journey to the future
Her feet pounded on the ground and her ponytail swayed back and forth as she ran as fast as she could whilst they pursued her, yelling all kinds of taunts and insults to the scared ten year old who was so desperate to escape these bullies. One minute Ava Thomas was down at the play park sitting on the swings when a gang of girls from her class approached her and began taunting her, pulling her hair but she got up and ran and now she was running from them through the streets of Cardiff.
"Get back here weirdo" they yelled as they pursued her "don't you dare ignore us." Ava ignored them and continued on running, stopping briefly to pull out her inhaler as she was Asthmatic and these bullies chasing her wasn't helping on bit. Just as she was about to take a puff, she noticed a blue box in the street which said Police on the top of it and decided it would be a great hiding place so she pocketed her inhaler and made a dash for it, hoping the girls chasing her wouldn't find her in there.
The Doctor was prancing around the Tardis as his Companion Martha Jones mentioned something about an Earthquake that had happened in the area a few years ago.
"Was that something to do with you?" she asked. He was about to reply when the doors suddenly flew open and a small girl came running in. She looked no older than Ten years old with Strawberry blonde hair tied up in a pony tail. She was dressed in a white T-shirt with kittens on, a pink cardigan, a denim overall dress, white tights and pink tennis shoes and she seemed quite shocked by what lay before her.
"What?" the Doctor asked, clearly confused as the girl was "there's a little girl in the Tardis."
"I'm sorry sir I didn't mean to intrude" the girl replied "I was running from some bullies and I came in here to hide. I had no idea anyone was in here." The Doctor walked over to the young girl and knelt down to her level and he could see that she was scared, the child was trembling and her breathing seemed ragged.
"Well I hate bullies" he told her with a cheeky grin "I don't blame you for wanting to hide, I think I would be hiding too if some bullies where chasing after me. Do you want to hang around here for a while until they've buzzed off."
"I don't think I should, I'm not supposed to go anywhere with strangers" the girl replied as she pulled out an Asthma inhaler and breathed into it a few times. Martha was starting to feel a little concerned for the girl, she clearly was an Asthmatic and some mean kids had chased her through the streets of Cardiff.
"Well why don't we introduce ourselves so we won't be strangers" the Doctor suggested "I'm the Doctor and the nice lady over there is Martha what's your name then?"
"I'm Ava Thomas" she replied "look Mister Doctor sir, I'm sorry I barged into your funny house, it was very rude of me." The Doctor simply smiled and told her that he didn't blame her for running in like that, she was just desperate to get away from those nasty bullies that it was natural for a scared child to go to what they thought was the safest place when they were in Danger. Suddenly the Tardis gave a sudden lurch and the time rota began going up and down. The Doctor managed to catch Ava before she fell to the ground.
"Whoa! What's that?" Martha asked as the Tardis began to move.
"We're accelerating into the future. The year one billion. Five billion. Five trillion. Fifty trillion? What? The year one hundred trillion? That's impossible" the Doctor explained as Ava looked at him with a scared expression.
"What do you mean we're going to the future?" she asked with deep confusion in her voice.
"Oh I forgot to mention, this is a time machine" the Doctor replied with that cheeky grin again.
"Will you be able to get me back to this year and the right place?" Ava asked as she clung to the Tardis console for dear life "my mum and dad won't be too pleased if I return home three years later."
"Don't you worry young Ava, I'll get you back at the right time, in the right year" the Doctor told her.
"So where are we going?" Martha asked.
"We're going to the end of the universe" the Doctor replied just as the Tardis came to a juddering halt, causing Ava to fall to the ground but the Doctor caught her and helped her to her feet.
"Well, looks like we've landed" he stated as Ava looked clearly confused and about an hour or so ago she had asked her parents if she could go down to the play park as she was bored and after a little while spending time playing on the swings, she had encountered the gang of bullies from her school who chased her through the streets of Cardiff which then resulted in her running into the Tardis to hide from them and now she was a long way from home, a million years in the future.
"So what's out there?" Martha asked as Ava still tried to get her head around what was going on and began to wonder if she had fallen and hit her head whilst running from the bullies and all of this was some kind of comatose dream. To make sure, she prodded herself in the arm which she felt very clearly. It wasn't a dream, this was really happening.
"I don't know" the Doctor replied in a dramatic tone of voice which made Ava feel more nervous.
"Say that again. That's rare" Martha pointed out.
"Not even the Time Lords came this far" the Doctor pointed out with the same dramatic voice.
"What's a Time lord?" Ava asked "is it someone who makes clocks and watches?." Martha chuckled at the little girl's question and the Doctor crouched down in front of her, explaining that a Time lord was a person who travels through time and have the ability to change their appearance if they hurt themselves or were dying.
"I never knew time travel existed" Ava replied "I always thought it was make believe like in the movies like Back to the future."
"Well little miss Ava, would you like to take a look at the future and I'll take you back to the present, take you the moment just after you ran into the Tardis, that way your parents won't know you went to the future" he suggested.
"I don't know, there won't be any pollution will there because it won't be good for my Asthma" Ava pointed out
"Don't worry, I'm a Doctor and so is Martha plus I've got a medical room in the Tardis so if you were to have some kind of attack we'll get your sorted out" the Doctor reassured her "so, want to check it out and i'll promise I'll get you back at the right time." Ava looked at the Doctor and could tell he was being honest with her as he smiled at her reassuringly.
"Okay" she said "I guess I could check out what the future is like and I'll be away from those girls who were chasing me." The Doctor grinned cheekily, grabbed Ava by the hand and the free of them ran out of the Tardis in what appeared to be like a quarry area, it was night time and lying on the ground was a young man in a grey trench coat unconscious.
" Oh my God!" Martha yelled when she noticed the unconscious man laying on the ground and ran towards him,placing his hand on his neck. Ava looked up at the Doctor and his facial expression told her that he must know who this man was.
"What's wrong with that man?" she asked as Martha mentioned something about the Doctor having a medical kit as she ran back into the Tardis.
"I think he must have come with us" the Doctor replied "clinging to the Tardis all the way through the vortex, well, that's very him."
"Do you know him?" Ava asked as she zipped up her jacket, she was starting to feel pretty cold and Martha was now kneeling beside the unconscious man, checking for a pulse.
"Old friend of mine, used to travel with me, back in the old days" the Doctor replied.
"I'm sorry there's no heartbeat, nothing" Martha told him "he's dead." Just then the man gasped loudly as he awoke causing Ava to squeal and jump back behind the Doctor.
"Well hi there" he said to Martha in a flirtious manner "Captain Jack harkness and who are you?."
"Martha jones" Martha replied smiling at him.
"Nice to meet you Martha jones" Jack replied in the same flirty manner which made the Doctor annoyed and Ava was still shyly hiding behind him. Martha helped jack to his feet and he saw the Doctor.
"Doctor, it's good to see you again, you look different from the last time I saw you" he pointed out "but I knew it was you because the Policebox gave it away." He then noticed a tiny hand holding onto the Doctor's larger one and he asked who was hiding behind him.
"Oh this is Ava Thomas" the Doctor pointed out before turning to Ava who was still hiding behind him, clinging to his hand "Ava, don't you want to say hello to Captain Jack." Jack chuckled and suggested that him coming back to life probably freaked her out a little bit before going to were Ava was stood and crouched down to her level.
"Guess it must have been pretty scary to see me coming back to life wasn't it?" he asked "maybe that makes me like a zombie." He then pulled a goofy face which made Ava giggle a little.
"So you got little kids travelling with you now?" Jack asked.
"I've only just met her" the Doctor replied before explaining that she had been chased by a gang of girls and she ran into the Tardis to hide from them.
"Why was those girls teasing you?" Martha asked Ava who stated it was because she was Asthmatic and they branded her as a weirdo and often accused her of faking it, saying she probably smoked or something.
"You shouldn't pay attention to what them girls say" the Doctor told her "and I bet you don't smoke, you're too young and it wouldn't be good for your Asthma." Ava shook her head and told him that any one smoking around her could affect her Asthma and that she wasn't going to be a smoker when she got older.
"Well I'm getting bored of standing around here, shall we do some exploring" Jack pointed out. So the four of them made their way through the area as Ava clung to the Doctor's hand, still trying to get her head around the fact that she had originally gone to play at the park and now she had travelled to the future.