A/N: Bold Italics are transmissions and Italics memories. Alan's memories of The Hood's attack comes from the 2004 film of Thunderbirds
Ever since she had been changed from a normal human girl to a Mysteron-Human hybrid, Paula Metcalfe still spent as much time as she was able to with her five cousins on their tropical island paradise. Her mother had been Jeff Tracy's younger sister and he often looked after her while her parents were away until they were killed. After that, Jeff took Paula into the family and raised her with his five sons as well.
Scott Malcolm, John Glenn, Virgil Grissom, Gordon Cooper and Alan Shepard Tracy loved their cousin and treated her more like their sister than their cousin. Paula was around Scott's age, but six months younger, and joined the Air Force with him after she graduated high school. After serving five years each in the Air Force, Scott returned to Tracy Island to get involved with a project his father had just gotten off the ground and Paula was drafted into Spectrum as one of their most promising agents, she still kept in touch with her cousins, but went to Tracy Island to be with them after Jeff went missing in a crash that was caused by a man called The Hood.
Three years after that, Paula went on a mission to Mars with Conrad Lefkon and was seemingly killed by an alien presence that Conrad had fired upon, mistaking them as an enemy and ignoring Paula's protests that they were only curious about the two humans. Paula was rebuilt as an instrument of destruction and sent to destroy Skybase One, yet Adam Svenson, Captain Blue and a good friend of Paula's, knocked her into a power conduit and unintentionally restored her to her former self before the incident on Mars. After saving Colonel White and the United Nations from Captain Black (Conrad Lefkon), White told Paula to spend some quality time with her family again.
While all that was going on, the Tracy family was normal as always, well…as normal as one older brother trying to keep four younger brothers in check. Grandma Tracy had passed away before Jeff went missing and after Paula left for Mars, Scott was the head of their family. Scott was looking through some invoices for Tracy Enterprises when he got a call on his holographic-phone (holo-phone) from his cousin Paula.
"Long time, no see" he grinned, Paula smiled "what's that racket?" She asked, Scott sighed, "Take a guess," he said "Virgil trying to kill Alan and Gordon again?" She asked, "yeah, what's up?" Scott asked. Paula told him she was taking some time off Spectrum and coming home to Tracy Island "that's great" Scott was speaking loudly as he could barely hear Paula over his arguing and fighting younger three brothers "try not to kill them until I get home, maybe I can sort this out. I thought Virgil was supposed to be the peaceful one" Paula said "Paula, what's that noise in the background?" A man asked "my arguing younger cousins Virgil, Gordon and Alan, Adam" Paula told him as she signed off and Scott went to sort his younger brothers.
"What's going on, Scott?" John asked him from Thunderbird 5 "Paula's coming home!" Scott yelled at the three fighting younger Tracy's "what? Paula's on her way home?" Gordon and Alan paled; they knew they were in trouble from Paula if they were caught annoying Virgil, John or Scott. But Paula was like a kid herself, last time she was home she was involved in a prank on Virgil involving Thunderbird 2 with the Terrible Two of Tracy Island "can't wait! I've missed Paula!" Alan yelled in glee.
"We all have" Virgil smiled as they made their way to the private airstrip they had on the Island and saw the familiar Spectrum helicopter landing "Alan, Gordon, Virgil, Scott!" Paula Metcalfe ran over to her four out of five cousins and hugged them hard.
"Who's this?" Scott asked as a blonde man walked behind Paula "Adam Svenson, my co-worker and best friend" she smiled as she introduced Captain Blue to her rowdy family "Scott's the brunette, Virgil's the black haired, Gordon's the golden blonde and Alan's the blonde" Adam smiled as he shook their hands "pleasure, Paula talks a lot about her family" he said "she talks a lot about her work as well" Virgil told him.
Adam and Paula were taken up to the Tracy Island home, the Tracy's and Paula's childhood home, and Paula hugged her Grandma again "still haven't improved before you ask" she said, Paula shrugged "there's parts of your cooking that we actually do like, Grandma" she said and introduced Adam to her Grandma and her adoptive sister Tanusha Kyrano or Kayo for short. She was the head of Security for their business.
Paula helped her Grandma make dinner and gave her a few tips to keep an eye on her cooking and make it more delicious for the boys and John when he was home from Thunderbird 5 "hey, what's for dinner?" Adam glanced from the paper he was looking at with Scott and saw a redhead man walk in with the blue International Rescue uniform on and an amber sash with a few amber parts of his uniform as well "hey John. Thought you weren't home until tomorrow?" Paula said, Adam introduced himself to Paula's younger cousin "Adam Svenson" John nodded "John Glenn Tracy" the two men got along well and John pulled Adam aside before dinner "just to clarify, you and my cousin are an item?" He asked, "Yeah, I'd die for Paula if needed. She can't really be killed anymore" John looked confused "Paula's tale to tell, John."
John nodded as he went and changed his clothes into something more comfortable "whoa, Grandma got cooking lessons?" He asked, looking at the meal in front of the siblings and their guests "I helped Grandma" Paula said, grinning sheepishly at her grandmother "don't worry, Paula. That's all I needed" she said, knowing her own cooking was usually terrible and she couldn't get the boys to eat any of her cooking. "What's for dinner?" Alan asked cautiously "lasagne and salad" Grandma told the fifth Tracy brother, Alan lit up "yours, Grandma?" He asked "mine and Paula's."
The boys gave Paula, Kayo and Grandma the night off doing the dishes, they cooked so the boys washed the dishes "that was delicious, Paula. I didn't know you could cook" Paula shrugged at Adam "don't really get the time to on Skybase, Adam" she said, her cheeks reddening "so Paula, what've you been getting up to in Spectrum?" Scott asked "well…there's nothing really to tell except the War of Nerves from the Mysterons and the fact one of our officers went rogue" she told her cousin sadly.
Adam placed a hand on her shoulder "she still blames herself for not stopping Conrad Lefkon in time from attacking the Mysteron home world on Mars" he told the Tracy's "hey, you tried" Alan said, latching his arms around his cousin's waist "yeah? Yet they killed me and remade my body into a weapon of destruction. If it wasn't for Adam knocking me into a power conduit, I don't know what would have happened to me" she admitted, "whoa, whoa, time out. You died?" Gordon gawked "long story, Gordon. But when Adam knocked the Mysteron psyche of me into that conduit, it jarred the memories of the real me. Basically I'm a human-Mysteron hybrid. Mysteron body, human psyche" "cool" Paula rolled her eyes at her fourth cousin.
"Tell you one thing, they made a mistake when they did that to Paula" Adam said "how so?" Virgil asked, "The fierce loyalty to those who she loves gives her a barrier against Mysteron control. They can't take control of her again, she's just too strong."
Virgil nodded "that's the same when The Hood tried to kill Alan before our father went missing, he'd attacked Thunderbird 5 and when Dad, Scott, Gordon and I went up to get him, he deactivated the station from Tracy Island and trapped us there. Alan and Kayo were hidden elsewhere on the Island with Brains' son Fermat, if it hadn't been for Alan, we would've died on Thunderbird 5" Virgil explained "that was after I joined Spectrum, Adam. That's why I was so worried for a few days" Paula told him.
"Yeah, I remember you saying something came up about your family" he said as Virgil continued "The Hood took Thunderbird 2 and used one of our machines, The Mole, at the Bank of England in an attempt to rob the bank. He hadn't counted on Alan, Fermat and Kayo following in Thunderbird 1 with Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, our London Agent, to save a monorail car of people from the Thames. Dad took Kayo, Fermat and Alan to the bank and originally told Alan to stay with Parker, Lady Penelope's chauffeur and manservant, but Alan ran after Dad instead of listening. Fermat and Parker dealt with one of The Hood's goons, and Kayo dealt with the other on her own. Alan went to the vault and saw Dad facing off with The Hood."
"Actually, I saw Dad protesting that he wasn't to blame about making The Hood the person he was" Alan took up the story from Virgil "what he said was "did you save all of them this time, Jeff? Or did you leave someone behind?" I've never seen anyone hate someone as much as The Hood hated Dad. Dad protested "I didn't make you what you are" and The Hood sneered it wasn't him he had to convince. Dad only noticed I was there and was looking on in shock at the two men, he ran at The Hood saying "leave my son out of this" but The Hood used his telepathic powers and slammed Dad into a cage where he was holding Lady Penelope. I ran to see if he was all right, The Hood was adamant that we had something in common, but I shot him down. We've got nothing in common, I ran at him and he slammed me into a wall, yet I kept going. Eventually he used his powers on The Mole and I scrambled to the platform where he was and held on to it. Kayo came in and distracted him, the platform sort of broke and I saved him from being killed. I didn't want to save him, but it's just something that's ingrained in our family. That's when I took Dad's place in International Rescue" Alan explained, Paula nodded "yeah, you were only fourteen."
They all went to bed and Paula curled up to Adam's side "finally, a little peace and quiet" he muttered, "Well…if you hear a teenager scream, it's Alan having a nightmare. John or Scott sorts them out" she said, Adam gave her a wry grin as he heard a boy yell in fear "twenty minutes? That's a new record" she smirked as she got up and walked to Alan's room in her shorts and t-shirt she wore for bed "Allie, you okay, baby?" She asked, perching at the side of his bed "not really…" Alan said, Paula looked concerned "same nightmare since Uncle Jeff disappeared?" She asked. Alan nodded "want me to sleep with you tonight? Or are you too old now?" That brought a small smile to Alan's face "please" he asked, "I'll just let Adam know, alright?" She left to let Adam know what was happening "that's fine, he needs you" was all Adam said, Paula smiled and kissed him on the cheek before she left again.
Alan woke in the morning and saw a black haired girl staring down at him "morning sleepyhead" Paula joked, Alan smiled "thanks for last night" he said, Paula hugged him hard "you're family, Allie. I'll always be here for you" she said as they got up and Paula went to get dressed. She still had an ingrained habit of dressing in her scarlet Spectrum uniform, but the boys and Adam didn't mind. They knew she couldn't help it. They were eating breakfast when an alarm went off "International Rescue, we have a situation" John said from Thunderbird 5 "what's going on, John?"
They had received a distress call from Captain Brown and Lieutenant Silver from Spectrum, the Mysterons had caused the submarine they were travelling in to crash and they also had the World President "playtime's over. Back to work" Paula dryly joked "come on, can't they ever give us a break?" Adam complained to his girlfriend. Paula shrugged, she didn't honestly care if she got a break unless the war was won.