Who: Skrull!Martha Jones and Skrull!Jessica Drew Where: Landing in the UK, then near Torchwood When: Afternoon What: Reconnoitre and deliveries Warnings: Plotting to take over the world
"Jessica Drew" sighed and stared out the slowly-crawling plane's window. How primitive, and diesel-fueling? Barbaric! Just how exactly did these creatures control this world with such crude techniques? The blue jewel of this planet was wasted on these people. Finally the plane descended towards the tiny island of the so-called United Kingdom. She climbed down the stairs and across the tarmac in high clicking heels. The original had adequate taste in style, the Queen admitted to herself as she smoothed down the trim skirt suit. It was wrong to take pleasure in something paltry during this holy crusade, but after the ruse she had to keep all the time, she deserved a little enjoyment.
The official SHIELD orders were for her to go to Torchwood, their information-sharing allies, and deliver some high tech medicinal supplies to strengthen their ties. This suited her just fine, giving her some freedom from the archer and meeting her with one of her elite infiltrators. She tugged off her sunglasses and smiled widely at the woman waiting for her. "I hope I am not too late for some tea or biscuits. America is lovely for many things, but not a proper cup of grey to be found." She smiled and offered her hand to shake, keeping up the ruse.
It was a clever ruse. She'd been caught by the leader of this organization but it had seemed that she'd evaded suspicion. For now at least, but now she had to be more careful. She'd managed to get some of the information she'd been looking at onto a portable format, but it was only a small piece.
The queen however, was very clever. And this meeting was very crafty. Because it was medically involved she had been the obvious choice to meet 'Spider-Woman' upon their touching down in Wales, and so she did, and she was. She allowed herself - as martha - a small smile as she held out her hand. "I'm certain that we can find something to suit your needs, Miss Drew." She smiled warmly. "Martha Jones, Torchwood Medical Officer. Welcome to Cardiff. I do hope that you had a pleasant trip."
She smiled politely and nodded, glad Jash was clever enough to carry on the disguise, not dropping a hint they were not who they looked like. She was one of her elite in data retrieval and infiltration. "Miss Jones, the pleasure is all mine. Any chance to come back home is always a delight." The two got into the car, sliding the doors shut.
"Let us drop off the needed supplies and actual work and then we can..." Veranke thought of the phrasing. "Grab a bite to eat?" She gestured silently, using Skrull signs to communicate. Somewhere we can talk without anyone listening or watching us. "We have some very interesting tricks and gadgets from our R&D section. Lord knows we have had to be inventive."
Jash started the vehicle - her template's car - and smiled. "I like the way you think, Miss Drew." The human's smile was hard to deal with. The teeth, the lips... the skin was so... different. But she would not say anything. Not with the Queen there. She would drop the items with Ianto in the outer office - knowing what the first briefcase carried, and take the secondary one with her and the Queen back to her apartment. Harkness wasn't there and she had checked and the place was secure.
"I've been hearing some very interesting things about your team from Jack," she was telling the Queen more than just the actual words. The first name basis... she was in. And it meant everything to their plan. She pulled away from the helliport and started towards the Plass. "I can drop the supplies with our assistant, and then we can head for food."
Veranke sat in the back of the car, utterly pleased with progress. Jash was seamless as a human with their expressions and unintentional gestures. The simple statement confirmed her advancement in this key Terran group and the queen smiled into the rearview mirror, a Skrull smile looking slightly more predatory than a humans.
"Oh yes, they last loaned out Captain America to help with the rabid vampires over here. That was a messy business, all the decapitations," she replied mildly and crossed her legs, hands on her knees. "But the Avengers are a bunch of independents trying to not kill each other before getting to the bad guys." This image, and knowing the Skrulls were taking the shapes of comrades, amused her and she rumbled a purring laugh.
"Wonderful, seeing you facilities would be lovely before something to eat. They never feed you well on pond-jumper flights."
She started to drive, the streets of Cardiff had become second nature to her, thankfully. She was integrated. Completely. And as much as she hated the social aspects of this assignment, Jash had no choice but to do it.
The car went around the corner and the Skrull stopped for a child to cross the street. "Jack and I got caught in that, towards the end of it. That's the difference between your team and ours, I'm afraid. Torchwood is a team before we are individuals." It was something that she had noticed. A big difference from the way the Avengers were structured. With everyone vying for attention. It was sickening.
Jash pulled towards the Plass. It would be a very short time. She moved to park the vehicle and pointed. "We'll be heading that way, towards the tourism office," she said with a smile. "Be certain to have your credentials and identification ready. Our Ianto, he is a stickler."
"It is more efficient your way, I will admit it. There are times I need a bottle of migraine medicine on hand to deal with meetings." There were times she wanted to snap the spandexed idiots at the neck and just start the invasion herself.
"Of course, we cannot be too careful with security." She fished out the cards from her clutch, the Avengers ID as well as passport for one Jessica Drew. She slid out of the car and walked over to meet up with Jash to walk in to the Torchwood complex.
Ianto wasn't in the best of moods, having just been forced to assist a large, tubby family from America who had no ability or desire to control their mess of children. His head was still pounding from the nonstop jabbering, wondering why some people had no concept of volume control, but at least they'd left before the icecream smears all over the counter had gotten warm and gooey. He'd just finished wiping down the counter with a drying cloth when the door opened and Martha entered with a rather startlingly beautiful and powerful looking woman. He straightened a bit, wondering why the sensors hadn't alerted him to their approach, but put it aside.
"Hello," he said politely, holding out his hand for the identification and shooting a curious look at Martha, wondering who she'd brought in with her.
Martha smiled over at Ianto, a friendly one... only it wasn't Martha, it was Jash. "Busy day?" She asked looking at the state of the office. "Looks like some of the posters are missing," she was just making conversation. She saw the look on Ianto's face and knew that she had to explain.
"Ianto Jones meet Ms. Jessica Drew, she's with Jack's friend Captain Rogers' organization from the States." She made as sweeping hand motion to her Queen. "She's here dropping off some medical items and I promised her a look around." She nodded to 'Jessica' indicating that she should go forward. "She has all her identification. I know how much you love them." It was a poking remark, but a nice one, and if it had been the real Martha it would have meant something. But he'd never know.
Jessica gave a charming and sympathetic smile to the clearly frazzled man. "How do you do, Mr. Jones? Jessica said you all but single-handedly keep this place held in order." She offered the cards and passport to him, all proving that the woman in front of him was Jessica Drew.
"We've had some luck with our med-tech and Nick Fury decided giving our allies access to the research was a good idea." She offered the case as well, so he could inspect it before formal processing. Data analysis and reports, prototypes of tools or medication, what SHIELD could partially declassify from their exposure to gods, aliens and future tech.
"Tourists," he just shook his head. It was the part of his job that actually annoyed him at times, though it could be pleasant as well. Martha's compliment was pleasant, though, he thought he could trust it more than Jack's offhanded comments and jokes to visitors. He took the documentation and inspected it swiftly and carefully, handing it back to her. "It's a pleasure to have you in Cardiff, Miss Drew. Please let me know if you need anything at all while you're here, official or otherwise. Torchwood has resources for everything from reserved hotel suites to trustworthy laundry."
He took the suitcase and placed it on the table, examining it quickly, though if anything truly dangerous was inside the alarms would have sounded. He flipped the switch to the hidden door and then picked up the box to carry it down for them, gesturing for the women to enter as they pleased. "Welcome to Torchwood."
Jash couldn't help but smile. "We would be absolutely lost without Ianto. He keeps everything running smoothly, from feeding the lot of us and Myfanwy to making certain that we have clean clothes after a long night of weevel chasing," she shot a smile at Ianto as they followed him inside.
This would be the Queen's first look at what would eventually be destroyed. They just didn't have the knowledge get. But by the time they did it would be too late. The REAL Martha Jones was being kept in their store area. She smirked. This would get so much better. Human hearts were so very mailable. She wondered just how much damage she could do, but then she needed to keep her cover.
Martha looked around and saw that some of the lights were out. "I guess that Jack is out." she said with a shrug.
"Pity. I heard he was as incorrigible a flirt as Tony Stark," Veranke smiled at Jash, sharing a sympathetic look between two put-upon women. "I was hoping to compare their tactics and take notes."
She looked around in their quiet area, a shrewd and calculating gaze from the cheerful and warmer looks. "You could do much with a strategic point like this. Between the Rift and the access to data, it's an intimidating stronghold." She looked back to her infiltration specialist, nodding approval. "Are you sure you can handle all of this?"
To humans, it was just a remark about hard work and determination. To these two, there was another question underneath.
"If anybody can handle this place it would be Jack and Martha," Ianto said crisply, noting the shrewdness but chalking it up to a militaristic analysis of a base that wasn't your own. Jack did it constantly as well whenever he went to the other organizations on Earth.
Ianto walked to the medical area and put down the case for Martha to sort out later, then walked back and nodded to Jessica. "Again. If you need anything give me a call." He gave a nod of respect and then turn to head back upstairs and resume his post. After all, the woman was Martha's charge, not his own.
"Ianto speaks to highly with those praises, but yes," at least she knew the meaning. "We do the very best we can." She knew that the Queen was looking with a shrude eye. As a ruler she had a decisive way about her. And they all needed this plan to be a success.
"Thanks Ianto!" She called after the man as he started to head back up the stairs. Humans were so easily manipulated. The door slid shut behind him and all was quiet in the base. But it still was not safe to talk here. That would have to wait until they were back at her apartment. "Would you like to see our medical facilities? She needed to start phase two of her infiltration, but there would be time for that later. She could handle this. The Captain had no idea, None of the staff seemed to notice,. And there was no reason for them to. This would work.
She smiled and looked between the two Torchwoods, amused at two friendly comrades bantering and praising each other. "Thank you again, Mr. Ianto, it's a beautiful complex you run.
Veranke nodded to Jash, understanding the restraint in talking. "Oh please! Why don't we see where you work, Martha? I may be an agent but I'm certain I can follow along," she grinned and winked, as if sharing a joke. She wanted to at least skim the work site of her agent, see what she had achieved so far. "At the worst, it'll stir up an appetite for lunch."
She led the way down to medical. Torchwood had a large database of alien bioscans and information like this could be useful to the cause. There were millions of other species out there. Each with their own planet or star cluster and if Earth's infiltration was successful, they could move on. She'd already downloaded the data - using her own engrams and impersonating Gwen to do so. It had been easy.
"Medical is here," she pointed out the place - the odd sort of scalpel that Owen had finally figured out how to use was gathering dust in the corner - "and the morgue is down there. But we don't usually show it to guests." She grabbed the portable hard drive and slipped it to the Queen. Some of the information would be doubled, but it included schematics and what she'd collected. This was going better than she'd planned!
There was such a wealth of information stored here, so many viable possibilities. The Skrull Empire would be glorious once more, colonies on many planets spread out around this section of the galaxy... She snapped out of her daydream. It was that kind of thinking that would ruin her crusade and the prophecy.
Veranke palmed the data device without reacting, slipping it into a concealed pocket of her blazer. "Oh trust me, I've seen enough to not be that curious. They're always more clean on TV shows." She looked about, seeing their crude medical work. These humans were so primitive, it disgusted her. "This is where you, ah, work your magic?"
"Not much magic to it, I'm afraid." she put a few tools away, deciding to leave the place clean for once. "Lot of sewing and stitching, needles. Doesn't help morale but no one ever said that medicine had to be fun." If she had more training in the area she might have injected something INTO The members of torchwood, but sadly it was not Jash's strong point and everything she knew was coming rote from what shed' gleaned off Martha herself. Anything too strenuous would be difficult, and she'd need to find a way to keep herself out of it. Possible ways included 'getting hurt' herself, and forcing them to use local help.
"I suppose you've seen one morgue, you've seen them all. Cold storage. I've learned not to ask questions about who is kept down there... it really isn't a pretty picture." She smirked, there was no one else around, while listening devices she KNEW were in this area, and cameras wouldn't catch that. She put the suitcase in its proper place, and grabbed a few items that they might need. The sooner they got back to her residence the better. She had yet to greet her queen properly, and it was grating on her... "Shall we?" She would take her up using Jack's favorite, the masked step-lift. It was just faster.
"Duly noted. I think some agents believe we've hidden Elvis in one of our cold storage." She shook her head and sighed. "One too many conspiracy movies, I believe. The spy ones never get it right either."
Veranke stood up from the desk-table she had been leaning on, smoothing her suit into place and looking around as if she left something. "We shall. It's been ages since I returned to London and I'd hate to spend my time here in the morgue." She had seen where her plant worked and how well Jash had been doing in the Torchwood facilities. She was plenty satisfied with her inspection.
Jash led the queen to the lift block and pushed a button on the control system. "It will be easier to use this instead of going back up through the office." She indicated for Veranke to follow as the thing started to lift. "Please keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times..." She paused and shook her head. She'd definitely been spending too much time with the captain...
It was quite a ride up. She was using her template's memories to find these things. But the Queen was getting a full look at everything the hub had to offer. And soon - if she didn't completely ruin the place when the time came - it would be theirs.
The car was waiting outside. Once they got back to the template's apartment they would be able to speak freely.
Veranke looked at Jash's phrase as the does slid and chuckled before watching the doors close. "So you have those 'witty-types' around here too. Must be a question on the application process."
She strolled comfortably from the lift and out of the building, nodding and smiling along at passerbys. She approved of this place, it would be very very useful when the time came. She sighed tiredly in the car and nodded to Jash as she started the car.