Chapter Two

Gwen stared at the metal face, devoid of features beyond those glowing eye slits, and struggled to untangle her legs from the wreckage of the overturned SUV. "Who or what.. Kill me now, I won't become one of you."

The man leaned into the cab and yanked the steering column up with a single jerk, then slid her out, gently helping her to a standing position. "Don't recall offering. You sure have a weird reaction to someone rescuing you from drowning," he muttered, his mechanical pitch sounding every inch like that of a cyberman even if his words had a purely human annoyance.

"We didn't need your help, you wanker." John managed to extricate himself from the passenger seat and crawl out. "We were rescuing you."

"Then thanks for the help. Why'd you try to kill me once we were out of the water?"

"Because you're a cyberman. Aren't you?" Gwen watched the man warily, feeling completely helpless without so much as a nail file to fend off an attack.

The man stood still for a few moments, then a dry chuckle broke out. The mask slid open to reveal a very human face, hazel eyes twinkling in amusement above a neatly trimmed goatee and mustache. "Other than a minor modification, I'm all natural, honey." He reached with his left hand to twist a cuff at his right wrist, then pulled off the right gauntlet of his armor, offering out a well-manicured hand. "The name is Tony Stark, CEO of Circuits Maximus."

Gwen took the hand numbly, giving it a shake. "Gwen Williams, Torchwood. This is my partner, John Hart."

"Captain John Hart," mended John quickly, grabbing Stark's hand from Gwen. "So what's the modification?"

"Captain?" Stark raised a brow. "So you might be who we're loo--" He followed John's gaze, which was fixed on his pelvis. "Uh, not there. That works just fine without any help." He pulled his hand back with some effort and turned his attention pointedly back to Gwen. "I came through with a couple of friends. Any idea where they are? Crazy Widget sometimes gets her coordinates scattered, but we generally wind up within a few miles of each other."

Gwen found herself relaxing. Stark's demeanor reminded her of Jack as much as his American accent did, and his skin was clearly too warm to be anything but natural. "We picked up two other Rift spikes. Our associates are investigating them right now. You could come back to Torchwood with us and wait for them. Probably best you aren't hanging about on the street where you might terrify the locals."

"Sounds like a plan," agreed Stark quickly, casting her a grin as charming as that of their team leader. "By the way, I adore that accent. And the gap in the teeth, totally sexy. Maybe we can get drinks later?" He stepped around her and bent to pick up the frame of the SUV with his gauntleted hand, flipping it over with a slight grunt.

"I'd love to, big boy." John stared at Stark, smitten.

"So long as we bring my husband," said Gwen, holding up her wedding ring and saving Stark from having to answer John.

Stark cast a wary look at the lovestruck captain, then set about fixing the steering column. "I'll pay for the damages to your SUV here, but it should at least be drivable for now."

Martha and Owen stood on opposite sides of the golden-haired angel, gently probing his tall, athletic frame for injuries. The left wing was clearly broken and several feathers, including the crucial pinions, were damaged to a point that left him virtually clipped. His body suit seemed to be made of extremely durable material that had survived even pterodactyl teeth intact, but moans and flinches indicated several fractured ribs and a broken right arm.

"Do you think he'll be okay?" Tosh hovered worriedly over the feet of the patient, holding the boots she'd removed from him. "Poor thing, he hardly looks alien except for the wings."

"Tosh, we've had sex with aliens we thought were human. I'm not calling it human while it's sporting bird bits." Owen grasped the right hand and elbow of the angel. "Steady now, this'll hurt."

"Hold on, let me give him--" Martha was cut off by a scream from the patient as Owen yanked the broken bone into place, setting it. "--a shot of morphine."

"Don't know what it'd do to its system." Owen smirked. "All done anyhow. Pass the splint."

"This, Owen, is why they shifted you to science officer and made me the medic." Martha leaned across to splint the arm gently. "You've the bedside manner of a crocodile."

"If it were human, I'd be gentle as a lamb," protested Owen.

"I am human," interjected the patient in a strained voice, opening his blue eyes. "And I'm not an 'it' thank you. I'm a man."

"Hello, there," said Martha with a comforting smile. "I promise I'll keep it gentle from now on. I'm Dr. Martha Jones and this is Dr. Owen Harper. Toshiko Sato is our data specialist. You're in Torchwood."

"Not Torturewood?" The patient struggled to sit up, using his good arm as a brace. "I'm Warren Worthington the Third. Some people call me Angel."

"I can see why." Tosh set the boots down and hurried to nudge Owen out of the way, assisting Warren with a gentle hand under his shoulder. "If you're human, how do you have wings?"

"They started growing when I hit puberty." Warren blew a strand of bangs from his eyes. "I'm a mutant."

"Like an evolution?" Martha carefully supported the broken wing. "Owen, a morphine shot, please?"

"Yeah, like an extra bit of genetic code. You don't have them here?"

Owen slipped a needle into Warren's arm. "We've got all kinds of freaks washing out of the Rift every day, mate. You're nothing special."

Tosh frowned. "I don't know about that. We've never seen an angel. I think he's rather beautiful."

"You, Tosh, need to have sex with something that doesn't have batteries," retorted Owen, tossing the spent needle into the sharps container.

"I'm not actually an angel. I'm a mutated human. I have the X-gene, that's all." He shifted a bit to compensate for his sore ribs. "No special divine dispensation or anything. Is he always this rude?" he added in an aside to Tosh.

Tosh nodded with a slightly pained smile, whispering, "He wasn't loved as a child, I think."

"I know how that is," Warren whispered back, adding a grin with a hint of flirtation to it.

"There it is, the extra genetic material!" Martha had moved away from the bed to the computer screen, studying the readout from the blood sample she'd loaded for analysis before they had started their examination. "Amazing! And it's naturally occurring? Are there many like you?"

"Like me? Not really." Warren seemed amused by Martha's enthusiasm. "Several mutants, but it shows up in each person differently. And there's a lot fewer of us since we've been hunted down."

"Hunted? Why?" Tosh tucked a pillow behind Warren for support.

"People are afraid of people who are different." Warren shrugged as much as his injured wing allowed him to. "Some mutants react to the rejection by becoming hostile, and that doesn't help the cause of those who want to live peacefully with everyone else. Eventually the suspicions turn on anyone who's different and we're attacked."

Martha pulled a stool up to sit next to the exam table, reaching for bandages to help her repair the bones of Warren's wing. "Where do you come from, then? And when? I've done some traveling myself, wonder if we might have crossed paths."

Warren chuckled, wriggling his bare toes in thought. "I'm from New York. Centerport, Long Island. Nice place. Have a few homes in other spots. When? Um, when we left it was May 10th, 2008. Where is this exactly?"

"Cardiff, Wales, just a day after that." Martha furrowed her brow. "Never heard of a mutant problem in America."

"It'd be a different Earth," explained Warren. "Widget sent us through. We're supposed to find your Captain Britain because ours is missing."

"Captain Britain?" Owen snorted. "Sounds like a bad reality game show."

"I don't know any Captain Britain." Jack took the cup of coffee that Ianto offered him and had a sip. Even without Torchwood's copper castle of caffeine, Ianto could always brew a perfect cup. "I'm Captain Jack Harkness of Torchwood, and this is Ianto Jones, my partner."

Ianto set a cup in front of the Canadian, still somewhat wary even if his claws had been retracted. It was stared at blankly until he poured a shot of whiskey into it.

"Call me Logan if you want." He picked up the cup and drank it down in one long gulp. "That's not bad, kid. Sorry I called you a prick."

"Quite all right, sir." Ianto set about a refill.

"Who is Captain Britain? Sounds like some kind of comic book character." Jack tucked into a cold plate of chips he'd found on the bar.

"Oh, he'd love that," snorted Logan. "Probably fill his apartment with life-size cutouts of himself in heroic poses and do signings at comicons. Least ours would. So nobody you know by the name of Brian Braddock? Could go by Britannic, too. Or it could be a completely different guy on your Earth. Some of them are even chicks."

"I'm sorry, I'm still not sure what you mean," interrupted Ianto. "Our Earth?"

"Yeah, as opposed to our Earth, 616. There's lots of alternates in the omniverse, kid. Ever heard of quantum theory and all that crap? Hope so, because I'm not gonna explain it." Logan leaned back. "Anyway, about the only constant is that every Earth has some version of good old Captain Britain. Captain UK, Captain Albion, Captain England, etcetera. Like a pompous club set up by Merlyn to promote cheerio and tally ho or something."

"Merlyn. Like the magician?" Jack tapped his fingers on the bar. "He's been dead so long he's just a myth here. Sorry."

"He'll find his way through." Logan pushed away from the bar, stretching so that his jacket threatened to burst at the seams. "Widget said specifically that there was a Captain Britain here who wasn't in the Corps yet, so Merlyn's got to get his hands in on it somehow. Right now, though, I've got to find my friends, so while it's been pleasant.."

"They're at Torchwood right now, sir." Ianto held up his blackberry with the text message from Gwen. "One Tony Stark and one Warren Worthington III."

"Then let's give Logan here a lift back." Jack abandoned the cold fries and took Ianto's free hand, leading the way back to the car.

"... Oh, that kind of partners." Logan smirked and followed after them. "I got it now."