John Watson walked through the old warehouse, hobbling on his cane every other step. He'd been working at the library across the street when he heard a scream. At his lunch break he crossed the street and was now wandering about the abandoned building searching for the source of the scream, the back of his neck prickling with a sense of risk and adventure. He tried to convince himself that he wasn't doing it for a thrill, but because he was just an average man who heard a scream. As he meandered about, checking under stairs and in small enclosed spaces, he was about to give up and leave when a /something/ scuttled across the floor with the sound of claws lightly falling on the cement floor. John stopped in his tracks and slowly, cautiously turned around. In the dim lighting he saw only a stray dog, scratching about as it searched for food. The army doctor strode towards it and knelt down to see if it had a collar, his leg protesting with a shot of pain. As he reached out to the little dog, a deep, earnest voice rang out through the empty warehouse.
"Don't touch it!" The voice was followed by a tall and angular man in a long coat and blue scarf. His skin was pale and rather opalescent, and he was crowned with a mop of shiny black curls.
" I'm sorry?" John looked questioningly at his acquaintance, but drew his hand back all the same. "Why shouldn't I -" the stranger answered his question before he even finished asking it.
"Because that's not a dog. It's a graphien. It's a sort of shapeshifter. It's changes into something befitting to its environment and feasts on the first flesh to make contact with it."
John's jaw dropped and he laughed.
"Come off it! It's just a dog, look!" He reached out to pat the dog but the stranger leapt onto him and clutched his wrist. He dragged John away by said wrist and looked at him apologetically from under his dark fringe. John put his hands on his hips and shot back a look that said, you can't be serious.
"Just don't panic. I'm going to kill it. It's not very difficult. Just a bit gruesome. " he took a tentative step towards the creature, but it was his turn to be caught by the wrist.
"Don't kill it, it's just a dog!"John pleaded nodding his head towards the pitiful little dog. But he had spoken too soon. Just as he was relinquishing his grip on the stranger's wrist, yet another voice echoed out.
"Don't kill me. " it was harsh and low, like a wood chipper clogged with tar. John gave a start and reflexively clutched tighter on the taller man's wrist.
"That dog just spoke." John breathed.
"More proof that its not a dog, I've already told you. Now would you please release me? Your grip will surely cut off my blood circulation." The man looked down at his and John's hands purposefully.
"Right, sorry." The good doctor said, letting go and feeling the pink creep up his neck and face. The strange man did not reply to this and (thankfully) did not seem to notice John 's blush. He turned back to the creature and spoke to it.
"Why have you come here? This is not your planet, not even your galaxy!" He knelt down to come eye to eye with the graphien. It shrunk back at the proximity, but spoke again.
"My ruler sent me to see if there would be feasible nourishment here as we are suffering from a famine on our home planet." As the thing spoke, a long black tongue began to slip out of its mouth. The stranger instantly grabbed it with a gloved hand and yanked until it came out. The graphien's appearance slowly changed from that of a dog to a smoking black blob with a few small, spindly limbs jutting out at odd angles. There was a dull thud as John collapsed on the floor.
"Thebloodyhell?" Johns word were strung together and sloppy.
"Sorry you had to see that." The man said, offering his hand to pull John up, his other still clutching the scaly black tongue. He seemed to realize he was still holding it just then because he dropped it suddenly with a squelch. "Come with me." He said, pulling John by the hand out of the back of the warehouse and down the street to a deserted alleyway.
"What are we doing here?" John asked, looking about, his cane forgotten.
"Would you like to see everything there is to see? To travel through space and time and fight creatures far worse than the one back there? And don't say no because I know you want to. I know you were an army doctor and you work as a librarian because you want to seem average and trustworthy. Your therapist thinks your psychomatic limp is caused by your fear of the battlefield you left behind but secretly, you miss it. So, what'll it be. You in?" The man said all this very fast and John stood in awe, shaking his head incredulously.
"But that can't all be real! And I've got a job and rent to pay and..." His voice trailed off as they rounded a corner and stood facing a large blue police box.
"The stranger leaned against the box and smiled up at it, then at John.
"You've just seen me kill a talking dog by pulling its tongue out. Get some perspective. I assure you when you come back things will be just as you left them. So what do you say? Are you coming or not?" The stranger peered into John's eyes purposefully. John hesitated before replying
"I'll come." John said just above a whisper. The man opened the door to the box and gestured for John to step in. "And how will we travel in this?" John said smiling playfully up at the mysterious man. "Oh and I never caught your name." He added as an afterthought. As he stepped into the police box he thought he might collapse again. Inside, there was a giant sort of computer at the center of a large circular room with slatted metal floors. It was way bigger on the inside and the whole place gave off a greenish glow.
"This, is the TARDIS. It's a time machine, I'm a time lord, and you can call me the Doctor." He winked at John's disbelieving face.
"This is magnificent! Fantastic! The names John by the way. John Watson. But how did you know all that stuff about me?" He leaned against the thing at the center of the TARDIS and looked up at the Doctor.
"I don't know, I noticed." He cocked an eyebrow and whipped his blue scarf off before turning to the machine before him and turning knobs and pressing buttons.
"That's brilliant. That you noticed all that. It's really amazing." John said wonderingly, now peering curiously over at what the Doctor was doing.
"Really? That's not what most people say." He answered johns praise blandly, acting as if he didn't care that much and staying focused on the TARDIS.
"What do most people say?" John asked tenderly.
"Piss off." They both laughed aloud as a screeching and scraping noise came from the TARDIS, and suddenly John felt like he was being compressed by a large hand grabbing at him, but gently. It was an odd feeling.
"What's going on?" He asked, shifting from foot to foot.
"We're traveling." Came the Doctor's answer from the other side of the computer.
"Where to?" John peered around to look a the taller man.
"Fifteenth century London.