The Shape Shifter (comic story)

Summary
A Whifferdill, a shape shifter, acts as a phone in an office of a business humanoid -- a bug man who is cheating on his wife and going out with another lady. The Whifferdill, can shape change to any shape. It leaves the building as a bird and almost gets eaten by an owl. Then as it falls into garbage, it almost gets eaten as a hamburger by a homeless man

His office claims the name of Avan Tarklu, Private Investigator. On his message board are various Wanted Posters -- one of Marty the Mouse, wanted for bank robbery and breach of copyright. Also the Doctor -- the Fifth Doctor, also known to look like the Sixth. 250,000 Mazumas are offered for info to his whereabouts

Going to a bar full of alien life forms, the shape shifter changes to a fly to find out info. He hides into the Doctor's drink, which is taken away by a waiter. He becomes a fish as the waiter throws the drink and him down a drain. This gets him into the alley where he see the Doctor being attacked by bug eyed thugs in black, one with a strange pair of binocular glasses. The Doctor fights them off and the shape shifter helps by making his own hands into boxer gloves and boxing the remaining... and gun toting thug down. The Doctor escapes into his TARDIS in the alley and sets the coordinates for Greenback Bay, Venus. The Whifferdill, now part of the central column, asks the Doctor who is in charge here

The Doctor tells the shapeshifter he's not intimidated, "I've been threatened by experts, you know. Cybermen, Ice Warriors, Daleks, BBC Producers..." The shape shifter tells him that he is himself public parasite number one, a Whifferdill. If the Doctor doesn't take him where he wants to go, the Doctor will find hassles on board such as sandwiches that bite back and real toy battle ships in the bathtub that will fire on him or shoes that fly away

The TARDIS appears on Venus on the roof of Intra Venus Inc. Guards find it and notify a Mr. Dogbolter. Dogbolter wants the TARDIS knocked off the roof. One of his ships fires a one megaton bomb on the TARDIS to no effect. A flag of truce sticks out of it and then a message si sent in a flying paper plane -- a message telling that the Doctor has been caught. A robot tells Dogbolter that the bounty hunter wants 500,000 more for the time craft. But Dogbolter is only interested in the Time Lord.

The Doctor is delivered and the TARDIS dematerialises. While he is escorted, the Doctor suddenly vanishes from his two guards, one of whom shoots the other two -- it wasn't the Doctor they took, it was the shape shifter! It is up to the Doctor now to com to his rescue, "Come on, Ace, start struttin' your stuff

The Whifferdill changes to W.C. Fields to congratulate the Doctor on impersonating a bounty hunter -- when he turned over the Doctor, "the Doctor" was really the Whifferdill, the two of them having joined forces. Thus, the guards gave Frobisher his money, from which the Doctor wants his share of 125,000 Mazumas

The shape shifter decides to stick around; with his brains, and the Doctor's beauty, they could do great things. He tells the Doctor there is no choice. The Doctor however wants to hide for a while since Dogbolter will throw everything he has at them... perhaps some far distant dimension.

Characters

 * The Doctor
 * Frobisher
 * Josiah W. Dogbolter

Continuity
to be added