Disclaimer: I don't own Thunderbirds or Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.
Scott's heart was lodged somewhere high in his throat as the water crashed down. He knew it was futile – if the barriers didn't raise in time, no-one in the villa stood a chance – but he grabbed John with one hand, Kayo with the other, and threw them down beneath Dad's desk, shielding them with his body as best he could.
Captain Scarlet clearly had the same thought process, doing the same to both the Lieutenant and Captain Blue, to the latter's muffled protest.
The collision was deafening as the water hurtled its full might at the barriers. Behind the desk, Scott couldn't see if they'd been high enough, if it had held, if they were about to be annihilated by the gigantic wave. All he could do was grip tightly onto his siblings and pray to Mom that they wouldn't be joining her and Dad today.
A heartbeat passed. And another. And then another.
No roaring water coming in to wash them away. No ocean slamming through their home and obliterating anything in its path.
Nothing.
He locked eyes with Captain Scarlet, barely breathing as the situation began to sink in.
It was the Captain who moved first, releasing his fellow officers and tentatively raising his head to look over the wooden desk.
"It's clear," the man said quietly, sounding more than a little stunned. "The wave's passed."
More shakily than he would have liked, Scott let go of his siblings and pulled himself up next to him, peering past Dad's desk to see water splattered across the glass blast doors, looking like Gordon had once again been playing with a hose when he was supposed to be doing something a little less childish. Beyond it, casting a large, dark, shadow across them, were the cahelium barriers. They were a little wonky, crooked in a way they shouldn't be, and combined with the water on the doors it was clear that they hadn't fully raised before the tsunami hit, but they'd raised enough.
Scott's legs felt weak, and he was glad he was already sitting down, otherwise he might have fallen.
"My God," Captain Blue whispered hoarsely, his head poking up the other side of Captain Scarlet's as he, too, surveyed the sight outside. "You did it." Out of the corner of his eye, Scott saw him clamp a hand down on Lieutenant Green's shoulder. "You did it!"
"They weren't using my 'bird to kill us," John said, sounding entirely too calm and unruffled as he dragged himself into a sitting position. Scott could see through the façade to the terrified, adrenaline-crashing little brother beneath, but he doubted the Spectrum men could. "That was never happening."
"Of course it wasn't," Kayo agreed. At some point her ponytail had come loose, and strands of hair fell in her face as she found her way to her feet.
"We need to report to Cloudbase," Captain Scarlet said, standing up himself. "Are communications back?"
"They should be," John agreed. Scott rolled out of the way to let him regain the desk chair and plonk himself in it heavily. Whether that was because of gravity or the adrenaline crash, Scott didn't dare guess. His brother plucked at some holographic strands as Scott begrudgingly clambered to his own feet, and a moment later the older man materialised in the centre of the den.
"What happened?" the man demanded immediately. "Cloudbase and the Angels both lost contact."
"The Mysteron plan happened, Colonel," Captain Scarlet explained. Scott was content to let him recount the events of the past few minutes as he soundlessly checked his siblings over. Still on the floor, Captain Blue was congratulating what appeared to be a shell-shocked Lieutenant Green.
"You hacked them, Lieutenant!" he was saying, a mix of awe and conviction in his voice. "That's huge. That the possibility even exists-"
"We hacked them," the other man interrupted quietly. "There's no way I could have done that alone."
"None of us could," Kayo interjected, striding over and offering him a hand up, which he accepted. Scott followed suit with Captain Blue, hauling the man to his feet while Captain Scarlet continued to bring their Colonel up to speed. "John and I know International Rescue's systems, but we don't know the Mysterons."
"Still," Captain Blue pressed, "the fact that humans are capable of hacking Mysterons at all was unthinkable until now. If we can learn from this, there's so many scenarios we can potentially prevent in the future."
"This is another shred of hope for mankind in this war of nerves with the Mysterons," Colonel White interjected. "Well done, Lieutenant Green, and thank you, International Rescue, for opening our eyes to this new possible defence."
Scott knew John well enough to know his brother hadn't had any such thoughts in mind when he'd decided to tackle the aliens at their own game. No, he'd just been affronted at the idea of his Thunderbird being their chosen weapon and tackled it the way he knew best. The Mysterons had picked a battle with John in his home territory, and while it had taken the combined efforts of John, Kayo, and a Spectrum electronics expert to fight back, they'd managed it.
They'd won.
"Kayo, call Gordon and the others back," he said, his focus now on the currently-absent members of his family. His heart wasn't going to settle back in his chest where it should be until he knew that they'd all escaped unscathed from the attack.
"On it," she nodded, holding her wrist up to her mouth as it connected.
"I'd like our men to stay with you until the twenty-four hour period has passed, Commander," Colonel White said, dragging Scott's unwilling attention back onto him. "While it is likely from the scale of this assault that they have no other intentions towards International Rescue, I would like to be on the safe side."
Scott forced down his worry for his absent family and frustration at the military presence continuing in their base to analyse the Colonel's words properly. The older man was right, of course. The time period was far from over and while they'd apparently escaped mostly unscathed, with the only visible damage so far to their tsunami defences, there was time for the Mysterons to try again.
"Very well," he agreed reluctantly, shoving away the surge of disappointment he was certain he could feel from the spectre of Dad that lurked in the corner of his mind. "We're in no state to be perfect hosts at the moment, but I understand your reasoning. You might as well call the Angels in, too; there's no point wasting fuel or upsetting Dr Fisher any further."
He also wanted the Spectrum cohort where he could keep an eye on them, rather than flying around and spying on anything and everything they could catch a glimpse of. Colonel White could no doubt see right through his reasoning, but Scott didn't care as long as he acquiesced, which he did with minimal hesitation.
Not no hesitation, Scott noticed, but he was too tired from the emotional rollercoaster of the last few hours to challenge it when the three Angel Interceptors appeared on the horizon – a horizon that was no longer a wall of water bearing down on them – heading straight for Tracy Island. As long as they were following his wishes, he'd let the hesitation pass without comment.
"Kayo, bring them in," he asked his sister.
"F.A.B." She slipped away, and with one last look over John, now slumped in the chair and looking as displeased with gravity as Scott had ever seen him, he turned his attention to the Spectrum officers in the den.
If they were going to be hanging around for another twenty hours or so, there were some ground rules that had to be laid.
His act of laying down the law with the three men, who thankfully seemed quite agreeable with Scott's firm instructions – the Lieutenant, in particular, rather resembled John in that he looked like he'd like nothing better than to crash out for several hours or more, and had gratefully sunk down onto one of the den's sofas at Scott's suggestion – was cut short by a whirlwind of blond and something small and hard colliding with his stomach.
"Scott!"
There was a streak of dirt on Alan's bare arm. Scott couldn't see his face, but he didn't need to as he wrapped his arms tightly around his youngest brother and squeezed him until he squeaked. A large, comforting, hand landed on his shoulder, and he glanced back to see Virgil standing behind him, looking a mixture of unimpressed and very, very relieved.
Uncaring of what the observing Spectrum officers thought, Scott twisted around, lifting one arm from where it had been clenching Alan to instead pull his middle brother into his embrace. It wasn't the commander he should have been projecting, but it was the big brother he needed to be, both for his brothers and himself, and for a moment Scott allowed it to shine through.
"Where's my hug?" Gordon didn't wait for an answer before worming his way in, squirming like an eel until he was smushed between the other two. Scott gripped all three of them for a moment, basking in the relief that his brothers were all okay and glancing up to see Grandma and Brains shooting him reassuring looks as they settled into the den themselves.
Everyone was safe. They'd survived.
For a moment longer, he allowed himself to stand there and just breathe, before the presence of the Spectrum officers forced him to return to being commander first and foremost.
"Is that Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward?" a barely familiar female voice asked, and Scott stepped back so he could turn to face the new arrivals. The Angel that had spoken seemed to be the red-headed one – Rhapsody, if he was remembering correctly.
"You know her?" Kayo pounced, sticking close to the three women like a particularly intense guard dog – or, as Scott suspected, a fascinated young woman finally meeting kindred spirits and not wanting to let them out of her sight.
Spectrum's Angels were badass female pilots with an unmatched reputation, after all. That was right up Kayo's alley, and Scott made a mental note to keep an eye on her. He couldn't be losing his head of security to Spectrum and the allure of their fast, shiny planes. He didn't particularly want to let his sister out from under his wing either, if he was honest.
Maybe it was time to think about getting Kayo her own plane, if only so Spectrum didn't have something to offer her that she couldn't get from home.
"Our paths have crossed," Rhapsody admitted, sliding gracefully onto the sofa already partially occupied by Lieutenant Green in a fashion that was highly reminiscent of the Lady in question. Scott could certainly believe that they knew each other, even if that was another potential problem in the making.
Lady Penelope didn't need the fact that she was one of International Rescue's agents becoming common knowledge – or knowledge at all. Scott despaired quietly; what had been the odds that one of the Spectrum members would recognise her portrait?
"We were coursemates at Oxford," John – smart, observant, John – offered. "We keep in touch."
"You went to Oxford?"
Scott watched in faint amusement as John suddenly found himself dragged into conversation by a British woman. His introverted brother seemed doomed to never find peace when women like that were in the vicinity.
Over by the desk, Kayo seemed to be deep in discussions with the other two Angels – Scott wasn't sure he wanted to know what about – and the rest of his family were settling down on sofas, with the exception of Alan, who had yet to let go of Scott.
Scott didn't bother trying to peel him off, instead working around the limpet as he, too, descended into the den and squished himself onto a sofa, where Virgil and Gordon had already made themselves comfortable.
Alan clambered into his lap as though he was much younger than his thirteen years, and Scott didn't have the heart to make him let go.
It was a far cry from the professional International Rescue he'd planned to show to Spectrum, and in the back of his mind he was terrified of the future repercussions of admitting that they were, in a nutshell, simply a single family with the money and drive to do what they did, but after the terror of the past few hours, there was no mask he could even attempt to put up and hold up.
So, with Alan clinging to him like an overgrown koala, Virgil pressed against his shoulder as though he wanted to permanently glue himself there, and Gordon sprawling across the black-haired Tracy, Scott met the eyes of the watching Captain Scarlet and continued listing off the last few rules as though they hadn't been interrupted.
He wasn't going to be able to relax until Spectrum were long gone, and even then they had problems to deal with – chief among them Thunderbird Five, and if she was safe now. Had John and the others driven the Mysterons out for good, or was she a booby trap just waiting to spring again?
That was going to be a highly unpleasant conversation with John, when it came down to it. Given the scare, his immediate brother would definitely willingly stay down on Earth for a few days, to reassure himself that his family truly were okay, much in the same way Scott would be keeping International Rescue grounded and his family close for the same reason, but sooner rather than later, he'd want to go back into space again.
Scott was certain that he didn't want John going near the Mysteron-constructed space station. Not now, and not ever.
To his relief, the rest of the twenty-four hours passed without incident – unless, of course, he counted Grandma attempting to cook for all of them and almost poisoning the Spectrum members, all of whom were too polite to refuse her offerings. Once suitably recovered from their frantic technological warfare, the three electro-geeks – as Gordon nicknamed them – alongside Brains had turned their attention to the current Thunderbird Five, scouring her for Mysteron influence and attempting to determine whether she should be destroyed and replaced.
Scott's vote was a resounding yes, although notably his opinion hadn't been asked for. In fact, he found himself without fail being chivvied away whenever he approached, as though John knew exactly what he was thinking and didn't want to hear it.
The verdict came just after the twenty-four hour mark.
"There's n-no sign of the Mysterons a-at all." Brains was the one to deliver the verdict, backed up by the other three. "Thunderbird Five i-is just the same a-as she's always b-been."
"How can there be no sign?" Scott demanded. "She was reconstructed from scratch by them! They must be everywhere!"
"Well, they're not," John said flatly. "Not as far as any of our scans can tell. We'll need to check her in person to be absolutely certain, but neither we nor Spectrum are picking up any Mysteron residue at all."
"You are not going up in person." Scott wouldn't hear of it. "No way."
"If you destroy her, there's a high chance that the Mysterons will rebuild her and we'll be back to square one," Lieutenant Green interjected. It was the sort of ruthless logic John also liked to wield, and Scott wondered if his brother was simply using the older man as a mouthpiece, or if he'd come up with that by himself. "She's also completely unprecedented – technology we managed to reclaim from the Mysterons!"
"B-building a new Thunderbird Five will t-take a long time," Brains added. "I-International Rescue will be out o-of action f-for months."
"While this Thunderbird Five is active and capable of receiving distress calls now," John finished. "We can return to action at any time if we use her."
They were compelling points, particularly the latter, but Scott wasn't willing to risk John in any way, shape, or form.
"I need irrefutable proof that Thunderbird Five is completely safe and Mysteron-free before anyone steps foot inside her again," he insisted. "This is non-negotiable. International Rescue will also remain grounded until our systems are completely clean; I'm not giving them a chance to hijack us and kill us on a mission."
Just because the twenty-four hours had passed didn't mean Scott felt safe from them. The Mysterons were the ones who created the rules, so the Mysterons were the ones who could change the rules on a whim, however it suited their purpose.
Scott's desire to protect the world paled in comparison to his need to keep his family safe.
"Fine," John caved, although he clearly thought Scott was overreacting. Scott didn't care. "I'll keep running checks." It was a begrudging agreement, but it was an agreement. It was also certainly all that he was going to get on the topic for the time being, so he changed topic, switching his focus to the Spectrum members clustered in the den.
"It seems our presence is no longer necessary," Captain Scarlet admitted before he could say anything, "so we'll be on our way, now."
"Don't hesitate to call if something comes up," Captain Blue added.
"I'll continue sweeping for signs of the Mysterons." Unlike the other two, Scott knew Lieutenant Green's words were aimed at John, not him. He was definitely not pleased at the concept of Thunderbird Five being poked and prodded from Cloudbase, but while it threatened International Rescue's secrecy, it helped confirm John's safety, so Scott held his tongue. For now.
"Thanks," John nodded. "That'll help." Turquoise eyes gave Scott a sidewards glance he pretended not to see.
"We got lucky," Kayo told him quietly, ten minutes later as they watched the four Spectrum aircraft launch and head back to Cloudbase. "The Mysterons' scheme was almost watertight" – Scott purposefully didn't react to the pun – "and if they hadn't made the mistake of revealing Thunderbird Five's replication as early as they did, we would have died."
"Lieutenant Green said they're known to make mistakes," Gordon commented from the other side of him. "And you, John, and the Lieutenant just beat them at their own game. They're not infallible."
"They're not," Scott agreed as the four planes – in formation with the jet surrounded by the Angel Interceptors – roared through the sound barrier and out of sight, "but they are dangerous." He turned around to face Kayo properly. "We need more defences against them in case they ever target us again."
"I'll see to it," she promised. Scott couldn't ask for more.
Home stretch now! This is the last written chapter of the fic (with an epilogue to go), but I am toying with adding one more, depending on how my muses feel. We'll have to see on that one.
Thanks for reading!
Tsari