By the Doctor's count, they'd continued moving through the sewer tunnels for another twenty minutes before Solomon eventually slowed to a halt.
"We're way beyond half a mile," he said reluctantly, "there's no collapse. Nothing."
They'd stopped at an intersection, that looked all but identical to the last four they'd been through, and the Doctor glanced around warily.
"That Diagoras bloke, was he lying?" Martha asked and the Doctor nodded.
"Looks like it."
"So why'd he want people to come down here?" Frank asked, and the Doctor's jaw tightened as the teenager voiced the concern that had been growing in the Time Lord's mind for a while now.
Ever since they'd stumbled across the composite organic matter that he still couldn't identify.
What he wouldn't give for a genetics lab right then, or at least the Tardis.
Solomon, I think it's time you took these two back. I'll be much quicker on my own" he said quietly. The hair on the back of his neck was starting to stand on end, and everything about their situation felt like a trap.
He half expected Martha to argue, to refuse to leave, but the refusal never came. Instead, there was a wet, squealing sound and all of them began to glance around, trying to locate the source.
He still didn't know what they might be dealing with, and the Doctor felt his teeth clench at having dragged another companion into unknown danger.
"What the hell was that?" Solomon asked, his voice low and quiet, wariness in every line of his body, and the Doctor could feel Martha press closer to his side.
"Hello!?" Frank suddenly yelled, in complete contrast to Solomon's fear, and everyone turned on him, Martha shushing him violently with fear painted across her face, as Solomon groaned the teens' name quietly.
Whatever it was, it now almost certainly knew exactly where they were, but the Doctor couldn't fault Frank's bravery, or his kindness as he tried to explain, voice now a hushed whisper once more.
"What if it's one of the folks gone missing?" the teen muttered, "You'd be scared and half-mad down here on your own!"
"Did that sound like a person to you?" Martha hissed, but the Doctor asked a different question and one that Frank was more willing to answer.
"Do you think they're still alive?"
The fact that he was willing to listen, to consider it, seemed to make Frank relax, and while his voice was still a whisper the tension fled his form and he shrugged.
"Heck, we ain't seen no bodies down here. Maybe they just got lost?"
The Doctor couldn't help but grin. Humanity. Always filled with such hope that it constantly inspired him.
He didn't get a chance to answer the teen, as the squeals echoed through the tunnels once more. The sounds ricocheted off the stone and disorientated the humans, their panic rising once more.
"I know I ain't never heard somebody make a sound like that," Solomon muttered, but Frank wouldn't be deterred.
"Where's it coming from?" He said, "Sounds like there's more than one of 'em..."
"That way," Solomon snapped out, his torch spinning to aim down one of the tunnels but the Doctor shook his head. He'd been ready this time and had quickly tracked the sound to its source.
"No, it's this way," he corrected Solomon, drifting a few steps forward, trusting his instincts even as he felt the humans go still behind him.
Further down the tunnel he could see a creature, crouched low to the ground, and the Doctor spun the light from his torch onto the figure until he could see it clearly.
"Doctor?" Martha whispered, her voice shaking, but he was focussed on the creature in the dark.
"Who are you?" Solomon called, but the shape didn't move or make another sound.
"Are you lost?" Frank tried, pacing forward until he was level with the Doctor, "Can you understand me? I— I've been thinking a lot about folks lost down here..."
"It's alright, Frank," the Doctor stopped him, placing a hand on the young man's shoulder as the teen moved to take another step forwards, "just... stay back a moment. Let me have a look."
He waited until he felt Frank step back again, before the Doctor started taking careful, slow, and measured paces towards the figure, watching the entire time for any movement.
"He's got a point though, my mate Frank," the Doctor said as he moved, letting his gob run free as a calming influence on the humans behind him, and hoping for some way to communicate with the creature in front of him.
"I'd hate to be stuck down here, all on my own... but we know the way out. Daylight, if you want to come with us," he offered, finally reaching the creature and slowly lowering into a crouch beside it.
"Oh, but what are you?" He whispered softly to the pigs head staring back at him, attached to a humanoid form.
The eyes told a tale, sadness and pain, self-hate and rejection, and the Doctor knew in his gut that this wasn't normal, natural, or right. That this had been done to someone and his mind began spinning as he remembered the pig-alien decoy that the Slitheen had utilised when they'd infiltrated 10 Downing street.
He remembered how the soldiers had shot that creature when it had been scared and alone, but Solomon's hesitant question broke him out of the memories before he could get lost in thoughts of Rose.
He knew where the memories of that day led.
' I could save the world but lose you. '
"Is that... er... some kind of carnival mask?" Solomon called, and the Doctor sucked in a breath before letting his gaze settle on the three humans briefly, not willing to turn his back on the creature before him just yet. Not until he knew more about it.
"No, it's real," he told them, and the moment he met the creature's gaze again it let out a small squeal of sound, and the Doctor could almost feel his hearts breaking.
"I'm sorry," he said, voice full of emotion, "but listen to me. I promise, I can help," he offered, mind already spinning with planets that would accept this creature, even if he couldn't reverse the process.
"Who did this to you?" He asked, his hand stretching out slowly to rest against the creature's arm, its eyes watching his movements warily.
"Doctor, I think you'd better get back here," Martha called just as he saw a shadow move to his left, his head whipping around in response.
There were more of the creatures, but they didn't have the same sad eyes as the one he'd been kneeling before, and as more of them appeared he rose to his feet quickly and began backing away.
"Doctor!" Martha shouted, and he could hear the panic in her voice.
"Actually, yes, that's a good point," he answered her, as though his movements hadn't already shown that he'd listened to her warning.
"They're following you," she said, and he could feel the tension crawling up his spine as his body reacted to the imminent threat.
"Yes. I noticed that, thanks!"
He was sure the words would have been more of a snarl if he wasn't trying so very hard to keep his own rising panic from leaching out into his voice as more and more of the pig-men emerged from further down the tunnel, outnumbering them easily at three or four to one.
"Well then, Martha, Frank, Solomon," he began, never taking his eyes from the menacing look in the eyes advancing on them, "Uhh... basically... run!" he shouted, and when he turned to do exactly that he was both pleased and relieved to find that the three humans had apparently pre-empted him and made a break for it.
Like any animal, the moment they turned their backs and began to flee, the pig-men gave chase.
They were all barrelling through the tunnels, each turning looked the same, and with no time to read the signs or look for familiar landmarks, the group simply ran, the Doctor making sure he was between the humans and the pig creatures, pushing them to move faster all the time.
They needed enough space between them and their pursuers so they could safely escape and give him time to seal the exit behind them before the pig-men could catch up.
They were just starting to gain enough ground for the Doctor to feel comfortable looking for an exit when the humans slowed, and Martha stopped dead, turning to stare back at him in a panic.
"Where are we going?!" she shouted, but he just dodged around them all, snatching up her hand as he did.
"This way!" He snapped back, barely slowing as they spun around the next corner. He didn't care where they went as long as it continued to put distance between them and their pursuers, but he could hear them gaining on them again.
The next tunnel looked much the same as the last, and they passed several off-shoots as they ran, flashing by in a blur of filthy stone and water, but the Doctor skid to a halt as his mind processed something he'd seen from the corner of his eye.
Spinning on the spot, and dragging Martha along with him he ran back the way they'd come, pausing at the last turn off they'd passed and grinning.
He could have collapsed with relief but pushed himself forward towards the ladder at the end of the short tunnel, not least because of the state his precious coat would be in if he gave in to the urge.
"It's a ladder! Come on!" he shouted over his shoulder for Solomon and Franks benefit before dashing forward, and all but leaping up onto the rungs, finally releasing Martha's hand in exchange for the sonic.
He could hear the sound of Frank and Solomon following them, and the squeals of the pig-men further into the tunnels, but still too close for comfort.
The sonic unsealed the manhole cover, and he clambered up and out as fast as he could, clearing the way for the others. Martha was next up the ladder, breathless from the run, and he felt guilt fighting to push through at putting her in danger, again.
He leant down and grasped at her arms, pulling her up through the manhole quickly, and giving her a quick once over before he turned back to offer a hand to the next person to climb up.
A corner of his mind had already registered that their exit hadn't led out onto a street, or road, but the inside of a building. Judging from the racks of clothes it was either a shop or a theatre of some kind, and in the same moment, he dismissed the information as irrelevant.
He could see Solomon turn to face the tunnel, shouting for Frank to hurry up, and hoped that the teen would rather run than try to fight the horde that had been right on their heels.
The Doctor leant down as he had for Martha, and helped Solomon climb over the edge of the manhole, before swiftly sticking his head back down into the darkness.
"C'mon Frank! Let's go!" he shouted, hearing a metal clatter as the young man ran for the ladder, struggling to clamber out of the reach of the pig-men but he'd waited too long, and let the creatures get too close.
The Doctor grasped one hand, his other grasping onto the shoulder of Frank's shirt, but he could see the Pig-men below the teen, clinging to his legs.
Solomon appeared at his side, grasping hold of Frank's other hand, but even together, even with the Doctor's superior strength, the sheer number of pig-men clinging to Frank, pulling him back down, was too much.
It didn't matter what they shouted, or how much Frank begged, the pig-men were too many and too strong, and they ripped the teen away from the Doctor's grasp.
As he felt the warm skin disconnect from his hand, the Doctor felt himself shout, but Frank was already being dragged back into the dark sewers, and more of the creatures were starting to climb the ladder towards the rest of them.
A hard shove to his shoulder knocked the Doctor flying, and he landed hard on his back, breathless for a moment before he launched back at the manhole cover that Solomon had slammed into place.
"We've got to go back down! We can't just leave him!" The Doctor shouted, hands grasping the cover, but Solomon pushed him back again.
"No! We can't go after him! I'm not losing anybody else!" He shouted and the Doctor staggered back a step, staring at Solomon in a mixture of shock and anger at the man's refusal.
"Those creatures were from Hell. From Hell, itself! If we go after them, they'll take us all! There's nothing we can do... I'm sorry," he finished, gasping for breath through his fear and adrenaline, and as the Doctor met the man's crazed eyes he knew there would be no moving Solomon on his decision. He was too scared.
As rationality returned to his mind, the Doctor could also see Solomon's point. They'd been outnumbered, and by now Frank would be too far into the maze of tunnels for even the Doctor to locate without great difficulty.
He shot a look at Martha and could see the fear on her features too, so he drew in a deep breath, forcing his mind to calm as he prepared some kind of plan, because while Solomon might have been right about not diving back down there, the Doctor had no intentions of leaving Frank to his fate.
That same breath he'd drawn in to try and bring calm to the maelstrom that was in his mind was suddenly released on a resigned sigh when he heard a heavily accented voice from behind them.
"All right then, put 'em up!"
Martha and Solomon both raised their hands, and the Doctor turned to see a young human woman aiming a gun at them. Slowly his hands lifted into the air as the blonde waved the pistol around between the three of them.
"Now tell me, you schmucks, what have you done with Laszlo?"
There was a beat of silence, during which no one moved before the Doctor heard Martha softly ask the question that had been echoed around his own head.
"Who's Laszlo?"
If it hadn't been for the loaded gun pointed at them, the Doctor might have offered her a grin, but he swallowed it down, eyes on the weapon.
The blonde stared at all three of them, her eyes narrowed before she suddenly seemed to wilt.
"Well damn it all, I thought you might know somethin', crawlin' up outta the sewers like that. Follow me, and no funny business!" she warned, the gun still waving around dangerously, and as they followed after her, cautiously, hands still raised, the Doctor made sure to keep himself between Martha and the weapon.
The blonde woman led the way through the racks of clothing and into what looked like a dressing room before sitting herself down, the gun still aimed at them, and started talking like they were discussing the weather.
"Laszlo's my boyfriend," she started, staring at her own eyes in the mirror of her dressing table, before seeming to remember that she should be watching the three strangers she was aiming a gun at.
"Or was my boyfriend 'til he disappeared two weeks ago. No letter, no goodbye, no nothin'!" She declared.
"An' I'm not stupid," she continued while gesturing at her own head with the gun, causing the Doctor to grimace in concern. "I know some guys are just pigs, but not my Laszlo. I mean, what kinda guy asks you to meet his mother before he vamooses?" She asked them, eyes wide, but the Doctor was still following the path of the gun as it waved through the air, swinging back in their direction once more.
"Yeah, it might— It might just help— We might just be able to help, if you could put that down..." he suggested gently, voice purposefully soft as he nodded towards the gun.
"Huh?" The blonde said, staring at him for a long moment before what he was asking sank in, "Oh! Sure!"
The Doctor literally felt his hearts double in speed as she flung the cocked gun onto a pile of clothes, and he jumped, half waiting for the loud bang and blossoming pain to erupt somewhere on his body, but the woman just laughed easily.
"Oh, come on. It's not real, it's just a prop! It was either that or a spear," she admitted with a shrug and while the Doctor started to breathe slightly easier, the tension finally leaking out of his shoulders, Martha took that as her cue to start asking questions and she stepped around him quickly.
"What do you think happened to Laszlo?" she asked, and the blonde sighed, her brief flare of amusement evaporating as swiftly as it had appeared.
"I wish I knew. One minute he's here, and the next, zip! Vanished!"
Finding the woman's missing boyfriend wasn't particularly high on the list for the Doctor. He had pig-men, a missing teenager relying on him, and unidentified composite flesh to figure out first, and he sighed before attempting to regain control of the situation.
"Listen, uh... sorry, what was your name?" He asked.
"Tallulah," she chirped cheerfully, and he nodded.
"Right, Tallulah—"
"Three L's and an H," she added, eyes sparkling, and he stared at her for a moment, jaw working on the words she had cut off, wondering if she thought he didn't know how to spell but the Doctor forced his mind back onto the most pressing of their problems.
"Yes. Tallulah, I'm the Doctor. This is Martha and Solomon. We can try to find Laszlo for you, but he's not the only one. There have been people disappearing, going missing, every night," he told her carefully, watching as genuine empathy and concern filled her gaze, and he instantly decided that while she might be a little annoying, he liked this small blonde woman with her wide eyes full of compassion.
"And there are creatures," Solomon added with a groan, "such creatures..."
The fear was still there, staining his voice and the Doctor was oddly happy to realise that Tallulah didn't seem smart enough to recognise the terror, merely questioning Solomon's choice of words suspiciously.
"Creatures? Whadda'yah mean, 'creatures'?"
The Doctor shot an exasperated look over his shoulder at Solomon, before brushing the matter aside. There was no need to start a panic, and panic was all they were going to get if they went around scaring people.
"Look, listen, just... trust me. It's not just Laszlo. Everyone in the city could be in danger, but I can help, so I need to find out exactly what this is," he explained, pulling out the glowing green lump of flesh they'd found in the sewers and holding it out to the blonde.
"If I can find out what this is, then I'll know exactly what we're fighting," he added, ignoring the way Martha had reeled back from the fleshy mass in his hand, and concentrating on Tallulah's scrunched up nose, narrowed eyes, and soft sound of disgust.
She leant back in her chair as far as she could go, before waving her hand to indicate the props and costumes surrounding them.
"Help yourself, but keep that thing away from me," he said quickly, and the Doctor spared her a small but genuine smile.
"Thank you."
"Yeah, well, just don't tell my boss I let yah run around in here. Last thing I need's tah get fired," she called after him as the Doctor put the flesh back into his pocket and began running through the rooms, eyes on a constant lookout for anything he could use for parts.
No lab and no Tardis, but he should be able to throw together some kind of rudimentary identification module that could tell him the origin of the gloop in his pocket.
"What are you looking for?" Solomon called after him.
"Anything electronic," he said, "A radio, lights, something metal, something with wires," he explained, half building the item in his mind as he hunted, and together they began digging through the props while Martha sat with Tallulah.
It wasn't too difficult for the Doctor to find what he needed, but the scanner was going to be crude, at best, he decided as he eyed the stack of materials he and Solomon had gathered together.
He was in the middle of inspecting some of the wires when Solomon appeared around a rack of clothes, cradling a radio in his hands.
"How about this?" He asked, "I found it backstage."
In about two seconds the Doctor had catalogued what was going to be inside and declared it the goldmine he'd needed, grinning at Solomon.
"Perfect!" He announced, accepting the radio from Solomon and flipping it over to pry off the back, rambling as he worked. "It's the capacitors I need. I'm just rigging up a crude little DNA scanner for this beastie. If I can get a chromosomal reading, I can find out where it's from."
Something in the quiet, subdued way that Solomon had approached him made the Doctor want to fill the silence. His fear had finally retreated, enough for logic to return, and the Doctor wanted to distract him from the guilt that would inevitably be welling up.
Solomon was a good man, and he'd left Frank behind. He was good enough that he wasn't willing to be distracted either, and the man was all but wringing his hands together.
"What about you, Doctor? Where are you from?" Solomon asked as the whirring of the sonic screwdriver filled the space between them. "I've been all over, an' I've never heard nobody talk like you. Just who are you, exactly?"
The Doctor could almost hear the building confrontation in the man's voice, so he kept his eyes locked on the capacitor he'd just removed from the radio, peering at it intently and blowing some imaginary dust from its surface.
"Oh, I'm just sort of passing by."
"I'm not a fool, Doctor," Solomon said, and the Doctor stilled, eyes finally lifting to meet the humans, and his face turned serious in an instant.
"No," he agreed softly, "You're not. I'm sorry."
For what though, he wondered to himself. Sorry that he'd tried to brush the man aside? Sorry that he wasn't fool enough to fall for the Doctor's lines? Sorry that he couldn't do more to help?
In the end what he was sorry for, exactly, didn't matter much, because Solomon brushed past him to stand beside the sewer entrance they'd escaped through earlier.
"I was so scared, Doctor," the man confessed, and still holding the radio in his hands, the Doctor gave him his full attention. He could spare a few minutes, give the man that, at least.
"I let them take Frank 'cause... I was. I was just so scared."
Solomon met the Doctor's eyes, and while the Doctor could offer acceptance, and even understanding, he couldn't quite manage forgiveness.
Did the man think that he hadn't been scared? A companion dependent on his and a hoard of pig-men chasing them? Did he think Frank was any less scared?
When he said nothing, Solomon pulled his coat tighter around himself before continuing, "I got to get back to Hooverville. With these creatures on the loose, we got to protect ourselves. Ain't no one else going to help us," he decided and the Doctor sighed softly.
"Good luck," he offered simply. He wasn't going to try and stop the man. In fact, the less people he had to worry about protecting, right then, the better. At least until he knew what they were up against.
"I hope you find what you're looking for. For all our sakes," Solomon offered before he moved to leave the theatre via the staff entrance, and the Doctor watched him go.
He drew in a fresh breath before releasing it in a sigh, and refocusing his mind once more on the DNA scanner, turning his eyes back to the radio and working on removing the second capacitor.
It took the Doctor nearly an hour to pull together the scanner in the lighting gallery, as high above the stage as he could get. Which was a good thing really, he thought, glancing over the edge as the theatre started to fill up for the evening show.
Bouncing up onto the ledge that he'd got his equipment balanced on, he swung one of the spotlights he'd jiggery-pokeried and aimed it at the composite flesh that was carefully wired up to his little device, and he hoped that the heat the light was generating would be enough.
"That's it, we just need to warm you up a little," he muttered to himself.
Bouncing back down off the ledge he pulled his glasses out of his pocket and slid them up his nose as he knelt in front of the DNA scanner, tongue pressed against his top teeth as he examined his work for a moment.
Happy with the setup, the Doctor braced his arms on either side and used the sonic to activate the scanner.
He waited until the combination of the sonic, the scanner, and the heat from the lamps had the little blob of flesh almost bubbling, and then began running his fingers across the surface, carefully judging its makeup and narrowing his eyes at the conclusions his mind was drawing.
"This is artificial," he muttered to himself, adjusting the strength of the sonic as he mulled the information over in his mind.
Being composite, it had to have been done in a lab, he'd already known that, but some parts of the DNA were unique.
"Genetically engineered..." he continued musing under his breath, eyes flicking over the object of his experiment, and he continued to adjust dials and switches in an attempt at getting a clearer reading.
It wasn't as though someone had taken two types of existing DNA and spliced them together, which is what he suspected had happened to the pig-men. Inside the glowing green glob of lab-grown flesh, there were aspects that were purely artificial. They didn't exist naturally in any species in the universe, and he suddenly breathed out a soft and slightly giddy laugh.
"Oh-ho-ho... whoever did this— Oh you are clever!" he exclaimed, eyes wide with disbelief at what he was seeing. He heard the announcer on stage, and then the music started, and within moments he could no longer hear the output from his device and shook his head in frustration.
Digging through his bigger on the inside pockets took a few minutes, but eventually, he pulled out the stethoscope he'd tucked away in there and put it on before pressing it against the machine, and he sighed in relief.
It was muffled, and the music was still interfering, but he could hear the signal output again and frowned in concentration as he tried to decode the information over the cacophony of noise in the background.
He found human DNA quickly enough, but as Martha had said, this was definitely not human and the science involved was far too advanced for this time period.
It would be too advanced for Martha's time period.
It made sense that there was human in there as a base though. The most adaptive species in the universe, it's how they managed to spread out across the stars so completely.
The artificial DNA took some time to sort through as well, but eventually, the Doctor managed to isolate the foreign strands, and his eyebrows drew together as he struggled to block out the music from the theatre below.
"Fundamental DNA type 46-989," he muttered, pulling off the stethoscope and leaning back from the scanner with a sigh as he ran the numbers through his memories.
It was ringing alarm bells in his mind, but he couldn't place exactly why, and he took a moment to berate himself for getting old.
"Nine-eight-nine," he muttered again, pushing his glasses out of the way and roughly rubbing at his eyes, "hold on, hold on, that means... planet of origin..."
He had the code, and used that to extrapolate the galactic coordinates, laid that over his mental map of the universe and felt his heart freeze and his blood run cold as his mind filled with Rose.
Rose crying on that beach. Tose falling from the lever in Torchwood tower. Rose turning the Dalek armada to dust, burning gold. Rose showing a Dalek mercy. Rose, telling him it wasn't his fault and that she wouldn't have missed it for the world. Rose, Rose, Rose.
"Skaro...!" He breathed, feeling sick as she staggered to his feet and ran through the theatre looking for Martha.
He had to get her back to the Tardis. He wouldn't, couldn't, lose someone else to the Daleks.
He heard someone on the stage scream, and then more screams followed forcing him to run harder, faster, legs pumping hearts racing. The Doctor could taste fear and panic, his mind flooding his system with chemical responses, and he could feel the sting of bile rising in the back of his throat.
He was always too late when it came to the Daleks, and the fact that he'd been practically gushing over the intelligence that had created the glowing green flesh made his skin crawl.
He didn't want to admire their skills, and running through his mind were the words that had haunted his nightmares since they'd been spoken deep in Van Statten's basement.
" You. Would make. A good. Da-lek. "