Dim figures were above him, holding him down as he fought and struggled against their impossible strength. His heartbeat thundered in his ears, the cold air was like knives against his throat, there was bare skin on his left arm where his uniform should have been and something was tightly tied on that arm. All around him was a rumbling vibration of engines and that strange pull and tug at his body that one corner of his mind recognised as flight- he was being taken somewhere.
"John! Get down here!"
The familiar voice sounded like it was coming from the end of a long tunnel, echoing and faint. He knew that voice, tried to ascribe a face to it, but he just couldn't make the connection that he knew was there. But that name, he knew that name.
John.
John was hurt.
That was the last thing he knew for sure, that John was hurt, blood staining his space suit and his head lolling on his shoulders, eyes sliding shut as his brain decided that was quite enough now, time to shut down.
He needed to get to John.
His own addled brain did the math and presented him with a conclusion: These people holding him down were keeping him from John.
Not gonna happen.
He found his legs, ordered them to draw in and kicked out at one of the blurry human shapes, driving the force through his heels the way he'd been taught. He made a solid connection and felt the impact rattle up his bones as the figure cried out and fell away. The ship they were in suddenly juddered and his left arm came free of the grip that had pinned it down. He lashed out at a third figure on his right, swiping at their face with his fingers hooked into claws. Like he'd hoped they let go of him to protect themselves and he rolled off the bed, landing in a clumsy tangle of limbs.
"Grab him, quick!"
The voice from behind spurred him on and gave his rattled, foggy brain something to focus on. He got his feet under him and charged towards what looked like a door, hearing boots clattering on deck plates behind him.
The door opened and someone grabbed him, strong arms pulling him close and tucking his head against a blue and orange chest.
"Alan."
The familiar voice stilled his struggles and he leaned against that chest and into his brother's embrace.
John.
He'd found John.
John was okay.
He barely felt the sting of the needle and loosening of the tourniquet as an IV port was placed into his left arm, but he did feel the sudden wave of tiredness wash over him as it was used to put a sedative into his bloodstream. But it wasn't a worry now. John was here. John was okay. That was what mattered and he didn't fight it as the drugs lulled him into a dreamless sleep.
Virgil let out a breath he hadn't realised he was holding as Alan made a small sound and relaxed further in John's arms, hazy blue eyes drifting shut. The sudden explosion of violence had startled all of them and he wasn't sure if the midazolam, a sedative, would even work if the teenager was riding that high of an adrenaline kick. "I think that's done it." He told John. "Let's get him back on the stretcher."
John nodded, scooping Alan up with a small effort and carrying him to the medical bay in the back corner of the module. The second eldest was still sporting some dried blood on his face and uniform, but the worst of it had been cleaned off and the gash on his forehead, just below his hairline, was already dressed. He'd looked a fright when they landed at the observatory's lower platform, head injuries always bled heavily.
At the foot end of the hover stretcher Kayo was scanning a winded Scott who'd taken Alan's boot heels square in the chest and was now seated on the deck, trying to get his breath back. "Bruising, but nothing more luckily." She reported to the other siblings. "Are you all right Virgil? His hand came awfully close to your face."
Virgil nodded, flicking his glance over Scott just to make sure. "I'm fine, I think he just wanted to make me let go. If he really wanted to hurt me, he wouldn't have missed." He told her, turning his attention to Alan as John laid the limp teenager back on the stretcher.
Two suddenly seemed to flinch in mid air, making them stagger, and Gordon radioed down from the cockpit. "Virgil, get up here! This storm's getting worse, I can't hold her!"
"On my way Gordon, just keep her airborne!" Virgil ordered, then looked to his siblings. "He should sleep, but strap him down on his side, get a monitor on, pull a vial and start blood chemistry analysis and strap in, this could get bumpy." Instructions given, he turned and ran for the cockpit.
They hastened to obey and when everyone was secure and the monitor was steadily flashing as it ran it's analysis, Kayo turned golden eyes on the suspiciously quiet communications expert, sitting two jump seats down from her. "John, what the hell happened in that observatory?" She demanded, undertones of fury at their attackers lacing her voice.
But John shook his head. Later. Long fingers moved elegantly as he traced the sign in the air.
Why? Scott signed back.
Later. Was the only reply John was willing to make.
0o0o0
Through clenched teeth Virgil cursed up a storm almost as vitriolic as the one currently trying to drown his Thunderbird in mid air. "Gordon, find me a landing site, now!" He ground the words out, fighting the treacherous winds and feeling his ship shudder in protest. The music of her engines whined into unhappy territory as the almost horizontal wind pushed rain into her intakes, her hull creaked and groaned and visibility was nil, Virgil's eyes locked on her instruments instead.
"Gimme a sec." Gordon brought up a holographic map and swiped through it, looking for something that could handle a 'bird this size in a storm this bad. "Okay, found something- decommissioned air base, sending the coordinates now." He plotted a course and flicked the data over. Virgil nodded once, shoulders hunched as he forced Two's nose around and threaded her through the storm to the hopefully safe haven that Gordon had found. "Gordon, I'm going to need your help." He grunted. "I can't control the VTOL and keep her steady at the same time, these cross winds are insane."
"Tell me what you need." Was the instant reply as Gordon brought up the controls.
"When we come in for landing I need you to dial the VTOL down slowly, I've got to keep the forward jets on just enough to keep us hovering in place, that's going to take all my concentration." Virgil instructed.
"F.A.B." Gordon acknowledged, waiting for Virgil's cue.
Faintly through the thick curtains of rain, the dim shapes of crumbling hangers and admin buildings came into view beside a wide expanse of mostly flat land. Virgil picked a spot in the middle of it all, well away from any trees or other things that could be knocked over. "Okay, activate VTOL and take it down slowly, five percent increments." He ordered, flying by touch and instinct as he balanced forward thrust against the gusting winds to keep his ship in place as Gordon lowered her to the ground.
"On it."
Between the two of them, they got her safely down. Virgil went through the shut down as quickly as he could, closed all the external air intakes to keep out the rain and detritus pelting the hull and folded her wings in. He also triggered the grapples to anchor them into the ancient tarmac for good measure, Category 14 storms were nothing to sneeze at, and gave the yoke an affectionate pat. "Good work, Two." He murmured, looking around his ship with pride.
"What happened down there Virgil?" Gordon asked as he finished his portion of the shut down procedures.
"I have no idea, but we're going to go find out." Was Virgil's grim response as he got up from his seat. "Let's go."
0o0o0
Alan was still drowsing peacefully when they arrived back in the module, his siblings gathered around the stretcher and making worried noises as they looked at the read out from the portable blood analyser attached to the wall.
Virgil pushed forward and frowned as he scrutinised the report. "What the hell…?" He scrolled through the data. "GHB, MDMA, trace amounts of cathinones?"
"Wait, they dosed him with party drugs?" Gordon asked, incredulous.
"Low doses, yeah, but the combination of uppers and downers would be enough to send anyone into an agitated, confused state. It explains a lot." Virgil replied absently, bringing up treatment guidelines on his bracer computer. While he had learned about it, this kind of poisoning wasn't exactly something IR dealt with often enough for him to trust his memory on how to treat it.
"Why?" That was Scott, brows drawn close and keeping a lid on his simmering fury by sheer force of will. It was only the storm outside that kept him from taking his brother's 'bird back to the observatory they'd fled from to deal with those goons personally.
"Bootleg truth serum." If Scott was furious, Kayo was nearing apocalyptic, every line in her body tensed. "I've heard of it being used before- MDMA to make them chatty, the others to make them confused and easier to manipulate. Fortunately Alan's reaction was to get aggressive, not tractable. They must have miscalculated the dose." She explained in a deadly quiet voice, her hands curled into fists.
"They did, it was intended for me." John spoke up quietly. "He went through the door first, I got distracted by a display. They weren't expecting that and he took the spray right in his face."
"Why? What were they after?" Kayo asked.
"EOS." Was John's reply, looking down and away. "I don't know how, but they'd found out about her."