The Doctor and the Negotiator CH.4
The entire group of burly men surrounded both heroes in the lving room.
They were all dressed in dark blue and grey coveralls and had blank stares on their faces.
"You experience this sort of thing in the neighborhood often?"asked the Doctor.
"It depends on the sort of situation."said Roger. "I got the right,you get the left."
"If you say so."said the Doctor.
One of the men lunged at Roger,but he caught the lug by the writst and threw him over his shoulder.
Roger then lunged at another,and then thrust out his left leg,kicking him in the midsection,literally knocking him to the floor.
And then slammed a terrific right punch at the third goon.
The Doctor dodged an incoming lunge from one of the thugs and then brough down a karate chop to his neck so ahrd,he fell out cold.
He then tripped the next thug and then slammed a chop hand to the last thug.
They were all down for the count.
But the last couple of men were still standing.
A voice was then heard in their heads.
"RETREAT AT ONCE,RETREAT AT ONCE!"
The two men went for the door,but one was tripped over by a broom that belonged to Norman himself.
"Typical riff-raff."said the butler.
The final thug made it to the door,only to be stopped by a Dorothy R.Wainwright,resident android to Roger Smith.
She dropped the grocery bag she was carrying and spread her arms out.
"Stop."she said calmly in her usual tone.
"Young lady,don't!"said the Doctor. "That man is dangerous!"
"Don't worries doc."said Roger. "Just watch."
The thug lunged at Dorothy with a drawn fist.
But as he threw it,she caught the fist and squeezed it so hard,the thug cried out in pain.
"AAARRRRGHH!"
"My word."said the Doctor.
Dorothy then heaved the man upward and then threw him into the couch,
"WHUMP!"
"Any problems,Roger?"asked Dorothy.
"Nothing we couldn't handle,Dorothy. "said Roger.
Dorothy looked upon the face of the Doctor.
"Company?"she said.
"Er--yes,you could say that."said Roger. "Uhmm..Dorothy,this is the Doctor,Doctor..this is my other aide R.Dorothy.Wainwright."
The Doctor took the woman's hand and kissed it.
"Charmed i'm sure--I--."the Doctor began and then cut off his sentence.
He smoothed his thumb over the skin of the woman's hand,it felt a little like steel,not soft flesh.
"Your--your hand.."he said.
"Oh..I was going to tell you--Dorothy's an android,first class kind around here."said Roger.
"An android?"said the Doctor as he looked closer at the still and motionless face of the woman.
"Yes,I should've known she was of something more."he said.
"I assure you,I am more than just an android."she said. "And nice to meet you."
"Uhm...yes,likewise."said the Doctor.
He then thought:"Quite amazing,I never seen an android mimic human appearances before,not like this. More sophisticated perhaps than the androids of Terra."
"That's quite a grip you had there as well."said the Doctor. "Ever consider playing a little cricket with it? Haha.."
"Cricket..?"said Dorothy.
"Er--never mind."said the Doctor and then thought again:"Tpyical,no sense of humor programmed into her I suppose."
"Well,anyways,thanks for lending a hand there."said Roger. "Of course,this is the second time I ran into something like this."
"Quite a coincidence,so did I."said the Doctor.
The pair of gentlemen then compared their encounters to what had happened for the next couple of minutes.
"Hmmmm..."replied the Doctor as he scratched his chin.
"Since these are men from the factory,by the looks of their coveralls. Then,there must be a connection with those strange robot killers we encountered earlier."
"I would think so."said Roger. "But the question is,what's going on here?"
"I'm not sure."said the Doctor. "But I know we must take a closer look at the bodies..before.."
Suddenly,the bodies all started to glow.
"...Something happens?"said Roger.
"Exactly."said the Doctor frowning.
"DUCK FOR COVER!"said Roger.
He,the Doctor and the two servants dove behind the couch,just as the entire group of fallen thugs exploded in a flash of light.
"FFLLAAASHH!"
When it was over,the Doctor popped his head up from behind the couch.
There was nothing left,except black dust particles all over the floor.
"I guess we shielded ourselves for nothing."he said. "All it did was..make quite a mess--of dust."
"And to think I just vaccumed this area."said Norman.
"Sorry about that."said Roger. "But as to seeing that this did happen before,I thought with many more of these--zombies,the effect would be even worse."
"Perhaps."said the Doctor. "But at least now we know...that whoever programmed these--puppets,placed a self-destruct program of some sort in them."
"And when it destructs,it obviously destorys nothing save for the person being controlled."said Dorothy.
"I--quite agree."said the Doctor.
"So..it looks like we're back to stage one once again."said Roger.
"Perhaps."said the Doctor. "And perhaps not. The answers we seek must be at the scrap yard,and we've got to find out how to get in,no matter what."
Suddenly,the entire room began to shake.
"WHAT IN THE NAME OF BLOODY GALLIFREY?"shouted the Doctor."Does this city get earthquakes regularly?"
"Not lately."said Roger.
Dorothy ran out through the patio doors and looked out over the balcony.
There,beyond the other buildings was a humongous robot monster tearing up the neighborhood.
It was large,tall,grey and blue and had four arms and a pointy head.
The robot stomped it's way downtown and began to smash several buildings in it's wake.
"Roger--!"she said as she came back. "There's a Megadeuce attacking the city!"
"Now of all times!"said Roger. "Uh-look doc,I gotta take care of something real quick--we'll talk more when I get back."
"Well uhmm..of course..but--"said the Doctor. But before he could ask what was going on,Roger bolted for the front door.
"I'm afraid you'll have to excuse Master Roger,sir"said Norman. "Something just come up."
"Indeed it did."said the Doctor.
Roger dashed towards the elevator,went out through the lobby after that and then entered into a nearby alley.
He then rolled up his right sleeve and spoke into a strange looking watch.
He then hollered into it..
"BIG O--SHOWTIME!"
While many miles below in a secret lair,a gigantic robot came to life and on it's scanner it said the words...
"CAST IN THY NAME OF GOD,YE NOT GUILTY."
The giant robot erupted through a city street and stood for all to see.
The Doctor saw what was happening as he stood on the balcony.
"WHAT THE DEVIL IS THAT?he said.
"A megadeuse."said Dorothy.
"A what the deuce?'said the Doctor.
"A Megadeuse."said Norman. "In a nutshell,one of the many--mechanical gladiators of Paradigm City."
"Unbeliavable!"said the Doctor. "This city has all sorts of strange robots and machines. Present company accepted,Miss Wainwright."
"Of course."said the android.
The Master saw what was going on in the Tardis on the video monitor.
"Now what?"he said annoyed. "Is this a city or a movie set for those ridiculous japanese monster films they waste money on making?"
The Big O stood before the other Megadeuse,ready for battle.
"So..."said a voice inside the robot.
"..you've shown your ugly ass at last,Big O. Now..let's see which of us is the better Megadeuse!"
NEXT CHAPTER:THE BATTLE BETWEEN THE MEGADEUSES BEGIN AND ONCE IT'S OVER,THE DOCTOR AND ROGER MUST CONTINUE THEIR INVESTIGATION INTO THE MYSTERIOUS PRESENCE AT THE SCRAP YARD,BUT WHAT LIES AHEAD FOR THEM? FIND OUT NEXT CHAPTER.