(Back in the SOL)
All: [singing] Five, six, seven, eight. Doctor's waiting at the gate.
Crow: Oh, Benny A., you're good for something.
Mike: Hey! I liked "Transit"!
Crow: You would.
The Doctor silently operated the TARDIS controls and the central
column rose. "Doctor, I can't believe it. It's so big inside your
TARDIS" said Xavier.
(Back in the SOL)
Mike: [Xavier] I just can't get over it. I mean, come on, it's done with a
trapdoor and mirrors, right?
Crow: [Brigadier] Good lord! We must be in Cromer!
"Yes, Professor, it is big. It has been my home,
at least for the last few hundred years." "Few hundred years?" mumbled
Rogue.
(Back in the SOL)
Tom: It can seem like a hundred years when you're stuck with Adric.
Crow: I smell killing spree!
Meanwhile the TARDIS dematerialised again, and materialised
inside the X-Men's Mansion. Beast 'Dr McCoy' thanked the Doctor for
getting Gambit quickly to the Mansion where he could be cured quickly.
Inside the Mansion, Tegan asked the Doctor what had happened since she saw
Gambit lying on a couch still mostly unconscious.
(Back in the SOL)
Crow: How can you be mostly unconscious? Is it like partly dead?
The Doctor said "He'll be all right. He had a Mara parasite in him."
(Back in the SOL)
Mike: [Doctor] Take these tablets, two of these pills, three tablespoons of
this, and don't expect to wake up.
"Oh my goodness, the Mara had controlled him too?" queried Tegan.
(Back in the SOL)
Tom: Suddenly, Janet Fielding began to imitate Patrick Troughton.
"I believe it went like this. One of us must have been carrying a
parasitic form of the Mara. It was not the full Mara, just a parasite form.
I suspect he was infected because of Tegan who acted as a carrier. He could
have killed us all if I hadn't stopped him. The parasitic form of the Mara
has been called the Gou'ald at times. They have enslaved many civilisations
on other planets in the past. You cannot imagine how dangerous it can be even
in this form."
(Back in the SOL)
Crow: I still fail to see the drawback in that.
"We must test everybody for this parasite", Beast said.
"We will start with Tegan", the Doctor replied.
Beast told Tegan that she did not have the Mara parasite within her. Still,
he told the Doctor told, privately, so Tegan would not hear:
"Upon examining her, I can conclude that she does not have the actual
parasite, but she has a carrier form. I cannot remove it without making
damage to her living tissues." Beast put some printouts down.
The Doctor concluded that they could not find the Mara and the Adversary.
Tegan commented how it meant that the latter two would have to make
the first move. The Doctor said, "But we will be ready for them, whenever or
wherever that may be."
(Back in the SOL)
Tom: Try Minnesota.
The Doctor was thinking of Roma.
(Back in the SOL)
Tom: from Noma!
Roma might have been carrying the Mara parasite too. This could be dangerous
for OtherWorld.
[ Author: This is a reference to how she apparently is going to lose control in
Excalibur Sword of Power # 3. ]
They would have to wait until they made their move. It might take a while.
"We must seek out the Adversary and take him out once and for all!"
said Bishop, obviously pleased at this twist of events.
(Back in the SOL)
Mike: [slurping, twisting sounds]
Tom: [annnouncer] Yes, watch as the Amazing Fanfic twists and stretches
the very limits of the reader's suspension of disbelief!
For some time, Beast wondered whether Onslaught had to do with some
genetic variation of this Mara parasite.
(Back in the SOL)
Tom: What in the name of Horatio Hufnagel does this have to do with
*anything*?!
A warning bell could suddenly be heard. "It's the cloister bell", I informed
the X-Men.
"Not again," a worried Tegan said.
The Doctor froze, listening. "The dimensional barriers of the TARDIS have been broken.
Its shell that is." the Doctor explained to everyone.
"Could it be use of the Sliding technology?" asked Professor Arturo.
"Or a dimensional materialisation circuit, such as another TARDIS." the Doctor clarified.
"No, not the Master once more" Adric said.
"Help me fix up these scanning circuits, Hindle and Cable", the Doctor was
trying to use the new temporal anomaly and dimension barrier detection equipment.
(Back in the SOL)
Crow: This is a *bad* moment to do an upgrade. Or to defrag a hard disk with
some Windows 2000 program called Eurisko Diskeeper.
Mike: Or KillSwitch.
"Doctor, a little time ago I was lost in a future timeline. Could you take me back
to that time if everything works out just fine?" asked Bishop. "I left some friends back there and
would like to check that they are ok. Then I would want to get back to this time."
"If you wish, yes." answered the Doctor.
(Back in the SOL)
Mike: [Doctor] Although I haven't a clue why I should, sure, I'll muck around
with your timeline. It's fun!
"I..am not certain I want to go back however... I have met the legends
themselves in person..."
(Back in the SOL)
Crow: If he's not sure, why is he asking to go home?
"Legends?" asked the Doctor. "Oh, the X-Men."
(Back in the SOL)
Tom: [Doctor] You guys still here? Don't you have a home to go to?
Author: They *are* home.