Doctor Who: Test Runner

We ran like hell was after us up the cold iron stairs, outpacing the Autons' rapid approach to the bottom of the stairs. Olivia was screaming and she even hit me a few times while trying to scramble away wildly without any thought. I kept a tight grip on her however, ignoring the blows with gritted teeth. My shoulder REALLY did not like being hit this soon after it was dislocated. But I was controlling my breathing to stem the flow of pain, so I just braced myself as I flung open the decrepit door all the way open and tossed the rabid girl next to her brother.

“Get out of here!” I called to the kid and then turned around with my spear in my good hand, ready to stop the five soldiers following us at the doorway. ‘A half decent choke point. If I could get them-’ I started formulating a plan with my wild and very strained mind, full of desperation to get the kids safe and out of the warzone, but an instant before I could put my thoughts into words, the black and white lined figures of the upgrades emerged into sight on the stairs to the second floor.

With a deep grunt of effort, I charged through the door once again and thrust my spear with hard determination, though that probably wasn't enough for a spear this unbalanced while injured. I could instinctively feel how much my spear was off by using it one handed however, so I tried to counterbalance it by holding it closer to the tip. It reduced my range by quite a bit… but it was worth it when my first strike hit true with the sharp crack of plastic snapping in the lead plastic man's head before it could react.

After the first fell however, it became a thousand times harder to deal with the other four that pushed their dead comrade off the stairs and out of the way, keeping their strong hands up and ready to deflect any attacks in a robotic but almost boxer-like stance as they marched forward to meet me.

I cursed and turned back the other way, running and nearly charging through the door and intending to head around the corner. I couldn't follow through with it however as I nearly ran into Oliver and Olivia who were, for some reason, standing still and arguing just in front of the door, Oliver trying to drag the stubborn girl away while she stood fast for some reason. But no matter what it was about, I was sure that despite how stupid the sight before me was, I didn't have time to solve whatever argument they were having. I ignored what they were saying and just ran to them without a pause, running on instinct.

“LISTEN TO YOUR BROTHER, FOLLOW YOUR BROTHER, AND GET OUT OF THE BUILDING!” I commanded, yelling in her face to get through to her. She seemed taken aback, but nobody had any time to do anything because in the next instant, the plastic men barged through the open doorway and they raised their arms, swinging them down to the closest intruder. Me.

I grunted and sidestepped the first attack of the leading Auton, but then I had to quickly move to the side and backwards once again because two of the emerging Autons fanned out towards me behind the other one. The fourth one didn't seem as intent to follow me though, and it stepped slower through the doorway. I barely saw it turning its head over the shoulders of its brethren, but it was unmistakable that it was looking at the cornered-looking brother and sister on the other side of the three Autons arranged before me.

It took a step. I felt a searing heat by my heart. It took another step. My vision turned red and I growled with pain, my view seemed to grow up just a bit as well, but I barely noticed it in my dull and pained mind. I could dully hear some shouts from down the hallway and I caught a glimpse of Oliver's friends coming in behind me with terror in their faces. It took one more step, and the Autons arrayed in front of me raised their arms with the fingers falling away with a slight clunking sound as they revealed their gun barrels.

I charged, my blood running hot and my mind blank except for the emotions of anger, hunger, but most of all RAGE. Not blind rage, righteous rage. The kids were in danger.

I felt fabric rip and suddenly my arm was free, my makeshift spear held firmly in both hands as I cocked my arm back and threw it into the Auton that was approaching Olivia and Oliver. It connected with a thunk and subsequent crack that rang out for a second, though it sounded almost dull to me as pain clouded my mind. The spear pierced through the thick plastic head and out the other side, connecting with the wall behind it and sticking into its stone surface.

I had no time to think about what I just did though. I was at the line of Autons, who were pointing their gun arms at my chest. But they seemed slow, and I stretched out my arms in an instinctual action and tensed my hand in a strange way, feeling a flash of pain coming from my fingers before I drove them forwards into the three with my bare fists and body. I felt powerful in that moment. Strong. Fast. I wasn't thinking, I was just doing.

I lashed out at the three plastic soldiers in front of me, though strangely I didn't punch them. I slashed. My open palms looked strange, though I didn't pay attention to them. I just slashed, and two dead upgraded Auton’s lay at my feet with deep claw marks in their heads, revealing a scraped orb of metal with similar claw marks. Then I turned to the last Auton, standing tall and loudly growling at it.

It was slow in my eyes. Turning around, it tried to point its gun hand at me. I was too fast. I crouched down and sprung at it with the power of my hind legs, flying into the air and then impacting the wall with a plastic man caught between me and it. I didn't feel the impact quite as I should have, it felt almost muffled.

The Auton didn't seem affected much by the impact either, as it was still moving and pushing at me with its arm while slowly trying to bring its gun arm to bear. I didn’t let it. I found that it stopped moving when I tore its head in half with my teeth, spitting it away. It tasted like plastic and oil.

I bared my teeth down at its body, feeling unfulfilled. I looked around me, my head clearing as my pain seemed to fade.

Oliver and Olivia seemed to be almost frozen in time and the place where they had been before the Auton tried to attack them, looking down the hallway where I had just been in what looked like fear in Olivia's case and wide eyed wonder in Oliver's case, their eyes seeming to slide slowly towards where I was. I turned my head down the hallway, and I saw the other teens doing much the same. Stopped dead in the hallway and staring slowly like time was still. Though their expressions differed a lot.

I tilted my head to the side, watching with wide eyes at the strange sight. But then I caught the scent of the unique oily plastic scent that was on the Autons and my instincts started howling at me sharply in my mind and I howled in response, turning my head sharply and starting to sprint on all fours like a bullet down to the stairwell that leads to the first floor. The hunt was on now.

P.O.V. Monque

I was walking through the hallway of the small modern house, out in the woods that was the joined realm and domain of me and Nemunue. It wasn't exactly a surprise that when we created a realm that combined our domains it shaped itself in the form that it did. A modern house, well modern in the world that the human we were sponsoring was from anyway, which I could see was one of the greatest trials and challenges of his world. Modern life in his world… couldn't compare to a dungeon.

And with it being surrounded by the wild, which is Nemunue’s main domain alongside survival, just made sense. She just went out in the forest for now, I remember her saying something was weird about the wildlife, something about wolves. So it was up to me to watch our-

My steps faltered when I saw a particular blinking red light on the large screen that took up the observation and meeting room of the house. Red was viewed as bad, so whatever was going on was most likely bad. I boosed myself with my legs to the room and I quickly looked over the screen with furrowed brows.

The screen was a bit of a surprise when it popped up. Me and Nemunue were content to watch through the divine anchor that was the quest system, but one day we woke up and went to this room and found it sitting innocently on the wall with a whiff of Universe Energy. I don't know how exactly they're even is a universal will as strong as the one in that insanely weird universe that Killiad named the Doctor Who universe, but I had only heard rumors of minor gods adding permanent things to a realm that was not theirs and especially not without notice.

In fact it was so weird that I suspected Nemune to be playing a prank for a good few minutes. But no, the damn universe will was somehow influencing the realm. It would be terrifying if I wasn't sure that I could prevent it from happening on a wider scale in the future. Not that I had done that. For all that happened inside the universe, the universe will itself didn't seem particularly hostile. More… playful. It had supreme power over its own universe, but it used it to create stories and events through its own strange timeline around a few people, in particular the Doctor.

In fact, if I had literally any other choice that did not lead to me and Nemunue dying of starvation I would have chucked it back into the Void where we had managed to find it. But I didn't, so I grabbed Killiads soul from a black market dealer in the underworld of some major god and inserted him into the universe. Fera, the world that Nemunue created, was a bit of a surprise to me when she told him though. I hadn't expected her to be able to alter the universe. But she told me that the universe will allowed it and even helped out once they talked it over. How a goddess and a universal will talk is beyond me though.

But I am getting off topic.

The screen itself wasn't that complicated, most of it projecting a three dimensional viewing screen with the edges covered with different switches, charts I couldn't understand and yes, lights. Red however, I had not seen before so I had to read the label and caused me to double take.

It was labeled “Divine Energy Detector” with a light blinking beside it that read, “Major Body Alteration Detector” that was blinking with a bright orange. The labels were a bit dubious, but I knew that they worked after some experimenting earlier. They seemed to be related as when I looked at the viewing screen I saw a mass of fur and teeth that was ripping apart an Auton soldier like it was a toy. A werewolf. Though strangely it seemed to have a stone grey, unlike its natural black fur, piece of artwork in the form of a wolf skull merged with its chest. I looked at it and I could feel the divine energy pulsing from it.

“How the hell did he find a divine artifact…?” I asked myself with furrowed brows. It wasn't a terrible thing to find, unless it was cursed or had some kind of link back to the maker's realm. Mortals can become very powerful in a universe with even weak artifacts, which was only a good thing. Something that was concerning however, was I had no idea where or when he could have gotten such a thing. And the fact that there seemed to be a latent direct connection to a god really amplified that concern a thousand fold.

I could block the signal and connection that it had, maybe even permanently, but that was all I could do. I couldn't even destroy the thing as it was a divine artifact from another deity. I guess I just have to figure out what the hell happened down there. And to think, I choose this quest to ease him into the universe. I suppose that after the universe will started interfering with the quest I should have figured that something was going to happen…

Killiad P.O.V.

I wasn't quite sure how I knew that all the Autons, upgraded or otherwise were dead inside the building, but I did.

I was inside the gym when I seemed to come back to my senses again, surrounded by at least two dozen plastic bodies that were torn and ripped into chunks across the floor. It looked like a massacre.

“Did… did I do this? What-” I asked myself horsley, staring around with an unasked question in my mind crowding my thoughts. I had done this. But how? The little I remembered from the fight, if it could be called that, was strange. I seemed to remember… I had claws? I had felt myself changing.

I had become something not human. But the strangest thing was… while I was whatever that thing that I became was… it felt normal. Better than being human even. The world seemed slow, I felt my mind was fast and strong and wickedly smart under the surface. But absolutely savage. Primal. I shivered when I thought back at the looks of terror on the teenagers faces when they looked at what I became, despite the lag caused by my mind perceiving them faster then they saw me, then I shoved those thoughts aside. Its not worth it to try and beat myself up for scareing some kids when I have no idea what the fuck happened.

I wasn't me when that happened. I don't know what happened, but I wasn't in control over my body. Not completely. I could feel that under the surface I was there controlling it, but it wasn't quite all me, like I experience as a human. It was interesting, and terrifying all in one. The body influences the mind, I guess? Souls exist, so I have no clue how all that stuff interacts with the physical mind, different bodies produce different experiences and tendencies I suppose.

But on a less scientific note, I took a seat to try and steady a sudden nausea and looked myself over, trying to ground myself in the present and not start losing myself in my thoughts.

My clothes had a few rips and looked stretched out now… I looked pretty clean and holding together really well all things considered. But what caught my attention was my arms. More accurately, the fact that they were both fine. The makeshift sling I made was gone, and my arm was hanging free without any pain whatsoever. It had healed.

But now I was hungry and thirsty and drained as hell. Probably some kind of backlash against the transformation?

I still have no clue how that ‘transformation’ happened. Maybe my patron deities stepped in to help me out? I would have died, and as far as I could tell they can't let that happen. Though somehow that explanation didn't sit right with me.

I remembered some burning sensation coming from my chest before the transformation, but that's it. Speaking of that, I looked down at my chest more closely, specifically the left side. At first, I didn't see anything. My leather jacket was looking normal on the surface, with the exception of a rip or two. But when I started my chest down, I noticed the absence of something. My pendant was gone…

I almost immediately looked into the pocket, only to find that it was empty. With a burn mark in the shape of the wolf pendant burned into the lining. I opened up my leather jacket and looked into the inside. It had the burn mark as well, though there were no holes. My shirt also had it in the same exact place. Then I grabbed the neck of my shirt and looked under my shirt.

There was a tattoo of a wolf's head, the exact shape and style that the carving on the pendant was.

That shocked me and I started moving my hand to touch it. I never had a tattoo. I hated needles. So how..?

Then it moved. Its face twitched and I could see its fur start flowing like it was in a wind, its eyes opening up, looking at my fingers and jaw opening in what looked like a wolfish yawn.

If I wasn't already sitting down, I would have fallen down in shock as my hands hurriedly retracted and I let out a ragged gasp of shock. I tore off my leather jacket and my black shirt, my heart racing and my mind reeling from what I saw. I tossed them aside and I found myself looking down at my chest in shock. It looked back at me, its head and eyes moving on my chest as if it was three dimensional in its two dimensional state.

“What the fuck… I- What?” I stuttered in a low tone full of shock.

“Well that's not a nice greeting, Killiad.” The wolf replied in my mind, its words resounding in my mind and sounding like an old woman general.

“Right… So, I am either very high right now or my pendant turned into a tattoo which is also alive.” I said to myself, giving my cheek a slap just in case I was sleeping. I wasn't dreaming.

“My name is Loupa, you know.” It commented with a sniff of disapproval. “Did the goddess truly tell you nothing? No, I suppose she wouldn't have had the time… And this doesn't feel like Tera. I thought I would have woken sooner.” It started talking, its dull feminine yet hard voice starting to play tricks with my mind as they bounced around. It was hard to understand what she was saying, but I got the gist of it.

“How… Just how did you get into my pendant? What are you?” I asked, haltingly with my mind thoroughly in shambles after everything that had happened.

“Ah… I am a spirit constructed by Adel Lupricada, goddess of wolves and imbued into your pendant to wake and allow me to bestow some power unto you when the time is right. Though this isn't quite where I had assumed we would be. Another universe, one of the outer universes at that.” It started explaining, then it turned pensive as its nose flared up, sensing something and seeming to think.

“Why? Why exactly did this goddess do that? Does she want something with me?” I asked, processing everything that the wolf told me at face value. Whatever she was, she was added to my pendant sometime during my life on Earth before I died most likely. At least that is what it wanted me to think. Though, if it knows that I wasn't from this universe then… that leant some credibility to her? But she also said that she was made to bestow power unto me. Me. As if this was a personal thing. As weird, nonsensical and unlikely as that sounds.

“I believe that her partner has plans for you. The Wolve-” She started saying calmly before breaking off suddenly. “Wait, something is wrong.” She announced, fear starting to crop up in her voice suddenly, and causing me to tense up slightly as I could feel her presence in my mind start to almost… peel away.

“NO! NO, YOU DAMN GOD, YOU MEDDLE IN THINGS ABOVE YOUR STATION! I AM A DIVINE ARTIFACT OF-” It started shouting in my head, and I could see its tattoo start to wrestle with something invisible, before it started condensing and cutting off the voice of the artifact in my mind and suddenly I could feel a heavy presence being forced out through my chest. The pendant rippled through my skin like it was water, and then fell to the floor in front of me with a dull thud.