Inside, TARDIS, Console room...
"So, what do you think?" The Doctor asked the Guardian as the two of them went about working the controls of the console.
"What do you mean?" The Guardian questioned him, not looking up as she typed something into a typewriter-like keyboard.
"Oh, like you don't know." He rolled his eyes.
"Yes, well, that is why I asked."
"Come on, Ari." The Doctor urged as he flipped a couple of switches. "It might do you good."
"I'm not like you." The Guardian sighed, pulling the monitor to where it was right in front of her face. "I don't come across people and ask them to run away with me after I almost get them killed."
"I don't do that." He frowned, leaning past the time rotor to look at her.
"Yeah." She snickered, rolling her eyes. "Look, I'm only here 'cause you brought me along. This wasn't my choice."
"Oh, really?" The Doctor went and pushed the monitor away from the Guardian to get her to look at him, raising an eyebrow at her. "Would you have preferred the alternative?"
"Being dead and not having to live with survivor's guilt?" She asked, knowing full-well that it wasn't even a question. "Hell yes."
With that and a slight glare aimed the Doctor's way, she defiantly pulled the monitor screen back in front of her face.
"That's what you think this is?" He asked her quietly, watching as she went back to typing on the typewriter-like keyboard.
Sighing internally, the Guardian just shook her head. "And you don't...? Now, can we please just drop it?"
Not really having a good answer for that, the Doctor just went back to working the controls. "Look, like it or not, this is what it is."
"Doctor." The Guardian said, a worried expression growing on her face as she looked at the monitor.
"And also like it or not," The Doctor continued. "you and I, we're all each other's got now."
"Doctor." The Guardian said again, her grip on the edge of the console tightening.
"Look, the point is –"
"Doctor!" The Guardian shouted, cutting him off and finally getting him to pay attention to her. "We've got a problem."
"Don't we always?" The Doctor sighed before rounding the console. "What's the issue?"
"That." The Guardian jabbed a particular spot on the monitor screen with her finger.
The Doctor squinted, peering over her shoulder as they looked at the monitor. "You put out a tracking signal?"
"Well, duh." The Guardian rolled her eyes, gesturing at the plastic arm that laid on the console. "You didn't bring that for nothing. Come on, Daisy and Rose are in danger."
"Well, then," The Doctor rolled his eyes right back as he went and pulled a lever. "time to pay them and their... friend a visit."
•••
Inside, Restaurant...
"Do you think I should try the hospital?" Rose wondered as she ate her meal, her, Daisy and Mickey all sitting together at a small table in a little Italian restaurant. "Suki said they had a few jobs going in the canteen. Is that it, then, dishing out chips?"
"There are A Levels, Ro." Daisy suggested, her chin resting in the palm of her hand while she absentmindedly swirled her drink around in its glass with the other.
"I don't know." Rose sighed, clasping her hands together as she rested her elbows on top of the table. "Like I know that's what you did, Zee. And now you've got a job that you really like. Look at me... Never should've listened to that Jimmy Stone. It's all his fault, you know. I only left school because of him. Look where he ended up."
"I told you I never liked him." Daisy shook her head before raising her glass and sipping through her straw.
"What do you think, Mickey?" Rose asked, turning her head to look at her boyfriend.
Mickey just stared at the two sisters, grinning. "So, where did you meet this Doctor and Aria Carington?"
Rose blinked, surprised by the question. "I'm sorry, wasn't I talking about me for a second?"
"Because I reckon it started back at the shop, am I right? Were they something to do with that?"
Daisy raised an eyebrow as she set her drink back down on the table. "No...?"
"Come on!"
"Sort of." She sighed.
"What were they doing there?"
"We're not going on about it, Mickey." Rose shook her head, folding her arms on top of the table. "Really, we're not, because... I know it sounds daft, but I don't think it's safe. I think they're dangerous."
"But you can trust me, sweetheart. Babe, sugar, darling, sugar." Mickey grinned, putting his hand over Rose's, his voice changing slightly. "You can tell me anything. Tell me about the Doctor and Aria Carington and what they're planning, and I can help you. Because that's all I really want to do, sweetheart, babe, sugar, sweetheart."
Daisy blinked as she watched the way Mickey held his hand on top of Rose's, the way his fingers curled around the sides of her hand. "Mick... Why are you being weird?"
"Your champagne." A waiter said, approaching their table with a champagne bottle in his hands.
"We didn't order any champagne." Mickey shook his head, not taking his eyes off Rose and Daisy. "Where're the Doctor and Aria Carington?"
The waiter simply moved to the other side of the table and held the bottle out to Rose. "Ma'am, your champagne."
"It's not ours." Rose waved him off, not taking her eyes off her boyfriend. "Mickey, what is it? What's wrong?"
"I need to find out how much you know, so where are they?" Mickey snapped.
"Doesn't anybody want this champagne?" The waiter complained, Rose and Daisy both stiffening as they looked at each other with wide eyes. Their waiter hadn't had a Lancashire accent!
"Look, we didn't order it!" Mickey snapped, finally looking up before he grinned. "Ah. Gotcha!"
Rose and Daisy looked up, startled, to see the Doctor grinning as he started to shake the champagne bottle. "Don't mind me. I'm just toasting the happy couple."
"Time to stop being the third wheel, don't you think?" The Guardian suddenly asked as she grabbed Daisy's hand, making her whip her head around to see the Guardian standing there grinning. "Come on!"
"Ha!" The Doctor laughed, giving the bottle a couple more good shakes as the Guardian quickly pulled Daisy to her feet. "On the house!"
With that, the cork of the champagne bottle flew into Mickey's forehead, Rose and Daisy gasping as Mickey's face warped into plastic.
Plastic Mickey spat the cork out and grinned. "Anyway..."
Rose squealed, shooting out of her chair and backing away to be by her sister and the Guardian as the Auton Mickey stood and turned his hand into a chopper.
The plastic Mickey then wrecked the table before the Doctor wrapped an arm around its neck and yanked off the head.
"Don't think that's going to stop me!" The head warned before the body started flailing, getting up and causing havoc.
"Alright, we're out of here." The Guardian said quickly before grabbing the sisters' hands and tugging them along, pulling the fire alarm as they passed it, the alarm wailing. "Everyone out!" She called as the Doctor rushed after them. "Out, now! Get out! Just get out of here, now!"
The two Time Lords and the Tyler twins ran through the kitchens, the Doctor carrying the plastic head as they all ran out of a back exit.
•••
Outside, Alley...
When the quartet made it outside, the Doctor tossed the head to the Guardian before using the sonic to seal the exit while Daisy and Rose ran to the gates at the end of the alley.
"Open the gate!" Rose shouted, banging on the locked gates. "Use that tube thing, come on!"
"Sonic screwdriver." The Doctor corrected.
"Use it!" Daisy rolled her eyes, banging on the gates herself.
"Nah, that's alright." The Guardian waved them off. "Why don't we go in here?"
The sisters gawked as they watched the Guardian approach the blue police box sitting in the alley before unlocking it.
"It'll make more sense once we're inside." The Doctor told them before following the Guardian inside the box.
"You two can't hide inside a wooden box!" Rose shouted as the plastic Mickey hammered on the metal door, making dents.
"Ugh." Daisy grunted, trying to pry the lock open. "It's gonna get us!"
"Doctor! Aria!" Rose and Daisy attempted to open the gate one last time, then ran to the box and dashed inside.
•••
Inside, TARDIS, Console room...
The Tyler twins skidded to a stop, their eyes widening as they looked at the inside before they ran back out.
•••
Outside, Alley...
They ran around the box, both of them still absolutely stunned, then watched as the plastic Mickey broke out of the metal door. Not wanting to get caught, the two sisters quickly dashed back inside the box.
•••
Inside, TARDIS, Console room...
The two of them slammed the doors shut, both of them leaning back against the doors themselves, breathing heavily.
"It's gonna follow us!" Daisy exclaimed as she rushed up to the console.
"The assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door, and believe me, they've tried." The Doctor said as he and the Guardian moved around the console in the middle of the vast room. "Now, shut up a minute."
"You'll have to excuse him." The Guardian said as she wired up the Auton head to the console. "Manners aren't really his strong-suit."
Rose and Daisy looked around, stunned at the interior. It was copper and bronze, like coral, stretching from floor to ceiling... and it was massive! It was absolutely huge!
"You see, the arm was too simple. Although, it did help us track down the Auton that was with you two." The Doctor thought out loud as he went and checked the head the Guardian had wired up. "However, this head is perfect."
"Isn't it?" The Guardian grinned, clapping him on the shoulder. "We can use it to trace the signal back to the original source."
"Right." The Doctor nodded in agreement before the two of them turned towards the Tyler twins. "Where do you want to start?"
The sisters both just took one look around and both said the one thing that stuck out. "The inside's bigger than the outside."
"Yes." The Guardian nodded as she leaned back on the console, crossing her boots at the ankles.
"It's... alien." Daisy managed to say.
"Yep." The Doctor confirmed, crossing his arms as he stood next to where the Guardian was leaning against the console.
Rose bit her lip in thought. "Are you aliens?"
"Yeah." The Guardian tilted her head. "Is that alright, you know, with you both?"
The two sisters took deep breaths, both still staring at these two strange individuals. "Er... yeah."
The Doctor couldn't help but smile slightly. "It's called the TARDIS, this thing." He gestured. "T-A-R-D-I-S, that's Time And Relative Dimension In Space."
Rose looked back at the plastic Mickey's head, and her eyes teared up, thinking about him. Daisy moved her gaze over to where Rose was looking and clapped a hand over her mouth.
No, Mickey!
"That's okay. Culture shock." The Guardian told them, her and the Doctor not yet realizing what truly had the two sisters upset. "Happens to the best of us."
"Did they kill him? Mickey?" Rose asked. "Did they kill Mickey? Is he dead?"
"Oh." The Doctor blinked. "I... didn't think of that." He really actually hadn't. He and the Guardian had been so focused on the plastic.
"I'm..." The Guardian trailed off, her gaze darting from the plastic head to Rose and Daisy. "...sorry."
"He's Rose's boyfriend!" Daisy glared at the Guardian. "He pulled off his head." She shot a glare the Doctor's way. "They copied him, and neither of you even thought!"
As her sister shouted at the two Time Lords, something caught Rose's eye, making her gasp as she looked past them. "Are you just going to let him melt?"
"Melt?" The Doctor and the Guardian repeated, turning, both of them groaning when they saw the plastic head was indeed melting. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no!"
Rose and Daisy grabbed onto the rail when the Doctor and the Guardian began frantically working at the controls of the console, the Doctor flipping a few levers and the Guardian flicking switches here and there.
"What are you doing?" Daisy managed to ask, her grip on the rail tightening.
"Following the signal." The Doctor turned the monitor around. "It's fading."
"Wait, hang on." The Guardian quickly rushed to help him. "We've got it. It's not lost. It can't be lost."
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" The Doctor exclaimed. "Almost there, almost there... here we go!"
Rose and Daisy felt everything settle, the Doctor and the Guardian then running for the door.
"You can't go out there!" Rose shouted as she and Daisy ran after them. "It's not safe!"
•••
Outside, Thames embankment...
The Tyler twins gasped, looking around when they saw they were definitely nowhere near the Italian restaurant they had been at. Oh, no. It was nighttime now, and they were on the north embankment of the Thames right across from the London Eye.
"We lost the signal." The Doctor huffed.
The Guardian put her hands on her hips, biting her lip as she thought. "We got so close..."
"We've... moved." Daisy muttered, whirling around to face the Guardian. "Like actually moved."
"Yes, we have." The Guardian responded, not looking at her.
"Does it fly?"
"Disappears there and reappears here." The Doctor shrugged. "You wouldn't understand."
"But if we're somewhere else, what about that headless thing?" Rose asked, coming up to stand beside Daisy. "It's still on the loose."
"It melted with the head." The Doctor shook his head. "Are you two going to witter on all night?"
"Doctor." The Guardian elbowed him in the side as Rose shot him a glare.
"I'll have to tell his mother. Mickey." Rose muttered. "I'll have to tell his mother he's dead, and you just went and forgot him, again!"
"You really are aliens." Daisy couldn't help but shake her head.
"Look, we've got a lot on our plate right now." The Guardian told them, having had enough the arguing and glaring. "Sorry if we forgot Mickey. But we're trying to save the life of every human being blundering on top of this planet, alright?"
"Alright." Rose sighed.
Daisy pursed her lips in thought, titling her head as she looked at the Guardian. "If you are an alien, how come you sound Cockney like me and Rose?"
"Oh, believe me." She let out a huff of laughter. "I am not Cockney. Far from it."
"Alright." Rose turned towards the Doctor. "Then how come you sound like you're from the North?"
He huffed, crossing his arms indignantly. "Lots of planets have a north."
Daisy then turned to the TARDIS, as it was called. "What's a police public call box?"
The Guardian smirked. "You two ask a lot of questions."
Rose laughed slightly. "Well, can you blame us if we're curious?"
The Doctor just grinned at them all as he pat the TARDIS fondly. "It's a telephone box from the 1950s." He said, answering Daisy's question. "It's a disguise."
"Alright..." Daisy nodded slowly before shrugging. "Well, weirder things have been seen as of late."
"But what about this living plastic stuff?" Rose shook her head, trying to make sense of things. "What exactly has it got against us?"
"Not a thing." The Guardian smirked, crossing her arms as she leaned against the side of the TARDIS. "It loves you. You've got such a good planet. There's lots of smoke and oil, loads of toxins and dioxins in the air. Perfect." She leaned her head against the TARDIS as she thought out loud. "It's exactly what the Nestene Consciousness needs. Its food stock was destroyed in the... in the, er..." She paused, swallowing while Rose and Daisy looked at her curiously.
"Anyway," The Doctor cut in, putting a hand on the Guardian's shoulder. "all its protein plants rotted, so Earth... dinner."
"Any way of stopping it?" Daisy asked, managing to move her gaze from the Guardian to the Doctor.
"Oh!" The Guardian suddenly exclaimed as she came back to reality, quickly pulling a vial of blue liquid from her jacket pocket. "Anti-plastic!"
"Anti-plastic?" Rose repeated in surprise.
"Anti-plastic." The Doctor confirmed as the Guardian handed him the little vial. "But first, we've got to find it. How can you hide something that big in a city this small?"
"Hang on a minute." Daisy said, holding her hands up as she and Rose followed the two Time Lords along the street. "Hide what?"
"The transmitter." The Guardian answered. "The Consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic. So, therefore, it needs a transmitter to boost the signal."
"What's it look like?"
"Like a transmitter." The Doctor replied as the four of them stopped for a moment, the Doctor pacing back and forth. "Round and massive, slap bang in the middle of London. A huge circular metal structure, like a dish, like a wheel. Close to where we're standing." He stopped before folding his arms, his back to the railings of the bridge. Behind him, the London Eye loomed 450 foot above them. The Doctor, however, did not seem to register this. "Must be completely invisible."
The Guardian took a look over the Doctor's shoulder and blinked, before slowly looking back to his face.
The Doctor narrowed his eyes at her. "What?" He asked, glancing over his shoulder before looking back, completely nonplussed.
The Guardian raised an eyebrow at him, nodding towards the London Eye.
"What?" He asked her again.
The Guardian rolled her eyes and nodded towards it again, Daisy and Rose standing off to the side as they watched this exchange.
Daisy tilted her head as she considered the duo. "Are you two always like this?"
The Doctor and the Guardian glanced at her. "Like what?"
"So... couple-y."
The Guardian scoffed. "Believe me, we are definitely not a couple." She then turned back to the Doctor. "Now, do you really not see it? 'Cause, honestly, you'd have to be blind not to."
"What is it?" The Doctor asked once again, completely bewildered as he glanced back towards the Eye again before pausing. "Oh..." He muttered before slowly looking back to the Guardian. "Fantastic!"
With that, the Doctor grinned inanely before running off, the Guardian laughing as she ran after him, Daisy and Rose sharing a look before they quickly ran after them both in the direction of Westminster Bridge.
•••
Outside, London Eye...
"Think of it!" The Doctor exclaimed with a grin as the four of them came to a halt at the foot of the Eye. "Plastic all over the world, every artificial thing waiting to come alive."
"The shop window dummies, the phones, the wires..." The Guardian listed off.
"The breast implants." Rose added.
Daisy snorted. "That'd be a sight to see."
"Still, we've found the transmitter." The Doctor said, thinking. "The Consciousness must be somewhere underneath."
Daisy quickly rushed and looked over the side of the parapet, catching sight of a large manhole entrance down below, a grin spreading across her face. "What about down there?" She asked, pointing.
The Guardian, the Doctor and Rose ran to join her, the Guardian laughing and patting Daisy on the back. "Brilliant, you are, Daisy!" She cheered before the four of them ran down the stairs to the manhole.
The Doctor took the lid off it, the Guardian helping him move it aside before the two of them climbed down the ladder underground, the Tyler twins only hesitating a second before following.