Part One
Anyone who knows me well enough would realize that being
hunted by some dangerous psychopaths is like a walk in the park for me. Whether
it’s Daleks, Sontarans, or even the Master, I was always prepared for the worst
predators. But this was literally new territory for me. This was a hunt inside
the infinite dimensional corridor (“Infinite D.C.” for short).
I needed Neas’s help now more than ever, especially after
what I discovered when I made an attempt in recruiting any Ninja Turtles in
whatever dimension I could find to help. Shredder and Krang must’ve known that
would be my first thought, ‘cause every dimension that we went with a team of
turtle ninjas was eviscerated.
Neas was my only hope.
I was fortunate enough to be familiar with the
inner-workings of Neas’s Type-Z model TARDIS. Aznavorian (Neas’s father) once
shared the schematics with me when we were kids back on Gallifrey. Using this
knowledge, I had my TARDIS make a trans-dimensional scan for Neas’s. Not
exactly a quick-and-easy feat, since my TARDIS isn’t properly equipped for
interdimensional travel. It takes a great deal just to reach Gallifrey within
the pocket universe I put it in.
When I did finally make contact, we saw a little boy on
the monitor…a little boy who I became well-acquainted with many lives before.
“Well, bless me! Craig Williams!” I exclaimed. “Been a long time since we saw
each other on Abydos.”
He cringed at me through what I assumed to be his
smartphone. “Do I know you?”
Of course, he wouldn’t have. When Craig last saw me, I
was a man with puffy white hair and an inverness cape. “Oh, right,” I realized my
mistake by then. “It’s me. The Doctor. Neas’s friend. Remember?”
His little face lit on the monitor. “Oh, right! You’re
the one who blew up that alien pyramid ship yesterday!”
“You blew up an alien pyramid?” I heard the surprised
Graham ask behind me.
“Yes, I did. Now hush. I’m havin’ a conversation with an
old friend.” I brazenly told him before returning my attention to Craig. “I’d
really love to catch up with ya, Craig, but I really need to talk to Neas.”
“You just missed him,” Craig told me (not the news that I
wanted to hear). “We had a family barbecue at my house. He said it’s gonna be
the last one he’d have there. Do you know what he meant by that? He didn’t
really look so good, come to think of it. His skin was almost like it was
glowing. And then there was this huge biker guy and this kid with him. And even
you were…”
I didn’t want to be rude and interrupt him as he was so
eagerly explaining Neas’s whole visit – which sounded to be on the verge of his
regeneration – but these were dire times. It turned out that I didn’t have to
say anything, because Craig got right to the point and said, “Anyways, he told
me that you’d call me for help, shortly after you guys finished the war.”
Now it was my
turn to cringe. “War? What war?”
I realized only after the fact what war he was talking
about. I heard about it in most of the lives that I met Neas in. I won’t go
into the details about it. Just know that it’s a war that would continue to
haunt Neas more than the Time War ever haunted me – and it seems as if I’ll have a part to play in it, sooner
or later.
“On second thought, never mind about that,” I quickly
told Craig. “I’m bringin’ my TARDIS to your world right now. Just let me lock
onto your location through your phone.”
I worked my magic and materialized the TARDIS out of the
dimensional corridor and into Craig’s reality. We arrived in a clearing,
surrounded by forestation. Craig was standing there, mouth gaping open in awe
with his phone in hand, when we stepped out of the box. As soon as he got over
the shock, he opened his arms wide and jubilantly said, “Welcome to the creek!”
“Glad to be here!” I told him before I introduced him to
Ryan, Yaz, and Graham.
“Where’s your other friend? That nice girl?” Craig asked,
referring to Jo Grant (my “assistant” back in my U.N.I.T. days).
“She’s…somewhere happy.” Truthfully, I only hoped Jo was just
that. Last I saw her, she appeared to be living happily.
Once we got past all the pleasantries, we went to
business.
Neas kept Craig well-informed on what to do in the event
that I reached out to him for help. He gave the lad dimensional coordinates
that he instructed him to pass over to me. “He said they’d take you to some
people called the ‘Power Rangers’,” Craig said.
Another team of childhood superheroes that Ryan and Yaz
were more than familiar with. “Oh, my days!” the former cheered like a giddy
child. “First, we got to meet the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, now we’re gonna
meet the Power Rangers?! I had the biggest crush on Kimberly when I was a kid!”
“It was Jason for me,” Yaz shared in his overexcitement.
Graham, on the other hand, was a bit annoyed. “When we
gonna meet real heroes, like Danger
Mouse or Paddington?”
“Ooh! I’d love
to meet Paddington one day!” I professed, momentarily distracted from the task
at hand. When I got my focus again, I used my sonic to download the coordinates
Neas left on Craig’s smartphone (which was super upgraded to connect with
Neas’s TARDIS at any time, hence how I managed to call Craig rather than Neas).
“Awesome! Thank you again, Craig!” I wanted to hug him, but my fam and I were
in too much of a rush.
Not that we would’ve gotten near my TARDIS had Craig not
stopped us to say, “Yeah, uh, before you guys leave, could you maybe…settle a
little dispute that we’ve been having here at the creek?”
I really didn’t have the time to get involved in a
children’s quarrel, not with this hunt out for me. But I also didn’t want to
leave Craig – a friend of Neas – to deal with a problem that I could’ve easily
helped him out with. It was the least I could do after he helped me with these coordinates to the Power
Rangers.
So we followed him to another part of the creek where
there were many other children – other residents – gathered for what looked to
be some sort of tribunal.
Except it wasn’t just children gathered there.
There were also vastly intelligent apes and a species I
was well-acquainted with: the Silurians.
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