smallhobbit | Cat and Mouse (3/4)

Title: Cat and Mouse (3/4)
Rating: U
Character/Pairing: Simm!Master, Tenth Doctor
Word length: 1,100 in this chapter
Spoilers: None, AU
Disclaimer: Doctor Who and its characters belong to the BBC, not to me
Summary: The Master wants to steal the eggs of the xyzellie bird, but the Doctor is determined to stop him. This chapter is dedicated to the guards.

Part One
Part Two

The Master continued to watch the Brownies playing and as he did so he realised that the leader wasn’t telling the little earthlings to change at random moments, but was waiting until the “cat” had almost caught the “mouse” before calling out, thus deliberately letting the “mouse” escape.

The Doctor was alerted to the presence of his visitor by the sound of cracking branches. If he hadn’t already guessed who had fallen into the tiger trap, the loud cursing would have told him. He peered into the hole and was rewarded with the sight of the Master on his hands and knees angrily pulling bits of leaf out of his hair.

“How nice of you to drop in,” he said to his fellow Time Lord.

The Master glared at him. “Get me out of here!”

The Doctor leant into the hole and giving the Master his hand helped him to climb out.

“Well, where is it then?” the Master asked.

The Doctor debated pretending that he didn’t know what he meant, but he felt that the Master was cross enough without being wound up any further. “She’s not here. You didn’t think I would make it that easy for you to find her, did you?”

The Master remained silent, not wishing to admit that he had assumed that by finding the Doctor he would automatically find the xyzellie bird. On further thought he decided that what the Doctor had meant by “she’s not here” was that she wasn’t in the immediate vicinity, but that she would be reasonably close so that he could watch over her. Spotting a well trodden path he began to sprint towards it, planning on outrunning the Doctor, grabbing the eggs and returning to his own TARDIS before the Doctor could catch him. After which the destruction of Naranja would be a matter of hours.

The Doctor stood watching him, a bemused look on his face. Why was it that the Master, who could construct intricate plans of his own, always assumed that everyone else would take the most obvious route? As he watched the Master running down the path he considered warning him that most of the path was covered with a substance equivalent to what was known on earth as black ice. In any case, he was too late, the Master had reached the ice and his speed as he slipped had propelled him straight into the air. He landed with a loud thump and lay motionless. With a sigh the Doctor went to rescue him again.

*****

The Master had been dreaming that he was lying in a basement handcuffed to a radiator and was being watched over by what appeared to be a Police Sergeant, a relative of Bilbo Baggins and a third guard who seemed to be invisible. He woke up to find that, in fact, he was lying on a bed in the Doctor’s TARDIS and what he had dreamt was a cold, slightly leaking radiator was a packet of slowly melting frozen peas that had been tied to a nasty bruise on his wrist.

The Master’s first thought had been to leap off the bed and rush off to continue the search for the xyzellie bird. His second thought was to stay where he was and formulate a plan before rushing off, as so far, he had to admit, he hadn’t been very successful in his quest. His third thought, and the one which combined the best parts of his two previous thoughts, was to get off the bed, which was rather wet due to the aforementioned melting peas and work on a plan that would enable him to find the eggs. Time was now of the essence and he calculated that he had less than 24 hours before the eggs hatched and all his bruises, scratches and ruined suits would have been to no avail.

As he was considering his plan of action he had absentmindedly been playing with his laser screwdriver. He wished that he could use it to force the TARDIS to reveal where the xyzellie bird was. Then it struck him, whilst he couldn’t use his screwdriver to manipulate the TARDIS in that way, he could use it to tell him where it had been. Adjusting the settings on the screwdriver he was able to discover that prior to landing on Red4 the Doctor had been to Red2. At first the Master assumed that this was just a diversionary tactic but then he realised that the Doctor had been telling him the truth when he said the bird wasn’t there – he had left it on Red2 and then continued onto Red4 to mislead anyone following him.

The Master was wondering how he could leave the TARDIS without being noticed when he overheard the Doctor saying “I’ve fed her now and there’s just enough food left to last her until the eggs hatch if I feed her again tonight.” The Doctor was clearly unaware that the Master knew the xyzellie bird wasn’t on the planet. Coming out of his room, the Master was pleasantly surprised to see the TARDIS door had been left open. Clearly the Doctor expected him to continue rushing around Red4 in a fruitless search for the bird.

Not wishing to disappoint him, the Master left the TARDIS, but with the intention of returning immediately to his own machine. As soon as he was outside, the TARDIS doors shut and it dematerialised. Not for the first time that day, the Master called the Doctor all the names he could think of.

*****

The Doctor landed on Red2 and headed towards the cave where he had left the xyzellie bird. He approached cautiously not wishing to disturb her if she was sitting on her eggs. He peered into the cave and was rewarded with the sight of two xyzellie chicks. Small and fluffy, they were turquoise in colour, like their mother, but with green spots. Entranced the Doctor went to have a closer look, but he had temporarily forgotten their protective parent. She had no intention of letting anyone get near either her offspring or her one remaining egg, regardless of how friendly they might seem to be. She rushed straight at him and began to peck viciously at his shins.

The Doctor began to retreat out of the cage, pursued by the angry bird. At that moment a slight figure crept into the cave and taking advantage of the fact that the xyzellie bird was distracted, grabbed the final egg, placed it into his pocket and slipped out again.