Chapter III - The Doctor Who parade arrives
A/N: Sorry for the delay, but things happened and I had to stop writing for nearly two months. I'm back now, and I plan to resume posting chapters for this and TEatD every other week.
Previously:
"It's a street carnival block formed by all your fans, Doctor! They will LOVE to meet you!" she explained.
The Doctor froze, his face blanched, scared...
"No way, you can't!" The Doctor turned to face Paula, looking serious. "You can't tell anyone. It's really important that no one knows I'm here."
"Why not? Oh, I think I get it. It's a secret, right?"
"If they even suspect he might be the true Doctor," explained Philip, "they won't leave us alone, and we won't be able to find the Helemer. Besides, if there's anything that scares the mighty Lord of Time it's a crowd of fans," he added, looking sideways at the closed face of the alien sitting at their table.
"Helemer?" asked Mario, having finally recovered his breath. "Is that who you're looking for? What do they want? To conquer the Earth? Are we being invaded by aliens?"
"No, I believe there's just one or two of them," explained the Doctor. "We've received the distress signal. Their ship has apparently broken down, so they came on a shuttle and landed nearby. We're looking for them, we can help fix their ship."
"And what are they doing here in Copacabana?" asked Mario.
"Why not here? Does it make any difference where they landed?"
"Well, Doctor," guessed Paula, "I believe extraterrestrial beings would normally land in London, or nearby."
"Your 'Doctor Who' series is produced by the BBC, right?" Philip mused. "That'd be enough to explain why most episodes would happen there. It'd be easier, cheaper and more familiar to the audience."
"Yes, that's right," said Mario.
"However, since I began travelling with the Doctor we've been mostly to London, Cardiff and other places around Great Britain. We've also gone to the United States, Brazil and a few other places, but he, or the TARDIS, seem to really like it there."
"Anyway!" the Doctor cut in, "The Helemer landed around here, I've followed their shuttle's signal, and they're close. But we need to find the pilot."
"What do they look like, Doctor?" asked Mario, deciding it was better to just go with it for the moment and leave the freaking out part for later.
"Well, they're bipeds, very large, covered in dark brown, grey or violet fur, and... I believe they'd look very monstrous for you."
"Like Chewbacca?" asked Paula, eyes shining.
"Chewbacca who?" asked Philip.
"I believe she's referring to the 'Star Wars' films, right, little lady?" She smiled and nodded to the Doctor in response. "Philip, don't forget to download the films to our library, I'd like to check if they're the same here. But, answering your question, the Helemer are much more frightening than Wookiees."
"If that's so, unless they're hiding, I very much doubt they could be around," surmised Mario.
"Dad, you're forgetting they could be using perception filters," said Paula. "Like those cacti people from that episode."
"Cacti people? The Vinvocci, you say? What happened? Philip?" asked the Doctor, looking at the girl. Philip shrugged, while Mario winced.
"Paula, shush! Spoilers!" he warned, and Paula flushed, embarrassed. "We don't know where he is on his timeline. Sorry, Doctor." The Doctor frowned, staring at them. "However, she's right. If the perception filters exist, they could be here and no one would be the wiser."
"They exist," said the Doctor, "and the Helemer have access to them, but they have limits. They can't disguise their size, for example. But no one would see anything strange or look at them twice. No one except me, of course," he added, raising his chin.
"It's Carnival here, though," butted in Philip. "Even without perception filters, they might pass as humans dressed with very good costumes."
"Are they dangerous?" asked Mario, suddenly worried. He had to raise his voice, because the noise of the approaching street party was making it harder to keep up the conversation.
"Don't worry, they wouldn't hurt anyone! Well, unless they felt threatened, then they could be very deadly," said the Doctor, thumbing his ear.
"How are we going to find them?" asked Mario, always practical.
"I'll know if I see them," said the Doctor, "But we need to get close. It's getting too crowded around here. I've followed their trail up to this part of the beachfront, they must be around." He took out a strange contraption which looked way too big to fit in his pocket. Mario goggled at the thingamajig, which looked as a cross between an electrical drill and an egg beater upside down. Those bigger-on-the-inside pockets had always seemed a very convenient invention from the writers of the TV series and he was amazed that they seemed to be real after all.
"Does this thing tell us where they are?" he asked, doubtful.
"Yep!" replied the Doctor. Then he frowned. "Well, more or less. It tells the approximate distance and, sometimes, if we're lucky, the direction as well."
"It doesn't sound very impressive," Mario commented.
"Oi!" the Doctor protested, offended. "You should try assembling a pheromone tracer using only spare parts and broken kitchen appliances, under half an hour! Not to mention everything depends on the wind."
"That thing is around a thousand times more sensitive than the sense of smell of a hunting dog," Philip intervened. "It's the second time he assembles something like that. That's the best way to find a Helemer, according to him. It's rather unfortunate that we didn't keep the first one."
"I needed the parts!" complained the Doctor. "How was I supposed to know we'd have to find another Helemer, and on Earth, of all places?"
At this moment the carnival parade arrived in front of their restaurant, and the Doctor, suddenly remembering he didn't want to be recognized, tried to hide behind a copy of the restaurant's menu.
"Doctor," Paula said sympathetically, "we're far enough from the street. I don't think they'll bother to look at you here."
"Why don't you put up a perception filter as well, Doctor?" asked Mario.
"Eh, well," the Doctor flushed with embarrassment. He hadn't thought about it. "The filter only serves to hide what you don't expect to see, but if I understood correctly my character in this TV series looks very similar to me, which is very surprising..." He gazed in the distance, distracted for a moment, until the booming of the drums startled him again. "Well, with this racket hopefully they won't notice me here. At least there's that," he said, picking up a little gadget from his pocket and the sonic screwdriver with his other hand.
He was about to use the sonic on the gadget when Paula yelled, "The sonic screwdriver! That's so cool! I have one as well!"
"Do you?" asked the Doctor, surprised. "How did you get one?"
"It's just a toy, Doctor," said Mario, taking it from his own pocket and showing it to the Time Lord. "It has a small light and makes a noise." He demonstrated it. The plastic toy showed a slight resemblance to the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, but his was clearly not a toy.
"Oh, right," the Doctor mumbled, distracted, turning back to his gadget and turning on the sonic. Its noise was softer than the toy's, but it sounded differently, and everyone around the table could hear it, even against the samba rhythm of the passing carnival group. "Ready!" he said, pinning the thing to his lapel.
"Is that a perception filter?" asked Paula. "What happened to the TARDIS key?"
The Doctor glanced at her but didn't answer. He turned worriedly towards the parade and stared at it. Many of the revelers were dressed in costumes, and he thought he could recognize some of them. There were some with a distance resemblance to various aliens he had met in his long life. He felt relieved he could barely recognize most of them. That TV series probably wasn't very close to his reality, after all. His companions watched as his face relaxed, losing its frown, and he watched the alien group, grinning amusedly. Then he frowned again as he saw the following group, characterized as the Doctor's various incarnations, as well as some of his most popular companions. Some of the costumes were very good, including those of two revelers with brown curly hair and long coloured scarves, as well as one dressed almost exactly as the Doctor sitting with them on the table, and another with a vegetable affixed to his lapel.
Mario guessed what the Doctor was thinking and commented, "Yes Doctor, they're cosplaying you! Some of your previous incarnations as well."
But they all noticed when other revelers came, wearing red fezzes and bowties, with sonic screwdriver toys buzzing on their hands, and the Doctor began looking between them and Mario, who was using the same accessories. Philip, who had already bumped into the Eleventh Doctor before, without his Doctor knowing, and had recognized Mario's costume, decided to intervene to prevent a disaster. "Doctor, it's-"
"I get it," the Doctor interrupted, "that's supposed to look like next me, according to your TV series, right? But, really, bowties? And fezzes? You can't be serious!"
"Bowties are cool!" said Paula, "And you're funny!"
Philip watched the Doctor worriedly, but the shadow that had crossed his face seemed to have left. The Doctor was grinning, looking happy, and began talking nonstop again, commenting on the costumes. But he knew the Time Lord enough to recognize it was just a mask. The Doctor was very worried about something.
