Disclaimer: I don't own The Rocky Horror Picture Show
A/N: This is the result of watching too much classic Doctor Who, thinking about how DW character 'Ace' looks like Nell Campbell, re-reading my own stories, and listening to/watching RHPS stuff... all in the same day. This is the prologue to a series of episodes and serials about the adventures of the Professor (yeah, kinda a rip-off of the Doctor) and two teens.
It's not too much of a rip-off, I suppose, since it takes place in the same 'verse as Doctor Who and it's more dimension-travel than time-travel. In fact, the Professor mentions knowing the Doctor.
It was a dreary September afternoon in Brooklyn, New York. Two young people - Jon Chesterton and Mia Foreman - were sitting in the former's basement watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show, for the 8th time together, whilst sitting on an ugly grey sofa eating popcorn. It had become a tradition for them to do this on weekends they'd the chance to see each other.
"I'm tired," Mia muttered, about halfway through. "Perhaps I should return to my dad's apartment. Jon, it's getting late."
He rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on. There's only about half an hour left."
Before Mia could reply they heard a terrible sound not far away. Like some kind of great crashing. Then some shouting profanities, causing Mia to wince.
"What's that?" she asked.
"Something bad, probably," Jon replied.
"Oh! Be cheerful, Jon. It's no good to always say such gloomy things!" Mia protested, laughing.
For a moment there was silence.
"Perhaps we should see what that was," Mia muttered thoughtfully.
"I thought you were afraid."
"No, you'll be with me!"
Rolling his eyes, Jon followed his friend upstairs and into the tiny backyard. There they saw a... something. It was hard to tell what. Some kind of blackened, smoking, spacey-thing. Neither of them were British or keen on serious sci-fi so they didn't recognize the mess of a thing as a TARDIS. That is, a Timecard's spaceship/timemachine. The most famous of such ships is that flown by the Doctor. His ship took the form of a 1950s Police Box. Even Jon and Mia may've recognized that. But many TARDISs were shaped like buildings or even trees. This half-ruined TARDIS in Jon's backyard looked a bit more 'traditional' (meaning alien) than some. It was a replica of the phone booth seen in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.
Eventually a man emerged out of the billowing smoke, coughing. He wore a dark red trousers and a matching tie. Then there was a waistcoat, which was embroidered with glittering silver thread. Beneath that he wore a white shirt with a terribly frilly color. His hair was messy and fair gold in color. Oddly, he looked a bit like Gene Wilder.
"Hello!" Mia said to the man.
Jon held her back slightly, fearing the soot-covered person was dangerous. Judging by his half-mad expression this was far from an unreasonable thought. Though Mia had trouble seeing the bad in anyone. It was her greatest flaw, indeed, though not in this case.
"Hello," he replied. "I'm the Professor."
"Which Professor?" asked Jon.
"The Professor."
Jon frowned. "What are you doing here, Professor?"
"My engines failed, I crashed. Now... do you have lemons, marshmallows, and matches? Oh, and a power outlet?"
"Why?" asked Jon, just as Mia said: "We've surely got all that in the kitchen."
"Don't ask me yet!" he cried out. "Hurry."
So, Mia politely led him into the kitchen whilst Jon wondered how to tell his mother about the now-ruined garden. That would indeed be a challenge...
In the kitchen Mia helped the Professor ensemble the various ingredients he'd asked for. The turned out to be to charge a mysterious little device that looked like a sort of radioactive Swiss Army Knife combined with a flip phone. It took a while to find the wire though the rest was easy enough. The marshmallows ended up in a bowl with the lemons - which had been chopped up rather hastily - and mixed about. Quite suddenly the Professor lit the strange mixture on fire, causing Mia to jump.
"What's your name, again?" he asked, trying to distract her.
"Mia."
"What a lovely name! Who's your friend?"
"Jon."
By then, the flames weren't so high. Mia was, as a result, less nervous.
"If I may ask... what's this little project of yours?" Mia asked, eventually.
"Oh, something to fix that ship of mine! It's a TARDIS. That is, Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. Those are the places it travels. For me it's mostly the dimensions bit, you know. I'll see so many parallel worlds. I like Earth, I like the 1970s. That's where I usually am. She - being the TARDIS - needs a bit of Lemon Squishy for snack to get her working properly. Old girl gets so tired these days...
Mia smiled. "You talk like the ship is alive!"
"Oh, she is. So don't you let Jon or yourself insult the old girl!"
"Okay."
For a while they stood there in silence, both smiling a bit. Then the Professor remembered the bowl of Lemon Squishy and left the kitchen with it. Soon after he disappeared Jon showed up.
"That Professor sure is something," Mia said, giggling.
Jon scowled. "He's ruined my mother's garden. You know how proud she is of her beloved flowers. Now there's a phone booth there!"
In response to that unhappy statement Mia just laughed and laughed. At one point Jon barked at her to 'shut up'. This only made her laugh more, somehow. It only stopped when the Professor returned to the room.
"What's so funny?" he asked.
"The garden," Jon said darkly.
After giving the two teens an odd look the
"Wait! Are you leaving so soon?" Mia exclaimed.
"Yes. Do you want to go with me?" the Professor asked.
"Yes!" Mia said, just as Jon said "No."
"I don't like traveling alone, my friends. And an ex-assistant of mine named left me soon before this crash..."
He ushered them into the place. It was a real shock. Instead of being in a cramped little area that should be inside a phone booth they'd ended up in a square room decorated nicely. There happened to be a pretty pattered rug on the floor, a coffee table, a liquor cabinet, an attractively upholstered couch, and two comfy armchairs. A door led to another part of the ship still unknown to our protagonists. In the corner there was a console of some kind covered in levers and buttons.
"It's bigger on the inside," Jon stated quietly.
"Yeah," Mia muttered, looking slightly unnerved.
"Of course it is! Do you really think I could survive in such a small place as a phone booth? It's only a phone booth 'cause this guy I know who likes England too much explained to me how well that shape works for ships. There's some people in Ohio I plan to visit who live in a castle..."
Mia raised an eyebrow. "A castle? In Ohio?"
"Indeed, a castle. It's better know as the Frankenstein Place to you."
Even Jon, the most sensible, was excited by the idea of visiting that. Suddenly he agreed with Mia. Traveling would be delightful. The Professor noticed the eager expression upon both faces...
"Shall we?" he asked, rhetorically, as he pressed a button on the console. They left the backyard garden, and, therefore New York. They left their usual dimension.
And so the adventures began!
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