Once the prisoners had been ushered out of the store room the six people stopped and stared at each other. The tall man in the pinstriped black suit, brown trench coat and white trainers had brightly introduced himself as a Doctor (or more accurately, THE Doctor, whatever that meant) and the woman as Donna Noble, until Claire ordered them to 'shut it'. Originally, the Survivors had assumed the pair were scientists. However, while the Doctor was dressed in a suit, the woman was wearing cotton trousers and a purple shirt. Not professional scientist style and not the sort of thing for arctic conditions. Beside which, they simply didn't look like scientists. Whoever they were, they were weird.
"So, you say you're a doctor?" Jill asked in a suspicious tone.
"So, we can speak now?" the Doctor replied with thinly concealed sarcasm.
"When you're asked a question," Chris growled as he cocked the hammer on his magnum "yes."
"What's your name?" Jill spoke again, expecting a straight answer after such a threat.
"Just 'The Doctor'."
Jill suppressed a frown and stalked forward till she was almost face to face with her suspect.
"So you must be someone important in this lab." Jill threatened. "One of the top guys who make the decision to experiment on innocent people; to grow monsters for the sake of profit."
A moment ago the Doctor had looked almost friendly, but as Jill spoke he began to look more and more stern, his eyes cold and hard and his mouth a grim slash across his face.
"It'd make sense, how you survived the outbreak in here, and how you scared those hunters off."
"Bet you had a lot of good ideas after you wasted Racoon City." Chris stepped forward, far more aggressively.
"I expect you thought you'd be safe with these monsters guarding the place, but we've had plenty of experience with these things."
"And now we're here to put an end to them," Chris held his revolver at point blank range to the Doctor's face. Donna gasped slightly as her eyes darted between the two men.
"And a good way to start," Chris continued "is to get rid of murdering bastards like you who started this research."
"By the looks of it, I'd say you've got something to hide." Jill took over again. "Come clean now, and you have my word you'll come out of this place alive. What have you got to lose by cooperating?"
The former S.T.A.R.S. members paused for an answer. The Doctor just watched them, as though he were trying to work them out. Chris was just about to give the man another threat, when suddenly he spoke.
"You've assumed quite a lot about me."
Chris and Jill glared in fury.
"Is that supposed to be joke?"
"No, it's a fact." the Doctor began talking with his cheerful tone and started pacing around. The Survivors tensed and aimed their weapons with more enthusiasm, but the Doctor ignored them, much to their surprise and slight embarrassment.
"All these things you've said about me is guess work. Good guess work, but all this stuff about me doing experiments and making monsters; you don't even believe that yourselves, do you?"
"What are you talking about?" Chris asked, perturbed that the prisoner had guessed so correctly.
"That's a little skill of mine too." The Doctor grinned like a loony as he started taping a large steel pillar as though testing it. "Deduction. I'm guessing that all this stuff about me being an important scientist is just a threat, to scare me into telling you everything so you don't think I'm anything to do with what's going here. I can tell from the look in your eyes. But the accusation was done brilliantly. The old 'good cop, bad cop' routine where one acts efficient and reasonably while the other pretends to be a thug. And you slipped into those roles perfectly. Yep, you two are defiantly something to do with the police, but the clothes you're wearing are too casual for standard police and too military for detectives. I'd say you were part of some sort of special police operations department. Or at least you were. You haven't shown any badges or said who you work for, and you haven't arrested us or reported finding us and have already started with the questioning, meaning you two are the highest authority here. So you're left your police work and have come here with two friends. That one there..."
The Doctor pointed at a wide eyed and opened mouthed Leon.
"He's trained like a soldier, I can tell by the way he's been mostly ignoring our conversation and letting you get on with it but has been keeping guard. And since he hasn't actually looked about much I'd guess he's had some extra special sort of training so that he's aware of more than just what he sees. And she-"
He pointed at Claire, who looked equally stunned.
"-only has a small amount of experience, which is why she's been paying close attention to us. But she knows what she's doing. You can tell that from the way she's holding that weapon. Military life must run in your family." he looked at Chris. "But you're obviously protective of her so I'm surprised you brought her with you."
Everyone was gobsmacked.
Jill could barely believe she'd just heard the Doctor's monologue. The 'good cop, bad cop' routine had been exactly what they were doing. How on earth had this strange man seen through them so easily?
"How'd you know she was my sister?" Chris challenged.
"Your tongue."
This time, even Donna looked confused.
"From the way you talk I can tell you can roll your tongue. And a moment ago when the young lady spoke I could tell she could roll her tongue too. It's a genetic characteristic you share, along with the fact neither of you have ear lobes, plus both of you have reddish brown hair, even though they're both of a very different shade. Then of course, I notice you're standing almost directly in front of her; a sort of natural protection instinct. Of course I wasn't entirely sure you were related but now, you've just told me."
The conversation stopped for a moment. The Doctor and Donna simply waited for a response. The Survivors watched the strange pair with a mixture of confusion and suspicion. Then Chris lowered his gun, and the others followed suit. Obviously guns weren't going to make any impression on these two.
"Okay," said the Doctor "so we got off to a bad start."
The soldiers grudgingly introduced themselves, and the Doctor reassured them with a flash of the psychic paper, claiming to be a geologist. The big man called Chris snatched it out of his hand to take a closer look, and the Doctor prayed he could get it back before it changed to show the former police officer's thoughts.
"Me and Donna don't know anything about this place." he explained. "We were just investigating the area as part of a project in nearby fault lines in the earth, but... we had some problems."
"You mean a crash land?" the man asked as he handed back the psychic paper without another glance. The Doctor looked at the paper, and was pleased to see that the risk had been a blessing in disguise. The words on the paper now read-
'They must have had a plane to get to the Arctic. Can they still use it? But why are they here? Didn't they think a completely empty underground lab hidden under a research base was weird?'
"That's right!" the Doctor continued. "Our plane crash landed. We weren't hurt but the plane is useless. Good thing we noticed this research base nearby, but we've been looking around and can't find anyone. All seems a bit fishy to me."
The Doctor gave a pleasant smile which was met with an uncertain scowl from Chris. He suspected something, but he could hardly say he was suspicious because all of his unasked questions had been answered.
"So then, you mentioned that you call yourselves 'The Survivors'. What are you all doing here?"
All of them looked grimly at the Doctor.
"Monster hunting?" Donna guessed.
"You've heard of the incident with the Umbrella Corporation, right?" Chris asked.
"No, but go on."
The rest of the Survivors looked on in surprise. The dissolving of Umbrella had been a massive incident, but the two geologists claimed to know nothing of it.
"Umbrella was responsible for creating the viral weapons that contaminated Racoon City. That's why it was destroyed in a nuclear attack. We," Chris gestured at the others "were some of the few people to escape in time. We helped to shut Umbrella down but someone's taken over the research down here. We're here to finish them off."
"I see," The Doctor replied with genuine interest. "So a company started making viral weapons, in secret I presume,"
"Hence the name 'Umbrella'." Donna quickly put in, unusually perceptive for a change.
"And so you four decided to stop this company. And succeeded, but now you're going after some rogue scientist who doesn't want stop." The Doctor screwed up his face with a look of confusion. "Could I ask why? Shouldn't you get help from some higher authority?"
"I work for the American government." the man called Leon said. "They want to recover all the virus research for the sake of national security. We're here to make sure no one ever gets their hands on this stuff ever again."
"Not only that," Chris went on grimly "but the scientist down here is an old friend of ours."
"Not a good friend then?" Donna replied to the foul expression Chris was wearing.
"No, not really." a loud voice echoed throughout the cavern, giving everyone a jump.
"Who's that?" Donna asked no one in particular.
"I am Doctor Albert Wesker, director and head scientist of Umbrella incorporated." the voice said.
"Oh good; I was wondering how long we'd have to wait." the Doctor walked back to the pillar he'd been looking at a moment ago and plucked a tiny bit of plastic from where it had been carefully concealed.
"Micro camera. Perfect for keeping an eye on people if you're too shy to speak to them face to face."
"You're an intelligent man, doctor. Too bad those idiots are trying to fill your head with their vigilante rubbish. If they'd taken a second to think they could have just asked me who you and your friend are. I would have told them straight away you not one of mine."
"Well they don't need to ask that at all. We're people; people don't belong to other people. Although from what they're telling me... you've got other ideas about that."
For a moment, there was no reply from Wesker. The Doctor glared down the lens of the micro camera. This Albert Wesker was a dangerous man; a rival the Doctor recognised from age old experience. He could just imagine the man. Sitting alone in a dark room, surrounded by computers, leaning back in a swivel chair to gloat comfortably, convinced of his own superiority. The Time Lord knew this man would be difficult to deal with, and near impossible to reason with, but he wasn't the first of his kind. If this Doctor Wesker turned out to be a threat to big to ignore, the Doctor felt confident in rising to the challenge.
"This is my laboratory Doctor. I control every door, light and computer in the complex. You'll never get out of here alive unless I decide to let you. So I'll make this easy for you; either you all lay down your weapons and we negotiate which three of you will become my new test subjects and which three will be allowed to leave, or else you can try and fight your way to the bottom floor where I'm waiting and ultimately you'll all be captured and used as lab rats."
"The hell we'll give up!" Chris interjected loudly, striding over to the Doctor to glare down at the camera.
"Thank you Chris." the Doctor said in an exasperated tone. "You've just ruined our chance of easy access to the nerve centre of this whole base and put all our lives in danger at the same time." the Doctor turned round so his back was facing Chris.
"Well Albert Wesker. If you're to planning experiment on us can I at least know what it is you're experimenting with?"
"To be honest, I hadn't decided. It's just that when the heat sensor in that camera you're holding detected the arrival of two new heartbeats, I was intrigued."
Wesker let the point hang, and the Doctor knew why. The Survivors thought Wesker was talking about himself and Donna. The Doctor looked over at Donna, and from the uncertain and fearful look in her eyes, she'd realised the same thing. Wesker knew the Doctor had two hearts. If he managed to capture the Doctor, the resulting experiments with Time Lord DNA could be horrific.
"Like I said," Wesker spoke again "If you don't want to give up that's fine."
Suddenly a high pitched whining sound started coming from the Doctor's top pocket. He quickly reached in and produced his sonic screwdriver, which had activated for no apparent reason.
"It just means I'll have to send the hunters to fetch you."
Then was a thud of something heavy falling. The Doctor spun round. Leon and Claire had darted away from where they had been standing. Jill, who had been standing just in front of them had been knocked to the floor by a thing. The thing was a repulsive looking, hunch backed monster. It seemed to share features from humans and lizards, but was lime green in colour.
"I wouldn't advise you to resist." Wesker even sounded like he was smirking. "I want you all alive, but I won't miss a few limbs if you cause my hunters any problems."
Then another hunter fell from the rafters, a few feet behind the first. Then another, in front of the passageway to the storeroom. They were cut off from the TARDIS.
Donna raced over to the Doctor as three more of the monsters began stalking out of the shadows towards her.
"Have you ever met half man half frog monsters before?" Donna said as she took refuge at the Doctor's elbow.
"Not really."
"Well what the hell are we going to do?"
The Doctor looked on helplessly as a pair of hunters grabbed Jill, heedless of the deep cuts they left on her arms, and tried to drag her away. Chris immediately aimed his machine gun.
"NO!" the Doctor yelled as he knocked the gun aside. "Those things can tear us to pieces! No shooting!"
"Well scare them off then!" Chris yelled back.
"How am I supposed to do that?"
"When you were in the storeroom. That thing making that weird noise scared them off!"
The Doctor froze when he heard that. The 'weird noise' must have been the TARDIS.
Their arrival scared the hunters away.
The sonic screwdriver activated by itself.
He looked at a nearby speaker. Though Wesker had stopped speaking, the Doctor could sense it was still in use.
All the facts were connected. The Doctor calculated and contemplated them all, generating enough electrical energy in his brain to kill a human.
Chris couldn't take it anymore. He charged the monsters attacking Jill, and was instantly knocked down by one of them. Leon and Claire panicked and began firing, the booming of gunfire driving the hunters berserk as they lunged forward as one.
"DOCTOR!" Donna screamed in terror.
"That's me!" the Doctor cried with glee as he held up the sonic screwdriver. He quickly turned the base of the bulb and pressed the switch.
The deafening sound of shooting was drowned out by mighty bellows. The hunters stopped whatever they had been doing and slashed furiously at their own necks as thin metal collars which previously escape everyone's notice (the huge claws and green skin being far more distracting) sparked wildly. The ring of steel the hunters had created a moment ago broke apart as they staggered around in pain.
"You know what happens now." the Doctor looked at Donna.
"Oh yes I do." Donna gasped.
"RUN!" they shouted in unison.
The others conceded the point without question. Chris and Jill were rapidly helped to their feet and the six people took off through the labyrinth.
They ran for some minutes. As usual, the Doctor found himself leading everyone else. He'd only just met these people and already their lives were his responsibility. Without a doubt, humans were amazing creatures, but did they have to be such a handful? No time to think. A wrong turn could get them all killed.
The Doctor had been forced to turn off the screwdriver, lest it overload with strain he'd put it though. As they ran they could hear the swoops of diving hunters, getting closer every second. Shadows either side of the party zoomed by, many looking suggestively like huge clawed and muscled creatures closing in for the kill.
"Door!" Donna's voice bought everyone skidding to a halt. They raced to the left where an open door with an electronic lock offered sanctuary.
They piled though, and Leon pulled the door closed, just as the Doctor switched settings on the screwdriver and aimed it at the lock. A reassuring click grabbed everyone's attention.
"Good work Donna!" the Doctor beamed.
"I'm a natural at this sort of thing." Donna smiled back as she tried to catch her breath.
"What the heck happened back there?" Leon asked, recovering from the run first.
"Those things had sound wave based inhibitors round their necks. Ultrasonic waves coming from the speakers were controlling them. However," the Doctor held out his sonic screwdriver for everyone to see "the waves were picked up on this little thing. All I did was to send out a reverse frequency which was exactly the opposite of the command frequency that dear doctor Wesker was using, and scramble the inhibitors."
The Doctor looked extremely pleased with himself as everyone but Donna gaped at him in confusion. Then his face fell.
"Although," he said slowly "if I've left this on the reverse frequency configuration," he twisted the top of the screwdriver, just beneath the bulb "that means the setting for locking doors is..."
As though impatient for the Doctor's conclusion, a hunter pulled the door open with ease and shrieked at it's prey.
The prey in question turned and ran, with Donna shouting "I hate you sometimes!"