The Multiverse in a Nutshell

by Pennington Inkwell

Awful Lot of Running To Do

"RUN!"

Sunset and Penn both ducked out of the way, sprinting down the aisle towards the other side of the store. Sunset felt a flash of heat on her face as a laser blast flew just past her shoulder.

"EX-TER-MIN-ATE!"

Sunset dodged left, Penn dodged right, and the two became separated.

Okay, think, Sunset! Think! You're standing in the middle of a hardware store! There's weapons all around you to improvise with! She tried to quiet her pounding heart, searching for some kind of weapon. Somehow, however, she had found her way into an aisle of buckets, completely devoid of weapons. Carefully, she could hear the dalek rolling along the floor, moving in the direction Penn had run. Taking the moment, she examined one of the buckets next to her.

High gloss latex paint? Well, maybe if I could bring a can down on top of that eyestalk... She reached over, giving the bucket an experimental lift. It was heavy, too heavy for her to swing over her head. It did start to form a plan in her mind, however. Picking up one of the gallon buckets, she carried it silently to the mixer and popped open the top, revealing the white sludge inside.

Maybe we don't have to break off the eyestalk, just blind it temporarily!

"You're a long way from Skaro, dalek!" Penn's voice echoed across the empty store. "And your kind never travel alone! There's always a full-scale invasion or a stealthy scout! Why the break in protocol?"

I thought he said this thing was nothing but distilled hatred? Why is he trying to TALK to it?

"I WAS SENT TO IN-VEST-I-GATE A RIFT IN SPACE-TIME. THAT RIFT LED HERE." The dalek's electronic voice sent shivers running up and down Sunset's spine. "I WILL GATHER DATA FROM THIS SET-TLE-MENT AND REPORT!"

Sunset felt a lump form in her throat as she snuck from one aisle to the next, closer and closer with her bucket in hand. So this WAS her fault. This thing had come to this town through the same rifts she and her friends had doubtless caused in their own clumsy blundering.

"And what about after that, huh? What is your report going to SAY?"

"PRE-LIM-IN-ARY SCANS SHOW THIS WORLD IS WEAK, AND BOUN-TI-FUL IN RES-OUR-CES! RES-OUR-CES THAT WILL BELONG TO THE DA-LEKS!"

"So, the whole world IS at stake! Thank you very much, good to know!"

Sunset froze. If what she heard was true, then... they couldn't just run. This 'dalek' had to be stopped here and now, or else more would come and destroy the whole world! She couldn't let that happen.

The world was at risk, and Sunset Shimmer was trapped in a hardware store with a bucket of high-gloss latex paint.

"Tell me, dalek, do you know WHERE you are?"

The dalek actually seemed to pause for a moment, as if pondering the question.

"You're on EARTH, dalek! I'm sure you scanned the lifeforms here and figured out they were human! And don't you remember what happens EVERY TIME you come here?"

Still the dalek hesitated, then scooted... backwards? Sunset couldn't believe her eyes.

"That's right! You're beaten! The daleks are wiped out, blown to smithereens! Just like in the GREAT TIME WAR!"

"WHAT DO YOU KNOW OF THE TIME WAR? EXPLAIN! EXPLAIN!"

I get it! Penn said this thing was from a TV show, right? He must know all about it! Things that nobody COULD know! Sunset drew in a sharp intake of breath as she began to feel hope. Unfortunately, this noise proved to be enough to alert the dalek to her presence. The top dome piece swiveled one hundred and eighty degrees, turning to stare at her. As the body portion with the gun turned to face her, Sunset acted, throwing the paint at the dalek's head and thoroughly coating the eyestalk.

There was only a moment of hesitation before the eye began to sizzle and boil, burning away until it was crystal clear.

"MY VISION IS NOT IMPAIRED! EXTERMINATE! EX-TER-MIN-ATE!"

Sunset quickly scrambled for footing as she ran back into the next aisle, hearing an explosion behind her as another shot barely missed. Without missing a beat, she ducked down and out of sight,

You know, for beings that could supposedly destroy entire planets, they're REALLY bad at hitting moving targets...

"The TIME WAR?" Penn shouted, drawing the Dalek's attention back in the direction of his voice as Sunset tried to catch her breath and solidify her knees again.

"I remember the Last Great Time War! I was THERE!" Penn shouted, the conviction in his voice wavering. Sunset knew that whatever nerve he had that was keeping him talking was going to run out soon. "I watched the Cult of Skaro throw themselves into the void! I saw Davros fall into the gaping maw of the Nightmare Child! The Ship of the Dalek Emperor fall out of time! I knew the day Gallifrey fell and the dalek fleet wiped itself out firing into the empty space that was left!"

Sunset wasn't certain if he was just spouting gibberish or saying something comprehensive, but it certainly seemed to be aggravating the dalek.

"YOU ARE NOT HU-MAN! NO HU-MAN COULD KNOW SUCH THINGS!" There were sounds of laser fire, and Sunset felt her heart drop out of fear that Penn had been hit.

"Oh, couldn't I? Perhaps I'm NOT human! Or perhaps I was told all these things by someone who isn't? You never know what kind of gossip you can hear from a good DOCTOR, these days!"

Mustering up her courage, Sunset took her turn to shout out.

'"Penn! It's covered in LATEX paint! No rubber gloves!"

As Sunset got out the crucial information, however, she watched the dalek silently turn the corner, coming face-to-face with her. It had hidden the sound of its movement by hovering several inches off of the ground and now had the barrel of its gun pointed directly at her heart. She froze. Unable to move, unable to breathe or even scream, Sunset Shimmer stared into the face of death.

But death didn't come. Two seconds passed, then three. The dalek didn't fire. Sunset's eyes widened and the first wisps of a question began to form on her lips before Penn came barreling at the dalek from the side, bringing a massive sledgehammer down onto the eyestalk and snapping it in two. Sparks and arcs of electricity began to fly from the tattered remains of the eyestalk as Penn quickly dropped the sledgehammer before it could become a lightning rod and ran towards Sunset. With one quick motion, he yanked her onto her feet and into the next aisle.

"Are you okay?" He asked her, grabbing her shoulders and looking directly into her eyes. "Feeling good? Nothing broken or lasered?"

"N-no! I'm fine! I- I think it wasn't going to shoot me."

"Sunset, shooting is all daleks DO, and there are going to be a whole lot MORE of them coming if we let this one get away!" Penn reached over and grabbed a claw hammer off of the wall, turning it so the pointed end was facing outwards. "The paint was GENIUS, and you got some on the gun, I'm going for that, next. Stay out of sight, okay?"

Sunset could only nod as Penn vanished again, moving in the opposite direction to try and find a better hiding spot. Once she had reached the back aisle of the store, she started to peek her head around the corner, catching a glimpse of Penn facing off with the mechanized monster.

It could have killed me then and there, why didn't it? The question still nagged at her, but she filed it away for later. For now, Penn was right. This dalek hadn't hesitated to kill the people in that gas station, or any other victims it might have had before now, and if they didn't stop it, the rest of its kind wouldn't hesitate to kill the whole world. Beating this thing was now or never. She looked around for a weapon of her own. Nothing seemed like it would be useful, not against this thing. Only one object caught her attention: a black handle with no attached tool at the end. She picked it up from where it sat on the shelf, curious. There was no price tag or any kind of label on it, but it felt as though it had been made to fit perfectly in her hand. It even had a clip on the side that fit perfectly onto her belt, and she quickly put it away there. While she wasn't certain why it grabbed her attention, she had learned not to avoid intuition when it came to magic.

Penn's attempts to knock off the gun had proven fruitless, it was too durable for the hammer. The dalek was indeed firing blindly and without warning, but its terrible aim proved easy enough to avoid at close range.

"MY VISION IS IMPAIRED, I CANNOT SEE! MY VISION IS IMPAIRED!"

"Well, how about THIS?" Penn shouted as he ducked down and grabbed his sledgehammer, bringing it down on the paint-covered dome head of the dalek. Even the mighty sledgehammer proved fruitless at penetrating the metal shell, however. To Sunset's dismay, she watched at the dangling remains of the eyestalk began to rise, being reeled in by the wires that it swung by. Seconds later, the piece was in its natural place and Sunset could see the glow of welded metal along the breaking point. Instantly, it swiveled around to look at Penn, who had the expression of a child with his hand in the cookie jar.

"MY VISION IS NOT IMPAIRED."

"PENN!"

There was a flash of light, and Sunset saw a beam strike him directly in the chest, throwing him across the room. At the same instant, the top half of the dalek exploded in a spray of metal pieces and unknown fluids, seemingly of its own accord. Sunset sprinted out of her hiding spot and ran to where her new friend lay of the floor, inspecting him up and down for injuries. In a surprise that left her absolutely gobsmacked, Penn let out a weak cough, his eyes snapping wide open as he gasped for air. He sat up, first looking at the exploded dalek, then back at Sunset, and repeating the motion multiple times.

"My... my whole life just flashed before my eyes! It was LAME!"

"How did you... survive?" Sunset looked down at the point of impact, noticing a shiny, silvery material through the hole in his shirt. Reaching down, she pulled up the bottom of his shirt to reveal a large mirror hidden underneath, with scorch marks around the place where the beam had struck it. She raised an eyebrow, turning to stare at him.

"H-hey, mirrors worked in this old TV special called 'The Five Doctors.' I figured it would make good insurance..." Penn muttered as he reached up and pulled the mirror out of his shirt. "A little bit of 'Doctor Who' combined with a little bit of 'Back To the Future 3...' It worked, didn't it? What are you looking at me like that for?"

Sunset rolled her eyes before finally letting out a long sigh of relief.

"You're right, the important thing is that we beat it... So, what should we do, now?"

Penn thought for a moment, staring at the remains of the dalek with a mix of fear and awe.

"For now, I need to use a bathroom."

Well, it was hardly a cool one-liner, but Sunset was willing to give him a little credit considering he had just staked his life on the hope that a hardware store mirror would reflect a killer laser blast.

"And maaaybe focus on figuring out how it got here?" Sunset finished the thought for him.

"Y-yeah... what you said..." He shook his head, slowly staggering to his feet. "I have a hunch it has something to do with that 'magic' you were talking about."

Sunset hated to admit it, but SHE had a hunch that he was right.

Comments

[BestinDworld]

moar

[Venerable Ro]

Alright, I will credit this man as a lord among nerds. Those mind-games? Inspired. The Doctor would have been proud.

[MikiStenbeck]

Okay, think, Sunset! Think! You're standing in the middle of a hardware store! There's weapons all around you,

She literally is, screwdrivers, mallets, Sledgehammers, saws, (even the occasional chainsaw if she’s lucky,) and a ton of more Potential powerful weapons,

[JOEBLACK]

It could have killed me then and there, why didn't it? The question still nagged at her, but she filed it away for later. For now, Penn was right. This dalek hadn't hesitated to kill the people in that gas station, or any other victims it might have had before now, and if they didn't stop it, the rest of its kind wouldn't hesitate to kill the whole world. Beating this thing was now or never. She looked around for a weapon of her own. Nothing seemed like it would be useful, not against this thing. Only one object caught her attention: a black handle with no attached tool at the end. She picked it up from where it sat on the shelf, curious. There was no price tag or any kind of label on it, but it felt as though it had been made to fit perfectly in her hand. It even had a clip on the side that fit perfectly onto her belt, and she quickly put it away there. While she wasn't certain why it grabbed her attention, she had learned not to avoid intuition when it came to magic.

Anyone else thinking lightsaber?

[FarmFreshAppleTarts]

For a moment I thought this was a doctor who crossover, the man perfectly mimics those speeches he pulls.

[Teraunce]

10204260
Agreed!

[Draco Dei]

10154274
Didn't think of it, but it would make sense.