A young girl, no more than five, lay on a cold metal table, strapped down with a five point restraint system. Above her, glaring artificial light shined on her upper torso like the sun. Above her two men in white face masks looked down at her.
One man wore glasses, his eyes a dark, void-like blue. In his hand, poised above the girls neck, was a long, sharp needle. The fluid within was an unknown substance. Her body jerked, but the restraints did their job in keeping her still.
"This is the last one," the second man warned, "all the other candidates couldn't handle it, they all died. If this one doesn't make it-"
"Then we'll just have to start over, Mr. Jones," The first replied. "There are plenty of other places in the world where we can find healthy, impressionable children to snatch away into the night. But have a little faith. Surprises do happen. Hold her head to the side."
"Sir," the second man placed his full hand on the side of the girl's face and pushed it to the side, revealing the smooth skin of her pale neck. He brushed the long strands of curly, dark hair away from the area of the injection site.
"If this works," the first man murmured, "if this works, she'll be the only human in the world to be able to do what she can. She'll be stronger, faster, not necessarily smarter, but perhaps with education that will change. She'll have sharper senses, with practice she'll use any weapon she sets her mind to using. She'll be the ultimate weapon. I can take over the country with her. The world even." The needle pressed against the girl's skin, and she flinched. The man looked down at her. "Now, I'm not entirely sure all that this little serum will do to you, little girl. Maybe nothing, maybe everything. But what I do know, little Isla Pierce, is that I have very high hopes for you, my dear."
With that, he inserted the needle, thumb pressing down on the plunger. At first, Isla felt nothing. Seconds ticked by slowly, both men staring at the girl on the table as she breathed heavily. Then, all at once came the pain. Isla screamed in agony, head thrashing back and forth as though it would shake what she thought was poison out of her body. The men watched, awed, as the girl's skin began to ripple, then bubble as though she were boiling from the inside.
"We need to terminate!"
"No!" The first man pointed, "Look!"
Isla's skin slowly stopped it's unnatural movement, and her thrashing slowly subsided. All that remained were her screams, which echoed off the stone walls of the basement-turned-laboratory. Then even the screams stopped, and Isla lay there, breathing even more heavily than before.
"It worked," breathed the man, "it actually worked."
He took a step towards Isla, but in that very instant, the door was kicked in, and police piled in, all aiming their guns at the men.
"Eugene Holt and Richard Daye Jones, you're both under arrest for the kidnappings and murders of 48 children across the country."
"No!" Holt made for Isla, but was quickly shot dead by the officers in the room. Richard Daye Jones held his hands up in surrender as his boss lay bleeding on the cold, stone floor.
"I surrender," he whispered, "I'm guilty, I did it, just please don't kill me."
He was escorted out, and a female officer appeared in Isla's line of sight.
"It's going to be okay now, love," the officer's voice faded as Isla's vision turned black, "it's all okay."
Isla's eyes snapped open at the sound of an alarm blaring in her ear. 3:00 PM. She had slept all day again. She groaned and let her hand fall heavily upon it. The sound of plastic and metal being crushed is what actually made her awaken.
"Shit," she muttered, "another broken alarm clock."
"Isla?" A petite blonde appeared at the door, looking cautiously into the room.
"Yeah mum," the 20 year old replied. "Still me. Still here."
Audrey Pierce had been cautious every day for the last 15 years. Ever since she'd finally gotten her kidnapped daughter back.
"Good," she sighed. "You look a little pale. Are you sure you want to go meet Rose?"
"Mum!" Isla shot her mother a look, "Rose could have died yesterday, given that her work was blown up!"
"Yes so maybe you should stay away from her for a bit! Until her bad luck wears off is all!"
"Mum!"
"I'm sorry dear," Audrey sighed, "I just don't want anything to happen to you ever again. I love you too much to lose you again."
"You won't," Isla promised, pulling a purple dress from her closet and holding it up, smiling, "but today, I'm going out with Rose. I'm going to meet her and Mickey for pizza right now."
-8-
Isla knew something was wrong the second she walked into the restaurant. Her hand pressed flat against her neck and she ignored the feeling as she walked towards where she could see Rose and the back of Mickey's head.
"Sorry I'm late," Isla said as she sat down, "mum was trying to keep me in again. Nearly had to sneak out the bathroom window."
"Lucky she hasn't gotten to that point yet," Rose laughed.
"Yeah, you're so right- Mickey what the hell happened to you?"
Mickey's face was off, as though molded from clay or wax. Isla pressed her hand harder against her neck as the feeling that something was wrong increased ten fold.
"We're getting Pizza!" he replied, his voice also off, "Rose was just talking about the Doctor."
Rose had been telling Isla on the phone last night about the mysterious Doctor that had saved her in the shop before it had exploded and then again later, but she'd failed to mention what from.
"Ah," Isla nodded, again fighting off the feeling, failing this time. She scooted closer to Rose.
"Actually I was talking about finding a new job," Rose corrected.
"But I recon this whole Doctor thing started at the shop, right?" Micky continued on as though Rose and Isla hadn't spoken. "Was he something to do with that?"
"No," Rose replied, reaching across the table slightly. "Well, sort of."
"What was he doing there?"
"I'm not going on about it, Mickey, really, I'm not. Cause, I know it sounds daft but...I don't think he's safe."
"I don't think anyone's safe," Isla eyed Mickey suspiciously. "Are you sure you're alright, Mickey?"
"Fine," Mickey said to her in a hard tone. "Rose, you can trust me, sweetheart- babe-darling-babe-sugar," Mickey smiled as though nothing wrong had just happened with his voice. Isla stood, fight or flight reflexes kicking in and leaning towards flight. But something was seriously, very wrong with Mickey, and she couldn't just leave Rose there. That wasn't the type of person she was. "You can tell me anything. Tell me about the Doctor and what he's planning and I can help you, Rose."
A horrible scent suddenly filled Isla's nose, like burning plastic, and she realized that her hold on whatever Eugene Holt had done to her was fading, and quickly.
"Rose, we should go-"
"Tell me, Rose, cuz all I wanna do is help you, sweetheart-darling-babe-babe-sweetheart."
"Why do you keep doing that?"
A man stood next to Isla all of a sudden, holding out a glass bottle, "Your champagne," he said. Isla stared at him, taking in his features. He was tall, at least six feet, and had his dark hair cut short. His eyes were blue, and were staring at Mickey with intensity. He knew something was wrong, too.
"We didn't order any champagne," Mickey said darkly. The man's eyes narrowed, and he walked slowly around the table. "Where's the Doctor?" Isla watched his hand grab Rose's and tighten.
"Madam, your champagne."
Rose didn't even turn as she said, "I-It's not ours, Mickey, what's wrong?"
"I need to find out how much he knows, so where is he?"
"Doesn't anybody want this champagne?"
"Look," Mickey rolled his eyes toward the man, "We didn't order any-" He cut off, then smirked, "Ah, gotcha."
"Don't mind me," The man grinned, shaking up the champagne, "I'm just toasting the happy couple!" he pulled the tab on the neck of the bottle, "On the house!" The cork flew off the bottle and hit Mickey in the head, but it just went through as though he were made of rubber. He worked his jaw a bit, before spitting out the cork.
"Rose," Isla grabbed her friend's arm, "that's not Mickey!"
"Right," Not-Mickey agreed, "Anyway," he stood up, his hand transforming into a large mallet looking shape, and swung down at the table. Isla's grip on Rose allowed her to pull the blonde a safe distance away. The man Isla was beginning to realize was the Doctor leapt forward and put Not-Mickey into a headlock.
A few not-so-gentle tugs, and the head popped off. The Doctor's momentum sent him flying into another couple's table, and he held the head in front of him.
"Don't think that's gonna stop me," Not-Mickey hissed. The man at the table screamed.
Rose looked around, before slamming her hand into the fire alarm. "Everyone out!" she cried, "out now!" She grabbed Isla's hand and pulled her after the Doctor as he started running. "Run! Get out!"
Behind them, Not-Mickey was blindly smashing tables in an attempt to follow them. They ran through the kitchens and out through the back door. Not-Mickey got there seconds after they had closed it, deep thuds echoing off the metal as he pounded on the door. The Doctor held the door shut and pulled a silver and white tube from his pocket and pointed it at the handle, the tip lighting up blue, whirring softly.
"Open the gate!" Rose cried, pulling on the chain that held the graffitied gate to the alley shut. "Use that tube thing!"
"Sonic Screwdriver," the Doctor replied, holding it up proudly.
"Use it!" Rose cried.
"Nah," he strolled towards a blue police box that stood in the center of the back alley, glowing faintly. "Tell you what, Let's go in here!" He opened the door and disappeared inside, door squeaking on its hinges.
"We can't hide inside a wooden box!" Rose looked back at the metal door, now dented with the force of Not-Mickey's blows.
"I don't think we have much choice in the matter, Rose," Isla said. Rose shook her head, frustrated, and ran back to the gate, tugging hard.
"It's gonna get us!" She shouted.
"God's sake, Rose!" Isla grabbed her friend and tugged her by the wrist towards the box, shoving the door open. Both girl's froze within the doorframe, staring at their surrounding in shock. Rose let out a sound of disbelief and ran back out, running around it before coming back inside.
The box was bigger on the inside, there was a red-tiled ramp that led from the doors to the console platform. There were six coral-like pillars that went from ceiling to floor, and small round nodule on the walls, each surrounded by a hexagon. The room was dim, illuminated by a faint green glow. Isla's eyes widened as she took a slight step forward into the room.
"That thing," Rose said, "It's gonna follow us!"
"The assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door, and believe me, they've tried. Now, shut up a minute." He walked around the console pointing his Sonic Screwdriver at Not-Mickey's head. "You see, the arm was too simple, but the head's perfect. I can use it to track the signal back to the original source." He turned around, spotting Isla. "Hang on, who are you? When did you get here?" He pointed the Sonic at her face until it beeped, then looked at the results. "Not strictly human, are you?"
Isla and Rose shared a look. With the exception of her mother, Rose was the only person in the world that knew everything that had happened to Isla when she was five. She was the only one that knew that Eugene Holt had been successful in his experiments to create a mutant.
"Isla Pierce, been here the whole time. And, no, not strictly human, anymore."
"Good to meet you, Isla Pierce, I'm the Doctor. Where do the two of you want to start."
"Um...The inside's bigger than the outside?" Rose stuttered.
"Yeah."
"It's alien." Isla didn't need to ask, she could just tell.
"Yep."
"Are you Alien?"
The Doctor paused, then nodded, "Yes. Is that alright?"
"Yeah," Rose replied. The Doctor nodded again.
"It's called a TARDIS, this thing. T-A-R-D-I-S, stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space."
Rose suddenly covered her mouth, sobbing. Isla looked over at her, before wrapping her arms around her.
"Don't worry, it's culture shock," The Doctor said, "happens to the best of us."
"Did they kill him? Mickey. D-did they kill Mickey, is he dead?"
"Oh...I didn't think of that."
"You didn't think of that?" Isla repeated. "You yanked off his head and you didn't even stop to think that he'd actually been a person in danger?"
"Yeah, he's my boyfriend! And now you're just gonna let him melt?!" Rose cried, gesturing where Not-Mickey's head sat.
"Melt?" the Doctor whipped around and stared for a split second before rushing forward with a shout of, "No, no, no, no, no!" He ran around the console and began pulling levers. The room around them shuddered and groaned.
"What are you doing?!" Rose snapped.
"Following the signal, it's fading! I've almost got it! No! NO, NO NO! Almost there! Almost there! Here we go!" He pulled more levers, the groaning stopping and the shaking settling. The Doctor ran out past the girls.
"Oi, Hang on!" Isla quickly followed.
"Isla! You can't go out there, it's not safe!" Rose ran to the door, gripping it tightly as she saw that they were no longer in the alley, but at the docks. Isla was turning in a slow circle, awed.
"I've lost the signal, I was so close!"
"We've moved. Does it fly?"
"It disappears there and reappears here, you wouldn't understand." The Doctor was grumpy, pouting about his lost signal.
"What about that thing without a head, is it still on the loose?"
"It melted with the head, are you gonna witter on all night?"
"We'll have to tell his mother," Rose sighed, turning to Isla, who had her hand pressed against the side of her neck. The Doctor turned and gave Rose a questioning look. Rose returned it with an exasperated look. "Mickey. I'll have to tell his mother he's dead, and you just went and forgot him. Again!"
"You're right, you're alien."
"Look," the Doctor snapped, "If I did forget some kid called Mickey-"
"Yeah, he's not a kid!"
"It's because I'm busy trying to save the lives of every other stupid ape blundering about on this planet, alright?"
"Alright?!" Rose cried indignantly.
"Yes, It is!"
"If you're an alien, how come you sound like you're from the North?" Isla asked curiously, sitting on top of the stone wall that blocked the street from the banks of the river. The Doctor looked over at her, crossing his arms.
"Lots of planets have a North."
"What's a Police Public Call Box?" Rose asked softly.
"It's a telephone box, from the 1950's. It's a disguise."
"Okay, and this living plastic. What's it got against us?" she took a step closer to both Isla and the Doctor.
"Nothing, it loves you! Plenty of smoke and oil, lots of toxins and dioxins in the air. Perfect. Just what the Nestene Consciousness needs. It's food stock was destroyed in the war, all its protein planets rotted. So. Earth. Dinner!" the Doctor mimed eating something.
"Any way of stopping it?" Isla asked, placing her hands on the wall and leaning forward. The Doctor grinned and held out a big vial of something purpley blue.
"Antiplastic."
"Antiplastic?"
"ANTIplastic! But first I've got to find them. How do you hide something that big in a city this small?"
"Small?" Isla asked, looking across the river at the large buildings of London.
"Hang on, hide what?" Rose ignored Isla.
"Transmitter," the Doctor replied, "the Consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic, so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal."
"Doctor? What's it look like?" Isla asked, looking at the Eye of London suspiciously.
"Like a transmitter. Round and massive, smack-bang in the middle of London. A huge circular metal structure. Like a dish, a wheel. Somewhere close to where we're standing."
"Um.." Isla glanced at Rose, who was also staring at the Eye of London now.
"It must be completely invisible. What are you two staring at?"
Rose nodded her head to the wheel. The Doctor turned around, the Eye going completely unnoticed. "What?" Rose nodded again, the Doctor turned, still not comprehending. "What is it, what?"
"Ferris Wheel?" Isla said. The Doctor turned again, and looked for a longer amount of time. He turned to the girls.
"Oh." Wa all he said, before grinning. "Fantastic!"