Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Today was supposed to be, for all intents and purposes, a normal day for Josh. Like always, he woke up, got ready to go to his (all too mundane) retail job. His parents, along with his siblings, had already woken up and had breakfast, with his younger siblings heading off to school. Life was, to Josh, boring. It seemed he was destined to have a life of mundanity and work in retail forever. He’d tried to have an exciting life, with being a drummer in a band and whatnot, but it didn’t work out, and now he was doomed to a life of repetition. 

To most people, a fairly mundane life wouldn’t be an issue. Josh was not most people. Josh wanted a life worth living. A life where he could look back and say, yeah, that was exciting, I lived a good life, when he was old and grey. He could imagine it so vividly that the taste was just on the tip of his tongue. Sighing, Josh hopped in his beaten-up old Civic and drove to his least favourite building in the world.

Forest’s was a local department store that was owned by the Forest family since the 1920s. If you asked Josh, Forest was an awful last name, but it wasn’t like he was about to get married to the 57-year-old Henry Forest, who currently owned the store, so he primarily kept that opinion to himself in fear that the older man would fire him. Forest’s was officially called Forest & Son’s Department Store , but nobody ever called it that - not even Henry.

Josh went about his day as usual, folding clothes, ringing up customers, basically everything you’d expect in daily work in retail. Though thankfully, the day didn’t seem to drag on all that much. The biggest issue with Forest’s, at least in Josh’s opinion, wasn’t the number of screaming teenagers that came in with an attempt to buy beer, or cigarettes, or the entitled people who thought they deserved a refund, or an item for free - it was how, since he was the youngest full time worker there, all his coworkers took advantage of him. 

This was, of course, how Josh found himself being forced to head down to the creepy, dingy basement of Forest’s to give his duty manager, Wilson, the money for the safes. Rapping on the door to Wilson’s office, he was met with no reply, despite his calls that the store was closing, so he couldn’t stay much longer. Sighing, he ventured deeper into the basement, where the mannequins were stored, in search of Wilson. This was when his luck ran out (if he had any to begin with) and the doors slammed shut behind him. 

“Oh for fucks- you’ve got to be joking,” he mumbled, trying to pry the set of double, red doors open. 

Something fell to the ground behind him, and he sighed. It had to be someone he worked with messing around with him. How did they get Wilson in on it? God knows, though Wilson was a bit of a pushover. As he walked over to the noise, a mannequin appeared to… move? Josh snorted.

“Yeah, okay, very funny, guys. I get the joke, you got me!” He called out, just as another mannequin moved. “No, seriously, guys, you can stop now. This is just fucked up and creepy.”

More mannequins began moving, surrounding him. He backed up further and further, tripping over the random boxes that were stored haphazardly in the room, and he quickly scrambled back to his feet. He was pressed against a wall now, a hot, exposed pipe pressed against his back, as the first mannequin to move raised its arm, getting ready to swing down and hit him. This was when, as if a guardian angel had appeared, Josh felt a hand grab him. He looked over and saw a man, not much younger than he, grinning at him.

“Run!” The man (boy?) spoke steadily and began dragging Josh along as they both ran from the group of, what had to be, students fucking around.

Josh was dragged into an elevator, and the mannequins began attempting to force their way in, the brunette boy who had saved Josh fighting back against them. Suddenly, the doors to the elevator closed, trapping the lead mannequin’s arm in it. The boy pulled at the arm, and Josh was sure he would hear pained screaming from whoever was in the suit. Yet, as the boy pulled the arm off, there was nothing. No pained noise, no blood, and the arm that was pulled off was solid plastic. 

Josh blinked owlishly. How could that be? Robots, maybe? Sure, it wasn’t likely, especially when the only people stupid enough to try and scare a few retail workers likely weren’t smart enough to build robots that advanced, but it was the only idea Josh had. 

Panting, Josh began to speak. “Who were they, then? Students? A bun- bunch of kids screwing around?” He stuttered, his breath catching as he tried to speak and recover from the sudden vigorous exercise.

“Why would they be students?” The boy asked, turning to look at him and grinning. “No, seriously, why students?”

Josh sighed, rubbing his forehead. “Um, I don’t know. Who else would be stupid enough to break into a basement of a department store to try and scare some retail workers working minimum wage?”

The boy chuckled and threw the plastic arm to Josh. “Nice idea… they aren’t students.” He said, and the elevator doors opened with a ‘ ping ’.

The boy quickly hurried out of the elevator, Josh following closely on his heels. “Who were they then? And where’s Wilson?” He asked, concerned that his manager was stuck down there with the group. 

The boy pushed Josh back, away from the elevator and its button, and scanned the button with an odd device, making the controls spark and the elevator stuck. 

“Who’s Wilson?” The boy asked, beginning to walk over to the doors that led into the main department store from the roof.

“My- my duty manager, Wilson. The office is down in the basement.”

The boy nodded in understanding. “Ah, I see… Wilson’s dead”

Josh guffawed. What the fuck was this kid’s problem? “Excuse me? Look, man, I don’t know who you are, but that’s not a very funny joke.” 

The boy turned and looked at Josh, almost sincerely. “It’s not a joke, I’m sorry, Wilson is dead. And I very well could be soon, too. You need to get out of here. I need to blow this building up to get rid of the creatures downstairs, and I can’t do that when there’s innocent civilians around.”

Josh blinked, and the boy stepped into the door and closed it before quickly reopening it. “I’m Tyler, by the way, what’s your name?”

“U-um, Josh… Josh Dun.”

The boy, Tyler, grinned. “Nice to meet you, Josh Dun. Run for your life.”

And with that, the door slammed shut behind him.

Chapter Text

The boy, Tyler, had warned Josh that he was going to blow up his workplace. And yet, it still came as a surprise when, seconds after Josh hurried out the store doors, the building went up in a boom of flames and an explosion. Josh panted as he ran home, sweat dripping down his back. What the fuck ?! He thought to himself, What the fuck just happened? That repeated in his mind the whole 15 minutes of the drive home. Maybe I’ll wake up in the morning, and it’ll all have been some big, crazy dream?

Needless to say, it was not some big, crazy dream. So much so, that when he awoke to his alarm the next morning, his mother actually told him that there was ‘no point in getting up’ because he didn’t have a job to get to. Josh was stumped. This guy, whoever Tyler was, must have been some kind of arsonist, or terrorist, or… something. Either way, Josh was sure he should probably go to the police (though he very much did not want to). But then again, he didn’t know anything about this Tyler guy. For all Josh knew, Tyler could have been a completely fabricated name. 

Finding himself lying on the couch in the living room, the news blaring from the TV screen, Josh heard the cat flap move. He couldn’t help but sigh; his parents had said they were going to secure that ages ago, and yet here they were - with another stray attempting to make its way into the house.

“Mom? I thought you said you were gonna permanently shut the cat flap ages ago?!” He called out, frustrated at the lack of being able to do much today.

“I did! Ages ago!” His mom called back, and he let out another frustrated sigh.

He didn’t mean to get annoyed with his family, but he needed an outlet for his energy, and when there was nothing like that, he got worked up . So it was only inevitable that his response was snarky.

“No, you thought about it . And now we’re gonna get more strays.”

Kneeling to inspect the cat flap in annoyance, he let out a frustrated yelp when his bare hand leaned on an unexpectedly cold, dull piece of metal - a nail. Okay, so maybe his parents did close the cat flap, but not very well. As he picked up more of the dull, misshapen nails, the flap moved again, making him flinch with fright. He slowly leaned down and nudged the flap open. Yet, instead of being greeted by a stray cat, he was greeted by the frowning face that haunted his dreams last night. Tyler . He bolted up, wrenching the door open quickly.

“What are you doing here?!” He whisper-yelled, both terrified and frustrated.

“What am I doing here? What are you doing here?” 

Josh scoffed, rolling his eyes at the blatant rudeness of the man in front of him. 

“I live here?”

Tyler looked at him, confused. “Why’d you do that?”

“‘Cause I do? Look, what do you want?”

Tyler snorted, looking at the odd scanner device he’d used last night. “Sorry, readings must have been wrong.”

Suddenly, Josh’s mom’s voice sounded from down the hall. “Josh? Who’s at the door, sweetheart?”

Flinching, he darted his head to look behind him before turning back to the boy. “Um, just someone about last night… just give us a minute.” And with that, he dragged Tyler into the house. 

“He deserves compensation! He was almost blown to smithereens!” She called out, sticking her head out of the door. “Oh! You’re younger than I thought you’d be… I suppose they’re hiring anyone they can get these days, which is good.”

Tyler nodded, an awkward smile on his face as he walked past her and followed Josh into the living room.

“D’ you want anything? Coffee? Soda?”

Tyler looked up, a smile - this time seemingly genuine - on his face. “Um, do you have Red Bull?” 

Josh nodded and headed into the kitchen, muttering to himself as he began to make himself a coffee. He could hear Tyler talking to himself from just behind the wall that separated the kitchen and living room, but couldn’t quite work out what he was saying. This guy’s so odd , he thought to himself, walking through into the living room with a mug in one hand and an ice-cold Red Bull in the other. As he looked up, he saw Tyler playing with the plastic arm he’d ripped off the mannequin last night. Josh had taken it home and asked his brother, Jordan, to get rid of it on his way to school, so why it was still around the house - let alone being played with by a boy who was at least 19 - was beyond him. Tyler was messing around with it so much that it almost looked like he was genuinely being choked. Josh snorted.

“God, are all cishet guys the same? I told my brother to get rid of it, and he did the same thing.”

As soon as those words left his mouth, the hand seemed to fly towards him instead. Josh let out an involuntary yelp as the plastic arm smacked into his face, the hand gripping his face painfully hard. Tyler attempted to help him, pulling at the wrist of the hand in a feeble attempt to pry the hand off, but that just seemed to aggravate it further. They tumbled around the living room, smacking into walls and tables, before falling backwards onto the couch. It was at this moment that Tyler seemed to snap out of whatever daze he was in and began to use the scanning device once more, this time in some strange attempt to get the hand to let go. Oddly enough, it worked, and the hand (which Josh was now convinced was some odd robot) deactivated. Josh lay there, panting as he stared at the ceiling, and then at Tyler.

“What the fuck was that?! It- it just attacked me! What the hell is going on?”

Tyler gave him a grave look, grabbing the plastic arm before rushing out of the house, as if he didn’t want to explain. Josh, of course, ran after him, quickly calling out to his mom that he’d be back soon. 

“Hey! Get back here! You can’t just run off after all that, the thing just attacked me!”

Tyler hummed, continuing to rush down the street. “Yeah, it did, points for observation”

Josh grunted, frustrated. “What’s going on? You’ve gotta tell me!”

“No, I don’t. Actually, it’s better if I don’t!”

“Well, in that case, I’ll go to the police, then- then you’ll seriously be in trouble”

Tyler let out a laugh, as if he didn’t believe that Josh would do that. “Yeah, okay, do that then - but you’ll get people killed.”

Josh let out a frustrated yell, his legs working overtime to keep up with Tyler’s quick movements. “Then tell me what’s going on! I just- I want to know! Like, what have I done? They’re coming after me, right? So why me?”

Tyler froze, turning to look at Josh with narrowed eyes. “Why do you think they’re coming after you? Are you just so… full of yourself that you think the world revolves around you?”

“Well, no, but they were at my work, and then just now; it was at my house . There’s a similarity there, and it’s me, right?”

Tyler smirked, shaking his head before continuing to speed-walk down the sidewalk. “No. You just happened to be there. I’m the similarity. They’re coming after me.”

Josh snorted in disbelief. “Oh, so the world revolves around you, then?”

Nodding, Tyler smirked. “...I suppose it does, yeah!”

Josh’s mouth fell open in shock. “Wow! And you say I’m full of myself.” They continued to speed-walk in silence for a moment before Josh decided to speak up again. “What’s your full name? You said your name’s Tyler, but Tyler what ?”

“Nothing! Don’t have a last name, just Tyler!” The boy’s voice almost sounded smug.

“What, so when you were born, you were just called Tyler? Your parents didn’t have a last name or something?”

Tyler shrugs, “Didn’t see the need for it.” He then pauses, turning to look at Josh. “Look, it’s safer for everyone if you just stay out of it. I know it’s human nature to be curious, but this is a life-or-death situation. Go back to your daily life, chances are you won’t see me again now, and if you do, then I’ll tell you everything.”

At that, Josh stood in shock, staring as the boy walked away, towards a blue box that stood out like a sore thumb. What is that? Josh thought, and why is nobody looking at it? Looking around, he decided that it must be some sort of weird art project. At this point, he’d lost track of Just Tyler , so he may as well just head home. Turning around, he walked back in the direction they’d just come from, but he only walked about 10 feet before he heard a noise. It was strange, like the wind but… deeper. It was a noise that, usually, he’d have brushed off as being just background noise of the city, but with all the strange things happening lately, he was inclined to turn back towards the noise. As he did so, one thing stood out to him: the box was gone. 

Josh shook his head, rubbing his eyes in disbelief. How did it just disappear? Tyler must have had something to do with it. Josh ran home.

Chapter Text

When Josh got home, he immediately texted his best friend, Debby, detailing exactly what had happened. She, naturally, thought he was insane, but agreed to help him try to find out more about Tyler. This was how he found himself at Debby’s apartment, the two of them scrolling through Google with searches such as “man named Tyler with no last name” and “Tyler, Columbus, Ohio.” However, all of the searches so far had turned out to be too broad. Of course, they were. Tyler was too generic a name to come up with much without anything following it, and there must have been about 5,000 men called Tyler who had something to do with Columbus anyway.

Then, a thought occurred to Josh. The blue box. It was almost as if it was made for him to forget, like there was some strange force that made it forgettable. Either way, he remembered now. With one last-ditch attempt, he searched “Tyler, Columbus, Ohio, blue box”. To his surprise, the top result seemed promising. It was a blog page from a man named Chris, who wrote that he was convinced that Tyler was some harbinger of evil. Josh didn’t necessarily believe the conspiracy, but he knew Tyler was strange, and Chris seemed to have evidence that convinced him about the ‘harbinger’ bullshit. Chris had documented how a man — who looked eerily similar to the Tyler Josh had just met — was seen at the Titanic’s departure, at Nova Scotia’s Halifax Harbour, just hours before the S S Mont-Blanc collided with the S S Imo, in 1906, he was recorded to have checked in to a hotel in San Francisco just days before the Great Earthquake. And that was just skimming the surface of the sightings.

So, Josh made his way to Chris’s place, an old farmhouse, with Debby in tow — the girl having refused to let him go alone. He’d convinced Debby to wait in the car, telling her that he had his phone and that he would feel much better if he didn’t risk both of them. Debby reluctantly agreed, the younger giving him a time limit of 20 minutes to talk to Chris before she would begin to worry.

With his old car being parked in the conspiracy theorist’s drive with his best friend in the passenger seat, Josh felt much safer knowing that Debby wasn’t going to be in danger, not that he thought Chris was going to be much of a danger — the man had a wife and kids, for God's sake. And so, Josh rapped on the door, waving over his shoulder at Debby, before turning back just as the front door opened, a young boy behind it, glowering at him.

“Oh! Hi, I’m Josh. I’m here to see Chris? We’ve been messaging on his website?”

The young boy sighs, rolling his eyes, and turns to call over his shoulder into the house. “Dad! Another crazy person for you!”

And just as quickly as the young boy had opened the door, he vanished back into the depths of the house, with an older, stubble-faced man walking out into the landing that held the front door. “Hiya! I’m Chris, you must be Josh?”

Josh nodded, a shy smile on his face. “Yeah, that’s me… oh, I should warn you, my friend is in the car and she’s given me 20 minutes before she comes to make sure I’m okay.”

Chris nodded, chuckling softly. “Right, yes, no murders, don’t worry!” He waved at Debby, who smiled hesitantly back. “Why don’t you come this way? I’ve got an office with all my evidence!”

Josh nodded, rubbing his forehead gently as he followed Chris into his office - the room covered in sci-fi memorabilia. 

“Forgive me for not sending you all the photos and everything through email or messages; those things aren’t particularly well encrypted — don’t want anyone hacking and reading that stuff, it’s sensitive information, you know.” Chris rambled on, Josh nodding along, a little confused. “So, the main photo on the website — this was your Tyler, yeah?” He pointed at his computer screen, a black-and-white, slightly grainy photo of the man he had just talked to hours before on the main screen. 

“Y-yeah, that’s him… maybe slightly younger than he is now, and, um, he has longer hair now.”

Chris nodded, inhaling deeply. “Yeah, that tends to happen. See, throughout history, this face has consistently appeared before life-changing, earth-shattering events. I mentioned some on the website — mainly ones that members of the public had sent in — but there’s more! Look here, this was taken at President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, just minutes before it happened. And this one? Taken on the day of the beginning of the Crimean War . The man is everywhere throughout history, and it’s always the same name: ‘Tyler’, with no middle name and no last name.” 

Josh looks at him with his head slightly tilted. “But… who is he? How is he constantly showing through history?”

“I think he’s some omnipotent being. I think he’s an alien from another world.” Chris looks at him solemnly. “And while I don’t know exactly who he is, one thing that always follows him is disaster and death. If Tyler has appeared in your life, God help you.”

Josh snorts, rolling his eyes. An alien . Yeah, okay. He loved The X-Files, don’t get him wrong, but an alien that dedicated its life to, what, warning humans of disasters? Yeah, okay. Chris held his hands up defensively.

“You don’t have to believe me, but I know what I, and others, have experienced.”

Josh sighed, knowing he should wrap up this ridiculous conversation. “Okay, well… thank you for your information. I should, um, probably get going.”

And with that, Chris nodded and led him out to the front door, solemnly saying a farewell before closing the door, with Josh on the outside. 

Josh huffs, walking back to the car in defeat. Debby was still sitting inside, a little shiny, though likely from the heat of the car. Why didn’t she turn the AC on? Josh shrugged before roughly opening the driver’s side door and slinging himself into the car.

“Okay, you were right, he’s fucking insane.” Josh sighed. “Man, I don’t know, maybe I should just forget about it… Hey! Wanna go get food? My treat.”

Debby grins at that, muttering under her breath as she nods. Josh just shrugs, figuring it must have been a while since she last ate, and begins to drive off towards Taco Bell — their go-to for catch-ups, shit talking, and just overall hang-outs.

The fast-food restaurant was fairly empty, a couple of college kids dotted around, but overall quiet, just the way Josh liked it. Having sat down in their usual booth, Josh began to talk about what kind of job he should look for next, feeling a little exasperated at the fact that he’d managed to get quite far into that job before it blew up — he wasn’t letting go of that any time soon.

“Yeah, I dunno… I mean, Ashley’s friend mentioned a job going at the elementary school’s canteen, maybe I could do that for a bit? What do you think?” He sighs, picking at the Nacho Bell Grande they’d ordered.

Debby suddenly cocks her head, eyes narrowing. “So, where’d you meet this Tyler, anyway? ‘Cause I think it has something to do with the other night, and the explosion at your work, am I right?”

Josh lets out a shocked little huff, confused about why she was bringing up Tyler all of a sudden. 

“Sorry, why are you asking about that? It’s over.” As he says this, a guy walks up to them offering them a bottle of soda. “Oh, no thanks,” Josh mutters, eyes narrowed curiously at Debby.

“Well, I think he’s dangerous. If he did have something to do with the explosion, then I’d wanna know”, she replies.

As Josh rolls his eyes, frustratedly at Debby’s insistence, the man who offered the soda bottle speaks. “You guys sure you don’t want this soda?”

At this, Debby and Josh both look up, a frustrated denial half out of their mouths before they freeze. It was Tyler. “Oh! Don’t mind me, just thought I’d show some science off.” He grins, shaking the soda bottle exponentially hard before twisting the cap ever so slightly . 

The cap goes flying through the air, whacking against Debby’s forehead. Josh flinches and then furrows his eyebrows in concern when, instead of bouncing off her forehead, it sinks into the skin. She huffs and suddenly spits the cap out of her mouth. Josh lets out a yelp, eyes widening as she stands and her hand morphs into a flat, knife-like mass. 

Tyler suddenly grabs hold of Josh’s arm, pulling him up and away from the table just as Debby swings her arm down, the table cracking in half. There are screams — quite possibly from Josh himself — as suddenly she begins attempting to swing at anyone and everyone. 

“Everyone! Out, now!” Tyler yells, and Josh runs over to pull the fire alarm.

There’s mass panic, people screaming and running outside. And yet, instead of running, Tyler steps towards Debby, wrapping an arm around her neck in a headlock, and pulls . Her head comes off with a pop, and Tyler looks up with a grin. Suddenly, Debby speaks once more, and instead of screaming, Tyler laughs and grabs Josh’s hand, pulling him towards the back exit of the building. The headless body of what was his best friend was still swinging its arms around blindly behind them. 

When they reach the back lot of the Taco Bell, Josh’s head darts around, spying a locked gate. He rushed over.

“Use that scanner thing to unlock this gate! It’s like a key, right?!”

Tyler chuckles, strolling casually over to a blue box, exactly like that Josh saw on the street earlier. “It’s a Sonic Screwdriver. And, nah, hey, I have an idea; let’s go in here instead.”

Josh lets out a frustrated gasp, turning around to face where Tyler just disappeared into the box. “What? Are you actually insane? We’ll get killed in there!” He exclaims, rushing towards the blue box to pull Tyler out.

Instead, when he enters, he freezes in shock. The inside is huge, like it should fill the entire back lot. He rushes back outside to survey the blue box. It’s definitely not some sort of optical illusion; touching it would prove that, and it is completely flat on all sides. Josh runs back inside, gasping for air. “Wh- What the fuck?”

Tyler grins, and the doors close behind Josh as Tyler begins to speak.  “Don’t worry, nothing can get through those doors. And believe me, worse things than a cheap imitation of your girlfriend have tried.”

Josh blinks, taking in everything. “She’s, um, she’s not my girlfriend.” And then he processes exactly what Tyler is doing to his best friend’s decapitated head (that’s not bleeding — why is it not bleeding?). “What are you doing? What the fuck? First you- you kill her, and now you’re plugging her head into your weird-ass computer… thing.”

Tyler sighs, turning to face Josh. “It’s called a TARDIS, short for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space.”

Josh blinks owlishly at him. “So, what, you’re an alien?”

Tyler nods, a small smile on his face. “Yup! That’s me! Hello!”

Josh snorts in disbelief before pausing. His brows furrowed, and a frown formed. “God, I’m gonna have to tell her parents that she’s dead. She’s dead, and- and you’re letting her head melt.”

“Melt- what?!” Tyler suddenly spins back around to face Debby’s head, which was melting like cheap plastic on a too-hot radiator. “No! Shit! No, no, no!” He cries out, rushing over to the controls and whacking them, pulling the screen closer to him.

The TARDIS lurches, almost like it’s moving, and wheezes loudly as Tyler moves around the centre of the large room, muttering obscenities under his breath. Suddenly, everything stills, and Tyler lets out a defeated yell. 

“God! I was so close! No!” He yells, running outside. Josh follows after him, yelling that it's still unsafe. “God! I almost had it!” He cries, whacking his hand against a lamp post.

Josh, still hot on Tyler’s heels, almost crashes into the man, letting out a small gasp as he suddenly processes that they have moved. In fact, they’re no longer behind Josh’s local Taco Bell, but on the Scioto Mile, right on the riverfront. The Bicentennial Park was directly behind them. 

“We’ve moved.” He says, feeling stupid immediately after.

“Yeah, and I almost tracked the signal down.”

Josh turns to look at the man, eyebrows furrowed once more. “What exactly is happening? Wh-what signal? What happened to Debby?”

Tyler sighs, rubbing his face. “There’s this… alien race… thing: called the Nestene Consciousness. They’re basically living plastic. They want to take over the Earth and destroy the Human Race. Nestenes are a giant hive mind, and they control all plastic… hence the mannequins coming to life in your store.” Josh looks horrified, realising that Chris maybe wasn’t as crazy as Josh initially thought. “They can also, apparently, make themselves look like different people… which I don’t think I’ve dealt with before. Your not-girlfriend , Debby? There’s a chance she’s still alive. They think she might have some connection to me through you, so as long as they keep thinking that, there’s a possibility.”

Josh sighs, eyes prickling with tears. “She’s okay?”

Tyler smiles awkwardly, before pulling something out of his Adidas Jacket — Josh thought he looked like a pretentious asshole wearing that… but he was also kind of attractive, so he wasn’t going to admit either of those thoughts — he looked triumphantly at it; a vial of some kind of blue liquid.

“Anti-plastic!” He cries triumphantly. “A last resort, of course, I don’t wanna kill if I can help it… But if worst comes to worst.” 

Josh nods, a small smile playing at his lips. “Anti-plastic?” He giggles softly. “Okay, I see your game plan, Tyler .”

Tyler grins, winking at Josh for just a moment, before spinning around on his heels — he was looking for something . “Now, they need something to be able to transmit their signal. It’s gotta be big - metal.”

Josh nods, glancing around for a second before smirking at Tyler. Tyler furrowed his eyebrows, his turn to be confused. “T-the fountain. It’s huge… and there’s the amphitheatre behind it, which has a, like, storage room, thing that leads underground - I’ve been there before, but not underground.”

Tyler grins, grabbing Josh’s hand and tugging him along towards the amphitheatre. They ran — this must have been the most running Josh had done in ages, he thought to himself — and Tyler used the scanner - the Sonic Screwdriver - to unlock the amphitheatre door. The door slammed open, and quickly, Josh and Tyler made their way towards the ladder that led underground. At the bottom of the ladder, Tyler turned to look at Josh, a serious expression on his face.

“Okay, you follow my lead, you hear me? No running off or throwing things at the Nestene Consciousness. We are being respectful unless we physically have no choice.”

Josh nods, taking in the information, and follows Tyler down a winding corridor towards a winding staircase. Slowly, they make their way down and find themselves in a room with a hot, glowing orange light in the middle of it. If Josh didn’t know any better, he’d think he was facing molten metal or lava. Tyler stops at the top of a walkway and clears his throat.

“I seek audience with the Nestene Consciousness under peaceful contract according to convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation.” The glowing hot liquid inside a vat in the centre of the room pulses, a strange gurgling noise coming from it. “Thank you, if I might have permission to approach?” Tyler speaks, his voice coming out in a very formal manner.

Suddenly, Josh sees movement on a lower level. He looks closer and spies Debby, trembling against a metal barrier. Josh gasps, and — without thinking — rushes towards her. Tyler sighs, rolling his eyes as Josh embraces Debby’s trembling form.

“Debby! Oh, thank God you’re alive!”

Debby whimpers up at him, eyes shining with tears. “Josh! That- that thing down there, it’s alive, Josh. It’s liquid and it’s alive .”

Josh nods, pulling Debby towards his chest as he watches Tyler make his way downwards, approaching a ledge above the vat.

“Am I addressing the Consciousness?” Tyler asks, and the vat of liquid plastic flexes once more, a soft screeching in reply. “Thank you. Now, if I may observe, you infiltrated this planet, this civilisation, by means of warp shunt technology. So, may I suggest, with the greatest of respect, that you shunt back off this planet?” The vat screeches loudly, something that almost looks like a face forming in the plastic. “Oh, come on, let’s be honest here; it’s an invasion, plain and simple. And don’t give me that about constitutional rights, this planet is just starting . These tiny, stupid people have only just learned how to walk, and they’re capable of so much more than you realise. So, I’m asking on their behalf: please, just go.”

Suddenly, Josh spots a pair of mannequins approaching Tyler, and he yells out his name. But it’s too late, they grab him, and one takes the vial of anti-plastic from his pocket.

“Oh come on! That was a last resort; I wasn’t gonna use it. I was not attacking you. I’m not your enemy, I’m not-” Tyler gets cut off by the plastic screeching once more, a secret door in a wall sliding back to reveal the TARDIS. “Oh! Oh no! No! Yes, that’s my ship, but-” The plastic screeches again. “No- that’s not true! I should know, I was there! I couldn’t save your world, I couldn’t save any of them!” Tyler cries out.

Josh’s eyes dart back and forth between the TARDIS and Tyler as the vat continues to roar. 

“What’s happening? Tyler?” Josh yells, hardly audible over the noise.

“It’s the TARDIS! The Nestene’s identified it as superior technology; it thinks we’re here to destroy it. It’s beginning the invasion! Get out, Josh! Just run! Now!”

Josh takes a shuddering breath and decides suddenly to message his family. Just a simple text: ‘Go home and stay there!’, he just hopes that his family listens. Suddenly, bolts of energy start being thrown from the vat of plastic.

“What the fuck’s happening now?!” Josh cries, terrified.

“That’s the activation signal. It’s transmitting!”

“It’s the end of the world,” Josh whispers, tightening his grip on the equally terrified Debby.

The plastic — the Nestene — is slowly growing increasingly agitated. Tyler looks around frantically.

“Josh! Get out! Just- just go!”

But Josh looks towards the stairs that they came from - they’re gone. Collapsed under the strain of the plastic’s temper. Josh pulls Debby towards the TARDIS, but it’s useless; they don’t have the key. Debby cries out, whimpering in fear.

“God! We’re going to die, Josh!”

Josh’s eyes dart around the chamber, desperately searching for something, anything , to stop their impending doom. Suddenly, he spots something. Eyeing Tyler one last time, he runs around the chamber, Debby crying out in fear.

“Josh! Leave him! There’s nothing we can do!”

He reaches a wall opposite where Tyler is being held, and the mannequins are attempting to push him into the vat of plastic.

“No, because you know what? I’ve got no qualifications, no job, barely any future.” As he calls that out, he grabs an axe from the nearby wall. “But you know what I do have? The under-7s gymnastics team, my mom forced me into it, thinking it’d make me more feminine. I hated it, but…” Josh turns to grin at Debby. “I got the bronze!”

With that, Josh turns towards the wall and chops through a rope holding a long chain, grabbing hold of it. He runs, winging out along the side of the catwalk, and manages to kick the two mannequins into the vat, the anti-plastic falling in alongside them. The Nestene screams, turning from a glowing golden-orange to a blue. Tyler grabs Josh as he swings back and begins to pull him towards the TARDIS.

“Come on! We’ve got to get out of here now!”

The vat begins to explode as they run to the TARDIS, where Debby is holding on for dear life. They all make it inside in the nick of time, the TARDIS beginning to lurch once more, and this time the trip seems much shorter. Debby immediately runs outside of the TARDIS once it’s landed, collapsing to the floor in a state of shock. Josh runs after her, pulling her into a gentle hug.

“You know, Tyler, you were useless in there! You’d be dead if it wasn’t for me!”

Tyler snickers, “I would, yeah. Thank you. Right, I’ll be off.. Unless you, um, wanna come with me? This box doesn’t just go around Columbus. It goes anywhere in the universe, any time. Free of charge.”

Debby stares up at Josh wide-eyed, but shaking significantly less than before. “Deb? Wh-what do you think?”

Debby whimpers, just for a moment, before wiping her eyes. “Part of me wants to say stay. Tell you that he’s- he’s an alien and that you’re just gonna get hurt… but you said it to me the other day, Josh; you hate it here. You have no future . So, go… but don’t forget about me?”

Josh smiles, pressing a gentle kiss to Debby’s forehead. “Never.”

And with that, Josh stands up, squeezing Debby’s hand once, and walks into the TARDIS to begin his new adventure with Tyler.