Category: Series 3

The Sontarans seized control of the Chimeran Hammer and aligned it with the fleet. The Doctor, her team, Dr. Psychobos, and Vilgax were brought to the Command Ship as prisoners. They were all brought to the command deck. “The Hand is charging, General,” reported a Sontaran. “It will be ready for use in two hours.”

“Very good, Commander,” replied Skrem. “This will be the last disgraceful day of the 10^th Sontaran Fleet’s existence.”

“As long as we have time,” remarked the Doctor, “I confess I’m curious.”

“When aren’t you?” scoffed Skrem. “What troubles you now, Doctor?”

“Why have us here? We’re obviously not going to remember it.”

“Your fellow prisoners, no. But you, Doctor? It will live on in the back of your mind, even when you regenerate into new forms!”

“Then why don’t you tell me how this whole operation intends to work once the Hand reaches full charge? I mean, we’re all prisoners here.”

“I have a better idea, Doctor, than blabbing about our plans and giving you a chance to undo it all. While we wait for the Hand to reach full charge, why don’t we FIGHT!”

“…Fight?!” repeated the Doctor.

“What do you say, my warriors?!” Skrem called to his men.

“Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!” chanted the Sontarans.

“I’ll take up that challenge!” called Amy.

“Hold on!” roared Vilgax. “They were MY allies! I’LL be the one to kill Skrem!”

“Such ardor!” cackled Skrem. “New plan, Doctor! I’ll fight your companion! Of course, I’ll have an ally with me! Commander Velt!”

“Yes, sir!” replied the Sontaran Commander. “Will I be facing Vilgax or the pink thing?”

“Hm, good point,” remarked Skrem. “Who will be taking on the pink thing?

“The pink thing has a name, you know!” snapped Amy.

“Amy, I sure hope you know what you’re doing!” hissed the Doctor.

“Doctor,” Amy whispered so the Sontarans couldn’t hear, “this might be our only shot at stopping them! While they’re distracted-!”

“I know what the goal is, Amy, but fighting a Sontaran might prove fatal!”

“Then you and Ben better hurry and figure this out!” Amy wouldn’t be dissuaded, much to the Doctor’s chagrin.

“…Stay alive, will you?” muttered the Time Lord.

“Naturally,” assured Amy. She and Vilgax then approached Skrem and Velt. “How are we doing this?”

“With gravity clubs!” replied Skrem.

“You Sontarans use those things in duels?” grunted Vilgax. He turned to Amy. “Gravity clubs have a relative weight of ten pounds, but the weight doubles every few swings until its wielder cannot lift their club to defend themselves or their skull is split open by their opponent’s club.”

“…Charming,” muttered Amy.

“Bring forth the clubs!” ordered Skrem. A Sontaran carrying a case came forth. He opened the case to reveal four metal clubs. Skrem, Velt, Amy, and Vilgax took up their clubs. “I shall take the first swing!” cackled Skrem. He swung his club hard, but Amy and Vilgax leapt out of the way. “Velt, let’s see your swing!” said Skrem.

“Yes, Sir!” replied Velt. He swung his club, but Amy and Vilgax dodged again. “A gymnast, hm?” chuckled Velt.

“You two will not be so agile after a few rounds!” cackled Skrem. “Your turn!”

“Your mistake!” snarled Vilgax. He swung his club and made a dent in the floor once his Sontaran opponents dodged.

---

While Amy and Vilgax were fighting their Sontaran opponents, the Doctor snuck away with Ben and Rook following. “Why’d you need us?” asked Ben.

“Because I have a theory,” remarked the Doctor. “You being discovered on Vilgax’s ship seemed to be like the lot of you were going through the motions. And Skrem’s talk of the entire 10^th Sontaran Fleet being desperate also looked like they said it so many times. On top of that, my TARDIS detected unusual chronon activity before Professor Paradox grabbed it and forcibly landed us in front of Rook’s squadron. …What if the Hand of Eon put everyone into a time loop to defend itself?”

“A time loop? How would we know?” asked Rook.

“Clockwork might check,” said Ben.

“…Ben, I have a better idea. Scan me,” directed the Doctor.

“Huh?”

“I know what I said, but I need another Time Lord’s help. Now scan me!”

“…Well, if you insist,” said Ben. He aimed the Omnitrix at the Doctor and a scanner light surrounded the Doctor briefly. It vanished after a few seconds.

“New alien DNA now available,” reported the Omnitrix.

“All right, let’s test this out.” Ben selected the new alien hologram, slid the Omnitrix’s cover back, then pressed down on the core. The watch then sunk into his arm…then the Omnitrix symbol appeared on his chest.

“…I think you accidentally unlocked the human form,” remarked Rook.

“No, no, hang on,” said Ben. “There’s two hearts in here. …And telepathic powers. …And temporal sensitivity. I’m a Time Lord like the Doctor here. …And there’s definitely temporal energy looping back on itself, but it’s fading around Rook and the rest of us.”

“So the Hand of Eon DID put you all into a time loop,” remarked the Doctor. “Well, we’ll have to minimize the time loop’s field around the Hand so it only loops on itself and not everyone else around them. I did a similar trick with Axos and the Vardans.”

“And that’s why you needed another Time Lord’s help,” realized Ben, “to double-check your work.”

“It’s very delicate work. Mind if I walk you through it? Telepathically? It’s a bit involved and we’re pressed for time.”

“All right. Contact.”

“Contact.” The two closed their eyes and workshopped the plan telepathically. They then opened their eyes.

“All right,” said Ben, “let’s get to it. It’s most likely down this corridor.”

---

Back on the command deck, the duel still went on. Amy and Vilgax were moderating their swings a lot better than their Sontaran opponents. “Stop…prancing about, Pink Thing!” panted Skrem. His and Velt’s clubs were now at 320 pounds, heavy for a Sontaran, but not impossible to lift. Amy’s and Vilgax’s were only at 80 pounds, rather light for Amy, considering how heavy her hammer is.

“…How is this possible?” asked Vilgax. “I know this is my first time dueling Skrem, yet I feel as though I fought him before and the fight is different somehow!”

“Might I offer my two cents?” asked a voice. Amy dodged a blow from Velt and looked behind her.

“Professor Paradox!” she yelped.

“Good afternoon, Miss Rose,” greeted Professor Paradox.

“What are you doing here, Time Walker?!” demanded Vilgax.

“Oh, clearing things up, as usual,” replied Professor Paradox. “Now, let’s see, the Doctor will most likely be theorizing, correctly, I may add, why I brought her TARDIS into this time loop.”

“Time loop? Ridiculous!” scoffed Skrem.

---

“It’s really simple,” the Doctor said to Rook as she and Ben worked around an armored hand in purple, “the Hand of Eon is the literal hand of a temporally-powerful madman.”

“And any ‘sane’ madman,” said Ben, “would take steps to protect themselves.”

“So it created a time loop to protect itself?” asked Rook.

“Specifically to prevent anyone other than its owner to use it,” summarized the Doctor.

---

“So anyone that ISN’T Eon,” realized Gwen, “would be imprisoned until Eon came back for it.”

“Precisely, Gwendolyn,” confirmed Professor Paradox. “And Vilgax and his poorly-chosen allies served as the perfect prisoners. …Although, you lot getting involved upset my calculations.”

---

“Obviously, since you lot are his friends,” continued the Doctor, “he needed to get you out. But the time loop was causing too much temporal turbulence for him to safely enter.”

“But he knew what the power source for the time loop was,” Ben summarized, “so he needed something with enough strength to break into the loop and stop it from the inside.”

“Cue him hijacking my TARDIS without asking,” grumbled the Doctor.

“Well, the outer plasmic shell could break through it, but it would be nice to have a shell with shields, like a TARDIS.”

“Still, without asking!”

“…Ben, how are you able to keep up with the Doctor?!” protested Rook.

“I don’t know, how do I know what gas I use when I’m Gutrot?” asked Ben.

---

“Lies! All lies!” snarled Skrem as Paradox finished his explanation.

“And why would I lie about the time loop?” asked Paradox. “Or about Eon? He’s too much of a paranoid genius to leave things to chance. But, no fear, the time loop will be broken-,” a wave of energy then bowled everyone over, causing a cascading effect directly to where the Hand of Eon was held! “…Right about now!” chuckled Paradox.

“It won’t matter!” snarled Skrem. “My club will flatten you all!” He and Velt raised their clubs, straining under the weight!

“640 pounds,” chuckled Vilgax darkly. “That’s too much for a Sontaran.” That was when the two Sontarans fell to the floor in convulsions. “Thankfully, my 80 pound club is enough to paint the floor in your blood and brains!”

“NO!” shouted Amy. She whacked Vilgax in the ankle, toppling him.

“You DARE!” roared Vilgax.

“There’s no point! The duel is over!” insisted Amy.

“Miss Rose is quite right,” remarked Professor Paradox. “You’re about to have more immediate problems to deal with.”

“BOOSTERS!” called a Sontaran. “REVITALIZERS! NOW!” A Sontaran Trooper then arrived with a medical kit and tended to his fallen commanders.

“Amy…Rose…!” gasped Skrem. “You…did this! …I shall…form…a phalanx…of engineers…tasked solely with designing…new and exotic…ways to torture you!”

“They’ll have to have time machines for that,” remarked Amy. “Or standing orders.” That was when alarms rang throughout the ship!

“The air attack warning!” called a Sontaran.

“Air attack?” asked Vilgax.

“Mr. Levin DID ask for a heavily armed Plumber fleet to assist during the time loop,” replied Professor Paradox.

“After getting caught in the crossfire of Sontarans and Rutans,” remarked Kevin, “I didn’t wanna take any chances.”

“We better get the others and get out of here!” called Gwen. Her friends agreed and followed her. Vilgax, meanwhile, snarled as he decided to return to his ship and punch an escape hole. Thanks to Sontaran bungling, there was no way the Chimeran Hammer could handle a battle between the Plumbers and the Sontarans.

---

Gwen and her group ran through the corridors, dodging Sontarans all the way. They then bumped into the Doctor and her group. “Amy!” said the Doctor.

“Doctor, you’re all right!” said Amy. She then spotted someone…that looked like Gwen in Ben’s clothes. “…Did…Did Ben add your DNA to his watch?”

“She was okay with it,” replied the Gwen Clone. “I’m thinking of calling this form Time Walker.”

“Much as I appreciate the discovery of a Time Lord’s abilities,” said Professor Paradox, “we’re rather pressed for time. Everyone, gather around!” Everyone gathered and Professor Paradox opened his Chrononavigator. They all vanished as the Plumber fleet arrived to deal with the Sontarans and Vilgax.

---

They had returned to Plumber HQ, right in front of the TARDIS. Rook checked with the Plumber fleet. “…Skrem and his men have been arrested,” he reported. “Vilgax had returned to his ship and escaped. Dr. Psychobos fled in a Sontaran Scout Sphere.”

“Oof, arrested!” muttered the Doctor. “That will chafe a Sontaran. There’s no chance of him or the fleet regaining their honor.” She was then interrupted by a beeping noise.

“Sorry, that’s me,” said Time Walker as the Omnitrix symbol flashed.

“Ah, a cool-down period?” guessed the Doctor. Time Walker forcibly returned to being Ben Tennyson.

“Yeah, sometimes it happens at the worst time,” he said.

“Well, I’m sure you have a lot to do,” said the Doctor. “In the meantime…” she then swiped the Chrononavigator.

“I beg your pardon!” protested Professor Paradox as the Doctor fiddled with the Chrononavigator. “That’s delicate, Doctor!”

“I can’t have you,” replied the Doctor, “barging into my TARDIS like that. Next time you need my help, you call.” She finished her work on it and handed it back. “Speaking of TARDIS, let’s get going, Amy.”

“Goodbye, everyone!” called Amy.

“Oh, Doctor,” called Rook.

“Yes, Rook Blonko?”

“While Gallifrey as a whole is still banned from travelling to Revonnah, you, specifically, are no longer banned.”

“Are you sure you can make that decision?” asked the Doctor.

“I did not make that decision,” replied Rook. “My planet did.”

“…I’ll ask how later. For now, goodbye!” The Doctor and Amy entered the TARDIS and took off.

“…Goodbye, Doctor,” remarked Professor Paradox. “Until our next meeting.”

“Men, prepare arms!” ordered Skrem. His Sontarans aimed their weapons at the group.

“Wait a minute!” called Max. “You can’t just shoot us!”

“I want to see good, clean shots to the head and the heart!” Skrem said to his men. “Think you can manage that, Trooper?”

“Easily, Sir,” replied the Sontaran Trooper.

“Better make that ‘hearts’ plural,” interjected the Doctor. “I’m a Time Lord and we have two hearts.”

“…She has a point, Sir,” a Sontaran said to Skrem.

“Indeed. So, how do you want to do this?” asked the Doctor. “One shot in each heart for me? Four in the head?”

“One shot in one of the hearts and a shot in the head during the regeneration process will suffice, Doctor!” snapped Skrem.

“Ah, read up on when you lot invaded Gallifrey, huh?” muttered the Doctor.

“Just a second, General!” called Rook. “This is against the Galactic Code of Conduct! Who among you has claimed us as your execution targets? Benjamin Tennyson is the object of Vilgax’s vengeance!”

“Of course!” recalled the Doctor. “Article 7, Section 4, Subsection 6, Paragraph 3!”

“…Paragraph four, actually,” corrected Rook.

“The young Plumber and the Doctor are correct,” said Vilgax. “You would kill the Doctor, I would kill Tennyson. That was the agreement in accordance with Article 2, Section 3, Subsection 4, Paragraph 2.”

“Ah, but Paragraph 5 dictates that, in the event of evasion of capture, all targets are viable,” replied Skrem.

“Do you see them evading capture?!” snarled Vilgax.

“Oh, who cares about the rules!” complained Psychobos. “Just do the smart thing for once and k-k-k-kill them!”

“And wound Sontaran honor? Never,” replied the Doctor. “Rook, it’s been a while since I read the Galactic Code of Conduct. Which part of it concerns surrendered prisoners?”

“Article 2, Section 1, Subsection 1, Paragraph 1!” answered Rook. “Vilgax, Skrem, Psychobos, we all surrender in accordance with all that I have outlined!”

“You little-!” snapped Skrem.

“Doc, Rook, what are you two doing?!” protested Ben.

“Doctor, you better have some sort of plan!” hissed Amy.

“No, but I have breathing space to make one,” replied the Doctor. “Sontarans have two basic weaknesses. One is the probic vent on the backs of their necks, the other is their love of military protocol. Rook selected rules concerning surrendered prisoners and those rules are a little more involved than the ones involving fugitive combatants.”

“Ah, the ol’ tie-them-up-in-red-tape trick!” realized Amy.

“They’ll kill us once they figured out that particular knot,” said the Doctor, “so let’s keep adding more. Rook, do you have any electronic form of the Galactic Code of Conduct?”

“Yes, right in my-!” Rook’s smile faded as he remembered. “…Oh… Bralla Da! It’s in my quarters in Plumber HQ!”

“All right, new plan,” said the Doctor. “Follow my lead.” She cautiously led everyone out of the brig as Skrem and Vilgax loudly discussed the finer points of the Galactic Code of Conduct while Psychobos tried to shut them up about it.

---

The Doctor and her friends approached the bridge’s doors. A few guards were at the doors. “Blast. Knew it was too easy,” grumbled the Doctor. The robots spotted them.

“Intruders!” shouted one. “Put your two hands behind your backs!” Ben grinned, then selected an alien. He slid the Omnitrix’s cover back and pressed the core down. Green light surrounded him and he grew while gaining another set of arms. The light faded and in his place was a four-armed alien with four eyes and red skin.

“FOUR-ARMS!” he shouted. He put his right arms behind his back and used his left arms to punch the robots hard enough to scrap them. The Doctor blinked at the brutality. “…What?” asked Four-Arms. “I put two hands behind my back like he said!”

“That name’s on the nose,” remarked Amy.

“No, it’s Four-Arms,” corrected Four-Arms. “I don’t have an alien called On the Nose, not yet at least. If I did, I’d shout ON THE NOSE!”

“Why DID you shout that name anyways?” asked the Doctor.

“To strike fear into those rust buckets!” replied Four-Arms.

“Believe me,” sighed Gwen, “it was bliss when you stopped doing that, Doofus.”

“Oh, whatever, Dweeb!” scoffed Four-Arms as he used all four of his hands to tear the door off…and he immediately got shot at from the robots already on the bridge. “OW! HEY! THAT’S DIRTY FIGHTING!” protested Four-Arms as he tore through the robots. Once the bridge was cleared, the Doctor got to work. “Doc, whatever you have planned, probably wanna be quick about it,” warned Four-Arms. “Vilgax and his goons are sure to come here soon!”

“I need to find the ship’s archived monitor data,” said the Doctor.

“The what?” asked Kevin.

“Black box, flight recorder,” replied the Doctor. “Professor Paradox said Skrem’s after the Hand of Eon to undo a victory I gained over his clone ancestor, Staal, the original General of the 10^th Sontaran Fleet.”

“When was that?” asked Max.

“2009. They were responsible for the ATMOS crisis. While the devices DID reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the cars they were installed in, the Sontarans’ purpose for them was to use them to introduce clone feed into Earth’s atmosphere, turning it into a cloning world, where they would make new Sontarans to fight against the Rutans. I managed to stop him by igniting the clone feed introduced into the atmosphere. …So why would a Clone Descendant use time travel to undo that? Sontarans have strict codes of honor against that.”

“I think the question is why is he so desperate?” asked Kevin.

“…You’re quite right,” remarked the Doctor.

“Um, guys!” warned Amy as she pointed out the screens displaying the footage outside the bridge. Vilgax, Skrem, Psychobos and their men had arrived!

“Well, any chance for answers, I suppose,” muttered the Doctor as she keyed in a command on the console. The comms activated. “I will speak to General Skrem in accordance with Jurisdiction 2 of the Intergalactic Rules of Engagement!” The camera footage showed Skrem step towards the camera.

“Under Convention 5,” he said, “that will be the last bit of protocol you and your friends will ever spit at me!”

“That’s agreeable,” said the Doctor. “I never liked red tape in the long run. So, tell me, General Skrem…since when did the 10^th Sontaran Fleet become a pack of cowards?”

“HOW…DARE YOU!!!” roared Skrem. “Doctor, you impugn my honor!”

“I’m glad you chose the words Staal used. Because if you said ‘belittle’, I’d have a field day. But time travel to undo a defeat? Sontaran High Command branded that to be the action of a desperate coward and you know there’s a good reason for that. Skrem, you’ve got an entire fleet at your command, with all the bells and whistles, yet you want to use time travel to undo a defeat and kill Earth in the past! Where’s the fight in that?! Where’s the honor?! …Or, is there a reason behind such desperation? This isn’t the usual Sontaran warfare. How would this contribute to Sontar’s war effort?”

“If only we were permitted to contribute to the war effort, then we wouldn’t be so desperate!” The instant Skrem finished that sentence, the Doctor laughed.

“So,” she said, “the sins of the father are visited upon the son, eh?! Exiled from not only Sontar, but the entire war! That’s how much of a setback the terraforming project of ’09 was!”

“What war?” asked Ben. “I didn’t get that when I was Trohll.”

“The war between the Sontarans and the Rutans,” explained Amy, remembering what the Doctor said. “Who knows who started it and who really cares? All we want to know is how it ends.”

“It will end with Sontaran victory once I undo Staal’s defeat!” insisted Skrem.

“And the Hand of Eon will give you that mastery over time?” asked the Doctor.

“Naturally. …Failing that, though…a Chronosapian’s temporal mastery will serve!” Skrem’s ominous statement made Ben back up a bit.

“…Ben, why are you so scared?” asked the Doctor, worried.

“Just a minute, Skrem!” snarled Vilgax. “We had a deal! You don’t need the Omnitrix’s power!”

“Not its full power, no,” replied Skrem, “but the DNA sample of a Chronosapian will suffice!”

“Hold on, there’s Chronosapian DNA in that thing?!” the Doctor asked Ben.

“The form’s called Clockwork,” replied Ben.

“Azmuth made an agreement with the Time Lords!” hissed the Doctor. “All temporally-sensitive life-forms will be locked unless in dire circumstances! How often have you used Clockwork?!” Ben was denied the chance to answer. Vilgax and Psychobos were thrown through the door, smoking all over their bodies.

“You pitiful, barely sentient root v-v-vegetables!” snarled Psychobos. “And I use the term loosely!”

“You will regret crossing me, Skrem!” promised Vilgax.

“I very much doubt it,” replied Skrem. “I will fade from this timeline, as will the rest of the 10^th Sontaran Fleet as it stands, but Staal will make the original iteration of the fleet more powerful and more honorable with its victory through our sacrifice! For the glory of Blessed Sontar!”

“Sontar HA! Sontar HA! Sontar HA!”

“Sir!” called a Sontaran. “Primary objective obtained! It’s on the Command Ship!”

“Oh no!” whispered the Doctor.

“How many times have we been in a cell again?” Amy asked the Doctor as they sat in Plumber Lock-up.

“I’ve lost track, as I usually do on my adventures,” sighed the Doctor.

“…Doctor, what ARE the Sontarans like, anyways?” quizzed Amy.

“Nasty, brutish, and short, for one thing,” explained the Doctor. “They’re a clone race that, in this time, is engaged in a war with the Rutan Host. Around this time, it’s been raging for fifty thousand years.”

“Fifty thousand?!” yelped Amy.

“Yes,” confirmed the Doctor. “Thankfully, it fizzled out long before your time.”

“Who started the war? What’s the end goal here?”

“Both sides forgot.”

“…Knowing our luck, they forgot within the first year of that war,” muttered Amy.

“I don’t personally know, I never bothered to check,” said the Doctor, “but I think that would be an accurate assessment, Amy.”

“So what does a Sontaran look like?” asked Amy. The Doctor opened her mouth, then saw someone approaching their door.

“…That. That’s a Sontaran.” She pointed out a Sontaran in full armor, as usual…but the green eyes seemed off to her.

“That’s a Sontaran?” asked Amy. “But he’s-.”

“Free for some odd reason,” remarked the Doctor. “Oi! Soldier!”

“That’s Trohll to you,” replied the Sontaran.

“Well, what’s a troll like you doing in a place like this?”

“Let’s just say we have the same goals, Madame,” replied Trohll. He then opened the cell door! “Come on. We have work to do.”

“Hold on, you should know me!” protested the Doctor. “I’m not exactly a friend of the Sontarans!”

“Well, if you’re who I think you are, then I need your help in keeping the Hand of Eon away from the Sontarans,” said Trohll.

“Keep it away from the Sontarans. Right,” scoffed the Doctor. “We’ll play along for now.”

“Doctor?” asked Amy. The Doctor pulled Amy aside.

“There’s something not right about that Sontaran and I need to know what,” she explained. “Now, either we dither here and hope against hope that the Plumbers will release us, or we follow him and take care of this business quickly for Professor Paradox.”

“Doctor, if the Sontarans are as dangerous as you say they are,” said Amy, “should we trust that one?”

“Oh, Amy, where’s your faith?” asked the Doctor. “Who said we’re trusting him?” She then returned her attention to Trohll. “We’ll follow you for now.”

“Excellent,” replied Trohll. “Now, this way.”

---

The trio snuck out of the base quickly and arrived on the surface of Bellwood. The Doctor looked up to see Sontaran Battle Spheres. “Good grief! It’s a full invasion force!” she whispered.

“And we need to get up there,” muttered Trohll. “Four allies of mine are prisoners aboard the Chimeran Hammer.”

“Vilgax’s ship?” asked the Doctor. “Why would he need prisoners? …Unless he’s still looking for that watch.”

“The Omnitrix, yes,” said Trohll. “Ol’ Squidface has a one-track mind.”

“…Squidfa…” The Doctor was really confused now. No Sontaran ever talks like that! She then spotted something.

“Tell me, Trohll,” she said, “do Sontaran Scout Spheres go to Vilgax’s ship?” She pointed one out.

“They do,” replied Trohll. “And the robots that make up his crew will believe that I’m taking you as prisoners. Just long enough for me to get you to my friends.”

“Right then, we’d better take it,” said the Doctor. “Amy, it’s gonna be a bit…tight in there.”

“Can’t we steal another that can hold the two of us?” asked Amy.

“Too risky,” replied Trohll.

“Yes, I could conceivably fly a Scout Sphere,” explained the Doctor, “but what would Sontaran Command say if they discovered that prisoners of the Sontaran Empire were driving their own Sphere?” Amy had to concede that point. The trio then entered the Scout Sphere and, even with two small people, it was cramped.

“Trohll, get your foot off mine!” snapped Amy.

“Sorry, I think that’s me,” replied the Doctor as she shuffled away from Amy as best she could.

“Hey! That’s my head you’re touching!” protested Trohll as he checked the instruments. “Fuel…full tank. Oxygen…good enough for three on a journey to Vilgax’s ship. Hull integrity…at maximum. Right. Here we go.” He closed the Sphere’s door and took off. Once the Sphere breached the outer atmosphere of Earth, a Sontaran patrol intercepted them.

“Halt! State your business!” barked the Sontaran in charge of the patrol.

“This is Lieutenant Trohll of the Tenth Sontaran Battle Fleet,” replied Trohll, “bringing prisoners to the Chimeran Hammer for interrogation. Sending verification codes now.” Trohll keyed in the codes and sent them.

“…Verification codes confirmed,” said the Sontaran. “Proceed.”

“Acknowledged. Sontar HA!” Trohll ended the call and the craft made its way to the Chimeran Hammer. It then docked with the ship. “Right…Alien Scum! Out NOW!” Trohll was pretty good at barking orders and making threatening gestures. The Doctor and Amy got out with Trohll marching behind them, heading for the brig.

---

On the bridge, Vilgax sat in his chair. “Get me Psychobos!” he barked. A robot obeyed and activated a hologram of what looked like a giant purple crab with a moustache, a large cranium, and a large left claw.

“What is it, V-V-V-Vilgax?!” snapped the crab-person, Dr. Psychobos. “I’m very busy trying to reverse engineer Sontaran Technology for your proud vessel! And I use that term loosely.”

“Be warned, Psychobos!” snarled Vilgax. “If it wasn’t for me, you’d still be stuck in that universe! Your genius wouldn’t have saved you! …And I use that term loosely.”

“I AM a genius, thank you very much!” barked Psychobos. “You’ve been constantly harassing me for updates on how t-t-t-to destroy the Hand of Eon, setting back my work significantly! If there is an update, I shall inform you personally! And it’s DOCTOR Psychobos! Good day!” Dr. Psychobos ended the call.

“Insolent Cerebrocrustacean!” snarled Vilgax. “If I didn’t need his help-!” An alarm sounded. “Now what?!”

“Lord Vilgax, Trohll has arrived. Sontaran Command maintains that he’s a spy.”

“Of course he is,” sighed Vilgax in annoyance. “The only thing green about a Sontaran is their blood! Where is he?”

“He’s on his way to the cells with the Time Lord known as the Doctor.” That piqued Vilgax’s interest.

“The Doctor escaped?” he asked. He then grinned. “I knew she was too clever! Now is the time to settle all scores, both with the Doctor and with Ben Tennyson! Send security to the brig immediately! And tell Skrem he’d better get here quickly if he wants to see the Doctor executed!”

---

Once they made it to the brig, the Doctor, Amy, and Trohll made their way to a group of four cells. The prisoners were an old man in a red Hawaiian shirt, a ginger girl in a blue skirt, a muscular man with long, black hair, and the Revonnahgander that arrested the Doctor and Amy. Trohll approached the Revonnahgander’s cell. “Flushing out evil…” said Trohll.

“You call the Ten Plumbers,” replied the Revonnahgander with a smile.

“Then you got it!” said Trohll happily.

“Naturally,” said the Revonnahgander. He looked to the Doctor. “I must apologize for the arrest, Madame Doctor.”

“So it was all to get me near to Trohll here,” said the Doctor. “You must be Rook Blonko. I trust your family’s harvest has been bountiful?”

“Very, Doctor, thank you,” replied Rook. “I presume you know my prison-mates?”

“Let’s see, the ginger girl,” guessed the Doctor, “is Gwen Tennyson, also known as the Anodite Hero, Lucky Girl, the muscular man is the half Osmosian, Kevin Levin, the man in the Hawaiian shirt is Magister Max Tennyson, semi-retired Plumber, and given how non-Sontaran Trohll is, I’d deduce he’s-.”

“Tennyson!” snarled a voice. Everyone looked to see Vilgax, Psychobos, and Skrem with robots and Sontarans aiming their guns at them.

“…Hang on, Squidface,” said Trohll, “you didn’t ACTUALLY know ahead of time, did you?”

“We all knew, T-T-T-Tennyson!” replied Psychobos.

“For a start, Sontaran eyes don’t glow green,” explained Vilgax.

“And another thing, it’s pronounced LEF-tenant,” said Skrem. “Not LOO-tenant!”

“Then where’s the F?!” protested Trohll. “…Oh well, since we all know…” he keyed in something on his wrist computer and a badge shimmered into view on his collar. The badge was a black circle with a green hourglass design in the center.

“Perception filter to hide the Omnitrix core, huh?” asked the Doctor.

“That’s the idea,” replied Trohll. He then tapped the badge. “Command Code: One, Zero, One, Zero. Tennyson, Benjamin. Disengage life-form lock!” He then slapped the badge and was surrounded by green light. The light then grew into a more human shape before vanishing to reveal Ben 10 himself, a brunette man with green eyes and an alien smartwatch.

“Your intelligence gathering mission was the most uncoordinated one I’ve ever seen!” scoffed Skrem. “And, honestly, perhaps you…Americans should learn how to pronounce ranks correctly!”

“Oh, whatever!” retorted Ben.

“Tennyson, you’ve failed already!” boasted Vilgax.

“And gave the Sontarans the opportunity to enact our standing orders!” cackled Skrem. “To seek out, capture, and execute that sworn enemy of the Sontaran Empire, the Vanquisher of my Clone Ancestor, Staal the Undefeated, the traveler in time and space designated…Doctor!”

“We goofed, didn’t we, Doctor?” asked Amy.

“Looks that way,” replied the Doctor.

The hum of ancient machinery echoed throughout a room with hexagonal designs on the walls and a central hexagonal console with a transparent cylinder moving up and down in the center. The room was the control room for a machine capable of traveling through time and space. As the cylinder moved up and down, a pink hedgehog girl stormed in and glared at the console. “…Where?” she asked it. The console beeped in surprise. “Don’t ‘Where’s what?’ me!” snapped the hedgehog. “I know what happened! I just came back from the bathroom (thanks for that ugly hologram of Eggman, by the way), and went back along my usual path to MY bedroom, only it was WILLIAM’S room that replaced it! Where’s MY bedroom?!”

“A rather good question, Miss Rose,” replied a voice. A brunette woman in a nightgown stormed up to the console.

“…The TARDIS moved YOUR bedroom too, Doctor?” asked the hedgehog, Amy Rose.

“Yes, unfortunately,” sighed the woman, the Time Lord known as the Doctor. She faced the console of the machine, the TARDIS. “So, dear? Where are our bedrooms?” The scanner in the wall then displayed a map. “…Oh, very funny,” groaned the Doctor. “She put them near the zoo, just past the default console room.”

“The zoo? The TARDIS has a zoo?!” asked Amy.

“The TARDIS is bigger on the inside, remember?” reminded the Doctor.

“How much bigger inside IS the TARDIS?!”

“How big is big? Remember what the RD stands for in TARDIS. Relative Dimensions.”

“That’s not an answer!” chuckled Amy.

“Well, how big are you?” asked the Doctor.

“Just an inch shy of three feet, and that’s still not an answer!”

“Listen, listen,” interjected the Doctor, “there are no measurements in infinity. You Mobians and Humans have such limited little minds! I don’t know why I like you so much!”

“Because you have good taste!”

“True, true,” conceded the Doctor. “I…now that’s odd.” She saw something on one of the console panels. It looked like a gold-plated fob watch. “…Now that IS peculiar.”

“Where’d that watch come from?” asked Amy.

“I’m not sure this is just a watch,” replied the Doctor. “I think…yes, there’s some form of temporal radiation from it. Harmless to us, but…” The Doctor’s brain raced. It wasn’t a chameleon arch, otherwise there’d be circular Gallifreyan on it. She had to figure it out. She wired the watch into the TARDIS console and took some readings. “…A chrononavigator!” she yelped.

“A what?” asked Amy.

“A chrononavigator! It’s a personal time travel device! So much better than a Vortex Manipulator! It can even cross the boundaries between universes! …But there’s only one and the person that has it is-!” She then realized something. “…That’s why our rooms were moved! There’s an intruder in the TARDIS! And I think I know who!”

“Hammer time?” quizzed Amy.

“Not with this person, he’s a time-travelling hero,” assured the Doctor. “Although sneaking into the TARDIS is a bit rude of him! He could have knocked! Now where is he? …Aha! In the default Console Room! Come on, Amy!” The Doctor led Amy out of the Console Room.

---

“Madame, I must protest this!” argued a man in a white coat as he stood in a white room with roundels in the walls and a hexagonal console in the center. The console in this room was a bit more…simplistic compared to the one in the current Console Room. At that moment, the Doctor and Amy entered the room.

“BRIGHT!” yelped Amy.

“I had forgotten why I went with mood lighting,” grumbled the Doctor. Once their eyes adjusted, the Doctor looked at the man. “Professor Paradox, what an unexpected pleasure. You should have knocked.” She tossed the chrononavigator to the man, Professor Paradox.

“So that’s why your TARDIS teleported it away, to get your attention. My apologies, Doctor,” said Professor Paradox. He then pulled out a bag. “Gumball?”

“Before I go accepting any gumballs,” said the Doctor, “perhaps you can explain what you’re doing here?”

“I’m a bit confused on that point myself,” supplied Amy Rose.

“Ah, so you must be Miss Amy Rose! …But where’s William?” asked Professor Paradox. “Still sleeping?”

“He parted company a few weeks ago,” replied the Doctor.

“Ah. No matter, there IS a reason why I’m here.”

“If you’re here to assign me a mission, I won’t do it! I’m not an errand girl!”

“Sontarans,” answered Professor Paradox.

“…The Sontarans?” asked the Doctor, her expression changing to a serious one. “What are they up to that’s got YOU of all people worried?”

“The Sontarans are after the Hand of Eon, my old nemesis,” explained Professor Paradox. “General Skrem the Avenger of the 10^th Sontaran Battle Fleet wishes to use it to undo your victory over them in 2009, during the Atmos Crisis. They’ve teamed up with Vilgax and Dr. Psychobos to retrieve the Hand.”

“Skrem? I wasn’t aware he was promoted,” remarked the Doctor.

“He was only given the position in a bid to regain his ancestor’s honor. He’s a clone descendant of Staal.”

“Oh dear, that WOULD be a good reason for a Sontaran to go after a time travel device.”

“Right now, the Hand is in Bellwood, the United States of America,” explained Professor Paradox. “If unchecked, the Sontarans will conquer Bellwood in late June of 2025.”

“Any safe points we should make for?” asked the Doctor.

“Well, early June of 2025 would be best,” answered Professor Paradox.

“…All right. Just one thing, the coordinates. Give them to me and I’ll get us there.”

“Oh, no need, Doctor,” said Professor Paradox. The TARDIS then made its usual arrival thud. “I’ve learned Gallifreyan from the Time Lords after the Last Great Time War before the Master performed his heinous act against them. Toodle-oo!” He then vanished!

“OI! DON’T GO PLUCKING TARDIS’S OUT OF THE TIME VORTEX!” shouted the Doctor. She then groaned at Paradox’s antics. “…Right, well, we’d better get dressed and go. Our bedrooms should still be near here.”

“Now we gotta go all the way back to the current Console-,” grumbled Amy.

“Oh, no need for that,” assured the Doctor. “I’ll just move the door to here. But let’s do that after we get into our normal clothes, hm?”

---

The Doctor and Amy stepped outside the TARDIS once they were in their usual clothes. “You can move rooms around?” asked Amy.

“Oh yes. Like I said, infinity. No measurements. And, maybe this is a bit unhealthy, I always save the bedrooms of previous companions.”

“Hey, whatever helps you bring them to the front of your mind when you want to re-.” Amy’s reassurance was cut off when high-energy weapons switched on. The two women found themselves staring down the barrels of energy blaster rifles from people in white armor. One of them, a furry humanoid, wore blue armor.

“Hands where we can see them!” said the person in blue armor.

“…You’re a Revonnahgander, aren’t you?” remarked the Doctor as she raised her hands.

“And you are one of those cursed Time Lords,” replied the Revonnahgander. “I presume that is your TARDIS, given the means of arrival and the noise it made.

“I can assure you, whatever damage we caused to Revonnah, it was purely unintentional-!”

“It still happened!”

“Sir, much as I wish to fix what we’ve done to your people, there’s a Sontaran-!”

“Paradox told us about these Sontarans,” dismissed the Revonnahgander. “We will deal with them.”

“He also told ME about them! We have to work together!”

“My people will never work with Time Lords! And neither will the Plumbers! Time Lord, in accordance with Paragraph 2, Subsection 6 of the code that unites both the Plumbers and the Shadow Proclamation, you are under arrest!”

---

Up in space on an approach to Earth’s solar system, an immense ship, brown in color with orange egg-like constructs all around, used to accent the body and some used as portholes, shaped almost like a taser or stapler, with the two long extended pieces making up the bow constantly generating orange electricity between them, a propulsion system that resembled wires holding a ball of red energy, and visible turrets and antennae, was leading a fleet of Sontaran Battle Spheres and a Sontaran Command Ship. On the bridge of the brown and orange ship, the Chimeran Hammer, a green, muscular figure with a tentacle beard and glowing red eyes was sitting in his chair as a hologram of the Sontaran General spoke to him. “You are sure the Hand of Eon is on Earth, Vilgax?” asked the Sontaran General.

“I have seen it with my own eyes, General Skrem,” replied the muscular alien, the alien warlord, Vilgax. “It is within the Plumbers’ Vault.”

“I shall take your word for it for now,” said the Sontaran, Skrem. “Your predilection for betraying more…organic and free-spirited allies is legendary.”

“The Hand of Eon is not my prize, as you well know, General,” insisted Vilgax. “I’m still after the Omnitrix.”

“…Very well. We’ll leave you to your prize, Vilgax.” Skrem ended the call.

“Once the invasion starts, confirm the Hand of Eon is still in the Plumbers’ Vault, then destroy it!” Vilgax ordered his robot crew. “I will not let the Omnitrix be accidentally discovered by those bumbling walking root vegetables!”