You can run on for a long time...

[of_rageandruin]

Romana is... not quite hunting. Because hunting implies that she intends to kill something (at least, when it's Romana). She is, however, stalking through the basement like some great predatory cat, searching for one person in particular. She knows who fixed the elevator in the first place, when it was destroyed. Therefore, she has a pretty good

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[techniclybrill]

Tosh blinks a little, because she really hadn't expected to be randomly accosted in the lobby by someone she's never met before. The name rings a bell, though, and Tosh's expression shifts from confused to just a little cautious.

She has no particular feelings for the woman one way or the other, but she's well aware that there are quite a few people who aren't fond of her for one reason or another, many of them probably with good reason.

"Did you need something?" There should probably be a 'nice to meet you' or something in there, but she's a little distracted from politeness by the way the woman's holding her arm. She resists the urge to try and yank it away.

[of_rageandruin]

Romana's smile doesn't waver, but somehow that just makes it... more unsettling. There's something more than a little predatory about it. "Yes, thank you." Romana skims over Tosh's surface thoughts to confirm that yes, she was the one who shut down the elevator, and then continues, "I'll ignore the fact that you enacted a quarantine here without actually speaking to anyone with any authority here. I just need you to start up the elevator again. One trip, up and down."

She is, actually, very annoyed that Harkness and his kids decided to take control without speaking to her, but she can be polite. Really. Honestly. See how she's being polite? (For the moment...)

[techniclybrill]

Oh. Lovely. Just what she'd been hoping she wouldn't say.

Tosh gives her a tight smile and attempts, very carefully and subtly, to extricate her arm from Romana's grasp. It doesn't work, and just results in Romana tightening her grip just enough that it's slightly painful.

"I can't break quarantine. If no one's caught anything yet, we can't risk you bringing something in, especially when the illness is airborne. I'm sorry."

Now please let go of my arm. I'm not letting you out.

[of_rageandruin]

Romana bristles, just a bit. there's a sense of hackles going up, without any real physical change in her posture or expression, though her wings do flare just a bit away from her shoulder blades.

"I'm only going up to the lobby, and I wouldn't need to if you had bothered to warn anyone before disabling the elevator. There's a fifteen-year-old girl up there who needs me, and you will help me go up and get her."

Some first angels are capable of using their psychic abilities to twist thoughts, ever so slightly, nudge people to do what they want. Romana's abilities are nothing so subtle. Telekinesis, however, she can do very well, and a little pain to reinforce an order tends not to register as morally wrong to an angel like Romana. She reaches out with her mind and twists Tosh's arm - the forearm, not where she's holding her. Not enough to break anything, or even sprain it, but certainly enough to hurt.

[techniclybrill]

Tosh is tense enough already, and when being held in one place and hurt, adrenaline and instinct tend to come into play. Romana, we know you don't like wanderers, but this is why you don't mess with them. They have unexpected abilities and will use them against you.

The overhead lights in the lobby flicker as Tosh tenses, not quite going out completely, but going dark, and flashing again to much brighter than before. Romana always has a cellphone on her. Always. It's the nearest piece of electronics, and Tosh reaches out for it, instinctively, with her mind.

There's a quick text to all Torchwood journals, laptops, wrist devices, cellphones... Tosh is resourceful.

And then she reaches into the battery of the cellphone and yanks. Romana, startled, releases Tosh's arm with a snarl as a rather large shock jumps from the cellphone to her body, and Tosh reels backwards quickly, putting some distance between herself and the angel. Her back hits the elevator doors, and she eyes Romana warily, just in case she tries to do anything elseThe

[of_rageandruin]

Romana quickly removes her cellphone from her person and drops it on the floor, kicking it away disdainfully. Damn wanderers and their damn Rift abilities, coming in and tearing apart her world. Her world made sense before all of this, and now they've gone and started the plague that even required this quarantine.

Yes, she is abstractly blaming all wanderers for possibly starting a plague and trapping her down here. No one ever called Romana logical. Or if they did, it was a long, long time ago, or they just don't know her that well.

"It wasn't a question, Miss Sato. I'm telling you-"

[torchwoodsheart]

Gwen had actually been writing in her journal when Tosh's message went through. She got it pretty damn quickly, and reacted just as quickly, tumbling off Mathias' lap and heading to the lobby at just under a run.

"Is there a problem?" It's the same tone she used to use stepping into domestic disturbances or pub fights. The 'whatever you're doing, stop it now before I make you stop' tone. She has no idea what the hell is going on, other than that Romana's apparently threatening Tosh, of all people - really, who the hell feels the need to threaten Tosh? - but it's obviously not any good at all.

She moves to interpose herself between the two of them, arms folded over her chest, posture and expression not quite challenging, but damn well close enough.

[techniclybrill]

"She wants me to send the elevator up so she can get someone," Tosh murmurs softly to Gwen, before Romana can say anything. Romana will probably just start trying to order Gwen around, and she doesn't see that doing any good.

[torchwoodsheart]

Gwen doesn't blink. She does grimace, internally. Yes, this is exactly how she wanted to meet the hotel's resident first angel. Arguing about quarantines and Torchwood's authority in this situation.

"We can't. I'm sorry. If anyone goes up there, we risk exposing everyone here. No one is going in or out until the quarantine's no longer necessary."

And I would appreciate it if you didn't threaten my friends for doing their job. The last doesn't need to be said. It's very strongly implied in her tone.

[cherubstempter]

Mathias had been cuddling a Gwen on his lap when she was suddenly... not on his lap anymore. So, of course, Mathias being Mathias, he followed after her. And heard all this before even going through the doorway.

He saunters in all casual-like, hands in his pockets, grinning expectantly. "What's going on?"

Oh, he's just going to make this so much better.

[of_rageandruin]

Romana glances only briefly at Mathias, dismisses him as unimportant, and then turns her attention back to Gwen. Does all of Torchwood share Harkness' ability to make her want to kill him within seconds of meeting him? Apparently.

Wanderers. Again. Romana is starting to wonder why they keep them around at all, except that they'd probably only cause more trouble in demon hands.

"Torchwood doesn't have the authority to enact a quarantine here," she snaps.

[torchwoodsheart]

"If it keeps these people safe, yes, we do. This isn't a war. In this instance, we have more authority than you do."

Gwen's tone is flatly unimpressed. First angel or not, these are her people in the basement, and she's not letting anyone put them in any more danger than they're already in.

"We're setting up a secondary quarantine zone on the top floor of the hotel where your friend can stay, but she is not coming into this basement. The elevator stays where it is."

They're... attracting attention. Despite the fact that no voices have been really raised, no actual violence here... archangels have a sort of sense for trouble, especially when it involves Romana. There are several of them around the edges of the lobby, in a couple doorways, watching warily.

That makes Gwen more nervous than Romana herself. There are a lot of them. They're stronger than humans, trained to fight. And they're on Romana's side. This could get very nasty very quickly.

[cherubstempter]

Mathias frowns a little, back and forth between Gwen and Romana.

"Uh... look, lady, I don't know how many plagues you've lived through, but if we've managed to get a working quarantine, we can't break it until we know the details about who's getting sick, how, and if there's any way to stop it. Otherwise all these people, yourself included, might die. Okay?" He's being remarkably not-rude, for Mathias, but he is talking to her like she's an idiot and a child.

Which, y'know, she sort of IS, compared to him. But still.

[of_rageandruin]

Romana's not interested in talking to random people who have nothing to do with getting her out of the basement. Particularly ex-demons - yes, she knows that, and yes, it's incentive for her to kill him, but she's restraining herself. She does not restrain herself from gesturing peremptorily and giving Mathias a hard psychic shove backwards, enough to knock the breath out of him.

"You," she growls to him, "be quiet."

A few of her archangels shift their wings uncertainly, or stretch out their wings just... in case.

"And you," she says to Gwen and Tosh, "will fix the elevator so that I can go upstairs and get Tay. I don't want to have to make you."

[torchwoodsheart]

"Actually, you can't make us. You can threaten us and probably hurt us, but none of that's going to make us fix the elevator." It might, however, force us to knock you out or shoot you. Please don't make me do that. Although I'm starting to want to.

Gwen shifts a little, glancing over her shoulder at Tosh and giving her a slight nod to the door to the hallway where Mathias is. She needs to get out of the line of fire, so to speak.

[of_rageandruin]

Several things happen, not exactly all at once, but close enough to each other to be a very bad combination.

Tosh starts to move toward Mathias, keeping a wary eye on both Gwen and Romana.

Romana flares her wings out in a clear threat display and starts to reach out psychically to grab Tosh by the back of her coat and drag her back.

Before she even touches Tosh, Sam comes into the room at a jog after having gotten Tosh's message, shouldering aside a couple of archangels, and Romana, reacting more on instinct than anything else, as she tends to when she's angry enough, whirls around at the sound of someone approaching that quickly, lashing out with her mind and sending Sam flying hard into the nearest wall.

Kids, bad things happen when you upset the eldest First Angel. Like... the apocalypse, in miniature and in the basement of the Conrad. Apparently.