"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" she asked, biting her lip.
"Of course I'm sure, at least, to some extent," replied the Doctor with a cheeky grin. "After all, the Master's TARDIS can't be too different than mine. It's still a piece of technology from Gallifrey."
"Oh yes, customized to downright creepy."
"Everyone has their own taste in atmosphere, Tegan."
"If the Doctor tells the Master's TARDIS to follow his own, surely we'd be able to track it down to some extent," said Nyssa, bringing the bantering down to a halt. "We don't even need to plug in certain coordinates. The records here on the console indicate that the Master has tracked the Doctor's TARDIS before, and we can do it again. Right, Doctor?" She turned her head to the Doctor for confirmation, however the man was too busy trying to even read the controls.
"Hm?...Oh yes, yes yes, right, Nyssa," he replied. "I just need to figure out how to carefully manipulate the tracking system...then plug in the target....ah! Yes! That should do it!"
"Well?" said Tegan impatiently.
"I just hope it works," the Doctor stated before pulling a handle and starting the TARDIS. Gradually, it came to a whir, just like the Doctor's, only with a slightly different, more unwelcoming sound attached to it.
"Eh," shivered Tegan.
"What do you mean by you 'hope it works'?" questioned Nyssa. "How hard could it be to track down your TARDIS?"
"Harder than you think," said the Doctor, shoving his hands in his pockets and monitoring the flight pattern of the Master's TARDIS. "With so many of me out there, being a time-traveler and a regenerating Timelord, I have to make sure I find my current TARDIS. For all we know we could end up with the me who had the jelly-babies and the obnoxious scarf all over again."
"Point taken," Tegan agreed. "Not that you're a bad person Doctor but I can't imagine being in a room with more than one of you."
"Neither can I. My old selves were somewhat vain and proud, and sometimes it's unbearable to think about how different I was then."
"You certainly have changed from that," commented Tegan sarcastically.
The three stood patiently in the dim control room, watching the centerpiece bob up and down, just like the Doctor's TARDIS. They waited as the ship flew through time and space, hopefully searching for-
"Doctor, what is that?!" Nyssa alerted. The room started to turn an even redder glow than it was, and all over the console lights flashed angrily.
"I don't know!" shouted the Doctor as warning sirens blared. "But whatever it is, I suggest holding on!"
"You think?" said Tegan. Quickly the Doctor and his companions grasped the control panel, hanging onto the sides and top as the TARDIS began to thrash violently, and even sometimes, spin. The room seemed to almost vibrate and resonate from being tossed around in space.
"What's happening?!" Nyssa managed to shout before she held her stomach nauseously.
"We seem to be passing though-," started the Doctor, his feet slipping on the smoothed floor and his hands gripping higher up on the console. "-something!"
"How reassuring!" replied Tegan. "Because that something is starting to sting!" She was right. Just as she spoke, Nyssa and the Doctor also realized that whatever they were passing through was affecting their whole body, making them feel like every part of them had been doused with poison ivy.
"It must be affecting our atomic structure!" the Doctor said through his grit teeth.
"How do you know?!" asked Nyssa.
"I've been through four regenerations! Ah! The waves of this...grh!...force we appear to be passing through...gah!...feels somewhat similar to it!"
"Don't tell me we're regenerating!" complained Tegan.
"Come on, Tegan, that's ridiculous! We're just getting our atoms rearranged!"
"Again, Doctor, you're such a ray of sunshine!" Suddenly the force of the waves amplified, and it was almost impossible for the Doctor and his companions to continue a conversation. Each of them held on for their own lives, attempting to bear the increasing pain that hit them as they spun faster and faster through the space field. The groan of the TARDIS became more like a shriek, firing off the emergency protocol system of the TARDIS and with it, the howl of the emergency landing engines. The Doctor took notice of it, having some relief in the sense that they were about to land. The only problem was that it wasn't going to be all too comfortable.
The lights of the TARDIS flickered off, the emergency red lighting taking hold of the room. Still, the three could hardly see with so much turbulence. Constantly they were picking up speed, movements becoming wilder and unpredictable. Then, as soon as the Doctor thought the TARDIS couldn't travel any faster, it halted with a loud CRASH!, sending him, Tegan, and Nyssa flying off of the control panel, unable to hold on any longer.
The TARDIS breathed it's final moans before seemingly slipping into unconsciousness. The red accent lights flickered dimly, and fortunately, the TARDIS managed to crash-land somewhat upright. This was good news considering the automatic function of the TARDIS to always turn the inside back to normal seemed to be damaged.
Feeling a little sore from the sudden impact, the Doctor struggled to open his eyes and lift his head, however he managed to see the shapes of fallen Nyssa and Tegan on the opposite sides of the room. He was near the back, farthest from the door, Nyssa to his right in the corner most elevated, and Tegan in front of him on the other side of the console. Instantly the Doctor became panicky.
"Is everyone alright?!" he called out.
"I'm fine, Doctor," a muffled voice from Nyssa called.
"Good! Tegan?"
"What?!"
"Okay, I at least know you're alright." The Doctor tried to lift himself up off the floor, but instead slipped. He looked down to find that the ends of his arms only reached to the middle of his coat, sweater, and shirt and that after he fell back down to the floor he became tangled in the fabrics of all of them.
"Oh dear...that's not right," he said to himself.
"Doctor!" Nyssa called from across the room as she too was struggling to stand. "I think we've shrunk!"
"Or our clothes have increased in size, but that's a good theory too, Nyssa," replied the Doctor. "I told you, that wave of energy was somehow manipulating our atomic structure. It could be possible that we have experienced some...side effects..."
"Good grief what's on my face?!" shouted Tegan.
"Where? Let me see," said the Doctor. He looked in the direction of where Tegan was, expecting to see her sit up with some strange growth or object on her nose or cheek. Instead, the Doctor saw Tegan's face...however that was all he could recognize from her.
"You're purple!" he responded to Tegan.
"My whole face?" she said nervously. "I thought it was just something on my nose!" The Doctor saw Tegan squint in the dim light. "Wait, that's you, isn't it, Doctor?"
"Of course it's me!" he replied. "Why?"
"You're not exactly human, er, well, human-like anymore," she said.
"I still have hair though, right?"
"Doctor..."
"Just checking."
"Goodness, it appears something has happened to the both of you," Nyssa said, jumping into the conversation. "Neither of you are humanoid anymore. And Tegan, yes, you are very purple." Tegan moaned.
"If we aren't human anymore, then what are we?" she then asked.
"Well, let's look at the new features we have," stated the Doctor. "Hopefully we are something we recognize from somewhere."
"You're telling me," said Tegan. "I'm not interested in being a new, invented species."
"So, face," said the Doctor. "Hm, that's interesting...monocular vision...pinna on top of the head...and a muzzle instead of a nose..."
"We all seem to be fitting the same description," said Nyssa.
"Is that good news or bad news?" asked Tegan.
"Well, I'd rather all be the same than a mix of things," said the Doctor. "Although Nyssa appears to be slightly different with a...horn on her head."
"But all those traits you said before, Doctor," reminded Nyssa, "what does that say about us as a whole?"
"I can't exactly be precise," said the Doctor, "however I do believe we're some kind of equine."
"What does that mean?"
"We could be anything related to a horse, a zebra, a donkey..."
"I would not be too pleased about being a donkey," muttered Tegan.
"If only the Master had a mirror in his TARDIS, we might get more of a clue," said the Doctor. "Or maybe...if I tried to stand..." Struggling to get to his feet, the Doctor found that his arms kept falling to the floor.
"Interesting, I have four legs!" he exclaimed. "That's new."
"Well, you were right about the equine thing," stated Tegan. "You look like a small horse."
"Horses are Earth animals, right?" asked Nyssa, looking to expand her earthling knowledge.
"That's correct," said the Doctor, trying to balance on all fours. "Although we must be some extraterrestrial variation of it, seeing that Tegan is purple and Nyssa as a horn."
"I'm so confused," complained Tegan.
"I just don't want to move anywhere," said Nyssa. "My clothes don't exactly fit properly."
"Oh, yes...that's a problem..." the Doctor agreed.
"What are we going to do now?" asked Tegan.
"Be patient," replied the Doctor. "Maybe the effects will wear off. Or maybe I can figure out where we are..."
Suddenly, there was a knock at the TARDIS door. Nyssa, Tegan, and the Doctor froze, not sure if they should be afraid or unsure or relieved. The girls looked at the Doctor, hoping he'd know what to do. He sat in one spot, like a deer in headlights.
"...to be honest I didn't see this coming."
