Chapter 4

Scott screamed, reaching out. "No!"

The suit trapping his brother disappeared over the edge and was gone.

God, no. No, no, no, no.

He staggered over to the edge, his comms yelling in his ears. He crept up to the precipice, terrified to look, but forced to by the tiniest amount of hope.

About twenty metres down, his brother lay sprawled on his back in the snow. On a ledge next to a further hundred metre drop.

As he watched, two mechas detached from his brother's suit and flew upwards. He flung himself backwards, throwing his hands up to protect himself.

They ignored him.

Flying straight up, they passed out of sight.

"John." His voice was hoarse. "Can you track them?"

"They're gone." The impreciseness of his reply betrayed John's state of mind. "He's still alive, Scott."

"He is?" His heart hurt so much.

"That power reading is gone."

"They're gone?"

"They're gone."

"John, you have Thunderbird One. Gordon, full altitude retrieval pack. Stretcher." A pause. "And bolt cutters."

-o-o-o-

It took Scott ten agonising minutes to reach his brother, both Gordon and John hovering above and on his comline. It took another twenty for him to extricate Virgil from the suit. There was some dark pleasure in severing the mechanical connections to ensure it would never work again.

Then it was attending to the still bleeding puncture wound on his right arm – a spike of metal still protruding from it, spine and shoulder stabilisation, along with a full body splint for his left side.

Virgil remained unconscious the entire time. No response. Once he was secured in the stretcher, ready to be pulled up by Gordon above, Scott cupped his brother's hair in his hand, leant over and touched a trembling kiss to his forehead.

His hands were shaking.

"Gordon, haul us up."

-o-o-o-

Hospitals varied. Fortunately, New Zealand hospitals were rated amongst the best. They ended up at Wellington Hospital in the country's capital. Unfortunately, Thunderbird Two was too big for their helipad, so International Rescue would be footing the bill for lawn repairs at the local oval.

But Virgil was still alive when they made it.

He was still alive after surgery.

He was still alive two days later.

But he wasn't awake.

Tracy Island was in an uproar. Brains was completely beside himself with horror at the thought one of their family being tortured in the attempt to gain access to their technology by their technology.

Both John and EOS were losing sleep in the attempt to track down the Mechanic. The fact they could not detect him anywhere, was frightening. The thought that this kind of thing could happen again was the stuff of nightmares.

And there were plenty to be had. No member of the family was free of them. Scott fell asleep in the chair beside his brother several times only to wake screaming, the suit disappearing over the edge so many times.

Virgil didn't even twitch.

-o-o-o-

Sally Tracy had had moments in her life of true pain. She had lost so many members of her family, sometimes she wondered if she could bear losing another.

Her second eldest grandson was almost as pale as the bedsheets he was lying on. One arm was wrapped in a bandage, the other in a cast. His dark hair was tousled and a contrasting smear against the white.

Her eldest grandson was sprawled in the chair on the opposite side of the bed to her. His almost equally dark hair splayed out on the covers as he slept the sleep of the thoroughly exhausted. She'd only allowed him to stay because at the suggestion of a break he had almost fallen as pale as his brother.

These two were a pair. Two pieces of a puzzle different to each other in a way that enabled them to fit together perfectly.

Consequently, when one fell, the other one fell with him.

Not to say the rest of the family fell any less. Both Gordon and John were haunted. They had refused to tell her the full story, but she had enough to give her nightmares already.

She held Virgil's right hand in hers, her fingers caressing his.

"Dear Virgil." Her voice was little more than a whisper. "We so miss your music." A hitch in her breath. "Please come back to us."

International Rescue was on full stand down. They were a mess. Brains had frozen all but the most necessary assets in order to give every piece of equipment a thorough security check and reinforcement. Kayo was caught between the security of the island, Virgil, and hunting down the Mechanic. Sally almost felt pity for him if she found him.

Almost.

Gordon was caught up in the 'what if' circular frame of thought. She was going to have to pin him down and have a talk with him at some point. Probably John as well. The astronaut had almost cut himself off from conversation, his only contact a random appearance from time to time to hover over his brother. With the security breach, Brains had demanded that both he and EOS return to Earth for safety. Both had protested rather loudly, but Scott had stepped in, and Sally suspected it was more the exhaustion on his eldest brother's face that had made John relent than anything else.

Alan had been out of contact on a mission at the time of the incident and had the unenviable situation of returning to a very different home to that from which he had left. There had been tears.

Scott…wasn't sleeping. He had craters around his eyes. The fact he was out cold at this very moment was simply due to the fact that his body gave out.

"Grandma?" Two drowsy brown eyes were staring at her.

"Oh, god, Virgil." She squeezed his hand. "How do you feel?"

He frowned. "Foggy. What happened?"

She hesitated. "What do you remember?"

The frown deepened. "Gordon hates snow." Virgil's eyes unfocussed a moment. "He wants to crash in the tropics."

A small smile. "Sounds about right."

"Where's Scott?"

She gestured in the direction of his brother.

Virgil sluggishly moved his head. "Oh." A swallow. "What happened to him?"

"He's just tired. He's been busy."

"Huh." Virgil's eyes were drifting closed again. "Make sure he gets enough sleep. Or he'll…get grumpy." And Virgil was asleep again.

She lent up and gently kissed him on the forehead. Turning, as expected, her eyes were caught by a pair of blue.

She returned his tired smile.

-o-o-o-

It took weeks. Both for Virgil to recover and for International Rescue to get back on its feet. Scott tried his best not to think too hard about the possibility of lives being lost during that time because they were not available. All calls had been redirected through local channels and what little help they could give had been given.

Virgil claimed that he didn't remember much about the incident. He had been both traumatised and suffered a head injury from the fall, so it was entirely possible. Scott had chased it up with several doctors and the feedback all said the same thing. The scans said there was no damage, amnesia was a possibility due to the initial injury or for psychological reasons. The only way to handle it was to let Virgil take one day at a time.

And so he did. First in hospital, then at home, then through the horrible rehabilitation period where he had to work both his arm and torn shoulder back to health.

The day he finally sat in front of his piano and shakily tapped out a tune was an emotional one.

Once all their equipment was thoroughly approved by both Brains and Kayo, the last remaining question was what to do with the rest of Virgil's exo-suits.

No-one else could use them, they were specially designed for Virgil's rather large frame. Scott didn't even want to look at them. He was still waking in the middle of the night with one of them starring in the role of ultimate nightmare material. But there was also the consideration of how many lives those pieces of equipment had saved, not to mention the fact that even while corrupted, that last suit had still saved his brother – it had broken his fall.

Could they afford to deny themselves the use of this valuable equipment?

In the end it was decided to ask Virgil. After all they were his.

"What do you mean?" The question echoed around the hanger.

"Do you think you would be comfortable using your exo-suits?"

"Why wouldn't I?" His brother was staring at him.

Scott frowned. "You are aware of what happened with the last suit you used?"

"Yes, apparently it got possessed, broke a few bones, stuck a hole in me, and threw me off a cliff. Your point?"

"This isn't a joking matter, Virgil."

"I'm not joking, Scott. Those exo-suits save a lot of lives. So a megalomaniac screwed around with the last one. Why should we deny innocent people help we can give them just because of that asshole?"

"So you'll have no problem wearing them?"

"If I do, I'll just have to get over it. There are more important things."

"You're sure?"

"Why is it when I make a decision you feel the need to get it in triplicate?"

"Because I'm worried about you, Virgil."

"Well, you don't have to be. I told you, I hardly remember anything. And I don't want to be put in the position where someone is going to die just because I can't get over myself."

Scott wondered if Virgil realised he had just contradicted his previous statement. If he didn't remember much, what did he need to get over?

"Okay. Then I'd like you to try one on, just to make sure you are comfortable."

"What? Now?"

"No better time than the present." So okay, it was a direct challenge, but then he needed to know his brother could handle this. It wasn't something that could be left to the field.

Virgil shrugged. "Okay." He looked down at himself. "Just let me grab my uniform." He disappeared up the stairs.

Scott looked up at Thunderbird Two. Such an echo of his brother. She, too, had needed some repairs. EOS hadn't been gentle when she had defended the ship. Gordon ended up with two small burns on his right hand and several important pieces of circuitry had needed full replacements. But as Brains, and later Virgil, had reassured her, it had been worth it.

She had also stood in as an advisor as to what defences could be installed to prevent this from happening again. All their remotes had been reconfigured, their casings reinforced to the point that a nuclear warhead might not even reach the internal circuitry.

The exo-suits – Brains and John had thought long and hard on that one. They were mostly mechanical, they enhanced Virgil's natural body strength and took directions from his movement. As far as they could decipher, the mechas had managed to interface at that point – by trapping Virgil in the framework, he provided the support while the mechas provided the processing power and direction of the functions. This wasn't something easily prevented. So they came at it from another angle. The new suits all had the capability to completely disassemble at will. Virgil should never be caught, unable to get out. A double switch was located in both sleeves, that when activated, the suit fell apart, freeing the wearer. No support equalled no zombie suit situations.

There was the hiss of an object approaching at speed and he looked up to see the chute extender deploy. A moment later his brother shot out, fully dressed in his uniform, and flung himself into the cockpit of Thunderbird Two.

The lower hatch deployed and Virgil walked over to him.

"You know I think you really enjoy that."

"Yeah, 'course I do. Who wouldn't?"

And no, Scott was not going to answer that.

He led his brother over to the module bay and activated the door of Module Two. Without a word, they both entered and there, waiting to be deployed, was an exo-suit.

They both stood there a moment. "Well, go ahead." Scott gestured his brother forward.

Virgil shrugged and stepped into the suit. A whirr of servos as it deployed, wrapping itself around his brother. Scott froze, his heart in his throat.

The stuff of nightmares.

He shook himself. He'd have to get over himself as well.

Virgil was standing still, a blank look on his face.

"Virgil?"

He looked up. "Huh?"

"You okay?"

"Uh, fine." He waved his claw around and flexed his pincer.

Scott shivered.

"Are you okay?" Virgil's eyes had narrowed and were pinned on him.

"I'm good."

He could tell Virgil didn't believe him. His brother took a step forward.

Scott took a step back.

Virgil pressed his lips together. "Sure." Stepping backwards he disengaged the suit, slipping his arms easily from the sleeves, only to stop and freeze a moment.

Scott waited. Virgil stared at his left hand. He mouthed a whisper Scott couldn't quite hear.

"Virg?"

"Huh?"

"Am I allowed to ask if you are okay?"

His brother glared at him but didn't confirm or deny anything.

Sighing, Scott walked over to him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "C'mon, Virgil. Admit it, this is going to take some more time."

A look, a flicker of vulnerability quickly masked. "I guess."

"What if we come down here every day and give it another go. Eventually we will get so sick of the sight of it, we won't care anymore."

Virgil was looking at his hand again, distracted. "Okay."

He squeezed his shoulders.

Not okay, but getting there.

-o-o-o-

Several degrees north of nowhere, the Mechanic sifted through the information the drones had captured. He had the codes, he had the capability, now he just need to find an out of the way place with the resources he needed.

As his eyes landed on Gran Roca Ranch, he smiled.

-o-o-o-

FIN