The first time I saw the blue box I didn't think much of it.

It was just a thing…just a thing that was there. The only reason I noticed it at all was because it was sitting on the sidewalk in front of my apartment building so I had to go around it to get to the main road where I could catch a taxi. I was running late for class…again…so I didn't stop to look at it. By the time I got home it was gone.

Something somebody threw out and it was picked up. Or maybe some sort or building supply that had fallen off of a truck and was now part of a building. There were a million things it could have been.

Like I said, I didn't really think much of the blue box.

The second time, about two months later, I really didn't register that it was there. You see, that was the day the sky started falling.

I was late for class again, as per usual, and fearing the wrath of my Visual Communications instructor, as per usual when the taxi stopped.

I groaned as I looked through the windshield to see that everything was gridlocked all the way up the road.

Giving up on the taxi, I threw about ten dollars at the driver before picking up my bag and ducking out the other side of the cab, glad to be within running distance to my school. Not reasonably, but manageably.

I jogged to the next intersection and calculated the most direct way to the university. 50th and Broadway…shit.

The only logical way to my school went through Times Square.

I hate Times Square.

Don't get me wrong, it was cool the first time I was in New York as a tourist. Was even cool the first few times I had to go through it – it's huge and incredible and very different from anything that I had where I grew up. However, after the first month I did my best to go around it. Now, almost two years later, I was absolutely, without a doubt, completely done with the glamour it used to hold. Now it was just full of tourists, vendors, and strangers dressed as Elmo. None of these helped in speeding you up on the way to your university.

Now I took any route that went around the square even if it took a few extra minutes…that is, when I wasn't running late - which was really quite rare when I actually thought about it. Though in a cab it wasn't quite as bad…

I ran down Broadway, dodging past an Italian lady trying to take a picture of a Spanish family, both struggling to communicate in English. I shook my head. Tourists. Tourists are amazing.

By the time I hit the square I was out of breath, thanking every deity I knew of for the dance classes that had kept me in shape for the past two years.

Apparently those deities decided to fight for my attention because at that moment I noticed a buzz, like pressure building in your ears so that you can't quite hear right.

I stopped moving to look around as I reached the triangular block of cement that separated the two roads before the intersection.

Even as the buzzing got louder, no one else seemed to notice it. I tried shaking my head, pulling at my ears, even hopping on one foot like you're supposed to in order to get water out of your ears. Nothing.

By this point the buzz was almost deafening – still soft by nature, but blocking out almost all other sound. I doubted I would be able to hear a car horn sound if it was right beside me.

Now I was even later than I had been, but I didn't care. I was just beginning to think I might be able to claim a medical emergency for a day off when there was a sudden, gut-wrenching crack that filled the world around me and suddenly there was screaming everywhere (panicked civilians – great), along with half the cars on the left side of the road being crushed.

There was nothing on top of them.

They were crushed but…

I frowned, walking forward to examine the car closest to me that had previously been parked on the side. I've been curious about everything my whole life. My mother always said it would be the death of me.

I lost my balance for a moment, apparently tripping over my own feet and instinctively put my hands out to catch myself on the car.

What my hands came into contact with, however, was not the car. It was something on top of the car. Something thick and invisible and…sticky.

I removed my hand and wiped it off, looking around to see where whatever it was had come from.

Directly across the street from me sat a little blue box. I frowned. I was sure I had seen it somewhere before, but before I could figure it out, I saw the Italian woman who had taken the picture earlier pointing up from right next to it.

I whipped my head directly up and there it was; with jagged, uneven edges and darkness in the middle, a hole in the sky.

Now when I say a hole in the sky, I don't just mean a bright circle or a dark circle or any sort of circle. I'm talking a massive, rough patch of night sky with stars twinkling brightly.

But if that shocked me, what came next was even worse; a massive, bright pink, worm-like creature glided through the dark space.

Then there was another crack, not quite as loud this time, and the cars on the other side of the street were crushed. For once in my life I decided to do the smart thing and ran for cover, school completely forgotten.

I bolted across the street and onto the walkway, under the cover of a construction platform, ending up next to a blonde girl, who smiled at me brightly. "I'm looking for my friend. You haven't seen a man in a pinstriped suit have you?"

"What?"

"Pinstriped suit, converse runners, great hair…" She shrugged at my confused look. "You would have noticed him if you did. Isn't one to go around not being noticed."

I doubted anyone could walk around New York and be noticed, but before I could say so, there was another loud crack, and I winced as I watched the street lights crumble.

"I'm Rose, by the way." She grinned again, not bothered by the falling sky in the slightest.

Every time a crack sounded the whole got bigger, and the worm-thing would fly back and forth, every chunk revealing more and more of the creature I wanted to see less and less of.

"Nice to meet you, Rose." I answered, looking back up at the sky and watching, trying to make sense of what's going on.

"Rose!"

My gaze shot back down to land on a man who was indeed wearing a pinstriped suit and converse runners.

"There you are, thank heavens! I thought you just wanted to go to the Disney store so I pop out for two seconds and then I go back in and you're not there and now there's an Alvarian space wyrm attacking and now we need to stop it and…" The man kept babbling for a good two minutes, all the while the sky disintegrated slowly. He went on about how it wasn't really attacking just feeding on the ozone and how it could control the minds of other beings but that shouldn't be a problem because it's not actually attacking and how he'd met one once before when he was with…met one once before?

"Um…hello."

He stopped mid-sentence. "Who's this?" He turned to Rose, voice full of amusement. "Found yourself a friend, did you?"

"We just kind of ended up in the same place."

"Oh, well, at least she's not a pretty boy like Adam…"

"I thought we said we weren't talking about him!"

"Yeah, well I think you should…"

At this point I was beyond confused and also feeling a little insulted, though I wasn't quite sure why. "It's the end of the world." I reminded, probably a little bit harshly.

They both turned to look at me, both blinking as if out of a daze.

"I suppose we should do something about that, then." Rose said, a smile playing at her lips.

Then the man broke into a grin. "Right-o then!" And with that he was off at a run, Rose right behind him, and I was damned if I was letting the only two people who seemed to be making any sense of the mess run away from me.

I pumped my legs as fast as I could as I followed, slowly making up time on the strange pair, who were now holding hands.

I was exhausted and panting and everything hurt but I was finally catching up with them. And then he looked over his shoulder at me and smiled and suddenly I didn't feel so tired, my muscles didn't hurt quite as much.

I felt my face break out into a huge grin and I just kept running and running and running. I could have run forever.

Luckily, though, I didn't have to. We stopped outside of one of those eclectic stores that sold just about everything…like a dollar store on steroids.

The hole in the sky was bigger and through it I could see galaxies and planets and a million worlds and for a moment I had an intense urge to jump, just to see if I would float away from the ground and into the swirls and points of light above me, just to see if I could get out of here and into the great big universe.

I pulled myself out of my thoughts to hear Rose's voice saying, "…Alvarian space worm?"

"Yes." The man answered. "Ran into it, oh, a long time ago. Back when I was black and white and checkered and carried a recorder."

"You carried a recorder?" Rose giggled.

"Oi! It was a very good instrument. Very useful! Especially when I met the beast! You can lull it with music!"

I wasn't really following the conversation, despite my efforts, but I knew that the hole was getting bigger and I didn't like the creature I could see; it was enormous and pink with green patches, a worm that was four times the length of the biggest submarine on Earth. As if that weren't bad enough, from just below the head were flaps of a slightly paler pink that drifted out behind the thing, about a quarter of the length of the whole thing. The only reason I knew it was the head was the enormous, round eyes and the whole where a mouth would be that was filled with what looked like a hundred octopus tentacles wiggling out of it. Just looking at the mouth made me want to throw up.

"…it was so hungry, it was trying to eat a spaceship! Well…sort of…" The Doctor finished saying as I tuned back in.

"So what're you going to do about it?" I asked loudly.

"This."

I watched a mixture of horror and shock stirring inside of me, as the strange man ran out into the street, waving his arms like a mad man.

"So he is mad." Rose echoed my thoughts.

"He's a lunatic!" I answered, shaking my head.

However, the space worm froze midair before flipping back around so that it could look at the Doctor. Then it released a sound.

It was less a sound and more a feeling. You could feel it reverberating through you, almost a massive vibration. But it was undoubtedly coming from the monster.

The Doctor, not missing a beat, grabbed a megaphone off of a vendor's stand. "Hello beasty. This is a class 5 planet. Under protection. You need to clear off now."

The monster let off another sound.

"Not the smartest beasts." The Doctor threw back to Rose before looking back up. "Let me simplify. Leave. Now."

The beast…Alvarian Space Worm…let out a roar, like the sounds before but louder, shakier, almost audible.

"Oi! Stop that!" The Doctor scolded. Then his demeanor switched from playful to dangerous. "Clear out now or there will be consequences. This planet is under protection."

The tone of his voice and the look on his face made me wonder if I'd made a good decision to follow him.

"This planet is inhabited and you are breaking intergalactic law. I am giving you a chance. Leave now."

The Space Worm seemed to freeze and then let out a low rumbly sound before it turned and fled.

"Thank goodness that worked! Otherwise I would've had to blow up the bank to make my point."

Rose started laughing. I didn't see what was so funny. And then they were hugging and I was the only one looking up to see the space worm come barrelling back towards the hole. He was aimed right for us.

I glanced at the Doctor and Rose, then at the worm, and at the Doctor and Rose again.

They hadn't noticed. They weren't going to notice. I had to do something and now.

What had the Doctor said?

Bingo.

I ran forward, bending to scoop up the megaphone the Doctor had dropped and pulled out my phone. By the time I reached the middle of the square, the megaphone was on, my phone was ready, and the worm's head was through the hole in the sky.

I crouched down onto one knee, holding my phone up to the megaphone, and hit both buttons.

"Asked a girl what she wanted to be; She said "baby, can't you see; I wanna be famous, a star on the screen; But you can do something in between; Baby you can drive my car; Yes I'm gonna be a star; Baby you can drive my car; And maybe I'll love you."

When I looked up, the Space Worm thingy had slowed to a stop and was almost wavering it's head back and forth in time with the music.

As Paul McCartney and John Lennon sang their little hearts out, I watched the worm start to back up, back out of the hole.

Suddenly I was aware of the Doctor and Rose beside me. I was too focused on holding the megaphone and phone together to look at him. Because that seemed to be the only thing keeping me alive, I figured that was probably alright. I heard a buzzing noise, and the low rumbly feeling of the Space Worm calling out again, and then he slunk back through the hole calmly.

And then he was gone, only a starry patch in the sky promising me I hadn't gone out of my mind.

I slowly got up and then looked at the Doctor. I expected him to tell me off for being reckless, for messing about when I didn't know what was going on.

"Beatles?" Rose asked from beside him.

"It was that or Pink Floyd, and the Beatles are sooner alphabetically." I answered.

Rose broke out in a grin, and then, in a flash of blonde, I was caught up in a crushing hug.

"Oi!" I let out in a huff.

"That was brilliant!" Rose grinned as she let go of me. "How'd you know how to do that?"

I felt myself grinning back at her. "The Doctor said it could be lulled by music."

"Brilliant."

"A lot of help you were." I said, looking at the Doctor. "Oh, Mr. High and mighty over here says three words and decides he's fixed it. 'Come here Rose, I just talked come hug me. Come hug me and love me.'"

Rose giggled.

"Oi! I thought I fixed it!" He said to Rose, seemingly insulted by her giggle.

"Apparently."

We all fell silent as we looked up at the sky.

"I suppose we should do something about that, then." The Doctor said finally.

"Okay."

The Doctor looked at Rose. "Come on then."

They started to walk away and I stood there, waiting for an invitation, or a goodbye, or something.

"By the way, what's your name?" Was all I got.

"Nekoda." I answered automatically. "But my friends call me Ko."

"Nice to meet you, Ko. I'm Rose."

And with that they were gone, leaving me to deal with the bystanders who were slowly starting to come out of their shelter.