Hello again! This story is a Prequel to "7-cross of DOOM: Sam's POV" I'm co-authoring it with Genuka.
Hope you like it.
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I was sitting at home, watching yet another episode of Dora the Explorer with my little sister, Hannah, when the idea came to me.
"You stay here, Hannah, I have something I have to do," I said to the 7-year-old, who was zoned out on the TV.
"'Kay," she said mindlessly.
I quickly made my way to my room, which I had to share with Hannah. It wasn't too bad, considering I had to share my "Struggling Student/Writer/Artist" style with the "Pink Princess" theme on Hannah's side of the room. Not to mention the fact that Hannah hadn't yet learned the organization skills vital to real life. I'm not saying that my side of the room was completely without clutter, but DANG! I'm still afraid to walk through her side to use our bathroom! Who knows what's hidden in there? The Fountain of Youth could be hidden in her closet, for all I care! It's not worth breaking your neck on your way in!
Anyway, I carefully navigated through her mess to find safe harbor on my bed. I snatched a pencil from the cup on the windowsill and my notebook from the table at the foot of my bed.
"Doctor meet doctor meet Holmes," I said to myself, as I titled the page, with a mischievous smirk on my face.
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Except for the sound of the engines, the TARDIS was quiet as the Doctor piloted it through the time vortex to his next destination; someplace where he could try to think about where he could go after that.
Slowly the engines whined as it came to a halt on the beaches of The Ghost Island on Meridian IV, during the Time of Peace, just after the War of the Malidecs.
"Now what?" the Doctor asked himself. "Barcelona? Nah, not the same, I promised Rose I'd take her there. Maybe… Nope, been there a few dozen times, literally. Been to the moon. Almost crashed into a living sun. Chased ghosts with Charles Dickens. I fought witches with William Shakespeare. Almost got shoved out into lethal radiation by a bunch of frightened passengers on Midnight. Where do I go from here?"
He leaned back on the console, when suddenly red lights began to flash and the alarm began to blare as the TARDIS detected an intruder.
"Oh, now what?!" the Doctor yelled as he quickly turned to the computer screen and started to bang on a few keys to figure out what was going on. The alarm stopped, the flashing lights turned off, and the Doctor let out a sigh of relief. "There, that should be it now. But just in case." He started to tap the keys again as he began to search the area for any would-be intruders.
"Yes! I made it!" a voice, with a slight Oklahoman accent, exclaimed victoriously from somewhere deep inside the TARDIS, making the Doctor jump. "Doctor? Oh, dangit, I missed! This isn't the console room." Footsteps were heard coming closer, and then a girl came through the doorway. "Ah, much better. Oh, there you are! Boosting security, huh? Good thing, 'cause I think that was a bit too easy."
The girl was tall, average build, had shoulder-length, layered, auburn curls with copper highlights, and fair skin. She wore a pair of old blue jeans, green T-shirt, a grey Duster jacket with a brown collar, and a pair of green converse Chuck Taylors.
"How did you get in here?" the Doctor demanded. "What do you think you're doing?"
The girl gave him a big smile as she reached into her right pocket. Her eyes widened and her smile faded. She reached into her left pocket, and panic struck her face.
"Excuse me," she said. "I'll be right back."
She snapped her fingers and she was gone.
"What!" the Doctor exclaimed.
The Doctor walked over to where the girl had been standing. He knelt down to feel the floor, to look closely at it, and even to smell where she left.
"That's… odd," the Doctor said as he walked back to the console, keeping his eyes on the spot where she left. "No trace whatsoever."
Just as suddenly as she left, the girl was back, and the intruder alarm blared again.
"You really should invest in a better security system," the girl said, now holding a steaming cup of instant ramen noodles in one hand and chopsticks in the other. "It's too easy for someone like me to just pop in whenever she wants." She stirred the noodles around with the chopsticks and scooped a bite of it in her mouth.
"What do you want?" the Doctor said after he turned off the alarm.
"I'm Sam," the girl said with a full mouth. She swallowed and walked over to the old car seat that served as a Captain's Chair. "I'm working on a project for my English class. I need to write an essay comparing two characters. One of the characters has to be from classic literature, the other has to be from contemporary literature or TV. You're going to help me." She took another bite of noodles.
"Why would I do that?" the Doctor asked. "You teleport into my TARDIS with a click of your fingers, and you expect me to write some essay for you?"
"No, no," Sam said, "I don't expect you to write it for me, I just think that you could help me gather what I need so I can get started." She tilted the ramen cup towards him. "Want some? They're good."
"No, thank you. If you can get into a TARDIS with all shields up, I think you can write one comparative essay without my help."
"So you won't help me?" She took the last bite of noodles, shifting her gaze to the near empty cup in her hands.
"Not with that, maybe if you find yourself in a situation that involves the abduction, destruction, or conquering of a planet, but not with some silly school assignment."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Sam peered into the broth still in the cup. "You sure you won't change you're mind?"
"Absolutely."
"Fine." she quickly splashed the broth onto the controls making it spark and smoke.
"What are you doing?!"
"Just ensuring that you stay here while I'm gone."
Then, with a snap of her fingers and a quick smirk, Sam was gone again.
The Doctor cursed in a strange Martian dialect as he quickly made his way under the floor to get to repairs.
"Fanfiction writers," the Doctor complained over the sound of his sonic screwdriver. "They just think they can come in and change things around as they wish. Now I've got one that wants me to help her write an essay for school. What does she need my help for anyway? I've got places to go, people to save. It's not like I could just grab these two characters of hers out of the book and…" The sound of the sonic screwdriver suddenly stopped. "She's not… No…! She can't…" The Doctor's head suddenly appeared from under the floor. "Not good."
Suddenly a loud pop and a puff of smoke came from where Sam had disappeared.
"Ah, here we are, make yourself comfortable, don't touch anything, I'll be right back," Sam coughed out before snapping her fingers and disappearing again.
"Well, that's just great," a male voice said, clearly American. "How am I gonna explain this? 'Why, hello, Cuddy. I know I was scheduled for clinic duty today, but I was abducted by some girl who beamed me up to her spaceship then left without another word.'"
The Doctor climbed back up to stand right behind the figure that produced the voice.
"Hello," the Doctor said.
The man turned around and the Doctor could see his features better. The man was tall, maybe a hair taller than the Doctor. He had a sort of sharp face and sloping forehead. His somewhat bushy eyebrows seemed to try to hide his ice-blue eyes. His chin was shaded darkly with a short mustache and goatee, which was the same brunette color as the hair on top of his head. He wore a suit, but it wasn't quite buttoned up the whole way, like he had only just gotten dressed. In his right hand was a black cane with flame decals on the bottom, which bore most of his weight. He seemed to also carry a sort of misery about him.
At the same time, the man seemed to be looking over the Doctor's features.
"I'm…" the man began, but was interrupted with another loud pop as Sam appeared again with another abductee. This one was a hair or two shorter than the Doctor and wore distinctive Victorian attire: shirt, waistcoat, trousers, overcoat, and patent leather shoes. He had a prominent, stubborn chin and a hawk-like nose. His eyes were piercing, intelligent, and, above all, curious. He was lanky, but still a bit intimidating.
"Here we are," Sam said. "Well, Doctor, I think I'll leave you to it. I'll be back after a while to check on your progress." She made a slow comprehensive sweep over the scene before her, as if she were examining a piece of art that she had just finished. "Alright, Doctor, Dr. House, Mr. Holmes, see you later!"
With that she snapped her fingers and she was gone again.
"What the hell was that about?" Dr. Gregory House asked in his Pennsylvanian accent.
"I can assure you, I have no idea," Mr. Sherlock Holmes said, "but whatever it is, one thing is most clear."
"And what's that?" House asked, reaching into his pocket and popping a few vicodin pills into his mouth.
"We are trapped here," Holmes said.
"Yep," the Doctor replied. "Welcome to my ship, it's down for repairs right now, so we can't go anywhere." He inspected the sight of the two of them together. "Two of the greatest human minds, stuck in my TARDIS. Should be fun."
He quickly went back to repairs. House and Holmes looked at each other for a few moments, then followed the Doctor below the floor.
"So who was that? Your girlfriend? She seems a bit young for you," House as he prodded the Doctor with his cane.
"I have no clue who she is," the Doctor answered over the sound of the sonic screwdriver, "and no she's not my girlfriend."
"But you have had girls here around her age," Holmes chimed with an air of arrogance.
The Doctor looked them straight in the face and pointed the screwdriver at them to make his point.
"I will not be psycho-analyzed by two humans right now," the Doctor warned, "I have to clear out 8 oz. of ramen broth out of very complicated circuitry with nothing but a sonic screwdriver. So if you don't mind, lay off!"
"Someone's got a bee in his shorts," House commented as he and Holmes made their way back up.
Two of the greatest human minds indeed, the Doctor thought as he continued.
"So, you must be Sherlock Holmes, then," House said. "Your shorter than I expected."
"I take it your Dr. House, then?" Holmes asked.
"Yep," House said as he leaned on the control panel.
Suddenly, the panel sparked and hissed, and the Doctor yelled Martian obscenities.
"DON'T TOUCH THE CONSOLE, PLEASE!" the Doctor yelled.
"Cranky," House said under his breath. "He makes me look like the patron saint of patience."
"I'm afraid I'm not familiar with that language you just spoke," Holmes called down to the Doctor. "It doesn't sound at all like those of Earth. And your use of the word 'human' is most intriguing. I take it that you are not of our world?"
The Doctor didn't answer, but no reply spoke more than if he had confirmed or denied Holmes' observation.
"So is that girl human?" House asked.
Again, the Doctor didn't reply.
"He doesn't know," Holmes said. "She's as much a mystery to him as to you or me. And personally, I find it strange that she would choose the three of us to hold as captives."
"You are two of the greatest minds in English literature and television," the Doctor said, "and she's a fanfiction writer."
"A what?" House and Holmes asked simultaneously.
"A writer of borrowed ideas," the Doctor said. "A fanfiction writer writes stories based on characters, plots, or settings created by noted authors, playwrights, and producers. This one seems to have the power to teleport into stories and take characters with her. She told me she's brought us together so we can help her write a comparative essay for an English assignment."
House and Holmes looked at each other and started to laugh.
We're going to be stuck here for a very long time if this keeps up, the Doctor thought as he went back to repairs.
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A/N: I'm having a bad case of writers' block right now, so ideas are very much appreciated.