Chapter Two – In the Darkness

Wharton Academy, Massachusetts – Graduation Day

Alan Tracy fidgeted nervously and adjusted his cap for the twentieth time in as many minutes.

He thought that he would never live to see the day, but here he was, ready to walk the aisle and be handed his diploma by the headmaster of Wharton Academy. The accomplishment would cap off a furious trek of months studying and training, both in his studies and with certain aspects of International Rescue.

Oh there were the moments of fun – there were summers spent in England with Lady Penelope and the winter vacations in the Alps with his father and brothers, but times he missed the most were with his friends Fermat and TinTin. Due to some advanced testing and upon recommendation of the headmaster, Fermat was given special attention and soon was able to graduate a whole year early, much to Alan's chagrin and grade point average. It took a little extra work and a few study sessions with Fermat via Vidphone, but Alan was set to graduate with a 3.5 GPA and the kudos of many of his teachers.

He couldn't begrudge TinTin, however. After the events of that spring break so many years ago, she grew closer with her family. Alan got to see her on occasion during spring and summer breaks, and he was going to see her later on this summer as well.

So much had changed. Even his brothers were laying off calling him sprout – well most of the time at any rate. Dad had also kept his word, and had been showing him things about the organization that he had dreamed so much about- International Rescue.

Alan did his best, and learned all of the machine's stats inside and out. He even knew each of the individual machines that Thunderbird Two could haul around at a moment's notice. Along with that, he made use of specially made simulators that Brains had concocted, and had thus virtually driven every Thunderbird available. If that wasn't dedication, he didn't know what was.

As much as Alan looked forward to being part of the family organization, he did pick up one side hobby. A couple of the other boys in his math class told him about a physics teacher that raced professionally during the summertime at a race track a few miles away. The teacher was looking for interns for the summer, and there was the distinct possibility that any one of the interns could be made a backup driver for his team. The teacher had done it before, they had said.

Alan had kept up with the local racing circuit after that, and got to know each of the drivers and the cars they drove. It wasn't anything on scale with the professional races he had watched voraciously growing up, but ff he could just become one of them, speeding past his opponents, the wind in his hair, making split second decisions that would mean the difference between first and second place, Alan wanted all of that.

The problem? He hadn't run it by his dad yet. Judging by Alan's previous conversations with his father, it looked like that he was expecting Alan to come spend summer learning more about the 'family business' – as if there was anymore to remember, he thought bitterly. Any more information and he thought he would explode.

"Alan Tracy."

The headmaster had called his name – it was now time to get the rest of his life underway. He stood from his seat and headed to the main aisle to make the long walk to the front for his diploma.

As Alan walked down the main aisle towards the front, he looked to the throng of parents and well wishers and noticed that his father had made it, along with Fermat. There were sitting near the front row and they both waved eagerly at him.

Alan marveled at how his friend had changed in just a few short years. Gone were the spectacles, replaced by contact lenses, and with all of the presentations he was doing in college, he had managed to work on his stutter, which was only prevalent during stressful situations. They had remained close friends throughout, despite Fermat's accelerated trek to college.

The headmaster's annoyed tone broke through his reverie. "Mister Tracy, if we could hurry this along please?"

Blushing, Alan stepped up the pace. The quicker he could get his diploma, the quicker that he could get along with the rest of his life.

--

Crown Detention Facility, London

In a remote corner of London, a non-descript white bricked building stood gleaming against a strong evening sun. Built in a run down area, no one who was smart would set foot even close to the area for fear of robbery or attack.

Dr. Arianna Majors maneuvered her car down the narrow strip of road leading to the building, and then turned into the driveway. After maneuvering to the back of the building where the other cars were, she managed a quick parking job and shut off her car. After pinning back her long auburn hair with a hairclip, she grabbed her nametag from the seat beside her and then hurried out of the car.

She had been working for the government for close to a year, and in that time, she still had trouble getting used to being surrounded by enough secrets to make even James Bond blush. Smoothing out the wrinkles and creases in her mauve blouse and black slacks, Arianna clipped her nametag at her waist and proceeded through the small checkpoint at the edge of the building.

The guard that was stationed there had buzzed her through many a time, and judging by his portly stance, had seen a lot of action with the homemade lunches that he brought from home. "Heya Ari, how's life treating ya?"

She smiled as she held out her tag in front of the scanner stationed in front of the guard. "Not too bad if you don't mind cold cuts for dinner, Dennis, what's your secret?"

Laughing, Dennis patted one hand on his belly. "Blame it on a wife with enough recipes to probably put most chefs out of work." He looked down at the readout. "You're clear, as usual. Have a good day."

A buzzer sounded, and then Arianna stepped through the nearby doorway.

She stepped from the world she knew into one of the most cold and sterile environments that she had ever been in. The hallways she walked through were stark white, with very little in the way of decoration. Only the occasional light or strategically placed potted plant told that there were people occupying the building. Doorways were spaced out sparsely along the way, and Arianna chose the last one at the end and walked right on through.

The room itself looked like a police interrogation room, if it were in a hospital, but with the décor being all white it made the whole thing looking more like an isolation ward.

There was a small table in the room, and at it sat a balding man dressed in a white lab coat, along with a simple white shirt and black trousers. He turned and acknowledged Arianna with a brief glance and a growl. "You're late."

Arianna snorted, as she grabbed a similar lab coat from a hook near the door and put it on. If Jeremy was anything, he was anal retentive about anyone being one second late. "And a hearty hello to you too, Jeremy. You know full well how evening traffic is out there."

Jeremy shook his head and turned back to the observation window. "Let's just begin, shall we?"

Arianna took a seat beside him, and grabbed for the microphone, clicking it on in the process. Her focus was the white robed prisoner sitting on bed on the other side of the glass. "Ok, Mister Belagant, let's talk."

Trangh Belagant, AKA the Hood, sat cross legged on a white bed in the middle of the room. His eyes were closed, and he concentrated on tuning out the routine annoying voices from the other side of the glass. Ever since his attempted attack on the Bank of London all of those years ago, the British government had trouble deciding hat to do with him. Based on the surveillance footage with him initially plowing his way through Jubilee Gardens and then with the initial break-in to the bank, they knew he had some sort of mind power, and wisely decided to isolate him from the rest of the population.

For the next few years, they had kept him confined to the sterile existence of the infernal white building. Every day, he slept in this room that had no privacy. Meals were passed through a metal flap in the door, and a small bathroom built into a corner offered him what little privacy he had.

He got the gist of why they brought him here – they were afraid of what he could do. They had seen his power, and in a way it amused him that the government was curious enough to study him and yet take all of these precautions. There must have been something done with the construction or the protection of the building, for he tried reaching outside the confines of his prison with his mind, only to find his mind bouncing off of a mental wall.

Ah well, his life wasn't exactly a charmed one, but he knew enough when to fight his battles, and now was not the time. The Hood knew that he would get his chance, and he knew the first thing that he would do once he got the opportunity– visit revenge on the man who had ruined his life, Jefferson Tracy.

Arianna sighed as she watched her test subject meditate the same way he had over the past few years. Whenever he was in this room, Trangh had always kept silent. She was still drawing a paycheck keeping up this routine, but she wondered when this whole charade would come to a head. The only thing that worried her was what would bring this to a head.

Little did Arianna know that she didn't have long to wait.

Dennis sat at his checkpoint happily, eating the latest that his erstwhile wife had cooked him for a late meal – steaming spinach soup in a thermos, along with three huge slices of her homemade bread. Life was indeed good. The sun had set not too long ago, and He had a small radio he had smuggled into his small workspace tuned into some evening classic pop music program, and soon strains of 2000's tunes wafted throughout the area. Dennis remembered fondly dancing to those same tunes at school dances with his sweetheart and-

It was then a loud whine started to drown out the music. Dennis didn't think too much about it at first, but when the whine increased in pitch, he shifted himself off of his seat and chanced a look at the night sky and the area around him, barely illuminated by the five light poles dispersed throughout the parking lot.

Nothing was there. Not a sign of movement at all.

He made a move to settle back into his chair when he felt a large rumble, and the ground shaking beneath his feet. Dennis tried to reason out what was happening. "Can't be, there's no such thing as earthquakes - not in London."

But as much as he wanted to not believe it, the rumbling continued - then the world around Dennis exploded.

Explosions rocked the tiny building, the force of which threw both Arianna and Jeremy to the floor. Coughing, Arianna stood up and looked at the huge gaping hole in the hallway that was letting in the darkness from the outside world.

Smoke and dust billowed out from where the rubble settled and in the cloud she could just make out a squadron of military men, through the uniforms were nothing like what she could recognize.

Looking over at her coworker, Arianna's heart lurched when she realized that the falling rubble had fallen upon Jeremy and killed him upon impact. She shook her head in disbelief and shock. Well, I was wondering when things would come to a head, but I didn't think it would be like this.

The group of five men walked towards her slowly and deliberately, and as they got closer, Arianna realized that they were all wearing gas masks and carrying rifles. As the group stopped a few feet in front of the amazed woman, one of them stepped closer to her.

His outfit seemed different than the other soldiers. Where all of them were wearing gray jumpsuits, his was fringed by gold trim, and on the front right side of his chest, there was a patch with a design that she could not recognize. Since he was the only one dressed in that manner, Arianna assumed that he must be the leader of the group.

After precious seconds of silence, Arianna stumbled to her feet and finally found the courage to speak. "How dare you invade a British Government facility? What do you want here?"

Her voice sounded like it had come out of a deep freeze, and truth be told she had counted herself lucky that she wasn't hurt any worse than the bruises that she could feel forming on her arms and back. Judging by the group's interest though, it would probably be a miracle if she survived this encounter.

"We would like Trangh Belagant brought to us this instant."

The tone that the leader of the group had used had not seemed harsh at all, and yet the weapons that his group held pointed at her belied any civility the statement may have contained.

Arianna shook her head slowly at the request. Her orders were to study the Hood only and find out what made him tick. Her superiors had been afraid of him from the start, concerned that if he were put in a prison population, that the man could have an easy population of people to influence. To unleash him on an unsuspecting world – still, she found that there was little choice. Judging by the lack of response by security to this break-in, either their forces had been incapacitated, or worse.

She stepped forward, forcing a smile on her face, and tried to keep her steps as steady as possible. Motioning to the room the Hood was in, Arianna sneered. "You want him? Then by all means, break in and take him. That room is reinforced and secured by two electronic locks and bulletproof glass. Judging by the way your group has tore through this building, the guards that can normally open these doors are probably dead."

The one in charge turned to one of his men, and made a weird signal with the motion of his hand. Nodding, the man quickly ducked out of the room and soon returned with what looked like a small black box that suspiciously looked like a transmitter.

The leader then turned back to Arianna and spoke. "Your government is not the only one who has gadgets, Dr. Majors."

With a flourish of his hand, the leader extended a small antenna from the box and aimed it at the door. With a flip of the switch, a ringing type sound emanated from the machine, and seconds later the locks that were on the doors gaze way with an electrical sizzle.

The Hood, true to form, opened his eyes at the unexpected intrusion, and then reluctantly smiled as he realized who had opened the door. He had thought he had seen the last of these people that had recruited him so long ago, but maybe this was one opportunity that he shouldn't begrudge. If it got him closer to his goal of revenge, so be it.

So, for the first time since he had been incarcerated years ago, the Hood finally spoke. "It took you long enough."