Marvelous Doctor Who quote of the day:
"There’s a lot of things you need to get across this universe. Warp drive… wormhole refractors… You know the thing you need most of all? You need a hand to hold.”
-Sad, Lonely Eleventh Doctor ;-;
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Word count: 2178
As Nina thought she was never going to escape the curse of being left behind with the Mother, the lights suddenly went out as an alarm system went off.
'Security one,' the alarm said.
"Security one," Nina mumbled to herself, grabbing Leo and Mrs. Jones' attention. "Security one. That's the intrusion alarm, I'm guessing. Turns off the power, locks the exists and stops the lifts," he rambled. Nina looked around at all of the glass doors. "No one trying to get in, trying to break an entry through the front floor. No doors in the upper floors only on--" she stopped herself, realizing where the intruder was trying to get in through "The roof," she whispered.
Nina ran as fast as she could to the stairs since she knew the elevators would be locked down. As soon as she opened the door, she was facing the Doctor, Marta and Tish standing behind him. Nina found herself staring at him for a second. He looked almost naked wearing only a white button-up shirt. It didn't look bad, though.
"What's going on?" Nina asked him, realizing she had been staring for a few seconds.
"Lazarus is now a giant monster," Martha answered in his place. "And it's running after us." They ran back into the reception, where the Doctor finally spoke up.
"Tish, is there another exit?" He asked Martha's sister. The girl closed her eyes for a second, trying to remember, and the open them wide.
"Yes, over there," she pointed to a corner of the room. "But it must be locked down by now."
"Nina," the Doctor called her name, throwing her his sonic screwdriver. She caught it with ease. "Setting 54, hurry!" Nina nodded and ran off to the door, being followed by Martha and her sister.
"Listen to me!" The Doctor yelled out to the crowd. "You people are in serious danger. You need to get out right now!"
"Don't be ridiculous," a woman spoke out. "The biggest danger here is choking on an olive," she said. At the same time, there was a big crash and everyone's attention was turned to its source, Mr. Old Young Man, now in monster format.
Nina quickly pointed the sonic screwdriver to the door, and it opened with ease. The people were screaming and running through the door as Nina ran back to the Doctor, who was now standing protectively between the civilians and the monster.
"No, get away from her!" the Doctor yelled out as the monster got to a woman who was petrified by fear, and just stood there as he sucked the life out of her. Nina felt her heard drop as the woman's dry body fell to the ground with a thud.
Lazarus then turned to his next victim, who was laying on the ground. He seemed to have had a table thrown at him, and was clearly still out of it as he tried to get up but couldn't. It was only then that Nina realized that the man on the ground was Leo and that the woman kneeling next to him was Martha's mother. Nina wasted no time before she was running to Leo, and dragging him as far away from the monster as he could, as quickly as she could with the help of his mother. The monster was still slowly walking after them, until the Doctor caught it's attention, buying them some time.
"Lazarus!" He yelled out. "Leave them alone!" The monster slowly turned toward them, and Nina could finally react, checking on Leo's head, since it had been hit by a flying table.
"Leo, look at me," she told him. Leo's eyes had a little bit of trouble turning to Nina. She then remembered she had the sonic screwdriver with her and used it to scan him. She noticed Mr. Jones' confused frown as she did so, but she still proceeded to read the results. He had a big concussion, and shouldn't be moving a lot for quite some time. "You've got a concussion, alright? So stay awake, and try not to move too much."
"What's the point?" The Doctor yelled at the monster. "You can't control it. The mutation is too strong. Killing those people won't help you, you're a fool!" He took slow steps backward as the monster approached him at the same rhythm. "A vain old man who thought he could defy nature. Only nature got her own back, didn't she?"
Martha finally came by her brother and helped them get Leo up, dragging him further away from the Doctor and Mr. Old Young Man.
"You're a joke, Lazarus!" Nina noticed how the Doctor was trying piss Lazarus off so he would run after him and let the civilians go. Smart plan. A little suicidal, but smart. "A footnote in the history of failure!" The Doctor's plan worked, as he ran off into a corridor, the creature following him close behind.
"What's the Doctor doing?" Tish asked once they were gone. Leo was barely standing up, holding himself up with the help of the wall and his mother, holding his arm.
"Buying us some time," Nina said. "Leo, look at me again," she said, taking the man's face into her hands. Leo could have just been disoriented, dizzy from his blow on the head, not necessarily a concussion. "Let me see your eyes, Leo." She frowned as she confirmed her initial theory. "Yeah, he's definitely got a concussion," she said, taking the lead on the situation since the Doctor was gone. She didn't even realize Martha frowning at her. Usually, Martha would be the doctor, the actual medical doctor. She didn't know that Nina had actually once been a doctor. She had worked as a doctor in WWI and WWII, before enlisting as an actual soldier. "Mrs. Jones, Tish, you'll need to help him down the stairs," she pointed at the exit she had recently opened up with the sonic screwdriver. Nina walked to a bucket of ice, enveloping some with a napkin she had picked up from the table. She gave it to Mrs. Jones. "Here, this will keep the swelling down, now go! I'll be right behind you."
"What do you mean you'll be right behind them?" Martha asked her. "I'm coming with you!" Nina stopped her on her tracks.
"No, you're not. Go with your mother," Nina told her. Martha was taken aback by the sudden seriousness of her tone. Martha was about to argue, but Nina spoke up again. "This is dangerous, Martha. And I'm not having anyone else die, not on my watch." Martha realized how important that seemed to be to Nina, and simply nodded, before helping her mother and her sister to drag her brother through the exit.
Nina ran through the crowd of people who were standing next to the glass doors, the front doors. She immediately spotted the security desk, sliding over it to get to the computers and the panels. Pointing the sonic screwdriver to the panel, she brought back the energy to the building, allowing everyone to get out.
She went running for the stairs, getting back to where she had seen the Doctor in the camera footage, one of the labs. As she ran up the stairs, her left heel snapped in two, and she almost fell down the stairs.
"Oh, for goodness sake!" She yelled out in frustration, taking the heels off and putting her arms through the sleeves of the Doctor's tuxedo, so she could run without having to hold onto it.
Just ass he was passing some rooms, she heard an explosion and changed her itinerary so she could go to its source, as one does.
As she was just turning a corner, she slammed into the Doctor, who seemed out of breath from all the running he had been doing.
"What are you doing here?" He suddenly exclaimed when he noticed she had gone back to find him.
"What, did you think I'd leave you behind like that?" She asked, a smirk on her face. She smiled, sending a warmth through her body, one she couldn't even explain. They locked eyes again and the two of them were suddenly lost until Nina cleared her throat and smiled. "Also, I've got your coat. And your screwdriver. More useful than I thought it would be," she admitted. He looked her up and down, admiring the sight of her wearing his tuxedo. And only then he noticed that she was holding her shoes in her hands.
"Are you barefoot?" He asked, tilting his head to the right in confusion. Nina would never admit it, but she found the action very cute.
"Why don't you try running in heels?"
"How did you even know where I was?" He frowned.
"Well, there was a big explosion. I don't know who else it could have been," she told him. The Doctor chuckled.
"Yes, I blasted Lazarus," he told her.
"Did you kill him?" She asked him.
No.
"More sort of annoyed him, I'd say," he mumbled, as the two of them looked back at the room where the explosion had been and saw the bit creature, Mr. Old Young Man, crawling towards them even faster than he had been before.
The Doctor grabbed Nina' hand and they ran through the corridors as fast as they could, ending up back in the room where it all started, the reception.
"What now?" Nina asked. "We keep running around in circles?"
"We can't lead him outside," the Doctor said. "Come on, get in," he pulled her inside the Microfield Manipulator Chamber. Nina wasn't very sure about his decision but didn't do anything to stop him from pulling her in.
"Are you sure about this?" Nina whispered, knowing that the monster was outside. The machine was made for one person, meaning the two of them were slightly pressed together. There wasn't enough place for them to move much.
"Absolutely not."
"We're not hiding are we?" Nina realized. "It knows we're here. But this is his masterpiece, his life's work, he won't destroy it even to get us." Nina raised her head at the end of her reasoning to face him. "It would have been a genius plan if were weren't trapped!" She almost yelled out the last part.
"Well, yeah," he agreed. "That is a slight problem."
"You mean you don't have a plan?" Nina asked him. He turned his head to face her.
"Yes, the plan was to get inside here," he whispered yelled.
"And then what?"
"Well, then I'd come up with another plan!"
"In your own time, then!" She snapped back at him.
"Where's my sonic?" He suddenly asked her. Nina made an effort to reach inside the inner pocket of his tux that she was wearing to grab the sonic screwdriver, squeezing it in between the two of them. The Doctor grabbed it. "Here we are."
"What are you gonna do with that?" She asked. What plan could he possibly have? The Doctor gave her a wicked smile and started making his way to the ground.
"Improvise," he said.
He crouched on the floor, next to her feet, and used the sonic to open a small panel on the ground.
"Can you please not activate the Microfield Manipulator?" Nina asked, leaning against the wall behind her. "I'd appreciate it if we came out of this machine with the same faces we have on now."
"I won't trust me," he promised her. And then, right on cue, the machine's engine turned on.
"Oh, yes. Trust you," Nina scoffed sarcastically. The chamber was suddenly illuminated by a blue light, coming probably from the outside energy receptors.
"That wasn't me!" He protected himself. "It was Lazarus. I was hoping it was going to take him a little bit longer to work that out."
A bright light shone on them, like a lightning strike, and Nina flinched.
"Doctor, I don't want to hurry you, but-"
"I know!" He cut her off. "Nearly done!"
"Just reverse the polarity!" She yelled down at him. "Set the capsule to reflect energy rather than receive it!"
"That's what I'm trying to do!" He yelled back, his voice barely heard by her. "When he transforms, he's three times his size. Cellular triplication. So he's spreading himself thin."
"Come on!"
"Just one more!" He practically screamed. And with a bang, the two saw a flash of light and the energy was thrown out of the Camber, hitting Lazarus, who was still in the room. The Doctor stood up quickly after the rook went silent, no more engine noise, no more monster.
He was once again pressed against her body, and the two just froze for a moment, staring into the other's eyes, until Nina snapped out of it and went to open the door.
"Why did it take you so long to reverse the polarity?" She asked softly, not trusting her voice too much.
"Uh, it... I must be a bit out of, uh, out of practice." He stuttered as they stepped out of the machine.
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