Catch me if you can (Dante)

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“Doctor?? Ace??”

Maggie bit her lip as she huddled into a corner against a crate. Her fingers meekly twisted into her hair as she tried to figure out what the heck had happened. She, The Doctor, and Ace had been off on another of The Doctor's hair brained adventures trying to right wrongs and explore at the same time. So how did she go from tagging along with the two of them to being.... wherever the heck she was? That was when she noticed a spark fly from her arm. Her Vortex Manipulator had shorted out. She let out a frustrated groan and tore it off her arm and shoved it into her backpack..

Ace and The Doctor were going to have kittens when they realized she was gone. She never did quite understand them for that. Shortly after she'd just met them, they were insanely protective of her. She had just brushed it off as that was just how The Doctor was.. Mister 'Gotta Save Everyone'. Well. Maggie figured she had two options, Hide under a crate and wait for Ace and The Doctor.. Or have a little adventure and go exploring.

She slipped her pack onto her shoulders and stood brushing herself off and looked around. She noticed what looked like a security camera nestled into the corner near the ceiling. Some kind of warehouse? She stood still for a moment. This was no ware house. She could feel the slightest vibrations. And Engine? Oh brilliant.. She was on a ship of some kind. Well that meant she had to find the captain, explain the mix up and politely ask to be dropped off somewhere so she could rendezvous with The Doctor and Ace.

She waved cheerfully at the camera. Odds were, if there was a camera, someone was watching, right? She grinned her infectious grin and then went to try and find a door out of this dark and creepy room. She came to door that looked like it required a pass code to come or go through. She smirked a little. Locked Doors? No problem! Little trick Ace taught her. When something's in your way, Blow it up. She dug through her pack and found a small brick of tacky gray clay like material. C-4.

She picked off a tiny piece from the corner and rolled it between her thumb and forefinger until it was a long and thin strip and she smooshed it into the crease between the keypad and the door. Now, all she needed was a little spark to get a little light show. She began to mash the keys randomly. It was a little trick she learned from Ace. Even if the code is wrong, it sends an electrical impulse. And that was all she needed. There was a bright flash and a loud pop and the door slowly creaked ajar. She smirked and slipped through the door.

Unfortunately, her tampering with the door seemed to have set off an alarm. “Oops. Um.. I can explain.”

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Up until the relatively peaceful quiet had been shattered by the klaxon, pirate Captain Dante Wilder had been standing in front of what would be considered an evidence board. Her and her crew were sat at varying points around the small area of the bridge contemplating the data displayed on the screen, and having a rather loud discussion about it. "We got as far as here" Irwin voiced, pointing to a planet in the corner of the screen, "before we lost her again. It's like looking for a needle in a bloody haystack. We'll never find her, at least alive." He finished, scratching at the stubble forming on his chin before throwing his hands up in the air and pacing to the back of the room. "If we can try and isolate her movements down to a specific time-frame, we may find a pattern or even a place she visits repeatedly. That's the best chance we've got." Lars added, moving various pieces of text and co-ordinates around on the board. "I still don't like it. Who the hell are we even working for?" Irwin continued, scratching at the back of his head and kicking at the wall.

"Oh ye of little faith." Dante spoke up for the first time in a while, striding forward to stand in front of the screen and gracefully ignoring the question of quite whom had ordered the contract. The pirate only had a vague idea herself. They had had this contract for little over a week, and in that time they had focused on gathering intelligence. So far, they had the intel, just not a clear view of it. "We need to focus our intelligence. Irwin, you and Lars go over the movements and try to build a timeline. Dax, you're on relations, find out anything and everything. I want to know it all; her long lost uncle, her best friend, even the boy she had a crush on in school. The more we have the more we know." The pirate continued, the others nodding along as she paced in front of the screen. "What will you be doing?" Irwin asked, still sounding sceptical but ever so slightly less so. "I gotta make some calls." Dante said, bringing out an old fashioned mobile phone so that it'd have less chance of being tracked and traced.

That was when the klaxon went off.

The crew stopped for a moment, looking at each other in confusion, before bustling into action. "What've we got?" Lars leaned over Dante's shoulder as she propelled herself into the comfy chair in front of the screens. With a tap of the keys, the feed from the hold popped up. A sharp intake of breath seemed to echo around the room as Dante's face contorted into one of utter disbelief before twisting into a malevolent grin. "Well I never." She breathed, jumping out of the chair in excitement. "Crew, it's our lucky day." She said, striding through to the weapons room to let them take a look at the screen. Dante couldn't help but laugh as she suited up upon hearing their reactions. Time to put the show on the road.

"Right, Irwin your on traces, find out how she got on here and close all comms networks. Cloak the ship and set a course for the nearest trade hub." Dante stopped at the lift, calling it back up from the second floor. "Lars, Dax - you're with me. Lets go, lets go!" Dante barked the orders, finally stepping into the lift with the two crew members and setting a course for the hold. The red blip seemed to be adventurous. Naughty girl - Dante didn't like intruders.

The life journey passed in silence, marred only by the wretchedly cheerful lift music as it carried them into the bowels of the ship. In the way the ship was laid out, the hold was separated into compartments so that it could carry all manner of things without them interfering with each other. As it was on the tracker, the red blip was making its way through the door nearest the end and towards the lift, right towards them. Lady luck was apparently smiling down on them today.

The door chimed open and Lars and Dax strode out, raising their rifles up to point at the intruder. Red dots hovered around her face from Lars's rifle and Dax's many ones, pinning the girl to the spot. Dante took the moment to make an entrance, swinging her pistol around her finger and waltzing in between her two crew members. "Well, well, well. Yvellyn Cross; it really is a pleasure." The pirates face twisted into a evil looking grin and her eyes glinted with malevolence, the pistol still swinging away.

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Maggie froze on the spot like a deer caught in headlights. She even stopped breathing for a brief moment as her brain struggled to keep up with what was going on. She broke a door lock. This warranted having guns pointed in her face? “Dont you guys think you're being a little melodramatic?” as asked softly, arching a thin brown brow at them. That was when someone else strode into the corridor twirling a pistol on her finger. “Look, if it's really that big a deal, I'll find a way to pay for the door” she pointed out motioning back to the door she had escaped through.

"Well, well, well. Yvellyn Cross; it really is a pleasure."

Maggie stared blankly at the woman for a moment. She hadn't heard that name since she was ten years old. And only the police and the people at the orphanage knew her by that name. Her fingers twitched at her sides as she tilted her head to the side curiously, her oddly matched eyes narrowing. “Who are you?” she asked flatly. These people couldn't have been from Earth. An orphanage or the London Police wouldn't go this far to find one runaway. This had to have been about something else. But what? Maggie had a rather scatterbrained memory. “And I dont answer to Yvellyn. If you're going to call me something, It's The Magpie, thank you very much.” she said stubbornly.

But as she looked the woman over, she couldn't help but wonder why she looked familiar. She could swear she'd seen scales like that, somewhere before, but she couldn't place where. And Maggie, scatterbrained as her memory could be, she never forgot a face. But it was probably nothing. But having guns pointing at her face was greatly unnerving her. She drew in a deep breath and, focusing on the large rifle in the man's hands. One of the upsides of being a telekinetic, You always had an ace up your sleeve. She slowly clenched her fingers as she focused on the rifle, watching the metal of the barrel begin to bend and contort.

“So.. why dont we put down the guns and we can talk about this like civilized sentient beings. I wouldn't want to hurt anyone” That, of course, was an empty threat. She was too tenderhearted to actually hurt someone on purpose.

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The pistol swung round a couple more times before the pirate saw it fit to holster it; waving a nonchalant hand at Lars to get him to lower his rifle at least a little bit so that the girl could talk. Dax's set were still kept held. "You really don't know do you?" The pirate asked, faking sympathy and meeting the girls narrowed eyes with her hardened gaze. "The name's Dante Wilder; Cap'n Dante Wilder to you kid. Intergalactic pirate,smuggler and contractor." Dante finished with a flourish, the rather sinister air around her not quite dissipating.

"The Magpie, eh? Now who's being melodramatic?" The pirate grinned, an amused glint in her eye which quickly turned sour when she somehow bent Lars's rifle barrel to the point where it was unusuable. She waved it away with a vaguely bored expression. "I have more." Dante simply stated, pulling out a miniature hologram reader from her pocket and pressing a set of buttons. A blue light flashed and beeped to display an image of the contract for this girl hovering above the set. "You've been a busy girl Magpie." The pirate said with just a hint of sarcasm. "Wanted alive or dead for blowing up my old trade hub. Ooh; that's not a good one. That's not a good one at all." The pirate contemplated, motioning towards Lars with a snap of her fingers.

The man had by now discarded his rifle and brought out a pair of laser cuffs instead which he quickly snapped around the girls wrists. Dante just smiled rather menacingly; though it was masked by an air of curiousness. The handcuffs were escapable; that was all part of the fun. Dante loved the thrill of the chase. It may take a while to manipulate them enough without raising one alarm or another; but it was well worth it for the game that ensued. "Of course, care for a game of twenty questions?" The pirate asked with one eyebrow raised, clapping her hands so that Lars and Dax moved to flank the girl. Lars still looked angry over the breaking of his favourite gun and Dax had no expression whatsoever as per usual. The pirate leant in to whisper sinisterly in the girls ear. "Let it be known Magpie that I don't consider you a threat. You are merely standing in the way of me and my reward. I'd much prefer to keep you alive, for now." The pirate hissed in a whisper, nodding resolutely at the girl with a sly smile on her face. For all she knew; this girl had inadvertently killed her father. She wasn't about to let her go that easily.

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"You've been a busy girl Magpie."

Maggie smirked at this. She wasn't sure what she'd done to warrant an adoring fan, and Maggie wasn't sure if she should be flattered or not, but she offered a casual shrug as if the redhead had made a passing comment about the weather. “Yeah well.. You know how it goes. Life on a TARDIS. Just cant keep still” she said rather drily, still trying to figure out what they heck this was all about.

"Wanted alive or dead for blowing up my old trade hub. Ooh; that's not a good one. That's not a good one at all."

“For what now?” Maggie tilted her head to the side with a bewildered expression in her oddly matched eyes. A trade hub? She had only been eight years old when it had happened, and Magpie's memories of the incident were hazy at best. She could faintly remember curling up in a ventilation duct to wait. She vaguely remembered hearing someone bartering for his life, and catching faint glimpses from her vantage point. And.. She remembered being found be security and interrogated. Her memories shut off with a violent shudder. The last thing she remembered was screaming for someone as a cloth bag was held over her head as they poured water, before she passed out. They had been trying to find out how she'd gotten onto the station without detection.

She was snapped back to reality when she felt the cuffs being slapped onto her wrists. “Hey, Look! You've got the wrong person!” she pleaded, tensing her wrists to flex the muscles so that when the cuffs were tightened, once she relaxed her arms the cuffs wouldn't be near as tight. She looked up at the woman rather sulkily. There had to be some sort of mistake. “What makes you so sure it's me?”

She warily looked on either side of her at the men who flanked her and she pouted all the more. This had to be just some huge misunderstanding.

"Let it be known Magpie that I don't consider you a threat. You are merely standing in the way of me and my reward. I'd much prefer to keep you alive, for now."

Maggie refused to budge from her spot. If they wanted her to go anywhere, they were going to have to drag her, probably kicking and screaming. “I bet you're no where near as tough as you pretend to be without that gun of yours. The Doctor will come for me.. and He's not going to be happy when he gets here!” she puffed up at her. Of course, she was more trying to convince herself of that than anything else.

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The pirate blinked before her face contorted into an assured grin. "No love, we got exactly the right person." Dante smirked, putting the portable hologram away in her pocket and snapping her fingers. "Put her in the contract room; we have some unfinished business." Dante growled passionately, glaring out at the others. Lars and Dax each took an arm and kicked harshly at the back of the girls kneecaps to send her to her knees. Dante crept closer and laughed mockingly, clapping her hands in misplaced appreciation. "I don't think a lil' man in a dickie bow's gonna be much of a threat. He doesn't even know where you are! No-one knows where you are!" The pirate hissed with a dash of sickening glee, pinching one of the girls cheeks with a menacing grin before striding off towards the stairs, watching as Lars and Dax dragged the girl into the left, Irwin following with a gun. For once, there was no lift music to offer a distraction. The ship seemed to have lost all inch of vibrant colour and was left void of any emotion save from anger. The entire vessel seemed to pulse with it.

Dante had taken the stairs to give her time to think. With each step on the ageing metal stairs she imagine stomping on the face of her fathers killer. Wrath was a terrible thing to possess at such a delicate time like this. Oh she was going to make her suffer as her father suffered; it was only fair - wasn't it?

The evidence room was a small holding cell off the bridge, the walls once stark white were now covered with pictures of the hub as it exploded. Different stages of the detonation, different parts of the carnage and a lingering one of the scavenger ship sent out to recover the debris. Dante sank herself into the chair opposite the table, crossing one leg over the other and staring straight across. She didn't move as the girl was brought in and dumped unceremoniously in the chair. She didn't answer the whispered protests of her crew as she waved them away. She only stared at the girl that had caused it all; the one that had changed her fate and set her future. It was clear that the pirate was seething. Gone was the cool demeanour, what was left was barely suppressed anger that had been boiling for years and years and had only now made it to the surface.

"Why?" Dante asked furiously, her voice brimming with negative emotion. "I didn't take up this contract because of the payout; oh no, that was immaterial to getting my hands on you. You were my reward." The pirate started, leaning back in the chair and regarding the girl as if she was a piece of dirt on her shoe. "I knew that if I traded you in straight away, I'd never get my answers. I need those answers, all my life I've been searching. It consumed me, it destroyed me. It's made me what I am. Take a look at what you created Magpie"

The pirate took a breath to let it sink in before continuing. "I was on that trade hub with my father, an HONEST man. We were trading out latest catch; he was manning the stall and I was checking the stock. He burned that day, and it's down to you. They all burned, and it's your fault. Think on your sins, Magpie. You don't have much time left." Dante spat the girls name as if it was poison gesturing around at the pictures around the room; the glint in her eye turning darker by the minute.

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As the woman glared down at her, she could feel her heart rate quicken in fear. It was all too true that no one knew where she was. Not Ace, not The Doctor, not her parents. She was in the middle of No Man's land with a woman who had a vendetta against her for something she didn't remember doing. Her throat tightened as she went to explain that the money had nothing to do with this. This was personal. “Lady, please! I swear I don't know what you're talking about!”

She bit her lip uncertainly as she squirmed in the seat she had been so haphazardly been shoved into as looked at the woman. There was something familiar about her. She didn't want to seem racist.. or was it speciesist? Maggie sort of ran away from home before Leo could cover that technicality with her. The light sheen of scales that dotted her skin. She could vaguely remember seeing something like that once before as a child. A man and a younger woman and boxes. Lots of boxes.... And fire. The redhead from her dream. Her eyes seemed to flicker in recognition of the woman in front of her.

“You... You can't be real. That was just a dream! That didn't really happen!” she insisted with a choked whine. “Where's your proof? You dont have anything! You just have your word against mine!” she shouted. Maggie was unaware that there had been footage of her being interrogated by the hub security, documentation of her little telekinetic freakout when they started water gagging her. It was when she started screaming that the lights flickered and systems had begun to fail. While it have been Sevaros who had destroyed the hub, Maggie's actions made her a very convincing scapegoat.

“Prove it or let me go, lady!”