Disclaimer: Neither Torchwood or Doctor Who are mine, which is obvious, but I can dream.
(Thanks to krazymona for being my Beta, she's a real angel, so any remaining mistakes are mine.)
Chapter Three
The Sleeper Agent screamed again as he dropped to his knees, his coppered haired hostage forgotten in his agony. Though Jack glanced around the room, his attention was once again dragged back to the alien that was now writhing on the floor. It was clawing at its blade arm, its chest, its face and neck. Anything that it could reach. All the time, more and more boils and blisters were appearing on its exposed skin, growing then bursting, like the blister from a burn. The Agent flopped onto its back, its eyes wide and mouth open, no longer able to scream as dark pink foam surged up and out of its mouth, running in boiling, bubbling rivulets down its face and chin.
Its unseeing eyes suddenly began to bulge, some sort of pressure pushing behind them until they finally exploded, sending fluids every which way. Jack sensed Ianto and Gwen staggering backwards, gagging and fighting hard not to be sick. Then hissing and crackling, as pink steam rose out of the Agent's mouth, nose, ears and ruined eye sockets, while its body went still. Its skin began to darken, becoming burnt and charred, while its middle suddenly collapsed in on itself, revealing a pool of boiling and steaming ooze where organs, muscle and flesh should have been.
"Jack?" At Tosh's shaky whisper, he looked over at the Asian woman, who was still holding her portable scanner. "He's been boiled alive. Tremendous heat surge from the inside. But there's still five Agents left."
"Where?" asked Jack, making sure to keep his voice low and quiet, so that he didn't draw attention to himself or Tosh.
"Behind the bar, moving towards the back door."
Looking towards the bar, and more importantly, the mirrored wall behind it, Jack felt his blood run cold as he saw the reflection of the hidden Sleeper Agent heading towards the back door and towards the young man who stood there.
"Grey, look out!"
Even before the words had left his mouth, Jack knew he'd been too late. The lad had stepped forward, a look of surprise on his face, only for it to turn to shock as the hidden Agent's blade surged through his stomach to come out of his back.
"Chase me, or save the boy!" snarled the Agent as he pulled his blade from his victim's body, savagely twisting it, drawing a cry of agony from the young man.
Forgetting about the other Agents, about his team and everyone else in the room, Jack shot forwards. He caught the bleeding lad as his knees buckled and he dropped back, taking them both to the floor. He laid him down on his back, pressing his hands to the bleeding wound, even as he shouted hoarsely for Owen's help. As the young doctor dropped to his side, he could already hear the woman at the front door shouting out orders.
"Felicia, Beth. Track down that Agent and wipe him out. Celeste, see to Grey, stabilise him until I can get there. Aiden, burn all but this one."
Jack looked up from his bloody hands to see two of the women running out of the back door, after the Agent, while the Albino woman dropped to her knees besides him. He didn't fight when he was pushed aside by the pale woman, instead his attention was held on the woman he could only presume was named Tasia, as she dragged one of the hostages away from an Agent, then pinned the Agent against the wall with such speed and ferocity that the wall behind the Agent cracked.
"Miss Sato!" called Tasia as she pinned the Agent's blade arm to the wall with one hand while she tightened her grip on his throat with the other. "All the information the Sleeper Agents collect is stored in the implants in their arm, correct?"
Jack looked over at Tosh to see her looking uncertainly at him. He gave her a nod of encouragement while the other three Agents around them began to scream, their hostages forgotten in their agony, as they met the same demise their comrade had encountered.
"Y-yes," replied Tosh uncertainly. "But I don't see what good that can do us at the moment."
"Plenty if you know how to use it."
The woman's reply was given with a soft growl as she savagely pulled and twisted the blade arm. The sickening sound of bone crunching and snapping, of tendons and muscle tearing were only just out done by the Agent's screams of horrified agony as his arm was torn off just above his elbow. From somewhere in the background Jack could hear Ianto being sick, and he had to fight with his own desire to lose the contents of his stomach as bile began to rise in the back of his throat.
"An eye for an eye," Tasia growled with grim humour, as she quickly and efficiently drove the blade of the torn limb through the Agent's left eye and into the wall behind him, pinning him in place then stepping back to allow the body to hang limply. "An arm for an arm."
"Tasia," called the Albino woman, dragging Jack's attention back to the injured lad on the floor besides him. "Doctor Harper and I have managed to slow down Grey's bleeding, but unless we can either get him to a hospital or back to base very soon -"
"We can take him back to the Hub," interrupted Jack, looking up at Owen fiercely. "He can survive the journey back, can't he?"
"We're only a few minutes away. As long as we don't get stopped by anyone or anything, he'll make it back."
Jack gave Owen a decisive nod of his head as he slipped one arm under Grey's shoulders and the other under the back of his knees. With Owen's help, he got to his feet. Without waiting for the others Jack walked out of the now deserted pub quickly and carefully. He could sense Owen following, and after a moment he realised that the others were as well.
"Ianto, we need to get that place cleared and those hostages Ret-conned," said Jack, relief flooding through him as the large water tower that was the Millennium Fountain came into view.
"About that..." Ianto trailed off as Jack turned to face him, only to come to a halt when he saw the woman, Tasia, standing besides Ianto, with the other two, Celeste and Aiden, standing behind her. Behind them, was the deserted pub, now ablaze with roaring flames, while a crowd of people, including four very confused looking ex-hostages, stood on the path across the road from it.
"Captain," said Tasia, her voice soft and level. "Life saving now, explanations later."
Without another word, Jack turned and carried on towards the invisible lift, Gery's blood soaking through the front of his shirt with each step he took.