Reverberance Of The Daleks [OPEN]

Rhydian Martis was starting to develop a problem. The problem was always at the back of his head, but it never occurred to him that it would play a prominent role in his ‘hobby’ as a time traveller when his mum uttered the simple words, “You look different”.

Rhydian flopped onto the worn brown leather couch, taking his black denim jacket off and dumping it somewhere on the left armrest. He didn’t miss this weather, that’s for sure. In the constant 40 degree (104 degree Fahrenheit heat, Rhydian couldn’t afford for extra layers and his long pants weren’t helping. Resting his head on the back of the couch, feeling the heated moist surface of the leather against his palms, Rhydian sighed.

This problem was much worse than expected.

Due to the nature of time travel, it was relative from either side. Rhydian  could go to any time, any place he liked and spend days, months even at a time and return in a matter of seconds (on a good day). This, combined with his rapid growth at his age of merely fourteen, would make for some… complications.

His mother Ava, a short Chinese woman nearing her forties (but still looking quite under thirty-five, mind you) began to notice things. A lot of things. He had grown slightly taller, his hair a little longer than just what it was a few hours ago. A mother picks the small details like this up after a while. Rhydian was just lucky his brother was too young to notice these details.

Rhydian just shook off the accusation of his growth when his mother asked him about it, but she knew something was up and would be determined to find it. How would Rhydian ever tell her that he was gone for months on wacky adventures through time and space when he was only gone for a span of hours? However, Rhydian already had a solution to his little ‘problem’.

Popping off the steaming leather couch, he took his jacket off the arm rest and paced to the door before telling his mother that he’d be going out, in which he got a reluctant approval. It wasn’t going to be long, about an hour or two. He would pop off to the 51st century, a century he already had a lot of currency in (courtesy of his father) and get a de-ageing solution.

As he zapped himself off in a flurry of sparks and lightning accompanied by an air-splitting crack, Rhydian knew that this solution would only be temporary. Since a de-ageing serum, whatever form it took, pill or liquid would only de-age his appearance, not his actual physical and mental state. If he kept using the solution then eventually he would reach an age like fifty and still be a shade over 15. If he wasn’t poisoned from the sheer constant doses of it. But right now, that was the only thing Rhydian could afford. The only other option he saw was leaving in real time, and that would be for months. That would mean telling his mother. Oh well, a problem for another day. But for now, he would need to scour the 51st century stores and shops for a de-ageing serum and he’d be on his way-

Hang on.

This wasn’t the 51st century.

The sound of crackling fire from all directions was the first thing Rhydian noticed. He then noticed the orange tinge of everything, courtesy of the sky which was shaded dark orange and black by the aforementioned fire. Then the emptiness, the abandoned streets around him- or what was left of them. The streets were covered by rubble from buildings alight and smashed to bits. Some buildings were completely levelled, others had gaping holes and gashes through their shells.

“This can’t be the right place…” Rhydian mumbled, confused.

Checking his Multi-Spanner still in his hand, the date was the one that he was aiming for. But that was not possible, this was certainly not what he was expecting, at the very least. Oh well, he could always try again. The Multi-Spanner just made a mistake; it happens when something is used too much, performance faults. Rhydian input the coordinates for his home, the place he had jumped here from, and pressed the activation button.

He received sparks in response.

Shocked and confused, Rhydian’s instincts made him drop his spanner, it clanking on the floor. He winced, his hand a little singed from the sparks and covered in soot. Wiping the soot off his hand and onto the lower half of his pant leg, he picked up his Multi-spanner carefully and looked at it with knitted eyebrows. That had never happened before. Luckily, the internals didn’t seem to be damaged after a quick diagnostic (he didn’t have time for a thorough one at this point) and read some scans he took of the time-space zone.

Uh oh.

Was that… correct? Was that…

A time lock?

“Oooooh, no, no no!” Rhydian shouted at his Multi-Spanner, shaking it in denial and frustration. This was a time lock. That meant the whole entirety of the current timezone he resided in was permanently locked; nothing could get in, nothing could get out. Well, at least not with time travel. A physical barrier around a certain time can only be passed with the natural passage of time. Unfortunately, there was no way Rhydian could tell how long that would be. He certainly wouldn’t stick around to wait.

This meant he couldn’t go home.

This also meant that someone or something wanted Rhydian here. I’m flattered, Rhydian thought for a split second before concentrating on the matter at hand. Taking a better look at the butchered, mutilated buildings and constructions around him he noticed that there was a small group of glistening objects in the distance. From this length he couldn’t see what they were, but as he listened more closely he could make out a barely-audible but shrill voice coming from that general direction. If he could only make it out more clearly-

“Exterminate…”

What.

“EXTERMINATE.”

Oh.

“EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!!”

Flannagan was looking for the best space bar. Most of the other bars on earth were not exactly top quality and he had all too much publicity, especially when he was packing weaponry in holsters. Of course, there was a problem. His method of traveling was not a comfortable one, seeing as what was teleporting him was a little gem that he had taken off some blackmarket man who really didn't need it anymore - and he needed it far more, running from the government and all.

The place he had ended up was....Flannagan's jaw clenched. This dug up bad memories of the civil war, his previous life coming back in flashes as he took in the scene; parts of buildings gone, some even flattened to the ground and a crunch echoed under his feet. He looked down, horror soon filling his being - he had stepped on a rib cage. This was not exactly the place that he had imagined - whatever happened, must of happened in the recesses of his mind. He slowly walked among the ashes of what seemed to once be a civilisation.

The orange reflected on his face as he stood, turning himself around on his heel a full 360 degrees.

He needed out.

This was not a good place to be.

“EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!!”

Flannagan opened his eyes, at the voices. Metallic, deadly. Whatever they were, he wanted to be nowhere near them. His eyes wide, Flannagan needed to get out of here - his own survival was depending on it.

It was going against his nature to not open fire, but this seemed like the best idea.

He ducked into the nearest shelled out building, pressing himself against the most covered area - hopefully away from the moving trashcans. No, no, no....it was like the civil war all over again.

Rhydian stared for a few seconds at the tin-cans that were slowly advancing on his location. He was frozen in place, but just for a minute before his fight-or-flight instincts kicked in, and lucky for him, he chose 'flight'. If he took some Daleks head on, he'd be vaporised in an instant. Swiftly navigating through the rubble beneath him, Rhydian sped off in the opposite direction of the monstrous-looking garbage bins and ducked behind a piece of concrete which was connected to a larger building.

Rhydian took some time to compose himself. Breathing heavily, he slipped his Multi-Spanner into his pocket to catch the aforementioned breath. Resting his head against the crumbling concrete behind him, Rhydian took a minute to compose himself and sort out the newly-absorbed information.

1.) He was trapped in a time-lock.
2.) His Multi-Spanner couldn't penetrate the lock.
3.) He could be trapped in this time line for who knows how long.
4.) Crap.

Rhydian was so focused on trying to find a way out (in which he could find none), he had noticed the man in a light khaki trench coat next to him way too late than he would have. Slowly turning his head to the man next to him, he realised he had no clue to what was going on, or he was just as trapped as he was. Rhydian was optimistic and went for the second option.

"So..." He started, still panting slightly, "Got a way out?"

He had not noticed in his heightened state of fear (it was probably a good guess that it was indeed fear that Hertz currently felt) that he had not acknowlegded the figure that had been next to him. At least not until they had started to speak that his head turned slowly and eyes focused back in.

"Plan?" Flannagan did not have one, nor was his mind currently focusing on any other solution than to run. But, hope was there. There had been another survivor. They needed to stick together, at least until they found themselves away from this hell. "Any idea on what those talkin' trash cans are?"

Flannagan could hear them growing closer. He took a deep inhale and exhaled through his nose. Gemini XI's war was child's play compared to this, or now that he had put this in perspective. "I suggest we get somewhere safer before these things find us and we join the rest of the civilisation in the dust. Because I'm pretty sure shooting them would not do a world of good."

“I’m guessing you don’t have a plan.” Rhydian mused cynically as he continued to tinker with his Multi-Spanner, trying to get the Vortex Manipulator attribute working again in the fleeting hope of a chance that it could. He got zilch. “Those ‘talking trash cans’ just happen to be THE deadliest creatures that us as a member of the universe have ever had the misfortune to share said universe with. Nigh-indestructible, impossible to reason with, and will go to the most extreme of lengths to eradicate all life that isn’t one of them. They have no emotion apart from hate, as they’re born with nothing but that and have weapons that can destroy entire solar systems at a whim. They’re called Daleks.”

Rhydian’s expression turned from fearful and surprised to concerned and agitated in a second. He was stuck in an impossible predicament. “Unfortunately, the Daleks have been oh, so kind to have taken the liberty of erecting a time-lock around this particular time stream, so I can’t use my vortex manipulator to get us out. And I don’t even know how long the time lock extends to, I could be stuck for hundreds of years here!

“All I wanted to do was pop over to the future to get myself some skin product, that was it! I didn’t ask for this yet I always end up at the bottom of the trash can, so to speak…” Rhydian trailed off, and in a moment of silence (save for the crackling of the fire and the occasional sound of a Dalek gunstick going off), Rhydian sighed and straightened his posture. Not only was he stuck, he had no idea what the Daleks were up to, but he could just about one hundred percent guarantee it was about taking over the universe or something along those lines. “You know, it’s funny… my dad had a friend who supposedly could survive being shot by Daleks hundred and hundreds of times…

“I’m Rhydian by the way. Not exactly the best conditions to meet under.” Rhydian broke a smile, which eventually formed into a determined smirk, “Say… what do you say to a little snooping around?”


“Dalek Patrol Unit Four, report!”

“The Resurrection Gauntlet has been acquired!”

“Deliver it to the Rift Generator!”

“I obey!”

If the Dalek Emperor could smile deviously, or even cackle evilly, he would have. The Rift would soon be opened, the gauntlet would soon be activated and the universe would soon tremble at the prestigious majesty of the purebred, ultimate, unstoppable Dalek Empire.

“Those ‘talking trash cans’ just happen to be THE deadliest creatures that us as a member of the universe have ever had the misfortune to share said universe with.[...]They’re called Daleks.”

Hertz put his hands up in mock surrender at the lecture, not that it was not useful but he had gotten the point quite long before the end. The Daleks - deadly. A no-fly zone. He watched as the younger boy's face changed expressions before explaining that they were in a time lock, Hertz grumbled to himself slightly as he looked around them. "Skin product?"

Catch him off-guard indeed, Hertz gazed at him with more of a bemused expression, tilting his head just slightly. "And, you need time travel for 'hat?" His body had stiffened quite noticeably when he heard the sound of gunfire and screaming.

“You know, it’s funny… my dad had a friend who supposedly could survive being shot by Daleks hundred and hundreds of times…

"Pretty sure, we could use a fella like 'hat, now." He gave back a grim smile,straightening himself up and hearing the man introduce himself. "Could say 'hat was a bit o' an understatement, name's Flannagan but call me Hertz. Now, you're talkin' my language." Oh he could not resist a bit of snooping around, beat staying and increasing his chances of ending up dead.

"Alrighty, Mr. Herts- I assume your last name is Hertz, if not, sorry about that." Rhydian turned his head from Flannagan and crept (or, crawled, considering his position) against the wall his back was pressed against, slowly peeping his head around the corner of the destroyed wall. Before he took a look, he whipped his head around back to face Flannagan with an annoyed expression.

"And, for your information, I was going to get some anti-aging cream because I'm a teen with raging hormones and going through all nine levels of hell, also called growth spurts and growing pains, and since I grow too fast to not be noticed when I travel through time my mum notices, and I come from way back in the 21st century, you can't exactly get medicinally-ingenious rejuvinating cream in my time... so don't go all judgy on me..." Rhydian, as soon as he said this, turned back from Flannagan again and peeked his head around, this time getting a proper understanding of his surroundings.

The tell-tale sounds of Daleks (jet propulsion whirs and the occasional sound of a Dalek gunstick going off, usually accompanied by a horrifying scream) lingered in the hot air, while, in the distance, Rhydian could spot a fleet of Dalek vessels, the saucers balancing themselves on landing struts all interjoined by platforms and runways from each ship. Right next to it, he could see a towering pillar coated in dark gold-orange, a signature Dalek colour, and covered with those 'bumps' those Daleks supposedly needed so much. If those 'bumps' were a design choice, then Daleks had a terrible sense of fashion, Rhydian figured.

"Okay," Rhydian turned back to Flannagan for the third time, "There's a fleet of Dalek ships, say, a hundred meters away from where we are now. I'd say if we were to make a bee-line towards it we'd be vaporised before we could say 'Oh no, Daleks!'. Additionally, if we set off any sort of tech I'm guessing the Daleks will pick 'em up immediately on our scanners and we'd also be vaporised. So right now, we don't have many options..."

Rhydian peeked over the concrete wall to take another look, then slumped back against the wall again, behind cover.

"I think that giant tower next to the Dalek ships may well be a communications system. It also could be the thing that's holding the Time-Lock's walls together around this time period. It could also be a giant death ray thingy that destroys all life around it and leaves the universe vulnerable to an entire cosmos-scaled takeover. All three of those options are equally viable, although that last one does seem a bit more likely, knowing the Daleks. Ugh, man, it's the 51st century, where are the Time Agents?" Rhydian asked himself a rhetorical question, but as he did he realised the flaw in his logic and hid his head in his hands.

"That's why the Daleks erected the Time-Lock: So the Time Agents couldn't escape and slaughter them all at their weakest, and block any other Agents outside the designated lock to come to their aid. Stupid Rhydian!"

Rhydian shook his 'idiocy' off quickly, and suddenly and sporadically dashed off from where he was to the column that connected that building to its walls, backing against it. He beckoned to Flannagan to follow en suite, who was now a few meters away.

"C'mon! We gotta start some time!" Rhydian whispered as to not get noticed, and dashed off again to another column, and another, slowly but surely zigzagging his way through a maze of rubble to their destination, hoping Flannagan was behind him the entire way. After all, he did have a gun.

A silver and blue Dalek emerged from an alleyway and noticed the group,but rather than attacking it schreeched in surprise and retreated back into the alleyway with as much speed as it could muster It sat there,spinning its dome in fear.

"Eh, can't say that time travel doesn't have it's oh-so-lovely effects." Hertz smirked as he listened to the ramble of thought that had come out of the kid's mouth. He did not mind the fact that he had addressed him as 'Mr. Hertz', which by all means was not as bad as some of the others had called him.

"C'mon! We gotta start some time!"

And, as quick as that, the kid was running off, zig-zagging his way to each column as Hertz quickly caught up, doing the exact same movements but a second apart, just in case a Dalek decided to pop it's head--

His eyes caught sight of a Dalek, his pupils visibly widened. The talking trashcan was going to get him, but if being time-locked in a place full of hostile creatures with intent on dominating the universe was strange, a Dalek that had turned away and screeched in fear certainly was eye-catching/

"Rhy!" He half-shouted, half-whispered.

But, he was into going to stick around to see whether the kid was going to follow him or not. Flannagan had given chase to the Dalek that had run away from battle. Flannagan slowed his pace, keeping an eye and an ear out for any other threats as he watched the eyestalk and the head of it spin about in place. He did have his gun out, but what use would it do against a metallic death machine?

At least it made him feel ever so slightly more safe.

"Uh, everythin' alrigh', mate?" Flannagan had to swallow back his fear as he took another step towards it and stopped.

It screeched again and stopped spinning.It tried backing away,but hit the wall.Its "Eye" Widened and shrunk quickly."PLEASE DO NOT HARM ME!PLEASE!PLEAAASE!"it carried on moving backwards trying to escape.

While Rhydian was running on, concentrating not on the Dalek that reared its shiny domed head out of an alleyway (which was frankly torn to bits by the previous massacre), and instead looked directly in front of him, which was towards the Dalek fleet of ships across from his position.

"I don't think those ships will be leaving any time soon. They're obviously guarding that large pillar, it's their only source of protection. I can see those trademark round protrudents on it; it's made of Dalekanium. Great, it's nearly indestructibl-" Rhydian was rambling on and on about his surroundings until he was cut off by Hertz behind him. He turned around to face him, annoyed.

"What is it? Can't you see that I'm trying to concentrate on getting us both out of this mess and you just cut me off-" Rhdyain stopped again, his eyes slowly widening in realisation that Hertz was trying to warn him of something. Something behind him. Swivelling back around as slowly as he could, he came face to face with one of those metal devils.

However, the Dalek did a thing Rhydian would never expect in a million years.

It turned and ran the other way, screaming its dome off.

For a good while, Rhydian was frozen in place. Even when Flannagan overtook him and ran after the Dalek in the corridor, he stood, confused, scared and utterly shocked. Regaining his senses, however, he felt a surge of anger and adrenaline rejuvinate him in his veins and quickly chased his new colleague down to the scared killing machine.

"Alright, what the hell is this?!" Rhydian exclaimed, using his newly found fury to good use on the Dalek he had surprisingly up against the wall, his Multi Spanner pointed at its eyestalk (even though it wouldn't do anything), "Answer me! What is this, some sort of sick ploy by the Daleks to get humans to feel pity for you? You're not supposed to feel anything but hate, because that's your job! That's the role you've been so determined to take in the universe, so start acting like it and shoot us down, because if this is the Daleks' idea of a prank then you're even more ill than I had realised before!"

Flannagan had stood off to the side, unsure of what to make of this. The stories that the boy had told him of the killing machines certainly matched with the anger that was now pouring from Rhy's mouth, but the way this particular Dalek was acting seemed to completely throw the trend. And yet, Flannagan grimaced when the voices were raised, taking a half-glance behind his shoulder worried that this outburst could have attracted a couple of unwanted eyestalks.

"Mate, if we could perhaps keep our voices down, would be great." He said, drawing out his words in hopes that something would seep through the anger.

He knew what it was like to be angry, he knew the hate that would have fueled him if he stayed on board the government ship and became one of their disposable pets. Flannagan tucked his hand into his trenchcoat as the other raked through his blond hair. "From what you told me 'bout 'em, I'd perhaps think there's more to meet the eye and if..." He indicated to step away from the petrified dalek for a moment. "If this is some new thing, maybe...we could use this to our advantage?"

The Dalek watched them in terror."I…DO NOT WISH TO HARM YOU…I AM…DALEKIZED". It paused,seemingy to think."I AM DIFFERENT…I AM A FAILIURE!"

Its voice suddenly grew louder and angrier."I AM USLESS…I AM UNFIT FOR DUTY I AM NOT TO BE DEPLOYED IN MOST SITUATIONS I AM UNABLE TO CARRY OUT A SIMPLE PATROOOL…"Its voice died down again and its eyestalk twitched.

"I think we can handle a little bit of high-pitched screaming in anger and shock when all those tin cans out there are screeching 'Exterminate!' at the top of their mechanical lungs!" Rhydian snapped back at Hertz, a little too on edge, and for a good reason. He whipped back around to face the Dalek, and if looks could kill, the little scared Kaled in his casing would have been neutralised for good thanks to Rhydian.

"Okay, okay: for the sake of this little quarrel, let's say you're not like the others, which to be quite frank I find highly unlikely." Rhydian stated matter-of-factly, however fury was still passionately present in his tone, "Why haven't the Daleks thrown you in their planetary trash can? You know, that planet off the far side of the fourteenth intergalactic centre, the Daleks' dumping ground? If you're so defective then how have the Daleks not even know of your presence? If they did, then they'd be surrounding us right about now-"

The slow mechanical whir of a Dalek's- no, a fleet of Daleks' hover pads came more and more audible as time went on, and Rhydian was too blind with fury and disgust and shock and surprise and fear and pretty much any more bad adjectives you could think of to notice. Slowly turning around to look behind Flannagan, he saw his worst fear manifest itself...

...in the form of very, very FBI navy ducks off Daleks.

Rhydian's eyes widened in fear and hatred, but mostly fear as adrenaline started to kick in. Luckily, Rhydian was carrying his Multi-Spanner just before, using it to threaten the scared Dalek. What a stroke of luck, Rhydian thought, as he mentally thought of the place he wanted to go (the Vortex Manipulator interface was psychic, which saved a lot of time). Having locked in a location onto the controls, Rhydian grabbed Hertz's arm without asking.

"INTRUDERS DETECTED. TIME MANIPULATION TECHNOLOGY DETECTED. DEFECTIVE UNIT DETECTED. EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE!"

After the first 'exterminate', Rhydian didn't need to hear what came next. Instead, he had a decision to make:

Does the Dalek tag along?

His immediate thought was 'It could be as easy as pressing a button, and leaving the Dalek there to die. He would feel no regret, no sorrow, only indifference and a satisfying feeling of ridding the universe of one more evil life form.

However, when he looked at the Dalek, he couldn't help but feel sorry for it. Rhydian could literally feel the fear radiating off that supposedly unfeeling metal piece of junk, jittering around and its eyestalk shaking in fear. He had literally less than a second before the Daleks opened fire to figure out whether he saved this stray or not.

His eventual decision was, 'what the bloody hell?'

Planting his hand firmly on the casing of the Dalek's side (luckily Flannagan and the Dalek were within arm's reach or he would have no chance) and pressed the button on his Vortex Manipulator even firmer.

The three were gone in a blink of an eye, and the Daleks ended up firing at the air the trio were once occupying.

Rhydian found himself lying on cold, hard floor and inside a seemingly pitch-black room. His first thought was 'Where are we?' and his second one was 'I really hope that Dalek didn't turn itself on its side when we hopped away, because the last thing I'm doing is righting a Dalek'. Multi- Spanner in hand, Rhydian turned on the torch function of the Sonic Probe part of his Spanner, illuminating the room. A simple door was in front of him and as he got up to open it, occurred to him that he didn't know if Flannagan or the Dalek made it. He'll check later.

Opening the door, Rhydian found himself face-to-face with a giant, round Dalek saucer.

The dalek slowly slid forward,its eyelid twitching with nevousness and decades woth of fear and paranoia.It reached the door and swiveled its dome towards the other side.
But as soon as ut saw the saucer it cannoned back,screaming at the top of its metal lungs with lights flashing fast enough to cause an epileptic seizure and every possible articulated segment flaing around like fabric in the wind.The pupil expanded and dilated rapidly as the struggling alien tried to calm itself down.