I landed in the middle of the floor, my horizontal momentum caused me to slide and stumble forwards a few extra steps. I looked up and smiled. The rest of the team was staring in disbelief, all except for Captain Jack, he was smiling. He clapped a few times as he spoke to me in my ear piece.
"Impressive, now what else can you do?"
"Not sure to be honest. This was the only thing I had a chance to try out before..." I trailed off and leapt around the room a few more times. I felt so free. I could only imagine how this would feel to do in an open field.
i looked back over to the group, they were all smiling and talking amongst themselves. Toshiko was talking to Jack. She had a serious look on her face. It was a face I had seen a few times over the past few days. That face meant Toshiko had an idea or was close to some kind of breakthough. It was a mix of excitement and wholehearted interest. Jack nodded to her once before speaking to me again in my earpiece.
"Toshiko had an idea to try out. It would perhaps clue us into a bit more of these special abilities of yours."
"Alright, I'm willing to try almost anything to solve this." I jumped across the length of the room, I could definitely get used to this.
Toshiko led us back up to her workstation in the main room of the Hub. She brought up a 3D model of the metal piece on my back as well as multiple photographs and some of the x-rays that Owen took. I studied the photographs. This was the first time I was able to really get a good look at the stanchion. It had the hue of aluminum metal [although it was flexible, the metal obviously wasn't anywhere near as fragile as aluminum]. It had ridges and bumps along it, mimicking the vertebrae underneath. The most curious part of the piece of it was the colored semi-ovals on each of the vertebrae. They had the look of stained glass. Each semi-oval was a different color. I could tell where Toshiko had thought some of the bits had broken. The metal was dented and the glass looking pieces were broken, cracked or non-existant. Upon closer inspection of the photo, it appeared each of the glass parts contained bits of liquid.
Toshiko took out a pen and started pointing at one of the photos. "Owen has told me last week that he scraped some residue out of the broken parts of the vertebrae divots. Although his results are still inconclusive for the moment, he believes that it is some kind of spinal fluid mixed with an alien compound. Each of these divots seems to connect to part of the central nervous system. My theory is that each of these connections controls a different ability. Since the brain is controlled by electrical pulses, I thought that maybe we could externally, or if that didn't work, internally send a small electrical pulse to the divot directly. This may trigger a response similar to a muscle reflex."
"Like when you tap your knee with a hammer and it causes your leg to kick?" Gwen asked.
"Exactly," Toshiko responded, smiling. It did seem like a good idea, I had to admit. But what if some of these abilities were less than friendly to people in vicinity of me? Jack seemed to read my mind.
"So what happens if she can shoot lasers out of her eyes or something? What if someone is standing in front of her when this happens and next thing they know, they have a hole through their stomach? Or what if something makes her go critical and set off a nuclear blast?"
"Better we find out i a controlled environment than for you to see a news story about me in a year or two about a girl spontaneously combusting," I chimed in, "I like Toshiko's idea."
"Well I don't. It's too dangerous, it could put everyone in Cardiff in danger, but I do agree that we need to contain any threat before we release you to the public." Jack crossed his arms, as if challenging me.
"Well I don't think they would've given me any kind of power that would destroy everything in the immediate vicinity. They said I'd be protecting the Lorians, not conquering civilizations. I'm not a war machine, I'm a body guard," I smiled, my argument was a good one.
"I don't want to take any chances." Captain Jack held firm, his arms crossed, looking down at me.
"You know, you could always do it Jack, be the only one in the room with her," suggested Gwen. Jack cast her a sideways glance and looked back at me. What was the difference if Jack was the only one in the room?
Captain Jack thought on this for a minute, his eyebrows furrowed together. It was a tough choice for him. He didn't tread lightly into the unknown when his team's lives could be on the line. "Alright, but I don't want to do it in the Hub. Ianto, see if you can find us a relatively empty warehouse on the docks. Preferably not near any other active warehouses. Toshiko, prepare what you think we'll need for the test. You and Owen will come with me, but stay outside the warehouse. I don't want to take any more chances than I have to. Gwen and Ianto, I want you here, monitoring for any unusual activity. Be ready too, you know just in case we need backup. Owen, do me a favor and grab some cameras. Since I'll be the only one in the warehouse with Lucy, I want to record this so we don't miss anything. And you," Jack put his hand on my shoulder, "go with Gwen for a bit and find some more suitable clothing."
I had been in a set of white scrubs since I got here. I just assumed the clothing I had been wearing when the Doctor brought me here was too bloodied up. It would be nice to go outside for a change. It had been beginning to feel like I'd never see the sunlight again.
Gwen took me down some hallways and into a storage room. "You looked like you were having fun today in the shooting range. I think that's the first time I've seen you smile since you got here," Gwen smiled. She definitely was the most personable person on the team.
"Yeah, it felt so great to be moving around like that. Like stretching after you've been sitting at a desk all day."
Gwen laughed, "I definitely know that feeling, although there are days where I'm doing more running than sitting. Sometimes I think I'd rather be sitting behind a desk all day."
"Does the job really get that dangerous?" So far, the team hadn't seemed to have much alien activity. The way they seemed to describe it, I thought I'd be seeing them bring in aliens and strange technology every other day.
"Oh yeah," she chuckled, "The rift has been quiet lately. In fact, I think this is the quietest it's been in a while. It's almost like something's backed it up and it's going to belch out something huge soon." I giggled, but Gwen wasn't laughing. She just had a look in her eye like she was staring somewhere far away. "Anyway, let's find you something that make's you look a bit less like a patient escaped from a psych ward."
Gwen pulled out a few boxes filled with clothing. She pulled out a pair of jeans and a hoodie, "I know they may not be the latest fashion, but they should do for now." I was afraid to ask where the clothing came from, Torchwood seemed to be a police like organization. I went to the corner of the room and put the clothes of. The jeans were a little snug, but would be fine for the day. The hoodie smelled of woman's shampoo. Gwen handed me a pair of tennis shoes, they also fit. "Jack said he's having Owen pull the SUV by the city center entrance. I think he wants to show off the scenic route to you," she smiled.
We went back to the main office area of the Hub where Jack was standing. "Owen and Tosh will meet us up above. You're going to like this part," he waved me over to what looked like a concrete slab on the floor. We stepped up on it, "You might want to hold on."
"To what?" I barely had a chance to finish asking before the slab started moving upwards towards the high ceiling. I instinctively grabbed onto Jack's arm, he smiled. "I take it this is what Gwen meant when she said the scenic route?" We were quickly ascending. It vaguely reminded me of when the Doctor and I had been beamed up into the alien ship, I just hoped that wasn't a bad premonition. A square exactly the size of the one we were standing on was now open in the ceiling. Gwen waved to us from below.
When we got to the top, we were standing in the center of a very large city square. Behind us was a tall metal tower. I looked around. It seemed like no one saw us. "Perception filter. No one can see us so long as we're standing here. Comes in handy when we come up this way," Jack explained before I even had a chance to ask, "Now let's go meet Owen and Tosh."
Despite being cloudy, I revelled in the fresh air. I hadn't realized how stale the air in the Hub had felt. I felt like a blind man seeing the sun for the first time,
No cars were allowed in the city center, so we had to walk to one of the streets. I looked around at everything I could. There was the sea and a lot of restaurants. "This may be a silly question, but where are we? Judging by everyone's accent it seems like we're somewhere in England"
"Cardiff, Whales to be exact. I can't believe no one told you yet. Is this your first time overseas?" I nodded. It had always been a fantasy of mine to travel to Europe. Specifically Ireland or Scotland, the lore of the places seemed to draw me. It was silly, but I always wanted to meet fairies. The thought of magic intrigued me. After all I had been to, I began to wonder if the old tales about the fae could have been inspired by our ancestors meeting with aliens. Had I not been familiar with technology, I could see how some of the things we possessed could be magical.
I didn't have too much time to ponder on this as we reached the SUV. I climbed into the back with Jack. I had forgotten that the British had the steering wheel on the other side of the car. Tosh was sitting up front with Owen.
"I'm assuming Ianto found a suitable location?" Jack asked.
"Yup, thirty minutes from city center on an abandoned dock. There are a few abandoned warehouses to choose from Ianto told us, so we can pretty much pick whichever we want. He said be careful though because there might be a few in disrepair."
"I love that man" Jack smiled.
It took us about 40 minutes to get to the dock. Owen wasn't very good at taking directions while driving. Twice, we had to make a U-turn because he missed where he was supposed to go. We took another 20 minutes scoping out the available warehouses. Toshiko insisted we used one with a completely in tact roof in case it started raining, she didn't want to get the equipment wet.
We finally found a suitable one near the end of the dock. The roof was completely in tact, but time and weather had worn away some holes in the walls. The warehouse was one giant room with catwalks up top. It appeared that there may be a few storage or office rooms built into it, but overall, was mostly one giant space. The entire place smelled like old fish.
Toshiko and Owen set up their equipment in the middle of the room. They brought in tables to hold the monitors and computers. Owen brought in a lot of medical equipment as well as the cameras. They were set up in a circle around the stool that I would be sitting on. It took Jack and Owen both to carry in the generator, the warehouse had no power.
After all the equipment set up, Owen sat me on the stool and briefed me on what was going to happen while Toshiko explained to Jack how to work the equipment. "Jack is going attach these small electrodes to the divots on your back. We're not quite sure how much of a electric pulse it'll take to activate it externally, if it activates at all," he showed me the electrode. It looked like the little pads doctors hooked up to patients to do an EKG. "Regardless, you'll barely feel anything except a little tickle, even at the highest setting. If this doesn't work, we'll move onto the next test." He didn't bother explaining that one yet. I had already guessed since it was an internal test, it would involve needles. I really do hate needles. I shivered a little bit
"If anything goes wrong, Jack and you will be hooked up to us right outside with your ear pieces. We'll be monitoring you guys via live feed through those cameras," he clapped me on the shoulder, "relax, I've put you through a lot worse tests these past few days."
That's not what I was worried about. Without me being in control of what was coming out, I was afraid something would come out that hurt Jack. Owen then began hooking me up to a few more machines. "These are just to monitor your vitals, but I'm sure you know that by now."
After everything was set up and explained, Toshiko and Owen walked back to the SUV outside the warehouse. Jack was staring up at one of the catwalks. "What's wrong?" I asked.
"Nothing, I just thought I saw something up there," he took a deep breath in, "Alright, Tosh, can you hear me? Gwen can you?" Both women answered affirmative over the com system. "Let's get started then."
I pulled my hoodie off. I was still wearing the white top underneath. I pulled that up, exposing my back and the alien device. I could already feel goosebumps forming on my arm, whether that was from the chill in the air or anticipation, I couldn't tell.
"Let's get this show on the road," Jack put the first electrode on the first vertebrae on the left of my back, close to my neck. "Ready?" I nodded, nervous of what the results might be. "Ok, I'm turning it on the lowest setting now." I didn't feel anything change, I shook my head to let Jack know.
"Nothing on my end," Owen spoke into our earpieces.
"Next level," Jack said. Still nothing. I didn't even feel a tingling. "Nothing? Ok, I'm going to move up two more." Yet again, I didn't feel anything. No change at all.
"Jack, you may as well crank that thing up. I don't feel anything." I heard him turn the dial all the way up behind me.
"Ready?" I nodded again. I heard him press the button, but still nothing. No results. "Owen?"
"Nothing Jack, not even any changes in brain waves. I think that thing may be too well insulated. We're going to come back in so we can try the internal." I felt my heart beat pick up the pace. The heart monitor sped up it's beeping correspondingly.
Owen walked into the warehouse without Tosh, carrying another box of equipment. "Tosh is going to stay out in the SUV, she said she thought she saw something moving outside and wants to keep an eye out. Said she didn't want a repeat of the cannibals." I didn't even bother to ask. I wasn't sure it was a story I wanted to hear. "Alright Jack, this one is going to be a little bit more tricky since you don't have medical training," Owen opened his box and took somethings out behind me. I could already feel my hands shaking and getting more sweaty. "Pretty much you're just going to take this here, and shove it between her skin and the device. Try not to wiggle it around to much, I'm sure Lucy won't thank you for that. I'll do the first one for you. On the x-ray, it showed some hooks that keep it attached to her. Try to keep it in between those and get under the device if you can. Alright, I'm going to put the first one in now Lucy, ok?" I nodded, I didn't trust my voice not to crack.
Owen shoved the needle in and bent it a little bit to get under the stanchion, I'll admit, it hurt, a lot. It felt like, well, someone was shoving a needle in my spine. I bit my lower lip, trying not to cry out. "Are you sure you don't want me to stay in here with you to do the other ones?" Owen asked Jack,
"Yes, it's too dangerous. Plus how else am I going to earn my doctor qualifications if I never have hands on practise?" I just shook my head. My back was going to have some interesting bruises in the morning if this test worked. Owen walked back out to the SUV.
"Alright team, let's do this. Ready Lucy?" I nodded my head again and closed my eyes. Jack turned the nob up.
I could immediately tell something was different. I took in a breath sharply as I opened my eyes. Everything was colored and it was hard to tell the outlines of things. I looked at my hands, they were bright red. I craned my head around to Jack, he was bright red as well. It only took me a few seconds to realize what I was seeing was a thermal image of everything. "Jack?" He was smiling at me.
"Not possessed by the devil now are you? Your eyes are bright red. What's going on?"
"I'm seeing the temperature signature of everything," I heard Tosh gasp over the ear piece, "It's so strange. You're bright red and so am I. I can see straight through that wall to Owen and Tosh out in the SUV. Kinda of looks like they're floating," I laughed and looked around the room some more. I saw something strange. "On the floor on the far side of the room, there's a mass of red as well. Right behind that wall where we thought were some offices and storage space." I looked up at the ceiling, "There's two points moving above us as well on the roof. Birds?" I asked.
"I don't see anything flying out here, Owen give me the binoculars," Tosh spoke over the com device.
Jack was already walking over to where I pointed with the heat signature on the floor. He put his arm up to his face, I couldn't tell what he was doing. The probe was still in my back, making it impossible to switch off my thermal vision. He reached the wall and opened what I guessed was a door, very quietly. After peeking inside, he closed it again very quickly. As he was jogging back towards me, he spoke quietly in the ear piece, "No wonder this place is abandoned, it's a Weevil nest, the biggest I've ever seen. The spots Lucy saw on the roof- " Jack kicked something on the floor, it made a very loud clanging sound that seemed to resonate through the whole warehouse. He froze. Suddenly, I saw the heat signature on the ground across the room undulate.
"Lucy?" Jack asked.
"It's moving. I guess this would be a good time to tell you to run." I glanced back over to the SUV and saw two human like figures running towards it. I ripped the probe out of my back, Ow, and started running towards the door, hoodie in hand. My vision immediately changed back to normal. "Owen, Tosh, there are two things running towards you!"
I got to the door much sooner than Jack. He was already a lot farther away and my increased physical abilities allowed me to sprint quite fast. I hadn't even thought about jumping. I had no idea what these Weevils were, but they seemed to scare the other team members, so I assumed I didn't want to tangle with them.
As soon as I threw open the door, I saw, what I assumed were Weevils, running towards the warehouse. They stopped between me and the SUV. I saw Owen get out of the SUV with something in his hands, from here, it looked like a hairspray can.
I glanced behind me quickly to see Jack sprinting towards the door with everything he was worth, and for good reason. Pouring out the door behind him were a seemingly endless supply of the two creatures standing in front of me. Owen was shouting at me to run. i didn't want to leave Jack there, but I couldn't do anything for him.
Owen was already moving towards the two Weevils in front of me. They didn't look like creatures he'd be able to take on his own. They were large and bald, wearing jumpsuits. Their faces were flat besides two small, beady eyes set close together. The Weevils barred their teeth at me. They were sharp, definitely not something I'd like to get close to. I leapt at one of the Weevils, aiming my feet directly at its chest.
The Weevil and I went down in a tumble, I would never forget the horrible smell that filled my nostrils. It was something between raw sewage and algae, it was snarling and snapping at my throat. I quickly realized I had severely underestimated these things. I used my forearms to fend it off until I got my knee's under it. I tried launching it off me , but it managed to get it's incisors sunk into my forearm. I screamed just a someone wrenched it off of me.
Owen had pulled the Weevil off me and sprayed at its face. The Weevil immediately recoiled. Whatever was in that can was highly effective at repelling the Weevils. Jack was just coming through the door as Owen hauled me to my feet. One of the Weevils caught the tail of Jack's coat. Judging by the other rips, this was what had delayed him in getting out of the warehouse sooner. He also had claw marks all over his face. He was never going to make it to the SUV and even if he did, we'd be overwhelmed by the sea of Weevils that were now pouring out of the door after Jack.
I thought fast, my summer camp experiences were coming back to me. "Do you have a lighter?" I asked Owen, he was pulling me towards the SUV. He pulled one out of his pocket.
"Why?" But I already had the lighter and the can out of his hands. I doused the hoodie that I had picked back up after dropping it in my tumble with the Weevil. I used the arms to tie the can securely into the hoodie and lit it on fire.
"Duck!" I screamed at Jack as I launched the now flaming hoodie into the pile of Weevils. The hoodie flew over Jack's head. It distracted the Weevils enough for Jack to rip himself away from their snapping mouths. He just cleared the sea of Weevils when the can exploded.
We were all already in the SUV with Toshiko in the driver seat, engine revving. Jack leapt into the back seat and slammed the door shut behind him. A couple Weevils that managed to avoid the blast rammed into the side of the vehicle after Jack, but Toshiko had already started driving away. I looked out the rear window after them,they were still chasing us.
"Was that a can of Weevil spray?" Jack managed to get out, he was breathing heavily.
Owen responded, "Yes it was, you can thank Lucy for that explosion." For some reason, he seemed proud, like it was his experiment that had finally done some good for the group.
"Thanks," Jack said to me. He smiled, still breathing heavily. "Gwen are you there?"
"Yeah Jack, what's going on, we heard you curse and then the line went dead. Ianto's ready to send out the cavalry, is everything alright?"
"Yeah, we stumbled on a Weevil nest, we'll tell you all about it when we get back."
Meanwhile, Owen had been getting somethings out in the mini work station in the back, he grabbed my arm where the Weevil had bit me and injected something in it before I had a chance to protest. "Weevil mouths are nasty things, wouldn't due for you to get an infection from it." he dabbed the puncture wounds with something cool, immediately the throbbing started ebbing away. After wrapping it in gauze he started feeling the back of my head. "That was a bit of a tumble you took with the Weevil, hm? So how did you like your first outing with Torchwood? As exciting as you thought it would be?" He was smiling.
I grimaced as he touched a tender spot on the back of my head. I must have hit it when I fell. "For some reason, I was expecting a few more explosions," I answered back. Owen was moving his finger in front of my eyes, telling me to track it.
"Alright, no concussion. Is everything else in order?" I nodded, "Good, Jack, how're you doing?"
"I'm fine thanks to Lucy. I thought they were going to tear me to bits. I haven't had that much fun in a while," he was smiling as well. It reminded me of the Doctor, they all did. It was like they enjoyed this, the danger, the brushes with death. I thought for a few minutes and took stock of my body, My heart was just starting to calm down, I was scraped and bruised, not to mention the arm where the Weevil had bit me. I did have to admit to myself, it was exciting and more fun than staying home and doing homework.
I sat thinking on the car ride back to the Hub while the rest of the team chatted away and talked logistics. It was hard to believe a few days ago, no weeks [I kept forgetting about the time I lost when I was unconscious], my life had been the same monotonous thing everyday. If you had told me about this side of society, I probably would've laughed and told you to go get a tin foil hat, now it was my reality. I had no idea what to think about it. I was battered and bruised, but at the same time, I could feel excitement burning in my chest. Although I technically wasn't part of Torchwood, it felt nice to be part of something.
Another 30 minutes and we were parking outside of the Hub, or so they told me. This was my first time coming back and it wasn't the same entrance Jack had brought me out of. The entrance was down on a little dock and labelled as a tourist information shop. It was hardly noticeable, probably the way Torchwood liked it. By now, the sun was starting to set, causing the water to look dark and ominous, the clouds had yet to clear away and there was a smell of rain in the air.
"I still can't believe we lost all that equipment today," Toshiko complained, "Jack, do you think there will be any way to get it back?"
"I doubt it, the Weevils have probably destroyed it by now. Most of that stuff was just standard medical equipment and computers anyway. I don't think there was any alien tech in there.."
"No, I don't think there was."
We walked through the front of the shop, Ianto was behind the desk, he pressed something. A huge part of the wall rolled away to reveal a dark hallway. Jack motioned for me to go first. It was a long hallway leading to a door at the end. The door opened to reveal an elevator. It took quite some time for the elevator to reach the bottom. Gwen was sitting at her desk when we got to the bottom. "You lot look a mess, get back alright?"
"Yeah, Gwen, Tosh, Owen, meet me in the board room. Lucy, go to the showers and clean up a bit, you smell like Weevil spray. Ianto, could you work some of your coffee magic?"
"Right away, sir. Should I make it extra dark?" Ianto asked.
"You know it," Jack smiled and pointed to Ianto.
The Hub had a shower down in the care rooms, I guessed for longer term patients, which didn't seem to be very often. I grabbed a new set of scrubs from the pile that Owen had provided me in my room. When I got to the shower, I stripped down and discarded my clothing in the corner. I faced my back to the mirror and craned my head around to try to get a look at the metal device.
It would take some getting used to seeing. The thing never failed to startle me. The skin around the edges of the stanchion were red and scarred, I guess alien operations weren't perfect. There were a few bruises blossoming as well on my back, one from where Owen had put and the needle and I had haphazardly ripped it out and a couple more from my tumble with the Weevil. I felt the back of my head where I had banged it, it was tender, but no longer came away sticky with blood when I touched it. Overall, I suppose I had gotten away lightly for someone who wasn't used to dealing with those creatures. By all rights, Jack should've been more beat up than I was, but he seemed unphased by the whole thing.
I took my time in the shower, letting the hot water pour over my sore body. I pondered on everything that had happened today. So, I have thermal vision, I wonder if I have any other cool abilities like that. Ones that don't hurt people. I was so afraid of losing control. I deemed myself a pacifist. I had never been in a fight and even hearing verbal arguments made me nervous sometimes. I couldn't imagine me being some kind of body guard, it was hard enough to accept what had happened with the Weevil today.
After getting out of the shower, I made my way back to my room, hair wrapped in a towel. I saw Owen walking down the hallway towards me, he had a smile on his face, "I was just coming to make sure you hadn't passed out in the shower, you were in there a long time."
"More like trying to get a peek at me naked," I answered. In the days I had been here, I learned that Owen had a bit of a reputation as a womanizer. I smiled back at him.
"Nah, we have a strict doctor-patient relationship," he said, a bit overly serious, he seemed to be joking. "Anyway, Jack said he wants to see you in his office when you're done with your shower."
I dropped my clothes and towel back in my room and made my way back up to the central Hub. Jack probably just wanted to go over what happened today. My hair was still wet when I entered his office. Jack motioned for me to have a seat.
"So, I've called you here for a few reasons, the first of which is the one I really want to discuss. I talked it over with the team and they all seem to agree. We want you to join Torchwood."