Araconophobia Strikes Back
okay, so the Runaway Bride is going to be in four parts. It's longer than i would have liked it to be. in one part,
this would have been 9000+ words. part three, then! part four hopefully later today if not definitely tomorrow.
I don't know if I'll do every chapter of Series 3, as I have a good idea for a sequel, so maybe
i'll do every second episode? or maybe the bits inbetween, and some important episodes eg. Smith and Jones (meeting Martha), Gridlock
(return to New Earth), Blink (going back to 1969), etc? Let me know episodes, please, as I don't mind but don't wanna do them all! suggestions are very welcome!
Finally, the baubles stopped exploding and the Doctor tentively raised his head, not wanting to leave Rose unprotected if they weren't done with their attack. But the Santas were in a straight line opposite the DJ decks, and the Doctor suddenly had an idea.
"Rose," he said, rolling off her.
"Yeah," she breathed, no-one was making a sound, no-one dared to breathe.
"I have an idea. Put these on," he said, producing a pair of green ear protecters he'd bought when he was in his second body and his companions of the time had made him go to a rock concert. Not the best of ideas, but he'd bought the ear protectors and they'd muffled out noise to such a extent he didn't hear anyone, even when they were shouting in his ear. He wanted Rose to be as far away from the speakers as possible but also as close to him as possible, and it wasn't going to work both ways.
"What are they for?" she asked, holding them in her hands.
"No time. I'll tell you later," he said, taking them out her hands and putting them over her ears for her, kissing her forehead reassuringly. She smiled back up at him, and made to stand up, but he pushed her back.
"Stay low," he mouthed, and Rose nodded, understanding.
"Oi!" the Doctor yelled, now addressing the Santas. Rose turned on her knees and looked over the decks, so only her eyes were visable. She could see other people doing the same. "Word of advice: if you're attacking a man with a sonic screwdriver ... " he waved the sonic, and picked up a microphone, flipping it over in his hand before speaking into it, the sonic next to the amplifiers. " ... don't let him near the sound system," he switched on the sonic, and the room filled with a horrible, screeching noise that made everyone's ears hurt. Rose's were okay but she could still hear; because of her genetic makeup combined with pregnancy she would be senstive to noise, the Doctor knew. Hence the ear protecters, but Rose still clamped her hands to her ears, her eyes shut; but it wasn't as bad as Donna, who was screeching at the top of her voice.
The noise stopped, and she heard the Doctor fall to his knees beside her, removing the ear protectors. "Are you all right?" he asked, stroking her forehead lovingly.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she said, smiling; she kissed him quickly and stood up, shocked at what she saw before her.
Santa had exploded.
Kids were screaming, parents where crying, and Donna was bossing.
Nothing new there, then.
"Let's go help, then," Rose said, and pulled him into the centre of the fray. The Doctor zoomed on autopilot to the robots.
"Oooh, look at that, remote control for the decorations," he said, showing Rose and Donna (who had arrived hot on their heels) the remote control. "But there's a second control for the robots. They're not scavengers anymore ... I think someone's taken possession," he said, now examining the head of a robot.
"Never mind all that, you're a doctor, and people have been hurt," Donna said, tugging his arm, trying to get him to tend to some kids who were still traumatised from seeing Santa explode.
"I'll help," Rose offered, and went to go help; but the Doctor's reached out and grabbed her arm, pulling her backwards.
"No," he said, gently but firmly. "I don't know when or if these baubles will explode again, and I don't really want either of you," he gestured to her stomach and then to her face, "Getting hurt, okay?" he said, gently kissing her forehead and Rose nodded; sometimes, it was quite easy to forget that there was someone else she had to put in front of herself now.
Donna hadn't missed this exchange. "You're pregnant," she said, as if it answered many unanswered questions. Rose nodded slowly - how would she react? She's just missed her wedding and Rose was just swanning in, flaunting the fact she was pregnant? Rose couldn't help but smile, everytime someone mentioned her pregnancy.
Instead of being jealous or any other kind of negative emotion, Donna looked really happy for the first time since she'd met her. "Congrats. Gosh, why didn't you say earlier?" she squealed, hugging Rose tightly.
"Just wasn't really the time," Rose said, shrugging, and all the while the Doctor was scrutinizing a bauble; but Donna hadn't missed the proud little smirk that had spread across his face as well.
"Oh, don't think I was going to miss you out!" Donna said, and threw her arms around him as well; the Doctor seemed shocked for a moment, but after he was released smiled, then went back to looking at the bauble.
"Now's not really the time to talk about it, Donna," the Doctor said, turning the bauble over in his hands. Donna got the message and changed the subject.
"So, do these things want me dead?"
"Nah, they wanted you alive," the Doctor said. He threw a bauble to Donna, as Rose picked one off the floor. "Look, they're not active now."
"All I'm saying is that they didn't make it seem like that," Donna said.
"Gotta think of the bigger picture... there's still a signal!" the Doctor said, holding the robot's head to his to hear. He dashed away out of the room, leaving it in a total state of panic; Rose and Donna made to follow when a tugging on Donna's arm made her stop, and Rose stopped as well, not wanting to leave Donna on her own.
"Donna ... who is he? Who is that man?" Donna's Mum, Sylvia, sounded terrified. Donna just turned her back and ran out the room. Rose didn't follow. She felt a pang in her heart for Sylvia, who only wanted the best for her only daughter. She saw a striking similiarity to herself and her Mum, and it was definitely different seeing the situation from an outsider's eye. It made Rose feel sad that all those times Jackie was worried about her safety, she just brushed it off, never truly answering questions. Both her and Sylvia deserved more than that. Sylvia had turned away to join her husband, and Rose made a snap decision.
"Sylvia," Rose said, and the older woman turned around. "He's the Doctor, and don't worry - he'll sort all this out, I promise. He always does. He's a complete stranger, to everyone. Except me. Sort of. Anyway, don't worry, he's not a 'bad man' or anything. He's just a man trying to save the world, and your daughter is helping him. You should feel proud of her, not scared for her," Rose said reassuringly, and Sylvia nodded, wiping away tears. Rose patted her on the arm, before running out to join the Doctor and Donna, feeling a lot better about herself. Lance ran after her, shouting something about he deserved to know.
The Doctor and Donna, meanwhile, were outside in the garden. The Doctor was standing outside explaining to Donna exactly what a sonic screwdriver was. He stopped his explaination as soon as he seen Rose.
"Where did you run off to? I was getting a teensey little bit worried there."
"I was talking to someone. Why?"
"Erm, Tyler, we have a problemo. Of epic proportions. There's someone behind this, controlling the robo-force," the Doctor said, going back to scanning the robot head.
"But why is it me? What have I done?" Donna wailed, her head in her hands. Lance put his arm around her.
"If we find the controller, we'll find that out. Oh!" the Doctor said, before raising the sonic into the air. "It's up there, something in the sky."
"In the sky?" Rose repeated, looking up. All she could see was a white clouds, with blue splashes of sky inbetween.
"Damnit, I've lost the signal - Donna, we've got to get to your office, H.C. Clements. I think that's where it all started. Lance - is it Lance? Can you give us a lift?" the Doctor said at ninety miles an hour. Lance went to protest, but the Doctor had ran off without waiting for an answer, so it looked like Lance had no choice.
The Doctor, Rose, Donna and Lance ran into H.C. Clements, thanks to Lance having a key - being head of HR doesn't come without it's advantages, and luckily for them no-one was around, it being Christmas Eve and all. The Doctor was speaking to Rose very fast, and she was nodding, before they rushed over to a computer.
"This might just be a locksmiths, but H.C. Clements was brought up twenty three years ago by the Torchwood Institute," the Doctor explained to Donna and Lance, who both looked blank.
"Who are they?" Donna asked for both of them.
"They were behind the Battle of Canary Wharf," Rose said, looking over the Doctor's shoulder at what he was typing.
There was silence from Donna. Lance had nodded, understanding immediately.
"Cybermen invasion?" the Doctor said, looking blankly at her.
Donna just looked at him, inquiringly. She guestered for him to continue.
"Skies over London full of Daleks?" the Doctor said incredulously.
"Oh!" Donna said, as if a lightbulb had been turned on. The Doctor sighed, finally she had gotten it - or so he thought. "I was in Spain."
The Doctor hit himself on the forehead with his palm.
"They had Cybermen in Spain," Rose said, looking at Donna.
"Scuba diving?" Donna said, as if it was a passable excuse.
"That big picture, Donna - you keep on missing it," the Doctor said, moving at lightning speed to another computer, "Torchwood was destroyed - "
"By us," Rose supplied, unhelpfully in the present circumstances, but it caught Lance and Donna's attention.
" - but H.C. Clements stayed in business. I think... someone else came in and took over the operation," he finished, whacking the monitor with his fist, apparently fustrated with the lack of progress. "Ouch," he muttered, looking at his fist, which caused Rose to roll her eyes.
"What have I told you about hitting things?" she asked him, hands on hips. "It doesn't make things any better and in all honesty, I wouldn't be surprised if one day you break your hand. Actually, I'd laugh."
"Thanks," he said sarcastically. "Can I take you back to the shop? Henricks might take you back. I'll say you're faulty; I want a girlfriend who will love me, not laugh at me," he said, pretending to be hurt. Rose didn't buy it and smacked him upside the head, which caused him to moan in pain again.
Donna huffed, inpatient. "Sorry to break up the domestics," she said, and the Doctor opened his mouth in a sarcastically annoyed way, "but what do they want with me?"
The Doctor turned serious blindingly quick. "Somehow you've been dosed with Huon energy. And that's a problem because Huon energy hasn't existed since the Dark Times. The only place you'd find a Huon particle now is a remnant in the heart of the TARDIS. See? That's what happened. Say ... that's the TARDIS," he said, picking up a H.C. Clements mug, "and that's you," he picked up a pencil, "the particles inside you activated. The two sets of particles magnetised and WHAP!" he chucked the pencil inside the mug.
"You were pulled inside the TARDIS," Rose supplied helpfully this time, as Donna had no idea what the Doctor was on about.
"I'm a pencil inside a mug," Donna said weakly, looking at the mug in the Doctor's hand.
"Yes, you are. 4H. Sums you up. Lance? What was H.C. Clements working on? Anything top secret? Special operations? Do not enter?" He said, holding his sonic screwdriver, making an 'aah' noise as the screen he was looking for appeared on the screen.
"I don't know, I'm in charge of personnel. I wasn't project manager," Lance replied defensively, folding his arms across his chest. "Why am I even explaining myself? What the hell are we talking about?" He was angry now, anyone could see that; his hands were balled into fists by his side.
"They make keys, that's the point. And look at this ... " he said, turning the monitor around so Rose, Donna and Lance could see. " ... we're on the third floor."
He shot up from his seat, whispered something to Rose and they walked over to the lift, where Rose pressed the button to call the lift to their floor.
"Underneath reception, there's a basement, yes?" he said, as Lance and Donna nodded. "Then how come when you look on the lift, there's a button marked 'lower basement'? There's a whole floor which doesn't exist on the official plans. So what's down there, then?" he asked, standing in the lift with Rose next to him.
"Are you telling me this building's got a secret floor?" Lance's question was skeptical.
"No, we're showing you this building's got a secret floor," the Doctor said, pointing to the button.
"It needs a key, and only managers have one. Not even Lance has one," Donna said.
"I don't," the Doctor said simply, and held his sonic screwdriver to the lock. "Right then, thanks you two, we can handle this from here. Nice meeting you - see you later," he said.
"No chance, Martian," Donna said, and Rose smirked, "You're the man who keeps saving my life, I ain't letting you out of my sight." She joined them in the lift, as Rose squeezed the Doctor hand, trying not to laugh.
"Going down," the Doctor said, for no necessary reason.
"Lance?" Donna said pointedly, indicating with her head he should join them in the lift.
"Maybe I should go to the police?" he said meekly, pointing out the door.
"Inside," Donna said sharply, and Lance got in without hesitation.
"To honour and obey?" the Doctor quipped, still holding onto Rose's hand, leaning against the glass of the lift.
"Tell me about it mate."
"Oi!" Donna said, in reaction to Lance's comment.
There was silence in the lift after that. The ping of the lift ended it, and the four filed out of the lift and into the damp corrider with a greenish tinge.
"Offt, check out the eerie green light," Rose said, pointing to the walls.
Donna was asking if Mr. Clements knew about this place. The Doctor made to answer her, but instead made an 'ooh' sound. Rose turned around to see he wasn't looking at the walls.
"Transport," he said, pointing to some fancy scooters. Rose made an identical 'ooh' sound.
"Tres fancy. Trust Torchwood to import these from Japan," Rose said, fingering the engravings on the scooter that was in Japanese.
"Rightey-o then. Let's follow the corridor down, shall we?" he said, jumping on his own scooter as Rose claimed hers. Donna and Lance did likewise, and soon they were trundling down the corridor looking extremely comical. Rose looked at the Doctor and they both burst out laughing, and Donna soon got the joke; Lance, however, did not, and the three sped along laughing their heads off while Lance looked plain confused.
They eventually stopped laughing long enough to realise they'd come to a door which had 'Torchwood - Authorised Personnel Only' written in green on the door.
"You two," the Doctor said, pointing at Donna and Lance, "stay here. We," he pointed to himself and Rose, "need to get our bearings. Don't do anything. Seriously. Or go anywhere. Even more seriously. Get it?" he said, and both nodded. He turned the wheel and with a loud groan that indicated the door hadn't been opened in a while, the door opened to show a set of stairs. "Ladies first," he said, and Rose went up first, giving the Doctor a great view of her bum as she went up.
"You'd better come back!" Donna yelled, and the Doctor reluctantly dropped his gaze from Rose's backside to Donna.
"Couldn't get rid of you if I tried," he said, and looked up to see Rose was at the top already. He could hear Lance questioning Donna, with Donna's answer of 'July' making everything clear. The Doctor shook his head to himself; domestics, who could be bothered with them?
"Oi, Earth to Timey!" Rose called, and he saw he was pointing at a manhole. "I'm sorry, having a small moment here, I can't open the door."
"Ah, girlfriends these days, can't trust them," he said, and recieved another punch on the arm. He smiled at her and pushed the door, and even he struggled with it as the door was basically defying gravity.
The wind caught their hair as they stepped outside, Rose fully outside so the Doctor could poke his head out.
"Are we on a flood barrier?" Rose asked, looking around. As far as she could tell, they were in the middle of the Thames.
"Yep, seems so," the Doctor said, and they proceeded back down where Lance and Donna were still arguing about something-or-other. "Thames flood barrier! Right on top of us. Torchwood snuck in and built this place underneath," he informed them, and Donna gaped.
"What, there's like a secret base hidden underneath a major London landmark?" she said, shocked. The Doctor and Rose looked at each other, thinking the same thing - Canary Wharf, anyone?
"I know! Unheard of," the Doctor said, semi-sarcastically, as the walked down the corrider and through a set of plastic drapes. Behind the drapes was some kind of labratory. There were test tubes of every colour imaginable and everything was bubbling, steaming, hissing, sparking or whistling.
The Doctor had a happy smile on his face, and Rose could tell he was in his element. "Oh, look at this! Stunning! Particle extrusion!" he said, running over to various pieces of equipment, explaining things to Rose at two hundred miles an hour, so Rose only picked out words like 'filter' and 'soft' and 'beautiful'.
"What does it do?" Donna asked, quite impatiently.
"Particle extrusion. Hold on ... " he said, running over and tapping another test tube; from where Rose was standing she could see his face through the water in the tube, so his face was completely distorted. She fought the urge to laugh. "Brilliant. They've been manufacturing Huon particles. In case my people got rid of Huons, they unravelled the atomic structure."
"Your people?" Lance piped up, and Rose jumped; she'd forgotten he was even there. "Who are they? What company do you represent?"
Oooh, touchy.
"Oh, I'm a freelancer. But this lot are rebuilding them. They've been using the river! Extruding them through a flat hydrogen base so they've got the end result - Huon particles in liquid form," he said, and went around to a desk, where bottles of liquid were standing. He picked one up, fingering it gently, before walking over to Donna.
"And that's what's inside me?" Donna said, fainting, and the Doctor gently turned to the knob at the top of the bottle; the water glowed gold, and so did Donna.
"Oh, my God!" Rose said, standing beside the Doctor as Donna glowed.
"Because the particles are inert - they need something living to catalyse inside and that's you. Saturate the body and then ... HA!" he yelled, and everyone jumped out of their skin, Donna holding a hand to her chest in fright. He become madly enthuastic again, and Donna and Lance looked shocked by his sudden change of mood. "The wedding! Yes, you're getting married, that's it! Best day of your life, walking down the aisle -- oh, your body's a battleground! There's a chemical war inside! Adrenaline, acetylcholine, WHAM go the endorphins, oh you're cooking! Yeah, you're like a walking oven! A pressure cooker, a microwave, all churning away, the particles reach boiling point, SHAZAM!"
Donna slapped him. Rose clapped a hand to her mouth in laughter, whilst Lance winced.
"What was that for?" the Doctor said indignantly, and turned to Rose. "Was I being rude again?" he asked her, but she just turned away from him, laughing all the time. He scowled.
"Are you enjoying this?" Donna asked, hands on hips. The Doctor looked down at the floor, ashamed of himself slightly. "Right, just tell me - these particles, are they dangerous? Am I safe?" Donna asked, breathing heavily. Rose could tell she was terrified, and she rushed over to her, putting an arm around her shoulders in comfort. Rose really felt her soon-to-be husband should be doing her job, but he was more interested in the stuff going on around her than her.
"Yeah, of course they're not!" the Doctor said, but that was way too flippant for him.
"Doctor ... " Rose said warningly, but Donna got there first.
"Why did they get rid of them, then?"
The Doctor looked up from the ground, and sorrow was evident in his eyes. Uh-oh. Brooding emo Doctor was back.
"Because they were deadly," he said, softly, as Rose gasped, and Donna started shaking.
"Oh, my God ... " she said, clutching onto Rose for dear lift. Lance didn't even look the slightest bit bothered that his soon-to-be wife was dying.
"I'll sort it out, Donna. Whatever's been done to you, I'll reverse it. I'm not about to lose you. Too many people have been lose recently," the Doctor said, as Rose went to give a piece of her mind to Lance.
Crash, bang, crash!
The Doctor and Donna looked up, and Rose went rushing back to them, her anger towards Lance evaporating instantly; something was wrong, very wrong.
"Oh, she is long since lost!" A rasping voice rang out around the chamber, and a sliding wall went up to reveal a large hole in the ground. Rose was immediately reminded of Krop Tor, and the Doctor grabbed her hand, squeezing it tightly; he'd obviously been having similar thoughts. Whether he was doing it for reassurance or to reassure her, she didn't know.
"I have waited so long, hibernating at the edge of the universe ... " the rasping voice said again. Everyone's gaze turned to Lance as he choked, his eyes wide in horror as he ran full plet out of the door.
Good riddence, thought Rose. Donna could do so much better.
"... until the secret heart was uncovered and called out to waken!" the raspy voice completed, as Rose clocked the robot Santas, with guns, lining the walls. Convienently, the guns were pointed at them. That sorted where the Santas came into the equation.
As Rose looked down into the pit, she knew that there was a lot more than bad-ass Santas and kidnapped brides going on here. Like an unfinished jigsaw puzzle, it just didn't seem to fit quite right yet, but Rose knew by now that it would. But one thing kept popping up in Rose's mind - a secret base underneath flood barriers? Dastardly, sneaky, good-for-nothing Torchwood.