Chapter Two: The Doctor Is In
The Doctor awoke with a start and gasped loudly. His vision was blurred and spotty, but he could still see well enough.
The Doctor pulled himself to his feet and took a long look at the TARDIS monitor. "Nothing damaged, at least," he murmured. "And not shut down at all! Oh, that is... it is just fantastic. You're getting better at cross-dimensional travel, hon. Now - and this is important, so listen up, locate Amy and Rory. Where in the TARDIS are they?"
The TARDIS scanners bleeped a negative - Amy and Rory were not in the TARDIS.
"What?" the Doctor said incredulously. "That's impossible. I wasn't out for that long; the sensors would be able to pick them up still even if they'd just left the TARDIS... unless..." he brushed his hair out of his eyes. "
Unless the disturbance in timespace was more shoddy than I'd thought. Bumps in the fabric of reality may have grown in the wormhole as it sucked us in. Which would
mean... Amy and Rory could be anywhere in this universe."
The Doctor smacked his forehead. "Gah! Stupid space-time continuum," he grumbled. "Must you always be this frustrating?"
Composing himself, he grabbed his sonic screwdriver - a small device with an array of functions - and tucked it into his coat pocket. After that, he straightened his bowtie and exited the TARDIS, which was still in its trademark police box form.
"No time like the present," he said, "to start looking."
And the Doctor began his search.
/
"Ash, finish packing up!" the raven-haired girl said irritably. "We need to get a move on if we want to make it to the Sinnoh League in time!"
"I'm working as fast as I can, Dawn!" replied the young boy, fiddling with his red baseball cap. "Right, Pikachu?" he said, requesting the agreement of the small yellow mouselike creature that stood beside him.
"Pi? Pika pi pika," Pikachu said, shaking its head.
"Pikachu! You're supposed to take my side!" Ash complained.
"Pi," said Pikachu plainly, crossing its arms dismissively.
"Face it Ash," said Dawn with a grin. "Pikachu just can't tell that bad a lie."
"Ash, get working," an older, tan-skinned boy told Ash. "You've slacked off enough today."
"Fine, fine," Ash said, rolling his eyes. "Whatever you say, Brock."
"Dawn, are you almost done packing up your things?" Brock asked.
"No 'almost' about it," said Dawn. "I am done. Right, Piplup?"
"Pip!" a small, blue, penguin-like creature piped up from beside Dawn.
"I'm done, too," said Brock. "Now we just have to wait for Ash to-"
Just then, a lanky, brown-haired man in a tweed suit stumbled through the bushes surrounding the travelling trio's campsite.
"Who's there?" Ash said, springing into a fighting pose. Pikachu quickly joined him, electricity sparking from its cheeks.
"Not a bad guy or anything," said the man, standing up and brushing himself off. "Stupid tree stump tripped me. Hello, by the way."
"Who are you?" Dawn demanded.
"Be patient; I was getting to that," the man said. "Such a rude little girl. Anyway, I'm the Doctor."
"Doctor?" repeated Brock. "Doctor who?"
"Be grammatically correct, young man," the Doctor chastised him. "You mean to say "Doctor what.""
"Okay then," said Ash, rolling his eyes. "Doctor what?"
"Just the Doctor," the Doctor replied. "Where is this place?"
"Just a route in the Sinnoh region," said Dawn confusedly. "Are you okay, mister?"
"Kind of," said the Doctor. "My brain's a little wibbly right now, but that's to be expected when one travels between universes. Oh, I shouldn't have said that. Stupid Doctor!"
"Wait - did you say you were from another universe?" Brock asked.
"Yep!" the Doctor confirmed. "I'm here on a sort of forced vacation; dimensional borders should really just be left alone, and I'd leave right now if I could, but unfortunately I have two companions who have gone missing somewhere on this planet, and I can't leave until I've got them. Once I do, I can just pop back into my teleportation machine and be on my way."
"I find your story very hard to believe," said Dawn skeptically.
"That's usually how it goes," the Doctor admitted. "But... I can prove it. You three look trustworthy enough; why don't you help me find my companions?"
Ash stepped forth. "I'd never turn down someone asking for help," he said. "I'll do it!"
"I'll come along to make sure he doesn't get himself killed," said Dawn, elbowing Ash,
"I'll come, too," offered Brock."
"Wibbly wobbly fantasticy," the Doctor said with a smile. "Come along with me, and you three can tell me your names while we walk to the TARDIS."
"TARDIS?" Ash echoed.
"Teleportation machine," the Doctor explained.
"I'm Ash Ketchum, from the town of Pallet!" Ash said. "I want to be the world's greatest Pokemon master!"
"'Pokemon?'" said the Doctor.
"Pokemon are strange creatures with amazing powers, like Ash's Pikachu," Brock said, gesturing to the yellow rat on Ashs shoulder. "Pokemon are mysterious, and research into them is always going on. Some people use Pokemon to battle other Pokemon, in specialized Pokemon Leagues."
"Isn't that animal fighting, basically?" the Doctor questioned. "Isn't that a bit... immoral?"
"No one gets hurt," Brock countered, "and there are special Pokemon Centers to heal Pokemon after battles."
"I see," said the Doctor. A few seconds later, he added: "I still don't like the idea much.
"Anyway!" he said, turning to the trio. "We'd better start figuring out where my companions could be. They could have fallen through anywhere and into anytime on this world, so you may have met them already. They might be suffering from total amnesia about where they really come from. Have you encountered a redhead, rather feisty-"
"Redhead?" Ash repeated. "Yeah."
The Doctor grabbed Ash's shoulders and looked deep into his eyes. "Where," he demanded.
"Cerulean City," Ash answered, looking at the Doctor like he was crazy.
"Alright then," said the Doctor, whirling around. "Come along, pals. You other two people, what are your names?"
"I'm Dawn," said Dawn. "I'm from Twinleaf Town here in Sinnoh. My goal is to master Pokemon Contests and become top Coordinator."
"I have no idea what you just said," said the Doctor. "Next."
"I'm Brock, from Pewter City in Kanto," Brock replied. "My dream is to become a great Pokemon Breeder."
"Oh, well, ew," said the Doctor with a shudder. "I hope you don't watch them breeding. Please tell me you don't watch them breeding."
"Well, of course I'd have to sometimes," answered Brock. It's part of the scientific process."
"Yeah, not my profession at all, then," murmured the Doctor. "Ah! Here we are! Ash, Dawn, Misty... meet the TARDIS."
He gestured at the blue box before them.
Brock was the first to speak:
"Isn't... isn't that just a police box?"
The Doctor sighed. "No, no, it's only a police box on the outside. The TARDIS can disguise itself to blend in with its surroundings. A chameleon circuit in its central console scans its surroundings, and chooses a form best suited for disguise in that area."
"incredible!" said Dawn.
"And then it takes the shape of a police box," the Doctor continued. "Bit of a problem; I've been working on it for about... 500 years now, I'd reckon. Come on in."
"But how will we all fit inside?" asked Dawn.
"Oh, just come in and see," said the Doctor, opening the TARDIS' door and stepping in. The three traveling companions followed.
Instantly, their jaws dropped.
Ash was the one who put it best, after he and the others had babbled incomprehensibly for a few seconds:
"It's... it's..."
"Well, go on," said the Doctor. "Say it."
"It's bigger on the inside!"
/
The five flying saucers tumbled through the wormhole, crossing the void into the world of Pokemon.
Inside each one was a small army of tall, robotic-looking cyborgs that resembled pepperpots with an eyestalk to see and gunstick and plunger for hands. Each one was color-coded according to rank.
These were the Daleks, the bane of their universe. They had but one purpose in life - to exterminate anything that was not a Dalek.
"DIMENSIONAL TRAVEL COMPLETED," A red Drone Dalek said to a white Supreme variant in the Daleks' signature screaming voice.
"SCAN FOR LIFE SIGNS," the Supreme ordered a blue Strategist Dalek.
"I OBEY," the Strategist said, and consulted an onboard computer. "SCANS SHOW THAT HUMANS INHABIT THE EARTH-EQUIVALENT PLANET BELOW."
"HUMANS ARE NOT DALEK!" the Supreme shouted. "THAT WHICH IS NOT DALEK MUST BE EXTERMINATED!"
"THAT WHICH IS NOT DALEK MUST BE EXTERMINATED!" the other Daleks chanted in unison. "THAT WHICH IS NOT DALEK MUST BE EXTERMINATED!"
"ALERT! ALERT!" the Strategist screamed. "SCANS DETECT THAT THE DOCTOR IS PRESENT ON THIS EARTH AS WELL!"
"IDENTIFY HIS LOCATION!" the Supreme ordered. "THE DALEKS SHALL FIND THE DOCTOR - AND EXTERMINATE HIM! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINAAAAAAATE!"
"SCANNERS SHOW THAT THE DOCTOR'S TARDIS IS EN ROUTE TO THE LOCATION KNOWN LOCALLY AS CERULEAN CITY," the Strategist declared.
"WE MUST INTERCEPT HIM!" the Supreme Dalek commanded. "SET A COURSE FOR CERULEAN CITY!"
"I OBEY," said a Drone Dalek at the flying saucer's helm. "AND RELAYING ORDERS TO ALL OTHER DALEK FLYING SAUCERS."
"THIS WILL BE THE DOCTOR'S FINAL BATTLE," the Supreme Dalek said coldly. "AND HE WILL
LOSE!"
/
Next Time: The Doctor arrives in Cerulean City - but learns that Ash meant a different redhead - Misty! Plus, the Daleks attack! See what happens in chapter three: "The River's Song!"