"Damn," Jack swore. "Okay, we have to do it the hard way. Rob, fire a warning perimeter. Let's see what they do." They could hear sirens off in the distance and knew that the locals had complained. "Kip, make sure the police don't do anything stupid."
"Yes, sir," Gwri said through their coms. "It will be my pleasure."
Ianto glanced up as he heard Rob open fire. He made a precise line across the ground and the aliens stopped abruptly. They looked around for the gunman, but didn't think to look up. Ianto rested against the building and brought his gun up. He didn't dare use the rifle mode while he was on the ledge. If it really did have the kick that Jack said he would probably get thrown to the ground below. A moment later, he saw Jack walk out into quadrangle.
"All right, time to go. Go party on someone else's planet!" Jack yelled. Several of the Graaks turned towards him aggressively, their headcrests rising. "I don't want to shoot you, but I will." Jack braced himself and brought the gun up so that it was facing the half dozen Graaks who were all headed towards him. "Stop right there."
A single shot came from the roof and one of the Graaks jumped back, intimidated. Two of the others started fighting with it, ripping it to pieces. This was obviously not a race where weakness of any kind was tolerated. Ianto watched as several more converged on Jack, their large ears canted forward.
"Rob, do that again," Ianto said. He thought he saw something on the last shot and wanted to be certain. He had an idea forming. Rob shot out a row of bullets quite close to Jack. The Captain didn't flinch, but the approaching Graak shied off, ears laid back. They also appeared to grimace as well.
"Kip?" Ianto asked.
"Yup?" Gwri said. He was watching what was going on and tracking the aliens to make sure that they didn't slink off. So far they were all concentrated in this one area. The police had arrived and were waiting for permission to go in. Already a crowd was forming. "What's up?"
"Got anything in there that does sonics?" Ianto asked. Jack started to laugh softly. The Graaks were milling around, not fighting, but not attacking Jack. It seemed they had a standoff.
"Do it," Jack said. "Rob can cover."
Ianto worked his way back on the ledge and dropped down off the wall. He made his way down the alley and emerged into a sea of emergency vehicles. Two PCs saw him coming with the gun slung over his shoulder and tried to stop him.
"Torchwood, stand back," he said as he pushed his way through. He saw a group of police officials milling around the Torchwood vehicle. They stared at him when he walked up. He banged on the back and Gwri opened a small access panel. Handing him a small device, Gwri slammed the door shut again before anyone could see inside.
"Excuse me, DS Carpenter here. What's going on?" A burly man walked up to Ianto and stood in his way.
"Torchwood business. Just have the emergency response people here so once we clear out, you can help the people," Ianto told him.
"Never saw you before. You new?" The man asked. The police turned at the sound of sporadic gunfire. "What the hell?" The detective asked.
"Nope," Ianto said. He examined the device and saw that it was a sonic emitter. It had a dial for different frequencies. He hoped it worked. "Agent Ianto Jones. Please wait here." He turned away from the group of detectives and headed back the way he came. Several of them protested and a couple tried to chase after him, but he stopped and told them not to before heading back to where he needed to be.
He shoved the emitter in his pocket and clambered up onto the wall again. Moving back along the ledge he moved into position. A glance behind him saw that the police were still following him, but keeping back. He ignored them. As long as they didn't interfere with what was going on, he didn't care what they saw.
"I'm back," he said softly. He could see Jack nod. "Let's see if this does anything." He pulled the item out of his pocket and pressed a button. Immediately the Graaks reacted violently, attacking one another and several going after Jack. Jack tried to shoot but they moved too fast for him. He went down under the pile of bodies.
Ianto swore and turned the dial. Several of the Graaks started shaking their heads and were pulling at their ears. Good. This one seemed to be better. Ianto dropped off the ledge and started working his way towards Jack. It seemed that wherever he aimed the emitter the Graaks were affected. He tried turning up the volume and several of them dropped to the ground, their ears bleeding. He turned it down a bit. No need to hurt them. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Jack emerge from under the pile of alien bodies. The aliens were clutching their heads and whining. Jack was dusting off his clothes as Ianto arrived.
"Good idea," Jack said with a nod.
"You all right?" Ianto asked. He swept around in a circle and the creatures backed off. Jack nodded. "Good. Now what?"
"Good question. We don't have enough restraints," Jack said ruefully. "Why couldn't they have just come in a ship? I could handle a ship. I could pack them all up and send them back to wherever it is they come from. But no. They have to come through the rift." He was pacing back and forth. "What the heck are we going to do with them?"
"What's that?" They both heard Rob say.
"What's what?" Jack asked, peering up at the building.
"Off to your right," Rob said. "Something's over there." Jack looked at Ianto, who shrugged. Together they started moving in that direction, Ianto keeping a careful eye on the Graaks to make sure he could aim the emitter at them if he had to. They walked through an area littered with bodies. This must be close to where the rift opened.
Something glinted and Jack picked up his pace, Ianto following behind him. Ianto looked back and saw that the Graak were following them en masse. As long as they kept a safe distance he wasn't too worried, but he kept the emitter handy, just in case. The glint became a shimmer and they saw what looked like a ripple of something translucent. A cylinder type opening of dark grey metal pierced the rippling texture.
"A door?" Ianto asked. Jack shrugged.
"Only one way to find out," he said and he walked through the gateway before Ianto could utter a protest. He could hear the Graaks trooping towards him, the sound of their feet and myriad grunts a little unnerving. He backed towards the opening, his gaze on the approaching creatures.
"Ianto, we're in luck," Jack's voice said behind him. He jumped at the sound. He hadn't heard Jack coming back. "It's a gateway. Not sure to where, but at this point it's better than taking two hundred Graaks back to the Hub. Now we just have to convince them to go back."
"I could circle around and herd them in," Ianto said with a quick glance at Jack. Jack nodded.
"I could do the same. I should be able to emit a similar frequency with my vortex manipulator," Jack said. "You go that way, I'll go this. Let's see if we can push them back to wherever they came from." They split off, Ianto heading in one direction while Jack moved around the group into the dark. There seemed to be isolated bursts of fighting as some of the more aggressive males continued the battle for dominance.
Together, the two men herded the aliens down to the rift opening. Ianto saw some flashes and wondered if it was starting to destabilize. He didn't want to think about what it would take to get rid of the aliens if that happened. He could see that the local constabularies were watching with astonished faces as the two men guided the aliens down the hill and towards the large cylinder doorway. Rob stayed at his post just in case the violence erupted again, but they were soon able to get all of the stragglers back through to the other side.
After the last one had gone through, Jack stared at the entryway. It pulsed, but didn't seem to be leaving.
"Hmmm, wonder why it's doing that?" He asked. Ianto shrugged.
"Maybe it's because not all of the bodies that went through the first time are able to get back?" Ianto asked. He didn't look forward to the idea of dragging bodies and tossing them through the rift opening.
"Don't know," Jack said. He scanned the opening and held up his wrist. Looking intently at the information he found there he dropped his arm back down again. He then reached into a pocket and pulled out an odd looking gun. "Let's see if this helps." He shot at the doorway.
A laser beam shot out of the muzzle and hit the doorway. The ground shook and both men staggered, Ianto going down on one knee. When he looked up, the cylinder and access to the other world was gone. Jack offered Ianto a hand and pulled him up.
"Lucky shot," Rob said with amusement. Jack looked up at the roof and waved. Ianto turned and gazed at the bodies scattered all over the place.
"Looks like we have some cleaning up to do," he said with a resigned sigh. He put his hands on his hips and surveyed the area. There were PCs wandering about, several of them staring at the dead bodies. "We still retconning?" He looked at Jack.
"Not this crowd. They can help us get rid of the bodies," Jack said. He watched as Rob crossed over to them. "Okay, let's get started. This is a playground; let's not leave anything for the kiddies to find in the morning."
Rob and Ianto went off to organize the local police, getting them to assist with the disposal of the bodies. Those humans that were found were taken to the morgue. Jack walked up as Ianto looked at one of the Graaks more closely. He saw the puzzled look on Ianto's face.
"What?" He asked. He looked down at the body.
"Is that," Ianto asked, pointing to a mass which looked like tentacles, "their genitalia?" Jack looked a little more closely.
"Might be. Never really paid attention before, but then I've only heard of these guys invading and never had to deal with it myself." He cocked his head to one side. "Hmmmm."
"Makes you wonder what the females look like," Ianto said. He reached down and grabbed the arms while Jack got the feet. They lugged the body over to a lorry and together, swung it up onto the bed.
"I don't know, the females are said to be even more aggressive," Jack said. He dusted his hands off. "Let's bring one back for Julia. She likes a challenge." Ianto nodded and the next one they found they carried over to their transport.
"What are we calling it these days?" Ianto asked. "It's not really an SUV, is it?"
"I just call it the car," Jack said. He watched as several constables carried more bodies over to the lorry and dumped them into it. "What would you call it?"
"A tank?" Ianto said, eliciting a laugh from Jack. "Urban assault vehicle?"
"Hmmm, UAV, that has a certain ring to it," Jack mused. "You were always good with naming all things Torchwood, weren't you?" They grinned at one another. "UAV it is." Rob came over now that most of the clean up was finished.
"Thank you Rob. Hope we didn't take you away from anything interesting," Jack said.
"Not really," Rob commented. "Headed back to the Hub?" Jack nodded. "Then have fun. But you might want to consider shopping for new furniture." He grinned at Jack. He handed over his guns and headed off into the night, whistling.
"What was all that about?" Jack wondered with a puzzled look on his face. Ianto chuckled.
"I'll tell you later," he said.
*