Title: The Unlikely Saviour

Summary: Charlie still isn't really sure what in the hell just happened. But he was pretty sure he just ended up in the same universe as the Doctor. Armed with vague instructions from his future self to somehow save certain time periods from destruction, Charles Jay McKimmon isn't really sure how to behave when he meets one of his favourite characters in real life.

Chapter Title: The Dimension Hopper/ The Ringmaster

Charlie hummed a theme under his breath as he inserted the keys into the lock and let himself into his house. The smell of week-old laundry and cold pizza reached his nostrils and he hummed louder in happiness of the familiar smell.

He was quite self conscious which made him a bit anti-social and so he was very glad to be home and away from people. He wiped his boots off messily on the mat right inside the door before he flung them off. They landed haphazardly next to the shoe rack but he didn't stay downstairs long enough to see them land. He ran upstairs, his socked feet thudding loudly on the wooden carpeted stairs. It was a pleasant sound in the empty house. He lived alone as his parents worked as part of a secret government program and stayed away in order to protect him.

He didn't mind, he preferred it really. No one to ask questions.

He grinned as he shrugged off his jeans and his shirt and threw them onto the floor, walking around in just his boxers and a pair of socks. It was finally summer vacation! His mood soared as he came to terms with the fact that this would be his last summer vacation before he graduated high school the next year. The seventeen year old Canadian headed to the kitchen and grabbed a sugar cookie. He turned to leave before he paused, turned back and picked up the container.

"I'm gonna get so fat," he said mournfully, eyeing the calorie count. He stared at the container for a second longer before he shrugged and carried the entire box back to his bedroom. The door was slightly ajar, as he had left it, and Charlie carelessly kicked it open.

He jumped onto the bed, still clutching the cookies and his eyes darted around his room as his bed jiggled under his sudden weight. His eyes locked onto his target - his treasured laptop - and he leaned forward to reach it, not wanting to actually get out of bed to grab it. He stretched as far as he could, becoming frustrated as his fingertips caressed the side lightly but he could not grab onto it. Suddenly, his laptop opened up on it's own, startling Charlie so much that he jumped backwards and hit his head against his headboard.

He let out a deep groan, rubbing the back of his head before he freaked out again and his wide eyes shot towards his demonic laptop.

"HELL-O." an awkward sounding robotic voice came from the laptop.

"What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck." Charlie mumbled to himself, still eyeing his possessed laptop with panic. There were no strings, nothing at all to suggest it was a prank. It was his precious laptop - no one but him had ever even laid eyes on it. Nobody even knew where he lived! Even the school had a false address! So what the actual hell was going on?

"I A.M TH-TH-TH-TH.E DIMEN-S-S-S-S-ION HO-P-PER." the buggy laptop finally managed to stammer out.

"Uh..." Charlie didn't really know what to say, "Okay?" he tried, glancing towards his door as he slowly started edging away. It was just a bloody laptop after all, what could it possibly do? Suddenly a laser beam launched from the laptop and seared a hole into his boxers. He jumped back instantly.

"Please don't kill me." he blurted, raising his hands in the traditional surrender position.

"KILL. Y-Y-Y-UH-YUH-OU? HA. HA." laughed the creepy machine.

"Sorry for the intrusion! This is just a pick up for Charles Jay McKimmon!" a cheerful, deep voice echoed in his bedroom. Charlie felt the beginnings of panic as his entire bedroom suddenly began to shake. He was flung from side to side as he struggled to grab onto something.

Suddenly there was a knock at his bedroom door. Charlie glanced fearfully at the demon laptop from hell before he darted to the door, ready to embrace his savior.

The person standing there was not at all who Charlie would be expecting. Not that he had any idea who to expect but this... this was just bizarre.

Because, standing just outside his door, dressed like a circus Ringmaster and with the cheesiest grin on his face Charlie had ever seen, was Charlie himself.

It was all ridiculous and impossible, so if you all will forgive it, Charlie collapsed into a heap, his eyes rolling into the back of his skull, in the most ungraceful faint the world has ever seen.


Ringmaster-Charlie groaned, "Man, I was pathetic." He complained before lightly kicking his past self in the face to wake him up.


Charlie groaned and mumbled something before he blinked, his vision slightly blurry before he was once again face-to-face with, well, himself. He eyed himself, trying to determine that it was indeed reality. He absorbed the other mans physical features. The same brown hair, the same green eyes - no, his were much older, much wiser, much more... mischievous? How was that possible? He still looked the same age. Charlie continued staring at the man. His nose was still the same size, not too big, not too small, just good enough for his face. His jawline was still in the same spot. His smirk was twisted to the left, his straight-white teeth gleaming. He also had a bit of stubble and was much more fit physically than Charlie. On top of his head was a black top hat and he had on a white button up shirt, a deep purple vest, a black tie, a black tailcoat, black pants and black boots. He even had white gloves on.

"What's going on?" he demanded of himself. Ringmaster-Charlie grinned before saying, "Spoilers!" and striking a pose with jazz hands.

"..." Charlie just stared back at himself, wondering if he'd always been such an asshole.

"Okay, okay. I can tell you some stuff. But basically," Ringmaster began, becoming much more serious than before. Charlie was slightly thankful for it, he knew himself and knew he could be unpredictable when he was too excited, "Basically, you and I... we create ourselves," He said, furrowing his brow, trying to find out a way to explain it properly, "I, you, me, we kidnap ourselves from the past and turn them into us. We create ourselves."

"But create us into what?" Charlie asked, confused as all hell.

"We're known throughout universe as the Dimension Hopper, the Ringmaster, the Wandering Savior, the Lost-"

"Okay, okay, move on please," Charlie requested, not really caring much about the titles. Ringmaster-Charlie pouted slightly but continued on.

"Basically, due to some stuff, spoilers, we were 'selected'," airquotes around 'selected', "to run around and save this particular universe from destruction. And every time we do so, we move onto a different time period to correct, until there's no more to save."

"What happens then? And why were we selected?" Charlie asked, eyebrows furrowing as he tried to understand.

"We-eell, as far as I know, and that isn't very much, is that once everything is settled, we get to go back home. And the second bit is spoilers, sorry."

"But I'm home now. Can't I just stay?" Charlie pleaded with himself, not liking the sudden pressure that had just been placed on him.

"Nope. It always must be this way. This is a fixed moment in time. You have to become me. You have to save them." Ringmaster-Charlie said solemnly before suddenly breaking into a grin, "Don't worry though! You won't ever age. I'm actually 748 now but you can't tell it, can ya?"

"You're what?!" Charlie squeaked, "But... That's soo long!"

"Yeah, well, it's a lot more fun than just sitting around eating sugar cookies for sure. I might actually miss it when I finally get to go home," Ringmaster-Charlie said, slightly sadly, an unfocused look in his eyes as he reminisced about the places he had been. He quickly snapped out of it though, "Okay! Now I gotta teach you how to operate this thing!" he said as he lead Charlie back into his bedroom.

"What do you mean?" Charlie questioned.

"Well, Charlie-Char-Char," Ringmaster said cheerfully as he grasped the demonic laptop in his hands, "This is your control center."

"What do you mean?" Charlie furrowed his brow.

"Basically, you use this to operate through all of this universe you need to go to. It's like a space ship. Your entire bedroom is a spaceship and this laptop is your control center. Here, let me show you something," Ringmaster said as he quickly pulled something up. Charlie stared at the screen as he did it, making sure he could repeat the action by himself, "There, can you see that?" the Ringmaster asked, pointing. Charlie nodded. It was a screen full of circles, tiny little circles. One of those circles was a gentle pink colour. Mauve, almost.

"That is every single time period you have to save. They turn into that mauve colour when you need to head there. They'll turn green when you can leave and move on. When your entire screen is green, you can go home." he told Charlie, "Now, as for how you're going to get there. As I said, your entire bedroom is your spaceship. You simply press this," and with those words the Ringmaster quickly typed in a code and the bedroom started shaking again. Charlie memorized the passcode as quickly as the Ringmaster entered it in, "And your spaceship'll end up at the next destination. Outside those doors will be your first. Here," The Ringmaster said before pressing a set of 7 keys into Charlie's hand, "These are all the keys to your bedroom. You'll need them. Now, it's my time to leave. And for gods sake, put some clothes on!" he said before he left.

"WAIT!" Charlie shouted as he ran after himself. He stopped suddenly as he realized he was in the middle of a busy street, wearing nothing but boxers. He didn't see himself anywhere. A deep blush arose on his cheeks as he took notice of people starting to stare. He quickly ran back into his bedroo-spaceship. He slammed the door and locked it behind him and rested against it, breathing heavily.

Charlie was never really one for needless panic and so, with another deep breath to compose himself, he headed to his closet. And promptly let out a shrill scream. His closet was no longer a closet. It was a long hallway. Charlie steeled himself as he slowly walked through it. He finally reached a room that was connected to many more hallways. He quickly counted six. There was only one door.

He eyed the room. It had a long, pole like thing in the middle with a lot of buttons along the side. To be honest, it kind of reminded him of the TARDIS control room from Doctor Who. He saw that there was an indent in the surface that seemed like it would perfectly fit his laptop. He headed back to his bedroom to pick up his laptop and see if his suspicions were true. However, when he got back, his bedroom looked slightly... different. For one, his bedroom no longer had a door.

Fresh panic arose in his throat as he felt along where the door used to be.

He took a deep breath to calm himself. His future self was clearly running around so obviously he gets out somehow. He looked at his room again. His original closet now looked like a proper doorway. A new closet had emerged next to where the door had been. He gingerly pried it open only to be disappointed with an ordinary closet.

"Okay, okay, okay," he breathed to calm himself, "No problemo, no problems, no problems at all," he muttered. He quickly grabbed the laptop he had come for and headed back to what appeared to be the control room. With such large interior space, his spaceship exterior had ought to be really big but something inside of him told him that wasn't the case.

He placed the laptop onto the indented space and jumped as the entire area was suddenly lit up with light, getting rid of the uneasy feeling in his chest.

"Greetings," came a robotic voice, causing Charlie to jump, "I am the Dimension Hopper. I will be taking you through your journey. To exit the Dimension Hopper, please consult the door to your left." the voice said, talking about the only door in the control room.

"Uhhh, Dimension Hopper is a bit of a mouthful isn't it? Isn't there anything else I can call you? And why are you called the Dimension Hopper? I thought I was just traveling through time?" Charlie asked, his brain a completely mush. He tried to buy time to think of better questions.

"You are not to be saving your universe. This is an alternate universe you must save. One person in particular you must protect. Also, you may select a name for me." the Dimension Hopper allowed.

"What universe is this? And as for your name... How about..." Charlie started before shaking his head, "No, never mind, what am I doing?" he asked rhetorically, "What universe is this? That's a more important question, what am I doing, jeez."

"You were about to select a name for me. However, I believe you should get dressed and save this time period so we may keep this moving on as quick as possible so you may return home. If that isn't a bother. As for your other question, this is an alternate universe." the machine stated.

"Sassy," Charlie mumbled before brightening, "That's it! I'll call you SASSY! Charlie and his Dimension Hopping Companion, SASSY! In all caps, of course, since you're a machine and all and machines always have fully capitalized names. Oh, we could be a bloody television show!" Charlie laughed, putting on a British accent for the last bit.

Suddenly a hologram of a map appeared in front of him, causing Charlie to jump back in alarm.

"This is a map of SASSY systems." Sassy stated. Charlie grinned, "SASSY Systems, I think I like the sound of that." Charlie then made a point of memorizing every single path and room that appeared on the map.

"I have a bloody pool? And a library?" he asked in shock.

"Affirmative." confirmed SASSY.

"...Do I have to save the universe right now? At this very moment?"

"Negative. SASSY Systems will remain in this precise moment of time for the outside world. Time in the interior of SASSY Systems will continue to pass whereas the time in the exterior of SASSY Systems will remain in the precise second of landing. While time is not frozen, it is behaving as though it has been frozen." SASSY explained.

Charlie had already stripped completely down by the time she was halfway through saying 'Negative' and was running, bare bottomed, to where he recalled the map had shown the pool to be. He left his keys with his boxers and let out a high pitched noise of the utmost delight before he cannon balled into the pool.

Around four hours later and sopping wet, Charlie fumbled to where the map had said the closet was. Closet was a bit of an understatement really. It was larger than his bedroom and filled up to the ceiling with clothes.

They seemed to be fit for men and women of all shapes and sizes.

A light suddenly blinked, drawing Charlie's attention. It was a mannequin wearing clothes that seemed as though they would fit it him. He carefully took them off, taking care not to damage the mannequin by accident. He examined the clothes briefly.

The boxers were simple, just grey with a white waistband. He slipped them on before looking at the pants. They were a pair of regular blue jeans. He wondered why they weren't the same clothes his future self was wearing for a second but then shook his head.

The Ringmaster was nearly 800 years old, of course he changed his clothes.

He slipped on the jeans and pulled on the plain white shirt next. The last to put on was a dark blue blazer. He slipped into it, reflexively rolling up his sleeves to a length just past his forearms.

He glanced around and found a pair of nice white socks and some simple light coloured boots that went nicely with the whole outfit. He ran his fingers through his hair as a final touch before he remembered the keys to SASSY. He dug around the room and eventually came across a lanyard. He slipped the lanyard around his neck and found his keys. He put one of them onto the lanyard, one into his right shoe, and another into his pocket. The remaining keys he took great care to hide them all around SASSY.

"Alright," he said to himself, "I don't know what's out there, hell it's not even my flippin' universe, but I know, whatever it is, I can do it. Future me did it after all. Man... Who am I bloody kidding? I'm fucked." With that, he opened the doors to SASSY and let the sun light hit his face.

Time to save the world.