3.02: Life or Death

## Episode

Continuing on from last episode, the life fades from Shane's eyes things as things look ever more hopeless. Death is all around him. Guards, the people he tried to help - all dead. With no sign of aid he looks up at the sky.

He turns his head and notices a package has fallen out of one of the dead guards armour pockets, it seems to be some kind of morphine or painkiller without really thinking Shane takes some tablets from the package and downs them - luckily for him they turn out to be very strong morphine likely given to the guards so they can withstand pain when on agency missions.

With the pain from the wound having subsided, Shane quickly leaves the scene of death and destruction behind and heads South towards London, knowing it will take a while to get there - the agency men quickly run out but find Shane gone, the suited man inside is not happy as he smashes his fist onto a table, "YOU HAD ONE JOB" he screams "The boss aint gonna be too happy with you."

The suited man looks at Shane's information on his computer screen and gathers more intel - an agency man bursts in "He ran South, fast but not too far away" he urgently says and with they all head out after Shane.

The suited man however stops and says to his men "We dont need to go after him, we will send The Assets" the agency men look confused but the man continues - "Theres an agency branch operating in this city, they will find him and bring him to us. Its part of their contract, you do know we have an agreement with them yes?"

The suited man gets back on his computer, ignoring the agency men as he messages his anonymous boss "One has escaped, we are sending in The Assets" he then waits for a reply. "Good, get it done." is the short reply he gets.

A few hours pass and Shane makes it to London, clearly worn out, despite this he uses his phone as a travelcard to access the London Underground as he decides to head to Heathrow and catch the next flight out of Britain, hopefully to Europe.

A man walks up to the visibly distraught Shane as he waits for a train. "You need some money?" he asks quickly before Shane can say anything.

Shane shakes his head and tries to get on the train however he hears the familiar click-click of a gun being cocked and turns quickly to find himself staring down the barrel of a pistol. Shane says knowing he wouldn't get shot again in public "Honestly I'm just gonna say if I was gonna hold someone at gunpoint, don't do it in front of a train."

Shane makes a dash and the doors to the train close and he departs leaving the man with the pistol on the platform, the train eventually reaches Heathrow Airport - Shane gets off and uses his phone to bring up a virtual copy of his passport as well as tickets to Lisbon. He gets onto the fast track to the front of the airport and through no mistake of any check-in agent he quickly gets on his flight.

Back at the agency compound, the suited man is losing it. "What happened, did you lose him?" he screams at the anonymous men on the computer "We sent him undercover, how could this have gone wrong?" The men shrug and keep tapping away at their screens.

The anonymous men bring up CCTV revealing the gunman just stood there on the underground "Target has not been recaptured" they report back to the suited man.

The suited man looks livid "Well kill him then" he screams at the men.

The gunman is then seen on CCTV being taken away by agency men who seemingly appear from nowhere.

"WE NEED BETTER ASSETS" the suited man yells in frustration.

The group of anonymous men going by the name The Contact say calmly to him "We sent him to kill a target, we don't have control over whether he completes the mission or not."

Meanwhile on the plane, Shane seems to relax and take a moment to take in all what's happened - "Well, my life certainly isn't boring but the scary thing is I have to leave home and go abroad....Also not sure how long these painkillers will last" Shane says hopefully.

He looks out the window as he flies over the open seas and thinks about his situation and even decides to call his family, making up a story that he will be going overseas for a while to work a case for work.

Back at the compound, the suited man paces around like a mad man "FIND HIM, WE MUST FIND HIM, TORCHWOOD MUST BE ERIDICATED" he screams.

Back on the plane Shane thinks for a moment and try to come up with a plan. The flight continues "Live Control" Shane says curiously "Many questions....where did they come from? who are they?" his tone becomes sad due to him remembering that his fellow Torchwood members at the compound never made it out alive - the plane quickly loses altitude due to its landing.

The plane lands in Lisbon and Shane de-plane's, a few hours later and he can be seen walking in the city center, the peace decreases however when he sees people start to panic and run - Several robbers emerge from a bank with duffle bags full of money, Shane watches from a distance as they run from the bank like their lives depend on it.

One of them seems to be straggling behind and all of a sudden a hand grabs him, the hand belongs to a hooded figure, the figure looks like their about to kill the robber when Shane distracts them with a rather inconveniently timed whistle which attracts their attention. The figure looks at him whilst having their hand wrapped around the robber's neck - Shane seems like he wants nothing to do with this situation so gestures that he's just gonna sit back and watch.

The figure just throws the robber down causing him to retreat, the figure starts to march towards Shane they seem more curious however annoyance can be seen in the steps they take towards him, Shane starts talking to the figure "Their only robbers, you'll get over it" knowing full well his distraction caused them to escape the masked figure.

The masked figure tilts their head to their side seemingly inspecting him, noticing his chest wound they seem taken back by whats going on, a feminine voice from inside the mask can then be heard dryly saying "Im not surprised that happened to you, was only a matter of time." Shane looks at the figure curiously as the figure removes her mask revealing a red haired pale girl, Shane buts in again "Alexis Ashwing I presume."

Alexis looks confused pointing a dagger at Shane's throat "How do you know me?" she barks "Well..." Shane begins only for Alexis to tilt her head calmly interrupting him "Spit it out before I slice you open" only for Shane to say "He told me" Alexis looks even more confused "He?" Shane replies back "The other guy...your creator if you will" Alexis takes great offence to this so swings wildly at Shane. "You would really hit a dying man?" he questions as Alexis stares at him with a rage "Contain yourself, I'm not here to talk to you" Shane re-assures her. Alexis stands back and reluctantly changes back into Pedro, a friend of Shane's, Shane just says in response not really sure what he was expecting, "This day...is just weird" Pedro chuckles at Shane's reaction "Never seen this before?" Shane just starts making gestures with his hands "But...you two...in the same....WHAT?" Pedro stops Shane talking "Watch this" he says before changing back to Alexis who once again starts to insult Shane, Shane just stands there trying to register this as Alexis changes back to Pedro again to which Shane goes "Are you two finished? I came here for help not a show of powers." he seems impatient.

"Since when did you get all serious?" Pedro asks as a joke. "It's been a long day...I've been kidnapped, shot, watch aload of people die then almost died myself" Shane replies like hes on a rant only for Pedro to reply "Edgy."

"Anyways, I need help" Shane continues "Do you know anyone that can patch me up?" he asks curiously. Pedro looks at Shane almost as if to say "You came here just to ask that?" but Shane seems insistent after a pause Pedro says "Go to this location, strange place but you should get healed there." Shane takes Pedro's note and leaves as Shane leaves Pedro changes into Alexis again and Alexis says "I don't know what it is about him but he's annoying and honestly I can see why their friends." she says in an amused way like she heard the whole conversation.

Elsewhere back at the agency compound in the UK, the suited man meets with "The Director" (Who is really the leader of this group/organization and is the anonymous man the suited man was messaging.) and other members in an office and lays out the situation once again.

The suited man begins "All but one...we got all but one and whilst this Shane guy roams free wherever he is, Torchwood still exists, him being alive is halting our plans not just for our personal aims but our Live Control organization as a whole."

The Director looks at him from across the table, most of his facial features hidden by a strange mask, The suited man lets out a nervous chuckle "Well anyway, our plans have been set back a while but we will get them done soon enough, so until then I guess we should prepare for the worst."

The suited man looks around the room - the others in the office also wear masks so you can't tell what their expressions are at all. At the front of the room is a large map of the UK with various markings on it "Well, I'll go over them one by one" The Director says taking over from the suited man who orders him to sit, he complies.

"These markings are where we plan building compounds, gathering points and even a few secret hideouts" the Director says "All in all we have about forty-eight main locations, with a handful of smaller ones."

A masked man in the room asks "What will they be for?"

The Director replies "Consider them training camps, for new recruits using our special recruitment plan."

He goes onto explain how they use educational sites like School, College and even places like prisons to recruit new people however the recruitment process is not explained by The Director in detail. Other places like Community centers, Police Stations and Army bases are on the radar for Live Control's recruitment process.

Back in Portugal, Shane finds the location that Pedro gave him - he walks up to it finding what looks like some kind of hidden utopia it looks like some kind of strange garden, Shane walks through the garden wondering how its got away being hidden in the mountains of Portugal for years "Preception filter" he thinks as he comes across a clearing - There sitting on a nature themed chair with a multiverse portal behind her sits a purple haired girl in a green dress "Oh" she says "a visitor" she claps excitedly "You look familiar to me...I've been saying that alot today" Shane replies, the girl in the chair closes her eyes putting her hand near the multiverse portal "Shane, right?" she asks "Yes thats the one" she looks him up and down "Not my version then but I may as well explain why I'm here...Your friend Pedro put me here gave me my own resting place here so I can live my own life....by the way the names Tirnel."

Shane nods "Nice to meet you" he smiles politely "I am here because Pedro sent me, I need your help to heal a wound" Tirnel gets out of her chair and looks at his chest wound "That's a big one right there" she jokes, she guides Shane to a hut and tells him to lie down on a bed that looks like a tree, she gets out a staff and starts chanting some spell as the wound heals, Shane makes wincing noises as he reacts to the spell healing his wound.

Back in the UK, The Director and his masked men can be seen in a car driving to one of their new sites, the building has apparently only just been built out of The Director's personal fund, they walk in and The Director seems to love it - he orders his men to bring in "The Experiments" and the men bring in a bunch of homeless people "New recruits" The Director says "Welcome to your new life" they lead the homeless people to the recruitment part of the building where a machine can be seen and the suited man looks on from a webcam.

Despite everyone wearing masks other than the homeless people they don't think much of it after being promised a new life, The Director radios back to the suited man back at the compound "We have three candidates ready for their new life" The suited man replies "Very good sir, I will fire up the machine" he presses a button at the compound and the machine starts up and the door to it swings open and without thinking one of the homeless people step inside following a promise from The Director of a better life however all is not what it seems as the screams of the homeless person in the machine as it says back at the compound "DNA Re-writing."

The other two homeless people are then thrown into the machine, the machine continues to say "DNA Re-writing" as more screams are heard.

Two masked people watching back at the compound through the webcam are terrified and run for the suited man "Stop it! Stop it."

The Director hears the people on the webcam and orders the suited man to keep the machine on which goes silent after a few minutes, the door swings open to reveal the homeless people are looking very different - they are somehow suited up and look very professional and wear masks - the machine says "DNA Re-write successful" in big flashing lights.

The people at the compound start to panic again "What are you doing to them? Stop it."

The suited man turns to them "This is our recruitment process" back at the facility the three converted homeless men pledge their allegiance to The Director.

The Director then tells the suited man to kill the two masked people who told them to stop the recruitment process and in response the suited man proceeds to shoot those two people watching on the webcam beside him, "Some people don't respect good work" the suited man says to The Director.

Back in Portugal, Shane is healed by Tirnel and thanks her for it, she nods politely however the multiverse portal behind her chair starts to move violently as something can be seen walking through it, "That's not possible" Tirnel says as Shane just looks on with a stern look on his face, out of the portal walks several masked figures and can be seen pointing at Shane through the portal, their voices echo around the strange place "We saw everything, it's over for you now!" as Shane looks on with an expression of panic and confusion.

## Characters

* Shane
* Alexis Ashwing
* Tirnel Gilorndes
* "The Suited Man"
* The Contact