Doctor Who

Because Your Special

Teenage Boys or Scientist Aliens?

"It looks like I have arrived just in time." The haughty intelligent voice of a familiar Doctor echoed in the tense silence. The clownish man, in the hideous rainbow-hued patchwork jacket, sauntered in, collected the mirror from the carpet, fiddled with it until he saw the Watcher. He frowned, tilting the mirror to get a better look. "Interesting. Isn't it, doctors? What purpose do you serve, harbinger of regeneration?"

"Hello." Bow-tie Boy's voice seemed a little worn. With the pressure of Donna's Doctor on his back, he could barely lift his head to make eye-contact with his other regeneration. "Would you mind helping me up?"

"You got yourself into this mess, you young fool. It's hardly my concern." The colorfully dressed blond Doctor glanced down at him in a superior, disinterested way, and marched over to hand the cosmetic mirror to Donna. "Hold that, if you please, my dear girl."

"But…" Donna wasn't sure what to do. So she held the mirror and kept an eye on the Watcher.

The gaudy doctor swerved away. Halo-boy, that was what she'd called him earlier. Donna hoped there would be a better way to tell all the Doctors apart in her head rather than giving all of them nicknames but she didn't think now was the time to ask James for suggestions.

Her friend's anger had faded into sorrow and it looked like he was ashamed of his actions. He still kept hold of his youthful prisoner but the wrath had faded, leaving hollowness in his eyes. He looked up but was having trouble making eye-contact with the blond Doctor.

Halo-boy Doctor knelt by the other two and began fishing about in Bow-tie Boy's pockets. He withdrew the screwdriver, glanced at the readings, and stood.

James' unfortunate captive lifted his head to complain. "Now, I really don't want any harm to come to that. It's new. It's brand-new."

"La-de-da." The blond Doctor replied, "I am simply using a tool—a rather unessential tool, I might add—there's more to being a genius than relying on simple sonic technology. It might do you some good to put your wit to work on problems."

From his position on the ground, the younger—in appearance, anyway—Doctor's voice was muffled. "I'll keep it in mind."

"Of course, sonic-screwdrivers do speed up certain solutions. Now, to save the day." Smiling as if pleased with himself, with his hideous coat twirling dramatically about him, he moved to stand next to Donna. With a few clicks of some buttons on the device, the gaudy doctor confidently and directly pointed the green light at the Watcher. The Watcher rippled like he was underwater and then vanished from the mirror's reflection. He hadn't broken eye-contact with Donna—not even in the last second of his visibility.

"I was going to do that…" Bow-tie Boy muttered from the floor.

"What did you do?" Donna asked the blond Doctor.

"Saved the day, my dear girl." Halo-boy gently tweaked Donna's nose, before contentedly settling back on his heels.

James was the one who replied. "It was a simple matter of reversing the polarity of the temporal attraction—of course—on a very small scale using sonic pulses." James thumped Bow-tie Boy's head against the floor as a last act of spite and climbed to his feet. "Which is what I was trying to do when…" He looked down at the other doctor who was still lying limply on the carpeting, and for a minute Donna wondered if James was going to kick him.

Suddenly, the boy in tweed leapt to his feet, long fingers flittering about almost like he was having a seizure. "Don't be silly," Bow-tie Boy finished his finger twitches to wipe off the dirt and carpet lint from the arms of his jacket, "you told Donna you didn't know what to do about the Watcher."

"That doesn't mean I didn't have a few ideas." James shot back. "'Cause of you, I didn't get a chance to try them…"

Bow-tie Boy looked unconvinced and started to reply but at the look on James' face, he sensibly shut his mouth. He did manage to catch Donna's attention and smile at her as if they both knew how useless her Doctor was.

"Yes, yes. I am sure she's very grateful to you two future-flibbertigibbets for thinking about doing something." The blond Doctor said grandly, dismissing the other Time Lord's argument with a waving gesture. "But, my solution is only temporary. The Watcher is still around. Back in his own little dimension, undoubtedly. But…" Halo-boy put his hands in his pockets like James often did and looked pensive, his intelligent eyes staring at the spot where the Watcher had vanished, "whatever pulled him into our world, will undoubtedly pull him back here again. No, to get rid of him entirely, we must solve the greater problem."

"If everyone would stop getting in my way, I could sort that." James noted irritably and crossed the room to take Donna's elbow. "You coming?"

"Of all the overconfident, conceited, imbecilic plans that ever has graced the universe with its pure rankness, I believe that takes the top. Hmm. The absolute top. " Halo-Boy clenched his jacket's lapels and nodded at Bow-tie Boy. He made a sound in his throat which was an odd half-chuckle half-sigh, "I can't say I blame you not wanting to work with him. He is, after all, an absent-minded idiot. And more irritating than Peri on a sugar-high...but you can't really do without us, can you?"

"Foppery." Donna's Doctor cursed under his breath. At least, Donna assumed it was a curse-word, though she'd never heard it before. "'course I can, I'm the Doctor."

"You can't impress me with my own name." Bow-Tie Boy commented, rubbing at the arm James had abused. "You know, very old men should be treated with more respect."

The Blond doctor snorted. "Hah. Speak for yourself. I am the proverbial spring-chicken in the room."

"Hall."

"Well, let's be precise as to location, shall we?" Halo-boy retorted, rolling his eyes.

"You know what I think," Donna spoke loudly, "I think you all need some serious therapy. Snipping at each other at a time like this."

"Oh, not you too. Peri's been trying to get me to go for months. I personally cannot see anything wrong with a little friendly debate among colleagues." Halo-boy turned his back on Donna to wander to a window to peer out of.

Bow-Tie Boy added softly, "Besides, Freud won't see me since I burned that hole in his sofa."

"You burned a hole in his sofa?" James asked, frowning.

"Sorry. Very sorry about that." His finger's flickered nervously, looking at James. "And I'm sorry about the whole demeaning Gallifrey…" he glanced at the colorful Doctor, as if hoping the pudgy Time Lord wasn't paying any attention, and began whispering, ""thing" especially after the war… and…"

"You can apologize later." Halo-boy swept back into the conversation and tossed the borrowed sonic screwdriver into its owner's clumsy hands. "What matters is, that you were right, Doctor."

"I was? Yes, I was. I'm always right. What am I right about today?"

"Blimey," Donna sighed. It was like baby-sitting self-deluded teenage boys…three of them, who didn't like each other very much. It hardly mattered that they were all clever scientist aliens with a knack of detective-work…they were too busy insulting each other to be of any use to Donna. She smiled slightly, it was a sort of appalling entertainment though.

"On two accounts. Naturally, first taking me into your confidence was brilliant. I think we can all agree that I have much better powers of mental deduction than many of the other "me's"… Secondly, there is something untoward going on. It is not mere fate compensating for the temporal anomalies. No. There is an intelligent, corrective power working against the time-distortions and whatever—or whoever it is—they are using the guise of harmless tourists…"

"Pond was right."

"…and the guise of hotel security. Who knows how many of them they are? Or how far they have infiltrated? And what is their end goal? Is it the same as ours?"

"You mean, there are people out there, trying to put the time-line right?" Donna glanced from face to face, feeling vaguely encouraged, "but that's a good thing, isn't it?"

"Maybe." James' northern voice seemed more out of place than usual after listening to the voices of his other selves. He held himself awkwardly, arms clutched to his chest. He glanced at his co-Doctors, "I used Huddle's new sensors—if you have a chance to see the stupid man's ship, take it, she's fantastic—and there is something at the bottom of the ocean, just off the coast. I think if I can get close to it, take some readings, I might be able to figure out who our mysterious "saviors" are. What they are up to here."

"Under all that water, you'll need more than a sonic-screwdriver. And with the chameleon circuit broken—at least I assume, it's broken—"

"Yes, yes, he hasn't bothered to fix that again." Bow-tie Boy paused, adding slowly, "Or the invisibility cloak."

James looked at the other Doctors as if he was trying to defend himself against two enemies instead of sharing information with two allies. "Why would I? I can never find her if she isn't blue."

Donna yawned unintentionally, "Oi, Doctor-men, can we sum up so I can get dressed and find some coffee?"

"…without either of the TARDIS's camouflage devices working, you'll need something with sensors, recording equipment and data storage…" the pudgy blond doctor listed them off on his hand, "and something our unseen "helpers" would not be suspicious of."

James snapped his fingers, his boyish grin returning with vengeance. "Celino's luxury Firespace Six. It's waterproof and has the best chameleon circuit—perfect with a little tweaking."

"Ideal," Halo-boy scoffed, "that is, if you were the size of a terran Chihuahua or a Gillozian spider. Which neither I, nor you, are."

"Is that the ugly little box you were breathless over, James?" Donna shifted on her feet, anxious to head back to her bathroom and change. Still, she wanted to hear the plans. Proper plans at last.

"What you saw as an ugly little box." He smiled at her, "never impressed, are you?"

She smiled back, weakly, "I'm too tired to be impressed."

"By all means go and get your coffee, and stop complaining. You're as bad as Peri, Donna." Halo-boy frowned, "Donna. That is your name, isn't it?"

"Yeah." Donna frowned back. Didn't he remember her from the plane-ride? She'd slapped him hard enough—she should have left a mark on his memory.

The colorful Doctor collected himself, leaning back haughtily. "Of course it is." He turned his attention back to James, "You'll need to wire the vehicle for remote-control. I shall assist you."

"I really don't need help." James sighed, looking unhappy about the situation. "All right then, but no flirting with my companion. That goes for both of you."

"Flirting? Flirting? Me? Flirting? Whatever would give you that idea? Preposterous!"

"Can you shout the same thing a little quieter?" Bow-Tie boy muttered under his breath in Halo-boy's direction. "Well, since my technical expertise is not required, I shall go find my Fez and then see what Amy and Rory have discovered. Perhaps interview a few other of our incarnations—most of them are here, you know."

Donna made a grim face. "Yeah. I know."

Apparently not caring what the boy in tweed planned to do with his evening, the blond doctor pulled open the door to what Donna assumed was his hotel room. He shouted something into it. A moment later, his frazzled, young American friend appeared in the door way. She whined something but all Donna heard was Peri's Doctor's response.

"I don't care what you were watching on the telly. You're my assistant—are you not?—so assist." He turned back to James, "So hard to find good help these days."

"Or good Doctors." Peri said sulkily.

"Donna," James had moved closer and was gently touching her shoulder. "I have a bunch of jiggery-pokery to do. Meet you at the hotel's sea-side entrance in two hours."

"Two hours." Donna agreed, already moving towards her room. "Have fun."

James bounded down the hall with Peri and Halo-Boy. He turned before he reached the stairs and grinned cheekily at Donna. "And, please be dressed this time."