Rose: Meeting Rose
Notice: I picture my character, The Iris, to look like actress Amanda Seyfried.
I should have known it was the Autons that were causing this new mess. The Autons are metamorphic android robots; artificial life forms which are essentially life sized plastic dummies that were animated by the Nestene Consciousness. Though they were not the only creatures created by the Nestene Consciousness they were the most common and the most identifiable to all species.
I had tracked the signal down to this department store called Henrik's in central London down to the basement. I had passed a body, a poor soul that had a badge that said 'Chief Electrician' had been had been killed so I knew they were somewhere near.
"Wilson? Wilson!" I heard this young woman shouting. Isn't it supposed to be near closing time for most shops? What is she doing down here? She could get killed and it's very likely that she doesn't want to be killed. Also, I suppose that she doesn't know of the danger that's down here and so won't be in a hurry to leave since it seems she's looking for someone.
I follow her voice to see a blond woman hunched near a storage area. I grab her hand tightly and said "Run". I couldn't let her get killed, especially knowing what I am going to do next.
I pull the woman through the basement as the Autons follow us and into a lift. As the lift doors are closing an Auton puts its arm through, just stopping the door closing, and tried to grab or rather kill us. After a few tugs I pull it off, and the doors close.
"You pulled his arm off," the woman said the obvious. Her name was Rose Tyler and she was really just about freaked out that a dummy had just come to life and attacked her. Since when do dummies come to life?
"Yes, it's plastic." If the arm is plastic then it can be easily taken off, as I've just shown the girl.
"Very clever, nice trick! Who were they then, students? Is this a student thing or what?" What she had just seen couldn't be real. She'd heard that students were the ones likely to attempt a prank like this, who else could it be?
Why would she think that? "Why would they be students?" How would students even be able to make the dummies move, and why would they let them attack the girl. I know students aren't that mean to other people. Especially, to someone I'm pretty sure they've never met.
"I don't know," she shrugged.
She should know, she's the one who said it. Either she does or she doesn't. "Well, you said it. Why students?"
"'Cos to get that many people dressed up and being silly, they got to be students." Only students would do something like this, or maybe Derrick, he was a royal pain in the arse he was ( a fellow colleague as well).
"Huh, that makes sense. Well done." And it did, I could see how she might think they are actual people dressed up to look like dummies.
"Thanks."
It was the wrong answer though. "They're not students." They really were Autons: they could make themselves look human though they didn't look particularly life like and were robotic in its movements.
"Whoever they are, when Wilson finds them, he's going to call the police." He just had to. Wilson lived down here as he was basically in charge of the electricity going through the building.
"Who's Wilson?" She never did mention who he was and she kept on mentioning him, he sounded like he was a person of authority, at least I think he was higher up in terms of dominance hierarchy.
"Chief electrician." Ah, that's who that poor man was. I wonder why she needed to speak to him though, she didn't look like an electrician or someone who works in that department. Wait, I think I can remember her saying something about having his lottery money with her.
"I'm afraid Wilson's dead," there was no nicer way of saying it. It didn't look like she had any relation to him apart from working for the same shop. I feel sorry for his family though, that's if he has any.
The girl looked shocked when I said that he was dead. I think she's lead a very sheltered life in a flat or something like that, probably just her and her mum. She probably hasn't known anyone else either friendship or family related that has died.
We get out of the elevator and I get my screwdriver out the lift. The sonic screwdriver, that was sometimes called the sonic, was a highly versatile tool that I have upgraded over my nine Regenerations. Over the years I've managed to make the sonic be able to pick locks (though I can do that easily with just a hair grip), project sound waves (that could detonate bombs, as an example) and it can be used as a sophisticated scanning device, with medical applications which comes in really useful for me. My friend The Doctor lives up to his title perfectly, he was the one who healed people. I was the one who gave them hope and courage to stand up on their own and to hopefully, in the end, save them.
Normally I'm not one to rely totally on a screw driver to get things done like my old friend The Doctor used to but having it with me allowed me to remember him fondly. He couldn't once go on any adventures without bringing it, I'm also sure he used it at least once on our adventures around the Universe together.
"That's just not funny. That's sick!" I think the shock of what's just happened is coming on to that girl.
"Mind your eyes," I warned her as the lift mechanism sparked, I disabled the lift to keep it from moving with my sonic screwdriver from moving. I didn't want her to get hurt.
"I've had enough of this now. Who are you, then? Who's that lot down there? I said, who are they?" She was really sick and tired of this right now. This prank has gone on long enough.
She followed me as I led her to the back of the shop. I explained along the way. "They're made of plastic. Living plastic creatures called Autons. They're being controlled by a relay device in the roof, which would be a great big problem if I didn't have this." I held up a small bomb. I didn't really want to use it but I've got little left to live for now that all my people and my planet have gone. "So, I'm going to go up there and blow them up, and I might well die in the process, but don't worry about me. No, you go home. Go on. Go and have your lovely beans on toast." It seems to me that's what they like eating the most. "Don't tell anyone about this, because if you do, you'll get them killed."
I shut the door behind me, then opens it again as I forgot to introduce myself and ask for her name. "I'm The Iris, by the way. What's your name?" I ask, smiling at her.
"Rose," she replied. She looks kind of shocked, she has in all the time I've seen her, but I have to get rid of the threat to earth. Otherwise I would have comforted her if I could. I had to save the planet though: my old friend The Doctor and I really enjoyed travelling before the war and always managed to save the planet and it's people many times. They were our favourite species, Humans: they always surprised us. Some were predictable and some were a lot more interesting. The ones who were able to hold themselves in a situation were likely to become The Doctor's companion.
I've never, in all the years of my travelling with his have ever had a companion. It's not because I didn't want to have one, because I did, but because I didn't feel like anyone we came across could be my companion. It's just a feeling but I think I know who my companion is when I see them. I've a feeling that I'm going to get one soon but going to get my hopes up.
"Nice to meet you, Rose, run for your life!" This was the weirdest experience she had ever had, Rose thought to herself. She looked back at the shop, for some reason wondering if The Iris was going to be okay even though they'd only just met and she seemed like the most capable woman she'd ever seen. Although it did seem to her that she was quite lonely, she just had a feeling she was. It was just in the woman's expressions, how her smiles never reached her eyes.
She was wondering about this as she crossed the road and in response she almost got run over by a car.
As soon as she reached the other side she jumped and turned around when she heard a huge explosion going on behind her. Henrik's just blew up. She'd never be able to get any answers on what just happened from The Iris now.
I closed the door when I said my name and ran up to the roof to blow the shop up.
A few minutes later I blow the shop up with me luckily outside and in the TARDIS. The TARDIS stands for 'Time and Relative Dimension in Space' and it was a Type 40 TARDIS. It was officially my TARDIS that I stole (yes, I own up to the fact that I stole it) but both The Doctor and I used it to take ourselves and The Doctor's companions throughout space and time. It was also capable of travelling between parallel realties even though it wasn't specifically designed for inter-dimensional time travel.
The outside colour of the TARDIS was what I call a TARDIS blue. It was now always in the shape of a 1963 Police box. When I landed the Old girl, as I call the ship, in London in that time the Chameleon Circuit broke. The Chameleon Circuit was basically a mechanism that allowed all TARDISes to blend into their surroundings, by now though I have grown very fond of this disguise.
On the outside of the box you would find two doors where on the right door you would find a lock where you would insert the key to the TARDIS. Although I can open the doors with a snap of my fingers: I think if you can do that I think it means that she likes you, at least likes you a lot as she has only ever allowed me to do it and I know that she does at least like The Doctor (though perhaps not as much as me since he kept on breaking the TARDIS which required me to constantly fix her. It will take me years (which I have plenty of) to rebuild her completely. On the left door there is a panel in which a replica of a telephone used in real Police boxes that were used to call Police. It was just a replica though, it was non-functional.
The inside of a TARDIS had many rooms. The most used one is the console room which is the first room you see when you enter the TARDIS. The walls inside this room consisted of roundels- circular indentations that lined the walls of the console room and sometimes the walls further into the ships' interior.
The console room was dominated by a large, hexagonal console and on it were the controls that I would use to operate the TARDIS.
Other rooms you would find in the TARDIS were past companion's accommodations, the Library, the Swimming pool, the Wardrobe, the Cloister bell room, the Holding ring, Flora and Fauna, the Zero room, the Kitchen and contained many others.
The next morning, however, I soon discover another signal of the Autons and track it to a block of flats called the Powell estate.
I track it a couple of floors up and shake the door to see if it's closed. It was, I could hear two women inside.
"Mum, you're such a liar. I told you to nail that cat flap down. We're going to get strays," Rose warned her mum as she went to check who was at the door. They didn't have anyone scheduled to visit.
"I did it weeks back!" her mother, Jackie Tyler, complained.
"No, you thought about it." She always forgets to do things like this. She noticed that the screws for the cat flap were on the floor. Then the flap moves. Rose decides to open it with one of the screws on the floor around the flap. She saw The Iris on the other side. No way, she actually survived the explosion.
I smile happily at Rose who I see on the other side of the flat, thankful she made it out safe and sound but I did have to wonder what she was doing here. It's well past nine o'clock, the time when young people like her should be studying, socialising or going to work. She opens the door for me.
"What're you doing here?" I ask her.
"I live here." What else would she be doing here, Rose thought to herself, wondering why The Iris was here.
"Well, what do you do that for?" she should be out and about, living the good life.
"Because I do. I'm only at home because someone blew up my job." Ah, that's why she's at home. I'm sorry that she's lost her job, but not sorry to have to save millions of lives. I'm sure she could find another job easily enough.
"I must have got the wrong signal." This is not a place Autons would be stationed. "You're not plastic, are you?" I rapped my knuckles on her head. "No human, bye then Rose."
Oh no, she was going to get some answers since she found out The Iris was alive. She was at the scene last night; she must have some answers for her. "You. Inside. Right now."
She pulled me into her flat without giving me a chance to refuse.
Another woman asked Rose, "Who is it?" It was Jackie in her bedroom putting on her makeup, dressed in her pink dressing gown.
"It's about last night," Rose said, leaning on the doorway. "She's part of the inquiry. Give us ten minutes."
"She deserves compensation," Jackie said to me as I stood in front of her open doorway. She was a short woman probably in her early late thirties with blonde hair the same shade as her daughter. Rose was just a bit taller than her I think.
"Oh, we're talking millions," I agreed, Rose has a good head on her shoulders. I saw that in her that night, she didn't scream or faint, she even stayed with me the whole time I was explaining about the Autons to her. I then walked into a messy lounge.
"Don't mind the mess. Do you want a coffee?" Rose asks me as she heads into her kitchen. Well, she's very polite. Her mother has brought her up with very good many. I was right when I was thinking last night that she lived alone with her mum, she had no other family. Her father Pete Tyler passed away when she was a small child.
"Might as well, thanks," since I seem to be staying here for a while. "Lots of milk and two sugars."
"We should go to the police. Seriously, both of us." There is no other course of action open to us. At least, there weren't others that she could think of. We were both here at the scene of the explosions, the best thing to do would be to tell the Police.
Yeah, that's not going to happen. I look at the front copy of Heat on the coffee table and realise, "that won't last, he's gay and she's an alien."
"I'm not blaming you, even if it was just some sort of joke that went wrong." Rose carried on, I can't believe she still thinks it's a joke after all that's been thrown at her the day before but maybe that's just how she handles things.
I flip through a paperback book. I've read this one before. "Hmm. Sad ending." I remember my best friend The Doctor didn't like endings. I didn't like death at all but I knew it was a natural part of life.
"They said on the news they'd found a body." That was sad, I'm sorry for the person's family. It was probably Wilson that they found.
"Rose Tyler." That was her name. I had checked using the scanner when I went back inside the TARDIS.
I then see my reflection in a small mirror. Since the war ended and I left my no longer planet I haven't had the chance to see what I looked like yet. You see my people, the Time lords or rather for me the last Time Lady, could regenerate. It's basically to cheat death. If you get killed all the atoms in your body will change you into someone completely new: a new face, new body, and a new personality. Your thoughts and memories stay with you though.
I notice that I am quite small, about Rose's height, I have light blonde hair, lighter than Rose's that was just under my shoulders and had just few big curls. I had light blue eyes nearer grey, a small nose and big lips. In the TARDIS wardrobe I had found TARDIS blue leggings, light grey jean shorts, and a simple red halter neck top (that covered my chest) and a black leather jacket.
"I look alright then. I've never totally been focused on my looks before though. I've never needed to."
"All the same, he was nice. Nice bloke."
I spot a pack of cards and try to shuffle them. The cards go flying. I've found that in all my regenerations I've never had good coordination. It's probably going to be the death of me one day.
"Anyway, if we are going to go to the police, I want to know what I'm saying." Why does she keep thinking that I'm going to the Police. "I want you to explain everything." She seemed like the more confident one of the two, she also seemed to hold more knowledge on this matter then her.
"I don't think so." Being who I am, a Time Lady, I don't need the Police. In fact, though I'm not trying to sound or be arrogant, I am better than the Police will ever be, though they can protect their fellow Humans well I will admit that.
I then hear the cat flap rattle. " Have you got a cat?" I asked Rose.
"No."
Just then something grabbed me by the throat, starting to choke me. I realised it was the Autons arm that I took off yesterday. She must have brought it home with her, well what a silly thing to do. Did she want to get killed? Didn't she notice the Autons that decided to kill her when she arrived at the basement of the shop that she used to work at?
"We did have, but now they're just strays. They come in off the estate." We never bothered to feed them, we leave that o a little old lady a few floors down from us.
I see Rose come in from the kitchen area with two mugs of coffee but she takes no notice as I fall onto a chair, still being strangled to death. This is certainly not a way I want to die. How can this human not notice? Is she blind?
"I told Mickey to chuck that out. You're all the same. Give a woman a plastic hand. Anyway, I don't even know your name. Iris, what was it?"
I finally manage to throw the arm off. It stops in mid-air and then grabs Rose's face instead and pushes her into the wall. Oh no, she is not going to suffocate on my watch. I pull at it but pull Rose down on top of me as we fall onto the coffee table and break it. It's a wonder Jackie doesn't hear us thought I did just start to hear a hairdryer going. After tumbling around the lounge I get it off Rose with my sonic screwdriver, and then jab it into its palm causing the fingers stop moving.
"It's all right, I've stopped it. There you go, you see? Armless." I laughed at my joke.
"Do you think?" Rose then hit me with it.
"Oww!" that hurt.
I decide to then leave while I could. "Hold on a minute. You can't just go swanning off," Rose tells me as she follows me down the stairs.
I can actually do whatever I like. She's just a child compared to me. Every human is a child compared to me. "Yes I can. Here I am. This is me, swanning off. See you."
"But that arm was moving. It tried to kill me."
She's stating the obvious there. "Ten out of ten for observation."
"You can't just walk away. That's not fair. You've got to tell me what's going on."
Why should I? She doesn't need to know. Anyway, it could get her killed if she follows me though I try to protect everyone I can. "No, I don't."
I walk outside and she's still following me. "All right, then. I'll go to the police. I'll tell everyone. You said, if I did that, I'd get people killed. So, your choice. Tell me, or I'll start talking."
"Is that supposed to sound tough?"
"Sort of." If it was the only way to get her to talk then she was willing to act tough.
"Doesn't work."
"Who are you?" She's told me her name, though who could name their child The Iris? Iris sounds like a Human name but she makes it sound like a title. But one thing she hasn't told me is who she is, meaning like- who does she work for and things like that.
Wasn't she listening? "I told you before. I'm The Iris."
"Yeah, but Iris what?"
Why is that never enough for humans? "Just The Iris."
"The Iris."
"Hello!" I wave at her.
"Is that supposed to sound impressive?" she asks, smiling at me.
"Sort of," I shot her earlier reply back at her. She was a very witty girl. I quite like her.
"Come on, then. You can tell me. I've seen enough. Are you the police?"
"No, I was just passing through. I'm a long way from home." I smile sadly, remembering my planet: the planet Gallifrey.
"But what have I done wrong? How comes those plastic things keep coming after me?" She's a bit full of herself though it's understandable how she might come to that conclusion. She was in the wrong place at the wrong place at the wrong time.
"Oh, suddenly the entire world revolves around you. You were just an accident. You got in the way, that's all." If she hadn't have been down in that basement last night then the Autons wouldn't have tried to kill her.
"It tried to kill me."
She was stating the obvious again. "It was after me, not you. Last night, in the shop, I was there; you came in and almost ruined the whole thing. This morning, I was tracking it down, it was tracking me down. The only reason it fixed on you is 'cos you've met me." I try not to bring danger with me but something's are out of my control. If it were up to me I would like nobody to be harmed and the Earth would be safe all the time.
"So what you're saying is the entire world revolves around you." I didn't think of it like that.
"Sort of, yeah."
"You're full of it." I guess were the same then, both a bit full of our selves.
I always was a bit full of myself. Back on Gallifrey there was a building called the Academy where all young Time Lords and Ladies learnt about their world and the rest of the Universe. I was the best student they have ever had. I have what you call Hyperthymesia where I can remember every single day of my life in perfect detail. Most time lords have a good memory anyway, they'd have to as they can live for thousands of years. It's helped me especially when I was studying for exams so with the amount of information I remembered I passed all my exams. My parents were really pleased with that achievement. My main interest is in learning about all things in the Universe but my second interest would be mechanics which was why I made a good TARDIS Famer (where people look after different TARDIS) but my main occupation on Gallifrey was a Professor that was able to teach all subjects at the Academy.
"Sort of, yeah." I repeated both of us laughing and Rose slipped her arm through mine.
"But, all this plastic stuff. Who else knows about it?" Surely there's got to be more than just her.
"No one."
"What, you're on your own?" She wouldn't want to be on her own all the time. But luckily she isn't: she's got her mum and her boyfriend Mickey Smith.
I'm always on my own now, ever since the War. "Well, who else is there? I mean, you lot, and all you do is eat chips, go to bed, and watch telly, while all the time, underneath you, there's a war going on."
"Okay. Start from the beginning. I mean, if we're going to go with the living plastic, and I don't even believe that, but if we do, how did you kill it?" There must be someway of destroying those dummies.
"The thing controlling it projects life into the arm. I cut off the signal, dead." Though I hate to kill any living thing. Like The Doctor I want to give people second chances or more whenever I can. I hate death.
"So that's radio control?"
Oh, I think this miss might be quite smart. She was on the right lines. "Thought control. Are you all right?" It can be quite a bit of a shock if you've never been through what Rose did yesterday all your life.
"Yeah. So, who's controlling it, then?" She's asking the right kind of questions.
"Long story."
"But what's it all for? I mean, shop window dummies, what's that about? Is someone trying to take over Britain's shops?"
I laughed at that silly idea. "No."
"No."
"It's not a price war. They want to overthrow the Human race and destroy you. Do you believe me?"
"No." How could anyone believe that? How could anyone even know that they were going to overthrow the Human race and destroy us?
"But you're still listening," I pointed out as I kept walking towards the TARDIS as Rose stopped. She noticed the blue box a few feet ahead of her before turning to The Iris.
"Really, though, Iris. Tell me, who are you?"
She won't stop going on about that will she. "Do you know like we were saying about the Earth revolving? It's like when you were a kid. The first time they tell you the world's turning and you just can't quite believe it because everything looks like its standing still. I can feel it," I grabbed her hand as she came and stood next to me. "The turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, and the entire planet is hurtling round the sun at sixty seven thousand miles an hour, and I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go," I let go of her hand. "That's who I am. Now, forget me, Rose Tyler. Go home." I don't want her getting hurt because of me like she almost did yesterday and today.
I walk off towards the TARDIS with the Auton arm that I brought with us while Rose walks off home when there is a rush of air and a strange grinding noise. She turns and runs back, and the TARDIS has gone.