Black Rock City 2011 Guest Friendly Story

[Scott Pilgrim]

((Oops, sorry Sarah-Jane. I'm going to pull out of Black City for my own reasons.))

[Sarah Jane]

She got the lid off the crate. One of many crates. The contents were a work of a lifetime. A lifetime of communicating. A lifetime of rebelling. A lifetime of Travel.

And, she hoped, Inoculation. Something, once seeded, that might help protect all that was beautiful about the human race. It wasn't much to see now, gray globes all piled in together. It would be powered by the human hand. She picked on up, it was smooth, weighty and strong. Cupped in her palm, it glowed. The images began to play silently. Her smile was just growing when she heard and old familiar voice in her head. Denatus Lux.

'Sarah Jane?...I believe you asked for help?' his rich mental voice was unmistakable. She closed her eyes and thought to him:

'Yes! Denatus Lux, I am here!' She imagined with all her focus the outlay of Black Rock City, and where she was within it. Then she focused on the image of the giant inflatable TARDIS. 'I'm here.'

When she shook her head loose from their conversation, she realized she'd missed something. Two drunk men. At Burning Man? That was very odd. It was not a drinking crowd. The first was simply making a ruckus, and was soon toted away by his more sober friends, one of them giving her a salute and shrug of embarrassment for his friend's abrasive behavior. The other. . .the other drunk man was after her daughter.

Both of them, apparently, she thought, recognizing Lutessa from the future instantly. How could she not? Feeling anger boiling up she strode up to intercept the retreating taunter, taking two fistfuls of shirt in her hands and bringing his horridly fragrant face close to her own.

"Mess with my girl again, and you will regret it, Malachi. I guarantee it." She took a good look at his face so she would know it. She shoved him away from her and away from those starting to gather at the TARDIS. In her peripheral vision, she was catching glimpses of familiar faces. Sarah Jane had bigger fish to fry, and it seemed Lutessa was a fair hand at protecting herself in more ways than one.

It was Lutessa the older she went for, catching her by the shoulders and smiling grandly at her.
"Well done, Tessa, well done. I bet I told you not to come, didn't I? I'm glad you did."

She pulled her into a hard hug, whispering in her ear, "You were crazy to come." But Sarah Jane was obviously pleased.

[Jack Harkness]

Denatus Lux:

The welcome and warm human voice in his mind would have made him smiled. And somewhere along the way the Lux had learned how to show. A golden grin appearing on his face before he vanished from his spot.

Golden light announcing his arrival as he appeared right next to the large and inflatible TARDIS.
It seemed his first human friend was a tad bit busy though.
The cheshire like grin vaporising from his 'face' as the black swirls settled in once again.

'Am I needed to alert Torchwood?'

Torchwood had been the first group of humans he had met. And after a little bit of a fight they had proven themselves very worthy of his trust. They had been one of several places Denatus could go to when he needed anything. And in return they could ask him anything.

Also, the Lux had learned so much from their current leader. Certainly about the human mating rituals. Which they prefered not to talk about. (which was odd in his point of view'

[Owen Harper]

He had acquired a space suit that they use with the astronauts at NASA on the Space Coast in Florida. It was expensive but it was to protect Owen from elements.

He had no problem walking in the suit because he did not have worry about feeling. It was wild. He was here because he was looking for Sarah Jane and he was going to be here about and he wanted to be sure she is safe. He try to stay low, which the suit will be a beacon but he fit in. He had a tracking thing on his left arm. He was using that to find Sarah Jane. It was showing more activity as rift activity. What was Sarah Jane up to now?

[Blue]

“That sounds like a lively occasion,” the Doctor commented. Blue twitched his shoulders restlessly, attempting to shrug. It was quite certainly a lively occasion. The natives had decorated themselves with bright colors as they entombed the dead body. He hadn't quite understood why death was something to be celebrated, but perhaps that was because he couldn't understand things that died. Birth was something else he never understood – he had never been celebrated when his 'parents' had put him into existence. Not that he knew them for more than three years. And for Blue's age, three years was less than a blink of an eye. “Sometimes,” the Time Lord said shortly, answering Blue's question whether the Doctor's species had festivals.

“I wouldn't be so quick to judge the inhuman, my friend,”

“I know. I'm not human and you're not,” he said blandly. He started to try and defend his point about how sometimes a Djinn's intuition wasn't something to be shot down so quickly, but he dropped it. Still, he smelled something dangerous. Literally.

He flapped his wings, looking over at the rendition of the TARDIS. SJ? he wondered. He quickly went through all the SJs that he knew. San Jose? Show Jumping? Subang Jaya? But none of those made sense. He knew a woman once – who signed some of her informal papers as 'SJ' – but... she wouldn't go through this. But she had seemed to have a flare for dramatics.

Nonetheless, he turned to the Doctor and nuzzled him. “What is it?” he asked.

---

Susan smiled mildly at the line of questioning the younger Alec Harrison was putting her through. “I'm only here because...” she trailed off, unsure whether or not he was paying attention to her. Slightly exasperated, she followed his gaze to... the other Alec. She blinked, and looking down at the man she was standing in front of. They were both Alec. She caught the younger one by the shoulders, stumbling backwards slightly under the unexpected weight. She pushed him back on the chair.

She looked over at the older one – just in time to see him wave cheerfully at her. She rolled her eyes and grinned, waving at her best friend. Why can't things ever be normal when I'm with him? she wondered briefly, but immediately crushed the thought. 'Normal' implies 'boring', something that Alec Harrison was quite certainly not.

As he walked over, Susan busied herself in replacing the Dark Lord's sunglasses and headphones.

“This is going to be complicated,” Alec said, smiling sadly at her. Susan's heart leapt in her throat at the smile. She rubbed her neck and pulled her hat down to cover her blushing face. No, no, definitely not a blush; she was sunburned. Yeah. That was it.

“Maybe,” she said with a small shrug. “What should we do with... him? You? Uhm...” she looked down sheepishly at her hands. “Anyway. I wouldn't say you're the only reason this is going to get complicated,” she said, motioning towards the inflatable TARDIS half a mile behind her.

She looked at him, a bright smile on her face. “I'm going to help you,” she said.

[The First Doctor]

Meanwhile, in the civilian housing at Camp Franklin Rock...

"Well, that's just nonsense," Amanda Hayes - "Mandy" to her husband and other friends - snapped. She was a small, pleasantly rounded woman with freckles and frizzy red hair and large cat's eye glasses that made her hazel eyes look bigger than they really were. She jabbed her husband in the ribs, ignoring the feel of plastic and metal under her fingertip. "You are not a monster, James Harrison Hayes, and I will not let you stand there and say you are!"

"I didn't say I was," Jim protested. He was a handsome man with a curiously inexpressive face. His hair was close-cut and black, his eyes dark, his nose aquiline, and his skin skin nearly the color of copper. "I said she looked at me like... like... like she pitied me, and like she was afraid of me." He shivered at the memory. "That's not what I wanted."

Mandy reached up and grabbed him by the shirt front, pulling him down so she could look her husband the eyes. She knew they were plastic, concealing silvery lenses, but she didn't care. They were his. "I don't pity you," she whispered, "And I'm not afraid of you." She kissed him then, wishing the doctors had been able to restore more of the mobility to his face, grateful that they had given her back her husband.

A high-pitched voice shouted "Eeeewww!" from the next room, and giggled.

---

Christopher Mesler caught Jasmine Hayes by the wrist, and half-dragged her away from the kitchen door. "Leave them alone," he adminished with a smile.

"Yuck!" the eight-year-old declared. She was small and thin, with her father's hair and nose and her mother's eyes and skin tone.

Chris grinned. "I've seen you kiss your dad before."

"That's different!" Jasmin retorted. "He's my daddy!"

Shaking his head, Chris sat tailor-fashion on the floor in front of a tub of legos. "Come on," he said, "You said you wanted to show me something."

"Yep," she grinned. "You showed me how you can put a big box inside a little box, right?"

"Right..." Chris said, slowly.

"Well, I did it!"

"You did?"

"Yeah! Watch!"

Chris watched curiously as the young girl began assembling the legos. First a small box, six pegs by six pegs by four blocks. Then a larger one, eight pegs by six pegs by six blocks. Setting the small box on top of the large, she ran up the stairs.

Chris waited, idly listening to the drone of the television. In a few minutes, she came down the stairs, taking them two at a time, holding a recorder that had been customized with what appeared to be parts from an old wind-up clock.

"What's that?" he asked.

"The important part!" she said.

"Really?"

"Yes!" She touched the end of the recorder to the top of the small box, screwed her face up in concentration, and played. Music was not produced. Instead, the instrument produced an odd, atonal wailing sound that changed rhythmically in pitch. After a minute or so, the noise faded away.

Jasmine grinned, and handed him the small box. Chris smiled back. "The big box is still on the table."

She gave him a look. "Look inside," she insisted.

Chris held the little box to his eye and realized, with a start, that it was showing the ceiling. From the perspective of the big box on the table. Intrigued, he poked a pencil into the little box. The tip protruded from the big one. "Now how did you do that?" he asked.

"You said the big box isn't really inside the little one," she told him. "It's just somewhere else. The table's somewhere else, right?"

Chris laughed. He laughed, and laughed. "You're making fun of me," Jasmine pouted.

"No," he laughed, "Sometimes, Jasmine, grownups laugh because they're happy. And that was amazing!"

The girl smiled.

Chris was about to ask another question, when somethng on the television caught his eye. "Hey, Jim?" he called.

"Busy!"

"I think you need to see this."

Jim leaned against the frame of the kitchen door, his largely immobile face trying to look annoyed, lips a little puffy. "What?"

"Check the TV."

"Yeah? An inflatable phone booth at Burning Man? You called me out here for that?"

"Not a phone booth, Jim. A police call box."

"So?"

"So think about it, Jim. It's a giant, inflatable blue box."

"And?"

Chris sighed. "One could even say it's a majestic inflatable blue box."

Jim went silent for a minute. "You don't mean..."

"I do."

Silence for another moment. "Honey? I've gotta make a phone call."

"Right," Mandy said from the kitchen, just a touch disappointed. "I'll just finish dinner, then."

Chris stared at the footage. What are you playing at , Ms. Smith? he wondered. What indeed?

[Alec Harrison]

"What is it?" the Djinn asked.

The Doctor was already gaping. She had seemed a little open-wire, but, he realized, this was slapping him in the face.
"My calling card, from a very outgoing lady... Sarah Jane Smith, also going by SJ, travels with who I only recently discovered is a future version of myself."

He turned his head to face the dove.
"This is most strange indeed."
_______________________

Alec stepped back as she caught the younger incarnation of himself. It seemed a bit rude- germaphobic even -but he was justified by chronological stuff and all that jazz.
"Excuse me, but I'm afraid I won't be able to make physical contact with him... Me... Us... For a not-so-simple reason. Mostly because- and excuse the technobabble -the binary DNA helixes are forbidden from coliding due to the natural Blinovitch Limitation Theory and the fact that if I spread my own past germs to myself my own bloodline would reverse its flow and send me back through each incarnation until my first, eventually disentegrating my atomic particles and reducing me to nothingness. Savvy?" he rambled.

Wiping imaginary sweat from his forehead he returned his complete attention to Susan.
"My final conclusion? This is going to be complicated."

“Maybe,” she said with a small shrug. “What should we do with... him? You? Uhm...” she looked down sheepishly at her hands. Alec did the same. He knew he had probably made the conversation awkward with his DNA, bacterial jabbering. “Anyway. I wouldn't say you're the only reason this is going to get complicated,” she said, motioning towards the inflatable TARDIS half a mile behind her.

"Indeed not," his best charming smile, "But I can at least try to be a contributing factor."

[Blue]

Blue nodded and switched shoulders again, fluttering his wings. “I know who Sarah Jane Smith is,” he said quietly. “And her daughter,” Blue chirped, looking cheerful. He paused in his speaking as the Doctor turned to look at him. Blue attempted to smile, but smiling with a beak proved to look horrendously awkward, so Blue decided to stop for both of their sanity. “Most strange. I agree,” he said, chuckling at the little man’s wording. He flew off the Doctor’s shoulder, flying in a lazy circle around the man.

“I used to work for her. I taught about keeping the peace,” he said, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. He flew behind the TARDIS, morphing into his human figure. He hurried over to the Doctor, wearing his normal sheepish smile. He held out his arm. “Should we find her? This Sarah Jane Smith?” He looked down thoughtfully. “I don’t think she would know me.”

---

Susan quirked an eyebrow as he began to speak at her. She listened silently and crossed her arms, walking up the older incarnation. She kept her hands to herself, wondering if Time Lords even really listened to half the rules – even the ‘theories’ – they set out for themselves. Excuse the technobabble. She gritted her jaw. He sounded just like the Doctor. Whenever he was about to say something incredibly over-complicated and pretentious, those were the exact words he would say. And, in later incarnations she was forced to have met, they took the embarrassing way of explaining something and then ending it with ‘timey wimey stuff’.

As though she wouldn’t understand…

“Sometimes, Harrison,” she said, an icy edge to her voice, “I wonder if you remember that I’m also from Gallifrey.” Her blank expression shifted, and her lips twitched slightly into a smile. “Savvy?”

She had just been recovering her cool from earlier when the idiot of a man smiled. And not even a simple smile, it was like he was intentionally trying to become a heartworm. “U-uh…” Smooth. Think, Ark.

“Ahem. Well. We should… do something, yeah? I mean…” she trailed off, her mind still slightly disconnected. “It’s hot. Out here. The weather. Uhm, it’s… impeding my ability to form coherent sentences, much less thought processes.” She turned from him and began walking away from the TARDIS. “Come on, Harrison! I don’t know what I’m doing.”

She held out her hand out and wriggled the fingers, waiting impatiently for him to take it.

[Sarah Jane]

"I have a bad feeling about this." She said, pulling back enough from Tessa to get a look at her. Then she was looking dubiously at the sky.

"I need you to be a human megaphone for me, all of you! All of you!" She gestured at her friends, she gestured at those around her. "I need to be heard!" She is running back to the crate that holds the gift she has brought them all.

"Tessa, Lutessa, Kinzy, bring this over near me." Izzy had already brought the ladder. She went up a few rungs. "I need all you helping to repeat after me."

((And that goes something like this. Pay no mind to the words. Sarah gives her speech below))



"I have a gift for you all, come close! Gather 'round, I have a gift for you all! I have something to say!"

"This is the 21st Century where everything changes! And you have to be ready!"

"I want to give you something to help you be ready!"

"Something to help you remember the joy of being human!"

"To help teach you the signs of when we might be loosing everything we are!"

Then she gave the signal to the girls and the rest that it was time to start tossing their gift into the crowd. Strong, round, smooth. Not too heavy. Powered by the human hand.



Held by a single person in the palm, it played footage off all the best humanity and Earth had to offer. Everything from a child's birthday party to dancing in the Congo, to the art of Burning Man. If two people held it, there was music and audio as well, laughter and drums.

If the globe was clenched in the fist, images of Cyberman technology and war was displayed. Daleks as well. More people holding it tight in a fist brought fourth the audio of this unfortunate footage.

"We are not alone in the Universe! There are Others out there!"

"Some of them will tell you you are defective! We are not defective! We are Human!"

"We will not be Bullied into loosing our flesh and our blood and our human, pink wrinkly minds, even when they tell us we are weak!"

"If you clench your fist, you will see the bullies who may come to try to change us."

"If they cannot barge their way in, they'll sneak in. They'll seep in!"

"We must resist their technology, no matter how tempting!!"

"There in your clenched hand it shows you the only place giving in leads to!"

"They might be able to silence me, but they can't silence all of us! Not with the world watching!"

[Owen Harper]

Owen was approached by a female that gave him the globe to look at. He did not like what he was seeing, but he was listening to what Sarah Jane was saying. God, she was like an angel of wisdom. He remembered that he read from the proverbs in the Bible. Wisdom came out on the streets, she cried in the gates of the city to warn the people where they are heading. It was like Jack was when he was preparing Torchwood to guard Earth and hear was Sarah Jane who was making a huge stand.

Owen did not like the Cybermen in the sphere. Were they planning to come again? What are they like un-emotional robots? He looked up to try to see Sarah Jane. He knew she was drawing attention and there could be someone in the crowd will want to harm her. He was trying to find his way though he crowd to get to her.

Moving through he was trying to tell the women he must speak to Sarah Jane, he tried to force them but they seem did not want to abide his wishes. He was hoping he find Sarah Jane.

[The Master]

The great ship applied breaking thrust as it passed within the orbit of Earth's moon, slowing to a comparative crawl. Detecting attempts at communication from UNIT's moonbase, it responded by launching a half dozen dull grey orbs on an intercept course with the moon's surface.

Less than fifteen minutes later, it was inside the orbit of the International Space Station, and still ignoring all attempts at communication.

"janNISarY uNIts hAVE mADe cONtACT wITh thE hUMaNS In thE saTELliTE bASe," stated one of the figures.

"sTAtuS?" asked the black helmeted figure.

"rESisTANce iS hEAViEr tHAn anTICipATEd. tHERe iS eVIdeNCE oF nONtERRestRIaL wEApONs. tHE CEntURioN sTAtES tHAt tHEy wiLL sUCcEEd, wITh a 47% cASUaLTy rATe aNd Two hoURs BEhInd scHEDulE."

"acCEPtABle," stated the black helmeted figure.

The ship encountered the first whisps of Earth's thickening atmosphere, quickly finding itself sheathed in plasma as the enormous velocity superheated the tenuous gasses. More of the spheres deployed, launching away in great circle arcs.

Quick as it came, the plasma sheath died away. Still braking, the vessel hammered through Earth's atmosphere at great multiples of the speed of sound, on a direct heading towards Nevada. More of the spheres launched away, racing ahead.

---

As the spheres became visible over the festival they shredded, exploding into a mass of radar-confusing chaff. Humanoid figures, encased in dull silver, the actinic fires of jet units blazing, dropped from the center of each sphere. They struck the ground hard, knees flexing to help absorb the impact, then straightened. The crowd laughed and applauded at the dramatic entrance, although some glanced at the orbs they held with nervous eyes.

They were of a uniform height, each just slightly under two meters, encased in dull silver armor. Their helmets were expressionless masks, two dull silver circles for eyes and a dull silver slit for a mouth, handles emerging from where the ears would be to connect at a lamp-like structure over the top center of the skull.

"We arE cALLed cYBermEN. We wERe ExACTlY liKE yOU oNCe, BUt Our raCE wAS gEtTINg weAK. Our liFE spaNS wERe gEtTINg sHORtER, sO Our dOCtORs anD sciENtISTs deVISEd spARE pARTs FOR Our bODies UNtil wE cOULd bE cOMpLETEly rePLAceD," one of the figures announced.

More shouting. More cheering.

"yOU mUSt coME anD livE wiTh uS," one of the figures announced. "We haVE fREedOM frOM diSEAsE, prOTecTIon aAInst heAT anD coLD, trUE maSTEry."

One of the revelers danced forward, laughing. "Sweet, man! I read all about this in Kurzweil's book. Hook me up with my transhumanism!"

The Cyberman looked at the speaker, then produced two small, spiked objects. With a rapid motion, the spikes were driven into the speaker's skull. He screamed in pain for a moment, then stopped. His posture became rigid.

"waIT tHErE," the Cyberman directed. The bleeding man complied without further reaction.

"coME To tHE cYBermEN and yOU wiLL Be liKE uS. FRee frOM dISeaSE. FRee frOM wanT. FRee frOM emoTIOn."

The score of Cybermen produced more of the spiked devices and began to advance into the crowd.

[The Inventor]

The Inventor saw a mass a people gathering and went over to it. He saw people holding globes and a few passing them out. Going into the crowd, he got one and saw families playing, beautiful scenery, and people in love. For some reason from his past that he couldn't remember, this made him angry and he clenched his fist around the globe. Different enough to shake The Inventor out of his rage, the images a barren wastelands with robot armies made him feel a pang of regret, for whatever the things were. Suddenly, he noticed that the globe was an interesting piece of technology. So, he went up to the front to see who was giving out this hand-powered technology.

[Archetype2]

It was very weird to see her younger self. To see this place again from a new point of view. It was good to hug her mother, for Sarah Jane had been angry with her last time she had seen her years and years in the future. She came here against her Mum's wishes, but she had come because she had been here, and it was where she was supposed to be. Her younger self was still to vulnerable to be in the midst of the chaos to come.

Earth. Early 21st Century. Just as everything began to change, and Earth wasn't ready.

She had forgot how strong Sarah Jane had still be in those early years as those still familiar arms squeezed her hard. There was no time for more.

Lutessa knew what would happen next. It was then she met her younger self's eyes. It was strange and delightful to watch comprehension dawn there. What a curious feral creature she had been.

"I promise I'll explain later." She couldn't help but tease a little.

Kenzi was there as well, but she couldn't quite bring herself to meet the wild young woman's eyes yet.

Sarah Jane hadn't known what she was getting herself into at this point. Her own memories of this time were almost as distant as any other humans of being two years old. Oh, she remembered it all right, but more as impressions and colors and wild mathematical theories. Scents. Sounds.

Her mother.

Lutessa, Lutessa, and Kenzi lobbed the spheres that darkened and lightened as they were released and caught, into the crowd.

'Humanity's Balls', they would irreverently come to be known, but they would be treated with an equally inverse reverence. In the future, they would be in human hands scattered throughout the globe. It was amazing to see so many in one place. There were crates and crates of them to decant out of Cousin Izzy's borrowed TARDIS. 50,000. She and her Mum would spend quite a few years sideways to time in the future to insure their creation, and paying for the privilege. They had been good years.

Sarah Jane began her speech. Video of this remained, and many could recite it by heart. Often she herself had said these words and echoed by a chorus, but today Sarah Jane lead, and Lutessa was her chorus with the others while she tossed Humanity's Balls back into the crowd, boldly aiming far away any time she saw someone in the back who was reaching for a catch, carefully dropping it right into their hands from quite a distance. She could have thrown farther, but didn't want to call that much attention to herself.

When the Spaceman came, she flipped his face shield down with a little help from the sonic lipstick, recognized Owen and waved him through. He was Sarah Jane's body guard of sorts, and would be needed today.

Thats when the ships came, tearing up the sky.

[Sarah Jane]

There was more to her speech, but it was not to be. Ships were coming, tearing through the atomosphere. She was stunned, almost forgetting she was on top of a ladder, but she found herself with her feet back on the sand, and Owen beside her.

Some part of her hoped it was a coincedence. That there was some less complex adventure to dive through ahead. Sarah Jane suspected not. It was more likely all part of the same caper.

"Izzy! Take the crates we haven't unloaded, get them back in that borrowed TARDIS, and get out of here for a while." She shouted over at him.

"Denutus Lux!" She said aloud, but trying to keep her thoughts clear, her eyes half closed in concentration. "I need you to go here and find out who this woman is. I want you to bring her here pretty quick! Don't contact Torchwood, I need them watching our continent.whoniverse-rp.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=doctorten&action=display&thread=5322.

"Tess!" She barked, then grinned as both red head's snapped around to look at her. "Keep getting those balls out for a moment. Tess, keep an eye on yourself, eh? Owen! You're with me." She flashed a smile at him and started running for the landing spot, a thousand meters away, but they were picked up by a man in a fish car. It wasn't as fast as a car, but it was faster than they could run there.

[Owen Harper]

When his visor was acting weird, he looked at the one with the black hair with the lipstick. He never saw her before but she seemed to be with Sarah Jane. He had decided to take a moment by moment and not lose his mind. That was the last precious thing he held dear.

Looking up at the ships, “What trouble you got us in hot moma?” he asked looking up the massive ships.

Not tell Torchwood, he heard Sarah Jane. Grief, Sarah Jane was going to make him crazy. However she was keeping Owen busy. Nodding his head, he went with Sarah Jane wondering what the heck was going on. The woman was like a mother, he figured she was doing something the good of her heart. He knew Sarah Jane meant well, so he was not going to question her now. Later, he will.

The whole thing was making Owen wonder if he slipped in the Yellow Submarine cartoon by the Beatles. It was a good movie but that was this whole event was making Owen think. “Is there a yellow submarine here too?” he asked as he watched a fish car drive by. “That you don’t see every day.”