"Somewhere Out There" - Part One

 

Part One

            New York City, circa 1885.

            The corner of Grand and Hester Streets was bustling with activity – people traveling to and from, dozens of conversationalists chattering away, and the hooves of horses clomping away along the stone streets. Under any other circumstances, it would have been drowned out by the emergence of a tall, black rectangular alien monolith that materialized there on the corner, accompanied by loud hums and grinds.

            However, the monolith wasn’t so tall at the moment. Nothing more than a small domino on the street.

            It did, of course, make its usual noises upon dematerializing.

            In actuality, the tiny monolith was a Type-Z TARDIS designed and operated by its pilot, Aznavorian the Tinkerer, a royal-blooded Deltan who also happened to be part-Time Lord. Being part-Time Lord, Aznavorian possessed the gift of regeneration, having undergone the extraterrestrial process five times already.

            Now, currently in their sixth incarnation, Aznavorian went by the name of ‘Rania,’ a beautiful twentysomething Caucasian brunette in a black cropped turtleneck and olive-green skinny jeans. But there was something different about her usual appearance that she hadn’t noticed when she and her companions – Craig Williams (a 10-year-old African-American boy from one of the more ‘animated’ worlds in the Infinite DC), Tyler Thorne (a handsome 22-year-old man who was also Rania’s boyfriend), and Captain Jennifer Leeka (an immortal, flirtatious agent of the clandestine organization known as ‘Torchwood’) – all stepped out of the ship.

            “Hey, we’re back in New York,” Tyler noticed right away. “At least, I think it’s New York. Everything looks so…old.”

            Rania sniffed the air. “It’s New York for sure…19th century.”

            “Well, it’s still good to be back on Ear—WHOA!”

            Everyone jolted in alarm from Tyler’s sudden outburst. “What is it?” Rania asked him. “What’s wrong?”

            “What’s wrong?!” Tyler derisively parroted her inquiry. “Look at us!”

            The others followed his direction, looking at their hands, feet, and tails.

            “Awesome! We turned into mice!” Craig reacted with glee.

            Rania snickered, admiring her lengthy pink tail. “So, we have.”

            Jennifer went to a nearby half-full bottle of wine, and glimpsed at her reflection on the glass, seeing the mouse she had become. “Dang!” she exclaimed in amusement. “I make one fine lil’ Rescue Ranger, don’t I?”

            Their passive reactions made Tyler even more uneasy. “I don’t get it. How can you all be so cool about this?”

            “It’s just an influence of the nuage energy, Ty, albeit a more extensive case,” Rania rationalized. “You should’ve seen me and Craig once when we journeyed into the Disneyverse – I turned into a wolf and he turned into the cutest little hamster.”

            “Ugh, don’t remind me,” Craig griped. “I had to ride on your head just to get around!”

            “So…this is only temporary?” Tyler asked.

            “Of course,” Rania said. “Once we’re back in the Infinite DC, we’ll be exposed to the nuage waves and return to normal.”

            “That’s a relief,” Tyler exhaled, just as his stomach suddenly growled. “Does it also affect us internally? ‘Cause I got a sudden craving for cheese.”

            Leeka’s stomach growled as well, clasping her abdomen. “Whew, mama! Me, too! Hook me up with a cheeseburger an’ some cheese fries on the side…an’ a slice o’ cheesecake for dessert!”

            “Nacho cheese with cheese pizza and a grilled cheese sandwich,” Tyler said. “Probably some mac and cheese, too!”

            “Would you two knock it off?!” yelled the cheesed-off Rania.

            “Well, we can’t help it now, can we?!” Leeka defended. “We’re in the same dang family as Mickey an’ Mighty now!”

            “It’s all in your heads,” Rania told her. “You don’t see me and Craig having—”

            She stopped when she heard internal gurgling behind her, turning to see Craig clutching his own hungry belly. “Actually, Rania…I could go for some cheese puffs right ‘bout now. Kit always had the best at the Trading Tree.”

            Rania let out a defeated huff. “Alright, fine. Let’s see if there’s any mice-friendly luncheons around here.”

            The TARDIS team ventured out, leaving their ship on the street corner, its perception filer permitting it to go unnoticed by anyone big or small. It was certainly a new experience, walking the streets of New York City from the perspective of a mouse. They had to be mindful of where they stepped or risked being stepped on.

            They were grateful to come across one area that was clear of giant humans beneath the Greenwich Village train tracks. That was where something had fallen from the overhead tracks as the monstrously loud train passed. It fell into a mountain-sized soot pile and tumbled out near the TARDIS team.

            Tyler saw that it was a child mouse with a blue hat that looked oversized on his small head. His red tunic and blue pants were covered in soot. “You O.K., lil’ fella?” He dusted the child off.

            “Yeah, I’m O.K.,” he answered.

            Jennifer and Craig pitched in to help. “You oughta be more careful, sugah,” Jennifer told the child. “That was one heck of a fall ya had there.”

            Looking at the child from a short distance away, Rania’s eyes enflamed in recognition. The child was in fact Fievel Mousekewitz – the main character of An American Tail. “So that’s where we are,” she muttered to herself.

            “Where’s your mom and dad?” Craig asked Fievel.

            “They’re somewhere here in America,” Fievel sniffled. “It’s so much bigger than I thought. I’ll nev—” Fievel cupped his mouth as he almost said the word ‘never’.

            “Aww, bless your lil’ heart,” Leeka pitied him, and so did Tyler and Craig.

            Rania’s fists clenched, struggling not to pity the famous little mouse herself. It was always a rule of hers not to interfere with worldly affairs that followed a specific narrative in the world of fiction. In Fievel’s case, he was meant to follow his own path towards finding his family. There was no way she and her companions could interfere with that.

            She was about to call Craig, Tyler, and Leeka away from Fievel until Craig had asked him, “How did you lose your family?”

            “We were on this boat and there was this big storm,” Fievel recalled. “I wanted to see how it looked at the top, but then this big monster came aboard and tried to take me away from Papa!”

            Rania’s new mouse ears twitched. “Big monster? You mean the ocean?”

            Fievel shook his head. “It was a goblin!”

            The faces of Rania, Tyler, Leeka, and Craig all hardened. “The Archivist!”

            “What’s an archivist?” Fievel asked his new friends, but they were too occupied with huddling themselves into a private discussion.

            “What does the Archivist want with that mouse kid?” Craig pondered aloud.

            “Because that mouse kid is Fievel Mousekewitz,” Rania said.

            Tyler frowned. “Why does that name sound so familiar?”

            “It’s that lil’ character from An American Tail, y’know,” Leeka told him, glimpsing over her shoulder to see the confused Fievel. “If that goblin’s after that lil’ fella, then he’s in a heap o’ trouble.”

            Rania nodded. “Right, which means he’s our responsibility from this point forward. We have to bring him back to the TARDIS for safekeeping.”

            “What’re all of you talking about?” Fievel asked.

            Rania and her companions broke out of their huddle, all of them facing Fievel again with warm smiles. “Just how we’re gonna help you find your family,” Rania said.

            “You are?!” Fievel beamed.

            “We most certainly are,” Rania confirmed. She was unprepared for the hug that Fievel rushed to give her. She fought back tears as she returned the embrace.

            “My name’s Fievel,” he told them.

            “Good to meet ya, Fievel,” Rania said, acting as if she wasn’t already aware of the famous little mouse’s identity. She then gestured to her three companions and introduced them one-by-one, “These are my friends – Tyler, Captain Jennifer Leeka, and Craig.”

            After making each other’s acquaintances, the group set off back to where they left the TARDIS. Along the way, Tyler continued to recollect where he had seen Fievel’s story. “An American Tail…is that the one with the detective mouse?”

            “Nope, that’s The Great Mouse Detective,” Leeka helped him.

            “What about the one where they turned into horses?”

            “Cinderella.”

            “Not the one with the mouse who cooked?”

            Jennifer cringed at him. “Ratatouille, dude!”

            “Ey, Fillie!” A New York-accented voice called from above them. They looked up a long signpost that read ‘Hester St.,’ seeing a boy mouse perched atop it. This one wore a light blue shirt and patched-up brown pants with feet-straps on the bottom, a red scarf, and a dark red hat with a yellow strip on it. His fur was dark brown.

            Leeka wasn’t too happy to see him. “Oh, no,” she griped. “It’s him.”

            Tyler scratched his head. “Remind me who he is again?”

            “Just ‘bout the most stereotypical an’ useless character ya ever did see,” Jennifer criticized.

            “Ey, who you callin’ ‘useless,’ lady?” The boy mouse retorted, climbing down the signpost and approaching the group. “If it wasn’t for me, Fillie here’d still be workin’ in Moe’s sweatshop. Ain’t that right, Fillie?”

            Fievel nodded with a smile. “That’s right. Tony got me out of there.”

            “See? Ain’t so ‘useless’ afta all.” Tony glared at Leeka.

            “Uh-huh. Lemme spoil somethin’ for ya, sugah.” She brought her arm around Tony, leading into a specific direction. Rania, Tyler, Craig, and Fievel followed them into a marketplace alley with fruit and vegetables on display that were gigantic to their mouse sizes. Leeka guided Tony across two planks of wood with a decorative metal bowl bridged between them.

            As soon as they got onto the second plank, they stopped at a hole in a fence.

            “Right through here,” Jennifer motioned towards the hole, “you’ll see a cute lil’ mouse with freckles an’ a Lucky Charms accent.”

            Tony reacted to her words with a confused frown. “Whaddaya think I am, some kinda—?” Tony stopped once he looked through the hole and immediately lost all control of his speech and motor functions.

            “Tony?” Fievel watched his rescuer slumped down through the hole, disappearing out of sight. “Hey, Tony, where you goin’?” He was about to follow him until Leeka blocked his path.

            “Don’t you fret ‘bout him, hon,” she told Fievel. “We’re better off without ‘im.”

            “Jen’s got a point,” Rania said. “We can’t waste any time on nonsense – not with the Archivist and Fievel’s family out there.” On that note, the group proceeded onward towards the landing spot where the TARDIS patiently waited. Unfortunately, when they got there, they made an unsettling discovery: “The TARDIS is gone!!”

            Sure enough, the monolith was nowhere to be seen.

            “Where d’ya reckon it could’a gone?” Jennifer pondered.

            “Maybe a cat ate it,” Tyler jested. His jest, on the other hand, garnered a few worried exclamations from some passerby mice.

            Leeka gave Thorne an admonished backhanded slap across his broad chest. “Hey now, don’t go throwin’ that c-word ‘round. Y’know how touchy folks ‘round here get.”

            “Cats, cats, cats,” Fievel repeatedly said, despite Leeka’s advice. “Why’s everybody so scared? There are no cats in America.”

            But as Fievel made that assertion, a shadow loomed over him and the TARDIS team, blocking out the sun. Looking up, the five of them were stricken to see a large black cat roaring hungrily at them.