Prologue
When Queen Victoria first created Torchwood after she met the Doctor and Rose, she had no idea how much it would grow over the years. Torchwood London had grown so big that by the turn of the century they needed to open a second building only a couple of blocks away. This branch, known as Torchwood four, existed for only one purpose: a central filing location.
After every alien tech find or sighting or anything even remotely interesting happened at any of the other Torchwood locations, paperwork would be drawn and a duplicate would be sent to Torchwood four for safe keeping. The reasoning behind this was that in the event of an emergency, Torchwood four could find and send any previously documented incident to London, Glasgow, or Cardiff.
In the first months of its operation, the system worked great. If London needed information, on a dime, about a certain piece of alien tech, Torchwood four was only an e-mail away.
In theory, Torchwood four only needed two or three members but the leader, Max Burgan, took it upon himself to get together a team of five. The five of them worked great and as the months went on, they spent more time with each other at their jobs and less time with family and friends. Though, as it is known through Torchwood history, Torchwood four vanished roughly eight months after it was created. But why did they disappear? More importantly, where did they go?
Twenty-five minutes before vanishing…
"And so he says there's no way I'm getting in that thing and I said you so definitely are…"
Max trailed off his narrative as Mason arrived with dinner.
"I got pizza and beer!" Mason exclaimed as he made his way through the filing cabinets and computer terminals. He tripped over an empty pizza box lying on the ground and stumbled towards the table. He placed the box of pizza and the beer down.
"I think someone needs to clean up a bit in here," Mason said as he pulled out a chair and sat down.
Katty arrived with the plates and the glasses.
"Hey! That's not just my job. I clean up well but you lot are just plain slobs!"
Valarie, who was sitting next to Max, poked him in the shoulder.
"I think she means you," she said giving him a playful smile.
There seemed to be a general agreement with the other occupants of the table to which Max replied by throwing up his arms in surrender.
"Is this mutiny? Am I being overthrown?"
Katty smiled as she passed around the plates. She handed one to Max.
"You just better watch your back, mate."
Mason was about to bite into his nice hot piece of pizza when he realized someone was missing. Removing the slice from his mouth, and swallowing what was left he voiced his realisation.
"Hey, where's Orange?"
As if on cue, they heard shuffling from behind them.
"I'm here! I'm here! Just had to get the cards and dice!"
He pulled back the remaining chair and plopped down. After placing the cards and dice on the table, he reached for a slice of pizza. Valarie rolled her eyes as she gulped down some beer.
"My God, your lumbering could wake the dead."
Orange stuck his tongue out at her.
"Real mature," she replied.
Clearly offended by his workmate, he replied by screaming, 'I'll show you mature!' and chucking a die at her arm. Since his aim was a bit off, it ended up smacking her right in the head and then landing on the floor. Valarie rubbed her head.
"Real mature Orange," she mumbled, "Did it leave a mark?"
Max looked at her forehead. He nodded.
"Yup, big red square smack-dab in the middle of your forehead. I do give you permission to attack back by the way."
Valarie didn't need to be told twice and as soon as he said that, she pushed her chair back and made her way towards Orange. In a much undignified manner, Orange shrieked and made to run off but only got as far as pushing the chair back. Valarie had grabbed him by the hair.
"Ow! Okay, that was immature! Please let go! I'm sorry!" Orange rambled.
With a contented smirk, Valarie was about to reply but Max hushed her.
"Does anyone hear ticking?" he asked.
In the silence they all heard it. A low ticking sound and it seemed to be coming from under Valarie's chair. In an instant, Max was on the ground and found the source of the ticking. When he stood up, with the die in hand, he immediately began questioning Orange.
"Where did you get this?"
Orange stuttered.
"I, err, well, it, uh, was on…"
"Tell me damnit!" Max yelled.
"It was on your desk! I thought you had the dice last so I went into your office and they were sitting on your desk!"
Max's eyes went wide as he looked at the faux die in his hand. The seconds felt like minutes and then hours but then Max dropped the dice under the table and looked at the four of them.
"Run!" he ordered.
As the group scattered in different directions, the die began to shake violently. Giving off an eerie reddish-orange glow, it finally exploded sending bits of pizza and table flying past everyone. Valarie dropped to the ground behind one of the filing cabinets just as part of one of the chairs flew past and struck Max in the lower thigh sending him crashing to the ground.
Katty and Mason had made it all the way to the door when the die exploded. The shock sent them crashing into each other and the two ducked under a fallen bulletin board as debris rained down on them.
Orange decided to hide behind one of the computers, which in hindsight had not been the greatest idea. When the die exploded, parts of the computer fell on top of him along with a shower of sparks. Ducking out of the way, he avoided most of the debris but he did get burned from the sparks.
When the explosion ended and the dust cleared, a silence hung about in the building. Before anyone could say or do anything else, Max was already limping towards Orange.
"What the hell were you thinking?" he screamed.
Orange scuttled back towards the wall.
"I didn't know that was going to happen! I just thought it was a regular die!"
Max shook his head.
"No, that was something Torchwood London had sent over earlier this week. They said it was found at the crash site of a spaceship. They wanted our input."
Katty and Mason slid out from underneath the bulletin board and Valarie stood up from behind the filing cabinet.
"Hold up, since when do we actually handle alien artefacts?" Valarie asked.
"Normally we don't but Torchwood London and Glasgow was stumped and Cardiff was off doing their own thing. So they thought 'hey let's let the central filing centre deal with it!' So that's why it was on my desk. Guess we know what it is now."
Orange groaned as he used the wall to help him stand up. Mason walked over to help him.
"You okay mate?"
Orange leaned on him for support.
"Yeah, I think I'll be okay. Just landed on my ankle wrong. You okay too Max? Didn't you get hit by part of a chair?"
Max nodded.
"Yes, but I'm fine. I don't need to be babied. Now, let's go see what sort of damage this did to the outside. I'm surprised the whole thing didn't cave in on us."
Five minutes later, after picking their way through fallen computer terminals and filing cabinets, they reached the door. After taking a deep breath, Max pulled the door open and squinted at the sunlight that poured in through the door. Valarie looked rather confused as she followed Max outside.
"Wasn't it night like an hour ago? Mason, when you came in with the pizza wasn't it dark out?"
Mason looked around.
"Yeah, and it didn't look like this at all. Where'd all the trees come from?"
Orange and Katty also looked rather confused at their surroundings. Orange looked up and all he could see was a peaceful blue sky with maybe one or two clouds lazily passing by.
"Max, where are we? What happened?"
Max shrugged and then put his hands in his pockets as he walked slowly from their building. Something strange had just happened and he was determined to find out. Pulling his mobile from his pocket he dialled the number for Torchwood London. Realising the line was dead; he hung up and dialled Cardiff.
"What are you doing, Max?" Valarie asked.
"Shhh, I'm trying to call the other Torchwoods. The London line was dead and Cardiff is not answering."
"What about Glasgow?" Valarie suggested.
Max shook his head.
"And talk to that strange guy? I don't think so."
Katty walked up to the two of them with her laptop.
"This thing survived and it's picking up a signal. Should we try e-mailing? They always seem to respond quicker that way."
Max nodded as he hung up the phone and placed it back in his pocket.
"Sure, try sending an e-mail to London and Cardiff. Tell them something weird happened and we'd like assistance."
Katty placed the laptop on the ground and sat in front of it. She began composing her e-mail. Orange, on the other hand, had begun wandering off to see what had happened. Since this whole thing was his fault, he figured he should be the one to figure out what is going on.