13First Doctor Who story! Woo!
Most of this chapter was written about three years ago. I did about 900 words of filling. Future chapters will be written as I go!
The little side alley that sat across the road from the shops Rose Tyler used to shop at had a dull existence. Very few people even knew of it, and even less had ever ventured down it. To most of the world, it was just another dark corner for shadows to lurk in.
But being so obscure had its advantages. It would be a perfect place to, say, hide something very conspicuous, wouldn't it?
And it just so happened that at exactly 1:34 in the morning in the middle of an especially wintery February, that little alley had a visitor for that exact reason. Where better to hide a large blue box whilst on the run from an alien race that were intent on kidnapping and sacrificing you for their leader, because you accidentally tripped and knocked him over?
Not that the arrival of the box in that particular alley had been planned.
It had been a quiet night, no problems with any youths and drunks. For once it was absolutely silent. Unusually silent. Of course, that all changed when the blue box and its eccentric occupants literally appeared from nowhere. But the chaos it was in the process of causing in the quiet street during its entrance was increasingly insignificant compared to the havoc going on inside. To put it lightly, the box was malfunctioning a little bit.
"No, no! Don't do that!" A male voice wailed. "Amelia, did you strap yourself into the pilot seat?!"
"I did it ages ago! I'm not an idiot!" A smaller, much more feminine voice replied.
The strange man running around inside jumped from one side of the massive console to the other, keeping an eye on the small ginger girl a few metres away, pushing buttons and pulling levers in a strange sequence in a vain attempt to stop the box from crashing into a large tower of apartments. Having just unintentionally fallen out of the space-time vortex, this was easier said than done. A loud boom, and the fact that his entire body ended up airborne for a second before crashing down near the door, told him that he hadn't been successful. Clipping the edge of the building had sent the entire room into a head-over-heels spin, and the man found himself clinging onto one of the coral-like structures that blossomed from various areas of floor. With an ear-splitting screech, he forced down a small lever, and the box crashed to a halt.
He jumped up and spun to face the little seven year old in the room with him. "Amelia! Are you okay?"
"I didn't like that. Please don't do it again."
"I'll try my best not to. And sorry about that, Sexy." The man apologised to the empty room, patting the floor. "I'll try not to do that again. Though, to be fair, that rift interference didn't help. I know it wasn't your fault!"
The console hummed, and he beamed.
"No grudges held? Fabulous. Now, where did we land? I hope it wasn't too far away from where I planned. I hate walking, walking is boring." He rambled, jumping up and straightening his bow tie. "So many other things we could be doing instead... Like, oh, I don't know, visiting Paranar to visit the Countess, or browsing the Andromeda Galaxy's finest shopping centre for hats. I love their hats! That'll be the next stop, I think. What do you think, Amelia?"
"Can I go to my room and sleep?" Amelia asked, looking shaken. "I haven't slept since before we ran across Aezulia's north pole to catch that penguin thing."
The box's console made a noise of consent, and the man nodded. "Of course."
The poor girl had been up for nearly a whole twenty four hours, plus the shock of falling out of the sky. And the 'penguin thing' was actually a mutated version of an Earth eagle, but she was close enough.
Sounding impeccably like a sigh, the console made another noise, then the door flew open. She wanted everyone out.
"Oh yes, thank you. I got a bit sidetracked, didn't I? Anyway. I'll leave you to do some repairs, okay? Don't miss me too much."
The console groaned. The brief adventure had caused some pretty significant damage. The man took a step back towards it in concern, but an irritable buzzing started up. He took this as his cue to get out, and did so as quickly as he could. Knowing the ship, if he upset her, she'd lock him out all night.
Stepping outside the door, a chill washed over the man, and he shook himself. A distant slamming told him Amelia had retreated to bed, which meant his box would start repairing itself. He thought it was a little unfair that she got to stay inside while he got evicted, but the TARDIS was very familiar with his tinkering habits.
"Blimey, looks like I got the date wrong too! Couldn't even land in the summer..." he mumbled to himself, pulling the door shut behind him.
He pondered for a moment on whether to go back inside and try to skip six months ahead, or to let his box repair herself from his driving and explore. He smiled. His ship would never let him back in. The latter is was then! Besides, it seemed much more appealing. Now all he had to do was find something exciting.
He looked up and down the street. The gloomy, icy air and the absence of any life in either direction didn't give him too much hope.
"Not great so far on the adventure front, old girl."
The man slowly walked up the street, hoping to find a source of light somewhere. It was a little too dark for his liking, and too quiet. Not seeing anything or hearing anything made him anxious, and so he turned around and headed back towards the box. Maybe he'd just sit outside it for a bit.
However, just as he was fishing around in his pockets for the key to his box to check he hadn't lost it and locked himself out again, a dull crash filled the air. On its own, it wasn't exactly promising, (could've been a cat knocking over a bin or something rubbish) but the sound of running footsteps made his hearts jump. Cats don't have footsteps!
Finding an adventure in less than five minutes? That had to be a record.
"Get back here!"
Footsteps pounded the road.
Run faster!
The short figure at the front of the chase darted down a side road, towards a tiny shopping area. It had been silent until the angry, adrenaline-fuelled yells had filled the air. As it had been for the last ten minutes of running, there was still not a living thing in sight. This was either a blessing or a curse; the teenager didn't know which. It meant that, again, there was no one to help her, but it also meant no collateral damage.
Spotting an electricity box backed onto a wall, she scrambled up onto it and vaulted over the fence just as the footsteps drew near. The bushes stopped rustling, and everything went silent.
She fumbled shakily with the long wooden stick in her hands. Behind the thin fence, the footsteps hammered past. She almost began to hope that they'd missed her.
No such luck.
Thundering boots hitting tarmac switched to heavy breathing, and she almost cried out in alarm when the fence behind her sagged, and a huge body fell against it. Crushed between a bush and the wooden panels, she could do little else except for listen to the exchange on the street barely inches from her face.
"He's gonna kill us if we've lost her again!"
"She can't be that far away. She had, what, twenty seconds on us? Check behind those bins. Slippery little thing… I wouldn't put it past her to hide there."
Sounds of rattling bins rang through the cold air as one of the thugs seemed to be throwing the metal containers aside. When it fell silent again, the girl held her breath. In her mind, breathing was loud enough for them to hear. She held the fabric of her jumper over her face.
"Stupid child. Cerin owes us big time when we catch her."
The girl held back a sigh. It's not like the bounty placed on her head wasn't large enough already..
"Come on. She probably went for shelter."
The fence gave an injured groan as the weight pressed against it vanished, and the two men retreated towards the buildings.
Experience had taught the girl well, and she stayed frozen for a solid minute after they went out of earshot, giving her time to establish that it wasn't another trap. The previous chase had almost ended in her capture, and she was unwilling to repeat it so soon.
The first thing she moved was her foot. Using it to guide herself out from under the bush without making a sound, she wriggled forwards and backwards in an attempt to extract herself from the shrubbery. Due to her care it took a while, but she eventually rolled free of the small space and was able to stretch her limbs again. Unhelpfully, she noted, her foot had gone fuzzy from where she'd been crouched on it.
Giving it a shake to redirect the blood flow, she looked around. Her acrobatics had landed her in a narrow alley. A fine mist was beginning to settle in the air, making the ends of the alley murky and indiscernible. It sent shivers up her spine, and she pulled her jacket closer around her body for comfort.
Right. Onwards, and in the opposite direction to them.
Still silently cursing her dead foot, she started to run. Tiredness was beginning to become a pretty severe issue, but she ploughed on. If she could just find somewhere to rest, somewhere safe..
Before she could fully register him, a man suddenly appeared in front of her and slammed right into her. The impact knocked both of them off balance. She fell silently, out of habit, but the other person wasted no breath in falling down noisily with a shocked yell. Acting on instinct, she fumbled around for the stick as the man began to sit back up with a groan, and reached for his pocket.
She found the thin rod just as the man pulled a similarly-shaped item from his own pocket, and both parties held up their items in a defensive gesture. To her surprise, the man suddenly beamed, and lowered his hand.
"Human!" he said, delightedly.
With a look of incredulity on her face, the girl stared at the Doctor with her mouth in a tight line. Hostility radiated out from her, and the Doctor noticed that she didn't release her tight grip on the piece of wood she was holding. Clearly, she was expecting him to attack her. He'd seen the look before. Keeping his smile up, the Doctor held his hands up in surrender.
"Sorry! Wasn't looking where I was going!"
She didn't answer. Instead, she pushed herself another foot away from him.
Realising small-talk would get him nowhere, he jumped to his feet (regretting the quick movement when the girl visibly flinched) and offered her a hand. His sonic was still in his hand, and the Doctor realised that the girl seemed more afraid of the screwdriver than him. He calmly replaced it in his pocket, and repeated his hand-offering.
"I'm not out to hurt you, do you want any help?"
Looking like a frightened wild animal, the girl shook her head. She pulled herself to her feet and, never dropping her gaze, began to back away.
"Are you with him?"
The Doctor almost missed her question, and his eyebrows shot up his forehead.
"What?"
"Please don't play with me. Are you with Cerin?"
Completely confused, the Doctor shook his head. Cerin? He'd never heard the name before, let alone formed a partnership with the bloke.
"No. I'm the Doctor. I travel, I run around a lot, I generally get into rather sticky situations on a daily basis, but I've never met whoever you're thinking of."
Again, silence followed. She seemed to be weighing him up. The Doctor tried to plaster his best "trustworthy" smile on his face, but only accomplished a manic grin. The girl in front of him grimaced, then finally dropped her hand.
"If you're lying, it's giving you no advantage. It's just cruel."
The Doctor smiled. "Not lying. Cross my hearts!"
She gave him a funny look before continuing.
"A man in a silly bowtie running round here this late at night? Forgive me for thinking you a tad suspicious…"
Then she stopped talking, and her eyes locked onto something behind the Doctor. A small, timid voice piped up from behind him.
"Doctor? I couldn't sleep. I thought I was going to have nightmares."
"Is that your daughter?"
The Doctor froze. Nobody was supposed to see Amelia! They'd report him to the police, and not even UNIT would be able to deal with the manhunt that would ensue. The decision the Doctor made next was either one of the best, or one of the worst. Panic shot through him and, with a flick of his arm, he grabbed the teenager's wrist. Her eyes went huge and fearful and she raised the stick.
"You lied!"
He didn't have time to contradict her. Instead, he smacked it from her hands, put his hand over her lips to stop her screaming and attracting more attention, and pulled her into the TARDIS. Once they were close enough to the console, he let go of her with one hand and groped around behind him. If he could just find the handle, he could wipe her memories and put her back where she came from with no knowledge of him or Amelia. Unfortunately, it was the hand that was keeping the girl in front of him from shouting out.
The Doctor had never met a girl who could scream so loudly. The sheer volume of it was enough to send Amelia, who had backed into the TARDIS before him, sprinting from the room in fear, probably thinking an alien was in the TARDIS.
"Shh!" He begged, as his hands came into contact with the thing he was looking for. "Stop screaming!"
The sedative gun beeped to show it was ready, and he didn't waste a second in jamming it into the teenager's arm. She crumpled instantly. The Doctor looked down in dismay.
On a scale of one to "well-handled", he reckoned he'd scored roughly minus three.
A/N Please review! If you have any questions, leave them in a review or PM me. I'll answer them all as best I can!