Apocalypse Rising (Book Four)

The Poison Sky

"And what are you going to do?" Mace asked.

"I've got the TARDIS," the Apocalypse shrugged. "I'm going to get onboard their ship." She turned to Martha. "Come on," she told her.

***

But when they got to the alleyway where the TARDIS had been parked, they found it gone. "But where's the TARDIS?" Martha asked, confused.

"Taste that, in the air," the Apocalypse stuck her tongue out, then grimaced. "Yuck. That sort of metal tang. Teleport exchange," she figured out. "It's the Sontarans. They've taken it. I'm stuck on Earth like . . . like, an ordinary person! Like a human! How rubbish is that?" She held up a hand to Martha. "Sorry, no offense, but come on."

"So what do we do?" Martha asked, walking after her.

"Well, I mean, it's shielded. They could never detect it."

"What?"

"I'm just wondering . . . " the Apocalypse turned to her. "Have you phoned your family and Tom?"

"No," Martha shook her head. "What for?"

The Apocalypse frowned slightly. The Martha she knew would have called her family first thing. That was what the Apocalypse would have even done. She quickly checked her phone to make sure she had the phone Martha had given her, and groaned when she didn't find it. Oh, well. Jack would figure it out . . . hopefully. Unless he was an idiot, but that just wasn't Jack. "The gas," she told Martha. "Tell them to stay inside."

"'Course I will, yeah, but what about Donna?" Martha asked. "I mean, where's she?"

"Oh, she's gone home," the Apocalypse answered. "She's not like you. She's not a soldier. Right, so . . . " She snapped her fingers, then pointed back the way they'd come. "Avanti!"

***

"Change of plan," the Apocalypse said, getting back into the command center.

"Good to have you fighting alongside us, Apocalypse," Mace nodded to her.

"I'm not fighting," the Apocalypse shook her head. "I'm not-fighting, as in not hyphen fighting, got it? Now, does anyone know what this gas is yet?"

"We're working on it," Martha answered.

"It's harmful, but not lethal until it reaches eighty percent density," a blonde woman at the console said. "We're having the first reports of deaths from the center of Tokyo City."

"And who are you?" the Apocalypse asked.

"Captain Marion Price, ma'am," she answered, saluting.

"Oh, put your hand down," the Apocalypse huffed. "Don't salute."

"Jodrell Bank's traced a signal, Apocalypse, coming from five thousand miles above the Earth," Mace said. "We're guessing that's what triggered the cars."

"The Sontaran ship," the Apocalypse nodded.

"NATO has gone to Defcon One. We're preparing a strike."

"You can't do that," the Apocalypse shook her head immediately. "Nuclear missiles won't even scratch the surface. Let me talk to the Sontarans."

"You're not authorized to speak on behalf of the Earth!"

"I've got that authority," the Apocalypse narrowed her eyes. "I earned that right a long time ago." She pulled out her sonic screwdriver and aimed it at the communications system. "Calling the Sontaran Command Ship under Jurisdiction Two of the Intergalactic Rules of Engagement, this is the Apocalypse."