The Broken Lightbulb

The TARDIS emerged from the Vortex at 2:01 pm on Friday, 17 June 2011 AD. It was raining hard, and a low, frowning cloud smothered the car park. The gruesome brightness of the supermarket bled through the silver wash.

'Ermm.. where are we?' asked Amy.

'Surely you've seen a supermarket, Pond? I need a spare part for the TARDIS, And this is the only place I can get one.'

'What's wrong with the TARDIS?' asked Rory, peering out of the door.

'She's not really recovered from our little trip to the park yet, and when we were there, one of these blew.' He held it up.

'Is that a lightbulb?' said Rory, frowning.

'No, Its an Advanced Cluster Counter, it just looks like a lightbulb' said The Doctor, haughtily, 'But I need a lightbulb to make an Advanced Cluster Counter. Now, you wait here, I'll only be a moment.'

He looked up at the monstrosity and gulped nervously. 'You know, as much as I've heard about these places, I've never actually been in.'

Amy sighed. 'Okay, we'll go in with you'. She walked in, followed by Rory. The Doctor caught up and linked arms with them. Around them the place was alive with reds and yellows and trolleys and people. The hubbub of voices was worse than deafening could ever be. It was not loud enough to hurt or drown out, or quiet enough to be ignored or accepted, it was just there, eating into your head, drawing your senses in until it was hard to make sense of anything else.

Snatches of conversation arose and were gone as people walked past them. 'Oi! Give that to me, thats mine, Abigail!' or 'Mum, can we buy anchovies?' or 'Is that Klaus over there? Hey, Klaus! Klaus! Oh sorry, dear, I thought you were Klaus'.

'Do you go in these places often, Ponds?'

'Yes'

The Doctor, who had clearly spotted his target, strode briskly through the Tinned Food Isle, and stopped. 'But there's so many,' he said, looking down the isle, at a shrine to incandescant light globes. 'Err..' he held up the lightbulb and began going through the packets. Amy and Rory began helping him.

'AHA!', shouted The Doctor, slipping another lightbulb out of its box, and scanned it with his screwdriver.

Clish! The lightbulb smashed under sonic pressure.

'Oh poo!' The Doctor walked over to a young man in staff uniform, who was packing toothpaste into the sale rack.

'Ermm, excuse me,' said The Doctor sheepishly scratching the back of his head, 'I, umm, tried to sonic one of your human lightbulbs, and err, it smashed.'

The man turned around. He was pale with dark hair. His eyes were very unusual for a human, with very vivid irises, all red, gold, blue and green. They didn't blink at all when The Doctor said this. 'Okay, I'll clear that up then'. He went off, and presently came back with a lightbulb in his hand, and for a moment the lightbulb glowed in his hand as he passed it to The Doctor,

'That should do the trick', he said.

'I didn't tell you what I wanted it for,' said The Doctor, examining the lightbulb. But even as he looked up the man was already gone.

The Doctor looked around, as spotted on the floor a single feather. He picked it up. It was deep red with golden edges.

'What have you got there, Doctor?' asked Amy peering over his shoulder.

'A Phoenix feather,' he said. As he held it up, the golden edge shrivelled and burned, consuming the feather within seconds.

'I thought Phoenixes didn't exist.'

'So did I', said The Doctor.