Tony Stark's Guide to Scenic Cardiff - Chapter Eight

Author: Milady Dragon

Author;s Note: This is the last chapter! Thanks everyone for reading. I was going to post this on my usual Saturday, but when I got up my internet was down, and then I had to work. But, here it is.

Next up, we're back to the Future-Verse with the story that had the working title of The Monster. See you then. :)

3 November 2009

Tony had been very impressed with Torchwood's official vehicle, although he could think of a couple of different ways to streamline the computer interface.

He also had to make a comment about 'Torchwood' being emblazoned across the fender panels. "No wonder you're the worst kept secret in Cardiff!"

Jack had simply smirked. "At least they have warning we're coming and can get out of our way."

"I have to ask," Jones said as Jack navigated their way down Cardiff's streets. And Tony thought that flying in the Iron Man armour was insane; Jack drove like he was flying some sort of jet. "Just what finally put you on the trail? We know you've been in town for a week and this was the closest you'd gotten."

Of course they'd known. He wasn't surprised.

Tony explained about the bartender at the St David's, and that had Harkness laughing as he took a corner at speed. "Gotta love the citizens of Cardiff!" he exclaimed.

Neither Harper nor Jones looked all that bothered by Jack's suicidal driving, even though Tony, from the rear seat of the high-tech SUV, was getting just a little bit carsick even buckled in.

It was no surprise that they ended up in the parking garage of the Millennium Centre. Jack took them on a hell of a ride down to the lowermost level, parking the large vehicle next to a lovingly restored '68 Mustang in a green so dark it was almost black. "Ooo, baby," Tony crooned as he approached the car, "you are a beauty. Let me take you home and love you…"

"You might have to fight the owner for her," Jones laughed. "And my money would be on her."

"You're underestimating me when there's a gorgeous car at stake." With a final caress across that magnificent paint job, Tony followed the three men through a secured door in the wall.

The corridor beyond looked like it had been there for years. Well, if what JARVIS had discovered, Torchwood had been around for a really long time. He wondered exactly how long, and figured he'd get to ask once he'd signed their paperwork. As a rule, Tony hated paperwork, but he wasn't going to let that stand in his way of finally getting his answers.

The corridor branched several times along the way, but they kept going straight, finally coming to a short set of steps that went up into a large space that had Tony's jaw dropping in surprise.

The place had a bit of a subway vibe to it, reminding Tony of a repurposed underground station. White tiles were along the walls, plain concrete under his feet. Someone had inlaid 'Torchwood' in the tiles, as if there was any sort of doubt as to where he was. The main area was set up with several desks, many of them with equipment that Tony was fairly impressed with. There wasn't anything like the holographic tech that he was fond of, but then that sort of thing wasn't for anyone, although he'd make the offer. His fingers itched to get his hands on it, especially the large piece that took up quite a bit of space and looked important; there were bits on it he didn't recognise at all, and a fleeting thought was that maybe it was part alien technology?

Right smack dab in the middle of the room was what had to have been the base of the water tower that was up on the Plass.

An office was on one side of the room, near what looked like a cage with a large, round door behind it. As he watched, the door rolled aside, the cage door opened, while a really loud alarm went off; and no, Tony didn't totally jump at the noise. Entering the area was that Deborah girl, and she grinned when she caught sight of Tony, who most certainly wasn't gaping like a fish.

There was an upper metal gantry. A brilliant red dragon was painted along the wall at that level, symbol of Welsh pride if ever there was one. There was quite a crowd up there, twelve in total, all staring down at the four – now five – of them on the main floor.

"Mister Stark," Jack said formally, "welcome to Torchwood."

Okay, when Tony'd come to Cardiff looking for some sort of special ops team that went hunting aliens, this wasn't exactly what he'd expected. He'd thought they'd be some sort of Army unit, or something equally official, but instead each and every one of them looked like they were civilians. Well, except for the two cops standing with the rest; and now that he was seeing the team complete, he could pick out each and every one of them. They'd all been visible to him at one time or another, and Tony hadn't even known.

"Let me introduce you." Jack began pointing to each one, going around the gantry area clockwise. "Mickey Smith; field agent, tech specialist, mechanic, and former Resistance fighter on an alternate Earth."

It was the black man Tony had seen with Coulson's nephew; the one JARVIS had claimed had been killed at Canary Wharf. Mickey Smith gave him a three-fingered salute, nodding in greeting.

Wait…what was that about an alternate Earth?

Before he could question thatpiece of information, Jack was continuing. "Eion Gwynne; Liaison with the Lord Mayor's Office and field agent-in-training."

Eion was a handsome man, with longish hair and artfully scruffy beard. He actually winked rather saucily, and Tony couldn't help but return it. Was all of Torchwood good-looking? It wasn't fair, really.

"Patrick Delaware; Weapons Officer and Third-in-Command. He's also Phil Coulson's nephew, and will kick your ass before you even know he's moved."

"Yeah, I saw him. JARVIS was able to pull his records…well, the parts that weren't redacted." Up close, he noticed more of the family resemblance, and Tony could see a little bit of that bland mask that Agent was so good at. Must have been genetic, then. That really didn't surprise him one bit. That, and the inherent dangerousness that Agent seemed to exude when he wanted to. Definitely genetic.

Patrick laughed. "There's more black ink on my records than actual words, which puts me ahead in the family security clearance race."

Oh, and that was a thing, too. Tony was not at all surprised.

"Anna Chang," Jack indicated a slight Chinese woman, with black hair pulled back in a sleek ponytail. She was standing next to Delaware, and the top of her head barely reached his shoulder. "Junior Archivist and one of the bravest women I have ever had the chance to recruit."

Anna blushed. "I only did what was right," she denied, her accent a little thick.

"Anna was on the front lines of the Dalek invasion," Jones explained. "She's former UNIT who didn't agree with their policies in regards to the security of the planet. She's only been with us a couple of weeks, but already she's going to be an asset up at our main Archive at Torchwood House."

Well, so much for Torchwood House being a tourist attraction. Looked like he'd been wrong when he'd assumed that.

"Our favourite coppers; Detective Chief Inspector Kathy Swanson-Sato, and Detective Sergeant Andy Davidson."

"How'd the date go?" Tony asked Davidson, smirking.

The cop looked abashed. "Wasn't a date, really. I just got sent up there to get you to leave."

Although, if Tony was right, Davidson had wished it really wasa date.

"Of course, you know Dr Toshiko Sato-Swanson; our resident genius and tech guru. I believe you tried to hire her at one point." Jack looked very smug.

"And I'm an extremely sore loser and will keep trying to hire her for SI until I wear her down."

Doctor Sato – Sato-Swanson, now – laughed. "You can try, but it's not going to happen, Mr Stark."

"Next to her is Rhys Williams; Logistics," Jack continued.

"Cheers," the man who'd wanted the selfie greeted. "And thanks for the photo."

"Yeah," Ianto chuckled, "Rhys did that on his own."

"Who wouldn't want a selfie with Iron Man?" the Welshman asked.

That got him a round of laughter from everyone in the room, including Tony, because yeah…who wouldn't?

"It also helped that it drew all sorts of attention to you," Williams added. "Hoped to distract you. Worked, too."

Tony admitted that yes, it had worked.

"Ceridwen Price," Jack went on, "our Liaison with the Cardiff Coven and part-timer with the team."

Tony's eyes widened. "Wait…are you saying she's a witch or something?"

"Witch is a good enough term," Ceridwen laughed. She was a buxom blonde with…green eyes, maybe? It was hard to tell from the distance. "Some of what Torchwood does also falls into the magical realms, and they call on me when that occurs."

"There's no such thing as magic," Tony denied hotly.

"That's what I used to think," Jack said. "But I've come to understand there are things out there I don't know, and I've seen enough magic to know it exists."

No, they were having him on. Magic simply didn't fit into the worldview that Tony had, and it had never been quantified. He hadn't ever seen it either, except for card tricks and David Copperfield making the Statue of Liberty disappear, which was just mirrors and misdirection. No way was magic real.

Still, Jack moved on, as if introducing a witch wasn't a big deal. "Next is Dr Martha Jones-Milligan; Exo-Biologist, Saviour of the Earth, and Charter Member of the End of the World Club. Our Nightingale."

Doctor Jones-Milligan rolled her eyes. She was an attractive black woman, and Tony knew immediately that this was a woman who could kick his ass, but for some reason he thought she never really would, no matter the provocation. "Honestly, Jack. The first would have been fine. Besides, I'm not the only one who could be called that; I had my Dragon with me."

She glanced down at Jones, her dark eyes fond. Ianto met that expression with one of his own, a small, private smile on his lips as he bowed to her slightly.

There was a story there, and Tony was itching to find out what it was. Had they really seen the end of the world, or was Jack just blowing smoke?

No. From the looks on several faces, this wasn't a joke despite the cutesy nicknames Jones and Dr Jones had obviously gone by. Some sort of code names, maybe? Damnit, he wanted to know!

And yet, he got the feeling they'd never tell him. Well, he'd just have to do a bit of research on his own, unless he could get them to talk about it after he'd signed their doo-dad form.

"Next to her is Dr Tom Milligan," Jack kept up with the introductions. "He's our Trauma Specialist and Martha's husband, plus an all-around good guy to have at your back in a crisis."

The tall, gangly man next to Dr Jones-Milligan smiled down at Jack. "Thanks for that."

"And, last but not least, the lovely Letitia Jones; Martha's sister and our Admin."

Jack wasn't wrong, Letitia was indeed lovely. If Tony wasn't mistaken, she was a little younger than Martha, but there was something in her eyes…a darkness that spoke of something terrible having happened in the past.

Tony knew that look intimately; he saw it every time he looked in the mirror.

"Mister Stark," Letitia greeted him with a teasing smile. "My friends call me Tish."

"My friends call me Tony," he answered gallantly, "and 'Tish' is too short a name for such a gorgeous lady. You know, I have a position open as my personal assistant…" He was kidding, of course; if he came back with a new PA, Pepper would have his hide. It wasn't that Pepper did a bad job, it was just that she'd do so much more in a place of authority in Stark Industries.

Tish laughed. "I've managed to get hired by two of the planet's biggest megalomaniacs who tried to destroy the world; I wouldn't want you to turn into a third." Then she laughed again. "And no, I don't mean Jack and Ianto."

That made him extremely curious, and he made a mental note to check into Ms Jones' employment history. "As long as one of those men wasn't Justin Hammer, we're golden."

"Hammer is a piker compared to Lazarus and Saxon."

Tony thought he'd heard the name Lazarus before, but couldn't place it; he'd check with JARVIS, as he'd turned off his Bluetooth in deference to what he'd been about to be shown.

But Saxon… "Damn, you worked for that nutjob who killed the President?" Sure, Tony hadn't voted for Winters, and to be honest he much preferred the current POTUS, but still…

"Saxon was a nutjob, but he was also a power-crazed alien out to conquer the universe," Jack confirmed. Something crossed his face, like a shadow of pain, and Tony figured he really didn't need to know all that much.

"Well, to be fair," Tony replied, "I'm not so sure Hammer isn't an alien out to conquer the world…he's just shit at it."

There was a round of laughter at that, and as if there'd been some sort of signal the entire team began moving down from the overhead gantry. Instead of watching them do that, Tony turned back to Jack and Jones. Jones was smiling, and he said, "I'll get the coffee, shall I? Deborah, care to give me a hand with the mugs?"

"Of course," the young girl answered. She favoured Tony with an impish grin, then joined Jones as he left the main area, heading up a set of steps toward what didn't look at all like the kind of place that had a coffee maker in it. In fact, the equipment up there looked a combination of steampunk aesthetic and 50's sci-fi chic.

Still, he figured they knew what they were doing, so he looked back at Jack. "So, just what does Torchwood do? JARVIS couldn't find much that was wasn't rampant speculation or downright paranoia."

"Torchwood," Jack explained, "was created by Queen Victoria in order to investigate alien threats and other sorts of things against the British Empire."

"You get a lot of that here in Cardiff?"

Jack looked smug. "Cardiff sits on a Rift in space/time, which is prone to bringing things and people here from other times and planets and dumping them on the unsuspecting populace. We were set up here to monitor that Rift, and to clean up after it. If it's tech, we study it and make sure it's not dangerous. If it's living, we help the ones who are peaceful, and take care of the beings who decide to kill and main their way through the city."

A Rift in space/time? Oh, that was something Tony hadn't even considered existing. The scientist in him was itching to study the phenomena, and the ten-year-old in him wanted to see an alien. "Are any of you the friendly sort of alien?" he asked before he even considered that that might be a rather rude question.

Then he spun on Mickey, who was now standing at one of the desks. Tony stabbed a finger at him. "You came through it, didn't you? From that alternate universe thingy." He had to wonder just how many of the current theories on other dimensions had been proved by Torchwood and they hadn't released the information to the scientific community. Sure, he could see the reason behind it, but it still bothered him that all that knowledge was being sat on and not shared.

"Nah," Mickey denied. "I got here another way." He didn't explain, and Tony could tell that demanding the entire story wouldn't be welcome. A lot of the time he recognised he was a nosy bastard and Pepper despaired of ever getting him to shut up, but there were moments when he was very much aware that pushing wasn't going to get him answers; it would more likely get him punched in the face, and Tony wasn't about to risk damaging himself just because he had no impulse control. And really, Mickey struck him as one of those sorts who'd punch first and apologise later.

"I came through the Rift," Deborah spoke up. The young woman was coming down from where she and Jones had been working, carrying a tray full of mugs. There was a minor stampede as various team members swarmed her, everyone grabbing one of the mugs until only one was left. She brought that one to Tony, holding up the tray for him, and he reached over and gratefully picked it up.

She smiled at him. "I came through the Rift," she repeated, "but not from an alien world…I'm from 1953. Torchwood helped me, and I came to work for them when I was offered the opening at the Tourist Information Centre."

"Am I supposed to know that?" Tony asked. He took a sip of coffee…and nearly swooned at how good it was, and just the way he preferred it. "Come to work for me, and make coffee like this every day. I'll triple what you're making here."

Deborah laughed. "It wasn't me. Ianto's the one in charge of the coffee."

Jones was giving Harkness a mug, and Tony couldn't help but notice how their fingers brushed together. No, he wasn't about to hire Jones away, but he had to make the offer. "And how did you know how I took my coffee anyway?"

Jones simply looked inscrutable. Hell, he out-inscrutabled Coulson. "I know everything. And money doesn't interest me."

"Then you are a very unusual man."

For some reason, that caused every single member of the Torchwood team – including the cops – to laugh like Tony had made the funniest joke in the universe. He would have been insulted if it wasn't for the fact that there wasn't anything condescending in the sound of it.

"On that note," Swanson-Sato said, "Davidson and I need to get back to work. Harkness, thanks for inviting us to the party."

Jack tipped her a salute, which had the DCI rolling her eyes. Then, with a quick peck to Toshiko's lips, she and Davidson were heading out of the really loud door without a backward glance.

With their leaving, the rest of Torchwood broke up and appeared to get back to their jobs, taking places at the various desks around the main 'office' area – and Harper and the two Milligans heading down into a recessed area Tony couldn't see into from where he was standing – leaving Jack, Jones, and Deborah as the only three with Tony.

"To answer your earlier question," Deborah said, "I don't mind you knowing. I honestly don't think you'll be telling anyone."

Tony had to admit that, no, there really wasn't anyone he would tell.

"And anyone else?" he wanted to know.

Jack and Jones passed a couple of weighty looks between the two of them, then Jack said, "Sorry, it's above your clearance level."

"I'd think that all this," Tony waved his free hand about the base, "is above my clearance level."

"Don't worry," Jones assured him, "we'll have you sign the Official Secrets Act before you leave."

"And if I don't?" the genius challenged.

Jack's friendly smile went sharp. "Then you won't remember ever meeting any of us."

Well, that wasn't a little bit scary. No, not at all.

Yes, it was.

Because Tony was positive that they could make good on that threat. That, somehow, they could make him forget all about Torchwood. JARVIS would remember, of course, but Toshiko Sato worked for Torchwood, and she'd had enough of a grasp on Tony's work to find a way around it, of that he was certain. He would usually have the utmost confidence in his own security, but in this case…not so much.

And Tony wanted to remember.

He wanted to know all about Torchwood, as much as they would tell him. He wanted to help them with their tech needs and to take Toshiko out for dinner and pick her brains on what sorts of alien technology she'd worked on. Okay, yeah, he'd invite her wife as well, because Swanson was a cop and she was damned scary. He wanted to make sure they knew that Iron Man was at their disposal anytime they needed him.

Fuck, he wanted some more of this blessedly wonderful coffee.

So, he smirked, took another sip from his mug, and said, "Then let's get this paperwork thing going. I think this is going to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

Fin