Entering the crowded room, filled with various people having conversations, Piers came into the room, carrying a load of hot, buttery croissants for the group. He put them down on the table and wolf-whistled loudly, making the room go quiet. "Brought some croissants! Help yourselves!" Piers said loudly, pushing his glasses back up his nose.
"Oh, croissants!" Cassandra, Mathieu, Ben and Reanne all said at once, grinning at each other and running over to the table, each taking one. "Thanks Piers!" they said yet again in complete unison, like they did this everyday, which they actually didn't.
Jack smirked at the rest of his team and sauntered over to where Reanne stood, happily munching her croissant. Still smiling, and before she could take another bite, he took hers and popped it into his mouth. Andrea saw and frowned, but only earned herself a wave.
The others, however were well behaved and made their way to first get breakfast and then sit again, Tosh muttering that she could do with a bit of Ianto's coffee.
Ben watched Jack take Reanne's croissant and felt a little jealous inside. He couldn't help it. He walked around her and sat down at Torchwood Paris' own table, eating his croissant. Mathieu joined him and began talking to him in hushed whispers. Cassandra looked at the table, then walked slowly over to Torchwood Cardiff's table, sitting down next to Tosh.
"Can I just ask you a question? I mean, I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure that guy is married, but why is he flirting with Reanne? No offence, but if I was married, I wouldn't dream of doing that," Cassandra asked, watching the pair.
Reanne folded her arms and looked at Jack, her eyes narrowed. "Monsieur, I believe that was actually mine. Do you have a habit of taking other people's food? Because in France, we tend to ask before taking," Reanne said, the same mischievous glint in her eyes from before.
The sound of someone clearing their throat cut off what Jack was going to say next. "Mr. Harkness." It was Andrea. "I believe that you know your manners. I believe that I remember someone saying that Susan had housetrained you - was I mistaken?"
From somewhere else, the sniggers of the rest of Torchwood 3 could be heard. Jack looked almost sorry as he turned to Reanne and held up the finger with the thin gold band on it.
"Oh, but I already knew you were married," Reanne replied bluntly, shrugging. "That isn't just going to suddenly stop me. No one is off limits unless they make themselves and you sure don't make yourself."
"I think your friend over there may have something different to say about that." Jack motioned to where Ben sat, steam practically coming from his ears. And was he actually turning a bit green? He was tapped on the shoulder by Myles.
"Uh, Captain, we're waiting on you. Maybe you could get her number?"
Anwen rolled her eyes, "That's rich, coming from you..."
"Ben? Oh…well, that doesn't matter. I'm not his property. I can do what I want. He's not going to stop me. And did you say you wanted my number?" Reanne asked, looking at Myles with amusement. "Why didn't you just ask?" She took a piece of paper off of the side and wrote down her number, handing it to Myles. "Voila."
Myles shrugged and stuffed it into his pocket before going to his seat, noticing that as Jack walked to his, his eyes never once left Reanne. Piers tapped the table, trying to get order.
Reanne winked at Jack, then sat down next to Ben, leaning her head against his shoulder as she got out a piece of paper and began writing on it. Piers sighed. No one was being silent. He motioned to Sarge, who stood up and hit the table loudly, causing the room to go into complete silence.
"Right, here's what we came her to discuss. As you all know, many different species of aliens, that were normally quite docile, have began to act up and attack people. Just recently in Paris, we have had a number of incidents reported of Transbreeders attacking civilians," Sarge said, pacing back and forwards at the front.
"None of us have been able to figure out what exactly is happening to make the creatures act like this. What we all have noticed, however, is that the Rift is acting up. In a big way. Energy spikes have appeared all over the world, especially in America and Cardiff. And yet, none of us can find a cause."
"This is where we all come in. The only way we are going to be able to figure out what is happening, is by joining together and working together as one team across the globe. If we don't, then we won't be able to find the problem and the energy spikes will get worse, as will the creatures attacking and none of us want that."
Lucas, who was Torchwood Four's assistant medic, stood and opened a file he had brought along. "We have two incidents as well. Upon dissection, we - that would be Andrea and I - observed that part of it's rudimentary endocrine-like system was compromised."
Owen found himself nodding. "That could be important, let me make a quick call back to Amanda and see if she has any information on the tests I had running before we left."
Archie looked at the dog closest to his right foot. "Skippy O'Reily, what did you observe?" he baby-talked, causing a titter from the others seated.
Torchwood Five were perplexed. They hadn't been having a problem with these aliens per se.
"But surely if it was something to with their endocrine-like system, that would make it seem that someone is physically altering these aliens to act this way, as if it was the atmosphere, then they would of acted up years ago," Sarah-Louise stated.
Owen leaned closer to her. "Not necessarily. It could have taken years of evolution to get to this point. Could just be a genetic glitch. If you have one here, I'd like to take a look at it later." He looked toward Andrea and Lucas. "Are you two in?"
The two nodded, not wanting to break the flow of the conversation. Sarah-Louise also nodded. They had a Transbreeder in the medical lab, just brought in that morning. They found it dead outside the Arc de Triomphe, next to a dead teenage girl.
"Ok, that's a good start. Now, we also need to think about their technology. Not much is actually known about their technology, but I know certain things have been found throughout the area. Has anyone found anything more unusual than normal?" Sarge asked, looking around.
Tosh blushed before she cleared her throat to speak. "Well, the only thing I have to report is that we found a sample of a mystery metal. Tests have been inconclusive as to what it is - but it seems to be a remarkable insulator."
Anwen raised her hand as she spoke. "Uh, Tosh, it's known as Iridine. Nothing special about it's melting point, but it is very, very brittle - " she cast a glance at Katie. "Be careful with it."
"And it's blue!" Katie added, thinking Anwen was asking her to add.
One of the previously silent members of Torchwood Five spoke, "We found some blue metal - some teens were using it to build a radio - thought they could talk to the galaxy with it..."
There was a collective laugh. "Well," Mathieu said, leaning back slightly on his chair. "It's unreflective and the Transbreeders have been smuggling it for centuries. I'm not too sure of the reason, but I believe they are using it to rebuild their planet that was destroyed by their own robots. The metal itself is pretty useless, but when mixed with liquid iron, the metal is extremely useful for them."
"But, recently they haven't been gathering some of the metal. Big stores of this metal have been found throughout France and none of the Transbreeders have been near it. So, I think it might be something to do with this metal," Ben put forward, receiving a nod from Mathieu.
"So, if it's something to do with metal," Reanne said, sitting up straight and twirling her pen around in her hand. "Then, maybe the Rift is creating some sort of frequency that is affecting these creatures that is resounding through the metal. Making them act up. Dogs are the same at a certain frequency. Maybe it's the same here."
Sarge looked at Reanne with a mixture of surprise and pride. "You could be right there. Ok, here's what I need you all to do. Medical staff, I want you to find out what's going on with the endocrine-like systems. Technical staff, I need you to analyse this equipment. Everyone else, just do what you can to find out about the possibility of their being a frequency in the metal. Ok, end of the meeting."
