Late post. I've been busy working out; I want to lose some fat by the time I come back home. It's 8 pm in the night; I just want to sleep. Last week I only wrote only 400 words
My AirPod 4 left won't charge, so I reset the case. Now it can't pair back to my phone or anything else
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[THERMAL LIMIT EXCEEDED.]
The display dimmed. She stared at it, already feeling the stress and wishing she had kept working on it before she thought it was a good idea to fight something with
"Come on, there must be some way for you to shoot one more time."
[COOLDOWN REQUIRED.]
"No, no, no, absolutely not. We are in the middle of something that probably will kill us"
[COOLDOWN REQUIRED.]
Engineer lost it before she started to shake it in anger. "I'M GOING TO SCAP YOU STUPID PIECE OF CRAP"
The next Cyberman raised its arm cannon. Engineer looked at it. Then at the overheated Omni-Tool. Then back at the Cyberman, she shouted at it, "System, bypass thermal restriction."
{REQUEST DENIED FOR SAFETY PROTOCOLS}
"Override."
{DENIED.}
"Emergency override, goddammit, why did I put safety protocols on a weapon again?!"
{DENIED.}
She narrowed her eyes at this little shit. "Owner authorization, and if you say denied again, I'm ripping your wires, so choose your words wisely."
[WARNING: COMPONENT DAMAGE POSSIBLE.]
"Accepted."
[ARE YOU SURE?]
Engineer looked offended. "Don't patronize me." The Omni-Tool whined in her hand as power rerouted through the discharge system. The casing grew noticeably warmer, with glowing little red lights from the heat
She fired without a second thought about the damage. The EMP pulse struck the second Cyberman in the head. Its targeting system instantly glitched. The machine fired wide. The energy bolt slammed harmlessly into the tunnel wall instead of the UNIT barricade.
The Engineer laughed manically. "Yes! Taste my wrath!" She fired again. Then again in rapid-fire shots. Each pulse struck a different Cyberman. One lost coordination in its left arm.
Another staggered when its network link briefly dropped. A third froze mid-step before forcing itself forward again.
But the Omni-Tool also began beeping faster in warning
[OVERHEAT.]
She fired another shot.
[OVERHEAT.]
Another.
[OVERHEAT.]
"I'm aware! I'm not blind; I can see the warning!" Smoke started curling faintly from one edge of the casing.
The technician leaned around the cover. "Your device is smoking!"
"Yea i see it! I'm still finding the personality flaws! I did built it three days ago!"
The lead Cyberman finally recovered enough to move again. Its damaged head turned toward her; she could tell, even though it can't feel emotion, that it was annoyed with her, which she would take as a hell of an accomplishment.
The Engineer saw the arm cannon coming up. Her grin disappeared. "Oh crap." The weapon charged. She lifted the Omni-Tool faster than it.
[DISCHARGE CAPACITOR: 18%.]
"That's enough."
[NEGATIVE.]
"Watch me."
She stepped out from behind the pillar. The Cyberman fired right at her; luckily, its system was laggy hard with the EMP shutdowns. Engineer dropped low, the shot passing above her as she slid across the concrete and came up on one knee.
Her Omni-Tool locked onto the exposed machinery beneath the damaged shoulder plate. The reticle turned solid. She fired right in the hole…Pause. The EMP pulse hit directly inside the breach.
The Cyberman stopped, before having a cyber version of a stroke, moving like something was inside that armor. Its arm cannon died first. Then the lights in its eyes flickered.
The network icon on the Engineer's display vanished. The Engineer slowly stood. Oh."
She looked at the Omni-Tool. Then at the Cyberman. Then back at the Omni-Tool. A proud little smile crept across her face. "That was sexy."
The technician stared at her.
The commander stared at her.
Engineer cleared her throat; she didn't mean to say that out loud. "Scientifically, of course, I mean." Lucky. The commander pointed down the tunnel to change the topic
"More Cybermen." Engineer looked. Her smile disappeared.
"Right." She looked down at the Omni-Tool.
The display flashed weakly.
[BATTERY: 31%.]
[THERMAL STATUS: CRITICAL.]
[RECOMMENDATION: STOP! Madwomen!.]
Oof, going to need to upgrade the battery in this later and add a backup power, hmm, or might some kinda power drain like the Daleks that also self-repair. Though the problem with that: I need to find a Time War Dalek and dismantle it and deal with the mutant that lives in it, but that's just asking for me to get gunned down like a pig
The display flickered.
[Residual Signal Detected.]
The Engineer's smile vanished. "What now?"
No. Absolutely not. We have reached the maximum acceptable number of surprises. The System highlighted a faint transmission route leading deeper into the tunnels.
[External Cybernetic Signal: Detected.]
[Source: Unknown.]
[Direction: Below.]
The Engineer stared at the map.
The commander noticed the change in her expression."Tell me that isn't another Cyberman."
The Engineer slowly lowered her wrist. "It isn't another Cyberman." That answer is technically true and therefore deeply unhelpful.
The commander waited.
The Engineer looked toward the dark passage beneath the pumping chamber. The tunnel seemed to descend farther than the original plans should have allowed, disappearing into darkness that swallowed the emergency lights.
"It's something that was listening to them."
Something intelligent enough to stay hidden. Something that now knows we are here.
A distant metallic sound echoed from below.
It was not footsteps or standard machinery. It was a voice."TheENGINEER." The entire UNIT team froze. Engineer's fingers tightened around the Omni-Tool while she had a wtf face
What the hell did I do now besides offlining some cybermen? The voice came again, deeper and distorted by the tunnels.
"WE HAVE LOCATED YOU, THE CRIMSON STORM WANTS YOU BROUGHT TO HER IMMEDIATELY."
Huh, so this storm person was the one rebuilding them…I really hope this isn't an evil doctor. Most of the time, having storm in your title means you're a time lord with a killing habit
The commander raised his weapon and moved closer to the Engineer. Aww, he does care. That's nice… unless that's to get a backshot at me where I can't dodge damn i would kill for a Time Lord version of spider-sense right now
While she was thinking about this, behind her, one of the Cybermen she destroyed- the blow-decapitated head eyes were glitch red, staring right at her while scanning her whole person.
[SUB-OBJECTIVE ACTIVE.]
[FIND AND LOCATE: THE ENGINEER.]
[SUBJECT NAME AND PERSONALITY PROFILE CONSISTENT WITH TARGET.]
The Omni-Tool became the center of the image.
[SUBJECT WEAPON/DEVICE CODENAME: OMNI-TOOL.]
[MATCH FOUND IN CENTRAL ARCHIVE.]
[CURRENT SUBJECT APPEARANCE DOES NOT MATCH KNOWN TARGET INCARNATIONS.]
[POSSIBLE UNKNOWN REGENERATION.]
[CONFIDENCE: 90%.]
[TARGET PROBABLE: TIME LORD DESIGNATION 'THE ENGINEER'.]
—------
The first thing the Master noticed about the Cybermen was that they had absolutely no sense of presentation, despite possessing enough advanced technology to make their entrances considerably more impressive, and he made a mental note to redesign their arrival protocols if he ever acquired command of an entire Cyber fleet.
He sat comfortably in a high-backed chair before the main console, one leg crossed over the other while several stolen Cybernetic feeds hovered across the screens in front of him. Every display showed a slightly different angle of the underground facility beneath London, with grainy visual feeds, diagnostic overlays, network reports, damage assessments, and the occasional useless Cyberman status update competing for space across the monitors.
AN: This is the reborn master from the audio dramas played by Alex Macqueen; basically Lex Luthor, even got the bald head heheheh
Most of the information was terribly dull, although the Master had expected nothing else from Cyberman primitive surveillance systems, so he rested one elbow against the chair and watched another Cyberman collapse on-screen before flicking two fingers toward the display.
"Oh, honestly."
Across the control room, there was Tempest, a somewhat rogue time lord/ lady, was not watching the monitors at all because she was tending to an alien plant.
It grew from a shallow black basin beside the Gallifreyan interface, its twisting silver-green stems curling around a lattice of crystal supports while a single luminous bloom at its center glowed orange from within. The light pulsed slowly, warmly, and rhythmically, like the hearts of a Time Lord, and each pulse sent faint golden rings through the petals.
Tempest held a narrow glass vial in one hand and carefully poured a few drops of shimmering liquid into the soil. The plant responded immediately by unfolding its leaves and brightening until the orange glow reflected across her fingers.
The Master glanced over at her. "Are you sure it ok to feed it temporal energy?"
Tempest did not look up as she adjusted the vial between her fingers. "Chronal nutrients."
Tempest adjusted the vial between her fingers, her gaze focused intently on the shimmering liquid inside. "It's called chronal nutrients," she explained, her voice steady.
The Master leaned closer, crossing his arms, a bemused expression spreading across his face. "That sounds fancier, but it's just temporal energy with a prettier name."
Tempest rolled her eyes, holding the vial up to the light. "It's simply a plant," she responded, her tone dismissive as she studied the glow.
He raised an eyebrow, glancing at the vibrant orange plant nearby. "It's glowing orange like a Time Lord."
"It's an alien plant," she countered, setting the vial down beside the basin with a soft thud.
With a skeptical look, the Master pointed at the plant. "It has a heartbeat."
Tempest sighed, finally turning to meet his gaze. "Hmm, plants are living things too."
"It has a heartbeat," he insisted, crossing his arms tighter, clearly unconvinced.
Tempest's expression softened slightly as she placed both hands on the basin, leaning slightly forward. "Do you want to help?"
The Master glanced at the glowing plant, then deliberately turned back toward the flickering monitors, a smirk playing on his lips. "No."
"Then stop criticizing my gardening," she shot back, shaking her head with a smile, a hint of amusement breaking through her earlier seriousness.
"I'm not criticizing it. I'm observing that you've brought a living paradox into my control room."
"It was lonely."
The Master slowly turned his chair toward her. "The plant was lonely?"
"Yes, hard to find a friend with curse paradoxes on you."
"Of course it was."
Tempest returned her attention to the bloom and adjusted one of its crystal supports, causing the orange light to flicker before settling into a steady pulse.
The Master turned back toward the monitors, but on the largest screen the Engineer could be seen moving through the maintenance tunnel with UNIT personnel around her. The Cyberman feed was distorted from damage, so her image occasionally broke into horizontal lines before correcting itself, yet even through the poor signal the violet light inside her eyes remained obvious whenever she turned toward the camera.
Tempest glanced toward the screen while still holding the crystal support.
The Master noticed her expression and pointed at the monitor. "May I ask why you're smiling?"
"I'm allowed to smile."
"Not like that."
Tempest looked at him. "Like what?"
"Fondly, I thought you two hated each other." Her smile became slightly more obvious as she released the plant and stepped toward the screen.
Tempest let out a small, knowing giggle that started echoing. "That's what most people get wrong from the outside. It looks like we hate each other because I represent chaos and she order."
Master just raised an eyebrow at that. "Well, my dear, that's because it's true. I've never seen someone so in-to-becoming chaos itself."
Tempest turned to look at the master in the eye. "And you would be wrong, my friend; order and chaos can't exist without each other; they need one another. That's why, even though she has the name engineer, that time itself gave her that, supposed to represent order wherever she goes; she leaves behind destruction and chaos, all so she can change people's fate cause she felt pity for them, so she breaks the order of life and death.'
Tempest then turns to look at the engineer's picture, looking at the form she had never seen before up and down, which made her feel a little bitterness cause it meant she still doesn't know everything about her. "While I don't, I just leave the event to time. Most of my big booms were going to happen anywhere; I just made it a little bigger, but I never made it so wild that native life couldn't escape it." She then thought of something and let out a small laugh. "Ironically, I show more order than her; I won't go against cosmic order, unlike her, if she gets the craving."
The orange plant pulsed behind Tempest, casting warm light across the side of her face while she leaned closer to the display.
The Engineer was younger than the one she knew, and the difference was obvious immediately. It was not entirely physical, since regeneration made physical age a nearly useless measurement for Time Lords anyway, but it was visible in the way she stood, the way she checked the Omni-Tool after almost every action, and the half-second hesitation that sometimes appeared before she committed to a decision.
She was still learning herself, and Tempest found that far more interesting than she expected. This isn't like the engineer she knew a being that walks to a devil and use it fire for her cigar. She never once, since she met her, showed nervousness; above all else, hesitation. She remembered engineer going on a rant about hesitation, the mother of all failures
"I've never met this one," Tempest said, keeping her eyes on the screen. The Master's eyebrows rose as he rotated his chair to face her.
The Master's eyebrows rose as he rotated his chair to face her.
"That sounded suspiciously affectionate."
"It was an observation."
"You leaned closer."
"I wanted a better look."
"You have Gallifreyan enhancement software directly in front of you."
Tempest turned toward him and planted one hand on the back of his chair. "Do you want me to throw you out of your own chair? Or better yet, out the window. I kinda want to see if you cheat that kinda death from 30 floors up"
The Master smiled pleasantly while gripping the armrests."There she is."
The orange plant gave a soft chime from its basin. The Master glanced toward it."Did it just laugh?"
"No."
"It sounded like laughter."
"It was just your imagination."
The Master looked offended, and Tempest returned her attention to the feed just as the Engineer ducked behind a concrete support while blue energy tore through the tunnel and UNIT soldiers returned fire around her.
Tempest watched the Engineer raise the Omni-Tool. " That's new."
"What her wrist computer? It base functions are the same as her future one"
"The entire design; I saw her blueprint design in the academy. It was her main project, of course, alongside Omega."
The Master glanced toward the feed and tapped the console to enlarge the image."I rather like it."
"You would."
"It's compact, adaptable, badly overengineered, and appears to encourage reckless behavior."
Tempest gave him a sideways look while folding her arms. "So you like it because it reminds you of yourself, old man?"
The master let out a dramatic gasp." I'm not old; I'm still young"
"Hmm," she just let out a hum. "You were young 7,000 years ago
The Master tapped several controls, causing one damaged Cyberman feed to enlarge while Cybernetic targeting marks tracked over the Engineer's body, measuring her height, temperature, Artron output, chronometric structure, and several unknown temporal variables.
The Cyberman processing the image clearly did not understand half of what it was seeing, although the Master understood enough of the information to recognize its significance.
"Interesting."
Tempest moved closer to the console. "What?"
He enlarged the Artron analysis with a sharp movement of his hand.
"She's carrying less accumulated temporal residue than expected." Tempest studied the display.
"Young," she said, raising an eyebrow, leaning forward slightly as if eager for more.
"Very," he replied, a hint of intrigue in his voice. No Time Lord could ever find where the engineer was born or where her timeline started; it was like it poofed in the universe
"How young?" She tilted her head, her curiosity piqued.
"Difficult to tell," he continued, running a hand through his hair, his brow furrowing as he considered the tangled implications. "Because her personal timeline is already a tangled mess, even more than the doctors'."
Tempest smiled again, a mischievous glint in her eye, and the Master noticed her expression while leaning back in his chair, arms crossed thoughtfully.
"You really are enjoying this," he observed, a hint of a smirk playing on his lips.
"She's usually the one with all the answers," Tempest said, her smile widening as she relished the role reversal.
"Usually?" Tempest arched an eyebrow, arms crossed over her chest as she leaned against the console.
"My version." The Master turned his chair toward her with a sly smile, fingers steepled together.
"Your version?" Tempest looked down at him, tilting her head slightly, a spark of challenge in her gaze.
"Yes." She straightened up, her finger tapping rhythmically against the console, punctuating her words.
"You say that as though you own one." The Master leaned back, adopting a relaxed posture, but his eyes gleamed with curiosity.
"I don't own her." Tempest's voice was steady, but her narrowed eyes reflected a flicker of intensity.
"Mm." The Master feigned indifference, but his smile hinted at amusement.
Tempest narrowed her eyes further, her tapping finger pausing. "Careful." She stepped closer, her voice low but firm, creating an electric tension in the air.
The Master's pleasant expression remained perfectly in place, a mask of calm amidst their back-and-forth. "I merely find the wording interesting." He raised an eyebrow, his tone teasing.
"You find everything interesting when you think it will annoy somebody." Tempest rolled her eyes, turning her attention back to the monitor just as the Engineer fired another temporal pulse.
The room shook slightly, and a Cyberman jerked sideways, crashing against the wall with a metallic thud. Tempest's expression softened for a moment, her focus shifting to the chaos unfolding before her, the thrill of the moment flickering across her features.
The Master returned to the Cyber network and began sorting through the active channels with quick, precise movements.
The plan itself was straightforward enough because he and Tempest needed information for the Time Lords for what looked to be a war in heaven against the enemy, Faction Paradox. Some have been coming to this planet; the Cyber network beneath London provided information, and therefore the network had been allowed to continue operating just long enough for it to become useful.
Unfortunately, UNIT and the Engineer had arrived before the system reached the stage he wanted, which was inconvenient but not disastrous.
He disliked disasters unless they were the doctor.
The Master opened another diagnostic stream and pointed toward the Engineer's position.
"Your bloodhound is making rather a mess."
Tempest's eyes moved toward him immediately.
"You know they don't like it when someone calls them that, her include"
"She still is your leader of those mad-dogs you get around."
"She is not my bloodhound."
The Master pointed toward the display while the Engineer tore another Cyberman apart with a burst of energy.
"She tracked an unknown Cybernetic signal across London, broke into an active network, followed it underground, and is currently tearing apart every machine unfortunate enough to stand between her and the answer."
He smiled."Bloodhound."
Tempest considered the description before shrugging. "I've heard her called worse."
"Control her."
Tempest actually laughed aloud, and the orange plant pulsed brightly, sending a warm glow across the control room.
The Master turned toward her, spreading his hands in a wide gesture, his expression a mix of frustration and urgency.
"I'm serious," he insisted, his voice lowering slightly.
Tempest raised an eyebrow, a smirk playing at the corner of her lips. "That makes it funnier," she replied,
He ran a hand through his head, looking exasperated. "She's about to destroy the network," he said, glancing toward the digital map flickering on the screen, indicating imminent chaos.
Tempest shrugged, unfazed. "Probably," she replied, her tone nonchalant as she pushed herself off the wall to stand closer to him.
He turned back to her, desperation creeping into his voice.
"We need the network," he stressed, stepping forward as if trying to bridge the gap between them.
She shot him a challenging look, unfurling her arms with a hint of mischief. "You should have planned around her," she countered, a playful glint in her eyes.
"I didn't know she would be here," he admitted, throwing his hands up in surrender.
Tempest sighed, folding her arms again as she leaned back in, her eyes narrowing in thought.
"Neither did I," she replied, her tone now serious as they both stared at the screen, recognizing the weight of the situation.
"Well, now you do, so call her off."
Tempest's smile faded into something more thoughtful as she watched the Engineer move between two fallen Cybermen. "You're assuming she'll listen to me."
The Master stared at her.
Tempest nodded toward the screen.
"I told you that I have never met this version; I don't know if our cosmic contract would be enough for her to listen to me. Most of the time, she only went with what I want cause she found it adorable. And she might know me Maybe by reputation, or maybe not at all."
"That seems inconvenient."
"It is."
The Master looked toward the Engineer again and tapped the screen with one finger.
"Your bloodhound needs a leash."
Tempest's eyes flashed, and the control room lights dimmed for half a second while the orange plant's glow deepened as though it had sensed the change in the room.
The Master slowly looked back at her.
Tempest's smile was friendly as she stepped closer.
"Call her that again, and I'll put the leash around your neck."
The Master stared at her before smiling wider.
"Oh, I knew bringing you along was a wonderful idea."
Tempest returned her attention to the screen.
"She isn't mine yet anyway."
The Master caught the wording immediately and leaned forward.
"Yet?"
Tempest ignored that while watching the Engineer lift a damaged Cyberman weapon from the floor.
"She's a hound without a master right now."
The Master leaned back in his chair.
"That sounds considerably worse."
"For you?"
Tempest's smile returned.
"Yes."
The damaged Cyberman feed flickered, and the Engineer disappeared beneath a wave of static before reappearing closer to the fallen machine.
===========================
Wordcount-3796!!
I'm alive!!