Making it Up
John ducked and tugged Emma down as the Wolf pulled out the TARDIS power cell from her pocket. She aimed it at the Cybermen, and golden energy exploded from the tiny bulb. The robots were bent backwards from the force of the explosion of power before they were atomized by the energy.
"What the hell was that?" one of the fighters asked breathlessly.
The Wolf tossed the cell in her hand before stuffing it back in her pocket. "I think I'll have that option instead," she said to the open air, ignoring him. "Run!" she ordered the rest of the group.
Just then, a van screeched to a halt next to them, the sliding door opening up. "Everybody, in!" a middle aged woman shouted at them, honking the horn.
John urged the two Smythes toward the vehicle, but Thomas resisted. "I've got to go back! My daughter's in there!" he protested.
"Toni!" Emma yelled, trying to break free too.
"Anyone inside that house is dead," the Wolf told them bluntly, holding Thomas back with her deceptive strength. "If you want to help, then don't let her die for nothing. You both have to come with us right now."
"Come on! Get a move on!" the driver yelled again. The two soldiers were already in the van. After a bit of hesitation, the two Smythes got in the car, but John looked back one more time.
The Wolf gripped his arm carefully. "John, you don't have a sister," she reminded him quietly.
John sighed. "I know," he answered, getting in the van with the Wolf quickly following.
"Finished chatting?" the prickly driver asked. "Never seen a slower getaway in my life!" She floored the van as the blonde man slid the door shut. With a loud roar, they made their escape onto the back roads of London.
After a few minutes of silence, the blonde made introductions. "The name's Jake, that's Ricky," he pointed at the other man, who remained stonily silent. "And that's Mrs. Moore," he nodded at their driver, who waved a hand over her shoulder as she remained concentrated on the road, on the lookout for more Cybermen.
"Doesn't he look like your pal Mickey, John?" the Wolf asked him.
"His name is Mike," John corrected.
"No, it was definitely Mickey," the Wolf denied. "Mickey the Idiot."
"The name's Ricky," Ricky reiterated.
"So you can be Ricky the Idiot!" the Wolf said cheerfully.
"What?" was the growl that he returned.
John sighed. "Just ignore her. It'll go faster that way."
"What was that thing?" Ricky changed the subject.
The Wolf pulled out the power cell, turning it in her palm. "Little bit of technology from home," she said fondly.
"It's stopped glowing," John pointed out, worried. "Has it run out?"
"It's on a revitalizing loop. It'll charge back up in about four hours," she explained. John sighed in relief.
"Right," Ricky scoffed. "So, we don't have a weapon anymore."
"We've got weapons," Jake protested. "Might not be one of those metal things, but they're good enough for men like him," he gestured violently at Thomas, who looked at him in surprise.
"Leave him alone," John said angrily, jumping to Thomas' defense. "What's he done wrong?"
"Oh, you know, just laid a trap that's wiped out the Government, left Lumic in charge, and the path free for him to take over," Jake snarled.
"If I was part of all that, do you think I'd leave my only child inside?" Thomas denied, eyes narrowed.
"Maybe your plan went wrong," Ricky jumped in on the accusations. "Still gives us the right to execute you, though."
Emma made a small noise, gripping Thomas' hand tightly. He squeezed it reassuringly. The Wolf placed herself between the two boys and the Smythes. "Talk about executions, you'll make me your enemy," she growled warningly, staring the young men down. "And take some really good advice. You do not want to do that."
"All the same," Ricky continued, only looking slightly cowed, "we have evidence that says Thomas Smythe's been working for Lumic since twenty point five."
"Is that true?" John asked Thomas quickly.
"Tell them, Mrs. M," Ricky called.
"We've got a government mole who feeds us information," Mrs. Moore said over her shoulder as she kept driving. "Lumic's private files, his South American operations, the lot. Secret broadcasts twice a week."
Thomas sighed, rubbing his forehead wearily. "Broadcast from Gemini?" he asked knowingly.
"And how do you know that?" Ricky demanded.
"I'm Gemini. That's me."
Ricky rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well you would say that."
"Encrypted wavelength six five seven using binary nine," Thomas recited. "That's the only reason I was working for Lumic. To get information. I thought I was broadcasting to the Security Services,"he groaned. "What do I get? Scooby Doo and his gang. They've even got the van."
Emma gasped. "That's what you were doing?" she asked, her eyes looking wet.
Thomas took her hand, turning to look at her. "I was trying to protect you and Toni, Ems. If Lumic had found out, we would all be those Cybers right now. We would've been the first batch."
Emma let out a noise that sounded like a sob of relief. "And all this time I thought you were pulling away. All that overtime at the office. I though you were having an affair!" John smiled as they hugged, relieved that they were at least going to make it.
"That's all very touching and all," Jake muttered, "but that still doesn't change the fact that now we've got nothing."
"That's not true, Jakey," Ricky protested. "We're the Preachers, we know what we're doing. I am London's Most Wanted."
Thomas shot him a scrutinizing look. "I've heard of you – the Preachers. Ricky Smith. Most Wanted for parking tickets."
"Great," John groaned, making the Wolf grin.
"Yeah, they were deliberate," Ricky said sullenly. "I was fighting the system. Park anywhere, that's me."
"Good policy," the Wolf finally broke in. "I do much the same. I'm the Wolf, by the way, if anyone's interested."
"And I'm John," John introduced himself.
"Even better," Thomas mumbled. "At least I've got the catering staff on my side."
"They saved me, Thomas," Emma told him quietly. "And they didn't have to."
"But we lost Toni, Ems," Thomas replied sadly.
"She might still be alive," John encouraged.
Thomas met his eyes. "That's even worse," he said darkly. "Because that's what Lumic does. He takes the living and he turns them into those machines."
"Cybermen," the Wolf elaborated. "They're called Cybermen. And I'd take those ear pods off, if I were you. You never know. Lumic could be listening." The pair took off the electronic pieces, handing them over to the Wolf, who zapped them with her sonic screwdriver, rendering them useless. "But he's overreached himself," she continued. "He's still just a businessman. He's assassinated the President. All we need to do is get to the city and inform the authorities. Because I promise you, this ends tonight."
Finally, Mrs. Moore pulled the van over to a sidewalk on a back street, allowing all of the passengers to exit. They walked as a group down the road, looking about cautiously. Jake was the first to reach the corner. "What the hell?" he murmured.
"What's going on?" John asked. They peered around the edge of the block. All down the street, on sidewalks and in the middle of the road, walking like zombies.
"It's the ear pods," the Wolf said quietly. "Lumic's taken control."
"Can't we just, I don't know, take them off?"
Ricky walked up to a man to try just that, but the Wolf ran up to him and grabbed his wrist to drag him away. "Don't!" she yelled. "You'll cause a brainstorm. Human race. For such an intelligent lot, you aren't half susceptible. Give anyone a chance to take control and you submit," she spat. "Sometimes I think you like it. Easy life."
"Hey," John admonished her in a low tone, pulling on her hand.
"Hey, come and see," Jake interrupted, waving them over. Around the next corner, there were even more people, along with a squad of Cybermen.
"Where are they all going?" John wondered.
"I don't know. Lumic must have a base of operations," the Wolf said.
"Battersea," Thomas supplied. "That's where he was building his prototypes."
"Why's he doing it?" John asked.
"He's dying. This all started out as a way of prolonging life, of keeping the brain alive at any cost," Thomas explained.
"Okay, but I've seen Cybermen before, haven't I?" John asked the Wolf. "The head. Those handle shapes in Van Statten's museum."
The Wolf nodded. "There are Cybermen in our universe. They started on an ordinary world just like this, then swarmed across the galaxy. This lot are a parallel version, and they're starting from scratch right here on Earth," she answered.
"What the hell are you two on about?" Thomas spluttered.
"Never mind that," Ricky dismissed. "Come on, we need to get out of the city." He thought for a second before reaching a decision. "Okay, split up. Mrs. Moore, you look after the civilians. Jakey, distract them. Go right, I'll go left. We'll meet back at Bridge Street."
"If you think I'm letting you go off and play hero on your own, you don't know me that well," Jake denied. "We have a much better chance surviving together if I watch your back."
Ricky looked like he wanted to protest, but nodded. "Fine. Move." The two of them took off, catching the eye of one patrol as they ran.
"Come on, let's go," Mrs. Moore ordered, leading them down another street, but they were met with more Cyber patrols.
The Wolf looked around quickly, and pointed out a side street. "There!" she yelled, and they took off for it. The Cybermen followed at their slow march as the group of five took shelter behind some rubbish bins. The robots began making their way down the alley, and the Wolf pulled out her sonic screwdriver.
John felt someone grab his hand. Looking down, he realized it was Emma. He was surprised, but squeezed it reassuringly as the Wolf used her screwdriver to transmit some kind of a signal that caused the Cybermen to ignore their hiding spot and march on.
"Go," the Wolf whispered, urging them to leave the alley, bringing up the rear.
Jake ran up to a chain link fence where he was supposed to meet Ricky after they had split up. Ricky ran around the corner just yards in front of a pack of Cybermen. "Come on! Come on! Come on!" Jake urged him to run faster. He hauled himself up the fence just as Ricky leapt onto it, climbing up it. A little more agile, Jake reached the top first and swung a hand over. "Reach!"
Ricky was struggling a bit, trying not to watch the Cybers get closer and reaching for Jake at the same time. He slipped.
"No!" Jake yelled, lunging farther down and grabbing Ricky's hand just as a Cyber reached for him, brutally pulling him up and out of the way. Jake dragged Ricky over the fence and through the barbed wire on top of it, both of them falling to the ground in a panting heap.
The two men got to their feet and stared at the Cybermen, who merely looked back, before taking off back the way Jake had come, heading for Bridge Street.
The larger group had been waiting at Bridge Street for ten minutes, Mrs. Moore getting more and more anxious by the second, when the two boys ran up, gasping for air. "There you are!" Mrs. Moore cried out in relief, hugging the both of them. "What happened to you?"
"I ran past the river," Jake panted. "You should have seen it. The whole city's on the march. Hundreds of Cybermen all down the Thames. And then this bastard," he jerked a thumb at Ricky, "almost got himself caught by the ankle and killed. They just missed him."
"I tried," Ricky protested. "There was too many to get away from. Besides, you were there."
Jake rolled his eyes, grabbing Ricky and pulling him in for a hard kiss. "I've half a mind to call you Mickey the idiot, like she said," he pointed at the Wolf. "You're lucky you're a good boyfriend," he muttered, smiling slightly at Ricky's dazed look.
John leaned over to whisper in the Wolf's ear. "Definitely not Mike," he said casually. The Wolf grinned.
"Let's go on, shall we?" she spoke up. "Time we got to Battersea, I think."
Ten minutes of Mrs. Moore's reckless driving later, and the group had made it safely to a spot across the river from the Battersea Power Station. The Wolf jumped out of the van, already talking. "The whole of London's been sealed off, and the entire population's been taken inside that place. To be converted."
"So we get in there and shut it down," John said.
"How do we do that?" Ricky asked.
"Oh, I'll think of something," the Wolf said off-handedly.
Ricky shot her a look. "You're just making this up as you go along," he realized.
The Wolf winked at him. "Yep. But I do it brilliantly."
"She does," John reassured him.
Mrs. Moore pulled out her Cybus Industries laptop and set it up on the van's hood. She clicked through some files before landing on some blueprints. "Look here," she called. "That's a schematic of the old factory. Look." She pointed. "Cooling tunnels underneath the plant. Big enough to walk through."
"We go under there and up into the control center?" the Wolf asked.
"Mmhm," Mrs. Moore confirmed.
"There's another way in," Thomas spoke up. "Through the front door. If they've taken Toni for upgrading, that's how she'll get in."
"We can't just go strolling up," Jake protested.
Mrs. Moore dug around in her knapsack, pulling out a set of ear pieces. "Or we could, with these. Fake ear pods. Dead. No signal. But put them on, the Cybermen would mistake you for one of the crowd."
"Then that's my job," Thomas snagged the pair of ear pieces.
"I'm coming with you," Emma said immediately.
Thomas spun to face her, shaking his head. "No, Ems, you can't."
"Thomas, you can't ask me to wait out here when our only child could be in there, alive and frightened," Emma told him, glaring.
"I can, and I will," her husband said firmly. "If it's too late, and Toni is gone," his voice broke, but he recovered, "then I will not lose both my daughter and my wife in one day. You're staying here." Emma shot him a mutinous look, but remained silent after that. He turned back to the Wolf. "I'm going in that way."
"You'd have to show no emotion," she warned him. "None at all. Any sign of emotion would give you away."
"How many of those you got?" John asked suddenly, nodding at the ear pods.
"Just two sets," Mrs. Moore answered, pulling out another one.
John took them, putting them in his pocket. "Okay. If that's the best way of finding Toni, then I'm coming with you," he told Thomas.
"Why does she matter to you?" Thomas asked incredulously.
"We haven't got the time," John said dismissively. "Wolf, I'm going with him."
The Wolf shook her head. "No stopping you, is there?" was her rueful answer.
"Nope."
She nodded, looking around at the rest of the group. "Tell you what. We can take the ear pods at the same time. Give people their minds back so they don't walk into that place like sheep. You two," she called the young fighters, who looked up quickly. "Lumic's transmitting the control signal. It must be from over there." She waved her sonic in the air in the direction of the power station. Her eyes focused on the Zeppelin on top of the building, a circle of red lights blinking on its bow. She pointed at it. "There it is. On the Zeppelin, you see? Great big transmitter. Good thing Lumic likes showing off. Reckon you could take it out?"
Ricky nodded. "Know my way around a computer, should be able to shut it down," he acknowledged.
Jake grinned. "And if not, I can always crash it," he said excitedly.
"Good." The Wolf turned to the computer expert, holding out her arm. "Mrs. Moore, would you care to accompany me to the cooling tunnels?" she asked jovially.
Mrs. Moore grinned. "How could I refuse an offer of cooling tunnels?"
The Wolf turned back to face the rest of the group. "We attack on three sides. Above, between, below. We get to the control center, we stop the conversion machines. Mrs. Moore, we'll go in a minute. I just need to speak with John first." She grabbed John by the arm and dragged him away so they could talk privately.
"Are you alright, John?" she asked once they were out of earshot. He nodded tightly. "Then why this desire to save Toni?" she went on. "I know you feel responsible for her, but you're not actually related. She's not your sister."
John's reply was nearly inaudible. "She was supposed to be."
There was a long silence before the Wolf spoke again. "Explain," she requested quietly.
John sighed. "My mother was pregnant the day my parents died. It was a total accident. A complete surprise. They'd had me really young, but it was a difficult pregnancy. They tried again for years but eventually just gave up. She was only a couple months along, and we'd just found out. Somehow, I get the feeling it was going to be a girl. She would be Toni's age now if she'd survived."
He was so busy staring at the ground that he didn't notice the Wolf moving closer until she'd wrapped him in a tight hug. "I'm so sorry, Johnny," she whispered, aching that that young boy had suffered yet another loss at such an early age.
"She wasn't even born yet," John muttered into her hair. "There was nothing I could do to save her. But I can try and save this Toni. For them," he said, nodding at Thomas and Emma.
The Wolf drew back and looked him in the eye. "You be careful," she ordered him in a fierce tone. "As much as I know you want to do this, to save Toni, I care about you more. I want you back in one piece," she warned.
John grinned, looking like himself again. "Aye aye, Captain," he mocked before heading over to stand next to Thomas.
"Ricky, you got a phone on you?" the Wolf called.
"Yeah, why?" the boy asked.
"Give it here. John you too." Ricky and John handed them over, and the Wolf programmed in their respective numbers. "In case we need to communicate," she explained, tossing them back. She went back to John, who looked down at her affectionately. "Good luck," she told him seriously as Thomas moved off to farewell Emma.
"Good luck to you too." John hesitated, then gave her a quick kiss to her forehead before quickly following Thomas down the embankment to head for the bridge and the front entrance of the power station. The Wolf stood there for a second, a little bewildered, but called for Mrs. Moore and opened up the tunnel system.