Kitty Pryde, Pete Wisdom, Excalibur and the X-Men and all characters therein are trademarks of Marvel Comics. Doctor Who is a registered trademark of BBC Productions. This story is an unauthorised work done purely for my personal enjoyment, and is not intended to infringe on any of their rights in or their profits from these characters. But this story is copy write to me.

Comments, especially (constructive) criticism, always welcomed. Please e-mail me at

mshakespeare@callnetuk.com

Notes

< > indicates thoughts

* * indicates telepathy

Plastic Masks - A Pryde and Wisdom / Doctor Who crossover - Part 9

The car pulled up outside the hotel, and Alistair got out. He was pleased to see that the hotel was a good, though not too expensive one - though he should have been used to military conditions, he was getting too old for that sort of thing. <I won't say my bones have started aching, but I would have to admit, I'm no spring chicken. A little comfort is welcome at my age - though I won't say that in front of the Doctor, he'd just make some comment about being eight hundred years older than me!> The former soldier sometimes felt his age, when the wind was cold and penetrating, and had been happy to retire from active service, at least initially. But in the years since, he had often missed the sense of purpose which went with running UNIT, and had often wondered whether he'd left too early. But now here was his chance to get involved once more, and see his old, infuriating friend, the Doctor.

He walked up the steps. His erect stature betraying his past military career, he nodded to the smartly-dressed doorman, and walked inside. He handed his coat to the man in reception before heading in the direction of the bar. The Doctor had said to meet him there, and even if he hadn't, Alistair could do with a drink after the long journey.

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Pete moved into the factory warily, on the alert for patrolling night watchmen. He was met by deafening silence. The air was still and cool, nothing to betray the presence of anything living, or any machinery being in operation. He moved forwards slowly, using the machinery, conveyer belts and the like as cover, senses fully alert for the first sign of trouble. The factory seemed to have been shut down only recently, to judge from the fact that the valuable robots used in the manufacturing process were still present. They had not yet been removed, which led Wisdom to wonder where the office records had been removed to, something for which he still had no answer. <They seem to've left in somethin' of a hurry, judgin' by the fact that nothin's been packed for movin'. Almost as if they don't 'ave any further use for what's 'ere. That could mean their invasion plans're comin' to fruition.....>

He moved further into the factory. A sound reached his ears - the sound of booted feet moving on a hard floor. <Damn! Must be bloody security guards, more than one from the sounds of 'em. Anyway, nothin' of interest here, time t'go, ol' son!>

A small sound made him spin and raise his hands, hotknives at the ready. But it was nothing more than a small mouse running across the floor. He grinned wryly. <You were almost fried mouse, yer little beggar. Nice t'see the old reflexes ain't given up the ghost yet! Guess you never forget, like ridin' a bike!>

There was another sound. But this was definitely not a mouse. Outside the factory, someone had just discharged an energy weapon, one he knew from earlier experience. An Auton wrist gun had just been fired.

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Only Kitty's instinctive phasing had saved her, the shot passing right through her chest, to shatter a small tree behind her. As the Auton raised its hand for another shot, she moved by reflex, diving to one side and snatching the Shi'ar blaster from inside her jacket, as Lockheed unleashed a blast of flame straight at the alien killer. Its clothes caught fire, and the plastic of its face started to melt and trickle down its chest, but the fire didn't seem to harm it in any other way. She didn't wait to see if it would be slowed down or distracted by the dragon fire, she fired the blaster at the Auton's chest.

The Shi'ar weapon blasted the Auton's torso clean in half. The upper half spun away to land in the bushes, as the legs fell to the ground. As Kitty ran towards the office building, she noticed to her horror that the upper body was still trying to aim its wrist weapon at her.

A dark shape loomed up at her from out of the darkness, and she phased, levelling her blaster at it. "Oi, yer little twit! Don't point that friggin' thing at me, point it at the bad guys!" Pete grabbed her by the wrists. "I left you a bloody message, why did yer follow me?!"

"You stupid English jerk! You think I can't look after myself?! What the hell do you - oh shit!" She grabbed Pete's arm and phased him, as a volley of energy bolts cut through where they were both standing. Spinning round, the tall Englishman saw the three night watchmen - Autons, every one, arms outstretched to level wrist blasters at them. He unleashed a volley of hotknives at them - they punched through the assailants' bodies leaving smoking, bubbling holes, but nothing more. Even as he did so, Kitty raised the blaster to blow the head off the gate guard, who had appeared behind them, wrist gun levelled. The headless figure stumbled, then began firing wildly, unable to aim. Kitty blew the wrist off, then cut the torso cleanly in two.

"Okay yer gits, lessee how well yer fight with no bloody arms attached!" He cut loose again, this time severing the arm of one of the Autons and removing both its legs, then he ducked as a second one fired. Lockheed hit the third in the face, setting it alight, then the little purple dragon took careful aim at the wrist of the plastic figure and melted it, before removing its legs as Kitty had done. Pete hit the last standing figure with a volley of fire, severing both arms and both legs.

The sudden silence was almost shocking after the noise of combat. Pete got to his feet. "That'll bring a lot o' bloody attention, love! Time to scoot!"

The two of them ran for the wall, as more and more figures filed out of the factory. The office might not have been in use anymore, the factory might not have been producing anything, but it had not been left unprotected.

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"Kurt? Phone for you. It's Amanda, something about trouble. She's calling from Germany." Meggan smiled at the blue-furred leader of Excalibur, and he grinned back.

"Ach, whenever isn't it trouble? Danke, Meggan." And with that, he teleported to the phone in a cloud of sulphurous smoke. "Amanda? Was ist - "

The voice on the other end of the phone spoke quickly and urgently for some time. He listened intently, and made to speak but, before he could, the phone rang off. He put the receiver down as Meggan came up behind him. "So, Kurt, was it trouble?"

"Ja. Are Rahne and Douglock back from Blackpool yet?"

"Yes, I think so."

"Good. Call the team together, please. We're going to Germany." Kurt turned to go back upstairs again.

"But Kitty and Pete aren't back yet!" Meggan was surprised at his air of urgency - what now?, she wondered.

"We cannot wait. We leave in one hour."

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Alistair walked into the bar, looking around. It didn't take him long to spot the Doctor - nobody wore a scarf quite like that! And the woman with him - older yes, but recognizedly Liz Shaw. He smiled to himself - it felt good to be back with his old friends again, no matter how infuriating it could become! He strode over to announce his presence, but the Doctor was already rising to his feet, beaming with delight.

"Brigadier! It's good to see you again!" he boomed, his trademark huge grin splitting his face and his piercing blue eyes twinkling. "Oh, I forgot - it's not Brigadier now, you're retired, aren't you? Well then, I hope you don't mind if I call you Alistair. Alistair, this is Liz Shaw, in case you've forgotten."

"No, Doctor, I haven't forgotten", Alistair sighed - the Doctor's boundless energy could be both invigorating and infuriating, the latter in this case. He smiled at Liz. "Miss Shaw, it's been too many years since we last met. I hope your short time with UNIT didn't adversely affect your academic career? I believe that was one thing you were concerned about, and one of the reasons you left."

Liz smiled back as she took Alistair's proffered hand. "No, Brig - Alistair, it didn't. In fact, it might have helped. You see, meeting real alien lifeforms perhaps gave me a new outlook on life, the Universe and everything. After all, if intelligent life can exist elsewhere in the Universe, and so much resemble humanity in outward appearance and form, why should anything else, no matter how improbable, be actually impossible? Therefore, whenever I came across a problem that colleagues felt was 'impossible to solve', I said, 'nothing's impossible', and solved it!"

The Doctor laughed. "The true scientist speaking! Obstacles exist to be overcome!" His manner sobered. "And now, Alistair, it's time to tell you what we know about what's going on. My two companions and I - hmm." He glanced at the large, gold, pocket-watch he took from his coat. "They're not back yet -I hope they haven't run into trouble............."

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"Bloody typical, eh love? We've 'ad a pretty hectic day, an' what 'appens, we run into more trouble!"

Kitty sat silently for a few seconds, then suddenly lunged across the seat and grabbed him by the collar. "Wot the bloody 'ell d - "

"Shut up, Pete! What the hell were you doing, going off like that without me?! We're supposed to be a team, you idiot! If I'm not up to a mission, I'll tell you, I won't lie and risk both of us through pride - oh stop sniggering, it wasn't that funny! Dammit, Pete, don't you dare start protecting the little woman, or treat me as if I don't know what I'm doing and can't be trusted on a dangerous mission, or I'll kill you myself! Got it?!" The look on Kitty's face was enough to persuade him that she meant business. He nodded his agreement.

"Sorry, love. It's that ol' masculine protective instinct comin' into play. But, if yer don't mind me sayin', I been in this business longer than you've been a spandex-wearin' 'ero. I can look after meself, okay? So, it's nice o' yer to be so concerned, but I can 'andle meself okay. An' I wasn't the one what got caught, was I? But yer right, we're a team, an' I'm sorry. Can we go 'ome now?"

She slumped back into her seat. "Yeah. Home, James!" A sentiment reinforced by a loud snore from the back seat, where a little purple dragon had already gone to sleep.

"By the way, where did yer get the friggin' gun from? Toys R Us??"

***************************************

Halder looked up at Tyler. "The Stuart unit has been removed and replaced. We can now begin our plan to undermine the effectiveness of UNIT. The next stage must be the release of the energy units from their custody. With our Replica in place, that should prove an easy task. We must also prepare for the elimination of the humans who have been interfering in our plans - they are the ones who broke into our factory today."

"How do you know that?!" Tyler was incredulous. The factory had no security cameras that he was aware of - at least, none had been installed when Halder had taken over the production line there. "Did you install a security network there?!"

Halder stared at him in contempt. "We put in decoy cameras for the benefit of Ministry of Defense officials who investigated us to ensure our suitability to be the producer of their new equipment. But we had no need of them. You forget, everything made of our plastic has a part of the Nestene consciousness within it. Therefore, all that was needed was to have something within the factory containing just a little part of our intelligence, and we could know everything happening there without any need for such crude devices as cameras. And that is how I know that the two who broke in tonight were the same ones whom the Autons failed to stop escaping with the energy units. I do not know who they are, at least until we can make a full copy of the Stuart entity's memories, but whoever they are, they are a danger to us. And therefore, they must die, both of them. To that end, I will dispatch a number of Autons in the guise of soldiers to wherever they are based, so that they can be eliminated as soon as possible. Nothing must interfere with the arrival of the Lifepulse, and its housing in suitable conditions.!"

"Wh-what happens when it arrives?" Tyler had never found out before, and was not sure he wanted to know the answer, but felt he had to ask - he might never know otherwise.

"The Lifepulse has two major functions, Tyler. Firstly, it will entirely disrupt the global electromagnetic fields of this planet - radio-waves, Earth's magnetic field and the like. This will enable us to crush the human resistance to us - like all advanced lifeforms, they rely on their technology to defend themselves. The Life pulse will destroy computer systems, scramble radar, knock out satellites, forcing humans to rely on themselves, not their technology. And that will be their undoing, as humans without their technology cannot stop us.

"Secondly, it will have sufficient Nestene energy, at a frequency predetermined by us based on our previous experiences on Earth, to allow us to take over all plastics on the planet! Everything made by humans containing plastic will be under our control! They will be defenseless before us! We will avenge the defeats of the past! Earth will be ours!"

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"Doctor, do you remember the last time we encountered the Autons? I was just wondering, do you think the Master might be involved?" Alistair's voice held a note of concern - he knew just how brilliant, deadly and fiendishly cunning the man could be, and was hoping that the Master wasn't involved.

"Oh no, I don't think so. Call it a feeling, Alistair, but I think the Autons are behind this all by themselves."

"Who's the Master?" Liz asked.

"Of course, my dear, I forgot - you had left by then, it was Jo Grant who was my assistant! Well, the Master is a renegade Timelord, one of my people, who delights in causing misery and destruction, and is constantly seeking power for himself. Thoroughly evil, the man is. The first time we met here on Earth he was helping the Autons with their second attempt at invasion. Fortunately we defeated them, but he's tried to destroy Earth, or conquer its people, both alone and with the aid of others, on many occasions."

"Hello, your two friends are back. And they look a bit flustered. I suppose that means there was trouble after all, then." To Liz, this simply went with the territory, part of being involved with this whole business anyway.

Kitty and Pete had both come in the door, a sleeping Lockheed resting across the slim brunette's shoulders, as they argued about something. The disheveled state they were both in did indeed indicate there had been trouble.

"Well", Alistair went on, "now that they're back, perhaps we could discuss where we go from here with our investigation..........."

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