Rise of The Cybermen Part 2

"Any idea what Mickey's gone of to?" the Doctor asked Rose a little while after he'd caught up with her. They were walking down a street, full of people, all wearing some sort of ear pods, another difference to their original Universe. The Doctor eyed them cautiously at first, them chose to ignore them.

"His Nan probably," Rose replied, smiling slightly. The Doctor gave her a confused look, then she continued, "His mum couldn't cope. His dad hung about for a while, but he just sort of wondered off. He was brought up by his Nan," her smile grew at the thought of the sweet old lady. "She was such a wonderful woman- God, she used to slap him!" she chuckled for a few seconds before turning serious again. "But then she died. She tripped and fell down the stairs. It was abou' five years ago now, I was still in school."

The Doctor looked down at the ground as they spoke, remembering his comment he spat at Mickey. "I never knew."

"You never asked," Rose countered.

"You never said," he battled.

Rose gave a sorta shrug, then continued, "That's Mickey. I suppose I- well, we just take him for granted." She bit her lip in thought for a moment before taking the Doctor's arm and tapping it. "Do you think she's still alive in this world?"

"Could be," the Doctor replied, linking their arms. "Like I said; Parallel world; Gingerbread house, all those temptations. We need to get out of here as fast as we can." Before Rose could reply, there was a loud beeping, an alarm that ran through the street. All the people, all those wearing the small, strange ear pods, stopped dead in their tracks.

Looking around in confusion, Rose asked, "What're they doing?" as the Doctor walked to a young woman, waving his hand in front of her face. "They've stopped." Looking to one of the people's ears, he saw the low flashing of the blue ear pods, which was in sync in the alarm. "It's the ear pieces," he said in wonder. "A bit like Bluetooth attachments, but everyone's connected together."

Rose's phone gave a loud beeping, telling her she had a notification. She unzipped her pocket and took out her mobile, frowning when she scrolled through the 'daily downloads'. "It's on my phone, it's automatic, look," she gestured the device held securely in her hands as the Doctor peered over her shoulder. "News, International news, Sport, Weather," she listed as she continued scrolling.

"They get it direct," the Doctor hissed quietly. "Downloaded right into their heads," he looked around the crowd of people who had stopped, taking note of the unsurprised, unworried, non moving faces. Clearly they didn't know what was happening. "Everyone shares the same information," he looked down at Rose's phone again, taking it in his own hands. "Daily Downloads, published by Cybus Industries," he read aloud. He scrolled down the screen, stopping at the word 'joke'. Before he could continue looking, all the frozen people around them began laughing at nothing in particular. When they all stopped, the blue flashing on the ear pieces ceased, allowing the crowd to move again. Each one went in a different direction, acting as if nothing had happened, leaving the Doctor and Rose confused and stunned.
"You lot, you're obsessed," the Doctor told his young companion. "You'd do anything for the latest upgrade."

"Oi," Rose thumped his arm playfully. "Not 'my lot', different world, remember?"

"It's not that far off you world," the Doctor smiled cheekily. "This is only parallel." He continued scrolling down the screen, stopping when he saw the word 'Vitex'. "Oh, look at that," he gestured the phone. "Cybus Industries own just about every company in Britain, including Vitex. Mr Pete Tyler is very well connected." He looked down at Rose, who was practically hanging off his arms, giving him an innocent smile and the biggest puppy dog eyes she could muster. Realising what his big mouth had just said, he frantically looked between the phone and Rose. He was curious about the ear pods, she wanted to go see her parallel parents. They both benefited…

The Doctor gave a sigh, tossing her the phone as he took her hand in his. "Oh, c'mon then, I give up. Let's go see him."


The two quickly found the Tyler Mansion, able to sneak in easily due to the Doctor's psychic paper and claims of 'We were told we would get Uniforms here', despite Rose's protests.

They ended up walking out of the kitchens, the Doctor carrying drinks and Rose carrying food. "We could have been anyone," Rose hissed under her breath, looking back at him.

"It got us in, didn't it?" the Doctor replied with a smile as someone took a drink from the tray he was holding.

"You're in charge of the psychic paper, we could have been guests. Celebrities. Sir Doctor, Dame Rose. Typical you, we end up serving. I got enough of this back home."

"If you wonna know what's going one, you've got to work in the kitchens," the Doctor continued to smile at the guests, walking around and offering champaign.

Roughly ten minutes later, the Doctor found Rose talking to one of the women, Rose giving her an evil look as she walked away. Whatever the woman had said, it defiantly didn't impress Rose. He stood next to her as she watched the others chatting, laughing and mingling. "According to Lucy," the Doctor started, but was interrupted.

"Who's Lucy?" Rose cut him off.

He nodded to a woman brunette, also a waitress, who was offering something to one of the guests. "She's carrying the salmon pinwheels," he replied innocently.

"Oh, that's Lucy, is it?" Rose replied. She raised her eyebrows at him a gave a little smirk.

"Jealous much?" he joked. "Anyway, she said that the man over there," he nodded to a man in the middle of the room, who was happily shaking someone's hand. "Is the President of Great Britain."

"What, there's a President, not a Prime Minister?" Rose asked in wonder.

"Seems so," the Doctor agreed. They walked toward the middle of the room, stopped when they heard a fork being tapped on glass, an 'excuse me!' ringing through the crowd. "Excuse me, thank you very much!"

Rose turned towards the oh so familiar voice. In front of her, on the staircase, was Pete Tyler, her dad- well, parallel dad, all dressed up and polished, in a suit. "I would just like to thank you all for coming on this very special occasion. My wife's… thirty ninth birthday," the crowd gave a chuckled as Pete gave a thumbs up. "Trust me on this," he told the crowd in a joking manor. "So without any further a due, here she is. The birthday girl, my lovely wife; Jackie Tyler." The crowd began to clap as the one and only began making her way down the staircase toward her husband. She wore a black dress, her hair done up in a bun, proudly showing off the ear pod latched onto the side of her shinning face. "Now, I'm not giving a speech, that's what my parties are famous for; no work, no politics. Just a few good mates, and plenty of Black Market Whiskey- pardon me, Mr President," she joked. "So yeah, get on with it, enjoy yourselves!" She took Pete's hand in hers as she walked down the rest of the staircase, walking right passed the Doctor and Rose as if they weren't even there. The Doctor took note of Rose's hurt expression, leaning down to whisper, "You can't stay, even if there were some way of telling them."

"'course I can't," Rose nodded. "I've still got my mum at home; my real mum. I couldn't just leave her. It's just… they've got each other," she gestured to her parallel parents. "And she's got no one."

"She's got you," the Doctor corrected. "Those two haven't. They've the ones missing out, not your mum," he gave a small sigh, looking around the room. "All these different worlds, not one of them gets it right."

Before Rose could agree, there was a small barking running through the room, followed by Jackie's gleeful greeting. "Rose! Come here, darling, come to mummy!" she called to her dog, picking her up when she got into arms reach. Rose- the actual Rose- watched in shock as the two left the room. The Doctor watched as the scene unfolded, struggling to bite back a laugh. He was doing well, until he saw his companion's expression. He sobered quickly when she gave him an icy glare, showing him that she didn't think it was funny at all. He cleared his throat and scratched his neck. "Sorry," he said.

With the instruction to 'mingle' and 'relax' Rose walked around the room, talking to a few people every so often, as the Doctor remembered the soul reason why they were at the party in the first place. Wondering around the house, he shortly passed a door that was slightly ajar, a lone computer sitting of a desk, the logo of Cybus Industries slapped against the screen. Making sure no one would notice, he walked in the room, closing the door behind him firmly. Taking out his specs, he smiled as he clicked on a video, happy he was getting somewhere. "This is the ultimate upgrade," came a voice from the speakers. "Our greatest step into Cyberspace." The Doctor looked horrified at the presentation. He'd seen this before, so long ago. "Cybus!" he hissed as he ran from the room. He quickly found Rose, who was peering out of a window. He placed a hand on her shoulder and looked out the window as well, his hearts racing at what he saw. "It's happening again," he muttered. "I've seen them before."

"What are they?" Rose asked urgently. She recognised the strange machines, at least part of them.

"Cybermen," the Doctor replied, hardly heard over the screams of terror as the window was smashed through, one of the said metal men walking through the frames remains, one after the other. The Doctor took Rose's hand and took her to the middle of the room, along with the others that were being rounded there. He squeezed it tightly, hoping to calm her.

"Mr Lumic," the President called through his ear pod.

"Mr President," the man on the other line, presumably Mr Lumic, replied. "I suppose a remark about 'crashing the party' would be appropriate at this point," he began sniggering.

"I forbad this!" the President exclaimed.

"These are my children, Sir," Mr Lumic replied. "Would you deny my family?"

"What are they?" Rose asked. "Robots?"

"Worst than that," the Doctor replied to her.

"Who were these people?" the President demanded.

Rose frowned as she looked at the President, then looked back at the Doctor. "They're people?"

"They were," the Doctor corrected. "Until they had all their humanity taken away. It's a living brain jammed inside a Cybernetic body with a heart of steal, all emotions removed."

"Why all their emotions?"

The Doctor took a breath before replying, "Because it hurts."

"These people," the President said again. "Who were they?!"

"They were homeless, retched and useless!" Lumic replied. "Until I saved them, and elevated them, and gave them life- eternal! And now, I leave you in their capable hands. Goodnight, Sir!"

After the conversation had ended, one of the Cybermen walked in front of the President. "We have been upgraded," it said simply, it's mouth flashing blue as the words came.

"Into what?" the Doctor demanded.

"Into the next level of mankind. We are Human Point Two. Every citizen will receive a free upgrade. You will become like us."

The President looked around at the other Cybermen, who were once people, and looked at them with great sympathy. "I'm so sorry, But listen to me; this experiment ends tonight!"

"Upgrading is compulsory," the Cyberman insisted.

"And if I refuse?" the President tested.

"Don't," the Doctor warned.

"What if I refuse?" the President repeated.

"I'm telling you, don't!" the Doctor said more urgently.

"I said 'What happens if I refuse?'." The President insisted.

"Then you are not compatible." The Cyberman replied. "You will be Deleted." Before the President could argue again, the Cyberman lifted its arms and pressed its hand roughly to the Presidents neck, sending an electric blue light up and down his body, killing him instantly. As soon as he fell to the ground, the people around the room began to scream and run as the Cybermen approached the fleeing citizens, killing them also. The Doctor, seeing an easy way out through the empty window, grabbed Rose's hand again and began rushing towards the window. "There's nothing we can do!" he told her as he helped her out the window. Turning, he quickly led her into another direction as he saw a line of Cybermen marching towards the house. Out of the corner of her eye, Rose saw Pete jump through the window they escaped from, calling after him.

"Is there a way out?" the Doctor asked him.

"The side gates!" Pete replied as he took the lead. "Who are you? How'd you know so much?"

"You'd never believe it in a million years-" the Doctor said as he skidded to a halt, Cybermen rounding the corner he was about to fly around.

"Get behind me!" called an all too familiar voice. The Doctor and Rose turned to see Mickey and an unknown figure kneeling on the ground, both holding guns and aiming them at the metal men. After a small round of bullets, the Cybermen all stopped not too far away from them. Rose quickly brought Mickey into a hug, relieved he was okay. He soon brushed her off, looking at her with a bemused expression. "Yeah, no offence, sweetheart, but who the hell are you?"

"Rose!" Called another voice from a nearby van. Rose was surprised to see another Mickey running towards them, and looked between the two of them in confusion. "Tha's not me!" he panted when he reached them. "That's, like...the other one."

"Oh, as if things weren't bad enough, there's two Mickey's!" the Doctor said dramatically.

"It's Ricky," the other Mickey spat.

"There's more of them," the real Mickey said as the continuing of Cybermen steps ran through the garden. Another two rows of Cybermen joined them, cornering off any means of escape. "We're surrounded," Rose gulped.

Ricky took aim again, putting the gun down when the Doctor said that bullets wouldn't stop them. "Put your hands up!" he commanded his party. "We surrender!" he added to the Cybermen, who were now marching foreword towards them. "There's no need to damage us. We're good stock. We volunteer for the upgrade programme. Take us to be processed."

One of the Cybermen stopped not too far away from the Doctor. "You are rouge elements."

The Doctor frowned as he held his hands up high. "But we surrender."

"You are incompatible."

"But this is a surrender!" the Doctor repeated. "Listen to me, we surrender!"

"You are inferior. Men will be reborn as Cybermen, but you will perish under maximum Deletion." All the Cybermen that surrounded the group pressed their hands to their metal chests, then thrust them forewords, walking toward them chanting 'Delete, Delete, Delete'.