#thunderwhump
Decided to continue posting the very 1st fanfic I wrote for Thunderbirds on here. You can find the complete story on Ao3&FFNet: CreativeGirl29.
Previous:C1
Gone
C2:Deathly Hush
“Thunderbird 1 from base do you read me, come in Scott, do you copy?”
"Gordon?” Scott stuttered back.
"Yes Scott, it’s me. Now listen, is there any other way Virgil could have got out of there?”
“No Gordon,” Scott replied, “some firefighters were watching the building at the time and they said he didn’t come back out.”
“What about the back of the building?” Gordon asked hopefully.
“No back door, there was a window but it was upstairs.” Scott responded beginning to cry once more.
Gordon could hear his brother sobbing, he had never heard his brother cry like this. Scott was always the strong one, ever since their mother had passed, he was like a second father to them all… And Virgil, Virgil had been the one who had been there when he was small and had caught a bad cold, had comforted him when he had taken a nasty fall and had wiped away the tears when he had been woken from a bad dream. He couldn’t be gone, he just couldn’t! Gordon could feel his strength fading rapidly but he knew he had to keep it together. Scott and Virgil had always been there for him and now he was going to make sure he was there for them, especially now when they needed him most! “Scott, listen… Me and Alan are coming out there. If we come in Thunderbird 3 is there a safe place that we can land?“
"Yes,” Scott replied, “we were at a metals foundry; you’ve got some good open spaces here where you can land her.”
“Okay, good… We’re on our way Scott.” Gordon clicked off the receiver and looked towards Alan. “Alan, I need you to try and hold it together for me, just for a short time, we need to get out there and help Scott. Can you do that for me?”
Alan took a deep breath in, wiped his eyes and looked at his brother. “Yes Gordon, I can!”
reading that Scott was crying while holding Virgil’s sash broke my heart (இ﹏இ`｡) I hope it’s not what it looks like
More ideas happened! This will get on Ao3 eventually.
Translations- wāhine toa- warrior/strong woman
Whānau Room- family room
Te Reo Māori- Māori language
CW: injuries
Despite the late hour the parking tower was still nearly full, but he found a good spot just after Thunderbird One arrived and just before the police could send a unit to guard the aircraft now resting on the cricket ground in the Domain Park beside Auckland Hospital. Through the gaps in the decorative artwork over the parking tower he could see the ambulance as it turned out of the entrance to the park and roared down the road towards the ambulance bay of the hospital. Tim jogged down the stairs and across to the public entrance to the emergency department, showed his credentials to the orderly and was waved straight through to the rescus unit. Jess was already there, leaning against the wall in a good vantage point that was out of the way of the nurses, doctors and orderlies as the two medics briefed everyone.
“Haast Eagle.” Jess demanded, just loudly enough that he could hear her over the noise of the rescue unit and what sounded like a very disoriented Trouble shouting for his brother from behind the curtain.
“Pouakai.” Tim automatically replied and took his place to lean against the wall beside her. She nodded sharply and retook her position.
Each of the teams- Australia, New Zealand and a specialist hospital in San Francisco- had worked out their own shibboleth- a way to immediately expose anyone who wasn’t one of theirs. For the Aotearoa team, it was English and Te Reo Māori translations- for anyone who hadn’t grown up in the area or spent significant time in the country, anything in Māori was an instant giveaway, non-locals would always mispronounce it.
“What happened?” Tim asked, wincing at a crash of something being knocked over, a yelp from Renaissance and a panicked cry of ‘Virgil!’ from Trouble. From the earmarks he was pretty sure they’d be called in to help calm the brothers fairly shortly. Disoriented and distressed Tracys needed a particular touch to defuse them, and familiar faces always helped.
“Rescue went bad.” Jess replied, her delicate Eurasian features pulled into a grimace. “Oil rig in international waters, the roughnecks got upset when Renaissance had to seal the pipe permanently and came after him when he rappelled down onto the platform to finish the job, Trouble jumped in to assist. Someone hit Trouble over the head with something and he’s got a knife in him- the bandolier slowed it, but he’ll still need surgery. Renaissance has a few broken bones, but what they’re worried about the most is internal bleeding.”
“Was Trouble wearing his helmet this time?” Tim asked, glancing over at another cry from behind the curtain. He knew about Scott’s prediction to take his helmet off at a rescue, and he’d heard about the threats levelled at him from most of the family to ‘weld the damned thing to your neck’ to remind him to keep it on.
“For once he was.” Jess nodded towards the taller of the two paramedics who had by now found their own corner so they could finish up their paperwork. “He was saying it would have been a funeral if he hadn’t been, going by the damage to the helmet.”
“Well that’s something.” Was Tim’s remark. “So if Trouble is at least concussed and has a knife in him and Renaissance is badly beaten, how’d they get One over here?”
“They got into the cargo section and Coppertop remote flew it over.”
“That makes sense.” Tim looked over as yet another doctor arrived, subtly scanned her with the holographic detector that they’d all been issued with and returned to the briefing once she checked out. “Any word on Coppertop’s assistant?” He asked curiously.
“Nada.” Jess shook her head. Eight months ago they’d become aware that the Tracys had scooped up a new person somewhere along the way. The Boss refused to elaborate and they didn’t ask- if it was a secret, the less people who knew about it, the better. If they needed to know, she’d tell them. But they weren’t exactly paid to keep their eyes shut and and ears blocked so the various Emergency Protection and Security Teams had put their heads together and pooled what little information they had- she appeared to be female, worked mostly with John but would speak to the others if they called her, and was addressed as ‘Eos’- but if that was her real name or a code name wasn’t clear. At their best guess she seemed to be based on the island because no one had seen her yet. She hadn’t even ventured out for a conference like what Wizard would occasionally leave the island to attend.
Jim over in San Francisco had come up with her code name and dubbed her ‘Canary’ because she didn’t sing like one. She barely even chirped with the amount of communication she made outside of the immediate family.
“You two!” One of the medics had stuck their head around the curtain and waved at Jess and Tim. “We need a hand with Scott!”
“What do you need?” Jess instantly asked as she stepped forward and vanished behind the curtain.
Tim stayed where he was and kept an ear out- standard protocol with a disoriented Trouble and no family present yet was to let the female team members take the first shot at calming him down. Seeing a male in uniform, even though it was the TI navy blue, usually had the opposite effect until his brain kicked back in.
He heard Jess speaking to Trouble in a low, soothing voice, then Hope appeared at his elbow. “Haast Eagle.” He immediately demanded.
“Pouakai.” Hope snapped, the tall Māori woman looking every inch the wāhine toa she was as she cast her gaze over the area. “What’s the situation?”
Tim quickly started to brief her, but one of the doctors approached and interrupted them.
“We’re taking them both through to surgery now.” He reported, looking between the two of them. “Tell the family that they’ll have to wait in the Whānau Room until we’re done, it’s going to be a good couple of hours at least.”
“Can you give us any more details, doc?” Tim asked, taking his phone out to message the rest of the team and The Boss.
“Scott’s got a grade two concussion and the knife is close to his brachial artery. Virgil definitely has some internal bleeding going on- it’s minor, but it still needs surgery. We should be able to get away with laparoscopic for him.” The doctor reported.
“Thanks doctor.” Hope nodded to him. “Jess and I will be outside the theatres.”
The doctor didn’t look happy about it, but nodded and turned back to give instructions to the staff. A EPT member outside the OR had been standard procedure ever since a journalist managed to bluff their way through security in Melbourne and got into the observation gallery that looked into the operating room that was being used that day.
“Tim, when Janet gets here, you two take a break until they’re in recovery, then take over.” Hope instructed.
“Got it.” Tim nodded as he flicked the information out to the relevant parties.
The noises behind the curtains changed, orderlies appeared and Jess rejoined them. “You got the update?” She asked as first Renaissance, then Trouble were wheeled out on the hospital beds, their uniforms in shreds.
“Yes, you and me are on OR duty.” Hope nodded curtly, beckoning for Jess to follow as the last of the nurses passed them and they fell in behind.
Left alone in the rescus ward, aside from the ward clerks finishing up the paperwork and the various orderlies and nurses now beginning the process of tidying up and re-setting for the next patients, Tim checked his phone for any replies, found none, messaged Janet with their updated orders and went to go find himself a seat at the cafe in the main lobby to wait until it was his turn to stand guard over his assigned Tracy.
So@the-original-sineater and I were playing around with some ideas and it came up that Kayo has a specialist security team for whenever someone ends up in a mainland hospital and the security team has given code names to their charges- Scott= Trouble, John= Coppertop, Virgil= Renaissance, Gordon= Dolphin, Alan= Knight, Grandma= The Queen, Kayo= The Boss, Brains= Wizard, Lady Penelope= The Lady, Sherbert= Companion, Parker= Watchman. Jeff would have been ‘Mars’ (if anyone was listening) or (out of affection) ‘The Old Man’ if no one was listening. After the Zero-X he would have been renamed ‘Survivor’.
I subsequently had ideas and this happened!
’Pouakai’ is the Maori name for a bird of legend that was probably a Haast Eagle, an extinct eagle that is estimated to have weighed 15kg. I figured a bird-related watchword would be appropriate
Beep Beep
Scrubbing sleep from his eyes, Tim Harris rolled out of bed, slapped the lightswitch and grabbed his work phone off the nightstand. He peered at the screen and swore softly- ‘Emergency Alert’, the words of the automatic message glowed red, ‘Thunderbird inbound Auckland ED’.
Between yanking clothes on he thumbed through the apps to the secured and heavily encrypted group chat used by the TI security team specifically selected by Kayo for whenever a member of International Rescue had to be airlifted to a mainland hospital. A surprisingly high number of people attempted to pierce the veil of secrecy that surrounded the members of International Rescue and for obvious reasons many of them attempted to take advantage of hospitalizations to do so- hence the Emergency Protection Team that he was part of.
‘Which one?’ The question he wanted to ask had already popped up from another team member- Jess Sullivan.
‘Trouble and Renaissance.’ Was the response from their team leader- Kaia Bell. ‘The Queen is enroute shortly via civvie plane with The Boss. Coppertop, Dolphin and Knight expected after rescue completed.’
Tim frowned as he digested the message. This was unusual. Well, not for Trouble to be in hospital- they’d managed about two and a half months of the eldest Tracy not needing offshore hospitalisation, which meant that Janet had won the betting pool, but for Virgil to also end up in hospital? That was less common. Tim put the phone down long enough to quickly brush his teeth and run a comb through his hair, then checked it again as he shoved his feet into his boots and picked up his grab bag.
‘Shannon, Kingi, you’ll meet The Queen and The Boss at the airport.’ The next message from Kaia read as she doled out their assignments. ‘Jack, Iakopo, you have the other three.’
He absolutely did not envy those four as he secured his apartment and made for the stairs down to the carpark. Mrs Tracy was known to be a terrible passenger and Kayo would be knife-edge sharp with worry for her family. The other three were almost as bad- long story short, after someone forgot which side of the road to use they weren’t allowed to drive themselves to the hospital any more.
‘Tim, Jess, you have Trouble. Janet, Hope, you have Renaissance.’
Tim grimaced as he unlocked his car, tossed his bag into the passenger seat and swung into it, he’d hoped he’d be assigned to Renaissance this time, but apparently he’d cemented his reputation as a good Trouble-wrangler after foiling Scott’s semi-conscious escape attempt last time. The man simply wouldn’t stay put if one of his other brothers was also in hospital with him. Virgil was easy, grumpy, but easy. ‘A-firm. The Lady, Companion, Watchman expected?’ He messaged back.
‘Negative.’Kaia replied. ‘Watchword is ‘pouakai’.’ The watchword protocol had been instigated when The Hood had first emerged since they couldn’t trust to recognising each other by face.
He waited a moment and when there were no further orders, he put his car into gear and pulled out, making for Auckland Hospital.
And that’s a wrap! Thank you very much to everyone who encouraged me, egged me on- Sineater in particular for a couple of scenes- and commented. I might come back to this sandbox some time later, but we’ll see.
Crossposting from Ao3
https://archiveofourown.org/works/39066474/chapters/98000256
CW- brief mention of historical PTSD and drug use
Cross posted from Ao3
https://archiveofourown.org/works/39066474/chapters/97826178
Crossposting from Ao3
TAG AU- So a bunch of people asked very nicely for a continuation of the Lost Tracy chapter from the Fury challenge, then Sineater and my hubby let me bounce ideas off them and this is the result.
Be warned, this is why I was desperately needing to post fluff the other day because I finally finished this thing.
CW- mention of terrorist attack, dead body, historical injuries, Fury has his name for a reason, lots of emotional trauma, you’d better have heartstrings reinforced with cahelium
https://archiveofourown.org/works/39066474/chapters/97725201
Two Fics
Not writing much at the moment so sharing some older stories - The following are 2 fics that I’ve been meaning to stick on this side-blog for a while.
@psychoseal here they are
Tagging a few others who might also want to read… @janetm74@drileyf@weirdburketeer@alexthefly@thundergeek59@bonsaiiiiiii@katblu42
Warning: The fics below the cut ⬇️ contain a character death
Mind control- as suggested by many people. CW of mind control, mental and physical trauma, Scott-whump
___________________________________________________________
“It’s the GDF.” Havoc announced from the pilot’s seat. “Three fliers, about two klicks out.”
“Take us into that cloud bank and go stealth mode.” Fury ordered when he saw her hand automatically go towards the controls for the missiles. “We don’t have the fuel reserves for a fight and the longer we’re out in the open, the higher the odds International Rescue will pick us up on satellites.” He winced and rubbed his forehead, shading his eyes with his hand. “They’ve been getting too close lately and we have what we need for now, we need to lay low.”
“…got it.” Havoc’s response came after a pause and she touched the appropriate controls to take them into the towering thunderhead building on their port side.
“You all right?” Fuse asked, glancing over at Fury as he brought their stealth systems online once the cloud had enveloped them.
“Yeah, just another migraine coming on.” Fury had his eyes shut now and fingers pressed to his temples in an attempt to fend off the pain. “How much is the consortium willing to pay for the components we lifted?” He asked without looking up.Fuse grinned when he checked the encrypted messaging system and saw the numbers. “Well, there’s a five with six zeros behind it, pretty good if you ask me!”
“Tell ‘em to put a ten in front of those zeros, then we can start talking.” Fury instructed. At the surprised noise Fuse made he went on to explain “No one else is anywhere near developing that technology, we blew up the lab and we have the only working examples and the development data, if the consortium want it, they have to come to us and they know it. Realistically it’s worth at least twice that, which we know and they know. We got what we actually needed, the components are just extras, we can afford to be picky.”
Havoc and Fuse exchanged a look- actually they hadn’t known that. The Hood had been fairly careful to keep them away from the numbers side of the business and that comment was making them both wonder about the actual value of some of the things they’d stolen for the Hood and how his cut compared to theirs’.
The console beeped for attention and Havoc checked her screens. “We’re almost home.” She said with some relief.
“Great, I’ll help unload then I’ve really got to get some meds.” Fury grimaced now, the migraine well and truly taking hold. The thought that he always seemed to get a bad migraine after sighting International Rescue was banished, his attention on the task at hand. Besides, it was silly. Why would seeing IR give him a headache?
0o0o0
Once they were safely inside the base- a bunker halfway up a mountain in Montana- Fury was true to his word and helped unload the stolen equipment. Havoc vanished at some point to recheck their security and Fuse took it upon himself to help Fury up to his room- the older man was really starting to get in a bad way.
After fetching him a coffee and helping him get two of the migraine pills, Fuse left Fury to get changed for bed, turning to leave.
But as he left, doubt started nagging at him.
While he’d been pretty enthusiastic to start with, Clarence really wasn’t so sure about all this anymore.
The plan had been Havoc’s.
They’d been locked up separately from the boss and while they’d gotten themselves out, they wouldn’t be able to get the Hood out on their own- they needed help, and one of the Tracys would fit the bill perfectly. At the same time they’d get themselves well into the boss’ good graces by not only breaking him out but also presenting him with a tame Tracy at the same time.
Havoc had originally wanted the spaceman but he was almost untouchable in his space station. Instead they’d gone for the eldest. The opportunity had come at a building collapse in Singapore when Scott had been separated from the rest of the Tracy pack. He’d knocked Scott out with a gas grenade and carried him off to their reclaimed Cruiser where Havoc had stuck him into the brainwashing device that had been intended for putting the Mechanic back into the Hood’s service.
In had gone Scott Tracy, out had come Fury, convinced he was their brother and always had been. The story imprinted on his brain was that they’d found each other in the orphanage and banded together as young teens, them against the world.
They’d started wrecking chaos left, right and centre as they gathered the information and resources they needed to bust the Hood out of wherever the GDF were keeping him this time…but as the weeks rolled on, Clarence was less and less sure that he wanted to have the Hood back in charge.
The trouble was that Scott was good. And not just good in the ‘goody two shoes’ good guy kind of way.
He was a good leader- they’d pulled off all their heists with resounding success just by having better planning and someone there who was used to everything going pear-shaped and able to react accordingly.
He was also a good person- he talked to them, respected them, looked after them, trained with them, went over their gear and made a bunch of suggestions and adjustments that really should have been made by the Hood in the first place. Scott did other things too, like making sure Heather actually ate real food (that he cooked himself!) and not just mainlined caffeine, patching them up after missions and just making sure that they were okay.
Long story short, Scott cared about them, showing it in a weird mishmash of ‘older brother’ and ‘dad’ that shouldn’t have worked but it did.
Clarence wasn’t sure he wanted to go back to the cold, unfeeling, sneering arrogance and scornful dismissals that they got from the Hood, and he was pretty sure Heather was starting to feel the same way- remaining devoted to someone who treats you like a junkyard dog, kept half starved and angry, isn’t easy when there’s someone right there showing you love and kindness and you don’t have to fight for every morsel of it.
“If this is how he is with us… small wonder his family are turning the world upside down to get him back.” Was Clarence’s thought as he pulled the heavy door shut to let Scott sleep off the migraine- a side effect of the brainwasher as his mind fought the imposed memories.
The increasingly uncomfortable guilt he was feeling about all this poked at him again- they’d taken Scott from the people he loved and was loved by. He knew a bit about losing loved people- though the memories had faded over time he still remembered warm cuddles and stories at bedtime…and then not having those things ever again. Doing this to Scott- especially after Scott saved his life at Shackleton- was starting to feel very wrong.
He let the metal door lock shut behind him, then almost jumped out of his armour when Havoc suddenly appeared, leaning against the wall with crossed arms and narrowed eyes. “You’re not going soft, are you Fuse?” She asked. There was a knife edge to the question, an undercurrent of threat that made him want to shuffle his feet and hang his head.
“This don’t sit right with me, sis.” Fuse plucked up his courage and shook his head. “It’s all mind games and stuff, you know I don’t like that. It’s like what Cuddy did t’ us and the other kids.”
He sensed more than heard the sharp intake of breath that his sister took at the mention of that name. Cuddy had been one of the staff members at the orphanage where they’d met and had taught them and a bunch of other kids the meaning of the words ‘gaslighting’, ‘manipulation’ and ‘emotional abuse’ through practical demonstrations. He was found out by one of the good people there and locked away for a long time, but the damage had already been done. The moment he and Heather had realised what had been done to them was the moment the two of them had turned their backs on the world with middle fingers raised high, determined to make their own way.
“This is different.” Havoc swiftly insisted. “It’s not like that.”
“Yeah?” Clarence had no idea where all of this was coming from. He’d never challenged his sister like this before. “How’s it different?” He asked, crossing his arms.
“It…it just is!” She snapped. “We stick to the plan, you hear? Use him to get the boss, then give him to the Hood. The boss will be happy and International Rescue will pay a fortune to get him back, hell, they’ll hand over their Thunderbirds for him. The boss will have everything he wants and it’ll be all because of us.” She turned and stalked off to her room before he could reply, slamming the door shut behind her.
Fuse sighed, scuffed his feet on the floor and glanced between Scott’s door and Heather’s, then shook his head again and made for his own room. He needed sleep, it’d be better in the morning, he was sure.
The thick door shut behind him, the lock engaging with a click, and silence descended on the small bunker as its occupants all fell asleep.
Perhaps an hour crawled past, then down in a corner of the hangar one of the floor plates shifted.
A sharp point of metal appeared, the knife easily slicing through the silicone grouting that held the plate in place. Moving slowly, the square of flooring was lifted and moved aside. Kayo tucked the knife back into her boot and pulled herself out of the duct. She couldn’t help the smirk as she scanned the cavernous space, checking for any further security systems before crossing the floor on silent feet to the cover afforded by the shadow of a support pillar. Gordon slithered out of the duct next and joined her, the nano-glue dispenser from Virgil’s exo-suit in hand and EOS’ portable drive on his hip.
“John, we’re in.” Kayo whispered into her comms. She glanced at the purple hull of the Chaos Cruiser and her smirk widened. Sure, they’d gotten the tracer gel off Scott by stripping the armour off him, but someone had forgotten to wash their hands before they slapped the controls to open the ship’s main hatch. The signal had been weak, but it’d been enough for them to finally track down the Chaos Crew’s lair. She and Gordon had launched in Thunderbird One, landed some miles away and hiked the rest of the way in, finding a hatch and crawling inside.
It’d taken weeks of frantic searching and hunting to get to this point and today they’d finally gotten to the scene before the Chaos Crew could leave their latest target- a cybernetics lab in Osaka. Cutting Scott’s grapple line had been an accident- she’d been aiming the laser at Havoc’s climbing wires as the two of them escaped the lab they’d raided- but it had slowed him down long enough for Virgil to use Two’s multi launcher to shoot him with the tracer gel.
As for what had happened to Scott for him to vanish on a mission and suddenly turn up acting completely differently and calling himself ‘Fury’, well, John, Brains and Mechanic had done a deep dive through the archives of data that the GDF had confiscated from the Hood and come up with a chilling conclusion- literal mind control through brainwashing, science fiction made real.
Trust the Hood to come up with something like that.
“Great. Gordon, find a place for EOS to plug in.” John’s voice sounded through their helmets. “Rigby says they’re still half an hour away.”
“We’ll leave Havoc and Fuse gift wrapped for him.” Was Gordon’s clipped response. He’d found a control panel and fitted EOS’s drive to the data port. “EOS- floor plan, freeze their security, then play time.”
“With pleasure.” EOS responded coldly, her lights flickering the orange of tightly controlled outrage. Data pinged onto their bracers a moment later- an annotated floor plan of the bunker. The hangar was the bottom level, living quarters were the next level up and a control section squatted at the top. A blue light was Scott’s location, purple marked Havoc and Fuse’s rooms. “Take me here.” She instructed Gordon, a fourth location highlighted in white in the control section. “I’ll be able to get better system access from here, with the computer in her room Havoc can freeze me out of the hangar systems but I’ll be able to bypass her from the control core.”
“Kayo?” Gordon looked to her as he unhooked EOS’ drive. He didn’t want to split up, two against three was uncertain odds, one against three was worse.
“Do it.” Kayo nodded to him. “Signal the others to launch, I want them here as soon as the bunker’s systems are under EOS’ control.”
“Take the glue.” Gordon handed the dispenser over. “And be careful.”
“F.A.B.”
0o0o0
Kayo slinked through the darkened halls like a cat, golden eyes darting everywhere. With any luck, she’d be in and out before anyone knew she was here.
She reached the living quarters without incident and put the nano-glue to good use, sealing all the doors that didn’t lead to Scott’s room. She was under no illusions about how long it would stand up to one of Fuse’s detonators or power punches, but all she needed was to delay them long enough to sneak in, sedate Scott with an auto-injector and get him outside for extraction.
The last door sealed, Kayo was all but holding her breath as she backtracked to Scott’s room and slipped the auto-injector pen out of her belt pouch. The lights flickered as she picked the lock- Gordon had EOS plugged back in. Her orders were to strip all data from the servers, then wreck havoc, pun absolutely intended, on everything she could link into.
Slowly pushing the door open, Kayo was now actually holding her breath as she padded across the floor like a wraith- Scott was a notoriously light sleeper under the best of circumstances. Unless they’d drugged him, she didn’t see that changing.
Her brother was in track pants cut off at the knees and a tee-shirt, curled up on the narrow bed, the blankets tossed askew, clutching a pillow and making the little movements and noises she recognised as him fighting a nightmare. Seeing it and knowing she couldn’t wake him and free him from the nightmare like she normally would was like a knife twisting inside her.
She ruthlessly shoved her emotions to the side for now, crouching beside the bed and reaching out to hike up the tattered hem of the improvised shorts- the auto-injector had to go into a large muscle and that meant mid outer thigh. She uncapped the auto-injector and was about to press it into his leg when blue eyes suddenly snapped open, focused on her and narrowed, his lip curling in a snarl.
He moved a split second before she could stab the pen into his leg, lunging at her with broad hands spread wide to grab her. The pen flew out of her grasp and skittered away under the bed as they wrestled, rolling over the floor. Kayo finally got a foot between them and used it to shove him backwards to crash into a dresser, smoothly rolling to her feet and dropping into a defensive stance. “Scott, snap out of it!” She ordered
“I’m not Scott.” Fury snarled at her in that familiar voice but with jarringly unfamiliar hatred dripping from every syllable. “HAVOC, FUSE, INTRUDER!” He hollered, then snarled and lunged at her in attack. Kayo quickly found herself hard pressed to keep her feet. She was used to fighting Scott- she knew his moves and his patterns. But this wasn’t Scott. This was Fury- Scott with all the safeties off. He was all fists, knees and elbows- powerful and fast strikes to cripple and maim and because she didn’t want to hurt him she was onlyjust keeping him in check.
She dimly was aware of the sound of pounding on metal and knew that at the very least they’d have Fuse joining them shortly.
But right now she didn’t have time to think about that, catching an overhead hammer blow on her crossed forearms, then when she brushed his arm aside Fury gripped her wrist and pulled her in, a knee aimed at her gut. She was able to tense and twist just before it hit so she wasn’t winded, then turned his grip against him and used a hip toss to throw him back onto the bed. He scrambled back to his feet and lunged back at her with a roar, hands aiming for her throat.
“Kayo!” Then Gordon was there, intercepting Fury with a body check. But while Gordon was quick, Fury was quicker. The knee that Gordon aimed at Fury’s groin was deflected into his thigh and answered with a flurry of vicious punches to Gordon’s torso. Gordon grunted as he weathered the assault and slammed his helmeted head forward in a head butt to make Fury disengage. His gamble worked and Fury pulled back before he could make contact, backing up towards the far wall, eyes narrowed and darting between Kayo and Gordon as they moved to box him into the corner.
Outside, metal shrieked as Fuse finally broke his door down, there were running footsteps, some beeps and a sharp crack of detonation as he blew open Havoc’s door.
“Reinforcements.” Fury grinned nastily at them.
Gordon would have been worried if he hadn’t heard the heavy, running footsteps pounding down the hallway towards them. “Yep, ours just got here too.” He loudly announced, to make sure Havoc and Fuse could hear him.
“EOS has your network in a stranglehold, Virgil and Alan are here and the GDF are only minutes away.” Kayo chimed in coldly as Havoc and Fuse paused just outside Fury’s doorway. She could see them turn and glance at Virgil charging at them in his exo-suit with Alan just behind, then the narrowing of Havoc’s eyes as she looked at Fury, calculated the odds, and the shift as she decided to cut their losses.
“Fuse, let’s go!” Havoc waved at Fuse to follow her, the demolitions expert sparing a guilty look at Fury before turning and running after her. The four IR operatives didn’t pursue, they had a bigger concern right now.
“No!” Fury called after them desperately, his expression flickering through disbelief, shock and betrayal as the people he thought were his family left him behind in the clutches of the enemy. But it only lasted for a split second before Kayo took advantage of the distraction to slip behind him and put him in a sleeper hold, her slim arm locking around his neck and squeezing just so until he sagged to the grimy floor.
Two sets of hands caught him on the way down and arranged him carefully on the floor while Virgil twisted out of his exo-suit, left it in the hallway and produced another sedative auto injector from his pocket. He administered it while Gordon found the medical scanner and played it over his body, then turned it to show Virgil the results. Virgil’s expression hardened, mouth set in a line as he skimmed over the findings. “Two. Now. Gordon, you fly, Alan, assist me. Kayo, get EOS and take One back.” He ordered as he scooped up the limp form. “Tell Grandma to get the infirmary ready and someone please tell me John and Brains have figured out a way to fix this.”
0o0o0
In the cool, sterile environment of the infirmary, Virgil listened with half an ear to John, Brains and Grandma’s conference call with two neurology specialists while he finished anointing Scott’s back with bruise cream. The eldest was still out cold but at least he was in some hospital scrubs now. Virgil had consigned the clothes they’d found him in to the medical waste incinerator and while he’d really wanted to give Scott a proper wash to clean off any last traces of the Chaos Crew, for now he’d settled for a quick wipe down of the more obvious smudges and grime.
“I’m just setting up another drip now.” He told Scott as he set up the saline IV. “You’re dehydrated. Gordon says they probably didn’t take care of you, letting you burn yourself out.” That particular suspicion had just compounded everything, one final insult on top of everything else. Scott was not the low-maintenance Tracy- he needed someone to look after him and yank him back down to earth before he could run his tanks dry and fall out of the sky. From the lines of results in glaring red, he could see that Scott had been within a hair’s breadth of a crash.
Behind him, he sensed more than heard the conference call wrapping up and the three of them continuing their debate on what to do next, to purge ‘Fury’ and return Scott to them. He left them to it as he tended to Scott, calculating the nutrient mixes he’d need and jotting down a rehab regime to bring him back up to full strength.
“Donut of doom.” John finally announced, looking up from his holograms of data and over at the combination MRI/concussion treatment unit. “If I’m reading this right, with some changes to the settings it should wipe the overlaid memory engrams.”
“A-agreed.” Brains nodded his assent. “I-it should be easy enough.”
“And if you’re not?” Virgil asked from his post next to Scott.
“Then it won’t make anything worse and at least it’ll fix the untreated concussion he’s got. If it doesn’t work we’ll cross that bridge if and when we need to.” Grandma ordered. “Virgil, prep Scott for it, John and Brains, prep the ‘Donut’.”They got to work and within a few minutes Scott was fully sedated and intubated and the ‘Donut’ was ready. Virgil watched as the narrow table bearing his brother slid into the machine and it hummed into life.
All they could do now was wait and hope that this would work.
0o0o0
He was lying on something soft, there were voices debating something above his head and his throat had that dry and raspy feeling that told him he’d been intubated again. His body felt leaden and stiff, like he’d been lying still for a long time. He cracked an eye open to see what was going on, but the blurriness and rising nausea told him that was a very bad idea and he groaned and threw an arm across his eyes. “Ugh…what happened to me?”
“Donut of doom happened, bro.” His brother’s voice floated down to him. “You got a concussion. We’re not sure which hit it was or when, but my money’s on the bus.”
“Bus?” He frowned behind his arm. He vaguely recalled something about a bus, but it was the undercurrent of tension in the air that caught his attention. As his brain started to come back online properly he could feel the itch of an IV site in his right elbow, but there was also something small, round and hard lightly pressing against his left thigh.
“Yup, you hit a bus yesterday, nice reverse swan dive.” His brother continued lightly.
“Can you open your eyes for me?” A different brother asked, his voice gentle. The equally gentle touch to his arm was to encourage him to move it out of the way. He must have made some sort of noise of protest because that brother continued, urging him “I know you’re feeling sick, but I need to see your eyes, just a moment, okay?”
“Nnng… okay…” He moved his arm and slowly opened his eyes. “Virgil? Gordon?” He groggily asked when their faces finally came into focus.
“Scott? You feeling okay?” Virgil asked carefully.
“Really nauseous.” Scott groaned, swallowing hard against that feeling of rising bile that was the prelude to vomiting.
The relief in their expressions was instant and the invisible tension in the air melted away like snow on a hot road in summer. The thing against his leg was also taken away.
“Close your eyes and rest, Scott.” Virgil told him. “I’ll get that nausea sorted out for you.”
“F.A.B.” Scott acknowledged, draping his arm back over his face.
Feeling like the weight of the world had just slipped off his back, Virgil put the sedative auto-injector back in its drawer and signalled to Kayo and Alan who had been waiting just out of sight, ready to assist just in case Fury had made an appearance instead.
But it had worked. The nightmare was over.
Their brother was home.
WOW! Just WOW!
All of you, Thunderfam, read this :D
@scribbles97@tsarinatorment@janetm74 Your boi features muchly :D
Thank you for a fantastic read.
And thank you to @the-original-sineater for pointing my sand covered head in this direction :D
Nutty
(Ostrich)
Gone
If you’d like to be tagged for updates for this story or any others then please let me know. Alternatively this fic can be read in it’s entirety over on Ao3 or FFNet - creativegirl29: @janetm74@drileyf@katblu42@psychoseal@weirdburketeer@alexthefly@misstb2@thundergeek59@dragonoffantasyandreality
Chapter 24: Payback
“Now, do as I say and put him down!” The Hood demanded.
Scott looked at John and Gordon who were holding the stretcher and winked at them. “Come on guys, we really should do what he says and put him down… Al, stay with him.”
Gordon and John laid the stretcher down on the floor, while Alan knelt next to Virgil and took his hand in his. John and Gordon both stood back up and with Scott formed a circle around Virgil and Alan.
“Now move away from him!” The Hood commanded.
“That’s not going to happen.” Scott replied calmly.
“Really?” The Hood scoffed. “My man here has a gun and I will order him to shoot.”
They all glanced at the man who had his gun aimed at them.
“Personally, I think you should order him to step back and to put his gun down.” Gordon responded.
The Hoods man let out a sarcastic laugh. “And why would I do that?”
“Because if you don’t, then I’m going to take you down, and then knock you out with my tranquilliser gun!” Gordon stated.
“Oh, I’d love to see you try!” The man taunted.
“Okay then!” Gordon answered. Gordon’s hand shot out and before the man could react he had grabbed his wrist and spun the gun away from them both. Gordon then knocked the gun out of the man’s hand, he then twisted the man’s arm around his back and flipped him face down on the ground. Finally, Gordon pulled his tranquilliser gun out and shot the sedative into the man. Jumping up to his feet Gordon aimed his tranquilliser gun at the Hood. “Now, I really think that you should do as we say, Balah Gaat.”
Do you really think one tranquilliser gun is going to take me out?” The Hood mocked.
Scott and John pulled their tranq guns out and aimed them at the Hood. “How about three?” John countered.
“Oh please,” the Hood sneered, “your tranquilliser guns are no match for me.”
The Hood’s eyes turned to a bright yellow, he released a mocking laugh, and raised his hand out towards them. Scott, John and Gordon found that they were now frozen and unable to control or stop what was happening as they were lifted effortlessly up into the air. Their weapons were forced out of their hands and flung away from them, they were then thrown away from the stretcher and down onto the hard ground. The Hood kept his one hand pointing towards them, which held them frozen in place, as he began walking towards Alan and Virgil.
Alan aimed his tranquilliser gun at the Hood. “Don’t move any further!” He warned.
The Hood scoffed and held out his other hand towards Alan causing him to fall to the ground. The Hood then walked forward and before Alan could react the Hood had ripped the tranquilliser gun out of his hand and threw it away from them. Then like his brothers before him, Alan was lifted in the air, and hurled away from his now unprotected brother. The Hood knelt next to Virgil who had been awake throughout his brother’s ordeal. “Now, I remember telling you that once I had dealt with you, then one of your precious brothers would be next… Maybe I was wrong, maybe this one will die first.” The Hood stood back up and turned towards Alan. “Yes, I presume this one is the youngest… So, he can go first!”
Virgil watched helplessly as the Hood walked over to Alan, picked him up from the ground, grabbed him around his throat, and began to choke him. Alan desperately gasped for breath and kicked his legs trying urgently to escape the hold that the Hood had on him. Virgil looked towards his other brothers but could see that although they were trying to move, they were still held in the Hood’s powers. Virgil glanced to his side and noticed the handgun that the man had dropped, he reached out with his left hand, grabbed the gun and fired.
“What the?” The Hood exclaimed when he felt the gunshot hit the floor, narrowly missing his feet. The Hood dropped Alan to the ground and spun around in shock, releasing his focus on Scott, Gordon and John. The Hood paused, as he took in the sight of Virgil pointing the gun towards him and then let out a chilling laugh. “Well, well, I never thought I would see the day… A member of International Rescue actually using a real gun.” The Hood scoffed as he stepped closer to Virgil. “Now, come on… Are you really going to shoot me? Would you even be able to live with yourself if you did?” The Hood took another step closer to Virgil. “Look at you, you’re pathetic! You’re badly hurt, you can’t hold that gun without your hand shaking because of the amount of pain I’ve put you through.” The Hood sneered as he took another step towards Virgil. “Come on boy… If you’re going to do it, then shoot me! Kill me in cold blood! Take your revenge for what I’ve put you and your family through… Do what your father could never do and give in to the hate… Just like I did!”
“I’m nothing like you!” Virgil muttered.
“No, you’re certainly not!” The Hood ridiculed. “You are a typical Tracy! Weak minded… Forgiving… Always trying to help others… It makes me sick!” The Hood took another step forwards. “And that’s why I know you are not going to fire that gun!”
“No. I’m not,” Virgil stuttered.
“I knew it!” The Hood mocked.
Virgil smiled and dropped the gun. “Distracted you though!”
“Really, from what?”
“From this!” The Hood spun around at the sound of Scott’s voice, only to be greeted with a sharp punch to the face. The Hood stumbled from the force of the punch. “That’s for trying to choke our youngest brother,” Scott said with a smirk, “and this… Well, this one’s for Virg!” Scott delivered another blow to the Hood’s face which knocked him unconscious. “God… That felt good!” Scott said as he knelt next to Virgil and took his hand in his.
“Al?” Virgil mumbled.
“I’m here.” Alan replied.
“Are you okay?” Gordon and John asked at the same time.
Alan coughed. “Yes, I’ll be okay, just a little sore.”
Gordon, Alan and John knelt next to Scott and helped check on Virgil’s injuries.
“Al?” Virgil mumbled again.
“It’s okay Virgil. I’m here and I’m fine!” Alan responded.
Virgil took his hand out of Scott’s and gently felt around Alan’s throat.
Alan shook his head. “Seriously Virg… You’ve been beaten, your legs are broken, you’ve lost too much blood, you’re barely able to keep your eyes open… And yet you are still trying to check me for injuries… Please, let us look after you for a change!”
Virgil took Alan’s hand in his, tears beginning to fill his eyes.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Scott said.
“Love you all!” Virgil muttered as more tears ran down his face.
All four boys gently held Virgil and let their own tears flow.
Gone
If you’d like to be tagged for updates for this story or any others then please let me know. Alternatively this fic can be read in it’s entirety over on Ao3 or FFNet - creativegirl29
@janetm74@drileyf@katblu42@ak47stylegirl@psychoseal@misstb2@weirdburketeer@alexthefly@thundergeek59@burningcowboyhoagietaco@dragonoffantasyandreality
Chapter 19: Countdown
- Previously:
Virgil lifted his head and watched the Hood walk away, he then opened his hand revealing the edible transmitter, looking directly into the camera, he dropped the transmitter into his mouth and swallowed it!
… …
“Virg… You, beauty!” Scott exclaimed, although quietly, so the Hood could not hear him.
“Go!” Jeff mouthed to his four boys, quickly pulling them all into a warm hug. “We’ll give you the location when you are in the air.”
“FAB dad!” Gordon replied.
“Thunderbirds Are Go!” Alan said with a cheeky grin as he turned to leave.
Jeff shook his head with an amused smile. “Oh, and be careful!”
“We will dad.” John whispered.
Jeff nodded, the concern for his four boys and his missing son evident.
“Don’t worry dad. I’ll look after them!” Scott said reassuringly.
Jeff gripped Scott’s shoulder and smiled. “Thank you… Now go!”
Scott beamed at his dad, turned and then made his way down to Thunderbird 2 with his three brothers closely behind.
Jeff Tracy watched them leave and then turned to Brains and whispered. “Brains, oversee the launch and make sure that they get the coordinates as soon as possible.”
“FAB. Mr Tracy,” Brains replied.
Jeff turned and looked back at the screen. He could see that Virgil was still lying flat on the floor, with his feet chained and currently there was no sign of the Hood. Jeff stared at Virgil with concern as he was no longer moving, and his eyes were tightly shut. He was brought out of his gaze by the sound of Thunderbird 2 blasting off and leaving the island. Jeff brought his attention back to the screen and continued to observe his son.
… …
The Hood began to make his way back towards Virgil with one of his men closely behind. The man lifted Virgil from the floor and forced him roughly back on his knees and began to restrain his hands above his head. The force of being moved so abruptly caused Virgil’s eyes to shoot open and for him to release an intense cry of agony. “Oh dear, does that hurt.” The Hood mocked, grabbing Virgil’s head, gripping it tightly in his hands and forcing him to look in the camera. “It seems Jeff that your son is in a lot of pain. Now luckily the discomfort he’s currently feeling will only be temporary. You see, I have decided that this boy is far too troublesome, and I’ve simply had enough of him being here.” The Hood looked back at Virgil who was now shaking from the pain he was in. The Hood nodded to the man, who was quickly joined by the other five men. “Knock him out!“ The Hood snapped, as he turned back towards the camera, a smirk firmly planted on his face, as the six men began beating Virgil once more.
… …
Jeff watched in disgust as the six men laid into his helpless son. He tried screaming at them to stop but it was to no avail, after a short time Virgil’s eyes closed, and his head drooped down. Upon seeing this the Hood signalled for the men to stop and made one of them check Virgil’s pulse.
“His pulse is weak sir… He won’t last much longer!”
The Hood smirked and looked back at the camera’s lens. “Well Jeff, as you can see your boy here as finally passed out… And as you’ve just heard, he doesn’t have much more time left. So, I’ve decided to set the clock ticking, and I’ve set the hour for when I will finally take his life, and complete the second step in my search for justice… Now, you’re probably wondering what I mean by ‘Second Step’… You see Jeff, I have previously taken revenge against you… That first time my involvement remained anonymous… Of course, I have already informed your son here what I did, and you could have asked him but unfortunately for you he won’t be alive much longer” The Hood laughed and then continued. “So, until I decide otherwise my previous retribution will remain that way… Now, as I was saying… The countdown as started, and this boy’s final hours are at hand… I think we’ll give him two hours, that’s if he lasts that long… I believe that will give me plenty of time to prepare myself for one of my finest moments… See you soon Jeff.”
… …
Jeff slammed his fist down on the table that was in front of him as the screen went black. “Damn him!” Jeff cried out as he felt his legs go and he dropped into his chair.
“Jeff.” Ruth cried, as she went to her son’s aid. “Jeff listen to me.” She continued holding his face in her hands, and gently wiping away the tears that had begun to form. Jeff looked up at his mother and let her pull him into a tight embrace. “Now, listen to me… Virgil’s always been one very determined and stubborn young man who doesn’t know the meaning of the word quit… And I know where he gets that from.”
Jeff smiled. “Mm, his mother.”
“Yes, and his father too! He’s tough… He’s a Tracy… And I know he will make it! Now, come on Jeff, your boys are on their way to get Virgil now and they need you to be strong!”
Jeff nodded, breathed in and out to calm himself down and then turned to Brains. “Have you sent the boys the location?”
“Yes, Mr Tracy, Virgil is being held at an abandoned steel factory in, Henderson, Nevada.
“Is that near the metals foundry?”
“Yes, I’m just about to contact them and see if we can land Thunderbird 2 there. That way the boys can get to the location quickly and we can still keep an element of surprise for the Hood.”
“That’s a good idea Brains, let me know how it goes.” Jeff stood and made his way over to Kyrano who had now been moved on to the sofa and was being comforted by his daughter Tin-Tin. “Kyrano.”
“Oh, Mr Tracy, I am so sorry!”
Jeff placed his hand gently on Kyrano’s shoulders. “Kyrano. Please don’t blame yourself. You are not responsible for your brother’s actions… This is not your fault!”
Kyrano looked up at Jeff. “And it is not yours either Mr Tracy! What happened that day when my brother lost his family, it was tragic… But there was nothing you could do to save them!”
“I know.” Jeff replied. “I’m just shocked by how bitter he still is and how far he’s been willing to go to seek his revenge.”
“My brother has always chosen hate over love… He has been this way long before he lost his wife and child, I fear he will never learn that compassion and forgiveness are much stronger than the vengeance and loathing he feels towards others.”
Jeff slowly nodded… “Will you be okay Kyrano?”
Kyrano smiled. “Yes, Mr Tracy, I will be fine… Now go and speak to your boys, they need their father!”
Jeff smiled at Kyrano and squeezed his shoulder. “Thank you.” Jeff then turned to face the pictures of his sons hanging on the wall, and pressed a button on the table. “Base to Thunderbird 2.”
The large portrait of Scott changed to reveal him sitting in the pilot seat of Thunderbird 2 with Gordon in the seat next to him. “This is Thunderbird 2, go ahead dad.” Scott responded.
“Hi Scott. How are you getting on?”
“We are all good here.” Scott answered, while he concentrated on what he was doing.
“Hey dad,” Alan and John chimed at the same time, as they leaned into view, so their father could see them.
Jeff smiled. “Hey Boys… Scott what’s your arrival time?”
“I’m pushing her to go as fast as we can.” Scott replied. “Hopefully we’ll be there in less than an hour.”
“An hour… Okay, that’s great Scott. Keep pushing her as much as you can… The sooner you get Virg out of there the better!”
“I couldn’t agree more!” Scott added.
“Hey dad, what happened with the Hood after we went?” John asked.
Jeff sighed and explained to them how the Hood had ordered that Virgil be chained back up and their brother’s pain at being moved. Jeff then paused, breathed in to calm himself, and then told them about the men beating Virgil until he lost consciousness, and how afterwards the Hood had threatened to kill Virgil in two hours. He then paused and looked at them. “And I feel I need to explain to you all how I know the Hood, well, as we now know Balah Gaat.”
Gone
If you’d like to be tagged for updates for this story or any others then please let me know. Alternatively this fic can be read in it’s entirety over on Ao3 or FFNet - creativegirl29 @janetm74@drileyf@katblu42@ak47stylegirl@psychoseal@dragonoffantasyandreality@weirdburketeer@alexthefly@burningcowboyhoagietaco@misstb2
Chapter 13: Plan of Action
The room fell silent, no one moved, unable to comprehend what had just occurred. Eventually, the silence was broken.
“Damn it!” Scott screamed, punching the wall he was standing next to repeatedly. “I’m going to kill him… I’m going to hunt him down and I’m going to kill him!”
“Scott!” Jeff cried out running over to him and grabbing him by the shoulders. “Just stop… Scott… Just stop!” Scott felt his legs go as he fell to the floor. Jeff scooped him in his arms and held him tightly, looking at Brains Jeff spoke once more. “Brains, please… Please tell me… Can you still find the location?”
Brains hesitated. “I… Err… I’ll see what I can do… It will be difficult though, it may take some time to get through their system without alerting them.”
“Can I help Brains? Please… I… I need to do something,” John pleaded.
“Sure John, that would be a great help.” Brains replied.
John stood up and made his way over to Brains to begin their work.
Jeff looked towards his youngest two boys clutching onto each other as if their lives depended on it. “Gordon, Alan”
“Yes dad?” They both answered looking at their father.
“Will you two go with Scott,” Jeff looked in his son’s eyes and saw he was staring into nothing. “Scott… Scott… Scott!”
Scott came around and looked at Jeff. “Yes dad?”
“I want you to go with Gordon and Alan… Make sure Thunderbird 2 is ready. I want us to be able to launch as soon as we get a location. Also, make sure all the medical equipment is fully stocked and maybe take extra… Just in case.”
“Okay,” Scott responded finally pulling himself together. “And dad, what about the pod?”
“We really can’t be sure what we will need.” Jeff said.
“Maybe it would be best to take the firefighting equipment?” Gordon suggested. “We’ve already seen what these guys did at the Metals Foundry.”
Jeff nodded. “Yes… Yes, that’s a good idea Gordon.”
“And the Hover Bikes as well? Scott questioned. “We don’t want to alert them to our presence, so we may need to land about a mile away, depending on the location.”
“We should also make sure we have extra ammunition for the tranquilliser guns.” Alan added looking at his father for confirmation.
“Definitely, I want to know that we can take these guys out!” Jeff replied.
“Don’t worry dad, we’re on it.” Scott stated, a determined look now showing in his eyes as he placed his arms reassuringly around his two youngest brothers.
“Scott, I can help with the medical items,” Tin-Tin offered.
Scott nodded and all four of them made their way to the medical bay and then down to Thunderbird 2.
Jeff stood and made his way over to his mother, kneeling next to her he looked directly in her eyes. “Mom, are you going to be okay?”
Taking his hands in hers, she nodded. “Yes… Yes Jeff. I’ll be fine. You know, I’m not as weak as I look.”
“I know mom but…”
“No buts Jefferson… Please… Please don’t worry about me… I want you to concentrate on bringing our boy home.” Jeff nodded feeling his body deflate. “Come here son.” Ruth whispered pulling Jeff into a warm embrace.
It had been many years since Jeff had needed his mother like this, but now was one of those times. He gratefully accepted the hug and felt the tears begin to run down his face as he gently sobbed onto her shoulders.
Ruth Tracy rubbed her hand in a circular motion on his back and whispered soothing words in his ear. After a few minutes, Ruth sat back up and gently wiped away Jeff’s tears. “Now, me, Kyrano and Parker are going to go into the kitchen and prepare some food for you all… Now, I don’t want any arguments Jeff… I now you probably don’t feel like eating but you are all going to need to keep your strength up to make sure you do bring Virgil home.” She stood up and turned towards Parker and Kyrano. “Come on boys… Come with me.” She added making her way out of the room as both Kyrano and Parker followed closely behind.
“Jeff,” Penny said softly.
“Yes Penny?” He replied, looking towards her.
Penny sat down in the seat next to Jeff. “When we do find Virgil.” Jeff took her hand and smiled back at her, grateful for the optimism. Penny smiled and continued. “When we find him, he’s going to need immediate medical attention. Now I know you have a good setup here and you have a lot of equipment to hand, but it’s looking likely that he will need to be in a hospital, even if it is just for a short time.”
“What are you suggesting Penny?” Jeff asked.
“There’s someone I know. A fantastic doctor, he was a close friend of my fathers and has always been a good friend of mine. He works at a hospital in New Zealand. Now, I know that if needed he will get the best team together for Virgil, he will hide someone in the hospital system, so their identity will not be discovered, and I personally believe he can be trusted with your family’s link to International Rescue.”
“Penny, I trust your judgement one hundred percent! Call him and inform him of the situation. Ask him if he can put a team together and to be ready on standby if needed. Mention International Rescue but keep our identities a secret until it’s essential to let him know who we are.”
“Will do Jeff,” Penny replied, leaving the room to make the call.
Jeff turned and made his way over to Brains and John. Ruffling John’s hair, he sat down next to them, waiting and hoping that they would be able to get around the tracking system, and find the location of his missing son before the 24 hours were up and the next transmission was received.
Gone
If you’d like to be tagged for updates for this story or any others then please let me know. Alternatively this fic can be read in it’s entirety over on Ao3 or FFNet - creativegirl29 @janetm74@drileyf@katblu42@ak47stylegirl@psychoseal@dragonoffantasyandreality@weirdburketeer@alexthefly@burningcowboyhoagietaco@misstb2
Chapter 12: Torture
- Warning. The following chapter contains some dark scenes, torture, and whump.
Previously:
“Now are you ready Mr Tracy? I really think it’s time that we spoke to your family.”
…
Virgil felt the Hood release his grip on his hair and watched as he gave some instructions to the man who was sitting by the computer. Glancing at the camera Virgil watched as the light changed from red to green, signalling that his family were now witnessing his torment unfold. A cry came from the speakers and filled the room, one that sounded like his father although Virgil wasn’t too sure, he hadn’t heard his father in that much pain since his mother had passed away. Confirmation that it was indeed his dad’s voice arrived when he saw the Hood walk in front of the camera and his father spoke once more.
…
“Hood!” Jeff shouted at the screen in anger.
“Ah, hello. Welcome Mr Tracy, I believe you are missing a son?”
…
They watched as the Hood walked over towards Virgil. “Now, I believe my prisoner here is one of your boys. I don’t know his name, he hasn’t been pleasant enough to divulge that information.” The Hood added, grabbing Virgil by the hair again and pulling his head up to look at the camera.
“Boss. They are trying to track our location.” They heard an unseen voice say.
The Hood glared into the camera. “Stop tracking us or your son dies!”
Brains looked over to Jeff, who shook his head in defiance.
“They are still tracking us.” The unseen man responded once more. “I can hold them off for a bit longer, but they will gain access to our location.”
…
Virgil watched in fear when the Hood walked over towards the table which had the torture devices on it. Virgil saw him select a handgun and some bullets, walk back into view of the camera, load the gun, turn and walk behind him.
The Hood lifted the handgun and aimed it at the back of Virgil’s head. “As I said, stop tracking… Or your boy here dies!”
…
Jeff clutched his mother’s hands for support. “Brains. Stop tracking them… Now!”
Brains switched the computer in front of him off and looked nervously at the screen. They all watched, holding their breath as the Hood kept the gun aimed at the back of Virgil’s head.
“Now listen carefully, as you may have worked out we are checking the transmission. If you follow some simple rules, then this boy here will not end up with a bullet in the back of his head… So, the rules… Rule 1: Start trying to track our location, then he dies! Rule 2: If you cut the link and stop watching, then he dies! Now, if that is understood then we can continue.”
The Hood finally lowered the gun from Virgil’s head and the whole family felt themselves able to breath once more.
…
Virgil felt his body sigh in relief as the gun was lowered, but the reprieve he was feeling was unfortunately not going to last long, when the Hood signalled to one of his men, who walked over to the torture table and picked up one of the items. Virgil knew his dad and brothers had not yet seen the device that had been picked up, but the look of horror that spread across his face had warned them that something awful was about to occur.
…
“What’s happening?” Alan whispered to Gordon with tears in his eyes, when he saw the look of fear on Virgil’s face.
Gordon shook his head and grabbed onto Alan to offer comfort and for the support he also needed.
They watched as the Hood turned back towards the camera and signalled to someone who was out of view, they then saw a man walk next to the Hood revealing the Cat O’ Nine Tails in his hands. Jeff, all off the boys, and the rest of the family looked on in horror as the man then made his way behind Virgil.
“Let him go!” Scott cried out when he saw what was about to happen.
“Now, why on earth would I do that?” The Hood returned with a mocking laugh.
“What do you want?” Jeff growled at the screen.
“I want many things Mr Tracy!”
…
The Hood pulled out Virgil’s chain from his pocket, opened it to reveal the picture inside, and then placed it on the floor in front of Virgil, he then removed the gag and leaned towards him whispering in his ear. “I thought you might want some comfort from your dead mother.” Turning back to the camera the Hood continued. “Now, I’m really interested to know how long it will take for your son here to crack and maybe answer some of my questions.” With another intense laugh the Hood walked away from the camera signalling to the man who was standing behind Virgil.
Virgil tried to brace himself for what was about to happen, but nothing could prepare him for the searing pain he felt shooting across his back as the Cat was brought down on to his bare skin again and again and again.
…
“Oh God! Please no!” Scott screamed, as he watched his little brothers anguish unfold.
Alan and Gordon were both sobbing, John held his head in his hands, Penny and Tin-Tin both held their grandma as she quivered in shock, and Brains, Kyrano and Parker stared at the screen in disbelief.
“Stop… Please stop!” Jeff cried out as he watched the whip being brought down onto Virgil’s skin repeatedly.
…
The Hood held his hand up signalling for the man to stop. He then walked back over to Virgil and grabbed him by the hair once more. “If you want this to stop boy… Then tell me what I want to know… Where’s your base located?” Virgil shook his head in defiance. “Tell me what I want to know.” The Hood growled as he leaned towards Virgil.
“Go to hell, asshole!” Virgil snapped back spitting in the Hoods face.
The Hood sneered, wiped the spit away and signalled to the man standing with the whip in his hands. “Keep going.” The Hood ordered as he made his way off screen.
Virgil felt the burning sensation from the whip each time it hit him. He tried to hide the pain, but he knew he hadn’t been successful. He knew the agony was obvious to see, as he still desperately tried not to cry out, he really wanted to spare his family anymore hurt, but he knew his body and his mind wouldn’t let him as he finally let out an intense scream.
…
“Stop… Please, I’ll give you anything you want! Just let my son go.” Jeff begged.
The Hood lifted his hands and signalled for the man to stop. “Anything?” He queried.
“Yes. Anything!” Jeff responded.
…
Virgil had heard what his father had said. Lifting his head, he looked at the camera and started shaking his head, desperately trying to warn his father that no matter what he did, or what he gave the Hood, he would not be allowed to leave alive.
The Hood turned towards Virgil and grabbed his hair, signalling to another man who then made his way over to Virgil with a needle in his hand. “Will you really give me anything I want for this boy’s life?”
“Yes.” Jeff promised. “Just leave him alone.”
“Mm, I’ll have to think about this… While I do think, this troublesome son of yours really must sleep.” The man who had recently joined the Hood inserted the needle into Virgil’s neck, as soon as Virgil had slipped into unconsciousness the Hood continued. “I’ll contact you back in 24 hours.”
…
Everyone stared as the image vanished and the screen went black.
