john_amend_all

As the various bands of rebels advanced on the Viceroy's palace through the narrow streets, dodging fire from snipers and ricochets from their own side, their tidy formations broke down and the different groups mingled together. Lucie, separated from the Doctor, suddenly found herself grabbed and pulled down behind a shattered wall as bullets whizzed past her.

She looked round at her rescuer, and did a double-take. "What the fudge are you doing here?"

Karen gestured at her fatigues. "What does it look like? Helping to bring down that idiot viceroy, of course. Same as you."

"I'd've thought you'd be in there sucking up to him. That'd be your sort of thing."

"Look." Karen took a deep breath. "Just 'cos you're on one side doesn't mean I've got to be on the other. You want that Viceroy out on his ear? Well, so do I."

Lucie pouted. "If you were a proper archnemesis you'd go straight over to him the moment you saw me."

"I chuffing well wouldn't. I'd make sure no-one else killed you so I could have you all to meself." Karen cleared her throat. "If I was your archnemesis in the first place. Which I'm not."

"So what did the Viceroy do to you, then?" Lucie asked, flattening herself further against the ground as an armoured vehicle trundled across the rubble nearby.

"Nothing." Karen smirked. "But this counts towards my Conflict Resolution In The Workplace module."

"Conflict Resolution...?" Lucie repeated.

"Watch." Karen pulled a small black box from her pocket. With her eyes firmly on the tank, she waited until it had reached some position only she could identify, and pressed the button. A gout of flame erupted under its right track; it lurched and shuddered to a halt. Rebels quickly swarmed over it.

"Does that look resolved to you?" Karen asked triumphantly.

"Suppose so," Lucie said, trying to keep her voice casual.

"Then we can't hang round here all day. Get your fat arse in gear, we've got a Viceroy to execute." She jumped to her feet. "Bagsy I'm the one who shoots him. I get extra credit if I do it in person."

"Dunno what he'll make of you," Lucie muttered, following suit. "But there are times you don't half scare the fertiliser out of me."