Everything was as still as the grave, that is, until a strange wheezing noise filled the silence. In the corner of Jon’s room, a tall box began to form, fading in and out of existence for a few moments, becoming more and more solid with each wheeze until with a satisfying thump it materialized fully. A sign on one of its double doors read “Police Telephone. Free for Use of Public. Advice & Assistance Obtainable Immediately. Officers & Cars Respond to All Calls. Pull to Open.”
One of the doors swung open and a young blond woman in stylish 1970’s clothing stepped into Jon’s room. She looked around, taking in the dirty laundry hastily stuffed in a hamper, the computer desk by the window, the walls covered with action movie posters. She frowned and then said:
“Doctor, are you sure this is the right place?”
“Yes, Jo, I’m quite sure.”
A tall man in a fancy shamrock smoking coat and with hair whiter than it should be at his age joined the woman in Jon’s room. He was carrying a silver gadget, which was making an insistent beeping noise.
“The Time Lords would hardly send us to the wrong place on this occasion,” he continued.
“But it looks like a, well, like a teenager’s bedroom!” The woman, Jo, exclaimed.
The man, known only as “The Doctor,” looked around the room distastefully for a moment.
“Some of the most dangerous places in the Universe can be found in teenage bedrooms,” he said in the sort of tone that made it difficult to tell whether he was being serious or not. “Now, the sooner we find what the Time Lords sent us for, the sooner I can get back to my experiment.”
With a flourish, as he did with every action, the Doctor set about scanning the room. He moved slowly, hovering over every object, his eyes glued to the small screen on his silver gadget. Jo followed along, watching from over the Doctor’s shoulder.
“Doctor?” she asked after a moment. “What exactly are we looking for? I mean, I know we’re looking for some dangerous Time Lord weapon, but what’s it even supposed to look like?”
“Practically anything, Jo,” the Doctor responded. “All the worst Time Lord weapons have the annoying habit of appearing inconspicuous. It could be anything in this room and the only way we’ll know is by scanning its temporal energies.”
“Great,” Jo sighed.
Jo followed the Doctor for a little while longer before her own boredom led her to explore the rest of the room herself. There wasn’t much to explore, though, and Jo felt terribly guilty just rummaging through some kid’s room, so she settle down for sitting on the bed while the Doctor got on with his work. She’d been expecting somewhere more exciting than this when the Time Lords called, as it usually was, but it was also sort of nice not to be running for their lives for once.
After a while, the Doctor had finished scanning most of Jon’s room except for the bed. As soon as he pointed the scanning device in the bed’s direction, its beeping became more frantic.
“Ah, now that’s more like it,” the Doctor grinned.
“The bed?!” Jo exclaimed, sliding off the offending object and quickly retreating behind the Doctor.
“No,” said the Doctor, though only after he’d examined the bed himself. “But something under it...”
He crouched and lifted the bed skirt. Jo couldn’t see what he was looking for but eventually he pulled his hands out, holding...
