Jade brought the group to her laboratory. Nella's attention was quickly distracted by the number of spiders in cages. Rikou seemed to be attempting to maintain some semblance of seriousness, though the Singer noted how he kept glancing after his sister.
Something buzzed on Rikou, making him pull out a phone and read something. The Singer suddenly wondered how many friends the twins had throughout the universe. She'd tried to introduce them to other children when she'd had them for those years, but she'd never felt she'd truly succeeded in getting them to connect with anyone.
Had the Master managed it? The Master, who'd run around the Academy with his nine friends and quite a bit of attention from the professors, taught her children more about actual friendship than the Singer ever would be able to? After all, she'd barely had two friends for most of her life. The Master, even if it was manipulation, knew how to make people like him.
The twins had had so much life that the Singer would never be able to know.
"We reckon there could be around 21 quadrillion spiders on the planet in total," Jade said.
The Doctor turned away from one of the spider specimens. "So what sort of research are you doing in here?"
"We're interested in utilizing the genetic strengths of arachnids. Ordinary spider silk is as strong as steel or as tough as Kevlar."
Graham shook his head. "That still don't make me like them."
"Ooo, fun fact, if you weave dragline spider silk as thick as a pencil, it's strong enough to stop a plane in flight," the Doctor said.
"You're kidding."
The Doctor grinned. "I'm not. I've had to deal with it. Well," she shrugged, "me and Amelia Earhart. You'd like her, she's a right laugh."
The Singer crossed her arms. "Yes, back on topic, what else are you doing here?"
"I've been working on an enzyme to increase the lifespan. Spiders can keep growing for as long as they live."
Ryan's eyes widened. "That spider in Anna's flat was way bigger than a normal household spider."
Jade nodded. "Yeah."
Nella poked the glass of an enclosure. "Did Anna have access to these?" The Singer wondered how much Nella restricted her own ability to see the future in order to continue having fun. Knowing exactly how everything was going to turn out must get incredibly boring eventually.
When she'd been younger, Nella hadn't been able to turn it off, though she'd quickly grasped that it wasn't something she should share with people. Given how excited Nella was about the mystery surrounding this entire encounter, the Singer was fairly certain she didn't have any more of an idea about what was going to happen than the rest of them.
Except for, apparently, something that had to do with a purple couch.
Jade shook her head at Nella. "No, she was on the admin team. Everything we do here is secure. We discard all carcasses responsibly through a specialist company. Unless she was taking things without us knowing, but..." Jade shook her head, "she's not that kind of person. I should notify the police."
The Doctor stepped closer to the human, coming beside the Singer. "What was it you wanted to show us?"
"Good to see you're finally deciding to focus," the Singer mumbled.
Jade glanced between them. "Reports of unusual spider activity in Sheffield over the last three months, from the police, pest controllers, and to us here." She turned over a whiteboard, showing them a map of Sheffield covered in pins. "Rare sightings, an increase in numbers, spiders you don't normally see at this time of year."
"Something's wrong with the spider ecosystem in South Yorkshire," the Doctor nodded.
"Exactly," Jade said. "But we don't know what. They have nothing in common. Different species, different quantities. Some are large massings, some have a profusion of web-building. I can't work out if they're confused, or angry, or scared."
"Or trying to send a message," Rikou said, coming up to the Doctor's side with a marker in hand. They exchanged a look, something distrusting but desperate for approval, before the Doctor took the marker and started to draw on the map. She made a mess connecting all of the dots to each other, but eventually the lines clearly circled one area of the map, leaving it free.
"Where's that?" the Doctor said, pointing with her marker.
To the Singer's surprise, the Doctor turned to look at the twins, as though she hoped one of them would have the answer. It took Nella a moment to respond, the girl still bent looking at one of the spiders. "Yasmin's mum."
Rikou nodded, finishing translating for his twin. "The hotel, where she works. Robertson Luxury Hotels."
The Singer was quite proud of her children.
-X-
The group met Yasmin and her mother in the reception of the recently built hotel, though the reunion was quickly cut short by the nearby screams and gunshots. The twins had their guns out and were running in that direction in the next breath.
They found the man likely responsible just as he rushed out of one of the hotel rooms, breathing hard and wide-eyed.
The Doctor flashed her psychic paper at him. "Crisis investigators. You just ran really quickly out of a room looking really scared. Tell me exactly what's going on, omitting no detail, no matter how strange."
"A giant spider just smashed through my bathtub and took out my bodyguard, Kevin."
The Doctor blinked. "Right. Very succinct summary. Well done. You just wait here with my...people," she gestured back at the humans. "A spider smashed through a bath. Right." She went into the room the man had come from, with Nella following.
Rikou came to the Singer's side. "She was very restrained about her love of spiders before today," he said, seeming annoyed. "I told her something was happening with spiders. She wasn't at all excited."
"Speaking as a little sister, you should expect nothing else." After all, Nella had been born a few minutes after Rikou. She smiled at her son just as the Doctor and Nella reappeared, eyes wide with very similar excitement.
"Did you see it?" the man asked. "Did you find him? Where's Kevin?"
"We need to move out of this area, quick," the Doctor almost waved the rest of them back down the hallway. "It's too dark, too deserted. Spiders love that. We need to go somewhere bright and busy."
"No, no, no, no, no," the man shook his head fervently. "We need to get as far away from that thing as possible."
"I'm with him," Ryan pointed at him.
"I know the way out," Yasmin's mother said.
"Everyone, follow Yaz's mum."
"It's Najia," she said, as they started to run.
By the time they reached the entrance, the entire front of the hotel was covered in cobwebs, so thick it almost blocked out the light.
"We just came in that way," Yasmin said. "How have they done so many webs so fast?"
"Never mind that," the man said, "let's just get through them."
The Doctor began scanning the webs, while Rikou went up to begin to poke them, weighing his vaporizer in his other hand.
"No, this can't be happening," the man shook his head. "This is a protest. One of those eco-protests, huh? This isn't spiders. Spiders can't do that."
"These spiders can." The Doctor shook her head, stepping back from the wall. "Those aren't normal cobwebs. They know we're here and they're trying to seal us in."
"They're trying to make the whole hotel their web," Jade gasped.
"And we're the flies," the Doctor nodded. "We're not leaving. We have to find out why they're here and stop them getting any further. We need to find a safe haven. Yaz's mum?" she turned to the woman.
"Kitchen?"
Nella nodded to her. "Much simpler if you lead."
-X-
The Doctor spread her arms once they reached the kitchen, nodding at the bright light. "Ah, good. This'll do. Okay, thinking." She began to pace. "Need to be quick, spiders are moving fast. Why is this hotel the epicenter of spider activity?"
"Wait!" the man ordered, holding out a hand. "Nobody talk until you tell me what you're all doing here. Spiders. Plural?"
"Very plural," Nella said.
The Singer turned to face him. She had barely heard him speak, and already she was truly understanding this regeneration did not like men like him. "Excuse me, I don't know who you are."
He scoffed. "Oh, really? Cos you must be the only person on the planet that doesn't."
She didn't move. "Name. Now."
"I am Jack Robertson and this is my hotel. Just one hotel in an incredibly successful chain of hotels, which is just one small part of my business portfolio, as featured in Fortune Global 500. Does that ring a bell?"
"All I asked for was your name." The Singer crossed her arms. "Any other minor accomplishments you would like to fling at us in a desperate attempt to impress people who really don't care?" She narrowed her eyes at him, using a glare that she had honed both on her brother and her spouse.
Robertson opened his mouth again, but could only sputter. Rikou let out a low whistle for his mother.
The Singer turned away from Robertson, her gaze falling on the Doctor, who looked a mixture of impressed and concerned. "Plan, Doctor?"
The Doctor coughed, refocusing. "Right. Right, we need two things. Plans of the hotel and a captive spider."
Nella grinned. "I'm getting the spider."
-X-
In the end, both twins went to catch one of the spiders, dragging along Graham and Ryan in order to "have more options". The humans looked very uncomfortable with the concept, but they still followed the twins.
The rest of them went to the main office to look at the plans. Najia gave the Doctor a large envelope nearly overflowing with building designs. "Now, hotel plans," the Doctor said, spreading out the papers. "Let's see."
"Have there been any other issues with spiders before today?" the Singer asked Najia. "Here or at home?"
Najia blinked. "My home?"
"A neighbor of yours had a...spider problem."
"I knew it," Robertson said, glaring at her. "And I'm going to litigate you until your last breath, Nadia." When the Singer coughed, he froze again, though it did not quite cut him down as much as before.
"It's Najia," she snapped back. "And I've done nothing."
The Doctor glanced at her. "Are you sure?"
Najia shook her head. "Sorry, but who are you? How'd you know my daughter? Why have I never met any of you before?"
Yasmin groaned. "Oh, not now."
"Yes, now. It's not a difficult question."
The Doctor shrugged. "It is a bit of a long answer."
"Well, I've got time."
"But I haven't. Not right now."
Najia's gaze trailed on the three rings the Singer still wore before settling on looking between the Doctor and Yasmin. "Are you two seeing each other?"
The Doctor flicked to another paper. "I don't think so. Are we?"
"We're friends."
The Doctor nodded. "Hmm."
"I owe the Doctor and her family my life, quite a few times over," Yasmin nodded to the Singer then.
Najia shook her head. "What's that even supposed to mean?"
"Please can we not have this conversation now? And not in front of him." Yasmin gestured to Robertson.
He held up his hands. "Oh, I'm enjoying this."
The Doctor straightened from the plans. "How long did it take you to build this hotel?"
"Five years. We have fifteen of these hotels throughout the world now. Repurposing former industrial sites into luxury leisure venues."
"Repurposing?" the Doctor frowned. "What was the site before?"
"I don't have..." Robertson cleared his throat, "clarity on that."
Najia held up a hand. "I do. Coal mines. This was mining land."
The Doctor looked between Yasmin and the Singer. "I think we should take a closer look, don't you?"
The Singer hoped the twins were suitably entertained by catching mutant spiders.
A/N: Could not resist having the Singer get more than a little snappy at Robertson. Quite done with men like him after so long dealing with the Master and the Doctor!
