Part Two:

Time slowed down for Detective Jo Martinez as she watched the beam of light grow closer and all of her senses heightened. She could smell the very air being singed by the white-hot bolt of energy; she could feel the heat and electricity that it created; some sort of static discharge.

She was a cop; trained for life or death situations like this. But cop or no cop, she was still human and she was in a state of shock. As such, instead of taking immediate evasive action, she froze for a whole second before her instincts kicked in. And in a situation such as that, one second could quite literally mean the difference between life and death.

Even as she shifted her weight onto her left leg, preparing to spring herself out of the course of danger, she knew that she had taken too long to react. She knew that she was going to be hit by whatever that thing was. That was alright though, she readied herself for that; made peace with it. It was an inevitability and she accepted it. What really mattered was what she would do next.

She leaned further into her left leg, building up as much tension as possible, so that she could get a good jump, all the while bracing herself.

But then, something unexpected happened. She felt a great force crash into her right-hand side, propelling her through the air.

She turned her head as she flew and saw Henry, bent over with his arms out; he'd pushed her out of the way.

Time sped up again and she crashed to the floor in an awkward pile, which drove the wind from her lungs. Behind her she heard the low crackling sound of the energy beam as it struck something, followed by a scream.

The Doctor looked on in shock as he saw Dr. Morgan struck by the Dalek's energy blast. There was nothing he could do for him.

But what came next shocked him even more.

Instead of collapsing to the ground as a lifeless heap, Dr. Morgan simply...vanished.

That's right, there was a blinding white light that The Doctor had to shield his eyes from and then Dr. Morgan was gone. All that remained of him was his silver pocket-watch.

Even the Dalek seemed surprised.

"What trickery is this?" it screeched.

"What did you do to him?" asked The Doctor, equal parts confused and angry. He picked up the watch and examined it, turning it over and holding it up to the light.

"Henry!" bellowed Jo as she scrambled back to her feet. She looked in disbelief at where Henry had been standing a moment before, then pulled out her gun and fired three rounds at the Dalek in short succession.

"No, Jo, wait!" called The Doctor.

He cringed a little as he watched the bullets hit the force-field that surrounded the Dalek's shell and just dissolved.

Jo just stared in disbelief.

"Jo, run!" yelled The Doctor.

Jo knew when to admit that she was out of her league, so she heeded The Doctor's advice and ran for the door in a zigzag pattern so as to make herself less of a target.

The Doctor made to follow her, but then something caught his attention. The Dalek's eyestalk and gun arm were both drooping down, like they were struggling to stay up.

"Hang on," he said, approaching the Dalek with caution, "what's wrong with you?"

"Stay back or you shall be exterminated!"

"Nah," said The Doctor, "I don't think so. You look pretty well knackered. Unless I'm very much mistaken, I'd say that you've almost depleted your power supply. What's the matter, solar cells not recharging as well as they used to?" He noted the condition of the plates that surrounded the Dalek's midsection. "No, they don't look very good at all, do they?"

The Doctor took a few cautious steps towards the Dalek, his hands raised slightly in a placating manner.

"Halt!"

"What happened to you?" asked The Doctor, ignoring the Dalek's command. "And why are you running around killing homeless people? That doesn't sound like much of a grand Dalek plan to me. Did he find you, is that it? Just some poor, lost soul who made the fatal mistake of taking shelter in the same place where one beaten, battered and altogether pathetic Dalek was hiding?" The Doctor's words were becoming increasingly venomous.

"Daleks do not hide!"screeched the Dalek, its case rocking with its fury.

"Oh, really? What do you call this, then?" The Doctor spread his arms out, indicating their dilapidated surroundings. He was right in front of the Dalek now. "Tell me, how did you get here and what are you up to?"

The Dalek's eyestalk swivelled a little, grinding as it did, to fix The Doctor with its cold, blue gaze. "We fell from the War! We must return to the War!"

The Doctor cocked his head, "What war?"


The stairs rang out with their metal clangs as Jo raced down them with her gun still drawn. Hansen and Lucy both looked up at her in shock.

"Jo, what's going on?" called Hansen.

"There's something in there," she replied as she reached the bottom of the stairs, looking back up at the door, "some sort of drone or, or robot or something. Definitely a military-grade prototype of some sort; uses weapons like nothing I've ever seen before." She sounded rattled, even panicked, which was highly unusual for Jo.

"Wait, you talking about this ray gun thing?" asked Hansen, dubious.

"Yeah," said Jo, her eyes wide. "I don't know how else to describe it – it was like this dome-headed robot and it looked kind of hokey, with a sink-plunger sticking out the front-"

"Sink plunger?" said Lucy, her eyes bulging. "Did you say sink plunger?"

"Yeah, but it shot a blast of, I don't know, this white light, like it was pure energy or something; I don't know!"

"Alright, Jo, calm down," said Hansen, griping her shoulders. "Now, where's Henry?"

The little colour that had remained in Jo's face drained away. "He, he's gone. He saved me; pushed me aside, but he got hit by that energy blast or whatever it was."

"What about The Doctor?" said Lucy, looking nearly as pale as Jo. "Is The Doctor alright?"

Jo gasped and turned around, seeing nothing but the empty staircase. "He was supposed to be right behind me," she said; her voice barely a whisper.


Dr. Henry Morgan gasped as he breached the surface of the Hudson River, rising up out of the water to just below his chest, before sinking back down again, like a whale calf taking its first breath. He immediately began treading water and tried to catch his breath; the routine all too familiar to him.

The water was a little choppy, but relatively smooth. He fought to keep his head up, trying to keep the less than pure water from entering his mouth. He could still feel the phantom pain of the energy blast burning into his skin and it took a moment for him to calm down and gather himself.

Energy blast, he thought, that's a new one. I'll have to make a note on that later.

He looked around and saw a few small vessels scattered around in the distance, but he was pleased to see that the river wasn't very crowded. The downside to his immortality was that whenever he died, he always returned in a nearby body of water. And he was always completely naked.

He had several theories about why this was the case; perhaps it was because his original death had occurred in the ocean or maybe it was some sort of symbol of rebirth. All he knew for sure, though, was that it was a cause of much strife and embarrassment.

He turned his head around, looking for the shortest and most discrete route to dry land, shivering as a fresh breeze whipped up. He spotted a suitable area and took a breath, plunging face-down into the water and beginning the arduous swim back to dry land. He only hoped that Jo and the others were OK.

And that the swim would warm him up a bit.


"You definitely said, 'sink plunger'," said Lucy, frantically.

"Well, that's what it looked like," said Jo.

"Daleks," snarled Lucy, "why is it always those bleedin' Daleks?"

"Wait, you know what that thing is?" asked Jo in disbelief.

Lucy ignored her and turned for the stairs, "I've gotta help The Doctor!"

"Lucy, wait!" called Jo. She was going to run after her, but Hansen suddenly grabbed her arm. He had just finished calling in about the unfolding situation.

"Jo, wait, dispatch is sending over a S.W.A.T team, we're under orders not to move until they arrive."

"What, so we just let her get herself killed?" argued Jo.

Hansen swallowed hard. "Look Jo, we've got no idea what's going on here; we're in over our heads. There's no sense in you getting yourself killed."

Jo could see the sense in Hansen's argument. She knew that he didn't like sitting on the sidelines any more than she did. She also knew that he had a family to think about. But she didn't - not anymore.

"Stay here and wait for the S.W.A.T," she told him, reloading her gun. "If I'm not back in five minutes then assume I'm out of action." Without another word she ran up the stairs after Lucy.

Hansen groaned and turned on the spot, running a hand through his hair.

"For God's sake, be careful," he called after her.


"A Time War?" repeated The Doctor in disbelief. "The Daleks are fighting a Time War? With whom? Certainly not the Movellans. Or is it another civil war?" he speculated. "Yes, I could imagine that – two factions of Daleks spreading carnage across all eternity, laying waste to everything, all just to prove who was the more fashionable casing, no doubt."

"You mock us Doctor, but you would find the truth infinitely more disturbing."

The Doctor scoffed. "I find everything about you disturbing. You know what? Don't tell me, I don't want to know. I expect I'll find out soon enough anyway."

Suddenly The Doctor was struck with a horrible realisation. The Dalek had said something a moment ago, something truly horrifying, but he'd focused on the wrong part of the sentence; he'd been distracted by the grander aspect and failed to notice the more immediate danger.

"What did you mean by 'We'?"

Suddenly he heard the clamouring of footsteps on the metal staircase and turned just in time to see Lucie come through the door, followed by Jo not long after.

"Lucie, what are you doing?" he bellowed, "Jo, get her out of here!"

His attention was drawn back to the Dalek as he heard more noises coming from the darkness. His hearts each skipped a beat as he saw two more Daleks emerging from the shadows, one on either side of the original and all in much the same condition.

"Run, now!" he yelled as he turned and bolted for the door.

"Exterminate!"

"Exterminate!"

The Doctor felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end as a sizzling blast of white-hot energy narrowly missed his head and burned itself into the wall, just by the doorway.

This elicited a short shriek from Lucie, who called, "Leg it!" to Jo, before they both disappeared back down the stairs.

The Doctor made it through the door and hooked a sharp left, just as another blast came flying after him and struck the side of a brick building on the other side of the courtyard.

He went to run down the stairs, but then stopped himself and turned back.

"Doctor, what the bleedin' Hell are you doin'?" yelled Lucie.

The Doctor leaned in and grabbed the handle of the old, rusted metal door and froze for a moment as he saw the three Daleks slowly trundling towards him, screeching their battle cries all the way.

The Doctor frowned in fierce defiance and pulled the door shut, his arms shaking as a blast hit the other side of the door; their discharges were getting weaker.

He pulled out the sonic screwdriver and made some adjustments so that it could be used as a sonic lance. Then, he began tracing the device around the edges of the door, melting the metal and then cooling it, sealing the door shut.

He heard and felt the occasional energy blast strike the door, but they were mostly ineffective now. The Daleks would need to do some serious recharging if they wanted to get back to full capacity. Still, The Doctor didn't want to take any chances.

He finished the job by melting the area around the door handle and then raced back down the stairs.


Henry felt a wave of relief wash over him as he saw Abe's car pull up at their rendezvous point. Fortunately, he'd managed to use an out of the way pay phone to make the arrangements and had been able to hide in some bushes while he waited, without being discovered.

Grown men caught naked and hiding in the bushes weren't usually treated with much more understanding than those caught swimming naked in a public river.

Abe got out of the car and looked around, fortunately spying Henry's waving arm. He retrieved a towel from the car and rushed other as quickly as possible, throwing it over his shoulders and rushing him to the car.

"So, what happened this time?" asked Abe, equal parts concerned and bemused. It was, after all, a fairly standard routine for them.

"I don't know," said Henry, rubbing the towel through his damp hair. "It was unlike anything I've ever seen. All I know is that I need to get back to Jo – she's in grave danger."

"OK," said Abe," as they entered the flow of traffic, "but first things first, we need to get you some pants."