Sarah Elizabeth Hollinger was an average girl. She was 16 years old, standing at around 5'3" and had a fair figure, with long brown hair and blue eyes. She was nothing that any of the guys at school paid attention to, and she was fine with that. It wasn't that she didn't like guys, she just didn't like how some of the guys at school treat girls, and was fine not having a date until she was a bit older, and the boys were a bit more mature.
She was walking home from school, as she always did. Most people thought it strange that she walked home, seeing as school was all the way across town. She just liked the adventure of walking places, and besides, it was good exercise.
Today was no different, she walked home as usual, and nothing big happened. There wasn't a person out walking and there were very few cars out driving. She stopped for a second to check her phone, when all of a sudden; a gray, cylindrical object appeared right in front of her.
Out from the cylinder stepped a strange man. He was strange not only because of how he looked, but every single thing about him. He walked out in a half-hobble and half-strut, a prideful limp of sorts. His clothes (at least, she thought they were clothes) were completely… indescribable. He dressed like he was going to a Comic-Con as a Star Trek guy. He had this Reddish brown cloak underneath bright red… armor? She was stunned and unable to think or even process what was happening.
"Oh, Hello there! You look a bit shocked, well, I guess I would be too if a gray box fell out of the sky and I popped out. Do you happen to know where the nearest nitro-electric dealer is? I really need to have a nitro-powered hydrothermal engine. Got any lemon-juice perhaps?"
After the man said 'lemon-juice' Sarah was finally able to speak… in a way; "Y-y-y-yes," She sputtered, "I think that we might have some… why don't you come h-h-home with me?" Sarah had lost all common sense at that point; any girl, or for that matter person wouldn't invite a strange man into their house.
"But I can't leave the old girl here," the man commented, touching the box.
"Well what are you planning on doing? Dragging it along with us? I live a few blocks away, so there is no way we're dragging that thing with us."
"Why don't we take it to your place?"
"I just explained that it's impossible! Unless it can sprout wings and fly…"
"It can… in a way… why don't we take it for a spin?" The man walked into the box, and shut the panel. A moment later, he opened the door and poked his head out addressing the girl. "You coming or not? Because I can't wait here forever, I'll get bored!"
"Well I'm not getting in that tiny thing with you!" She was truly startled that a strange man was inviting her into a small box.
"Trust me," the man said, "It's a lot more spacious on the inside."
So Sarah reluctantly decided to follow the strange man into the small tube-box, expecting it to be a trap, but she figured she could take him out, even with his Star-Trek armor on. She followed the man into the tube and was taken aback, even more than she was a few seconds ago. She looked in, and stepped back out; circling the tube, then stepped back in.
"It's bigger on the inside." She said this in a literal matter, for while the tube was rather small on the outside, she just walked into a rather large, and completely white, except the very light gray round-things on the walls, in a sort of design, and a hexagonal piece of machinery in the smack-center.
"Yes, it is. It's called a TARDIS. That means Time-And-Relative-Dimensions-In-Space. Basically it's another dimension trapped in the tube on the outside. Probably hard for you to comprehend but, not to worry; I've already set coordinates to your house."
She stood there completely dumfounded for a moment, but then thought of something rather disturbing, then asked about it. "How's come you know where I live?"
"Well," the man began, "It would be stretching it to say that "I" set the coordinates. The TARDIS has a sort of, how could I say, mind of its own. It read your mind, so to say, and figured out where to go."
"Wait, so you mean the box can read my mind!?"
"I could say that it couldn't, but that would raise two problems. One; it would be a flat-out lie, and two; it would make me seem like a complete creep."
"And having a box that reads people's minds doesn't!"
"Well it's better than me stalking you and finding where you live!"
She was about to yell at him again, when the whole room started to shake, and she was nearly deafened by a loud whirring sound. "WHAT IS THAT?" she shouted.
"Well, it's been out of use for the longest time so I guess," the room shook violently and interrupted him, and threw her to the ground, but he just continued after the shaking stopped he just continued as if nothing happened, "I guess that it's kind of warming up!"
"You couldn't have done this before I got on this stupid thing!?"
The man barely acknowledged her as he was pushing buttons and pulling levers, before he finally stopped, and the room stopped shaking. "We are here," he stated, "And I'd like an apology"
"For what?" She shouted at him.
"Could we please stop the shouting?" The man pleaded, covering his ears.
"Okay," Sarah began, trying to keep calm, "Why would I apologize to you?"
The man looked puzzled, and then mumbled something under his breath. He then opened the door to the outside, and said: "Nothing of importance, but never mind that, we're at your place… I think."
Sarah stepped out of the box, not knowing what to expect. After being in a shaking box that is bigger on the inside, she couldn't imagine what could be outside of it. However, she stepped out and found her to be in her backyard.
She ran inside, half overjoyed and half scared to death. "Mom, Dad, you won't believe what happened to me on the way home!" She expected her parents to jump up and greet her and start asking a load of questions, but she found an eerie silence. "Mom? Dad?" She was getting worried. Her parents were always sitting in the front room, waiting to get home.
She looked at a clock in the house, to make sure she was there on time, and found out that she was there exactly when she usually is. She ran around the house trying to find them, searching every room, when she came to their bedroom. It was eerily quiet, and she felt like her heart was going to jump out of her chest, and she didn't know why.
She was scared to go inside, but mustering up all of her courage, she opened the door, and stepped inside. She was scared to think about what she would see, but was somewhat pleasantly surprised to find nothing out of the ordinary, other than a few burn marks on the floor, which wasn't surprising since her dad smoked.
Breathing a sigh of relief, she walked to the window, to look out and see if either of her parents were anywhere to be seen. She was intently looking down her street, when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She jumped about five feet in the air before turning around and realizing that it was just the man she met earlier.
"My god you scared me," she shouted, gasping for breath.
"I'm sorry," the man started, "but I was wondering where you kept your lemon juice."
"Seriously?" Sarah said, somewhat annoyed. "You couldn't think to look in the fridge, where anyone in their right mind would put lemon juice?" She then stormed downstairs, with the man following, before she stopped and turned around. "When did I let you inside anyways?"
"Earlier, or, that's the impression I got. Was I mistaken?"
"Oh, right," she said sheepishly, "I'm just worried about my parents." She then went and got the lemon-shaped bottle of lemon juice. "Here you go!"
The man then popped open the lid, and drank down the whole bottle in one drink. Sarah just stood there watching, her whole face puckering up at the thought of how sour that would taste.
"Much better!" The man said joyfully, giving a sigh of relief.
"That," Sarah started, "has to be one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen."
"Sorry, just had this craving that had to be satisfied. It's a natural side-effect of regeneration sickness."
Sarah just stood there looking confused. She felt dumb, just standing there not saying anything, and felt kind of embarrassed.
The man, seeing that she didn't understand started to explain. "You see, I'm not a human. I'm Gallifreyan, from the planet Gallifrey. I am what is known there as a Time Lord, a Gallifreyan of high rank, who is given twelve regenerations as a precaution. Regeneration happens when a fatal injury is dealt to the body, and is given a bit of time to adjust. What happens then is every single cell in the body changes, in order to repair the injury. The negative side of it is that your appearance and personality changes, as well as you get fairly sick afterwards."
Sarah had never been so confused in her life, but nodded her head, trying to buy her time to try and figure out what the man said. Unfortunately for her the man started talking again. "Now that I have basically revealed every bit about myself, I would like to introduce myself. I am Redocluxeciokacius, or just simply "Red" for short. But, I prefer to be called 'The Guardian'."
Finally, Sarah thought, something I understand. "Well then," Sarah said, "it's nice to meet you, um, Red. I'm called Sarah."
"Please," The Guardian started, "Call me 'Guardian'. It makes me feel like I am doing my job, unlike The Doctor."
"Doctor? Doctor who?" She asked. "Please explain to me, Guardian, who you are and who this Doctor fellow is."
"Basically," The Guardian started, and Sarah prepared for another long explanation about everything, "The Doctor is a Time Lord, like me. We were both soldiers in the Last Great Time War, which, by the way, I won't explain. We both were fighting the enemy of Gallifrey, the Daleks. After a long war, the Doctor said, and I quote, "No More", and decided to burn Gallifrey to save the universe. He burned Gallifrey, and everyone on it, including every single Dalek. Unfortunately, the planet and all of its inhabitants burned, and only I escaped. So, now I hate the doctor, and if he still lives, I will kill him."
Sarah managed to follow what he was saying, and was rather shocked at the sharp and rather dark turn his explanation took. She still had no ideas as to what the hell a 'Dalek' was, and what they were doing attacking a planet called Gallifrey, but those were questions for a different time.
"I'm sorry to bother you again," started the Guardian, "but do you happen to have a place where I could… lay down?" The Guardian looked very flushed all of a sudden and was burning up when Sarah checked him for a fever.
She then prepared the sofa for the guardian to lie down on. What will my parents think, she thought to herself, inviting a strange man into our house without their permission? Then, she realized that the Guardian was still wearing his… armor… and needed to get into more regular clothes.
She led him to her dad's closet, the one with all of the clothes he doesn't use. "You can have anything from this closet, I think, and my dad won't mind."
The Guardian wasted no time in picking out a few articles of clothing. He then did a sort of gesture asking where the restroom was. Sarah showed the man to the restroom and waited outside to see what the man picked to wear. After about ten minutes, which Sarah found rather odd that he was took so long, the Guardian came out in full clothing, and was so oddly dressed that she couldn't hold in her laughter.
He was wearing an old beat up blue sport coat, with a gray vest underneath. His shirt was dark green, and obviously way too big for him. He wore bright blue jeans and black dress-shoes, with white socks (which she thought was the worst offence of all).
"You can't seriously be thinking of wearing that," she commented.
"And why not? It's not like you have anything better in your closet. Or your dad's, since I assume these aren't your clothes."
She then remembered that she still hadn't found her mom and dad. She started panicking and running around yelling for them, leaving the Guardian in a state of utter confusion.
"Well," the Guardian started, "I'm going to go see what's on your television." He plopped down on the couch, and used the Sonic Screwdriver to turn the TV on, then intently watched as CNN came on. Meanwhile, Sarah couldn't be more worried. Her parents were always in a sensible place. She decided, in a moment of desperation, to look in the basement.
Her basement wasn't more than a musty old cellar, with mold and mildew on the walls, and no flooring worth anything. No one in the house ever went down there, and with good reason. Still, Sarah climbed the rickety wooden staircase leading down into the murky place, and gasped at what she saw.
The Guardian, having studied this point in history well, knew not to trust anything the news media says, seeing as most of their reports turned out to be wrong in the long run. He jumped up when he heard a high pitched, mortified scream coming from the basement.
He leaped over the couch, and bolted downstairs waving the Sonic around. He saw, lying on the basement floor, a body of a large, middle aged man, and a tall, thin woman. "I take it, these are your parents," the Guardian said, even though he knew that he didn't need to say it.
Sarah then buried her head into the Guardian's shoulder, sobbing uncontrollably. "Who could have done this?" She asked, forcing it through tears.
"I don't know," the Guardian answered, "But I would more be asking 'what could have done this?'."
Sarah wanted to respond, but she was to overcome with grief to even say another word. The Guardian then led Sarah to the couch, and had her lay down. He then went into the kitchen and started making her a glass of hot tea. While the kettle was boiling the water, the Guardian went downstairs and investigated the bodies.
In the meantime, Sarah was thinking to herself, trying to hold back her tears. She was wondering what could have happened to her parents. They were obviously murdered, but by whom, or what? She thought more about what she would do when the police came, and where she'd go. She didn't know of any responsible relatives that were around, and hated the thought of a foster family.
She then thought to herself how nice the Guardian was, even with all of his quirks. She also thought about how he couldn't be more than a year older than her, and how he was handsome, even though he had a moustache and whiskers growing (she wasn't really into facial hair). But then she remembered that her parents just were murdered, and she burst into a loud sob.
The Guardian was trying to see the cause of death of the couple. He was checking all over with his Sonic, testing for different poisons and chemicals in the bloodstream. He was sure that it had to be poison or a chemical, seeing as there were no exterior wounds. After scanning for all human causes of death, the Guardian slumped against the wall. He was stumped, and was angry because of it.
He wasn't angry because he couldn't figure it out for himself, but because of what it would do to Sarah. He was seriously concerned for her, and after a long silence, he heard her burst into tears again, so he ran to comfort her… again.
The Guardian wasn't used to being compassionate, especially towards any race other than Gallifreyans. Still, he felt that Sarah was an innocent teenager, who just faced a tragedy that most people would have a complete breakdown over. She of course was crying, but all people do when something tragic happens, even when someone dies of natural causes.
Sitting on the arm of the sofa, the Guardian gestured that it was okay to come to him for help. Sarah couldn't help it, so she gave the Guardian a giant hug, crying into his shoulder. She was completely embarrassed, crying on a strange man's arm. But then she thought about how genuinely sad she was, and how she knew that he would understand.
The Guardian thought about what could murder a human without leaving a single trace. There were no marks on their clothing, no signs of intense radiation, which is usually the cause of death with no given cause. He was baffled, and while he was half stroking Sarah's hair, the Guardian thought of something.
"U.M.M.!" The Guardian shouted abruptly, scaring Sarah half to death. "Sorry, Sarah, I've figured out what killed your parents!"
Sarah wiped tears from her eyes, then tried to speak, but gave up and nodded her head, signaling for the Guardian to explain. "Undetectable Mass Murderer," the Guardian started, "or more commonly called the U.M.M. is a cyborg-type robot that was designed in the great Xygorackian War to easily win the war for the invaders, the Hanorgians. Unfortunately, the Xygorackians discovered time travel, and specifically, the many uses of the Time Vortex. Some of the machines were teleported through time and wreaked havoc wherever they went. It seems that one found its way into your house."
Then something happened the Guardian did not see coming. Sarah burst into tears and slapped the Guardian so hard he fell to the ground, rubbing his cheek. "And what the Hell was that for!?" The Guardian shouted, shocked at this violent outburst.
"Those were my parents," Sarah explained through heavy sobbing, "and you are treating them like a history lesson! They were my parents!" She then broke down and fell to the ground on her knees, burying her head in her hands, and weeping uncontrollably.
The Guardian didn't know what to do for a moment. Then, he got down next to Sarah. He brushed her hair out of her eyes, and let her cry on his shoulder again. "Don't worry, we'll find the bastard who did this," he promised, "and he'll wish that he was never created."
A few hours later, Sarah was sound asleep on the couch, afraid to be out of the Guardian's sight. Before she dozed off, he had her come with him to the TARDIS to gather some weapon-making materials. Now, the Guardian sat at the kitchen table putting some advanced sort of gun together.
He worked six full hours non-stopped on the gun until he pulled it up with his right hand as if he were about to shoot it. The gun was massive. It had four barrels in a diamond pattern, each measuring in diameter almost six inches. It probably fired rockets or another type of heavy ammunition. He then started shouting something in a strange language, if you could call it that, seeing as what he said mostly consisted of bleeps and whirrs.
Unfortunately, all of this noise woke Sarah up. She took a minute to come to her senses before wandering into the kitchen to get herself a glass of coffee. When she got to the kitchen however, she gasped when she saw what the Guardian had in his hands. "And what the Hell are you doing with that!?" She shouted, mostly from shock. "And stop pointing that at me unless it makes coffee!"
"Well," the guardian began, and Sarah braced herself for a long explanation, "this here is a handmade MRPGLM24, or massive rocket propelled grenade launcher, model 24. I used the stuff we got from the TARDIS to build it to take down our good friend the UMM. It would take more than any human weapons, so I built this. You should probably stay here while I go hunting for it. I could never let any harm come to you."
For once Sarah actually understood all of the technobabble that the Guardian spewed out, but she didn't understand why he wouldn't want harm to come to her. He met her yesterday, and he has done nothing but act completely… weird. He has shown no human emotions, he wasn't even scared when she found her parents. Then, she spoke up. "I want to come too!"
"No," he said, "I can't let you be in harm's way. Besides, we don't even know if it's armed."
"But you said that it killed without trace!"
"Well, it can, but it is a long and tedious task. When it killed your parents, it obviously did not want to be discovered, and probably had a lot of time on his hands. It may not be so discrete if we assaulted it head-on. Wait here while I track its position." The Guardian walked towards the door, when Sarah stopped him.
"Be careful," she said, starting to tear up again.
"Don't worry. I survived the Great Time War without losing a single regeneration. I can take out a petty robot no problem."
She started crying on the inside, but waited until the Guardian was gone to actually start crying. She felt like she was left all alone. She had lost her parents to a strange robot-creature, and she didn't want to have the strange Guardian die too. She had to do something about it, but she didn't know what.
The Guardian was running up and down the street waving the Sonic Screwdriver in the air, trying to detect remote radioactive neuron outputs (or so he says that's what it is, even though it's likely that he's just detecting for footprints). After walking for almost an hour north, he caught a trace of the UMM and ran where the signals were stronger. He ran until the signal was so strong, the Sonic almost broke.
He didn't understand it. The UMM had no concept of being stealthy when it didn't deal with murdering. He Soniced the ground beneath him and found that there was a massive sewer system beneath his feet. He stepped back about ten yards, and pointed the gun he was carrying at the ground where he just was.
He pulled the trigger, and a rocket shot out from one of the barrels, and flew at an incredible speed towards the ground. The Guardian watched as the ground started to crumble around that spot, after the massive explosion cleared away.
Just a few seconds after he blew up the ground, he watched as a metallic human-like figure crawled out of the rubble. He had his gun ready to fire, but decided to watch and see what the UMM was going to do. Unfortunately, the UMM with lightning-quick reflexes pulled out a small rocket launcher, and shot the Guardian's gun out of his right hand.
The Guardian watched as it happened, a searing pain coming from his hand. He scrambled to turn around and get the gun before he looked down and gave a gasp of horror. The UMM didn't just shoot the gun; it shot the Guardian's right hand clean off.
The Guardian dropped to his knees. He lost all hope, and only hoped for a quick and painless death. A Time Lord can regenerate all cells, but is incapable of regenerating any lost skin, or limbs. That meant that the Guardian would have this injury for the rest of his life, no matter how many times he regenerated.
But then the Guardian remembered one thing; Sarah. He was filled with a burning rage and got up. IN an instant so fast, even the UMM couldn't react, the Guardian was running towards the UMM yelling a sort of war-cry, before punching the robotic human in the face, making the robot stumble backwards. The robot was not phased, unfortunately, as it picked up the Guardian by his collar and threw him against a wall.
The Guardian knew it was the end for him, as the robot pressed its metal fingers against his temples. The Guardian screamed in agony, even though he was not physically hurting. He knew that he was about to die a slow death, without avenging Gallifrey, and without stopping the robot, possibly endangering all of mankind.
He was dying without hope, and just as he was about to breath his last, a rocket came out of nowhere and shot the robot to the other end of the street before blowing up. The Guardian, somewhat dazed looked up, and with blurry eyes saw a small female figure holding his gun start to walk towards him.
It was Sarah. She walked up and with teary eyes took the guardian and hugged him. It was not a romantic hug, or even a hug of friendship. It was a hug of true sorrow. She was crying uncontrollably. There was no joy in her tears. She must think I'm dead, the guardian thought, But oh how I wish I had my hand. I can't hug her back, not like this…
The Guardian gave a deep sigh, alerting Sarah that he was alive. She started laughing through tears, even though there was nothing remotely funny about the situation. Then the Guardian, with heavy eyes, held up the stump that used to be his right hand. It was not bloody; however, the skin seemed to have immediately covered itself.
She looked at the stump with also heavy eyes. However, there was a spark of determination in her eyes, before she got up and walked over to what used to be the robot, and reached down and grabbed the robot's right hand, which was somewhat in-tact, although a bit charred from the explosion.
"I don't suppose this would help, would it?" Sarah asked this in a somewhat comedic way, but with serious intent in mind.
The Guardian looked at her, and got up. "Would you like to come with me? I have plans of travel so extravagant that you will never be bored for the rest of your life."
Sarah was shocked that he handled this so well. She had gotten over her parents deaths, since she just took out what had killed them. "It's not like the movies, Mister Guardian." She said.
"What Isn't?"
"Revenge," she stated, "In the movies the hero who gets revenge by killing the enemy never feels satisfied, even though they think they should. Not me, though. I am completely content now. Probably because I know that the bastard won't be harming anyone after this."
The Guardian just smiled as he picked up the gun, and then took the robotic hand that Sarah was holding. He led her back home without a word spoken. The silence wasn't awkward, however. They both knew what was going to happen. They got home, and the Guardian stopped to see Sarah inside, though he did not go inside himself. Sarah looked at him with a rather mischievous grin.
"Yes, Mister Guardian," Sarah began, "I would like to come with you and travel in your spaceship tube. I have nothing left here. I won't be missed. In fact, you'd be doing me a favor. Also, your time-machine is in my backyard, so you'll have to come inside to get it."
"Okay, but if you travel with me, you do it on my terms. Also, I forgot to ask you; what exactly do I look like?"
"Can't you just look into a mirror like a regular person?"
"No, I can't. Well, I can actually, but I hate looking at mirrors. Nasty confusing things; and I hate confusing things. Can't you just tell me? I also need a rough age estimate, just in case."
"Aright, here it goes: You have dark brown hair. It's rather long, but not scary long. You have a moustache, and whiskers growing in, and your eyes are dark brown. Also, you look about seventeen or eighteen. Is that good enough?"
"Yes that's fine." The guardian stepped inside the house and ran to the back door. "Are you coming or not?"
Sarah gave a truly happy grin as she ran to the tube in the backyard. She entered the TARDIS and was still as shocked as before. The Guardian stepped inside and closed the door behind them. He showed her to her bedroom that was right by the console room.
"Now, here are the rules of the TARDIS. One, no touching anything. Two; you are not allowed to go to any room other the console room, the bathroom, the eating room, and your bedroom unless I want to show you a thing. Three; you must contact me if you get bored." After the Guardian said this, he wandered off into the long corridor carrying the mechanical hand and his Sonic Screwdriver. She got herself dressed for bed and drifted off to sleep in her bed she was given. She never had a better night sleep than she did that night, and hoped that there were more to come.
EPOLOUGE:
Sarah came out the next morning into the console room after getting dressed and her makeup on. She saw that the Guardian was at the main console, and had the mechanical hand she got from the robot attached to his right arm.
"So, I see you got your hand fixed," she commented plainly.
"Well not exactly," the Guardian began, "I rewired the circuits of the robot hand into the severed nerves of my right arm, so it basically functions as my arm would have, only I have to oil it every once in a while. You'd think that the Hanorgians would have come up with a corrosion proof metal.
"There's one thing I don't understand, Sarah. Why did you come after me?"
"Well," Sarah replied, "I just couldn't lose you, that's all. After losing my parents I had to have someone to go to."
The guardian just smiled. "We're off to our next adventure, Sarah, and it does concern the Doctor whom I have already mentioned. So without further questions, let's go!" The Guardian pulled a lever and the TARDIS made a loud whirring sound, and then stopped abruptly. "I guess we're here," the Guardian said shakily as they headed out of the TARDIS doors.