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Welcome to A Bedtime Story. I'm Matthew Mitchell, and tonight's story is titled "The Mechanical Menace of Main Street," Part 2 of this week's series: The Midnight Curfew and the Clockwork City.

Leo stood at the edge of the underground miniature city, his jaw hanging open in a way that would have made his mother scold him about catching flies. The scale of the place was staggering. Above the tiny metal buildings, huge pistons moved up and down like the heartbeats of a giant, and gold-colored wires stretched across the ceiling like a web. As he stepped into the miniature streets, he realized he wasn't alone.

A low, metallic growl echoed through the cavern, followed by the sound of scraping metal. From behind a copper cathedral, a creature emerged. It was a dragon, or at least, a very convincing mechanical imitation of one. It was about the size of a carriage, covered in brass scales that rattled as it moved. Its eyes were two large rubies that glowed with a flickering internal flame, and its tail ended in a heavy iron ball that looked like it could crush a boulder.

The dragon didn't attack. Instead, it sat back on its haunches and tilted its head, looking at Leo with an expression that seemed almost curious. After a moment, a voice erupted from the dragon’s chest. It sounded like a dozen gramophones playing at once, scratchy and slightly out of sync.

"You are late," the dragon said. "The visitors usually arrive at ten, but the schedule has been drifting lately."

Leo blinked. "I am sorry? I didn't know there was an appointment. I just found a key."

The dragon sighed, a sound that released a cloud of harmless white steam from its nostrils. "My name is Rusty. I am the Keeper of the Core. And you are a human, which means you are made of soft parts and bad ideas. Why are you here, soft part?"

Leo explained about the curfew, the Mayor, and the copper key. As he spoke, Rusty began to pace, his heavy claws clicking on the metal floor. The dragon explained that this underground city was the Master Control for Oakhaven. Every movement of the Great Clock Tower, every rotation of the Watchmen’s gears, and even the strictness of the curfew was determined by the tension in the Great Mainspring located in the center of the miniature town.

"But there is a problem," Rusty said, his ruby eyes dimming slightly. "The Mayor has been demanding more power. He wants the town to run faster, more efficiently, with no wasted seconds. To get that power, I have been forced to harvest the one thing Oakhaven has in abundance: dreams."

Leo felt a chill that had nothing to do with the cool underground air. "Dreams?"

"Yes," Rusty replied sadly. "When the curfew hits and the town sleeps, the Watchmen act as antennas. They gather the mental energy of the dreaming citizens and beam it down here. That energy is what winds the Great Mainspring. But the Mayor wants more. He wants to harvest thoughts during the day, too. If he does that, the people of Oakhaven will become like the Watchmen—empty shells moving in a loop, never thinking, never feeling. I am a machine, but even I know that is a terrible way to spend a Tuesday."

Leo looked around at the beautiful, cold city. "Is that why the key led me here? To stop him?"

Rusty stopped pacing and looked directly at Leo. "I cannot disobey the Mayor’s primary commands. My gears are etched with his signature. But you are not a machine. You are a soft part with a copper key. That key is a master override, but it only works if it is inserted into the Core while the system is under maximum tension."

"What does that mean?" Leo asked.

"It means," Rusty said, baring teeth made of polished silver, "that we have to cause a total mechanical meltdown. We have to make this city run so fast and so loud that the system panics. Then, and only then, can you use the key to reset the Great Mainspring and return the power to the people."

"But how do we do that?" Leo asked. "I am just a boy who fixes clocks."

"And I am a dragon who is tired of eating dreams," Rusty said. "Together, we are a disaster waiting to happen. The Mayor is coming down here in an hour to initiate the permanent harvest. If we are going to break the world, we had better get started."

Leo spent the next hour working faster than he ever had in his father’s shop. Under Rusty’s direction, he began to bypass safety valves and reroute steam pressure. He climbed up the copper cathedral to loosen the governors on the main turbines. He felt a strange kinship with the mechanical dragon. They were both trapped by the Mayor’s obsession with order.

As they worked, the cavern began to grow louder. The humming of the pipes turned into a roar, and the miniature city began to glow with a frantic, orange light. The Great Mainspring in the center started to spin with terrifying speed, its metal coils whining under the pressure.

"We are almost there," Rusty shouted over the noise. "But look!"

At the far end of the cavern, a private elevator was descending. Through the glass, Leo could see the furious face of Mayor Sterling. He was holding a golden remote control, and he did not look happy about the unscheduled maintenance.