Chapter one

Friends in Time

Burpy Flame felt like he was going down one of those water slides in an aqua park, except without the water and the fact that there seemed to be no end to the falling sensation that the Vortex gave off. Burpy Flame was actually, although he didn't look like it with his tan skin, mad ginger hair, orange T-shirt, orange flared jeans, with red and yellow fire symbols creeping out of the bases of the legs, his pale yellow long coat, with fire symbols along the front and back, in red orange and gold colours, with its hood on the back with yellow markings And makeshift antenna and his red and yellow mask, again with fire symbols in gold, but he was actually not human at all! He used to be a small, orange creature, around 10cm tall, called an Infurnace slug. He was from an underground world called Slugterra, with its many different caverns and slugs, and of coarse, his family, the Shane Gang; Eli, Trixie, Kord, and Pronto. That was all before they had been tricked by an unknown individual who had caused Burpy and his best slug friend, Joules, to be sucked into this black darkness that Burpy called The Vortex. when Burpy had emerged from The Vortex, he had turned into a human and was on the surface. If it wasn't for a few new friends of his called Ladybug and Cat Noir, he wouldn't have survived this long. But now he was back in The Vortex, hoping that it would take him back to Eli and the rest of the gang, and Joules.

It was 5 minutes after he jumped in that he realised that The Vortex had changed a bit, he could see shapes moving around him; there was a metal man with a gun on its wrist! Something that looked like a giant metal salt shaker with a plunger and a rod sticking out of the front! And then, right in front of him was a blue box. It was then that he realised that he was going to hit the box as it was in front of him.

He was flung through the doors of the box and they instantly shut behind him, his coat was covering every part of him so he couldn't see what was going on around him, but he knew that he wasn't in The Vortex any more, he had landed. He then heard a girls voice,

"Well that was an exciting way to continue the day!" Called out the voice. Another voice came from somewhere else in the box,

"What is that thing?" Asked a boys voice "is it dangerous?" but that was impossible, the box was too small to sound so spacious! The girl was speeding again,

"Whatever it is," said the girl "it is ALIVE", the pain suddenly hit Burpy all over his human body, just like when he exited The Vortex last time, although this might be because he had slammed into a hard-wooden door.

"Ohhh! That hurt!" Groaned Burpy as he tried to stand up. It took him a few attempts, but he was soon standing with his hood over his head and his mask at his feet.

Inside this impossible room he was in, there was a central hexagonal structure with loads of leavers, switches and gadgets, and in the centre was a gigantic, orange crystal that was moving up and down in a beat that mirrored a wheezing, groaning noise that was coming from the structure. And standing in front of this structure were four individuals; a tall, black boy wearing a dark blue hoodie. An old, greying man wearing a maroon woolly jacket. A young, Eurasian girl with black hair wearing a short brown jacket and a red T-shirt. And a blond woman who was wearing a white jacket, a black shirt with coloured stripes going along the middle, and blue trousers held up by yellow braces. That woman was pointing a weird silver tube at him, the tube had a small version of the crystal in the centre of the room at the end of it.

"Whoever you are," said the woman with determination in her voice "whatever you have planned, forget it. I am The Doctor and this is my Fam, and they are under my protection!"

Burpy was taken aback, this Doctor seemed to think that he was dangerous, the fire all over his clothing must be what made her think that, "look, Doctor," Burpy started as he pulled back his hood "I am no threat to anyone at all," he then said with a snigger "and I don't think that that thing would do much good for defending yourself, what even is it?" He was pointing at the silver tube.

The Doctor seemed to relax a bit, and lowered the silver tube and said in a calmer voice,

"It's a sonic screwdriver, I built it myself." And she then indicated the three people behind "and this here, is my Fam: Ryan, Graham, And Yas." Burpy said hi to them all and shook hands with each of them, finishing with the Doctor, four new friends to add to the friend list.

"Who even are you?" The Doctor asked, as she took his hand,

"Burpy Flame, at your service." He replied with a bow.

"So why were you following us?" Asked Yas, Burpy had been telling them about his adventures in Paris with Ladybug and Cat Noir, though The Doctor seemed to not believe him (and if you want to hear about those adventures, read the first book in the adventures of Burpy Flame).

"I have no control over The Vortex, it just aimed me at you" Burpy responded, as The Doctor pulled leavers and flicked switches on the central hexagon, "what exactly is this place anyway?"

The Doctor turned her head at this and said in an informative voice

"This is the TARDIS, Time And Relative Dimensions In Space, it is a trans-dimensional, time and space travelling machine, and she is mine." The man, Graham, noticed that Burpy was confused with what The Doctor had just said, so he explained,

"It's a spaceship that is bigger on the inside than the outside and it also travels in time."

"Oh, that makes more sense" Burpy said in realisation, and then said "so what were you four doing in The Vortex? I thought it was always empty."

"The TARDIS travels through the Time Vortex to get to where we need to go" explained Ryan, at that point, Graham scoffed and said in an annoyed voice,

"Yeah, it does have its uses, WHEN IT TAKES YOU TO WHERE YOU WANT IT TO!" Burpy then realised that the way these four were talking about the TARDIS, it was like it was alive, and he guessed that the wheezing groaning noise generated by the TARDIS reinforced that idea, then he felt a bump, and the TARDIS became silent.

"Well, here we are; Earth, 21st century, London," said The Doctor cheerily, "let's see what is happening now,"

"What do you mean Doc?" Asked Graham as The Doctor walked towards the doors, "what about our tea?" But The Doctor was already gone, closely followed by Burpy, Yas and Ryan. "We are never going to have tea are we?" He asked himself as he walked out of the doors.