His Favorite Star
Rose
Chapter 1
Beta Reader: Onyx Day
It was only 7:30 am in the United Kingdom, when her alarm clock went off. A young blonde girl sat up in her pink sheets and eventually got up and got dressed in her favorite pink hoodie and jeans. She yelled bye to her mother and dashes out of the door to get to work. Her name is Rose Tyler.
The day passes into the afternoon rather quickly. Rose moves piles of display clothes around the ladies wear section, meets her boyfriend for a snack lunch in Trafalgar Square then goes back to work. She glances to the side when she sees a flash of bright orange and sees a small girl with striking emerald green eyes and red rimmed glasses. The girl had on an army jacket that stopped at the top of her torso and black pants. It looked like the army jacket was all she had on until she turned revealing a short black tank top and knee high army boots. 'Definitely hard-core punk' Rose thought turning away to continue back to the department store.
"This is a customer announcement. The store will be closing in five minutes. Thank you." a calm female voice said over the intercom. Rose and a few friends head for the main doors ready to get home. The guard shakes a clear plastic bag in front of Rose, stopping her from exiting.
"Oi! Take this to Wilson will you?"
Rose takes the bag and runs back to a lift and goes down to the basement. "Wilson? Wilson, I've got the lottery money. Wilson, are you there?" she walks down the dark hall that's cluttered with stuff and a few small lights down to a familiar door with a large danger of electric shock sign also claims to be the office of H P Wilson, CEO. "I can't hang about 'cos they're closing the shop. Wilson! Oh, come on." She shouted through the door, starting to get impatient. It showed from her banging on the door a few times before there's a clattering noise deeper in the corridor. "Hello? Hello, Wilson, it's Rose. Hello? Wilson?" She yelled slowly walking deeper into the corridor. She opens the door to a store room and turns on the lights. There are boxes of clothes, and dressed dummies. She calls for Wilson a few more times before the door slams behind her. She rushes back to stop it but it closed too quickly and she can't open it no matter how much she tugged so she stopped trying.
"You're kidding me." she said under her breath utterly annoyed. That is until she heard more noises behind her.
" Is that someone mucking about? Who is it?" she turns looking in the room again. A male shop dummy turns watching her wall past and starts to approach her making her shriek once and put a hand over her heart. "Yeah, you got me. Very funny" She said but it continues to come closer and a second and third follows it. "Right, I've got the joke. Who's idea was this? Is it Derek's? Is it? Derek, is that you?" she asked shakily starting to get a little scared. More shop dummies start moving as Rose keeps backing away down the storage area. Finally they have her up against the wall, and the lead dummy raises its arm. Then a hand grabs Rose's wrist. She turns to see a mand in an old leather jacket.
"Run!" is all he said before he drags Rose through the basement as the Autons follow, and into a lift. The lead Auton puts its arm through the closing doors. After several tugs the Doctor pulls it off, and the doors close.
"You pulled his arm off."
"Yep. Plastic."
"Very clever. Nice trick! Who were they then, students? Is this a student thing or what?"
"Why would they be students?" another voice squeaked up. She turned to see the punk ginger she saw earlier and she had an annoyed glare on her face, giving Rose an uncomfortable feeling.
"I don't know." said Rose feeling stupid for suggesting in.
"Well, you said it. Why students?" said the man with a curious look. "'Cos to get that many people dressed up and being silly, they got to be students" she said unsure of her own answer. She sighed when the man smiled and the girl shrugged, agreeing with her.
"That makes sense. Flash Mobs like that are quite popular..." the ginger said. "You got Star to agree! Well done!" the man said sarcasticly, and the girl, Star, gives him an angry glare. "Thanks" Rose said.
"But they're not students, blondie." Star said turning away from the two obviously pouting. "Whoever they are, when Wilson finds them, he's going to call the police." said Rose with a self-certain look. "Who's Wilson?" asked the man.
"Chief electrician"
Star got off the lift first carrying the arm with her. "Wilson's dead, blondie." she said sounding like it was just another day for her.
The man got out as well followed by Rose and he turned to the lift's call button.
"That's just not funny! That's sick!" Rose shrieked "I've had enough of this now!" Star gave her a glare and let the man continue whatever he was doing with the button. The man disables the lift mechanism with what looks like a glowing cylinder that made an electronic noise of some sort.
"Who are you, then? Who's that lot down there? I said who are they?" she yelled after the man and girl who started walking down the corridor.
"They're made of plastic. Living plastic creatures. They're being controlled by a relay device in the roof, which would be a great big problem if we didn't have this" Star holds up a small bomb while she explained. "So, I'm going to go up there and blow them up, and since that git won't help me I might well die in the process, but don't worry about me. No, you go home. Go on. Go and have your lovely beans on toast. Don't tell anyone about this, because if you do, you'll get them killed."
"Star!" the man yelled as the smaller ginger slammed the door in her face with a wicked evil grin from the younger girl. Then it opens again and the man's head pops out.
"I'm The Doctor, by the way. What's your name?" he asked with a polite smile.
"Rose. Rose Tyler."
"Nice to meet you, Rose Tyler.-"
"NOW RUN FOR YOUR LIFE BLONDIE! THIS IS GONNA BE SO COOL!" yelled the small girl pulling the Doctor back into the door by his collar and letting the door close.
Rose makes her way to the main road, nervous of the dummies in the shop window. She runs across the road, nearly becoming a hood ornament for a black cab but keeps going even after the cabby yelled at her. KABOOM! A huge fireball takes out the upper floor of Hendricks's. Rose runs straight past an out of date police telephone box parked just in the alley between two other stores.
"The whole of Central London has been closed off as police investigate the fire. Early reports indicate-"
"I know. It's on the telly. It's everywhere. She's lucky to be alive. Honestly, it's aged her. Skin like an old bible. Walking in now you'd think I was her daughter. Oh and here's himself." her mother said talking over the phone.
Rose's boyfriend, Mickey, comes in without even knocking and goes to hug her. "I've been phoning your mobile. You could've been dead. It's on the news and everything. I can't believe that your shop went up!" he said with worry edging his voice. "I'm all right, honestly, I'm fine! Don't make a fuss." Rose said with a kind smile.
"Well, what happened?"
"I don't know!"
"What was it though? What caused it?"
"I wasn't in the shop. I was outside. I didn't see anything." Her mind flashed to that ginger hair and wicked smile filled with pyrotic glee.
Her mother, Jackie Tyler, came in on the phone. "It's Debbie on the end. She knows a man on the Mirror. Five hundred quid for an interview." she said excitedly. Rose takes the phone from Jackie and ends the call. "Well, you've got to find some way of making money. Your job's kaput and I'm not bailing you out." Her mother said and the phone rang again, with her mother answering it "Bev! She's alive. I've told her, sue for compensation. She was within seconds of death!" Jackie walks out and Mickey looks at the cup in Roses hand. "What're you drinking, tea? Nah, nah, that's no good. You're in shock. You need something stronger" he said taking her cup away. "I'm alright…" Rose said with a smile. "Now, come on, you deserve a proper drink. We're going down to the pub, you and me. My treat! How about it?" he said with a smile. This gave her a smile with a small laugh knowing what he wanted.
"Is there a match on?" she asked.
Mickey flinched and smiled again. "No, I'm thinking about you, babe." She laughed "There's a match on, ain't there?"
"That's not the point, but we could catch the last five minutes." He gave her a pleading grin and she smiled. "Go on, then. I'm fine, really. Go. Get rid of that." Rose has brought the Auton's arm home. They kiss, then Mickey picks up the arm and waves with it, pretending it's real.
"Bye, bye."
"Bye."
"Fire then spread throughout the store. Fifteen fire crews are in attendance though it's thought there is very little chance of saving the infrastructure." The reporter's voice carried across the apartment and a whistling Mickey walks out down to the floor level and throws the arm into a trash can.
Next morning, Rose's alarm goes off at 7:30 as usual. "There's no point in getting up, sweetheart. You've got no job to go to." Her mother yelled from the kitchen. She got up and got dressed and sat on the recliner facing the telly. "There's Finch's. You could try them. They've always got jobs." Her mother offered. "Oh, great. The butchers." Rose mumbled.
"Well, it might do you good. That shop was giving you airs and graces. And I'm not joking about compensation. You've had genuine shock and trauma. Arianna got two thousand quid off the council just because the old man behind the desk said she looked Greek! I know she is Greek, but that's not the point. It was a valid claim." Her mother nagged walking into the kitchen. Rose sort of jumped in her seat when she hears something at the door rattling.
"Mum, you're such a liar. I told you to nail that cat flap down. We're going to get strays." Rose yelled to her mother, going to check the cat flap.
"I did it weeks back!"
"No, you thought about it."
The screws for the cat flap are on the floor. Then the flap moves quickly and she jumps continuing to get closer. Rose opens it seeing the face of the Doctor trying to look through. She opens the door, seeing both the Doctor and his little ginger friend.
"What're you doing here?" he asked with a surprised and puzzled look. "I live here?" Rose said as if she was uncertain. "Well, what do you do that for?" The ginger asked like it was the most unusual thing in the history of the Earth. "Because I do. I'm only at home because someone blew up my job." Rose said pointing at Star with an accusing finger. "I must have got the wrong signal. You're not plastic, are you?" The doctor asked. "No, bonehead she isn't. Bye, then." Star said, starting to pull him away.
"Both of you! Inside! Right now!" Rose demanded. She pulled the Doctor by his jacket, which pulled Star by the arm with them. "Who is it?" her mother asked from her room.
Jackie is in her bed room and putting her make up when Rose stopped by the door. "It's about last night. He's part of the inquiry. Give us ten minutes"
"She deserves compensation" said Jackie tightening her pink silken bath robe, right as the Doctor stops by her door, along with Star, who looked away with a pink tint over her dark freckles. "Oh, we're talking millions." He said giving a scolding glance at Star, who shrank sheepishly.
"I'm in my dressing gown"
"Yes, you are."
"There's a strange man in my bedroom."
"Yes, there is."
"Well, anything could happen"
Star pushed Doctor away and threw all embarrassment in the wind, shaking her head. "No!" she said simply. And she pushed him into the living room giving him a warning look and he shrugs and walks into the room while Star plopped down on the couch.
"Don't mind the mess. Do either of you want coffee?" Rose asked from the kitchen. "Might as well, thanks. Just milk." Doctor said. "I'll take so—"Star was cut off by a shake of Doctors head telling her no. "Apparently I'm not allowed to have coffee… Among other things." She said under her breath.
"We should go to the police. Seriously. The three of us." Rose continued.
The Doctor looks at the copy of Heat on the coffee table. "That won't last, he's gay and she's an alien." Star said with a look over his shoulder letting her girl-ish side come out the slightest bit. Doctor puts the magazine down and she plops back down on the couch.
"I'm not blaming you, even if it was just some sort of joke that went wrong." Rose just kept going not paying the two any attention.
The Doctor flicks through a paperback in the living room. "Don't read it. It has a sad ending. And I know how much you hate a sad ending Doctor..." Star warned not even looking up to see what he had.
"They said on the news they'd found a body." The blonde continued and Star rolled her eyes. 'Does this daft girl ever shut up?' Star thought to herself. "Rose Tyler." The Doctor says to himself, before sees his reflection in a mirror, and behaves as if he's just regenerated and is just seeing himself for the first time. Then Star comes up behind him with a mischievious smile. "Ah, could've been worse. Look at the ears." Star giggled pulling on them gently and sticking her tongue out. "You look like an ape!" they laughed quietly to themselves.
"All the same, he was nice. Nice bloke." Rose continued, not knowing that no one was listening.
Star goes and tries to shuffle a pack of cards. "Luck be a lady" she sang quietly.
"Anyway, if we are going to go to the police, I want to know what I'm saying." Rose mentions the police and Star jumps and the cards go flying all over. She gives the Doctor an impish grin and she starts to pick the cards up. "I want you both to explain everything." Rose said not noticing the mess being made in the living room. "Maybe not…" Doctor says, just as the cat flap rattles. "What's that, then?" Star asked curiously "You got a cat?"
"No."
Unseen by anyone else, the Auton arm grabs the Doctor by the throat. "We did have, but now they're just strays. They come in off the estate." Back in the kitchen, Rose just finished Doctors cuppa and her own. She watches the Doctor being strangled but thinks he's being a fool, and sets both of the cuppa's on the table and notices Star smiling at her sheepishly as she continues to pick up cards with her back to the Doctor.
"I told Mickey to chuck that out. You're all the same. Give a man a plastic hand. Anyway, I don't even know your name. Doctor, what was it?"
Star turns immediately as the Doctor manages to throw the arm off. It stops in mid air and grabs Rose's face instead. The Doctor pulls at it, pulling Rose down on top of him as they fall onto the coffee table and smash it. Jackie is using her hairdryer and hears nothing. The Doctor finally gets it off Rose with his sonic screwdriver, then jabs the device into its palm. The fingers stop flexing. All the while Star was just watching in a chair with her arms folded and a playful pout on her face.
"Damn I missed all the fun?" she said sarcastically.
"It's all right Star, you just sit there and look pretty! I've stopped it. There you go, you see? Armless. Thank you for the help Star… I'm so glad you were concerned about my safety…" The Doctor said with an agitated glare on his face and the girl gets up and walks over to him.
"Oh you think you stopped it?" she said annoyed.
"Yes."
Star hits him with it. "Ow!" the doctor yelped rubbing his abused arm.
"I hope it hurts you git!" Star started to walk out followed by the Doctor and he's followed by Rose. Star goes down the stair case at a surprising speed for her size.
"Hold on a minute! You can't just go swanning off!" Rose calls after them. "Yes I can." Star yelled at the bottom of the stairs and walks out without Doctor. "Here I am. This is me, swanning off. See you." Doctor followed quickly. "But that arm was moving. It tried to kill me!" she shouted after them. "HEY-OH! The blondies a genius!" said Star obviously annoyed by the girl's presence.
"Ten out of ten for observation!" said the man beside the ginger.
"You can't just walk away. That's not fair. You've got to tell me what's going on."
"No, we don't!" stated the ginger bluntly as she turned away from the pink and yellow human again.
"All right, then. I'll go to the police. I'll tell everyone. You said, if I did that, I'd get people killed. So, your choice. Tell me, or I'll start talking. " The blonde stated thinking of things to make them stay and explain.
"Is that supposed to sound tough?" asked the ginger giving her an amused and unfazed glance backwards.
"Sort of." Rose stated knowing she failed at intimidation. But she found Star, being 2/3 the size of herself looking quite dainty and fragile from her extremely thin figure, was even more intimidating than she was.
"Doesn't work." Star said with a smug expression. "She's not easily intimidated…" Doctor stated like he had to say it every day.
"Who are you two?" The pink and yellow girl asked wanting a proper answer this time.
The ginger turned and the utter annoyance was evident in her emerald green eyes. "You're really daft aren't you?" she snapped "We told you already, the Doctor" she pointed to the man beside her "And Star, or The Stargazer. Whichever is easier for your blonde little brain!" she said turning and walking away as Doctor just watched her go into a blue police box farther off.
"Yeah, but Doctor what?"
"Just the Doctor."
"The Doctor."
"Hello!"
"Is that supposed to sound impressive?"
"Sort of."
"Come on, then. You can tell me. I've seen enough. Are you the police?"
"No, I was just passing through. We're a long way from home."
"But what have I done wrong? How comes those plastic things keep coming after me?"
"Oh, suddenly the entire world revolves around you, you sound like Star. You were just an accident. You got in the way, that's all."
"It tried to kill me."
"It was after me, not you. Last night, in the shop, I was there, you blundered in, almost ruined the whole thing. This morning, I was tracking it down, it was tracking me down. The only reason it fixed on you is 'cos you've met me." He started walking towards the same phone box and she follows, wanting more answers.
"So what you're saying is, the entire world revolves around you."
"Sort of, yeah."
"You're full of it."
"Sort of, yeah." He nods, smiling.
"But, all this plastic stuff. Who else knows about it?"
"No one."
"What, you two are on your own?" she asked a small amount of pity in her voice.
"Well, who else is there? I mean, you lot, all you do is eat chips, go to bed, and watch telly, while all the time, underneath you, there's a war going on." He said harshly.
"Okay. Start from the beginning. I mean, if we're going to go with the living plastic, and I don't even believe that, but if we do, how did you kill it?"
"The thing controlling it projects life into the arm. I cut off the signal, dead."
"So that's radio control?" she asked unsure.
"Thought control. Are you all right?"
"Yeah. So, who's controlling it, then?"
"Long story."
"But what's it all for? I mean, shop window dummies, what's that about? Is someone trying to take over Britain's shops?"
"No." he stated simply.
"No." she repeated.
"It's not a price war. They want to overthrow the human race and destroy you. Do you believe me?" He stopped and turned to her.
"No." she stated bluntly.
"But you're still listening." He stated and sounded quite astonished that she was still listening.
"Really, though, Doctor. Tell me, who are you?"
"Do you know like we were saying about the Earth revolving? It's like when you were a kid. The first time they tell you the world's turning and you just can't quite believe it because everything looks like it's standing still. I can feel it, the turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, and the entire planet is hurtling round the sun at sixty seven thousand miles an hour, and I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go... That's who I am. Now, forget me, Rose Tyler. Go home."
The Doctor walks off towards the TARDIS with the arm. Rose walks off towards another block of flats when there is a rush of air and a strange noise. She turns and runs back, and the TARDIS has gone.
So she runs to the source every other human on Earth runs to when every other option has been extinguished.
The internet.
Rose uses Mickey's PC in his apartment to find some more information or at least someone who knows something on the mysterious Doctor.
Doctor RESULT: 17,700,000 results.
Doctor Living Plastic RESULT: 55,300 results.
Doctor Blue Box RESULT: 493 results.
The top one says "Doctor Who? ...do you know this man contact Clive here." She clicks on the site and there is a fuzzy picture of the Doctor.
Mickey drives Rose there in his yellow VW beetle. "You're not coming in. He's safe. He's got a wife and kids." Rose says, slightly irked by his cautious nature. "Yeah, who told you that? He did. That's exactly what an internet lunatic murderer would say." He said of Clive's neighbors puts out his black wheelie bin and gives Mickey a nasty look. Rose knocks on a door across the street. A boy opens the door. "Hello, I've come to see Clive? We've been emailing." Rose says with a smile. "Dad! It's one of your nutters!" he yelled back over his shoulder and walks off as a couch potato comes to the door."Oh, sorry. Hello. You must be Rose. I'm Clive, obviously." He said shaking her hand. "I'd better tell you now. My boyfriend's waiting in the car, just in case you're going to kill me." She said pointing Mickey's car out and gives Mickey a reassuring smile. "No, good point. No murders." Clive waves at Mickey. "Who is it?" a woman yelled from somewhere deeper in the house. "Oh, it's something to do with the Doctor and Stargazer. She's been reading the website. Please, come through. I'm in the shed." He steps aside and lets her through.
"She? She's read a website about the Doctor and Stargazer? She's a she?"
Out in the street, the wheelie bin moves closer to Mickey's car, while Mickey was starting to get impatient, waiting for her to come back out. He started to get antsy and fidgeted frequently.
"If the Doctor and Stargazer's back, if you've seen them, Rose, then one thing's for certain. We're all in danger." Clive said with an edge to his voice that was filled with seriousness.
Mickey watches the bin move and gets out of his car finally to go investigate. He goes to the bin and lifts up the lid, thinking it was some kind of animal like a cat or something moving the bin.
"Come on, then." He said calmly.
"If he's singled you out, if the Doctor's making house calls with her, then God help you." Clive said.
Mickey shuts the bin lid and finds he is stuck to the plastic. It stretches as he pulls at it, then the bin growls, flexes, snaps and finally whips Mickey inside itself.
"But who are they? Who do you think they are?" Rose asked persistently.
"I think they're the same people. I think they're immortal. I think they're aliens from another world." Clive said in almost a whisper.
Rose returns to the car. Mickey is sitting behind the steering wheel quite stiffly. "All right, he's a nutter. Off his head. Complete online conspiracy freak. You win! What are we going to do tonight? I fancy a pizza."
But this Mickey is obviously different because he looks like he had oil dropped all over him, making every part of him shiny, clothes and all. "Pizza! P-p-p-pizza!" he said exaggerating the 'P'.
"Or Chinese." Rose suggested.
"Pizza!" Plastic!Mickey exclaimed weaving off down the road.
Rose is still oblivious to the fact that Mickey has shiny skin and a fixed grin on his face. "Do you think I should try the hospital? Suki said they had a jobs going in the canteen. Is that it then, dishing out chips. I could do A Levels. I don't know. It's all Jimmy Stone's fault. I only left school because of him. Look where he ended up. What do you think?" Rose asked, giving him all her thoughts on the matter.
"So, where did you meet this Doctor and Stargazer?" Plastic!Mickey asked all of a sudden.
"I'm sorry, wasn't I talking about me for a second?" Rose said slightly offended.
"Because I reckon it started back at the shop, am I right? Was he or his little friend something to do with that?" he said in a slightly accusing tone.
"No." Rose stated kind of concerned now.
"Come on."
"Sort of."
"What was he doing there?" he asked.
"I'm not going on about it, Mickey. Really, I'm not, because, I know it sounds daft, but I don't think it's safe. I think he's dangerous." She stated slowly.
"But you can trust me, sweetheart. Babe, (deep) sugar, babe, sugar. You can tell me anything. Tell me about the Doctor and what he's planning, and I can help you, Rose. Because that's all I really want to do, sweetheart, babe, babe, sugar, sweetheart." He sounded funny because his voice got deeper for a second and then was back to normal again, like he wasn't used to it or something, and she noticed quite easily. "What're you doing that for?" she asked with a concerned look on her face. A waitress that looked a little too short to be working there, walks up with an expensive looking French Champaign bottle in her hands.
"You're Champaign?" she said.
"We didn't order any champagne. Where's the Doctor?" Plastic!Mickey stated without looking up.
"Madam, your champagne?" she said turning to Rose.
"It's not ours. Mickey, what is it? What's wrong?" she asked Mickey without looking up as well.
"I need to find out how much you know, so where are they?" Plastic!Mickey said in a low and slightly threatening tone.
"Doesn't anyone want this champagne?" now came a surprisingly familiar male voice, making them both snap to attention.
"Look! We didn't order it!" Plastic!Mickey said looking up at the man.
They both finally realize it's the Doctor with the champagne and Star is right behind him with a dangerous smirk on her face, now sporting a whip and two gun holsters on either side of her hips.
"Come on if you don't drink it I will!... And I'm violent when I'm drunk!" Star said with a devious little smile plastered on her face.
"Got'cha!" Plastic!Mickey exclaimed as Doctor started to shake the bottle quickly. "Don't mind me. I'm just toasting the happy couple. On the house!" he said giving the bottle to Star who holds it like a gun against her shoulder and released the cage around the cork and it flies into Plastic!Mickey's forehead, and after a few moments he spits the cork out at a gaping Star's feet.
"Da'Fug!" Star said, at aloss for anything better.
"Anyway." Plastic!Mickey gets up and turns his hand into a chopper. Rose flees, screaming, as Mickey wrecks the table. Star grabs the Auton and pull off its head while the rest of the customers scream. "Don't these people ever shut up!?" Star asked stumbling around a table.
"Don't think that's going to stop me." The head in her arms said. The body gets up and starts flailing around. Rose sets off the fire alarm. "Everyone out! Out now! Get out! Get out! Get out!" Rose yells and Star grabs her making her follow them, running through the kitchens carrying the head, while the body wrecks the restaurant before following them to the back exit.
The Doctor seals the exit shut while Rose runs down the alley, past the oddly placed blue police phone box. The end is secured by padlocked gates. "Open the gate! Use that tube thing. Come on!" Rose said in almost a demand.
"Sonic screwdriver." Doctor said in an offended tone. "Use it!" Rose demanded.
"Nah. Tell you what, let's go in here." Doctor said opening the phone box and goes into it followed by Star with the head and she visibly rolls her eyes at Rose.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The Auton was making visible dents by banging on the metal door of the restaurant.
"You can't hide inside a wooden box! It's going to get us! Doctor!" Rose said franticly and tries to open the gate again then runs inside the police box. She stops, getting a look from Star, who raised one brow wondering what the girl would do next. The box was bigger-on-the-inside-than-the-outside. With what looked to be a console in the middle of the industrial looking room and bronze-colored coral columns around the circular room. The inside looked about the size of her whole apartment combined and more. Rose takes one look and runs outside again. A siren is wailing in the distance. She runs around the small police box then when the Auton finally smashes through the metal door, she makes up her mind going back into the police box.
"It's going to follow us!" She said franticly closing the door behind her. She gets a small laugh from Star and looks at the smaller girl standing near a raggedy looking computer screen typing things into a keyboard, looking over the brim of her glasses, with weird circular looking symbols she didn't recognize. The girl gave her an amused grin.
"The assembled hoards of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door, believe me" Doctor said. "I've pissed them off enough for them to have tried. Word of advice, never call Genghis Khan Atilla the Hun. Now, shut the bloody hell up a minute, wanker." Said Star a little too proudly, while the Doctor worked hooking stuff up to the plastic head quickly, but stopped to give the girl a look. "Oi! Watch your mouth young lady!" he said sternly, only to have her stick her tongue out at him.
"You see, the arm was too simple, but the head's perfect. I can use it to trace the signal back to the original source." Doctor said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Right. Where do you want to start?" Star asked, for once, nicely, stepping away from the computer and leaning on the console in front of Rose, seeing she's still a bit stunned.
"Er, the inside's bigger than the outside?"
"Yes."
"It's alien." Rose said in a questioning tone.
"To you…" Star said with a shrug "See to you and me 'alien' means different things… To me YOU'RE the alien..."
"Are you an alien?" she asked cautiously.
"In a manner of perspective, yes—"
"Is that alright?" Doctor cut in leaning beside Star in the same fashion.
"Yeah." Rose said, still a little confused.
"It's called the TARDIS, this thing." Doctor said.
"That's Time And Relative Dimensions In Space." Star stated knowingly.
Rose bursts into tears, and Star just gave an annoyed groan and rolled her eyes.
"That's okay. Culture shock. Happens to the best of us." Doctor said kindly, elbowing Star in the ribs sternly.
"Did they kill him? Mickey? Did they kill Mickey? Is he dead?" she asked shakily recovering from the shock. "Oh. I didn't think of that…" Star said with a surprised look on her face getting a glare from the Doctor. "He's my boyfriend. You pulled off his head. They copied him and you didn't even think? And now you're just going to let him melt?" Rose stated and both the aliens in front of her got a confused look. "Melt?" Star asked and looked around Doctor who was looking at the plastic head on the Console, melting. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no!" he said franticly as the two started back to their places and the TARDIS starts to move to Rose's surprise.
"What're you doing?!" Rose asked shocked.
"Following the signal. It's fading. Wait a minute Doctor, I've got it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Almost there. Almost there. Here we go!" Star said while franticly typing away at the keyboard in front of her. They land and Star and Doctor run to the door opening it, much to Rose's surprise. "You can't go out there! It's not safe!" Rose shouted following them. To her surprise it's nighttime on the north back of the Thames next to the RAF monument. "I lost the signal, I got so close. I'm sorry Doctor." Star said looking more defeated than she would ever let Rose see on her own. She looked like a toddler getting scolded, when all he did was nod in approval of her self-doubt. And she went straight to the bench and sat in a depressed looking manor. Rose would have noticed the girl looking as if the world just shattered because of her own mistake, if she wasn't looking at the TARDIS in such amazement.
'You wouldn't ever understand how hard it was to impress the man in the blue box, and now that another being, let alone the Doctors 'most favorite race in the universe', was there to steal the man's attention from me even more. You wouldn't understand what I have to go through just to make him look at me like he looks at you, blondie… I couldn't be more jealous of you…' Star thought to herself.
"We've moved. Does it fly?" Rose asked circling the box again.
"Disappears there and reappears here-" Doctor started before Star cut him off.
"Its sciency-wiency you wouldn't understand." Star said in a mildly hostile tone.
"If we're somewhere else, what about that headless thing? It's still on the loose!" Rose said in sudden realization.
"It melted with the head. Are you going to witter on all night?" Star said in annoyance.
"I'll have to tell his mother." Rose said getting a questioning look from both of them. "Mickey. I'll have to tell his mother he's dead, and you just went and forgot him, again! You were right, you two are alien."
"Look, if I did forget some kid called Mickey-" Star started.
"Yeah, he's not a kid." Rose cut the ginger off finally tipping the scale of Star's remaining sanity and patience.
"IT'S BECAUSE I'M BLOODY TRYING TO SAVE THE LIFE OF EVERY DAMN STUPID APE BLUNDERING ON TOP OF THIS DAMN PLANET, ALL RIGHT?!" Star glared up dangerously at the girl. Rose could see the malicious glint in her eyes and could feel the murderous tone in her voice.
"Alright…" Rose said backing away a little from the obviously infuriated ginger.
"Yes, it is." The Doctor cut in preventing any fights from starting. "Please excuse her, she's a hot head." He said kindly.
There was an awkward silence and then Rose spoke up again. "If your aliens, how come you sound like you're both from the North?"
"Lots of planets have a North, blondie, the compass and astrolobe dont only apply to Earth, even though you lot LIKE to think you created it first..." Star chirped, the anger still dangerously lacing her voice.
"What's a police public call box?" Rose asked intending to somehow break some ice with the ginger."It's a telephone box from the 1950's-"started the Doctor about to explain everything."It's a disguise." Star cut in before he had the chance. "Okay. And, this living plastic." She said unsurely only continuing when she got a nod from Star confirming she was somewhat correct. "What's it got against us?" she asked."Nothing. It loves you. You've got such a good planet." Doctor said looking over the water.
"Lots of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air, perfect. Just what the Nestene Consciousness needs. Its food stock was destroyed in the war, all its protein plants rotted, so Earth's, dinner!" said Star getting a warning glance from Doctor.
"Any way of stopping it?" Rose asked half hopeful. Doctor holds up a tube of blue liquid throwing it to Star who catches it putting it into her jacket pocket.
"Anti-plastic! Hm, brilliant! You're a git but you're a smart git!" Star said with a cheeky smile to the man.
"Anti-plastic?" Rose said, not thinking she heard right.
"Anti-plastic. But first we've got to find it." Star said as Doctor stared to walk off. She immediantly followed.
"How can you hide something that big in a city this small?" Doctor asked himself scratching the back of his head and now pacing.
"Hold on hide what?" Rose asked and got a groan from Star. "The transmitter, blondie. The Consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic, so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal." Star said trying to keep the annoyance in her voice to a minimum while the Doctor was thinking. "What does it look like?" Rose asked intent on helping.
"Like a transmitter... Duh!" Star grumbled.
"Star! Round and massive, slap bang in the middle of London." Doctor said trying to help Rose think of something "A huge circular metal structure like a dish, like a wheel. Radial. Close to where we're standing. Must be completely invisible. What? What?" Rose pointed out the Ferris wheel behind him to Star.
"Doctor…" Star said looking directly behind him at the giant Ferris wheel, The London Eye as humans called it, and she smiles. But Doctor is still oblivious. "What? What is it? What?" he asked, even looking at the Ferris wheel.
"And you say I'M thick!" she exclaimed. Star takes him by the chin and makes him look at the Ferris wheel again. "Massive, round and more or less in the middle of London... Get it now Doctor?" He gasps and she gets a smile on her face.
"Oh! FANTASTIC STAR!" he said and hugged her quickly before running off, followed by both girls, all the way to the South bank on the other side of the river.
"Think of it, plastic all over the world, every artificial thing waiting to come alive. The shop window dummies, the phones, the wires, the cables." Doctor said to Rose as Star tried to catch her breath, hiding the inhaler she had, putting it back into a secret pocket befor eeither of them saw it. "The breast implants…" Rose thought out loud getting a slightly flushed face from Star.
"Still, we've found the transmitter. The Consciousness must be somewhere underneath. Oh! What about down here?" she was over near the parapet she was leaning on and is pointing to a large manhole entrance at the bottom of some steps. "Looks good to me!" Doctor said with a smile on his face. They run down and the Doctor opens up the hatch. There is red light inside and steam blowing and fogging Stars glasses, making her take them off and tuck them in her front jacket pocket. They climb down a short ladder into a brick-built area with lots of chains. From there they go through a door and down a flight of steps into a multi-level chamber.
"The Nestene Consciousness. That's it, inside the vat. A living plastic creature." Star said and looked at Doctor who was looking at the vat of goo as well. "Well, then. Tip in your anti-plastic and let's go." Rose said, ready to leave.
"We're not here to kill it! Doctor please we have to give it a chance!" Star said with heart filled concern. The Doctor nodded with a small proud smile and leads them down the catwalk overlooking the seething vat. "I seek audience with the Nestene Consciousness under peaceful contract according to convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation." Doctor said in a loud voice, standing tall along with Star beside him the whole way. The goo in the vat flexes and Star gives it a kind smile.
"Thank you. If we might have permission to approach?" she asked sounding sincerely humble. Rose spots someone on a lower level and runs down finding Mickey, the real Mickey, in fetal possession in the corner. She runs to him and hugs him. "Oh, God! Mickey, it's me! It's okay. It's all right." She said trying to calm him down.
"That thing down there, the liquid. Rose, it can talk!" Mickey said shakily, holding onto her for dear life. "You're stinking. Doctor, Star, they kept him alive." She yelled so the pair above could hear her. "Yeah, that was always a possibility. Keep him alive to maintain the copy." Star said giving her an empty smile. "You knew that and you never said?!" Rose asked astonished. "OI! Can we keep the domestics outside blondie? Thank you!" Star said in an annoyed tone. The Doctor and Star continue to go downward to a platform over looking the vat.
"Am I addressing the Consciousness?" the vat gurgled to Stars question. "Thank you. If I might observe, you infiltrated this civilization by means of warp shunt technology. So, may I suggest, with the greatest respect, that you shunt off?" Star said with a cheeky tone getting an oddly calm look from Doctor. Then a sort of face forms in the vat of plastic. "Oh, don't give us that. It's an invasion, plain and simple. Don't talk about constitutional rights!" The vat starts to gurgle in response but it was cut short. "OI! I am talking! This planet is just starting. These bloody stupid little people have only just learnt how to walk" she gives a brief glance at Rose and Mickey "but they're capable of so much more. I'm asking you on their behalf. Please, just go." Star said turning sincere and Rose couldn't believe she was the one talking.
"Doctor!" Rose shouted as a pair of shop dummies grabs the Doctor and Star. One takes the vial of anti-plastic from her pocket, the other takes her guns and whip from her belt. "That was just insurance. We weren't going to use it. We were not attacking you. We're here to help. We're not your enemy. I swear, we're not. What do you mean?" Doctor said franticly. A door slides back to reveal the TARDIS, and the pairs eyes get wide with panic.
"No. Oh, no. Honestly, no. Yes, that's my ship."Doctor said panicking.
"That's not true. I should know, I was there. I fought in the war. It wasn't my fault. I couldn't save your world! I couldn't save any of them!" Star shouted and looked more like a scared child than ever. the faintes shine of tears around the edges of her heavily out lined eyes apparent to only Doctor and he got the same look. The both remembered the war, but from diffrent sides.
"What's it doing?!" Rose asked.
"It's the Tardis! The Nestene's identified its superior technology. It's terrified. It's going to the final phase." Doctor said and they both start struggling against the dummies grips.
"It's starting the invasion! Get out, Rose! Just leg it now!" Star yelled to her.
'If this is the end of us, I swear I will protect Doctor's favorite person on this planet… Even if it's not me…' Star thought to herself. As the plastic in the vat keeps roaring, Rose phones her mother. "Mum?"Rose said as Star turned back to see the vat of goo.
"Doctor?" she said looking at him from the corner of her eyes. He looked to her with a grave worry on his face.
"You'll protect her wont you?" She asked glancing back at Rose on the phone.
"Star? What are you—"
"Nothing… I just want to make sure that she gets your full attention… Like I never deserved… that is… if you… Traveling all these years with you has been fun and I look forward to many more years… I won't ever leave your side Doctor… You've been the best big brother a Gallifreyan could ask for… even if you are a git sometimes… And this only applies ONLY if you decide to bring HER along…" she smiles as she says it with a sad tone.
"What?" Doctor said, totally confused, as she looked back down to the vat of goo.
"Mum! Mum!" Rose's voice carries over the two again and the Consciousness starts throwing energy bolts around.
"That's the signal! It's transmitting!" Doctor mumbled gravely. Outside the lair The Eye starts to light up.
"It's the end of the world." Rose said gravely.
The plastic in the vat is getting extremely agitated. "Get out, Rose! Just get out! Run!" Star yelled to her. "The stairs have gone. " Rose yells back. The Autons try to push the Doctor and Star into the vat and Star is being pushed easier than Doctor because she obviously weights less, and is having a hard time trying to push the Autons back away from the edge. Rose and Mickey run to the TARDIS only to stop at the door in realization. "I haven't got the key!"
"We're going to die!"Mickey said gravely. Rose looks around for other possibilities
"No! Star!" Doctor yelled seeing she's inching further and further each second towards the edge. "Time Lords" The Nestene gurgled hostile. Rose stands up and looks at the Doctor and Star then runs round the chamber. "Just leave him! There's nothing you can do!" Mickey pleaded.
"I've got no A Levels, no job, and no future." She grabs an axe and chops free a chain held by a very long rope. "But I tell you what I have got. Jericho Street Junior School under 7s gymnastic team. I've got the bronze!"Rose takes firm hold and runs swinging out along the side of the catwalk, kicking the two Autons into the vat. The second one also drops the vial of anti-plastic into it almost dropping Star along with it. The golden Nestene screams as it starts to turn blue. "Star!" The doctor reaches her jacket right before she fell and to his surprise she had an almost peaceful look but it fades quickly as she realizes what's happening. She grabs onto Doctors sleeve quickly being pulled up. "Rose!" The Doctor grabs her as she swings back. "oooh now we're in trouble." Star said looking up wards at the explosions beginning. The Doctor, Star and Rose run to the TARDIS, where Mickey is holding on for dear life, and they all go inside. The Tardis dematerializes.
The Tardis materializes on the Embankment by a row of shuttered kiosks and Mickey runs out, terrified. Jackie answers her mobile phone.
"Rose, Rose, don't go out of the house." Star could hear her mother yelling over the phone right before she hangs up. Rose goes over to Mickey, who is trying to hide behind a pallet. The Doctor stays in the doorway of the TARDIS, mirrored by Star leaning on the door frame.
"A fat lot of good you were boy-o!" Star said to Mickey with a humorless expression on her face. "Nestene Consciousness? Easy!" Doctor said.
"You were useless in there. You'd be dead if it wasn't for me." Rose said to Doctor proudly, more to him than Star.
"Yes, he would. Thank you." Star said with a kind smile gracing her face making her cute childish looks turn into that of what looked to be her age.
"Right then, I'll be off, unless, er, I don't know, you could come with us. This box isn't just a London hopper, you know. It goes anywhere in the universe free of charge." Doctor said. Neither he nor Rose could see the look of worry on Star's face as she turned to go type on the console.
"Don't. He's an alien. He's a thing." Mickey spouted from behind her.
"He's not invited. What do you think?"Doctor offered kindly. "You could stay here, fill your life with work and food and sleep" Star yelled from the console hopeful on making the blonde girl stay. "Or you could go anywhere." Doctor said.
"Is it always this dangerous?" She asked nervously thinking it through.
"If you consider getting shot at with death rays and having to run 1 to 3 miles every 5 minutes dangerous then—"
"Yeah." The Doctor said simply cutting the ginger off immediately.
"Yeah, I can't. I've er, I've got to go and find my mum and someone's got to look after this stupid lump, so…" Rose said slowly thinking through her words before she said them. "Okay. See you around blondie!" Star said from behind Doctor pulling him away from the door happily. She was careful not to show the happiness to him as she helps drive the TARDIS.
And it dematerializes right before the humans eyes.
TO BE CONTINUED…