The DREAM WORLD Series
DAYDREAM REALITY

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----- Chapter 6 ------
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"So I was thinking maybe some kind of nuclear explosion took place." Kez finished up the only explanation he had been able to come up with the night before. Well, the only explanation he had come up with before he'd nodded off. But he had left off that part of it. No need to tell them that while they were longing for their own lives, he had been asleep at the wheel.

"Good thought, except there aren't any nuclear power plants in Toronto!" Aaron exploded in frustration. He stopped and thought for a moment, and turned to Jeff, the native of Toronto. "There aren't any nuclear power plants in Toronto, are there?"

"Of course not!" Jeff moaned in exasperation. "This ain't helpin' anythin'! We're no closer to an explanation than we were yesterday!"

"I'm sorry I couldn't think of anything else." Kez rushed to apologize.

"It's not yah fault." George was pacing a few feet away. "Yah did yer best."

"It doesn't feel like my best." He grumbled. "I guess I'm just not used to facing a problem that I can't solve."

LB sat down dejectedly. "We'll never get home again. We're stuck here."

"No!" Aaron burst out suddenly. "That can't be it! There must be a way!"

"You heard him, Aaron!" LB whipped his head around. "He has no ideas, we have no ideas. Unless our fairy godmother is suddenly going to drop out of the sky and explain that the enchantment wears off at midnight, we're caught between the perverbial rock and a hard place!"

"I dun even know if I remembah what George Stanchev looked like." George was facing the mirror.

"Now don't ya dare start that." Jeff got to his feet, sick and tired of sitting around helplessly. Perhaps standing, he could think clearer. "I do! You can bet I'm not 'bout to let you forget either."

"I was right." A voice exploded from the balcony. Everyone whirled to find Eric standing there, arms crossed over his chest.

"Eric! Hey man! Back so soon?" Aaron rushed to cover his tracks. He was worried about how much this guy had actually heard.

"Cut the crap." The intensity in Eric's eyes was such that everyone was taken aback instantly. "How long have you guys been playing with my mind, huh?"

Kez felt his heart stop. He knew. But how could he? They had been extremely careful to cover their tracks. He had been afraid that this would be Eric's response.

"Who are you, really?" Eric faced Aaron, a combination of hurt and confusion mixed with rage written across his face. "I'm sick of the lies! Who are you?!"

He had him dead to rights. "You've gotta believe that we never wanted to hurt you." Aaron decided he'd work up to this slowly.

"Little late for that." Eric spat back evenly. "Micky, man. I trusted you. Next to Kez, you're my best friend! I know I'm naive, but never in a million years did I dream you'd hide something from me!"

Aaron felt his stomach churn. He had been so wrapped up with getting back to his own life he never realized he could be doing so at the expense of someone else. "You're like my little brother. I never wanted you to get hurt." And he meant it.

"You know? Forget it." Eric backed away and suddenly dashed out the door.

Kez jumped to his feet and chased after him. "Eric, wait!"

Jeff got to his feet and grabbed his jeans jacket hanging from a peg on the wall. Scooping up the keys from the table he called out to the others, "Come on! We've gotta stop them."

He didn't have to tell them twice. Aaron, who felt like a cretin by this point, was already halfway out the door, followed closely by George and LB.

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The Monkeemobile was cruising the streets, hot on Eric's trail. Jeff was intensely focused on the road ahead of him and the others were so completely lost in their thoughts that no one even dared to speak. Aaron was sick. It wasn't supposed to go down this way. He had planned to bring Eric in on what was going on, but in his own time. Aaron had hoped that if he could talk to him and ease him into the idea that things weren't exactly as they appeared, Eric would accept it. But it was too late for that now. Somehow Eric had found out and who knew what he would do next?

Pulling to a stop at the red light, Jeff glanced out his window and caught sight of Kez sitting on a bench at the side of the road. "Kezzy!" He hollered out as he rolled down the window. "C'mon! We'll catch him faster this way!" Kez regarded them for a moment before hopping across the street and jumping into the back seat with LB and George.

"He headed off towards Rio and Plains." Kez looked exhausted from his foot pursuit. "Towards the hydroelectric plant. You don't think he would----"

"Jump? Well, considering the fact that he currently is trying to figure out what is real and what's fantasy, you could almost guarantee it. What better way to test how alive you are than to put that supposed life in danger?" LB said from his position to Kez's right. Kez groaned.

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Eric snuck through a hole in the fence surrounding the power plant and headed for the large watery dam he had seen on a class field trip once. With thousands of gallons of water rushing by every moment, it was a given that anything to fall into the churning water below would die instantly. That's what Eric was counting on happening. If this whole reality, the only life he had ever known, was just a lie and what he had seen in his dream was the reality, he wouldn't get hurt. In fact, he might wake up to find himself as that man he had seen in the mirror. Maybe that man actually had real friends.

Like those four guys. He mused as he snuck down a staircase and into the heart of the plant. Maybe that guy has them for friends. Real close friends, like Micky and I were. He added bitterly. Who was to say that guy didn't have a better life?

The nerve center of the plant was mere feet away when Eric stopped dead in his tracks. He heard the sound of voices, which he shouldn't have this late at night. Perhaps it was simply the night crew or the janitorial staff.

"She left me!... But I'll show her.... Claimed that even if I turned back the clock she would never love me again!" A series of mad ramblings reached Eric's ears. "Well, now I've fixed that. Any moment now she'll come crawling back to me."

Turn back the clock? Eric muddled it all over in his mind for a moment. He peeked around the corner and took in the sight of an elderly gentleman leaning over a very technical looking contraption. The device looked like something right out of a science fiction movie, hoses connected every which way and a vial of some sort of fluid suspended in the heart of the device. The scientist in him was infinitely fascinated and desired nothing more than to find out what this device could do, but everything else in him was screaming that this could only mean this guy was up to no good. Something about the phrase, 'turn back the clock' kept echoing in his mind.

Just then a loud bang drew both him and the elderly gentleman's attention. "Eric?!" A voice called down the hall. Damnit, not now. Why can't Kez ever shut his yap? Eric cursed his luck and searched around for a better hiding place. He only got as far as pulling a plastic sheet around his body when he was aware of the old man staring right in his direction.

"Oooops. Hey there."

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"Left... no, right!"

"Just make up your mind! Left?"

"Right!"

"GAH! Left or right?"

"Left, is right!"

Jeff shook his head. LB and Aaron had been at this for at least ten minutes now. It would have been funny if not for the fact that they were still in hot pursuit of a runaway. They knew Eric had gone inside, but so far he hadn't responded to them.

"Maybe it should have been straight." LB scratched his head as they found themselves face to face with a brick wall.

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Eric moaned, slowly coming to, only to find himself strapped to a chair. Great. And there sits the villain right across the way, planning my demise. Man, if this doesn't reek of melodrama. He rolled his eyes. "So what's your great master plan?"

The old man whirled. "Ah. You're awake. I must admit I was a little shocked to find someone else lurking around the plant this late at night, but oh well. I was getting lonely anyhow. A little company couldn't hurt."

"You know, you're not the first guy to plot to blow up the world. Lemme tell you, the ratio of guys who've tried to guys who've actually made it happen doesn't sit to well in your favor, if you know what I mean." Eric quipped.

Taken aback, the old man chuckled. "Take over the world? You misunderstand! I simply want my dear Veronica back. She left me, you know."

"So, broken hearted, you decided that a world without her wouldn't be worth living in, so get rid of the world, get rid of the pain and suffering. Again, I've read this story before. Done far better by other authors, I must say."

"Actually, I quite like this world. Do explain why I would get rid of it?"

Eric was perplexed. The old man obviously lacked something upstairs, but more practically than intellectually. He had to have been some kind of genius to construct such an intricate machine. All he could see emotionally, however, was wanting this girl back in his life, no matter the cost. "But if you don't want to destroy the world, than what?"

"I'm just changing the world a little. Set things back, if you will. My Veronica left me, but back in the 1960's we were deeply in love indeed. She said she couldn't live without me. So, now that we're back in that wonderful joyous time I shall never have to be lonely again. I'll make up for everything I did wrong in the past and we'll never part."

"You're crazy." Eric was just beginning to wrap his mind around the implications of this man's ranting. The world he had dreamed was the real thing, and the reality he was in was, in fact, nothing more than the product of a mad genius. A mad genius in love. Infinitely more dangerous.

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"Gee, I'm glad you knew where you were going." Kez muttered.

"Hey! Don't blame me! LB was the one leading." Aaron reversed direction for the dozenth time, causing the other four to crash into each other, Three Stooges fashion.

"But you're leading now." LB climbed back to his feet, brushing himself off.

"Fellahs! Cool it." George was peering around the corner. "We found 'em." He gestured subtly with a tilt of his head towards the large room directly ahead of them. Concealing themselves behind a pile of boxes, they took in the sight before them. Eric was sitting there, tied to a tall backed wooden chair. His captor was very calmly moving about, performing adjustments on something which would have been more at home in the middle of one of Rod Serling's "Twilight Zone" episodes.

Eric was uninjured, much to Aaron's relief. If something had happened to the college student, he wouldn't have been able to live with himself. "So how do we deal with the loony toon and his shiny new toy?" Aaron muttered under his breath so as not to be overheard by said loon.

"Well, goin' by the fact that our guy is still in one piece, I'd say it ain't gonna come down to a shoot out." Jeff drawled in a hushed voice. "Not to mention the other is about 80 years old."

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Eric eyed the elderly gentleman warily. It sounded silly, but the fact was this wasn't just ANY old man who had lost the love of his life. This was an old man who had lost the love of his life and possessed the knowledge to seriously scramble up history to get that love back. Not to mention the fact that he had, along with history, messed up everyone's life. You didn't have to look any farther than whoever those four people were that he dreamed about. Something had happened to them, as it had happened to him. Perhaps finding them would be the key to fixing this timeline.

He knew where to start, too. Kez knew something, as did Micky, Mike, Peter and Davy. Just, for some reason or other, they had chosen to keep it the truth from him. Whatever their reasoning, he was bound and determined now more than ever to prove that he could handle himself and didn't need to be protected.

"--and the best part is, no one knows what I've done! They all think it really IS the 60's." Eric realized that the old geezer had been talking.

"Look, I might not remember exactly who I am supposed to be, but I know something's not right here." Eric shot back as if he had been paying attention the whole time. "You can't just go and arbitrarily play with the folds of time. Theoretically, the repercussions could be devastating."

"My, my. Listen to you. You're carrying on like you actually know more about this stuff than I do." The old man laughed at the absurdity.

"Well, I might not know as much as you, but I just happen to be a student of Time Displacement Theory, and I know when something is fishy." Eric hoped to distract the guy while he played with the ropes that bound his wrists. "Go ahead. Ask me anything."

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Smart move, man. Jeff watched Eric stalling for time while he tried to break free. "Alright, guys. I've got an' idea." He pulled his fellow Monkees into a huddle. Kez joined them, but something strange gleamed in his eye as he listened to them lay out their plans.

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Eric twisted his wrists this way and that. So close to breaking free he could almost taste it, he simultaneously tried to keep the old guy talking. Keep him distracted long enough, and he could wriggle his way to freedom. Just one last twist here and---

"Well, now. This is one weird lookin' dingy 'ere." A slow drawl suddenly broke into the conversation.

The old guy whirled. "Who---?"

"Nesmith. Michael Nesmith. Pleased to meet you." A wool-hatted head poked around the corner. Striding over, the six foot plus Texan shook the old guy's hand warmly. "And you would be?"

"H-herbert James." The receiver of the greeting stood stupefied. "Wait a second. You're one of those---"

"'Ello!" A second body suddenly popped up directly behind Herb. "What 'ave we 'ere, Mike?"

"Herbert James and his Star Trek contraption, Davy." Mike glanced over at the machine.

"Groovy name, man! One of those ones you can say forewords or backwards. James Herbert, or Herbert James. Both still sound like a name too! You aren't gay, are you?" A third popped up from behind a table a few feet away. To Herb's dismay, he realized who these guys were. The second was Davy Jones, and the third Micky Dolenz. Along with Peter Tork they comprised what this era had fondly called The Monkees. Just what he needed, a bunch of crazy kids poking around. Chances were, they were going to try to stop him, and he couldn't afford that right now.

The fourth Monkee was soon spotted spinning around in a chair on wheels. "What? Are you boys crawling out of the woodwork?" Herb shot a hand out, stopping the chair in mid-spin.

"Guess that could be, 'cept the walls are aluminum plated." The fourth, who Herb recognized as Peter, got to his feet, visibly dizzy from the ride he had just taken.

"What do you want?" Herb rolled his eyes. They were just as annoying as they appeared to be on TV.

"Same as everyone wants. Home by the sea, a job with a six digit weekly paycheck, a long life, a few hot chicks... and for you to undo whatever the hell you did to us." Micky glared.

Realization quickly washed over the scientist. These weren't The Monkees. These were the guys hired to play the Monkees back on that Toronto movie set in the year 2000. He remembered that they had gotten through a week or so of filming before he had set his plan in motion. Fascinating. Somehow time folded in such a way as to whisk them up as the real thing. "Lohr." He muttered in recognition.

"Wow! Guess you're good with names afterall. Now, do you also happen to remember where the reverse button is on your little WonderVac here?" Aaron stepped foreword threateningly.

Jeff thought his eyes were about to fall out of their sockets. "Aaron? You know this guy?"

"My first day on the set I ran into him and his beloved having a little disagreement. Didn't think much of it at the time, unfortunately." Aaron explained, eyes never once wandering from Dr. Demented.

Eric could only sit back in bewilderment as all the pieces of his puzzle suddenly came together right before his eyes. The Monkees knew what had happened to the four guys in his dream, alright. They were them!

"Thanks for the recap." Herb placed his hands on the machine and into two small slots on either side of the metal base. "Veronica and I were having a small disagreement, yes. But I can patch everything up right now if you boys will kindly stand back."

"Yah aren't goin' anywhere until yah change us back." George protested, then stopped dead in his tracks. "Stand back?"

Herb plunged his hands into two ports on either side of the machine and began to convulse with energy.

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Aaron, LB, George and Jeff were about to charge as a unit when another body came rushing into the room and pushed them all aside.

Jeff didn't see the body, but he knew the voice in a moment. "KEZ!" He yelled, knowing he was far too late to stop what was happening.

"Oh no you don't!" Kez, who had remained in his hiding spot up until that moment, rushed over and grabbed Herbert by the shoulders. Shaking him violently, he was barely aware of the fact that the electrical current had spread to him as well. His thoughts exploded as the electricity crackled through his system. DAMN! This must be what it's like to get your finger jammed into a light socket.... that controls the SPACE SHUTTLE. Ears ringing, he was on the verge of passing out when a metal gleam caught his eye. A small panel on the side of the machine flashed before his eyes and he reached out blindly for it. Closer. C'mon! Just a little closer.

"We're... ending... this... right... now!" He ripped the panel off and jammed his hand through the opening.

"What are you doing?" The old man croaked, still struggling to gain the upper hand, but failing due to his advanced age and the wattage rushing through his body. "You'll kill us all!"

"I wouldn't bet on that." Kez cast a glance at his friends laying on the floor. "See you around." Tossing caution to the wind, he groped around until his hand closed around a fistful of wires and yanked for all he was worth.

As a white flash filled the room, Aaron could have sworn he heard a triumphant yell---

"YES!!!"

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The VH1 movie "Daydream Believers: The Monkees Story" is copywrite Pebblehut Productions. I am in no way affiliated with the guys who played the Monkees (Aaron Lohr, LB Fisher, George Stanchev, and Jeff Geddis) in this movie. I just wrote this out of admiration for the guys and the incredible job done on the movie. If you don't agree with my interpretation of one of the actors or one of them happens to actually READ this... I'm simply guessing about what they're (you're) really like. No offense is intended! This fanfic is copywrite Random Fandom. If you would like to link Random Fandom on your own website, be my guest!