"Fucking Cazadors..." I muttered as we piled out, the whole front of our transport was covered in goo and giant bug parts. After taking a moment to scan our surroundings, and to put a little fear into the excavation team that was currently watching us with intense eyes, I called everyone to attention as Apple flittered onto my shoulder. "Everyone know what to do?"

"We stay back and keep everything away from the entrance and Sparky." Huka said as Duffy cocked his M82. I nodded and hefted my MP40 and carefully stepped past the huge metal doors that had been rolled up, revealing the bunker's hidden first level. After a billion years of quiet stagnation, I wasn't to sure what to expect.

I knew what the basic layout of this bunker was, but I had no way of knowing what that bastard did before dying. Currently we were gathered in the auxiliary motor pool, a cavernous room dedicated to grease, gears, and oil. "We'll meet back here by 1700 hours." I said. "That'll leave us an hour before nightfall." It was 1200 now, so we had roughly seven hours to find shit.

"Think there's still power?" Schmidt asked as we walked inside. In the hanger, there were a few jeeps, humvees, and a single, heavily damaged A-10. All of them were just husks of their former glory, ancient relics of a time long since dead. But it was the foot thick titanium blast door at the back of the hanger that was our destination.

"Probably." I answered. "There's a nuclear reactor with backups for the backup reactors, so it's entirely possible."

"Joy..." Duran muttered, checking the magazine on his M16. From memory I walked over to a box next to the blast doors, the one marked Call Box, and opened it to reveal a computer screen and hand scanner. Taking a deep breath I double tapped the "CAPS LOCK" button twice and waited. To my mild astonishment, the ancient computer actually booted up.

"Submit hand for identification." A masculine voice droned out, and I placed my hand on the scanner. "Scanning... Welcome, Doctor. It has been [corrupted] since you were last through this checkpoint. May I inquire as to why?"

"I got a little lost in time." I answered, glancing around. Nothing else had activated yet, but I was being careful. There were three automatic sentry guns hidden somewhere in the hanger and we were standing in a kill zone.

"Very well…" The computer said after a few heart stopping moments, causing the others to shift uncomfortably. As it continued, the huge blast doors began to roll back and revealed a room with several elevators. "I see you brought some company, and a subject from one of the director's projects?"

Yeah, Celestia 'insisted' that I bring a guard to 'help'. More like watch us. So I brought up a Death Guard and attached her to my group. "I have." I said. "Are the elevators still operational?" There was a silence for a few more secants until the computer spoke up.

"They are. Where do you wish to go?" It questioned. I waved Gallan and Schmidt over.

"Take these two down to Medical." I told it, and a set of doors silently opened. "You know what to look for, guys." They nodded and slid in, the doors shutting behind them. I sent Duran and Blake to Maintenance, while Bill, Lightning Strike and I went to the Barracks.

[Gallan/Schmidt]

As the elevator stopped and the doors opened, their noses were assaulted with the scent of dust, mildew, copper, and a hint of death. Before them stretched a long hallway, off white walls spotted with rectangular clean spots showing where message and pin boards once hung. While four colored lines painted on the floor were still visible, waiting to guide medical staff deeper into the complex. Red to surgery, yellow to the labs, green to the recovery ward, and blue for the morgue... odd thing was, the hall was remarkably clean, almost spotless.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." Gallan muttered as he hefted his W1200 and looked around the hallway with caution. Gallan opted to go with a shotgun instead of his BAR, and had an MP-5 strapped to his side.

"Just keep it to yourself." Schmidt grunted, tapping the trigger guard to his gun. Instead of carrying his Kar-98, he had brought his MP-40 and decided to carry a MP-44. The rifle was lying in the MRAP, just in case.

"Smells bad down here." Gallan pointed out, doing his best to hold in a sneeze. He failed.

"I don't smell anything." Schmidt shrugged and walked forward.

"Must be my imagination, then..." With a sigh, the BAR gunner followed after the former Nazi, still feeling skittish for some reason.

[Duran/Blake]

"Any idea why Mark sent us here?" Duran asked the Scot as the elevator silently opened, revealing a dingy gray corridor that seemed dominated by pipes and wiring conduits of all sizes.

Gas, steam, and cooling pips ran along one side, while water, sewage, and several unmarked pipes traveled along the other. Meanwhile ventilation and wiring dominated the ceiling while lighting here blinked on and off… somewhere up ahead there was the steady drip.drip.drip of water.

"Probably to make sure the reactors don't overload." Blake answered, checking his AA-12.

"We're not nuclear engineers, though." The Ranger frowned, before inching forward, M16 firmly pressed against his shoulder.

"I still do what my superiors tell me." Blake said. "Unless it's completely stupid and'll get my squad killed." Duran only nodded at that, before moving forward a little bit more, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious.

At that moment, something down the dark and scary corridor crashed to the ground, scaring the ever living shit out of the both of them.

[Duffy/Huka]

"This hanger is creepy as shit." Huka muttered as some of the light fixtures flickered. Duffy only nodded in agreement, before glancing down the scope of his rifle and picking off another cazador from a mile off. He had nothing better to do, after all.

"...Why the hell are you breathing so heavily?" Duffy finally asked. "And on my mother fucking neck?"

"Dude, I'm like twenty feet away from you." That confused the sniper, causing him to look behind him. True to his word, Huka was watching Duffy in confusion, standing in front of what used to be an A-10 Warthog.

"...D…did you see anybody o..over my shoulder?" Duffy asked, sitting up slowly.

"I wasn't paying attention until you spoke up." Huka replied, looking around. "And I didn't hear anybody walk over to you."

"...Creepy..." Duffy muttered and got to shakily his feet.

[Mark/Bill/Apple/Lightning]

"This is where everyone lived?" The mare of my group asked as we stepped out into the massive common room.

Dubbed the Arboretum, it was a large two story room with several archways that led farther into the complex, while a catwalk ran around the upper section and allowed for toughs above to watch over anyone below. "Right down there." I said, pointing down to a corridor to my left. "Armory is in the back and the mess hall is to our right."

"Where are we goin' first, boss?" Bill asked, shifting his grip on his SAW. I questioned why he decided to bring the fucking thing, but only got 'more dakka' in reply. I loved the excuse.

"Armory, of course." I grinned. "Last time I visited, the locks were air tight, so if they locked it down..." I led them down a short hallway that ended at an inconspicuous door. "...The seal should still be active." I pressed my hand against the scanner, but nothing happened.

'The lock's jammed.' Apple informed me.

"HAL, do you think you can open the Armory door?" I called out. It took a moment, but the screen next to the scanner lit up.

"It'll be a moment." It said, and blipped off.

"What'll we find in there?" Lightning questioned.

"Explosives, firearms, and various munitions. Some experimental energy weapons." I answered, glancing at the screen. "Probably all wasted away from the time."

"You keep glancing at the computer." Bill quietly pointed out. I merely shushed him and turned around in time to see the door slide upwards. "Creepy."

"Do you require anything else?" HAL questioned.

"Update me on the location of the others?" I asked as I slid in.

"The ones sent to Maintenance are looking through the storage room, the ones in the Infirmary are passing through the surgical area, and the ones in the Hanger are still there." HAL informed me.

"Thank you, HAL." I said, before beckoning the others in. "That'll be all."

"As you wish, sir." He left us, and the others looked at me.

"This is one of the few rooms where we can't be monitored." I muttered after closing the door and making sure it was shut.

"You don't trust HAL." Bill stated, folding his arms.

"Not one bit." I answered. "The last thing I heard when I was here, was the director of this bunker telling a subordinate to 'bring HAL online'."

"Ominous." Lightning muttered, before starting to head down the walkway. The rest of us followed, while Bill looked on in awe at the sheer mass of weapons. There were eight rooms connected by a single wide hallway, with the weapons getting bigger the deeper one went. The first large room held knives, collapsible batons, and handguns, the last of the rooms held explosives, flamethrowers, and RPGs. So lots and lots of weapons… Rusted as hell weapons, but weapons nonetheless. "How long is this place?"

"The bunker itself actually stretches down close to a mile or so." I answered with a shrug. "As for how wide it is, this particular section extends out from the elevators about five hundred meters."

"So, how much ammunition are we talking?" Bill's eyes got a twinkle in them.

"Just under a million rounds." I shrugged.

He clapped his hands together and grinned. That grin was scary.

'What're we here for?' Apple questioned.

'No matter what these people think, I want this bunker destroyed.' I silently told her, gingerly checking an USP .45 for damage. Sadly, it was unable to be used.

Over an hour later Bill found me with a crumbling laser rifle in my hands. "Most of the weapons are unable to be used, sadly." Bill sighed as he returned to me. "Rust and/or time have fucked them beyond belief." Though I notice he was holding an AK-47. "Only thing so far that I could find, was three crates of these."

"Goddamn, almost two billion years and the AK is still able to be used?"

"Right." He shouldered it and followed after me, unzipping the bag I gave him. "How much am I supposed to collect?"

"As much as you can carry and still run with." I answered, letting him run off and grab ammunition. They were in sealed containers, so they would still be fine. "And see if Lightning can drag out a crate or two."

[Infirmary, Gallan]

I could fucking smell that there was something wrong with this place, but Schmidt somehow didn't. the surgical wing was a honeycomb of brightly lit sterile rooms filled with every imaginable life saving machine one could think of, including the one that went "PING!"

Already we had gathered up several sets of surgical tools for Doc back home. Our only trained human doctor was having to make do with medical implements made by and for ponies. Well not anymore…

"Stop being twitchy, Luke." The Kraut muttered, peeking into a room. "Another operating theater."

"I can't help it." I hissed, sound a little more insectoid than usual. My changeling side was probably acting up, from what I could tell.

"Calm down, Bug-Boy." He muttered, closing the sliding doors and continuing down the hall. "There's nothing to be scared of down here."

"Well excuse me if I don't trust this place." I muttered. "Especially with a Nazi running around loose and has access to various sharp blades." I barely said the second part, lest he hear and stab me with his knife or something.

"Yeah yeah." He looked into another room and whistled. "The hell happened here?"

"Lemme see." I pushed past him and stopped, almost dropping my shotgun. Before me was another operating theater, one straight out of a mad scientist's lab, one that had been recently used. Rusty chains hung from the ceiling and walls, while the usual hi-teck equipment had been replaced by archaic and quite evil looking …things… covered in blood.

"...I am starting to agree with you." Schmidt said as he knelt and dipped his finger into a green puddle on the floor. "Really recent, probably two or three days old." He shook it off and stood back up.

"Mark, can you hear me?" I questioned into the radio on Schmidt's back, but only got static. "Fuck, we're on our own." I backed out of the room and looked down both ends of the hallway. Nothing was moving around, which somehow made it scarier. "What do we do?" I asked, looking at Schmidt.

"We keep moving forward." He said, eyeing the liquid for a moment. "Mark sent us down here for a reason; I want to find out just what that reason was."

"Right..." We set forward and continued quietly opening doors.

[Maintenance, Duran]

"It was just a rusted pipe falling down." Blake reported as I stood watch, stepping back up next to me.

"Are you sure?" I asked, getting a nod. For some reason, I wasn't convinced. "Lemme see, just for a second." He sighed a little, but led me over to the pipe. Bending down, I noticed that it wasn't as rusted as everything else. Humming, I crawled forward and inspected the other pipes.

"Well?" Blake asked, crouching down to look at me on my back.

"That pipe's not from this room." I said, looking up at him. "For one, the rest of the piping is not anywhere near as rusted. Two, that's a completely useless section of pipe when compared to the others. Now help me outta here, something probably will fall soon." At my request, he grasped my feet and started pulling. Not even a moment after I got to my feet, a jagged length of pipe impacted the floor where my head was, shattering from being too brittle.

"Lucky." He said, knowing I didn't have a face guard to protect me from that pipe.

"It's not a coincidence." I muttered. "Pull Mark up on your radio."

"Mark, come in." Blake held a finger against his helmet. "...Mark, answer."

"Static?" I asked after he brought his hand back down.

"Yeah..." He sighed, before checking his revolver. "Let's keep moving."

"Right." I nodded.

[Hanger]

"This is Dr. Hannigan, about to perform testing on Subject 2, Test 4." A feminine voice started over a loud speaker, startling Huka and Duffy. "Test 4 will see how much pain Subject 2 can withstand before she reacts."

"P-Please..." A little girl whimpered as a whirring sound started. After a moment, the sound was punctured by a loud scream.

"Subject 2 showing moderate pain tolerance, marking it a failure as well." The woman stated, and the only sound for a moment was sobbing. Then, a loud gunshot rang out and all was silent.

"What the fuck happening here..." Huka muttered, holding his hand to his mouth.

"I can only guess." Duffy grunted in reply.

[Gallan]

"Jesus..." I muttered after the announcement or whatever it was finished, holding back some vomit. Next to me, Schmidt was muttering something in German.

"Keep moving." He said, cracking his neck. With a silent grunt, I followed after him and until we came to an imposing door with Crematorium clearly visible over the archway.

"I guess they didn't have anywhere to dispose of the dead down here." I said, tapping the door. "So they burned them." The door was rusted beyond belief, even Schmidt noticed that.

"Prepare to breech." Schmidt said, stepping back and raising his foot. I nodded and stepped back, putting the butt of the shotgun to my shoulder. As soon as the old door was kicked in, I entered, shining the flashlight attachment to blind anything beyond the doorway.

The room beyond was heavily tiled and held several stainless steel tables and a large desk to the right, a walk-in freezer door to our left, and three monstrous furnaces against the far wall. Of the three, two were cold with their shoot doors open, looking like hungry open maws… However, the third was not only still active, but giving off an odd throaty growl.

"Clear." I slid to the side to let Schmidt in, and looked around with a frown.

"It's too clean to be two billion years old." Schmidt called out from an oven, running his hand over the well maintained viewing glass on one of the furnaces. "Somebody's still down here. First the blood, and now this." He turned to me. "We need to hurry up and get the hell out of here."

"Elevator's about a hundred feet behind us." I offered, which he turned down.

"I don't know how you Americans trained, but I was taught to finish the mission before leaving." Schmidt told me, exiting the room. As I left, I paused momentarily to listen as a skittering sound alerted me.

[Mark]

"There's more to that trip than what you've let us understand, was there?" Bill asked, causing me to swear.

"Lightning, could you go down and look for these?" I asked, handing her a few small drawings. She nodded and trotted off, knowing I really needed some privacy, not some triggers and firing pins.

'I'll help her.' Apple said and flittered after the earth pony.

"Subject 2 was an alicorn." I told Bill, putting my hands on a rail while trying to not relive the horrors from before. "The director for this bunker was Alan Drew, a psychopath that had a veil nobody but Apple, Turner, and I saw through. He had horrible plans, and one of them was a project. This project was called Project Alicorn, through it he wanted to create a perfect soldier, but not a human one."

"Synthetic solders?" Bill guessed. I shook my head.

"Completely organic." I said. "When my group arrived, there were four new subjects and a side-project. You know the last one as Discord." Bill merely blinked.

"I take it he was to be support or something in the event of Project Alicorn's complete failure?"

"More or less." I ran my hands through what hair I didn't shave off. "Only know six of this are still alive; three are in this bunker, one is stone, God knows where the Doctor is, and Faust is... someplace different."

"What do you mean by that?" Bill asked.

"Technical terms, a glitch or error in the system. Ponies would call it a curse. I say it's bad luck, but she's stuck between time and can't be on earth physically. At least, not yet." I finished as Lightning came back with two somewhat intact pins and triggers in her magic.

"Ready to do whatever?" Lightning asked, and I nodded.

"Next stop, Infirmary." I said, and walked out with my M1911 held loosely in my grip.

[Duffy/Huka]

"Is that supposed to be happening?" The sniper questioned as the hanger doors began to grind slowly closed.

"No." Huka grabbed the radio and turned in Mark's frequency.

"Wha*bzz* it, Huka?" Came the reply.

"Sir, the door big doors are closing." Huka answered.

"C*bzz* again?"

"The. Doors. Are. Closing." He made sure to say it slowly and clearly.

"...Get out of the h*bzz*. T*bzz* an order." Came Mark's reply. "Sta*bzz* by Sparky."

"...Yes sir. Huka out." The staff sergeant sighed and got to his feet, cradling his Famas. "We gotta get going, Duffy."

"I'm not leaving him behind." Duffy shot back. Huka sighed, rubbing his forehead.

"It's not like he ordered us to leave, Brandon." Huka said. "Just stay by the MRAP." Duffy looked to the descending door and sighed.

"Let's relocate, then. But know that I'm not gonna like this." Duffy nodded and the two slipped past with about a minute to spare. With a rusted groan not unlike one from a ship being tossed at sea, the hanger doors slammed into the ground with the grace of a train wreck.

Duffy shot the door once to test it, and frowned when the .50 BMG round merely ping'd off of it.

"Well, we're not getting back inside..." He said.

[Medical]

"The elevator's coming back down." Gallan said with an insectoid hiss, whirling around and aiming his MP-5 down the corridor. Schmidt stood above him, holding his MP-40 in his grip and aiming in the same direction.

What relieved the two the most was Mark's covered face poking out of the elevator.

"Thank God." Gallan sighed, getting to his feet, but Schmidt pushed him back down with a hand.

"It could be a trick." He hissed, not lowering his assault rifle. "Prove that you're Mark!" The German shouted down the corridor.

"Let me get fucking closer so I don't have to shout!" Mark responded, lowering the M9 to his side. In response, Schmidt sent a trio of bullets whizzing down the corridor and they slammed into his chest.

"The fuck, Schmidt?!" Gallan yelled, breaking out of his grip and sprinting towards the fallen Marine. What confused the shit out of him was the elevators opening again and Mark stepping out, nearly tripping on his body.

"What happened here?" The second Mark rubbed his chin, before kicking the pistol out of the corpse's grip. "You want to fucking impersonate me, get the damn weapons right." He looked up at the stunned Gallan and noticed that Schmidt was pointing his assault rifle at him.

"What's my first name?" Schmidt called out.

"Helmut." Mark answered without moving forward. Schmidt nodded and lowered the rifle.

"Sorry about that." He wasn't.

"Eh, I would've done the same thing." Mark shrugged and beckoned the rest of his group out. Lightning was the first out, ears pressed against her skull from the loud reports of the rifle, while Bill and Apple were casually walking/trotting.

"Was that really necessary?" Lightning questioned.

"There's no such thing as overkill." Bill replied with a grin, shaking his SAW.

"Let's cut the chatter and get moving." Mark said after a moment, pointing down the hall. "How far did the two of you get?"

"Crematory." Schmidt answered. Mark hummed a little, before walking forward. "Why did you want us down here?"

"Cyro-bay." Mark answered. "If anybody, or anything's survived, we might find some of them still asleep."

"What the hell is a 'cyro bay'?" Gallan asked, scratching his head. Bill took the lead on that question before Mark could open his mouth.

"Cyro-bays have these bed/tube things where you put something in it, close it up, and freeze it." He said, letting go of his SAW to use his hands to help demonstrate. "When you're frozen in cyro sleep, it's like only moments pass even if it's actually been years or even centuries. Once you arrive at your destination, an awake crew member, or a machine if it's in a time case, will use a computer to start the process of thawing you out."

"What's the mortality rate?" Schmidt questioned. Mark shrugged.

"We didn't have cyro technology." He said. "In our time, anyway. We've gotten this information from science fiction and video games."

"Right." Gallan sighed, before shaking his head.

"Shouldn't we be moving, instead of standing around?" Lightning asked, snapping everyone's attention back onto topic.

"Of course." Mark took the lead and walked down the hallway at a slightly quickened pace. "Did you two see anything odd down here?"

"Pool of green changeling blood splattered all over a mad scientist's lab and the crematorium was spotless." Schmidt answered instantly. "Something's alive down here, Generalmajor." Mark could instantly tell that the German was nervous due to him lapsing into his homeland's language.

"Seems you were right about one thing, sir." Bill said as he cracked his neck.

"Don't say it." Mark muttered with a glance at one of the hallway cameras. "Let's get to the damn cyro-bay before going down to Maintenance."

---

"How many of them do you think are alive?" Lightning asked as I tapped away on a wall computer.

Together we had made it to a long room with a hundred or so of twin cryo-pods, much like the ones from HALO, mounted along one side of the hall. "Honestly?" I looked over. "I hope none of them are alive. Everybody here was experimented on in one way or another, including Apple and I." My daughter shuddered before rubbing a hoof against her side. Luckily for her, she didn't have anything implanted into her, but were I so lucky...

"How bad was it for you?" Bill asked from his position near a set of pods.

"I'd rather not say." I answered with a frown, dropping all conversation for a few minutes.

"Found one, I think!" Gallan called out. We all crowded around the screen he was pointing at, and I rolled my eyes.

"It had to be one of them, didn't it?" I mused, pressing the 'OPEN' button on the screen. "Here's to your shitty luck, bro." With a hiss the pod began to defrost before the pod's door slid up and out of the way, and we caught the guard who fell out of the thing, coughing up the liquid that froze him completely.

"How long has it been?" He gasped, shuddering from the relatively cool air.

"Over a billion years, Zane." I answered, helping him to his feet. His eyes opened and he squinted at me.

"Doctor?" He shook his head. "Did your TARDIS bring you here?" A collective of four 'what's sounded out in the background as I draped his arm over my shoulders.

"I drove here in a JERRV MRAP." I answered. "Two of the new world's rulers requested that I investigate this bunker." Zane coughed up some cyro-gel down my front and onto my shoes, but I ignored it.

"You wanted to see if there were still any survivors." He saw my motives for what they were.

"Correct." I scanned the room for anymore, but all of the other status screens said 'DECEASED'. "Lucky you, you're still alive." I started steering him to the door.

"Rose didn't make it, did she?" Zane questioned with a defeated tone.

"It's been almost two billion years, Zane." I softly said. "You're lucky you made it."

"I know, Doctor." He muttered, looking at the ground. "Got a weapon for me?" He questioned as he managed to stand up and walk on his own power. Bill passed over one of the AK-47s he scavenged, and several magazines. With a nod, Zane loaded it and cycled the bolt, getting a satisfactory click.

"Next stop, Maintenance level." I muttered, and started for the elevator.

---

"Report." I said when I saw Duran and Blake waiting for me.

"Something's running around down here, sir." Duran said with a salute, before looking at the new guy. "Who's he?"

"Name's Zane Cooke. I'm the head of security, and apparently the only security left besides HAL." He said and shook both of their hands.

"Master Sergeant Rick Duran. The guy in the armor is 1st Lieutenant Blake Mactavish." Duran introduced the two of them.

"British?" Zane questioned of Blake, who nodded. "Light infantry, from the armor."

"Light infantry?" I heard him mutter as we started walking towards the reactor. "This suit's bloody heavier than I am!"

"He was born after you 'died', Blake." I muttered. "You should see what they count as heavy infantry. Sadly it's rusted away by now, or else I'd have pointed it out to you in the hanger."

"Huh." Blake muttered, and followed me.

"So, why are we down here?" Zane asked me after a moment of silence.

"Checking up on the reactor, make sure it won't go critical." I answered. "Only a few species live out here in the Badlands as it's called, but one of the sapient species would be screwed if it went off in the wrong way."

"Got'cha." He said, before leaning in closer. "This is also one of the only places that HAL cannot listen in on, so you can say what you mean. No need to merely imply about blowing up the reactor."

"You're not gonna try and stop me?" I rose an eyebrow at him. He shrugged and looked back at the others.

"I'm without my armor and this gun isn't extraordinarily accurate." He answered, rather loudly. "And you all outnumber me by seven beings. No matter what I do, I probably won't be able to kill you before I'm struck down."

"Goddamn right." Bill muttered. I shushed him and we continued forward.

---

It was here, deep within the warrens and honeycombs of heating ducts and power conduits that we found what we was looking for. While there was no labeled street signs that said "Power Plant This Way ", one could see the radioactive symbols panted along the walls. They were faded all to hell, but still visible

"Is this what you were looking for?" Lightning questioned as we stood in front of the reactor doors.

"Correct." I said, looking at a screen. "Minor radiation levels, but that's expected." I turned to the others. "Anyone volunteering to go in?"

"I'll do it." Gallan and Lightning said as one. "I may have been the BAR gunner for the squad, but I know a thing or two about placing explosives at weak points."

"Thought you were brought up on a farm?" Schmidt questioned as I sorted through the explosives I had and put them into duffel bags.

"And? I happen to have an eye for weak spots." Gallan countered, before I put both bags onto Lightning's back.

"Gallan, since you're volunteering, I want you to go in and place the C-4 on any and all weak spots, before embedding the remote detonator in them." I told him. "My sonic screwdriver will activate the explosives once we're a safe distance away, and the dets are configured to only activate on its signal, so don't worry." They nodded and stepped inside once I opened the doors, only to have them ominously shut behind them.

"What's that noise?" Schmidt asked, and a skittering sound came to the rest of our ears a moment later.

"Maintenance drone." Zane answered. "They work around the clock to keep everything running smoothly."

"Well the damn thing almost dropped a jagged pipe on my head." Duran grunted. "I see it, I'm popping a few bullets into it." Zane shook his head.

"That'll alert HAL to what we're doing." He argued.

"He's connected to them, right?" I asked. The security chief nodded, causing me to look directly up. A spider-like robot skittered away from my gaze. "He already knows."

"Fuck." Bill turned and looked at the doors. "Hurry up..." While we looked at the doors with worry, Apple flittered over to the console and tapped at something.

'Daddy, the reactor levels are frozen.' She told me, causing me to swear and go over to them.

"How long have they been like this?" I asked, already tapping at icons.

"Looks like 1.5 million years..." Zane said, gulping. "We need to get them out, right now." He tapped some stuff and a security feed popped up for the inside of the reactor. What I saw horrified me.

Gallan was crawling towards the door, coughing up a storm. Lightning wasn't moving, already dead from the radiation exposure.

"Get that door open, right now!" I demanded. "I'm going in there and getting him the fuck out."

'You'll get sick too, daddy!' Apple protested while Zane started putting in commands.

'Yeah, well I let Gallan go in there. I'm not leaving him in there to die.' I countered.

"You'll get dosed with about six to eight gray, Doctor." Zane informed me. "We're all getting about two to three just by standing outside with the doors open."

"I'll only be a few moments." I told him as the doors opened. As soon as I was able to, I sprinted the fuck in there and directly at Gallan.

"G-Got the explosives p-planted..." He coughed, blood dribbling out of his mouth.

"Take it easy, Gallan." I muttered, hefting him over my shoulder. "We'll get you some medical attention as soon as possible."

"If I don't make it-tell Pinkie…" He started, but as I sprinted back, I cut him off.

"You will make it." I hissed in his ear. "Don't go fooling yourself, it's not that bad." That was a lie, but he didn't know squat about radiation sickness and I wasn't gonna tell him. His hair was already beginning to fall out and he left a trail of bloody vomit before I picked him up.

"Right..." He wheezed, before closing his eyes and losing consciousness.

"How is he?" Zane questioned as the door slid shut behind us.

"Fading, slowly." I told them. "We need to get out of here as fast as possible."

"How fast can Sparky go?" Rick questioned as we started jogging for the elevator.

"Not fast enough." I grunted. "We're about four hundred miles from the nearest doctor."

"Besides you, of course." Zane said. I couldn't really say anything to that, lest I crush the image I set for myself. It would probably kill him or something.

"Medical doctor." I sighed, and kept jogging.

"Where would you like to go?" HAL questioned as we stepped into the elevator.

"Hanger." I answered. The doors shut, and the elevator started moving.

"What were you doing in the reactor?"

"Making sure it wasn't going to go critical." I answered, looking at a camera. The silence was deafening, and the elevator slowly stopped.

"...Of course." That didn't seem ominous at all. "Hanger."

"The doors are sealed shut." Bill reported as I set Gallan down to check on him. I dug out my screwdriver, switched the settings, and tossed it to him.

"Hold it against the control panel and use it for eight seconds." I said. He nodded and ran off, while Zane inspected the elevator.

All of a sudden, the doors slammed shut, actually slicing off a few of his fingers in the process.

[Zane]

"What the hell, HAL?!" I hissed, hitting at the button to open the door. For some reason, it didn't work. I couldn't feel my fingers, but I assumed that they were alright.

"I'm sorry, Security Chief." HAL's voice droned on. "But protocol dictates that I eliminate any threats to the bunker, starting with the main threat."

"How am I the main threat?" I knew something like this was going to happen. To get the Doctor and his current companions out of here, I had to distract HAL as much as possible.

"You are the only living organism that knows the schematics to the entire base." HAL explained.

"And for that I must die..." I sighed, knowing that my time was short. "Are you going to kill the others?"

"They will die in due time." HAL said, before the elevator shook. "Goodbye, Chief Security Officer." With a sickening lurch, the magnets holding the elevator up were switched off, and I was sent flying downwards at high speeds.

"Hope you can get out of here, Doctor..." I muttered, before all went black.

[Mark]

"The door's open!" Bill shouted, causing the rest of us to look up. Outside sat Sparky, with Duffy lying on the roof and Huka leaning against the hood, staring at us. It was already dark, which was why I didn't notice until Bill yelled.

"Grab Gallan and get him in the back!" I told Duran and Schmidt. They nodded, went over to him, and picked him up in a two person carrying position.

'Something seems off...' Apple said, tapping the elevator doors. I went over to them, but froze when the hanger was plunged in complete darkness. Looking behind me, I noted that the door had silently shut.

[Bill]

"We need to get him out of there, right now!" I shouted, pounding on the door. When it didn't respond, I pointed Mark's sonic screwdriver at it and pushed down on a button.

Sparky's engine started.

"Goddammit, how does this thing fucking work?" I muttered, shaking the thing. A buzz answered me, causing me to growl in frustration and smack it.

"Lemme see." Blake offered, and I practically threw it at him. As soon as it came into contact with his hand, he let out a yelp and dropped it. "It shocked me!"

[Apple]

"How well can you teleport?" Daddy asked me as I paced in front of him, causing me to halt.

'Not enough for the both of us...' I frowned, before becoming confused at the wave of relief emitting from daddy.

"I want you to get out of here, Apple." I couldn't believe what he just told me.

'I'm not leaving you here alone!' I growled, stomping my hoof for emphasis. He chuckled, which infuriated me a little.

"I'll be fine, Apple." He muttered, looking off to the side and coughing. "Fuck, the radiation's starting to affect me..." I narrowed my eyes.

'You're getting weaker.' I stated. He merely rose an eyebrow at me.

"I'm getting closer to death, not getting weaker." He corrected.

'That's exactly why I should stay with you!' I yelled through the link and stomping my hoof again.

"I'll be fine, child." He sighed, leaning back against the wall. "Just leave; I have a Doctor on the way." I froze, knowing what he meant.

'The TARDIS won't be able to leave if I'm on board.' I muttered, looking at him. 'Turner said something about it 'being stubborn' while I'm in it.'

"Go and meet up with the others." I looked up at him, expecting a frown. Instead, he had his eyes closed. "I'll be out, two minutes tops."

'...Alright daddy.' I finally said, starting to build up changeling magic in my horn, which cast a sickly green light over his body. 'I love you.' I had full faith in him getting out, but situations required this to be said, right?

"I love you too, Apple." I could tell they were genuine, and said as if he had a doubt of living through this. I frowned, before the magic built up in my horn discharged and my body was temporarily disintegrated, sending me towards my location.

"Where's Mark?" Schmidt asked as I pretty much teleported into his arms. Well, asked me after getting over the shock of a changeling suddenly appearing out of nowhere into his grasp.

Wordlessly, I pointed at the bunker's door. Duffy arched an eyebrow.

"He made you leave without him?" Duffy asked. I nodded, causing him to groan in aggravation. "Of fucking course he did..."

"There's a bloody child here! Watch your language!" Blake yelled at Duffy, confusing me.

'...Daddy doesn't mind cursing around me.' I thought, rubbing the back of my head with a hoof. 'Hell, he doesn't care if I curse. Why would Blake care?'

[Mark]

"Well, now it's just a matter of time..." I muttered, coughing worse than when Apple was with me. Seeing no sense in just sitting around, I shakily got to my feet and slipped my helmet back on. Reaching up with a shaking hand, I turned on the twin floodlights on either side of my helmet and looked around.

"I see that you are alone, Doctor." HAL told me as I moved to my left, using the wall for support.

"Yeah..." I sighed, looking in the direction of the nearest camera. "Though that isn't my name."

"Pardon?"

"My name isn't Doctor." I said. "Nothing even close to that. I'm no doctor in anything, though I do have a PhD in bullshitology."

"Explain." HAL demanded.

"Look up KIA personnel in the USMC for December 2012, Afghanistan." I told it, stopping to catch my breath. Christ, my endurance was at an all time low.

"...Three KIA; Corporal Mark Durnkinscoff, Gunnery Sergeant Stephen Cepeda, and MWD Maul, rank of Master Sergeant." HAL finally said. "What is the importance of this search?"

"I'm that Corporal." I stated. "I died in an IED explosion while attempting to destroy it." A soft whrring caused me to grin. "And now I'm a Brigadier General, protecting humanity by getting rid of that which threatens it."

"And that would be?" HAL questioned.

"This bunker." With that, the TARDIS materialized around me and I slumped against the doors. "Get me outside, please!" I let out a groan, holding my stomach as I coughed up blood. 'Christ, I shouldn't have done a monologue like that.'

"Right away, ol' chap!" Time Turner flipped some switches, and the TARDIS whrr'd a bit before the door next to the one I was leaning against opened, Bill's head popping in.

"Put Gallan in here!" The SEAL shouted at the others, before looking at me. "I'll drive Sparky on back, stay in here, sir." With that, he was gone.

Well... Could be a better ending, but Zane knew what was gonna happen, I bet.

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