Shocking
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When they reached the top, the four of them stepped out and looked abut in wonder. His room had been used as some sort of office and it was currently missing some walls. It was open to the cold night air and they could see all of New York spread before them.
"Look at this place!" Tallulah exclaimed. "Top of the world!" She stared off towards the edge.
Looking about Martha was the building plans and made her way to them. "Okay, this looks good," she said, getting the other's attention. Rose and Frank joined her.
"Hey," Rose gasped. "Look at the date. These designs were issued today."
"They must have changes something last minute," Frank said.
"Who, the Daleks?" Martha said.
"Yeah, could be," he said uncertainly. They looked back and forth between the two schematics.
"The ones from underneath are from before," Martha pointed out. "That means that whatever they changed must be on this top sheet, but not this one. We need to check one against the other." She unclipped the papers.
"The height of this place!" Tallulah suddenly exclaimed. "It's amazing!"
"Careful," Martha told her. "We're a hundred floors up. Don't go wandering off."
"I just want to see," she insisted, carefully making her way to the edge to look out at the city. Rose gave a small giggle.
"You sound like the Doctor," she told Martha. "Rule number one: don't wander off."
The two girls giggled together as they took the plans and lay them out on the ground side by side. Then they knelt down to examine it.
"I'll go and keep an eye out, make sure we're safe up here," Frank told them. "Don't want nobody butting in." He made his way out of the room through a side door and Tallulah made her way back over. She knelt down next to them.
"There's a hell of a storm moving in," she said, wrapping her gown tighter around herself.
"I wish the Doctor was here!" Rose said in frustration, poring over the diagrams. "He'd know what we're looking for."
"So tell me," Tallulah said in a gossipy tone. "There did you two first hook up with him?"
"Rose was already travelling with him when I meet them," Martha told her. "We were in the hospital… sort of."
"Of course, him being a doctor." Rose laughed at this.
"Actually, I'm the doctor," Martha said. "Well, kind of."
"You're a physician?" she said with a surprised grin. Martha nodded. "Really?"
"I was training. Still am, if I ever get back home."
"And what about you, Flower Bud?" She turned to Rose. "Where'd you meet?"
"Oh, he… you know, kind of blew up my job."
"He got you fired?"
"No, he literally blew up by job… with a bomb. He was trying to stop some alien thing invading there. Pulled me out of the basement. After that we just kept bumping in to each other. And he asked me to travel with him."
"And you just went?" Tallulah gasped.
"Well, he did have to ask twice," she smiled. "But it was the best thing I ever did. What about you and Lazlo?"
"He was already working in the revue when I joined," Tallulah said wistfully. "Even when he wasn't needed he'd come along and watch our practices. He'd always tell me I looked amazing, even if I only had a two minute back-dancer part. He didn't even look at the other girls. He was so shy. Eventually one day when he was walking me home I just jumped on him and kissed him." The three of them giggle, but soon Tallulah's face fell. She looked so sad.
"Hey, it'll be okay," Rose told her. "If the Doctor's with Lazlo now, there's every chance that he could get him out."
"And then what?" she said, her voice breaking. "Don't talk crazy. There's no future for me and him. Those Dalek things took that away. The one good thing I had in my life and they destroyed it." Tears in her eyes, she stood and walked back towards the open wall. Rose and Martha gazed after her sympathetically.
?...DW…?
"THE-LINE-FEEDS-ARE-READY," one of the Daleks informed them.
Then it's all systems go," he told them. He ran over to a large beaker and sucked up the blue formula into a very big syringe.
"The solar flare - is imminent," Sec told him. "The radiation - will reach Earth - in a matter of minutes."
"We'll be ready for it," he assured them. He injected the contented of the syringe down a funnel. "That compound will allow the gene bonds to reconfigure in a brand new pattern. Power up!" At his command one of the pig-slaves and Lazlo pulled two of the switches on the wall.
"Start - the line feeds," Sec ordered. Soon the blue formula was running through the tubes and into the bodies.
"There goes the gene solution," he said.
"The life - blood."
Suddenly around them alarms went off and red lights began to flash. "What's that?" he asked, slightly alarmed. He had a feeling that this was not an accident or error.
"What's happening?" Sec demanded. "Is there a malfunction?" The Daleks said nothing. And in that moment the Doctor knew what was happening. "Answer me!"
"No, no, no. the gene feed!" he cried. "They're overriding the gene feed!" He ran over to the control panel to fix it. But it was pointless. It could only be operated by a Dalek, and it had already gone too far.
"Impossible," Sec said. "They cannot - disobey - orders."
"THE-DOCTOR-WILL-STEP-AWAY-FROM-THE-CON-TROLS," a Dalek bleated. Cautiously he stepped back. They were revolting, and he had no plans of being caught in the middle of it. Only problem was, that they were now in control again… And he was their number one, kill on sight, enemy. Slowly they backed him up. He retreated, keeping an eye on them.
"Stop!" Sec commanded. "You will - not fire!"
"HE-IS-AN-ENEMY-OF-THE-DA-LEKS."
"AND-SO-ARE-YOU," another added. Their weapons were aimed at both he and Sec.
"I am your commander," Sec fumed. "I am Dalek Sec!"
"YOU-HAVE-LOST-YOUR-AU-THOR-ITY."
"YOU-ARE-NO-LONGER-A-DA-LEK."
"What have you done with the gene feed?" the Doctor cut over them.
"THE-NEW-BODIES-WILL-BE-ONE – HUN-DRED – PER-CENT-DA-LEK."
"No!" Sec cried, he almost sounded scared. "You can't do this!"
"PIG-SLAVES,RE-STRAIN-DA-LEK-SEC-AND-THE-DOC-TOR."
Some pig-slaves moved forward and grabbed them. Sec was taken by two pig-slaved. The Doctor was relieved when he saw that the pig-slave dragging him backwards was Lazlo. They were very close to the elevator doors now.
"Release me!" Sec shouted. "I created you. I am your master."
"SOLAR-FLARE-AP-PROACH-ING."
"PRE-PARE-TO-INTER-CEPT." Then all three Daleks turned away to work on the controls. Behind them was a ding.
"There's the lift," Lazlo said to him quietly.
"After you." Lazlo let go and pushed the surround pig-slaves out of the way. They barged through and he took out the sonic-screwdriver to open the door.
"THE-DOC-TOR-IS-ES-CAPING!" a Dalek cried. "STOP-HIM!STOP-HIM!" The pig slaves charged after them. But it was too late, they were inside the elevator and the doors had closed. The two of them just stood there puffing a moment. The Doctor recovered in seconds but Lazlo leant heavily against the wall, still panting and struggling for air.
"We've only got minutes before the gamma radiation reaches the Earth," he told him. "We need to get to the top of the building." Suddenly he noticed just how bad Lazlo seemed. "Lazlo, what's wrong?"
"Out of breath," he replied hoarsely, forcing his voice to be light and cheerful. "It's nothing. We've escaped them Doctor. That's all that matters." The Doctor placed a hand on his shoulder for both comfort and to stabilise him. He looked at Lazlo in concern. How long exactly had it been since he had been changed? And just how long did he have left?
?...DW…?
"Look at these," Rose said pointing to some rough drawing on the designs. "This part at the top has been circled. Maybe what ever we're looking for is up there."
"Yeah, hold on," Martha pulled some more sheets out from behind the others. These ones were the old and updated designs for the last few floors and the mast. They looked at it for a moment. "Gotcha! Look!" Martha cried pointing to the base of the mast. Rose leaned in closer and Tallulah came to join them. "There, on the mast. Those little lines, they're new. They've added something, see?"
"Added what?" Tallulah asked.
They all looked at each other and a smile spread across each of their faces. "Dalekanium!" the all cried together. Then they burst into a fit of giggles.
"What's happening?" Frank said worryingly, appearing out of nowhere. The thought that something was wrong. Rose just looked at him and burst into fresh peals of laughter.
"We found it Frank!" Martha cried happily.
They gathered up the plans and pinned them back to the board. Keeping the ones they needed on the top. They needed to figure out what it was there for, and how they could get rid of it. Just at that moment the elevator dinged. For a dreaded second Rose thought that the Daleks had found the. Relief washed over her when the doors opened to reveal the Doctor and Lazlo.
"Doctor!" she cried in delight.
"First floor, perfumery," he said jokingly, sounding like a maid calling out 'room service'. Before anyone could say anything else, Tallulah was rushing forward.
"I never thought I'd see you again!" she cried running up to Lazlo. Lazlo, who had met her half way, embraced her.
"No stopping me," he told her.
The Doctor ran over to the bored with the others. In seconds Rose had leaped into his arms. He twirled her around and held on to her tightly as Martha began to explain.
"We worked it out," she told him. "We know what they've done. There's Dalekanium on the mast. And it's good to see you too, by the way."
"Oh, come here," he grinned. He finally let go of Rose and swept Martha up in a hug too. Suddenly behind them the elevator dinged again. The doors closed and it headed back down. He dropped Martha like a stone and rushed to stop it.
"No, no, no, no, no, no!" he cried. "See, never waste time with a hug!" He tried to sonic the elevator back up, but his attempts were fruitless. "It's a deadlock seal. I can't stop it," he said.
"Where's it going?" Martha asked.
"Right down tot the Daleks. And they're not going to leave us up here. What's the time?"
Frank looked at the clock. "11:15," both he and Rose said at the same time. Rose blinked, great, first she knew the date, now the time. What next, was she going to start reading peoples minds too? Na she was just being silly. She must have seen the clock a few seconds ago and subconsciously picked up the time. After all, she had been looking up at it every few minutes because she had been anxious about the Doctor…
"Six minutes to go," he said. "I've got to remove the Dalekanium before the gamma radiation hits."
"Gammon radiation?" Tallulah said, getting it wrong. "What the heck is that?"
He and Rose walked out to the edge and looked out at the city. The others weren't far behind.
"Oh, that's high," he said, a hint of fear in his voice. "That's very… Blimey, that's high."
"And we've got to go even higher!" Rose gasped. "That's the mast up there, look." She led him over to the ladder where he could see the mast way above them. "There's three pieces of Dalekanium at the base. We've got to get them off."
"That's not 'we', that's just 'me'," he said to her firmly.
"I'm not just going to stand here and watch you!" she protested. "Not again!"
"Rose, I promise you, I'm not leaving you behind," he told her, placing his hands on her shoulders. "I'm not even trying to protect you. You're going to have your hands full down here and they're going to need you. I'm sorry, Rose, but you've got to fight."
He pulled her to him for a moment. It was all he could do not to kiss her goodbye. He didn't want to leave her down here to fight the pig-slaves, and possibly even a Dalek. As he pulled back he saw the fear melt from her features and her eyes took on a hard, determined look. The look in her eyes almost scared him a little. She gave him a nod and he began to climb. Taking one last look back down at her he only had one thought. He would not like to be a Dalek or pig-slave right now.
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Rose watched him climb for a few more moments before heading back to the others. The Doctor would never ask her to fight if it was possible. So things must be very bad. And she was not about to let him down. There was no way that she would let anyone here be hurt. Martha, Frank, Tallulah and Lazlo would all be fine if it was the last thing she did. And more than that, no pig-slave or Dalek was going to get past her to even touch the Doctor!
Each of them grabbed some sort of weapon. A hammer, a mallet, an old bit of piping. They watched as the dial above the lift slowly went up.
"The lift's coming up!" Martha cried.
"I shoulda brought that gun," Frank muttered.
"Tallulah, stay back," Lazlo commanded. "You too Martha and Rose. If they send pig-slaves, they're trained to kill."
"The Doctor needs me to fight," Rose hissed. "I'm not going anywhere!"
"They're savages," he growled. "I should know." He attempted to push her back but to no avail. "They're trained to slit your throat with their bare teeth!"
"Then their going to need a dentist by the time I'm through with them! Better yet a morgue!" Martha blinked at her in surprise. She'd never heard sweet Rose talk that way before. Then suddenly Lazlo collapse on the floor, weighed down by his mallet.
"Lazlo! What is it?" Tallulah cried dropping to his side. Lazlo tried to get up, but failed.
"No, it's nothing," he said. "I'm fine. Just leave me." He slumped against the wall and Tallulah felt his forehead.
"Oh, Honey, you're burning up! What's wrong with you? Tell me."
"Great" Frank muttered. "One man down and we ain't even started yet."
But Rose refused to be pessimistic. She had to hold them off so the Doctor could stop them using the gamma radiation. "Hang on," she said. "Gamma radiation, gamma strike, solar flare, storm, lightning, electricity… Of course! Martha, the lightning!"
Martha looked at her as if she were insane. "What lighting?" she cried. Just then the first bolt lit up the stormy sky. It was so close that the thunder came less than a second later. "Oh… that lightning," she said weakly. Rose had already dropped her make shift weapon and was running down the other end of the room grabbing long metal pipes. "Oh, right! Frank, give us a hand!"
Soon the three of them were running back and forth setting up a sort of rail. Making sure that each pipe was connected and raised off the ground.
"Aw, you'll be alright, sweetheart," Tallulah soothed Lazlo, brushing his hair from his face. "Don't you worry." She turned to look that the other tree rushing about. "What the hell are you clowns doing?"
"Even if the Doctor stop the Dalekanium, this place is still gonna get hit," Rose shouted. "Great big bolt of lighting, electricity all down this building. Connect this to the lift and they get zapped!"
"Who's sounding like the Doctor now?" Martha laughed at her.
"Oh my god, that could work," Tallulah exclaimed.
"Then give us a hand," Frank said in annoyance.
The four of them made fast work of it and soon Rose was fitting the last bit in place.
"Is that going to work?" Tallulah asked.
"It's got to," Martha said.
"I've got it all piped up to the scaffolding outside," Frank said running back in.
"Okay, come here," Rose called to them all. They all huddled around the pillar, crouching low. "Frank sit in the middle and try not to touch anything metal," she said. There was a small clanging as one of the chairs holding the pipes up collapsed. Rose jumped up and ran to fix them.
"Rose!" Martha cried in alarm.
"Stay there!" she shouted. She had just fixed the pipes back in place when the lift door dinged open. A bunch of pig-slaves stared out that them. Rose made to run back to the others. She was halfway back when the lightening hit. The sky lit up in a brilliant white and blue flash. The noise was deafening as the thunder echoed around them. The electric current ran along the piping and hit the pig-slaves with full force. They shook and began to fall.
But one small tiny bolt jumped out from the pipes, seeking more metal. It latched on to the nearest thing, Rose's earring. Rose screamed as the electricity coursed through her, her shriek echoing off the walls along with the thunder and another distant scream. She dropped to the ground shaking too. Martha screamed and Frank called out her name. But she lay silent on the ground, unmoving.
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Martha made to run over to Rose, but sensibly Frank held her back until he was sure the lighting strike was over. Then he let her up and they both ran over. Martha checked her pulse and to see if she was breathing. Her heart rate was elevated but other than that she was fine.
"Rose!" she called to her hoping she would wake up. "Rose, please be okay! Come on, the Doctor needs you!"
At that Rose's eyes snapped wide open and she sat up with a loud gasp for breath. Frank and Martha gasped and shuffled back in alarm. Something was not right. That couldn't be natural. Rose shouldn't have been able to recover from that so fast. She shouldn't be able to lift herself off the ground on her own.
And her eyes shouldn't have been glowing gold.
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Whoooooo! New Zealand won the Rugby World Cup! It was so close 7-8! Good game France!
