The golden glow finally ceased in a snap. In that one moment, everything changed for the Huntress forever. Her old life was truly cast away with her old body. A new beginning starting with what seemed to be an attack on earth. A story heard before, but about someone else.
Will carefully rose to his knees and looked over the top of the couch. All he could hear was the heartbeat in his head and he started to feel a chill as the regeneration energy had blown the fire out.
Slowly, he moved his eyes onto where the Huntress had stood. She was now kneeling on the ground on all fours. Her head was facing the floor and her hands held her upright with perfect strength.
He looked at her closely and vaguely noticed all the changes. Even though his brain instantly processed the change of her hair colour and length, he turned his attention directly to her hands. Her skin was pale, but lively again. Her nails were shaped and polished like the ones he saw through the glow before she changed. Her next body must have been seeping through back at that point.
It must be decided before the process happened. This all started after she hit the water. That was a hell of a long time to be dying. Inconceivable.
Continuing to study her new features, Will looks back at her hair. Changed from long and scarlet to shoulder-length and brown. Not light but not dark enough to be called black. Streaks of lighter brown hair ran through it. It had a slight natural wave to it.
Gray tugged on Will's scarf but kept still behind the couch. 'Is she..?' came his whisper.
Within a few seconds, the Huntress slowly lifted her head. She turned to look at the couch and noticed Will's head above the back and Gray's hand near his shoulder.
'Was that as scary for you as it was for me?' came a higher-pitched and higher-attituded voice of the Huntress.
Will just widened his eyes and couldn't find any words for her. Not only did her question catch him off guard, but he was memorised by her eyes. They couldn't have been any greener. When she was smiling, they practically glowed. The colour of emeralds. Such a sight of beauty, even though he didn't really know this woman yet.
At this point, Gray quickly popped his head up from behind the couch and didn't give any reaction to her new look. 'Bloody oath it was. Don't do that to a man.'
Now that her blurred vision was gone and she could move her limbs without wobbling like newborn Bambi, the Huntress stood up onto her own two feet. Will and Gray stared at her stillness for almost a minute before she grabbed her knees and started laughing. Both men were taken aback. Will was fine, but Gray fell backwards onto the floor with a thud and a yelp.
'Knees! I've finally got new knees! Hallelujah! Oh...'
She let go of her knees and started looking at her arms from every angle as if something was wrong with them. 'These are going to be interesting to use. Not gonna be as reliable as the old ones. There's always one flaw with a body though, am I right?'
Will just shook his head abruptly in agreeance. None of what he was seeing made sense even though she'd explained most of it to him. It was only now that the whole situation seemed very weird indeed. He accepted her physical change for some reason, but she just didn't sound or act the same as she did before. That's what was killing him inside. She didn't feel like the woman he saved anymore. She was much more intriguing though.
Gray finally staggered to his feet and took a proper look at the Huntress' new body. 'Not bad, Huntress.'
The Huntress looked over at him a smiled a huge smile. She looked extremely happy.
'I know, right? I'm not all "rough and tough" anymore. In the look, I mean. I mean, come on'
She looks down and grabs her breasts. Gray looks away in shock whilst Will raises an eyebrow at her. 'I actually have breasts now. Noticeable ones! I can feel like a woman now and not just BE one. Man, this makes the burning pain of death worthwhile, I mean until the next one. Actually, it wasn't fun at all. Not in a hurry for that again.'
Will keeps eye contact as he eventually stands and walks over to her. Noticing, the Huntress moves her arms to her sides and straightens her posture, turning serious.
'I know. You guys want answers now that I'm not, you know, dying in agony on the couch.'
Gray starts following Will. Will stops once his standing directly next to the Huntress. They are currently facing the window. Gray stops next to Will and looks in the same direction.
The street outside is empty. No cars driving past, dull street lights and only one elderly man walking along minding his own business, and not the rich kind either. It was even spitting with rain now, making the breeze through the window quite cold.
'It would be nice to know' Will responded, his voice smooth and calm. Gray moved only his eyes to Will as his eyebrows raised in curiosity. 'Huh? I nearly forgot about that thing in the water. I'm with scarf-boy, what's the deal?'
Will sighed when he was called "scarf-boy" but didn't do anything about it. His own curiosity to learn more about impossible things gave a greater call inside of him.
The Huntress sighed and focused on the view outside herself. All she could see was a basic street in a normal city block. Faint streetlights, a lot of concrete and a man walking by who shuffled his feet. It was typical for humans to be outside late at night within apartment districts apparently.
'Alright then. Let me tell you a tale, boys. Outside of your planet are so many more. More than you ever imagined. Beyond that fact, many species exist with them. Aliens drawn in your maths books probably exist somewhere in the universe, just waiting to be found. I mean, that or they'll hate you and try to kill you on sight but that's beside the point. Then there are some, like me, who explore time and space to be free. Your culture, your physiology, your strange terminology. All of that is so foreign to me, but it's exciting. I mean, I still don't get what a twerk is for an example.'
'Well its shaking the bum, ain't it' added Gray with a smile, proud that he could teach something to an alien. The Huntress smiled and gave a nod of approval. 'Yeah, humans and your very strange culture.'
'Anyway, back to that thing at the Thames. I have a guess as to what that was, but I've never met the species before so I can't be sure. It's hard enough to adapt to earth as it is. However, the fact that the Thames has no current flowing is a bad sign. I managed to pick that up with my sonic, but there is no suggestion as to how or why. Even that creature gave off no indications to its species. Kinda good at the sneaking. With all of this activity and all of those unnoticed abductions which I'm pretty sure will exist, I'm absolutely sure that something bad is most certainly going to happen. Quite soon too.'
Not long after those words left the Huntress' mouth, an object smashes through the window of the apartment. All three simply looked down and observe the small object. It was a can, and it was leaking gas quite quickly. Gray only had one sniff and was down for the count. Will started coughing, then fell to his knees and then went out cold. The Huntress managed to pick it up, pull her sonic screwdriver out of her pocket and sonic the can until the gas ceased and place it in her pocket before collapsing herself. They were now all unconscious.
Within a few minutes, the apartment's door was forced open and men dressed in black with guns grabbed the three of them and dragged them away. They were thrown into a large truck with a furnishing company branded on the outside as a disguise.
* * *
The Naval Scientific Research Centre.
Dawn was now breaking and life was coming back into London. Inside, a different woman was now inside Dr. Weller's lab working on the petri dish samples. When she first arrived, she noticed Weller's laptop opened and electrocuted but was told to ignore it by Admiral Ironwood. Just lock the office and leave it for Weller to deal with when she gets back. The girl had only started a few days ago and was completely new to the Navy's way of doing things.
Cassie Devonport. Blonde hair, bright blue eyes. Smiling face and partially naïve. Still quite intelligent in the science department which evidently landed her the job.
Much to her relief, Dr. Weller entered the lab. She looked tired and slumped, but her face was like a doll. Emotionless. Cassie however didn't think of this as suspicious or unusual at all. It wouldn't have been the first time Weller had come to work after doing the night shift looking like that afterwards.
'Hey, Simone. Night shift go ok?' the young apprentice enquired cheerfully.
Weller instantly walked to her microscope and continued to study samples, not looking or acknowledging Cassie at all. 'Yes. It was average' came her plain reply.
Cassie thought it best to leave her be. She turned back to her own microscope and started looking at the samples again.
'Oh, something happened to your laptop. It's completely fried. Do you know what happened to it?'
'It's nothing to worry about. Forget about the laptop' came another emotionless reply.
They continued to work like clockwork. Cassie tried multiple times to make conversation, but Weller just gave blunt answers and nothing more. No want to engage in a conversation at all.
Nearly an hour had past when Admiral Ironwood checked in with the lab again. He walked to the doorway and looked directly at Weller. She simply nodded at him and he nodded back then went on his way.
Normally, Weller couldn't stand the admiral. She only tolerated him to make him talk more or to bring him into the actual room. This time it was just nods and nothing more.
She nodded. So, does that mean she found out what he wanted? She didn't talk to him and he didn't yell at her. Something's strange here. Oh well, I'm probably looking into it too much. These navy people aren't always soldiers who shout. I mean, Simone is cool. I'm always safe from Ironwood when she's around. At least, I think so. Right?
* * *
Kinked neck. Hands cuffed behind her back. Very uncomfortable wooden chair. Very bright light facing her eyes directly. This is what the Huntress awoke too.
She slowly lifts her head and shakes her loose hair out of her face. The white light was very bright and squinting only helped a little. Her head was pounding and she wasn't in a great mood anymore. Regardless of her new body, she was beyond furious and wanted to know what happened to Will and Gray.
She turned her head away from the light and looked at her surroundings. A small room which was dull and grey. She was handcuffed to a wooden chair while a comfortable desk chair with wheels was on the other side of the metal table in front of her. Directly on the wall in front of her was a huge mirror. She assumed that she was being watched by people on the other side since there was a door near the mirror on the right-side wall. However, she was still distracted by the blinding light turned on at full blast atop of the mirror.
'You can turn that light off now! I just got these retinas and I wanted them kept for another hundred years or so thank you!' she shouted while closing her eyes and shaking her head. Her vision was going fuzzy and her eyes hurt the more she looked ahead.
As she waited, she was blessed a few seconds later. The light went off. Huntress threw her head back and smiled. 'Ah! Thank you! Huh, it seems if you ask nice enough people listen. Can we do the handcuffs next!'
Her question was answered by the blinding light coming back on. Huntress turned her head and reacted hatefully to the light. 'Alright! I get the point!' she shouted back.
The light mercifully turned off again and Huntress sighed, leaning forward. She was already sick of having her hands stuck behind her back. She could feel her sonic in her hidden pocket within her jacket, but that was at the front of the jacket rather than the back. No way to get that sonic to her hand. She waited and waited for what felt like an eternity just listening for any sort of sound until finally something happened. Someone came into the room.
Since this person must have been involved with the kidnapping of herself, Will and Gray, she took in every detail about her.
Short blonde hair. Messy but tied up. Dirty kind of blonde, but still maintained rather than ignored. A woman, clearly. She held a professional stature and pride within her appearance to others. To the Huntress, she represented a high authority of an operation with some kind of law enforcing organisation.
Brown trench coat, unbuttoned. A light blue blouse just noticeable to her eyes as a multicoloured, floral designed scarf covered most of her chest. Dark but probably expensive suit pants. Business black pumps, so no high heels. This could either mean that she has a style fetish or did a lot of walking. Or running.
As she turned to shut the door, Huntress noticed a shape poking out from within her trench coat. The Huntress may not know anything about the weapon types used by humans, but to her a gun was a gun. And this woman had one tucked away.
By looking at her face, she wasn't a spring chicken. She looked like she enjoyed her job since her facial expression demonstrated no discomfort from being in a room with her. No regrets. But then again, did she even know who or what she was?
The woman calmly walked over a took a seat in front of her. It was only now that the Huntress noticed an official-looking folder held firmly in her left hand. The woman placed it on the table close to her chest and well out of Huntress' reach.
'So, a hundred years' she repeated to the Huntress whilst she clasped her hands together and rested them on the folder. Huntress was beyond confused to her reference at this point.
As the Huntress stared blankly to the woman, the woman nodded at her. 'I mean your retinas. You did say you wanted to "keep them for a hundred years or so" didn't you?'
She's observant this one. Not even phased by a comment referring to me living for another hundred years. I'm not the first alien she's met; I can sense it. So, friend or foe then?
'That's right. No point denying a quote. I don't think anyone really does that. I mean, who listens to a famous quote from Shakespeare and says that its fake? I've never heard of such a case. Sorry, continue on.'
The woman smiled at her. This further unnerved the Huntress, but she refused to show it. It was game face or weakness and she never considered the latter an option.
'So then, is it too much to ask who you are and what you've done with my friends?' Huntress added with a hint of confidence in her voice.
'Their safe, I can promise you that. It does take a while for anaesthetic gas to wear off. Well, for humans anyway.'
If she didn't know better, the Huntress would swear that she was being intimidated by this human. Even considering her old occupation, it was rare. She half wondered whether it was her new body causing the unusual change but refused to think about it further. This woman seemed so calm and together but her way of speaking gave her the sense of intense questioning. She was really impressing the Huntress, right to the core.
Looks like I've just found one of earth's best. Must say, I'm more impressed than I believed I would be. As long as she's on my side, this could be quite the adventure.
'You still didn't tell me who you are or is that question off limits for this cosy conversation?' Huntress answered back whilst leaning forward as much as possible, edging for an answer.
'I can assure you that you have nothing to fear here, so long as your friendly and cooperate. My name is Kate Stewart and you're inside an institute known as UNIT. Is that answer enough for you, time lord?'
Huntress was taken aback by her boldness and her confidence, but those last few words left her speechless. "Time Lord." She knows about her species. This situation was much worse than she thought. It was clear now that she wouldn't be leaving anytime soon.