Episode one; Ann Marie Banning, part I

"Bart! I'm home!" a cheerful voice called one boring Thursday afternoon, as two girls burst through the door of a little house located in western London. The girl who'd shouted, a brown eyed girl with slightly floppy ears and a sweet, round face, threw her bag towards the bottom of the stairs with the cheerful vigour of a student just released from the school buildings.
Her name was Ann Marie Banning and her boring Thursday afternoon was about to turn in a very eventful Thursday-night.

"I brought Katy with me, if tha's all right," Ann said, as she toed off her shoes, "Her parents are on one of those business trips again, ye know?" she smiled at her friend, a blonde girl named Katy Reece, before she padded towards the kitchen on white-socked feet.

Ann's house wasn't very large – in all honesty, it was actually rather small – and quite messy as well, but it was very cosy and just big enough to house Ann and her brother comfortably. It was located in a peaceful little neighbourhood in Lewisham, where little ever happened, though it was not far from the centre of London. It had two stories, a little garden and a beat-up ford standing up front.

Upon entering the kitchen, Ann halted in the middle of untying her long air from its bun, as she found her brother, Bart, standing in front of the cellar door, carrying an expression she knew very well. "What are you doing?" she asked curiously, as it was obvious he was hiding something.

"What, me? Nothin'!" Bart exclaimed, rushing forward to envelop Ann in a massive bear-hug, which lifted her at least two feet off the ground, "Glad yer home, how was school?"

Ann raised a sceptic eyebrow at him, with Katy giggling behind her and her glasses askew on her face. She didn't believe him for a second, but smiled anyway as she struggled in his arms, "Boring as it was when you went there, as it ever is. Now, would ye pleaseput me down?"

Bart grinned widely, displaying his slightly crooked teeth, waving at Katy, as his sister dusted imaginary things off her clothes in mock-protest of her involuntary lift.
"Good grief, Bart, when will you stop being so bloody tall?" she said teasingly and he laughed again. It was a common joke between the two of them, for both were naturally tall and slim, but Bart had always towered over her with his impressive 6 ft 2 to count for him.

"Only when you stop growing up so fast," said Bart, with a wink towards Katy, who blushed and giggled again, her crush on him more than obvious and Ann roll her eyes at the girl, as she grabbed for her wrist, tugging her friend upstairs with her.

As their socked feet disappeared past the railing of the stairs, Bart turned back towards the cellar-door and locked it with a soft beep, not uncommon for a military facility, and then went to prepare dinner, hoping he'd bought Ann's favourite yoghurt like he thought he did.

No one heard the eery screeching sounds coming from down the stairs

"So, what d'ye think of Billy fancying you, then?" Katy asked mischievously, chewing on the end of her pen. She was staring up at her brunette friend on the bed from her position on the floor, her feet swinging back and forth behind her.

Ann Marie sighed as she rolled over on the bed, away from her math equations, which were dreadfully boring, and sprawled out over the duvet.
"You know I don't care 'bout things like that, Kat," she said with an aspirated tone, letting her head hang over the edge to stare at her green-eyed friend upside-down, "Did ye know your head looks a bit like a balloon, upside down? Bit like one o' those fair-like things, y'know?"

Katy stared at her incuriously, "No, I didn't. But really, aren't ye even the slightest bit flattered? He's captain o' the swimming team and, I mean, those muscles are to die for!"
Katy's face was all bright and glowing again, now that they'd stopped doing their homework, which wasn't exactly unexpected, as their usual attention span for active homework making usually lasted for about half an hour.

"And he's just one fry short of a happy meal," Ann finished her best friend's sentence, grinning, "Daft like a brush, that one."

In response, there was a math book thrown at her and it almost toppled her already dangerously balancing laptop over.
"Oi, watch it!" she exclaimed, laughing at her friend, who was now sitting on the ground, cross legged and pouting.

"Would ye rather have one of them AV nerds, then?" Katy inquired, as Ann placed her laptop carefully on the ground, where it would be safe from flying books.

"Well, at least it's possible to have decent conversation with one of them," she replied, laying back down with a thoughtful expression, "I'll have you know they're quite nice, if not a bit shy."

Flicking her hair back, Katy nodded knowingly, "Of course they are, love," she said, patting the part of Ann that was closest to her- her calf -with exaggerated understanding, "Of course they are."

"Oh shut it," Ann said, just as Bart called them for dinner, "C'mon, let's get that mouth of yours stuffed, give my ears some peace."

She grinned as the blonde huffed and exclaimed; "I don't chatter that much, ye know?" while chasing after Ann's retreating form.

"A decent conversation," she muttered, giving up after the first few steps, whilst shaking her head, "Only Ann."

Neither of them saw the metallic claw reaching out for the still buzzing laptop, pulling it underneath the bed nor did they hear the incredibly vulgar sounds of cracking, biting and swallowing that followed, ended by a loud, satisfied sounding burp.

Not far from the Banning house, a little while later when all had gone silent, the darkness of the evening was disturbed by loud screeching sounds and the appearance of a big, blue box, from which a man stepped into the twilight. It was quite a strange box; old fashioned and seemingly completely out of place, with a flashing blue light on top, which had stopped flashing when the blue doors had opened.

Much the same, it's occupant looked incredibly old fashioned, with a tweed jacket, rolled-up trousers and red braces, yet he looked rather young.
The man himself didn't seem to be bothered by that fact and he looked quite satisfied with himself, as a matter of fact, as he straightened the red bowtie around his neck and – with a small hop – jumped out of the police box. He seemed excited.

"Well then, off we go!" he said to no one in particular, as he marched off at a pace with a bounce in his step and proceeded to go around the neighbourhood with deliberation, examining the most random of things such as hedges, mailboxes and the occasional uncooperative cat.

"No, no, not the bush," he muttered, crawling from underneath a well cut little bush and dusting his clothes off quickly, "And not the mailbox either, curious, hah! It's usually the mail-box..."

Twirling around – several times – he took another good look around and rubbed at the back of his head. His expression was momentarily confused before it brightened like a light bulb and he pulled a small, long, silverish device from his pocket.

It buzzed, lit up and he then pointed it at the houses in the neighbourhood one by one, as if scanning them.
When it appeared the device was finished, he took a closer look at it and said; 'Aha!' before he put it away again, looking- again -quite smug.
"Exactly as I thought, yes, this is quite good, very quite good, we're on the right track!" he called excitedly, before he marched towards house number eleven.

His hand – or his finger, to be precise – stopped only inches from the doorbell and the man from the blue box seemed thoughtful again for a few seconds, as if contemplating whether or not it would be appropriate to ring someone's doorbell in the middle of the night.
Eventually he decided to change his course and went for the back of the house instead, where he pulled out the green glowing device again and pointed it at the backdoor, which clicked open immediately, without the usual squeaking noise and the man stepped over some left behind boots into the messy kitchen.

As if it were a daily thing, the man proceeded to go through the kitchen almost clinically, opening cabinets and emptying baskets and bags alike, apparently searching for something.
After a while, he arose from the mess he had just created and rubbed at the back of his head again, looking a little lost.
He once more pulled out the device and moved it about again and it seemed to light up even brighter whenever it was pointed at the ceiling. The man smiled, the green light playing over his face, as he shook his hair from his eyes and made for the door that lead to the hallway.
"Always upstairs," he said to himself, before he opened the door and he seemed quite adamant about it until, halfway up the stairs he was faced with a bright light, a t-shirt clad figure and a voice that hissed; "Who the bloody hell are you!"
Wide eyed like a deer in headlights, the stared into light for a bit, before he looked around it and saw the face of a sort-of-scared looking girl with long brown hair and slightly floppy ears.
Brightly he then said; "I'm the doctor!" and found that the large green shirt with cat-print quite suited her, even though they lacked some pants.

"A doctor, really? That's the worst excuse I've ever heard, " she deadpanned, lowering the light to eye him suspiciously and the man now identified as the doctor only now noticed she was carrying a broomstick – as in, an actual, old fashioned broomstick – in her other hand.

"What were you planning on doing with that?" he said, pointing at it amusedly, completely distracted from his previous mission, "Sweep my face?"

"I was thinking of whacking you over the head with it, actually, might you have been a burglar," she said, looking at it and then at him, "But I'm not sure."

The doctor nodded in obvious compliancy, "Yes, well, that happens a lot, don't worry, it'll get much worse later on!"

Then, he continued walking up the stairs, brushing right past the shell shocked girl, though she immediately followed after him.
Frowning, as the 'doctor' had stopped precisely in front of her room poked his shoulder with the broomstick and tried again; "I'm sorry, but I'm still not sure who you are and what you're doing in my house in the middle of the bloody night."

"Ah, well," the Doctor said, as he examined the door, his ear pressed to the wood, "I've been examining strange energy flares – quite possibly dangerous – and indications of alien landings that have been happening all over England – and Wales, for that matter – and there's been a particularly high frequency of them in this house," he turned around, slightly wobbly and pointed over his shoulder at the door they were standing in front of, "The most recent one in this room, to be precise."

"But that's my bedroom," she said slowly, eying the doctor with suspicion again, "Energy whats?"

"Whose bedroom, then?" he questioned in return, completely ignoring hers.

Deriving that he probably meant her name, she quickly answered; "Ann-Marie, Ann-Marie Banning."

He smiled brightly, with childish delight, as if the mere mention of her name brought him a joy like never experienced before, "Well then, Ann-Marie Banning, it appears that you've got quite some extra-terrestrial activity in your room!"

With round eyes, she stared at him, her mouth slack in disbelief. "Extra-terrestrial activity in. My. Room?" she asked, if only to clarify, "You mean aliens?"

He beamed at her and managed to say, "Yes!" Just before, with an incredible amount of noise, the door of said bedroom seemed to explode and a large, feline-like figure jumped through it, shredding wood and board with enormous claws.

Ann Marie Banning managed to scream, just before the force of the doctor's body knocked her off her feet and they were covered in the remains of her upper floor and a hell of a lot of dust.

A little while later, coughing loudly, Ann re-appeared from underneath what appeared to be the remains of her bedroom-door, relatively unharmed, safe for a few scratches and bruises.

"Bloody hell," were the first words she said, gasping for breath and just sitting there completely disoriented before she recalled that there was another person buried beneath the fallen wall.
"Mental, this is," she muttered, as she frantically started to dig around in the mess around her, coming up with an arm, which- luckily –was moving around, trying to free the rest of itself from the broken closet it was lying under.

"Oh great, that's the closet my dad made me, oh man, just great," Ann muttered distractedly, still dazed by whatever it was that just happened to her.
She wasn't quite sure, but she wasquite certain it wasn't good and the man buried underneath her clothing appeared to know a lot more.

With a last woody grunt of protest, the closet was shoved away by the combined efforts of Ann and 'the Doctor', the latter rising to his feet with an energy that quite surprised the girl.

"Right then, hadn't expected that," he said, dusting off his tweed and straightening his bow-tie.
With disbelieving eyes she stared at him, "What hadyou been expecting?"

Before he had the chance to answer her, she shook her head and waved her hand dismissively, "Never mind, just tell me what thatwas."

Nodding at her, the Doctor set off, "That, was a Techline, a technologically advanced scavenger alien in its secondary form, on the look for more armour and weaponry. I reckon it's been here for a while."
The Doctor seemed more weary now, as he explained and was looking around suspiciously, "Judging by the state it's in I'd say you've got quite some technology stacked away here, Ann," his face turned dark, quickly and unexpectedly, "More than the average English household, at least, why's that?" By the time he was finished talking, he was standing nose to nose with Ann and both were staring into each other's eyes, one with confusion, the other searching for his answers.

"I-I don't know," she muttered, nervously fretting with the hem of her shirt, "I don't have… There's only my laptop in there, and my phone, but…"

"No, no, that can't be it," the doctor interrupted, spinning around, "There must be something else. Tell me," he said, squinting at the dark and dusty hallway, "Who else lives in this house?"

There was a moment of silence and then, "Oh my god, Bart!" Ann Marie yelled, when the question registered and she brushed past the doctor with admirable force, her shirt billowing behind her, "Bloody hell, he's just in the other room, what if it got to him?"

Straight through the dust that was only just starting to settle, Ann ran towards her brother's door and threw it open, only to find it was equally as dusty as the hallway, as the wall that separated their bedrooms had collapsed into his.
"Bart? Bart!" she coughed, making her way through the room by memory only and stumbling over several things that had been tossed around by whatever had torn its way through their house.

"Bart?" Ann questioned again as she reached his bed, confused as it appeared to be vacant, from where she was standing. She shuffled around in the sheets, looking for his body, but she came up empty, only holding his pillow. "He's not here," she said with shocked surprise, "He's not here!
Disconcerted she hugged the pillow to her chest and looked at the doorway, where she found the doctor looking at her with a concerned expression.

"I don't understand," she said to him, "Where is my brother? He should be here, but he isn't, what happened?"
Carefully, the doctor approached her, not quite sure how to handle the emotions of the upset girl, "I don't know, but we'll find him, Ann Marie Banning, I promise."
"But he's gone, he shouldn't be gone!" she panicked, looking at him distractedly, "He should be here, he's always here! What if that creature got to him?"

"It hasn't," the doctor said, as he gently put a hand on the pillow Ann held cradled close. She looked up at him with wide eyes, frowning as he smiled, "The pillow is cold. He hasn't been here for a while now."

Ann looked down at the pillow and back up to the doctor – twice – before her mouth went slack and she threw the pillow on the bed angrily. "That idiot!" she raged, taking the doctor by surprise, "I basically just had a bloody heart-attack because of him and, hell, I've just been attacked by a giant cat-thing and he wasn't even here?"
Fuming, she stormed out of the room.

"Er, where are you going?" the doctor said curiously, as he peeked out of the room, holding himself by the frame. She turned around on her first step down the stairs.
"To the cellar," she replied, with her hands on her hips, "He's probably playing with his chemicals with his headphones on again. Our bloody house is torn to shreds and he hasn't even noticed."

With that, she thundered down the stairs, her naked feet slapping against the floor, leaving the doctor to follow in her wake.

"Bart!" she yelled, throwing open the door to the cellar, "Bart, get those blasted things out of your ears and get up here, something blew up half the upper floor, I think– not sure… Bart?"
Her voice faltered, insecurity sneaking back into her voice and posture.

Her breathing was irregular, as she arrived at the bottom of the stairs and found – once again – nothing, except for an incredible mess.

"These aren't chemicals," the Doctor noted, brushing past her and crouching in front of a heap of what seemed like metal and wires. His long fingers were quick to dissect several parts from the heap and from his pocket he pulled, again, the glowing probe and pointed it at the devices in his hand.

"Definitely not chemicals," he repeated, with a thoughtful frown on his face, as he raced through the possibilities in his head, running his fingers through his hair before he put the devices back and made his way to the desk in the corner, where the light of a computer screen lit up his face. It threw pointy shadows over his face and along his jaw, which was set determinedly.

Ann, meanwhile, had taken a deep breath to calm herself- though she still wasn't quite sure whether she was dreaming or not –and approached the doctor.
"What's that?" she said, pointing at the device. She had to start somewhere, after all, and out of all the questions that had piled up inside her head, that was the easiest one. She hoped.

"Sonic screwdriver," the doctor mumbled distractedly, "And this," he said, holding up a wired plate, "Is alien technology. Way too advanced for your time, judging by the state this planet's in."

"Again with the aliens," Ann said slowly, staring at the screen, which was now displaying things that she wouldn't even want to understand, "Last time I checked, we had crop circles and sci-fi stories, not gigantic cats. We know nothing about our own galaxy, let alone other ones."

"Doesn't mean they don't find you every once in a while," the doctor replied brightly, smiling up at the clever girl, glad that she wasn't denying the fact that it was alien technology. He liked it when they were open minded.

"Right, so, my brother's been abducted then? Brilliant."

The doctor sighed, rubbing at his face. So much for the cleverness. "No," he said, "He's the one that abducted one of them, as far as I can tell."
He turned around, suddenly very serious, displaying once more an incredible talent towards mood-swings, "so tell me, Ann Marie, what is it your brother does, exactly?"

Taken off guard, and a tiny bit frightened, Ann answered; "He's a lab-assistant?"
Surrounded by all this technological alien crap and the strange man in front of her, she wasn't quite sure of anything anymore, so the statement came out more like a question and the doctor turned around in frustration.
"A lab-assistant, with an incredible amount of alien technology in his cellar and a techline hidden in his little sister's bedroom. Personally, I don't find the chances of that being true very high."

He jumped towards her, so they were standing almost nose to nose again, "Are you lying to me?"
"No!" she cried, defensively and more frightened then before by the man in front of her, "I don't lie."

"Everyone lies," the doctor muttered, turning around again, looking at the computer again.
Gaping at his back, Ann could barely contain her tears, a common reaction, when clueless humans were faced with the fact, but instead of crying, she stomped her foot, having had quite enough of this.
"I wouldn't lie!" she shouted at his back, "Not about this. Not when my brother's gone missing, not when my room has been torn to shreds, my basement's full of strange stuff and a man I don't know breaks into my house and claims it's all aliens and stuff while I'm in my jimjams. I'm not lying, I haven't lied to you and I don't plan on doing so any time soon. Now stop doing that!"
The doctor had been pointing the sonic screwdriver at a partially built robotic skeleton, but he switched it off as she ranted, watching as tears welled up in the eyes of the young girl, still dressed in only her green kitty shirt.

"Right now–" she stammered, "right now you're the only thing that seems to know what this is, whatever it is, even though you don't make the slightest bit of sense either! And I wouldn't lie to you, okay? I just want to know where my brother is."

"Okay," the doctor said, approaching her again, with a kinder expression. He looked concerned now, the emotion spreading on his face as quickly and intensely as the others had and he gently took hold of her shoulders, giving her a little comforting shake. This, of all things, comforted her more than the playful joy, or the concentrated focus or even the determination to find out what was going on, for it meant he cared.

With a soft smile, he held his hand up and said, "Ann Marie Banning, I'm the doctor and I promise you we'll find your brother and make this all better, all right?"

She hesitated for the barest of moments, before her hand slipped into his and smiles spread over both their faces as she nodded.

"Right then, Ann Marie, let's go!" he said, suddenly full of joy again, as he tugged her along, back up the stairs at a quick pace.
"Where are we going?" his young companion managed to ask, barely keeping up with him, but openly curious.

"To the TARDIS of course!"

to be continued