The Orphan in the TARDIS

Chapter Ten

    The Time Lord and his friend skid to a halt at the site of the original explosion. A crater takes up the lot where an old abandoned warehouse used to sit. Without an ounce of hesitation, the Time Lord leaps into the hole.

    Turning his head slightly to the right, he hollers over his shoulder, "Aren't you coming, Lyn?"

    "You are going to hurt yourself, there is a high probability that something will fall on you, probably crushing you, and then bye bye Doctor, no regenerations left you're just gone. People will ask, how did the Doctor die. I'll have to respond truthfully, he died because he's an idiot." she shouts down at him.

    "You're such a chicken!"

    "No, I just have self-preservation, something you have always seemed to be lacking on."

     The Gallifreyan rolls his eyes, stepping lightly through what remains of the warehouse. He leans down, pushing some dirt around to expose something metallic and shiny. He straightens and makes his way out of the crater with Sophie's help. Just as he gets out, police finally arrive to cordon off  the explosion site.

    The two walk a ways away from the police, "So, what'd you find?"

    "If you'd have been down there, you would know."

    "But I wasn't, so I don't."

    The Gallifreyan reaches into his pocket, pulling out the shiny coin he'd found in the crater. "It's a coin from Venucius. It's a planet a couple galaxies over. If I had to wager a guess, I'd say the Brotherhood of Venucius are behind that explosion."

     Sophie was about to question the Doctor as to what and who this Brotherhood are, when a large black van pulls up beside them. Stamped on the side in big block letters is the name Torchwood.

    The Gallifreyan sighs and the vans door slides open. Out steps a group of five people. A man in jeans and a hoodie who looks as though he'd rather be anywhere else. Another man in a full three piece suit. A Japanese looking woman with a tablet in her hand. Another woman in a leather jacket, somewhat scary looking. And a man who gives the aura of being in charge, wearing a, if Sophie would have to wager a guess, World War 2 greatcoat.

    The leader starts barking orders at the people surrounding him, and the Doctor being the Doctor walks over to these Torchwood people. He smiles as he approaches the man in the greatcoat. "Heya, Jack!" he greets, familiarity tinting his voice.

    Jack turns looking eye to eye with the Doctor, "Sorry, do I know you?"

    "Wow, you think you'd recognize me what with the fact that—Oh, yeah, new face," the Time Lord says, pointing toward his face with his index finger.

    The man looks at the Gallifreyan for a few moments, confused, when recognition clicks on his face, his team standing confused behind him. "Doctor?" he asks. The Time Lord nods at the man's question.

    Sophie walks over to the Time Lord and Torchwood, "Um, hi." She murmurs, waving slightly at the strangers.

    "Hey, Sophie, happy birthday," Jack says.

    "Sorry, do I know you?"

    "Apparently not yet, but you will." He pointedly looks at her, "Captain Jack Harkness," he says monotonously.

    "Sophie McCoy, but, I gather you already know that."

    "And, these guys know you as well, but, you don't know them. Gwen Cooper, my right hand. Ianto Jones, he makes the best coffee in this or any universe. Toshiko Sato, our resident tech genius. Owen Harper, Torchwood doctor." As he says the names, Jack points to each person.

    "Nice to meet you all," she offers a small wave.

     The team all seem slightly confused. "Sir," Ianto says, approaching Jack, "Do you still want us to investigate? Or, are we going home?"

    "Doctor?" Jack turns to ask.

    "You might as well stick around, but," he pushes his index finger at them for emphasis, "No guns!"

    A humourous smile flits across the Captains face, "Never gonna happen Doctor. I'm just gonna go on the assumption that you already searched the crater, so, what'd you find?"

    "You have a really low expectation of me."

    "I personally think he has a perfectly normal expectation of you."

    The Time Lord turns to face the woman, ignoring Torchwood. "Okay, I'm not that reckless, I've only died twelve times. That's a reasonably low level of death!"

    "A reasonably low level of death is zero, zero deaths. That's how many times normal people can die, you Dalek."

    The Gallifreyan gasps, "You take that back right now!"

    "Never gonna happen."

    "Take it back."

    "You can't make me," she smirks.

    "Take it back."

    "No."

    "Yes."

    "No."

    The Torchwood team watches the back and forth between the two. Jack rolls his eyes, knowing this is how they act when there isn't any eminient crisis.

    Owen steps forward, "Oh for God's sake can you two just shut up!"

    "Right, back on task," the Doctor says, shooting a glare at Sophie,   he pulls the small coin from his pocket once again, "Brotherhood of Venucius."

     "Great," Jack growls, sounding very angry.

    "Sorry," Tosh says, "The Brotherhood of where now?"

    "Venucius, it's a planet a few galaxies over. The people of this planet are peaceful, refusing to get involved in the war that's been raging in the planets on either sides of it. The Brotherhood of Venucius is another story."

    Captain Jack takes up the story from here. "The Brotherhood is a cult, a violent cult. They also happen to be pyromaniacs. They burned down the Venucius Capitol building, and the resulting blaze burned for Eight-hundred and ten Venucius days."

     "A day on Venucius is three months here. Half the planet was smoke and ash when Jack, Rose, and I managed to quench the flames. The Brotherhood was exiled from Venucius. The Shadow Proclamation is supposedly keeping an eye on them, but, clearly that's not going well."

    "Well," Gwen says, "that's more of an explanation than we normally hear from Jack, how do we stop them?"

     "We have to find them first."