Notes: The Doctor, Rose, Jack and Gwen catch up with the Commander and get him cornered. (That's when he's at his most dangerous)
Rose does some kick ass Kung Fu, while the Doctor and Jack look on in admiration. (I really enjoyed writing that bit)
Chapter 14
Chrissie caught the lift down to the third floor, to the Operations Room and stopped dead in her tracks. Maybe that wasn't the best description under the circumstances, because the dead were no longer dead in their tracks. Pete arrived shortly afterwards and looked at the screen.
"What the fu…." He managed to curtail his expletive before Chrissie heard it.
"Dad? Is that you?" Rose's voice asked over the video link. "Can you see this? They're alive! The TARDIS fixed them!"
"What? How?"
"It's a bit complicated Pete," John said. "But I'll try and explain in the debrief later. For now though, I think we need some counsellors down here and we need to contact the families."
"Of course. Danny, give Psychology a call and get them mobilised. John, I need you and Rose back here, Chrissie has found the Caxtarid, and he's in London."
"Jack, you're a bad influence on 'im," Rose said as they entered the foyer of the Odeon cinema in Leicester Square.
"What? I was only saying hello," John said as the doors closed behind them. He put on his combat helmet and powered up the electronics. "Okay, where did he go?"
Rose checked her scanner and turned in a semi circle. "He's on the next level up; he might be heading for the roof."
"Right, let's get a fly in the air and see what he's up to," John said.
They moved into the stairwell and John took a black ring box out of a pocket and flipped it open. Inside was a spy-fly, a tiny surveillance device that could be controlled from a tablet PC. Gwen selected the control app on her tablet and the fly started to hover and then move up the stairs.
Rose sent her scanner data via bluetooth to Gwen's tablet and the fly 'homed in' on the shimmer. They could all see the video stream from the fly on their helmet 'head up' displays.
"There he is," Jack said as they caught sight of a man in a cinema uniform. "Let's go. Draw your weapons and remember, he probably still has that plasma weapon and he has shown that he is prepared to use it."
"If I can get close enough, I can jam it with my sonic screwdriver," John told them.
"Okay, but no unnecessary risks," Jack said, looking deliberately at John. He knew him too well.
The fly showed them that it was safe to enter the hallway from the stairwell, and they moved in their standard 'search and secure' pattern up to the next corner. They knew Kerra-Kashinkai was around the corner, so John took out a shimmer looking device of his own.
When he pressed the button, they saw in their displays that the cinema employee turned into a Caxtarid commander, complete with metallic red hair and glowing red eyes.
"I can see you," John sing-songed around the corner.
"Oh not you again? This could be construed as persecution of a visiting alien."
"Don't sound so innocent and hard done by commander. I can see that you have a plasma caster drawn and ready to shoot at anyone who comes around the corner. Add to that the number of people you killed with a genetically modified pathogen, with the intention of killing billions more and I think that means you should get prosecution, not persecution."
"You've got to catch me first, and you haven't been too successful at that in the past, have you Doctor?" he taunted. "But please, come and have a go if you think you're hard enough."
Rose could see that the taunting was getting to him. "John?" she said cautiously, reminding him that Kerra-Kashinkai was a psychopath that would kill him in an instant.
John smiled and took out his sonic. He adjusted the setting and pressed the button. After the familiar warbling whistle, he checked the reading and started to chuckled to himself.
"We're in the middle of the makin's of the plasma caster jammin'," he sang to the strain of the Stevie Wonder song. The sonic showed that it had disabled the commander's weapon.
"99, 100! Here I come, ready or not!" John stepped around the corner and Kerra-Kashinkai pulled the trigger. There was a fizzle and a phutt, followed by a pop as the weapon failed. The rest of the Torchwood team followed him around the corner.
"I guess that's 'not' then," John quipped.
Kerra-Kashinkai threw the weapon at them, making them duck out of the way as he dived through an access door and disappeared. Rose rolled her eyes and looked at John.
"You've always got to give 'em the gob first, haven't ya? Couldn't just shoot him first, then do the one liner."
John looked a bit sheepish. "Sorry. Force of habit."
Rose smiled at him, she couldn't stay mad at that puppy dog expression. "You're forgiven this time. But remember, in future, just zap 'im."
"Yes miss," he said with a cheeky smile.
Behind the door were some stairs that led to the roof.
"Looks like he went up then."
Jack started climbing the stairs as Gwen sent the fly ahead of him to scout the roof.
"It's a kind of gable roof with flat walkways around the edge, and the 'Odeon tower' at the front. He could have gone around to the left or the right," she announced. "Go left Jack and I'll send the fly ahead of you."
"Okay, going left."
Jack used the door as cover as he looked around. There was no sign of their quarry. Rose reached the top of the stairs, turned left and waited for John and Gwen. She knew better than to go after a suspect without backup.
"Okay. Gwen, you follow Jack and keep the fly in the air. John and me will go around this way and try and head him off," Rose instructed.
They edged their way along the narrow walkway past air conditioning units and ducts that could have hidden the Caxtarid. At the end of the walkway, John looked over a railing at the adjacent building where someone could jump down onto the lower roof.
"JACK! Behind you!" they heard Gwen call through the headset. They turned and ran back along the walkway and on in the direction Jack and Gwen had gone.
At the end of the walkway they could see Jack being held around the neck from behind, with his Glock 17C, semi automatic pistol pointing under his chin. Gwen was standing five feet in front of them with her stun gun aimed at them.
"Fire your stun guns, and I will pull the trigger before I succumb to the energy discharge," Kerra-Kashinkai told them.
"Sorry guys," Jack said. "He must have been in one of the ducts so that the fly didn't see him."
"Drop your weapons," Kerra-Kashinkai ordered.
"What, and then you shoot us," Rose said. "Ain't gonna happen alien."
"Drop them or I shoot anyway, it's your choice. There's a scout ship coming to rescue me. Drop your weapons, get off the roof and I'll let your colleague go when my ship arrives."
"And why should we believe you?" John asked. "Your track record on trustworthiness hasn't been that good so far."
"A fair comment, but what choice do you have." He pressed the Glock harder into Jack's throat.
"Don't do it. You can't let him get away. He'll only go somewhere else and do it again," Jack said.
"Oh how noble of you." He looked directly at John. "Well?"
John stared at him for what seemed like an eternity as he considered the options. They were limited, and when the scout ship arrived they would be outnumbered. There was only one option. He holstered his stunner and gestured for Rose and Gwen to do the same.
"Sorry Jack, you're too valuable to lose. Tell me Kerra-Kashinkai, before we go, why did you come back to London?"
"Oh that? Simple really, I have an equipment stash close by. Mainly a hyper wave transmitter for contacting my ship. I had just called them when you discovered me. I ran into the cinema hoping to give you the slip among the crowds."
"Oh, okay," John said matter-of-factly. "We'd better get off the roof," he told his team mates. "See you later Jack."
They went through the door and Rose was about to read him the riot act when he turned around to face them.
"Gwen. Stay here and monitor the situation on the fly. Rose, we don't have much time, we've got to run. It'll be just like old times."
"We haven't got much time for what?" she asked, but he had already grabbed her hand and started to run down the stairs.
Gwen saw Kerra-Kashinkai release Jack from his neck grip but keep the Glock pointing at him.
"Very carefully, remove your stun gun and throw it over the edge," the commander instructed. Jack used his thumb and index finger to lift the stunner out of its holster and drop it over the handrail, where it clattered to the ground below.
"So," Jack said conversationally. "You going to let me go, or are you going to shoot me when your ship arrives?"
"You know, I really haven't decided yet. Let's see what happens shall we. At the moment you are alive because the moment I kill you there will be nothing to stop your people from storming the roof and taking me captive."
Just inside the door to the roof, Gwen was monitoring the situation on her tablet via the fly, when she heard Rose's voice in her headset.
"Gwen, we're going to attempt a rescue. Please don't take any action, no matter how bad it looks. Jack's life depends on it. Over."
"Er, okay. Roger that. Over."
Jack heard the high pitched whistle of manoeuvring thrusters and looked across the gabled roof. An alien ship skimmed the roof tops as it approached their position. It positioned itself so that the hatch was level with the top of the handrail at the far end of the walk way.
"Ah, I think that's my ride," Kerra-Kashinkai said. He motioned with the Glock for Jack to precede him. Jack raised his hands and slowly walked towards the ship. The hatch opened, and he could see a Caxtarid standing in the airlock waiting for them.
"Greetings Commander. Is the prisoner coming as well? He would make some good in-flight entertainment while we are travelling."
Kerra-Kashinkai gave a single laugh. "What an excellent suggestion. It's been quite a while since I had the opportunity to torture someone."
Jack used both his hands to pull himself into the airlock on his knees. He felt a hand grab the back of his collar and pull him in, and his face had an expression as though he was listening to something that was puzzling him.
The Caxtarid held out his hand for Kerra-Kashinkai, who handed over the Glock and then took the hand for a pull up into the airlock.
Gwen was watching anxiously as she saw Jack being pulled into the airlock, followed by the Caxtarid fugitive.
"Come on you two, where are you?" she asked out loud. She knew they had a reputation for leaving things to the last minute, but this was just too close. She then saw something that made her thump the tablet PC as though it had developed a fault.
The Caxtarid scout ship faded and morphed into a 1960's blue wooden police box that she knew only too well.
"Welcome aboard Commander Kerra-Kashinkai," the Caxtarid officer said as the airlock faded, revealing a large control room that appeared to have a Victorian decor. Up a ramp, in the centre of the room was another Caxtarid operating a hexagonal control console.
"What is going on? What is this place?" Kerra-Kashinkai asked, as the officer handed Jack his Glock and made his way up the ramp. The two Caxtarids reached into their pockets, took out key fobs and pressed the buttons, turning them into John and Rose.
"This place is the TARDIS," Rose said. "And you're under arrest is what's going on."
The Commander moved fast, faster than a human, and grabbed Rose around the neck. He had already drawn her Glock and had it pointing at her right temple.
"I don't think so," he said with venom in his voice. "Pathetic apes! Dr. Smith, you will take me to my home world and surrender yourselves to the authorities. Otherwise your beautiful wife will have a bullet pass through her beautiful head." He moved her up the ramp towards the control console.
Rose rolled her eyes. "I told you. Didn't I tell you John? Didn't I say he would think Earth women were weak and feeble and easily subdued?"
John grinned and nodded in agreement. "She did you know. She's smart like that, my Rose. She passed a hostage negotiation course with flying colours 'cause she's brilliant."
"Aw shucks," she said with false modesty.
"Excuse me! I have a gun at your wife's head," Kerra-Kashinkai said in disbelief.
"Yeah, I know," John said. "And I'm no expert on firearms. Welll, in fact you could say I hate them, what with all that noise and smoke and bullets. Oh yes bullets…. aren't they supposed to have bullets?"
"What?" The Commander looked down and saw Rose pull out a handful of bullets from her pocket. She suddenly brought her elbow back and hit him just below the ribs; she lifted her arm and repeated the action to catch the side of his jaw. He staggered backwards against the handrail that ran around the edge of the decking.
She stood in front of him with her hands on her hips. "Psychology Commander. You may not be human, but arrogant bastards are the same the universe over. I knew you'd make a grab for my gun when the game was up, so I took the precaution of removing the ammunition."
Kerra-Kashinkai roared in anger and took his fighting stance. Rose took a traditional kung fu stance, circled her arms and wobbled her head a little in homage to her hero Bruce Lee. She knew Andy McNab would disapprove of showboating, but this was for John and Jack. She would snap back to street fighting when Kerra-Kashinkai made his move.
"No interferin' lads. This one's all mine," she said with a grin, offering him to come on with her fingers.
John came and stood next to Jack, who was leaning against the handrail with his arms crossed.
"You'll get no argument from me sweetheart," Jack said smiling. "I've been waiting to see you in action since the kidnapping at Christmas."
Rose had taken out an assailant before being hit by a tranquiliser dart. Jack was hit first and missed the impressive display of martial arts, and John had heard about it from witnesses at the scene.
Kerra-Kashinkai lunged forwards and they traded a few punches and kicks that were dodged and parried [THWACK, THUD, SMACK]. He threw a roundhouse kick which Rose caught while stepping between his legs and tripping him backwards. As he hit the decking [THUD] she stamped her boot between his legs [WHACK].
It didn't get the reaction that she was expecting and he kicked her legs from under her.
John saw the confused look on her face. "No external genitalia," he called to her.
"Oh, right," she nodded. The Commander climbed to his feet and Rose used her gymnastics to back flip up onto her feet. Jacks eyebrows raised in admiration as he nodded at her skill.
John looked at him with a proud smile on his face. "Jericho Street Junior School under 7s gymnastic team. She got the bronze y'know." They looked back to the main event where both fighters were circling each other.
"Don't tell Rose, but after our first adventure, she didn't want to come with me, so I went off on my own. I was curious about her so I went to see her get that bronze medal. She was awesome even then."
[THWACK, THUD, SMACK] They traded more blows, when Kerra-Kashinkai dodged a punch and got behind Rose, trapping her arm in a straight arm lock behind her. He grabbed her hair and pulled her head back. With her forearm trapped on top of his shoulder, she could feel her elbow being stretched further than it was meant to go.
John and Jack both took a step forward. "Are you alright Love?" John asked.
"Urgh, just…. brilliant…. thanks," she gasped.
Kerra-Kashinkai spoke into her ear. "I wonder how much pressure it would take to snap this feeble human arm? Let's find out shall we?"
Feeble? Was he calling her feeble? 'I'll show him feeble', she thought. She pushed backwards until they hit the handrail and stopped suddenly. That sent a stab of pain up her arm, it felt like her elbow would snap and her shoulder would dislocate.
'Now what?' she thought. She couldn't reach behind with her free arm, she was stuck. Normally she would have kicked upwards with her heel between his legs, but this alien had no balls. Not any on the outside anyway.
She could see John's face was pale with worry. He was poised, ready to move in, his fists clenched by his side.
"Don't-you-dare," she said through clenched teeth, her eyes stinging with tears of pain.
This alien was just a bully, nothing more, nothing less. She never put up with bullying at school, and she wasn't about to start now.
School! Of course! There was one thing from school that she was proud of. It was a long shot, but it might just work. She only hoped that this bully wasn't into an alien equivalent of yoga.
She positioned her feet inside his and with a sudden thrust, started to drop into the splits. She reckoned that the Commander wouldn't be as supple as she was.
She was right. He immediately let go of her hair and tried to support his weight on the handrail. The pressure on her elbow eased, and she pushed out even further. Kerra-Kashinkai's legs were trapped by the outward pressure of Rose's feet.
"Aaaaghooooohhh." Kerra-Kashinkai released the arm lock as both of his hands tried to support his burning hamstrings. Rose tilted her head back against his chest to look up at his face. His mouth and eyes were wide in pain. John and Jack looked on with sympathetic agony on their faces.
She balled her right fist, and a punch shot directly upwards under his chin. His teeth made a satisfying 'clack' as they banged together and he sagged backwards against the handrail.
Rose leaned forwards and put her hands on the floor and gracefully raised her body into a handstand. Kerra-Kashinkai's knees snapped together and dropped to the decking.
She then arched one leg backwards until it touched the floor behind her, followed by the other leg, then her body arched upwards until she was standing erect with her arms out, as though she had just completed a floor exercise. She gave them a cheeky smile and a saucy wink.
"I had no idea Rose was so flexible," Jack said, smiling back at her.
John didn't respond, he had a daft grin on his face, and a faraway look in his eyes as he remembered their first night together, and how he'd discovered just HOW flexible she really was.
Rose turned around, dropped back into her street fighting stance, and started to circle the stiff legged Commander.
There was a flurry of punches, [WHACK, THWOP, SMACK, THWACK] some of which found their target and others that were parried.
[SMACK] Kerra-Kashinkai caught Rose on the jaw with a punch that put her on the floor. John unfolded his arms and took a step forward again.
"Are you alright Love?" he asked her, ready to leap in and finish it.
Rose groaned as she held her jaw and worked it around. She put her hand up to stop him as she rolled her tongue around the inside of her lip. She spat out some blood.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she gasped. "I can take 'im."
"Now who's being arrogant?" Kerra-Kashinkai said as he stood over her.
She stamped a side kick out from the floor and caught Kerra-Kashinkai's knee, [CRUNCH] which buckled and sent him to the floor.
John continued his story. "I jumped forward a few years and saw her friends getting bikes for Christmas. Jackie couldn't afford to buy her one, and I couldn't help myself, I went back and bought her a bike. She loved that bike."
The two fighters climbed to their feet once more. They looked battered and weary.
"I then did something else that I couldn't help myself doing, I went back and asked her again. For Rose, it was only a few seconds later."
Kerra-Kashinkai launched a front kick, but with his stiff legs and injured knee it didn't quite go right. Rose dodged to the side and caught his leg, slammed a palm strike into his chest [THUMP] and hooked his supporting leg with her calf. With his leg no longer under him, he fell back hard onto the decking [THUD].
Rose rested her hands on her thighs as she leaned forward and took some deep breaths. Kerra-Kashinkai used the handrail to pull himself into a standing position, leaning heavily on it for support.
"There's a difference between arrogance," Rose said as she ducked under a swing and hit him in the gut with a right cross [THUD]. "And supreme confidence," she finished, as a hook connected with his jaw [SMACK].
The Commander sagged back against the handrail. Rose pulled herself up to her full five feet, five inches and straightened her shoulders.
"This planet is defended!" She spun like a top and lifted her leg as she circled around. The heel of her boot caught the Commander perfectly on the side of his jaw [THWOCK]. He rolled along the handrail and thudded to the floor.
She knew it was showboating again and that Andy would probably disapprove, but what the hell. If you're going to finish it, finish it with style.
John and Jack started to applaud as they walked towards her. She wearily fell into a hug with her husband. He looked down at her and saw her fat lip and bruised cheek bone.
"You okay?" he said concerned.
"Yeah. Nothin' a bit of ice won't fix," she said with smile that made her wince.
"Rose Smith…. Defender of the Earth," he said as he held her face in his hands. He gently brushed her lips with his and she flinched slightly, but when he pulled away so as not to hurt her, she grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him into a snog.
Her fingers ran through his oh so fantastic hair, her second favourite part of him. 'But what about his lips?' she thought to herself distractedly. They were pretty awesome as well. Then there was his tongue. 'Oooh what he could do with that tongue of his'. No wonder he'd got a gob on him with equipment like that.
Jack chuckled to himself as he watched them snog. As it went on, and on, he started to feel a bit awkward and a bit of a voyeur, so he got his cuffs out and secured the prisoner. He then went down the ramp and opened the door. Gwen was standing on the walkway, stun gun in hand, looking at him in complete confusion.
"What the hell just happened?" she asked.
"I'm not too sure myself, but you'd better come in," he said, holding out his hand. "John told me through my earpiece that it was Rose pulling me in." He pulled Gwen into the TARDIS.
"Oh they're at it again," Gwen said with a smile.
"I know. Great isn't it."
John and Rose broke from their embrace and smiled at their team mates.
"Don't stop on our account," Gwen said with a cheeky grin.
"We didn't," Rose gasped. "I had to breathe."
"Right, things to do," John said going into manic mode. He ran to the console and operated the hyper wave transmitter.
"This is Dr. John Smith on the planet Earth, calling the Caxtarid scout ship that is about to attempt a rescue of Commander Kerra-Kashinkai." He grinned at them and waggled his eyebrows.
"This is Captain Harrankai-Kosh. Where is the Commander?"
"Er, he's a bit indisposed at the moment due to him having had seven bells knocked out of him by my wife. He is under arrest and will be delivered to the Shadow Proclamation very shortly for processing and trial."
"What is the meaning of this?" the Captain said indignantly, wondering who had the audacity to arrest one of his commanders.
"The meaning is, I am one of a team of people who defend this planet, and we will not stand for this kind of covert attack. Now if you want to come with us and plead your case, feel free. They may just believe that you knew nothing about it."
John's voice took on that dangerous edge. "But if I were you, I'd run…. Run as fast as you can and tell others that you meet that the Earth is defended."
He disconnected the call with a flourish and started the TARDIS on her way to the Shadow Proclamation. "Well, that told them! Come on Rose let's get you to the Medi-bay and fix those cuts and bruises."
"So Doc," Jack started to ask as they walked through to the medi-bay. "How did you pull all of this off?"
"Well, the first part was down to Rose really, she suggested that we have a remote emergency protocol. On our way back from the UNIT warehouse, I rearranged the favourite destinations folder and attached a remote call protocol."
They went into the medi-bay and he sat Rose up on one of the couches.
"We have favourites for our house, Tyler Mansion and Torchwood Standby Room, as well as some holiday destinations. Our smart phones and tablets have an app that will call the TARDIS to wherever we are at the time." He ran some equipment over her body and checked the readings.
"When we left you on the roof we ran down into the street and called the TARDIS. Once inside, I was able to find a Caxtarid scout ship in the database and get the chameleon circuit to literally 'shimmer' the outer hull to disguise it. We flew it up to the roof, picked you up and here we are."
A golden glow of nanogenes hovered over Rose's body as they repaired her cuts and bruises. When they had finished, they returned to the handset and John kissed her on the cheek.
"There we are, good as new."
