Braxiatel smirked as he drove the TARDIS. This time, he was going to be the one taking them somewhere and this time, he made sure he wasn't driving the TARDIS whilst drunk. The TARDIS landed smoothly. Unlike his brother, Braxiatel was a perfectly good pilot of the TARDIS and had actually passed his exams. "There we are. Outside those doors is 2012 Olympics. Awaiting for you with open arms." He looked pleased with himself.
"Still haven't forgiven you for driving the TARDIS whilst drunk," Romana commented, reminding him of the incident with Queen Victoria.
He scowled. "You're not going to let me forget that aren't you?"
"Not really." She smirked and Rose giggled. "Well? Are you going to lead us out?"
Braxiatel rolled his eyes before giving Romana a mock bow. "As my lady commands." He walked to the doors and opened them for Romana and Rose. "Ladies first." He commented.
"Why thank you." Romana smiled before she stepped out of the police box and she sniffed the air. For once, they've got the correct date and time. "It appears we have arrived at the correct date and time for once!"
"You can just tell by sniffing the air?" Rose asked as they began to walk down the road. She looked up. "Or by that sign.." She indicated towards a banner that was advertising the 2012 Olympics.
"We're Time-Lord's Rose," Romana told her. "It's in our guts to know time."
"Ah, the 30th Olympia!" Braxiatel exhaled. "I remember the 100th Olympia. I got on very well with the President of France then."
Rose laughed, looking delighted and linked her arms through Braxiatel who stiffened slightly at her movement. "No way! Why didn't I think of that! Ha!"
"Didn't your brother go back to Wembley 1948, twice?" Romana asked before she spotted a missing poster that was stuck on a lamp post. Braxiatel and Rose oblivious to her and carried on walking down the street.
"Unfortunately yes. You knew what my brother was like, always liked to cause trouble even if it meant being two places at once." Braxiatel drawled.
"Braxiatel." Romana ordered and Braxiatel and Rose stopped in their tracks to find Romana looking at the missing poster, her eyebrows furrowing. "Haven't you noticed it's gone a bit...cold?" She asked as she glanced at him walking over.
Braxiatel looked at the missing poster before looking at Romana. Now she had mentioned it, it had gone extremely cold. He was pretty much used to the cold, especially back at Henry Van Statten's when that bastard locked him up in a freezer chamber for a week. Testing to see how long he could survive there without dying amongst countless other things he has done.
What else did that bastard do to you? He heard Romana ask him telepathically.
Too many things. But in a way, I suppose I deserve it for my sins. He replied and he knew that he did. He had committed many sins and whilst he was captured by Henry Van Statten, he wondered if that was the price he had to pay for them. Everything came with a price.
Don't you ever think that Braxiatel! Nobody deserves that. Not even you. He heard Romana say and he closed his eyes, listening to her gentle voice to pull him away from his thoughts.
"It says that they all went missing this week. Why would a person do something like this?" Rose asked, shaking her head.
"Person? What makes you think it's a person?" Romana considered her before shivering slightly and she pulled her blue jumper closer to her chest.
Rose turned at the sound of a door opening and she spotted a woman who dumped a recycling sack on the pavement outside her house before she hurried back inside as though not wanting to stay out longer than necessary whilst casting furtive looks around her all the while. "Whatever it is, it's got the whole street scared to death. Braxiatel, what-?" She turned around only to find Braxiatel and Romana on the other end of the road.
Romana was crouching in someone's front garden by the mini football goal. She held out her hand in front of herself and she felt something prickle against her skin. Braxiatel copied her movements, his hands hovering above what appeared to be an ordinary area of grass. "Ticklish." He commented as he looked at his palm.
As Rose hurried along the road, a car judders to a halt as the engine gives up the ghost. She stopped to watch when she spotted a council worker props his broom against his white van before he approached the car. He shook his head. "There you go. Fifth today. Not natural is it?" He had never seen anything like it. Five cars breaking down in the exact same spot. Five cars breaking down in one day and he had to push the cars from behind without getting a single thank you from either one of them. He wondered what was causing all these cars to break down but he knew he was not going to get an answer.
The driver frowned. "I dunno what happened, I had it serviced less than a month ago."
"Nah, don't even try and explain it mate. All the cars are doing it. And do you know what? It's bonkers. Bonkers." The council worker commented as the driver got out of his car. "Come on then, pal. I'll help you shift it. Quicker you're on your way, happier you'll be." He pushed the car from behind, straining whilst the driver pushed from the driver's side. He couldn't wait to get home and relax and watch the Olympic's on television. His bones were aching and it wasn't just by pushing five cars all day.
"Do you want a hand?" Rose asked, watching them.
The council worker shook his head. "No, we're all right, love."
Rose grinned, seeing him struggle. "No, you're not. I'm tougher than I look, honest." She positioned herself behind the car and gestured for him to move over. He moved over and Rose helped him to push the car. Suddenly, the engine sprang to life causing the council worker to fall over. He scowled before standing, brushing himself down. "Does this happen a lot?"
"Cheers, mate!" The driver called before driving off.
The council worker looked disgruntled. "Been doing it all week." And it was true. It wasn't just today, it had happened every single day he has been working on the street. The most cars he had break down were ten cars and that was two days ago.
"Since those children started going missing?"
"Yeah, I s'pose so." He replied, shrugging.
Back in the garden, Romana had her sonic out and was sonicing the space Braxiatel had his hand over. "The child must have vanished from here." She observed, not noticing the child's dad appearing behind them, hands in his pockets.
"What's your game?" He asked before both Time-Lord's spun around.
Romana got out her physic paper. "My name is Romana, Scientific adviser for UNIT with my assistant, Irving Braxiatel. UNIT sent us to investigate the missing children." She flashed him her physic paper as did Braxiatel before putting them away. "Sent by Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart himself whilst under Geneva Convention." They felt themselves walking backwards as the man looked angry with them. "We are under business management with UNIT. The unexplained. We are here to help you find your children."
"UNIT?" The man scoffed. "Help? We've had plenty of coppers poking around here, and you don't look like coppers!"
"We're not coppers! We're UNIT! Unified Intelligence Taskforce!" Romana snapped as Rose joined them. "Here to deal with the unknown, the unexplained!"
A woman walked up to them, looking concerned. "What are you going to do?"
An old woman joined them, casting them uneasy looks. "The police have knocked on every door, no clues, no leads, nothing."
"Look, kids run off sometimes, all right? That's what they do-" The man told them.
"Dale Hixon in your garden, playing with your Tommy, and then...!" She mimicked something disappearing. "Right in front of me, like he was never there! There's no need to look any further than this street. It's right here amongst us."
"I think-" Braxiatel began but he was interrupted by another neighbour who had joined them in the middle of the road.
"Why don't we start with him?" The woman pointed at the council worker. "There's been all sorts like him in this street, day and night!"
The man looked at her indignantly. "Fixing things up for the Olympics!"
"Yeah, and taking an awful long time about it." Tommy's dad glared at him.
"For Rassilon's sake, you all need to-" Romana spoke, getting irritated. Humans! Jumping to unnecessary conclusions and behaving like children!
"You don't! What you just said, that's slander!" The council worker spoke out.
"I don't care what it is!"
"I think we need to-" Braxiatel began but was once again cut off.
"I want an apology off her!" The council worker pointed at the neighbour who glared at him.
"Stop picking on him!" The old woman cried.
"Yeah, stop picking on me!"
"And stop pretending to be blind! It's evil!"
Romana had enough of their bickering. She felt her temper flare and she angrily glared at the humans. "Fingers on lips!" She shouted furiously, causing everyone to be silent as she put her own fingers on her lips. If they were going to behave like children, she was going to treat them like children. She glared around at them all as though daring them not to do the same. The council worker had all ready obeyed, seeing her eyes flash dangerously before Tom's dad put his fingers on his lips. One by one, they all obeyed apart from Braxiatel and Romana glared at him. Braxiatel reluctantly puts his finger on his lips, sulking. "Thank you. We are offering you help to find your missing children yet you are refusing our help. If I were you people, it would be wise to accept it since you so desperately need it." Romana spoke, removing her finger. "In the last six days, three of your children have been snatched out of thin air. Vanished into the unknown. Am I right?"
The old woman gestured to ask permission to take her finger off her lips. "Er...can I...?" Romana nodded. "Look around you...this was a safe street 'till it came. It's not a person. I'll say it if no one else will. Maybe you've come from some government organisation, maybe your not. I don't care who you are. Can you help us please?"
Rose glanced up to a window where she saw a young girl peering out of it before one of the mother's headed back inside the house to her daughter.
"Yes." Romana gave the old woman her reply, looking at her sincerely. "We will help."
A little while later, after everyone had gone back inside, Romana and Braxiatel were back on the lawn, back to the same spot where Tom had disappeared. Braxiatel sniffed around the front lawn as Romana got her sonic out and examined the air in front of her. "It's like the child's been erased." Romana commented. "But yet, still there."
"Want a hanky?" Rose asked Braxiatel who was still sniffing.
"Can you smell it?" He asked, not caring who answered.
"Sort of..metal?" Rose asked, wrinkling her nose just as Romana stood up.
"Metal with a hint of charcoal. Come on." He gathered his robes before jumping over the small wire in the garden before he lead them into a narrow alleyway.
"Apparently Danny Edwards cycled in one end but never came out of the other." Romana explained before she paused, her hand out. "There it is again. This must be where he must have vanished. Same with Tom."
Braxiatel held out his hand before sniffing. "There's the smell again. It's almost as if they've been rubbed out of existence."
Romana nodded. "The residual energy in the place where the children have vanished. I've seen something like this before, a long time ago. Whatever creature is doing this, it's using up a lot of power." And she had seen something like this. A very long time ago with the Doctor.
Chloe, a young girl sat watching a ginger cat on her front lawn through her bedroom window and heard it meowing and she had the sudden urge to draw. She was a brilliant artist and she loved drawing more than anything. Her bedroom wall was covered with drawings and her wardrobe held a hidden secret...a secret that she had kept from her mother. She knew her mother would be horrified if she found out who she had drawn.
She began to collect her drawing equipment and her mother, Trish, walked in and stood in the doorway, watching her daughter draw unnaturally fast. "You have to come down some time, Chloe." She told her daughter. She was concerned for her daughter and Trish had an uneasy feeling that she had something to do with the missing children yet she didn't want to believe it. She ignored all the drawings of the children on Chloe's bedroom wall, ignored them all staring at her as though pleading for help as she looked at her daughter.
"I'm busy, mum." Chloe merely replied as she drew.
Trish managed enough courage to look at the drawings on the walls before looking away again. "Look at it in here...you've must've used up half a rainforest." She walked over and picked up the half finished drawing and Trish recognized who the kid was meant to be. It looked exactly like Dale, the kid who lived across the road. "That's Dale. Why did you draw him so sad?" He looked so sad in the picture.
"I didn't draw him like that." Chloe replied and she held her hand for the picture. "Dale made himself sad. So I'm gonna draw him a friend." She hurriedly continued to draw the cat. She had to finish the cat. She didn't want Dale to be lonely, not as lonely as she was anyway. "That's what he needs. More friends."
Trish watched her daughter carefully, her brow furrowed. She hated this. She hated to see how unhappy her daughter was and it made her feel like a failure as a mother. She was meant to make her daughter happy. She was meant to be there for her but how could she when she didn't know what the problem was? She knew Chloe got bullied at school. She knew Chloe had little friends and Trish had tried. She had tried nearly everything to help Chloe. She had gone through School councilers, summer clubs, after school clubs, she had even suggested an art club for Chloe but none of them had worked out. "Have you seen the T.V?" She asked, wanting to change the subject and she tapped a button on the laptop where it brought up the news and it showed the Olympics. "Look, this'll cheer you up. The Torch is gonna be close." She sat on Chloe's bed. "They'll pass right by our street. And tonight they'll light the Olympic Flame in the Stadium and the whole world will be looking at our city." Chloe didn't look up. "I mean, doesn't that make you feel part of something?" Still no reply and this worried Trish. "Sweetheart? Chloe?"
"I'm busy, mum."
"Okay." Trish reluctantly replied, giving in. She watched her daughter for a few more seconds, watching her draw the ginger cat before she stood up. "You're tired, Chloe. I heard you calling out again, last night."
"It's fine." But it wasn't fine. Her mother was right. She awoke screaming her head off and covered in sweat. Her nightmares about him. About the man she drew in the cupboard.
"Nightmares?"
"I'm drawing!" Chloe snapped, getting irritated as she knew her mother was right.
"Whatever they are...they're just dreams you do know that? They won't hurt you." Trish told her, trying to console her daughter.
"I'm busy. Unless you want me to draw you..." She stopped drawing and looked at her mother darkly, giving her a warning. "...mum."
Trish looked at Chloe helplessly. "If you wanna stay cooped up in here, fine. I'll leave you to it." Ignoring the helpless looks of the children in Chloe's drawings, she left the bedroom just as Chloe had finished colouring in the ginger cat.