The Twist, The Space Pirates and Hattie Munroe are a creation of Titan Comics and writer George Mann.
This chapter contains references to Series 11 of Doctor Who and Blake's Seven.
Jaime petted Bycky the Krefayis, listening as he gave out several happy sounding squawks. She'd had her breakfast earlier and had already checked on Falcor the Maw and the Pokemon in the park. Now she was checking on the blind Krefayis. As far as she could tell, Bycky was doing fine with the other Krefayis the TARDIS had created for him. And he was quite happy with hunting down Speelfox after Speelfox.
"How are you?" The Scots-girl asked Bycky, spotting a Speelfox speeding off through the grass. The Krefayis squawked in reply before giving Jaime a friendly nudge. She chuckled and further petted the Krefayis' feathery head. "Fan-dabby-dozy." She uttered. "And you're not feelin' too lonely?" She asked next. Bycky squawked a positive reply and stomped his foot, which caused another Speelfox to go running out of a hole. He spotted it in his Mind and became restless. Jaime grinned. "Go after it, I ain't stoppin' you." She said. Bycky squawked a thanks in reply and went tearing off after the little two tailed creature.
Jaime watched for awhile before turning and leaving the simulated Planet room. Now she headed off towards the Console Room where everyone else was, waiting. It was a new day and there was new adventuring to be had. Once Jaime arrived in the Console Room she saw Amy and Rory chatting and leaning against the rail, The Doctor was sat on the jumpseat with Rose, his arm around her shoulders, talking to her mum, while J.D and Jenny were stood around the Console performing pre-flight checks.
"Where are we goin' tae this time?" Jaime questioned as she stood next to The Doctor.
A wide grin appeared on J.D's face when he looked up at the Scots-girl. "Jenny suggested we hit the Randomiser and see where we end up." He replied.
"Me and Rose thought it was a good idea," The Doctor spoke up. "But Safe and Sensible over there thought it might be a bad idea." He nodded his head at Alexia.
The woman huffed at this. "That is not what I meant," she replied. "I just thought we should be careful. We could end up anywhere, like some other planet might be at war or a civilisation isn't yet civilised…" She would have kept going if she hadn't been interrupted by Jaime.
"Ma', tha's the point of the Randomiser. We can go anywhere, any-when and not know what's goin' on. It's usually more fun tha' way."
"That's what The Doctor said too," Alexia said and sighed. "Okay, fine. But if we get into trouble I'm going to do some serious damage!"
Amy laughed at Alexia's threat. "You have a hell of an imagination." She said and Alexia smiled sheepishly. "Thanks!" She muttered.
Once they were ready, Jenny pulled the lever and the TARDIS went hurtling through the Vortex. Jaime went to help out on the Console because it was another rough journey. Rose was holding onto the jumpseat as if her life depended on it, The Doctor still had his arm around her shoulders and didn't appear to be affected by the rough ride, Alexia was gripping onto part of the Console and the Ponds were holding onto the rail.
"That one there!" J.D pointed to a switch while Jenny pumped the Helmic Regulator.
"I know how tae do it!" Jaime replied with a slight grin, moving past her mother and flicking the switch.
Several minutes later the TARDIS landed at their next destination with a thud. "For the love of sanity! Why does it have to be all wacky warehouse?" Alexia exclaimed, gaining her feet. She looked a tad pale.
Rory seemed to nod in agreement.
"It's more fun that way." The Doctors, Jaime, Rose and Jenny all said at the same time, then looked at each other as if surprised before falling into a fit of giggles.
Silently, Alexia stepped away from them, shaking her head. "You know, it's really creepy when you do that." She said.
Rose was confused as she and The Doctor got to their feet. "Do what?" She asked.
"Say the same thing at the same time." Rory spoke up.
J.D shrugged his shoulders. "It's just something that happens." He said.
"Come on, let's see what's out there." The Doctor said, pulling his coat on and walking down the ramp towards the door.
Grinning, J.D picked up his dark blue coat from the other coral beam, shrugged it on and followed everyone else out of the TARDIS. He had a really good feeling about this adventure.
When all eight Time Travellers stepped out of the TARDIS they looked around at their surroundings completely awestruck. Wherever they were it looked really quite busy and the views they could see was amazing. They could see part of whatever they were on almost above them, the sky dark and full of stars. They could hear faint music coming from somewhere…or at least what passed for music anyway.
"Where are we, Doctor?" Rose questioned as she looked around. "Feels like the 40th Century."
"It's 3905." Jenny added. Her Time Sense was strong.
"I was going to say that." Rose uttered.
For Jaime, something about the date felt familiar.
"Oh! I know what this place is!" The Doctor exclaimed excitedly, eyes wide and his hands on his head, hair becoming all ruffled and messy. "This is The Twist," he began to explain. "It's a Human colony Worldship with its own Eco-System. Only its human habitants died during transit at the stasis-farms." He was a little less excited here. "No-one knows why it happened or what went wrong."
There was sadness and confusion from the Time Travelling troupe.
"So who runs this place if the Colony died?" Jenny questioned. She was looking around at the other people walking around the Worldship. Some of them were clearly alien.
"That's the thing," the Time Lord answered. "It turned out the humans weren't the only inhabitants on here."
"What do you mean?" Alexia asked.
"Well…" The Doctor stretched out, rubbing the back of his neck. But before he could elaborate further there was a yell from J.D.
"Oi! Watch it, fur face. Get your furry mitts off me!" Everyone looked around to find the Half-Time Lord being manhandled by a Bipedal Humanoid Fox. It's hand had a handful of John's hair and it was sniffing him.
"You smell nice!" The Fox, female and French, told him before licking his face, letting go of his hair and finally slinking off into the crowd.
"Flaming liberty." John angrily muttered, wiping his face of Fox saliva, having apparently gone full Donna.
"Doctor, that was a Fox!" Rory exclaimed out of surprise, his eyes were wide.
The Doctor nodded his head. "Yes, that was indeed a Fox," he replied. "She's a Foxkin. One of the other species on this Worldship. Despite the Human Colony dying they were able to figure out how to clone the humans, thus bringing them back to life…in a way."
But Rose shook her head. "Technically they're still dead?" She asked and The Doctor nodded. "So it's just their clones that are alive?" Rose asked once more.
"Yep!" The Doctor replied.
"How did they do it? What exactly did they do?" Rose seemed to hint at something but the Doctor figured it out.
"No idea, but that's a really good idea, Rose. We should at least find a way to work out how they did it." He said to his bond-mate and Rose grinned, nodding her head.
Meanwhile Amy had something else on her Mind. "Where's that music coming from?" She wondered. "A lot of people seem to be going towards it."
Rory nodded his head. "Maybe it's a music festival." He suggested.
"It may well be," The Doctor spoke. "Shall we have a look?" There was a chorus of agreement from the rest of the Time Travellers and they all began to walk towards the music. Though The Doctor still had the cloned humans on his Mind. It did make him wonder if they had any tells.
The music got louder as they continued to approach it. "Are you okay?" Alexia asked the Half-Time Lord as she walked beside him. She only asked because Jaime didn't bother to ask. She was busy talking to her sister.
"I'm fine." J.D uttered back in reply. He looked it too, despite having been manhandled by a Foxkin. Yes, she knew that looks could be deceiving.
"Are you sure?" Alexia queried further. "Because that Foxkin seemed to take a shine to you."
A grim expression appeared on J.D's face as he looked back at her. "Like I said, I'm fine," he told her. "But there's something that Freya told me I've just remembered…" The woman frowned, puzzled. The name sounded familiar and she knew it was somebody from the future, but she couldn't put the name to the face. "…she gave me a warning about Foxes. And now we're here there are Foxkin roaming about."
Alexia perked up at this. "You think they might be dodgy?" She asked him.
"She wouldn't have warned me if they weren't!" J.D sassed back.
Sighing, Alexia rolled her eyes at his attitude. "Fine. Then maybe we need to tell The Doctor this…" Though she noticed he was shaking his head. "What?"
"Bad idea," he told Alexia. "The Doctor never likes knowing his future…" The woman tried to interrupt but J.D continued. "…and telling The Doctor wouldn't be a good idea either. You don't have abilities like Jaime and he'd only ask how you know. We'll figure it out as we go along."
Now Alexia felt even more confused. If he had identified an obvious danger, why didn't he want to tell everyone else?
Behind them, Jenny was talking excitedly to Jaime, her eyes wide as she looked around at her surroundings. The music was louder now but she had yet to figure out what was being sung. "All these people who are here, aliens, humanoid and humans…" She watched as a pair of rusty coloured Raxicoricofallipatorians walked past, heading away from the music. "…all of them are visitors or short term citizens. Yet I don't see any of the humans that are supposed to live here." Jenny was frowning, trying to work out what was going on. "Maybe we arrived at an earlier point in their history."
Jaime shrugged her shoulders thoughtfully, only half listening. She kept getting distracted over the odd feeling of impending doom and familiarity of the area. Maybe she'd been here before. "Possibly," she muttered and spotted an adult Adipose with four of its children walk out of a Confectionary Shop. "Or perhaps they're just shy." Then again that really didn't make any sense. When it came to humans they were far from shy.
Suddenly Jaime stood still and narrowed her eyes. Something felt off and it wasn't the impending doom she was feeling. "Can ye feel that?" She asked Jenny.
The young Time Lady turned to her sister. "What is it?" She asked.
Looking around, the Scots-girl could feel various types of emotions of the people walking about. Some of them were anxious, apparently wanting to get to the Concert. There were waves of excitement, happiness, adoration, love, anger, frustration…etc. But there was another emotion, much stronger than the rest. Waves of longing sadness that were so strong that it felt to Jaime like her Shields were down. "C'mon, this way!" She said, changing direction to walk across to the other side of the 'road'.
"Where are you going?" Jenny asked and followed after Jaime.
When they reached the other side of the road, Jaime stopped and stared at a brown skinned woman with frizzy dark hair. She was sat on her own outside a Café, crying her heart out. No-one seemed to want to help her. "Can ye feel that?" Jaime asked again, looking at Jenny this time.
"Yeah." Jenny replied. She could see it too. The poor woman's aura was a deep blue. That meant she was very sad. Heartbroken even.
"C'mon." The Scots-girl muttered and approached the young woman.
Jenny followed, looking up at the sign of the Café. "I can't believe there's a Starbucks here!" She commented.
Jaime sat down next to the young woman, while Jenny sat opposite them. "Is there somethin' wrong?" Jaime questioned the young woman who had jumped in fright when she'd spoke up.
Her eyes were red rimmed from crying so much, but now she looked suspiciously at her, it coming off in waves.
"It's okay," Jenny spoke up. "We're here to help, if we can."
The young woman looked at them, the suspicion easing away but not completely as she sobbed. She shook her head. "No, I don't think you can." She replied sadly.
She was about to stand up to leave until Jaime gently grabbed her arm. "I really think we can." Jaime contradicted the young woman. She began to listen in to her thoughts. "You're upset, extremely. Heartbroken. Someone ye love has hurt you. A boyfriend? They left ye?"
Eyes wide, the woman shook her head. "He wouldn't!" She replied. "Hux would never leave me. He's missing!" She cried and started sobbing again.
Jaime and Jenny looked at each other, wondering what that meant, then they turned their attention back to the young woman. "How do you mean by 'he's missing'?" Jenny questioned and Jaime rolled her eyes. Even the young woman thought it was a daft question.
"I mean 'missing' as in 'cannot be found'," she snapped. "I tried calling him but it just rings out. I went to the Police but they were no help. I've even asked around but nobody's seen him or knows why he disappeared. People say there are rumours but I don't want to believe them."
Jaime nodded grimly. "Och, ye wouldnae want tae believe a rumour. Tha's just idle gossip. Nowt good ever comes from that." She was starting to get a really bad feeling now along with the feeling of impending doom, which was then followed by a quick flash of danger. Seconds after that she felt a flash of surprise from John before their connection calmed down and dulled.
"Jaime? What's up?" Jenny asked because she could sense her sister was worried through their connection.
*Trouble,* The Scots-girl mentally replied back. *My Omni Senses are tingling.* She turned her attention back to the young woman. "Listen…what's your name?" She asked.
"My name is XeAna." The young woman replied.
Smiling but still looking grim, Jaime held out her hand and XeAna shook it. "Well XeAna, it's nice to meet you. I'm Jaime and this is Jenny." She nodded over at the young Time Lady who waved.
"Hello." She said with a hint of a smile.
Now Jaime stood up. "We came with friends and family and I'm sure my dad would love to help." She held out her hand again as Jenny stood up as well. "Come with us." Waves of suspicion washed off XeAna. "You've got tae trust us, 'cause we really can help."
Reluctantly, XeAna stood up and took a hold of Jaime's hand.
The three females ran towards the Concert, the music loud enough for their voices to be drowned out. She could have easily teleported to where everyone else had gone, but she didn't want to scare an already frightened XeAna. When they reached the Concert she found there was a very large crowd and it was too thick to push through. Apparently the band were a very popular death metal band called The Space Pirates. The lead singer was a dark skinned human with a skinhead called Hattie Munroe.
In Jaime's opinion it was more like deaf metal. "This is ridiculous." She muttered with a shake of her head. *Doctor! Doctor?!* The Scots-girl mentally called for The Doctor's attention. *Dad! We need you!* She could sense the Time Lord suddenly worrying once she got his attention.
*Jaime? What's wrong?* The Doctor asked her.
*Trouble.* Is what she replied with. *Serious trouble.*
While they were waiting for the others to turn up, Jenny, Jaime and XeAna moved off to where it was quieter. "Bloody hell, my ears!" Jaime griped, wincing. "Tell me ye didnae come here tae listen tae that?" She queried.
Poor XeAna just blushed in embarrassment.
"Jaime, Jenny!" The Doctor called as he and the others hurried towards them. "Where did you two go?"
Before an argument could erupt, Jaime didn't let him get any further. "Dad, this is XeAna and she's lost her boyfriend."
For a moment The Doctor was confused. "What do you mean 'lost her boyfriend'?" He asked.
Jaime turned to the young woman. "Go on, tell him!" She prompted and while XeAna was telling her story, Jaime was looking around once she noticed someone was missing. "Hey! Where the hell is John?" She asked.
The Time Travellers looked over at Jaime once she had spoken, tension in the air as well of the sound of music. "Oh, he went to take a little kid to Lost & Found," Rose replied. "Beautiful little thing she was. I thought he would be back by now."
Jaime was about to reply to the blonde until there was the sound of a mournful wail from XeAna, and the Time Travellers turned their attention to her. XeAna's eyes were wide open and she had her hands over her mouth in horror.
"Is that significant for you in some way?" Alexia asked the young woman.
XeAna nodded, still looking horrified. "We were approached by a child that looked a mix of Fox and Human, her eyes being orangey Amber, claiming she was lost. I wanted to go with them but the girl insisted she only wanted Hux to go with her to Lost & Found. I haven't seen him since." She ended with a sniff.
"Sounds similar to the girl who approached us." The Doctor spoke up. "She was a Fox-Human Hybrid as well." A thoughtful expression appeared in his face. "Seems like the Foxkin used their own DNA to clone the humans."
A very annoyed sounding growl came from Jaime. "And you thought that wasnae suspicious at all?" She snapped at the Time Lord. "Some strange lookin' kid insists she only wants one of ye tae take her and you dinnae batter an eyelid?" She glared at them, feeling her anger rising while the air around her was getting warm. "We were separated for jus' a couple of minutes and within those minutes my bond-mate was nabbed by a bloody wean!" Her voice was raised and her anger was scaring XeAna so much that Jenny had to comfort her. "Meanwhile you lot were listenin' tae some really shit music!"
"I actually liked it." Amy defended the Space Pirates' music but she ducked away when Jaime sent her angry glare her way.
"Did none of ye notice there's somethn' terribly off 'bout this place?" Jaime continued her rant. "And no matter how many times I'm callin' for John I'm gettin' no answer from him. I cannae feel or sense anythin' from him."
Alexia grinned at her daughter's ranting. That meant she did care! "Jaime, calm down," she said to the Scots-girl. "I'm sure John will be okay on his own. If he's anything like The Doctor he'll be talking their heads off."
In reply, Jaime let out an annoyed huff and shook her head. But her anger did settle down.
"Right," The Doctor uttered, happy that Alexia managed to keep Jaime's anger in check, yet unhappy about his missing brother. "Now we've got two missing people to find, abducted by child Fox hybrids for whatever reason…" Did the Foxkin have any part in this? "…What did you do once you found out your boyfriend was missing?" He asked XeAna, turning to her.
"I went to the police station…but they weren't very helpful." She replied. The Doctor grinned.
"Well, now we're here I'm sure we'll get somewhere quicker with them." He answered her. "Lead the way."
XeAna nodded and guided the Time Travellers to one of the many police stations dotted throughout The Twist.
Once the gang reached the closest police station they stormed in and The Doctor slammed his hand on the bell repeatedly because there was no-one at the desk. He even loudly shouted for attention.
Meanwhile, Alexia had noticed a Notice Board on the opposite wall, full of leaflets and posters. There was a poster for the safe and humane removal of a cute looking creature called a Pting. They were to be electrocuted to death before removal. It made Alexia wonder what harm such a little creature could cause. It was hardly fair at all.
There was another poster for a Retail Company called Kerblam with an exclamation mark. The wording on said poster stated you could 'pick it, click it, Kerblam it'. There was also a picture of a robot dressed as a Postman on the poster. But the more Alexia looked at the robot, the more she found its glowing blue eyes to be creepy. Shuddering, Alexia looked away from the poster to see what else was on the Notice Board.
There were several wanted posters for the Galaxy's Most Wanted Criminals. The first one was for somebody called Krasko. He was a Time Agent who had murdered dozens of people. His picture showed him to be in his late teens or early twenties. Alexia wondered if Jack ever knew him.
The second poster was for a Stenza, whatever one of those were, with a hard to pronounce name. He or she was wanted for genocide and its photo showed that it's skin was ice blue, with white bits. Alexia didn't want to even imagine what those white bits were, so she moved onto the next poster.
The next one was for a group of Morax, apparent mud creatures, who had done unspeakable damage and were yet to be caught. The reason for their capture was not given. The next one was for…
Alexia's eyes widened and she let out a gasp. "No way!" She muttered. This wanted poster was for a fella called Roj Blake and several known associates including Villa Restal, Kerr Avon, Jenna Stannis and Cally. They were all wanted for Space Piracy and various degrees of terrorism. Their mode of transport was a ship called The Liberator. Alexia continued to stare at the wanted poster in disbelief. So, the characters of 'Blake's Seven' actually existed in this Universe. Well, the show was created by the same person who created the Daleks. She wondered if The Doctor had crossed paths with him and his crew. "Have you ever come across The Liberator, Doctor?" Alexia asked the Time Lord, not realising he was a tad busy.
"I have," Jenny spoke up, joining Alexia at the Notice Board. "They were a nice bunch, but they were a very close crew."
Alexia nodded thoughtfully. "In our old Universe 'Blake's Seven' was a TV show, just like 'Doctor Who'. There used to be omnibus episodes every Sunday morning before Classic Who on UK Gold." When she didn't receive an answer, she looked over at Jenny who was staring at another wanted poster in horror. "What is it?" She asked.
"Oh no!" Is all Jenny uttered with.
"What?" Alexia queried, moving closer to her younger daughter and looking at the poster. Her eyes widened once again, her blood ran cold and a shiver went down her spine. "Oh my god!" She exclaimed.
The photo of the Wanted Poster was of her very own daughter. When she was in her original body. Her young face was twisted in anger and pain, her long brown hair flying all over place as her hands emitted red hot fire. There was no name given on the Wanted Poster, but her given alias' were 'The Fire-Bird', 'The Windmaker', 'The Demon', 'The Manipulator of Minds', 'The Shadow', 'The Destroyer'… She had to stop there because the list of alias' were practically endless. The reason for capture was for murder, manslaughter, physical and mental assault, manipulation, false imprisonment. Over 15 Galaxy's wanted her captured alive and for that to happen a bounty of 100 million Universal Credits had been placed on her head. Reading all that literally felt like it hurt. She remembered Jaime telling her the circumstances of how this came about, but she'd been vague over what actually happened. But here it was for all to see, the horrible truth of those circumstances.
"That is a lot of money for just one person!" Jenny said, still looking at the Wanted Poster.
Acting quickly, Alexia looked back to see that The Doctor and her current Jaime were talking to the man at the desk. He was distracted enough, so turning her attention back to the poster she ripped it off the Notice Board and shoved it into her pocket.