The Golden Ones (comic story)

Summary
In Japan children are addicted to the new drink and tv show Goruda. A drink that makes them telepathic...and golden.

Part 1
Tokyo, present day. Mr Okada walks into Mr Kin's office, and asks Mr Kin whether he has accepted his company's proposal to launch a product called Goruda into Europe. However, Mr Kin says that he is fully aware that Mr Okada is a spy working for UNIT, and that Okada's company is a fake. Suddenly, Mr Kin transforms into a creature, and pushes Mr Okada out of the window, killing him.

Two days later, the Doctor and Amy are at a UNIT briefing. The Doctor asks Major Hiraki what is the Shining Dawn Corporation, and what is Goruda. Major Hiraki suggests the Doctor should see for himself. Later, Amy and the Doctor turn up at a family's house, pretending to make a documentary about Japanese life. Kaito, a small child, is watching Goruda on the TV. Goruda says "Drink the brain tonic, one, two, three, and lets learn together!" Kaito's mother says his exam results has shot up ever since he started drinking the tonic and watching Goruda. The Doctor asks Kaito if he knows the name of Mozart's pet cat. The Doctor and Amy then go visit more houses.

Back at base, Major Hiraki says to the Doctor that, according to the publicity, the tonic increases the number of links between neurons. The Doctor replies buy saying that when he asked first child he visited, Kaito, the name of Mozart's cat, he didn't know. So the Doctor say to Kaito that his cat's name was Fluffy. From then on, when the Doctor asked the question to other children, they all replied with Fluffy, implying that the drink makes the children telepathic. Anyway, "Mozart hated cats", according to the Doctor. Hiraki says that the lab results suggest the tonic is nothing but H20. The Doctor drinks it, and confirms it as water. He decides to take it back to the TARDIS for further testing. He and Amy decide to take the tube.

Whilst walking to the station, the Doctor notices that Sergeant Machi, a UNIT man from the base, is following them. Suddenly, Machi starts firing lasers at them, and they run into the tube. They believe they are safe, but Machi is clinging onto the window. He breaks open the window and tries to kill the Doctor. The tube comes out of the tunnel and the Doctor climbs onto the roof, with Machi following. One of the passengers pull the emergency stop switch, and the train skids to a halt. Amy rushes outside, believing that the Doctor fell of the roof. However, he is clinging onto the back of the train, alive, whilst Machi is a pile of alien goo on the track, dead. Meanwhile, an alien voice says to Mr Kin, "We must bring our plans forward. Begin conversion."

The Doctor wants Amy safe, so he suggest she go to Major Hiraki's place whilst he tests the tonic. Hiraki and Amy go to Hiraki's home, and they see that her daughter, Takara, is watching Goruda. Whilst Takara is being told off, Amy gets a call from the Doctor, who says that the tonic contains a chameleon molecule, meaning that it comes up with the result water for every test, and that the tonic becomes more powerful every time its been swallowed. Suddenly, Goruda says,"Drink the brain tonic, one, two, three, and place your hands against the screen!" Every child who drank it goes into a trance, somehow, and place their hands against the TV screen. The Doctor realises that the chameleon molecule can absorb energy which han change living tissue. Kaito, Takara, and all the others suddenly become wide eyed with golden skin, chanting "We are golden! We are golden!" The Doctor finally remembers that the tonic increases the number of links between neurons. The links between neurons are called Axons. The Axons go out onto the street, the march of the Axons.

Characters

 * Eleventh Doctor
 * Amy Pond

Continuity

 * Axons first appeared in DW: The Claws of Axos.