The Doctor paced. The world around him was as normal as it had ever been. The sun was shining high in the sky, the people walked about their day, the grass and leaves were green. It was a typical summer's day. Yet, the Doctor paced, his mind turning faster than it ever had. His companions, Amy and Rory stood there, staring at him, begging him with their minds to think of something. It had been merely seconds since the TARDIS had taken off without them.

"Doctor," Amy said finally, fearing to disturb him. "Why did the TARDIS disappear like that?"

The Doctor stopped and looked at her. The look he gave her was almost an insult to Amy. It was the look a human gives a monkey, as if the person being looked at is a being of vastly inferior intelligence. The Doctor hadn't meant to give this look, but he couldn't help it, everything inside his head was like chaos.

"It was scared," he began. "Don't you get it? The TARDIS was scared. Whatever is happening, whatever is about to happen, it scared her so badly that she didn't care anymore that we weren't aboard, she just had to escape. It's never happened before, no matter what, she has never run away from me. The only time she's ever ran from anything is when Jack was holding onto the outside."

"What does that mean?" Amy asked. "And who's Jack?"

"It means we're on our own. Whatever is happening, we're blind. All the power of the TARDIS is gone," the Doctor said, before he stopped and looked up and down Amy, remembering how flirtatious she can be. "And Jack is someone who you should never meet. It would be a disaster."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Amy asked, a little affronted.

"Doctor," Rory interjected. "What is going on?"

"I don't know," the Doctor said, returning to pacing.

"How is the world going to end?" Rory asked.

"I don't know," the Doctor repeated.

"What do we do now?" Rory asked, getting desperate.

"I don't know!" The Doctor shouted, stepping up to Rory and pushing his face up close to his.

Rory didn't ask any more questions, he merely swallowed and lightly nodded. The Doctor stepped away and returned to pacing. Then he stopped, his head shot up and his expression changed to one of revelation.

"Wait, no" the Doctor began.

Amy smiled. She knew that look, she had seen it a hundred times. This was the point where the Doctor had a brilliant idea and ran off to go initiate it. The Doctor turned on his heel and began to walk quickly down the street.

"Where are we going?" Rory asked, feeling he was okay to ask now.

"To get a car," the Doctor said, walking towards a small group of parked cars.

"To go where?" Amy asked, feeling she shouldn't let Rory ask all the questions and risk getting shouted at.

"We need information," the Doctor said, almost sounding cheerful.

The Doctor was cheerful. He was glad that he had come up with a bit of a plan, or, at least, the next step to working out what to do.

"We're going to London, and we need something fast to do it with," the Doctor said over his shoulder. "Wait here."

Amy and Rory stopped on command as the Doctor strode into the middle of the cars. They saw him over the top, he was spinning and twisting round, looking at the various cars in the car-park, deciding which one he wanted to take. Then he stopped, his smile turned into a grin.

"Oh," the Doctor said loudly. "Oh, you beauty."

"What is it, Doctor?"

The Doctor disappeared amongst the crowd of cars. Amy and Rory heard the familiar sound of the sonic screwdriver and then a door unlock. A few seconds later an engine roared into life. The engine sounded like a lion roaring in the jungle, telling all other animals of it's ferocity and power. The engine purred for a few seconds before the car the Doctor was in shot forward, turned sharply and stopped right in front of Amy and Rory. They looked down to the see the Doctor, grinning, whilst sat in a 67 Chevy Impala.

"What is that?" Amy asked, looking surprisingly unimpressed.

"Oi," the Doctor said loudly. "This is a 67 Chevy Impala, one of the greatest cars that's ever been built. Rare to find one in a car park like this, very rare. So, let's go before the owner comes back, shall we?"

Amy sighed before walking round to the passenger seat. Rory, who was more excited about the car, gleefully got into the back. As the car began to move, two men came around the corner. One was shorter with short brown hair, wearing a leather jacket and carrying a pie-box, the other was taller with long hair and a light green jacket. When they saw the car moving away they both ran after.

"Hey, my car!" The shorter one shouted, an American accent thick in his words, as he ran, dropping his pie.

The Doctor smiled as he sped down the roads, expertly handling the car as if he'd driven it all his life. With a sense of urgency powering him forward, he ignored all notions of speed limits and the highway code. He quickly found himself on a motorway, powering past all the traffic on the road. In the car, Rory had his eyes closed in the back seat, fearing for his life. Amy was screaming with enjoyment, loving how fast they were going. She was scared too, but it was too much for her to let that get in the way.

"Do you think you can slow down a bit?" Rory shouted from the back seat.

"No way, we need to get to London quickly. I need to talk to UNIT," the Doctor explained.

"What's UNIT?" Amy asked, turning a little more serious.

"Think of them like the army," the Doctor began, swerving in out of traffic without loss of concentration. "Except, instead of fighting other humans, they fight enemy aliens and other creatures that try to attack people. They're small now, but quite elite. They're probably our best bet to find out what's going on."

"And you're just going to turn up out of the blue?" Rory asked, not seeing the logic.

"They'll be expecting me," the Doctor said, a little smug.

The car sped down the motorway, swerving in and out of cars with ease. The Doctor was slightly frustrated that it was taking so long, he wasn't used to waiting for anything, but he was still glad that he had a plan. After surviving 20 minutes at an impossible speed, Rory had relaxed a little, managing to look out of the window a bit. As he watched, the Doctor sped past two police cars that were amongst the traffic. Rory panicked, knowing that a high speed car chase was the last thing they needed. However, as he watched, the policemen in the car didn't even seem to notice them go past. A split second later they had passed and the police still weren't following.

"Doctor," Rory began slowly. "Can everyone else see us?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes," the Doctor said, swerving around a lorry. "I used the TARDIS key to start the car, tied it directly into the ignition system. That system is tied with every other system in the car. The TARDIS key has a perception filter on it, the same one as the TARDIS itself has. It took a little bit of sonic-ing but I managed to tie the perception filter to the car. I wouldn't normally do it, it's cheating a little, but we're out of options for the time being."

"Do you understand any of that?" Rory asked Amy.

"I think the Doctor made the car invisible," Amy said, amused.

"Not invisible, just..." the Doctor began. "Oh, never mind. Yes, the Doctor made the car invisible."

In the far distance, London began to rise on the horizon. It hadn't taken that long to get there, but they had been travelling faster than most people will do in their entire lives. The Impala was a great car and it handled speed well. London got bigger and bigger as the car sped towards it. Amy and Rory were happy to see it, figuring the Doctor had a plan. The Doctor, however, was in a darker mood. Getting to London just reminded him that he still had no idea what was going on or what to do next. He just hoped that those at UNIT had more information than he did.

The traffic going in and out of London was more congested than any of the three could've imagine. Amy and Rory had never seen traffic like it. They had seen worlds of insurmountable beauty, they had seen the war scars of battles long since fought, they had seen terrors that would make any normal person cry. Yet never, in their life, had they seen the intense gridlock in and around London. The Doctor sped at the traffic, turning into the emergency lane used for ambulances. He passed the gridlock with ease, almost gleeful for avoiding the long traffic jams. Amy was gleeful though, she found it hilarious that they were passing everyone without being seen. Rory was less happy, he was still convinced that they were going to get caught. Once inside the inner city of London, the Doctor pulled, sharply, into a car park and got out. Confused, Amy and Rory stepped out and looked at him questioningly.

"We'll be quicker travelling on foot. Trying to get a car through London during the day is like trying to catch a wasp with a hulahoop," the Doctor said, before looking pensieve. "Which I did once, of course the wasp was 6 foot tall and drunk. Vespiforms, they never learn. Anyway, onward to UNIT."

Amy looked at Rory, and he looked back at her. Both were amused. The situation they were in was highly dangerous and no one had any idea what to do, but they still found the Doctor's rambles to be amusing. In light of the dire situation they were in, a little amusement was good for moral.

Now the trio were taking the streets of London on foot. As they grew closer to their destination, the Doctor seemed to walk faster and with more purpose. Until, finally, he gave up the pretence and just began to run. They were going through the streets quite quickly. The crowds of people didn't move, they just continued walking about their day as if two men and a women weren't running past them. Rory and Amy followed closely behind the Doctor, feeling put out by the vast crowds of people. Once again, they found themselves in a situation where they'd never quite seen crowds like it. They almost seemed inhuman to them, marching like robots about their daily routines. Rory even bumped into a few but it was if nothing had happened.

"I hate cities," Rory called over to Amy.

"You get used to it," the Doctor shouted back.

Finally, they arrived at the UNIT headquarters. It was an unassuming building, one that many people would pass off as simply an office structure or one of those random businesses that people always see but never actually wonder what they do. This particular building was more of an administrative building. The upper levels were, in fact, mainly offices. Hundreds of staff relaying information, keeping systems up to date, running the various programs involved. The under levels, those under ground, were where the more sensitive information was kept. Monitoring stations that observed various fields of interest around the world were set up. These places kept constant check on atmostpheric conditions, weather patterns, geothermal readings, geological readings, information on the outer atmosphere, and information about deep space, relayed back through small probes. They also monitored every piece of news that came through every office around the globe and had clearance to remotely view any GPS data and any security camera.

Before they entered, the Doctor turned around to Amy and Rory.

"We're down to about 23 hours and 2 minutes, so I'll be brief, for once," the Doctor began. "I've worked with UNIT in the past, they are very good at their jobs, but they are a military operation. I trust them with the protection of the planet when I'm not here, but I don't trust them with individual lives. They'll try to save as many people as possible but they will sacrifice others if it helps to save the world. They'll take the quickest route possible. They'll listen to me, they always will, but be careful none-the-less. We don't know what it is that's going on, so stay on your toes."

Amy and Rory nodded. The Doctor smiled and turned around. He used his sonic screwdriver on the lock and the doors slid open. He strolled inside, into a fairly well decorated lobby. About half way through he stopped and stared at a man stood by the front desk.

"Hello, Doctor," said the man the Doctor was staring at, in a thick American accent.

"Captain Harkness," the Doctor said, gleefully smirking. "I thought I might find you here."