Torchwood: Pole' Revnge
Chapter One
The Singes Burn
One month ago: The hub was still a disaster, having been burned by Martha. Flood lights lit the space, new computers were all wrapped up, there were boards where windows should be and no doors anywhere. A heavily pregnant Jack looked at Owen as he dropped a box and then let out a scream, which had Adrian and Jasmine retreating backwards from the desk.
"No. Jack, now is not a good time for you to be giving birth" Owen said
"Tell this kid that!" Jack yelped grabbing Owen' arm,
"Ah...I'm a professional, I've delivered babies before, you have...do you have lady parts?" Owen said
"Good Lord!"
"What is down there? Do I need to cut this thing out of you or what?" Owen said
"This thing?!" Jack screeched, upset
"Owen..." Jasmine said and then she whispered in his ear,
"Oh, OK, we've got this" Owen said leading Jack into the empty medical suite
Jasmine grinned at Adrian,
"Never in a million years is that happening to me...but mum, when did he have the time?"
"Uh that might have been my fault" The 12th Doctor said, coming out of the kitchen, holding Honour,
"You!" Owen said, coming out of the medical suit, "You did this"
"Well. I helped, Honour did this technically. He's a very intelligent baby this one here"
"What did he do exactly?" Owen asked
"Owen!" Jack called
"Shut up!" Owen called back
"Come here and say that! Or better yet, you try pushing a baby out of a hole that appeared there yesterday!" Jack called back
"Would you like me to..." The 12th Doctor asked
Owen took Honour and glared.
Two hours later Jack gave birth to a boy and everyone sat around him as he held his new son for the first time, tears streaming down his cheeks,
"So how...? They didn't have time to sneeze, let alone..." Owen said
"I meantioned to Honour I thought Jack ought to have a second chance so he created a double him, you can't have the same name and he'll probably be as powerful as Honour, it's Honour' way of watching over you when I'm not here" The 12th Doctor said, "Never underestimate him, never ignore his words, see the clues until he can tell you his truth"
They all looked at the baby in shock,
"I think I'll call you James...the Great"
"Or James, eh?" Owen said with a frown, then he smiled
Now: An old woman pushed a seemingly empty wheelchair into an elevator with a doctor. When she turned the chair around to face the doors there was a Singes sitting in it.
"It's hot in this lift" The doctor commented
The old woman got out of the lift, the lift went up and caught fire. The doctor' screams were ignored.
One the same level as the burns unit a nurse witnessed a wheelchair move itself from the elevator and down the corridor. As she got to the elevator the doors shut and the panel exploded. She tried to go after the chair but the door hit her in the face.
The following morning Jack came down the stairs of Adrian' apartment with James over his arm, James looked bewildered. Adrian handed Jack his coffee and took James from him to feed him a bottle,
"You are a star, I swear we'll be out of your hair soon" Jack said
"You're alright" Adrian said
"Where's Jas?" Jack asked
"With Owen next door. He took on a case, something about a haunted hospital" Adrian said
At that moment Owen and Jasmine came into the apartment,
"It's worth looking into" Owen said mysteriously
"Haunted hospitals? Torchwood don't deal with the dead" Jack said
"You're bottle feeding?" Owen said in question
"Do you see tits? Answer me" Jack said
"The question about the hospital or the question about the tits?" Owen asked
"Good Lord!" Jack said rolling his eyes
Brendan was coming out of the burns unit when the same nurse from before tripped into him. Trouble was there wasn't anything she could have tripped on.
"Sorry" She said and then she eyeballed the elevator doors
"So Lydia can come home today" Brendan was saying to the Doctor in charge
"The "Infection" can be treated at home now"
"He's not angry anymore"
"Oh he's angry...the you know what, has a habbit of annoying him, they're born of the same sign in this world. As much as they compliment each other they will scrap, you really need to get to work on finding a cure" The Doctor in charge said, then he looked at the nurse, "Lavender, why do you keep staring at the elevator doors?"
"Can't you smell something charred?"
"The wires?" He asked
"No..." Brendan said and he put his hand to the door. As he stepped back he got a burn, "We need to evcauate now! You need to put me in isolation before this becomes airborn"
"What is it?" The Doctor in charge asked
"Flamciphic Residue" Brendan said
"Oh..."
Jasmine put her mobile away and laughed sarcastically,
"Have we any glass containment structures in yet?" She asked
"One...why?" Owen asked
"Brendan is in isolation at Cardiff Hosptial. They found a body in the elevator by the burns unit but they can't examine it because it's covered in Flamciphic Residue" Jasmine said
James was dropped off with the 11th Doctor, who was more than a little stunned, however they found themselves in the mother of all traffic jams on the road leading into the hospital. It got so bad either side no one could move anywhere, they'd either have to stick it out or abandon the car,
"Adrian, get out and see what's going on up there!" Jack snapped after one car horn in his ear too many
After a short distance Adrian could see a cordon but before he could reach it someone hammered a window of a posh car to get his attention. It was Chrissie,
"Bit posh for you" He said
"It's dad' car, what's it to do with you anyway, we aren't together" She sniped
"You're dad is in isolation at Cardiff Hospial" Adrian said cooly
She got out of the car in shock,
"What!?" She exclaimed
"He was exposed to a residue called Flamciphic. He should be fine as long as he stays away from oxygen tanks and gas cylinders" He replied
"You don't need to take that tone with me!" She snapped
"No but I do need to be reminded that our farse of a relationship is truly dead in the water!" He snapped back
"I'm coming with you!" She yelled
"Your funeral, sure why not" He replied
At that moment Andy arrived,
"Good Torchwood is here, that body down there or what's left of it is yours, A bike imploded and he melted"
"What!" Adrian and Chrissie replied at the same time
The first thing Adrian did on arriving at Cardiff Hospital was getly lead Chrissie into isolation,
"What...?" She said
"I need you to stay in here, I'm immune to Flamciphic" Adrian said
"Why do you care if I stay here or not?" She asked
"Your father scares me" Then to Brendan Adrian added, "CCTV is burned out, what's you're suggestion while the others check over the body in the elevator?"
"Look at the paranormal reports and admin files for patients in the burns unit" Brendan replied
Adrian nodded and left,
Chrissie looked at Brendan,
"Need any healing?"
"You do"
"He hit the button without thinking about the fact that the ones he helped Torchwood destroy weren't always under Pole' control"
"Duty before emotion" Brendan said
"I want an Emperor, who isn't afraid to show emotion or feel it" Chrissie said, "He doesn't care"
"It's all in the eyes, they're telling me a very different story. It's Liam' aniversary tomorrow, you're blinded by years of experience he doesn't have, unless you two switch bodies one day he'll never understand the things you've seen" Brendan told her
While Jack, Morgan and Pitch were examining the scene from the imploding bike Jasmine was examining the body in the elevator with Owen. Owen wasn't taking chances, he was wearing a biohazard suit,
"His flesh has been welded to the floor, the bones in his feet have fused together" Jasmine was saying into her dictaphone, Owen winced, she looked up at him "Can you check the charts for every room of the burns unit for any suspicious names? Then go and find Adrian, we'll meet outside and discuss our findings"
Owen nodded and left the elevator. He turned left into the burns unit and started checking the names on the doors. There was one that caught his eye. A Mr Singes, so he went off to find Adrian. Adrian was mulling over paranormal reports,
"Mr Singes, coincidence?" Owen asked him
Adrian changed books and looked through it with record speed,
"No one of that name has been admitted in the last two days. The last report was of a woman wheeling an empty chair away from the hospital and the other two there when the body was found were a consultant to Lydia and some nurse called; Lavender Soft" Adrian told him
"Yeah, I knew her, that's why I took on this case...you seem tense" Owen replied
"It's been a while since I heard from Liam on the Lost Path and it's his aniversary tomorrow, on top of that Chrissie is doing my head in. If she actually thinks I don't care then maybe I shouldn't"
"I'd find a cure for Lydia first" Owen said
"I'm trying but each one I come up with is as absurd as the next" Adrian said, "Besides the court makes so many decisions about us it's hard to work out whether my feelings are entirely my own sometimes"
Adrian, Owen and Jasmine left the hospital while a fumigation or cleansing of the chemicals was being filtered through the air-con and met Jack, Pitch and Morgan by the cime scene outside.
"The residue is still very prominent but it's not dangerous to any of us now but even with the fumigation that hospital' gonna be shut for quite some time" Jack said, "His flesh has been welded to the tarmac and the bones in his feet have been fused together"
"Just like our body at the hospital then. He died second, going by the paranormal reports. A woman was seen wheeling an empty chair away from the hospital this morning, shortly before the body in the elevator was found" Owen said
"Owen found a Mr Singes in the burns unit. Making sense now? Whoever got him in either was or disguised herself as a nurse because I found no such name having been admitted to the burns unit in the last 24 hours" Adrian said
"We can't put the city on red alert; humans can't see aliens unless they've been chosen by the empire to have an ability that could do well to serve a Galafranian" Jack said, "Have the bodies put in glass coffins of Hydrowestophiam gasses and I'll bury them later"
Owen slipped on his favourite hoddie and sat down on the sofa with a coffee to watch Secret' of the Dead, an archeology program he'd grown to love lately, when his laptop started bleeping, he opened the screen, alarmed to find hidden footage of an interview between Jack and Lavender,
"Who is this?" He said aloud as he wrote in a text box below,
"A friend, watch this" Came the reply
Owen turned up the volume and watched in silence until the footage was over...
The Footage: "So what happened this morning?" Jack asked her
"Well first I was tripped up by something I couldn't see and I ended up crashing into this man called…well he just I've heard him say that his brother runs the Torchwood institute. There have been so many odd things happening lately. I meantioned I could smell charred flesh. The consultant didn't believe me until this man put his hand to the elevator doors, we stayed as he prised the doors open and we found the body. I and the consultant became constricted in the throat,
I was seen on arriving here and they told me it was a little burnt, as if I'd been swallowing torches,
He was going to give me a course of drugs but I'm already on medication to help with my nerves,
I failed my medical exams so I'm naturally a little stressed at the moment" Lavender told him
"What is this medication?" Jack asked
"Do you know, I can't think of the name off hand...are we done? I have to do my rounds now" Lavender said
Jack nodded and she all but ran from the room
Owen scrolled down to a private link to an Agent T and spoke as he wrote,
"Do you have her medical records?" He asked
This was her reply:
I've spoken to her GP,
She was on antidepressants for four months last year but he's refused to give her any more
"So she's lying?" Owen said in question
Agent T replied:
No, she is on medication…imported medication,
Owen sat back a breathed a little faster with worry
An hour later Owen was with Jack in Adrian' appartment, pacing the room,
"I don't want to believe she had something to do with this" Owen told Jack, "Lavender' not like that"
"Well something' not…who did you say this agent was again?" Jack asked
"They didn't say but Lavender' doctor stopped prescribing her antidepressants ages ago and the ones she says she's taking now are imported. I need to find out what they are?" Owen said
"No you don't. She thinks your dead Owen; if she's really as fragile as you say you'll give her a heart attack"
"I'm not going to show my face to her...I need to know what kind of trouble she's in" Owen said
"Why can't this Agent get you a sample themselves...why?" Jack began, then he closed his eyes, "On second thought, better let me handle it"
Lavender was doing her rounds when she came out and found two singed bodies in the corridor. She screamed and smashed the alarm nearest to her.
Before Jack could say a word as Tosh opened the door to him she pointed,
"You were really irrisponsible Tosh...actually no, given the fact she just found another three singed bodies at the Central Hospital. No other witnesses this time...come in" She added, then on the way into the kitchen where all her equipment was currently laid out and Layla was working on a work project she added, "That woman from the first paranormal report was seen again but this time without the wheelchair which means he's getting stronger. I needed to get you out here so I could have you lend me the perception device. That way I can get into Lavender' apartment and find the drugs she's been taking"
"Hi Granddad" Layla smiled and giggled
"Hello" He smiled, he kissed her head and then he looked at Tosh as he sat down, "You could have just asked me"
"You'd have thought my intentions honourable given that Lavender was his ex and that Owen was the only one she didn't annoy?" Jack softens his look, "She was a size 18 a month ago and now she's barely a size 8"
"OK I see why you'd be concerned" Jack said
"For him Jack; she's the only reason he took this case. If I were you I'd have him go on a hunt, tell him to meet me in the warehouse near the old dockyard, I promise I'll keep in the dark" Tosh said
"I swear Tosh, if you fuck this up..." He said with a point
"I won't" Tosh said
Adrian had just come off the stage he was singing on, it was open mic night and he had an enchating voice that mesmerised anyone, who heard it. Owen was waiting for him,
"You and the Sirens should form a band" He said
"Right on!" Said a hippy on his way past, "That style was bitchen"
"Sometimes I forget we live in the 50's" Owen said with a shake of the head, "Text from Jack, Lavender just found three more bodies and that lady has been seen, he wants us to go after her. Jas is outside now waiting for us" He added
Jasmine drove Adrian and Owen around the city at a snails pace as Adrian directed them on strange signals he was picking up,
"Is there a reason we're going at two miles a fourtnight?" Owen asked
"Just as well we are, we're on fire!" Adrian realised
"Shit!" Owen exclaimed
The three of them jumped out of the car and watched as the Singes appeared and held out his hand, the car melted into the road before jumping into a time lapse that lead to a burning cirty. Smoke billowed and screams rang out from the space,
"What is that?" Adrian asked
"1066 London" Jasmine said
"You know that how?" Owen asked
"I'm there" Jasmine said
Owen and Adrian shivered and the time lapse vanished
Tosh met Jack as he burried the singed corpses in the treated glass coffins, in the graveyard hidden deep beneath the charred Torchwood hub,
"I have the drug sample and a set of keys to Lavender' appartment" She told him
"You want to put temtation in his way?" Jack asked
"He could help her Jack and she'd never know, like I'm helping you" Tosh said
"That's not the same thing" Jack said
"Of course it isn't...Jack, you have to let do this or Layla won't exist"
Jack looked up at her in shock.
Morgan came into Adrian' apartment as he, Owen and Jasmine arrived and handed a crying James to him. James immediately stopped crying,
"Look at me!" Morgan screeched, he looked haggared, "He hasn't stopped since the Doctor left him with me because "He had things to do!""
"I'm here now" Adrian said with a pat on the arm
At that moment Jack arrived,
"How did the hunting go...what's with the soot?"
"I no longer have a car, the devices are shot, Adrian' laptop is gone, the woman is nowhere to be seen, and the Singes is back up to full strength, he has a time slip to the year 1666 too" Owen replied
"Damn" Jack said, then he sighed, "OK, so, that Agent, she wants you to meet her at some warehouse near to the old dockyard"
"OK" Owen said
"Take the Torchwood car" Jack said
"Oh, I'm going there now?" Owen said in surpirse, "OK"
An hour later Owen was wondering through a warehouse full of telephone boxes, with trepidation. His heart beat faster as he saw a shadow on the floor, a woman' shadow,
"Hello? We spoke on...well to be honest I'm not sure of the sight or how you even managed to access my computer remotely to send me the footage that you did...reminded me of something someone I used to know would have done" He rambled
Tosh came out of hiding,
"Hello Owen" She said
Owen went white,
"How are you standing there?"
"You might want to be careful about what you say around me Owen. I used a time slip device that you developed one year from now. You sent it back in time and I found it with a note telling me to help you help an old friend of yours with the same name as the terrorist group. You told me you couldn't die; I'm simply following that through, we're working on borrowed time, I shouldn't even be here" Tosh told him
Tears filled Owen' eyes,
"I'm not who you think I am, I'm not that heartless git who…"
"Owen, whatever it is, it's OK, I have a sample of the drugs she's been taking and another set of the keys to the apartment she's living in. You might want to check it out for yourself. I couldn't allow Jack to see me; it had to be you Owen" Tosh replied
Owen took the keys and the sample of drugs and pocketed them,
"I'm confiscating that time slip device in case I need you again before I develop it...what year are you from, I can get you home" He said
"2006" Tosh said
Owen took her by surprise and kissed her tenderly on the lips,
"Remember this side of me always" He told her
In the dark living area of Adrian' apartment a sooty girl in a red shawl and the old woman from before appeared,
"You sure this is the right place now?" The woman asked the girl
"His scent is strongest here, I'd never forget it" She replied
At that moment James' cries were heard
"Ruby!" The woman snapped,
The girl, called; Ruby hurridly left a note on the table and left with the woman.
Adrian came into James' cradle and took him up, then he looked around, eyes widening,
"Something' on fire!" He yelled
Jack and Jasmine were awake and up in seconds, they searched high and low but could find nothing wrong, until Jack picked up the letter, then an explosion was heard from nearby. They rushed out onto the roof terrace to find that the City Hotel was ablaze.
The next thing they new firemen were hammering on their door to get them to evacuate from the apartment block.
At the same moment, as everyone was piling out Jack got a call from Pitch to say Chris' house had burned to the ground and the same note he'd found was found on the doorstep and as Owen arrived back they heard another rumble and they watched in horror as Chrissie' appartment block came down.
Jack screamed,
Adrian was numb,
"Adrian, mate, we don't know Chrissie or Brendan were home" Owen said
Adrian just sobbed in Owen' arms