Oh wow I finally updated! What with Uni work and my Doctor Who RP plot to sort out, this got left out and forgotten. But I finally made the effort and pulled through my writer's block for this! Huzzah! All thanks to
This piece of music, which inspired and motivated me to finally finish this chapter. I've been listening to it all the time while writing this.
The following takes place not only at a different time, but at a different point on the Doctor’s personal time line. The following events occur in the Doctor’s timeline between the episodes “Father’s Day” and “The Empty Child”.
Chapter 2: The Ninth Doctor
Meanwhile, back on Earth in the year 2005…Running. feet pounding against the concrete streets of London like there was no tomorrow. Rose Tyler glanced back over her shoulder, her fair blonde hair swinging back across her face in her haste.
“Doctor! Doctor they’re catchin up!” the Nineteen year old cried out in her South London accent, as she ran for her life. She whipped her head round again desperately, as she tore down the street. Five dark figures in cloaks were gliding swiftly behind her, their faces obscured from view by the unearthly angular hats that over-shadowed what could be called their faces. They seemed to sweep along towards Rose, as if they had no legs and were merely floating along.
Rose found herself dashing hurriedly between commuters and tourists, as she turned around the next bend and onto Tooley Street.
“Sorry,” she cried hurriedly, as she shoved past another commuter, making him drop his briefcase. But she had already disappeared amongst the swirl of people before he even had a chance to pass her a filthy look.
“Doctor! Doctor where are you?” Rose called out, her trainers pounding across the pavement, the hood of her hoodie bouncing against her back. Suddenly, something grabbed her from behind. She shrieked, spinning round and wrestled herself away from the cloaked figure that had grabbed her, sending a hard-knocking arm back into the shadow where its face should have been. She appeared to have hit something, because she felt its impact against her hand, and the creature staggered backwards, its hat falling away in the process.
“Oh sh…” Rose swore under her breath, and stared in horror at the creature that now stood before her. Where there had been only shadows before, now there was a rotting, black flesh. Like something that had died and had been thrown into a sewer and washed up again, crawling with maggots. The creature lunged towards her, but Rose dived out of the way just in time, sprinting down the road again as fast as she could. Toursists kept getting in her way, as she tried to get away as far from the unearthly beings behind her as possible. The one that had dived at her may have fallen behind, but there were four others on her tail now. All of them still wearing the hats, cloaks and robes that concealed the rotting corpses underneath. Slowly, the gliding figures lifted their arms, as they continued to pursue the blonde-haired girl. Machinery extended out from the concealment of their sleeves, and with a click of them being loaded, Rose realised they were guns. Without warning, the beings fired at her directly through the crowd, sending the general public scattering and screaming. Glowing light beams zipped through the air, sparking as they pinged against shop signs and railings, often missing Rose by inches.
“Doctor!” Rose called out again, ducking another beam of light as it shot towards her head. Whatever plan the Doctor was supposedly ‘getting ready’, she hoped it would be worth it. “Just keep ‘em busy while I sort out a couple of things,” he had told her. Easy for him to say! He wasn’t the one having lasers shot at his head…
Then she smiled. She had an idea. She was on
Tooley Street. Being chased by aliens with
rotten flesh. And there was a certain tourist attraction that Tooley Street was well known for. One that could just be her ticket to buying some time.
Rose sprinted down the road. Yes, she could see it! Now was her chance to gain a bit of ground. She wasn’t in costume, but if she just played the part…
*
As far as Tourist attractions go, it had been a quiet day for The London Dungeons. There was a reasonable queue outside, but nothing compared to peak times. Danny, dressed in a tattered gentleman’s Victorian outfit and smeared in fake blood and sores, drummed his fingers against the railings. He was supposed to be entertaining the general public, trying to persuade passers by to visit the attraction – after all, that was what he was paid to do. Any other Drama student in his position would have grabbed this job opportunity with both hands. Danny, on the other hand, just wasn’t in the horror-acting mood today. Sometimes there was only so much fake blood and putting on spooky voices a guy could take. All he wanted was a quiet day alone with his girlfriend…in stead he was stuck here, scaring little kids and getting blanked by business people on their way to work. People said how exciting it must be to be a London Dungeons Actor, but what they didn’t realise is that the novelty soon wore off.
“Cover for me will you? I’m going to take a break,” he told the girl next to him, who was dressed in long black gothic dress and corset.
“Danny,” the girl warned through blacked-out gritted teeth, “Get your skinny arse back here – I’m not covering for you again. Go out and do your job.”
“But come on,” he said, still walking away, “It’s not like anything ever happens in this hell-hole anyway!”
ZIIIIP-ZIIIIP- ZIIIIP…CRASH!
Short bursts of light shot right past in front of Danny, hitting a car windscreen and shattering the glass. The Drama student blinked. “What the-?” He turned his head towards the source of the strange phenomenon. Figures in cloaks and hats were making their way through the crowd, with some sort of laser gun strapped in place where their arms should have been. Ahead of them, some girl he didn’t recognise was shouting out to the crowd.
“Come see the latest attraction at these here London Dungeons!” Rose called out loudly, making her voice sound more cockney and old-fashioned. “Awful good fun for all the family! See what severe bubonic plague does to you! Knock off these ‘ere gentleman’s hats and see the damage!...erm…” she tried to think of someway to finish it off, and so strung together the most obvious old London words she could think of, “Cor blimey Guvnor apples ‘n’ pears!” Then, seeing the creatures had almost caught up with her again, Rose ran off again along the street.
Behind her, the creatures stopped shooting in surprise, as they were soon swamped by crowds of excited tourists.
Danny stood with his mouth open. He turned to his work colleague. “Did I miss the memo about this or something? Who the heck are these people?”
The young actress shrugged. “Don’t know. If you did, I missed it as well.”
Danny glanced about him. He didn’t like this. “I’m going to have a word with Tony,” he said, rolling up his sleeves and making his way towards the Dungeons entrance. However as he turned to go, he knocked straight into a bloke with closely cropped hair, big ears and a leather jacket, carrying a big set of speakers. “Hey, watch it!”
“Sorry,” replied the man cheerfully in his Northern accent, beaming at Danny. “I’m the Doctor – mind if I borrow your sound system?” Then without waiting for a reply, he carried on his way, running down the street towards where the cloaked creatures were being mobbed. Danny just stood there, lost for words.
Rose, meanwhile, was half-way down the street when she happened to look over her shoulder. Seeing the Doctor, she immediately began to run back the way she came. “There you are! You took your time – 5 minutes you said you’d be,” Rose called out.
Fixing together some wires hurriedly, the Ninth Doctor glanced over his shoulder. “Ah Rose, good work on keeping them occupied,” the Doctor said, completely ignoring his companions comments. “Now just watch the fireworks!” Carrying a large cable connected to the speakers, the Time lord dashed around the other side of the mob, and connected it to a strange device he had set up there. He then brought another cable from the device and connected it back through the sound system, creating a circle around the aliens. Running manically back over to the device, he retrieved a thin pen-like sonic device with a glowing blue tip from an inside pocket.
“Everyone clear the area!” The Doctor shouted, indicating the tourists inside the circle to move out the way. He said it with such authority and urgency, that people immediately did as instructed – leaving the ominous cloaked figures standing alone in the circle. “And…NOW!” The Doctor flicked his sonic device on, achieving the device with a loud buzz.
At once, sparks flew from both the speakers and the curious looking device the Doctor had set up. A strange sound emitted from the speakers, a droning sound which seemed to vibrate through the skull, in a strange wave-like pattern. The intensity of it made Rose and everyone around her clutch their ears. However the Doctor just stood there, grinning manically.
The cloaked aliens began to groan, seeming to buckle and sag. Their black flesh began to drip, like it was melting. Surprisingly, like the electronic equipment around them, they began to crackle, exploding showers of sparks before collapsing to the ground.
The Doctor threw his arms up at the spectacle. “FANTASTIC!” He exclaimed. Rose ran over to join him, peering down at what was left of the rotting corpses. Under the slimy blackened flesh, metal and electronic circuitry was now visible.
“They were…robots?” she said, surprised.
“Cyborgs,” replied the Doctor, arms folded happily. However something made his face fall. He bend down, examining the ruins more carefully. He remained silent, his face suddenly very serious.
“What?” asked Rose, kneeling beside him. “Doctor…what’s wrong?”
“This,” he spoke, his voice low. “This is all wrong. The technology they had – there was a reason why I found it so hard to break through. I didn’t know what it was, but now I do.” The Doctor moved some of the cloak away from one of the fallen creatures, revealing the armoured plating underneath. Armour that was made of smooth steel. There was some kind of insignia on the plating, unlike any Rose or the Doctor had ever seen. Yet the Doctor seemed to have a strong suspicion of what it was connected with.
“These weren’t just any cyborgs. I’ve seen designs like this before.” Spoke the Doctor softly.
“And…that’s bad?”
The Doctor turned to Rose. “Very. This has all the markings of one race and one race only. But if it’s them then why do
this…that’s what I don’t understand.”
“But who are they?”
“Rose, remember back in 2012, when we visited Henry Van Statten’s museum collection?”
“There was that metal helmet,” Rose said slowly, beginning to understand. “You said that was an old enemy of yours. Cybermen or something. Is that what this is? Has this got something to do with them?”
The Doctor’s expression was grim. “If it is, then we’ve got a serious problem. I just hope for once I’m wrong.”
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