Marvin Returns To The Dark Side
Created | Updated Apr 21, 2007
Swimming pools and a surprising revelation...
Chapter One
The Doctor pulled the handbrake and then grinned wildly at Martha. She was getting used to the Doctor’s crazy lifestyle, the only thing she wasn’t yet used to was the way he spoke to the TARDIS; even if it was a living thing the way he stroked parts of the console was creepy. Still, what she saw was so much better than what she had back on Earth: an arguing family, exam stress, bills with the Doctor all of those vanished and sat at the back of her mind only to spring back when she was on Earth in her own time.
He waved his arm towards the door, “Well?”
“Where are we?” asked Martha beaming away happily and then she remembered and added, “When are we?”
He smiled at her and clicked his tongue off the roof of his mouth, “Hopefully, Earth two thousand and six.”
“Where specifically?” she asked again.
“Uh…” he looked to the scanner for confirmation and answered, “Birmingham.”
“Birmingham? What’s so special about Birmingham?” she asked as the Doctor ran, grabbing his three quarter length brown coat, towards the door.
He swung open the TARDIS doors and frowned at her, “Honestly, humans are the same: if it’s not the capital they’re not interested. Birmingham is the second city.”
Martha walked out of the TARDIS, “I thought it was Manchester.”
The Doctor closed the door behind him and frowned at her, “Manchester? They wish.”
Martha raised an eyebrow curiously as the Doctor began walking towards a small café. He smiled and continued, “Oh yeah, Manchester really wanted the title but their argument didn’t work. They argued that Greater Manchester was bigger so Birmingham argued that the West Midlands was bigger. Even if only a few people know it; Birmingham is bigger than Manchester. You humans’d argue about what paper was if you didn’t cut down hundreds of trees every day to make it.”
They walked into the small café, they sat down and the Doctor got them two cups of tea. They were having a conversation about the TARDIS as Martha had bought up the fact that the Doctor did occasionally stroke parts of it. He was very defensive about the entire thing and Martha quite enjoyed seeing him go slightly red as she talked more about it. The Doctor stopped the conversation abruptly as he spotted the headline for a newspaper someone was reading.
Martha read the headline, the man with the newspaper was staring at them paranoid because several people had turned to read the front cover of his newspaper now. It read: ‘CHILD SNATCHER STRIKES AGAIN!’ Martha turned to the Doctor who was smiling slightly. He had that ‘let’s go ‘ave a look then’ face. After paying for the tea with a slightly psychic credit card, they went straight to where the newspaper had highlighted.
The paper had claimed that there was a swimming pool, nearby, that had reported several children missing. Or at least, when the parents went to pick up the children after the swimming lessons they were shocked to find that there was no child to pick up. The newspaper criticised the pool and claimed that the pool was stealing the children even though there was no motive so the police couldn’t arrest anyone. So that’s where Martha and the Doctor went: to the swimming pool.
The pool was slightly different from any other pool Martha had seen before. It had a balcony where spectators watched and cubicles lined around the side of the twenty five metre swimming pool. There were two toilets parallel to each other, both containing showers. To the left of the boys toilets was a sauna and to the right of the girls toilets were lockers. The pool itself was split into three sections by a red line that ran along the bottom of the pool. The water was slightly odd coloured, slightly different from the way normal pools were.
The Doctor and Martha watched from high up in the balcony. The swimming lessons were being taught by trainee swimming teachers who were being examined. Most of the children there were young, a few looked about twelve and there was one child who looked sixteen but claimed to be thirteen and a few talented children that swam like Olympic medallists.
In the deep end of the pool were the talented swimmers, they were learning strokes like backstroke and front crawl, presumably because those were the easiest to teach as the children mastered the strokes fairly quickly. The middle end was full of improving swimmers, their strokes were terrible but they seemed like quite capable swimmers. And down at the bottom in the shallow end were small children aged no more than six, swimming with armbands and floats.
The Doctor tutted as the swimming instructor corrected one child’s stroke, “That was unnecessary, that stroke was almost perfect.”
“Bit splashy though.” stated Martha, she was right the stroke itself was right but it did look extremely splashy.
He gave her a look she’d begun to get used to. It was the ‘humans!’ look. He turned his attention to the pool again, choosing not to give another ‘humans!’ lecture. The teacher was lining them up against the side of the pool. The Teacher then demonstrated a dive which in both Martha and the Doctor’s books was perfect. After climbing onto the side she told the children to try. The children’s attempts were seemingly feeble, however two children did it exactly as shown.
The Doctor seemed to stare at the teacher. Martha waved a hand in front of his face, “Why are you staring at the teacher?”
“I think I recognise her.” he said blankly, “Ah, can’t have I don’t know any swimming teachers.”
“You don’t?” asked Martha, “I thought you knew everyone.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Anyway, what does a swimming pool and child disappearances share in common?” asked the Doctor.
“That sounds like the set up for a bad joke.” said Martha.
The Doctor glared at her before carrying on, “It just doesn’t make sense. Swimming pools and child nappers? Why?”
Martha raised an eyebrow as she realised that he was asking her those questions, “Maybe they don’t like the way the kids swim.”
The Doctor stared at her as though she had just dribbled on herself. He then stood up and they walked out of the pool. He smiled and said, “I think it’s time I got the torches out.”
Martha stared at her torch, “Well I’ve never done this before…”
“What?! You’re saying you’ve never snuck about in your big sister’s bedroom in the middle of the night with a torch?” asked the Doctor waving his torch about the pool.
“No, I didn’t say…” then she paused as the Doctor’s torch scanned to pool, “… wait a minute, why is the pool that colour?”
The Doctor stared at the pool. The pool was different, it was a different colour… an odd, ‘un-swimming-pool-like’ colour. It was a very strange blue. It was a turquoise sort of blue. The sort of blue that you’d only expect to find on some sort of man-made clothing. It was unnatural and looked wrong. It felt wrong. It was… wrong.
He knelt down to it and cocked his head slightly, “It’s not supposed to look like that.”
“Really?!” asked Martha sarcastically.
He would frown at her but he could hear footsteps, “Can you hear that?”
Martha listened intently, “Footsteps?!”
He nodded and then as the noise got louder he and Martha ran into the nearest cubicle. The Doctor stood on the small bench that was attached to the wall of the cubicle. He peered over the top of the cubicle. A door at the end of the pool opened, squeaking painfully on it’s hinges. He squinted as a figure emerged from behind the door. The person was carrying a torch. They waved it round before focusing it on the floor.
They walked towards the side of the pool and knelt beside it. He could make out their mouth dropping open. The person spoke, “Oh my Bob! I wonder what it is…”
The Doctor watched as the person pulled out a vial from their pocket. The vial dipped into the pool and as they held it up the water in the vial began to glow a bright, vibrant blue. The person’s face was lit up by the light and the Doctor recognised and identified the person straight away, “Amy?”
The person the other side of the room looked up. They couldn’t see the Doctor and so they pointed the torch to where the voice had come from, “Who’s there?”
Martha looked up to the Doctor in the cubicle, “Who is it?”
“Hello?” asked the person, “Look I heard a voice and last I checked I’m not insane quite yet.”
The Doctor whispered to Martha, “I think it’s Amy!”
“Amy?” asked Martha.
“I’ll explain later.” hissed the Doctor impatiently.
“Look come out or I’ll call the police.” said the person standing up waving the torch around the pool.
The Doctor sighed slightly and leapt off the small bench. He opened the door and he and Martha walked out of the cubicle. He waved at the person. The person walked towards the edge of the pool and stared at them. They began to walk towards them. When the torch was pointed at them, the person smiled and shouted, “Doctor?”
“Amy!” shouted the Doctor, Amy ran towards him.
“Doctor! It is you!” shouted Amy who then stopped in front of him and offered a hand.
He shook it and turned to Martha, “Martha this is Amy, Amy this is Martha.”
“What happened to R…”
The Doctor gave Amy a look, the look was clear. The look said ‘gone’. Amy understood. She changed the subject, “What are you doing here? How’s the TARDIS?”
“The TARDIS is fine, bumpy as usual but surviving well. The question is how did you get here?!” questioned the Doctor.
“Well, after the Daleks and Cybermen arrived on Earth, one of our Earth agents asked for more Healers. So we sent most of them there, I snuck in with them. You have no idea how stressing being a President is.” replied Amy, “So, Martha, how long have you been travelling with the Doctor?”
“Not long.” said Martha, “Now could you explain what’s going on and who you are?”
“Right, this is Amy who is the President of the planet of the Healers: a race of humanoid beings who can heal wounds and know the first aid protocols for every species in the known universe. She became President because she is half Time Lady, she has a power which allows her to take things in and out of time like Yoda’s lightsaber…”
“Which I’m quite fond of!” added Amy.
The Doctor continued, “ I met her and she and I went through several difficult traps set by Marvin the paranoid android who was turned evil briefly until Amy set the timelines right and Marvin became neutral again.”
“That doesn’t explain the pool.” said Amy.
“And they thought chlorine was deadly.” said Martha wittily.
“It is, to humans its just working out what is actually going on.” said the Doctor.
Amy sighed, “This is more complicated than trying to resuscitate a Mecrosacian.”
“What’s so hard about that?” asked the Doctor.
“It’s not that it’s hard, it’s whether you have the courage to pull it off.” replied Amy.
“Why?” asked Martha.
“You don’t want to know where it’s mouth is.” said Amy, “Really, you don’t.”
A shocked look of horror appeared on Martha’s face, as amazing as Aliens were. They were… completely alien. Amy passed the Doctor the test tube of the pool water, “I’ve got a job as a swimming teacher here…”
“Thought I recognised the face,” said the Doctor frantically screwdrivering the liquid in the vial, “Nice diving.”
“Thanks.” said Amy who was slightly surprised, “Doctor I have to tell you something…”
“What?” he asked.
Martha watched, slightly curious. Amy sighed, “Doctor I’m not half Time Lady.”
“What?!” shouted the Doctor. Martha seemed equally as surprised. At the same time an evil, robotic, tinged depressive sounding laugh echoed around the empty dark swimming pool.
Chapter One
The Doctor pulled the handbrake and then grinned wildly at Martha. She was getting used to the Doctor’s crazy lifestyle, the only thing she wasn’t yet used to was the way he spoke to the TARDIS; even if it was a living thing the way he stroked parts of the console was creepy. Still, what she saw was so much better than what she had back on Earth: an arguing family, exam stress, bills with the Doctor all of those vanished and sat at the back of her mind only to spring back when she was on Earth in her own time.
He waved his arm towards the door, “Well?”
“Where are we?” asked Martha beaming away happily and then she remembered and added, “When are we?”
He smiled at her and clicked his tongue off the roof of his mouth, “Hopefully, Earth two thousand and six.”
“Where specifically?” she asked again.
“Uh…” he looked to the scanner for confirmation and answered, “Birmingham.”
“Birmingham? What’s so special about Birmingham?” she asked as the Doctor ran, grabbing his three quarter length brown coat, towards the door.
He swung open the TARDIS doors and frowned at her, “Honestly, humans are the same: if it’s not the capital they’re not interested. Birmingham is the second city.”
Martha walked out of the TARDIS, “I thought it was Manchester.”
The Doctor closed the door behind him and frowned at her, “Manchester? They wish.”
Martha raised an eyebrow curiously as the Doctor began walking towards a small café. He smiled and continued, “Oh yeah, Manchester really wanted the title but their argument didn’t work. They argued that Greater Manchester was bigger so Birmingham argued that the West Midlands was bigger. Even if only a few people know it; Birmingham is bigger than Manchester. You humans’d argue about what paper was if you didn’t cut down hundreds of trees every day to make it.”
They walked into the small café, they sat down and the Doctor got them two cups of tea. They were having a conversation about the TARDIS as Martha had bought up the fact that the Doctor did occasionally stroke parts of it. He was very defensive about the entire thing and Martha quite enjoyed seeing him go slightly red as she talked more about it. The Doctor stopped the conversation abruptly as he spotted the headline for a newspaper someone was reading.
Martha read the headline, the man with the newspaper was staring at them paranoid because several people had turned to read the front cover of his newspaper now. It read: ‘CHILD SNATCHER STRIKES AGAIN!’ Martha turned to the Doctor who was smiling slightly. He had that ‘let’s go ‘ave a look then’ face. After paying for the tea with a slightly psychic credit card, they went straight to where the newspaper had highlighted.
The paper had claimed that there was a swimming pool, nearby, that had reported several children missing. Or at least, when the parents went to pick up the children after the swimming lessons they were shocked to find that there was no child to pick up. The newspaper criticised the pool and claimed that the pool was stealing the children even though there was no motive so the police couldn’t arrest anyone. So that’s where Martha and the Doctor went: to the swimming pool.
The pool was slightly different from any other pool Martha had seen before. It had a balcony where spectators watched and cubicles lined around the side of the twenty five metre swimming pool. There were two toilets parallel to each other, both containing showers. To the left of the boys toilets was a sauna and to the right of the girls toilets were lockers. The pool itself was split into three sections by a red line that ran along the bottom of the pool. The water was slightly odd coloured, slightly different from the way normal pools were.
The Doctor and Martha watched from high up in the balcony. The swimming lessons were being taught by trainee swimming teachers who were being examined. Most of the children there were young, a few looked about twelve and there was one child who looked sixteen but claimed to be thirteen and a few talented children that swam like Olympic medallists.
In the deep end of the pool were the talented swimmers, they were learning strokes like backstroke and front crawl, presumably because those were the easiest to teach as the children mastered the strokes fairly quickly. The middle end was full of improving swimmers, their strokes were terrible but they seemed like quite capable swimmers. And down at the bottom in the shallow end were small children aged no more than six, swimming with armbands and floats.
The Doctor tutted as the swimming instructor corrected one child’s stroke, “That was unnecessary, that stroke was almost perfect.”
“Bit splashy though.” stated Martha, she was right the stroke itself was right but it did look extremely splashy.
He gave her a look she’d begun to get used to. It was the ‘humans!’ look. He turned his attention to the pool again, choosing not to give another ‘humans!’ lecture. The teacher was lining them up against the side of the pool. The Teacher then demonstrated a dive which in both Martha and the Doctor’s books was perfect. After climbing onto the side she told the children to try. The children’s attempts were seemingly feeble, however two children did it exactly as shown.
The Doctor seemed to stare at the teacher. Martha waved a hand in front of his face, “Why are you staring at the teacher?”
“I think I recognise her.” he said blankly, “Ah, can’t have I don’t know any swimming teachers.”
“You don’t?” asked Martha, “I thought you knew everyone.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Anyway, what does a swimming pool and child disappearances share in common?” asked the Doctor.
“That sounds like the set up for a bad joke.” said Martha.
The Doctor glared at her before carrying on, “It just doesn’t make sense. Swimming pools and child nappers? Why?”
Martha raised an eyebrow as she realised that he was asking her those questions, “Maybe they don’t like the way the kids swim.”
The Doctor stared at her as though she had just dribbled on herself. He then stood up and they walked out of the pool. He smiled and said, “I think it’s time I got the torches out.”
Martha stared at her torch, “Well I’ve never done this before…”
“What?! You’re saying you’ve never snuck about in your big sister’s bedroom in the middle of the night with a torch?” asked the Doctor waving his torch about the pool.
“No, I didn’t say…” then she paused as the Doctor’s torch scanned to pool, “… wait a minute, why is the pool that colour?”
The Doctor stared at the pool. The pool was different, it was a different colour… an odd, ‘un-swimming-pool-like’ colour. It was a very strange blue. It was a turquoise sort of blue. The sort of blue that you’d only expect to find on some sort of man-made clothing. It was unnatural and looked wrong. It felt wrong. It was… wrong.
He knelt down to it and cocked his head slightly, “It’s not supposed to look like that.”
“Really?!” asked Martha sarcastically.
He would frown at her but he could hear footsteps, “Can you hear that?”
Martha listened intently, “Footsteps?!”
He nodded and then as the noise got louder he and Martha ran into the nearest cubicle. The Doctor stood on the small bench that was attached to the wall of the cubicle. He peered over the top of the cubicle. A door at the end of the pool opened, squeaking painfully on it’s hinges. He squinted as a figure emerged from behind the door. The person was carrying a torch. They waved it round before focusing it on the floor.
They walked towards the side of the pool and knelt beside it. He could make out their mouth dropping open. The person spoke, “Oh my Bob! I wonder what it is…”
The Doctor watched as the person pulled out a vial from their pocket. The vial dipped into the pool and as they held it up the water in the vial began to glow a bright, vibrant blue. The person’s face was lit up by the light and the Doctor recognised and identified the person straight away, “Amy?”
The person the other side of the room looked up. They couldn’t see the Doctor and so they pointed the torch to where the voice had come from, “Who’s there?”
Martha looked up to the Doctor in the cubicle, “Who is it?”
“Hello?” asked the person, “Look I heard a voice and last I checked I’m not insane quite yet.”
The Doctor whispered to Martha, “I think it’s Amy!”
“Amy?” asked Martha.
“I’ll explain later.” hissed the Doctor impatiently.
“Look come out or I’ll call the police.” said the person standing up waving the torch around the pool.
The Doctor sighed slightly and leapt off the small bench. He opened the door and he and Martha walked out of the cubicle. He waved at the person. The person walked towards the edge of the pool and stared at them. They began to walk towards them. When the torch was pointed at them, the person smiled and shouted, “Doctor?”
“Amy!” shouted the Doctor, Amy ran towards him.
“Doctor! It is you!” shouted Amy who then stopped in front of him and offered a hand.
He shook it and turned to Martha, “Martha this is Amy, Amy this is Martha.”
“What happened to R…”
The Doctor gave Amy a look, the look was clear. The look said ‘gone’. Amy understood. She changed the subject, “What are you doing here? How’s the TARDIS?”
“The TARDIS is fine, bumpy as usual but surviving well. The question is how did you get here?!” questioned the Doctor.
“Well, after the Daleks and Cybermen arrived on Earth, one of our Earth agents asked for more Healers. So we sent most of them there, I snuck in with them. You have no idea how stressing being a President is.” replied Amy, “So, Martha, how long have you been travelling with the Doctor?”
“Not long.” said Martha, “Now could you explain what’s going on and who you are?”
“Right, this is Amy who is the President of the planet of the Healers: a race of humanoid beings who can heal wounds and know the first aid protocols for every species in the known universe. She became President because she is half Time Lady, she has a power which allows her to take things in and out of time like Yoda’s lightsaber…”
“Which I’m quite fond of!” added Amy.
The Doctor continued, “ I met her and she and I went through several difficult traps set by Marvin the paranoid android who was turned evil briefly until Amy set the timelines right and Marvin became neutral again.”
“That doesn’t explain the pool.” said Amy.
“And they thought chlorine was deadly.” said Martha wittily.
“It is, to humans its just working out what is actually going on.” said the Doctor.
Amy sighed, “This is more complicated than trying to resuscitate a Mecrosacian.”
“What’s so hard about that?” asked the Doctor.
“It’s not that it’s hard, it’s whether you have the courage to pull it off.” replied Amy.
“Why?” asked Martha.
“You don’t want to know where it’s mouth is.” said Amy, “Really, you don’t.”
A shocked look of horror appeared on Martha’s face, as amazing as Aliens were. They were… completely alien. Amy passed the Doctor the test tube of the pool water, “I’ve got a job as a swimming teacher here…”
“Thought I recognised the face,” said the Doctor frantically screwdrivering the liquid in the vial, “Nice diving.”
“Thanks.” said Amy who was slightly surprised, “Doctor I have to tell you something…”
“What?” he asked.
Martha watched, slightly curious. Amy sighed, “Doctor I’m not half Time Lady.”
“What?!” shouted the Doctor. Martha seemed equally as surprised. At the same time an evil, robotic, tinged depressive sounding laugh echoed around the empty dark swimming pool.
