On a distant planet, a blue dinosaur-like creature was carrying an orange furred creature on its back. They had arrived at what looked like a pool of bubble liquid. “There it is!” cheered the orange creature. “Time Orbble Lake! The place where Wilmur and Orbble found the secret to making Time Orbbles!”
“I still remember when we almost filled up on Time Orbble juice,” remarked the dinosaur-like creature as she shuddered. “That could have been a whole thing!” Just then, the lake started bubbling! “What the-?!”
“That’s never happened before!” yelped the orange creature. An energy wave then washed over them. The two stumbled a bit.
“Wander, are you okay?!” asked the dinosaur-like creature.
“I’m fine, Syl,” replied the orange creature, Wander. He then checked his hat. “…This thing’s okay. You?”
“Doing all right,” said the dinosaur-like creature, Sylvia. “What the heck happened?!”
Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor checked the instruments. She was still tracking chronal surges, then…the TARDIS rocked as if it hit turbulence! The Doctor worked feverishly to stabilize things. Tysar stumbled into the console room. “Doctor, what was that?!”
“A chronal surge!” replied the Doctor. “It passed us while we were in the Vortex!”
“Can you get anything from it?” asked Tysar.
“Checking now…huh. Haven’t been to that galaxy in a while.”
“Doctor?”
“We’re going to a galaxy an old friend of mine lives in right now,” said the Doctor. “That’s where the chronal surge is putting its victim. Setting coordinates now and…”
Wander and Sylvia were still trying to puzzle out that energy wave. …Well, Sylvia was. Wander was still distracted by the Time Orbble lake. “Wander, can you please pay attention?!” complained Sylvia.
“I am!” protested Wander. Sylvia pinched the bridge of her nose.
“Look, it’s pretty, but that lake’s not as important as-!” She stopped when she heard a noise. “…As that, apparently,” she finished. Wander heard the noise too.
“What the heck’s going on?” he asked as a wind picked up. Just then, the TARDIS materialized on the planet. Wander’s face lit up. “DOCTOR!” he said. Sylvia goggled.
“No way is that all a coincidence!” she said. The Doctor and Tysar then stepped out.
“Doctor, what IS this planet?” asked Tysar.
“It’s where two people were inspired to make a form of transportation,” replied the Doctor. “A sort of soap bubble that keeps you alive in space and lets you wander-.”
“That’s the name!” interjected Wander. The Doctor looked down and grinned when she saw Wander’s face.
“Wander!” she greeted. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
“You changed your face again, huh Doctor?” asked Wander.
“Doctor?” asked Sylvia. “Wander, I think that energy wave messed with your head. That’s not the Doctor.”
“So you’re saying I never helped you two against Lord Dominator and the Daleks?” asked the Doctor. “I had to modify the Movellan Virus to take them both down.”
“Good grief, it IS you!” yelped Sylvia. “But how?!”
“Her ability to change her face is known among my people,” said Tysar.
“Wander, Sylvia, meet Tysar, my current companion,” introduced the Doctor.
“Nice to meet you!” greeted Wander as he shook Tysar’s hand. “Folks call me Wander and that there is Sylvia!”
“How’s it going?” asked Sylvia.
“Random question,” said the Doctor, “but have you lot felt any strange energy waves?”
“Yeah, why?” asked Sylvia. “You tracking it?”
“All right, slightly related question,” continued the Doctor, “are you familiar with the Grouping?” Wander goggled.
“…Doc, I was a victim of that thing!” he said. “It took the Monan Host to get me back to my proper time!”
“Well, it’s happening again, Wander,” sighed the Doctor. “That energy wave was a chronal surge.”
“Um, could someone fill me in?” asked Sylvia.
“Chronal surges take someone out of one point in space time and put them somewhere and somewhen else,” explained Tysar. “I went through that myself. Ended up seeing the homeworld of one of the heroes of my people.”
“There are multiple chronal surges happening throughout space and time,” continued the Doctor. “The blending of those points is called the Grouping.”
“Well, Syl and I are still here,” said Wander.
“Meaning we’ll need to check for-.” The Doctor was interrupted by a groan somewhere nearby. “…That sounds familiar,” she said. “Fan out. We need to find this person and-.”
“Doctor, over here!” called Tysar near the edge of the lake. “It’s some kid with flight goggles!”
“Flight goggles?” The Doctor, Wander, and Sylvia rushed up to Tysar to see the kid she was talking about. The kid was face down and groaning in dull pain. The Doctor turned him over to see his features and gasped. “RAZ!” she yelped. The kid, Raz, scrunched his face and slowly opened his eyes.
“No, Mom,” he groaned deliriously, “psychic bears are a bad idea.” He then saw everyone standing over him. “HOLY-!” He fired a blast of mental concussive energy and knocked the Doctor off her feet!
“STEADY ON!” protested the Doctor.
“WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?!” demanded Raz. “WHERE AM I?!”
“You’re in another time entirely, Razputin Aquato,” explained the Doctor. “As for who we are, well, you met ME before, but not in this body.”
“…Lady, I don’t know who you are,” said Raz.
“Then give me a mental checkup,” replied the Doctor. “You still have that Psycho-portal, yes?”
“…Okay, you obviously know about the Psychonauts,” said Raz. He then pulled out a little door. “So you consent to a mental checkup?”
“I do indeed,” confirmed the Doctor. Raz then put the door on the Doctor’s forehead. The Doctor shut her eyes. “Everyone, Raz is just entering my mind. There’s categorically no cause for alarm.” Raz then lowered his goggles over his eyes and projected his mind into the Doctor’s.
Raz found himself in a room with a hexagonal console in the center. “…That’s the mindscape of the Doctor!” he said.
“Yes, it is, isn’t it?” asked a voice. Raz turned to see a woman with long brown hair, a blue coat, a green pleated skirt, and a floppy hat.
“Doctor?!” he yelped.
“Yes, this is what I looked like when we first met, right Raz?” asked the woman, the Doctor’s previous incarnation.
“Wait, so that lady that looks like a supermodel is you?! You changed your face again?”
“An unfortunate hazard,” remarked the Doctor.
“So I’m gonna go through the door…and see her?”
“That’s the idea.”
“NO!” came a voice. A few short men in business suits with giant no symbol stamps arrived.
“Oh, lovely,” sighed the Doctor. “My Censors.”
“I’ll take care of them!” said Raz. He psi-blasted them as the Doctor practiced Venusian Aikido on them. She then opened the door for Raz.
“Through here,” she said.
“Thanks!” Raz entered the door and found himself in the current console room where the current Doctor was working on one of the console’s panels. “…Well, that just proves it,” he said.
“Hm?” The Doctor looked up from her work. “Ah, there you are! Didn’t meet all my previous incarnations?”
“I think I saw enough of them when I first met you,” remarked Raz. “Well, that’s all the proof I need.”
“Exit’s right behind you,” said the Doctor. Raz entered another door, then found himself lifting away from the console room.
Raz and the Doctor woke up as the psycho-portal fell off the Doctor’s head. “I’m convinced,” said Raz. “What made you change your body anyways, Doctor?”
“Occupational hazard,” replied the Doctor. “Now, I think I’d better fill you in on the current problem, hm?” The Doctor introduced Wander, Sylvia, and Tysar, then explained what happened to Raz.
“That explains why everything around me changed,” said Raz, taking it all in stride.
“We’ll get you back to your own time,” promised the Doctor.
“We’re at Time Orbble Lake,” said Wander, “maybe that can help him!”
“…No wonder that lake looks familiar!” chuckled the Doctor. “What a stroke of luck! Wander, do you have a clean Orbble Wand?”
“I should have one somewhere,” remarked Wander as he took his hat off and rummaged around in it. He then pulled out a warning beacon that was screaming!
“Okay, that’s a little worrying!” gulped Tysar.
“What’s that?” asked Raz.
“My Hatey Clock!” replied Wander. “It only goes off when Lord Hater’s coming!” A big smile crossed Wander’s face.
“Lord Hater’s coming?” asked the Doctor. She then face-palmed. “Of course the situation gets that complicated.”
“Is that as worrying as it sounds?” asked Tysar. Just then, a ship that looked like a skull with hot rod attachments arrived. It opened its mouth, unfurled its tongue like a carpet, and an army of small, diminutive creatures with giant eyes for heads wearing black suits marched out, chanting “HATE’S GREAT! BEST VILLAIN! HATE’S GREAT! BEST VILLAIN!” Their commander then arrived. He wore a helmet with a giant lightning bolt sticking out of it.
“By the authority vested in me by Lord Hater,” he called, “this planet now belongs to the greatest villain in the galaxy, Lord Hater!” That was when a skeleton with green eyes, black and red robes, and yellow gloves with tiny lightning bolt antennae on the hood arrived.