"Ah! Ah! Oh! Who woke me up? I'm not ready, still healing, still... Can you smell that? No, not smell, not hear, feel...can you feel...? Stay still Ryan."
"What is it? What's the matter?"
The Doctor got up not noticing Y/n still asleep.
"Ah... Show me your collarbone." Everyone showed their collorbones and everyone had this purple light coming from it. "You've all got them."
"So have you." Ryan said.
"Yeah. I have. OK." The Doctor said now noticing Y/n's not there. "Where's Y/n?"
"Behind you." Ryan said pointing to the sofa.
The Doctor turned around and looked at Y/n who is still fast asleep. The Doctor then smiled knowing she was still near her. The Doctor then checked her collorbone and she too has the purple glowing thing.
"Are you two together? Cos the way you two were cuddling seemed like it." Grace said.
"No! Nothing like that. Good friends we are that's it." The Doctor exclaimed blushing at the thought of cuddling Y/n.
"Sure, Good friends." Grace said.
"Really sorry." The Doctor said turning around to face the others. "Not good news. DNA bombs. Micro-implants which code to your DNA. On detonation, they disrupt the foundation of your genetic code, melting your DNA. Fast and nasty and outlawed in every civilised galaxy."
"How did we get them?" Ryan asked.
"Never mind that, are they going to go off?" Graham asked.
"Quiet! I am trying to think, it's difficult, I'm not yet who I am. Brain and body still rebooting, reformatting. Oh! Reformatting! Can I borrow that?" The Doctor said noticing Ryan's phone.
"Yeah, I guess so. But what for?" Ryan asked.
"That creature, on the train when you two came on board, it zapped us all with these. Simple plan to take out witnesses. Very clever. Merciless, but clever. I reformatted your phone."
"No! All my stuff's on there!"
"Not any more!" The Doctor put the phone near her neck and it shocked her which caused the Doctor to fly backwards hitting the wall. "That nap did me the world of good! Very comfy sofa!" The Doctor then got up and ran to the chair in the room and picked up her jacket. "Come on, keep up!" The Doctor left the room and then re-entered running to Y/n. She gently tapped Y/n on the cheek, "come on sleepy head get up." The Doctor went to forcefully open Y/n eyes and she leant forward. Y/n then woke up and starting sitting up not noticing the Doctor infront of her, they both hit their foreheads with each other. The Doctor stood back, "well, atleast you're awake now."
Y/n looked around rubbing her forehead. "Oh, hello everyone."
"Right, then come along." The Doctor then ran out the room.
|■|-•
Everyone sat in Grace's car cathedral same positions as before except Grace was the driver. The Doctor still had Ryan's phone but Y/n was holding and the Doctor was navigating Grace somewhere.
"Next left."
"Where are we driving to?" Yaz asked.
"I reckon she's using my phone to track the origin signal for the DNA bombs." Ryan said.
"Again, how long till they go off?" Graham then asked.
"Don't know." Y/n said.
"Well, can't we just defuse them?"
"Not without the right equipment." Y/n explained.
"Left again!" The Doctor said.
The car came to a holt and everyone got out. The Doctor looked at the phone.
"We're close." The Doctor said. She then looked at a puddle on the ground and noticed the water ripples, caused by movement.
Just infront of everyone there was an explosion, causes a bunch of dogs to bark. Someone then came out the building everyone stood next to.
"Bingo! Oi!" The Doctor yelled and the person looked at her. "I was expecting a tentacle-y thing. Don't you move!"
Instead of it listening it moved and walked the opposite direction. The Doctor then ran after it.
"Wait, is that another alien?" Ryan spoke.
"Looks like it!" Grace said.
Ryan and Grace both ran after the Doctor.
"Why's she running at another alien?!" Graham exclaimed.
"Don't just stand there! Come on!" Yaz said and ran after the other three.
"Now you're all running at it!" Graham said and started running after them.
Y/n then ran staying beside Graham. "Welcome to my life!"
"Lost it! It's fast." The Doctor said after she stopped running. "I'm slower cos of all this fizzing inside."
"In here!" Ryan yelled and everyone ran inside the building.
"Got a man down over here." Graham said noticing a dead body.
"That thing must've killed him. I've never seen injuries like these." Grace said.
"Not a weapon blast, more of an ice burn." Y/n said.
"It broke his jaw open too."
"Looks like it took one of his teeth. What sort of creature kills someone and then stops to pull out a tooth?" The Doctor said.
"The Tooth Fairy?" Y/n said and the Doctor gave her the 'be serious' look.
"I'm sorry you all had to see this." The Doctor said.
"I'll find something to cover the body."
"Thank you, Grace. I'm sorry any of this is happening. I'm sorry that thing on the train planted these bombs inside you. And I'm sorry I haven't figured out what's going on yet."
"This is it! This is the thing." Ryan said getting everyone's attention.
"It was all sealed up earlier." Yaz said noticing the blue object from earlier was now in pieces. "Looks like it's been broken."
"Or its done what it came here for." Y/n said.
"It's some sort of transport chamber, presumably for that thing we just saw in the alley. But why here? Why tonight?" The Doctor said.
"Actually, that might have been me." Ryan said.
"Why? What did you do?" Y/n said.
"When I went to get me bike, there were this line in the air. And then it moved, and there were shapes."
"And?"
"And I touched one."
"Ryan!" Grace said.
"You all would've done the same!"
"I wouldn't." Graham said.
"I would've." The Doctor said putting her hand up.
"Same." Y/n said grabbing the Doctors hand and slowly putting it down.
"Right, the shapes disappeared. A few seconds later, that appeared. What've I done?"
"Hard to say, really." The Doctor said.
"I suppose you'll be blaming this on the dyspraxia as well. Can't ride a bike, started an alien invasion." Graham said.
"Graham." Grace spoke.
"What?"
"Enough, love!"
"All right, I made a mistake. But why did that guy move this thing from the Peaks to here? And how did he even know it were there?"
"Good questions." The Doctor said.
"Let's take a look round here, see what we can find." Yaz said.
"Can't follow it, the tracking's been blocked, like it figured out what I was doing." The Doctor said looking at Ryan's phone.
"If we were tracking bomb signals from that creature from the train, why did they lead us here?" Grace asked.
"Another good question. I don't know. If I could analyse that... Course, what I really need is my... Oh!" The Doctor said and looked in her pockets for her sonic. "I could build one! I'm good at building things. Probably." And with that the Doctor grabbed a hold of Y/n's arm and ran to find materials for her new sonic.
|■|-•
In another room Yaz and Ryan talked.
"It's not your fault, all this." Yaz said trying to cheer up Ryan.
"Yeah, it basically is."
"You couldn't have know that was going to happen!"
"Maybe tell Graham that."
"He knows, really." Yaz said as she walks to the other side of the room. Ryan followed her. "Do you believe she's an alien?"
"Yeah, I think I do, yeah. Is that mad?"
"No. I think I do too. I still don't understand the Y/n thing. I mean she said she was dead."
"Maybe she lied."
"Maybe."
"Hey, look in here." Ryan said pointing to a separate area in the room.
Yaz and Ryan looked in the other room and Ryan was looking at the computer. He noticed a video on the computer saying 'IF I DIE CLICK HERE'.
"Hey, look at this." Ryan said catching Yaz's attention. Yaz went over to the computer.
|■|-•
"You don't look like an alien." Graham said.
"You should've seen me a few hours back. My whole body changed. Every cell in my body burning. Some of them are still at it now - reordering regenerating." The Doctor said gavering some supplies.
"Sounds painful, love." Grace said.
"You've no idea. There's this moment when you're sure you're about to die and then...you're born. It's terrifying. Right now, I'm a stranger to myself. There's echoes of who I was, and a sort of call towards who I am. And I have to hold my nerve and trust all these new instincts. Shape myself towards them. I'll be fine, in the end. Hopefully. I have to be because you guys need help. And if there's one thing I'm certain of, when people need help, I never refuse. Right, this is going to be fun!" The Doctor then closed the yellow, nearly clear, plastic curtain.
The Doctor walked towards the table Y/n is standing by. Y/n then opened this box containing all sorts of things, most likely alien technology, then put of a mask to protect herself from sparks, the Doctor did the same. Both of them had gloves on and the Doctor held a blowtorch and started doing whatever she needed to do to build a sonic screwdriver.
After a while the Doctor held up a spoon and smiled at at, Y/n shrugged her shoulders having no clue what the Doctor was going to do with it. The Doctor then put around 10 spoons in this container and melted them. A while later the Doctor tried to lift a giant hammer, when she succeeded she hit the metal.
Once all the melting, hitting, and all sorts of stuff, Y/n and the Doctor looked at the sonic. Y/n was going to touch it but the Doctor smacked her hand away. The Doctor picked it up and went to go show the others, she opened the yellow stained plastic curtain and showed off her sonic.
"Ta-da!" The Doctor said and then the sonic sparked and the Doctor scrunched her face up. "Oh, should be fine."
"Hey, we found a load of stuff." Ryan said entering the room.
Everyone went to the room with the computer but before the Doctor could move Y/n hugged her from behind.
"I helped made that." Y/n said.
"Yes you did, and I thank you for that." The Doctor said getting out of Y/n's gripp and turning to face her. "You alright? I know I asked earlier but be honest this time."
"Yes Doctor I'm perfectly fine. I mean I did faint but I had a good nap because of it."
"Yes I know that." The Doctor said thinking back to when Grace said they were cuddling.
"Although, I worried about you though. You just regenerated. I don't know what the pain feels like but I'm imagining it as worse as dying by falling of a cliff and landing on a bunch of spikes."
"Oh, it's a lot worse than that, darling."
"Darling?" Y/n said blushing.
"Oh! That's going to be my new nickname for you. Darling? Yes darling"s the one, I think love is a bit too much considering we're friends." The Doctor said smiling.
"I- ok."
"Come on, the others are probably waiting for us." The Doctor then grabbed Y/n's hand and they both ran to the others.
|■|-•
Everyone stood around the computer watching the video. In the video the dead man from earlier was talking about the thing they all saw earlier.
"It's come back." The man said. "The thing I saw the night my sister... everyone always says disappeared, but I know she was taken. Seven years now. Tracking energy signals, building predictive programmes so that I'd know when the atmospheric disruptions matched what happened that day. And tonight it came back again and I've got it. I am going to find out what happened to my sister. If anything happens to me, her name was Asha. Don't let anyone else go through this." Then the video ended.
There was a moment of silence and then Ryan spoke. "He knew what he was doing might kill him."
The Doctor picked up a photo. "She was his family."
|■|-•
Everyone was now back in the other room and the Doctor scanned this object with her new sonic.
"Did you just make that?" Ryan asked.
"Sonic screwdriver. Well, I say screwdriver, but it's a bit more multi-purpose than that. Scanner, diagnostics, tin opener. More of a sonic Swiss Army Knife. Only without the knife. Only idiots carry knives." The Doctor said.
"What are you doing with it?" Ryan asked.
"She's probably mapping the distance that object has travelled." Y/n said shrugging.
"That's it! That's what I'm doing." The Doctor said excitedly looking up at Y/n. The Doctor then looked at the results the sonic gave her. "It looks like it started over 5,000 galaxies away."
"How can you tell?" Yaz asked.
"That bit there - recall circuitry. It's designed for a return journey."
"So whatever killed that bloke will have to come back here?" Graham said.
"Question is, why did it leave? What's it looking for?"
"What's your best guess, love?" Grace said.
"Two aliens, one city, one night. Best guess? Two species at war, using Earth as a battleground." The Doctor said.
"Are you joking?" Yaz questioned.
"No, sorry." The Doctor said walking all over the place.
"So you're saying that the creature on the train and the thing that came out of here, they're now looking for each other spoiling for a scrap?" Graham asked.
"Bit more that a scrap."
"What are we going to do? Cos this is my home. And I'm not having it being an alien battleground!" Yaz said.
"We stop them meeting. Capture them, send them home. Away from each other, and away from Earth." Y/n said like it's the most simplest thing.
"How do we do that?" Ryan asked.
"Well, give me a minute, I'm working on it!" Y/n said annoyed.
"Not to sound like a struck record, but can I just ask about these DNA bombs? Like, how long have we got left?" Graham said.
"Enough questions! You lot, you love to chat! I get it. Lots to do! I'm working on it all. And I haven't forgotten about your collarbone, Graham. Give me nine minutes, a bit of quiet, and I'll be ready to roll! Scout's honour." The Doctor said.
Graham's phone then rang and Graham walked away from the others.
"Hello, yeah, Kevin. No, no mate. That's exactly the sort of thing."
|■|-•
Everyone was now stood infront of the electric alien from the train, on the roof of some building.
"Hi! Us again!" Y/n said.
Everyone went to do the things the Doctor told them to do.
"Now!" The Doctor yelled.
Grace held something and posting it towards the alien and then hit it, electric was produced and it knocked out the alien.
"Get in! It actually worked!" Ryan yelled.
"Course it worked, I'm not an amateur!" The Doctor yelled almost offended, this out burst caused Y/n to laugh and the Doctor glared at her. "Overloaded its socket, stunned it for a bit. Not sure for how long though, best be quick. And thank you to Kevin the bus driver for location Intel."
"See! Always ask a bus driver." Graham said and the Doctor scanned the alien.
"Half organic, half machine, starts to make sense now!" The Doctor said and then looked at her sonic. "Wait, it's a Gathering Coil. No, dozens of Gathering Coils. These tentacle-y things, they're creatures which gather information. They've been lashed together and augmented into one super-creature. But why? What data are they gathering? Unless..."
"So that's an alien species?" Yaz asked.
"Not really, more of a semi-speacies, weaponised bio-tech." Y/n answered.
"You said there were two aliens in a battle." Yaz said looking at the Doctor.
"You're right, I did. Bit now I think I'm wrong and I'm trying to catch up with what that might mean. If I can access the data it's gathered..." The Doctor said and then did something and a hologram appeared.
"It's Karl from the train!" Graham said.
"Karl's the data! That's what it was gathering on the train." Y/n said.
"But what would the alien want with him?" Grgam questioned.
"Which one of you shall I kill first?" The alien from earlier said entering the scene.
"I'm voting none of us. Get behind me now." The Doctor said and walked closer to the alien. "Stop right there! Come any further and we'll blast whatever that thing is."
"You're interfering in things you don't understand." The alien said.
"Yeah, well, we all need a hobby."
"You're not human. Who are you?"
"Me? I'm... Oh, its gone again. I had it a minute ago, so annoying. Y/n who am I?"
"You can figure that out on your own." Y/n said.
"That's not fun." The Doctor said. "Who are you? No, in fact, before that, because its really bugging me, actually not bugging me, offending me - why the teeth?" The Doctor questioned. "Bad enough you kill, why take a tooth from the victim?"
The alien took off its mask and revealed its face. The aliens skin was blue and it had teeth all over its face.
"A Stenza warrior wears his conquests. You may tell your children you were once privileged to encounter Tzim-Sha of the Stenza."
"Tim Shaw?" Y/n said walking to stand next to the Doctor.
"Tzim-Sha!"
"Tim Shaw."
"Tzim-Sha! Soon to be leader of the Stenza warrior race, conquerors of the Nine Systems."
"When you say "soon to be" leader, what are you now, the office junior?"
"Don't wind him up!" Graham said.
"Tonight is my challenge. Trace and obtain the selected human trophy."
"It's a hunt. You're on a hunt." The Doctor said.
"Well done. Your tiny mind must be burning with such effort."
This made Y/n laugh.
"Did he just say I had a small mind?" The Doctor said and nudged Y/n to make her stop laughing which didn't work so eventually the Doctor smacked her on the head.
"The challenge is simple. Our leaders randomly designate a selected human. I am sent here alone - no weapons, no assistance. I must locate and abtain the trophy and return home with it, victorious. By doing this, I ascend to leader. This is the ritual of the Stenza."
"And its happened before. Ruhals sister." Yaz said.
"Earth is not a hunting ground." The Doctor said.
"Access was granted."
"No, it wasn't! It was a misunderstanding. Access revoked as of now, by me." Ryan said.
"Just to pick up on one thing. You don't mind, do you? You said the rules were no weapons, no assistance." The Doctor said.
"Correct."
"How did you kill them? What caused the ice burns?"
"We Stenza live at temperatures far below this planet, one touch of my cold skin will kill a human."
"So, this super-powered Gathering Coil right here, you're not meant to have it, are you?"
"The creature is irrelevant."
"I don't think it is! I think you smuggled it ahead of you. I think it located the randomly designated human for you. I think you broke the rules. Some leader you're going to make."
"Tim Shaw is a big blue cheat!" Y/n said.
The alien lift up his hand and a blue light came from it.
"OK, fine, have it!"
The alien then walked to the Gathering Coil.
"What's it doing?" Ryan asked.
"Total transference. If you've finished, let's be really clear, you're not taking any human from Earth tonight. Leave now or we're going to stop you." The Doctor said.
"Good luck." The alien said and hit the ground with his fist causing a bright light and then it was gone.
"No! Short-range teleport!" The Doctor said.
"Double cheat!" Y/n exclaimed.
"Where have they gone?" Yaz asked.
"To hunt." The Doctor answered.
"Hunt who?" Ryan asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" The Doctor said.