Disclaimer: There are an awful lot of real life characters in this story. So, I don't own *counts* Doc Brown, Marty McFly, Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Thomas F. Wilson, Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale, Bttf 4444 and Flaming Trails. I also don't own the movies, but you knew that already. Any complains about characterization are fine, but try to bring them gently, okay?
Author's Note: Real World chapter. Doc and Marty find something that is very surprising to them, and gives a new twist to the whole story.
Chapter Twelve
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
03:30 P.M.
Twelve miles west of
Grass Valley, California
As the time machine broke through the time barrier, Doc still carried with him that sense of relief that he'd brought along from the previous world – with this decision taken, everything would go fine now, and he would end up being rescued from all this hopping and returned home, to Clara and to his family. However, that hope was soon destroyed the moment after he'd landed into the new world.
The area that Hill Valley was supposed to be in, looked completely empty. There was absolutely nothing there – no houses, no roads, just fields. The inventor blinked a few times. "What's going on here?" he muttered.
Marty looked outside as well. "This is heavy!" he exclaimed. "What's the matter, Doc? Why is the whole town gone all of a sudden?"
"I don't know, Marty" Doc admitted, somewhat uncomfortable. "I suppose this means that in this world, Hill Valley is not inhabited. I have no idea what could be the cause, though – maybe there is a disease around and this area was therefore never settled? Maybe different cultures colonized the America's and Hill Valley was never settled at all? Who knows what could've happened. Anyway, there is a chance that neither of us exist here."
Apparently, that thought had come across Marty's mind as well, as he didn't seem to react too awkward to it. "So?" he asked. "What does that mean? That we should leave right away?"
"Not really" Doc said, thoughtfully. "We came here because of the future technology, after all. Perhaps we could use the technology here to fix the time machine on our own. It'd take a little longer, but if this place has enough technology around to supply us with a nice amount, which would enable us to build the time machine, I don't think that it would matter."
"I suppose you're right" Marty said. "I wouldn't really like staying in a hotel room or something like that, though. As much as it unnerves me, the fact that the previous dimensions all had versions of you with enough place for us makes this world look a little weirder to me." He paused. "Do you think we still exist here somewhere? In another city, perhaps? One nearby?"
"It could be" Doc considered. "Maybe you're right and we should indeed check that option out, first. I'm not really too keen on living on our own for who knows how long either." He looked at the map. "Let's see… let's make our destination be Grass Valley. It's close to Hill Valley, after all, and while I'm not sure if we would settle there, I'm certain that it should enable us to exploit a reasonable possibility." He paused. "Well, at least our 'disrupting with the day's event' worries won't have to be very big now, unless the same thing is happening in Grass Valley right now."
"You're the Doc, Doc" Marty answered. "Let's just go. We'll see what happens when we'll get there."
"That is not really a good approach when seen from a scientist's perspective, Marty" Doc said. "I thought that you knew that when you're planning something, you should have proper preparation for it. We don't want to fly ourselves into something we don't know."
Marty shrugged. "You can go ahead and have a look at the map for all I care" he said. "I don't mind. Let's just go now, okay?"
"Yes, that would be the right thing, probably" Doc agreed. He turned on the accelerator, and started to fly the time machine through the skies of Hill Valley, or where Hill Valley should've been.
And as the inventor studied the map, the time machine flew towards the city of Grass Valley. Marty leaned back in his seat, and that gave Doc time to think. How long would they be going on like this? Would they even find his local self here? What if there was no Hill Valley because there was no one around? And if there were people around, what kind of world would they discover? A nice one? Or a world right out of a tale containing horror elements?
As he was still thinking that, the time machine flew on, and after about ten minutes, the machine arrived in the proximity of Grass Valley. After noticing to his relief that people were still around, the inventor flew the bus down, and parked it in the local woods.
"Why are you putting the bus here?" Marty asked, surprised.
"Why not?" Doc responded, shrugging. "I suppose that there is not really a better place to put it in. I don't know one, at least… and we have to put the bus somewhere. We don't want to face anyone being surprised at us flying a bus and us attracting attention that way."
"We're in two-thousand-fifteen" Marty pointed out.
"That's true" his best friend agreed. "However, while in our world, flying cars are indeed very common in the 2010s, in this world, they might not be. I've looked around a little and I haven't seen a single other flying car yet. Have you?"
"Um, no" Marty muttered. "Maybe it's one of those 'save the environment days'?"
"Possibly, but not very likely, especially seeing as work on environment-saving fusion energy is making major breakthroughs by 2015" Doc responded. "I have a strong feeling that this was caused by other reasons. Like no flying cars being invented at all."
Marty blinked. "That's… odd" he muttered. "No odder than Hill Valley not existing, I guess, but… well, I'm used to the hoverboard being a part of the future, and that includes flying cars. Have you got any idea why this could be?"
"No" Doc replied. "As I clarified before, it's just a theory of mine, and I'm absolutely sure that I'm not certain about this… as stupid as that might sound. For now, we should just leave the machine and try to go up town to see what the madness is about."
"Good point" Marty admitted, getting up from his seat and walking after Doc as the inventor exited the time bus, and locked it. He then looked ahead to the road near them. "Well…" he muttered. "I think that the town should be no more than five minutes walking from here. I made sure to park the bus on a place close to it, so we should be able to solve this mystery soon."
"Good" Marty muttered.
Doc realised that Marty was probably in a depressive mood again, like the one he'd just been in himself, and started walking to avoid an endless conversation with the teen, which he wasn't exactly in the mood for now. He decided to focus on this odd mystery instead. His scientific curiosity had risen and he had began to wonder. Why was this all changed? What could be the reason for the sudden disappearance of Hill Valley? He now knew that Grass Valley existed and that there were still relatively normal-looking humans around. He supposed that this could be just a minor change, instead of the big one he'd been fearing. Then again, he didn't know.
Deciding to ignore his worries for a moment, the inventor focused on the wildlife around him instead. Grass Valley was a nice little town, slightly smaller than Hill Valley, and it was looking pretty interesting today. He might have enjoyed this little break if he wasn't so obsessed with the whole thing going on.
As the inventor walked into the main road of Grass Valley, he remained in thoughts. He'd probably discussed a dozen of possibilities for how this world had come to be inside his head by the time Marty tapped him on his shoulders.
"What's the matter?" the scientist asked.
"Take a look at them" Marty said, pointing at some people on the other side of the street. "They're staring at us."
Doc looked over, and noticed that the locals were indeed looking at them somewhat awkward. The scientist winced. He didn't have too much of a reputation as a crackpot, but apparently those who were convinced he was a nutcase had apparently told some citizens of Grass Valley about how nuts Doc Brown was. "Oh, great…" he muttered under his breath.
"What?" Marty asked.
"Never mind" his friend assured him. "Let's just go in there." He pointed over towards a phone cell. "We should probably be able to find a phone book there."
The teen shrugged, and walked after Doc, who, after going in, indeed found a phone book in the cell. However, as he flipped through the pages, he had the unpleasant experience of not being able to find anything. In Grass Valley, there was no Emmett Lathrop Brown or a Martin Seamus McFly around, and while there was a J. Parker around, the job the book gave her – captain of a ship in the US navy – made sure that this miss or Mr. or Mrs. Parker was not Jennifer. He sighed, slamming the book shut. While this did make him feel happier by realising that the strange looks were probably not meant to be for his alternate self, who was not there after all, it didn't exactly make him cheer up a lot. This did, after all, throw his hopes for finding his other self the easy way out of the window.
"We're not there?" Marty asked, having waited outside and just having to look at the inventor's face in order to be able to guess what had happened. "Have you got any idea why?"
"Nope" Doc responded, sighing. "I guess that there should be some reason for it, but I haven't been able to find it. Let's go into that café in order to get something to drink, and we can figure out what to do next afterwards."
Marty shrugged. "That's fine with me" he said. "I'd prefer to leave right away, but knowing you, you'd probably like to hang around here for a while… and if I have to stay here, I'd prefer to do it with some drinks so I can at least enjoy myself a little with that."
Doc nodded, as they both walked inside. Once they'd arrived, Doc immediately noticed they were getting those stares again… but not too much, the café seemed to be awfully empty. Deciding to ignore it – it wasn't like he had never received any weird looks in his life before after all – he walked up to the counter, where, to his surprise, a human was standing and not the video screens he expected to see. "Good afternoon" he said, politely, deciding to ignore that particular fact. "Have you got any hot chocolate milk?"
The café owner just stared at him, wide-eyed, but an assistant of his immediately nodded. "Yes, we do, sir" he said, politely. "We understand you're probably in a hurry as you wouldn't want to miss the big event, so we'll make it for you as soon as we can."
"The big event?" Doc repeated before he could stop himself.
The man looked at him, a bit awkward. "Ah, yes" he said. "You know – the festival that is going to happen a mile away from here, remember? I thought that you and Mr. Fox would attend…"
Doc smiled, understanding as he'd heard the latter words. So that was why everyone was staring at them so odd. "He's not Michael J. Fox" he said, pointing at Marty. "I know he looks a lot like him, but he's really a different person. And, if you happened to think that because I do resemble him a little – no, I'm not Christopher Lloyd."
The assistant nodded, understanding, and the café owner also came to life again. "Ah" he said, understanding. "I suppose that, with all that is going on today, I thought that you were Mr. Lloyd and Mr. Fox, even though your friend does look a lot younger than the latter." He turned back to his equipment. "Hot chocolate, you said?"
"Yes, please" Doc said, remaining polite even though he was feeling curious about this festival by now. "Two, if you have them."
"We certainly do, sir" the man said. "Just a moment." He walked over to a machine of some sort, and put some cups underneath it. After a few seconds, chocolate milk came out of it, and the man handed the cups over to Doc, who, after paying, walked over to a table close to the window where Marty had sat down.
"What was going on there?" Marty asked, taking his cup of chocolate milk from Doc. "You seemed to be having an entire conversation with those guys."
"Yeah, right" Doc agreed, sitting down. "It was kind of awkward, yes… those people apparently thought that we were Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox, so that was why they were looking at us in such a strange way. I explained that we weren't."
"You shouldn't have done that" Marty said, jokingly. "We might've gotten the chocolate milk for free then."
"Marty!" Doc said, although he couldn't prevent a smile from forming on his face. "But, yes, I suppose you're right. Anyway, free chocolate milk or not, let's just drink it, okay? Then we can formulate our plan about what to do next."
"Yeah" Marty said. "Haven't you thought of anything yet?"
"No" Doc admitted. "Since my other self is not in the phone book, we could assume that he does not live around here, and we can assume the same for your other self. The question that we could rise in this situation is the one of where we do live, but I have no idea on how to find the answer to that particular question. Since I don't have an other self around here anywhere that we can contact, I think that the wisest would be to go to a local electronics store, see what we can buy for the time bus, and then leave this dimension."
"Yeah, you're probably right" Marty said, drinking his chocolate milk. "What was that business about that great event that we were supposed to attend? I overheard a little from when you were talking…"
"Oh yes, that" Doc said. "I haven't really heard too much about it, besides the fact that Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd are supposed to attend it and that it's a festival a mile out of town. We could have a look at it, perhaps… who knows, we might even spot them. The actors, I mean."
Marty frowned. "I thought we were going to leave after getting electronic parts?" he asked, surprised. "I'm not sure if hanging around here and visiting local parties is such a good idea…"
"You're right" Doc admitted. "It does sound a little unusual, but I'm kind of curious to be honest with you. We could always have a quick look, then go. If it's just a mile out of town, we'll be able to go there easy with the time bus."
"Yeah, that's probably the case" Marty said, nodding. "Maybe you should ask where exactly it is first, then. I'm not really in the mood to search the whole area that is one mile away from here. That's… how many miles?"
"Approximately 3.14 miles" Doc prompted. "Yes, I can understand that." He looked down at his chocolate, took a large gulp and swallowed the rest of his drink, then stood up. "Just a moment… I'll be back right away."
Marty shrugged, and Doc walked back to the counter. "Excuse me?" he asked the owner's assistant, who was just making some chocolate for another customer. "Would you mind telling me where exactly that festival that you talked about is held?"
The waiter looked up at the inventor. "Um, just follow this road to the west" he said, a little uneasy. "It's about a mile from here, as we said, and it's in the fields." He smirked, then sighed wistfully. "I wish I could go. I've been a fan of the movies since I was just a little boy, you know. The Future Festival does seem to be a dream coming true, and the fact that I can't attend most of the festivities because of my work here is rather sad."
"I understand" Doc said, nodding. "Anyway, we should go." He walked over to his friend. "Come on, Marty… it's time to go check out that festival."
"Marty?" the waiter repeated, slightly amused.
Doc looked around, confused. "Um, yes" he said. "That's his name. Marty McFly."
The waiter laughed. "Marty McFly?" he repeated. "Serious? Or are you trying to fool me here? As far as I'm concerned, McFly isn't even a real name."
While Doc started speculating whether this could be the answer to their mystery – they couldn't find a McFly in the phone book if that name didn't exist, after all – Marty felt offended. "Hey!" he exclaimed, stepping forwards. "I'm not insulting your name either, am I?"
The waiter seemed to be sorry. "I apologise" he said. "I was just thinking you just used that name for today. I didn't know it was your real name." He chuckled. "That must've gotten you some weird looks in your life, right?"
Marty glanced at Doc and back, a bit uneasy. "Um…I suppose" he lied. Then softer, he added: "Come on, Doc, let's go."
This time, the waiter didn't say anything, and within moments, the time travellers had exited the café, and after an uneventful trip to the electronics store, which couldn't provide any of the supplies that they needed, they were heading back to the time bus. Neither of them said a word, instead they just walked there, and as they arrived at the bus, Doc simply went inside, turned the engine on, and moved the bus back onto the road, driving through the streets and up to this festival that the waiter had been talking about so eagerly.
The trip didn't take all too long, as it was just a mile up to the place they were supposed to be. Doc still remained silent, mostly speculating, and Marty did as well. Eventually, the time machine arrived at what seemed to be a big field, crowded with people. The inventor could see there were gates around it, and there was an immense television screen of some sort there somewhere, playing something that neither of them could really identify. Doc parked the bus a few dozen yards away from the entrance, and stepped out again, Marty following. Together, they walked up to the gate, and to the entrance.
"Got an entrance card?" the man at the gate asked, glaring.
Doc winced slightly. "Um, no, sir" he said. "I didn't know…"
"That'll be twenty-five bucks for the both of you" the man interrupted, clearly not really in a good mood. "Just pay here please."
Doc frowned at the low price… well, for 2015 it was a low price anyway. "Oh, okay" he said, still a little nervous. "Do you accept cash?"
The man gave him another glare. "No" he said. "We'd like you to pay with satellite parts." He dropped the sarcasm, obviously annoyed. "Of course we accept cash! What do you think we are, idiots? You can use your credit card if you wish, but cash is always fine with us."
"Um, okay" Doc replied, a little blown back at the man's offensive actions. "Here's twenty-five dollars." He took out his wallet, and paid the man. After receiving their tickets, they walked on, and soon came across another guy, who was looking at them with sympathy. "You should probably just ignore him" he said, pointing at the guy who had asked about the entrance card. "He's in a bad mood again." The guy smirked. "Here… I shall take your tickets." Doc handed them to them, and the man patted Marty on the shoulder. "Have a nice day. My compliments on the costume, by the way… if I didn't know any better, I'd think you really were Marty McFly and Dr. Emmett Brown."
Doc frowned at that, then shrugged it off. He figured that if in this world, their future selves were famous for some reason, that could only be profitable for them… even though he did wonder about the waiter's comment in the shop, who had, after all, said that McFly probably wasn't a real name in this world. Not really thinking it was important, he walked onto the field.
On the field were, as said before, an awful lot of people, and there seemed to be all kinds of market stalls everywhere. The weirdest, though, was that everybody took a double look after seeing them. Doc winced – he was used to it, a bit, but it did make him feel embarrassed.
After about a minute or two walking, mostly staying out of the mass of people in order to avoid being seen much, they arrived relatively close to the television screen. The crowd was beginning to gather around it for some reason, which made Doc able to count all of them. He estimated the total being about ten to twenty thousand people. It was quite fascinating, actually.
"What time is it?" Marty asked, removing Doc from his thought processes.
"In our world of in this world?" the inventor responded, his eyes still fixed on the enormous television screen. It looked like it was about eight feet tall, with twelve feet as it's width. It had to have been created for a really special event.
"This world" Marty then responded. Doc nodded, and took his watch. "Um… it's four-twenty-eight P.M. and thirty-nine seconds" he replied. "Why do you want to know?"
Marty shrugged. "I don't know" he admitted. "I suppose I just want to go home. I've got this awkward feeling about…"
His words were suddenly cut off as the crowd started cheering and numbers started appearing on the television screen. "Ten! Nine! Eight!"
"What's going on, Doc?" Marty shouted, unable to make the inventor hear him otherwise.
"Seven! Six! Five!"
"I don't know!" Doc shouted back. "How should I know? I'm new to this dimension! We'll just have to wait and see!"
"Four! Three! Two!"
Marty nodded. "You're probably right" he said. "It can't be that bad." He, however, didn't know how wrong he was.
"One! ZERO!!!!!!"
With a loud 'boom' kilo's of fireworks went into the air at one moment, as the television displayed the words 'October 21st 2015 4:29 PM'. Just as Doc was about to voice his surprise, it all started.
The words disappeared, and in it's place, the words 'Back to the Future' appeared. Loud music started to play from the speakers on the field, and Marty and Doc watched with amazement to see no one else than Doc himself appear on the screen, standing on top of the clock tower, watching as Marty approached in the DeLorean. ScreenDoc slid down the ropes and went up to the street. The time travellers could do nothing but watch as lightning struck, Marty vanished to the future and cheers erupted from the crowd. The screen continued to show images, first of their events in 2015, random scenes from the hoverboard sequence and Jennifer fainting at seeing her other self, and went on showing pictures from the Old West as well, and even some from Hell Valley, and finished with the time train flying towards the screen at the end of that amazing weekend. In it's place appeared the words: 'Back to the Future: The greatest movie trilogy of all times'.
Doc felt faint and Marty didn't feel too well himself. They had now found out what the reason was for Hill Valley not existing, but they didn't like it too much. It now all fit in.
In this world, they didn't exist.
In this world, their life was a movie.
"Great Scott!" Doc exclaimed, pale.
"This is heavy!" Marty whispered, just as stunned. "I – I can't believe this!"
"I didn't expect you to, as I can't believe it either myself" Doc shouted out. "It looks like we're… we're movie characters here!"
"But how?" Marty exclaimed. "That's… that's impossible! This can't be real!"
"I'm afraid it is" Doc said, sighing. "This does make me feel rather distressed as well, but we can't deny the truth."
Marty shook his head. "This has to be some kind of joke" he muttered, even though it was obvious he knew that was not the truth. "This can't be happening! How can this be even possible?"
"That would require a very complicated multi-dimensional answer" Doc said, sighing. "At the moment, though, I suppose that, in a way, this world is different from all the others." He smiled slightly. "Now that I've come over the initial shock, it does sound rather interesting, to be honest. I'm not quite sure what kind of divergence point might've caused this reality to be, but it is a fascinating change. Imagine this. To be actually a movie character…"
"I suppose" Marty muttered, even though it was obvious that he didn't exactly share Doc's thoughts on the subject. "Doc… are we going to go home now? I mean, with this world being less advanced than ours, as we could see from the flying cars, we can't really do much here that helps speeding up our return to our home dimension. And I'm not quite sure whether I'd like to spend much time here, either."
"Why not?" Doc asked, looking at him with a somewhat curious smile. "Aren't you interested in this phenomenon?"
The teen shrugged. "Not really" he muttered. "I mean, this is so weird… I can't believe it's actually true. Being a movie character doesn't sound like the greatest idea that I've ever encountered. Maybe we should go home. I think that my dislike for this idea could be partly because I'm tired of all these odd dimensions, but…" He shrugged again. "Let's just go."
"You're probably right" Doc said, nodding. "Come on – we should be able to get away from here by walking between these cars. It should lead us away from the crowd and into the fields nearby, so we can make a large circle-movement that'll make us go back to the bus."
"You're the Doc, Doc" Marty said, nodding in agreement. "Although there is the fact that, considering the entrance costs, we should've stuck around for a little while longer."
"Yes, that's too bad" Doc agreed. "But, well, when it's time to go, it's time to go. I suppose that entrance costs are the least of our concerns right now."
Marty nodded, and walked after the inventor as they moved away from the crowd, which was watching some Back to the Future scenes again, which Doc recognised as being from that first journey to the future with Marty and Jennifer, and went past the cars there. There were a few buses among them, and that made a perfect cover. The inventor sighed with relief, and noticed Marty do the same.
Their relief didn't last long, though. Moments later, a middle-aged man – Doc guessed he was about early sixties, maybe late fifties – came running up to them, or at least, ran as fast as he could at his age. The man was wearing a director's outfit, and looked at them rather annoyed.
"Chris!" he exclaimed. "Michael! Where have you been!" He looked at the latter. "Michael? Why do you look so young?"
"Um, well," Marty started, nervously, "you see, Mr. Zemeckis, it's just…"
"It's not important" the man that Marty had properly identified as the director of Teens In Time, Robert Zemeckis, said. "You need to get on stage right away, the whole crowd is waiting for you two, and what made you look so young is not important. It's probably got to do with your Parkinson's disease."
"My what?" Marty exclaimed, horrified, as Doc winced. Why did Mr. Zemeckis have to bring up that particular issue…
Mr. Zemeckis frowned. "Are you all right, Michael?" he said, softer now. "It looks like you're really having a tough time with all this. Maybe I shouldn't have asked you to come to this festival, but it's really a once-in-a-time event, after all…"
"It's okay" Marty managed. "You go ahead and announce us coming – we'll be there in a minute."
"Okay" Mr. Zemeckis agreed. "Do hurry, though – if you aren't there within two minutes, I'll come looking for you again. Not to put any pressure on you, but you know how the crowd can be."
Marty nodded sheepishly, as Mr. Zemeckis went off. As the man had disappeared around the corner, he immediately turned to Doc, his faint smile changing into anger within a second. "Doc!" he exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell me this was going to happen to Michael J. Fox? You knew I'd want to know!"
Doc stepped back. "I know" he muttered. "But I thought that, since he isn't really your favourite actor and all, and I didn't know too much about it anyway, that you'd better find out through the natural course of time…"
"You also knew that I'd really like to know when something like this happens to someone who looks just like me!" Marty shouted. His voice softened. "And is the actor who plays me in a film, too… Doc, do you think that I… that I might get…" His voice trembled, unable to go on.
"No, Marty" Doc said, firmly. "You will not get this disease. I'm certain of that particular fact. I have seen the future several times, and I know for a fact that all versions of you that I saw there were completely healthy, well, except for your first self of course, who had his hand broken. If you would get such a bad disease, I would've known it by now. And even if you do get the disease, because of the future being constantly in flux, then I'll take you to the future, no matter how far, to 2015, to 2030, to 2100, to 2500 for all I care, until we'll find a way to fix it. I promise you that, Marty."
"All right" Marty said, returning to the matter at hand. "Doc… do you think we really ought to go up there? Mr. Zemeckis did say that he was gonna come back if we didn't come…"
Doc sighed. "I'm afraid so, yes" he said. "I don't like this either, as it might cause some problems to us and we know we're not prepared for this at all, but we'll have to go ahead with this. This is hardly a place to get away – the only way out besides our original escape route, where they seem to have just parked a car, leads to the stage." He looked at Marty. "Should I go first?"
Marty shrugged. "I'll go with you" he said. "I suppose that we'd better go up there together – that way, we'll be done sooner."
Doc nodded, and the two of them walked off to the stage, passing Lea Thompson and Thomas F. Wilson on the way up to the stage – the inventor figured he could've guessed that those actors would've been involved in the movie, as they held such a stunning resemblance to Marty's mother and Biff Tannen respectively. The locals gave them a thumbs-up, which Marty hesitantly returned. They then walked up to the stage, where Mr. Zemeckis was still telling the audience a joke. It wasn't really the greatest joke and no one laughed about it, so he automatically brightened when he saw Marty and Doc appearing.
"Ah, there you are" he said, relieved, turning to the crowd. "Well… ladies and gentlemen, I now announce to you the persons you all know, the main actors in the movie – Michael Andrew Fox and Christopher Allen Lloyd!"
The time travellers winced, as the crowd began to cheer. A lot of female cries of 'Mike!!!' and a few cries of 'Chris!!!' shattered through the air, which naturally did everything to make the two more and more uncomfortable. Although he himself had proposed going first, Doc had to try as hard as he could to actually go up there and speak.
"Um, good afternoon" he finally whispered, softly. A cheer immediately erupted in the crowd, causing the inventor to wince again, and by the time the crowd had returned to silence, he wasn't sure what to say next.
"It's nice to see how everyone has come here" he said, his voice picking up speed and noise as he went on, relaxing a slight bit. "Today is a very special day for us, as main cast of the… um… the Back to the Future trilogy," at least he hadn't forgotten that, "and we're happy to see you all here to celebrate it with us." He relaxed more, going on with his story. "As I said, today is a special day. It is the day that, um, Dr. Brown and his assistant Marty McFly arrived in the future. Ever since the day that you all saw the movie for the first time, we've been waiting for it, and now the day has come." He noticed all people's gazes being on him now, and winced. "I'm glad that…" No, he had said that already. The inventor began to crumble under the gaze of the audience, who were confused about him not saying anything more meaningful than what he'd just muttered. Sweat began to appear on his forehead. He had to get out of here. At least Marty was going to be used to huge crowds listening to him in the future, being a rock and roll musician and all. Emmett stepped back and pushed Marty towards the microphone, stepping back into the shadows himself. He knew this wasn't exactly fair to Marty, but he wasn't seeing any other way out. "And now Marty, um, Michael will answer a few questions if you want to ask them" he said.
Marty was obviously not too happy with Doc's decision, but soon, he couldn't protest anymore, as cheers erupted in the crowd again, and everyone began to ask questions right through each other. Poor Marty winced as he heard everyone ask all kinds of things, and wasn't really happy being in his position. The nineteen-year-old was obviously about to flee when Mr. Zemeckis re-appeared and came to his aid, shooting an angry look towards Doc, who guessed that he had probably done something wrong. "All right, everybody!" he called out. "Just take this one by one, shall we? Poor Michael is having a hard enough time already. Just raise your hand and Michael will answer your question as best as he can. And no more than a few questions, please… we're not at a question-and-answer session, after all."
Marty gave him a thankful look, and looked at the crowd. "All right, you with the pink jacket can go first" he eventually said. As a lot of boo-calls came as a result, he called out: "Hey, I was just choosing at random!"
As the mass quieted down, the woman in question spoke up. "Mr. Fox?" she asked, somewhat shy. "Um… I wanted to know what your favourite colour is."
Marty thought about that for a moment. Doc could guess the teen had no idea what colour his favourite actor preferred, so he had to choose his own. "Brown" he said, smiling at the woman, who immediately blushed. The inventor could easily tell what his friend was thinking – it had to be odd to see someone obviously almost two decades older than him act this way around the nineteen-year-old.
The woman shrugged. "Oh" she said. "That's… well, I suppose it's okay. I'd hoped you preferred pink instead, but brown is okay, I guess."
Marty frowned a little at that, but before he could react, hands rose again and he chose at random once again. This time, a young woman in her late twenties spoke up. "Mr. Fox?" she asked. "Why isn't Mr. Lloyd answering any questions?"
Doc winced, hoping this question hadn't come. Marty turned to look at him, and the inventor shrugged, not really able to come up with a reason for turning back. He walked towards the microphone and turned to the young woman. "Ask me what you want" he said, softly.
"Mr. Lloyd?" the girl asked, blushing slightly. "Do you think you'll ever act in a movie or television show again? Even just a cameo appearance?" She blushed even more. "I mean, you were… you know… really cute in the Back to the Future movies…"
Doc's eyes opened wide. "Excuse me?" he said, astonished.
The girl blushed even more, if that was even possible. "Well, it's true" she said. "I really did like your acting works… especially in that cute Doc Brown costume you're wearing now…"
"Great Scott!"
The crowd burst into laughter at Doc's outburst, which was a reason for the inventor to back up into the shadows again, still breathing more rapid than usual. He remained there as Marty answered more and more questions. Eventually, the question session ended, and the other director of Teens In Time, Bob Gale, walked up to the microphone.
"Well, I suppose I should say 'good afternoon' to you all as well, like Chris did" he said. "I don't really have too much to report to you, besides the fact that I'm glad you're all here, which does really make me happy. To think that a movie trilogy like 'Back to the Future' is still attracts so many fans after all this time… well, it does make one think." He turned towards Marty. "And now, I would like to ask Michael whether he would like to give a speech for us, to promote the re-release of the new all-inclusive Back to the Future DVD's, and the re-opening of the Back to the Future: The Ride."
As the crowd cheered once again, Doc sighed. They really weren't going to get away from here yet.
* * * *
Marty winced, as he heard Mr. Gale make that announcement. He nervously stepped forwards to the microphone again, facing the crowd. He really had no idea what to say, and just held the microphone for a few moments, until Mr. Gale gave him a push in the back to urge him to at least say something. The teen winced at that, and turned back to the crowd. "Well," he started, nervously, "today certainly is a great day, and I would like to say that I really appreciate you coming here."
"They've heard that at least twice before today" Mr. Gale commented, slightly angry. "Mike, why don't you just go on? You know what to do."
Marty sighed. There really was no way to escape now, was there? He sighed, turning towards the mike. "Well," he muttered, "I…"
Suddenly, he was cut off from his speech by a large airplane flying over. The teen looked up, as stunned as the rest of the crowd, as the airplane began to descend to the field, while it announced a message. "Here speaks the captain of the airplane carrying Mr. Fox and Mr. Lloyd" the pilot said. "Apologies for being late, as Mr. Fox insisted on attending the birth of his first grandson. We're landing now."
The crowd was stunned, as were Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. They looked at Marty and Doc, somewhat uncomfortably, before turning back to the airplane, which landed with a lot of noise.
That noise seemed to be enough distraction for Doc to make his move. He turned towards his friend. "Marty!" he exclaimed, making sure that his friend saw him. "RUN!"
The inventor didn't need to tell Marty that. As fast as they could, the two time travellers raced off the stage, and made Doc's 'circle-movement' back to the time bus. They wanted to get out of here as soon as possible. Doc ran past the stairs that were moving down out of the airplane, which had just landed. Marty was about to follow…
…when he suddenly collided with something relatively hard, at least it seemed hard due to his speed, and together with this object or whatever it was, he fell down to the ground.
The teen was stunned, and even more so when the 'object' was revealed to be none other than Michael J. Fox himself, whom he was now facing with less than a foot distance between them, as Michael had fallen down on top of Marty. Michael let out a short scream as he saw Marty, who took that as an opportunity to push his 'counterpart' off and get back to his feet, subconsciously putting some box of some sorts that Michael had dropped onto him in his jacket as he did so.
"Hey, wait a minute!" Christopher Lloyd exclaimed, astonished. He grabbed Marty's arm. "What are you doing? Who are you, anyway?"
"Someone your friend here knows very well" Marty said.
"What?" Michael said, getting back to his feet as well.
"Never mind" Marty said, pulling himself loose from the other actor's grip. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you, anyway." He ran away, following Doc, as Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd stood watching them without being able to do anything about it.
The teenager ran off, through the fields, following Doc and eventually catching up to him as he did the fastest piece of running he'd ever done before. Within just a minute or two, they reached the time bus, where Doc threw trash into the Mr. Fusion unit as Marty headed inside after the inventor had opened the door. Moments later, Doc entered as well, and the time train lifted off from the ground and into the sky. Doc wiped some sweat off his face. "Great Scott!" he exclaimed. "Now that's something we didn't expect!"
"Yeah!" Marty agreed. "Depends on what you mean, though…"
Doc waved his hand randomly around. "Just… everything" he concluded. "It was the whole situation all together that was odd. Great Scott… Marty, do you mind us time travelling right now?"
"What do you think?" Marty said, smirking. "I was the one to face a Michael J. Fox who played me at just a few inches distance. I think I would be completely insane if I didn't want to go."
Doc chuckled. "You're probably right" he admitted. "All right, destination…" He looked around, then stopped as he fixed his gaze on Marty. "Marty… what's that box?"
The teen frowned. "Huh? What?" He took the box out of his jacket. "I don't know… it kind of fell onto me when I collided with Mr. Fox…" He took a good look at it. "Apparently it's a new box which includes a long DVD… or whatever that is… with the Back to the Future movies, Animated Series and footage from the BTTF 'ride'." He frowned. "Sounds like the new thing that I was supposed to present. Doc, do you think we've screwed up their history now?"
"With the whole thing going on, I think we've got something more substantial to worry about" Doc said, smirking. "Anyway, we're in the future, and in another dimension, so it can't be that bad." He turned back to the controls. "Destination Time: April 2, 1988… let's see, it's 4:47 now here, so… 12:47 PM!"
"No 2015?" Marty said, smiling sheepishly.
Doc smiled back. "Nah, I don't think that sounds like a great idea" he said. "We'd better stay hopping through the normal times from now on. I've seen enough of other 2015s to last for a lifetime. Speaking of hopping…" He turned on the flying circuits. "Brace yourself for dimensional displacement!"
"We're leaving?" Marty asked.
"Correct" Doc confirmed, piloting the time bus so that it was in some sort of a normal position. "All right, here we go." He thought about that for a moment. "And," he added, as the time machine raced up to 88 above the field where a stunned crowd watched them depart and Marty noticed his 'counterpart' not really looking too good himself, "let's hope that we will now finally land in a sane world – and in one that can finally get us home!"