I'm glad people like the look of this story. Another chapter for you then!
It was remarked to me that the Doctor was slightly OOC – sorry if this came across. I try to keep them in character as much as possible, but sometimes it slips, you know?
Oh, and I'll say this now. Chapter length is likely to vary a lot in this story – might be long, might be short. It depends on how much I need to put in, as each chapter will be one of the games.
Anyway, here's the first game.
oooooooooooooooooooooooo
Behind the door there was a forest. Rose did a double take. A forest – no, a jungle, complete with birds, humidity and sunlight. The doors they had come through vanished as soon as they closed, leaving no trace of the way they had come. The only way was forward, into the mass of foliage before them.
"This is all fake, yeah?"
"To a point," the Doctor replied, shielding his eyes as he looked towards the sky and the sun. "The Toymaker can make his world what he likes. For all intensive purposes, this is real – it will feel real, smell real, be real – but there will be limitations, I imagine. Like a game."
The computers beeped. Simultaneously, both the Doctor and Rose looked down at their wrists as words appeared.
Round one. The Race. Retrieve the crystal; get back within the time limit, cross the line together. Crossing the finish line without the crystal results in a loss of the game. Loss of the game thrice in a row results in entrapment and/or bereavement.
"Bereavement?" Rose wondered out loud.
"Death." The Doctor said off-handily, ignoring the look she gave him.
Rose had a feeling she should have worked that out from what she had already been told about the Toymaker. "Oh."
"Well, I did warn you."
The words vanished, replaced by an image of a map, a timer (set currently at 00:00), and 'POS'. Rose stared at that. "Alright then, what does 'POS' mean?"
"Pos…ture? Pos…essed? Pos…terior? Point of sight? Oh, pos…ition, I think. It's a race." He put his arm next to Rose's, lining their computer screens up. They were exactly the same. "At least he's not trying to confuse us. I thought they might show different things, one real and one a lie. Mind you…" he took his arm down and shrugged at Rose. "But then again that probably means his ways of deceiving us won't be so obvious…"
He fell silent. Rose took the chance to closely examine her surroundings. The leaves and tree trunks felt like real leaves and tree trunks. The sun was warm and there was a jungle-ish, organic sent in the air. There was a harsh yet beautiful bird song, too. Rose had to admit – for a homicidal manic, the Toymaker did create some cool things.
Turning, Rose realised she was alone, and after a momentary panic, grinned, rolled her eyes and followed the sounds of a certain someone crashing through the trees, coupled with some Gallifreyian swearing.
"Alright there?"
"I think I just discovered the most evil plant in the universe," mumbled the Doctor, sucking on a cut on his hand. He took it out and looked at the cut. "Well, maybe not the most evil. There are a few carnivorous ones I don't want to meet again. But still - spikes, about a foot long! Careful of it."
Rose evaded the offending plant, whose spikes were a few inches long outside the borders of exaggeration, and followed the Doctor through more plants, more leaves and grass. The usual things one would expect to find in a jungle.
She wasn't watching as the Doctor suddenly stopped, putting his arm out (which Rose walked into, of course). Ahead she could hear noise – cheering. A crowd? They went forward slowly as the foliage became thinner, before giving out to a wide clearing before them.
There were two grandstands, filled with yelling, jeering, cheering people. The buzz of noise was everywhere – but when Rose tried to distinguish one voice from the crowd, she found that she couldn't.
"They're just for the look," said the Doctor, watching the crowds alongside her. "The Toymaker likes extravagance. They'll be nothing special, just scenery."
Together they walked towards a visible horizontal line ahead of them. Standing at it were four people, humanoid in appearance, but with blank faces. Not blank as in featureless, but their eyes held no life, their faces no expression. Like those controlled by Lumic's earpods, Rose thought, suppressing a shiver at the memory.
The figures turned as the Doctor and Rose approached, spreading themselves along the line, leaving one big gap – for them. Rose began to head towards it, but the Doctor held her back.
"They're on a trigger. Look."
He took a single step forward, and, as one, all the figures crouched. He stepped back and they stood. Another step forward, then back, produced the same result. "Like sprinters," the Doctor murmured to Rose. "As soon as we move forward, the race begins. I take it we're racing for this crystal on foot."
"And we follow the map on our computers as we go, right? Get there first, get the crystal, and get back. Easy, yeah?"
He raised his eyebrows at her, still stepping, making the figures bob up and down. "If you want to think of it that way."
"Oh, cut that out!"
"Cut what out?" the Doctor asked innocently, as the figures before them crouched and stood, crouched and stood.
"I sometimes wonder about your maturity. Ready, then?"
Grinning at her, the Doctor stepped forward and Rose followed. The figures crouched again. A voice, seemingly from nowhere counted down from ten. Rose crouched down, ready to run – she wasn't super fit, but was sure she could hold her own in this. The voice reached one. A horn sounded. The figures bolted.
They were fast. Very fast.
The Doctor was running next to her as their opponents zoomed ahead – and not on the track. They were running to vehicles, hidden beneath covers and concealed by trees. Soon all of them had vanished around the first corner in a mess of dust.
Rose and the Doctor stopped running, and looked at one another.
"They're cheating!"
"They're meant to. We're meant to loose, remember?" The Doctor was looking around at their surroundings, eyes darting around, looking for a solution. And, with a grin, he found it. "So what do we do when our opponents cheat?"
"Give up?" Rose muttered.
"When in Rome, do as the Romans do. We cheat." And he was off, heading towards – a horse.
"You're kidding!"
"No way. Anyway, it might not be cheating at all – nothing specified it was on foot." From the top of the horse, he offered Rose a hand, lifting her on behind him. The horse, spurned by the Doctor, began to canter, then gallop along the course.
"You'll have to navigate. Tell me where to go," the Doctor called from in front of Rose.
It was hard to read her computer on the back of a galloping horse, but not impossible. "There's only the course itself. It's pretty twisty. What are you doing?"
The Doctor was steering the horse into the jungle. There was a narrow trail there, wide enough for a horse, but Rose still tightened her grip around the Doctor's waist lest she get hit by branches.
"We're short cutting; cutting off the loop," the Doctor said in reply to her question. "If we cut the loops of this part of the track, then we make up lost time. The other things weren't small enough to go through here."
Rose glanced down at her screen. It said 'POS: 5th', but what made her smile was the markers on the map. They weren't that far behind the other players. They could still catch up. Maybe.
She looked up as sunlight fell upon them – not the flickers of the short cut, but a long straight that was part of the proper track. The horse galloped on with its riders in silence, the only sound the sound of hooves on the dusty track.
"Give me a name," called the Doctor spontaneously, over the hoof beats. "A male name. Which isn't Arthur."
Rose's mind whirled. Why, at a time like this, would he want a guy's name? That was just like the Doctor, though. "Ummm…Mark?"
"Yeah, that'll do. Go, Mark, go!"
Right. The horse, now christened Mark, galloped on with his rider's encouragement. Rose saw, on her arm computer screen, that they were coming up to one of their opponents, a little way behind the rest.
"Doctor! We're coming up on one of the other player-things." She said in his ear over the sound of the rushing wind. He nodded to show he had heard, urging Mark faster. Leaning past the Doctor slightly as they rounded another corner, Rose saw a figure ahead of them, standing atop a flat board, like a skateboard. Hoverboards were one of those things that were always found in science fiction, and Rose couldn't help but be interested as they passed.
Without any warming, the Doctor weaved the horse into the path of the hoverboard, causing its occupant to fall off and onto the jungle ground. The Doctor grinned back at Rose, but seeing her look of concern said, "Rose, they're hardly real – just creations. He/she/it won't be hurt at all, but get up and keep going like it's programmed. Now lean down and grab that board!" He slowed Mark slightly, so the horse and board were the same speed
Rose stared at him like he was mad (which he was, but that wasn't the point). "Do what!?"
Eyes ahead of him on the track, the Doctor reached behind and, quite simply, pushed Rose over. He kept a firm grip on her wrist as Rose instinctively tightened her leg grip to keep from completely falling. Her free hand was now a few inches away from the edge of the hoverboard, so, keeping the rude thoughts about the Doctor's impulse actions and ideas to herself, Rose stretched that little bit more and grasped the edge.
"Horse or board?" the Doctor called casually above her as Rose screamed involuntarily while another corner flashed by.
"What?!"
"Two transports, two people. Do the maths." He stopped Mark, allowing Rose to sit back upright, board in hand. "Quickly now, we're wasting time."
Rose glanced down at her screen. She had completely forgotten they were being timed. They had just over fifteen minutes. She told this to the Doctor, who nodded, and repeated his question.
Rose sighed internally. Life in the fast lane with this guy. "Board, I guess. I can't ride a horse."
"Right," said the Doctor as she slid off Mark's back. "Snowboarding on air. Leaning forward means faster, leaning back means slower. Sides to turn. Easy."
Rose hoped she could do this, as she stood gingerly on the board. Leaning forward, she overbalanced slightly as it moved.
"Crouch," the Doctor coached above her. She did so and it was easier – but would take some getting used to. The Doctor watched, then offered her his hand. "I've got a better idea. Hold on."
As she did so, he spurned Mark again, and Rose was taken along next to them. She gripped the Doctor's hand tightly as the jungle rushed by, listening to his teaching above her for various obstacles.
"Come right in close! … Flick the board onto the wall. I'm serious; the air cushion will help us turn … Keep your balance completely flat … Don't break my hand, I need it … Trust me…"
Rose kept her mind off the high possibility of injury by keeping half an eye on her screen. The others were coming up; not to far ahead. And they seemed to have slowed. The timer showed ten minutes.
The reason for their slowness was soon explained – the track became a cave tunnel, with three discarded vehicles around the entrance; they were too big to go through. Mark was too big as well, and so the Doctor left his back and instead stood behind Rose on the hoverboard, telling her to copy his movements and so pilot the board together.
She couldn't help but feel safer with him behind her, his arms around her waist, as they followed the track into the cave. It was almost dark, but there was some light, and the guidance of the map was a great help. The icons that symbolised the other opponents had changed slightly – one was now glowing green, the other two appeared to have stopped.
"One of them's gone green," Rose called back to him.
"I'll assume that means they have the crystal-thing. We need to get it off them."
"And the other two have stopped."
There was a pause behind her. "Really now? Then you better tell me just before we reach them – it'll be an ambush, most probably."
As Rose and the Doctor sped out of the cave, back into the sunlight of the jungle, Rose informed the Doctor that they were rapidly approaching the other two players. They were heading through a wide canyon-like place, cliffs on both sides and open sky above.
"Perfect for an ambush. Be ready for anything." The Doctor said in her ear. Rose nodded against him, and felt his grip around her tighten slightly. Protective, this one was.
A rock bounced on the ground beside them, shattering in it's impact. Rose glanced up and saw a figure bending to pick up another one. Uh-oh.
"Rose! Be my eyes. I'll pilot, you tell me where they are, ok?"
She agreed readily, impossible as it was to think of a better plan. The figure threw another rock straight for them.
"Incoming Right!"
The board swung left as the rock shattered where they would have been. Rose was sprayed with sharp chips of rock. As she looked for where the next attack was coming from, something sparked in her mind. Something about this wasn't right; the gorge was coming to an end. But…
"It's only one! The other one's not around here."
"Thought so," Rose heard the Doctor murmur behind her. They left the open canyon and headed back on the foliage. Rose checked her screen, reported that the leader wasn't far ahead (he must be on foot) and the other blip was upon them. Sure enough, there was a crack as a tree fell behind them. The stakes had been raised.
"Hold on!" called the Doctor as he applied pressure forward and the board sped forward. His grip was tight around her waist and her hands were on top of his. The trees fell harmlessly behind them. Then one fell ahead and Rose knew they were doomed.
She was sure they would crash into it, as the trunk was to wide to pass underneath – it would hit the board and throw them off. They were going too fast to stop, so she braced herself for impact. The Doctor had other plans, however, hissing in her ear, "When I say, stomp back hard them forward. Okay?"
Rose nodded, and held her breath waiting for the word as the tree approached.
"Now!"
In perfect synchronisation, they stomped back, tilting the top of the board up and over. The pressure forward that came next carried it over top (helped by the air cushion) and gave a burst of speed. Rose breathed a sigh of relief as they came out into sunshine.
"Where's the leader?" The Doctor asked her.
"Ahead, around the next corner. Still on foot, I think," Rose replied.
And so he was. They caught up with him easily – he was clutching a green crystal shard to himself as he ran, and the Doctor told Rose to watch his expert thieving skills as he swiped it. He almost got away with it, but the runner grabbed his arm, quick as lightening and pulled him from the board.
The rapid change in weight caused Rose to overbalance, and she fell to the ground as the board zipped away into the trees. Her palms and knees were grazed, but she pulled herself to her feet and ran to where the Doctor and the runner had crashed to the ground as a result of his pulling the Doctor from the hoverboard. The Doctor had the crystal; and he threw it to Rose.
She caught it, and he told her to run as he tripped the runner who tried to pursue her. The finish line wasn't too far ahead – round the corner – but she remembered in a flash she couldn't finish without the Doctor. So she turned, back towards the runner and the Doctor, and shoulder-charged the runner. It hurt like hell, but it worked. The runner took another, new sprawl into the dust and Rose grabbed the Doctor's hand and they ran, around the corner.
"We have to cross together!" she choked out. Not wanting to tempt fate, she glanced at her screen. The timer in the corner informed her that they had twenty-two seconds. "Twenty seconds!"
He nodded, tiredly grinning as they crossed the line, crystal in hand.
The artificial crowd cheered as they hugged. One down, nine more. Panting for breath from the strain and the adrenaline and massaging her shoulder slightly, Rose watched another white door materialise itself into existence. Breath back, they exchanged a look of triumph.
"That was easy," Rose said as they headed for the newly appeared door.
"I know," the Doctor replied. "Why do I have the feeling it was meant to be?"
Rose frowned. "Right, then it's a bad thing."
"Could be, could be," the Doctor shrugged as they went though to the next game.
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
There, my readers! Hope it was enjoyable. Reviews much appreciated.