Doctor Who_ Hope - Mark Clapham [23]
One down.
Miraso ran in the opposite direction to the Doctor, running up behind the back of a confused Brotherhood member while drawing the stubby pistol strapped underneath her jacket. With one fluid motion she raised the pistol to the back of the mans head and pulled the trigger, the shot flying clear over the head of the hostage hed been holding to his chest with a knife to her throat. Miraso pulled the corpse towards her as it fell, pushing the twitching knife arm away so the shaken hostage could slip out without harm, bloodied but otherwise OK.
The two humans lying on the floor, one cradling the head of the other a baffling anomaly for sure almost distracted Silver from the two cult members running up behind them. Almost. He raised his artificial hand and activated the gun built into the back. A headsup display appeared over the image in his synthetic eye, outlining potential life signs. He locked on to the two attackers and released a couple of explosive charges, which flew over the heads of the two humans to hit the two men directly in the chest.
The female human was looking up at him in openmouthed awe, and Silver nodded chivalrously, as if to suggest his actions were purely for the benefit of her defence.
Anji had nearly lost control of her bodily functions as Silver had raised his hand, the little barrels extending out of the back. For one split second, in spite of there being numerous targets more dangerous in the vicinity, she had thought he was going to kill her. It was an instinctive, primal reaction to having a weapon raised in ones presence, a gut reaction of fear and a desperate urge for selfpreservation. It hadnt helped that Silver had fired a couple of shots over her head, and shed swung around to see two members of the Brotherhood of the Silver Whatsit flying back, their chests opened up by Silvers exploding bullets, yet more blood spraying across the room.
She looked back to Silver, who nodded politely in her direction. Anji didnt know how to react, so strange was this almost dainty gesture performed by a giant war machine of a man. All she could do was nod in reply.
Wurrrrrhhh, murmured Fitz, whose head was still lying in her lap.
Wake up, Fitz! barked Anji, slapping him hastily on the cheek. We need to move.
Wuz ate in, mumbled Fitz blurrily, but he opened his eyes nonetheless. Anji felt the tension in his shoulders as he realised where he was, recognised the sound of gunfire and brawling. He began to scramble to his feet.
The Doctor ducked and weaved towards his second target, who still had a hostage and was holding a microblade. The man swung the blade around to threaten the Doctor, at which point his hostage elbowed him hard in the gut. The winded man staggered, and it was a simple enough process for the Doctor to distract him by waving one hand while snatching the weapon away with the other. The man snarled, revealing a plastic air filter instead of an airway inside his mouth, and lunged for the Doctors throat.
Mirasos knees buckled under the weight of the corpse, but on hearing a clicking behind her she swung it around as a human shield, ducking down as she raised her gun. This new attacker had claws crudely implanted in the back of his hands, and as he swung them down they embedded themselves in the body of his late compatriot. Miraso, deciding on nonlethal force, chose not to use her gun and instead pushed up behind the corpse, so that her assailant couldnt get his claws free. He cried out as she pushed all three of them over, and he crashed down on to his back with the body on top of him. Miraso for her part rolled off, landing in a crouch and reholstering her gun. Before her attacker could push the corpse off him