"He Fell Out Of A Window"
It had been a few days since that initial first day, and Hannah was getting worried about the Doctor. Worried because the Doctor seemed to be worried, and that was never a good sign. His usual cheerful, mad-in-the-best-of-ways demeanour seemed to have vanished, replaced by eerie quietness and a lot of thoughtful concentration. She knew by now, though, that it was best not to disturb him when he was like this, and instead focused her attentions on teaching the others about Cybermen.
On day number four, however, she was woken by the Doctor shaking her out of a peaceful dream. “Come on, Hannah, up, up, up!” he commanded in his usual hyperactive way.
“Why?” Hannah groaned, still half asleep. “What time is it?”
“Six o’clock!”
“In the morning?”
“Oh, come on!” The Doctor grabbed her arm and yanked her out of the hammock. “Get dressed!” He wrinkled his nose as he took in her dishevelled appearance, in particular her overly frizzy hair. “Hannah, have you been sticking your fingers in an electrical socket or something?”
“Get out!” Hannah replied, indignantly, pushing him out of the room.
“Hurry up!” the Doctor called, sprinting over to the console room. By the time Hannah managed to stagger into some clothes and follow him into the room, fixing her hair in the process, everyone else had gathered, all of them besides the Doctor and Sherlock looking still half-asleep. “Right, now everyone’s here,” the Doctor rushed, excitedly, “take a look at this!”
He spun one of the several Tardis computer screens around to face them. Catching it by the handles, Hannah squinted as the others came up behind her. It was Loki who finally said it.
“They don’t look much like Cybermen, Doctor.”
“I know,” the Doctor replied, folding his arms. “But that’s not important. I think they might be Cybershades coming through first, judging by the outline of them, but even more importantly they look to be clearer than before, not quite so blurry.” He fixed them all with a meaningful look. “They’re getting closer. This footage was taken an hour ago by a commuter from Victoria just as he was getting off the station. It’s only a minute long before they fade again.”
“So we’re going Underground, then?” Hannah asked, rubbing her eyes fiercely to keep herself awake.
“Underground?” Merlin repeated.
“Not literally,” John began to explain.
“Yes, we’re going down to Victoria,” the Doctor replied, setting the Tardis in motion. “I want to take a look at some of the places they’ve been materialising lately.”
“Why?” Harry, still half asleep like the rest, had to ask.
The Doctor gave him that look, the one that those who knew him well, people like Rose Tyler and Sarah Jane Smith, called the way he “looks at you as if you’ve just dribbled all down the front of his shirt.” Harry flinched, slightly, wondering what he had said wrong. Then, the Doctor shook his head.
“You know, I’m beginning to think that Heimdall made a mistake,” he muttered, and the Tardis touched down before anyone else could respond to this cheek. “Come on, then, let’s get going!”
Sherlock, the only one of the group besides the Doctor to be as alert as a hunting dog, was the first to follow, striding at the Doctor’s heels as the others sluggishly brought up the rear. Merlin blinked at the dark, somewhat cold tunnelled area they had landed in, not entirely sure what to make of it. Thankfully, John was on hand to help.
“It’s the Underground Train Line,” he said, quietly, “it’s a quicker way of getting around London that by horse and coach.”
Merlin nodded, still trying to take it all in. “So, who’s Victoria?”
“This is Victoria!” the Doctor announced, tapping the station sign. “This area! Well, what are you all waiting around for? Get scouting!”
“What’s the magic word?” Hannah called.
“Homenum Revelio, Hannah, two words!” the Doctor called back, cheekily, whipping out his sonic screwdriver and searching the walls. When he began muttering to himself and tapping each brick he came to, the others took it as a sign to search for whatever they were trying to find in their own ways. Sherlock scanned the floor for anything out of place or unusual that the others would have missed, John, Hannah and James began examining with their hands and the others simply cast spells about the area until-
“I’ve got something!” Merlin called, suddenly, and the Doctor rushed up to him. Merlin was holding up both hands in a cupped position, from which a bright white light was glowing and sending a straight line of light like a torch beam into the air just above the tracks. Instantly, the Doctor whipped out a pair of 3D glasses from his pocket and nodded. “Yep, Voidstuff! Just to confirm, it’s Cybers, alright!”
“Voidstuff?” James repeated.
“Hannah?” the Doctor asked, busily scanning the area with his sonic screwdriver.
“Way ahead of you, Doctor,” Hannah replied, fishing out another pair of 3D glasses from her rucksack and handing them to James. “Take a look.”
James blinked but took them, readying himself for anything. “What the-?”
“Like I said, Voidstuff!” the Doctor called over his shoulder.
“It’s just a residue from crossing the Void between worlds,” Hannah explained, holding up her hand so that James could see that she was also covered in it. "See, it's everywhere!"
“You two only aren’t coated in it because you’ve never crossed the Void,” the Doctor informed Sherlock and John, “and the same for you, Loki. Asgard exists in this world, not a parallel one.” James removed the glasses and passed them to Merlin. “The Cybermen crossed the Void once before,” the Doctor muttered, “passing themselves off as ghosts...” Then, he frowned and suddenly, to the alarm of everyone, he seemed to go mad as he smacked a hand to his forehead and yelled “Oh!” before spinning around to face them all, looking madder than usual with his 3D glasses still in place. “That’s it! Of course, why didn’t I think about it before?”
“They’ve done this before, Doctor,” Sherlock realised, coming to the same conclusion. “So why do the same trick again?”
“Surely they’d realise we’d be prepared this time,” the Doctor agreed, speaking very fast and he nodded, vigorously. “Yes, so-!”
“What if it’s a trap to catch us unprepared?” Sherlock finished.
“Exactly! Have us do one thing whilst really making us do another!” the Doctor concluded with a grin, raising his arm in delight. “Ha ha!” Sherlock hesitated before figuring ‘why not?’ and letting the Doctor slap his open hand in a high-five.
“Hang on a minute, what are you saying, Doctor?” John asked. “You mean this is a distraction?”
“Exactly!” The Doctor nodded again. “Whilst we’re all focusing on all the places they’ve been materialising so far, they could potentially pop up somewhere else and sneak up on us when our guard’s down.”
The others blinked at him.
“So we’ve got to search the whole of London?” Hannah asked, adding sarcastically “Great!”
The Doctor looked offended. “Have you really lost your faith in me already, Hannah?”
Sherlock shook his head. “Hold on a minute, Doctor.” He quickly searched through his mind palace. “You told us that these Cybermen were built by a disabled genius, and if they still retain human intelligence, we could be falling into their trap already.”
“What do you mean?” Harry asked.
“I mean what the Doctor’s just said could be the conclusion they were hoping we’d come to,” Sherlock replied.
Loki glanced at John. “Does he always talk in riddles?”
“Well, if you’re not so intelligent that you need layman’s terms,” Sherlock began with a scowl.
“Boys, not here,” Hannah interrupted.
“I see what you’re saying,” James said, stepping closer to the Doctor. “It could be a double bluff. If they want us to think that their plan is to take them by surprise, then we could be preparing for the wrong kind of attack altogether.”
“So, how are we supposed to know?” Merlin asked, frowning.
The Doctor thought for a second and then nodded. “Only one thing for it, we’ll have to grab one and see what it’s got to say.”
“Grab one?” Sherlock repeated, looking slightly offended by the Doctor’s casual use of a term that ought to be applied to sandwiches rather than alien beings.
“How?” Loki asked.
“Easy! With technology!” the Doctor replied.
“You’re forgetting something, Doctor,” Hannah ventured. “Cybershades can’t talk.”
“You’re forgetting something too, Hannah,” the Doctor countered with a grin. “I can communicate with every living creature that exists.”
Something suddenly growled close by, and everyone whipped around, expecting to see an animal of some kind, perhaps even a Cybershade peering around at them from inside the tunnel, but there was nothing.
“What kind of creature was that, then, Doctor?” John frowned.
“You should know by now, John, you’re a doctor,” the Doctor replied, cheerfully. “That was the cry of the lesser known very hungry human.”
“Well, if you’re going to drag us out before breakfast, Doctor, you have to expect it,” Hannah pointed out.
“Fine!” The Doctor tucked the glasses away in his pocket. “You lot want your breakfast and I want to talk to the man who took that footage before we do anything else, so off you trot and meet us at Wilton Road, Flat Thirty Seven! Ok? Ok! Come on, Sherlock!”
“I’ll go with you,” John put in quickly, sharing a look with Hannah. Neither of them really trusted the Doctor and Sherlock going into something like this without supervision.
“Alright, see you in a bit,” Hannah shrugged, before muttering to John, “I’ll bring you a coffee.”
John nodded and set off after the Doctor and Sherlock both of whom were already speed-walking away. As it transpired later, sending John with them had been the right thing to do. After introducing Merlin and Loki to the wonder that was the humble bacon sandwich, the group quickly made their way in the direction the Doctor had guided them and were just approaching the flat when a man appeared seemingly from the sky and crashed into the bins in front of them, with a loud thud, before flopping to the floor.
“What the-?” James exclaimed, quickly recovering from the initial shock.
Before anyone could come up with a theory, John suddenly came hurtling out of the building.
“What the hell just happened?” Hannah exclaimed.
“Um...” John looked like he was trying his best to remain serious, even though he wanted to laugh too. “He sort of...fell out of a window.”
Hannah blinked, knowing what that meant full well. “I’ll rephrase that; how the hell did it happen?”
“Well, apparently, Sherlock doesn’t take kindly to vicious landlords taking a swing at the Doctor,” John informed her, going over to check that the man was still alive, although judging by the groan he emitted a second later, he was. Whether he was alright, of course, was another matter.
“Sherlock, there was really no need to do that, you know,” the Doctor said, emerging from the building with Sherlock quick behind him. He didn’t seem to have any injuries, Hannah noted, but then, that was the Doctor for you, his body worked differently to other peoples’.
“It’s the only way to get through to some people,” Sherlock scowled, before yanking the man back up by his shirt lapels. “Shall we try this again? My acquaintance asks you leave the room and you do as he says, agreed?”
The man scowled at him. “I’ll call the police.”
“Oh, please do, I’m sure Detective Inspector Lestrade would love to hear that you’ve just assaulted the man who’s trying to save Earth from a vicious alien attack,” Sherlock retorted. “By all means, phone him.”
The man scowled again, wincing at the same time, before wriggling out of Sherlock’s grip and pointed at him with a dirty look on his face. “Five minutes, and if you aren’t out by then, I’ll call them, I don’t care who you are!”
“Suits us,” Sherlock replied, calmly, before pulling open the door and gesturing for Hannah to precede them. “Ladies first.”
Hannah shook her head, pressed John’s coffee into his hand and strode into the building. “Forget Lestrade, I’m telling Molly.”
Sherlock’s only response was to give her a small shove forwards.
“Can’t say I approve of your methods, Sherlock,” the Doctor sighed, following, “but you’re right, let’s try this again, and be quick about it.”
The commuter in question turned out to be a thin, black man named Joe who couldn’t have been in bed more than two hours before the Doctor, Sherlock and John came knocking. Unlike his landlord, however, he didn’t seem to want any trouble and willingly answered any questions to put to him.
“It’s just like it shows on the film, mate,” he insisted. “One minute everything’s normal, like, and then the next thing you know it’s like a bubble or something’s opening up in mid air, like in those science fiction films where people can zap from place to place through portal.”
“And here for a full minute,” the Doctor mused, reviewing the footage again.
“Well, that’s not so bad,” Harry pointed out.
The Doctor frowned at him. “On the contrary, it means their technology’s getting closer to crossing through the Void. Sometimes seconds are as vital as hours, don’t forget that.”
Joe frowned but just shrugged off whatever the Doctor meant by “their technology” and “crossing through the Void,” as he folded his arms. “Anyway, just had to get it on film, you know, it’s just what you do, isn’t it, when stuff like this happens? Do you want a copy? I can make you a disk.”
“No need,” the Doctor chirped, suddenly his usual quirky self again as he tossed the phone back to Joe. “Better press on, world to save and all that! Let’s go, everyone!”
“Sorry about him,” Hannah added as the Doctor quickly sprinted back out through the door. “We’ll be in touch.”
“Come on!” the Doctor called.
Joe shuffled his feet nervously. “Listen, I get you doing that to Shaun just know after he hit your friend, I mean he can be pretty aggressive sometimes but-”
“Don’t worry, we’ll make sure he doesn’t crack down hard on you for it,” Sherlock finished, tucking his hands into his pockets and turning on his heel to follow the Doctor.
“What we need to do,” the Doctor stated, striding so fast that the others had to jog to keep up with him, “is map out where all these anomalies keep popping up and try and contain them.”
“Contain rips from the Void between worlds; you can do that?” James frowned.
“Oh, yes!” the Doctor said. “There’ll be Voidstuff and lots of it anywhere something tries to come through, so-!” He spun around abruptly, causing the others, bar Sherlock who had seen it coming a mile off, to skid to a halt and almost crash into him. “We need a map!”
Ten minutes later, with a large Underground map stretched out on the floor of the Tardis in front of them, the group leaned over as the Doctor began pinning lengths of string across the stations, making what looked like a crude constalation of the whole thing.
“They’ll sell these in the future, Doctor?” John asked.
“Oh, yes, long after you’re gone, of course, John,” the Doctor replied, cheerfully, his tongue sticking out so that he could concentrate. “Now...” He clapped his hands together in triumph and turned, expectantly, to the others, evidently waiting for someone to ask the obvious question so that he could show off his cleverness again.
“What are we looking at, Doctor?” James asked, eventually.
“Well, so far there’s been evidence of the Cybermen popping up in Victoria, Gloucester Road, Edgware Road, Moorgate and Blackfriars.” The Doctor circled the marked-out area with his finger. “Look at the pattern.”
“It’s all in a cluster,” James observed, thoughtfully. “They’re all close together.”
“And yet scattered,” the Doctor agreed.
“Perfect attack formation,” John noted.
Hannah frowned. “And easier from the to spread out from there and through the rest of London.”
The Doctor nodded, thoughtfully. “Why the Underground, though? Why not out in the open like before?”
“They did that last time, you’d learn to expect it,” Sherlock replied.
“If they come through in the Underground, a lot of people are going to get killed,” Harry pointed out. “People use that place all the time, well, Muggles do, anyway.”
“Then we’ll just have to shut those platforms down,” the Doctor grinned.
“How?” Loki asked.
“Easy!” The Doctor held up the pad of psychic paper. “We’re on official business for health and safety, order of the British Governement! To the wardrobe!”
“Wardrobe?” James muttered, bewildered.
Hannah smiled. “Come on.”
“Question,” Merlin ventured as they followed after the Doctor. “What’s a Muggle?”