A/N: So... Our five heroes/heroines have met. But what happens next? Read on, my friend, read on...

Disclaimer: I don't own it. All I own is the plot and the planet name, although since the planet name was my nan's suggestion, I guess I don't own that either. :(

Chapter two

"Doctor, explain this to me again?" Howard said. "Who are you?"

"I'm a time lord. I own a blue box which takes me places, but she's broken, and I need a hand, several hands in fact, to get her going again. Are you willing?" They stood in the shop, the doctor leaning on the wall, Amy and Rory hovering in the doorway, Vince sitting on the counter swinging his legs, and Howard standing next to him. He stood closer than usual, wary of the strangers and their tales.

"Ah, come on Howard." Vince said with a grin. "That'll be great. We'd be brilliant at fixing blue time travelling boxes."

"How do you know? You haven't fixed anything in your life." Vince's face dropped.

"Oh yeah." He perked up suddenly, and said: "First time for everything though, right?" Howard rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Yeah. There is." He paused for a moment, eyeing the ever-patient doctor. Then he relented. "Fine. We'll come and help you."

"That's great!" the doctor clasped his hands together and smiled. "Shall we go?"

"Hang on!" said Vince. "I still ain't got my boots on!" Howard face-palmed, before shoving Vince up the stairs to get his boots. When he had put them on, they went out, Howard locked up, and they walked towards the Tardis, standing on the corner.

"Bloody hell…" Vince stood in the Tardis, looking around in awe. His eyes were wide as saucers. "It's bigger on the inside!" he gasped. The doctor grinned.

"Yes it is. However, that isn't helpful when trying to travel. So we had better get down to things." He threw the spanner Howard had lent him up in the air and caught it. Speaking of Howard, he was standing just inside the doorway, just as speechless as Vince. Amy laughed at the look on his face, and waved a hand in front of his eyes. Howard jumped back to reality and said:

"Oh. Sorry. This is… just amazing."

"I know. You should have seen Rory the first time he came in here. He was just the same."

"Rory your… husband?"

"Yeah. He's not the new boy anymore, at least."

"No. but we aren't planning on staying so… he will be soon. Sorry." He called to Rory, who was holding up a section of wires for the doctor so he could climb underneath to a small brown box full of fuses.

"Fuses, doctor?" Rory said. "In a Tardis?"

"Yeah? So what?"

"Nothing. Just… seemed too ordinary for you."

"I didn't design her. She works her own way."

"She?" Vince asked.

"Yeah. She turned into a woman once. A very attractive woman, might I add."

"Cool." He grinned. Howard rolled his eyes. Vince's obsession with women wore thin after a while. Not that he'd ever really been as successful with them as he liked to claim. He'd had a few long term girlfriends, but they'd all been cruel enough to Howard to make Vince dump them. Howard was pleased that Vince valued him more than them, but it always saddened him to see him moping around the flat for the week after it had happened. He was jerked out of his reverie by a loud bang as the doctor severed all of the fuses at once. There were a few sparks, and a loud humming started up.

"Ah ha! Yes! This is good." The doctor stood up, rubbing his hands together in glee.

"What are you doing?" Vince asked. The doctor turned to him and gabbled:

"Manual override system. If I can get the panel off where all the older controls are, I can probably get her going, but this is what I needed your help for, because I think it'll take at least four people to get the panel off, it's about the same size as your shop." He looked at Vince for a second, and then leapt over the railings to the lower floor of the main deck. Vince shook his head, and said:

"No. I didn't understand that at all." He followed the doctor down, taking the more sensible route of the stairs. The doctor pointed to a huge square panel near the corner and replied:

"Just take hold of that corner, and I'll show you." Vince did as he was told, and the doctor called the others down. They all took a corner, Amy and Rory climbing stepladders to reach the top, apart from the doctor, who positioned himself at a small latch near the bottom.

"Right," he said, "When I sonic this, you'll have ten seconds to get it open, otherwise there's a distinct possibility it will explode in our faces. The system's very secure."

"Oh. Good to know you're willing to kill us for the Tardis, doctor." Rory complained.

"Yep." The doctor replied cheerily. "Right. Three… two… one… Now!" the sound of a sonic screwdriver filled the air and all four pulled with all their strength. For a moment, it stuck, metal grinding against metal. But it suddenly came free, and they darted out of the way as it slowly fell, ending its downward journey with a loud, low, clang.

"Fab. Thanks a lot. You can stay for a bit, if you want. Go and explore. Just don't get lost." Vince and Howard looked at one another as the doctor studied the rusty old levers carefully.

"Just how big is this place?" Howard asked cautiously.

"As big as you want it to be." The doctor's eyes lit up in a smile. Vince grinned at Howard, and said:

"We are so going to look around. C'mon Howard."

"What if we do get lost?"

"We won't Howard. Stop worrying. Please?" He pulled a pleading face, and Howard couldn't resist the puppy-dog eyes.

"Oh, fine. Come on. But if we get lost, I'll hold you personally responsible."

"Fair enough." He set off up the stairs, Howard close behind him. They found a doorway almost immediately, and went through it. It led to a bright corridor with doors every few metres. Vince peered into them all, pulling a face and closing them soon afterwards. All except the last one. He opened the door with a flourish, then gasped. He stood motionless in the doorway.

"Vince?" Howard said. "Little man? What's up?"

"Just come in here." Vince whispered. Howard did so, and also found himself speechless. There wasn't much 'in' about it. It was a balcony, made of white marble with ornate balustrades. And the view… the view was close to indescribable. It was beautiful. It was London, clearly, but as they'd never seen it before. It was clean, pure, and they were higher up than they'd ever been before, higher than any building. Vince was the first to regain his composure, and he crossed to the railing, leaning over to look into the distance, a smile on his face. Howard joined him a few seconds later, and whispered:

"Be careful. Don't fall."

"I don't think I can." Vince replied. "We're still in the Tardis, ain't we?"

"Yeah. Probably." He put his hand on the railing, trying not to show how much he was shaking. But Vince saw. He put his hand on Howard's. He was shocked for a second, but merely looked at Vince. Vince said:

"You're scared of heights, aren't you?" Howard merely nodded. "Alright. Let's get out of here." He let go of the railing and led Howard out of the room. But beyond the door was only darkness. Vince grabbed Howard's hand again immediately.

"What's wrong, little man?" Howard asked.

"I'm scared of the dark." Vince whispered.

"Okay."

"Howard?"

"Yeah?"

"Where do we go?"

"I don't know. Back the way we came, I guess."

"Yeah. Can we go? Now?"

"Yeah." However, it wasn't that simple. With the darkness, which they assumed was a power cut, they didn't know which way to go. They set off in a random direction, and hoped for the best. But after half an hour, they accepted that they were totally, hopelessly lost. By now they had entered a large room devoid of anything but an odd, dim orange glow, like the broken streetlight across the road from Nabootique. Vince let go of Howard and sat down on the floor with his back against the wall.

"I don't like it here." He muttered.

"Me neither." Howard sat down to him. "But it's gonna be okay. We're gonna get back. The doctor'll realise we're gone. Anyway, it's only been half an hour."

"It feels like years."

"Come on, Vince." Howard put his hand on the smaller man's shoulder. "You're the sunshine kid. You're always happy. Smile." Vince tried, but it faded fast.

"I can't." he whispered.

"It's alright. Come on, we're gonna keep going. We'll find our way."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah." Howard lied. "We'll be great. Let's go." He got up and helped Vince up too. They carried on, trying to find the main room of the Tardis, looking for the way home.

It was two hours later when Vince and Howard finally emerged from the labyrinth of corridors, still holding hands. The doctor turned to them in surprise.

"Oh. Hello. I thought you two had finished and gone home."

"Well, no. We got lost in your spaceship." Howard said.

"Time machine." The doctor corrected. "But I apologise. She likes to rearrange herself a bit."

"We went in a room, and when we came out, it was dark." Vince said.

"Same thing happened to us when we first came here." Amy piped up, noting that they were still holding hands, even though they were now safe. Vince followed the direction she was looking, then quickly snatched his hand away, clearing his throat embarrassedly. Howard looked away into the middle distance, blood rising to his face. There was a long and awkward silence, until Vince finally said:

"So, can we go home now?"

"Ah." The doctor looked around the Tardis. "Well, that could be an issue."

"Why's that, sir?" Howard asked.

"Not sir, if you please."

"Sorry."

"It's an issue because… we aren't exactly in London anymore."

"Where are we then?" Vince asked.

"Well… I think we're fairly close to the Andromeda Galaxy."

"What?" Howard looked astounded.

"Where's that?" Vince asked innocently.

"Millions of light-years away!" Howard said. "You left Camden behind?"

"Yes. I told you, I thought you'd already gone."

"Well, now we're stuck with you!"

"Yep. It's alright, I'm not too annoying, although with those two-" He pointed at Amy and Rory "-You can take your chances." Rory frowned and Amy rolled her eyes, but said nothing. They were used to the doctor's teasing.

"Hang on, hang on." Vince said, just catching up. "Howard? He's got a time machine that can take you anywhere, and you're worried about going home?"

"Yes! We have a shop to run, sir!"

"I don't care."

"You should care, Naboo entrusted us to care for it."

"Stuff Naboo. Doctor?"

"Yes?" The doctor was hovering over the control panel, about to put in coordinates.

"Can you take us to a different planet?"

"If that's what you want."

"Yeah, that'd be genius!"

"Alright." He typed in some coordinates, and they Tardis began to rock and sway. "Always nice to have new assistants." He said.

"Assistants?" Vince asked.

"Yes. I always have assistants. What do you think Amy and Rory are?"

"I'm no one's assistants. I have to stand out, be on my own. Apart from Howard, obviously."

"Well, your choice. But you're my assistant in my head."

"Doctor, where are we actually going?" Howard asked.

"You'll see. It'll only be a few minutes, and I'll show you." He was right. They landed on solid ground after precisely three and a half minutes.

"Is this it?" Vince asked, his eyes lit up with glee and excitement.

"It certainly is." The doctor flung open the doors of the Tardis and turned to them. "Welcome to the planet of Tribula!"

Oh, no! It's the cybermen this time! Dear me, these creatures are annoying. But if you review, they may go away?