Jack walked back in the hub, his head was down and his right hand showed the evidence of his punching the concrete after Gwen left with John. He was shaking when Ianto reached him.
"Jack, what happened? Where is Gwen?" Ianto asked as he helped Jack off with his coat.
"Gwen, she, Gwen is gone, Captain John kidnapped her." Jack lied; it was so easy to do any more. To his mind it wasn't a complete lie though, John had to have done something to her, Gwen wouldn't just believe him. Whatever that bastard had that bubble tell her she would have trusted him not John.
"The first thing we need to do is analyze this." Jack said and handed Tosh what remained of the opalescent bubble. "Figure out what it is and what it does. It started out as a ball about the size of a tennis ball then it expanded to encompass her. When it popped John took her and teleported using the energy of the rift."
Jack paced as Tosh ran an analysis on the bubble material. He couldn't believe this. He would not loose to John, he never had before and he didn't plan on starting now. He had to find out what John had done to convince Gwen to leave with him.
"Jack it seems that this material is a projection-like field, it is embedded with a bit of your DNA and it seems that it was programmed to show ghosts of the person whose DNA is implanted. It only goes backward in time though from these readings. It shows the person watching bits of the past of the person whose DNA is incorporated into it. It is like a memory machine." Tosh said in fast succession.
"Damn it, I am going to kill him for this." Jack said with venom dripping from every word. "Can you tell anything about where he took Gwen?"
"No he used the energy of the rift but only to charge his batteries, he must have used his wrist thingy to teleport."
Jack quickly opened his wrist strap. "Maybe I can find him then."
"Jack how are we going to save her, we can't teleport?" asked Ianto.
Jack turned on his heel and grabbed Ianto by the head and kissed him. "We aren't, I am."
Before Jack could do much though the intruder alarm went on and the hub locked down. Suddenly Captain John was standing in the center of the hub. An instant later Gwen appeared next to him.
The team all drew their guns and pointed them at Captain John but Gwen deftly stepped in front of him.
"Let's not get trigger happy, we are here to help." Gwen said in a calm tone. "There is a group of alien hunters on their way here, in about thirty minutes actually. They are looking for specimens to hunt from differing planets and humans are very much on their list of specimens so put down your guns or off we go."
The teamed was shocked at Gwen, not only for her actions and what she said but the way she looked. Her hair was longer and streaked with purple and she was wearing impossibly tight black pants with a shiny black corset and a red velvet half coat. The black thigh high boots she was wearing didn't have killer stiletto highs but were still sexy as hell.
"Come on Jack, you don't think I, of all people, would actually put my friends in danger, do you" Gwen asked tauntingly.
"Guns down." Jack said. "I need to speak to Gwen alone, but if he tries anything at all shoot him. Come to my office Gwen."
Gwen smiled and walked to the office with Jack.
"Look Gwen I don't know what he made you see in that bubble but I am not the man I was in the past." Jack's voice cracked as he spoke.
Gwen laughed. "That is funny Jack, it has been years for me, but only hours for you. I left with John about 3 years ago to me. I don't care what you did or who you were or are for that matter. I care about Torchwood and the human race, which is why I am here. John tried to talk me out of it, but I did some, convincing, to get him to agree to come." Gwen smirked and leaned over Jack's desk, her white breasts almost leaping from the tightly synched corset. "It works every time. Now unless you want to get a quickly in before stopping the Hunters we really should get a move on."
"You are so different, so cold, what has he done to you?" Jack muttered.
"He taught me to protect myself, very useful really." Gwen turned on her heal and walked out of the office knowing that no matter what else was going on her ass looked great!
Everyone assembled in the conference room. Gwen sat sprawling on John's lap with his left hand between her knees. Together they told the Torchwood team about the Hunters, a group of vicious beings whose greatest pleasure was hunting other beings that could fight back. They would take large groups, sometimes as many as a few million, and transplant them onto a holding planet. From there smaller groups would be taken to hunting grounds and set free to try and escape, though there were barriers to prevent the actual escape. Sometimes they kept a group on the holding planet to be a breeding population if the "game" was fun enough.
"They are heading to earth because they feel that humans will be a great "game animal" for their hunts. They are powerful but they need to be able to get scouting groups onto the planet. The groups will be about 6 members in size with a device that will basically "net" a group of people. They are basically cowards though when they are faced with a foe that is not caught by surprise or imprisoned." Gwen explained to everyone.
"Where are they going to land Gwen?" Ianto asked. "And will we need any special weapons?"
"Guns seem to work well on them." Gwen replied and John laughed.
"She would definitely know too, I think she has killed about sixty of them." John said and grabbed Gwen's hair pulling her back into a kiss.
Gwen giggled "Any way here are the locations of the first few drop offs. If we can stop them quickly enough the rest will find it too bothersome to continue and will leave, at least for now." Gwen then did something that amazed all but John; she pulled back the sleeve of her coat to reveal the same type of wrist strap as Jack and John's. After opening it she hit a button that showed the locations and then another that showed the form of the Hunters. Their faces were almost perfectly flat, with large milky blue eyes with no pupils. What passed as a nose was two long slits down the majority of their face and their mouth was wide and gaping with dagger like teeth.
"They are disgusting." Owen piped up.
"Well, yes, but what they do is more disgusting and those teeth are venomous so don't let them bite you. It won't kill you but you will wish you were dead, just ask John about that one." Gwen said and leaped to her feet before John could pin her.
"That's OK love, I will take that comment out of your ass tonight." John laughed.
"Promises, promises," Gwen replied.
Ianto was quick to notice Jack's flash of anger before his face melted into an all too fake smile. Ianto was worried about Jack, this whole John mess had not only made Jack worried but had totally destroyed his friendship with Gwen and her trust of him. Jack wasn't one for letting such things slide.
"OK people we have three locations let's split up, Tosh and Owen take location 1, Ianto you go with John and keep an eye out, remember what happened last time we trusted him, and Gwen you are with me." Jack barked out his orders.
"Jack maybe someone else should go with Gwen so that each group has one of those wrist strap thingies with them." Tosh spoke up.
"You won't need them, besides Jack and I have a lot of catching up to do, it may have only been a few hours that I have been gone to you all but for me it has been a few years." Gwen commented, almost absent mindedly. "Oh, and head shots work best but if you can't get a good head shot go for their knees. They have vital organs there, for whatever reason, and you will then be able to shoot them in the head or let them bleed out, which ever you prefer. As soon as they are injured their equipment ceases to work."
"Let them bleed out? Isn't that a bit cruel, Gwen?" asked Tosh.
"If you don't like that idea just shoot them in the head." Gwen replied without even looking at Tosh.
With that they all left.
Once in the SUV with Jack Gwen giggled. "Wow I forgot how leathery this thing smells."
"Yeah well you forget a lot of things when you are gone for a long time. Why did you leave, and why didn't you come back the first chance you got? We need you."
"No Jack, you needed me, the version of me I was before, I am not the same sweet Gwen I was, and I don't think I can ever be that girl again." Gwen's voice was a bit sad.
"I should just shoot John, hell I should have just let you shoot him when you asked."
"You have no room to judge him, or me. You hide from everything you have been, you have lived for so long and you hide the majority of what you are and who you are. John admits, rather arrogantly at times, who and what he was and what he is."
"What he is, is an addictive personality. He has gone to MURDER REHAB!"
"Yes well, we have worked that out. You forget, Jack, I have been with him for three years. We have worked together for two of those years."
"Speaking of which how did you get that?" Jack asked pointing with his eyes to the wrist strap Gwen was wearing.
"Ha! Like I would tell you that! Let's just say that I earned it." Gwen laughed and stroked the design on her wrist strap.
Soon enough they reached the bay and the landing point of the Hunters. Gwen hopped out of the SUV and drew her guns, which had been hidden with a chameleon shield.
"Nice" commented Jack.
Gwen walk up to Jack getting so close her could smell the lavender and vanilla perfume she was wearing. She got so close their lips almost touched and said "I'm not exactly a "nice" girl any more Jack. Maybe if you are a very good boy I will show you just how naughty I can be."
Just then a sickly green light appeared and Gwen leapt to the side and into a crouch. Six Hunters materialized with the odor of rotten flesh accompanying them.
"Oh, you didn't tell me about the smell!" gasped Jack.
"Just shoot." came Gwen's reply as she shot the knees out of two and then took two more down with head shots. Jack took out the other two with head shots. Jack was about to shoot the two injured Hunters in the head but Gwen stopped him.
"They will die soon enough, they deserve to suffer." The look on Gwen's face made Jack stop. Her face was contorted with hatred. She turned her attention to the Hunter at her feet. "You hate the pain don't you? Poor baby, your compatriots won't come help you will they? They don't care that you are in pain, that you are dying, that the darkness is coming for you. You are scared of the darkness aren't you?"
Jack couldn't take the venom in Gwen's voice or the change in her from the sweet and funny girl he knew. He shot both the surviving Hunters in the head, ending their pain. "No matter what they do there is no reason to let them suffer or to make them suffer."
"You have no idea Jack!" Gwen screamed. "They only use males for sport hunting, females of the species they take are tortured in horrendous ways. I know from personal experience so don't tell me they don't deserve to suffer. They don't have sex the way we do, their females are slug like and almost completely numb from birth. The males enjoy seeing how much pain they can cause females who do have the nervous system to feel what they do to them. John and I stumbled onto one of their holding planets. The ways they tortured those women were born of pure cruelty. So don't presume that I am just enjoying this for the hell of it."
Gwen was shaking with anger as she contacted John and the other teams. They had all completed their missions.
Once everyone was back at the hub they talked about what to do now.
"The next batch will be sent in two days if they follow their past trends." John said. "But unless you have someplace for us to crash we have done our bit."
"We can stay at my place." Gwen commented. "In fact let's go. I need a shower. Oh and guys? If you want to talk more you know where I live." With that she went to her work station and collected her keys.
