I'm sorry about the lack of updates!
Chapter four:
~of grand entrances and less grand attempts to save the day~
Clara immediately ran to the collapsed man's(?) side and pushed back his long curly hair to gaze into his eyes, looking for signs of life. Unfortunately, none were found and she gave a sad shake of her head. The others gathered around and looked at each other fearfully.
"Do you think it's… some kind of monster?" asked Tom.
"Well you're going to need to be a whole lot more specific than that." replied the Doctor, running a hand through his hair.
"Whatever killed this thing, was it some kind of monster?" he elaborated.
"I don't believe so. The monster would have to be invisible and besides, monsters don't exist." replied the Doctor, squatting down next to the man and looking for scars or anything that could hint at an attack.
"But if monsters don't exist, then what's that?" asked Tom, gesturing to the yellow man.
"An alien? Goodness, there's no need to be rude to a whole alien species." The Doctor stood up again and stuck his hands in his pockets before walking away.
"Where is he going now?" asked Sybil.
"Lord knows." replied Clara.
"It's terribly exhausting hanging out with that man, isn't it?" said Mary. Clara nodded her head before standing up.
"I suppose we ought to follow him." said Matthew.
"I don't think we've got much of a choice." said Clara, leading the group away from the poor man on the ground (who was beginning to attract a crowd). "So, where are you taking us now?" she asked.
"To that building." said the Doctor, pointing to a towering purple castle. It was so tall in fact, that it almost looked crooked.
"Oh wow. Has that always been there?" Asked Clara. The Doctor nodded,
"Yes but you didn't notice it. It's some kind of perception filter. You know in Harry Potter, when they're on the Nightbus and they're speeding all over the place but the muggles can't see them?" Clara nodded, "it's basically like that. It's there, you just don't know, or care to notice." Clara thought about this for a moment before glancing at the tower again, this time observing flashing purple lights coming from one of the windows and shapes scurrying past closed curtains. When they finally came face to face (or face to wall) with the building, the doors swung open and revealed two guards. The Doctor silently came to the conclusion that they were the same alien race as the yellow men except their coloring was a deep navy blue rather than a vibrant yellow. The Doctor smiled and waved. "We're here on order of the king." said the Doctor, holding up the psychic paper.
"Can't they just see that's a blank piece of paper?" said Mary, eyeing it suspiciously. Clara elbowed her and shook her head indiscreetly.
"Enter." the two men said in unison, both in the same monotone voice.
The six all walked into the large foyer and were met with rows upon rows of yellow men, all completely stationary and staring ahead, eyes glazed. The Doctor looked around in wonder before going to a corner of the large room and called the Tardis to him, getting the key out of his pocket to summon it. Once it arrived, he locked the door and rejoined the group.
"What was that for?" asked Clara.
"Might be necessary." shrugged the Doctor. "So," he started, walking over to the blue men, "where's your mighty ruler?"
"Asleep." they responded.
"Well we wouldn't want to ruin his sleep schedule by waking him up now would we? What if we just came back another time." said the Doctor, grinning and giving the two men a double thumbs up.
"Would be better." said the two blue men, again in complete syncretism.
"What are you doing?" hissed Clara as the Doctor dragged them all into the Tardis and snapped the doors shut.
"We are going to his bedroom, stealing his clothes, coming back down here, and impersonating him. We're going to set everyone free!" he said, throwing his arms out. The six humans looked at each other skeptically.
"Oh you've got to be kidding me." groaned Clara as they stepped out of the tardis. Laying in front of them on the huge bed, lied the king. He was at least double the height of the six travellers and triple their width. He was also a pleasant shade of green.
"Good luck impersonating him," snorted Matthew.
"Oh no, this mission is going to take all of us." replied the Doctor, walking quietly to the massive closet and softly opening the doors. All the clothing inside was varying shades of orange and the Doctor picked a soft orange robe to go over a pair of intricate pants and a billowing shirt. He grabbed the items off their hangers and flung them into the tardis, ushering everyone in after him. He closed the doors and went to stand next to the pile of clothes and then back to his friends.
"How are we going to do this?" asked Mary.
"What if Tom and Matthew stand in the pants, Mary and I can stand on their shoulders and be the arms and shirt, and then Doctor, you can stand on our shoulders and be the head." said Sybil. The Doctor nodded slowly,
"That might just work! Clara, can you go grab some green face paint." he asked. She stared at him with her eyebrows raised. "Please?" he asked, catching her stare.
"Okay. But where will I be in all this?" she asked.
"Well, a little known fact about these guys, is that that they melt when the sun hits their skin. If you were to go where that poor yellow man was, all you'd find was a yellow puddle. So, when we attract the king downstairs we need someone to sneakily open the door so I can push him out."
"If we're just going to get him downstairs anyway, why does it matter if we dress up like him?" asked Tom.
"It'll catch him off guard." replied the Doctor, shrugging. "Besides, it's fun!"
Clara rolled her eyes and went in search for face paint. She had remembered she'd seen some in the art room. She went to where it was last and when she opened the door, she was pleasantly surprised to find that it was still in fact the art room. She grabbed the paint and left the room, giving the Tardis a little stroke on the doorframe (she made a mental note not to let the Doctor catch her doing this). When she walked back into the control room, Tom and Matthew were in the pants, each had one leg and used their arms to make it appear fuller.
"I never ever thought I'd be in this situation." said Matthew, as he helped Mary stand on his shoulders.
"Me neither." said Tom, with a small laugh.
"I got the paint!" said Clara. The Doctor, who was now lifting Sybil onto Toms shoulders and was watching her as she tentatively stood up, cried,
"Oh, Excellent!" which made the whole tower sway. "Oops, I guess we have to work on our balance. He tossed Mary and Sybil the shirt and turned to Clara. "Will you monster me up?" he asked, smirking.
"Mmm, not if you say it like that." she said, laughing. Nonetheless, she set the pallette down and opened it, taking out the sponge and began to dab it on his face. It didn't take long before she was done and the Doctor was ready to climb up… which was a lot harder than any of them expected. First, he tried physically climbing them, which turned out to be challenge since they were all encased in the clothes and the Doctor couldn't find a proper foot hole. Eventually, he decided to get inside by crawling into the pants and then crawling up. Clara tried to keep things as steady as possible but almost brought the whole thing down when she tripped over Tom's foot, causing him to move which then caused a chain reaction. Soon though, Clara was able to step back and admire her handiwork.
"So? Do we look good?" asked the doctor, grinning wildly. Clara nodded,
"Very believable. What do we do now?" she asked.
"Go over to the console and press the big purple button." commanded the Doctor, trying to look behind him without tumbling off the stack. Clara did as he said and jumped in surprise when the tardis doors rapidly grew to at least three times their original size.
"It does that?!" she said, in shock.
The view from inside the clothes, wasn't as exciting.
"I'm sorry if my shoes are digging into your shoulders, darling." said Mary. "Well, I never thought I'd say that." she continued with a sigh.
"No, you're fine." said Matthew. Her shoes were very close to stabbing him however and was afraid that when they started having to move, they would become an issue.
"Can you see what they're talking about?" asked Sybil, who had had the sensibility to take her shoes off before standing on Toms shoulders. Mary peeked through a whole between buttons and gasped,
"Sybil look! The doors are bigger." said Mary, Sybil gasped as well,
"How is that possible?" Mary would have shrugged if there wasn't a man on her shoulder.
"A lot of things are possible that we didn't think were possible." she said.
"Okay gang, let's try to walk!" said The Doctor from above. Matthew grasped both of Mary's ankles to steady her and Tom did the same to Sybil. Both girls grabbed the Doctor's foot that was closest to them with both of their hands.
"I'll go first then you go, sound good?" said Matthew to Tom. Tom nodded. Matthew took three steps and stopped, then Tom matched his steps.
"Bravo!!" exclaimed Clara, "I think you're ready. I'll be by the front doors, just say 'now' when you want me to open them." The Doctor pulled an arm out of the shirt to give her a thumbs up. When they arrived downstairs, about half an hour later due to the stairs, they were unpleasantly surprised to find the king, talking to the blue guards by the doors.
"Hello." said the Doctor, in a very deep voice.
"Who are you?!" said the King.
"I am- uh- you." said the Doctor, slowly. "Now, i have some things I'd like to say to y-" suddenly the doors swung open and the King stumbled back, his guards running for cover. "CLARA!" yelled the Doctor.
"WHAT? YOU SAID NOW!" she yelled back.
"YEAH WELL I DIDN'T MEAN NOW!" He exclaimed before sighing and yelling, "CHARGE!!" Tom and Matthew started running at the same time, running into him and knocking him over. The real King and the others rolled out of the front doors, the doors snapping shut behind them. The King yelled in agony as he started getting softer, a puddle forming underneath him. Mary and Sybil rolled their husbands and the Doctor off of him and they all crawled out of the clothes, watching as he dissolved.
"Are you alright?" asked Tom and Matthew in synchronization to their wives. Both the girls nodded.
"What will we do with all the other creatures?" asked Sybil.
"Take them home."
"Goodbye!!" exclaimed the Doctor, waving off the final yellow man as he left the Tardis, finally back on his home planet where the sun never shone. The Doctor closed the doors behind him and clapped his hands, "back to the 20's!"
"You won't leave so soon will you? Our vacation was rather spoiled." said Mary.
"Oh no, I'll stay. But only if I get to play with your babies, I do love babies." replied the Doctor. "They're also quite the conversationalists."
"Do I want to know?" asked Mary quietly, leaning over towards Clara.
"He can talk to babies." replied Clara, nonchalantly.
"oh."