Brief Encounters
by Dale

"An empty space," thought the woman, "I must find an empty space..."

She pelted as fast as her high heels would carry her down an alley, looking around her for an appropriate venue: still running, mind racing.

At the bottom of the alley, not really paying attention to her surroundings, she saw a possible target worth investigation. A blue pair of doors, with the right hand door ajar. She ran straight through the doorway, and was in a huge space, suitable for what she needed.

Still without really stopping to take in her surroundings, the lady clad in a Yeoman's uniform stretched out her arms, and started to spin, her uniform starting to blur and shimmer slightly. She kept spinning, and her uniform was suddenly draped over her arm, and a altogether smaller, but more patriotic outfit was in use... a red bustier, with star spangled hot pants, red boots with a white stripe, and a gold belt, leading to an embroidered gold coloured eagle, spreading its wings majestically across her chest.

The woman stopped spinning, and checked her belt, and a tiara that hadn't been there a moment ago, were in place, before striding purposefully over to some sort of table with a glass column on it. She put her naval uniform neatly on top of the glass column, and made a mental note to come back for the clothes later...

The figure emerged from the pair of doors, looking suspiciously around her, before racing off down the alley, back the way she had come. She stopped suddenly, and turned to look behind her.

"POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX"

Well, the box was obviously the entrance to a building at the back of it; a Police station probably, if the sign above the doors was to be believed. Not giving it another thought, she ran towards the main street, to face off with a bank robber and his cohorts.

* * *

"So whose clothes are they, Professor?" asked Ace, from halfway down one of the TARDIS corridors.

"Erm..." The Doctor looked at the neatly folded naval uniform, now going up and down with the time rotor of the TARDIS. He reached out, and tried to carefully remove the jacket, but the whole pile of clothes slid off the rotor, landing in a heap across the console, and onto the floor. He frowned, tutting to himself quietly. He looked inside the jacket collar, at the neat, rectangular name label sewn into the garment.

"Prince, Ace. Diana Prince."

Diana didn't know what sort of creature it was, but it was gaining on her fast. She ran down the darkened street, the streetlights dim and murky in the evening fog, the moon no more than a blurry smear in the sky. She heard the growl again, and quickened her pace again.

Diving down a side street, and in one fluid motion, the stopped running and started to spin. A superlucent emission engulfed her, all white light and thunder. When the effect subsided, Wonder Woman stood in Diana's place, hands on hips, waiting for her pursuer to catch up.

It rounded the corner, and tried to stop dead, skidding on the leaf mulch ridden pavement, and landing squarely on its backside. With a roar of frustration it bounded back onto its feet, yellow eyes shining, teeth bared as it... ("He..." Wonder Woman thought, correcting herself) snarled at the figure in front of him, before stopping again, taking in the appearance of the female.

"Wonder Woman? Really? Wow! What are you doing here?"

Before the Amazon could answer the question, let alone ask one of her own, a pained look crossed the face of the man who had been stalking her, followed by a gasp as he turned to dust and rained on the sidewalk. Behind him was a girl, no more than twenty-one, with a wooden stake outstretched in her left hand, her right pulled into a fist ready for fighting. Her blond hair was tied at the back, and her black leather jacket was muddy, as were the greenish combat trousers and boots.

"Are you MAD?" said the girl loudly, her voice scornful. "Walking around here after dar..." her voice went thin and trailed off in shock as she realised the object of her scorn looked very much indeed like Wonder Woman.

"Oh my God..." faltered the girl, her eyes wide with disbelief. "Giles is never going to believe this..."

General Blankenship's office: 20:30

The General was reading one of Steve Trevor's dashing accounts of infiltrating a particularly difficult Nazi Tupperware ring when the noise began. It wasn't your average "office" type noise, and he bolted from his chair and headed for the door.

The noise, mechanical, unpleasantly loud and getting louder, was coming from Yeoman Prince's office.

Yeoman Prince was at her desk when the wheezing, groaning sound began. She looked up in surprise as a flashing light established itself about ten feet off the ground, rhythmically flashing in time to the mechanised crescendo that filled the small ante-office. A blue Police Box (at least, that's what it said on the sides) faded into view, slowly actualising itself in front of the door to the office with amazing precision. It grew more solid, before finally settling into reality with a "clump" of halting machinery. It sat there for a second, defying explanation. Then one of the doors to the box swung inward, and a young man peered out.

"Yeoman Prince? Diana Prince?" said the figure. Diana looked the stranger up and down. A man, early thirties, with a cravat, wing collar, a paisley waistcoat and a gorgeously made green velvet frock coat, light grey trousers. Wild hair. Very blue, sincere eyes, and a smile that could melt an iceberg.

"Yes, that's me," she stated, rising from her desk and walking round to stand before the young man.

A broad grin from the stranger. "Ah, good! I have something of yours! One moment!" at which, he vanished back inside the Police Box, the door to which swung to gently. Five seconds later he re-emerged, carrying a neatly folded, and what smelled like freshly laundered uniform.

"I don't quite know how your uniform got into the TARDIS, but my last self never bothered to return it. I, however, am much more..." he trailed off, thinking of a suitable phrase. "Me..." he finished with a smile.

"Thank you," started Diana, remembering the mysterious space in the alley where she had transformed into Wonder Woman. "It's nice of you to return it."

"That's alright," said the man. He looked around conspiratorially, glancing at the walls.

"Just don't tell Grace; she calls it "showing off"."

With that, the man in the green frock coat reopened the door of the box, and vanished inside once more. The door hummed shut, and the lamp on the stacked roof of the Police Box started to flash, and a slightly different trumpeting began. The sound got louder for a second or two, and then faded slowly away, and the box shimmered and gently became translucent before finally disappearing completely.

Diana looked at the clock. Eight thirty in the evening. Well, at least no-one would be around. The door to the office flew open, and General Blankenship burst in, making Diana jump.

"Are you alright Yeoman? What was that strange sound? And why couldn't I get into your office?" he blustered, face red, eyes bulging.

"What sound General?" Diana replied innocently "Everything's completely normal in here..."