A/N: One more week to go until the finale! Read, review, and enjoy, and happy holidays!

I do not own any of the characters in this fanfic.

Chapter 15: Dalek Multiverse Chase

THE CARLYSLE – FEBRUARY 11, 2025

"Okay, what the bloody hell do we do here?" Loki asked. "Because I have never flown a ship that looked anything remotely similar to the Carlysle before."

"Trial and error, I guess," I said. "Last time all Harley and I figured out was how to hook up a TemPad so this thing could jump across the multiverse, and to do that I had to threaten the asshole writing this story so he would tell us what to do. Actually, let me just do that again." I looked at the ceiling – past all you readers and up at you, Spideypool52, and yelled, "TELL US HOW TO STEER THIS SHIP OR I'M GONNA COME TO YOUR UNIVERSE AND SHOVE MY SWORD RIGHT UP YOUR GODDAMN-"

One of the holographic screens on the far end of the room lit up. All of us walked over to it. It read:

I COULD ALWAYS WRITE THINGS SO YOU SUDDENLY FORGET HOW TO

TRAVEL ACROSS THE MULTIVERSE AND CAN'T MAKE GOOD ON YOUR

THREATS. FIGURE YOUR OWN WAY OUT OF THIS PROBLEM.

- SPIDEYPOOL52

"That mother#$%&er," I said.

"Who the hell is Spideypool52?" Rose asked.

"Some nerdy, friendless loner who gets off on making up dangerous adventures to torture us with," I said.

"Sounds like a real perv," Harley said.

"Oh, he's worse than that. He's a fanfiction writer – OW, son of a bitch!"

A chunk of stone spontaneously fell from the ceiling and crushed my foot. Okay, okay, point taken. Don't #$&% with the author or the author's gonna #$&% with you right back.

"I might be able to figure this out," Loki said. "When Thanos' forces and I were planning out invasion of New York, I was briefly onboard the Chitauri mothership. These controls look similar to those. Give me a moment and I can probably get this thing running."

Suddenly, the room jolted. We all braced ourselves against a nearby wall or control panel. "What the hell was that?" Harley asked.

"The Daleks must be starting their attack," the Doctor said. "And they're going after us too."

"Well, I guess the whole 'getting their attention' part is working," I said. "A bit too well, though, if you ask me. We don't want to be blown to #$&% before we get the chance to blow them to #$&%."

Loki read the labels next to several controls. "Exterior cameras…Q-Ship deployment…fireworks?"

"Keep looking!"

He made his way down the next aisle of controls.

"This thing is meant to have dozens of people flying it," Harley said. "Do the five of us even have a chance in hell of pulling this off?"

I jerked my thumb at the Doctor. "He flies his TARDIS built for six solo. If he can do that, we can do this."

"Ah, engines, here we go," Loki reported. He pulled a giant lever in front of him, and a low rumbling permeated the ship. "And we're in business."

"Get those damn deflector shields up now," I said. "Those Daleks aren't giving up their attack." The ship rocked again.

"How do you know this thing even has deflector shields?" Loki asked as he scanned more controls.

"Because there's an unspoken rule in science-fiction that every big, imposing spaceship like this must have deflector shields. The rest of us, over here." I snapped my fingers and pointed to the area where Harley and I had found the ship's steering systems. "I assume it's pretty involved. Last time all we did was jump it from Earth-TRN1111 to the Sacred Timeline, and then we barely even started steering it before Spectrum a.k.a. Captain Fun-Hater came in and ruined our fun. But since, if Spideypool52 so wills it, this will be a longer mission than that, steering's probably gonna be more complicated."

"I see a joystick for steering and a lever to control speed," Rose said. "Doesn't look too complicated to me."

Huh. 'Kay, that was a bit of a let-down. I walked over. She spoke the truth; that's all it was. "Okay, well it's probably manual transmission. There's gotta be a clutch or something that's gotta be enabled to change your speed."

"Hang on, there's a Post-It note here," Harley said.

"There's a – what the #$&%?" I cried. "Since when does the Black Order use Post-It notes?"

Rose read, "It says: 'Step 1: increase speed. Step 2: steer. Step 3: tell Cull Obsidian to stop eating my damn pudding cups. From Thanos.'"

"Pudding cups?" Harley raised an eyebrow. "Thanos?"

"You can read Chitauri?" Loki asked.

"Not exactly," Rose replied. "The TARDIS' translation circuit, it gets in your head and lets you translate any foreign languages you read in your mind. It just looks like English to me."

"Okay, so I guess that really is all there is to steering the Carlysle," I said. "And someone find those pudding cups. I haven't eaten in hours."

Harley grabbed the joystick and inched the lever up. The Carlysle rocked as it flew out from under the Citadel and took off away from the Daleks.

"Ah, here we go," Loki said. He tapped a series of buttons, and several more screens appeared around the room. "There's the deflector shields up and running, and there…." He swept his arm around the room, gesturing to the screens. "…are our external cameras. Can't run from the Daleks if we can't see them, after all."

Behind us, most of the Dalek fleet turned around to follow us too. A light on the controls across the room blinked. I snapped my fingers. "Doc, go get that, if you would be so kind."

The Doctor headed across the room and pressed the blinking light. Crackling static filled the room. Then the unmistakable, slightly aggravating voice of a Dalek cut through the static. "Unidentified vessel, prepare to be EXTERMINATED! You will not escape us."

Uh…we were already outpacing them, so I'm not sure what that Dalek was going on about.

"…Nah, I think we will," the Doctor said.

"Wait a minute," the Dalek said. "You are the Doctor, are you not?"

"That's right. Well, sort of. In a timey-wimey sort of way."

"We EXTERMINATED you!"

"You did in that universe, but not in a bunch of other ones, you stupid pepper pots," I shouted. "But now Pepper Potts the person, just…forget it, you don't even know who she is." Sometimes I forget everyone else isn't a fourth wall-breaking omnipath like I am. "Okay, how about this? New drinking game: every time you salt shakers say 'exterminate' and we remain un-exterminated, we do a shot. How long do you think it'll take for us to get completely #$%&-faced? I'm saying…two minutes and fourteen seconds. Someone get the wine. Thanos has pudding cups around here somewhere; you can't tell me he doesn't have a stash of good ol' jolly juice too."

"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"

"Is that what you guys fall back on when you can't think of a crushing reply?"

The transmission cut out.

Rose's eyes widened. "Wow, even Daleks can't stand you. You're really…something."

Loki pointed at me. "That man right there is absolutely one of the people of all time."

Wow, that was low. I narrowed my eyes. "#$&% off."

"Uh, guys, the Daleks are chasing us," Harley said. "All of them. It looks like this plan of ours worked. Now let's just hope those deflector shields hold up."

The Carlysle rumbled again as more Dalek blasts hit the shields.

"Are we basically jus trying to outpace them?" Harley asked.

"That's the plan," I said. "They seem pretty intent on chasing us and only chasing us, and I for one would like to keep it that – oh #$&%."

Several ships vanished from out rear cameras and immediately reappeared directly in front of us. Warping. Of course they would warp around us to box us in.

Simultaneously, several more appeared off to the sides of the Carlysle, and then above and below us too. Aaand now we were trapped. This plan went sideways fast.

The Dalek transmission resumed. "Do you have any last words before you are EXTERMINATED?"

"Yeah, but not ones I want you to hear," I said. "Doc, turn it off."

The Doctor pressed the blinking button again, and the feed shut out.

"Got an idea?" Loki asked.

"Rose, Loki, see if you can find the controls for this thing's missiles," I said. "If they blew the Avengers Compound to #$&%, then they can do the same to these ships. And also find out how to jettison the Outrider dropships – give the Daleks as many targets as possible to confuse them. Harley, get the deflector shields up on our other sides too. Protecting our backs won't do us any good if they blow us out of the sky from the front."

They all nodded and dashed to different control panels around the room.

The ship rocked, and two of our frontal cameras went offline. Damn. Alright, time for Plan B. Well, not really Plan B, since Plan A was still being enacted. More like…Plan A Version 0.1. It's a work in progress, there's gonna be updates released from time to time.

I grabbed the controls, neutralized the thrusters, and spun the ship in a hard turn to the right. Seconds later, the majority of the Dalek saucers ahead of and behind us exploded as the Carlysle's wings sheared through them. Several other ships teleported out of the way before they could be destroyed and reappeared above or below us. The Carlysle, meanwhile, was seemingly undamaged by the maneuver.

"Woah," Harley said.

"Couldn't we have just used the TemPad you have hooked up to the ship to get away?" Loki asked.

Was he seriously not impressed by the awesome move I just pulled off?

"If we do that, they'll just find us all over again," I said. "They're not going to give up. We have to do what we can to stop them now. Any progress we make will make it easier for Magik and the other Sorcerer Supremes to do their job once they get back here."

"Shields up!" Harley said, pulling a lever in front of her. "Loki, Rose, how's it coming?"

"Just found the controls for deploying the Q-Ships," Rose said. "The dropships should be somewhere around here."

"Still looking for the missiles," Loki reported.

I checked back with the cameras. The Daleks had rearranged their fleet so they were beyond the radius of the Carlysle's wings if I spun the ship around again. Suddenly, panels in several of the ships' sides opened up and out came a tidal wave of Daleks rushing towards us.

"Uh, we have a problem," I said. "Will the deflector shields keep them out?"

"Probably not," the Doctor said. "Usually shields like that are only meant to keep out objects traveling over a certain velocity – missiles, rockets, weapons like that."

"Well, unless Loki finds those missiles soon, then we're about to be boarded."

"Dropships!" Rose called. "Got it!" She pulled a switch in front of her. Several mechanisms sprang to life, rumbling in the floor beneath us. A holographic display at the far end of the room showed several small objects deploying from the bottom of the ship. Several smaller factions broke off from the force of Daleks approaching us, heading towards the dropships.

"Okay, does anyone here have any weapons we can use to fight off these mother#$%&ers when they get here?" I asked. "Because I only have one gun with six rounds in it. If I was dealing with a bunch of random goons I could make that work, but that isn't gonna do #$&% against an army of vibranium Daleks."

"I have these." Loki manifested two daggers in his hands.

"Dammit, I left my blaster back at the Citadel," Harley said. "I've got a switchblade I always keep on me in case of emergencies, but that's it."

Well, this was clearly not going to work.

"Well, someone, please think of something fast, or we're screwed!" I said.

"Wait, I've got it," Loki said. "Missiles. Here we go."

Several Dalek ships that had been below us teleported in front of us to dodge the, well, dropping dropships. Loki flipped up a cover over a big red button and was about to press it.

"Waitwaitwait!" I said. "Doc, why don't you do the honors. I know how you love big red buttons."

"Thought you'd never ask," he said. He headed across the room to the control panel where Loki was and slammed on the button.

A salvo of missiles shot from the front of the Carlysle towards the inbound Daleks. As the missiles hit the front of their formation, they detonated. The resulting cloud of smoke and fire blocked out the entire fleet ahead of us.

Then one Dalek broke through the cloud. Then another. And another.

"#$%&ing vibranium!" I shouted. "Why does it have to be so goddamn indestructible?!"

"What's our backup plan now?" Loki asked.

"Uh…now we run." I reactivated the ship's thrusters and yanked back hard on the joystick. The Carlysle shot straight up, leaving behind the approaching Daleks and heading straight towards the saucers above us. "It's big red button time again, doc. Go to town!"

The Doctor pressed the button again, and more missiles shot from the Carlysle towards the Dalek ships. And since the ships themselves weren't made of vibranium, the missiles did to them what missiles are meant to do to whatever they hit.

Go kaboom.

The burning husks of Dalek ships falling towards the Carlysle bounced off the deflector shields. But unfortunately what I didn't take into account was that, by nature, Dalek ships are going to be manned by Daleks. And since these Daleks are made of vibranium, blowing up the ships would not automatically blow up the ships' inhabitants. And so while the ships themselves fell past us, the Daleks passed through the deflector shields towards the ship.

"#$&%," Harley said as she saw this. "We got trouble!"

"Capital T that rhymes with D and stands for Dalek; yeah, I know," I said.

The small red blips representing the Daleks on the hologram at the far end of the room closed in on the entrances to the ship. I continued our upwards trajectory, and the ship completed a full vertical 180-degree turn. Ah, the wonders of artificial gravity; we were flying upside-down, but standing rightside-up.

And of course it was at that moment that Magik chose to open a portal to the Carlysle, right above us. Above? Below? Who the #$&% cares.

Everyone who emerged from the portal fell right onto us, knocking us away from the controls. I sat up and pushed Sylvie off me. "What the hell?"

"I could ask you the same thing," she replied. "Flying upside-down? Really? The last thing I expected walking out of this portal was a sudden gravitational inversion."

"Well, I'm assuming you got the job done, given that it wasn't just you, Illyana, and Peter coming out of that portal," Loki said.

"We found several Sorcerer Supremes who were willing to help," Sylvie said. "Now let's just hope it's enough."

"Good," I said, "because we're about to be boarded by Daleks, and I for one would very much like to not be exterminated. Oh, and happy holidays, readers."