[yup! I'm Cede. New accent!]

Braden watched the kid with her gun still raised, dork brown eyes narrowed.

Owen approached the small group from behind and Jack looked around the street before shoving the medic through the door of hte building and then stepping in himself to close the door behind him. "Who!?" he demanded again.

"At the very least he's guilty of attempted murder of an official." Kris bluffed "You don't talk to us, you're goin' away for a very long time."

[ . ]

"Look, they're not human," the kid continued, panicking a bit. "It doesn't even matter! You can't fight them, they're too strong! The only thing we can do is barricade the door."

"Sit. Down," Jack said, forcing the kid back down onto the steps by his shoulders. "We'll go back to the pub. We can look for the rest of the team once we know exactly what we're dealing with."

Kris nodded but didn't holster his Phone Gun.

"Okay, let's move out people." Jack saw Owen's glare at not being able to go after the others immediately, but ignored it as he put a hand on the kid's shoulder and moved towards the door. Obviously he wanted to go after them too, but if the three were together, they could take care of themselves and they couldn't fight these things until they knew what they were. They thought that they were dealing with people, but maybe--just maybe--they'd been wrong.

Kris put his Phone gun in his pocket, deactivated before going back with the others. "I hope the others are OK..."

"I'm not leaving without Tosh, Ianto, and your daughter. If you want to go, then go," Braeden said stubbornly, reloading her weapon and walking towards where the door was, putting an emphasis on the 'your daughter' part for a reason.

[guys cool it on the posts, I'm still very busy]

"Braeden," Jack said deliberately, turning to face her, "the three of them can take care of themselves. They're all highly trained. Even Dawn. They need to stick together and we need to stick together so we can figure this out. Splitting up or staying in a vulnerable location won't help them. I know that they're in danger, but so are we. Now let's go!"

[[Haha, okay, I'll slow down a bit. :) ]]

"No way in hell! Jack, what has gotten into you? If we leave now, they will kill them! Are you hearing me? They will kill Tosh, Yan, and Dawn! How could you possibly even suggest that we leave them behind! Trained or not, they're out numbered! And Dawn is a child! I'm not leaving her here! I bet she's ripping apart the place looking for you right now! How would she feel if she found out that you left her to die!" Braden hissed, tensing on him with a hard look on her face. There was no way she was backing down, not from this.

"If abandoning your team is how it really works around here, then I'll resign. My memory erased by some pill or not! I'm not leaving. I don't care what you say or do to me. If you want to come, then come. You, Gwen, and Kris can leave."

Kris quiets down. "..." He was concerned for the others but he didn't know what to say

"Damn it, Brae! We are too! We're outnumbered too!" Jack waved his arms in emphasis and his voice cracked slightly as he shouted. He took several shaky breaths and touched his stomach where the skin was still raw and achy. "Fine. Fine, Kris and Gwen, take the kid to the pub and barricade it. Braeden, Owen, we'll go look for the others." He leaned up against the wall for a second, breathing, waiting for the team to respond.

"If you're sure..." Kris said. "Please take care Cap'n... Brae... you too." thats when he blinked. "Wait. I got an idea! If this place has lights, we could use Morse Code to contract one another! they won;t pay attention i think... They'll think it's shoddy wiring and stuff."

"Right, we'll all keep a watch on the windows then, look out for lights. Can we all finally get going now?" he asked, looking over at Braeden.

Braeden's chest was heaving a bit from yelling. But she watched Jack with stone cold eyes that never faltered. She licked her lips and rubbed them together after Jack's next order, relief washing over her as she nodded her head slightly.

"Okay."

-

Dawn cleared the next two houses. But she couldn't move anymore. Her wound was spilling blood all over her shirt and shorts, her hair mussed, and it was getting hard to breathe. He collapsed against a wall of a random house, holding her bleeding side and staring up into the sky. She was frightened, hell, she was scared out her wits. But she had to be brave. She couldn't just give up now. If she was going to prove to her father that she wasn't useless and didn't need protection, then she couldn't let him find her like this. She still remembered how heartbroken he looked when she told him about how she was tortured.

So, she dug around in her small back pack, pulling out bandages, disinfectant, and a sewing needle and threads. She had some work to do.

"Good." Jack ushered the three out of the door and pointed them in the direction of the pub, watching them run off. He then looked at what remained of his team and pointed out in the direction they'd be heading. "We'll start our search over there."

"We're gonna be fine. Keep your chin up." kris said supportivly. "Gwen, Kid, let's go." Kris led the way to the pub. once there, he grabbed a flash light and quickly made a morse Code message saying

"Torchwood hideout here."

"Right! barricading!" He said. "Lets go!"

Brae nodded and raised her gun, walking off in the direction where they were headed.

Jack caught the message out of the corner of his eye and let out a short breath of relief. One group momentarily safe. "Right," he said to Braeden and Owen after ducking between buildings. "If you were a criminal skinning people, human or not, where would you be doing it? I figure we should check out the barn over there. It's the most obvious big enough place. The other option is to go rooting through basements."

"I'll take the basements then, you two go for the barn," Braeden suggests

Kris started making weapons out of furniture. well. they looked like weapons at a distance. the theroy being that it'll ward the enemy away.

"Let's try that again...." He tried another morse code message.

"D-A-W-N... P-L-E-A-S-E.... C-O-M-E.... W-E... A-R-E... W-O-R-R-I-E-D."

"That'll do it... Gwen, do you see anyone?"

"No! We are not splitting up!" Jack stared intensely at Braeden. "We're split apart too much already. I won't let you turn yourself into a target."

"Okay, we can stop and look through a few basements on the way down towards that farm, but if we're going to be rescuing people, then standing around here arguing about it isn't going to help."

Owen seemed to be decidedly avoiding getting involved in teh argument and remained silent.

[[I have to go to dinner. Be back in 20 minutes or so.]]

[[Kay, I'm back. Someone else has to give me something to go off of though, because I'm out of ways to move this forward at the moment.]]

Kris looked around and sees Dawn did not reply. "Oh dear..." he tried to contact Jack.

"I-S-E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G-A-L-R-I-G-H-T-?"

'F-I-N-E' Owen signaled back through the window of the house as Jack and Braeden were ascending the stairs after finding nothing again.