Walk on the Wild Side

By Sapphire

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Chapter 11: No Braver Than An Ordinary Man

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"Virgil!"

Virgil groaned as he slow dug his way up through the slough that was his mind. He had a pounding headache and didn't appreciate somebody screaming directly into his right ear. Especially as he had the feeling it wasn't the first time he had been called.

"Virgil! Wake up!"

"Ugh!" he grunted, while his mind tried to remember why the heck he was laying on his side on some hard surface, and why the voice screaming at him on one hand sounded so concerned and on the other hand was so familiar.

"That's it, Virgil, get up," the voice commanded and he flailed around with his free hand in the search of some support to push himself into a sitting position. His other hand was trapped under his body, and for some strange reason he didn't seem to be able to get it out from there.

Finally his free hand found something to brace against and he heaved himself onto his knees.

Man, his head was killing him.

"Whasup?" he groaned, trying to determine whether it was a good idea to open his eyes or not. He had the feeling it wasn't, but then, he also had the feeling that he had not much choice in the matter.

"Virgil, you need to get up. We need your help," the voice said, and finally Virgil managed to attach a name to it.

"John?" he asked frowning. Something was very wrong. What was John doing here?

"Yes, it's me. And you need to get up!" John insisted.

Virgil blinked slowly. Yes, bad idea to open his eyes, as now in addition to the hammering behind his temples, a fiery lance seemed to impale itself into his brain through his eyes. But the urgency he felt in John's voice was enough to push past it.

He found that he had been lying next to the large pod of Thunderbird 2. He was still dressed in his blue International Rescue uniform, his hat next to him. In the distance over on the next ridge, he saw the frame of the huge 'bird hovering next to the two turbines. John's voice was coming from the nifty little watch communicator Brains had given him. His head had rested on his right arm, and that was the reason he had thought that John had been screaming directly into his ear. Because in a sense he had.

He pushed himself up, resting for a second as he got in a sitting position in order to prevent himself from throwing up.

"What happened, John?" he asked, breathing slowly through his nose.

He tried to remember by himself, but all he could come up with was the faint memory of a bald man with glowing eyes and a gun, and that was it.

"We're not sure, really, but Brains sent the emergency signal, and when I tried to contact you and you didn't respond, we got worried."

Brains. There was no sight of him.

He heaved himself to his feet, bracing himself against the sidewall of the pod to stop the world from spinning. Slowly the headache receded, not to a point that he really could ignore it, but at least so much that he thought he might be able to function.

"You're in Thunderbird 5," he stated, maybe not particularly intelligent, but he didn't think that 'intelligent' was in his grasp quite yet.

"Yes, Virgil, I'm still up here. And you are the only one who can do something about Brains at the moment. Scott, Gordon and Alan are all tied up in the rescue. They'll bring the injured man out in a minute, but then he needs to get to the hospital as soon as possible."

Okay, okay, yes, he remembered. There was the rescue mission going on.

"How long have I been out?" he asked, pressing his hands against his eyes. If he only could get rid of his headache.

"A few minutes, no more," John said. "What do you remember?"

"There was a man," he said slowly. "With a gun. And I think … I think his eyes glowed." What had happened, what he could dredge up from the depth of his mind, it still didn't make sense to him, but for some reason he thought it was important that he told John what he had seen.

A mute explicit came over the airwaves, and for John to curse, the news Virgil had given him must indeed be bad.

"What?" he asked, suddenly with an unpleasant feeling in his stomach.

He heard John sigh. "Virgil, this is bad. Brains must have been kidnapped by the Hood."

"The Hood?"

"Ever since we started International Rescue, he has tried to steal our secrets. He very nearly killed Gordon a month ago, and Scott also had a run in with him. These glowing eyes – he has some sort of hypnotic powers. He is very dangerous."

Virgil shuddered. John was normally the calmest of them five, but now Virgil could hear how scared his middle brother was.

This was not good.

Suddenly, Virgil was frightened. He wasn't cut out for this stuff. The other Virgil, the one from this world, he was the hero. He would certainly know what could be done in this situation. Not him. He was just an engineer, somebody who designed and built airplanes.

He was the wrong person for the job.

But he was also the only person for the job.

Even though it had been less than twenty-four hours since he had stepped into this world, he had come to like Brains a lot. His stutter and the large blue-rimmed glasses might have been off putting for some, but Virgil had instantly realized that they only hid a brilliant mind, a mind that was dedicated to helping his family here to realize their dream. Virgil might be reluctant to believe that at home they should follow the same dream, but here Brains belonged to the Tracys, not just like an employee, or a friend. No, he knew already that he was almost like a brother.

"What can I do?" he asked, his hands clenched into tight fists to keep them from shaking.

"I've got a lock on Brains," John said, sounding relieved. "At the moment he's only about three hundred yards away from where you are right now, moving slowly, as if they are on foot. If you get one of the hover cycles, you should have no problems catching up with them."

Virgil swallowed, then nodded, even though neither John nor anybody else was able to see him. Making his way toward the pod where they had stored the hover cycles he started thinking.

"John, when I find them, what is stopping this guy from doing that glowy eyes thing again. He had me out like a light in a second the last time."

John hesitated for a moment then said, "You cannot look into his eyes."

Yeah, right, don't look him in the eyes. And how was he supposed to stop him then? Virgil asked himself. Should he request from him politely to let Brains go while looking into another direction?

The weight of the gun at his side suddenly grew very heavy and Virgil pulled it out, studying it for a moment. After what happened yesterday, he had never again wanted to use another gun. Now he found that there might be no other way and he didn't like it a bit.

He returned the gun to its holster and started the hover cycle. Then he drove out of the pod's bay, following John's directions as he was giving them from Thunderbirds 5.

---

Only a few hundred yards away, though it might have been a hundred miles, Scott pulled Chris onto the rescue platform, while Alan fixed Bob's inert body into some kind of high tech stretcher. They had barely cleared the turbine, when Alan gave the all clear and the platform was raised back into Thunderbird 2's body.

Scott cast a worried glance over to the other ridge where Thunderbird 2's pod was clearly visible and where he knew Virgil was following a dangerous criminal all alone.

They had listened in on John and Virgil's communications, working all the time as fast as they could to free the trapped man. In a shorter time than he had thought would be possible they had managed to cut him loose, pull him out and move him to the hatch of the gondola.

Alan's sharp intake of breath when Virgil had mentioned the glowing eyes had told him more than words that this man was not unknown to the brothers from this world. John's explanation didn't sit well with him, and he wished nothing more than to be able to leave everybody here behind and come to Virgil's aid.

But he also knew that he couldn't.

The injured man was in a bad way. Even though Alan had attempted to secure the spike that had impaled Bob's torso, the wound had started to bleed again at an alarming rate. There was the very strong possibility that he was bleeding inside and if they didn't get him to a hospital as soon as possible, he would die. They, International Rescue, were the only chance the man had to survive.

The rescue platform vanished inside Thunderbirds 2's body, and immediately Scott felt the large plane shift and accelerate.

He wanted to stop Gordon, tell him to drop him off in Virgil's vicinity, so he could help him, but there was no time.

"We need to get him to the sickbay and stabilize him," Alan said, his voice tight, pushing the stretcher, which seemed to hover in mid air, towards the door.

Scott pulled himself away from his thoughts of Virgil and followed his youngest brother. Chris trailed after them.

"Gordon, what is our ETA at the hospital?" he asked, trying to sound as if the question was part of normal procedures. Not that he really knew what 'normal' procedures were for International Rescue.

"Four point five minutes. I've already alerted them of our coming and they will be ready when we arrive."

Four point five minutes. They needed to unload their passenger and then head straight back. That would possibly take another five minutes at least. Nine point five minutes. Never had a few minutes seemed so long.

They had reached the sick bay and Alan started to attach the injured man to various machines and bags with fluids, working with practiced moves. Chris was hovering in the background, watching him with large, scared eyes.

Scott was feeling very superfluous.

He moved back into the corridor, out of the way.

For a moment he leaned his forehead against the cool bulkhead, then he straightened up.

"Scott to Thunderbird 5," he talked into the microphone of his headset, assuming that his middle brother was monitoring all their airwaves. "John, what's the status?"

"Virgil is gaining ground," John immediately answered, confirming Scott's suspicions, "but he's still a good bit away. The road is about a hundred yards away from where Brains and the Hood are right now and I can detect a vehicle there. When they reach it, he will be lost."

"Is there anything you can do?"

Just last night, he had seen a hundred miraculous things on Tracy Island, surely there had to be something to stop one man from reaching a road.

"I'm sorry, Scott. If I'll do anything, then I only risk Brains' life as well."

Scott sighed. He hadn't actually expected that there was something, but it would have been nice.

"How's Virgil holding up? Can you patch me through to him?"

"Sure," John said. "It's all voice activated."

"Scott calling Virgil," he said, just as Thunderbird 2 was shifting again, moving into a left turn.

"Scott?" Virgil acknowledged, sounding glad to hear his brother's voice.

"Damnit, Virg, I wish I could help you, but we need to get this guy here to the hospital ASAP. We got them both aboard, but we really need to hurry."

There was a moment of silence.

"It's okay, Scott. I can handle this."

"Virg," Scott started, but then stopped again.

"Yes?"

"Just, be careful. We'll be back in nine minutes," he said, trying not to sound like he was fretting. He didn't believe he was very successful.

"I will, Scott," Virgil said quietly. "Over and out."

The silence of the airwaves mocked him, and with a guttural cry he drove his fist into the unyielding bulkheads of Thunderbird 2.

TBC

So, Virgil is off to play the hero and Scott is worried ... nothing new here :)

Next chapter: Virgil has 'A Déjà Vu Moment'