Ch 1. An Impossible day
The sounds of the early morning city became less and less as the girl took another sip of her piping hot coffee while she sat at her usual table in her favorite Internet cafe. As she flipped through the pages on her tablet just glimpsing at the latest pictures of all the famous celebrities doing something ridiculous just to get noticed. She continued to flip through the pictures not bothering to read any of it, after all a picture is worth a thousand words. Just from glimpsing a single pic it was obvious what was going on, some were scandals, others cat fights, and then some trials of some psychotic criminals, where ever you looked it was all the same never any good news. But she looked anyways for something to light up her day, any thing to make humanity not feel so ...hopeless. She looked up as one of her favorite songs began to play on the cafe's radio.
It's nine o'clock on a Saturday
The Regular crowd shuffles in
There's an old man sitting next to me
Makin' love to his tonic and gin
He says, "Son, can you play me a memory
I'm not really sure how it goes
But it's sad and it's sweet and I knew it complete
When I wore a younger man's clothes."
La la la, di da da
La la, di da da da dum...
She hummed along to the song when she looked over and saw a man sitting alone only a table away with a tea in one hand and a strange looking device in the other. He was humming along to the tune of the song as well one leg over the other, while he casually took a sip of his hot tea. When he opened and closed his mouth at the hot liquid now burning his tongue before spitting the tea back into the cup. Where he then proceeded to wipe the taste of the tea from his tongue using a nearby napkin. She couldn't help but laugh at the man and continue to watch his comical feat as she forgot about her tablet still in her hand. When the man quickly stood up at the sound of his strange machines beeping, sending the hot-and apparently awful- tea all down his brown tail coat and onto his handheld device that sparked and fizzled before it died out.
"Ow, ow , OW!" The well dressed British man cried grabbing the small napkin again to try to dry off the burning drink from his clothes.
"Oh here let me help you there." She said rushing over to the man carrying her meal napkin and handing it to the man for him to damp himself dry.
"Oh well thank you, that was embarrassing." He said looking around at some of the humored stares he was receiving from the onlookers. He quickly patted his long coat down as well as the vest before turning his attention to his gadget, he tried to use the napkin to dry off the device but it was to no avail.
"No no no no! Not now!" He shouted frustrated hitting the machine, he threw a hand into his brown side swept hair and rustled it up as he twisted his expression as if in serious thought.
"Uh, are you ok" the girl asked hesitantly, as the man unintentionally and unknowing began to draw moe attention to himself.
"Ok? Of course I'm not ok it finally picked up the signal when that horrible tea had to spill on it and short circuit the batteries! And that was my last pair!" He proclaimed throwing his hands into the air before quickly pulling out a long brown and silver pen? That he flicked at the machine to which it opened up and began to glow a brilliant green as it gave off an irritating sound. By then they had the attention of the entire cafe focused on them both as people gave them curious looks and annoyed glares.
"Uh ok perhaps I can help my apartment is across the street if it's batteries you need I'm pretty sure I can help. " she said ushering the man out of the now surprisingly silent cafe.
"Batteries? The batteries I need are not produced any where on this planet what makes you think -"
"Ok off we go." She said cutting him off and pushing him out of the door. They crossed the street and went up to the third floor of the tall building to her small but quaint apartment space where she fumbled with the keys before finally opening the door and pulling him inside. The space had a workable kitchen and dining room that let out into the artsy living room with paintings and drawings covering any part of the walls. A small tv sat on an old nightstand that had been painted vibrant colors to match with the small couch and shag rug on the floor, with two doors off to the back one for a bedroom and the other a bathroom.
"So you said something about batteries right?"
"I said the batteries I need are phi quantum batteries from the energy planet Dengeese, not exactly your common store bought brand." He said giving the machine a good shake, ejecting a shiny silver box about the size of a Ping pong ball that oozed a black liquid from the ruptured top. She gave him a blank stare as she processed what she was hearing.
"Are you insane?" she simply stated taking a small step away.
"Insane? Well I wouldn't call my self insane a mad man yes but insane, not so much, well depends on who you ask". The doctor said giving the machine another good hit, and a hard shake to follow.
"You do know what the definition of insanity is right?" She asked.
"Of course I know what it means I'm not an idiot." He said hitting the machine yet again.
"Right... Well dose it need a lot of power to work?" She asked continuing on the conversation.
"Not really"
"Do you need it to work for an extended period of time?"
"Well no"
"Then really any converter that attached to any energy source will do, correct" she finished acting like the adult explaining electricity to a child.
"Well then miss smarty pants what would you have in mind?" He said putting the device down onto the table, and throwing his hands up in annoyance for an added effect. Before planting himself firmly in a dining room chair. "Well" she started planting herself in the facing chair and pulling the device towards herself, when the man quickly grabbed her hand. She jumped stiffening her arm.
"This is very complicated technology not some bargain brand toaster oven." He said giving her a stern look. She slowly pulled her hands away from the man her heart still pounding against her chest.
"Well why not try lemons?" She said calmly and Completely serious.
"I don't need lemonade! what I need is my device before the little bug gets away, I put it down for a minuet to tinker with this machines system in order to see what data it might hold, along with many other clever things I was inputting into the device, and It must have been playing possum, waiting for the right moment to escape, after it probably recorded vital information and possibly some embarrassing shower scenes. All of which it will probably try to give to the cyber leader but since he's long since gone any number of baddies could get their hands on it which could possibly have dire reprocossuions not just on me but possibly on the entire world, are you even listening?!.." He rambled before cutting off as the girl had already assembled a simple rigging to connect the device to a few wires that connected to a pitcher of lemon juice.
"What? Oh sorry no I wasn't. Well let's give it a try." She said, flipping what she believed to be the on switch. The man looked doubtful at the machine when it suddenly whizzed into life. He jumped up from his seat and pulled the device into his hands before quickly punching a few of, what looked to be remote, buttons he then flung out a long metal device that he flicked at the machine and pressed a button that lit a brilliant green color that seemed to cause the lemon powered machine to react.
"It's working!" He exclaimed.
"You don't have to sound that surprised." She said with an exaggerated wave of her hands. He kept the green light pointed at the device until it replied with a satisfactory ring like a school bell, he gave a bright smile before picking the device up in his hand and pressing a button on the side and with that he was gone. Vanished in the blink of an eye the lemon juice spilling out onto the table and floor as it's connection was severed almost like he teleported? No that was impossible... Or was it.
She found herself sitting at the same table in the same cafe drinking the same hot coffee that she had taken a liking to it had been a week since that incident with the strange man and his machine, and she wasn't sure what to think of the whole situation. Every time she thought about it more unanswered questions popped into her mind, all of which we're driving her insane. Could it have been teleportation? But to be a device that ridiculously simple couldn't possibly hold the ability to take a person out of space and reassemble them in a completely different location. Or was it teleportation at all? Could she have imagined it all up? No that was impossible she felt the heat of his hands against her own and she could hear the emotions in his voice. Then what, what could it possibly be, was he dead? Or worse? She felt a sudden hand grip down onto her shoulder. She squeaked in surprise before turning to see the mad man standing there before her perfectly fine. "Hi there" he said smiling, She quickly stood up and used both hands to grip either side of his face and pinching his cheeks to ensure he was indeed real, confident that he was indeed real her expression changed from worry to anger.
"You up and vanish in front of me for a whole week, without any indication that you were alive and you come back and just give me a 'hi there'" she said before giving him a good punch in the arm.
"Owowow OW! That's quite the right hook you got there." He said trying to lighten the mood, when she reared back for another punch. He threw his hands up defensively,
"Wait, wait I'm sorry I probably deserved that." She glared at him.
"Ok I definitely deserved that, but I have a perfectly good reason as to why" he stated with a pause. She waited for a reply.
"Well?!" She fumed about ready for strike two.
"Um perhaps we should discuss this elsewhere." He said just now noticing that every eye in the room was locked on the two of them and in complete silence except for the quiet noise of the radio, you could have heard a pin drop. She flushed embarrassed before she picked up her bag and coffee cup before marching towards the door, the man following close-but not to close- behind. They arrived once again at her cozy apartment but this time once the man walked in she slammed the door shut and turned the lock, before looking at the man once again.
"Now sit" she demanded, and he didn't dare disobey as he sat on the nearby foot rest for her little couch. She took up sitting across from him on her colorfully decorative couch arms still crossed.
"And explain" she simply stated.
"Well once you got it to work again I used my sonic" he pointed to the green tipped device.
"In order to boost the cyber mats' homing signal and when I pressed the retrieve signal I was teleported by a rundown cyber ship that had managed to designate my location upon using the device. There I discovered that the cybermen were trying to rebuild themselves and they were behind three recent kidnappings in the area. As they need human brains to advance their progress, only after they take control of their minds of course. So after a long list of my being clever and rescuing the captives, I found the cyber mat and inputted a virus into it so that when it went to download it's found data into the cyber mainframe, the entire cyber ship would self destruct and take the remaining cybermen with it. Bang boom I save the world again" he proclaimed jumping up onto his feet before taking a curt bow. He grinned and looked at the girl who didn't even flinch at his entire story.
"And it took you a week, why?" She asked basically ignoring the mans drawn out explanation. He froze and awkwardly ran his hand through his hair before taking a quick sidelong glance at the exit.
"Because my time machine was malfunctioning. And I got the time wrong. Again."he finished sheepishly, and her limit was reached.
"TIME MACHINE?!, is that the best lie you could come up with, you think I'm an idiot just because I can't figure out how you managed to pull a Houdini in my dining room? Or because I spent a week besides myself with worry, you treat me as the gullible fool?" She screamed as she began to tear up, not really sure why herself. And she turned away from the man who was frozen unsure of what to do. His mouth opened and closed a few times but no words came as he scrambled for what to say she quickly whipped away the tears and calmed herself down. The man put his hands down in defeat and took a few steps to be in front of the girl he gently and cautiously placed a hand on her shoulder and bent down to look at her down cast face.
"I can prove it to you." He said sincerely with an apologetic look in his eyes. He reached down and gripped her hand and pulled her out the door. A few blocks down on the corner of a parks street, sat an old blue box that seemed tall enough for Mabey two or three people to uncomfortably stand inside. It had a blue light that sat on top of its sturdy frame and the words "police public call box" written on the top in white letters. Not something that one would be used to seeing especially not here in America, or really anywhere else in that day and age. But no matter how much it stood out, it seemed that not a single person payed it the slightest heed. The man pulled her up towards the blue police box before letting go of her hand to fumble around in his jacket for a small strange looking key which he put in to the keyhole of the blue box and gave it a turn to which it complied with a soft click. He pushed the door open before stepping inside. She stood there and stared at the box, wondering why she even came with such a lunatic and unsure of what she was supposed to be waiting for. She peaked around eaither side of the box and behind to see if she was getting any more strange looks today but not a single person was looking in her direction, almost as if she wasn't even there.
"Well are you coming?" A voice called that sounded a though it came from far away but was clearly coming from within the box that stood before her. She took a step forward and gently pushed open the door to reveal an impossibly large room that extended from where she stood in the door way to a good 40 feet further than the 4by 4 foot box she could have sworn she had stepped into. She stepped out, looked left then right and stuck her head into the box and repeated the motion.
"But that's..." She started, not looking at the man but she could tell he had an amused smile none the less. She stepped back out and simply stared at the box, before her body finally decided to move, she walked around the box's permitter tracing her hand along the painted wood till she was back at the door she raced in head first to the other side of the room to ensure it wasn't an illusion. She stared dumbfounded at the reality of it all when her vision began to spin and she sunk to the ground.
"Woah!" The man shouted surprised at her sudden collapse. He put a hand on her shoulder to steady her.
"Hey are you ok? Sorry this may have been to much to spring onto you considering everything you just went through."
"It's fine I'm just a bit surprised that's all." She said accepting his hand for her to sit in a nearby seat. As she continued to look around at all of the incredible interior of the seemingly small blue box.
"It's...huge" she simply stated. The man looked at her and shrugged.
"So I've been told" he said smiling.
"So now that you have seen the machine part how about I show you the time part?" He said giving the machine a loving pat on the center consul.
"What do you mean?" She said still looking around, unable to completely pay attention.
"Any where, any time is right at your fingertips so my question is. Where to first?" He said confidently. She turned to look at him and she quirked an eyebrow at him.
"If this is a time machine anyway" she said still in disbelief.
"Then why not give it a go? Nothing to lose right?" He said convincingly.
"Fine, well if this thing is a time machine if like to go to medieval Japan in the 16 or 1700's." She said crossing her arms. He smiled brimming with confidence.
"Medieval japan it is!" He proclaimed spinning a few dials and punching a few buttons, the box jerked and the sound of flexing metal could be heard. As the box made a strange noise of howling wind.
"By the way what's your name?" The man asked realizing he never once asked.
"It's Sky, Sky Petterson." She said looking at him.
"Well Sky, I'm the Doctor and this is the Tardis. Welcome aboard."