((New York City's Crazy Parade))
~~OO~~II~~OO~~
I closed the journal in my lap with a sharp sound, smirking down at it as I set the pen in my hand aside. Clave yawned, raising head with a questioning look as his jaws parted in a massive yawn and I giggled, scratching his chin when he shifted to rest on my leg. "Hey, buddy," I murmured, watching as his eyes fluttered shut with a contented purr before tilting my head back to look at the planets that hovered around my ceiling. "Gonna be a crazy month, huh?"
I'd spent the last however many hours filling in the journal with every moment I'd been with the Doctor so far. I'd managed to fill half of it already, yet there seemed to be no end to the paper and I had grinned. Bigger on the inside seemed to be a Gallifreyan idea used quite often when it came to the Doctor. Now I was all up to date on what was happening with the Doctor. It was all written down so that when I was gone, somebody could enjoy it. Perhaps another companion of the Doctor.
"Alright, buddy," I said firmly, "Time to go face see what that idiot's been doing, huh?"
Clave sighed, but heaved himself to his feet and dropped from the side of my bed. He waited until I had climbed out as well, then scrambled up to curl around my shoulders, resting his head near his tail. I rolled my eyes. "Lazy." He hissed.
"Hey, Doctor!" I called as I made my way out of my room and into the control area. But he was nowhere to be seen. I frowned, demanding, "Hey, where'd he run off to?"
"He will return momentarily, my Girl," the TARDIS reassured soothingly, sensing my worry. "He has merely gone to fetch his coat."
"So he's finally hunting the trench coat down, eh?" I muttered, relaxing. So long as he didn't run off, wait until I was gone, then leave me again, we were good. I flopped down into the captain's seat with a small sigh. This would take a while. I knew it would.
And I was right. Maybe half an hour later, the Doctor came strolling in, wearing his trench coat and a big smile on his face, like he'd accomplished the most satisfying task in the world. I couldn't help myself; I laughed, standing up. "I see you found what you were looking for. Where'd you leave it this time?"
"Library," the Doctor answered with a sigh. His grin returned quickly. "So where are we going? There's this nice little planet, has some delicious tea." I raised an eyebrow and the Doctor huffed. "It's got decent iced tea, too, if you'd prefer. And good chips, as well..."
"Sounds good to me," I agreed readily. I watched as he went over to the control panel and began to pull a few levers and twist a few knobs, grinning as he practically danced while doing it. I shook my head in amusement. This man was crazy! My thoughts were cut off when my phone suddenly began to ring. Frowning, I answered it. "Hello?"
"Ali! Good! You need to come to New York City. Central Park. Noon on September 5th, 2014. Bye."
"Nice to hear from you, too, Catie," I grumbled raising an eyebrow as I hung up my end. "Change of plans, Doctor, you and I are going to Central Park on September 2nd, 2014 at noon. Catie needs us for something apparently."
The Doctor sighed. "I was going to give us a break from crazy alien chases and bad people." I patted his shoulder reassuringly, giving him a saddened look to show I was apologetic. "Don't worry. We'll go there after we deal with whatever mess is going on now."
As he began to switch the coordinates, the TARDIS purred in my ear, "My Thief is irritated," and I snorted, amused until she continued. "He does not want to put you in any more danger. Bad Wolf worries him more than he shows."
I nodded slowly, my gaze darkening. He was the Doctor. There was no way possible that we'd be able to avoid danger between that and me being the Successor. The idiot. Deciding against saying anything about it, I gripped the control panel. Clave dug his talons in gently to keep from going places unintentionally.
Soon, we were striding out the TARDIS doors. I muttered a farewell to the TARDIS, and she hummed in response as Clave hid himself beneath my mass of hair. I contemplated for the who knows what time about cutting it before shrugging the idea off. The Doctor offered his arm and I took it with a slight smile on my face.
The sky was cloudy, threatening to pour down atop of our heads, and I sighed. Catie just had to choose a rainy day, didn't she? As if hearing my thoughts, my friend piped into view. "Catie!" I called while waving a hand to catch her attention. Recognizing her, Clave purred and lifted his head from beneath my hair to rest it on top of my head. I huffed and the Doctor chuckled.
Catie jogged over, then doubled over, panting for breath. "Got caught up leaning a mess, sorry I wasn't here to meet you," she panted, then said firmly, "Need some help. There's a something just running around having a blast destroying all of my work."
"...you called us 'cause something's destroying the work you're doing on balloons and floats," I said bluntly, raising an eyebrow. "There are worlds being blown up, ya know. And we were going to get something to eat..."
Catie arched an eyebrow and I glared back when I realized what she was amused with. The Doctor was clueless, looking between the two of us with a curious look. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," I gritted out, giving my friend a final glare.
She smirked, then crossed her arms, saying, "It's not just something running around though. I think it's your kind of thing. I saw it once, it was small and orange and weird looking."
I immediately had a guess at what it was. Lowering my hand to about two feet off the ground, I questioned, "This tall? Looked like a weird little child with no clothes on?" She nodded, looking surprised.
"Looks like the Carfioliax are running around again," the Doctor mused and I giggled. "This must be the first time they meet us, Ali, we'll have to be a bit more careful than the last time we came across them."
I shrugged. "They're little two foot tall munchkins, Doctor. How hard can it be?"
Catie burst into laughter at how I stated my words. I huffed at her response, ignoring her as I turned back to the Doctor. He grinned, looking ready to laugh right along with Catie, and I sighed.
All of my friends were a bunch of freaking idiots! "Let's just go and deal with them. They're a bunch of cute little annoyances."
Catie only laughed harder.
~~OO~~II~~OO~~
I sighed softly as I examined the destroyed parade float. "Really, Catie?" I muttered, glancing at her with a raised eyebrow. "Really?"
"It's for the kids," she protested. "They like Ariel and Flounder and Sebastian from the Little Mermaid!" A huff escaped her, and a furious look appeared on her face. "This was one of our best parade floats! Don't judge!" She glared at what had once been Ariel's face, now a destroyed mess. "I spent three weeks on this float with two other people! I mean, I kinda wanted to smash it myself, but..."
"Alright, alright," I muttered as the Doctor knelt to inspect the destroyed parade float. Clave huffed, sliding from my shoulders to sniff at the damage himself before hissing suddenly. He slid inside the float and I groaned automatically moving to reach inside to drag him back out.
The Doctor caught my hand, gently pushing me back. "Give him a second, Ali, he's found something that's hiding." I blinked, listening closely. Sure enough, Clave was hissing, and there was a high pitched shrieking. "Careful, Clave," the Doctor warned. "Don't hurt it, too bad."
Catie crouched beside us as Clave began to slither out backwards, teeth gently clasping a Carfioliax's leg. I grinned as he dragged the poor creature out, then reached out myself to grab its legs and hold it upside down. "Good job, Clave," I praised. He purred proudly, chest puffing up.
The Carfioliax shrieked unhappily, its voice a piercing cry. "RELEASE ME!"
"I think not," I mused, grinning. The Doctor frowned disapprovingly, gently taking the alien from me and setting it right side up on the ground. Clave hissed warningly at it, curling up around my feet. I felt a flash of guilt when I saw that it was near tears, looking terrified.
"What is it?" Catie questioned, eyes wide.
"Carfioliax, just like we said," I told her, tilting my head before adressing the little thing. "So, little guy, why are you and your friends destroying my friend's work?"
The alien scowled at me, refusing to answer. The Doctor sighed, saying gently, "Hullo. Recognize me? I'm the Doctor." The Carfioliax's eyes widened with shock and it gave a gasp. "And this is my companion, Ali, the Successor, and her friend." It's eyes were as wide as saucers and I giggled. Until it looked absolutely terrified.
"The Successor," it breathed, staring at me with utter horror. "You're going to be the destruction of us all!" With that, it promptly burst into terrified tears. Hurt flooded me, and I stood, stepping back. Destruction? I'm killing myself to save you little bloody bastards!
Clave glared, then rubbed against my leg soothingly, purring quietly. "I'm not out to destroy you, I'm trying to save you," I muttered. Catie cast me a curious look and I promised, "I'll tell you later. It's a long story." Catie wouldn't freak out like Drevan would do. She'd help us figure out a possible solution to the problem, I knew she would.
The Doctor smiled apologetically, then began to converse quietly with the Carfioliax, trying to coax the location of the others of its kind and why it was there out of it. I listened absent mindedly, not caring too much. The Doctor would do what we needed to do and then we could get away from the creatures labeling me as a murderer.
Soon, he stood, clapping his hands together with a grin. "Alright. So their spaceship broke down- again." I sighed. He'd known I wasn't paying attention. "Except this time, you can't help it. So I'm going to need to find it and use my sonic."
"So what's the problem? Why aren't we getting a move on?" I questioned with a frown.
"The others of its kind have hid the spaceship so that it wouldn't be discovered and now this one can't find its way back," the Doctor replied. I moaned in frustration and Catie demanded, "So why are they destroying my floats and balloons?"
"Looking for parts," the Doctor answered, crossing his arms. The trench coat seemed to float dramatically around him for a moment and I couldn't help but long for my sketchbook. I'd definitely be drawing when we got back into the TARDIS. "Apparently your floats and balloons have some pieces that they think they need for their ship."
"You'll help us?" the alien questioned anxiously, gaze flickering towards me. He glared.
My temper snapped. Glowering at the little alien and remembering just how cuddly they'd been the last time I'd seen them, I snarled, "Listen here, you little brat. I'm not going to kill you all. I'm all for saving you, got it!? Otherwise, I wouldn't be with the Doctor! I'd be on some distant planet, unable to do anything if I was trying to kill everyone and destroy the universe! So stop giving me dirty looks, and get over it!" Panting for breath after my little anger fest, I whirled around and stalked away, Clave skittering after me. Screw this, I'm going to go shopping. Or something. Just need to find some money...
But no such luck would happen to me. The Doctor simply jogged after me, gently clasping my arm and demanding, "Ali, calm down. They don't know yet, remember?"
"I don't care," I spat. "Them, you-" Too angry to continue, I heaved out a sigh and shook his hand off, then growled, "Clave and I are going back to the TARDIS. Since I don't need to do anything, you'll know where to find me." I waved at the utterly bewildered Catie, who was studying the Carfioliax with a curious look on her face, speaking quietly to it. She didn't seem to notice, too intrigued by whatever it was saying to her.
Clave scrambled up onto my shoulder. The Doctor looked unhappy, and said quietly, leaning in to speak so that Clave would be the only other person with a chance of speaking. "Forgive it, Ali, you haven't proven yourself to it yet."
"Why should I have to prove myself to it?" I mumbled. Finally, I let the frustrated tears fall and turned to face him completely. "Doctor, I'm not going to try and prove myself to them. I'm willing to die to keep them alive, and they're accusing me of destroying everything. Why should I work to keep them happy, huh?"
He gave a grim look at my reminder. "Alright, you don't have to help." He lightly kissed my forehead, and Clave hissed his annoyance. The Doctor chuckled. "At least come with us, though. Who knows what else is running around looking for us."
I grumbled. "Fine," I muttered, rolling my eyes at his relieved look. "I'm not going anywhere for a while, you know," I said quietly. "We've got a while before we have to worry about whether or not I'm living up to my title." I reassuringly patted his arm, returning the reassuring kiss to his forehead before pulling back when Clave snarled unhappily. I sighed. "Honestly, Clave," I scolded. "Stop that!"
The jealous alien glared at us, then turned his head away with a sniff. The Doctor snorted, then murmured, "Good to know. Come on," he told me, grabbing my elbow and gently guiding me back towards the Carfioliax.
I proceeded to act as if the little thing didn't exist. Every now and then it would glare at me, or stare at me, but I ignored it and smirked every time Clave protectively bared his teeth and hissed. "That's my boy," I mumbled after he did it for the fifteenth time.
"How exactly are we supposed to find the ship?" Catie demanded tiredly as we were walking towards the TARDIS.
"Scans," I piped up for the Doctor, snickering when he pouted. "And while you two are running aruond trying to find it, I'm going to be in my room in the TARDIS, enjoying myself and drawing and sleeping. Probably. Might go to the kitchen to make myself something to eat, but nothing other than that.
The Carfioliax seemed surprised. "The Successor eats?"
Catie glared at it. "Of course Ali eats, she's human."
As far as we're concerned, yeah. That would change really quickly when the TARDIS handed over everything she had to offer. Smirking at it, I muttered just so it could hear, "Especially little aliens that annoy me."
"Ali!" the Doctor scolded as the alien squealed and hurried to hide behind Catie's leg. "Don't make your situation worse than it already is. She doesn't eat aliens," he reassured the Carfioliax. "If that was true, than I'd have been eaten months ago."
"Still contemplating on that!" I teased him. The Doctor glared at me mockingly and then broke into a grin.
We reached the TARDIS soon after that and I cocked an eyebrow as she greeted, "Welcome back, my Girl, my Thief, little alien, and-" I roared with laughter while Catie was demanding what was so funny. She couldn't think of what to call her! Waving off Catie's question, I asked aloud, "Mind setting up a few scans, old girl? We need to be able to find this little jerk's ship. He can't find it himself."
"Of course, my Girl. I cannot do a wide area, however," she said apologetically, "I am tiring rather quickly today."
"It's alright," I soothed as the TARDIS set to work on hunting down the ship. "The TARDIS can't do a wide range, Doctor, she's tired."
"And now she speaks for a spaceship, how nice to know," Catie muttered sarcastically. "Ali's insane."
I sighed. "I'm not the one living for solely the reason of creating parade floats, Catie." She stuck her tongue out childishly and I merely snorted. Okay so we're a pair of immature weirdos. But who cares? It's fun.
Unable to help myself, I giggled and flopped comfortably down into the captain's seat to watch as the Doctor worked to find the Carfioliax's ship. Catie shoved my feet aside, sitting beside me. She'd been in the TARDIS before and was comforatble to do as she wished. Then again, that might be because she was Catie... Clave purred, snaking into her lap and curling up with a smug look on his face.
"Clave," I protested, frowning. He merely snickered and flicked my leg with his tail. I swatted it away.
The TARDIS hummed in amusement. "I have found the ship, my Girl. It once again requires your touch. Their ships seem to feed off an energy that is similar to the one that makes you the Successor, my Girl."
"Great," I growled. "Guess I do have to help, huh?" Catie raised an eyebrow at me and I sighed, explaining to her as well as the Doctor, "The TARDIS says I need to touch it again, Doctor! It probably requires you fixing stuff up, too."
"Molto bene!" he cried, not noticing my irritation. I couldn't blame him; he was the Doctor after all. He didn't notice most things half the time. Sighing, I crossed my arms, glancing at Clave and Catie. The Carfioliax was going in circles around the central column, eyes wide with astonishment. "We'll get started right away!" He paused to check the scans, then ushered the Carfioliax towards the doors. "Allons-y, Ali! Your friend and Clave can stay here so long as they don't. Touch. Anything."
The TARDIS sounded amused yet tired when she answered in my mind. "Even if she should mess with my controls, I will not move until you have rejoined us, my Girl."
"Thanks," I told her quietly. I gave Catie a strange salute, then ducked out of the TARDIS after the Doctor and the alien. Technically, I suppose they were both aliens, but...
We followed the TARDIS's directions to the instructed location, and even I could hear the low hum of a ship that was on but idle and not going anywhere whatsoever. The Carfioliax held up a hand to stop us, then called out to the other Carfioliax that hid within their ship. He spoke in a language that the tired TARDIS was unable to translate for me and I felt a moment of guilt. We'd pushed her hard today. With only just over three weeks...
Eventually, the four others that were traveling with the original came out, just as scared of me as he was. The Doctor got to work on fixing their spaceship as best as he could, and I sighed, settling down in a patch of grass to wait as he messed around beneath the spaceship like it was a simple car and he was its mechanic. So the guy could fix ships, too. That's nice.
"There!" he cried after a few minutes of working. "Good as new! Just needs a bit of fuel and you lot can go home!"
"We don't have any feul though," one of the five Carfioliax said fearfully, gazing sadly at the Doctor. I almost felt bad for the poor little guy, he looked so sad. But then I was reminded of the fact that they were scared of me and I scowled.
Sighing, I hauled myself to my feet. "That's why you have me," I said, walking up to the ship. They tittered nervously and I ignored them in favor of resting my hand on the ship's side. Immediately, it made a sound before beeping loudly.
The Carfioliax squealed happily, looking excited now. They ran to inspect their ship and I stepped back to let them crowd close to it, making sure it would work. The Doctor stood beside me, rocking back on his heels. "They'll be off now," he promised, "They don't stay in one place for too long."
"I know," I mused, then yelped as I was suddenly knocked over by the little child-like aliens tackling me, all hugging a different part of my body. One for each limb and one for my stomach. "Hey," I muttered, "You're welcome. Now could you get off? I can't breathe." They scrambled off.
"Thank you, Successor," one piped up. They all looked alike! "We won't foget this! You're not a bad person like we've heard!"
"Yeah," said another, "We'll come to your aide should you need help!"
I blinked in surprise. "Err, thanks?" I said warily. They all bid us farewell, then climbed into their ship and left. The Doctor easily threw an arm around my shoulders, practically beaming his happiness. "See? Just needed to prove yourself," he said quietly.
"Huh," I huffed, then smiled to myself as he turned us around and started heading back in the direction of the TARDIS. "So you say. Other species aren't going to be that kind, Doctor," I added quietly. "You know they aren't. Some are still going to try and kill me, sadly."
We made our way back to the TARDIS, taking our sweet time, and I smiled slightly when the TARDIS opened her doors to let us in. Inside, Catie was chatting away on her phone, looking troubled. When she caught sight of me, however, she smirked and said something quietly into the phone, agreed to something, and then hung up. "So," she said with a smirk, "One of our fancy steam punk chicks quit for the parade tomorrow..."
"Your point?" I questioned, frowning. This was not going to end well. Clave purred and climbed up onto my shoulders as I waited for her smug response.
"We need a girl with some skills..." I caught on immediately and sighed. Why the hell not? "Fine, Catie, I'll ride in your damn parade. What am I doing?" When the Doctor frowned, I said, "Just the parade. We can even skip a day ahead, remember? Then we'll go to that place you were telling me about." I paused. "Can Catie come?"
He grinned. "The more the merrier."
"Yay!" I cheered, more happy now. "What am I doing, Catie?"
"You're going to be riding a big horse," she explained, "Hence the reason we need skills, in a Victorian-style steam punk dress." A moment passed and she added, "If the horse can handle Clave, he can go with you. I can probably fit the Doctor in somewhere, too, if he wants. Oh! And I want to ask you something..."
Let's just say that the parade consisted of me steering a large black draft horse that was scared of Clave down a big street that was lined with excited cheering people and the Doctor letting Catie do what she wanted: jumping out of the TARDIS and landing on the Kermit balloon. The Doctor had only let her do it because he'd somehow found a bungee chord in his storage spaces. How? I have no idea.
But it was as fun and crazy as anything can get.
~~OO~~II~~OO~~
A/N: THE CARFIOLIAX RETURNED. They're so cute in my eyes. XD Also: Catie jumped out of the TARDIS and landed on a GIANT balloon. 'Cause you know. That's how people's minds work when they request something strange of you. Hint, hint, my friend.
Note: I seriously have no idea if Catie's profession is real. It is in my mind, kay? 'Cause those parade floats are really hard work. XD
bored411: I feel guilty for writing this sometimes. Poor Ali. XD We shall find out what the Doctor does soon enough! :D
Lorelei Tatsuye Marivaine: It is very ironic, isn't it? Irony shows up in weird places...
BrainStormer: JaVan. Is. Perfect. I love it! XD You'll have to wait to see what happens with Bad Wolf. What I have is planned is a secret to all but a select few who have helped me come up with 3/4 of this fanfiction. :D You shall see soon enough! *cue in evil laughter*
Maren the fangirl: I'm not going to lie. I have considered writing a sequel to this, though I'm not sure if I want to at this point. It all depends on how I end this first one. XD As I've said in previous chapters, one thing was supposed to happen but comes out completely different, so. :)
MaybeALittleBroken: I DON'T KNOW BUT I WANT THE PERFECT HAIR. IT'S SO PERFECT.