CAS2109

Lost in Time

Doctor Who & Life is Strange Crossover

Disclaimer: I do not own "Life is Strange" or "Doctor Who" as they belong to their respective owners. All OC's on the other hand; MINE!

Prologue – "Arcadia Bay" – Time Vortex – Current Time Indeterminate

The Professor continued to slowly walk around the centre console of his Type 80 TARDIS, altering the intensity of the bright white lights every now and again as he considered exactly what he was going to do next. Standing at around 5'11, the Professor was somewhat average in height and despite being over six hundred and fifty years old, his smooth facial complexion, as well as his well-kept, combed dark brown hair made him appear hardly a day older than thirty five - he'd certainly gotten lucky with his latest incarnation (7 had always been his lucky number). His eyes however were a different story entirely: as young as his light blue, piercing eyes made him out to be; the dark bags under them and his somewhat distant gaze spoke of someone who had lost much and had seen a great deal of pain and suffering for a very long time.

The loosened black and red striped tie, his unfastened cufflinks and collar on his dark blue shirt also hinted at someone who was on the verge of just letting go. He stopped mid pace and glanced at the large screen on the wall in front of him – the only one in the control room, a series of flashing Gallifreyan icons caused him to raise one of his eyebrows as he walked towards the screen and blinked in surprise.

That can't be right…was one of the two dozen thoughts running through the Professor's mind at the sight of the symbols, he paused to read it again up close as he scratched the accumulating stubble on his cheek.

Yep…that's definitely…odd…

The Professor's thoughts continued to be drawn out and disjointed as his shattered and unfocused mind attempted to arrange the pieces of the puzzle in front of him. He rubbed his eyes for a few moments and smacked his head for good measure.

"Come on! Focus!" he grumbled as he slapped his head a third time, "The first time anything remotely interesting happens and you can't figure out what it is because you're drunk on self-pity…"

The control room lurched violently, throwing the Professor off-balance and sending him careening into a guardrail on the central platform, his arms flailing over the side helplessly as another lurch sent him flying onto his back. The Professor groaned lightly as he sat up, rubbing his back carefully as he eyed the control console beside him.

"Yes…sweetie?" he muttered towards the central console in-between pained breaths, Yep…definitely jarred my pelvis…"What was that about?"

A chirp from the console made the Professor narrow his eyes in disgruntlement, "I was not feeling sorry for myself!"

The control console let out another chirp followed by a series of beeps as the Professor got to his feet, "Hush you," he muttered as he braced himself on the console and looked at a series of readings – it looked like his TARDIS had hit off of something and then rapidly decelerated out of the vortex as it collided with something else and despite his advanced sensors, he couldn't deduce what that 'something' was, How odd…

"Any idea where and when we are?" The Professor asked as he cleared up interference on the exterior sensors, his brow furrowing at some of the readings he was getting. The large screen on the wall behind him updated with more Gallifreyan icons as he turned to briefly skim over them

"Earth…" The Professor read with a stifled sigh, ignoring his exact location on the planet, "Very funny sweetie…just what I wanted…" He continued reading the icons; he'd need a starting date if he wanted to leave, "Earth-date is…October 7th 2013… I believe that's the Earth equivalent anyway…right then…let's go shall we?…I'd rather not stay on this…particular planet for long…the natives are a bit too…proactive…for my liking anyway."

The Professor turned on his heels and input the date with expert quickness into the console, moments later he began the process of a random but quick vortex flight by knocking the 'zig-zag plotter' into gear. As he began to walk around the console he tightened his tie and cracked his neck – this part never got old. He dialled up a series of switches on the Helmic Regulator and accelerated the Space-Time throttle with a gentle push of the control lever within mere moments of each other; the entire room starting to fill with a hum that only increased in intensity and volume as he cranked the Locking Down Mechanism, smiling at the central pillar as he took a step back after winding it a few times. With a final motion, the Professor pulled the Time-Rotor Handbrake, causing the entire room to lurch for a second as the usual wheezing sound returned (he preferred to fly with this sound even if the TARDIS wasn't supposed to make it – the wheezing gave the flight some character) and the time-rotor slowly began moving up and down.

As the Professor leant back on the railing behind him, he let out a sigh of relief – only for the room to lurch again, throwing him face first into the console as something exploded behind him; making both the feeling of sparks searing the back of his neck and him cursing his karma the last things he remembered before the Timelord blacked out.

Blackwell Academy, Arcadia Bay, Oregon, United States of America

Whoa! No!

Maxine Caulfield's eyes opened in shock to find herself still in class and not being crushed by the top of a crumbling lighthouse thanks to the scariest storm she had ever seen. She sat upright and tried not to look too alarmed as she calmed herself down.

Whoa…That was so surreal…

Her teacher, Mr Jefferson, was still in the middle of giving his lecture and was currently talking about Alfred Hitchcock's famous remarks about film. It was clear that her 'dream', or whatever that had been (it sure hadn't feltlike a dream) had gone unnoticed by the rest of the class so she hadn't been out of it for long – although it sure felt like a long time.

She glanced over the classroom and took a series of breaths, glancing at the clock as it turned 3:51 in the afternoon.

Okay…I'm in class…Everything's cool…I'm okay…

Jefferson continued to walk around in front of her as he seemed to drone on about Hitchcock or something; Max was too freaked out to really pay attention to what he was saying. She took her eyes off Jefferson just in time to see someone throw a ball of what looked like paper at Kate Marsh, the ball hitting her in the face and making her flinch before the flimsy piece of paper rolled onto the floor.

I didn't fall asleep…and that sure didn't feel like a dream…Weird.

Max's confusion at what had just happened persisted as she looked over the contents of her desk in an attempt to think about other things. Her confusion was immediately flooded by a wave of self-doubt as her eyes caught sight of her 'entry'. She glanced at the picture in question briefly and cringed, even when it was half covered by her notebook it still made her feel embarrassed.

Look at this crap! How can I show this to Mr Jefferson?

Max edged the notebook to the side, covering the picture entirely.

I can hear the class laughing at me now.

Her eyes meandered towards her pink pencil case, drawing a small smile to her face at the sight of it; the thing certainly held a lot of memories.

I can't believe I still have this pencil case. I should upgrade to the 21st Century. But…I like it old school.

Max's eyes moved towards her camera as Jefferson shushed someone down for cursing, telling them to "Keep that to themselves" before moving on. Max picked up the camera, holding it in her hands for a moment before lowering it under the table and taking a quick selfie; much to her distain however, the flash from the camera ushered in a "Shush" from Mr Jefferson and Max felt the eyes in the room turn to face her. Not what she had intended at all…

"I believe Max has taken what you kids call a 'selfie'…" Mr Jefferson began as Max hastily returned her camera to the table, trying not to blush at the sudden onset of attention, "A dumb word for a wonderful photographic tradition...and Max has a gift..."

Arcadia Bay, Oregon, United States of America – Approximately 3:49 PM Local Time, 7th October 2013

The Professor's borderline-incoherent grumbles didn't let up as he patted down the still-burning parts of his singed shirt, from the looks of things the TARDIS had been unable to fully dematerialise and enter vortex flight before it crashed into a major obstacle – something that should be impossible. Type 80 TARDISes simply don't 'crash'…unless…

"Of course there's a temporal lock…there's always a temporal lock when I want to leave somewhere this badly," he continued grumbling as he cringed at the burns on his neck, "Sweetie…bring up the system diagnosis on the main screen would ya?"

A distorted series of chirps affirmed the Professor's request as the main screen activated; static cut across the screen for a few moments as the main lights flickered and several more showers of sparks erupted from the roof of the control room before legible Gallifreyan text appeared on the screen. The Professor sighed as the system readouts confirmed his hypothesis; he was indeed stuck in a temporal lock – leaving the TARDIS powerless to do really anything other than sit where it was and look pretty.

The Timelord turned on the spot and walked towards the doors to the control room, the external sensors reported that the TARDIS was parked in a small forest clearing; apart from that however he was unaware of his current position (other than he was somewhere in the area of an insignificant little town called 'Arcadia Bay'). He stopped for a few moments just in front of the door as the burns on his neck caused him to cringe.

"I should probably get something for that…" he muttered as he picked his black and blue pinstriped jacket hanging over the railing beside him and slung it over his right shoulder, the singes on his shirt weren't noticeable enough to warrant replacing it – at the moment anyway.

Hell. Knowing humans, this was probably fashionable.

The Professor synched up his watch to local time and double checked that he had both his psychic paper and his laser screwdriver (just in case) before opening the doors to the control room and taking a step outside.

As the Professor's leading foot made contact with the damp, grass-covered forest floor – causing him to cringe as the mud started to spoil the otherwise-perfect polish on them; he immediately became aware of several things at once: firstly was how close he was to a large structure in the area (a tower of some kind about half a kilometre ahead of him); the second was just how cold it actually was as a gust of cold air made his hair stand on end for a moment; the third was the painfully obvious camouflage his TARDIS had chosen.

"Seriously?" he sighed as he looked at his TARDIS, "This is your idea of discrete here? I don't think anyone's going to miss a giant boulder in the middle of a clea-"

The door to the control room dissipated into solid rock before the Professor had even gotten into the full sway of his rant, causing him to shake his head in disbelief and walk towards the tower in the distance. With any luck, his TARDIS' peculiar choice in a five meter high, two meter wide and cone shaped piece of solid rock would go unnoticed; leaving him to think over his more pressing concern as he looked towards the tower once more.

Something was forcibly keeping the TARDIS locked here, it was time to find out who or what it was and why…

Author's Sidenote: Yes. ANOTHER new story from me, I know - and no, I'm not dead yet. However nothing I've written thus far for my other major project "For Fleet and Flotilla" has made it though my personal evaluation phase (in layman's' terms: it was terrible). I'm hoping that this project will get me rolling again and once I'm feeling confident in my abilities I'll turn my attention back to FFaF and get Act 2 moving along nicely. Until then, I'll keep you all updated!