Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings Series 5

Ten-fold Strength: Part 4

Godzilla stumbled as SpaceGodzilla fired his corona beam. It was bad enough when he had to fight other monsters, but a monster that could recover from wounds as quickly as him or could anticipate and counter his movements? That was just too much! …And now there was something glowing green on that little island! …Wait, was it growing to his size? The green light then formed a humanoid shape, then faded to reveal a red and white person with glowing green eyes and a large fin protruding from his head and forearms. “WAY BIG!” it announced. Godzilla got into a defensive stance. “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” yelped Way Big. “Friendly! Friendly!” …This one wasn’t planning on fighting Godzilla. “Look, big guy, I don’t know if you fully understand, but we can’t kill the knock-off of you!” Godzilla snorted. No one tells him what to do! “Godzilla, please listen! He’s not supposed to die here in this time! This is the same SpaceGodzilla that was killed thirty years ago! He was plucked from that time and brought here! I can send him back so he can die in his proper time, but if you kill him now, there will be massive temporal consequences that I can’t begin to understand! Time will have no meaning! You will cease to exist if you kill him now!” Godzilla didn’t fully understand everything and was about to attack Way Big…then he took a sniff. …SpaceGodzilla’s scent should have been familiar, not exactly the same. …Way Big was right, this knock-off should have been dead already. He would have smelled resurrection on SpaceGodzilla. This…was the exact same one! Godzilla understood preserving history to an extent. He snorted, then assumed an aggressive stance, giving off a challenge roar to SpaceGodzilla. “…Gonna assume you understand, big guy,” said Way Big. He then faced SpaceGodzilla. “You heard the king! Round two, baby!” SpaceGodzilla roared in defiance!


“…I can’t help but see Ultraman in Ben right now,” remarked Dr. Sato as she saw Godzilla and Way Big charge at SpaceGodzilla.

“Ben’s heard the Ultraman jokes already,” replied Julie.

“The To’kustar race DID come before your Ultraman franchise,” said the Doctor.

“So what now?” asked Lurra Rus.

“You think Ben convinced Godzilla not to kill SpaceGodzilla?” quizzed Amy.

“I really hope so,” muttered the Doctor. The ground shook as the fight went on.

“I think the bigger question is can we avoid getting underfoot?!” yelped Dr. Sato.

“Ben seems to be keeping the fight contained in the bay,” remarked the Doctor. “I think we’d best take advantage of the hills San Francisco is built on.”

“We’d have to get there first!” protested Dr. Sato. “Look at the size of the waves!” The fight WAS causing massive waves to hit the shore, waves big enough to send boats and ships away from land.

“Damn!” grumbled the Doctor. Dr. Sato then looked up.

“…Ben’s not hitting the crystals on SpaceGodzilla’s shoulders!” she called.

“All right, I need a megaphone!” called the Doctor.


Back at the fight, Godzilla’s fire was deflected by SpaceGodzilla’s crystalline shield. The space monster had a wicked smirk as he lumbered towards Godzilla…then he felt something tug at his tail! He looked back to see Way Big holding onto his tail. “GOTCHA!” laughed Way Big. SpaceGodzilla snorted, then thrashed his tail. Way Big kept ahold of SpaceGodzilla’s tail, but he DID end up dunked underwater. He was forced to release the tail and come up for air. “Okay, that wasn’t my brightest idea!” spluttered Way Big.

“BEN!” called the Doctor’s voice over a megaphone. Way Big looked down to see the Doctor, her friends, and Julie waving. The Doctor then spoke into the megaphone. “THE SHOULDER CRYSTALS! DESTROY THE SHOULDER CRYSTALS!”

“The shoulder-?” Way Big looked to see that SpaceGodzilla was focusing on Godzilla now. Godzilla had remembered SpaceGodzilla’s weakness and was trying to destroy the shoulder crystals, but SpaceGodzilla’s crystalline shield was keeping him safe. …Way Big then noticed a flaw! “…Should have watched your back!” Way Big crossed his arms into an X formation and fired a stream of green energy at SpaceGodzilla’s right shoulder crystal. The crystal shattered and caused SpaceGodzilla to roar in pain, making him lose his concentration on his shield. Godzilla saw his chance and fired a Spiral Red Atomic burst at the remaining shoulder crystal. The crystal shattered and SpaceGodzilla was in immense pain. The King of the Monsters and Way Big then wailed on SpaceGodzilla. They focused on just knocking him out. Eventually, they backed off and SpaceGodzilla wobbled before collapsing in San Francisco Bay! His eyes were shut.

“YES!” cheered everyone else. Godzilla gave a roar of victory.

“Perfect! Now, with that out of the way-!” said Way Big. He then looked down at the Omnitrix symbol on his chest. “Omnitrix, Clockwork!” The green light then returned and surrounded him. He then shrunk down until he was a round creature made of brass clockwork with a green window on his chest showing off his internal mechanisms. He had a clock key on his round head and spoke with an exaggerated Swiss accent. “CLOCKWORK!” The key on his head then spun. “…Aha! So you came from that point in time. Well, history says you have to be there. …However, it DOES say you have to be in that condition the Grouping found you in.” Clockwork then fired a time ray from his chest. “Don’t worry, this will just send you back to the past with no memory of being in the future.” SpaceGodzilla then faded away in green light. “There we go! And so, the day is saved, thanks to Ben Te…wait a minute!” Clockwork then recalled that there was nothing but water under the fading SpaceGodzilla and he was pretty sure that would hurt a Chronosapien! “…Omnitrix, Ripjaws! Ripjaws! RIPJAWS!”


Back on Alcatraz, everyone saw a ball of fire where Clockwork was! “BEN!” called Julie. The ball of fire then dipped near the water when SpaceGodzilla fully returned to his time, then shot up and arced towards Alcatraz. “…Oh, no, wait,” realized Julie. The ball of fire landed near the group and dissipated to reveal a humanoid made of rocks and fire with the Omnitrix symbol on his chest. Julie couldn’t resist. “HEATBLAST!” she shouted.

“…Is Azmuth still here?” asked Heatblast.

“Right here, Ben,” replied Azmuth as he hopped off the Doctor’s shoulder. “Shouldn’t you have turned into your Piscciss Volaan form? You know, that transformation you call Ripjaws?”

“That’s what I told the Omnitrix to turn me into!” snapped Heatblast.

“I think the DNA database in the Omnitrix needs a recheck,” remarked the Doctor. “That’s a Pyronite, not a Piscciss Volaan.”

“Yeah, well this stupid watch has a sense of humor!” retorted Heatblast. “I thought Master Control avoids that whole turning-me-into-the-wrong-alien thing! Azmuth, if you’re the smartest guy in nine galaxies-!”

“FIVE galaxies,” corrected the Doctor and Azmuth.

“And haven’t you humans developed voice command technology recently?” asked Azmuth. “A Chronosapien’s accent DOES impede things a bit when you’re panicked and the voice recognition software hasn’t been trained!”

“…Not to detract from the lesson Ben’s learning here,” said the Doctor, “but the Time Lords’ voice recognition software avoids that. Perhaps I can-?”

“No, thank you, Doctor,” replied Azmuth. “I’ll figure it out myself.”


As the group talked, Godzilla simply stomped off towards deeper waters and prepared to dive. What he didn’t know was that Dr. Animo was watching him. “That’s it, little Kaiju!” cackled the mad doctor. “Once my Transmodulator hits you, you’ll be under my direct-!”

“Hey!” called Amy’s voice. Dr. Animo turned to see her standing there with her hands on her hips while Lurra Rus stood behind her.

“No,” said Lurra Rus as she held up a component Dr. Animo recognized. It was the power transfer circuit for his Transmodulator.

“…Ladies, you two are no fun!” grumbled Dr. Animo as he held his hands up in surrender.


Everyone returned to the mainland as Godzilla went under the water and cruised back to Monster Island. Dr. Animo was put into a prison transport truck, muttering about stupid sapient hedgehogs. The Doctor checked some readings on her sonic screwdriver and smiled. “That’s two chronal surges dealt with,” she said. “And this one was far more satisfactory than the previous!”

“So where are we off to now?” asked Amy as she, the Doctor, and Lurra Rus headed back to the TARDIS.

“Still figuring that out,” replied the Doctor.

“Doctor, you’re not leaving, surely!” protested Dr. Sato as she and Ben approached her. “There’s still so much to clean up!”

“And I’m sure UNIT and the Plumbers can do it splendidly,” answered the Doctor. “But the chronal surge that brought SpaceGodzilla to this time isn’t the only one. We need to mitigate this before other races take advantage of the Grouping.”

“…Well, if you’re sure,” sighed Dr. Sato.

“Oh, Ben, could Azmuth keep an eye on the Grouping?” asked the Doctor.

“Not really much he can do,” replied Ben. “He’s more interested in genetics, not temporal mechanics.”

“True, true,” agreed the Doctor. “Well, must dash.” She and her friends entered the TARDIS and it dematerialized, ready to get to the next chronal surge.

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings Series 5

Ten-fold Strength: Part 3

Standing over Alcatraz Island was SpaceGodzilla himself! He was similar to Godzilla himself in terms of physical appearance, but he had a red chest and stomach area, crystals in the shape of oak-leaf spines running down his back, a massive crystal on each shoulder, shorter arms than Godzilla, two fangs on each side of his mouth, and eyes that burned with a beastly intelligence. “Lovely!” grumbled the Doctor. “And Godzilla’s only two minutes out!”

“It looks like I have a bit of a pest problem to deal with!” cackled Dr. Animo.

“Call off SpaceGodzilla now!” demanded the Doctor.

“You know what ‘fat chance’ means, I presume?” asked Dr. Animo.

“Dr. Animo, if you don’t call him off, he’ll break free from your control!”

“Impossible! My Transmodulator is currently set to mental control! SpaceGodzilla is nothing more than an oversized animal!”

“Kaiju are more than just oversized animals! They’re creatures with an intelligence we don’t give enough credit for! …Come to think of it, that’s all animals in general.”

“Pah!” scoffed Dr. Animo. “I’ve heard that kind of talk before and if that were true, animals would resist my mental control!” That was when something very large breached the water. That large something…was Godzilla himself. He was standing in a fashion that the hurriedly evacuated Golden Gate Bridge was all that was separating Godzilla and SpaceGodzilla. “Perfect! Now, SpaceGodzilla, fire your corona beam! DESTROY GODZILLA!” SpaceGodzilla…didn’t fire a corona beam! He raised his hand and the Golden Gate Bridge wrapped around Godzilla! “What?! That’s not what I said at all! Your CORONA BEAM! You know, your horn laser attack?!” SpaceGodzilla then made crystals grow until they were almost to his height. “This is intolerable! I ORDER YOU TO DESTROY GODZILLA AT ONCE, YOU STUPID SPACE LI-!” Dr. Animo doubled over, clutching his head in pain! The Doctor’s natural telepathic abilities picked up on SpaceGodzilla’s thoughts.

“I take no orders from you!” he was saying in Dr. Animo’s head. “You ants should be bowing to me, your TRUE God!”

“SpaceGodzilla, you need to stop!” urged the Doctor through her own mind. That attracted SpaceGodzilla’s attention. He looked around. “Down here! The woman in the skirt waving!” SpaceGodzilla looked down to see the Doctor. “Hello! I’m the Doctor, a frequent visitor to this planet!”

“I can see that,” replied SpaceGodzilla. “Your mind is not a human one. This does not concern you, Doctor. Be gone!”

“I can’t do that!” replied the Doctor. “You’re in the wrong time! You need to-!”

“I will not be going back to my death! I read what Dr. Animo remembers of this time’s history! This Godzilla is nothing more than the child I imprisoned all those years ago!”

“SpaceGodzilla, as a champion of life, I understand the desire to stay alive, but I’m also a champion of time and-!”

“I care not about time! I am space! I am gravity! I shall devour everything!”

“Devour-?” The Doctor’s eyes went wide. “…The Apocalypse Element!”

“You’ve encountered me before?” asked SpaceGodzilla.

“If you detonate those crystals, the whole universe will be set alight!” the Doctor insisted.

“As it should!”

“Great, the Daleks’ most destructive and unstable weapon, and it’s a Kaiju!”

“I’ve molded it to my own ends!” The Doctor was about to interject when she heard the sound of metal being bent. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got history to rewrite!” said SpaceGodzilla. He ended the mental call and stomped towards Godzilla as the King of the Monsters unwrapped the Golden Gate Bridge from his body. His spines then lit up and he fired, but SpaceGodzilla created a crystalline shield in front of him and deflected the attack. He then swung his tail into Godzilla’s face, clubbing him and making him stumble. Godzilla snarled and leapt at SpaceGodzilla, but SpaceGodzilla held the King of the Monsters with his telekinesis.


Everything was happening at once. UNIT soldiers and Plumbers were scrambling to form SOME kind of defense. The Doctor grabbed a Plumber. “Where’s Ben?!” she demanded.

“Over there, fiddling with his watch!” replied the Plumber. The Doctor followed the Plumber’s finger and found Ben surrounded by Julie, Amy, and Lurra Rus.

“Mr. Tennyson, now is NOT the time to be updating your…your Apple Book or whatever the hell you people use for social media on this planet in this time!” protested Lurra Rus.

“I’m not!” argued Ben. “My stupid watch isn’t working! Really gotta grill Azmuth for this!”

“What’s going on?” asked the Doctor.

“I’m trying to select Way Big,” replied Ben, “but the Omnitrix isn’t even activating the selection dial!”

“Now, of all times?!” The Doctor pulled Ben’s wrist to her so she could examine the Omnitrix.

“HEY!” protested Ben. The Doctor checked out the Omnitrix, then she blinked.

“…Ben, I don’t think you’ve updated your watch recently,” she said.

“What do you mean?” asked Ben.

“There’re frequent messages from the new Galvan Homeworld and the planet of Primus about new updates to the Omnitrix. I think you’d better install them.”

“Is now really a good time?!” argued Ben. “I gotta turn into Way Big right now!”

“If I’m reading this right, I think you’ll be turning into Way Big whenever you want.”

“Huh?”

“Just start installing the updates.” Ben grumbled, but complied.

“Updates accepted and installing,” reported the Omnitrix. “Omnitrix will shut down and restart.”

“Please make it quick,” grumbled Ben.

“Okay, so how do we deal with SpaceGodzilla while Ben’s out of action?” asked Amy.

“The only one who can tell us is Dr. Sato,” replied the Doctor. “What was her condition when you last saw her?”

“Catatonic,” said Lurra Rus. “The local doctors are trying to snap her out of it.”

“Blast, and I really need her.” The Doctor thought a bit. “…It’s a bit risky, but it might snap her out of it. Where is she?”


Dr. Sato was sitting in a bed, just staring blankly at the wall ahead of her. The Doctor entered the room with guards outside. “…Dr. Sato?” asked the Doctor. Dr. Sato didn’t respond. “…Right then. Really would prefer asking permission for this.” The Doctor then took off her gloves and placed her fingertips on Dr. Sato’s temples. She probed the poor woman’s mind…and saw a little girl running scared from SpaceGodzilla. The year was 1995. Crystals were everywhere. The noise of the fight was deafening. “…That doesn’t make sense. Where’s MOEGURA?” muttered the Doctor.

“…M…Mogura?” mumbled Dr. Sato. An image of a mole appeared in her mind.

“…No, not the animal,” replied the Doctor. “The mech.” That was when an image of a giant robot being piloted by humans appeared. The robot had a drill nose and drill hands and could split into a flying vehicle and a land vehicle. “Yes, that’s it! One of humanity’s achievements!”

“…W…We…helped…him,” said Dr. Sato. “…We were…ants in that fight…but we helped Godzilla…defeat his clone!” Dr. Sato became more aware. “That mech was my favorite as a child! It…It drove away the monsters in my closet!” She then looked up. “…Doctor, what ARE you doing-?” The shaking coming from the giant monster slug-fest snapped her back to reality. “Oh no, they’re fighting!” she realized.

“And Dr. Animo lost control of SpaceGodzilla,” explained the Doctor. “This is the same SpaceGodzilla that you saw fall in 1995, so if Godzilla kills him-!”

“There’s a way to weaken SpaceGodzilla, it’s just convincing someone Like Godzilla not to kill SpaceGodzilla that’s the issue,” interrupted Dr. Sato. “For now, I can easily tell you that the crystals on SpaceGodzilla’s shoulders are the key. Destroy them and he’s weakened. Now, if we can get any mech to be deployed before SpaceGodzilla decides that San Franscisco is a perfect coastal buffet-!”

“Ben has an alien that’s as big as a Kaiju,” replied the Doctor, “but the Omnitrix is updating.”

“Are you serious?!”

“Hey, even something as advanced as the Omnitrix or my TARDIS needs software and firmware updates! …Speaking of which, come on! …Unless-.”

“I’m all right now, Doctor,” assured Dr. Sato. “Come on!”


The Doctor and Dr. Sato rushed up to Ben and his group as they took cover. “Come on!” complained Ben as the Omnitrix’s holographic interface displayed that dreaded loading circle.

“Is it still updating?” asked the Doctor.

“I can’t even engage voice commands!” replied Ben.

“Voice commands reestablished,” droned the Omnitrix.

“Perfect!” cheered Julie.

“Omnitrix, what are you installing?!” demanded Ben.

“Current updates include vocal commands for transformations, elimination of recharge cycle, unlocking of all aliens in Primus’ codon stream, improved conversational language database-.”

“Hold on, hold on. Omnitrix, did the recent update unlock Master Control? Like what happened to the prototype against the Highbreed?”

“Confirmed. Updates now fully completed.”

“Hang on, how did I prove-?!” At that moment, a tiny, gray, frog-like creature with tendrils on his chin appeared.

“Took you long enough to install the Master Control updates!” he grumbled.

“Azmuth!” gasped the Doctor. Azmuth looked at the Doctor.

“You must be the Time Lord that Ben scanned,” remarked Azmuth.

“I am,” replied the Doctor. “I’m called the Doctor and it’s a pleasure to meet the smartest being in five galaxies!” The Doctor was about to fangirl even more, but the Kaiju fight interrupted her squeeing.

“We’ve got bigger problems on our hands!” replied Ben. “Time to test this out! Omnitrix, Way Big!”

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings Series 5

Ten-fold Strength: Part 2

“Um, what was that?!” asked Lurra Rus.

“Ben was never THAT rude when he changed,” remarked Amy.

“You mean he changes into a new life-form frequently?”

“That’s thanks to the piece of Galvan technology on his wrist, the Omnitrix,” explained the Doctor. “And Appoplexians, Amy, are hard-wired for aggression and that aggression makes them a bit dim.”


As they talked, Rath was still punching the mutant frog. Dr. Animo had hopped off it and kept out of the way of the fight, seemingly unconcerned about the frog losing to Rath. Rath noticed this in his usual anger. “HEY! HEY! CAN’T YOU SEE THAT RATH’S BEATING UP YOUR FROG?!” he bellowed.

“And you presume that the frog is the only animal under my control?” asked Dr. Animo.

“Huh?” asked Rath. Then the ground shook again. This time, the tremors caught the Doctor’s attention.

“All right, what is it?” she asked. “Ants? Termites?”

“…Kaiju,” replied Dr. Animo with a wicked grin. Crystals then sprouted from the ground! “Specifically, a cosmic Kaiju from 1995!” Dr. Sato gasped as memories of her home of Fukuoka flooded her mind. She remembered three giants, two against one. One of the giants had crystals growing out of it and used the Fukuoka Tower as a power source!

“…S…Space…!” she whispered in terror.

“Dr. Sato?” asked the Doctor.

“…He’s back!” whimpered Dr. Sato.

“You lot have 24 hours to surrender San Francisco to me,” called Dr. Animo, “or my newest acquisition marches across the United States and destroys not only Washington D.C, but New York City as well!” He hopped back on his frog and made his escape.

“HEY! HEY!” called Rath. “RATH ISN’T DONE WITH YOU!”

“Ben, never mind him!” protested Amy. “We’ve got bigger problems!” Rath looked back to see Dr. Sato curling up in a ball. He then looked back at the escaping Dr. Animo…but his moral compass was still Ben’s. He slapped the Omnitrix symbol and returned to his true form as Ben and went to help Dr. Sato with Julie helping him.

“Come on, Dr. Sato,” he encouraged. “Let’s get you somewhere safe.”

“Safe?!” asked Dr. Sato. “Nowhere is safe now! Don’t you understand?! SPACEGODZILLA HAS RETURNED!”


“SpaceGodzilla?” asked Lurra Rus as she, Amy, and the Doctor were in a lab so the Doctor could study a fragment of the crystals that grew. “What manner of creature is that?”

“A clone,” replied the Doctor. “Specifically, the clone of the Kaiju that holds the title of King of the Monsters.”

“And what’s a Kaiju?” asked Amy.

“A giant animal that is fiercely intelligent and regards smaller life forms as we do with ants,” explained the Doctor. “This particular Kaiju is one of the most intelligent Kaiju around, with a head for strategy and tactics. He’s the result of the cells of the King of the Monsters somehow being mutated by radiation and space minerals and coming together to form his clone. The original King of the Monsters is called Godzilla by most of the world, his space clone is called SpaceGodzilla.”

“And, hopefully the last stupid question,” said Lurra Rus, “can Dr. Animo really control such a beast.”

“If you’re worried that it’s a stupid question, it’s generally not,” assured the Doctor. “Straight answer, not for any significant time. Kaiju brains CAN overcome mental control. The real question is how long Dr. Animo can control SpaceGodzilla.”

“And what kind of catastrophe would be unleashed when he inevitably loses control?” asked Amy.

“Questions none of us want answered. …I did some analysis of the crystals. It looks like the latent chronons surrounding them came from 1995.”

“So it was SpaceGodzilla that went through that chronal surge,” said Lurra Rus.

“But he was supposed to die in ’95,” continued the Doctor.

“…What year is this?” asked Amy.

“2025.”

“But if SpaceGodzilla fights the Godzilla of this time and dies-!” gulped Lurra Rus.

“It would exacerbate the Grouping,” confirmed the Doctor, “and unthread the Web of Time.”

“How do we get a giant monster to go back to its original time?” asked Amy.

“I don’t know,” replied the Doctor, hating that she had to say that.

“…Maybe…Maybe Ben can use Time Walker?” suggested Amy.

“It’s not as easy as that,” replied the Doctor. “Two Time Lords can’t put their heads together to fix this. We’d need the whole of Gallifrey at its height and Gallifrey isn’t there yet!” The Doctor’s eyes went wide. “…But that’s not the only time sensitive alien in the Omnitrix! He has Chronosapien DNA in that thing! And their temporal manipulation skills are on par with Gallifrey at its height! …But how to get a rampaging monster to stop or get another rampaging monster to not kill its rival? …Unless there’s a sufficiently titanic form in the Omnitrix. …I’ll need to speak with Ben on this one. Good thinking, Amy!” The Doctor headed off.

“…Don’t ask me why,” said Lurra Rus, “but seeing the Doctor come up with a plan way ahead of time somehow tickles my brain just right.”

“It does the same for me,” replied Amy. The two subconsciously held one another’s hand.


The Doctor found Ben waiting outside a room with Julie. “…How’s Dr. Sato?” she asked.

“She’s…well, SpaceGodzilla gave her PTSD, let’s put it that way,” said Julie.

“Then we need to get SpaceGodzilla back to his own time so she won’t see him again,” replied the Doctor.

“How do we do that?” asked Ben.

“With the help of your Chronosapien form,” answered the Doctor.

“Clockwork?” Ben then grinned. “Of course! He can track precisely when SpaceGodzilla came here and put him back in that exact time!”

“Exactly!” confirmed the Doctor.

“Then maybe Ben should be a little more careful with the Omnitrix during the inevitable fight,” chuckled Julie.

“Speaking of which, Ben, can you turn into something about 30 stories high?” asked the Doctor.

“Well, I DO have an alien called Way Big on this thing,” replied Ben.

“What kind of alien is Way Big?”

“…I sometimes have trouble with that.” Ben held the Omnitrix up to his mouth. “Omnitrix, remind me what race the transformation I call Way Big is called.”

“Transformation with the alias of Way Big,” replied a computerized version of Ben’s voice, “is the DNA sample of the To’kustar race.”

“To’kustar?” asked the Doctor. “That might actually be enough to stop SpaceGodzilla. I mean, it won’t kill him, but we need to send him back alive so he can face his proper death at the hands of Godzilla in that time.”

“I’m not naturally a killer anyways,” said Ben.

“And that’s good,” replied the Doctor, “but Godzilla is.”

“You think present-day Godzilla’s gonna be attracted by the fight?” asked Julie.

“I’m more surprised he’s not here al-.” The alarms then blared, interrupting the Doctor’s reply. “…I really hope he’s not-!”

“Alert! Alert!” called a soldier. “Godzilla has been sighted cruising to San Francisco Bay! Repeat, Godzilla has been sighted cruising to San Francisco Bay!”

“Rassilon’s bra!” grumbled the Doctor as she rubbed her eyes.


Over in his secret base, Dr. Animo’s alarms blared. He groaned as he got out of bed. “All I ask, once in a while, is a few paltry hours of uninterrupted sleep,” he grumbled. He checked his computer and saw the readings. “So soon?!” He smacked his face. “Perhaps I should have gotten him under control as well.” The tips of the antennae on Dr. Animo’s brain dome then glowed red. “SpaceGodzilla, your master commands you! Godzilla is coming! DESTROY HIM!” He then felt a pressure in his head, not enough to hurt him. Still, all readings said that SpaceGodzilla was on an intercept course.


Deep in the Pacific Ocean, a creature cruised through the water like a crocodile. It felt a presence it once felt when it was little. It was powerless back then, but not anymore. It was ready to take that presence on! It will not rest until its enemy was dead! Sharks swam out of the way as the creature swam through the water, its massive lizard head fixed with a look of purpose. Godzilla was ready to kill the space knock-off of his dad!


The Doctor was working on a machine that kept a crystal contained. “All right,” she said, “hopefully I can determine when in 1995 SpaceGodzilla was taken by the Grouping with this thing should Clockwork fail somehow.” She then pulled out a communicator. “Ben, this is the Doctor. Where are you right now?”

“Animo’s reappeared on the east side of the base,” replied Ben. “We’re all watching him now.”

“Keep me posted,” directed the Doctor. “Amy, Lurra Rus, how’s Dr. Sato?”

“Amy’s heading off to help with Ben,” replied Lurra Rus. “Julie’s with me right now. We managed to piece together why Dr. Sato is so scared of SpaceGodzilla. 30 years ago, when SpaceGodzilla first attacked-.” The earth shook and the Doctor saw a shadow fall over the entire island. She looked to the west…and saw him.

“…Very laudable, Lurra Rus,” said the Doctor, “but I’m afraid that may prove academic! SpaceGodzilla’s here to fight Godzilla!”

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings Series 5

Ten-fold Strength: Part 1

California, the west coast’s state of weird, and the current source of Plumber activity. Founded by George Washington himself, the capital P Plumbers became intergalactic police officers. One of the most famous Plumbers was Max Tennyson, semi-retired these days as his grandson, Ben Tennyson, was continuing the work. Armed with a watch that can turn him into any alien, the Omnitrix, Ben made a name for himself as Ben 10! Right now, he and his ex-girlfriend, Julie Yamamoto, were in California, looking out to sea. “I still don’t know why we were called,” muttered Ben. “I was enjoying some Sumo Slammers!”

“Look, we get calls about the weird stuff from time to time,” replied Julie.

“Yeah, but tremors? I thought California gets that stuff all the time and the locals don’t bat an eye.”

“Not when the tremors aren’t from shifting tectonic plates,” interjected a woman’s voice. A Japanese woman approached them. “Mr. Tennyson, Ms. Yamamoto, I am Dr. Sato, Chief Scientific Advisor for UNIT’s Japanese branch.”

“UNIT? The Plumbers and UNIT aren’t exactly friends,” remarked Julie.

“No, but I felt the need to collaborate on this issue,” explained Dr. Sato. “We’ve recently detected a surge of chronons and something appeared in the Pacific Ocean. Believe it or not, our parent United Kingdom branch has dealt with temporal messes before, but we needed a more proactive approach. That’s where you Plumbers come in.”

“I guess that makes sense,” replied Ben, “but we don’t exactly cover things up like you UNIT guys do. We’re…anyone hear that?” A strange noise was filling the air.

“…I see the object making that noise!” called Dr. Sato. Ben and Julie turned to see the TARDIS materializing.

“I don’t believe it!” gasped Ben.

“…It says ‘Police Box’ on it,” remarked Julie.

“It’s not a police box!” replied Dr. Sato.

“You met her before?” asked Ben.

“Yes! During an incident on Monster Island! You?”

“I was fighting Sontarans inside a time loop!”

“If it’s not a police box, what is it?” asked Julie.

“It’s a TARDIS, Yamamoto-san!” replied Dr. Sato.

“More than that!” supplied Ben. “It’s THE TARDIS! The Doctor’s coming!” The TARDIS fully materialized and Ben and Dr. Sato rushed forward. The doors opened and Lurra Rus stepped out.

“Doctor, are you sure-?” asked Lurra Rus before she was tackled by Ben and Dr. Sato.

“EEP!” yelped Dr. Sato. She then bowed. “Gomenasai!” she apologized.

“Yeah, I’m sorry too!” agreed Ben. “I thought you were someone else!”

“Oddly, so did I,” replied Lurra Rus. “In fact, I AM someone else.”

“Tennyson-san and I could have sworn this was a TARDIS,” said Dr. Sato. “THE TARDIS. The only TARDIS we know about.”

“And we were kinda hoping the Doctor would be here,” admitted Ben lamely.

“Oh, she is!” replied Lurra Rus. “Are you friends of hers? She and our friend, Amy Rose, are inside.”

“No they’re not,” corrected the Doctor as she and Amy left the TARDIS. “They’re coming out.” The Doctor then clapped eyes on Ben and Dr. Sato. “Ben! Dr. Sato! How wonderful to see you two again!”

“…I’m afraid I haven’t the pleasure, Ma’am,” replied Dr. Sato.

“Ah, you met the Doctor with her old face, have you?” asked Amy.

“Amy! You’re here!” said Ben. “And…is that really the Doctor?”

“Yeah, she just regenerated. An unfortunate hazard in her life.”

“You scanned me and got Time Walker, remember?” asked the Doctor. “I’m surprised you, of all people, forgot about regeneration.”

“Holy crap, it IS you!” yelped Ben. He then turned to Julie. “Julie, this is the Doctor I was talking about. And that’s Amy Rose. …I just don’t know the Twi’lek.”

“I’m Lurra Rus,” replied Lurra Rus. “You’ll have to excuse our sudden arrival. We just followed the path to a chronal surge.”

“…Did you find out if anything came through that surge?” asked Dr. Sato.

“Ah, so that’s why you’re all here,” said the Doctor. “We’re tracking these surges as they have a tendency to bring time zones together. My friends on Gallifrey warned me that something from 1995 came here. There are multiple surges like this one, creating an event known as the Grouping.”

“So you’re trying to fix it?” asked Ben.

“That’s the plan,” replied the Doctor.

“Would you like help?” asked Dr. Sato.

“If you’re offering,” answered the Doctor. “Perhaps, along the way, we can fix your issues.”

“We’ve set up a base on Alcatraz Island,” said Dr. Sato.

“Ah, Al Capone’s old home,” remarked the Doctor. “Nice guy if you overlooked his crimes, especially his tax evasion.”


Team TARDIS was brought to the base on Alcatraz where the Plumbers and UNIT soldiers were working together. “So the chronal surge was first detected here and so were the tremors?” asked the Doctor.

“We had to set up this base nearest to the tremors,” replied Dr. Sato.

“Gives me more of a chance to get right into the fight!” cheered Ben as he punched his hand.

“You Plumbers really do love getting into it, don’t you?” muttered Dr. Sato.

“The Plumbers have been around longer than UNIT,” said the Doctor. “Now…” the place was starting to shake. “…are those the-?”

“Yes!” replied Dr. Sato.

“…There seems to be a rhythm to it,” remarked Lurra Rus. “Like some…beast.”

“I’d almost liken it to a frog,” said Amy. “And I had to fight some frogs, let me tell you.” A UNIT soldier then burst in.

“We need to evacuate! There’s a giant frog hopping to the island!” he said.

“Hang on, soldier,” said Ben, “does this frog have four red eyes and horns?”

“Yes, but how important is-?!”

“He’s STILL around?!” protested Ben. He then thought. “…Then again, supposedly, he has his head put into a jar and puts said jar onto a gorilla body in the future.

“You know how this frog came to be?” asked Dr. Sato.

“Yeah, one of my enemies, Dr. Animo,” explained Ben. “A mad scientist that mutates animals into his monster slaves to conquer the world.”

“What is it about mad scientists that causes them to look to mutating life-forms?!” snapped the Doctor. “Is he in correspondence with Davros?!”

“We’d better ask him some questions,” suggested Amy.

“Right,” replied the Doctor. The group then went outside to see an elephant-sized four-eyed frog with an old man riding it. He wore a brain case that had antennae and exposed his brain, wore red goggles, had pale-green skin, and wore a long lab coat.

“Attention, UNIT and Plumbers!” announced the old man, Dr. Animo. “Surrender San Francisco to me or be trampled by my newest acqui-!” he stopped when he saw Ben. “Oh, for-! Can’t you just let me take over the world in peace, Tennyson?!”

“Come on, Doc, you know that’s not how this works,” replied Ben. “You show up, threaten to take over the world with your mutant animals, I turn into an alien that beats you, you get carted off to prison, that’s the whole thing. It’s kind of boring, now that I think about it.”

“Then mix it up a little and stand down!” snarled Dr. Animo.

“I think I’d prefer it if Ben stuck to routine,” called the Doctor.

“And just who are you?!” demanded Dr. Animo.

“I’m the Doctor.”

“…Doctor who?”

“Just the Doctor. Look, surely Mr. and Mrs. Animo wouldn’t want you to-.”

“Oh, here we go, the ‘my parents would be spinning in their graves if they knew what I did’ angle. Listen, sweetheart, I obtained emancipation from them when I was 18! I would have gotten it earlier, but those two WERE geniuses when it came to law, hence them having taken jobs as lawyers when they were alive.”

“…Okay, I’m not sure who’s the bigger villain in THAT scenario,” mused the Doctor. “But look, with your knowledge on genetic experiments, you could cure cancer, give humans the ability to regrow lost limbs, maybe-!”

“Except I don’t WANT to cure cancer or give humans the ability to regrow lost limbs,” interrupted Dr. Animo, “I want to make mutant animal slaves to help me conquer the world!”

“…Single-minded, that’s what you are,” muttered the Doctor.

“I prefer the word ‘driven’!” replied Dr. Animo.

“Well, I’m driven too,” remarked Ben. “Driven to put you back in prison. Let’s see, when we first met, you were trying to bring back extinct animals like dinosaurs, right?”

“I was set to call America’s capital ‘Washington B.C’, yes,” confirmed Dr. Animo.

“Then let’s see how you handle a living dinosaur,” chuckled Ben.

“A living dinosaur?” asked the Doctor.

“You ever heard of a Vaxasaurian, Doctor?” asked Ben.

“Oh, you have Vaxasaurian DNA on that thing?” quizzed the Doctor. “Nice people. Bit fist-happy though.”

“Just need to take down the frog!” replied Ben. “Dr. Animo, it’s time for Humungousaur!” Ben slammed on the Omnitrix, he then bulked up…got an orange and black striped fur pattern, grew a claw on the back of each wrist, his face became more feline, and a green and black luchador outfit appeared over him. “HUMUNGOUSAUR!” shouted Ben in his new form. He then looked down. “Oh for-! I MEAN RATH!”

“That’s an Appoplexian, Ben, not a Vaxasaurian,” groaned the Doctor as she pinched the bridge of her nose. Rath got up close to the Doctor’s face, saliva spattering all over the Doctor’s face as he screamed.

“LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING, DOCTOR, TIME LORD OF GALLIFREY! RATH ALREADY KNOWS THAT!” He then turned to Dr. Animo. “AND YOU! RATH IS STILL GONNA KICK YOUR FROG’S BUTT ALL THE WAY INTO THE SNOW!” Rath then leapt at the frog and wailed on it. The Doctor simply wiped the saliva off her face.

“…Lovely,” she grumbled.

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings Series 3

Revenge of the Sontarans: Part 4

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 10th 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 10th 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.”

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings Series 3

Revenge of the Sontarans: Part 3

“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 10th 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 10th 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 10th 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.

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings Series 3

Revenge of the Sontarans: Part 2

“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.

Categories
Doctor Who: Crossings Series 3

Revenge of the Sontarans: Part 1

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 10th 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!”

Categories
Journey Through Wonder story

Chapter 24: And on That Bombshell…

By the time the heroes got back to Plumber HQ, Vilgax had escaped to parts unknown once again. They looked around the place. “Man, Khan really did a number on this place,” muttered Ben.

“We better tidy things up before we go,” said Megumi.

“Ben, you don’t mind the extra help, do you?” asked Optimus.

“Well, it WOULD make the work go faster,” replied Ben. He then turned to his Phury. ‘All right, you’re the one who memorized everything about this place. What needs doing?”

“Well, the power core needs a magnetic charge, for a start,” answered Phury.

“A magnetic charge, huh? Then Lodestar’s the alien for the job!” Ben selected his alien and pressed the Omnitrix core down. He turned into what looked like a gorilla made of red, yellow, and blue Lego bricks. “BLOXX!” he called. His face turned sour. “Bloxx can be used for hauling things, Omnitrix. Let’s go with the magnet guy, all right?” He slapped the Omnitrix symbol on his chest and became a gray, six-inch-tall, humanoid frog. “GRAY MATTER!” Gray Matter looked a little more frustrated. “Galvans don’t HAVE magnetic powers!” He slapped the Omnitrix symbol again and became a humanoid Japanese Rhinoceros beetle with a huge underbite. “EATLE!” he announced. That was it! “NOW YOU’RE JUST BEING STUPID!” he shouted at the Omnitrix symbol. “Now look, I want Lodestar, you hear?! I don’t want Humungousaur, I don’t want Four-Arms, I don’t want Way Big! LODESTAR!” He slapped the Omnitrix symbol once more and became a brownish-black and yellow alien with pincer claws and a metal head floating between his large, pointed shoulders. “LODESTAR!” He then folded his arms. “There. Was that so much to ask?” Lodestar then floated off to the power core. Phury was snickering at the schadenfreude.

“I’m surprised you didn’t get irritated,” remarked Arsha.

“Oh, I did,” replied Phury, “but seeing Ben get annoyed at the Omnitrix’s screwups is always funny.”

“…Yeah, they always get a chuckle,” mused Megumi. “It happened a couple of times during the Vortech Wars.”


Once everything was fixed, it was time to go. Life joined the heroes as they were gathering for their ride home. “You sure you wanna go?” Ben asked Life.

“Ben, it’s been fun being part of the Plumbers,” replied Life, “but I’m afraid my sisters need me. Besides, I want to see the new Chaos. It’s time for me to resign from the Plumbers.”

“Well, if you ever wanna come back,” offered Phury, “you need merely come find us.” Life then shook hands with Ben and Phury.

“You keep me in the loop on your relationship, you hear?” directed Life.

“Loud and clear,” replied Ben. Life then turned to Megumi and her team.

“Let’s go,” she said. Megumi then made a call.

“Megumi to Vorton, one rift directly to After Academy,” she requested.

“On its way,” answered Rusty. The rift then appeared.

“So, you’ve got control of the Vortonian Gateways, hm?” mused Life.

“Even THE Gateway itself,” answered Megumi. “You might remember it, the one with the Keystones.”

“The Main Gateway survived?!” Life whistled in amazement. “I thought Vortech smashed it!”

“Oh, we’ve got a lot to tell you!” Megumi then turned to her team. “To the Academy!” Everyone then jumped into the rift, and it closed behind them. Ben and Phury looked at where the rift was, and Phury looked a little concerned.

“…Stripes?” asked Ben. No response. “…Phury?”

“That woman was me if I went down a darker path,” muttered Phury.

“But you didn’t go down that path, that’s important.”

“Yeah, but I made a Royal Bid. You know, where I declare my intentions to be Appoplexia’s Queen? Given how similar she is to me…I’m not so sure I’m not gonna be like her.”

“She’s totally opposite of you. If your Bid IS successful, you’d rule Appoplexia with the dignity it deserves. You’re not cowardly like her.” Phury smiled.

“True that.”


Everyone made it back to After Academy. Richard was nearby when the rift opened. He rushed to Megumi and Kaede and hugged them. “It’s all right, Richard,” assured Megumi. “We’re both fine.”

“Mom DID get help this time, I promise,” said Kaede.

“And look who we found,” Megumi broke the embrace to reveal Batman and his family.

“Bruce?” asked Richard.

“How’s the Shift Keystone working for you?” quizzed Batman.

“It’s working fine, but what are you doing here? …Megumi, did you use the Locate Keystone?”

“Batman was assimilated by the Lords,” replied Megumi. “I only used my Keystone to bring the Batmobile and its passengers to Bellwood.”

“Bellwood?”

“And it’s the Bellwood our Ben came from.”

“Awesome! How’s he doing?”

“Dating his universe’s Phury, one that I wish I faced in the 3V2R as she’s far and away more honorable than the one we know. In fact, the Phury we know became a Red Lantern Kamen Rider.”

“She was there?”

“And others. Get everyone here. We need to talk about who the Author recruited.”


“HIRO’S BACK?!” yelped Hiroki as Megumi gathered her immediate friends and family.

“And according to Batman, so’s Igura,” replied Megumi. “From what else I’ve heard, Igura gave birth to their daughter while they were in Hell.”

“And Metaltron’s got our Phury on her side?” asked Jandro.

“Not just her, it looks like,” said Batman. “She has a council, but I don’t know the rest of them.”

“In any case, this makes our job harder,” continued Megumi. “The Author has enemies that know our moves.” While Megumi talked, Hiroki stood up and headed to Sora.

“A word in private, please,” he said. Sora got up and followed him out of the meeting room.

“Otōsan, I know this isn’t-”

“I’m proud of you,” interrupted Hiroki.

“…Eh?”

“I’m proud of you, my son. You found an aspect of good to fight for.”

“…B…But I have a ring instead of a belt.”

“…Your point is?”

“Well, you and Mama are Kamen Riders and I felt that you would be disappointed if both me and Gabriella refused a belt and-”

“Sora, I never cared about that! Is that what was holding you back?”

“…Well…yes, it…it was.” Hiroki then hugged his son.

“My son, I’m sorry for not making what I really wanted for you clear. All I cared about was if you and Gabriella would fight for good. I didn’t care about if you two used a belt or a ring or a wand or dance moves! All I cared about was if you would fight for good and you’ve fulfilled my hope by being a Blue Lantern. If that’s what you feel is your path, then go on it! I will help you however I can.” Sora’s eyes misted, then he hugged Hiroki back and cried happy tears, a great weight being lifted from his shoulders.


“You can’t be serious!” pleaded Malnar.

“I don’t joke about that, Bonfire,” replied Arsha as she and her fellow Realmers gathered. “Dr. Borg is back and, according to Batman, so are her colleagues and spouses.”

“Great, after all the trouble we went through putting them in the ground!” grunted Foresna.

“Well, from what Batman said, Oyed’s not involved. However, Intrag is.”

“Intrag?” gulped Malnar.

“Lovely,” muttered Yufantel.


“The Terrorcons?” asked Megatron.

“All seven, according to Batman,” replied Optimus as he and his friends and family met. “The Author’s not playing around.”

“We need to form plans for the other teams,” said Blackarachnia. As everyone planned, Sky Runner got up and headed to Glyph.

“Walk with me,” she said. Glyph followed the young Autobot Seeker. They went into an empty courtyard.

“I see why you seek that next thrill hit,” chuckled Glyph. “Fighting Nemesis was fun!”

“You think you were thrill-seeking?!” snarled Sky Runner. “Take it from me, that was WAY too reckless, even for me!”

“…I thought you’d be proud!”

“There’s a fine line between thrill-seeking and suicide and taunting someone like Nemesis Prime is a good example of crossing it!”

“Oh, come on! Your dad beat him easily!”

“You didn’t listen to him all that much when he talked about his battles! While I may have been bored during his long history lessons, I still knew how dangerous Nemesis was back then when we fought him today! Dad had to wear him down by using the Chaos Emeralds! He had to resort to trickery later! I expected Dad’s successor to be better than that.” Glyph arched an eyebrow.

“What do you mean your dad’s successor?” Sky Runner’s optics went wide, and she took off, transforming into her jet mode in the process. “Don’t just fly off after a bombshell like that, Sky Runner!” called Glyph. “Sky Runner!! SKY RUNNER!!!” No response came to her.


Back on the Imperium, the Author sat in the throne room with his teammates. He drummed his fingers on the armrest. “That…could have gone better,” he grunted.

“Calling me the b-lister of Optimus’ Rogues Gallery!” growled Nemesis. “I ought to slaughter that green midget!”

“Never mind what she said!” snapped Dr. Borg. “Our enemies have a Source of Flourishment!” Hiro remained silent.

“…Nothing to contribute?” asked Metaltron.

“I went through something like this with the Sources of the Apocalypse,” replied Hiro. “When the Sources were gathered, their energy signatures acted as a beacon and guided my organization to Vorton’s new coordinates. Yes, they beat me, but-”

“Author, what are you doing?” interrupted Phury. Khan finished writing a new passage in the Tome. He then read it aloud.

“‘Once Khan shouted ‘Happy Birthday’, party decorations appeared and a plate with a slice of cake and a fork appeared in everyone’s hands and a party hat appeared on everyone’s heads.’” He then shut the Tome.

“Nani?” asked Hiro.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” Once Khan shouted “Happy Birthday”, party decorations appeared and a plate with a slice of cake and a fork appeared in everyone’s hands and a party hat appeared on everyone’s heads. “To our backup plan,” explained the Author. “I had completely forgotten that them gathering the Sources of the Apocalypse was a detriment to our enemies in the long run! I shall let the other teams know that we have a backup plan! Of course, they should still try their hardest in their goals, but we have other means! Once you lot are done with your cake, head on over to 5-P-L-4-T-0-0-N to get Death’s Source and Jason Ikamesh. I have a plan.” The team looked at each other, then simply ate their cake, concerned about the Author’s mental state.

Categories
Journey Through Wonder story

Chapter 23: Colors of Victory

“You’ve become a thorn in our side, Wimpy Me!” snarled Spectrum.

“Then I’m doing the Plumbers proud!” replied Phury. The two clashed and their fighting styles looked more like wrestling. Spectrum then tilted her belt and pressed her ring to it before returning it to its horizontal state.

“Shining Red Finish!” it announced.

“With blood and rage of crimson red,” said Spectrum as she pressed her ring to her gunsword, “ripped from a corpse so freshly dead,” she unfolded her weapon to sword mode and stabbed Phury in the belly and raised her up, “together, with our hellish hate,” Spectrum then punched Phury off and converted her weapon back into gun mode, “we’ll burn you all!” She fired a shot and it turned into a demonic red bull with four horns and sharp teeth. The bull headbutted Phury into a wall and broke it. “That is your fate!” Spectrum then jumped into the air and stuck her foot out. Her leg was surrounded in red light that came off her like fire and she dove at her Plumber double, cracking several of her bones. Phury was out of action. Spectrum looked to Sora. “You know, my double always prattles on about hope. Let me tell you something, Blue Lantern. Hope is an illusion. A farce to make people believe that things can go their way when they won’t.”

“You’re as wrong as Vilgax,” replied Sora. “Hope is what inspires people to journey among the stars in this universe. Hope is what gives my father and his friends and family the strength they need to defeat people like you. Hope is what fuels my heart on this day, this very hour!”

“Then you’re as weak as her.” Spectrum then leapt at Sora and had her ring hand above her head. Sora then weaved around her and jabbed at a point in her shoulder, causing it to go limp. Spectrum tried to get it to move, but it was paralyzed. “WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!” she roared.

“Venusian Akido,” explained Sora. “Learned that from Michael who learned it from-!” Ex then slammed a punch into his back, causing him to cry out.

“You use the weapon of Ka Faraq Gatri!” she said. When she spoke, the eyes flashed at every syllable and her voice was laced with the harsh, grating, metallic tones of the Daleks.

“Yeah, I do!” grunted Sora. He swung a knife-hand chop, but Ex caught it.

“All techniques have been studied! The Doctor’s fighting style will NOT help you!”

“No, but perhaps SHE will.” Once Sora finished his sentence, Rosadera grabbed Ex’s head and flung her into a wall. Ex picked herself up and locked eyes with Rosadera.

“You will be exterminated!” barked the Dalek-like Kamen Rider.

“I don’t think that’s likely,” replied Rosadera. “If I recall, you joined Dalek Caan. He stole Chizaran technology and built your belt from that, didn’t he?”

“Correct! What you once used for colonizing uninhabited worlds is now used for glorious destruction!”

“Even War would be hard-pressed to call destruction glorious.”

“Then she has forgotten herself!”

“Wrong. In any event, that thing still requires a charge, doesn’t it? Waste your Rider Kick on me and you’ll be flattened.”

“I am fully charged! Records indicate you will show mercy! You are a friend of associates of the Doctor!” Ex then pressed a button on her belt.

“MAXIMUM EXTERMINATION!” it announced. Ex somersaulted into the air as the belt fired a bolt of blue light at Rosadera. Ex then unfolded herself so that her foot stuck out in a flying kick and both she and the bolt hit Rosadera. Rosadera screamed in pain as her skeleton could be seen in the light. She then exploded and Ex landed.

“ROSADERAAAAAAaaaaoh wait, what am I saying?” muttered Sora once he got over his fear. Once the fires of the explosion died, Rosadera was revealed to be rubbing her stomach.

“Unscrambling the insides,” she groaned, “very unpleasant.”

“Impossible! You are not a member of Beyond City!” barked Ex in disbelief.

“No, I’m one of the five Major Chizaran Princesses, the Pink Princess of Peace.” Rosadera then summoned a pink energy ball in each hand. “Check your records.” Ex did so, resulting in her backing away in fear.

“Mercy!” she begged.

“Come again?” asked Rosadera.

“Mercy!!”

“Once! More!”

“MERCYYYY!!” Rosadera turned the energy balls into tendrils, wrapped them around Ex, and slammed her against the walls and deck of the Rumble-Disc before throwing her hard onto Spectrum, right after the Red Lantern Kamen Rider had restored her arm’s mobility. The impact was so hard, it knocked the two women out of their transformations. Rosadera then used her powers to tear the wall paneling off and bind the evil women to the floor, placing small strips of paneling on their mouths with only their noses to breathe through. Rosadera then dismissed her armor and picked Ben’s Phury up.

“You go help your friends and family!” she said to Sora. “I’ll stay behind and heal her!”

“Got it!” replied Sora. He then took off and Rosadera enveloped herself and Ben’s Phury in a pink aura.


While the fight went on, Rath made it to the Engine Room. He saw the Lords and other enemies scattered around his teammates. He then looked angrily to Batman. “…YOU DIDN’T LEAVE ONE FOR ME?!” he roared. “LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING, BATMAN, GUARDIAN OF GOTHAM!”

“Oh, for crying out tears!” groaned Life. “BEN!”

“WHAT?!” Life then pointed to the display. “…Right,” mumbled Rath. He then tapped the Omnitrix symbol on his chest and he shrunk down and became a short, squat, broad-shouldered humanoid in a green and white mechanical suit with only a bald, purple scalp poking out of the neck. He had nozzles all over his scalp and arms and there was a window on his stomach that showed various gases flowing around his insides. “GUTROT!” he shouted in a gruff, Brooklyn accent. His right eye squinted. “All right, let’s see what we got here,” he grunted as he waddled over to the console. He looked at the chemical formula for the gas. “Ooh la la, that’s real bad stuff. Well, thanks to the formula, I know the counteragent gas. All right, hook me up.” Vilgax found a tube and attached it to one of the nozzles on Gutrot’s head. “All right, here we go!” Gutrot then forced a gas through the tube and into the Dark Energon gas supply. The computer reported what happened.

“Gas contamination at 50%. …60%. …70%. …80%. Unable to counteract. 90%. …Gas neutralized. Unable to fulfill primary function.”

“Now to take control of this thing!” growled Vilgax.

“Back away from the console, Vilgax!” snarled Weaver’s voice as he, Rift, and Nemesis arrived. “We do NOT want this situation to escalate!”

“GET AWAY FROM THEM!” shouted Vortex’s voice. The Vortex Driver and Herald O’s belt then spoke.

“Final Attack!” announced the Vortex Driver.

“End of the world!” called Herald O’s belt.

“RIDER VORTEX KICK!” called Vortex as she and Herald O delivered their Rider Kicks on Weaver and Rift, knocking them out of their transformations and into Nemesis. The heroes then dashed into the room, even with the Autobots stooping to cram themselves in there. The Rumble-Disc then shook.

“Balance at risk!” warned the ship. Just then, Sora flew into the room.

“Sorry for crowding this place,” he said. “What’s going on?”

“Tennyson, you will NOT scupper our plans!” growled Khan as he picked himself up.

“Oh, no, no scuppering here,” replied Gutrot as his hand hovered over the door controls. “Oh, and one more thing…” He then expelled gas from his arm and quickly shut the door.

“MY EYES!” screamed Nemesis. His compatriots were wailing at the tear gas they just got a whiff of.

“Ben, what was that?!” asked Life.

“Sulfur Dioxide,” replied Gutrot. “Don’t ask me how I know or how I do it. Hey, your ‘gas’ is as good as mine, am I right?!” He then laughed at the pun while everyone else groaned. Rosadera and Ben’s Phury then appeared in pink light just as the Omnitrix symbol flashed red and Gutrot turned back into Ben.

“The ship’s listing to port!” announced Vilgax. “We’re turning towards the desert behind the power plant!

“Everyone, against the wall!” called Vortex. Everyone dashed to the wall and altered the ship’s course. It soon crashed harmlessly into the desert and broke apart.


Once everyone got out, the villains looked to see the instrument of their wrath destroyed and Bellwood still standing. Nemesis growled and looked to the heroes. “You have made me one rabid fox!” he shouted. Then he noticed that someone was missing. “…Where’s Greenie?!”

“Knock knock,” said Glyph’s voice.

“…Who’s…there?” asked Nemesis. He turned around and was punched in the face by Glyph’s holo-form. Khan growled.

“Losing the Tome at that speed made it return to my ship. Thanks to you, I can’t simply write our escape away!” he snarled at the heroes. “But I always have a backup plan!” He pulled out a communicator. “Author to Imperium, six to return!” The villains then vanished.

“…I guess that’s that for now,” remarked Ben.