Wasp in the TARDIS

Rose stared out the window of the TARDIS door as the Doctor moved less manically than usual around the TARDIS console. Both were anxious to get back to their own dimension, but both were saddened by the fact that they were returning without Mickey – especially Rose. While she had moved on emotionally, she still cared about Mickey Smith. Leaving him behind, with no prospect of ever seeing him again, was no easy thing, even if it was his choice to stay.

It wasn’t that Rose could really see anything out the window; she just needed the moment.

Then she heard a claxon repeating. She spun toward the Doctor. “What’s that?” she asked.

“Cloister bell,” the Doctor said. “It only sounds in the event of a dire emergency.”

“Do you ever land at anything other than a dire emergency?” Rose asked.

The Doctor’s hands flew across controls as he made his way to the monitor. “The cloister bell only sounds for emergencies that are dire, even for me.”

Rose’s brow furrowed. “So, what’s this emergency? Another breakdown stranding us outside our dimension?”

The Doctor shook his head. “Something is being shunted to us via a dimensional tunnel. It’s loaded with alien energies. The TARDIS is trying to decipher them.”

“Something … or someone.” Rose pointed to an area of the floor level opposite the entrance.

The air was suffused with a purple glow with black spots that seemed to dissipate. Inside the glow was a woman, wearing a skintight outfit that was black with a series of yellow V’s along the torso. There were no visible seams for the gloves and boots. The woman had brown hair. She seemed to be getting larger and smaller, and her hair length seemed to vary.

“Why is her size varying so much?” Rose asked.

“Her relative dimensions in space have gone all wibbly-wobbly,” the Doctor said. “We intercepted her when she was being thrown between dimensions, but she’s still unstable.”

“Can you stabilize her?” Rose asked.

“No need,” the Doctor said. “The TARDIS is doing that for us. Its defense systems will clear the woman of the energies within her, the same way it disarms many weapons.”

The Doctor adjusted his glasses as he stared at the monitor. He was frowning in a way Rose didn’t like.
“What’s wrong,” she asked.

“I don’t understand these readings,” he said. “It says the energies being drained from the woman are … Skrull bio-weaponry. I’ve never heard of Skrulls. And it says she was being shunted through dimensions by a combination of the bio-weaponry, a Norse dimensional portal and something called Pym particles, whatever those are.”

Rose frowned and raised an eyebrow. “Doctor … I’ve heard of Skrulls … and Pym particles.”

The Doctor spun to look at Rose. “Where have you heard of them?”

Rose looked at the Doctor. “Mickey,” she said.

The Doctor’s expression looked thoroughly confused. “Mickey? Mickey Smith?”

Rose nodded. “Skrulls and Pym particles are from the Avengers … and so is she. I recognize the uniform.”

The Doctor turned and looked at the woman. He put his hand on the back of his neck . “Well, she does look a bit like Emma Peel …”

“Not the Avengers from the telly,” Rose said. “I don’t think Mickey even knows those; I only do because of Mum. These are the Avengers from the American comic books.”

Realization seemed to hit the Doctor. “Oh! So this is the Black Widow!”

Rose stared at the woman. “No, this woman is more major; from what Mickey said, the Black Widow was a bit player in the Avengers.”

The Doctor nodded. “Oh, right. You’re talking comics; I’m thinking of the movie.”

“There’s an Avengers movie?” Rose asked.

“There will be,” the Doctor said. “So, who is she?”

“She’s the Wasp,” Rose said. “A founding Avenger, according to Mickey. She uses Pym particles for size change.”

“Ah!” The doctor smiled. “So that’s part of the dimensional travel, and instability. Do you remember anything about the Skrull bio-weapon or the Norse dimension portal?”

“The Skrulls were aliens attacking Earth, I think,” Rose said. “I don’t know about the Norse dimension portal thing, but one of the Avengers was named Thor, like the Norse god. Maybe it has something to do with him.”

The Doctor nodded. “Now it makes sense,” he said. “The Skrulls placed some sort of weapon in this Wasp to send her Pym particle powers out of control, and the dimension portal was an effort to do something about it – save her, protect innocents, something. From the readings, she was trying to activate her own powers, which just sent the mix that much further out of control.”

“Her size is stabilizing,” Rose said.

“The bio-weapon is defused, but it may reactivate as soon as she leaves the TARDIS,” the Doctor said. He was flipping controls as he stared at the monitor. “We have to find somewhere safe to put her, which probably isn’t her home dimension, unfortunately.”

“That’s too bad,” Rose said. “I seem to remember Mickey saying another Avenger loves her.”

The Doctor grinned back at Rose. “Well, all may not be lost,” he said. “We’re traveling by a universe that will shut down the bio-weapon, and from which she should be able to get back to her dimension just by using Pym particles, according to the TARDIS. We can drop her there without fully materializing, and she’ll at least have a chance to get home, and back to anyone who loves her. Of course, since she hasn’t been conscious with us, it may take her a while to figure out how to get home, but we can barely afford the time to drop her off where we will.”

“Just do it, Doctor,” Rose said.

The Doctor flicked some switches and spun a billiard ball built into the console. The Wasp, stirring groggily, vanished as the TARDIS made its familiar wheezing noise.

The Doctor looked at the monitor and grinned. “She got there safely,” he said. “Wish I’d had more time to help her. Ah, well.”

Rose stared at the spot where the Wasp had been. “That was a real comic book superhero – right here! And really alive!”

“Remind me to tell you sometime about the Land of Fiction,” the Doctor said.

Rose smiled at the Doctor. “She’s a bit like you, you know, this Wasp. She fights off aliens and protects people and the universe.”

The Doctor smiled. “Janet Van Dyne, defender of the Earth.”

Rose leaned on the Doctor’s shoulder. “I do hope she gets home. It would be awful to be separated from the one you love by being trapped in another dimension, separated by unbreachable walls. I can think of few things worse.”

The Doctor smiled at Rose. “Well, no need to worry about that,” he said. “We’re almost home ourselves. And, I don’t know about you, but I don’t plan to leave our home dimension again.”

Rose returned the Doctor’s smile. “Cybermen and Daleks combined couldn’t pry me away,” she said. “Let’s get home.”