DOCTOR K
"EX-TER-MIN-ATE!"
The Dalek aimed its gun and fired at Motoko who came charging at it but Keitaro managed to grab her and pull her away before tossing her from the path of the beam. He was struck instead as he screamed, "AAAAHHHHHHH!" The girls all watched in horror as Keitaro's body lit up like a Christmas tree, making his skeleton visible like a cartoon character who got zapped by electricity. However, that was a cartoon and this was reality. The bespectacled young man suddenly collapsed.
"Keitaro!" Naru screamed as she ran towards him. "Keitaro, wake up!" She tried to shake him awake. "Wake up, you idiot!" she shouted but he did not wake up. "No…"
The salt-shaker shaped robot stared at the scene without emotion and demanded again, "WHERE IS THE DOC-TOR? WHERE IS THE TIME LORD?"
Motoko was shaken, shocked. She'd never witnessed someone being killed in front of her and it was worse. She had not been able to save someone even with her sword and Keitaro had saved her life, sacrificing his own.
"We don't know what you're talking about!" shouted Kitsune. Doctor? Time Lord? What did this thing want?
Even Su was trembling with Shinobu. Keitaro was dead now and they were next.
Naru sobbed over Keitaro's body. "Keitaro…I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…I love you." She'd always denied her feelings since she could not handle them but now Keitaro was gone and it was too late. "Come back…come back…"
The pocket watch in Keitaro's hand suddenly snapped open and a gold dust started to pour from it and fly towards Keitaro. The dust slowly entered his mouth and nostrils. He suddenly gasped and his eyes snapped open.
"Keitaro?" Naru asked.
"Step…away…" he said as he sat up.
"Huh?" Naru asked as she helped him up.
"Narusegawa…step away from me…Now!" His body was starting to glow with golden light. The girls were stunned as they saw this.
"Keitaro, what's going on?" she questioned.
"NARUSEGAWA! GET BACK!" he shouted as he shoved her towards the others before his entire body exploded with golden light. The Dalek, being the closest, was hit by the energy and it shorted out its weapons.
The girls watched as Keitaro's body was engulfed in the light and then the light suddenly stopped as soon as it appeared. However, Keitaro had changed. He blinked and removed his glasses. "God, this kid was blind!" He chucked the glasses away. His eyes were now a vibrant green. "Let's see…checking…" He touched his arms. "OK, still got arms." He inspected his hands as he flexed his fingers. "OK, got fingers, five on each hand." He looked at his legs. "OK, legs, check." He touched his nose. "OK, nose, eyes, ears…and hair…" His hair had also changed, turning pitch black and spiked up. He pulled a strand down over his eyes. "Blast it, my last regeneration and I'm still not a bloody ginger!" He was speaking with a British accent. He then looked towards the Dalek. "Ah, a Dalek! Long time no see!"
"EX-PLAIN! EX-PLAIN!" the Dalek demanded. "EX-PLAIN OR I WILL EX-TER-MIN-ATE YOU!"
Keitaro snickered. "Go ahead and try." It aimed its gun and it fired out a harmless puff of smoke. "That's because you got a face-full of regeneration energy. You were far too close and since it wasn't compatible with your power cells it shorted out your weapon systems. And I bet it took out your force fields, right?" He approached the Dalek and tapped its domed head. "I'm right, aren't I?" He looked the Dalek in its single eye and said in a dangerous tone, "Now, you listen here and you listen good. I don't care how many of you blasted Daleks there are but if you want to come after me that's all fine and dandy. But, come after my loved ones again and I'll show you why I was given the names the Oncoming Storm and the Destroyer of Worlds. I'm the Doctor! And the Doctor is back!"
The Dalek looked around wildly and took the smart course of action. It ran. It ran fast as it could but it would not get far.
"Aoyama, now's a good time to strike it down!"
Motoko didn't argue and launched a ki attack that struck the Dalek right through the middle. The machine monster was cut down the middle with a horrible noise that sounded like a shriek and an electronic screech. The light in the Dalek's optic died and the machine itself exploded in a haze of some and fire.
Smiling, Keitaro asked, "So, who has questions?"
It was Mutsumi who asked, "…Who are you?"
"Actually, before I can answer that there's something I need to find!" He dashed off.
"Ah, it's right here just where they left it," said the Doctor as he smiled at the tool shed affectionately.
"A tool shed?" Kitsune asked.
"Oh, it's what's inside that's amazing!" The Doctor opened up the door and walked inside. "Ah, it's good to see you again you beautiful thing!"
Kitsune walked inside and saw what the Doctor was admiring. It was a bug blue box with doors, windows, and a sign that said "Police Public Call Box". "A box?"
"Oh, it's not just a box. It's my Time And Relative Dimensions in Space. TARDIS for short. It's a time-space machine and the only one left in existence," said the Doctor, patting the side. "Ah…we've had so many adventures together."
"You're talking to a box like it's alive," said Kitsune.
"Oh, the TARDIS is alive. All of them are…or were," said the Doctor sadly. "OK, now I'm going to need some help carrying this thing out."
"I can help!" Su volunteered with a wave of her arm. Reaching into her pocket, she produced a small remote and pressed a button. In a flash, several flying Mecha-Tamas hone in on the scene and began connecting tethers to the blue box so they could lift it out.
"Well, that's handy," the Doctor grinned. "Always good to have the right friends at the right time."
"Uh, hello?" asked Kitsune. "Still waiting for an explanation here!"
"Oh!" the Doctor blinked, acting like he had forgotten. "How silly of me! My mind is just a jumble. Being regenerated so suddenly would do that I suppose. Now, where should I begin?"
"The beginning," Motoko insisted, trying to act tough in the face of so many mechanical turtles.
"No, no, no it's too soon for the beginning," the Doctor shook his head. "No, where we need to begin is the end. Always a good place to start." Standing before the girls of Hinata-Sou, the Doctor smiled as he made his introduction. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am The Doctor and it's nice to meet all of you. Well, it would be if we were just meeting but I already know all of you so this is the first time you've met me."
"And where is Urashima?" asked Motoko sternly. "Are you some spirit that claimed his body when he was on the edge of life and death?"
"Oh heavens no!" the Doctor insisted. "I'm a Time Lord. As for Mr. Urashima, well, I am him. Or rather, he was me. We're one in the same. It's just that he was more dominant until that Dalek managed to track me down and muck everything up. Now, I guess you all want to know how I can be Keitaro and how he can be me. Well, it started years ago in your time stream. I was attacked and my TARDIS here got shot. I was hurt and dying and in the middle of regenerating when my Chameleon Arch came down on my head. Oh and a Chameleon Arch is a machine that rewrites a Time Lord's biology and it was set to human. Now, I was regenerating and I was having my biology rewritten. Not exactly a very pleasant thing." He remembered the excruciating pain. He thought he was going to die. "Now, I ended up crashing right here in Hinata-Sou. Mr and Mrs. Urashima, and Granny Hina, all rushed out to see and they found me. Apparently, I had regenerated into a four year old Japanese child. Since the Urashima couple didn't have any kids, they adopted me and Granny Hina hid my TARDIS right here."
"So, what is a Time Lord?" Shinobu asked.
"Oh, I'm an alien from the Planet Gallifrey."
"But you look human," Shinobu stated.
"No, you look Time Lord. We all came first," he countered good naturedly.
"OK, I can't believe you're an alien, Keitaro," said Kitsune, skeptical. Despite seeing him change right before their eyes she couldn't believe that he was an alien.
"Put your hand on my chest and feel my heart," the Doctor instructed. Kitsune did, putting her hand on the spot where the heart would be. "Now, the other side." She did and recoiled in shock. "See?"
"Two…two hearts!" Kitsune yelled, pointing. "You got two hearts!"
"Yeah, I really missed my second heart," said the Doctor, patting his chest. "Still don't get how you humans can live with just one."
Naru had been oddly silent through the whole thing with Mutsumi consoling her. She couldn't believe it but Keitaro was gone now, replaced by this man who called himself the Doctor. He claimed that he was once Keitaro Urashima but now he was not him anymore. "What happened to Keitaro?" she asked, softly.
"He's part of me," the Doctor answered, tapping his head. "He lives on in my memories and in yours."
"But you can change back, can't you?" Naru asked.
"No…I'm sorry," the Doctor apologized. Naru then turned and ran towards the inn, with the others watching. The Doctor sighed. "OK, let's see if she's alright." He snapped his fingers and the TARDIS' door opened.
"It's…It's…" Shinobu began.
"WOW, IT'S BIGGER ON THE INSIDE!" Su shouted.
The Doctor snapped his fingers, "Every time! Always someone says 'it's bigger on the inside'!" The TARDIS' control room had bronze walls and in the middle of it was a mushroom shaped console with screens, dials, knobs, buttons, and levers. He went over and put his hands on the controls affectionately. "Miss me, girl?" A glass pillar rose up from the centre of the circular console, reaching up to the ceiling.
"This…" Motoko's eyes were wandering around. "It's impossible! What kind of magic can fit such a thing inside a blue box?"
"Time Lord science," was the Doctor's reply. "I'd explain it to you but you'd probably never understand it. It's all just hyper spacey-wacey."
"It's like another dimension," said Su.
"Or…we could just say that's how it works." The Doctor smiled. Su was so brilliant. "OK, so, if that Dalek was here looking for me then it wants me to do something and it probably didn't come alone."
"You mean there's more of those horrible robots?" Shinobu asked.
"It's not a robot. It's just a machine. It's what's inside the thing that you should worry about," said the Doctor.
"OK, what exactly is a Dalek?" asked Kitsune.
"They are like Nazis," the Doctor told her. "Actually they're worse than Nazi. You can at least reason with Nazis. Daleks are a whole different thing. They're one goal is to exterminate everything and anything that isn't a Dalek. All they care about is becoming the Master Race so they kill off anything that's different. That's all they want and that's all they ever want. They're the most feared and hated creatures in the universe. They're worse than the Cybermen…that's another story." As he was talking, he was pressing buttons and typing on the keyboard as he looked at a screen. "Now, let's see where those things are."
Naru was in her room, crying. "Keitaro…Keitaro…" She heard a knock on her door. "Come in."
It was Mutsumi. "Naru, you should come out! The Doctor showed us what's inside his blue box! It's so big inside!"
"Mutsumi…how can you be smiling?" Naru asked in bewilderment. "Keitaro's gone!"
"No he isn't," said Mutsumi. "He's just woken up and now he's his real self. He still remembers everything."
"But he's not Keitaro! Everything's changing!" It was just like when her mother remarried. Too many changes happening too fast.
The Doctor had gone into the wardrobe to pick out a new set of clothes. When he came back, he revealed his new look. "Well, whaddya think?" He was wearing bell bottom jeans and a black buttoned-down shirt with a white tie and a brown waist coat. On his head he wore a fedora. On his feet he wore trainers. "Gotta look my best when I'm off saving the world!"
"Aliens are probably about to invade us and all you care is your appearance?" Motoko asked, frowning.
"Well, of course," said the Doctor. "Looking good is always important when saving the world. And I saw myself in the mirror. I may not be ginger but I can't complain. At least I didn't end up having two heads."
The Doctor went to the phone on the console and dialed a number. He put the phone to his ear. "Hello, is this UNIT? Don't ask how I got this number. Just tell them that the Doctor's calling."
"UNIT?" Shinobu asked.
"Unified Intelligence Taskforce," the Doctor explained. "Originally United Nations Intelligence Taskforce but they changed the name. I used to work with them a while back. They're a worldwide, top-secret military group dedicated to combating alien threats."
The Doctor and Kitsune were in the TARDIS as the Doctor fiddled with the controls as Kitsune watched.
"What are you doing?"
"Checking the TARDIS. It's been awhile," the Doctor said. "Just making sure she's in proper working order." He asked, "By the way, how's Narusegawa doing?"
"Well…" Kitsune began. What exactly could she say.
"I think I understand why Narusegawa is keeping her distance," said the Doctor.
"Whaddya mean?" Kitsune asked.
"It's because I'm an impossible existence to her," the Doctor answered. He elaborated, "Up until today she never thought she would encounter an alien like that Dalek, and in her worldview that would never happen because she never believed in their existence. Suddenly, she's confronted with the truth and she can't handle it. Added with the fact that I am no longer Keitaro Urashima, but an extraterrestrial being known as a Time Lord. Narusegawa has built this view of a world where she's never wrong. Whenever she's proven wrong she lashes out. It's her defence mechanism. The whole 'beating up perverts' is just a cover. She knows Keitaro isn't a pervert, but since it threatened her worldview, plus the fact her emotions aren't exactly stable, she can't help but lash out. Fortunately, Keitaro has a durable body. He could've died from the first Atomic Naru Punch." He concluded, "In short, I'm a violation of everything she believes is right in her world and she can't handle it so she's hiding away."
"Isn't that a bit…harsh?" Kitsune asked.
"Why did Narusegawa move into Hinata-Sou in the first place?" asked the Doctor abruptly.
"To be close to the cram school and Tokyo U," answered Kitsune.
"She could've studied in her own hometown," the Doctor countered. "There's something that she didn't like there, something she didn't want to confront, and she couldn't handle it so she moved here to Hinata-Sou to get away from it all. It's that simple. She runs away from anything that doesn't fit her worldview if she can't lash out at it. That means…it has something to do with her home! Her family! She's been running from her family!"
"How would you know that?" Kitsune asked.
"How often does she talk about her family?" the Doctor asked. "Has she ever mentioned them during meal time or casual conversation?"
"I just thought it never came up…"
"She was avoiding the issue by not bringing it up. By talking about it she'll be forced to confront it and she can't. She won't. That's why she won't talk to me either. She can't handle the fact that Keitaro is gone and looking at me will remind her of that. She's avoiding the pain, which of course I can perfectly understand. I've been running a lot for…a good millennia."
"A millennia?" Kitsune asked, gaping. "How…how old are you…?"
"Well…by my count I should be about…1128. I look good for my age, right?" He grinned.
"You can't be that old."
"Can't I? Looks like the TARDIS is fine. Time to leave."
"Leave? Why?" Kitsune asked. "I thought you were going to save the world."
"I am. You see that Dalek was a scout and it's probably informed the rest about me. My presence is putting the Earth in danger," he reasoned. "So the only logical course of action is to leave and take the Daleks on a wild goose chase."
Kitsune frowned and then she said, "Then take me with you."
The Doctor looked up at her. "Are you sure? It'll be dangerous. We'll be going back and forth in time, going to other worlds and meeting monsters and alien life forms of all shapes and sizes. Are you sure you'd want to do that? It's dangerous to be around me."
"I think being with you will keep me safe," she said.
The Doctor recalled all the people who'd died after just meeting him.
"Most would think that, but trouble always seems to find me and people die," the Doctor said sadly. "I'd rather travel alone."
"Doesn't it get lonely?" Kitsune asked.
"It does, but when you're as old as me you get used to it," the Doctor answered. "But I know you humans. You're a stubborn bunch which is why I end up taking on companions. If you're going to come with me you better understand the risk because traveling with me is always a life or death thing. Are you prepared for a life, always being on the run, never staying in one place for long, and visiting alien worlds throughout time and space?"
What is her answer?
KAMEN RIDER CHROME: Just a random idea. Not sure if it will go anywhere. Hopefully someone can pick it up for me. I've become a Whovian of the latest generation so don't blame me if I don't get everything right. The old Doctors are good, but I've been baptized with the 2000 era ones, like the 9th, 10th and 11th. So, if anybody's interested in this, call me, or recommend someone who might be able to do this for me.