Act 1: The Arrival

"No idea," Cao admitted. "We just need to find weapons or something before we try fighting that giant."

He looked back and could see shadow moving as they rounded a corner. Clambering up a wall with Tepheris fast behind they jumped down he was glad for the natural agility of dragons. His thoughts drifted to the stranger that helped them he felt bad leaving her but with their current situation there was no way they could effectively help without causing a bigger scene.

"FREEZE!" A soldier shouted.

Cao slid forward and punched the man in the face. Despite him wearing a armored helmet and a mask it crushed beneath his fist as the man howled in pain. Cao followed up with a quick kick and sent him tumbling to the ground. Reaching down Cao pulled out a knife he had on his belt and one of those grenades. He saw the gun in the holster but there was no time to learn how to use an unfamiliar weapon.

"Tephy catch." He said tossing her the knife.

"Now we make a choice. Leave or fight love?"

...

"Unwise?" May repeated. "I just happened to be passing by."

The imposing glowing red blade was like no weapon she had ever seen before. But in her year May had often seen strange sights. The blade of light was dangerous but it didn't trigger any instinctive sense of danger though she thought it would be best to avoid getting cut by it.

"But if it's a fight you want."

May's hand left her pocket as she twirled a large pistol adorned with the image of a cross and the words 'Atoner' written on the side in cursive writing. Aiming squarely at the tall man she unleashed several shots before jumping atop the large van.

"I would be happy to oblige you, beast."

"You know what I'd prefer." Tepheris said as she caught the knife in her hand, it even felt different then the knives she was used to... She preferred bigger weapons like her ax, but this would work for who they had to fight.

"So I'll let you pick." She said, a slight grin on her face as she held her knife defensively, ready to fight anyone who was dumb enough to try it.

Char hummed as he regarded the people he was now running with. They were oddly dressed and they didn't seem to match any culture he was familiar with. "My name is Char Aznable." A small part of him hoped this was some kind of dream. But he'd never mistake the weighty feel of being on earth his entire being felt weighed down. "If it's my turn now, I'd like to know why you're being shot at?"

...

Judas felt like shit, that wasn't really a notable observation. In fact if he'd been feeling well or rested that'd be cause for concern. His memory of what he'd been doing before was hazy and his fluctuating but ever present migraine was out in full force. Maybe someone'd poisoned him again, that was always fun. He really did need to stop passing out in alleyways.

He startled when he heard the distinct sound of a skull being punched in and sat up to see a man crouched over looting a recently dead body. The man and his... friend? were surrounded by the comrades of the dearly departed. "Not thissssss shit again...."

"It's been a while since we had an adventure," Cao said. "This place seems like it could use some heroes!"

It didn't escape his notice that a few more soldiers were coming. He unhooked the grenade like he had seen earlier and tossed it forward causing the armed men to run for cover. The explosion sent a pair flying and one quite close to Cao whom quickly dispatched him with a few quick punches. A stunned survivor made the mistake of approaching Tepheris whom she promptly took down with ease.

Cao took a deep breath when he caught a scent nearby. It was different from the others but he wasn't willing to ignore any more strangers at the moment.

"Hey you in the dark over there," Cao said. "Come out we can smell you. And we're in a bit of a hurry."

"Honestly, I'm not entirely sure myself." The Doctor said, eyeing the new person to join them. Judging by his appearance he might be around here or he might not be. Without knowing more info, the Time Lord decided he would be warm but wary. If the authoritarian vibes he was getting were accurate, this man might be a spy for the people coming after them.

"My name's The Doctor by the way, what's yours?" He continued, maybe if he got the man's guard down he could find out what his intentions were.
***

The new person Tepheris could smell, smelt very much like a Dragon. However it had a subtly different smell. More different then Feathered Dragons. It reminded her of a mix of a Dragon, a human, and the other reptiles they had run into during their journeys. However, the Dragoness had a feeling that would be close enough to what they were.

"If it's any help, it seems we might be similar." She said, adding to what Cao had announced.

"What did he ask?" Bandar asked.

Carah brought herself closer to Bandar's ear.

"He asked what our names are."

"Oh, I'm Bandar, she's Carah, bit busy right now!" Bandar said as the troopers cornered the illusions.

"Oh what a good chase, but you, my beautiful prizes are caught," the Colonel said. With that, the illusions gave him the finger and disappeared. He immediately started swearing.

"Okay, focus no longer divided," Bandar said with some relief. "I think we lost them. For now. They said they were monitoring street cameras."

***

With quick flashes of movement, the lightsaber caught each bullet. Vader outstretched his hand, and May's throat closed up as she suddenly was pulled violently towards Vader.

"You will find that this is not a fight," Vader started. "This is a slaughter."

"You don't listen very well do you." The 'Doctor's' clothing was less odd then the other two's but there was still something, strange about him. Char directed his attention towards the other two. "So the streets are being watched and gunfire goes off in the roads. Not peaceful times we find ourselves in." He frowned and brought a hand to his chin. "Still it's nice to meet you all even considering the circumstances. You can call me Char, try to remember it this time okay."

...

Judas groaned and got to his feet, willing away the pounding in his head. He stepped into the light with his hands halfheartedly raised. "Yeah, hi I guesssss. look I'll just be sstraight with you, my name is Judas and I don't know where I am."

May reacted by reaching through her throat as an invisible force seemed to grip it like a forceful gauntlet making her float closer to the armored shadow. It was painful but in truth she was feigning the need for vital air. One dark benefit of being a vampire was that already being dead meant much of life's essential task were pointless. But that was something May knew and her opponent didn't so for now she tried to make him lower his guard.

"I..." May said weakly. "I cou..."

But her attempted words fell short as she let her body go limp. Floating helplessly as if she had been knocked out. She stopped her breathing and closed her eyes keeping her body functions to a minimum.

...

"The name's Cao," Cao said. "And this is Tepheris. Being honest we have no idea either."

Cao wasted no time collecting equipment from the other fallen soldiers taking a knife and some more of those grenades.

"If you woke up here like us these knights or whoever they are will try to kidnap you. If you want you can follow us but we're planning to repay a favor to someone. If not you had better get out of here fast."

"Nice to meet you Char." The Doctor said, a grin on his face, ignoring the slight annoyance he could sense. The name sounded familiar to the Time Lord but he couldn't place where. He was sure it would come to him eventually where he heard it from, but for now he had to play it cool.

"Judging by your name, you're not from around here either are you?"

Bandar glanced around, he sighed, hoping that there weren't any cameras.

He went into his pocket fishing out a pouch, opening it and starting to chant under his breath.

He blew the dust and it twirled around the four separately, leaving bit's of glittering air around them.

"So, cameras will stop working around us now, it's a technology hexing spell, sorry, don't know if it will make your Screwdriver go haywire," Bandar said.

Carah continued to glance around, looking for signage.

"New...York? This can't be NYC, this looks nothing like New York City..." Carah said, glancing around.

***

Vader dropped the woman.

"Restrain her and send her off," Vader ordered to the soldiers that stayed behind as they moved to cuff her in strange futuristic cuffs.

Vader started to move in the direction that the couple fled in.

Judas Starred blankly at Cao. " Some knightssss tried to kidnap you?" He rubbed at his temples and tried physically shaking the last of the fog from his head. "Look i'm ssorry, where are you from?"

...

Char turned his hands in wonder, what a strange night he was having. First he'd somehow teleported from a battleship in space to a building on earth in the blink of an eye and now this glitter apparently made cameras stop working. He weighed his options but there was little point in going off on his own without a goal in mind. "No.... I'm not from around here at all."

"We're from Europa," Cao said. "But this sure as hell isn't it. Come on we need to move."

He could detect the scent of the armored warrior on their trail. He doubted the wall they jumped over would slow down such a giant long. They needed to slip away somehow and Cao wasn't about to let another stranger fall prey while he allowed it.

"If you can run we can talk!" Cao shouted. "We're going to head for the street and find somewhere to slip away!"

...

May played dead long enough listening for her opponent to move away. She could sense that he had some way of detecting danger and made no attempt to attack him. For now evasion would have to do, she had enough experience to know the difference between an easy fight and a foolish one. Vampires have an instinctive way to gauge strength it was a useful survival mechanism.

But the soldiers were another story. As she heard one approached she glanced at the strange cuffs he held in his hand. They looked advanced having a strange presence to them, they were nothing like what she was used too trinkets easy to slip out of.

She felt a hand reach for her back when she opened her eyes and kicked out the man's feet from under him. Raising up her pistol she shot down his remaining squad before looking down at the pinned man and placed her weight down on top of him.

"I don't have time to talk," May said. "But I would recommend a new line of work. Don't end up like your friends."

With that May didn't give the man time to reply before giving him a hard punch in the face. Not enough to kill but he would be resting peacefully for a while. She looked around before her body began to shift and change her arms replaced by a pair of wings. She caught the scent of the strangers she had helped earlier not far. Her current goal would be to help them escape and then worry about figuring out what was going on.

The vampire took off into the sky appearing like a large bat in the skyline.

Tepheris sighed to herself. Running like this really wasn't for her, but she knew that Cao would rather avoid the inevitable destruction that would occur in such a crowded city if she fought to her fullest extent. Not to mention it seemed they had a new partner with them. She had no idea how strong he was but judging by what she had seen so far, she had a feeling he was pretty strong.
***

"I see so you're like us then." The Doctor said, as he stuck a finger in his mouth before pulling it out getting a feel for the wind around them.

"Well this is definitely New York City...but not the one I imagine any of us would know." The Time Lord continued, a furrowed look on his face.

"If I had to guess...I'd say we were all in a parallel world of some kind. Possibly artificial."

"What do you mean by artificial?" Bandar asked, suddenly concerned. "As in a construct? Or like a dream or illusion?" Inwards the panic was rising, but he shunted it off. Instead opting to be more obnoxious. "I mean, are you real? Am I real? Or are we all just constructs of an illusion and the concept of sapience itself is the lie we tell ourselves to keep us from realizing how pointless everything is. But if we are so afraid of this truth, does it not make it a lie as well? For we are capable of the fear that we are insignificant and not real. This whole place might've been made for one purpose: basting our minds and fucking us through the ear."

Carah frowned, looking down at the floor and Bandar stopped. They were both thinking the same thing. What if this was the Dream of the Gods? Or something worse?

"Whatever the case, we're here," Bandar assured, "and we better make the most of what's in front of us."

As they moved through the alley they reached a street that was devoid of activity. All Cao could make out was a few windows hurriedly being shut by their occupants so they wouldn't have to witness what was going on. He looked back and saw the corner that would lead back to where they had just fled and there was no sign of any pursuers rounding. Had they given up?

It was then he noticed the door of a small shop open with a sign advertising come kind of sandwich. The way it swung opened suddenly seemed almost inviting. Cao was on guard initially but he guessed it was better than wandering around blindly. He led Tepheris and the stranger toward it when he peeked inside and was surprised to see the stranger that had helped them earlier sitting on a counter looking nonchalant.

"Was hoping you would move a little faster than that," She said. "But its no problem made you easy to find."

Cao blinked before speaking. "I uh... Thank you. How did you get away?"

"Oh you know, playing dead never hurts for slipping away from an unwanted fight. Now get in here before the tall man shows up."

"Right," Cao said. "Well... Thank you for helping us."

She shrugged. "It's no trouble. The name is May, I'm in the profession of... Monster hunting. I saw a monster and got to work."

"Well I would certainly call that one a monster," Cao said. "My name is Cao. And this is Tepheris."

There was something strange to May's presence. Despite her deep red eyes which while unusual wasn't exactly impossible. But her scent was distinct there was an almost death-like scent to it but it was very faint as if it was lingering behind a strong presence hiding it.

As he moved through the streets with two total strangers Judas became more and more aware that he was far more out of place then he'd first assumed. Geography wasn't his strong suit but he'd have remembered hearing about a place called Europa. "May the monssster hunter huh, I'm Judasss."

....

Char chuckled his shoulders trembling until it turned into a bark of full blown laughter. "Hmmmm, we could stand around until sunrise pondering the nature of our consciousness. But it might be a better idea to get a move on before someone comes wandering down this street."

Tepheris narrowed her eyes somewhat at their savior. While she had certainly assisted them, she smelt of blood and something unnatural. It reminded the dragoness of the smell of dark magic, though she knew from her adventures to wait before rushing to a judgement.
* * *

"You make a...very good point." The Doctor said, realizing that standing out in the middle of the city was probably not his best idea.

"We can continue to debate where exactly we are later, we should move." The Time Lord continued before looking to the rest of his newfound allies as he tried to think of somewhere safe and secure before smacking his head with his hand. He had the perfect place, even if she was....gone she would still be secure.

"...I'd say the best place would be my ship so come along everyone."

"That would've been good, Doc," Bandar started, "but one problem, it's probably crawling with bootlickers now."

"Hrm," Carah looked towards Bandar. "You could just be your obnoxious self and distract them long enough for us to all get out of there."

"Don't get me wrong, I'd love nothing more than to make a bunch of fascists hate their job," Bandar started, "but I think that might be a bit too difficult."

"Why's that?" Carah asked, tilting her head. Bandar pointed up and Carah looked. The armored helicopter from before passed over the next street, and attatched to it hanging from wires was the Blue Police Box, and several feet of concrete underneath it. "Fuck."

"Well nice to meet all of you," May said. "Seems like we'll be putting up with each other for a time."

Cao nodded. "So I take it you're not from around here either?"

"You'd be right," May said. "I saw a sign that said New York City but I've never seen it like this not in the world I'm from."

"New...York... City?" Cao said. "Never heard of a city like that before."

May's eyebrow raised but her expression was less one of confusion and more curiosity. She took note of the clothing of the couple, compared to Judas whom seemed to be dressed rather modern their clothes were older looking as if straight out of a historical painting.

"I suppose you wouldn't," May murmured. "Whatever circumstances that brought us here seems to have linked together multiple sources."

That caused Cao to raise a curious expression. "If you don't mind my asking friend. Why do you seem so...familiar with this?"

"Our situation is strange, otherworldly," May said with a smile. "I come from an organization that specializes in the... Unnatural. Comes with the business of monster hunting. The world is a strange place after all what we comfort ourselves with as 'normal' is only what we're used to seeing. But there are things in the shadows, there always are."

"Well... I've seen my fair share of strange things," Cao said. "But nothing like this."

"Then we should dive right in," May said. "Not every day you get to explore a new world."

She started moving again toward the back of the shop and opened the door offering it to the group.

"Let's walk and talk. Don't want any unwanted guests after all."

Judas followed the new woman out of the shop. "Sssoooo... ssomeone or ssomething hasss grabbed a bunch of people from different worldss and brought them here?" He questioned aloud to himself. "... I think there'sss two main possibilitiesss,  if ssomeone brought uss here on purpose then they might be out there looking, or if thiss is ssome kind of natural phenomenon then there might be otherss."

...

Char looked curiously at the 'ship', it looked like an old blue phone booth but it was being carted away by that helicopter. "Well, looks like aimless wandering it is then."

"Ding, ding," May chimed. "That would be correct Mr Judas. We've already run into one group trying to apprehend us so that means there's either a potential ally out there, or perhaps this is all a trap and then there's the third option..."

Cao nodded. "That there's other like us. Lost and on the run."

"Exactly," May said. "Which leaves us with the options before us. We could run, hide, fight or even surrender there's no shame in doing so. On way or another the key to this little mystery is finding out: A. What brought us here and B. What was its purpose. And to do that one simply has to survive."

"Well... I'm not surrendering," Cao said. "Not to that bastard."

"Then we ought to seek out others," May said. "Find them and we can connect the dots."

"Man... You almost sound like you're enjoying this."

May smiled and spun on her heel floating with grace like a dancer while still moving forward.

"Of course I am," She said. "Who doesn't love a good mystery?"

"Your behavior is as weird as your scent." Tepheris said, raising an eyebrow slightly at the woman's somewhat strange behavior. Maybe she was just incredibly different, but the dragoness really couldn't see what was intriguing about any of this. Annoying fit her view of this more.
***

"OH COME ON!" The Doctor yelled, a look of anger on his face before sighing. He knew that if they went into this haphazardly the others could get hurt or worse. The Time Lord knew he would have to wait until they had a better plan to take her back.

"Ok so any other ideas then?" He said, looking back at his allies.

"Strange scent hm?" May said. "I could say the same for you. You have the appearance of a human yet you have the distinct scent of a beast. Not just any but the  rarest of beast... Dragon."

Cao stopped moving for a moment feeling a bit cautious.

"You sure have a sharp nose..." He said. "How can you tell?"

"Asides from the smell of fire and scales?" She said. "You have the sense of the supernatural all over you. That and other things... I have a sense for these kinds of thing. I not exactly a natural being myself."

"And what kind of being is that?"

May smiled. "Why I'm a vampire of course."

There was a long pause, an eerie silence fell over the group as Cao stopped staring  at May for a long time.

"Come on... Vampires aren't real," Cao said. "Stop playing around already!"

May paused and raised an eyebrow. "You're a human dragon and you doubt that I'm a vampire?"

Cao sighed. "Please, vampires are just a bunch of necro mages who use blood magic and pretend to be monsters so they can trick people into giving them blood by seducing them. Happened to me once actually but my uncle put a stop to her... You're not fooling anybody miss mage."

May raised a hand to protest but simply sighed. "I assure you I am not a mage trying to fool you. I was given the blood thirsting curse of Lilith."

"Ooo yeah Lilith," Cao said. "Real spooky."

"Look we can keep this up or we can focus," May said. "The fact of the matter is none of us are human so we ought to clear the air. Wouldn't you agree dragoness?"

"On the list of ideas I have," Bandar started, "the first one is figuring out what the hell is going on, getting our barrings and from there, get out of this crowded city with ridiculous amounts of cameras watching us. Maybe steal a car, come up with a plan to get your TARDIS and again, from there, figure out the next step. So I guess that's..." He counted with his fingers. "Five step plan to get the TARDIS."

"We just got to figure out where they're taking it," Carah said. Both of them stopped as they felt a two massive magical presences near by. Bandar reached into his pockets and pulled out a six inch clay sculpture of a dragon with autumn maple leaves for wings. He exhaled into it and it came to life, flapping it's wings.



"Go towards the source, Nidane," he told his familiar. The clay model flew off and Bandar closed his eyes, seeing through the faerie dragon's eyes and ears, catching the tail end of a conversation.

"-wouldn't you, dragoness?"

Brendan exhaled a groan.

"Well, there's a dragon...or two...and a few people...a woman and a man, the man...I can't tell from this far away but he's got scales I think."  Bandar said.

Tepheris' face showed her surprise at this strange woman knowing what she was. Maybe if it was her world she wouldn't be surprised, after all her distinct hair and style gave it away fairly easily, but for a stranger from another world to figure it out? Now that was...unexpected.

"...Indeed. How did you know I was a Dragoness?"
***

"Oh Dragons?" The Doctor said, his face lighting up in glee.

"I love a good Dragon, they're not something I see a lot....though there was the time where..." He continued before shaking his head. Not now Doctor...now's not the time for stories the Time Lord thought to himself.

"Anyways forgive me, lead the way."