The Doctor Meets the Little People

The Doctor smiled at the two children's excitement at wanting to explore, he only hoped that they didn't run into trouble. He saw Eric moved to the nearest door and tried the door handle finding it locked. Eirc asked if he was THE Doctor if all the Doctor's in the World came to him to ask him questions about things. Which given how he had explained what he was actually a fairly good question to ask him.

"Um..No, they don't come to me to ask questions, that is just my name The Doctor," he said smirking slightly at Eric. The truth was that scientists did ask him questions when he was on Earth, the real Doctor that is. He turned slightly to look at Ellie as he heard her start speaking. She told him that he as not like most grown ups. The Doctor smiled widely at her showing his happiness with that statement.

He watched her walk over next to Eric and then ask him how they could explore and if he had a key. He smiled widely before reaching in his jacket to pull out his Sonic Screwdriver. Then the Doctor walked over to the door before speaking.

"No, I have something better...a sonic screwdriver!" he said with a large grin on his face. The Doctor pointed the sonic at lock and turned the doorknob opening the door. He looked up expecting another empty room but instead he found the rest of the Cyberman sans he left lower arm trying to repair himself. He froze for a second before grabbing onto the children's shoulders.

"Oh..hello...we are just leaving...RUN!" he said before turning to run away from the Cyberman.

Eric was just about to ask the Doctor what a "sonic screwdriver" was, before the Doctor immediately said to run. Eric looked confusedly as the Doctor took off, along with Ellie. Then he turned his attention towards the figure in the room. Why were they running from a robot? The robot wasn't running at them, or staring menacingly at them, or pointing a gun at them. It was standing there quite harmlessly, fixing itself. It seemed quite benign to Eric, and even quite smart and able to take care of itself. Curiously, Eric stepped inside the room, staring intently as it welded spare parts into its torso.

"Hello, are you a robot?" he asked the cyberman curiously. Then his eyes fell to the empty arm socket. So that's what that arm was for. Flashing a smile, he looked back at the rather blank looking face. "I know where your arm is! It's out in the hall. How did you get damaged?"

(OOC: reply is short, cause you said you were shooting it anyway.)

The Doctor stopped his turn as he saw Eric start to move toward the Cyberman. The young boy asked it if he was a robot..which he clearly was. He had started to move to grab Eric but Ellie beat him to it grabbing onto Eric's shoulder pulling him back. The Doctor heard the damaged Cyberman say upgrade in very broken sentence. He figured that due to that the Cyberman likely did not even have the power to upgrade anyways. Still a even a very badly damaged Cyberman was dangerous, he reached into his jacket to grab his sonic. Ellie was faster on the draw yet again firing the laser drill that she still held in her hand, the Cyberman fell back clanking to the ground. Ellie turned to run but tripped over the arm that Eric had dropped earlier, she cried out in pain as she hit the ground.

The Doctor quickly moved to check on Ellie, he kneeled down and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Ellie! Are you ok? I'm so sorry..." he said feeling a pang of guilt that he was the only that had actually started to run. Ellie looked up and nodded slightly before glancing back toward the room with the Cyberman, looking nervous.

"Is it going to come after us?" She asked worriedly.

That question made him remember that the Cyberman had fallen down. He stood up pushing his way past Eric who still stood there. He reached into his jacket pocket pulling out his Sonic scanning the Cyberman to make sure it was in fact dead. Thankfully the shot had shorted out what was left of the Cybermans power. He quickly scanned the computers in the room with his sonic as well not really finding anything of interest.

"Ok, we are going to go now, I am going to lock down this place...it is not safe," he said looking over at the two children with a serious look.

The designated cyberman stuttered as it looked at Eric, but he pieced together the words it said. Upgrade is compulsory. So the cyberman was damaged and it needed parts to upgrade itself. Well, he knew nothing about a cyberman, but he was sure he could help with that. His body turned, and his eyes roamed over the interior of the room. He saw lots of strange looking tools, circuit boards, wires, pieces of things that looked like it could fit inside the hulking robot. "I'll get you something!" He turned to look up at the cyberman moving towards him, and if the cyberman could display emotions on its blank face, he would've imagined it to be one of desperation and pleading.

Just as he turned to fish in the pile of parts on a nearby table, he was suddenly pulled back by Ellie. He looked blankly at Ellie, and the fearful expression she wore on her face. She was scared of it! Why was she scared? Then she shot the laser weapon she had, and Eric stared in shock as the squiggly line drew itself on the cyberman's chest. It didn't seem like such a harmless looking scratch could kill the robot, but it did. The cyberman fell to the ground with a lifeless clang, and Eric stared after Ellie.

"You killed it!" He stared at it another moment, before he came out into the hallway, the Doctor helping Ellie to her feet. The Doctor was apologizing, before saying the place wasn't safe, and that he intended to lock it down. "This place isn't safe?" He just stared at the Doctor apalled. "We just started exploring! How is it not safe? That cyberman was only trying to fix itself! It just wanted more parts!"

The Doctor took a final look around the room that held the Cyberman. He knew full well that even a dead cyberman could be dangerous sealing the place up was the best plan so nobody could get in here again. He ran his sonic over the room to disable to computers. He heard Eric complaining about wanting to explore more. He heard Ellie say that they were dangerous and then ask if that was right. He gave her an answer he wasn't sure she would understand but it was what would have happened.

"Ok, right, let's go then, I will close the facility down outside it will be easier," he said he moved past the the two children heading for the exit.

Kill? Eric stared confusedly at Ellie as she explained, and as the Doctor confirmed. It wasn't asking for new parts, it was wanting to upgrade...them? Wanting to make them look like it? He stared down at the arm on the floor, that was once part of the now dead cyberman. Wires and pieces stuck out of it, and didn't look at all like it had room for his arm to fit inside. Did that mean they'd remove his insides and put machinery in him? Would that mean he'd have a plain boring metal head? Wait, would they cut off his face, and eyes, and ears? He stared back at the cyberman lying dead on the floor, and its lack of any eyes or mouth, and gulped. Robots were cool and all, but he didn't want to look like that at all. Stepping backwards and away from the room, he slowly moved after the Doctor and Ellie as she tugged him along.

He followed after the Doctor quietly, his enthusiasm for exploring momentarily dashed as he thought of the stuttering cyberman. When they had neared the stairs, he finally asked, "Why did it want to upgrade us? It thinks that being a robot is better? Why does it think that? Weren't they programmed to know that people are better?"

The Doctor stopped on his way out of the door closing it before he ran his sonic over the lock, locking the door. He nodded slightly before he caught up the children. He heard Ellie ask basically the same question that Eric had just asked.

"It is very complicated..and I don't want you getting scared by what they do," he said with a small smile. After the two of them had went through the doorway, he ran the Sonic over the door frame. When he was done, a five inch thick steel door slammed down. He ran the sonic over the frame again to disable any electronics. Ellie asked another question about the Cybermen being alien.

"Uh..yes they are alien.." he said trying not be too specific about what they really were. He started walking up the stairs hoping the two children follow him.

Eric looked at Ellie confused as she corrected him. How were they aliens? They were clearly robots, even if they did want to mash up human parts into that metal shell. Or were they alien because they mashed up alien bits into their metal shell? But they were still robots with artificial intelligence. Well, maybe if aliens made them, then they were alien robots.

He watched as the Doctor said the whole thing was complicated, and watched as the Doctor ran his flashlight like device over the door frame. He almost jumped back as a door slammed down, and he looked up in awe. "How'd you do that? Does your flashlight work on all doors?"

He followed up after the Doctor after the place was "locked down", practically on his heels as he was still bubbling with confusion and questions. More so now that the Doctor confirmed they were alien. "So are they aliens who have to wear metal suits because they'll die without them? Or are they robots that aliens made, and the robots got intelligent and just "upgrade" people to look like them?" He was confused about that whole process, but he supposed that if there were aliens somewhere hidden inside that metal suit, then they could be aliens. "Are there some human cybermen? Were the first cybermen just ordinary robots?"

"Yeah, it was nice meeting you Doctor!" Eric shouted after Ellie, remembering his own manners. He was practically dragged along as Ellie ran, and looked back longingly over his shoulder at the old shack they were leaving behind. He really wished they'd had time to explore more, or rather, he wished it had been safer to explore more. Still if they all had laser guns, they could probably go back in there and kill all the bad robots trying to "upgrade" people. If only he had the Doctor's flashlight that could unlock things...but as he no longer saw the Doctor, he knew it would be impossible to get it. So he shoved it to the back of his mind as he instead turned his attentions on Ellie.

"So, who are the cybermen?" he asked once they had left the old Barder place behind. "Are they aliens or robots?"