The Wizard's Guide to Timelords and Other Demons Book 1: The Forgotten War

Calling In The Cavalry

The moment the shooting had stopped, the wizards at the headmaster's side dropped their wands to the ground and stepped away from them. All except for Dumbledore, that is, who first needed to coax his whirlwind of rocks back into the earth from where it came. Following that, he too laid his wand gently at his feet and slowly stepped backwards until he was no longer within reach of it.

Within minutes, all the wands had been collected by an assigned soldier—who had no idea what they were and felt pretty silly about being ordered to carry around a handful of sticks—and the wizards were marched back up to their own camp at gunpoint. There, Elise and the Doctor were waiting for them, along with about a hundred more soldiers that had just filed into the camp from the column below.

"I certainly hope you know what you're doing, Doctor," Professor Snape growled as he passed by, glaring angrily with his hands on his head.

About a minute after the camp had been declared secured, every soldier that was not pointing a firearm at somebody's head suddenly snapped to attention. A UNIT officer with stars on his shoulders pulled up in a jeep and climbed out. He was an older man, with gray hair and a mustache, who carried himself with an air of authority and clearly had the respect of all the soldiers. The Doctor recognized him immediately.

"Brigadier General Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart! It's so good to see you!" The Doctor declared with feigned excitement, which might have been sincere had this man not just ordered an attack on a castle filled with children.

"I'm afraid I do not know who you are, sir, other than my prisoner." The general said in a commanding voice. "I am looking for the one called The Doctor."

"That would be me," the Doctor replied, disappointed, though not at all surprised that his alternate reality version of his dear old friend did not recognize him.

"Very good then," the general said. "I am also interested in locating a young woman named Elise Winchester."

"Over here!" Elise called out cheerfully from inside a circle of several soldiers that had their rifles trained on her. Her face beamed with excitement as she gave the general a cute little wave.

Elise's happy demeanor was a façade of course, intended to hide the intense anger that burned inside her. In reality, she wanted nothing more than to be taken to the Beast where she could mete out her vengeance with extreme prejudice.

"Excellent," said the General, rather taken aback by Elise's perky response. He then turned to address one of the other soldiers. "Sergeant, have your men escort these two back to camp. Keep the rest of them here until we are given further instructions concerning them."

"Yes sir!" the Sergeant replied.

"All hail the Beast!" said the general.

"All hail the Beast!" echoed every soldier in unison, as the general climbed back into his jeep and drove away.

"Now move! Both of you!" The sergeant barked, and the soldiers began shoving the Doctor down the hill. Elise, however, seemed perfectly eager to go with the soldiers and offered no resistance.

"Now Jack!" the Doctor whispered, hoping his voice would be picked up by the ridiculous thing stuck in his ear.

All at once the wind began to pick up as leaves and small brambles were tossed about all around them. A wheezing sound filled the air as the confused soldiers glanced about, looking for the source of the noise and noticed the pulsating light hovering above the ground. A couple of the men took aim and started firing at the light, but it had no effect at all on the TARDIS which swiftly materialized just below it.

"Well," the Doctor shouted out excitedly while clapping his hands together. "I imagine our guest of honor will be arriving any second now."

The soldiers were now at full alert, though clearly troubled and confused. If the UNIT organization in their universe had never heard of the Doctor, then the sudden appearance of an old blue police box out of thin air was certainly going to make them a little uneasy. Their eyes frantically darted about as if they were expecting something else to drop in from out of the sky, which was, as a matter of fact, exactly what happened.