In the Blink of an Eye (A Doctor Who Fanfic)

The Doctor and the Auto-men

“Incompatible DNA detected. All possible threats must be eliminated.” It says again, and suddenly three other robots appear behind it.

“Okay then, Doctor No Name, we could either run, or meet a painful, un-timley demise. Your choice.” I tell him as they get closer and closer.

“Don't be silly, Bryarly, I'm the only one they want to kill.” The Doctor, or whoever he is, says. “Wait! If they get close enough I could over-ride there circuits.” He reaches into the inside of his jacket. “I've got you now you-” He stops, and begins patting around his jacket, his pants, his shirt, and says “This is bad, no, this is worse than bad, this is very very not good.” He puts his hands on his head. “I must have dropped it when we bumped into each other.”

“What are you looking for?” I ask him, grabbing his shoulder.

“My sonic screwdriver!” He says, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Unregistered alien weapon detected. Disposing now.” One of the mechanical things had picked up from the ground a-huh, it really did look like a screwdriver- thing and crushed it in his metal fist.

“No, no, no, no!” The Doctor cries, and kneels at where the scattered pieces lie. “Those aren't easy to replace you you know!” He shouts, and only now did I realize that the robot's eyes changed from a glowing white to vicious red.

“Doctor,” I say alarmed. “It's about time to run now!”

“Ah,” He looks up. “Yes, running. Running it good.” I pull his arm and we make a break for it down the marble hall.

“What are those things anyway?” I ask as we bound through the universaty, trying our best to dodge the killer robot's death Frisbees.

“Auto-men.” He replies simply.

“auto-men?”I repeat, just as confused as ever.

“Auto-men are hyper-intelligent mechanical soldiers. They use the fake skin of humans, aliens, whatever, as camouflage. They're part of the Inter-spacial Robotic Renegade. Turn left!” He says apparently figuring that I understand a word he's saying, as we round a corner, but see two of the auto-men blocking the way. “Scratch that, turn back.” We do a double take and take the right turn.

“What do they want, these auto-things?” I question, gasping for air. I was never a good runner. “You!” He says, staring at me. Now, it seems I've forgotten where I've parked my spaceship.” He tells me. Me? What would they want with me? And why would a doctor have a spaceship?

“The parking lot, maybe?” I offer, partly as a joke, but his eyes grow wide and he replies, “That's it! Bryarly Vincit, I'll need to borrow your human drivey machine!”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“You're going to do what to my car?” I scream at the crazy man. He sighs as he connects one end of the jumper cables to my old blue Volkswagen. “If I connect these jumper thingies to the Hard-Drive auto-man, I can short circuit the whole data-base.” He says and tosses me his jacket as he rolls up his sleeves. “And there's just a small chance it could explode.” he adds quickly.

“Yeah, that's what I thought you said.” I tell him, leaning against the door. “This was a birthday present from my mum you know.” I say, reminiscing on the memory. I crashed it that first day too, ran right into the neighbors garage.

“Well next time you see your mum, you can tell her her birthday present was put to good use.” He jokes, but the grabs my hand. “Do you trust me, Bryarly?” He asks. Taken aback by the question I reply with,

“Trust a strange man in a funny hat I've only just met ?” and he just says, “What is it with the fez? Why does everyone hate the fez?” I laugh, but our conversation was cut short by the auto-men breaking through the make-shift barrier we created out of fake shrubbery and plants that outline the outside of the building, and they all march towards us in unison. I gasp at how many there were, it had to be at least fifty to a hundred.

“Bryarly, you have to listen to me. I want you to go up and lead the Hard-Drive auto-man to the car. Once I start it up, plug this jumper cable into the back of it's head, then run.” He hands me the other end of the cable.

“Are you completely mental, they'll kill me!” I yell.

“No Bryarly, I promise you they won't hurt you as long as they don't touch you. You'll have to trust the odd man in the silly hat just this once.” He tells me, and grasps my hand again. “The auto-man at the very front of the troop is the one to aim for. I believe in you Bryarly.” Is the last thing he said, then he steps into the car. I take a deep breath, and march forward.

“Alright, I don't know what you want from me but here I am!” I say as I approach the hard-drive.

“Compatible DNA registered. Preparing for stimulation.” It repeats as the needle ejects from the auto-man's arm.

“Yeah, well, you'll have to catch me first won't you?” I say, sounding tougher than I really felt. Just don't let it touch you Bry. I remind myself as I lead the auto-man to the car. I see the Doctor give me a thumbs-up through he windshield and I just roll my eyes at him. I grab the jumper cable as I reach the hood. Turning, I don't realize how close thing is to me.

“Subject being stimulized in 3. 2,-”

“Let 'er rip Doctor!” I shout as I side-step, narrowly dodging the large needle. Hearing my car's engine roar I plunge the cable into the plug-in I find at the back of it's neck and say, “Take this you big hunk of junk!” Then, I do exactly what the Doctor told me to do. I run.

“Short-circuiting! Short-circuiting!” I hear all the robots say at once, and without looking back, there's a BANG, and a million gold pieces fly everywhere.