A Series of Unlikely Events (Closed to 9)

It was a little too hot for Lilith in California, as she sometimes mused. Ultimately, though, it was events like this that kept her here.

The latest unlikely happening had taken place on Yule Street- A nice little street downtown with lots of shops. She had rushed there as soon as she had heard about it. Green orbs- dubbed "Martian eggs" by some of the conspiracy theorists who believed they had broken out of government facilities. They seemed to be just lights, though.

As far as Lilith could tell, anyways. She had been one of the few brave enough to touch them. Her skin hadn't even registered the contact, and her fingers slipped right through the small, green orb of... whatever it was. They emitted the strangest noises, though. Little ticks that started upon contact and ended when it was broken.

She couldn't imagine what they were, but the timing was odd, to say the least. September 14th- Her birthday. Nineteenth, actually. Before these events had transpired, she had simply regarded it as a marker of another year wasted on... Well... Nothing exciting.

This certainly changed things.

The Doctor didn't spend a lot of time in the States. For whatever reason, his TARDIS preferred to land him in Europe, no matter if it was past, present, or future. On the rare occasions that she did land him in America, it was something big that brought her there. When he stepped out on to a bright, sunny, California day, it was with equal parts trepidation and excitement.

He set off down the street, not really looking for anything in particular. Usually, the trouble found him. Sure enough, it did, in the form of a sign that proclaimed 'Martian Eggs' outside a small shop. Those things were usually a bust, but sometimes things like that ended up being important.

"D'you reckon they're real?" he asked a girl coming out of the shop. "The Martian Eggs."

He smiled at her. She had tangled black hair and tanned skin that fit in with the rest of the population. She looked perfectly ordinary, but it was the ordinary people who noticed the extraordinary.

((Just a heads up, introduction posts are generally fairly long :p. Yours is fine, though))

(Thanks for the heads up!)

As she exited one of the local shops, whose owner she had been asking about the orbs (his sign had been rubbish, really. He knew nothing about the orbs, they just seemed to hang out in the shops), an odd man approached Lilith. He definitely wasn't from around here- Neither was she, but he was definitely newer than herself. His accent was oddly appealing- Was it Northern? She met his eyes with a bit of shock, but it wore off as quickly as it had come.

When met with the question, her most immediate response was to shrug.

"I wouldn't know, honestly. It seems doubtful to me that they're from Mars, but you never know. They are awfully odd, and paired with uprising of UFO sightings lately, I'd say there's something up. I'm the last person who'd jump on the conspiracy theorist bandwagon, though." She offered a sheepish smile with that last sentence, hoping it didn't offend him if he was one of those nuts.

Just then, there was a yell from down the street. It was rather high-pitched, and Lilith would have said it was a scream, but it wasn't so loud and terrified as it was startled. She turned her head and saw the cause of the fuss. The orbs were slowly coming out of the shops- Through doors and windows. Right through them!

Lilith turned back to the man and raised an eyebrow.

"You wouldn't happen to know anything about them, would you?"

(EDIT: By "not from around here" I mean that particular city in California. She was born further North and the setting now is SoCal)

She was clever, and observant, too. Most people would have never put the two coincidences together. A smile crept up his face. Fantastic!

At least the UFO sightings explained things a little. Clearly this wasn't just a shopkeeper trying to get a fiver. Unless he was really going above and beyond.

"You're right," he said. "They're most certainly not from Mars."

The only creatures from Mars that he knew were the Ice Warriors, and there was nothing about them that was green or round. They didn't lay eggs, and they didn't muck about with science, either. No, the orbs were something else entirely. With any luck, they would be harmless, but when had he ever encountered something harmless?

The Doctor was about to bid the girl goodbye and head into the shop to give them a proper look when a shrill scream split the air. He couldn't help the excitement that flared in his chest, the adrenaline already pumping through his veins. The orbs were on the move. He grinned, and turned to her.

"Not yet. Coming?"

And with that, he took off towards the source of excitement, jumper flapping.

Lilith couldn't help but smile back at the charming man, and when he dashed off, she couldn't help following either. She ran after him, laughing slightly to herself as she did so and wondering how he could be so cheerful under the given circumstances. However he did it, it certainly was rubbing off.

She stopped when she reached one of the orbs, not bothering to check if the strange man had stopped as well. There was far too much to see for her to check if he was around, exciting or not. Slowly extending a hand, she tried to trap the orb in her hands. It began to buzz violently and she let go of it, slightly startled but more curious than anything. It began moving as soon as her hands left it alone, and she bit her lip in concentration. Definitely odd.

The orbs continued their journey until they stopped dead center in the street and began that peculiar buzzing again. There were gasps from the few people left. Were they... expanding? The color began to change, too, morphing into all sorts of brilliant shades each second. Then, it stopped. Everything. All the people and things around Lilith just stopped. For the first time, she felt a little scared.

Well, more than a little.

The Doctor grinned a little to himself when the girl followed him. It was always nice to have a little help on board, so long as they were careful and didn't get themselves killed. He grimaced a little at the thought and resolved to keep a good eye on her.

"Don't touch it," the Doctor ordered roughly as she jumped away.

He pulled his sonic screwdriver from his jacket and aimed it at one of the orbs. It behaved the same that it had when she had touched it. Weird. Stowing it back away, the Doctor turned around just in time to see the orbs congregate in the middle of the street. As they grew larger, he grabbed the girl and attempted to push her back.

And then, everything stopped.

"Don't do anything stupid," he told her, advancing slightly towards them.

Lilith couldn't exactly protest when the odd man told her not to touch the orbs. They gave her a creepy feeling anyways, so she decided the best course of action was to listen to him. When he retrieved a strange looking device from his jacket, she decided he was either completely brilliant or completely mad. Either way, the object seemed to activate the orbs the same way her touch did.

When the orbs grew larger, he tried to push her away from them. She went with little resistance, but as soon as he turned back, she came up beside him again. Not much would have stopped her. After he told her not to do anything stupid, she tilted her head a little.

"You either, then."

Lilith had a thought.

"Do you happen to have a name?" She asked a bit tentatively. After all, this was possibly the strangest situation she had ever been in. Worrying about names seemed a bit trivial. Then again, a name could be very important in some cases.

Besides, she had a feeling that events like this weren't abnormal to him. She glanced around, wondering how anyone could be in this situation and not freak out. People had just stopped where they were, frozen in place. Then Lilith remembered that she wasn't exactly screaming her head off, either. But why wasn't she frozen, too?

Humans. She was in the middle of the single most unlikely event in her life, and she was concerned with his name instead of the slightly more prominent issue. Everything around them had stopped. It made his skin prickle uncomfortably. Much like a time loop or a paradox, it made him cringe. What had caused that? He doubted the orbs had plans for world domination. An uncomfortable thighs hit him. Was the rest of the world frozen too?

"I'm the Doctor." Then, to stave off the inevitable, "It's just the Doctor. Not Doctor Smith, not Doctor Jones. Just the Doctor."

Ah, he was being rude again, wasn't he?

"And you?" he asked mildly, peering around.

Everything had stopped except him and he girl. He could understand not stopping himself. His biology was different, and the orbs probably hadn't been programmed to stop Time Lords.

"Righ' there goes that idea," he muttered. "Got any idea what could be goin' on?"

((Sorry for the wait))

(It's perfectly fine!)

"Mmm. Got it!" Lilith was a tad taken aback by how adamant he was that he most certainly was not a Smith or a Jones. However, she kept her tone lighthearted. It wouldn't be very smart to start getting angry at the only non-frozen person in the vicinity- Perhaps on Earth.

When he inquired as to her name, Lilith responded easily, "Lilith." She briefly considered giving a last name, but decided against it ultimately. If he asked, she could decide whether to be truthful or make something up. She made a mental note not to choose Smith or Jones if she made one up.

It crossed her mind that the Doctor was an odd name for someone, but she didn't comment. He probably got it enough, the poor fellow.

"So, Doctor..." Lilith tapped someone next to her and watched the skin press down, but not recover its shape after she moved her hand away. She glanced up momentarily, meeting his eyes. "What shape do you reckon that is?"

She was gesturing towards an orb that seemed to be morphing. The shape changed several times, going through the entire spectrum of colors before finally settling on one shape and one color. Lilith tilted her head to one side, eyes narrowing.

"Well, that's odd."

(I didn't know how to include it in the post so I'll just say it now- It's a Dalek with a broken laser, so it can't exactly kill them. The other orbs haven't been activated yet. The one she touched is the one that activated, and that's why it activated.)

The Doctor froze, eyes locked on the morphing bubble. It couldn't be. Not after everything he'd done, everything he'd sacrificed to rid the universe of that filth. There was no way anything could have survived. How could a line Dalek have made it but not a single Time Lord?

He grabbed Lilith by the arm and positioned her behind him. He wasn't going to let another Dalek kill someone he liked. Even if he'd only known her for a few minutes, Lilith was intriguing. That wasn't going to waste.

On closer inspection, however, he noticed the laser by its side, bent and crooked. The Doctor knew what a functional laser looked like, and that wasn't it. They were safe for now, but what if the Dalek had friends? A deep shudder ran through him at the thought. How?

"It's a Dalek," he said hoarsely. "We've got to get out of here."

It took a moment for Lilith to process what was going on. From the look on the Doctor's face, this couldn't be good. For some reason, she felt like the man was someone she ought to trust- Though, she was wary of even her own gut-feeling these days. Still, the situation was a bit dire, and he seemed to recognize what was going on to some extent, so she decided to ask questions later.

The fact that he grabbed her and pushed her behind him only furthered her suspicions that he knew what the... thing was, and it wasn't very friendly. A... Dalek? She had no idea what that was, but his next words made things clear. It was bad news.

Just then, the 'Dalek' thing started to move, and her heart jumped as if on cue. It was flailing- The top part of it had a stalk with a camera on the end which was racing back and forth. Another stalk lower on its body looked almost like a laser, though it looked like someone had bent it off to the side. A few cracks ran through the metal. The Dalek's movement stopped and its stalk fixed in their general direction.

"Ex...ter...minate!" Its robotic, grating voice was full of hatred. Lilith flinched. Things were getting a little too scary for her liking, and she could feel adrenaline kicking up in her veins.

"Exterminate!" The Dalek screeched again, and she looked at the Doctor, heart racing.

"I agree." She said shakily.

The very word made him flinch, long ago battles dragged to the forefront of his mind, old friends he'd tried to forget showing up once more. Exterminate. Davros was sadistic, all right. Shaking off the memory of the blasted man, he worked his jaw. The gun might not be working, but Daleks were plenty dangerous without them. The Doctor squared his shoulders and held out his hand to Lilith, putting on a brave front.

"Come on!"

With that, he took off, Lilith in tow. He didn't know where to go, or in fact, if there was anywhere to go. If the entire world had been frozen, there would be no escape. He'd take Lilith to some nice, peaceful planet and pick her up after he cleaned this mess up. The Doctor wasn't going to let another person be lost to the Daleks.

Even as she grabbed the Doctor's hand and followed him as he ran, she felt like the danger wasn't any further. As they ran, she noticed that several of the orbs were moving towards people... The moment they made contact, they began to transform.

"Doctor... They're taking shape when people touch them. Everyone was too scared to touch them except a few- Maybe that's why they froze everyone? To make it easy to change?"

The Daleks that had settled into their final shape seemed... Broken in one way or another. Some of their camera-stalks were broken and others had cracked metal or lasers. Some simply didn't move even after taking shape. The ones that could move, however, seemed to hover over the ground. It didn't take very long for them to give chase to the two of them.

Lilith had another thought just then.

"Where are we going?"

"There's always a reason for what Daleks do," the Doctor said.

His flight reflex was already starting to calm down, but his hearts were still both hammering in his chest. The Doctor forced himself to slow down a little. He had the endurance to run much faster and much longer than a human. Lilith would get tired eventually.

The more he looked around, the more Daleks he saw. ThenDoctor focused directly ahead rather than face his oldest enemies again. He'd been so stupid to think that he could eradicate them. Daleks were programmed to survive no matter the cost. One daft, renegade Time Lord couldn't change that. He should have known they'd be back. But Earth? What could they possibly want with Earth?

"My ship," the Doctor said without thinking.

Well then. This was going to be interesting to explain. He stuck with the basics. No need to overwhelm her just yet.

"It'll be safe there."

Ship? Lilith was confused at best. They were pretty far inland, and traveling East anyways. So, if it wasn't a ship in the water... She paused. Ridiculous. Deciding it best to put off thinking about exactly what kind of ship it was, she focused on his next sentence.

She began to feel a little out of breath, but reminding herself of the Daleks and the fear on the Doctor's face took care of that for a few minutes. Adrenaline replenished her stamina, but not for long. She hoped his ship was nearby, because she didn't want to get killed by a creature whose name she had just barely learned when it was quite possible the entire world was frozen in time.

Lilith made the mistake of looking back. There were at least a dozen of them hovering above the ground, following them at an alarming speed.

"We'll be safe, yea, but what about the people out here? They're all frozen now but when they unfreeze I don't think they'll take kindly to these Dalek things hovering around. What will happen then?"

The Doctor looked backwards with Lilith and immediately wished he hadn't. This was his worst nightmare come to life. All those nights waking in a cold sweat, calming himself by saying that it could never happen, not anymore, and it happened anyway. This was real. He wasn't dreaming. The Doctor shook his head and tightened his grip on Lilith's hand.

"We're not gonna let that happen."

The Doctor didn't know how long it would take them to figure out what the Daleks were up to and out a stop to it, but they had to do it before everyone came unfrozen. There'd be mass panic, and people would get killed.

At long last, the TARDIS came into view. The Doctor flung the key into the lock and threw the door open. Instantly, the mental connection between himself and the TARDIS sent waves of calm through his system. He breathed a small sigh of relief, dragging Lilith behind him.

"Go sit," he said, pointing at the jump seat.

He faced the door, confident about the TARDIS's shields.

"All right! What do you lot want?" the Doctor shouted.