(PARODY AMONG US): 7.4 Snap

 

Torchwood Parody Among Us

7.4 Snap 

Starring Tracy Ann Oberman, Rebecca Root and Jason Hughes with Natalia Cordova Buckley

The Hub 

Yvonne Hartman was annoyed. Oh, that was a frequent thing. She was very used to that. The people of Cardiff continued to surprise her with how irresponsible they were, and it was very difficult to surprise Yvonne Hartman. She checked the clock. 

Leading Torchwood was a 24/7 job, and she was good at it. And she was good at people. She had the beginnings of a team so far, but she needed to make sure they could work together. She needed to make sure that they all could work as a functioning unit.

She didn't ask for much. Only obedience. 

She was surprised with Richardson's wife, Stacy. Always so aggravatingly useless, and yet she had performed an astonishing task. Richardson had demanded she'd be part of the team, and yet he paid her less attention than Ash or Anastasia. But it was not hers to sit in judgement upon a marriage. And Stacy, although having earned her keep for now, was still difficult and cheery and unprofessional for Torchwood. Like a cute defenseless puppy. 

Ash was the best of the new recruits. He was no Mr. Colchester, but still wonderfully efficient and good with tech and medical. 

And Anastasia... well. Anastasia. She needed to do something about Anastasia. She required a more... personal touch. 

It takes a lot to surprise Yvonne Hartman, and it takes more to outthink her. Once Torchwood Three was up and running like a fine oiled machine she could send Colchester off to other assignments. Like Torchwood London... Ng held a unit there. Torchwood Two - always could use a tuneup. 

The Moonbase was garbage now that Dr. Liz Shaw had retired - so many possibilities. But Yvonne needed a strong team first. Then she could reorganize.

The Torchwood hub door swung open. Probably the workers coming in. Yvonne always got in early- She used a time device to make sure she was in before everyone else each morning. It was a matter of principle. 

Anastasia walked in. Slightly Morose. Ash, Hunter, the usual followed. Then a woman in a purple dress swayed into the room. 

Tania Bell?

Tania walked over to Yvonne's desk. "Morning, Yvonne." She said, smiling. 

"It's been a while. I thought you and Andy were in London these days." Yvonne said slowly. 

"Come on, you know I can't stay away from you lot." Tania said, happily. "Besides. I want your help."

It took a lot to surprise Yvonne Hartman. This would just about do it.  

"There's a library in Cardiff that our systems in London flagged." Tania explained. "Someone is using a computer terminal there to upload very unfortunate things about aliens to the internet."

Tania imputted a few codes into the computer and the library was highlighted on an overhead map of cardiff. 

"What kinds of things about Aliens?" Ash asked. 

"Photos of nasty things. People hurting them for the average Xenophobe's enjoyment. And other things, sometimes unrelated to aliens - no matter what it is, it's bad. Really disgustingly bad." Tania explained.

"But why would they upload this from a library, a public venue if they could just do that at home?" Anastasia responded, confused. 

Tania agreed. "Exactly. It doesn't make sense. Those computers are monitored - not just by us, by the Librarians. And so it occurred to me- I don't think they're trying to get away with uploading this stuff. I think they're trying to get our attention."

"And so you brought it to us." Yvonne finished. "Smart move." 

 "Yeah, well, it is your area it's happening in. I'm surprised your servers didn't flag it." Tania commented.

Yvonne nodded. "Agreed, it's concerning. Well then. Hunter, Anastasia, we're going to the library." She smirked. 

Hunter groaned. 

They proceeded to walk off.

Ash sat there for a moment. "Do I get a day off?" He called. 

* * * 

Yvonne, Anastasia, Hunter and Tania took one of the Hub's numerous shafts down to street level. The benefit of the hub being above the city was it was fairly easy to land down on several perception filter pavement slabs Torchwood had slathered around the city.

Hunter and Anastasia to a degree didn't expect the library to be quite advanced - in their heads they were expecting some kind of Victorian cupola, but the library was glass and frankly gorgeous. 

"Hm. Not that bad." Hunter mumbled. 

Yvonne narrowed her eyes. It had been a few days since she had had a real good mission - and this was looking rather nice indeed.

* * *

The lens narrowed in the Photographer's hand as he tried to focus. Zoom in, Zoom in, oh no, that's too far- zoom out- the familiar noise of the camera nozzle extending as he pressed the button was music to his ears. With this kind of thing, you only needed one good picture anyway. Let's see what we can do, eh? The Photographer thought as the picture cleared and was no longer blurry like before. He clicked the button and the camera's shutters moved.

Snap.

* * *

Anastasia felt something pang in her chest. She coughed for a moment. But it didn't seem to be much. 

Tania opened the door and the four of them strode inside the library. 

Woozy. 

Strange. Anastasia could feel the blood rushing to her head... she certainly didn't like the sensation. 

Yvonne knew these rooms, she'd been here... a long time ago now- usually clean but now they were dusty. Unused for quite a long time. Maybe a week or two? The room felt decrepit and ancient despite the bright coloring on the plastic shelves of blue, yellow and red like a preschoolers playroom. But even that was faded. 

And as Anastasia moved to one of the shelves to investigate, she fell to the floor unconscious.

* * *

The Photographer stood outside, about half a dozen yards from the library. 

Photography was to the man his chosen art. There was simply a wonderful idea around it. Take a picture and no matter what it is, you have a singular moment. A moment of time. 

Photography was a way of capturing that. Of capturing the future. If you wanted to sound pedantic. 

There was a delay as the photo developed. It shifted from Anastasia outside to something else - 

He placed the photo into his scrapbook- a simple old fashioned photograph from the 80s or 90s that was printed out of the front of the camera. The photo quality wasn't clear. It was blurry and grainy, but you could see it. Anastasia lying there. Yvonne, Hunter and Tania twirling to see where what hit her came from. 

Wonderful. The Photographer left his station outside the library - He would want photos of the others, too.

Time to go take them.

* * *

Yvonne felt a prickling on her back. She was nervous, and once again, that didn't happen often. 

"Tania, Hunter," Yvonne ordered. "Search the perimeter. We need to be careful. Something's after us. The first step is locating it."

Hunter nodded. "Come on." He muttered to Tania. 

The two of them began to explore the libaries many corridors of plastic bookshelves as Yvonne examined Anastasia's body intently. 

* * *

The library was still. No one was there that they could see. Silence. Disconcerting, difficult, silence. 

Hunter and Tania weaved through the bookshelves as they began to explore the library. It was mostly a very light beige, offset with a happy yellow. Bright. Inviting. But it was wrong, and it felt dark, and it looked dark, even though the color was all the same as a preschools wallpaper, it felt more frightening than any back alley Hunter had been in.

"So, what are you exactly?" Hunter asked. 

Tania dropped her jaw. "...I'm sorry?" 

"Nah, it's just I don't get it. You're trans, right?" 

"Not a discussion I would like to have at the moment." Tania said sharply. 

"Yeah, but like, Ash. They're...He's, whatever, they're like...weird, they like being flamboyant. He gets a kick out of it. Likes confusing people. He's out there, kicking and screaming to anyone who can hear about what he is, and you're just... a woman." 

"Well, I am a woman. Ash is valid. And I do not want to have this discussion." 

"Just confused, is all." Hunter finished awkwardly. 

Tania sighed. "Anastasia has collapsed out of nowhere in a library that has uploaded disturbing alien abuse to the internet and you care what's up my skirt? Please." 

They moved off, Tania quite annoyed. 

Hunter pointed at a library book. "Um, Tania?" He asked. 

Tania huffed. "What?! If you're going to harass me some more-"

Hunter took gloves out of his pocket and lifted the book carefully. "This book, it's leaking. It's got blood on it." He opened it carefully, gasping in shock.  "It's not...leaking... Tania! ...The photographs are made of blood." 

* * * 

Anastasia didn't know where she was. She felt out of breath and huffy, like she had done some kind of marathon. 

She looked up and saw Yvonne's face. But it was blurry. And Frozen. And she also wasn't there. She was in two places. A part of her was somewhere else. She was  Lying on the floor in the library, Yvonne trying to help her - but she was also alone in the library. Staring. Standing in the middle of the room, looking out at a sepia toned world. 

Anastasia struggled to get up, and say something to Yvonne, but she couldn't. 

Reaching out. Trying to get up. Trying to help. 

And the other her took a step. 

And suddenly she could see. All around her. Bodies. Hundreds of Bodies. 

* * *

Purification. Glorious Purification. With every photograph, he was removing this world of it's flaws. 

The Purification of Souls was an important task. All Good Art had a purpose. And his was multifaceted. Fragments of souls paraded through his scrapbook. Souls that would be made beautiful. He opened the Library's side door and stepped in.

Tania and Hunter turned. They looked into his eyes. He raised the camera. Snap. 

* * *

Yvonne Hartman frowned. Anastasia was not dead, which was good. She had only just passed gun training, she would become more useful soon. But Anastasia was empty. Not the whole thing, part of her. 

Yvonne saw the Library's computer terminal. By the entrance. Of course it was. How didn't she notice it? She opened it up. Photographs.

Horrible, horrible photographs. Most of crimes in progress, some of dead bodies, and some of screaming men and women. Some worse. The evil of the world comprised into a few folders of jpegs. 

Yvonne felt sick to her stomach. 

"Do you like my work?" A voice asked. 

Yvonne turned. 

A man holding a camera. He was so simple, so pedestrian that Yvonne was taken aback. She had probably seen him on the street before. It was always the ordinary people that surprised her the most. 

"Of course, it isn't entirely my work, so to speak. There's always like minds out there. But I've taken a few good ones. Would you like to see my scrapbook?" The man, - he was young, probably say, 20, asked. He had a Russian accent, but that wasn't the noticeable thing. What was scary to Yvonne was how calm he sounded. How professional. 

Yvonne narrowed her eyes. 

"I have purified many people from their sin." The man continued. "I have taken their sin, and I have put it in the photos. It's beautiful to look at. If you have the right mindset." 

Yvonne smiled. "Oh, I know what you're doing. ...A Psychic Camera. Impressive. You mentioned others. How many people are there like you??" 

"Oh, there will be many more. There will always be more." The man said, wickedly.

"Who do you work for?" 

"I work for a man called Anarchy. His real name I do not know. Not that he will matter to you. Because I will take your sin, and then you will not care."

Yvonne rolled her eyes. "And why is that?"

"Without sin, the human body does not care. It cannot function without great difficulty." 

He raised a photograph of Anastasia. "See? She is broken, like rag doll. And if I tear photograph, she will never be the same. I do not like doing this. It ruins the pretty picture. But for you, I will show you..." He smiled maliciously. And then he did. A long, slow, painful noise as the paper tore. And the unconcious body of Anastasia screamed. Louder, louder and louder. 

And then he stopped. 

He rose the camera. "You are bad at this. You should be acting afraid." He snarled. 

Yvonne shrugged. "Oh, I'm very much used to this sort of thing." Yvonne said. "You're more disgusting than frightening. I've seen things you can't imagine. I've seen Gods walk this earth, I've seen people's brains blown out and splattering against the wall, and I've seen close friends die and come back, and-" She paused for breath. "And some who didn't." She paused again. "What you do to people is disturbing. But disturbing means nothing when you've been through hell."

The man growled and rose the camera. 

Snap. 

The photo developed slowly, sliding out of the front of the camera. 

He raised it to the light. And the photo was empty. 

"What? What?" The Photographer yelled. "That's impossible!" 

"The photos take a part of what you call the soul, do they?" Yvonne asked. "They take the sin? I've got news for you, Mr. Photographer. I don't have a bone of sin in my body. What I do, I do for Queen and Country, and I do what is right...even if it isn't nice." 

She took a knife out of her pocket and moved closer. "Let me show you."

* * * 

Tania woke up. "What? What's happened?" She yelled. 

Tania turned to see Yvonne standing beside her. "The problem has been neutralized." Yvonne smiled. "It's what I do. I got quite a bit of information out of him. Including how to put the photos of people back into them, and make them whole again. Sadly, most of the photos have been uploaded, and I won't be able to reverse the people he's hurt. But I have taken down his server."

Yvonne smiled more, continuing. "A job well done. Thank you for informing me. I see you found some of his albums? After a while they revert to their constituent matter. Blood. But on the whole, today was a success." 

"What? I'm sorry. I'm- I'm still waking up." Tania muttered. "God. It's like you barely needed us." 

Yvonne raised her eyebrows. "I will. Today was one photographer. There are others. And we have a source. A codename. Anarchy. This is the calm before the storm, Tania, and going forward, I'll need your help." She helped Tania up. 

"We wake up Hunter, and then I'll need your report." Yvonne finished. "I'll be expecting you to stay on for the next few weeks. Until this crisis is over."

"Fine." Tania said. "What about Anastasia?"

Yvonne winced. "Ah...about that." 

 * * *

Anastasia woke up. She felt different. She felt odd. And- where was she? In a hospital bed? She was at the hub! She was- what was going on? She felt, weird. Woozy.

Yvonne walked in. "Ah. You're awake. Ash says The photograph removes your personal idea of sin. I'm not sure how that will effect you, per se. Didn't do a thing to me. I restored the photos of Tania and Hunter, but he tore yours. So you'll still be affected."

"What's going on? I feel different. Like a different person." 

Yvonne smiled again. She did that a lot, and Anastasia never liked it. "Welcome to Torchwood." Yvonne said, and for the first time, Anastasia thought she might understand what she meant.

Yvonne called out again. "Good luck on your recovery." She said, walking out the door.

* * *

Torchwood has a name. Torchwood now knows who is responsible. Torchwood now has a new force to combat. Something is coming to Cardiff - a force of organized crime unlike ever seen before. And Torchwood will just have to do something about that, won't it?

Of course, the twenty first century is when everything changes. 

Obviously. 

This Story (Hypothetically) Starred

Tracy Ann Oberman as Yvonne Hartman

Natalia Cordova Buckley as Anastasia Rodriquez

Rebecca Root as Tania Bell

Jason Hughes as Brayden Hunter

with

Zachary Brendan McGowan as The Photographer

and

Ian Alexander as Ash