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theatre_girl79) wrote2009-01-10 04:51 pm
Out of the Rift - Chapter 3
Rating: R (for some violence and some eventual nudity and innuendo... hell, it is Torchwood)
Synopsis: A disturbance in the Rift, and the aftereffects are not exactly what they team figured it would be.
Disclaimers: If you recognize them, then they belong to BBC, RTD, and all those wonderful people. I'm just letting them play for a couple of days.
Chapter 3
John and Tosh came creeping out of Joanna’s bedroom.
“I need a better computer than that,” Tosh said, rotating her neck and working out the kinks. “No offense,” she said to Joanna.
“I know, it’s not a really good one. But it’s okay, at least for what I need,” Joanna mumbled.
“Now what,” Owen asked.
“How about a little break to think,” Ianto stated as he came out of Joanna’s kitchen with a pot of coffee, several mugs, milk, sugar, and splenda.
“Ah Ianto, you read my mind,” Jack said with a smile as he sat down on the edge of the windows, overlooking the darkening expanse of Lake Michigan at dusk.
“Here you are sir, just how you like it,” Ianto said as he handed Jack a steaming mug of coffee. He then handed a mug to Gwen and one to John.
John looked down at the coffee and then back up at Ianto. “What is it?”
Carole, who had already picked up a mug of coffee for herself, cupped her hand and tented it over her nose, allowing the scent of it to be the only thing in her nostrils. “Mmmm… woodsy. A hint of sweet buttery goodness. Definitely Latin American in there.” She took a deep, slurping, swallow, tasting the coffee. “Ooohh.. a little dry, and then a blast of dark. Hmmmm...” She looked at Joanna and then smiled down into her coffee. “Aha! Kopelani. Latin American and African beans with 10% Kona blend. Quite distinct and very good. Drink up John.” Jack and Ianto just gaped at her. “What? I’m good.”
“All right coffee master,” Mary Jo reprimanded as she came back from the kitchen with a bottle of Mt. Dew. Coffee was not her thing, she preferred caffeine in an alternate way.
“Coffee master,” Jack echoed.
“Yes.”
“Oh she of the black apron, shut it,” Mary Jo said, smiling as she gazed at the looks of wonder on Jack’s face.
“Hey, becoming a coffee master takes a lot of training, and I am proud to say I did good.” Carole sat down at the dining room table, one leg under her, sipping at her coffee.
“I shall have to ask you for, uh, tips,” Ianto said as he too noticed the look on Jack’s face. He then continued to hand out mugs of coffee to Tosh and Joanna.
“So, where are we at? Report people,” Jack said as he took another gulp of coffee.
“Well, Joanna, Owen, Ianto and I have been all around this building, trying to ‘feel’ things out. And we have found nothing. This place used to be crawling with spectral activity and now it is quieter than a tomb.” Carole put her mug down and looked at it. “What could make all the ghosts and things that go bump in the night just disappear?”
“That is really strange,” Mary Jo chimed in. “Well, Jack, Gwen, and I went on a rekkie to find our friend, the blowfish. We found nothing, just those same barely clothed, idiot-acting college boys that were flirting with Joanna earlier.”
“That was not a bad find,” Jack deadpanned.
“Anyways,” Gwen said shooting Jack a look, “we found nothing but empty rocks.”
“How do you know there was a blowfish there,” Ianto asked.
“Other than nearly tromping across its stomach?” Carole replied. “Wait, do they have stomachs?”
“Yes,” Owen stated, still pacing.
“At least I didn’t take a picture of it,” Joanna sneered.
“Well, at least our cameras are quieter than someone else here,” Mary Jo piped in.
“There was other noise. It would not have left the rocks over me,” Joanna answered.
“Wait, rocks? I though we passed beaches on our way here,” Owen asked.
“Oh, there are beaches and many, many rocks,” Mary Jo stated. “Chicago was never made up of this much land. This land you are standing on right now didn’t exist two hundred years ago. In fact, look at Streeterville. Years ago Cap Streeter wanted his own land so he parked his ship on the shore and let all the garbage pile up around it. Some of the most expensive properties in this city used to be garbage dumps and swampland. Last century, the city wanted to protect itself from erosion and placed rock ledges at strategic points around the lake, so there are big rock ledges people climb over on the lakefront every day.”
“Thanks for the history lesson,” Owen stated as he started to pace around the room by the kitchen doorway.
“I wasn’t able to find any energy activity or anything of that nature using my PDA and Joanna’s computer, even with John’s help. And that was after Ianto and I got some of my equipment up here.” Tosh just held her mug of coffee in her hands, not even drinking. It looked like she was still trying to run figures in her head.
Carole suddenly realized what Tosh said about equipment. Her mind leapfrogged to the memory of the team on the elevator and realized that no one had been carrying any equipment. Torchwood always had cases of equipment, never mind the well-equipped SUV. She exchanged a quizzitive look with Mary Jo across the room.
“Um,” Carole spoke up. “Where is your equipment? Did you park downstairs in the garage?”
“No garage, the vehicle wasn’t at the airport,” Ianto stated. “We took a cab.”
“The rest of the equipment is still by the pool,” Gwen said with a sigh.
“By the pool, okay,” Carole said as she took a sip of her coffee. “Wait a minute, so, why were you guys all wet earlier?”
“Space squid in the pool,” Jack replied nonchalantly.
Mary Jo, who had just been taking a long drag of Mt. Dew stated to choke. Ianto, who had settled next to her to by the bedroom just patted her on the back. “Space squid,” Mary Jo sputtered out.
“Right nasty big buggers,” Owen said.
“But we didn’t stop it before it inked two people,” Gwen said, looking down.
“What happens when someone is inked,” Carole asked.
“You don’t want to know,” Jack said and took another drink of his coffee.
“Oh,” Mary Jo as she sat down on the couch.
Joanna jumped up from the armchair at the far end of the room and stood in front of Jack. “Excuse me, those were my neighbors. You couldn’t stop it? A space squid inked two innocent people! Those were my neighbors.” She emphasized the last sentence with her finger poking into Jack’s chest.
Jack looked down at her finger in his chest as Carole and Mary Jo both stood up where they were. Jack took a step backwards and looked at down Joanna.
“It couldn’t be helped. We tried.”
Joanna and Jack stared at each other, the tension in the room suddenly feeling very palpable. All of a sudden Ianto maneuvered between the furniture and across the room, placing himself betwixt the two. He grabbed the mug out of Jack’s grip.
“Perhaps a refill sir,” Ianto said as he walked back over to the coffee pot on the table next to Carole. Jack and Joanna each retreated back to their corners while Ianto continued on. “The question is, why is all of this settling in Chicago?”
“I think I might have an idea,” Carole said when all of a sudden “Greensleeves” started playing in the condo.
“What is that,” Owen asked looking around.
“Doorbell,” Carole, Mary Jo and John all said at once.
“Interesting,” Owen replied as he continued to move around the room.
Ianto automatically headed for the door when Carole stopped him. “Wait!” She turned to the others. “Did anyone call from the front desk?”
“No, why?” Ianto looked perplexed.
“No one gets up here without being admitted,” Mary Jo replied.
“Unless they live in the building, or got in another way,” Carole said, looking at the door.
“Yeah, we can’t even get pizza delivered up here,” John said as he took a big gulp of coffee.
Carole quickly shot Jack a look as she dashed over and grabbed John by the wrist, pulling him towards the bedroom, making him splash some of the coffee on the carpet. The condo was way too small for many hiding places, and had only one entrance in or out. The bedroom and bathroom were the best hiding places, farthest away from the door.
Behind her Jack was pushing Tosh and Ianto into the bedroom as Owen scuttled in right before them. Jack flipped off the bedroom lights and closed the door most of the way. He ran back across the room, hands by his side, his pistol handy. Gwen pulled Mary Jo down onto the couch as she sat down also, her gun in hand and hiding under her one leg. Carole took a breath and then hazarded a glance next to her, seeing Owen and Ianto with weapons out also. She went back to looking out through the crack in the door.
“Answer it,” Jack said, pushing Joanna forward. “And be careful.”
Joanna looked warily back at him and then walked forward. There was a pregnant pause of anticipation in that moment before she pulled the door open.
“Oh hello there.”
Carole was straining to hear anything from the other side of the wall.
“Hi,” a male voice said. It sounded young.
Joanna walked back into the main room of the condo, followed by the sandy-haired, blue-eyed college boy from earlier, now fully clothed. The stranger had a look about him that just drew one in.
“What brings you here,” Jack said, looking the boy over. The boy looked at Joanna.
“Oh, they’re, just, a, friends of mine,” Joanna replied, smiling back at him.
“Well, you dropped this by the lakefront earlier,” the boy said, holding out a Celtic cross necklace.
Joanna automatically reached up and felt her bare neck. “Oh goodness! Thank you so much! Oh wow,” she said as she reached out her hand.
The boy smiled at her and undid the clasp. “Please, let me.”
“But why?”
“My mother always said to be a gentleman and to do something nice for a pretty girl at least once a day, it might change their whole day,” he said as he moved closer to her.
“And what’s your good deed today,” Jack asked. His body seemed to stiffen in intensity.
“THIS!” The stranger lunged at Joanna, grabbing her around the throat. In a moment he had slithered behind her, one arm across her throat, the other arm across her chest, pinning her arms down.
In that same moment, Jack and Gwen both pulled out their pistols and had them trained on the pair, trying to find an opening. The stranger was using Joanna as a shield, bobbing around, making it impossible for Jack or Gwen to get a clear shot. Suddenly the stranger began to glow.
“Oh shit,” Carole and Owen muttered under their breaths.
The stranger began to glow even more brilliantly. He buried his face in Joanna’s neck as she opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She began to glow also as Jack kept trying to get around her and the creature. Mary Jo by this point was standing flat against the wall in the corner, staying out of the way.
Carole looked back behind her and then found herself pushing John further into the recesses of the bedroom and into the bathroom. They both began to act out an argument using hand gestures instead of words, staying quiet. Carole shoved him into the bathroom and gave him one final hand gesture and the “mom” look. She then gave a pointed look at Tosh and then nodded her head at John. Carole then went back by the door and the other men.
Both Joanna and the stranger were now glowing a bright white light with yellow on the fringes. It almost hurt their eyes to look at the irregular pair. Suddenly Jack holstered his pistol and charged at the stranger, tackling it to the ground. At the instant of impact the stranger let go of Joanna and stopped glowing. Gwen and Mary Jo pulled Joanna away from the stranger and back by the couch.
Jack popped up from the floor and grabbed the handsome stranger by his collar, dragging him up. Before a word could be said, the stranger had his hands around Jack’s neck and both of them began to glow. They struggled a moment until a shot suddenly rang out through the small condo. The stranger let go of Jack and doubled over, clutching its stomach. Jack stumbled backwards.
A low siren noise seemed to emanate from somewhere. Suddenly the stranger opened his mouth and a piercing, keening, inhuman wail echoed off the walls. Jack fell to the ground as everyone else struggled to block out the noise. The stranger began to convulse, and then it looked up, its eyes a bright, burning white, and without any more preamble it exploded. Black alien goo scattered around the walls, furniture, pictures, and all the inhabitants of the main room.
“OOOOOOhhhh… EWWWWW!” Mary Jo just looked down at her shirt and pants with goo splattered across them like a Jackson Pollack painting.
“Talk about frat boy jam,” Owen said.
The hiders scattered out of the bedroom, trying to step between the splatters.
“That is a rather interesting smell,” Ianto said as he stepped into the main room.
Owen ran over to Jack and held out his hands to the man who looked up at him. Pulling him up, Owen sat Jack down by the dining room table and began to look over him. Carole ran over by the unconscious Joanna and took her pulse, which was racing. She then checked the girls breathing, which was barely there, and her pupils, which were quite dilated.
Carole looked over her shoulder at Owen. “He’ll be fine. I need your help over here. We need to keep her from going into shock.”
Owen looked back at Jack, who waved him away. Owen ran over by Carole and kneeled down next to the couch and Joanna, helping with the first aid. Gwen sidled out of the way and walked over by Jack. Jack looked like he was trying to stretch the kinks out of his neck.
“What was that thing,” Gwen asked.
“I’m not really sure,” Jack said as a pair of black shoes appeared in his vision. He looked up at Ianto who was also next to him now. “What I want to know is who fired on it.”
“Well, I did sir,” Ianto said, his voice low.
Jack slowly stood up and put his hands on Ianto’s shoulders, looking him in the eyes. “You did the right thing.” After a moment Ianto shook his head and then looked away. Jack ran his hands down Ianto’s shoulders and along his arms. He then walked between Gwen and Ianto. “What about her?”
Owen sat back on his heels, still kneeling on the floor next to the couch. Carole stood up and leaned against the arm of the couch. She wiped her hand across her forehead. Joanna still remained unconscious, with a quilted blanket from the chair over her.
“So,” Jack asked, standing next to Owen.
Owen looked up at Jack and then stood up. “We believe she’ll be okay. We stopped her from going into shock, pulse is normal, breathing is still shallow, but more robust than it was before. Now we’re just trying to warm her up. She was ice cold for a moment.” Owen turned to Jack. “Jack, what was that thing?”
“I don’t know. It definitely felt…. different.” Jack looked around the disheveled room.
“The room could use a good cleaning,” Ianto replied, looking at the black goo covering the carpet, the walls, windows and furniture .
“And so could we,” Mary Jo chimed in, holding her blue shirt away from her chest. “This is so disgusting!”
“Agreed,” Jack said.
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Man I really am the library geek aren't I? *reads bit about Streeterville* And to think this chapter was written BEFORE I applied to library school!
POST MORE! :D And write more too! I want my Caliber damnit!
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