Doctor Who_ The Forgotten Army - Brian Minchin [23]
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bloodthirsty call. But it was no animal sound... This was alien.
When it faded, Amy took her hands away from her ears.
'What was that?'
'I think we're about to find out...' the Doctor replied.
Green-tinged energy beams zapped from the bottom of the mammoth to the top, illuminating the inside with a crackly glow. The beams joined together, weaving around each other, until they formed a living, swirling sphere of green energy. Burning like a poisonous star, the plasma whirl of green light grew in strength, becoming brighter and brighter.
Amy shielded her eyes, as it swelled to twice its size and then shrank back down to its burning core. There followed a massive explosion of green energy, zooming out across the Zoo like a shockwave, making the animals ripple as it passed through them. It was a ripple that never lost its power. A wave that kept on crashing. Unstoppable, it spread out from the Zoo and made its way across New York.
At first nothing changed.
That felt weird,' Amy told the Doctor. 'It was like I was weightless for a second.' She waved her hand in front of her face. 'All my fingers working, and still not webbed. All looking good.'
'Amy, you know we said the Zoo was in the 90
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middle of the city... How accurate do you think that was?'
'It's pretty much the middle of Manhattan, halfway down the island, and right in the centre. Oh...' Amy stopped when she realised what the Doctor was thinking. 'So that green thing... this is probably where they wanted to set it off from?'
The Doctor nodded back towards the belly. 'This wasn't a mistake. This is an invasion.'
The marching noise had stopped. And standing in formation on the deck of the belly was a phalanx of hundreds of tiny, vicious alien soldiers.
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The aliens had heads like angry trolls, all hairy and mean, and wore huge spiked helmets like the Kaiser's army in the First World War. Their short bodies were festooned with weapons: vicious curved swords, stabbing daggers, hand grenades and the most extraordinary guns Amy could ever have imagined.
A high-pitched voice yelled 'Present Arms!' and the massed ranks of aliens raised the guns so they were aiming right at the Doctor and Amy. Their leader marched forward through the rows of alien soldiers, holding himself like a man who knows his rightful place is in command. He carried a baton, and had a magnificently plumed red helmet. As he passed each row, he bellowed at the troops, making 93
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them snap into order. They were all clearly terrified of him.
Only one thing stopped Amy from shrinking back with fear. The soldiers were about seven centimetres tall.
'They're like toys!' She burst out laughing. 'How cute.’
She stretched her hand out above the battalion to measure their size. 'Wow! There's a whole army of them!
Can I keep them, Doctor? Oh, please say I can? They had the perfect invasion plan, so long as no one stands on them by mistake.'
The first row of soldiers armed their weapons and aimed them at Amy's hand.
The Doctor was very quiet and very serious. He gently moved Amy's hand away, and addressed himself to the figure that was obviously their General. His tiny features were twitching with frustration and rage. Amy thought he looked like Wayne Rooney at his angriest and most stubborn, red faced and blotchy, ready to scream at the world at the least hint of subordination.
'Sorry about her, she's new, well, so to speak. I'm the Doctor, and what are you doing here?'
The General turned to his troops and signalled them to lower their weapons. He stepped forward, hit a button on his baton, and rose on a lift, until he was eye to eye with the Doctor. The little alien pointed his baton at the Doctor and scanned his
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eyes, then turned sharply to Amy and repeated the move.
'You confirm my observations. One humanoid, early stages of evolutionary development. No gills. Limited intellect. And one unidentified species.'
'Time Lord, Oncoming Storm, Defender of Earth, take your pick. But who