Somewhere in a secret base helmed by UNIT, the TARDIS materialized somewhere in the hanger.
The door opened, and Theodore stepped out first as he glanced around, rubbing the back of his wild hair. It's not a UNIT facility that he's familiar with through his late mother, a different one, more modern.
Behind him, Lila stepped out, tugging on her long maroon sleeves before closing the door behind her. When she turned around, she glimpsed around, asking Theodore if they're in the right area. Cold steel and gray, far cry from what Theodore described a UNIT facility.
Recalling the message, he received, Theodore replied that he's sure this is the place. Off as it looked to him, he sees the UNIT emblem in the cold steel wall adjacent from them.
"Just makin' sure I don't have to save you from overly excited scientists wanting to see how your insides work," Lila made a point to bring up a chance they're not helping with scientific inquiries and instead Theodore booming one himself.
He assured her as they walked away from the TARDIS that he double checked before accepting the message, getting dissected wasn't in the itinerary, and if they tried, they'll hear from Hammond.
If Hammond hears so much a scalpel pricking Theodore's skin, he'll never hear the end of it, Hammond already wants to keep Theodore on a tighter lead due to the abundance of danger he and Lila faced during the course of their misfortune as the Doctor-Companion duo.
Walking through the hanger, their footsteps echoed as they walked past the UNIT vehicles towards the lift.
His hands in his stitched pockets, Theodore stood by the lift with Lila as they waited by it, and stepped inside once the lift door slid open. Briefly, they felt a jolt as the lift activated, sending them up to the first floor of the UNIT building, and when the lift stopped, the lift door slid open. Outside waiting, there's a man waiting for them, wearing the signatures drab green UNIT uniform, modernized for the decade, wielding his issued weapon. His bright green eyes locked with Theodore's icy blue eyes as he ordered them to raise their hands. Theodore and Lila held their hands up without question as they saw the business end of the MP5 pointing at them.
The UNIT officer demanded to know their names and business; Theodore gave his introduction as the Doctor before Lila gave her name. Theodore told the man, UNIT sent for him, and they're expected by Commander Ryan.
Studying them, the man briefly lowered his MP5 from them as he responded that Commander Ryan's busied elsewhere.
They'll have to wait for him in the holding area until he returns. No exceptions.
Nodding, Theodore agreed to follow Evans with Lila trailing behind him, her loose velvet jacket fluttering in the breeze.
As they walked, the two sees the armed guards stationed at various points, looking at them wearily, as they followed Evans towards a room. He opened the door for them and they filed in, before he closed the door behind them, and there's armed guards standing by it.
"I thought you said they were a lively bunch," Lila remarked as she studied the holding area they're held in until Commander Ryan came for them. There's a two-way mirror that's surely monitored and cameras pointing at them from all angles, making sure they can't do anything untoward, and with the security guards outside with their MP5s, they're stuck there.
Theodore replied that things might've changed since his mother left the organization and his grandfather passed away, everything's different from what he remembered from his parents.
"Well, if all fails, you think the psychic paper, whatever, fools them?" Lila asked if they have to use it, could they use David's psychic paper he left in the TARDIS for use, and Theodore replied that they might, since he doesn't think everything changed in UNIT. Lila caught the tone of voice shifting and Theodore admitted he isn't sure what to expect since UNIT's different.
They waited patiently and eventually the only door opened with a man entering, having decorated badges showing his rank, and his drab UNIT outfit fitting for a commander.
"Doctor?" Commander Ryan called out to Theodore.
Theodore stepped forward and responded, "Commander Ryan, I presume?"
Nodding, Commander Ryan turned around and led the two outside the holding area, taking them to his office, and on their way, they passed the armed security guards. There's a locked corridor leading into the high security clearance areas at the end of the hallway, guarded by two security guards on opposite sides.
Upon arriving at it, Commander Ryan scanned his iris, his fingers, and his badge in the scanner next to the locked corridor, it opened, and the security guards moved aside as he walked through the opened doorway with Theodore and Lila behind him.
The air's frigid, enough to give Theodore and Lila chicken skin as they walked with Commander Ryan, the hallway's silent with the only sounds coming from the mechanic rotaries in the security cameras positioned on every corner, and then it shifted into wide glass windows peering into high security areas.
Lila sees different areas with one the weapons department, there's a man loading weapons onto a rack as another held a clipboard, and on their walk, she sees the clinic where there's a few soldiers receiving treatment for hurting their hands on an assignment.
"In here," Commander Ryan tells the two as he stood in front of the door leading into his office. They waited as he opened it, entering after he disappeared inside. Upon entering, he asked for them to close the door, and they did, when they turned around, they see his office overlooked areas within the section as he sat at his desk.
A sigh comes from as Theodore and Lila took their seat in front of him as he folded his hands over each other.
"What did you call us for, Commander?" Lila asked the weary commander as he settled in his spot.
The commander's rigid face made it hard for her to read him, but his eyes tell her that he's confused and unsure of what to say to them, Theodore sensed his concerns, and asked if there's anything wrong.
His neatly combed blond hair moving stiffly as he shook his head, the commander replied that he's not sure if he's even able to explain it. Not that he's having security issues, but just finding words to explain his concerns.
"About a few days ago, we had a terrible storm, shut our power grid down for twelve hours. Once it cleared up, we restored the power grid to full capacity. Since it happened, we've been noticing unusual activities happening only at night into early morning. Two nights ago, we noticed someone wandering around the fields. We attempted to arrest him, but he maimed and killed three of my best men before we finally tranquilized him. Since, he's been in a coma for four days now," Commander Ryan tells them about the bizarre things that happened during a short period. He's unsure what to describe the unknown male that they arrested for trespassing, but that's where Theodore and Lila came in
Lila asked for an elaboration on the trespasser and Commander Ryan replied that he can't quite describe him, that he's sure whatever this man is, he isn't human.
"An alien?" Theodore raised his brow as he wanted to help jog something in Commander Ryan's mind, but the commander shook his head, as scientists in UNIT tested the drawn blood from the unknown male. It came back negative. It's human, but not much.
Raising his brow, Theodore recoiled as the commander said this, confirming with a nod, that this unknown male wasn't an alien. He's not even sure what to call him, how, or what to even do.
"Did he say anything to you, at all?" Lila asked.
A frown showed on the commander's face as he uncomfortably said that part of the unusual activities they noticed going on at night, they heard raspy whispers somewhere behind the metal fencing that surrounded the building. Some guards claimed they heard other guards in the raspy whispers, telling them to leave their posts.
"He mimics. I never heard him say anything," Commander Ryan looked at them with confusion behind his baby blue eyes as he described how the unknown male mimicked the security guards, trying to get them to follow it.
The security guards thought it was a prank and the raspy whispers stopped, shortly before the murder of a security guard that disappeared from his post. He'd suffered bad luck from food poisoning and a head cold, that the commander approved of him leaving his post to return to the sick bay. When he didn't return, the other security guards looked for him, saw what remained of him, and that's when they found the unknown male seemingly wandering in the darkness.
Briefly looking at each other, Theodore and Lila shared silent words before they turned back to Commander Ryan and Theodore asked, "Where did he come from?"
The commander couldn't tell him, he wasn't sure where this unknown male came from. The parameter heavily monitored, if someone so much as stepped on a blade of grass, he'd know about it in seconds. The unknown male seemingly showed up out of nowhere.
Nothing on the scanners, nothing from the towers dotting the fields, he just showed up, and then lead into another problem.
"He's a threat, that much apparent, I can't do anything because the admiral doesn't want to do anything hastily. As much as it pains me, I have to agree with him, we don't know anything about this unknown male, and we don't know if there's more of them," the commander wearily tells Theodore that he's requested because if there's anything unusual and bizarre, the Doctor's sure to know the answer.
The commander and the admiral can't do anything with the unknown male until they're absolutely sure of their options, due to the nature of this, they can't say much to anyone outside their small circle. It's already hell with the deaths of the men trying to apprehend the unknown male, they don't want any more.
"If you ask me, this is a bad omen," Commander Ryan gestured with one hand as he kept the other firmly on the desk as he's convinced the appearance of the unknown male's an omen.
Curious, Theodore asked to see the unknown male, and the commander nodded, he stood up from his desk, and led him and Lila out of the office towards the deeper parts of the high security clearance area. On their way, Commander Ryan said that they've been monitoring the unknown male's vitals, and so far, he's steady.
"You think he'll come out of that coma?" Lila asked the commander about the possibility and the commander turned his head towards her as he said that he's sure that the unknown male won't come out of the coma for a while. The number of tranquilizers they pumped him with were enough to ground four adult elephants. Somehow, he survived and now he's held in a secure area while they study him until they decide his fate.
Arriving the research area, Commander Ryan scanned himself, before the door opened, and he led Theodore and Lila inside where there's a short scientist holding a clipboard. Large glasses and a small face, mole eyes, Lila called him Radar.
"Oh, hello commander," the scientist greeted the commander as he sounded congested.
The commander greeted back and asked for the status of the unknown male, the scientist, Isaac, gave the status as steady.
"Isaac, this is the Doctor and his companion, they're going to help us conclude what to do with him," Commander Ryan tells him.
Studying them, Isaac blinked as he nodded, turning around as he led them through another set of doors that opened automatically, and into a heavily sterilized room with IV machines hook up to a something with a protruding section, lying on the table, strapped, and covered with a medical grade sheet.
"He's approximately fifty-six years old, we managed to gauge his age," Isaac tells them that they identified the unknown male's age. It led the commander to remark that he didn't fight like a fifty-six-year-old, but Isaac affirmed they concluded his age about an hour ago.
Walking towards the table, Theodore and Lila began smelling something horrid, like death, and Isaac confirmed that the unknown male exuded a potent musk. He's fortunate that he can't smell it since he's congested.
Isaac told them where the head is and it led Theodore and Lila towards the protruding part of the sheet. Theodore took charge as he held out his large hands and carefully took part of the sheet, rolling it back gently, and exposed blackness underneath which Isaac said is hair dyed from repeated contacted by the blackened sweat and environment.
As he pulled back the sheet slowly, Theodore sees the top half of his face, it's black with thick lines, dry, and Isaac said his skin blackened from the sweat, too.
Pulling down towards his nose, Theodore realized that it's becoming wide, wider, and spotted that it's blackened, thicker than a normal nose, until he finally pulled the sheet off...
"W-what the hell's this thing?" Lila recoiled as she sees the long black beak pointing up on the table as Theodore hobbled away from the scene, as he's in shock at the sight.
Coming towards them with his clipboard, Isaac stated that the unknown male's body slowly morphed from a human male to an unknown. It took months before the body stopped morphing, it even morphed bones that became wings, he did a scan of the bones just to be sure.
Theodore retracted as he exhaled, "Wings?"
Nodding, Isaac went over to the table and pulled the sheet down, exposing the blackened body of the unknown male, heavily ruffled from the sheet, and Isaac pointed at the blackness underneath, that were the wings.
"Humans... humans can't become this... naturally... right, how'd he become this?" Lila can't comprehend the sight as Isaac showed them the unknown male completely and she saw the bird-like feet, large and wide with talons that replaced his toes and nails.
Commander Ryan stepped forward as he said that they're unsure how the unknown male became like this, that's why they asked for the Doctor's assistance in the matter. They needed to know if they're at risk.
"Did he mutate?" Theodore gestures towards Isaac as the scientist meekly looks through his clipboard. As he flipped through the pages, Isaac replied that they didn't find any indicators showing that the unknown male mutated, not with the conventional means they're familiar with. No sign of radiation or other, they're unsure.
As Theodore talked with Isaac about what they discovered with the unknown male, Lila studied him as she's unable to comprehend what she's seeing. The unknown male's roughly 8ft tall, exudes what amounted as black sweat that's thick enough to categorize as mucus, and as Lila studied it, it looked like a plague doctor. Confirmed by Isaac that when they brought the unknown male here, he sculpted parts of his elongated hair on his head into a wide brimmed hat, which Isaac suspected as why they never found him in the day, only at night, he doesn't like lights.
"He only came out at night," the commander confirmed that the unknown male showed high aversion to any sort of light source, that the only reason they found him's because they checked an area near the airfield with storage sheds for parts. He broke inside one of them and hid inside it and rather apprehending him at once, they set up parameters around the shed until the following night where they witnessed the unknown male emerging from the shed. Patiently, UNIT waited, and developed the schedule of the unknown male. The shed fully enclosed without any sort of windows, he still knew when it was night, and he always returned to it at precisely 0400 hours.
"So, how's he survived this long?" Lila asks what the unknown male's eaten since he arrived at the UNIT base, since she doubted, he liked the taste of airplane parts.
Shrugging, Isaac responded that he doesn't know what the unknown male ate. Nobody reported any break-ins at the other storage areas where they kept MREs.
Frowning, Lila's chestnut eyes moved to look at the unknown male as the monitors kept watchful eyes on his vitals, as she looked, she saw his hands. They're large, blackened as the rest of the body, and all five fingers had long talons at the end of them where the nails should've been.
Isaac warned them not to touch the hands as he said that the guards attempting to apprehend the unknown male saw firsthand. The unknown male didn't only horribly gore them, it injected toxins into them when he stabbed them with his talons.
"W-what are you talking about, toxins?" Lila raised a finger as she wanted to know more about this and Isaac stated that they found that the unknown male's capable of producing toxins that reside in the talons on his hands. He likened it similarly how venomous animals' function. Except without the biting.
"Fascinatingly, we discovered he hadn't produced any more toxins," Isaac interjected with something they found out about the unknown male. Since they kept him here, the toxins haven't rejuvenated in the talons. It's baffling them as animals recovered their venom in a timely matter after use, but not the unknown male and his toxins.
Concerned, Lila asked what extent of the toxins do to somebody exposed and Isaac grew uncomfortably quiet as he looked towards Commander Ryan for guidance.
Eyes on him, Commander Ryan wearily motioned with his hand for Isaac to continue, and Isaac says that the toxins were a hodgepodge that they can't even describe. It's a cocktail of neurotoxins, toxoplasma, many more, and they're unsure how the unknown male produces the toxins in the first place. They're aren't even sure how he survived this long due to the severity of the toxins.
The effects they have on the guards attempting to apprehend him, Isaac couldn't even describe without choking up with vomit as the memories flooded back as he remembered the sight of the poor bastards who ended up injected by the talons after the unknown male gutted them. Their screaming and wailing loud enough that everyone in UNIT heard them. It was mercy when Commander Ryan had them euthanized due to the extent of the toxins killing them.
"And you left this thing alive?" Lila balked at the thought UNIT willingly allowed this dangerous being in their base alive, but the commander reminded her that they needed to consider every option before hastily executing the unknown male.
As he put it, he has a bad feeling about the unknown male, that if they try to kill it, something worse would happen in its place.