Ferrum Corporis (Unit 57-Z intro thread.)

It was 300 BC, the very height of Roman power in the ancient world. At the very tip of the Italian peninsula, however, all is not well. An independent city state named Locrii that borders the ocean is under siege from what appears to be roman forces, although something sinister lies behind this invasion force, something that could throw the very timeline of the world out of the window if it had its way.

Unit 57-Z walked through the Roman siege camp, set up to deceive the citizens of Locrii about the true identity of their invaders. He himself was wearing some Roman armor, complete with medals, a flowing cape, a helmet with crest, and a large scutum shield, all to hide his identity from a distance. He walked into the command tent, which had a large table that had a holographic readout of the city of Locrii, with Cyberman tacticians poring over each bit of information. "Tactician 5473, report!" Unit 57-Z harshly droned out, and one of the cyber-tacticians turned away from the hologram. "Section 56 of the northeast wall is 54% less efficiently constructed than the other sections. Organic defenders number at 5,000, not including inorganic siege weaponry." the cyber-tactician reported in a monotone voice. Unit 57-Z nodded, and walked back outside to view the city. His legions of Cybermen, all disguised as Roman legionnaires, surrounded the city. Hopefully, this would go without interruption. The recently acquired vortex manipulator was used for this, and the fate of the Earth (and the galaxy) all lied on this invasion force. After all, with no humans to stop the Cybermen in the future, they will delete everything in the Cyber Wars that are yet to happen.

"Locrii! Ancient City State, ruled by the Greeks until the Romans came along and took them over. Sits right by the sea. Accidentally landed here once when trying to get to Athens, never did get to explore much. But I heard it's got some breathtaking views and some quality greek-culture" Theta Sigma talked excitedly over his shoulder, leaning out the white doors of the TARDIS. Behind him, in the console room, was Mal and Robin. They had somehow gotten contact of each other a while back, and then (like all humans did) they got bored. So one event led to another and soon Theta was flying the TARDIS, picking them up and going to Greece. He would have done Athens, but he wouldn't dare set foot in that city within this century. He was sure that Zeus was still mad at him for attacking those Windagoes. But in his defense, it had been an accident.

The moral of the story? They wouldn't be going to Athens, not unless Mal and Robin suddenly knew how to fly a TARDIS. Not that Theta would just let them fly off with Lady, either.

He let go of the doorframe and stood off to the side of the box, allowing the two girls to exit. They had landed between two small buildings, both of which, it was obvious, were owned by a lower rank Greek. They were only wood, and while the architecture wasn't horrible, these sorts of houses were still the ancient 'slums'. Not that Theta was complaining, no, he thought it was just wonderful. Why look at all the big fancy stuff when you could dig deeper, see more parts to the same culture?

Robin grinned, looking excitedly to Mal before running out of the doors. She giggled, leaning against the TARDIS as she stared at the building in front of her. "Oh yeah, it's beautiful." Looking over to Theta, she raised an eyebrow before running to peek into the time machine. "Mal, you coming?" She poked her head in, motioning for her to come out and take a look. Turning around, she took a few steps away from the building to look at the rest of the area.

It looked much like the other buildings, a bit... let's say average. "Alright, we're here... now what?" She turned around to face Theta and Mal to see only Theta. Rolling her eyes, she giggled and walked back over to the TARDIS. "You know not everything you hear is true, sometimes breathtaking can mean a few things." She gestured to the buildings, smirking at the Timelord.

(OOC: Discussed briefly in PM with Jenny we'd be going together via the vortex manipulator. And yes, in some RP before this, Jenny and I will meet up. If there are any issues, let me know.)

The Meta-crisis Doctor let out a gasp as his hand left Jenny's, his body curling over itself as he crouched. They had appeared in ancient greece, before the time of the Romans, via the vortex manipulator. And man was the travel a killer. He could never get used to that each time he had used it, though he had to wonder what kind of effects it had on the molecular structure of the one using it, handy as it was. With a groan he opened his eyes he had so tightly closed before, and stood up straight. His head was still throbbing from the effects, but he knew it would fade soon enough. He cracked his neck side to side, before he looked back at Jenny.

"Really, really, need a time capsule. How do you ever get used to that?" he said, regarding her with surprise. "And where did you ever happen upon a vortex manipulator anyway? Or did you steal Jack's?"

He looked away from her, finally focusing on his surroundings. His eyes blinked as he took in his surroundings. They had not actually landed in the city, which probably would have startled a great many toga wearing greeks into thinking them extra terrastreals. Wait, wrong time period, that was modern day earth. They were more likely to think them using magic, and burn them at the stake. Did they do that here? Or did they just make them fight in the colosseum?

"Oh! Ancient greece!" he finally exclaimed, looking around at the architecture. "I've always wanted to visit ancient greece. I was going to do that before I left with Rose, go to ancient Greece. Meet Plato and Aristotle and all those philosophers." He paused as he looked around, beginning to wander slightly as he moved from one part of the field to the next. "Well it all looks very much Greek, no Romans yet. I'd say we're about 300 or 400 BC. Right?" He looked back at Jenny, particularly at her vortex manipulator. "What year did you set it for anyway?"

(OOC: Bit of a history derp on my part. realized that the Romans didn't exist at 300 BC, but i'm going to roll with it, since out-of-place Romans should make this interesting)

As the time travelers would soon come to realize, one way or the other, the city state of Locrii was under siege by an unkown enemy. Citizens chatter about the short swords, large shields, and red uniforms of their invaders, but seem optimistic about the outcome in the siege. After all, Locrii is known throughout the region for their elite army of hoplites, which have fended off invaders before.

In the mock Roman camp, Unit 57-Z was still  observing the city when a light on his wrist started beeping. He raised his arm and looked at it momentarily, before pressing down on it with a finger. A hologram came up from his wrist. It was a cyber-scout, distinguished by its black coloration. Cyber-scouts had been dispatched to the hills bordering the city, to keep watch for any disturbances. "Cyber Commander, several temporal diturbances detected within the city walls! one is placed in the slum quarter, but the other seems to be mobile, located outside the city!" The scout whined out in its high-pitched monotone. "Acknowledged." Unit 57-Z replied in its deep, droning voice. He turned his back to the city, and walked into a huge tent, where a piece of Cyber Artillery was under construction. It resembled a giant emplaced telescope, except it carried just enough power to shatter the walls, but not damage any buildings. After all, Locrii was set to be the citadel that the Cyberman invasion forces, the entire elite army of hoplites slated for upgrading. "What progress have you made on the cannon?" Unit 57-Z barked out in his monotone. A cyber-engineer controlling some construction cybermats looked up from his terminal. "Cannon is operational at 57% efficiency. Estimated time of completion is two hours." The cyber-engineer replied, and Unit 57-Z nodded before he walked out. The temporal disturbances could mean only one thing. He looked back out towards the army of Cybermen disguised as Romans. They surrounded the city completely, save for from the sea, but that was what the cannon was for. it was impossible to realize they were truly cybermen from the walls of the city.

Mal had been clinging to Lady's rail as she flew through the vortex and landed in.. where were they? Rome? Greece? Oh man... Even when Robin and Theta exited she staid in the TARDIS arms crossed an a look of disturbance was placed on her face. She was probably going to die. They were going to capture her, throw her in prison.. maybe even rape her. Oh god! Barbarians. Robin poked her head back in and beckoned her outside. Even though the younger girl disappeared, Mal shook her head in defiance. There was no way in hell she was going out there to risk such things. But the second time Robin came in Mal finally let out an exasperated sigh. The ninth incarnation of the Doctor popped up in her head... his whole speech on living a long life sitting back echoing in her head. Well, it did inspire her and it was the only reason the petite girl decided to step out of Theta's TARDIS.

She gasped and looked around the place. Dang, this was actually cool. "People could actually build stuff like this way back when? That's... that's impressive. I don't know much about history or anything but this is just... yeah. But people weren't too bright in the past, were they? I guess they had to have been if they came up with this stuff. Random but do you know where I'd like to go? The Renaissance era. I think it would be cool to be wooed by a chivalrous man." Mal gave a little wink to Theta and started to laugh. Her knew attitude seemed odd but genuine.. and for the record it isn't nearly as odd as future Mal's!

Jenny looked at Meta-crisis Doctor then looked at her vortex Manipulator around her wrist mumbling the co-ordinates to herself she looked back at Meta-crisis, "Travel with it a lot that's how and other stuff..." She looked back at her Vortex Manipulator,"Err I did not steal it from Jack and I got it after my Space shuttle crash somewhere...That story I shall tell later.." She looked up from her Vortex Manipulator and looked at were they were not in a city good....Didn't want Greek people to stare at them oddly or anything else they might have done and there were no Romans so that was good I guess she looked back at her Vortex Manipulator, "300 BC before Romans Ancient Greece..." She looked around at her surroundings,"That would of been fun for the two of you.." She said not really knowing who Rose was guessing it was a companion of his. She lowered her arm to her side so she would stop making sure they landed in the right place for once it had gone to the place she actually wanted to go and be.

"300 BC! Good, I was right," the Metacrisis Doctor exclaimed as he looked away from Jenny's vortex manipulator. "Demetrius and Euclid then." He placed his hands on his hips as he walked around, idly looking at everything he could. They were just outside the wall, near enough to the entrance to see the guards at the gate, but not close enough for the guards to notice them. He could see a building through the doorway, which was probably the town hall or something similar. He continued his wandering, moving in the general direction of the gate, but twirling every now and then to look over the hills and such.

"Take a sniff of that air!" he exclaimed. "Fresh barley loves in the oven, and a little bit of pork stew," he remarked, his hands finding their way into his blue suit's pockets. "Did you know, that the greek had pancakes for breakfast?" He grinned widely, looking over at Jenny. "Although they didn't call them pancakes, they called them teganites. Or tagenites, or tagenias, or staitites or staitinos. But they're not like your normal pancake, made with milk, refined flour, and other stuff. Didn't have the machinery for that sort of thing, but they made due with what they did have. Sometimes topped with honey, sesame and cheese. I'd love to try one of those," he said as he rubbed his hands together.

"It's too bad I didn't bring a banana though. Greece didn't have bananas until the 15th century. I should bring one next time, always bring a banana where-ever you go..." he trailed off as he stopped, not too far from the gate as his eyes focused on the hills. His eyebrows raised as he regarded the hills, the goofy grin fading from his face slightly. If what he was seeing was right, he could see camps, and soldiers patrolling. Only these soldiers didn't look like trojans or greeks...they looked like romans.

"Jenny, are you sure we're in 300 BC?" He allowed her a moment to check her vortex manipulator, before he pointed at the hills where they met the skyline. "Because if this is 300 BC, then why are there romans up there?"

Mal's poke at Theta passed entirely over his head, unnoticed by the Timelord except for what the words said, instead of the secret meaning. He looked around the area, and deciding to take the two girls to somewhere more interesting than Greek Slums. Maybe to a temple, those were always interesting, though it got kind of annoying after a while when people stared at you (unknown to Theta, the Athenians had thought him a god for his clothing, leading up to the incident with Zeus) Really, no privacy at all!

"Yeah, the Renaissance is fun, but there aren't that many chivalrous men. Not as many Barbarians as the Medieval, but the lot of them were still very rude. Treated Arty like garbage until he pulled the sword out of the stone, then they were practically bowing down to him. For some reason twenty first century humans think that it was filled with princesses and dragons and knights. Well...ok, there was a princess. And there was a dragon. And I guess there were some knights involved..."

Theta rambled as he talked, looking around and down different streets, sometimes choosing to walk down one and sometimes looking back ahead to the path they were on. It looked like he had no idea of where he was going, but somehow they made it into the main part of town in record time. The houses here were bigger and better built, and unlike in the Slums, there were people, albeit not many. Like Greeks tended to be, they wore togas and a vast assortment of white clothes. In Ancient Greece, they didn't have dye that you could just pick up at a Walmart. It was much harder to come by, as well as more expensive, so not many Greeks wore clothing other than white. When they did, it was far from vibrant, like a light blue or tan that practically blended in with the others.

"Here we are, the main part of town! I think that way may be the temple" Theta pointed down a random path, then reconsidered,spinning on his heel and pointing in the opposite direction "Or maybe there? I dunno, but we'll find it eventually! ...and why are there so little people? Rassilon, in a town like this there should be at least three times the amount that there is"

The Timelord's eyebrows creased in worry. There was something wrong here. The lack of people wasn't because of the time of day, no, it was afternoon, a busy time for many civilizations in the Mediterranean. And...was that atron energy?

Theta sniffed the air curiously. Yes, yes it was! The air literally reeked of time, as if a Timelord had recently been in the area. And it wasn't his own scent; he already factored that out. There was too much for it to just be coming from him, unless he was about to regenerate or something, and he knew that wasn't the case. Not waiting for the two girls behind him, Theta sprinted forwards and around the corner. With a little effort on his part, Theta expanded his telepathic range to out in front of him, so that he could literally see the trail of time energy, it's golden energy floating in the air and slowly getting fainter as time went on. It wasn't that hard to follow it.

"Oi! Doctor!" Theta jogged up to the two forms that stood by the gate, instantly recognizing the hair of his alternate's tenth-self. But as he looked, the trail didn't lead to the Doctor. It led to the blonde right next to him. He looked between the two confusedly, mumbling a 'wha'?'.

Unit 57-Z stood at the fringes of the camp, in a guard tower that faced Locrii, next to a disguised cyberman. The cyberman was looking through a pair of sophisticated binoculars, for when standard Cyber Vision wasn't powerfil enough. It passed the binoculars over to Unit 57-Z, who then placed them over his own eyes. It observed what looked like The Doctor and a friend meeting up with someone on the inside. Unfortunately, out of the forty Cybermats that had been dispatched to the city to spy on the populace, none was at the gate at the moment, so he couldn't pick up their conversation. He handed the binoculars back to the sentry, and swiftly climbed the ladder down, walking behind the camp, where his army was. As he walked, he raised his wrist to his chest and contacted the cyber-engineer. "Commence emergency completion protocols." He droned, and the cyber-engineer took a moment to process the order, and replied. "Acknowledged. Merging with cannon to provide missing power." It monotoned in response.

The 2,000 cyber-legionnaires reactivated as soon as Unit 57-Z came close to them, each standing straight and at attention. Unit 57-Z put his Centurion helmet on, and looked over his army, his hand resting on the cyber-gladius made for him when he was upgraded for the first time. Each cyber-legionnaire also had a gladius but it wasn't as powerful as Unit 57-Z's. "Legionnaires! Form ranks!" He sharply megaphoned in a commanding monotone. The cyber-legionnaires closed ranks, forming into two square formations of 1,000. "Additional orders! Delete The Doctor on sight! Upgrade his Companions!" He megaphoned, and all 2,000 cyber-legionnaires responded with "Acknowledged." simultaneously. "Forward march!" Unit 57-Z yelled, and the army of Legionnaires started marching in forward in perfect time and formation.

One of the guards standing outside the gate at ground level was staring incredulously between The Doctor and Jenny and Theta & Friends. These Greeks were dressed strangely indeed. They must be philosophers. Suddenly, a bell started ringing on top of the gate. "Alert! Alert!" A guard yelled from the top of the gate, a hint of panic in his voice. The guard standing a few feet from the gathering of timelords approached them. "Citizens, you must go inside! The invaders are on their way here!" He yelled. The gate slowly opened, and the guard ushered Meta and Jenny inside. If they looked in the direction of the siege camp, they'd see two blocks of legionnaires, with an extraordinarily large Centurion leading them from the front. Their armor was full body, and the helmets had face plates, so their true identity remained hidden. Although, they all did march a bit stiffly, save for the Centurion.

Jenny smiled and laughed a bit at The Metacrisis Doctor while he rambled then the smile quickly faded when she looked at the hill where the Romans were she looked back at her Vortex Manipulator,"What?? I'm sure its 300 BC..." She looked at The Metacrisis doctor then back at the hill,"What..." She heard someone heading in there direction she looked over at Theta then at Metacrisis again, "What?" She looked at the the gate when the alarmed sounded and blinked a bit and walked into the gate when the person ushered them inside.

Mal made a face as Theta talked about the average in the Renaissance age and felt cruelly betrayed by the stories she'd read and the few history lessons she actually paid attention to. There were walking through the better parts of the city, if that's what people called it, and she looked around with some amazement. Wow, she thought the slums were impressive. But this? This was.. still impressive but more so. She really had to work on her vocabulary..

"Man take a look at this... Oi, why're we gettin' funny stares? Wait, what, more people? Maybe there's an event. Oi! Where're you goin'?" Mal looked at Robin, eyes wide, before she shrugged and ran after Theta. She didn't have to look back to know Robin was following. Mal was wheezing by the time she caught up with her 'taxi driver' at the front gates. "Man, don't do that. Caught me by surprise and all. Huh!" She blinked and realized the Doctor and a blond girl she didn't recognize were behind the gate. Whoa, so did Time Lords have crazy powers to know when another is there? Mal didn't put it past them..

She jumped when the alarm went off, it sent her skin crawling. Oh, crap, what was that? Wait, what? Was there danger? Oh man, were they in the middle of a war? That was just perfect.. and so Mal's luck. They'd get caught in the cross fire and..

The gates opened and the guard ushered the two outside to come in. With that, Mal smiled and did something she normally wouldn't... she flung herself at the Doctor and hugged him, completely unaware that this was the human version she probably scared and annoyed on their last adventure together. "Long time no see! What, no witty or touching remark? Yo, you know I totally helped you with the ash problem back in London. Jeez, I'll remember not to hug ya if you can't handle it, then."

((Can we even tell they're cybermen? I mean the guard.. he'd be fully armoured like the rest of them. I suppose his voice would probably give it away.. oh well we're just gonna say Mal is clueless))

(Just thought i'd clear things up. Jen, the guard that told you to go inside was a normal person. The romans are all cybermen, but nobody else is. The full body armor description was for the "Romans", not the Greeks.)

"Oh, but those are definitely romans...or are they?" The Metacrisis Doctor asked as he looked back at Jenny. Romans definitely didn't belong here, which meant someone was mucking about with history. So were those really romans marching down the hill, or were they pretending to be romans? Nevertheless, there were about a thousand marching down that hill, and as the Doctor looked the other way, he could see them as well. They seemed to be surrounded on all sides, and the only choice was to run. The guards ushered them inside the gates, and the Doctor followed, his eyes glued to the soldiers coming down the hill. He didn't even notice Mal, Robin, and the other man come running until Theta was talking to him.

"Oh! Hello! You know my name!" he said with a grin. "And hello Mal, Robin, though," he looked back at Theta. "I'm afraid I..." he stopped short as Mal was suddenly hugging him, and he froze in near shock. He just stood there, his arms at his side, staring dumbly at Mal as she rambled on. His brain struggled to process what she was talking about, not recalling any of what she had said. And he struggled to process why she was hugging him. Because there was possible danger coming in the form of roman soldiers that didn't belong?

"I..I don't...I don't think we've done that yet. Well...unless it wasn't me...and then, well...it wasn't me..."

Robin followed Mal and Theta around, taking in the Greek culture as much as she could as they wondered through the city. City? Was it a city? She wasn't too caught up on Earth history, she was a child of New Earth, so she didn't see the point in history that old. In fact, she didn't like history period until she started traveling. So... this was fun, for a lack of better words. As the group stopped in an area to look around, she grinned, finding this part of Greece much more interesting than the slums. Her ears were starting to tune Theta out until she heard him comment on the lack of population. Well that was odd...

It was barely a minute later than he was running - no, sprinting - away in some random direction. With no time for words, she picked up her feet and dashed after him, knowing she'd never catch up, but at least not loose him. Maybe. She frowned as Mal passed her quickly and she found it hard to keep up with even her. That was just not fair. As they reached a gate, she skid to a stop and looked over to see the Doctor and Jenny. She smiled at them, but was quickly cut off from saying hello as the guard opened the gate and let them inside. Apparently they were about to be attacked...? She jumped back as Mal ran up to hug the Doctor - more like a glomp. "Okay - I'm missing something here. Are we just going to ignore the fact that the guard man said we're under attack?"

"What? No...we can't be under attack. It's impossible, nobody attacked Greece during this period! It was too big, no civilizations would have stood up to it" ignoring the guard that was telling him not to, he neared the gate, looking out the opening of the gate as it slowly slid closed. What he saw, put him for a loop. Romans. Romans weren't supposed to be around in 300 BC! They came much much later. But if he hadn't been hallucinating, those had been Romans, obvious from the positioning of the ranks to the armor they wore. He turned back around to face the other four time-travelers.

"Tell me, do Romans exist in 300 BC?" not waiting for an answer, Theta continued, starting to pace agitatedly with his hands behind his back "No, they don't. Romans didn't come around till around 27 BC, two-hundred seventy-three years from now. And even if this was two-hundred seventy-three years from now, they wouldn't be big enough of a civilization to have an army. You have an army? You need people. You have armor? You need people. But in minus two-hundred seventy-three years, there are no people; nobody, zilch, nada" he stopped his pacing and turned to the others "So why in Rassilon's name is there a Roman army right outside of a Greek town??" he frowned "Someone's been messing with time..."

Mal raised her eyebrow at him, utterly confused until the rusty gears in her head started to turn. Was he a younger Doctor? Maybe he has yet to... oh my. "Oh god you're the Man- Doctor, aren't you? I'm so.. that's just... I'm not trying to get in your pants, I swear." She completely blurted and instantly turned red. Oh man, he was going to think she was a freak for him! The first time she met the poor guy she made a very out of character pass at him. And now she was covering up an intention she never had but was sure everyone else thought she had...

Mal simply turned around and put Theta in between the Man- Doctor and herself. May as well keep away from him to prevent any more embarrassing incidents. Wait.. people were talking about was? Well that would explain the alarms. Theta began rambling about it so she tuned in to hear what he was saying.

She stared with fearful eyes at the Roman army and swallowed heavily. Ok, she thought this was going to be a fun trip to the past so she could eat the weird food and converse with the funny Greeks and all that. But now she was kicked in the middle of a war. That was just her bloody lucky..

"Are we going to die...?" She was really trying not to panic though going by her voice that obviously wasn't going very well.

Greek hoplites, with their large shields and long spears, started forming up in front of the gate, guarding the main street that led directly from the gate to the town square. Archers scrambled on top of the wall, readying their shortbows for action. The hoplites made sure that everybody stayed behind them. The only way to view what was going on was from the walls, but unless you were in the Greek Militia, there was no way you were getting up there. Fortunately for the curious folks, there's a blacksmith's shop on the street that leads to the town square, some sets of armor and weapons on display outside of it. The store was abandoned by its owner, who fled to hide in the temple with the rest of the citizens. The archers on the wall drew back their bows as the Roman legions came into range.

Just as the cyber-legionnaires entered bow range, they stopped. Unit 57-Z surveyed the walls. They had archers, but those posed no threat whatsoever. He stepped out in front of all the other Cybermen, pushing a button on his wrist to activate his voice modulators. "People of Locrii!" He shouted out in a somewhat human sounding voice. To the Greeks, it seemed like an accent. It was pretty clear, however, to the time travellers that this was not a human voice. "I give you one last chance to surrender. Accept, and no harm will come to you! Refuse, and you will all be deleted!" He shouted out, his programming making it impossible to use any other word but that in the threat. "You have sixty seconds to decide!" He added, motioning to the "Legionnaires" behind him, who seamlessly formed into a single column, and went into a phalanx formation.

"Man-doctor?! Where'd you get that from?!" the Metacrisis Doctor asked incredulously as he stared at Mal. "I may be human, but I'm still the Doctor!" He began grumbling to himself as he turned away from the two, putting a hand through his hair as he wandered away from the gates. The other man was doing his own pacing, repeating exact words that mirrored his own thoughts. Why were there romans in 300 BC? Unless they were aliens from another planet dressed up like romans. He suddenly ran back up to the gate, amidst protest from the guard. He was held back from actually trying to leave the city, but he could still see through the metal bars between the gate. The army was close, and the leader stood in front of them. He was large, almost enormous. Like Goliath, the Doctor mused. Then the leader stopped, resting a hand in his wrist, before he shouted out to all the people. But his voice, his words, grated on the Doctor's ears. He wasn't human, he sounded almost, robot.

"Deleted?!" the Doctor shouted with incredulousness, before his face fell. "Deleted...they're cybermen," he said slowly, his gaze resting on the leader. His eyes flickered to the soldiers there, and now that he thought about it, they did move in an autonomous sort of way. "And if they're cybermen, that means...not good!" He moved back away from the gates, ignoring the strange look and surprise the gate guards were showing. He looked up, seeing the archers up on top of the wall. "Oh arrows are childs play to them...no we're not going to die!" he said, looking over at Mal. "We need equipment, the Tardis..." He started walking away from the gate, before he turned to Theta, snapping his fingers and waving his hand in the air.

"You, you, what was your name again? How'd you get here anyway?"

Theta blinked, startled out of his shock at the voice emitted from the leader. To Theta, Cybermen were a common occurrence, and he spent more time defeating them than even the Doctor...kind of like his alternate self with the Daleks. So of course he had recognized the voice of a cyberman, along with their signature word of 'delete'.

"What? Huh? Oh, I'm Theta. And I arrived in a TARDIS..." Theta was sort of confused with the Metacrisis Doctor, thinking him the Timelord Doctor, since he hadn't even heard of the Metacrisis before. Things like asking what he arrived in? Or even his name. He had been around the Doctor enough for him to know him, and that he had a TARDIS. Unless this was an earlier version. That would make more sense. But the trail of time energy leading to the blonde instead of him, didn't.

Oh well. Time to worry about the Doctor later, and start acting to save Locrii. Theta gestured his hand for the group to follow him, jogging back the way they came, around the twists and turns and corners, dodging panicking Greeks that were still on the paths. He slowed to a halt in front of his TARDIS, turning back around.

"So what do we need?" he began a checklist in his head, forming a plan "so Cybermen can be deactivated by a certain range of sonic pulse, but going in there with only a Sonic Screwdriver would be suicide. There are too many of them. Wait, I've got it! Some sort of transmitter. Oh, wait, won't that interfere with the Earth's magnetic field? Aimed Transmitter, then" Theta nodded, satisfied, already starting to put his plan into action, running into the TARDIS wilst getting his sonic screwdriver out "If I just hooked the Sonic up with a few of the conductor tubes I bet I could reroute the communications panel to transmit the frequency..."

Theta was totally unaware how much of a loop he much be putting the Doctor in, with coming up with the idea. Then again, things can get chaotic when two Doctors are involved; even if one was an alternate version and the other was a human.

Unit 57-Z continued to look at the walls, as the defenders seemed to hesitate in their response. The Greek commander, who was distinguished from the other soldiers by the magnificient black crest with golden streaks in it on his helmet, didn't say a single word. An arrow came flying out of nowhere from the walls, and bounced harmlessly off Unit 57-Z's helmet. It failed to even budge him. In response he raised his arm, and the largest tent in the siege camp seemed to fade from existence, revealing the large cannon that the holographic tent was hiding. It came on with a deep, resonating hum, and pivoted to aim at the gate.

It didn't take much thought on the Greek commander's part to realize it was a weapon. He saw the blue glow start to appear in the barrel, and sprung to action. "Off the walls! Get off the walls!" He yelled, leading the hoplites into the town square. The archers all hesitated for a moment, but eventually they started getting off as well, but not all of them were quick enough.

The cannon fired with a resounding boom, and the subsequent explosion was deafening. Archers that had not been quick enough to get far enough away from the wall had every body in their bones broken and their organs liquefied by the shockwave. Their broken bodies were scattered all over the place. Some of those who were running down the street were impaled by broken javelins of iron the size of a man, or crushed by falling blocks of stone. By the time the remaining archers had made it to the square and taken up positions, the first of the cyber-legionnaires were marching through, with Unit 57-Z leading them. The arrows flew all around him and clinked off of his armor as the archers opened fire. He tossed his shield aside as he stepped over the corpses of the archers who couldn't get off the walls in time. He drew The Cyber-Gladius as he walked, the specially made blade gleaming in the sunlight as the Cybermen advanced towards the town square.

Eventually, the Cybermen got close enough, and the Greeks charged forward, and ancient Mediterranean bronze met cyberman steel as both sides clashed. Unit 57-Z seemed to ignore the hoplites as he waded through the battle, sending Greeks flying into walls with his free hand, and cleaving through Greeks with his gladius. The Cyberman equivalent of a tank seemed to be dead set on reaching The Doctor, leaving the massacre of Hoplites to his legionnaires.

Robin was about to ask the others what was going on when she heard a loud, almost deafening BOOM. Her eyes widened in shock as she looked to the rest of the gang, hearing the sounds of war only a few moments later. Spinning around, she noticed Theta running off towards the TARDIS. Without thinking much, she simply ran after him, her heart racing. "What did you do? You've landed us right in the middle of a war!" She shouted at Theta, flinging her hands up in exasperation. Well if what they were saying was true and these Romans didn't belong here, then this must surely be an alien fight, right? What else would it be? Unless they got their history wrong, there was really no one else who would be able to change time like that. "So apparently we have a plan then? Well come on, let's go do it!" She shouted, beginning to panic. Is this what Mal feels like every time we get into trouble?

Jenny blinked,"Deleted..." She looked at Mal, "He's The Doctor...Don't call him Man-Doctor...Even though he is human..." She frowned and crossed her arms, "Time has been tampered with...Because Romans aren't in 300 BC..." She looked around, "At least that what it was like the last time I checked..." She looked back at her Vortex Manipulator, "300 BC..." She put down her arm and then crossed them again following after Theta.

Mal looked around and tried to breathe like a normal person. She was sure the Ninth Doctor meant not to get herself killed when he told her to go on adventures, right? She looked around nervously again and eyed the front gate. Deleted? What sort of freak said deleted when discussing human lives. And then people started talking about cybermen, something she'd never heard of but assumed it was both alien and not good. Don't panic. Don't panic...

She looked at Jenny dumbly then over to the Doctor, "Sorry.. I just.. you don't got two hearts which makes you a man. So hence Man- Doctor. It makes it less confusing in my stupid head, alright?" The last part was snapped impatiently. It was probably due to the fear she was feeling.

When Theta returned to his TARDIS, Mal followed. Yay, plans! To formulate a plan meant there is some hope. "Ok so.. what's the plan?"

"Nice to meet you Theta, and wait...you arrived in a Tardis?!" He nearly shouted. He gave one last look at the cyberman army marching towards the gate, before running after the other man. Or timelord. He was meeting alot of strange people lately who could fly Tardises. The resounding explosion from the cyberman's cannon knocked him to the ground, looking up as villagers ran past him in utter confusion. He stared up at their feet a moment, his eyes narrowing in frustration as he pushed himself up and ran onwards. Javelins and rocks fell around behind him, and perhaps the only reason he wasn't accidentally hit was because he could run fast, and possibly a little luck.

He caught up with Theta and the others at the Tardis, not looking back as the sounds of clanging and screaming reached his ears. Grabbing onto the door, he swung himself inside, shutting the door as soon as all the travellers were safely inside. Turning, he took a cursory glance over the Tardis he was inside. All right, he decided, it was definitely not his own, in any timeframe. The interior was different and the hum and telepathy on his mind simply felt different. Another timelord, another Tardis? He stared at Theta a moment while the other continued talking, before he bounded up the ramp.

"Right! To work!" he shouted, before he was over at the console. The controls were different, but all Tardises were the same, mostly. "Rerouting the communications to transmit a sonic pulse, and...." he stopped speaking, his hands still moving as he looked up at Theta for his part.