Before the Crisis: Anthology

by Soron66

Each episode is focused on a single universe. each episode tells a story unimportant for the main stories, or about a universe intended to make an appearance in Crisis on Infinite Earths. consider it to essentially be my version of Marvel's What if...? series but not restricted to a single franchise per universe.

2. Episode 2: Earth-1

The 9th Doctor
and the
Invasion of the Puppet People

A blue box was spinning out of control over the planet Earth, and very soon the box was pulled in by the planet's gravity and fell to the surface below. This box wasn't a normal police box however. This box was bigger on the inside and had glowing panels on the walls, coral pillars, and in the middle of it all was a tall, cylindrical pillar connected to a control console of some kind comprised of switches, knobs, and other random items that would make no sense to a normal human. Some people would call it a time machine. Its pilot called it the TARDIS.

Speaking of the pilot, he was currently resting at the control console and he was glowing a golden light. This was no ordinary human. In fact, he was a Time Lord. He was currently regenerating from an older incarnation that looked like John Hurt, which held a silver cylindrical device with a red bulb, into a new incarnation that looked like Christopher Eccleston. As soon as the process had completed he looked around and noticed on the monitor that he was crashing to Earth. So, as quickly as he could, he slowed the TARDIS's descent so it wouldn't accidentally smash through the planet with the inertia combined with the box's true mass and weight.

Several days later, on Earth…

On the outskirts of a rather ordinary town, there stood a cinder block warehouse. For the majority of the populace of the town, it was nothing much. In its heyday, the building was a store for selling used trinkets and other various doodads. However, more than 15 years ago, the business went belly-up, and ever since, the building had remained vacant. At least, that's what everyone thought. In reality, this warehouse was the base of two of the planet's greatest protectors.

The main room of the building itself was mundane, but serviceable; there was a door that lead outside on one wall, a small fridge in the corner of the room, which contained several drinks and snacks, next to that was a filing cabinet, and scattered around the room were various pieces of junk, paper, boxes, etc. However, right now, there were two things about this room that stood out the most. The first was that on one end of the room, right next to a door which led to other parts of the warehouse, there was a large, pristine computer console with a chair in front of it. At the moment, it was turned off, but the glow that came from the silver that made it up was mystifying, and the console's keyboard was large, containing not just the basic keys, but several other buttons and switches.

The other thing that stood out was a wooden table on the side of the room with two swivel chairs pulled up to it. Normally, this wouldn't stick out, but right now, what would catch your attention was that there was a blond-haired boy sitting at it. This youth's name was Peter Ravenwood. By all outward appearances, he seemed like your average, normal 17-year old; his hair was a little messy, but otherwise fine, his attire consisted of a grey t-shirt, a comfortable pair of jeans, whose original color had long since faded, brown hand-me-down boots.

At the moment, Peter was finishing up a house of cards that he had been building, and all that he had left to do was put down one final card, holding his breath so as not to knock it down.

"Steady… Steady…" Peter whispered to himself as he lowered the card onto the structure. "Just… One more…"

But, just before Peter could place the card down, the front door of the warehouse was slammed open, shaking the room and subsequently destroying Peter's house of cards. "Bloody hell…."

All Peter could do was look at first in horror and then denial,at the pile of cards in front of him, before he released a disappointed sigh, throwing the final card away before looking over to the front door to see who had entered. It was another boy; this one looking to be 19.

"'Sup?" Allan said as he entered the room.

"Nothing much," Peter said glaring once more at the table with cards strewn across its surface before facing Allan."Was just making a house of cards."

"Really?" Allan said as he closed the front door. "Didja finish this time?"

"So bloody close," Peter mumbled as he looked down to the pile of cards on the table. Allan didn't seem to hear this, however, as he walked past Peter and took a seat in front of the large computer console.

"So, what took you so long?" Peter asked, looking over to his boss who was more than slightly distracted by the console in front of him.

"What else? I ran into a bit of trouble on the way," Allan said as he hit a few keys on the terminal, activating the computer which roared to life underneath his fingers. "Some moron thought he could hijack a car in broad daylight."

"Did you get him?" Peter asked.

"No, I just let him walk away," Allan said, sarcastically, as the computer hummed to life. "Of course, I got him! Blasted him so hard he was left in nothing but his whitey tighties. You should have seen his face. It was priceless!"

"I see," Peter said, scratching his chin. "But you could manage that in your sleep so what's the real reason it took you so long?"

"Hmm? Oh right!" Allan said, slipping off his backpack and unzipping a pocket on his bag. "I also stopped for snacks."

Allan then reached into the bag and pulled out a bag of Doritos, which he quickly threw to Peter.

"Oh, thanks Allan," Peter said, opening the bag.

"It was nothing, Peter," Allan said as he pulled out a bottle of pop. "I just needed my Mountain Dew fix, and I figured, 'Why not?'"

"Oh," Peter said, taking out a chip. "Well, still, thanks anyway."

"So, any calls come through?" Allan asked as he opened his bottle.

"*monch* Not really," Peter said as he chewed down on his chip, relishing in the flavor.

"Any alerts from the local authorities about the general weirdness?" Allan asked as he took a swig of his soda.

"Nope," Peter responded, his lips making a popping sound at the end.

"Any supervillain attacks? New villains looking to take over not just the world but the universe?" Allan asked as he finished his swig. "Random destruction caused by rampaging chimeras?"

"Luckily not, the fates must be shining on us today," Peter said, rummaging through his bag for another chip. The smart comment brought a small smile to Allan's face.

"Huh," Allan said plainly. "Slow morning then, wonders never cease."

"Well, if you give it enough time, something will turn up," Peter said, pulling out another chip. Allan's response to this was a panicked look followed by an angry glare which his friend happily ignored.

"Peter, don't even joke about that," Allan said bitterly.

"Aw *munch munch* c'mon Omni," Peter said, chomping down on his chip, "What's the worst *chomp chomp* that could happen?"

Allan just rolled his eyes and looked back to his computer and took another swig of his Mountain Dew.

Later…

Allan and Peter had elected to go get something to eat. They were really tired of canned food, which is all they have at their little base. Unfortunately, on the way there, they attracted the attention of not so friendly people. They weren't actually people, perse, but some sort of puppet monsters. Like a cross of muppets and Farscape puppets. Both cartoon-ish and gruesome. The puppet creatures grabbed them and soon they were pulled into an alleyway.

Peter and Allan both audibly groaned at the sight, the main reason being not because of the monsters' appearances. Rather being that the monsters had interrupted their future meal.

"Every. Bloody. Time," Peter said and Allan nodded in agreement. Both of them had grown tired of canned food, which was really only meant to get rid of one's hunger and not because they enjoyed it.

"Kill," said one of the puppet creatures. Pretty much immediately, the others repeated it.

"We needs your blood, humanses," the first puppet creature continued. "So, lets us kills you. It'll be overs in under a…"

The puppet creature scratched its head as it tried to think of the right word. Apparently, these puppet creatures know as much about time as they do grammar. Absolutely zilch.

Allan took the opportunity which the puppet creature had so generously given him. Knowing that Peter would need a moment he struck out, using his leg to swipe at the closest monster's legs, taking him down and in the next moment using the shoulders of the monster to launch at the next to give Peter the opening he needed. The expression on Peter's face clearly showed how little there was to work with considering that dim lights from nearby dying street lanterns was the only source of discernable light.

Thinking back to the trick which he had been working on recently, a grimace spread across Allan's face at how unsuccessful each of those attempts had been. Allan felt no small amount of guilt at how Peter was having to deal with each one of the menaces because of his lack of a more conventional power.

Fortunately, as the creatures prepared to fire their strange deadly cloth guns the puppet creatures halted as a wheezing groaning sound came from somewhere nearby. Time seemed to slow down as the creatures which had not been taken down by Peter were taken out by a fast moving object. A blue blur was the only thing that Allan and Peter saw of the fast moving object which had successfully taken out each of the remaining creatures. Even though the creatures had been taken out the loud noise which had signaled the arrival of the unidentified object continued to resonate through the air as the noise grew more and more deafening by the second.

*VWORP VWORP*

As the sound continued, it seemed to get louder and louder, and the pitch seemed to go higher and higher. No matter where they looked, they couldn't find its source. Until, suddenly, a blue box rammed into most of the puppet creatures exploding fluff everywhere.

"Nooo!" screamed the remaining puppet creatures. "Thingsie defluffeds us!"

They immediately scrambled away as Allan and Peter stared open-mouthed and wide-eyed at the blue box. It was a large, blue, telephone box. On top of the box was a police strobe light which seemed to be turned off at the moment, and just above the door of the box was a black sign that said "Police Public Call Box" on it. As for the front doors themselves, they were rather plain. There were a pair of opaque windows on the upper third of each door, a sign on the left door, a handle on the right door, and a keyhole beneath the handle.

Inside the TARDIS…

The pilot frowned as he stared at the readings of where he landed. Something was wrong, and yet he couldn't identify why. With a sigh, he headed for the exit.

As soon as he exited, he halted upon seeing two teens. As they looked him over, they noted that the man wore a burgundy v-neck t-shirt underneath a medium length black leather jacket with lapels on his torso, black uniform pants, and black leather boots.

There was complete silence in the alley. Right now, Allan and Peter could only stare in silence as the mysterious figure from the blue box stared right back at them. Then, the silence was broken.

"What you standing there gawking for?" the pilot asked. "Shut your mouths or a bird might nest there."

"What?!" Allan exclaimed while Peter could be heard uttering the words bloody hell in the background.

"I'm not doing this," the figure from the box said. He proceeded to close the box's door and sniffed.

"Doing what?!" Allan said, heat rising to his face. However, he shook his head to regain his senses and continued glaring at the strange man with the big ears.

"This," the man replied as he pulled out a silver cylindrical device that had a blue bulb at the end. "I'm not having this conversation again."

He pressed a button on the device, and the bulb lit up as a warbling sound emanated from it. He waved the device in the immediate vicinity.

"What do you mean that you're not having this conversation again?" Peter exclaimed, the confusion clear on both his face and in his voice.

"Right," the man said, ignoring the question as he held the device to his ears. "Make sure not to go telling anyone what you saw today. Otherwise, they'll send you to the nuthouse."

He immediately disappeared into the box again. After a couple of minutes, he returned. This time he had a thing in his hands that looked like it was built out of random objects.

"What are you still doing here?" the man asked as he looked at them. "Don't you two have a school for apes to go to?"

"First of all who are you calling a freaking ape with those ears that you've got on your head, mate. Second, why would we be at school when something this interesting is going on?" Allan spat at the man who was obviously beginning to get the blonde's nerves.

"Humans are descended from apes," the man replied. "And why you'd be at school? It's obvious. To stop being morons."

"I always thought that the best way to learn is through experience rather than having a bunch of old men telling you their own version of history which has been tailored to fit their own view." Peter said with a firm look which clearly showed that he wouldn't be persuaded to think any differently.

"Can't argue that," the man said as he turned away. "Now, I really must be off. I have something to investigate. Have fun with your idiocy, then."

"You never actually answered one of the main questions which was how exactly you managed to crash a phone booth through a bunch of monsters which came out of nowhere?"

"Use your brain cells, if you have any," the man retorted from over his shoulder without stopping. "And it's a Police Box, not a phone booth."

"Wait a second," the man said as he hurried back. "Did you say monsters?"

"No we said that it was a group of bloody nutcrackers. You would think with your ears that you would have heard us the first time." Allan spat out with venom.

"And people say I'm grumpy," the man said, blinking twice. "Of course, I heard you the first time. I just ignored it for a few seconds due to your stupidity, and stupid people generally don't have anything informing or interesting to say."

"And generally people that tend to think that they're the smartest person in the room end up causing more problems than solving them. Case in point, Police Box." Allan spat out his anger rising just as obvious as the red which was beginning to take over his complexion.

"I don't cause problems," the man said sternly. "I end them. Now, please do simmer down before you start blowing steam out of your ears."

"You," the man said turning to Peter. "While your friend thinks about ice cream, why don't you tell me what those monsters were? Specifically, what they looked like and where they went. Actually, scratch that last one. I think I could locate them easily enough with my thingamajig."

Peter whispered something before turning to face the man who had come from the Police Box. When he turned to face the man he had a firm look on his face, before he began to describe the monsters from earlier.

"They didn't have a very firm grip on English," Peter explained. "They struggled with the most basic words even when they were telling us that they were going to kill us and that it would be over quickly."

"Really?" the man said, disappointedly. "A monster species barely able to be considered intelligent? Ugh, I miss the Hoix. At least they could hold a conversation."

"Well, as I originally asked," the man prodded. "What did they look like?"

"First, I completely agree that if I'm going to be killed, I would prefer to have a proper conversation with the said monster." Peter said this with a smirk as Allan stood off to the side silently simmering. "The monsters were similar to that of puppets, but with a mix of Farscape puppets mixed with the muppets. Cartoonish in a gruesome kind of way."

The man blinked twice, because he was, for the first time in his life, speechless. He had never heard of such monsters, and that's saying something. He knows them all. Well, that's what he likes to tell himself.

"I… I… uh… I don't… what?" the man finally said.

"Speechless?" Allan said in a sharp tone which caused Peter to shoot his friend a look which clearly showed that this was neither the place or the time.

"Can't be an actual alien species," the man said, turning away as he muttered to himself. "There must be someone or something controlling them."

"Could it be some kind of science experiment gone wrong in an attempt towards creating a hybrid?" Peter suggested. "A new kind of monster?"

"That's possible, but what moron would make literal puppets to do their dirty business?" the man said. "I mean, it's embarrassing. Anyone smart enough to do that, could create their own robots or something else."

"Unless the man is similar to that of Dr. Frankenstein whose first creation was less than stellar in comparison to the second monster." Peter said thoughtfully.

"No, he was just a madman," the man said, dismissively. "Barely understood the sciences he used."

"Could it be the same kind of situation though? A man that tried and succeeded in creating life without ever questioning if he should have?" Allan followed what Peter had said about Frankenstein, the idea both terrifying and shocking.

"Wait a minute," the man said, finally realizing something. "You two are being serious. You're not just having a laugh where this talk of aliens and whatnot are concerned? Simpletons like you usually disregard everything I say as lunacy or me just being weird."

"We're not your normal cup of joe." After saying this, he held out his palm and absorbed the faint light from the light source which had been less than helpful against the monsters from earlier.

"That's amazing!" the man said as he pulled out his device again and scanned Allan. "How'd you do that? No human has been able to do something like that. In fact, no living creature can."

"It's rare but certain members of the population have an extra mutation to their genetic code which can create any wide range of abilities." Allan was excited as he talked about the mutation which he had been gifted with while Peter's face shut down at the mention of the mutations.

"Of course!" the man said as he swatted his head. "This is the late 20th century, isn't it?! That means that soon… oh, actually I can't continue that thought."

"Classified right?" Peter said with a smirk while the conversation from earlier still seemed to have dampened his mood.

"Of course," the man said, ecstatic. "Oh, this is absolutely fantastic!"

"Now, I do have to investigate these puppet things," the man said, sobering up. "You might not be as snail-like as I thought, but you have yet to prove that you're smarter than most humans. Sadly, nobody has reached Albert Einstein's level of intellect. Of course, he had an accident that altered his brain chemistry at a young age. I told him to never use that to his advantage, but did he listen? No, because you humans never do!"

Without another word, he hurried off with his patchwork device active.

"I think that we should follow him," Allan gave Peter a look which clearly showed how crazy he thought his friend was before Peter shrugged and made to follow the man.

"To find out his name, if nothing else!" Peter yelled this back over his shoulder as Allan hurried to catch up.

Later, outside an abandoned toy factory…

Allan and Peter slowed down and peered over a parked car as they watched the stranger break into an abandoned toy factory. They quickly but quietly made their way toward the building, but didn't immediately enter.

"That guy manages to annoy me in every way possible," Peter rolled his eyes at Allan's words before sending an affectionate look at his friend.

"Well since you can't stand the guy then I'll stay with the as of yet unnamed man," Peter said. "and you can investigate the alley which still might contain clues or anything else interesting."

Allan seemed all too eager to stay as far away from the man as possible, since he turned back around for the alley very fast. Peter chuckled as he watched his friend run off because sometimes his friend was just too hot-headed for his own good even though he meant well. This thought was struck from his mind as he looked back on the conversation between himself and the unnamed man from earlier. Even though mutants were not that out of the ordinary in this day and age it was often a sore point which could lead to more than a small amount of bullying. The man seemed to take it in stride and had been excited at the mention of mutations and the 20th century. Peter stopped in his tracks at the first thought that came to his mind, but was unsure if it was him just reaching for an explanation because time travel wasn't possible… was it?

Peter looked to where the man from earlier had broken into the toy factory and thought that the best way to get any answers would be to get them directly from the source. Walking up to where the man had broken in Peter tested the door which the man had entered through and was surprised when the door was locked and had not been jimmied or broken in any way. Peter looked over his shoulder before pulling the set which he kept in the back of his pocket for these kinds of situations which Allan always tried and failed to replicate which always made him laugh. Pulling out the set of lockpicks, Peter started working on the door and smiled when he managed to unlock the door in less than a minute. Naturally, Allan would have moaned about him being a show-off, but he was just jealous. Walking through the door, he was surprised to see the man from earlier with the device which he had run off with searching the toy factory.

"Oi, what are you doing here?!" the man exclaimed, noticing Peter.

"I love walking through abandoned toy factories at night," Peter replied sarcastically. "It's one of my nightly rituals which I thoroughly enjoy."

"Well, not this one," the man said, bluntly. "Now go. I'm busy and don't feel like having to keep an eye on you. Making your lot stay out of trouble is so time-consuming, and tedious."

"I'm the last person that you would have to keep an eye on," Peter's eyes narrowed for a moment before he brushed it off.

"I just wanted to know why a man that's obviously not from around here chose this location to land his police box, because while it saved me sweating over a few monsters is curious," As Peter finished he looked at the man before leaning up against the nearest wall.

The man just rolled his eyes and resumed scanning with his device.

"C'mon, work, damn you!" the man said as he hit his device a couple of times. "You led me all the way here, and now you're saying there's nothing here? Bollocks to that, there's gotta be something."

With a sigh, he put the device into his pocket and pulled out his cylindrical device.

"Could there be interference from the toy factory?" Peter suggested. "Old iron foundations like this tend to do hell on cell reception." As proof Peter pulled out his cell and showed that his phone had no signal at all.

"Of course not," the man scoffed. "My device is built to scan through interfering signals. In fact, the interfering signal would've led me straight to the source."

"Could it be directly under your feet?" Peter looked down to the ground as he said this to the cement floor before looking back up at the man with a pointed look.

The man blinked twice and looked at Peter for a couple of seconds before swatting his head.

"Why didn't I think of that?" the man asked himself, irked. He immediately knelt on the floor and frowned.

"As you do show signs of intelligence," the man said as he stood up. "Can you tell me what that faint sound is coming from the ground? Oh, wait. I see how stupid that was. Human ears aren't nearly as good as mine. Instead, look around for a switch for a hidden doorway or something."

"You mean like the one right next to your head?" Peter's eyes looked pointedly at the huge lever on the wall directly behind the man's head. "Also can I have something to call you because I'd like to have something other than 'that man' for a reference point."

The man looked at the lever then back at Peter. He repeated that about three times before rumbling as he grabbed it.

"What was your name?" the man asked. "Perry, was it?"

"Well, I'm the Doctor," the man said without waiting as he pulled the lever. "And I'd suggest you stand back. I have no idea wher-"

Suddenly, a door under his feet opened and he fell, screaming the whole way down.

"Wrong lever!" echoed the Doctor, angrily.

"You're the man that pulled the lever, I just pointed out that there was one there. I never said it was the correct one. And it's Ravenwood, Peter Ravenwood." Peter leaned over the trap door which had opened underneath the man newly named the Doctor.

"I don't care, just get me out of this…" the Doctor trailed off.

"Why does it smell like fecal matter down here?" the Doctor asked himself as he looked around. Suddenly, he heard something growling. He turned around, slowly, and widened his eyes. It was grotesque, had three horns on its head, the torso of a lion, and the lower body of a human male. Complete with matted fur and the family jewels.

"That's incredibly unhygienic," the Doctor remarked, before he hollered up. "HURRY, AND GET ME OUT OF HERE! A NAKED BEAST IS LOOKING AT ME AS IF I'M A JAFFA CAKE!"

Peter quickly looked around and grinned when he saw a cable which had a hook connected to the end of it, quickly grabbing it and hit the release lever before lowering the cable down into the dark hole.

The Doctor ducked as the beast swiped at him, and kicked it in the nads. Naturally, it fell to its knees and whined.

"Thanks for that," the Doctor said, disgustedly. "Now, I have filth on my shoe."

As the beast prepared to pounce, the Doctor grabbed the cable and aimed his cylindrical device at it. He thrust upward as the beast pounced, and the sparking cable zapped the beast. It let out an inhumanly shriek as it smoked. The Doctor only dropped the cable once the beast was on the ground.

"Thanks," the Doctor called up. "Now, get me out of here!"

As he waited for a rope, or something else, he knelt next to the beast and turned it over. There was a brand on the beast's back.

"No," the Doctor said. "It can't be."

"Hey man grab hold of this," Peter tossed down a rope which had been strewn on the floor and lowered it down for the man, his nose wrinkling at the smell of fecal matter. In about a couple of minutes, the Doctor was back in the warehouse. He didn't even look at Peter as he walked further into the toy factory. However, before he got out of sight, he aimed his cylindrical device at the trapped door and with the press of a button, the trapdoor shut itself.

"Neat device, that," Peter said before following the Doctor, who left behind a slight trail of whatever had been beneath that trapdoor, which was evident by the faint pattern left by his shoes.

Meanwhile, at the alley…

As Allan looked back over his shoulder to where Peter had followed the Doctor, he couldn't keep a frown from appearing on his face. Even though Peter had grown up on the streets and was more than capable he still worried about Peter being alone with the stranger from the blue box. The main reason because they knew nothing about this man other than the fact that the police box, the man had arrived in, had taken out the rest of the monsters so that Peter hadn't had to deal with them.

Allan frowned though as he reached out with the senses which were connected to the powers that he had as a mutant. There was something odd about the levels of energy which any normal human would be unable to see but were clear as day to Allan. Normally each wave of energy was similar to a heartbeat in how they had their own frequencies and their own patterns which they followed. Energy was a living breathing entity much like a flame and it had its own pattern. Practically, each and every wave of energy was off its axis as they struggled to try and return to normal but it was almost as if something was causing the energy to be pulled off in a different direction.

As if struck by a bolt of lightning, Allan quickly looked to the lanterns which had caused him so much trouble earlier when there had been practically no light or energy to absorb. Allan's eyes widened as he looked back to each and every one of the energy sources. He tried to find an energy source which would have little to no activity, because if there was someone, or more likely something, that was siphoning off energy like a vampire taking blood from a human, then the closest energy source would be practically nonexistent. Allan closed his eyes before he blocked out each and every outside influence which would distract him from the energy signatures, knowing fully well that should anyone come across him he would appear mad with his eyes closed standing in the middle of an alley.

Back at the Toy Factory…

Peter's nose scrunched up as both the Doctor began to search around the rest of the factory for anything else that could give insight to any other leads.

"No offense, but you smell really ripe, mate," Peter said to the Doctor.

The Doctor didn't respond as he knelt down next to some scratch marks. They were spaced out and thin. Almost as if a human had dug their nails into the cement as something dragged it. The Doctor followed the scratches until it led to a locked door.

"Deadlocked," the Doctor frowned as he tried to unlock the door with his cylindrical device.

"Or maybe you just haven't found the right key," Peter said this as he approached the door with the set of lock picks from earlier. Inserting the tools into the lock Peter frowned but then let out a laugh when the nearly inaudible click let him know that he had unlocked the door.

"What?!" the Doctor exclaimed as he hurried back. He had begun leaving once he couldn't unlock the door. Deadlocks are normally impossible to unlock by any means except by those that set the deadlock.

"That's impossible!" the Doctor said as he swiped the set of lockpicks.

"Completely impossible!" the Doctor said after he scanned them, revealing that they were normal. "How'd you get through a deadlock?! Nothing in the universe can do that!"

"There's no such thing as an impossible lock," Peter said, smugly. "Mechanics always have a weakness or a vulnerability that can be exploited, I just found this out by testing it out on different locks first."

"No, no, no," the Doctor said. "You don't understand. Deadlocks are tech that don't belong in this time period. Humans only managed to invent them in the year 3021, and that was accidental. They are the ultimate locks. Nothing gets through them. So, if this door unlocked… it means someone wants you to enter."

Peter shuffled his feet around on the floor before looking down and to the side, because Allan was really one of only a few that knew what he was going to have to tell the Doctor.

"Would it make any difference that I'm technically not human?" Peter looked up from the floor to see the Doctor's reaction.

"You're still as technologically primitive as normal mundane humans," the Doctor said as he slowly opened the door. "Now stay here, unless you want to fall into the trap."

"Like you didn't earlier?" Peter retorted. "And what if the lock made it so that the only kind of people that could unlock it had to have a different set of DNA. Maybe someone brought it back in time so that you wouldn't have the means to get past it, I mean you aren't a mutant are you?"

Instead of replying, the Doctor cautiously peered around the door. However, he quickly closed the door and grabbed Peter by the arm.

"Time to go," the Doctor said, with a fake calm expression, as he pulled Peter away.

Peter didn't resist in any way as he followed the Doctor and kept his calm even though he knew that it had to be something extreme to cause this kind of reaction from the man.

"I know that there are certain things, mate, that you obviously can't reveal, but I would appreciate it if you could give even the smallest explanation so that I can know if I should fight or flee." Peter kept his calm the entire time he said this, even though it was obvious whatever it was freaking the other man out.

"Nothing," the Doctor lied, as they got closer to the room they were previously in. "Everything's fine. I was wrong. Isn't that fantastic?! I was wrong for the first time in my life. Absolutely nothing bad is here."

Peter just stared at him for a few seconds.

"If you don't want to tell me what exactly it is that we're retreating from," Peter deadpanned eventually. "That's fine but if you're going to lie, at least do it well. I was lifting people's wallets and conning people for money by the time I was ten."

Peter rolled his eyes after he said this when he looked to the man who was obviously freaked out.

"Right," the Doctor said as he pushed Peter out of the main entrance. "Pez, I advise you to run for your life. You're not gonna want to be in the radius."

The Doctor quickly slammed the door and used his device to weld the insides of the lock. Without wasting a second, he hurried back to the deadlocked door.

With Allan…

Allan's eyes snapped open and was excited at having found the energy signature or the complete lack of one. The energy signature was pretty much nonexistent and had been almost impossible to find, because of how it was almost dead which meant that there had to be something that was stealing all of its energy. Luckily it wouldn't be that hard to track down now that he had been able to lock down on the signature. After locking down on the signature Allan opened his eyes and started to head off in the direction where the energy source was coming from and groaned aloud as soon as he realized exactly what direction it was taking him in. The energy source was taking him right where both Peter and that big-eared man had gone.

I must have been a serial killer in my past life to have luck as bad as this, Allan thought as he looked at the Toy Factory up and down as if it was a land mine while he tried to determine if he really wanted to find out the reason for the abnormality with the energy levels. Peter would be able to figure out what was going on with the abnormality from the energy signature. Even though Peter was unable to sense the different levels in energy or draw or use energy from the area around him and they didn't have a device with them for Peter to be able to see or measure them. Mentally, Allan let out a string of curse words and began to approach the front of the building, and was about to approach the front of the building when a sudden spike in energy sent up a red flag in his head.

Allan bolted away from the building as soon as he realized what exactly the buildup in energy meant and what exactly was about to happen. Allan decided to move not a moment too soon because less than a few seconds later a large explosion knocked Allan to the ground. Allan struggled to get his bearings as his ears continued to ring, and he struggled to focus on anything other than the massive headache he had from hitting his head on the ground. When he had finally managed to get his bearings back immediately he was struck with panic. Peter had been in the Toy Factory… and Peter was nowhere to be seen.

Meanwhile, with Peter…

Peter blinked a couple of times as he tried to get the ringing out of his ears and coughed a couple of times from the smoke which had accumulated in the air due to the explosion. Peter's head was pounding because of the concussive force, even though he had managed to get clear thanks to the Doctor giving him a head start. However, the blast still screwed with his head.

The Doctor. Peter immediately ran back to where the Toy Factory had gone up in flames to look for any sign of the Doctor. Knowing that if there was no sign of the body, it didn't mean that the man was necessarily dead. That helped to keep Peter calm because the man was obviously not from this universe and so escaping from an explosion would be a piece of cake for the Doctor, at least that's what he was hoping for.

Looking around to take in the rest of the area to see if the explosion had attracted any kind of creature that would make this situation even more messy than it already was. He breathed a deep sigh of relief when he saw nothing out of the ordinary. As he approached the Toy Factory where he had been pushed, he noticed that there was a side-door which was located nearby which would have led out of the Factory. The man could have just as easily escaped from there as the door which he had been pushed through.

Peter was brought out of thoughts about the Doctor when he felt his left pocket vibrating, and it took a moment for Peter to realize that it was his mobile which was ringing and knew that Allan would be freaking out. Pulling the device from his pocket he winced at the number which showed that he had twenty missed calls from Allan. Knowing that this would be the mother of all lectures, he waited for Allan to pick up as the ringing from the device made his headache worse.

"Peter! You better not have destroyed another phone!" Allan yelled angrily and worriedly. "There is a reason why you have a mobile and it's not just for a paperweight which your last five phones have been reduced to after being destroyed, and if I have to get you another phone and explain to the man why I need yet another phone there will be hell to pay!"

Peter winced at the yelling from the other end of the phone and wondered if his friend had been rehearsing this rant or if he had come up with it on the spot.

"Allan, you do realize that I answered the phone, right?" Peter couldn't help the small smile which appeared on his face because of Allan's concern. The other side of the phone went completely quiet after Peter said this, and the dark-haired male could only imagine just what Allan was going to do. He couldn't help the broad grin which appeared when Allan didn't fail to rise up to the challenge.

"You are an awful friend and I don't know why I keep you around," Allan said grumpily. "because most people would say 'I'm sorry for scaring you, Allan' but I know for a fact that you are smiling on the other end."

Peter felt somewhat bad for scaring his friend but decided that Allan was just the person to freak out more than he ever would, because that's just how different the two of them were.

"I could get you a pizza on the way home if you're really that upset," Peter knew that it would cause a backlash but sometimes he couldn't help but to rile up Allan, and he knew that it would get his friend's mind off thinking that he had possibly been blown up in the Toy Factory.

"That pizza better have everything on it, and if I see even a hint of a pineapple on it then I will punch you in the face. Just meet me back at the warehouse," Allan said, irked before he hung up on Peter.

Peter snorted at his friend's antics before making sure that his wallet was still in his back pocket, and that it hadn't dropped in all of the resulting chaos. Happy that at least he would finally be able to get something to eat, Peter began to make his way to the nearest place which would be open.

Later, with Allan…

Allan was frowning as he looked at the computer screen with the words no results available displayed in large black letters. The words were increasing the headache which had steadily been increasing over the last fifteen minutes, since he had returned to the Warehouse. There was nothing on the man that they had met earlier. Allan knew that the man was obviously not from around here, because of the way that the man had spoken. However, there had to be at least something on the man even if he was an alien or otherwise.

"This man is obviously mocking me from wherever he is," Allan grumbled under his breath, before releasing a sigh and sitting down in the chair positioned near the large computer screen.

"You do know that talking to yourself is the first sign that you're not of a sound mind," Peter said, making Allan jump as he walked in. That made him smirk. Allan sent a glare in the direction of his friend who was calmly eating a piece of pizza from where he was leaning against the doorframe.

"You do know that most people that who get pizza for their friend after scaring them to death, wouldn't start eating that pizza until after their friend had been able to have a piece of it," Allan stalked over to where Peter was holding the box, and pulled out first one and then two pieces of pizza before returning back to the computer where he had been working.

"See, that would work but we both know that as much as I love you that I love pizza infinitely more," Peter said, and smirked at the eye-roll Allan responded with.

"Well after you have finished the love affair with my pizza can you come over here and give me any and all information that might be able to narrow down a search for that pain in neck," Allan said, grumpily and gestured at the screen which still had no results available in big black letters. Peter walked over to his friend who he could tell, from the way Allan's brow was scrunched up, was working up a killer migraine and winced at what that would mean for Allan later.

"You're probably not going to find anything specific on the man from earlier and you should probably start looking into the police box," Peter said as he set the pizza box down on the table next to the computer, and wiped off his hands with a nearby roll of paper towels. He proceeded to lean over the keyboard and began to type in a different search.

"Maybe what we should search for is not the man because, hate to break it to you, he's very likely someone not from this time and you won't find anything on him. So, you should search for random sightings of that police box which took out those monsters earlier," Peter suggested before he grabbed another slice, while Allan looked at the results which were displayed on the screen.

"This will take all night, there are hundreds of conspiracy theories and random sightings which will take forever to get through," Allan exclaimed as he grabbed his hair, because the mass of information was overwhelming to the blonde.

"Narrow down the search by typing in the keyword Doctor, it might help in cutting through some of the information which has just been recycled," suggested Peter as he walked back to Allan who had leaned back in the chair and rested his head in his hands.

"This is going to take forever," Allan groaned again, because he knew that there was little to no chance of him getting any sleep tonight.

"Good thing I brought energy drinks and pizza then isn't it," Peter asked, and his friend dropped his head onto the desk. He had no choice, but to accept that he was not likely to get any sleep anytime soon.

"That's easy for you to say, Peter," Allan said, dryly. "You're an insomniac more than half of the time."

Allan looked over at his friend who had been looking down at the laptop but looked back up after his friend's comment.

"Sleep is for the weak," Peter deadpanned, then looked back down to his computer screen to resume his search, popping the top of his Nos back before taking a huge swig while Allan shook his head at his friend's actions.

"Well some of us are weak," Allan rolled his eyes at his friend's comment but never looked up from the computer from where he was working.

"Also, you're paying for lunch for a week as part of our deal," Peter exclaimed while throwing his arms up. Allan turned around sharply and focused on his friend with narrowed eyes.

"Why exactly would I owe you lunch for a week?" Allan wanted to know what just what Peter had found that would get him lunch for a week.

"I saw a man that left what appeared to be a blue Police Box which seemed to appear out of nowhere, there was a loud noise and then suddenly a man that walked out." Peter grin showed just how excited he was at finding the information which had been hours in the making. Allan rose quickly from his seat to look at the site which Peter had been reading from. The look of shock on Allan's face turned into annoyance at the website that Peter had been reading from.

"Peter, you are reading from a website which focuses on conspiracies," Allan leaned over the laptop and pulled away with an annoyed look on his face.

"Some of these conspiracy theories include JFK not being shot by Oswald, the moon landing never happening, and about aliens in Roswell not being the first presence of alien life not being the first presence on earth," Peter shrugged before scrolling through the story of the Police Box.

"You have to admit that not all of this is wrong, some of these conspiracy theories are not completely out of this world, except the one about the aliens but that's only because of the aliens," Allan rolled his eyes at the words which Peter had used but then went back to his own computer.

"Some of us prefer to get information which is not based on a million different theories of which only about one third of them are true or even somewhat accurate," Peter leaned back in his chair as he listened to his friend rant about inaccuracies, and all of the problems which end up being caused by conspiracy theories. Peter smiled with satisfaction at having riled him up so well.

A few hours later…

Peter couldn't help the grin which had been threatening to come over his face at how his friend's irritation was steadily growing. Peter had been trying to keep himself from laughing at his friend's reactions. Allan had been getting more and more annoyed at the lack of information which he was finding. While that series of unfortunate searches continued, Peter had been reading more and more about the different conspiracy theories. Most of which were very intriguing. Especially the ones about underground cities which would house mutants. Specifically, ones that were each creating their own armies which was half true. The half truth here being that there were multiple underground cities of mutants that thrived, but these were for the different mutants that were unable or unwilling to live amongst regular humans.

Allan had just started hitting his head on the table while Peter was drinking his third coffee of the night. Peter was waiting for the other man to either lash out or ask Peter what he had found. Knowing that he should probably contribute before Allan managed to give himself brain damage, Peter switched over to the document where he had been keeping all of the different information he had collected. It was both for himself and information on the Doctor.

"Would you like to know about the information I have collected?" Peter waited for the inevitable reaction from Allan who had been searching multiple different sites for hours, while Peter had been going through this site and its own sister sites.

"I have been searching for hours for any kind of credible source while you've been searching through conspiracy theory websites," Allan said, exhaustedly. "So, yes I would like to know what you've found, Peter."

Peter grinned at his friend's reaction, and then began to read out what he found. Some were of the different leads. Others were of different stories about encounters with the Police Box over the years. "Each and every encounter with the Police Box over the years coincides with unusual and out of the ordinary events."

Unknown to them, the ground behind them crumbled a little as something burst through the ground. It was part of one of the puppet creatures. Specifically, a hand with a bit of the forearm.

Allan stretched and with a yawn he looked over to where Peter was still working on the laptop in front of him with no sign that he would be stopping as of yet.

"You're not going to be stopping anytime soon, are you?" Allan asked, dryly. Peter shrugged which was more of an answer than anything, causing Allan to sigh before he approached his friend who had looked at him.

"You do know that you could come to school as well?" Allan suggested, which caused Peter's eyes to narrow. It was clear that this had been a subject the two of them had discussed before.

"Online classes are fine for me, I don't need to be surrounded by people that either look down at me or ignore my presence completely," Peter said stubbornly. Allan frowned before he decided to give up the discussion for the night. Allan began collecting any of his belongings that he will need for school the next day. He usually comes straight to the warehouse after school, and so brings his stuff with him.

"Tell me if Langston managed to pull the stick from his arse over the weekend!" Peter yelled as Allan headed for the exit, rolling his eyes. Peter never saw the eye roll as he continued to read and scroll down the page that he had been looking at as Allan had been preparing to leave.

"What he doesn't know is that I've already finished every bit of this week's homework," Peter said this to himself as he clicked on the next link which displayed another story about someone that had encountered odd happenings, and events after another appearance of the Police Box. The sound of something moving in the background immediately got Peter's attention, and he looked around the warehouse before noticing a rat the size of a small dog running across the floor.

"I was wondering where you had gotten off to, Pinky," Peter smiled, before looking back to his laptop. He began twirling one of the knives, which usually remained up his sleeve. However, Peter felt nervous for some reason and felt better with the knife in his hand.

There was no sound this time when something struck out at Peter, one of the puppets' hands from earlier striking out at Peter. The hand struck out at Peter, and grabbed the hand which had been twirling the knife. That way, that the knife was one less thing to worry about, and Peter winced at the awkward angle at which his wrist and hand had been grabbed. The angle that his hand and wrist had been grabbed made it so that the knife was pointing upward, and rendered it useless to attack the puppet hand. Peter could feel the bones of his hand and wrist grinding together, and it was excruciating.

Suddenly, the puppet hand was ripped away from Peter and a warbling sound could be heard. Peter looked toward his savior, and recognized the Doctor. He had his cylindrical device in his right hand and a limp puppet hand in his left.

"Bloody hell," Peter exclaimed as he rubbed the area where his wrist and his hand connected trying to get rid of the ache from where the puppet had grabbed him.

"Oh, it's you," the Doctor's voice asked. "What are you doing here?"

Peter raised an eyebrow and then gestured to the rest of the warehouse. It was evident that this was either home or at least a second home for Peter.

"Technically you're the one that is trespassing, so shouldn't I be asking you that?" There was no venom in Peter's voice as he said this, and fixed anything that might have fallen over in the fight with the puppet hand from earlier.

"Also do you need that thing alive?" Peter gestured to the hand which was still struggling in the Doctor's grasp as it fought to get free.

"Of course," the Doctor replied. "Can't find out where its master is without it, after all?"

"What are you doing living here?" the Doctor asked. "Don't you have a house or something?"

Peter's face immediately shut down at the words the Doctor had said, because they were words that were often asked by everyone.

"I have another place but I don't have a reason to choose one place over the other," Peter said, emotionlessly. "There isn't anyone that would be waiting up for me or anything, and I'm an insomniac more often than not. So, why go home when I could work on the issue at hand?"

Peter immediately headed to the refrigerator, and pulled out a bin containing fruit and began eating from it.

"Fair enough," the Doctor shrugged. "Well, I got all I need from here. Bye."

He immediately headed toward the exit as he stopped the signal that kept the arm moving a second time.

"Before you go, I have a question," Peter spoke up. "Did you really take out a car with your Police Box in Los Angeles?"

Peter seemed actually interested to know if any of the theories on the website were real accounts, or if it had been just a jumble of mad ramblings.

"Why would I take out a car?" the Doctor asked, confusedly, "Unless you mean the event where a rogue alien A.I from Akiridion-5 had tried taking over the Earth using Earth technology, including vehicles."

"Yes, that event, I believe some of the warnings signs were that dogs and other animals were barking and making sounds at all hours of the day, sound pitch that only they were able to hear," Peter was happy that at least one of the theories from that site had been true because it meant that at least some of the facts were true.

"Not quite, but close enough," the Doctor said.

"Also, are there different Doctors or is it always the same?" Peter was actually incredibly interested in this because in some of the accounts, the description of the Doctor had been incredibly different.

"You need a hobby," the Doctor said, evasively. The Doctor still wasn't sure if he wanted to talk about his biology with humans. Specifically, humans he had just met. Besides, it's too risky to do so. Just one drop of his blood could alter the course of human history, after all.

"It's alright if you don't want to talk about your biology or whatever causes a difference in appearance. That's completely understandable, and I have hobbies," Peter said as he grabbed the knife from his boot and threw it. He managed to hit the bullseye section in one of the targets hanging over on the wall.

However, the Doctor had already left by that point, and the only indication he was there was the partially opened door.

"Good thing I placed a tracker on the hand," Peter said, looking down at his phone which revealed exactly where the hand was. However, the signal suddenly vanished. It was almost as if the Doctor had destroyed the tracker.

"Oh well, guess this means the Doctor found the tracker," sighed Peter as he turned off his phone.

"There'll probably be more, eventually. That hand better not have killed Brain," Peter shrugged before he returned back to his chair. He immediately activated one of his favorite films, but his mind kept going through the day's events.

The next day, in the afternoon…

As is normal, Allan immediately headed toward the warehouse once school was out for the day. The day had been less than eventful and similar to practically every other day, which meant that Allan had gone to school and had then gotten annoyed. Peter would send messages all day asking about what they went over in class while also giving him answers to questions immediately after the questions had asked them. Everytime Peter did that Allan could barely keep from looking around the room to look for video cameras or bugs.

Walking home was usually the most normal part of Allan's day but even that was slowly becoming abnormal as Allan couldn't shake off the feeling that something bad was going to happen.

As if summoned on cue, the puppet monsters from earlier appeared out of nowhere and leaped at him. Allan struggled against the grasp of so many of the creatures, and knew that if it had only been one or two of them he would have been able to escape. Feeling something being pressed into his face, Allan struggled against the cloth. His struggles began to weaken as everything around Allan turned dark.

Later, with Peter…

Peter was on his way to where Allan and he would usually meet up after his friend had gotten out of school. Peter pulled the change out of his pocket to make sure how much money that he had for lunch, the cash that he had swiped from some man's wallet earlier. Peter smirked at the amount that he had gotten from the man. Maybe that would teach him it was impolite to be a jerk to people that weren't as rich as you. The reason why Peter had swiped the money from the man's wallet and then returned the wallet was because of how he had treated the homeless woman from earlier.

Reaching the diner that the two of them visited regularly, he frowned when he saw that Allan wasn't here yet. Very unlike him. Usually Peter was the one that was running late. He was either going back to sleep after finishing his homework or from messing around like he usually did by hanging around the city, because he had a few people that he liked to check up on from time to time. Looking around the area in hope that his friend was hiding despite being out of character for him. Peter breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Allan running his way. As Allan was running toward him, Peter frowned because of the awkward way in which his friend was running. However, he quickly wrote it off because it could just be from last night with the puppets and a long day of school.

When Allan reached Peter, he was out of breath and Peter waited for his friend to reach him before they headed for the diner's entrance.

"Are you taking a page out of my book? Being late is terribly unlike you, mate," Peter smirked at his friend. Allan didn't respond which caused Peter to frown. His friend always had something to say when he mouthed off.

"Are you alright, mate?" Peter was concerned, because Allan had yet to say anything as they sat down in a booth. Ordering the usual pancakes toast and marmalade, Peter waited for his friend to order the same exact thing that he usually ordered, and frowned when Allan ordered eggs over easy and two pieces of toast.

"So I stole money from this man's wallet earlier," Peter mentioned this because he knew that Allan consistently would get annoyed when he chose to swipe wallets.

"Where exactly did the Doctor go?" Allan suddenly asked, to Peter's shock. Peter frowned at the question because Allan, up until this point, had little thought for the Doctor other than to find out just who exactly the man was.

"Champagne, sirs?" asked a voice with a northern accent.

Distantly, Peter thought that he recognized the sound of the man's voice, but paid it no attention as he focused on Allan who had become more and more concerning by the moment.

"Nah, we're good, mate," Peter replied as he kept his eyes on Allan and he realized that, unlike Allan's eyes, they were dead.

"Is nobody going to take this?" the voice asked.

"You're not Allan," Peter pushed back from his chair as the Allan look-alike struck out aiming for the man that had offered them champagne a few seconds ago.

"Oi!" exclaimed the northern voice. "That was quite uncalled for!"

Fake-Allen just regarded the voice's owner with a dead expression. The voice's owner happened to be The Doctor.

"Oh, I see," continued the Doctor. "You're not you. That means I can do this…"

Suddenly, the champagne bottle's cork flew off and right into the forehead of fake-Allen. However, it had little effect. What effect it did have, was just a whole with white fluff where the skull would be. Fake-Allen spat the cork out and pulled out a strange blaster from his stomach. His stomach happened to have a zipper on it.

"Well that could be a cause for concern," Peter said before striking out and knocking the blaster from fake-Allan's hand, which caused it to fly across the room.

"Time to go, Percy," the Doctor said as he grabbed Peter's hand and dragged him toward the rear exit. As they made their escape, Fake-Allen pulled out another blaster. This time, it looked more like a rifle. Which explained why it fired colored bolts of light in quick procession.

"Call me Percy one more time," Peter growled, but followed the Doctor nonetheless because he didn't want to get hit by whatever kind of ammo that the blaster contained.

"Why would you want to be called that?" the Doctor asked as he used his cylindrical device on the locked door. "It's way too long."

"Someone, apparently, has no concept of sarcasm," Peter smirked as he watched the Doctor's device unlock the door.

"And someone needs to gain a sense of humor," the Doctor countered as he forced the door open. "Now, hurry up. Unless, you want to be turned into human bacon."

"I'm good," Peter hurried up his pace as he followed the Doctor.

Sitting in the alley behind the diner was the blue box from a couple of days ago. Immediately, the Doctor headed right for it. Peter, on the other hand, hesitated. The box looked to be a bit too small.

"Aren't you coming?" the Doctor asked as he opened the blue box.

"Might as well," Peter followed the Doctor as he walked through the door of the blue box. He halted and widened his eyes upon seeing how large the interior was.

"It's… it's… it's bigger on the inside!" Peter exclaimed.

"Shut the door, will you?" the Doctor replied as he pushed a hexagonal shape on the wall. "Oh, your fake-boyfriend is almost at the door, btw."

As Peter shut the door, the wall opened and a tray proceeded to slide out. It had a strange-looking rifle thing, which the Doctor picked up.

"What exactly was that thing? Because it was different from earlier, the speech pattern was much better despite being beyond creepy," Peter shuddered as he thought back to the plastic skin and the creepy dead eyes.

"That is something without a proper classification," the Doctor replied as he headed for the door. "I just call them Hensons due to how they look and how realistic some of them are."

"Now, when I say so," the Doctor said as he held up the rifle thing. "Open the door. I only have one shot per day with this thing, so don't mess up."

After about three seconds, the Doctor motioned for Peter to open the door. As soon as he could see the Henson, he fired. A beam of light blue energy emitted from the rifle thing, and the Henson froze as if it had been hit by Petrificus Totalus from the Harry Potter franchise.

"Excellent," the Doctor said as he tossed the, now useless, rifle on the floor. "Now I just have to go take some head."

He hesitated before he walked forward and regarded Peter who had a smirk on his face.

"Yes, I know how that sounded," the Doctor said. "It sounded better in my head, is all."

The Doctor immediately headed straight for fake-Allan and wrenched his head off. As soon as the Doctor returned, he shut the door and placed the head onto the center console.

"Well, that's convenient," Peter said as he listened to the pop when the head was wrenched off, and the Doctor carried it back into the Police Box.

"What is?" the Doctor asked as he began to follow the signal the head was receiving. The box's center pillar immediately began moving up and down, and the wheezing groaning sound could be heard.

"Where is it leading to?" Peter asked this before looking down and messing with his phone.

"I dunno," the Doctor replied as he turned toward Peter and leaned on the console. "I suppose you have some questions, because humans generally do after coming into my tardis. So, shoot."

"The first question that I have to ask is, 'where is Allan?'" Peter said before looking again at the head which the Doctor had pulled off much like a cork from a wine bottle.

"The second would be, 'who created these things?'" Peter frowned before approaching where the Doctor was holding the head and started to examine where the head disconnected from the body.

"A, your boyfriend is at wherever this signal originates from," the Doctor replied. "B, I don't know yet. I have my suspicions of course, but nothing is certain."

Unknown to either of them, the head was beginning to combust.

"If the signal is originating from Allan then I have a good idea as to why," Peter said as he opened an application on his phone and showed it to the Doctor.

"After a good many bloody messes that Allan has either been kidnapped or gotten in I decided to place a subdermal implant in his body," Peter smirked as he shrugged which showed how unconcerned he was, despite knowing how abnormal a subdermal implant would appear to most people.

"It's a very good way to keep track of people that tend to do idiotic things," Peter shrugged as he began to narrow down where his friend was.

"I highly doubt that the ones who abducted him would miss a tracker," the Doctor said, dryly. "They do have highly advanced technology compared to humans during the 20th century, after all. More likely than not, the tracker had been tossed away to mislead anyone following its signal."

"Yes, but see we don't really know where he is," Peter countered with a cocked eyebrow and arms crossed. "So, following a false trail would be more than we currently have now which is nothing."

"We don't have 'nothing,'" the Doctor gestured to the head behind him. "We have this head's signal that I'm following."

"You mean the head that's smoking?" Peter gestured towards the head that had slowly been accumulating smoke over the last couple of minutes.

"What?" the Doctor asked, confused, as he turned around.

"No no no!" the Doctor exclaimed as he rushed around the console messing with the controls. "I thought I disabled that safety feature!"

About thirty seconds later, the TARDIS landed and the Doctor rushed out the door. He looked around before kicking a metal bucket in frustration. They had arrived somewhere near a big river. It was also dawn, which was odd. It was nearing nighttime just a few minutes ago.

"What did that bucket do to you?" Peter was just as annoyed as the Doctor was, because the lead which the Doctor had just turned cold.

"Do you have any idea as to where the head's signal was leading?" Peter asked as he leaned against the nearby wall. He hoped the man would have at least gotten a possible location before their lead literally went up in smoke.

"We were so close," the Doctor replied, as he headed toward a railing to lean as well.

"This close," the Doctor continued as he moved his index finger and thumb to be parallel with the other.

"Close but no cigar," Peter frowned as he thought more on where exactly they could have taken Allan.

"The signal would've come from something big and round," the Doctor finished as if Peter hadn't spoken. "Like a radar dish, but it doesn't have to be. It could be anything, really."

There was something fitting that description across the river behind him, but the Doctor has his blind moments. This being one of them.

"You mean the Eye of London over there?" Peter pointed to the Ferris Wheel which was right across the river. The Doctor turned around to look at it.

"What?" the Doctor asked as he looked back at Peter. He still wasn't seeing it.

He repeated himself twice as Peter gestured impatiently. After the third "what", the Doctor finally widened his eyes and looked back at Peter.

"Fantastic!" the Doctor exclaimed. "Come on!"

The Doctor ducked into the tardis, but returned before Peter could enter.

"This way!" the Doctor shouted over his shoulder as he ran off. "We have no more time to waste!"

Peter hurried after the Doctor so that he wouldn't get left behind.

Meanwhile, with Allan…

Allan groaned as he began to wake up. His head was aching really bad. In fact, a lot of spots on his body were.

"Why does this always happen to me?" Allan rubbed his head as he woke looking around to see that he had, yet again, been kidnapped.

"I mean, would it kill a kidnapper to take Peter Ravenwood once in a while?" Allan asked irritably as he slowly made his way to his feet while his head was still ringing from the pain.

"No, they have to kidnap Allan Lascivious yet again," Allan fumed as he looked around the room. He was in what looked like a generator room. The room had wires all over the place, tables akin to surgery tables, and other bits of technological doodads and what-nots.

"Well, this is not at all similar to a serial killer lair," Allan said, trying to hide how nervous he was. He scanned the room even more.

"I see you're awake," said a voice from above him. "And you're free. Guess that means I need to make better pawns or better chains. Probably safer to do both."

Allan whirled around and looked up at the top landing of a nearby stairwell. A man with grey hair, an ugly deep scar on his cheek, and a flimsy robotic leg stood with the help of a cane. The only nonhuman bit of him were his eyes. They seemed… reptile in nature.

"Ok, this day just keeps getting weirder and weirder," Allan remarked, irritatedly. "It started with puppets and now there is a man with reptilian eyes."

Allan gave the man a hard look, so he wouldn't show how nervous he actually was.

"Ah," the man smiled, inhumanly. "So you were the one that destroyed my scouts. Which would explain why the survivors brought you to me."

"Tell me, human," the man continued as he slowly descended down the stairs. "How did you destroy my scouts, and why does your DNA look and taste so different from most humans?"

Allan kept silent at the man's question, because he knew that even the slightest thing could lead him to the fact that it hadn't been him that had killed the puppets. That Peter had been the one to take out this man's scouts before that police box had taken out the rest of them. The teen also knew that keeping silent tended to cause people to slip up, so he hoped that keeping silent would get the man to reveal something.

"The silent treatment, huh," the man said, dryly, as he made it to the bottom. "That's going to change real soon."

Suddenly, two big figures appeared out of nowhere behind Allan and grabbed him by his arms.

"You like my pets?" the man asked as Allan was dragged to a table and got strapped down. "I fused the dna of one of your Earth lizards with various other animals to create them. Not only are they insanely strong, stubbornly obedient to me, but they can make themselves blend into the background. So, you were never going to escape with or without being properly chained down."

"Now, don't worry," the man said, feigning compassion, as he placed some headgear on Allan. "This is going to hurt you a LOT, so your tongue WILL loosen up."

"Is it going to hurt worse than being forced to look at your ugly mug?" Allan couldn't help the retort which passed over his lips, but he figured that if the man was going to torture him anyway that it was water under the bridge.

The man's only response was to walk over to a comically large lever and pull it down. Suddenly, the generators started pumping electricity right to the headgear that was situated on Allan's head. However, before it reached the headgear, the generators suddenly stopped.

"What?!" exclaimed the man, confusedly.

"Have you tried solar?" asked a northern voice from behind the generators. "Because these generators really do use up a ton of energy. Can give you quite a bill."

The man looked toward the voice and saw the Doctor walk up as if he had just come from the bathroom.

"Who are you?" the man asked, irritatedly.

"I'm the one that destroyed your scouts," the Doctor replied. "That's what you call them, right? I also killed your chimera under that toy factory."

"I helped," Peter added from the level above, which was nothing less than an attempt to get a rise out of the man before them.

"You can't be…" the man said, uncertainly. "The way you carry yourself. That arrogance… you can't be him!"

"Him who?" the Doctor asked. "You really should be more specific."

"You can't be the Doctor!" shouted the man.

"Really?" the Doctor quipped. "Then, who have I been for 900 years?"

Suddenly, the hulking beasts grabbed the Doctor and yanked him into the air.

"You lied to me, Doctor," the man snarled as he aimed his cane at the time lord. "You said you would save my world!"

"Well, I didn't!" the Doctor said, angrily. "I couldn't save your world. I couldn't save any worlds! Not even my own!"

"Congratulations, Doctor," the man said, evilly. "You've just been selected as my next experiment. You'll become the best hybrid I shall EVER create!"

The Doctor struggled, but he was helpless in the grip of the beasts as they carried him to a cylindrical container big enough for a human.

Suddenly both of the beasts dropped to the ground. Both of them were now lifeless. Both of the beasts had knives through their head and their chest.

"Huh, I wasn't actually one hundred percent sure that that would work," when Peter saw the look from the Doctor, he just shrugged in response.

The Doctor quickly rushed to the man and knocked him out with a right hook. He yanked the man's right arm off and pressed a button on the arm.

"Okay," the Doctor said as he used his cylindrical device to release Allan. "We have five minutes to get out of here. Actually, no. Two minutes."

"Ok, that means it's time to go," Peter quickly whipped out a butterfly knife from inside his sleeve, and cut open the restraints which had kept Allan strapped down to the table.

"Next time do you think maybe you could get kidnapped instead of me?" Allan asked as soon as Peter pulled Allan to his feet, and the two of them bolted for the exit right after the Doctor.

"But you're so good at it. I would hate to upstage you," Peter joked, and Allan responded with a glare to the back of Peter's head.

Later, back in America…

The TARDIS materialized right in the alley next to a pub and both Allan and Peter hurried out the doors with the Doctor calmly following.

"Well that was fun. I had fun. What about the two of you?" Peter grinned as he looked at the Doctor and then to Allan.

The Doctor didn't respond at all, because Allan was looking at him distrustingly. There was one thing that hadn't been explained yet. Specifically, how Allan was taken to London from America in the blink of an eye.

"I know right it's insanely cool, does anybody want a pint because I could go for one?" Peter gestured to the pub that they had landed next to and sighed at the expression on Allan's face. The expression which clearly showed that a drink was the last thing on Allan's mind at the moment.

"Spit it out, already," the Doctor said, irked.

"Why exactly did that man hate you so much, apart from how obviously annoying you are," Allan said with an annoyed look on his face.

"I made him a promise," the Doctor replied. "I couldn't deliver, so he blames me."

"Oh, if you feel the back of your neck," the Doctor said. "You should feel a technological disk thing. That device is a miniature transmat. Single-use. For emergencies where you need to escape. That's how you got to London so quickly."

"Does it come off?!" Allan exclaimed as he tried his best to reach the miniature transmat device.

"Damn you Pete!" Allan yelled when his friend reached over and yanked the device off which caused a sharp pain on the back of Allan's neck. Allan turned around with a deadly look on his face ready to kill his friend. Peter held the device for both Allan and the Doctor to see with a broad grin on his face.

"I'll take that," the Doctor said as he swiped the device from Peter.

"Bye," the Doctor said as he entered the TARDIS which began dematerializing.

These two kids would never see the Doctor again. Nor would they hear about him, because SHIELD is very tight-lipped about events the Doctor participates in. The Doctor would never see them again, but he would see their descendants. Descendants that would cause the extinction of all mutants by the hands of humanity.