Astra adapted well to the jumping around life. She actually quite enjoyed it. And picking up her friends after her newest discovery was much easier. She told the Doctor a lot of vampires curbed the hunger with alcohol, but she liked a simple kind of food similar to edibles that the Doctor had found. It helped with the hunger purely by mellowing her out because anxiety or tension could make it really bad, especially since Astra didn't drink much. And after the initial pickup, the high would fade and she would slowly adjust to their very fresh often pumping due to adrenaline.... Well, you get it. So they were free to explore together again and Astra was less stressed. They hopped a few planets full of running before the Doctor realized she needed some common machines in the future.
Only, they were expensive or she had no idea where to buy them. Instead, they were on a junkyard planet, using metal detectors. They been there a few hours now and they hadn't dinged once.
"We're never going to find one!" Ryan yelled pessimistically, taking after his granddad.
"Course we are. I've programmed the detectors specifically. I found seven last time I was here," the Doctor yelled back.
Astra propped her detector on her shoulder. "How long did that take?!" she demanded.
The blonde smiled sympathetically from her taller pile of junk. "It couldn't have been more than a month. Unless that was Seffilun 59," she realized, slowing and standing up.
"Which one's this?" Yaz called calmly.
"Seffilun 27. Maybe 59's the one with a big pile of these." She picked up their model machine. "That's the problem with junk galaxies, all the planets look the same. It's hard to keep track." That was a shite excuse.
"If we've wasted the last four hours on the wrong planet..." Graham immediately began complaining.
"Oi! Who took you rainbathing in the upward tropics of Kinstarno?" the Doctor snapped back.
Graham held up a hand, accepting that. "Oh, no, no. Listen, that's amazing. I was just saying, like, needle..." He pointed to the machine, then gestured to the junk. "...haystack."
"Yeah, you might be right," the blonde conceded.
Right on time, Graham's detector started squeaking. "No, hold on. I've found something!"
They all fell in together around his find and the Doctor moved the useless top pieces. Something underneath all the rubble was blinking with a red light. It was a circular device and it looked a bit like a landmine. "I'm sorry," was all she said.
"What's he found?" Yaz asked.
"Nobody move," the Doctor commanded. She knelt and scanned the devcie with her sonic, but the blinking and beeping sped up. "If I can keep it in temporal lock..." She tried to scan it to apply the application. "No, it's got too many sensors, it won't work. It was camouflaged! This is someone's idea of a nasty joke." She stood back up, feet planted.
Astra grabbed the Doctor's arm. "What is it?" she asked, enunciating.
"Sonic mine. It's counting down."
"How long we got?" Graham asked.
The Doctor was reading her sonic. "Three, t-"
Astra jumped into action, speed-running to grab Graham and Ryan, racing them a few meters back. She raced back for Yaz and get her with the other two humans, hearing the blonde finish the second number. The sonic had started letting off an energy the brunette could see slowly rippling the small air around it. She ran in front of the Doctor, shoving her back with one hand and forcing the other out. She super-speed spat out, "Ohun pada!" Your own energy rippled back at the explosion, making a super collapse of their surroundings and sucking the two non-humans toward the mine as it was returned to ineffectiveness.
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Fam Away From Home
Fanfiction"I call upon the warriors of the past, those who would stand up and fight, those who would do what is needed, those who would make sacrifices on behalf of others, those who would die that others may live. I call upon them this night to give me stren...
