Author: MX5 PM
Pretty generic title for one thing. Doc and Marty are hanging out and in comes another time traveler from the future. Marty is dazzled by her attire and the futuristic supercar, she becomes friends with them, and invites them to come visit her in 2012. Prelude to other fics if this one is successful with readers!Rated: Fiction K+ - English - Doc/Dr. Emmet Brown & Marty McFly - Words: 5,143 - Reviews: 1 - Published: 10-02-12 - Status: Complete - id: 8576383
|A+ A- Full 3/4 1/2 Expand Tighten|
The Time Traveler
Back to the Future
Hill Valley, California
August 14, 1986
Doc Brown had moved back into the current time and Marty McFly was very happy to have his old friend back. Together with Clara and their two boys, Doc had established himself as the leading professor on physics who taught for the university via special 3 hour long lectures every semester. Clara was the stay-at-home mom, and both Jules and Verne had been enrolled at school that previous year. To the parents' delight, the boys had settled in nicely like they had never left Hill Valley. Of course in a sense, they hadn't at all really.
The scientist was sitting on the DeLorean driver's side seat, fiddling with the time circuits again. He'd bought another DeLorean and fixed it up the same way he'd had before. The newer version could fly and he was happy to have that ability back again. Now, he was pulling out the old future/past/present display and installing newer circuits to upgrade the system. His dog Einstein pawed at his master's leg with a little whine. Doc let his dog outside in the backyard where Einstein flopped over into the grass and began to rub himself everywhere he could, wriggling merrily. Doc laughed as he saw a Toyota truck, resplendent in black, pull up in his driveway.
Marty McFly stepped out of the aforementioned truck and Doc went over to him with a smile. Marty had grown some more after the trip into 1885 and he'd filled out more in his shoulders and chest. He was more muscular and regarded Doc with the friendly blue eyes Doc had known for several years.
"Hey, Doc," the teenager grinned. "what are you up to today?"
"Not much," the scientist replied, raking a hand through his wild hair to try to smooth it down, but failed. He gave up on that pretty quickly as he took Marty by the shoulder and steered him into the garage. "I'm upgrading the circuitry for the DeLorean."
"Nice. You do it for the train too?"
"Already done it." Doc took a tool and leaned into the driver's side again where he had the circuits out and lying in the passenger side seat. "It'll mean a smoother reentry for us to be sure..." Marty tuned him out and watched the dog in the backyard chasing butterflies.
Marty was about to nod off from Doc's droning on when he heard a screeching of car brakes and saw a flash of gold pass by the garage window. "Hey Doc, I just saw something!"
"What?" Doc poked his head out through the door.
"Odd, but I thought I saw gold." Marty opened up the door and went out into the side yard. "Doc, check this out!"
A golden colored car, the likes of which they had never seen before, was sitting in a grove of thick pine trees. The hood was low and the front of the grille said GT and underneath there was an R. It was sleek and styled very oddly to them and they would have taken a closer look had the door not opened in an odd fashion. Insted of gull wing doors like the DeLorean, the door opened up vertically like knife blade from a pocketknife. The car was covered with a thick sheen of ice which was slowly melting off as the driver exited the car.
"What the hell?" Marty took a step closer as the person got out.
The woman had medium length wavy red hair, she was wearing a tank top with a cutout X in the front that extended to the top of her cleavage. The shirt was in a bright neon red and black lightning design, cut just above her midriff so it showed. She was wearing black sport shades and had on a pair of black track pants with a thin red stripe going up each side. Her sneakers were matching black with an N outlined in red stitching on the outermost side of each shoe. Red barrettes kept her hair away from her face as she pulled off her sport shades and tossed them in the car. She had warm brown eyes and a round face.
"Wow." Marty muttered. The woman was about 5'6'' tall, slim, with good humor written in every line of her face. Her lips were dark pink and a small spray of freckles were across her nose.
Doc wondered where she had come from because clearly she wasn't from their time at all. The car was too futuristic.
"Hiya, how are you doing?" she shook Marty's hand firmly. "Name's Trinity. Madison Trinity."
"Marty McFly. This is Doc Brown." Marty gulped back his surprise and tried to act more civil. Madison already appeared more forward than many of the ladies he knew.
"Ah, the famous doctor Brown!" she shook his hand as well. "A real pleasure! Heard much about the two of you."
"What kind of car is that?"
"Why Marty, that is a Nissan GTR." Madison said proudly. "I've been working on it for a company I freelance for. What is the year here?"
"1986." Doc answered, dry-mouthed.
"Damn! Hot diggity damn, it worked!" Madison triumphed, raising a celebratory fist in the air. "I traveled in time!"
Doc knew that was easily understandable from his viewpoint. Marty was checking out the car, oblivious to his friend for the moment. The car had very little enhancement that he could see for time travel. He admired the looks of it but knew that it wasn't for everyday driving.
"Wow!" Marty sat in the driver's seat. "How do you operate this thing? I know it's a standard, but..."
"I'll show you guys later on, OK? I came here to meet the famous Doc Brown. Something I've always wanted to do." Madison beamed a smile at Doc, who was a bit bewildered.
"Well come on in then," the scientist suggested. "are you hungry?"
"No, thanks," Madison shut the door to the GTR. "I ate before I left."
In the garage, Madison greeted Einstein and played with him for a moment before she sat down in a folding chair at a table in the corner. Doc removed his toolbox and he and Marty pulled up chairs as well.
"So Madison, what do you do for work?"
"I'm a professional stunt driver," she pulled out a black device and poked at the screen, tapping at it. "futuristic device," she explained, putting it away. "I can't reveal too much and before we go anywhere, I don't know anything about you two personally."
"All right, good." Doc smiled.
"So when are you from anyway?"
"Marty, I'm from precisely February 28, 2012."
"Wow." it was about 27 years into the future. "Can you give us a sneak peek?"
"Marty-" Doc interrupted.
"I can't go giving it away!" Madison laughed. "I especially won't divulge the bad parts!"
Doc eyed her with respect as she laughed Marty out of his inquiry. Madison got up and in one smooth move, flipped up the cover on the car. "Wow, a DeLorean! I love these old DMC-12s." she eyed the stainless steel with a glint in her eye, the sign of a true car freak, and Doc got up and began to give her a tour. Marty watched with a bemused smile on his face as the scientist showed the stunt driver around, narrating every component. She showed a lot of interest in the DeLorean and in Doc and Marty shook his head, the smile still on his face. Someone who could talk with Doc using his own language was great in his book. Marty patted Einstein on his head and rubbed the dog's belly as they talked.
"These thrusters, they help the car get up to speed?" one time traveler to another, Doc put his hand on the metal alloy thrusters that were mounted on the back of the car.
"They also help the car hover when in the air. Mr. Fusion generates the flux capacitor power..." he was off again and Madison listened intently. When the lecture was over, Madison brought in the GTR and gave the men a tour of it. She explained launch control, sport mode, traction control, ABS, and a dozen other high performance measures implemented into the GTR. The futuristic flux capacitor was in the traditional Y shape, encased in Plexiglas material and it looked about the same as always. Directly sitting beneath it were 4 little lights, 1 of which was flashing.
"The corporation I freelance for was toying with the idea of time traveling for years," Madison explained. "they heard rumors about you, Dr. Brown, and said if you could do it, they could. They hired me to make sure the car selected could get up to speed relatively fast. Mind you they are not mass producing time travel, they just want to experiment a bit and I said I'd help out. This car needs to hit about 75 mph to break the dimensional or time barrier."
"That's less than the DeLorean," Doc remarked. "a high performance car I could understand why it takes less to get it up to speed. What are those lights underneath the flux?"
"The one that's blinking indicates that the flux is cooling down. The others indicate when the car is transitioning from future to past, past to future, and the last one signifies when there is a time and space disturbance."
Madison nodded. "They don't take chances. The car itself is very high performance and unless its on a racetrack, it's a money pit."
"Why is that?"
"Marty, a high performance car needs to be raced! If you used this for commuting, you would lose money on it every day, right, Madison?"
"Yeah," she stood up. "this came to us secondhand through a friend of mine. The front two wheels are of different size than the rear and that'll cost you some real money when you need to change tires. There has to be a GTR certified mechanic to work on it because this is highly specialized, and the controls are difficult to fix when they're broken."
"Damn. So what car do you race?" Marty watched as Madison leaned against the DeLorean with a grin at the corners of her mouth. Nobody loved cars more than her and she was dying to take it out for a spin.
"I race a BMW M6, 2005 model." Marty and Doc shut the doors to the GTR. "The Nissan's doors open up like a regular car but my friend had them converted to the scissor doors because he liked it a lot."
"They use those on Lamborghinis don't they?"
"Yes indeed." Madison eyed Mr. Fusion but didn't say anything. "So, want to go for a ride in the GTR?"
Doc saw the look Madison was giving to the DeLorean and spoke up. "Why don't I bring the DeLorean and you can try them both on an old track not far from here?"
Madison's face lit up like a Christmas tree. "Great!" she and Marty got into the GTR and Doc followed them in the DeLorean. Madison punched the voice activation button and spoke in the address Marty gave her. He watched as she touched a touchscreen and hit the virtual enter button.
"That's an electric car in Britain!" she giggled. "A wussy wagon!"
"Wow. This car is so cool."
"Got that right." they turned onto the track and Madison accelerated the car while Doc pulled off to watch. "Hang onto your hat! This is this baby's home turf!" Madison screeched around the corners, drifting the car, turning J turns and doing a cookie. "Handbrake turn!" she accelerated and pulled the handbrake, making the car turn around from the finish line. She slammed it into reverse and crossed the finish line, pulling another J turn so the car ended up near the DeLorean.
Doc watched, a look of shock on his face as Marty opened up the door and got out, listing a bit to one side, but a huge grin was on his face. Doc had never seen Marty grin so widely before, then he heard the other door pop open and Madison popped out. "I love doing that!" she cried. "The thrill of the drive!" she fairly bounced over to Doc and asked if he wanted a ride in the GTR. He accepted somewhat reluctantly and was scared out of his mind the entire time he was in the car with her. Madison did a lot of flamboyant driving, ending up with a J turn and backing across the finish line at 40 MPH. They stopped with a lurch and Doc saw that Marty still had that smile on his face. If it was on there for much longer, it would have to be surgically removed, Doc supposed as he opened up the door.
"You may take the DeLorean around the track if you like." Doc handed her the keys. Madison grinned again and happily jumped in, bringing down the gullwing door. She turned it on, pulled out the choke, then hit the gas and the clutch, pulling it into first gear.
The DeLorean whined at high speeds and the clutch had lost a bit of feedback, but Madison made the car act like it never had before, screaming around corners, taking tight turns, drifting, J turns, handbrake turns. When she came back to the others, she handed the key back to Doc. "I finally drive my dream."
"Was it a dream to drive?" Doc teased.
Madison laughed. "No! No car's really been a dream to drive. The DeLorean understeers a bit but it was never meant for a racetrack."
"That is true."
"DeLoreans were also rear-engined," Madison continued. "a bit of Porsche 911 influence."
"Yeah!" Marty liked 911s. "How long are you here for?"
"I am here for at least 2 days. I have to stow the car and hike out to a hotel somewhere." she was saying when a man came out from the bleachers and accosted her.
"Miss, I'm from Pennzoil and I think we'd like to sponsor you."
He had scruffy blonde curly hair and he looked like he hadn't shaved in weeks. "Just give us a call!" he shoved a card in her hands but she returned it.
"I already have sponsors and I'm headed out to a big race later on." she said in a complete lie.
"England for Le Mans." nothing further was said and Marty drove the DeLorean back to Doc's while Madison took Doc in the GTR.
"Almost forgot my tunes." Madison pulled a small rectangular device out of her pocket and pushed on the small latch until two small metal rectangular inserts appeared. She put it into the plug which had the letters USB right beside it.
"Yeah. I forget what it stands for, but this focuses like a floppy disk from a computer. It's much smaller and can fit much more onto it. I think 1,000 megabytes means 1 gigabyte of space. I have 6 gigs of space so that's about 6,000 megabytes." she pressed the play button and Doc heard some unusual music, but he liked it. "Adele." Madison signaled for the turn and followed Marty into the garage again.
In the garage, Madison pulled out a bigger rectangular device from her pocket and pressed a button on top. A picture of the GTR was shown as Marty looked over her shoulder. "What is that?"
"It's called a cell phone," she explained. "wireless communications took off really fast."
"Do you guys have power laces in your shoes?"
"No! Good God, people are lazy enough, never mind them not tying their own shoes!" she spurted into laughter. "Our cars don't fly but I wish they would."
"Madison, would you like to spend the night here instead of at a hotel? Your attire might draw some unwanted comments in town." Doc cleared his throat. "I work at night here in the garage and you can sleep in here. Marty often does."
"He's your assistant, yes?"
"Yes indeed." Marty gave her a smile, happy that he was referred to as an assistant and not a relation. It didn't bug him that much but he'd rather have people call him Doc's friend than anything else. Madison sat down next to him at the card table, easing into a creaky old wooden lawn chair gingerly. Marty popped the top on a Pepsi and offered Madison one. She took a diet Pepsi and watched Marty as he reclined in the green slingback chair. Doc pulled out his toolbox and started to work again as Einstein went into the house for his supper.
"So how old are you?" Marty took a swig and looked at their guest.
"Oh, about 29." she twirled a strand of her dark brown wavy hair around one finger idly.
"So in this time, you would be about 3 years old then."
"So what are some of the good points about being in 2012?"
"Well, we have much faster computers than what you have now, cars are more technologically enhanced like you see from the GTR, and everyone's big on the Internet," she explained briefly what that was to Marty. "you can connect to people from wherever you want. I have a friend in Malaysia, England, even Russia."
"Wow, cool!" they chatted some more until it got dark outside.
"Well, who wants some supper?" Doc rubbed his hands together with a damp rag, trying to get the grease off. Marty jumped up and so did Madison. The two were invited to supper at Doc's house and Madison went in to meet Clara and their boys.
Supper was orderly, no squawking or feuding brothers to contend with. Jules looked a lot like his father with the brown hair and eyes, and Verne looked more like his mother with hazel eyes and blonde hair. Madison could see a lot of resemblance between the boys and their parents and answered politely to all their questions. Yes, they still had schools in the future, no the teachers were not replaced with robots.
"Mr. Fusion is just a fledgeling company in my time," she explained. "it's also the name of a very popular car."
"No kidding?" Marty asked as Doc passed him a bowl. "I thought it was established years ago in your time."
"Nope. People in my time are just starting to work on more advanced things like hoverboards and flying circuits."
"Have you really raced in Le Mans?" Verne was a bit of a car nut and Madison smiled. The younger boy had a few pictures of NASCAR up in his room and he liked several of the racecar drivers of his day.
"Yes I have. About 4 times if I remember right."
"What is Le Mans?" Clara asked.
"It's a driving endurance event," Madison began. "I teamed up with two other drivers and the object is to go around the track for 24 straight hours. I would do a 3 hour run, then swap off with the other drivers. It is really exhausting work and I always took my vacations just after it so I could recharge myself, so to speak."
"Sounds like a very smart thing to do," Clara smiled and Madison returned it. "are you required to do it?"
"Le Mans? No, it's open to anyone who wants to do it. My sponsors say it is a good thing that I do it to keep my name in the papers and all that. In other words, the publicity is good, even if I have a mishap."
"I hope you haven't." Doc frowned.
"There's been a few." Doc saw her shoot a look at her right arm. He didn't understand the look but he'd find out later on. "I'm still relatively young and I heal fast."
Doc and Clara glanced at each other for a moment, knowing that Madison would not be able to keep up her fast driving career forever. Marty saw them looking at each other and knew that was what they were thinking. He jumped when he felt something big and furry invade his leg room at the table.
"Einstein!" he hissed. "Go lay down! You know you're not supposed to beg at the table!"
The big sheepdog mix gave him a meek stare and went off to the living room like he was walking off to his own execution. Madison watched him go and laughed. "Dogs know how to guilt trip people," she remarked, taking a drink. "my uncle's dog knew how to flirt and I fell for it every time."
The conversation turned to dogs and their owners then as Einstein sat down and made a few grunts, trying to tell his owners on how much he'd been put out.
Later on that night, Doc was still tinkering with the DeLorean and Marty was starting to get drowsy. His parents were away for the week and his siblings didn't care where he was, so Doc agreed to let him stay the night. It was about midnight when Marty yawned and Doc caught it. Madison looked up from where she was sitting in the GTR with the windows down and smiled at Marty. He returned it sleepily.
"Marty, head to bed now." there was a cot set up near Doc's now defunct projects in the darkest corner of the garage. After a mumbled round of goodnights, Marty took off his shoes and put them underneath the cot so nobody would trip over them. Einstein jumped onto the cot, putting his head down on Marty's belly, claiming him as a pillow. The teenager chuckled and rubbed the dog's head affectionately. Einstein licked him in the fact, prompting Marty to giggle as Madison came over.
"Don't forget a pillow now," she chided gently. "I see Einie has made himself at home."
The sheepdog cross looked up at her and he sighed loudly. Marty mumbled a thanks and was out before she hit the floor light next to the cot.
Madison sat down in the passenger seat of the DeLorean as Doc puttered around with his tools. "Is Marty asleep yet?"
"Yes he is. He seems to sleep at the drop of a hat."
"He's slept here so many times before so it's like a second home to him now," the sounds of a ratchet being cranked filled the room. "many's the time when I've been working and he couldn't hold his eyes open anymore. He's still a teenager and needs rest."
"Yes indeed. I was much the same way when I was a teen."
"I think we all were at some point."
"Doc, how did you meet Marty anyway?"
"It's a long story." he said warily. "How much time have you got?"
"Just tell me." she gave him a teasing glance.
So he did, all of it. Madison already knew about the DeLorean and the rest was just filling in the gaps. When he finished, he saw Madison looking at him in the same teasing way, though now there was an impressed look as well.
"Quite a story," she leaned on the DeLorean's side panel. "after that when you met up in the 80s? What do you think caused your friendship to work?"
"Before the timeline was altered, I believe Marty saw me as the father figure he wished that he had. His father back then was a geeky looking character who would let people walk all over him because he hated confrontations. Marty doesn't either, but he didn't want people taking advantage of him like they did his father and I never did that to him. We were both lonely I think, and we naturally gravitated towards each other. It wasn't long before we were talking on many subjects and turning to each other when we needed a sympathetic ear. I found Marty more grown up beyond his years and he found that I didn't care what other people thought of me. He started to adopt that notion, though there was one thing he couldn't grow out of until it almost killed him."
"What was that?" Madison had to cran down to hear him better. Doc's voice had gone softer and his eyes expressed deep concern.
"Marty's pet peeve was being called chicken or yellow by anyone. He didn't like being called a coward and I think it was because he didn't want to be seen in the same light as his father before the timeline changed a bit. Even then, he would habitually get into confrontations because of the names he was being called." Doc entered the subject of the 1885 Buford Tannen fiasco. "... I never thought Marty would be in a gunfight and when I saw him lying on the ground after Tannen shot him, it honestly felt like my heart just stopped. It turns out Marty had been wearing a cast-iron stove lid which protected him perfectly. Tannen broke his hand when he tried to punch Marty when he had it on, and Marty whacked him across the face with it as well. Tannen got his comeuppance! Tannen was imprisoned for 6 months, stood trial, and was convicted. He was sentenced to death for his atrocities."
"Sounds like it was well-deserved," Madison wondered why Doc still looked concerned. "what happened then?"
"I had been worried about Marty's future if he was still flying off the handle at anyone calling him names. He really came to his senses after the Tannen incident and avoided a major accident that would have happened if it wasn't for Tannen in the first place. Marty, if he still reacted to people calling him names, would have given into a local punk from school and drag-raced his truck down a highway road. My friend would have broken his hand and gone into a deep depression," Doc's voice grew strained. "Marty would have been in a coma for a few days from the crash, gotten depressed, and given up on his music when he found he couldn't play guitar for awhile."
"What would you have done for him?"
"I saw the newspapers from that timeline and naturally, I would have come to reassure and support his family of course. Marty made front page headlines with the accident and some heartless reporter put a picture of Marty in his coma on the front page for all to see. He was on a respirator and I can't get the image out of my mind even now. I know he won't go down that road, but it's just one of those things that sticks with you."
"I can bet," Madison agreed. "Doc, when I was 23 I had to have surgery. When I was able to get up and move around, I saw the staples in my skin and realized that sight would never leave me either. I know it's not the same, but I understand where you're coming from."
Doc smiled, the tension leaving his face. "I'm glad it's not just me then."
"You're human," Madison grinned. "I think it's time for me to hit the sack."
"This way then." he brought her to the cot near Marty's. Einstein cocked an ear towards them and regarded them with a sleepy eye, then sighed heavily.
"When are you leaving?"
"Tomorrow at around 10 a.m. This is a test drive and I have to be back tomorrow." Madison drew a blanket over herself, clicking off her phone at the same time.
"Goodnight." Doc told her and she returned it.
Marty woke up that following morning feeling refreshed, and seeing Doc still working on the DeLorean. Doc was always the one for pulling all-nighters and though Marty had done it for exams, he didn't have that kind of stamina to do it all the time the way Doc did. He smiled fondly as the scientist puttered around and tinkered with the DeLorean, then sat up. A sharp pain assaulted his neck and he groaned loudly, startling Einstein. The dog gave him a dirty look, then he jumped off the cot and stalked away to the screen door. He nosed it open and went out into the cool air to do his business.
"Hi, Doc." Doc shushed him and pointed. Madison was still asleep on her cot facing Marty's, about 3 feet away from him. Marty got up and put his sneakers back on, then went over to Doc as Clara brought in a tray for them. She was also alerted to Madison still sleeping, then left with Einstein in tow.
"Doc, look at that," they saw a small white line running on Madison's right forearm, which hung outside the blanket and down to the side off the cot. Doc appraised it from a distance, seeing it was 3 inches long and had dots like where staples were placed. "think it was a car accident?"
"Most likely, Marty."
"Actually it was a motorcycle accident," Madison's sleepy voice penetrated the room. "guy lost control and hit me on my Honda."
"Sheesh," Marty went over to the card table where the breakfast tray was. "I don't care for bikes like that."
"You take the good with the bad." Madison took a few whiffs of the air and followed her nose to the food. She and the men chatted easily and when they were satisfied, Madison said that she had to go.
In spite of Marty's protests and Doc's entreaties, Madison insisted that she really did have to go. She gave them each a business card and got herself ready for the time travel. The scientist and the teenager watched as she put the GTR into gear and sped off down the road. As it reached 75, the front and rear bumpers lit up like the DeLorean's, and the side kick panels did as well. The GTR also had rear mounted thrusters like the DeLorean, though they were much more muted, looking like two rectangular medium sized culverts that jutted out only 6 inches apiece and lay flat on the rear of the car.
Madison entered the space-time continuum just like the DeLorean had done as the thrusters glowed bright green. Three snapping sounds and a flash of light later, two fire trails were all that remained of the GTR.
"Think we'll ever see her again?" Marty mumbled, feeling let down all of a sudden.
Doc looked at the card she had given him. 2012 TIME TRAVELERS CLUB was emblazoned on it. He flipped it over to read: MADISON TRINITY, CLUB PRESIDENT.
"I think we will, Marty." the scientist reassured him. Madison had scrawled on the back a quick note to come and join them if they ever wanted to take part in the club games.
"Anytime." was all the scientist would say.