Jack drove us back to the Hub, his mind obviously working on something. When we got inside, he immediately headed down to the vaults. On the way down there, Ianto relayed the conversation with the man from the hospital to Toshiko.
"What did he mean, 'everyone'?" Toshiko asked.
"That was all he'd say. Couldn't get anymore out of him."
"It's gotta be the people they're working with," I said.
We had stopped in front of the cell that contained the Weevil. "That leaves us one option," Jack finally spoke up, "Okay Janet, time for a trip out."
"You call it Janet?" Toshiko asked, dubiously.
"Barbara just never seemed right. Ianto, grab the neck loop and hand clamps," Ianto handed the hand clamps to Jack. "Teegan, grab the Weevil spray, if things get too out of hand, feel free to let it loose, just try not to set it on fire this time." I gave him a sarcastic smile.
"Alright gang, let's go get 'em," Jack said after we finally wrangled the Weevil into the neck loop and hand clamps. I had forgotten how strong Weevils were. No one sustained any injuries, but I did have to use the spray more than once. Janet wasn't very happy.
We loaded it into the back of the SUV and closed it off with a cage. Toshiko and I sat in the back, while Ianto and Jack sat up front.
"You want to release a Weevil in the middle of Cardiff?" Toshiko exclaimed. I was with her on this, it seemed mad.
"Not exactly the middle. A little to the side. We placed a tracker in its boiler suit, so when they capture it, we'll know exactly where they are," Jack obviously had a plan in mind. It'd be nice if he'd filled us in on it before taking a rabid animal into the city.
"It could kill any number of people before then!" Toshiko countered.
"I'm with Tosh. There's no telling what will happen," Ianto sounded worried. That had me worried, Ianto never sounded worried.
I just looked at Jack. "We set it loose in the same place where they took the other one." I thought the area was looking familiar, it was the car park where the other Weevil was captured. "It's deserted this time of night, we'll be with it every step of the way."
Jack stopped in the middle of the car park and opened the back of the SUV with a button from inside the car. Janet ran out, happy for its apparent freedom.
"Tracker working?" Jack asked Toshiko.
"Yeah." Toshiko still sounded very weary about this plan, I didn't blame her, but I also didn't want to voice my opinion quite yet. I was still new and didn't just want to seem I was joining group majority, Jack seemed like he knew what he was doing.
"Go Janet." Jack was sounding worried now as well.
We followed the Weevil as much as we could in the SUV. It must've known we were tracking it because it moved to an area we wouldn't be able to drive through.
"Shit!" Toshiko exclaimed, "Stop the car! She's taken a left, pedestrian access only!"
"Ahhh!" Jack was obviously frustrated. "Teegan, catch up to her, but try to stay out of sight, we don't want to spook the guys from before. Just make sure Janet stays out of trouble."
"Got it!" I said, fastening my ear piece on.
"We'll be right behind you," Jack assured me. "Ianto, take over." Ianto moved into the drivers seat.
Jack and Toshiko were behind me as I leapt after the Weevil. I tried to stay hidden once we got out of the pedestrian tunnel.
"Slow down, don't move out of the tunnel yet, if she's alright," Jack said over my ear piece. A few seconds later, Toshiko and Jack caught up.
After we exited the tunnel, a white van pulled up and a group of men in ski masks and tasers got out again. They immediately attacked Janet. I was just about to leap at the brutal men when Jack grabbed the back of my jacket. "Whoa, whoa whoa, whoa" he said quietly.
Jack motioned for us to stay by the fence. "The Weevil has landed," Jack declared when they finally were able to shove the Weevil into the van. "Got a signal?" Jack asked,
"Yeah," Toshiko said, a look of disgust on her face. "Just so I know where we stand, we would never deliberately put a human being through that, but Weevils are fair game. Is that right?"
"We need to follow them," Jack said to Toshiko. I just shook my head. "Got a problem with that?" he asked me.
"A bit, actually. We could've stopped that," I said.
"How? Shoot them? You don't have a gun and even if you did, then they'd all be dead. There's probably more than them, so now that they're all dead, how do we find out where they're going, hm? You did a real stand up job last night getting your phone back from a common thug, how do you plan on taking them when we're outnumbered, then coercing them to their final destination?" I just stood there silently. I knew he was right, but I still didn't agree with how the Weevil was handled. "Yeah, I didn't think so, now let's go."
We met Ianto back at the SUV. Jack was silent as we got in, Ianto just looked at us expectantly.
"They've got the Weevil," Toshiko informed him.
"Is that all?" he asked.
"We can add animal abuse to their list of crimes," I said. "Or whatever Weevils are."
"Ah," Ianto nodded.
Toshiko guided Ianto where to drive as per the tracker she had. The tracker should go wherever the Weevil does, so this mission should be fairly easy. So why do I feel so uneasy?
"Two Weevils now..." Jack murmured.
"What do you think they could be doing with them, Jack?"
"I don't know, but we're going to solve this," Jack said.
"Oh! It's stopped moving!" Toshiko said. We had been following the tracker for about 45 minutes now. I could feel my palms sweating. What would happen once we actually caught up with them? Would we just arrest everyone in the building? I wasn't exactly sure how this kind of large scale operation would work...
We parked the SUV and piled out. "So where is it, Tosh?" Jack asked.
We followed her to a fenced off section. The fence had a piece of the Weevil's outfit on it as well as the tracker. I could see anger flash across Jack's face. I knew exactly how he felt. All of that work, now what?
"So what have we got now?" Ianto voiced my worries.
"Nothing. We have no clue where they are or what they're doing," and Jack confirmed them. He turned on his heel and headed back to the SUV.
"Now hold on..." I started, "let's just back track. There's got to be something we missed. What about Owen?"
"He's out for drinks with Mark Lynch, we haven't heard anything all evening," Toshiko said. Jack was just silent. I didn't want to push my luck, he had snapped at me once already, but there had to be something we could do. I didn't like just sitting here, like all hope was lost.
Jack decided to do one more run down of the area. We all drove in silence, no music, no chatting, not even a 'hey look at that,' when we saw a bachelor party of men in skirts walking down the sidewalk. The tension was palpable.
I jumped in my seat when Jack said, "What the hell are you doing there? I told you to go back home." It took me a second to realize Jack was speaking into his ear piece. I turned the volume on mine back up.
"-text message that's just come through on Dan Hodge's phone." A smile broke across my face. I knew something would come up. "Charlie Foxtrot Zero Six Bravo Yankee. Seems to be a postcode for a building. One that's gonna have a Lynch Frost sign on the outside."
"Okay I've got the location," Toshiko said almost immediately.
"Gwen, we'll pick you up on the way," Jack informed her.
"So, people get in the loop by text message and they head to a property-" Ianto said.
"-that Mark Lynch knows is empty," Toshiko and I said at the same time. We smiled at each other.
"So the question is: what happens when they get there?" Jack said ominously.
Jack floored it as we went back to the Hub to pick up Gwen. Jack pulled around to the water tower. I had expected her to be waiting on the stone slab, but she wasn't there. I glances at Jack, expecting him to call her. When I looked back, she was already heading towards the SUV.
"Wait... how did she...?" I asked.
"Perception filter remember?" Jack was smiling. "We couldn't just come rising out of the ground every now and again, people would get suspicious."
Gwen climbed into the back with Toshiko and I. I hoped we wouldn't get any dead bodies tonight. If we did, whoever drew the short straw would be sitting with it in the back.
"Havin' a good night, yeah?" Gwen asked.
"The best." Jack said sarcastically. "We lost the tracker on the that we set out. Until you called, we were back at square one."
"Hold on, you set a Weevil loose on Cardiff?"
"Only in the outskirts. And like I said, we had a tracker on it. Nothing would have happened. Any word from Owen?"
"Nothing. He's been so... distracted lately," Gwen seemed worried.
"Yeah, I've been meaning to talk to him about that," Jack said.
"I think Owen is just being Owen. He needs time to sulk, get in a bar fight or two and he'll be back on his feet with no time," Ianto chimed in.
"I was hoping he'd be a little bit more enthusiastic about being at work now that he's got his little science experiment."
"Wait... you don't mean me?" I said, acting offended.
Jack just chuckled. The mood was a bit lighter now that we had a goal in mind. According to Toshiko, this adress wasn't in a very nice part of town. With the experience I had last night, I couldn't imagine a "rough" part where I was more likely to get in trouble.
We pulled up out front of a brick warehouse. Most of the buildings we had passed on the way here had windows boarded up or broken out.
The street was relatively quiet, save for a shout here an there. The shouts were coming from a nondescript door on one of the buildings. That was our destination.
"Guns out everyone. I don't like the look of this place," Jack said.
"And what about me?" I asked. I didn't know how to fight. Even if he gave me a gun, I wouldn't know how to shoot it.
"Just stick close," Jack told me. I looked at him dubiously.
We all piled out of the car and headed straight for the door. Everyone was business. Gwen tried the door, it was locked.
"Stand back," Jack said. He kicked the door down and pointed his gun straight up. As soon as the door came down, the sound poured out. There were men yelling and carrying on. I didn't get a good chance to look at what they were doing because Jack charged straight in, yelling "Torchwood!"
All the men gave us strange looks as we walked by, but for some reason, they didn't seem frightened. Maybe because there were only five us and hundreds of them. All the lights were dim, but I didn't have an issue seeing. We seemed to be headed for some sort of central area where all the noise was coming from. As I walked past one of the rooms, I saw two men fighting with a couple others cheering them on. What is this? Some sort of fight club?
The shouts got significantly louder all of a sudden and Jack started running down the long hallway. We burst through the door at the end and I realized only Gwen was with us. Toshiko and Ianto must have went to check out other areas.
As we burst through the door, we immediately saw a Weevil in the center of the room with a figure that looked suspiciously like Owen. The rest of the room was empty with a balcony along the perimeter.
Jack fired warning shots in the air. One of his team mates was in danger and he wasn't messing around.
My fears were confirmed about Owen when I heard Gwen yell his name. Between the shots and Gwen shouting, it was enough to distract him from the Weevil, Owen looked towards us. The Weevil, however, took the opportunity to lunge.
The next set of events seemed to take place in slow motion. Owen had fallen to the ground with the Weevil ravaging him. Something inside me stirred. It was the predator instinct again. Owen had saved my life. He was the one who fixed me when the Doctor couldn't. I couldn't just watch him be murdered by a stinking Weevil.
I lunged at the cage with a roar, my mind didn't care who saw me. I practically ripped the door to the cage off its hinges trying to get it open. Owen was making inhuman screaming sounds as the Weevil tore into him. A man tried to stop me from getting in the inner cage, but I just pushed him to the side, barely even taking notice of him.
When I entered the inner cage, I grabbed the Weevil by the back of its jumpsuit and threw/pushed it to the other side of the cage. I was aware of someone pulling Owen out of the cage. The Weevil and I stared at each other. It snarled at me.
"You're psychic or whatever, yeah?" I said, anger radiating from my voice, "Know who I am? I'm the one who blew up that Weevil nest." I had no idea if it could understand me, it just snarled and roared at me, seemingly sizing me up. My vision was zeroed in on it and the fact that I had nothing to fight with didn't even occur to me. I could feel my nails digging into my palms. I was ready to fight, almost eager.
All of a sudden, there were arms around my chest, pulling me out of the cage . I spun to snarl at whoever it was for depriving me of the chance to end that miserable, murdering creature's life until I realized it was Gwen. I could hear someone calling my name, not my new name, but my old one. "Lucy!" It was Jack on the other side of the cage. My eyes went wide. It felt like someone pulled a plug and all the anger drained out of me, I felt all my muscle untense from fighting mode. I turned back to Gwen, she just stared at me.
I looked back to Jack again, wondering what was wrong, he was still looking at me as well. Then he suddenly turned to a man who looked like Mark Lynch, "You did this to him," Jack accused.
"He did this to himself, he had no fear. Neither did she. Are you some kind of monster?" The man's eyes were wide, looking between Owen's mangled body and me.
Jack looked around and surveyed the scene. There were a bunch of men trying to see what was going on from the doorway that we had come through. There were also some on the balcony of the second floor.
"It's over now," Jack shouted at the men. "These creatures are to be left alone. Go back to your lives."
"Jack!" Gwen said, looking at the cage. Mark Lynch had locked himself in with the Weevil. Jack pointed him gun at the Weevil. I stood back, in disbelief about what had happened a few seconds ago. What was I thinking? That thing would've eaten me alive.
"What're you doing?" Jack was trying to talk the man down.
"It's over." Mark Lynch said.
Jack just lowered his gun and walked away. He motioned for me to follow. The Weevil started ravaging Mark Lynch.
"Gwen, help Owen out and make sure Ianto and Toshiko clear everyone out. Teegan with me, we need to have a chat."
I followed him. I didn't want to hear Mark Lynch's screams, they were sickening. Suicide by Weevil was not pretty.
Jack led me out through the front door and to an alleyway nearby. This couldn't be good. There were men coming out the front door, apparently heading Jack's warning. Jack seemingly didn't want them to overhear him berating me.
"What the hell was that back there?" Jack asked, trying to keep the rage out of his voice.
"What do you mean?" I asked, trying to feign innocence.
"You know what I mean. You. Jumping at the Weevil cage. Going IN the Weevil cage. You could've been killed. You could've gotten Owen killed!" His voice increased in volume as he went on.
"But I didn't. I saved him." I couldn't explain to Jack what happened because I didn't even know what happened. At the time, it seemed like a natural reaction, but looking back I knew Jack was right.
"You can't just go jumping in like that. You didn't even have a gun. I know you're new and eager to prove yourself, but-"
"It wasn't that Jack! I think... I think it was this thing," I said, nodding to my back.
"What do you mean?" He asked again, looking dubious and crossing his arms.
"It was just a feeling. Not some conscious effort. I just saw Owen and the Weevil and I got angry. I'm sorry."
Jack sighed, "First thing in the morning, this is a priority now. We need to catalog what it can do. I can't have you going Hulk mode randomly when you get angry," he smirked. "At least you didn't turn green."
I smiled nervously. It seemed this thing could make me do more than heal unconsciously.
"Jack, Teegan," Gwen said over the ear pieces, "the place is clear, but I think we need to take Owen to the A and E."
"Great, our medic is the one that's not supposed to get hurt," Jack said to me. "We're on our way," Jack said to Gwen.
Owen was barely conscious by the time we got to him. Jack helped him to his feet and helped him walk to the SUV. By the time he got him to the car, he was practically dragging him.
"What do we do with the Weevil?" Toshiko asked.
"Put it in the back. We'll take her back to the Hub. Teegan, go help with that."
"Do you think that's a good idea Jack?" Gwen asked, looking at me out of the corner of her eye.
"Yes. Ianto, go get the SUV ready. Tosh, one last scan of the warehouse. I don't want any of those low lifes left in here."
Gwen grabbed the normal Weevil gear and we headed back to the main room. "You alright?" she asked. I just shrugged. All I wanted to do now was crawl in bed and sleep. My muscles felt sore from tensing up so much earlier. "That was brave what you did earlier. For Owen."
I just gave her a wry smile. I just wanted so badly for someone to be sympathetic with me. Someone who would understand what it felt like to be losing control of their body. I was afraid of myself. My mind kept flashing back to when I picked up the nightmare box, when I had seen the whole team slaughtered by my hands. Who knew what I was capable of?
Gwen and I hauled the Weevil out of the cage. This one was particularly feisty, probably because it had been forced to fight against humans constantly and mistreated so badly. By the time we got it back to the SUV, I had almost gone through an entire can of Weevil spray.
When we put the Weevil in the SUV, Owen started moaning. I wanted to as well, the smell was horrible. Despite the cold night, I put down my window. Toshiko followed her suit, she sat on the other side of Owen. Gwen sat in the minilab in the back, closest to the Weevil.
"How's he holding up?" Gwen asked.
"Nothing too bad. Probably just needs some stitches. We'll just tell the hospital he lost in a bar fight. He'll probably milk it to get out of work a bit longer," Jack said.
"Oi" Owen mumbled. "I can hear you and I certainly don't lose bar fights, so stop talking about me."
We took Owen to the closest hospital to the Torchwood Hub. Jack decided to stay with him to check him in and told everyone else to go home for the night.
Ianto parked the SUV back at the Hub. He and Toshiko helped me get the Weevil down to the cells of the Hub. Gwen left after Ianto had parked, saying her boyfriend had been calling her. "Is Gwen the only one in a relationship?"
"Yeah. Although, I don't know how she does it. The rest of us can't seem to find the time," Ianto said, hauling the Weevil into the evelvator. I covered my nose from the stench once the doors closed.
"God, why do they smell so bad?" I asked.
"They normally live in the sewers. They feed on, well, whatever is in the sewers." Ianto informed me. Toshiko was silent.
"Would you two mind bringing the Weevil the rest of the way? I need to grab some papers from my desk and then I'm going to head home."
"Have a good night, Tosh," Ianto strong armed the Weevil down the stairs. I had the other side, I could hear the Weevil roaring from under the hood we had put over its face.
After Ianto and I hauled the Weevil into Janet's cell (we couldn't tell if it was the same Weevil or not) he went to leave, but not before telling me my apartment appointment was tomorrow. "You know where to find me," I responded.
With everyone gone, including Jack, the Hub was dead silent. It was eerie. I knew I should've gone to sleep, every muscle in my body ached, but I felt too uneasy. I wanted to pace or go for a walk, my mind was restless.
I sat on the couch in the lounge area. I flipped through a couple of magazines on the table, but none of them could hold my attention. I couldn't stop thinking about earlier. The anger I had felt. The protectiveness over someone I barely knew, simply because he had saved me. I was prepared to fight this primitive animal and with what? My bare hands. Or was there something more about to happen?
If I could unconsciously heal and tap into some kind of inner energy, could my body unconsciously tap into other abilities? I was made to be a bodyguard, I had to have some type of built in weaponry. I pointed my hand in a gun shape. It felt almost silly. "Bang" I said, half expecting a laser to shoot out of my fingers. Nothing happened, I just laughed, glad no one could see me.
Still I felt a sense of foreboding, like tonight was just a glimpse of what could come. And it scared the shit out of me.
