The Doctor:
Panting, the Doctor came to a halt, taking a large, steady gulps of air to calm his breathing.
Another wave of guilt hit him, as he remembered Brenda's indignant face as he'd left her behind with Semanza. 'Hopefully she'll understand,' the Doctor thought, 'I couldn't stand to loose her too… after all, Brenda is human, making her an easy target for the Mortread, but still…'
The Doctor shook his head, futilely trying to clear it. He looking up suddenly, as the advancing shadows caught his eye. They were slowly drifting closer, looking like faint reflections on water – half in this world, but belonging to another…
Drawing his sonic screwdriver out of his coat pocket, the Doctor held it out in front of him in a threatening manner.
Clearing his throat, the Doctor called out to the shadows which were circling him, in a way reminiscent of hungry, black lions.
"Creatures of shadows, also known as 'the Mortread', according to Article 18 of the Shadow Proclamation, it is forbidden for any creature of mal-intent – such as yourselves – to invade, hurt, or otherwise endanger the lives of a peaceful settlement!" The Doctor announced with authority.
The shadows stopped circling, and began to all merge together to form a swirling, pulsating, black vortex.
The Doctor peered curiously into the centre of the shadowy mass, noting with concern, the unreal, insubstantial appearance of the dark form in front of him.
"Who are you to induce the rights of the Shadow Proclamation?" the shadowy vortex somehow managed to hiss. Its voice sounded like thunder, resounding, echoing, with a subtle threatening rumble.
"I'm the Doctor! And whoever you are, I'm going to stop you!" He said confidently, unaware that his follower was now standing beside him.
"We are the darkness, released from the gap between worlds – the howling, the void – we are the unstoppable and forever." The shadow stirred, "We will reclaim that which belongs to us - you and your petty companion will not stand in our way!"
The Doctor glanced around. "Companion? – Ohh…" He groaned as he caught site of the determined Brenda.
"I am not petty!" she cried, insulted. She blushed slightly as the Doctor gave her a stern look.
"I thought I told you to go with Semanza! You humans – you never listen to good advice!" the Doctor told her in exasperation, running a hand through his messy hair.
The Doctor resorted to desperate measures, trying to use their psychic link to silently persuade Brenda to leave.
Glaring at him, she shook her head stubbornly, standing her ground.
The Doctor sighed wearily 'Why do they always have to be so silly and pig-headed…?' he asked himself. Turning back to the shadowy cloud, he noticed that it was slowly drawing closer.
"Why are you here - and why now?" He asked, trying to distract the vortex from Brenda, as he motioned her to back away.
"We are the consciousness, trapped for eternity in the Void, tortured by insanity, we mutated, finally being forced to change shape, transformed into Void Storms.
Four human-years ago, the Void was opened momentarily, allowing us to escape through the gap. Slowly, we are draining this world, until we are restored to our former state – making us unstoppable!" The Void Storm gloated, swirling faster.
"Void Storms – parasites of times-that-never-were!" The Doctor identified, with a look of slight disgust. "Well, I suggest you leave this planet alone – or, even better – leave this universe! Go back to where you belong!" he warned, his voice turning cold and deadly; the cheerful, kind man replaced, by the powerful and fearless Doctor of legends.
"You cannot imagine what it is like Doctor, eternal darkness – forever, the madness. This place is so bright, so full of life – do you begrudge us that?" the Void Storm reasoned, adapting a different approach.
"No. There is a reason your kind was placed there – by my people no less – if you stay here much longer, this universe will turn black and cold, lifeless and drained – that's not going to happen. This is my warning." The Doctor's voice went dangerously low.
The Void Storm swirled faster, apparently laughing, 'If these Void Storms actually can laugh.' Thought Brenda, watching the vortex in fascinated horror.
"You will not stop us – Doctor – this is our world now." The Void Storm announced, its voice echoing eerily, as it advanced closer to Brenda and the Doctor.
"Ok – that's plan A gone…" The Doctor told Brenda, meeting her eyes and reaching for her trembling hand.
"What's plan B?" Brenda asked nervously, as the vortex threateningly swirled nearer.
Pulling her to his side, the Doctor leaned over to whisper in her ear."RUN!"
He dragged Brenda behind him as he tore hastily through the trees, sprinting away from the unsuspecting Void Storm.
The vortex crackled with fury as it realised that its prey was escaping, and flew after them in hot pursuit.
"Doctor! It's gaining on us!" Shouted Brenda, looking over her shoulder at the rapidly approaching mass.
"It's ok – we're almost ...there!" The Doctor panted, as they drew to a halt in a small, but familiar clearing.
Brenda sighed in relief as she recognised the blue box looking completely out of place amongst the colourful trees.
The Doctor ran forwards with Brenda, pulling the key from his pocket, frantically jiggled it in the lock and barged open the TARDIS's door.
Slamming the door behind her, Brenda slumped against the wall in relief.
"Phew, that was close!" she gasped, a little out of breath.
"It isn't over yet!" The Doctor told her, making her jump to her feet in an attempt to help.
Smiling at her enthusiasm, the Doctor ran over to the TARDIS's controls, Brenda was about to join him when a sudden, violent jolt ran through the ship, making her fall on the ground – apparently the Void Storms weren't giving up that easily.
Quickly helping her up, before turning back to the controls, the Doctor reached underneath the central console and wrestled free a small, flashing oval object.
"Ha! The tribalphysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator!" The Doctor announced triumphantly, grinning at the bewildered Brenda.
"The what..?" She asked in confusion, frowning at him
"The extrapolator!" The Doctor explained, then, he smiled at Brenda's puzzled look, "It works like a surfboard – well, a pan-dimensional surfboard – oh! Doesn't matter!"
"The point is, how will it help?" Brenda asked, unable to grasp exactly what a 'tribalphysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator' was.
"If I can use link this up to the TARDIS's paradoxical convertor then we can activate its emergency transport setting…here, hold this," he added, handing her a cable, "Yes, where was I? Oh, the emergency transport setting which'll move us into the Void for a micro-second – long enough to shake off the Void Storm but…" he trailed off, gazing with concern at Brenda.
"-But?" Brenda prompted worriedly.
The Doctor sighed, "But it's dangerous, there's a 90 percent chance of us getting trapped in the Void too, and," He grabbed her hand, "From previous experience, there's not much chance of escape."
Brenda nodded, feeling her heart beat faster in anticipation.
"It's ok – we have to – for the Symphs, and Husk, and everyone else!" She assured him, squeezing his hand for emphasis.
The Doctor looked down at her soft hand, then up to her eyes. Seeing her courage and determination, he smiled charmingly and took the cable from her, replacing it with the considerably heavier, buzzing extrapolator.
Producing the sonic screwdriver with his spare hand, he turned it on and held it against the pan-dimensional surfboard. A loud bleep indicated that it had succeeded in connecting with the TARDIS, as more frantic jolts shook the ship.
The Doctor took the correctly functioning extrapolator back from Brenda. She looked up to meeting his eyes and glimpsed his infectious, excited glee.
"Ready?" He asked, a mad grin spreading across his face.
Brenda nodded, feeling nervous adrenalin pump through her veins.
"Allons-y!" The Doctor shouted, before pressing a button on the extrapolator.
The TARDIS began to rock and jerk even more violently than on Brenda's last trip. The lights flickered, and the usual screeching and scraping reached an impossibly high pitch.
The Doctor glanced worriedly at the console, silently cursing as the TARDIS trembled, struggling to fly.
"Come on!" he shouted without thinking, desperately trying to encourage his TARDIS.
The lights faded again, and for a moment, the ship stopped jerking, sliding into an eerie, unbroken silence.
Brenda looked up cautiously, worriedly glancing at the motionless Doctor, wondering what had occurred.
BANG!
Suddenly the TARDIS jolted, as if forced back into action. The lights slowly began to glow, and the console hummed back into life, rapidly resuming its pained screeching.
"Were we hit?" Brenda asked in concern, peering in the gloomy light.
She frowned, as she watched the frozen Doctor, his eyes wide and disbelieving, as he stared, transfixed, at the monitor.
"What was it?" Brenda repeated, reaching for his hand in an attempt to catch his attention.
The Doctor managed to break free of his trance, running a hand through his messy brown hair, mouthing something.
Leaning forward, Brenda caught a few disconnected words.
"Crisis….should be impossible…but brilliant…" he muttered, apparently unaware that Brenda was listening with a concerned expression.
Suddenly registering her, the Doctor looked up to meet her concerned eyes.
"Yeah, sorry, got a bit…distracted. No, we didn't hit anything – they hit us, pushing the TARDIS back out of the Void and saving us."
"What hit us though…?" Brenda asked in confusion, but the Doctor didn't respond, ignoring her.
She frowned at his response, but decided to forgive him – although she reminded herself to ask about it later.
"But…does that mean it worked? Are the Void Storms back where they belong?" She questioned, worried that they had failed.
"Oh yes!" the Doctor exclaimed enthusiastically, grinning at her again. "They weren't real Void Storms, just the remnants of an ancient, barbaric and rather ticked-off consciousness which was meant to be banished to the Void for all eternity. Obviously when the opportunity arose, it fled into this universe, unfortunately landing in the peaceful 41st century. Turns out," he turned to Brenda with a secretive expression, "The good old TARDIS must have brought us here to prevent the destruction of this world!"
Reaching out his free hand and stroked the TARDIS's centre pillar, causing the ship to hum gently in response.
"Is the TARDIS alive then?" Brenda asked with a smile, watching the Doctor's compassion and kinship with the TARDIS.
"Yep." He replied, looking down at Brenda with a serious expression which evidently said, 'don't laugh'.
Brenda looked pensively at the TARDIS for several long moments, until a sudden thought struck her.
"You never told me why Semanza acted so strangely to you – when we first met her…" she reminded softly.
"No…" the Doctor trailed off, thinking how difficult it was to explain. "Well, the Symphs of this era are all female – no males exist yet. They originally came from a planet where the most successful evolutionary line was that of trees. The Symphs are a 'diluted' version of their ancestors who were basically trees that could walk and talk.
"When a few of them got stranded, they began breeding with humans – so they wouldn't die out, and that led to a new race – the Symphs – half tree, half human.
Semanza met us, and upon seeing that we were …together…travelling, she thought it would be impolite to talk to me." The Doctor finished his long explanation without looking at all exhausted.
Brenda cocked her head on one side at his last statement, wondering what he'd been planning to say.
"Doctor? Shouldn't we visit Semanza and check if everyone's ok?" she asked, suddenly remembering her guilt at Husk's death.
"You can, but I've never been one for good-byes." he stated, avoiding her eyes carefully. "Go ahead, but be back within an hour…"
Brenda frowned at his suspicious actions. Placing her hands on her hips, she gave the Doctor a fearsome glare.
"Don't even think about leaving me behind…" She warned in a dangerous voice.
The Doctor blushed slightly as a guilty expression crossed his face, causing Brenda's eyebrows to rise in immediate suspicion.
"I won't." He promised, meeting her eyes as he attempted to regain his composure.
The Doctor jumped in surprise, as unexpectedly, Brenda ran up and hugged him. The Time Lord frowned in confusion, watching her pull open the TARDIS door and step outside.
Brenda grinned mischievously as she remembered the astounded expression on the Doctor's face as she'd hugged him.
She looked up to once again see the beautiful leaves raining down onto the ground. Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a furry, but strangely familiar object jumping from a branch and landing elegantly on her shoulders, before gently nuzzling her hair.
"Husk?!" Brenda cried out in joy, as she recognised the now very much alive Sousah. Affectionately ruffling his fur, she smiled as the creature's twitching nose appeared out of her hair, and a small pink tongue licked her face.
"Haha! Ok – I'm pleased to see you too!" Brenda giggled. Looking up at the tree Husk had sprung from, she was surprised as her gaze was met by that of many smiling Symphs perched in various branches above her head.
"Hi Semanza, you ok?" Brenda asked nervously, as she recognised her new friend.
The Symph jumped down agilely from a branch over fifteen feet above Brenda's head. Shaking herself as she landed with perfect grace on all fours, Semanza then walked over to embrace her.
Surprised, but pleased, Brenda hugged back in response. As Semanza released her, she gently pressed something into Brenda's hand.
"It's not much…but thank you. Everyone damaged by those creatures has been restored… all our thanks to you and that strange man…" The shy Symph showed true gratitude, then smiled as Husk leapt off Brenda and into her ivy hair.
Brenda suddenly became very self-conscious; upon realising that the rest of Semanza's family had joined their sister on the ground.
A little intimidated by the amount of attention being lavished on her, Brenda blushed, and sensed that it was time for her to leave.
"Ok…well, glad we could help. Hmm. Anyway, I'd better go now – the Doctor's waiting for me...so hopefully I'll see you again sometime. Goodbye Semanza! Bye everyone!" Brenda called back to them, waving over her shoulder at the happy Symphs.
As Brenda strode away from the clearing, she tucked the gift away in her trouser pocket before letting out a relieved sigh and grinning, content.
The girl jumped abruptly as she suddenly felt an arm wrap around her shoulders. Looking around to see who it was, Brenda found herself meeting a familiar pair of deep brown eyes.
"It's time to go." The Doctor confirmed, whispering into her ear.
Brenda nodded in response.
"I know."
The Doctor winked at her, then pulled her into a sprint, running hand in hand back to the TARDIS.
Brenda smiled. She just couldn't wait for their next adventure!