Title: Cat and Mouse
Author: Darkling
Rating: PG or K+ (pretty tame)
Fandom: Torchwood (Season 1)
Summary: An alien artifact has an unexpected effect on Jack…gen with a focus on Jack and Gwen. Tosh, Owen, and Ianto are present as well.
Date: 10/26/08 (written within the past three months)
Warnings: AU, transformation fic, no real pairings but I tried to keep the character dynamics the same so you might find some insinuations, and Jack being…well, Jack. XD
Disclaimer: Torchwood belongs to the BBC, Russel T. Davies, etc. and the lyrics are from the Mama Mia sound track (originally by ABBA)
Author's Notes: This is a short fanfic that I wrote on the spur of moment, inspired by the song Honey, Honey. The end result isn't what I was expecting when I started it but I'm satisfied. Well, minus the last few paragraphs…it needs a better ending…and the title. I'll tune it up the finale before I post it. As for the title…I'll think of something eventually. There will be three or four chapters in total. I flipped tenses somewhere in the middle but I think I caught most of them during the second round of editing; if you find any, please let me know. Oh, and if you have anything against any of the characters, please keep it to yourself; any character bashing comments will be deleted and blocked. If you want to have an intelligent discussion then I'm all for talking about it, though. I like all of the characters :)
What else…this is my first posted TW fanfic although not the first I've written. I chose to upload it now because I'm planning on posting a TW shortfic collection in the next few weeks and 'testing the waters' seemed to be a good idea.
Let me know what you think!
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~Honey, Honey, How he thrills me~
Gwen darted around the corner, panting raggedly, as her pursuer gave a roar upon losing sight of his prey. She still couldn't believe Jack had been turned into a lion, of all things. Okay, maybe not a real, earth-type lion, but something close enough to be superficially identical. And if she couldn't believe that, then the situation she was in must definitely be in her imagination.
Jack didn't seem to view any of them as prey, thank God, even while weighing upwards of 600 pounds with teeth and claws longer than her little finger. However, he DID see himself as the master of their 'pride'. Tosh had explained Jack's domineering behavior during a hasty, panicked recon session in the archives during which they were trying to decide if he was a threat or not. Unfortunately, Gwen had a suspicious, sinking feeling that most of Tosh's information had come from Wikipedia rather than research.
Jack had quickly hunted them down and his roar had been enough to make them scatter, all of them praying Tosh was correct.
The technogenius was the first to fall; she hadn't been quick enough extricating herself from her gear and found herself pinned on her stomach under one massive paw quicker than she could blink. The rest of them watched with bated breath from a few meters away, wishing they had their weapons, as Jack sniffed her neck and nudged her cheek roughly with his massive nose. He'd finally grabbed the back of her shirt in his teeth and dragged her a meter towards the stairs, giving her a hefty nudge when she didn't stir upon arrival. That was all the incentive she needed to get moving up the stairs and into the main hub.
Owen was the next to be grabbed. He'd stopped closest to Tosh and pulled out a tranquilizer to use on Jack. Gwen was highly doubtful as to how effective it would be even if the medic could get near enough to poke it through Jack's thick fur. It turned out to be irrelevant. Jack only had to advance a few quick steps to grab Owen's arm in his teeth; the massive fangs caged the human's limb with little effort. Owen went white and froze but Jack just dragged him over to same flight of stairs and dropped him, allowing him to join Tosh at the top.
When Ianto tried to follow, deducing that Jack wanted them upstairs and that it would be a more defensible position, Jack easily knocked him over and growled directly over his face. Gwen's startled shout at the motion distracted both of them for a moment but wasn't enough to shift Jack. Ianto was forced to endure the lion breathing into his face for a good five minutes before Jack just barely extended his claws and slowly sliced Ianto's suit shirt and coat to shreds, managing not to touch his vulnerable skin in the process. Then Jack just sat back and watched. It took a moment for Ianto to gather his nerves enough to stand and walk, shirtless, up the stairs, his attacker observing his every move.
It took the same amount of time for Gwen to realize that the look on his catlike face was actually teasing and his treatment of Ianto a game. She should have realized; it was a very 'Jack' thing to do after all. Ianto seemed to understand; he shot an unimpressed look back over his shoulder when he was a few stairs up. The lion responded to with a chuffing, snorting sound that suspiciously resembled a laugh.
Then Jack turned to Gwen.
Upon scattering, Gwen had managed to force herself deeper into the shelves rather than closer to the stairs as the others had done and was beginning to feel cornered and alone. Unbidden, a memory of a nature documentary she'd seen on the discovery channel crept to the forefront of her thoughts.
Lions always attack the stragglers of a herd; a sick, very old, or very young prey animal is easier to handle and rarely enjoys the protection of the stronger positions at the center of the group. Lions and other predators are nature's way of pruning out the weak and helpless.
She had only a few seconds to berate herself for comparing her position, as the rookie, to a 'young' animal and to be irritated that she had recalled the nature program in the first place. Then Jack let out a tremendous ROAR that shook the artifacts on the shelves beside her and seemed to make the floor tremble underfoot; it vibrated to the very marrow of her bones.
Turning and running was not a conscious reaction but she couldn't stop herself and five seconds later, when she realized Jack was hot on her heels and closing in, she was sure it had been an extremely stupid choice and that she was going to die. Two minutes later, she was pretty certain something was wrong. Five minutes later, when Jack still hadn't caught her, she realized he was playing another game.
"Jack, stop it!" She shouted over her shoulder, a hint of desperation in her voice. Okay, maybe more than a hint. "This isn't funny!"
His answering bellow was quieter than his roar and seemed actually taunting.
Well alright, if that's how he wants to play it…
She darted around the next shelf she came to, doubling back and slipping through a small aperture, far too narrow for his wide shoulders. She heard a startled, irritated snort when he came to her passage but by then she was already running back towards where she thought the stairs were. It was just a guess but she didn't think he would continue the game if she made it to the spot where he'd deposited the others.
A triumphant bellow told her the first diversion had been negotiated so she slid through another narrow space between shelves, then horizontally over an empty section. Her satisfaction was short lived. He made his way around both obstacles simply by coming straight through the shelves, destroying anything in his way.
"SHIT!" She picked up her pace but could tell he was coming closer, loping easily and grinning open-mouthed at her fear. Although, honestly, her terror was turning into exhilaration as she became convinced he didn't want to hurt her. A snap at her heels, hot breath close enough to feel, made her yelp and put on a spurt of speed, darting around the corner as he mock-roared.
She made it another ten feet and skidded around the last shelf, coming into sight of the door and her team-mates. Ianto, still shirtless, and Owen were on the bottom step, reaching for her, with Tosh slightly further up. All of them were yelling her name and looking scared and relieved.
She took a moment to frown slightly. What, did they really think he would eat me? It's still JACK; he wouldn't-
A weight like a sledgehammer smashed into the middle of her back, knocking her off her feet and tossing her ten feet down an adjoining corridor like a ragdoll before she even realized what happened. She just barely heard the cries of her friends and the growling of a wild animal before she blacked out.
~Honey Honey, Nearly kills me.~
END (1/3)