The encounter (Coco, Brax)

The Master took the signal and stood up, marching over to Darren and Abigail. "Hello Abi," he grinned menacingly as he lowered his hood. "You'll have to forgive the deception, I'm too old to do all the footwork myself now. But then you've hardly been doing your own dirty work have you... just the Hive's." The Master took a seat by Darren. "You know why I'm here... You know what you've done..." He leant forwards. "Now my days of maiming are almost over, but Darren here? he's just getting started... so you're going to do exactly what I tell you. First, you're going to call off the kill order. Then you're going to phone everyone you love and tell them you murdered a 15-year-old girl and the guilt has got to you. Then you're going to kill yourself. Or Darren gets stabby..." The Master added the threat as a bonus. His eyes locked onto hers, in theory, his hypnotism abilities should be enough to make her do exactly what he wanted, but he wanted the extra reassurance.

Darren smirked, his eyes drifting past the woman and over her shoulder. The blade sneaking out of his sleeve and resting in the palm of his hand. The figure in the distance was a old foe of his, they locked eye contact. Red eyes staring into his, a silent challenge to approach.

He began to fiddle with the knife, becoming ever so restless at the sight of another killer on what was his 'territory' and was supposed to be dead.

Darren tilted his head, his eyes flicking back and forth from the Master and Abigail. He slowly got up, his foe rooted to the spot. He nodded at the Master, indicating some private matters were going to take place.

Walking up to his foe, they remained in a short silence.

Squelch!

Darren dug the knife into his foe's leg. "What the hell are you doing here, Phoenix?"

Phoenix was doing well to hold back the scream and head butted Darren, releasing his hold on the knife and sent him stumbling backwards. Blood pooled on the floor. He grunted as he regained his balance.

"I'm here to finish off something you started a long time ago…" She said.

Darren flung himself forward, pulling the knife out of her leg and maneuvering himself around to stab her in the back. It was a messy job, but it was to be done. Torchwood…they never gave up, even when they were leaderless.

"No, you are not." Darren got back up, panting. He rolled her form off to one side, blood dripping off his knife. He walked back and sat back next to the Master.

"Sorry about that. I had to get rid of an annoying itch."

It took a moment for the Master to realize Darren had said 'itch.' Once he'd finished smirking he turned his attention back to Abigail. "Like I said," he whispered to her, "Stabby." She gulped. The Master's eyes locked onto hers again and she felt her mind being washed over in a sea of obedience. Without questioning why, she followed everyone of the Master's instructions immediately, calling off the kill order, calling her loved ones then killing herself. The Master watched, faintly amused. "Sorry Darren, I didn't call off your kill order," the Master said, but the look on his face clearly said he wasn't sorry. "But you're going to need something to keep you on your toes if you want to work for me..." he explained, extending his hand to Darren in an offer, "I'm old now, I need someone with your youth and... enthusiasm, to do the footwork for me. Are you interested?" he concluded his business proposition.

Darren watched in slight disappointment as the Master managed to convince Abigail that she was to kill herself. Not much fun in for him. Slight amusement played on his lips as he watched the failed attempts of her 'suicide.'

"So…a business proposal, huh?" Darren had to think this through carefully. The last time he had worked for somebody was a long time ago and she had come to a sticky end.

He got up to stretch, Phoenix's body was still around. Blood was drying and he wondered whether he could make the police squirm…he took the handshake, nodding his head and making direct eye contact.

"Sure. Why not." He shrugged, smirking. "So…I'll need to do a bit of a mind game with the polio with these two bodies and we will be able to go to the pub. How does that sound?"

Darren wanted to ask how old the Master really was, but knew that it might be out of line and out of place for him to do so. He started to drag both of the bodies, laying them side by side, a knife in one of their hands and a gun from Abigail, which he found in her pocket, in the other.

Darren dialed the police, leaving a location but changing his voice slightly, so it couldn't be registered to him and threw the phone in the ocean.

"Shall we?" He said, indicating to the pub.

"sounds fantastic!" The Master grinned as he shook his hand. "Off pubbing it is!" he grinned. adjusting his jacket, and running a hand through his messy black hair. he clicked his tongue absentmindedly and headed off with a renewed bounce in his step. "So Darren, any last questions you want to ask?" he smirked.

Darren tilted his head, slightly curious to why the Master would ask a question. Maybe he could read minds…"Well…one question is…where do we start? Oh, there's a place quite far from here. It's used by Torchwood occasionally but I use it to interrogate suspects."

He walked along the pavement, grinning as the police drove by, their sirens going off. He rubbed a hand through his hair, scratching his skull.

"That' Abigail gotten rid off…I think that an alien known as the Koch'tuk is running quite a shifty business…I had to leave my knife behind…and I have a lighter in my back pocket…" He hoped that the Master could catch onto his drift. Not many could as he hadn't socialized as much when he was making connections.

"Koch'tuk. The name rings a bell," The Master admitted. In truth he wasn't really listening that hard and didn't catch onto what Darren meant. "What kind of 'shifty business' are we talking about here?" he asked as he dropped his hands into his pockets, his thumbs latching around the edge. As he listened to Darren's response, his tongue poked around his teeth while his mind worked on several different threads of thought at once. Unlike humans, a Time Lord could think in more dimensions. The Master had always been more of a thinker.

"Shifty business? Well, he sells goods that are prohibited on many planets, breaking level 5 laws and managing to get away from execution." Darren growled the last part of the sentence, he remembered his previous encounter with Koch'tuk…it didn't end well but he managed to slip away from the blade and escape a narrow death.

He paced around the pub, looking around the room. Aliens occasionally glanced at him but he ignored them, deep in his own thoughts. He tried to find this alien for a few years now…no luck. He was already itching for another kill, quickly hiding it by taking a gulp of his beer.

"Torchwood is still after us, I bet. The word would have spread quickly from the latest set of murders and I have a feeling…" Something about the way that the replacement boss made his gut twitch, he was not really scared…simply acting. But they had blown the place to bits, nothing could have survived it…multiple things hit him in the face.

Koch'tuk was a type of alien that weren't resistant to knifes or blades but very resistant to…explosions. Darren muttered to himself furiously. That man had known a lot about him and had managed to get files back on the computer that he had destroyed or burnt ages ago.

"It was him."

The Master sighed, tapping his foot as Darren explained the alien's crime. Nothing particularly interested him about this mission yet except that it was clearly personal to Darren. "Breaking level 5 is child's play," he muttered to himself. Then Darren started to mumble something about Torchwood before declaring 'it was him.' This snapped the Master back to reality, "Huh?" he looked up with an eyebrow raised. "Who?"

"That first building that we blew up, with the replacement man? That was him." Darren growled. He wasn't happy at all.

Darren proceeded outside, to inhale some fresh air and keep his 'cool.' He remembered back to the time where he was put in a padded cell because his temper had taken a turn for the worse and was roughly handed by some policemen.

"Do you need to sleep? If so, we can return to the shack and move out when the sun rises." Darren smirked, clearing his head of the thoughts.

A mass of screams broke his current train of thought. It was a bar fight, and he so wanted to get involved. But he held back, knowing that with bar fights, one would get a few broken bones before someone stepped into stop them but if he was involved…they wouldn't get over that hangover in the morning.

He fiddled with something in his pocket. A…tracer chip? He looked at it closely and to the people who were having the 'bar fight.' Something wasn't right.

"Master…we've been followed." He showed him the chip. Darren looked around before a rumbling on the rooftop, the pieces of the rooftop collapsed and a dozen armed policemen came in. They easily formed a ring around the two.

"Seriously?" Darren sighed, putting his hands up in the air.

(Sorry, thought I'd already replied) The Master sighed. "No option to sleep after all" he muttered. It was hard to tell how annoyed he actually was about this. The Master ignored the policemen, his eyes drawn to the bar fight. Something was off about that. "Their eyes..." He realised. "They don't have pupils. They're not human, they're roguiarsh. Sleep-Bringers." As he spoke, his eyelids grew heavy. The Master grimaced and fell to his knees. His eye snapped shut and he collapsed, asleep, the policemen moving in on them.

Darren tried as hard as he could, but it seemed as nothing could break them from the heaviness of his eyelids and grappled to the bar stool, making it topple over with him as he fell on to the floor.

The policemen moved in, thanking the others for making the capture so easy. They took off their disguises, Saurian Clan. They were known for selling illegal goods and anything worth the most money on the black-market.

"Well done. Now, the straightjackets. You know how they are the most wanted."

A few of the clan members secured Darren in a straight-jacket and proceeded to throw him in the back of the van. He stirred slightly but the heaviness in his eyelids would not lift. He felt himself being put on a concrete floor, which was freezing and the fading footsteps. He was in jail. Again.

Finally, it was wearing off and he rolled to one side. One of his side was aching with various bruises.

"Ma…Master?" He wondered where he was.

"You're awake," The Master commented from the cell opposite Darren in the jail. He was sat calmly on the bunk that was supposed to serve as a bed. His jacket was pulled tightly around him protectively. "I think this is your alien friend's doing. This can still work to our advantage. We're close enough to do some real damage as soon as we get out of these cells." he said. He didn't move and it became painfully obvious he had no plan for escaping yet. "Any ideas you'd like to contribute?" he asked scowling as his eyes scanned over the bars of the cell. A cold logic filled his eyes.

"Of course I'm awake." He muttered something beneath his breath. "Alien friend? Highly doubt that I actually have friends…"

Darren managed to get himself upright and flopped onto the bed, there was an itch just above reach of his hands, obvious irritation had shown. But that was when an idea struck him…the straightjacket was too thick to have been scratched from outside the jacket and would lead to the guard having to take off it to scratch it...bingo, there was that plan.

He jumped off the bed and rammed himself against the bars, looking manic. "Guard! Guard!" He added that slight hint of insanity that you would have expected and waited for the guard to approach. The guard rose an eyebrow and he and Darren had a stare-off, finally the guard had asked what was it that he wanted.

"I have an itch and would be a good criminal. I will take a seat…and you can take the jacket off and scratch my back." Darren grinned, rocking from side to side. It was fun acting like a complete psycho at times.

The guard looked uneasy at this request but did as Darren had asked, occasionally glancing at him whilst undoing the buckles. Once the jacket was undone, Darren waited until the guard went around the back to scratch it before delivering a punch that grounded the guard. He quickly changed around clothing and grabbed the keys, exited and closed the door.

"Master, don't comment, if you have a better idea…don't tell me."

The Master raised an eyebrow but said nothing. He waited as Darren released him from his cell then stepped outside, rubbing his shoulders. "Koch'Tuk you said his name was right?" he said after a while. "I think we need to have a word with him. Then kill him." He grinned sadistically as he thought of what he was going to do to the alien. "I wonder if you could make a carpet with his skin?" he wondered outloud, it didn't sound cruel or sadistic the way he said it, just... curious.

"I rather blow him up…but yeah, I think I could manage skinning him. Would be tough with all that skin, but manageable." Darren grinned, pulling the cap lower.

When they passed another guard, he simply used the excuse that he was taking him out to the canteen area. Darren eyed the other inmates as they shot glares at them, most could tell that he was not intending on staying here and would much rather come out with them.

A large alien started to get up but Darren growled slightly, making it back up slightly. "That's what I thought, where's Koch'Tuk's cell?"

Some pointed towards the north wing of the jail and Darren jerked his head at the master to go in that direction.

"He's got a lone cell and barely any visitors, perfect…"

"Let's go raise some hell!" The Master declared with a click of his fingers and ran where the guard had pointed them. "Koch'Tuk, Koch'Tuk, Koch'Tuk..." He repeated to himself again and again as he prowled the area. "Where are you?" He shouted out suddenly, "It's time to burn..."

Darren grinned but quickly his face dropped, seeing the prisoner, hulking above him. Koch'Tuk grinned, a few teeth short since last time but clearly wasn't pleased by his appearance.

"Who's this joker?"

Darren winced, the Master wouldn't like that. But his hand was placed on the syringe, which he had only recently obtained. It was on the guard that he had knocked out. It wasn't the type of stuff he was used to using but it would be sufficient.

Darren used the keys to unlock the cell door, eyes locked onto each other. Koch'Tuk took this as an opportunity to escape, but Darren was much quicker, catching the alien and holding it in a choke hold. He quickly moved back into the cell, inviting the Master in and closing the barred door.

Once he was in the cell, he let the alien go.

""I didn't appreciate that…" Koch'Tuk said, rubbing his neck.

"You've been locked up. How the hell are you still committing those crimes?!" Darren said, getting straight to the point.

"I…don't…know…what you're talking about!"

It was clear that the alien was putting on a act, pretending not to know anything. Darren glanced to the Master and sighed. Flicking a hand in the alien's direction.

"Have anything to say?"

"No." The Master glared at the alien, almost seeing into it's very soul. A look of pure rage had taken over him. He was prone to fits of rage, more and more since Steph's death. "I'm just looking forward to the screams..." he whispered. He stepped back and let Darren do his work. He brushed a hand through his messy hair as he let the many ways he could kill this alien fly through his mind, showing each and every one in his never-changing scowl.

SLAM!

Darren slammed Koch into the wall, repeating the action. This was his plan, to get Koch running. He had already slipped a tracking device in the alien's mouth, having the alien swallow was an easy matter.

SLAM!

"Tell me where they are!" Darren yelled, he could hear the faint footsteps of the guards. Now, for his next phase of the plan.

Darren tilted the hat over his face, creating a shadow, injecting Koch with a sedative, as they arrived. He pretended to look confused at the faces of the guards, who said they had heard a banging sound against the cell walls and came running.

"No…you need your ears checked."

They retreated, continuing to look over their shoulders. Darren looked around. A sign reading: FIRE EXIT made a smile creep onto his face.

"We need to get out of here, anyone got some matches or some gadget to set the alarms off?" Darren pointed to the exit, hauling the alien across his shoulder. "We'll need to get out. NOW."

He dug into his pockets. "Oh wait…look what I have in my pockets." He pulled out a detonator, wiggling it around, the finger applied enough pressure and a small BANG was heard further down the corridors.

"Then we'd best get going," The Master said, standing up straight and striding for the exit with a non-chalant air of confidence to him. He didn't seem in the least bit worried about what Darren was doing. "I need a catchphrase" he muttered to himself quietly as he left the building.

"Catchphrases are overrated." Darren muttered to himself, upon hearing the Master's comment. He was glad that Koch was co-operating with them and had told them everything they needed to know for him to visit Koch's right hand man, Sual.

"Sual's a human criminal, easy enough to handle. I guess." Darren rubbed the back of his head and continued to walk, wanting to take off the guard's uniform and get back into his own. He needed something to eat, his stomach rumbled. "Want something to eat? Have you got something else to do?"

His hands were playing with something he had stuffed in his pocket, a scale from Koch. A trophy. It was the first time he ever needed something like this but seeing how much trouble the alien had caused, it deserved to be kept.

However, he wasn't going to keep trophies, just this one was an exception. A buzz from his pocket. It was an incoming side job, which he was going to reply to later on.