The Doctor walked lightly down the alley, sonic screwdriver held before him, scanning the area. He was trying to home in on the warp radiation's origin, but the sheer amount of radiation saturating the area was making it difficult. It was weird, the Doctor couldn't fathom any reason why there would be that much of it coming from a planet's surface. Still, at least warp radiation was harmless. You could probably pick this trail up from orbit though.

The Doctor turned a corner into another alley. Following the radiation trail had led him to a more back-end part of the city, full of narrow alleyways winding between huge shipping warehouses. The pitch of the screwdriver lowered as he moved forward, signalling that he was moving away from the source of the radiation. He turned on his heel and went back the other way. This was starting to get frustrating. He'd been wandering around these backstreets for nearly half an hour and was getting impatient for something to happen. Then the sound of something clattering over the ground reached him. He switched off the screwdriver and cautiously crept up to the corner. He poked his head around the corner just as something flickered around the corner at the other end of the alley. His mind made up, the Doctor quietly jogged up the street, slowing as he reached the corner. The sound of a door rolling closed reached him. He took a peek and found the street empty. Right at the end was a door to a large warehouse. The Doctor glided up to it, scanning over his shoulder before rolling it open as quietly as he could. He slipped through the gap and closed door behind him, before turning around and freezing.

"Oh," was all he said.

The warehouse was empty, except for the large ship that stretched from one wall the other. The craft was dark grey and bulky, with no interest in symmetry or elegance. Large cannons decked the hull, all positioned for maximum effectiveness in battle. Above the ship the roof of the warehouse had been removed. At a guess, the Doctor would say this was the source of the warp radiation.

"Hold it right there," said rasping voice said behind him. The Doctor whipped around, coming face to face with a trio of creatures. Their heads were bulbous, with large compound eyes and no noses. Their lips were drawn back off their needle-like teeth in a violent snarl. The rest of their bodies were human-like, covered in black, armoured suits and each carried a blaster rifle.

"Who are you?" the creature in front snarled.

"I'm the Doctor. Who're you?"

The creature gave a rasping hissing sound which the Doctor realised was a laugh. "Soon we shall be your masters, human. For we are the Skrasvi."

"Yeah I already knew that." the Doctor said. The creature hissed.

"You claim to know us? You know nothing of us."

"Oh no I know loads about you," the Doctor said, disgust evident in his voice. "The Skrasvi, a race of interplanetary slavers and conquerors. You hop from planet to planet, enslaving the population and taking all the resources you can. Once the planet's of no more use to you, you take whoever's still alive and move on to the next planet."

The Skrasvi in charge hesitated. "So you do know of us."

"And I'm going to give you one warning. Leave this planet now. Or I will stop you."

"Well…" The Skrasvi hissed quietly. "We can't have that."

Something pressed against the Doctor's back, pain like fire roared across his system, his vision flashed red-blue-green and he fell into unconsciousness.

The Doctor blinked awake and groaned. Every muscle ached, his brain felt like it was full of glass and his mouth tasted like ash. Bright light shone into his eyes and pierced through to his brain. He clenched his eyes shut until the pain stopped. He stayed like that for a few more minutes, then opened them again. The light was bearable now, enough for him to have a look at his current situation. The first thing he noticed was that he was strapped to some sort of table, lying on his back. Thankfully he still had his clothes on. The second thing he noticed was that he was in a large square room, various types of medical equipment scattered around. The third thing he noticed was the Skrasvi watching him.

"You are a curious creature," it said. "You recovered from the stun rod faster than any human would. The scans we took of you show a binary vascular system. The humans on this planet do not have the technology to implement this sort of biological system successfully. What are you?"

"Time Lord," the Doctor grunted.

"They are myth. You are lying."

"I'm really not. At this point I doubt I could think up a clever enough lie." The Doctor laid his head back and groaned a bit. His head still hurt. The Skrasvi growled.

"What are you doing here?"

"If you mean the planet I was just visiting. If you mean the warehouse I was trying to find where all the warp radiation was coming from. What's the point of that? Your ship didn't look damaged from what I saw."

"We are the scouts," the Skrasvi said. "We fly ahead of the fleet, searching for a suitable planet to conquer. We leave the radiation trail so that they may follow us here, and take this planet."

The Doctor groaned with realisation. "It's a signal. And how far away is the fleet?"

The Skrasvi seemed to grin. "They will be here in a matter of days, Time Lord. And you will be the first slave to be broken. It was foolish of you to come here alone."

"I have to agree with you on that point."

The Skrasvi snapped around. Leaning against the wall, looking almost bored, was the angel.

"Hello Doctor," he said. "How are you?"

"Oh, I've been better. I like the new clothes."

"Thanks. Apparently these boots are so in right now. I've not a clue what that means but I think it's something good."

"Silence!" the Skrasvi roared. "Who are you?"

The angel thought for a moment. "Well… I suppose you can call me Alexander Silver." He looked around the Skrasvi at the Doctor. "What do you think of that name?"

"Not bad. Maybe a bit long, do you mind if I just call you Alex?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Silence!" The Skrasvi roared again. "How did you get on this ship?"

"I walked up the ramp." The angel – Alexander pushed himself away from the wall, his wings flaring. "What do you know of the Weeping Angels?"

The Skrasvi tilted its head "They are myth."

"You said the same thing about the man on the table, yet I assure you, he is a Time Lord."

The Skrasvi paused. "You are not stone."

Alexander shrugged. "Stuff happens. I don't turn to stone when looked at anymore. Which means I'm vulnerable."

The Skrasvi was still for a second or two. Then it screeched and reached for its gun. The lights flickered and it disappeared.

Alexander lowered his hand from where he'd touched the Skrasvi. "It also means I can't be stopped," he said. Then he turned to the Doctor and sighed. "Did you even try to stay out of trouble?"

"Yes. Unsuccessfully. Would you mind opening the cuffs?" Alexander sighed again and pressed a button on the side of the table. The cuffs around the Doctor's wrists and ankles sprang open.

"How much did you hear?" he asked as he sat up and rubbed at his wrists.

"Everything from 'you are myth you are lying'. What do we do now?"

"Get rid of the rest of the crew on the ship and find some way to stop the fleet from coming here. Thankfully we have a couple of days. Longer than I usually have."

"The first one's already taken care of. They got in the way," he added in response to the Doctor's questioning look. "We could always take the TARDIS and leave."

"And leave billions of innocent people to become slaves?" The Doctor asked angrily.

"I'm just saying it's an idea." Alexander sighed. "Blow up the ship?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Too big of an explosion. It would take out half the city. Plus that won't get rid of the trail. Could you send it somewhere?"

Alexander shook his head. "No, I can only send physical objects and nothing that big anyway."

The Doctor ran his hands through his hair. "Come on come on there must be something we can do."

"Hang on a moment," Alexander said, a look of intense concentration on his face. "Stop talking I need to think about this." For a moment he was silent. Then he smiled. "I think that could work. I may have an idea. Come on, we need to get to the cockpit."

Marshrak, the High Commander of the Second Skrasvi Fleet, grinned at the thought of the new planet they would be subjugating. He settled himself deeper into his throne on the bridge of his flagship and drifted amongst thoughts of breaking new slaves to his will while the planet was drained of all its precious materials. His thoughts were interrupted by one of the communication crew.

"Sir we're receiving a message from the scout ship on general broadcast."

Marshrak cocked his head. That was worrying. A call on general broadcast went to all ships. That only happened when the planet was found to be more effort than it was worth and aborted.

"Open the channel," he hissed. The view screen before him flickered and an image popped up. Surprisingly it did not show any of the scout crew, but rather what appeared to be a human.

"Hello," it said with a smile. "My name's Alexander Silver. I was just wondering if you wouldn't mind possibly not conquering the planet Centuria. It's just, there's an awful lot of people living here and it would be a real shame if they all got turned into slaves, don't you think? I'm sure you'll make the right choice." The human smiled as it continued to ramble. Marshrak cocked his head and growled.

"Impertinent human scum. Switch it off and continue to Centuria."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow as Alex lounged in the captain's chair of the scout ship. "What was the point of that? You don't seriously believe that that'll change their minds do you?"

"Oh of course not," Alex said cheerfully. "I never planned to change their minds. See there's one other little thing about Weeping Angels you should know. We're creatures of concept as much as physical form. We can project our consciousness into an image of ourselves. Essentially anything that holds our image becomes an angel."

The Doctor's eyes widened in realisation. "And you just sent that to every ship in the fleet," he said. Alex grinned.

"Impertinent human scum. Switch it off and continue to Centuria."

The image on the screen flickered for a second, then popped back to life. "Of course," the human on screen said, "I realise there's no way you would ever stop just because I asked you to. So I included a little something extra in this message." The smile widened, becoming predatory, and the human leaned forward and out of the screen, dropping to the deck. It rose to its feet, somehow still two-dimensional, and flared its wings.

"Surprise," it said.

"Approximately two hundred copies of me are now flattening the Skrasvi fleet. A whole planet saved. With one phone call." Alex smirked. "Top that."

"So what will happen to the images of you?" The Doctor asked as they approached the TARDIS.

"I can cut off the connection any time I like. They'll just disappear."

"That could be useful," the Doctor said as he opened the door. Alex hesitated for a moment.

"Thank you," he said quickly. The Doctor gave him a questioning look.

"What for?"

"All this. Bringing me here. I didn't even realise I needed it. So thank you."

The Doctor smiled. "You're welcome." He paused for a moment. "Want to keep going?"

"Definitely."

The Doctor grinned wider and walked into the TARDIS, Alexander following him through. The door closed and the screeching, groaning sound started as the TARDIS slowly faded into nothingness, leaving nothing but a strong breeze.

Next time...

"Are you ever not in trouble here?"

"Can someone explain why I'm under arrest?"

"Hi, I'm Captain Jack Harkness"

Thanks to everyone who's favourited and followed my daft ramblings. It makes me feel good to know people are enjoying my writing.