Right, here's part 2. I'm hoping to finish this story soon and move on to the sequel and fix the first chapter before I finish that and then move on to the next sequel. Anyway, I really need to stop rambling and get a move on with this.
Rose and the Doctor walked down a street with a 'London 2012' banner
"30th Olympia." the Doctor said with a grin
"No way!" she said, delightedly as she linked her arm through his "Why didn't I think of this, that's great! Ah!"
The Doctor beamed "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 said and laughed at his own joke, and nudged his wife "Just in time for the opening doo dah - ceremony..." he continued "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...?"
Rose noticed the 'missing' posters tacked onto a lamp post and moved closer to investigate, but the Doctor carried on oblivious, still yapping to himself "Mark...? John..? Mark...? Legs like pipe cleaners, but strong as a whippet."
"Doctor--" Rose said
"And in those days, everybody had a tea party to go to." he continued to walk along the street, still oblivious.
"Doctor?" Rose tried again.
"Did you ever have one of those little cakes with the crunchy ball bearings on top--" he paused and turned around
"You should really look." she said
"Do you know those - those things?" he said and finally sauntered over to her "Nobody else in this entire galaxy's ever even bothered to make edible ball bearings. Genius." he then read the poster "What's taking them, do you think?" he asked, changing the subject as he scanned 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." Rose said "Why would a person do something like this?"
The Doctor looked at his wife "What makes you think it's a person?" he asked
Rose turned at the sound of a door opening, a woman dumped a recycling sack on the pavement outside her house and hurried back inside, casting furtive looks around her all the while. "Whatever it is, it's got the whole street scared to death. Doctor, what--?" she stopped and turned, but her husband was already at the other end of the street
The Doctor quickly found the place where Tom disappeared by the mini football goal. He held his hand out in front of him, as though feeling something invisible. He crouched, his hand hovering above what appeared to be an ordinary area of grass.
As Rose hurried along the road, a car juddered to a halt as the engine gave up the ghost. She stopped to watch. A council worker - Kel - propped his broom up against his white van and approached the car.
"There you go." he said "Fifth today. Not natural, is it?"
"I dunno what happened, I had it serviced less than a month ago." the driver said
"Nah, don't even try and explain it, mate. All the cars are doing it." the council worker said "And do you know what? It's bonkers. Bonkers." The driver got out of the car "Come on then, pal. I'll help you shift it. Quicker you're on the way, happier you'll be." He pushed the car from behind, straining, whilst the driver pushed from the driver's side.
"There we go." the driver said
"Do you want a hand?" Rose asked
"No, we're all right, love." the council worker answered
Rose grinned "No you're not." she said "I'm tougher than I look, honest." She positioned herself behind the car and gestured for him to move over. He moved and she helped him push it. The engine suddenly sprang to life and caused Kel to fall over. He stood up and brushed himself down.
"Does this happen a lot?" Rose asked as the driver got into his car
"Cheers, mate!" he said as he drove off
"Been doing it all week." Kel answered, sounding disgruntled
"Since those children started going missing?" she asked, making a connection between the two
"Yeah, I s'pose so." Kel answered, not seeing the connection.
The Doctor giggled as he felt whatever sensation he'd experienced over the grass. "Tickles!" he said
Tom's dad appeared behind him, hands in his pockets. "What's your game?"
The Doctor spun around. "My... um... Snakes and Ladders? Quite good at... Squash. Reasonable." he said, floundering and then he noticed the look on the other man's face "I'm... being facetious, aren't I? There's no call for it."
Rose and Kel walked along together.
"Every car cuts out." Kel said "The council are going nuts. I mean, they've given this street the works. Renamed it... I've been tarmacking every pot hole..." He gestured around the street proudly "Look at that. Beauty, init? Yep! And all that is because that Olympic Torch comes right by the end of this close. Just down there. Everything's got to be perfect, ain't it? Only it ain't."
They came across Maeve.
"It takes 'em when they're playing." she told Rose
"What takes them?" Rose asked as Trish popped her head round her front door.
"Danny... Jane... Dale... snatched in the blink of an eye." Maeve explained
The Doctor's voice, pleading, came closer. He was backing away from Tom's Dad who looked like he was about to beat him up. "I'm-- I'm a police officer!" he said "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 fished in his pocket for the psychic paper.
"We've had plenty of coppers poking around here, and you don't look - or sound - like any of them." Tom's dad said roughly
"See, look! I've got a colleague! Lewis." he said as he pointed in his wife's face.
Rose gave Tom's Dad a policeman-like wink.
"Well, she looks less like a copper than you do." Tom's dad said
"Training. New recruit. It was either that or hairdressing, so..." he said and then brandished the psychic paper at Tom's dad "Voila!"
"What are you going to do?" Trish asked as she joined them.
"The police have knocked on every door - no clues, no leads, nothing." Maeve said
"Look, kids run off sometimes, all right? That's what they do--" Tom said
"Dale Hixon in your garden, playing with your Tommy, and then...!" she mimics 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."
"Why don't we--" the Doctor said, but he was interrupted
"Why don't we start with him?" she said as she pointed at Kel "There's been all sorts like him in this street, day and night."
"Fixing things up for the Olympics!" Kel said indignantly
"Yeah, and taking an awful long time about it." Tom's dad complained
"I'm of the opinion that all we've gotta do is just--" the Doctor said, but he was interrupted again
"You don't-- what you just said, that's slander!" Kel said, completely ignoring the Doctor.
"I don't care what it is!"
"I think we need to just--" the Doctor tried again
"I want an apology off her!" Kel said
"Stop picking on him." Maeve said
"Yeah, stop picking on me!" Kel agreed
"And stop pretending to be blind! It's evil!" Maeve continued
"I don't believe in evil." the woman said, glaring at Kel
"Oh no, you just believe in tarmackers with sack loads of kidnapped kiddies in their van--" Kel replied
"Ay, ay, ay, that's not what she's saying." another neighbour said
"Would you stop ganging up on me?!" Kel said
"Feeling guilty, are we?"
"Fingers on lips!" the Doctor said, shouting over the babble.
He put his finger on his lips and glared around at them all as if daring them not to do the same. The council worker behind Kel had already obeyed, and after a moment of complete bewilderment, Kel and Tom's Dad put their fingers on their lips too. The Doctor looked pointedly at Rose, who followed suit. Now all of them had their fingers on their lips, and silence had fallen. "In the last six days, three of your children have been stolen. Snatched out of thin air, right?" he asked
"Er... can I...?" Maeve asked. The Doctor motioned for her to go ahead "Look around you... this was a safe street 'til it came. It's not a person. I'll say it if no one else will." Chloe watched from her window "Maybe you're coppers - maybe you're not. I don't care who you are. Can you please help us?" Rose had spotted Chloe. Trish noticed Rose watching her and spun around to look up at the window. She hurried back inside.
Tom's dad watched through his curtains as Rose stood outside his house and the Doctor was sniffing around the front lawn like a sniffer-dog. Rose watched him for a few moments, before-- "Want a hanky?" she asked, smiling
"Can you smell it?" he asked her and she sniffed the air "What does it remind you of?"
"Sort of... metal?" she said
The Doctor nodded "Mm-hm!" Rose grinned. The Doctor waved to Tom's dad before they both left. The Doctor and Rose walked down a narrow alleyway. "Danny Edwards cycled in one end but never came out the other." the Doctor said as he felt something again "Whoa, there it goes again!" he showed Rose the back of his hand "Look at the hairs on the back of my manly hairy hand."
Rose inhaled "And there's that smell... it's like a um... a burnt fuse plug or something."
"There's a residual energy in the spots where the kids vanished." the Doctor said " Whatever it was, it used an awful lot of power to do this."
Chloe watched a ginger cat on the front lawn through her window. It meowed. Chloe pulled more paper towards her and began to draw just as Trish entered.
"You have to come down some time, Chloe." she said to her daughter
"I'm busy, mum." Chloe said, as she drew the cat unnaturally fast
Trish looked at the pictures covering the walls "Look at it in here..." she said "you must've used up half a rainforest." She picked up the half finished drawing - Dale had been sketched on the same piece of paper. "That's Dale. Why did you draw him so sad?"
"I didn't draw him like that." she said as she held her hand out for the picture "Dale made himself sad. So I'm gonna draw him a friend." she continued drawing the cat "That's what he needs. More friends." Trish watched her, brow furrowed.
"Have you seen the TV?" Trish asked, trying to change the subject. She tapped a button on the laptop, bringing up BBC News 24. Footage of Olympics was displayed "Look, this'll cheer you up. The Torch is gonna be close." she sat on the 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 even look up "I mean, doesn't that make you feel part of something?" she got no reply "Sweetheart? Chloe?"
"I'm busy, mum." Chloe said
"Okay." she watched her daughter for a few more seconds and then stood up "You're tired, Chloe. I heard you calling out again, last night."
"It's fine."
"Nightmares?"
"I'm drawing!" she said irritated
"Whatever they are... they're just dreams, you do know that? They can't hurt you."
"I'm busy. Unless you want me to draw you..." she looked darkly at Trish "... mum."
Trish gave up "If you wanna stay cooped up in here, fine. I'll leave you to it." she left the bedroom, closing the door behind her. Chloe coloured the cat in.
Rose was walking a few paces behind the Doctor, back in the close. "Aren't you a beautiful boy?!" she said
"Thanks!" the Doctor said beaming "I'm experimenting with back-combing." Then he noticed his wife was talking to a cat "Oh."
"I used to have one like you." she said as she stroked the cat. The cat meowed. The Doctor was watching uncomfortably, he looked as though he had a nasty taste in his mouth. "What?" his wife asked as she noticed
"No, I'm not really a cat person." he admitted "Once you've been threatened by one in a nun's wimple, it kind of takes the joy out of it." The car wandered over to a cardboard box and Rose followed "Come here, puss!" she said. The Doctor looked away and the cat climbs inside the box. "What do you wanna go in there for?" she asked. There was a whooshing sound and the cat's meow echoed slightly as if it was fading into the distance. "Rose peered inside the box and discovered that it was empty "Doctor!" she called urgently.
The Doctor hurried over to her. Rose stood up as the smell hits her.
"Whoa! Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!" the Doctor said as he backed off. He waved the smell away and picked up the empty cardboard box. "Iron residue. Blimey! That takes some doing!" he said as he turned the box around, impressed "Just to snatch a living organism out of space/time. This baby is just like," he put on a rough accent ""I'm 'avin' some of that" - I'm impressed."
"So the cat's been transported?" Rose asked
Right, that's part two, part three will be up soon.
TTFN
Julie