As Glitz tried to take all that had happened in, the Doctor began striding swiftly across the sandy landscape.
"Where are you off to now?" asked Glitz as he moved to catch up with the Doctor.
"To trace the Valeyard."
"But he was right here."
"Illusion, Glitz!" snapped the Doctor in frustration. "The shadow, not the substance. But if you don't want to come, you can stay here and build sandcastles. I'm sure if you think hard enough, you can conjure up a bucket and spade."
Glitz gave the Doctor a serious look. "Tell you something. If you two meet face to face, five grotzits gives you ten he's first past the chequered flag."
But the Doctor simply ignored him and carried on. Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, the whole setting changed around them. Gone were the large sand dunes, replaced by a series of alleyways made up of old wharfs and the crumbling brickwork of warehouses, with an air of dampness and rot about the place.
"Ere, now what's happening?" spluttered Glitz feeling more confused by the second.
"Well, if I'm not much mistaken, this is supposed to be a representation of London, near the River Thames," mused the Doctor as he took in the new setting. "You know, this looks similar to a place I visited in my last incarnation."
Glitz shook his head dispiritingly and shot a gloomy look up at the sky. As he did so, he spotted something moving along one of the walkways. It seemed to be the shape of a bald-headed man, but its skin seemed to be smooth and shiny, like something out of a waxwork museum. The figure spotted them, raised a hand towards them, and before Glitz's astonished eyes, the hand dropped away on a hidden hinged joint, revealing a tube-like nozzle that emerged from a hole in the wrist.
"Gah, look out!" exclaimed Glitz as he shoved the Doctor aside, just as a energy bolt shot out from the nozzle of the figure's wrist-gun and blasted a huge hole in the spot where the Doctor had just been standing a second ago. A little startled, the Doctor looked up at their assailant.
"An Auton!" he exclaimed. "Quick, let's get under cover!"
The two men darted down another alley, dodging laser bolt after laser bolt from the Auton above them. As they took cover behind an archway, Glitz could hear a series of clanging noises and to his horror, he saw a number of manhole covers bursting open from the path next to them. Through the now-open sewer holes, several silver robotic figures began to clamber out and advance menacingly towards them.
"Oh great, those are Zyber-Men, aren't they?" groaned Glitz. "Now what are we going to do?"
The Doctor pointed towards one of the nearest warehouses. "Quick, let's take cover in there!"
They ran for the wooden doors of the warehouse, with the Cybermen in hot pursuit, raising their weapons and firing after the two fugitives. One blast narrowly missed Glitz's head and he yelped in alarm, before he and the Doctor darted into the warehouse and slammed the door shut behind them.
"Th-this is ju-just an illusion, isn't it?" stammered Glitz as the Doctor locked the door. "They c-can't actually hurt us, can they?"
"Alas, I'm afraid they can," said the Doctor solemnly as he finished bolting the door. "This is in deadly earnest."
No sooner did he say this, than a metal fist smashed through the old wood of the door and began groping around to get a handhold on its prey.
"Quick, run!" shouted the Doctor, as he and Glitz darted up a nearby flight of stairs, as the door began to buckle beneath the sheer strength of the Cybermen.
At that moment, the Doctor and Glitz's flight was being displayed on the matrix screen in the courtroom, where the Doctor's companions, along with the rest of the court, looked on in appalled fascination.
"We can't just sit here and do nothing," protested Peri. "We've got to help them!"
Mel turned to face the Inquisitor, an accusing look on her face. "You got the Doctor into this mess. You've got to get him out of there!"
The Inquisitor shook her head. "The Doctor chose to enter the Matrix. We are not empowered to interfere."
The Keeper nodded in agreement. "You are applying logical thought to a situation that recognises no logic," he stated to Mel.
"Oh, to heck with logic!" snapped Peri angrily. "If you lot won't go in there to help, then I will!"
She began to dart towards the Matrix door in the reception area, but the Keeper simply stuck out his foot and tripped her up, sending her crashing to the floor.
Back in the warehouse, the Doctor and Glitz had darted into a deserted room on the upper-level, slamming the door shut and pulling some crates over to blockade the entrance.
"Well, hopefully that should keep them out for a bit," said the Doctor not very convincingly as the sound of hammering could be heard from the other side.
"Yeah, but we can't get out either," muttered Glitz, noting that there was no other exit to the large, dark room. "Where are all these nasties coming from anyway?"
"From my own past, I'm afraid," said the Doctor. "The Valeyard is bringing up projections of some of my deadliest enemies in order to kill us."
Abruptly, the hammering on the other side of the door stopped and Glitz let out a sigh of relief. "Phew, looks like they've given up."
"I doubt it," retorted the Doctor doubtfully. "They wouldn't let the simple matter of a blocked door get in their way."
"Well, what do you suppose they're up to then?" asked Glitz apprehensively.
The answer came in the form of a loud hum from behind them. As the two men turned to face the far wall on the other side of the room, they saw a pulsing beam of light. Inside this beam, a robotic-looking creature materialised, cream and gold in colour, with a mechanical eyestalk mounted on its dome, while on the front of its midsection was a telescopic manipulator arm and a short stubby gunstick, which was pointed directly at the Doctor and Glitz.
"STAY WHERE YOU ARE!" grated the Dalek in the same monotone voice that the Doctor knew all too well. "DO NOT MOVE!"
"Oh great, now what do we do?" asked Glitz in terror.
"Scatter!" exclaimed the Doctor, leaping over to take cover behind a concrete pillar. The Dalek swerved and fired a deadly energy beam from its gun, narrowly missing the Doctor as he disappeared from sight behind the concrete block. Taking advantage of the Dalek being distracted, Glitz darted across the room, taking cover behind some more crates. The Dalek began to swerve from one side to the other, trying to catch sight of either of its two targets.
"SURRENDER OR YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED," demanded the Dalek. "YOU CANNOT ESCAPE THE POWER OF THE DALEKS."
From his hiding place, a terrified Glitz clapped his hands together and cast his eyes upwards as if in prayer. "Oh, great cosmic protector of grafters and dissemblers, save me! Save me! I'm about to be blasted by a deadly motorised dustbin sent from the depths of hell itself!"
As if to answer Glitz's desperate pleas, a large stone pillar suddenly materialised in the centre of the room, accompanied by the wheezing noise of a TARDIS materialising. The Dalek swung around in time to see a hidden door set into the pillar swing inwards and through the now-open doorway, to the astonishment of everyone present, emerged the Master.
"EXTERMINATE!" screeched the Dalek, firing its energy weapon at the new intruder. But the Master swiftly ducked out of the way of the energy beam and drew out his own deadly weapon, a torch-like device known as a Tissue Compression Eliminator, capable of excessively reducing the bodies of its intended victims to the size of small dolls, killing them almost instantly. Before the Dalek had a chance to defend itself, the Master fired his weapon and an intense streak of red light shot out, hitting the Dalek at point-blank range. Within the blink of an eye, the Dalek had been compressed into the size of a toy and it lay lifeless on the floor.
Chuckling to himself, the Master addressed the incredulous looks of the Doctor and Glitz. "I suggest you two come with me, that is if you wish to keep breathing."
As the warehouse door began to buckle and splinter from the assault of the Cybermen, the Doctor and Glitz hurriedly followed the Master into the relative safety of his TARDIS. The stone column promptly faded away, just as the wooden doors finally broke open and the Cybermen strode in, just seconds too late to catch their intended prey.