The Doctor looked up as Carter came in, a knowing smile forming on his lips as even from behind bars the Doctor knew everything. Carter pulled up a chair and sat across from the Doctor, separated only by the bars of the small prison cell.
"I can't be injured" Carter said after a moment, and after waiting a few moments more continued: "And nothing happens here- nothing. It's always just the same."
"That's because it's not real. None of it. Took me a bit to realize it myself- whoever set this mad-matrix up is a bit of a genius, and coming from me that's saying something"
"Matrix?" Carter put in- "You mean like with the 'there is no spoon' thing and the crazy backflips? And that guy named Leo?"
"Neo actually, but that's not important- same basic idea though"
Carter groaned inwardly, "So are you gonna offer me the red pill or the blue pill now or something?"
"It's not that simple- wish it was. Then it'd be easy, but unfortunately the people who made this have all seen the Matrix and figured most of the population has too. But no worries, I know what we're gonna do and I'll need your help for it. There's just about 4 things I gotta tell you though"
"Like what?"
"Well, A) We need two specific peoples- people who have been made weaker here so that they can't stop it all; you'll know them: Nikola Tesla and... and.. Snap, what's his name…? Gabriel Grey, that's right. They both have one thing in common that'll get us out of this mess of a mess"
"Wait the drunk and that weird clock guy with the dweeb hair?" Carter cut in, picturing the two, not quite sure what they had in common other than both being skinny white brunette guys.
"Let me continue! 2. I need to get into the town hall building and fiddle with the tidbits on that ugly statue-"
"You mean the one of President Rutherford B. Hayes?"
"Yea him! The bloke with the mother of all beards- anyways, point C! You can't tell anyone- anyone at all that we know this is the matrix"
"Anyone? Wait but you want me to get that Tesla guy and that clock guy- plus you haven't really explained to me how you know-" Carter protested, starting to get unbelievably confused.
"I said we need them! I didn't say tell them what we're doing!"
"Isn't that kind of morally gray?"
"Nah it's completely morally rainbow! Anyways last but not least- 4: The matrix system will try to stop you. And it'll hurt- you can't be injured but they can still lock you up. Those "sick" people House treats? They're people like us, people who figured it out. They've been locked up to stay out of the way"
"By locked up you don't mean…"
"Imprisoned, no way out, padded walls- daily shots, huggable jacket, you get the picture"
"Oh."
"No pressure eh? Now let me out of this cell and get me into that city hall!"
"But wait- you haven't told me how you figured all this out!" Carter said, that tiny ounce of average-joe reality left in him from the day protesting with all its might against the chaos that was occurring around it.
"Ah, that. I got electrocuted. By a lamp. Long story really, maybe I'll tell you later- anyways, I realized that here food has no taste and the paper says the same thing in it every other day"
"Oh" Was about all Carter could get out, "I read the paper every day. Wouldn't I notice..?"
"Not with them all tapped into your cerebral cortex of course!" The Doctor exclaimed as Carter unlocked the cell and let him out.
"Right- cerebral cortex"
"To business then! Tesla and Grey, dinner, town hall, and Rutherford B. Hayes- but not necessarily in that order"
The first stop on the crazy express was dinner at what was simply known as "The Diner". It was the only place in town to go to do well, anything. Hang out, get a drink, eat, or even plan how to take down the matrix from the inside. Luckily for The Doctor and Carter, this meant that they could see not only Tesla but also appear to be completely normal because positively everyone in town went to "The Diner" so that they were hiding themselves in well, a crowd.
"Who are we here for?" Carter asked The Doctor nervously, still not quite sure about the whole thing.
"Tesla, of course. Otherwise he'll just drink himself into a stupor then we'll have a real problem on our hands"
This is why the pair of them casually sat themselves down on either side of the man, which of course only served to make Tesla suspicious of them in that drunken sort of way.
"Whaadddyyaaa want..?" Tesla demanded, bleary eyed and hopelessly out of focus. "Itt's not morning yet, yoouu cann't arrest me, hah! Hahahahaaa… Gods teetthhh I'm funny…haa haa.."
Carter gave The Doctor a 'you had better have a plan for this' look, which was returned with a 'chillax, I got this' look. Tesla returned both with a cold, hard, drunken glare.
"Er- Mr. Tesla, I actually have come to you with a business proposition" The Doctor managed, suddenly wondering if he was out of his league.
"Bizzness? What do I want with yourrr bizness?" Asked the irritable drunk man.
Carter came to the rescue, "Well, you get to drink on the job and you get paid by the hour- twice minimum wage"
That certainly got the drunk mans attention. "Iz this some kinda joke? Why would you doo that?"
"Because we have a job that only you can do Mr. Tesla" The Doctor said grinning from ear to ear.
"Yea..?"
"Yea- you just come with us, we just have to pick up another employee and then we'll get to work"
"At this time? Whhatt doo you think I am? Stuipid. Stuipid Stuipid? Yoou don't go hirin drunk men in the middle of the night, are you killin someone..?"
"No!" Both Carter and The Doctor exclaimed.
"Then whatyam I doin?" His speech seemed to gradually degrade the more he talked.
"You'll be..making…stuff"
"Stuff." Even drunk, Tesla did not sound impressed. "Im outta here, you two are crazzzy" With that, tesla got up, draped his coat awkwardly over his shoulders and walked into the door, successfully knocking himself out.
"Good grief" Carter said, standing over the unconscious Tesla. "Well come on, you grab one arm, I got the other"
And with that, they heaved Tesla between them and dragged him down and across the street, to a dinky little clock shop.
The clock shop was closed. Not surprisingly, given the time of the night, but it was closed, and Tesla was starting to feel a bit heavy. The Doctor, also not surprisingly, made no inclination of even having noticed the closed sign and walked right in. There were no locks in Littleton.
Dropping Tesla on the floor they looked about themselves; the shop was covered wall to wall with clocks, all of them ticking a little too perfectly in time with each other. There was a worktable off to one side with a pile of watches atop it and a pair of some of the craziest glasses Carter had ever seen; the lens had lens. There was no sign of the shops keeper however.
"This guy always gave me the creeps" Carter was saying, looking at the stack of watches- all of them ticking in exact time which each other. Something in the back of his mind reminded him of a crazy clock…a millennium clock? What..? His thoughts were broken by the entry of one Gabriel Grey- wielding a baseball bat and looking thoroughly, and understandably, concerned.
"Don't swing!" Carter said quickly- "It's ok, I'm Sheriff Carter- you know me, I work down the street from you"
Recognition filled Grey's face and he put down the bat, though slowly. "What's going on? Why are you in my shop?"
The Doctor stepped in to answer that question; "'Ello Gabriel, listen this is gonna be a little bit confusing but I need your help- and this drunk lump's help" he said prodding Tesla with his foot, "To save the world. Think you're up for that?"
"What in the world?" Was all Grey could say, looking dumbfounded.
Carter came to the rescue, again, "Listen, we need you to help us or else the entire town will be destroyed- got that?"
"Destroyed?"
"Sort-of," The Doctor began, "But not really- its complicated but basically you and this lump," He poked Tesla again, "Are the only ones who can save everyone here- and to do that I need your help, gotcha?"
"What can I do that could possibly be of use? I'm just a clock maker"
"No- no you're not" The Doctors tone became darker, sadder, and gave Carter a bad feeling, as though he was about to hear some sort of a 'I'm so sorry' out of the guy for some reason. "But enough of this talking- we must go, we have to get to the big metal statue of Rutherford B. Hayes- and we have to do it tonight!"
"Tonight!" Carter and Grey said together, Tesla mumbling something, possible 'tonigh?'.
"Yes, tonight-" The Doctor began.
"You never said anything about it having to be tonight!" Carter almost shouted- it was 11:46 as it was.
"Didn't I? Oh well, oops. See In order for all this to be possible I set in a minor virus-"
"What?"
"Shut up! And this virus shuts off at midnight- couldn't be helped, a bit Cinderella really-"
"Then why are we standing around here shouting and wasting time and everything?" Carter demanded- "We're running out of time!"
"Time to do what?" Grey questioned, starting to fear that he was going to be dragged into a bank robbery, murder, etc. Granted, the town bank was rather small and probably had only about $500 paper bills in it.
"Grey- we're in the matrix and have to dash or else we'll be trapped forever, help Carter carry Tesla. I have to go yank off Rutherford B. Hayes' beard"
"What?" Grey asked, again.
"Just do it man! And stop asking stupid questions- come!"
And with that they dashed for the town hall, and for the ugly statue of Americas 19th president, to, presumably, save the town from the depths of the Matrix.
Dragging Tesla slowed them down, and, shockingly, the town hall was at the top of a relatively far-off hill, not down the street like everything else, and so they had to run- which was difficult with a confused clock maker and a drunk, drunk man. But at last they made it to the town hall; to find it surrounded. Surrounded by the townsfolk, or the 'non player characters' as the Doctor called them, they were the shopkeepers, the next-door neighbors, the little old lady and that guy who was always at the bus stop but never on the bus. They were also standing eerily still with creepy flashing blue eyes. These creeps didn't help them when it came to getting Grey on board with everything.
"What's- what's wrong with them? They- they're eyes- they're-"
"Come on!" The Doctor pulled them so that they were facing the Town Hall, the clock reading 11:56. They had 4 minutes before it was all over.
The creeps didn't move, but they did all turn to face them, hands behind their backs in the image of perfect domineering creepiness.
"How are we going to get past these guys?" Carter demanded of the Doctor, dropping Tesla who made a "ugh" noise.
The Doctor looked speculative for a minute- then he beamed ear to ear again. "Easily! Mr. Grey this is partially your job- I need you to send out a bolt of lightning- I need you to hit the head one these guys, the town mayor. You know him, short, plump and desperate for re-election but having absolutely no opposition"
The confused clockmaker exploded, "Lightning? That's impossible! What are you crazy- all of this! It's crazy! Absolutely crazy-"
At that moment all of the NPC's flashed out of existence for a split second, and the Doctor pocketed his make-shift sonic screwdriver (more of a sonic pencil in this mad world).
"Now do you believe me?" He asked, looking Grey straight in the eyes.
"No, not really"
The Doctor gave him an exasperated look. "What do you want? Freaky people with glowing eyes- clearly something's wrong there, all lined up and ready to stop you from what? Entering a public building? And then they go and flicker- flicker right out of existence for a fraction of a minute and you still think everything's dandy, what has humanity come to!"
"I didn't say I didn't believe you about things being…weird. I just don't think it's possible to shoot lightning out of my hands- I'm no one special"
"Oh! Oh, oh oh!" The Doctor slapped his forehead, brain working like an engine on overdrive. "That's it then? Well great! Swell! I might be able to work with this! Because you mister are not ordinary"
Carter was growing impatient, especially with the small army of NPC's glaring at them ominously with shiny blue eyes.
"Guys- I know that he's some sort of nuclear-matrix-bomb guy and all but, please tell me there's a plan B? Frankly these guys are giving me weird looks and I don't like it"
Grey went still. Nuclear? Why would that… Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. A flash of a memory, just one; standing on a roof, saying one very bomb-like word: Boom. Tick. Tock. That's right… A world of memories flooded in then; killing, death, desire and an insatiable hunger for, well, power. But then something else. A carnival and a blonde deaf girl who needed saving; and realizing that good, well, felt good.
He breathed deeply inward as all of the pieces of his mind fell back into place, looking up slowly- seeing things properly for the first time, the veil over his eyes falling away as he saw just how crude the world they were in was. Almost every tree was identical; the town's people all had similar, generic features, every feeling was wrong- what he felt, what he sensed were just memories of senses, expectations for what they should be but not actually true to life. Tick. Tock. Tick.
"There's no need for a plan B" Sylar said.
"Brilliant!" The Doctor declared, leaping for joy and giving Sylar a great glomp of a hug. "Now, can you take out the mayor? Has to be with lightning. Nothing else will work, got it?"
"Easily Doctor," And he lifted his hand. Carter tensed, he had vague memories of watching this guy on Friday nights with Alison and hand lifting was usually bad, so he couldn't help it: he cringed.
A bolt of blue lightning shot from Sylar's hand, spiraling between the Bar Keep and the librarian; colliding with the short, portly mayor who erupted into random strands of binary. As the mayor collapsed into a heap of fragmenting binary code, all of the other NPC's exploded around him in similar manners.
"That was too easy" Carter muttered, as a random strain of ones and O's fluttered by his head, they had once been a waitress at the local cafe.
"Easy or not- we must move! Quickly, you two pick up our drunk friend here, hopefully with the collapse of the program he'll start to remember what's going on- and that he can't get drunk," The Doctor started running off towards the town hall building, leaving Sylar and Carter in a jungle of binary.
"He can't get drunk?" Carter said after a moment's hesitation.
"I can shoot lightning from my hands and this surprises you?" Sylar retorted, grabbing one of Tesla's arms.
They arrived in the town hall itself to see the Doctor already hard at work, the 19th presidents beard lay discarded on the floor; his exposed chin revealing extensive circuitry, with the odd stray wire poking out as the Doctor did his handiwork. Carter gawked as the town hall flickered in and out of existence; "You gave him a serious shave" He commented, dumping Tesla on the floor again. Sylar too, was intrigued by the world's worst barber's job. "How is this going to get us out of here?"
"You'll see, you'll see" The Doctor replied through the sonic pencil in his mouth, "Now, kick Tesla would you? Gonna need him in a minute"
Carter called up to the Doctor, "What good can he do? He's more useless than-"
"Than what? I hope you weren't going to say what I think you were" Standing there, arms crossed and looking deeply agitated was none other than Nikola Tesla, who had suddenly forgotten he was drunk.
"Your awake-" Carter began, looking the guy up and down. When not standing with a drunken sailors stance, he was…quite different to behold. Arrogance seemed to seep out of his very pose, and he looked over all three of them with a critical eye.
"Of course I'm awake, I was never asleep! Not that any of you took any notice- regardless; we're in a bit of a pickle aren't we?" He didn't wait for a response. "What do you want me to do?"
The Doctor slid over from Rutherford B. Hayes, looking back and forth from Sylar to Tesla. "Well, we're gonna need a bit of electro-magnetism if you know what I mean"
"I hope he's not providing the electro part, that little zap he let out earlier? Please, I've seen some of my coils let out more juice" Tesla said, gesturing to Sylar in a manner which could only be called by one word: dramatic.
"You want to test that?" Sylar growled, looking down on what he took for a very silly, strange, vaguely foreign little man.
"Try me psycho-boy" Tesla replied snidely, peering up at what he took for a very ridiculous, insane, man with way to much hair gel (and that's considering his experience with Will).
"Guys! Trying to escape the matrix here remember?" Carter cut in on their lightning-powered ego trip.
"Oh, right" "Of course," "How impudent..." "Doctor what do you want us to do?"
"Well, it's actually pretty simple- Tesla, you're the magnet-bit, you just gotta channel tons of magnetism stuff into the statue over there, and Sylar, you just gotta zap it with your lightning-bits kay?" The Doctor explained in a hopelessly vague way that left Sylar confused and Tesla rolling his eyes.
"You want us to short circuit it?" Tesla inquired in a tone lathered in barbs.
"Yes- er, of course!" The Doctor beamed, immune to any form of barbery.
"Well, by all means- I've got lightning, let's kill Rutherford B. Hayes" Sylar said sardonically.
Tesla placed a hand on Hayes exposed chin, criticizing the Doctor's handiwork the entire time, which served only to annoy the Doctor "What could he possibly know!" after all. Sylar, ignoring the criticism, also touched the chin- and took Tesla by the hand.
"Ready?"
"Ready"
A burst of lightning and the statue began to glow with intense light, blinding Carter as the two lightning-men yelled with surprise, the Doctor typically was laughing.
"Nothing like burnt computer board in the morning!" He called out as everything stopped. The world stopped, as if it were paused. Everyone held still, stuck in the same positions and Carter feared that the smart people had somehow messed up, until things started going again, and too quickly. They were all sent flying backward- out of the town hall into a vast sea of whiteness. Everything had gone and what was left was falling away in currents of binary, the town hall already was disappearing leaving only the heavily abused president.