep slumber.
Marty smirked, and let go of the gun, throwing it back on the pile. "Well, I guess that solves that" he muttered. "Now, to get rid of Biff…"
"I don't think so, McFly."
Marty turned around. Approaching him with a smile on his face and one of Driff's guns in his hand was Biff Tannen. "Did you really think I was going to stay up there just because some silly ancestor of mine told me to?" he asked.
"Well, yeah" Marty replied.
"You were wrong" Biff unnecessarily informed him. "Raise your hands."
Marty blinked, but complied with the order. Biff got out some rope and started tying Marty to a soft bed in the corner of the underground cellar. The teen considered struggling, but the big gun Biff was holding made it clear that wasn't a great idea. He stayed calm, simply allowing Biff to tie him up. When he was done, the elderly bully sat down on a chair, smirking.
"Now," Biff said, "I'd like to know how you got here, McFly. Was it Brown who took you here? Could've sworn he and his family were on their own in twenty-sixteen, though. Or are you Marty Junior?"
"That's none of your business" Marty growled. "What are you doing here, anyway? What do you think you're going to achieve?"
"Power" Biff simply replied. "Once this mess is over, I'll once again kidnap your friend and get him into the Tannen family. Perhaps I'll simply take him to another time if it would be too suspicious here after the first attempt. That's so great about that time machine Brown built, McFly – you can go anywhere you want."
"Tell me about it" Marty replied. "What do you want from Doc?"
"Not from Crackpot Brown, from you as well" Biff corrected him. "I got thinking after the last time I had one of your time machines in my possession, and I figured that I made two mistakes that time. The first was that I returned the time machine to you, enabling you to use it again and undo what I did. But the more important mistake was that I left you two around at all. I shouldn't have. You two present a threat to me that I can't simply ignore. Therefore, I conducted a plan in which I would have you two incorporated into the family, and given a chance to become Tannens and share in our power and wealth. Or at least you wouldn't be threats anymore."
"Well, it backfired" Marty said, defiantly. "Because Doc got out, and we're here right now. You can't stop us, Biff."
"Oh, can't I now?" Biff said, pushing the gun under Marty's nose. "Then let me tell me you're wrong, McFly. I've planned for this. For every eventuality." Marty couldn't help but startle at the fact that he pronounced the word right. "For the Browns noticing there had been a kidnapping and tracking down their baby – I put in a replacement. Had to go back all the way to 1996, to the day little Griff was born, to do that, but it worked."
"Griff's that other baby?" Marty said, frowning.
"That's right" Biff confirmed. "He was never anything but a brat anyway, and this would be a great chance for him to be of some use to the family. Anyway, I went back and took Griff, and the Browns never would've noticed the difference if you hadn't popped up. But you know what, McFly? I counted on you two coming after me. I knew you would. I've got a back-up plan, and I'm willing to use it. And the first part is eliminating you… once I find out just how much you can tell me about what you and your friend have been up to."
"Then you'd better shoot right away" Marty said, bravely. "I'm not telling you anything. I've risked my own hide for Doc's life at least twice in the past few weeks, and I don't like doing it, but if that's the only way out, I'll do it. Doc's tried to save my life and was prepared to die himself – I'll do the same."
Biff smirked. "Old-style heroism, huh?" he said, putting the gun down to Marty's chest. "That's fine with me too, McFly."
He was about to pull the trigger when there was a rumor upstairs. "What the hell?" Biff muttered, walking over to the elevator. "Brown!"
"Doc?" Marty asked, hopefully.
"Don't be optimistic, McFly" Biff responded. "You still haven't got a chance." He pushed the knob of the elevator and moved up. Marty held his breath as a gunshot was heard.