Ok, I'm back, sorry for the wait, you know, I'm going to try a new year's resolution, I'm going to update every day if possible from now on, on this and Series 3 with Rose. I've realised that it's gonna take me some time to finish this, so tomorrow, I'll just start typing The Impossible Plantet, up to Doomsday, so that I can post behind where I actually am with writing, so, what I mean is that, I'll be at least a chapter in arrears
Previously....
Chapter 67
"Tommy, talk to me." the Doctor said
Tommy stepped outside the door and the Doctor continued "I need to know exactly what happened inside your house." Tommy's father followed him out of the house
"What the blazes do you think you're doing?"
"I wanna help, Dad!" Tommy said
"Mr Connolly." the Doctor said, trying to take the man's attention away from Tommy.
"Shut your face, you." Mr Connolly said advancing on the Doctor "Whoever you are. We can handle this ourselves!" He turned back to his son "Listen, you little twerp. You're hardly out of the blooming cradle so I don't expect you to understand, but I've got a position to maintain. People round here respect me. It matters what people think."
"Is that why you did it, Dad?" Tommy asked
"What do you mean?" Mr Connolly asked "Did what?"
"You ratted on Gran." Tommy stated "How else would the police know where to look? Unless some coward told them."
"How dare you?" said Mr Connolly "You think I fought a war just so a mouthy little scum like you could call me a coward!"
"You don't get it, do you?" Tommy asked "You fought against fascism, remember? People telling you how to live. Who you could be friends with. Who you could fall in love with. Who could live and who had to die. Don't you get it? You were fighting so that little twerps like me could do what we want, say what we want. Now you've become just like them. You've been informing on everyone, haven't you? Even Gran. All to protect your precious reputation!"
Rita exited the living room "Eddie, is that true?" she asked when she reached the front door.
"I did it for us, Rita." he said "She was filthy! A filthy disgusting thing!"
"She's my mother." She said "All the others you informed on, all the people in our street, our friends."
"I had to." he said "I did the right thing."
"The right thing for us or for you, Eddie?" she said, then turned to Tommy "You go, Tommy." she told him "Go with the Doctor and do some good. Get away from this house. It's poison." She turned back to her husband "We've had a ruddy monster under our roof all right, but it weren't my mother!" she went back inside the house and shut the door, Mr Connolly shouted for his wife
"Tommy." said the Doctor holding out his hand. Tommy walked away from his front door and joined the Doctor and DI Bishop. And they walked away.
--
The Doctor and Detective Inspector Bishop walked on either side of Tommy "Tommy, tell me about that night, the night she changed." the Doctor asked
"She was just watching the telly." Tommy answered.
"Rose said it." the Doctor said "She guessed it straightaway. Of course she did." He looked up at the roofs of the houses they walked past and spotted the TV aerials "All these aerials in one little street. How come?" The last part was directed at Tommy.
"Bloke up the road, Mr Magpie, he's selling them cheap."
The Doctor ran off in that direction
"Is he now?" asked Bishop
"Come on!"
The two of them followed the Doctor to Magpie's shop.
--
The Doctor broke the window in the door of Magpies shop and opened it from the inside "Here!" said Bishop "You can't do that."
The Doctor entered the shop "Shop!" he shouted before banging the bell on the table to get Magpie's counter. "If you're here, come out and talk to me, Magpie!"
"Maybe he's out." Tommy suggested
"Looks like it."
The Doctor went behind the counter and started looking around. He found something in one of the drawers that shouldn't be there. "Oh, hello." he said taking it out. "This isn't right. This is very much not right." he licked it "Tastes like iron." he said "Bakelite." He put it down on the counter "Knocked together with human hands, yes, but the design itself…" he scanned it with the sonic screwdriver "Oh, beautiful work. That is so simple."
"That's incredible." said Bishop "It's like a television, but portable. A portable television!" Bishop sounded awed, in fact he looked it
"It's not the only power source in this room." the Doctor said as he scanned the room. As he moved the sonic screwdriver round the room the TV screens turned on revealing the faces of the people who were locked up back at the factory.
Tommy spotted his Gran. Her face was on one of the higher up screens "Gran."
She moved her mouth as though she was trying to say "Tommy."
The Doctor walked around looking at all of the screens, that's when he realised the sheer number of people that had had their faces removed. He looked along the bottom row and that's when he saw Rose.
"Doctor" she mouthed
He crouched down in front of the screen and said "I'm on my way."
"What do you think you're doing?" Mr Magpie asked as he entered from the back of the shop. The Doctor stood up and crossed the room quickly and said "I want my wife restored and I think that's beyond a little backstreet electrician, so tell me, who's really in charge here?"
"Yoo-hoo."
said a female voice "I think that must be me." The Doctor turned around and spotted the face on the screen"Oh, this one's smart as paint."
He walked over to stand beside Tommy and DI Bishop "Is she talking to us?" Bishop asked
"I'm sorry, gentlemen, I'm afraid you've brought this on yourselves." Mr Magpie said from his position at the entrance to the back of the shop. "May I introduce you to my new friend."
"Jolly nice to meet you."
"Oh, my God, it's her." said Bishop "That woman off the telly!"
"No." the Doctor said "It's just using her image."
"What?" Tommy asked "What are you?"
"I'm The Wire."
she said "And I will gobble you up, pretty boy. Every last morsel! And when I have feasted, I shall regain the corporeal body," She changed from a black and white image to a full colour one"which my fellow kind denied me."
"Good Lord." said Bishop "Colour television."
"So your own people tried to stop you?" the Doctor asked
"They executed me, but I escaped in this form and fled across the stars."
"And now you're trapped in the television." the Doctor said
"Not for much longer"
"Doctor, is this what got my gran?" Tommy asked
"Yes, Tommy." the Doctor answered "It feeds off the electrical activity of the brain, but it gorges itself like a great, over-fed pig. Taking people's faces, their essence as it stuffs itself. And you let her do it, Magpie."
"I had to." Magpie said, trying to defend himself from the Doctor's anger "She allowed me my face. She's promised to release me at the time of manifestation."
"What does that mean?"
"The appointed time. My crowning glory."
"Doctor, the Coronation!" exclaimed Bishop
"For the first time in history, millions gathered round a television set." said the Doctor "But you're not strong enough, yet, are you? You can't do it all from here. That's why you need this." He held up the portable TV "You need something more powerful. This will turn a big transmitter into a big receiver."
"What a clever thing you are. But why fret about it? Why not just relax? Kick off your shoes and enjoy the Coronation. Believe me, you'll be glued to the screen."
She tried to take the Doctor's face and at the same time, she tried to take Tommy's and DI Bishop's too. "Doctor!""Hold on." the Doctor said
"Hungry! The Wire is hungry! Oh, this one is tasty! Oh, I'll have lashings of him. Delicious! Ah!"
The Doctor reached into his pocket with his free hand and got out the sonic screwdriver "Armed? He's armed and clever. Withdraw! Withdraw!" She released them and they fell to the floor unconscious."The box, Magpie, the box!"
Magpie grabbed the box and left the shop after transporting The Wire from the TV to the portable one.
--
The Doctor regained consciousness first, he looked at the other two, Bishop no longer had a face and Tommy was still unconscious. He shook Tommy's foot "Tommy, wake up!" he said "Tommy, come on!"
Tommy woke and asked "What happened?"
"Where's Magpie?" the Doctor asked
They went outside "We don't even know where to start looking." Tommy said "It's too late."
"Never too late, as a wise person once said." the Doctor said "Kylie, I think. The Wire's got big plans. It'll need…Oh, yes, yes. She's gonna harvest half the population. Millions and millions of people. And where are we?"
"Muswell Hill."
"Muswell Hill." said the Doctor "Muswell Hill! Which means…Alexandra Palace! Biggest TV transmitter in North London. Oh! That's why it chose this place, Tommy!" He turned around
"What are you gonna do?" Tommy asked as the Doctor went back to the shop door
"I'm going shopping."
They went back inside and got what they needed
--
The Doctor was building something and Tommy was helping him "This what you want?" he asked holding something up
"Perfect!" said the Doctor, taking it from him "Right, I need one more thing." He handed the contraption he had built to Tommy and then left the shop.
--
They went to the Tardis and Tommy stood outside while the Doctor went to get something. He walked through the halls of the Tardis to the most Earth like of the living rooms on board and grabbed one of the video tapes that Rose had brought on board. Once he got it, he ran from that room back to the console room and went outside "Got it." he said as he closed the door "Let's go."
They ran along, while the Doctor finished the thing that he was making.
--
They finally reached Alexandra Palace and ran through the grounds looking for Magpie. "There!" Tommy said, spotting Magpie climbing the tower
"Come on!"
Okay, I'm sorry that I'm ending it there, but it's 5 to one in the morning; I promise you'll get the rest at some point tomorrow.
TTFN
Julie