The UNIT men watched as Six took
his third tray of sandwiches. Of course this was after two pies, five apple
dumplings, four bowls of soup, and many other things that had come before. His
call for another cart of food made them wonder how many people where in the
lab, but it was quite a shock to find only the multi-coloured man and the dark
haired girl.
"This is the same man as that old scientist?" The first man asked the
other quietly.
"He might be an imposter." The second answered.
"We should inform the Brigadier." The first said and stood up. The
two men strode down the hall into the Brigadier's office, saluting.
"Permission to speak, sir." The second said.
"Come in," the Brigadier
replied, shuffling some papers off to the side. He'd been catching up on forms
while listening in on the radio, but so far the updates from Benton hadn't been
too informative. Maybe these men would give him a welcome distraction from the
Doctor's strange shenanigans, seeing as they were dressed for canteen duty.
"What is it? Sugar-ants in the pantry again?"
--
The Master laughed in a mocking way. "Well, Doctor. It seems that you are
having a bit of problems with yourself."
"This equipment?" Jo asked, standing up and motioning to some part of
the device.
"Yes, that, these, and those." Seven said, gathering the equipment.
Ace picked up the units and Seven carried the dome connectors while Ten took
the capacitor. Jo, left with empty hands helped Three to his feet.
Rose wasn't sure what to do. Everything seemed to be handled and so she just
stood there beside Nine and watched everything happen.
The remaining Doctors snatched up various parts that they thought might be of
use and began hustling the Master along with them out of the barn.
Jamie sidled up to Jo as they went. "Are y' all right? You're a right
brave lass."
Victoria ran ahead of them, out into the surrounding grasses.
"Sergeant?" she called. "Where are you?"
Benton stood up with a nod. "Here, Miss. Do you need any help?"
"No, oh no. I think everything's fine now. The Doctor - well, all the
Doctors that is, he's.... they've captured that Master, the one all in black. A
terribly wicked man, you know. They told me to let you know we'll need UNIT to
take him into proper custody. He said you knew how to watch him."
"We'll certainly do our best, Miss," Benton said. He took a deep
breath and picked up his radio comm. "Trap One to Greyhound."
--
"Just a moment," the Brigadier said as he picked up the radio comm.
"Greyhound here."
"It looks like they've got him, sir. The Master. They want to bring him
back to HQ, so we'll need a holding cell ready."
"They caught him? And all the Doctors are all right?" The Brigadier
was frankly a little surprised at this.
"As far as I know, none of them have come out yet."
"Well, let me know if there's any further developments. Remember his eyes
are dangerous, be sure to cover them up."
"Right. I think we have a bag..." Benton said, sounding quite
cheerful on that note.
"Greyhound out."
"Sir, we think that the one in the colours is an imposter." One of the UNIT men said.
"An imposter?" the Brigadier asked. "Why ever would you think that? I was given to understand he arrived in a TARDIS, the same as the rest....didn't he? Has he acted in some way that's unlike the Doctor?"
"Yes sir. He's nearly emptied
the canteen. AS far as we know the Doctor will sometimes go near a day without
food." The UNIT man replied.
"He's in the lab." The second added.
The Brigadier sighed and pushed his
papers to the side. If it wasn't one thing it was another. "Very well,
your concern has been noted gentlemen. It does sound unusual. Until we can
ascertain this man's identity, go ahead with meeting any reasonable demands he
makes; keep him happy as long as it doesn't involve anything explosive, immoral
or violent."
The canteen men left and he sat for a moment, pensively tapping his chin.
"Oh blast it. I suppose I ought to at least take a look... It really
doesn't sound like the Doctor..." he said and got up, heading out his door
for the lab.
---
"Yes, I'm fine." Jo said. "I hope that the Master is going to be
jailed up for good this time. Last time he hypnotized the guards and
escaped." She grinned at Three "Make sure they put him somewhere safe
this time."
The Master mentally laughed. Keep him locked up? Rubbish!
"Here we go, just the
ticket," Benton said, pulling out a large brown paper sack. "We can
put this over his head and he won't be able to hypnotize anyone."
"He hypnotizes people? How awful!" said Victoria.
Zoe gave up on trying to grab Jamie's attention and walked over to Two. Things
would be back to normal once all this confusion was over.
Seven and Ace carefully carried the parts to Bessie and put them in the boot.
Ten set his down as well and closed it up. "Well, looks like it's time to
leave."
"Wait. We can't leave until this meteor is taken care of.
Suggestions?" Seven asked.
"We could put some dynami-" Ace started.
"No." Seven cut her off.
Three started to follow the rest
then turned back. "We need that meteorite as well!" he pointed out as
they all absconded with the equipment and left the rock. He started to reach
for it, then pulled back as he felt the time distortion emanating from it. It
was still warm. "Jo, can you get that? I...it seems to be problematic for
me at the moment."
Jamie had been lingering and perked up at this. "I'll get it for ye,"
he said generously, pleased to get to do something for Jo. "I wouldn't
want a wee bonny lass like yourself hefting that..." She started to take
umbrage at his patronizing her for being a girl, but he smiled at her so
winningly she quickly gave way. He quickly lifted the hunk of warm black rock
and tucked it under his arm so he could offer her his other one, only to find
Three had already taken her under his own arm instead and sort of scooped her
away.
Jo let herself be swept away by Three and walked with him. Though he always seemed to take her away from young men, she smiled at the thought that he cared about her.
Nine was not content to just stand
there with Rose for long and gathered up a too-large pile of equipment which he
kept dropping. Rose walked behind him and picked up what he dropped.
Five helped the rest of himself take what was left of the equipment, sharing
what he had to carry with Nyssa who looked like she would like to help but was
still confused.
As they all reached Bessie the familiar sounds that had filled the air far too
many times that day began as a police box materialized beside Bessie. The door
opened and a tall man with curly brown hair walked out, took one wide eyes look
at the crowd and returned to his TARDIS, slamming the door.
The TARDIS sputtered and groaned as it faded slightly for a moment and then became solid again. The door opened again and the tall man walked out again.
"Would any of you mind
explaining why there are... one, two, four.... Four of me here?"
"Nine." Ten corrected. "We're still missing the eighth-"
"Ten! Well I've been busy. Sarah!" He called into the TARDIS and
Sarah Jane came out. "Doctor?" She stared at Three and then back at
Four. "What's going on here?"
--
The Doctors brought the Master up to Benton, who popped the bag over his head
and breathed a sigh of relief. "That does it," he said. "Let's
get him in the jeep."
The sound of a TARDIS materializing had made them all pause, watching with an
assortment of reactions as their Fourth version showed up.
"That meteorite is at it again," Three grumbled. "Which one is
this?"
Jamie looked down at the rock he was carrying with some alarm. "I didn't
make it do that, did I?"
"No no, at least I don't think so," Two reassured him. "This is
another of me, is it? What a ridiculously long scarf. I don't like it."
"The Fourth of us," said
Five "So both of you are getting there."
"I'd forgotten about that scarf for a second..." Nine muttered to
himself.
"So how are we going to stop this meteorite from continuing to doing
this?" asked Nyssa, "All of you don't really want to be trapped here
for the rest of... er... your lives..."
"Yes, fourth." Four said,
flipping his scarf back over his shoulder. "Sarah, are you all
right?"
Sarah nodded and hurried over to Three. "Doctor!" she exclaimed in
wonder ."How are you both here?"
Three was a bit startled by the
little dark-haired lady who ran up to him and gave him a familiar hug.
"I'm sorry my dear, I don't think we've met yet...though I'm sure you're
perfectly lovely whenever we do." He gestured to the various people around
them. "And I'm afraid there's far more that just 'both' of me here at the
moment." He considered this rather
loosely organized version of himself critically. It was a disappointment to think his precise and proper fashion
sense would lapse again so quickly, but at least he wouldn't lose any of his
height...in fact, they appeared to be exactly the same.
Two looked up at Three and Four who were obviously measuring each other.
"Uppity bean-poles," he muttered, rolling his eyes. He turned to
Jamie. "Come along, my boy. Shall we take the helicopter again?"
"Nooo," Jamie said. "I canna carry this rock and hang on to that
whirlybird. Can't we take a car this time?"
"Oh yes," Victoria said. "Maybe we can ride in the yellow one
again!"
Four strode up. "Yes, or are you all just as lost as we are - oh
dear." He said as he saw the Master. He came up to him, took the bag off
his head and quickly put it back.
"It figures it would be you causing all this." Four said.
"I merely provided the scienti-" The Master started.
"It is very hard to talk to a man with no face." He took a marker out
of his coat pocket and drew a curved line and two dots on the bag.
"There." He grinned, showing his large white teeth. "You look
happy for a man with a bag on his head."
Benton grinned at the smiley-face on the Master's bag and sat him down in the jeep. He looked around, waving an arm. "Any volunteers to ride with the Master? Don't all rush in at once..."
"We'll go with you
Benton," Five volunteered. "That will leave room for others in the
helicopter and he can't do much with the bag over his head and such."
Nyssa followed him "Mainly he can't do much with his electronic toys taken
away."
--
The Brigadier stuck his head into the door of the lab. "Doctor?"
"Yephh?" Six looked up from where he was sharing a cake with Peri.
That is, where he was eating the cake and Peri was doodling in the frosting on
a plate for lack of anything else to do.
"I...er... enjoying your cake?"
Six swallowed and smiled at him generously. "I always enjoyed UNIT's
cooking. The very best. Nothing like it. Care for some cake? How are the rest
of me holding out, by the way? We've heard nothing, but there's been a few odd
twinges here and there."
"Twinges? I don't understand," Peri said, picking a bit of frosting
from her décolletage.
The Brigadier politely averted his eyes. "No thank you, I've already had
my tea. They seem to be accomplishing their goal... er, Doctor?"
"Yes?" He took another huge bite of cake.
"Aren't you going to, well, cobble up something to help with all this? Do
a bit of monitoring or fixing something up? I thought given an entire lab to do
as you like with, and a TARDIS as well..." he gestured over to the box in
the corner.
Six snorted. "Why should I? There's enough of me working on it
already."
The Brigadier considered this and looked at all the piles of dishes on the
worktable. "Ah. Well. You know, you really don't quite seem
yourself."
"What? Of course I'm myself," Six said.
"What does he mean?" Peri whined. "I don't understand!"
"Shut up, Peri!" Six said. He picked up a bun and poked it into her
mouth.
The Brigadier glowered. The Doctor he knew would never treat a lady like this.
It was the final strike against him.
"Doctor," he said, "Or whoever you really are, I'm afraid
I must place you under arrest!"
"What...?" Six blustered
in self-righteous disbelief as several beefy UNIT men came in to take him out
of the lab. "What is the meaning of this?"
The Brigadier shook his head as the large man was half-dragged, complaining and
shouting, down the hall. He turned to Peri. "I do hope you'll forgive me,
Miss, but I'll have to place you under observation as well. Just a precaution,
you understand, until we can ascertain the true identity of that man."
"But he is the Doctor!" Peri said, spitting out the bun.
"I don't understaaaand!"
"Yes, well," the Brigadier said, escorting her out. "I'm sure
all will be clear once the real Doctors get back." He ignored her
protests; in his opinion it wouldn't take much to deceive this particular
companion. His working theory was this supposed 'Doctor' might be a cohort of
the Master, or maybe even a very strange version of the Master himself. Maybe
his endless desires for world domination had changed to merely dominating the
kitchen.
--
Ian sat on a chair in the control
room next to Barbara, watching One work on the console.
"He's been at it for hours. I don't think we'll be going anywhere
soon." Ian sighed. He laughed. "You know, we could always go and see
what the others are up to."
"Yes maybe we should"
agreed Barbara "But can both of us go if we leave the Doctor here?"
She didn't think they would be able to get him to go with them yet."
--
"You... you don't know
me?" Sarah asked, stepping back from Three.
"No, not yet." Four said in serious voice. With a sudden change of
mood he turned to his other incarnations. "Well I just got here, are we
leaving already?" An enormous grin was across his face.
"We need to get the Master back to UNIT." Jo explained.
"I expect that my sixth incarnation is being useless in the lab but we
should check on him." Seven said.
Ten nodded "Knowing me, I agree."
"Who's this one?" Rose asked Nine, motioning to Four.
Zoe walked up to the yellow roadster. "I don't think we can all fit in
here." She said. "There's six of us and four seats."
The Master shook his head, trying to get the bag off but it was no use. His
failed attempt to escape only made the UNIT men more cautious with gun ready at
all times.
"Doctors!" Benton said to
the crowd in general. "Is there anything in that barn that needs to be
destroyed? We still have our bazooka."
"Oh, no, I think we got everything we needed. By all means, go right
ahead!" Two said cheerfully.
"No doubt it would only cause too many questions if left laying
about," Three nodded in rare agreement with him.
Benton grinned and signaled to his waiting men. "Bazooka team! Fire at
will!"
Everyone gaped with varying expressions as the barn abruptly blew apart into a
multitude of red-painted boards and bits of machinery, all roiled in a cloud of
old hay.
"Nicely done, Sergeant," Three said and turned his attention to his
car, quickly claiming the driver's seat. "Come along, Jo. Good grief, how
many do you expect poor old Bessie to carry? Oh, very well..." The little
yellow car was filled to the brim with people as he cranked her engine.
The helicopter lifted up over the trees, setting down near the smoking remains
of the barn. "Jamie!" Two shouted over the sound of the blades,
seeing Victoria had climbed into that ridiculous yellow car. "Climb
in!"
"He's the fourth of me,"
Nine was explaining to Rose, "Now come on, we need to get into one of
these things if we're going to get to UNIT at all." He pulled her with him
and headed toward one of the helicopters.
"Come on then Doctor," said Martha to Ten, "we don't want to get
left behind now do we?" she felt she had to stick with her doctor now that
Rose was with Nine.
Benton guided the jeep down onto
the main road, then began pushing the
speed limits a bit. Having the Master in his care, even if he was bagged
still made him nervous. He hoped Five was still as capable of dealing with
Master-induced nonsense as his other versions were - to be honest, he was
doubtful...he seemed so congenial and generally nice - but if there was
anything Benton had learned over the years, it was to never underestimate the
Doctor.
The wind whipped past the open jeep. Benton looked in his mirror and was rather
disconcerted to see the smiley-face on the Master's bag was rotating around and
around his head as it turned in the wind.
Victoria frowned as she realized Jamie wasn't going to be with her in the
little yellow car, though she had to admit Zoe and Jo weren't that bad for
company when they weren't being competition. Three followed the jeep down the
muddy track and onto the main road, glancing up as Seven happily shot overhead
in the gyrocopter once again.
"I really ought to outfit Bessie with some wings," he mused.
"They could fold out from the sides... no, wait. That would make her look
like Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang. Maybe just build some kind of jet-car...."
Ahead of them the Master's bag-smile disconcertingly kept looking back at them
every time it rotated round and round.
Sarah watched the exodus of
vehicles. "Looks like everyone's leaving. How are we going to bring the
TARDIS with us. I mean, everyone else said that theirs aren't moving so it
would only be logical for yours to be broken as well."
"We can hook it up to that helicopter with cables." Four said,
motioning to the flying machine that was ready to take off at any moment.
"And us?" Sarah asked. "Don't tell me we're going to hang from
cables as well!"
"That would be silly." Four remarked with a grin. "We'll stay
inside the TARDIS."
"Oh. Why didn't I think of that." Sarah smiled and stepped inside,
letting the Doctor explain things to the pilot.
--
Jo was glad to be with only her Doctor again, rather than a plethora of them.
Though Bessie was rather crowded with Zoe, Victoria, and Ace and Nine, it felt
less crowded than it had back at the barn.
"What did they used on that explosion?" Ace asked.
"Bazookas." Jo said, yawning. Her day had been long, though it was
only afternoon and the sun was still high.
"It's a pity. There was quite a bit of good equipment in there." Zoe
sighed.
"We got what the Doctor said he needed." Ace help up a piece of
equipment.
--
Jamie sat in the helicopter with
the others, clutching the ill-fated rock on his lap - it was pretty heavy and
he had to keep shifting it to keep his legs from falling asleep. Two kept
looking at it curiously and mumbling, but didn't volunteer to help. Jamie hoped
whatever it was that was strange about this rock it wasn't going to be
affecting him.
They watched as the helicopter cables were being firmly hooked to the TARDIS
and the pilot finally started to lift off, the dark-haired girl and the tall,
weirdly bug-eyed Doctor now inside it. He was a strange one, that Doctor, Jamie
thought, not that his own Doctor wasn't a little strange sometimes too....
The helicopter lifted up, leaving behind the haze of smoke from the ruined barn
and the tiny figures of the UNIT men who were packing up the bazooka and
supplies. The blue box dangled neatly beneath it.
"Higher!" Two suddenly called to the pilot. "You'll catch the
TARDIS in the trees!"
--
In the jeep, Five found the spinning
of the paper bag on the Master's head a bit disconcerting as well as
distracting, but not quite as distracting as a TARDIS attached to the bottom of
a helicopter and practically being driven into the trees.
Nyssa looked back to see what Five was looking at, "what do they think
they're doing? They're going to have to lift up much higher if they're going
anywhere with the TARDIS swinging from the bottom, there were some higher trees
earlier on too and they'll be sure to run into those as well."
"Well let's hope they notice that," Five agreed, "there's not
much we can do from down here. Unless you can contact them from down here
Benton?"
Benton glanced at the vibrating,
hand-drawn smiley, which was looking straight at him, and found Five's request
a welcome distraction from this other distraction. "Yes sir," he said
and reached for the radio.
"Trap One to Eggbeater, Trap One to Eggbeater...over."
There was a pause then static. "Pffssss.... Eggbeater....ssss.... we
read."
"Eggbeater, you're too low! The Doc's box is going to hit the trees,
over!" The paper smiley slowly rotated around until it seemed to be
looking back at the helicopter. It would have been eerie except it kept going
around until the Master appeared to be smiling at Nyssa instead.
"Pssssffff....cable....sssst...trees....zzzfff ff." came the garbled
reply. It sounded like several voices were all talking up there.
Nyssa moved the bag so it was facing back again and held it
there, she'd had enough of its spinning.
"Thank you Nyssa," said Five a bit distractedly as he tried to
decipher what they were saying on the radio.
--
Nine had lost Rose somewhere in the shuffle and ended up squeezed in the yellow
car, which he did not think he was going to enjoy. The crowd of girls was not
his first choice of fellow passengers.
Martha meanwhile had also lost Ten, assuming he would find Rose, and had talked
Sarah-Jane into letting her come into Four's TARDIS, which she was now
regretting.
Rose looked down at the dangling TARDIS from the helicopter
that she had some how ended up on. She was glad that at least one of her
Doctors was with her, and wondered about the other. There were an awful lot of
them. She suddenly gasped as she realized the box below them was quite
dangerously headed into a lot of branching trees.
Four abruptly opened the doors and leaned out. "Higher!" He shouted
to the helicopter. He put his hand to his head to stop his hat from flying
away. His scarf, coat, and hair flew chaotically around him.
"Sarah," He said, as there was no action.
Sarah went over to the door and shouted with him. "HIGHER! HIGHER!"
They both shouted as loud as they could. The helicopter rose just in time to
stop them from hitting a tree. The bottom of the TARDIS scrapped across the top
of it.
The Doctor waved up at the pilot and then closed the doors again.
"We were nearly crashed into those trees." Sarah said, leaning with
on hand on the console. She leaned over and picked up a few twigs that had
ended up inside.
Martha stood by them once the doors had closed, truthfully UNIT hadn't changed all that much over the years but she hoped her UNIT was more competent than that.
"Well, that was a near thing
now, wasn't it?" Two said, watching over the edge so intently that Jamie
reached out his free hand to grab at his coattails lest he tip right out.
Jamie looked over at Rose a bit self-consciously. "He needs lookin' after
sometimes," he explained, firming his grip on the coat. Two, his dark hair
flying about madly, didn't even notice.
"Not even a scratch. Well, not too many anyway," he called back into
the helicopter, as if this should've been of great concern to all of them.
--
"Hasn't changed much." Rose laughed. She glanced over the side at the dangling police box. "Does he ever do that thing where he won't tell you where your going, though he knows himself, and then leaves it to your to guess?" She asked.
Jamie laughed at that. "Know
where he's going? Him?"
"I heard that!" Two grumbled as he sat back in his seat again.
"And I do too know where I'm going, at least where I intend to go.
Usually. Don't listen to him, my dear."
--
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart had just sat down to rest his feet a moment and
finally finish his now-cold cup of coffee when he glanced out the window of his
office and groaned. In the distance it was plain to see there was not only a
small helicopter and a large helicopter, but the larger one had a very familiar
blue box dangling beneath it.
"Oh no. Not another one..." he said and swigged an aspirin down with
his coffee. That psuedo-Doctor in the holding cell downstairs had yet to let up
with his long, blustering, insulted lectures and the Brigadier had finally
pretended he had work to do just to get away from it for a while, sending poor
Captain Yates to deal with the multicoloured maniac in his stead.
"Well, at least we'll soon have an answer about whether he's the Master or
not," he said to himself. "Gads, what a day."
Meanwhile, Mike Yates stood by the
cell attempting to ignore the multi-coloured man's ranting and contradictions.
"If you could please be quite for just a minute it would much
appreciated." He finally said, ears tiered of hearing what the man had to
say.
"Be quiet for a minute?!" Six exclaimed, his voice echoing around the cinderblock walls of the holding cell. "Be QUIET for a minute?! Here you've locked me up for absolutely no reason, you've accused and vastly insulted me with the worst case of mistaken identity that my poor ears have ever had the audacity to receive, you've allowed my pot-pie to go cold and all you can say is you want me to be QUIET for a MINUTE?!" He marched up and down the tiny room indignantly. "WELL, I can see UNIT hasn't changed one whit! Are you planning to shoot me as well? Would make as much sense as the rest of this. A dozen regenerations of the Master could be lurking around these walls right now and what do you do? You lock ME up. ME!! Hello? Your OWN Scientific Advisor? The one who can stop him? Are you listening? I don't think you're listening to me... Captain Yates, take your fingers out of your ears this instant, I'm TALKING to you...!"
Nearby, Peri perched on the edge of
the bench in her own holding cell with a small stack of blankets and coats
discarded beside her. She just didn't understand why all of the UNIT people
kept wanting to wrap her up in various garments, she wasn't at all cold.
"Excuse me?" she asked her guard, bouncing up to the bars and
squashing her anatomy against them, not for the first time. "Why did you
lock us up again? The Doctor said you were his friends. I don't understand!"
"Here now, Miss," said the blushing soldier. "Er...would you
like a jacket?"
--
Four looked at the scanner and smiled. "We're well above the trees
now." He noticed only at that time that there was another passenger
aboard. "Oh hello. Have we met? What are you doing here?" He said,
striding over to the young girl who stood by the wall.
"Um, not quite, at least not formally." Martha thought this new Doctor seemed friendly, if a bit large. "I am apparently riding with you back to UNIT. Oh, I'm Martha Jones, by the way."
"Martha Jones, I'm the Doctor and this is Sarah-Jane." Four said with a grin, rapidly shaking her hand. "Which one of me are you generally with?"
"Oh, I'm with number Ten, kind of." Her hand still kept bouncing after his very vigorous handshake, "or I was and then I wasn't and then I was, it's all rather confusing."
--
The Master leaned toward Nyssa. "It's rather stuffy under this bag and I'm
afraid I'm having quite a hard time breathing." He said quietly, coughing
in a polite, small way as not to let Five hear. "Perhaps you could let
this bag off of me. For only a moment of course. We wouldn't want anything to
happen and I am sure that our friend here would disapprove. I won't harm
you."
Nyssa had been ignoring the Master but she couldn't help but notice his comment
about finding it difficult to breathe. She knew the Master couldn't be trusted
but she could understand how it would be hard to breathe under that bag.
Rolling her eyes she loosened the bottom of the bag.
"And that's it, there is no way on this earth or any other that I'm taking
that bag off anymore." She hissed at him, glancing at Five who was talking
to Benton to see if he had noticed.
The Master abruptly flung his head to the side making the bag fall off and fly away in the wind. He met the girl's eyes and spoke in a soft voice that only she could hear. "You will obey me."
Once the Master was sure he had a
hold on the girl he continued with her instructions. "This vehicle must be
stopped at all costs. Get the Sergeant’s gun and give it to me."
Zoe hadn't noticed the bag coming until it hit her in the face, letting out a
little shriek of surprise.
"What that?" Ace took the bag and looked at the smile on it. She
handed the bag to Jo who showed it to Three.
"I think we should get this back to them. The wind must have blown it off
of the Master's head," she said.
"Yes, I saw it blow off,"
Three said, squinting up at the vehicle ahead of them. "I can't say it's a
good idea either, even if he is with one of me... still, it would be
best to return it."
He glanced back at his carful of passengers. "Hold on, now," he said,
beginning to accelerate.
There was a rising shrieking and
whooping from a variety of throats as Bessie roared forward, intending to come
alongside the jeep just ahead of them.
--
Nyssa leaned forward with Five who was still talking to Benton, hoping neither
of them would look back and see the maskless Master. Making up something on the
spot she started in with, "Sergeant Benton, could you stop a moment, I
think we lost something back there." She hoped he would turn around so she
could have a chance to grab either the wheel or his gun while he was turning.
"What?" Benton, whose
edginess over his passenger had been somewhat set at ease through the pleasant
demeanor of this particular Doctor suddenly went back to full alert. "What
did we lose?"
All he could think of, irrationally, was that the Master himself had somehow
jumped overboard. He braked, pulling out his gun from its holster as he turned
to check on his prisoner - only to be doubly astonished by the innocent-seeming
girl unexpectedly wresting it right from his hand.
Nyssa handed the gun to the Master and started climbing over the seat to stop
the car while Five tried to get the gun back from the Master. He wondered how
in the world he had convinced Nyssa to take the bag off, and where had that bag
gone? It would be inconvenient to gain control of him only to have him start
hypnotizing people left and right.
Greatly alarmed, Benton struggled
to keep control of the jeep and might have managed it if the gun waving around
between the Doctor and the Master hadn't accidentally gone off. He felt an
impact on his arm as the bullet smacked into him, followed by the weight and
force of a very determined Nyssa - the combination of which knocked the hapless
Sergeant sideways and sent the jeep slewing around the road crazily.
Three frowned in concern as the jeep suddenly went weaving erratically all over
the road, the arms and bodies of its occupants flailing around madly. Bessie,
which had just been coming up alongside, was in danger of being hit and he was
forced to back off. He stayed alongside the wildly moving vehicle, though it
meant having to steer her onto the shoulder then into the fields to do it.
Nyssa intended to drive the jeep
into Bessie but she ended up plowing into a tree instead. Having done what the
Master had ordered her she sat on the edge of the jeep waiting for further
orders.
Meanwhile Five, who was glad the jeep had stopped without too much damage to
any of them, was still trying to get the gun back from the master and thought
he might get somewhere with it as long as Nyssa didn't get back involved. He
didn't really have much hope of Benton helping and was just happy that he
seemed to be okay.
As the jeep fishtailed around the
road then impacted a tree, Benton was thrown from the vehicle, rolling, rather
stunned, into the nearby ditch where he watched with astonishment as the
underside of a yellow car shot overhead.
Three spun Bessie to a mud-skidding halt after jumping the ditch to avoid
hitting the suddenly stopped jeep, all of his passengers whooping and just
hanging on like the seasoned companions that they were. He leapt out and ran
back towards the wreck, bag in hand.
Victoria followed the others as they all clambered out, but it was she who
noticed there was something down in the grassy ditch. "Oh! Why, it's Mr.
Benton!"
"Sergeant..." corrected Benton in a faint voice, clutching his arm.
Jo searched Bessie's boot for
anything that might be used as a bandage for the Sergeant's arm. "Does
anyone have any strips of cloth or anything?" Jo asked, now digging around
the glove box.
"Will this work?" Ace took something out of her bag and handed it to
Jo.
"You carry around gauze with you?" Zoe asked, looking into the bag.
"Used to have an emergency ladder but I lost that a while back." Ace
replied.
Jo knelt beside Benton with the gauze in hand. "This should help."
she said and began wrapping it around the wounded arm. She didn't need nearly
as much as the roll had but gave him a good lot anyway then took scissors from
Ace to cut it.
Benton sat up, rather abashed at
having to be taken care of by so many young ladies. "Thank you Miss,
Misses...I'm fine," he said as he tried to get to his feet then suddenly
remembered why he was there in the first place. "Where's the Master gone
off to?" he asked in alarm, automatically reaching for his gun that wasn't
there.
The Master was normally dignified in how he went about things, but this was no
ordinary time. He had been obliged to put his feet into action. "You never
learn, do you, Doctor!" The wild kicks that where aimed at Five finally
had their uses as his fellow Timelord's grip was loosed enough for him to grab
the gun and run.
"Follow me." He said simply to Nyssa as he hurried away.
--
Everyone watched as the helicopter
pilot carefully lowered the dangling TARDIS into the car park at UNIT HQ.
"Right! Right! That's good. No, wait. Left! North, I mean. Down...down...
More to the other side. Left!" called out his various passengers.
"Whose left?" the pilot grumbled to himself, trying to ignore them.
"Starboard! Starboard!" Two hollered helpfully over the noise of the
blades.
--
Three sprinted for his enemy, who was hoofing it away from the ruined jeep into
the field. A girl, his Fifth self's companion, was chasing after him. Good
girl! he thought, very spirited, whatever her name was. It was a moment later
before he realized she wasn't chasing him, but following him - what, was
she a double-agent then?
Digging in his heels he dashed after them, closing the distance nicely, only to
have the Master rather suddenly turn and shove Nyssa right into him.
Three staggered back, his arms suddenly full of Nyssa, as the Master dodged
past him towards the idling Bessie.
Five sat stunned for a second as Three and Nine ran past, Nine lagging behind because it had taken him a while to get out of the very crowded Bessie. As Five started after them as well he saw the Master shove Nyssa into three and turn to run toward Bessie with Nine still a fair way behind him. He didn't think any of them had much chance of catching up with him now and ran back to the jeep, "Benton, are you feeling better or should I drive?"
Benton looked over at the jeep
where it remained crunched into the tree. "No!" he shouted back from
where he was climbing up from the ditch, favoring his bandaged arm. "That
is, I suppose I'm all right, but that jeep is hardly drivable, is it?"
"Oh no!" Victoria said from where she was helping him climb. She
pointed back towards the yellow car. "He's going to steal it!"
"Well I was trying to be optimistic" said Five "but I suppose you're right. And it is now past tense Victoria, he has stolen the car."
"Hey!" Ace suddenly leapt
into Bessie and tackled the Master right out of the yellow roadster. Zoe and Jo
quickly followed and helped in pinning him to the ground.
"Don't look at his eyes!" Jo warned. "Being hypnotized once was
more than enough."
Ace took the remaining gauze and rolled the Master over, pulling his hands
behind his back, and tying them up. Zoe and Jo made sure he didn't move while
Ace did her work.
"Doctor!" Jo called. It was aimed at Three but she received more
attention than she intended.
Everyone came running, gathering
around in a crowd.
"Good work!" Three said admiringly of Ace. "No wonder I have her
for a companion later on. Here we go..." He took the now somewhat rumpled
but serviceable bag he still had and stuck it back over the Master's head.
"Ah. A vast improvement if I say so myself."
Victoria looked around at the lot of them. "This car is certainly going to
be crowded," she noted. "There's nine of us!"
Benton looked at the Master with disgust. "Well, this chap can ride in the
boot, I would think. He's caused us enough trouble already."
"Yes," Five agreed with Benton, "and I'm sure the rest of us can squeeze in for a short trip."
Three and Nine hefted the unhappy
Master and folded him into the boot, then shut it. "There, that ought to
hold him for the moment," Three noted. Seeing the dazed Nyssa vaguely
wandering about, he brought her over to 'her' Doctor. "I'm afraid he was
up to his old tricks again - looks like the poor girl was hypnotized. Go on,
old chap, snap her out, I've to load my car."
He turned to the assembled group. "Well, I have the driver's seat. You'll
have to sort out the rest for yourselves." He climbed in and cranked the
engine back to life, muttering about hoping the old girl's suspension would
hold up.
"Doctor! Let me out of here!
You will regret this!" The Master's muffled shouts came from the boot,
accompanied with banging and failed attempts to free himself.
Jo was quick to move herself beside Three but she was forced to move right up
against him as Ace crammed herself in the front. Zoe and Victoria had gotten in
first but were being nearly squashed by the other people. Benton managed to fit
in the front seat. The back seat was filled with Five and Nyssa.
--
"...and FURTHERMORE," Six was saying in the holding cell. "I
completely disapprove of this manner of identifying someone. Haven't you ever
had off days, Captain? Would you like it if I just came along and locked YOU up
because you were acting more like Harry Sullivan or the tea-lady or something
than like yourself? Would you? And, must I remind you, I am an extremely
complex and multi-faceted person whose BEST regeneration to date you are
clearly failing to appreciate! I should say! Captain Yates, come back in here,
take that pillow off of your head, now listen to me! And speaking of tea, my
tea is cold. I demand if you are going to go about locking up your VERY OWN
Scientific Advisor you might at least bring me more tea and add some biscuits
while you're at it."
--
Four flipped on the scanner and his eyes widened. Opening the door he shouted
up to the pilot. Little was heard except something about being careful and mad.
The door shut again and he grabbed the consol with one hand and Sarah with the
other. "Hold on." He said. The TARDIS shook as it hit the ground on
it's side. Four was pulled over as Sarah lost her footing and fell. There was
silence for a moment and then the TARDIS moved as, apparently, it was turned
back upward. Sarah opened then door. "Who ever the pilot is needs to be
more careful."
Seven landed only a minute after the helicopters and hurried over to them.
"Where is everyone?" He said, looking past Four's TARDIS as if
expecting to see Bessie and the jeep hiding behind it.
