The Key to the Gates of the Earth

Espen wiped the dirt from his brow and pulled the cap he'd been wearing lower over his eyes. This cavern was as dusty as it was dark. He shone the flashlight around the passage he'd most recently found, leaving another mark to tell him which way was the way out. He took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh, taking just a few moments to stop and breathe. He was beginning to doubt his sanity. He'd gone way out of his way for this one.

It had started the way most of his little side adventures had started: A rumor. Deep on the boards, he'd unearthed yet another guy insisting that his lights had flickered, and that meant aliens. Normally, he wouldn't have taken so much as a second glance at the post, but he also mentioned some cheap-o fake device that Espen had seen advertised several times. It was supposed to detect “hyperviolet radiation”, which could “only be produced by an alien spacecraft.” Naturally, it didn't. What it basically did was beep wildly every once in a while if there was a strong breeze blowing into the front. The reason this device had interested Espen so much, though, is because he had personally purchased a few and rigged them up with a little doodad he'd come across. A radio receiver set to a select few frequencies that, when it picked up chatter, caused the device to beep just as it normally would. Further, he'd disabled the stupid wind thing. Essentially, what he'd done was make the thing actually usable, but in such a wide area that it would rarely if ever give any descent results.

Also, one of his modified clunkers had been purchased by this very user. Because everyone and their uncle knew that these things didn't actually work, the post had become buried by other similar or more likely candidates, and then the user, upon getting a bit of ridicule and doing some research on the phony product, promptly gave up the search. This meant that these strange transmissions were all Espen's now. He had immediately packed up and shipped out on the first plane he could find, and now here he was following his own intuition and a standard radio, looking for interference. And it had led him here. To this cave.

Espen recounted his thoughts, turning the knob on the radio scanner to try to hear that perfect kind of static that you could only pick up with a high level transmission. Just when he had begun to hope that he wasn't just running into some undiscovered vein of uranium, he stepped full and solidly into something. Something he couldn't see. Stars flashed in front of his eyes for a moment and he blinked them away, rubbing the sore spot on his forehead. He'd just hit something cold and metallic, and it had smarted like no one's business.

And now, when he looked around, he couldn't quite figure out where he was. He was no longer in a cave, that was for sure. In fact, he seemed to be outside. Except the sky was strange, and there seemed to be more than one moon. These trees that were growing around him were odd, too. But worse than that, he heard something. He heard a metallic marching sound. He blinked again and shook his head. Right now, despite the throbbing behind his eyes, he needed to move. He headed into the nearest thicket of trees he could see. He didn't know a lot, but what he did know that he had heard that sound before, on the forums, in poor recordings. The stories that went along with it were never good.

He groaned a bit and rubbed his head, just running blindly for now. He needed to get someplace protected where he could gather his thoughts and figure out what was going on, then he needed to get out of there. After a short while, he was able to get himself away from the thumping steps, and his head had mostly cleared. Somewhere, however, he heard another sound. It sounded like a voice, quiet though it was. He flattened himself against a tree and peeked around it. There seemed to be someone else there, and they seemed to be nursing an injury. He hesitated before speaking, but he needed to say something.

“Hey, you! You're uh....human, right?” He called in a different direction, so that his voice echoed a bit. It wasn't a perfect ventriloquist act, but it might obfuscate a little bit. He wasn't sure what was going on, and he needed every advantage he could get in the current situation.

Espen cursed quietly under his breath.  He'd stepped in pretty deep crap before, but this particular sewer reeked more than your average big business cover-up or attempted coup.  He took a deep breath and turned around the tree, showing his hands.  He needed to make sure this girl, whoever she was, knew he wasn't posing a threat.  Whatever was going on right now, he knew whatever he could find that had proper skin on it needed to team up to survive here.  "Hey, look, no problems from me.  Those things, whatever they are, are the real problem here.  No time to be fighting each other, right?"  He stood out in the open now, but kept himself ready to dive back into hiding at the first sound of a metallic footstep or a grainy, shouted order.

Espen's ear picked up the metallic marching again.  He didn't need a second invitation.  Honestly, he didn't need a first.  He kicked off and jumped down the small slope he'd been on and sprinted into the root-y alcove.  He reached into his pocket as he ran, pulling out his phone.  With his other hand, he pulled out a small, penny sized disk and looked closely at it just as he entered the tangled wood(?).  Looking at his phone, he grimaced.  Naturally, no service.  Why would he have service?  That would just be too darned convenient.  He assumed that whatever metal thing had clocked him over the head before had something to do with jamming the signal.  Still, that wasn't what he'd pulled the phone out for.

Firstly, he turned down the stupid brightness.  Second, he opened up a particular app, switching one of the settings.  "2".  Then he kept it at the ready.  These metal things, he was wracking his brain over them.  His mind was searching through every single forum post and picture and fuzzy, horrid recording he'd heard.  He knew about 90% of the stuff he was remembering was completely useless, but the 10% could save his life at the moment.  It had before.  The problem was sifting through the 100% to figure out which was which, when the entire thing was just all hearsay to begin with.  He hid as far down into the crevice as he could without losing sight of the entrance, and tensed himself to act and to run.  Now wasn't much of a time for talking, but he did glance over at his new companion.  "Yes, I'm human.  And unfortunately I don't know anything about whatever it is that's after us.  Not yet, anyway.  If I can remember something that applies and might actually be useful, you'll be the first to know."  He tried to regulate his breathing, but he was clearly unsettled by all of this.  Not that he hadn't been in danger before, but one never quite got used to this sort of thing.

As the marching got closer, Espen clutched the small disk in his hand and clicked the power button on the phone, to extinguish any light he might be giving off. He basically held his breath and kept perfectly still until the sounds faded off into the distance.

When questioned again about the metal things, he shook his head. "All I've got is hearsay. That phrase though, "delete". I've heard it come up before as I've been crawling. It was...the Cybermen. Or something like that. The association came up more than once, I think. That's why I remember it. Don't know what they do, why they do it, or how they do it. I just know the stories weren't good." He pocketed his phone and the coin-like thing again and crossed his arms, leaning against the wall.

"I'm Charles. Good to meet you, though the circumstances..." He let that one hang. "Charles. I'm Charles." He continued. Then he began to ponder this key thing. Again, he pulled out the phone, taking a moment to thank the heavens for modern technology, and walked over to her. "This key, though, maybe if we take a closer look at it we can get some idea about it. Here, let me-" He stopped himself. She probably wouldn't let him see it. She probably SHOULDN'T let him see it. He brought the phone to life and turned on the assistive light, then turned on the camera application. "Here, you take a close look at it." He offered her the phone, zoom clearly marked on the side. With the right angle, this could work as an jerry rigged lighted magnifying glass. "Anything would be helpful, if it can help us figure out what's going on around here."

Chris was on his way to another hospital. Lucky I was fairly nearby Washington DC so he could drive there. He was entering the hospital on his iPhone's GPS. He typed "Quantico Medical Hospital" and pressed go. 40 minutes later he was almost there. All he had to do was drive down this path of trees for a bit. Chris could feel his eyes drooping. He hadn't slept well last night. He was thinking about his brother last night. His eyes snapped open. Whenever he thinks of his brother he goes into his nervous mode. Chris's car stopped. He cursed and a got out of his car. When he got out he noticed the sky was purplish. "Looks like we're not in Kansas anymore." He said sarcastically. Chris pulled his backpack and taser cane out of his car. He hoped he wouldn't need it but it was only for emergencies. Chris grabbed his pain meds out of his jacket pocket. He popped a few in his mouth to try and calm his nerves. Chris started on down the road. It wasn't long before he saw something on the road. Chris limped closer. He soon saw a motorcycle but that wasn't all he saw. There was also a metal man who seemed to be guarding the motorcycle. Chris hid behind one of the trees and hoped the thing didn't notice him.

Espen took a glance at the wound and grimaced.  He swung his backpack around and fished through it for a moment, retrieving a rudimentary first aid kit.  He wasn't good at treating wounds, so instead he opened it up and offered her several gauze pads and a roll of medical tape.  Allowing her to work in peace, but willing to help if he needed to, he stood up straight and began to pace the small cave.

"Ok, let's...gather what we know and see if we can pull some deductive reasoning out of our backsides."  He said.  "One, they grabbed you to get some kind of key.  For what we don't know, but it can't be good.  And if it really is these 'Cybermen', then it REALLY can't be good.  But!  When they did grab you, you didn't actually have the key on you.  Now, if I were going to guess, I'd say you were driving through Virginia, USA when you found yourself here?  Probably a wooded area?  I was in the same area when I found myself here, though I was underground.  And if they grabbed you around the same place they grabbed me, it probably means that they took you at an opportunity.  You were driving through their range and they nicked you, hoping you had the key on you.  That means that they weren't able to monitor you completely, else they'd have known you didn't have it.  It also means that their range is limited.  If they could have taken you from anywhere on the planet, they probably would have been able to tell when you did or didn't have the key, and they would have taken you when you had it..."

He was still pacing.  He was also hoping he was right.  If they were limited, it meant that there might be some gaps that they could exploit.  All they'd need to do is figure out where and how to strike back, and they might be able to pull out of this in one piece.  His pacing brought him to the opening of the cave, and he peeked out, looking around to make sure they were alone.  "This all sound good to you so far?"

Espen followed cautiously after his current cohort in contextually covert conspiration, calmly quieting his complaining cochleae as his consciousness came to cloister, collectively concerning the computer conjurer.

...Er, he followed Emma, tried to stop his ears from ringing, and he was worried about how much his head was swimming.

He hid himself behind the next tree over from Emma, peeking around the edge at the motorcycle and the cyberman guarding it. He swore under his breath and retrieved the chip from his pocket. He had no idea if the high sonic frequencies the thing could emit would do anything to the metalmen, but he certainly hoped it could do more than his own pathetically nerdy fists could do. Besides, if he set it high enough, and loud enough, then maybe...

And then some guy was there. And the the cyberman approached the guy. And then the guy pushed it over with a cane. Espen blinked and stood up more fully. Two thoughts rushed through his head. One, that clearly wasn't a cyberman. That was good. That meant they didn't have to fight it, and they could get to the bike. While it wouldn't be especially useful in their given situation, whatever was in those side bags surely would be. Two, it wasn't there just for kicks and giggles. There was a good chance that it had been placed there as a sentry, and that it had some way of alerting the others if anything approached it. That was not quite as good. In fact, that was pretty much downright bad. It put them on a time limit they couldn't exactly afford to mess around with, especially since they didn't know how long it would be until backup arrived, if it would arrive at all. Either way, Espen didn't feel like hanging around long enough to find out.

"I don't know what's going on, but I'm not ready to risk my life on the fact that there aren't more coming. If you can get to the bike and get whatever it is you need, I'll try and set up a bit of a trap. And I should probably check on the old guy to see just what the HELL he thinks he's doing." Espen hadn't really paid the old man much mind. He'd had other stuff to worry about. In fact, he still did. But currently the 'other stuff' was about to bring him in proximity to this crazy, doddering old fool with a cane anyway, so the two streams kind of crossed. He didn't waste any more time on talk, but rather spun around the tree and ran at the downed suit of armor at top speed, skidding a little bit on his knees when he stopped by it.

"And what do you think you're doing?" He asked, not so much as even looking at the older gentleman as he inspected the robotic...whatever this was. He rapped hard on several spots on the armor, listening for the most resonant sounds. Any info was better than no info. Finding a somewhat hollow spot in the chest cavity, Espen started searching around for any small openings. He pulled out one of the little disk things and looked at it closely, checking the number and frowning at the prospect of what he was about to do. It was for the greater good, he told himself. Finding a sufficiently sized slot, he pushed the penny-sized chip into the cyberman shell and heard the satisfying "clunk" of the chip falling into the chassis. Sighing and mourning the loss of one of his own inventions, he stood up. "We gotta get away from here. Odds are there are more coming, and if you try to poke the real ones with a cane they'll probably rip your arm off." Without so much as waiting for a response, or in fact giving much indication that he cared to hear one, he turned and moved quickly, though not quite as quickly as he'd approached, back towards the tree line.

The Flesh Doctor sat in a cafe in London where he sipped on a long cold cup of tea half listening to the BBC News that was on television. "And now some odd news coming from the American Capital," the newsman said as the Flesh Doctor listened more closely at the saying of Odd News. "Reports of Power Fluctuations have flooded into the local power company, Congress took the rest of the day off citing the blinking lights hampering the debates on the floor."

The Flesh Doctor sat up and thought Hm...I think that bares some investigating before he pays for the tea and leaves for the airport. He arrived at the airport. "Ugh...I would give anything for a TARDIS right now.." he muttered under his breath before boarding the cramped plane heading for Washington D.C. As he exited the plane it was early evening, The Flesh Doctor walked toward the heart of the City as he scanned street lights with his Sonic Screwdriver. The Next time he looked up he noticed that he was no longer walking down a street and the sky was changed, he scanned his surrounding before noticing three other people standing together. He walked over to them and put his Sonic Screwdriver back in his suit coat "Well hello there, it seems I took a wrong turn, anybody know where we are?" he says before looking down to see a Cyberman laying on the ground Cybermen.. he thought looking back up at the others.

Espen flexed the muscles on his right hand a few times as he walked away, partly to relieve the stress of the situation going on around him.  His eyes flicked across the area, and just as they fell on something that gave him an idea, someone else spoke.  Someone new.  He nearly jumped out of his skin as he spun around, swallowing his heart (Which had leapt with Olympian speed into his throat) and attempting to relax his now over-tense leg muscles.  When he saw the human-esque figure, he let out a small sigh of relief.  Then, he turned around and headed straight for the thing which had prompted his almost-action a moment ago.  A fairly sizable rock jutted out of the path.  He picked it up and weighed it in his hand, looking around.  "Not really a good time to explain.  Let's just say we're not in Kansas anymore.  Or Virginia, for that matter.  Short version:  Things that look like that, bad."  He motioned to the metal shell on the ground.  "Things that look like us, good.  Probably.  Probably good.  Only thing we've got to grasp on to at the moment."

"What's more, bad things are probably coming this way, and we've not really got their travel schedule down so we're getting out of here as quick as we can.  In short, Stuff's gone crazy and you're officially in the center of it now.  There'll be more time for pleasantries and introductions later.  For now, you guys pick a direction and run, and I'll follow after you once you've got a bit of a head start."  While he wasn't in the best of shape, he wasn't too worried about not being able to catch up to two people with injured legs moving through uneven ground.  "Just try to keep going in a straight line until I catch up.  I won't be long."  He hoisted the rock once or twice and headed back to the shell, hopefully making the intention clear that he was going to bash the robot, make a dent and hopefully some noise, and then follow after them.  If he was going to sacrifice one of his little circles of pride, he was damn well going to do everything in his power to make sure it at least gave one of these 'cybermen' things a headache to remember.

The Flesh Doctor walked over to the man who banging on the cyberman before he kneeled down next to him. Looking at now very dented cyberman he wondered what the man had planned.

"Hey...what are you planning on doing with that thing?" he said staring at the man. He weighed the options of telling the man that he knew what these things were and having the man trust him or waiting and having the others distrust him for the rest of the time they were together. He finally decided on letting some of slip now and the rest when they were all together.

"Hey come on..they are damaged if we leave now we can get away," he told the man as he slightly tugged on his clothing as he started moving to follow the other two.

Espen tossed the rock aside and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. Looking down at his handiwork, he smiled a little. There was no way it would be overlooked. He stood and rolled his shoulder a few times before responding to and following the odd man in the odd getup. "We know there are more of them," He stated matter of factly. "And I'm counting on them being damaged. I want to get at least one of them to take a close look at our friend over there, and doing some body damage should get them a bit more curious." He hesitated and looked around for a moment. He didn't quite want to tip his hand, but he also kind of wanted someone else to know what he was doing. Having a second person in the know would make it easier later on.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out another one of the little, circular chips. Jogging to catch up with this new stranger, he held it up in front of him in the palm of his hand. "It's a little wireless speaker. I can control it from my phone. It might not look like it, but it gets really loud and really high pitched. Loud and high pitched to hopefully do some damage to these things. I think they're called Cybermen. That one back there is a shell, though. Hollow inside except, I guess, for some voice and movement stuff. I left one of these in 'im." He held the thing out for as long as the man wanted him to, then stuffed it back in his pocket, trading for his phone and bringing up the app again.

"So I never got your name. Mine's Charles. How'd you end up in this little mess?" he questioned as he started adjusting settings. First he set it to a fairly loud middle C, set a duration of 5 seconds, and hit 'Go'. From behind them, the note sounded clear for exactly that 5 seconds before stopping. "That ought to get their attention, if all the banging didn't..." he commented, now holding the pitch and wavelength buttons for the screecher he'd left behind for a particularly long time. He set the timer on it for 5 minutes and just kind of hoped, that would be enough time to let them get close. He was pretty sure they'd know he'd been there from the ungodly noise he'd made, and they should at the very least be on their way.

The Flesh Doctor listened to the man who explained the overall situation which The Flesh Doctor had already surmised. The man also explained that his plan was to basically make a very loud screeching noise in hopes of damaging the Cybermen. The Flesh Doctor wondered slightly if that noise would disrupt his flesh and make him melt, he decided it was worth the risk. The man had guessed the name of the Cyberman, which was almost obvious.

The man pulled out a little device and showed it to the Flesh Doctor, in turn he pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver scanning it, which showed him that there was no risk to have his Flesh Melt into a puddle which was a plus. The man put the small device away and played with his cell phone slightly before he asked what the Flesh Doctor's name was and how he got into this mess.

"You can just call me The Doctor, and I was just walking down the street and then all of sudden I was here, and you are correct they are Cybermen, and your sound device might damage their electronic parts but not the organic parts," he said as he explained slightly about the cybermen "And before you ask...I have dealt with them before."