harmonicsong

Title: 01UVI
Characters: Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, Gwen Cooper
Rating: PG/NC-17
Warning: swearing, mentions sex, m/m relationship
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters mentioned hence forth....
Author's Note: I have basically taken our dear Torchwood characters and fused them in the Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow 'verse. Most lines are taken from the movie.
Spoilers: Total AU, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
Wordcount:
Summary: The world is in danger and the people call for its Sky Captain...

 

 

When Jack and Ianto lead Gwen to another hanger and turned on the lights, what she saw was the last thing she imagined.

“My God, what is this? Where did they come from?” hanging like marionettes on strings, were other similar robots. As they walk further in, Gwen could see that there were more in the back, covered in shadow.

“They started appearing three years ago in remote areas,” Ianto explained, seeing as Jack wasn’t going to be forthcoming. “We managed to keep it a secret until now. They show up without warning, take what they need, and then they disappear without a trace. Three years and we still can’t explain what they want or who’s sending them here.” He remembered when the first one appeared a couple of months after they got back from China. Ianto could still remember the feeling of utter relief that there was a distraction for Jack to pursue. It may have been a dead end back then, but at least it was an appeal for his captain to get out there in the skies with a goal, rather than fly ideally, stagnant with his memories.

“A man came to see me today, a scientist,” Gwen revealed. In for a penny, in for a pound. “He was terrified, said someone was coming for him. I asked him who he was so afraid of, and he repeated one name: Totenkopf. He nearly went white when he said it.”

“Totenkopf, who is he?” asked Ianto. ‘Dead man’s skull’ how cliché.

“He’s the invisible man,” answered Gwen, staring the giant mechanical hand, its fingers in the shape of claws. “I’ve been through every library record twice for anything. I’ve called every contact I have from Paris to Bangkok. This is the only thing I could dig up,” she then unfolds a newspaper clipping from her handbag. “He ran some kind of secret science unit outside of Berlin before the start of World War I. Something called Unit 11,” her face reflected the anxiety the name caused. “It’s been more than 30 years since anyone has spoken his name, until today” Gwen then hands the paper to Ianto for his perusal. “Note the insignia he used for the unit. It matches the markings on all of these machines.” Looking down, Ianto could see that Gwen was right.

“The scientist, where is he now?” asked Jack, speaking for the first time since they entered.

“We’re in this together, right Jack?” she smiled at him persuasively. The answer was obvious and she could see that Jack knew that, even if he hated to admit it.

“Nothing gets published until I say so,” he said, relinquishing. He revelled a little when his orders wiped the arrogant smile off her face. “You don’t write a single sentence or take a photograph without asking me first. Understood?”

“Understood,” she replied, nodding in seriousness. The two men didn’t see the way she positioned her camera and took a shot of the hanging robots behind her back.

*****

Jack closed his eyes in frustration and weariness when he heard Gwen’s soft laughter. Jack always hated the rain, both because of the memories it brought up and the painful physical manifestation of said memories. If Gwen noticed the way he was clutching his coat and hugging his stomach, she didn’t say anything. Good thing Ianto was always at the ready and handed Jack the coat when he went back to his office to change.

“It’s going to rain, I can feel it,” he said and Jack trusted him to be right. Donning a fedora to shield his face from the rain, he walked with Gwen to her car. He graciously allowed her to drive, much to her apparent surprise.  Jack just wasn’t in the mood to argue with her about anything. Apparently she now was.

“What?” he asked her with a tired sigh.

“I missed you,” her answer shocked him into not replying, not that it stopped Gwen from continuing. “Thanks for saving my life today, by the way,” she said casually.

“Oh,” he said in mock-surprise. “Were you down there?”

“You missed me too, how nice,” Gwen said sarcastically, giving Jack a smile that acknowledged his teasing. Her smile disappeared when they arrive at a building of a darkened street. Its only source of light was the street lamp they were parking under. “This is it. This is Jennings’ lab.” Stepping out of the motor vehicle, they both make their way to the entrance, which is located down a flight of stairs on the side of the building.

“Doctor Jennings? It’s Gwen Cooper,” she announced loudly after she knocked on the doctor. Stepping in closer, Gwen brings her ear closer to the glass to hear if there were any signs of life inside. Hearing nothing, she knocks and calls out again. “Doctor Jennings!”

“It’s locked,” Jack announced after he tests the doorknob. He checks around to see another way in, when he looks up and spots an open window. “That window there,” he tells her before pulling a long length of exposed wire and wraps it around his hand “I may be able to get in through that window if I can attack a line-“he was disrupted by the sudden sound of glass breaking and he looks down to see broken glass and Gwen holding up a large brick in her hand.

“It’s open,” she said, stating the obvious for the very slow man. Jack glares at her for a moment, before entering the premises first.

Taking a few steps in, Gwen couldn’t see anything so she hits the switch for the lights. She sighs in frustration and dismay when she sees the chaos that’s caused by a ransacking all around the room. “We’re too late, someone beat us here.” They both walk down a small flight of stairs to the lab’s ground level.  Walking around debris strewn across the floor, they search through cupboards and drawers to see if there was any value to their investigation. In one such cupboard Gwen discovered, much to her disgust, jars filled with grotesque creatures suspended in a liquidise solution. Suddenly she hears soft trumpet sound and turns to its direction. Unable to believe what she sees, Gwen steps closer to a small glass enclosure.

Hearing the sound also, Jack comes to stand next to Gwen and is both surprised and fascinated at the live miniature, full-grown elephant inside the glass enclosure. It was so small, it would have fit right on his palm. This is wrong.

“All right Gwen, no more games. What the hell is going on?”

“I was hoping you could tell me,” she answered, unable to take her eyes off the sight. They look up suddenly when they hear a noise and they see a staggering person walk in and would have fallen had it not been Jack who held him and carefully laid him on the floor.

“Doctor Jennings,” Gwen said as she held onto the doctor on the other side.

“You must stop him!” the doctor exclaimed. Hearing noises from the office, Jack looks up to see a movement of shadow. “Stay here,” he whispered to Gwen, before standing up to investigate. Walking into the office, he sees a cloaked figure ransacking through files in a safe.

“Stop!” he calls out as the intruder virtually flies to the upper window. Quickly he runs forward and grabs hold of the intruder. Within his grasp, the intruder turns around and Jack is surprised to see a feminine face behind the dark goggles. “I don’t wanna hurt you,” he warned. A man should never hit a woman, he was taught at a very young age. Suddenly he is flying back and hitting the opposite wall hard by the punch of the cloaked-woman. Dazed, Jack watches as the woman aims a weapon at him and a laser shoots out, which hits the cupboard next to him, a few inches from his nose. Just as the intruder is about half-way through the window, Jack grabs hold of her cloak.  They stare at each other for a moment, the glass window between them. Suddenly she kicks the glass right at his face, which causes Jack to let go and watch as she disappears into the night.

Stepping down from the chair, Jack analyses the debris left by the intruder. A leather case catches his eye; it was lying in the same place the intruder was looking. Rifling through its contents, he realises it was these documents they were looking for.

 

Looking down at the doctor, Gwen could tell he was in a lot of pain, judging by his shallow breaths.

“Miss Cooper,” he wheezes.

“I’m here, doctor. I’m going to get you some help,” Gwen said.

“You must promise,” his desperation clear in his eyes. “If Totenkopf finds them, the countdown will begin. This world shall end.”

“I don’t understand, doctor. Find what?” Gwen asked desperately, seeing that he was close to death.

“Promise,” he said in a whisper, his last words before passing away. Looking down, Gwen could see two metal vials in the doctor’s hand. Taking them, Gwen realised it was these that the doctor made her promise to keep safe. Hearing footsteps behind her, Gwen quickly hid the vials in her coat. Seeing an abandoned coat on the ground, Gwen laid it over the doctor’s body. “He’s dead,” she said, knowing it was Jack who entered.

“I think I found something,” he said and lifted the case to her view. Gwen walks over to him to take a closer look and starts with recognition at the object.

“Doctor Jennings had this with him this morning at the theatre,” she explained. They both look up at the window when they hear the sudden sounds of sirens, spot lights already surveying the skies above New York.

“I’d better get back to the base,” he said.

“I’m coming with you,” she said swiftly, not wanting to be left behind.

“Of course you are,” he said resigned and quickly walks out of the lab. In speeds that were beyond fast, Jack drives the vehicle across the bridge to the base, just as the sun rises from the horizon. All around, he could see his fellow pilots and colleagues rushing around.

“Reconnaissance picked up something on radar travelling at over 500 knots and coming straight for us,” an officer reports just as Jack exits the vehicle.

“How long before they reach us?” he asked as he sheds his coat.

“There!” someone shouts out and taking the binoculars that was handed to him, Jack looks up with it to see a flock giant metallic birds in the clouds and heading straight for them.

“Get my plane ready,” he said, knowing their arrival was going to cause havoc. “I’m going up.”

Outside chaos ensued, as the machines began firing on them. First on the airplanes that were on the ground, then towards their defence, canons that fired heavy-duty artillery automatically towards any fly-capable enemies.

Inside the main hanger, Jack quickly dons his flight gear and goes to sit down in his cockpit.

“What are you doing?” asked Jack when he sees Gwen climbing up the side of his plane.

“I’m coming with you,” she answered, as though it was obvious.

“Don’t be stupid. Remember what happened last time you flew with me?” he said incredulously as he sits down and fires on his engines.

“We had a deal!” she exclaimed.

“This is not a game, Gwen,” Jack argued, he couldn’t believe her selfishness. “People are gonna die.”

“You are not leaving me, Jack,” Gwen argued back, her words ringing meaning on several levels. “Not this time. This is my story and we had a deal!” Hearing shouts Jack turns to see several of his colleagues run away from the explosions, but were caught by the bullets that were fired on them.

“Get in,” he sighed, recognising her stubbornness and impatient to fly up.

Taking off just as the main hanger exploded, Jack takes a moment to mourn the officers that were still inside, before determination sets in and persues the machines that were causing this massacre.

As Jack begins firing at the intruders, inside the underground headquarters Ianto hurriedly runs to his desk and fiddles with the dials on the radio transceiver.

“There you are,” he muttered when he sees the familiar wavelengths. “Captain, this is Ianto, do you read me?” he said when he finds his radio.

“Hang on, Yan, I’m a little busy,” replied Jack, relieved to hear the familiar welsh accent. Taking aim, Jack fires at the two machines with relish. “Come in, Yan,” he said to his radio when the machines are nothing but debris.  

“Look, whatever you do, don’t shoot,” he said when he hears the captain’s voice. He sighs and closes his eyes when all he gets in reply is guilty silence.

“Ah, ok,” even the captain’s voice sounded guilty.

“You shot it, didn’t you?” Ianto asked dryly.

“Yes,” Jack swiftly replied.

“Listen Captain, the signal’s coming from one of those machines. You’ve got to keep them in one piece,” he implored.

“Which machine is it, Yan?” Jack asked as he sees that all the machines looked the same.

“There’s no way of telling. It could be any one of them,” was Ianto’s unhelpful reply. Following a few and looking around, Jack then spots one of them with a string of electricity under its nose.

“I think I found it, Yan.” Jack follows it and is hit by a wall of fire, as the machines shoot and destroy the blimps that were floating outside.

“Wait, Captain, I’m losing the signal,” Ianto reported.

“It’s heading for the city,” Jack reported back, keeping his sights on the machine.

“Don’t let it get away. I need you to bounce that signal back to me. If we lose it now, we may never get it back.”

“You let me know when you’ve got something, Yan.”

“I’ll let you know, Out.” Ianto disconnects. Quickly he pushed away the papers and comic books that were on his desk and placed a world map on top of it.

“All right, I want a full-spectrum sweep of every incoming signal,” Ianto ordered the colleagues he signalled over, his accent thick with seriousness. “Amplify any variant frequency cycle and route them to me,” quickly they all go and do as ordered. They knew when the Captain was away, Ianto was the boss.

Flying through the buildings of New York, Jack swiftly keeps his position close to the flying machines. He tries to keep his path on an even height, even though the machines were chaotically flying close to the ground.

“They’ve come back for the generators,” said Gwen, when she looks down to see a few of the flying machine carry the generators out of the ground.

“Who is this guy?” muttered Jack. He realised he was being followed, when a series of bullets hit the back of the plane, some of them hitting close to Gwen’s window. Quickly he dodges a few of the bullets by pulling the plane into a spiral.

“You okay?” he tossed the question to Gwen.

“Great,” was her sarcastic reply.

“There’s a bottle of Milk of Magnesia under the seat if you need it.”

“I’m fine,” she snapped and glared at the back of Jack’s head, when he implied that she couldn’t handle the extreme manoeuvres. Jack quickly pulled up and suddenly was bombarded with a series of water tanks and chimney towers in his way, which he swiftly evaded.

“It’s getting away,” Gwen said, when she sees the main machine flying away from the group through the buildings.

“I lost the signal, Captain,” Jack hears through the radio.

“I’ll find him, Yan. Sit tight,” was his reply.

“Go left,” Gwen suddenly ordered.

“Sit back, Gwen.”

“Listen, there’s a shortcut down Broadway. You can catch him on 42^nd Street. I know these streets like the back of my hand,” she exclaimed when she caught Jack’s dubious look. “Go left!”

With no alternative, Jack turned left which the machines mirrored as they continued to pellet him with bullets. Sorry girl Jack silently apologises to his plane.

“Okay, okay, now go straight,” Gwen directs then quickly says ‘no, no, no, turn right!’ when she sees that they were coming to the turn too fast.

“When?” he asked, when he heard the change of her directions.

“Back there,” she answered sardonically. Frustrated, Jack pulls his plane upwards then loops around backwards to turn on the street parallel to the one Gwen directed to.

“I could use a little morning next time,” he said to her sarcastically. Then he turns again when she directs him to ‘go left!’ again.

“Tell me you’ve got something, Yan,” Jack said on the radio to someone who was more reliable. “We’re getting clobbered up here.”

“IT’s no picnic down here either, Captain,” Ianto answered back as the roof next to him collapsed. “Hang in there, I’ve almost got it.” Hearing the last few set of coordinates, Ianto carefully uses the compass on the map.

“Ianto! We can’t hold them off any longer!” Ianto hears someone scream behind, but it doesn’t deter him from his concentration.

“I’m almost there.”

“We have to evacuate now?”

“Go ahead without me,” he assured calmly, even with large chunks of debris falling around him. “I’m right behind you.”

“Lovely,” said Jack when he sees some of the bullets puncture one of his fuel tanks.

“Okay, turn left at the drugstore,” directed Gwen. Another left, thought Jack with a roll of his eyes as he does as directed.

“We’re going around in circles,” he argued when she said to turn left again.

“Would you trust me? Go left!” when the plane turned left, Gwen is shocked and horrified to see the road blocked off with construction work.

“IT’s a dead end,” Jack said calmly.

“That’s not supposed to be there,” she argued weakly and flinched when Jack repeated his observation with a shout.

“Oh, bugger,” he muttered, echoing the British term he heard from Ianto sometimes. With no other alternatives, Jack flies his plane straight, right between the metal framework of the building. Seeing the dead end of a billboard coming close, Jack flips a switch that harpoons a grappling hook and rope, which swings his plane away from the wall. Unfortunately it caused the plane’s wing to shave against another steel structure and caused the leaking fuel to catch on fire.

“There’s the lead ship,” Gwen cried out when she sees it between passing buildings.

“Shortcut! Ha!” said Jack mockingly.

“I got us here didn’t I?”

“Yan! Yan!” Jack cried into his radio as they follow the lead ship, several of its companions take to shower them with more bullets.

“Thirty seconds, Captain, that’s all I need.”

“Thirty seconds?” he questioned. Jack laughed at the unintentional innuendo.

“Plus or minus,” Ianto said, sounding unbothered as he slaps in a new block of chewing gum in his mouth.

“Listen, I’ll try and take them out over the water, buy us some time. Over,” Jack ordered as he lifted the plane to fly parallel up the Empire State Building. “Still glad you came?” Jack shouted over his shoulders. To which Gwen smiled at him, then rolled her eyes, unamused.

Back at headquarters, Ianto excitedly crosses the last of the coordinates and slams the radio on with one hand, while he places the other on top of the location, as though shielding it.

“Jack, I found it!” he exclaimed, professional etiquette flying out of the window in his excitement, “Jack!” Suddenly an explosion causes him to fly back and land solidly on the ground. He exclaimed in pain as a steel beam lands on his leg, pinning him to the ground. As he kicks and struggles to get out, Ianto could still hear Jack on the radio, asking him where he was. Stilling his movements and chewing on his gum nervously, Ianto watches as robots with tentacles as arms walk through the hole in the wall, its eye observing the carnage. Looking down, Ianto realised that his hand was clutching the torn map of the location. Knowing that Jack needed it, he looked around and seeing his fallen ray gun, stretched his arm to reach for it, his fingers just falling short. Just as his fingers wrapped around the handle, a tentacle wraps around his wrist, the pressure causing him to let it go. With a tentacle around his wrist and another wrapped around his waist, he is lifted up from the ground, dislodging him from the fallen beam. Hanging in the air, Ianto looks down at the map in his hand and he knew he had to somehow leave it for Jack to find.

Jack needed it.

Part 4