Code Blue (Open)

Alice woke with a jolt, and found that things were even worse now than they had been before she'd been forcefully sedated. Much, much worse.

"Pisca, what did you do?"

What I had to. They called me a danger to you. Tried to remove me. Kill me. You know as well as I do that you'd never have survived the psychic shock, even while anesthetized. They haven't listened to a word you or I have said since they found out about us. They would've killed you to have me. They didn't even bother putting you in a surgical gown before trying to cut your spine open, you were nothing but a liability to them!

"You've killed everyone! The surgeons, the anesthetist, even the assistants! How... how long was I out?"

Oddly enough, you being anesthetized meant I could do quite a bit more without harming you. You've been asleep for about five and a half hours, approximately. Only a few hours more than the sedation would've lasted. It's as if you being unconscious frees up extra energy-

"I don't want to hear your theories right now, Pisca. Just... get us out of here."

... head out the theater doors and turn right.

On somewhat unsteady legs, Alice slowly picked her way over the bodies on the floor. Their ears and noses were bleeding, and the eyes were red and bloodshot: all physical signs of a particularly brutal psychic attack. Shattering the psyche itself and forcing a traumatic death where it shouldn't have happened.

If she didn't still have some sedation in her system, no doubt Alice would've been as functional as she was. The host girl pulled open the operating room doors, and wasn't surprised to find the hallway empty. Even if Pisca's killing rage had only caused the deaths of those in the same room as Alice, there probably would've been many a nausea-inducing headache from those nearby.

At least, that's what she thought until she looked behind the desk, a good twenty or so feet from the operating room. Another body, bleeding from the nose and ears, but still breathing. Probably brain-dead. Pisca shouldn't have been able to do this, but there were no other explanations. Dalek and cybermen attacks didn't leave people alive.

"Pisca... how far did you reach? You've never done anything of this scale before."

I don't know. I didn't think I was capable of this... not without killing you in the process.

The unfortunate two were unaware, but they'd shattered the psyches of every person within thirty feet of where Alice had been laying. The rest of the hospital had either been knocked unconscious, or if they were far enough away, given splitting headaches. The police had quarantined the hospital already, setting up a perimeter for the outside of the raging Pisca's reach. They didn't dare go in. One officer had braved through the headache until he'd started to bleed from the nose, and that was enough to keep anyone else at bay for now. Of course, they didn't know the neuroparasite had stopped his rampage.

It was breaking news: Another mysterious incident at a London hospital. Unknown, potentially alien origin. Too dangerous to go inside. Unknown number of injured or dead individuals. What monster would do this to the sick and injured.

They'd probably never know what really happened. Even the alien that had caused this wasn't really sure what he'd done.

Alice kept making her way through the nearly-silent hospital, wide-eyed and hugging herself.

Keep going, Alice. We'll find help. Nobody would believe you did this, and everyone who knew why you were here is dead.

"Please, don't remind me."

There were many historical occurrences that grabbed The Doctor's curiosity, this curiosity drove for many of the historical travel destinations for him during his countless journey's. One such incident was the discovery of various bodies; more so that it was extremely covered up, not by the local human authorities but by associations far out as the shadow proclamation. Months of research The Doctor dedicated towards a resolution to this mystery; mainly because no solar systems were in dire need of him at this point in time, as he traveled through the time vortex. A little old fashioned investigation never hurt The Doctor thought to himself as he adjusted his glasses and the signal on his scanner

The picture wavered until focusing in on the Shadow Architect, her eyes widening at the sight of The Doctor, "Well if this isn't a pleasant surprise Doctor, come to join our ranks and assist in law breaking criminals?" she asked hopefully. "Nah! I'm a bit tied up and keeping the universe running rather than enforcing laws, catch anyone going over the speed limit lately?" The Doctor replied, "If you want our assistance with something Doctor, you're not starting off very well" The Architect snapped, "Well..you can start off by telling me why there is the proclamations stamp on some suppressed records. Specifically the case in London, Earth 2018. Ring any bells?". The Shadow Architect lowered her head, turning to the Judoon behind her and waving them off before moving back to The Doctor, "I don't know what you have uncovered Doctor, but there is more going on to that case than you know. It's a matter of universal protection..and further law enforcement". "So important that the Proclamation is willing to sweep under the rug, all these deaths?" The Doctor questioned, "Mark my words, if i find out that you lot are planning something that could result in unnecessary deaths..i will put an end to it".

The Shadow Architect tried to form a rebuttal, but not in enough time before The Doctor had terminated the connection and began setting coordinates for Earth. Glancing over the dates on the records, The Doctor prepared the TARDIS for travel and yanked down the main lever. Within seconds, the TARDIS went from casually roaming the time vortex to materializing into a quaint neighborhood near London. The Doctor locking up everything on the console before setting his eyes on the TARDIS door, "Time to figure out this mystery.." he mumbled.

While the Doctor snarked off and argued with the Shadow Architect, Alice had snuck from the hospital with Pisca's help. Now that she was not only out of the hospital, but the sedatives had completely worked out of her system, reality was starting to set in. Alice couldn't even look back at the hospital as she pattered through the bystanders, keeping her head down. The police weren't looking for an unusually silent teenager. They were looking for something intimidating, something alien, something that looked out of place and powerful enough to take down a hospital full of people. No, they weren't looking for her.

Alice didn't care where she went. She just kept walking.

Alice, where are you going? Home's that way.

Pisca's directions were ignored in favor of a sidewalk leading to a quiet neighborhood. Alice needed to break down for a few minutes, and this place seemed devoid of people. Probably too distracted by the chaos at the hospital. She didn't want to cause a scene in a crowded area. The blue box a block or two down didn't even get Pisca's attention, much less Alice's.

Upon finding a bench, Alice let herself sink down onto it, elbows resting on her knees and face buried in her hands. Then she let herself start to cry. Soft at first, but quickly dissolving into open sobbing. What had she... he... they? done? It was getting harder to tell where one of their thoughts became the other's actions. Had Pisca acted on a subconscious desire from Alice to kill an imminent danger, or had that subconscious desire acted as fuel for an already-existing killing rage, allowing it to expand to affect the entire hospital instead of just the operating room? Did Pisca act completely on his own once Alice was unconscious in some attempt to absolve her of guilt? The whys and hows didn't really matter. All that mattered was that she had, in some way, caused the deaths, brain-deaths, and psychic traumas of hundreds of people.

That was a good enough reason to cry.

The Doctor squinted, his eyes adjusting to the sunlight as it loomed over him upon exiting his TARDIS. Various noises, from peoples voices to sirens could be heard echoing in the distance; cars rushed by on the streets adjacent to The Doctor. His eyes danced around the homes around him, his mind deeply pondering the events that had transpired and the possible connection with the Shadow Proclamation. Once making sure his TARDIS was locked up, The Doctor began to move; first he placed himself within the chaos, searching and moving towards the noise. Glancing around, The Doctor caught sight of a young girl, her head embraced by her hands sitting on a bench nearby.

The girl, on the bench, was to his left; but the roaring sirens and bursting noise of people was looming in front of him. It was almost natural to him, as his body turned to the left but his mind yearned to satisfy his curiosity. "Curious.." The Doctor said breathlessly as he sat down next to the girl on the bench, "People i mean. So much noise now..Twitter, Facebook, phones and cameras..everyone is in the know as they say. So busy and noisy in fact, nobody cares to notice you here..well..that or your just really good at blending in. I like to think i blend in, sorry i'm The Doctor what's your name?".

While he spoke, The Doctor kept an eye on the activity around the surrounding buildings, taking in the atmosphere around him. Deduction would say that whatever happened, occurred at the hospital, seeing the various flashing lights of ambulances and emergency personnel bolting in and out of the emergency center doors. Various groups of people outside of the building watched, some in awe, some in horror and tears. Suddenly a tingling sensation rushed up the back of The Doctors neck, a pulsating feeling of a connection Faint...near, but faint..

The tingling grew much, much stronger as the Doctor kept talking to the girl, even while she wiped her eyes and visibly struggled to compose herself enough to speak. It wasn't hard to guess why she could be crying. She could easily have a relative or friend who was in the hospital right now. It could even a parent in there, and without knowing whether they were alive or dead would certainly be stressful to someone as young as her.

"I didn't... I didn't really want to be fussed over by a bunch of strangers. Things are ugly enough in the hospital as it is... I'm Alice."

The tingling suddenly became akin to a faint, sharp growling. Not in his ear, but in his head. Whatever it was, it was close. Very, very close. The puzzle pieces started to come together rather quickly after that. As soon as the growling started for the Doctor, the color drained from Alice's face, like she could hear it too. However, she shouldn't be able to hear it. It wasn't a tangible growl, and humans weren't psychic. In addition, how did she know how bad it was inside the hospital? No cameras had made it inside yet to see the true damage, and they wouldn't until it was well after dark. That, and the police wouldn't have let her leave if she was supposed to be in there at all. She would've been taken to the station and interviewed, but here she was, sitting on a bench just a few blocks away from the action and crying... but she hadn't looked frightened until the growling started. Alice had looked guilty. Crushingly guilty.

No wonder the Shadow Proclamation had covered this up. It was already getting complex... and morally ambiguous.

"Right..right" The Doctor replied, his mind locking onto what Alice had said about the inside of the hospital, If she was inside, why would the local police let her be so far away. Witnesses would be valuable in human investigations. Still..i should get inside, all potential evidence could be gone by now. "Anyways..sorry to disturb you" He continued, getting up from the bench, "Best get going..might want to see if they need any help. Try and get home, maybe some rest would be good. Doctor's orders" he joked slightly. The sudden telepathic growl roared across The Doctor's psyche, causing him to physically rub the back of his neck, "That's weird" he mumbled.

Not wanting to alarm the girl on the bench, The Doctor nodded to her and began heading towards the hospital; looking both ways before crossing the street. Upon approaching the hospital emergency doors, he was immediately stopped by a guard. His orange vest and hat making him stand out among the crowd, "Sorry sir, no unauthorized persons beyond this point" he proclaimed. In one swift motion, The Doctor whipped out his psychic paper and placed it in front of the guards eyes, "John Smith, London police special unit division. Sent to obtain further evidence" The Doctor proclaimed, returning the psychic paper back into his coat pocket.

The guard stood shocked for a moment, "Sorry about that" he finally said, turning and allowing The Doctor to pass through, "Crime Lab is on the third floor..be careful, it's bad in there" the guard whispered. Nodding, The Doctor proceeded inside of the hospital; nurses and Doctors sat on seats lining the walls, answering various questions from the local authorities. Walking up to the nearest elevator, The Doctor pressed for the button and awaited for the lift to come down. It's interesting...all the police here are either guarding, collecting evidence or asking questions. Why wouldn't they keep that girl here until they found her parents he thought to himself, And that growl....

DING The lift doors creaked open, allowing The Doctor to pass through and select his desired floor. As the lift rose up to the third floor, The Doctor could feel the increasing pressure of psychic energy, faintly similar to what he felt sitting next to Alice. The feeling was almost overwhelming as the doors opened, giving light to caution tape roping off where unauthorized personnel could go, noise emitting from down the hallway called The Doctor out of the lift. Slowly, The Doctor walked down the hallway, his eyes dancing over each room he passed. "How can we get any evidence with all of this mess?!" A voice proclaimed from behind a nearby double door, on the right hand side of the hallway, "Keep it together..we've got to try. I've never seen anything so bad.." another voice answered. Pushing the doors open, The Doctors eyes met the gaze of the two investigators inside of the room; his immediate instinct was to cover his mouth from the stench.

Squinting his eyes he looked out, bodies of staff lay scattered throughout the room as well as bodies of patients on tables. The patients eyes were wide open, as if from shock, blood dried around their ears and noses. The staffs deaths seemed much more grusome, signs of struggle from bruises and dragging blood smears painted the floors. "What are you doing here?!" One of the investigators hissed, "John Smith..London police, special unit division" The Doctor replied, once more holding up the psychic paper, "Well then..good luck finding any shred of evidence Mr. Smith. Lord knows we haven't..it's just everywhere..things we've never seen before. Wait until you see the patients on the tables".

The bleeding from the ears and nose, accompanied by the bloodshot eyes were classic signs of a psychic attack. The bruises from the staff seemed to be self-inflicted, desperately trying to claw at whatever was inside their heads and slamming themselves against any surface they could in an attempt to fight off an invisible, intangible enemy.

However, the enemy was gone. The heavy psychic energy, hanging in the air like particularly oppressive humidity, was residual. It was reflecting off the brain-dead, their shattered psyches holding the lingering energy in place like stakes holding a tarp in place. It wasn't going to hurt anyone, much less something as psy-null as a human, but the utter rage, accompanied with an undertone of fear showed that this wasn't a calculated attack. This was a cornered thing lashing out for its life. The energy wasn't just familiar to the energy surrounding Alice, it was exactly the same. It even had the faint essence of that exact growling.

Now it made sense why this was all covered up. All these haunting deaths were inexplicable by human standards, but if the Shadow Proclamation had used a psychic to investigate, they would've undoubtedly been able to trace the energy. The energy that would've led straight back to Alice. The child was the center of this horrific incident, and no doubt the Shadow Proclamation would've found and prosecuted her, then hid the records, knowing that the Doctor would have particular feelings about the involvement of a child. But then again, it didn't make sense. Alice was human. Humans were not psychic. There was no way a child of her size and stature could've ravaged a hospital like this physically.

However, there was another, much more sensible explanation for everything going on. It explained the growling, Alice's reaction to it, the fact she'd gone unnoticed by the police, why Alice was so visibly wracked with guilt, and what happened in this hospital. Alice wasn't the perpetrator. She was an unwilling accessory to the crime. Whatever had really done this was some sort of powerfully psychic being attached to Alice, and the Doctor had just sent her away with it. Alone.

Fortunately for the Doctor, Alice hadn't moved from the bench since he'd went into the hospital. She'd sat back again, hands folded in her lap and staring off into the distance. She was done crying, but not done processing, or grieving, or even close to recovering.

The Doctor peered around the room, his eyes studying everything within his sight before the smell overwhelmed The Doctor to the point where he was forced to leave the room. He turned the corner with a cough, trying to get the smell out of noise and taste out of his mouth. "Never been the one for gore" The Doctor mumbled to himself, The crime scene looks like a normal crime scene..nothing huge popping out saying alien..no..no this is local. The psychic residue strong but...not the same. The Doctor's eyes widened, his mind connecting with the psychic sensation he felt next to the girl and the feeling on the third floor.

Bolting down the hallway, The Doctor skidded into the lift and pressed hard onto the first floor button, "Come on, come on" The Doctor gritted his teeth. The lift doors opened, and a few steps later, The Doctor found himself at the entrance of the hospital emergency once more. His eyes scanned the horizon for the girl he had just met on the bench, "Somethings not right" he mumbled to himself before finding her on the same bench. Whatever it is..it was strong enough to attract the Shadow Proclamations attention. I need to find whatever did this and quick The Doctor prepped himself as he made his way back over to the girl, her arms still folded over her face, the same as before.

"Hello..Alice, was it?" The Doctor squatted down in front of her, closing his eyes for a second as he broadened his psychic search, focusing his mind on searching for signals nearby or potential openings for links. The tingling sensation returned to The Doctor, the sensation that made The Doctor's instincts to run almost immediately kick in. I know you're scared... The Doctor started, trying to form a link and pin point where the perpetrator might be, My name is The Doctor..let me help. "Sorry for taking off earlier, seems like they've got everything under control" He began to speak out loud to Alice, "You seem upset, is everything alright?".

Alice looked up again when the Doctor reappeared, looking distinctly flustered and worried. Instead of sitting next to her, this time he crouched in front of her, looking rather intent on... something. She wasn't sure, but she was sure that he wasn't with the Police, or any sort of british government.

Then she felt Pisca start to growl again, as well as a press against their psyche. The Doctor was trying to make contact, and Pisca wasn't having it. He knew what would happen if people found out Alice was the epicenter of this. He knew there were things on this Earth and off it that would kill them for what they did, what they could do.

"Pisca, no!"

She almost screamed it aloud, not even responding to the Doctor's question. The growling abruptly stopped, and then the presence retreated altogether, right back into the little girl's head. So it was her... not her directly, but the thing in her head. 'Pisca', apparently.

He's not human, Alice.

"I don't care! Just stop! Stop it! It's your fault, anyways!"

The energy was starting to fluctuate, no doubt because of Alice. She was pushing back, forcing Pisca's rage back, protecting the Doctor from him. She shouldn't have been able to do that. This wasn't just a psychic creature, it was a full blown psychic bond between the two. The Doctor couldn't separate them, not without risking Alice dying the same way everyone in the hospital had.

He's saying he can help us. Callin' himself the Doctor, like he's any better than the doctors who tried to cut me out.

Pisca refused to talk to the Doctor, though he didn't seem to care what Alice said.

"You know, don't you?"

At first The Doctor was worried as he witnessed the sudden burst from the girl on the bench; then his worry fell as the girl asked him a question. At the moment she asked, his mind was racing with thoughts on what it might be; she was definitely replying to someone or something, that The Doctor could tell for sure. "Well...sort of had an incline. Psychic connections can be a bit tricky sometimes..especially in cases like this" The Doctor replied to the girl, "But he's right, or she's right..not sure which at the moment. I'm not human, that's why i can actually help you.".

Standing up, The Doctor moved over to the open spot next to her, "Tell you what i'd do, Miss Alice..i'll answer any question you have. I've got a bit of experience with psychic connections, distributions and that sort of stuff. Even ran into a whole colony of a species called Neuroparasites..fascinating creatures Neuroparasites.". The Doctor looked over at Alice, "You're strong" he mumbled, his eyes growing heavy with sympathy for the young girl, "I can feel the huge shift of psychic energy around you and..gotta say, feels pretty heavy. I can't help you if you don't give me something to work off of Alice, let me help".

"He is a neuroparasite. His name's Pisca. He... doesn't really like other people. Human or not."

This one was much different than the neuroparasites the Doctor had probably met. Much less cool-headed. So much more stressed and angry. Then again, he was on earth. Humans had a habit of mercilessly destroying everything alien first, and asking questions later, and his host was tiny. No wonder he was so bad-tempered.

"We weren't in that hospital because I was sick. They were trying to remove Pisca. I don't really know what happened. I woke up and everyone was dead."

I'm not even really sure what I did. Never thought I had that much power before.

So it wasn't just a raging neuroparasite. It was a full-on psychic blast in a desperate attempt to save his own life and his host's. Hopefully he'd never be pushed to do anything like that again.

The Doctor nodded his head, "Self defense" he mumbled with a sniff, "Instant reaction to an immediate threat. He probably felt so much in danger that his reflexes would have told him to things, just like Humans, fight or flight? Obviously he cares about you not to leave, so he exacerbated his energy output". He paused, thinking for a moment, "Exacerbated..funny word Exacerbated, not sure if i like that word or not. Too posh?" he questioned himself before turning back to the girl, "Anyways, sorry! Nothing you did, or he did for that matter, is by definition bad. Only thing is, now you've got some people looking for you..and still an unanswered question of why and who wanted Mr. Pisca off of you".

With another sniff, The Doctor glanced around once more at his surroundings, So Pisca is your name hmmm? he tried to reach out to Pisca, Pleasure to meet you, i'm The Doctor. No need to worry, i'm not going to hurt you but i know some that might...murder isn't a pretty thing to look at on reports, even with the facts. The only facts that are being looked at right now is a massive psychic energy output on Earth and a, not so small, body count. Let me help you and her. Looking over to Alice, The Doctor offered out his hand, "What do you say, Alice and Pisca? Want my help? Or maybe roll the dice and see what happens? Back on my home planet psychic links were made mainly through touch, so in one touch you could learn a lot about one another".

"I don't even really know who they were. Probably some underground government anti-alien What species is he? - Dead Time Agent.-and-bull. Why they wanted him off me? Who knows. Any reason you can think of is good enough."

She shifted in her seat, pulling her jacket a little tighter around her shoulders. She didn't really hear much of the Doctor talking to Pisca, but she had an idea that he was by Pisca's slight bristling.

We know about the body count. We know very well what I did.

"He is touching me... and we aren't exactly strangers, either. He's been with me since the Atmos incident. That's how he got here. He hitched a ride on the outer hull of the Sontaran's ship."

She seemed confused at how the Doctor just assumed they needed to learn a lot about each other. Sure, the relationship between girl and parasite was a bit shaky right now, but that didn't erase almost nine years of history between them, and the fact Alice had not only named Pisca, but that he'd wholeheartedly adopted said name to the point where he introduced himself as such.

"Oohh..yes, that's right. The ATMOS..i'm guessing he gave you that information about the Sontarans. Fed you information directly through the psychic link" The Doctor deduced, "Since Mr. Pisca doesn't seem to talkative at the moment i am going to tell you what i told him. You're in danger, more danger than you think, if you thought that whatever happened in there was bad..think again. It appears that he has formed a tighter bond with you, so i do not think he would harm you..but it all depends" he spoke to Alice. In the back of his mind he thought about what could happen to Alice if a separation occurred this late, as well as Pisca's motive.

"Alice..ask Pisca what a Time Lord is. See if he knows" The Doctor tried to steer the conversation in a new light, "Because as far as information goes, it's said that they hold a lot..more than any human possibly could. A Time Lord would be able to predict what would be happening now after all this occurred; take the right course of action based on the information at hand. A Time Lord would have a TARDIS..a living machine that holds so much information that it would literally kill a person if they took it all in".

"Well, he isn't exactly happy right now..."

I may not know much about Time Lords, but every alien on the planet knows about you, Doctor. Running about, playing god by helping wherever you feel like it. Aliens are scared to even peacefully show their faces around this planet because of you.

"Why do you keep thinking Pisca's going to hurt me? We've been together for almost nine years. If he wanted to hurt me, he would've done it long ago, and he wouldn't be using the name I gave him. I'm not in danger from him, and I'm not in danger from you, so who am I in danger from, really?"

Alice folded her arms over her chest, now a little upset with the Doctor.

There are plenty of peaceful aliens on this planet and you know it; if i were such an anti-alien human protector as you claim, then why are you still here? Wouldn't i have just popped in and snatched you out as soon as i could? There are literally hundreds of alien species living on this planet with little to no human interference. The only reason i am here right now is to help, not kick you off of this planet The Doctor responded to Pisca, trying to reassure the creature of his intentions once more before turning his attention to the girl.

"Well try the Shadow Proclamation for starters. Pisca should know plenty about them, big old burst of psychic energy emitting from Earth, that won't alert them. Or maybe..literally any species that has the capability to track and monitor psychic readings, including but not limited to UNIT." The Doctor answered Alice, his eyebrows narrowing down as his tone and demeanor became more serious, "So, you've got two options. You can listen to Pisca, who by the way should have told you that you might want to get as far away from the crime scene as possible, or listen to me. Either way the Shadow Proclamation is going to show up, wipe some memories clean and do either own investigation; and or UNIT".

You wouldn't risk killing a child by removing me. We both know that.

Pisca didn't seem like the rambling type. Who knows what he'd heard about the Doctor from other sources, especially since Alice was rather comfortable with the fact that the Doctor wasn't human. Perhaps she knew more about life outside of Earth than she let on.

Then the Doctor mentioned the Shadow Proclamation. It was an instant reaction from Pisca, who practically dove back into Alice's mind, leaving the Doctor alone for the moment. He must have relayed exactly what the Shadow Proclamation was and what they were capable of, because Alice shifted uncomfortably in place. She'd heard of UNIT once or twice, and she wanted to meet them even less than the Shadow Proclamation.

"... what do we do, then?"

These two weren't criminals by nature. Given Pisca's unusual temperament for his species, he must be quite young for a Neuroparasite, as well as under quite a bit of stress. Of course they hadn't thought to flee, or consider who might be coming after them, they were still reeling from what had just happened. These two weren't like Martha, or Donna, or even Rose Tyler. They were younger, weaker, and they lacked crucial life experience. The Doctor would certainly have his hands full with these two.