Explosive Time and Space

Hello all and thank you for deciding to give this story a try. I've been tossing this idea around for a while, and I think it's ready to be published. This will be my second attempt at a more lighthearted Zero no Tsukaima fanfic, so wish me luck.

Now, as the Doctor would say, Allons-y!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

At the Tristain Academy of Magic, the second year students were gathered in the courtyard preparing to summon their familiars. All of them were excited about the familiars that they had or were about to summon…all except one that is, a petite pinkette named Louise. You see Louise, though acing the theoretical side of magic, had virtually no talent in the practical side, with every spell she attempted to perform ending in a violent explosion.

She was praying that this time would be an exception.

It was soon her turn and she stepped into the runic spell array that had been drawn over the grass for the ceremony. Raising her wand in front of her, she focused her power and magic into the spell she was about to cast and prayed to the Founder Brimir that it would work.

"Pentagram of the Five Elements," she incanted, "by your authority and my power, I summon…my FAMILIAR!"

There was a surge of power in the courtyard and everyone present held their breaths as the magic array glowed with power…only to explode violently, covering the area with smoke. The students all laughed at Louise's latest failure, alternating between coughs due to the amount of smoke in the air, but once the cloud began to disperse, the laughter stopped.

For in the center of the array, Louise had vanished.

"What just happened?" asked a girl with dark skin and red hair.

"Did Louise the Zero blow herself up?" asked a blond boy holding a rose.

Nobody had an answer.

xXsceneXx

In the vast reaches of the cosmos, far beyond the edge of the Andromeda Galaxy, a renegade Time Lord known to most as the Nightingale, was working in his lab in his TARDIS, trying to make progress on a project of his, when an explosion occurred in the main control room, causing him to sprint over there, sonic watch on his wrist and plasma pistol in his hand.

When he arrived, he didn't expect to see a petite pink-haired girl wearing clothes that resembled something from a human fantasy novel, lying in front of his console.

"Well that's new," said the Nightingale as he walked up to the girl and holstered his gun.

The Nightingale checked the girl's pulse and scanned her with his sonic watch and, seeing the data scroll across the HUD on his glasses, saw that she seemed to be perfectly healthy, though she seemed to have a strange energy permeating her cells.

"Hmm," said the Time Lord, "I should get her into the medbay until she wakes up."

He pushed a button on his watch and a humanoid robot, appeared in the flash of a teleporter. This was Gamma-2701, his personal servant and helper.

"Gamma-2701," said the Nightingale, "take our new guest to the medical bay and make her comfortable."

The robot nodded and took the girl in his arms, "As you wish, sir,"

The robotic servant carried the young girl off to rest and the rouge Time Lord looked out at the surrounding space through the display set into the celling of the control room and pulled several levers on the TARDIS console, and watched as his ship plunged into the time vortex.

"Well," said the Time Lord, "I was hoping for something interesting to happen."

With a laugh, the man headed back to his workstation, leaving the craft suspended in the vortex for the time being…no pun intended.

xXsceneXx

When Louise opened her eyes, she noticed several things. First of all, she wasn't in the academy anymore, if the white room made of some sort of metal that she was now in was any indication. Secondly, the room she was in resembled the healing ward in the academy, but seemed a lot cleaner and there were strange metal devices around the room. Finally, though admittedly not as important as the other points, the bed she was laying in was the most comfortable bed she had ever slept in, and as the third daughter to the Vallière family and Royal Playmate (or childhood friend, as Henrietta always insisted) she had slept in the best beds in the kingdom. This one beat them by far.

As she climbed out of the bed, she nearly jumped out of her skin when a small section of the wall slid to the side, revealing it to be a camouflaged door, and what looked like some sort of golem made of metal walked in.

"Greetings," said the strange being, "I was alerted when you awoke. Would you care for a drink?"

The being offered Louise a glass of water, but the pinkette just glanced at it and the thing holding it warily.

"Who are you?" asked Louise, "Where have you taken me?"

"You're aboard my ship," said a male voice as a man wearing a white coat and goggles walked into the room, "you appeared in an explosion in my control room unconscious. I had Gamma-2701 carry you to my medical bay to ensure that you weren't adversely effected by your arrival."

"Who are you?" asked Louise.

"I am the Nightingale," said the man, "Time Lord and inventor from Gallifrey."

"Where is that?" asked Louise, "Is that beyond the desert of Rub' al Khali?"

"No," said the Nightingale, "it's a planet in the constellation of Kasterborous."

"A constellation?!" exclaimed Louise, "You're from the stars?!"

"In a sense, we all are," said the Nightingale, "but that's besides the point."

"Well if we're on a ship," said Louise, "I must ask that you take me home."

"Sure," said the Nightingale, "where would that be?"

"The Kingdom of Tristain on the Continent of Halkeginia," said Louise.

"Hmmm," said the Nightingale, "I don't believe I've heard of that place. But no matter, I should be able to find it with enough effort. That is, if you don't mind taking a side trip or two."

"What do you mean?" asked Louise.

"I'm an inventor and a traveler," said the Nightingale, "I promise I'll get you home, but I would ask you to indulge me in a few trips before we get there."

"Impossible!" said Louise, "I must get home before my family begins to worry! The queen will launch a full investigation and my mother…"

The girl trailed off and paled at the thought of her mother's wrath, leaving the Time Lord to just shake his head in amusement.

"Come with me kiddo," said the Nightingale as he turned to leave.

"I'm not a kid!" protested Louise, "I'm sixteen years old!"

"Well," chuckled the Nightingale, "I'm over 300 years old, so, to me, you're just a kid."

"Th-th-three HUNDRED?!" exclaimed Louise.

"I'm quite different from you humans," said the Nightingale, "now c'mon. I want to show you something."

With some prompting from Gamma-2701, Louise followed the Time Lord out of the medical bay and through the corridors of the TARDIS until they reached the control room. The girl couldn't help but gasp at the room. The floor had a red carpet with a metal platform raised in the center facing a glass wall that displayed a vortex of orange energy. The room and the platform were circular and on the platform were several control stations with a hexagonal console in the center that had a glowing pillar coming out of it.

"Welcome to the TARDIS," said the Nightingale, "Time And Relative Dimension In Space. Or to put it simply, a ship that travels through space and time to anywhere and anywhen."

"You have the power to travel through time?" said Louise in awe, "what magic is that?"

"While it may seem magic to some, I assure you it is not," said the Nightingale, "you are inside my ship, a machine made from science that travels through the universe. Care to see what exists beyond the stars?"

Louise hesitated for a moment. On one hand, she was worried about her family and friends, but on the other hand, she was in a vessel that could travel back to the exact moment she left at any time. Plus, she was admittedly curious as to the places she would go if she chose to remain. And it wasn't like she could go anywhere else anyway, so…

"Sure," said Louise, "I will indulge you, at least until you can get me home."

"Well then," said the Nightingale with a wide smile, "hold onto something, because here. We. Go!"

The Time Lord pulled several levers on the console and flipped a switch, causing the room to jolt as the TARDIS was sent hurtling through the Time Vortex, toward its next destination.

Tell me what you think, and I'm welcome to ideas as to where they will end up. No trips into other fandoms though. Just places across time and space within the two universes.