Chapter 41

Day Dreaming

The certainty that Rachel would be spending after school detention with Mister Vale made the rest of the day drag on somewhat. Almost as if she was going to her doom with each tic of the clock.

"He did what?!" Victor and Richard said in outrage together.

"Can teachers do that?" Garfield asked.

"I don't think so." Richard said, finally becoming animated now that there was injustice in the air. "We should do something."

"Do what? Sue him? Talk to him? Reason with him? Complain to the Principle? Yeah, I'm sure that'll work." Rachel said flatly. Mister Vale was the kind of person who'd push to get his own way and would not take 'no' for an answer. If he couldn't take over Doctor Hartnels punishment he'd just punish her the day after. There was no way she was getting out of this. She could only hope for a miracle.

They were on their way to GYM now, and Rachel spotted Dolores in active conversation with a bunch of students. Her nose had stopped bleeding and she was clearly playing up how much it hurt to grab the attention of anyone who'd listen.

Marya was there as well as her two goons trying to offer support to Dolores side of the story.

God, if only Rachel had Ravens powers, she'd so mess with them.

After getting changed into their GYM outfits Rachel and Stella stood outside in a row of girls. Marya had given Rachel an evil eye as they got changed. Rachel knew Marya was only jealous because though Rachel was shorter than her, she was also more 'mature' than Marya looked. Knowing that just made Rachel smile on the inside when she saw Marya's evil gaze.

The boys came out and assembled in another row. Unlike the more well behaved girls the boys were playfully fighting with each other in the way boys did.

"Ah, splendid!" said a soft spoken man coming out of a gate behind which was their GYM equipment. "If I could have five volunteers to collect and carry the equipment, please." said the man, and Victor and a couple of boys went to help.

The man was tall, slim, and with quite a narrow build. His face was oval shaped with a somewhat heavy brow, very thin eye brows and side parted blond hair which was bordering on old man gray.

Doctor Davison, or 'Doctor Peter Moffat Davison' to give him his full name, was their GYM teacher, and quite a far cry from the stereotype muscly jock.

"Teacher." Victor said as he took from storage three wooden spikes, a weirdly shaped bat and a red ball which looked very hard. "What are we playing?"

"Cricket." the teacher smiled picking up the angular bat which had a white hat with a red brim dangling from the end of it. He popped the hat on his head.

"Cricket?" Victor asked disappointed, "I thought we were playing Football?"

"I thought today we'd try something different, something more cultural." the Teacher said, taking a deep breath of the cool, yet warm, summer air. "Don't worry, we can return to your countries version of rugby next lesson." He smiled. Victor looked a little annoyed at his favourite sport being just called rugby, but he let it slide when he realised the Teacher was just teasing him.

Doctor Davison took them out to the field and described the rules of this English sport called cricket. There were so many rules and terminology to explain they probably weren't going to get a chance to play.

At its basics it appeared to be like baseball, only you ran backwards and forwards between two short spaces, not around four, exchanging between two batsmen as you went. You stayed on until someone was 'bowled out,' which happened when the red ball hit the 'wickets', three, tall wooden stumps supporting two wooden rods sitting behind the batsman, knock them off and you're out. There were also batters and fielders, like in baseball.

The details of it washed over Rachels head, as it was many of the students, but they just decided to play along. It might be fun.

Unfortunately Rachel was not that athletic, and her stamina was limited. She was never very good at sports. She ran out of breath fast when they were doing a relay race, same problem with soccer. Her hand eye coordination was horrid as demonstrated when they played tennis... and basket ball, don't get her started on it.

But her class settled down to play this strange little English game.

"Hey, the Doctor never became Mad Mod, did he?" Beast Boy laughed, interrupting again.

Raven did not like this interruption. Doubly so, because Beast Boy had just connected the Doctor to one of their own bad guys, someone who had a fetish for all things British.

"ow ow OW OW OW! OKAY, I'M SORRY!" Beast Boy said through a blocked nose as Raven used her power to grip his nose shut and pull his head back by that same nose. She held him a little longer before releasing him.

"That is your final warning." Raven warned him.

They had been sorted into two teams which were a mixture of boys and girls. Each team had five boys and five girls. To mix things up the teams were picked from a draw from Doctor Davisons hat, first the boys, then the girls until there was a nice balance of the two genders.

Dolores was moaning about everything as usual. First that, "Imagine forcing me to do GYM, can't he tell how it'll distress me for someone of my size." Oh, Rachel so wanted to be allowed to bowl just to have an excuse to throw something at her and be able to get away with it. But Doctor Davison was going to bowl.

Then she moaned that "mixing the boys and girls would only let the boys show the girls up because they were clearly stronger". At that line Rachel looked at Garfield and thought to herself, Yeah right, I could crush him easily.

As Dolores moaned on, Rachel got the idea that even if Doctor Daivison separated their teams out any other way she'd still find something to complain about.

As Doctor Davison took the final name from the hat that formed team one, which included Stella, Victor and Richard. The rest were now team two. Rachel realised in horror that the Teacher hadn't picked out either Rachel's, Dolores, nor Marya's names. Oh no, they were on the same team!

"Hey, don't worry." Garfield said, "He didn't call out my name either, so I guess we're on the same team at least."

"And that makes me feel so much better." Rachel breathed with heavy sarcasm.

Just get through an hour of this. Just try.

It was decided team one would bat first, and team two would field. Doctor Davison took up his position as pitcher, or 'bowler' as it's called in cricket.

Rachel tried to stay as far away from Dolores as possible, but it seemed like as the game went on she was subtly trying to work her way towards her.

Garfield's mind clearly wasn't on the game as he missed an easy catch and had to chase after the ball to throw it back to the wicket keeper, who was sort of like a Catcher. He positioned himself between Rachel and Dolores and wouldn't let the large woman anywhere closer to Rachel. When Dolores realised what he was doing she gave him a look of contempt. She looked like she was ready to eat him to get through.

Doctor Davison was showing Victor how to hold and swing the bat properly according to the rules of the game. Victor looked confused and less than enthusiastic about it as he mimicked the smaller swinging motion of the broad bat as the Teacher demonstrated.

"That's it, perfect." The Teacher beamed, "Now, watch out for my googly. The thing about cricket is that the way the bowler bowls the ball affects the way it impacts the ground, and how it impacts the ground affects where it's going to go. It's almost like the perfect metaphor for the chaos theory, a butterfly flapping its wings in the Horse Head nebular starts a temporal storm in the Axium Galaxy, and all that." He stopped and realised he was rambling. "So basically, unlike in baseball you have to be able to react much quicker to the changing direction of the ball."

"I can hardly wait." Victor said unenthusiastically and held the bat the way the Teacher had showed him.

The Teacher ran towards Victor and prepared to bowl. He threw the ball. It sailed through the air spinning rapidly, it impacted the ground and appeared to go off in a very strange direction due to the balls spin.

Despite never doing this before, Victors bat hit the ball and the ball went flying up into the air.

"Oh, well done, Victor, well done!" the Teacher congratulated.

But now it was team twos turn to catch it out.

Rachel kept her eye on the ball, it was coming down fast and in her direction. She turned and began to run, trying to keep her eye on the ball. She held out her hands, it was coming towards her, and if she kept moving maybe she could catch this solid ball .

Suddenly her feet stopped turning over and she fell forwards into the dirt as Marya had seized her chance to stick her foot out to catch Rachels legs.

Rachel laid in the dirt and seethed with rage, her hands held upwards and her fingers began to curl up in frustration. She so wanted to strike her. But then something suddenly landed comfortably in her hand.

Rachel looked up and saw a red cricket ball sitting in her hands. She sat up, her front covered in dirt and while on her knees she turned around to look at the other students. She'd caught the ball!

"Oh, well played!" The Teacher cried, "Serendipity in action."

Rachel got up and gave Marya a nasty look. But weirdly Marya looked more astonished than anything.

"How the hell did you do that?!" Marya looked like she was accusing.

Rachel didn't know what she was talking about and just moved to get away from her. She tossed the ball back to the Teacher and then turned to Garfield who was also looking at her strangely.

"What?" She asked.

"How the hell did you do that? I mean, what happened, the ball. It..." Garfield stumbled.

"Spit it out!" Rachel demanded.

"It... it... stopped and fell straight down into your hands!" Rachel was tempted to dismiss Garfield's story if it wasn't for the expression on his face, and even the expressions on her team mates faces, all looked at her as if they'd seen something they couldn't explain.

Her attention was then grabbed by the conversation the Teacher was having with Victor.

"What does that mean?" Victor asked.

"I'm afraid it means you're out." Doctor Davison said.

"Oh man, come on!" Victor moaned, kicking the dirt at his feet.

"Since this is a friendly game and you're not used to it, we can bend the rules a little, nobody will be 'out, out'. We'll just score up whenever a player is caught out. Just join the back of the line and wait for your turn again."

"Sir, sir. I don't think we should keep score at all!" Dolores cried, "If this is a friendly game it'll invite competition between us, it'll mean one team has to lose."

Well duh! Rachel thought.

"Well, no matter what I call it, we'll have someone trying to keep score, whether they're winning or losing. So it's rather academic to whether I actually keep score or not." The Teacher said.

"I don't think that's right, sir. We shouldn't score ourselves based on this." Dolores said as if she knew what she was talking about. In reality, to Rachel she sounded like an idiot.

Oh god, blah, blah, blah. Rachel just tuned this out. If Dolores said it, likely, it was rubbish anyway. After her long spiel the Teacher finally asked a question.

"Is your name 'Dolores', by any chance?" Doctor Davison asked.

"Yeah!" Dolores said going on the defensive. "What of it?"

"You've fast gained a reputation and it clearly proceeds you." The Teacher commented and turned away, choosing to ignore her. Dolores looked clearly upset and shot Rachel an ugly look as if this was somehow her fault.

Now it was Stella's turn to bat and the Teacher had a bit of a hard time explaining why you could only use the flat end of the bat when Stella wanted to use the angled side.

Despite her never swinging a bat this way before she quickly got the hang of it, and being an athletic girl she ran backwards and forwards between the stumps before the fielders could get the ball back to the wicket keeper. Who Rachel only now noticed was one of Marya's goons.

Another of the batters were sent off to be back of the line so Stella and Richard were both on the pitch.

Richard was also quite good with the bat, but when it came to Stella's turn again it seemed her first few hits must've been flukes because she was average again.

"There's no need to hold back, Stella!" The Teacher called, tossing the ball into the air and catching it. "I can tell you're a natural at this. Don't hold back. If people feel showed up then that's their problem, not yours."

"If you think that wise GYM teacher Doctor Davison." and she was back on form again. Rachel couldn't tell if this was all because Stella was stronger than she looked, but she was very good; and it inspired Richard to put more effort in too. Victor, who was at the back of the line of batters, looked astonished at Stella's strength and looked like he was mentally charging himself to bring himself back into competition with the girl.

Rachel knew this wouldn't come to anything ugly. Their friendship had been through so much worse and had survived.

Stella was up for batting again, and Richard looked a little annoyed as he watched the fielders spread out more because Stella could hit the ball quite far.

If this was Rachel, she'd hit the ball more softly. Everyone was spread out so far that if she hit the ball softer then the fielders would have to waste time running forwards to catch the ball. But the Teacher had told her to not hold back, and so far she'd stuck to it, and Rachel knew Stella was the kind of person who, once you gave her one note, she'd comfortably stick with it for a long while before changing it up.

Rachel ran backwards to get into a good position to catch.

"Rachel, look out!" Garfield cried. Why? The field was empty and there was nothing behind her except for a brick wall, and she was nowhere near that. Rachel put two and two together too late as she bumped into someone, she instantly said, "sorry." But large, flabby arms came from around her and forced her to the floor.

Dolores stood tall and imposing over her, she looked angry, but she was also subtly smirking as if she'd stood in her way deliberately to do this.

"You little bully. I'll be telling Mister Vale about this." and she hawked back in her mouth, preparing to spit on her when... Rachels disgust, anger and hatred all burnt. She just wished she could reach out with telekinetic powers and strangle this girl, or bash a rock into her face!

"Incoming!" The Teacher cried. There was a crunching noise from behind Rachel and...

SMASH!

Before Dolores could spit, a large, heavy, solid cricket ball suddenly appeared and it slammed into Dolores face, smashing her nose yet again. She reeled back in pain and held her face as blood again gushed from her nose.

The Teacher was at their side in an instant.

"What happened?" he asked.

"She hit me!" Dolores said gripping her nose and pointing an accusing finger at Rachel. She was trying to milk this again!

"No, it was an accident!" Rachel defended herself.

"It's true, sir." Garfield said. "I saw what happened. The cricket ball hit the wall, bounced back and smashed Dolores in the face." He mimed being hit in the face with a ball and clutched his nose.

"Why would Dolores be looking away from the pitch?" the Teacher asked.

"She was about to spit on me." Rachel said, dusting her arms down while keeping her eyes focused on Dolores.

"Is this true?" the Teacher asked Dolores.

"It's wrong, sir." Marya pipped up. "I saw Rachel hit her. She's been bullying Dolores all morning."

"Hmm." Doctor Davison pondered. "And can you explain the blood on the cricket ball? Or the lack of it on Rachels hands?"

"Well sir..." Marya said, her eyes looked panicked and shifted from side to side as she tried to come up with a convincing lie. "It must be blood splatter." Doctor Davison did not look convinced.

"You know, I might believe you. If it wasn't for the fact that I watched it happen and saw everything." Marya fell silent.

Dolores still writhed in pain. Rachel didn't care if she was okay, she wanted her to suffer now.

"Garfield, please take Dolores to the nurse." the Teacher said.

"Why me?!" Garfield moaned.

"Because I asked you nicely." Doctor Davison looked at Garfield with a stern look which said there would be no discussion.

Garfield was clearly unhappy as Dolores eventually got to her feet and sobbed all the way back to the school. Marya and her goons tried to follow.

"Remain here, please, you three. Lesson is not over yet." and they obeyed.

"I am really sorry about this GYM Teacher Doctor Davison." Stella said.

"It's not your fault, it was just a freak accident, a one in a million chance." The Teacher said and he clapped his hands together and ushered them all back to the pitch.

As Rachel got up to return to the others she saw Marya looking at her, again with a look that Rachel didn't like.

"I saw what happened. That ball didn't just hit the wall. It hit the wall and came back like a cannon ball." She hissed.

"Yeah right." Rachel dismissed. "Are you suggesting I somehow forced it back into the bitches face?" she mocked.

"Azarath Metrion Zynthos, Azarath Metrion Zynthos, Azarath Metrion Zynthos." Raven meditated. It was difficult. The deck of this ship was a hustle and bustle of activity.

"Remember," The Doctor said, "You're not trying to be the calm in a storm. You're trying to be a cork on the sea." He was opposite her, crossed legged like she was, resting his hands on his knees in a slightly different meditation stance to her own.

Raven's eyes relaxed, she tried to totally relax her body as the insanely strong cartoon character ran around with a wet wig on, bent double over, swabbing the deck with his head. "I'm a good mop, huh, Eddy?!" He said giggling like a lunatic.

"Doctor, this is impossible!" Raven knew what the Doctor meant, but it just felt so impossible to ignore so much noise around you and focus on just yourself.

"Bumble bees." The Doctor said in a dismissive tone.

"What?"

"Terran Insects. Its aerodynamically impossible for them to fly, but they do it." The Doctor said.

"That's an old wives tail and you know it." Raven tried to focus again on her centre.

"No, no. You're focusing on a centre that isn't centred anymore." The Doctor said, "It's like trying to focus on a single water molecule in the ocean." Raven just groaned.

The Indian character at the helm was now arguing with the strong cartoon character.

"Have you ever seen attack of the killer, blob monster from beyond mars?" the cartoon had said.

"I think that one somehow slipped past me, Mr. Ed." the Indian gentleman said politely. He sounded like he used to own a convenience store or something.

Focus, focus, focus!

"No, don't focus." Came the Doctors words telepathically, "That is your problem. You're trying to find a still point in a dynamic setting. Just practice relaxing first, and disconnect."

Yes, Master. Raven thought with sarcasm.

"I always told Azar his teaching methods work wonders in a controlled setting like a dusty, boring temple. But his students needed to experience the hustle and bustle of real life and be able to meditate through that, too."

I don't like the way he talks about my tutor. Raven thought to herself, forgetting the Doctor could hear her. How did you know Azar anyway?

"Oh, that is a long story." The Doctor sent.

We've got nothing but time now, so you might as well tell me. Raven had been waiting for an opportunity to ask this, but it never arose.

"We became friends centuries ago by my time. I was in my first incarnation, travelling with my Granddaughter. We landed on Azarath because I wanted to study the psychic abilities of the people there."

And Azar let you? Raven asked.

"Oh no. He thought we were intruders and wanted nothing to do with us, at first. He was a younger person back then too. Very sceptical of outsiders you see. But I think my knowledge of telekinetic powers impressed him. He agreed to my experiments, but only if they were conducted on himself and no one else. He was very protective of his students.

"We spent many hours in conversation about philosophy, science, art and even local politics of the day, which thankfully I wasn't involved in."

Azar was into art? and Science? Raven asked quizzically.

"Well, alright, I may have gone on a bit."

Surprise me. Raven thought.

"You know you're not too old for me to ground you, you know."

Just you try me... There was a thought she wanted to express, but she didn't want to while the Doctor and her were in contact. But the thought of him grounding her made him sound like a father.

...Dad. She decided to add in a mocking tone to release the tension.

"But that's where our friendship started. We even started playing chess through the telepathic circuits whenever I passed close to the Azarathian dimension." The Doctor paused. "And he was a renowned cheat!" The Doctor thought rather childishly.

Raven couldn't help but smile, just a little at that stray thought of his.

"Remember, relax first and disconnect. Once you're disconnected and can freely bob in the ocean, then you look for the centre within yourself." the Doctor said.

It sounded like mumbo-jumbo, but Raven got the gist of it. Their little conversation had allowed Raven to relax and focus, relax and focus.

She felt the swaying of the boat through her body, and she just relaxed, and relaxed. There was a tension in her shoulders. Relaxed. Her leg was in an uncomfortable position, move it and relax. Don't focus, just relax.

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Laughed the cartoon boy as he ran around the deck, now with live chickens in his hands from the ships pantry. He was being chased by the Indian man again.

Just feel the rocking of the boat, ignore all outside distractions, do not, DO NOT get stressed! DO NOT!

"Cabin Boy, Mono-Brow, put those chickens back!" The Indian cried.

"But I love chickens, Rolf!"

"My name is Apu!" the Indian cried.

The boy stopped and looked like he was processing this before declaring. "Don't forget to flush it!" and ran off again giggling like this was a game.

Raven dropped her head and pressed her hands to her temples.

"This is going to be difficult!" She sighed.

Now instead of focusing on just her chimes she was also focusing on the gentle swaying of the boat, which was very rhythmic. Whenever the ship rocked one way, she spoke her chimes once, when it went the other she spoke them again.

Raven had thought she was getting the hang of it, but no, it still wasn't working. Her mind wandered and she felt the Doctors aura. He was so peaceful and calm in this storm. How did he do it? It must be because he's a Time Lord, because this was just impossible!

Something landed in her lap and squawked loudly before flapping all over her and running away. A stupid chicken!

STOP, STOP! WHY WON'T THE WORLD JUST STOP?! She fumed in her head focusing on the cause of her outburst, the chicken.

BANG!

There was an eruption of darkness and the chicken was blasted into atoms. Feathers rained down around them.

"Oh no! Not Maurice!" The boy shouted, dropped the other chickens and began gathering up the feathers, playing with them as if he could put the chicken back together.

SHIT, SHIT, SHIT! What the hell is wrong with me?! Ravens eyes closed tightly and tried to refocus. That was the danger of her powers, and why it was important to meditate. Meditation controlled her emotions, her emotions channel her powers, if she can't control her emotions then whatever she focuses on gets the full brunt of uncontrollable power.

"Relax." The Doctor said, "They're just fictions, they'll pop back into existence eventually. Death means nothing to a fiction."

"That's a very morbid way of looking at it." Raven said as she relaxed herself back into her meditation stance.

"These people don't really fear death. What they fear is what every aspiring artist fears, obscurity. If enough people forget about them, then the mental energy which supports them falls apart. I guess that makes their society sort of like an attention based economy."

This put a thought into Ravens head. Maybe she should actually stay here, in the Land of Fiction. If she's going to become destructive and evil then why not do it in a place where its inhabitants do not fear death.

"But didn't Captain Hook..." It was strange to refer to the character as a real person, "...say they're fighting the Mistress because she's killing them?"

"It's not that shes killing them. It's the way she's doing it. Killing them and replacing them with versions she thinks are better." The Doctor explained. "That's what's disturbing them."

"But, why would someone do that? Destroy fiction?" she asked.

"It happens all the time. Book burning, protests. Some people think for a greater good literature needs to be purged of certain 'ideas' that are deemed 'harmful'. 'The Kings Rule' is a book from the Andromeda galaxy which was written by a genocidal mad man. Historically it's a look into the mind of a lunatic, and people do recognise him as a lunatic. But to some its a book which 'pushes his views' and some would demand all copies burnt."

"Why?" she asked.

"Because some think people are so easily convinced by words and popular media." He laughed. "That one person merely speaking their mind freely in just the 'wrong way' will inspire just one person to do great evil, just one. And to prevent that they think it justified to filter or censor everything. Fiction, language, literature, private messages, conversations in public places, and sometimes even scientific discoveries must be controlled and adjusted to fit."

"So you think the mistress has a view of how the world should be, and doesn't like anything that'll inspire behaviour she thinks is not appropriate?" Raven asked. Reading some books herself she'd come across certain aspects and ideas she felt were silly. Most in the Alice Compendium, but also stuff like the idea that loved conquered all, or that evil could be defeated by a single person with a magic sword. That an ugly duckling could ever become a swan and be accepted, because underneath it was still an ugly duck. There were even some horrific ideas painted in literature that she did not like, Voldermort and his Death Eaters just being one, but she wouldn't dream of burning or destroying the books.

Unless its the Twilight Saga, screw the Twilight Saga.

"How do you know all this?" Raven asked the Doctor. He'd sounded a little crestfallen as he'd said everything. Was there something too this he wasn't saying? He looked like he was struggling with something internally. "It's not just because you're broadly travelled, is it?"

"I... I travelled with someone, a long time ago. They disappointed me."

"Who? What happened?" Raven prompted, but the Doctor remained silent. Reaching for his aura Raven was surprised to feel the Doctor too was wrestling some feeling to the ground. Just like she does with her own emotions.

Rachel was too tired to focus on her maths work. So she just day-dreamed about the next chapter of her story.

Raven was having trouble focusing in a world that was in constant motion and she needed to learn how to focus despite the noise around her. For some reason that was important but Rachel couldn't remember why.

Her droopy eyes looked at Mister Vale as he went on about some mathematical thing to do with statistics.

Rachel actually liked maths, but when Mister Vale teaches it, it's always boring. He made it sound so boring she'd practically lost all interest in it.

"Now," he announced, "You will turn to page 101 of your maths text book and complete the problems."

Dreary eyed, Rachel picked up her maths book and opened it to a list of questions about statistics.

She had been dreaming up her new adventure with Raven and the Doctor that she hadn't really been paying attention, and as such she had to go back into the book to remind herself what was going on.

Statistics, the practice or science of collecting and analysing numerical data in large quantities, especially for the purpose of inferring proportions in a whole from those in a representative sample.

Oh god, this was too much. Rachel couldn't absorb this. Her brain was too uninterested in it. Her father was good at maths, he could teach her this later and do a better job than Mister Vale could.

Okay, just try to get through the first few questions.

.

Question One

A survey is being taken at your local tea room. Questionnaires are given out as people leave.

The questionnaire asks these questions.

How often do you visit this tea room? Everyday. Once a Week. or Never.

What gender are you? Male or female.

What age group are you? 0-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-40

Question, Explain why the survey is bias

And suggest improvements.

.

Oh god this was boring. Move onto the next question

.

Question Two

If something has a one in thirty thousand chance of happening, that makes it impossible. True or False, and explain why.

.

False, its just statistically unlikely, not impossible. Like the cricket ball smashing Dolores in the face. Not impossible, just unlikely.

Dolores had yet to return from the nurses but Garfield had returned just in time before Mister Vale shut his door. Anyone caught outside after the door closed got instant detention.

Rachels head tilted and she saw Garfield's head snaking over to her book to look at her answers. She shot him a warning glance that quickly made him retreat. God, he was such a cheater!

The other questions were about drawing histograms, calibration curves and bar graphs to interpret data. Some questions asked to question the data in case it was bias on some level.

Rachel still found it difficult to focus and instead her mind wandered again and she began dreaming up her story.

Raven had been at it for two hours and she'd given up, for now. It felt like she was on the brink of focus in this world, but it was like the more she went after it, the further away it flew from her.

She'll try again later. Hopefully her mood swings and powers don't destroy the ship in the mean time.

Now she stood in the Captains Quarters, next to a table with a map of the local sea unfurled on the table, small models denoted the resistances ships. Captain Hook was now considering the resistances next move. The Doctor and Alice were both present too.

"We can't head back to the Admiral." Captain Hook said, drumming the fingers of his hand on the table. "We're cut off."

"Which Admiral?" The Doctor asked. "Hornblower?"

"Akbar." and the Doctors face lit up.

"Seriously?" he laughed, but the others ignored him.

"The territories to the west, the Mistress will be keeping an eye on. So returning to Big T, is also out of the question." Alice said.

Raven looked down at where Alice nodded. There was a model ship that looked like a large ocean liner with four funnels.

"I've been on that ship, before." The Doctor said to her, "I ended up clinging to an iceberg last time. But the original only had three smoke stacks. So that one must be the post 1912 version after Morgan Robertson made changes following the disaster."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Raven said.

"Really? Remind me to lend you the book 'Futility' when we get back to the TARDIS. Followed by 'A Night to Remember', and we'll see what you make of that big coincidence." The Doctor said. "It's about time you learnt some of your planets history."

"Is there a point to that?" she asked.

"Well, those who don't learn from history, often are doomed to just repeat it."

The map had a great, large area which was labelled 'Unexplored Territories' which this ship seemed to be sailing quite close to, and Raven decided to ask what that meant.

"'That' is a no-go area." Captain Hook said, "It is the place where the Mistress can discard certain works she does not wish to see anymore. Casting them into a sea of mist never to be seen again."

"A type of 'Censoring' in other words." The Doctor mused. "Why haven't you been 'censored' Captain Hook? Surely it'd be easier than trying to chase you down."

"My dear Doctor, she cannot censor us if she doesn't know what we are from." Captain Hook said.

"Ah! Hence the code names. The Captain, Big Al, Cabin Boy Mono-brow, Helmsman Quick. If she doesn't have your names, she can't find your reference to censor you!"

"Indeed." The Captain said. "The No-go area is indicated by a mist on the horizon, and if we head in there, there is no guarantee we could ever get back out."

There were three knocks on the rooms double doors, followed by a bang as the mono-brow cartoon character sharply headbutted the doors causing them to fling open. The boy stumbled forward laughing like a simpleton his face red from the impact.

"Kindly not do that to the doors, dear boy." Captain Hook said, keeping his cool but with an edge of irritation, a nervous twitch at his cheek told Raven he was keeping himself under control.

The boy stood and saluted... with his foot instead of his hand. "Helman potty mouth says he's spotted 'Rug One' on the horizon!"

"They survived? Jolly good. Tell them I shall receive them when I arrive on deck." Captain Hook said.

The boy saluted again, somehow with both of his feet without falling, he spun on his heel, and ran forward on his short, stubby legs, crashing through the door and leaving a hole in his exact shape.

A loud splintering noise then came from the table as Captain Hook dug his hook into the table in frustration. "I really, really, hate that boy!"

"Blood pressure, captain." Alice said.

'Rug One' turned out to be Aladdin and the Barriss girl. Somehow they had survived their escape attempt and were arriving back on the ship. The rug settled on the deck and the two climbed off.

"Can I have a shower to get this paint off?" Barriss said pulling the fake jewel on her forehead back out. "I do not like the look of gray skin." Barriss stopped as she spotted Raven looking at her with cold eyes. "Oh, sorry."

Raven didn't say anything.

"Well, congratulations lad!" Captain Hook said, patting Aladdin on the back with his one hand. "You survived. I was certain that was a suicide mission for sure."

Raven expected Aladdin to be more upset being told this. But she kept forgetting the people here don't fear death, as they just pop back into existence elsewhere when killed.

"I'm not sure what happened." Aladdin shrugged, "One minute we were being followed. The next they all gave up and retreated."

"Dashed queer of them." Captain Hook said.

"Are you sure they didn't plant anything on you?" Alice asked, looking Aladdin and Barriss over.

"No, nothing. They just harassed us and sort of... gave up."

"Perhaps they realised Raven and the Doctor were with the Elwood Brothers." Alice suggested.

"The Mistress of the Land of Fiction would not give up so easily." Captain Hook said, "I know her. Tactics aren't her strong point. She'd hound anyone against her to the ends of the world and beyond."

"Unless, perhaps she's gotten clever." The Doctor suggested, he looked like he noticed something the others did not. Slowly he walked around Aladdin as if examining him closely. "You sure they didn't manage to plant anything on you?"

"I was with him, I would've noticed." Barriss said.

"Its just funny that I noticed a small twitch in your eye when Captain Hook spoke of the Mistress in such disdain." The Doctor stopped circling the boy and stood in front of him. "Tell me, what are your honest opinions of the mistress? and I mean 'your' honest opinions."

Aladdin looked worried, but not the kind of worried as if he was going to be called out, but a kind of realisation about himself that horrified him.

"I think... I think... I think she is... great... and good... and powerful... and we can't defeat her... and she is on the good side... that we are on the bad side... and..." He paused, horror was in his face. "She's found my reference!" He exclaimed.

Suddenly a long sword skewered the boy through the chest. Captain Hooks sword. A black inky substance poured out of Aladdin like it was blood and pooled to the floor.

"Thank you, captain." Aladdin said losing all life.

"My pleasure, boy." Captain Hook said with a little too much relish, and he removed his sword, which was also covered in that inky substance.

Barriss sadly approached him, "I'm sorry." She said, and with a flick of her wrist it was as if Aladdin was picked up off the floor and was flung away like a bullet over the side and faraway before crashing into the sea, leaving nothing but a small patch of ink on the waters surface.

The display of power from Barriss surprised Raven. But she didn't have time to contemplate it as things were happening. Aladdin had just died, and no one was affected by this. They really did not view death the same way she would.

"Oh dear, the Mistress must've worked out where Aladdin came from," Alice said, "and was now using that knowledge to implant herself into his character."

"She can do that?" Raven asked, horror was stirring in the back of her mind that any of these fictional characters could become spies, or even hostile if the Mistress found where they came from.

"Again, why code names were so wise." The Doctor commented.

"She'll know where we are." Captain Hook said, "we need to move before she sends her fleet out to nab us."

An explosion rocked the boat and a spray of water flowed over the ship.

"Good god, what was that?" Captain Hook said looking on the horizon for their attacker, but the sea was flat and calm.

The Doctor had his spyglass out and was scanning the sea.

"I see a periscope. Something is surfacing..." The Doctor fell silent, and slowly lowered the glass and turned to them, disbelief and amusement in his face. "It's the Yellow Submarine!"

"The what?" Raven asked.

"I swear, it is. The one from the Beatles song." Raven was still none the wiser.

"I'll have to introduce you to popular music when we get back to the TARDIS."

"I can hardly wait." Raven sighed.

"Hmm..." The Doctor looked again through his spyglass. "Even more worrying is, I also see Red October out there. Oh dear, and the Nautilus. Which I'm afraid is coming about, to ram us."

Raven saw a bubbling on the surface of the water as this submersible ship sped straight towards them.

"Hard a Starboard!" Captain Hook shouted. "Do not allow her to attack our broadside." But their ship wouldn't turn fast enough, and it certainly didn't have the speed edge to out run such a fast, undersea vessel.

Raven quickly stepped up to make herself useful. She held out her hands, waved her arms around. Spoke her chimes and a big, black shield appeared on the exposed side of the ship.

It felt like something had rammed into her head when she felt the Nautilus impact her shield. There was so much penetrating power behind that vessel and it was taking so much concentration to hold the wall in existence.

"Queen of Diamonds!" Captain Hook said, referring to Barriss, probably because of her diamond shaped tattooes over her nose. "We need more speed."

The Nautilus broke off its attack having lost all the momentum needed to smash into the ship. But it was fast circling around to try again. Red October had fired a torpedo, but Raven quickly cast another shield and the torpedo rammed into it, exploding on impact.

Raven looked to Barriss to see what she was doing. She looked like she was charging herself up with power. What power does she have?

Barriss swung her arms forward and Raven felt the power rushing through her as she seemed to conjure a great wind from nowhere. A great wind she focused entirely into the ships sails. The sails all ballooned out and the ship jerked violently and began to pick up speed on this artificial weather.

"Head towards the Censored Zone!" The Doctor shouted over this artificial wind.

"Are you mad, sir?" Captain Hook asked.

"Whatever ends up in there is hidden from the Mistress right?" The Doctor asked, "What better place to hide from the Mistress than the one place she can never find us?"

"We may never find our way out of there!" Captain Hook shouted.

"It's either that or be killed or captured and end up as brain washed as Aladdin!" Captain Hook looked like he was about to argue, but he had no steam nor argument to disagree.

"Helmsman Quick!" Captain Hook said.

"Yes, Mister Captain." the Indian man said.

"Take us into the Censored zone."

"Aye, sir." and the Helmsman spun the wheel and turned towards the fog bank on the horizon.

Raven looked back and saw the Nautilus on the attack again and only just managed to conjure a shield quickly enough to catch it, and deflect it away. She suspected Red October was about to fire another torpedo, and so she cast a shield directly in front of the sub. There was an explosion, followed by an even bigger bang as the torpedo effectively blew a hole in the submersible, sinking it.

Given hindsight, maybe she should've used Red Octobers torpedoes to attack the Nautilus, because it was coming again. This time though she angled the shield so the Nautilus was sharply deflected instead of caught on the side. It required much less mental effort to keep it in existence if it wasn't under constant attack.

The Nautilus seemed to break off as their ship sailed into the fog bank. It got very cold, very quickly and it was very quiet. Raven closed her cloak and held it closed to try to keep some warmth in.

"Well, here we are." The Doctor said. He didn't look cold at all. "The Censored zone, the rubbish bin of the Mistress." He looked over the side of the boat and into the water. "I just wonder what's in here that upsets the Mistress so much she'd throw it in here, to never be seen again."

To Be Continued...

Authors notes: Que end of part one sting, because I think this is where part one of the adventure would end. :P

This part was a little difficult to write for. I wanted to make the underlying theme of authoritarian control and 1984 concepts a little more subtle than I had originally wrote them. I'm not sure I succeeded, especially in the part where the Doctor explains why people would want popular media to be censored or altered and how much of a slippery slope it is.

Updates might come less frequent as I'm trying to fathom how best to tackle the latter part of this adventure.