Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings Series 4

Doom! Doom! DOOM!: Part 2

“There is NO way that’s a healthy weight for Irkens!” shuddered Amy.

“I can’t claim to be the greatest authority on Irken physiognomy,” replied the Doctor, “but that’s just obese from what I could glean of their species.”

“This Irken doesn’t look like much of a threat,” remarked Lurra Rus. “Unless he took some cues from the Hutts.”

“He’s drooling, though,” observed Dib. “Is he in a coma?”

“It looks like it,” observed the Doctor. “…Gross though this is, I need to examine his PAK.”

“You’re not gonna climb all over him, are you?” asked Dib.

“Not the most pleasant of prospects, but necessary,” shuddered the Doctor. She then climbed up the 800-pound Irken all the way to a grey metal backpack with pink circular panels. She pointed her sonic screwdriver at it and the biggest panel slid open to reveal a status screen. “All right, let’s see if I can access the mnemonic archive.”

“The what?” asked Amy.

“Irken PAKs serve as a secondary brain, life support, and multitool,” explained the Doctor. “They’re cybernetically grafted onto an Irken’s spine when they’re hatched. Mnemonic archives hold all the Irken’s memories.”

“And you’re trying to access it,” realized Lurra Rus, “to figure out why he’s so big and in a coma.”

“Exactly,” confirmed the Doctor. The status screen then changed. “AHA! Here we are! …Okay, so he started as an Invader, accidentally invaded his homeworld of Irk, was reassigned to be a fast food drone on Foodcourtia, then…hang on, he ended his banishment himself? That’s the action of a defective, not an Invader. …Let’s see…oh my word. A Florpus hole?! And…oh my!” The Doctor switched the status screen off. “…He’s killed the Twin Tallest? …Then the Irken Empire is leaderless! …No wonder!” The Doctor jumped down from the massive Irken. “Dib, did he really move Earth like that?”

“Yeah, using my dad’s Membracelets!” replied Dib. The Doctor then approached Amy and Lurra Rus.

“A Florpus Hole,” she said, “is an artificial black hole that feasts on alternate timelines and realities. This Irken used the Membracelets to teleport Earth into the path of the Irken Armada during their flight path that formed the backbone of Operation Impending Doom II. The Irken here had one last call with his leaders, the Almighty Tallest, when they were puppets trapped in a dimension of fire after the Earth was restored to its proper place. Now, it seems, he realized he’s killed those he worshipped with such zealous fanaticism. Hence the food coma and obesity.”

“…Guilt!” realized Dib. “He’s wracked with guilt! No wonder he’s been so quiet!” Dib turned on the obese Irken. “So, your desire to please your leaders ended up with you killing them! Doesn’t rest well with your Squeedlyspooch, does it, Zim?!”

“Dib, there’s no reason to hang that over his head!” snapped the Doctor. “Even he deserves compa…wait, what did you say his name was?”

“What, Zim?” asked Dib. “Yeah, that’s his name.”

“…What year is this again?” asked the Doctor, worry furrowing her brow.

“Erm, 2025, why?” quizzed Dib.

“…Oh dear,” muttered the Doctor. “I need to check on the Irken Empire. Dib, have you entered the base proper?”

“Y-Yeah, it’s underground,” replied Dib. “Through the toilet in the kitchen.”

“…In the kit-?” The Doctor looked into the kitchen and, yes, there was a toilet in there on the far wall with a poster above it that said, “I eat food!” The Doctor blinked. “…Right then.” Dib showed the Doctor how the toilet was actually an elevator. The group then entered the lower levels. Unbeknownst to them, the security protocols were displaying the footage onto the TV Zim was currently opposite of.


The base proper consisted of the twisting, wire-laden technology that was a staple of the Irken Empire. The Doctor went to the main console and started fiddling with it. “Doctor, what are you doing?” asked Amy.

“Checking on a nasty theory,” replied the Doctor. “I’ll explain as it happens if it’s true. Aha, here we are! A direct line to Irk, the Irken homeworld!” She keyed in a command to call Irk. “Irken Base on Earth calling Irken Homeworld, requesting communication with the Control Brains, over.” An Irken then appeared on screen. This one had purple eyes, a cybernetic implant above her left eye, and curled antennae (the signature antennae of a female Irken). Dib gasped in horror.

“TAK!” he yelped. “But…but why the growth spurt?!”

“Ah, Dib, the human!” purred the Irken woman. She WAS taller than the average Irken. “A bit of reconstitution.”

“…I’m…flattered you remember me,” remarked Dib.

“I’ve heard of you,” muttered the Doctor. “Tallest Tak, the Terror of the Irken Empire. But I was trying to contact the Control Brains.”

“Who are you and how do you know about the Control Brains?” demanded Tak.

“I’m the Doctor, a Time Lord from the planet of Gallifrey in the Constellation of Kasterborous.”

“A Time Lord! I thought the Daleks rendered you extinct! No matter!” Tak smiled a wicked smile. “Tell me, are you aware of what happened to my predecessors?”

“I found out through his mnemonic archive that Zim opened a Florpus Hole and the Tallest were sent there.”

“Good. I can make the explanation shorter,” said Tak. “The sudden loss of our people’s figureheads caused the Control Brains to go into meltdown. Now they’re only useful for keeping the species going, not making decisions. As such, the Tallest have complete authority over the Empire, as they should!”

“So you took advantage of your growth spurt and became the new Tallest,” summed up the Doctor.

“The ALMIGHTY Tallest, thank you, Doctor!” corrected Tak.


Back in the living room, Zim watched the conversation go on. “Tak, I appreciate that you’re in a delicate position,” said the Doctor, “but Zim’s not dead. He’s simply in a coma and-!”

“Then he’s still on Earth?” asked Tak.

“Yes, but-!”

“Then he is no threat to me! My predecessors’ decision about that defective’s exile stands!”

“Tak, you don’t know the danger he’ll bring if-!”

“SILENCE!” shouted Tak. “Doctor, I will not obey the mad ramblings of the Last Time Lord! This discussion is at an end!” Tak switched the call off.

“Stupid woman!” snapped the Doctor. “If we don’t deal with Zim, then the greatest tragedy within the Irken Empire will take place!” As the Doctor ranted, Zim…snarled.

“…Computer…!” he weakly said. “Begin…cellular…reconstitution!”

“Yes, Master!” replied a voice.


“Greatest tragedy?” asked Dib.

“I’m afraid we’re taking part in historical events,” muttered the Doctor. “The Irken Civil War will begin if Zim leaves.”

“Doctor, what do you mean ‘Civil War’?” asked Lurra Rus.

“Without the Control Brains, the Irkens will devolve into factionalism and fight to recognize either Tak or Zim as the one true Almighty Tallest,” explained the Doctor. “Dib, I need you to monitor Zim! Tell me everything he does! He needs to remain in that coma!”

“Doctor, if it’s a historical event-!” argued Amy.

“It’s not supposed to happen until 2030!” replied the Doctor. “If he starts it now, there will be a temporal paradox to clean up!”

“I better head back up, then,” declared Dib. “Maybe I can trick GIR into helping out!”

“That’s the spirit! Off you go!” Dib returned to the elevator and went back up. The Doctor then started working the console.

“What are you doing?” asked Lurra Rus.

“I’m trying to add a subliminal message to Zim’s PAK,” explained the Doctor. “I need to tell him that he shouldn’t start claiming his Empire until 2030 as that’s when Earth will be at its weakest.”

“Will it?” asked Lurra Rus.

“No, no,” replied the Doctor. “But Zim won’t think about returning to his ‘secret mission’ until he’s secured himself as the Almighty Tallest.”


Dib returned to the kitchen and headed to the living room just in time to see the floor open beneath Zim! The couch Zim was using dropped down…then Zim got stuck! “Oh no!” gulped Dib. Zim heard him and moved his head as best he could.

“So, your Time Lord friend knows my future!” cackled the Irken. “It makes sense! The Tallest before me had sent me here…because they knew how much of a threat I was to their power! My genius would make the Irken Empire more powerful than ever before! I would create greater ships, even one more powerful than the Massive! I SHALL BE THE GREATEST TALLEST IN ALL THE EMPIRE!”

“None of that was predicted by the Doctor!” argued Dib. “And, right now, you’re the fattest!”

“That will change! GIR! MINIMOOSE! ASSIST ME!” GIR and a small, purple plush moose arrived and tried to shove Zim down!

“OH NO, YOU DON’T!” declared Dib as he leapt at Zim. Minimoose intercepted Dib and knocked him into a wall, then GIR brought out a comically large hammer.

“WAIT! GIR!” protested Zim. Too late. GIR smashed the hammer down on Zim and managed to get him into the chute beneath him!

“Cellular reconstruction will begin upon arrival,” droned the computer. “Estimated arrival time, 40 minutes. Estimated reconstruction time, 2 hours.”

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings Series 4

Doom! Doom! DOOM!: Part 1

The TARDIS drifted lazily through the Time Vortex. Amy and Lurra Rus had exhausted all the avenues inside the TARDIS that they could come up with and were making their way to the console room. They found the Doctor sitting on a couch and reading a book. “Ahem!” grunted Amy. The Doctor was too absorbed in her book.

“…Sheesh! Should have known they’d get it wrong about Alpha Centauri so early!” she muttered.

“Doctor!” hissed Lurra Rus.

“300 zarps, my right-hand heart!” scoffed the Doctor, still engrossed in her book. Amy stomped up to the Doctor and tore the book out of her hands! “OI!” protested the Doctor.

“We’ve been drifting in the Time Vortex for almost ten days now!” snapped Amy.

“Well, the old girl still needs to settle into the Vortex,” replied the Doctor. “After having hypnotic music forced into her speakers so soon after her reconstruction, the poor girl needs rest!”

“Doctor, surely we can at least be on the lookout for distress calls!” protested Lurra Rus.

“We ARE,” assured the Doctor. “The TARDIS’ emergency distress signal locators are online. One little beep and we’re on our way to save the day.” Then…a phone rang. “Huh?!” The Doctor looked to the door leading outside.

“…How-?” asked Amy.

“I made it wireless and able to pick up any call,” replied the Doctor. She headed to the box on the door containing the phone, swung the box so she could access the phone, and picked up. “Hello, you’ve reached the Doctor’s TARDIS. Do you have an appointment? …KATE! It’s been too long! …It never IS just a social call with you UNIT types, is it? What do you need? …Doomsville? That’s a thing? …As a matter of fact, I HAVE heard about them. …Uh huh. …Well, if one of their invaders is on Earth, their armada’s not far behind. …All right, I’ll be there shortly. The TARDIS is tracing the call right now. …Right then. Goodbye.” The Doctor hung up.

“Odd version of a distress call,” remarked Lurra Rus.

“It’s a potential distress call,” explained the Doctor. “The daughter of an old friend of mine wants my help in assessing an alien threat in an American city called Doomsville. Evidently, there’s an alien there that’s part of a rather belligerent species. The TARDIS should have…AHA! We have our heading!” The Doctor adjusted the settings so the TARDIS could make its way to the coordinates.


Doomsville, one of the dankest cities in America. And with a population of the stupidest and most emotionally stunted people. Nobody batted an eye when the TARDIS landed. The Doctor opened the door…and instantly regretted it! “URGH!” she gagged. Amy and Lurra Rus coughed once they left the TARDIS.

“Ugh! Doesn’t anyone know about public sanitation?!” gagged Amy.

“Are you sure we aren’t in Hutt Space, Doctor?” asked Lurra Rus. “This smells like the Hutt homeworld!”

“It’s a human city, Ma’am,” replied a voice muffled by a mask. A human woman with a blonde bob haircut arrived.

“Kate!” greeted the Doctor. “Everyone, meet Dr. Kate Stewart, commander-in-chief of UNIT, the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce! I used to work for her father as the scientific advisor during my exile in the 70’s.”

“You still are, Doctor,” remarked Kate. “You still haven’t officially retired. Perhaps we should talk somewhere that isn’t so smelly. We have a base set up nearby.”

“Thank you, Kate, that would be helpful,” said the Doctor. Everyone followed Kate to an abandoned restaurant with UNIT equipment set up. The air was SO much cleaner! Amy and Lurra Rus felt like they could breathe!

“What kind of health and safety record does this whole city have?!” asked Amy.

“Nothing considered good,” replied Kate. “Doctor, I know you’re a busy woman, but with what our witness described, I couldn’t risk it.”

“Believe it or not, I had nothing but free time,” assured the Doctor. “And Amy and Lurra Rus were getting bored anyways.”

“A pleasure to have this kind of distraction,” said Amy.

“What is this alien threat that has you lot concerned?” asked Lurra Rus.

“I think it best that the one that called us,” explained Kate, “should brief you. Lieutenant.”

“Ma’am!” replied a soldier.

“Bring our friend here,” ordered Kate.

“Yes, Ma’am!” confirmed the soldier. He marched off to the back room, then returned with a big-headed boy with glasses and a black coat.

“Doctor, meet the one that called us,” introduced Kate.

“Hello there, young man,” greeted the Doctor. “I’m the Doctor. These are my companions, Amy Rose and Lurra Rus.”

“Nice to meet you,” replied the kid. “I’m Dib Membrane.” The Doctor’s eyes widened.

“Dib Membrane?!” she asked. She then grinned. “I can’t say too much, but you have a great future ahead of you!”

“Really?” asked Dib. “That’s…nice of you to say.”

“Now, what’s this I heard about an Irken threat?” asked the Doctor. “One of their invaders is here?”

“Yeah! But we’ve been fighting for a while and I haven’t seen one Irken ship!” replied Dib. “I mean, aside from this one and another that briefly visited us.”

“Describe this Irken you usually fight.”

“Well, he’s about my height, has green skin, ruby compound eyes, wears a tunic colored like his eyes, and he’s got antennae on his head.”

“A ruby Irken?” mused the Doctor. “Numerically the most common Irken.”

“And this Irken’s REALLY into the whole conquering thing!” supplied Dib. “…Although, apparently his tech’s outdated, at least from what I saw.”

“An Irken Invader? With outdated technology? …What does that mean for their SIR unit?”

“A SIR unit, Doctor?” asked Kate.

“Standard-issue Information Retrieval Units,” explained the Doctor. “Robots that assist an Irken Invader in gathering information on a planet’s weaknesses so the Invader can destroy all defenses in time for the Irken Armada to conduct their Organic Sweep.”

“That implies…well, extermination,” remarked Amy.

“As it should. They’re quite Dalek-like in that regard.”

“But why give an Invader outdated technology?” asked Lurra Rus.

“A good question,” remarked the Doctor. “I think I’ll need to inspect their base of operations. Dib, do you happen to know where the Irken lives?”

“Yeah, and it’s just ‘normal’ enough to fool everyone else in Doomsville,” replied Dib.

“Right then! Lead the way! Oh, but first! Kate, could my companions and I borrow masks?”

“Of course, Doctor,” answered Kate.

“Come on!” protested Dib. “It’s not that bad!”

“Easy for you to say!” remarked Lurra Rus. “You live here!”

“I think all the fumes swelled your head,” said Amy. “That must be why it’s so big!”

“MY HEAD’S NOT BIG!” protested Dib.


Once they were masked, the Doctor and her friends followed a grumbling Dib, still sore about his head size. They made their way to a cul-de-sac with apartment buildings. “There it is!” called Dib as he pointed out the one house. It was a tall, green house with a purple roof and door (which appears to have come from a men’s bathroom). It had a satellite dish on one side of the roof, and the front yard was covered in lawn ornaments, including a flamingo, two puffer fish, a flag that said, “I heart Earth”, and four large robotic Lawn Gnomes flanking the main path to the door.

“…Erm…” The Doctor was struggling to find a word for the whole ensemble. “I know humans tend to just walk past the strange and unusual, but surely that set off alarm bells.”

“City Council never ordered it removed,” replied Dib.

“Do the gnomes do anything?” asked Amy.

“Well, they CAN shoot lasers from their eyes, but people can slip quietly in.”

“Hm, I wonder.” The Doctor pulled out her sonic screwdriver and switched it on. She then approached the house, but the gnomes didn’t fire on her. “Excellent!” She looked back. “It’s safe!” she called. “The gnomes think we’re Irken Inspectors, personally checking on our friend’s progress!” Her friends and Dib joined her as they approached the front door. The door opened and two robots that looked like cartoony depictions of parents of a Nuclear Family appeared.

“Welcome home, Son!” they said as they twitched and sparked, indicating their faulty status. The group entered the house and were greeted by darkness.

“…Did the Invader forget to pay their electric bill?” joked the Doctor. “In all seriousness, shouldn’t their SIR unit be here?”

“HALT, INTRUDERS!” came a robotic voice. The group turned to see glowing red eyes. They then heard a whine of weapons being primed.

“GIR, cut that out!” snapped Dib.

“…OKAY!” The eyes turned blue and the weapons powered down.

“That’s his SIR unit, GIR,” explained Dib. “He’s not that big of a threat.”

“…GIR?” asked the Doctor. She looked at GIR’s eyes. “What does the ‘G’ stand for?”

“I don’t know,” replied GIR. He then shrieked happily as he drummed on his head. The Doctor and her friends blinked.

“…You think the ‘G’ stands for ‘garbage’?” Lurra Rus asked Amy.

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” replied Amy.

“GIR, I’ve got some cola for you if you can switch the lights on,” Dib offered GIR.

“Poop cola?!” asked GIR.

“Right here,” replied Dib as he pulled out a bottle of soda.

“OKAY!” GIR turned the lights on, then accepted the drink and walked off to do other things.

“There we go!” said the Doctor. “Now let’s-WHOA!” Her exclamation made everyone look at what she caught sight of, and they made similar exclamations! There, on the couch of the base’s living room was an 800-pound mound of green flesh with a barely visible head. The head had ruby compound eyes, antennae, and an open mouth with drool and foodstuff remains dripping out of it!

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings Series 4

Tiki Time: Part 4

“Tiki Tong, open your head!” ordered King K. Rool. “It’s time to flatten the Kongs and the other mammals!”

“Yes, Master,” mumbled Tiki Tong as the crown on his head opened. The Kremlings then threw the bananas they gathered into him until he was full to the brim.

“Now, close your head! Regain your full power!” directed King K. Rool. Tiki Tong spun, then his commanders floated to him, grouping into two groups, one of three, the other of four. Tiki Tong then stopped spinning and spewed golden goop all over his commanders. They then formed into two balls, then the goop evaporated to reveal two floating hands! “Now, DESTROY DONKEY KONG AND HIS MEDDLESOME MORONIC MATES!” shouted King K. Rool. Tiki Tong roared and swung his new hands at Donkey Kong. Everyone rolled out of the way. Donkey Kong then saw a button on one of the hands.

“They’re still there!” he said. “Guys, there’s a big button on each hand and one in the middle of his crown! We gotta hit the buttons on his hands twice and the one on his head three times!”

“Seems rather convoluted, but all right!” replied the Doctor.

“I DON’T THINK SO!” shouted King K. Rool as he attacked Donkey Kong with his claws. “I won’t have you spoil this plan, you Feather-brained Fathead! I’ll destroy you, then I’ll set my sights on the Banandium Root!”

“Oh, for the love of-! What for?!” asked Donkey Kong. “You still wanna turn the world into overripe banana mush?!”

“That’s the only meal fit for a king!” retorted King K. Rool.

“Not happening!” snarled Donkey Kong. He and King K. Rool then began their fight.


Meanwhile, Diddy Kong dropped Amy onto one of Tiki Tong’s hands, giving her the opening she needed to slam her hammer down onto the button. The hand cracked and Tiki Tong felt that! “ARGH! YOU PINK AND BLACK MENACE!”

“A nice bit of variety,” replied Amy as she jumped off. “Usually I’m called a pink and red menace, among other colorful insults.” Tiki Tong raised his hands, ready to smash them onto her like one does with a fly. Amy leapt out of the way as Diddy Kong fired one of his peanut guns on the button Amy hit. The hand was reduced to splinters and Tiki Tong got madder! He tried slamming his fist on the ground, then his fist got stuck.

“Sheesh! Donkey Kong pulled less of a tantrum when he was a kid!” grumbled Cranky Kong as he whacked his cane against the button. The hand cracked.

“You know, considering how old I am,” snarled Tiki Tong, “I think a young’un like you needs to learn how to respect his elders!”

“Do something to deserve it first,” replied Lurra Rus as she jumped onto Tiki Tong’s hand and pressed the button. The hand exploded and Tiki Tong roared in fury! He started slamming himself onto the floor, chin first! That kind of mess was causing the Kremlings to be tossed around and making King K. Rool miss!

“STOP RAGING, YOU BLITHERING-!” Donkey Kong saw his chance! He slammed his fist right into King K. Rool’s head, sending him spinning and making him land on the button in the middle of Tiki Tong’s crown. Tiki Tong roared again and started spewing fireballs!

“Two more times, then I can really get started!” said the Doctor as she fiddled with the sonic screwdriver.

“Doctor, please tell me you’re being clever!” called Amy as she dodged a few fireballs.

“Trust me, I am!” replied the Doctor. She continued working on the screwdriver as Tiki Tong hovered over her. She saw the shadow and looked up. “Sweet Sash of Rassilon!” she yelped as she rolled out of the way just in time! Tiki Tong slammed the ground, then Diddy Kong picked up Cranky Kong and the two flew up into the air before Diddy Kong cut the power to his jetpack. The two Kongs fell onto the button on Tiki Tong’s head, then leapt off. Tiki Tong roared again and floated menacingly over the Kongs.

“Bah! Toothless and useless, that sad doltish piece of driftwood!” scoffed King K. Rool. He then swung a punch at Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong grabbed the Kremling King’s fist and jumped into the air, then threw King K. Rool onto the button so hard, it pressed and Tiki Tong roared as he exploded. The force of the explosion almost blew the Doctor out of the totem! Amy and Diddy Kong helped the Doctor back up as the Doctor finished with setting the sonic screwdriver. She then pointed it upwards and pressed the button while putting a hand on her head. She then concentrated as the sonic screwdriver played the Tiki Tak Tribe’s hypnosis music! As the Tiki Tak Commanders and Tiki Tong rebuilt themselves, their eyes swirled and they fell to the floor, asleep.

“There we go!” cheered the Doctor. “I’ve used their own music against them. They’ll be sleeping until they realize that what they did was wrong. Meanwhile, the Totem Tower will sink into the volcano and the Tiki Tak Tribe will never bother anyone again!”

“…So how do WE get out?!” asked Lurra Rus. The Doctor blinked…then realized she forgot the escape part of her plan!

“Oh dear!” she gulped. Donkey Kong then grabbed her and Amy!

“Cranky! Diddy! Get Lurra Rus!” called Donkey Kong.

“COME BACK HERE, YOU BRAINLESS BARBARIAN!” shouted King K. Rool. Donkey Kong threw Amy onto his back, then punched King K. Rool so hard, he sailed out of the tower and beyond the island’s shores. The Kongs then took their visitors and leapt out of the tower as it sank into the lava!


The Doctor and her friends landed at the base of the volcano and looked up to see the top of the totem tower sink below the volcano’s rim. The totem finally disappeared into the lava. The group watched for a bit, then looked around. Donkey Kong grinned, then pounded his chest and howled a victory howl. “And that, as they say, is that!” said the Doctor.

“What about King K. Rool?” asked Lurra Rus.

“Ah, that crazy croc’ll be licking his wounds now that his plan failed,” replied Cranky Kong.

“In the meantime, the bananas are safe again!” cheered Donkey Kong.

“It always comes down to bananas with you, doesn’t it?” grumbled Cranky Kong.


The gang returned to the TARDIS and the Doctor unlocked the door. “Well, this HAS been fun,” she said, “but we must dash.”

“Hey, before you go!” called Donkey Kong. He then brought three bunches of bananas to the TARDIS crew. “From my own stash!”

“Oh, thank you, Donkey Kong!” replied Amy. She hugged the big gorilla. Once she finished, Amy entered the TARDIS first with her bunch. “You two are in for a treat! I say this with no exaggeration that these bananas are the best in the universe!”

“Such ardor!” replied Lurra Rus as she and the Doctor followed Amy into the TARDIS. The doors shut and the TARDIS made its usual take-off noise as its lamp flashed and it vanished from sight while kicking up stray leaves.

“…Strange woman, that one,” remarked Cranky Kong. His stomach then growled. “Dang it, now I could use some bananas!”

“I thought you’d say that!” chuckled Donkey Kong. He pulled out three more bunches. “And I brought your chair and blanket.”

“Ah, so you’re FINALLY taking care of your elders, huh?” chuckled Cranky Kong as he was helped to his rocking chair. He spread the blanket over his legs and pulled a banana from his bunch. He then peeled his banana. Donkey and Diddy Kong did the same, then Donkey and Cranky saw how Diddy opened his.

“…What are you doing?” asked Donkey Kong.

“…I’m…peeling my banana,” replied a confused Diddy Kong.

“No, why did you open it like our less…talky cousins?” pressed Donkey Kong.

“Why does it matter how I open it?” asked Diddy Kong. “It tastes the same.”

“That may be, kiddo,” replied Cranky Kong, “but you’re starting with that little black piece!”

“Little black…oh!” realized Diddy Kong. “That’s just what’s left of the flower!”

“You know, given you and Dixie Kong’s frequent dates, I’m not entirely surprised,” remarked Cranky Kong.

“If it bothers you that much,” scoffed Diddy Kong, “how would you like me to eat my banana?”

“Any way but how you’re doing it would probably be okay with us,” replied Donkey Kong.

“Fine then!” Diddy Kong then turned his banana sideways and bit into it! Donkey and Cranky Kong blinked, then Donkey Kong rushed into his hut and picked up a banana-themed rotary phone. He dialed a number.

“Come on, Pauline, pick up!” he urged. The person on the other end picked up. “…Yeah, I know it’s early morning in New Donk City, but I need your help with Diddy! …Look, just send the New Donk National Guard to Kong Island, okay! This is a matter of international security! …I said what I said, Kiddo!”

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings Series 4

Tiki Time: Part 3

Donkey Kong swung his massive fists at Amy, but Amy leapt out of the way. “DK, easy!” pleaded Amy. “It’s Amy Rose! You know, Sonic’s biggest fan!”

“Banjo Bottom ordered your destruction!” replied Donkey Kong. “I must obey!”

“But King K. Rool’s pulling the strings!” urged Amy.

“NO MORE LIES!” shouted Donkey Kong as he slammed the ground.


Diddy Kong fired on Lurra Rus. His guns fired oversized peanuts that exploded on contact. Lurra Rus managed to dodge. “Of all the times to wear a dress that restricts my running!” she grumbled.

“Stand still and let me shoot you!” insisted Diddy Kong.

“I’d rather not!” Lurra Rus continued dodging.


The Doctor had to wonder what kind of fighting style Cranky Kong was using, because he was keeping up with her Venusian Aikido! “You young whippersnapper!” taunted Cranky Kong. “Using a throw-centered fighting style on a primate! How stupid can you get?!”

“I assure you, there’s a method to my madness,” replied the Doctor. “Since I’m losing to you, might as well tell me how that hypnosis works. You know, tell me how your masters are controlling you.”

“The song’s carrying their psychic control into my mind!” answered Cranky Kong. “You can’t undo it without whacking my masters and I’m not gonna let you do that!”

“Well, it seems I have to treat a symptom before attacking the problem itself,” muttered the Doctor. She then pulled out a rod with a switch near the top. The top had a wide light lens and a few buttons on the handle. The handle looked like it had a copper wire curled around it. The Doctor flicked the switch and a strange buzzing noise filled the air. Cranky Kong clapped his hands over his ears, but the buzzing still entered his mind! “Cranky Kong, listen to me!” urged the Doctor. “I’m trying to disrupt the sonic control the Tiki Tak commanders have over your mind! You need to fight their psychic control! Their orders have no substance! No reason!” Cranky Kong strained as the Doctor’s device continued buzzing.

“ERGH! ARGH! G-GET…GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” Cranky Kong shouted, then collapsed. Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong saw Cranky collapse.

“GRANDPA!” shouted Donkey Kong. He was about to land a haymaker on the Doctor, but she used her device to increase the buzzing’s volume. This time, Donkey and Diddy heard it and strained.

“Listen to me!” urged the Doctor. “The Tiki Tak Tribe’s hypnosis is dependent on music activating your brain’s pleasure centers! I’m blocking out the sound, but you must fight their psychic control! They’re weaker than you! Smaller than you! You can fight them! You can win against them!” The two Kongs held their heads, then shouted before collapsing.


All three Kongs groaned as they woke up. “Oog…my head!” grumbled Donkey Kong.

“How are you three feeling?” asked the Doctor. Diddy Kong blinked, then realized something.

“…It’s gone,” he said.

“What is?” asked Cranky Kong.

“The music. Can’t you hear it?” asked Diddy Kong. Cranky listened.

“…No, I can’t!” he said.

“Neither can I,” said Donkey Kong.

“Doctor, that device you had,” said Lurra Rus, “it’s some form of sonic device?”

“Did you make some sort of counter-frequency?” asked Amy.

“Yes to both questions,” replied the Doctor. “I built this during the rebuilding of Gallifrey. You know, when I thought the TARDIS was dead and I needed something to take my mind off it. In any event, the counter-frequency will block out the altered Tiki Tak music unless they use a new frequency.”

“Well, we better get to Tiki Tong’s base and teach him a thing or two!” declared Donkey Kong as he punched his hand.

“But King K. Rool’s sure to be there!” replied Diddy Kong. “What if he has the other Kongs under his control?!”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” answered the Doctor. “Right now, we have a volcano to climb.” Donkey Kong then spotted something. He then grinned.

“Why climb when we can fly?” he asked. He pointed at a barrel that had a rocket thruster, guidance fins around the bottom, and a small nosecone at the top.

“…What is that?” asked the Doctor, already guessing what it is and what it does.

“A rocket barrel?” quizzed Amy. “DK, we can’t all fit on that!”

“Actually, give me a sec!” replied Diddy Kong. “I can reinforce it and alter it so that we go straight to Tiki Tong’s base!

“Rocket barrels!” scoffed Cranky Kong. “In my day, we had to walk uphill both ways to get around the island!”

“We’re pressed for time, sir,” replied the Doctor. “Come on, Diddy Kong. Let’s get to it.”


The rocket barrel was modified, but Diddy Kong looked worried. “I dunno,” he said. “I know I said it could be done, but I wish we conducted some tests first.”

“There’s no time to do this by the book, I’m sorry to say,” replied the Doctor. “Right, all aboard!” Everyone hopped onto the rocket barrel.

“Priming ignition sequence,” said Diddy Kong. “Adjusting trajectory.”

“Sonic ignitor ready,” reported the Doctor. “Adjusting frequency on the Sonic.”

“…I feel like there’s a word missing from Sonic,” remarked Amy. “And I’m not talking about a certain blue hedgehog.”

“Yes, sonic what, Doctor?” asked Lurra Rus.

“It’s just sonic,” replied the Doctor, deliberately avoiding answering.

“Sonic what?” asked Cranky Kong.

“It’s just sonic! I’m all sonic’d up!” insisted the Doctor.

“Sonic what?!” asked Donkey Kong.

“SCREWDRIVER!” snapped the Doctor. That was when the rocket barrel fired and launched its passengers towards the volcano, screaming!


The rocket barrel flew into the giant tiki totem’s mouth and its passengers jumped off before it exploded. Inside, it was very dark. “…That…was hair-raising!” shuddered Amy.

“I don’t think I want to do…ANY of that again!” agreed Lurra Rus.

“Ah, you’re babies!” chuckled Donkey Kong.

“…Okay, I admit, you kids knew what you were doing when you made the rocket barrel,” said Cranky Kong. “But there IS one tool I need to complain about! A sonic screwdriver?!”

“I gotta agree with Cranky Kong on this one!” said Amy as she faced the Doctor. “Do you Time Lords just look at a screwdriver and think ‘This could be more sonic’?!”

“What, you’ve never been bored?!” argued the Doctor. “You never had to assemble a bunch of cabinets?! Besides, a sonic screwdriver is more than just a screwdriver! It’s a lockpick, a scanner, a remote control, it’s a Swiss Army Knife, just without the knife bit as knives are seriously uncool.”

“I beg to differ, Doctor!” called King K. Rool’s voice. The lights switched on to reveal King K. Rool and a massive floating tiki head with a crown and red dots for angry eyes.

“There they are!” snarled Donkey Kong. “King K. Rool and Tiki Tong!”

“So, you’re the main leader of the Tiki Tak Tribe?” the Doctor asked Tiki Tong.

“And you’re the Time Lord I heard about!” replied Tiki Tong. “Was that your TARDIS my troops knocked out of the sky?”

“Yes, and I’m rather annoyed at that. First you try to hypnotize me, then you attack my ship as if it were a UFO!”

“Considering how dangerous you are, I’m not too concerned!” dismissed Tiki Tong. “After all, you Time Lords destroyed our original homeworld!”

“I beg your pardon?” asked the Doctor.

“Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of Polymela.” The Doctor’s eyes widened as she recalled the mission. She wasn’t involved, but she DID try to warn the High Council.

“…Sir, the loss of your home is on Time Lord hands, there’s no denying it,” she said, “but enslaving an island won’t bring it back!”

“See, I’m actually FINE with the loss of Polymela,” said Tiki Tong. “Considering that if it were brought back, the Polymela Council would have executed me and my commanders for using our psychic and sonic abilities as we do! Who do you think told the Time Lords that the Daleks were building a weapons factory there?! It was the only way to destroy my rivals!”

“…What?!” By now, the Doctor’s blood boiled! “You…used us…to commit genocide!”

“Fascinating, I’m sure,” dismissed King K. Rool. “However, we have more important matters to attend to!”

“I know we agreed on revenge against the Kongs,” said Tiki Tong, “but silencing the Time Lord so she can’t do anything is more important.”

“My dear Tiki Tong, you speak as though you have a choice! Kremlings!” Various crocs like King K. Rool appeared with instruments modeled after the Tiki Tak Commanders.

“What is this?” scoffed Tiki Tong.

“Just take a listen,” replied King K. Rool. He then banged his belly like a drum to set the beat, then the Kremlings played their instruments, playing the hypnotic melody that the Tiki Tak Commanders make! The Doctor then noticed the helmets and gasped.

“Mind control helmets!” she said. “TIKI TONG, DON’T LISTEN TO-!” It was too late. The faces of the Tiki Tak Commanders and Tiki Tong went blank.

“…Welp, we now know who was gonna backstab who,” remarked Donkey Kong as he got ready to fight.

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings Series 4

Tiki Time: Part 2

“Doctor, the music!” yelped Amy as she and Lurra Rus covered their ears.

“I know! It’s the same as what we heard in the TARDIS!” The Doctor was trying to put up mental barriers.

“A fight, is it?” chuckled Krazy Kalimba. “I’m all too happy to oblige!” He amped up his music and caused greater strain to the Doctor.

“There…is no substance…to this melody!” strained the Doctor. “It’s an illusion! …It does not exist!”

“Listen to this melody, human,” replied Krazy Kalimba. “It is all you need to focus on. Let go of the stresses of free will.”

“I…am not…human!” snarled the Doctor.

“Your psychic abilities are impressive,” mused Krazy Kalimba. “I wonder which human taught you to…wait, what is that citadel?”

“My…my old home!” replied the Doctor. She then sent more images of Gallifrey, the Citadel, the TARDIS, all the images related to her heritage right into Krazy Kalimba’s mind.

“No!” insisted the wicked Tiki. “That…that is not true! …They’re dead! …GALLIFREY IS DEAD!”

“Not these days!” interjected Amy. “Lurra Rus and I helped the Doctor bring the Time Lords back!” Krazy Kalimba then screamed before falling to the ground unconscious.


Krazy Kalimba groaned as his eyes opened. He tried to rub his eyes…only he felt something restraining his arms. He then realized he was bound to a chair! “WH-WHAT IS THIS?!” he demanded.

“I’m asking the questions here!” replied the Doctor. “Why did Tiki Tong come back?”

“Lord Tiki Tong cannot be beaten by a mere moon being punched onto his base!” retorted Krazy Kalimba.

“From what I’ve heard and from what I’ve studied,” said the Doctor, “that should have been enough to reduce you to splinters.”

“Grill me all you want!” insisted Krazy Kalimba. “My wood is strong!”

“You know,” mused Cranky Kong as he stepped out of the shadows, “I COULD use some kindling.”

“HA! What are you gonna do?” laughed the wicked Tiki. “Scold me until I’m reduced to splinters?”

“No, but DK’s gonna punch you to splinters,” replied Cranky Kong. Donkey Kong cracked his knuckles.

“Still immune to your ugly music,” warned the gorilla.

“Y-YOU SICK LITTLE MONKEY!” yelped Krazy Kalimba, remembering his first meeting with Donkey Kong!

“So, unless you want a painful trip down memory lane,” growled Donkey Kong, “answer our questions! How did the Tiki Tak Tribe come back?!”

“IT WASN’T OUR CHOICE!” cried Krazy Kalimba. “WE WEREN’T READY TO RETURN! WE WERE HOPING TO WAIT UNTIL YOU PASSED AWAY!”

“A premature awakening?” asked the Doctor. “Who woke you up?”

“I dunno! Only Tiki Tong got his name! He never told the rest of us!”

“Did you see who did it?” asked Amy.

“Yeah, some fat croc in a red cape and crown and with a crazy eye!”

“Wait a minute, this guy?” asked Donkey Kong as he pulled out an old Smash Tourney dossier of the person.

“Yeah! That’s the one!” Donkey Kong growled at the confirmation.

“So, King K. Rool’s involved!” he snarled.

“Oh brother,” complained Amy. “That ham?”

“Who’s King K. Rool?” asked the Doctor.

“My arch nemesis,” answered Donkey Kong. “He’s got a hatred for…may-mels…people like us.”

“Mammals,” corrected the Doctor. “And this is just the Silurians and Sea Devils all over again!”

“…The what and the what?”

“Never mind that!” snapped Cranky Kong. He turned his attention to Krazy Kalimba. “Why did you try that hypnotizing trick again?!”

“The Croc promised that he’d upgrade our hypnosis powers so you Kongs can fall under our spell!” replied the imprisoned Tiki. “I don’t understand, though! Banjo Bottom got your smaller friend!”

“WHAT?!” shouted Donkey Kong. He grabbed Krazy Kalimba and brought him up close to the gorilla’s snarling face. “YOU BETTER NOT BE TALKING ABOUT DIDDY KONG!”

“Easy!” yelped Amy. “We still need him alive!”

“Where’s Diddy Kong and this…Banjo Bottom character?” asked the Doctor.

“Do answer quickly,” instructed Cranky Kong. “Diddy Kong’s a good friend of my grandson here.” Donkey Kong tightened his grip just a bit to prove Cranky’s point.

“TH-THE MINES!” yelped Krazy Kalimba. “THEY’RE AT THE MINES IN THE CAVE!”

“You’re coming with us!” snarled Donkey Kong. “If we find out you’re lying-!”

“I GET THE POINT, OKAY!” wailed Krazy Kalimba.

“So, which way?” asked the Doctor.


“I have to admit,” muttered the Doctor as she carried Cranky Kong, “I never thought I’d be carrying an elderly gorilla on my back.”

“Ah, quit your complaining, young lady!” replied Cranky. “You need the exercise anyways! You don’t hear Donkey Kong complaining!” He pointed his cane at Donkey Kong as he carried Lurra Rus on his back while Amy had Krazy Kalimba roped to her back.

“Lurra Rus is lighter than you, Sir,” retorted the Doctor. “And you, you’re what, 80? That’s pretty much a child on my home planet. I’m at least 3,000 years your senior!”

“Pull the other one!” scoffed Cranky Kong.

“She’s not lying, Cranky Kong,” replied Amy.

“The Doctor’s people have a tendency to cheat death,” explained Lurra Rus. “Although, that’s because they can rewrite their whole genetic code to become a new person.”

“Wait, you serious?” asked Cranky Kong.

“It’s true!” snapped Krazy Kalimba. “All Time Lords like her are cheaters like that!”

“Like you don’t fear death in some small measure!” scoffed the Doctor.

“And that’s another thing, Time Lords?” asked Cranky Kong. “What, are you guys time cops or something?”

“When the Web of Time is threatened, yes,” replied the Doctor. “But we’re mainly observers. So don’t go asking us to undo any major tragedies in your world, we can’t do that.”

“Fine by me,” remarked Cranky Kong. “That just sounds like too much of a quick fix! And a messy one at that! Let me tell you, a quick fix always results in a mess down the line! All these kids these days-!”

“Oh boy, here we go!” complained Donkey Kong.

“THAT’S MY POINT, YOU YOUNG WHIPPERSNAPPER!” shouted Cranky Kong. “IF YOU KIDS WOULD GET YOUR HEADS OUT OF YOUR BUTTS-!”

“Hold up!” called Amy. “There’s a cave ahead!”

“Aha! There’s our stop!” cheered Donkey Kong. He let Lurra Rus off his back as the Doctor and Amy set Cranky Kong and Krazy Kalimba on the ground.

“Krazy Kalimba, if you please…” purred Amy as she summoned her hammer and held it over Krazy Kalimba.

“…Um, Banjo Bottom!” he called into the cave. “I-I’m here! I got the Kongs!”

“You tried to hypnotize them without my beat, did you?” scoffed a voice from within the cave. Out stomped a fat humanoid crocodile with a huge, bloodshot left eye and a normal right eye. His tummy was golden and he wore a red cape and a crown. Accompanying him was a banjo tiki.

“KING K. ROOL!” roared Donkey Kong.

“And Banjo Bottom, I presume,” said the Doctor.

“WHERE’S DIDDY KONG?!”

“Oh, he’s right here,” replied King K. Rool. “Diddy Kong, come out!” Donkey and Cranky Kong looked behind King K. Rool to see a spider monkey Kong knuckling his way out of a cave. He wore a red baseball hat and a red shirt with a gold star design.

“DIDDY KONG!” called Donkey Kong happily. “Hey, little buddy!”

“Wait,” urged the Doctor. “Remember what Krazy Kalimba here said.”

“…No!” realized Donkey Kong. He looked closer at Diddy Kong’s face and saw that he was in a trance!

“I wasn’t exactly lying!” laughed Krazy Kalimba. “And now we have two more Kongs! Lizard King, the beat!”

“That’s King K. Rool, you stupid pile of splinters!” snarled King K. Rool. He still banged his tummy like it was a drum, setting a beat.

“And away we go!” called Banjo Bottom. He started strumming out the hypnotic melody as Krazy Kalimba joined. Donkey and Cranky Kong’s faces went blank!

“Oh no!” gulped the Doctor.

“They’re not-!” begged Amy.

“I rather think they ARE!” warned the Doctor.

“What are your orders, Masters?” asked Donkey Kong in a monotone.

“Krazy Kalimba, Banjo Bottom, why aren’t THEY hypnotized?” demanded King K. Rool as he pointed at the Doctor and her companions.

“The Time Lord is able to resist the psychic part of our melody,” replied Krazy Kalimba. “She must have passed on that resistance to her companions.”

“Time Lord?!” yelped Banjo Bottom. “You can’t be serious!”

“I’m afraid so,” answered Krazy Kalimba. “I saw images of Gallifrey! Of her previous incarnations! She calls herself the Doctor!”

“THE Doctor?! The Scourge of Skaro?!” Banjo Bottom glared at the Doctor.

“Well, he’s not wrong,” confirmed the Doctor in a roundabout way.

“Then I know exactly what the Kongs need to do!” hissed Banjo Bottom. He turned to the hypnotized Kongs. “Donkey, Diddy, and Cranky Kong, turn the Doctor and her companions into a red paste! DESTROY THEM!”

“As you command, Master Banjo Bottom!” replied the Kongs in monotonous unison. They bared their teeth at the Doctor and her friends, Donkey Kong pounded his chest and howled a gorilla’s challenge howl, Cranky Kong twirled his cane as if it were a bo staff, and Diddy Kong pulled out two wooden guns.

“Oh dear!” gulped the Doctor.

“Impromptu Smash round!” muttered Amy as she readied her hammer.

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings Series 4

Tiki Time: Part 1

Far away, off the coast of a continent, sat an island. It was a stereotypical tropical island with a volcano in the center. It was nice, peaceful, and happy. …That is, until the volcano shook and something rose out of it! It looked like the top of a demonic tiki totem! It roared and various tiki-themed instruments appeared. These instruments had eyes! And some of them had mouths! The tiki instruments then met with humanoid crocodiles and discussed their leaders’ plans.


Far away from that incident, a London Police box spun through the Time Vortex, its lamp flashing. It was nice and serene for now, as was the inside. Inside the box made no sense as the inside was bigger than the outside. Right now, in a dining room, a pink humanoid hedgehog in a black dress was sitting with a blue Twi’lek woman. The Twi’lek, Lurra Rus, examined a fruit she had never seen before. “Amy, what is this?” she asked the hedgehog, Amy Rose.

“Oh, that?” asked Amy. “That’s a banana. A fruit originally from Earth, then got spread around the galaxy during Earth’s expansionist period.”

“I see. And it’s edible?”

“Oh yeah. You wanna try?”

“Lovely fruits, bananas!” called a third woman’s voice. The speaker then entered the room. This was the owner of the box, the TARDIS. Her name…is the Doctor!

“So you’ve eaten them before?” asked Lurra Rus.

“Oh yes!” replied the Doctor. “Good source of potassium!”

“So, what one does to open is…” Amy trailed off as she saw the Doctor open the banana from the other end instead of the stem! “…Doctor, what are you doing?” she asked.

“…I’m…getting ready to eat my banana,” replied the Doctor.

“No, why did you open your banana that way?”

“Why does it matter? It tastes the same.”

“That may be, but you’re starting off with that little black piece!” The Doctor pondered about what Amy meant about the “little black piece” for a second before she realized what the hedgehog was talking about.

“Amy, that’s just what’s left of the flower,” she said.

“So you swing that way, huh?” asked Amy, with a smirk. The Doctor frowned. Unlike her previous incarnations, she knew what Amy was driving at.

“On that front, I’m pan-poly, stereotypical of a Time Lord,” she said. “And if it bothers you THAT much, how would you prefer I eat my banana?”

“Any way but how you’re doing it right now would probably be all right with me,” replied Amy. Just before Lurra Rus could interject, music drifted into the dining room.

“…That’s not me,” remarked Lurra Rus.

“That didn’t come from the speakers,” replied the Doctor as she started eating her banana. “That came directly into our minds!”

“But we’re in the Time Vortex,” reminded Amy as she ate her banana as humans generally do.

“I’m going to the console room,” said the Doctor.


The TARDIS console room was a big room with the doors leading to the outside on one end and a central hexagonal console with a cylinder going up and down in the center. The Doctor dumped the banana peel into a nearby trash can and checked the instruments. “No unusual psychic anomalies,” she said as Amy and Lurra Rus came in, both with banana peels and throwing them into the trash can.

“Maybe the TARDIS is bored of drifting through the vortex?” asked Lurra Rus.

“That may be, but she’s not fully recovered from her experience on Gallifrey,” replied the Doctor. The music then played in their heads again.

“That’s unnerving!” shuddered Amy.

“Aha! Got a fix!” called the Doctor. “…Huh, it’s coming from Nokiko.”

“Nokiko? From the Mushroom Kingdom?” asked Amy.

“No, it seems to be coming from a small tropical island…with a giant tiki growing from the volcano. That must be made of lava-resistant wood!”

“Any location you recognize?” Lurra Rus asked Amy.

“Vaguely,” remarked Amy. “I know about an island, but…not one with a giant tiki totem.”

“Hang on, that totem’s spotted us!” warned the Doctor. On the screen, the totem spat out flying tiki-themed instruments! The fliers then attacked the TARDIS! The Doctor fought for control!

“DOESN’T THE TARDIS HAVE WEAPONS?!” yelped Lurra Rus.

“IT’S NOT A WAR TARDIS!” replied the Doctor. “DON’T WORRY! IT’S VIRTUALLY INDESTRUCTIBLE!”

“I DON’T LIKE THAT YOU SAID ‘VIRTUALLY’, DOCTOR!” called Amy. “IT EITHER IS OR IT ISN’T!”

“DON’T WORRY! I’M MAKING AN EMERGENCY LANDING!” shouted the Doctor.


The TARDIS wobbled in the air as the tikis attacked. It then made an arc towards the island, landing right outside a high-rise hut! The hut had the word “Kong” over the door. The hut’s door opened and a brown-furred gorilla with a red tie that has “DK” on it looked around, wondering where the noise came from. He spotted the TARDIS and blinked a bit. He jumped down from his hut and knuckled his way to the TARDIS. He figured it probably wasn’t supposed to be buried into the earth at an angle, so he grabbed it, yanked it out of the hole, then set it upright. He then heard voices inside. Out stumbled the Doctor and her friends, holding their heads. “Good grief!” complained the Doctor. “What a mess!”

“At least the TARDIS is upright,” said Lurra Rus.

“Yes, something must have righted it after we crashed,” said the Doctor.

“Well, we better thank them, whoever or whatever they are,” remarked Amy.

“AMY?!” yelped the gorilla, spooking everyone behind them. Amy then gasped.

“DK!” she cheered as she gave the gorilla a big hug! The gorilla returned the favor.

“It’s been way too long!” laughed the gorilla. “How have you been?!”

“I’ve been better,” replied Amy. “My friends and I got shot down by flying tikis.”

“Flying tikis?” muttered the gorilla. He then looked towards the volcano and gasped when he saw the wicked looking totem. “The Tiki Tak Tribe’s back?! But I punched the moon onto their leader, Tiki Tong!”

“Punched the…?” Lurra Rus looked at the Doctor.

“Hm? Don’t look at me,” said the Doctor. “I’m as clueless as you.”

“Everyone,” interjected Amy, “I’d like you to meet a Smash Tourney friend! Mario’s friendly rival, Donkey Kong!”

“Pleased to meet you two,” greeted the gorilla, Donkey Kong.

“And you, Mr. Kong,” replied the Doctor. “I’m the Doctor and this is Lurra Rus.”

“Hello,” said Lurra Rus.

“Well, Doctor, welcome to Kong Island,” said Donkey Kong. “And it looks like we’ve got a Tiki Tak problem to deal with together.”

“So you’ve met them before?” asked the Doctor.

“Sure did,” confirmed Donkey Kong. “The bananas that grow here have a special energy that people want to tap into, at least according to what Cranky Kong says.”

“So, you DO listen, you hairy galoot!” called a grumpy old man’s voice. An elderly gorilla with a cane, a beard, glasses, and a sweater vest then approached them. “I always knew my lectures were sinking in! Now if you’d just take it more seriously, I wouldn’t lecture so much!”

“Erm, might I ask why-?” asked the Doctor.

“And you didn’t even introduce me to everyone!” continued the old gorilla, whacking his cane on Donkey Kong’s head. “Or tell me we have an old friend visiting!” His expression then softened as he stopped. “Hello, by the way, Miss Rose.”

“Hello, Cranky Kong,” replied Amy. Cranky Kong then resumed beating Donkey Kong over the head with his cane and lecturing.

“And now the Tiki Tak Tribe’s back! How could you miss?! You punched the moon onto Tiki Tong!”

“Erm, Sir!” interjected the Doctor as she grabbed the cane. “I would rather like to be in the loop. The Tiki Tak Tribe attacked my TARDIS and I want to know what we’re dealing with.”

“…All right then, Miss…”

“Oh, I’m the Doctor.” Cranky Kong blinked.

“…I’m sorry, doctor who?” he asked.

“Just the Doctor.”

“…Right. …Well, let’s all chat in my idiot grandson’s house. Maybe we can start getting some answers there.”


The Doctor and her crew were then filled in on what the Tiki Tak Tribe was and what their goals were. “So, just to sum up,” said the Doctor, “the Tiki Tak Tribe are an army of living Tikis that use the energy of the local bananas on this island to propagate their numbers and power their forces.”

“The tribe’s seven commanders,” continued Amy, “have the ability to hypnotize people into doing their bidding through their music.”

“But you Kongs somehow can’t be hypnotized,” remarked Lurra Rus. “So the last time you faced the Tiki Tak Tribe, you quite literally punched the moon onto the volcano and squashed that giant totem back into the volcano, then it went back into its proper orbit.”

“…Yeah, that about sums it up,” confirmed Donkey Kong.

“…Doctor, didn’t we hear music?” asked Amy. “In the Time Vortex?”

“Hang on, I have a recording of the-.” The Doctor was interrupted as a red and blue Tiki with a headdress that evoked a Kalimba flew in.

“AHA!” It called.

“Krazy Kalimba!” snarled Donkey Kong as he bared his teeth, something you do not want ANY primate to do!

“Ah! The dratted Kongs!” chuckled Krazy Kalimba darkly as he looked around the hut. “And a human! And a hedgehog! And…whatever you are.”

“Twi’lek,” replied Lurra Rus.

“And I’m not human, thank you!” snapped the Doctor.

“Whatever,” dismissed Krazy Kalimba. “Time to flex my talents!” His eyes alternated between black and white spirals as he played kalimba music!

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings The Specials

Gallifrey’s Rebirth: Part 9

The Doctor and her friends made their way to the underbelly of the citadel with Trev and his firing squad waiting. “Now, Trev,” chided the Doctor, “we’re unarmed. Where’s the fight in shooting unarmed people? Where’s the honor?”

“Doctor, you’re known for using your brain, a very useful weapon,” replied Trev. “I’d hardly call you unarmed.”

“…I’m…flattered?”

“You should be, because it means I intend to have you executed swiftly! Squad, present arms!” The shooting party presented arms.

“WAIT!” called Lurra Rus’ voice as she joined the group.

“Ah, the last non-Gallifreyan target,” chuckled Trev. “All that’s left is our puppet.”

“General, he’s got worse plans than you! I beg you to listen!” urged Lurra Rus.

“Worse plans? But he-!” protested Rassilon.

“Lady Rassilon, whatever he is, the Master is worse!” insisted Lurra Rus.

“…I can’t believe I’m feeling generous to a member of a species that’s extinct,” scoffed Trev. “What is it?”

“Yes, what is it?” asked the Doctor. “How is the Master’s plan worse?”

“The Master is planning to destroy us!” replied Lurra Rus.

“…He couldn’t even if he tried!” grunted Trev. “I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeves. And accusations are not evidence.”

“Not us personally,” explained Lurra Rus. “Our economic systems! General Trev, do the Sontarans have a stock market?”

“Of course we do,” replied Trev. “I have stock in Imperial Armaments. They make the best weapons.”

“Imperial Armament shares will become worthless with what the Master has planned,” said Lurra Rus.

“He told you this?” asked Amy.

“He was trying to recruit me and the Doctor by proxy,” replied Lurra Rus.

“Why would he do that?” quizzed Trev.

“He claimed that he needed me,” answered Lurra Rus.

“Why?” asked the Doctor.

“Yes, why?” repeated Trev. “I’d love to know.”


The Master smirked as he approached a console and opened a communications channel. He held a crystal similar to the Heart of his TARDIS. “That is not credible!” scoffed Trev’s voice. “He can’t sum up the economy of a single planet on a mere computer drive, much less any intergalactic economy!”

“The Master’s a genius!” replied the Doctor.

“He’s an engineer like you, Doctor! Not an accountant!”

“You can’t take the risk, General,” urged Lurra Rus. “The Doctor’s right. He’ll destroy every single economy.”

“I was under the impression, given your story,” remarked Trev, “that such a goal is what you want.”

“Look, the corporations are bad, but what the Master is planning is far worse.”

“Don’t tell me,” muttered the Doctor, “he sees time and space as one big concentration camp with him as the commandant.”

“Yes,” replied Lurra Rus.

“Can you imagine it, Trev?!” urged the Doctor. “All the factories of time and space producing weapons, warships, armies of combat robots, and tanks! Every skyline full of smoking chimneys, every worker a slave-!”

“Doctor, you’re describing heaven to us,” interrupted a Sontaran Trooper. “The only wrinkle in that plan is that the primitive known as the Master intends to be at the top of the heap.” The Master wasn’t taking that lying down! He allowed for two-way communication.

“I think you’ll find, Sontaran,” he hissed, “that YOU are the primitive, not me!”

“Master?! Where’s that voice coming from?!” yelped the Doctor.

“Twi’lek, what is that in your hand?” asked Trev.

“You mean this?” asked Lurra Rus. The Master guessed that Lurra Rus was showing off the weapon.

“What in the name of the Sash of Rassilon-?!” spluttered Romana.

“I fitted a radio link in that little…gift I gave you,” chuckled the Master.

“What is that device?” asked Trev.

“It’s a weaponized TARDIS heart!” replied Rassilon. “A crude singularity bomb!”

“What in Sontar’s name-?!” yelped Trev. “Where did you get that cowardly weapon?!”

“From the Master, believe it or not,” replied Lurra Rus. “He claims that Romana ripped it out of his TARDIS to act as a deterrent against you lot.”

“So, a President of the High Council of Time Lords decides to play the coward!” hissed Trev.

“I haven’t been anywhere near the Master’s TARDIS!” insisted Romana. “That kind of weapon is immoral, illegal, and Rassilon over there never thought of such a weapon even at her maddest because, like you correctly said, General, it’s cowardly! What use would I have for that kind of weapon?!”

“Oh, I’m sure you’ll find it to be VERY versatile,” purred the Master. “With this one, I plan to kill a whole multitude of birds with one stone!”

“I knew it! You haven’t changed a bit!” snarled Amy.

“I can’t, Miss Rose! I see that now! Listening to everyone has confirmed that the universe MUST pay for my madness!”

“There’s still the matter of that weapon Romana constructed!” hissed Trev.

“I doubt she built such a thing,” replied Rassilon.

“She didn’t, Lurra Rus,” confirmed the Master. “I’m afraid I built it while everyone was running around like headless chickens. I faked the evidence against her. I believe people in your galaxy call it a…smoking blaster!” He then laughed.

“There’s no reason to panic,” soothed Lurra Rus. “It’s useless without the trigger.”

“Lurra Rus,” interjected the Doctor, “do you know what the trigger to that kind of singularity bomb looks like?”

“…Well, no,” replied Lurra Rus.

“Well, give me that! See, here? Trigger!” At the Doctor’s declaration, the Master cackled.

“Don’t imagine you can defuse it in time, Doctor!” he warned.

“Master, whatever you want, we can talk!” insisted the Doctor.

“You’ve always known what I want, Doctor!” replied the Master. “I tried to change on numerous occasions! I really thought I could, but you were right!”

“Scant consolation!” argued the Doctor.

“It wasn’t meant to be ANY kind of consolation. …I will miss you, Doctor.” He then keyed in a command. “That singularity bomb, on the other hand, well, it CAN’T miss you at that range!”


Below the citadel, the singularity bomb beeped as the Master laughed. “HE’S ACTIVATED THE DETONATION SEQUENCE!!” warned the Doctor. “GIMME!!”

“We can’t outrun that kind of blast, Doctor!” replied Rassilon as the Doctor took the device from Lurra Rus and ran.

“YOU STAY THERE!!” called the Doctor.

“What is she doing?!” demanded Trev.

“She’s going to one of the old temporal mine shafts,” replied Romana. “She probably intends to drop the bomb down there. I hope she drops it far-!” That was when the explosion ripped through the caverns.


The computers warned of a massive explosion and release of temporal radiation. As the alarms sounded, the Master cackled. He then got to work and headed to the vault of the Eye of Harmony.


Thankfully, the Doctor’s allies survived, but there was still the matter of the Doctor and the Sontarans. The group was surrounded by an energy field. Rassilon checked the device that was deploying the energy field. “There,” she said. “That should keep the temporal radiation from affecting us.”

“But the Doctor-!” yelped Amy.

“The field should surround her too,” assured Rassilon. “We’ll find her.”

“How far do the mines go?” asked Susan.

“Pretty far,” replied Romana, “but the temporal radiation will reach the capital before we get there. That’s sure to affect the Eye of Harmony!”

“That’s if the Master didn’t think to seal the Vault in time,” remarked Rassilon. “And I’m betting he’s there with the heart of the Doctor’s TARDIS.”

“…You think he’s taken the TARDIS’s heart?” asked Amy.

“Won’t that-?!” asked Lurra Rus.

“Strand you, yes,” replied Rassilon. “That is until we deal with the Master and make a new TARDIS for the Doctor, but I doubt it’s going to be a Type 40 like hers.”

“What do we do, then, Rassilon?” asked Romana. By now, everyone was looking to Rassilon for guidance.

“What do you think we do?” replied Rassilon. “We’re protected from the temporal radiation, but the Sontarans aren’t. So, we find the Doctor, confirm her survival or death, and stop the Master!”

“Sounds like a good plan, let me help speed that along!” called the Doctor’s voice.

“Doctor!” called Amy.

“Just a second,” interjected Rassilon as she pulled out a device. She waved it over the Doctor, then sighed in relief. “Sorry about that, Doctor.”

“Making sure I’m not an illusion as a result of the explosion, very wise,” replied the Doctor.

“Grandfather, how will we be getting into the citadel?” asked Susan. “The temporal radiation will surely affect things and the Master will have locked himself in there!”

“True, but we have three people that have presidential codes,” replied the Doctor.

“Three?” asked Susan.

“I was made President until Romana was elected to the position,” explained the Doctor. Susan tried to hold back laughter.

“You?” she snickered. “Grandfather, when were you elected?”

“Oh, after that business with the Death Zone,” replied the Doctor.

“…The High Council really ISN’T infallible,” chuckled Susan.

“OI!”


The Master continued his work. With the old Eye now disconnected, he had to use alternative power sources to continue. The Type 40 Heart had grown to the size of the original Eye of Harmony and was now being connected up. “Perfect!” he said. “Thank you for your sacrifice, Doctor! You never understood! It is everyone else that is to blame for my madness! The only cure is to sieze power! Laws will be MINE to create! Not to follow! All of time and space, in the palm of my hand! I shall be a wise and tolerant dictator. Swift but fair in retribution. I shall be the new Lord President Eternal! Gallifrey will be the center of an empire that shall span throughout eternity! And once all is finally under my total control, I shall sieze the next universe and the next! The whole of creation will be MINE to command! And all the Gallifreyans wishing to come back need merely swear an oath of loyalty, then they shall be reloomed into my servants!”

“Thank you for discussing your master plan as usual, Master,” came the Doctor’s voice. The Master turned to see everyone standing there.

“Ah, temporal illusions,” he scoffed. “Well, I’m quite happy to have illusions to be the last images of my old friend. Admit it ‘Doctor’, you’ve lost! I shall be the savior of Gallifrey! I shall rule the Eternal Time Lord Empire!”

“Oh, very good, very good,” mocked the Doctor. “…Just one problem.”

“And what’s that, ‘Doctor’?” asked the Master. The Doctor then slugged the Master in the jaw.

“NOW!” shouted the Doctor. Rassilon, Romana, and Susan quickly took over the controls as the Master readjusted his jaw and realized something; temporal illusions CAN’T slug someone in the jaw!

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings The Specials

Gallifrey’s Rebirth: Part 8

The Sontarans still marched through the capital. “Continue searching, my warriors!” called Trev. “We must locate the Eye of Harmony so that we may dissect it!” At that point, his adjutant received a message.

“…Oh, you have got to-! Sir!” called the adjutant.

“Report,” ordered Trev.

“It’s the Doctor,” replied the adjutant. “She’s doing her usual parlay trick.”

“Parlay trick?”

“Yes, you know how she does it. She spots us, pretends to surrender, plays on our egos, then BOOM! She enacts a plan she devised and we’re blind-sided enough that she defeats us!”

“Ah. I’ve taken to calling it the Doctor’s White Flag Maneuver,” said Trev. “DWFM, for short. Adjutant, prepare a party. Minimum number of Sontarans. We’re going to have the Doctor executed.”

“Immediately, Sir,” replied the adjutant.


The Doctor and her friends and allies had to split up for a while to make the plan work. Somehow, Lurra Rus ended up with the Master. As they waited for their signals, the Master spoke to Lurra Rus. “Miss Rus,” he began, “you used to be involved in that quaint little Project: Necromancer, yes?”

“…Yes, but I think you’d be hard-pressed to call it quaint if you saw it,” replied Lurra Rus.

“What were you doing before Dr. Hemlock kidnapped you?” asked the Master. Lurra Rus didn’t know where he was going with that question, but still found herself answering.

“I was talking to a reporter from an independent news service,” she said. “He was working on a story, uncovering evidence that the Emperor was involved in wrongdoing.”

“And, presumably, he couldn’t publish that evidence?”

“No. The Empire killed him, erased all his records, and destroyed all his evidence and notes.”

“As absolute rulers tend to do. …What if I were to tell you that Romana is involved in wrongdoing?”

“…I’d ask for evidence,” replied Lurra Rus.

“Here,” said the Master as he handed over an object. Lurra Rus accepted it, but arched an eyebrow.

“…Wh…What is it?” she asked.

“What does it look like?” replied the Master.

“A green crystal with some sort of ring gadget around it.”

“Look within the crystal,” directed the Master. Lurra Rus did so.

“…There’s something swirling around inside it,” she said.

“A star permanently collapsing, but never fully turning into a black hole,” explained the Master.

“…Wait, isn’t that what the Eye of Harmony is?” asked Lurra Rus.

“That’s correct,” confirmed the Master.

“…And the smaller ones are a TARDIS’s heart, if I recall right.”

“Very good.”

“So what’s the deal with the machinery? It looks like it…can…can split the crystal open!” Lurra Rus finally yelped.

“Calm yourself, Miss Rus, it’s not armed,” soothed the Master.

“I hope not!” shuddered Lurra Rus.

“But it IS illegal. It’s the heart of my TARDIS, a Type 75. Romana never trusted me. The Great Houses of Gallifrey signed a treaty to never weaponize the heart of a TARDIS like that.”

“Romana would just say,” said Lurra Rus, “that its purpose would be used to deter the Sontarans.”

“She would, yes,” replied the Master. “At which point, you tell her that a deterrent would be designed to have no ill effect. But this device is now a powerful explosive and its main purpose is to spread temporal radiation over a wide area!”

“It’s a weapon,” remarked Lurra Rus. “It was turned from engine and computer core into a weapon!”

“Far more effective on people than on rocks.”

“…And you want ME to have it?!” asked Lurra Rus.

“Without the trigger, it’s useless,” replied the Master.

“What do you want in return?” The Master smirked.

“Miss Rus, you had serious reservations about the economic system of your home galaxy and time.”

“Y-Yes?” said Lurra Rus, unnerved that the Master knew that.

“I would be interested to hear what those reservations are. Believe it or not, many think like you, from what I’ve seen. People that command legions of Stormtroopers are clearly the lucky ones, but there ARE citizens dying of diseases.”

“That’s right,” replied Lurra Rus.

“Diseases which HAVE a cure,” continued the Master.

“Not everyone can afford the drugs needed to help them overcome those diseases,” said Lurra Rus. “People like the Emperor or Vader would say that the galaxy is overpopulated anyways. It’s good if there’s something that eases that pressure.”

“…Emperor Sheev Palpatine has said that?” asked the Master.

“Not publicly, but I’m sure he would say that behind closed doors,” replied Lurra Rus.

“He wouldn’t say that if it was HIS life at risk, would he?”

“No, he wouldn’t. Miss Ta…Master, as you said, there are millions like me who hate the Empire and the corporations, people who think they’re synonymous with greed. They destroy whole planets, strip them bare, and for what?! Just to fuel more growth?! To generate more money?! Just look at my home planet of Ryloth! We’ve been exploited to fuel corporations and corrupt regimes!”

“The economic system of your galaxy like others throughout time and space is fundamentally flawed,” remarked the Master. “The corporations COULD be a force for good, but they’re compelled to fight one another.”

“That reporter I talked to,” said Lurra Rus, “his news service tried to highlight all that, but no one’s come up with a better system.”

“Oh, I’m sure they have,” replied the Master, “but the Emperor and his corporations had bought them off or disappeared them like they did with you or through mere killing. That is what absolute rulers do.”

“Changing the economy of my galaxy just couldn’t happen,” sighed Lurra Rus. “There have been scandals and crises, but the corporations always survive or new ones take their place as do the ones pulling the strings.”

“…Are all Twi’leks such defeatists?” asked the Master.

“We can’t beat the Empire through economic means!” insisted Lurra Rus. “Their corporations control everything! Employ everyone! Silence all dissent!”

“I have the means to destroy them!” declared the Master. “Do you know how the stock market works?”

“…Well, a barebones idea, yes,” replied Lurra Rus. “People with money invest that money in companies they think will do well. People take risks, sometimes they’re rewarded, the other times are ruinous.”

“But it’s the element of risk that is important,” remarked the Master.

“Yes,” agreed Lurra Rus. “My father always said it’s like pod-racing; gambling with people’s lives, but in more sinister and subtle ways.”

“A very good analogy.” The Master grinned. “And if you knew the outcome of each race beforehand, would that be gambling? I can predict the stock market!”

“You can?”

“With one equation! I have checked the records for all the possible points in space and time where there WAS a stock market! The formula holds! I can predict the price of any stock at any point in space and time!” Lurra Rus was in awe.

“That power would set a person up for life! It would make you the richest person in the universe!”

“If I was the only one to have the equation,” replied the Master.

“Of course. I mean, you wouldn’t share it, would you?” The Master smirked at Lurra Rus’ question.

“…Why not?”

“Well, because if everyone had the formula,” replied Lurra Rus, “Then the whole…system…would collapse!” Her eyes widened as she realized what would happen to the Empire if the Master enacted his plan.

“Precisely!”

“You CAN do it!” breathed Lurra Rus.

“I WILL do it!” declared the Master. “But I need your help!” He pulled out an external computer drive. “This drive contains the equation, how it was devised, and a small program that would run on even a household computer! Your job is to convince the Doctor, the only Time Lord with a functioning TARDIS, to take you back to your old home and disseminate this information! All news services need to run the equation!”

“But there’ll be chaos!” yelped Lurra Rus.

“No!” replied the Master. “There will be a new order! A new economic model that I have designed for that galaxy and all others! I alone shall be prepared for the collapse of the corporations! I will be able to use the Imperial infrastructure to impose the new system!”

“I imagine it will have to be based on a loose grass-roots system,” replied Lurra Rus. “A network of communes committed to the environment of each world in the galaxy and eventually each point in space and time. Self-sufficient planets but bartering goods if they have a surplus.”

“I have been searching throughout history to see if there is a precedent for what I am doing,” said the Master.

“Not on this scale. In my galaxy, the main problem will be reeducation. We’ve gotten so used to commerce that a switch to the post-economic system, where people only take what they need, will be difficult, but not impossible, to adjust to.”

“No,” replied the Master. “The new Universal Economy will be a war footing! Criminals and undesirables will be put to work as laborers! Those with particular aptitudes will form the Elite! The citizens will provide a work force! The women will produce new children! The men will work in new factories and in the armies! And all surplus production capacities will go into armaments!”

“WHAT?!” shrieked Lurra Rus. “NO! That’s what the Empire is all about! I won’t be party to that!” Just then, a chime rang. “That’s the signal! Master, we’ll discuss this-!” Lurra Rus tried the door, but it wouldn’t open. “Dank Farrik!” she hissed. “This kriffing door won’t open!” She looked to see the Master keeping his hand on a button and correctly guessed what that button was linked to. “LET ME OUT!”

“Lurra Rus,” said the Master, “you are resourceful and intelligent, like any Twi’lek. I had hoped you would be in my new Elite. Please…don’t disappoint me.”

“…Let! Me! OUT!” snarled Lurra Rus.

“…As you wish,” replied the Master. “But please think about my offer.” He released the door lock and Lurra Rus left to enact her part of the plan.

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings The Specials

Gallifrey’s Rebirth: Part 7

The Sontarans marched out of their ship as everyone looked on in horror! “How is this possible?!” asked Rassilon.

“Doctor, when do the Sontarans learn how to make their ships bigger on the inside?” quizzed Amy.

“Their Martial Year 76,000,” replied the Doctor. At that moment, the glowing Miss Tarae stood up.

“You…cutthroat…over-microwaved…skulking…potatoes!” she hissed. “You’re supposed to be…desperate Thanakians!”

“I will admit, acting like someone who is desperate is NOT the Sontaran way,” said Trev, “but the securing of Gallifrey is of top priority! Now, with Gallifreyan technology and science at our disposal, WE shall be the new Lords of Time!”

“THAT’S MY POSITION, YOU ANTS!” shrieked Miss Tarae as she thrust her arms forward, channeling the destructive power of her regeneration energy into various Sontarans. As she continued, her face changed. She grew, her chest became masculine, her hair darkened, and she grew a goatee as her shriek became a male roar. After Miss Tarae spent it all, a new man wearing her Lolita outfit collapsed to the floor.

“DESTROY THEM!” ordered Trev. As the Sontarans fired, Romana and Susan picked up Miss Tarae, now a male again, and carried him into the Citadel with the Doctor covering the retreat and locking the doors behind them.


After a few minutes, the group found a place to set the masculine Miss Tarae down and hole up. “Well, this is a fine kettle of fish!” hissed the Doctor. “The Sontarans duped Miss Tarae, excuse me, the Master, into giving them access to Gallifrey!”

“But why again?” asked Rassilon. “They already tried to invade Gallifrey once!”

“They still crave our mastery over time travel,” mused Romana. “It would make sense that they would try when Gallifrey is so weak.”

“Oooouughh,” groaned the Master as he sat up.

“Ah, the ‘hero’ of the hour awakens,” scoffed Rassilon. The Master ran his hand over his face, then realized he felt a beard.

“…I’m a male again, aren’t I?” he asked no one in particular.

“Gotta say, while I’m fine with men in dresses,” remarked the Doctor, “that outfit doesn’t suit you.”

“We’ll rerobe him later,” said Rassilon. The Master face-palmed as he recalled what happened to cause him to regenerate.

“I can’t believe I was so foolish!” he growled. “I KNOW the Sontarans had developed dimensional transcendentalism and their own Chameleon Circuit in that time! No wonder their Thanakian disguise was so ready to accept my terms!”

“How did you find them anyways?” asked the Doctor.

“My TARDIS picked up a distress signal and I followed it,” replied the Master. “I should have known! The Thanakians never bothered learning Time Lord communication frequencies! That should have been my first clue!”

“The Sontarans, knowing your reputation,” said Rassilon, “and correctly guessing that the Master and Miss Tarae are the same Time Lord, simply showed you what you desired most, Master! Like a CIA agent, you acted on your own agenda!”

“With what little respect I have for you, Rassilon,” hissed the Master, “we are beyond recriminations!”

“YOU OVERREACHED YOURSELF AS USUAL!” shouted Rassilon. “I DRAW ANY BOUNDARIES WE MAY CROSS! I AM THE FOUNDER OF TIME LORD SOCIETY! SWORN TO DEFEND MY WORLD! …Barely to have started fixing the crisis with the Eye of Harmony, then we lurch into this new one with the Sontarans! I save the recriminations for myself for not turning you away from Gallifrey!” As they argued, Romana found current live security footage of the Sontarans entering the citadel.

“THERE is our real enemy!” she shouted, ending the argument for now. “A Sontaran brigade swarming through the capital’s ruins! And above our heads, a Sontaran time fleet just waiting for the moment we switch off the transduction barriers!”

“Even with reduced power,” remarked Susan, “the transduction barriers are strong enough to repel any invasion force…well, any invasion force outside the barriers. We need to repel Trev and his men. But how can we win?”

“The Sontarans are master tacticians, second only to the Daleks,” remarked Rassilon. “What must they think of us now? Mere fools! Desperate, greedy children that would sacrifice their safety for quick advantage!”

“What’s done is done, Rassilon,” said the Doctor. “Now we must deal with the current situation. As you said, they’re tacticians. Even with their failure, Stor and his men must have transmitted valuable data about Gallifrey’s defenses. Then they used that data to concoct various plans to try again. By chance, the Master inadvertently helped them put one of their long shots into action.”

“There’s so much happening at once!” sighed Rassilon.

“Grandfather, there’s something I need to tell you,” said Susan.

“Susan, I hate to say it, but it will have to wait until we deal with all these crises.”

“Grandfather, it’s about the Eye!” insisted Susan.

“Susan-!”

“Hold on a minute, Doctor, let’s hear her out,” said Romana. “Let her cook, I believe 21st century humans would say. Susan, the floor is yours.”

“As us Time Lords are well aware,” began Susan, “the Eye of Harmony is the main source of power. The transduction barriers, time vortex monitoring equipment, and a TARDIS heart, are all linked to the Eye. But the connection between the Eye and a TARDIS heart is different. In order to handle the temporal energies, the link is established via the Main Eye and a smaller version of the Eye inside a TARDIS.”

“Hold on, there’s a star in each TARDIS permanently about to collapse?” asked Amy.

“That’s right,” confirmed Susan. “But there was something Gallifreyans after Omega overlooked. A TARDIS heart has to remain small in order to keep a TARDIS functioning.”

“Of course! That safety measure was built into the first TARDIS!” realized the Doctor.

“I get it!” gasped Rassilon. “Remove a TARDIS heart, allow it to grow-!”

“And hey presto, a NEW Eye of Harmony to power Gallifrey!” finished the Doctor.

“So who will sacrifice their TARDIS’s heart?” asked the Master.

“No one needs to!” replied the Doctor. “Rassilon, lead us to Banza’s TARDIS! Maybe we can convince it to let its heart become the new Eye!” Rassilon flinched.

“That’s…not possible anymore,” she said. “Banza’s TARDIS went through the full shutdown sequence. Its heart is…unavailable.”

“Why mention that fool of a general’s TARDIS?” asked the Master.

“He survived,” explained the Doctor.

“But he used his last life to save New Earth from Rita Repulsa and the Toymaker,” continued Amy.

“And we sent his TARDIS back to Gallifrey to be respectfully scrapped,” finished the Doctor. “And if it went through the full shutdown sequence, then its smaller Eye collapsed on itself with no damage.”

“Right now, Doctor,” sighed Rassilon, “the only active TARDIS’s are the Master’s Type 75…and your Type 40.”

“Oh? …Oh. …OOOOOHHHOOHOAHAHAHA!” The Master started cackling. “Oh, this is just too rich! You’re asking the Doctor to sacrifice her only means of escaping Gallifrey!”

“There’s still YOUR TARDIS!” hissed Amy.

“Not a chance!” laughed the Master. “Doctor, you want to help Rassilon? You’ll have to sacrifice your TARDIS!” Those words echoed in the Doctor’s mind, proving how insane the Master really is.


Meanwhile, Trev and his men were still swarming through the capital. By now, the scout ship was empty. Trev took in a breath. “…Fear,” he sighed with a wicked grin. “The citadel is rank with it!”

“Perhaps singing will amplify it,” suggested his adjutant.

“Do you have a song in mind?” asked Trev.

“Just the old marching song at the Academy.” Trev grinned at the suggestion.

“Set the beat, Adjutant! I feel like singing that glorious marching anthem!” ordered Trev. The adjutant obeyed and set a marching beat, then Trev began to sing.

Sontar, Sontar! We march for Sontar!

The Light of Sontar is why we march!” By now, other Sontarans were joining in!

Sontar, Sontar! We fight for Sontar!

The Glory of Sontar is why we fight!

Sontar, Sontar! We die for Sontar!

The death of our enemies is why we live!

Sontar, Sontar! We live for Sontar!

Sontaran troopers are bred for war!”

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings The Specials

Gallifrey’s Rebirth: Part 5

As Rassilon and Romana went to greet the Thanakians, Miss Tarae saw the Doctor talking with Amy, Lurra Rus, and Susan. “Grandfather,” said Susan, unaware of Miss Tarae’s presence, “I still don’t understand why she’d do that!”

“Well, she justified it as the Lie Gallifrey was Built on,” replied the Doctor. “As humans of the 21st century are wont to say ‘cool motive, still murder’.”

“Telling your granddaughter about what happened to our home?” asked Miss Tarae, startling everyone.

“…Well, she deserves to know the truth,” remarked the Doctor.

“What is the truth but a mere interpretation of the facts?”

“That may be,” remarked Susan, “but the truth is an interpretation worth upholding.”

“Oh? So you know about what the Doctor did? What sparked the Time War?”

“I still hold that it was that mission during the last days of the Thousand Year War on Skaro that sparked the Time War,” remarked the Doctor.

“Oh, come now,” chuckled Miss Tarae. “Giving your own granddaughter an incorrect interpretation of the facts? We both know it was Skaro’s destruction.”

“Destruction?” asked Amy. “But we were ON Skaro.”

“A rebuilt Skaro, yes,” replied the Doctor. “The Daleks managed to restore it thanks to their time travel capabilities. But I DID turn Skaro’s sun into a supernova.”

“What?! How?!” asked Susan.

“Through the Hand of Omega,” explained the Doctor. “I knew a wicked race of time travelers would try to use it, so I had the Hand turn the sun of the offending race into a supernova.”

“And that race of wicked time travelers turned out to be the Daleks,” guessed Susan. “But where does Miss Tarae fit into all that?”

“Further along into Skaro’s past,” replied Miss Tarae. “What if I were to tell you that the High Council used me as a sacrificial lamb?”

“What?”

“Not entirely a correct interpretation,” remarked the Doctor. “But the High Council DID make a metaphorical deal with the Devil.”

“I’d hardly call it metaphorical, considering the Daleks ARE the Devil,” scoffed Miss Tarae. The Doctor drew in a breath before continuing.

“When she was the Master,” she said, “Miss Tarae had used up all 13 of her regenerations. She wasn’t technically a Time Lord. She possessed the last Keeper of Traken. To top that off, she was dying, infected with a cheetah virus that was slowly turning her into an animal. Romana and the High Council saw this as an opportunity. She called it the Act of Master Restitution; a bid to try and stop a war between us and the Daleks.”

“I was at the end of my tether,” interjected Miss Tarae, “and the High Council saw me as the ideal man for that suicide mission!”

“No!” argued the Doctor.

“Yes,” countered Miss Tarae.

“It wasn’t as clear-cut as that! I know Romana-!” insisted the Doctor.

“DON’T LIE TO ME, DOCTOR!” Miss Tarae grabbed the Doctor by the collar of her coat and pulled her close. “I was expendable! Some sugar-coated promise of a new regeneration cycle for ‘helping the cause’! But all they really wanted was to kill two birds with one stone! Romana told you every single detail of the plan! You knew I wasn’t going to be walking away from Skaro alive, didn’t you?!”

“…Yes,” admitted the Doctor.

“And the deal was struck!” hissed Miss Tarae. “Go on, Doctor. Tell them all! Tell them the details of that failed deal!” She flung the Doctor to the ground. Lurra Rus helped her up. The Doctor adjusted her coat and continued.

“Miss Tarae was sent back to a period before Skaro’s destruction to broker some form of peace treaty with the Daleks, to try and avert any of the future events from happening and starting a war.”

“But that’s breaking the cardinal rule of time travel!” protested Susan. “The High Council would never allow something like that! They’re not Earth politicians!”

“My dear Susan, whether from Earth or Gallifrey,” said the Doctor, “politicians are a stuffy bunch who will stop at nothing if it means not getting their hands dirty, even if it meant breaking a rule or two. After I destroyed Skaro, the Time Lords knew that any surviving Daleks would see it as an obvious act of aggression and would come here to destroy us.”

“Why didn’t they send you?” asked Amy. “You’re the one that knows the most about the Daleks.”

“They would have killed her on the spot, and the High Council knew it,” replied Miss Tarae. “No, I was considered expendable, and I already had dealings with the Daleks. President Romana felt that would play in Gallifrey’s favor. Doctor, do you know what happened on Skaro?”

“You were executed and somehow transferred your consciousness into a Deathworm Morphant,” answered the Doctor.

“Oh, how naïve,” remarked Miss Tarae. “Although, I suppose I should be grateful for their lack of morality. If only they just killed me. No, the Daleks wanted to know how we work.”

“How we work?” asked Susan.

“Regeneration, my dear,” explained Miss Tarae. “And our sensitivity to time! They must have learned a lot from me.”

“Experimentation!” shuddered the Doctor.

“They did things to me that even YOUR nightmares could not conceive, Doctor! Thank goodness I plucked a jarful of Deathworm Morphants from the swamps of Skaro. They spliced my DNA with other creatures and subjected it to different forms of radiation while I experimented on the Morphants. Only one impossibly strong Morphant could house my consciousness! …On the subject of Dalek experiments, even I learned some things I didn’t think were possible. For instance, did you know that gamma radiation accelerates the regeneration process?”

“But Grandfather just said,” interjected Susan, “that you were possessing a non-Gallifreyan.”

“Yes, and that’s what prompted my execution,” remarked Miss Tarae. “For the crime of stymying their scientific efforts, I was sentenced to vaporization. But the last surviving Deathworm Morphant managed to hold onto my consciousness. After a stint with the Doctor after he freshly regenerated into his eighth incarnation, I was brought back to life.”

“And after several plots,” remarked the Doctor, “she was drafted into the Time War like I was.”

“But that whole incident burned in my mind!” hissed Miss Tarae. “The High Council called it the Act of Master Restitution! And it failed! The Daleks still went to war against us! All because of the Doctor selfishly destroying their homeworld!”

“No, Miss Tarae, the war started when I was sent back in time to avert their creation!” insisted the Doctor.

“Avert their creation?” asked Susan.

“So that’s when you first met Davros?” asked Amy.

“Exactly, Amy,” replied the Doctor. “And to answer your question, Susan, the Time Lords foresaw a time stream where the Daleks would destroy all other forms of life in the universe. So they sent me into Skaro’s past, during the nuclear war we heard about. I had learned that the Daleks’ humanoid ancestors were actually called Kaleds and they produced a madman called Davros. In a bid to win the war with the Thals, Davros accelerated the mutations of his people and slapped them into a metal war machine, the means of locomotion based on his old chair.”

“You mean this Davros character was a halfway point between the Kaleds and the Daleks?” quizzed Susan.

“Exactly.”

“Hold on, I saw him with legs,” said Lurra Rus.

“He didn’t used to have legs, or hair, or a left arm,” replied the Doctor. “A Thal shell packed with radioactive isotopes ruined his body, but he was alive. His chair acted as life-support, but his hatred kept him alive up until he stole some of my regeneration energy.”

“So he’s got two legs these days?” asked Miss Tarae. She then realized something. “Wait a minute-!” she snarled at the Doctor.

“Miss Tarae,” interrupted the Doctor, “unlike you, I don’t force others to fix my insanity, even if they started it in the first place. Rassilon and Romana have weightier concerns, callous though I may sound. Weightier concerns, I might add, that YOU plopped on our doorstep! We’ve all confessed our sins to you numerous times and offered constructive solutions. YOU are the one that refuted them in favor of conquering the universe. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to puzzle out a new tangle Rassilon left us.”

“Something about this Eye of Harmony?” asked Lurra Rus. She and Amy then realized something.

“Didn’t Rassilon say she used the Eye to power the time scoop and bring Romana and Susan here?” asked Amy.

“She did,” confirmed the Doctor.

“So why make a new one?” asked Susan. “…Unless…” She trailed off in thought.

“Susan?” asked Amy.

“Grandfather, perhaps we should assist our presidents in greeting the Thanakians,” suggested Susan. The Doctor caught onto her granddaughter’s plan.

“I do believe you’re right, Susan. Let’s go, everyone.” The Doctor led the way with Miss Tarae snarling.

“Distract everyone by going off on a tangent, Doctor!” she hissed to herself. “How gutless! And the universe WILL pay for my madness one way or another!”