Capture the fla

The Doctor was unsurprised to find himself magically in another location.

It was a huge muddy field, dotted with just a few trees.

Ropes hung from some of their branches and there was a canvas tunnel in a far corner. A broken cannon was lying on its side in another and, every so often, pennants were stuck in the ground. Five were burgundy, five blue.

On the furthest side of the field, the toy robot stood.

Waiting.

'The object,‘ said a voice in the Doctor‘s ear, 'is to get your opponent‘s flags back to your base.‘

The speaker was a gruff, rotund man in his forties, wearing the same army clothes as the clockwork soldiers. But this man was human. He held out a hand.

'No bad feelings, what? Topping day for it, though. Name‘s Bamm. Captain Bill Bamm. Pleased t‘meet you, Doctor.‘

'Oh rather, and my name is Captain Bimm. Ben Bimm.‘ The Doctor whirled around to find that the other toy was now a lean, angular man. 'That‘s your base over there, what.‘ He was pointing to the broken cannon. 'Ours is the trees by that gate. Equidistant, y‘see?‘

The Doctor nodded. 'Trouble is, Captains, there are two of you and only one of me, which seems a tad unfair, hmmm?‘

The two soldiers looked at each other. 'Lawks, Captain‘

Bamm, what shall we do?‘

'Don‘t know, Captain Bimm. I s‘pose we could give the poor blighter two of our flags as a sort of advantage.‘

'Oh yes, Captain Bamm, that would be rather decent of us.‘

The Doctor saw that two of the blue flags were now sticking out of the front of his cannon.

(...)

The Doctor was trying to run as fast as he could. He had already thrown away his heavy university robes, and was dressed in just a white collarless shirt and a pair of breeches and boots. All were caked in thick mud. He had managed to get two blue flags back to his cannon, but Bimm had three of his burgundy ones by the copse of trees.

He was exhausted - the Prydon Academy trained you for the mind, not for the body. Certainly, there were physical exercises to stay reasonably fit - but few involved countless journeys around muddy fields, climbing ropes, running through canvas tunnels to evade capture, protecting flags and trying to steal more, all at once. Worse still, the muddy field was slowing him down - each step was becoming more akin to traipsing through quicksand.

On the other side, the toy robot stood impassively, its chest monitor recording, with a series of coloured blobs, who had which pennants in their base.

The Doctor watched as Bimm gained a fourth pennant.

Only one more and the game was his. Even one on one, as the Doctor had wanted, the soldier/toy was more competent.

***

Divided Loyalties, Round 2, Chapter 2