The Key to the Gates of the Earth

They'd been walking for a little while now, but fortunately he now had something to think about.  This guy was weird.  He'd pulled out some strange device that looked distinctly alien (you get used to picking out the difference) and pointed it at his screecher.  The he seemed like he'd formed some sort of conclusion from that.  Espen looked at his phone, and then back behind himself.  Any moment now, his little trap would be going off.  The closer the big 00:00 came on his phone, the less sure of this plan he was.  At least he seemed to have bought them all a few moments as their adversaries inspected their sentry.


Four Cybermen marched down the road, coming upon the vehicular crash site and the fallen guard.  They approached with little caution, simply stamping across the ground and coming to a stop between the two points of interest.  Immediately, two of the group split off, each going towards one of the two downed objects.  The first one to speak stood over the bike.  ”An unknown object has been removed from the storage compartment on this transport unit.”

One of the other Cybermen, notably lacking the square bracketing on top of his head that all of the others seemed to have, stepped towards the one examining the bike.  ”Could it have been the activation matrix key?”  He demanded.  The other Cyberman turned again to get another good look at the motorcycle, as if he were hesitating.

”Inconclusive.  Sensors are still not operating at peak efficiency due to-”

”I do not require excuses,” the apparent leader raised his voice and turned towards the Cyberman looking over their downed sentry.  ”What is the status of the decommissioned guard unit?”

”The unit has sustained heavy physical damage,” the observer informed his superior.  After a few moments of staring intently at the chassis, he spoke up again.  ”Cyber-Lieutenant, there appears to be an anomalous signal coming from within the-”

This time, it wasn’t the Lieutenant interrupting, but instead a high pitched squeal that pierced the air, and was so loud that one might almost swear the leaves high above were vibrating with it.  The Cybermen all instantly threw their hands up to their heads and let out a warbled, metallic scream of pain and surprise.  The one who had been closest to the sound stumbled backwards several steps.  However, the Lieutenant was a Cyberman of action.  He stomped forward, his right knee giving off some noticeable sparks.  He raised that same foot above the downed shell and, with a loud and forceful crunch, crushed the chest of the false Cyberman outright.  The noise stopped.

When everyone had calmed down and regained their composure, the Cyber-Lieutenant pointed at his men, each in turn.  ”Find them!  Search the forest.  Do not let them get away, and find the activation matrix key!”  

”Cyber-Lieutenant, you are showing signs of damage from the crash.  I will retrieve a repair kit and-”

”YOU HAVE ORDERS.  YOU WILL NOT DISOBEY.”  The Cyber-Lieutenant didn’t wait for them to reply, instead stomping off down the path, in the opposite direction from whence the group had arrived.  It didn’t take long for the other three currently present Cybermen to spread out and begin their optical sweeps.

A short distance down the path, the Lieutenant came across the last of the Cybermen assigned under him.  The Cyberman stopped in his path as the Lieutenant approached.  ”Cyber-Lieutenant, wide range scanners have detected lifesigns matching The Doctor.  He has been brought h-”

”Good.  I shall be the one to capture The Doctor, and with such a trophy I will welcome the Cyber Legion!”  The Lieutenant exclaimed, continuing down the path without stopping.  ”Search the forest.  Capture any life forms, but bring me The Doctor and the keyholder alive.”  His knee sparked as he passed.

”Cyber-Lieutenant, you appear-””

”MY DAMAGE IS MINIMAL, BEGIN YOUR SEARCH.”


Espen grinned to himself as he heard the sound in the distance.  He winced a little bit at it, but it was far enough away that it wasn’t really more than an annoyance.  A little bit further and it would be reduced to ‘ringing in the ear’ levels of manageability.  His grin lessened when the sound stopped well before it was meant to.  “Darn…”  He said, sighing.  ”Least we know they’re there.”  He stepped up on a root and peered down below, seeing the other two a short distance away near a river. For now, he put aside the odd device that this fellow had just used and hopped down towards them, waving for their visibility.

The Flesh Doctor noticed that noise had stopped which meant the Cybermen were likely on their way to find the group. He kept up with the man who he stayed back to find out more about him. The Flesh Doctor heard the man say at least we know they are there before he waved slightly at the two who had went ahead. He walked closer to the two. The young woman asked what had taken them so long and what was the noise. She also gave her name and asked for the Flesh Doctor's name.

"Charles here was attempting to disable the cybermen with a sonic device, it didn't exactly go as planned," he said pointing to the man who was next to him. He smiled slightly it was a good idea though and he wouldn't make him feel bad about failing.

"I am the Doctor," he started out saying before he continued "We need to keep moving it won't be long until the Cybermen start trying to find me. I assume that's what they are after, and you three were just meant to be "upgraded." He said before starting to move past the group. "You can ask questions as we move."

Espen made his way down the roots, mulling the situation over in his head.  It seemed...complex.  To his slight amusement, he realized that over here in America he was falling into the classic British understatement in his own head.  He was becoming an absolute stereotype.  Mumbling about this in his head, and slightly distracted by it, he nearly slipped down a bit of the root.  He landed, solidly enough, on his feet, but he gave a few stumbles for good measure.  "Well, ow..."  He muttered, brushing off his shirt and walking over to the other two.  He stayed quiet until the supposed Doctor (rather than the actual doctor) mentioned him being these things' target.

"Well, unless you're a key, I think you’re a bit off-base with that little assumption.”  Espen begrudgingly walked over to help the doctor to his feet.  The one with the bad leg.  Who had called him a ‘Prettyboy’.  He wasn’t quite sure why he was helping this guy up.  ”They mentioned something about a key, and that this woman here had it, and that they were after her.”  He looked to Emma to explain in a bit more detail.  This whole situation was absurd, and if he were honest, Espen would like to be done with it as soon as possible.