A MAN WITH MANY FACES
"It's happening again, Naomi."
"Do we seriously not know what's causing it?" asked the blonde girl in futuristic scaly black armor. She was no more than twenty-two.
"Not a clue," answered the man with her, a black haired Asian man with similar armor and exhausted eyes. He looked to be about her age, maybe younger.
"Where's it hitting this time?" Naomi questioned.
"South Sector," he said, pointing to a deep blue monitor covered in a grid and a map that was shaped roughly rectangular, with a few accents to shape it. There were obvious wings protruding from the side. It was obviously some sort of aircraft, very much like a spaceship only with a preferred altitude much closer to the surface of the earth below.
"The iron this time," she noted. "Shall we try to stop it?"
"Might as well," he answered. "Won't do much good anyway." He stood from his solid black mesh rotating chair and grabbed a large rifle propped up against the right side of the console he previously sat in front of, before handing it to Naomi. She was a much better shooter than he was. They proceeded through an automatic sliding metal door and along a long empty hallway. There they could hear the sound of something that could be described as an army of flies drowning out the deafening sounds of a simple lawn mower. Proceeding into a doorway at the other end, they saw a familiar sight.
There were several crates sitting on the floor, and the lids had all been cast aside. Being sucked from the crates was a cargo of small iron spheres, traveling up in waves through a portal on the ceiling. It was painfully loud up close, and the balls of iron would clink together to add to the noise.
"Adam, your armor," commented Naomi. A small iron shoulder plate had been sucked off of her friend's armor. He reached forward and grabbed it, pulling it back and fastening it back in place. It was once again torn from him, more ferociously. Along with it, other iron padding on their armor suits. They traveled too fast to catch at that point, as the portal began to gain power. The two had seen it before. Whenever it soaked up what it needed, it would begin to work faster, and faster, and faster. It was a self-fueling, mostly non-sentient robber that knew what it wanted and where to get it.
Naomi lifted her rifle and fired a single bullet into the portal. The bullet was quickly launched back out of the portal, much faster than before. It even put a small hole in the floor of the ship. Air began to be pulled into the ship.
"Damn," she hissed. "Can we patch it up?" One of the iron spheres was then launched out in much the same way, putting a slightly larger hole in the ship close to the other.
"I'm guessing it's about to be a lost cause," noted Adam. Another sphere rocketed from the portal and tore a hole in the wall, and then another in the opposite wall. Soon, spheres were flying all over, eating away at the hull of the spacecraft. The ship was slowly dipping lower and lower, as it was becoming unable to stay in the air. Adam and Naomi began to lose their balance, as they found the floor tilted beneath them.
"We've got to evacuate!" Naomi said, turning towards the hallway and making a run for it. Adam followed closely behind. There in the middle of the hallway was a large door to the outside. Naomi pressed a green button next to it, while Adam opened a nearby closet and grabbed two bags: parachutes. He threw one over his shoulder as the ship suddenly shook. The two fell to the floor, and the door opened. They were slowly sliding across the floor, and then there was a loud siren. It was the automatic distress signal that sounded whenever ships like this one were in dire situations. Falling from the sky tended to register as a dire situation in the system's programming. Naomi grabbed the edge of the door and began to pull herself up as the ship was nearly vertical. Adam continued to slide, but quickly slung the sleeve of the other parachute over Naomi's foot. She quickly reached down and grabbed it with her free hand. The iron spheres were making their way into the hallway now, piercing through the shell of the ship, edging closer and closer.
"What's that noise?" asked Adam. Naomi hadn't noticed. There was a sound like churning, and grinding, and wheezing, as if a mechanical elephant was suffering. It was almost calming. Naomi screamed as she felt a sharp pain in her hand, forcing her to release the door. One of the spheres had gone right through her hand and made a hole she could barely see through. The two slid downwards, towards the console room. The door opened automatically as they neared, and on the other side was a large blue police box. Suddenly, the doors came open, and the two fell inside and stopped on a beautiful gothic-esque floor. The doors closed behind them.
"This is impossible," noted Adam, looking around.
#1: THE SOUTH SECTOR
The room was much bigger than the police box they fell into. There were several rounded tiles in the walls, and columns and some steps leading up to a beautiful looking console. Granted, everything was shaking on account of the fact that it was sitting atop a crashing ship. Naomi was too absorbed with gripping the hole in her hand to care much about the room and its size.
But the most spectacular thing about the room was the man standing at the console in the middle of the room, running around in circles and hitting a ridiculous amount of buttons and switches.
"Hello there, welcome to the TARDIS," he said hastily, as if he was in a hurry. He was, obviously, in said hurry. "Yes it's bigger on the inside, but forget about that now." He reached over and turned a knob. "I heard the distress signal, thought I'd pop in. What are your names?"
"Adam, and this is Naomi," was the answer. He felt it wasn't the best time for small talk. "She's hurt."
"I'll take care of that once we're out of this mess," said the man. "It turns out it's very hard to land this thing on a crashing ship. Or anywhere really."
"Can you put us on the ground?" asked Adam.
"If I'm lucky," answered the man. He flipped a lever. The shaking stopped, and Adam's eyes began to adjust to the sudden stillness.
"Right," the man said, stepping down and over towards Naomi. "I'm The Doctor, by the way." His hair was short and dark, slightly curly, and phenomenally messy. He appeared to be in his thirties or forties, but he was still handsome, especially for his age. His outfit seemed quite dated, consisting of a long green velvet trench coat with caramel brown army boots. The Doctor reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a yo-yo.
"That's no good," he said, tossing it. He continued to go into his pocket and search for something. Aside he tossed a deck of cards, some jelly babies, chewing gum (but not before offering Adam a piece), and a jar full of buttons. Finally, he pulled out some gauze and began to wrap it around Naomi's hand. She had gone very quiet, and had little more than watery eyes.
"H.. how'd you fit all that in your pocket?" she asked.
"Look around you," The Doctor answered. "Bigger on the inside, just like my pockets. I probably should clean them out every now and then." He removed a sock puppet from the pocket and threw it on the ground next to the cards. It was then he noticed the jelly babies and picked them up.
"Want one?" he asked. She shook her head. The Doctor ate one and then stuffed it back into the pocket.
"Hopefully we landed in the right spot," said The Doctor.
"You mean you don't know where we landed?" asked Adam.
"I can't exactly see out the windows," noted The Doctor. "Not as tall as I used to be." He walked over to the doors and pulled them open as Adam helped Naomi up.
"Ah, there's your ship," The Doctor said. "Did someone get a bit peckish?" The ship was covered in small red holes, so numerous there were plenty of spots where they could see through to the other side.
"There was a portal inside the ship," said Adam. "I don't really know how to describe it, but it began to take all of our iron out of the crates."
"And then launch them out like bullets?"
"Not at first," Adam noted. "Naomi shot into the portal with her gun and then they just started doing that."
"Hmm," The Doctor hummed. "I see, after a bullet went into it, they all began to act like bullets. Almost like it adopted the properties of the bullet and then acted as a handgun. Fascinating." Just then, the churning sound of the TARDIS like before. The Doctor turned around to look back at his TARDIS.
"Odd, she normally only makes that noise when she dematerializes," said The Doctor. It sat there as if nothing had happened.
"Um, Doctor?" said Naomi.
"Yes Naomi?" He turned to her.
"There's another one," she said, pointing with her good hand. Following her eyes, The Doctor saw another TARDIS like his own. It was a blue 1963 police box, and it was his.
"This breaks quite a few rules," he said, almost worried. The doors of the TARDIS opened, and a blond curly-haired man in a blue coat poked his head out of the doors and met eyes with the Doctor.
The curly-haired man then said, "Well, this certainly breaks some rules, doesn't it?"
TO BE CONTINUED