Author's note: It's gonna be really obvious that I can't write coherently, and that characters seem OOC, and my grammar is terrible. Anyway, enjoy.
Maxine Vaughn had a new flat-mate. A decision she didn't even remember thinking of.
Said flat-mate was tall, thin and creepy as hell. He had dreadlocks that looked as if someone had threaded spaghetti through a head, with a rough, grimy beard that stretched down past his chin. His name was "Mendos" or something like that. She didn't know. He'd only said two, three words to her since he arrived. Thankfully. He smelled like someone had taken a strenuous and lengthy swim in a pool of rubbish.
She was born, bred and trapped in London. All 26 years of her life. Just like her mother. She'd never got on with her father. He was a plumber, back in the old days.
She sipped her mug of warm, rich tea and sighed at misty dreams of far-off lands. She would definitely try to escape the cityscape, one day or another. She'd make a name for herself.
There was a "rata-tat-tat" at the door, catching Maxine off guard. She straightened out her scarf and fixed her black hair before shuffling to the door and wrenching it open. There was a smart-but-childish looking man dressed in tweed and black slacks. He fixed a red bowtie around his neck and gave a warm-yet slightly smug grin.
"Hello!"
"Erm...hello?"
He skipped inside merrily, looking around as if expecting someone.
"I'm the Doctor, by the way. Here on behalf of Chaplet-Waterfield insurance."
"I don't need insurance."
He looked at her.
"Are you hiding a reptilian alien who needs a special gas to survive by any chance?"
"...no..."
"Just checking."
He sniffed the table before removing some kind of object from his jacket pocket. He waved it about, which caused it to emit a weird, sickening buzz.
"So...what's your name?"
"Maxine. Maxine Vaughn."
"And do you do anything interesting at all?"
"No, but I want to. I'm going to travel the world, as soon as I can escape this city hell!"
"Hmm."
"Sorry, don't mean to be rude or anything, but what's your name again?"
"The Doctor."
"Doctor who?"
"You really don't need an answer to that question."
He tossed anything he could behind his shoulder, humming a sweet tune to himself.
"What the hell are you doing?! Or at least place stuff, instead of tossing!"
"Looking for something. Have you got any marbles?"
"I'm su-"
"Never mind, I should have some in these pockets of mine!"
He threw a leather wallet, a recorder, a fob watch, a tattered white bag that scattered hard jelly babies across the panelled floor, and a book entitled "900 year diary".
"How do you have so much in those pockets?"
"Isn't it obvious?"
"Not really, I mean logically they'd have to be bigger inside than out."
"Well, there you go. Ah ha!"
He produced a fishnet-style bag of marbles and poured them absent mindlessly across the floor. The marbles suddenly collided into a mid-air ball, catching her by surprise. The ball "shwuuumped" to the door before shattering again.
"And what exactly is that going to prove?"
"Marbles are attracted to Soliton gas. That...that was the compass pointing to North."
"How are marbles attracted to gas? Hang on, did you say 'reptilian alien'?"
"To answer both, I don't know."
Just then the door clunked open and the new flatmate walked in. He grunted, and took two steps to the left before the Doctor grabbed his sleeve.
"I can see through a disguise a mile away. Little trick J Edgar taught me."
He tugged at the dreadlocks, well slipped off rather easily. Next came the beard.
"Oh you little bas-"
The Doctor put his hand over Maxine's mouth to muffle her furious cries.
"What's the point in wearing a disguise?"
"Mmmmf mmmmuhu mmf!"
He took his hand away. Maxine repeated herself.
"Because he's my ex boyfriend!"
The flatmate sighed and turned his head slightly. His auburn hair shone and his slightly heavy eyebrows crinkled in perpetual humiliation.
"Oh...relationship trouble...well I...I best be off...Terileptil won't make peace with itself...well it might if it got bored...or wh...I'll just be going..."
"Oh no no no!"
She grabbed his collar and dragged him back inside.
"You, sit down, now!" she turned to her ex.
"As for you!"
"L-Listen! I just..I need to talk to you."
She was quiet for a few seconds. Then she laughed.
"I have nothing, nothing, to talk to you abo-"
"Lilly's dead."
Maxine froze, her eyes showing the severity of the news. She almost fell in unexpected anguish, taking in an abundant slug of air.
"I'm sorry." The Doctor butted in, looking slightly disappointed.
"How did it happen?" she wheezed.
"Stran...strangulation. The people down the station said it was like someone crushed her neck with a vice."
The Doctor had an unfortunate moment of crystal clear realisation. He frowned in fury, gritting his teeth.
"It's going after people. Innocent people. But why..." he whispered.
"Sorry?"
He looked at the ex.
"What's your name?"
"Zane."
"Zane, I'm about to find the thing that killed your friend. Then I'm going to give it a piece of my mind. And finally, when this day is done, I'm going to-"
"Oh please. What can you do?! You came in here, babbling about aliens and J Edgar Hoover, as if you knew such things. You don't know anything! Nothing about us, about what happens in our lives!"
He looked at her in pure confidence.
"I can tell your lying. It's in your eyes. You say you want to get out of here when in fact...in fact you're too scared to open up to anyone. That's why you dumped him. You think that if you let anyone into your little world, they'll run, as fast as possible, and leave you in silence. The silence that eats you up inside, that makes you feel like you've failed everyone you know."
There was a two second silence.
"Look who's talking."
There was an interrupting clatter from downstairs.
"I think we've found our Terileptil."
They scurried, without a sound, out to the stairs.
"Doctor?"
"Yeah."
"What is a Terileptil?"
"An ancient alien race who adore beauty, art and war. But even with their overly abundant love of warfare, they're still terrified of the universe."
"So you think it might have...killed Lilly?"
"No, it wouldn't even have the strength to give a proper hug, let alone kill someone. Sometimes, but only the odd time, they'll use androids. But there's no way that could go unnoticed, unless-"
The Doctor stopped mid-sentence and ran forward, shoulder put in front like a battering ram. He missed the door he was aiming for and hit the wall beside it. Maxine helped him up before doing the job he set out to do.
"I meant to do that." he laughed, suppressing a groan.
Inside was like any normal flat, save for the large egg-shaped module on a coffee table.
"Looks like nobody's home." Zane whispered.
"If you thought that, you wouldn't be whispering." The Doctor replied, tip-toeing softly towards the coffee table. He removed the strange object again from his jacket pocket and pressed it against the 'egg'. It clicked open into four curved segments and released a wisp of greyish-white gas.
"Don't worry, it's not dangerous. Well, as long as you don't feel the need to light up a celebratory cigar." He said to Maxine and Zane, who lowered their hands from their mouths.
"What the hell are you doing?!"
They all spun around in unison, to see a rotund, hairy man in a filthy vest. He scratched his jaw in unkempt confusion and/or fury. It was hard to tell from his almost-emotionless eyes, which were either squinting or miniscule.
"Sorry, we're just going around. There's a sort of criminal...guy...thing hiding on the complex. Called Ba...Brad...Guy..." Maxine blurted, nudging The Doctor in the ribs. He ignored her.
"Article 246 of the Shadow Proclamation."
"I'm sorry?"
"All humanoids, both of Sol 3 descent or extraterrestrial, must prohibit the use of perception filters. Relatively new. Or at least in twenty years time. Maybe thirty. Or forty, I dunno. I do, however, know a cheap trick when I see one."
"Again, I'm sorry?"
"Gonna go personal here, one of my rules. Number...let's make it 65: The Doctor is not an idiot and so should not be treated like one. Come on, show yourself. It's okay if you have body issues, we're not all perfect."
The man sighed.
"Can't you just leave me be? The boss only wanted a surveillance of the area. He never said anything about people. Besides, I look like crap!"
The Doctor rolled his eyes and used the object again, causing the man to turn into a hunch-backed, fish-like humanoid.
"How did you?!"
"Sonic screwdriver. One of my favourite friends. Now, you mentioned surveillance."
The alien shuffled over to the coffee table and activated the egg, breathing in the vapours. The others took the chairs around the tables and made themselves comfortable.
"Now, Mr Terileptil. I can call you Mr Terileptil? Or Terry? Terry the Terileptil. I like that!"
"My proper name is Frezzedonious, but fine, Terry it is."
"Why are you here?"
"Like I told 'ou, surveillance for the boss."
"And who might this 'boss' be? Another Terileptil? Homicidal computer? As if I don't run into enough of them."
Terry fidgeted, a bit pusillanimously. He 'hemmed' and 'hawed', before giving in.
"In all honesty, I only know him in name. I never met him in person, but I know he's located somewhere near Lokœ. His name's..."
He stopped, his eyes furrowing into a maze of inescapable confusion.
"What's wrong?"
Terry blinked in a rapid-fire pattern.
"I...don't know...know his name...who are you?"
"John Smith. Doctor John Smith."
"What are you doing here, Razmoz?"
"Doctor, what's wrong with him?" Maxine whispered.
"I don't know... Frezzedonius, where are we?"
Terry was quiet. He closed his eyes and compressed his jaw.
"What is he doing?"
"Forced hibernation. Someone's got this place bugged, which would be extremely cool if it weren't for the fact that our lives are now in really deep trouble. Really, really deep trouble."
"What do we do now?"
"This is going to sound odd, but I'm talking about it right now, forty odd years away. Until I figure it out, let's go do something fun!"