The Bad Wolf

Chapter 2

John and Harry awoke at the same moment, with similar raging headaches. The Spartan quickly began to analyze his surroundings; he appeared to be in a large circular room with a pillar in the center, a sort of pulsating light seeming to flow through it. Computers were everywhere. John suddenly noticed coldness, and realized his armor had been removed. He felt vulnerable, but knew it was unfounded, as he was still imposing enough outside of his armor. John looked to his left, still feeling woozy, but sensing another presence at his side. There was a boy, of around seventeen or eighteen by his looks, lying on the floor next to him. He was wearing robes of a sort John learned with Deja back in Spartan training. Ancient. What was this boy, some sort of throwback? The boy seemed to notice John's stare, as he said: "Oi, what you lookin' at? Who are you? Where are we? Why aren't I dead?!"

"I'm asking myself the same things, kid. What year were you born in, wearing that get-up?" John felt the urge to laugh for the first time in recent memory, but quelled it with his infinitely refined mentality.

"Ah, you're awake!" Said a tall, skinny man with awesome hair, as he stepped around the pillar of light to stand in front of the wizard and Spartan. "There's a grim task at hand, friends. Grim indeed. Say, what are your names? Where did you come from?"

"I'm Harry, and last I knew, I was saving my friends back at Hogwarts!" The boy seemed very disturbed; his eyes darting around the circular room as if he'd never seen a computer before. Judging from the era of his clothing, the Doctor surmised that he probably had not.

"I am John, designate 117 of the Spartan II program. Master Chief Petty Officer. You can call me the Chief. Where are we, and how did you save me? I just fell a thousand feet."

"Hold on, one at a time, men. I know little more than you. For starters, my name is the Doctor. Just the Doctor. What you are in, fellows, is called the TARDIS, otherwise known as my baby," the Doctor said, stroking the glass encasing the pulsating light that served as the centerpiece of this "TARDIS." "She's alive."

The two unknowing time-travelers were growing increasingly unnerved by the quirky man. "Cut to it, Doctor, why'd you pluck us up?" Asked Harry Potter.

"Well, I don't know, myself. The TARDIS picked up your worlds, and took us to you. We were meant to save you two, we just don't know…why…except that some all-encompassing evil has started its spread. You both were going to die had we not come to your rescue, weren't you?" The two nodded. "Yes, well, a man did die so you could be saved." The Doctor indicated a body neither John nor Harry had noticed, lying on the other side of the room. It looked exactly like the Doctor. "My clone. Died bringing her back to me…. But that's a story for next time. The point is, he gave his life into the TARDIS so it could locate you. Why he did this, it seems we will all know when it happens."
"You say 'we,' who is this other person?" This from John.

"Behind me. Her name is Rose Tyler. She does not wish to see anyone, right now, and I do not blame her. It will all be explained in time. Right now, you need to prepare; we do not know what awaits us when we venture out of the TARDIS. You," he said, indicating John, "your armor is in the cabinet over to your right. Fascinating, if I do say so myself. So primitive, yet effective beyond belief. I shall have to figure a way to duplicate it…suit up boys, we're going out."

Standing up, John walked awkwardly to the cabinet containing his MARK IV MJOLNIR armor. Finding no way to open the container, John simply punched it. That served to be a good enough key, as the locker dented in on itself and swung open, drawing a stunned look from the Doctor.

"I don't believe it?! You must be an experiment, Spartan! I should have remembered! That program instituted by the UNSC in the human-covenant war in the third reincarnation of the Milky Way Galaxy! But this is amazing, you're an original! Oh, this is going to make my job so much easier." The Doctor looked thrilled, but John felt just the opposite. He wondered how this man knew of him, the program that created him. He would find out, he concluded, when the time was right. John commenced putting his armor on piece by piece, the process taking around half an hour.

By this time, both Harry and John had noticed an odd, sobbing noise coming from the location indicated by the Doctor to be this "Rose Tyler." Neither of them pursued the matter, as it was not poignant to the situation at hand. "And how are you going to be of any help, boy, you don't even look twenty yet!" The Doctor had begun to examine Harry.

Harry whipped out a wooden stick from within the folds of his robes. He pointed it at the Doctor and whispered the words, "levicorpus." The Doctor seemed to levitate, pulled into the air by nothing; he was floating by his ankle. Rather than be frightened, the Doctor was exhilarated. "Oh jolly good! You can do magic! We'll need to get you some regular clothes, though; you can't go out looking like you're at a medieval fair!"

Harry was flabbergasted; "What's that—"

"Never mind, take this." The Doctor threw Harry a sphere. As soon as it came into contact with Harry's hand, his robes turned into a t shirt and jeans! Muggle clothing!

"Incredible! I don't even know the spell to do this!"

"Now, John, there is the matter of exiting into unknown territory with an eight foot tall armored being. You will have to stay. Guard Rose. Do not let anything happen to her, or you will wish you had died back on that rock," said the Doctor, suddenly deadly serious. "Let's go, Harry." The two exited through a wooden door, leaving John and Rose alone.

Outside, the Doctor found that they had landed on a planet he'd never been to. It had a strange resemblance to 21st century America, but something was different, so starkly different. The Doctor looked about, and realized the TARDIS had come down in the alleyway of a city. Walking into the main streets with Harry in tow, the Doctor looked up. All over were billboards, advertisements; the noise was deafening with what must have been thousands of people swarming the streets. "There must be a riot going on..." The Doctor said to himself. The mob was chanting something, something he could just make out. "Bad…Wolf…" The Doctor understood immediately. "Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no. Back to the TARDIS, Harry!" The situation had just gotten a whole lot more grim.