Fanfiction - Chapter 9: Worse than Beetroot

The Doctor raced around the control room, pushing buttons and pulling levers. But he seemed to be deep in thought.

Still thinking, the Doctor leaned on the console panel, accidentally pushing a lever up with his elbow. He yelped as the TARDIS shuddered and halted. “Oops,” he muttered.

“Doctor, what have you done now?” demanded Amy, annoyed.

“It was an accident!” the Doctor exclaimed defensively.

“So… where are we?” asked Brock, a little nervous.

“Well,” the Doctor began tapping a screen next to the lever. The screen blinked and turned off. The Doctor sighed and turned around. “We’ll have to find out the hard way. Stay here!” he ordered as he walked out the door.

The Doctor looked around, startled to find himself in what appeared to be a covered stairwell. The TARDIS had materialised on the landing. He noticed a group of teenagers, ten of them, in school uniform sitting and standing on the stairs, gaping at him. He had a nasty thought.

“I didn’t land on anyone, did I?” he asked a little nervously. He remembered the last time that had happened. Thankfully, the only casualty was an evil witch. He had later found out that, after he had left, a house had blown in on a tornado and landed on top of her. The girl, and her dog, who had been in the house at the time had been hailed as heroes by the people and went on to defeat the witch’s sister. She became quite famous in a number of worlds.

To his relief, the teenagers here all shook their heads, letting him know that he hadn’t squashed anyone this time. But they all wore the same shocked expressions they had been wearing when he had come out of the TARDIS. The Doctor frowned. This was strange. He studied them carefully.

He felt someone else moving forward, to stand next to him.

“Piplup.”

One of the girls, a tall one with long, sandy blonde hair, yelled, “OH MY GOD! HE’S SO ADORABLE!”

This seemed to break a spell. All but one of the girls rushed down the stairs, yelling various things at them.

“You’re so awesome!” yelled a girl with dark hair and purple glasses.

“You’re so owl some!” exclaimed a girl with brown hair and purple glasses.

“You’re the best Doctor!” screamed another dark-haired girl.

“I want to catch you!” screamed the first girl at Piplup.

“I want to go to Canada!” shouted a girl with blonde hair that came to her shoulders.

The girl sitting on the stairs seemed shocked. “H-how are you here?”

The four boys looked alarmed. “Not again,” one of them groaned.

“We just managed to calm them down!” exclaimed another.

“I want your autograph!” exclaimed the tallest boy.

“This was unexpected,” remarked the smallest boy, with surprising calmness.

The Doctor and Piplup edged back into the TARDIS, staring cautiously at the advancing girls. Suddenly, the Doctor understood just what he was facing. There was no time to lose! He grabbed Piplup and dived into the TARDIS, slamming the door behind him.

“We need to go! NOW!” he yelled at his startled companions.

“Doctor, what’s wrong?” Amy had never seen the Doctor so afraid before.

“We need to go; we don’t have long until they manage to get in.”

A trembling Piplup had collapsed into heap on the floor. He managed to look up at the Doctor and squeak his agreement. “P-p-piplup.”

“But the TARDIS is strong! They can’t just break in, can they?” asked Rory, thoroughly alarmed.

The Doctor stared at them, wild-eyed. “I’ve never personally met them before, but I’ve heard of them. And you most definitely don’t want them catching you! The TARDIS’ defence systems have never been tested against something so dangerous before.”

“Are they really so bad?” asked Ash, nervously.

“Worse.”

“Worse than Daleks?”

“Worse than Cybermen?”

“Worse than beetroot?”

“Much, much worse than all of those things!”

“Doctor, what are they?” a trembling Dawn asked as loud thumps reached their ears.  The strange girls seemed to be battering the TARDIS.

The Doctor looked up as he pressed a button that would take them away from the danger. He spoke one word. One word that could reduce anyone into a quivering mess.

“Fangirls.”