So, whose phone did the Doctor leave a message on in the previous episode? What will happen to our intrepid heroes? Will they survive the Cult of Skaro? What is the airspeed velocity of an average swallow? (Almost) all of these questions will be answered below!

"These humans will become like me," the human Dalek announced. "Prepare them for hybridisation."

Before they could, however, music began playing—a light, cheerful, upbeat tune as out of place in a Dalek lab as a Judoon would've been in a china shop.

"What is that sound?"

"Ah, well, now, that would be me," the Doctor announced. "Hello, surprise, boo, etc."

Hands in pockets, the picture of nonchalance, the ancient enemy of the Daleks strolled up to the hybrid. "Well, then. A new form of Dalek. Fascinating. And very clever."

The Daleks revealed that they'd used an emergency temporal shift to escape to 1930s New York. The Doctor looked his new foe up and down.

"What does it feel like?" he asked eagerly. "You can talk to me, Dalek Sec. It is Dalek Sec, isn't it? That's your name? You've got a name and a mind of your own. Tell me what you're thinking right now."

Barry listened to Sec as he/it spoke about the most Dalek parts of humanity. He wasn't exactly surprised, but he did notice that the more it spoke, the more it dropped the stilted speech patterns, beginning to sound more and more like a person…

"Oh, right, so what have you achieved with this Final Experiment, then?" the Doctor snarled to the Daleks. "Nothing! Because I can show you what you're missing with this thing. A simple little radio."

"What is the purpose of that device?" one of the Daleks snapped.

"Well, exactly, it plays music, what's the point of that?" the Doctor snarked. Barry thought back to his viola lessons, and smiled to himself as his mentor continued. "You can dance to it. Sing to it. Fall in love to it," he added more quietly.

"Unless you're a Dalek, of course," he added, whipping out his screwdriver. "Then it's all just noise!"

With a sonic blast, he distracted the Daleks long enough for them to run. Barry led the way, his eidetic memory serving him well as he directed the group up towards Hooverville. They found Tallulah on the way, and swept her along with them.

Once back at Hooverville, they met with Solomon to try and get him to have the people disperse elsewhere.

"There has to be a way to reason with these things," the man insisted, but Martha and Barry disagreed vocally.

"Daleks are bad enough at any time, but right now they're vulnerable," the Doctor told them. "That makes them more dangerous than ever."
Just then, a sentry spotted one of the pig-men and blew a whistle, and panic ensued as they came under attack. The Doctor spun, coat flaring around him, eyes wide and wild.

"Barry, get everyone out of here! Fast!" he snapped. "Doesn't matter where, just get them out!"

"Fast is what I do," the speedster agreed, his eyes lighting up as the Speed Force danced through them. The next second, Martha was battered by what felt like gusts of wind coming from every direction simultaneously, but moments later, she realized that the Hooverville was now empty except for herself, the Doctor, and Barry, who reappeared next to her wearing his suit and looking grim.

"They're about a mile north," he told them quietly. "Far enough away the Daleks shouldn't be able to find them too easily. I told Solomon to keep them there for the next hour or so, then come on back."

"Good job," Martha told him.

The pig slaves stood in a loose circle around them, grunting in confusion.

"Well? What now?" she asked quietly. Her answer came in the form of two Daleks swooping down from the sky.

"Doc-tor," one of them growled. "You are the enemy of the Daleks. You will be exterminated! I will be the destroyer of our greatest enemy!"
Barry tensed, ready to rush forward and pull his friend away, but there was no need.

"I do not understand," it said to apparently no one. "It is the Doc-tor!"

The three of them exchanged looks.

"The urge to kill is too strong!" it growled, but… "I…obey."

"What's going on?" the Doctor shouted.

"You will follow," it grated out.

"I'm coming with you," Martha insisted, and Barry stepped up next to her, but the Doctor shook his head firmly. "No. You two need to stay here. Get the people of Hooverville back and settled in. That Dalek just changed its mind. Daleks never change their minds."

"Follow," the talkative Dalek ordered, and the Doctor went to obey, but turned back and clasped Martha's hands with both of his own.

"Can I just say…thanks. For everything."

He winked, and strolled off.


After getting the folks of Hooverville settled back in, Martha and Barry had held an impromptu council of war around Solomon's fire with him, Frank, Tallulah, and Lazlo. Martha revealed that the Doctor had slipped her the psychic paper, and they deduced, based on the Daleks' comments earlier, that they had had Dalekanium placed on the spire of the Empire State Building to serve as an energy conductor. While Solomon stayed behind to care for his people, and Lazlo, at Martha's suggestion, slipped into the Dalek's laboratory to keep an eye on the Doctor, she, Barry, Frank, and Tallulah headed to the very top.

"Okay, now this looks good," Martha said, noting a set of blueprints in one corner, the top of which was dated only that day. They deduced that something must have been changed at the last minute.

"There!"

"They've added something…" Martha breathed. "Dalekanium!"

Several minutes later, the elevator doors dinged, and the Doctor and Lazlo stepped out cheerfully. "First floor, perfumery."

"Doctor!"

The Time Lord grinned and embraced his companions, but spun around in alarm as the doors closed behind him.

"No, no, no," he snapped. "See, never waste time with a hug. Deadlock seal. I can't stop it."

"Where's it going?"

"Right down to the Daleks," the Doctor answered grimly. "And they're not going to leave us alone up here. What's the time?"

"Uh, 11:15," Frank answered, checking his watch.

"Six minutes to go. I've got to remove the Dalekanium before the gamma radiation hits. Barry, the pig slaves will be on the way. You gotta hold them back."

"How?"

The Doctor shook his head grimly. "Barry, you're a speedster. You have the power. You have to use it. I have faith in you. You can do this. Trust me?"

"Always."

"Good luck," the Doctor nodded to them both, and was gone.

"Wait, what's happening? Shouldn't we fight or, or something?" Tallulah asked, eyes wide. Martha shook her head.

"Barry's got it."

"I do?" he asked nervously. Martha gave him the look she'd been giving Tish and Leo as long as she could remember, and his grim smile changed to something more sincere.

"Yeah. You do," she nodded. He nodded back and turned to the elevator, slipped into his suit, and pulled his cowl up to cover his head.

"What are you doing?" Tallulah asked, agog. Barry responded without turning around.

"Improv."

Floor 80…90...100. The doors slid open, half a dozen pig slaves burst out, and he launched himself forward. They turned towards him as if in slow motion, but they might as well not have bothered. In real life, he knew, one person couldn't stand against six, not without major injuries, especially when each was a brutal savage stronger than any man with no concern for its own life. But then, he was a speedster, and he didn't stand. He flowed, like quicksilver, between one pig slave and the next, throwing strikes that came as hard and fast as lightning, and none could even try to stand against him. In the space between one breath and the next, it was over, and Barry stood over half a dozen unconscious bodies. He turned his head to look at his friends, and blew out a breath. Lightning sparked across his eyes, then settled.

"Nice job, Barry," Martha whistled, three and a half seconds after the doors had opened.

"Thanks."

"What just happened?" Tallulah asked Frank, who shrugged.

"Never mind that—where's the Doctor?" Martha asked, exchanging a wide-eyed look with her friend, and they both dashed for the roof.


After recovering the Doctor, who'd gotten in the way of the lightning strike, the group headed for Tallulah's theater, where the Doctor held up his sonic.

"If the Daleks are going to war, they'll want to find their number one enemy. I'm just telling them where I am," he said grimly. He ordered the others to leave him, but both Barry and Martha refused point-blank.

"Martha, that's an order," the Doctor growled.

"Who are you, then?" she shot back. "Some sort of Dalek?"

Before the Doctor could answer, the doors were broken down and two lines of people marched through, filing along on either side. Barry automatically swiveled to put his back to the Doctor.

"It's all right, it's all right," the Doctor whispered to his friends. "Just stay calm. Don't antagonize them."

"But what of the Dalek masters?" Lazlo asked. "Where are they?"

As if on cue, the back wall of the stage exploded, and two Daleks emerged from the smoke, with Sec crawling on his hands and knees between them.

"Dude, never tempt fate like that!" Barry shook his head.

"The Doctor will stand before the Daleks!" one of them shouted, and the Doctor cautiously walked across the rows of seats. It might've been Barry's imagination, but he could've sworn he saw his friend flick his eyes towards the balcony seats above and shake his head in a minuscule motion.

"You will die, Doctor. It is the beginning of a new age," one Dalek gloated.

"Planet Earth will become New Skaro," the other agreed.

"Oh, and what a world," the Doctor shot back, as quietly and coldly furious as any time Barry had ever seen him. "With anything just the slightest bit different ground into the dirt. That's Dalek Sec! Don't you remember? The cleverest Dalek ever and look what you've done to him. Is that your new Empire, hmm? Is that the foundation for a whole new civilization?"

The humanoid Dalek raised its head, and even broken, battered, chained, dusty, and kneeling, he still somehow radiated dignity.

"My Daleks, just understand this. If you choose death and destruction, then death and destruction will choose you."

"Incorrect. We will always survive," growled one.

"Now we will destroy our greatest enemy, the Doctor!" cried the other.

"But he can help you," Sec pleaded, and Barry's heart went out to the Dalek man.

"The Doctor must die!" growled the one with the deeper voice.

"No!" Sec cried. "I beg you, don't."

It was no good—one of the Daleks fired. Barry lunged over the seats, but in slow motion, he watched Sec rise and catch the beam with his own body. He inhaled, bowing his head in respect to the Dalek's sacrifice, and attempted to slam on the brakes. Unfortunately, he was still moving at speed, his foot caught on the back of a row of seats, and he flopped headfirst onto the ground.

"Ow," he grumbled, rising quietly, though no one, as far as he could tell, heard him—all eyes were focused on the Doctor ahead of him, glaring majestically at the two remaining Daleks.

"Your own leader!" he bellowed. "The only creature who might have led you out of the darkness and you destroyed him." He looked around at the Dalek-Humans. "Do you see what they did? Huh? You see what a Dalek really is?"

It might've been Barry's imagination, but several of them looked somewhat uncomfortable. With a few, it only lasted a moment, but it was definitely there.

"If I'm going to die, let's give the new boys a shot. What do you think, eh? The Dalek humans. Their first blood. Go on, baptize them."

"Doctor, no!" Barry shouted, but he was ignored.

"Dalek humans, take aim," one Dalek growled, and he clenched his fists as hundreds of rifles swiveled to point at the Doctor.

"What are you waiting for? Give the command!" the Doctor yelled.

"Exterminate!" the Dalek bellowed, and Barry leapt to his feet, running to the Doctor's side. He looked around at the seemingly-frozen world, and wondered why it was taking so long for the blasts to emerge from the barrels. Then, to his astonishment, the Doctor's head turned slowly, as if fighting a fierce gale, and he met Barry's eyes. Then he winked.

Cautiously, Barry eased himself out of "bullet time," and let the lightning around his body flicker away.

"How…" he began, but the Doctor shook his head minutely.

"Later," he whispered.

"Exterminate!" the Dalek called again, sounding confused.

"Obey," the other Dalek shouted. "Dalek humans will obey."

"They're not firing," Martha breathed. "What have you done?"

"You will obey," the one on the left insisted. "Exterminate!"

"Why?" one of the humans asked, and Barry's eyes widened."Daleks do not question orders!" the other Dalek yelled."But why?""You will stop this!"

"But, why?" he insisted, voice gaining more and more humanity as he spoke.

"You must not question!" it shouted, sounding like it was very near panic. Barry's heart leapt as the man spoke once more."But you are not our master," he stated. "And we…we are not Daleks."

"No, you're not," the Doctor said approvingly. "And you never will be. Sorry," he added, turning to the Daleks. "I got in the way of the lightning strike. Time Lord DNA got all mixed up. Just that little bit of freedom."

"If they will not obey, then they must die!" the one on the right cried. "Exterminate!"

It fired at the talkative man, but the beam of energy never reached its target. Instead, a shield of green energy sprang up, absorbing the bolt entirely.

"I think I'll take it from here," a voice announced from the balcony. Barry turned to look, and his heart almost stopped. Standing on the balcony, cape swirling dramatically around his ankles, was a tall, well-built man in early middle age, face creased with laughter and worry lines. He wore a ring on his left hand, but not, Barry knew, a wedding ring. This man had a name, but was known better by the title of the ring he wore. He spoke in a baritone voice which, despite everything he'd seen over the past weeks, sent shivers down Barry's spine.

"And I shall shed my light over dark evil,
For the dark things cannot stand the light,
The light of the Green Lantern!"

In a more regular voice, he added, "Got your message, Doctor. Not too late to join the party, I hope?"

"Not at all, Alan," the Doctor smiled. "Take it away."

The Green Lantern nodded and leveled his fist like a cannon. Barry could barely stop himself from jumping up and down with glee. The founder of the JSA, a hero team operating during the 1930s and '40s, had gained an almost mythical status, with comics and history textbooks devoted to their exploits. Here he was, large as life and twice as imposing.

"Exterminate!" both Daleks cried, and lifted their guns to fire. They never made it—a fly-swatter composed of green energy sent first one, then the other, careening into the walls, where they exploded. A few cacophonous round of gunfire, mixed with Lantern energy, later, and both Daleks were steaming hunks of scrap.

"I guess they shot first," Barry gasped into the sudden silence. The Doctor smirked, then sobered as his eyes widened in sudden realization. "Barry, there's one Dalek left, under the Empire State Building. Get me there, now!"

A few seconds later, as the chronometer flies, a storm of lightning settled to a rest in the Dalek's transgenic laboratory.

"Stay back," the Doctor warned his friend quietly, then strode forwards. "So," he said to the one waiting Dalek. "Just you and me left then, eh? What was your name?"

"Dalek Caan," it grated, and Barry smirked to hear the nervousness in its voice. The Doctor just nodded, and Barry saw the side of his friend that he usually kept leashed, the one that had fought on the front lines of the most terrible war in Creation, the one that made monsters and nightmares hide behind the couch and call for Mommy.

"Right. Dalek Caan. Listen to me. Your entire species has been wiped out. And now the Cult of Skaro has been eradicated, leaving only you. Right now, you're facing the only man in the universe who might show you some compassion. I've been responsible for one genocide already. I won't cause another. Caan…" he swallowed. "Let me help you."

Had the Dalek shouted its usual battle cry, Barry would've had his friend out of the way before it could finish vocalizing the word. Instead, it spoke not one word but three.

"Emergency temporal shift!"

There was a flash of white light, and the cables it was hooked into drooped to the floor.

"No!" the Doctor shouted, but it was too late. Barry walked forwards to put his hand on his friend's shoulder, but before he could say anything, the lift dinged, and the rest of their friends walked in. Lazlo staggered, and would've fallen if his arms weren't draped around Martha and Tallulah.

"It's okay, you're all right," Martha promised him, then turned to look at the Doctor. "It's his heart. It's racing like mad. I've never seen anything like it."

"What is it, Doctor?" Tallulah begged. "What's the matter with him? He says he can't breathe? What is it?"

"It's time, sweetheart," Lazlo grunted as they lowered him to the floor, the Green Lantern standing back in respect. Tallulah cradled him in her arms.

"What do you mean, time? What are you talking about?" Tallulah gasped.

"None of the slaves survive for long," Lazlo replied. "Most of them only live for a few weeks. I was lucky. I held on because I had you. But now, I'm dying, Tallulah."

"No, you're not!" she insisted. "Not now, after all this. Doctor, can't you do something?"

All eyes present turned to the Time Lord. He was silent, his face carved out of stone. Then, suddenly, he grinned. "Oh, Tallulah with three Ls and an H, just you watch me."

He jumped to his feet, throwing his jacket over a piece of machinery.

"What do I need? Oh, I don't know. How about a great big genetic laboratory? Oh look, I've got one. Laszlo, just you hold on!" He ordered, running about like a kid on a sugar rush. Barry and Martha exchanged grins.

"Because, you know what, nobody's died today. Not a single person. And I am not gonna let that change now. 'Cause, usually, that's what happens," he gabbled, pointing the sonic at a heating ring. "People die. They get killed, by the monsters, or their own recklessness, or just stupid decisions. But once in a very long while, when the wind stands fair, nobody dies at all. And today is gonna be one of those days. Tallulah, out of the way," he ordered, pulling out his stethoscope. "The Doctor is in."


Once the Doctor's serum was administered, he left Martha with the couple and sent Barry and Alan back to the theater, where more than a thousand Dalek-Human-Time Lord hybrids had gathered around Frank, who was desperately trying to keep everyone calm.

"So, uh, what now? I don't think all this lot would fit in Hooverville," Frank muttered to Barry, who had been discussing the life of a superhero with Alan Scott, in a manly and mature fashion which in no way involved him being tongue tied and staring and begging on his knees for an autograph, no siree.

In response to Frank's comment, the speedster just grinned and jerked a thumb over his shoulder, where a familiar wheezing and groaning had started up. The TARDIS materialized on the stage, and the Doctor stepped out, coat swirling around his ankles and hair in extra-spiky mode.

"Right! Listen up, everyone!" he announced. "I'm the Doctor. This…is my TARDIS."

"What do we do now, Doctor?" asked the man who'd thrown off the Dalek's control. The Doctor beamed at him as if the man had just announced that he'd won the Nobel Prize.

"I'm gonna take you all to a new planet, where you can start your lives there in peace. All aboard!"

After a quick stop at the Dalek laboratory ("can't leave a bunch of Dalek technology lying underneath the Empire State Building, God knows what you humans would do with it," the Doctor had muttered), the TARDIS materialized again on a beautiful planet with fields of purple grass and two suns hanging in the sky.

"Planet Chadash," the Doctor announced cheerfully. "We're in the outer edges of the Milky Way, on the far side from Earth. Uninhabited by any sentient species for the last few thousand years, plenty of water and fruit trees—watch out for the spiky trees, though, they bite—and enough room for everyone."

He bounced on his heels, looking like a kid with a new toy, as all of the hybrids filed out, some clutching bits and pieces from the Dalek laboratory, others with items Barry suspected had come from the TARDIS storerooms. He was pretty sure that the TARDIS-blue tents and the towels emblazoned with the words Don't Panic weren't from the Dalek lab.

"That's it! There you go!" the Doctor announced happily. An insect, very much like a foot-long butterfly but with an indigo camouflage pattern, three pairs of wings, and five dragonfly's eyes, buzzed past Barry's head.

"I never get tired of this," he confessed, and the Doctor and Martha grinned at him.


The travelers stayed long enough to make sure that the new hybrid species were set up and ready to live their own lives, then the Doctor, with itchy feet as always, said farewell and brought the TARDIS back to Central Park. Solomon confirmed that Tallulah and Lazlo would be welcome for as long as they needed.

"And thank you three," he added, shaking their hands. "For everything."

"Oh, Solomon, you are so very welcome," the Doctor smiled.

"It was our pleasure," Martha added, shaking his hand in turn.

"Seriously," Barry nodded. "Take care of yourself, okay?"

"And you, Barry."

As the trio wandered away, they watched Tallulah tuck her head into Lazlo's shoulder. "The pig and the showgirl," Martha laughed.

"The pig and the showgirl," the Doctor agreed.

"Oh, by the way," Barry piped up as they wandered off. "I meant to ask, Doctor—how come you could, y'know, see me when I was moving so fast? Everyone else is like a statue, but you, you knew what I was doing."

The Doctor looked at him, eyebrows raised. "Barry, I'm a Time Lord. I move between the ticks of the clock."

"Not pretentious at all," Martha stage-whispered to Barry, who giggled.

"Oi! I'm allowed to be pretentious once in a while, aren't I?" the Doctor complained, and they lapsed into an amicable silence.

"What happened to Alan?" she asked. "I remember he dies pretty soon…"

"Yeah," Barry sighed. "Next year, around August, he's going to liberate Dachau, and a Nazi sniper shoots him in the back. No one knows what happened to his ring, though. Both sides assumed the other had it, and then the war starts, and afterwards things got so shook up it's impossible to trace."

"Fixed point in time," the Doctor nodded mournfully. "If he'd lived…well."

"So how did you have his phone number?" Martha wanted to know after a brief silence.

"Oh," the Doctor shrugged, throwing his arms over both of his companion's shoulders. "Well, it all started a few hundred years back, well for me, anyway, when this ship full of Drahvins crash-landed on Earth back in 1929. I was traveling on this train with Alan, see, and…"

A breeze ruffled Barry's hair, and he thought, This time, everyone lived. A brand-new species got created. And I got Alan Scott's autograph. What more could I ask for?

So Barry gets to show off just how dangerous a speedster, especially one who's also a trained combatant, can be. And bear in mind, he's only had his speed for (not counting the time in the Speed Force) about a month, probably less. Imagine what he'll be like with a few years of experience under his belt...

Sadly Alan Scott will probably be a one-off character. I've never liked the idea of superheroes at his power level operating during the War, unless you're going to go with the idea that that world is very different from ours. That being said, there is a long tradition of Lanterns and Flashes being best friends, so I wanted to throw him in once. I'm creating a universe here, not just "Barry and co happen to live in the Whoniverse," and I hope it's succeeding.