The Doctor and Me

He called again; "Run!" he said…

I can still remember the day I met the Doctor; a day I never wish to forget. I remember how, on what started out as a normal day of school, a strange cloud formation appeared above my head in the yard. A large, spontaneous array of clouds, spat purples, greens, reds and blues at us. I remember feeling the electricity in the air, the high voltages crashing organic life to ruins. I remember watching as trees, plants, people disappeared before my eyes.

And of course, I remember the Doctor.

He fell through the cloud formation. He fell from the atmosphere above, bathed in the strange lights of the storm. He was constantly struck by the dangerous rays, but he seemed to be invincible; unable to attain damage from the force that wiped my teachers from the face of the earth.

I still don't know how he survived the fall; "I landed on a pocket of air", he had told me as we raced together to seek shelter. I'm still not sure why he felt the need to run; he wasn't harmed by the light.

"Those… Clouds… They're not normal…" I stammered, voice faltering as I gasped for oxygen in the highly electric air.

"Bingo!" He cried, his long trench coat flapping behind him as we ran. "They are indeed ALIEN!" He laughed, grasping my wrist and pulling me towards my school's shelter shed. "Light can't bend INTO here!" He called, whipping out – what I now know to be a sonic screwdriver – while I fell to the floor in an exhausted heap.

"Alien?" I breathed, watching him zap the clouds through the doorway of the shed. Flashes of purple and green light illuminated his face as he responded.

"Exactly; alien. This storm is a teraforming process; its purpose is to change the atmosphere of a planet. This storm alone is only a small one, but strong enough to completely change the face of earth. I've seen bigger storms."

I sat astonished at what he said. Change the planet? I couldn't grasp his meaning.

The Doctor seemed to have read my mind; "You're not alone in this universe. There are others out there, countless others. Aliens like you wouldn't believe, and for some reason, they all seem to center in on earth with their many intentions. It seems as though this time the Raskphyxians have concluded that earth would be a brilliant holidaying destination for their species. Unfortunately for them, this planet is protected!" He then paused for a second, examining his screwdriver, before exclaiming suddenly; "Ha!"

The Doctor jumped as a strong purple ray of light burst through the clouds outside. Unfortunate civilians were being zapped by the light as we watched on. Turning to me, he'd said "I highly doubt those people enjoyed that. Those rays are extremely very not good; they'll tear you apart from the inside out in seconds, and you'll be aware of every second. Luckily for me, the rays can't get through my skin. But for you and the rest of humanity it can; I suggest you stay in the dark."

"Can you get them back?" I asked.

Pause.

"Maybe."

But I suspected he was lying.

"Run!" He called again…

Since the day the Doctor saved the earth and reassembled the many trillions of disseminated atoms that were my fellow human beings, I had traveled with him. He showed me the skies; he showed me other civilizations on far away planets! He showed me the future of humanity, and he showed me its past, and now, as we raced across the rainbow road, he showed me a world I thought only existed in Nintendo.

Bowser, Mario and Luigi raced behind us; they're karts quickly gaining speed and closing space. Looming ahead of us were five translucent boxes, each with a threatening question mark implanted on the sides.

I laughed uncontrollably as I ran. I was being pursued by an angry Mario, a manic Luigi and a homicidal Bowser.

"The worse it gets, the more fun I have"…