Challenge #01232-C137: A Strange Visitor

"What could be worse than a sixty Minutes News van waiting on the footpath?"

"How about a large Blue box, and people are taking selfies." -- Anon Guest

Carol looked out the other window in her tiny flat. The view was blurry, because it was the bathroom window, but there was, indeed, a familiar shape in the street. Either the BBC had deigned to acknowledge Australia as a filming location... or someone was playing silly buggers.

She texted the other top five nerds in her nerd club to see if -somehow- she had miraculously managed to miss any news on the subject. And it was virtually impossible to miss any news about Who because she had feeds from the sources.

Meanwhile, she strolled out onto the criminally narrow alleged walkway to join the rest of the gawkers to see what was going on. Sixty Minutes was there. A few other news cameras. Someone attempting to do a "local colour" piece with an unfortunate bystander who happened to be wearing a fez. The reporter in question was ignoring the bold, yellow QUEENSLAND across the red fabric in a valiant attempt to make fandoms look like idiots who just needed to grow up.

Carol was wisely wearing something indecipherable to the Media as she sauntered down to ground level to join the queue of people fondling and then taking a selfie next to the box.

Whoever had put it there had gone in for all the details. There were even hints of battle damage, seemingly left there for the character of it.

And when she finally touched it... it purred. Or hummed. It was hard to tell. But it was like finding a cat in the dark. Just one touch was all it took to know that it was alive.

What the hell? Carol moved out of the way of the rest of the horde. Watching in puzzlement and filming a few people to try and get the sound that the box made. Alas, her phone was not up to the task.

This was something... else.

Carol and the rest of her nerd herd set up camp at the cafe across the road. Watching as the Media got bored with the spectacle, and then the people did, too.

Only then, when all was quiet, did someone exit the box. He looked... strange. As if someone had put together a selection of perfectly normal things without checking that they went together and decided that was a good fashion choice. He took out a small instrument and waved it around like someone trying to get a signal on their phone. Then he peered at it and muttered, "Bugger."

They played rock-paper-scissors to go talk to the guy. They'd seen enough of the show to know the potential for danger. Carol lost.

"Can you be helped?" she said.

"I'm in the wrong bloody dimension again, aren't I?"

"Er. Probably?"

"Huh," said the stranger. "And you know who I am. I can see it in your face."

Carol couldn't resist the smirk. "Very much," she said.

"Don't suppose you want to go on an adventure?" he offered. "Thrills of a lifetime, safety not guaranteed?"

Carol bit her lip. For the first time in her life, she didn't know what to say.

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