Chapter Fifteen

Skyfall

"Okay." Stacy said to herself, trying to calm down. "It's a bit too late to burn out an exit, cause by then your sight'll be gone. I can't use my phone to contact anyone, and all the exits are blocked. What are we going to-" she paused, then smiled and glanced out the window. "That's it!" she yelled. She ran to the window and tried to open it, unsurprised to find it stuck. She tried throwing something through it, but it just bounced back. "No idea how she did that." Stacy muttered.

"Do you need a flashlight?" Ginger asked.

"Yes." Stacy responded quickly, then remembered that Ginger couldn't hear her and nodded.

"There's one in the kitchen drawer, and a guide to Morse Code in my Fireside Girl's book, on the table." her sister said.

Stacy nodded. "I'll be right back," she said, hoping that Ginger got the message and her sight didn't go out while Stacy was gone. She ran into the kitchen and grabbed the flashlight, hoping that it had a battery, and Ginger's handbook. She ran back and to the window, flipping through the pages and finding the one she wanted. "Good." she muttered and started flashing symbols towards the houses across the street.

⦁⦁⦁⦁ ⦁ ⦁—⦁⦁ ⦁ — — ⦁ ⦁ — — ⦁ ⦁ ⦁ — ⦁ ⦁ — ⦁ — ⦁ — —

⦁⦁⦁⦁ ⦁ ⦁—⦁⦁ ⦁ — — ⦁ ⦁ — — ⦁ ⦁ ⦁ — ⦁ ⦁ — ⦁ — ⦁ — —

⦁⦁⦁⦁ ⦁ ⦁—⦁⦁ ⦁ — — ⦁ ⦁ — — ⦁ ⦁ ⦁ — ⦁ ⦁ — ⦁ — ⦁ — —

"I can't tell what you're flashing, but I'm hoping it'll be of some help?" Ginger asked. She saw Stacy tense and assured her, "No, my sight's not gone yet, but I can't see out the window.

"Okay." Stacy nodded and started flashing again, eventually just resorting to the first word.

"Stacy?" Ginger called. "You're gonna kill that thing, right?"

"Well," Stacy scratched her arm. "I don't know about killing it, I'm not very good at combat and-" she turned around to see her sister, watching her and trying to figure out her words.

Stacy sighed and smiled. "I'm gonna protect you, Ginger, or I'm gonna die trying."

Ginger smiled, and then closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she called out, "My sight's gone. Grab the bat."

Stacy ran to her side and picked the baseball bat up off the floor, and grabbed the kitchen knife just in case, tucking it into her belt. She picked her sister up and placed her against the wall, and then stood in front of her.

"Okay, let's hope this works." she muttered, and waited.

Only a minute later, a figure emerged from the darkness. And it wasn't that Stacy just hadn't seen her before- the monster literally came out of the dark that surrounded them. Stacy bit her lip to keep from yelling and stared at the creature.

The Respice had an indistinguishable body, but Stacy thought it looked to have the body of some sort of cat with scales covering it, as black as the night it came from. A scorpion-like tail with the problematic poison sting at the end of it arched over her back and she had the head of- what was that head anyway? It was like a tiger's shape, with small pig-like ears, four horns protruding from her head and a long, horse-like snout, and six black eyes, pitch-black and pupiless. The Respice hissed, moving forward on four clawed feet.

Stacy glanced from the creature, to her sister, and then to the creature again. She sighed and charged.

The Respice seemed surprised by the attack, but reared up on her hind legs and let out a loud hiss, swiping at the air. Stacy ducked under her claws and hit her stomach with the bat, before ducking away. That appeared to do nothing, and the Respice simply spun around to face her new target, now growling.

Stacy threw the bat aside and grabbed the knife, holding it out. "Look! Sharp thing! Get away!" she yelled, but the Respice didn't seem bothered in the least. She pounced, and Stacy threw the knife in front of her, looking away as it collided with the scales.

The monster yelped and jumped back, and Stacy glanced up hopefully, but the Respice simply pulled the knife out and flung it aside as if it was a thorn, more of a nuisance than a wound.

"Okay, we're in trouble." Stacy said.

At that moment, her bookshelf on the opposite wall swung open. The Respice whipped its head towards it, hissing again. And from the new passage leaped a small, semi-aquatic, turquoise agent.

"Perry!" Stacy yelled as the platypus leaped onto the Respice's head and grabbed her horns.

The Respice fell backwards onto the ground to try and pry the platypus off, but Perry held on. Using this distraction, Stacy ran for the kitchen knife again and held it up, charging again at the alien. By this point, Perry had jumped from the Respice's head and was now leaping backwards, letting the alien follow him away from Ginger and Stacy.

Stacy stabbed the creature again, this time in the leg. The alien yowled and pulled it out once more, but Stacy now grabbed onto its neck and tried flipping it over. Though she had no such luck, Perry reached into his hat and pulled out what looked like darts, gesturing for Stacy to keep the creature in place.

Stacy let go of the Respice's neck as the alien had turned to bite at the human girl, and started to turn towards her. Stacy looked around her, and saw the Kleptocracy board at her feet. "Here goes nothing!" she yelled as she pulled the board off of the ground and threw it at the Respice's face.

The board hit the monster, who backed up and tried to swipe it off. At that point, Perry shot it with a dart, then threw three more at it to be safe. The Respice knocked the board off and turned towards him, waving her tail menacingly and prowling closer.

At that, a something began to hum near Stacy. She looked behind her and saw something appear out of nowhere, starting with a small bulb on top. It appeared to be a blue telephone booth of some kind. Then she understood.

"The angels have the phone box." she whispered, as the door swung open and the Doctor charged through, followed by a young blonde girl and Candace, all yelling something that sounded like "Peanut Butter!"

The Respice started to hiss again at the unwelcome sight of reinforcements, and started to back away. Stacy turned towards Perry, but saw that he had vanished. She saw, however, a beaver-like tail behind the game cabinet.

Of course. Can't let Candace see him.

The Respice looked like the tranqs Perry had given her were taking effect, as she sat down and raised her claws slowly, blinking her eyes drearily. Suddenly, she collapsed to the ground, shaking the house.

"Did you tranquilize her?" the Doctor asked, and Stacy turned around to see the three newcomers looking a little confused.

"Uh, yeah. You showed up a bit late." Stacy said.

"Apparently. Where did you even get tranquilizers?" the Doctor inquired.

"Uh… Ginger. She's a Fireside Girl."

The Doctor looked confused, but the girl behind him and Candace nodded. "Makes sense," the girl noted, and Stacy remembered that she was called Rose. "I was a Fireside Girl once, we did all sorts of weird stuff."

"Yeah, where is Ginger?" Candace asked.

Stacy gestured to the wall, where Ginger still sat, humming to herself.

"Ah, so she went for the younger one. Her mistake." the Doctor said. "Good thing you had tranquilizers, though, otherwise we would've all had to corral her into the TARDIS and trap her there, which I don't think she would like."

"Who cares what that thing likes?" Stacy glared at the sleeping alien on her floor.

"Not her, the TARDIS." the Doctor shrugged. "I've already got a horse in there somewhere and she's mad enough as it is. We'll have to transport her back home while she's asleep, however. I hope the TARDIS doesn't mind that."

"Please, she's already taken us on enough detoirs." Rose groaned.

"Yeah, we were supposed to follow the Zygon's coordinates, and we ended up almost killing Ferb and Stacy and Ginger." Candace interjected.

"That is true," the Doctor nodded, "but I'm thinking you guys are going to need a break before we follow up on the Zygons."

"How did you guys even get here?" Stacy asked, side-stepping so that Candace couldn't see her Platypus sneaking towards the hidden exit.

"Oh, well you sent for help from somebody, not sure who, and he sent a Pharmacist/High School Science Teacher in a time machine to help us." the Doctor shrugged. "We'd managed to park in Ancient Rome, and thankfully he could trace us to there. We were going to ride back with him, but he wandered into the TARDIS and hit something, which freed up today again, thank Heaven."

"Great," Stacy said, watching Perry give a wave and swing the hidden entrance closed. I wish we could've known about that exit before this mess. "So, Candace, is this the boys' history teacher?"

"Uh, yes?" Candace glanced around the room, nervously avoiding Stacy's eye. "But sometimes he takes us on field trips."

"Thoughout the time-space continuum." Rose mentioned.

"Ok, wow." Stacy looked at the ship. "And I'm guessing you couldn't tell us because Spiderman-logic?"

"Actually, I didn't think of telling anyone, but it's mostly because the Doctor doesn't want too many companions at once." Candace shrugged. "Sorry."

Stacy whistled and gestured around her. "It is perfectly fine if I don't go on these weird sciencey-weincey space trips."

"Sciencey-weincey?" the Doctor looked very upset.

"You'll get it later." Stacy waved her hand carelessly. "So when is that poison gonna wear off?"

"Oh, about another hour." the Doctor said. "Ferb's already waking up in our hospital corridor. Speaking of which, we've gotta get the Respice out of here. Are you going to need anything?"

"Um, The power back on and maybe our exits unblocked?" Stacy crossed her arms.

"Right. I'll be done with that five minutes ago." the Doctor said, and suddenly the lights flickered on. "Or right now. Guess I'm slow. Anyway, can you help us drag this unconscious alien into my Police Box Spaceship?"

The Doctor hesitantly allowed Stacy to take as many selfies as she wanted of both the inside and outside of the TARDIS, but warned her not to put them online unless she wanted UNIT breaking down her door. As the Police Box disappeared, Stacy cleaned off the kitchen knife and left it in the sink, put the furniture back together and placed the Kleptocracy board on top of the kitchen table. She grabbed two bowls of chips and sat next to her sister, blasting happy music through her radio. She waited for a while, and eventually Ginger started grasping at the carpet around her. The younger Hirano stood up and started walking around, feeling her way through things. She then covered her ears and yelped. "Stacy! Your music is so loud!"

Stacy laughed, and then Ginger blinked open her eyes. She glanced around the room, then back at her older sister, grinning. "Nice job, sis."

"Now," Stacy held out her hands carefully. "Are we going to tell Mom this or not?"

"Definitely not!" Ginger laughed, and ran over to her sister, throwing her arms around her.

Stacy hugged her back, then muttered, "Mom's still gonna kill me if we're up past bedtime."