Author's Note: Smart!Marty Chapter.

Chapter Eight

Saturday, April 2, 1988

12:06 P.M.

Hill Valley, California

As the familiar lights that were caused by the dimensional displacement cleared up again, Doc noticed the time bus was now moving at sixty-something directly towards the place the garage was supposed to be. Wondering what that building would be like in this world, the inventor didn't take the controls, but instead let the machine slowly move forwards until the building was actually reached, not noticing a lack of other buildings at the road.

What the inventor saw as he looked down, thoroughly surprised him. The garage was there, yes, but it looked like it wasn't much lived in. This definitely wasn't their world, then. What surprised the scientist even more, was the sight he saw as he followed the path that led from the garage up to the top of something that appeared to be a hill. It was all too familiar, and the thing he saw next only confirmed that.

On top of the hill, a mansion was standing, and from the sights of it, it looked exactly the same as the one that was finished seventy-six years ago, eight years before Doc's birthday. It was the building that he'd lived in as a youth, and as a grown-up, the building that he had received both of Marty's visits to 1955 in, and, eventually, the building that he had been forced to live away from since the night of August first to August second, 1962, as in that night, it had burned down after an experiment gone wrong, destroying Doctor Emmett Brown's home and a huge part of his parents' possessions in a large fire. To see it standing again was more than strange, it was probably disturbing, Doc concluded.

Marty gasped, too, at the sight of the house he'd lived in twice before. "Holy shit, the mansion's back?" he exclaimed, asking a question which he already knew the answer to, seeing it in front of his eyes. "I wonder what caused that, and why it never burned down."

Doc shrugged. "I don't know" he said. "I have to admit, it kind of puzzles me too… Great Scott!" The inventor gasped, staring at a sign in front of the mansion, and at the familiar shape of horses running around in the grass fields before and behind the house. "Marty, you probably have better eyes than I… does it really say there 'Emmett Brown's Horse Ranch?"

Marty blinked, then looked down, and nodded, astonished. "Yeah, you're right" he muttered. "It does say that. I wonder why your other self from here went into horse breeding instead of pursuing a career in science… were you ever interested in that, Doc?"

The inventor thought for a moment, then nodded. "Not that in particular, but I did like horses in the late 1920s, and I figure that, if I had never read Jules Verne at age eleven, I might have done something with that… I figure I'd try to be an animal doctor then, considering my fascination with animals around that time, and that was the closest thing to being a cowboy. I wonder why my other self, if he never read Jules Verne, didn't do that. It was what my parents would've liked me to do prior to reading Jules Verne's works, as it would be a good way to put my intelligence to use, while still doing something that I enjoyed."

Marty nodded, understanding. "Well, I'm sure we'll find out about the ranch thing once we touch down to the ground" he said, yawning, as his exhaustion came back from vanishing for a moment after seeing the weird sight down below. "We are going to stop here, aren't we? I could kill to have some sleep…" He yawned again, and looked down. "Anyway, I doubt that, with the mansion still being around, there would not be place for us inside. If your other self recognizes us as who we are, he'd be more than willing to provide us some place to sleep." He frowned. "I think."

"Yeah" Doc nodded, although not as enthusiastic. "He might be… well, I suppose he will be, but we can never be certain." He piloted the bus downwards, and softly landed in front of the mansion, careful not to hit the horses in their descend. After finishing things up with the locks, he turned to Marty. "I guess we'll both head for the door this time" he said. "I don't want to surprise my counterpart, but I'm sick of waiting behind the side wall – and I suppose you aren't really up to that, either."

Marty smiled, faintly, and nodded. "You got it, Doc" he said. "I'm kind of sick of that, right now. I just hope the other you will be able to help us this time. If you never read Jules Verne, I doubt you'd have any understanding of the technology in a regular time machine, let alone that futuristic bus." He whistled. "Y'know, I wonder if I'm even friends with you, here? In our world, you were considered kind of weird, at least, but you did care for small children like I was. I wonder how things went here."

"Let's not draw early conclusions" the inventor decided, and started walking up to the mansion, soon arriving at the porch. "We'll find out how things happened sooner or later." He rang the bell, and waited for a few seconds before turning to his friend, satisfied. "And judging from the footsteps I'm hearing, I doubt it'll be later." Marty nodded, and they both waited for the door to open.

As the door swung open, the person behind it was not the guy Doc and Marty expected. It was the local Marty McFly… with brown hair that was a complete mess, a lab coat, and protection glasses. The local let out a gasp as he saw the visitors. "Great Scott!" he exclaimed, and instantly turned to a dumbfounded visiting Marty. "Why in the name of Sir Isaac H. Newton am I seeing a person who externally appears to have the same subatomic molecular structure as I do? What happened, counterpart? An unfortunate accident with one of the temporal field warping and transportation vehicles from the times that have yet to come from the world's current perspective?"

"Um… no" Marty muttered, baffled. "Are you sure you shouldn't talk to Doc instead?"

Local Marty frowned, too. "Why are you using simplistic words?" he asked. "And aren't you a 'doc'? Doctor Martin Seamus McFly, PhD in quantum physics?"

While Doc smiled and whistled, obviously amazed at this weird change, Visiting Marty's face drained off all colour. "No" he whispered, his face going as white as a sheet. "No… no, I can't be a scientist! I was never interested in science!"

"Oh yes, you were" Local Marty argued. "On my eighth birth anniversary, my direct ancestors one generation removed gave me Jules Verne's book 'Twenty Thousand Miles Under The Sea' as a birthday present, because I had done so good in the seventh grade the past year. Once I read it, I knew I should devote my life to the wonders of science. My male ancestor one generation removed always taught me that if I put my internal functions systems to it, I could accomplish anything, and I've always held that as a truth. According to him, my supposedly incredible intelligence should not be put into unnecessary uses, but instead go to a subject in which I can fully express my full variation of utterly detailed and specialized talents."

"I got as far as the male ancestor part" Visiting Marty muttered, feeling like completely freaking out. "What's going on, here? How can you be a doctor, and be so incredibly smart? Even Doc doesn't talk in that kind of big words – and I mean Doc Brown, not me! I'm still in college, and I'm not studying science! I never wanted to be a scientist, I want to be a rock star! Don't you like music?"

Local Marty frowned. "Yes, I do appreciate the art of playing music, and I sometimes do enjoy doing so" he said. "I do have some guitar skills, apparently, but I never developed them too much. I just preferred science as a line of profession. It's not like I never was interested in music, then. You are planning to make music your line of profession? You never were even remotely interested in quantum physics?"

The teenager shook his head. "No" he said. "I understand it a little, and some things are kind of fun when you read about it, but I never really thought of it as something I could do. It's way too hard for me. I gather it isn't for you?"

The local shook his head. "No" he said, deciding to switch to some easier words for his counterpart to understand. "I always had a talent for things like that, from Kindergarten on. This is fascinating, you know. So, if you're not from the past or from the future, seeing as you appear to be the same age as I am and do not have the same intelligence, where are you from?"

Doc cleared his throat, speaking this time. "That's a good question" he said. "We're…"

Suddenly, the talk of the three people at the front door was disrupted by some loud saxophone playing. Emmett Brown entered, holding up a saxophone and playing 'Night Train' on it. He froze in his tone – literally, he made a hard chilly noise with the saxophone – as he saw the visitors standing at the door. "Holy shit!" he called out. "Marty, what went wrong with your exparements this time?"

"Experiments" the local teen corrected.

"Whatever."

Doc frowned at his other self's inability to say such a simple word the right way, then turned to both Local Marty and Doc. "I suppose there's a long explanation for this and a short one, both of which I would more than willing to give to you both, but since it'll be getting colder out here when the day passes further – believe us, we know – I'll give you the short one first: we're from another dimension, in which I invented a time bus in which we could travel through dimensions. After two visits, we tried to get home, but it failed, and we've been hopping through worlds ever since, and this is the fifth world we visit, not including a world in which we stayed no more than a few minutes, just long enough to discover that it was not home, and that something was wrong with the DFSCUPCIF – the Dimensional Flux Storage Capacitor Unit as well as Purposely Creator of an Interdimensional Field, which is what makes dimensional travel possible – and try another jump. We are really anxious to go home, as right now, it might be twelve-twenty P.M. on April second to you, it's twelve-twenty P.M. on April third to us, and I have not slept and we both have had very little food and rest since we first departed, yesterday – today, from your perspective – around this time of day, a little earlier actually."

"That was the short explanation?" Emmett quipped. "Boy, I'm not looking forwards to the long one…"

Local Marty, however, was fascinated with Doc's story, and his slate-blue eyes narrowed as he took it all in. "Different dimensions" he whispered, with awe. "Fascinating. I've done some research for it for my final exam – I did not dare to chose time travel because I did not want to either do a bad job or reveal my theories to a world that might be not ready and responsible enough for temporal field warping and transportation – but I never saw one for actual, and I never expected to encounter one either. I gather from what I've already seen that, in your world, you are the one with the greater intelligence, and my counterpart doesn't have that amount of intellect as we do?"

"That certainly appears to be right" Doc says, nodding enthusiastically. "Well, um… can we come in, now? I'm beginning to get rather tired from standing out here, and I suppose Marty is, too. We haven't slept for some time, now, and standing on our feet would, while keep us awake, not be really gentle to our systems."

"Um… be my guest" Emmett offered, baffled at the whole situation. "Come in, seat yourself." He looked at Doc. "Do you have a mansion, too, where you, uh, where you come from?"

"Yes, I do" Doc said, nodding. "It did burn down quite some time ago, though. In 1962. It happened because of a science experiment gone wrong. I guess that, since you never got interested in science, you never had that experiment, so the mansion never burned down. This is actually fascinating, when you think of it. I wonder what kind of changes are there all, between our worlds. Were you still born on March twenty-third, 1920, to Friedrich Von Braun and Sarah Anna Lathrop?"

Emmett nodded, as the two walked into the hallway, the Marty's following. "Weird" he muttered. "I wonder why that's the same, and so much else was different. Did you read Jules Verne, like my Marty did?"

Doc nodded. "In 1931" he said. "Once reading that, I knew I had to devote my life to science, based on my intelligence and my interest."

"I guess there we find the change" Local Marty said. "Our Emmett, 'Doc' as you two call him, was never recognized as being intelligent, and he simply didn't have any interest for the subject beyond liking it as a school subject. He read the book, thought it was good, put it on the shelves, read it once or twice in a year, but nothing more than that."

"Fascinating difference" Doc said, nodding.

"I completely agree with you on this subject."

For a moment, it was silent, and then, all of the four started laughing. "I guess I'm sort of your interdimensional counterpart, and your Marty is Doc's" Visiting Marty said, chuckling. "It's weird how the roles are swapped around this time. We didn't see anything like that in the previous dimensions."

"It does make me feel a little sad" Local Marty said, sighing. "It also might imply that I'm unique, of course, but still… it's weird to be the only Marty in the multi-universe who has an IQ above 200."

Doc and Visiting Marty gasped. "Serious?" Visiting Marty asked, shocked. "Man, even my Doc doesn't come above 190…"

"Maybe we aren't equals in intelligence after all" Local Marty smirked. "I'm 208. First tested five years ago, and it's been that way ever since. I did learn more information, though, in the meantime – but this is about the capabilities of your brain, not about what you all know."

"I guess so" Visiting Marty muttered, as he arrived in the main room. He then looked around, stunned. "Whoa!" he exclaimed. "It's been so long, since I last was here, back in 1955. This really is weird, being in Doc's old mansion again. It's like déjà vu in the truest sense."

"You were in 1955, too?" Local Marty asked, somewhat surprised, as they all sat down. "I kind of wondered if that still had happened to you, since you seem to be so different, overall. Well, I guess there are still similarities, and this happens to be one of them. I gather that, in your world, you were not the one to invent the original version of the temporal field warping and transportation vehicle… the time machine?"

"No, I wasn't" Visiting Marty said, fascinated. "I still can't believe you were. I never was the one to invent – but I guess you are. How did you come up with the time machine idea, anyway? In our universe, it was on November fifth, 1955, when Doc slipped on his toilet edge, which was wet, as he was standing on there hanging a clock. He hit his head on the sink, and that was how he came up with the idea for the flux capacitor, which was what made time travel possible. It did take him thirty years and his entire family fortune to get it working, though, as he didn't unveil the time machine to me until October twenty-sixth, 1985."

"I had it ready on June twenty-third of that year, though" Doc protested.

"Which is still over twenty-nine-and-a-half years, which seems pretty long to me" Visiting Marty said back. He then frowned, as he realized something, and looked at Local Marty. "Especially since you were, if it's the same between our worlds and it should be as you don't look to be older or younger, born on June ninth, 1968… and had, from your birth on, just twenty years to get the time machine to work…"

Local Marty shook his head. "It didn't take me that long" he corrected. "I came up with the idea for the flux capacitor, and thereby time travel, on March seventh 1978. I was a nine-year-old eighth grader around that time, and I was fascinated by the many experimenting possibilities my chemistry set had. I was working out in Doc's garage at something, when I accidentally dropped some water/soap mix and slipped on that. I hit my head against the workbench and was out of it for four hours. I dreamt of glowing Y's flying through my head, and when I woke up, all I could see was an 'Y', and I knew what it meant and why this could realize time travel, so I tried to make calculations right away. I then had to face Emmett, though, who thought that I was going insane, getting up to my feet so soon after being knocked out. I told him that I had an idea, but I didn't tell him what I knew, yet. I spent the next weeks working on that idea, and in mid-April, I had a pretty solid idea of what to do. It took me another seven-and-a-half years, though, before I could make my vision a reality."

"Fascinating" Doc muttered. "It actually took you just seven-and-a-half years to build your time machine? You are a genius!"

Local Marty blushed. "I suppose" he said, smiling. "Anyway, I finished my time machine in April 1985, and then, I started working on a clean energy source to fuel it. I finished a clean Fusion reactor in October. It needed an awful lot of trash to work, two garbage cans for one trip, but it worked, at least."

Doc blushed. "I actually used plutonium" he said. "I considered fusion, but I knew I had the deadline of October twenty-sixth to reach and I didn't have enough time or money to spend on Fusion power. Therefore, I got some plutonium from Libyan terrorists, who asked me to build a bomb, and gave them a bomb of pinball machine parts. That didn't end up well, though – they showed up at the experiment, killed me, and Marty fled in the DeLorean and travelled back to the day I first came up with the flux capacitor in the first place. He eventually managed to get me safe, but it was a close call."

"That sounds familiar, but I'll explain the details later" Local Marty said, grinning. "Anyway, three days after installing my reactor, on October twenty-fifth, I invited Emmett to come over to Twin Pines Mall to test out my machine. That night, I showed to him the time machine, at world's first time travel experiment, which, like yours, went drastically wrong…"

"Did some Libyans show up?" Visiting Marty guessed.

"No, government agents" Marty explained. "To keep a long story short, they tried to shoot me for stealing some garbage from other people to use in my fusion reactor, but Emmett jumped in front of me and caught the bullet. I headed back to 1955, at that point, saw my teenaged male ancestor one time removed, and helped carry his weight into the house with my male ancestor through maternal line of ancestry twice removed, a male unit known as Samuel Baines. Unfortunately, my female ancestor once…"

"Could you shut up with the ancestors?" Visiting Marty said, annoyed.

Smart Marty blushed. "Sorry" he apologized. "I was just getting excited, I suppose. Anyway, my female parent was amorously infuated with me, although I didn't realize it, and once I'd headed to Emmett's home and had convinced him I was a temporal traveller, we found out as I was showing him some family pictures that evening. We then headed over to try to get my parents to fall in love with each other."

"Tough job, right?" Visiting Marty said, remembering his own version.

Local Marty nodded, and started telling about what all had happened. About having met up with George McFly that Monday, whom had been sent home after having recovered. He was in love with Lorraine, but didn't want to date her as he knew that she loved Marty instead. Finally, Marty had gotten himself be asked out by Lorraine, and had come up with nearly a similar plan to what he did with George in his world, which was worked out on the evening of the twelfth. So, Marty then headed over to the Square, and worked on connecting the cables.

"So, anyway," Marty continued, "it was nine-fifty P.M. when I had finished up all the cables, after twenty minutes work. I then headed over to the DeLorean, and instructed Emmett what to do. Once more, I tried to convince him that, this time, we shouldn't go as tight on the rules I'd made up for time travel and that he should let me tell him about the future. He didn't agree, though, and had found the letter then, and tore it up. At that moment, a lightning bolt hit, and I decided to go back to the DeLorean and drive backwards, convinced that I should go to midnight instead so that I could bring my friend into safety. After I arrived at the spot I had to be at, I got the pole up and then, I reset the time circuits to October twenty-sixth at…"

Suddenly, he looked up, distracted by an annoying snoring noise. Visiting Marty, sitting on the bench, had fallen asleep.

Local Marty gasped. "What happened?" he asked Doc. "Why did my other self faint?"

"I guess he was tired" Doc said. "It's been over twenty-four hours for us – he should better go to bed, now. You can keep telling your story."

"No way" Emmett said. "You're going to bed, too – you're obviously exhausted. I have place enough for you, and I trust Marty to take care of the bus by himself. Don't worry – I will make sure that he won't try to rebuild your bus into a robot or something like that."

Doc gave him a faint smile. "I'm sure he won't do that" he said, confidently.

Local Marty blushed. "Not immediately, no…"

"Marty!"

Emmett chuckled, slightly, at his friend's all-too-familiar kind of fascination with science, that didn't exist in the worlds around them. "Anyway, you can go to bed, now."

"Thanks" Doc said. "I guess it is time for me to go to sleep, now… and it definitely won't be easy to wake my Marty up." He yawned, for the first time in hours not trying to resist it. "Where is the guest bedroom? Still on the first floor, third door on the right, I take it?"

Emmett nodded. "I suppose things haven't changed too much since when you've last been here" he said. "Don't you live here? Were our differences enough to make you not, you know, get the mansion from your folks?"

"Oh, I inherited it all right" Doc said. "I lost it later, though, when it burnt down on August first 1962. That wasn't the nicest day of my history, I can assure you."

"I suppose" Emmett muttered, feeling bad for his other self. "How did it burn down? It never happened here…"

"The reasons for that are quite logical – for me, at least" Doc said. "I was experimenting… not exparementing, Emmett… in the basement, and some of my chemical liquids caught fire that night. I woke up to see the house burning around me. Seeing as that work was related to the time machine, specifically to alternate ways to generate the necessary amount of electric energy needed, and I am not an inventor in here… you can see the solution, right?"

Emmett nodded. "Yeah, I suppose I do" he muttered. "This is kind of mind-wracking, though. You're lucky it's just two-fifteen P.M., or I might've fallen asleep at your smallish speech. I'm not too good in listening to them."

"Like you evidenced back in 1955, on the night we first met" Local Marty said, grinning.

Emmett blushed. "I don't really like being remembered of that" he said. "It was way too freaky to have a friend for a week, who treated you as a friend but who you'd never seen before, and then have him disappear. Some times, I thought I dreamed it all, but when I asked George and Lorraine about 'Clint', I heard them recall fond memories."

"?" Doc asked, amused. "As in Clint Eastwood?"

"That's the guy" Emmett confirmed. "That was the alias my Marty used, back in the fifties. Clint Martin Eastwood… he'd already fibbed the 'Marty' at his grandparents' house. He came up with it staring at my ideas for the new ranch, and when we looked a fifties western movie together, on the first Sunday. Didn't your Marty call himself that?"

"No, but his first contact with his parents was different" Doc said. "My Marty did push George away from the car, and woke up to a teenaged Lorraine who had, obviously infuated with him, taken off his pants and checked the name of his underwear. Since the brand was 'Calvin Klein', Lorraine assumed that was Marty's name. He did tell the 'Marty', later on, so 'Calvin Martin Klein' it became."

Emmett nodded. "I see" he muttered. "Weird to learn about your altered kind of history, though." He looked up the stairs. "Well, good night. There should be some pyjama's in the cabinet next to the bed."

Doc smiled. "Thanks, Emmett." He then headed up the stairs, and soon arrived at the bedroom.

The inventor changed into the pyjama's, which luckily were his size, and then lied down. Oh, wonderful… And within just moments, he was sound asleep.

oooooooo

Smart Marty grinned broadly, as he and Emmett walked over to the bus. "A time machine" he whispered. "And alternate counterpart of a time machine. Wonderful." He almost drooled looking at it. "I can't believe that your other self was the one to invent it, but it's actually true."

"Should I take that as an insult?" Emmett said, frowning. "What did you need me for, anyway? Seems to me that you can figure out how it works yourself just fine – you never had trouble with that before."

"It's not that" Marty assured him. "You're perfectly right – I'll be able to figure out how the systems in here work just fine. Too bad that the DeLorean is being worked on, now… I'd love to be able to take this thing apart and have a look, while still having an available time machine around, to possibly bring future technology to help. Maybe Clara will want to see this machine, too. She's always been amazed with the DeLorean, and that one wasn't as complicated as this one obviously is… however I've been considering adding some voice-control, which Doc told me about in the hallway."

"Then what is what you need me for?" Emmett asked, realizing Marty was once more getting off the subject.

To tell him what, Marty pressed his thumb to the plate, which immediately flashed red. "See?" he asked. "I'm not cleared to access the time machine. You'll have to go through the procedure in order to let me in. We could perhaps, once we're inside, make the time machine able to get commands from me, too, but maybe that'd bring your other self in trouble, if my other self tries to get away with the machine. Great Scott, it's abnormal that you're the intellectual one there!"

"I feel pretty bad, too" Emmett said, as he did what Marty had requested and pressed his thumb to the plate, which flashed green, but did nothing. "To see how smart I could've been… hey, why isn't the door opening?"

Marty frowned. "It should open, now" he said. "Doc gave me a key, but I don't think that'll help more, as this machine doesn't have a normal lock." He dug the key out of his pocket, and waved it around in front of the machine. "So, maybe we'll have to request… Great Scott!"

Marty looked at the thumbpad, shocked. As he waved the key before it, it suddenly changed to form a hole in the form of a lock. As he'd calmed down, his eyes went wide. "Great Scott" he whispered, grinning excitedly, all his scientific interest coming aboard. "Fascinating! I wonder how it's designed, I wonder how it works, and where it goes? Maybe I can somehow have a look at the inside, I…"

"Marty?" Emmett said, cutting his friend off from going into lecture mode. "Just open it up."

Marty blushed, and then had Emmett press his thumb to the plate, firmly. Within moments, it opened up, easily. "Finally" the teenager muttered, annoyed, and then, he rushed inside.

The nineteen-year-old gawked as he looked around at the impressive interior of the train. "Whoa" he muttered. "This is fascinating. I wonder how it's built."

"Marty…"

"I know, I know." The teenager looked at the time circuits, and almost drooled as he saw the many possibilities. "Look at the displays! There are lots more than in the truck I built… Destination Location, and Destination Dimension, with matching Present and Last Time Departed ones… there's also a map, look! With blips of where we are. And what's that in the corner? 'EJ 57 Hill Valley, Calfornia, United States of America, April 2, 1988, two-forty-seven P.M'… fascinating. The only thing that is wrong is the dimensional code, which is exactly what needs fixing. But the overall is working perfectly fine… look at those 'security' displays – one for each area of the bus! DFSCUPCIF… the flux capacitor of this time machine… control circuits, hover system, map system. I should install this in the temporal field warping and transportation truck too, don't you think, Emmett?"

"Yeah, sure" Emmett said, looking around a bit weirded out. "I do wonder one thing, though – I don't see a switch anywhere. How are you supposed to turn on the time circuits?"

He'd barely finished his line when the time circuits sprung to life, filling themselves with information in green, red and yellow. Emmett jumped back, startled, but Marty was thrilled. "Voice-ID!" he called out, astonished. "Actual voice-ID… I have seen things like that in the future, but I never considered installing it. It would come in handy, though." He looked at the circuitry. "Let's see… computer, can you show me the inside of the DFSCUPCIF for closer investigation?"

A red sign flashed immediately on the 'DFSCUPCIF' unit, and a loud alarm sounded for three seconds. Then, the computer calmly said: "No authority. Martin Seamus McFly, aged 19 years, 9 months, 24 days, 22 hours, 34 minutes, does not have proper authority to access the internal functions of this time vehicle. You are friendly asked to remove you from the screen device and not try to access internal functions again."

"Too bad" Emmett said. "So, what now? If you can't get in…"

"I wouldn't be too sure of that" Marty said, getting an idea. "Computer, who has the abilities to give me access to the internal functions?"

"Doctor Emmett Lathrop Brown, PhD" the computer immediately replied.

Marty nodded, then looked at Emmett, a smirk on his face. "Well, Emmett?" he said. "It was you who said before that we shouldn't wake our guest, so I suppose that another version of the person who is needed in order for access to the internal functions will qualify as well."

It took a moment for Emmett to register that – when he did, he shook his head firmly. "Oh, no" he said, shaking his head. "I'm not going to do that. I don't know how it works – I'm not a technician like my other self! Maybe we should wait 'till he wakes up on his own, y'know…"

Marty shook his head immediately. "Out of the question" he said, firmly. "Not only would such an act do us no good, since it would be a pure waste of time, I also didn't come here for nothing. Come on, Emmett. Help me with this."

The not-inventor sighed and stepped forwards. "Um, give Martin Seamus McFly access to the internal function thingies for at least sixteen hours" he said, nervously.

Luckily, his request was immediately followed. "Martin Seamus McFly, push hand to the plate to the right and say a random word."

"Flux" Marty said, pushing his hand to said plate.

"Voice recognized" the computer pleasantly announced. "Martin McFly is now able to access computer functions up until April third, 1988, at 6:55 A.M."

"Good" Marty said, happily smiling. "I repeat: access internal functions."

This time, the DFSCUPCIF appeared on the screen, most likely due to Marty already having clarified what he was looking for before Emmett cleared him. "DFSCUPCIF being projected" the machine announced. "Possibilities to zoom in by 'positive' and 'negative' buttons on side of projection screen."

Marty nodded thoughtfully, then turned to his buddy. "You can go, Emmett" he said. "I don't need you for now."

The horse dealer smiled, glad to get away from it all. "Yeah, it's best to go see my wife" he said, smiling, referring to Jennifer Clayton, a young woman in her late forties whom he'd married by now. "Can't let her waiting." He smiled, and exited.

Marty, in the meantime, focused on the display. "Something is inside there" he muttered to himself. "Something that is not right. And even if those alternate, smart versions of Emmett didn't find it, I am determined to do just that!"

* * * *

The work on the display took, as expected, a long time. A lunch arrived at six, with the arrival of Clara Parker, Marty's fiancée. They had a look together at the circuits, and at the sleeping visitors in the guest rooms of the mansion. Clara left again at seven-thirty, leaving the young scientist and his friend alone, and at ten-fifty, Emmett arrived to tell he was turning in, too. He gave the system a look.

"Did you find anything yet?"

Marty shook his head, yawning. "But I will find it" he said, determined. "I won't give up – there's no reason I should, since the others are still asleep and not up to leaving yet. I will find this thing. Don't worry – I've pulled an all-nighter before."

"I'm not worried about you" Emmett said, smirking. "I'm worried the machine is going to end total-loss by tomorrow morning."

Marty shot him a look. "Gimme a break, Emmett."

The horse dealer smirked, and headed off again, leaving Marty at the system. The moon rose up in the sky, and the turn of midnight arrived, with Marty still working. Finally, at two-thirty, he found the answer that the others had so long worked for to find. Over the next hour, he did various tests to confirm his insecure answer, and they were all right.

"It works" he whispered. "I found it!"

And then, a cry of happiness raced through JFK Drive.

* * * *

Doctor Emmett Brown, visiting version, yawned, as he opened his eyes. Where was he? The surroundings looked very unfamiliar to him.

As he looked around for just a few moments, he remembered. The dimensional hopping that had gone all too wrong and had sent Marty and himself to various different dimensions. He also remembered that now, they were stranded in a world which had Marty and his roles being reversed. Amazing.

The inventor then looked over at the clock, and gasped. It was 6:12 AM! Making sure he didn't look at a non-functioning clock, he checked it with his own watch – no, the time was six-twelve A.M. all right. Which meant that he had slept for over fifteen-and-a-half hours.

The sixty-five-year-old jumped up, and then first fully realized how he felt. Fresh. Energetic. More awake than he'd ever done in ages. Smiling, he looked at himself in the mirror, and noticed the signs of exhaustion were gone. Maybe it wasn't too bad that they had let him sleep for that long, after all.

He walked out of the room, only to face his other self, who let out a high-pitched scream and stepped back. "Whoa!" Emmett called out, startled. "This is heavy!"

If Doc had dismissed the events of yesterday as a dream, this would've proved it to him, along with the white hair that was neat instead of all through each other like Doc's. He smiled faintly. "Didn't expect me to be up yet?" he asked, some anger in his voice, though. Even though he had been very exhausted, his counterpart or the other Marty should've woken him up around three A.M. already. He didn't want to waste too much time at this.

"That's right" Emmett confirmed. "We expected you to sleep until seven at least, as you'd be woken at the sight of the risen sun through the curtains, which we purposely left closed in the night, hoping that you'd be able to sleep even longer than that."

"Well, I'm up now" Doc said. "And I'm freshly awake. Although I think you should've woken me up earlier. What about Marty, is he around and up yet?"

"Your Marty is, as far as I know, sound asleep" Emmett said. "Mine is a different case, though. He has been up the entire night, which more than I can say for myself, having woken up at five A.M. Marty has gone off to the local electronics store to get some tools you can take along on your trip, as we don't have enough time to devote on fixing the problem."

Doc blinked for a moment. "You mean, you know what the problem is?" he said, not really believing it.

Emmett nodded, however, confirming it. "Yes, we do" he said. "Marty does, at least – I still can't grasp it. He found it last night, at around two-thirty, but didn't really dare to believe in it until three-thirty. His yell of happiness could've woken up you along with the entire neighbourhood, but luckily it didn't."

"Unfortunately, I would say" Doc said. "So, at least there's one positive thing to add to the whole night – the problem is finally found."

"Really?"

Doc and Emmett turned around to see Visiting Marty standing in the doorway of his room, yawning. "I just woke up from you talking" he explained. "What's going on, Doc? Either of you?"

"The other Marty has apparently found the key to the problem we're dealing with" Doc said. "I'm kind of curious what it is, but I don't know yet, as he's currently to the electronics store and Emmett here doesn't even know how the DFSCUPCIF normally works, let alone what's wrong with it now."

"That's right" Emmett confirmed.

"Weird" Marty muttered. "This is such a strange world."

At that moment, the obvious noise of the truck both Marty's owned could be heard. The three in the house sped down, Emmett going last, as Doc was curious about the new idea of how to fix the machine, and Marty because he was curious about how his truck would look if it was owned by a time-travelling science fan like his other self was.

Local Marty opened the door just as Visiting Marty wanted to open it, causing the two to collide and drop to the floor. The local teen grinned. "Well, it's kind of obvious to see that you have left your period of unconsciousness behind yourself, now!"

"Yeah, right" the visitor muttered, looking eagerly behind his other self. "Um… what all did you manage to do to the truck a few years ago? It looks different."

And the truck did indeed look different. As it was now raining, Visiting Marty could see a windshield was covering the truck so it would remain dry. The visiting inventor figured that was to help the temporal displacement as the truck was one solid object with a solid surface. The teen in the meantime also noticed a Mr. Fusion on top, and a few objects on the back that were obviously from the future. Also, the truck was hovering half a feet above the ground, making clear that it could fly, like Doc's bus, DeLorean and train could, too. This was all the more evidence for Visiting Marty that his other self really was a scientist.

Local Marty smiled. "Oh, nothing really big" he said. "Nothing big from the outside, at least. Once you get to the inside, it's really changed. The entire dashboard has formed a temporal displacement system. Part of it is still being worked on, though, as I'm inserting a map system. In the meantime, I can just move it as an ordinary flying car – not that flying cars are normal in the 1980s, but they will be, eventually, as I don't doubt you have observed yourself on your trip to 2015 along with your girlfriend and your Emmett, whom you call Doc." He then remembered something, and opened the door. "There's somebody I'd like you to meet" he said, with a smug grin, as a brunette girl who resembled Jennifer stepped out. "Meet Clara Parker, my fiancée."

Visiting Marty gasped, stunned. She looked so much like his fiancée that the resemblance was unnerving, but he could obviously see an intelligent look in her face, and some shades in her hair that were lighter than his Jennifer's. "I'm Marty" he said, sticking out his hand. "Well, I suppose you already know… and know me. But I don't know you, so I'll just say 'Pleased to meet you'." He smiled apologetically.

"It's fine" Clara said, smiling. "I can understand how it feels to be put into such an uncertain situation. I had a hard time myself when I first arrived in 1985 and had to adapt to this era. Luckily, Marty and Emmett both helped me rather much."

Visiting Marty blinked. "You're not from the eighties?" he said. "You don't appear to be anything but an 80's girl…" Doc nodded in agreement. "I, too, didn't expect that" he said, frowning. "If you're not from 1988, where are you from?"

"Clara turned to her fiancée, smiling a bit scolding. "You didn't tell them, honey?" she said. "I figured you would've, considering how you love telling the tale… an adapted version of it set in the 1980s, at least…to everyone who wants to hear it, or not. Your parents even say you've told it them a dozen times and they almost know every sentence out of their head by now."

Local Marty chuckled. "It's natural for someone to love telling the tale of how he or she met his or her partner who he or she is romantically infuated with. And I forgot to tell because my other self fell asleep as soon as I had finished the tale of my first trip to 1955. But, anyway, I'll tell you. Clara here lived originally in 1885. She was supposed to die from going over the edge of a cliff. In the previous timeline, that cliff was called Parker Cliff."

Marty gasped. "That sounds very familiar" he said. "Doc's wife, Clara Clayton, went over a cliff too, into a ravine. That ravine was later called Clayton Ravine – and it still would've, hadn't we saved her life. It's now called Eastwood Ravine, because I raced up to 88 to get out of 1885 and the train that pushed me up fell into the ravine, and I had taken the alias of Clint Eastwood… let's just say it's a long story."

Local Marty smiled. "Yeah, I can understand that." His smile then changed into a frown. "Wait a moment… Clayton Ravine? We still have that outside of town! Parker Cliff is in fact a huge cliff that towers over the ravine. I went by the alias of Albert Einstein when I was in that year, so the cliff is now called Einstein Cliff. I was supposed to fall into it when being shot off with a catapult that would help me pick up speed up to eighty-eight when dropping… let's just say that this, too, is a long story."

Doc Brown then looked at Local Marty, and pointed towards the bus. "What did you do?" he asked. "My counterpart told me that you figured out the source of our problem last night."

Local Marty nodded, pointing to a bag that was still inside the truck. "Tools that should be able to help you fix it are in there" he said. "There's just present-day tools, though, so for the actual replacement, you should go to the future, as the DFSCUPCIF obviously won't be fixed otherwise without taking away the casing, opening it, and replacing almost all of the parts, which no doubt would take a month to fix, if not more. Even for me it would be two weeks at the very least."

Doc sighed. "Well, I guess we'll keep on hopping, then" he said. "But, what I wanted to ask you… what was the source? It can't be too obvious, or we would have found it much earlier. Also, all of the screens said that things were all right. I'm kind of confused what happened, to be honest."

"Oh, I would be, too" Local Marty said. "But everything will clear up to you in just a few minutes, and then you'll call yourself stupid that you didn't think of that earlier… and promise me, don't hit yourself because of what you assume was dumbness because you didn't figure out what I did, after half a day of devoted puzzling."

"I won't" Doc said, following the teenager towards the bus. "But I can't help but feel silly already, since you did find it and I didn't. I can't help but think of you as the musician who doesn't understand my talking about technical things in the slightest, and seeing you different from that is a whole new experience."

Local Marty nodded. "I understand" he said. "For me it's the same, but then in reverse, of course – I'm thinking of you as Emmett, who doesn't have the same brightness as you do. While my IQ is higher than yours, you're still a lot smarter than he is. I wonder how that happened…"

"Trust me, um, Smart Marty, I'm thinking exactly the same" Doc said, sighing. "Well, I'm guessing that we'll never find that out, so it's better to focus on the present."

They had arrived in the bus, where Emmett volunteered to stay out and keep guard to see if nobody was coming, as a flying, futuristic bus wasn't what everyone in 1988 would expect, no matter how scientific Local Marty was. Visiting Marty agreed to come in, though, to the surprise of Doc, who had expected him to stay out. When asked about it, his friend had shrugged and said: "This is supposed to help us go home, so I wanna be around right away. Also, I'm kind of curious to see what caused us to hop so much times… as long as my counterpart can keep it in English." Doc could understood that, and with that, the matter was closed.

As both Marty's and Doc had entered, Local Marty stepped over to the controls. "Time circuits on" he ordered. "Display DFSCUPCIF functions."

There was a slight beep, and then the circuits turned on, and a computerized voice said: "Good morning, Mr. McFly. Your authorization to access these functions last for another 17 minutes and 45 seconds as of present." An image of the DFSCUPCIF's cross section then appeared on the screen, all glowing green as reported working.

Marty looked proud at Doc, who frowned. "I don't get the change" he said. "Everything is still reported working fine, but you said we still have to fix the problem?"

Local Marty smiled. "Oh, watch this" he said. He then zoomed in on a particular section of the DFSCUPCIF, and pointed at the screen. "Tell me what that is."

"The fusion controller" Doc said, a bit perplexed. "I don't see the problem – it appears to be working fine, and it should! I already made it in 1985, or in fact, in 2015, put it in the DeLorean, salvaged it from the wreckage, and later, I put it in the bus. What's wrong with it?"

"It's three years plus seventy years in the mine is seventy-three years old" Visiting Marty now realized. "Wait a sec… I think my other self means that it's so old, so it might not be working too well anymore!"

"That's right" Local Marty said. "Pressure on the DFSCUPCIF caused the middle part to break, and there are smallish glitches, so the Fusion energy was not controlled. When you brought in a load of energy, it overloaded easily. 4.84 gigawatt's were let through into the operating system instead of 2.42. Luckily the main capacitor only needed 2.42 to function and could not absorb those other gigawatt's. So, it found the nearest connection, which led straight towards the Destination Dimension control and destroyed it, leaving no glitch of the wires complete. Therefore, the destinations could no longer be controlled and you started hopping randomly throughout the space-time continuums. Also, the only messages that were given were 'all right' from the Present and Last Departed functions, so that's why you got a green." He turned to the controls. "Display messages of past transitions, starting on the first trip leaving the home universe."

Doc looked on, astonished, as the display revealed it's information. The first transition was completely fine and had gone without a glitch, or so the Destination Dimension controls had reported. The second, that brought the time machine to the universe in which Marty had been trapped in the 1950s permanently, was also fine. The third, however, was no longer there, and why the futuristic computer hadn't sensed that as 'wrong', Doc didn't get, but it hadn't, and all of the message boxes after that had been empty, and recorded as the usual 'no news is good news' thing. Once home, Doc vowed to himself, he was going to have a serious look at this stupid thing.

He then looked at Local Marty, and smiled faintly. "I knew something was going on" he muttered. "So this was it, all the time. An error in the Fusion control caused the Destination Dimension control to completely break down… well, I guess that, upon reloading, we have to be really careful to do no more than the 2.42, or more displays might be damaged." He groaned. "I wish I had something to make sure that there is no more trash than necessary… but even this computer can't record the readings that precise."

Local Marty grinned. "I might have exactly what you are looking for" he said, disappearing into the house. Soon, he came back, carrying a box. "This box is suited to include no more trash than 2.42 gigawatt's" he said. "I got the information for it from 2045. It's kind of weird-looking, I know, but this is what you need, I presume, so I suppose it doesn't matter that much if it's stupid-looking. Anyway, with this box on you when you go looking for trash, things should be all right." He looked up at the bus. "Too bad that you are leaving soon, though. It's fascinating, having someone who looks like me but is not matched in intelligence, as well as someone who looks like a person I know that is in intelligence my inferior, but is brighter in another reality."

"Yeah, that's right" Doc said, nodding enthusiastically. "It's strange to see you as brighter than myself. Not that Marty was not intelligent, he's been brighter than I expect and that he admits sometimes, but still, I wouldn't have expected him to do the things I've seen you do. It's fascinating." He looked at the clock, which reported the time as six-thirty-six A.M., and then at the bus. "We don't have to leave right away, though. We can hang around a bit."

"Doc!" Visiting Marty protested.

"Aren't you hungry?" the visiting scientist argued. "If I'm allowed, I'd like to join you for breakfast… we can pay you, of course, but anyhow, I'd like to be prepared once I go on one more journey through interdimensional space, which has become all but unavoidable now. It's too bad, though, that we no longer have the hope that this problem will fix itself on it's own. If it's really sending us to random dimensions, well, then we can be stuck hopping through dimensions for days."

"Weeks" Visiting Marty said, pessimistic.

"Months" Local Marty agreed.

"Years" Emmett, who peeked inside, said, not really knowing what it was all about but at least getting the gist of it.

"I'd say 'centuries' but that is getting way too depressing in my book" Doc said. "Anyway, we should be able to find a dimension with a version of me… or you, of course… that is able to help us sooner than we can find home, and if we land up in a dimension like that, the local could help us get home, which is more than we could do when hanging around here. I think that, once breakfast is served, and if Emmett would like to introduce his wife or whatever he has to us, maybe my Marty and I could leave around nine-thirty?"

"Sounds like a deal" Emmett agreed. "I have to call my wife, first, though. She's currently visiting some relatives in Sacramento, and should come home around ten after shopping first. I'll tell her to take an earlier bus – shopping can always be done later, but alternative visitors, well, we don't have them every day, even with a science nut like my Marty around to conduct experiments which blow up the entire garage, if it stays to that." He smiled at Doc. "I'm kind of glad my mansion hasn't burned down yet, like yours has. That would've definitely been a possibility, with Marty's chemical potions around in the basement… I'm glad I encouraged him to mostly experiment in the garage lab. If fire breaks out there, at least then the damage would be limited."

"That's right" Doc nodded. He then frowned. "Do you have a wife? I suppose you didn't meet her in 1885, then, if Marty was the one to meet his future spouse there…" He winced, uncomfortable at, after seeing Julia, meeting yet another woman he might have met but never did. Granted, most of the wives he'd seen had been Clara's so far, but things might change from that pattern later. And seeing at how different he was here, what kind of woman would his local spouse be? He hoped that she'd be nice, at least.

Emmett nodded. "That's right" he said. "My wife is Jennifer Suzy Clayton, born June eleventh, 1933. I met her in 1962, and we married soon afterwards. It did take a while for us to get kids, though – Emmett Junior wasn't born until 1967, and it took 'till 1970 for Clara to come around. In 1972, we finally had our third child, whom I named Martin George Brown, after Marty and his Dad, y'know."

Doc smiled amused. "I have a son named Martin too" he told his other self. "His name is Martin Socrates Brown, though, born November twelfth, 1986… he's our third child, too. We only have boys, though. I wonder if the fact that you had the abilities of getting a female descendant means that I do, too?"

"Um, yeah, I suppose" Emmett muttered.

Local Marty coughed, getting the attention of the two versions of Emmett Brown, so similar yet so different. "Shall we head into the mansion, now?" he suggested. "It's about time, I suppose, for us to seat and prepare the morning eatable products?"

"Breakfast" Doc translated to Visiting Marty. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Then Emmett can call his wife. I'm very curious about what kind of spouse he could have… I hope she's nice, at least."

"She's wonderful" Emmett assured his other self. "Trust me, everything will be fine. Jennifer will be excited at the idea of meeting another version of me, and even the fact that you and her other self aren't dating won't ruin the fun she'll have with it. In fact, she'll probably slap me for not telling her earlier… but, well, I didn't really want to ruin her entire trip. Then again – Sacramento can be redone, but I have no idea when, or if, you'll ever come back."

"I would like to come back, I think" Visiting Marty said, softly.

Doc gasped. "Marty, what happened?" he asked, jokingly. "Did you get possessed by a ghost or something while you were asleep? Where's the real Marty, who wants to go home at all costs? Did you kidnap him?"

Everyone chuckled, even Marty himself, knowing that the comment wasn't meant seriously. "I'm still the same person, Doc" he assured his friend. "But after having a long rest, I think I'm beginning to see your point. It is rather cool to visit other dimensions, and I think I'd like to come back here… as long as you will assure me that the dimensional circuits won't break down on us again."

"Promise" Doc said, smiling. "I know that you want to go home, and even I am beginning to get sick of hopping around – that's why we needed our rest. So, if – no, when we get home, we'll definitely try this again – once I have fixed that machine for once and for all!"

That was met with a lot of agreement from the others. "But first, we'll have breakfast" Emmett reminded him. "No man can work on an empty stomach, after all, even though I've seen Marty try to do so more than once… and I think that you, uh, Doc, have tried that too."

Doc blushed, nodding, as they all walked into the house. "Yes" he said. "I have. But right now, it's not important. We've got to go home – we've all got missions to accomplish."

And of that, nobody disagreed with.

oooooooo

It took some time for Local Marty and Doc together to make breakfast ready without blowing up the entire kitchen, and in the meantime, Emmett showed Visiting Marty around the farm. The teenager was fascinated at the profession that the other version of his best friend practiced, and looked around with awe. Finally, they headed back into the house, at seven-fifteen, where Marty and Doc had just finished making breakfast. The four of them ate, and around eight-thirty, when Local Marty had just finished the tale of how he had been trapped in 1885, when Jennifer Clayton arrived, and Doc got his first true look at his other self's wife.

The first thought he had was that he was looking at Clara, and indeed, the woman his other self had married looked a lot like the inventor's spouse. But there were differences that were noticed right away, in hair colour, and her face looked less intelligent than Clara's did. Overall, though, she looked a lot like Clara, and Doc sighed with relief at the fact that the Clayton blood line hadn't been that disturbed after all, and that his other self, too, had good choice in women. He stood up, faced Jennifer Clayton, and extended his hand, introducing himself with a "I suppose you already know who I am, one way or another."

Jennifer chuckled. "Yes, I do" she said. "Doctor Emmett Lathrop Brown, I suppose?" She giggled. "Boy, it sounds strange to call you a Doctor!"

Doc agreed, laughing as well. "Yes, I can imagine it does" he said. "After all, you are used to me being a horse breeder, not a doctor in science. But I can assure you, I really am a doctor. I've got the PhD to prove it and the certificate is stuck in my wallet. And if that doesn't prove it to you, the bus would, I think."

Jennifer nodded. "Yes, it certainly stuns me" she said. "I can't believe this is actually happening. Some part of me thinks that I am just having a very weird dream, but I can't imagine that I would dream this, either. It's just too strange. So, I'll have to think that this is for real after all." She sighed. "If Marty revealing time travel was true to us wasn't strange enough…"

"When did that happen, anyway?" Doc asked, interested. "I'm sure that it would've taken Marty quite some time to convince you if you weren't at the initial experiment. Then still… he hasn't really told me much yet, just the fact that Emmett – your husband was shot to death at the experiment, and about his travels to 1955, and back to the present. I think there's a lot left to tell."

Local Marty blushed. "That might be true" he said. "But let's get inside, first, shall we? There's a lot of things that we have yet to discuss. Especially if you want to keep your departure time at nine-thirty."

"Yes, preferably so" Doc nodded. "I know that you would like us to hang around longer, and in all honesty – so do I. But Marty is getting anxious to go, and I am the same myself. I don't want to waste endless amounts of time in here just talking to you about various things. We want to get home, preferably sooner than later." He checked his watch. "We are already supposed to be on the morning of April fourth, instead of April third, after all. We're currently exactly twenty-four hours ahead of you."

"Freaky" Jennifer muttered. "Although I think Emmett and Marty are somewhat ahead of when they should be, too. Man, this is so confusing!"

"Tell me about it" Visiting Marty commented. "When I listen to Doc, half of it goes over my head as I fail to be able to grasp it."

"Same here" Emmett agreed. "With Marty, then. He can go off into endless debates about the simplest things, but explaining them in a complicated matter in amazing speed. I can't believe his voice can actually keep track of all those words that he rattles off."

Both Doc and Local Marty blushed. "Um… let's go in, now?" Doc finally suggested.

Visiting Marty and Emmett both laughed. "Yes, let's do that" Emmett said. "We've got some more things to discuss with you."

oooooooo

The conversation inside was soon getting interesting, and it was already nine-thirty-five A.M. when the time travellers finally left the building. Doc filled up the Mr. Fusion, taking care not to put in any more than 2.42 gigawatt's, and, waved after by the locals, the bus lifted up from the ground, and flew through the skies of Hill Valley away from the mansion that the less intelligent version of Emmett resided in.

"I still can't believe how I'm so smart here" Marty said, shaking his head. "I mean – I always saw you as the scientist, not myself. It's been twenty-one hours since we first arrived here, but still, I see your counterpart as the inventor and constantly have to correct myself, even though the other me is the one wearing lab clothes and getting crazy looks in his face most of the time."

"…Marty!"

"It wasn't meant as an insult, Doc!"

The scientist laughed. "I suppose so" he quipped, then turning serious and turning to the controls. "Input destination time: April 2, 1988, at 12:40 PM."

"You're still keeping the same date?" Marty asked.

"Can't rule out the possibility that we might end up home" Doc said. "This way, we'll travel forty-five hours into our own pasts. Farther than we've ever done before, but that's logical as more time elapses."

"Yeah, I guess so" Marty muttered. He cast one last glance downwards, at the other versions of himself and his best friend, and then leaned back as the time bus picked up more and more speed, rapidly accelerating. Doc focused on all the controls as the bus hit fifty… sixty… seventy…eighty…eighty-five…

The moment that the bus hit eighty-eight, Marty felt a weird feeling of uncertainty go through him. They might know the solution to the problem now, or at least, Doc did, with help of Science Marty, but still, they weren't home. They needed to somehow find a way to return to the dimension where they really belonged.

The teenager then sighed, as the time machine broke through the temporal barrier. Whatever was lying ahead of them, he'd certainly find out soon.