Saturday, September 3rd, 1994
AL-Verse
2:06PM

“Yes, Doc, sure I’ll check the lab for you. Of course, Doc, I’ll make sure the train and De’ are secured.” Sigh. “Someone remind me why I love that man.”

Lisa caught sight of the two photographs on Doc Brown’s lab desk. One was taken in 2015 of herself, Marty, Doc, Einstein and the first DeLorean; the other was taken when she first came back of herself, Doc and his family, Marty and Jennifer and Einstein.

She smiled, chuckling. “Oh yeah.” Another sigh. “Okay, let’s get this over with.”

Marty had decided to treat his whole family (which included Doc’s) to a trip to Disneyland before he started his new job as a music teacher at his old high school. Everyone – Marty, Doc, Clara, Jules, Verne, Jennifer and George and Lorraine – was already there. He’d tried to get Dave and Linda to come, too, but they no longer lived in Hill Valley and couldn’t get time off work.

They’d been checking into the hotel when Doc had said he wasn’t sure the lab was completely secured and, since he couldn’t relax without easing his mind, Lisa volunteered to pop back to Hill Valley and check.

“I’d better not miss the first go at the Haunted Mansion…” She muttered as she checked the computer that controlled the system. Doc had picked it up in the future and it included pet-friendly motion sensors, glass break sensors, cameras around the building and thumbprint-only access to get inside.

She would’ve said the Carousel of Progress – her favorite ride in Tomorrowland – but that closed in Disneyland about twenty years ago. At least the one in Florida was still running and would be for years to come.

She was humming the Pirates of the Caribbean theme, twitching her wings impatiently, while the scan completed. Everything was clear and the DeLorean and the train were locked tight. Satisfied, she armed the system and shut the door to the lab, pressing her thumb to the plate.

“System armed,” said the voice of the security system. “Have a nice day, Lisa.”

Lisa rolled her eyes. “Who records those things, anyway?” She was about to teleport away when she heard something odd – it sounded like the train, but she knew for a fact that it was safe and secure in the mountain. She looked up, squinting and shielding her eyes from the sun, but didn’t see anything. However, the sound seemed to be getting closer.

Frowning and curious, she went invisible, spread her wings and took off after the sound. As she drew nearer, she could hear multiple identical voices of Doc, Clara, and Jennifer plus two extra women’s voices she swore sounded familiar but couldn’t place and one unfamiliar female voice. Disjointed thoughts flitted through her mind and all were about Marty and…a Doc look-alike?

Something was obviously wrong. Whenever other selves appeared it was never because all was right with the universe.

She wasn’t sure how she was going to find this mysterious train…that is, until she literally rammed into it. Stunned, her invisibility cut and she started to fall like a stone.

Fuzzily she heard a “Great Scott!” and two pairs of strong arms grabbed her wrists and hauled her into the train.

“Woo…anyone get the number of that truck?” Lisa said dazedly.

“Kinda a train…” said a voice.

Lisa blinked and shook the cobwebs out of her head. She looked around and found herself surrounded by five Docs, three Claras, five Jennifers, an unfamiliar blonde in a cheerleading outfit and Mysteria and Josephine from the dimension-hopping fiasco last year.

“Lisa…” said Mystie, “well, I’d say it’s nice to see you again, but considering the circumstances…”

“You’ve met before?” asked one of the Docs.

“Yes,” said one of the vampire Docs – she could tell because of the double heartbeats and the fact they could block her telepathy; moreover, she knew it was Josie’s Doc because of the long scar on his cheek, which she’d noticed the first time but hadn’t mentioned. “During a different dimension-hopping incident.”

“Yeah, it was me, Doc and Marty bouncing around from reality to reality. I met them…” She pointed to Josie. “And them.” She pointed to Mystie.

“Marty!” said Mystie’s Doc suddenly. “Is your Marty all right?”

Lisa blinked. “Of course he is. Why?”

There was a collective sigh of relief from the odd ensemble. The vampire Jennifer said, “Because there’s some psycho out there – says he’s Doc’s brother – who’s kidnapping every Marty he can find from different realities.”

“What?! Why?”

“No idea,” said one of the other Docs. “Except that Marty’s apparently done something to him and he wants revenge.”

“My Marty is on vacation out of town.”

“That’s a relief,” said one of the Jennifers. “Maybe Jack won’t stick around if he can’t find Marty.”

“Or he may try to go after his family,” said a Doc.

“They’re gone, too. Everyone’s gone out of town including my Doc, Clara, Jules, Verne, Jennifer and Marty’s parents. Dave and Linda don’t live here anymore and Jennifer’s dad is away on business. No one connected to him is left in Hill Valley. Even Einstein’s gone away.” She’d taken him to Alnilam where he’d be more than comfortable while they were gone.

“Well, that’s lucky,” said the blonde.

Lisa frowned at her. She was projecting some weird thoughts. “Who are you? You’re the only one I don’t recognize.”

“I’m J.C. Jones,” the blonde said. “Who are you?”

“I’m Lisa.”

“And you have wings.”

“Obviously.” She sighed. “I’m an alien. As in extraterrestrial.”

The others kind of stared, but the dimensionally-displaced travelers that had already met her confirmed it was true.

“Okay, well, you obviously have a problem,” said Lisa, now all business. “I’ll give you a hand tracking down this psycho. Just, uh…” She eyed all of the duplicates. “How are you all identifying each other?”

“By numbers based on the order of realities. I’m One…” said the Doc that had first looked out the cab. He pointed at one of the Jennifers. “She’s from my reality.”

“Two,” said Mystie’s Doc, pointing to the corresponding Jennifer.

“Three,” said a different Doc, pointing to his Jennifer.

“Four,” said Josie’s Doc. He didn’t need to point to his Jennifer; Lisa already knew.

“Five,” said the Doc J.C. had whispered to and pointed to his Jennifer.

“And we share the numbers with our husbands,” said one of the Claras, numbering themselves – One, Three and Five.

Lisa couldn’t resist the joke. “How odd…” Then she clapped her hands. “All right, let’s get this bastard.”

***

Saturday, September 3rd
4:03PM

Lisa, it doesn’t take that long to run scans on the security system. What’s going on?

Whoops. She’d almost forgotten in the excitement. Get this…we just got visited by five different versions of you and Jennifer, three of Clara, and Mystie and Josie and some chick who seems to be insanely in love with you – or just insane, I can’t figure out which at the moment – and they’re on a mission. Some psycho is going around different dimensions claiming to be your brother. He’s kidnapping Marty from every dimension he comes to.

WHAT?!

She winced at the force of the thought. Calm down and listen to me. This jerk doesn’t know he can’t find the Marty of this dimension. He doesn’t know where he is as far as I know. I’m going to help them out.

I don’t like the sound of this…he sounds dangerous.

Judging by the thoughts I’m picking up, he is. But don’t worry. Everything will be okay.

How do you know?

Trust me.

She could practically feel the churning in his mind. There was a long pause and then, I still don’t like it, but I suppose there’s nothing I can do to stop you.

Naturally.

Lisa…

Sorry.

Please be careful. I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you.

I know. She sent him a mental hug. I’ll keep you posted, don’t worry. Save a spot on Figment for me.

Figment is in Disney World, Lisa.

Right…I knew that.

“Hey, you okay?” J.C. asked her suddenly, waving a hand in front of her face. “You seemed to be zoned out there for a few minutes.”

Lisa swatted her hand away. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

Not long after that they spotted the rogue train. It was circling the woods – the same woods that held the distortion that caused the fiasco last time – probably looking for a place to land.

“So, do we have a plan?” asked Lisa.

“Not really,” admitted Doc-1.

“Hm.” She was thinking. “Maybe, if he’s gonna try to find my Marty, well, he’s gonna have to leave the train. We could try to free the Martys.”

Doc-5 shook his head. “He has allies.”

“What? Who’d team up with an ass like that?”

“An insane woman named Sandra Rayben from mine,” said Doc-2. And she’s a vampire hunter, he added telepathically.

Lisa frowned. Why – ?

Mystie interrupted her, anticipating her question, and gave a slight nod toward Doc-3. He doesn’t know about vampires and we don’t want to panic him.

Oh.

“Amina Ali from mine,” said Doc-3 with a shudder, oblivious to the mental conversation.

“Who?”

“Part of the Libyans from my reality,” he explained.

“Oh.”

“And Biff Tannen,” concluded Doc-4.

Lisa made a face and muttered, “And I thought him pairing off with a Dalek was bad…”

“A what?” asked J.C.

“Never mind. Well, okay, so he may leave someone to guard the Martys, but I think I can provide a distraction.”

“Biff has a gun,” said Jennifer-3.

“Well, as long as I don’t get shot in the hearts, I’ll be fine.”

“ ‘Hearts’?” Doc-5 repeated. “Plural?”

Lisa just nodded. “Try landing and we’ll see what the situation is.”

It was the only plan they had, so Doc-1 landed the train and kept it invisible. She convinced them to let her scout ahead and watched with amusement the looks on their faces as she herself shimmered to semi-transparency. Since they knew what she was, she was invisible to everyone but them.

She exited the train and made her way over to the other one. She was picking up a jumble of thoughts and it was impossible to sort them out without making herself physically sick and she was under the impression that simply Marty not being here wouldn’t stop this group. They’d probably go back in time to when he was around. She couldn’t risk that.

She was also picking up thoughts from the five Martys within the train. They were tied up, hurt, scared and one of them was feeling nauseous. Lisa started to fume, wings turning red.

Creeping quietly over, she peered into the cab. Jack looked identical to Doc except his eyes held no warmth and his smile was a sadistic one. She shivered. There was a middle-eastern woman clinging to him Lisa guessed was Amina Ali. Biff was easily recognizable no matter the dimension. The blonde had to be the Sandra Doc-2 had mentioned.

She wasn’t focused on their conversation but on the group of Martys tied up on the bench in the back of the train. They were all bloody and bruised and unable to break the knots on the rope; her hearts felt like they could break right then and there.

Suddenly the cab door opened with her still clinging to it; she quickly leapt off and landed a few yards away. All of them left the train; Jack and Amina heading in one direction, Sandra in another and Biff stayed at the bottom of the stairs, gun at the ready.

Lisa could probably sneak past the bully, but she wouldn’t be able to teleport the Martys out together. She could only teleport herself and one other person at a time. Biff had a gun and, therefore, had one up on her so she wasn’t completely sure she’d be able to overpower him even by shape shifting – she was more susceptible to injury when not in her natural form. She had no idea how long the other three would be gone – however, judging by the very sickening sounds coming from far off in the woods, Jack and Amina may be a while – and she had to think of something quickly.

She had to do something with Biff first of all. There weren’t any large branches on the floor to knock him out with, nor was she strong enough to use her fist hit him with enough force to get that result, so that was out. She could try getting the gun away from him but her telekinetic range was limited while invisible – and the invisibility was another thing; once she cut it, it would take time to recharge before she could use it again. She glanced at her watch and saw it had been active for five minutes, so it’d take that long at least to recharge.

Lisa slowly made her way towards Biff, trying hard to not let the leaves crunch beneath her sneakers. When she was in range, she focused her telekinetics and launched his gun out of his hand and into her own. Before he had a chance to react, she hit him hard in the temple with the handle of the gun, knocking him out.

Immediately she cut her invisibility and ran into the train, dropping the gun. The Martys looked up and their eyes widened.

“Lisa?” asked the vampire Marty, which, she supposed, made him Marty-4. His wings were painfully pinned to his body.

“Am I glad to see you…” said the Marty blood linked to his Doc – Marty-2, going by Doc’s number system. The other three just looked confused.

“Shh,” she said, moving to them and examining first their wounds and then the ropes. The knots were very tight and she couldn’t hope to loosen them without help. “I’d ask if you guys are okay, but I think I know the answer to that. Damn, I wish I could still heal.”

“Who’re you?” asked one of them – judging by the thoughts and memories he was projecting, he was the first to be taken, so he was Marty-1.

“My name’s Lisa. I’m a friend of yours and Doc’s from this dimension.”

“If we weren’t still tied up, I’d think we died and you were an – ”

“Don’t say it,” warned Marty-2. “She hates that.”

Despite the situation, Lisa smiled and began digging into the pockets of her red jacket and pulled out the sonic screwdriver the Doctor had given her before he’d left last summer. She fiddled with it for a moment before pointing it at the knots. The device glowed blue from the end pointed at the rope and buzzed.

“What’s that thing?” asked a different Marty. His thoughts and memories identified him as Marty-5. It was Marty-3 that was feeling queasy.

“Sonic screwdriver. Now shush. These things are tight.”

Hearing movement behind her she quickly thrust the screwdriver back in her pocket and whirled around to find Biff standing over her, gun in hand. She mentally kicked herself for leaving it outside. Her first instinct was to teleport away, but she had the sense that Biff would hurt one of the Martys if that happened.

However, she could still use her telekinetics. With her hands raised in the “I surrender” position, she stared at the gun, ready to make a move as soon as she was given the opportunity.

“Well lookee what we have here,” said Biff. “Don’t move, bitch.” She obediently froze. He eyed her wings. “What the hell are you?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

He scoffed. “I’ve seen vampires and chicks with living hair. Nothing you can say will surprise me.”

“I’m an alien.”

Biff looked dubious.

“Toldja.”

“Whatever. I wonder what Jack would make of you. I think I’ll keep you here ’til he gets back.”

He went to get more rope and Lisa took that opportunity to TK the gun out of his hand and point it at his head. “I’m sorry, what were you saying?” she said.

Biff actually smiled. “You wouldn’t dare.”

Normally he’d be right. Lisa abhorred violence. However, under the circumstances, Lisa almost would do it. The problem was that the gunshot would be heard and Jack and Amina would come running. She could hit him again, but that didn’t work so well the first time.

She had to do something, however. She’d have to risk it. She cocked the gun and fired, but the shot was wide and only clipped him, but it was distraction enough to tackle him, pin him down with her TK and tied him up using the ropes he was going to use on her. Then she returned to trying to undo the knots with the sonic screwdriver.

The Doctor never had problems like this… she silently quipped.

We heard a gunshot! Doc-4’s voice suddenly burst into her mind. What’s happening?

DAD! screeched Marty-4 mentally.

MARTY! Are you all right?

“You talk while I work,” said Lisa, focusing on her task. “Come on, come on…” she urged the device. Slowly, painfully so, the knots started to come undone.

We’re better now that Lisa’s here…she’s trying to undo the knots.

She shot Biff in the leg, said Marty-2 to his Doc. Sandra’s gone to find the Marty of this dimension and Jack and Amina…well, it makes me sick to think about it. And it probably won’t be long before Jack and Amina come looking for the reason for the gunshot.

He was right. Lisa was lucky she heard them coming otherwise she would have had a knife in her back, but she dodged just in time, quickly pocketing the sonic screwdriver. She didn’t need that falling into enemy hands.

“Who the hell are you?” asked Jack as Amina went to untie Biff. He eyed her wings. “What the hell are you?”

“None of your business. You’re wasting your time, you know. This ‘Marty’ doesn’t exist in this reality.” It was a big bluff, naturally, but she hoped she was a good enough actress to pull it off. Marty’s phone number was unlisted, as was his parents’, so if Sandra had gone off in search of him, she wouldn’t find anything. Hopefully.

Jack frowned. “If that’s so, then why are you here?”

“Well, I would’ve thought that was obvious…you see someone being held captive, you want to help them. Duh.”

“Careful, Jack,” said Biff through gritted teeth, using the rope and strips of fabric to tie off his leg to staunch the bleeding. “She can move things without touchin’ ’em.”

Jack raised an eyebrow. “Indeed?”

Schoom! Biff’s gun was in her hand.

“Fascinating…”

“She said she was an alien,” tattled Biff, earning himself a dirty look.

“Is that so?” He thought about that for a moment. “Well, I suppose if there are realities where vampires and mutants exist, there had to be a reality where there is life on other planets. Such a pity about Martin, though. I so wanted to hear him scream.”

The thoughts he was projecting were far from pleasant. “You are a sick, twisted bastard.”

“Why, thank you.” He sighed. “Well, if I can’t have a Martin, maybe I’ll take you instead as a consolation prize.”

“May I remind you who’s holding the gun?”

“May I remind you that you had ample time to fire?”

Point taken, she fired. Or tried to. The gun was empty. Or jammed, she wasn’t sure. She had about half a second to react before Jack, Biff and Amina tried to pounce on her. She teleported out of the way and materialized just in time to see them collapse onto each other. It would have been comical were it not for the situation.

“Get her!” shouted Jack and he and his cohorts started after her.

With one last look at the Martys and a mental I’m sorry to the one that could hear her, she went back to the Docs and their group.

“They’re okay, more or less,” she explained once she returned. “But I couldn’t free them. I hope I convinced him that Marty doesn’t exist in this reality. Sandra went, I think, to search for him, but she won’t find anything. Well, I hope. I’m sorry, Doc.”

Doc-2 hugged her. “You tried…and at least we know they’re still alive.”

Way off in the distance, Lisa heard the triple sonic booms characteristic of time travel. “He’s gone. I heard the booms.”

“Then we’d better follow him,” said Jennifer-4.

“Are you comin’?” asked J.C. of Lisa.

She wanted to. She really wanted to, but she knew she couldn’t. “No, I can’t. I want to, but…I should stay here and make sure my Marty and everyone stays safe. You guys better get going before it’s too late.”

With a quick hug to the ones she knew and a handshake to J.C., Lisa left the train and listened as it chugged away. With a sigh, she teleported back to her Doc, hoping he was ready for this story.

The End

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