:: Disclaimer ::

I do not claim any rights to the characters depicted in this fan-fiction. It is simply a creative write for the sake of crossing Torchwood with Doctor WHO for longer than a simple visit. It is in no way tied officially to the events in either show, and does not alter the script in the slightest. The credit goes completely to Russel T. Davies for the creation of both shows. The only credit claimed here is the original context of story plot. Credit for that goes to the roleplayer displayed on the link bellow.

www.roleplayer.me/TheHUBCaretaker

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Chapter #1 – Talgarth Asylum

The SUV couldn’t have been more unwelcome as the team made it’s usual rounds. It seemed that the Captain loved to park the bulky vehicle where it was least needed, invoking the other officials to grumble to themselves before driving around. Three men and two women made their way out carrying cases and tools with them. The police didn’t even bother to stop them, but that didn’t mean the military personnel didn’t. The first to step forward was a dark skinned woman in her deep green UNIT attire, wearing her black cap in formal accord to her uniform.

“Captain Erisa Magambo of UNIT. This area has been strictly sealed for our authorization only,” she announced. The only one to stop by her side was a man in a firm pressed black suit with a blue vest and black tie. He put on a fairly light hearted – and very short – smile in greeting as the other members continued on through the yellow sealed tape. “Excuse me, this is a Level 5 sealed area. UNIT personnel only—”

“No worries, Mrs. Magambo. I’ve been authorized as the middle man between our groups. I’m sure you’re familiar with Torchwood and what we do,” the man said giving a light gesture toward his team mates before offering his hand toward her in greeting. “Ianto Jones, ma’am. I’m told that you found nothing upon arriving at the site?”

Once the physical presence of Torchwood came about it was like the woman had no charge any longer. The Torchwood members ranked higher than she did in scale of governmental authority. If her general were here then she might have a fighting chance, but with only herself and an acting team of soldiers and scientists the dark skinned woman didn’t have the authority. So, she respected her rank and stepped aside to speak professionally with the Welshmen.

Captain Jack Harkness stood just as he always did with his Dashing Hero personal polished upon the scene. His bright eyes looked from ceiling to floor with his wrist strap open and waiting for the processing beeps to stop. Upon his ear was a communication device between himself and Ianto Jones. At the moment it was simply there for him to listen as the UNIT woman spoke about how the only thing her team found was markings upon the structure that indicated a blaster battle. There were no bodies and no traces of the types of blasters. The only thing they could justify was that one of the combatants were a form of squid alien. Why is that? Their imprint was still spread across one of the walls like in one of the American loony toon explosion scenes. The sight of it was enough to make the four of them giggle for a moment before they started their work.

Owen Harper had his medical case out and open, and the first thing he did was slip on a pair of gloves. His task at hand was to take samples of everything in the area as Toshiko Sato and the Captain took readings on the area.

“No rift activity detected, so there’s no possibility of it making the aliens crazed or violent,” the Asian woman said. It was then that the beeping at the wrist strap finally stopped.

“The area isn’t pulsing with energy from any lifeform besides the humans outside, so whatever it was must have left the area or was blasted out of existence like our friend on the wall. What do we know about this place?” Jack asked, his eyesight returning to the area around him.

Of course, his Welshmen was the first to answer through the communicator. “Talgarth Asylum has been abandoned for years due to the public’s loss of interest for their procedures. This building was more of an experimental ward rather than a safe house for the ill and dying. It was built in 1903 to house 352 patients. It was first called Brecon and Radnor Joint Asylum and became Wales Hospital in 1921. World War II brought in prisoners as well as patients and the overload gave the authority for an expansion in 1955 and a new treatment block as the 1960’s passed. They only managed to pass into modern medical professions as the public saw their crude treatments, and the facility was shut down in the mid 1990’s,” the man said in a light rush, trying to explain everything he could in a matter of minutes to prevent wasting time. His summery report was passed through an earpiece at each team member’s ear.

“So, our questions: Which two aliens are we dealing with? Which of the two aliens were stationed here? How long have they been here? And why were they attacked?” Jack’s eyes shifted toward each member of his team. At the moment they all had their attention on him even though Owen was multi-tasking his efforts in taking samples. “If there are any traces of aliens leaving the perimeter I want to know about it stat. Owen’s already started here, so we’ll be taking the rest. Tosh, take the east wing. Gwen, take the west.” The moment the two had their orders the women quickly pulled their pistols from hiding places and made their way. “Ianto, do away with the UNIT personnel. The less eyes we have the better.” The immortal man couldn’t help but to pop a smile even as he shifted to take on the south wing of the Asylem. “Though, if you can manage it, I’d still like one of those caps.”

“Maybe when the masses aren’t reeling, sir,” Ianto’s voice echoed back professionally, but his tone gave a hint to the Boeshane that he was holding in an amused smile.

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Within a half an hour the UNIT personnel were finally cleared from the area, but it was such a hassle. The dark skinned woman had to insist that she be present to observe what team Torchwood 3 might find within the abandoned building. The only thing that managed to shoo them off was the pressure of authority. Torchwood was above the government and beyond the police but that didn’t stop Ianto Jones from professionally bullying them off the property by making motions of contacting governmental superiors. The sight of them leaving was enough to put a smile upon the teaboy’s face as he flipped his mobile phone closed again, his spare hand still in his pocket.

Looking back at the abandoned building, he could honestly say that it gave him the chills. It was like the scenes depicted in horror movies. The windows were boarded up with broken glass beneath them. As time struck the building there were trails of pealed paint from lack of care, so the man could only wonder what it looked like on the inside… But something else caught his eye, making the Welshmen step to his right a few paces. His focused gaze never left the second floor with his eyebrows rising a bit as Ianto confirmed what he was seeing.

“Jack, there appears to be a structure inside one of the windows at the second floor. Looks like a vehicle from where I’m standing.”

“A vehicle? On the second floor?” his boss asked, clearly filled with confusion.

“Yep. I’ve got a visual of a red side view mirror.”

“I’m on it. I’ve taken all the samples I can of this area,” came Owen’s voice through the communicator.

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The medical officer closed his case and pealed his gloves off before pulling a pistol from his belt. It was only a small step around a nearby railing before the man made his way up the stairs to the second floor. His motions were all steady and quick sided, traveling down the hallway that trailed closest to the front face of the building. From there his motions were more cautious, his gun being the first to enter any doorway along the corridor. It was the third room down that carried the vehicle Ianto spotted. The walls into the next room were torn down just to make room for a dark red cargo van. The wheels were removed, leaving the frame to sit directly upon the floor.

In the surrounding area were machines wired together along with tubing that trailed into the engine of the van. With the hood up Owen could see that everything there was of alien origin but the entire project was well meshed over with a perception filter. Otherwise the UNIT personnel would have seen it. Torchwood used a similar or more advanced perception filter, so seeing the cargo van wasn’t too difficult. From what Owen could see, the project only bore one mechanic, who looked to be a prisoner. There was no trace of them now accept for a single mattress upon the floor near a hook in the floor. This was where a thick pair of handcuffs lay limp. The mechanic was a prisoner who managed to fight their way free, because the cuffs were splattered in blood from forcing a hand to squeeze through.

“Well, we might have found what the gun battle was started for, mates,” Owen announced.

Soon the entire team was gathered into this room to try to gather information on the device. Jack seemed to dive in as always, taking his long trench coat off and tossing it for Ianto to hold. With his mechanical experience in check he began to thumb through the equipment under the hood of the van, looking for any power cores or detailed cables that might speak of alien origin. Meanwhile, Owen was taking tissue samples from the hand cuffs and mattress. Anything he could find, whether it be hair, dead skin, blood or pealed flesh. From the cuffs he managed to get a small but thick layer of flesh, and the pillow on the mattress gave a single strand of brown hair. Tosh looked over the machines in the room to see if she could decipher any of the language on display. All she could manage to do was transfer files to her portable device to run through the system in the HUB later.

“Any clues?” Gwen asked from where she stood next to Ianto. She hated times like this, because she wasn’t an expert in something particular. Like the man beside her, Gwen Cooper was good at generating public files for the sake of investigation.

“Well… Something like this would take at least a month for a master mechanic to plant in a shell like this. The group would have been gathering materials for years, so this is long term. This is one hell of a Frankenstein project,” Jack said. As the Boeshane carefully pulled a small crystal from the middle of the engines the rest of the vehicle’s engine glow faded to a dull color. The red crystal seemed to keep it’s energy concealed within a shell, and the sight of it put a smile upon Jack’s face. “See that? This is a blacklist item. This, kids… is a Pulse Gem from a radioactive diamond planet known as Midnight.  You can’t get this by any typical means. Whoever got their mitts on it died to get it here.”

“Thought it was radioactive and yet you have it out in the open?” Owen asked with a quirked eyebrow.

“The planet as a whole is radioactive. When a piece is broken away this shell stops the piece from bleeding it’s effects. As a result, this is a hot battery – able to last for hundreds of years before breaking harmlessly.”

“Well, that’s it then. I’ve practically mopped the floor of this place.” Closing his case, the medical officer stood up with his usual annoyed look upon his face. “Are we going to keep going in circles? Nobody found anything worth sticking around for.”

“Wait…”

Everyone’s gaze shifted toward Gwen when she spoke, her eyes narrowed a bit as she focused on a particular spot in front of her. From where the brunette stood she could see the door frame in the room across the broken wall. She took steps past Tosh and the machinery before kneeling and placing her hand to the red carpeted floor. When she brought her fingers back they were blotched in red. Due to the colors it was nearly impossible for her to see it at first. The only thing that gave this spot away was the texture.

“That’s cold. Very cold,” she said just in reflection to herself before looking back to the other members of the team. “Human blood doesn’t go cold after leaving the body does it?”

“No. In fact, you shouldn’t even have red on you because it would have dried by now, Gwen,” Owen said and she gave him a simple annoyed look before he stepped over to touch it with his own gloved hand. “Cold it is. Pretty thick puddle for a single spot too,” he added as he gathered the means to take another sample.

But Gwen wasn’t quite finished. She rose to her feet and secured her pistol in her hands as she continued to look for any other blotches. Without any hesitation, Jack shifted to pass the red crystal to Ianto before following in the brunette’s footsteps. With his weblay in hand, the Captain covered Gwen’s blind spots to allow her to stay focused. Feeling him there behind her she figured to speak what she was seeing, just to keep communication open.

“Looks like we’ve got spots of blood trailing the floor, and a few blaster shots at the walls. I’m guessing that the aim of it all was for the vehicle but following the mechanic as they moved.”  The cuts from the cuffs must have been deep, allowing a right trail for Gwen to follow. As she turned the corner she proceeded gun first only to shift one of her hands away from it to touch the wall. “And the gun battle caught them, Jack.”

By those words the Torchwood leader quickly turned to take a better look. The splatter upon the wall was almost at his shoulder level but it wasn’t like the one downstairs. The mechanic wasn’t blown out of existence to leave a shape of what it was behind. This was a wide and distinctive blood splatter. Placing his hand upon the wall he found that it was the same cold temperature as the blood left behind upon the floor. Gwen then tapped at his shoulder and he tore his bright eyes away toward her. The woman’s attention was to the window closest to them. The glass and the wood boards were broken outward, with only a few shards left behind upon the frame.Those few shards and the frame was blotched in red. Both of them stepped forward to look out, able to find the rest of the glass in a heap upon the ground below.

“And the plot thickens. Shot and wounded, the mechanic leaped to make an escape,” Jack said.

Both lowered their guns, able to see that there were no hostiles worth pointing the weapons at. It was then that Gwen turned toward her boss. “So, we’d be wise to assume two possibilities. Either the mechanic fled and the surviving aliens retreated to avoid authorities – in which case the mechanic is dead from injury… or the aliens plucked the mechanic from the scene, so he’s a wounded prisoner in a different location,” she said.

Jack couldn’t help but to let his face contort for a moment in confusion. “What makes you think the mechanic is male?”

“Is it common for a female to be that tall? You’re what? 6’0” or maybe 6’2” tall, Jack?”

“Without the boots? 6’0” even.  You’re judging this on height?” Jack took a moment to think about the clues they already had. The alien imprint they saw wasn’t quite par to the Captain’s height, and all of these blast marks seemed to be at his chest or shoulder level. Your average alien builds height on protein, and not too many aliens out there bare larger females than males. “…Well, it’s a nice educated guess, I’ll give it that. I want to know for sure. So, we’ll search the landscape for traces of movement before heading back to the HUB. If we’re lucky we’ll find the body of our mechanic.”