"So let me get this straight." Rose shook her head as we stepped out of The TARDIS into some sort of building sight. "Sarah Jane, is your 'muffer?"
"Basically, yeah." I shrugged.
"So, near future, yeah?" Rose asked as The Doctor stepped out behind us, shutting the doors behind him.
"I had a passing fancy. Only it didn't pass, it stopped."
...
We walked along a suburban street with a banner overhead saying '2012 Olympics' on.
"30th Olympia."
"No way! Why didn't I think of this, that's great! Ah!" Rose said in delight, linking her arm with his.
"Only seems like yesterday a few naked Greek blokes were tossing a discus about... wrestling each other in the sand with crowds stood about, begging... no, wait a minute... that was Club Med." He laughed. "Just in time for the opening doo dah - ceremony... tonight, I thought you'd like that. Last one they had in London was dynamite. Wembley, 1948. I loved it so much, I went back and watched it all over again. Fella carrying the torch... lovely chap, what was his...?" Me and Rose looked over at a lamp post, covered in several missing posters, all of them kids. It made me tense, all these kids, about the same age as Luke, Maria and Clyde, I'd be distraught if they'd been taken by anything, these parents must be going out of their minds. "Mark...? John..? Mark...? Legs like pipe cleaners, but strong as a whippet."
"Doctor-" Rose began.
"And in those days, everybody had a tea party to go to."
"Doctor?" I said.
"Did you ever have one of those little cakes with the crunchy ball bearings on top-"
"You should really look." Rose called over.
"Do you know those - those things?" He asked, walking over. "Nobody else in this entire galaxy's ever even bothered to make edible ball bearings. Genius." He read the posters. "What's taking them, do you think?" He looked round the street. "Snatching children from a thoroughly ordinary street like this. Why's it so cold...? Is something reducing the temperature...?"
"It says they all went missing this week. Why would a person do something like this?"
"What makes you think it's a person?" The Doctor frowned.
"Whatever it is, it's got the whole street scared to death. Doctor, what-?" We turned round to see The Doctor at the other end of the street. I walked over towards him, kneeling down as Rose talked to some man.
"Tickles!" The Doctor giggled.
"What's your game?" We looked up to see a man, presumably the father of Tommy who lived at this house and was stolen.
"My... um... Snakes and Ladders? Quite good at... Squash. Reasonable." He looked at me. "I'm... being facetious, aren't I? There's no call for it." I pulled him up and we backed away into the street.
"I'm- I'm a police officer! I've got a badge - and- and a police car... you don't have to get- I can- I can prove it! Just hold on-" He felt around for the psychic paper.
"We've had plenty of coppers poking around here, and you don't look - or sound - like any of them." Tommy's dad grunted.
"See, look! I've got colleagues! Lewis." He pointed at me. "And... Lewis." He pointed at Rose.
"Well, she looks less like a copper than you do." He pointed at Rose. "And she could pass of I suppose." He nodded at me.
"Oi!" Rose exclaimed in offence.
"Training. New recruit. It was either that or hairdressing, so..." He pulled out the psychic paper. "Voila!"
"What are you going to do?" Another woman asked, appearing behind us.
"The police have knocked on every door - no clues, no leads, nothing." A elderly woman said.
"Look, kids run off sometimes, all right? That's what they do-" Tommy's dad said.
"Dale Hixon in your garden, playing with your Tommy, and then...!" The elderly woman mimicked a poof. "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."
"Why don't we-"
"Why don't we start with him?" Another woman pointed at the council man. "There's been all sorts like him in this street, day and night."
"Fixing things up for the Olympics!" He argued.
"Yeah, and taking an awful long time about it."
"I'm of the opinion that all we've gotta do is just-"
"You don't- what you just said, that's slander!"
"I don't care what it is!"
"I think we need to just-"
"I want an apology off her!"
"Stop picking on him."
"Yeah, stop picking on me!"
"And stop pretending to be blind! It's evil!"
"I don't believe in evil."
"Oh no, you just believe in tarmackers with sack loads of kidnapped kiddies in their van-"
"Ay, ay, ay, that's not what she's saying."
"Would you stop ganging up on me?"
"Feeling guilty, are we?"
"SHUTUP!" I shouted, making everyone turn silent.
"In the last six days, three of your children have been stolen. Snatched out of thin air, right?" The Doctor asked.
"Look around you..." The elderly lady began. "This was a safe street 'til it came. It's not a person. I'll say it if no one else will. Maybe you're coppers - maybe you're not. I don't care who you are. Can you please help us?" She asked as one of the neighbours hurried back inside.
...
The Doctor had managed to talk to Chloe, it was a child, a child alien called the Isolus inside it, crashed, the poor little thing...
"You knew the Isolus was lonely before it told you. How?" Rose asked as the Doctor started piecing together some device.
"I know what it's like to travel a long way on your own. Give me the stina magnetic erm..." He nodded at her hand. "Thing in your left hand!"
"Sounds like you're on its side." She handed the thing he needed over to him.
"I sympathise, that's all."
"The Isolus has caused a lot of pain for these people."
"It's a child!" He blew on the device. "That's why it went to Chloe, two lonely mixed up kids."
"Hmm... feels to me like a temper tantrum because it can't get its own way."
"It's scared! Come on, you were a kid once. Binary dot." He nodded to me.
"Yes! And I know what kids can be like. Right little... terrors." Rose said as I handed over the binary dot.
"Gum." Rose spat her gum out into his hand.
"I've got cousins. Kids can't have it all their own way. That's part of being a family." He stuck the gum to the device.
"What about trying to understand them?" He asked.
"Easy for you to say. You don't have kids."
"I was a dad once." Me and Rose looked at each other, stunned.
"What did you say?" She asked.
"I think we're there!" He walked to the console. "Fear. Loneliness. They're the big ones, Rose. Some of the most terrible acts ever committed have been inspired by them. We're not dealing with something that wants to conquer or destroy." He pressed some buttons. "There's a lot of things you need to get across this universe. Warp drive... wormhole refractors..." Rose held out her hand. "You know the thing you need most of all? You need a hand to hold." He took her hand.
"No! Look, I'm pointing." She laughed, pointing at the screen.
"It's the pod! It is in the street! Everything's coming up Doctor!" He grinned as we made our way towards the doors and stepped outside. "Okay. It's about two inches across. Dull grey, like a gulls egg. Very light."
"So these pods - they travel from sun to sun using heat, yeah?" Rose asked. "So it's not all about love and stuff. Doesn't the pod just need heat?" It all went black.
...
Me and The Doctor walked back down Dame Kelly Holmes Close, now dark. The Doctor had explained what had happened, that the Isolus had drawn us.
"Cake?" We looked round to see Rose holding a cupcake decorated with edible ball bearings. He started to laugh as she handed it over.
"Top banana!" He took a bite.
"Mm. I can't stress this enough. Ball bearings you can eat - masterpiece!"
"What now?" Rose asked as we both linked arms with him.
"I wanna go to the games! What we came for!"
"Go on - give us a clue - which events do we do well in?" I asked.
"Well, I will tell you this: Papua New Guinea surprises everyone in the shot put."
"Really? You're joking, aren't you? Doctor, are you serious or are you joking?" Rose asked.
"Wait and see!" We looked up at the fireworks bursting through the sky.
"You know what; they keep on trying to split us up, but they never ever will."
"Never say never ever.
"Nah. We'll always be okay, you and me." Rose said, glancing at me from the corner of her eye. "Don't you reckon, Doctor?"
"Can you feel it too?" I mumbled, frowning at the sky.
"Yeah." He replied.
"Feel what?" Rose asked impatiently.
"Something in the air. Something coming."
"What?"
"A storm's approaching."
A/n - Ok, I know I've updated LOADS today, this will be my fifth chapter today! I might update again tonight with Army of Ghosts if I've written it by then, but please please please review if you have any ideas, little scenes/moments etc, mentions about Amy/Rory/Mels/Sarah Jane/Luke/Maria/Clyde etc.
Please Review!