scary day today almost deleted the story, but managed to not panic and saved it Yay! this is the rest of chapter three and the SCARY ALIEN the cube was supposed to contain makes a brief appearance :)

Flashback :day one

Lisa was scanning the last room on the boring alien ship they were searching for parts. Best part of the day, exploring a dark room with Ianto. Lisa grinned, finished the scan, and picked up the cube. The slick black covering moved up her arm as she threw the cube. She had time to see the cube glowing golden, feel the sudden utter cold and see Ianto vanish before the entity struck, killing her with a wave of cold so intense it froze the breath in her lungs. The entity, looking like a mobile oil stain, felt elation as the terrible pulling that had almost defeated it stopped. The cube dropped to the ground.

Much weakened by the struggle against the trap that had nearly caught it ,and frightened by the overwhelming heat of the place, it fled. Sliding out and away, It flowed north to the coldest place it could find,hiding itself in the arctic circle. And scientists around the world who had done all the research and who had actually come to the correct conclusions, watched as the world didn't get warmer. Instead it stayed the same, actually started cooling, very slowly. It took years to even notice the change, by then the politicians had managed to convince their constituents that there was no such thing as global warming, and the scientists discredited enough that their repeated warnings were not heeded. It took many years before it was noticeable and humanity had a lot of other things to distract it.

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let the games begin

"Just put it on the desk please, I'll call when I need to come back." Ianto told Owen.

Owen placed the cube on the desk in archives and stepped back towards the door 'bloody nuisance this is, we need to get you more mobile, mate." Ianto could agree, he hated having to ask.

The new archives where spotless, filed perfectly and clean enough for a royal inspection. Ianto had made a start in the old archives. They were in appalling condition. Old files were barely legible and odd artifacts were rusting on shelves, uncategorized. Reports that had never been filed languished in cardboard boxes. It was making Ianto itch. He had found an old map of the hub and knew he had a long way to go.

Tosh brought some reports into Jacks office. 'Are you still stalk… Ah watching Ianto?" she said.

Jack directed a glare at Toshiko, which didn't faze her at all.

She grinned at Jack "I think I found something."

Tosh had seen it on eBay. Jack took one look at it, and smiled. Tosh would have loved that smile, except it was often the start of yet another one of Jack's stories, which went from improbable to pornographic very quickly. Alien porn besides and …there he went again.

I knew a Tridian once. Well really, it was the whole pod, but she was the Matriarch. He said 'Vid was gorgeous, had 12 kids,they called them podlings, all pool age, they all had one of these."

"But what is it?" Tosh asked.

Jack continued"It's a Tridian backpack, except they don't wear them because they have no shoulders, very limber species, gorgeous big ..."

Tosh tried to stop him "I'll take your word for it Jack."

"Green eyes, what did you think I was going to say?" Jack said with a smirk.

Tosh ran a hand over her face "never mind Jack! Will it work?"

Jack grinned even wider "get it."

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Ianto was brewing coffee in Torchwood 3s little kitchen. The coffeemaker he had found there was a beautiful, battered old machine that steamed and gurgled and required frequent fixing. Not like the coffeemaker in the cube, that one was quiet, flawless and perfect. Ianto was so tired of perfect. In the cube everything was so unrealistically perfect. Ianto wondered sometimes if he was real anymore. He stopped that line of thought quickly; it only led to depression and extended bouts of cleaning.

He thought of Jack instead, and when the coffee flowed over his hand, he cursed, dropped the cup and watched as it shattered on the floor. 'Well bollocks.'

Ianto vanished into the cube, grabbed another cup (which looked exactly, perfectly, like the broken one except it wasn't, you know, broken) from the cupboard and ported back to the hub kitchen. After cleaning up the mess, he served the first round of caffeinated heaven for the day.

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Ianto was staring at the...article… Jack was proudly displaying on his desk. It was neon pink with little darker pink symbols embossed decoratively around the outside. Jack grinned. He was holding a palm sized (Also pink) controller with a series of five buttons set around the top, all bright primary colors. He pressed the red button and said "watch" the blob stirred, then split down the middle. Jack picked up the cube, placed it in the blob, pressed the red button and the blob closed.

Ianto winced. It looked obscene somehow. Jack pressed the blue button and took two steps away from the desk. The thing slid off the desk and floated after him. It looked like a flying (PINK!) Neon (PINK!) jellyfish.

"It will follow whoever has the controller, all you do is activate it, put the controller in your pocket and Instant Mobility!" Jack was looking at Ianto with a delighted smile.

Ianto tried to smile back but was watching as the … oh he really needed a name for it… suddenly changed color to bright neon orange. So did the controller.

"Oh and don't worry about the color changes, the Tridian podlings like bright colors." Jack smirked.

Ianto closed his eyes briefly,' be careful what you ask for,make the best of it, you wanted real…' "What do the rest of the buttons do? "He asked.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Ianto refilled coffee cups and headed for the old archives, Tridian backpack floating along behind.

He teleported to the old archive, the Tridian backpack accelerated to follow. In seconds it was once again floating a few feet behind him. Ianto looked approvingly at the artifact. This was going to work brilliantly. He looked at the map and walked down the tunnel that led to the first room Ianto wanted to explore. Just then Jacks voice crackled over the com link "Ianto! Get back here, now!"

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Jack raised his cup, took a deep appreciative sniff and was about to drink when the cup vanished. The coffee didn't. Jack gasped as the hot beverage soaked his shirt.

"Bollocks!"Owen shouted

Suzie just shrieked.

'Ahh!" from Tosh

He grabbed a hand full of napkins to sop up the spilled coffee and yelled into the com link for Ianto.

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Tosh was ecstatic "Ianto were all the coffee cups from inside the cube?" Ianto nodded "and you brewed the coffee in the hub kitchen?" Ianto nodded again.

"Fantastic! Did you ever notice this happening at T-1?"

"No" he said, 'but I never left anything outside the cube there."

"What's so bloody fantastic?" Owen snarled he was sitting at the conference table dabbing at the front of his coffee stained trousers. Suzie's blouse was ruined, and Tosh had lost her keyboard. Jack had actually been leaning back in his chair when his cup vanished and had gotten drenched. Sadly, according to Jack, not a drop landed on the reports.

'So when Ianto and the cube moved past the half mile radius everything that was part of the cube vanished" Tosh had replaced her key board and was accessing CCTV "This means there's a difference! It's measurable!"

Ianto suddenly looked very interested" and if it's measurable we can study it.' he said.