Amy was in a bad mood.
Or more so, the TARDIS was in a bad mood and somehow this was latching onto Amy herself. She didn't really understand how it was possible to sense the emotions of a box, no matter how 'sexy' said box may be. But then again, how many impossible things had she experienced whilst travelling with the Doctor?
Rory and the Doctor were engrossed in a game of chess. Typical. They were such geeks. Amy watched them feeling bored. According to the Doctor, the TARDIS was going through some technical difficulties – or how had the Doctor put it? Emotional turmoil. – Therefore they had to wait while she got herself back to normal. How fun.
"What are you doing to fix her anyway?" Amy asked, in an attempt to make conversation outside of chess positions.
"Well," said the Doctor, in his 'I-know-an-extremely-clever-thing-that-nobody-else -in-the-room-will-understand' voice, "the Protoll wires – named after a scientist actually from the 32nd century actually; Professor Protoll. Lovely man, though he didn't have any kind of grasp on the concept of personal space-"
"Doctor?" interrupted Rory.
"Yeah?"
"Try and keep to the subject please."
"Oh of course! Well, in the simplest terms, the Protell wires just have to stable themselves, there's some kind of power leak, nothing serious of course, probably from a miniature dimension crack with some sort of foreign source of power leaking in, so we're stuck in our current location for about half an hour. Might feel a slight bump when she's ready, though not for a whi-"
The Doctor was interrupted yet again as the floor trembled violently and the three of them and several chess pieces went flying.
"Half an hour?" said Amy sceptically. "You know for a Timelord, you really have an awful sense of time."
The Doctor poked out his tongue and assisted her in getting up. He turned to Rory apologetically.
"Well I guess we'll have to finish our game some other time! Maybe you won't be losing so hard then!"
Rory muttered something that sounded like, "Git."
The ringtone on the Doctor's cell made them all jump, as Stayin' Alive blared out.
"Bee Gees is a classic!" He pointed out, noticing the Ponds' expressions and took the call. From what Amy could hear, it sounded like the typical husband/wife conversation.
"River!" How are you getting through we just reassembled the- Oh I know you're clever, no need to point it out and – wait you what? River, tell me you're joking. You stole it? You do know how powerful those things are? What?! No, I can't keep it in the TARDIS. Wait what? You're jumping? Again? Really, is this necessary? Okay hold on, give me the coordinates and time. Right. Okay. Got it, got it. Bye. I'm going to regret getting involved in the affairs of gods and this kind of power, aren't I? I am? Knew it. Okay bye."
Alright, maybe not such a typical conversation between a husband and wife.
"Doctor? What exactly is going on?" Rory enquired nervously.
The Doctor was wiring up the TARDIS for flight as he replied. "Oh nothing much. River just jumped into another dimension and stole a potentially dangerous and extremely powerful item from a god. And now she's going to jump out of a spaceship and needs us to catch her."
"Right," said Rory, trying not to play the concerned father. "And this isn't the first time, she's done it, right?"
"Nope, she's done it in the past. And probably in the future." Amy confirmed.
Their exchanged glances of worried parents were interrupted by their daughter falling into the TARDIS, on top of the cushions the Doctor had put on the floor.
"Evening River!" the Doctor greeted his wife with a wink, his cheesy flirting style coming to light.
"The cushions are nice." River commented drily. "Though I much prefer landing on you if I'm honest." She winked back, shamelessly.
"Well down to business!" the Doctor exclaimed, clapping like a five year old on Christmas, as River unpacked her small case, and brought out a miniature and eerily glowing blue cube. Let's inspect her then, shall we?"
"Sorry," said Rory in his non-apologetic tone, "But what exactly is going on? Does anyone want to inform Amy and me?"
River seemed to acknowledge her parents' presence for the first time. "It's the tesseract." she informed them in a casual tone.
"Of course, that clears everything up, thanks."
"Well there's nothing much you need to know, aside from the fact that it's very powerful, very desired and has the potential to do a lot of damage. I'm sure you'd find the rest of that explanation very fascinating if I were to explain it all, but who's got the time? Not me!"
Nobody pointed out that he was a Timelord.
"And why is it such a big deal anyway?" Amy asked, feeling slightly concerned.
"Ah yes. River stole it. From Loki."
"Loki?" Amy repeated. The name seemed strangely familiar.
"Yep. You probably learned about the legends surrounding him and his fellow Norse gods. Loki's the god of tricks, mischief and lies," The Doctor said, as if he was telling her about a next door neighbour, not a god. "Not the kind of god you want to annoy." He added as an afterthought.
"So there are gods?" Amy asked warily. "Actual gods?"
"Not the kind of god you're thinking of." River assured her. "Just beings that possess certain powers, have long lifespans and consider themselves above everyone else."
"Like the Timelords." The Doctor said softly. Amy stared at him in disbelief. It was rare for the Doctor to mention his own race; theirs was a topic he generally preferred to remain on a muted level about.
Rory appeared to be struggling to wrap his head around the unfolding events. "Okay, a lying, mischievous, trickster god. And you stole from him. Why exactly?"
River shrugged. "Partially boredom. Partially because he was using it to rule Earth in his dimension, and cause chaos to erupt everywhere. I have my reasons."
"And now what?" Amy asked, not sure she wanted to hear the answer.
"Now," the Doctor said with a smile, as if he was announcing good news, "Loki is going to gatecrash into this dimension to retrieve his lost property, which could possibly destroy every single universe. Not to mention the life forms from other realities that will fall through the cracks he creates into our reality. But let's focus on the angry god on our heels, shall we?"
"What exactly do you mean by other life forms?" Rory inquired.
"Oh nothing really!" The Doctor reassured him. "Maybe just a couple of people from different times and locations falling into random parts of this univer-"
For the third time in less than an hour, the Doctor was interrupted. This time, it was by the sound of two young men, adorned in plaid, literally falling out of the air onto the floor of the TARDIS, just as River had done.
The Doctor gave a whoop of joy. "Well, this is great! Just as I was trying to explain, and here's the perfect example." He assisted both of the unexpected guests to their feet, an impressive feat for the Doctor who was dwarfed in comparison by the both of them. "Hello!" he greeted them enthusiastically. "I'm the Doctor."
The shorter haired, rougher looking of the pair glared at them, as if they were pulling some elaborate joke, before speaking in his rough American accent.
"Son of a bitch. What the hell just happened?"
