As the group ran, small arcs of electricity began to shoot up to the skies around them. Glancing out of the corner of her eyes, Miley noticed the small bolts were coming from houses around them. Getting slightly curious, she approached one of the windows and glanced in.
At the sound of her scream, the Doctor and Martha turned on their feet.
"Right, forgot to warn you not to look in there," the Doctor sighed, as he came up behind her. With a gasp, Martha's went wide as dinner plates. Inside the building, approaching the door was a little girl. Her mouth was open, and the Sirenaga's signal was coming out at full blast, along with wisps of electricity.
"What's doing that," Martha asked the Doctor.
"The Sirenaga transmission is causing these people to acts as miniature radio towers. The electricity is a side effect of the ionization occurring in the air around the signal."
"You mean, Lilly," Miley began to whimper, eyes welling with tears.
"Don't think about that now," the Doctor urged. "We need to focus on shutting it down."
"She's my best friend," Miley yelled in equal parts anger and sorrow. "How can you tell me not to think about that?"
"We shut down the signal, we save Lily," the Doctor said slowly and reassuringly. "Miley Stewart, you have my word. Your best friend will live, and I will get you home."
Looking into his eyes, a great calmness filled her heart. She nodded, and wiped the tears from her eyes. She began to smile, when she heard a hissing sound approaching them. The doctor turned solidly to see a pair of Sirenaga shooting towards them.
"Can we outrun them," Martha asked, her voice slightly squeaking in fear.
"Maybe," the Doctor said. "Maybe not. Doesn't really matter, we're not really going to get a chance to find out. You two hide. When you get the chance, follow them carefully towards their hideout. If we're going to have half a chance here, you're going to have to free the King."
As they came closer and closer, Miley and Martha began to back slowly away. The Doctor simply stood firm, his form resolute. With a wink to the girls, he cleared his throat, and began to call out to the approaching Sirenaga.
"I am hereby invoking Convention Fifteen of the Shadow Proclamation," he called out. At once, the Sirenaga stopped moving, and began muttering to each other. With a sneer, one of the serpents slithered closer to him.
"You will be taken to the Rank Commander," the Sirenaga stated. It turned on its tail and began to slink slowly down the street. A few moments later, his companions began to follow.
"Oh, now that is just neat," the Doctor said with slight whimsy as he stepped around the Sirenaga control room towards Sissillia. "I mean how long have you been here to do this much redecorating? The permits alone must have taken weeks to-"
"This is what you invoke the Proclamation for," she hissed. "Small talk and fool's words?"
"Just a little chit-chat, no harm," the Doctor said with a slight whine. "But if it's all business you want, then fine."
He took his spectacles off and tucked them into the inner pocket of his jacket. Cold expression took his face as he stared at the Sirenaga leader.
"I don't know what you're looking for across the stars," he said firmly. "But you won't use the Earth to find it. You're hurting them, and I cannot allow that."
"How dare you," she spat in rage. "You dare to threaten us here?"
"What could possibly be so important that you would defy the Proclamation ton find it," the Doctor asked in confusion. "Surely you wouldn't risk the honor of the Armada for some silly little trinket."
"We're looking for Sirenos," she roared. "When you Time Lords opened your damned Cascade, we lost our navigation."
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," the Doctor said, his eyes growing haunted, and his voice softening. "Every world that was affected was lost to Medusa. There is no way to find it."
"You lie," Sissillia sneered. "The signal will continue until we get the coordinates."
"Then I'm afraid I have to stop you," the Doctor said resolutely.
"And just what chance do you think you have here," Sissillia said with a sinister chuckle. "My soldiers will tear you like butter should you move towards our equipment. You have zero chance of success."
"Oh I just can't believe it," the Doctor said, stretching his arms a bit. "I mean there's got to be one in a million. Sure you've got your troops armed hannahverfist, with enough firepower to blast me clear to Montana, but who said I needed your equipment?"
With a simple toss into the air, he flipped the echo locater out of his pocket and into a cradle in his left arm, his sonic in his right hand.
"Where did you hide that thing," Sissillia demanded, her eyes brimming with fury.
"Time Lord, remember," he said with a smirk. "Bigger on the inside and all that? Now just a flick of a signal and a proper song can reverse your signal, canceling it out."
"You may have technology tricks," she replied, a gleam of triumph winkling in her eyes. "But surely a Lord of Time cannot match a King of Rock and Roll in musical ability?"
"Well if I had a proper shower, I might be able to belt something out," the Doctor said with a snicker. "But in this case I'll just have to settle for a Princess of Pop."
He pointed the sonic towards the monitor, where Miley was sitting in Elvis' seat.
"Sweet niblets," Miley whispered to Martha as the two crept up to the tower where the Sirenaga had taken the Doctor. "This is insane. How are we supposed to sneak past all those snake-ladies?"
"Just think about it like the Doctor would," Martha advised with a shrug. "He wouldn't have a plan would he?"
"So what are we supposed to do when we get in there anyway," Miley asked. "Save a cheerleader?"
As she said this, a strike of lightning form the atmosphere hit the top of the broadcasting tower, knocking the vintage NBC logo to the street, nearly killing the girls.
"We'd better get inside before the peacock attacks," Miley said softly.
Sneaking into the building, Martha's eyes fell upon a pair of Sirenaga slowly slithering towards a nearby studio. Gesturing silently, she and Miley followed slowly. Inside, they nearly tripped over a bunch of cables strewn loosely across the room.
"Please, I need some water," Elvis' voice cried out. Miley glanced up to see the singer tied to chair, being forced to play. Looking around, she noticed the Sirenaga refining several mixing boards that seemed to be attached to cameras.
"You will continue to play human," one of them snarled. "Or we will dispose of her."
"You really are cold-blooded, you know that," he retorted. Suddenly with a wide-eyed burst of inspiration, Martha had an idea.
"I'll create a distraction," she told Miley. "You go grab a fire extinguisher as quickly as you can."
"Why," she began to ask, but Martha was already standing up. She bit her lip nervously as she crept out to the hallway.
"Oh this really looks bad," Martha said, taking on the concerned tone of a good doctor as she approached Elvis. The Sirenaga hissed in fury as they noticed her.
"How did you get in here," the one guarding the singer asked.
"I was sent down here to check him over, make sure his voice held out," she explained, crossing her fingers and hoping they would buy her excuse. "I mean, who else would you think could cover if this boy got a frog in his throat?"
"The nanites in the air would rejuvenate him, human," the Sirenaga said flatly, calling her bluff."
"Oh that's not good," Martha muttered nervously, a bead of sweat just beginning to form on her brow. As the Sirenaga began to slither close to herm she felt something cold and hard hit her feet. Glancing down, she smiled as she picked up the fire extinguisher and turned it on full blast, right in the Sirenaga's faces. With a shrill shriek, the Sirenaga crumpled to the ground.
"How did that kill them," Miley asked in shock as she rushed to Martha's side.
"It didn't," Martha quickly explained as she untied Elvis. "Grammar school biology, that's all. They're giant snakes, which makes them reptiles, and cold-blooded. You lower the body temperature they go to sleep easier than a pint of Rocky Road after EastEnders."
"You sure saved my life little ladies," Elvis said with a smirk as he kissed Martha on the cheek. As she blushed, he turned to Miley and did the same. "You both came just in the nick of time."
"But now what are we going to do," Miley asked, looking around the room. "Are we just supposed to leave?"
As if to answer her question, a monitor above the stage where Elvis had been playing flickered on. Everyone looked up to see the back of a well dressed Sirenaga. Martha supposed she must have been their leader.
"Surely I got to have one in a million," the Doctor's voice sounded from the screen. With a shared grin, the girls listened eagerly to the odd ramblings the Doctor rattled off to the Sirenaga. Suddenly, with a flash of insight, Miley's eyes went wide.
"He's talking to me," she exclaimed with a flash of insight. Sitting up on the stool to get a closer viewing angle, her eyes focused on the Sirenaga's shadow as she moved out of the way revealing the Doctor's handsome face.
"I'll just have to settle for a Princess of Pop," he said with a smirk.
