Resonance of Hope

Chapter 9

Aside from the incredibly crowded streets and all the people, I loved New York city. The hotels were so vibrant and kept the city seemingly awake. The screens with endless food were so tempting, as if they were beckoning me to me.

"You like?"

"I love it. Everyone seems so...carefree. Like bad things happen, but everyone just keeps living."

"That's an interesting way to think of New York."

"I'm an interesting person," I laughed.

He smiled. "It's a lovely city. I prefer chilly weather."

I smiled as we walked quietly.

I looked up and saw......people dressed as Santas.

"Christmas?"

He looked over at them. "I guess so."

Then I noticed all sorts of Santa-Type costumes.

"It's Santa Con," I said.

"What the hell is that?"

"People dress up in Santa costumes and get drunk all day."

He gave a strange look at a group that was playing a trumpet, trombone, and tuba. Grabbing my arm suddenly, he yanked me into an alley.

"What? You nearly dislocated-"

He covered my mouth with his hands, shushing me. Then I realized why.

The Santas had lowered their instruments. And they didn't have faces.

Only masks.

And they were walking straight towards us.

"Crap," I said, which I think summed up our thoughts.

I turned and dragged the Doctor deeper into the alley. When I found an appropriate spot, I started to climb up the building.

"Come on!" I called to a waiting Timelord.

He grumbled something about terrible improvisation, and started to follow me, placing his hands and feet where I had put mine. When there was no hold, I carved one with my knife.

After what felt like forever, we'd reached the top. I relaxed.

"Will they get us?" I asked.

"Probably not. They're robots."

I stood and walked to the edge.

The creepy Santas were still there. On aimed his trombone at me, and fired a column of flame up the building.

I jumped back and check for an escape route.

All the side had creepy Santa-robots on all sides. I turned halfheartedly.

"We're surrounded."

I started to pace, thinking out loud. The Doctor stood and began to run his hand frustratedly through his spiky brown hair. I kept talking and talking and talking until-

"Are you speaking Spanish?" he asked, sounding shocked.

I turned. "What?"

"You were speaking fluent Spanish just now," he said.

"Was I?" I asked, thinking about what I'd been saying.

"In fact, now that I think about it, you definitely were," he said, looking shocked. "When did you learn Spanish?"

"My mom was from Costa Rica. I also lived there for four months."

"Oh. Any other languages?"

"German. I'm trilingual."

He nodded, now looking pleased. I smiled (sort of).

"Back to reality, what ARE those creepy Santa-robots?" I asked.

"Pilotfish. That means something's coming. Something big. And bad."

"Fantastic. What do we do?"

"I'm going to execute a very well thought out plan," he said.

"What is it?"

"Improvisation," said a grinning Doctor.

"And I thought I was a bad planner," I muttered.

"When will this big and bad thing come?" I asked.

As if on cue, a massive saucer broke through the clouds.

You know how Martians are always imagined with glowing saucers?

These were flying saucers. The legit thing.

"Fantastic," I said sarcastically, once again summing up our thoughts