Carrying a large box of "Industrial Strength Popcorn", along with several E-colas, George followed Helmut into the theater. Scared of the sudden darkness, Mini-Dave ducked into Freakadave's hair and peeked out.
George and the Daves munched on popcorn for a few minutes as the opening ads, sound system tests, and coming attraction trailers played... and then the opening titles for the feature presentation happened...
At the title "Back to the Future", George started to get a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. But it wasn't until the first mention of time travel that he froze in his seat, completely paralyzed with fear, unable to do anything but watch in horror and whimper.
Feeling George's fear, Helmut chuckled softly to himself. Freakadave tried to comfort George by putting Mini-Dave on his shoulder; however, Mini-Dave was overwhelmed by George's fear and sprinted off, hiding in the popcorn.
----------------
Dave Pfoof!ed himself and Bob outside the large concrete building they'd been in. He hoped that bringing Bob's awareness along wouldn't mess things up even more... on the other hand, Bob might be a good person to have with him on a trip like this.
"Whoa, where's this?" Bob looked around. "Everything's on fire. Cool! Is this another alternate dimension?"
Dave stopped and looked at Bob. "They didn't tell you anything, did they?"
"Not much," Bob said. "They just stuck me in that room with the dog. They said it was for my own protection."
"Oh. Well, let's just say this is..." Dave was about to make up a suitably evasive half-truth to tell Bob, when he noticed two of Bob's personas standing on the pavement in front of them. It was the blue one and the Mega Man one.
"Ah. Author. Bob." Reasoning looked at them smugly. "I believe I may have a solution for this whole mess. And I'll be willing to divulge it... in exchange for certain changes in my status. I propose a meeting at the conference center, to discuss... how things should be run around here."
"Wait!" Dark Bob appeared from behind a large volcanic rock. "I've got to have a say in this, you know."
"Not without me," Conscience interjected, jumping down from a windowsill. "We're all going."
"That sounds like a good--" Dave stopped. He couldn't shake a sudden feeling of dread and terror... something seemed to be telling him that this would lead to time travel, which would in turn lead to pain and torture...
But those feelings didn't make any sense. Dave tried to brush them off, but he still felt that something awful was going to happen... "Well," he said, trying to sound unconcerned, "if you'll just tell me where this conference center is, we'll be off...?"
----------------
George's left eye began to twitch... How many more hours of torturous pain would he have to endure? How the hell did this Marty McFly manage to be remotely complacent? How... Flashbacks of his six-month captivity on the ceiling began to come back to him. Helmut, Mini-Dave, and Freakadave suddenly began to know exactly how miserable George's time-travel experience had been... George's flashbacks came, unbidden, to their minds...
----------------
Dave's terror, in the meantime, continued to grow ever-so steadily. What on earth could be the matter with me, Dave thought, beginning to panic. I've never been afraid of time travel. I love Back To The Futu-
Oh, no he didn't, froze Dave, suddenly coming to a realization. Back to the Future... George... oh God...Right now, of all times! Damn you, Helmut!
"Excuse me, Author, are you all right?" Dave wheeled around to see the smirking facade of Dark Bob. Can't deal with this issue right now, thought Dave desperately.
"Yes, I'm fine," lied Dave. "Just got a bit... distracted... and you still haven't told me where this conference center is."
"Right!" Dark Bob pulled out another large piece of paper, a sadistic grin on his face. "Since you got through the last one so well, I've decided to give you a real cha-"
"Oh, for Bob's sake!" Conscience grabbed the piece of paper from Dark Bob's hands and ripped it up into pieces. "We don't have time for this. Let's just go!"
"Are they always like this?" Dave asked.
Reasoning sighed. "Unfortunately, yes."
----------------
With a Pfoof!, Dave and the Bobs arrived in a stylishly decorated meeting room, with charred black wood panelling.. Everything was done in a flame motif. The walls held a collection of plaques commemorating important decisions in Bob's life.
Most of the participants sat down and waited for the meeting to begin, but Bob was still standing up, looking around the room. He squinted at one of the plaques and raised his shades, wondering if he'd actually seen what he thought he'd seen...
"Quit sightseeing and sit down!" Dark Bob said, losing his patience. "We need you to decide what we're going to do here."
Finishing reading the plaque, Bob turned around slowly. "What... the... HELL is going on?!" he asked. "Where are we? Look, I've seen enough alternate dimensions to know that this isn't one." He put his fist down on the table. "Someone better fill me in, quick."
Conscience and Dark Bob looked at each other.
"You tell him," they said.
----------------
Half-listening to the Bobs, Dave closed his eyes and tried to focus on calming himself down. The flashbacks were hitting him... he remembered spinning around, watching people come and go without rescuing him, and the painful realization that he could have used his powers to escape all along...
George's flashbacks. Even as part of Dave, George retained his time travel phobia, and Helmut or someone-- well, almost definitely Helmut-- must be deliberately stimulating it. This wasn't the time for Dave to wonder why, or try to get over that phobia. Instead, he took a more direct approach: telling himself that it was OK, that he wasn't time travelling right now, that his Author powers could get him out of any situations like that...
----------------
...that the ceiling incident was over, that he was safe now, that it was just a movie and wasn't really happening... George seemed to hear a comforting voice, or feel a presence, telling him these things to calm him down. It was working, too. He uncurled slightly from the fetal position, opened his eyes, and started watching the movie again.
Come to think of it... looked at objectively, it was a pretty good movie. George realized that these thoughts and feelings were coming from Dave, but that was OK. He welcomed them.
Helmut looked over at George, somewhat irritated that his terror was decreasing, then looked back at the movie. He hadn't seen it in a long time, and it was one of his favorites.
----------------
Feeling his "George side" calm down, Dave relaxed his concentration somewhat and opened his eyes. Bob was banging his fist down on the table and asking for explanations...
Dave had to make a VERY quick decision. He was in a room with two psychopaths, and the three saner aspects of Bob would be powerless if Bob suddenly went ballistic. And, undoubtably, the news that he was inside his own brain would make Bob go nuts. He had to tell another white lie... He raised a hand.
"I'll tell him," he said, glancing meaningfully at the rest of the Bobs. "I AM his creator, after all." He turned to Bob, the most serious look possible on his face.
"Bob, this is going to be rather hard to explain... this place is an alternate dimension where millions of your clones reside. No Georges, Megamans, or Moms exist here: only millions of Bobs, only differentiated by different personality traits. The ones that you see are only the most important ones. And they're trying to find out which government position they want him," he pointed at Mega-Bob, "To be." He had barely needed to lie at all: he just hoped that Bob would buy it...
Bob's expression turned from one of anger, to dazed confusion. "Oh, all right," he said, sitting back down. "That actually does make a whole lot of sense." He looked at Mega-Bob distastefully. "Personally though, I've got no clue how this guy could be useful."
Truthfully, Dave didn't either... it was a pretty freaky feeling, actually. To not know what to do in a desperate situation, despite being the most powerful force in the universe...
Reasoning stood up, a smug expression once again residing on his features. "Since the rest of you are terribly talkative," he chuckled, "I'd like to inform you of MY idea..."
----------------
George was actually beginning to truly enjoy Back To The Future, oddly enough. He was starting to laugh at the crazy Doc, who reminded him a lot of Dr. Light...

Freakadave began to get happier again. He began to make strange clucking noises, and used the downtime to build a popcorn-launching catapult. Which was, all and all, very normal for him.

Mini-Dave fell asleep on the popcorn, snoring faintly.

Helmut sighed. He guessed that, while his evil dastardly plan hadn't worked as well as he'd hoped, at least he'd get his revenge...
He could beat George in Marvel vs. Capcom any day.
----------------
"Fine," Bob said, "let's hear it." After all this was over, he resolved, he was never going dimension-hopping again.
Suddenly, Mega-Bob spoke up from his end of the table. "But wait!" he said. "When I first got here, you said I was in the back of--"
The other Bobs turned as one (which, technically, they were) and glared at him. "SHUT UP!"
With four blasters pointed in his face, Mega-Bob gulped and shut up.
"Now," Reasoning said. "I'd love to fill you all in on my solution. However, there is one small matter I'd like to discuss first." He leaned right in Bob's face. "Bob, if everything goes as I've planned it, you should be waking... er, back in the usual universe soon. However, you must be more reasonable at all times. I WILL be watching to make sure."
"Hell no," Bob said. "If I stopped to think before I did stuff, I'd never have ANY fun."
"If you stopped to think before you did stuff," Reasoning replied sharply, "you wouldn't have come here in the first place. Besides, if you don't agree, you'll never get out of here and you'll probably go crazy."
"Fine, fine," Bob grumbled. "I'll try to be more reasonable. I guess."
Reasoning grinned. He'd finally get to be up front. "Thank you. My plan is as follows. What we need to do is find Mega-Bob an unoccupied position, one with little responsibility, where even if he does screw up, he won't screw MUCH up." Conscience and Dark Bob nodded; Bob was following the conversation so far. "I believe I have found such a position."
He pulled out an organizational chart, and set it up so that everyone except Bob could see it. He pointed to the boxes representing the Bureau of Interpersonal Relations. "As you can see, we're understaffed in this department; Dark Bob and Pyromania have had to pull double duty there at times." More nods from Conscience and Dark Bob, especially the latter, who didn't appreciate having to deal with the idiots Bob tended to associate with. "Fortunately, you-know-who"-- he lowered his voice-- "prefers to avoid social contact whenever possible. And he ESPECIALLY doesn't care about how other people are feeling. Which is why I nominate Mega-Bob for the position of you-know-whose empathy." Reasoning smiled triumphantly and folded his arms. "It shouldn't matter if we put a trained monkey there."
As Reasoning put away the chart, Bob stood up. "You guys have one hell of a messed-up government here, but since this is just some random weird dimension, it's not like I care. Anyway, that plan sounds good to me, I guess."
"We've got Bob's approval!" Reasoning said self-importantly. "Any objections?" He gave the other Bobs a look that implied that they had better not have any objections.
Dave, Conscience and Dark Bob shook their heads.
"What's empathy?" Mega-Bob asked, puzzled as usual. "Is it a flavor of--"
"Don't worry," Dark Bob said, grinning evilly. "I'll be more than happy to... help you get the hang of it." He laughed.
"Hey, thanks!" Mega-Bob said. He tried to hug Dark Bob, who quickly stepped back.
"Well," Conscience said, standing up, "that ought to do it. Once we get Mega-Bob settled in, we should be able to return to normal operation." He turned to Dave. "Thanks for your help, Author. I don't know what we would have done without you..." He frowned. "But knowing Bob, it would probably have involved setting fire to something."
"Right," Dave said. "Well, since the situation seems to be back under control now, I'll be going...?"
----------------
With a soft Pfoof!, Dave returned to the real world, standing next to Bob's unconscious form. He knew that he probably shouldn't hang around; Bob would likely be in a rather fragile state for a while, and he might not react well to seeing Dave upon awakening. However, Dave wanted to keep watch over Bob... he felt George's concern for Bob as well as his own.
Pfoof!ing again, Dave went incorporeal and watched Bob closely for any signs of waking up.
----------------
"Ughh..." Bob had always been a bit of a light sleeper (Childhood fears of Pokemon eating him in his sleep hadn't really helped.) He slowly stretched and opened his shaded eyes.
The first he realized, after coming to his senses, was that he had a terrible headache, equivalent to the headache one would have after a heavy night of drinking a few shots of vodka. The second thing he realized was that he had no clue where he was, or how he'd gotten there. As a matter of fact, he didn't remember anything about last night...
...which could only mean one thing. Bob slapped his forehead painfully, the realization coming to him as he sat up, staring at his surroundings... he had gotten utterly plastered. Dr. Light style. He lay back down on the bed, propping his head back against the pillow. Maybe it's best that I DON'T remember, he told himself groggily, drifting back to sleep.

Dave sighed in relief as he saw Bob go back to sleep. He couldn't risk Bob learning about George's newfound authorship, all over again... that was what had started the whole problem in the first place, wasn't it? Speaking of which... I should probably check on George right about now... He PFOOFed out quietly, leaving Bob alone to sleep off his "hangover".
---------------
George had come to a realization... Back to the Future ROCKED. Not only rocked... it was the greatest set of movies he'd ever seen. How could he have ever hated it? He had a strange urge to buy a Delorean right now. "And that Delorean...is the COOLEST car EVER! I would kill for a fusion-powered, time-travelling Delorean!" chatted George excitedly, as Freakadave clapped together cocunut halves and Mini-Dave sat on his shoulder. "What do you say, Helmut? Wasn't that awesome?"
"Yeah, yeah," muttered Helmut, now feeling the full consequences of his clever, perfect plan. Not only did George not become comatose with fear... he had loved it. George was now painfully reminding Helmut of obsessive anime fans. The only thing that would make this even worse is if Da- Just then, a familiar PFOOF interrupted Helmut's thoughts.
"I'm back!" CURSE MURPHY!