Disclaimer: I don't own Thunderbirds or Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.
Scott didn't like any of it. The Mysteron threat was bad enough, but having six members of a military organisation in the heart of International Rescue's base – in their home – had his guard sky high.
Well, technically only three of them were inside. After the basic introductions, the three women had returned to their planes to patrol. With Thunderbird Five down, eyes on their perimeter were certainly a good idea, but Scott didn't have to like that three members of Spectrum were circling overhead, almost certainly recording as much information as they could on Tracy Island while doing their job.
He'd never been more thankful for the fact that there was absolutely no sign of any of the Thunderbirds or their launches from the sky. Even Thunderbird Three's silo had a door, primarily to keep out the rain, but also as a defence against this exact sort of scenario. Satellites, for the first time, were also a concern; Thunderbird Five was their usual defence against satellite imagery, but without her hacking and overriding any recordings, there would have been no stopping military satellites picking up any hints of Thunderbirds.
There was also no sign of International Rescue inside the villa. Operation Cover-Up had been dusted off and activated for the first time since they'd reinstated International Rescue two years earlier, leaving their home looking exactly like that – a home. All their portraits were replaced with family photographs, but even that was putting Scott on edge.
Family photographs meant all of them together, acting like family, and while he hadn't given out any names beyond their first names, he'd seen the way the Spectrum members had looked at Gordon. Famous, Olympic champion, Gordon.
It might have been a mistake not to send Gordon to the bunker with Virgil, but there was no-one else Scott trusted to handle the military organisation. Even Kayo, for all her skills, had no military experience and didn't understand how they ticked. He'd needed Gordon out with him, in the first line of defence.
On the flip side, John should have gone into the bunker. Brains had gone after the demonstration that the hastily-modified medscanner worked as a Mysteron detector, but despite the original plan, John was stubbornly staying out. Scott couldn't try and make him go now, when he needed to keep the respect of Spectrum – an already difficult task when the officers were all older than him and unable to completely keep the fact they thought him too young and inexperienced for the role out of their eyes – so John was staying out. It wasn't as though Scott didn't know why, though. With the destruction of Thunderbird Five, it had got personal for John. His immediate brother might be the quietest, but when he took personal offence, well, Scott didn't want to be the cause.
So John was still out with him, Gordon and Kayo. Virgil had protested at being shut away in the bunker, unhappy at Scott's decision even after he was reminded that someone had to stay with Alan and Grandma, but if it came to a fight – and if it did, there was no doubt that their enemies would look all too human – they all knew that Virgil would hesitate to destroy.
Scott still fully expected Virgil to make an appearance at some point, though. Secretly, Mysteron threat aside, it would have been easier to face the men currently standing in the middle of the den, making no secret of the way they were staring at their surroundings, with Virgil at his back, but Scott couldn't risk his brother. Not like that.
It was bad enough that John was being stubborn, to say nothing of the fact Gordon was experienced enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with the military men. He wasn't particularly enamoured at Kayo being on the front line, either.
Sometimes the Mysterons targeted people, not organisations. Scott wished that that had been the case, this time – the commander of IR, him. He could have left, gone to ground and fought for his life alone and secure in the knowledge that his family were safe.
They weren't safe. Nor were their agents – Penelope and Parker chief in his thoughts. They were protecting themselves and he had to trust their capabilities just in case he was wrong and the Mysterons did decide to attack somewhere other than Tracy Island.
None of them were safe, and while the military men in the room were there to help protect them, they were also another threat themselves.
Anything they learnt about International Rescue would find its way back to Spectrum, and from there Scott could only imagine where it might be shared. It was information the other military branches would kill for; Spectrum would suddenly have a lot of leverage.
It wasn't just the Mysterons he had to protect his family from.
"How secure is your perimeter?" Captain Scarlet – clearly the man in charge on the Spectrum side of things – asked, drawing his mind back to his surroundings.
"Secure," Kayo answered for him, stepping up and making it abundantly clear that she was the first port of call for questions of that type. "We have our sensors working at full capacity to ensure nothing is approaching by sea, air, or even space, and while they are limited by the destruction of the hub" – John wasn't taking Thunderbird Five's destruction well at all, and having to call his beloved Thunderbird the hub was grating on all of them – "their range is still wide enough to accurately detect movement within seven miles of the island."
"Including animals," Gordon chipped in again. With a flick of his wrist he pulled up one of their cameras – one which had nothing to do with International Rescue (and if Scott was in the mood to be amused would definitely have him inwardly smiling) and was installed specifically to monitor the local wildlife – just in time to catch a glimpse of the local dolphin pod passing on their way to Raoul Island.
"Where are the sensors controlled from?" Captain Blue asked. "Is it possible that that could be compromised?"
"They're all controlled from here," John told them. "Within the defences." Now, at least. "If the Mysterons get control of the sensors, we'll have bigger problems to deal with."
Thunderbird Five had been, as much as Scott loathed to admit it, almost a liability in the current situation. Outside of their defences, while she had her own, she had been the easiest target. It was almost a relief that the Mysterons had chosen to destroy her, rather than attempt to hack her. Not that he dared insinuate anything of the sort. John would never forgive him.
"And we still have no idea how they could be planning to attack?" Captain Blue continued. Captain Scarlet, Scott noticed unhappily, was prowling around the lounge, primarily the balcony area. All the doors were firmly sealed shut as part of their defences, but it was clear that the Captain was assessing them for any weaknesses. Scott hoped he didn't realise that the primary role of the glass shutters he was scrutinising was to protect the villa from a Thunderbird launch, hyper aware of the swimming pool laying innocently outside, locked shut for the time being but as prepared as always to withdraw should Thunderbird One be required.
With no Thunderbird Five, they wouldn't be receiving any distress calls anyway, and even if they were, launching with the Mysterons waiting to attack would be like rolling out a red carpet for the extra-terrestrials.
Then again, they wouldn't be able to resist launching if an SOS did come in, and Scott groaned, putting his head in his hands.
"Scott?" The concern came from both his own family and the Spectrum officers.
"The easiest way to snare us would be to force us to attend a rescue," he said. "Draw us out of here and into a situation where they control everything."
"That's simple to avoid," Captain Scarlet pointed out. "Don't attend rescues until the window has passed."
"That's too simple," Captain Blue agreed.
"There's another flaw in that plan," John interjected from where he was at the desk with Lieutenant Green. What the two communications experts were doing, Scott didn't know, but he trusted John not to show the Spectrum man more than he had to see. "If they wanted us to go to a call, they wouldn't have destroyed our method of receiving distress calls."
He wasn't wrong, but it made no sense. While Scott's gut agreed that the attack was going to come here, why were the Mysterons attacking them in their own stronghold? From a strategic standpoint, it was a terrible idea.
"You can't receive any distress calls now?" Lieutenant Green asked.
"Well, we can receive local calls," John admitted, "but nothing further afield than Tongo or the Kermadecs on broad frequencies. Specific, targeted frequencies like Cloudbase we can still manage, but distress calls rarely come in on those."
"And most of your local range is uninhabited," Captain Scarlet summarised.
"Unless they're going to threaten the research team at Raoul – who are tough and well-prepared for most of the disasters nature can throw at that location – there's no-one to rescue," Gordon agreed.
"This is where your Thunderbirds are located, isn't it?" Captain Blue asked suddenly. "They're not targeting the machines rather than the people?"
Scott narrowed his eyes at him. "Yes," he bit out. "The Thunderbirds are currently located on this island," except for the destroyed one. "But short of getting an extinct volcano to erupt and therefore annihilate anything and everything on this island, I can't see any way that the Mysterons could destroy them where they are."
"Which brings us back to the main question," Kayo pointed out. "How are they planning to attack?"
The epaulets on all three Spectrum officer's shoulders suddenly flashed in tandem; Captain Scarlet was the one to react, a small microphone swinging down from the peak of his uniform cap to rest in front of his mouth. "Captain Scarlet here."
Whoever was on the other end of the call, Scott couldn't hear. He could, however, hear Lieutenant Green muttering "may I?" to John, who promptly stepped to one side to give the man access to their comms channel.
Scott hoped John knew what he was doing.
"…not responding to hails." A female voice suddenly emitted from their speaker system, a holographic representation of soundwaves appearing in lieu of a face. Presumably it was one of the Angels, but with no face, and no familiarity with their voices, Scott couldn't identify which one.
"Who's not responding?" he demanded.
"There's a WASP vessel headed in this direction," Captain Blue told him. "A Sea Leopard class warship."
"These are protected waters," Gordon all but snarled. "WASP know not to practice their manoeuvres this side of the Kermadecs. Mel would string them all up by their collars if they even suggested it."
"Mel?" Captain Blue asked. In the background, Captain Scarlet was talking again to the Angel.
"Dr Melissa Fisher, head of the Raoul Research Team," Scott explained. "Fiercely protective of the endangered wildlife in the region and not a woman to cross." Admittedly he hadn't met her much, but it only took one encounter to learn that.
"Do we assume this is the Mysterons' doing, then?" Kayo asked.
"We need to do more than assume," Captain Blue said. "If we open fire on WASP without provocation, it'll cause inter-military relationship issues."
"And if International Rescue open fire, then we'll be inviting retaliation," Scott sighed.
"I'll contact Cloudbase," Lieutenant Green said. "Colonel White will be able to liaise with WASP about the situation."
"F.A.B.," Scott acknowledged, with a meaningful glance at John to supervise the man while he was playing in their communication systems.
"They are still not responding to hails," the Angel said again. "Destiny is continuing the patrol. Rhapsody and I will monitor the vessel's actions until further orders are received."
"S.I.G., Harmony," Captain Scarlet agreed. "Report if their course alters. If they come within five miles of our location, fire a warning shot."
"So much for inter-military relationship issues," Gordon muttered, although Scott could tell he wasn't particularly bothered by it. He wasn't, either. In all honesty, Spectrum and WASP getting into confrontations with each other worked well for International Rescue; they'd be too busy attempting to de-escalate while continuing to rile themselves up to remember to log all the information they'd been gathering.
He didn't, however, like that there was a WASP vessel so close to Tracy Island.
"What sort of ship is a Sea Leopard?" he asked Gordon quietly as the Lieutenant filled in the Colonel.
"Warship," his brother answered shortly. "Ten missile launchers and sixteen Hummingbirds on board; if that attacks, we'll have some problems."
Mostly with the Hummingbirds, Scott suspected. Their tsunami barriers could be raised to shield themselves from the worst of the missile damage, but sixteen Hummingbirds would do a lot of damage.
"That would get through your defences?" a clearly-eavesdropping Captain Blue pounced. Scott glared at him.
"It would test them," he snapped, although the man was right. Tracy Island's defences were predominantly against nature, not full-scale military attacks. They could fight back, and were prepared to, but it would be difficult against that sort of assault.
"Colonel White will find out what's going on," the man said. "If they're hostile, we'll handle them."
It felt like an age before Colonel White called.
"The Sea Leopard is not responding to commands," he reported, face severe in a way that reminded Scott of Dad when he'd been in command mode. His chest ached. "It is supposed to be practicing manoeuvres to the south-east of the Kermadecs, outside of the protected waters. WASP have not received any transmissions from it in the past four hours."
"That's just before the Mysteron threat broadcast," Lieutenant Green pointed out.
"What do you want us to do, Colonel?" Captain Scarlet asked.
"WASP acknowledge there is a high chance that the Sea Leopard is under Mysteron control," Colonel White said. "This particular vessel is a training vessel, manned almost exclusively by cadets, but the Captain and Lieutenant are both highly experienced and respected officers. I am assured that neither of them would allow something like this to happen if they had any control over the situation."
"Who are they?" Gordon cut in. "The Captain and Lieutenant."
Colonel White's attention focused on Scott's brother for the first time, and Scott saw something like resignation flicker across his face for a moment. "Captain Greg Rollings, and Lieutenant Peter Wilkins."
The sound Gordon made would have had Grandma in uproar. With the majority of the room's occupants military – or Kayo and John – no-one there batted an eyelid. "They trained me," he spat. "WASP's right; there's no way those two would break protocol like this."
"Our orders?" Captain Scarlet pressed.
"Angel Leader, fire a warning shot," Colonel White commanded. "If they do not change course or open up communications, open fire with the intent to destroy."
"S.I.G., Colonel White," Harmony – it sounded like the same woman, anyway – said. "Preparing to fire a warning shot."
Over at the desk, John was nudging Lieutenant Green out of the way, a look of concentration – and dare Scott think it, confusion – on his face. The Spectrum man moved with barely any hesitation, and as John started tapping away Scott decided to see what was bothering him. Gordon and Kayo seemingly had the same idea, as they joined him in standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Lieutenant Green, watching John work.
"I thought your sensors didn't reach that far out," Captain Blue commented, having apparently followed them over.
"I'm using the data from the Angel Interceptors," John said shortly as a hologram appeared, showing the location of the Sea Leopard… and its previous locations.
Still the other side of Raoul, it was an impressive range for Tracy Island's Thunderbird Five-less sensors, but if John was hacking the Angels to make up for the black hole caused by her destruction, then it made sense. Scott chanced a glance at the Spectrum men to see what their reaction was, only to see Captains Scarlet and Blue frowning while Lieutenant Green looked resigned.
When he looked back at the hologram, he joined the two Captains in frowning, but for a very different reason.
"The trajectory's wrong." Kayo was the one to voice the realisation. "It's not heading for us at all."
"What?" Captain Blue asked. "But… why not?"
"Where is it heading?" Captain Scarlet asked, overriding the other Spectrum captain.
"Unless it changes bearing, it's headed straight for Raoul," John said.
"But why?" Kayo asked, echoing Captain Blue's ignored query. "Raoul's just a research base for marine biologists. It's got nothing the Mysterons could want, surely?"
"I don't want to find out," Scott said.
"Nor do I," Gordon growled. "We're prepared for an attack, but the guys on Raoul aren't, and the Sea Leopard's close enough to attack them any moment. We wouldn't reach them in time even if we launched Thunderbird One now."
"They ignored the warning shot," Harmony Angel reported. "It also looks like their missiles are being primed."
"Destroy them," Colonel White's hologram ordered. "Whatever the Mysterons have planned, we cannot let it happen."
"S.I.G.," Harmony Angel acknowledged. "Initiating attack."
John entered a few more commands and the hologram in the centre of the den sprang into life, showing the warship from the view of the Angel Interceptors. Scott wasn't overly familiar with warships, but even he could tell that it was primed and ready for attack.
The Angels were faster.
In a blur of motion as the camera failed to keep up with the offensive speed of the craft it was attached to, explosion after explosion bombarded the Sea Leopard, tossing and turning the warship with impact after impact. The warship was strong, however, and despite the power of the Angel Interceptor's weapons, seemed to be barely slowed by the attacks.
"The missiles," Scott barked, watching the dizzying feed as the missiles appeared to swivel in order to aim. "Forget the ship, take out the missiles before they fire!"
"S.I.G.," came the voice of one of the Angels. Another assault barrage, and the turrets teetered. Scott clenched his fist. One more round should do it. One more round…
The warship stuttered and stalled under the final barrage, and for a moment Scott thought that they'd done it. That they'd defeated the Mysteron threat. That his family – and the Raoul team – were safe.
He'd forgotten about the Hummingbirds.
As the warship floundered, taking on water and collapsing in on itself, the sixteen fighter jets swarmed into the air, each and every one of them armed to the teeth and beyond. Sixteen Hummingbirds against three Angel Interceptors. The Interceptors were the better craft – and had the better pilots – but they had the numbers.
Three fell to the Angels' immediate retaliation, but thirteen got through, towards Raoul, and opened fire.
Scott couldn't see what was hit. The cameras on the Interceptors weren't facing the right way for several long, painful moments, and all he could do was clench his fists against the surface of Dad's smooth, mahogany desk.
Too many deaths. Too many victims. The Cadets and officers on board the Sea Leopard would have been dead from the moment the Mysterons took control. Scott could only pray that the Raoul team hadn't been killed, or seriously injured, by the blasts. International Rescue couldn't launch, not until the Angels finished taking care of the Hummingbirds that were dancing and swarming away from the attacks.
"Why?" Gordon growled from beside him. "Why attack them? What do Mel and the guys have to do with us?"
As if on cue, the desk trilled with an alert for an incoming call. Considering their current limited comms range, and the fact that the line to Cloudbase was still open, Colonel White looking solemn and thoughtful, there was only one possible explanation.
Scott and Gordon lunged to answer it at the same moment. John beat them to it.
Predictably, and to Scott's huge relief, Dr Melissa Fisher materialised next to Colonel White. She looked furious.
"Some assholes just decided to bomb the north-western edge of Raoul," she spat. Furious was perhaps an understatement. Livid was probably closer.
"Is anyone hurt?" Gordon jumped in, not bothering to hide his worry.
"That was a nesting ground," the woman snarled. "When I get my hands on whatever bastard was responsible for that I'm going to make them and their entire cohort wish they'd never been born."
Gordon swore. Given the situation, Scott didn't even pretend to disapprove.
"What about your team?" he asked. "Do you need-"
"We're fine," she interrupted him. "Sam got a couple of scrapes when he fell over but none of us were over there when the bloody bombs hit."
In a sea of bad news, that was one silver lining, at least. Not that Scott dared say as much to the woman's face when she looked fit to slaughter anyone who gave her half an opening.
"Besides, it's you lot that need to watch out, Tracy," she said. "A lot of cliff fell into the ocean, which has completely wrecked that part of the ecosystem, and I want names of who did this."
Scott wasn't sure what she'd think if he told her malevolent aliens were the cause. Now was certainly not the time to find out, either. Not with that news.
Next to him, Gordon was quivering in a combination of rage and anxious realisation. Scott wasn't far off joining him.
"We'll do our best to get you those names, Dr Fisher," Colonel White spoke up.
"Who are you?" she demanded. Scott shut out the rest of the conversation – as much as an upset Melissa Fisher could be shut out – to focus on the new problem at hand.
"John?"
"Out of range of our sensors, and Spectrum's won't be picking it up," his brother said.
"Won't be picking what up?" Captain Blue demanded. Scott wished he'd stop hovering quite so closely.
"The marine wildlife is fleeing," Kayo said. She'd pulled up their underwater cameras – mostly Gordon's.
"Fleeing what?" the blond Captain demanded again. Captain Scarlet moved over and put a hand on his shoulder, but seemed no less confused. Lieutenant Green was likewise looking between them, clearly not quite cottoning on either.
Then again, Spectrum's officers lived on Cloudbase. They had very little by way of nature to contend with up there. Down on an island, located on the Ring of Fire, no less, International Rescue had a very different outlook.
The four of them exchanged a look.
"Tsunami."
"A tsunami?" Captain Blue's voice sounded a little strangled.
"Will your bunkers hold up against a tsunami?" Captain Scarlet demanded.
"Easily," Kayo said. "Tsunamis aren't a problem here." She frowned. "Was this their plan?"
Scott shared her unease; it would have made more sense to bomb them out with the Hummingbirds than try to flood them out. The hangars were all water-tight, so the tsunami wouldn't affect them, and with the short wash from Raoul, there was no way any tsunami caused like that would be able to get past their barriers.
They were missing something. He was sure of it.
"Raise the barriers," he ordered.
"Already on it!" Kayo darted across to the relevant controls, keying in the override. Immediately, all around the Island, machinery whirred and huge, thick plates of cahelium began to rise up, out of the ocean. Brains' invention, like most things, and admittedly well-tested across the years.
This wasn't the first tsunami they'd weathered, and it wouldn't be the last, either.
"I don't like this," Gordon said next to him, quietly. "This is too easy."
Scott wasn't sure if he was reassured or not by the fact he wasn't the only one that felt that something was going to go wrong any moment.
"The Mysterons have been known to make mistakes," Lieutenant Green said. To Scott's ears, he even sounded hopeful. "Perhaps they didn't expect you to have such impressive fortifications against nature."
"A lot of naval bases don't," Captain Scarlet agreed, sounding rather like he was talking from experience.
"I don't know," Kayo said, frowning out at the huge panels as they rose past the villa, blocking out the sea and sunlight. "Something doesn't-"
"What the-?"
John didn't quite swear, but Scott figured he wasn't far off.
"No- that's not- no-"
"John, what-" he started, before a flood of light entered the villa. Light that was supposed to be blocked out by the tsunami defences.
The tsunami defences that were sliding back down into the sea.
"Kayo!"
"I don't know why!" she protested, struggling with the controls. "It's not responding!"
"Uh… is your swimming pool supposed to be moving?" Captain Blue asked.
"What?" Scott dashed over to the balcony to see that, sure enough, the swimming pool was retracting as though Thunderbird One was about to launch. He leaned against the glass doors, trying to look down to see if Thunderbird One was underneath, but before he could tell, the doors moved, retracting and returning the villa to its usual open air status.
"We must have been hacked!" Kayo said, still wrestling with the controls.
"How?" Gordon asked, casting around wildly as though he'd be able to find a way to stop it. "That's not-"
"Does anything have access to your systems?" Lieutenant Green asked. "Anything at all?"
"Not anymore," John said, waging his own war against the system from the desk, if the way his fingers were little more than a blur was any indication.
Both Colonel White and Mel had vanished, Scott noticed distractedly as he stumbled back from the suddenly-open doors.
"What do you mean, anymore?" Captain Blue demanded.
"The communication hub?" Captain Scarlet asked.
"That had access to everything," Scott confirmed, watching John and Kayo fight with the systems and feeling frustrated that it was a battle he couldn't help with. "But it was destroyed."
"Destroyed," Captain Scarlet said, flatly.
"Destroyed… by the Mysterons," Captain Blue added. Scott almost snapped at them to stop repeating useless information they already knew, but something about their body language made him pause.
"By the Mysterons, who can replicate anything that's been destroyed and recreate it under their control," Lieutenant Green finished, sounding absolutely horrified.
"How did we miss that?" Captain Blue asked, a little faintly.
It was John's turn to swear.
"Oh no they fucking don't."
I continue to be entirely unapologetic. Kudos if anyone predicted this. Happy New Year :D
Once again, thanks goes to Gumnut for letting me use her OC Mel Fisher, and proof-reading Mel's cameo in this chapter to make sure I got her personality right.
Thanks for reading!
Tsari