|
Post by The Tenth Doctor on Aug 1, 2021 13:56:12 GMT
In a house in Easling, in Autumn 2009, subtle changes were happening. Ever so gently in the beginning, then more and more as the hours progressed through the day, reality shifted around the premises. The rumpled sheets in a bedroom suddenly lay straight and carefully tucked in, like the room had not been used in years. Here and there, a picture disappeared from a wall, or changed, now showing a a different family. Items disappeared from drawers, replaced by personal objects of a different kind. Several years worth of dust settled on the attic, the fireplace was boarded up, and some very key bits of technology vanished. At the same time, a boy was on his way home from school. His name was Luke. He was in no hurry, knowing he would return to an empty house anyway, with his father working late and his mother due to return from her most recent business trip no sooner than the next day. He did not mind. There was school work to be done, and then he might have a friend to two over to try out the new computer game he’d bought on the weekend.
|
|
|
sarah jane smith
•
the doctor's best friend
" On the Run Again "
human ✧
Posts: 185
Pronouns: she/her
Age: 25, give or take
Occupation: Keeping the Doctor in one piece
In Love W/: The Doctor
Written By: calamity
|
Post by sarah jane smith on Aug 2, 2021 20:33:31 GMT
It had all started with the teapot, Sarah Jane cataloged in her thoughts as she hunkered down in the grit of an outdoor stairwell out at a cricket field, trying to figure out her fate. Perhaps the fate of the world. Again. She'd just gotten it (the teapot) from Luke for her 58th birthday. It had a coppery red finish and an octagonal form that pleased her very much. That morning, she'd made tea, she knew she had, but when she went to collect the steeped results, it was gone. Confounded she'd walked around looking for it, still able to catch the whiff of Earl Grey in the air. Sarah Jane had just been in the kitchen, when she went back into the living room only to be absolutely stunned. Where were all her notes from her latest investigation? She had a filing system that generally included covering most available surfaces with paper. Gone. All gone. She went on high alert, worried someone had come in. Her house was all locked down though, and certainly Mr.Smith would have called her if something was amiss. Luke. She was on her feet in an instant, running to the second floor and shouting along the way. "Luke! LUKE!" " Mum?" She heard his answer from through the door. "Luke?" She hit the landing and dashed to his door. There was no answer. "Luke?" Her tone had gone desperate. She knocked. She knocked and called his name. Then she was coming through the door, a gasp dragged out of her from what she saw. It was like a ghost of a room. Oh, everything was solid enough, but there was no furniture inside except for an old wooden table. There was dust on the floor, and the window had been boarded up. Sarah Jane Smith screamed for her son, as you know she did, a heartbroken mother in a house that was suddenly abandoned everywhere she looked. What furniture there remained was unfamiliar and covered in cloth draping. Though it was midday, it was dark inside, only shards of light coming from the gaps in the shoddily covered windows. She screamed for what felt more like an eternity every time Luke did not answer, but it really wasn't more than 10 or 15 seconds. It was the sound coming from outside that stopped her. She felt it from her toes to her nose as the sound trembled low. Mothership. She didn't know what kind it was, but she knew it was big, and it wasn't human. That had instantly stopped her scream it was to the point of airlessness. She thanked her lucky stars that whomever had boarded up the door had done as bad as they had on the windows, and she managed to get herself free. The first thing she noticed was the giant eye in the sky with an almost beautiful star of shining metal around it. Giant like a sky scraper. The second thing she noticed was the entire block looked abandoned. One old car on broken pavement. Landscaping grown all out of sorts. Then the Eye ship had winked out of existence, and the neighborhood looked instantly normal. Her car was back, her house was normal. Luke had even appeared in the front door for an instant before disappearing again. Well, from there it had been chaos. Reality had seemed to ripple from one instant to the next. Along the way to find Luke, her car went missing. Then her detector watch. Even her sonic. However, she was an investigative reporter, and she'd find her son one way or another. Even as she sat in the dirty stairwell, Sarah Jane was starting to come to terms with the fact that she'd have to save Earth itself to save her son. Another reality that had been fluctuating before her very eyes was the fabric of existence for the Humans of Earth. There was clear and familiar oppression going on from a variety of alien races. As though Earth had become a smugglers world or some such, where the humans were tightly controlled servants. That is what had brought her to the stairwell. No papers. No where to go. Luke's school had been turned into some sort of 'reeducation center', and without her tools, she couldn't get near it. She'd taken refuge over at the nearby tennis courts. Okay. First you're going to need one of those ubiquitous overalls. Then you need to find the Fifth Colony. There was always a rebellion somewhere. There she could get papers and find out where in the hell to start. It was then her thoughts were interrupted, she could hear something like a massive truck. It was definitely that, she thought, as she peeked. Then her breath caught hard and tight in her throat as two Sontarans got out. She ducked down hard, but eventually had to look again as she could hear them talking. They were tracking her, and doing a good job of it. Well, it would be up to her to make it harder. Sarah Jane knew there was speed on her side as she leapt to her feet, and burst up the stairs, wanting to loose herself in under the stands. She was making a fair job of it, but she did hear two laser blasts. This was not going well. Her heart was in agony, not for herself, but for her son. It looked like this time, she was going to fail to protect him. luke, i'm so sorry luke, i'm so sorry, luke, i'm so sorry
The Tenth Doctor
|
|
|
|
Post by The Tenth Doctor on Aug 5, 2021 12:04:10 GMT
The console room was lit by a dim shade of greenish yellow. The lighting often seemed to change according to mood. Whether it was his own or the TARDIS’ the Doctor had never managed to determine. It certainly had fit his moody thoughts during the last few hours. After leaving Donna standing there in her wedding dress, he’d taken a hop of several years and halfway across the galaxy where he opened the doors wide and stared at a nebula in the process of forming into a new star for a while. He had thought about Rose, and then in order to distract himself, he had thought about Donna’s refusal to come with him. „You scare me to death.“ she had said, and „find someone“. Clearly, soothing thoughts were avoiding him like a myon avoided electrons. He needed something to do, and quick, some kind of trouble to keep him.. well, out of trouble. As such, when the message showed up on the psychic paper, he was almost happy, despite its content. „Luke, i'm so sorry.“ This wasn’t a conscious call, this was a desperate cry going out into the universe, which somehow had found its way on his psychic paper. Sometimes random people managed to do that, but usually there was a connection. In this case, he did not recognize the connection right away, but when he did, he almost gasped. „Sarah Jane!“ Even before the last word was out, he was flying around the console, setting the coordinates, hitting buttons, turning knobs and adjusting levers in what could only be called purposeful chaos. The trouble started the moment he pushed the dematerialization lever for landing. There was the unmistakable shudder and the accompanying groan from the TARDIS that said she was unhappy, yet after a few seconds of struggle, the faithful ship landed with a reassuring thud. Instantly, the Doctor opened the door and headed out. „Sarah Jane? Sara..“ The second call died on his lips. He had half expected to find her here, in her attic, the place that could for all intents and purposes be called her center of operation. Yet, there was no-one here. No-one and nothing, no super computer, no screens, no files and folders filled with unusual phenomenon, no robot dog, nothing except covered furniture, some moving boxes and lots and lots of dust - at least several years worth, actually. Both the TARDIS and his shoes had left clear marks.
He headed back into the TARDIS to double and triple check the coordinates. Yes, he was exactly where and when he wanted to be. However, a larger scan revealed things that made his stomach turn into a knot and try to hide out behind the spleen. „Oh no, this is bad, this is really really bad!“ There were spaceships in orbit, spaceships on the ground, alien technology around in such abundance that the signal got so crowded he could not even pinpoint a cluster. But what was even more worrisome was that even as he watched the readings were changing. Reality was fluctuating. It was a small miracle that the TARDIS had landed with as little trouble as she had. „Sarah Jane?“ this time when the Doctor left the TARDIS he shrugged on his coat on the way. His footsteps had not been the only ones visible in all the dust, and he had a vague hope or guess who the other person had been to come in and almost instantly leave again. So now, he was heading downstairs, peering into rooms, hoping one would reveal his friend, but all he found was an empty house. By the time he reached the ground floor, he had given up on calling. Caution was taking over. Sarah Jane was not here, that much was clear. Time was in flux, and unless someone did something quick, who knew what could happen? For one thing, a group of Slitheen could pass just as he was squeezing his way out of the front door and barely managed to slide back into hiding just in time not to be seen. They did not even bother with disguises. „Okay Doctor, alien invasion, time shifting and no clue where to start.“ The planet needed saving, but somewhere out there was his Sarah Jane. Priorities. Now, where would he find her? „In the eye of the storm.“ He raised his sonic and started scanning around, looking for the a direction where the artron energy wasn’t quite as evenly distributed as everywhere else. There wasn’t much of a signal, more like a vague guess, but it was the best he had. Keeping to the shadows, he set out at the fastest run he could manage while keeping the sonic scanning. And just to make things even more unpleasant, it started to rain.
|
|
|
sarah jane smith
•
the doctor's best friend
" On the Run Again "
human ✧
Posts: 185
Pronouns: she/her
Age: 25, give or take
Occupation: Keeping the Doctor in one piece
In Love W/: The Doctor
Written By: calamity
|
Post by sarah jane smith on Aug 5, 2021 21:20:29 GMT
As if to make things more unpleasant, it started to rain. Well, at least it might give her some cover, she thought, trying to be plucky about the whole thing. After all, those Sontarans had disappeared. Simply disappeared just when she thought they were going to take her down with a blaster. What had happened? Something had shifted. There would be more time to think about that later, right now all she was interested in was finding a car to steal. Adrenalin was so handy when one was in a quandary. It didn't take her long to get to the main road, where there was indeed some worn old roadster just waiting to be lifted. What she wanted to do was go home, in hopes that Luke was there. However, she had just enough experience to know it was the whole world she needed to focus on. After having given herself quite an electric shock or two, she got the old car moving and chugging right along to U.N.I.T. Because of it's long history, there was a certain stability there that just might express itself even in the middle of all these slipping realities around her. Something had gone terribly wrong, and her first instinct was that it had something to do with time itself. Luke was innocent, but he was also remarkably smart. He'd just have to weather through without her for now, or so she told herself as she drove toward U.N.I.T.'s compound. Her speed was such that she wasn't aware of the wake of alternate realities that churned beside and behind her. Had Sarah Jane turned around to see what was going on back there, it might have stopped her in her tracks, but speed seemed of the essence and she jetted along through the rain, windshield wipers thumping in frantic rhythm and doing only half their job. The Tenth Doctor
|
|
|
|
Post by The Tenth Doctor on Aug 14, 2021 18:11:24 GMT
The Doctor made good way with a combination of dashes, quick checks, and the occasional dive for cover to hide from aliens. Despite all that distance, though, he came no closer to reaching his goal, whatever that turned out to be. He had hoped things would become clearer on the way, as they often did, but in this case the weak signal he had set out following had become drowned out by the background noise, and he had become aware of where he was heading long before he ended up again at the same intersection close to where he had started out. Frustrated, the Doctor turned on his heels, once, twice, and a third time. One hand ranked through his soggy hair as he looked around for inspiration. When he finally saw it, he nearly gasped. “That definitely wasn't there before.” The building was quite some distance away. It looked vaguely like the Gherkin and lay roughly in the right direction, but it was bigger, much much bigger. The area nearby had experienced some subtle changes, too. The houses no longer looked completely deserted, but also at the same time not very lived in. Curtains seemed to be completely out of fashion, where the lights were on he could see paint flaking and wallpaper peeling, and the yards were not so much overgrown as unkempt, as if regularly someone did a lot of ruthless pruning and then lapsed into inactivity for weeks on end. Behind him, a door creaked, and the Doctor turned to see a group of seven aliens of four different species, three of which he recognized, file out of the building on the other side of the road. Here was another question that had been nagging at the back of his mind: Where were all the humans? “Hello Human, are you lost?” One of the aliens, a Dominator, called and the others grinned and sneered in a way that suggested less than pleasant intentions. As a response, the Doctor put on his brightest smile and dug in his coat for the psychic paper, although he wasn't sure whether letting them come close enough for a read would be a good idea. “Ah no, but thanks for asking. I am just inspecting. It looks like the premises could do with a bit of a work-over. A bit of paint, plaster, garden gnomes, that sort of thing. Maybe another street lamp or two. And flower beds would do this place a load of good. Daffodils and some tulips, don't you think? If you have any ideas, I could file them for you?” A couple of the sneers had turned into a more puzzled form of expression, but unfortunately not all. Three turned into full scowls. “You don't look like a assistant warden.” - “No, more like an informant trying to find something to rat out.” - “Just look at him, all soaked. He's trying to fool us.” - “I bet he's lost.” The Doctor could not fault these guys for their impression. By now his appearance would have made it difficult to present any type of authority. His coat was soaked, so was the front of his pin-striped suit where he had as usual failed to button the aforementioned coat. Water was dripping from his hair into his collar, and his shoes and socks had combined with puddles into a soggy mess. He was lost, in almost every sense of the word, but he doubted that these alien's reaction to finding someone lost did include a cuddle and a hot bath. They looked the rough sort. On the other hand, he needed information, and these guys were his best shot so far of getting any. He had almost made the decision to risk it when the Judoon appeared. They were half a squad, and they materialized right between the Doctor and the aliens. After all the strange appearances and disappearances the simple transmat was an almost reassuring sight. Less so were the guns. The Doctor counted himself lucky that he had not approached the house before so that the Judoon were facing away from him, and overall seemed not at all concerned with him or anyone else. “Prisoners must stay inside during supply schedule.” The Doctor's ears perked up, even as he took a careful step backward. Prisoners?The group of aliens did not look quite as badass anymore. Three had already disappeared back inside and three more looked like they wanted to but also did not want to appear like cowards to their peers. The leader at least took a confident step forward. “We were just looking out for a human over there. He probably got lost from one of your work crews.” The Doctor managed to only just dive for cover behind a stack of rubbish bins before two of the judoon turned in a circle, brandishing some form of scanner. He quickly pulled out his sonic to attempt to hedge the signal, but quickly realized he needn't have bothered. These weren't bio scanners, but something like NFT, only working over a greater distance. The aliens were tagged, and from what had been said, humans would be, too. “There is no human. No human is missing.” “Then you have a renegade on your hands. You should…” “Prisoners must stay inside during supply schedule.” “But …” “Prisoners must stay inside during supply schedule.” The Judoon repeated and readied their guns. A warning shot blasted a hole into the wall above the door. The Doctor vinced in sympathy. You usually had better luck teaching poetry to a potted plant than arguing with a Judoon. This particular conversation, though was cut short when a high-pitched sound could be heard, approaching rapidly. The aliens decided to let human be human and disappeared inside, and the Judoons transmatted out. The whine quickly turned into a roar and a long line of hovercraft disappeared in the distance, coming in low. At a precise point, they changed formation, spread out until they held a distance of maybe 500 meters between them, and descended into the streets with as much grace as hovercrafts are capable of. Instantly the back of each lowered into a ramp and more Judoon appeared, setting up a perimeter. They were followed by human work crews, all of them young, hardly any above thirty. Some had barely even reached their teens, and as the Doctor watched it was not clear whether the Judoon were guarding the Humans against outside attacks or preventing escapes. Even so, the few pieces of information that he had gathered by now were starting to fit together to an image, an image he did not like at all. The humans split out into different work groups. Some gathered up what the Doctor had mistaken for rubbish bins earlier but turned out to be empty supply crates, which forced him to fall back and take refuge behind an overgrown hedge, others replaced the crates with fresh ones, and yet others started trimming back any greenery obscuring the view. In the end, the Doctor was hiding behind a half-crumbled garden wall a good deal further from the nearest hovercraft than he'd started put, hoping this little bit of cover wouldn't be stripped away as well before he had figured out how he could get aboard transport without being spotted. Just stepping into view and getting arrested was one possibility, it tended to get you right where the strings were pulled quicker than anything else. In this situation, he wasn't sure how trigger-happy the Judoon were, though, and getting shot was a very real risk. No, he decided the best course of action was to wait until the crews were ready to leave and then hitch a ride unseen. Finally, it looked like the work was done, and first the humans and the Judoon filed into the craft. This crew seemed to be a bit ahead to those further down the road, which was unfortunate because it meant a higher chance of getting spotted, but it couldn't be helped. The Doctor had already crept as close as he dared and was now waiting for the doors to close before he would try climbing on top. It was pure chance that he took another glance to one side to the next hovercraft down the road where in this moment the human workers were lining up after depositing their tools. One of those humans caught his attention. He hesitated. Then something clicked and he was running towards him. „Luke! LUKE!“ The Doctor had not gone more than a few paces before first shot melted the pavement in front of him. Now,many of the Doctor's previous incarnations had been excellent runners. Given his livestyle that was pretty much a prerequisite for survival. In additionto that, this version also had the long legs to really gun it when he needed to, and he did! He swerved right, leaped a fence, dove through the gap between two houses, and tripped over a bunch of freshly cut branches. The fall saved him from another blast. He rolled and was up again in a moment. “Sorry Luke.” He breathed and flung himself over another low wall. He vaguely noticed the hovercrafts leaving, and quite a while and lots of rinning later realized that no one seemed to be shooting at him anymore. Panting, he stopped at an intersection. The hovercrafts were quickly disappearing at the distance, but the Doctor took careful note of the direction, determined to follow as soon as he got his breathe back. At least the rain was finally letting up. It took the Doctor a while to notice something else; a car. In fact, several were visible from where he stood, not nearly as many as one would expect on a street like this, but there were a few. Back where his encounter with the Judoon had taken place, cars or any other type of normal human transport had been as absent as the humans themselves. The new reality hadn't quite taken a full holf everywhere. Yet. sarah jane smith
|
|
|
sarah jane smith
•
the doctor's best friend
" On the Run Again "
human ✧
Posts: 185
Pronouns: she/her
Age: 25, give or take
Occupation: Keeping the Doctor in one piece
In Love W/: The Doctor
Written By: calamity
|
Post by sarah jane smith on Aug 27, 2021 7:58:54 GMT
She was driving. It was not the best time for Sarah Jane to lose herself to memory, but it seemed she had little choice. It wasn't a daydream. It wasn't any sort of thing she'd experienced before. What it was, was real. More than just a memory, for it felt like it was all happening this very moment. Yes. 26. That was how old she was when she had died. She could see it now. There she was, looking over her left shoulder when the nuclear blast went off. Just before the great bright light flash, she was there. Right there in the heart of Heysham, she sat, dizzy and bleeding as the Nuclear power plant went up. As the light bloomed, she was aware of how many people were dying. Because she had failed. Failed. The memory lasted only seconds, but in that moment, she was aware of how hard she had tried to stop this tragedy, but it was clear that she had lost. It was a memory of depth and truth. It was burned in her mind in the same way that staring at the sun left a colorful blind spot in one's vision. It left no confusion about what had happened. She'd failed. Not only was she dying, which was a possibility that she'd always accepted, but countless more humans would die in the aftermath. The hardest part was that as she died, she knew she was taking a half of Earth with her. Oh, no, not from this nuclear disaster, but from what would follow. This was just the beginning, but it was so devastatingly clear that she'd lost the fight. Her last thought in this world was a desperate hope that the Doctor would come and save Earth. Because she hadn't. It was the beginning of the end. She felt her flesh burn in a hot and surprising wind, and then she was gone. And then she was back in the present, finding herself run into a ditch. Someone was dragging her out of her car, her heels rutting through the grass. Judoon, giant and thick, were pulling her along by the arms. Sarah Jane struggled uselessly. Oh, she knew it was a fruitless effort, but it would be a cold day in hell that she wouldn't fight. Soon enough though, they were just tossing her in the back of some ridiculously armored vehicle where she sat alone in the cold. "Oh, Luke, luv." she said out loud before she clammed up. Stars forbid someone realize she had a weak spot. Luke. Luke, I am coming. I am coming. Oh, she knew Luke couldn't hear her, but in her mind she knew he was calling out to her simultaneously, wherever he was. In no way was she ready to accept the idea that her son no longer existed, whatever the hell was going on. The Doctor. Surely the Doctor would find him even if he couldn't find her. Of anyone in the Universe, her best friend, the Doctor, would know what was truly important to her. Yes, she could depend on him to find her son. Oh, please, let him find her boy and keep him safe, or at least love him every dangerous moment. Trust and tragedy warred her in mind as she was dragged from the vehicle and firmly escorted into a cell. Concrete. A single barred window high in the wall showing a dirt courtyard. There was a scattering of straw as if she was an animal. Sitting on the floor, hands before her, Sarah Jane watched as she flickered in and out of being.. Hadn't she died in 1983? She remembered it so clearly. Something had gone wrong with time. Doctor, please. Doctor. Please. I'm dying.
Whatever else she intended to convey, there was a clear impression of her being held in a brand new building, hastily but firmly constructed by one of the many races that had taken over Earth. The Tenth Doctor
|
|
|
|
Post by The Tenth Doctor on Sept 4, 2021 16:15:55 GMT
The Doctor eyes the cars critically as he passed them. He knew they could not last. Reality was moving in a different direction. Would it be save to use one, not knowing whether this flux was local, stable, random, fluctuating, or all of the above? For a short moment he even considered going back for the TARDIS, but quickly decided against it. She was safe there in the attic, and would not be much help. Maybe she could do some more scans, and maybe those would clarify the situation in terms of whether this was just London or all of the Earth, but in the end, the answers to the truly pressing questions lay elsewhere. His eyes were once again drawn to the huge building which had more or less replaced most of London’t major landmarks. He had run quite a bit, but the thing was still at least another ten to fifteen miles away. Whether he trusted this reality with cars or not, he would need transportation to get there within a reasonable time frame. After all, there was this sense of urgency tapping away in his mind. And then it happened again, that soft telepathic nudge, vague and unfocused, conveying little more than that ding sound announcing the arrival of an email on a computer. Usually that was a rare occurrence, that it happened twice in one day was in itself worrisome. When he’d dug out the psychic paper to take a look, that worry turned into something fairly close to panic. Where before he had been worried about the possibility of using a car which might potentially disappear any moment, the Doctor now unlocked and started up the first one he came across. He vaguely noted that it was a Sedan - silver, following the recent patters on lack of imagination in available colors - and that the gas gage showed the tank about sixty percent full, and then he floored it. At normal times, the drive into Central London would have taken about an hour. It was exactly 16 minutes later that the Doctor pulled the Sedan into a side street, pointed it away from what he had come to call „the Building“ in his mind, and got out. Sixteen minutes had been enough to replace most of the panic with a more productive anger and worry, which allowed for clearer thinking. Also, the heater of the car - turned on full blast - had at least started to dry the front of his shirt, and as he got out, the Doctor shrugged out of the coat and draped it over the back of the driver’s seat. He resisted the urge to take off and wring out his socks, but even so he now wouldn't be constantly dripping anymore as he took a reconnaissance walk around the building. The similarity to the Gherkin completely disappeared up close. What in the famous London landmark had been window panes arranged in a cheerful pattern were now the marks of individual elements which had been fused together without much regard for looks or even whether the properly fit. There were windows, but not nearly as many or as big as you’d need to properly light a building of this size, and the first two or three floor at least had no windows as all; instead there were rows and rows of hangar doors. And there were quite distinct signs of wear and tear. Moss and other kinds of dirts had accumulated in the numerous creases, and the paint had flaked from the metal doors, revealing large patches of rust. This building must have been erected at least ten years ago. But that was impossible! The Doctor had been to London only a few months earlier! „Someone is messing with time.“ Of course, he would do something about that, but for the moment, he had other priorities. With luck, though, finding Sarah Jane would also lead to some badly needed information. Or rather, finding her would require some information, anything really. At least he was fairly sure to be standing next to if not the center then at least a hub of whatever was going on. There had to be a computer in there somewhere which he could hack to finally get what he needed. Hang on, Sarah Jane. Wherever you are, I am coming.Having walked along the side of the structure for nearly a mile without encountering nothing else than hangar door after hangar door, the Doctor gave up looking for a small maintenance entrance or something of the kind which would allow for inconspicuous entrance. He had reached up to dig out his sonic screwdriver when a rumbling noise announced movement inside, quickly rising in volume and culminating in a painful groan as old mechanism reluctantly opened all hangar doors - those visible from the Doctor’s point of view at least - simultaneously. The Doctor quickly flattened himself against the outer wall and watched as hovercraft after hovercraft exited, lined up in formation, and then disappeared in an Easterly direction. For a few short moments, he thought about Luke, wondering if the boy was aboard there somewhere, but quickly returned to the task at hand. One thing after the other. sarah jane smith
|
|
|
sarah jane smith
•
the doctor's best friend
" On the Run Again "
human ✧
Posts: 185
Pronouns: she/her
Age: 25, give or take
Occupation: Keeping the Doctor in one piece
In Love W/: The Doctor
Written By: calamity
|
Post by sarah jane smith on Sept 8, 2021 22:03:07 GMT
No food. No water. Nothing but a single fist sized circle of light on the floor as the sun sketched it's way across the sky and across the concrete. It was accompanied only by her anguish over what might be happening to her kids out there. That and some broken nails as she'd explored her tiny cell and some way to escape it. Selfishly, the worst perhaps was the panic she felt as she could see her very form occasionally flicking in and out of sight like lightning too close. Sarah Jane had her theories on what might be happening. This had hints of something the Trickster might be able to do. The Trickster who had been trying to change her life path since she was an infant. She did not guess this because of the hell on Earth she had seen growing around her, but because of these strange memories that flashed through her much like the one that had lead to herself crashed in a ditch. Each was a little different; some were better, some were worse. And sometimes, if only for a heartbeat or two, she saw the Doctor. Could hope change reality? Then again, was there any way it could not? Apparently those little flashes of seeing the Doctor, fragile as butterfly wings, were making a difference. Sarah Jane did not know quite enough about Time Travel to understand why, but she suddenly found herself sitting on an overgrown field. The rain had stopped. There was some sort of complex a click away to the South of her that looked entirely alien, and not even like the building she'd been imprisoned in, but it was clearly something that she should avoid. In a heartbeat she was up and running for the tree line, not wasting a moment on wondering what had happened to make this fortuitous change. She would simply take advantage of it. There in the trees she realized that her Detector Watch was back on her wrist. That made Sarah Jane quickly pat her pocket for her iPhone. "Oh, thank the Stars." She breathed as she yanked it out and gave it a clutch to wake it up. Her password, of course, spelled out 'TARDIS'. Even though she gave herself this daily reminder of her dearest friend, Sarah Jane never called them, even though she could. The reasons for that were too complex to untangle. Love? Resentment? Necessity? Ego? Or perhaps because of Luke. Since she'd found him, and since the Bannerman Street Gang had found her, maybe she didn't need the Doctor anymore. Well, until now. Sarah Jane looked up "TARDIS" in her contacts and punched it in. It was rather heartbreaking when there was no answer after too many rings. If anyone had been watching, she never would have shed the tears she did. As Sarah Jane's faith was shaken, so too was time. Hovercraft over hovercraft emerged and rose out of an alien hanger in Central London as it seemed less and less likely the woman would ever survive 1983. She bit her lip and scrolled through her contacts, the phone illuminating an old face that had never really grown old. A unique beauty, carefully carved with a smooth strong jaw, high cheekbones, and a wealth of dark hair that picked up glints of red even in the dim light. Think, Sarah Jane, think. Then a flicker of a smile. A contact for Martha came into view. They had been in contact back in 2006 when "Harold Saxon" had been the "President". Martha wasn't the Doctor, but she'd done a damn good job of saving the world that year. Saving everyone. Sarah Jane sniffed back her tears and called Martha Jones. Maybe together they could find their friend. The Tenth Doctor
|
|
|
|
Post by The Tenth Doctor on Sept 15, 2021 15:53:07 GMT
If there is one thing that can throw a wrench in someone’s plan of sneaking around, it’s the sound of a cell phone ringing in an inopportune moment. The Doctor had started to turn to duck inside before the hangar doors ground closed again when deep inside his pocket his phone rang. Well, actually, it was Martha’s phone. Despite them being an incredibly useful invention, he had never really gotten around to carrying his own. Even Martha’s had been left lying in the TARDIS for the longest time where she put it, before he’d at some point into his jacket pocket when it got in the way of some tinkering he was doing and promptly forgot all about it. Grinding his teeth again a couple of curses which would have added to the noise, he started digging through his pockets, glad for just a moment that his coat was back in the car, and so the number of possible places to search in was limited. Even so, it took an uncomfortable amount of time until he finally managed to fish out the phone and and silence its ringing by accepting the call. The number on the display also took a second to ring a bell, then his hearts started to race. “Sarah Jane? Where are you? I am looking for you.“ Next to him, the hangar doors started creaking shut. sarah jane smith
|
|
|
sarah jane smith
•
the doctor's best friend
" On the Run Again "
human ✧
Posts: 185
Pronouns: she/her
Age: 25, give or take
Occupation: Keeping the Doctor in one piece
In Love W/: The Doctor
Written By: calamity
|
Post by sarah jane smith on Oct 2, 2021 8:33:59 GMT
"Oh, thank god." she whispered as the phone rang in her ear, indicating it was at least trying to make the connection. Somehow the cell towers were still up. But then it rang and rang unanswered. A new sound caught her attention. Something in the sky roaring South of her. Not planes, she saw an instant later, but some sort of ships. They were like nothing she recognized. A host of them, one after the other, flew off to the East. What in the hell was going on, she wondered clutching at her phone and trying to will Martha to answer on the other end. If anyone could survive this chaos, it was her. Granted, it had only been 5 or 6 rings, but it felt like forever. And then she was answered. Not by Martha. She recognized who it was in an instant. Sarah Jane would always know him when he said her name. "Och! DOCtor!" she said, voice breaking on a sob of relief. "I've never been so pleased to hear anyone in my entire life! Oh! Everything has gone completely mad here." Before she bothered to explain more, she realized that the Doctor must already be here on Earth if he was looking for her, and experiencing the same strange chaos she was. "I was trying to get to U.N.I.T. but something god-awful has happened to Central London. I'm-" Sarah Jane scowled as she tried to make sense of what was near. A ways off were strange constructions built around ruins. Ruins she could recognize. "I'm right off the South side of Trinity Square. Oh- Doctor! I can't find Luke or any of them!" Her voice thrummed imploringly. Could they be somewhere in that weird construct that had become the heart of Central London about a half a klick South of her. "Where are you?" With the TARDIS and a phone signal to follow, she'd rather expected him to give time a nudge and be appearing near this instant. The Tenth Doctor
|
|
|
|
Post by The Tenth Doctor on Oct 21, 2021 6:50:53 GMT
The Doctor forced himself to remain where he was, even though his instincts were screaming for him to run off and finally find Sarah. Yet reason suggested he was exactly where he needed to be. The looked up as if to assure himself that his situation had not changed again. But no, the tower and the surrounding area looked solid enough. This bit of reality was not going to go away any time soon. It seemed to have settled well in. „I am at the new tower. Alien. Big. Kinda grayish dull. Look North and you can’t miss it. Stay on the line and meet me here. I’ll come around to the South side. Hold on…“ He quickly turned and focused the sonic on the edge of the hangar door. The screeching stopped and the door remained locked in a half-closed position. No Hovercraft would get in or out, but there was still plenty of space to duck through. He was hoping the blockage would mean less activity directly behind the door. „There, we have an entrance. I think we have about twenty minutes to make it inside. And then we can find some answers. And Luke. I saw him, earlier… Oh, and Sarah? Look out for Aliens. If you run into any, look like you’re inspecting the front yard, but don’t stop and don’t engage! Be careful!“ By now he was jogging the way he had come earlier, around the exterior of the tower. Of course, he would only have to retrace those steps again once Sarah arrived, but as logical as waiting for her was, just standing still simply wasn’t an option. sarah jane smith
|
|
|
sarah jane smith
•
the doctor's best friend
" On the Run Again "
human ✧
Posts: 185
Pronouns: she/her
Age: 25, give or take
Occupation: Keeping the Doctor in one piece
In Love W/: The Doctor
Written By: calamity
|
Post by sarah jane smith on Nov 3, 2021 10:22:04 GMT
When the Doctor said that he'd seen Luke, Sarah Jane's hand flew to her face and covered her mouth to keep herself from crying out or asking questions. She knew what she needed to do right now was listen, and listen hard. Her face gone steely, she absorbed every word. "Got it. Right." She almost started running that instant, but realized that she had to tell the Doctor one important thing. The most important thing. It wasn't that she didn't think she could make the trip. She knew she could get there, she'd crossed even war zones successfully before. But what if something happened with time itself? "Doctor. If I don't make it, look for me in 1983." And then she was running, running flat out for a dozen meters before she realized she wouldn't be able to sprint the whole way. A swear word soft on her lips, she slowed down to a ground-eating lope. Her phone still in her hand, flashing from shoulder to hip as her arms pumped in fine form, line open and her listening for any words from the Doctor. At the same time, she was all eyes as she looked for anyone about. Her boot heels clicked along briskly as she went, glad that long ago she'd given up espadrilles. Soon enough, she could make out exactly the strange tower the Doctor had mentioned, softly gleaming an almost misty grey in the oncoming twilight. Sarah Jane was ready to make a beeline for it when she heard marching coming her way. She disappeared behind a simple trashcan, ducking down and panting for breath. Sarah Jane silenced her phone and checked the time. It had been nearly 4 minutes from the Doctor's call. He'd said they had twenty, and every second that ticked by while the armored marchers slowly passed nearly drove her mad. She was too smart to bother to look, but she knew trouble when she heard it. One minute went by. Then two. Then they'd passed, but she painfully waited for that third minute before she started into her run again. Luke on her mind, she could do nothing less than run now. Now, tower looming, she headed for the South side. That was when she saw the Doctor, with his wild hair and his long coat. Sarah Jane could not stop the small choked sound that escaped her now. She barely slowed her run as she plowed into him, flinging her arms around his shoulders, sobbing only once against his neck before she made herself go silent but for the catching of her breath. The Tenth Doctor
|
|
|
|
Post by The Tenth Doctor on Nov 16, 2021 20:11:17 GMT
The minutes seemed endless. The Doctor had slowed his jog to something that would bring him around to the South side of the tower what he expected to be the time it would take Sarah Jane to get there. That was more for his own psychological benefit than any practical consideration, because he knew that standing still waiting would be almost impossible. Part of his mind was listening to the phone, turning what Sarah Jane had told him over and over, fitting it into the picture that was slowly pulling together. It was not a pretty picture. Another part of his mind listened for any signs of trouble, ready to burst into a breakneck speed should it be necessary, and yet another part was counting the seconds, nearly beat out by two heart in ruthless accuracy. And then there she was. Tension turned to relief, and relief to a flash of elation. Somehow he managed to slip the phone into his jacket pocket while at the same returning Sarah Jane’s hug, and lifting her off the ground for quite a bit longer than necessary. The world around might still be a complete mess, but his own little world had just become whole again. Finally, he had to put her down. There was work to be done, and while he estimated they still had some time to get inside before the work fleet returned, there was no guarantee that estimate was right. After all, he only had one data point so far to base it on. Still, he took the time to take a good long look at Sarah Jane’s face and offer a reassuring smile. „Let’s go get them.“ He said, took her hand and set off at a pace that wasn’t quite a jog but but increased in speed as his ears picked up the distant whine of engines. The hover craft fleet was on its way back. „We need to get in and find a hidy-hole before they realize I blocked up their door mechanism. It should look like normal mechanical failure, but I’d rather not have to do it again and arouse suspicion.“ Gosh, there was so much to tell, so much to ask. Once inside the tower, who knew how much opportunity they had to really talk? So as he pulled her along he in very short words told Sarah what he had seen so far, about the aliens, the work crews, and of course Luke being in one of them. When they arrived at the propped-open hangar door, the Doctor only stopped for a few moments mid-sentence, long enough to duck through the opening, take in the situation at a glance and finding it not changed from when he had first managed a glimpse earlier, and ducking behind a stack of crates. The room was not as vast as one would have expected, it was more shaped like a long and shallow donut along the outer wall than a traditional hangar, just wide enough to comfortably house a line of hover crafts and some loading equipment. The inner wall housed a similar row of gates as the outside, although more widely spaced and mostly standing open. Beyond that wall the main activity was taking place, humans in overall buzzing about , filling crates, moving them too and fro in what had to be a complicated system but at first glance looked like utter chaos. There were no aliens of overseers anywhere in sight. That was actually worrying. There was also enough noise around to allow for normal conversation. In fact, he had to raise his voice slightly to make sure he could be hears. „Sarah? I am not sure Luke would recognize you, know you. You are a time traveller, so the residual artron energy will keep you and your memories intact, for a while, but the rest of reality is adjusting, has adjusted to whatever change to the time line has been done.“ sarah jane smith
|
|
|
sarah jane smith
•
the doctor's best friend
" On the Run Again "
human ✧
Posts: 185
Pronouns: she/her
Age: 25, give or take
Occupation: Keeping the Doctor in one piece
In Love W/: The Doctor
Written By: calamity
|
Post by sarah jane smith on Nov 20, 2021 9:37:34 GMT
Safe. She felt safe. Selfish as it was considering what was at stake, that moment she felt safe in the Doctor's arms, her weight lifted off her feet. Tightly she clung, refusing to cry one more breath, but enjoying every second he held her. Together, there was nothing they could not accomplish. She held on tight around his shoulders, feeling the weight of the world, and perhaps the weight of her very existence, shift from her to him. Not that she wasn't going to help. And help a lot. The Doctor held her even longer than she expected, but eventually he put her back on her feet. Hand in hand the work began as the Doctor began to tell his tale. What the hell was the world coming to? And just how much of it had to do with those strange, new memories that bandied about in her brain? It was all to easy too follow the Doctor's embryonic plan. It was all too easy to focus on getting Luke and the rest of the Bannerman street gang back in the here and now. It was then that Sarah Jane Smith glitched. Glitched like a badly rendered video. The Doctor would find his hand suddenly empty. Surely, though, only a Time Lord would have noticed. Hand in hand with any mere human, the memory of her would simply be gone. Like Tinkerbell, though, the Doctor's belief in her would bring her back. Fully fleshed and in a panic, she grabbed him by his shirt and shook him best she could. "No, no .. . don't you see- ?" was it her very ambiguity that made very reality shudder again? Strobing in and out of reality for a moment? There she was again, if only by his will, or perhaps her own. "None of this matters!" her hands were white knuckled on his shirt. "Doctor, I died in 1983. I remember it! I know I did! You have to go back and find me!" Was it the finality of finding her voice? Perhaps it was as she locked into existence, clinging to him desperately, not bothering to take in the strangeness around her. The Tenth Doctor
|
|
|
|
Post by The Tenth Doctor on Dec 2, 2021 20:39:55 GMT
For a few long heartbeats, the Doctor did not reply. He was looking at Sarah Jane with what one could call newfound respect - if he had not had that all along. Then he sighed, not exactly defeated, but giving in to the inevitable. „I know. I was hoping you would not know. You are right. And you are wrong. It does matter. You .. matter.“ After groping for words for another heartbeat, he gave up. Expressing emotions simply wasn’t his forte. Technical intricacies, no problem, there were usually ways to simplify, compare, or find colorful illustrations, but a simple emotion? Several million languages did not have enough words. He would rather focus on the practical. The Doctor reached up and gently uncurled Sarah Jane’s fingers from his shirt, and squeezed them tight. Solid. Present. But for how long. Truth be told, the ripples in the temporal fabric of reality were starting to make him feel ever so slightly sick, a twinge that even without anything else, would tell him that something was definitely wrong with .. basically everything. Or rather, Sarah Jane and him were the unfitting elements here, along with the TARDIS and probably a long coat draped over a car seat for just that purpose: they were the grains of sand in the clockwork of reality, keeping it from falling fully into place. 1983. Sarah Jane had mentioned that twice now, and he didn’t doubt those words for a second. He did not ask how, he did not ask why. She knew, and that was enough. It was a point in time to aim at, a glimmer of hope. But what if whatever had caused this had started earlier. Once he went back, he would be part of events, and that means he only would get one shot at fixing them. The world was ist stake, and even more - so was his friend’s life. „I was hoping to find out some more about who is behind this, and what exactly they did. Or .. well .. the more I know, the better I can…“ His words drowned in the sound of dozen of semi-rusty hangar doors opening at once, with the not any more silent hover cars following shortly after. Instinctively, the Doctor ducked a bit deeper behind the crates and resisted the urge to cover his ears. The acoustics of that bare-walled hangar was such that the noise seemed to be endlessly reflected and mounting to a nearly painful level. Small wonder no one was around in the area! Except of course, they were humans, and the Doctor by now had the strong suspicion that their comfort was the least of anyone’s concern. sarah jane smith
|
|
|