INT. SUITE - MADAM HOLU'S HOUSE OF EROS
Madam Holu escorts the Doctor over to the side of the bed. Standing close to him, she slides both hands underneath his shirt, catching the fabric with her thumbs. Slowly, she massages her way up his abdomen and chest, lifting the shirt up as she goes. He flinches as her hands pass over several obvious dark welts.
MADAM HOLU
Pain can have a profound affect on the soul, but we resist it. We put up our guard, turn ourselves off to it. This is not the same as change. It is a defense mechanism. For pain to affect true change in us, our guard must be down. It has to be invited in.
She lifts the shirt over his head and drops it into a nearby fireplace. The reaction from the webbing she previously sprayed on him is electric. The shirt incinerates in a crackling fireball of angel hair lightning.
On a dresser sits a bowl of milky teal liquid and a cloth. She dips the cloth into the liquid and dabs his welts with it. He closes his eyes and exhales, relaxed by her touch and the coolness of the liquid.
MADAM HOLU
You punish yourself, as if it were the same as letting go.
DOCTOR
I'm not trying to let go.
Madam Holu finishes tending to the welts on his torso and uses the cloth on the wound she sliced into his cheek with her fang. She wipes away the blood and, as if by magic, the sliced skin mends itself. There is still a very fresh scar, but it is on its way to being healed.
MADAM HOLU
But you must.
DOCTOR
He wouldn't have let go.
He opens his eyes and gazes into hers.
DOCTOR
He would have fought them. For years, they kept him isolated, alone, beat him from a good man into a bad one, somehow.
MADAM HOLU
And you fear, if they could do it to this other man, it could also be done to you?
DOCTOR
It is somewhat elementary.
MADAM HOLU
And yet the thread of your soul is as strong as ever, despite your willingness to subject yourself to the flame.
She motions to the bed and helps him lay back. He watches her through the sheer curtain as she prepares some hot tea.
MADAM HOLU
It must be maddening for you, to be so blind.
She pours some Euphormia powder out onto a dish and makes sure to show it to him. He nods his acceptance, giving her permission to scoop up a spoonful and stir it into the tea she's prepared.
MADAM HOLU
There is a religious sect in the northern hemisphere of this planet called the Yil. They are non-violent, but have been known to employ self-immolation to protest governments they deem barbaric. They readily embrace their fate. If you've ever seen photographs of them, in many instances they can be seen smiling at the moment they "achieve transcendence to the natural etheria of harmony".
She walks a tray with two cups of tea over to the bed and sits on the edge. She hands him a cup and he sips.
MADAM HOLU
Men are not born capable of lighting themselves on fire, but neither were these men changed by the fire.
DOCTOR
Well, dead to alive. Flesh to ash.
MADAM HOLU
But not changed men. Something changed them from birth and brought them to the point where they could self-immolate. Run into as many fists as you like, you will be no different. Your thread is too strong.
DOCTOR
But perhaps they did something more to him; stuck sticks under his fingernails, waterboarded him, electrocution, burned, beat, cut. Maybe I have a breaking point I've simply never approached before. Maybe it was the combination of time and-
MADAM HOLU
Shhh...
She presses her finger to his lips.
MADAM HOLU
Let the Euphormia wash over you. Feel it enter every cell in your body.
He finishes the last of his tea and hands the cup back to Holu. His eyelids grow heavy and his head swivels on his neck like a bowling ball held up by a straw. She moves the tray of tea to the nightstand and stands up.
MADAM HOLU
Perhaps never before have I encountered a man running so hard from his strength, but a heart cannot be broken until it is left unprotected. To experience a sensation is not the same as being a part of it. Embrace the Euphormia, my love, my sweetheart. I will take care of you. I will not let anything bad happen to you.
DOCTOR'S POV: We see Madam Holu retreat behind the sheer curtain. Her image is shrouded in a drunk twisted haze. There's two of her, then three. The room spins. He lifts his arm out to her, but can barely hold it up. Her face disappears, blurred by intoxication. Her voice changes. It sounds... familiar.
DOCTOR
I don't... want you to... take care of... me. I'm supposed to... take care of you...
ROSE AS HOLU (V.O.)
Shhh... There's no need. I am safe, my love.
Madam Holu lays down next to him in the bed, only it isn't Madam Holu. It is Rose in Holu's clothing.
ROSE AS HOLU
I am here with you. All is well.
DOCTOR
It's... not. Rose.
ROSE AS HOLU
Rose, yes. Such a beautiful name... Rose.
She climbs on top of him and kisses him passionately.
Our angle changes and we see Holu kissing the Doctor, but something is... off. She stops kissing him and inspects his face.
MADAM HOLU
Are you asleep?
He snores.
MADAM HOLU
Ris a'fama sheem. Freakin' lightweights can't take a single hit. Have a beer every once in a while, for god's sake.
She climbs off of him.
INT. DUNGEON - MADAM HOLU'S HOUSE OF EROS
Rat the Mic opens the chest of unsavory items and reaches inside, searching for something to use as a weapon.
RAT THE MIC
No... no... no... ew, that's slimy. Wait.
He pulls his fleshy hand from the chest and rubs his fingers together.
RAT THE MIC
Oh, that's my slime. Ecdysis is so gross. Ah!
Rat the Mic reaches back into the chest and removes a six inch long metal object similar to a surgical curette. An effective makeshift dagger, perhaps? He closes the chest, rolls up his sleeve, and walks back over to the wall, where his "shell hands" are still attached to the chains used to restrain him. Nearby, the screaming woman appears to have passed out.
Taking a breath first, Rat the Mic holds up his arm and slides the curette into the space between his shell and his arm, leaving just enough of it exposed to make it easy to recover should he need to use it as a weapon. He then slides his hands back into their shells to make it look as if he's still trapped.
Next to him, the woman stirs.
MOANING WOMAN
Oh god, my head hurts.
RAT THE MIC
Please don't scream again.
She looks up at him, surprised to see him. Her head wobbles, still hungover from whatever drug they used to incapacitate her.
RAT THE MIC
I don't mean to be rude. I realize you're having a bad day. I just figured I needed to get that out there quickly if I had any shot. What's your name?
She looks confused, hesitates.
MOANING WOMAN
Arielle.
RAT THE MIC
I'm Rat the Mic.
ARIELLE
What's a 'Mic'?
RAT THE MIC
No, that's my name. It's not 'the' like the word 'the'. The 'the' is just part of my name. It's confusing for a lot of people.
ARIELLE
Where are we?
RAT THE MIC
We're at a place called 'Madam Holu's House of Eros'. We're prisoners.
She looks up at the chains.
ARIELLE
Yeah, I got that part.
RAT THE MIC
Do you have any idea why they brought you here? I mean, I got caught sneaking into the club, but it seemed like they wanted you for a different reason.
ARIELLE
Could have something to do with the fact that my father's the Prime Minister.
RAT THE MIC
Yes, that would make sense.
ARIELLE
Where's Rixxy?
RAT THE MIC
Who's Rixxy?
ARIELLE
My friend. We were together.
RAT THE MIC
They brought you in alone.
Arielle cries a little.
ARIELLE
Oh, Rixxy.
The door opens. Brick enters first, followed by two enforcers, then Greevo Shanbor himself. He walks with a cane in one hand and a cigar in the other. He is an easy seven feet tall when standing. He approaches Rat the Mic first, looks him up and down.
GREEVO SHANBOR
You, I do not know, and do not care about.
He moves on to Arielle.
GREEVO SHANBOR
You, I know. Do you know who I am?
He blows cigar smoke in her face.
ARIELLE
No.
GREEVO SHANBOR
Your Daddy does. I am Greevo Shanbor, the proprietor of this establishment, and many other business ventures in our rather humble corner of the world. For many years, my family has supported this community that society all but abandoned in the years following the All War. When the taxpaying voter class decided they were no longer going to support anyone deemed a drain on "their" economy - the sick, disabled, poor, mutants, criminals - they set aside a piece of territory and herded them all in like cattle. They called it a "Free State", with the promise that those who qualified to live there would do so free of charge, assuming they could take care of themselves. They would be given food, a place to live, and would not have to pay any taxes, but would also reap none of the benefits that society at large had to offer; public education, medical facilities, or even true access to the economy at large. In short, the government traded a piece of the world for the opportunity to ignore their problems. "Just as long as we don't have to look at them."
ARIELLE
My father abhors that decision and has made it his life's goal to tear down those laws in favor of reintegration.
GREEVO SHANBOR
That's true. And do you know why that is? It is because your Daddy is a very good man.
Greevo reaches out and grabs Arielle by the throat. She chokes.
RAT THE MIC
Let her go!
Brick grabs Rat the Mic by the throat and points a gun at his head.
BRICK
(to Rat the Mic)
You will speak only when spoken to.
GREEVO SHANBOR
(to Arielle)
You see, that's a bit of a problem for me. For years and years, society has told us "we don't want you, we don't want you, we don't want you". After hearing that over and over, for so long, we find ourselves thinking, "we don't really want you, either".
Greevo releases her. She gasps for air, then cries.
GREEVO SHANBOR
Brick, make the call. She's tenderized.
BRICK
Yes, boss.
Brick puts his gun away and pulls out a communicator. He tunes it.
INT. HOVERCRAFT - SEWER TUNNELS
Blackness...
MADAM HOLU (V.O.)
Doctor... Doctor, that's it. Open your eyes.
...to light. The Doctor wakes up to find himself laying down in the back of a hovercraft. Madam Holu sits over him. She looks to the driver.
MADAM HOLU
He's awake.
The driver turns around. It's Rose!
ROSE
Thank god. Doctor, are you all right?
DOCTOR
What, where am I?
MADAM HOLU
We had to get you out of there. Greevo was mad with jealousy. He wanted me to kill you. He was going to kill me, too.
The Doctor shakes the cobwebs from his head.
DOCTOR
What about Rat the Mic?
In the front passenger's seat, Rat the Mic turns around.
RAT THE MIC
I'm here, too.
MADAM HOLU
It's lucky Rose came when she did.
The Doctor sits up.
DOCTOR
Rose? How did you find us?
She smiles coyly.
ROSE
You know exactly how I found you.
He thinks.
DOCTOR
Um... I do?
The hovercraft shakes, as if struck.
ROSE
No time for that, now. We haven't gotten away yet.
Madam Holu looks out the back window. There are three mean-looking hovercraft chasing them through the depths of the sewer tunnels. Gangsters fire at them from out the windows.
MADAM HOLU
It's Greevo's men. They found us!
ROSE
Doctor, you're the only one who can save us.
The Doctor nods and sits up. He switches seats with Rat the Mic and then activates the steering column for the passenger side of the vehicle.
DOCTOR
I'll drive. Pass over control to me in 3... 2... 1...
Rose presses a button and her steering column retreats back into the dashboard. The Doctor takes the wheel.
DOCTOR
Hold on!
INT. SEWER TUNNELS
The Doctor veers hard left at a four-pronged fork. Sludge from the river of filth beneath them kicks up and sprays on the tunnel walls. Two of Greevo's pursuit craft make the turn, but the third driver isn't as fortunate and careens into the divider. At such high velocity, the collision causes the hovercraft to split practically in half.
INT. HOVERCRAFT - SEWER TUNNELS
Madam Holu looks back.
MADAM HOLU
One down!
DOCTOR
I'm having trouble seeing. Someone look out the window and tell me which direction that sewage is heading.
Rose looks out the window.
RAT THE MIC
Should we really be letting the guy who can't see drive?
ROSE
We're with the current.
DOCTOR
Good.
Up ahead, the Doctor sees choppy "water". Rose sees it, too. She looks at him.
ROSE
This is going to be close, isn't it?
DOCTOR
Hold on!
He focuses.
INT. WATERFALL - SEWER TUNNELS
As they come upon a sewage waterfall, the Doctor quickly floors it, sending sewage splashing backwards onto the windshields of their pursuers. He then slams on the brakes just as their hovercraft reaches the waterfall precipice. As result, the hovercraft carrying our heroes drops like a stone, straight down fifty feet into the basin below, as the two vehicles in pursuit shoot over them with extreme forward momentum.
Falling out of control, the pursuing vehicles slam against the far wall and explode, creating an avalanche of stone and hovercraft debris that settles in a pile at the point of egress for the sewage and a footpath next to it. A ladder leading from the footpath straight up is knocked from its hinges and falls into the sewage as a mangled mess of twisted metal.
Meanwhile, the hovercraft carrying the Doctor, Rose, Rat the Mic, and Madam Holu stalls in the sewage and is pulled towards the crashing waterfall by the current.
INT. HOVERCRAFT - SEWER TUNNELS
The Doctor checks on Rose.
DOCTOR
Are you okay?
She looks at him, holding her side, a pained expression on her face. She shakes her head.
ROSE
No.
He looks down at her side. She's been shot and is bleeding profusely.
DOCTOR
We have to get out of here.
He elbows his window and shatters the glass, then starts helping Rose out.
DOCTOR
Madam, can you get Rat the Mic?
While simultaneously helping Rose, the Doctor looks in the back seat. Madam Holu checks on Rat the Mic, who isn't moving. She turns to him, her expression low.
MADAM HOLU
He's dead.
Holu shows the Doctor her hand, which is covered in blood.
The Doctor curses under his breath, but doesn't have time to waste. The hovercraft is filling with water and sewage.
DOCTOR
If we don't get out now, we'll drown.
He helps Rose through the window.
INT. WATERFALL - SEWER TUNNELS
The three survivors climb out of the window and are forced to swim through the water and sewage. The Doctor helps Rose swim over to the pile of wreckage and debris. All three of them climb up the wreckage and onto the footpath, which is a few feet higher than the basin water level.
The Doctor sits Rose down against the wall. She clutches her side as he inspects the wound.
DOCTOR
You've lost a lot of blood. We need to quickly sterilize and seal this wound.
ROSE
That'll be a neat trick after what we just swam through.
MADAM HOLU
My webbing can seal the wound, and it's anti-septic.
DOCTOR
Do it.
The Doctor lifts Rose's shirt up and turns her over. She yelps, but doesn't put up a fight. Madam Holu bends down and sprays webbing from her wrists onto both sides of Rose's gunshot wound.
ROSE
Shhheez, that stings.
With Rose's injury temporarily tended to, the Doctor turns his attention on their surroundings. He looks at the waterfall, then the pile of debris blocking the sewage egress.
DOCTOR
The sewage level's rising.
Madam Holu sees it, too. She looks up and sees an overhead hatch where the ladder led to; the only point of escape.
MADAM HOLU
The ladder's gone, but maybe we can tread long enough to float to the top.
DOCTOR
We can't tread in sewage. Do you have any idea how toxic this stuff is? We're probably poisoned as it is. We all require immediate medical attention.
MADAM HOLU
Well, what are we supposed to do? Just wait here to drown?
ROSE
What about your webs? Can't you pull a Spider-Man or something and make us a rope?
MADAM HOLU
Spider-who?
DOCTOR
Can you or can't you?!
MADAM HOLU
I don't know... I... I can try.
The Doctor steps back as Madam Holu looks up. She overlaps one hand over the back of the other and points them up at the hatch, then unleashes her webbing. Thin but numerous strands of wispy web sticks to the wall near the hatch and creates a fibrous rope that hangs all the way down to where they are.
Out of breath, Madam Holu leans over and gasps for air.
MADAM HOLU
That's it... that's all I have.
DOCTOR
It'll have to do.
The Doctor bends down to help Rose up, but Holu warns him.
MADAM HOLU
Wait. I know my webbing, and that won't hold two of us at a time. It isn't strong enough. We'll have to climb individually.
The Doctor helps Rose up.
DOCTOR
Fine. Rose, I need you to climb.
Rose nods and attempts to climb, but immediately cringes.
ROSE
Ah, I can't. I can't.
DOCTOR
You have to.
ROSE
I wasn't strong enough to do this in gym class when I wasn't shot in the stomach. I can't do it now.
She leans against the wall.
The Doctor thinks.
DOCTOR
Okay. All right. Madam Holu, you go up first. Then, I'll climb up. Then, Rose, you can tie the end around you and we'll pull you up. This'll work. This is going to work.
He assures Rose, and she nods.
ROSE
Of course it will.
Who's she trying to convince? Him or herself?
The Doctor sees that the sewage level is rising fast. He grabs the end of the web rope and hands it to Madam Holu.
DOCTOR
Go, now.
Madam Holu grabs the rope and starts her climb.
INT. DUNGEON - MADAM HOLU'S HOUSE OF EROS
Brick enters as Greevo Shanbor lights up another cigar. Rat the Mic and Arielle look on, helpless.
BRICK
We're ready.
Greevo Shanbor takes a puff of his cigar, then motions to his enforcers. One of them holds a gun at Arielle's head while another releases her from her chains, then handcuffs her behind her back and also gags her.
GREEVO SHANBOR
Time to talk to Daddy.
RAT THE MIC
Where are you taking her. If you hurt her, I'm a witness!
They exit, giving him time to re-think his last statement.
RAT THE MIC
On the other hand, I'm also very good at keeping a secret!
He gulps.
INT. OFFICE - MADAM HOLU'S HOUSE OF EROS
Greevo sits in his chair in front of his communication wall. The enforcers hold Arielle at gunpoint. Brick operates the call.
BRICK
Your voice will be modulated. We're not transmitting an image, only receiving. It won't be traceable.
GREEVO SHANBOR
Put him through.
On the screen flashes the image of a government's seal, then the staunch but clearly nervous face of Prime Minister COVUNAMI.
GREEVO SHANBOR
Prime Minister Covunami, this is the voice of the man who will murder your daughter if you do not do exactly as I say.
COVUNAMI
Who are you, you faceless coward? If you have harmed so much as one flake of skin on her body, I'll-
GREEVO SHANBOR
Threats are a waste of my time. We all know you are too flaccid and weak to make good on them. I am not a politician. Your posturing will only serve to incite me. As evidence of this, I will now have one of my men sever one of your daughter's fingers.
COVUNAMI
What? No! Don't you dare!
ARIELLE
Daddy! Don't let them do this to me! No!
Greevo nods to one of his enforcers, who immediately pulls out a knife and grabs Arielle's hand. He brings the blade to her left pinky finger.
We hear a slice.
She screams in agony.
COVUNAMI
No! You monster! You animal! You fiend!
GREEVO SHANBOR
It'll grow back. And for posterity's sake, I'll have my men mail this one to you. You can keep it in a keepsake, with her baby teeth. I trust one will be enough?
COVUNAMI
Don't hurt her, anymore. Please, just stop. I'll do anything you say.
Greevo motions for his enforcers to drag her out. They do.
GREEVO SHANBOR
That is true as long as you value your daughter's life. The Pristine Goverment currently has a nuclear arms cache of approximately 6,000 weapons. I require two, to be delivered to a location of my choosing at a time of my choosing, in exchange for the life of your daughter.
COVUNAMI
I... can't possibly authorize-
GREEVO SHANBOR
I will call you again in thirty minutes with the details.
COVUNAMI
But-
GREEVO SHANBOR
Follow my instructions precisely and your daughter might just beat her finger home.
Greevo Shanbor makes a throat slashing motion to Brick, who cuts the call.
Greevo takes another puff of his cigar.
GREEVO SHANBOR
Can you smoke a finger?
BRICK
I don't think so, boss.
GREEVO SHANBOR
Hm. I love smoking.
He takes another puff of his cigar.
-To be Continued...-