the forgotten child of gallifrey | doctor whoniverse

viii: meeting the parents

The sun pokes through the clouds, shining down on two teenagers who can't get a door open.

"Before you ask or say something sarcastic, yes, I have a working house key. I just suck at getting this lock to work. This door's been slammed too many times." She kicks it one last time, and the door loudly swings open.

I look around nervously. "Wait, are you sure we can--"

She interrupts me, yelling, "Anyone home?" as the door shuts behind us.

Smirking, I say, "Well, that's one way to come in with a bang."

She shushes me before leading us down the hall.

It suddenly hits me that I'm going to be meeting Echo Emerson's parents. Nervously, I ask, "Wait, are you sure we can just barge in? Will they mind that I'm here?"

"Is someone in here?" calls out a man's voice with a slight accent.

"Yeah, hi Ianto, it's Echo and her plus one," she calls back.

We stop in front of a desk where a guy, who I assume the voice belongs to, is turned away from the computer. The monitor brightly displays blueprints to some sort of machine.

A man, strangely wear both a belt and suspenders, peaks his head in the doorway. "Skipping?" he asks.

"No, actually, it's much worse." Echo pauses, trying to judge their reactions. "There's...Cybermen. In my school's basement."

Ianto's face suddenly loses all coloring, then comes back darkened. Suspenders Guy's eyes widen.

I shift nervously. "Um, I don't mean to be rude or anything, but I'm confused. Can somebody please fill me in on why these so-called Cybermen are so bad? And how you know what they are and I don't?"

Echo sighs and mumbles, "If only Rose or the Doctor were here." Who are they?

Raising her voice to a normal volume, she asks, "Would Torchwood like to explain?", earning her simultaneous eye rolls from the two men.

"Cybermen," Suspenders Guy starts, "are metal robot people. When I say people, I literally mean it. They're made from humans. It's a horrible, painful conversion process." Ianto winces a bit, but Suspenders Guy presses on. "They either convert you or 'delete' you. Either way, you're gone. They're practically indestructible, very dangerous, and a pain in the ass to get rid of." He turns to Echo. "You're right. It'd be nice to have a Doctor around here."

Again with the Doctor thing, not to mention that what we saw was a fucking robot man. What the hell is going on here?

"Yeah, about that." Echo says. "I kind of ran into the Doctor, but he's regenerated, and has new companions. We went to Alcatraz, actually."

Suspenders Guy goes from 0 to furious in a second. Luckily, Ianto grabs his hand and raises his eyebrows, which seems to calm Suspenders Guy.

I clear my throat, hoping to stop any future argument. "Okay, I think I've got it. Cybermen equals very bad shit you don't want to have to mess with. Oh, and one more thing. You mentioned a doctor. Doctor who?"

"He's an...old friend. Very good at fighting aliens and saving the day." Echo gives me a tight-lipped smile and claps her hands together. "So. Who wants to go fight some Cybermen?"