Agents of the Multiverse

In a field of fresh snow, just beyond sight of the city of Sanctuary, there was a big blue box-- a police box, to be precise. It stood out against the snow like a child's toy left out in the backyard at the end of the summer, so impossible and stark against the white wilderness landscape that it almost couldn't be real. It was, however, very real. As was the rangy-looking man in the brown pinstripe suit clinging to the top of it. The extremely annoyed stegosaurus circling both box and man was real too, and from the looks of the trench worked into the snow around the police box and the scuffs and splinters on the side of the box itself, the animal had been circling for quite a while. It had even taken a few good whacks at the box to make a point.

“You know, I really think you’re blowing this out of proportion,” the man said to the dinosaur.

The dinosaur, in turn, uttered a deep and angry bellow and planted its thick shoulder into the side of the box, shoving roughly and causing the whole thing to lurch. The man on top yelped and dug his fingers into the cage housing the small light at the top of the structure, just barely managing to keep from sliding off.

Luckily, the stego hadn’t quite been able to actually topple the box yet. The police box, whatever it was made of, was apparently much sturdier than it appeared, and other than knocking it about, those vicious shoves and tail swings hadn’t done much more than put a few new dents and splinters into it. The man on top, though, was trying very hard not to slip off every time a new insult caused it to tilt or wobble.

He sensed that falling would probably be very bad for him right now. It was just a hunch, really.

“Hey now! There’s no need for that! Easy on the windows! I just had them cleaned—" The man complained. Hardened keratin scraped gratingly against the police box’s glass windows, and he grimaced, leaning over to frown at the reptile, but he quickly beat a timely retreat back to the center of the box as the animal’s next blow landed just a bit higher than he was comfortable with.

Down below, there was a much smaller version of the angry stegosaurus. Sensing eyes on it, it stopped nosing about underneath the snow for grass and shoots and blinked two beady eyes up at the man on the box, chewing in a thoroughly unconcerned fashion. At its feet there was a small, silver-handled device about the size of a screwdriver, half buried in the churned-up mud and frost.

“This is all your fault, you know.” The man sighed, leaning back on his hands. “I was only trying to help you, and now look what kind of a pickle I’m in. What do you have to say for yourself?”

The baby stegosaurus lowed once, then lowered its head again, returning its attention to the food at its feet.

It had been a bit of a long day, if not productive; bones organized, tent cleared of snow and she’d even tamped down the ground at the entrance to make it easier to get out. After the chores were done, she’d gone out for a hunt. That... that hadn’t gone so well. Most of the smaller creatures were packing away to wherever it was that they ran away to for the winter, leaving the bigger and more dangerous ones.

The sledge was empty, and she had nothing more than a few new holes in her shirt to show for a scrap she’d got into with one pissed off smilodon. Those teeth were nothing to mess with, even for her. A few blackish bruises were left in her flesh, and while she was fine, the ordeal had left her with some aches and a bit of a sore mood. Not to mention an empty sledge. It was a simple device, a piece of paneling from some downed craft that had crashed out in the tundra that she yoked to herself with rope made of braided vines and wires. The silver lining of coming back empty handed was that the thing wasn’t weighed down, so it slid across the snow without much effort, or digging into the bruises she’d earned.

She’d been in her own head about it so much that it took her by surprise when she heard someone yapping out in the trees.

“Hey now! There’s no need for that! Easy on the windows! I just had them cleaned–”

Windows cleaned? Flynn grimaced a bit, as if trying to peer through the trees while also trying to recall if she’d ever seen anything in Sanctuary with windows, perhaps other than a house. Cars and other technology were usually doomed to fail here, and the place wasn’t really mean for vehicles, anyway.

Snow crunched underfoot as she soldiered on towards the noises of irritation and pleading.

“I was only trying to help you, and now look what kind of a pickle I’m in. What do you have to say for yourself?”

Flynn was dumbfounded as she came upon the sight. Two critters that looked straight out of Jurassic Park. The baby was snuffling around in the snow for the last remnants of anything green, while the big one was assaulting... A police box. The man that teetered around on top of it like a gargoyle was equally strange, and a face she’d never seen before.

At least it wasn’t the strangest encounter she’d had. The stegos were honestly less surprising than the box, considering the mammoths and sabertooth cats that wandered around the place- the man, on the other hand.....

The woman sat back and watched from the trees for a long moment, deciding whether gaining the ire of the larger dino was worth any possible reward, but her conscious got the better of her. What could they do that hadn’t already been done, anyways?

“Hey!” She shouted, unsure of what exactly she was trying to accomplish. It would be nice if she spooked the things off, but considering how big they were compared to her, she figured that maybe she could at least get Big and Pissed Off’s attention away from the man. Flynn wasn’t sure how he would get his precious box out of there, but that seemed like it was his issue if he decided not to just turn and run.

The shout certainly got both dinosaur's attention. The little one squawked and dropped the clod of dirt and grass it had been chewing on, and momma whipped around with an aggravated grunt, sideswiping the police box again as she did so. The Doctor gritted his teeth and held on as the box swayed threateningly to and fro, then lifted wide eyes to the very brave and frankly stupid woman trying to flag down the stegos.

It wasn't that he didn't appreciate the help, of course, but the Doctor had gotten himself into this mess, and frankly he didn't want any passing bystanders being turned into so much red jelly on his behalf. And really, he had it under control. Sort of. Kind of. Well. Maybe not so much.

"Oh bullocks."

The mother stegosaurus gave the snowy ground a few threatening stomps and rattled the plates on her back in a clatter of bone, then bellowed and charged Flynn. The ground itself shook beneath her great bulk as she thundered toward the woman, but all that natural gear was heavy, and the enraged dinosaur was perhaps just a touch slower than a very motivated human might be. Still, no one wanted five tons of angry reptile mother on their tail, fast or slow.

"The screwdriver!" The Doctor yelled. He leaned out as far from the police box as he dared, clinging to the stop with one hand and wildly waving the other to get his rescuer's attention. "Get the screwdriver!"

Stupid, brave. The two were interchangeable, really, at least in her opinion- what was one without the other?

Flynn stared down the dinosaur as it turned angrily towards her, unshaken by the dangerous prospect of the lizard charging her, at least for a moment. However, a certain memory rushed back, and not a pleasant one. There had been an encounter a few years ago, how she had picked a fight with something she could only describe as a 'Frost Giant' and sorely lost. Although it was more than luck that had ensured her survival (she was a hearty thing, hard to kill. she wasn't sure such a feat was possible) she'd come out of that one-sided stompfest looking like chewing gum. It had taken two weeks to pull herself back together enough to even step into town. And anyways, it still hurt.

She realized that she had made at least somewhat of an error as the stego bellowed and stomped. There was no time to ditch the sheet of metal yoked to her before it charged, so when it barreled towards her, she simply threw herself out of the way with the rope still on. Just clearing the attack, Flynn was not so lucky about the piece of metal it had charged over. The weight of the thing on it had pulled her to a stop instead of letting it glide over the snow behind her.

The way she moved when the thing jerked her back was almost suspiciously boneless, the woman flopping to the ground oddly as her feet slid out from under her. And the rope was pulled taut against the blackened bruises in her chest in all the wrong ways. Her face screwed up in discomfort, there were more important matters, like not being steamrolled in the next few seconds. Not to mention her sledge was full of dinosaur footprints now, but that was a problem she would have to figure out later. For now, she focused on getting back to her feet and scrambling to get the rope off of her before Big and Pissed Off turned around for a second go at her.

"The screwdriver! Get the screwdriver!"

She scanned the ground around the blue box for a screwdriver, or anything really. The glint of something silvery caught her eye. And standing between her and it was The Baby.

Flynn had some experience with wild critters, even before she had been so unceremoniously dropped into her current existence in Sanctuary. Although the Alaskan wilds weren't exactly aflush with prehistoric creatures, she'd learned that there was little difference between what she was used to back home and whatever this place had going. Even the.... stranger specimens, that roamed either patch of dirt. Most of them had maternal instincts, and it seemed like this was no different.

She grumbled something to herself as she stumble-jogged towards the baby, trying to get to the screwdriver before the bigger dinosaur got itself turned around towards her again.

What the Jurassic fuck was a screwdriver going to do?

The Doctor thought the woman was done for for sure when the stego ripped her backwards with the rope. The Doctor's hands were white-knuckled against the box where he gripped it as he watched her get pulled through the air like a rag doll, only to land in a way that didn't look at all natural in the churned up mud. When Flynn got up again, though, he let out a cheer that had the stegosaurus jerking his way with an angry squonk. That sort of blow should have cracked her ribs, and put her out like a light, and that's all it would have taken for her to be turned in short order into so much dino-mush.

But this one got up again. Maybe she wasn't entirely human. In a place like Sanctuary, it was common for people to be more than human, or even a different species entirely, but that hadn't made the woman's display of endurance any less impressive. Whatever was behind Flynn's get up and go didn't really matter in the end. The Doctor whooped loudly as she scrambled to her feet and made a break for the sonic screwdriver.

Seeing Flynn headed its way, the baby stego uttered an alarmed squawk and began to beat an ungainly retreat. This only served to enrage momma further. The massive beast bellowed and turned towards Flynn again. The rope was tangled around one of the stegosaurus's stubby hind legs, and the sledge scraped and sparked noisily behind it as the mother dinosaur threw itself towards them.

There was enough time, though. Just enough. If Flynn were quick and her fingers clever, she could yank the screwdriver from the mud and make it to him just in time. There was room on top of the TARDIS for two—just barely.

"Bring it this way," the Doctor yelled. His voice was tight with urgency and his brown eyes were wide with determination. "Come on, you can do it! Hurry up and climb! She's right on your tail! Don't look back, and don't stop!"

She didn't mind the baby too much as it scrambled away, only enough for it not to wind around her legs and trip her up. It seemed more scared of her than she was concerned about it, squawking and squeaking for its mama as Flynn rushed up. If anything, she was waving her arms around to try and get it to scoot even faster so she could dig around in the muddy slush for that silver glint.

Which... She was concerned about. The crying and running of the baby would do her no good at all if Big and Pissed Off turned her into a black smear on the side of the blue box. And she was sure the man wouldn't be thrilled to have to scrape bits of her off of the side of his... whatever it was to him. Apparently important enough that he'd had the thing cleaned and detailed.

Without wasting time, she slid on her knees up to the edge of the Police Box, not bothered much by the prospect of muddy clothes. She was already damp enough from her first fall that she wasn't entirely sure it mattered. And anyways, the frigid temperatures weren't really a problem for her. Whatever she was made of thrived in the cold tundra- she could suffer stiff frozen pants for a bit. Two pale hands jammed themselves into the mess of dirt and snow where she'd seen the baby nosing around at something silver.

She quickly found what she was looking for, pulling it out with little fanfare or examination. A quick glance told her that whatever it was, it was not a screwdriver, but there was little time to question the nature of what looked like a glorified laser pointer- the scraping of metal across rock and snow and the big, angry bellows told her everything she needed to know. Big and Pissed Off was on her way for a second try at turning Flynn into a grease stain.

Quickly, the woman sprung up, throwing herself up at the edge of the police box and scrambling to get on top of it along with it's owner. Just in the nick of time, too- the large dinosaur flung itself into the TARDIS where Flynn had been standing moments earlier, the whole thing teetering and tottering a bit from the force. Storm gray eyes widened as she desperately moved her body around to try and stay balanced on top. Her grip on the Screwdriver was like iron, too. If it fell, she was definitely not going to go down and grab it again.

In fact, now that she was relatively safe, the adrenaline seemed to catch up with her all at once as she exhaled and then inhaled, and just yelped out a sort of helpless cry.

"What the hell is with this place?"

Every time she felt like she was used to all the strangeness in Sanctuary, something like this happened that turned the feeling back to wherever it had cropped up from.

"Oh, are you new?" The Doctor asked conversationally as their perch rocked precariously beneath them.

He reached out to pluck the screwdriver from Flynn's hand.

"If I can get the frequency just right, I think that I can--" The Doctor didn't finish his musing, whatever it was. He was too busy fiddling with the 'screwdriver', brushing the little metal rod off on his shirt to clean the mud off it and twisting this and pressing that. Each action was punctuated with a mutter of, "No, not that one," or "No, that's not it either..."

Eventually, though he seemed to find exactly what he was looking for. With a triumphant, "Ah-hah!" The Doctor dawned a look of grim determination and pointed the thrumming, silver device down at the mother stegosaurus, who was already coming in for another charge. He braced himself and pressed a button towards the top.

Instantly, the thrumming became a pulsing shriek, loud enough that it was hard to be heard over it even at close range. Thankfully, the majority of the sound seemed to be funneling directly at the poor dinosaur. It gave a distressed bellow and pulled up mid-charge, rearing back and shaking its head frantically before coming down with a sound THUMP, only partially muffled by the snow and the mud.

Then it turned and loped off in a hurry, ka-thump ka-thumping back into the shelter of the trees. Behind the retreating reptile was left a battered blue police box, its two frazzled passengers, and a very upset baby stegosaurus.

"Well," The Doctor said after some time. "That could have gone better."