On the bridge, the Doctor and Rassilon were still working out the anomalies. “I haven’t seen this much in quite a while,” remarked Rassilon. “The amount of potential time energy could rip Popstar in half,” muttered the Doctor. Just then, a call came to the bridge through the comms unit. Meta Knight took the call. “Report,” he said. “Meta Knight, it’s Amy! We’re being chased by a statue!” The Doctor’s eyes went wide. She pushed Meta Knight out of the way and took over. “Amy, that statue, is it an angel?” she asked. “Yes! It moves whenever-!” “Take William and get out of there! Don’t take your eyes off it!” urged the Doctor. “Doctor, it’s William!” came William’s voice. “That’s gonna be a bit hard! The lights are flickering down here!” “Just do it! Hurry! If that thing touches you, I can’t get you back, even with the TARDIS!” --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Down in the cargo hold, Amy and William made their way to the door with the angel statue appearing in a different spot every time the lights kicked back in. It was like an animal toying with its prey! William found the door controls and pressed a button. The door opened. He and Amy quickly left the cargo hold and shut the door just as the angel appeared in the spot they inhabited. William then picked up Amy and carried her over his shoulder. “HEY!” protested Amy. “Keep an eye on the door!” replied William. “We don’t know how strong it is!” He then took off with Amy looking behind at the door. She saw distinctive bulges like fists caving in the metal of the door on the other side! The lights then flickered. “Must go faster! Must go faster!! MUST GO FASTER!!” “I know! I KNOW!!” ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Doctor stood at the bridge door, looking out for her friends. The lights started flickering. “Come on! Where are you?!” she begged her friends. “HOLD THAT DOOR!” called William’s voice. The Doctor saw William carrying Amy and reached her hand out. “HURRY!” she said. She successfully grabbed William’s hand and pulled him and Amy onto the bridge just as the angel statue was halfway down the hall. She then shut the door on the angel. “That won’t hold for long, but it WILL give us enough time to sound the alarm!” “Doctor, what-?!” asked Amy. “Later, I’ll explain later! Right now, we need to evacuate this ship!” “It’s one statue,” remarked Meta Knight. “What can it do?” “Meta Knight, the Weeping Angels are fast and can kill you before you got your hand on your sword!” replied Rassilon. “Now give the order to abandon ship!” Meta Knight wasn’t sure…until the door started buckling. “That thing’s breaking through!” yelped William. Meta Knight hit the ship-wide address button on the intercom system. “All hands, this is Meta Knight. Abandon ship. Repeat, abandon ship. The Halberd has been compromised. This is not a drill. Abandon ship.” He saw on the security cameras that the Waddle-Dee crew were evacuating the ship. He then set the self-destruct. “Kirby! Your Warp Star!” called Meta Knight. Kirby nodded, put his right arm out, and a giant, yellow, five-pointed star arrived, scooping everyone up. “Hang on tight!” called Amy. The Warp Star then took its passengers out of the ship, just as it exploded! The star then brought everyone to the gates of a castle. “Poyo! Dedede!” said Kirby. “Yes, his Majesty must be informed!” agreed Meta Knight. “There might be more of those statues.” “There most certainly will be more, but we have some breathing room,” said the Doctor. “Doctor, what WAS that thing?!” shuddered William. “That kind of being has many names,” replied the Doctor. “The Lonely Assassin, the Kind Murderous Psychopath, but all races know them as the Weeping Angels. They’re quantum-locked creatures that feed on the potential time energy of their victims.” “The Weeping Angels,” supplied Rassilon, “are statues when observed, even by members of their own kind. That’s why they cover their faces. When unobserved, they’re the fastest creatures in the universe. The way they get the potential time energy they need is by touching their victim and sending it far into the past so they can live out the rest of their lives in the past.” “…The Waddle-Dee,” realized William. “The Angel on the ship sent him to the past!” “Do they have anything to do with counting down?” asked Amy. “Oof, yeah, that’s when an Angel is really sadistic,” replied the Doctor. “The Angels have their own psychic powers. They can implant themselves into a victim’s mind when observed. One of their examples of mental control is by having the victim count down the minutes until their death.” “Meaning that Angel fed well,” remarked Rassilon. “We’re not dealing with desperate Weeping Angels.” “Don’t know if that improves our situation,” muttered the Doctor. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The group arrived at the throne room. Sitting on the throne was what looked like a humanoid blue penguin in red robes and a skull-cap crown with a pom-pom on it. He looked haggard, as Meta Knight said. “Your Majesty!” called Meta Knight. The Penguin looked up. “Oh, hello, Meta Knight,” he said. “Kirby. …Amy Rose?” “That’s me, King Dedede,” replied Amy. “If I might say something, you look terrible.” “I’ve…got a lot on my mind, Miss Rose,” answered Dedede. “What brings you here? And who are your new friends?” “Your Majesty, I’m the Doctor,” introduced the Doctor. “And these are William and Rassilon. We come here on a quest to find something called the Key to Time, but your planet is besieged by creatures that can send a person to the past, condemning them to die in a different time zone.” “The Weeping Angels?” asked Dedede. “Then you know of the threat we face?” asked Meta Knight. “You could say that, Meta Knight,” replied Dedede. He briefly turned the lights off, then switched them back on again to reveal that the throne room was filled with Weeping Angels! “You didn’t!” hissed the Doctor. “This ain’t what you think it is, Miss Doctor,” said Dedede. “They already took a few of my Waddle-Dees before my eyes and now they’re using one of their voices!” “He’s right, you know,” said a Waddle-Dee’s voice. “Hey, wait! That’s the Waddle-Dee that was in the cargo hold!” yelped Amy. “No, that’s the Angels using their victim’s voice,” replied Rassilon. “Sadists, the lot of you!” “That’s rich, coming from you, Lord President Eternal,” mocked the Angels’ voice. “We know you’re after the Key to Time. You will surrender the means of tracking it to us.” “And if we don’t?” asked the Doctor. “We always wanted to try the potential time energy of a Time Lord. Dedede, we’ll give them some time to decide. We trust you have accommodations for them.” “…Guards, take them all to the dungeon,” Dedede ordered his men, a face of regret on his beak. Waddle-Dees with spears then came in and escorted them out of the throne room. “Your Majesty, I CAN help you!” called the Doctor. “Please, just trust me!” Dedede just sighed as they were taken away. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The TARDIS crew, Kirby, and Meta Knight were all in the same cell as a Waddle-Dee wearing a blue bandana. The poor little guy looked miserable. “They got you too, Kirby?” he mumbled. “Bandee…” replied Kirby as he patted the poor Waddle-Dee. “We’re doomed now!” wailed the Waddle-Dee, Bandee. “They’re forcing the King to be a jerk again and now they kidnapped Kirby!” “Come on,” replied the Doctor, “where there’s life, there’s hope. And…Rassilon…” “What is it, Doctor?” asked Rassilon. “How long has your hand been glowing?” Rassilon goggled and realized her hand was glowing! “No! Not yet! Please!” she begged. “What’s going on with Rassilon?!” asked William. “It’s the regeneration process!” replied the Doctor. “Her body had suffered fatal damage somewhere, so it’s rewriting itself! Rassilon, how long have you been holding it back?!” Rassilon sighed. “Since you expelled Ginyu from my mind,” she finally answered. “It caused enough damage to the brain that it triggered the process. Amy stumbled across it when I blundered into her room after that business with the Kamen Riders and Autons and I made her swear not to tell.” “Why are you holding it back?” asked the Doctor. “Because the Black Guardian set a limit to how many bodies I can have. Six bodies for six segments and I used five bodies in getting my bowship time-travel capable! The next body is the absolute limit. Once I waste it, I fade!” “…Holding back a total regeneration for days,” muttered the Doctor. “I couldn’t even do that. A few hours at most, and then I make the goofy and damaging mistake of practically exploding into a new body inside the TARDIS. She hates that, let me tell you.” That was when the Doctor got an idea. “…Rassilon…” “Doctor?” asked Rassilon. “Can you channel your regeneration energy into the wall?” “Doctor!” “I’ll keep your next body from getting hurt fatally,” promised the Doctor. “Right now, though, we need to escape.” “…I’m going to hold you to that. Everyone, stand back!” The Doctor herded everyone to a corner in the cell as Rassilon allowed herself to glow completely. “…All right, Rassilon. It’s up to you,” said the former Lord President Eternal. She then threw her hands towards the cell door, bending her head in the same direction, and golden light and energy erupted from her body! The energy destroyed the door and blew a hole in the wall. Kirby then got an idea and inhaled in Rassilon’s direction!