Chapter 9- Exploding Fifties Dinosaur Robots
"And you're sure this'll work, yeah?" Amy asked, as Dorothy-Ann and Carlos, both clad in rubber gloves, dragged a series of telephone wires into the bus.
"Not really." The blonde said with a nervous giggle, "I still can't believe the gloves we needed were in the TARDIS' wardrobe.
"I still can't believe it has a wardrobe." Carlos said.
It was then that the Comms Device went off, and Amy picked it up as the children began hooking the telephone wires into the mechanical skull that had been leftover from the previous night.
"Ah," Amy said, recognizing her boyfriend on the screen. Phoebe's voice could be heard shouting somewhere in the background. "How're things on your end?"
"Well." Rory said nervously. It was obvious to Amy that he was trying to move very slowly, "The dinosaurs are sort of... prowling. Don't exactly have a visual but I can hear them from here. Keesha and Phoebe are spreading the word: don't move, stay indoors, and they shouldn't be able to find you. Arnold, Ralphie, Wanda and Tim are getting their attention."
Their was a slight pause before Rory continued.
"You know I'm just now realizing that we are TERRIBLE chaperones."
Amy couldn't help but laugh at that.
"Tell me about it. I've got mine working with telephone wires."
Rory joined in on the chuckling, before it petered out as Carlos and D.A exited in search of more wires. Amy sighed, before following to assist them.
On a nearby corner, a pack of velociraptors were searching through shop windows, presumably for fresh meat to attack. They were distracted from their search when a large rock was tossed against one of their heads.
They all turned to see Ralphie on the opposite end of the street, jumping up and down and waving his arms.
"Heyyyyyy!" the boy shouted, "I'm a nice, delicious person for you to maul into. Assuming robots are into that sort of thing..."
The raptors roared at the child before charming at him.
The boy gulped.
"I guess you are!" he yelped as he sprinted off, leading the raptors after him.
"I found it!"The Doctor said, banging at the wall and feeling it over with his fingers. He had been growing visibly more distressed, with the countdown now on 7 minutes.
"Found what?" Hearn asked.
"Route for an escape pod." The Doctor said. Indeed, there appeared to be a circular seam in the wall.
"Ah, so there should be a giant hallway behind there for us to ride the escape pod out of!" Frizzle said.
"Yes."
"So where is the escape pod?"
"...I have no idea."
"Aw, well that's a shame. Oh well, I'm sure it's around here somewhere..."
"I have a hypothesis." Hearn said, drawing the other two's attention as they followed his line of sight to Tybo's case.
"I have worked here for several years." The man said, "And in that time I have never once seen Commander Tybo exit his confines. It only makes sense that that would be his method of escape."
"Yeah, yeah!" The Doctor said, walking over to the case and opening it up.
"The size fits, and it even has the controls in there. I think I can open the pathway and start us up."
The Doctor pressed a large button near Tybo's body. When nothing happened, the Doctor tried again. And again.
"No, no, no." He muttered, this time grabbing Tybo's limp hand and pressing the button with the several times over.
"No!"
"What's wrong?" Hearn asked as he and Frizzle hurried over.
"...Tybo set the controls so that only he could use them. Alive."
The Doctor sighed, and slumped into a sitting position, leaning on the side of the case. His face was quickly gaining a look of defeat, as he gave a bitter chuckle.
"I knew it." He said. "I knew there wasn't a way out. The sonic can't open the exit, can't fix the controls... Everything's deadlocked. And we're just dead."
There was silence, for a long moment, before Hearn slowly sat down and joined The Doctor in his sitting. In the corner of the room, part of the ceiling fell as the shaking throughout the building got worse, a pillar of dust following after it.
"You know." Hearn said, "I feel like I should despise you."
The man continued while The Doctor swiftly turned to him with an apologetic look.
"Tybo was keeping me here against my will, but the one upside was that I got to work on my passion. It was a peaceful experiment. It was realizing my dream. And then you arrive, and. I learn it was all for naught. Merely a trick to attract you. A complete stranger. Even as Tybo died, I saw the possibility of leaving this place. Of seeing my children, and my grandchildren again."
More pieces of the ceiling fell around them. The room shook again, this time harder.
"But now even the chance of that has been robbed."
"Hearn," The Doctor said, with a truly devastated face, "I'm sorry-"
"And yet," interrupted the man, "I do not despise you. What kind of man would. I be to those kids the way I am now? My mind has been twisted by solitude in this place. I can barely speak to others, let alone be who I was. Perhaps it is for the best that I meet my release this way."
The Doctor stared at the man. He placed his hand on his shoulder, before speaking.
"If it's any consolation," the Time Lord said with a miserable voice, "your work will live on. I shouldn't have let it. Not only will the time stream be irrevocably tampered with, with them running about, but they'll probably... They'll probably get the kids too. And Amy, and Rory."
The Doctor let out a bitter chuckle.
"So many levels on which I failed, it's almost funny."
It was then that Frizzle decided to speak up.
"Oh Doctor, you know the children will be just fine."
The Doctor looked up at her incredulously. She was still smiling.
"...How?" he asked. "How are you still so upbeat!?"
He stood up suddenly and walked over to her.
"We're trapped in an exploding building, you're children are about to be eaten by mechanical dinosaurs! How-"
"I trust the kids to handle the dinosaur problem. And Amy and Rory. Don't you?"
The Doctor took a deep, before answering.
"They're just children."
"Just children?" Frizzle asked, tilting her head.
"They might be young, Doctor, but I know those children. And I have complete, and utter faith in them."
Ralphie continued to sprint down the street, the pack of raptors gaining on him rapidly. The boy cried out, before being cut off at a corner by Tim.
"RUN RALPHIE!" his friend yelled as several pterodactyls flew through the air after him.
"What do ya think I'm doing!?" Ralphie asked as he joined Tim.
"I think you know as well as I that children are oftentimes the best of us all. They're us at our most pure. Our most curious, and open. Often at our smartest..."
Dorothy-Ann and Carlos arrived back at the bus with more phone wires, hooking them up as they did previously.
"Remind me why we don't just keep the wires where they were." Carlos said.
"The bus is our source point." D.A said, "Hypothetically, the buses power should amplify the currents running through the wires. All the others have to is get the dinosaurs to run into them. Before, doing that was enough to shut them down, but this way they should be eradicated completely."
"...Hypothetically?"
D.A could only respond with a nervous laugh.
"...Our most brave..."
Wanda had the T-Rex in her sights. It appeared to be attempting to ram its way into a family home, apparently sensing motion inside. All Wanda needed to do was get its attention, and it would follow her instead.
But how to do that without getting so close as to get her head bitten off. She tried yelling, but her voice didn't seem to reach the beast.
Looking near her, Wanda wondered to one of the abandoned cars and,crawling through the window, jammed her fist on the horn as loudly as possible.
The T-Rex turned around and spotted the girl.
"That did it." Wanda said before running as fast as she could.
"...Our most reliable..."
Wanda ran and ran until it felt like her legs would give out. They very nearly did, until the sound of a bell alerted her to Arnold coming by on a bike, followed by a stegosaurus.
"Hop on!" He yelled as he pulled the girl onto the bike with him.
Wanda gave the widest smile she ever had as they gained a slight advance in speed.
"...They're us with our most potential."
Arnold and Wanda nearly fell off the bike several times, before running into Tim and Ralphie and coming to a stop. The bus was only a block away, with D.A, Carlos, Phoebe, Keesha, Amy and Rory inside. The telephone wires had been set up in such a way that they created a cul-de-sac.
The bus' signature beep rang out through the air, alerting those inside to the presence of the other four.
"Get inside, NOW!" Amy yelled out the door.
The foursome did so with no objections, the dinosaurs all charging at them.
"Why do you think I became a teacher, Doctor? Why else, but to hone that potential?"
Once everyone was in the bus, the children continued to taunt the dinosaurs, drawing them closer to the bus, and eventually into the perimeter of the wires.
"Rory," D.A shouted, "hit the gas, now!"
In the drivers seat, Rory did just that.
True to D.A's theory, there was now a visible rise in the current flowing through the wires, so much so that it began to effect every robot present. They stood frozen in place, shivering with an overload of energy as pieces of them flew off.
One in particular bounced off the top of the bus, jolting Rory into closing the bus' door.
"Those children have the most potential of any I've ever met. I trust them to take care of themselves just as much as they trust me to take care of them. They'll handle our little dinosaur problem, and they'll keep themselves safe doing it. I trust them to do that."
The dinosaurs exploded.
"Hit the deck!" Keesha yelled, before the windows were blown out by the explosion. The bus was knocked on its side.
A deafening silence followed. Smoke billowed around the street, as the group slowly rose their heads out from the overturned windows, glancing at each other and then the billowing pieces of metal that used to be a threat.
They each crawled out of the bus, as smoke consumed the vehicle.
"Not gonna lie, kid," Amy said to D.A after they had all settled for sitting on a nearby curb, "that was a pretty good plan."
There was another extended silence, before Keesha spoke next.
"WHAT JUST HAPPENED!?"
The Doctor looked up at Frizzle, soaking in what she had said.
"I suppose..." he said, "I suppose you're right..."
Frizzle smiled, and turned to Hearn.
"You shouldn't undersell your children either. They may just be more willing to welcome you back then you think. As a matter of fact, I don't think I heard you stutter once speaking to us."
Hearn leaned back and took that in, realizing just how right this very, very odd woman was. He then looked at her again.
"Not that that means anything, as we're all about to die here."
"Oh of course we aren't, right Doctor?"
Frizzle and Hearn were both now looking at him, before all three turned their eyes to the countdown. They had three minutes.
The Doctor took a breath. And then he spoke.
"Of course not! What gave you that silly idea?" He was suddenly running around the room, looking over miscellaneous objects. Some were tucked under his arm, others thrown over his shoulder.
"If those kids can handle an army of dinosaurs, I think I can handle an escape exit that doesn't want to cooperate!"
"But how? The pod won't function wi out Tybo alive! You said so!"
"Valerie, help me out here," The Doctor said, using the parts around him to fashion a device. "We're making a defibrillator!"
Frizzle joined in, happily clapping her hands before helping with the construction.
"A defibrillator?" Asked Hearn, "Why? What's the use, the Commander has been dead for nearly twenty minutes!"
"Aw, come on," The Doctor said with a dismissive wave, "he's a Judoon. I've seen them brought back after longer periods. And I'll be damned before I let a Judoon outsmart me."
In a moments notice, The Doctor and Frizzle had fashioned a pair of connected conducting rods.
The trio stood over Tybo's body as, with a minute and a half to spare, The Doctor touched the rods together and produced a charge.
The Doctor turned to Hearn, then Frizzle, then Tybo.
"Geronimo." he said, touching the rods to Tybo's body and sending a jolt through it. The Commander remained unmoving.
"Come on, wakey wakey buddy!" The Doctor touched the rods to the Commander again, and this time Tybo jolted again, before taking a long, steady breath. The Judoon looked unfocused toward the three above him, Hearn staring in awe as the other two grinned at him.
"HaHA!" The Doctor yelled, as he grabbed for Tybo's hand and forced it onto one of the control buttons.
"I don't believe it..." said Hearn with a smile, as the sound of the escape opening drew his and Frizzle's attention.
Tybo's gaze lingered on The Doctor, as the latter moved into the case with him and maneuvered his hand to another button.
"Come on, come on, hop in!" The Doctor said, Hearn and Frizzle doing just that as the case began to close and propel itself out of the room and into the exit.
The four flew through a tube at sickening speeds, as back in the room, the counter reached zero.
The pod was launched from the building just as it was blown to smithereens.
The Doctor, Frizzle, Hearn, and Tybo all lay squeezed together in the pod, as it continued to elevate them upwards.
"Why aren't we going down?" Hearn asked.
"Of course," The Doctor said, "Once his mission was over, if there was any chance Tybo was still alive, he'd want to head out to orbit. Why survive just to stay on Earth ?"
Frizzle giggled at Hearn's face, as it was obvious that the man was still overwhelmed by the knowledge of alien life.
"Hang on." The Doctor said, before pressing another button with Tybo's hand that sent them spiraling down to the ground.
At that exact moment, a young man happened to be walking through town. After it became clear the dinosaurs were gone, he had been the first to leave his home and observe the destruction left in their wake. To be fair, cars and outside establishments had taken the most damage, and it was nothing that couldn't be fixed.
It was just as he thought that, that the man was greeted with a large case plummeting into the ground right next to him.
That had scared him enough, but it was the opening of the case to reveal an old man, a young man with a blinking green light, a woman dressed in very odd patterns and a hulking, heavily-breathing rhinoceros-man that sent him fleeing in abject terror.
The Doctor chuckled.
"Humans. Always good for a laugh."
Frizzle gave a slight cough, making The Doctor turn to her with a warm smile.
"And," he said, "good for a nice pep talk. Thank you, Valerie."
"A teacher's work is never done." Said the the woman.
The two of them exited the pod with Hearn, The Doctor turning back to Tybo, whose breathing had begun to slow again.
"So is this it?" He asked, "You dying for real now?"
Tybo did not answer, instead slowly moving his arm to press yet another button.
"My...body..." he said as the case suddenly swung closed again. "My...technology... Mustn't...be found...in this...time."
"Upholding the temporal law til the very end, eh?" The Doctor gave a sad smile, giving the Commander a look over, and then a small wave.
"Farewell, Tybo. You gave me a run for my money."
The Judoon did not respond, only exhaling and leaning back as the pod took off again.
The Doctor stared at the pod until it was gone from view.
"So what are you going to do now?" Valerie asked Hearn as they walked to where they had parked the bus. They were all pleasantly surprised to find not a dinosaur in sight, and people walking throughout the town, scared and curious, but safe.
"Going to see my young ones, what else? They might just still have time for an old nutter like me."
"Their loss if they don't." The Doctor said, turning to Hearn.
"You are a brilliant man." He said. "No need to waste that doing what other people want you to do. You've got a little time on your hands. Why bother with fake dinosaurs? Go study the real thing."
The Doctor extended a hand, which Hearn excepted with a warm smile.
"I can see why years had to be dedicated to you Doctor. You are both...extraordinary. The commander and his, er...Alliance, they must truly have the wrong idea about you to want you destroyed so."
The Doctor faltered slightly at that.
"And I owe the both of you a great deal." He said, before shaking Frizzle's hand, tipping his hat to the two and walking off.
The Doctor and Frizzle watched him with smiles of their own, before they turned to see Amy, Rory and the children lined up on the curb.
"DOCTOR!" Amy shouted upon seeing him, running up and giving him a great big hug, which he happily returned. The children did the very same for Ms. Frizzle not a moment later, practically toppling her over.
After they had all gathered themselves, a Frizzle happily instructed them to turn to the bus.
"Um, yeah," Carlos said, "about the bus..."
"It might be a little beat up."
"Whatever do you mean?" Frizzle asked, looking at the vehicle. "She looks fin to me."
The children all looked to the bus, seeing that not only had it stood itself upright, but it had repaired its windows and looked happy as ever.
"What?" Keesha asked, "How-"
"Self-repair," The Doctor said, "function of my TARDIS, transplanted onto yours through their connection. They have to look out for their own, after all."
The Doctor then looked at his watch.
"And if I'm right, right about now the bus should be ready to take you back to your time."
With a cheer, everyone piled into the bus, the kids looking thoroughly relieved and exhausted as they talked amongst themselves.
"You'd think this was just a regular field trip for them, the way they handle it." Rory said, "Then again, I suppose it is."
Amy giggled and kissed him on the cheek as they walked down the bus and to the TARDIS. On the way, they said goodbye to the kids, Rory ruffling Arnold's hair and Amy high-fiving Wanda and D.A, before they entered the phone box.
"Well, Valerie," said The Doctor, "it's been too real."
They shook hands, before they hugged.
"You know," the Doctor said, letting go, "there's not many people I'd trust with a TARDIS before you."
The teacher's eyes glistened with joy.
"That goes right back at ya." She said.
"And you," The Doctor said, turning to the kids, "are some of the most impressive children I've seen in time and space. Keep up the good work, and maybe I'll stop by again."
Everyone seemed to like that idea.
The Doctor opened the TARDIS door, giving them all one last glance.
"See you in the future." He said before shutting the door.
Ms. Valerie Frizzle sat at the driver's seat of her Bus, strapping in as her friends blue box disappeared.
"Everybody strapped in?" She called back.
"Yes !" They chorused back at her, making her smile brighten that much more.
"Ready Liz?"
The lizard nodded at her.
She turned the keys, and they were off.
"Back to the future."
AN: And so with that, the end happens. Well this has been a trip. I feel like this chapter ended up coming together better than I originally thought it would. After thinking about it, people underestimating children is something that's always slightly peeved me, so I decided to make that a heme to end on. I also just realized I could make an arc of sorts for Hearn and him constantly being subservient to other's, so I did. Also, I hope people got a 'Waters of Mars' vibe from the escaping the exploding building, cause that's what I was going for.
For those not in the know about "The Alliance", Series 5 of Doctor Who ends with an Alliance of aliens from throughout the Universe attempting lock The Doctor up because they see him as a threat to their existence. Judoon were among the species featured, so I figured I'd tie that into this fic. That was dealt with, however, so if you want a resolution for that plot point go watch the show, as odds are 99% I won't be referring to it in another fic.
Not many people reviewed this one, probably cause I didn't ask, but from the amount of favorites I got it looks like people liked it. So I feel more comfortable about my plan to make more of these.
About that, actually. I've decided that, since the next two stories I have planned out are for my two Second Favorite Doctors, I'm just going to make each consecutive story a crossover featuring a different Doctor, going dwon for my favorite to my least favorite. That way I get to practice writing for all of them.
so, check out next time for an adventure featuring the Seventh Doctor, sassy government agents, and a family of weirdos living in a creepy mansion. 'S gonna be fun.
