Note: This takes place during the first season of Torchwood before Out of Time.
Rift Activity
Torchwood had been quiet. Nothing too out of the ordinary had been happening lately. There had been a few weevil attacks, but that was little to worry about. They were always going rogue and attacking someone or something. Tosh sat at her desk, monitoring rift activity as usual. She kept staring over at Owen, who was, as usual, completely oblivious to her wandering eye. Ianto was making coffee, extra strong just in case something was to happen. Jack had closed himself in his office, not paying attention to any of his surroundings. The others were unsure of what exactly Jack was doing, but they all agreed that it was better not to ask. Sometimes Jack just needed to be alone. Owen couldn't stop staring at Gwen, absentmindedly twirling a scalpel between his fingers. Tosh was sure that he was going to cut off one of his fingers. Gwen was pacing back and forth, her mind on the encounter that she and Owen had had just nights before. It was wrong, she knew, and she had Rhys, but there was just something so alluring about Owen that she couldn't resist.
As if on cue, Tosh's monitor started to beep. "We've got rift activity," she said, putting on her headset and cross-referencing her data points. "I don't know what it is yet, but I can get you there."
Jack came rushing out of his office, his jacket flipping over his head as he shoved his other arm into its spot. "Ianto, stay with Tosh. Gwen, Owen, with me. Let's move!"
They ran to the car, Jack jumping into the driver's seat, ready to follow each and every one of Tosh's instructions. Owen took the passenger's seat and Gwen climbed in behind him, aware of the smell of Owen's cologne dangerously close to her nostrils. She checked to make sure her gun was loaded and the safety turned off.
"Left on third," Tosh's voice sounded throughout the car.
Jack swerved the car left, driving at a dangerously fast pace for streets within the city center.
"Right two hundred meters."
"Do you know what it is, Tosh?" asked Owen, his voice excited at the prospect of finding something new.
"Not yet, Owen. Take the next left!"
Jack missed the left but recovered by turning the car three hundred and sixty degrees at the next light. This didn't amuse the drivers of other cars who were also trying to cross the intersection at the same time. Jack received several reproachful honks, but didn't cause an accident.
"There's a lot of energy coming from this thing, guys. Be ready for something big."
"What d'you think it is?" whispered Gwen.
"Dunno," replied Owen. "But it's about time we had something happen. It's been boring for way too long. Though I did find a good way to spend my time, if you know what I mean." Gwen could hear the amusement in his voice and flushed a deep crimson.
"I don't know what you mean. I haven't had any fun at all."
"No, no, you're right. You are no fun at all," deadpanned Owen. "I'd rather be fucking a dead woman."
"Will you two get a grip?" cried Jack. "Ianto, open up all CCTV in the surrounding area and see if you can find what we're up against. It's not necessarily something bad," said Jack, speeding up now that they had reached the freeway.
"You're about twelve kilometers out, Jack," said Tosh. The communications went silent for a moment.
"I think you're going to need more than a gun," said Ianto finally.
"What?" asked Gwen. "What is it?"
"Well I can't confirm anything without a bio-scan," said Tosh, "but from what we can see it very much looks like a member of the tyrannosauridae family from the late Cretaceous."
"Oh good. A carnivorous dinosaur," said Jack.
"Nothing surprises you anymore, does it?" asked Gwen.
"Not when you've lived as long as I have." Jack drove silently for a minute. "What's the plan of attack, Tosh?"
"I'd recommend getting to it before it gets to the cottages just to its west."
"Funny," smiled Jack.
"No, really. It's headed in their direction and all of them are habited. It'll kill all the residents the moment it smells them, Jack."
Jack pushed down the acceleration pedal until it was almost touching the floor. "How far?"
"A kilometer," said Tosh.
"What are its weak spots, Ianto?" asked Jack.
"It's got very short arms. So I would hazard a guess that it's not terribly good at basketball."
Owen and Gwen groaned.
"Not the time for jokes, guys," said Jack. "This is a real threat to the people of Wales and we have got to take care of it before it takes care of them."
They heard Tosh moan over their communications.
"Tosh?" hazarded Jack.
"The police have gotten involved. They're trying to seal off the area and evacuate all the homes, but they're just going to make it angry. The more people are moving about, the more the dinosaur can smell its food and the more people are going to get eaten."
Gwen looked out the window. "Jack?"
"Huh?"
"Jack, I think you should stop driving."
"What?"
"I can see it."
Jack slammed on the breaks and craned his neck to look out the rear passenger window.
"She's right, Jack," said Tosh. "It's about five hundred meters from your current position."
"Yeah, I know."
Three car doors slammed spontaneously as Jack, Gwen, and Owen got out of the black SUV. Owen grabbed his medical kit and loaded a second gun with tranquilizer darts.
"Somehow I just don't think that's going to cut it, Owen," said Jack, reaching into the trunk of the car and pulling out something that looked suspiciously like a grenade launcher.
"You need to move!" shouted Tosh. "It's got someone in its mouth."
"Oh shit," cried Gwen, grabbing a second grenade launched that Jack shoved into her hands. They were close enough to hear the screams of the terrified villagers and the gunfire of the policeman that were trying to control the dinosaur.
"What do they think they're doing?" mumbled Jack. "Always coming in at the wrong moment to make a mess out of everything." He threw a string of grenades over his shoulder. "Alright, let's move!"
The three ran towards the dinosaur. Jack and Gwen stopped a hundred meters away to set up their guns, but Owen continued to run into the village, seeking out people who had been hurt, trying to find signs of life in those people who were no longer moving. "Fire all your tranquilizers," said Jack over the com system. "We don't want him trampling the whole town when we fire at him."
Owen stopped where he was standing and looked at the gigantic dinosaur that was standing merely ten meters away from him. It had its back to him, but that didn't stop Owen from recognizing the mass of the dinosaur and admiring the huge muscles that were bulging from the animal's legs.
"Owen, fire!" shouted Jack.
Owen raised his gun, firing six times in succession straight into the back of the dinosaur.
The tyrannosaurus dropped the policeman that it had picked up and turned to face Owen. "Get it! Shoot!" cried Owen, pulling out his handgun but knowing that it would do no damage against the great, scaly monster in front of him. He heard the two distinct thunks of grenades leaving their tubes and barely had time to hit the ground before the air above him exploded and shards of dinosaur armor went flying.
The dinosaur roared, stomping it's feet madly.
There were two more thunks as Jack and Gwen fired again. This time, one of them got lucky and hit the dinosaur square between the eyes. The dinosaur swayed for a minute, actually dead on its feet, before falling to the ground with the force of a small earthquake.
Owen wasted no time in picking himself up off the ground and running towards the policeman whom he'd seen fall out of the air only moments before. Jack and Gwen came running up behind him. "We're going to need a serious clean-up crew," said Gwen, looking at the massive dinosaur on the ground before her.
More policemen were beginning to arrive on the scene, with ambulances in tow. Jack helped the paramedics carry villagers into the ambulances, handing a small pill to each of the paramedics with instructions to give it to the patients as soon as they were stable.
Owen was busy trying to breathe life into the fallen policeman. His guilty partner stood behind Owen, wringing his hands and repeating "I told him to take the day off today."
Gwen approached him calmly. "Hi, I'm Gwen." She put an arm around the distraught policeman. "Your friend's going to be just fine. Owen's the best doctor I know. Why don't you come with me over here?" She guided him to an empty ambulance and instructed him to sit on the bumper. "I think he's in shock," she told the paramedic.
She walked over to where Jack was busy talking to someone who looked to be the head of police. "We're Torchwood," he was explaining. "We'll take care of this mess; just take care of your people." The policeman seemed to be protesting. "No, it won't be on the news. I can personally guarantee it."
Gwen chuckled to herself. She raised her hand to her earpiece. "Tosh? Ianto? Any idea how we're going to clean this thing up?"
"Oh it's going to be my job, isn't it?" Ianto asked, mournfully. "It's always my job."
"Somehow I don't think you can do this one on your own," said Gwen.
"Yeah," chimed in Owen over the com, "it might be too big for you, Ianto." They could all hear him laughing at his own joke.
"Grow up, Owen," said Ianto.
"I think we're going to have to burn it," said Tosh, always paying attention. "It's too big for us to do much else with."
"Got it," said Gwen. She approached Jack and the chief of police. "We're going to need this area quarantined off for the next forty-eight hours," she said.
Jack raised an eyebrow at Gwen's taking charge.
The policeman nodded. "What are you going to do with it?"
"Burn it," said Gwen.
After ensuring that everyone involved in the day's events had received an amnesia pill and setting the body of the dinosaur on fire, Jack, Owen, and Gwen hopped in the car to head back to Torchwood. Tosh and Ianto were waiting, Ianto with a freshly made pot of coffee. Owen and Gwen denied his offer.
"I'll need you to go over there tomorrow and do something with those ashes," Jack told Ianto.
Ianto nodded. "Of course. I'll—"
"See you all tomorrow," interrupted Gwen, exiting the building with Owen following close behind. He smacked her butt on the way out.
Tosh huffed. "Very rude, to do that in the workplace," she said to herself. She had been pretending to pay extra close attention to her monitor, but of course she couldn't keep her eyes off Gwen and Owen. "Vulgar," she murmured. In her mind she could just hear Owen's reaction to her reaction—'panties in a knot, Tosh?' She wanted to kick herself for even wishing that he might start thinking with a body part that didn't lie below his waist. Jack and Ianto had retired to Jack's office, shades drawn, and, as usual, Tosh remained on her own. She wasn't looking forward to going back to her flat, but she didn't relish the idea of staying at Torchwood all night listening to Jack and Ianto talk about who came up with better positions either.
Sighing, she picked up her keys and initiated shut down procedures on her computer.
With the stroke of a key, she paused the shut down, mid-step. It couldn't be.
She marched upstairs and barged into Jack's office, trying very hard to ignore the two naked men who were stretched out on the floor in front of her.
"Tosh!" exclaimed Jack.
Ianto scuffled for a pillow to hold over his body.
"Jack, the rift's gone mad. It's got more energy than I've ever seen before."
Ignoring the fact that he was lying on the floor in the nude was very difficult. Jack stood up and reached for his overcoat.
Tosh blushed.
"Is anything coming out of the rift?" he asked.
"Nothing yet, but I swear Jack, the rift has never been this excited before." She couldn't help herself and glanced at Jack's crotch. She blushed even deeper.
"Excited, huh? Good choice of word there, Tosh."
Tosh slowly backed out of the room. "Just wanted you to know so that you could monitor it tonight. I'm off to bed. I mean, home. To sleep."
Jack laughed and shut the door behind her. He looked at Ianto. "Now where were we?" But before they could resume exactly where they had paused, Jack made sure to turn on the screen showing the readings that were coming off of the rift.
