Tracy Island

It had been several days since The Hood's defeat and there was still no sign of Alan or their mysterious hero. Lady Penelope had come up with no clues either in her search. It was like none of her contacts even knew anything. Or, they just didn't want to say anything. But, someone must know something. You can't take down a criminal organisation without someone hearing something about it.

Jeff was determined to get to the bottom of it.

That was why he now stood in the small, cramped server room as he watched John tinker away at what was left of the computer storage devices. Most of it was smashed to pieces and beyond recognition but somehow John had found a way to retrieve some data from the thing and he had quickly called in his father and brothers.

"What have you found, John?" Jeff asked

"Well, there wasn;t much left but I was finally able to transfer some of the back-up data. There wasn't much left but I got what I could" John explained

"Show us" Jeff said

John nodded. He brought up a small tablet from his bag and plugged it into the servers. A few seconds went by as the data downloaded onto the tablet. Jeff couldn't make much sense of it. It was all just 1's and 0's to him.

"Most of it's just footage from the jungle cams and other irrelevant areas but I was able to find a few things that might be of interest" John said as he continued to fiddle with his tablet.

John pressed play and held up his tablet for the others to see. The first thing that came up was an image of the hanger where three of The Hood's men were loading equipment into Thunderbird 2. Then, they saw a large, dark-skinned man in black armour step into view.

Jeff quickly recognised the guy as Mullion. The Hood's muscleman. He was quietly talking with another one of The Hood's henchman as the other two were busy loading The Mole into Thunderbird 2.

The video skipped and the next thing they saw was just one of The Hood's men tinkering about the hanger with the others out of shot. Suddenly, a blur ran across the screen and kicked the henchman in the face. The henchman went flying backwards.

"Whoa…" Scott said, marvelled

"Can you tell who it is?" Jeff asked

John tried to zoom in on the picture, but the data was too damaged for a clear picture. The closer he tried to get, the fuzzier the face got "That's all we're gonna get"

Jeff swore under his breath. Why was nothing going right?

Then, they saw Mullion climb down the ramp of Thunderbird 2 and yell something in the direction of the man. Two henchmen charged forwards but the other quickly took them down with little effort using knives.

Jeff was impressed to say the least. Whoever it was, they were highly trained and a formidable enemy.

But, he was just frustrated that he wasn't able to get a clear view of him.

Then, they watched as a fight between Mullion and the other man took place. Jeff internally winced several times as the guy was thrown into walls and onto Brains' desk. No matter how hard this guy tried, Mullion didn't seem to be going down.

But, then something Jeff wasn't expecting happened. The guy yelled something and took out a gun, shooting Mullion once in the leg.

'Well, that explains the blood we found in the hanger' Jeff thought

Mullion instantly went down and the guy took his radio. There was some kind of conversation going on that neither Jeff nor the others could hear.

None of the sounds could be recovered so they just had to go with what they saw.

The conversation finished and the guy tossed down the radio and smashed it.

The camera feed went fuzzy and pixelated into a grey screen as the video ended.

"That's all I was able to recover from that camera. Next bit's coming up" John said as he selected yet another video

This time there was sound so Jeff had a clear idea of what was going on. The camera was pointing at Jeff's desk and they saw The Hood talking with a ginger-haired girl – Transom.

"Where is he Transom?" The Hood slammed his hands on the desk.

"I-I don't know, sir" The woman responded. Jeff could tell that she was absolutely frightened of the man she had been working for.

Jeff watched for a few moments as nothing but silence came from the recording while Transom was typing away at the computer. Then, they heard a voice call from out of shot.

"Love what you've done with the place"

Jeff frowned. He knew that voice. He watched as The Hood argued with whomever it was that was out of shot. Jeff would bet that it was the same guy that had taken Mullion on earlier.

"Yeah, I'm afraid all E.O.S.T.C agents have at least some kind of training to resist your kind of powers so I'm afraid your last card ain't such a winning hand after all"

Jeff frowned and looked up at Scott "You ever heard of the E.O.S.T.C?" he asked. Scott had been in the air force for several years and was the most likely to know about it.

"Not one I've ever heard of" Scott shook his head

"Gordon?" Jeff asked instead

"I never heard of anything like that while I was in WASP" Gordon shrugged

Jeff turned back to the video and watched as the guy and The Hood continued to argue about the mine rescue. Apparently, The Hood had powers of some kind. That he had caused the earthquake that led to the collapse.

Jeff would have to let Lady Penelope know about that. Who knows how many other people who could do something like that were out in the world?

Jeff continued to listen as The Hood talked. He had killed three agents of this…E.O.S.T.C? Whatever the hell that meant.

Suddenly, the guy talking to The Hood walked into view of the camera. Jeff's eyes bulged. There was a simultaneous gasp of shock from his sons as they all stared at the screen.

"Is that…" Virgil started

"It can't be" Scott countered

But, Jeff could see it as clear as day.

Alan.

It was Alan holding a gun in his hands and aiming it at The Hood. Jeff couldn't believe what he was seeing. Surely this was some kind of fakery. There was no way Alan could do those things.

Jeff would know if his son was capable of this. He just would.

Then, Alan asked if The Hood had any final words to say. When The Hood didn't respond. The Hood asked something of Alan and Alan seemed to freeze for a moment as he thought of something. But as quickly as that look appeared, Alan seemed to shake himself out of it.

"Believe me, Mr Trangh, I have plenty" Alan said

Jeff gasped and held his hand over his mouth in shock when Alan pulled the trigger and The Hood collapsed to the floor. Scott and his other sons gave out similar exclamations of horror as they witnessed their brother kill someone.

"Oh, my god" John gasped, not willing to believe it

And, that wasn't all. Alan proceeded to restrain Transom and then mess around with Command and Control. Jeff realised that it was Alan who had set them free from Thunderbird 5.

The last thing they heard Alan say made Jeff's ears perk up

"Higgins, requesting pickup in 20"

"Scott, contact Lady Penelope" Jeff said. When he saw his son standing in the same place, unmoving he repeated "Scott…I need you to get Lady Penelope and tell her what we've found. She'll need to know" Jeff reasoned

Scott only seemed half aware of what was going on around him but he nodded anyway and took off back to his father's office to call Lady Penelope.

Jeff looked at John "Is there anything else?"

John swallowed the lump in his throat. He had just seen his youngest brother murder someone. He nodded at his father "Just one more that Alan's in" he said as he pressed the play button

The recording switched to the view of the corridor outside Alan's room. Three unknown men were walking into Alan's room with Alan following on behind. They were there for about fifteen minutes until two men left the room and headed away. About another minute later, Alan and the third guy walked out. They said something to each other as they walked away.

Jeff could just about make out the bright orange glow of flames coming from inside Alan's room.

John pressed the pause button on his tablet and the room quickly became silent. Jeff couldn't utter a single word. John, Gordon and Virgil were in similar shape.

Not one of them knew what to say. Alan, the youngest Tracy sibling was a murderer. A killer working with a group of other killers.

Jeff couldn't believe it. He refused to believe it. This couldn't be Alan. Not his Alan.

But…the video proved it. Alan really did kill The Hood. He really did take on all those men. He shot people and kidnapped others.

Alan had set fire to his own room. He had had something to do with his whole file being erased. He erased the footage to cover it up. He was a part of everything.

Jeff rubbed a hand down his face and sighed.

What was he supposed to do now?

Jeff sat in his office chair and stared at the photo frame that was sat on his desk. He had found it on the floor when he first tidied up his office when he got back but Jeff had immediately found a new frame for it and placed it right back where it was.

He stared at Alan's young, childish face. This was probably the only photo left of Alan, Jeff realised. The only one left of all of them together. All the other digital ones were gone. Erased. Even the ones kept safe in his private folder on his personal computer.

Jeff didn't know how long he had been sitting there just thinking but he looked up when he heard a knock on the door. Scott was waiting patiently by the door and Jeff waved him in.

Scott took a seat across from his father "Lady Penelope's looking into this…E.O.S.T.C thing. She hadn't heard of it either but she's gonna talk to some people and try to find something on them"

Jeff nodded silently, only half listening.

"Is there anything I can do father?" Scott asked. He hated not knowing what to do. Scott was always a man of action, always ready to leap into the fray. This waiting around thing wasn't exactly his favourite thing in the world.

"I don't know Scott" Jeff sighed and placed his head in his hands and sighed tiredly "Can you turn back time?" there was no anger in his voice, only sadness "Can you take me back and stop your brother?" he asked "I don't know what I'm gonna do. One minute I think me, you, John, Virgil and Gordon are going to die and now…this"

"We have to wait father" Scott said gently "We have to see what Lady Penelope comes up with. Hopefully, we'll be able to get Alan back before he gets himself into even more trouble"

Jeff nodded, agreeing with his son.

"Thank you Scott"

"Father" Scott nodded and left his father's office.

Jeff pushed himself out from his seat and walked over to the window- as he always did when he needed to think.

All he knew was that he needed to find Alan. Alan needed his help and the first thing he had to was find him.

Somehow these people are forcing Alan to do the things he did

'Yes, that's what this is' he thought 'They must have something on Alan to make him do this. Alan wasn't a killer. He was just a boy'

Jeff knew one thing- he was going to get his son back.

Soon.

E.O.S.T.C

Alan couldn't be happier. He was in the Desert Training Hall with several other agents. For hours, they had been beating the shite out of each other.

And Alan loved every second of it.

This was where he belonged. Right here with his real brothers. His real family. The ones that had his back in a fight and the ones that cared for him like no-one else.

Suddenly, Alan got a blast of sand in his face that one of the agents had kicked up at him. The other agent used the distraction to tackle Alan to the ground. Alan chuckled as they both went tumbling to the ground in a heap.

"Cheeky bastard!" Alan laughed as he laid on the floor, taking a deep breath to refill his winded lungs.

The other agents nearby laughed at the two of them good-naturedly.

A shadow cast over him as Alex came over to him "Well, look at you" Alex teased as he held a hand out to Alan.

Alan smirked as he went to grab the offered hand but quickly changed his mind and pulled Alex down onto the ground with him.

"Whoa…" Alex squawked as he fell on top of Alan.

Ala rolled the two of them over until he was on top of Alex. He then quickly pressed their lips together in a heated kiss.

"Alright, alright, that's enough you two" Higgins said as he came over to them with a smirk on his face "Training Hall are for training not for make-out sessions" he said as he rolled his eyes. He couldn't keep the amused look off his face as he walked away.

"Sorry" Alan and Alex said at the same time.

Oh, yes. This was definitely where Alan was meant to be. And, he had no plans of leaving.