Hi everyone, well, I'm on an updating frenzy today, I'm working on my Christmas story, or rather the sequel for with a little help and this, it's one chapter of one and then back to the other, I'm going to keep doing this all day, except when I'm delivering the papers and having my lunch and dinner, anyway, I'll continue to do this until Christmas Eve, so I'll change to two chapters of this to one of the other on Tuesday and there'll also be an update for Series 3 with Rose before Christmas Eve as well, but I'm going to get on with this otherwise I'll be doing this chapter all day. Here we go.

Mrs Moore stopped the van and everyone got out. They walked along the street and saw people walking with blank faces "What the hell?" asked Mrs Moore

"What's going on?" Rose asked

"It's the Ear Pods." answered the Doctor "Lumic's taken control"

"Can'r we just, I don't know, take them off?" Rose asked as she walked behind one of the people. She tried to take one man's off, but her husband stopped her

"Don't." he said "It'll cause a brainstorm." They walked along "The human race, for such and intelligent lot, you aren't half susceptible. Give anyone a chance to take control and you submit. Sometimes I think you like it. Easy life."

"Hey." said the blonde man who was with Ricky "Come and see."

The others joined them and they watched as people exited their homes and followed the Cybermen "Where are they all going?" Rose asked

"I don't know." answered the Doctor "Lumic must have a base of operations" He turned to Pete

"Battersea." Pete answered his look "That's where he was building his protoypes."

"Why's he doing it?" Rose asked him

"He's dying." Pete replied, "This all started out as a way of prologing life, keeping the brain alive. At any cost."

"Thing is, I've seen Cybermen before, haven't I?" Rose asked, when the Doctor didn't answer she continued "The head, those handle shapes, in Van Statten's Museum."

"Oh, there are Cybermen in our universe." the Doctor said "They started on an ordinary world just like this, then swarmed across the galaxy. This lot are a parallel version. They're starting from scratch right here on Earth."

"What the hell are you two on about?" Pete asked

"Never mind." said Ricky "Come on, we need to get out of the city. Okay, split up." he looked at them "Mrs Moore, you look after that lot. Jake, distract them, go right, I'll go left. We'll meet back at Bridge Street. Move."

"I'm going with him." Mickey said and he hugged Rose before following Ricky

"Come on." said Mrs Moore. "Let's go."

They ran in their separate directions. The Doctor led his group away and they found more Cybermen coming from the opposite direction "Back!" he shouted and they turned to go back, but more were coming from there too, they found a side street and ran down it, the Cybermen still followed them

--

They hid behind some bins, Rose was gripping her husband's hand for dear life. Pete took her other hand and they waited as the Cybermen looked for them. They stopped near the bins and the Doctor took out the sonic screwdriver with his free hand and pointed it in their direction, whatever he did must have worked because the Cybermen walked away. The Doctor stood up first and squeezed Rose's hand before letting it go, Rose stood up next at the same time as Pete, she dropped his hand and the three of them and Mrs Moore watched the Cybermen leave

"Go." the Doctor whisperd and they got out from behind the bins and ran.

--

They waited at Bridge Street for the other three to come back, Jack came back first. "I ran past the river, you should've seen it." he said as he reached them "The whole city's on the march. Hundreds of Cybermen, all down the Thames." Someone came running "Here he is." But he didn't know which of the Smiths it was, was it Ricky or Mickey. "Which one are you?"

"I'm sorry, the Cybermen, he couldn't..."

"Are you Ricky?" Jake asked "Are you Ricky?"

"Mickey, that's you, isn't it?" Rose asked

"Yeah." Rose went to her friend and hugged him "He tried." Mickey said, trying to make Jake understand "He was running. There was too many of them."

"Shut it." said Jake

"There was nothing I could do." Mickey said

"I said just shut it!" Jake said "Don't even talk about him. You're nothing, you are. Nothing."

"We can mourn him when London is safe." the Doctor said "For now, we move on." Everyone nodded and they walked away.

Okay, that's this chapter completed, you'll get the next chapter after I add the next one to With a little Help: Part two: Christmas with Jackie.

TTFN

Julie