THE ELEVEN DOCTORS
Chapter 32 Sparks flew every which way from the seventh Doctor's TARDIS console, as all eleven Doctors were bodily thrown back by the power emanating from inside the eleventh Doctor's ship. While at the same time, the eleventh Doctor's TARDIS gave out an almost human-sounding electronic wail, as if in agony. The glint of flames were suddenly illuminated against the dark blue panel of its open door. The Doctor's slowly recomposed themselves over the console again. None of them seemed to be aware that the room was becoming smothered in a blanket of white smoke. The only sound was the crackling of the vortex energy discharge, and the occasional cough from one of the companions, still sheltering behind the TARDIS. Thin streams of sparkling, orange-red energy flowed into each of the Doctors. Abruptly, in one, single burst, it shot out from them down the cable connected to Amy. Her body stiffened as a luminescent glow surrounded her. Slowly, inexorably, the incandescence faded away from Amy's body. As it did so, a single white hot thread of energy fizzed through her connecting wire, back into the eleven Doctor's. As it hit each of them they shook, sweat breaking out on their foreheads, wide-eyed and grimacing in pain, mouths gaping in silent screams. There was a pause, just for a second or two, when everything stopped. Then the Doctor's all slumped forward, gasping for air, some falling to their knees in their weakened state. Donna was the first to cautiously peer out from behind the TARDIS. She ran to her version of the Doctor. He was leaning with his back against the still-smoking console, staring down at his feet. "Doctor! Are you alright?" She asked, her worried gaze searching the Doctor's face. The tenth Doctor's head jerked up and he greeted her with a warm smile. "Hello, Donna!" A slight rasp in his voice betrayed his weariness as he told her, "Right as rain. Never felt better!" Donna responded by smacking him in the arm. "Oy! What'd I do now?" He whinged, an injured look on his face. "That's for scaring the life out of me. I thought you were done for." "I will be if you keep hitting me." He grumbled, before reaching down to give his friend a warm hug. "I'm fine, Donna. Really." Tegan and Sarah Jane followed suit and went to the sides of the forth and fifth Doctor. After being reassured that the forth Doctor was fine, Sarah made the rounds, checking to see if the other Doctor's were OK. Rory spared one fleeting, concerned glance for his version of the Doctor. Breathing heavily and leaning over the console, the eleventh Doctor turned his head to look at Rory. He gave him a crooked smile and waggled his hand with a 'hang ten' sign. That was all Rory needed to see, before rushing to Amy's side. "Amy!" Rory said as he knelt over her, his hands and eyes desperately searching for signs of life. "Amy? Can you hear me?" "Yes, Rory." Came her groggy voice. "I can hear you. I can also feel you pawing at me like some perv. Mind you, normally that might be a bit of a turn-on. But right now, I could use a little space, yeah?" " ." Rory held up his hands in surrender and backed off a little. He gave her a cheeky grin. "I can tell you're on the mend. You wouldn't be nagging me, otherwise." "I nag? Since when do I nag?" Amy protested, sitting up. She frowned, her eyes darting upwards, as her hands felt the wired up headband she wore. "What is this thing doing on my head? You better not have been doing anything kinky while I was lying here, Rory." He sighed, "Definitely back to normal, then." He bent down, gently removing the headgear. Then he gave Amy a long, loving kiss. "Missed you, Amy Williams." He whispered, pulling back and gazing tenderly into her eyes. "Oh! Did you have to do that?" Came the eleventh Doctor's disgusted voice from over Rory's shoulder. He took the headband from Rory, and got busy reeling in the cable connecting "That definitely wasn't a genetic transfer." The tenth Doctor observed, as he got busy unwiring the seventh Doctor's console. "Are you going to sit there all day, Pond?" The eleventh Doctor asked Amy, "Or are you going help clean up the mess? That is what human females do, isn't it? "Oh yes! And then all us girls can don our pinny's and make your tea." Donna said with overly-sweet sarcasm. She crossed her arms and harrumphed. The eleventh Doctor's eyes brightened. He opened his mouth to suggest just that thing, but Donna beat him to it. "No way, you...you...male chauvinist spaceman. You're just like my mate, Steven. The both of you would probably be perfectly happy for us 'girls' to dress like French maids, go barefoot and get pregnant." "Actually, Amy's done the whole French maid and pregnant thing, already. Rather not repeat that. Dunno' about the shoes, though." The eleventh Doctor answered. "Have you been barefoot lately?" He asked her. "Give it up, Donna. Anyway, you make better coffee. Your tea...meh. Not so much." The Tenth Doctor told her, making a face. Nimbly side-stepping away, just in case she decided to hit him again. "Stop, Doctor. Really. Really. Stop." Amy admonished him, with a cross look. "You're making me sound like a nineteen-fifties cliche. And I was a police woman, not a French maid." She blushed suddenly, realizing a room full of people had just heard her. "Look. It was my job...as a kiss-a-gram. I wasn't like a...you know." But no one was really listening. Each of the Doctor's were busy getting the seventh Doctor's TARDIS back to normal. The other two women were helping them. "So what did you do?" Sarah Jane asked the forth Doctor, as he handed her a fistful of odd-shaped components. "We programmed the console to siphon off the vortex energy that was poisoning Amy. To cleanse her system of it completely" He told her. "Surely it was much more complicated than that?" She said skeptically. "Oh yes." The third Doctor said from beside her, as he busied himself unplugging some wires. "Most certainly. What we had to do, Sarah Jane, was feedback energy from the heart of the TARDIS, into us, then into Amy. The feedback acted as a sort of anti venom, drawing out the energy inside her, and into all of me—erm, I mean, us." "But, wouldn't that kill you?" Tegan asked, as she'd been listening in to the conversation. "Not at all." The fifth Doctor answered. "Because there were all of us together, the effects were diluted down enough so that all we got was a bit of a headache." "And a sudden craving for pizza." Said the ninth Doctor, with a puzzled frown. "It's the ingredients," the sixth Doctor told the companions, "they help to counteract the side effects of vortex absorption." "Oooh, and I know just the spot." The seventh Doctor said, his face brightening. "There's this little place in Brooklyn called 'Pompeii's Pizza.' Their motto is, 'You'll leave our pizza in ruins.'" "Sounds a treat! The tenth Doctor agreed enthusiastically. "I could do with a nosh." "As long as they don't have Pyroviles as waiters," Donna shrugged, "fine by me." "Or there's 'Dublin Pizza' a little further north, in a place called Glens Falls." Suggested the eighth Doctor. His face took on a rapturous look as he said, "They make a shepherds pie pizza that's absolutely to die for." "I'd die if I had to eat that." Tegan snorted, making a disgusted face. "Do they sell a Pepto-Bismol pudding to go with it?" Rory asked. "We're done here. Now everyone, back you go to your TARDIS'," The first Doctor ordered. "But...what about Captain Jack?" Said Donna, looking around. "Where'd he get off to?" In answer, the TARDIS suddenly shook, as a mighty, metallic roar came from outside. Turning on the wall scanner, the occupants of the console room found out where Jack was. He was hanging upside down from the fist of the Kill-bot. Back Home Doctor Who Main Page Next