Chapter 5: The Return of the Hood
It has been a couple of weeks and Christine's training has gone very well. She flew through the simulations like they were child's play and everybody was impressed at the speed she was progressing at.
Christine just finished returning from a week of training on Thunderbird 5 and John reported that she is a quick study and has pretty much mastered the operations. She's even helping Scott with the upgrades on Thunderbird 1. Usually Scott liked to do the upgrades himself and rarely asked for help, just like the rest of the boys with their Thunderbirds.
The real surprise was how well Scott and Christine were getting along recently. It seems that you wouldn't see the one without the other, they even started jogging together. Though they say they say there's nothing going on between them, Jeff can tell just by the way they look at each other that there's something more…even if they don't realize it yet.
Jeff was sitting in the den smiling at how well the past weeks have progressed when he got a call from Thunderbird 5.
"Thunderbird 5 to base" called John
"Go ahead John" answered Jeff
"Dad there's been an earthquake in Japan, they're requesting the Thunderbirds to come and help evacuate the area" said John.
"Tell them we'll be on our way and our ETA is 15 minutes"
"FAB Dad, over and out"
Jeff signaled the boys. They came in running with Christine. "We're going to Japan boys. There's been an earthquake and we have to evacuate the area. Christine, I want you to stay here with Brains and Fermat to watch how we do the rescue." Everybody nodded and off they went.
The Hood waited on his ship out of range of the Tracy's security net, which was put in place after the first time he took over the island, to see Thunderbirds 1 and 2 take off and shook his fist to the sky "This time I won't fail on enacting my revenge on you Jeff." A couple of weeks age the Hood managed to escape prison with his two assistants Transom and Mullion.
"The Thunderbirds are now out of range sir" reported Transom.
"Very good Transom. Hopefully we don't have to deal with those little brats this time, but I brought a little task force just in case" the Hood turned to the twenty biggest, meanest and most highly trained men that he recruited for this task. "Put the ship in stealth and head for the island"
"Yes sir" smiled Transom and set a course for Tracy Island.
Five minutes later they reached the island. The task force fanned out in the Tracy house and secured all areas keeping guards everywhere this time. The Hood, Transom, and Mullion headed to the control centre with three other members trailing behind, alert for anything to happen. "Remember what I said Mullion, I'm not going to hold you back this time, they made fools out of all of us and it's payback time" said the Hood. When they reached the door Mullion smashed through just like the second time with an evil grin on his face waiting for anybody to confront him.
Christine was watching in fascination on how professional the Tracy's are when they're on a mission. Her, Brains and Fermat were monitoring the rescue and giving them advice and ideas as it went along. When all of a sudden the door exploded and 6 people walked in.
One was a shorter bald man with a very menacing face that would give any kid nightmares for months; the other was the ugliest red haired woman Christine has ever seen, she swore that she saw the woman wink at Brains; the other was a huge black man that looked like he could pick up Thunderbird 2 with one hand and the other three were just big muscular men that wore the same black outfit as the black one, probably henchmen.
Before any of them could even blink Christine grabbed Fermat and threw him at Gordon's portrait which opened up to be the lift to Thunderbird 3 "Get to Thunderbird 3 and fly to Thunderbird 5, you'll be safe there"
"No, I want to stay here" he said defiantly.
"Just go, you'll be our only resident genius and probably our only hope to retake the island with your father captured"
"Okay, I promise I'll get you guys out of this" he said with the most confidence she ever heard him say.
"I know you will" Christine winked and he was gone. Then one of the henchmen grabbed her and threw her against the wall.
"What's going on Brains?" demanded Jeff who heard the commotion over the intercom.
"Well hello there, Jeff" sneered the bald man.
"Who's that?" whispered Christine as Brains was helping her up.
"That's the Hood" said Brains with as much disgust as he could muster at the moment. Alan informed Christine of the Hood a little while ago. He told her about the whole spring break disaster that happened last year when the Hood took over the island. She was appalled that someone would try to destroy something that was a benefit for all mankind.
"What do you want from us this time?" asked Jeff, who was in Thunderbird 2 with Virgil, with barely controlled rage.
"Why revenge Jeff ol'boy" smiled the Hood. "I want you to return to the island and relinquish your amazing machines to me so I can continue with my first plan of robbing the world banks"
"That's never going to happen" said Scott, who has been watching the whole conversation along with the rest of the Tracys.
"Oh really" smiled the Hood. "I would be singing a different tune if I was you." The Hood beckoned for Mullion who grabbed Christine by the back of her neck and brought her to the screen.
"You bastard, I swear if you harm a hair on her head I will hunt you down to the centre of the earth and kill you!" screamed Scott. Everybody was taken aback by his sudden outrage, even the Hood.
"I see someone has feelings for this young woman. Well I'll see that she gets proper care then. Mullion, show the Tracys how nice we'll be to her" said the Hood.
"With pleasure" said Mullion and he backhanded Christine across the face so hard that she fell to the floor.
"You have one hour" said the Hood and then the screen went blank.
"You Fucking Bastard!" yelled Jeff and Scott. Scott started to run towards Thunderbird 1 but Alan and Gordon, who having been manning Mobile Control with him, blocked him.
"What do you think you're going to do when you get there Scott, just storm in and get her?" asked Gordon who was barely able to contain his anger as well.
"Yeah, you need a plan before barging in there" added Alan mirroring Gordon's expression.
Scott sighed in frustration knowing that they were right. "I know… you're right. Let's get packed up as fast as we can and meet dad at the rendezvous point." Scott, Gordon and Alan packed up in record time and hurried to the rendezvous to discuss the situation with their father and to make a rescue plan.
(TBC)