Clockwork, Steam, and Flux Capacitors

"Hunting snarks?" Marty repeats, puzzled. "What's a snark?"

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"A vile fish with legs, a long sticky tongue, poisonous spit, and sharp teeth," Alice says with utter distaste. "They made life very difficult for me when Wonderland was having its troubles."

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"Lewis Carroll wrote a poem about them being hunted," Victor adds. "It's quite funny. Though he never specified what a snark is in that poem – only that it could sometimes be a Boojum. Which isn't specified either."

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"In my Wonderland, they're ghost-like creatures that go around howling at you," Alice says. "Almost as annoying as the snarks. I wouldn't be surprised if they were related." She shakes her head. "Let's not dwell on irritating beasts – I want to see this time machine."

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"Right this way, my lady," Doc says, leading the way over to the parking lot where the DeLorean sits. It looks much like the DeLorean of Part I did, with one important difference – there's no plutonium chamber. Instead, Doc has a lightning rod sticking up from that place. Why mess around with dangerous nuclear power when you yourself have the ability to call 1.21 gigawatts down from the sky? Doc gestures to it proudly. "What do you think?"

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"Looking good, Doc," Marty says.

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"It's amazing," Victor agrees.

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"It's beautiful," Alice says, taking Victor's arm. "And it can truly travel through time?"

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"Only one way to find out." Doc opens up the car door and retrieves the remote he's rigged up. "Our initial test run will be with just the empty DeLorean," he says. "I don't want to risk anybody just in case something does go wrong."

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"Hope this includes not making any of us stand in front of it," Marty says, half-jokingly.

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Doc rolls his eyes. "I really don't know what my other self was thinking with that stunt," he says, switching the remote on. "Then again, different life circumstances, different points of view. . . ." He retrieves another device from the car – this one a video camera. "Though I agree with him on one point – Marty, would you please film this?"

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"Sure thing, Doc," Marty says, accepting the camera.

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"Where did you get that?" Alice asks, puzzled.

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"Took it from a shop," Doc says easily. "Yes, I'm aware it's technically stealing, but as Victor and I are the only living human beings in this pocket of reality. . . ." He shrugs.

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Marty fiddles with the video camera, briefly puzzled as to how to work it (it's much more modern than he's used to). After a minute, though, he figures out how to turn it on and get it to record. He aims it at Doc. "Okay, we're rolling!"

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"Perfect." Doc stands up straight. "Good afternoon. This is Dr. Emmett Brown speaking from the north parking lot of The Gauche. It's - well, according to the normal time stream, it would be - Friday, November 12th, 2010, at 4:30 P.M., and this is Temporal Experiment Number One." He indicates to Marty to come forward and film the time circuits. "I've set our destination time as 4:32 P.M., exactly two minutes from now. We will now send the DeLorean through time." He has Marty back up, closes up the DeLorean, then moves back himself. He flips another switch on the remote, and the engine roars to life. Doc puts the DeLorean through a few paces – acceleration forward, driving around in a rough circle, acceleration backward. He nods, satisfied, and backs the car up. He sets the brake and starts increasing the speed, timing it so it'll hit 88 right in front of them. "When this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you're going to see some serious shit," he can't resist saying.

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"Let 'er rip, Doc," Marty says, camera at the ready.

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"Let's go," Victor agrees, he and Alice leaning forward excitedly.

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Doc grins at them, then releases the brake. The car leaps forward, zipping through the 50s and 60s, up to the 70s, then to the 80s. . . .

As it hits 88, Doc concentrates and blasts it with a bolt of lightning. There's a flash of brilliant light, the vague image of a hole opening up, a strange sense of the world twisting somehow –

And then, silence, with just a pair of fire trails left on the pavement.

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There's a loud cheer from those assembled. "That was fantastic!" Alice declares.

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"Wait, wait, it's not over yet," Doc points out, though he's grinning to beat the band. "We still have to wait for the car to come back."

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"Oh, that's going to be hard," Victor says, lightly squeezing Alice’s hand.

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The group waits impatiently for the arrival of the DeLorean. Doc babbles on for a moment about flux storage and wormholes to fill the airtime. However, soon enough, an alarm goes off on his watch. "There! In about two seconds. . . ." he says eagerly, everyone leaning forward. Moments later, there's a bright flash of light –

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And then, the DeLorean is back, but it's making a horrible screeching sound. And something about it seems very different.

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