Oh Doctor, My Doctor

[Natasha_bernier]

OOC

No, you're not imagining things, I've RPed this before. But then I moved into another building and lost my internet for a while, so it kinda lost cohesion in all the commotion. But OncomingStorm approached me recently about taking this one up again, and being the Doctor Who groupie that I am, I couldn't resist

So once again, here 'tis, Oh Doctor, My Doctor.

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Introducing the Doctor’s soon-to-be Companion, Penny “PC” Carsley, daughter of one of London’s wealthiest families. Despite her home comforts, Penny has always had a thing for adventure, danger and the unknown. She is overwhelmingly sexually active, and has bad luck with men, usually choosing violent or criminal boyfriends as a means of cheap thrills.

In 2010, she’s 20 years old, and has joined a band of small-time hackers who wish to shut down the London powerplant from the inside, as proof of their supposed skills. Penny’s skill in that ground is cyphering, a gift for identifying and decoding patterns and encryptions.

Little does she know what how this night is going to change her life...
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IC:

They call me PC. My friends I mean. My parents still called me Penny, which just goes to show you how square they are. I mean, who names their child Penny? Anyways, we... my pack and I, are going to pull the biggest hack-job London’s ever seen. Nobody’s gonna call us punks ever again, this is th... said a young girl, holding a camera to her face. She was wearing dark makeup; midnight-black lipstick and dark eyeshadow.

“Stop screwing around with that PDA, come on, get your butt over here!” a pointy-haired 20 year-old screamed from the far corner, apparently nervous.

That’s NIC, our fearless leader. He’s the one who got the idea in the first place. He’s the hacker, and... man does he fuck well!

The raven-haired young girl holding the camera giggled and ran toward the duo already standing at the gate. The jeans coat she was wearing was obviously not hers, as it was four or five sizes larger than she was. Underneath it, she wore a tight black cotton top with thin laces. She had baggy jeans, the looks of which seemed to indicate she’s been sitting in a filthy alley for some time. The beige bag she was holding on her left shoulder slowed her down, as it contained a myriad of handheld computer equipment.

This is Mike. He doesn’t get a cool nickname ‘cause his dick’s too small. PC said as she caught up with the group.

The tall boy with a pinch Penny had called Mike turned and playfully grabbed for the PDA, but missed and almost fumbled to the ground. For the second time, he swung forward, grasping the electronic camera from PC’s hand.

And this is PC, our sweet little 20 year old geekette. We love and cherish her for what she is. Even if she is a complete slut who’s been ridden more times than a rollercoaster.

PC raised her middle finger at Mike, then brought it to her lips and licked it, enjoying shutting the nerd’s mouth once again.

Meanwhile, NIC had been fumbling with what looked like an electronic calculator, hooked up to the door’s complicated electronic equipment. “Shut up you two, we’re in.” he said simply and pushed the door open. An electronic “CLOSED” sign turned green and read “OPEN” as the door opened and stepped through. Mere seconds afterwards, however, the power swayed heavily and then returned to normal, an anomalous occurrence, to say the least, for an electric power plant...

Ladies and gents, we are inside the belly of the Great Beast the young woman said, referring to the net-spread popcultured belief that the powerplant had been built years ago in an effort to hold the planet hostage. She turned to NIC and planted a passionate kiss on his lips, obviously turned on by this whole adventurous endeavor.

“Oh get a room you two...” Mike said, burdened by the hots for Penny himself. Although he’d never bring himself to admit it. “Penny, you’re up.”

The young girl broke the kiss, an excited spark in her eyes as she sat on the stairs, taking out a complicated-looking device from her bag.

Just as she managed to untangle a couple of rogue wires, the lights cut out completely, leaving the trio in total darkness.

“What the fuck!?” NIC let out, louder than he intended. “How does a powerplant run out of power?” he asked rhetorically in the dark.

Before the others could say anything else, they heard a strange buzzing sound, coming from the level above them. It sounded like nothing they’d ever heard before; it almost had a futuristic quality to it. It intensified for a moment, then it stopped completely. A large door, which had been locked only a few moments before, opened, revealing a figure holding a strange tool in his hand.

“What are you three doing in here?” the man asked, consternated.

 

[OncomingStorm]

OOC

Here I am finally, after a bit of a registration problem. Thank you to the forces that be for resolving that for me. So, without further adieu, here I go...



IC

"Well?" the tall man reiterated, apparently irritated by the trio's presence. "What do you think you're doing here?!" he asked again as he threw his weight forward on the shaky-looking railing that overlooked the plant grounds. Coming out of his mouth, the words were dry and condemning. It was as if he was accusing them of something, although he obviously didn't belong here himself.

He was dressed in a somewhat formal jacket, steamed pants and tucked shirt, but he was wearing dirty snickers, so dirty in fact that you could have sworn he had just been galloping about in the muck. His hair was a mess, but it somehow suited him, the hair of a man who never took the time to comb in the morning and never would.

"Shit!" one of the younger male geeks spat before stepping forward and picking up what looked like a handheld computer of some sort. "Didn't your cousin Murray say nobody took care of this plant at night?" NIC asked the other, who stuck his finger in the first pointy-haired boy's chest and swore incongruently about his cousin being a loafer.

Before either of them could say another word, a loud thud made itself heard in the distance, echoed by a myriad of smaller metallic-sounding noises. In the distance, NIC thought he saw a large shadow move through one of the old station's hallways, although he could not distinguish much else in the dark.

"He's here." the tall mysterious man said as he turned dramatically. He didn't seem afraid as much as concerned, torn about what to do about his current predicament. He looked in the trio's direction and seemed to ponder for a moment, his eyes moving from one to the next as if they were mere numbers in an equation. When he finally started blinking again, he reached for a metal pipe and used it to swivel away from the platform and onto the service stairwell that looked as though it could not carry the weight of a small mammal, much less his.

"What's here?" the girl who called herself PC asked, betraying her own British accent, frowning. She looked nervous; this new arrival was making her uncomfortable. But whatever the strange man was trying to get away from seemed twice as likely to be bad news. Somehow, he didn't seem like the type who would be afraid of security guards or cops.

The strange man landed safely, a few feet away from the girl, and headed toward a metal door on the southern wall. "A sirriphin." he said simply as he toyed around with what looked a little bit like an electric toothbrush . He said the words as if they were self-explanatory, in a way that made Penny think she was missing the punch-line of some joke, or the point of a long lecture.

"A sirriphin..." Mike repeated sarcastically, smiling out of the corner of his lips, making him look a little bit like a dead comedian. "Is that one of the scary aliens that built the plant all those years ago?" he asked sardonically, chuckling silently at his own joke.

The peculiar man in the dirty sneakers ignored him as he turned and stretched his neck, obviously trying to determine if this "sirriphin" was anywhere close. He turned and continued to fumble with his strange tool, causing a whizzing sound to emanate from the close quarters. The bluish light that also emanated from it attracted Penny's attention, and she just stared at it wide-eyed, silent.

"Look man..." the leader of the young "hacker pack", as young mischievous kids sometimes referred to themselves as in those days, said as he tried to pull the tall stranger's arm away from its work. "... I don't know what you're trying to pull here but leave us out of it. We have a hackjob to pull off."

A loud howling noise suddenly resounded in the damp hallway, and all but the tall man turned around, a renewed sense of concern brought about them.

"Oh sure, I can leave your bunch out of it... Not sure you'd like that though." the stranger said as he tinkered around a bit, grimacing a bit in a somewhat-comical fashion as he did. "Sirriphin are known across the galaxy, not yours but still a whole galaxy, to have insatiable appetites for young flesh."

NIC and Mike immediately turned toward PC, who seemed more interested in the stranger's peculiar tool than his last words.

"Male flesh mostly, as I recall..." the tall man corrected himself with a pause. The two guys looked at each other in disgust and the stranger smiled.

"Well, hurry up about it then." Mike said, his jovial carelessness having somewhat evaporated, suddenly more interested in the man's tinkering. He stepped forward, blocking Penny's view, staring at the strange instrument. "What in blazes..."

"Done!" the tall man interrupted Mike, plunging the tool back into the inside-pocket of his vest. "Hurry up." he said, turning his attention to the rapidly moving shadow that seemed much closer than before. "Chop chop."

 

[Natasha_bernier]

PC was just about to start feeling foolish, running around in identical corridors from an unseen danger, panting to keep up with the obviously-fit tall strange man they had met only a few minutes ago. There was a certain confidence about him she felt reassuringly annoying, and every time he told her to hurry up, she felt like throwing a fit.

“We’re here.” he said finally, stopping at a door which didn’t look like the exit, but which he had obviously decided was their destination. He reached for the cold-cast handle and pulled on it confidently, smiling broadly as he did. It opened and he swung through it, stopping just long enough to turn around and wave the trio in.

“This isn’t a way out.” NIC said after stepping in, casing the joint with wide eyes.

“No it’s not.” the strange man said simply, heading toward a panel that seemed to be the main breaker. “What it wants is in here.” he said, manning the station as though he had known it all his life.

“You mean you dragged us across this stupid place just to set a trap for it?” Mike said, somewhat disturbed by the fact that he had just been used as bait.

“I guess you could say that. I would.” the stranger replied with no repentance in his voice. “Don’t worry though; it’s not expressly after you. It wants energy. And there’s enough power in here to... well... light a city the size of London.” the stranger smirked at his small joke.

PC was tired of this nonsense. She was all for excitement, but this little escapade was leaning more on the side of burlesque than adventure. “Who are you? How do you know all these things? What does... what does it want?” Penny whined, obviously not fond of this little maze game they’d been playing for the last half-hour.

“He’s the Doctor.” an inhuman gargling voice said from a dark corner of the room, only now stepping into view.

 

[Natasha_bernier]

The thing that had just emerged from the shadows was more akin to a shark than to anything else on Earth. Its grayish skin seemed smooth, almost wet under the dim lighting of the master control room. It had two small black marbles for eyes that seemed independent of one another. One moment one would be staring at... the Doctor, it had called him, and the next it was relishing one of the young humans with alarming intensity.

“I think it’s got a crush on you NIC, oh fearless leader.” Mike whispered to the taller boy, which promptly replied by punching his comrade on the arm, causing this one to whimper slightly.

It stepped forward quickly, much quicker than anything its size and shape should be allowed to move. Only now was its toothless grin apparent in the pale light. It was wearing some kind of aluminum suit, something you’d expect to out of a 1960’s scifi show.

“Yeees. The Doctor. Always the Doctor, never the same.” The creature seemed to be examining him from head to toe, as if it was looking for something that wasn’t truly there. “And as for what we want...” it emphasized the last word, his right eye staring directly at NIC with what he could only suppose was a grin, “... we want you Doctor. We want your ship.”

There was a silence in the room for a moment. It seemed heavy, even for the three teenagers, unused to this scene or these situations. Even they could see that a conflict was about to take place here, a battle that could only be won by one of the parties involved here.

“My TARDIS?” the Doctor asked, flabbergasted after a second. He stared directly into the sirriphin’s ugly eyes and started laughing uncontrollably. It seemed as though it was simultaneously the oddest and most amusing thing he had ever heard in his life. At the same time, his laughter carried a sense of dread about it; something about what the shark-thing had said had deeply troubled him.

“We have no interest in the limited human technology.” the Sirriphin added, as if to clarify, his voice half-buried by the maniacal laughter carried on by the man they called the Doctor. “They are... insufficient. We were never interested in this place, only you, Doctor.” it said, its voice oddly distorted, as though swallow, spat out and choked all at the same time.

“Well of course I knew that...” he said after a while, wiping away tears of laughter from his cheeks. The way he had said it, it was as though he talking to a small child that would have just proudly imparted his knowledge of the ABCs. “But the TARDIS, I mean... My TARDIUS? You’re serious aren’t you.”

Until now, the stranger had been a bit of a goof, or at least a very laid-back person. But the last sentence he had just spoken had been disturbingly grave. He wasn’t laughing anymore. No more fun, jokes or games. Whatever this TARDIS was, there was no chance in Heaven or Hell he was letting it fall into the hands of the Sirriphin.

 

[Natasha_bernier]

"Alright now. Off we go." the tall stranger who had been introduced as the Doctor said simply, walking past the shark-man as one would a lamppost or a newspaper stand and heading back the way he had come. He was walking slowly, with his arms crossed behind his back, smugly dragging his feet on his way.

There was a silence in the room during which it became unclear who was more puzzled: the three young humans, now gazing at the stranger with the horror of a puppy being left in the woods in their eyes, or the sirriphin, whose eyes were struggling to focus on the mobile Doctor.

A fraction of a second later, it stood before the Doctor, blocking his way once more. It seemed confused, unsure in its movements all of a sudden, obviously shaken by the Doctor's silent confidence. "But... You have no weapons, no defenses." it said, its voice shaking slightly.

The Doctor smirked and PC somehow found his smugness attractive for a millisecond. "You know, someone I once knew told me those exact words. Well, shrieked would be a better word I guess. Very unpleasant really when people adopt an irritating tone, don't you find?" He left the rest of his explanation hanging on this note and walked off again, leaving the creature even more infuriated by it behind him. This time, it did not take the time to gather its thoughts and jumped ahead of the Doctor. "The Doctor will *not* leave!!" it spat. "He is quintessential to our plans."

"Always nice to feel appreciated." the Doctor replied without missing a beat and attempted to move off once more, his sneakers squeaking as they were rubbed purposefully against the oddly out-of-place carpeting on the master control room, only to be held off by the creature's moving mass. It seemed angry now, agitated by the obvious abnoxiousness of the man it had referred to as the Doctor. Its movements were diffuse and its breathing felt forced somehow.

"You will show me the secrets of your technology Doctor, you will bring me to the TARDIS and expose its science and the sirriphin will be supreme!!"

"No, I won't do that,,." the bruddled-haired man said matter-of-factly. "...but what I will do is give you an history lesson." he added. "You see, on October 14th 2010, there was an electrical failure in the main control room of London's largest electric plant." he paused, walking around the sirriphin in that duck-esque kind of way again. A few months after it was put out of commission, it was ruled that a band of misfit kids had been to blame for the incident, probably as an act of rebellion... You know how these kids are nowadays..." he drifted off, backing off from the sirriphin and at the same time the only escape route, dragging his feet on the carpet until he put his foot back on the insulated step of the main console. "But you see, they were wrong."

The creature, taken in by the Doctor's rambling, jerked its head slightly in interrogation, moving toward the now-immobile man. Then, realizing how irrelevant the tale was, it jerked out of its reveries and stepped ahead in the Doctor's direction. "Enough of this. The past doesn't matter. Neither does the action of three dead human youngs. You will come with me. If I have to carry you, then so be it."

"Oh but it's not the past, it's actually the present; we're living it right now. And those kids had nothing to do with it..." the Doctor started mournfully.

The sirriphin, looking more and more impatient, moved forward freakishly fast again, reaching for the Doctor with its bare claw.

"...it was all me."

What followed could only be described as an explosion of sound and light, a maelstrom of elecricity and static. It only lasted a second but the trio, standing a dozen feet away, felt the shock of the static impact. Penny, startled at the sudden and unexpected transfer of energy, all originating from the contact between the Doctor and his ungrounded assailant, let out a small yelp and moved backwards, tripping on a sign which said: 'Danger, risk of electrocution. All personnel must stand on grounded platform during operations'.

For a whole second, there was no noise. Then, came the thump of the sirriphin's body crashing to the metallic floor of the railway, followed by the sound of an alarm siren filling the room with its bluish siren.

Penny regained her footing and stared ahead at the Doctor. Some small part of her had feared that the obviously tremendous shock had done away with the stranger as well, although she couldn't exactly explain why...

"Too bad we didn't have time for a physics lesson..." It would have been quite a moving and noble eulogy had the Doctor's hair not been standing on end, his body still reacting to the static transfer which had occurred but a moment ago. "Well, it's been fun kids but I have an appointment to keep." he said finally, his grave features melting back to the jovial looks the Doctor had been wearing only a few minutes ago.

 

[Natasha_bernier]

There was a moment of silence following the Doctor's departure, during which the three teens looked at one another with a strange mix of relief, fear and groin-grabbing confusion. Although very stoic on the outside, PC had never been so afraid in her entire life; even now, she didn't dare look in the dead... thing's directions, for fear her attention would confer a spark of vitality to its lifeless body.

"What the f*ck was that!?!" she heard one of the young men say finally, taking in a good long breathe of air, the first he'd taken in what seemed like a hundred years.

"I don't know man, but I say we get the hell out before we get blamed for this." she heard NIC answer. But his voice seemed far away, as if he was standing in another room. Even the blue sirens and the alarm system seemed far away, their strident screaming but a rustling sound next to Penny's own heartbeat. At first, she thought she might be having an heart attack. God knows she wasn't the fittest young girl around these parts and had probably eaten enough chips and cheeseburgers in her short life to choke a cow. Not that her body showed a bit of cellulite mind you. She just happened to be one of those despicable people whose metabolism allowed for the ingestion of large quantities of unhealthy foods, very little if any exercise (except for the obligatory sexual gratification marathons she occasionally indulged in with NIC and other inconsequential boys around town) and enough alcool to kill a small bull.

"Come on Piece!" NIC ordered with all the conviction of a twenty-something who'd just witnessed something impossible unfold before his eyes. He something called her that, "Piece", an abbreviation of her already abbreviated name. She didn't mind most of the the time, except when she did. Today was one of those times and she pulled her arm away with a bit more revulsion than she might have intended. He continued on his way, paying little if any attention to the raven-haired girl, now standing alone in the middle of the London Central control room, trying to decide if she was going insane, having a cardiac episode or having an orgasm.

On one side, she had just witnessed a man wearing dirty sneakers defeat a... thing with absolutely nothing but the laws of physics and a keen sense of observation. On the other hand, there was the almost-sharp pain in her chest and the beating of her heart that seemed to be having a fit all by itself. And then, there was the fact that she had never been more turned on in her entire life...

Before she even knew what she was doing, she started to run. Run faster than she ever had, faster than she had before when she was running away from the razorsharp monster she tried her best to avoid on her way out, faster than that time when she was eight and had been caught stealing candy from the corner store. She realized now it was the same way she was feeling now, alive, invigorated, excited at the prospect of seeing what would come next. She continued to feel her pulse surge through her body. Almost like an electric shock really, it spread through her aching muscles, revitalising them like a strange serum. She vaguely remembered running past NIC and Mike on her way back through the maze of nondescript corridors and tunnels of the plant but didn't really register their interrogatory interjections, or even Mike's remark about her ass.

"Doctor!" she heard herself cry at nothingness when she started to recognize the setting where they had initially met. Something inside her told her this would be where she would find him, although she couldn't rationally explain what. It was an irrational thought, and yet it felt as certain as checking at a train station or calling one's best friend on their cellphone and expecting them to answer. She just knew he would be here, if she wasn't too late...

 

[Natasha_bernier]

"Doctor!" she yelled again, her voice broken by the near-marathon she'd just undertaken. She paused, unsure if she was actually standing in the sport where they had before encountered the strange man, or if it was her mind playing tricks on her. It had been doing a lot of that today, it occurred to her suddenly.

The young girl walked forward three steps, suddenly very much aware of the weight of her own feet, and let her weight fall forward on the metallic railing which crept up the wall and led into the darkness of the second level above, her small breasts crushed against the weight of her own body against the railing. She felt very tired all of a sudden, the seemingly-infinite energy conferred by the earlier excitement apparently slowly leaving her.

There was nothing here. Nothing but complicated control stations, dark alleyways and roaring sirens. She was expecting... she wasn't sure what she was expecting. Suddenly, for that one moment, her life became normal again. She was Penny Carsley, pseudo-genius and potential-wasting-slut; that was how the institute counsellors had put it. Well, they hadn't actually called her a slut, but she thought it had been implied. Never quite dumb enough to fit in with other kids her age, never quite focused enough to make it with the mensa-types her parents insisted she meet. She was nothing, a freak, a waste of perfectly good potential and energy. For ten minutes today, she had been just like any other teen her age, scared shitless, incapable of thinking rationally enough to get herself out of an utter impossible situation. She had been normal... "Doctor..." she whispered one last time, her head falling forward in abandonment.

"Oh stop your belly-aching." a voice sounded from behind.

PC turned around, frowning. He hadn't been there a moment ago. All there had been were old broken-down furniture, office supplies and... a big blue box she hadn't payed any attention to. Her dad did that sometimes, brought home useless junk he thought was historically significant. Probably another vain attempt to illicit a spark of interest in his daughter.

"Well? I don't have all day..." the Doctor added, looking directly at the 20 year-old. Part of her felt betrayed by her own senses, another part didn't really care. She was beginning to feel this strange new sensation again, part excitement, part reassurance. "Are you coming?"

She frowned again, the analytical part of her mind taking over. She hadn't been certain herself, but somehow she knew she wanted to do just that. Go with him, travel with the scrawny man and... just be part of the excitement. The same part of her that had made her join NIC and Mike a few months ago in their escapades, even if she hadn't known the first thing about computers at the time, for the sheer thrill of the thing. She knew it was completely ridiculous, utterly illogical, grotesquely dangerous even. But that's what she knew she wanted to do.

And stranger even, the Doctor knew... No, he didn't merely know it. Like everything else the man did, he was certain of it. There was an almost frightening quality to the Doctor's certitude that sent her own pulse racing. Somehow, she felt tiny when standing next to the stranger. Tiny enough not to be in the spotlight but still be part of the cast.

"Last chance to get on. The police will be here in a minute. And this..." his manerisms indicated he was talking about his own body "... is entirely too pretty to end up in a jailcell..."

Penny took a step forward, half-grinning at the Doctor's amusing exaggeration. "But... how do you know? I mean..." She felt silly. The only time in her entirely life when she wished she could more elequantly put her thoughts into words, when she doesn't want to dumb down her own reasoning, and she's too overwhelmed by current events to do so.

"Let's just say I have experience in that sort of thing..." he smiled as though it was intended as some sort of ironic joke, although Penny couldn't figure it out. "Are you getting in or not?" he seemed to be pointing to the doors of the blue crate behind him.

"In?" she asked, her London accent suddenly surfacing. "Into what?"

 

[Natasha_bernier]

"So... it's bigger on the inside than the outside..." PC risked, trying to wrap her mind around the complicated technobabbled explanation the Doctor had just given her. She was pretty sure most of the words he had used to describe the physics of the thing didn't even exist, but there were more important things to worry about right now. Such as how a tiny blue police box could contain... well, anything bigger than the space it actually occupied. Or, even granted the existance of such a device, how the Doctor had come to possess such a thing.

"Isn't that what I just said?" the Doctor said and frowned, seemingly vexed. He turned and headed toward the center-piece of the room they were standing in. It stood over twelve foot tall, seemed of metallic composition, and yet it had an almost organic quality to the worksmanship. In fact, the entire room seemed to be made of the golden-colored substance. "Hold on." he said simply as he twirled a few knobs, pushed a couple of buttons and finally pulled a lever.

PC did as she was told, unsure what to expect. "Where are we going?" she asked, to which the only reply was a wry smile.

There was a loud noise in the central room as the master control pillar started to shift upwards and then down again. "The old girl took a bit of a beating recently, so the ride may not be as smooth as usual. Not that you'd know the difference of course." the Doctor said, as though he were talking to himself.

"Is this the TARDIS?" PC asked, remembering the word the sirriphin had used earlier. It stood to reason that such an incredible machine could easily have been its target.

The Doctor stopped fiddling with the control panel and stared gravely at her, as though he'd just truly realized she was here with him. "Yes. This is the last TARDIS in existence." He became pensive again as he walked towards her.

He stopped a few feet short of Penny and continued watching her. No, watching wasn't the right word, he seemed to be almost examining her. Head to foot, breast to crotch. Right around the exact moment when it started to feel as though the man was just eyeing her body up for the fun of it, he straightened in one lightning-fast motion. "Right then. Would you like to see the rest of the ship?"

Penny's head tilted sideways a bit, a quirk she had worked quite hard over the years to eliminate. "Wait... you mean there's more rooms in here?"