The maniac lunged at Maureen, his insane laughter ringing off the floating mirrors that surrounded them in the dark room. She dodged to the left and stepped out of the reach of his long-fingered hands.

 "Now, now, Mrs. Robinson," spat the madman, flecks of bloody spittle coating his lips. "Be a good little housewife and stay still so I can wring your pretty little neck!"

 "No!" she shouted as she ran across the rough-hewn floor. "You have to fight it. You don't want to kill me or anyone, do you?" Quickly, she glanced around the room and looked for a weapon of any sort. Apart from the hundreds of mirrors that seemed to float unsupported in a large circle around the room, she could see nothing. A evil grin on his face, the madman slowly stomped over to Maureen.

 "Oh, but I do...I do, Maureen. I want to kill you, your family, the Doctor and his companions, the Hdojjwh, and even the Aanotifh'ew. I'm tired of not being able to interact with the world around me." Tears were streaming down from his wide, wild eyes. "I've always had to bring the world to *me*!" he shouted, pounding his fist to his chest. "To me! Do you hear me?"

 Maureen was fighting the panic that was threatening to envelop her. They were circling each other now, a primal beast and its prey in a dance of life or death. "I hear you. Please, please calm down so we can talk." She held her arms out in a nonthreatening manner. The madman's eyes had a frightened look about them, though his expression was one of insane anger.

 The madman grinned again and lunged once again, knocking her to the floor beneath one of the floating mirrors. He was on top of her in a second, his legs straddling her torso and his hands trying to find purchase around Maureen's neck. "No, Mrs. Robinson, no more talk. Now you die."

 The Doctor stopped fiddling with the two broken pieces of his recorder and jumped to his feet. "And about time too." He stepped cautiously to the entrance of the cave and held his hand out, palm up. "Oh yes, perfectly safe. Let's go, Professor, we must find out who's behind this acid rain."

 John took the Doctor's arm and stopped him before he could walk outside. "Shouldn't we check on Will and Zoe first? Or at least see if the Robot survived the acid?"

 "To answer your questions in reverse order, I'm sure he's fine. The first creature, who was immune to the acidic rain but not that acidic lake, may I remind you, coated the Robot with a liberal dose of vapors. Hopefully, those vapors provided your mechanical man with a little bit of protection from the rain."

 "And Will and Zoe?"

 "We'll find them, I promise. Like I said, Zoe can take care of herself and Will as well," the Doctor replied, crinkling his brow. "Besides, if our unseen assailant decide to turn on the showers again, we could all be in trouble. No, we have to confront the worst of our problems first."

 John and the Doctor walked outside the cave, carefully walking around puddles of greenish rain water. "But where do we start looking for whoever is creating these rainstorms?" asked the Professor.

 "Elementary meteorology, my dear Professor Robinson," replied the Doctor as he put a hand to his brow and scanned the horizon. "That sudden thunderstorm was formed over those hills and then was blown this way by the prevailing winds. It can't be a ship in the air because we would have detected it while it was seeding the clouds."

 Professor Robinson snapped his fingers. "So whoever is doing this must be up in those hills."

 "Exactly!" the Doctor beamed and patted John on the shoulder. "Two great minds, eh, Professor?"

 John smiled back. "If that's our plan, we need to get Major West and Jamie. I don't want to tackle this with just the two of us."

 "Yes, I do believe this is the sort of plan that Jamie would enjoy. Perhaps we'll meet them on their way back here. That should save us some time, at least."

 As the Doctor and Professor Robinson hurriedly walked away, two Hdojjwh stepped out from their hiding place several hundred yards away. They had not strayed very far from their cave after the rain had ended when the pair had come across the two humans.

 "Pradnn, did you hear?" said Zzatt with uninhibited emotion. "They are going to make an assault on the Aanotifh'ew! We should join them!"

 Grim-faced, Pradnn said, "We do not know their motives as of yet, Zzatt. But at the very least, we will follow them and make an attack at the same time that they make theirs." Pradnn stood up and began walking back to the cave. "Prepare our warriors for the final battle."

 "I'm home, Zoe," Will finally blurted out after the silence had become too overwhelming. "I thought I would never get back to Earth."

 "But where on Earth are we?" Zoe asked.

 "America, I think," Will replied. "And from the soldier's voices, I would have to say New England. My family is originally from California."

 Zoe smiled, not knowing exactly what to say. Should she reveal to Will that her, Jamie, and the Doctor were time travellers?

 Zoe was saved by the entrance of a large, burly looking man sporting a buzzcut. He was carrying a clipboard with a yellow legal pad attached to it. The man wore green fatigues and was wearing a patch that bore the name Chalmers on it. His expression was serious as he sat down opposite the youngsters.

 "Now then," he began, his voice a booming bass. "My name is Dan Chalmers. I've read the report that was given to me by Lieutenant Flanders. What I want to know is how did the two of you get inside our perimeter?"

 After a short pause, Zoe said, "Well, sir, it's a very long story. I don't know if you would believe us or not."

 Chalmers grimaced again and said, "I already don't believe his story," and pointed at Will. "But the fact is what you two have wandered into could have gotten you killed or worse. This is a chemical weapons testing facility. There's no telling what you were exposed to out there."

 "Are you sure, Major West?" Dr. Smith said, unconvinced. "I don't see any holes in the hull. The damage the acid caused to the engines can be fixed, surely?"

 "Dr. Smith, there doesn't have to be any holes in the hull for her to be grounded permanently. Even if the engines could be fixed, the acid caused enough structural damage that the Jupiter 2 would fall to pieces five minutes after we took off, not to mention the fact that we couldn't keep cabin pressure once in the upper atmosphere."

 "Maybe the Doctor could find a way to fix yur ship," suggested Jamie.

 "He'd have to be a miracle worker then," Major West said, throwing his hand scanner into the small toolbox.

 "Aye, that he is."

 Dr. Smith scoffed and turned away, muttering something under his breath.

 "So what should we do, Major West?" asked Jamie, ignoring the curmudgeon.

 "We need to get everybody together in one place. Safety in numbers. Did you say that you found the footprints of the creature, Jamie?" Major West checked the power setting on his pistol.

 "I did, and ye're nae gonna like it." Jamie took the major over to the ramp of the Jupiter 2. "Look at this." Jamie pointed out two additional sets of insect-like claw prints in the mud. "There was more than one of the beasties here."

 "And I would say that there are a whole ship full of them too!" shouted the Doctor from across the field. Professor Robinson and the Doctor jogged across the wet ground.

 "Doctor!" called the Highlander with obvious delight at seeing the Doctor alive. "Where's Zoe and the wee lad?"

 The Doctor took a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his forehead. "I don't know, Jamie, but we've got worse problems. That thunderstorm was artificially created by someone or something and we've got to stop them before they can do it again."

 Just then, Dr. Smith came walking around the curve of the saucer. "What's all this commotion? Are we being attacked again? We'll never leave this planet ali-"

 The Doctor looked over to the whining gentleman, placing his handkerchief back into his pocket. Dr. Smith kept unusually quiet, but the Doctor walked over to him and looked Dr. Smith directly in the eyes.

 *****back*****

 The Doctor sat behind the desk in the Brigadier's office at UNIT HQ. The Doctor and Jamie had been brought here by Benton from the International Electromatix office. A large pile of photographs were scattered across the top of the desk. The Brigadier sat back and stroked his moustache as the Doctor flipped through the manila folders full of pictures. Jamie had stepped out of the office, leaving the Doctor and the Brigadier alone.

 "Did you see any of these men in the IE building, Doctor?" asked the Brigadier.

 "No, Colonel.., I mean Brigadier," stuttered the Doctor. "Once inside, Jamie and I didn't see many people besides Vaughn and those rude guards of his." The Doctor picked up a different pile of pictures from the corner of the Brigadier's desk and began leafing through them. "What's this?"

 "Oh, that," said the Brigadier as he stood up and walked over to stand behind the Doctor. "Geneva has recommended that we take on a scientific advisor from the private sector. Those are a few of the applicants."

 The Doctor took a photo at random from the file folder. The 8 x 10 glossy featured a thin man in his thirties with short red hair. "Who's this?" the Doctor asked.

 The Brigadier grimaced. "I thought I had taken that out of there." He reached over and took the picture from the Doctor. "That's Doctor Zachary Smith. Seemed like a promising chap, but there were several holes in his background that we couldn't verify with any of his references. And then when he came in for an interview, we caught him snooping about a file cabinet full of sensitive files." The Brigadier snorted. "We arrested him, of course, but the arrogant man refused to see that he was doing anything wrong! And then, two days later, he disappeared from his cell. Strange business, that. Oh well, back to the business at hand."

 "Yes, quite, Brigadier," said the Doctor, replacing the stack of photos. Jamie walked into the room carrying a tray full of mugs and a steaming pot of tea. "Ah, there you are, Jamie. Brigadier, you say that these are all pictures of people who have been seen entering the IE office building?"

 *****forward*****

 It was nearly midnight at UNIT HQ. Most of the lights had been turned off by the janitors. Only the dim glow of the security lights and the flickering lights from the TV in the rec room kept the hallway from being completely pitch black. A thin man wearing a black sweater and black pants walked cautiously down the hall. He listened carefully for any sign of movement by those UNIT chaps, but all he could hear was the soft snoring of the janitor in the rec room and the sounds of the replay of the latest football match on the telly.

 His contact on the inside had told him that most of UNIT had been sent to a place called Devil's End, somewhere in the middle of nowhere. UNIT HQ had always been high on his list of probable targets. He knew that he could find some juicy information here.

 The red haired man jimmied the lock to the office of the Brigadier, opened the door and then quickly slipped inside. Turning on a small torch, he made his way to the file cabinets. "First things first, of course," he muttered, opening up the bottom most cabinet

 He flipped to the S's and pulled several files out at once. Immediately he pulled one marked "Dr. Zachary Smith". "Ah, here I am," he murmured, and flipped through it casually. "Oh, that's a dreadful picture of me." Quickly, he closed the folder and slipped it into his pack.

 As he pulled a small spy camera from a belt pouch, Dr. Smith noticed a file folder marked "Dr. John Smith". Curious, he pulled it and began reading. According to the folder, this Dr. Smith was hired as a "unpaid scientific advisor" for UNIT. He searched for a photograph of the other Dr. Smith, but could find none. He read a couple of more sentences, then flipped to some pages at random.

 UNIT's scientific advisor had been making many many requests for equipment and materials. Scanning down, Dr. Smith noticed that under the heading "reason for materials request", someone had penciled in "repairing TARDIS".

 His interest piqued, Dr. Smith sat there in the darkness with a smile on his face reading about Dr. John Smith and his TARDIS experiment. Thirty minutes later, the red haired man left, not having snapped a single photograph.

 "Dr. John Smith?" Dr. Smith asked of the Doctor.

 To be continued.....