Frank pushed the tardis doors open, coughing on the smoke that was building inside the ship. He tripped over his own feet, thankfully landing in some soft snow. He continued to cough as he rolled onto his back, looking at tardis as it continued to smoke.

"I THINK WE MAY HAVE BEEN A TAD COMPROMISED!" The Doctor yelled from inside, followed by the sound of fire extinguishers. "WELL, MAYBE NOT COMPRISED SO MUCH AS HIT!"

"They had laser guns!" Frank exclaimed before he was choking on the clean air. It was going to take him a minute to adjust to the new, and hopefully clean, air of wherever they had landed. They hadn't really scoped it, due to the slight emergency on board.

"AND I HAD BEING CLEVER!"

"That worked fantastic, Doctor." Frank groaned, falling back onto the snow. He never really liked the stuff, after many winters spent shoveling the driveway to be rid of it, but its coolness was very welcomed after the heat from the ship.

They had just come back from a planet that didn't really appreciate Frank's lack of knowledge of the strange culture. One mistake had them labeled as traitors to the monarchy, and running while being shot at. They made it out, but the tardis was struck by a laser beam that narrowly avoided Frank.

Frank looked up at the dark, clouded sky while simultaneously watching his visible breath fade up into it. Wherever they landed, it was dark. It had to be night, or else the sky was simply being darkened by smog...

Frank pushed himself into a sitting up position, dusting snow from his jacket. He was just rising to his feet as the clanging of metal filled his ears. Frank looked around, but was only met with dark shadows and silence.

"Hello?" Frank called out, nervously. No one seemed to be out to make that noise, and the wind was nonexistent at the moment.

Deafening silence filled Frank's ears. He almost couldn't even hear the sounds of the Doctor in the tardis anymore.

Something felt very wrong.

Frank stepped back, in the direction of the tardis, slowly. He didn't know what the best approach would be, seeing as nothing seemed to be out there with him...

Unfortunately, something was out there with him. Frank cried out as he was knocked to the powdery snow, sending a small flurry up into the air. There was the sound of ripping, followed by a hiss before a pain seared through Frank's arm.

"AAAAH!" Frank yelled, clutching his arm and rolling in the snow. He shut his eyes tightly, "Doctor!"

"There it goes!" Unfamiliar voices filled Frank's ears as he felt snow get kicked over his torso. His eyes were still closed, but the pain in his arm was subsiding. Whatever had hit him was being chased away.

"Shit, this kid got scratched."

"A scratch is all it takes for those bastards..."

Frank could make out at least three different people, combing the first exclamation he had heard. His eyes felt heavy, but he opened them to have his suspicions confirmed. Three boys, who had to be around Frank's age, stood over him. One had short, curly hairs on his head. The next one had longer, about shoulder length, straight redish hair and glasses. The last one was a bit chubbier than the other two, with his hair concealed by a beanie.

"You okay?" The one with the beanie asked, extending his hand.

"I guess?" Frank replied, reaching up to grab the boy's hand and pull himself to his feet. The pain in his arm had become just a minor tingling now.

"It got you pretty good." The boy with curly hair commented, pointing to Frank's arm.

Frank looked down at it, seeing red staining where what looked like razors had been taken to his sleeve. "Oh god, that wasn't there before..." He muttered, his eyes growing wide.

Around that relazation, the Doctor tripped out of the tardis. His jacket was torn in places, and his hair appeared to be smoking. "FRANKIE! I'm sorry! I was tangled and-" his eyes grew wide at the group surrounding Frank, who got into defensive positions upon his sudden appearance.

"Who are you?" The boy with the beanie asked, looking ready for a fistfight.

The Doctor reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his psychic paper. "Good enough for you?" He asked, flashing the blank paper to the boys. They looked at it for a moment before dropping their positions.

"Sorry, sir..." The one in the beanie mumbled, looking down. "We just can't be too careful anymore..."

The Doctor nodded to them, folding and stuffing the psychic paper back into his suit coat, before his eyes fell on Frank. The human looked confused, and slightly paler than he had been a few minutes ago. Something wasn't right with him. It seemed to take less than a second before the Doctor caught sight of the physical damage to his companion.

"Frankie!" He exclaimed, rushing over. He pressed his hands to Frank's cold cheeks and began tilting his head in varying directions. "What happened? Are you alright? Who did this?!"

"More like what." The curly haired boy said with the crossing of his arms.

The Doctor turned to him as Frank simply blinked in a daze in response to his questions. "What?"

The boy with the beanie stepped forward. "Sorry, sir. We're hunters. I'm Patrick, and these are my partners: Joe and Andy." He said, gesturing to the curly haired boy, then the long haired boy. "The vamp problem has gotten a lot worse in recent weeks..."

"Vamp?" The Doctor questioned, pulling his hands away from Frank's face but remaining close to the human. "As in vampires?"

Patrick nodded. "Yes, sir. I know the problem is mostly contained up north, but the malfunctioned upgrades created a far worse variety that's harder to take down here."

The Doctor shook his head. "Was Frank bit?" He asked, looking back at the dark haired human next to him. Frank seemed extremely confused, looking off in a direction that held nothing significant.

Patrick shook his head. "We came up a bit too late to save him. We're always late!" He kicked the ground with irritation. Andy took that opportunity to speak.

"The vampires here have two main methods, bites and scratches. Frank was scratched, but that's arguably worse than a bite."

"Why? What does that mean?" The Doctor demanded, feeling worry build in his chest.

"Can we discuss it somewhere safer?" Joe asked, looking around at the surrounding area. "I don't like sitting out in the open."

Patrick nodded, looking at the Doctor. "We have a base a block away. Do you need Andy to carry, Frank was it?"

The Doctor shook his head. "He'll be okay..." He replied with unsureness obvious in his tone. He grabbed Frank's hand before looking back at Patrick, "Lead the way, please."

Patrick nodded. He turned to Andy and Joe, making several hand motions before the group began to move. The Doctor began to walk forward, still holding onto Frank's hand, but Frank was sluggish at best.

"I feel funny..." Frank muttered as he was pulled along by the Doctor.

"No, no, you're going to be fine, Frankie." The Doctor whispered, looking back at him with worry. He looked even paler than he had been just a few minutes ago. What had that thing done?

They continued to follow the three boys to their hideout, which turned out to be in an abandoned meat packing factory.

"I tell ya, I get leather face vibes every time we come in here..." Joe said quietly. Andy stood on his toes to lean into his ear, making chainsaw noises. Joe shooed Andy away as he fell into soft giggles.

Patrick pointed towards a closeable room in the middle of the empty space. "There. It's lockable and safe." He said, quickening his pace a bit. "We took out all the sharp stuff when we first claimed it."

They grew silent again as they hurried in. Andy grabbed hold of the large, metal door and somehow managed to pull it closed. The room was dark for only an instant before a light flickered on.

"Sir, may I look at Frank?" Andy asked, walking up to the Doctor. "I have the most experience with these kinds of wounds."

The Doctor felt reluctant to release Frank's hand, but he did so with a nod. Andy nodded in return and began to lead Frank to a small, dingy couch a few feet away. The Doctor spun on his heels to find Patrick, who he pointed at when he pinpointed.

"Alright, what's going on here? Also, strange question I know, but what year is it for vampires to be about!?"

"It's the year three thousand, sir." Patrick replied, "The epidemic only just started getting so bad this year. The upgrades in the two thousand nineties malfunctioned somehow, leaving us with these mutations of... Well, vampires..."

"Upgrades?" The Doctor questioned, finding the word to feel very familiar to recent events.

Patrick looked around the room for a moment before running to grab a paper off the wall. He brought it over to the Doctor and held it out to him. In very crude writing, it said:

UpgrAdes
StRivE foR perFectiOn
YOu cAn bE fiXeD

"What's this rubbish?" The Doctor's nose scrunched as he took the note from Patrick's hands. The words were written jerky and childishly. It didn't seem like a trustworthy ad.

"That's what started them." Patrick spoke with sadness in his words, "People really desperate to be fixed went and... They were the first to turn."

The Doctor looked up from the paper at Patrick. "Perfection is unattainable. It's false advertisement right there, who would believe this?"

"A desperate man or woman seeking an easy method of recovery." Joe yelled from across the room, where he appeared to be making a sandwich.

"But perfection is man's ultimate illusion! It simply doesn't exist in the universe..." The Doctor frowned. He looked over at Frank, who was having his arm examined by Andy.

"I'm not disagreeing with you, sir..." Patrick said, softly. "It's just that, not everyone understood that... That there is no perfection, only beautiful versions of brokenness..." Patrick looked down at his feet with a sniffle.

The Doctor took notice, reluctantly taking his eyes off Frank to look at Patrick. It was painfully obvious to the Doctor that Patrick was closer to the situation than the others. "You lost someone."

Patrick looked back up. Tears had been building in his eyes, but he was quick to swipe them away. "Not the way people were originally lost.." He admitted after another sniffle, "He... He wanted to, but he was attacked before he could make up his mind..."

"Like Frank? The man I'm with." The Doctor asked. He felt bad for Patrick, but he was also worried for Frank. Something was very wrong. Frank would usually be looking around in wonder, asking the Doctor different things, or staying close. This Frank just seemed zoned out and quiet... It wasn't the Frank the Doctor had grown accustomed to.

"Yes, sir. Very similar." Patrick confirmed, "Pe-my friend..." He shut his eyes tightly at the near mention of the boy's name, but continued on. "He was scratched as well. It didn't take long for the symptoms of his life force being drained to begin to appear."

"Frank is nearly as bad as he was." Andy spoke up in a soft voice, looking over at the two talking just feet away. "Same symptoms so far, and just as fast... If not faster."

The Doctor shook his head. "No, no, that can't be right. He was just fine! It was just a scratch."

"These things are strange, sir." Andy said, "We've been studying and hunting them since... Certain circumstances." Andy shot a quick look at Patrick before his eyes were back on the Doctor, "It seems that any attack that results in even the slightest injury at their hand is one they can feed on, even at long distance. They feed on life energy, memories, anything they can get from their victim."

Patrick was biting at his thumb as he listened along with the Doctor. Before the time lord could speak, however, Patrick moved his thumb. "How are his eyes?"

"Eyes?" The Doctor questioned, snapping his head to look at Patrick. "What about his eyes? His eyes are fine, aren't they fine?"

"The color will fade to gray in the iris..." Patrick whispered.

The Doctor hurried to cross the space between himself and Frank. Andy slid to the side wordlessly as the Doctor took the space directly in front of Frank. He looked straight into the human's eyes as he fiddled with his pockets to find his sonic.

A confused hazel is what looked back at him. Tones of greens and browns that blended together to make a mixture of the shades you would find in nature. The Doctor somehow found that very fitting to Frank. Frank was a reminder to the Doctor of human nature. He had been traveling alone for a short while, and he always found himself missing the way humans viewed their world. A world full of mixed shades of green and brown... Other colors as well, but those two always seemed to stand out. Being put together as hazel just made sense.

"Frankie?" The Doctor called out, softly, finally finding the pocket in his jacket that held the sonic screwdriver. He held it up, nose level between the two of them, and slowly clicked it on. He angled it just slightly towards Frank as he looked back at his eyes. "Are you alright?"

Frank blinked slowly. He didn't seem to have an answer for a moment, until he spoke softly. "Doctor?.."

"I'm here, Frankie." The Doctor smiled as the sonic made a noise to indicate its scan was complete. The Doctor shifted his gaze to the small device, frowning at the reading it gave. It showed that his energy was low, and lowering. "When's the last time you ate?"

"All due respect, that won't matter, sir." Andy said from where he sat on the Doctor's side, "With that thing still out there and draining him, it won't help."

"There's only one way to really stop it, but last time we were too late." Patrick said, looking off at a distant wall. "It worked, just not soon enough..."

"What's that?" The Doctor asked. He looked back at Frank, feeling a pain in both of his hearts to see Frank so not himself. This wasn't his human.

Patrick was hesitant, so it was Joe who hollered it after swallowing a mouthful of sandwich. "We have to take out the one that got him, or patient zero! The alpha."

"No." The time lord shook his head. "I'm the Doctor. I fix things, I don't kill them."

"You can't fix something that doesn't consider itself broken." Joe muttered, loud enough for the whole room to hear.

"It may be the only way to save your friend's life." Patrick said, looking back at the group. "He only has maybe a day left."

The Doctor looked back at Frank. The human was still in his slow blinking daze. How could he only have a day? The Doctor refused to believe it, even if he knew nothing about these creatures.

"I won't kill anything." The Doctor said with the shake of his head.

"If we can find it, you won't have to." Patrick said, stepping forward. "We have our own personal scores to settle."

The Doctor looked Frank over once again. He was just so unFranklike... The time lord couldn't take it. It brought back memories of other instances his companions were thought to be lost... He wouldn't accept it.

"I don't condone it..."

Joe came over to stand beside Patrick, "You don't have to watch."

The Doctor reached out to take Frank's hand. It was cold and pale. "Fine."