Chapter Two: Uprising

 

Chapter Two: Uprising

            “The Gladiator’s a teenager now! I’ve never been a teenager – not since a thousand years ago, at least! Does she have the mind of a teenager? Blimey! I hope not! That would complicate things!”

            If a blue police box sitting at the street corner of an all-American suburb wasn’t off-putting enough, the young Englishman babbling to himself as he walked up to it was a certain contender. The Doctor had just found the very reason he exhausted much of the TARDIS’s energy, coming to one of the realms in the infinite dimensional corridor. The teenaged blonde he saw with the four boys was definitely Neas. She basically left a trail of nuage energy that was easily detectable with a sonic screwdriver.

            He returned to the TARDIS, figuring that his latest companion had grown weary of waiting on him. Normally, when the Doctor picked up someone in his travels (whether it was by happenstance or on purpose), it was either from another place and time or directly from contemporary Earth. More often than naught, it was a lovely young woman that reminded him of his granddaughter, Susan.

            Jake Pentecost, however, was a unique case.

            This was a young man he met during another accidental detour through the infinite D.C. (his latest one since the Battle of Themyscira in his previous life). His world once consisted of giant creatures known as Kaiju that had long been extinct since his father and other brave souls closed the rift that brought them in. One of those souls, as the Doctor discovered from Jake, was Neas.

            This encounter could not have happened at a better time.

            Something brewed inside of the dimensional corridor and manifested within one of the dimensions. The Jaegers from Jake’s world could be of use, but they needed Neas’s expertise.

            Stepping into his TARDIS, the first thing the Doctor saw was Jake eating away at a banana split he made for himself. “Where did you get that?!” His voice rose in pitch in that way it always did whenever he was surprised.

            “The fridge,” Jake answered with a mouthful of whipped cream he just sprayed in.

            “How did you find the fridge – or, for that matter, the kitchen?! You better not have touched the fish fingers and custard I’d been saving in there!”

            “Relax, mate. I didn’t touch your finger food. You literally put your name on it. Word of advice: if you’re gonna label your lunch, might wanna cover it with plastic first.”

            The Doctor let out an irritable groan, redirecting his focus on the control console.

            “Did you find Mister Neas?” Jake asked him.

            “I did…or I think that I did.”

            “You mean you’re not sure?”

            “Positively sure. It’s just…” The Doctor paused, uncertain of how to explain the complications of regeneration to Jake. “Well, you see…he’s not as how your father remembered him. The nuage energy I’ve been detecting with the sonic led me to this girl, and—”

            “Hold up, bruh,” Jake interjected. “Did you just say ‘girl’?”

            “Yes, I did. Now pay attention, ‘cause this next part is important: the girl it led me to is the Time Lord that we’re looking for.”

            Jake wasn’t sure how to process this information. “So…the girl is with him?”

            The Doctor tried to maintain patience. “No, Jake. The girl is him!”

            “How is that possible?!” Jake queried, setting down his banana split before he dropped it in a state of bewilderment. “My Dad described him as a tall brotha who wore a hoodie and a loose necktie. Was she at least wearin’ those things?!”

            The Doctor shook his head. “More like a green blouse and bellbottom jeans.”

            Jake’s face contorted in a barrage of emotions.

            “It’s called regeneration – it’s something we Time Lords do to cheat death. I’m just not absolutely certain which regeneration of Neas this one is.”

            “Well, whatever or whoever Neas has become doesn’t matter,” Jake declared, “as long as she remembers what she did for my father and what she can do for us now.”

            “Right,” the Doctor concurred.

            He proceeded to work around the controls of his TARDIS, getting a fix on Neas’s Type-Z model. He knew it had to be somewhere in the town of Hawkins (If Neas is there, it has to be, too!). There was probably a chance of the Gladiator returning to it, after her night out with her young friends; so, the Doctor figured it best for him and Jake to wait for her there.

            The TARDIS dematerialized out of the suburbs and rematerialized in the woods on the outskirts of Hawkins. That was where they found the Type-Z model TARDIS. The Doctor had seen it many times before. A tall black rectangular solid that was flat on all sides, unlike most other TARDISes that were more circular in their default appearance. Designed by Aznavorian the Tinkerer, its sole purpose was to travel beyond reality – into dimensions either unknown or relatable in the prime reality through movies, television, and other various forms of media.

            “This is it,” Jake exclaimed. “It looks just how Dad described it! Said it was bigger on the inside, too!”

            “All TARDISes are in some way,” the Doctor said. “This one, on the other hand, won’t be so easily accessible. It’s not opened by key like mine. It requires a proper DNA signature from its owner.”

            “And we hadn’t got her with us,” Jake griped.

            “Thankfully, I’ve learnt how to bypass this feature.” The Doctor retrieved his sonic from inside his tweed jacket. “Did it once behind Aznavorian’s back. The only flaw in his grandest invention discovered by the one man he hates the most.”

            The Doctor aimed his sonic screwdriver towards the front of the solid. Its green tip glowed like a flashlight and reflected off the marbled surface. Not a second after, a set of doors manifested and permitted them entrance. They walked inside the noticeably bigger interior, which Jake still managed to be surprised by, despite being told beforehand.

            One item in the room caught the Doctor’s eye: an old, brown leather suitcase.

            It was sitting at one corner of the room, standing out from all of the technological advancements therein. Curious, the Doctor quickly scanned it and glanced at the readings he received. Jake took notice in his baffled expression. “Everything cool, bruh?” he asked.

            “It’s an ordinary suitcase – from the outside, at least,” the Doctor remarked. He knocked on the suitcase, as if expecting someone to answer from the inside. When there was none, he merely left it alone.

            “What’re you guys doin’ here?!”

            Jake and the Doctor reflectively turned at the preteen voice that addressed them. They were relieved to see that it was just a pair of kids – a boy and a girl. “Ah, children,” the Doctor said. “My favorite kind of humans in the world. You must be Neas’s companions. Lovely to meet—”

            When the Doctor approached for a handshake, his body suddenly turned rigid.

            He noticed the girl outstretching her right arm towards him, using some form of telepathy to paralyze his body.

            “Oi! Let ‘im go!”

            Jake made a move towards the girl. The Doctor wished he could’ve told him not to, but he couldn’t move his mouth. Not that it would have mattered, as the situation escalated even further the second that the boy activated some kind of alien wristwatch that turned him into a massive, red four-armed alien creature.

            “You picked the wrong spaceship, dude,” the alien challenged Jake, who was petrified by the boy’s sudden transformation.

            “BEN!”

            Another voice spoke out, ceasing all activity.

            All heads (except for the Doctor’s) turned to a tall, blond African American woman who had walked into the confrontation that she stopped with the utterance of a single name. She aimed a device that resembled a sonic screwdriver at the chest of the four-armed alien, transforming it back into a ten-year-old boy.

            “Didn’t know you could do that,” he told the woman.

            “Didn’t think I’d ever have to,” the woman scolded him. “You know better than to use your alien forms to attack! Only use them in defense!”

            The boy gestured to Jake and the Doctor. “But these guys…”

            “Eleven!” The woman now addressed the telepathic girl. “Let that man go!”

            The girl named “Eleven” did as the woman commanded. Instantly, the Doctor regained his mobility. “Ah, much better,” he expressed. “Thank you for that.”

            The woman returned his appreciation with a smile and a nod.

            “Everything O.K. up here?” Yet another voice – this one with an accent close to the Doctor’s – spoke outside the gathering. The Doctor saw that it was a man dressed intriguingly similar to him, stepping out of the suitcase.

            “Aha!” The Doctor excitedly bellowed. “I knew it wasn’t an ordinary suitcase!”

            “But you said that it was earlier,” Jake indicated.

            “The sonic told me that it was, but I suspected differently,” the Doctor said, walking back over to the now-opened suitcase and peeking his head inside. “And it’s bigger on the inside, too!” Lifting his head back up, he stood close enough to the man that the quiffs of their hairs practically touched. “You aren’t a Time Lord, are you?”

            “N-No, sir,” the man stammered. “I’m a wizard.” He held out his hand, which the Doctor graciously shook. “Newt Scamander.”

            The Doctor’s eyes enlarged in astonishment. “Not the Newt Scamander.”

            “Yes,” Newt confirmed.

            “From the Harry Potter books?” the Doctor inquired.

            Newt frowned. “W-Who’s Harry Potter?”

            “Better question: How did you get into the TARDIS?” the blond African American woman asked the Doctor.

            “My sonic screwdriver bypassed the DNA signature,” he replied, showing her his Gallifreyan tool. “Not so clever, that Aznavorian, is he?”

            Seeing the sonic in his hands, the woman came to a startling realization:

            “You’re the Doctor!”

            The boy named Ben raised an eyebrow. “I thought the Doctor was some old Scottish dude we helped in the Multiverse War.”

            “Don’t necessarily remember ever being that,” the Doctor responded. “I was once Scottish but never old…well…old-ish.”

            “Doctor, what’re you doing here?” the woman asked him.

            “I need to find Neas,” he said, right back to business as usual. “I saw her with four boys earlier and hoped that she would arrive here with them soon.” He eagerly came up to the woman, who was at perfect eye level with him. “A proper amazon, aren’t you? You must be one of Neas’s latest companions.”

            The woman suppressed a snicker. “Actually, Doctor…I’m one of her latest regenerations. I call this one ‘Alicia’.”

            “Oh,” the Doctor uttered. He was momentarily embarrassed over the mistake but that soon gave way for more conflicting emotions. “Wait a sec! A moment ago, I saw you as a blond teenaged Caucasian girl of yea high.” He gestured his hand in a measuring motion beside Alicia’s body, stopping near her left shoulder.

            Alicia shook her head. “Don’t ever remember being a teenager – not since my original body, at least.”

            The Doctor followed on this, an ecstatic smile brewing on his countenance.

            “So, there’re two of you here,” he said. “Brilliant! You can both help in our dilemma!”

            “What dilemma is that?” she asked him.

            His smile faded, replaced by a dour scowl. “Cthulhu has risen within the infinite dimensional corridor.”

            “What’s a Cthulhu?” Ben queried.

            “A cosmic entity,” Alicia explained. “He looks like a cross between an octopus, a dragon, and a human.”

            Ben smirked. “Sounds like somebody, I know.”

            “If Cthulhu has emerged in the infinite dimensional corridor, he could infect any of the realms in it,” Alicia surmised.

            “Thankfully, I managed to pinpoint its location,” the Doctor informed. “But I’ve been unable to reach the destination. My TARDIS is non-compatible with the dimensional corridor. I’ve already exhausted her energy coming to two dimensions – this one and Pentecost’s.”

            When Alicia noticed the Doctor pointing to Jake while uttering the recognizable surname of “Pentecost,” her interest in the young man swelled. “Pentecost? As in Stacker Pentecost?”

            “Yep,” Jake acknowledged. “That be my old man. He talks a lot about you.”

            “Really?” The flattered Alicia blushed. “What has he said?”

            “Mostly that you were one of the bravest men he fought the Kaiju with.”

            Newt rapidly blinked over Jake’s remark. “I-I-I’m s-sorry. Did you say ‘one of the bravest men’?!”

            Even Ben was puzzled at this revelation. “Alicia, you were once a guy?!”

            Alicia blushed even more. She feigned clearing her throat and immediately changed the subject: “So, uh, Jake? What brought you on this journey with the Doctor?”

            “When I learned of the Jaegers in his dimension,” the Doctor spoke on Jake’s behalf, “I realized we had our way of fighting Cthulhu. Now all we have to do is find Cthulhu first.”

            “Well, you said yourself that we got two of me here now,” Alicia said. “If the other me is somewhere in town, then you and Jake can go and find her and fill her in on what’s happening. My friends and I will scout ahead in the dimension where you’ve pinpointed Cthulhu’s location and get back to you once we’ve found him.”

            The Doctor beamed with enthusiasm. “Look at us – coming up with plans and working together. We should do this more often.”

            “I know, right?” Alicia shared in his delight.

            The two Time Lords and their companions then parted.

            Alicia and her friends dematerialized away in her Type-Z TARDIS, while the Doctor and Jake did the same in his Type 40 one.