Trapped with the corpse of an alien they're unfamiliar with, Theodore and Lila looked at their options, while trying to stare at the black wall that loomed in front of them. Any point, it'll move forward and they'll be gone, too.
Neither wanted to know what it felt like, having their bodies devoured in seconds, even if there's a chance that they'll feel nothing.
"Unless you got better ideas, Theo, I think our only option's going through the counter," Lila remarked that without any options, their only chance of surviving the insects hiding in the darkness of the library involved moving a large alien off his spot and going through his things.
Well, after the insanity that was Brody Mansion, moving bodies from where they died's not something they're foreign to, even though looking back on it now, it's miracle they weren't charged with conspiracy. Granted telling to the detectives what happened's enough for them to look insane, but is what it is, and Theodore enacted policies because of that error. No moving bodies from their spots unless it's an absolute emergency.
This is an emergency and thus he and Lila have to pull away a corpse weighing around a thousand kilos at best, which isn't so bad considering Theodore's able to pull the arms one side while Lila pushed the other way.
The corpse collapsed to the side of the counter and pulled further away from it, allowing access to behind the counter, where the two found a switchboard.
One set of switches went to lights, the other set of switches went to the microphone stowed away in the top of the counter.
"Let there be light," Theodore flipped the switches for the lights, he didn't know which ones went where, he just flipped them all, and in sections of the library, the lights turned on. Eventually, their section turned on and they're able to see better, the black wall disappeared, the insects gone, and showed the corpse of the alien better. The light's bright enough for Lila to see the mouth forming a scream.
The thought of the alien screaming as it died painted a picture for Lila while Theodore noticed this detail, too.
Her chestnut eyes moving towards where the black wall loomed, Lila sees the aisle cleared, but she wasn't convinced that the insects dispersed for good, something Theodore agreed with her as he wearily stayed away from any area with shadows.
"What do you think, should we run like hell?" Lila asked what Theodore thinks about her plan of them fleeing back to the TARDIS and hurrying out of there before the insects invade the interior.
Chewing on his bottom lip, Theodore pondered this before he heard footsteps coming from down the aisle and ordered Lila to hide.
Couldn't be too careful, not with their luck, and the two hid as they heard the footsteps coming closing until someone came through the threshold.
Shoes squeaked against the polished floor as someone moved around.
"Oh, no," a British man uttered as footsteps rushed towards the collapsed corpse. He said something that neither understood, possibly the name of the alien, before rushing around the area.
It sounded like a child the way the man run around, grabbing books and things falling everywhere, Lila hid with Theodore as they're hunkered behind the counter.
Theodore instinctively held his arm over Lila as they hid, hearing footsteps and the man talking to himself.
"Bad, this is bad," the British man muttered to himself.
He sounded distressed due to the death of the alien, knew it from the way he talked, and it sounded like he hadn't seen it in long time. Seeing it dead came as a shock and Lila looked towards Theodore with confusion on her face.
Theodore broached a telepath conversation with her, allowing them to talk without the man knowing.
"Friendly?" Lila asks Theodore for his input in the matter.
Theodore thoughtfully replied, "I don't know. Unfortunately, we don't have much of a choice. Maybe he knows more about what it is and what those things are."
Well, while they're smart about not popping up when someone calls out, they couldn't for this situation. No one else around except them and the insects hunting them aren't going to layabout forever. They'll come out of hiding one way or another and Theodore doesn't want to be on the table.
"Wait here," Theodore tells Lila as he braced meeting the person frantically running around the area.
If all fails, he doubted the man won't be able to down him. If he should succeed, Lila's learning kickboxing, and from what Theodore saw of it, she's getting better at it.
Putting on a brave face, Theodore carefully turned the corner of the counter and stepped out in the open. His icy blue eyes scanned for any signs of the man, but he didn't see him, and he's sure he didn't leave the area.
The insects couldn't have gotten him, that much Theodore knows, and he's sure he and Lila heard someone.
Surveying the area, Theodore didn't see anyone, and heard a sharp yelp behind him.
Sharply, he turned around as someone came flying out from the side of the counter.
He slid across the floor as Lila shouted, "Not today!"
Oy.
Theodore hurried towards the man as he's dazed while Lila walked from the other side of the counter, irritated.
"Please tell me you didn't knock him out," Theodore gritted his teeth before Lila told him that she only gave him a kick, nothing more.
Even horses know their own strength.
The dazed man mumbled as Theodore helped him up, he sees the deep brown eyes moving before they blinked.
"Something I said?" Theodore heard the man weakly ask as Theodore helped brush off the brown pinstripe suit as the man recovered from the kick.
He fixed his hair, a dark shade of brown, and he groggily looked towards Lila as she crossed her arms.
"You didn't have to kick me, you know!" The man chided Lila for kicking him near across the room, but she countered quickly that he deserved it on account that he suddenly appeared in front of her out of nowhere.
The man snorted as he replied, "It wasn't like I was gonna hurt you!"
Theodore called to him and asked him, "Who is this and why are you here?"
The man balked at Theodore before asking, "I should be asking the same thing. Who're you and what've you done to Basil?!"
Basil?
Lila recoiled at this before asking the man, "Excuse me, you're saying this thing's called 'Basil' should've we brought some thyme with us?"
Corny, she knows, but Lila saw an opportunity and took it.
Theodore didn't agree with her before he asked again, "How'd you know it?"
Sadness in his eyes, the man looked towards the alien as its lifeless body draped across the floor, as he explained to them that it wasn't normally called Basil, he just came up with it. Not much he could do on account Basil's real name wasn't something that an AI's able to translate and speak in realtime.
"He was helping me with something. Found him by chance, he took a shine on me, so he let me stay here more than once," the man fondly remembered how Basil let him stay. He did try to kill him before that, but the man forgave Basil, he's wearied about strangers in his library.
"Okay, so, explain something to us, why'd he write about humans?" Lila wanted an answer about the quirk the alien held and the man replied that Basil liked humans. He found them charming in his own strange way and liked writing them, no matter who.
Theodore asked what Basil helped the man with and he exhaled sharply before saying, "I'm looking for anything pointing me in the right direction. I'm looking for someone and I'd hoped Basil could help me."
The man drearily told Theodore that he needed Basil's help in tracking down someone for him, but there's a snag in his plan.
"And that'd be?" Lila raised a brow at the man.
Sighing, the man told her, "I've reasons to believe my father was an alien. Basil didn't write about aliens, so I was hoping he'd find my mother's biography. Maybe it'd have details about my father."
Raising his brow, Theodore asked for the man's name and he didn't give it, rather, he gave a completely different answer.
"I'm the Doctor," said the man as he pulled on his brown pinstripe jacket.