The Doctor rushed out of the TARDIS, excited as always to see where she had taken him this time. To his utter let down, she had taken him, to a parking complex. And dull looking one at that. The walls and floor were a dull gray color, with white lines drawn on the floor, marking the bondtries of the parking spaces. The only color at all came for a few red cars, though most of them were black or white or silver. Not exactly the most exciting place in the universe.
He didn't have to be disappointed for long, because just after he had finished surveying his surrounding, a crashing sound-like a body being slammed hard against a wall-came from the other side of the complex. He ran over to see what it was, sure enough, an alien that even frightened him a little bit had a skinny young man backed up into a corner. The alien in question was a reptilian creature, with thin, human-like torso, two long skinny arms that ended in clawed hands and two legs that ended in clawed feet. Long treadles that appeared to be dead snakes, hung its head, lifeless. Its body was covered in Onyx scales. "You know," The creature said, stroking its captive's face and twirling a piece of his sandy blonde hair, "I'm not entirely sure I should eat you. You'd make a nice little pet." The creature's voice sounded female.
"I'd probly pee on the rug." The young man said defiantly. The Doctor was impressed at the young man's bravery, and then he decided he should step in before this went any further.
"Actually," The Doctor said, "I think our Draconian friend is better off letting you go completely. "
That was the first time either of them had taken any notice of the Doctor. The Draconian turned around to face him, her dilated, bright yellow eyes filled with rage. "How do you have this knowledge?"
"Yeah," The young man said, struggling to get out from the Draconian's grasped, "How do you know that?"
"Well," The Doctor said, sauntering closer to them, "I've been around, done a lot of things, met a lot of people. A lot of different species, so I was bond to meet a few Draconians along the way. They tried to eat me, of course, because they assumed I was a human. I kept telling them, no, really, I'm not, but they said I'd taste good either way, and tried to toss me into a boiling pot of water. I mean, if you're going to boil me, at least kill me before you do it. For example, you were probly going to kill that boy before you cook him. Well, at least you would've if he hadn't just escaped."
The Draconian turned back to see that her pray was no longer in the corner. While the Doctor was rambling on, he had distracted the Draconian and allowed the young man to wriggle free and run over to the Doctor. Now he was standing right beside him. He leaned over to the Doctor and whispered, "So what do we do now?"
Looking at the enraged Draconian, the Doctor answered, "Now, we run." Then he grabbed a hold of the one man's wrist and the two of them legged it down the walk way.
"Wait," The young man said, as they ran, "Shouldn't we do something to try to catch her or contain her or something?"
"We'll do that in minute," The Doctor answered, "I'm the Doctor, by the way."
"Well, Doctor," The young man looked back, then continued, "thanks for the rescue. I'm Mike."
A few minutes after that, they were at the TARDIS, and the Doctor quickly ran in, pulling Mike in behind him. "Wow." Mike said, taking in his new surroundings as the Doctor locked the door, "It's bigger on the inside."
"Yeah, you're not the first person to say that," The Doctor said, then he turned around and ask, "So Mike, how did you get into this mess?"
"Well, it all started when Harvey and I…" Suddenly all the color drained from Mike, and he looked horrified. "Oh my God. Harvey…"
"Who's Harvey?" The Doctor asked, now totally confused.
"He's my boss." Mike answered quickly, "And they have him. That's how I found out about this. I think they took him back to that shack, and that's hours away, so there's no way they've eaten him yet." Mike was clearly distraught at this point. "They couldn't have, right?"
"Mike, I need you to calm down," The Doctor said patiently, "Tell me what happened, and please start at the beginning."
To fully understand what happened, we need to go back to the previous day.
It all started when Harvey told his driver to pull the car over a desolate spot on the highway. At first, thinking Harvey must have had to relive himself, a privilege Mike had been denied earlier, Mike said, "Oh, so when I need pee we don't have time to even stop on the side of the road, but when you need to do it, it's a different story."
"I don't have to pee," Harvey responded while getting out of the car, "We're here."
"Wait," Mike said, quickly fallowing Harvey out of the car. "This is where they live? This is the place we've been driving for the last fourteen hours to get to?"
"You got a problem with that?"
"No." Then they saw the sign. It was a large white sign, with a bit of dirt on it, made of metal. It said on the sign in big, bold, black letters: KEEP OUT: ALL TRESTPASSERS WILL BE EATEN. Harvey started to walk pass it like he didn't even see it. Mike grabbed Harvey and pulled aside, while, saying, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, there, man. Did you miss the sign?" He pointed to it before Harvey could answer. "All trespassers will be eaten. Eaten, Harvey. Not shot, eaten. Well, probly shot too, 'cause I doubt they're just gonna tie us up and toss us in a giant cauldron of boiling water, but still."
Harvey pulled away from Mike, then said, "I highly doubt they're really cannibals, Mike. They're just kidding to get people to stay off their land."
And with that the two went on until a few feet latter, when they met with another sign with the same big, bold, black letters: WE'RE NOT KIDDING, WE ARE SERIOUS AS THE PLAUGE."
Mike turned to Harvey with a look of perurbence and vindication on his face, and said, "They're just kidding, huh?"
"That doesn't mean anything," Harvey said, sounding certain of the fact, "But I should let you know, if it does turn out they're cannibals, I'm throwing you in front of me to get a head start."
"That's nice to know." Mike replied as they walked.
A few minutes later, they came to a small wooden shack that was falling apart at the seams. Mike could contain himself no longer. "Harvey," Mike whispered, leaning his upper body closer to the older man, "I am seriously getting a The Hills Have Eyes, Wrong Turn, Bunnyman kind of vibe here."
"And I'm getting a vibe that you've seen too many horror movies." Harvey retorted, really hopping the last one was a horror movie, as he had no idea what it was, and was not use to looking like a fool, and not wanting to get use to it.
Before Mike could respond, the door to shack opened with a horrible creak to revile a beautiful young woman standing in the doorway. Her ivory skin was flawless, and long blonde curls fell all around her head. Her two chocolate brown eyes stared suspiciously at the two men. "Who are you? And what are you doing here? Didn't you see the signs, either of them?" She spat out at them, with acid in her voice.
"To answer your first question," Harvey answered, completely unphased, "I'm Harvey Specter, this is my associate Mike Ross. We're lawyers with Person-Harman, we're here to talk with Robert Dusa about the incident that occurred here a few weeks ago. You may or may not know that one he is being sued over it. And you are?"
"Barbara Dusa," The young woman answered, now sounding more annoyed then vicious, "Robert's sister. Oh, well, you might as well, since you're already here. I thought the idiot boy had taken care of this…." Then she walked into the shack, mumbling on, Robert being on idiot, and Mike and Harvey being idiot busybodies who needed to mind their own business, and how everyone expected her to do everything. The two men fallowed her cautiously into the shack.
The inside of the shack was even worse than outside. As expected, it only had one-room, and had a dirt floor, dust from the dirt covered everything. They could also see now, that some of the wood planks and beams making up the walls and the roof were rotting. There was an old- fashioned, black metal wood-burning stove near the left corner of the room. In the center of a room was a black wood table, surrounded by seven miss-matched chairs. Three of the chairs were dark brown and crudely constructed, two of them were framed with greenwood, and had white wicker for the seat, and part of the back, the last two were rusty red. All of them appeared to be very old. There were three men at the table. The oldest man appeared to be in his mid-40s,extremely tall and very muscular, with long black, hair and black eyes. The mere sight of him was intimidating. The second oldest was a man in his mid-20s, boney and gangly, with long light brown hair that fell into his eyes, a manic grin on his face, twisting a dirty rag back and forth. The youngest wasn't even a man. He was a boy, no more than thirteen years old, with the shortest hair of the group, even thought it surrounded his head in a shaggy blonde mop-top, and blue eyes.
"Robert," Barbara said, looking at the man twisting the dirty rag, "These men are here about that man you bit two weeks ago. You're gonna talk to them, you're gonna tell them everything they need to know to get them to leave, and then you're gonna shut up. Is that clear?"
"Yes, Barbara." Robert replied, still grinning manically, and twisting his rag.
"Tobias," Barbara said flatly, point towards the right corner of the shack, "Can I talk to you over there for a minute?"
The giant with long black hair got up, and walked over to the corner with Barbara. The blonde boy got up and moved to the other side of the table, and Mike and Harvey sat down beside Robert. "Mr. Dusa," Harvey began, "My name is Harvey Specter, this is my associate, Mike Ross, we're here to discuss the suit brought against you by my client, Kenneth Masters. He alleges that on the evening of January 5th, while he was hiking with his girlfriend Chynna Richardson, they got lost and came across your…house, and tried to ask you for directions, you responded by biting his hand. It got infected, and had to be amputated. Do you contest this statement?"
"No," Robert sneered, "I bit that man. I remember he was very tasty. It would've finished him off if Natalie hadn't got Barbara. Him and his pretty little woman too."
"Uh, excuse me," Mike interjected, "Who's Natalie?"
Harvey gave Mike a perturbed look.
"Well, she wasn't in any of the reports," Mike said defensively, "You seriously don't want to make sure she won't come back and bite us? Uh, please pardon the expression." Mike realized considering the circumstances, any reference to biting was probly a poor choice of words.
"I'm Natalie," said a voice. Mike and Harvey turned to the direction the voice was coming from, and sixteen-year-old girl covered in dirt from head to toe in a ragged dress stepped out from the shadows.
"Natalie!" Barbara bellowed, "Don't you dare say anything to them! In fact, get outside, right now! Go, look for Preston and Avery."
A very frightened Natalie meekly walked out the door. Barbara then turned to Mike and Harvey and said, "I think it's time for you and Mr. Ross, to leave, Mr. Specter."
"Very well," Harvey said, getting up from the table. "We're contact you latter to discuss the possibility of a settlement, Mr. Dusa."
When they were well out earshot, Mike said, "Harvey, I think we need to do something about that girl, Natalie. I mean, did you see how scared she was when Barbara yelled at her? I mean, she can't be more than sixteen…"
"Mike for once, we are on the same page. When we get back to the city I'll call social services. I know a possible case of abuse when I see one."
"Why is your client even suing them?" Mike said, looking back into empty space, "I mean, they can't have a lot of money."
"Which is why Kenneth didn't want to file any criminal charges, and said it was a dog bite, but Chynna learned he did that, she got upset, and they came to a compromise that he would sue. When he came to me about it he actually asked me to get it down to the least amount of money I could. But that's gonna be hard when I can't even talk to him, because his crazy sister's running the show."
When they got back to the city, the first thing Harvey did was call social services. And he got nowhere for about five minutes. First, he kept getting the run around from everybody and their Uncle Tom, then when he was able to get someone on the phone, a social worker, she kept saying since they didn't actually see any abuse take place, she couldn't do anything. For the first time since he could remember, Harvey was actually finding himself getting frustrated. It was not a sensation he liked.
"What do you mean you can't do anything?!" He yelled at the woman on the other end of the phone, "They live in complete squalor, she was wearing rags, and when he sister screamed at her, she scurried out in terror! What more do you need?"
"I'm sorry, Mr. Specter, but it's not a crime to yell at your kids, or make them wear old clothes," The woman said, "But if you elaborate on 'complete squalor,' I might be able to do something."
"They got at least five people, maybe more, because the sister mentioned two more people, living in a one-room shack that's violating about dozen building codes, with a dirt floor, and everything covered with a layer of dirt. And when I say she's wearing rags, I do not mean that her clothes were just old, I mean that the dress she was wearing was made out dozens of different little patches, all of them thread bare, in various shades of brown, the bottom of the skirt was tattered, and so are the selves, and she was bare foot, without so much as tights, and it's February, and I can tell you, today it was bitterly cold out there. Oh, and one of those five people is a crazy man who bit my client, causing him to lose his hand. Is that enough for you?!"
The woman was silent for a moment. "Why didn't you mention that last part before?"
"Because my client is suing him over the incident, I'm tendering on the line of breaking anthorny client privilege here. Now can you do anything about it or not?"
"I'll go out there tomorrow, and if things are as bad as you say they are, I'll remove the girl and any other children there from the parent's custody. Thank you for bringing this to our attention."
"You're welcome."
The next day, as Harvey was about to walk into the firm, when an small, worn-out , black car with dirty windows drove up, and one of the large doors swung open with a loud whack causing him to turn around. To his surprise, Barbra was in the driver's seat. But it was the passenger side door that was open, which was weird. "Mr. Specter," Barbra said, sounding strangely clam, "We need to talk."
"About what?" Harvey said, as he tentively stepped towards the car.
"About that call you made to social services."
"How do you know it was me who called? Those calls are suppose to be anonymous."
"I just had a feeling it was you. Now, come with me so we can talk."
"I'd rather not."
"Come one," Her voice had taken on an almost sickening sweetness, "Get in the car."
Harvey started to back away. He was starting to get creeped out.
"I'm starting to lose my patience," Her voice was more forceful now, but her voice still had that sweetness to it, "Get in the car."
For some reason, Harvey found himself walking towards the car, but he was able to stop himself by the time he was a foot away. But for some reason, he seemed unable to move at all. What was going on?
"Come here, and get in the dam car!" All the sweetness was gone from voice now, replace by pure, undistilled rage. Then, she reached out of the car, and grabbed Harvey's arm. Harvey pulled back automatically, and tried to shake her gripped on his arm, but she kept pulling. Suddenly her pupils grew to twice their size, and her eyes went from dark brown to the color of snow when an animal has peed in it. And fangs appeared in her month. As Harvey stared in disbelief and fear at the transformation, two pairs of hands from the back of the car, reached out and grabbed onto him, quickly pulling him into the car. Before he knew what was happening he had been pulled over the front passenger seat was being pinned down in the back seat with two muscular men with short hair. As he struggled with the pair, Barbra floored the gas, and sped away, nearly hitting someone on a bicycle.
And it just so happened that the person on the bicycle was Mike. He was already stunned by almost being killed by some crazy reckless driver, going at least five miles over the speed limit, and then to his horror he looked up to see Harvey struggling with two men in the back seat, and a rather dangerous looking Barbra Dusa driving. Emeditly, Mike got up, got back on the bike, and started to fallow him as fast he could. What he planned to do if he did catch up to them, he wasn't sure, but he had a feeling if he let that car get away Harvey was as good as dead. He had fallowed the car for four blocks and was actually starting to pick up speed when suddenly, a great force came from his left, and knocked him off the bike and sent him flying several feet, landing on the side walk. For a second Mike was blind and deaf. When his vision and hearing came back, to his utter shock, standing in front of him was Natalie.
"N-Natalie?" Mike sputtered, "What are you doing here?"
"Social services came today." Natalie answered softly, as she helped Mike to his feet, "They tried to take us away. Barbra said she knew you had something to do with it."
"So social services brought you here?" Mike asked as he stepped away from Natalie, who kept walking closer to him, eventually forcing him into the door way of a parking complex.
"I never said that." Natalie moved her neck in a sideways motion as she continued to back Mike further, and further back into the complex, then continued, "You see, Barbra and my father, Tobias, you remember him, wouldn't let them take me and Max, the little blond boy, you remember him , away. And they were so very delicious." Then Natalie grinned to reveal two pairs of large fangs, a set on the top of her mouth, and a set on the bottom. Her pupils dilated to twice their size, and the rest of her eye turned a bright, slightly stick looking yellow. Her skin started to dry before Mike's eyes, and it began to have a scaly look about it, and it started to turn black. Lastly, Natalie twisted her head again, and her brittle blond hair started to clump and unravel, and form into ebony snakes. But unlike the Medusa of Greek Mythology, whose snakes were alive, Natalie's snakes were dead, and hung lifelessly from her head. Within seconds the fail girl that evoked sympathy, had turned into a monstrous beast that evoked terror.
Mike stepped back several feet. "What are you?" He asked, his fear clear in his voice
"We are called Dracoians." Natalie crooned.
"Okay, as long as we're talking I'm alive." Mike thought, then out loud he asked, "So when you say the people that came to take you and Max were delicious, you mean you ate them?"
"Yes."
"And Harvey?"
"Shouldn't you be more worried about yourself?"
"I got a pretty good picture of what's gonna happen here, so just-let me die happy and answer the question."
"Yes, Barbra, Preston, and Avery will eat him too."
"And they sent you out to eat me?"
"Yes." And then Natalie lunged at Mike. Mike quickly jumped out of her way and made for the stairs. He bounded up the stairs with Natalie on his tail. He ran into the next level of the parking complex. He did get far when once again he slammed by an unseen force into a wall- hard. Natalie-or whatever her name was-had him pined against the wall. "You know," Natalie said, laying a cold hand on Mike's face and stroking it, and playing with his hair, "I'm not entirely sure I should eat you. You'd make a nice little pet."
Mike looked into Natalie's eyes. If he was going die here, he was not going give his killer the satisfaction of showing her any fear. "I'd probly pee on the rug." He said defiantly. He probly would've spit at her, or said something else, but at that point the Doctor had intervened.
After Mike had finished the story, the Doctor was quiet for a moment, then said, "Well, then, I guess this calls for a rescue mission." Just then a very angry pounding started on the TARDIS doors, and Natalie could be heard screaming on the other side. "Starting now." The Doctor stated, then flung the door to basement open, and jumped in. Mike ran over to the whole in the floor the Doctor had gone down in, and the Doctor called up, "No, stay right there, Mike, I might need to hold a few things."
"But what are we gonna do about Natalie?" Mike asked, staring at the door as the creature on the other side pounded it, "I think she's about to break in."
"Don't worry," The Doctor reassured him, "Whole armies couldn't break through that door, and believe me, and they've tried. As for stopping her," The Doctor pocked his upper body out of the basement holding a length of rope, "I'm about to do that right now. " Then he pulled a long, cylindrical, silver, object from jacket pocket, and walked towards the door, "Mike, in case this goes wrong, get on the other side of the console, so you have some distance between you and her."
Mike ran to the other side of the console and crouched down. "Ready?" The Doctor asked. Mike nodded. "Okay then," The Doctor said, then he flung the doors open, raised the sliver object in the air, and screeching sound came from, cause Natalie to but her hands on her ear holes, and recoil in pain, screaming. The Doctor took the rope, with he had made a lasso out of, and lassoed her. He pulled into the ship, and slammed the door behind him. Mike ran over to the Doctor and the now captive Natalie. "So what are you gonna do with her?"
"I'm not sure," The Doctor said, crouching down to Natalie's level-Natalie was sitting on the floor, "I have an idea, but, I've never done this by force before."
"Now's not the time to be concerned with morally!" Mike exclaimed, "At least one person's died all ready, and a man's life in danger."
"Yeah, I was more concerned with rather or not what I want to do is possible by force, but thanks for bringing up that issue, Mike" The Doctor looked at Natalie. Mike was right about one thing; time was of the essence here, and this was all they had. He had to try. The Doctor put his fingers on Natalie's temples and concentrated. Hard. Between Natalie's physical struggling, and mental resistance it took her a minute but he was able to get in. Just as he had thought her name wasn't really Natalie. It was Natbler, Natalie was just the closest name her family group could find when they came to Earth. And, as the Doctor had also suspected, they fell through The Rift and made their way to the New York state woods. He knew that Draconians didn't like to go too far from home, as far as space travel was concerned at least, and if a tribe or family group lost their permanent settlement, their first instinct was to migrate, and find a suitable place to resettle by any means possible. And as the Doctor had also figured, Barbra's harsh treatment of Natbler was because Barbra was trying to keep her down. Draconians are a Maternal society where women were the leaders, and in pack-like setting of a family group, other females were seen at a threat to the Group-Leader's power, and the Group-Leader would either kill all the other females, or intimidate, and beat them down so much, they were terrified of Group-Leader, and wouldn't dare make any kind of power play. The Doctor looked deeper into her mind. He found what he needed.
"Okay," The Doctor said, jumping back on his feet. He ran over to the console, and started punching buttons and pulling levers like crazy. "They figured you two would fight back, so the plan was to snatch you guys when you were separated. The thing is, they didn't plan on you fallowing the car, so Natalie improvised, and attacked you out on the street, and backed you into some place deserted. Which is actually kind of lucky in a way, 'cause they're not planning to take Harvey all the way back out to the homestead to do him in."
"What?" Mike said, panicked
"Don't worry, the abandoned building they're planning to stop at is nearby. It should only take us a few seconds to get there. Mind pulling down that lever? That one your right there."
"No, not all." Mike answered, sounding rather unsure, then pulled down the lever. Instantly, things started moving, the room started shaking, and the place was filled with the whirling noise of tired, ancient engines. "You might want to hold on." The Doctor said Mike grabbed a hold of the bottom of the tube in the middle of the console. Just as suddenly as it started, the shaking stopped, things stopped moving, and the whirling noise had stopped.
"Okay," The Doctor said, "We're here." The Doctor scurried towards the door, and Mike quickly followed him. "So what's the plan?" Mike asked
"Not sure yet." The Doctor responded. Mike stopped dead in his tracks and seeing that he had stopped the Doctor stopped. "What?" The Doctor asked, turning around to face Mike.
"You're not sure what the plan is?" Mike said, "I the reason you took off was you had a plan!"
"Well, my plan was to here, then think of another plan."
"We're going up against a tribe of man-eating monsters and you don't have a plan?"
"Look, they could be tearing apart your friend's flesh as we speak, do you really want to waste time standing here arguing with me?"
"Good point."
Then they both headed back for the door, but then the Doctor rushed back up the ramp, severed the rest of the coil of rope from the lasso with his sonic screwdriver, grabbed the coil, and headed towards the door, commenting to Mike, "Think we might need this," and then they both ran out the door.
The pair stopped short in an empty entry way. The two turned their heads back and forth throughout the room, and the Doctor stopped an open door that lead down a flight of stairs. "There." The Doctor stated, "That's where they probly are." They quickly made their way towards the stairs, then Mike grabbed the Doctor's shoulder, saying, "Wait, wait, wait. Shouldn't we split up, make sure they're not on the upper level?"
"Yeah, if you want to get us killed." The Doctor responded, "Mike, there's three of them, with their leader, they have claws, fangs, they're hungry, relatively organized, and we only have one coil of rope. We'll just have to move very fast."
"But you already said-" Mike stopped talking when a very familiar thumb came from the basement. Mike and the Doctor looked at each other. "They're down there." Mike said
"Yeah, they're down there." The Doctor responded, and they quickly headed down the stairs. The pair put their backs to the wall and slid down the stairs. As they got closer, they started to hear voices. "This will go a lot quicker if stop trying to run away, Mr. Specter," The voice was Barbra's. "You're trying to kill me, what do you expect?" That voice belonged to Harvey. Mike was taken aback. He had never heard Harvey sound scared before. The two hurried their pace down the stairs, being very careful not to make any noise. When they got to the point where the wall ended, they stopped and the Doctor looked down. Below he could see two wiry Draconians standing close to the stairs, several feet away from a Draconian that he assumed was Barbra, standing in front of a man with his hands tied behind his back, which had fallen down into a corner. He turned back to Mike and whispered, "I see them. Mike, is Harvey a rather muscular man with black hair?"
"Yeah." Mike answered, "Is he okay?"
"Yeah." Then the Doctor looked back, to see if they should make their move. He saw that Barbra now had Harvey by his shoulders, and was about to bite his neck for a death blow. "Okay, now the time's to move." The Doctor said, then jumped into open view, and lassoed the nearest Draconian. Barbra turned around to see what had happened and let out something that sounded like a cross between a gasp and a hiss.
"So far, I'm liking your plan." Mike commented as the Doctor severed the rest of the rope from the lasso.
"Avery, don't just stand there!" Barbra bellowed, "Get them!"
The Draconian that was apparently Avery ran up, and the Doctor raised the rope above his head and lassoed him. Then he rushed down to floor to face Barbra, who was charging at them. He twirled the rope a couple times over his head, then lassoed her. Then he turned to Mike, who had joined him. The Doctor handed Mike the sonic screwdriver and said, "Just press this button here, it'll untie your friend. That one rope's not gonna hold them for long, I'll secure them better while you're doing that."
Mike ran over to Harvey, who was struggling to get up. Mike grabbed a hold of Harvey's right arm, and hoisted him up, saying, "It's okay, it's okay. Harvey, did they hurt you?"
"No." Harvey said, "Just a little sore from the wall."
"Okay, that guy said he was some kind of Doctor, we'll get him to look you over to make sure you're okay. And no arguing about it." Mike said. Then he pressed the button on the sonic screwdriver, there was a whizzing sound, and the ropes fell off Harvey's wrist. It was then that they both turned to the Doctor and the Draconians, and saw that Natbler-who had somehow untied herself-sneaking down the stairs, her arms raised in an attack stance. "Doctor look out!" Mike called. The Doctor turned around to see Natbler ready to pounce on him. Then a black blur of a screaming Barbra-who had untied herself as well-lugged at Natbler and held her down on the stairs. The Doctor had a feeling he knew what Barbra intended to do. "Barbra, don't!" He cried as he hurried up the stairs. But he was too late. Barbra had her hands around Natbler's throat, screaming at her, "You can't even do one thing right! I should've done this a long time ago ! You should've died with your mother! You deserve to die, you worthless pest!" It took all three men to get Barbra off Natbler. But it was too late. Natbler laid on the stairs, dead. "She killed her." Mike said, stunned, "Just because she messed up. Just because, she was mad at her."
"We need to get away from her body, now." The Doctor commanded, "Draconians have a retraceable poison in their fangs and claw, and when they die it's automatically released."
"Natbler!" One of the two other Draconians ran up the stairs. He stared at Natbler's body for a moment, tears falling down his face. He took her body and held it in his arms. "No!" The Doctor cried out. But it was too late. The other Draconian fell to the ground, dead. "Well," Barbra snarled, "Presto was always weak. We've always said he's died shortly after his beloved Natbler. I just didn't think it'd be a only a few seconds after."
"Wow, Barbra," Harvey said with distain in his voice, "You are a piece of work, even as far as flesh-eating aliens are concerned, you are a real piece of work."
"And you're going to pay for this," The Doctor said, "Come on; we need to get Avery and go." The Doctor grabbed her left arm tightly, and Mike and Harvey grabbed her other arm tightly, and they walked down the stairs, walked over to where they left Avery-the only one they had thoroughly bound before Barbra murdered Natbler-then stopped dead in their tracks, horrified at what they saw. Avery had managed to free himself enough to stab himself with his claw with it secreting poison. "Oh, Avery," The Doctor said, "Why?"
"My brother is a part of me," Avery said, "I can't survive without him." And then, with one last gasping breath, Avery died.
"Mike," The Doctor said numbly, almost coldly, "Take Harvey and get back into the TARDIS. I'll be there in an hour when the bodies are done secreting poison, and can be moved. We can't leave them here for people to find."
"What about her?" Mike asked, looking at Barbra.
"She'll stay here with me until I can move the bodies." The Doctor said, now completely cold, "Let her look at what she's done."
An hour later, The Doctor came in dragging in Natbler's body. Mike and Harvey walked over from there spot on the console operator bench-Harvey had been sitting, Mike had been leaning on the side- and Mike asked, "Do you need any help?"
"No, I'm fine. You just stay here." The Doctor answered solemnly, and then he looked up at them, adding, "How are you two doing with all this, by the way?"
"I'm fine too," Mike said, not sounding fine at all. Then he turned to Harvey, clearly concerned about him and asked, "And you?"
"You know me, Mike," Harvey replied, smiling weakly, "I don't rattle easily."
The Doctor looked at the pair as if he didn't believe of them, and then walked out of the TARDIS to get another body. Once he had left the two men looked at each other with same look of asking for the truth on their faces. After what seemed to be a least a full 30 seconds of this, Harvey said, "I should probly call in to the office. They're probly wondering why we didn't come in. The least we can do in this mess is make sure we don't get fired."
"You got your phone on you?" Mike asked.
"Yeah, it's in my pocket." Harvey answered, pulling the small silver device from his pocket, and started dialing numbers into it with unsteady hands, then put it up to his ear. After a minute whoever was on the other end picked up, "Oh, Donna," Harvey said, sounding rather surprised as well as shaky, "I was trying to call Jessica, I guess I dialed you my mistake. Yeah, I'm fine. No, no one's found out Mike's not a real lawyer."
"Uh, someone has now," Mike said suddenly.
Harvey looked to see the Doctor looking at them as he put Presto's body on the ground. "Donna," Harvey said quickly, "I have to go. Look, just tell Jessica there's been an incident and Mike and I won't be able to come in today." And then he hung up the phone and looked at the Doctor. "I suppose you want an explanation for that statement."
"Yeah," The Doctor replied, "That'd be nice. Just let me get the last body and Barbra in, and then you can explain."
Mike didn't want Barbra to hear this. He was about to say so when the Doctor added, "Don't worry, I'll sedate her. She won't hear a thing."
After the Doctor had brought in Avery's body and Barbra, and then forced some dark purple concoction down her throat that made her lose consciousness in a few seconds, he walked down the hall, came pack with a leather bag, walked up to Mike and Harvey and said, "Okay, who's first?"
Both of them while relived that he wasn't pressing the "Mike's not a real lawyer," thing, they also had no idea what the Doctor was talking about. "Excuse me?" Mike asked.
"I wanna look at you two and make sure you're okay," The Doctor answered, as if that was obvious, "I would've already done it, expect we had to go on a rescue mission, and then-" The Doctor paused for a minute, looking down at the ground, then looked up again and said, "Things kind of spiraled out of control." The Doctor demander suddenly changed to a more casual, almost up-beat one, as he said, "So, who's first?"
The two men looked at each other awkwardly, then Mike said, "You can go first. If anything was wrong with me that couldn't wait, it'd probly showed up by now."
"I don't need to be looked at," Harvey argued, "I'm perfectly fine."
The Doctor and Mike both gave him looks that said, "You're not getting out of this so you might as well sit down," so Harvey did. The Doctor opened the bag and pulled out a medical flash, shined it in Harvey's eye, and said, "So, what's this business about Mike not being a real lawyer?"
The two men turned their heads to each other, as if silently discussing what to say, they both turned back to the Doctor and Mike began, "I was-well-okay, I was running from the cops, and I happened to run into a room to hide where Harvey happened to be interviewing potential associates, and one of them hadn't shown up, and-"
"And said you were him?" The Doctor asked, with a note of surprise in his voice, but amazingly it didn't sound like he was judging Mike.
"No, " Mike stammered, "I didn't I mean, I told Donna I was trying to hide from the cops."
"And Donna is-?" The Doctor asked.
"My assistant," Harvey answered, "She was letting them in that day. I told her if any of them said something impressive to give me a wink, and Mike came in she winked."
"Really?" Mike asked, surprised, "You never told me that."
"Okay, so when did Harvey find out you weren't a lawyer?" The Doctor asked, pulling a small orange medical hammer out of his bag.
"Right after he came in," Harvey answered, "He told me everything the minute he got in there."
"And you hired him anyway?" The Doctor asked, now sound a bit judgmental.
"He has-very useful attributes." Harvey replied, then looking down and for the first time realizing the Doctor had his up his shirt, and was feeling around on his chest asked, "What the Hell are you doing?"
"What, you mean this?" The Doctor asked, continuing to feel around on Harvey's chest.
"Yeah, that." Harvey answered.
The Doctor realized how weird this probly looked."Oh, don't worry, I'm just checking for broken ribs." The Doctor removed his hand, backed away, and added, "And it looks like you don't have any. Surprisingly enough, you're fine. The worst damage is a lot of bruising." Then the Doctor turned to Mike and said, "Now, let's have you."
As he was finishing up looking at Mike, who appeared to be fine except for some bruising from his early encounter with Natbler, the trio heard a groan from across the room. They all turned to see that Barbra was starting to wake up. "We need to get going." The Doctor said, and ran over to console and started pushing buttons again.
"What are you going to do to her?" Mike asked, getting up from the bench and walking closer to the Doctor.
"Well, first I'm going out to that shanty to pick up the rest of the lot," The Doctor turned to Barbra, "If they're all still alive. " He turned back to console and continued talking, "And then I'm gonna drop them in the most God-forsaken part of Dracionia I can find." And with that he pulled one last lever and they were off.
Within seconds they had landed. They all walked out of the TARDIS, with the Doctor dragging the bound Barbra behind him, and they met yet another horrifying sight. A small male Draconian who couldn't have been more then thirteen was standing in front of the crumpled remains of what was left of the shack, just staring at it, apparently still in shock.
After a moment of horrified silenced, the young Draconian said, "They failed, didn't they?"
"Yes," The Doctor answered, walking up to the Draconian boy and standing beside him, "What's your name?"
"Max."
"I mean your real name."
"Max. I was born after we were stranded here, so they gave me a name from this planet. And now they're all gone."
"Max, what happened here?"
"We were getting ready to leave, it wasn't safe here anymore, and then suddenly the roof started to shake. I was scared, so I ran out of shack, but I was the only one who got out in time, before the roof caved in. And then the whole thing just-collapsed." Tears started to run down Max's face.
Suddenly, Barbra rushed up beside them screaming, "No!" And then freed her hand and raised it to her chest. The Doctor grabbed her hands, having a good idea what she was going to do, but she violently shook off his grasp, and stabbed her secreting poison claw directly into her head, and collapsed to the ground, stone cold dead. "Mom, no!" Max cried out, and ran over to Barbra, but the Doctor garbed a hold of him, saying, "Max, no, you can't. The poison will kill you."
"But it's my mom!" Max cried, and then slipped into hysteria, as the Doctor put Max's face in this chest, and rocked him back and forth say, "It's all right, it's gonna be all right, you'll be okay."
While the Doctor tried to console Max, Mike and Harvey walked over to Barbra's body, and just stared down in shock and disgust. Barbra had just killed herself in front of a child. More still her own son. She didn't care about him at all. She had lost control of everything, and that was all she cared about. Barbra was a monster. No, not just because she was a human-eating alien, but because she was so selfish, so cold, so evil.
After Max had stopped crying and calmed down, which took a little over an hour but seemed to take ages, he looked up at the Doctor and asked, "What happens now?"
"We need to bury the bodies," The Doctor said solemnly, "There's this woman I know at a local alien black market who takes care of orphans like you. I'll take you to her."
"There's some shovels in the old shed over there." Max said numbly, pointing over to another decaying building a few feet away from the remains of the shack.
"I'll go get them." Mike volunteered, walking over to the shed.
They spent the next two hours removing all six bodies from the TARDIS, or the wreckage and burying them deep and the ground. Then Mike had the idea to put wooden crossed over the graves as markers, which they did. Then, seeing all six crossed lined up in a row, marking where his family lay, the realization that his entire family was dead and he was alone in the world hit Max once more, and he fell to his knees and started sobbing inconsolably once again. The Doctor walked over to Max and gently put a hand on his shoulder. "I know," Was all the Doctor said. Then he just stared off into the distance while Max cried his hand ever vigilant on his shoulder. Then he said, "We need to go." Then he helped Max to his feet, and lead the still weeping, only now softly, Draconian boy to the TARDIS. Mike and Harvey turned their heads, and stared at the pair walking into the ship. "That kid the only innocent Draconian in all this, isn't he?" Mike said
"You're telling me Mike," Harvey responded, "You're telling me."
Then the pair fallowed The Doctor and Max into the TARDIS.
The first thing the Doctor did was take Max to the woman at the black market, an elderly woman with snow white hair, and kind, violent eyes, who took the clearly grieving Draconian boy no question asked, except, "How bad was it?"
"It was bad, Alexa," The Doctor answered, "It was the worst it can be."
"We both know the worst it can be." Alexa answered, and then she walked off with Max.
Then he landed the TARDIS in front of Mike's apparent building. Due to the circumstances, the Doctor did something he didn't usually do: he stayed for a little bit. At least long enough to see the pair up the stairs, and into Mike's apartment. The Doctor could tell the two were heading for a breakdown, he decided he should go. Which was probly a good thing, because as he was walking out the door, Mike started to get sick, and Harvey picked a nearby wastepaper basket, and held it up to Mike, so he could vomit in it.
The Doctor wasn't sure what happened next, but the next thing he could remember, was standing in front of a pub called McLarens. He wasn't sure how he got there, but he figured he might as well go in. He walked into the surprising brightly light room, then slipped into both, and ordered a ginger ale from the waitress, a lovely young woman dark hair by the name of Wendy, and started to sip it slowly.
We all know what happened next.