Hours later, the Doctor was sat quietly in the front row, staring intently at the screen ahead of him. Draped over the seat next to him was his coat, staring back up at him in its greyscale state.
"They don't need to colour." The Doctor murmured to himself. The Unseen had made that clear enough, now he just had to work out what it was they did need. He gave a quick glance to the humans behind him. The vast range of reactions really was fascinating. Some were annoyed and angry that they were being kept here, but the occasional banging from the screen door was enough to keep them inside. Others were just scared, particularly the people who had been affected by the Unseen. The Doctor had told him that they were safe, but he could say why they would have doubts. It was true though, as far as he could tell they were fine, medically. The fact that the unseen were draining colour from inanimate objects too meant that it wasn't anything biological they were taking. All in all, he thought, compared to some humans he had encountered, they were taking it all pretty well.
It was the reaction of some of the others that the Doctor found truly amazing. The thought that this was all a stunt by the cinema, a way of promoting an upcoming film. Brilliant, the Doctor thought to himself. Faced with an invisible alien race, and the human imagination turns it in to a nice little publicity stunt. It really was amazing how the human mind worked sometimes, making up completely illogical explanations and pretending they made perfect sense.
"Back to the Future." Came a familiar voice from next to him. The Doctor looked around, to see that Terry sat down.
"I'm sorry?" He asked, puzzled.
"The film." Terry smiled. "It's what I always watch when I just need to relax, some time to think."
"Oh, right." The Doctor grinned. It must have been rather obvious that he too was clueless as to what was going on here. "That was based on me you know."
"Yeah, right." Terry laughed, only to be met by a serious, and rather hurt, look from the Doctor.
"It was!" He said indignantly. "Mad old genius with an anachronistic time machine? Where else would they get the idea from?"
"So," Terry shook his head, laughing, "you have a time machine? A Delorean?"
"Of course not!" The Doctor replied quickly. "They changed that bit. Made it more exciting, they said. What's not exciting about a Police Box?" He threw his arms up in front of him. "And it doesn't have to get to eighty eight miles an hour. Stupid idea that. I mean, what does speed have to do with travelling through the time vortex? I did try to tell them!"
"Right." Terry laughed. "So you are Doc Brown?" The Doctor raised his eyebrows.
"Doctor Smith, Doc Brown." He replied, shrugging his shoulders.
"Ah, but your not old." Terry said, convinced he had found the hole in the Doctors story.
"Well, no." The Time Lord replied. "Not any more I'm not, no."
"You really are mad." Terry replied. "Or just watch too many films."
"Maybe you don't watch enough." The Doctor winked, a smile on his face. Then, a sudden realisation hit him. "Because, if you did," he paused, "you might have noticed that the knocking had stopped."
Terry looked over to the door. The Doctor was right, the Unseen were no longer banging on it. He had no idea of when it had stopped and, looking around at the rest of the crowd, the majority asleep, he suspected no one else did either.
"Why would they just give up?" The Doctor pondered, jumping from his seat and handing his coat to Terry.
"Maybe they got bored?" The young man replied with a shrug. "We have been here for hours after all. It must be getting light by now."
"Hmm." The Doctor wondered, pacing up the narrow aisle between the rows of seats. It's not like mysterious alien races to just give-" He stopped suddenly. "What did you say?"
"It must be getting light?"
"Of course!" The Doctor exclaimed, grabbing his Sonic Screwdriver from the pocket of his brown suit. "They don't need the colour! Everything turning black and white is just a side effect!" He held the Screwdriver to the door with a sharp buzz.
"A side effect of what?" Terry questioned.
"Well, seeing as they wouldn't leave until it started to get light," The Doctor said quickly, rushing down the corridor with Terry following close behind. "I assume they need light for something. That would explain why they were here! Masses amounts of light at that time of night? Where else?" He slapped himself on the forehead, looking behind him to see that the crowd of people had started to leave the screen too.. "Stupid, stupid Doctor! They don't need the colour, they need to reflect the light away! That must be how they keep themselves invisible! They steal the reflective properties of an object, or person," he looked back at the affected customers, "and use it to bend light around themselves! Brilliant!"
"Brilliant?" The large balding man from earlier shouted, gesturing at the greyscale girl stood next to him. "Tell that to them!" The Doctor smiled slightly, at least there was some sort of comradery building up.
"What I mean is," he said softly, "is that scientifically, it is brilliant. But that doesn't make it right. I'm going to find them and stop them. And then reverse what they have done." His voice was loud, but calm and was met with no answer from the small crowd.
"Terry," the Doctor stepped towards the lobby, where he could see the door had been flung wide open. "They are out there, which means this," he gestured to the grey carpet, "is happening outside too. I need you to stay here, and to keep everyone else here too." He looked the young man straight in the eyes. "It's still early, they may not have affected anyone else, seeing them would cause panic. And I might need them in one place to reverse it."
"Yes Doctor." Terry nodded. "I'll make sure they stay here."
"Good lad." The Doctor smiled. Although, he had heard that many times before. As he strode in to the lobby, the Doctor just hoped Terry wasn't the type to wander off.
**
The Doctor stood at the open door of the cinema, looking down at the concrete floor outside, part of which seemed a much duller grey than the rest. Maybe it would be easier to track them than he thought. The Doctor looked up to the sky. It was light, but not too light. Probably about five or six in the morning, he thought. Good, it wouldn't be too busy. All he needed was crowds of humans panicking because everything was a little bit grey. Saying that, however, he knew he didn't have much time. People would soon start to be leaving for work, and London wasn't known for being the quietest of places.
Sonic Screwdriver at the ready, he stepped outside, scanning in an arch in front of his body. No luck. Instead, he followed the trail of grey,which lead round a corner to the left. Good old detective work! Just follow the trail and end up at the big ol' invisible base!
"Or not." He said to himself as he turned the corner. Ahead of him, the whole street had been drained. The street, shop signs, plants, benches, all were the same shades of grey.
Adjusting some settings on the Sonic Screwdriver, the Doctor started in to a run, waving the device around him as he went, searching for a signal. If anyone had asked why he was doing it, he wasn't sure he would have an answer. As yet, he had no idea what the Unseen even wanted. No one had died or been harmed, apart from losing their colour, of course. It was possible that they had crash-landed and just needed the energy to get home. Or, knowing his luck, they were planning something bigger. Either way the Doctor wasn't going to take that chance. Why was it all of those 'superior' races thought they could just pick on Earth? The Slitheen, the Sontarans, the Krillitain. All picking on a race they saw as smaller than themselves. The school bullies picking on the smaller kids. And, the Doctor supposed, that made him the teacher. Or did that sound too pompous? Probably, but if he couldn't be pompous after nine hundred plus years of travelling, then who could?
His thoughts were quickly interrupted by a buzz from the Sonic Screwdriver. The Doctor quickly turned, running to the right, listening intently as the signal started to get stronger. He suddenly shivered slightly, part of him wishing that he had bought his coat with him. But, on the other hand, grey with this suit? Not even he could pull that off, and he had pulled off decorative celery.
The intensity of the bleeping from the Sonic Screwdriver continued to increase as the Doctor sprinted as fast as he could, his concentration set on the pitch and tone of the device in his hand. Each little signal meant something to him, a tiny little language only he could understand. He'd forgotten exactly when he had gained this level of understanding of the silly little buzzes and hums the device made, not that it really mattered.
"Got you!" The Doctor exclaimed as his trusty Screwdriver changed tone yet again. As far as he could tell, a lone Unseen was just ahead of him now, apparently aware he was being chased, judging by his speed. Well, the Doctor assumed it was a he, anyway. For all he knew these Unseen might not even have a gender. Or they might even be a race he had met before, disguising themselves. Slitheen, maybe? They had a habit of dressing up after all. Mind you, they enjoyed the thrill of the chase too much. Always the hunter, never the hunted. Regardless of what they were, the Doctor knew he was going to find out. And he was going to find out soon.
His trainers thudded methodically on the pavement as the Doctor sped onwards, sweeping around the corner, his suit jacket blowing after him. It didn't have the same effect as his coat, he thought, but that wasn't important right now. He had no idea about the physiology of these things, about their limits. It was possible that it could keep on running for much longer than he could. Running had its merit, he thought to himself, but wasn't always the best solution. No, times like these needed clever solutions. Less feet, more head! Still running, the Doctor fiddled frantically with the controls on the side of the Screwdriver, searching for the right setting. Or, what he thought should be the right setting based on what he knew about the Unseen. They must have some kind of technology to shield themselves, if he could just disrupt that with a sonic burst…
The Sonic Screwdriver gave a shrill burst, prompting the Doctor to slow down as something became visible in front of him, a rough shimmering outline, not too unlike the figure of a human, but taller. It fell, as if tripping over a slab of concrete, the creature became fully visible. Not that it made much difference.
The Doctor walked forward slowly, looking over the apparently unconscious creature. Its form was indeed similar to that of a human, two arms, two legs, but all were much longer. The head too, was elongated, but had hardly any features. No eyes, no nose and just a small slit of a mouth. Its face, and whole body was pure white, the only distinguishing feature being a silver bracelet on its left wrist. Looking at the ground next to it, it appeared that it was one of a pair, the right one laying on the ground. The impact of the fall, the Doctor assumed, must have knocked it off. Cautiously, the Doctor bent down towards the small object, placing the Sonic Screwdriver in to his suit pocket. He held the silver bracelet in his hand, looking it over intently.
"Put it down." The Unseen spoke suddenly, bolting upright.
"Hello!" The Doctor said, keeping calm even though he had assumed the Unseen was unconscious. Mind you, with no eyes, how could he even tell?
"Return the Reflection Bracelet to me."
"Well," The Doctor replied, getting to his feet. "I could, but surely this is the bit where you tell me your little plan for world domination? Wouldn't that be more fun? So go on then," He beamed, "why do you want to make the whole planet look like something out of the 1950's?"
"That is just a side effect." The Unseen replied.
"I thought as much." The Doctor said, looking around him. "But now, tell me why you are here. I mean, I'd like to think it was all as simple as you being some evil race wanting to destroy the planet, but I'm willing to accept it might not be that simple. You know," he said with a large grin on his face, shades of grey and all that." The Doctor wasn't sure what reaction he was hoping to get, so the nothing he received wasn't really a shock.
The Unseen suddenly turned away from the Doctor.
"Humans are coming." It stated. "Protocol states we must not be seen by humans."
"Eh, come on!" The Doctor retorted. "They're not all that bad! Bit panicky at times," he paused, watching the unseen carefully as it reached for its one remaining bracelet. "Wait, no!" The Doctor shouted as the creature pressed a button with a long spindly finger and promptly vanished. "No!" The Doctor shouted with frustration. His fingers ran over the bracelet he was still holding in his hand. "One Reflector, one emergency teleport." He murmured. "Which means they must still have a ship in range."
He looked at the bracelet again, knowing it was his only real option. He had charged in head first in the past, and it had never ended well. People got hurt, and people died. So far there had been no casualties, and the Doctor was determined to keep it that way. Even if it meant doing something he didn't want to do.
He looked in the direction that the Unseen was heading, obvious due to the brightly coloured shop signs and plants, in contrast to the black and white of where he stood, mere feet away. Sighing, he rolled up the sleeve of his jacket slightly and snapped the bracelet on to his wrist.