first_in_time | Copy Cat

The taxi pulled up outside a rather tall and grand looking hotel. Barbara stepped out to stare upwards. There were tall buildings in London but there was something about being in a different city which made the buildings unique and fascinating. Despite how tired she felt after such a long flight, she could almost go for a walk to see some more but there would be time for that later.

A finely dressed man dashed toward the from where he had been standing next tot he doors. "Shall I take your luggage?" he asked Ian and Barbara once the cabbie, or taxi driver, had hauled it out of the boot.

"Yes, thank you," Barbara replied. She reached out. For Ian's hand and offered him a smile before they walked into the hotel lobby together.

Once they had signed in at what appeared to be a marble desk, taken the lift up to near the very top, and stepped into their room, Barbara turned to thank the man for bringing their luggage. She gave him a small tip, since she didn't have a lot of money on her, and shut the door behind him.

"Would you look at this!" she said to Ian, gesturing to the entire room. "You must be valuable to have the board so generously pay for you to stay here!"

Barbara trotted over to the window to look out, passing a bottle of champagne and a note which wished them both a happy first anniversary.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

splendid_roman

Not having his ear piece on, Ian couldn't answer. And none of the green men did either.

"Much as I appreciate you saving the planet, why can't you listen to me?" Ian shouted, angry that the green men were going to make a mess on Earth that he and Barbara were going to have to live with.

He broke off from that train of thought when they rounded the corner. "Barbara!" he shouted, just as the clones broke the lock and open the door.

From:

first_in_time

The green men that held Ian so tightly dropped him to run forward. It wasn't that they had ties with the individuals in the room, but more that the original copies would be stuck back in the Copier if the clones weren't stopped. Their mission couldn't afford that.

Barbara was hunched in her chair as the door opened. For a moment, she thought that Ian was returning to take her home but that wasn't what she saw. She didn't recognise those who advanced toward her, smirking.

From:

splendid_roman

"Barbara!" Ian shouted. He ran toward the clones that were advancing on her, but two of them had hold of her and were dragging her out of her chair by the time he got there.

"Let her go." He stood in front of the clones holding Barbara and shouted the order at them.

From:

first_in_time

Barbara tried her best to wriggle out of their holds and prise their tight grip off but they were too strong. She looked up at the both, frightened.

One of the clones scoffed and let go of Barbara to advance at Ian. He went to swing a punch at him but changed at the last moment to strike at Ian's stomach with his boot.

From:

splendid_roman

Ian was focusing too much on Barbara and not concentrating on what the clone was doing. So he was caught out by the kick, and folded over with a groan, his arms protectively round his stomach.

The clone laughed. "Going to stop us, are you?"

From:

first_in_time

The men which had been dragging Ian exploded into chunks of green goo, which hit the walls and covered the back of Ian's head. The clones laughed and Barbara struggled as much as she could. She called out her husband's name as she saw him bent over and clutching his gut.

All hope was lost. She was being painfully dragged back to the machine she had been saved from, and she didn't even have the strength to stand on her own, let alone break free.

And that was when she heard: "self destruct in fifteen minutes."

From:

splendid_roman

Despite the self destruct warning the clones didn't stop what they were doing. A couple of them grabbed Ian and started pulling him over to the machine too. He'd recovered from his stomach kick enough to struggle in their grasp, but not enough to break free.

Just as the clones were putting Barbara in a pod, the machinery suddenly shut down. The clones dropped her and Ian to race around trying to get it working again.

Since they weren't paying attention to them any more, Ian went over to Barbara and took her hand. "Let's see if we can find our way back out of here," he said quietly.

From:

first_in_time

Barbara lay panting and looked up at Ian. She grasped his hand as tightly as she could. "Yes but please, help me up."

From:

splendid_roman

He leaned down to put his other hand around her shoulders and help her sit, and then to get out of the pod. "You alright?"

From:

first_in_time

"I will be," she replied softly after being lifted so easily. "I just need to eat a good meal and sleep for several weeks. You?" Barbara chuckled a little, then coughed. With help from Ian, she got to her feet and swayed a little.

From:

splendid_roman

"I'm fine." His stomach still hurt and he was glad he hadn't had breakfast this morning, but other things were more important. He let go of Barbara's hand so he could put an arm round her and support her as they made her way out of the room, hoping they wouldn't attract any attention on the way.

From:

first_in_time

Barbara concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. She had Ian now. Everything else would be alright, but they had to get out of there.

The clones at the machine were too busy attempting to fix it to notice their captives limping away. And with all sirens blaring, most clones were far too preoccupied to pay much more attention as they sprinted past the couple in them Ian corridor.

From:

splendid_roman

They reached the door to the cupboard without any trouble. When Ian opened it he let go of Barbara, so she could step through, but then he hesitated. "There are other people in there who've been cloned. I have to go back for them."

From:

first_in_time

Barbara wanted to scream at the sight of herself dead on the cupboard floor, but she only managed a frightened squeak, and reached out for his hand.

"I'm not going to disagree with you," she said, "but you've only got five minutes until the place explodes!"

From:

splendid_roman

"I know." He took her hand long enough to kiss her and say, "Wait here. I won't be long." Then he turned and went back along the corridor.

From:

first_in_time

Barbara looked around the small cupboard. It was littere with brooms and mops, and other cleaning supplies. She had to do something about the dead clone on the floor. Aside from possibly tripping over it on their way out the hotel staff could come in for a dustpan and stumble upon it. Then what might happen?

Although she didn't have the strength, she had to try. Barbara reached downwards to take hold of her hand, when the door opened quite suddenly. A group of men and women dressed in black blinked at her. Barbara blinked back. What should she do?

"Well well well, Mrs. Chesterton. Almost an entire year to the day. I hope this doesn't become a regular marriage celebration," said a familiar American man. Captain Jack Harkness stepped forward and took off his black cap to grin at her. "If you actually are Mrs. Chesterton, that is."

In the silence, a voice rang out from the ship: "self destruct in three minutes."

From:

splendid_roman

Jack frowned. "Did you set that off?" He sounded as if he thought that was unlikely.

From:

first_in_time

Barbara frowned, "no! But Ian is in there rescuing the others taken by the clones. Follow this corridor right, you should bump into him. Go and help!"

Her tired body was beginning to give out on her but she had to keep her self together for just a little longer, just until she was out of the cupboard. She waited for Jack and his team to run past her before using the wall to help her out. Then, on the floor of the hotel corridor, she passed out.

From:

splendid_roman

There was chaos in the ship, with green men and clones running around the place. It meant they were ignoring Ian and he made it back to the room where they made the clones without being stopped. Once there he started unplugging them, but then he found they were all dazed and confused and not really well enough to be running anywhere. So Jack and his team arrived just in time.

From:

first_in_time

"We've got three minutes," Jack shouted above the din, "you unplug and we'll move them out. Let's go!"

A number of the original copies were already dead. Having one's life sucked from them and nothing replenishing it regularly tended to do that. The members of Torchwood ran back as soon as they had a person in their arms.

"Come on Chesterton, we've got less than a minute - we have to go!"

From:

splendid_roman

Ian didn't want to leave the dead ones - their families would want to know what happened to them - but they didn't have time and they had to concentrate on the living ones. He grabbed the last one himself and followed Jack back along the now-deserted corridors. He emerged in the cupboard and shut the door behind him just as the ship blew up, with a bang and puff of air from the other side of the door.

He was happy enough to pass the man he'd been helping along to Torchwood to deal with, then he asked Jack, "Where's Barbara?" She'd been in the cupboard when he left.

From:

first_in_time

Normally Jack would make some joke about two men in a cupboard but his mind was focused on other things.

At Ian's question, a voice called from the corridor: "out here!"

One of the field men was checking her over. "She's alive but only just. We'll need to keep an eye on her, and the rest of these people. It's seems that the machine or Copier sucked every nutrient from their body, leaving them with just enough to barely function."

From:

splendid_roman

"Will she be alright?" Ian rushed over to Barbara and put a hand on her shoulder. "Can you do anything for her?"

"We'll get them all back to Torchwood, we'll soon have them revived." Jack clapped a hand on Ian's shoulder.

Ian wasn't sure he liked the idea of Barbara being taken off to Torchwood, but he liked the idea of her being barely alive even less. "Alright. I'll carry her."

From:

first_in_time

"Alright. Out the back way - less chance of being seen that way and will someone please do something about the dead Barbara in the closet? Would hate for management to find that." At seeing Ian carrying a barely alive Barbara, Jack added: "sorry."

From:

splendid_roman

Ian had winced, but said, "She wasn't Barbara, she was just a clone." It didn't make it any easier to see her dead, but at least he could be sure that he had the original, and that was the only Barbara he wanted.

Out the back it turned out they had a fleet of cars. Ian was directed into the last one and he put Barbara down on the seat beside him. Jack sat on the seat opposite and they were driven off.

"What are you doing here?" Ian asked him, and then added, "Not that I'm not grateful for the help." He just wasn't particularly pleased to see him, after their last meeting.