Chapter Twelve

Tracy Island

A grim faced Peter walked through the corridors and hallways into the main house which the discretely hidden outside camera's had shown the intruders were heading for. He didn't know who these people were but he knew he had to do his best to stop them getting inside and gaining access to Jeff's office and the underground complex.

An equally grim Gear walked beside him all the while wondering to himself who these people who had tracked the Thunderbirds to this island paradise were since it was perfectly logical to conclude that the subs builders were the same people who had tagged Thunderbird One with the nanobots. And he also agreed with Peter that they had most likely attacked Thunderbird Five – a meteor impacting the station right before this sub showed up was too much of a convenient coincidence to explain otherwise. Peter's missile idea was more likely – fire a missile at the space station and cause serious damage creating a situation that the Thunderbirds would immediately respond to. Incidentally leaving Tracy Island almost completely deserted allowing them to move in without interference. He had to admit that it was an excellent plan.

It didn't take Gear and Peter long to reach the main house and the living room. The corridors and chambers cut into the rock were actually part of the main residential complex after all built to allow access to Jeff's office and to storage areas. The intruders were not in the main building yet through they could see them just coming on to the sundeck besides the diving pool.

There were five of them. Three men in black body armour and the biggest of the three looked familiar to Gear and he tried to place the man. A quick search of Backpacks files provided an answer. The man called himself Mullion a former pro wrestler turned mercenary he was also a metahuman with strength that rivalled Superman's. The other two people were a man and a woman. The woman was wearing a catsuite and did not look that imposing. The last man was bald and wore a strange red robe with golden oriental dragons embroidered on it and he wore black gloves. Backpack identified him as a criminal mastermind who referred to himself as The Hood. Backpacks file on him was limited so Gear had little knowledge of what the man got up to.

Before he and Peter went out to confront the intruders he paused, turned to look at Peter and took three zap caps from one of the storage pouches on his belt.

"Here you might need these," he said to the older man. "The larger two deploy restraints the smaller one will deliver a powerful but harmless shock." Peter took the offered zap caps from Gear. They would come in handy when dealing with the intruders.

"Thank you," he said to Gear. "Now lets get out there and see if we can politely persuade our uninvited guests to leave. Or give them a good thrashing if they don't leave."

"Watch out for that big black guy," Gear advised Peter. "I've heard of him he's a metahuman mercenary called Mullion. His power is super strength. You better leave him to me."

"That might be wise," Peter replied as he opened the patio doors and they stepped out into the bright sunshine.

Peter put on his best indignant tone as he spoke next.

"Who are you?" he said to the approaching group as he and Gear walked down the steps to the sundeck. "This is private property. Leave now and I assure you no charges will be brought against you."

The bald man came forward and just looked at Peter and Peter immediately sensed the evil radiating from the man.

"Please do not try false games with me," the man said. "We know this place is the base for International Rescue. Take us to the control room."

"No chance," Peter replied dropping the pretence of an annoyed island resident.

"Take us to the control room," the bald man repeated as a strange glow came into his eyes. Peter stiffened as he felt a force enter his mind pushing at him. A terrible compulsion to do what he was told began to build within him. He tried to fight against it but he could feel the compulsion winning.

Fortunately for Peter Gear realised what was going on, realised that the Hood was somehow mentally influencing Peter and did something about it. He threw a zap cap at the Hood. The zap cap impacted the Hood and expanded into a series of metal robes that wrapped around the Hood pinning his arms to his sides. The force of impact knocked the Hood backwards to land flat on his back smacking his head hard on the ground breaking his concentration.

Peter staggered momentarily as the compulsion disappeared from his head. That had been unpleasant.

"Get them," the angered Hood shouted.

Mullion and the two guards charged forwards while Transom moved to help the Hood get out of the restrain. Gear activated his boots and took to the air before throwing an energy zap cap at Mullion striking the big metahuman bang on. Over the years he had developed impeccable aim. The zap cap exploded and Mullion howled in fury and pain staggering as the energy arcs played across his body and suddenly Mullion found himself on the edge of the diving pool on the verge of falling in.

He would have recovered his balance but Peter struck at that moment landing a powerful kick to Mullion's torso. Though it didn't hurt him physically the force of the impact sent Mullion yelling backwards into the diving pool creating an enormous splash.

One of the two other hired hands dove at Peter. Peter grabbed his arm and in a quick martial arts move sent him flying over his shoulder to land on the steps up to the main house. Peter started to move towards the second hired hand only for Mullion to haul himself out the pool at that moment and try to grab him from behind. Peter dropped to the deck and rolled away to the side evading Mullions attempted at a grab.

Mullion whirled angry that his quarry had gotten away from him, no one dumped him in a swimming pool and got away with it. He started to advance towards Peter only for Peter to get back to his feet swing around and throw one of the restraint zap caps which caught Mullion full on enveloping him in its metallic robes.

Mullion fell forward to land flat on his face. Howling in rage he tried to break the restraint that held him to find it didn't move. Straining with every ounce of strength that he had he tried to break the restraint again. Eventually it gave but it took a worrying amount of effort to break the restraint.

Working on the Hood's restraint Transom at last managed to trip its release mechanism and the restraint came off. Transom helped the Hood get his feet back under him. Gear seeing what was going on threw two zap caps aiming for the Hood and Transom. Concentrating the Hood telekinetically grabbed both zap caps and sent them flying back at Gear. Gear evaded one, the other struck him and Gear suddenly found himself wrapped in one of his own restraints. Reaching out telekinetically again the Hood grabbed hold of Gear and pushed him hard into a palm tree.

The impact knocked Gear's boot jets out and Gear plummeted to the ground landing on his rump hard. With part of his mind Gear ran a quick diagnostic even as he started to get back to his feet. The shock of the impact had damaged the jets on the right boot. Repair nanobots in the boot were already working on it but he wouldn't be able to fly again until the damaged antigrav jets were repaired.

Giving the Hood an annoyed look Gear released the restraint with a single quick command to backpack. He started to get back to his feet. Seeing this the Hood struck again telekinetically picking the hero up and slamming him into the palm tree again. The second impact with the tree stunned Gear, but the Hood wasn't finished, he pulled Gear away from the tree before slamming him into it for a third time. This time Gear crumpled knocked unconscious by the impact.

One obstacle dealt with the Hood turned to see how Mullion and the two guards he'd brought from the sub were doing, inwardly wincing at the headache that was starting to pound away inside his skull. He couldn't use his powers without paying a price usually in the form of a headache. Though none of his many minions – with the exception of Transom – knew that.

The Hood could see that Mullion was having fun trying to get a hold of Peter. The other man was quick and agile and appeared to have a battery of martial arts skills that he was using to great effect. Sighing inwardly the Hood realised that he was going to have to intervene directly.

Again he reached out telekinetically and as Peter landed from a somersault over Mullions head pulled Peter's feet from under him. Peter hit the floor hard and was momentarily stunned by force of the impact. It was all the time Mullion needed to restrain him and tie his hands behind his back with a set of zip cuffs.

"Take them somewhere where they won't be able to cause anymore trouble for us," the Hood ordered. "Then search the facility."

"Yes sir," Mullion replied before picking up the struggling Peter and swinging him over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. Meanwhile the two guards moved to pick up the unconscious Gear.

"Wait," Transom told them before either of them could grab the unconscious metahuman genius. She ran a small scanner device over him. "Remove his helmet, equipment and that robot from his back before you carry him. We don't want him waking up and immediately being able to escape." The guards immediately did as they were told even as the Hood nodded his approval of Transom's thoughtfulness.

The guards systematically removed all of Gear's equipment starting with his helmet and finishing with backpack which having sustained considerable damage from the repeated impacts with the palm tree offered no resistance as it was taken from its creators back. Then they tied Gear's hands with zip cuffs before stuffing Gear's things in a portable container before one picked him up in a fireman's carry.

Then they all headed inside and from where he was being carried by Mullion Peter looked over at Gear to see if the younger man was alright and his eyes fell on his face and he was shocked to actually recognise the face. It was the face of one of two people he dealt with on a business level on a reasonably regular basis since they ran a company that supplied Tracy Inc's factories with high-density rechargeable power cells. Richard Foley is Gear, he thought in shock and then another thought occurred to him, if Richard is Gear then does that mean Virgil Hawkins is Static.

He didn't really have much time to consider as the paused outside the kitchen and the one guard went inside. For a few moments there came the unmistakable sounds of a scuffle and a scream from Onaha. Then the guard returned hauling a struggling Kyrano with a weeping Onaha following behind pleading for her husband to be left alone.

"Bring them," Mullion ordered and lead them over to a metal door in the rock wall that made up one wall. A door that was opened by an electronic control on the side but also with a manual locking pin on one side. He's going to throw us in the fridge, Peter realised as Mullion opened the door and chucked him in first. He landed on the cold floor with a thud.

One by one the others were thrown in as well except for Kyrano who Mullion held outside for some reason. Then Mullion closed the door and the lock engaged. Getting back into a seating position Peter glared at the frost encrusted door and thought about the kids. I hope there all right, he thought, that these intruders don't get them.

Outside

Alan, Tin-Tin and Fermat moved quickly and quietly through the jungle undergrowth heading back towards the main house. They were carefully avoiding the main paths since the risk of the bad guys seeing them on those paths was to great.

They reached the edge of the jungle and peered through the undergrowth to the main house just in time to see the battle between Peter, Gear and the intruder's end with Gear and Peter loosing the battle. They watched helplessly as they were taken inside but not before Gear was stripped of all his technology.

In silent agreement they moved back before they were seen.

"We need to know what's happening inside," Alan said to his two friends.

"True but how do we get inside past them," Tin-Tin asked nodding her head back in the direction of the main house.

"If w…we t…t…try they will ca…ca…catch us," Fermat agreed. Alan considered for a few moments Tin-Tin and Fermat did have a point. They couldn't go in through the main entrance or any of the official entrances to the building or the complex hidden beneath their feet but they needed to know what was happening.

"The vents," he said at last. They all looked at each other and released that the external ports for the islands ventilation system were the only way they would get inside without risking detection. Though going in through the vents would be a risk if they got lost they could find there way to one of the vertical shafts that connected to the cooling units for the air condition system.

Without speaking again they headed for the closest vent located just up the hillside from them. It took less than a minute to reach the vent and Alan pulled off the grill that prevented island wildlife from getting access to the ventilation system.

"Quickly get in," Alan said. Tin-Tin went in first, followed by Fermat with Alan himself going in last and replacing the grill behind him.

Main House

Transom along with the Hood waited patiently in the living room waiting for Mullion and the two guards to return. Another pair of guards had just arrived from the submarine and the Hood had stationed them outside the patio doors to guard their rear. Though they had seemingly disposed of the only opposition on the island the Hood wasn't about to take any chances. He hadn't become a master criminal who was wanted in practically every country by taking unnecessary chances.

After a short while Mullion and the guards returned.

"Sir," Mullion said coming in. "We found someone who you might be interested to see." Mullion stepped aside to reveal Kyrano who he had been holding behind him.

When Kyrano saw the Hood he gasped in surprise and recognition. As well he should.

"Well, well if it isn't my dear brother," the Hood said mockingly. "Been a long time Kyrano."

"Not long enough Trangh," Kyrano replied glaring at the person who was his brother in blood only these days and had been for a long time. "Or whatever you call yourself now."

"Such hostility," the Hood answered. "You haven't changed."

"Neither have you."

"Oh but I have," the Hood answered concentrating the glow coming into his eyes again. Kyrano gasped as he felt a forceful telepathic probe slam into his mind. Psychic abilities had long been a gift/curse to the Belagant family all had them in varying strengths and forms. His psychic gift being a gift of empathic empathy, the ability to sense another's pain and soothe it. But he had never heard of the psychic skills of their family being used in this way before, in fact such a thing had been strictly forbidden for generations. Feeling the probe boring into his mind bringing with it intense pain he fought back blocking the attack with a mental wall deflecting the probe back.

The Hood staggered momentarily as the refracted attack slammed into his own mental shields. Then he looked at his brother the strange reddish glow of his own eyes meeting the golden glow that had come into his brothers.

"I see you've broken another rule," Kyrano said in the language of their birth as opposed to English, which was a second language. "Why must you always break the rules brother."

"Rules are for the weak," the Hood answered in the same language striking again with more force this time shattering Kyrano's weak mental wall and making him drop to his knees in pain. He contemplated striking again when Transom spoke.

"Sir we need to get to their control centre," she respectfully reminded her master. She knew some of the details of the long running hostility between Trangh and Kyrano Belagant but now was not the time for them to go head to head.

"Yes your right," the Hood said breaking off his attack on Kyrano. Who gasped in relief, as he wouldn't have withstood the psychic assault much longer. "We will continue this at another time," the Hood added then looked at Mullion. "Bring him," he ordered.

"Yes sir," Mullion replied hauling Kyrano to his feet.

"Find the control room," the Hood ordered getting his priorities back straight and silently berating himself for letting his long running feud with Kyrano get the better of him.

"Yes sir," Transom replied pulling out her scanner and making a few adjustments before smiling. "This way."

She led them through the main house back into the corridors and three flights of stairs before they came out to a long hallway that ended in a thick metal door. One of the hallway walls was bare rock the other wall was presumably concrete that had been plastered over then painted. The same was true with the ceiling and the floor was hardwood. Decorative plants and paintings lined the wall.

"This way," Transom said following the corridor to its end. "The control rooms beyond this door," she said scanning the door. "One inch steel plate with a sequential titanium locking mechanism which is currently engaged."

"Mullion," the Hood ordered.

"I love a challenge," the super strong metahuman said smiling and moving towards the door.

Jeff's Office/Command and Control

Brains sat nervous and dispirited in the chair behind Jeff's desk pretending to read a magazine. After Peter and Gear lost the battle with the intruders – he'd seen it all on the security camera's – he'd switched the command centre back to normal so that it was once again Jeff Tracy's office and study as opposed to the control room for International Rescue.

It was the only thing he could do since it was inevitable that the intruders would come here and if they'd found the room in command and control mode they would have immediately had access to International Rescue's main computer and operational systems. By turning the control room back into Jeff's office he denied them access to that computer.

A sudden loud thumping noise caught his attention and he looked at the door to see it shiver. Another thump came at the door shuddered again. On the third thump he heard metal break with a loud snap. The door flew open with the forth thump. And the intruders came charging through one pulling a strangely battered looking Kyrano behind him.

Mullion came forward and yanked Brains from the seat and carried him over to a couch where he was forcibly forced to sit down.

"So this is Mount Olympus," the Hood said looking around and spotting the mural on the one wall. "And these are the Thunderbirds," he added looking over them and smiling.

"I should have guessed," he said looking at the face of Jeff Tracy. "Jeff Tracy the billionaire ex-astronaught of course. Didn't he loose his wife in an accident a few years ago? Avalanche wasn't it? How tragic."

While the Hood looked at the mural Transom scanned the room and found the control switch.

"Sir I've found the control switch," she reported. "It's a palm and thumb print recognition system."

The Hood looked away from the mural and straight at Brains. And inwardly Brains shivered at the evil he could sense radiating from the man.

"Professor," the Hood said recognising Brain's immediately. "Please operate the control switch."

"N…n….no," Brains stammered back. The Hood sighed.

"Professor you and I share an interest in the science of the mind," he said. "But unlike you I was born with my powers. Trust me when I say you will barely scratch the surface." He gestured to Mullion who hauled Brains back to his feet. "Even the strongest minds can be broken it would be a pity to break yours," the Hood continued. "Operate the control switch."

"N…n…no w…w…way," Brains replied. The Hood held up a hand and a reddish glow came into his eyes and Brains felt a force enter his mind.

"Operate the control switch," the Hood said again. Brains tried to stop himself but his body moved of its own volition moving jerkily towards the desk and the control switch the Hood following telepathically forcing his will on Brains.

Brains could only watch in helpless horror as his hand descended towards the activation panel and pressed down on the surface and was scanned.

And again the office transformed into the command and control centre for International Rescue. As the room changed Brains felt the force leave his mind and he glared at the Hood in hatred. Never before had he felt so violated, normally he wasn't a violent person but right now he was extremely tempted to go over there and punch the living daylights out of the Hood. But Brains knew he would never get close enough to the Hood to hurt him.

"We have control," Transom reported looking at the consoles and smiling.

"Excellent," the Hood said sitting down in the seat that Brains would normally sit in. Transom took a seat at another console.

"It's time to make Mr Tracy aware of our presence and intentions," the Hood said. "Open a communications channel to Thunderbird Five Transom."

"Yes sir."