The Doctor was playing with strands of Frank's hair when Kobra came for him the next morning. Frank had yet to wake up from the pill Jack had given him, while Jack and Ianto had fallen asleep in the beanbag chair they had been resting in during the night. No one seemed phased by the knocking at the door. The Doctor untangled his fingers from Frank's hair, making the motion to leave, but paused.

All night, their kiss in the car and Kobra's watch had been all the Doctor could think about. The most prominent of the two, however, was the kiss. It was such a sudden thing, but that didn't mean it wasn't enjoyable. There had been a certain build up, and the Doctor was pleased for it to have actually happened...

The Doctor turned back to Frank. His sleeping face was void of emotion, but his lips were parted just slightly. The Doctor sucked in a quick breath of air before leaning in and pressing his lips against Frank's. It was just a quick peck, but the Doctor definitely felt something as he pulled away.

"I'm coming!" He called out, trying to be soft enough as to not wake any of the sleeping figures in the room. He stood quickly and hurried across the dusty floor. He opened the door to see Kobra pushing up the visor of his helmet. "Good morning!" The Doctor smiled.

Kobra nodded in response. "Let's get going before Dracs send out their own patrols."

The Doctor nodded, stepping out of the room and closing the door. Kobra began walking towards the garage down the road, prompting the Doctor to hurry after him. The sky was dark, but the stars were unvisible past occasional thin clouds and a soon to be rising sun.

"So! How are we going about this?" The Doctor asked, finally catching up and keeping pace with Kobra.

"We're going out in the rust bucket Ghosted Disturbance drove in yesterday, seeing as it can still speed quite nicely." He smirked under his helmet, "Then, we'll scope out where your ship was left to see if we can easily get it back."

The Doctor nodded. "Right-o! Sounds good..." He bit his lip, thinking about the time piece he had seen from Kobra's pocket. "Do you have the time by any chance?"

"Five thirty." Kobra replied without missing a beat. The Doctor frowned that he knew it off the top of his head. The perception filter was doing it's job if it was really what the Doctor thought it was.

When they made it to the garage's side door, Kobra knocked on it loudly. He stood back, pulling of his helmet as he waited beside the Doctor. Another minute passed before Kobra stepped forward knocked harder on the door. A muffled response could be heard on the other side before it was pulled open.

A disgruntled, messy haired Silent Strike blinked tiredly at the two. He was wearing a torn, white shirt and unbuttoned pants. "Oh, right, that was this morning. Hello, sir." He stood a bit straighter, rubbing his eye before giving Kobra a salute.

"Got the car ready?" Kobra asked.

Silent nodded. "Right through here. Just be careful of Ghost and Angel." He gestured for the Doctor and Kobra to step inside and follow him. They walked through the mazes of shelves in the room to get to the other side. Along the way, the Doctor noticed a nook in between some of the shelves where blankets came out into the narrow walk way. The time lord was able to catch a glimpse of Ghosted Disturbance and a girl with long teal hair. The girl was cuddled to Ghosted's right side, wrapped by his arm. Ghosted's left side was empty, looking as if someone had hastily rushed out of the sleeping arrangement, with his arm fully outstretched across the mattress.

"You taking the Drac car?" Silent asked, grabbing a key from the wall and fiddling with the door lock that lead to where the vehicles were kept.

"Yep." Kobra nodded.

The three stepped into the main garage, walking on a course towards the beaten up white car. Silent tossed a set of keys to Kobra before hurrying over to a desk by the wall. He grabbed what looked like an old military model of headphones with a mic on it.

"Frequency 626." Silent called out as he placed the device on his head, wiggling them just right on his ears.

The Doctor looked up at the number, recognizing it from somewhere. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Don't worry, I got it." Kobra replied, fiddling with something in his helmet. He threw it into the car and pulled up his jacket sleeve, checking a wrist com like Ghosted had. "Copy?"

"Roger, roger." Silent grinned, giving a thumbs up.

The Doctor climbed into the car's passenger seat as Kobra climbed into the driver seat. He adjusted the seat accordingly before starting the vehicle.

"I'll lower the power levels once you get outside." Silent's voice spoke clearly through Kobra's wrist com, "Good luck, sir."

"Thank you, Silent." Kobra said as the garage door began to raise behind them.

The Doctor spun in his seat to watch. The car backed out, slowly, before getting angled to drive down the street.

"Shield power levels lowering!"

As Silent spoke, the scenery ahead of the car just outside of the makeshift town began to glitch. Kobra grinned as he reved the engine. "Hold on tight." He instructed the Doctor, who grabbed hold of the small bar above his heaf. With a nervous look.

Kobra pushed his foot against the gas pedal, making the car screech for a moment before it began to speed at the shield that surrounded the community. Kobra's eyes were focused ahead as the wall grew closer and closer. He relaxed only when they passed through the strange barrier, slightly slowing his speed.

The Doctor spun in his chair to look at the glitching scenery behind them. He laughed as it faded into solidity. "That's some neato camouflage!" He laughed, turning back around in his chair.

"Keeps the Dracs out." Kobra replied, holding the steering wheel with one hand while doing something to his wrist com. The Doctor assumed it to be coordinates.

The Doctor nodded, letting go of the bar he had been holding onto. He looked at Kobra, still having the watch in the back of his mind. "So, how long have you been doing this?"

"Scouting or just dealing with the craziness of the post apocalypse we were all thrown into?" Kobra asked with a laugh. He turned the car off the dirt and onto a crippled road before speaking again. "Both pretty much happened around the same time. I'm the only one from my family to have made it through Better Living's initial reign of terror..."

"I'm sorry." The Doctor frowned, noticing Kobra's tightened grip on the steering wheel. "I've lost my family too... Just before all of this."

Kobra nodded, focusing on the road. "My condolences."

The Doctor looked down, biting his lip. He didn't want to upset Kobra further, but he really wanted to try and push him past the perception filter. "I had a brother." He said, looking out the window. "A mother... A father... Wife and child..."

"I didn't have nearly as much." Kobra spoke with a softened expression on his face, "A mother who was a school teacher and a father who was a watch maker. Never lucky enough for a brother." He smiled, sadly. "Jet Star became like a brother when we met and started our Killjoy rebellion."

The Doctor looked back at Kobra. "Did your father give you your watch?" He asked with a soft hopefulness in his tone.

Kobra blinked rapidly for a moment, shaking his head. "Yea, before it started..." He replied, stealing a look at his wrist com. Before the Doctor could reply with anything, Kobra spoke again. "We're coming up on it."

The car began to slow, causing the Doctor to rise in his seat in an attempt to see what was ahead. All that was really visible was some deep skid marks and some debris. Once the car completely haulted, both men climbed out of the vehicle.

Kobra slammed his door, looking around the scene that was being illuminated by the rising sun. "Scrap... Scrap... A drac finger!" He laughed, clapping his hands together.

"Oh, dear..." The Doctor muttered, leaning against his door. He watched as Kobra kicked some of the rubble, looking around. The Doctor frowned at a disruption in the loose dirt where his tardis had been. "They took her, alright..."

"They love to take from you..." Kobra said, crouching down to more closely examine something in the dust. "Anything they can..."

"Do we know where they take the things? Or where their base is?" The Doctor asked, moving from the car to look at some piece of a car.

"Loosely." Kobra replied, lifting something up and bringing it close to his face. "Did that friend of yours have any injuries?" He asked, setting whatever was in his hand back down in the dirt with a thinking expression.

"Frankie?" The Doctor asked, snapping his head over at the mention of his companion. "A cut on the jaw was about it from what I saw."

Kobra swept his hand over the loose dirt, finding a small syringe and needle. He looked up at the Doctor, "Any puncture wounds?" He asked before looking back down at the object he had uncovered.

The Doctor shook his head. "I-I don't think? What is that?"

"Better living tech..." Kobra grabbed the syringe, carefully, and lifted it to spin in the light. "Something that seems familiar..." He rotated his wrist to punch something into his wrist com. "Come in, Silent."

"Silent Strike, ready to take your order, how may I help you today?"

The Doctor walked over as Kobra stood from where he was crouched down to spin towards the hood of the car. Kobra set the syringe on it before bringing his wrist up to his mouth. "I'm going to scan something that I need you to look up in the data base." He said.

"I can have it for you faster than a meme spread on the internet."

"Thank you, Silent." Kobra said, hitting several small buttons on the wrist com before pointing it at the syringe. A small beam of red, concentrated light shot out of the wrist device and slowly scanned over the syringe on the hood.

The Doctor looked at it with wide eyes before looking down at the object it was aimed at. A dark circle, with a bit of a generic and creepy smiling face sat on each end of the small tube. Cryptic writing sat between the faces, in a language that the Doctor could understand. He found that odd, considering he could usually at least recognize most languages.

"Drac tech!" Silent reported with the sound of typing being audible as well, "Looks like... Oh..."

"I don't like it when you live up to your name, Silent." Kobra spoke as the red beam's scan ceased. He brought the com back up by his mouth, "Talk to me."

"It comes from the files we just recently dug up, sir. The ones I haven't been able to completely comb through because the computer only finished decoding two days ago..." Silent went quiet again, as if he was reading over something. The Doctor and Kobra exchanged concerned looks during the absence of speech.

"Silent..." Kobra called out, turning from the syringe to look back at what was left over from the previous day's attack.

"It looks like a preparation device, sir." Silent finally replied, "Was there anything left inside?"

The Doctor grabbed the syringe carefully, before shaking it. "Nothin'." He told Kobra, who was biting his lip. "Preparation for what, exactly?"

"I want details." Kobra spoke authoritatively into his wrist com, "What does it do?"

"I can only read so fast without tripping over the words!" Silent exclaimed, "Just... Just two minutes!"

"You've got one and a half."

The Doctor put the syringe back on the hood of the car and stepped next to Kobra. "What's going on?" He asked, firmly. "You're not telling me something, Kobra, and I don't like the tone in which things are being talked about."

Kobra shook his head, moving away from the Doctor. "We don't know anything as of yet..."

"Preparation device!" The Doctor exclaimed, taking large strides to stand beside the blond man. "That seemed to give you indication of knowing something!" He jumped in front of Kobra to stop his movement, "Give me something to keep me out of the dark about my Frankie." He said, glaring at Kobra.

Kobra glared back at the Doctor, obviously not happy with the way he was being talked to. "I'm under no obligation to tell you." He said with a low tone, "I was under no obligation to bring you out here, either. I did that as a kind gesture and because something about you just seems..."

"What?" The Doctor demanded, refusing to back down.

"... Familiar." Kobra said with an extremely brief look away from the time lord.

The Doctor felt his expression soften. Could there be a chance that Kobra really was like him? If Kobra could just remember...

"It's something linking back to the Better Living computers." Silent's voice came through the com, urgently. "Is there anything left inside?"

"No." Kobra responded, "What does that mean?"

"Who got shot?"

Kobra and the Doctor exchanged looks once again. "Preparation for what?" The Doctor demanded with a whisper, feeling his hearts begin to accelerate.

"Upgrades." Kobra whispered. The two were still for only a moment before they both ran towards the car. "Silent, secure Frank." Kobra ordered into his wrist com, "We're on our way."

"Yes s-" a frequency wave seemed to go through the device, giving way to static.

"Silent?" Kobra asked, pressing on several of the buttons on the small device. "SILENT!"

"What's happening?" The Doctor asked as Kobra hit the steering wheel.

The other man turned the key in the ignition, roaring the vehicle's engine to life. "One of two bad things." He responded before pressing his foot against the gas pedal, "Either they tracked Frank, or they're using him to take our defenses down."

The Doctor's eyes grew wide. "Not Frankie." He shook his head as the car blew dirt into the air behind him, "We need to get back!"

"I'm working on it!" Kobra yelled as he spun the car around. Once it was facing the right direction, he hit the gas and the sped back towards the camp.

---

Frank woke up to the loud sound of a vehicle. He shut his eyes tighter than they already were, still feeling tired. However, his body was already awake. He opened his eyes and looked at the room he was in.

The Doctor wasn't there. His absence was the first thing Frank noticed. As he looked around the room, he also noticed Jack cuddled up against Ianto. Both men somehow still sleeping soundly.

Frank cried out softly as he felt a pain in the back of his neck. He slapped his hand against the spot the pain originated from. His vision suddenly went blurry and he felt a dizziness fill him. He blinked quickly, thankfully making the weird symptoms fade.

"What the hell?.." He muttered to himself, shaking his head. That was weird. He'd never had something like that happen before. He rose to his feet and crossed the room, quietly opening and closing the door as he slipped outside.

It was still dark, but the sun was just beginning to peak over the horizon. Frank rubbed his eye, looking up and down the dirt street down the center of the ragtag town. Dust was still settling, as if it had just been disrupted by something fast. Frank assumed it to be a car before fully remembering that Kobra was taking the Doctor out to look for the tardis.

Frank looked down towards the garage, noticing its large doors were open. He walked towards it, unsure what else to really do. The Doctor wasn't here and the only other people he knew a bit more of were asleep. When he made it over to the doors, he peered inside to see Silent Strike rolling across the space a swivel chair while wearing a pair of large, aviator style headphones.

Frank laughed, stepping inside before leaning against the wall to watch Silent. The killjoy had his arms outstretched as he spun, letting out a loud "caw-caw!" as he bounced off the far wall and began rolling back towards where Frank was.

"Oh, shi-oot!" Silent's eyes grew wide when he noticed Frank, attempting to stop the chair's motion but ending up falling off of it entirely.

"Are you alright?" Frank laughed, hurrying over to help the boy up. Silent groaned, but gave Frank a thumbs up along with a weak smile.

He helped Silent to his feet and helped pick up the chair. Silent pushed it over to the wall, scratching the back of his head.

"So, hi." He waved before laughing, "You saw all of that, didn't you?"

"Most of it." Frank admitted with a laugh of his own. Both boys were laughing when the door within the shop opened, revealing a tired looking Gasoline Threat. She was in a loose fitting tank top that ran down to her knees.

"It's so early, why are you guys alive?" She yawned, rubbing her eye tiredly as she walked towards Silent. She rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes while he wrapped his arms around her torso.

"Scouting mission, Angel." Silent replied, rocking the girl slowly from side to side. "Why aren't you with Ghost?"

"The bed got cold without you, and he hogged the covers." She frowned.

Silent laughed, "Awww, but now you're gonna leave Ghost cold." He squeezed her before letting her go. She stood up and wrapped her arms behind her neck, lifting her hair.

"Who's out?" She asked, outstretching her arms and letting her hair fall back down.

"Kobra and that Doctor guy." Silent replied, tapping his headset. "They should be hitting the rendezvous site soon."

Gasoline Threat stuck out her tongue with a soft raspberry sound. "They took my experimental car! Aw, hell..." She moved across the room with a sigh, "Now I just have to keep fixing our old rust bucket..."

"Like you don't enjoy it!" Silent laughed, walking over to Frank. He nudged Frank, "She lives for the mechanical crap."

"Heard that!"

"Turn off your hearing aid already!"

She rolled her eyes in response, reaching up by her ear and turning away from the two. She was walking towards where her outfit from the previous day was hanging up on the wall by a car on the other side of the room.

"This happen often?" Frank laughed as Silent spun in a small circle before walking past him.

"Oh, yea. She tries to out-sass me all the time. It's a constant battle." He grinned before his face became serious, "Silent Strike, ready to take your order, how may I help you today?" He looked back at Frank, covering the mic on his headset. "Would you get Ghost? He's just inside." He pointed to the door Gasoline Threat came through.

Frank nodded with a thumbs up. He walked towards the door, pushing it open to be met by a dark maze of shelves. His eyes grew wide as the door shut behind him. How was he going to find Disturbance in this?

A loud snore gave Frank indication of where to look.

He walked down a short stretch, finding himself walking up upon a floor set mattress. Ghosted Disturbance was asleep on his side, curled up under the messy covers of the bed.

"Ghosted Disturbance?" Frank called out, grabbing hold of a shelf by the mattress. "Hey, Disturbance..." Frank gasped as the dizziness and blurriness returned out of nowhere. He shut his eyes, tightly, but the feeling only intensified to the point of Frank wanting to puke.

"Frank?"

The dizziness faded, along with the sick feeling. Frank opened his eyes, still only being able to see blurs but, noticing Disturbance's figure sitting up on the mattress.

"Frank? What's up, where is everyone?"

"The... The garage..." Frank blinked, trying to make the blurriness fade with the other symptoms.

"Are you alright?" Disturbance asked with concern in his voice as his fuzzy figure stood up.

Frank shook his head. "I, ah, I might need help back out there..." He brought his hands up to his face and tapped the spot just beyond the corner of his eye. "I can't really see?"

"Did you get kaleidoscope dust in your eyes?" Disturbance asked, stepping over to Frank. "I mean, desert dust, sorry, I forgot you're new." Frank felt Disturbance put his fingers just above and below his eye, propping it open. "How much can you see right now?"

"You're just a blurry face." Frank replied as Disturbance pulled his fingers away, "It happened earlier too, but it went away that time..."

"Silent can look it up on his tech." Disturbance said, putting his hands on Frank's shoulders. "I'll guide you back."

Frank nodded, spinning around and allowing Disturbance to guide him. His vision only seemed to worsen as they moved through the dark. He hoped it was just the lighting, but it was really beginning to freak him out.

When they reentered the garage, Frank still couldn't see clearly. Disturbance muttered for him to stay where he was before walking ahead of him. Frank could also hear Silent speaking into his head set.

He couldn't quite understand the conversation going on in the room around him. His head was filling with a strange noise. It was almost like the him of something mechanical.

"What's that?" As Frank spoke, his vision cleared. He blinked rapidly as the garage came into view. The two other males in the room were intently reading an older model computer screen while Gasoline Threat was buried in a car's engine. His vision may have been back, but the sound was still echoing in his head.

"Sir? Kobra?" Silent was hitting his headset with a worried expression on his face, "Kobra, do you copy?"

"Is the com tower down?" Disturbance asked, looking around with worry.

Silent shook his head, "Impossible. Jet Star and I just preformed maintenance..." He bit his lip before turning to Disturbance, "Something's up."

Frank opened his mouth to speak again, but was cut off by the loud thudding sound. Almost immediately after that noise, an alarm seemed to go out, causing Silent to squeal with distress.

"That's the shield!" He exclaimed, pushing himself away from the wall and running from the garage. Disturbance followed quickly after, followed by a confused Frank.

Frank skidded to a stop in the dusty street, not far behind Silent and Disturbance. Up the street, Jack and Ianto were running out of the building they were in. Further down, Frank could make out the man he remembered as Jet Star on the roof of the furthest building. The alarm was blaring, but another thunderous thud seemed to shake the earth. The 'shield', as Silent had called it, seemed to be growing cracks in it.

"They found us..." Silent's hands shot up to cover his mouth as he looked at the cracking barrier with wide eyes, "It's not going to hold, they found us..."

"What's going on!?" Frank exclaimed as he watched Jet Star jump off his roof with a skilled roll as he hit the ground, somehow popping back to his feet and beginning to sprint towards the group.

"Get to the garage!" Jack yelled, gesturing for everyone to move back.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!?" Frank yelled as everyone began to hurry back towards the garage.

"DRACS, YOU IDIOT!" Jet Star yelled with another crash against the wall. He waved his arm as he ran, "GET BACK BEFORE THEY BREACH THE WALL!"

Jack ended up hooking his arm with Frank's, almost dragging him back to the safe house where everyone was going. Frank backtracked his feet as fast as he could to keep from falling as the wall at the end of the built up town began to crack even more.

"Jack, the Doctor!" Frank exclaimed as they made it into the building. Jet Star slid in quickly after, prompting Disturbance to slam his fist into the door shut button.

"If he's not already on his way, he'll be coming soon." Jack said, panting as he looked at the closing door with worry. "He's him, it'll happen."

Frank felt a mixture of emotions as he looked around the room. Everyone was moving as if this was something they knew could one day happen. He felt a sense of disorientation without the Doctor here. At least when the time lord was with him, they were a bit out of the loop together... Or at least his Doctor would attempt to explain...

Another horrible booming rang through the air as Frank silently wished his time lord was next to him...