10

It was a sound like water, like a trickling that became a rumble deep under the house and as a piece of metal slid out into view Jack find himself leaning over the banister to look down at it, watching with awe as it slammed forward to connect to the wristlet on Ianto's left wrist, another piece forming above it to encase the forearm and create a sleeve… then more pieces with dirt flying as they shook themselves off like dogs and Ianto slowly turned to let the back plate slam home, the connectors making soft whirring noises as his metal suit engulfed him like kids binging down a broken Piñata.

By the time he was facing Jack again Ianto was fully encased, and the helmet's visor was sliding down over his face to protect him from anything and everything known to man… and the AI that controlled it made his face glow.

Sally.

Fuck me, of course all the AI had names. Ianto was referring to his fucking suit this whole time.

In the few minutes it took for Jack to drink everything in Ianto was already lowering slightly, bending a knee, then he looked over at Jack and called out "Well? Piggyback or follow on a Hover? Horse will never catch up and is unsafe on a twilight day."

"Piggyback!" Jack yelled with glee, running off the porch and down to leap on the back of the man he knew could hold his wright no problem, he had seen one of these suits lift a fucking War Tank and swing it like a club.

Then Ianto took off, the flight low and scary for some, of course Jack could not help but holler with glee as they clipped treetops. Ianto then banked and landed in an area that was clearly a warzone.

People stood with weapons, there was blood on the ground and a man's entrails squashed into the dirt as the best repeatedly stomped at the dismembered body. It was not even really able to be classified a human anymore, only the fact one of the young men on the sidelines kept screaming 'Pa' gave away the prior sex of the mush.

Jack staggered as he gained his footing and watched Ianto stride towards the huge gorilla like creature, crouching as it swung at him and catching it's fist, like some kung fu movie but really out of proportion. Then his jets engaged, and he flew up into the thing's face, essentially making it punch itself.

Ouch.

It roared with indignation as it swatted at Ianto who was too quick for it as he swung around the back to seize the thing by it's throat… hang on… by it's… collar? Jack now saw the leather strapping around the neck and so did others, their horror turning to anger as it became apparent that this thing belonged to someone and had either escaped it's confines… or been released upon them.

Ianto braced his feet against the thing's shoulder blades, taking all his weight and strength to pull back, effectually cutting off the thing's oxygen supply as it roughly tried to slap at it's own neck like it might dislodge the collar.

Ok.

So it had a release mechanism in case of hooking…. Great. Ianto flew back and landed with a thud that had dust rising several feet into the air, the crowd gasping with horror as the leather strap flew back int the trees.

Jack ran towards the thing, aiming for its face as he screamed with rage, knowing this was going to hurt but Ianto needed a moment to do a system reset after that. As it swatted at him, Jack slid like he was stealing Homeplate, right underneath it and shot his last bullet up into it's ball sack, enjoying it's yelp as he removed the pulse weapon from his coat with his other hand, shaking it free from his coat pocket, and fired that as well.

Ianto flew up and straight into the side of the thing's head, making it stagger back with a moan of confusion, then it staggered again, then Ianto took a backward sweep by gripping it's fur to swing himself, flying into its nose feet first.

It finally went down.

The Sheriff and his men ran forward with ropes to try and contain it as Ianto yelled at them to get the fuck away, only getting in the way as he now landed on its chest.

Jack threw up the only thing that seemed available, the fence post from the nearby destroyed fence line. Ianto caught it, rising into the air to slam it down into the thing's nostril with his entire bodyweight.

It was a horrible way to die really.

It was loud, convulsing and bloody.

But it did die.

In the end.

Ianto landed, the helmet peeling back and slipping into the collar of the suit as he stood looking at the corpse with undisguised anger "Who fucking brought one of these feckin things onto our planet?"

"A question I intend asking someone Lou!" the Sherrif answered shakily "My god. If it had made it to the town…"

"The real question is… did it escape or was it released!" Jack said with equal anger.

"Actually… my first question would be, was it the only one? I thought it was a female Verge on the loose… this is a horse of an entirely different colour" Ianto softly said to both men, his body folding into a semicrouch before he took off to have an aerial scout in case this thing had friends.

Jack walked over and plucked up the collar to turn over in his hands, the huge thing like a boat's tethering rope of woven leather. Others approached as he turned it over and tapped the inside of the collar "here. A tracking device. Whoever had this must know where it is. If it was an escapee, why were we not warned? I think it more likely this thing was deliberately released for some reason."

"But why?" the sheriff accepted the collar and balked at the sudden weight Jack had seemed impervious to.

"And there we have the questions for our new game of… catch the fucktard!" Jack looked up as Ianto flew past, moving into another search zone.

Jack did not like this at all but now he knew for sure that he was in the right place.

Ianto was an Iron Man.

Jack?

Well… he had his own secrets, and his super strength from his DNA as well as Gamma Ray enhancement was only one of them.

Something to Marvel at eh?