A/N: I'm so sorry that this hasn't been updated since April! I was busy with uni, then was horribly burnt out for a month. But now there should be more regular updates until October, at the very minimum. Thanks for sticking with me and this story, please enjoy!


"Turn left, go about half a mile, follow tunnel two seven three. The fall's right ahead of you, you can't miss it."

"And when do we get our dollar?" the young man, who they now knew to be Frank, asked.

"When you come back up," Diagoras answered, in a sly way that made it sound like they might not be coming back up at all.

"And if we don't come back up?" the Doctor questioned.

"Then I got no one to pay."

"Don't worry, we'll be back," Solomon said, as he turned away, down the tunnel.

"Let's hope so," Martha mumbled.

One by one, the group started to follow Solomon down deeper into the sewer system. But Ryan felt a hand on his shoulder. He glanced back, seeing the Doctor eye Diarogas wearily, unblinking. Diagoras matched his stare. The Doctor could have easily hardened his gaze further, but chose not to.

The Doctor's hand slipped down from Ryan's shoulder to hold his upper arm. They turned away from Diagoras, clicking on their torches as they followed everyone else down into the tunnels.

"We just gotta stick together," Ryan heard Frank say, up ahead. "It's easy to get lost. It's like a huge rabbit warren – could hide an army down here."

Fingers drifted down Ryan's arm, and entangled with his in familiar motions. He smiled, leaning his head against the Doctor's shoulder, inhaling his warm, comforting, homey scent. The Doctor gave Ryan's hand a quick tug, and they followed the rest of the group.

Ryan had greatly missed holding the Doctor's hand, ignoring the voice in the back of his head that was telling him it had only been a couple of hours since they had left the TARDIS. He was even more pointedly ignoring another voice in the back of his head, which was trying to see the romantic side of the situation, that the Doctor had purposely lingered behind so that they could hold hands. Ryan rolled his eyes – they were literally in a sewer, for god's sake – there was nothing remotely romantic about traipsing through underground passageways that stank of shit and other – worse – things that Ryan didn't want to think about.

He glanced up briefly at the Doctor, whose face was slightly screwed up (Ryan suspected that his ever-agile left eyebrow was raised in curiosity) as he quickly scanned the slimy brick walls with his torch.

He caught Martha's voice from further up ahead. "So what about you, Frank? You're not from around these parts, are you?"

"You can talk!" Frank exclaimed. "No, I'm Tennessee born and bred."

"So how come you're here?"

"Oh… my daddy died, Momma couldn't afford to feed us all, so I'm the oldest – up to me to feed myself. So I put on my coat, hitched up here on the railroads. There's a whole lot of runaways in the camp, younger than me, from all over – Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas. Solomon keeps a look out for us… so what about you? You're a long way from home."

"Yeah," Martha agreed. "I just, um, travel around with Ryan and the Doctor.

"They can't know everywhere though," Frank replied. "You stick with me, you'll be alright."

Seemingly out of nowhere, the Doctor gave Ryan's hand a quick squeeze before disentangling their fingers. He lengthened his stride to catch up with the rest of the group. Ryan copied, realising what the Doctor was up to.

"So Solomon, this Diagoras bloke, who is he?" the Doctor asked, once he was walking beside Solomon.

"Couple of months ago, he was just another foreman. Now seems like he's running most of Manhattan."

"How'd he manage that?" Ryan questioned.

Solomon shrugged. "These are strange times. A man can go from being the king of the hill to the lowest of the low overnight. Guess for some folks it works the other way round."

"What the hell…"

"Doctor!"

"What is it?" the Doctor asked as he shimmied his way to the front of the group, to Frank and Martha. "Whoa!"

Ryan craned his neck to see what had caught everyone's attention – a weird, fleshy thing, glowing green in the torchlight. Some sort of fusion between a jellyfish and a brain.

"Is it radioactive or something?" Martha asked.

The Doctor bent down and slipped on his glasses. Ryan and Martha both grimaced as he gathered it up in his hands – and Ryan decided then and there that would be no more handholding until the Doctor had washed his hands – with soap – and at least ten different hand sanitisers.

"Don't you dare lick it," Ryan muttered as the Doctor raised the flesh to his face and gave it a sniff. The Doctor stopped, and turned to look at Ryan, a sheepish smile on his face. The Doctor turned his attention back towards the flesh, rubbing it with his thumbs.

"Shine your torch through it," he instructed Martha. "Composite organic matter," he muttered. "Martha, medical opinion?"

"It's not human, I know that."

The Doctor nodded and looked over his shoulder. "Ryan?"

Ryan blinked. "You want my non-medical opinion?"

"Yep."

"You'd have to pay me at least ten grand to touch it without gloves," Ryan grumbled. The Doctor tilted his head to the side in a 'fair enough' sort of manner. He paused for a moment, before standing suddenly. "And I'll tell you something else," he said, looking at Solomon and Frank. "We must be at least half a mile in and I don't see any sign of a collapse, do you? So why did Mr Diagoras send us down here?"

"Could be a trap," Ryan reasoned. "You know, what you were saying earlier." He nodded at Solomon. "About men not coming back up." Fear flickered over Frank and Solomon's faces.

"Where are we now, what's up above?" Martha asked.

"Well," the Doctor replied, drawing the word out. "We're right underneath Manhattan."


They continued to wander through the tunnels, striding with a new sense of purpose.

"We're way beyond half a mile," Solomon said from the front of the group. "There's no collapse, nothing."

"That Diagoras bloke, was he lying?" Martha asked.

"Had to be," Ryan said quickly.

"Yeah, looks like it," the Doctor agreed.

"So why did he want people to come down here?" Frank questioned nervously.

The Doctor ignored him. "Solomon, I think it's time you take Frank back. We'll be much quicker by ourselves."

An inhuman squeal suddenly pierced the air, echoing through the tunnels. Heads snapped around, searching for the source of the noise.

"What the hell was that?" muttered Solomon.

"Hello?" called Frank, loudly. Martha and Ryan immediately shushed him.

"What if it's one of the folk gone missing?" Frank whispered. "You'd be scared half mad down here on your own."

"You think they're still alive?" questioned the Doctor.

"Heck, we ain't seen no bodies down here. Maybe they just got lost."

They heard another sudden round of squealing.

"I never heard nobody make a sound like that," said Solomon.

"Neither," Ryan agreed. At least nobody human.

"Where's it coming from?" asked Frank. The Doctor slowly continued to walk in the direction they were heading, as the squealing continued.

"I think there's more than one," Ryan reasoned as he started to follow the Doctor. The squealing was coming from all around them.

"This way," the Doctor said.

"No, that way," Solomon countered, pointing his torch down a tunnel to their right.

Martha was facing the opposite direction. "Doctor," she whispered, scared. The rest of the group slowly turned around, shining their torches on a figure crouched the corner.

"Who are you?" questioned Solomon.

"Are you lost?" asked Frank. "Can you understand me? I been thinking about folk lost down here."

The Doctor held an arm out to stop Frank from getting any closer to the figure. "It's all right, Frank, just stay back. Let me have a look." He glanced at Ryan who nodded, and they both slowly approached the person in the corner.

"He's got a point though, my mate Frank," the Doctor continued. "I'd hate to be stuck down here all on my own. But we know the way out, daylight, if you come with us…"

They crouched down and Ryan swallowed sharply as the Doctor shone his torch into the creature's face. Its body was human-shaped, but it had a pig's head. That explained the squealing, at least.

"Oh, but what are you?" the Doctor wondered.

"You don't recognise it?" Ryan asked. The Doctor shook his head.

"Is that some kinda carnival mask?" Solomon asked in disbelief.

The Doctor looked back over his shoulder. "No, it's real." He turned back towards the pig creature. "I'm sorry. But listen to me. I promise we can help. Who did this to you?"

"Doctor… Ryan…" warned Martha. "I think you'd better get back here." Ryan's head snapped up to see more pig creatures had appeared from around a corner, snorting in a way that wasn't entirely non-threatening. He carefully stood up, and started to slowly back away.

"Doctor…" Ryan said lowly, when the man in question seemed more reluctant to start making an escape.

"Actually…" the Doctor said as he stood and began to back away, "good point."

"They're following you," Martha pointed out. More and more of the pig creatures were appearing from the depths of the sewers, beadily eyeing the group.

"Yeah, I noticed that, thanks," the Doctor replied sarcastically. "Right then… Ryan, Martha, Frank, Solomon. I think, um, basically…"

Ryan was very familiar with the drill by now. "Run!" he yelled.

They legged it back down the tunnel as the loudly squealing and grunting pig creatures made their chase.

"Where are we going?" screamed Martha.

"This way!" the Doctor shouted, taking the lead and directing everyone down a tunnel to the right. They ran another hundred metres or so before the Doctor back-tracked again. "There's a ladder, come on!" he hollered. He dashed up the ladder and opened the manhole cover with the sonic screwdriver. He climbed up, closely followed by Martha and Ryan, the former tossing her torch away.

"Hurry up!" shouted Ryan, down to the two Americans who were yet to make their escape.

"Frank!" Solomon yelled, before climbing up the ladder and being hauled out by Ryan. The noise of the pig creatures grew tenfold, and Frank finally appeared on the ladder. The Doctor and Solomon reached down, grasping Frank's arm as the pig creatures grabbed his torso, yanking him in the other direction.

"Come on!" they screamed, but the sheer number of pig creatures pulling Frank down was too great, and they lost their grip on Frank.

"NO!" the Doctor cried, as Solomon shoved him out of the way and slid the manhole cover back into place.

"We can't go after him," he grunted.

"But we can't just leave him!" Ryan protested, as the Doctor started to open the manhole again.

"No!" Solomon argued, pushing the Doctor away from the manhole, glaring at them both. "I'm not losing anyone else! Those creatures were from Hell, from Hell itself! If we go after him, they'll take us all! There's nothing we can do. I'm sorry."

"All right then, put 'em up!" came a feminine voice with a strong New York accent. Ryan turned to see a blonde woman in a black dress pointing a pistol at them. He carefully raised his hands with Martha and Solomon as the woman cocked the gun. "Hands in the air and no funny business!" she reiterated as the Doctor was more hesitant to put his hands up. "Now tell me, you shmucks. Whaddya done with Laszlo?"

Ryan blinked mutely. "Sorry, but who's Laszlo?"

"Come with me," the woman said curtly, leading them to a dressing table where she sat down. "Laszlo's my boyfriend. Or was my boyfriend, until he disappeared, two weeks ago. No letter, no goodbye, no nothing," she explained, gesticulating wildly with the gun still in hand, making the others incredibly nervous. She continued. "And I'm not stupid, I know some guys are just pigs, but not my Laszlo. I mean, what kinda guy asks you to meet his mom before he vamooses?"

"It might just help if you put that down…" the Doctor said calmly, gesturing towards the gun.

"Huh?" The woman looked confused, then seemed to remember that she was still holding a gun. "Oh, sure." She lazily tossed it onto a pile of fabric, causing everyone to wince. She laughed at their reaction. "Oh, c'mon, it's not real, it's just a prop – it was either that or a spear."

Martha took a step forward. "What do you think happened to Laszlo?"

"I wish I knew. One minute he's there, the next – zip – vanished."

The Doctor carefully approached her. "Listen, erm, what was your name?"

"Tallulah."

"Tallulah," the Doctor parroted.

"Three L's and an H," she clarified.

"Right." The Doctor swallowed. "Um, we can try and find Laszlo, but he's not the only one. There are people disappearing every night."

"And there are creatures," Solomon added. "Such creatures…"

"Whaddya mean, creatures?" Tallulah questioned.

"Look, listen, just trust me. Everyone is in danger," the Doctor interrupted, and started to fumble in his coat pocket. "I need to find out exactly what this is," he said as he pulled out the weird brain-jellyfish thing, "because then I'll know exactly what we're fighting."

Tallulah grimaced. "Yay," she said sarcastically.

"My thoughts exactly," said Ryan.


Ryan was scouring what he now knew to be a prop-store, looking for any kind of electronic device – the Doctor said he needed the components. He spotted an old-fashioned telephone (which almost definitely wasn't considered old-fashioned in the current time period), and grabbed it.

He quickly found the Doctor again. "Is this any use?" he asked.

The Doctor gently took the telephone from Ryan and turned it in his hands. "Yeah, sure I can find something to use, from here." He flashed Ryan a wide grin. "Thanks."

He put the telephone on a small pile of other things he had found scattered about, and Solomon reappeared, holding a small clock.

"How 'bout this? Found it backstage," he said, handing it to the Doctor.

"Perfect. It's definitely got the capacitors I need," the Doctor said, as he took the clock's back cover off. "I'm just rigging up a crude little DNA scan, for this beastie. If I can get a chromosomal reading, I can find out where it's from."

"How 'bout you? Where are you from?"

"I'm from London," Ryan said politely. It wasn't a lie.

Solomon nodded once. "What about you, Doctor? I been all over, I never heard anybody talk like you. Just who exactly are you?"

"Oh, I'm from all over the place," the Doctor said, distracted by the internals of the clock. "We're just, sort of, passing by." Ryan shot him a glare for his rudeness.

Solomon narrowed his eyes. "I'm not a fool, Doctor."

The Doctor stopped his fiddling. "No. Sorry."

Solomon broke eye contact, and walked the few short steps to the manhole leading back into the sewers. "I was scared. I let 'em take Frank cos… I was just so scared."

"It's okay to be scared," Ryan said.

Solomon nodded. "I gotta get back to Hooverville," he said quickly. "With those creatures on the loose, we gotta protect ourselves. Cos no one else is gonna help us."

"Good luck," the Doctor said to Solomon's retreating back.

"And take care of yourself," Ryan added.

Solomon turned back in acknowledgement. "I hope you find what you're looking for, for all our sakes."

They watched Solomon leave, before the Doctor turned to Ryan. "I'm gonna go up to the gallery, you coming with?"

"Yeah, I'm just gonna see how Martha and Tallulah are doing."

"Sure, see you in a few?"

"Mmm, see ya."

Ryan meandered through the prop-store back to Tallulah's dressing table. He froze behind a clothes rack when he heard Tallulah talking.

"- that hot potato in the sharp suit." They could only be talking about the Doctor.

He heard Martha laugh. "No! We're not together! I think his interests lie elsewhere…"

"Oh, I shoulda realised. He's into musical theatre, huh? What a waste…" The euphemism wasn't wasted on Ryan. He didn't hear Martha say anything, but then heard a squeal of excitement from Tallulah. "Oh my god, are you being serious?!"

"Yeah!" Martha chuckled.

"Aww, that's so adorable!"

They dissolved into giggles, and Ryan decided to stop eavesdropping and slipped away. Everything seemed to be going just fine.