Storm Front

(Closed to Master and Harley)

A storm was raging. It was days like this that made the Master wonder why he was still on this pathetic planet. Earth was hardly his cup of tea. But his mission was here, the Hive had agents everywhere, and the highest percentage seemed to be on Earth. He looked out the window into the dark, broken only by flashes of thunder and lightning.

His phone beeped in his pocket. It wasn't the usual alert noise, it was a personalised one. It meant one thing. The Master grinned, he'd found his TARDIS...

He had a habit of misplacing it and it often took centuries for him to locate it again, it would be good to be able to travel easily and quickly again. The only problem was that to get to it, he'd have to go out in the storm. He shrugged, he'd fought Daleks, he could handle bad weather.

It took the Master time and effort but eventually he stumbled through the gate of the old churchyard. Graves littered the nearby area. "Where are you beautiful?" he muttered quietly, trying to call out his TARDIS with little success. Last he had checked the chameleon circuit had disguised the TARDIS as an old grandfather clock so with any luck it would have retained that shape and he should be able to stop it. His phone beeped in his pocket again, this time a text alert. He read it and cursed. 'Got You' it read. It was the same number that had sent him to the shop with the telepathic creature created to kill him in. It was the number he now knew belonged to the organisation, or at least a member of, the Hive...

Harleen had wandered down to the graves of her family in the old churchyard which was a ten minute walk from her house and she had gone there on foot in this storm that she had to hold her flowers close and keep her umbrella up above her head. It had been ten years since her parents died and eight years since the death of her little sister. She went into the graveyard and went to a diamond shaped gravestone. The design was made by Harleen because of the Harlequin diamond.

She placed the flowers down and prayed with her hand against the diamond-shaped gravestone and she looked up at the sky, the storm seemed to be worsening but she didn't care. There was a small diamond grave stone just next to her parents' grave and that was for her little sister. She placed a bunch of roses on the grave, it was her sister's favourite flower. She prayed with her hand against that gravestone before standing up from her crouching and she sighed.

She looked around, her hair getting in her face every so often and she saw a familiar man. The Master. Even though it was a sad, stormy day... she couldn't help but smile. She slowly walked up to him and tapped him gently on the shoulder. "Hello again." She said with a grin on her face.

The Master jumped spinning around aggressively only to lower his guard again once he saw who it was. He paused for a moment. "Harleen," he greeted her, "What a pleasant surprise," he was trying to sound jolly but his heart wasn't in it. "Perhaps you could help me, I'm looking for a old grandfather clock, it might be out here but it's probably inside the church. Also be careful, it's definitely a trap..." The way he spoke to her, it was like they'd been together yesterday, when in fact it had been months since they'd met. He tucked his phone into his pocket, and without even bothering to ask why she was there, strode towards the looming medieval building that served as a church.

Harleen smiled at him gently, even if he didn't sound that jolly. But then again, this was a churchyard. She looked to him curiously and tilted her head, narrowing her eyes ever so slightly. "A-an old grandfather clock... it is inside the church at the far back... why?" She asked curiously before following him towards the church. "And, what do you mean by a trap? I hope it isn't a guy named Philip again... God he was annoying with his flat voice and... I am rambling." She did a sheepish smile and rubbed the back of her head. When they reached the church she closed up her umbrella before stepping inside.

"It's not Philip," the Master reassured her as they stepped inside, "It's just his bosses." He didn't seem too worried. He glanced around for any thing wrong but as he expected he could see nothing. "Could you take me to the clock?" he asked turning to Harleen with a weak smile, "And be careful..." He was clearly concerned, and after last time, he had good reason to be...

Harleen sighed in relief. "Thank God." She said before covering her mouth. "Oops, I shouldn't say that in a church..." She said quietly before looking around and she didn't see anything either. "It doesn't look suspicious..." She murmured to herself mostly before looking to The Master, she smiled gently at him and gave him a small nod. "I-I will be careful, don't worry." She said with a reassuring pat on his arm before she slowly walked her way across the church towards the old grandfather clock. She glanced back at The Master a few times to make sure he was okay.

He followed her slowly, his eyes peeled for trouble. A few times he thought he saw figures and shadows moving around them but on closer inspection found nothing. "How far is it from here?" he asked, his brow furrowed. He was pale. Perhaps it was the cold, or perhaps it was worry, perhaps even fear, although that seemed unlikely. He ran a hand through his messy wet hair, his eyes cautious.

"It is just up ahead." Harleen said back to him with a reassuring smile. She reached the end of the church and tapped the old grandfather clock. "So, why do you need this old thing?" She asked curiously before shivering from a sudden feeling she got, she looked around, she thought she was hallucinating the figures that she saw so she blinked and shook her head.

The Master was silent. She'd seen the figures too, that meant he wasn't just being paranoid, they were there. What were they? Weeping Angels? Vashta Nerada? He almost laughed as the figures, seeing their cover was now exposed, stepped out from the shadows. Hive Soldiers. Men who served the Hive, mentally conditioned since birth to serve, in bronze armour. They wore helmets shaped like the heads of insects and arachnids. That was new. "I see you've made some improvements to your armour since last time..." The Master commented with a chuckle, "I guess hypnosis isn't an option this time."

Last time there had been a lot more of them but they'd all killed each other after the Master had looked into their eyes and pulled his mind control trick. Happy memories. He reached for one of their helmets and they didn't stop him, allowing him to pull it away. "Ah..." he muttered, his formally confident attitude gone, "I see that's not the only improvement." The men were not men anymore. They were robots, with the wiring and cogs clearly visible on the one with it's helmet removed. A green bug serum ran through it's pipings and it cocked it's head to the side, a clicking sounding from it, almost like laughter.

"This Harley, is the trap..." he said gripping her hand. "Robot bug soldiers," there was a smirk forming at the corner of his mouth, "I'm sure they're not that scary once you get to know them..." He hadn't answered her question about the clock deliberately. It would be too difficult to explain quickly, it was better to wait until it was essential to tell her. "I suggest a similar policy to last time. Run!"

Harleen's eyes widened as the Hive soldiers came out from the shadows. She carefully and cautiously backed away from them and stood next to The Master. Her eyes were still wide in fear but adrenaline began to kick in and a light smirk crossed her lips. Harleen blinked and tilted her head slightly in confusion and shock at the sight of the clockwork under the bug-shaped helmets.

"This is one weird trap..." She murmured to The Master before noticing he gripped her hand. She looked down to his hand and her's before looking back up at the Hive soldiers before hearing the word: "Run!" And she held tightly onto The Master's hand as she ran towards the church doors to only be met by more Hive soldiers. Her eyes were wide and she backed up. "W-we're trapped...!"

"Trapped..." the Master repeated, clicking his tongue as he thought. "Should have seen that coming, seeing as this is a trap," he scorned himself. "Well what's the worst that can happen?" he asked rhetorically with a grin to Harleen. "Well... Into the clock it is," he gripped her hand tighter and pulled her after him as he spun around and ran back the way they he had come. He dodged between a pair of automaton Hive warriors and pulled open the glass door of the clock and jumped inside. How he fitted through that gap was a mystery until you were inside. A TARDIS. Time And Relative Dimension In Space. Bigger on the inside. He locked the doors and started to pull down levers on the console without an explanation to Harley, "That will only hold them for a moment," he did tell her though. Then the whole room started to whirr and shake, it was taking off...

Harleen looked to The Master and smirked slightly at his rhetorical question before she ran after him as he pulled her along. She blinked curiously before going into the clock and closing the glass door behind her and she looked around inside what she knew was a ship and she knew what type too. "Oh, so you have a TARDIS too then?" She asked curiously before quickly holding onto the console as the whole room began shaking and thrusting about.

The Master raised an eyebrow in curiosity at her comment. She knew what a TARDIS was? That was news to him. "And out of the trap we go!" he grinned spinning around in victory. "So Harleen, mind explaining how you know what a TARDIS is?"

Harleen realized she had spoken out to The Master about her knowing about a TARDIS and what it was and she sighed. "Well, I know that TARDIS stands for Time And Relative Dimension in Space and that it is bigger on the inside. I also know it is technology from Gallifrey, so you are a Time Lord." She smiled at him gently, trying not to mention who had told her the information... which was The Doctor. "And also I know how to fly one because I was taught how by a TARDIS showing me." She said with a grin.

The Master looked at Harleen suspiciously for a moment before suddenly shouting out in rage and kicking the console: "WHY ARE YOU SO SLOW!!!" It had been a long time since he'd flown his own TARDIS but it shouldn't take this long to go just round the corner. He caught his breath and calmed down. he'd just escaped from a trap, he should take it easy. "I mean it was the worst trap in history," he continued his thought process with it slipping out loud but he didn't even notice, "The trap itself was the means of escaping! Unless..." his eyes widened as the craft finally landed and he dashed to the doors, flinging them open. They weren't in the church anymore, but they weren't where he'd tried to take them either. "Harleen, we... might have a small problem..." he called back to her as he looked around the metallic Hive base they'd been brought to. the TARDIS surrounded by Hive Robot Soldiers and a tall thin man in a suit, his hands clasped together in triumph and a sinister grin on his face.