The Doctor scrambled around the TARDIS console as he kept the old girl on her course to Dimension Prime. He swerved around debris from Lord Vortech's messy merging of dimensions. A couple bits of Cloud Cuckoo Land hit the TARDIS here and there, causing her to rock, but it was no big problem.
At least, until the Doctor was caught off guard by a collision and he fell onto a button on the side console.
"No, no, no!" the Time Lord said as he realized which button he'd pressed. "Vortech can't learn of their-"
The Time Lord was interrupted and shocked back into his fight for control by another rumbling collision, heading back to the flight controls. Messing with controls here and there, he steered the TARDIS back in Vortech's general direction.
He could only hope that the Starclimber was out-of-commission right now.
Cogs twirled his revolver around his index finger as he leaned against the whirling Time Rotor, catching it when it was right-side-up. Torrent micromanaged details on the Starclimber, watching their course towards Lord Vortech, but otherwise was just as bored as Cogs. Swivelling the chair back to the half-dragon, he pulled out the sonic screwdriver Cogs designed, examining the bronze-and-wood handiwork, the iron pommel, and the quartz resonator. Extending the multitool and activating it with a chawwwf, one could imagine his surprise when the sonic blipped.
"What was that?" Cogs asked.
"It's a... collision warning..." Torrent said, his jaw falling open, before whirling back towards the Starclimber's controls and slapping buttons.
"Collision with what, exactly?"
"An unnatural amount of debris, along with a Class 7 transdimensional entity. One that is apparently doing battle inside these rifts..." Torrent said, looking at his hands (which had been converted once more to LEGO-figurine form) before placing them on the yoke and steering the ship through the debris field.
Gandalf, Batman, and Wyldstyle freefell through the rift, getting closer and closer to Lord Vortech with each piece of debris avoided. Unexpectedly, the TARDIS pulled up beside the trio, its doors opening to show the Doctor, hanging on to the threshold to keep from getting blown out of the machine by the omnipresent wind.
"Not to distract you three, but we've got company!" the Doctor shouted over the roar of rushing air.
"Who?" asked Batman, looking around the rift as everyone dodged laser-eye blasts from Vortech.
"Do they bring aid?" Gandalf said, holding his hat on his head.
"Well, if you're friends of the Doctor, then that's a yes!" a new voice sounded from the trio's other side.
The teenager leaning out of an access hatch on a squarish spaceship waved, before greeting the Doctor.
"How's life, Doctor? We decided to swing 'round once we heard a distress beacon from this area and detected a Class 7 transdimensional entity."
The newcomer could say no more as the ship was rocked by a laser blast.
"Talk, Doctor! Now!" Batman said, dodging a giant lollipop.
"They're a pair of dimensional copies - like you and that other Batman, except they like each other."
At this, the teen reappeared. This time, however, instead of a 21st-century street-standard outfit with a sword, he wore a longcoat over his clothes, and carried a pair of revolvers.
"OH MY GOD! Torrent, you didn't tell me you met THE DOCTOR! WHILE INSIDE ONE OF MY FAVOURITE VIDEO GAMES TO DATE!"
The newcomer took a deep breath. "So who's here battling Vortech? Headcount, roster, anything?"
Just then, the Ecto-1 whizzed by, sirens blaring, before the Ghostbusters inside started to fire their Proton Packs at Vortech.
"Right! This part! It looks like you guys need more allies! This isn't much!"
"Just you wait!" Batman shouted. "Who are you?!"
He didn't get an answer from the newcomer as he was already back inside his spaceship.
"That was Jack Grayson. You've met two of the three now. The third one should be somewhere inside the Starclimber, their spaceship," the Doctor supplied.
Cogs rushed back to Torrent's side, watching Vortech weigh his next shot. The Dragonheart then nodded to the wanderer, turning to the Time Rotor's computer systems and booting up TimeSkype. After selecting the Urgent Call setting and retrieving a Dreamvisitor Stone, Cogs compiled a list of all the people he and Torrent knew that could possibly help.
It wasn't that big, but it was definitely something.
Five-year-old Ruby looked up to her big sister, Tourmaline, as the elder Skywing attached the gold earring to her sister's ear. The too-shiny earpiece reflected the blood-red moonlight from the night sky as the fog flowed into the throne room through the doorway. Ruby heard Tourmaline whisper goodbye as the fog swallowed her up. Tears welled in her eyes as she remembered her sister, wishing that this was just another dream, and nothing lucid.
She stopped and turned as she heard that sound again; that indescribable screeching, exactly as she had heard it the day those scavengers had made a fool of the arena manager.
Her jaw dropped as she saw a scavenger, the scavenger, around her size in the dream, stride into the room, metal claw in hand, with a strange stone strung around his neck.
She backed away as the scavenger approached, and the stone at his neck started to glow a brilliant green. To her astonishment, the light cleared away some of the fog, keeping it at bay outside the door and the pavilion. Furthering her awe was Tourmaline's reappearance. The orange Skywing reformed from thin air right beside her sister, leading to tears and hugs.
About a minute after Ruby had started hugging Tourmaline, the scavenger cleared his throat, catching the dragonets' attention.
"Sorry if I brought back any bad memories, Ruby, but I need help from both of you."
"You can speak?!"
"Long story short, yes. Anyway, there's a very evil entity that's trying to conquer the universe."
"Worse than Mother?" Tourmaline asked, her voice echoey in the dream.
"Yes."
"I'll see what I can do to help."
"But wait..." Ruby said. "Tourmaline, you can't help... See, you're... You're..." Ruby choked on her words, unable to speak the truth.
"The same person, actually," the scavenger finished.
Both Tourmaline and Ruby stared at the scavenger as if he had grown an extra head. "WHAT?!"
"I've seen both of your fates; trust me. Ruby, if you'll hand me your earring?"
Ruby hesitated. "Um... No... This earring was Tourmaline's last gift to me before she died..."
"Tourmaline's right beside you."
"This is a dream! Tourmaline isn't out there in the real world! She's dead!"
"And... Yoink!" Tourmaline smiled as she nabbed her sister's earring.
"What?" Ruby said as she felt her whole world shift. An earthquake rocked the throne room, cracking the gold-plated walls.
When Ruby looked at herself, she wasn't there.
Tourmaline was there instead.
Except Tourmaline was still beside her...
The scavenger and Tourmaline high-fived as Ruby struggled to reboot her brain. Eventually, Tourmaline put Ruby's earring back on, and Ruby returned to normal.
"See?" the scavenger said. "Just listen to me."
Andy snored as he leaned back in the chair he'd pulled up by the door. Someone had to watch the alarm system in Jack's garage each night in case Quintus decided Jack had to die that night, so it was routine for someone to stand guard. It was also boring, tiring, and easy to sleep off.
Andy jolted back awake, igniting his laser sword, upon hearing one of Jack's "whistles & bells" sound off.
Checking Jack's laptop, he sighed as he saw that it was just a videocall from Jack.
Picking up quickly, he gawked at what Jack was wearing.
"Hey, Jack! How's your quest going?"/"Jack?! Where the hell are you?! And what the hell are you wearing?!"
Jack simply smiled, and let the two Andies on the line stare at each other.
"Is this Quintus' idea?"/"Who the hell are you, imposter?"
"Now, now, Andy, I'd love to leave you to argue with yourself, but-" The camera on Jack's end was visibly rocked by something. "I have more pressing matters at hand."
This time, both Andies were in agreement, perfectly in sync. "What do we need to do?"
Captain Darian Frey removed the syringe (which had previously held a dose of Shine) from his arm, and waited for the trip to start. When the walls started to melt, however, he saw something surprisingly cohesive in all the drug-addled visions:
Cogs was walking through one of the walls.
Looking around, the ex-crewmember harrumphed, holding up a blue, star-shaped stone. "So this thing does work when the recepient's high. The more you know..." He pocketed the stone, and looked to Frey. "Captain, there's something you probably don't want to hear."
Ignoring Frey's groggy, inquisitive and stoned interpretation of "What?", the Dragonheart continued.
"You need to save the universe with me and Torrent. Just try to keep your cool and fly through the Manes' hurricane portal thing and turn left. Trust me." With that, he disappeared.
As the high wore off and everything reassembled, Frey wobbled to his feet in an attempt to get out of his cabin and wake his crew.
The Happy Mask Salesman was smiling, as always, when he picked up. As usual, he seemed to know much more than he should by any rights, and as usual, he seemed to not want to annoy Cogs. He only needed to be told who was there ("The Doctor"), where ("Try going from the second star to the left into twilight"), and what was going on.
So when his piano-shaped TARDIS was the first one to show up, Cogs was both pleased and slightly annoyed.
"Ah, there you are, Mr Cogs! I trust you are well?"
"Just dandy! Oi, Doctor!"
The two Time Lords stared at each other before laughing.
"Thanatos?" The Doctor said. "Is that you?"
"I could say the same, Doctor," the Happy Mask Salesman said. "Stealing a TARDIS? Even in a repair shop, that's gutsy."
"Not now!" Cogs said, sticking his head out of the Starclimber. "We have a Big Bad to fight, McGuffin or no!"
"Now, I'm not sure what a McGuffin is," Darian Frey said, standing on the Ketty Jay's cargo door, "But at this point, I've learned to just laugh and get on with it." The Ketty Jay descended on the scene from a more violent whirlwind, blowing snow into the rift.
"Captain!" Cogs shouted, smiling up at his ex-superior.
"Long time no see, Cogs. How's Torrent? Still the drake I left him as?"
"New sonic screwdriver, but yeah."
"How'd you reach me through that wall?"
"It's called a Dreamvisitor. You can basically enter other peoples' dreams with it."
"And how, exactly, did you come across a dreamvisitor?" a new voice said. "There are only three in existence!"
The four travellers looked up to see a flight of dragons, newly arrived, flying behind the Starclimber.
"And you are?" Cogs said.
"Flight Leader Carnelian, sir!" the leader, also the youngest, said. "I'm here on Queen Ruby's orders, direct from Jade Mountain!"
"Good, good, that makes almost everyone!"
"You still didn't answer my question."
"I stole it from Scarlet. Happy?"
"Good enough."
The newcomers and the Doctor flew off to battle Lord Vortech, leaving Cogs behind, waiting for both his and Jack's tank crews.
Nothing came.
The Starclimber flew off to bombard Vortech when Cogs stopped it due to a strange noise.
The sound of Helen's sonic screwdriver.