Somewhere, in a swirling vortex that exists outside of Time itself, flew a police box that was not a police box.
The biggest TARDIS Team, consisting of the First Doctor, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, Susan Foreman, the Fifth Doctor, Tegan Jovanka, Nyssa, Adric, the Seventh Doctor, Ace McShane, the Eleventh Doctor, and Amy Pond, were quarreling over where to go.
"Stop it, everybody, just stop!" Eleven commanded, leaning on the console. Ian stopped chewing on the ham sandwich he had made earlier, back in his own TARDIS. "Now what were you saying, Susan?"
She took a hesitant step forward. "Since the force that brought us here seems to be able to hijack TARDISes, why don't we try to trace that link back and find the source of this?"
"Yes, that might work!" Five said, dashing forward to the console. He whipped out his brainy specs. He examined the console for a minute before turning to Eleven. "Erm…"
"Need help figuring what dials do what?"
"Yes."
"Here, let me help. Amy, take everybody who isn't Five and Susan down to the power room and give everything she has up here for this. Seven and One will know how to divert the power, just listen to me."
"Keeping us away from the fun," Amy muttered. In a louder voice, she said, "Okay, come along everybody, power room this way!"
As everybody filed out, Eleven turned to Susan.
"So," he said, clapping his hands together. "Let's get to work!"
"The power room is through here, I think," Amy said as she led everybody through the TARDIS corridors. She opened doors at random, and promptly closed them when they turned out that they did not contain the power room. Rather, most of them were closets. How many closets did the TARDIS actually have?
She opened yet another door. It was still a closet, but this time two metal canisters rolled out. Ace bent down and picked them up.
"Ace, Professor!" she said upon examination. "These are Nitro! I've been needing more!" She stuck the canisters into her backpack, where several other, identical canisters were. However, these were in slightly better condition. Ian swallowed the piece of his sandwich that he was chewing then, wrapped it up, put in in his pocket, and pulled a canister out of Ace's bag.
"Hey!" Ace protested, but Ian ignored her and popped open the cap.
"This is an explosive," he said.
"Yeah, I made it myself. Nitro-Nine, I call it," Ace reclaimed her homemade explosive.
"Does it work?" Ian asked, not sure whether to be interested in her awesome chemistry skills, or worried that she built a bomb.
"Of course it does, ask the Professor." Ace said nonchalantly. "Come on, everybody's going to the power room without us."
Ian and Ace picked up their pace, chatting about chemistry. Ian gingerly held the explosive in his hands, though he could not help smiling that this girl had so much talent that she was able to create a working explosive. He could forgive her for blowing up a portion of his school. Well, will have blown up a portion of his school from his point of view, had blown up a portion of his school from her point of view. Or maybe had blown up a portion of his school from both of their perspectives, since she mentioned beating up a Dalek with her old baseball bat (in his room, from the sound of it) the day he and Barbara were kidnapped by the Doctor.
"Where have Chatterfield and the young girl gotten to, hmm?" the First Doctor asked himself. Amy had finally found the power room, and Tegan had noticed that Ian and Ace were missing.
"Probably chatting about chemistry," Seven answered. Right on cue, Ian and Ace walked into sight.
"You know," Ian was saying. "This is really quite amazing. How long's the timer?"
"Ten seconds," Ace said confidently.
"Ish," Seven corrected. Ace looked slightly guilty.
"Ish," she acknowledged.
Back in the console room however, something was wrong. Five, Eleven, and Susan couldn't work it out.
"What if we routed the telepathic circuits into the scanner?" FIve suggested.
"No, that'll do nothing but get us stuck in the Vortex forever," Eleven said.
"I don't know, then," Five was frustrated. "We've tried everything. Even when they give us all of the power from the Eye of Harmony, it still won't work. Have you any ideas, Susan?"
"Sorry, Grandfathers," Susan looked apologetic. "I don't know."
"Not your fault," Eleven said. Silence took over the console room for a few seconds.
"We'd still better try using the telepathic circuits, but for that we'd need more power. I wonder what's taking them so long?" Five said. "I'm going down there."
"I've a better idea, Mr Cricket!" Eleven flicked some switches while his granddaughter and younger self looked on. "Ask them now, from up here!"
Five cleared his throat. "Um, hello? Everybody at the power room?"
Amy's voice crackled back. "Yes Doctor- Doctors?"
"Give us everything the old girl has got. We're about to try and trace the signal that we found and find out who, or what, has hijacked the other TARDISes," Eleven spoke for his former self.
"Oh, yeah, right, about that…"
Eleven's eyes grew wide, and he looked at Susan and Five.
"Amy…?" he called.
"Well…" Amy trailed off, as if not wanting to continue. Tegan's voice then echoed through the console room.
"Oh, just tell them!" her twangy voice said.
"Tegan, tell me what?" Five's voice was level and calm, but he looked like he was trying hard to stop himself from sounding like an angry helium balloon.
"We've got no power at all!"
A dreadful silence took hold of the whole TARDIS.
"Oh dear," said Five.
The console room began to spin around, bucking up and down wildly. Susan reached for the dimensional stabilisers, but another thrash from the TARDIS knocked her against the railing.
Eleven held onto his console for dear life.
"Incoming!" he shouted. "Geronimo!"
The TARDIS shuddered as she hit the ground of… where, exactly? Eleven pulled himself up from his awkward position of both sitting on the ground, leaning on the console, and grabbing hold of the controls. Five and Susan were groaning as they pulled themselves away from the console railing. Eleven leaned towards the PA system.
"Everyone okay down there?" he called. A few muffled groans and exclamations as somebody stepped on somebody else were able to be heard. Finally, Adric was able to speak.
"I think so!"
Ian's voice came through next. "We're as okay as 0 Kelvin!"
Eleven had to laugh at that. "That's nice, Chatterton! You're as cool as you can get! That's very nice to know!"
"It's still Chesterton, Doctor," Ian corrected. One's amused laugh was heard.
"Well, come on up!" Eleven instructed. "I think that you know that we've crash landed, but I want to know where!"
They waited until the power room group returned before going out. What they saw surprised them.
"A maze!" Tegan sounded amazed.
The four Doctors stared at the maze.
"Well, you know what they say," Seven said. "'Try or try not, there is no do,'" he took a step forward.
Seeing his companions' faces, he continued. "Whatever brought us here obviously wants us here. And the only way to know why is to play their game."
"But isn't that just foolish?" Barbara asked.
"No; it's chess," he responded, before heading towards the giant maze in front of him.
"I know what I'm doing," Eleven followed his younger self into the maze, and beckoned his friends to come. "Brave heart, all!"
"If one more Doctor tells me that," Tegan muttered under her breath. With that, they ventured into the maze.
"Professor," Ace said suddenly. "I don't have a good feeling abou-"
Plants began to grow between the group. They twisted around Adric's leg and began to pull him down. Five jumped forward and grabbed him.
Within seconds, there was a near impenetrable wall of ivy and thorns keeping the group separated. Five did a quick headcount of who was trapped with him. Adric, obviously, and Nyssa and Susan were standing a little ways away. Nyssa was quietly trying to comfort the young Gallifreyan. The Fifth Doctor noticed that the way they came in was sealed off with ivy and thorns as well.
"Well, I suppose it's obvious which way they want us to go," Five murmured. Onwards.