Chapter 1

Sitting in a classroom at Waterford High School, George Jamell stared out the window wearing a faint frown, watching the early afternoon sunlight flicker on the sidewalk below as a breeze stirred the trees. He could see students frolicking on the main campus lawn, sunbathing and chasing frisbees. A sophomore skateboarded by, a leashed dog trotting at her side. Two squirrels rapidly pursued each other in a game of chase. A little boy ran after a balsa wood airplane he had just sent into orbit. All in all, it was a perfectly idyllic scene for a summer day. Yet Marty sat in a classroom, separated from it all by a thick pane of glass, and trying to follow the agonizingly boring lecture of the instructor at the front of the room.

"The Twentieth Century was one of the most important in recent memory, with critical new developments made in every single decade," Mr Fitzgerald said as he paced slowly around the front of the room. "No doubt this will continue into the 1990's as well. When the calenders turned to the year 1900, the average person lived to be in just their forties or fifties, diseases such as turburculosis and pneumonia were top killers, electric lights were still a novelty, and some of the common jobs included farming...."

George sighed and tapped his pen against the side of his notebook, wishing fervently for the man to conclude the lecture so he could escape the uncomfortably stuffy classroom. The run up to Graduation sucks, he thought unhappily. He should've been enjoying one of the few months of High School he had left in his life, maybe making some extra money with a summer job; instead, due to a couple critically necessary music classes only offered in the summer and a credit requirement that was a little bit higher than the other majors at the school, he was stuck taking a few courses during the break. It wasn't quite a full load, at ten credits, but it was definitely putting a crimp in his so-called vacation.

"...In the 1980's, we had got such devices as remote controls, personal stereos, and nuclear bombs," the redheaded history teacher continued. "People work as stockbrokers and computer technicians. In the last eighty-eight years, our quality of life has done nothing but improve. But if we want to know how we got here, we have to know where we've been...."

And I'll bet I know more about where we've been than anyone here, George thought, smirking a little. He didn't really know why he had signed up for History 304: Twentieth Century America, beyond the fact that it took care of one of his history requirements and sounded sort of easy compared with the ones on Ancient Rome or the Babylonian era. He hadn't taken into account that the class would have a professor who could narrate a professional football game to a bunch of die hard fans and put them to sleep; Thomas Fitzgerald wasn't a bad teacher, per se, he was just very poor at lecturing, relying too heavily on notes and having an unfortunately flat and monotonous voice. George wished he would've taken the class with his girlfriend when Mona Parker had done it the previous spring, since she had gotten a professor that she'd really enjoyed learning the material from.

The instructor paused, his silence startling some of the dozing students awake in the hope that the day's class was about to be concluded. George threw a hopeful glance at the room's clock. More than ten minutes left. Maybe they'd get an early dismissal....

"We're now midway through our term," Mr Fitzgerald announced. "Which means that your essays are going to be due a week from today. Remember that I need to approve your subject matter beforehand for you to get a passing grade. I've got just about everyone's, but I need to have the following students see me at the end of class to discuss topics -- Julia Davidson, Adam Hunter, George Jamell, Ivan Polowski and Michael Stuart. Class dismissed."

"What the hell....?" George muttered, thoroughly startled by this announcement. He'd known about the essay, of course, but not that the topics had to be approved by the instructor. He had a rather sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach that such an announcement had been made the week or two before, when he had skipped a class to go to the lake with Mona for a day. Damn, he thought, annoyed that he had missed something clearly so important. He hadn't started the essay at all, and figured the professor would give 'em the topic when the time was right.

Those not summoned by the instructor beat a hasty retreat out of the classroom door, anxious to be out in the fresh air and sunshine. George sighed heavily as he stuffed his notebook in his backpack and headed for the front of the room. The other four students had beaten him there and thus he had to wait about five minutes before he was allowed his turn.

"Well, George," Fitzgerald finally said, giving him the faintest of smiles. "What topic are you ready to propose?"

"Um, I'm not really sure yet," George said honestly. "What did we have to do in the paper, again?"

The faint smile on the red haired teacher's face faded. "The assignment is to write an eight to ten page essay about a decade or event in Twentieth Century America."

"Oh." George thought for a moment. "How about the creation of rock n' roll?"

"That topic's already been chosen," Fitzgerald said. "No two people can do the same subject matter."

George sighed, both disappointed and irritated. "Woodstock?"

"No."

"The Rolling Stones' craze?"

"This isn't music history, George," the history teacher said, frowning now. "I don't see that subject matter as relevant to this course."

George felt his irritation increase. "Fine," he said. "Then you give me something!"

"All right." The teacher scanned a sheet of paper before him, then looked up. "Your paper will be on the Turtles movement in the 1980's and how that affected American society."

George resisted the urge to make a face. "Great," he said, not without a touch of sarcasm. His inflection on the word went right past the professor's ears, who jotted down a couple words in pencil next to his name.

"I look forward to reading your paper, George. That period of history has always been a favorite of mine, perhaps because I grew up in Brooklyn where the movement created all manner against the Shredder."

George managed a rather tight smile as he nodded and left the classroom. Great, he thought as he took the stairs. The Prof would have to give me his favorite time period. He's probably gonna grade mine twice as hard as the others because of that! And it's gonna be a bitch to BS my way through....

He left the classroom and headed across campus, now rather oblivious to the summer setting and more preoccupied with the paper problem. The building was at the far end of campus so it took him ten minutes to hike to the common area and the Olson Memorial Student Union where Mona was waiting for him for lunch. She wasn't attending the same History classes as George but had wanted to meet him there when he had finished his for the day.

"George, I think I narrowed my major down to a few options," she said after giving him a kiss in greeting as he sat down at the table where she had been waiting. "What do you think -- a nurse, a child psychologist, or a school teacher?"

George stared at his girlfriend's eager face and tried not to smile. Mona, like many high school students, was still undeclared in her major, though now that she was going to be graduating like the rest of the Senior class soon and had fulfilled all her general requirements, she was trying to make up her mind on what she wanted to do, fast. "I wish I was like you, George," she had confessed once. "I don't know what on earth I want to do with my life, and I wish I had more time to figure it out. I like a lot of different things, and I don't know why I have to limit myself to one area of expertise. It's such a pain."

"Those don't really seem like they have much in common, Mona," George said. "Anyway, since when do you want to subject yourself to science classes, like you'd have to with two of 'em?"

Mona rolled her eyes. "I can handle it, I'd just have to study more," she said. "And those majors have plenty of things in common. Child psychology actually combines both nursing and teaching, in a way. Or at least aspects of them."

"Sure," George agreed easily. "Do you want me to point out the cons in these jobs?" It was something she had asked him to do with some of her other recent suggestions of photojournalism and hospitality management.

"If you want."

"Okay. Take nursing -- you're gonna have to clean up people's messes, be around sick people all the time, and deal with death."

"Not necessarily, George. There are many different kinds of jobs in nursing."

"Fine. Child psychology. You'll need to go to school a few more years for a degree in that, I think, and then have to listen to all this disturbing stuff and be all analytical."

"I disagree with the last half of that. It's interesting to me how people think and why they do the things they do, not disturbing."

"Okay, then. Finally, you got teaching." He paused. "What level did you want to teach?"

"Elementary school," Mona said immediately. "I like children, and they seem to like learning more. The kids in the middle and high schools are too obnoxious."

"No kidding. Okay, elementary school. You get to deal with irate parents and kids in home situations that could be real bad. You're exposed to all their germs and sicknesses and have to have a lot of patience to drill on the same things over and over."

"And you get to feel really rewarded when they understand a concept," Mona said. "You also have summers free, so if we have kids someday, I'd have the same days off and vacations as they would."

George leaned back with a half sigh as he eyed his girlfriend from across the table. "You still don't know what you want to do, do you?"

Mona half shrugged glancing down at the Hill Valley University catalog spread out before her. "I don't know," she said, the words uttered with a half sigh and half moan. "I just feel all this pressure to decide...."

"I've got an idea," George said. "If you really are thinking about teaching, why don't you talk to Lilly's ma? She's taught school before, though it's been a while, and maybe she can tell you more about it."

Mona blinked. "I'd forgotten about that," she admitted. "That's a good idea."

"We could go over there now if you want," George said. "Charlie Boy asked me if I could to stop by after classes today, anyway. I think he's made something new and wants to show it off."

Chapter 2

When both he and Mona got to Charlie Bones's basement however, George wasn't feeling so certain about the trip. Part of it likely had to do with what greeted him when he stepped into Charlie's lab shortly after seven that evening.
"Clothes from the 1980s?" George made a face at the sight of what Charlie had given him. "God, I hate this crap. Do we really have to wear those?"

"If you want to blend into the surroundings you do," said Charlie said. "And it's best not to take chances in this time and place, seeing as it was a tad more violent and lawless than you might be used to."

"Yeah, right. But God, Charlie, these things are uncomfortable and hot!"

"I won't argue with you on that. I suppose no harm would come if we made sure to set our destination in the fall or winter...."

George looked at the Dr Emmett Brown wannabe skeptically as he was handed the clothing. "Sure but even in this town, it might be a little too warm depending on when you're thinking of."

"Maybe so. But you guys aren't going to this town in 1987." Charlie headed over to his desk in the lab.

"We're not?" Mona frowned, figuring that that had been the plan all along. "How come?"

"All our parents were around back then. Although I doubt very much that Mona's parents would recognize Mona and know her for who I was now, there's no use in taking any chances." said Lilly Duncan.

George, actually, was quite willing to take the chance, curious to see a version of his older sister Lottie, who was now living in East Anglia, in her first decade of life but knew that his pal wouldn't budge on the point. "Then where're we going?"

"I thought New York would be suitable," Charlie said. "It was one of the more notorious and well-known places to see during this time, and somewhere we haven't seen yet, for a change."

"New York," George and Mona mused aloud. "Sounds cool."

"I'll fill you in on the additional details after you change," Charlie said, sorting what looked to be American currency from the 1980's on the tabletop. "You can do that in the study, now."

"Sure." George and Mona headed for the newly installed stairs that were built against the back wall of the lab. Charlie's new study was up a flight of fifteen steps, in what had once been the hayloft of the old barn. When he had remodeled the loft gradually over the past year, Charlie had walled off almost the entire open area, leaving only a space of about five feet left with a railing to peer down into the main lab. Most of the new walls were installed with built-in bookcases, where his vast collection of books, journals, notes, diaries, and various paraphernalia were stored. The floor was polished hardwood, with a couple burgundy colored rugs. A couple floor lamps illuminated the area quite nicely. The space was large enough for a desk, stuffed chair, and loveseat, with room enough to spare for a couple tables that were currently obscured by boxes and papers. A safe sat under the room's single window, the former hayloft door, and behind the desk. A locked file cabinet was settled next to it. Around the window were hung a number of photographs and a couple mementos from other time periods that were perhaps too risqué to be displayed in the house.

George and Mona took a moment to pull the curtains across the window, then changed into the clothes that Charlie had given them. George's attire -- a black leather jacket, blue jeans, brown Doc Marten's & a Def Leppard T-shirt -- were pretty cool & so were the blue ra-ra skirt, matching jacket, red T-shirt, lilac fishnet tights and brown boots Mona was wearing. When both looked at the completed ensemble in the mirror nearby, they loved the outfits which improve George's mood about the attire and he said as much to Charlie when he returned to the main floor of the lab.

"Couldn't you find something more in my size?" Mona asked rolling back the cuffs of the jacket a little. "Or are these supposed to be this big?"

"No, it was a sizing problem," Charlie admitted. "I didn't have time to use anything except what we already had on file, so to speak."

George frowned. "Do we really have to dress in this stuff for so short a trip?"

"I'm not budging on that. You've had your own share of unpleasant experiences that've resulted from being in the wrong clothes. And don't try to deny it."

George had no intention of trying. "I guess if it's just for a couple hours.... When are we going, anyway?"

Lilly walked towards the DeLorean, which had both its doors uncharacteristically opened. "You wanted a cooler time of year, right?" Without waiting for any sort of response from the others, Charlie plunged right ahead. "I suppose... November 20, 1987 would suffice. That would be a Tuesday, I think. So, Tuesday, November 20, 1987, say about nine P.M., in Brooklyn, New York." As Charlie spoke, he slipped into the time machine and input the date and time while he announced them.

"And what exactly are we gonna do there?" George asked.

Lilly answered as Charlie popped back out of the time machine. "Put the car somewhere safe, then you guys can take a walk, maybe have a dessert in a local restaurant and you can speak to a few of the locals if you want, collect any newspapers or periodicals you might need or find the Turtles. Then you go back to the car, I run a quick check on the TIPS and return home."

Something nagged at George, some little detail about the new addition in the DeLorean. "How are you going to be able to tell if it works? Especially if this trip really is uneventful and goes according to how you think it will."

"I won't," Charlie said honestly picking up the keys from the desktop nearby, handing them to Mona and scanning around for other last minute items. "But the last thing I'm going to do is to try and muck up history just to see if the TIPS work. This test run is mostly to make sure nothing goes wrong with the equipment itself."

A rather disquieting thought occurred to Charlie then. "There's no chance that it's gonna screw up the DeLorean or the time circuits, is there? We're not gonna be stuck if this thing goes haywire, are we?"

"Very, very slim chance," Charlie said. He picked up a couple CD cases, which presumably held the discs for the 1900's, and the 2000's. "It's not wired into the time circuits at all. The closest thing I can think of with this system is like when we brought those newspapers with us through time and saw the headlines and stories change depending on our actions. Same thing. We merely have a library's worth of information on a compact disc that we can easily look at in the car, now."

Mona accepted the answer and let out a deep breath. "That's good to know. I really don't want to be stuck there; I'd rather just flunk that lousy paper, even though I might have to take that class over again...." He winced at the very idea.

"You'll be fine. Are you ready to go now?"

"Sure, might as well. Before I change my mind."

Mona stopped mid-step to regard him with an expression like concern. "Are you okay, George? Really. We don't have to do this if you don't want to."

George stared back at her, surprised a little by the question. "I don't know, Mona," he said, honestly. "I just feel a little weird about this. Maybe because it's been a while since we took a trip, maybe because most of the ones we've taken haven't ever really gone according to plan."

"Maybe most of the one's you've taken," Lilly said, smiling a little. "I've actually taken quite a few trips, not always alone, either, and they've gone off without a hitch. History doesn't always repeat itself, George, That's crazy."

Maybe Charlie thought so, but George had seen enough Back to the Future to make him believe otherwise. "Sure," he said, without much enthusiasm or agreement. The others heard the tone in his voice; he didn't let the subject drop.

"George, if I thought there was any risk in this trip, I wouldn't take it. You know that."

"I guess so," George said, believing that. "Maybe I'm just getting cold feet or something. Let's just go and do it." He squared his shoulders, then marched to the passenger door, determined to stop worrying now. Mona hesitated a minute more, as if he was going to pursue the topic, then seemed to change his mind and got into the DeLorean himself.

"We'll come back five minutes after departure," he said as he input the correct codes to allow the car to be started. "This trip shouldn't take more than two hours."

"I hope you're right," George said as Charlie opened the doors via remote control to allow them a way out of the barn, "'cause I'm not really in the mood to be running all over Brooklyn in fear for my life."

Chapter 3

To an observer looking at just the right spot at just the right time, the DeLorean's arrival might've looked like nothing more than a couple odd flashes of lightning. Mona preferred to travel through time as discretely as possible, and now used the invisible setting on the Holographic Imaging System as much as possible. The flashes of light and the sonic booms could only be concealed so much, but as they bore quite a nice resemblance to a natural phenomena, such as thunder and lighting, it didn't concern him too much. The more unexplainable sight of a flying car appearing out of nowhere did, and that was a worry that was thankfully banished, now.

"Excellent," Mona said softly as she took in the new surroundings. "Weather seems calm, no storms. Looks like it's quiet out tonight, and there's enough darkness for us to land the time machine without anyone noticing."

George leaned close to the window and tilted his head enough so he could see the landscape under the car. "Wow," he said softly. "I didn't know New York was so big now. It looks pretty modern, too -- are those electric lights in the windows?"

"Yep." Mona slowed the car down almost to a stop as she tried to find a suitable place to land. She didn't want to come down in the middle of the urban center, even if the car was invisible. So far, he hadn't figured out a way to mask the noises of the engine, which would undoubtedly be noticed. She also wasn't too keen on the idea of her and George interacting with a great many people. A handful on the street or in a pizza place, fine, but being witnessed while leaving the car and the illusion of invisibility -- which would look to outsiders as if they popped out of thin air -- was definitely a no-no.

"What are you doing?" George asked when he realized they weren't moving.

"I'm trying to find a place to land... I think over there might be good." Mona pointed to a starkly lit, more run down portion of the city. "Looks like a lot of those buildings are abandoned -- perfect for our needs."

"We're just gonna leave it in an abandoned building?" George sounded surprised.

"It's safer than letting it stay on a street, where it could be hit by another vehicle or run into by a pedestrian. Just because it's invisible doesn't mean that it's unbreakable."

"I guess," George said, sounding dubious. "As long as you're not worried, I won't be."

Mona took the car down quickly, slowing down when she was just over the roofs of the buildings to better select their destination. He chose what looked like a warehouse as the car's temporary garage and carefully maneuvered the DeLorean before a pair of large doors. George ran outside to pry the doors open, look inside, and return with the report that the place inside definitely looked to be deserted, and there was plenty of space for the vehicle. The scientist pulled the car inside, the illumination from the headlights showing the accuracy of George's analysis. Mona shut down the time circuits and then the engine, double checking that the HIS was on and running. It was.

"Where are we gonna go, now?" George asked as the scientist finally emerged from the interior of the car, locking it to be doubly sure of its security. Mona scanned the space where the car was parked for a moment, detecting not one flaw in the invisibility projection. She pocketed the keys and turned her back to the time machine, as comfortable as he could be with it lying in a strange time unsupervised.

"I saw a pizza place several blocks down," Mona said. "Might as well have some desert."

They saw few people on the walk to Duke's Pizza Palace and most of those they saw didn't look up as they passed, keeping their heads down. "Damn," George said softly, his breath frosting before his face. "It's freezing out here tonight!"

"Well, you did want a colder time of year. We're lucky it's not snowing right now, actually."

"Think it will later?"

"Not before we leave."

George was silent for a few minutes before asking a new question. "What's up with the people around here?" he asked in a low voice.

"What do you mean?" Mona asked, glancing at some of the passersby.

"We're in a real crappy part of town, right? So why are so many of the people out here wearing nice clothes?"

Mona squinted as inconspicuously as he could at a woman across the street, walking with a young boy. She was dressed like Madonna while he was dressed up in a 1980s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles T-shirt. "There are probably good reasons for that," Mona said quietly. "Pizza places were quite popular during this time."

George turned to look at the couple that Mona had glanced at. "Really?" he asked. "Hey, we should follow them and check it out! That would be great research for the paper!"

"I don't think so."

"Why not? I'll be more exciting than sitting in a pizza place and eating pie."

"It's too dangerous. A lot of those places were run by a guy called the Shredder. Not to mention the so-called sodas they served were often toxic mixtures used to punch up diluted alcohol supplies."

"I wasn't going to drink anything -- just look around."

"That would actually be worse, in some ways. People went to those places to drink, not to hang out. They might think we're undercover cops if we showed up and just watched people. Forget it, George."

George grumbled a little, but didn't say anything else about it. They reached the diner several minutes later. It wasn't very populated at this hour of the day, perhaps because it was a weeknight. A sign posted near the door requested patrons to seat themselves, and Mona found a dimly lit booth at the back, next to a window, that he felt comfortable in. George looked a little disappointed as they settled in the seats.

"There's not many people here tonight," he said.

"That's a good thing," Mona said as he looked at the menu selections. "The less we interact with people here, the better."

"Then how am I supposed to get anything for this paper? So far, everything I've seen here is something that I could see if I went into the industrial area of St Faith's!"

Mona felt a faint irritation at the tone in George's voice but did his best to ignore it. "Your assignment was to write about the 1980s, right?"

"Yeah, and how it affected American society. So?"

"I think if you look around you can get a feel for that."

George sighed in response and picked up his own menu, skimming the selections. When the waitress arrived a few minutes later for their order, Mona selected 2 glasses of water and a pepperoni pizza. After she departed to fetch their orders, Mona decided to try and distract George from openly staring at some of the other customers before any of them noticed.

"Aside from this class you have, how are things going with your music?" she asked.

George blinked, shifting his eyes away from an attractive young woman sitting with a child across the room. "Okay, I guess," he said. "I hate taking classes in the summer, though."

"I didn't particularly enjoy attending school in summers, either," Mona admitted. "The weather made it a little harder to concentrate."

"No kidding! And this is one of the last summer vacations I'll have." George sighed, turning his eyes to the dark world beyond the window glass. "I'll never get the chance to have this much free time after graduating."

"No, you probably won't," Mona said honestly. "We'll have more adult responsibilities. Have you given any thought to what you'll do after you graduate yet?"

"Something with music," George said immediately. "That's about it."

"No graduate school?" Mona asked, though he already knew the answer.

George half laughed. "No way! 12 years of education is enough for me!"

Mona smiled faintly as the waitress brought their orders. "You'll find out in the course of time, there's no need to rush things."

"Well, can you at least tell me if she decided to go with one of the things she suggested already?"

Mona sampled a bite of pizza and chewed it thoughtfully. "No," she said after swallowing it. "As far as I know -- and I may be wrong about this -- I don't believe she has suggested to you what she will eventually become. That's all I'll say on the matter, now, so I suggest we change the subject."

George accepted that. "Are we gonna be okay, Mona? Graduate on time and find a semi-interesting job of some kind that I'll like?"

"Are you worrying about that now?" Mona asked, surprised. While it was true that she hadn't seen George too much over the last several months, what with remodeling her parents loft, modifying the security system, working out the kinks in the TIPS and dealing with her father Lenny Parker's heart problems, the idea that her boyfriend was fretting over such a thing came as a faint shock to her. George had seen the future, after all. Yet, Mona realized then, that didn't mean much. Although she knew how things would turn out, eventually, it didn't mean they still would turn out that way, and it certainly didn't mean that George knew anything about what Mona had seen. Seeing any future involving yourself could be dangerous, since it changed all the time. It was one reason why she couldn't quite bring herself to check up on his own team. Good news was just as potentially harmful if known ahead of time as bad news.

"A little," George said in response to his girlfriend's question. "I've heard horror stories about the job market with music degrees. I don't want to teach -- I don't think I have the patience -- and that's what a lot of people seem to get stuck doing. And I'd like to stick around in St Faith's, not move to L.A. and deal with being in a city with a billion other aspiring actors or musicians."

"I can understand that," Mona said, inwardly shuddering at the idea of living in Los Angeles. "So you don't know what you want to do after college?"

"If it was a perfect world, I'd be able to cut an album and tour," George said. "But that's a long shot. I guess I'll have to play it by ear -- no pun intended." He took a drink of his water. "How are things going at your end? With your dad's heart problems?"

"It's weird," said Mona.

"No regrets?" George asked, taking another bite of his pie.

"No," she said pausing to take a sip of her water. "Absolutely none."


"Good," George said. "I think it's kinda cool that you're helping your dad with his health, I hope he'll be okay."

"Me too," said Mona said.

They finished their pizza and left the pizza palace about half an hour later, at Mona's prodding. George picked up the day's newspaper at the front counter at the scientist's suggestion of it being a potential research source, and they headed back to the DeLorean a little over an hour after first arriving. They passed few people on their way to the car, and George looked almost disappointed as they crossed the street to the building where the time machine waited.

"I guess you're right, Mona," he said. "These trips can happen without major disaster."

"As long as one takes the proper precautions," Mona warned. "Which we did."

"Yeah, right. Hey, aren't you kind of disappointed that your new thing won't really show if it worked or not?"

"We don't know that it won't," Mona said as they reached the door. "But the idea, actually, isn't to make things change on that database -- it's merely a precautionary measure that should let us know where, when, and how history changed, if we do discover something is wrong."

"I think for your next project you should let that thing be able to detect a change and let us know when something happens."

"That's the next step, but I need to work on the sensitivity settings," Mona said. "As well as shielding the databanks from any effects our trips might have, which is more challenging than you might think."

George entered the building first, holding the door for Mona to prevent it from closing in her face. As he reached for the car keys in his pocket to switch the HIS off, he heard something behind him. There was a scuffling of sorts, like feet skidding over the wood floor, followed immediately by a grunt, then a loud, heavy thud that shook the floorboards.

At the first noise, George started to turn around; he hadn't even pivoted halfway before the final sound hit his ears. When he turned fully around to see what it was that had happened, he saw nothing but faint shadows against a darker background. "Mona?" he called softly, the lack of visual stimuli giving him a rather threatened feeling he didn't enjoy.

Something snaked around his neck from behind, jerking his head back. George gasped in surprise, his heart leaping up to his throat, but before he had the chance to pull free and fight the grip, something hard and heavy crashed into the back of his skull. There was a brief, dazzling flash of light, terrific pain, then nothing more.

Chapter 4

There was four green faces staring at him, one wearing a light blue bandana, one in a purple bandana, one in a red bandana & one in an orange bandana. George noticed them gradually, just as the pain in his head increased the more he tuned into the noise. Finally, when he became curious and aware enough to open his eyes, all he saw was the four of them. A spark of joy snaked down his spine as he blinked a half dozen times.

I'm meeting the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, it's like meeting the Rolling Stones. he thought. There was one way to find out the answer to the first one, at least. Attached to the DeLorean keys was a small LCD light that he had picked up on a trip in the future, due to the device's compact shape and long life, and so far as he could remember, the keys should still be in his pocket. The teenage would-be rock star moved his hand to the pocket, but instead of encountering the small, familiar bulge he felt... nothing. His heart skipped a little.

"Where the hell are the keys?" he whispered aloud. The sound of his voice seemed to clear his senses a little, and the concern over the possibly missing keys were pushed aside as he heard a familiar groaning beside him. George let out a gasp in surprise and sat up only to find his surroundings seem to tilt and spin. As he turned around, he heard a weak, tentative voice call out next to him.

"Mom? Mom, is that you?"

Even with a throbbing head, George recognized the whispered voice. "No, Mona, it's me. Don't sit up, now, or you'll have a headache like mine."

There was a groan. "I already have a headache." There was an uneasy pause. "Is it just me or are we in the sewers of New York?"

"We are," George said, glad to have that confirmed by another set of eyes. "From what I can tell, I just met the Turtles."

"How'd we get here? What's going on?" Mona stood up with her boyfriend as they shifted themselves. "We're not gonna suffocate or choke to death down here, are we?" Mona asked, panic creeping into her voice.

"Hopefully not. Don't worry, Mona." George lifted his arms up and tentatively felt around, but it seemed to be a latch that was quite bent on not moving, if the casual exploration from his fingers was any indication.

As if reading his mind, Mona asked, "Can you get us out of here?"

"I don't think so. Not without some tools, anyway." George let his hand drop with a sigh. "We're stuck in here, for the time being."

Mona groaned softly. "Perfect."

The Turtles found themselves looking at the two teenagers & a moment later, the four of them gasped as they saw George & Mona awake.

"What do we do, George?" Mona hissed.

"Nothing bizarro," George answered quietly. "We don't know what goes on in the sweres of St Faith's."

"Stay nice and calm," the blue turtle's voice said. "We don't wanna do something you won't want."


George allowed himself to be half dragged to the side of the couch, where Mona followed a moment later. Both landed on the couch with the help of the other turtles. The turtles themselves stood around him and Mona, thier arms folded across their chests and all were smiling.

"Where are we?" George asked.

"Seeing as how you were trying to get into Ace's hole, we took you for a little drive," turtle with the purple bandana said. "Consider this a warning to the both of you."

"A warning for what?" Mona asked, a defensive tone clear in his voice. "We weren't doing anything!"

"Sure," said the turtle with the red bandana said, sarcastic. "If we see you in the area again, you'll find that I won't be so forgiving the second time around."

"We apologize," said the turtle in the blue bandana. " I'm Leonardo, the turtle with the purple bandana's Donatello, the turtle with the red bandana's Raphael & the turtle with the orange bandana's Michelangelo."

Mona cast a confused look at George, who was just as lost as his girlfriend. "We can do that, so long as you tell me what you did with the keys I had," George growled.

"We don't got no idea," said Michaengelo clearly lying. "But you should owe us something for driving you out here."

"I'm sure you already took what money we had," George said calmly. "What use are a set of keys to you?"

"No, your wallet and your girlfriend's purse are over there." replied Leonardo pointing to a nearby table.

George glanced at his hands at the mention of valuables, and was immediately glad to see that his wallet had fallen victim to the turtles hands. Before he could even think about asking for it back, the turtles handed the wallet back to him and Mona's purse back to her.

Mona watched them go with an expression of surprise. "Great," she said, standing up from the couch. "We don't know where we are, we're in the sewers of New York but we met some real nice turtles. So much for a nice, uneventful trip!"

"It gets better," George said, seeing no way around the news. "I met the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."

Mona turned to look at him sharply. "And your point is?"

"It's like meeting Bon Jovi or the Rolling Stones, for God's sake."

They started going in the direction that the turtles had come from, the route being most logical to a nearby rat if they wanted to get back to where they had left. They hadn't walked long before reaching a sign that told them the city of New York was above ground. Mona gasped at the sight of the rat, her hands burrowed deep into the pockets of her jacket.

"Five miles in the freezing cold? Holy crap, we'll be popsicles then!"

"We've had worse distances to walk in weather that was much more trying than this," George said. "At least it's not snowing -- or raining."

The would-be rocker had apparently spoken too soon. Five minutes later, a light snow started to fall from the sky. Mona looked up at it with a scowl but didn't say anything. George sighed to himself and continued walking, pulling his jacket a bit tighter against the frigid wind. Mona's silence lasted for only a few minutes, until the snow came down with increasing volume and strength. Then she said, "So how much longer are you planning on having us walk?"

"Until we can find another option," George said.

"And what'll that be?" Mona gestured widely at their frosty and rather rural surroundings. "I don't see anyone coming by."

George shrugged his answer. Moments later, however, a roar of an engine from behind broke the quiet, growing louder as the vehicle drew closer. George wasn't sure if he wanted to signal the car, a bit paranoid under the circumstances, but Mona's physical discomfort was clearly greater than his girlfriend's unease; he turned right around and flagged the car, waving his arms wildly, before the inventor could stop him. The cream colored sedan slowed and pulled over. Mona hurried over to the driver's side window, too quickly and too trusting for George's tastes. The scientist followed rapidly, and rounded the back of the car just as the driver began to speak.

"You kids need a ride?"

"Do we! " Mona said immediately. "Some creeps dumped us out here. We just need to get back to Brooklyn."

The shadows were numerous in the car. George could tell that the driver was male, and little else. He snuck up behind Mona to get a better look at the face behind the wheel. It belonged to a well-dressed man somewhere in his forties, cleanshaven and fairly harmless looking. "I'm heading that way, myself," he said. "Hop on in."

"Thanks," Mona told the man. George followed his girlfriend reluctantly into the car. It was smokey, yes, but it was also soothingly warm after the chill of the night.

It took perhaps twenty minutes for them to reach the city. The man said little on the drive, except to ask where they wanted to be dropped off. Unfortunately, George had no idea. He didn't know the layout of contemporary Brooklyn, let alone of the city of the 1980's. Luckily, he had retained the name of the pizza palace that he and Mona had eaten at and was able to provide that to the driver. The man seemed to know where that was and in short order had dropped them off.

"Now what?" Mona asked, looking up at the heavy swirl of flakes falling. Already, a couple inches had accumulated on the ground, and George suspected that it might just be the beginning.

"We've got to find this Shredder guy," George said, thinking, as he walked towards where the DeLorean was waiting.

"And how are we supposed to do that?" Mona asked, not without a bit of grumpiness in her voice.

"I'm not sure yet. Give me some time to think it over. Now, it wouldn't be beyond logic to believe that they might be in the area of the DeLorean.... And what's Ace's hole?" He winced in the dark, the expression slipping past Mona's view, as a possible solution came to mind.

"Sounds like a nightclub or something," Mona said innocently. "Unless that's some version of profanity that's since gone extinct."

"It's probably not a nightclub," George half muttered, opting to avoid telling Mona his suspicions, for now. They reached the seemingly abandoned building again in short order, who knew how many hours after they had been taken away from it. Mona made a beeline for the door, boldly, but George stopped her with a hand to her arm and shook his head.

"We should make sure we don't end up in the same situation as we did earlier," he explained in a low voice, just in case they were being monitored.

"How?" Mona asked.

"Wait here -- let me look around. If you see anyone heading this way, try to get away unseen and let me know."

The vampire didn't seem happy with this plan, but he sighed and leaned against the building in order to survey the largest portion he could. George started to creep around to the alleyway, figuring that might be a good place to start looking around. He hadn't done more than poke his head in the space when Mona spoke up.

"George."

The scientist turned around. A tall, solidly built man had mysteriously appeared out of the gloom and snow, standing next to Mona. Even in the poor lighting, George could see that there was a weapon of some kind -- a gun, he determined quickly -- pointed in his friend's direction. Yet the man smiled as George looked at him, gesturing for him to draw closer.

"Who are you?" George asked immediately, moving slowly both out of a reluctance to get close to the armed stranger and not wanting to cause the man to think he was in danger and do something rash to Mona.

"In good time," the man said. He nodded to the other side of the street, where a figure stood next to an opened door of another seemingly abandoned warehouse. "My boss would like a word with you both," he said. "You don't mind, do you?"

"I don't suppose we have a choice," George said, a touch sarcastic.

The beefy man laughed. "I see you understand us well. The Captain won't bite if you don't give 'im reason to."

George took a breath of the cold, crisp air, then sighed and nodded. "Could you lower the gun, please?" he had to add for Mona's sake, seeing how pale his friend had gotten. "Or at least aim it over here at me, if you have to do that?"

Chapter 5

Two young women were carrying a boxload of soda bottles into a diner behind an alley in Flatbush. One of them had brown hair and brown eyes and wore a lilac blouse, matching scarf, brown boots, green vest and a grey skirt and the other was a redhead with brown eyes and wore a pink blouse, matching scarf, brown boots, navy jacket and blue denim skirt.

"C'mon, Katie, we haven't got all night." the brown haired woman told the redhead.

"I'm trying the best I can, Becky." Katie said while adjusting her jacket making it clear the cold was bothering her.

"There you girls are." a voice explained.

"Yeah, I noticed. That Shredder dude's, like, totally up to no good again." Becky growled.

"If you ask me, the Turtles'll get him." said their boss, Miss Farmer said. Miss Farmer was a woman with dark hair and blue eyes and wore a dark green skirt, matching jacket, white blouse and brown boots.

"Okay, Miss Farmer." Katie and Becky said together.

"Dat's dem girls." said a voice nearby which sounded like a mobster.

"Let's go!" assured another driver.

The getaway driver drove past the diner and fired at Becky, Katie and Miss Farmer but the three women managed to duck just in time.

"This is an outrage," Miss Farmer gasped. "Call the NYPD, maybe they'll stop that rhino guy and his warthog pal."

"Great idea!" Becky said rushing towards a payphone and dialling 911.

It was just another beautiful morning in the untouched section of New York's sewers, over a million miles away from the Shredder's fledgling empire and a few miles away from the Katie and Becky incident. Two bluebirds flew in to perch on the branch of a tall but dainty tree house singing a cheerful tune that would energize all that is living and all that is happy but inside the villa, there was only one person not ready for a new day...

"Hey, guys! Wake up! It's time for breakfast!"

In the sewer, George and Mona were in deep, deep sleep. Unaware of the Turtles coming up the stairs to arouse them from their long catnap, the 21st century teenagers had no idea what year they were in. They were in the year 1987-the year the Turtles came up to the surface world for the very first time.

Raphael walked over to the bed. He shook them both gently whispering "Good morning, guys." He waited for them to wake up and listen to his greeting. No response. Frustrated, Raphael continued sternly "Jason, Bridgit, how many times have I told you not to stay up late and not to get it off? Look at you now-sleeping like a bear and missing out on a new day in the Big Apple."

Both of them stirred from their sleep and got up slowly. Everyone said that George had a striking resemblance to both the actors Johnny Depp and Ashton Kutcher because of his tousled hair from Ashton and the same shaped eyes from Johnny. Another hint of both men-he had the same shape of nose.

Rubbing the sleep from his hazel eyes, George groaned "Dude...do I have to get up like this?"

"You have to," replied Raphael as Mona also woke up. "Now, hurry up and get dressed-your oatmeal's getting cold."

"But we're already dressed!" yelled Mona in exasperation.

Raphael sighed. Among the coolest teenagers in all the world, Jason Dolley was one of them. He had been born shortly after the Woodstock thing and despite his status as a guy who looked like that Johnny Depp guy, he acted more like a 20 year old but there was some bit of good news: it had become a tradition among Midwestern teenagers that the a guy like that was about as cool as the Fonz. Of course, he had a feeling the guy's mom was very, very, very desperate to convince Ricky to get married and bless her with many grandchildren, whether he liked it or not.

George and Mona got into the training room when they heard voices coming from the hallway. FLASH! George yelled as he covered his eyes to shield them from a flash of bright light from the camera. The person holding the camera and taking a picture of the startled turtles was Michelangelo.

"Michelangelo," shouted George. "You can't scare me like that!"

"Sorry, dude." replied Michelangelo.

George just walked off without even answering. It was only one of these days that he couldn't stand to listen to people brag about anything especially his old friend Angela Smith and he has been doing that for as long as he could remember. Sitting at the table were Splinter and the other turtles.

Noticing George and Mona, Leonardo said "Why, guys! Awake already?"

"Yes, Leonardo," muttered George walking over to his seat next to Raphael. "Just another boring day in a New York sewer."

George was reluctant to get married at 17 years old. He was in a relationship with Mona according to his Facebook page and loved staying that way-his only other true loves were motorbikes, skateboarding and loud rock music and he never let any other woman get into his life.

As a noise came closer, Leonardo was increasingly nervous and on his guard as she, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael began walking up the path towards the outer lair. He could tell that something wasn't right and he gripped his sword as she walked up the path. There had been no sign of anyone and no apparent reaction to the damage to the submarine which was worrying. Either whoever the attackers were had left the island presumably on one of the Thunderbirds, they were aboard their submarine and busy with damage control, or they were waiting in ambush for her.

"Be on your guard, Turtles." Leonardo whispered softly.

"Yes, Leonardo." the others whispered back gripping their own weapons tightly. Michelangelo too was uneasy with the lack of response from whoever it was down here.

After a few minutes, the path led them out onto the lower sundeck besides the big main pool which in addition to being the pool that was primarily used just for swimming as opposed to games like the diving pool. From behind, a voice suddenly spoke.

"Well, what do we have here?" a cold voice said. All four turtles spun around to find themselves face to face with four familiar enemies. "The Turtles. Of course. Splinter has his palace as well his princes."

"Flattery'll get you no where, Shred head." Raphael replied starting to bring his sai to bear on Shredder.

Annoyed at being called Shred Head, Shredder reached out and yanked the turtles weapons before giving Leonardo and Donatello a hard telekinetic shove that sent them flying backwards into the pool.

Both hit the water with a shocked cry and coughed on water for few moments. "How the hell did he do that?" asked Leonardo.

"He's gotta be crazy to do that," Donatello answered. "Why do so many mutants have to be evil?"

Angered at seeing their brothers thrown into the swimming pool, Raphael charged towards Shredder pulling a fist back ready to break his nose. Shredder smirked in amusement seeing Raphael coming for him. As if he would let him get close enough to punch him.

"Bebop, Rocksteady." said Shredder.

Both Bebop and Rocksteady took a few steps forward and grabbed Raphael and Michelangelo respectively, physically lifted them up as if they weighed nothing and then throwing them at Leonardo and Donatello who were just climbing out of the swimming pool dripping wet and more than a little mad.

Raphael cannoned into Leonardo while Michelangelo cannoned into Donatello knocking all of them into the swimming pool with a cry.

"Get them," Shredder said to his foot soldiers as the turtles coughed and spluttered in the swimming pool. He was tired of these constant delays to his plans.

The foot soldiers moved forward to comply just as the turtles started to haul themselves out of the swimming pool again. The foot soldiers grabbed them as soon as they were out the pool and wrestled them both to the ground and bound their hands behind their wrists with zip cuffs.

"Put them with their sensei," Shredder ordered the foot soldiers. "Then you two," he added specifically to Bebop and Rocksteady. "Find that DeLorean and those teenagers."

"Yes, Master Shredder." Bebop and Rocksteady replied as the foot soldiers took the struggling turtles away.

Shredder watched them go and smiled. Baxter found the DeLorean and was by now reinstalling the guidance processor. In another few minutes, he would leave New York, 1987 behind for a while and be on his way to Villa Parker, 2007. The final phase of his plan to ruin the reputation of the turtles was about to start.

Smiling evilly, he headed back to the main room after the foot soldiers. Once, the turtles joined Splinter and those teenagers, it would be time to leave.

Chapter 6

It occurred to Raphael that it was a long way back to consciousness. He likened it to drifting along a tunnel towards the bright light of consciousness. A tunnel filled with fog that had the consistency of cotton wool and with randomly variable gravity. He drifted along the tunnel for what seemed like ages moving slowly but surely further and further away from the deep darkness he’d fallen into when he’d been attacked with a tazer. After a while he passed into the light and felt his body again. A dull ache pervaded his whole body and from all around there was a constant feeling of cold. He could feel the energy within his body had regenerated somewhat though it still was far from being as strong as it had been this morning when he had woken up but it felt stronger than it had been up by the communications array.

Raphael forced his eyes open to find that he was lying on his side he could see a pair of legs only a few inches from his face. From the coloration of the bandana, he thought they were Michelangelo's. The coloration and design was right for the outfit he wore.

"Guys," he heard Donatello's voice say. "Raphael's woken up." Deciding that was as good a que as any Raphael rolled over onto his back and awkwardly sat up. Awkwardly as he could feel his hands were bound behind his back.

"Raphael," Leonardo said relieved beyond words that his brother and fellow turtle was awake and didn’t seem any the worse for ware. "You had me worried there, are you alright?"

"I think so, Leonardo," Raphael replied. "I'm aching all over but that could be because it's so cold in here as well as being a legacy of the tazer attack. Man, did that hurt.”

Before anyone could say anything else there came the distinctive sounds of the manual lock being withdrawn and the electronic lock being manipulated. Everyone in the room exchanged puzzled looks. There was no one else left free on the island now so why was the door being unlocked. Was Shredder coming to taunt them about their hopeless situation for a minute before he left on the Turtle blimp to carry out the next part of his evil plan to destroy the world?

The door opened with its usual magnetic hum and to everyone's surprise, the dripping wet forms of George and Mona were thrown in roughly by Bebop and Rocksteady. Bridgit must have realised that something was wrong, Leonardo thought. She came here to check up on things only to run straight into Shredder.

George and Mona only just managed to stay on their feet when they were thrown in. Mona spun around and glared daggers at Bebop and Rocksteady. Bebop laughed under a glare that would reduce most enemies to a quivering wreck. Then Rocksteady closed the door and they heard both the electronic and manual locks on the door be engaged. Mona turned back to look at everyone else. They all looked half-frozen with Splinter and the Turtles but Mona shivering violently as the cold environment and her soaking wet clothes conspired to steal the heat from her body and chill her to the bone.

"Right, I think we've all had quiet enough losing for one day," she said. "What the hell happened?" Inwardly, she braced herself for the worst fearing that Shredder had taken their lives.

"Shredder's taken over the city's sewers," said Donatello. "He attacked and severely damaged the station to lure April O' Neil out of state. The stations main power core was knocked off line during the attack but now, Shredder's shut down the secondary generators. They've still got the solar batteries but those were never designed to power the whole station. The solar batteries'll power our lair's life support systems and artificial gravity plating for a while but not too long and time is running out as the batteries have already been at it for a few hours."

"How much time does the state of New York have left?" asked Mona. Raphael and Michelangelo both shrugged as there was no way to know. "Donatello?"

"I don't know." Donatello answered.

"Then we need to get out of here now and get to the control room."

"Yeah but how?" asked George.

"Beats me." Mona answered depression sinking on her like a smothering blanket. There had to be away for them to get out of here and save New York and the world from the fate Shredder had set them up for. But for the life of her, she could not see it.

Bebop and Rocksteady arrived at the DeLorean just as Baxter slid the panel containing the guidance processor back into the computer mainframe and closed the covering translucent plastic panel.

"Status report," Baxter?" Shredder asked.

"I've just finished reinstalling the guidance processor, Master Shredder." said Baxter moving over to the command/pilot’s station and sitting down. "This car is ready to go to March 13th 2007."

"Excellent," Shredder replied sitting down in the back seat with Bebop and Rocksteady. While he was a good driver himself, he would leave flying a DeLorean to Baxter. After all, that was what henchmen were for. "Begin launch sequence. What is our ETA?"

"Just under an hour." Bebop reported. As he spoke, Baxter again pressed the keys that began the launch sequence.

Systems throughout the DeLorean hummed to life and all around the computer display screen showed everything normal and ready to go even as the hydraulic arms outside lowered the DeLorean down onto the transport sled it lay on.

A faint jerk ran through the deck beneath their feet then the DeLorean began moving slowly forward. Or rather the transport sled began moving carrying the DeLorean away from the main hanger and starting it moving down a tunnel to the outside world.

Ahead a line of sunlight appeared and began getting wider and wider as massive camouflaged doors began to open to allow the DeLorean to move out to its launch position.

Shredder inwardly smiled as the DeLorean began to pass out into the daylight. Finally after so many delays, the final phase of his master plan was commencing.

Raphael looked up from where he was staring at the floor as Donatello's startled voice came from the intercom beside the door. An emergency intercom was included in this room in the eventually that someone became trapped in the fridge and needed to call for aid.

"We need to get out of here." he said.

"We're all agreed on that, Raphael but how?" Mona asked. Raphael considered before answering. Ever since he had woken up, he had felt the power inside of him sort of regenerating somehow, perhaps because of the cold environment. He remembered Donatello describing Mona and George as primarily elemental metahumans. And Mona can fly while George can turn into a wolf so it was conceivable that he'd somehow been unconsciously drawing power from the cold environment of the fridge. It would explain why he wasn't as cold as anyone else in the room. If I've got enough power back maybe I could try phasing, Raphael thought. I need to get my hands free. Then I can untie everyone else.

Raphael concentrated imagining his hands and wrists being able to pass through the plastic of the zip cuffs just as he had imagined Bebop passing through him at the communications mast. Almost immediately he felt his powers flare and both hands from the wrist down suddenly felt light and insubstantial. Pulling his hands apart, Raphael felt what he could only describe as a tingle as they passed through the zip cuffs. Smiling he stopped the energy flow and brought his hands around to the front.

"How did you do that?" a shocked Splinter asked then he remembered what Donatello had said earlier about George being a wolf and Mona flying. "You phased your hands, did you not?" he answered his own question.

"Yep." Raphael replied surprised that his uncle knew about his selective phase ability for a moment until he realised that the others had told him. He stood up. "Now let me untie the rest of you."

Moving quickly, Raphael first untied George then went to untie Splinter while George untied Mona. In no time at all, everyone else was untied and on their feet once more. Splinter realised that in their soaking wet clothes they would catch their death of cold in no time. And when someone got a cold on in the sewer, everyone tended to get it in short order.

"Awesome," Mona commented then became all business. "Now lets find away out of here. George, can you pick that lock?"

"Sure, Mona." George replied.

The door opened and Splinter sighed in relief even as he stepped aside and everyone filed out into the corridor all grateful to be back in the warmth of the complex not the lethal chill of the fridge.

"Now let's get to the control room." said Leonardo even as in the distance there came the powerful roar of the DeLorean Professor Jules Brown gave to Charlie as it left the town.

Without pause to say anything, everyone turned and headed for the control room at a run. They might have gotten out of the fridge thanks to George and Mona but they still had much to do if they were to save 2007 and defeat Shredder's evil plan to ruin the future.

The race to the control room while only a short run was perhaps the longest run of his life to Raphael. He desperately hoped that they would be in time to save the future. The control room was just as it had been left by Baxter though all the computers had been locked down and put in stand by mode.

Moving to the main console, Donatello sat down and tried to access the computer system only to find that all access protocols had been encrypted by Baxter. Donatello cursed softly.

"What is it, Donatello?" Leonardo demanded.

"Access has been encrypted. I can't get into the computer." said Donatello.

"I got this." said Mona as she came forward and began tapping at one of the consoles trying to break the encryption. Being better at computers than anyone else in her class – aside perhaps from Charlie- she stood the most chance of breaking through Baxter's lockout.

"Damn," Mona cursed as she struggled to break the encryption. "This thing's totally screwed."

"Let me help, Mona." said George moving over and beginning to work on the encryption himself. Mona was quite correct the encryption system that Baxter had put on the system was very complex he obviously knew what he was doing where computers were concerned. Applying everything, George knew himself and the advantage of having Charlie Bones for a nerd, he worked on the encryption calculating possible solutions in his head and punching them as fast as he could get his hands to move.

Finally after what seemed like an age though, it was barely a minute later the coding wall around the computer system dissolved into nothing he had access to the sewer's main computer system.

"We're in." said George said transferring control to the main console where Donatello was sitting. While he access to the computer system, George didn't know enough about how the Turtles computer and operational systems worked to be able to operate them himself.

Sitting in the corner where it had been put down earlier by Bebop or Rocksteady, George saw a large grey box. Cautiously, he moved over to see what was in there hopefully it would contain anything but a bomb. Though anything was possible with a criminal as ruthless as Shredder. He would have to look over the box and see if there were any booby traps before he opened the box.

Donatello noticed the return of control to the main console and immediately, he accessed a status readout on the Turtle Time Machine silently praying that the station would still have power and send them to March 13th 2007. Dismay settled on him when the computer readout showed no power at all in the future. Life support, artificial gravity everything was off line. Oh crap, he thought, please no. They can't be dead. Wait what are those? Life signs!

Sensors were still picking up two life signs in a house which meant that they were still alive.

"What's it like in that place, Donatello?" asked Mona.

"All power is gone." Donatello replied. No! George thought listening knowing that without power to any systems in Charlie's place that he and Lily would be dying if they weren't dead already. God, no! I can't go on without them.

Before he could begin breaking down however, Donatello spoke again.

"Sensors on that place are still picking up faint life signs." said Donatello and George could suddenly breathe again. Charlie and Lily were still alive, still in mortal danger but they were alive.

"We need to restore power quickly," said Michelangelo speaking for the first time. "Can we restart the stations main power core?"

"No, Michelangelo, the core regulator's wrecked. The core won't power up. We can't restart secondary generators without some power either." Donatello thought quickly.

"Then you better get to it, Donatello." said Mona. Donatello nodded and began tapping away at his console activating the remote link to Charlie's computer and beginning the process of reconfiguring the power transfer protocols.

While Charlie worked feverishly at the consoles, George had reached the storage box and was preparing to open it. He had thoroughly checked the box and there was no sign of any booby traps whatsoever, the box was simply what it appeared to be. A plastic storage box of the kind you would find in an attic or storeroom. Taking a deep breath, he opened the lid still half expecting the box to explode. It didn't.

Inside the box was all of the technology that had been taken from the turtles when they had been knocked unconscious by Shredder and it was completely untouched and even backpacks operational lights were back on just in stand by mode. Carefully, he began taking the technology out of the box and putting it back on.

"I'm ready to start the power transfer." said Donatello.

"Do it." Leonardo replied. Brains pressed the command and then everyone turned their attention to the monitor showing the status of Thunderbird Five. All of them praying to whoever might be listening that the jury rigged power transfer from Thunderbird Three would work that the power conduits in the docking arm between Thunderbirds Three and Five would still be able to handle to load given that they like most of the space stations systems were damaged.

For a few moments, nothing happened then power began to transfer from the sewer to the entire state of new York. Almost immediately, some systems around the state began to come back on line, life support came back up, as did the stations computer but artificial gravity and all other systems remained off line. The damaged conduits couldn't carry enough power for the gravity plates.

Breathing a sigh of relief that it was working, Donatello sent a remote command to the space stations computer to restart the secondary power generators. The indicator light for secondary generator one came on though it was amber instead of green as the generator started up and came up to forty percent generation capability. Secondary generator two came up as well though its light stayed red indicating that the generator output was less than ten percent of capacity. But the third indicator light for secondary generator number three remained dark indicating a disabled or destroyed system. Which was understandable. Secondary generator three was in core section six the closest core section to the destroyed sections of the outer ring. Collateral damage in that section and its immediate neighbours on all levels was therefore heavier than in the rest of the station.

"I can't bring any more systems on line from here," said Donatello. "All other systems must be rebooted from the station's control room."

"Can we talk to Charlie Bones & Lily Duncan in 2007?" asked George.

"Yeah." said Mona being closest to the communications system immediately hailed Charlie's cell phone.

"Hello." said Charlie's voice on the other end of the line.

"Charlie, you're okay." said George coming into video pickup range.

"Hi, George and Mona," said Charlie smiling proudly at his friends. Somehow, he knew that George and Mona had managed to do what he said he would do at the satellite station from the Turtles sewer lair. "Nice to see you guys again."

"Charlie, can you confirm the access protocol?" asked Donatello as Charlie looked away for a moment.

"Confirmed," Lily replied. "We are back on line. Restoring artificial gravity." On the communications screen, they could all see everything drift gently back down to the deck as gravity returned to Charlie's basement lab.

"Where's the Shredder?" asked Charlie and Lily.

"He's in the DeLorean on his way to 2007, Villa Parker," George answered. "I'm sorry, guys, we couldn't stop him leaving."

"Charlie, Lily, let me and George go after Shredder," said Mona. "He'll destroy Villa everything Villa Park stands for if we don't stop him quickly. We can stop him."

Charlie looked straight at Mona from the monitor screen. His first instinct was to tell Mona to forget it, that it was too dangerous. Yes, they were all 17 years old now but now looking into his friend's eyes, Charlie saw someone more mature and confident than the person he had seen in Mona's eyes before she and George went back to New York, 1987. Despite their youth, it was obvious that Mona and George were ready.

"Okay, you can come back." said Charlie. Mona and George were shocked.

"Thanks," said George. "We'll join you as soon as we can."

"Coolos."

Chapter 7

The second Mona, George and the Turtles got into the Turtle Time Machine (or TTM as Michelangelo called it), Splinter smiled with a tear in his eyes as if the turtles were leaving him forever. Donatello set the coordinates to 13th March 2007 which was also the year which led to repercussions that began when an alien race declared war on the Earth. They were called the Mysterons, a race that was discovered by three men but Donatello had no time to think of that Just when Mona and George thought they were making progress with life in 1987, they were unprepared for what would happen next. Shredder had upped his game and place in 2007. His latest act of aggression was to take control of Villa park, Illinois. Although Bebop and Rocksteady knew it was a flawed plan, they decided to go ahead and show their power anyway. As always, their message had been received by Shredder and the people of Villa Park had placed its officers on red alert. As the TTM landed outside Charlie's home, an uneasy calmness had descended over the city. For Leonardo, the atmosphere made him tense. The sense of not knowing what was going to happen often drove him crazy but the job required a level head and intuition as they all got out of the TTM and into Charlie's basement lab where he and Lily were.

"Oh my God, it's the Turtles." said Charlie as if he'd met the Beatles.

"Well, it's very nice to meet you to." said Donatello as he shook hands with Charlie.

"Oh yeah," said George who was standing next to Charlie. "Dude, meeting these guys is like meeting Principal Shawbly again."

"Who's this Principal Shawbly dude?" asked Michelangelo.

It was proving to be another long day and only one rule applied. Expect the Unexpected. Mona got up to stretch her legs. The long hours were beginning to take their toll on her father's health. Doctor Jamell had recommend frequent rest periods but in his usual stubborn way, Lenny Parker ignored the good doctor's advice. Instead, he would stand there on the observation deck and drift off into a sea of thoughts. Hours passed by when suddenly;

"Honey, it's the Turtles." said Lenny as he and Veronica entered the living room.

"Oh my God, Lenny," Veronica calmly said as she noticed her husband's face. "Wait a minute, you're not the modern Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, you're the classic ones."

"That's right, Mom. We'll handle this situation," Mona replied. "Sit tight and keep an eye on Dad. We're gonna kick Shredder's ass. Love you guys."

"We love you too." said both Mona's parents hugging her.

"Come on, we're going to the church and giving Shredder the kick up the ass he deserves."said Leonardo as he lead the way out of the Parker house.

"Yes Sir." George, Mona, Charlie, Lily, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo all replied.

As they were in Scott Bones's old van, Donatello got a view of the city on the screen and tapped away at his console until a blip appeared on the map.

"I've got the fix, Leonardo." he said.

"Great but that entire area of the ocean has deep underwater caverns," Leonardo said as he observed the map. "Not a single rescue unit could withstand the pressure for a long period of time."

"The Chosen Ones could?" Lily suggested.

"For God's sake, that's turtle crap," said Raphael. "Besides, even if any of us did manage to fly out there, we wouldn't make it in time."

"Yes, we can Raphael." said George, Charlie, Mona and Lily altogether as they transformed into Wolfman George, Starman, Mona the Vampire and Princess Diva respectively and flew to the church.

Minutes later, the Chosen Ones were at the church where the late Reverend Gregory worked at. Mona gestured for the others to stay and wait for the Turtles as she went inside to give Shredder what for. The Turtles kept their fears hidden as they sped towards the danger zone. This was their first official encounter in the 21st century.

Chapter 8

The TTM cruised around Villa Park and it's destination was the town church. As the TTM arrived outside the church, they only saw Wolfman George, Starman and Princess Diva and the doors of the TTM opened shortly afterwards. The Turtles stepped out on to the launch pad and headed for the rendezvous point. They had been dispatched to keep up security for Shredder's arrival. The problem was they had no idea where Mona was. Throughout their time in 2007, Leonardo felt tense. His special sense repeatedly warned him of another impending threat. It felt that they were being followed so he decided to check the perimeter and he couldn't see anyone.
"The whole area appears to be deserted, guys," he said as he returned to his brothers. "We better set up the Shredder detectors."

"Why?" asked Donatello. "Beside 3 of the Chosen Ones, we're the only ones here."

"I'm not so sure, mate," Wolfman George replied with a frown. "I just feel like we're being followed. We can't afford to let anything happen to Mona."

"I checked before we left your place," said Starman. "There was no one around. Lieutenant Halcroft confirmed it. Are you sure that you're not paranoid?"

"Maybe. I don't know," Leonardo sighed. "I just know something is about to happen."

Before they could continue discussing Leonardo's instincts, Raphael received an incoming transmission through his turtle comunicator. He answered it as the good lieutenant's voice crackled over the receiver.

"This is Police Lieutenant David Halcroft. I'm approaching the church now. Have you arranged a safe landing spot for me."

"We sure do," said Raphael. "It's right near the 60s style van. We've checked it over. There's no one around."

"Great. I'll be there in two minutes. Keep the landing pad clear."

As Raphael cut the transmission, the Turtles and the Chosen Ones all waited for the lieutenant until Michelangelo saw the guy's car heading towards them.

"Here he comes," He said. "Remember. No cameras and video equipment."

"Sure." Princess Diva simply replied.

Meanwhile inside the church, Mona crept around looking for the Shredder until he heard their voices and moved in a littel closer just to get a better view.

"How are we doing, Baxter?" asked Shredder calmly. "Don't worry. The Turtle will have us out in no time."

"That's easy for you to say, Master Shredder," Baxter stuttered licking his lips. "It's quite difficult knowing that this church could collapse in any minute. I'm afraid I'm not good with...confined spaces."

"Just keep it together the best you can, damn you," said Shredder. "I'm going to find out what's going on up there, okay? Something has to be going on up there by now?"

This conversation troubled Mona. She knew that the Turtles had cut it fine before but this time, she just wasn't sure as she sneaked in to get back at the Shredder for all the crap he did to the Turtles.

"That's what you think, Shred head." said Mona as she stood behind Shredder causing him to turn around but her problems were far from over. As Bebop and Rocksteady came from behind her, Mona felt herself being grabbed from behind and dumped into a chair and tied to it.

It was another hour and a half before Starman, Wolfman George, Princess Diva and the Turtles entered the church having lied to Lieutenant Halcroft that Princess Diva left her purse in there. They were all nearly frantic by the delay but Halcroft felt they could not easily explain a visit by the Turtles and then their hopes plummeted and crashed when they discovered a device which was probably a doomsday device.

"It's no good, yous lot," said Wolfman George ""Mona's bag's 'ere all right and so's 'er favorite white leather jacket but there's not a sign of 'er anywhere."

Raphael stood nursing a bruised hand, injured when he drove his fist into the doomsday device in frustration and anger. Starman had tried to put his emotional energy into something more constructive and was examining the bag and jacket while Wolfman George and Leonardo discussed whether there were other possible options.

"Why hasn't she used her edible transmitter?" Princess Diva wondered aloud.

"Must not have gotten a chance yet," Donatello ventured as he carefully studied the exterior of the little jet. "She wouldn't want that pesky Shredder to know we can track her." He stopped and his fists clenched at what he had found.

"Guys," The tone of Leonardo's voice filled the others with dread. "I’ve found blood on the doomsday device. Not a lot, but ..." he trailed off, his eyes meeting his brothers with a bleak expression.

Raphael heard this and heaved a sigh. "Okay, guys. I knew it'd be a long shot if we found Mona there. At least we may have found us a clue. Bring home a sample for Donatello and Charlie to study. Maybe they can give us some idea whose blood it is."

"If it's Mona's," Wolfman George growled to no one particular. "Someone's gonna get 'urt."

"And you'll have plenty of help, dude," said Michelangelo. "We'll totally find her and we'll bring whoever did this to justice.."

"Wait, Michelangelo. It only gets worse," Princess Diva interrupted savagely. She had spotted something on the tarmac near the landing gear. With her handkerchief, she picked up the object she'd found and showed it to Starman and Donatello. "I've found a syringe, Father. I think Mona was drugged."

Donatello felt his anger burn white hot but his voice was cold as ice. "Me and Charlie can analyze that. Maybe they left some fingerprints... and I want to know what that SOB Shredder injected her with."

Those kidnappers were going to pay ...

Chapter 9

George stood at the pew of the church and was looking around; he was also fidgeting as he waited. Out of all the things in the world that he feared, the loss of his damn girlfriend would be the worst and most damaging to happen to him. Mona was the one who helped him through the hard times and helped him get over that bitch Angela Smith, both Charlie and Lily looked up to Mona and he thought he would probably be the same again if anything happened to her.

Charlie and Lily both knew exactly what George was thinking as they of all people saw the connection formed between George and Mona since 5th Grade, they saw how nice George turned out after Charlie punched him in the face before 5th Grade began and knew that George and the Parkers in fact, would not be the same close family they are today without the commitment Mona gave to her family and that was what made her what she was.

Now if he was so sure, Charlie noticed a few heat patterns closing in on his ex bully now closest guy friend's position, he watched carefully and made sure he knew how many there were and from which direction they came in. He kept a close eye on George and was ready to update the others, but he would not say anything too soon as he knew how edgy Lily could get especially when both their friends were concerned.

George stood looking at Shredder square on, he stood in a tall and wide stance which showed he meant business and would do what ever he could for his girl Shredder had Bebop and Rocksteady at his sides, they were both looking for something to do as they were trained to do damage and not stand around like dolls or statues like they did happen to do for most of their days. The only difference with these two was that they actually looked like they had a brain cell between them, this meant he was more likely to be a problem then the usual henchman would be.

"Hey, dude." said Michelangelo as they were following George.

"What?" replied Leonardo in a frustrated voice, he was not really frustrated with Michelangelo or Raphael, he was actually frustrated with the fact that Donatello stayed with Charlie and Lily.

"What's it like being in Villa Park?" asked Michelangelo in a deep but curious voice.

"Fun, exciting, challenging and dangerous and sometimes all at once." Leonardo replied knowing exactly what he meant but probably confusing his brother.

"OKay!" replied Raphael not quite knowing what Leonardo meant but he knew that in Leonardo's state, he should not ask for an explanation as this would only confuse him even more.

"Hey, Leonardo." said Raphael.

"Yeah." Leonardo replied.

"What's it like being, you know, how is things, with, well, are you bored without Master Splinter around?" Raphael finished as he finally remembered what he had set out to say.

Leonardo turned to look at his brother and almost jumped out of his shell when he saw Raphael and Michelangelo were both looking straight at him wide eyed as if they were about to have a staring match as Leonardo said "Well, life was boring for a while then I realised that we had a job to do here."

As they followed Shredder and George, they saw Mona, who was tied to a chair, looking up when she saw Shredder re-enter the room with George and the Turtles. George was dumped on top of Mona and tied face to face with her. The Turtles stared at Shredder knowing that no one was going to stop them from giving him that kick up the ass he deserved. "You're all dizzy, aren't you?" asked Shredder in a loud and very disappointed voice.

Elsewhere in the church, Donatello told Charlie a message was coming through from Shredder and told him to route it through to him so that he could relay a message to the others from the other view screen he had available.

"Hello, Charlie, as you may know by now, I have your friends George and Mona." said Shredder looking rather pleased.

"What do you want, a medal?" asked Charlie knowing he was the one in charge and he had to gain control of the situation.

"Well!" Shredder said he paused as he thought about the fact that he had the two time travellers in his possession, he was not expecting that reply especially from Charlie Bones, he heard George tell Leonardo that Charlie was the sensible one in the team.

"Come on, I haven't got all day here, you know!" said Charlie trying to be more heartless than Angela would have been to make it look like he was the one in control of the whole situation.

"I want your time machine." Shredder exclaimed.

"What do you expect us to do about it, we're stuck with Donatello at the moment so we can't help you!" said Charlie as he turned the communication off and spoke to Lily for a minute while he let Shredder think that he really didn't care.

He told Donatello and Lily the exact location of the church where Shredder was in and gave them orders as quick as he could as the communication was bleeping letting Charlie know Shredder was trying to get through again.

Lily switched the communication on again and decided to speak before Shredder had a chance to. "What, you again, what do you want?" she then stared at the screen with a hard look she and Charlie had seen Mona and George use before.

"I want Professor Jules Brown's time machine and the Turtles time machine or I'll kill your friends, young lady." said Shredder looking sternly back through the screen.

"You rotten metal headed SOB." growled Lily as she turned the communication off and wiped her forehead, being cold was really hard work and she did not know how long she could keep it up for.

"God, we're running out of nasty things to say and I don't know if Shredder's actually buying this heartless routine of ours." said Charlie.

"I wish I was there to see the look on his face! guys, I envy you." said Donatello knowing how it made him smile to make the bad guys squirm.

"We're just about to go there as a team, Donatello so we need you to hold on for a bit longer and not to communicate with us for a while!" said Lily.

Chapter 10

Shredder was finally able to get Charlie, Lily and the Turtles to notice, what was going on in the room around and Raphael decided to go for Bebop and Rocksteady, the two of them motioned as if to throw him against the wall like they had done a good few times. When nothing happened, he realised he was getting weak and wasn't able to stop Raphael who was now heading toward him like a bat out of hell.

As Raphael hit Bebop and Rocksteady, the other Turtles were forced to join him which meant they all flew across the room and Bebop hit his head as they landed on the floor, the warthog was knocked out as Michaelangelo laid into him.

Charlie, Lily, George and Mona, both of whom were untied by Charlie and Lily, had to pull each turtle off of Bebop and Rocksteady and Charlie having a little trouble so he called David over to help him as well and after a lot of pulling force, they eventually got the Turtles away from the battered mess that would normally be Bebop and Rocksteady.

Charlie and Donatello looked around the room trying to figure out what they could do, they turned to the other members of their teams looking for an idea to spark from one of their eyes. Suddenly, Charlie stopped at George and Michelangelo as saw them in hyper and mischievous mood, Charlie smiled and went over to find out what the Turtles had planned so he gathered up George, the girls and the Turtles and set about this plan of George's. When they had finished, he decided that it would be best for the Turtles to return to 1987. Later at George's parents house, the Chosen Ones and the Turtles sat in the kitchen eating pizza that had been set out for them; George's older sister Lottie wandered in and began to eat with them. Lottie looked at her brother as he looked at her and she had no idea what he was looking at.

"What? Is there something wrong with my hair?" asked Lottie.

"Do you remember anything about last night?" asked George.

"No, so it must have been a good night, reminds me of the days when I was in London, I'd go out for a soda and then wake up with some one next to me!" said Lottie with a smile.

"Oh my God, can you totally fix the TTM?" asked Michelangelo.

"I did that already, Michelangelo." said Charlie as he skipped out of the room.

"That figures," Donatello paused and then thought of something that was bothering him. "You must be George's older sister Lottie."

"You said it, buddy, I can't believe I'm eating pizza with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." said Lottie.

After the pizza, the Turtles arrived in the garage looking a lot better than they did after beating up Bebop and Rocksteady; they always had a habit of having too much pizzas. Before they left, Charlie gathered the Turtles together and started to fill them in on what they all obviously could not remember from the night before so they all got into the TTM and went back to 1987 and the only question left on George's lips when they had finished the debriefing was a simple question.

"What happened to the Shredder and his little band of un-merry men?"

Chapter 11

Shredder woke up to find Baxter, Bebop, Rocksteady and himself locked up in a cage, not only that but Bebop and Rocksteady were chained up so tight, they could not break free from either the chains or the cage. Baxter was tied with ropes so he was no use to him either. He himself was tied up with ropes and had a huge headache.

"Never again shall I take on a teenager or turtles, they are more trouble than the sober ones!" he said to his tied up trusty hench-people.

"Sir, can you get yourself out of the ropes?" asked Baxter.

"No! I can't manipulate what I can't see!" he replied knowing this was going to be a long haul getting out of this one.

"Boss, what about me, Boss? If I manoeuvre over to the cage and you undo my ropes I can get off of this chair and break you all free!" said a voice from over the room.

"Who is that?" replied Shredder.

"My name's Angela Smith, sir!" said the voice.

"You deserve a pay rise but only if you can get into my sights so I can untie you!" he said finally finding a brain in his midst.

He could not see Angela but could hear her making her way over to his side of the room and all of a sudden he heard a squeak and a clunck.

"Angela, what's happened?" he asked as he was worried not for her but for his ability to get out of the cage.

"It's okay, Boss, I just fell down some steps and cut my head open but I'll be fine!" she said.

"Good, good, hurry please, I haven't got all day!" he said not thinking or caring that she could be injured.

She got into his eye sight and he was able to make the ropes around her and the chair she was on unravel, she stood up and shook herself and also wiped the blood from her head so she could see once again.

"Okay, now can you unlock the door and get us out of here!" he said ignoring her waving a bloody hand in front of his face as if to say 'look, I'm bleeding and it's all your fault.'

"Okay, Boss." she said as she walked over to the door to find it was locked. She rushed around the room trying to find the keys; she stopped and looked at a post it note that was sitting on the console where she would usually sit.

To Angie,

Don't unlock the Shred Head who you will know as Boss

As soon as you are free, just run away and try to cool it.

He isn't a really nice guy, can't you tell from the big cage

To see whom this note is from just turn this page over.

P.T.O.

The Chosen Ones.

P.S: You're still a crazy ass bitch.

P.P.S. if you have to, the keys are inside the cage.

She placed the note in her pocket and ran over to the cage, she saw the keys and that they were not within her reach and also that none of the people in the cage were able to go in and get them themselves.

"Slight problem, Boss! I'll be right back!" she said this, turned and ran out the door.

Shredder just sat and waited patiently, Bebop, Rocksteady and Baxter were absolutely no help at all, they sat there and sulked at the mess that they were in and moaned at the fact that they could not break free.

After 30 minutes, Angela came running back in with along pole that had a horseshoe magnet tied to the end with string on the end of it. She stuck the pole into the cage and was able to drag the keys out with the help of the magnet. She walked round to the front of the cage and then she unlocked the door, she went inside and untied Baxter, passed the keys to Baxter who unlocked Bebop and Rocksteady while she untied Shredder.

"Thank you, Angela, you'll be rewarded for your hard work with a pay-rise and a promotion!" said Shredder.

"Thanks, Boss! That means I can buy that really cool 1959 Rolls Royce I wanted!" she skipped of into another room.

Shredder set about ordering people to clear up the room and make sure there were no surprises. He walked about the room and was not too happy about the fact that his plan had not worked out and began to scheme another way to get the Turtles.

"I'll get my way one of these days, one way or another, I'll find you, I'll get you! I am the all powerful Shredder." he yelled.

THE END