Lissysue85-Sadly it was not him that was first through the door. But he did get splattered. I will.
Little Miss Bump-Yep, she's not going let them take the house that easily. That's one of those 'you have got to be kidding' moments I have planned when they realize that it works. Yep, she will be able to contact them. And those will be coming in very useful later, making her very glad she grabbed them. Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it.
foxee-chik-That she can. I'm glad you like it and I'll update as soon as I can.
Chapter Twenty Four- The Hood
Evelyn stifled a laugh as the tall black man that the paint had fallen on growled as he wiped it out of his eyes. His black leather clothing was covered in multiple colors. Behind him stood a bald man in red silk and a woman with bright red hair. The back of her clothing was slick with oil as was the hem of his robes. Flecks of paint had also managed to get onto their clothing. The black man stepped out of the puddle of paint and moved over to where Brains sat at the desk.
"Wh-h-h-ho-o-o-o-o-o, h-ho-o-o-w-w-w-w-w," Brains stuttered as the man grabbed him and promptly drug him to the other side of the room and pushed him down onto the couch. The bald man in red looked around the room.
"So this is Mount Olympus," the man commented as he looked around the room. Evelyn watched as he turned and looked at the mural on the wall behind the desk.
"And these are the Thunderbirds. I should have guessed. Jeff Tracy," he sneered as Evelyn saw him step towards the painted figure of her father in the center of the wall. Understanding dawned on Evelyn. He was after the Thunderbirds. "The billionaire ex- astronaut, of course. Wasn't he the one who had a wife that died in an accident? Avalanche wasn't it? How tragic."
Evelyn narrowed her eyes at the man as he turned away from the mural and continued to look around the room. The red haired women walked up to where Brains sat nervously on the couch. "Professor Hackenbacker? We met at last year's international conference on nanotechnology. I thought your thesis on neutrinos was extremely… stimulating."
Evelyn stuck her tongue out and gagged as the man in red scolded her. She was hitting on Brains! Evelyn was suddenly very glad she was in the vent and didn't have to witness it up close. The women that the man had called Transom apologized before pulling out a small hand held gadget. She then turned and walked towards the desk. "The command and control switch is here."
She pushed the button hidden underneath the edge of the desk and out slid a small panel. "Fingerprint recognition system."
The man in red turned towards Brains. "Professor Hackenbacker, please. Activate the control switch."
Evelyn rolled her eyes at the man. As if Brains would willingly do what the man wanted. The black man beside him lifted Brains to his feet and the man stepped forward to stand in front of Brains. Evelyn noticed that he was extremely short.
"F-f-f-f," Evelyn felt her jaw drop. No way. Brains was going drop the F- Bomb! "No way."
The man in red sighed. "Professor, you and I share a common interest in the powers of the mind. The difference is I was born with my powers. Even the strongest minds can be broken. It would be a pity to break yours. Trust me when I tell you when you've barely touched the surface."
Brains just glared back down at him. The man sighed and looked down for a moment before looking back up at Brains. Evelyn frowned as Brains suddenly tensed as the man looked up at him. "Activate the control switch prof!"
Evelyn watched as Brains looked at the man in horror as he seemed to move forward towards the desk against his will. The man in red had his hand outstretched towards Brains and was laughing at the engineers jerky movements towards the switch. "Like a puppet of a string."
He has some sort to mind control powers, Evelyn thought as she watched Brains move closer to the desk. Brains hand hovered just over the switch for a moment as he struggled against the man's control. The man in red slightly pushed his hand forward and Brains hand made contact with the sensor. The computer the announced, "Switching to Command and Control."
Evelyn watched as the room below her switched from her father's normal office into International Rescue's Command and Control. The invader's of their home watched in fascination as the room changed around them. The mural on the wall faded and was replaced with the portraits of her father and brothers, behind which was the lifts to the Thunderbirds silos.
As the room finished changing, Brains sat down in the chair in front of the computers. Not even a moment later, the black man pulled him out of it. "Get up. Get up!"
"Sorry professor!" Transom stated as Brains was pulled away and she sat down in the chair. "Nothing personal."
Oh yeah. Invading our home isn't personal, Evelyn thought sarcastically as the women turned to the nearest computer and began working the controls. The man in red then adjusted one of the monitor's as he said, "Attention Thunderbird Five. As you can see, I have taken over your facilities."
"Warm them up, Transom," the man ordered as he looked away from the screen and towards Transom. She nodded before turning back to the computer. "Increasing temperature, to maximum."
"Who are you? What do you want?!" Evelyn heard her father ask over the communication link to the space station. The man was looking away from the screen and at the various items that sat on the desk. "You can call me the Hood."
The Hood came back to the computer screen and looked at the faces of her family that Evelyn could not see from the angle she was on. "Now, Mr. Tracy, we won't be negotiating. I'm going to use the Thunderbirds to rob the largest banks in the world, starting with the Bank of England. The world's monetary system will be thrown into chaos and the Thunderbirds held responsible."
Evelyn glared through the darkness of the vent at the Hood as she heard her eldest brother shout, "You'll never get away with it!"
Damn right he won't get away with it, she thought as she continued to glare. She heard her father ask, "Why the Thunderbirds?"
"An eye for an eye, Mister Tracy," the Hood replied. Evelyn's glare turned to a frown. What in the world was he talking about?
"An eye for an eye?" she heard her father ask.
"Perhaps you've forgotten me, but surely you remember saving the life of my brother, Kyrano?" the Hood responded. In the vent, Evelyn's jaw dropped. From the doorway, two more men in black with backs covered in oil brought Kyrano and Onaha into the room. The one holding Kyrano pushed him forward as he stared at the Hood in shock. He then turned to the nearest screen, "I'm sorry, Mr. Tracy. I thought he was dead!"
The Hood laughed and waved a hand, "Take them away! But first have them clean up the paint and oil on the floor."
"Yes sir," replied one of the men as he grabbed Kyrano before ushering him and his wife from the room. The Hood then moved to one of the chairs between two different computers and sat down. "You left me to die that day. You may have broken my body but you've no idea how powerful my mind has become. Now you will suffer, like I suffered, waiting for a rescue that will never come."
As he leaned back in the chair and looked up at the ceiling, he motioned with his hand towards Transom. Evelyn heard her father shout just before the connection was closed. From somewhere in the vents, someone sneezed. Brains managed to cover it up by pulling out his hand towel just in time as everyone in the room below her looked towards him. The second sneeze a few moments later was not so easy to cover up and echoed through the vents. Evelyn grimaced and whispered, "Oh no."
"Run!" Alan's voice echoed through the vents. From the angle she was on, Evelyn saw the black man reach up into the second vent in the room. Fermat's yell could be heard and the man grabbed what Evelyn assumed was his leg. The man suddenly pulled his hand away with a yell. Evelyn the heard Alan yell, "Jump! This'll take us to the silos!"
Evelyn heard their yells fade into the distance as the fell down the vent. Part of her wanted to follow them but the other part of her told her that if she really wanted to accomplish anything and piss them off some more, she would have to stay hidden. The Hood looked angrily at the man as examined his hand. "Apparently, the island is not as secure as you thought, Mullion."
The Hood looked away from Mullion and to one of the shelves that lined the room. Evelyn noticed him look closely at the picture of her, her mother and her brothers taken the year before she died.
"Children," the Hood stated, turning away from the picture to look at Mullion. "Did you find any children?"
"Here they are!" Transom announced in victory. The Hood and Mullion looked towards the screen she was looking at. "Thunderbird Two silo, loading arm."
"Seal them in!" Mullion hissed, gesturing to the other two men in the group to follow him.
"Looks like just outside this door and straight ahead is a larger elevator that will take you down," Transom explained as she looked at the computer. Up in the vent, Evelyn watched as the three men walked out of the room and towards where she knew the larger elevator down to the silos was located.
The Hood looked to the picture once more before looking towards Brains. "There are only three children down in the silos and one of them I know to be my brother's daughter. Where is Jeff Tracy's daughter?"
Evelyn held her breath as she watched the Hood step closer to Brains with each word he said. "C-c-c-c-university."
"Ah, so she is not a Thunderbird as her father and brothers are," the Hood said to himself as he walked away Brains. Nothing more about Evelyn was said as Transom called over her shoulder, "Mullions down. Two of them got him with the Firefly while the third used the Thunderizer to get into Thunderbird One's silo."
The Hood growled and Evelyn watched as he walked over to Scott's portrait that would take him down to said silo. As the portrait slid shut and the lift activated, she saw Brains glance up at the vent hole that Evelyn was in. A few minutes later, Evelyn heard Mullion call through the communications system, "Transom! Fire up Thunderbird One! And set to broil!"
"No," Evelyn whispered. They had said that one of them, most likely Alan, had used the Thunderizer to get through the door to the silo and she knew from the few times she had been down there that it led you right underneath Thunderbird One.
Mullion entered the room a few minutes later with a towel in his hand as Transom looked at the computer. "No sign of them!"
Mullion laughed and grinned as he used the towel to wipe of the fire retardant from the Firefly. "Of course not! The little brats went up like fire crackers. Pop, pop, pop!"
In the vent, Evelyn lost all color. Her only younger brother was dead, all because of some mad man wanting revenge. She looked down to see Brains had stood rushed up to Mullion.
"Don't give him the satisfaction professor," the Hood stated. Brain's fist stopped before he could do anything to Mullion and Brains looked down in defeat and sorrow. "This is taking far too long. We are wasting far too much time. Transom, Mullion; choose the equipment we need to break into the vault and load it into Thunderbird Two."
Evelyn watched as the Hood, Transom and Mullion left the room and the two remaining tied Brains up. Evelyn felt all her sadness at the death of her brother and friends turn to anger as she watched them leave to go down to Thunderbird Two's silo. They wouldn't get away with killing her family and tarnishing the reputation of the Thunderbirds as long as she was alive. With a set plan in mind, she took her backpack and crawled along the vents heading towards the bedrooms of her and her family.