A World of Monsters
The TARDIS whurred and shook as it spiralled out of control.
"Stop it!" yelled the Doctor, pulling and twisting at controls, while his companion Amy Pond clung onto a rail for her life.
"Do something!" she yelled, her hair whipping around her head.
"I can't!" The Doctor fumed, trying everything and anything to no prevail, "She's out of control, something's pulling her in."
The TARDIS continued to spin and rattle until the Doctor gave up and sat on the floor, somehow managing to keep his balance and pout like a child at the same time as he let the machine take him wherever it was that she going. It didn't take long before the TARDIS landed and the Doctor and Amy shook themselves off, standing up straight.
"Let me just see where we are," said the Doctor heading towards the door, but Amy shook her head.
"Oh no you don't. The TARDIS brought us here, it's bound to be somewhere good, I'm going first!" And with that she rushed out of the TARDIS, leaving the Doctor no choice but to follow behind.
When they reached outside, Amy turned in terror. The whole planet was foggy and dark, you couldn't see much further than in front of your hand and yet, wherever Amy turned, she could see glowing pairs of eyes, green and yellow and blue, all glaring in their direction.
"Doctor! Where are we?"
"Well. If I'm right, and I hope I'm not, but I usually am. We're on orbis monstra. Which basically translates as, the world of monsters."
"What?"
"Listen to me. The monsters, they're real. All of them. The ones you read about in stories as a child, the ones that haunt you in your dreams and the ones you haven't even heard of yet. Every monster any child ever had a nightmare about, they're real, Amy Pond. All of them, and they're here. This is where the monsters that haunt children's dreams live. But what you read and dream about the heroes, about the good balancing out the evil - that was all lies. Lies to make you feel better. Because the truth is, there are no real heroes. There's just me. Me against an army of every monster ever created. Even the TARDIS couldn't resist these monsters for me, she was drawn here because they want me. They don't want you, you're not a threat. So, Amy Pond, do as I say. Run."
"I'm not leaving you," Amy said, just as behind them there was a little cough for the TARDIS.
"Hello, sweetie." River Song grinned. "Fancy seeing you here."
"River!" The Doctor grinned and swallowed her in a big hug, but as he pulled away his smile faded. "No, no, no. You shouldn't be here. What are you doing here? How did you get on the TARDIS?"
"Same way any other stow-away does, I snuck aboard." River Song grinned. "Oh, and you're wrong by the way."
"Wrong?" The Doctor frowned. "What about? I'm not wrong!"
"Oh, but you are. About this being 'orbis monstra' or whatever you just said, we're on Earth. 'The monsters want me,'" she mocked. "You do like to be over dramatic don't you?"
The Doctor laughed, "You're being ridiculous, this isn't Earth! Look around you."
"Well, I'm just telling you what the TARDIS told me."
"What?"
"Well, unlike someone, I thought to scan the area before stepping off board. We're on Earth, London, 2005."
"This isn't London," said Amy, "London doesn't look anything like this; there is not creepy black fog like this in London. Nor are there those eyes, Doctor - what are those eyes doing? They're just staring at us." Amy stepped forward tilting her head to look right at a pair. "Are they definitely attached to bodies of some kind? They aren't just giant floating eyes?"
The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and pressed a button,the screwdriver lit up and made a funny noise. The Doctor tilted his head one way and then the other as if trying to make sense of it. Eventually he raised his eyebrows.
"It would appear, that yes… They are just giant floating eyes."
Amy sighed, "Well that's a relief. Giant floating eyes… Not creepy at all," she added sarcastically.
"Yes well at least they aren't monsters," The Doctor said quickly, "Now what's going on here?"
There was a quiet cough and a light switched on, revealing a boy, about fifteen and seven pairs of giant floating eyes.
Amy's eyes widened and she held out her hand. "Get away from them," she said to the boy, who laughed.
He had brown curly hair and rather cold brown eyes which seemed much too old for his body. "Stupid girl. I put them there."
The Doctor's eyes widened, "You? So you're the reason I'm here?"
The boy nodded. "I figured, hey, big giant eyes, planet threatening situation. Of course he'll come."
The Doctor straightened his bow tie, "Well. I'm here. So what do you want?"
The boy raised a small black gun.
The Doctor frowned. "I don't know why you're bothering you'll never win."
"We'll see. You know what these 'eyes' really are, of course?"
The Doctor nodded, "Giant energy transformers. They suck up energy from around them, nearby solar systems and planets – and then they work as giant signals - which is, I'm guessing what brought me here?"
The boy smiled. "Good. So you know what else happens of course?"
The Doctor bit his lip and River placed a hand on his shoulder, answering for him, "Of course he does. They burn out eventually, taking their energy sources with them. My guess is that when these burn out they're going to take this solar system with them?"
The boy dropped his gun and grinned, "I would never want to. My name's Ray, by the way."
River, Amy and The Doctor all frowned.
"That sentence made no sense," pointed out The Doctor, "And I should know. I'm the master of making not-sense."
Ray smiled, "You said earlier that I'd never win. I was just saying, I'd never want to. I'd never want to defeat you Doctor. You're my hero. I just wanted to meet you."
"You put an entire solar system, the TARDIS and my companions here, in danger just so that you could meet me?"
He shrugged, "I was bored and I've always wanted to meet you, I figured why not? If it works then you'll come and rescue everyone anyway and if it doesn't then at least it gave me something to do."
"And if I don't save everybody? If I just leave now?" The Doctors voice was calm but cold, his eyes blazing.
Ray smiled, "You wouldn't." He looked upwards thinking. "But – if you did, then I wouldn't care. I was prepared for the gamble to fail when I began. Like I said at least it gave me something to do."
"You were willing to do all of this just to meet me, and then, if I didn't stop it – oh well? At least you weren't bored?" The Doctor's eyes were wide with anger, his voice raised. "You're not human. No human could do this. No human thinks like that. No human puts their life at risk for fun."
Ray shrugged. "Well, I did and I most certainly am human. I just wanted to meet you. You're my hero. I grew up on stories of you Doctor, stories of a man and his box, an alien with the most human tendencies. A brave man, the man who has yet to meet anyone who is his match. A man like a star, literally burning across time and space, Doctor. Can't you see? Why would anyone not put themselves and a solar system at risk to meet you?"
The Doctor put his head in his hands, "No, no, no. This should not have happened."
River put her hand on his shoulder, "Doctor, we need to save everybody. You can worry about why this happened later, but I'm surprised that you're shocked. It was always going to happen."
The Doctor span. "What do you mean it was always going to happen? If you knew this," He pointed with force at Ray. "Was going to happen why didn't you stop me? Why didn't you warn me?"
"You would never have believed it, Doctor. It's the one thing that you'll never understand – just how wonderful you are, and just how greatly even a word from you can change people's lives."
"You shine, Doctor," said Amy. "It's a nasty side effect that comes when you save worlds, people hear about it, and people look up to you."
"And some people take it too far," continued River with a sharp look at Ray who had the decency to look slightly sheepish. She turned back to the Doctor. "We couldn't stop you. Why would we stop you saving lives? Doctor, you couldn't have prevented this even if you had seen it coming."
The Doctor looked upset, more upset than Amy had ever seen him but he pulled out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at a small black box at the back of the room.
"That's the transmitter?" he asked Ray who just smiled.
"Oh well. If not we're all dead." The Doctor said cheerfully, pressing a button on the sonic and blowing up the black box. Sparks flew across the room and Amy and River both had to shield their eyes. "I knew it was, of course," added The Doctor as all seven pairs of giant eyes dropped like lead to the ground.
Ray smiled. "Of course it was. Do you want a cup of tea? You could tell me all about your travels."
The Doctor laughed, quietly at first, and then more loudly before coming to a shuddering halt and staring right into Ray.
"Uh-oh," whispered River to Amy.
"No. I do not want a cup of tea," began The Doctor. "I want to know why you thought that risking the lives of everyone on this planet would be a suitable cost for meeting me! I want to know why you thought I'd be okay with that!" His voice began to raise as he stood over Ray, "AND I would most certainly like to know what stories you've been told. Because they appear to be slightly off track if you think that you can endanger so many people and so many planets and expect me to allow you to get away with it."
Ray seemed to pale slightly under the glare of the Time Lord, "I, uh- I didn't think…"
"Oh how very accurate of you. You didn't THINK! No. Nobody ever does do they? Nobody ever stops to THINK about the fact that actions have consequences. When I said this was orbis monstra it appears that I was right. This is a world of monsters. Stupid human ones."
The Doctor bit his lip, as if restraining himself, and turned to look at River and Amy, "Oh, no offence Amy. So, what do you think we should do?" he asked the pair.
"He did mean well, sweetie," said River. "I mean, you know I'm all for killing people but… He's just a boy."
"Oh, I wasn't going to kill him." The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "Just make an example of him. So that if anyone else ever thinks that risking lives to meet me is a good idea, they'll think twice."
Ray's eyes were wide. "The stories said you could be angry. I never thought I'd get to see it."
The Doctor threw his head in his hands and span around, turning his back on the boy. "Oh for Goodness sake! This is ridiculous! ME being angry isn't a good thing, not a thing that you want tosee. It's a very very bad thing. And yet I can't bring myself to punish someone for simply being stupid."
"I'm not stupid! I'm the best in my class."
The Doctor looked around at the floating eyes, "Evidently, but that's not how I meant."
River coughed, "So what are you going to do sweetie?"
"I think we should bring him with us," said Amy, "You know, give him a sense of humility and all that."
"Oh good lord. Are you turning stupid as well? Is it infectious? We can't bring him with us because that would be like a reward!"
"Alright," Amy sulked, "It was just an idea…"
"A bad one. No, I know what we'll do, Ray, look at me."
Ray looked up and the Doctor crouched, so that they were at eye level.
"Right now here's what we're going to do. I'm going to leave you, you've gotten what you wanted and nobody got hurt, so I've gotten what I wanted. But, if someone comes to you and asks whether getting to meet me by threatening others is ever a good idea, I want you to tell them no. Because this is a promise. The next person who does it is going to be made an example of. And I'm sure there are plenty of stories around telling you that being made an example of by me is not a very good position to be in. At all. Do you understand?"
Ray nodded.
"Now, how about that tea?"