Pets
"Your pet is going to help me," Missy said, leaning against the console. "I've found a pet of my own, and she knows about the control I need."
"Why would I help you?" Joyce said, looking up from the chessboard.
"You can speak 'pet' and get her to turn over the control to me," Missy said, the 'of course' implied. "She's a tiny thing. Won't take much to feed. And fast. She'll make an excellent, trainable, pet. But first the control."
"You can't just take some little girl as a pet," Joyce said. "Tell her Romana. She can't just kidnap somewhere."
"No kidnapping," Romana said, sighing. "Small children aren't pets."
"You have one," Missy said, appearing confused. "It seems to work out for you."
"Because I'm not a pet!" Joyce said. Pausing, she moved a pawn.
"Yes you are," Missy said, firmly. "An annoying one, but a pet none the less."
"I'll help you get your 'control'," Joyce said. "But no pet. No kidnapping a little girl."
"We can discuss that later," Missy said. "I need that control."
"What's it look like?" Joyce said. "And why do you think some little girl has it."
"It's blue, and disguised as a simple puzzle. I saw her with it yesterday," Missy said. "I knew Link was lying when he said he didn't have it anymore. He must have given it to her, thinking he had me fooled. But I haven't been fooled like that since looking into the Untempered Schism."
"How do you know it's the object you were looking for?" Romana said. "Puzzle boxes were popular in certain circles at one point in time."
"Because I disguised it," Missy said smugly. "But I wasn't able to do more with it at the time. Things can get messy at the end of a war."
"You didn't use this war, did you?" Joyce said suspiciously.
"Would I do that?" Missy said, trying to appear innocent.
"Yes," Romana and Joyce said together.
"Well, this time it wasn't me. Some annoying little man who killed himself," she said. "Good riddance. Gave megalomaniacs a bad name. His minions didn't want to give me the control so I made sure they regretted it."
"You are so strange," Joyce muttered. "What did the little girl with this control thing look like?"
"She was small," Missy said. "Her gold hair seemed to be shaped like handles. I almost had it, right in my hand, until some other tiny humans interfered. Those would make bad pets. Loud and smelly."
"Boys?" Joyce said, giggling. "Foiled by two boys and a little girl."
"Possibly," Missy said, grumbling. "Those meddling kids got in my way. When are you going to get me my control?"
"You haven't given us enough information," Joyce said. "It could be any random little girl out there."
"If you insist," Missy said. Reaching over, she type something into a data entry port in the console. "There!" She waved at the console room screen. The front page of the local newspaper took up the entire screen. In the middle was a picture of a small girl sitting proudly on a tricycle in front of the soda fountain, with two boys standing next to her.
"That's Alvin Fernald, and his sister," Joyce said. "Are those the kids you mean?"
"That girl is the one I want for my pet," Missy said.
"They are off limits," Romana said. "They aren't 'pet' material."
"Yeah! Off limits," Joyce said, glaring at Missy. "Why?" she said turning to Romana.
"The girl is important to this timeline," Romana said. "The boy? He's important because of her."
"How do we know that?" Joyce said. "Do they show up in some history book? Do we meet them in the future?"
"No Miss," K-9 said. "The historical record does not contain any details about them in your future."
"Time Lord intuition," Romana said. "Time seems fond of them. But no, you haven't met them in the future."
"Nonsense," Missy said. "That's just fuzzy Rassilon thinking. Time doesn't have feelings."
"I'll see what I can do," Joyce said, shaking her head. "Come on K-9. We have a little girl to interrogate."
"Where are we going?" Missy said.
"You aren't going anywhere," Joyce said. "You probably frightened her. I'll go find her and speak to her 'pet' to 'pet'. You're going to owe me Starbucks for this."
"You must be Daphne," Joyce said, sitting down next to the little girl at the soda fountain, drinking a large chocolate sundae. "Is your brother around?"
"He's over there,' Daphne said, pointing across the drug store, between sips. "Who are you?"
"I'm Joyce," Joyce said, "and that's K-9." She pointed down at K-9 parked next to her stool.
"Is that a robot dog?" Daphne said.
"Yes, right K-9?" Joyce said.
"Affirmative, Miss," K-9 said.
"He talks!" Daphne said, grinning to herself.
"Yup," Joyce said. "He's very talkative."
Daphne turned and shouted, "Alvin! Come here!"
"What do you want?" Alvin said, rushing over, Shoie at his side.
"Look at the robot dog, Alvin!" Daphne said.
"Were did it come from?" Alvin asked, leaning down to look at the robot.
"That's K-9. He's with me," Joyce said. "You must be Alvin."
"Alvin Fernald, Inventor and cryptographer," Alvin said, holding out his hand. "Nice to meet you."
"Joyce, and K-9, travelers," Joyce said, shaking his hand.
"What brings you to Riverton?" Alvin said.
"One of our associates is looking for something she lost years ago in Riverton," Joyce said. "She's kind of scary for an old lady, so we said we'd help her look."
"Alvin is good at finding lost things," Daphne said. "He found Mrs. Huntley's money when she lost it, and some Civil War treasure."
"Then it's a good thing we ran into you," Joyce said. "You must have a lot of advice on how to search for things."
"Do you have a treasure map? Or secret message with directions?" Alvin said. "That's how we usually start."
"No," Joyce said. "I know it's blue and about so big." She made a box with her hands. "It's disguised as something else. But my associate is very secretive about it."
"No, we haven't seen it," Alvin said, nervously. "We have to go, it's getting late. And Shoie has a game."
"Alvin! I'm not done," Daphne said. "I wanted to talk with K-9. He's a lot more interesting than your robot."
"My robot isn't finished," Alvin said. "As soon as I finish my Amazing Cipher Machine, I'll finish it."
"Done now," Daphne said. "Will you and K-9 be here tomorrow?"
"Sure," Joyce said. "We'll be in town for the rest of the week."
"We can go now," Daphne said, poking Alvin, and then running for the door."
"Nice to have met you," Alvin said politely, before turning and chasing after her, Shoie getting to the door before both Alvin and Daphne.
"I think Alvin was suspicious, K-9," Joyce said, watching them pausing outside the drug store window before running off. "I think we need a different approach, if we don't want Missy doing something Missy-ish."
"Affirmative, Miss," K-9 said.