THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO
MY LIFE IN YOUR HANDS
WRITTEN BY ZARIUS
(contains spoilers for "Weather or Not")
Penelope's had her abundance of personal highs in her life but this was taking the cake.
Pursued high across a vast desert terrain by maverick weather-generating drones had proven a trying experience; it was testing the ageing aviation skills of her faithful servant and friend Parker.
It was miraculous to see this fine man orchestrate such fine and fearsome flying techniques to avoid the swarming armada that had locked on to them, eager to pluck them from the sky like a carefully aimed shotgun blast to a bird. All it took was a couple of jolts to cripple the pink flamingo that was FAB 1.
Parker wouldn't have any of that.
Had it not been for the timely intervention of Kayo and Thunderbird Shadow, with its pulse cannon successfully depleting the sky of the accursed drones, Penelope couldn't fathom what kind of trick Parker would resort to out of his desperate state to avoid them. His last one, which took them up to the very edge of the sky, and all the way down again, almost ungracefully crashing into the sands below, was enough to visibly shake Penelope.
Often calm and composed, she had let out a cry of Parker's name to deliver her from the nightmarish scenario he himself was causing, her faith in him almost shattered.
It all came back when the gamble paid off, but she couldn't help but feel a lot of the fear within her. She tried to mask it as Parker told her about the opera she had to attend later that evening, with his lady trying to put a brave face on and brush off the occasion for the time being.
She didn't want to let him in on the fact that she had been greatly unsettled by the whole ordeal, and it had been worsened by having to look after her dog the whole time. She didn't mind it had sensed her fear, for it could do nothing but bark and grunt. It couldn't tell a soul, but nor could it help to sooth one.
Luckily for her though, somebody did notice.
"You look pretty shaken Lady P" said Gordon Tracy as he decided to avert his gaze from Langstrom Fischler begging his team to help him work on a wayward moon mission.
"Oh don't you worry about me Gordon, you were soaring a bit there yourself" she said, in remarks to the altitude Gordon had hung from whilst evacuating Langstrom's men from the command tower before the treacherous storms destroyed it.
"Hey, being high as a kite in a different sort of way beats the other method" he joked.
"It's funny how I'm normally so used to death-defying moments, be it in the sky, on the road, or under the sea...but I suppose when the stress persists the way those drones did, it can do a lot to unravel you very quickly. You don't have much time to process any way out yourself, it made me feel a bit helpless" Penelope admitted.
"You should never look at any steady pair of hands around you as a sign you're weak, Parker's able hands were able to protect you, he was willing to take the risk because you mean so much to him and to our overall mission. Your life in his hands is a real privilege, because your life is an extension of his, and it's an extension of ours. I'd do exactly what he did" Gordon replied.
"Mind putting my life in your hands right now?" asked Penelope.
Gordon wrapped hand around her arm and walked her across the sands; the two took in the warmth of the steadily setting sun.