100 Themes Challenge - 56: Danger Ahead (aka Doctor Who: The Lost Child)
I'm so sorry guys. I kinda dropped off the face of the planet for a while there... but I'm back now, and I come bearing fic!
You can also read it HERE at Fanfiction.net
Characters/Pairings: England, Little!Fem!America, Little!Fem!Canada. Mentions of an OC.
Genre: Science Fiction/Adventure
Rating: K+
Warnings: Doctor Who crossover.
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN EITHER HETALIA OR DOCTOR WHO. Or Sonic the Hedgehog, but I don't really want him.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
LVI: Danger Ahead, part 1 (Also known as Doctor Who: The Lost Child)
A whirl of flashing colours and sounds flooded the TARDIS, the loudest of which came from the man dancing around the control panel.
“Damn it! Why won’t you fucking work, you stupid machine?” he cursed, fiddling with a few dials before running to another section of panel. As he did, a bright red light started flashing, and a loud, repetitive beep sounded.
“Alright, alright, I’m sorry I called you stupid! Now stop that!”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Amelia sobbed as she ran through the woods, her tears blurring her vision. She had to keep running, had to find help, had to get away -
A weird siren-y sound, followed by a loud crack, rang out through the woods. Amelia froze, then ducked behind some bushes.
Please don’t be the monster, she prayed silently. ‘Cause if the monster was here, that meant that Maddie was - she was - dead.
A new wave of tears overwhelmed Amelia. Maddie was dead, and it was all her fault. She should’ve listened to Mommy when she said the woods were dangerous, but she still dragged Maddie in with her anyway. The woods had monster in them, and it was the hero’s job to protect everyone from the monsters! That meant it was her job, and since Maddie was her sidekick, it was her job too. Except now -
A door slammed open nearby, the woods filling with smoke and the sounds of a man coughing and swearing.
Amelia took a deep breath and wiped her eyes, peering through the bushes. A big blue box, with a flashing light on top stood next to (and on top of) a cluster of trees, the doors wide open and smoke billowing out of them. A man - tall, pale, with really big eyebrows and the greenest eyes she’d ever seen - leaned against the box, coughing hard and saying words to the box that Amelia would have had her mouth washed out with soap for using.
The box had words on top of it. Amelia struggled to make them out - Maddie was the better reader, Amelia had just memorised the alphabet and started putting words together.
That was a “P”… then an “o”… “l”… “i”… “c”… “e”…
“Po…lee…say?” she whispered to herself, trying to figure it out. No, wait! Police! The funny man who said bad words was a policeman! That meant he was a hero! He could help save Maddie from the monster!
“Excuse me! Mister Policeman! I need help!” she yelled, fighting her way out of the bushes and running towards the man.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The Doctor paused in his berating of the TARDIS when he heard the shouting. Up to this point, he thought he crashed in the middle of fucking nowhere.
A tousled-haired blonde human child was running towards him, wearing a strange combination of cowboy boots, pink, white and blue striped tights, a bright green dress with pink embroidered flowers on the pockets, and a too-large brown jacket. She stopped directly in front of him, putting her small hands on her hips.
“Please, Mister Policeman, you gotta help me!” she demanded, breathing hard from her run, looking up at him with big, pleading blue eyes. “Maddie and me went into the woods, even though Mommy told us not to, and this monster came and took her, and I dunno if she’s okay ‘cause I was a bad hero and I ran away. But now I found you, an’ you gotta help save Maddie, ‘cause you’re a policeman and they’re heroes, so they gotta save people! Please!” she begged, tugging on his coat.
He kneeled down to look at the girl at her level, digging through his pockets as he did so for his Sonic Screwdriver, mentally sighing with relief when he located it in his right pants pocket.
“Alright, sweetheart, can you tell me what the monster looked like?” he asked her gently.
She glared at him, pouting. “My name isn’t sweetheart, it’s Amelia. Amelia Felicity Jones.”
“Well, Miss Amelia Felicity Jones, I can’t help you save your sister if I don’t know what this monster of yours looks like,” he told her.
Amelia gasped. “But you’re a policeman! It’s your job to help!”
“Well, then, you’d best tell me what it looked like, hadn’t you?”
Amelia furrowed her brows, thinking hard. “It was big. Really big. As big as a car, but not one of those really big cars that Mommy says are bad for the planet or something. It had horns, and a beak, and big scary claws, and biiiiig red wings and a green scaly tail. It was furry, too. Like a big furry dragon, or somethin’.”
Well, that eliminated a lot of things (namely Daleks and Cyberman, just for starters)… but still left a lot open.
“All right, take me to this monster of yours,” he told her, standing up quickly and offering his hand to her.
“Okay, Mister Policeman! But you gotta hurry, ‘kay?” she commanded, grabbing his hand and clutching it tightly, taking off running and pulling him along behind her.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The trees surrounding the clearing were shredded to bits, with some greenish goo hanging off the shrapnel. The remains of a playhouse stood near the center, with more of the goo hanging off it.
Amelia gasped in horror when she saw the ruins. “That - that stupid jerk monster! He wrecked our playhouse!”
The Doctor ignored this statement, choosing instead to rummage through of the debris of the playhouse. There was no blood - at least, no human blood. There was, however, a small stuffed polar bear buried under several layers of the wreckage.
“Oh my gosh, that’s Kuma!” Amelia exclaimed from directly behind him, causing him to jump slightly. The girl clearly had no sense of “personal space”.
“Kuma?” he asked.
“He’s Maddie’s. She carries him everywhere,” Amelia informed him matter-of-factly.
“I see. Well, since she isn’t here to do so, would you mind carrying him?” he requested, holding out the bear to her.
“Uh… okay.” Amelia took the bear and tucked it under her arm, following the Doctor closely as he walked around the clearing, pointing his Sonic at random objects. He pointed it directly at some of the goo, flipping the Sonic around to read it.
“Huh. That’s weird,” he muttered, walking towards it and poking at it. A bit came off onto his finger, dripping slowly onto the ground. He sniffed at it, then licked it. “Definitely Gryxolt saliva…” but why was one here?
“Did you just lick that?” Amelia asked, staring at him in horror.
“Well, yes,” the Doctor told her, nonplussed. How else was he supposed to figure out what it was?
“That’s disgusting. That stuff looks like boogers!” she protested, pulling a disgusted face.
“Well, that’s the only way I could tell what the monster was. It’s called a Gryxolt. They like to take pretty and shiny things, rather magpie-like that way… I’m surprised it didn’t take you, actually.”
“I’m not. Mommy says that Maddie’s the good one, and that I’m obnoxicus,” Amelia said, shrugging.
“I think you meant obnoxious,” the Doctor corrected.
“That’s what I said! Now, c’mon Mister Policeman, we gotta go save Maddie from the Gryzol-thingy!”
“It’s a Gryxolt. And besides, we don’t know which way it went,” the Doctor said, looking around the clearing. The Gryxolt’s nest should’ve been to the east, but there was no sign of a -
“It went that way. Geez, you’re not a very good policeman, are you?” Amelia asked, pointing to a trail of broken trees and Gryxolt saliva.
“I’m not a policeman at all,” the Doctor explained, sighing. “I’m the Doctor.”
“But your box says ‘Police’ on it! I read it!” Amelia objected, stomping her foot.
“It does say ‘Police’ on it, you’re right. It’s really just pretending - it’s a magic box, and that’s the way it likes to look.”
“Oh. Well, Doctors are heroes too, so let’s go save Maddie!” Amelia shouted, grabbing onto his hand once again.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The entrance to the Gryxolt’s nest was exactly what the Doctor expected it to be - a dark cave, hard to get to, and cluttered with shiny things.
Amelia drew close to him, suddenly quiet (she hadn’t been earlier - she’d told him her entire life story, her age, her birthday, how many pets she had…).
“Is - is Maddie in there?” she asked quietly, staring into the entrance.
“She should be. Do you happen to have a flashlight?” he asked her.
“Uhm…” she mumbled, digging through her pockets. “Nope. I got a rubber band, a couple of Hit Clips, and a broken pencil, but no flashlight. Sorry.”
“Ah, well, I guess it was a bit much to hope for,” the Doctor shrugged, digging through some of the things in the entrance. “Ah ha!”
“What is it?”
“Found one,” the Doctor said triumphantly, pulling out a heavy-looking metal flashlight from underneath a pile of Gryxolt ‘treasures’.
“You do know there’s no way that’ll work, right? Even if it’s got batteries in it, they won’t work.” Amelia accused, crossing her arms over her chest.
“We’ll see about that,” the Doctor said, pulling out the Sonic and pointing it at the flashlight. A few moments later, the Doctor tested the flashlight. It worked.
“Fine,” Amelia pouted. “You and your magic wand thingy win.”
“It’s not a wand, it’s a screwdriver,” the Doctor corrected automatically.
“It’s not any kinda screwdriver I know. My daddy has screwdrivers, and that thingy doesn’t look like any of them.”
“That’s because it’s a Sonic screwdriver.”
“But it doesn’t have blue spikes!” Amelia insisted.
The Doctor had no idea what she was saying, and so chose to ignore her. “Look, we’re going to go in there now to look for your sister. I need you to hold onto my hand as tightly as possible, alright?”
“Okay,” she confirmed, gripping his hand very tightly. The Doctor winced, regretting his choice of words - if she kept this up, he was going to lose circulation in his fingertips.
“All right, good job, but a little looser, please? I think I’m going to need my hand later,” the Doctor declared, grimacing.
“Ah, sorry!” Amelia apologised, loosening her grip.
“That’s good. Let’s go,” he said, directing the flashlight into the darkness and walking into the cave. The light bounced off hundreds of shiny, beautiful objects, lining the cave like wallpaper.
Either the Gryxolt had been very busy, or it had been here a very long time, to amass all these ‘treasures’…
Amelia was blessedly silent as they went deeper into the cave, until the flashlight shone over a pair of pink tennis shoes.
“Maddie!” she cried, letting go of the Doctor and running towards the shoes.
“’Melia?” a quiet voice asked, cracking a little from disuse. The Doctor raised the flashlight a touch, being careful not to shine in it Maddie’s face.
“You’re okay! I was so scared -oh, here, I got Kuma for you,” Amelia said, handing the stuffed polar bear to her sister.
“Th-thanks, ‘Melia,” Maddie said, hugging her bear tightly.
“I’m sorry I ran away, Maddie. I - I was a bad hero,” Amelia apologised ashamedly. “But I found him, and he helped me find you!” she said excitedly pointing at the Doctor.
“A pleasure to finally meet you, Maddie. Now, let’s get out of here before -”
A loud shriek resounded through the cave. The Doctor let off a stream of curses as it faded, leaving Maddie looking at him, scandalised, while grabbing hold of Amelia, who just rolled her eyes.
The ground shook as the Gryxolt grew closer. Objects fell from their carefully stacked piles, clanging as they did so. The Doctor pulled out the Sonic, nearly dropping the flashlight.
Glowing red eyes emerged from the darkness, followed by slightly extended wings and a scaly tail that whipped through the air, knocking more objects down. The three of them froze as the Gryxolt hissed at them, baring sharp fangs.
“Run,” the Doctor hissed at the two girls.
“Nuh-uh! I ran away before, I won’t do it now!” Amelia shook her head stubbornly, trembling in fear. “Maddie, you go.”
“I - I can’t go back without you, ‘Melia,” Maddie whispered. “Mom’ll kill me!”
Amelia tugged at a large hubcap leaning against the wall, pulling it towards her with great effort. She walked towards the Gryxolt, throwing the hubcap at it and missing by several feet, hitting another pile.
“Hey, big meanie!” she yelled, her voice echoing. “You can’t just take things that don’t belong to you, just ‘cause you want them!”
The Gryxolt hissed again, advancing closer while raising sharp talons. Amelia backed away quickly, shaking, raising her arm to protect her face. The Gryxolt was faster, slashing at her, giving her four long, deep scratches.
Amelia screamed in pain as the Doctor simultaneously picked her up, grabbed Maddie’s hand, and ran out of the cave.
He’d be back to deal with the Gryxolt later - after he got the girls patched up and safely back home.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Back at the TARDIS...
“Ow ow ow! Stoppit, that hurts!” Amelia protested, squirming against the Doctor’s grip as he attempted to clean her scratches.
“It wouldn’t hurt quite so much if you’d stop fidgeting,” the Doctor stated impatiently.
“But it hurts!”
“It’ll hurt more if it gets infected, Amelia.”
“O-okay, I’ll stop. OW!” she yelled, wincing.
“And I’m done. Was that really so hard?” the Doctor asked, pulling out bandages.
“Yes! It hurt a lot,” Amelia scowled.
“You’ll live. The human race has suffered a lot worse than a few scratches in its time. It rarely shows that much bravery, though,” the Doctor said as he wound the bandage around her arm. “You didn’t have to do that, you know.”
“No, I did have to. Somebody had to tell that monster that what he was doing was wrong!” Amelia protested, swinging her legs. “Mommy’s gonna be mad about my jacket, though.”
“Tell you what,” the Doctor thought aloud as he finished wrapping the bandage neatly, “Since it’s my fault your jacket was destroyed, I’ll get you a new one, how’s that sound?”
Amelia’s eyes widened. “It wasn’t your fault, though! It was that stupid monster’s!”
“I’ll still get you a new jacket anyway. Can’t have your mum mad at me, leads to loads of trouble later on,” the Doctor insisted.
“Well, okay then,” Amelia said, hopping off the table. “If it’ll get me out of trouble.”
“Should ought to. You never really know, though; Mums are finicky creatures, no two exactly alike.”
“You’re really weird. Can we go pick out a jacket for me now?”
“We can. C’mon, wardrobe’s this way,” he said, leading her out of the medical wing and towards the wardrobe.
“You have the coolest magic box ever, you know that?” Amelia said as they passed the library (where the Doctor spotted a glimpse of Maddie, staring in awe at all the books) and the swimming pool.
“I do know that. The coolest, craziest magic box in existence. Here we are, then,” he told her, leaning against the doorway while she ran around the room.
She spent several minutes looking through the women’s section before deciding that there wasn’t anything there she wanted. She skipped over to the men’s, staring up at the rows of clothes.
There were plenty of jackets here; long, funny coloured coats that looked like the Easter Bunny threw up on them (she bluntly told the Doctor as much), short pinstriped jackets, and -
“That one. I want that one,” she demanded, pointing at a brown leather jacket.
The Doctor looked up to where she was pointing - a World War II American Air Force bomber jacket.
“That one? Are you sure? It’ll be much too big for you, you know.”
“Don’t care! It’s the coolest thing in here. Unlike those bow ties, those are lame.”
The Doctor stared at her, flabbergasted. What was wrong with her? Bow ties were cool.
“It’s totally a hero jacket! My Grandpa had one, and he’s got medals and everything to prove he was a hero!”
“If you insist, it’s yours,” he sighed, plucking it off the rack and handing it to her. She shrugged it on, and then grinned up at him.
Amelia was absolutely swimming in the jacket, the bottom of it reaching past her knees. “Aw, man! This is way too big,” she grumbled, looking upset.
“I’m sure you’ll grow into it… eventually,” he assured her. “In fact, once you have, I want you to call me back here with this, all right?” he asked, slipping a copy of the TARDIS’ key into her hands.
“Bu - what is it?”
“It’s a key to my magic box. If you hold it very tightly, it’ll bring it back here to you.”
“Why’re you giving it to me, though?” she asked, clearly confused.
“I’m giving it to you because I only take the greatest and bravest of heroes with me on my adventures, that’s why,” he told her solemnly.
“Oh. Oh. Okay, I’ll remember to use it when I’m big! Hero’s promise!”
“I’ll hold you to it, then. Now, come on, let’s go rescue your sister from the depths of my library and get you two home.”
“Okay!” she said brightly, running out the door and back to the library. “Maddie, c’mon, we’re going home now!”
The Doctor smiled. Amelia would make a brilliant companion, once she was old enough. She was bright, intelligent, and always getting into trouble - now all he had to do was wait.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
THIS IS ONLY PART ONE. The continuation will be posted... uh, once I'm done writing/typing it. It could be a while longer, yet.
Doctor Who is a British Television Programme that is produced by the BBC. It originally ran from 1963-1989, and then regenerated in the mid-2000's. More info can be found at Wikipedia.
This particular fic is based off the reboot - more specifically, the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors (David Tennant and Matt Smith, respectively). Again, see Wiki for more details.
The Doctor flies around in the TARDIS, which stands for Time and Relative Dimension(s) In Space. It has a malfunctioning camoflauge unit, which makes it appear as a London Police Telephone box from the 1950's.
He also owns a "Sonic Screwdriver", which can do a variety of things, including (but not limited to) unlock and lock doors, provide information about things, and jam signals.
The Gryxolt is a creature entirely of my own invention. Please don't steal it! I don't know why you'd want to, but...
(If you ask nicely, on the other hand, I'll let you borrow it, okay?)
I already have fanart for this! Here and Here