Back to the 667 Future

[Sixteen]

In honour of the tenth anniversary,

Back to the 667 Future

Prologue

Kensicle looked at her watch. She didn’t have much time. She heard the school bus honk its horn for a third time and realised she could delay no longer. Reluctantly, she closed her laptop and gathered her books, stopping for only a moment to scribble down the name of the website she had just discovered so that she could investigate later: 667 Dark Avenue.

After school, Kensicle rushed home and threw open the door. She immediately grabbed her computer and booted it up. The screen darkened as she entered the URL for the forum. Something about the site had drawn her in and captivated her from the very beginning. Of course, she was a fan of Lemony Snicket and she had come across fansites before but this one was different; special, somehow.

Breathlessly, she created an account and within minutes she had contributed posts to many threads. This aroused interest in one member of the forum in particular. Hermes was 667’s resident mysterious old man. Nobody knew much about him or what he got up to in his private time. This suited Hermes because if they really knew the truth many lives would be endangered. This bright young spark gave him hope, however. He knew instantly that he could trust her. She was intelligent and enthusiastic enough but didn’t know too many people. She was the perfect test subject.

Kensicle’s smile grew wide when she saw that she had received her first PM. The subject read, “TOP SECRET: A PROPOSAL”. She had no idea what to expect as she clicked through. Inside there was a long-winded letter detailing scientific theories accompanied by jargon and jpegs of wormholes. None of it made much sense to her until she read the last paragraph.

“If my calculations are correct, it will send you inside the virtual reality of the forum on a journey through time and cyberspace. Remember that nobody can know about this, especially Libitina. I hacked into her account for some of the files needed to complete the mission.
Hoping to hear from you soon,
Dr. Scott Brown (Hermes)”

Kensicle was thrilled at the thought of travelling through the history of 667 and replied without haste.

“Sounds great, Scott!”

[Deleted]

This is so exciting!

[Christmas Chief]

Wow! Captivating start.

[Linda Rhaldeen]

Awesome.

[Shelly]

Jun 11, 2012 19:29:19 GMT -5 @moon said:

This is so exciting!

[Kensicle]

Oh wow! I'm in a 667 fic!~
The resident mysterious old man is certainly that - mysterious. And suspicious. I wonder why he had to hack Libitina's files?

Jun 11, 2012 22:37:05 GMT -5 Linda Rhaldeen said:

Awesome.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

[Hermedy]

[Hermes]

Wow, I'm in a lot of fics today!

Very exciting - I look forward to seeing what will happen next. And I, too, wonder how Libitina is involved.

[csc]

Really cool.

[Sixteen]

Chapter 1

Kensicle checked her inbox with trepidation. There it was, waiting for her. Hermes had sent the file that would change everything. It wasn't a file type she recognised: "delorean.mc2". Cautiously, she opened it and the screen began to flicker. It cracked violently down the middle and emitted a strange, dim light. Kensicle grew dizzy just looking at it, yet she felt drawn towards it. She reached out and suddenly felt a chill all over her body. The room shifted around her and everything was silent. Kensicle was inside 667 Dark Avenue.

As she stood in the darkness, she called out.
"Hermes? Doc Brown? Are you there?" There was no reply. She looked around but there was nothing to be seen. Just when all seemed lost, something began to form in the distance. It looked like a car driving towards her. With a screech of tyres it pulled up and out stepped a man with long white hair in a long white coat.
"Kensicle," he said, stretching out his hand. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you."
"Where are we?" she asked with a wide-eyed expression. Hermes chuckled.
"We're in cyberspace. Everything you will see here is a virtual manifestation of 667 Dark Avenue," he said, gesturing to the emptiness. "It may not be what you expected but it's easier for you to experience things this way rather than as a bunch of programming code. You can now document 667's ten rich years of existence first-hand."

As Hermes was explaining, Kensicle looked around. The place was like a blank canvas except for the two of them and the car. Everything did have a slight green tint around the edges, probably because that was the colour of science fiction. Hermes was still talking about hypermass and gigawatts but what really interested her was the car. She approached it and reached out her hand. Hermes noticed just in time and jumped in front of her.
"What do you think you're doing?!" he yelled.
"I just wanted to see what it does," she answered sheepishly.
"All in good time," Hermes said. "Once you get this beauty to an upload speed of 88 kilobytes per second it will take you to any point in 667's history. But to get back to what I was saying beforehand..."
Hermes' speech was cut short by a loud noise from behind.

In the distance, there was another vehicle fast approaching. Hermes stared in horror as he realised who it was.
"Libby and Trikip! They've found me! Kensicle, get into the DeLorean, we have no time!"
"But I don't understand! What do you want me to do?"
"Just remember: 88 kbps. And you must never try to change the past or there will be dire consequences!" He shoved her into the car and slammed shut the door. Kensicle floored the accelerator and heard gunshots outside just as the car reached 88. In a burst of light it vanished.

[Christmas Chief]

Remarkable. I particularly like this line:

Everything did have a slight green tint around the edges, probably because that was the colour of science fiction.

And the bits about the car's nature.

[Linda Rhaldeen]

This is exciting! I can't wait to see where you go with this.

[Groge]

This is GENIUS! The BttF references all tie into the story so nicely. The time and cyberspace rather than time and space, the 88mph into 88kbps! "Sounds great Scott!" < brilliant! Also love the "slight green tint around the edges, probably because that was the colour of science fiction". Ha! Amazing! Looking forward to more!

[VKSB]

I'm so excited about this one!! I love the Back to the Future movies so this should be an interesting story.

[Shelly]

Jun 12, 2012 12:01:06 GMT -5 Sixteen said:

"All in good time," Hermes said. "Once you get this beauty to an upload speed of 88 kilobytes per second it will take you to any point in 667's history.

So much potential here. Great anniversary nostalgia.