This is a reupload of a fic from one of my previous accounts on this site. Hope you guys enjoy!

It was a warm, balmy day in New York City. The Doctor absently hummed the opening bars to Frank Sinatra's famous song about the city that never sleeps, before taking a lick of the mint chocolate chip ice cream he had bought.

He idly mused that his favorite sweets always changed when he was regenerated. His first incarnation had a weakness for black licorice (Yuck, says every subsequent regeneration), while number five was always a saltier snacker.

His immediate predecessor had liked his snacks like he liked his outfits: rainbow slushies.

The Doctor grimaced to himself, as Ace ran up to the Doctor. She had stopped as they had been walking in Central Park for some reason and was no huffing and puffing from catching up to the Doctor.

"Sorry, professor.", Ace said, finally having caught her breath. "A kid wanted a push on the swings, and their useless mother was too busy on the phone to notice."

The Doctor hummed to show that he had heard. Another person walked past, also talking on what looked to be a mobile phone. Ace gave a glance at the passing man, then said in a hushed tone, "What time period are we in now, professor? We can't be that far in the future, everything's mostly still the same."

It was sometimes easy to forget that Ace was a product of the late 1980's, considering how easily she stuck to time traveling. The Doctor must remember that Ace was from a period in Earth's history where mobile phones were big, blocky affairs.

"This should be the early 2010's, Ace.", said the Doctor. He then stuck a finger in his mouth, then stuck it out to feel the breeze. "Early-to-mid 2013, to be exact."

Ace rolled her eyes at this display. "Show off.", she muttered good-naturedly. "But what are we doing here of all places. I mean, I've had a good time so far, but I've yet to see any bug-eyed wankers trying to conquer the Earth."

"That's because there aren't any… at this moment in time.", said the Doctor, the last part somewhat sheepishly. "I thought we deserved a little down time. I've been to New York many a time, so I can show you everything fun to do in this city. A little rest and relaxation never hurt any…" He trailed off.

Ace took the opportunity to leap into the conversation. "Well, I've always wanted to see New York, but I'm still going to hold out hope that there's at least one Dalek here I can give another good whallop."

Splat!

Ace looked back. The Doctor was still standing in the middle of the sidewalk, staring off into the middle distance. He had dropped his ice cream onto the ground.

"Professor? Professor!", said Ace, as the Doctor suddenly grabbed for his head, reeling back in pain. He fell to his knees, a silent scream wrenched out of his open mouth. Flashes entered his mind, images of blood falling onto a wet, tiled floor. A chanting echoed throughout his mind: Plug it up! Plug it up! Plug it up!

Ace was now pawing at him, trying to do anything that could help him, as a tall, stocky black man ran up to them from across the park. The man was carrying a first aid kit. He roughly pushed Ace off the Doctor.

"Hey, what's the big idea?", said Ace, hotly.

"He's having some sort of seizure!", said the man, looking very seriously at the Doctor, who was now in the fetal position on the ground.

"No, he's not!", said Ace. She began to attempt to push the man off the Doctor, only to pause in her struggles. "Is he?", she asked. Even after traveling with the Doctor all these years, she was still unsure of Time Lord biology.

Slowly, the Doctor's shaking subsided, and he was left breathing heavily on the ground. The man pulled out one of those portable telephones. "Ma'am, I'm going to call an ambulance for your friend."

"No!", yelled out the Doctor, suddenly. "I need to… get back… get back to the…" His voice trailed off into a hoarse whisper.

"Sir, I need you to stay calm.", said the man, dialing his phone.

Ace knew the Doctor probably need to get back to the TARDIS. "You heard the professor. He doesn't need a hospital."

"Ma'am, this man has had a powerful seizure.", said the man, hotly. "He needs medical attention immediately." He put the dialed phone to his ear.

Suddenly, using what must have been the last of his strength, the Doctor jabbed his hand into his coat pocket and pulled out what looked like a business card holder. He flipped it open and showed the man a blank card.

The man stared at the card, as the phone said softly, "911, what is your emergency?"

"I'm sorry, sir.", said the man dazedly. "I didn't know." He shut off the phone and walked away.

After Ace had helped the Doctor up, letting him lean against her shoulder, she said, "How did you pull that one off, then?"

The Doctor's face was drawn, pale, and sweaty, but he managed to answer her. "Psychic paper. Shows them what I want them to see. Had to put… a little extra 'oomph' into it; that's why he seemed in a dream state. It was easy at this point. Quickly, we've got to get back to the Tardis."

Around twenty minutes later, fifteen from the time they had made it back to the time machine, the Doctor was seated in a wicker chair in the console room. He had rested for a bit, drank many glasses of water, and now looked much better. Ace was squatting nearby, waiting patiently for an explanation.

"North.", he finally said, after minutes of thinking. "The signal came from north."

"North? What signal?", said Ace. "Professor, what happened to you earlier?"

"I was hit by a truly massive telepathic signal.", said the Doctor, wincing at the memory of it. "So powerful, I was able to use the residual energy on my psychic paper to speed things up with that nice man."

"A signal?", said Ace. "Like, a message? Was it from your people?"

"No, this was definitely terrestrial.", said the Doctor. "North of us, but in this hemisphere of the Earth. And it wasn't a message. More like a shout of total panic and terror. But it doesn't make any sense."

"What doesn't?"

"Most humans don't have the telepathic capability to send out a message that clearly… at least, not in this time period of Earth history." He got shakily to his feet and walked toward the console, Ace right behind him.

He jabbed at a few controls and a picture of North America appeared on the viewscreen. Ace turned to the Doctor. "What did the signal say, exactly?"

The Doctor paused, watching the picture zoom into the northeastern portion of the continent. "I only got a few images: blood being one of them. There was also some kind of chant. I can't quite remember that one, however."

The image had now zoomed into the state of Maine. "Maine's definitely where it's at." The image zoomed in closer into the state, before stopping at a seemingly inconspicuous area. "Yes, I'd say that signal is coming from one of these towns on the map."

Ace looked at the collection of small towns. "But that's practically the middle of nowhere."

"Indeed.", agreed the Doctor.

"This is definitely trouble, then? Because, no hard feelings, sight-seeing New York isn't really my cup of tea."

The Doctor gave an odd half-smile.

"Wicked.", said Ace.