Prologue

The Massimo Bellini Theatre, Sicily

"How much time do I have?" asked Holly, as she faded from sight.

Artemis checked the stopwatch on his watch. "If you hurry," he said, "none."

Holly launched herself out over the audience, controlling her trajectory using the joystick build into the thumb of her glove. Artemis was wrong. There was time to stop this. All she had to was throw the shooter's aim off a little. The demon would never get anchored, and Section Eight could track these Mud Men at their leisure. It was simply a matter of touching the marksman's elbow with her buzz baton to make him lose control of all his motor functions for a few seconds. Plenty of time for a demon to appear, then disappear. Then Holly smelled burning ozone and felt an odd wind on her arm. Artemis was not wrong. There was no time. Someone was coming.

"DOCTOR! What's wrong?" shouted Amy Pond, holding on to the console as the TARDIS rocked violently. Her husband, Rory, was doing the same to her right, while the Doctor danced around the console, trying to get the TARDIS under control.

"I don't know!" the Doctor shouted back, hands flying over the zig-zag plotter. "A big hole just appeared in the Vortex and sucked the TARDIS down it."

Sparks burst from the console, narrowly missing Amy's face. "What, like a giant plug hole?"

"No, hang on, yes! Anyway, hold tight! Geronimo!"

All three occupants braced themselves for the impact...

Thud. The TARDIS had landed.

The Doctor cautiously opened one eye. Upon seeing that nothing was damaged, he opened the other. "Ok," he breathed, clearly relieved that everything was fine.

"Err, where exactly are we?" asked Rory nervously.

"I don't know, but there's no harm in looking. Come on!" the Doctor replied, jumping down the stairs and disappearing out the door.

Amy and Rory exchanged glances before quickly following him. Amy pulled open the door and was met by a theatre full of people. She had just enough time to register that the Doctor lay unconscious at her feet before she felt a sharp pain in her leg.

'Great,' she thought before she lost consiousness. Seconds later, Rory joined his wife and friend on the stage. A trapdoor opened and the three inert bodies and the TARDIS were soon hidden from the audience's view.

Artemis was stunned. He was expecting a demon, not a blue 1950's Police Telephone Box and three humans. But there was no doubt about it, they had appeared, not the demon, but most importantly, they had been captured by his mysterious opponents.

"Hmm," he said as a light fell from the ceiling onto the stage, providing a distraction for the audience.

Butler glanced at his young charge. 'Hmm indeed,' he thought.