Ghosts

Midnight

"Well, it would take an amount larger than what's usual for Earth, so we need to prevent a swarm that large from forming," Tosh speaks up. This time Jack repeats for the Doctor.

"That's genius," the Doctor says to Jack, who smiles at Tosh, who grins.

"So what would cause them all to come together? Maybe they came from another planet on a spaceship, killing the crew so it crashed here?" I partially answer my own question, but am still curious to see what Jack and the Doctor think. They have more experience with space.

"Possible. But I haven't noticed any crashes lately. The city hasn't come under attack yet, though, so it could still happen," Jack says.

"Would there be a way to kill them?" Owen asks.

"Could we kill them?" I ask.

"I suppose if you surrounded them by light with no way of them escaping they could die..." The Doctor trails off in thought.

"Bellsprout, use Flash!" Owen yells. Tosh and Ianto start laughing, hard. I do my best to stifle my laughter, but fail. Jack looks at Owen funny. Apparently he never played Pokémon. The Doctor looks at me funny, because I randomly started laughing.

"Voice in my head said something really funny," I say quickly. "You wouldn't get it."

"You hear voices?" The Doctor asks, sending Ianto, Tosh, and Owen into a new wave of laughter.

"No! I just meant I thought something funny without really meaning to," I lie convincingly. I'm good at lying. I know how people will perceive me so I can sound believable. "It was a Pokémon reference. There's a useless move called Flash, and it lights things up. But it probably wouldn't be useless against the vashta nerada."

"Ooh, if we could light up the whole Earth at once, even for a short period of time, all the vashta nerada on Earth would die or be forced to a different planet!" The Doctor exclaims.

"You're forgetting that they might not be on Earth yet," Jacks points out.

"I can scan for life signs in the surrounding area. That way if they come close, whether from space or all around Earth, we'll know." The Doctor lifts his sonic screw driver up. "See? I get... two? life signs from this room." He frowns. "But there are three of us..." I cast a worried glance at the rest of the team. The Doctor inspects the readings more closely. I think. I'm not entirely sure how the screwdriver works.

"Two, but there are four other energy readings, one stronger than the others." I assume that would be us ghosts, me being stronger because I'm visible.

The Doctor turns to me. "Are you dead? Is that why you don't have a choice in joining Torchwood?"

I shrink back, but nod. Then decide it's a good time to disappear and do so. The Doctor blinks at me, but it's more through me than at me.

"Sorry Jack. I'm leaving you to explain this on you're own."

Jack looks at me, then the Doctor, and realizes what happened. "Dammit Hazel," he murmurs.

The Doctor turns to Jack. "So you feel like the ghosts of your team are still with you, hmm?"

Jack sighs. "They are. Hazel came as a ghost though. We think she's from a parallel universe. The other energy readings are Ianto, Tosh, and Owen. Hazel's the only one who can manifest herself for a long period of time, which is why you've only seen her. Ianto can get it for a few seconds but Hazel's the only one who has really worked at trying to use ghostly powers or whatever. I can see them because I've died, and I guess would have become a ghost as well if not for my immortality. Also I think you scared Hazel."

The Doctor looks surprised. After about a minute he says, "Sorry Hazel." I manifest myself again.

"It was Ianto's idea that they'd just change cities if we lit up LA, Tosh's to prevent a swarm of this scale from forming, and the voice inside my head was Owen." I say, giving them credit. The Doctor jumps when he hears me, not expecting me to come back.

"Anyways, plan. Doctor, you keep scanning for when the attack will come. We'll find a way to light up the whole Earth. Don't worry, Tosh is good at this sort of thing." I smile at The Doctor, and disappear again. He just stares.

"Does she always disappear when she's done talking?" He asks Jack, who laughs. "I think she likes the look on people's faces when she's just not there anymore. She did the same thing to John. And your face is pretty funny when you see that she's suddenly not there anymore."

The Doctor huffs. "Tell him that maybe if he tuned into our energy signals he could see us. He is a Time Lord, he might be able to do the sort of thing," Tosh suggests.

"Aww Tosh, you're no fun," I whine. Before she can reply I add' "It's fine. Great idea actually. It'd be good for you guys to talk to him directly."

Jack relays her suggestion, giving credit to Tosh. The Doctor looks thoughtful, then waves his screwdriver around around for a while. "Aha!" He cries after a while. Then, "Hey I know you! You did the space pig thing!"

Tosh smiles. "That was was supposed be Owen's job," she remarks, the glares at Owen, but not without a smile. "It's nice to see you Doctor, even if you have changed."

"Okay, you're Ianto," He points at Ianto, "I've seen you before, Medusa Cascade, right?" Ianto nods and smiles.

"So you're Owen." He turns to Owen. I'm assuming you're a doctor?

"More of a medic, really," Owen replies, more polite than usual.

"Wait, what do you do Ianto?" The Doctor asks, turning back to him. "Same for you Tosh."

"Technically I'm the archivist, but I do a lot of butler-y things. Serve coffee, run cover stories, clean up after Jack and Owen... That sort of thing."

"And I'm the technical expert. Not much to explain there." Tosh says.

"Can we get to work? The vashta nerada will be here tonight. We need to be ready," Jack reminds us. And we get to work.

*~*

Okay, I'm really behind my updating schedule, but my dad planned a trip to Canada (Niagara Falls, it was beautiful) in two days and I didn't realize it being shut in my room alone online all day, and when I got back I was exhausted and didn't write. Did a lot of homework though. Then this past week I had band camp 11 hours a day (I play clarinet) and today I'm finally writing. So I'm sorry for my sudden unannounced hiatus but I'm back. Sort of. Next week I have band 4 hours a day and then school starts so I probably won't be very motivated.

However I have solved my plot, and this chapter was a little longer than mine usually are to make up for the past month. Gods, was it a whole month? Practically. Sorry, again. Thank you for reading this it means so much to me that people I don't know like this. (I haven't told any of my real life friends about this account.) Alright, this has been a long note. I shall end it now. So long, reader-people.