Disclaimer: I do not own Kim Possible or Doctor Who. Disney owns Kim Possible, and Doctor Who is owned by the BBC.
Here is the eigth chapter! gwencarson126 pointed out to me that Ron hadn't appeared in the last two chapters! Which is real bad of me! I've done my best to give an explanation for this; hope it's at least somewhat humorous! Anyway, enjoy this chapter!
Time Sitch
A Kim Possible/Doctor Who crossover
Chapter 8
Tuesday morning, 23 September 2003
Kim and Ron arrived at Middleton High for another day of school work, as well as facing Bonnie's bossiness and the torment of Mr Barkin, and inevitably some sort of mission in between all that. Both Kim and Ron looked slightly more bleary-eyed than usual, after their clash with Drakken and Shego last midnight.
Rufus looked as happy and awake as usual; probably because of his unusual lack of appearances yesterday. That had been due to a booked appointment with the barbers clashing with the trip to the scientific research centre. (Kim and Ron were still unclear on the reasons why Rufus wanted to go to a barber's shop. Such was the mysteries of a naked mole rat.)
Ron had also specifically told Rufus to stay home and sleep while he had been on the midnight mission. Naked mole rats did need their beauty sleep after all, even if this particular one was part of a popular freelance hero team.
Rufus had to wave his hands in front of Ron's eyes quite a few times to make sure he was still functioning and awake.
"I'm not sure how I'm going to cope today, KP", Ron groaned.
"I know the feeling, Ron", Kim replied. "How were your parents with you being out on the mission last night?"
"They're usually less strict than your parents anyway, Kim. So I wasn't given a hard time. I just received a warning not to moan about being tired in front of them."
"My parents weren't that bad, actually", Kim said. "Yeah, they weren't too happy I had been out after 10pm. But at least I wasn't 'out-out', and was just doing the 'stop-the-baddies' routine." Kim then chuckled; "It was funny the way they spoke about how inconsiderate Dr Drakken and Shego were; about being uncaring to 'Kimmie-cub's' sleeping patterns, and how they had no consideration for my school life."
"Well, as long as the world can have a quiet day with no world-saving issues, that would be great", Ron said, just as they arrived at their lockers.
"Yeah, peace and quiet", Rufus said, lying on Ron's right-hand shoulder, with Ron's neck acting as a cushion for Rufus to put his head on.
As the two teenagers were putting away and taking stuff out from their lockers, Monique came up to them.
"Hey guys", she said. "So, Kim, did you ask those all-important questions to the Doctor?"
"Erm, kind of… sorta…" Kim said.
"We only really got to ask 'who he was', like, just a simple request for an actual name. You know, no big deal", Ron said.
"So you didn't get anything out of him?" Monique inquired.
"Well he made us really sure that he likes to call himself 'The Doctor'…" Kim said.
"What a surprise", said Monique sarcastically. "What a life-changing revelation."
"But if you were hoping for his life story, we found out zilch", Kim said.
"Never mind, Kim", Monique said, placing a hand on Kim's shoulder. "The Doctor's got to give in at some point and reveal more about himself."
"Well, actually, Ron did manage to say something that seemed to touch a nerve in the Doctor's heart", Kim stated.
"If you're going to have a go at me for putting the Doctor in a mopey mood, I didn't mean to, I promise", Ron quickly said.
"Ron, I would have berated you yesterday if that were the case. I think how the Doctor reacted was quite telling", Kim said.
"What did you exactly say, Ron?" Monique asked.
"I suggested that maybe he was holding something back from people", Ron replied. "From his past perhaps, or some other sort of fear."
"And then the Doctor's expression changed while Ron was talking", Kim added. "In the end, he looked quite… sad. But as if with fire still burning from past wounds."
"How poetic", said Monique to Kim jokingly.
"This isn't any joking matter, Monique", said Ron. "We don't know what the Doctor has been through."
"Uh huh, no joke", Rufus agreed with Ron.
"This man does sound more mysterious by the minute", Monique said.
"We have got to find out who the Doctor really is", Kim declared.
"And possibly help him?" Ron suggested.
"Yeah… perhaps", Kim said. "First, we've got to concentrate on finding out what Drakken and Shego are up to…"
"But not before you go to your first class", said a booming voice from behind. Kim, Ron, Monique, and Rufus turned around to face Mr Barkin, who was just a few feet away from them.
"Oh, hey Mr Barkin", said Kim slightly nervously, even though they had done nothing wrong. "What's up?"
"It'll be my patience if you don't get moving to your classes in the next 10 seconds", stated Barkin irritably.
"Of course, Mr Barkin", Ron began saying. "Anything for the top dog… Mr B… Big B… whatever suits you", Ron eventually muffled away.
"GET GOING, STOPPABLE", Barkin shouted. And with that, Rufus hid in one of Ron's pockets, while Ron himself quickly sprinted away to catch up with Kim and Monique.
Lunch period, Middleton Institute of Science & Technologies
The Doctor had been walking for the past 15 minutes. It was lunch break at Middleton High, so the Doctor had decided this was a good opportunity to do his investigating at the local university.
Although it was more than just a 'local university'. This was - for science - at the top of its league. Up there with Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, etc.
The Doctor had been busy throughout the morning teaching his history classes; including the class Kim and Ron were in. Both Kim and Monique were pretty bright girls. Ron, although not naturally smart, had really taken on board every bit of information the Doctor had thrown out there. The Doctor had managed to make him interested in the subject, it seemed.
It was just a shame some people weren't as willing to listen in his classes. When he said 'some', he meant one student. Bonnie Rockwaller. She cared only for herself and her own popularity. She could learn a thing or two from facing monsters that the Doctor faced regularly. She was certainly nowhere near the personality level of any of his past companions.
While in his thoughts, the Doctor arrived at the Middleton Institute of Science & Technologies. Also known as M.I.S.T. according to the locals. "These humans and their acronyms", the Doctor had said to himself, failing to recognise that 'TARDIS' was itself an acronym for 'Time And Relative Dimension In Space'.
Even after 12 hours since the break-in had taken place, there were still a fair number of cops and police cars dotted around the premises. The Doctor knew he wouldn't' be able to just waltz in without being questioned. Only authorised personnel would be allowed here at the moment. Everyone else - staff and students of M.I.S.T. included - were told that the university site was off limits.
The Doctor had one handy trick up his sleeve. A trick he had already used on Kim and Ron, as well as Mr Barkin in the interview for the substitute history teacher's job.
He took hold of his psychic paper, which was in his right hand Duster-type coat pocket, before beginning to walk towards the university buildings.
As he entered the premises with only a few steps in, a police officer suddenly noticed the Doctor and quickly strode over to him.
'Yep, knew I was going to be stopped quite swiftly', the Doctor thought to himself. 'Humans can have real knee-jerk reactions sometimes.'
The Doctor smiled in the cop's direction, and greeted, "Good day, officer. What seems to be the problem?"
"I'm sorry, sir", the police officer said. "Only people in the police force allowed on these premises."
"Well today's your lucky day", said the Doctor. He held up his psychic paper wallet. To the police officer, it looked like official ID that belonged to 'Detective John Smith', with a photo of the Doctor's face on it.
"But we've already had three or four detectives at the crime scene?" the officer said in a questioning tone.
"Can't harm to have another expert's thoughts", said the Doctor.
The officer shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever. Over there", he said pointing at a glass-covered building, "is where the break-in happened. That's where you'll want to be."
"Thank you", said the Doctor. "What's your name?"
"Officer Hobbles."
The Doctor smiled and shook the cop's hand. "Good to meet you, Officer Hobbles. And thanks again." The Doctor then walked off in the direction of the building he had just been told to go to.
There were many large, tall buildings spread across the grounds of M.I.S.T. This was one of the best universities to study any science subject, so naturally the place was going to be quite expansive. But it did feel a little empty to the Doctor. He imagined there would usually be lots of people bustling around to get to their lectures, going for food, walking to the library, etc.
As the Doctor got closer to the particular building the officer had shown him, he noticed a sign above the entrance which said, 'Study of Mechanics and Technology'. The Doctor entered the building through the revolving-doors.
There were some cops also in this building. One of them was about to ask the Doctor who he was, but he quickly held up his psychic paper, which showed the same details he had shown to Officer Hobbles. This time, the Doctor didn't start talking and carried on walking by, while the cop didn't get the chance to question him.
The Doctor noticed what looked like a couple of scientists standing in the middle of the wide corridor. Must have been part of senior management, as most of the staff that were working for the university weren't around. So maybe their 'boss' was around somewhere as well.
He walked up to them, and greeted himself using his current persona. "Hi, Detective John Smith", the Doctor said holding up his psychic paper wallet again. "I was wondering if I could speak to the top dog of this place."
"The Principal?" asked a male scientist wearing glasses.
"He's very rarely around at M.I.S.T in general, never mind at this particular building", said the other scientist, a lady with tied-back ginger hair.
"Well, perhaps not someone that high-up", the Doctor said. "But say the head of your faculty? You guys look like you work in this building."
"Aha, we do", said the male scientist. "If you go up three floors", he continued, indicating the stairs nearby, "and then turn right, in one of the laboratories you should find Doctor Chen, the man you'll want to speak to."
"Thank you", said the Doctor, and he began walking towards the stairs.
He took the stairs two steps at a time, and quickly arrived at the third floor. He turned right, as he had been told to by the male scientist, and walked down the corridor. There were a number of rooms spread evenly along both sides, but eventually the Doctor found a lone scientist in one of the laboratories.
The Doctor could already see this scientist before he had entered the room. There was a huge glass panel running parallel with the width of the laboratory, where a wall would have otherwise been. The scientist - who the Doctor presumed was Doctor Chen - seemed to be of Chinese nationality; wore glasses; had hair that was starting to show signs of greying; and the Doctor guessed that the scientist was probably somewhere between his late-40s and early-50s.
The Doctor walked into the laboratory, and spoke towards the scientist. "May I presume you're Doctor Chen?" the Doctor inquired.
The scientist looked up from the computer he had been working from. He clearly seemed to have been taken by surprise from this unexpected visitor. "Well, yes", he said. "But I wasn't expecting any more police officers to come questioning me…"
"Ah, I'm a detective, not an officer", said the Doctor, holding up his psychic paper for the fourth time. "Detective John Smith."
"Oh, well this is different", Doctor Chen said. "I'm not sure what more you'll be able to get out of me. Most of the detectives have been working on the criminals' break-in entrance, and checking every room in this building. It's been the officers that have done the questioning to me and my colleagues."
"Well, peace of mind I suppose", said the Doctor passingly. "And I'm pretty good with finding out information most people probably couldn't get out from the President."
Before Doctor Chen could ask if he had ever worked on a case that was linked to the President, the Doctor continued to talk.
"Now, there is a possibility - and I don't know if the police force have thought of this yet - that perhaps Drakken and Shego didn't find what they wanted to steal. Not saying that's the definite reason, but in my line of work", (the Doctor referring more to his adventures as a time traveller rather than his detective persona), "it seems to be a tradition of some sorts. I perhaps would have expected them to make a bit more mess."
"Right…" Doctor Chen said quizzingly, wandering where the Doctor was going with this.
"Basically, has this faculty had anything super majorly important very recently?" the Doctor asked. "Say, within the last couple of weeks or so?"
Doctor Chen took a moment to process the question, and then replied, "I'm sorry, what do you mean?"
"Oh come on, Doctor Chen!" the Doctor exclaimed. "You can't hide the fact that this university has looked after some serious projects and important government property in the past. It's out there; the world hasn't been such a private place since the internet became open to the public."
Doctor Chen took a deep breath, before responding. "Yes, you are correct, Detective Smith. But we have to treat the in-depth details with the upmost secrecy. Most of the staff here don't know what we exactly hold. Only me and a couple of other senior scientists ever know at one point what we precisely have to look after. And this information is only revealed to the public after a time period of twenty years."
"It's in the 'contract', I'm guessing?" the Doctor presumed.
"You could say so", Doctor Chen answered.
"I guess that's fair enough", said the Doctor. He paused for a moment, before continuing. "Say, would it be ok if I borrowed your computer for two minutes?"
Doctor Chen looked towards his computer, and then turned back to the Doctor with a hint of suspicion on his face. "You're not going to try to hack it, are you?"
"Noooo, why would you think a detective would be able to do that?" the Doctor asked, playing up the 'innocent' character.
"Can't be too sure these days", Doctor Chen said. "We have whizz kids who are now able to hack through security cameras within seconds. I know Team Possible's techno guru did that once. But our firewalls are one of the strongest - possibly the strongest - in the United States", he stated as he patted the computer's system unit.
"Impressive", said the Doctor. "But no, I just wanted to have a look at the layout of this building, just to get a better idea of where to look, and see if anything connects… you know, detective stuff…"
"Of course!" said Doctor Chen. "Go ahead. Do you want a cup of coffee in the meantime? I would imagine all this investigating has been tiring for you."
"Unfortunately, coffee's not really my thing", the Doctor said. "Do you have tea?"
"We certainly do", Doctor Chen said. "And through guessing that you're British, I think we're well prepared with the type of tea you should like."
"Brilliant", said the Doctor with a genuine smile on his face. "You guys are very well prepared!"
"Well we do have scientists and tutors from all over the world working here. Got to keep everyone happy", said Doctor Chen. He then exited the laboratory.
The Doctor was now standing in front of Doctor Chen's computer. He had indeed been working on important stuff. He probably forgot that it was some forms for the police department in Middleton, but Doctor Chen thought the Doctor was working for them anyway. And the Doctor didn't care about the report the scientist was writing for them anyway.
The Doctor took out the sonic screwdriver from the inside of his brown inner-jacket, and tweaked a few settings before pointing it at the computer. It took a few seconds to access the staff area of the university servers, with the Doctor specifically gaining control to Doctor Chen's work-based email account.
The Doctor started scrolling through the inbox from the past month, to see if anything note-worthy appeared. One email caught the Doctor's eye, which had been received over two weeks ago. It was simply titled, 'Omega'. The Doctor clicked on the email to have a proper look at the message.
To the human eye, it looked like a fairly formal email asking for a piece of equipment to be returned to the California Institute of Advancement.
There was one problem with it. Actually, there was technically two.
Firstly, there was no such thing as the 'California Institute of Advancement'. The Doctor had even double-checked on the internet, in case there was such an institute on this earth in this reality. Which it confirmed there wasn't.
Secondly, the email was sent by someone called 'Bob' to Doctor Chen. But there was no email address attached to the name 'Bob'. Not even when the Doctor had clicked on 'view full details' for the email.
Both of these factors gave the Doctor enough reason to pursue this particular email message. The Doctor prepared the settings again on his sonic screwdriver. In particular to search for webpages with the use of the word 'Omega'. If the Doctor's suspicions were right, hacking into certain servers and databases could be trickier this time round. But not impossible; it just depended on how slow the sonic screwdriver decided to do its work.
The Doctor once more pointed his sonic screwdriver at the computer. And then it all started.
Suddenly, a black-background with white writing appeared. The words were, 'Intercepting unknown IP address. Commencing shut-down to access'.
"Oh no you don't", said the Doctor through gritted teeth. He amplified the power from the sonic screwdriver to combat the firewall that was clearly in place to stop computer gurus from hacking whatever server it was.
The Doctor managed to override the automatic defence buffer, before he caught his breath in surprise. He had managed to hack into the top-secret CIA database.
Not only CIA related stuff, but also managing to access the USA government's servers, NASA, FBI, and other 'major' organisations that even the Doctor had never heard of. One in particular was a top secret worldwide espionage organisation called 'Global Justice'. As a side note, the Doctor decided to keep that name in the back of his mind. He would look into them when he had the chance.
For another tense 10 seconds, records and documents continued to flash quickly before the Doctor's eyes. But not before it stopped on one particular file.
It came from the USA government's secret servers themselves. The Doctor began to take a proper look at this particular record.
The file entry itself didn't reveal much about 'Project Omega 2003'. It just described about how it had strange force factors, and a presence of some kind of nuclear power combined with other energy sources.
But then the Doctor saw the photos taken of this object.
And he was very scared.
"It can't be…" he started saying.
But there it was. A metal coffin-sized box.
And not just any metal box. It was a particular design, sporting a dull, bronze colour.
It was the same design as the Doctor had seen it at one time. In a past life.
It was the Hand of Omega.
And out of all places, it was now under control of Area 51.
"No, no, no", the Doctor repeatedly said, as he closed all the web pages he had visited, and then ran to the exit of the laboratory.
Doctor Chen had just arrived back with the cup of tea he had offered to the Doctor. They almost bumped into each other at the doorway.
"Sorry, Doctor Chen", the Doctor quickly apologised, wanting to leave the building quickly.
"Don't you want your tea?" the scientist asked.
"Sorry, just discovered something big. Real big. Possibly game changing", the Doctor said. "But thanks for the tea", the Doctor shouted over, as he sprinted for the stairs.
As the Doctor disappeared from eye sight, Doctor Chen shrugged to himself. He needed some caffeine anyway. It was tiring for him being asked loads of questions by police officers. Still, a detective's life must be very busy, and it seemed no exception to 'Detective John Smith'…