“I’m still just ONE of your greatest enemies?!” Miss Tarae gasped. “Who’s got the number one position?! Is it Davros?! It is, isn’t it! Oh, I could tear his throat out!” She fanned herself mockingly.
“Perhaps I can make it up to you by listening to your story?” suggested the Doctor. “Such as how you’re here, for a start. Let’s just say that the Toymaker took Davros’ position in terms of power.”
“Ah, want to know if he was telling the truth about our encounter?” asked Miss Tarae. “…Sadly, he was. I WAS a gold filling for his tooth after I lost to him. It was a simple chess match. …In hindsight, he’s probably played chess longer than me. I was conscious…and now I’m haunted by nightmares of food and saliva!” Miss Tarae shuddered, then recovered. “But I have you to thank for my freedom.”
“Me?” asked the Doctor.
“That bi-generation trick of yours, I thought it was a myth. Then the two of you ganged up on the Toymaker with a simple game of catch and banished him! But I saw an opportunity to escape! As his power over Earth unraveled, I took the opportunity to escape and forcibly claim my prize!”
“And that prize was?” asked the Doctor.
“To be the second Timeless Child, Doctor!” replied Miss Tarae.
“You utter fool! You think I LIKE being the Timeless Child?!”
“You might not, but I do! And once I defeat you, I will be THE Timeless Child! I will be the founder of a new Gallifrey!”
“So it was YOU that destroyed her home!” called William. “After all the effort she put into protecting it from those Daleks I heard about! You’re as bad as the dictators of Earth!” Miss Tarae snarled at that.
“Unlike people like Hitler or Putin, I have REAL power!” she hissed. “And I will exercise that power over everyone!”
“So you brainwashed Eggman to do your bidding?” asked the Doctor.
“…No, but not for lack of trying,” admitted Miss Tarae. “Somehow, his mind is more…resilient to my control.”
“Egg-breath’s trained himself to resist ALL forms of hypnosis,” interjected Sonic.
“That, I can believe, Mister Sonic. I’m just surprised he can resist Gallifreyan techniques.”
“Then you’re tenuous allies, huh?” guessed Amy.
“I’d say dubious, but I will admit, I do like YOUR phrasing of it, Miss Rose,” replied Miss Tarae.
“You know that I’ll stop your plan, whatever it is!” hissed the Doctor.
“My dear Doctor, you’re going without your sonic screwdriver like you did as that celery cricket player up to that little chess player,” chuckled Miss Tarae. “You’ve put yourself in a much harder position. Ta ta!” She sauntered off.
“…I suppose you’ll want answers about that Timeless Child stuff,” muttered the Doctor.
“That can wait,” replied William. “Right now, we gotta get out of here! She’s way too intelligent to fall for the Fizgig, though.”
“…But are the guards intelligent enough for…?” The Doctor stroked her chin. “…OH! THE PAIN!” She clutched her heart on her left side! William groaned.
“There is no way-!” he protested.
“GUARD! HELP!” called Amy. The guard turned to Amy. “It’s our friend! She’s having a heart attack!”
“But she has two hearts,” droned the guard. William rolled his eyes as he played along.
“Her people can’t survive with only one heart!” he said, rather hammy.
“Administering medical attention,” droned the guard. It opened the Doctor’s cell and entered it…then she leapt onto the robot and yanked a few wires out, shutting it down. She then grabbed the robot’s arm and stuck it into each cell’s lock, freeing her friends.
“…These robots are dumber than Sontarans?!” spluttered William in disbelief.
“I’m a little amazed that actually worked,” mused the Doctor.
“We better get out of here, then!” said Tails.
“No way, Tails!” protested Sonic. “I still wanna know how they met!”
“So do I,” agreed the Doctor. She found a nearby computer console. “Aha! Let’s see if we can find the archived monitor data.”
“Sounds easy,” remarked Sonic.
“Sonic, do you even know what she’s talking about?” asked Amy.
“…No,” Sonic admitted lamely.
“Security footage that Eggman saved,” explained the Doctor.
“Need any help?” offered Tails. “I’ve hacked into his systems before.”
“Thank you, Tails, that would be helpful,” replied the Doctor. The two technical geniuses got to work, then… “Aha! Found it!”
“Is…Is that a production line arm?” asked William once the footage popped up.
“No,” corrected the Doctor, “it’s a Type 75 TARDIS, a newer model compared to my Type 40.”
“Specifically, Miss Tarae’s Type 75 TARDIS,” realized William.
“Exactly, and there she is now, or then,” confirmed the Doctor as Miss Tarae climbed out of the arm’s base. She floofed her skirts and looked around. Eggman then entered the production line she landed in.
“Who the heck are you?!” he demanded. Miss Tarae then gave him her attention. “…Well?!” insisted Eggman.
“I am…Miss Tarae,” replied the evil Time Lord, “though I was once known as the Master.”
“Is that right?” scoffed Eggman.
“Universally.”
“Well, I am known as Dr. Eggman on this planet and I don’t need Lolita girls pretending to be an evil dictator! Robots!” Robots arrived on the scene.
“Unfortunately, I have need of you, Dr. Julian Ivo Robotnik,” sighed Miss Tarae in frustration.
“What did you say?” hissed Eggman.
“Dr. Julian Ivo Robotnik,” repeated Miss Tarae. “That IS your real name, is it not?”
“Now listen here, missy! Get out of Robotropolis while your mind is still your own!” Miss Tarae snarled at Eggman’s threat.
“Why, you insolent, primitive-!”
“Primitive, am I?!” Eggman raised his hand to grab Miss Tarae, but she proved to be faster as she grabbed HIS hand and tore his glasses clean off his face. Her eyes then glowed amber as her gaze bore a hole into Eggman’s.
“You will obey me,” she said matter-of-factly. “Do you hear? You will obey me. I am the Master and you will obey me.”
“…Obey this!” Eggman pulled his head back, then jammed his nose into her eye!
“ARGH!” Miss Tarae rubbed her eye to try and soothe the pain. “Did you just…peck my eye?!” The Doctor kept her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing out loud! She went a little further along the footage and Eggman and Miss Tarae were now talking to one another.
“You’re telling me,” said Eggman, “that all of time and space can be seized if I get another TARDIS? What are the chances of that happening?”
“There’s one particular TARDIS piloted by my old friend,” explained Miss Tarae. “They always stick their noses in business like ours. All we’d need to do is kidnap someone and they’ll come running.”
“So will Sonic…but that just gives me the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone!” Eggman was grinning. “All we need are the Chaos Emeralds to make the machine work.”
“And how many do you have?” asked Miss Tarae. That was when a robot shaped like Sonic appeared with a fist-sized gem in his hand.
“Ah! Metal Sonic! Excellent! So you got Shadow’s Chaos Emerald!” praised Eggman. “That makes all seven!”
“Uh oh!” gulped Sonic.
“Erm, guys, I just found what Eggman and Miss Tarae built,” gulped Tails. He pulled up schematics for a machine suit.
“…Rassilon’s pajamas!” swore the Doctor. “Look at the weapons capabilities! Atomic reconstruction of a living organism into a machine life form…and a rewiring of the brain into a subservient mindset!”
“A suit with a Roboticizer!” gulped Sonic.
“And augmented with the Chaos Emeralds’ power!” finished Tails. “With the Emeralds powering the suit-!”
“He’d turn all of Mobius into his robotic playground!” whispered the Doctor.
“With humans dying all over the place!” said Amy. “The Roboticizer can’t convert humans without killing them!”
“With the alterations made by Miss Tarae, he can do more than roboticize humans!” explained the Doctor. “He’d roboticize entire planets! We have to stop him!”
“It looks like he’s getting himself ready!” warned Tails. “Come on! Laboratory 14-87!”
“Let’s go!” called Sonic. He led everyone to the lab and knocked the door down with a spin dash. Eggman was now suited up with Miss Tarae standing by.
“Ah, Doctor! Sonic!” cackled Eggman. “Come to see my magnum opus?”
“We’re here to stop you from roboticizing the planet in one fell swoop!” replied the Doctor.
“Miss Tarae, I thought you said the Doctor was a Time Lord like you,” chuckled Eggman.
“Did I say ‘like me’?” replied Miss Tarae. “My mistake. She does have a limited imagination.”
“What do you mean?” asked Sonic.
“It’s not just one planet I intend to roboticize, but all of time and space!” explained Eggman.
“So that’s why you need a TARDIS!” realized the Doctor. “Well, you’re not getting mine!”
“True, I’m not,” replied Eggman. Miss Tarae arched an eyebrow.
“…You’re…not?” she asked.
“I overheard the Doctor explain more about her TARDIS,” said Sage as she appeared. “They had seen security footage of your arrival, and I heard her call her TARDIS a Type 40 and yours a Type 75. That would indicate that your TARDIS is more advanced than the Doctor’s.”
“…Ah, I see,” mused the Doctor. “Eggman, are you sure now is the best time to betray her?”
“She’s right in chiding you like that,” remarked Miss Tarae. “You can’t get in without the key.”
“Oh, you mean THIS key?” asked Eggman as he pulled out a TARDIS key. Miss Tarae sighed as she pulled out her own key.
“Do you really think I would let a mere human have my key?” she asked.
“Are you sure I have the fake?” chuckled Eggman. He fitted it into the lock hidden in the robot arm…and opened it!
“WHAT THE-?!” spluttered Miss Tarae. She looked at the key she had and goggled. There was a tiny figure of a soldier taped to it! “How did I-?! Dr. Julian Ivo-!”
“You’re not my mother; you don’t have the right to full name me!” snapped Eggman as he put his arm into Miss Tarae’s TARDIS. “Sage, it’s time! Chaos Tempora Mechanica!”
“TARDIS console sighted! Beginning conversion now!” replied Sage. The Chaos Emeralds glowed and Eggman fired a beam straight at the console!
“NO!” shouted both the Doctor and Miss Tarae!