Doctor Who_ Hope - Mark Clapham [20]
Pandemonium broke out all around. Anji hadnt even noticed the greycloaked figures as a coherent group before, but she now realised they were all around, and all of them were taking hostages. Guns were levelled, blades held to throats. The attackers were a motley bunch, unimpressive aside from their grotesque modifications, the electronic devices wired into their flesh. There were protests, but the attackers soon silenced them with a few wild gunshots.
Anji exchanged glances with the Doctor, who had only reached halfway up the stairs when the attacks began. He gave Anji a nod that told her to stay calm, to wait and see. He began to edge his way down the stairs, Miraso behind him, trying not to make any sudden moves.
The room was reduced to a tense nearsilence. Anji could hear someone whimpering behind her, but couldnt look away from Fitz, squirming in agony at the end of an electrified leash. The man at the other end of the leash was wildeyed, triumphant.
Where is the abomination, he bellowed. His voice had a metallic edge, as if he were speaking through a vocoder. Where is Silver? Bring him to us now, or these feeble primates will all die. He pulled on Fitzs leash, dragging Anjis friend to his feet. Starting with this one.
Chapter Four
Fight Pub
Anji saw the Doctor edging around the room, looking for an opportunity to disarm one of the attackers. He didnt seem likely to make any sudden moves, as the situation was complex and difficult; too many hostages, and even with Mirasos help and Anji offering some kind of distraction, the Doctor could hardly disarm them all. Even worse, and Anji knew she was being selfish, geographically the last person the Doctor would get to would be Fitz, and looking at his strained face, which was slowly turning purple, Anji didnt want to think how his captor would respond to retaliation.
Silver! bellowed the man holding Fitz. Come out, Silver!
A footstep rang out across the room, breaking the tense silence.
Heavy footsteps rang out, the booted feet of someone huge evenly making contact with metallic stairs, stepping into the hostage crisis with neither hesitation or urgency. Anji looked across, and felt her jaw begin to drop. The man walking down the stairs knew how to make an entrance. He was huge, for a start, neither fat nor outrageously tall but muscular, his rolling, brawny shoulders giving him a stooped aspect, even though he was probably standing perfectly upright. Any stoop would have been understandable one of his arms was oversized, robotic, ending in a huge fist that hung down to knee level. Anji thought she could make out gunbarrel type attachments sprouting from the back of that great, four fingered hand. His other arm was that of a normal human but excessively muscular, and the hand wore a fingerless leather glove. Between the two arms was a barrel of a chest barely covered by a green military vest, with a misshapen, alienlooking device attached to one side. The device boasted various cables and leads, the other ends of which plugged into both cybernetic attachments and human musculature. Compared to the rest of his body the mans legs seemed normal enough, almost short beneath such a huge torso; he wore dark combat trousers and military boots, with a weighty pistol strapped to one leg. As he emerged into the redtinted light of the Silver Palace, the mans face became clearer, reflecting both sides of his nature; one side was human real human, with eyebrows and close cropped hair while the other side was a blank faceplate, a single lens glowing fiercely red in the place of an eye. A smudge of grease or oil ran down from that robotic eye socket, looking for all the world like a teardrop.
I am Silver, said the man, pausing on the stairs. It was a rather redundant