Happy-Fun Splorey Times

[fluffinasuit.livejournal.com]

The Doctor, true to form and quite negating his earlier plans to keep a low profile, had decided to explore the city on his own. Also true to form, he was gawking like a natural born tourist fresh off the farm.

Well, if guys fresh off the farm kept up running commentary under their breaths about every single culture they recognized. And if they recognized quite a few, had an apparent habit of internal monologue, and occasionally ran over to point a buzzing little blue stick at seemingly random objects.

He was completely fascinated.

He was also bound and determined to get to the bottom of all this mess and get his TARDIS back. Now.

Ooh, look at that!

Comments

[cityship]

Are you sure? Y/ N

[fluffinasuit.livejournal.com]

"Yes! Y, yes!" His fingers were automatically adjusting his screwdriver, in case there were mechanical problems.

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

"For the love of God, yes!" Jaime yelled at the same time.

[leather-bastard.livejournal.com]

"YES!" Scorpius demands at the same time as the others.

[cityship]

The gears started clicking, faster and faster, ratcheting up, building, and then there were whirring noises and a high-pitched whine...

Then JUST as the angels reached the doorway, the eyes in the sarcophagus opened, and light poured out of it, a bright, blue-tinged light. Piercing.

It cut through the dark, causing all the angels to stop right there in the doorway, as it looked at them.

The sight of any living thing, after all...

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

"That only bought us some time. The alien guy said something about a window!" Jaime said, flying up--and aha! There it was! A black-paned window, that almost looked like the surrounded wall, very high up.

"Watch out for glass!"

Jaime blasted it out, and peeked outside--it was that same nasty sky outside, but it looked like the outside where they'd been.

He flew back down to grab them both.

[leather-bastard.livejournal.com]

Scorpius hisses, spittle flying from his lips. "We need to go now," he growls in a guttural voice.

[fluffinasuit.livejournal.com]

The Doctor continued to keep an eye on the angels, just in case. "Careful! But hurry!"

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

Both were grabbed with arms that could carry them both easily--he could lift up a whole truck, after all--and Jaime flew them all up to the window.

The last thing they heard below was a pounding noise from the sarcophagus. Pounding and a voice rumbling and screaming. It sounded like the temper tantrum of an angry god.

Jaime didn't stop just outside of the temple. He flew right into the entrance of the weird upside-downey place they left, and then through it, completely at the whims of the shifting gravitational forces within.

"Whoa! Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa!"

It was something like a roller coaster ride. That ended with them shooting out the door of the building, into the city inside the ship, where Jaime--already partly out of control--had something of a little crash-landing, though not enough to really hurt any of them.

And there he lay on the floor of the ship, panting, and trying to get over the terror.

[leather-bastard.livejournal.com]

Scorpius's eyes begin to glaze over, and his breathing becomes extremely labored and ragged. He hisses in and out in staggered breathing.

"...coolant rods..." he hisses.

[fluffinasuit.livejournal.com]

The Doctor sprawled, panting for a moment before springing to his feet and moving to Scorpius.

"Need help?" He waggled his screwdriver. It had really been a surprising amount of time without him using it, after all.

[leather-bastard.livejournal.com]

He taps the lighted portion on the side of his head, and it... unscrews.

Revealing a gore-covered framework with a red glowing rod inside, virtually steaming as it emerges.

"...Coolant rod!" he hisses.

[fluffinasuit.livejournal.com]

The Doctor made a face. "Ah, yes. So I see." Carefully, he turned his beloved little tool to the correct setting.

"Not allergic to sonics, are you? No? This might resonate a bit." The Doctor thumbed the screwdriver on, pointing it at the framework and the rod inside. Soon, it should cool to appropriate levels. At least, he was pretty sure he got the right setting.

[leather-bastard.livejournal.com]

Slowly, the red rod stops steaming, and its color fades to a pale blue.

With a touch on the controls at the end, the frame screws back inward, taking the blue rod directly towards his brain.

He sighs contentedly for a moment.

"Aah. Thank you, Doctor. I'm glad to see that you can reset my coolant rods. Still, it would be prudent to make finding replacements a priority."

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

O_<

"Ewwwwwww."

It just blurted out. He couldn't help it.

[leather-bastard.livejournal.com]

"We do what we must... to survive," Scorpius replies simply.

[fluffinasuit.livejournal.com]

"Yes, I suppose we do," the Doctor agreed quietly. He stood, slipping his screwdriver into its pocket.

[cityship]

It's voice was far off. Faint. And fading.

Only the Doctor heard it, because he was the only one being spoken, too.

You know where to find me.

As if it had all been a game, them running for their lives.

If you ever desire the truth, your freedom, and your ship...you know where to find me.

And then silence again.

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

"So what exactly did we learn here?" Jaime asked, as he unsuited. "Because I'm thinking we learned things, but my brain's still stuck on screaming incoherently in gibbering terror."

[fluffinasuit.livejournal.com]

"We learned," the Doctor paused to look back the way they'd just come, frowning, "we learned to be careful. And always travel with a buddy.

He turned back to Jaime, already starting to shake it off. He'd think about it later. "You know, hold hands when crossing the street. That sort of thing."

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

"Buddy system. Right."

[leather-bastard.livejournal.com]

"It makes it easier to escape, after all, when your enemies are already tearing your 'buddy' apart."

He looks over at Jaime and the Doctor with a smirk.

"I'm kidding, of course. We also learned that our captors have also trapped another being of vast power and likely evil nature within a limited area. Which of course returns us to the question... why us?"

[fluffinasuit.livejournal.com]

"You're not a bit obsessed, are you? What, does the grab-bag bunch of toy soldiers randomly grabbed from here, there and everywhere to Fight the Good Fight, or Possibly the Bad One theory not suit? I rather thought it did."

[leather-bastard.livejournal.com]

"There remain some holes in that hypothesis, Doctor. With this level of power... why would they require us? For what purpose? They certainly have easier methods of creating more reliable warriors."

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

"Because they couldn't control it. They can barely contain it. That alien guy in the message--he was stupid. Arrogant. He'd--they'd thought they could control something huge and horrible, and they made a mistake. He'd wanted to pass a message along to his wife, and they all screamed and were afraid."

Looking back at where they'd come from, he said, "They're not different from any of us--they just have better technology, but not technology that's so good that it means they could win whatever war they were fighting. That's just it--we all thought we were grabbed by something massively powerful--so much bigger than us--but we haven't. It looks like they're just really good at using other people and things to do what they want."

He started pacing, "Like in the sarcophagus. The alien referred to it as 'he' and when it looked at the angels, they froze, and I could've sworn I heard yelling..."

Oh, that was horrible. Horrible. "There was something alive in there. Smart, bad people learn to use and manipulate other people to fight their fights for them. That's who we've been taken by. We haven't been taken by scary, faceless gods that can dictate our fates--because a real evil godly-powered thing could kick their butts--and did--and is half out its cage. The ones who took us--they're just partly scavengers, grabbing up useful things and people where they can."