AN: Edited 11/13/2014 for Grammar and Flow.

Prologue: A Day like Any Other?

It was a rather exciting day in Kira's life. Normally this somewhat average teen's days were spent lounging in her over-sized and unbelievably comfortable bed and reading (fanfiction, books, or comics), playing videogames, watching her favorite TV shows and movies, or simply enjoying her free time and day dreaming. Today was different though. Today was the first day of the ever famous Comic-Expo, the biggest comic convention her small city of Albuquerque hosted.

Determined to dress up, Kira had gotten up early that morning and began putting together her Steampunk Costume. Her costume consisted of an egg-shell colored button up shirt with a bow collar and a brown and gold striped under bust buckled corset that felt like it pushed her organs up to her chest and pressed her ribs down enough to bruise them. From the waist down was a long brown skirt with strategically placed belts holding it up and showing off her legs and her black flower-patterned stockings and some knee-high army green tie-up boots finishing it off. It took her a few months to get her costume put together, and she was proud of it. Day's spent searching the mall, thrift stores, the bag of old clothes in her garage, and the internet to put this outfit together. The costume itself didn't take long to put on, though she needed help from her mom to lace and tie the corset. Putting her shoes on also proved to be a chore with her corset restraining her movement, but she got them on in the end.

Currently Kira was bent over the sink and leaning as close to the mirror as she physically could, fighting to keep her arm from shaking as she tried to learn the new and complicated art of make-up without poking her eye out with her liquid eyeliner brush. It was her fourth or fifth attempt at putting on liquid eyeliner, and she was ecstatic that it actually looked okay. Well, it didn't look like a five year old drew on her eyelid with sharpie this time at least. She finished with one eye, and was just starting on the other. She was almost done painstakingly applying the liquid nightmare to her second eye when her concentration was broken with a rather high pitched voice.

"Kira! Your Comic-thing starts today right? When are you expected to be there?!" Kira had jumped at the sound of her mother's voice, causing her to paint a thick black line of eyeliner across her eyelid up to her eyebrow. With an exasperated sigh she grabbed some tissue and quickly wiped it off before it dried.

"We were planning on meeting up around 3:00!" Kira replied with a slightly irritated tone. And I almost had it that time too. Oh well I guess I'll go without eyeliner today. She pushed her irritation to the side, deciding it was pointless. She was never a fan of makeup. It just never felt like it looked right on her. That, and she could never get up in time to put it on before school.

"Well hurry up then! You'll make your friends wait!" Her father's booming voice rang out. Kira sighed once again looking in the mirror to make sure she got all the eyeliner off before she rushed out to grab her bag, glancing at the clock on her desk as she went. She held back a groan when she saw the red numbers declaring it 1:36pm. She was already used to her father and his odd "If you're not early you're late even if you're on time" policy, but it still annoyed her.

Rushing to the front door she double checked her outfit and her bag to make sure she wasn't forgetting something important. Making sure she had her pass along with all her money, phone, and whatever she deemed important enough to stuff in it, like her crayons and little plastic toy animals and a few notecards to sketch on when she got bored. You know, the essentials.

"So, who's going with you to this convention again?" Her father asked in his 'if I don't approve you're not going' tone in his voice. Over-protective as always. Something Kira could appreciate on most days. It meant he cared. It also meant she had to detail her plans out to her parents carefully so they'd let her leave.

"My friends Jared and Die-go." Kira replied, drawing out the 'o' in Diego's name. Hearing the last name her father's face morphed from serious to slightly confused. He'd never really bothered to learn the names of her friends. He simply trusted that she would choose good people to trust her friendship with.

"Die-go? Who's Die-go?" He asked as he tried to remember if she's mentioned his name before. Kira couldn't help but snicker at her father's confusion at the nick-name she'd assigned her slightly insane friend.

"Diego's a friend from school. I just call him Die-go to 'cause that's how it's spelled. I'm sure you've seen him before. He's tall, has curly hair he refers to as a 'Jew fro', slightly insane always makes perverted jokes and seems somewhat awkward." She explained, holding out her hand about a foot above her head to show just how tall he was. Her father considered that answer for a moment before seemingly accepting the explanation and continuing his interrogation.

"And Jared's that kid who has the eye problem that ended up getting sent to the hospital with heart issues from drinking too many energy drinks at that last convention you went to right?" He asked, scratching his shaven head as he thought everything through. This time Kira couldn't hold back her laugh at the memory of that particular convention.

That convention was hosted at a fairly large hotel that had an Ice cream Parlor where they chose to spend their downtime. The Ice cream Parlor sold energy drinks along with their delicious ice cream. Her friend's decided that it'd be a good idea to drink at least four large energy drinks during the convention. The result was her friend Josh Toon, who she called 'Toon-man', attempting to climb the wall in the hotel that was hosting the event and Jared getting sent to the hospital the next day due to heart palpitations.

"Yup, that's Jared." Kira clarified once she finished laughing. Her dad seemed to consider this a moment before nodding his consent and opened the front door allowing Kira and her mother out before he walked out, closing and locking the door behind him. Kira couldn't hold back her smile as she walked to his truck, excited for the convention and the day ahead.

…

Kira clutched the handle of her purse, looking around at all the different stalls in awe. She was overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of booths in the convention center and quickly found herself running from stall to stall, fighting the temptation to buy everything in sight. It was only her third convention, and her first time going to one as large as the Comic-Expo was.

After she had finally settled down from her initial excitement Kira made her way to a small stage near the back of the vendor's hall in an attempt to get away from the crowd and begin searching for her friends. Pulling out her phone she let out a sigh of relief when she saw a few new texts from her previously mentioned friends. Kira didn't do well in crowds. Sure, she could talk to others if she needed to but she always worried that she'd offend someone. This fear only worked to make Kira nervous when faced with large crowds, making her nervous at the thought of being alone at such a large convention. She quickly flipped through her messages, giggling as she read them.

JARED: Hay Kira, I'm at the Convention. Where are you?
JARED: I think I'm the first one here, it's really empty.
JARED: Oh. Um, I'm in the wrong building…
JARED: OKAY! Now I'm at the Convention. Have you seen Diego? And where should we meet up?

Only Jared. Kira thought to herself, looking around and trying to find a good meeting place. As she was looking she spotted something that made her jaw drop. There, in the middle of the vendor's hall was a big blue Police Public Call Box. That beautiful blue box that she's always dreamed of seeing. Slowly as if in a trance she walked towards it, forgetting about her friend and the world around her for a brief moment.

"-You know the interesting thing is the cracked paint is natural. That's all due to New Mexico Sun." A voice to her left brought Kira out of her trance. Quickly she shook her head, trying to clear it as she looked towards the slightly overweight man at the booth next to the TARDIS. The man was explaining how he made it to other Doctor Who fans that were currently squealing and taking a picture of themselves in front of it. Kira looked down at the forgotten phone in her hand smirked as she looked back at the TARDIS.

KIRA: Hey Jared. Meet me at the TARDIS. It's in the middle near the back of the Dealer's Hall.

With her smirk still in place she walked closer to the beautiful replica of the famous ship and examined it once the other fans had finished taking their pictures and left. Slowly she ran her fingers across the faded, cracking blue paint. She let out a yelp when a small bolt of gold static leapt from the ship and attacked her finger, causing her to flinch back in shock. Kira examined her hand, narrowing her eyes as she watched the golden static jump across her palm for a few seconds before it dissipated into her skin with a few parting sparks. She stood there looking between the TARDIS and her hand with narrowed, accusing eyes as if the box had done it on purpose. Well that was unexpected, never seen gold static like that. She was brought from her thoughts as her phone vibrated in her purse.

"You've got a text message, Text messages are cool." The voice of the 11th Doctor rang out from her phone's speaker, demanding her attention. Pulling her phone out of her purse she sighed as she read her new text message, walking away from the TARDIS towards the doors of the dealer hall.

JARED: Where's that? I'm lost.

It only took Kira 13 seconds before she saw her friend and waved him over with a wide smile on her face. The incident with the TARDIS already long forgotten as she called out his name. "JARED!"

A short kid with long greasy brown hair and the thickest glasses in production looked up and waved as he began weaving his way through the crowd and towards Kira. He'd only made it three steps before the power went out with a roaring boom of thunder sounding in the background. Kira gave a little jump and frowned in confusion. She was far from scared of the dark, and she'd always found storms rather relaxing. With a heavy sigh she tried tuning out the shrill screams and quite mummers of everyone else as she let her eyes adjust to the lack of light in the room. Now that's odd. It's the middle of summer. It almost NEVER rains here let alone this far away from the rainy season…

Kira jumped when another loud boom sounded closer to the building, breaking her train of thought. She watched with a disappointed frown as the people pushed past each other without care or consideration in their race to reach the doors first, trying to exit the vendor's hall as in a crazed panic. Slowly Kira weaved her way through the people to the back of the hall, trying to avoid the crowd knowing how dangerous it was. She'd heard horror stories of people getting trampled to death in similar situations, and she was determined to keep herself from becoming a statistic. Spotting the replica TARDIS she quickly walked towards it and hid inside to wait out the panic that the storm had caused.

As time passed in the complete darkness of the replica, Kira curled up on the floor and closed her eyes, letting her mind wonder. She imagined what it would be like if she was in the real TARDIS, traveling alongside the Doctor as his companion. It only took a moment for her to succumb to the exhaustion the day had caused her and fall asleep.

…
Jared's POV
…

I only made three steps toward Kira before the lights went out. I gave a little jump at the large boom that followed the loss of light, cringing at the shrill screams that sounded. I tried to make my way towards Kira again, but got caught in the wave of people as they tried to run toward the door. With a frustrated groan I gave up trying to fight the crowd and quickly exited the hall, deciding to find Kira once I'd made it outside. After an hour or so passed and the hall had completely cleared out I began my search.

I pulled out my little cheap flip phone and quickly dialed Kira's number to see where she was. After an hour, 20 texts, and 15 missed calls I began to panic. Becoming desperate I decided to look around. Or attempt to at least. I had eye issues, so I could be standing right next to her and still not see her. Probably better to ask the staff if they could help. I was just about to ask when another loud boom sounded and shook the building. A terrible feeling settled in my gut as I began running towards the doors of the Vendor hall with everyone else.

Someone, probably a staff member, cautiously opened the doors and we all watched in a mixture of awe and horror as dust and concrete began to settle in the hall. The air was cold, charged and smelt slightly metallic. Apparently the loud boom was a bolt of lightning hitting the roof of the building and causing the dealer's hall to cave in. A bolt gold lightning cut its way through the remaining dust and struck the replica of the TARDIS Kira had told me to meet her by. The odd lightning seemed to envelop the replica for a few terrifying seconds before both it and the replica disappeared, leaving nothing but a scorch mark in its place. Everyone stood at the doors of the now ruined hall frozen in shock at what they'd just seen.

"I saw a girl hide in there." Someone random woman dressed like Superwoman mumbled with a stunned voice. "Sh-she was moving to get out of the crowd and she just hid in there. D-Do you think she was still in it when..." The woman trailed off, unable to voice her worry. The terrible feeling I had just seemed to grow as storm began to slowly disappear, leaving a clear blue sky and a bright blinding sun shining through the hole in the roof.