Kim Possible and all related characters are the property of Disney.
Doctor Who and all related characters are the property of the BBC.
This chapter features the Twelfth Doctor.
The tomb like silence of the underground tunnel was shattered by a loud, almost wheezing groan that echoed down the claustrophobic passage. As the sound boomed even louder, a blue box with a flashing light atop it began to take shape. When it had fully solidified, the groaning ceased, leaving the last vestiges of the echo reverberating down the walls. The TARDIS had arrived.
The door opened and a tall man with gray hair cautiously stepped out. The Doctor, a Time Lord who had lived for over two thousand years, took in his surroundings. He was immediately hit in the face by the smell. "I'm glad Wade gave us nose plugs," he said aloud. He could only imagine the stench had he not had his own nose plug firmly in place.
"I can still smell it, though," Clara said, gagging. She was the second person out of the TARDIS. "Does that mean it would be worse if we didn't have these?"
"Much worse," the Doctor told her. The TARDIS had materialized right next to the door that shouldn't be there. It was a metal door, the kind you'd imagine would lead to a pumping station, but that didn't change the fact that it wasn't on any maps, and there were no such stations in this stretch of sewer. The Doctor reached for the handle, turned it, and pushed. The door was unlocked and opened easily. "The door's open," he called to his friends who were still in the TARDIS. "Let's go in."
The door opened to a chamber that was truly cavernous. They'd thought that maybe this enormous room had been built in an unused and unknown pumping station, but it was much too big for that. The high vaulted ceiling went up to what the Doctor imagined had to be street level above them, and the room itself was almost as big as a hotel lobby. Off towards the right was a doorway that, presumably, led to the rest of this strange, expansive enclosure.
The room itself was strangely empty. The only things in it were several out of place looking cables snaking along the floor, a tripping hazard if the Doctor had ever seen one. This place feels familiar, the Doctor thought, even though it looked completely alien. Nonetheless, there was a familiar hum in the room, almost as if there was a low level energy field permeating everything that was, somehow, welcoming him. Or was it welcoming him back?
An unpleasant idea took root in the Doctor's mind. It couldn't be. The more he looked around, taking in the stark décor of the capacious chamber, the more unpleasant his suspicions became.
Kim Possible came in next. "How is this place so big?" she asked.
"I have a hypothesis," the Doctor said, "and it's not a good one."
"That sounds ominous," Sergeant Pam Mazing, a UNIT commando said as she entered the chamber.
Ron Stoppable was the last person to file through the door. He took in the stark white lighting and walls, and how empty the room was. "If anyone lived here, they must have had a yard sale. This place is empty."
"I'm just glad wherever we are keeps the sewer smell out," Kim said as she took out her nose plug.
Rufus poked his head out of Ron's pocket and took a big sniff. "No stink," he agreed.
Kim took out a device that looked like a smartphone. This was her link to the Doctor's Zygon detector back in the TARDIS. She turned it on and waited for it to show her where to go. The Doctor, Pam, and Ron followed suit. None of the devices indicated anything yet.
Kim pulled a few earpieces from her pocket and distributed them. "These will keep us all connected," she said. "Unfortunately, we'll have to split up. This place is just too big."
"I programmed our own unique bio-signatures into our devices," the Doctor said, waving his handheld detector for emphasis. "That will help us to keep tabs on each other while we search for Tolkran. The last thing we want is to get completely lost. Even Rufus has been programmed in."
The little mole rat gave the Doctor a thumbs up and a happy squeak. In the time that he and Ron travelled in the TARDIS, the Doctor never treated Rufus as just a pet.
The Doctor fished a small device the size of a penny out of his pocket and turned it on. A small icon appeared on the handheld detectors. "This is a homing beacon. Wade, fortunately, had this handy. He thought we'd need it to find our way back to the TARDIS from searching the sewer tunnels. It will do the same job here." He affixed the device to the door. "This way we can find our way back to this door. Tolkran's hiding place a lot bigger than I expected."
"What if one of us gets copied?" Ron asked.
"Unless Tolkran is standing right next to whomever he's mimicking, these detectors will tell us the person we're looking at isn't who they seem to be." He gave Ron a slight grin. "Also, Tolkran won't have one of our communication devices."
"All right, people," Kim said, "let's see if we can find Tolkran sometime this century. Ron," she turned to her ex, "I know the basic plan was to use you to lure him out, but that doesn't mean you have to play hero. I know you can take care of yourself, but don't take any unnecessary risks. I don't think your fans would like their favorite author getting killed." She gave him a warm smile. "You had my back for years. Now it's my turn to have yours."
"We all have your back, Ron," the Doctor agreed. "No one dies today if I can help it. That includes Tolkran."
With that, then five of them walked through the doorway and down a long corridor that came to multiple forks. They each took their own hallway and ventured further into the depths of this strange sanctuary.
The Doctor took his own detector and programmed in a new search parameter. While I look for our wayward Zygon, I can search for signs of artron energy. If this place is what I suspect it is…
Kim was fully in mission mode, walking slowly and silently down the large corridors as she scanned for her quarry. This wasn't her first alien hunt, and she was certain it wouldn't be her last.
Lorwardians, Cybermen, Sontarans, Daleks, she had seen them all. Of those threats, only the Daleks scared her to the point that she had nightmares after. She would be jolted out of a sound sleep because the shrill declaration of "Exterminate!" was echoing in her ears.
This was, however, the first Zygon she had encountered. The last time there was a major Zygon incursion, Kim had been on a mission in Malta investigating a recently uncovered piece of Lorwardian tech. She was really wishing she had been at UNIT's Black Archive back then. The mission logs didn't do the sitch any justice.
The corridor was stark white and seemed to go on forever. There is absolutely no way this chamber or whatever it is can be this big, she thought. Kim had a suspicion, but she wasn't sure if it was possible.
Ron walked slowly down the almost infinite corridor. It reminded him of the first time he got lost in the TARDIS trying to find the kitchen. He had been profoundly glad that his bedroom had its own bathroom, otherwise things could have gotten messy if he'd been awoken in the middle of the night by nature's insistent call.
You know, this really wasn't how I expected the day to go when I got out of bed this morning, he thought. I figured I'd go to my event, sign a bunch of books, and be home in time for a Fearless Ferret marathon. But no, I wind up back in the freak fighting game, facing off with a shapeshifting alien who wants me dead.
"I tell you, Rufus," Ron said to his constant companion, "sometimes I think the universe has it in for me. Not only is Tolkran back, but so is Kim. And we're getting along."
Rufus, who was perched on Ron's shoulder, only shrugged. The little guy had missed Kim. She had been his other human. It felt to Rufus like the family was finally whole.
"I don't know," Ron continued. "I don't know if I should open myself up again. It took a while to get my head screwed back on after things crashed and burned."
"Check in," Kim's voice called from Ron's earpiece. "No sign of our friend."
"This is Mazing," the UNIT commando said. "Same. This place is bigger than the Black Archive."
"Nothing on my end," Ron reported. He was glad he hadn't had his channel open. He didn't want anyone other than Rufus hearing his musings.
"I have no idea where I am," Clara announced. "Although, I think I found a tea trolley." There was the sound of crockery clinking. "It looks like this tea's been sitting out for a while. It's cold, it smells funny, and I think it's evolved into a new life form. Doctor, how about you?"
"A tea trolley, you say?" the Time Lord asked. "Is it mahogany? Are the cups a silver colored ceramic?"
"Yeah. And it looks like there's a handkerchief here with a monogrammed letter C."
"There's my confirmation," the Doctor said in a somber tone. "Now I'm really glad we have the homing beacon on the door."
"It sounds like you know what this place is," Clara surmised.
"It's a TARDIS. One older than mine."
"I had a feeling," Kim said, "given how big this place is and how there is no realistic way for it to physically fit where it is. How is that possible, though? How many TARDISes are on this planet?"
"At least two," the Doctor said. "I never really knew what happened to this one. It belonged to Professor Chronotis."
"The dude who was supposed to be at the prison you took Tolkran to?" Ron asked. "It seems like this whole thing is revolving around that place."
"You're not wrong," the Doctor said, almost to himself. Silently he added, Is it about Shada, or is it about Chronotis? And if so, why? The professor has been dead for years.
"We table that for now," Kim decided. "Keep searching. Knowing that this is a TARDIS makes it even more important for us to get Tolkran out of here."
The Doctor's mind was going at a light year minute trying to figure out the connection between this abandoned TARDIS and the Zygon they were trying to find. It all kept coming back to Shada and his old friend Professor Chronotis.
He thought back to when he brought Tolkran to that forbidden world and its secret prison. The Doctor was younger then, thirteen hundred years younger, give or take.
So, he thought. This is Chronotis's TARDIS, last seen at Cambridge. He reached out and ran his fingertips along the corridor wall. "How did you get here?" he asked the amazing machine, knowing she couldn't respond. Part of the spoken question was to let this TARDIS know that the Doctor was aware of her sapience, and part of it was to think aloud.
"The Professor died again, this time permanently. No more regenerations and no temporal loopholes he could exploit. He was gone and you were alone, so you left Cambridge. Why come here? Why Middleton, and why this sewer?"
The Doctor consulted his detector again. While he didn't need to hunt for artron energy to confirm his theory, it may help find where the console room in the configuration of this desktop theme was. He hoped to find some record of where and when this TARDIS had been.
"Why are you here?" he asked again. TARDISes could operate independently of their pilots. His own TARDIS definitely had a mind of her own and would often take the Doctor where he needed to go, not necessarily where he wanted to go. Did that mean that this TARDIS needed to be here? If so, why?
The Doctor rubbed his eyes. Too many questions and not enough information to even begin to come up with any answers. "I took Tolkran to Shada and put him in the cryo-tube meant for Chronotis. It's a tenuous link, but a link nonetheless. That can't be it, can it?"
He let out an annoyed groan. "Too many questions and no answers in sight."
Kim was being watched. She was sure of it. She had heard a faint shuffling sound when she turned down this hallway. Her detector had shown Tolkran's life signs, and she had followed it. She knew he was there somewhere but not precisely where.
Kim was reminded of the movie Alien, when the Nostromo's captain was hunting for the monstrous xenomorph, and the detector device the remaining crew had cobbled together was showing the creature right on top of him, but there was no visual on it. Spoiler alert, it was able to sneak up on and kill the captain.
Time to channel my inner Sigourney Weaver and subdue this guy, Kim thought. Then she snickered. Ron always tried to get me to watch that movie with him, but I refused. I eventually watched it with Reed, who thought it was good inspiration considering what we did for a living. That should have been a red flag, how much he wanted to blow aliens up. We're trying to defend Earth, not commit genocide. I so misjudged him.
It was time to draw Tolkran out. "I know you're here," Kim announced. "Come on out! Let's talk. I'm not here to hurt you."
"Perhaps I am here to hurt you," a raspy voice from Kim's left said. A red face peaked out from an open doorway.
Kim tapped her earpiece. "This is Possible. I have a visual. Home in on my signal."
"Who are you here with?" Tolkran demanded. "Is the Doctor here? Is Stoppable?"
Kim didn't answer. "There's no reason for any more fighting," Kim said calmly. "There are twenty million Zygons living on Earth now. You can have a home here."
"Do my fellows live as their true selves, or do they hide as one of you?"
"They've all taken human form," Kim said. "It's safer for them. Human bigotry is, unfortunately, a thing."
Tolkran snarled. "That is no way to live."
"It's not fair," Kim agreed, "but like I said, it's safer. For your people and mine."
In a move that would still surprise Kim years later, Tolkran rushed her and grabbed her face. She felt her earpiece get knocked loose. Her heart sank when she heard it get crunched underfoot.
Tolkran's grip was like iron, and Kim could feel him burrowing into her mind. Then, in the blink of an eye, she was staring at her own face. Tolkran/Kim smirked at her. "What's the sitch?" the Zygon asked in Kim's own voice.
Ron and Pam met in the intersection of two corridors. "Ron!" she called out. "I lost Kim's comm signal!"
"Yeah, I heard a loud squeal! Like microphone feedback through a speaker!" Ron told her. "I think she's in trouble!"
"Don't count her out," Pam said. "Kim Possible is one of the most respected operatives and administrators in UNIT. She can take care of herself."
Ron gave her a lopsided grin. "Sounds like Kim."
When they came to the intersection of corridors, the Doctor and Clara were already there. They were watching a standoff between two Kim Possibles.
"This is not good," Pam said.
"That's putting it mildly," Clara said. "And I don't have her comm signal. I think something happened to her earpiece! I can't tell which one is the real one."
"I'm the real me!" one Kim said.
"She's lying!" the other Kim protested. "I'm the real one."
"Zygons can access memories," the Doctor said. "Tolkran will know everything Kim does."
Ron gave the Doctor a worried look. "Does Tolkran have all of Kim's moves?"
"Most likely," was the answer.
"Bad road," Ron said. "Five million miles of it."
"Which is which?" Clara demanded of Ron.
"Why are you asking me?!" Ron exclaimed.
"You know her best!"
"No I don't!" he protested. "It been ten years! Besides, the last time someone copied her, I picked the wrong Kim!"
Pam raised an eyebrow. "This happened before?"
"Disinherited rich girl who had an experimental treatment giving her shapeshifting abilities," Ron said in an offhand voice. His head perked up. "And she copied me once, too! Rufus!" The little mole rat poked his head out of Ron's pocket. "You can figure out who's who!"
Rufus scampered down Ron's leg and over to the twin Kims. He sniffed around both of them, then looked over at Ron and shrugged. "Same," he lamented before scurrying back over.
"They smell the same," the Doctor said. "Well, it was a good idea." He then looked down at his detector. Both Kim's and Tolkran's bio-signatures were there, overlapping. "I should have made this more sensitive."
"Now what do we do?" Clara asked, concern thick in her voice.
"I don't know," was all the Doctor could say. Those words pained him.
Next: Will the real Kim Possible please stand up?
I sincerely apologoze for the gap between chapters. Have you ever heard the old saying "When it rains, it pours"? That's been life lately. There's hectic, and there's been what my family has been dealing with. I'll try to do better in the future.
For my readers in the United States, I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving from the Waveform Clan!