Chapter 5

It was around eleven o'clock and the team where preparing to go out into the riots. There was just one thing, how where they going to carry so much equipment without it being pretty obvious that they were transporting large guns.

Using Gwen's reasonable sewing skilled they managed to sew a gun into Jack's trench coat. It was very rough sewing and could easily be pulled apart.

Owen managed to tuck a smaller gun into his belt and hide it with his jacket. Tosh and Gwen decided to take a small rucksack each and place anything they might need in there. Tegana was not permitted to have a gun although it was common knowledge within the group that she was quite capable of using one. Owen had once taken her into the armoury and let her try out one of the guns on a target, she had been a crack shot and every bullet had near enough hit the bull's-eye.

Jack looked at his watch and announced that it was time they should be setting off.

They reach the underground station. Everyone was scanning the time table. It seemed that any train going into kings cross had been cancelled.

"I guess we're bus-ing then!" Owen said.

"No doesn't look like we're going to do that either!" Gwen said pointing to another notice just beside the train timetable. It read: ALL BUSES GOING TO KINGS CROSS, LECISTER SQUARE AND COVENT GARDEN ARE CANCELLED.

"Guess we're walking then!" Owen rephrased his earlier comment.

"Yep, looks like we are!" Jack said. "So come on!" he added heading off, with his coat flaring out behind him.

Getting the hint the team filed off out of the train station and back onto the street.

As they got further and further towards kings cross the team began to get funny looks from the people walking in the opposite direction, they could see where they were going and were wondering why such an odd group where heading into the middle of the riots. It was not like they even looked like the average age to be rioters, it was quite obvious that the majority of them where over 19, the only person who could have been remotely mistaken for being a rioter was Tegana but then she looked too sweet to be going out and vandalising shops and homes.

The closer they got to the riots the more the sounds of breaking glass, smashing brick and yelling got louder, they were all aware of what sort of territory they were heading into and were marginally scared.

None of them where quite prepared for the scene they all saw when they turned the last corner of the road.

Glass, bricks, broken up electronic equipment all scattered across the road. Teenagers running around smashing everything within their grasp, Most of these people looked so out of place in the destructive atmosphere, some wore suits and looked as though they had just come from a really important meeting and just decided to join in others looked too young and innocent to be knowing the effects of what their actions where for. Some still wore their school uniform for heaven sake!

The team tried to fit in, which was too hard considering nobody technically fitted in with this bizarre scene. They split up with the intention of seeking out the two black bodyguards that where spotted at two events involving death and near death.

Gwen picked up a loose brick and hurled it at a window.

"Gwen! What are you doing?" Ianto hissed at her.

"Trying to fit in, go on don't want to look suspicious do you?" Gwen said picking up another brick. Ianto sighed and picked up a brick, Gwen had a point. It would make sense to observe in a way that was less likely for you to get noticed and suspected. Ianto threw the brick at the window, his first real attempt at vandalism.

Owen and Tosh were attempting to mingle in with the crowd, it wasn't hard not to look out of place but there was a distinct difference between them and the crowd's zombie like actions. They moved through the people as they smashed windows, TV's, laptops anything they could reach.

In the middle of the growing crowd was a crouched figure, he was rocking to and fro, cradling his head. Tosh approached him, Owen right behind her ready to switch to doctor mode anytime soon.

"Hey? Are you ok?" Tosh asked gently, placing her hand on his shoulder. The stranger grabbed Tosh's leg and clang to it while he yelled:

"Why, Why… I don't want to be here, I don't want to be involved, help me!" through his sobbing outburst, Owen recognised the face.

"Nathan! It's ok, we're here, we'll get you out of here." Owen soothed. Together Tosh and Owen helped get Nathan up and took him away from the centre of the crowd. Gradually as they got further away, Nathan's screeching headache began to fade into a slight irritating buzz.

"Thank-you." Nathan breathed, wishing he had the strength to say more. He was utterly grateful for the team to have helped him twice within the matter of a day, though there was an element of shame and helplessness that Nathan disliked about the whole thing but nevertheless he was still grateful.

"How come you're here again?" Owen asked wondering how the same guy could fall for the same trick twice.

"I don't know stepped out the house and felt compelled to come here, when I got here I began to get this screeching headache, like something was trying to get through." Nathan explained.

"But you're not a teenager right?" Owen asked trying to de-confuddle the whole thing in his head.

"No Owen he's 20." Tosh answered for him.

"Then maybe that's why he started to get a headache, he's only just turned twenty right, so whatever telekinetic communication is going on, it got confused, thought he was 19 then realised he wasn't." Owen suggested. Tosh stared at him, then began to see where he was coming from. Nathan just stared blankly at Owen.

"What?" Nathan said. Equally confused at why Owen was talking as if he wasn't there with him.

Owen looked at Tosh, and she sighed.

"We all thinking that something is brainwashing all these teenagers to do all this." She gestured around her at the broken building and equipment.

Nathan was beginning to comprehend what he was being told.

Jack made sure he kept Tegana close to him as they dodged through the crowds. He knew she was most probably capable of coping without him if she so needed but he was determined that that was never going to happen within the course of this case. It was a sensitive case for it dealt with people around about Tegana's age and the use of telepathy which he knew, from first-hand experience, was extremely dangerous in its own rights.

"You ok Tegana?" Jack called back.

"Yeah, I'm ok." Tegana replied, she didn't sound very enthusiastic because she was consciously aware that several of the rioters where in fact a very similar age to her. It made her feel somewhat uncomfortable as if she wasn't supposed to be here, as if she wasn't welcome. Tegana felt as though she was being watched, that her every move was being scrutinized.

"Dad…" Tegana started to say. Jack turned round to face his daughter his expression changing from a cheery one to a very concerned shocked one.

"Tegana come here…" Tegana did as she was told. Jack took hold of her left hand, all the while looking at something behind her.

"Run!" he said sharply, Tegana had enough time too quickly look back to see what they were running from. There were two men holding guns, dress all in black, in pursuit of them, primarily in pursuit of her. Well they had found what they were searching for!

Tegana didn't dare look back for she didn't want to know if they were catching up with her or not. She hoped that Jack knew where his was going, and she hoped it would be somewhere close by.

Jack, after what seemed like hours, eventually turned into a building. It was an amusement arcade, it seemed to be the only place where people were acting normal. Jack dragged his daughter to the back of the building. It was quite there at the back, no one to wonder what the hell they were running from. Jack pushed Tegana into the corner and told her to wait. He peeked up in time to see the two bodyguards walk past the entrance to the arcade, sighing with relief Jack sank to a crouch beside his daughter.

"Tegana… can you not…hear anything… in your head… like something trying to…communicate telepathically?" Jack asked between breaths. Tegana looked at him as if he was going mad.

"You're 14, you're a teenager, so why are you not affected?" Jack replied to the look.

"I… I don't know." Tegana said, she was struggling to comprehend why this was so, she didn't think that there was anything that differentiated the other teenagers to herself. Tegana glimpsed her father's non-changeable expression and she gathered that he was unfazed by her answer.

"You knew didn't you, you knew that I wouldn't be affected so that's why you were determined to take me on the mission, you were testing your theory." Tegana read his mind completely.

Jack looked towards the floor, she was right and he was ashamed about it, his own daughter and he just used her in an experiment for his own curiosity.

Something was going on in the doorway. Jack glanced up and was gutted to see that the two bodyguards were in the building. He gestured to Tegana to keep quite. Breathing heavily they waited for the bodyguards to disappear. Eventually, after what seemed like a lifetime of waiting, the two devious men left the building and they could relax.

Jack sunk down into a crouch next to Tegana. They both sighed.

"I think we'll stay here for a bit, give them a chance to lose our tracks." Jack told Tegana. Tegana nodded.

Gwen had begun to notice a change in the actions of the people around her. They had moved out from the centre of the riots and as they did so Gwen noticed that the actions were less violent the further away they got from the main area of action. She notified Ianto on the topic.

"So you're saying that the main telepathic wave is at its strongest in the centre of the city, the further away from the city we get the weaker the signal." Ianto summarised. Gwen nodded. Gwen looked around her at all the people and an idea came to her.

"I want to try something." Gwen told Ianto as she began to make her way back into the main action. Ianto found himself having to jog to catch up with her fast pace.

"Gwen, Gwen what are you doing?" Ianto called after her.

"Trying something!" Gwen repeated herself. She grabbed the arm of a teenage boy who was smashing up a TV, she pulled him backwards, he struggled but her police force days had come in handy and Gwen was able to keep hold of him as she dragged him back.

Ianto watched on for a while, he noticed that no one else had reacted to what Gwen was doing; no one had even turned their head. He followed her, watching the young man as he did so.

The further Gwen took the guy, the less he tried to hurt Gwen, the less he felt the need to break something and cause havoc. Ianto made a mental note of each stage the young man went through so he could report to the rest of the team along with Gwen's observations.

Eventually it got to a point where the telepathic connection was broken and the young man flopped unable to cope with the sudden break in the mental feed. Gwen let the man fall to the ground still keeping a loose grip on him. The man let out a scream making Gwen let go of him.

"Ianto! Help!" Gwen yelled at him. Ianto shook himself out of his staring phase and ran to help Gwen move the man and prop him up against a wall.

"Where the hell am I?" the teenager asked through cries of pain and confusion. Ianto looked at Gwen for guidance in what they were allowed to tell the man and what was best left out.

"Just outside Kings cross." Ianto informed him, feeling it the safest thing to say exactly where they were and not elaborate on anything. The young man looked up to him.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked. Ianto being not used to the socialising aspect of torchwood, was quite taken back with the abrupt nature of the question he was being asked.

"I'm Gwen and this is my friend Ianto." Gwen answered on behalf of Ianto. As she spoke she could clearly hear the sound of two pairs of footstep getting closer towards them and she was reminded of the bodyguards who had killed Roberto Hannigan and hoped for this teenager's life that it wasn't them trying to reclaim their victim.

Gwen turned her head and too her disappointment her suspicions were proved true. She looked at Ianto, indicating that they needed to get away. Ianto looked back at her confused, then he turned his own head and saw for himself what Gwen was worried about.

Together they pulled the young man up, with one arm around each of their necks, they managed to walk extremely fast but being lumbered with the extra wait they were not going as fast as they could be. And the two bodyguards where catching up.

hey, ok so this is the 5th chapter in my torchwood story and I would like to have a bit more reviews then one per chapter so if you're reading this please hit the review button, just to tell me you're reading don't have to be much.