9"Alan."
Alan winced. Something in his ears was ringing. And his head hurt. He waved his hand as though he were swatting a fly. Five more minutes.
"Alan, you need to get up now."
He didn't want to listen to the voice. He just wanted to go back to sleep.
"These other aliens aren't going to be as nice as me."
That woke him up in a matter of seconds. Ignoring the pain, he immediately sat up, panting, and looked around as quickly as he could. The Doctor, who was kneeling by his side, smiled despite the complete destruction that surrounded them.
"Good you woke up, Alan." He said in a friendly tone. Alan felt like growling. He didn't want - nor need - that friendliness.
"We're not on first name terms," he grumbled. It was the first thing that came to his mind.
"Well, then what should I call you? Mister Jackson?" The Doctor raised an eyebrow doubtfully. "You're at least twenty times younger than me." He tsked. "Nah, Alan is just fine."
Alan knew arguing with the Doctor was going to be pointless, so he decided to just ignore him. Besides, he was too stunned by their surroundings to answer anyway.
The windows must have shattered, because pieces of glass were laying all over the floor. The table and two chairs were misplaced as well, but other than that, the room was in a rather good state. No, what had Alan that worked up was the large spaceship he could see through the window.
"We need to get moving," the Doctor pointed out, and to Alan it seemed it was the first sensible thing he said.
With a strange feeling he wasn't going to return home for a while, Alan grabbed a torch, a few energy bars and a can of Coke and stuffed them in a small backpack. After considering it for a moment, he took out the gun he kept in a locker in his bedroom. In America they were practically legal, and he had figured that with his lifestyle, he had better get one, and that's what he had done. Now, he threw it inside the backpack along with the other stuff. When he looked up, he saw the Doctor scowling at him.
"If you're interested, I've never actually used it."
Alan had to remind himself that he didn't care what the Doctor thought.
He shook his head and motioned for the Doctor to follow him as he left the house. On the street, things were looking much more brightly: almost as though taken out of an American science fiction film. People were everywhere, not bothered by the destruction, just looking up at the spaceship or pointing it out to each other. Shouting and conversations filled the air. Some people were running around, screaming about the end of the world. Chaos.
Alan couldn't prevent himself from glancing at the sky.
"Ever seen anything like this?" He asked.
"Yes," the Doctor answered, which managed to surprise him a bit - though he didn't show it. "Once, in '72. You must have been like one year old or something, so you shouldn't remember." Alan didn't comment on the fact that he hadn't even been born yet in 1972.
"But we need to focus on what's important. The kids."
"The... kids?" Alan repeated blankly.
The Doctor seemed concerned.
"Maybe I should have checked for concussion," he muttered. "The kids, Alan." He was talking slowly, as if to someone with a bad case of stupidity. "Luke and Maria." Alan felt a knot in his stomach, because he suddenly remembered. "They were in town when this started."
=ooO*Ooo=
"I'm going to guess, but I'm guessing you didn't know about this!" Maria shouted to Luke as they ran down the street.
He shook his head.
"This is just a coincidence!"
They stopped as they reached a crossing.
"Still, I know it's like trying to see a bright side in a completely dark situation, but at least you're here and you can help." She gave a shy smile. "The Doctor is good at alien invasions."
Luke swallowed most of his fear and found it in himself to smile reassuringly.
"And don't forget about us. The two of us together again... These aliens have no idea what they're getting into," he grinned, trying to show more confidence than he was actually feeling. His mind was working on highest gear, though. An invasion? Why here, in Washington? Why now? Did it have to something to do with the Doctor? Of course it could be just a coincidence, but Luke found that hard to believe as soon as he said it aloud. No, there had to be a connection. Which was bad, because now he was feeling guilty about it.
"What now?" He asked, and immediately realised the question was pointless.
"We must head back home," Maria said. "To my dad and the Doctor. Surely at least one of them will know what to do."
Luke nodded.
"Right."
As soon as he said that, they fell to the ground as a tremendous earthquake shook the ground. Luke instinctively covered his head in his arms and tried to stay as low as possible.
When it was over, he looked up at the sky. The spaceship was now glowing faintly. He wasn't sure of anything, but he could guess - he was guessing that the earthquake had been caused by the aliens. Of course, it was a warning shot! It made much sense, but at the same time it didn't. If this was an invasion, why did they send warnings? That whole situation was completely strange.
"No!" Maria cried out, getting up with a cough. He looked in the direction she was looking and understood: the target of the shot had been the very district where she lived. It had to be about the Doctor! If the Doctor did survive it, that is. Luke felt his blood run cold. What had been supposed to be just a friendly trip surprisingly quickly turned into a life-and-death situation. It terrified him. Not because he had never been in such a situation before - because he had, and many times - but because this time it was new. Because he was in a foreign country and he didn't feel confident. Because neither the Doctor nor Sarah Jane were there to help him at the moment. Because he wasn't sure he knew what to do.
"We need to go there!" Maria said hastily. "We need to help!"
Luke looked at her terrified expression and suddenly he did know.
"No." He grabbed her hand. Her eyes widened as she understood that he was suggesting to abandon the Doctor and Alan. She nearly began protesting, but she understood the same thing that Luke had just a moment earlier: running head-first into an endangered area during what might very well be an interplanetary war was not the wisest thing to do. She let Luke drag her along with him, not protesting at all. He squeezed her hand and it comforted her a little. "Come on. I know somewhere safe we can hide until our parents find us."
Maria nodded and only afterwards realised that Luke had just addressed the Doctor as his parent.
=ooO*Ooo=
Luke felt strangely calm as he ran through the streets of the city filled with panicking people and overall chaos, dragging an astonished Maria behind him. It was strange, taken all that was happening, that he felt so at peace, but it was true. It was almost as though he could shut off everything around him and just focus on what was important. And the important thing was getting Maria to safety. It was all that mattered at the moment.
"Slow down a bit," she said finally. He didn't react. "Luke?"
She let go of his hand.
"Luke!"
He snapped back to reality and suddenly was aware of it all: the screaming people around them, the rush of adrenaline in his blood, the dark shadow cast by the spaceship above.
"Sorry." He ran a hand through his hair. "I... Sorry."
They stopped.
"Are you alright?"
"Yes, I'm... I'm completely fine, just a bit dazed. By all of this." He narrowed his brows. "The Doctor will figure it out." But it didn't sound like he completely believed himself. He looked around. "We're nearly there."
"Are you sure?" Maria raised an eyebrow.
"Don't worry. I've got photographic memory. I can remember the way to anywhere I've been."
She didn't question it - after all, she knew all about how Luke was different from other people.
"Well, then can we at least stop running? We'll draw attention." It would have seemed like a perfectly reasonable thing to point out, but Luke just shook his head.
"Everyone is running around panicking." He was right, of course. "No, we need to keep going. The sooner we get to safety, the better. Besides, your dad will be worried about you."
Maria nodded - she thought about how different this situation was from when they had been battling Kaagh the Sontaran. Back then, she was the one who had to keep Luke focused on the important thing at the moment and not his personal feelings. Now? It was the other way around. He had matured. She silently analysed her friend now that they were no longer talking. He had grown a lot during those two years they hadn't seen each other in real life. She was so proud of him. She had seen the struggle, after all, had been with him from the very beginning, and now she could see the progress. Luke was growing up, and she was proud of him. She was also extremely happy that he still remembered about her and wanted to visit and everything. Maybe the invasion wasn't the best part of it all, but it was also that kind of familiar a situation that Maria didn't freak out nearly as much as she should be.
"Okay," Luke glanced round, but everyone was too busy packing their belongings into their cars or taking photos of the spaceship to notice them. "You go first."
"Is this...?" Maria didn't dare finish. She just touched the blue phone box, and immediately yelped and took her hand away as she felt a small shockwave rush through her body.
"Static electricity," Luke observed, treating it almost like some kind of science experiment. "The air must be filled with ozone." He rubbed his chin. "I wonder why... These aliens must be using electricity in their weapon, whatever it is. Interesting."
Maria sent him a desperate glance that clearly said 'Please, don't start talking all science to me'.
He shook his head.
"Right. TARDIS."
Maria nodded and regarded the door. Instinctively she wanted to push it, but her eyes caught the small sign on the left side of the box, which clearly said, in capital letters, "PULL TO OPEN". She pulled, but nothing happened. It was closed.
"Luke, it's closed." She said. Luke knit his eyebrows and gave the door an experimental push. It swung open without any trouble. She sent him a lingering glare. "It says pull to open."
"That's for the phone," he answered absently.
"Excuse me?"
"The phone," he repeated. "There's a phone installed behind that white panel. You need to pull to access the phone, but the door opens to the inside."
"Right."
They stepped inside, and Luke closed the door behind them. He let out a breath. Now they were safe, even if only temporarily.
"It really is bigger..." It was clear that Maria was trying to approach this calmly. She looked around and wrinkled her nose. "Though I don't really like the look of it. Too messy."
"Dad always says that a time machine is not supposed to be pretty, but functional."
"And he's probably got a point. Still, could use an interiors decorator," Maria cracked a smile. Luke tried to do the same, though with little result.
The door handle budged as someone tried to get inside, and their relatively good mood disappeared almost immediately. Luke had closed the door, of course, but the single fact that somebody was even trying to get inside the TARDIS was disturbing enough. The two teenagers exchanged glances, but neither said anything.
Then, the key turned in the lock and the door did open.
"Strange, I don't remember closing..." The Doctor's voice broke the silence.
"Dad!" Luke cried out in relief and threw himself to the Time Lord, who only then noticed him.
"Luke!" The Doctor embraced him happily. "See?" he turned towards Alan, who was standing in the doorway with a blank expression on his face. "Told you they would be here."
Alan blinked.
"And the box is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Of course. Why does this even surprise me?"
No one answered his comments, but Luke pulled away from the hug and put on a more serious expression.
"What is going on?" He bit his lip. "Is it our fault?"
"I'm not sure," the Doctor answered. "Though I doubt that. Must be a coincidence. I get these a lot."
"What do we do now?" Alan asked. He had a strange feeling no one was going to suggest doing what the rest of the population was doing and just evacuating themselves.
"Obvious," the Doctor shrugged. "We stop this."
"Yes," Alan repeated, trying very hard not to be sarcastic. "Obvious."
"So, what do we do?"
The Doctor paced around the room nervously.
"I've no idea what's going on... Alright. Maria, I need you to take this," he gave her an electronic device Luke had never seen before. "Attach it to a street lamp or a flag pole or something like that."
The girl eyed the alien object he gave her.
"...Alright."
Alan was worried.
"There's an alien invasion raging outside. Are you sure it's safe-"
"Then go with her," the Time Lord groaned. "Really, you all act like this is such a big problem, all of this."
"We have been in worse situations." Alan tried to defend them.
"Then stop worrying!"
When the Jacksons left, the Doctor's confident smile disappeared. He let his shoulders drop.
"I don't know about this, Luke." He sighed heavily and Luke was surprised to notice how tired his voice sounded. "You're not safe here. I'd better drop you off at home."
"No." Luke shook his head. "No! You promised! You said we were gonna be there for each other from then on!"
"I had no idea things would be dangerous. I..." The Doctor hesitated, then decided not to speak whatever had come to his mind.
"I wanna be there for you!" Luke's eyes were shining. "I don't want you to think ever again that you can handle things on your own!"
The Doctor just looked at him.
"Alright then." He gave a ghost of a smile, but frowned immediately. "Hold on."
Something was wrong.
"Have you noticed...?" The Doctor wondered slowly, but drifted off and the room was filled with silence.
"What?" Luke asked nervously, as the feeling of uneasiness spread onto him as well. The Doctor looked around, and surely must have felt it too, the same thing thing that made the back of Luke's neck itch, the sensation that something was terribly wrong.
"...How silent it is?"
True enough, there was no sound to be heard, aside from their breathing and the quiet humm of the TARDIS engines. They shared anxious looks before bursting out of the ship in almost perfect unison.
"Maria!" Luke called out upon spotting the girl, who was standing about twenty meters away from them. It appeared that the TARDIS hadn't moved from its previous location, but still this was ultimately wrong, how silent it was in the middle of the capital city of the United States. "Maria!" Luke repeated, but it appeared that she couldn't hear him. She did, however, notice them and turned that way. Luke began running in her direction, but crashed into some invisible wall. He quickly got up to his feet and touched the object.
"Force field," he estimated quickly.
"Someone wants to cut us off from the TARDIS," the Doctor walked up to him.
Without even thinking, Luke reached into the Doctor's pocket, pulled out his sonic screwdriver and began working it on the field as if it were the most obvious course of action.
"I really don't think that's going to-" the Time Lord objected, but fell silent when the wall dissolved with a hiss. Luke ran up to Maria and did something that might have been intended to be a hug.
"What was that about?!" He exclaimed.
"I have no idea," she replied. "My dad went to get help and the next thing I knew, you were standing there waving your arms around."
"Help?" The Doctor repeated. "Help is good. Most help, at least. Come on!" He ushered them to the TARDIS, but Luke protested.
"Dad, don't you see what's going on? We've got to leave the TARDIS."
"Leave the... What?!" The Doctor reacted as though it were the most shocking statement in the world. "Why?"
"It's obvious, they've been making scans for alien technology in the city. You don't think that it was a coincidence those aliens... whatever they are-"
"Axons."
Luke blinked.
"You know them?" He shook his head. "Doesn't matter. The Axons fired that warning shot into the area where you were at the moment - it couldn't have been coincidental. They know exactly what they're doing."
"But they already know about the TARDIS. They placed a force field around it."
"And they'll try it again." Luke was completely sure of what he was saying.
"Hold on. Luke..." the Doctor glanced round nervously. "You've been using the sonic screwdriver."
Maria cringed.
"Oh, no."
Luke and the Doctor suddenly both looked up at the spaceship.
"What is it?" Maria asked.
"Didn't you feel that?!" Luke exclaimed. "It's... We can't stay here."
The Doctor initially didn't answer, intently staring upwards. Then, something in his expression changed.
"Run." He said quietly. The spaceship above began emitting a faint blue glow. "Run! Run! Now!"
They didn't need to be told twice as they broke into a sprint. Luke felt weird, almost as though something was off with the gravity: he was able to run much faster than ever before. He noticed Maria falling behind and grabbed her hand. She glanced at him, but he was too nervous to read the emotions correctly.
"Dad!" He screamed. The Doctor looked back at them, but didn't react otherwise. Luke wasn't sure whether that was a good sign or not. And honestly, he couldn't focus on that at the moment, as he ran into someone, knocking them down in the process. He shook his head, trying to make sense of what was going on around him. He took a better look at the person he had just bumped into and realised that it was Alan. Standing next to him with a very cross expression was a young woman in a military uniform. UNIT, the identificator proclaimed. Luke felt a lump form in his throat. He was supposed to avoid UNIT.
But the woman looked friendly enough as she shook her head at the Doctor, who was now sitting on the ground with an expression equally confused as Alan's.
"Welcome to the USA," she smiled and helped him up. Much to Luke's surprise, the Doctor did not protest.
"Did you know I was here?" He asked instead.
"No," the woman admitted. "Though really, I shouldn't be surprised." She laughed. "It's no secret trouble follows you around, after all."
"Wait," Maria interjected. "You know each other?"
"Better question: you know each other?!" The Doctor exclaimed.
"Uh, what's going on?" Luke asked timidly, trying not to attract too much attention towards him.
"Oh, right!" The Doctor gave them a dashing smile. "Luke Smith, Martha Jones. Martha, this is Luke, he's my, ummm... I'm his..." he scratched the back of his neck. "It's complicated, actually."
She gave him a heavy look.
"With you, everything is."
Just then, the ground shook again as result of another impact. This time, they were all more prepared - Maria and the Doctor even managed to stand their ground, though they seemed to be having trouble.
As soon as it was over, Luke jumped to his feet and barely noticed everyone else doing the same thing. Suddenly, everything went silent. Or was that just his imagination? No, it really did become quieter.
All he could see was the Doctor and the expression of pure fear on his face.
"They shot at the TARDIS," he whispered. "That was a high-velocity shock projectile. If it hit the target..."
No one said anything to him, but Martha Jones pulled out a shortwave radio and looked round.
"Herrin?" She spoke into her radio. "I need you to send transport to the crossing of the 17th and K." She glanced at the Doctor, who was blankly staring ahead. "Also, there should be a blue police box somewhere up the 19th. If you find it, transport it to HQ."
She gave him an unsure smile, almost as if to say 'that's the best I can do'. He tried to return it, but it didn't work nearly as well as he would have liked and afterwards, silence fell between the five of them again.
They didn't wait long before an army green jeep rolled up to them and came to a stop. Martha opened the driver's hand door and revealed a completely empty inside.
"Remote controlled. Saves time and manpower." She explained after noticing Alan's surprised expression.
"Smart."
"Alright, get in. All of you." She ushered them inside, but when the Doctor tried to get in, she grabbed his arm. "You. Front seat."
He nodded as though he had been expecting none different and took the passenger's seat.
"It is nice to see you again, you know." He said once they set off.
Martha gave him a weak smile.
"You're not getting rid of me that easily."
"So!" The Doctor clapped his hands, turning back so that he was facing the whole group. He grinned. "Anyone have any idea what this all might be about?"
A/N: Hello. Sorry I haven't been active lately, but I've just graduated middle school this Friday and now there's this whole fuss about choosing a high school and everything, so it's extremely hard to find free time...
But I promise to improve! The next chapter should be out soon.