A/N: This may be a fanfiction, but it does not follow the Doctor or a companion of his. This is my own Time Lord and my own companion. They are original characters to me. The Doctor and his adventures will be referenced from time to time. Also, this is my first fanfiction, and I hope you enjoy it. And yes, I know that the title is the term David Tennant's Doctor used in Human Nature/The Family of Blood. It will be explained why I chose it as the title as time goes on in the story. Also, since this is my first fanfiction, I would appreciate it if you could comment/review it. I want to add a part 2, but I want to know if you want me to continue working on this
Episode 1: The Beginning of the Best Years of My Life
Hello! My name is Tobias Matthews, but you can call me Toby. I am 14 years old. I am American, but I live in London, England. I've lived there since I was 8 after my parents got divorced. My mom decided to take me and move away from our home in New York and to England. Why she decided to move here, I have no idea. I am writing this in a journal that I got as from my newest friend, who happens to be an alien from another planet. Let me explain the story on how we met. It all started one morning…
Part 1: The House at the End of the Road
I wake up when the alarm on my clock goes off at 5:00 early Saturday morning. I slowly turn it off, pull my blankets off me, and sit up. I then stretch and yawn, cracking my bones in the process. Time for another day of delivering newspapers. I stand up and scratch the back of my head as I look for a pair of clothes to change into. I eventually decide on a pair of beige shorts and a light blue t-shirt.
After I get dressed, I walk to the kitchen and open the fridge. I immediately grab a blueberry muffin and start eating it. While doing so, I pour myself a glass of orange juice, then I go to the hall closet to grab my shoes and put them on. By the time I'm done, I have finished eating my muffin, so I go back to the kitchen and drink my juice. I put the glass in the sink when I finish.
Still waking up, I slowly walk to the front door, unlock it, open it, walk outside, close it and lock it again with the spare key we keep under a loose floorboard on the porch. On the porch, I see the newspapers I have to deliver, next to my bike, which I use to deliver them. Signing at how there's a lot, I put them in the basket attached to my bike. I grab my helmet and put it on, adjusting the strap so it fits. I walk my bike to the street, hop on the seat, and start pedaling on my route.
About an hour later according to my watch, I am nearing the end of my route. I just need to go through a dead end and then turn back around and go back home. As I'm nearing the last house which is at the end of the road, I get off my bike and take my helmet off because I think I see something on the lawn of the house. I get down on my knees and look at the spot. It looks like a metal handle. Like a trap door. Even though I might regret this later, I stand up and pull on the handle as hard as I can on it. After a few tugs on it, a door opens fast, causing me to fall on the ground. I stand up and brush myself off and look at the newly opened trap door. I go to the opening and, taking a deep breath, walk down the stairs.
After what feels like 5 minutes, I arrive at a door at the end of the tunnel. I open the door and enter.
The first thing I see in the room is a suit of armor. Two of them to be exact. I look to my right and see a futuristic looking thing. It looks like the table Frankenstein was laid upon before being brought to life. I see a white sheet on it, which looks a like as if there's someone under it. Curious, I walk over to it and, holding my breath, throw the sheet off. What I see makes me scream, but only for a second.
I see what looks like a rotting corpse, and it looks like as if there are mechanical parts on it. Shaking in fear, I slowly back away to the door. When I'm about to go through it, a steel door slides closed from the top of the doorway, trapping me in this room.
"Help! I'm trapped in here!" I say, pounding on the door.
After I say that, I hear laughter. "Oh, you poor boy. You shouldn't have come down here. Now that you've seen this place. I will kill you and turn you into one of many Cybermen."
I have no idea what in the world what a Cyberman is, but I'm too terrified for my life to think. "Please, let me go! I'm just a kid! I don't want to die! I promise i won't tell anyone about this! I'll do anything, just please let me live!" I plead with tears falling down my face.
After what feels like forever, the man responds. "No. You've seen too much. I can not afford to have someone be free after seeing this. No matter the circumstances." I hear the sound of a button being pushed, and I see a door at the other side of the room open, revealing a human sized robot, which I assume is a Cyberman. It walks into the room and the door it came from closes. The Cyberman looks right at me.
"You will be assimilated!" it says in a monotonous robot voice. It then starts walking towards me. I immediately run back to the bed with the rotting mechanical corpse. The Cyberman follows me there and when it gets close, I start running back to the other side of the room, but I trip on the legs of the bed. I somehow turn and land on my back. When I see the Cyberman walk towards me, I start scooting backwards to the corner opposite the door I came in from. When I look around and see there's no where else to run, I start praying for my life and I start crying, because I know that I'm going to die here.
I hear the Cyberman walking towards me while it's saying "Delete!" over and over again. I open my eyes a tiny bit and see it right in front of me. It bends down and attempts to grab me, but when its arm is a few inches from me, it disappears after its entire body lights up. A few feet in front of me, I see a man who has blonde hair and looks in his early twenties. At least 21.
"Hello," he says in an English accent, which I'm not surprised of, considering I live in England. He comes over to me and holds out his hand. I take it and he pulls me back up. "It's ok. You're safe now. Well, sort of. There's more of them past that door there-" he points to said door "-and if you want to get out of here alive, then I suggest you stay very close to me." He starts walking to the door, but stops. "Oh, before I forget, you can call me Mr. Thomas. What's your name?"
"Uh, Toby," I say.
"Nice to meet you, Toby. Stay close behind me," he says before pulling a strange looking device out of his coat pocket and using it to open the door. He puts the device away and turns to me. "Ready to get out out of here and survive?"
Part 2: Running, and a Lot of It
Before I can say anything, the man starts running. I follow him as the lights in this hallway turn on. We reach a door at the end of the hallway. The man, who told me to call him the Writer, puts his arm out to stop me. He pulls a device, which looks like a futuristic gun, out of his coat. "What is that?" I ask him.
"This, Toby, is a disintegration gun. It basically disintegrates anything you hit, and I'm gonna shoot every single Cyberman I see with it. Now, I would get prepared if I were you," he says while adjusting the gun.
"Prepared for what?" I ask.
"To run." He then kicks the door open and starts running and shooting his gun. I run in after him and see him shooting every Cyberman that's in here. He has a very good accuracy, as he doesn't even miss. When I first saw all the Cybermen in this room, it looked like as if there were at least 50 of them. Now it looks like there's about 15. When we reach the door at the other end of the room, the man turns around and shoots the remaining Cybermen in less than 10 seconds. I can't help but open my mouth in surprise. He turns back to me and sees me looking at him. He puts his hand under my chin and closes my mouth. "Oi, pay attention. We're almost out of this place."
"Where exactly is this place?" I ask him.
He pulls out his strange looking device again, points it at the door and pushes a button, causing the end to light up and make a weird sound. I can't get a very good look at it, but I can tell the end must be green considering that's the color of the light. "Well, we are underground underneath the house with the trap door on the lawn. I was investigating the Cybermen here, and I decided to take action today. When I saw the door open and your bike nearby, I ran down here as fast as I could. Luckily I managed to get to you in time and took care of the Cyberman that almost got you. By the way, how did you get down here in the first place?"
"Well, I was doing my paper route, considering I deliver the newspapers, when I was nearing the end of the route, I saw a metal handle on the ground. I decided to see if it was attached to something, so I pulled at it and the trap door opened. I decided to come down here and explore. Then that Cyberman showed up and I was almost killed," I tell him.
The door opens and Mr. Thomas yet again puts his device away. "You are very lucky that I arrived at the right moment. Now, all we need to do now is just go up this set of stairs and we're home free. You ready?"
I give him a smug smile. "Somehow, I'm having a blast. Let's go."
He smiles back and starts running. I follow him, running as fast as I can, being very careful not to trip on any steps. When we get near the top, Mr. Thomas pulls out his disintegration gun again, adjusts it, and shoots the door, blasting it open instead of disintegrating it. Somehow it managed to stay on its hinges.
The first thing I do when we get outside is close the door. Mr. Thomas pulls his device out and points it at the door and puts it away when the door clicks. "Ok. That's taken care of for now," he says.
"Wait, what? For now? I thought it was taken care of completely," I tell him.
He rubs the back of his neck nervously. "Well, it is, but I'm going to have to come back and finish it for good. In the meantime, I'm gonna have to erase your memory of all this."
"What? Why? I don't want to forget this. I want to learn who you are and what Cybermen are doing here in the first place. I want to learn everything," I say.
He sighs and looks at me. "Fine. I'll tell you everything. Meet me at the park at one o'clock. I'll be near the fountain. For now, just go home and do not tell anyone what happened here. Got it?"
I nod and run to my bike, put my helmet back on, and start pedaling back home. All the while I think on the possibilities of what he's going to tell me.
Part 3: A Walk in the Park
As I'm nearing my house, I see my mom sitting at the porch steps, and I can tell she looks worried. I must've been out longer than I thought. When she looks up and sees me, she immediately starts running over to me. I hop off my bike and let her hug me. It's the least I could do from being out longer than expected.
"Where were you? I was so worried about you," she asks me.
"Mom, I'm fine. I just got distracted when I saw a cat along my route. I couldn't help and pet it," I tell her, trying to calm her.
"Well, you are a cat lover. But how did you get a cut on your cheek?" She points to the cheek she's referring to.
I bring a finger to my cheek and and look at it to see there's slightly dried blood. "Huh, I didn't notice that. I must've gotten it when I fell off my bike when there was a sudden hole. But don't worry, Mom. I'm fine." How in the world am I saying all this without thinking?
"Ok. At least you're ok. Come on, go take a shower and put on some fresh clothes. You'll feel better afterwards," she says while licking her thumb and trying to wipe off the blood off my cheek.
When we're inside, I immediately go to the bathroom to take a shower. After I've taken off my clothes and I'm in the shower, I turn the water on to as hot as I can handle. I sigh in relief as the water hits me since it feels good. After I'm done with my shower roughly 10 minutes later, I step out of the shower and grab my towel. I tie it around my waist and walk back to my room. As soon as I close my bedroom door, I take my towel off and start drying my hair for about a minute. I then look for a change of clothes to wear, which I decide on a red shirt and a pair of light blue jeans. I put them on and dry my hair more before taking my towel back to the bathroom.
When I go to the living room to watch TV, I see my mom in the kitchen, eating a bagel and reading the newspaper, dressed in her business suit, ready for work. She sees me and finishes her bagel. "There you are. Feel better?" she asked.
"Yes, and the outfit I'm wearing seems like a good outfit to wear for a walk in the park," I say, trying to give her a hint.
"Are you trying to tell me something?" she asks in a joking voice, since she knows I like to joke around.
"Maybe. I'm asking that since you're going to work and I'll eventually get bored, that maybe I could go to the park and just walk around."
"Only if you promise not to talk to strangers."
"Really Mom? You should know me by now. You know I'm a very social person."
She grabs her purse and keys and comes over to me, giving me a hug and kiss on top of my head. "I know you are, but I worry for you. I just want you to be careful."
"I know, Mom. I'm always careful."
"Ok. Have fun. I'll see you after work. Bye," she ruffles my hair as she walks away and leaves. I hear the front door open and close, then I hear the car door and close. When I hear the car pull out of the driveway, I go to my room so I can get some sleep before I go to the park. I set my alarm for 12:30 and lay in my bed and quickly fall asleep.
I wake up again at the sound of my alarm going off. I sit up and turn it off. I decide to make a sandwich before I leave for the park. I stand up and stretch, then I go to the kitchen and make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Something simple. I pour myself a glass of water to go with it.
When I finish it about 10 minutes later, I go ahead put my shoes on, then I go and open the front door, close it and lock it with our spare key. Taking a deep breath of fresh air, I start walking to the park.
I arrive with a few minutes to spare. I walk around, trying to look for the fountain, since I rarely come here. I find it and walk to it. The second I touch it, my watch beeps to show it's one o'clock. "So, you came," I hear Mr. Thomas say.
I turn around and see him there. I see he's wearing a different coat than he was was earlier. "Of course I did. What reason would there be for me not to?"
"In case you changed your mind, but obviously you really want to learn everything. C'mon, let's walk and talk," he says. He then starts walking, so I walk next to him.
After a couple minutes of silence, he starts talking again. "Before you ask anything, let me explain everything first. Are you sure you want to learn everything?"
"Of course I am."
"You still want to learn no matter what?"
"Yes!"
"Ok, fine, but you will be very surprised at what you're about to hear." As we near an ice cream stand, he pulls out some money and buys a cone of chocolate ice cream and hands it to me. "Don't say anything until I've finished. Kapish?" I nod and start licking my ice cream.
"Good," he says. "Now, just to get this out of the way: I am an alien." I almost drop my ice cream when he says this. "I am a Time Lord. My home planet is called Gallifrey, and it's located about 250 million light years from here in the constellation of Kasterborous. The Time Lords are very, very advanced in technology compared to Earth at this time period. After I became a Time Lord after graduating from the Time Lord Academy, I became a TARDIS programmer. Now, a TARDIS is a time machine and it can basically go anywhere in the entire universe. A TARDIS programmer basically just designs the interior for every TARDIS. Note, every TARDIS is small on the outside, but when you enter it, you step into another dimension and you see that it is bigger on the inside. I worked as a programmer for about 15 years, but I eventually got bored. Before I quit, I read stories of one of the most famous Time Lords that has ever lived. He's still alive today though. He's called the Doctor. He has lived for a long time, and there are stories of him throughout time and space. Long before I was born, he stole a TARDIS and flew away from Gallifrey and he traveled around the universe, saving civilizations, defeating monsters, and an awful lot of running. Reading about him inspired me to leave Gallifrey and see the wonders of the universe. So I quit my job and I stole my own TARDIS and came here, and I've been living here for about 3 years now. Any questions?"
I was so focused on his story that it takes me a second to realize what he just said. I've also finished my ice cream by the time he finished. "How old are you, and what's your actual name, cause there's no way you can have a normal name as if you've lived on Earth your whole life."
He sighs when I ask my questions. "You're right. I won't say what my original name is, so you can call me the Writer."
"Why that?" I ask him.
"Because my original name is very complicated to pronounce. Also because I chose that name as a renegade name, like how the Doctor chose his. Since I stole a TARDIS and left Gallifrey, the rest of the Time Lords basically think of me as a renegade Time Lord. Also, don't ask me why I chose that name. I just like it."
"And your age? You haven't mentioned that yet."
"Right. I'm 127." If I was drinking something, then I would have just done a spit take.
"You're 127 years old? But you look as if you're at least 21."
"Yeah, Time Lords have an augmented life span. Along with 13 lives. I'm on my first. I don't know about the Doctor though."
"Wow. I just have one last question."
"Yes?" he says, sounding slightly annoyed.
"What about the Cybermen?"
"Oh, right. I forgot about them. Cybermen are basically robots with the human brain in their heads. They have absolutely no emotions whatsoever, and they try to convert more humans to become like them."
"So they kill people, take out their brains, and put them in the Cybermen bodies?"
"Well that depends on who's leading them. In my opinion, at least. The Cybermen that were under the house at the end of your paper route. I don't know who's leading them, or what's going on. I heard small stories from that neighborhood about how even though the house is empty, they say they can hear very faint mechanical footsteps. I listened for myself and realized that they were Cybermen. And like I said earlier this morning, I decided to take action today, and I have to go back and finish it for good."
"Could I help?"
"Are you insane? I got you out of danger, and now you want back in? No, I will not have you risk your life like that. You're like, what, 13?"
"I'm 14, and I don't care what you say about it, I still want to help."
"No, and that's final. If you say anything about it again, I will erase your memory of everything I told you."
I cross my arms. "Fine. What if you traveled across time and space in your TARDIS, and I joined you?"
"You mean be my companion, like how the Doctor always travels with someone?"
"Uh, yeah, I guess you could say that."
"Well, for that, I don't know. I need to think about it for a while. But for now, just go home. Go home and live your life normally. Don't worry about me, I will be fine. You might not even see me ever again, so just forget about me."
"How could I possibly forget everything you just told me? I will never forget you, and I don't want you to erase my memory of it. But, I will respect your request and go home, but I still want to travel around the universe with you."
"And like I said, I will think about it. Now, if you don't mind, I am going to go back to my TARDIS. Good day, and possibly good-bye, Toby Matthews." He turns around and walks away, leaving me there. Sighing, I walk back home.
TO BE CONTINUED