On Raven's Wings

Eerie carefully read over the note his employer had sent at the last minute in the museum the portrait of the weeping woman. He had been hired at first to test the security of the Edgar Allen Poe museum now his plans had changed.
Not being at a high profile museum had advantages it was a simple matter to disable the motion sensors as he entered the main lobby. The small portrait hung with a small collection of fine art allegedly owned by the famous author.
He reached to the portrait this was easy he thought but then his vortex manipulator gave a loud whine reacting to some temporal energy.

New York January 1845
Next thing Eerie knew he was standing in the middle of the busy London street in a time he did not reconize. His manipulator beeped again this time with a message Steal the first copy of The Raven and I will allow you to leave this time. With that his manipulator gave off sparks and quiet working it was useless.
After this was over Eerie had plans to have a word with his employer, the job did not seem hard though. He headed towards the nearest newspaper knowing the author often frequented such places.

Baltimore January 2009

It had been a blast of temporal energy that had thrown his Tardis out of whack and landed it on earth sometime in the 21st century. "Oh dear..." the doctor checked the scanners to see what was outside. "This isn't good..." He was talking to himself as Jennifer, his newest companion was still sleeping. The Tardis just had to land in a cemetery, the absolute last place he'd wanted to take Jennifer, considering how recently she'd lost her husband. But the Tardis was unable to take off until the source of the temporal energy was dealt with. And he was curious to see what it was, so he decided to go out and investigate.

Taking a flashlight and wrapping his jacket tighter around himself, the doctor left the Tardis and proceeded to wander the grounds. In his other hand was a small device, useful for locating temporal anomalies. In this particular case, the Tardis had been drawn off course by a time corridor. One end was in this graveyard.

Not far from the Tardis, the beam of the light fell upon one of the tombstones. "Edgar Allan Poe..." He'd heard of the writer, wasn't he involved with something including ravens? But that didn't matter now. The little device in his hands was beeping frantically. This was it, he was standing in front of it. The tombstone, as it turned out, was a perception filter. It was the doorway to the time corridor. The doctor was about to step inside when a sudden noise interrupted him. Hurriedly switching off his light and hiding behind a nearby mausoleum, the doctor watched as the silhouette of a man in a wide brimmed hat and dark jacket approached the tombstone. The white scarf around the man's neck was the most visible aspect of this mysterious figure. He approached Poe's grave and stepped into the time corridor. The doctor jumped in immediately after.

New York January 1845
The bustle of New York's busy streets formed a distinct contrast to the silence of the cemetery. The doctor turned around to find that the other end of the corridor was disguised to look like a brick wall in a back alleyway. He could also see the man in the wide brimmed hat strolling towards a large brick building. So, pocketing the flashlight and the small device, the doctor quietly followed.

After wandering awhile Eerie stood in front a large brick building probably a lecture hall. Being late at night there were only a few people listening as the famous author finishing the last line of his famous poem "Quoth the raven, nevermore" It almost seemed like the author was staring at him as he finished. (Poe can see through perception filters?)
As he watched a man with a wide brimmed hat and white scarf slipped out of his seat and slipped a business card purposely into Eerie’s pocket. Out of the corner of his eye Eerie saw another man with a fur coat following the businessman.
The card said “The Great Intelligence” beware The Doctor.” Then it flashed with pictures of different men including the man with the fur coat. Seeing both men distracted Eerie snuck closer to Poe to follow him to his home that would be the most likely place for his papers.

The doctor followed the mysterious man in the white scarf to a lecture hall. He took a seat near the back and watched as Poe ascended the stage. The doctor sat through the reading of the poem, though his eyes were always focused on the man. Had he met him before? While clapping for Poe, the doctor watched the man get up and approach someone near the entrance. Interestingly enough, he was conversing with an cat alien. Sure the alien was wearing a perception filter, and appeared like a gentleman of the time. But he was really a cat alien. The doctor had met this species before. Now he had a difficult choice. Should he continue following the man in the wide brimmed hat, or the other one. Suddenly, the room was pierced by a scream.

Gregory Martin, one of the attendees at the lecture hall, was hung on every word delivered by the intriguing author. The instant the word "nevermore" was delivered, he stood up along with the rest of the crowd, and furiously clapped his applause. An editor of a prestigious paper, he planned to print The Raven in the next issue.

Martin was washing his hands in the restroom, and talking about the poem to the man next to him. He'd already bought the rights from Poe and was set to print it tommorow. Then he heard the faucet turn, cutting off the flow of water, and turned to see that whoever was beside him, with its "hand" gripping the faucet, wasn't human at all.

Edgar Allan Poe, having just delivered the Raven was about to leave the lecture hall when a scream came from the bathroom. He rushed in, to find Martin slumped over the sink, his face covered in his own blood.

Without a word the man with the white scarf glanced away towards the restroom following a newspaper editor as indication to be wary. Not even a minute later there was a blood curdling scream, the crowd was in a panic preventing Eerie from seeing what happened.
He could guess that he was trapped in deadly game of cat and mouse between the Doctor and the Great Intelligence he would have to play his cards carefully. Now he had no intention of helping a murderer change history who knew what the consequences to his own time would be.
Eerie snuck to the Doctor and slipped the note he received into his pocket only writing on the back "I will follow your lead, man in white scarf is dangerous meet me outside." He flapped his large black wings as hard as he could to create a gust of wind to part the crowd as Eeriew went towards a back exit.

The doctor forced his way through the crowd and rushed towards the restroom. Inside he found Poe leaning over the victim, pressing his fingers against his bleeding neck. "No pulse..." the author said mournfully. The doctor moved over and helped him to his feet. "Now it's no use thinking about it. Go home and get some rest." Poe took one last look at the deceased, before exiting the bathroom. In truth, he was most likely involved in all this, but it wouldn't do to alarm him. The doctor examined the body, finding deep gashes along the neck and upper torso. Whatever had done this had been quick about it but...he stuck his head out into the hallway. There was no way out but down the hallway down which he had come. Which meant...

The thing that had attacked and killed Gregory Martin leapt from the nearest bathroom stall onto the doctor, prepared to rip him to shreds...

After a few minutes of waiting it seemed the Doctor was either in trouble or ignoring his note. Impatiently Eerie paced in the back ally when he heard a scraping noise coming from the roof a creature was squirming into the air ducts to attack someone.
Carefully he followed the piping across the empty hallways peeking behind every corner until he found the Doctor investigating a pool of blood. Someone had been murdered by that thing. As Eerie watched the creature appeared again this time right behind the Doctor’s head.
“Duck” Eerie shouted as he slashed with his sword injuring the creature but not killing it. Now he was in trouble his weapon was only making it angry.
“We have to go after Poe he is in danger, check your pocket.” Eerie gasped for breath as he barely parried away the deadly claws. “Oh, and a plan would be good!”

the doctor hadn't heard Eerie's cry of "duck" but he leant down to examine the claw marks, and the creature's assault with its left claw barely missed his head. The creature growled and turned to fight Eerie, lashing out with its claws. The doctor did have a plan, and he hoped Eerie had enough stamina to follow through, as he could see he was gasping for breath. "Run!" He shouted, before fleeing for a nearby exit.

Now they were in trouble Eerie tried to think as they ran into the alleyway it was barely wide enough for his arms to touch the walls outstretched. Worse he did not have enough strength to leap up to grab a ladder from the roof. He could hear the creature crash against the steel doors from the exit they would not last long.
"The roof if we could get there…" Eerie exclaimed he was very close to panic trying to control his shaking hands the enclosed space effecting his concentration. (he has claustrophobia) To his regret the alleyway led to a dead end but there was a high ledge he could climb to if he had help.
“There,” Eerie said pointing the ledge out to the Doctor “I think I could reach the ledge if I had a boost then I’ll help you up.”
Just as they were about to climb the creature appeared behind them growling in triumph.

Two thick steel doors were all that protected them from whatever their assailant was. The doctor had never gotten a good look, but the stench...It managed to combine that of a decomposing body with the smell of rotten eggs. Thankfully the thing was still banging away at doors, and the smell was much fainter out here in the fresh air. The doctor looked around noticing how narrow the alley way was. It was dark out, and the alleyway was empty. Yet even in the darkness he could still see that the mysterious man was now shaking, perhaps out of fear of what was behind them. He mentioned the roof, and the doctor looked up. He was right about it being their only option. The alleyway led to a dead end. The doctor knew he could at least trust this man to help him up, he had some business with him after all. He moved to a position below the ledge, and was about to help the man up when the smell suddenly returned full force. The thing had broken through. "Hurry up!" the doctor yelled.

Just as he got to the ledge the smell of methane overwhelmed him, as the monster stalked closer he glanced across the roof contemplating running away. But he still needed help traveling to his own time.
The moon basked his dark wings now he could think, "Eerie Heitz sends his regard." he shouted as he glided overhead and lit his lighter making sure it landed on the methane smelling monster. Landing on another roof with quiet satisfaction he rushed over to the ledge to help the Doctor up. His eagle like eyes narrowing in anger as he thought of the man who had trapped him here.
"Let's go" he said.

The doctor watched as the cat alien glided overhead and tossed a small object down. The doctor's eyes widened when he recognized the small flame, immediately he covered himself, hoping the resulting explosion wouldn't reach him. But there was none. He glanced down the alleyway where the creature had once stood. It was gone. The lighter was lying on the ground, its flame sputtering. Quickly he glanced around, wondering if the monster had managed to jump out of the way. But it was gone. Teleportation he thought. It seemed the best answer for how the creature had gotten away so easily. The gentleman cat had landed on another ledge and the doctor accepted his help getting up. Clearly the monster hadn't acted alone. Someone was behind all this. But who?

It seemed the man he'd followed from the future was the obvious choice. And he'd watched his new acquaintance meet him. "You know the man in a wide brimmed hat and white scarf, who is he?" he asked.

"All I know is his buisness card said the Great Intelligece, he trapped me here after giving me intructions but no payment he wanted me to steal a copy of The Raven from the author. Now I want words with him, he did nothing but make me angry. We may never have another chance to work together I want a ride home and you want to stop these monsters, that might not always happen. My name is Eerie Heitz." He bowed a bit showing off now that they were in a wide open space.
"Everying is connected to Edgar allen Poe." he concluded gesturing towards the city wondering where exactly they would end up next.

"Oh wonderful" the doctor replied. "The great intelligence, we go way back." He raced after Eerie. "But what would a disembodied mind want want with a poem? I'm the doctor by the way. I believe we should visit Mr. Poe's home."

With some discreet questioning Eerie managed to find out where Edgar lived. He stealthily watched the home as the author went to bed looking out for the monster and the man in the white scarf. "he is after the orginal work mabye.." Eerie trailed off thinking of an old story he once heard. "say a creature's name enough and it becomes real, is there a creature with a form of a raven?" he asked almost rhetorically glancing at his own black wings and bird like features. "If we can make the monster teleport again can we follow?" shaking his wrist with the vortex manipulator on it trying to suggest a plan.