Chapter Two
The T.A.R.D.I.S' engines wheezed and groaned as the ship touched down onto the soft grass of Aqualor. The doors were flung open and The Doctor jogged out of the ship with Kara following behind. The Time Lord locked the doors behind them.
The pair began to walk down a stone pathway; feeling the peace and tranquillity in the air around them, even though the pair weren't naturally peaceful people. They looked into the distance and saw the perfectly still, deep blue, lake with boats moving across the surface of the water; but the liquid was barely disturbed.
"So I thought you said something about a boat ride?" Kara asked.
"Oh I did," The Doctor replied with a smile.
"So where's the boat?"
"I'm going to rent one," he replied, pointing to a small shack on the edge of the lake with a few boats tied down next to it.
"And you have money?"
"No."
"So you're going to steal it?"
"Um…maybe…"
Kara sniggered and grabbed The Doctor's hand and they walked together; grinning. Suddenly the sound of screaming pierced the air and both of the Time Travellers noticed a smoke billowing into the sky.
In the distance, trees burned and bodies were flung about like rag dolls by strange humanoids that moved with amazing grace. The Doctor squinted and used his perfect eye sight to get a good look at the strange agile creatures. "Gathars," he hissed.
"What?"
"They're a race who, much like the Silurians in a physical sense while also having the habits of an Ice Warrior, hide inside suits of armour; they see it as shameful to remove the protective suits," The Doctor told her. "They're a lizard race that are extremely fast, strong and agile but have an eversion to the sun's solar rays; which is why they hide inside the armour. I thought they were extinct but clearly not."
"And they're attacking people because?"
"I have no idea but I'm going to put an end to it," he replied, cracking his knuckles through the gloves. "Feel like busting some skulls?"
"Oh definitely," she smiled as the pair sprinted across the grass and towards the amazingly agile creatures who were causing chaos.
Kate could feel two logs of some sort pressing into her back. That was the first thing she noticed. The next thing was the Doctor calling her name, and feeling his hands grip her arms gently.
"Kate!" He called quietly. "Kate, wake up."
He was persistent, and eventually she was fully aware of where she was. They were still in the console room, which was remarkably clean for a crash, on the floor. Well, the Doctor was. She had been picked up and was being cradled awake. The two logs were in fact his legs under her.
"What happened?" She asked, looking immediately at her leg. Uninjured of course, but old habits die hard.
"We landed… somewhere." He replied, helping her to her feet. "The TARDIS may have got it wrong. That CVE could have just been a Time/Space distortion. We don't seem to have taken any real damage."
"Real damage?"
"She stalled." He said, looking at the screen displaying the information. There also seemed to be a glowing 'Class One' notification that he paid no interest to. "It'll take her a while to restart. Nothing too bad."
He crossed the room to pick up his coat, the hat stand somehow having remained upright in spite of the previous lurching.
"Coming along?" He asked, shrugging the Victorian garment on and placing a hand on the door.
With nothing better to do, she followed him over, taking an old hoodie she had found on the wardrobe. She wondered if it had belonged to anyone he'd known before her, but didn't want to ask.
"Do you know where we are?" She asked, taking the other door handle for the grand reveal.
"Nope." The Doctor responded.
Together, they pulled open the doors to find themselves under a willow tree beside a lake. The tranquil beauty was astounding, if maybe overdone. A small shack sat nearby, selling boats to tourists; it completed the peaceful aesthetic.
They stepped out from under the tree, beginning to talk about stealing the boat for a quick jaunt when they heard very human noises. Fighting.
Turning together, they were met with the sight of two relatively well dressed people taking out a group of armoured creatures. One of them, the man, was very smart. He wore a billowing black coat, contrasting neatly with his crisp white shirt and complimenting the skinny tie, shoes and gloves. A trilby was perched on his head, hanging onto the ginger locks that were visible underneath.
The other, the girl, was in more casual clothing. Similar to Kate, she wore a hoodie with jeans, but was in brightly coloured converse trainers. She looked just as determined as her companion, delivering swift kicks and ripping off pieces of armour from their adversaries.
"They're very good." Kate commented, getting a hum of agreement from the Doctor.
He didn't seem happy at the sight. But he rarely was when violence was involved. There was also a hint of shock on him, a look he had been wearing a lot in the last half hour. He seemed to understand what was going on regardless, although refusing to be forthcoming.
"Should we help?" Kate suggested, wondering what was the correct procedure.
"No, no." The Doctor said, crossing his arms firmly across his chest. "I've got it."
The Doctor dodged a small armoured fist, grabbed it and snapped the limb's bone before lashing out with his foot at the creature's chest. It dropped to the ground in agony and the Time Lord simply breezed through to the next fight.
Kara dodged a punch, then another, side stepped a kick before grabbing the creature's flailing limb and pulling it in closer so that she could knee it in the stomach. The creature was dazed for a second and she took that opportunity to elbow it in the neck and pushing to the floor. She stamped on its face and ran towards another creature that was trying to attack a woman and her child.
The Doctor decimated another creature by striking it in a nerve cluster and pushing to the floor before turning to fight another creature and another. Kara punched the Gathar warrior that was trying to grab the woman in the back, catching its attention. The creature tried to whip out his tail but she caught it and swung it to the ground with the limb before stamping on its lower back; cracking it's armour plating and forcing it to lay on the ground in agony.
The Time Lord broke one of the final creature's arms and flung it to the ground; only one more left. Kara and The Doctor nodded before sprinting straight at the armoured lizard which shivered on the spot, they couldn't see its face but it was obviously scared.
The Doctor went up high by swinging a punch at the alien's head while Kara went low and lashed out at the creature's knee caps; a manoeuvre they had practised back at the T.A.R.D.I.S. The alien hit the ground with a concussion and a pair of busted legs.
The Doctor smiled at Kara for a job well done when he noticed the creature's hand moving towards a teleport bracelet. He tried to make a swipe for the device but the warrior activated it and in a flash all of the injured aliens disappeared into the air.
"Damn!" The Doctor shouted. He whipped out his scanner and tried to get a signal but the device failed. "And it's untraceable! That's just perfect." He stored the device into his pocket and looked up to see a figure in the distance.
The Doctor looked up at the show suited man who had appeared midway through. Though his arrival was surprising, it wasn't a long process to figure out who he was. With his Police Box and all. Flexing out his most likely bruised knuckles, he went to approach the new man. The 'obvious' future him.
"You were no damn help, were you?" The Doctor cried, standing closer to the pair than he thought they would find comfortable. The proximity wasn't his problem, he was annoyed and they had just stood there like lemons. "So which one are you supposed to be? Because I would never just stand there when someone was in danger? Is that what I become? A coward?"
His counterpart continued to stare dumbfounded as him, even more so once he had spoken. If this vacant twit was who he would become, it probably wasn't worth regenerating.
"I beg your pardon?" The other Doctor asked. "You may be mistaken. I have never been you. You must come after me!"
Kara had wandered over to take stock of the situation, as well as keep the Doctor in check. He always had an unruly tongue after a fight. Insults would just fly out.
"Doctor, who is he?" She asked, her Irish lilt softening the words.
"He's me. A future me." He replied, hardening his gaze at the man. The girl just stood there, looking like she'd rather run back to the TARDIS then be in this confrontation.
"No; a past you." Cutaway Coat insisted. "I think I would remember being Captain Kung-Fu travelling with Irish Annie."
Kara and her Doctor rounded on him, giving him death glares which seemed to have no effect.
"Well, in turn I don't remember being Mr Manners with his Petrified Patrice!" He shouted back, waving his hands at the girl accompanying the maybe-Doctor.
At his shouting, the girl seemed to jump back into reality, meeting his angry gaze with the kindest eyes. He could see it in her that she wasn't a fighter, and he couldn't blame her. Not everyone was one. The Trilby Doctor considered himself lucky with Kara, but wondered just how soft the counterpart was if he didn't fight and neither did his companion. In his own timeline, he'd eventually talked himself into the necessity of violence after lifetimes of maintaining peace through peace although the exact details of the conversation evaded him. Could it be possible he'd eventually go back to his non-violent ways? Maybe cutaway coat was the end result.
Or maybe, he really wasn't the future, but he certainly hadn't been the past.
The other Doctor seemed to come around to the same line of thought.
"I'm terribly sorry." He said, giving a humble little bow. "Obviously Kate and I have intruded on your adventure. I shouldn't call you and myself names."
He offered his hand to Kara, who reluctantly shook it.
"I am the Doctor, or one of them." He introduced himself, before putting an arm over his companion's shoulders and giving her a reassuring squeeze. "This is Kate, she's from 2014. And somewhere near Wales. May I enquire your name?"
"Kara." She replied, taking his hand and shaking it firmly. She gripped hard enough to let him know not to mess with her before moving on to shake Kate's hand, notably gentler.
"Kara; wonderful." He repeated, before turning to the Trilby Doctor. "I think we may need to compare notes to figure this out."
"Of course we do." The Trilby Doctor replied, lacking enthusiasm. The disdain for this fop of a double was near total. "Your place or mine?"
"Oh, mine's closer." The Cutaway Doctor answered, indicating the TARDIS that stood just behind him. "Come along."
He linked arms with his companion, Kate, and barged back through the doors to the extra-dimensional interior. The Trilby Doctor glanced at Kara, who gave him a shrug and followed the other Doctor into the other Time Machine. Begrudgingly, he followed her to join the others.
A/N: So that was Chapter Two. I hope you enjoyed it and ready for even more excitement :)
