Rose stepped out of the TARDIS, in a pink dress that reached mid-calves, pink heels and a bomber jacket.
"I thought we'd be going for the Vegas era, you know- the white flares and the...chest hair."
The Doctor poked his head round the TARDIS door, his hair gelled back, teddy-boy style. "You are kidding, aren't you? You wanna see Elvis, you go in the late 50's! The time before burgers." He disappeared back into the TARDIS and called out, "When they called him 'the Pelvis' and he still had a waist."
Rose laughed when he continued, "What's more, you see him in style!" The sound of an engine made Rose turn around, only to see the Doctor driving a blue scooter.
With an Elvis voice he joked, "You goin' my way, doll?"
Rose put on pink heart-shaped glasses and an American accent. "Is there any other way to go, daddy-o?"
She moved towards him and added, "Straight from the fridge, man!"
The Doctor beamed, "Hey, you speak the lingo!" and tossed her a pink helmet.
"Yeah well... me, mum, Cliff Richard movies every Bank Holiday Monday."
She gets on the moped, "Ah, Cliff! I knew your mother'd be a Cliff fan." The Doctor exclaimed while finally noticing Violet. She wore a purple version of Rose's dress, a white cardigan and a pair of heels, also, sans the stockings and glasses, replaced by a silver chocker.
"You coming?" He asked, not noting the fact that there wasn't any more space on the scooter, nor the look was Rose was giving her. So she looked around the streets, seeing something strange and replied,
"No, I'll catch up with you later. There's something I want to check out." The Doctor gave her a slight frown before driving off.
She watched them leave before heading off into the opposite direction. There was something odd going on, starting with all the receivers and the fact that the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II was on the next day.
She had always had an eye for things- she was smarter than most Time Lords had been, which was saying something. And she knew for a fact that there weren't this many TVs in the 50's. After all, she had been living in these streets. So, she headed towards a shop called 'Magpie's Electricals'. It seemed like the way to go.
While she walked, she wondered what she was doing there. Rose clearly didn't want her to accompany them, and the Doctor let her stay because she was alone. She could just ask to be dropped off in 2006 and go back to Torchwood. The Doctor had told her that there was a Torchwood institute in Cardiff, as well. She could continue there.
But the TARDIS. It was so good to finally be in one again, and they had already formed a bond, mainly because Violet actually knew how to fly a TARDIS, unlike the Doctor. She let out a small chuckle at his miserable piloting skills.
She reached the shop and opened the door slowly. Magpie was adjusting a TV set on the counter and looked up nervously when she came in.
"Oh, I, I'm sorry miss, I'm afraid you're too late. I was just about to lock the door." He stuttered.
Violet ignored him and shut the door behind herself, "Yeah? Well, I wanna buy a telly."
"Come back tomorrow. Please." He begs.
She looked at him suspiciously, "You'll be closed, won't you?"
"What?" He was confused.
"For the big day? The coronation..." She offered.
He nodded as if remembering, "Yes, yes, of course. The big day." She walked towards him as he said, "I'm sure you'll find somewhere to watch it. Please go."
"Seems to me half of London's got a television, since you're practically giving them away." Violet said slowly.
"I have my reasons." He said solemnly.
"Care to share?" Before he could answer, one of the televisions on display tuned itself, and a woman appeared on the screen.
"Hungry! Hungry!" She moaned.
"What's that?"
He enthusiastically said,"It's just a television. One of these modern programmes. Now, I really do think you should leave! Right now!" while Violet just smiled.
"Well, I actually have a few more questions. I'm sure you can answer the first one- why are your televisions so cheap?"
"It's my patriotic duty. Seems only right that as many folk as possible get to watch the coronation. We may be losing the Empire but we can still be proud! Twenty million people they reckon'll be watching! Imagine that!" His fake enthusiasm makes Violet's smile widen.
"And twenty million people can't be wrong, eh? So why don't you get yourself back home and get up, bright and early, for the big day?" His enthusiasm turned to urgency, making her even more determined to find out what was going on there.
"Oh, I will, right after you tell me what I need to know."
"I need to close." He stated.
"Mr Magpie, something is very wrong in this era. And it seems that you're the source of it. I saw the vans. But I know you're not the one controlling it, so tell me. I can help." She replied calmly.
The small man sighed, resigning, "I knew this would happen. I knew I'd be found out." He locked the door, but Violet didn't worry about it.
"Go on. Tell me what's going on. It's fine, nothing's gonna hurt you. Why are you helping someone ruin lives?"
"I just want peace."
"What from?" She asked.
"From her." He glanced at the television screen with the woman on it.
Violet sighed, "What's she doing to you?"
"What a smart girl." The woman said.
"I know. Thanks." She dismissed the image.
"Are you not afraid? Who are you?"
"Well, I think the question is, who are you?"
"I'm the Wire. And I'm hungry!" It screeched. She bared her teeth, causing bolts of electricity to form and shoot out of the screen and latch onto Violet's face.
And suddenly, it was gone again.
"You are… impossible! You cannot exist, you brought the end. The clouds pull together over your head, the burden you carry is so great. So. Strong." The screeching got louder, so Violet grabbed a device out of her cardigan pocket and pointed it at the screen, turning it off.
"When she comes back, you tell her that I will end this." She growled at Magpie. "You got that?" The man nodded, afraid. She gave him one more look before she went to find the Doctor.
"Start from the beginning, tell me everything you know." The detective stated. He stood over the Doctor, who was sitting behind the detective's desk next to Rose.
"Well... for starters... I know you can't wrap your hand around your elbow and make your fingers meet." He said with seriously.
"Don't get clever with me." The detective reprimanded him. "You were there today at Florizel Street, and now breaking into this establishment. Now, you're connected with this. Make no mistake."
"Well, the thing IS, Detective Inspector Bishop-" He started.
"How do you know my name?"
Rose laughed, "It's written inside your collar." D.I. Bishop adjusted his collar in embarrassment.
"Bless your mum. But, I can't help thinking, Detective Inspector, you're not exactly doing much detective inspecting. Are you?" The Doctor continued.
"I'm doing everything in my power." The detective said.
"All you're doing is grabbing those faceless people and hiding them as fast as you can. Don't tell me - orders from above, hmm? Coronation Day... the eyes of the world are on London Town... so any sort of problem just gets swept out of sight." The Doctor spun on his chair, irritating the D.I. with his knowledge of the problem.
"The nation has an imagine to maintain." He adds.
The Doctor's curiosity got the best of him, "Doesn't it drive you mad? Doing nothing? Don't you wanna get out there and investigate?"
"Course I do. But..." The detective sat down. "With all the crowds expected, we haven't got the man-power. Even if we did... this is... beyond anything we've ever seen." He looked helpless.
"Well, two things." Violet's voice made the group turn around, Rose looking very unhappy. "First, you've got enough man-power. You've got me. Ooh, I apologise for how cocky that sounds, but it's true. And second, it isn't beyond anything you've ever seen, 'cause you have… well, me. Sorry, again, but true."
The D.I. narrowed his eyes, "Who do you think you are?"
"The person that solved you mystery with one little visit to a shop." She popped the 'p'.
"How did you do that?" He exclaimed, unbelieving of that fact that a mere girl had solved the mystery before he had.
"You really, really wouldn't believe me, so let's just skip that part, D.I. Bishop." She grinned.
"How do you know my name?" He cried.
"I'm clever." She smirked, "Now, I'm gonna need you," she pointed at the Doctor, "and you, since you're never gonna stay here anyway." She pointed at Rose. "By the way, Doctor, you're a little out of it, aren't you? Having to take the… domestic approach."
"It was her idea!" He pointed at Rose, making Violet laugh.
"Oh, come on, you." She hooked her arm through his and walked off, him filling her in on what she missed, Rose glaring at the back of her head as she followed.
"Listen you, little twerp. You're hardly out of the bloomin' cradle, so I don't expect you to understand. But I've got a position to maintain. People round here respect me. It MATTERS what people THINK." They were walking down the street as they heard a rounded, red-headed man shouting.
"Is that why you did it, dad?" He said bravely.
The father stared,"What d'you mean? Did what?"
"You ratted on gran. How else would the police know where to look? Unless some coward told them..." the boy figured it out.
"How DARE you? You think I fought a war just so a mouthy little scum like you could call me a coward?" He shouted, his head turning even more red."
"You don't get it, do you? You fought AGAINST fascism, remember? People telling you how to live - who you could be friends with - who you could fall in love with - who could live and who had to die. Don't you get it? You were fighting so that little twerps like me could DO what we want. SAY what we want. Now you've become just like them. You've been informing on everyone, haven't you? Even gran. All to protect your precious reputation." The boy stood up to his father.
"Eddie... is that true?" The woman that the Doctor and Rose knew as Rita gasped.
"I did it for US, Rita! She was FILTHY. A filthy, disgusting THING." Her husband said.
"She's my mother. All the others - you informed on all the people in our street - our friends. "
"I had to. I did the right thing!"
"The right thing for us... or for you, Eddie?" She said softly.
When her husband just stared, she turned to her son, "You go, Tommy. You go with the Doctor and do some good. Get away from this house. It's poison. We had a ruddy monster under this roof, all right, but it weren't my mother!" She looked at Eddie one more time before slamming the door in his face.
The Doctor stepped towards the boy, "Tommy?"
"Come with us, Tommy, I'm Violet. We could use an extra hand." Violet smiled gently and held out her hand. Tommy took it, and they walked away from a man who had just lost everything.
The streets were busy with people, excitement buzzing due to the Coronation, but the group of five walked past them, heading towards Magpie's.
"There we are." The Doctor found his sonic screwdriver and opened the door while the other two men looked away.
"It calls itself the Wire. It was executed from its people and fled though the universe in the form." Violet explained.
"It that what took my nan?"
"Yes, Tommy. It feeds off the electrical activity of the brain, but it gorges itself like a great overfed pig. Taking people's faces, their essences, it stuffs itself. Good thing is, it's stuck in the televisions."
"So smart." The Wire spoke as the Doctor waves his sonic screwdriver about the place.
"Oh, yeah, we've been over this, move on." Violet waved her off, much to the group's surprise. Especially the Doctor's.
"You've met her before?" He frowns.
"Oh, she has met me. Tell me, child, how do you know all these impossible things about me?" The Wire's image had just a slither of fear on her face, which the Doctor noticed silently.
"Well, you know, you try to steal my essence, I get a thorough look at yours. Simple telepathic skill, really. Picked it up over the years." She said nonchalantly.
"These weren't invented yet, were they?" the Doctor spoke up, holding a portable television. He licked it, then confirming, "Tastes like iron. Bakelite." He placed it down on the counter.
"Put together with human hands, yes, but the design itself..." He scanned it with his sonic screwdriver. "Oh, beautiful work. That is so simple."
"That's incredible. It's like a television, but portable. A portable television!" D.I. Bishop said with an overbearing amount of excitement, making Violet look in his direction.
The Doctor's screwdriver buzzes again, making various faces appear on the television screens. Apparently Tommy's gran, too.
"Gran?" He asks, horrified. Violet was about to step in and soothe him, but Magpie came in from a hind-room.
"What do you think you're doing?" He demanded.
"No, question is, what do you think you're doing?" the Doctor said beneath a silent fury.
"I had to! She allowed me my face! She's promised to release me at the time of manifestation." He cried. Violet scoffed.
"What does that mean?" Tommy looked afraid, looking back at his gran.
"The appointed time - my crowning glory." The Wire's image smiled.
"Yes, the coronation." Violet nodded. "For the first time in history, millions gathered around a television set. But you're not strong enough yet, are you? You can't do it all from here. That's why you need that." She pointed at the portable television. "You need something more powerful! This will turn a big transmitter into a big receiver."
"What a clever thing you are! But why fret about it? Why not just relax? Kick off your shoes and enjoy the coronation. Believe me - you'll be glued to the screen." The Wire cackled.
Lines of red sparking light suddenly pulled four faces into the Wire's TV - the Doctor, Tommy, Inspector and Rose.
Tommy and Rose screamed, "Doctor!"
"Hungry! Hungry! The Wire is hungry! Ah! This one is tasty. Oh! I'll have lashings of him! Delicious! Ah!" The Wire continued to suck their essence out of them.
"Now, now, play time's over." Violet flashed her sonic device at the screens.
"Armed! She's armed and clever! Withdraw! Withdraw!" She severed the connection between herself and them, and all four fall to the floor, unconscious.
"Oh, come on, do you really underestimate me that much?"
"The box, Magpie! The box!" the Wire screeched. Magpie pushed me down and ran out of the door as the Wire transferred herself into the box.
"Conduct me to my victory, Magpie." Magpie left his shop, running outside and into his van.
"Now, up you get!" Violet helped the Doctor, Tommy and Rose up, seeing that it was too late for the D.I..
They ran outside to see Magpie driving off in a van.
"It's too late!" Tommy moaned.
"It's never too late, as a wise person once said - Kylie I think... But the Wire's got a big plan... so it'll need... yes, yes, yes, it's got to harness half the-" Violet interrupted the Doctor.
"Sorry, hate to interrupt, but you're rambling, as you do. We need to get to Alexandra Palace, though, so please shut up and help me."
"What are you going to do?" Tommy asked.
"Stop her."
Violet, Rose, Tommy and the Doctor are gathering equipment.
Tommy holds up a device, "Is this what you want?"
"Perfect! Right, I need one more thing." Violet shouts, grabbing it and motioning for them to follow.
While they ran, Violet and the Doctor fumbled with the equipment, him having figured out what she was going to do.
Tommy spots Magpie on the pylon, "There!" He pointed.
"Come on!" The Doctor shouted.
An official stopped them, "Woah, Woah, woah! Where do you think-" The Doctor flashed his physic paper, making the official back down.
"Oh! I'm sorry sir! Shouldn't you be at the coronation?"
"They're saving us a seat." He shouted, making the official nod confusedly.
"Who did he think you were?" Rose asked.
He checked, "King of Belgium, apparently."
The Doctor and Violet dashed around gathering the equipment they needed, Tommy was in front of a video machine and television screen.
"Keep it switched on. Don't let anyone stop you, Tommy. Everything depends on it. You understand?" Violet explained, rushing.
Tommy nodded.
The Doctor and Violet sprinted back around the corner, past the confused official, trailing a stream of magnetic recording tape behind them from a reel around the Doctor's waist. He ran up the metal stairs and began climbing up the transmitter, following Magpie.
"You'll get yourself killed up there! Your Majesty!" The official shouted.
Violet replies for him, "He never does manage to kill himself!"
Magpie plugged his TV in to the main current and the Wire laughed triumphantly. Across the country, TV aerials drew in the sparks emitted for the pylon and people watching the TV were pulled in by the red electricity.
"Oh! Feast! Feast... ing! The Wire... is feasting."
"It's too late! It's too late for all of us!" Magpie shouted.
"I shall consume you... Doctor." The Wire cackled and blasted the Doctor in the face with red light, making him cry out and let go of the railing as he fall unconscious. Violet broke his fall and laid him gently on the ground.
"Sorry, Theta." She whispered and climbed up the railing herself. She inserted a switch into the TV, but nothing happened to the Wire.
"Oh dear! Has our little plan gone horribly wrong?" The Wire laughed. Violet glared at her.
"Not quite yet, because I know that that boy is brilliant! He'll find a way. I promise you, this ends now."
The Wire tried to shock the girl with the glowing eyes, but nothing happened.
"Guess what? I have a much higher pain threshold than the Doctor, your zapping isn't going to stop me!"
Finally, the light beams retreated from the pylons, televisions and people - right back into the Wire's portable television. She writhed and wailed with pain, thwarted.
"I'm sorry, but you had this coming. It's over." Violet said solemnly.
With one last piecing shriek from the Wire, the television switched off. Violet stared at it for a moment longer before rushing back down to the Doctor. She just catches him slowly coming around.
"Is it over?" He asks, holding a hand up to his head.
"Yes, she's trapped. Are you alright?" Violet asked, concerned.
The Doctor nodded, "What happened?"
"She zapped you, you fell, I trapped her." She said vaguely.
"I should be feeling a little more pain than this, shouldn't I?" He groaned as Violet helped him up.
"I broke your fall. Now come here." She opened her arms up and hugged the Doctor, feeling incredibly safe in his arms.
"Thank you." He told her sincerely. She had saved them all, while he hadn't been able to.
"I caught you, no big deal."
He chuckled and I felt his chest rumble, "No big deal? You figured out what was happening and knew what to do all along. So thank you."
A deliberate cough broke us apart.
Rose stood beside us, not looking too pleased.
"Are you alright, Doctor?" She asked with worried eyes. He nodded.
"You saved us once again." She grinned. "The best of the best, you are."
The Doctor frowned, "Well, Violet did all the work, I don't think I should take her praise."
"But you're still brilliant." Rose dismissed Violet completely, and when the Doctor looked at his fellow Time Lord, he saw her looking uncomfortable and walking away.
"What have I missed?" The Doctor asked Tommy, who was watching the Coronation, from where he leant against the doorway.
"Doctor! What happened?" Tommy jumped.
"Sorted. Electrical creature, TV technology, clever alien life form – wasn't me, this time. Violet turned the receiver back into a transmitter and trapped the Wire in here. I just invented the home video 30 years earlier. Betamax." He held up a tape and noticed the TV.
"Oh look! God save the Queen, eh?"
Tommy, Rose and the Doctor returned to their street. There were loads of people milling around and meeting loved ones.
"Gran!" Tommy spotted her.
"Look, it's my grandson! Oh son!" Tommy ran to his gran and they held onto each other for dear life.
The Doctor scanned the crowds for Violet, but didn't find her. His smile at the happy ending faltered, but Rose started talking at his side, distracting him.
"We could go down the mall, join in with the crowd." Rose suggested.
"Nah, that's just pomp and circumstance. This is history right here." He bit into his Victoria Sponge.
"The domestic approach." She grinned.
"Exactly." They both laughed.
"Will it... that thing... is it trapped for good - on video?"
The Doctor nodded, "Hope so. Just to be on the safe side though, I'll use my unrivalled knowledge of trans temporal extirpation methods to neutralise the residual electronic pattern."
"You what?" She laughed, not understanding a word.
"I'm going to tape over it." He smiled.
Rose laughed, "Just leave it to me, I'm always doing that."
They bumped into Tommy.
"Tell you what Tommy - you can have the scooter. Little present. Best... um... keep it in the garage for a few years though, eh?"
"Good riddance." He looked over at his father. Rose started to talk to him, but the Doctor was distracted by Violet, leaning against the TARDIS and watching over the happenings. He walked up to her as she talked to the spaceship.
"Once again, everything ends well." The TARDIS hummed in reply. "You know, the Wire, she saw me, and she was afraid. I guess I had it coming. I've done too much bad for my nine generations." She absently noted. "I will miss this though. I know it was just one adventure, but it reminded me. I feel bad for leaving you in his hands though. He really doesn't know how to fly you, never has."
"Oh, come on, you know Theta better than I do. He'd never listen, he's too big-headed for his own good." She laughed at something the TARDIS had said. "I know, I know."
The Doctor decided that that would be a good time to interrupt, "I'm not big-headed!" He feigned hurt.
Violet was slightly surprised but let it pass quickly, "You really are, though." She grinned.
"Just because you girls have to stick together, doesn't mean you have to ruin my self-esteem." He smiled.
"It's our duty, for the sake of the universe." She laughed.
"Oh, alright then. But honestly, thank you for what you did. Rose is just… Rose." He turned serious. "You don't have to leave, you know."
She sighed, "I don't want to, either, but I think it's better if I do."
"Why?" He pressed. He had only just found her, and it was comforting to have someone who truly understood.
"Because-" Just then, Rose came.
"There you are, Doctor. You just ran off. Tommy made up with his father. That's good, don't you think?-" She blabbered.
"That's why." Violet said quietly, Rose didn't even notice. She slipped into the TARDIS and left the Doctor and Rose to themselves.