"Do wooden stakes really work Doctor?" Jack asked as he nimbly dodged an attack from one of the vampire group.
"Yes. In fact, anything that can be used to destroy the necrotised tissue around the heart is an effective weapon."
"So, we go for the heart then?" Rose shouted as a vampire lunged at her, and found itself impaled on a large branch that Rose had picked off the ground. The vampire turned, first into a ball of cold flame, then to dust. Rose had seen enough episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to know what to expect. She wiped the dust from her eyes and turned to face her next attacker. There wasn't one. "Where'd they go?"
"It's probably been a while, if ever, since they saw one of their own destroyed like that Rose, I think you've scared them off." The Doctor smiled at Rose, as a ragged cheer went up from the crowd of newly freed natives.
"You destroyed one of Her overlords? Truly you are powerful." Androsa spoke from his position in the undergrowth. "Perhaps," he added as he got to his feet, "We can drive these creatures off of our world. We can finally be free."
"That's the general idea Androsa." The Doctor smiled wryly as the beleagured scientist seemed to grow stronger from the knowledge that the creatures that had enslaved his world for so long, could be killed. He was not alone.
"We can fight them? We can win!" The words spread through the group of ex slaves like fire through a dry bush. The possibility of victory, of freedom for their entire race, put a fire in their hearts, and a determination in their souls.
They could win, against the queen's lieutenants, but the Doctor knew, only he could defeat the Queen herself. She would swat this ragtag army like fleas, and suck the life from them without so much as an afterthought.
"Have I just started a revolution here? Am I a revolutionary now?" Rose asked, looking at the band as they scrabbled around looking for makeshift weapons to use in their uprising.
"No, you're not a revolutionary Rose, you don't have the moustache for it. You just pointed out a new option to them, one that they have gladly taken to heart." The Doctor replied.
"Better than nothing eh?" Rose asked. The Doctor smiled, that goofy, toothy smile that could disarm any army. Jack just laughed out loud as he got the gag about the moustache.
Elsewhere.
The blue box that was the exterior shell of the Doctor's TARDIS was now blurred, it was as though it were in constant motion. Each and every molecule was racing to be elsewhere, grass around the ship was suddenly trampled by a sudden increase in size and mass by the vehicle. It was changing shape. Quicker than it knew it should, but as quickly as it knew it needed to.
This is more than a vehicle you understand, The TARDIS is alive, in every sense of the word, no "artificial" intelligence controls it, just pure intelligence, natural, prone to moods and emotions, just like almost every other creature in the cosmos. Right now, it knew that it's owner/friend was in trouble and needed help, and it was using every resource available not to let him down. "MY Doctor..." A faint voice cried.
The citadel of the vampire Queen was just as Androsa had described. It was immense, and well guarded, high walls with portals for weapon enplacements.
"What we need, is a distraction." The Doctor said to everyone, yet nobody in particular. "Janer, you are known to the guards here? Can you get them to open the gates?"
Janer, the new leader of the free Megapolitans looked cautious. "It is possible, but also they may have been alerted that we are no longer under the Queen's control."
"Quite right. Good point." The Doctor began to rethink his strategy, then he smiled. "All we need to do, is get them to the gate. We can then use the device that Androssa's grandfather invented to free them from the thrall, then they should be more than willing to open the gates."
Janer looked slightly dubious. But Androssa leapt forward, "Yes. It will work, it worked on all of you. You can be the bridgehead, with your help, as the first liberated members of our race, we can free the others, and destroy this hideous creature once and for all.
Janer's look of doubt vanished from his face. "Yes, we can do it. We must do it. For freedom." The cry went up, and again, the small band found themselved galvanised like never before, with an aim, like none they had known. To free their people, and their world.
"The Citadel will fall, before this day is through, our world will be free from tyranny."
"Or we could all be dead." Jack added slightly morosely. Rose quickly slapped him on the back of his head. "But no, Freedom it is then."
As the band of would be world liberators moved towards the citadel's ramparts, the ground under them began to heave, as though pushed from under them by a massive force. Something that could only be described as a talon rose from the ground, glistening in the patches of sunlight that passed through the cover of trees.
The Vampire queen was rising. ready to devour this world as the first of many, and to spawn her brood anew.
To be concluded.