Chapter 3
Rose awoke with a start as someone from below shouted. She recognized the rougher voice of Owen and in a few seconds, Tosh's voice urgently joined in as well. 'Jack, We've got insane readings from the rift! There's not an excess of energy though… it's as if all the energy is gone- gone down off the charts. I've never seen activity this low.'
Rose pushed herself off of the couch and rolled her neck as she jogged down the stairs to see what the fuss was about. Jack, she discovered as she stopped, was following just behind her. Jack looks at the readings, and then presses a button on Tosh's computer, opening up the sound recording coming from above them.
The sound, though familiar to Rose and Jack, was just a strange whooshing to the rest of the team. While Rose and Jack sprinted up the stairs in a heartbeat, the rest of the team gathered up their equipment to check out the strange noises.
Rose followed Jack as he sprinted up the stairs, as he seemed to know exactly where he was going. He ran out of the entrance and stood by the door watching the vast stretch of concrete where the rift lay. Rose stood next to him, her eyes flying around trying to locate the glimpses of blue that offered the location of the materializing TARDIS.
She saw a flash of blue and her eyes locked onto the position. A police box did materialize and it was no doubt the TARDIS, however there was a cleaner, newer feel to the box than the one she knew so well.
She was about to walk forward as she saw a pair walk out of the box, holding hands. There was the man- a sort of geeky looking fellow with dirty blonde hair walking alongside a skinny and quite pretty redheaded woman. 'Is that the doctor?' Both of the Torchwoods thought to themselves.
They were both staring at the couple in awe as a third person walked out of the TARDIS, a man with a quite unique wardrobe. He was wearing a tweed jacket, suspenders, and a bow tie. With the distinctive spunk and childish demeanour he possessed as he exited the box, Rose and Jack immediately recognized him as the doctor. 'A bow tie?' Rose whispered to Jack with a giggle.
'Doctor!' Rose shouted with a grin covering her face. 'Doc, Hey Doc!' Jack yelled after her, in the direction of the quickly departing threesome. Rose yelled some more. 'Doctor, Hey! Doctor!' She began jogging in his direction, eager to meet up with the man.
Owen, Tosh, Gwen, and Ianto exited the hub in time to see the captain and the new girl yelling crazily at three random pedestrians. Ianto looked confusedly at Jack, Owen shared the face directing it at both of them, and Gwen and Tosh looked curiously at the three people walking in the other direction.
The man in the bow tie froze, as if hearing something familiar, which in fact, he was. 'But that's not possible. That's just not possible.' He whispered to himself. Spinning on his heels to face the pair of humans yelling at him, he prayed that it was in fact possible and that his mind was not simply playing tricks on him.
Sure enough, behind him yelling were Jack and his beloved Rose. 'Rose!' He yelled back as he jogged in their direction. Amy and Rory, upon hearing his yell, spun around curiously and began walking after the fast-moving time lord.
Rose broke into a sprint, as did her doctor. They met in the middle and she leaped into his arms, hugging him close. 'Doctor, I've missed you.' She whispered in his ear as she gripped him tight. 'I've missed you too, Rose. So much. But, how are you here?' He whispered back as he set her down on the ground again. Jack joins in their hug, pinning them together in a group hug. 'How're you doing doc?'
'I've told you Jack, Doctor. Not Doc.' He replied with a smile. The redhead and the blonde approached behind him, as did the Torchwood team behind Jack and Rose. Rose watched as something vibrated in Owen's pocket.
He pulled out a small handheld device and glanced up at the doctor curiously. 'Uh, Jack. This guy's not human.' He said softly to Jack, trying not to be overheard by the three newcomers.
'You're quite correct, Owen. He's certainly not human.' Jack laughed and the rest of the team watched awkwardly, wondering when Jack became such good friends with an alien. 'I see you've regenerated again then, doc?' He said, trying to stir up conversation.
'Yes, I did.' He said matter-of-factly. He twisted around and gestured for the two behind him to come over to Rose and Jack. 'This is Amy and Rory Pond, my companions.' The doctor says quickly to Jack. 'Amy and Rory, this is Rose Tyler, a dear companion of mine from a while ago, and Jack Harkness.' He turned back to his old friends. 'Well, we were just going for some fish and chips, if you two would like to join us.'
'Of course, we're coming!' The two said together. They all began walking away, but something within Tosh's pocket begins letting out an unnerving siren. Jack spun around and Tosh pulled out the device. 'Uh, Jack, the rift activity just spiked. Something is going on.'
The doctor twisted around just in time to see the TARDIS materializing out of sight. 'No No No!' He exclaimed as he ran to his box. 'No, girl, where are you going?' Jack appeared next to him. 'It's the rift, doc. The rift is doing something to her!' The box finally completely dematerialized and they stared at each other in awe.
Jack sighed. 'I've got to go back to the hub. We need to analyse those readings.' The captain slowly walked back to the team. The doctor followed, motioning for the Ponds to come with him. 'Let's come explore Torchwood, shall we?' The man said to his companions as they walked into the hub behind Jack.
Rose held the doctor's hand, thinking the same thing as everyone else; Where had the TARDIS gone? She followed Jack down the finally-familiar path into the hub, squeezing the doctor's hand, glad to see him again as they both thought they never would.
Upon reaching the hub, the team demanded to know who the newcomers were. 'Oh, that's… Doctor Smith and his… colleagues Amy and Rory Pond.' Jack replied quickly, not wishing to explain his complicated circumstances involving knowing this man. The team, knowing perfectly well he had just lied to them, accepted the answer anyways and got to analysing the readings. Sure enough, in the time that it took the TARDIS to disappear, the rift had a huge energy surge.
The Doctor followed Rose over to her station with Gwen and used his handy sonic screwdriver to help them with the particular things they were analysing. He looked at his sonic, and to his surprise, the thing told him nothing was wrong. He, with a frustrated attitude, scanned the computers again. Once again, the results came up clear and he knew something must have been very very wrong.
Rose and Gwen were getting nowhere with their computers either. Despite the expensive, top of the line computer systems and specially designed programs and technology, the computers just couldn't seem to recognize what was wrong with the rift.
Jack helped Owen read his results while Ianto went around and fixed everyone some calming tea. (Not that anyone actually drank it.) Just like with Gwen and Rose, the computers were not recognizing a threat, nor were they recognizing any change out of the ordinary. Upon closer look, Jack noticed however, that the computers weren't even recognizing the changes that always happened. If there was one thing Jack knew from his many years in the hub, it was that the readings are always changing in minute ways. And right now, they certainly were not, as if they were frozen in place by something.
He lifted his head and turned to approach the doctor and tell him the news. At that precise moment however, all of the electricity within the hub cut off, leaving them in the complete darkness. Jack didn't dare move, knowing that there were enough chains and gadgets in between him and his target that he was bound to hurt himself trying.
Something flashed in the corner, and the emergency lockdown lights began flashing and warnings were blaring. 'Intruder alert. Intruder alert. Lockdown initiated.' The generators finally kicked in and all of the lights returned to normal. The red lights on the walls were still flashing, but the team tried to pay as little mind to them as possible.
'Doctor, what's going on?' Rory yells over to him. The doctor yanks out his sonic again and begins frantically scanning all over. 'No Vashta Nerada… no miniscule creatures of any sort… no other less intelligent lifeforms at all… wait.' He paused for a while. 'Jack… we seem to have a slight problem.'
Jack, who was busy trying to log into the computers despite the lockdown, turned to face the concerned time lord. 'My instincts are telling me something is in here doctor, what does trusty sonic say?'
He looked up from his sonic and looked at Jack with a face more concerned than he had ever seen before. 'Jack, something IS in here. It's not a life-form… per say, but it's definitely as smart if not smarter than a human being. If I would take a wild guess… well not wild, but a guess, it'd be that this is some sort of gaseous being.' Owen gestured to Gwen and they both went trotting down the stairs to the cells.
The two returned quickly and reported that the weevils were all accounted for and securely in their cells, however that left the issue of what this intelligent thing wandering around the hub was and what it wanted with the Torchwood team.
The emergency generators kicked on, flooding the room with enough light to finally be able to see the entire room. Jack watched as the doctor pulled out his sonic and waves it around. He glances down at his sonic in his hand. 'I've got some good news. The Vashta Nerada aren't here.' He said this as if they all knew what this meant, however, on Earth in Cardiff, they simply had never run into the Vashta Nerada threat. 'They eat flesh.' He explained simply, as he focused on finding the threat.
Ianto is the first to speak up. 'If it's not the Vashta Nerada… then what is it?'
A silence fell over the team and they glanced around uneasily. 'I'll find out, I promise you that.' The doctor replied, in a rare moment of complete seriousness. The small pen-like device in his hand began wailing and shaking, alerting the doctor that there was in fact, something quickly approaching. The results announced it as some sort of creature within the air, most likely some sort of smoke-type creature that would float across the bottom of the floor.
The doctor looked up and saw that the sonic was right. Coming from the main entrance was the blackest, thickest smoke any of them had ever seen, but it was not behaving at all like smoke. For one, instead of rising, it was clearly moving its way across the floor, towards the nearest life forms- in this case, the Torchwood team, the doctor, Rory, and Amy. Amy backed away slowly to stand behind her husband as he stood protectively in front of her, reminding the doctor of the last centurion soldier.
Gwen and Owen quietly crept to the weapons room and pulled out various things, passing them to Rose, Jack, and Ianto as well as a gun to Rory. The doctor, armed with his trusty sonic screwdriver, stepped forward to face this beast.