Scouring the streets of a different version of London, Lila and Al searched for the wayward Ben, who disappeared on them like he's Batman, now they're tracking his phone, that he thankfully kept with him, so that's helpful.

Well, helpful in the sense that they're wading through crowds of people, most tourists asking for directions, that it seemed like they weren't getting anywhere.

Al tried his hand at texting Ben, attempting to tell him to meet them at a media store he saw on his cursory look through the city during his initial scanning.

A media store that Ben's familiar with, that he had no problem identifying and going towards, Al hoped that with the directions, he'll get there if they don't reach him.

Note, attempting.

Ben didn't respond to the texts, even when Al tried to call him, he's sure the phone's online and operating, it's on his scanners.

Alas, Ben didn't respond to him, despite multiple attempts, even going far as attempting to masquerade as his mother's number.

"Don't worry, I got more eyes than a spider," Al tells the worried Lila that he's got it in the bag.

If Ben isn't answering, then Al'll find him on the cameras. London's got so many, it's simple as retracing their steps, go from there.

"Maybe you ought to possess a TV and yell at him," Lila suggested Al do that, see if he can't get Ben's attention that way, but Al said he didn't want to cause untoward attention as it is, he's already avoiding hordes of people who're likely to notice he isn't a real person.

However, it's a good idea, that if Ben won't answer, then Al'll make him, by taking to Ben's Blackberry, forcing a reaction that way.

Maybe the fool has his phone on silent.

"You can do that?" Lila looked at Al with a curious look, which the AI tells her that he's gotten into arguments with fax machines in the past, this is old hat to him.

Shrugging her stout shoulders, Lila tells him to do it, something to tell them that he's alive and hadn't gotten lodge in a truck tire somewhere.

Briefly, Al looked in the yonder, before he says he got a lock on Ben's location, and he's picking up his phone.

"What'd you say?" Lila asks what Al could've said to an inanimate object into getting its owner's attention.

Al told her simply, "His mother's calling."

Rolling her eyes, Lila exasperated as she urged him to hurry, before Al took the call.

"Ben! Thank God, we were worried about you, listen, there's a media store not far from you. You know it by sight. Listen, we'll come pick you up, just stay put… Ben?" Al began talking to Ben externally, but found that the other side of the line's quiet, before the phone hung up on him.

Baffled, Al says, "He hung up on me! The nerve! I told him where to go!"

Looking at him, Lila pointed out a flaw in Al's plan.

"Trust me, if there's any chances of paradoxes, I'd known instantly," Al assured that there won't be any problems if Ben should see himself on a cover of a DVD for a movie, he won't remember appearing in.

On chances his counterpart bumps into him, Al doesn't think they'll have to worry about that, he's got everything on a scanner, nothing short of walking past the storefront's getting past Al.

His counterpart's doing a radio show somewhere, nowhere near London, they got nothing to worry about, what with audio compression and the state of speakers, Ben won't even recognize his own voice coming out of the speakers.

"Until someone recognizes him and asks for an autograph," Lila pointed out that while he won't encounter his counterpart, there's still fans of his counterpart who'll notice him, and accidentally mistake him as the real deal.

Shaking his head, Al tells her, "I don't think we have to worry about "Play Misty for Me," but I get what you mean. I'm trying to adjust the foot traffic so there's less people at the media store when he gets there."

He'll try to talk to the Blackberry again, get it to nag Ben again, just to make sure he's going the right way, as Al tracks him.

"Make sure it's not his mom this time. Can't you make the caller ID something like, "Pick up the damn phone, you idiot, it's us looking for you!" And make sure he answers this time?" Lila gestures as Al attempted to give it another try, contacting the Blackberry.

The Blackberry phoned back to Al, saying that it's in a bad reception, it can't reach the towers, it's being blocked by them as it's "unrecognized" by the carriers here.

It's effectively bricked.

"Okay, okay, how about a text, can you receive it?" Al talked to the Blackberry with his eyes looking past people. He nodded as he said, "Thank you. We'll do that. Snag every open network you can get on, so I can keep track of you two."

When he finished his conversation, he looked over to Lila as he informed her that Ben's Blackberry can't reach the cellular services here. Since it's a device from a different universe, they have different standards, effectively making the Blackberry useless.

However, if there's plenty of areas with open WIFI networks, Al should be able to track it no problem, if Ben sticks close to it.

"I got it to send a text to him, making sure he can't ignore it, making sure he knows it's us," Al assures Lila that he's got Ben's Blackberry on point, nagging him into checking it every moment until he replies.

Waiting for a reply, the two briefly stopped, and Al jumped when he heard the Blackberry communicate with him, saying, "Ben's on Main Street. I'm guiding him to the media store nearby. He knows it's you guys and he want to know what's going on. PS, bring a charger, I'm at 50%, the idiot forgot to charge me again. Tell him I said that."

Okay, the Blackberry has a deep issue regarding Ben's absentmindedness, but at least they know it's Ben, or so they think.

"Have it snap a photo, just to make sure it's him, not some schlub," Lila suggested Al get the Blackberry to take a picture of Ben, just to verify that it's him, not some guy who posed as him.

Nodding, Al reached out to the Blackberry, telling it to force a photo from Ben, verifying it's him, then they'll talk about bringing a charger.

Waiting for a moment, Al gets the photo, it's grainy, the lighting's terrible, pixelated mess, but it's enough for Al to verify that it's Ben, closing his eyes after the the camera flashed on him.

"Okay, I got the store he walked by, too, come on," Al gestured as Lila hurried with him, trying to get around the crowds of people as it nears lunchtime.

Meanwhile, Al's working on why someone phoned them at the payphone on the corner, but the records he pulled up indicated that the call lasted only thirty seconds.

Nothing recorded on his end, couldn't been a prank call, nobody calls his number unless there's something important.

He keeps the number private for a reason, even Medi doesn't like long distance calls without reason!

Yanked some camera footages from cameras posted around the area, one's posted above a bank near the pay phone, Al's working on matching the time of the call with whoever goes up to the pay phone, just to see who called them, see where it takes them.

Took a bit, but Al found the footage close to the time that someone called him and followed it by scene.

A crowd of people walked past the pay phone, no one stuck out, during this, Al caught sight of someone going towards the pay phone, but their back's turned and the crowd covered them, by the time the crowd evened out, whoever was at the pay phone's gone.

Couldn't find a closer camera angle, two of the ones Al found that would've had a better look's offline or broken.

Tried to follow the crowd, see if someone stuck out, then, but they dispersed too quickly on the corner through Main Street that he couldn't catch a glimpse of anyone standing out.

Tried to see if whoever called had a cellphone with them, weird, Al knows, but there's a reason they went through the effort to call at a pay phone rather a cellphone, maybe they didn't want it logged.

Checked the active phones in the city, cross referenced them to the time and place, the person who called him didn't have a cellphone with them.

It's boggling Al, that he's struggling finding a solution, while tracking Ben's phone, even going far as pulling up the cameras in the area the phone's in just to make sure he's going the right way.

He's getting there, so that's good.

Al's avoiding the sudden lunch crowd that formed as the clock struck lunch time, Lila's struggling to keep up with him as he's avoiding people from running through him and realizing that he isn't a real person.

Struggling, Lila ended up stuck behind the slowest people on the known planet, gawkers, taking pictures of a door.

Yes, a door.

By the time she got away from them, Al wasn't anywhere near her, and she tried to go further ahead, but the AI wasn't waiting for her at the end.

"Crap," Lila exhaled sharply.

At least before they separated, Al told her the name and address of the media store that he sent Ben to stay in until they caught up to him, so there's that.

Most of London's the same, so she isn't having problems getting around, it's just the crowds of people, and the subtle differences that tripped her up here and there.

She's getting just fine on her own, which is good, just trying to get through the crowd's a different story.

While going around the corner, her chestnut eyes caught sight of someone familiar, cautiously, she's coming closer, and spotted none other than Ben.

She knows it's the one and the same by his casual clothes, complete with his befuddled look.

He stopped when he noticed her coming towards him, ire in her eyes.

"Did your mother ever tell you not to run off, especially in unfamiliar places?" Lila immediately said to him with anger in her voice, trying to keep her voice leveled so she didn't attract attention from passerby.

There's immediate confusion behind those blue eyes, but Ben eventually apologized for disappearing on her, he'd gotten distracted.

He's quite sorry, for that.

Sighing, Lila mustered, "I'll explain it to you when we get back, for now, let's go get Al, and get the hell out of here, 'kay?"

It's going to take a long time explaining to Ben what's going on, the fact that this is nearly like the London he knows, but isn't, everything else, Lila's going to need make more than one pot of ramen.

"Such as it were. What a strange day we're having," Ben commented on the state of their day, causing Lila to snort, before she says that this isn't just one strange day, either.

She goes through several a week, it's a miracle she gets home at all, but that's not even scratching the surface.

"Where's the Doctor?" Ben curiously asked her, which she stated that he's busy elsewhere, and she really doesn't want to go back to him until everything's situated, because she's got enough things on her plate, as is.

Turned back as she saw the corner they're supposed to turn, then further down, they'll make a left, keep to the left for a while, then at the cross section, go across, take the next right, they're at the media store.

"Is it true, then?" Ben inquired while he trailed Lila.

Confused, Lila asked what he's talking about, and Ben elaborated, "He is the Doctor?"

The tone of voice's weird, but it could be because Lila's picking up pace trying to hurry to the media store to catch up to Al, and she assumed Ben's talking about Theodore.

It'd make sense, it was in his kitchen, technically.

"Wa-well, it's a long story, but the gist is, it wasn't what we expected to happen, but here we are. Just, keep it to yourself, okay?" Lila quickly tells him not to tell anyone that Theodore's the Doctor, the REAL Doctor, the less the better, and the fact that she didn't want this incident getting out.

She doesn't want to have a conversation with Odette, she may've been nicer than her brothers, but that doesn't mean she isn't like them in some ways, she's got a mean streak to her that Lila doesn't want to see.

Ben's intrigued, calling out to Lila, "And does that make you, his companion?"

Hearing this, Lila briefly turned to shrug at him as she said, "Since the day that thing kidnapped me. It's a long story."

Telling someone how a machine kidnapped her, not going to end well, even with context.

There's silence for most of the walk, that when Ben finally talked again, there's something off about his tone of voice.

"For you, it's only going to get worse. Much worse. Trust me," he only said before he pushed past Lila, nearly knocking her into the ground, when she recovered, Ben's nowhere to be found.

She's about ready to hunt him down and beat him, but stopped when she noticed something in her hand.

A Blackberry with a green rubber casing, looking at the screen, Lila sees the texts between it and Al.

"What… huh?" Lila raised it up to her face as she verified that this Blackberry indeed belonged to Ben, there's a picture on the screen with him and Odette.

The Blackberry took a picture of her, automatically sent it to Al, and she quickly texted him, saying that she has Ben's phone, but Ben went off somewhere.

When she got a text back, Al says that he found Ben, he ended up getting suckered into taking pictures for tourists, but now that they're together, they're going to the media store.

"Where are you?" Al texted her.

Looking around, Lila got a general feel of the area before texting back her answer and Al told her how to get to the media store from there.

Walking along the stretch with Ben's phone in her hand, Lila's baffled at what happened, and when she arrived at the media store, she sees the two in the window, looking out.

Upon entering the media store, Lila gone up to Ben and nearly whacked him in the face for running into her.

"What'd I do?" Ben's baffled at the assault before Lila showed him his phone, which he said he dropped when someone ran into him, and when he went to look for it, it was gone.

By the time he thought it was lost for good, Lila and Al were gone, and he had to go around London confused, because there were things that he swore, London never had before.

Lila didn't believe him, saying it was impossible, he had a photo of himself taken on it. by the Blackberry.

She tried to go back to the photo to show proof, but it's so heavily pixelated around the eyes, they might as well be black spots.

"Well, how'd you know to find this store, then?" Lila asks Ben how he knew how to find the exact media store that Al told him to go if he didn't have his phone and he said that someone on the street told him that if he waited at it long enough, the two would've shown up by, then.

Exhaling sharply, Lila asks if he's all right and he affirmed he is, but confused.

"Yeah, welcome to my world. Al, is there any reason why we're here at all?" Lila looked at him as they're standing near the clearance section while Ben looked at the DVD covers of movies that he didn't know exist.

Shaking his head, Al says he didn't get the answer, and from the way it looks, it seems like there wasn't a reason for them to be out here, at all.

Blinking as she stared at him next to a cutout for a movie, Lila pointed at Al, "You brought us here, you're telling me that suddenly, this whole thing's moot?"

All this walking, for nothing?

Recoiling, Al swears that he doesn't know why they came out here in the first place, but now, he says they can go home, now.

"Yes, please. I got a bowl of ramen with my name on it," Lila's quick to accept the offer, if it means they can get Ben back home in one piece without incident.

Surprisingly, Ben handled himself when it came down to ending up in a different London, in fact, he caught on well that something wasn't right.

Well, not hard considering he entered a door in Theodore's kitchen, then ending up somewhere else that looks like London, but semantics aside.

Having Al hone in on his phone helps.

"All right, let's blow before anything else happens, come on, Ben," Lila waved her hand, beckoning Ben to leave the clearance bin he'd been going through out of curiosity, finding movies he doesn't recognize.

Slowly nodding, Ben followed both her and Al out of the media store, heading back to the TARDIS itself, along the way, Ben conversed with Lila and Al, trying to understand what's going on.

By the time they reached the TARDIS, Ben deduced there's something else going on, asking Lila flatly if Theodore's been messing with him.

"How do you mean?" Lila asked him as they stood near the opened door.

Crossing his arms, Ben leans forward and said, "How can I hear his voice when he's on a different floor?"

Figuring out something's amiss, Ben put it together, concluding that Theodore isn't what he seems, seeing this machine and how they ended up here confirmed this.

Exhaling sharply, Lila tells Ben, "Look, he means well. He's a big teddy bear, but he's starting to come around, just don't get him started on hydraulics, again," Lila summed that while Theodore's an unusual man, he's got a… set of big hearts… and once he knows someone, he's as lovable as a teddy bear.

As long as you refrain from arguing hydraulics.

A befuddled look, Ben wondered about Odette and how she handles this, which Lila meekly responded, "Much better than you expect. Come on, let's go home, before another crank call goes through and we're in Paris."

Al resented the remark as they disappeared into the TARDIS.

What adventure full of nothing!

…

"No. It wasn't him," a man bearing a striking resemblance to Ben hung around a payphone, talking to someone on the other end, with a stilted monotonous voice. "No. It was someone else."

As people passed him, his blank expression on his face, he heard the speaker ask who it was, and he responded, "An actor. The machine was with them."

He heard a response and a question, which he answered with, "A woman. His companion. Should've I have taken her spot?"

On the other end, he heard the speaker tell him, it wasn't worth it. The machine would've known something's wrong the moment he made the switch.

It's fixed, now.

If it wasn't, the man might've had a chance, but for now, the plans have been altered.

However, all's not lost.

"This mission was a failure," the strange man pointed out that they wasted time luring the machine, the actor, and the woman out here, only for them to be let go, but the speaker tells him that they got what they wanted in the end.

The speaker explained that even the most mundane of missions have some benefits, this one especially.

Even small as it may be, they have what they came for, that's all that matters.

Like that photo of the companion that they have, now. Small as it may be, there's some use for that.

"Will I kill her?" asks the man as he waited for the speaker's response. There's movement of papers, before the speaker tells him his answer.

The speaker said, "No. Leave her. I have plans for her. Instead, I have a new mission for you."

Tilting his head in confusion, the man couldn't understand why the speaker won't assign him a mission in killing the companion.

She's just the companion, but the speaker insists that he'll take care of it, for now, the man has new orders that the speaker insisted that he do.

"What are your orders?" Inquired the man as he stiffly shifts in his spot near the payphone, before he heard the answer.

On the other end, the answer rang out towards the end, "… make sure she suffers."

Nodding, the man affirmed the order, before the speaker added, "… bring it to me afterwards. End of line."

Hanging up the phone, the man looked off for a moment, an empty look in his blackened eyes, that slowly returned to their blue colour, before calmly walking away from the payphone, disappearing in a crowd of people.

THE END