Chapter Text
“Keep your eyes and ears open,” Captain Yates warned as he and Sergeant Benton stepped inside the abandoned isolated warehouse.
“Yes, sir,” Benton replied.
They suspected the man they had been tracking from the nearby town had come here on foot, in an attempt to hide. They weren’t here to hurt him, their orders to bring him in for questioning.
Enough afternoon sunlight filtered through the windows for them to see by.
Some minutes later, they both heard a bang, like someone had knocked over something heavy. Mike signaled to Benton to split off and catch the man in a pincer. Benton nodded, and they separated.
Mike reached where the sound had come from first, and saw the heavy toolbox on the floor. He glanced around, and saw a flicker of movement on the catwalk above him, near the stairs. He spotted Benton near another staircase, and pointed up. Benton nodded, and very quietly began ascending.
Mike took a deep breath, and started going up the staircase close to him. He kept his hand around his gun on his waist, but didn’t draw it fully.
When he was nearly at the top, without warning, the man jumped out from behind a stack of boxes and kicked Mike squarely in the chest. Mike cried out as he toppled backwards. He managed to grab the railing, making him mostly slide and stumble in his fall back down to the ground level instead of tumbling.
He still landed hard on the concrete floor, and sucked in a breath at the pain in his lower back. He didn’t get the chance to find his gun, which had fallen from his hand in the fall, before the man had descended the stairs and kicked him in the side.
The man bent over to grab Mike by the collar of his uniform jacket and yanked him up to his feet. Mike served a punch across his jaw, but it didn’t seem to have much effect. The man’s eyes flashed with bright purple.
“Stop!” Benton commanded from mid-way down the staircase Mike had fallen down.
The man headbutted Mike to stun him. Mike blinked quickly, seeing stars. The other man tightly looped his arm around the soldier’s chest, then turned them to face Benton. He withdrew a large knife from his belt, and waved it in the air for a second so Benton could see. He moved the weapon down, until the point hovered near the side of Mike’s neck. Mike instinctively brought both hands up to grip at the other man’s wrist and forearm in an attempt to keep the weapon from coming any closer.
Benton lowered the end of his gun towards the floor in response, making eye contact with Mike for direction. Mike flashed him a small assuring smile, which quickly turned into a grimace as the knife touched his skin.
“We only want to question you,” Mike said to the man.
“Yeah? Well, I don’t feel like being questioned. Now that I’ve got you-” The man let the blade's point dig in a little, though not enough to draw blood. “I’m making the terms.”
“We don’t want to hurt you. We only want to know about the… your supply,” Benton clarified. He raised his gun a tiny bit in gesture, and Mike shortly shook his head.
Mike considered stomping on the man’s foot or elbowing him in the ribs or anything to get out of the powerful hold, but didn’t want to risk the immediate response being a knife through his throat.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” The man took a step back a few paces, pulling Mike with him. He kept his eyes on Benton. “You just stay where you are.”
Mike winced as the knife punctured his skin, and breathed through his nose at the resulting trickle of blood.
“Sorry, didn’t mean for it to slip,” the man said mockingly. He pulled Mike backwards another few steps.
Mike gave a tiny nod to Benton, trusting his partner’s skills. He tilted his head away from the knife’s point.
Benton took a breath, and steeled himself. With Mike and the other man being roughly the same size, there wasn’t any margin for error. Then, he snapped his gun up and took the shot.
Mike flinched at the sound. The man holding him instantly released him with a pained shout. Mike elbowed him in the stomach for good measure before stepping away and turning to punch him across the face.
The man clutched at his bleeding shoulder. His eyes flashed purple again, but this time the colour faded out more slowly, and he dropped to the floor. Mike nudged him with his boot, and breathed in relief that he was unconscious. He quickly picked up the knife.
Benton hurried down the stairs. “I didn’t hit you?”
“No. I wasn’t worried you would.”
Benton let out a long breath. “Don’t make me do that again?”
“I’d rather not be a human shield again.” Mike agreed. He spared a seconds to rub down the other's arm in assurance and affection. “Right, let’s get him secured.”
Within a moment, they had the unconscious man handcuffed. They weren’t afraid of him bleeding out, the wound not too deep or messy.
With the threat fully neutralized, Benton’s gaze then went to the trickle of blood on Mike’s neck. Thankfully, only a thin trickle. “Left only a scratch on you, looks like.”
Mike wiped at the side of his neck and pursed his lips at the red smear that came away on his fingers. “Shouldn’t even need a bandage,” he remarked. He glanced around for his gun, finding it near the bottom of the stairs. “Purple eyes, just like the reports said.”
“Wonder what it is that causes that effect.” Benton did a quick search of the unconscious man’s clothes. “No weapons other than that knife.”
Mike holstered his gun and slid the knife securely in his belt. “That’s a relief.” He helped Benton pick up the man and settle him over his shoulder.
“Whatever causes the purple eyes… something for the Doctor to figure out and tell us, I’m sure.” Mike led them out of the warehouse and to their UNIT truck.
As Benton settled in the back part with the man, Mike reached in through the passenger window to pick up the radio. “Greyhound Two to Greyhound One, come in.”
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart’s voice crackled through the radio. “Greyhound One here. Over.”
“We’ve got him, sir. Bit of a scuffle, but he’s in our custody.” Mike looked to Benton securing the man in the truck. Still unconscious, and he hoped he would stay that way for the drive back.
“Good job, Captain. Come back to town. Over.”
“On our way, sir. Over.” Mike replaced the radio inside the vehicle.
“Hey… what’s this?” Benton muttered, doing another search of the man’s clothes. In the interior front jacket pocket he felt a small hard object. He reached in and pulled it out.
Both soldiers raised their eyebrows at the small transparent container. Silver sparkled inside from the sunlight.
“What made his eyes flash purple, you reckon?” Benton asked.
Mike nodded. “Precisely what the Doctor would be eager to get his hands on to study.”
Benton nodded and stuck it in his pocket.
Mike climbed into the driver’s seat. “All good back there?”
“Yes, sir.” Benton was sitting, directly facing their person of interest.
Mike started the engine, turned them back towards the road, and headed towards where the Brigadier awaited them.
********
Waiting alongside the road out of the town of Scaldebourne that Mike and Benton had taken over an hour ago, Jo Grant hummed to herself to pass the time. She idly kicked her feet across the pavement.
Then she pulled the bag of chocolate sweets from her pocket she had bought that morning. She tossed one candy up to catch in her mouth, and giggled when it bounced off her nose instead. She popped the next one directly into her mouth.
Jo’s attention was caught by the familiar vehicle approaching. She slid the bag into her pocket and waved enthusiastically.
Mike grinned as he stopped the truck beside Jo. “Need a lift, Miss? I’ve got room for one more.”
“Thank you, kind sir,” Jo played along. She opened the passenger door and got in. “Though I must tell you, the best this hitchhiker can pay with is this.” She offered the bag of chocolates.
Mike picked one out, then gestured for her to pass it behind to Benton.
“Thanks,” Benton replied, taking the bag to pick a few for himself. Satisfied, he gave it back.
Jo noticed the smear of dried blood on the side of Mike’s neck and asked, “Are you alright?”
“He had a knife. It’s only a scratch.” Mike pressed on the acceleration pedal.
Jo directed, “They said to meet them at the hospital. Thought it best to take him directly there to look over.”
“Good, because this bloke didn’t get out of it unscathed, either,” Benton replied. He nudged the unconscious man’s shin with his boot.
A moment later, that man awakened with a groan. Benton’s attention snapped to him, though he knew he was secure enough not to fight or run.
“Ow… ow…” The young man, around twenty-one years old at a guess, tried to stretch his arms, but was prevented by the handcuffs behind his back and secured around a bar. “What… Hey! You shot me!” he shouted at Benton. “You bastard, that really hurts! You-“
“Only got yourself to blame, mate, threatening the captain the way you did,” Benton pointed out. What a tricky shot it had been, too. To neutralize him, not hit anywhere deadly, not to hit Mike at all, and while looking like he wasn’t going to shoot.
“We are taking you to hospital,” Mike said.
“You are? Ah… well… thanks?”
Jo turned around in her seat to get a better look at the man. “We’re not here to hurt you. We’re here to help.” She smiled at him. “What’s your name? I’m Jo.”
“Jerry,” he answered hesitantly.
Mike turned the truck, following the signs. “Are you normally so aggressive, Jerry?”
Benton saw the silent glare to the back of Mike’s head from Jerry, but he didn’t prompt him to answer. They didn’t need him becoming aggressive again.
Mike hadn’t been expecting much of an answer from Jerry, anyway. He smiled at seeing another UNIT truck parked at the hospital entrance, and the Doctor and Alistair chatting while sitting in Bessie. Both men got out at their arrival.
To Jo, Mike teased, “This is where I’m stopping, I’m afraid, if you need to go elsewhere.”
Jo giggled. “No, this is my stop, too.” She opened her door and hopped out.
Within a moment, Benton had Jerry out and on his feet. Thankfully, the man didn’t try to run. He did grumble, “Great. More army.”
The Doctor raised his eyebrow at the red-stained hole in the shoulder of Jerry’s jacket and shirt.
“Couldn’t be helped,” Benton explained. He gestured with his head to Mike.
Mike withdrew the knife to show them, and said of the blood on his neck, “Mine, but nothing a quick wash won’t fix.”
The Doctor gave a strained smile to Jerry. “Don’t worry, you’ll get taken care of.”
“Oh yeah, and then questioned by you lot. Taken care of, indeed.”
“Sergeant Waring,” Alistair called out to the soldier standing guard near them. “Make sure he gets tended to and stay with him the entire time.”
Waring took Jerry by the upper arm, and led him inside the hospital. Jerry rattled the handcuffs behind his back, but didn’t otherwise resist.
“I’ll go with them,” Jo offered. At the nod from the Doctor, she followed.
“Great job,” Alistair praised Mike and Benton. “Report.”
The pair summarized what had happened.
“He had only the knife as a weapon,” Benton stated. He pulled the container from his pocket. “And I also found this.”
“Oh, now that certainly is interesting,” the Doctor remarked, taking it and holding it up against the sunlight. The very tiny silver pieces inside sparkled. He shook it a little to get a sense of the contents. “Something concrete to ask our new friend in there about.”
“Yes, I rather appreciate not having to ask vague questions from this point forward,” Alistair said. He looked to Mike. “Go and get yourself cleaned up. And I suppose settle in. We might be here a while.”
“Yes, sir.” Mike handed the knife to Benton, then turned to head into the hospital and find the nearest restroom.
********
A little while, at the approval of a nurse, the Doctor and Alistair entered the room where Jerry was staying.
Alistair dismissed Waring with, “Thank you, Sergeant. Take a break.”
The Doctor nodded to Jo, indicating for her to also leave.
Jerry sighed, and sat up slightly on the bed. His wrist not in a sling was cuffed to the rail. “Must you?” he said, watching Jo follow Waring out. He quickly added, “Not that she softened me up or anything.”
The Doctor would get blood samples and such from this man later. Now was the time for verbal answers. He pulled the small container of silver from his pocket.
Jerry groaned. “I thought those two had nabbed it after knocking me out.”
“You don’t deny it’s yours, then?” asked Alistair. “Good, makes this easier for all of us.”
Jerry grimaced, but didn’t reply.
“So, Jerry, isn’t it? What is this?” the Doctor asked.
“Just some drug.” Jerry tilted his head. “Hey, isn’t this a police matter? Not something to call the army over?” His gaze moved from Alistair to look the Doctor up and down. “And what are you? Clearly not one of them.”
“I’m their scientific advisor,” the Doctor answered with a tiny smile. “And right now, my expertise is in biological chemistry.”
“Right…” Jerry huffed.
“This isn’t just some drug,” Alistair said. “And you know it. Maybe with only the reports of increased aggression and increased adrenaline or short-term strength. But the purple eyes gives it away as something more than whatever’s common.”
Jerry shrugged, and hissed at the motion. “It makes me feel good.”
“And apparently try to stab army officers in the neck,” Alistair countered.
“Yeah, but I didn’t actually do it. I had the chance to, believe me.”
“Would you have?” asked the Doctor. “If the other one hadn’t been there and stopped you?” At Jerry’s tight silence, he hummed in thought.
Alistair inhaled deeply through his nose. “You’re facing serious charges. I advise you to cooperate.”
A little while later, the Doctor and Alistair left the room and stopped after closing the door.
“He didn’t answer every question,” Alistair pointed out. “Downright refused a few.”
“He gave us enough to start with.” The Doctor had also done a quick physical examination of the man. “And with the samples I’m about to collect from him…”
“You get on with that. I’ll arrange for the police to hold him.”
“Once I’m done, I’ll head back to HQ. I can get a start before calling it a night.”
“See you in the morning, then, Doctor.”
********
That night, in Benton’s apartment, Mike moaned at the long kiss to the side of his neck. The side that had had the knife against it. His fingertips trailed up Benton’s back then splayed up through his hair.
After a moment, Benton pulled back enough to see Mike’s face. “I meant what I said earlier.”
“Which thing exactly?”
“Don’t make me do that again.”
Mike hummed lightheartedly. “I trust you with my life. But of course I’ll do my best.”
“That’s all I can ask,” Benton relented with a teasing smile.
Mike drew his partner in for another passionate kiss.