Usual Disclaimer – I used to own Thunderbirds, but I left the paper work on top of a paper shredder and have no idea what happened to it…

But ENJOY!

Chapter 1

It had been six months since the meteorite had crashed into Thunderbird 5 and Tracy Island was back to normal; as were Virgil and Scotts hair colours. The two brothers had held true to their promise to get revenge on the trouble making Gordon, resulting in the second youngest Tracy refusing to go out in public for almost a month much to the amusement of the rest of the inhabitants of the Island. John had just returned from the first stint on his bird since the accident, whilst Alan had gone up for his first rotation with Gordon accompanying him. So all was well with the Tracy family: for now.

It was two days into Johns' month at home when his father came to him with the proposition, would he like an all-expenses paid trip to the mainland? John was not untrusting as a rule, but still, something about the question felt wrong from the moment it passed his father's lips. As he considered the offer he noticed Virgil chuckling quietly in the kitchen. John eyed his father, trying to seek the authenticity in the request when it hit him.

"You wouldn't happen to need someone to pop into Tracy Industries would you Dad? You know to dot the i's and cross the t's would you?" John asked, knowing the answer.

The Tracy patriarch winced at this, he had known this plan was less that likely to succeed but he had hoped it wouldn't have failed quite so quickly. "Well, that would be helpful. If you could?"

John was trying as hard as he could not to laugh now, he had already decided to accept the offer, but it was always fun to mess with their ever composed father. "Well, I was hoping to catch the meteor shower tomorrow night" he said with an exaggerated sigh, then slowly looked up at his father with the saddest puppy dog eyes he could muster.

Damn, Jeff thought, he never could say no to any of his sons when they pulled that expression. "Well, I guess Virgil could go instead" he said, with an obvious hint of guilt in his voice.

Virgil stopped laughing when he heard this and started scowling at his older brother, daring him to continue with the charade. This destroyed Johns' composure and he was soon struggling to catch breath as he was laughing too hard to recognise normal respiratory functions.

Once he had finally caught his breath, he looked up to see his bewildered father and a seething Virgil. He quickly schooled his expression back to one of a serious nature and said, as dead pan as possible "Well, I guess Virgil does need to get off the island for a while, I mean, it might even do him good".

As the final word left his lips he jumped from the sofa, as within a matter of seconds Virgil had launched himself at John and landed head first into the surprisingly solid sofa. After Virgil had regained enough of his senses to realise what had happened, he went on pursuit of his annoyingly intelligent brother.

*break*

Later that day both John and Virgil were on their way to the mainland. Their father had soon decided after their little scuffle that a small trip together would do both brothers some good. Virgil disagreed with this, but admitted that it would be nice to spend some time with John whilst he was on earth for the next few weeks.

When they arrived in New York it was pouring with rain and almost midnight. Rather than 'light up the town' as Scott had suggested in the multitude of messages he had sent his siblings on the trip there, they agreed to head to the Tracy penthouse and make the most of take-out food and the terrible monster movies which they would no doubt find on one of the hundreds of channels available to them.

*break*

When Virgil awoke the next morning the rain had changed to hail and showed no signs of stopping, and the white light forcing itself into the room made it uncomfortably bright for the recently awoken musician. Slowly he pulled himself out of the cosy cocoon he had made himself and stumbled to the kitchen.

John had been up considerably longer than Virgil, wanting to take full advantage of the 72 inch television in the lounge along with the copious games consoles. He may be a genius, but he was a genius on holiday.

So once John had tired of computer games and both brothers had enjoyed a late brunch they decided to finally bite the bullet and go to Tracy Industry's. It wasn't much of a walk and in all honesty barely any work, but it was always a chore. With people falling over themselves to help them, offering them coffee at every corner and repeatedly mentioning what a 'nice guy' Jeff Tracy was. It was tiring, hence the man himself getting his sons to go in his place. For Virgil it didn't help that Steph on the front desk just didn't seem to understand the word no.

*break*

The moment they walked through the Tracy Industry doors, it was everything that they feared, and Virgil couldn't stop the scowl that appeared on his face as Steph immediately latched on to him and started explaining in torturous detail everything that had happened since he had last visited. Despite trying to figure out how he could sedate the girl without causing suspicion, he noticed John smirking as he led the way to the elevator, he hated his family sometimes.

As expected the work itself passed quickly and only two hours later were close to leaving, and Virgil was even closer to finding a cupboard to lock Steph the human limpet in. As they made their way out of the main office and towards the elevator a loud crash sounded beneath them.

As the fire alarm began to sound and the people around them began to run towards the stair well the brothers studied their surroundings carefully. If there was a fire in the Tracy Industry building the sprinklers would be working by now. And if there were some type of seismic activity their father would have contacted them already. So what the hell was going on?

Making their way towards the main stairwell they saw the elevator doors slowly open stopping them in their tracks.

The Hood.

Now it made sense… sort of…

*break*

End of Chapter 1

And… cliffhanger …