Doctor Who_ Hope - Mark Clapham [24]
One attacker fired a stunblast at Silver, the energy bolt impacting on the naked flesh of his shoulder. A slight ripple of irritation spread across his skin, but otherwise there was no effect.
Silver turned to the man with the stunblaster, who had given up on the useless pistol and was running towards him with a forcehammer raised, letting out a lessthanlogical war cry. Silver slapped him away with the back of his artificial fist, snatching at the handle of the forcehammer with his human hand. The forcehammer was heavy even for him, but he swung it around, muscles burning as he raised it in the air, proof that the enemys weapons could be used against them.
Citizens of Hope, Silver bellowed, holding the hammer high as his opponent crumpled to the ground, knocked out cold. Defend yourselves and repel these attackers!
Ignoring Silvers Henry V routine, Fitz followed Anji as she scrambled across the floor, keeping low to avoid flying debris. She ducked through a doorway in the bar, flying glass landing in her hair as bottles exploded nearby. Fitz scurried behind, joining her by the driptrays.
Looking past Anji, Fitz saw that there were two members of the barstaff already hiding there, covering their heads and holding their hands over their ears. Fitz couldnt blame them with this racket. His head still ached from being half strangled with an electric noose, now this. To make matters worse, he had passed out and didnt have any idea why any of this was happening.
Then again, he thought, what else was new?
Sharp nails dug into the skin of the Doctors neck, clawing into his throat. Luckily for him his attackers hands were completely human, unmodified. Unluckily for the Doctor the arms behind those hands had been enhanced, putting an unnatural strength behind the attempt to strangle the life from him. He would usually be able to deal with such an attack, close down his breathing to render the assault worthless. But since his illness...
The Doctor felt everything around him become distant, heard the hot rush of blood in his ears, saw the face of his attacker become less and less distinct, the expression of loathing less visible. Blackness crept in, reducing his vision to a tunnel. He desperately tried to pull those hands away from his neck, to twist the arms out of the way, but his grasping hands found only steel and plastic, no muscle or nerves to be pinched.
Then he was free, his attacker dragged off him by numerous hands. The Doctor scrambled to his feet, one hand instinctively going to his bruised throat. He felt unsteady on his feet, his single heartbeat racing to maintain the pace so recently kept by two. Around him, Silver was directing the crowds to repel the Brotherhood, to cast them out of the Silver Palace. The Doctors attacker was being carried on the shoulders of the rabble, flailing helplessly as the melee moved towards the exit. A couple of the other Brothers were on their feet, running away from angry crowds. The Doctor saw Silver picking up one of the fanatics, throwing him across the room with one swing of his huge robotic arm.
A cheer went out across the room, and Fitz gingerly stuck his head out from behind the bar. The weird partrobot guys in the cloaks seemed to have been repelled, with the aid of the big weird partrobot guy. Fitz presumed that this was a victory for what nominally counted as their side.
Fitz staggered out from behind the bar. The Silver Palace was reduced to a battlefield; tables had been smashed to pieces, there was broken glass everywhere and there were occasional smoking patches where firearms had been discharged. There were a number of bodies lying around, but as they seemed to all belong to members of the group who had attacked including the one who had held Fitz captive Fitz found it hard to care too much, instead electing to divert his eyes and not think too hard about the humanoid remains around him.
Good God, said Anji in disgust. Fitz turned