4Flashback
(Opening theme: Hidaka Noriko and Sakuma Rei - Top wo Nerae ~Fly High!~)
Unfamiliar ceiling, thought Amy Dallon as consciousness hit like a love tap from Vicky.
It was an uncommon sensation: no grogginess to offset with coffee, no yawning or stretching, just instantly awake and fully alert.
Looking around, she saw that she was in some sort of hospital room, though decidedly unlike any other she'd ever been in. For one thing, despite the presence of monitoring machines by her bedside, there was the remarkable absence of cabling connecting her to them.
There was also the fact that there were two other girls, in two other beds, in here with her.
Seeing that one of them was Vicky, and that nothing seemed to be preventing her from getting up, she slid the thin sheet covering her aside and used the short step by the bed to help herself down. Which is when she noticed what she was, or, rather, more accurately, wasn't wearing:
For all intents and purposes, she was naked, except that her torso was encased in some sort of articulated plastron, without the flaring hip pieces, made of some yellow metal; sort of like a metal one-piece swimsuit that covered everything from crotch to neck. She noted that her forearms from wrist to elbow, and lower legs from ankle to knee, were similarly encased in the stuff, but that her hands and feet were bare.
Worry about that later, she thought to herself. See to Vicky first.
Stepping over to Vicky's bed, she noted that she seemed to be in a light doze. Sweeping a practiced eye to the monitor beside her bed, she noted the familiar life sign readings indicating that her sister seemed to be fine, in addition to others that she did not recognize, with values primarily expressed as bar graphs.
She glanced at the other girl, seeing similar readings, and was turning back to Vicky for an in-depth look with her power when she heard a shhh sound behind her. Turning, she saw that the door to the room had slid open to reveal a broadly-built middle-aged man in a lab coat whose expression brightened when he saw her.
"Ah, I see you're up and about," he said with a trace of an accent.
"Er… where are we? What happened? And who are you?"
"Well, to answer your questions, you are here at the Saotome Research Institute. I am Dr. Saotome. And you're here because you and these other two young ladies were exposed to a rather large amount of Getter radiation when the reactor overloaded."
"Reactor? Getter radiation?"
"Do you remember the field trip?"
"Field trip? Wait…" Now that she thought about it, yes, she did remember. Nodding, she thought back to how she and Vicky had found the girl in the third bed locked into a closet near the institute's reactor core. They'd broken her out, but then insects were suddenly everywhere, followed by a lot of brightly-glowing green light.
"How bad was it? And why am I in these?" she gestured at her arms, legs, and chest.
"It was rather bad, actually. Which is exceedingly peculiar, considering that years of experimentation has shown that Getter energy is entirely harmless when it comes to humans. As to why you're wearing my experimental power suits, well, why don't we see if we can wake these other young ladies so I can explain it all at once."
Waking the other two revealed that they were in similar suits, Vicky in red, and the third girl, Taylor, in white. Aside from color, the power suits were identical, save for the fact that Vicky's power suit was more like a two-piece suit, baring her midriff, than the articulated one-pieces that Amy and Taylor were in. Amy just rolled her eyes at that - that just seemed to be the way the universe rolled, so of course Vicky would get the one sexy, midriff-baring power suit (not that she wanted one herself!) - but when Taylor asked why Vicky was in a different power suit, all the Doctor could (or would) say was to reiterate that they were experimental, and primarily still in the prototype stage.
"Wait," said Vicky, frowning, "if these are life-support power suits, does that mean that we're basically naked in front of you?"
"Well, for all intents and purposes, I am your doctor, so it shouldn't really matter."
"Okay. Wait, no! It's not okay! Hospital gowns, now!"
"You're a very pushy young lady, you know that?"
"I don't care! If you're not actually examining me, then I don't want to be naked in front of you, even if it's only maybe-naked!"
The argument might have gone on a bit longer, except that the other girl, Taylor, chimed in, clearly uncomfortable and asking for a hospital gown, too. Amy found that she didn't really care - she was quite comfortable despite the air conditioning in the room - but decided to go along with it just to expedite things. It's not like she was a nudist, after all.
In short order, they found themselves in the Institute's cafeteria, drinks at hand, amidst a smattering of seemingly uninterested staff workers while Dr. Saotome explained what they'd discovered since the accident.
"Getter energy has long been proven to be harmless to humans," Dr. Saotome reiterated, "and can be harnessed as a virtually limitless source of energy. In your cases, however, it appears to have had an adverse reaction to your being Parahumans, though it may have been due to the fact that you were exposed to so much of it. Each of your bodies had high residual concentrations of Getter energy that was slowly depressing your life functions, and we had to find a way to either purge or utilize that energy."
"Purge or utilize?" Amy asked, catching that. The other two nodded, and looked to the Doctor expectantly.
"Yes. These power suits were intended for interstellar exploration. Constructed of alloys infused with Getter energy, they are themselves resistant to Getter radiation. Coupled with modular components that would comprise a full suit, they would have served as powered environment suits for explorers."
"You don't think small, do you?" remarked Vicky with some wonder. "Space exploration's basically dead since the Simurgh showed up."
"Well, I don't expect she'll be around forever," the Doctor averred.
"Wait, what?" the Doctor managed to surprise out of Taylor, who'd been pretty quiet for most of the discussion, quickly followed by similar surprised interjections from Vicky and Amy
"Please, let's table that for now. I was explaining about the Getter power suits. That's the more immediate matter, I should think."
The girls agreed, though Amy made a mental note to follow it up later. Dr. Saotome explained that the Getter suits were not only resistant to Getter energy, but that they also harnessed it, using it primarily as a power source. In the girls' cases, it was slowly converting the Getter energy that had impregnated their tissues, and using it to change them.
"Change us?" Amy asked. "What do you mean change us?" This touched too closely on issues she'd long had with her power. She could see the shock and apprehension she felt mirrored in Vicky and Taylor's expressions, and they were just a couple of seconds in echoing her question.
"While the power suits are using the Getter energy in your bodies to charge your reactor cores," what reactor cores?! thought Amy, "there was so much of it that even then it was still killing you, albeit at a slower rate. There are indications that Getter energy has an effect on evolution, and I adjusted your power suits to utilize the energy they had already absorbed to heal the damage. To do that, it changed you so that your cells could directly metabolize Getter energy. As part of the process, it has also made you stronger and more durable, and should be addressing any congenital conditions you may have."
"My glasses!" Taylor exclaimed. "I just realized that I'm not wearing my glasses!"
"Yes," Dr. Saotome agreed. "You may also have noticed that your hair will be longer than it should have been after a mere six days. It is fortunate that the two of you," he gestured to Amy and Vicky, "appear to be mostly done with growing, though in your case, Miss Hebert, it shouldn't be too difficult to adjust your power suit should you start a growth spurt."
"Wait," asked Vicky. "You make it sound like we're going to be wearing these things for years. This is only until all the Getter energy is gone, right?"
"I'm afraid not, Miss Dallon. Since your bodies basically run on Getter energy now, the suits are functioning as regulators for the energy your cells are storing. Also, in order to keep you alive long enough for the suits to heal you, we had to install some rather invasive cybernetics to help with your life functions. I can't quite say that I'm sorry, since it kept you three alive, but no, you will be wearing those power suits for as long as you live."
Amy saw Vicky's hand rear back, fist clenched to hit the Doctor. She managed to yell out, "Vicky, no!" even as she saw the Doctor hang his head and close his eyes, waiting for the blow. The tableau was broken when Taylor, in shock, crushed the mug she was holding in her hand like a paper cup.
And that was how they discovered that they no longer had powers. A flying shard from the shattered cup had cut the Doctor, and when Amy'd reached over to heal him nothing had happened. She couldn't even get a sense of the Doctor's biology, as her power normally would, when she touched him.
Taylor had cut herself on the shards, too, but even as Amy watched, she saw the cuts close mere seconds after she put down the ruined cup, in testament to their new regenerative ability.
There was no small amount of confusion, however, when they noticed that Vicky was floating. Or that, rather, she'd been floating all this time, as she normally did.
"Why did we lose our powers and Glory Girl didn't? Is it the different power suit?" Taylor inquired.
"No, actually," the Doctor clarified. "You'll remember that these suits were made with exploration in mind. While Miss Dallon appears to have instinctively tapped into the antigravity systems due to her old power, you should all be able to float and, in fact, fly, once you get the hang of it."
"Wait," Amy said. "So you're saying that, in addition to turning us into cyborgs, you've also basically turned us into flying Brutes."
"Among other things, yes."
Hmm, Amy considered. This has possibilities.
After short checkups to make sure their vitals were ok, which included checking the amount of residual Getter energy in their bodies as well as the current power output of the miniature Getter reactor cores housed in their chassis (thus the bar graphs), the Doctor showed them around the facilities, with the idea of getting them up to speed with their new (or, rather, newly-changing) bodies.
Vicky, Amy saw, had been disappointed to learn that she could only bench press 5 tons now; as "Alexandria lite" she'd been able to deadlift a whopping 14 tons. Her expression brightened when the Doctor reminded them that they were still getting used to their new abilities, "settling in," as he'd said, and that with the Getter energy continually working to adapt and improve their bodies, the "hostile environment" posed by increasing the weights would eventually allow them to lift even more weight.
As they moved on, she saw Vicky eyeing the weights speculatively. Amy was just quietly amazed that the Institute even had weight equipment (and a weight room!) that could support that much weight.
Vicky's enthusiasm dimmed visibly when they got to the basketball court. Her trigger had involved her powers manifesting during a game, and she'd regretted being unable to play ball, especially competitive ball, ever since.
The Doctor seemed to catch on and produced a basketball from somewhere. "Here, go on," he said, tossing the ball at Vicky.
"I… this is a nice place. I don't want to wreck it."
"Eh, this is a research facility. Part of research is breaking stuff. Go ahead."
Vicky looked doubtful, but then a vicious grin spread across her face as she dribbled and went for a massive dunk.
The ball didn't survive, but the ring and structure didn't even deign to take notice.
"You have a Brute-rated basketball court," said Vicky, looking up at the ring in awe.
"Well, technically it's a programmable multi-purpose gym. But yes, right now it's a Brute-rated basketball court. We're still working on the Brute-rated basketballs, though."
Vicky's face lit up (well, figuratively) like a miniature sun.
Athletes, Amy thought, are a special kind of hell.
All day the next day saw Vicky obligingly testing newer and newer versions of the latest attempt at a Brute-rated basketball, a beatific smile on her face all the while. Amy had looked to Taylor for some commiseration (and maybe some company), but it turned out that the long-legged embryonic supermodel was a runner. The fierce, unholy glee on her face as she tried to run the Brute-rated treadmill into the ground was just disturbing.
Being solidly in the "no pain, no pain" camp when it came to physical fitness, Amy had instead engaged the Doctor to learn as much as she could about their new physiology. Her medical background had helped, and soon enough she was of the opinion that if she just had to live as a cyborg girl, then she'd lucked out. Flight and Brute powers went a long way towards balancing out being bombarded by weird radiation and almost dying, and the ability to eat anything made for a nice cherry on top.
I just love how the Getter reactor converts everything to fuel, she considered. That much bacon would normally be a one-way ticket to heart attack city, but between the reactor and the regeneration, calling it a "cast iron stomach" is seriously downplaying it.
Vicky, faced with the lack of a need to watch her figure, had demolished half a chocolate cake in one sitting. And Taylor, apparently, had a serious weakness for ice cream.
And they even had a way to feed things they didn't want to eat directly to the reactor via a special receptacle. Not, strictly speaking, that they had to. It's just that some things were just too horrid-tasting to eat or drink.
Like gasoline.
She was seriously getting Vicky back for that.
That night, the Doctor had a pleasant surprise for the girls: with them having gone an entire week incommunicado from their families, Dr. Saotome had gone ahead and contacted them. It being a Thursday, they were expecting their families to be visiting either tomorrow after work, or sometime during the upcoming weekend.
Things, unfortunately, didn't go anywhere near how they'd expected them to go.
It started out with the bruise on Vicky's face. Taylor had been slowly opening up to Amy and Vicky, they being the only other two Getter-powered cyborgs currently alive, and despite her more solitary nature Taylor had finally allowed Vicky to talk her into a one-on-one game of powered basketball. Vicky'd been nagging at Amy to do it, but years of exposure to Vicky's puppy dog eyes had helped Amy build up a resistance.
Taylor was slow to get up to speed, but it was obvious that she'd done this before. Naturally, as things heated up, the girls started to get really competitive, and when Taylor lined up one particular shot Vicky came in at just the right angle to stop it by getting an elbow in the face.
Vicky'd gotten worse in the past; basketball could get really rough, she'd said (and shown) more than once, and when Taylor had fallen all over herself apologizing Vicky'd just shrugged it off, saying "good hit." And that was it. Amy knew her sister. When she said it was okay, it was okay. Which was good considering that the lingering bruising was a testament to just how hard a hit it had been. Vicky didn't hold grudges like that.
As for Carol… well, Carol had issues.
Carol and her Aunt Sarah had come in with a tall, balding man who'd turned out to be Taylor's dad. Carol had engulfed Vicky in a hug, whereas Aunt Sarah had just wryly smiled at Amy before putting her arm around her. Off in a corner, she saw Taylor and her dad exchange a few words before throwing their arms around each other.
"How're you doing, Amy?"
"Well, I've been better, but any reactor overload you can walk away from is a good one, right?"
In retrospect, starting out the explanations that way probably wasn't the brightest idea she'd had.
They'd just sat through the first part of Doctor Saotome's explanation of the events, and were taking a break before continuing regarding the familiarization exercises we were going through, when something came to Carol's attention. She'd noticed that Vicky had been ground-bound all throughout the discussion and commented on it.
"It's good to see you managing to stay on the ground, Victoria," she'd said. "And what's with the bruise on your face?" Turning to Amy, she'd continued,"Never mind that something was able to break her forcefield, but why haven't you healed your sister yet, Amy?"
Explaining that they no longer had their powers, and that Amy could no longer heal… that hadn't gone well.
"Do you have any idea what you've done? What this is going to do to New Wave?" Carol had shrilled. "You're going to ruin everything!"
"That's hardly fair or productive," Dr. Saotome had countered, even as Sarah'd laid a hand on Carol's shoulder. "If you're going to assign blame, then you should probably blame the girls who locked Miss Hebert in that closet." Amy noted the fierce look that appeared in Danny Hebert's eyes momentarily, and as the Doctor continued she saw him get into a fierce, whispered conversation with Taylor. "That said, I believe we need to discuss what these young women need going forward to deal with the effects of the event."
"Discuss? What's there to discuss?" Shaking off her sister's hand, Carol had continued her rant. "You just told us that your supposedly safe, clean energy just happens to be harmful to Parahumans, and that our girls are basically overflowing with it, would be practically radiating it if it weren't for these… things you have them wearing. Aside from the fact that her entire family is made up of Parahumans, how do you expect my daughter to work with heroes or capture villains when just being near them might cause them to start dying?"
"That's hardly fair, Carol," Amy'd said, echoing the Doctor. "We didn't ask for this. And at the end of the day, Dr. Saotome saved our lives. Powers or no, that's got to be better than being dead, right?"
Amy would later consider that she was in desperate need of learning when to shut up. Well, maybe.
"You," Carol had said with more venom that Amy had ever heard condensed in a single word. "You've always chafed at being a hero, haven't you? Your villainous father's seed made sure of that. So now you've found a way to stop doing good. Congratulations. But I'm not letting you drag my daughter down with you." She'd glared imperiously at Vicky. "Come, Victoria. We're leaving." Turning back to Amy, she'd declared, "You… don't come back to my home."
Over Aunt Sarah's remonstration of "Carol!" it would have been easy to miss Vicky's near-whispered, "No, Mom."
"What did you just say?"
"I said 'no, Mom.' I'm not leaving Amy. I'm not leaving my sister."
"She is not your sister, and you are still a minor. You will obey me."
"And what then, huh?" Vicky'd insisted. "I reach my majority in a year. At which point I can leave, and you can't stop me. That is if I haven't, as you've suggested, killed you with Getter energy before then. Either way, I'm gone in a year, max. Is that what you want? If I'm gone, I'm gone for good. Amy and I are a package deal. If she's not welcome home, then I'm staying here. With her."
Amy'd been struck by shock. She'd been on the verge of telling Vicky to go, of saying it was for the best if she left, but this… she'd never fought back against Carol before. Not like this. Unconsciously, gratefully, she'd embraced Vicky from behind, and laid her forehead against her sister's back.
The tell-tale crackle of Brandish manifesting a weapon had sliced across the ensuing silence, and she'd felt Vicky stiffen.
"Is that what it's come down to, Mom?" Vicky had said, voice low and quiet, washed of all emotion. Brandish made to retort, bringing her weapon into guard position, even as a sound, hard and percussive, started from somewhere inside Vicky, pulsing, menacing.
Gan, it went. Gan. Gan! Gan! GAN!
The Doctor's shout had gotten everyone's attention. Face pale, gesticulating wildly, he'd motioned everyone urgently back, away from Vicky, who'd remained unnaturally still in her arms:
"Everyone, BACK! She's entered into battle mode. Which should be impossible. I haven't even enabled battle mode yet."
Yeah, that's Vicky, Amy had thought with ironic affection. Of course she'd found the "Rawr, SMASH!" button on her own.
Everyone had stepped back, back from the brink, even as Vicky'd kept track of everyone with unblinking eyes. She'd been tense, coiled like a spring, pink Getter energy pooling in her clenched right fist only to dissipate, and then start building up again a moment later.
Gan! Gan! Gan! Gan!
"She's redlining her reactor, over and over," the Doctor had said into the silence, alarm creeping into his voice. "How is she doing that?! Anyway, I need everyone to calm down and stay calm. I don't think anyone wants to set off the angry battle cyborg with the equivalent of a small nuclear reactor at her disposal, do you?"
Carol had left, yelling about how things weren't over, Aunt Sarah dragging her out and whispering loudly, urgently. Vicky had quickly calmed, and when Amy'd tried to speak Vicky'd grabbed her in a huge hug.
"I'm not going anywhere," Vicky had whispered. "Sisters. Forever."
"Forever," Amy had echoed, calming her hearts, both her human one and her reactor core.
Which was, naturally, the perfect point for Mr. Hebert to ask, "so what's this about battle cyborgs with the power of a nuclear reactor?"
Dr. Saotome had explained to Mr. Hebert about how the Getter power suits were originally intended for space exploration, and they'd shared a look and a nod, as if it were perfectly reasonable for environmental suits to be combat capable. Must be a guy thing, Amy'd thought.
On the bright side, the Union man had come up with a great way to address Amy (and by extension Victoria) no longer having family support. Mr. Hebert had proposed that they be entered into the Institute's rolls as interns, which would allow them to draw an allowance. Dr. Saotome had gone one further, offering them quarters on-base.
After a quick consult with Taylor, Mr. Hebert had also offered to put them up in their house, so that they wouldn't have to be confined to base all the time, as it were. Amy and Vicky had been hesitant, not wanting to intrude, but Mr. Hebert had insisted: they were in this mess because they'd helped Taylor. He wanted to be able to show his appreciation and gratitude for that.
Tinkers are bullshit, Amy thought to herself.
They'd spent the last two weeks learning just what they could do. And if anything drove home just how bullshit it all was, it was everything they'd seen and done.
First off, who builds a reinforced, Brute-rated underground testing area? And that's not even taking into consideration the how of it. The Saotome Research Institute had only been in Brockton for a couple of months. How had they managed to build the Institute over all that? That all this was there was just staggering.
And then came the weapons. It had been a relief to know that, despite being able to manifest Getter energy when she was angry, Vicky hadn't actually been about to unleash a Getter-powered beam at Brandish. When they'd asked what it was for, Dr. Saotome had shown them the modular armored chassis, gun pods, missile pods - who builds all that for equipment intended for exploration - and shown them how to attach the armor and weapon pods to their bodies and power them using Getter energy.
"You never know what's out there," the Doctor had answered as Amy ran the simulator to practice with the ridiculous helmet-mounted vulcan guns.
Okay, let me rephrase that: Tinkers are bullshit and crazy.
Though they currently only had the snap-on gun pods and missile pods (and the vulcan-cannon-armed suit helmets) for real, the simulators were programmed for a host of other experimental or conceptual weapon systems, and they'd ended up trying them all. Poor Vicky had been so disappointed to learn that she couldn't safely deploy the helmet-mounted monofilament cutting ribbons. Several days in the simulator had proved, to her chagrin, that any attempt to use them would end up in filet-of-Vicky. Vicky just didn't have the coordination ("not yet!" she'd insisted) and control to safely use the unusual weapon.
Vicky had quickly found that her preferred setup involved mixing a gun pod and a melee weapon, mixing up range and distance to confuse her targets. Taylor seemed to prefer keeping the range open, employing gun pods and missiles. Amy, to her delight, had discovered an ability for a sort of tactile telekinesis - anything she touched, she could lift and direct with ease, assuming she could lift it in the first place. This allowed her to wield a heavy melee weapon in both hands without worrying overmuch about leverage. She found a particular satisfaction in being able to smash things away, and then finishing off the damaged targets with missiles.
Over the past two weeks, the Doctor had slowly introduced them to and unlocked systems he'd left deactivated, "so as not to overwhelm you," he'd explained. Part of being able to access "battle mode" involved conscious control of their reactor cores, as well as using the heads-up-display projected on their retinas to access their systems' functions.
"Gattai," Amy read out loud from her HUD. The translation function came in handy, seeing as how a lot of the documentation was still in the Doctor's native Japanese.
"Combine?" asked Taylor, followed by Vicky's rather more inelegant, "wait, what?".
"Yes," the doctor clarified. "I've mentioned how I intended these suits for interstellar exploration. And yet you three are bound to have noticed the decided lack of anything resembling space ships, or the facilities for them. The Combine function is what allows this. Together, you three form a single land, air, sea, and space exploration unit. You've all three advanced superbly these past two weeks. I'd like you all to try to combine."
"So how do we do this?" Vicky, ever practical, asked.
"It's in the documentation," the Doctor had replied with a knowing grin.
A minute later found Vicky sputtering in disbelief. "That's it?"
"That's it."
"But doesn't that mean that anyone can activate it?"
"No, it has to come from one of you. Your power suit will process the command, and transmit the request to the other two suits, which need to be close enough to receive the request."
"But… voice-activated commands? This is so weird."
"The voice command forms part of the carrier signal for the request."
"Ugh," Vicky said, "it's like some nerd's dream!"
"Wouldn't that make you a nerd, too?" the Doctor asked with a smirk.
"Ugh, let's do this before I change my mind."
A quick couple of bouts of Blaster-Master-Brute and Vicky was grumbling.
"Okay, fine, fine let's do this."
"With enthusiasm, Miss Dallon, or it won't take."
"Ugh. You are such a nerd. Fine."
Amy took Vicky's hand in hers, gave her a reassuring smile, and reached for Taylor's. Taylor, a small smile on her too-serious face for once, took Amy's and then reached for Vicky's.
"Ok, let's do this," Vicky said, taking Taylor's hand. She took a deep breath, then shouted:
"CHANGE GETTER ONE, SWITCH ON!"
Immediately, a message flashed on Amy's HUD: Join request G1, accept? Y/N
Choosing "yes," Amy's world was engulfed in light.
Why hello there, Vicky's mental voice said in their shared headspace.
This is unreal, Taylor replied.
Tinkers are bullshit. And nuts. Amy insisted.
All this, she realized, was occurring at the speed of thought. Though they maintained their individuality, they'd joined together in a shared consciousness. Thoughts, feelings, knowledge was shared instantly. There was no privacy here.
Vicky knew she loved her.
Vicky knew she loved her.
And Vicky… Vicky loved her back. She could feel it, the strength of it, the unquestioning, unconditional nature of it.
Sisters forever.
Amy wanted to cry for the sheer joy of it.
I feel like I'm intruding here.
No!was Vicky's fierce thought. We see you, Taylor. Just as you see us.
And we are us.
Sisters.
Sisters, Taylor answered, full of awe and hope, the hope a small thing, long beaten-down, but willing to stand, straight and strong, and reach out to them.
They held her to them, and felt their minds align.
Sisters forever.
Sitting across from him in his office, Amy considered the waiting Doctor. She'd asked to speak to him, and though she wasn't not going to ask her questions, she wondered if it would make a difference.
"You're not a Tinker, are you?"
"Not as such, no," the Doctor replied, amusement in his voice. "What gave it away?"
"Little things here and there," she conceded. "But most importantly was how you'd mentioned that Getter energy had always been harmless to humans. I felt as if you were speaking from personal experience."
"Ah," the Doctor answered, a tone of approval in his voice. "Excellently thought out. So. Does it matter?"
"I guess not." Amy admitted. "Are you even a medical doctor? What are your degrees in?"
"Astrophysics and materials science." Now he was grinning outright.
Amy snorted. She could only hold back the snark for so long. "You're not our doctor, you're our mechanic."
"If I am, as you seem to be implying, a lowly mechanic, what does that make you? A car? A computer?" He paused. "A toaster?" That grin had turned into a large shark's smile.
Amy found herself with no immediate comeback, and the Doctor gleefully used an index finger to press on one lower eyelid. "You're a hundred years too early for me, kid."
"Really? What does that even mean?"
"It loses something in the translation."
"Feh. Whatever. Bring it."
That was, of course, the moment when klaxons started sounding all over the base. In the distance, even through the closed windows, she could hear the sirens going off in the distance.
"Is that… ?"
"Endbringer."
She really needed to learn when to shut up.
つづく
(Ending theme: Matsuzawa Yumi - Kyou Kara Asu E)