Rose stood up not fully understanding what was going on.
"It's going to follow us!" Rose shouted at The Doctor confusing AL.
"The assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door, and believe me, they've tried. Now, shut up a minute." The Doctor went to work and it was at this time AL noticed what he was holding.
*Why do you have a head?* AL asked freaked out making Rose snap around and look at her in surprise.
"I hear words, but I don't see you move your lips…" She muttered running a hand through her hair.
"You see, the arm was too simple, but the head's perfect. I can use it to trace the signal back to the original source. Right. Where do you want to start?" The Doctor ignored the two girls and Rose was starting to freak out a little.
"The inside's bigger than the outside? And AL talks without moving her lips."
"Yes." The Doctor nodded trying to ignore her.
"The thing is alien?"
"Yeah." The Doctor nodded once more and AL was frowning.
"Are you alien?" Rose asked and The Doctor rolled his eyes hitting some more switches.
"Yes. Is that all right?" The Doctor asked and Rose nodded.
"Yeah…is AL, short for alien?" Rose asked nervously looking at AL's eyes who pouted at her. "Sorry…just a bit much to take in…" Rose apologized.
"AL is technically 'not' her name. I didn't like what she 'was' called so I used the first two letters from the planet I found her on." The Doctor mentioned quietly making AL shuffle nervously.
"What is your real name?" Rose asked curiously and AL frowned sadly.
*Test Subject 246.* AL admitted and Rose blinked in shock.
"I don't know what to call her exactly. She was a genetic experiment along with 245 other children. She was the only survivor. Not technically, human, not technically alien…"
"So this is a ship?" Rose asked after giving AL a sad look.
"This 'ship' has a name you know. It's called the TARDIS. That's Time And Relative Dimension In Space." The Doctor snipped slightly and Rose suddenly burst into tears surprising AL. "That's okay. Culture shock. Happens to the best of us."
"Did they kill him? Mickey? Did they kill Mickey? Is he dead?" Rose asked looking over at the head The Doctor was working with.
"Oh. I didn't think of that." The Doctor muttered to himself making AL roll her eyes at him.
"He's my boyfriend. You pulled off his head. They copied him and you didn't even think? And now you're just going to let him melt?!" Rose shouted and The Doctor frowned confusedly and AL pointed to the head in the machine.
"Melt?" The Doctor looked at where AL was pointing and he saw the head of Mickey Smith melting. "OH NO! Come on!" The Doctor was trying to follow the signal but it was not working too well.
"What're you doing?" Rose asked curiously trying to control her tears.
"Following the signal. It's fading. Wait a minute, I've got it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Almost there. Almost there. Here we go!" The Doctor landed the TARDIS and he ran for the door.
"You can't go out there. It's not safe!" Rose shouted but AL just touched her shoulder.
*We're not where we were…wait that sounded confusing…* AL cut herself off and frowned. *We moved.* AL tried again and Rose just looked at her.
"Yeah that whole no lip moving while talking is going to take some getting used to." Rose shook her head making AL smirk.
*That's what he said…*
The two of them left the TARDIS to see The Doctor pitching a fit.
"I lost the signal, I got so close." The Doctor whined and Rose looked around.
"We really did move. Does it fly?" Rose asked AL and The Doctor who sighed in exasperation.
"Disappears there and reappears here. You wouldn't understand." The Doctor snipped at her and AL shrugged.
*I often try not to question things.*
"If we're somewhere else, what about that headless thing? It's still on the loose!" Rose snapped worriedly and The Doctor shook his head.
"It melted with the head. Are you going to witter on all night?" The Doctor looked at her scathingly and caught the look AL gave him and he sighed. "Right still rude…"
"Oh, I'll have to tell his mother. Mickey. I'll have to tell his mother he's dead, and you just went and forgot him, again! You were right, you are alien." Rose started getting emotional again.
"Look, if I did forget some kid called Mickey…" The Doctor tried but Rose interrupted him.
"Yeah, he's not a kid."
"It's because I'm trying to save the life of every stupid ape blundering on top of this planet, all right?!" The Doctor snapped at her.
"All right." Rose slightly mocked him making AL smirk.
"Yes, it is!" The Doctor snarked back at her.
*I like her more, and more.* AL admitted making Rose blink and huff in laughter.
"Okay, if you are an alien, how comes you sound like you're from the North?" Rose asked another question. AL looked confusedly at The Doctor.
"Lots of planets have a north." The Doctor answered and AL had to shrug.
*He has a point.*
"What's a police public call box?" Rose asked motioning to the TARDIS and AL nodded.
*I never did ask that one…what is it?* AL asked and The Doctor almost growled in aggravation.
"It's a telephone box from the 1950s. It's a disguise!" The Doctor explained tersely.
*If it is something from the 1950's then how in Randetti's sake did we park it in 1883?* AL asked curiously and The Doctor glared at her.
"I may have broken the chameleon device." The Doctor admitted and AL grinned.
*That's not surprising…you do break everything you touch…* AL teased him and he glared even hotter at her.
"Do you want to be tossed into the closest black hole?" He warned her and AL thought about it.
*Sounds kind of fun, actually…*
Rose snorted in laughter before she decided to get them back on track.
"Right, This living plastic. What's it got against us?" Rose asked finally.
"Nothing. It loves you. You've got such a good planet. Lots of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air, perfect. Just what the Nestene Consciousness needs. It's food stock was destroyed in the war, all its protein plants rotted, so Earth, dinner!" The Doctor looked at her thankfully for getting them back on task.
"Anyway of stopping it?" Rose asked and The Doctor produced the tube of Anti-Plastic.
"Anti-plastic." The Doctor informed her and she nodded not really understanding what he meant. "But first I've got to find it. How can you hide something that big in a city this small?!" The Doctor whined to himself making AL and Rose look at him amusedly.
"Hold on. Hide what?" Rose asked and AL just listened this time.
"The transmitter. The Consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic, so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal!" The Doctor informed them.
"What's it look like?" Rose asked looking around the city of London over the Thames.
"Like a transmitter. Round and massive, slap bang in the middle of London."
AL smirked slightly already seeing something that fit the description but The Doctor had no clue.
"A huge circular metal structure like a dish, like a wheel. Radial. Close to where we're standing. Must be completely invisible." The Doctor was muttering to himself.
Even Rose was looking at said object amusedly. AL suddenly pointed to something behind him and he turned.
"What? What?" The Doctor turned and looked at where they were both staring but didn't notice it.
AL's eyes now widened in despair and placed a hand to her face in exasperation while Rose tried not to laugh hysterically.
"What? What is it? What?" The Doctor honestly couldn't see anything until he blinked and finally noticed The London Eye the largest wheel in the world. He looked back at them both and smirked. "Oh. Fantastic!" Rose and AL both rolled their eyes and they got to work again.
"Think of it, plastic all over the world, every artificial thing waiting to come alive. The shop window dummies, the phones, the wires, the cables…" The Doctor was interrupted by Rose.
"The breast implants…." She muttered darkly making AL sound out with a weird sound that seemed like a laugh. "Okay that was adorable…" Rose looked at her.
"Okay so we've found the transmitter. The Consciousness must be somewhere underneath." The Doctor started looking around and AL saw a manhole.
*What about down here?* AL motioned and the other two looked over.
"Looks good to me….let's go down the creepy hole…" The Doctor grinned and opened the hatch.