Chapter Two: Raisins of Fury
Molly and the Doctor parted company an hour before the play began, she skipping back toward her dorm and he disappearing back down the side alley he'd mysteriously arrived from. Molly fancied that he was some sort of glorious hobo, with the biggest cardboard box of them all.
It had been a good long time since she'd had the need to dress up for anything. While it was only a play, she figured that any reason to dress up with a man as good-looking as the Doctor was fine by her.
"He's the kind of guy you only see on television," she reported to her roommate Jenny as she tore clothing haphazardly out of the closet.
"I think you're making him up," Jenny responded, working diligently on her hair.
"Lies!" Molly cried, throwing on a brown tunic-style shirt and twirling in it to see if the shape fitted her fancy. "Peas and rice, I look like I'm pregnant in this thing."
"You look fine."
"You don't understand," Molly groaned, standing unusually close to Jenny's chair. "Superfine doesn't even begin to explain this guy. Besides," she returned to her own mirror and tried to tame the beast that was her hair, "since things aren't working out with Danny, I need to open myself back up to the market." She turned with a giddy expression. "I should walk down Court Street with a sign around my neck... 'Molly Callaghan, back on the market boys!' No, 'Molly Callaghan, new and improved!' No, 'Molly Callaghan 2: Electric Boogaloo!'"
"That's enough," Jenny cut in, somewhere between exasperation and a giggle fit. "Go have fun with your hobo Romeo."
"You're a poet and you didn't know it," Molly said absently, fishing for socks in her sock crate.
Five minutes later, halfway into her shoes, a knock came to the door. She hopped over, one foot hanging out of her shoe, and leaned on the handle to open the door. The Doctor leaned to one side to peer into the small crack she'd opened, smiling ear-to-ear.
"Doctor!" Molly exclaimed, surprised, and nearly fell off of her one-footed perch. "You can't come in!"
"Why not? You opened the door, didn't you?"
"I only have one shoe on!" She protested.
And she slammed the door back on him. Nonplussed, he waited in the corridor outside, leaning up against the opposite wall and watching the college females pass by. They stared as they walked past, as if they'd never seen a man before. He was dressed up, bow-tie and everything.
Molly appeared in the doorway again, with a girl her age peeking out from behind to get a look at him. "Doctor, this is an all girl's dorm. How'd you get in?"
He pulled out a skinny metal device with a blue LCD light at the end, twirling it slightly. "Skeleton key."
"Boss," Molly said, grinning in a mirror of him. "Can I touch it?"
"No," the Doctor said defensively, tucking it back into his jacket pocket. He nodded to the girl behind Molly. "Who's your friend?"
"Oh, that's Jenny Wallace. She thinks you're a hobo."
Jenny shook her head, but all too late as the door shut between them. The Doctor offered his arm and Molly linked hers with his, bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet in anticipation. A group of two girls passed by, looking up at the man who towered over them.
"He's my date!" Molly exclaimed loudly as they headed for the door.
"No we're not!" The Doctor remedied, just as loudly.
"He's stalking me!"
"Molly, let's play the quiet game, all right?"
They stepped out of the dorm into the darkness that had settled across campus, and into the quietly falling snow. Molly gave a light gasp and gripped the Doctor's arm tightly.
"Oh, Doctor, would you look at that?" She broke from him and took off at a skip into the snow that was already accumulating on the cold street. "It's beautiful."
He stuck his hands into his pockets and smirked. "An honest-to-goodness snow at last," he muttered, looking up into the sky. "It's not Christmas, but it'll do."
"Come on," she said, taking hold of his elbow and pulling him out into the street, "or will miss the play! Dawdle, dawdle..."
The snow caught like diamonds in their hair, and even though she considered it their first date, she resisted the urge to ruffle it out of his hair.
The noise level was at a gentle murmur as Molly pulled out their tickets and they were ushered together into the house. From the lobby, the theater opened up like walking into a cave decorated in red. Theatergoers already took up a great number of the seats, as the curtain time was dangerously close. The lobby lights had already flashed once. The usher kindly showed them to their seats, which were halfway toward the stage and on the aisle, the best Molly could find. Once seated, she turned to him.
"I'm gonna be honest with you, Doctor," she began seriously. "I wanted to bring Danny tonight, so I'm honestly settling for second best here."
The Doctor raised his eyebrows at her. "Nice to know where I stand, I guess." He checked his inner jacket pocket, where he'd place that skeleton key and kept his eyes alert.
"I heard they make it rain on stage," Molly said, trying to get a better look beyond the red act curtain.
"I heard someone doesn't have a very high opinion of the play," he answered. She turned.
"Oh, that e-mail thing?" She shrugged. "Probably some pigeon-hole with a computer. Which doesn't eliminate even half of the kids on campus."
The doors to the lobby closed with several loud thunks followed by the lowering of the house lights overhead. The crowd began to clap, like the sound of rain on a high roof. Molly and the Doctor joined in.
Once the clapping had stopped, some far-off rhythmic sound persisted, as if several people, far back on the balcony, were still clapping to a hoedown. Molly screwed her eyebrows down and searched the audience.
"Who the hamburger is making all that noise?" She whispered harshly.
The Doctor was on his feet in an instant, to the chagrin of those seated behind him. "Oh, no, no, no!"
The act curtain opened up, the actors in place on stage, with the sound only growing louder. Molly tugged on the Doctor's sleeve as the discontent around him grew from his sudden outburst.
"Sit down!"
"--can't see--"
"Doctor!"
The last came from Molly, who had joined him standing and pointed straight at the stage.
With a piercing scream from one of the women on stage, a line of marching metal monstrosities emerged from stage left, tearing at the act curtain as they came. A collective scream rippled through the crowd, several more theatergoers joining Molly and the Doctor on their feet as the marching creatures came into view.
The act curtain came thudding to the stage, sending a shock through the seats and bouncing everyone else to their feet. They stood taller than a man, completely covered in metal with black, soulless eyes. There were more than a dozen of them, in two or three perfect lines like a regiment of soldiers. They marched completely in synch, coming to a halt right in front of the actors.
One cyborg pointed straight at the lead actor. The audience was already in the aisles, several of them beating at the doors in the back to escape. The Doctor and Molly stood still in the seats, watching.
"Doctor," Molly whispered, crouching down to peer over the back of the seat in front of her. "What are those things?!"
"Cybermen," the Doctor replied, teeth set in a straight line. "They never, ever give up, do they?"
"You've seen them before?!" Molly's eyes were as incredulous as her voice.
"Oh yes," he replied exasperatedly. "A few times too many. Stay down!" And with that, he stepped up onto his seat and stood on the back of the chair in front of him. And he hopped down the backs of the empty chairs, avoiding the weaving, frightened theatergoers and never losing his balance. Molly stared after him in awe.
"You are imperfect," the lead Cyberman droned, a detachable weapon appearing from the armor of his arm.
"Woah, woah, wait!" The Doctor cried from the audience, perched between the backs of two chairs and wobbling slightly.
"Identify yourself," a second Cyberman demanded in the same voice.
"I'm the Doctor," he said importantly, "and that's an innocent human being. According to the statutes of the Shadow Proclamation, execution of a human being on Earth soil is against the intergalactic laws laid down--"
A muffled 'oof' interrupted both parties, and the Doctor turned his head to see Molly trying to struggle up onto the back of a chair like the Doctor, with one leg up and over.
"Yeah," she grunted, crawling over until she was nearly face-first in the seat she was trying to mount the back of. A third Cyberman trained its blaster on her as she finally managed to stand Captain Morgan style, one leg up on the back and the other flat on the unfolded seat in front.
"Identify yourself," the third Cyberman demanded.
"Molly Shae Callaghan," she said just as proudly. "And I ain't 'fraid of no Cybermens!"
The Doctor planted his weary face in his hand.
"Subject found to be imperfect," it droned in return. "DELETE."
"Molly, look out!" The Doctor cried, and with no time to waste, he dove at her. He snatched her off of the chair and they thudded into the aisle together.
Overhead, the beams of the Cybermens' guns fired into the empty seats, into the running crowd. The cast on stage fled as fast as they could, jumping off the stage and running into the darkness of backstage. The Doctor shielded the both of them, glaring up at the cyborgs on the stage.
From underneath him, Molly muttered, "Doctor, I think you're very attractive, but this isn't the best time to come on to me."
"Quiet!" He demanded, hopping up into a defensive crouch. He pulled out that skeleton key again. "I told you to stay behind!"
"You look like the kind of person who needs a little help," Molly replied, joining him again. "And I happen to know Tae-Kwon-Do."
He opened his mouth to protest, to tell her that he didn't think that she was ready for the job, that he'd chosen wrong and that she should get to somewhere safe. But over the screams and the discharge of cyberweapons, the girl beside him was grinning and ready, looking him straight in the eye and crouched to spring into action.
"All right, but stay close! I don't think martial arts are going to be much help."
"Oh, you just wait!"
They sprang up together, using the seats as cover as they made their way toward the stage. "We need to get them away from everyone else before they kill someone!" the Doctor cried over the cyberguns.
"I've got an idea, Doctor," Molly replied, peeking once over the back of the chair before ducking back down, "but where d'you want to get them to? I mean--to where do you want to get them?"
"Is this really the time for correct grammar?"
"If we don't have grammar, Doctor, what do we have?"
He stared incredulously at her serious face for only a moment longer before shaking his head. "Somewhere isolated. The Cybermen are generally logic-driven. If we can get them to a point where we can make an agreement--"
"I've got it!" She cried, echoing amongst laserblasts. She hopped up from behind the cover. "Hey, Cybermen!" She cried. "If you're looking for imperfect, I'm your poster child! Hope you can march fast, 'cause I know Tae-Kwon-Do!"
"DELETE."
And she ran. The Doctor scrambled up after her, grabbing her hand and falling into tandem beside her. The Cybermen repeated their mantra in their dull robotic voices, marching at a quickened pace after them.
"You're crazy!" The Doctor bellowed over the noise as Molly threw open the stage-right door with her shoulder.
"Yeah!" She crowed, grinning.
AN: I'm back, and so is Molly! Those looking for more action, hope this helps! I'm rewatching some episodes so hopefully I'll get some rapid DocTalk stuff in later on, so I'm doing my research. Let me know if this is terrible or not, so I can go in and fix stuff if I need to. As always, const. crit is very welcome but flames make me a very sad birdie. Sorry for cliffies, but I don't want to give it all away for those who are following it :D Oh, she's so much fun to write. Thanks for reading so far, and stay awesome!!