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Chapter Fourteen

Run down to garage, run fast, get there before they do damage, but look casual, don’t be obvious, go casual, Dawson, Gary coaxed himself.

Doc watched the figure heading down toward the garage. This better work. It was the most brilliant plan he had ever conjured. It was more brilliant than the lightening and the clock tower thirteen years ago. This would get the Tannen posse away and help the Dawsons escape unnoticed.

Gary got to the garage and had his hand on the door. Put your hand on the door. Turn the knob…whoops and don’t forget to breathe. Gary opened the door.

"Hi, guys," he squeaked. Tannen’s gang just stared him down. "So…steal anything good?" Steal anything good? I’m done. He just stood up to and humiliated Tannen’s little brother days earlier. Now, his voice was going through puberty again at the sight of the gang.

"Hi, Dawson," smiled Match, the one that looked exactly like Cal.

"What are you doing?" Butch sneered.

"Stopping you from doing something that would get arrested and possibly taint your integrity?" By now Gary was sure the plan was dead. He’d already messed up pretty badly. But now his biggest worry was avoiding a severe ass-kicking…okay, that was his second biggest worry…next to getting Nan and Pop back to 1912. But it was still a pretty serious issue at the moment.

Biff came closer.

"Look guys, let’s not be so hasty…I mean c’mon…what am I to you?" He grinned idiotically.

"Well, he’s bait now." A new voice laughed.

She’s an idiot. Damn crazy idiot.

"You never called," smiled Butch. The prize he’d been eying since freshman year just waltzed in. Great, Butch was here, too.

"Christine, you’re an idiot!"

"You screwed up the momentous plan, so I’m instituting a new one."

"Whoop-di-do! Let’s make things a little worse!" Gary shouted, waving his arms. For once, he saying whatever came to his mind.

"Worse? Our posse is bigger than theirs!" Tannen’s gang stood by, curious, but not the slightest bit intimidated.

Gary guessed right as he glanced outside. The posse consisted of Shirley, Ricky, Jack, Rose, and Lizzy. Doc, too, he thought. But he was probably in mourning for his brilliant, foolproof plan…or raving in the streets…or both.

"Ooh, I’m sure everybody’s really scared now!" Gary pretended to shake and quiver.

"Hey, Dawson…why don’t you make like a bread truck and get your ass out of here?"

Everyone stared and pondered Biff’s statement for a moment. It didn’t sound quite right. Even Butch rolled his eyes.

"Are we missing some sort of weird slang?" Jack scratched his head.

"It’s ‘haul buns’! ‘Make like a bread truck and haul buns’, you dumb bastard!"

Biff tried hard to comprehend it…it was a no-hoper.

"Shut up!" he growled.

By this time, Christine had managed to sneak herself behind the wheel of the DeLorean.

"Less talk. More action," she whispered to herself, and smiled as she turned the ignition.

"What the…" Shirley dropped her jaw at the sound of the engine. Christine had done it again. Her family seemed so calm and sensible. She wondered who she got it from.

With little regard for whoever might have been behind her, Christine put the car in reverse.

"Whoa, shit!" Ricky jumped to the side. Christine bit her lip in embarrassment. Free time machine, don’t kill boyfriend, she thought to herself.

Each member of Christine and Gary’s ‘posse’ scurried, dashed, fell, or hurled themselves to the back of the garage. The car stopped, tires screeching. Christine was about to bust out at full speed.

"Crazy bitch!" Butch cried, as he, his brother, and his three thugs crawled to safety under the workbench.

Butch may have been right. But she was still winning…and he wasn’t. The DeLorean smashed through the wooden garage door and out into Doc’s driveway.

Just then, Doc came out of the house again, bursting with more brilliance.

"I have an idea! Maybe instead of just…" He’d entered a cloud of dirt. He regained his vision just in time to see the time machine speeding away down the road…and his damaged garage. "…great Scott…"

"I didn’t do it!" Lizzy shouted, running through the yard with the teenagers not far behind her.

"Christine," Gary breathed, "took a few desperate measures…"

"There goes your plan, huh?" Ricky shrugged. Shirley and Rose hit him in the arm. He always knew the right thing to say.

The Tannens and friends hopped into the car after Christine.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Gary whirled around and ran to his car. Not this time, not his sister.

Shirley, Lizzy, and Ricky followed close behind. Jack and Rose turned to chase after them, but Doc grabbed their arms.

"Stay here. You’re the commodity we’re supposed to be handling."

"What?" Jack began to ask.

Doc was already down by the garage.

"This is a disaster!" Then he let out a high-pitched scream. Jack and Rose winced.

"Hey, man." Joey Baines strolled up casually, hands in his pockets and whistling.

"You’re a little late," said Rose.

"Where were you, Jailbird?" Jack sighed.

"Oh, I was just ripping off…I was at the store, uh, running errands for my mom."

"Right." Rose nodded.

"Hey, each to his own…and what are you two doing? All the excitement on its way to the center of town."

"The center of town?" Jack lit up.

"Do I hear an echo? Come on. My car’s over there. I’ll take you."

"I thought you get your license at sixteen in California…you’re fifteen." Rose was suspicious.

"What do you care? You’ll get in the car with Jack. Lorraine told me the whole story." Joey reminded them of their little driving escapade with his sister and his new nephew the day before.

Doc was already pulling out in his car. "Oops. Bad mistake." Joey smiled. "He just left the worst people to leave unwatched to their own devices." He jingled his keys…or whosever keys they used to be.

*****

Christine had successfully lost the Tannens and kept the time machine under eighty-eight miles per hour. Now all she had to do was wait…wait to trade off with her grandparents…wait to put the pedal to the metal again when her foes showed up. But Christine didn’t wait. Christine parked the DeLorean behind the ‘Welcome to Hill Valley’ sign and headed for the center of town.

*****

Before Jack, Rose, and Joey left the Brown Mansion, Jack took the liberty of looting the garage of the newspaper he had found days earlier in the time machine…and one other particularly neat item.

Joey drove…was at the wheel, driving mostly on the curb or on the wrong side of the road. Rose and Jack sat in the back reading the paper: the November 18, 2001 issue.

"‘Nine year-old Londoner Justin Pitt Breaks Arm at Paddington Station; Tried Jump to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters’." Jack read the headline softly.

"Who is the Harry Potter guy anyway?"

"Better question: who’s this guy?" Jack pointed to a rather unpleasant looking man.

"Donald Rumsfeld?"

"I guess…why did you take the board?"

"The bright pink compliments my eyes." Jack grinned.

"Whatever satisfies you."

"Okay, kids. Thank you for flying Baines International."

The three of them hopped out in front of Lou’s to find some sort of public meeting going on in front of the clock tower.

"He says the ‘f-word’ a lot." Jack observed the speaker at the podium.

Tannen’s car whipped past them, as did Gary’s. Gary lost a little control and nearly clipped a few protesters.

"Sorry!" called Shirley.

"Self-righteous hippie bastards!" Gary growled and shook his fist. He was as anti-war as anybody, but the guy making a speech had yelled at him for five minutes because he was eating a hamburger…plus they were in his way.

"I’m not sure if like the new Angry Gary," Lizzy whispered to Ricky.

As Gary’s car emptied, so did the Tannens‘. Biff hunted for any sighting of the flying car he hated so much…today was not going to be another Calvin Klein. He was determined to see to that. Butch looked around for either Dawson twin. He planned to have his separate way with each of them.

"Gary!" Doc ran across the square through a mob of angry protesters.

"Doc! Where are my grandparents?" Gary asked suspiciously.

"Back at the house, back at house." Doc waved, feeling slightly more relieved.

"You sure?" Gary asked while staring at the car Joey Baines had ripped off.

"Absolutely, my boy."

"That’s interesting," Gary said, "because I’d swear that’s Jack figuring how to use that neon floating board thing he got from the time machine." Doc’s jaw dropped. Gary slowing pointed his finger; Doc turned his head to follow…and screamed.

"He he," Ricky giggled, "he screams so funny." Shirley hit him in the arm.

"Just when things go from bad to worse…" Rose noticed Biff approaching, but yet not noticing the small audience observing them.

"Not if I can help it." Jack hopped on the Hover Board. "Watch this."

"Serious…" Rose gritted her teeth.

"Repercussions!" He waved as he zoomed off.

"Hey, Pop!" Gary yelled. No wonder Christine was crazy. She was descended from the crazy guy on the flying board. Biff, Match, 3-D, and Skinhead jumped into Biff’s car. This seemed oddly familiar.

"Do you know what the repercussions of this can be?" Doc shook Gary by the collar.

"I can guess," Gary said, rubbing his neck. How are we going to explain this one?

Jack sliced through the war protest, leaving onlookers in awe. Biff’s car followed him through the tower greens. Screams erupted through the center of town.

Christine came whizzing around the block and was dragged into Lou’s by a fleeing crowd.

"Hey, get off of me!" She pushed past the eager crowd. "Hey, Tina!" she called. "What the hell’s going on here?"

"That new kid’s riding some sort flying board, and Biff Tannen’s chasing him." Tina pointed.

"Look!" Christine tried for the door, but Lou’s was packed inch to inch with people.

"Who is he?" a voice asked.

"I don’t know!" shouted another.

"That new guy!"

"Yeah, Jack Taft!"

Meanwhile, outside, Gary, Doc, Shirley, Lizzy, and Ricky stood on the steps of the town hall below the broken clock tower, helpless to do anything.

"What is that thing he’s on? That’s impossible!" Shirley shook her head in disbelief.

"Where’s Joey?" a voice shouted. A familiar figure in a mini-skirt and matching headband ran up the steps.

"Where’s your head?" Doc shook her by the shoulders, red hair flailing.

"I didn’t bust through any garages or steal any flying boards!" Rose yelled, selling out her granddaughter and future husband. Granted, she wasn’t too thrilled with either of them.

‘Jack Taft’ was whipping around the center of town, turning corners and narrowly avoiding Biff’s car. He zoomed around a lamppost. Biff was trying to do the same, but his car scraped along the side.

"You’re paying for that!" he roared angrily. Jack turned around and smiled.

Jack went around another lamppost, this time grabbing on and swinging around once before leaving. Now it was just plain fun.

Biff pumped the gas, growling. No one was going to make a fool of him…even though it had already happened a few times in public.

Jack circled around the clock tower, with his family and friends yelling and screaming. He waved. Tannen’s car followed close behind, tires screeching and scrawling.

By now everyone was yelling and cheering inside of Lou’s Diner. Christine had managed to climb over the crowd to a good view. She was sitting on a table counter in a booth, with her hands and face pressed to the glass. From outside, Jack was circling around the Tannen’s car, making it spin around and knock over garbage cans.

"That’s my grandpa!" Christine shouted, thrusting her fist in the air. She looked around, realizing her mistake. "I mean cousin! Get ‘em, Jack!"

Jack was flying high, but his fun was about to be spoiled. Tannen had got a gain on him. The car hit the end of the board, causing him to nearly fall off. Then he swooped around another lamppost…and whoosh! He turned his feet up, nearly missing a truck.

Actually, he only partly missed the truck. He hit the front on his stomach, letting out an agonizing groan, and grasped the hood ornament.

Tannen and his compatriots didn’t miss the truck at all. He cut the wheel as hard as he could, but it slammed into the side of the truck, with the contents from the crate spilling out into his convertible.

The action came to a halt. Jack breathed hard, wincing in pain. He squinted his eyes to catch a glimpse of the driver.

"Joey?" he asked weakly.

"God damn it! Not again!" Biff furiously slammed his hands on the wheel. Jack looked around slowly, tenderly pulling himself up. Gee, it really stunk all of the sudden. Jack looked around again. "Again?"

"Joe?" he asked, still in a pain. "What possessed you to steal a manure truck?"

"I don’t know, just seemed like a good idea at the time."

"That was brilliant!" Christine cheered, running across the green.

"That was absolutely fanatical!" Doc yelped, with Gary following.

"That almost jeopardized my existence yet again." Gary shook his head.

Jack felt a tug at his shirt as his girl dragged him down from the truck.

"In more ways than one." Rose glanced at him. "What did you hit?"

"See if you try making four kids after that!" Christine giggled.

"Four?" Rose asked, trying to keep cool, remembering Mrs. McFly in the car.

"I’m fine." Jack wheezed. "Just crushed my rib cage." He took a step, wincing. "And maybe a few vital organs."

"The DeLorean’s safe--for now, at least." Christine smiled.

"We’d better get you two back to the house. We’ll send you off tonight." Doc nodded, picking up the Hover Board.

"You’re paying for this, Taft! You too, Dawson!" Biff growled. Gary looked at his sister, and then at the four losers in the car.

"Why? Nobody does anything else when they run you into a manure truck." Gary shrugged. The things that happened here. It was one crazy town, Hill Valley.

"Hey, Dawson." Someone tapped him on the shoulder. Gary turned around. Butch: his worst nightmare since kindergarten. He stood up to him once before. Why stop now? Christine gave him a nod. Although it had never been discussed, he knew what she knew what he wanted to do. She nodded again.

"Oh, my God. I’m so sick of this!" Gary shook his head in disgust, turning to Butch again.

"Sick of what, dingleberry?" Butch stalked closer.

"All of it." Gary looked him right in the eyes…and bam! He landed one right in the face. Butch went down with a single thud and didn’t move.

There was silence. Gary turned to Butch’s brother, who was fuming in the car and covered with fertilizer.

"Don’t forget to bring it home." He pointed to Butch holding his bleeding nose on the ground. Shirley, Ricky, and little cousin Lizzy ran up after watching Gary drop Butch. Gary didn’t say anything. He turned around slowly, and everyone else followed.

He put his arm around Shirley and she gave him an odd look.

"Added effect," he whispered, "just go with it." She smiled. Gary smiled bigger. It was for effect, too. But that was all she needed to know for now.

"Now that’s horseshit." Jack glanced back. Rose laughed to herself.

Gary nodded at Christine. She nodded back.

Chapter Fifteen
Stories