When Worlds Collide -- REALLY Collide
Chapter 4
Monday, September 7th, 1987
Hill Valley X-Duology
3:29 P.M.
“Unnh. . . .”
Marty-2 blinked open his eyes. His head was throbbing hard. Man, that really hurt. What happened? Last thing was finally getting through to Doc to warn him about his weird clone, then Sandy there knocked me out. . . .
Well, one thing was for certain. Wherever he was, he was tied up well. Marty-2 could feel a lot of tight rope and knots around his wrists and ankles. He was also confined in a different way, wedged in between something hard and something relatively soft and grey. He groaned softly. Perfect, just perfect. . . .
“Hey?”
Marty-2's eyes widened. Was that his own voice? Ignoring the pain in his head, he looked up. Sitting next to him – or, more accurately, wedged in next to him – was – well, himself. Marty-2 blinked at him for a few minutes. “Am I hallucinating?” he finally asked.
“Afraid not,” Marty-1 replied, grimacing. “Though I wish one of us was.”
“Oh, is our guest finally conscious again?”
Marty-2 looked up. Now that the pain was fading and he was able to think again, he realized that he was stuffed into the back of a DeLorean – one that hadn’t been modified to seat four, like his Doc had done. The flux capacitor was between him and his counterpart, merrily fluxing away. In front of him were the seats – the Doc double, Jack, was sitting in the driver’s side. He was currently half-turned to smirk at them. Next to him, Marty-2 recognized the back of Sandra’s head. “Shit,” he said. “Where did you get this?”
“His world,” Jack said casually, pointing at Marty-1. “Though it appears I’ll soon have to figure out a way to upgrade. There’s no way a small car like this could help me in my plans.”
“Your plans?”
“He’s planning to hop through dimensions and kidnap all of us he can find,” Marty-1 explained.
“Perfectly put, Martin. Perhaps you’re not as stupid as I thought you were.” Jack smiled at Marty-2, making his skin crawl. “This young lady you introduced me to is quite lovely. I suppose thanks are in order.”
He thinks Sandra is lovely? Cripes, he must be insane. “What the hell do you want me for?”
Jack’s smile widened. “I want to hear you scream. And I want Emmett to know you’re screaming, and not be able to do a thing about it.”
Marty-2 felt a distinct chill. “Jesus,” he whispered. “But why?”
“Because you’re not worth the flesh you’re made out of, Martin.”
“I can agree with that,” Sandra said, turning around herself. “Allying with vampires – it’s sick.”
“You yourself--”
“I was young and stupid,” Sandra cut him off, glaring. “Much like yourself, really. Lucky for me, I woke up.”
“Vampires?” Marty-1 said, looking surprised. “You’re that Marty?”
Sandra and Jack both blinked. “You know each other?” Sandra asked. “How?”
“Oh, was that that other reality you told me about?” Jack asked, smirking. “How interesting. It’s all his fault that I got you, you know,” he told a shocked Marty-2. “He told me about the DeLorean, and how he and his friends saw another dimension.”
“What – why?” Marty-2 demanded, turning to face Marty-1. “You couldn’t have thought he was Doc! Why the hell would you tell him that stuff?”
“I didn’t want to! He was threatening to cut off my fingers!” Marty-1 said, looking a little misty-eyed. “Or worse, do the same to Doc!”
“I suppose that had something to do with it, yes,” Jack said calmly, that smirk still on his face. “But you caved very easily. You really must not think much of Emmett. I can’t imagine how disappointed he’ll be in you.”
Marty-1 lowered his head, letting his forehead rest against the seat, sniffling a little. Jack chuckled. “The expressions you make will always be priceless, Martin.” He turned back toward the steering wheel. “We’d better park so Sandra and I can find out where exactly we are and where our newest Martin is.”
Marty-2 frowned over at Marty-1. “Jesus. Did he really threaten to cut your fingers off?” he whispered to his counterpart.
Marty-1 nodded. “Yeah. Came close to actually doing it too, when I tried to deny we’d seen other dimensions. I tried to fight back, I swear. But he’s actually really strong for an old guy. And I was worried sick that, if I lost, Doc and his family would pay.” He looked at the back of Jack’s head with utter loathing. “He’s screwed up.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Marty-2 agreed. “I barely even know him, and he’s giving me some major willies.”
Marty-1 looked at Sandra. “Who’s she?”
“Vampire hunter. We ran into problems with a whole organization of them after we met you guys. Managed to take them down in the end – even convert a couple to our side. Sandy there was the worst of the lot, though. Tried to kill Doc a couple of times.” Marty-2 shuddered as he remembered the days of terror. “She eventually got herself committed when she attacked the set of a vampire movie that was filming there.”
“Holy shit. And I think my life is hard with nasty college professors. You guys are tough.”
Marty-2 looked from Sandra to Jack and back. “Not tough enough, I guess,” he mumbled, feeling low. “I should have just run for it.”
“I know how you feel,” Marty-1 said sympathetically.
Five seconds later, both boys realized what he had just said and burst into laughter. It was a bit on the hysterical side, sure, but it was also a bit of a needed release. Jack and Sandra gave them some strange looks. “They’d better not be going insane already,” Jack muttered. “I have too many plans for them to allow that.”
“If you ask me, the one you got from home was already a bit on the crazy side,” Sandra said. She shook her head. “Other dimensions. Wow. Never would have guessed.”
“Most people don’t,” Jack said, rolling his eyes. “But then again, most people are utter morons. Simple bugs for the greater beings to manipulate and squash when it’s convenient.” He grinned. “Or simply fun.” He brought the DeLorean closer to earth. “Ahh, that looks like a good place to park.”
Sandra frowned. “What if the owners are home?”
“We’ll do a little reconnaissance first, of course. It looks like they’re out for a little while, though. Lucky for them.” Jack sighed. “I am getting antsy. . . .”
Neither Marty really wanted to think about what that meant. They exchanged some nervous looks as the DeLorean touched ground. What were they gonna do?
Monday, September 7th
3:35 P.M.
“Hehehe – oh, Marty!”
“What?”
“The way you’re rooting around there kind of tickles.”
“Well, I can freeze time a little until I get it right.”
Jennifer shook her head, kissing his nose. “I dunno. You’re looking a little pale. I think you did it a little too often.”
“Hey, I won’t get any better at it without practice.”
“Yeah, but I don’t want you getting sick to your stomach either.” She glanced around the cellar that made up Doc Brown’s hidden time travel lab. “Are you sure Doc won’t mind us sneaking down here for some private time?”
“He shouldn’t,” Marty said, pulling Jennifer a bit more onto his lap. “I mean, if we’d tried to steal the train, then yeah, definitely. But he shouldn’t mind about us just having a little fun over here. Not like we’re rolling around on all his stuff.”
“Yet,” Jennifer teased, smirking.
Marty laughed. “You never let me get that far unless we’re in my truck. And even that’s only for a few minutes or so.”
“Well, we’re still only 19 years old. I’m not ready to risk becoming a mom yet. I mean, those twins in the future sound like they’ll be trouble enough – and we’ll be in our 30s when they come around.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s just – don’t you ever want to?”
“Sometimes. But Dad would probably kill us if we went that far. We wouldn’t even have to tell him – fathers just know.”
“Yeah, my Mom would probably kill me too,” Marty admitted. “I guess this works for now.”
“Come on, I’m letting you have a shot at my bra.”
“That’s true,” Marty smirked, going back to his hunting. Jennifer giggled, and they started kissing again.
Suddenly, there was a loud thud from upstairs. Marty and Jennifer broke apart, frowning. “What the hell--”
The thud was followed by a lot of noise and yelling. Marty thought he heard something about “Dr. Brown, American pig” and “get revenge for my beloved leaders.” His blood ran cold. “Oh, Jesus, don’t let this be who I think it is,” he said, extracting himself from Jennifer’s shirt.
Jennifer was eyeing the ceiling nervously. “Marty, what do you think is going on?” she asked, pulling her shirt back into place.
Marty swallowed. “I think the Libyan terrorists are back. At least one of them.”
Jennifer gulped. “Uh-oh. What do we do? Do we stay down here, or--”
“You stay down here – I’m gonna try and sneak up and get the drop on them.” Marty straightened out his own clothes and headed for the stairs, picking up a heavy spanner along the way.
“Marty, be careful,” Jennifer said, hurrying after him.
Marty gave her a smile. “I’ll be okay, Jen. After all, it’s kind of hard to hit someone when he can stop time.”
“But you only found out you can do that a few weeks ago. And you said you get kind of sick if you do it for too long or too often.”
“Yeah, but I’m not letting any of those assholes have a shot at Doc,” Marty said, hefting the spanner. “I still have nightmares about the first time they came after him. I can’t let them try it again.” He hugged her. “I don’t care if I do get sick – I gotta take the chance.”
Jennifer nodded, still looking worried. “Just – be careful. I know you’re a mutant, but you’re not an X-Man.”
“Then why do I have one of the suits?” Marty asked with a smirk. “I’ll be all right, Jennifer. You’ll see.” He gave her one last kiss before heading up the stairs.
He opened the trapdoor just a bit and peeked out. He couldn’t see too much – mostly legs. There was a man who looked a lot like Doc standing there, looking very surprised and pulling on something. Marty frowned – something was off about the guy. He wasn’t wearing the same clothes as he’d seen Doc wearing earlier, but it was more than that. Something just seemed to be – wrong.
He shook it off. Probably just his nerves over the Libyans getting to him. There were also two women, neither of whom Marty recognized – a blond, who looked just as shocked as Doc, and a brunette, who appeared to be of Middle Eastern or African descent. Marty supposed this was his bad guy, especially since she was waving a huge knife around and –
Marty blinked a few times. Was it just him, or had the woman tied the other two up using her hair? Oh, great, another mutant. Just what I need, a terrorist who’s got special abilities. He looked over at the spanner. At least being able to stop time kind of trumps her advantage.
There didn’t seem to be anyone else in the garage, which Marty was thankful for. That meant Clara and the kids were safe, and hopefully calling 911. That didn’t explain who the second strange woman was, but Marty was sure Doc would explain all to him once he’d been rescued. Here goes nothing, he thought, closing his eyes in concentration.
He felt the world around him freeze. Satisfied, he opened his eyes and climbed out of the trapdoor. The terrorist’s back was to him, making his job easier. He walked up to her, then carefully untangled her hair from around Doc’s and the strange woman’s wrists and legs. He got another strange feeling of uneasiness as he stood close to Doc – the guy was giving out odd vibes. Marty frowned up at him. “Something happen, Doc?” he asked, even though he knew his friend couldn’t hear him. “I sure hope not – dealing with this bitch will be enough excitement for me today.”
Still wondering what was wrong, he turned toward the terrorist. She looked to be a very frightening woman, with angry dark eyes and a scowling mouth. Marty took her knife away from her, shuddering. At least it’s not a rocket launcher. Jesus, I wonder how well I’ll be sleeping tonight. Might have to ask Doc to borrow the sleep inducer.
He felt the beginnings of a stomachache come over him and quickly got into position. He debated smacking the terrorist one while time was still frozen, but decided against it. He hadn’t done anything quite like that offensively to anyone while using his power, and he wasn’t sure if it would screw up the space-time continuum somehow. Wish I’d gotten more of a chance to ask Professor X about it. Being a newly-active mutant is tough. Bringing the spanner over his head, he let time start again.
Only for Doc to startle him into dropping his weapon by yelling, “What the – Martin?”
Marty had about five seconds to wonder why Doc was calling him “Martin.” Then the terrorist’s hair sprang back to life, this time snaking around him. It all happened so fast that Marty wasn’t able to use his power before his arms and legs were tightly bound. He struggled fruitlessly in the hair’s grip. Shit! Doc, why’d you have to say something? Now I can’t even stop time because I can’t use my arms to get free!
The terrorist looked backwards at him with an evil grin. “Ahh, the other American dog! I’ve been looking to get revenge on you too, since Abbas and Abdullah can’t.” A length of hair wrapped tightly around Marty’s throat – not quite tight enough to really choke him, but tight enough to be an annoyance. “Do you want to watch me kill him? It would be very easy, you know.”
“No! I have plans for him!” Doc – was it Doc? He was acting so out of character – held up his hands. “I’m not the person you’re after. I just happen to share an unfortunate facial resemblance.”
“Sure you do,” the terrorist sneered. “You weak, pathetic creature. You can’t even own up to your own deceit.” She retrieved her knife from the workbench, where Marty had left it. “I’m going to make sure you die nice and slow, Doktour Brown. I’m going to tie you to a wall, and I’m going to carve you open bit by bit. One piece, each day. And I’m going to break every bone in your body while I’m doing it.” She moved a little closer to the scientist. “And once I’ve cut you open, every part, I’m going to cut out your heart and I’m going to roast it for supper.”
Doc was staring at her with a very strange expression on his face. Marty couldn’t read it. It didn’t look disgusted or frightened, more – amazed. What the –
And then, out of nowhere, he pulled the terrorist close to him – and kissed her full on the lips.
Marty felt the jolt of a lifetime surge through him. Holy shit! No way in hell is that Doc! I can’t believe he’s kissing her after that! Jesus Christ, what’s going on here?
The terrorist herself seemed pretty startled as well, nearly releasing her grip on Marty before she got her bearings. After a moment, she pulled free of “Doc’s” embrace. “You’re not really Doktour Brown, are you?” she said, a tad breathlessly.
“Well, technically, I’m a Dr. Brown,” “Doc” said, with a smile that chilled Marty’s blood. “My name is Jack. What’s yours?”
“Amina,” the terrorist replied, looking suspicious but intrigued.
“Pretty name. Suits you well.” Jack leaned close to her, eyes shining with malicious glee. “Tell me again what you want to do to Emmett. It makes me feel so – dirty.”
Amina started to smile herself. “Really now. Perhaps I should make it even worse.”
“Oh yes. Like ripping apart the most sensitive parts of his body first, starting with that useless dick of his.”
“Maybe I could roast that too. . . .”
“Perfect, Amina, perfect! And make him eat some of it. . . .”
Marty wondered where the best spot to start puking would be. He couldn’t believe this. Some sort of weird twin of Doc apparently romancing one of the people trying to kill Doc? Via wanting to hear how he was going to die?
I’m dreaming, Marty decided. I have to be dreaming. Any minute now, my alarm is gonna go off, and I’m gonna open my eyes and realize this was all some crazy dream. He closed his eyes. All some crazy, crazy dream. And I’ll tell Doc all about it, and we’ll have a good laugh, and then–
“Uh, excuse me? Before you two start macking on each other again, I’d like some explanation as to what the hell’s going on,” the other weird woman cut in as Jack and Amina grinned at each other. “Specifically, what the fuck is up with your hair?!”
Amina somehow managed to look smug and a little ashamed at the same time. “I’m a mutant. This is what I can do. I know this makes me a freak, but--” she smirked over Marty “– I must say, it does come in handy.”
“Indeed,” Jack said. “What’s wrong, Martin? Wishing you were at home in your bed?”
“Exactly,” Marty admitted, opening his eyes. It was obvious that this wasn’t a dream anymore. He knew that if it was and he knew it, he’d have ended it five minutes ago. “Who are you again?”
“Dr. Jack Merridew Brown. Don’t know who I am?”
“Haven’t a clue.” Marty looked him up and down. “How come you look so much like Doc?”
“I’m supposed to be his twin brother. Apparently that didn’t happen here. Picked wrong again.” He smiled back at Amina. “So why does it feel so right?”
The other woman was still staring at Amina. “Mutants?”
“You came from a reality with vampires, so don’t quib--”
Jack paused as he noticed the open trapdoor in the corner. “Now what’s this?” he asked, going over to investigate.
Marty felt a cold jolt of fear. Jennifer! Shit, she’s still down there – and she doesn’t know that guy’s not Doc! Not to mention the train and all Doc’s time travel stuff is down there too! God damn it, why didn’t I close that door. . . . A few beads of sweat trickled down his ribcage. Please, let Jennifer be okay. . . .
“Probably just enough place where our dear Doktour hides from the world,” Amina said. “Perhaps we should go down there and wait for him?”
“Maybe,” Jack said, looking thoughtful. “I’ll go down first, make sure he’s not actually hiding at the moment.” He disappeared down the stairs. Marty squeezed his eyes shut, praying desperately that Jennifer got a chance to get away.
A few minutes later, Jack came charging back up the stairs, a huge grin splitting his face. “Sandra, we’ve found our upgrade! Get me a screwdriver so I can unhook my system from the DeLorean!”
“What? What are you talking about?” the other woman – Sandra – said, startled.
“There’s a locomotive down there! Large enough for all of us and more besides!” Jack shook his head, chuckling. “Emmett, I never knew you had it in you! Converting an actual train to time travel purposes. . . Perhaps you aren’t quite the screw up I thought you were.” He rubbed his hands together. “Oh, I’m going to enjoy taking this away from him. . . .”
Sandra and Amina both stared. “There’s a – a time traveling train down there?” Sandra asked. “Why would he have a time traveling train?”
“Don’t know, don’t care, as long as we can use it to our advantage.” Jack smiled at Amina. “We’re going to hurt Emmett in a way he never thought possible. Are you in?”
“Only with an explanation,” Amina said, looking completely confused.
“Ditto for her, I want to hear more about this mutant thing,” Sandra said, eyeing Amina’s hair again.
“Fair enough.” Jack offered his arm to Amina. “My dear, have you ever considered the possibility this may not be the only universe?”
Monday, September 7th
3:52 P.M.
Jennifer crouched behind the storage boxes, watching as that weird double of Doc finished fixing whatever that thing was to the train. She had never been so glad in her life that Doc was a both a packrat and pretty messy – without these boxes of clothes he’d gotten to facilitate in time trips and never really unpacked, she probably would be standing there with her – boyfriends, she supposed, looking over at the three Martys.
Part of her couldn’t quite believe all this was happening. She’d been listening at the stairwell for most of the confrontation. She’d been shocked when Marty had apparently failed to stop whoever it was threatening Doc – a feeling that only increased when the “Doc” turned out to be someone else entirely. The instant he’d discovered the trapdoor, she’d run for cover and found herself hiding in the boxes, looking out through the chinks between them. Even then, she probably would have been found if not for the Doc double – had she heard one of his accomplices call him Jack? – immediately noticing the train and deciding to steal it.
If only I had my own mutant power, she thought as Jack gave the thumbs up to the two women he was traveling with. Then I could bust out of here and stop them! Hell, I’d go for it anyway if I wasn’t so afraid they’d hurt Marty. Er, one of them – oh, hell, all of them. Though how they got spares is beyond me. . . .
She looked over the three Martys as they were forced into the train (well, two of them were – her own Marty was still wrapped in the Middle Eastern woman’s hair). They basically looked like triplets – Jennifer wasn’t sure if they were even different ages or not. The first Marty looked particularly depressed, while the second was still struggling against his captors. Her own looked like he wanted to do the same, but he was bound too tightly. Come on, second Marty, Jennifer thought. Get one of them! Then maybe I can help.
Unfortunately, it was not to be. The Middle Eastern woman apparently got tired of the second Marty trying to kick them and put her knife to his throat. “Behave yourself, pig! I have no problem with killing you and leaving your body to rot down here!”
“Oh, come on, Amina, leave him alive,” Jack said with a grin. “I can only imagine the fun we’ll have with him.” He looked at the train smokestack. “Of course, I don’t have any problems with you cutting off a limb or two to help fuel this thing if he doesn’t behave.”
The second Marty stiffened, turning dead white. Jennifer barely bit back a shriek. That – damn it, I hate being normal!
Finally, the three Martys were loaded up. Jack checked to see if they had everything. Then he hopped inside and closed up the cab. Jennifer watched him move around through the windows, hoping that he wouldn’t be able to figure out the controls. She never had, at any rate.
Unfortunately, it was not to be. After a couple of minutes, the time train came to life. It slowly began chugging down the tunnel toward Eastwood Ravine, steam hissing from the sides. Jennifer watched it go, feeling sick. She didn’t know much of what was happening – but from the snatches of conversation she’d caught while Jack and his friends worked, they’d apparently taken all the Martys to torture them. This is terrible! I gotta tell Doc so we can go back and stop all this! And figure out where those poor other Martys came from. She shook her head. He’d better not pull that temporal paradox crap on me – I’m not in the mood.
She cautiously crept out from behind the boxes as the tail end of the train disappeared. Once she was certain she wasn’t going to be discovered, she raced up the stairs and out of the garage. “Okay, do I wait here for them to come back, or do I--”
She paused. Something seemed to be weird about the air near the house. It looked to be – warping – a little. Like it was flowing around an object that wasn’t really there. And was it just her, or did she hear chugging sounds. What the hell? That sounds like the train. But – but the bad guys just took it! Did they turn on the invisibility and time travel for some reason? Or is that some version of Doc and company from the future? She rubbed her forehead. Ugh, I’m getting such a headache. . . .
The invisible thing drew closer, then landed with much whistling of steam on the lawn. Jennifer backed into the garage, waiting to see if whoever emerged was friend or foe. She really wished Marty and Doc were there – they were much better at this sort of thing than she was. “Doc had better get back soon,” she muttered, picking up Marty’s dropped spanner, just in case.
Nothing happened for a moment. Then, suddenly, the train appeared in all its glory. Jennifer heard voices from inside. “You’re sure it’s wise to do this?”
“This looks like where I live at home – it’s pretty secluded, and besides, we need to get his attention right away.”
“A flying, time-travel-equipped steam train will do that, yes.”
“It looks pretty quiet around here to me – do you think he’s home?”
Jennifer nearly dropped the spanner in shock. Had that last voice been her own? Well, at least I know these are the good guys. She nervously exited the garage. “Uh, hello?”
The voices inside the train fell silent. Then, the window on the side of the main cab opened, revealing Doc, looking quite harried. “Jennifer?”
“Doc! Please tell me you’re from the future and here to help fix all this!” Jennifer said, running up to the side of the train.
“No to the former, but yes to the latter,” Doc said. “It’s a very complicated situation. I take it, though, you saw your Marty kidnapped by a man who looked quite a lot like me?”
Jennifer nodded rapidly. “Yeah, and they had two other Martys with them – was one of them yours?” she asked suddenly. “Did he manage to get his hands on one of Marty’s future selves?”
“No. . . .” Doc took a deep breath, looking nervous. “Jennifer, this may be a little hard to understand, but – we’re from an alternate dimension. Two of them, in fact. We’re tracking someone else who’s apparently set on kidnapping as many versions of Marty as possible.”
Jennifer frowned at him. Alternate dimensions? Even with her boyfriend’s best friend having invented time travel, that sounded pretty out there. Then she remembered some of the weird things that Jack person had said. “A different reality – one simple reversed choice, and the entire world goes lopsided. . . . I’m supposed to be Emmett’s brother. . . . Mutants are no weirder than vampires, and that’s what we saw last time. . . .” “It’s all pretty confusing,” she admitted to the Doc. “Alternate dimension?”
A second Doc joined the first, hiding a yawn. “It may sound unbelievable, but it’s true. We happen to know each other from a previous incident. If you want further proof, we’ve got two versions of you in here, along with two different women we each married.”
That made Jennifer blink. “What? You’re saying one of you married someone other than Clara?”
“So, two of you to one of me so far, eh? Wanna make bets on how many different women we see him end up with?” a strange voice said from inside.
“Not really – it’s confusing enough with just you,” what sounded like Clara’s voice replied.
Jennifer slumped against the wall. “Oh, Jesus. All I wanted was a quiet day to spend with my boyfriend.”
“We know the feeling,” her own voice said. Another Jennifer joined the Docs. Jennifer’s eyes widened – then she quickly averted them as she began to feel a little light-headed. “I’m actually planning my wedding at the moment, and I don’t want to be short a groom.”
“Wedding?” Jennifer risked a sideways look at her counterpart. Weird. Though not quite as weird as that 47-year-old me from that crazy first time trip. “How old are you?”
“22,” Jennifer said. “My Doc and I are from 1990. The other one’s from 1989.”
“Oh. Uh, interesting, I guess.”
The first Doc looked around. “Is your version of myself at home? I assume this is my house, judging from the fact that you’re here and it looks almost the same as my own in my home dimension.”
“Yeah, it is, but he’s not at the moment. I think he’s having a little tune-up done to his DeLorean in the future.”
The other Jennifer blinked. “But the DeLorean’s – oh, that must be ours!”
“Good, that probably means our doppleganger is nearby,” the second Doc grinned, a bit evilly. “And hopefully we can catch up to him shortly. What about any family members?”
“Clara and the kids are at the park. You know Jules and Verne at least, right?”
“Yes – at least?” the first Doc said, blinking.
“Well, my version has another kid he adopted from the future, named J.C., but I don’t know if you have her as well.”
First Doc shook his head. “Nobody like her, no. Why would he adopt a child from the future?”
“That’s a very long story--”
A triple sonic boom suddenly filled the air. “That he can explain to you,” Jennifer said, relieved. “Doc! Doc, down here!”
The second DeLorean swooped down to meet them. Doc was out of the car almost before it landed. “What in the name of Sir Isaac H. Newton is going on here?” he demanded, staring first at the train, then at the second DeLorean, then at Jennifer.
“A mess,” Jennifer said succinctly.
“Hello,” the first Doc said as the second Doc waved. “We’re sorry to barge in on you like this, but we have a potentially catastrophic situation--”
“Don’t say potentially. It’s already catastrophic as far as I’m concerned,” the other Jennifer said, frowning.
Doc frowned deeply. “Catastrophic? In terms of the space-time continuum falling apart?”
“It could happen,” the second Doc said. “And there’s a far more immediate consequence as well. Simply put, we have a morally-defunct double going around who is kidnapping Marty McFly as many times as he is able.”
Doc blinked. “Er, what?”
“We’re not from the same dimension as you,” First Doc said. “Whoever our doppelganger is, he’s found a way to transverse different realities. He’s already taken my Marty and his, and your Jennifer says she just saw him take yours as well.”
“Who would – what were you doing here, anyway?” Doc asked, frowning at Jennifer.
“We wanted a little private time,” Jennifer said with a blush. “I’m not entirely sure what happened, frankly. Apparently one of the Libyan terrorists you pissed off tried to ambush you, but she got this other guy. And then they all found the train, and--”
All three Docs looked horrified. “They took my locomotive?!” Doc demanded.
“How many of them were there?” the second Doc asked, looking worried.
“There was that other you – well, I guess he’s not really another you, the other two kept calling him Jack,” Jennifer said. “Then there was this blonde woman – I think her name was Sandra – and a Middle Eastern woman, who I assume was the person Marty tried to take down. Doc, I would have tried to stop them, but – it was three against one, and two of them had knives!” She bit her lip. “That asshole who looks like you threatened to hack one of Martys up and use him for firewood if he didn’t behave himself.”
Doc’s eyes narrowed. “He what?”
First and Second Doc looked similarly furious. “If he hurts any of the Martys, I’ll figure out a way to prevent him from ever being born,” Second Doc said. “Screw time paradoxes.”
“I’ll settle for a less intellectual option,” First Doc muttered. “We’d better get moving as quickly as possible, then. Where did they take the train?”
“How do we know we can trust you?” Doc countered, looking suspicious. “I’ve toyed around with the idea of alternate dimensions through my time travel research, but I’ve never actually met anyone from one. How do I know you’re not similarly dangerous?”
Clara appeared from behind First Doc, along with a pale black-haired woman. “Does having us on board work?” the black-haired one asked with a friendly smile.
“Probably only Clara would convince him,” Second Doc told her. “He knows his wife, not you.”
Doc blinked. “Er, yes. Who are you?”
“Option two if you don’t go to the Old West. My name’s Mysteria.”
Jennifer raised an eyebrow. “Mysteria?”
“My parents weren’t keen on regular names,” Mysteria said, rolling her eyes.
“Really, Emmett, it’s okay,” the Clara said, smiling. “Do you think I would be with any verison of you that was a lunatic?”
“They’re acting a lot more like you than that other freak,” Jennifer said. “And if they can help save Marty. . . .”
“Right,” Doc nodded, apparently satisfied. “The tunnel leads to Eastwood Ravine, so I assume they’d end up there. It takes a while to get there, though, so maybe we can cut them off before they do anything.”
“Great! Hop in!” First Doc said, opening up the cab doors.
Doc and Jennifer immediately got inside. Doc looked around as First Doc closed things up. “Looks just like mine, really.”
The other Jennifer glanced at her counterpart, then shook her head. “You know, dimension hopping really makes you feel weird. I feel like I’m part of a line of action figures or something.”
“Yeah, I know,” Jennifer agreed. “I don’t know how I feel about knowing there’s other versions of me out there. What if one of them turns out to be a crazy like this Jack person who captured Marty?”
“Then let’s hope we don’t meet her on this trip,” the first Jennifer at the window said.
“You bring up an interesting point there, Jennifer – well, Jennifer-3, I suppose,” the first Doc said as they lifted off. “I wonder just how many alternate dimensions there are.”
“Probably more than the human mind can comprehend,” Second Doc said, looking thoughtful. “Considering alternate dimensions can conceivably cover any and every action taken by any person anywhere. I mean, even taking into account alternate universes only inspired by our actions, there could be thousands. There’s all the ones based on major events, but small actions could have an impact too.”
“A variation on the butterfly effect in weather systems,” Doc nodded. “The smallest action could have the biggest result. God knows we’ve probably all seen examples in our time traveling.”
The Jennifers and Clara and Mystie all looked at each other. “It’s going to get really hard to pull them out of science land now, isn’t it?” the window Jennifer asked.
“I’m more worried my head’s going to explode if they start in on the real technobabble,” Jennifer admitted.
The Docs all blushed. “Well, we’ll keep it to plain English as much as we can,” First Doc promised. “And if we can stop them here, you’ll only have to listen to three of us debate ourselves. . . .” He steered toward Eastwood Ravine. “Keep your fingers crossed, everyone.”
They reached Eastwood Ravine just in time to see the second time train emerge from the tunnel. First Doc positioned himself so that his train blocked the second train’s way. The second train stopped, then turned itself so that the cabs were facing each other. The Docs crowded around the doors, watching as their mystery double examined the new train, then disappeared into the body. “What do you think he’s doing?” Second Doc asked.
“I hate to say it, but I think he’s going to try using his hostages against us,” First Doc admitted.
Sure enough, the double reappeared holding a tightly-bound Marty. He indicated for the Docs to open their doors. Cautiously, First Doc pulled the lever. Their double did the same. “Hello Emmett!” he called, looking frighteningly cheerful. “Thinking of trying to stop me?”
“What are you trying to do with Marty?” Doc shot back, glaring.
“Exact a little much-needed pleasure and revenge, that’s all,” the double said, patting Marty’s head. The teenager shivered. “I simply consider it a bonus that I can collect a number of them to do it to.”
“Revenge? None of us even know you!” Second Doc said, looking confused. “We didn’t even know your name until a few minutes ago, Jack!”
“I don’t care,” Jack smiled. “I just like knowing that you’re worried sick about your precious little Martins.” He glanced downward. “He does have a nice little ass, doesn’t he? I wouldn’t mind trying it out myself.”
All three Docs felt their tempers hit the roof. “You lay one finger on any version of Marty,” Second Doc started, snarling, “and--”
Jack suddenly shoved Marty out the door, holding him by the back of his shirt. “But since I have two spares, I guess I could just throw this one into the ravine and watch him splatter himself on the rocks,” he said casually.
The Docs stared. “You wouldn’t dare,” First Doc finally whispered.
“Oh? You don’t care for him that much?” Jack let his grip loosen a bit. The Marty let out a yelp. “Maybe you want to see him splatter too? Just to see what it would look like?”
Second Doc clung to the doorframe, staring at Marty’s suspended figure. “Leave my friend alone!” he yelled, his wings aching to be used. If only I didn’t have to worry about frightening my third self – I’d fly straight over there, and – oh, God, he’d drop Marty anyway, and I don’t know if I could catch him safely in time. . . .
“You don’t know that he’s yours,” Jack said. “I might still have your version of Marty inside, safe and sound. What would be wrong with letting this one die?”
“It doesn’t matter!” First Doc yelled, horrified. “They’re all still Marty McFly! None of us could leave one of them to die in good conscience!”
“Which is why I’m better than you,” Jack smirked, letting his grip weaken more. “Granted, I’m not quite as keen on killing any of them as I normally would be, but that’s only because I haven’t had any time to play with them properly.” His smirk grew wider. “Sacrificing one might be worth it just to see the looks on all your faces, though.”
“Doc, you’ve got a time machine!” the Marty suddenly yelled. “Just go back and stop these idiots before--”
“You vapid child, I have a time machine too!” Jack cut him off. “I could go back earlier and kill them all to make sure they couldn’t stop me! You want to be responsible for that?”
“LEAVE HIM THE HELL ALONE!” Doc roared, losing his temper. The air around him started to spark a little. Behind him, Mysteria sniffed and mumbled, “Anyone else smell ozone?”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Emmett,” Jack said silkily. “However, I won’t kill him right away if you back off. I don’t mind you chasing me – it adds to the fun – but I can’t have you stopping me right here.”
The Docs stood there for a moment. Jack’s grip loosened more. The Marty whimpered. “So eager to see what Martin’s insides look like?”
There was nothing for it. The Docs retreated back inside the cab, closing the doors. Jack smirked again and hauled the Marty back inside before closing his own. First Doc took the controls and piloted them away, feeling tears burning at the back of his eyes. “Great Scott. . . .”
Clara came up behind him and put her arms around him. “Oh, Emmett,” she whispered, sounding near tears herself.
“That – that bastard!” the first Jennifer snarled, looking like she wanted to put a fist through the window. “He was – and he was smiling! Did you see that?!”
“I did indeed,” Second Doc said, looking back in the direction of the other train. “I have a hard time believing our Jack double is human. That smile. . .you’d only see that on something without a soul.” He bowed his head, shaking a little. “Damn it, I feel so helpless. . . .”
Mysteria pulled him into a hug. “There wasn’t all that much you could do,” she whispered, patting his back. Too bad we couldn’t both just fly over there without worrying if he was going to kill Marty before we could get him or use some sort of time travel trick on us, she added privately. I have to know, though – was it our Marty?
No, it was one of the others, Second Doc told her. Not that it makes a difference to me. Marty is Marty, and I couldn’t let any version of him come to harm.
Doc kicked at the wall, not caring that hard metal and a relatively soft foot didn’t go well together. “Damn! Damn, damn! What are we going to do now? We can’t even time travel because he’s got my train!”
“We do have three time machines to his one,” Second Jennifer said. “Maybe we could get him like that?”
“I don’t know. He’s ruthless, and he probably doesn’t care about time paradoxes – him or his companions,” Doc said darkly. “And I’m worried that if we continue tracking him and get too close again. . . .”
“He might not bother with the warning next time?” First Doc finished.
Doc put his face in his hands. “I can’t stand to watch him die like that,” he whispered. “That boy’s like a son to me.”
“We know the feeling,” Second Doc said as First Doc nodded. “I felt rather dangerously close to throwing up at the mental images Jack was giving me.”
“But we can’t just abandon them!” Jennifer said, looking fearful.
“No, we can’t,” First Doc said. “We’ll have to keep tracking them – even though it apparently plays right into what Jack wants. And hopefully, we’ll be able to catch them unawares at a critical moment and reclaim our best friends.” He sighed. “And if we’re particularly lucky, we’ll get them back before any permanent damage has been done to them.”
“Who the hell is he, anyway?” Second Jennifer demanded. “And if he’s named Jack, why does he look just like you?”
“He mentioned something about being your brother back when he was fooling around with the train,” Jennifer said. “But you don’t have a brother, do you?”
The Docs could only shake their heads and shrug. “I suppose it doesn’t really matter in the long run,” First Doc said. “All that matters is getting Marty back.”
“Yeah, true. So what do we do now?”
“I suppose we’ll have to back off for a bit to ensure their safety,” First Doc replied, though he didn’t look happy about it.
“I vote we return to my place of residence and retrieve the spare DeLorean – there should be space for it in the back carriage,” Doc said. “And I’ll need to tell my family what’s going on.” He looked around. “Of all the things that could happen to us, being visited by alternate dimensional duplicates wasn’t high on my mental list.”
“Wasn’t on any of ours, either,” Mystie said. “Even given the fact we’ve done it before.”
“Pardon?”
“Emmett-2 and I have met before,” First Doc said, indicating Second Doc as he turned the train back toward the farmhouse. “We opened up a portal of our own testing out a device to transverse distances as well as time periods.”
“The Temporal Displacement Locator?” Doc said. “I invented that myself recently – it’s installed in both my DeLorean and the train. Should I uninstall it in view of the circumstances?”
“Oh, no, that wasn’t the problem,” Second Doc said. “The problem was that we somehow managed to initiate time travel at the exact same instant. It appears that the stress was somehow too much for the space-time continuum to take, so it ripped open a portal between our dimensions. We resealed it after some confusion.”
“So how did Jack--”
“I have no idea,” First Doc said, frustrated. “He must have modified my DeLorean to simulate the effect whenever he initiated time travel, and then done the same to your train. This doesn’t explain how he ended up in my world in the first place, but we can figure that out later.”
“Wouldn’t changing the train like that have taken a while?” First Jennifer asked, looking confused. “I mean, he had the DeLorean for a couple of hours, but he just took the train.”
“He wired up something to the train’s flux capacitor – I guess he just transferred what he’d already built for the DeLorean over,” Jennifer shrugged. “Ugh, I really wish I could have done something. . . .”
“It’s not your fault,” Doc said soothingly, patting her shoulder. “I doubt many people would have risked going up against at least two psychopaths. I’m just glad you escaped so you could warn me.”
“How did you get out of there?” First Clara asked. “I thought they would have taken you too at the first opportunity.”
“Thank your husband’s messy ways – I hid behind a bunch of boxes when Jack came down. Even then, I’m lucky he immediately fixated on that train. I was scared half to death one of them was going to notice me and – well, I don’t really want to think about it,” Jennifer admitted. “None of them seemed sane, not even the blonde.”
“Sandra? No, she’s definitely not,” Second Doc said. “She was committed in our world – tried to kill a lot of people just because she thought they were evil. Marty and I were near the top of her list.”
“Oh, perfect. Does this have anything to do with this vampire craziness she was blabbering on about?”
Second Doc, Second Jennifer, and Mysteria suddenly looked nervous. “Er, yes,” Second Doc admitted quietly. “She – um – got it into her head that my wife and I are vampires.” He grinned insincerely. “Silly, isn’t it?”
Doc frowned. “Vampires?” He paused. “Sounds about as silly as me being a mutant,” he finally said.
That got a more sincere grin. “Exactly. I’ve never heard about a mutant outside of the covers of a comic book.”
Doc and Jennifer both blinked. “Really?” Doc said, trying to disguise his surprise. “None at all?”
“Well, besides the ones who don’t get superpowers,” Second Doc shrugged. “Though it would probably help our cause to have a couple powerful ones on our team.”
Doc grinned faintly. “Yes,” he admitted, exchanging a nervous look with Jennifer. “Too bad.”
Second Jennifer sighed deeply. “So, we’re dealing with one, a soulless lunatic who looks just like Doc; two, a crazy woman who thinks Marty and Doc are evil; and three, a Libyan terrorist who, from what I saw, is also completely insane.”
“I would completely agree with that,” First Doc said with a shiver. “Amina Ali was arguably the worst of the Libyan terrorists I dealt with. I’m glad she wasn’t one of the two who came after me during the initial time travel experiment – I doubt either Marty or I would have survived if she had.”
“Yeah,” Jennifer said slowly, “given she and Jack appeared to be flirting with each other. . . .”
First Doc accidentally yanked on the controls, giving all the passengers a jolt. “Jennifer! Are you trying to give me nightmares?!”
“I’m sorry! I have to share the pain!”
“This Jack person – with Amina,” Second Doc said slowly. “Even knowing as little as we do about Jack. . . .”
“I don’t think I want to know more – either about Jack or that particular situation,” Mysteria said, making a face.
They arrived back at Doc’s house without incident, luckily. Doc saw his van parked out front, along with Clara, Jules, Verne, and J.C. examining the two DeLoreans. They all looked up upon hearing the train. “Oh, come on, Dad!” J.C. yelled as they landed. “I’m not in the mood for the space-time continuum to be in danger!”
“Are we ever?” Jules asked her.
“No, but coming off going to the park?” Jules shrugged and nodded.
“Sorry, kids,” Doc said, disembarking. “I’m afraid we’ve got a major situation on our hands.”
“What is it? Past self dying because of someone messing up time? Past self dying because of someone not messing up time? Future self coming back to prevent some sort of disaster? Future self coming back to prevent someone from preventing some sort of disaster because preventing the disaster makes a worst disaster?”
“And you were worried she wouldn’t adapt,” Doc told Clara with an amused smile. “Actually, this situation has little to do with actual time travel.”
J.C. frowned. “Then why are there two DeLoreans, and the train out?”
“Because this situation involves alternate universes and Martys being kidnapped wholesale,” First Doc said, coming out a few steps.
There was a long moment of silence. “Okay then,” J.C. finally said.
Clara blinked. “Alternate universes? There’s a very long explanation behind this, isn’t there?”
“Extremely,” Second Doc said, poking a head out a window. “We can give you the most pertinent details quickly, though. Your Marty was just kidnapped, and the person who did it also stole your version of the time train.”
“What?! How?”
“Some really bad luck on our part,” Jennifer said, getting out of the train. “I can vouch for them on this alternate reality thing, I heard the guy talking about it.” She gave a quick summary of the events in the garage, cautiously working around the whole mutant aspect.
Clara looked infuriated. “That’s – that’s – oh, poor Marty! And I can’t believe that whoever did this looks like Emmett! He – he should grow a beard, or something, at least!”
“We don’t like it either,” First Doc admitted. “And I’m sure the Martys like it the least.”
Verne looked puzzled. “But how could they take Marty? He can–”
Doc quickly shushed his son. “He’s not infallible,” he said. Glancing back at his counterparts, he added in a quieter voice, “Apparently mutants don’t exist in their worlds – not in the same way. I’m not entirely sure how they’d react if they found out.”
“I think they’d think it was neat,” Jules said, looking over at them.
“I don’t know,” Doc said. “One of them was supposedly attacked by one of Jack’s compatriots for being a vampire, so perhaps telling them I’m not exactly ‘normal’ would bring up some bad memories. We’re going to have to work together to get Marty back, so my being seen as a freak wouldn’t help us at all.”
Clara looked dubious. “Emmett, they’ll probably notice something odd. You’re sure to get mad on this trip, and you know what happens around you when that happens.”
“Well, we don’t have to tell them right this second. The important thing is to keep after Jack for now.”
“Everything okay over there?” First Doc called.
“Just explaining things to the kids,” Doc called back. First Doc nodded understandingly. “At any rate, we’re going to have to follow this – I hesitate to call him a man, but I don’t want to swear in front of our boys--”
“Never stopped you when you hit yourself with a tool,” J.C. smirked. Doc rolled his eyes.
“A very sarcastic adopted daughter, isn’t she?” Second Doc teased.
“I get that way,” J.C. said. “Either of you know me? New York, 2005?”
The two other Docs shook their heads. “Mysteria and I don’t have children at all,” Second Doc admitted, looking a little sad. “We’d like to, but it hasn’t happened yet.”
“I have Jules and Verne, plus toddler twin girls myself,” First Doc said. “Martina and Johanna. And I hate to say this, but in a way, you’re lucky you don’t have children at the moment. I’d hate to think what would happen if he’d gotten his hands on my kids.”
Doc winced. “After what we saw? I know.” He pulled Jules, Verne, and J.C. into a hug. “Great Scott, I’m glad you weren’t here and he couldn’t get his paws on you too.”
“Us too, Dad,” J.C. said, squeezing back. “I know you’re gonna kick that jerk’s butt, though.”
“Right!” Jules and Verne chorused.
“When are you leaving?” Clara asked.
“The sooner the better,” Doc said. “We need to load up this spare DeLorean first – I assume it’s yours – er--”
“We’re using a numbering system for the lack of anything better,” First Doc said. “Just call me One.”
“One, right. Then we have to find my train and see what we can do about stopping this lunatic and his friends.”
“What if he’s tried another dimension skip?” J.C. asked worriedly.
“We know what a portal looks like, and it remains open indefinitely unless you close it via a repeat of the opening procedure,” First Doc – Doc-1 – said. “We can follow him through there.”
“As you can obviously surmise, we’ve already done it twice,” Second Doc – Doc-2 – nodded.
“You mean, he could – Emmett, I want to go with you,” Clara said. “I don’t like the idea of you going on this alone, especially if you’re going to be randomly hopping between different universes. Knowing you’re in a different time period is worrying enough.”
“I’m going too,” Jennifer said firmly. “The other Jennifers are following their Martys, and I’m going to do the same.”
Doc looked back at his doubles. “I suppose it’s useless to try and dissuade you, seeing as, in a way, I’ve lost that argument twice. . . . And I get the feeling we’ll need all the help we can get.”
“Babysitter reporting for duty,” J.C. said, snapping a salute. “You guys go get those idiots. I’ll watch Jules and Verne.”
“We really don’t need that much supervision,” Jules told her with a frown.
“Yeah, but neither of you can use the stove yet. Not that I will be either, I fully intend to order pizza.”
Clara rolled her eyes a bit, but smiled. “Thank you, honey. Hopefully we’ll be back in just a short while.”
“I hope so too,” J.C. said, her own smile fading. “I’m really going to worry while you guys are out there.”
“Don’t,” Doc said, hugging her. “We’ll be all right. And once we get home, we’ll all have pizza together and put this entire rotten day behind us.”
J.C. nodded. “Go save the day, Dad.”
“I fully intend to.” Doc kissed her cheek, then his boys’ foreheads. “You be good for your sister, all right?”
“We will,” Jules promised.
“Be careful, Papa,” Verne said, giving his father a hug.
“I’ll do my best.” Doc turned toward his other selves. “Come on, let’s load up the other DeLorean.”
Clara and Jennifer said their goodbyes as the Docs maneuvered the car into the train’s carriage. “I almost wish he’d kept using this,” Doc-1 muttered as they finished up. “Now we’re going to have to rely totally on random searching, without my watch to warn us when he’s tried a dimension skip.”
“I know,” Doc-2 sighed. “Hopefully we’ll be able to catch him soon after each one.”
Doc frowned. “Do you really think it’s going to go on for a while?”
“Past performance seems to indicate so,” Doc-2 said. “Let’s be honest – with a dimension-hopping device at his disposal, do you think he’s going to stop at merely three? Not to mention he has leverage over us with the Martys, and he knows it.”
“Not much we can do about that,” Doc-1 said. “Even if we let him kill one and then saved him via time machine. . . .” He wrapped his arms around himself as memories of another psychotic him threatening Marty’s life came to the forefront of his mind. “I could never live with myself.”
“I don’t think any of us could,” Doc-2 said, wincing as he remembered all the times Marty’s life had been threatened during the soulless and V.E.A. crises. “Damn it, I just want to--”
“Resort to a brawn over brains strategy? Me too,” Doc said sympathetically. “But right now, we’re going to have to rely on our brains if we want to get our friends back.”
Clara looked in. “Are you boys ready?”
“Ready as we’ll ever be,” Doc-1 said. “Come on, let’s get going. If the bastard has opened a portal, we’ll need to catch up to him as soon as possible.”
“Right.” The Docs secured the DeLorean, then headed back for the main train cab, followed by Clara and Jennifer. Clara started a little at seeing Clara-1. “Golly!”
“Like looking in a funhouse mirror of some sort,” Clara-1 nodded, looking her other self up and down.
“It’s pretty weird from this angle too,” Mysteria said, frowning at the two women. “All I can think of is the mirror scene from Duck Soup.”
Clara looked at her. “You know, as odd as this is, I think it’s even odder, seeing Emmett married to someone else,” she admitted softly.
Mystie winced. “I know the feeling. I’m not bothering you, am I?”
“I’m – not sure. I suppose it’s only natural Emmett might have met someone else if he hadn’t saved me, but. . . .” She shook her head. “I’ll get over it. We have more important things to worry about.”
“Well, if you want to talk about it after we’ve saved the Martys and probably the space-time continuum in the bargain, I’m open,” Mystie said. Clara smiled at that.
“Everyone on?” Doc-1 asked, looking around. “All right, I’m taking her up.”
“What do you think the odds are that he’s already left for another dimension?” asked Jennifer-2 as they rose into the air.
“Near 1:1,” Doc-1 admitted. “He knows we’re after him, so why linger? Keep your fingers crossed we can find the portal quickly.”
“Where do you want to start?” Doc asked as they flew off. J.C., Jules, and Verne waved goodbye – he waved back.
“Eastwood Ravine. Logical enough to assume he might leave from there. Especially if he hasn’t figured out how to activate any invisibility devices on your train.” He flipped a switch. “Speaking of which, we should probably make ourselves invisible too. No sense attracting undue attention.”
“I wouldn’t care if we did, at the moment,” Doc said. “I’ve dealt with the police before about strange sightings around my house – I can do it again. And besides, if we plan to leave this reality, it doesn’t even matter in the long run.”
“Fair enough.”
Eastwood Ravine was silent when they returned. Doc-1 slowly drove the train down it as the rest of the team crowded the windows, looking for the telltale shimmer of a dimensional portal. Finally, Jennifer thought she saw something. “Hey, looks like there’s something up there – it’s supposed to look like a random shimmer in the sky, right?”
Mysteria, beside her, looked up. “Yup! That would be it! Good eyes.”
“Thanks.”
“We’ve found it?” Doc-1 asked, looking over from the controls.
“Yup – it’s hanging in the sky just above the lip of the ravine,” Mysteria reported. “Shall we go and see what horrors await us next?”
“Of course,” Doc-1 said, angling the train carefully. “Hang on, everyone.” He started accelerating toward the portal.
“He means it,” Doc-2 warned the newcomers. “Traveling through dimensions means encountering quite a lot of turbulence.”
“Whatever it takes to find Marty,” Doc said, finding a good handhold. Clara and Jennifer nodded, hanging on tightly to the walls of the train.
Seconds later, yet another universe – this one known as X-Duology – was regulated to the past.