"Hm."

"Doctor?"

"That's a bit odd."

"What is?" Rose Tyler looked to her left, where the Doctor was poking his head outside of the TARDIS. "What is it?"

The Doctor retracted his neck and closes the door, climbing up the short ramp to meet her. "We're on Earth. And yet, it's not Earth. More of a model Earth. A parallel, shrunken Earth!"

"What do you mean, shrunken?" The Doctor could be quite vague with his explanations and descriptions. 'Shrunken' wouldn't cut it. It could mean anything. Following after the Doctor, Rose watched as he continued opening the door; open-close-open-close, as if to ensure the TARDIS was working properly. "Doctor." She chided him. "What's the matter?"

Finally, he opened the door and stepped out, pulling Rose with him. "Look." He said. "Look."

She looked.

"Each country. It's as big as a city, but with the proper scale and proper land bodies in between. See? There, you can vaguely see America there; big sign and eagles flying everywhere."

Rose looked across a body of water that seemed to be as big as a lake. Behind her, the TARDIS sat on the shore, and behind that, she could see Big Ben… but also a few other monumental buildings of England. All in the land space of a city. Impossible! A road sign nearby pointed in every direction, pointing out France, Germany, Canada, etc. How could it be? A miniature, city model of the entire Earth?

"OI, WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON MY SHORES?!"

The Doctor and Rose whipped around to see an incredibly angry, bushy-eyebrowed Englishman stalking towards them. Rose took a step back, reaching out for the Doctor and giving him a sidelong glance.

Nothing.

"Doctor! Do something!"

The Doctor merely grinned at her, an excited twinkle in his eye as he stalked toward the Brit and cheerfully extended a hand for a good shake. "Morning! I'm the Doctor and this is my companion, Rose Tyler! Who might you be?"

The Englishman was taken aback, instantly becoming wary and slowly reaching his hand out. "I'm, er, England."

Rose scoffed. The man glared. The Doctor?

"Fascinating!" He began to circle the poor Englishman carefully. "Your name is England? As in the country? This England? This city? Well, that's amazing! What is this, a parallel Earth?"

The Brit cleared his throat, at ease once he heard the Doctor's Northern accent. "I'm England, yes. The glorious and wonderful state of Her Majesty the Queen, otherwise known as Arthur Kirkland around these parts. But you lot, whoever you are, what are you doing on my territory? You don't seemed to be sent by my superior, and you're not a country I've ever seen."

The Doctor, who'd been gaping at the man in childlike awe, snapped his mouth shut and pursed his lips, trying to come up with an interesting explanation. "Er, yes. We, well, I'm a bit not-human, but Rose here is a right Londoner. We came in my ship, the TARDIS," –he gestured vaguely towards the blue box— "because there was a distress signal from somewhere in this area. So…What exactly…" –he waved towards the other city-states—"are these?"

Upon learning that Rose was an inhabitant of London, Arthur was taken aback. So she was one of those. The real humans. A powerful little being, which, in great numbers, controlled every move he made (when he wasn't busy beating up a certain Alfred F. Jones for his brotherly insolence). With a quiet voice and eyes alert, he quickly ushered the Doctor and Rose to a nearby building and indoors.

Once he was certain they were safe, he flicked on the lights to reveal that the trio was within a particularly large conference room, where flags from every nation from the 21st century lay draped over chairs, with men or women in their seats.

"Welcome," he began.

"—To the International Congress!" A loud, blue-eyed and bespectacled man burst from his chair to give the Doctor a strong handshake. "I'm America!"

Rose shrank back. "Doctor, he can't be. A country can't be a person!"

The American simply ignored her and continued with his hearty handshake. "You must be the Doctor! I've read all about you. Aliens like you really do exist, huh? Artie here never believes me, but you've gotta prove him wrong. Especially since you're sorta British yourself." He clapped the poor Englishman on the back rather loudly. "Anyway, I'm a hero and a hero needs to enlist the best team! So I sent out the distress signal even though nobody else believed in aliens. And here you are! Here to be a hero with me." A bright grin spread across his features as he clamored over the Doctor, beginning to babble on about his two hearts and regenerative qualities.

"SHUT UP!" A booming, markedly German voice filled the conference hall. "WE'VE GOT AN IMPORTANT ISSUE ON OUR HANDS!"

The crowd fell silent, and the Doctor peered around interestedly as Rose began to calm down.

"What? What is it? What's got everyone in such a tiff?" He craned his neck around the room, trying to get an answer from any one of the conference attendees.

A small, smooth hand raised itself from amidst the large group of bodies.

"Germany recognizes his friend Italy!"

The person attached to the hand, a slightly feeble and lacksidaisy-looking Italian man spoke up. "Paaaastaaaaa—"

"—No, you PRAT. Enough with the bloody pasta!" Arthur, the Englishman, shut him up. "That's hardly the issue at all!" (The Italian simpered back into his seat in response, uttering an interestingly quiet "ve!")

"So what is it?" The Doctor bounced on his heels. It was already exciting enough to have found a parallel Earth in which countries were anthropomorphized (he'd deduced it fairly quickly and was quite enthralled), but a major issue threatening the Earth? Even more entertaining! "Do tell!"

Arthur looked at him worriedly, all the while fending off a particularly flirtatious Frenchman from getting at Rose. "It's Prussia."