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unboundtravels · 6 months

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SHORT TRIPS; UNBOUNDNOVEMBER 10/23: POWER OF THREE

As forces from beyond the realm of matter descend upon UNIT HQ, The Doctor and his Companions hide within the safety of the TARDIS. Their safety is maintained by The TARDIS' forcefield. However, with The Doctor still currently in exile, he's unable to operate The TARDIS in order to lure the strange, formless creatures away from Earth. As such, the exiled timelord is forced to make a distress signal. Although the help they send... may not be the help he's expecting.

Featuring additions added by @mielmoto

Sergeant Benton had seen a great many things in his time with UNIT. Crazy creatures, strange machines, phenomenons in the sky— and yet the room he was standing in right now was potentially the most insanity-inducing thing he'd ever seen. One moment, The Doctor was yammering on about how he wanted Benton to get his assistant— (one plucky young Honey Banh Moto) away from the UNIT HQ as quickly as possible. Of course, Benton isn't one to abandon a friend like The Doctor— especially since, as one of UNIT's higher-ups, he was responsible for every member of staff's safety. So he wasn't just about to leave the Doc behind.

But then that creature appeared. It appeared outside of UNIT HQ— It ate The Doctor's car, Bessie! Touched it! And in a flash of light, the car disappeared. Then it chewed threw the UNIT door! Just one contact with the goop totally destroyed the door! It went for The Doctor's laboratory table when the Scientific Advisor had ordered an escape. Until, of course, it moved to block the way— forcing The Doctor to shuffle everyone into The Police Box in the corner of the room. Benton, in a panic, hadn't questioned it— especially since he'd sworn he'd seen this box disappear, once. However— he wondered if they could all fit inside.

But inside— Inside was a whole different story. Benton stared, a bit amazed for a while. The room seemed more or less like a perfect octagon. Well, almost perfect. Some of the walls seemed longer than others, and some seemed pushed closer. All the more, it was centered off by a green console with six panels of various assorted controls. There was a column in the center, but it was motionless. Benton saw round objects on the wall, assembled in a pattern. He'd been silent for the last couple of seconds, just sort of speechless. He took his hat off, letting ruffled brown hair stick out. He was in his olive-green UNIT fatigues, and his machine gun was slung over his shoulder. Safety was on, but he made sure his hands were far away from the trigger. Especially since The Doctor hated guns. (Although, supposing he picked a pretty unfortunate job— as a military scientific advisor.) 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑫𝒐𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒓's voice finally spoke up, breaking his dumbfoundedness.

"Well, Seargent? Aren't you going to say that it's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside? Everyone else does." The Doctor wore a velvet red smoking jacket underneath a white frilled shirt. The jacket was buttoned up, and accentuated by a large black bowtie. He wore black trousers and brown shoes. His hair was very dark but had bits of faded green intermixed. Dark eyes and a strong expression looked down at the TARDIS controls but occasionally looked toward Benton to ascertain how he was doing with all this. He seemed to be taking it in well. Benton finally turned toward the console, looking toward The Doctor & Honey; the young assistant appeared frazzled only in her confused look and a slight tousle of thick bleach-blonde locks— while her outfit of a maroon pinafore dress over black poet-blouse, tied at the collar with a white bow to match calf-high ivory boots, remained as immaculate as the day it'd been made. You wouldn't know to look at either of them the sheer chaos of the day which had already played out, nor the really quite narrow escape which landed all of them securely inside the TARDIS' walls.

"Seems pretty obvious, Doc. I've learned not to be surprised about things like this." Benton mumbled, approaching the console. There was a wall-mounted monitor that showed the outside of the TARDIS. Benton noted that right now, it was just motionless. The Doctor mentioned something about having switched on some kind of force field as soon as they entered. Looked like it was holding... for now, at least.

The Doctor moved to slide up a heavy switch, and a loud thud echoed through the console room. Concern flickered across The Doctor's features. Resetting the switch and repeating the motion several times yielded the same result. "It's not working." The Doctor huffed, standing up with a concerned expression. His fingers rubbed at his cheeks and chin in contemplative thought. He eventually circled toward a small grey compartment on the console. He lifted it up and pulled a switch out that caused a red light to flash repeatedly on the console.

"I've sent out an SOS... I hate to have to do call them, but, there we are." The Doctor mumbled, looking toward the monitor in the TARDIS, before turning his expression toward Honey. She responded with a curious lilt of her head in kind, mouthing 'them?' back with wide eyes; wondering for a moment if she was right about exactly who 'they' were— but the Doctor's solemn expression served confirmation enough. He crossed his arms and his legs were about a shoulder length apart. He seemed to resist the incessant urge to pace around. He just stared off, contemplatively. Benton, who had nothing else to say, just stood there. There wasn't much silence, though. Perhaps about two seconds had elapsed since anyone had spoken before it was broken by the blonde.

"What exactly were you trying to do, anyway? What was all that—" she mimicked the gesture of his labors before, and motioned to the uncooperative switch in question, "—stuff about?"

"All that stuff from earlier..." He began, "Was an attempt to lead this creature away from Earth." He finished, looking back down at the TARDIS before attempting to divert as much power to the shields as he could, "I would figure in an emergency situation such as this— They would've sensed the danger and at least allowed me to utilize the emergency return switch—" He pointed toward an auxiliary switch underneath the take-off lever, "To return us to Gallifrey in the case of an emergency— or perhaps I could've at least tried to route us to a place where nobody could be affected by the creature." The Doctor huffed again, eventually just moving his head away from the console and looking back toward his assistant.

"However, it seems it's immobilized The TARDIS. I can't take us anywhere. We're trapped here." He admitted, rubbing at his chin whilst his arms remained crossed against his chest. "If I only I'd taken some readings with it on my Sonic Screwdriver before it'd chased us in here..."

"That sounds... really, like, not the best, boss. But we've got some kind of backup plan, right?" Honey pleaded; doing her best not to focus on the words 'trapped' and 'immobilized'— or, indeed, thinking of the gelatinous thing just beyond the door which was making so much trouble in the first place. "What can we do, now?"

"At the very least, I've boosted power to the shields." The Doctor replied in an optimistic tone. "We're safe in here as long as I can continue to boost power from the ship's unused flight systems to the defenses." He said amidst the sequential clicking of various switches. "Hopefully, They get our distress signal." He looked from her toward the monitor, now feeling a sense of dread in the pit of his stomach. "Or else we'll be stuck in here for a rather long time."

Benton finally approached Honey whilst The Doctor worked at the console. Sheepishly, he leaned down toward the blonde and cleared his throat. "I can't help but feel a little loss, Miss." He mumbled, "Who're they?" Benton asked, occasionally looking from Honey toward The Doctor.

"Assuming I'm right? They, are the other Time Lords... which means we're in for something pretty serious."

On the mighty planet 𝐆𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐲, things weren't exactly going well. A massive spatial rip above the planet yielded a massive electrical storm that was attacking the defenses of the capitol. In a control room at the very top of the capital, two screens stood side by side. One was actively showing the spatial tear above the planet. The tendrils like lightning crackled against the planet's outer shieldings. On the other screen, it showed the laboratory on Earth. This blob-like creature remained stationary outside of The Police Box, but it expanded ever so softly... ingesting more things from the laboratory. A woman on the center observatory platform with tied-up black hair and white-and-gold ceremonial robes was standing next to the operator of the control room. This was the current president of Gallifrey, and behind her was The Director of The Celestial Intervention Agency, who was currently acting as the defensive coordinator for the attack on Gallifrey. The Director was a woman with long bright red hair, and her robes were patterned with dark greys, whites and blacks.

"Is The Doctor holding out?" The President asked, looking down at the technical officer operating the console. He was an older man, more experienced with the equipment. He had a long bushy beard and flowing silver hair, and his robes were dark blue and black with silver accents. He spoke firmly, very matter-of-factly as he read the readings on the console and gazed up towards the bigger view screen. "We're giving his TARDIS all the energy we can spare." The Console operator spoke.

"The Hostile?" The President inquired about the blob creature outside the Doctor's TARDIS. "Unidentified so far, my lady." the operator answered back.

The Director stepped toward the operator's opposite side, looking toward the beams attacking the planet, "What about this spatial tear? Where does it go?" The President also gazes toward the secondary screen. The lightning attacking Gallifrey appears to fade within a black hole that's eating apart the space around their very world. The report flickered back toward the console operator, "It's some kind of no place. A void. According to all known readings, nothing is capable of existing there." He replied to her inquiry.

"Yet somehow," The President began, "Through this black hole— a vital cosmic energy is draining The Eye of Harmony despite our attempts to disrupt or contain it." She placed her hand near the control panels near the console operator. Her amber hues took in the massive storms of lightning and energy draining at the planet's shielding. As soon as they were through the defense barriers, she knew it would start to drain at the central core of The Eye of Harmony. "Currently, we're unable to deploy any TARDISes off of Gallifrey. The storm rips any departing ships up before they can even enter the space-time vortex." She reports, gesturing to the primary viewscreen. "Only an off-world TARDIS could make any kind of trip."

"Who could be doing this?" The Director looked toward her President, despite the mask of stability she wore, there were still hints of shock and awe in her voice at the idea of such an unfathomable power.

"It must be a force equal and opposite of our own power..." The President spoke, and a chill at the thought slightly ran up her spine. For a moment, her eyes were caught at the screen— eyes glued to the Police Box before finally the president spoke up. "Someone must aid The Doctor." The Madam President decreed, and The Director couldn't help but agree but alas, she stated the facts. "No one can be spared, Madam President. Everyone is needed to combat the energy drain." The President's features hardened at this, and she went into a very long pause before. She contemplated the situation, deciding here and now that if ever there was a time for her to prove her leadership capabilities... then it was now.

"No... but perhaps he can help himself." The President spoke, looking toward the console operator. "Show me The Doctor's time stream... show me his previous incarnation." She looked up toward the screen on the right, which shifted to show a different-looking fellow than the one currently trapped within his TARDIS. The Director's eyes widened at the version being shown on the viewscreen. Her heels clacked as she stepped forward. "My Lady, you can't allow him to cross his own time stream! Apart from the enormous energy it would need, the First Law of Time expressly forbids him to meet his previous selves!"

"Madam Director, we are in a state of emergency."

The Director paused, face cringing. For once, The Director was unsure of what exactly would happen. Softly tightening her fists, she eventually relents. "Be it on your own head, Madam President."

The President exhaled, looking toward the screen. She looked toward the console operator.

"Make it so."

Back in The TARDIS— The Doctor, Honey & Sergeant Benton were watching the amorphous blob creature through the viewer screen on The TARDIS. Suddenly, The Doctor's head snapped back when he heard the sound of The TARDIS' materialization circuit. "That's odd." He commented that the central column on the TARDIS did not move at all during the sound that bounced throughout the console room. "Did either of you touch anything?" He asked the only other two in the room before he approached the console and began to flick various switches. Benton shook his head, while Honey raised both hands in a display of innocence, which caused The Doctor's brows to furrow in confusion, "But you heard it, didn't you?" The Doctor mumbled. Honey moved to his side as he operated the console.

"Not just heard it, but felt it too." The assistant replied, with an edge of worry to her tone. "...Do you think it was that stuff outside?"

"No, I don't think so—" The Doctor paused, noting something that hadn't been on the console previously. He reached out, taking it. It looked to be a small ivory recorder with a blue stripe painted around it. The Doctor took it in his hand for a moment. "What's this...?" He mumbled, twisting the recorder in his fingers, "It's... strangely familiar to me.." He placed fingers over familiar holes within the recorder. "Is it yours, Honey?" He looked toward the blonde.

She gave it a strange look and shrugged. "Not mine— I'm more of a lute gal than a flute gal."

The Doctor hummed, "Well, properly speaking, it's a recorder—" Before suddenly, a third pair of fingers grasped around the mouthpiece. A hand yanked it out from The Doctor's in an almost frantic manner. The figure fully appeared across from the console. He was a shorter man, about five foot three compared to The Doctor's six foot two. He wore a large cotton black jacket, a bright blue dress shirt, and a polka-dotted blue bowtie. His trousers were a baggy patterned and his shoes a worn and busted brown. He held the recorder as Benton and Honey gasped once he fully formed. His hair was a bed-razzled black, his eyes a bright blue, and his skin was a flushed white.

"Thank you." The Cosmic Hobo mumbled, "I was wondering where that'd gone too." Excitedly, he wrapped his lips around the mouthpiece and played a few notes before showing visible disdain at the sound. The Doctor grew from a shocked and flustered expression to a furrow-browed and stern-eyed stare at the entry. There appeared to be a moment of silence where the little fellow cleaned out his recorder and attempted to diffuse the tension caused by his arrival. "You haven't been trying to play it, have you?" The Little Fellow asked before sliding it into his coat and tapping his fingers. Excitedly, he looked around the console room. He appeared to show excitement in its altered design.

"Oh! You've redecorated!" He waved his finger around before looking toward The Doctor and Honey, "I don't like it." His face suddenly frowned before he spotted the gelatinous blob on the console. His face suddenly went stern, "Oh dear. Well, we do seem to be in a bit of a bind now, don't we?" He looked toward the console. Adjusting his bowtie, he reached down and flipped a switch as if he knew exactly what the switch did. For a moment, The Doctor winced in embarrassment, watching as The Cosmic Hobo was able to retain the memories of which switch took an environmental scan. The Little Fellow's fingers tapped together in a way that further established it as some sort of fidget. "Just as well I turned up."

"Just as well you 'turned up'? You just—???" Struggling to put together a coherent thought amidst the shock, Honey stumbled over a few words before turning to The Doctor, "Doctor, who is—"

"Doctor!" Benton suddenly shouted toward The Little Fellow and said it as if it were true and familiar. As if he was disregarding the other, taller version in the room. "Where on earth did you spring up from?" He rushed toward The Hobbit-sized Hobo and shook his hand, which The Doctor reciprocated with an awful amount of glee, his oversized outfit ruffling as he did so. "Corporal Benton! How on Earth do you do man?" The Smaller "Doctor" exclaimed before Benton showed him his promotion badge, which The Little Fellow ogled at with wide-eyed curiosity. The two exchanged brief greetings as if they were old friends.

In light of that little revelation, Honey pulled her Doctor aside, gathering either of his arms in her hands and fixing him with a scrutinous, (if bewildered) gaze; expectant for a proper answer. " 'Doctor?' " A question in and of itself, after hearing Benton greet him so heartily, "Boss, what in the world is going on here? Who is that man and how did he get in here?"

The Doctor rubbed at his chin thoughtfully, but also wore a face of embarrassment. "Well, that's rather difficult to explain, Honey—" The Doctor exhaled, exchanging a look with the smaller fellow. Already, there seemed to be a developing tension between the two, "You see that man—" He exhaled, "Is me. Or at least, he's one of me—" Her Doctor explained before he suddenly winced at the Small Doctor's shouting toward the other, taller one.

"Oh! No, no no!!" The Smaller one moved to gently pull the Witch away from her Doctor, almost gently and very carefully, despite how quickly and spryly he was moving. "You see, my dear— I'm afraid that tall fellow's confusing you, and I hate to be contradictory but— he's clearly lost his marbles in his old age so, I feel like you should get the proper explanation!" The Smaller Doctor explained, giving a look toward The Taller Doctor.

"You don't mind, do you?" "Yes, I do—" "I didn't think so."

"You see—" The Smaller one starts, "I may call you Honey, mayn't I? You see," He gestures to the one across, "He is one of me!" He taps his fingers together, fidgeting quietly, awaiting her response. She exhaled, eventually though. She knew better than to try and interpret this any less than what was literally being spelled out. "Right. Okay... So you're both timelords."

The Little fellow hummed quietly, "Well— quite... but... Not quite— Not just timelords. We're the same timelord." He said it very sternly, the little fellow. It was a bit overdramatic, but it was also very matter-of-factly— his tone. However, Her Doctor seemed reluctant to settle for that and stepped in soon after. "Listen here you little troll, you're only confusing the poor girl." He looked down at Honey, holding her by bother her shoulders and speaking very firmly. "He is me and I am him."

"And we're all together, goo goo ga joob?" She hummed quietly, a migraine forming in the middle of the exchange she was caught between, as The Small Doctor and The Tall Doctor both seemingly raised an eyebrow at her questioning. "I-It's a song." She looked between the both of them but they still seemed lost, "By the Beatles?"

"Really? How does it go—?" The Little Doctor raised his recorder. "Oh do be quiet!" The Tall Doctor shouted back.

Eventually, though, The Tall Doctor pushed through his frustrations and arrived at a central point. "What I'd rather like to know now is: what you're doing here. You've no right to be here."

The Little fellow immediately retaliated.

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't." "Oh, Is that right? What about the first law of time?" "If I could perhaps explain—" "Perhaps you should."

The Little Fellow raised his hand up high, pointing at the sky. "As a matter of fact! Our fellow timelords are just as much under siege as we are!" He then swung his arm mightly toward the screen, before resting his hand against his stomach, his other hand soon rejoining it. The Tall Doctor suddenly grew rather disturbed in expression, "What? Gallifrey is under siege? But that's impossible—"

Cutting in, The Smaller Doctor continued, "I'm afraid it isn't, old chap! This attack is taking a heavy toll on their resources. So much so that all they could afford to do to get you help was to pluck me out of my bit of our time stream and plop me down here! Into my future, so to speak." He shrugged at the end, wondering if he had visualized it correctly. Although he was cut off by The Tall Doctor's immediate follow-up question.

"Why?"

Chuckling nervously, The Smaller Doctor furrowed his brows. Was he really growing this stupid in his future? That's alarmingly concerning, "My fellow, you are being a bit dim, aren't you?" He paused, The Tall Doctor squinting in response. "Your effectiveness has just been doubled with me here!"

"Halved, more like."

"Oh!" The Small Doctor exclaimed he'd clutch pearls if he could! "Well, there's no need to be ungrateful! Suppose we have a look at our problem! Two minds are better than one—" He reached down, about to switch at a control. "Er, well— you don't mind, do you?" He raised his eyebrows as if waiting for The Taller Doctor to say something.

"Oh, do be my guest." The Tall Doctor gestured towards his console.

"Thank you, dear fellow~!"

#!!!. {in character | ic}#iii. {the bond doctor}#ii. {the sixby doctor}#mielmoto #unboundnovember #//Huge fucking shoutout to Bird for helping me with this #//the drabble was late just due to how engrossed our discussion about this version of the scene went.#//I timed it PERFECTLY.#//LIKE PERFECLTY.#//I wanted day ten to be THE day of the three doctors drabbles.#//expect the immediate follow up to this scene after I fucking CRASH

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