Chapter 3: Fall of the Cyberman

New York City, United States 2013

No S.H.I.E.L.D. agent had seen a Cyberman since 2007, when they invaded the Earth for about an hour and then suddenly disappeared. Now one has just appeared randomly in the underground subway tunnels beneath New York City over six years later, and it was threatening to delete the Doctor, Clara Oswald, and Agent Coulson's S.H.I.E.L.D. team. The Doctor and Clara had told them to run and then took off into the darkness towards that mysterious police box that the team noticed earlier. Coulson knew that bullets wouldn't be able to stop the Cyberman. So instead of ordering his team to fire, he ordered them to retreat.

The team tried to follow the Doctor and Clara. They seemed to know what was happening and they wanted answers. However, trying to follow the two strangers was difficult with a Cyberman firing lasers at them. Although the shots were missing the team, they were coming into contact with parts of the tunnel and causing small explosions. The briefs blasts of booming fire and rock added to the challenge. The team abandoned their mission of finding the angel statue for now. They had to find that strange man who calls himself the Doctor and escape the Cyberman without getting killed. This task was proving to be difficult.

Eventually, Coulson spotted the blue police box again. He then saw that the Doctor and Clara had just arrived at the box, while he and his team were still a good distance away from it.

"Hey!" Coulson shouted at them while still running.

The Doctor did not respond. Instead, he unlocked the door and walked inside the box followed by Clara. It was then that Agent Coulson discovered that this police box belonged to the Doctor.

"Head for the police box!" He yelled back to his team who were hastily running and expertly avoiding the Cyberman's deadly laser blasts.

"What? Why?" Agent Ward yelled back.

"I think we'll find out all the answers we need from this Doctor fellow. Not just about this Cyberman, but also about the angel statue." Coulson said.

"You think that this is the Doctor?" May asked slightly out of breath due to all the running.

"Yes I do." Coulson replied.

"I can't believe it!" Jemma said.

"It's really the Doctor!" Fitz said.

"Someone want to clue me in?" Skye asked. She didn't know what anyone was talking about.

Agent Coulson yelled to her, "In 2006, a man called the Doctor fell onto S.H.I.E.L.D's radar. Back when that alien spaceship crashed into Big Ben and the UK government assembled alien experts from around the world, we sent agents over there to hack U.N.I.T's files."

"Why?" Skye asked.

"We didn't want U.N.I.T. keeping secrets." Coulson replied, "We learned about a man called the Doctor, who is an alien that travels around time and space in a police box that's bigger on the inside and saves worlds."

"You're kidding." Skye said in shock.

"No he's not." Melinda May interrupted, "Now let's move it!"

The team then bolted towards the police box and stopped once they reached it. They took a moment to catch their breath. However, the Cyberman was not taking any sort of break. It kept firing lasers, one of which exploded very close to the team.

"In the box! Now!" Coulson ordered.

As hesitant as they were to get inside the box, the team didn't want to stay out in the dark with a Cyberman. So, one by one, they all hastily entered the box.


"What exactly do you think you're doing?" The Doctor yelled. He was preparing to take off, when suddenly the six people from earlier rushed into the TARDIS and slammed the door behind them.

Coulson and May managed to keep their heads together at the realization that there seemed to be an entire world packed into this small police box. However, the rest of the team was having difficulty accepting this. They wondered at the inside of this box. It didn't make sense. However, the Doctor didn't have time to try and impress these first time passengers. He had to deal with this Cyberman.

"Hello? Are you planning on answering me or am I just talking to myself?" The Doctor shouted.

"Be nice." Clara said.

Agent Coulson looked the Doctor in the eyes and responded, "My name is Agent Phil Coulson. I'm with S.H.I.E.L.D."

"S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Clara said.

"They're a bit like U.N.I.T." The Doctor informed her.

This comment got Agent Coulson a little upset. There has been a rivalry between S.H.I.E.L.D. and U.N.I.T. for years. However, he pushed these feelings aside and focused on the present situation.

"Anyway," he said to the Doctor and Clara, "my team and I were being chased by that Cyberman. We ran into this box for protection. We know about you Doctor. We've just never met you in person before. This must be your time machine."

"She's more than just a time machine." The Doctor said. "She's the TARDIS and she's the best ship in the universe."

"It certainly is magnificent." Coulson remarked, "So why are you here and why is there a Cyberman here? I thought they disappeared years ago."

"Well I'm sure you remember the day they invaded right? It was only for an hour or so." The Doctor said.

Coulson and May nodded, indicating that they did remember the day. The rest of the team merely watched behind them. They were paralyzed. They were too afraid to go back out with the Cyberman and possibly even more frightened of interrupting this conversation and facing Agent May's wrath. They only stood by the entrance and watched.

"And you said they disappeared. Well what literally happened is they were all sucked into an opening of the void in London." The Doctor said.

"The void?" Coulson pondered.

"Don't worry about it." The Doctor said. "The point is that this one Cyberman managed to get underground in the subway tunnels and he couldn't be lifted up through the Earth. So once the rest of the Cybermen were gone and the void closed, this Cyberman was left here, but it was damaged. It spent the next six years or so sending signals through to its harddrive to begin the upgrade process and heal itself, but what it didn't know was that the subway trains run on electricity. Each time a train went by, the electricity interfered with the upgrade and it kept having to restart the rebooting process. Now that the subway system is closed and the trains aren't running, it was finally able to upgrade back to normal and send out a signal to find other Cybermen. My brilliant TARDIS found this signal and Clara and I came to check it out. That's when we ran into you."

"Wow." Coulson remarked.

Suddenly, there was a brief tremor in the TARDIS that caused everyone inside to fall to the floor.

"What was that?" Simmons asked.

The Doctor rushed over to the monitor, which projected a live image of what was going on right outside the TARDIS. He saw that the Cyberman was grabbing onto the TARDIS and shaking it.

"The Cyberman is trying to shake us out of the TARDIS!" The Doctor yelled.

"So do something!" Clara yelled back.

The Doctor immediately started pushing and pulling various buttons and levers around the TARDIS console. Then, the TARDIS engine sounds roared throughout the entire room.

"What's happening?" Agent Ward shouted to be heard over the noise.

"We're taking off!" The Doctor yelled back with a smile.

After a few moments, the noise stopped, and the S.H.I.E.L.D. team was left with a million questions.

"We took off?" Coulson asked.

"Indeed." The Doctor replied.

"Where are we now?" Melinda May asked.

"Open the doors and find out." The Doctor said.

Everyone then turned their heads towards Skye, who was closest to the doors. She then cautiously opened the doors and looked outside.

"No way!" She gasped.

"What is it?" Agent May asked.

"We're in space!" Sky replied.

Coulson and May looked at each other and then walked over to the doors and looked out for themselves. All they could see was the beautiful planet Earth below them surrounded by dazzlingly beautiful stars.

"But..." Agent May started to say something, but she couldn't find the words to display the wonder that she was feeling. It was a truly breathtaking sight.

Agent Coulson turned back around and walked over to the Doctor.

"What about the Cyberman?" He asked the Doctor.,

"It was holding on to the TARDIS while we were flying through the time vortex. It let go and the time winds tore it to pieces. That Cyberman won't be bothering anyone ever again." The Doctor replied.

"Ok I didn't understand most of that." Skye commented.

"Now it's time for you to do some talking Agent Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D." the Doctor said, "Why were you in the tunnels? You were too surprised by the Cyberman. You were clearly looking for something else."

"You're right." Coulson replied. "We were looking for a creature from this book." He then whipped out his copy of the Melody Malone story and handed it over to the Doctor.

The Doctor's eyes widened.

"Where did you get this?" He asked Coulson.

"Well it's a book. We got it at a bookstore." He replied.

The Doctor only stared at the book and didn't say anything for a few moments.

"Is everything aright Doctor?" Clara asked him. She looked very worried.

The Doctor waited a few more moments before replying.

"Oh yes quite good. It's just a very sad story is all." He remarked.

"You've read it?" Clara asked.

"No," the Doctor replied. "I lived it."

"What?" Clara asked.

"It's a story for another time." He responded and then turned back to Agent Coulson. "You're looking for a Weeping Angel aren't you?"

"A Weeping Angel? I haven't heard of that before. Our job is to kill a living statue of an angel that moves in the dark." Coulson said.

"That's what a Weeping Angel is." The Doctor said.

"What do you know about them?" Coulson asked.

"You've said everything already. They're statues when you see them, but once they are unnoticed, they move fast. Then, they either send you back in time or kill you. Either way, it gives them pleasure." The Doctor said.

"So how do we kill it?" Agent Ward asked.

"It's going to take a lot more than bullets my friend." The Doctor said and then started pressing buttons on the TARDIS console.

"What are you doing?" Fitz asked the Doctor.

"Scanning the planet below for the angel." He replied.

After a few moments, the Doctor spoke again.

"It's on the top floor of the Empire State Building." The Doctor said and then started pulling levers and pressing more buttons around the TARDIS console. Then, the sound of the engines once again swept through the TARDIS.

"Where are we going?" Clara asked.

"The Empire State Building." The Doctor replied.