Chapter 7: Lockpicking The Mind

Darien was sitting in the chair in the lounge with sensor probes attached to the sides of his head. Beside him on the couch was Dan also with sensors attached. Both men were linked to an EEG and were being monitored. Various pieces of equipment were being set up by Amy, Roland, and Kylie to scan and record information as Egon set up the strange crystal on a tripod in line of the two men and Luna who was sitting on the coffee table. The other Scouts and Eduardo were off to the side as they watched the others work. Lita was concerned, "You don't think this is going to hurt them, do you?"

Egon locked down the tripod with the crystal before taking the nearby PKE meter off the coffee table beside Luna, "I can't say for certain. That first unlock didn't physically hurt Dan, but it's the information's traumatic effect that I'm concerned over."

"I've never had a negative response to my Mind Meld," Luna explained, "although I've never acted like an intermediary for a device before."

"Here's what I don't get," Eduardo said, "why would a package sent by Doc have this thing that's supposed to open our memories up? In the letter, Doc mentioned Lita. Did you say anything to him about her?"

"That's why I'm going through with this," Dan stared at the crystal on the tripod before him, "I think something happened while we were stuck out of time and the DeLorean's time controls were still broken. Doc never said a damn word."

Kylie finally completed the software setup on her laptop when she joined the conversation, "This whole thing is ridiculous. Are you telling me you two traveled through time in a car built into a time machine?" "Stupid as it sounds," Dan said, "Eduardo was there with me. Roland watched us disappear in the car. We told Egon because he was ultimately responsible for the project. You can't tell me you don't believe in time travel; you supposedly did it yourself." Kylie knew it was true. After Tempus split and caused a time shift which transported Kylie into a ghost-ridden future apocalyptic hellscape, there was no doubt time travel was possible. It was just that… well… "Look, I'm not trying to insult you, but a DeLorean?"

"Come on," Darien was getting anxious, "it doesn't matter whether you believe it or not. If this is going to restore memories that might help Dan and even the rest of us, I say we do it and go forward." Dan followed up, "Agreed. I don't care what else happens at this point, we have to know what happened. I've had too many blank spots in my head with all of this." Egon checked over the equipment setups one last time before activating his PKE meter, addressing Luna, "We're set on our end. You may proceed when you're ready, Luna."

Luna nodded toward the scientist then turned to the two men sitting before her, "Darien, Dan, are you ready?" Darien nodded. Dan had a more snide remark, "You may fire when ready, Gridley." Darien turned and looked at the man on the couch beside him with an expression that said, "Really?" Dan took notice of the look, "Okay, so I watch a lot of Bugs Bunny cartoons. Fuck off." "And I made this man a Knight?" Darien lamented, "What was I thinking back then?"

Luna - ignoring the banter - began concentrating. The symbol on her forehead started to glow before three beams of light emanated from it. Two struck the men in the foreheads and a third hit the crystal. Both men tensed as their expressions went blank. Dan faded into darkness…

September 9th, 1895

Brown Ranch

5 miles outside Hill Valley, CA

6:45 AM

Dan loaded up the DeLorean's Mr. Fusion with the hay in the barn as Doc went into the house to retrieve some items for the trip. Dan - wearing his Chicago Blackhawks hat with the bill pointed back, a black shirt depicting AC/DC band member Angus Young in his schoolboy outfit playing a guitar immortalized as a gold statue, a white long-sleeved shirt under the band shirt, and a pair of denim cargo jeans - had finished filling the gas tank with makeshift gasoline Doc had made when Doc walked into the barn wearing more modern clothing carrying a duffle bag at his side. He wore a Hawaiian-like shirt with trains and cowboys riding horses on it wearing a pair of olive-drab military-style cargo khaki with brown loafers. The two of them were gearing up to go after a man named Biff Tannen: a man who had just recently discovered that Marty McFly - friend of Dr. Emmett Brown - had ruined his life by stealing a sports almanac that contained all the information he needed to get rich and live in luxury. While trying to visit "Doc" - as he's known - to help Dan and Eduardo repair the DeLorean Time Machine's time circuits so they could get back to the year 2000, Biff kidnapped Marty, Marty's girlfriend Jennifer, and Eduardo using Dan's Ectoplasmic Destabilizer pistol as a weapon and using Doc's new time traveling steam locomotive to achieve the same goal.

Dan closed the gas tank under the front hood of the DeLorean as he commented on his apparel, "Lookin' good. Where did you get that stuff?"

Doc Brown - a tall, white haired, elderly man who was also the inventor of the time machine they were attempting to use - stepped toward the car as he explained, "Well, this was what I was wearing when I was accidentally sent back to 1885. I created a pressure chamber to store all of my future garments and supplies in case I needed them in the future." "Now…" Dan started with a smirk on his face, "by future, you mean…?" "Of course, I mean the future as in getting back there… or at a later date…" Doc had a look of confusion on his face as he realized what he was saying had two meanings. He waved his free hand and shook his head in frustration, "Whatever!"

Doc walked to the DeLorean's passenger side and placed the duffle bag into the opened trunk. The bag - which was more like a hard plastic cylinder with a handle attached with a Nike logo on the side - was opened by Doc allowing him to rummage around inside it. He took out what looked like metal glasses as well as another object about the side of a broad-point marker. He put the glasses on his head and placed the other object in his pocket followed by him closing the bag and the trunk lid. He walked to the driver side door and attempted to open it…

"Hold it Kimosabe," Dan stopped the man from entering the vehicle, "What ya think you're doing?" Doc looked to the Ghostbuster confused, "I'm driving." "Yeah? Can I see your driver's license?" Doc stared at him blankly for a moment then shook his head. Dan asked again, "When was the last time you drove?"

"It's been…" Doc hated that he was being cornered like this, "A while?"

Dan sighed, "I think it would be better if I drove."

"Well, the car is registered in my name!" Doc exclaimed.

"It was registered to you, but then the FBI got it and sent it to me." Doc looked away in frustration as he crossed his arm. Dan tried to explain it, "Look, it's my responsibility to drive it. If we somehow die, you can blame me. Okay?" Doc closed his eyes as his anxiety became quelled. He shook his head, "Fine," he looked back to the Ghostbuster beside him as he removed the metal looking glasses from his head, "I don't like not being in control of my own inventions." Dan took the glasses from the older man and looked them over, "What're these for?"

Doc walked to the other side of the vehicle as he explained, "Those are automotive angle display goggles. There's cameras on the outside of the car that are used to monitor activity and project the images to the goggles." Doc opened the passenger door as Dan looked at the goggles in his hand, mulling over the information in his head before exclaiming, "Sweet!" After putting the glasses on he saw multiple images around the vehicle come into view, "Dah!"

After a few moments both men were inside the DeLorean, Dan behind the wheel. After the vehicle started and the cover controls activated, they flew toward the town of Hill Valley with Doc turning on the time circuits and inputting the destination time. Doc had warned Dan that when they returned to 1985 that it would have been an alternate version. Understanding the risks, Dan went forward and started accelerating the vehicle to what Doc called the "Temporal Displacement" speed of 88 miles per hour…

There was a glitch.

After the intense flash and bangs of the vehicle traveling the time barrier Dan had the glasses over his eyes, and all he saw was white, "What the…? Did these things just break on me?" All Dan heard beside him was a very subdued, "Great Scott!" Dan was starting to figure out that wasn't a good phrase coming out of this man. Doc spoke more, "Dan, I think you better see this." Dan raised the goggles and saw nothing in front of him. He looked out the front windshield, then out the side windows and the outside mirrors. All they could see was white and bright. Dan was starting to worry they went somewhere he went before, "Doc?"

"I-I've never seen this before," the scientist in the passenger seat said as he also looked out the windows. Dan was looking around the vehicle for something wrong with the car's systems only to look at the display panel that was made up of electronic LED panels to receive a terrifying sight before him, "Holy shit! Doc, look at the display!" He looked back from the window and looked at the multiple time readouts to find every element of the display was lit up; the red destination display was all solid lit not showing numbers, but every segmented light was turned on; the same was true for the yellow time previous panel and the green current time panel. They were truly lost.

"Did…" Dan asked with a quiver in his voice, "...did we brick the car somehow?" "I-I'm not sure. Perhaps the damage to the time circuits when the FBI reconstructed it got worse, but that's a worse case scenario." Dan started shouting, pointing outside the vehicle, "How does this not look like a worse case scenario to you?!" Doc tried to calm the Ghostbuster down as he spoke more softly, "Alright, alright! Let's not panic! First thing to do is to try and land the DeLorean and assess the damage." "Sure," Dan scoffed, "And after we do that, we wander around the Netherworld and try to find a Radio Shack? What plan is that?" "One can solve any problem so long as one can think," he said calmly. Doc was right; Dan needed to try and relax a bit to get a clear head. After a moment he attempted to start piloting the vehicle again, pushing forward on the wheel to descend.

It didn't move.

Dan tried pulling and pushing on the wheel. He tried turning side to side. The young engineer started to panic again as he tried to say it as collectedly as he could, "Dude, I can't move anything." The car suddenly started moving on its own with the wheel being pulled from Dan's grip. Doc watched as the steering wheel operated on its own with Dan pulling his hands away from it. Dan again stated, "Yep, I've lost control of the car!" Dan and Doc looked at each other with collective terror starting to wash over them.

After a few minutes of being airborne and allowing the vehicle to transport the two men the vehicle finally came to a soft landing. The hover system disengaged with the wheels turning from their 90 degree angle back to proper upright for road use as the car touched down. Without any input from the driver the vehicle powered off on its own. All the electronic equipment died. Dan tried to restart the car, but it wouldn't even turn over. It was like the battery was disconnected. He let go of the keys, slammed his palm into the top of the steering wheel in frustration, and proceeded to slam the back of his head into the driver seat's headrest. Doc wanted to say something more, but he knew the man was under a lot of tension. He had been under this scenario for what seemed like days of accumulated time at this point, so to try and calm him down was going to be a painful experience - maybe even physically.

After a moment of milling it around in his head Dan announced his intentions, "Okay, I'm gonna get out and take a look around. Stay here." Doc asked the young man after quickly grabbing his arm, "Are you sure you should do that?" Dan turned himself loose before he reached behind the back of the passenger seat and grabbed his PKE meter, "I ain't sure of anything. We could be in Outworld for all we know…" he stopped a minute as he realized what came out of his mouth, "For Christ's sake, why am I dropping a Mortal Kombat reference on you? You don't even know what that is!" He opened the door and stepped out, the gullwing door giving an electronic whir as it raised up. Doc shook his head, "What a strange man. And the people of Hill Valley think I was in need of commitment."

After retrieving his Proton Pack from the trunk space in the front of the car, he got the device on and pulled the particle thrower from the side of the pack. He began to notice that it was a mist surrounding him and that was why he couldn't see anything. He was getting a bad vibe as he walked further and further from the DeLorean. He tried pulling the PKE meter off his belt when he started calling out to the mist, "Hello? Is anyone out there?" He started the meter and saw readings that looked extremely bizarre, "What the hell? I'm getting full positive and negative readings at the same time. Is that why the DeLorean's acting goofy? Because ground's ungrounded?" For a brief moment a blip flashed across the screen, "What the…?"

"You do not belong here!" a female voice boomed in the void. Dan looked from the meter in the general direction of the voice, "Who's that? Who are you?" "I will ask the questions! Why are you trespassing on this place?" Dan was starting to get an acidic taste in the back of his throat as he started to backtrack, "L-look, me and another guy are here by mistake. I have absolutely zero idea how we got here!"

The sound of heels walking on a hard surface could be heard as the woman the voice belonged approached, "You lie!" A female form could be seen in the fog. It suddenly started to move so fast toward him it became a blur. "Oh, fuck me!" Dan dropped the meter and immediately started getting defensive as a staff-like weapon breached the sight of the fog and started attacking him. Dan threw his particle thrower up blocking the staff strike. Several attempted strikes were blocked by the man's reflexes until the woman in the fog took a low swipe. Dan still managed to block the blow, but the woman threw a punch while he was overextended and connected with his jaw causing him to tumble sideways into the front grill of the DeLorean.

Doc flinched from the inside of the time machine as he watched Dan try and fend off their mystery guest. The woman yelled out, "Only the worthy can pass here. You are not worthy!" The woman in the fog attempted to strike again when Dan pushed off the car and stopped the staff by grabbing the arm that predominantly swung the weapon allowing him to throw a punch and hit the woman in the fog in the face. It was clear the woman recovered quickly and with a twirl used the staff to knock Dan's legs out from under him.

She jumped back into the fog further and lept to the air, readying the staff to bludgen the man on the ground. Dan fired a proton stream and ensnared the staff in her hands, pulling hard to the side forcing the particle beam to disarm the woman. Before she knew what was happening Dan used the momentum of standing up to punch the woman in the stomach as she fell into his fist creating a force of impact so great, the woman had the wind completely knocked out of her. She landed face down on the ground.

Dan got over her and aimed his proton gun at her as he gave her a stern talking to, "You'd better start talking as to why you're attacking me. I'm high-strung and not in the mood to fight as it is, but if I have to…!" He saw the woman's dark green hair covering most of her body as she laid on the ground. She turned over and looked up to him with eyes that had a dark reddish tint. She wore a white leotard with a black skirt and sailor collar with a dark reddish-purple trim. Dan looked at the attire as he realized what he was looking at, "Wait… You're a Sailor Scout?"

The woman looked at the device on the ground before her again then looked back as she gasped for air. She saw the particle thrower Dan was holding as well as the Proton Pack on his back. She coughed as she spoke in a horse voice, "You're… a Ghostbuster?" She looked more intently at the man as he stated with irritation, "A pissed off one at that." "That accent…" she said.

"Stop!" another voice called out as the fog began to clear in the opening. Dan turned to the voice as the wind picked up and pushed the fog away. As it cleared a set of double doors stood inside a free-standing archway as a teenage girl with pink hair in pigtails wearing a white gown stood in the archway. She had a concerned look on her face as she quickly approached the two of them and the vehicle, "Don't fight!" Dan blinked at the sight of the girl and shook his head to see if he was hallucinating. Aside from the hair being pink, the hairstyle made her look like a dead ringer for Serena. He watched as the girl approached, him making the comment, "Is there a psychosis associated with excessive time travel? I think I'm experiencing it."

The girl spoke to the woman on the ground as she tried to get between the Ghostbuster and the Sailor Scout, "Sailor P, are you okay?" "Sailor P?" Dan asked. He dawned on him as he lowered his proton gun, "Sailor Pluto?" Indeed, Sailor Pluto stood with the pink haired girl's help, "You know of me?" Before Dan could answer, the girl explained, "I was told he was gonna be brought here." The woman looked from the girl to Dan as a look of recognition came to her, "Is… is he…?" Dan introduced himself as he powered down his pack and hooked his thrower, "Dan Shannon, Ghostbusters." "The Solar Knight of Jupiter," shock covered the Sailor Scout's face before she began speaking with regret, "My greatest apologies, Sir Daniel. I hadn't recognized you without your beard." Sailor Pluto held out her hand toward the staff she was wielding - the Garnet Orb - causing the device to levitate and accelerate toward her into her hand. She took hold of it and steadied herself with it letting go of the girl. She turned back to her and asked, "Why did you summon him here, Small Lady?"

"Small Lady?" Dan asked, getting the girl's attention. He recalled, "You're Rini, aren't you?" The girl nodded as Dan continued, "Lita told me all about you in her letters to me. You?" He used his thumb to point at the DeLorean behind him, "You hijacked the controls of the DeLorean?" "My father did. I was asked to be here to greet you before Sailor P could attack you." Dan sighed and rubbed his face where Sailor Pluto punched him, "Yeah, you were just a touch late."

Rini winced at that, "Sorry about that."

"That's okay," Dan stated as he took his hand away from his face, "from what I know about your mother, it's an inherited trait." There was an electronic whirring behind him coming from the car. Sailor Pluto readied her weapon as she shouted, "Hold it, you!" Dan looked back briefly to see Doc trying to exit the DeLorean. As soon as he saw the Sailor Scout pointing her weapon at him he threw his hands over his head as he shouted in surprise. Dan looked back and grabbed the end of the Garnet Orb and lowered it, exclaiming, "Whoa! Stop a second! He's with me; he's okay!"

Doc stood by the car stiff as a board with his hands still up unsure of what to do. After a moment of Dan looking back he realized the scientist needed a cue to unpucker, "Hey, Doc, it's okay," he waved him over to the two females before him, "Come on, dude." Doc slowly lowered his arms and started to walk toward the small grouping before him. As he walked he was transfixed on the archway that started to close behind them. He saw what looked like the cosmos behind the doors until they sealed, him looking to the last. He muttered to himself, "Great Scott, I can't believe what I'm seeing."

"Believe it," the Ghostbuster said as he picked up the dropped PKE meter, "I see shit like this every day."

Doc looked at the doorway then back to the woman dressed in the Sailor Scout uniform. He was beyond words at the woman before him. The scientist wasn't sure where to start. Luckily, Dan pressed forward for him, "Ladies, I want you to meet the man that built the time machine currently behind us. This is Doctor…"

"Dr. Emmett L. Brown," Sailor Pluto answered, "Family immigrated from Germany to the United States as the Von Braun family; Father was a Judge and changed the family name to Brown shortly before world war one; Doctorate in nuclear physics, University of California at Berkeley; doctorate in quantum mechanics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; trained in both theoretical and experimental disciplines; part of the Hanford Reactor site during the Manhattan Project; Family home destroyed, 1962; declared missing April, 1986. I know all about you, Dr. Brown."

Dan had a look of dull surprise on his face as he then turned to Sailor Pluto, "Let me guess…" without even letting him say a word more she spoke again, hostility in her tone, "I can sense when the time stream has been tampered with. You've certainly done that more than enough times." Dan shook his head, "I was told about you, Pluto," he looked back to Doc, "Sailor Pluto is the guardian of time and space; her power is directly tied to the time stream." It took a moment for Doc to understand what that meant, but once he did… "Uh…" he looked to her with wide eyes, "Madame, understand, I was behaving responsibly and had even destroyed that blasted machine…" "And then built another one."

Dan winched, sucking air through his teeth, "Ooooo! Doc," he looked at the time machine's inventor, "I don't think you're gonna talk your way out of this."

"There's more important stuff going on," Rini stated, "I was asked to lead the both of you to Crystal Tokyo." Dan was curious about that, "Both of us?" "I was told both of you were needed and this was the best time to get both of you at the same time." The Ghostbuster spoke sarcastically, "Oh no, that's not dubious or anything." "Come on," the girl said as she walked to the DeLorean, "before that ripple thingy happens."

Dan looked to Doc, "'Ripple thingy'?" "I think she means the Ripple Effect," he explained, "the temporal phenomenon of one timeline overwriting another. If what I believe Biff's goal is is true, we're about to see a turning of the space-time continuum for the worst. We'd better hurry." Doc began walking at a quickened pace to the DeLorean and stepped back in with Rini crawling into the back of the car. Dan took that in and became rather annoyed as he spoke candidly to Sailor Pluto, "Even with a time machine; with all the time in the world I still have a time limit. This sucks."

Sailor Pluto giggled a bit, clearly losing her hostility against the man after their fight, "I remembered you having a very colorful way of expressing yourself." "About that," he looked to the Sailor Scout as he said, "Beard?" "You don't have one now, but you will." Dan looked at her perplexed. Sailor Pluto knew what the look was about, but proceeded to instruct him, "Like Dr. Brown said, you're fighting against the changes in the timeline. You better go."

Dan nodded and was about to walk to the DeLorean when he stopped and looked at the Scout one more time, "I'm sorry about the fight…" "That's okay," she said, "It had been a while since I had been surprised and challenged. It made for a nice distraction," she smiled a bit, "You truly are a fighter. You never back down." Dan shook his head and turned, "That's been more of a setback in my life than anything."

Getting into the car and closing the doors Dan attempted to start the vehicle and it was still not turning over. Doc commented, "This vehicle has always had issues with the starter. Keeping it in that mine for 70 years probably didn't do it any favors." Dan stopped trying to turn the car over and looked at the scientist in the passenger seat, "Mine? 70 years?" Doc's eyebrows flared a bit and was about to explain when Dan shook his head, "Never mind; I don't need to know." After a few more attempts he gave up, "Damnit, why isn't this stupid thing starting?"

"Oh!" Rini exclaimed, "I forgot! The car will start… now!" Suddenly the DeLorean started and all of the electronics inside came to life. Dan and Doc flinched at the sudden activation of the engine and the equipment, Dan especially pulling his hands away from the steering column. The two men looked at each other slowly, then just as slowly turned back to the windshield. Dan took hesitant grip of the wheel as he commented, "This kid is giving me some severe Escape to Witch Mountain vibes."

The Door of Space and Time opened again as Dan put the DeLorean in gear and started rolling. Sailor Pluto stood aside as the car passed through the archway and drove onto the path that led them into the future. She stood as the doorway once again closed, watching as the DeLorean's tail lights pulled further and further away from her. She spoke to the vehicle as the door closed, "We will meet again, Sir Daniel. I hope the next time, it will all turn out different."