Chapter Fifteen
Thunderbird Two Hanger
The flight down the silo lift shaft was short but exhilarating and reaching the bottom Alan found himself wishing he could do it again. It was such an adrenaline rush. But he knew that they did not have time to waste as the Hoods henchmen were certainly coming after them. They would have to move quickly to stay ahead of them if they were to have any chance of saving their families and International Rescue.
It was at that moment that Alan realised just how much responsibility now rested on the shoulders of himself and his two friends. It was a hell of a lot of responsibility far more than what teenagers normally were lumbered with. Silently Alan vowed to himself to do the very best that he could to thwart the Hoods evil plans because the consequences if he, Tin-Tin and Fermat failed did not bare thinking about.
Getting his breath back Alan looked around to see which of the Thunderbird silos that they had ended up in, as there hadn't been time to select a specific lift shaft. They'd jumped down the closest one to where they had been in the duct.
He was surprised to find that they had actually reached the hanger bay/loading area for Thunderbird Two. In fact they were on the crew access gantry to the huge green aircraft. A narrow walkway connected the gantry they were on to an access door on the side of the Thunderbird. Off to the side a set of stairs led down to the hanger floor since Thunderbird Two wasn't on the ground but instead held aloft by massive mechanical arms extending from the walls. Below would be its transport sled and its primary pod bay doors would be open waiting for rescue equipment to be selected and loaded aboard.
"Come on," he said to Tin-Tin and Fermat. "If we can get into Thunderbird One's silo we can escape into the service tunnel."
Both Tin-Tin and Fermat nodded in agreement escaping into the service tunnel in Thunderbird One's silo was a good plan. The service tunnel there connected both to the surface and to the larger network of service and utility tunnels that honeycombed most of the island and which had numerous points where you could get up onto the surface. A plus was most of the tunnels were not covered by the islands security net, they would be able to move through them without being tracked by the Hood.
Without speaking again they began moving descending the stairs to the floor of Thunderbird Two's hanger and began moving across it towards the massive doors that led to the base of Thunderbird One's silo. All around them various rescue machines and equipment had slid out of their storage pens ready to be loaded. When the islands systems had gone to alert status the pen doors had automatically opened and the machines and equipment inside had slid forward so it could immediately be loaded onto Thunderbird Two and taken to the danger zone.
In a few seconds they were clear of Thunderbird Two and moving quickly in the direction of Thunderbird One's silo. Only to see to their horror the shield doors sliding closed and locking. Sipping to the right they saw the doors that led to the corridor connecting to Thunderbird Three also sliding closed and locking themselves.
"What do we do now," Fermat asked looking at the sealed entrances. If they had more time he would use the terminals near the doors to hack into and override the door control protocols in the islands computer. He was undisputedly the best with computers on the island not even his father could match him.
From behind they heard a humming noise and they spun to see the same passenger lift that Scott, Peter, Brains and Gear had used earlier begin descending from the surface.
"Here they come," Tin-Tin said. Alan looked at the thick shield doors. He could probably use his phase power to get through it but he didn't know if he could take Tin-Tin and Fermat with him and even if he could he really needed to practice phasing a bit before he tried walking through things.
"I'll use the Thunderizer on the door," he said. "Tin-Tin can you and Fermat slow those goons down with the Firefly?"
"Easily," Tin-Tin replied eagerly looking forward to chance to strike back at the intruders and her evil uncle who led them in some small way.
"But Alan the equipment here is only to be used in an emergency," Fermat objected. Alan and Tin-Tin both looked at Fermat as if he was nuts. Fermat thought about their situation for a moment. "I guess this qualifies."
"Definitely," Alan answered.
Without pausing and wasting more of the precious little time they had all three of them burst into motion. Fermat and Tin-Tin heading for one of International Rescue's three major fire fighting machines while Alan headed for a machine that sported a very big particle energy cannon designed to cut through rubble but leave anyone trapped inside unhurt.
Climbing into the control cabin of the Thunderizer Alan started the engine just as he also heard the Firefly's engine start. Taking a deep breath he grasped the steering wheel and released the brakes before guiding the machine forwards and across the hanger towards the door to Thunderbird One's silo.
Simultaneously the Firefly drove out from its own place and the two machines passed each other. Alan could see Tin-Tin standing at the controls for the foam cannon turret, which meant that Fermat had to be doing the driving. Which was kind of surprising considering that Fermat would barely be able to reach the pedals since though he acted older he was only twelve.
Alan shrugged it off and concentrated on guiding the Thunderizer into position. Then stopping he began manipulating the control panel for the particle cannon what he had to do now was complex and he couldn't afford to make a single mistake.
Sitting at the controls for the Firefly was both exhilarating and challenging for Fermat since he had to stretch to reach many of the levers let alone the pedals. Yet he managed it and as he settled into driving he found that he liked it.
"Watch it," he heard Tin-Tin say as they almost crashed into a recovery vehicle.
"I took microbiology not drivers education," he shot back at Tin-Tin as he manoeuvred the Firefly so she was side on to the lift. "Set the pressure to maximum," he called up to Tin-Tin.
At the controls for the foam cannon Tin-Tin grinned evilly as she turned the pressure dial up to maximum and began rotating the cannon turret with its twin barrels towards the lift as the doors opened.
Mullion emerged from the lift first eager to grab the last remaining free residents of Tracy Island and take them first to the boss and then to the fridge with the others. The two guards who had accompanied him were right behind him.
As soon as he saw the cannon turret on the Firefly rotate towards him Mullion stopped dead in his tracks. Ugh oh, he thought.
"Retreat," he ordered to the two guards. No chance, Tin-Tin thought and pulled the trigger for the foam cannon.
Twinjets of foam blasted from the Firefly's turret at a pressure of 500psi. The jets impacted Mullion bang on and so great was there power that even with his superhuman strength Mullion could not resist them. The powerful jets knocked him off his feet and sent him flying through the air into the two guards, before all three were physically slammed back into the lift. And still the foam onslaught didn't stop instead it kept them pinned to the floor and completely covered in thick greenish foam in less than a second, foam which was slippery as hell not that they could move considering the power of the onslaught.
While Tin-Tin pounded Mullion and his cohorts with the foam cannon an idea occurred to Fermat as to how they could delay the Hoods plans. Quickly he turned off the engine but left power to pumps on and climbed out of the cab. Unnoticed by Tin-Tin he hurried across the floor towards the stairwell that led back up to crews access way for Thunderbird Two. He needed to move fast to get this to work.
While Tin-Tin pounded Mullion and his men with the Firefly's foam cannon and Fermat went on his own little mission Alan finished programming the Thunderizer. Taking a deep breath and praying that he had gotten it right he pressed the commit control. And immediately from above heard a humming sound as the massive cannon swivelled around on its mount and targeted the door to Thunderbird One's silo.
Then a storm of energy beams reached forth and in a blaze of light that lasted barely a second the network of thin particle beams simply disintegrated a section of the shield door just big enough for them to escape through. Then the beams shut off.
Alan sighed in relief that he had gotten it right that only a section of the door had been vaporised. He had been so worried that one of the beams might somehow hit and damage Thunderbird One. And if that had happened Scott would have throttled him. Scott protectiveness of Thunderbird One was a source of great amusement to his siblings and was sometimes used as something to tease him with. Especially by Gordon though Alan would chip in himself as well.
Shutting down the Thunderizer he climbed out of the control cabin.
"Tin-Tin, Fermat lets go," he said going over to where the Firefly was parked. The engine had been turned off and the cab door was open.
Tin-Tin shut off the foam cannon and climbed down at the sound of Alan's voice. To see him staring at the door to the cab and she followed his gaze to see it was wide open and there was no sign of Fermat.
"Where's Fermat?" Alan asked.
"I don't know he was here a second ago," Tin-Tin answered.
"Fermat where are you," Alan yelled to no reply.
But then they had bigger problems than Fermat's sudden disappearance as Mullion was starting to get up from where he and the two guards had been pinned by the foam.
Mullion glared angrily at the two teenagers he could see they were so going to get it for doing this to him. The boss hadn't said he couldn't rough them up a little. Struggling he managed to get up despite the slippery foam and he began advancing tentatively through the foam pool only to slip and fall.
Seeing one of the bad guys get up Alan realised that with Fermat's sudden disappearance they were now in grave danger of getting caught right here, right now. Damn it Fermat where are you, he thought, there has to be someway to stop these guys getting us. Then a thought occurred to him. I wonder.
Raising a hand so it was pointing at Mullion just as he slipped on the foam and fell flat on his back again, Alan concentrated. Imagining the foam freezing turning solid trapping the enemy for a short while at least. And immediately felt one of his powers surge and the pointing hand began to tingle. A silver nimbus appeared around the hand and an identical glow came into his eyes before a beam of silver light leapt forth and struck the foam-covered villains. Immediately the silver glow expanded completely covering the area of foam for a moment before the foam froze instantly so it was almost as hard as concrete.
Smiling victoriously Alan stopped the power emission and the glow disappeared from his hand and eyes.
"Nice," Tin-Tin commented looking at Alan in respect though she had been a little startled when she'd seen the silver glow come into his eyes as well as his hands. She hadn't seen a similar glow in his eyes on the beach but she had been at the edge of the beach and hadn't been able to see his face properly. And since Alan's eyes were blue anyway a blue glow might not be noticed unless you were right up close to him. A little like what happened with herself or father when they used the psi abilities her own being she was telekinetic.
Though no one on the island besides her parents knew that. Father had told her that the psychic gifts were a trait of the Belagant family but one that was intensely private. The fact that psychic powers of various kinds existed in her family line was practically the only secret that Kyrano had kept from Jeff Tracy. I wonder how long it will stay secret thought, Tin-Tin thought, Alan probably already suspects that I am hiding something given my slip on the beach.
"Thanks," Alan answered. "Now where on Earth is Fermat? Fermat!"
"Fermat!" Tin-Tin also called out.
From where he was helplessly trapped in the frozen foam Mullion looked at the male teenager in surprise. He recognised him now. The teenager was the youngest son of Jeff Tracy. So one of Tracy's kids is a metahuman like me, he thought, interesting. I wonder how the boss will react to this.
Applying his strength he tried to break free of the ice but his leverage wasn't good and he could already feel the cold sapping at his strength. Cold was one of the few things that he was vulnerable too. He had long ago discovered the intense cold like ice and snow and his own power didn't get on that well. The longer he was exposed to it the weaker he got. With growing desperation he continued trying to break the cocoon of frozen foam.
Oblivious to what Mullion was doing Alan and Tin-Tin continued calling for Fermat and were finally rewarded by seeing Fermat running towards them from Thunderbird Two.
They jogged over to meet him and the three of them broke for Thunderbird One's silo.
"What were you doing Fermat," Alan asked his best friend as one by one they moved through the hole Alan had blown in the door with the Thunderizer.
"I had an idea," Fermat answered quietly proud of himself. He had just made sure that the Hood would not be able to leave Tracy Island in Thunderbird Two for awhile at least.
Alan looked at Fermat and considered asking him what he had just done, as he knew from the tone of Fermat's voice that he had just done something, something clever. He decided to ask once they were in the relative safety of the service and utility tunnels. There they could plan their next move rather then having to constantly react to the Hoods actions as they were doing at the moment.
"I'll open the tunnel," Alan said looking at both Tin-Tin and Fermat. "Go back to the entrance and warn me if you see them coming. They're not likely to get out of the ice but they might."
"Sure thing Alan," Tin-Tin replied heading back towards the door with Fermat in tow.
"What ice," Fermat asked Tin-Tin.
"One of the three goons started to get up once the Firefly's foam jets shut off," Tin-Tin replied. "So to stop him and the others Alan used that ice power of his. He made the foam freeze solid."
"Trapping them in a freezing cocoon as hard as concrete," Fermat finished hearing the awe in Tin-Tin's tone and sharing it. Alan's metahuman powers appeared to be very strong and diverse what with demonstrated powers that involved water, ice and phasing. Once Alan really got a handle on his powers and when he figured out what he could do altogether he would be a formidable metahuman indeed. "Very nice."
While Tin-Tin and Fermat went to the door to keep a watch for Mullion or anymore of the Hoods henchmen Alan punched a code into the electronic keypad besides the door that connected to the service tunnel. Nothing happened but a beep to indicate code incorrect.
Alan sighed and turned away from the door struggling to think what the code was. He knew that dad alternated the access codes every few months. He basically used five different codes based on the birthdays of Alan and his brothers but written backwards. Alan had just tried Scott's and it hadn't worked. Great have to try all the others one by one, he thought right before he felt something brush against his mind.
He spun around to look at the door again to find himself face to face with the Hood who was standing on the other side of the glass.
"Alan," the Hood said in a pleasant conversational tone. "Quiet an impressive display in the hanger. Freezing poor Mullion literally."
The Hood and Transom had seen it all on the control room monitors. To say that they had been shocked was an understatement. They'd also been amused at Mullion's predicament.
"Were you surprised to hear what your father did to me Alan," the Hood continued. "He left me to die that day. It is frightening when we realise that our parents are not perfect isn't it."
"We cannot go this way," Alan called to Tin-Tin and Fermat. "He's there."
"Why do you suppose your father built these magnificent machines Alan," the Hood asked. "Do you suppose it was guilt. He let your mother die."
"No," Alan replied shaking his head. He barely remembered the accident and the aftermath but he knew from what Uncle Peter and Grandma had told him that dad had taken mom's death really, really hard. Almost driven to the point of suicide in his grief and despair. Only the fact that his son's needed him enabling him to survive the loss of the woman whom had been the other half of his soul. He knew as sure as he breathed that dad would have given up his own life in an instant if his death would have saved the life of Margaret Anna Tracy.
"Open the door Alan," the Hood ordered softly. Alan did nothing but glare defiantly at him. Reaching out telepathically the Hood tried again. "Open the door." Alan felt the Hoods telepathic probe touch his mind but unlike his uncle and Brains he felt no compulsion to do as the Hood commanded.
Still he was tired of listening to this guy feeding him lies about his father. He thought of the glass frosting over blocking the Hood from his sight. And felt his power flare and his hands tingle before energy flashed from them to the door.
The Hood was startled when his telepathic probe had absolutely no effect on Alan Tracy. No one had ever been able to resist his will before though he hadn't tried to mind dominate his brother since Kyrano could fight back and block him for awhile, overwhelming Kyrano's will with his own would be very difficult. Then Alan's eyes began glowing silver before ice appeared over the glass blocking Alan from his sight. The fact that Alan had resisted his will was more shocking to the Hood than the display of metahuman power. At the same time he was intrigued as to how Alan had escaped his influence. It would be an interesting puzzle to solve.
With a sigh the Hood fished in his robes for a moment then pulled out a handy little decoder device that Transom had developed for him and stuck it on the control panel for the door. It looked like he was going to have to do this the old fashioned way.
Alan turned away from the frosted over door it looked like they were going to have to get into the vents again. He started towards his two friends only to here a sudden crack from the Thunderbird Two hanger followed by running feet.
Tin-Tin and Fermat backed into the space beneath the engine block of Thunderbird One not a moment to soon as a shivering, strangely weakened looking but fuming Mullion came through after them. Followed by two shivering, half frozen but equally pissed off guards.
"Going to pound you to a pulp," Mullion growled glaring at Alan. "No one freeze's me and lives." As he spoke the door to the service tunnel opened and the Hood came through.
"You shall do no such thing Mullion," the Hood said having heard what Mullion had said through the door. Had he been thinking clearly Mullion would have backed off at this point but at the moment he was too angry to care or to see common sense.
"Oh but I will," he growled advancing towards Alan only for the sudden blinding pain of a mind blast to blast through his brain for a second. Stopping him dead in his tracks and almost dropping him to his knees in agony. Then the pain was gone.
"You will do as you are told or deal with me," the Hood growled warningly at Mullion. Coming back to his senses Mullion gulped fearfully realising that he had overstepped the mark and the last thing he wanted was to face the wrath of the Hood.
Alan, Tin-Tin and Fermat had backed into a huddle at the centre of the room by this point the two guards filling out and training their rifles on the three kids from separate angles.
"Surrender," the Hood said to the three kids. "You cannot escape."
Alan looked around searching for any possible means of escape and then his eyes hid on a large red button on a panel besides the Hood marked blast duct cover manual release. If that could be tripped they would drop out of site along Thunderbird One's blast ducts and out into the shallow waters surrounding the island. The problem was he had no way to trip it his slingshot was up in his bedroom. Unless there's a way my powers could trip it, Alan thought, but how. A strange instinct gripped him then as he again felt the power inside him flare.
Having nothing to loose Alan went with the instinct and raised his hands so his palms were pointing at both the Hood and the panel. And his hands began tingling again but this time they didn't glow either pure blue or silver instead they glowed with a silver-blue light. Alan felt the power in his hands pulse and to his and everyone's surprise a pair of snowballs flew from his hands. One struck the Hood right in the face drawing a cry of surprise from the Hood. The second snowball hit the button.
Alan stopped the power surging through him just as the covers on the blast ducts open and yelling all three of them dropped right out of the Hoods clutches.
"Get them," the enraged Hood shouted shaking the snow from the ball off his face and robe.
"Transom," Mullion said into his radio, which was still working despite getting trapped in frozen foam. "Fire up Thunderbird One and set it to broil."
Releasing what Mullion had just ordered the Hood raced from the room followed by Mullion and the two guards.
Now sooner than they cleared the room Thunderbird One's jets fired sending a massive plume of flame down the blast ducts after the sliding yelling kids.