Chapter 5, don't own anything except the plot. (no surprises there ^_^)
Same as usual:
'bla' = thoughts
"bla" = Japanese
It was 6.30 a.m. and John was looking at the stars. He been able to sleep peacefully for a couple of hours after his nightmare, and as usual, that was all he was going to get. Not that he needed much more, mind you. He never had been a long sleeper on Thunderbird 5, his rest period only occupied about four hours. There were so many other things to do, useful things, like learning another language or exercising in the little gym or his favourite study: the stars and the planets.
He sighed loudly. Even though he didn't need the rest too much, the dreams were disturbing and wearing him down. Thank god for the girl; she made them a little more bearable, but that same girl was tiring him out too. She was a complete mystery. He realised that every time he tried to envision her face during the day he would come up with nothing. The only thing engraved in his memory were her sparkling blue eyes. And now her singing voice too. That soft voice floated in and out of his mind, leaving a terrible mess behind.
The blond was standing on the highest balcony of the mansion that Penelope called home. He would always come here when he was staying with her and needed a place to think.
"Penny for your thoughts?"
"Well it seems that a Penny has already joined me, why in heaven's name would I want another one when this one's invaluable?"
"Oh John, you always did have a way with words, didn't you? Now, care to share your thoughts with me?"
John remained silent.
"Or if possible, could you explain to me why your grandmother refuses to eat any escargots for the rest of her life?" Lady Penelope asked with a thoughtful look on her face.
"Oh she does, does she? Well it's quite simple: a few nights ago I had a rather, well, 'lively' dream and appear to have raised my voice." Penelope knew what he meant, but didn't comment.
"Grandma heard this and came into my room. Now I think she was rather tired, but she claims something was wrong with the food yesterday. Anyway, according to her an angel was sitting next to me. An angel who disappeared the moment she entered."
"So that was it. Well perhaps she's right and it was the food. Unless of course you've got a secret girlfriend visiting you."
"Well you caught me! I guess there's no sense in hiding it anymore." John said with a mysterious smile.
Penelope laughed softly. She was familiar with the Tracy boys' jokes - John's being no exception.
"Lets go back inside; if I'm not mistaken Parker has finished breakfast."
"Not if Grandma beat him to it."
The two blonds smiled and went to the dining room.
"I really should have known. Who in their right minds would eat snails? It's asking for trouble. In my whole life I haven't hallucinated once, but I really would have sworn I saw an angel. She was covered in some sort of blue light. I couldn't really see her but she had these mesmerizing blue eyes."
John just sat there and listened to his grandma talking about her meeting with the girl of his dreams (well, apparently not just his dreams) and ate his breakfast.
When he and Penny had entered the dining room they had seen Grandma Tracy and Parker working together, laughing like old friends. Apparently they had made breakfast together since they couldn't decide who should do what.
When he was finished, John asked if they would excuse him. Breakfast had been great but he intended to visit the enormous library while he had the chance.
Walking through the hallways, trying to remember the directions Penelope had given him, his eyes suddenly fell on a beautiful painting. It had been a birthday gift from Virgil to Lady Penelope. The five Tracy sons and Jeff standing on the beach of their island on a starry night. The four birds shown in the painting were an inside joke only they could understand. A yellow one up high in the sky, a red one trying to reach it, a blue one flying fast to a tree and a green one sitting peacefully on a branch.
He smiled and continued his quest to the treasure island some would call the library. It was true that the Creighton family's collection held many expensive and unique books, which John couldn't wait to read. He remembered the first time they had come here, Scott had been fourteen
: Flashback :
"Scotty I'm bored!"
"So am I Allie, so am I."
It was the second day of their visit to their dad's friends and the five boys were sitting in the lounge, not knowing what to do. Until Gordon came up with a solution.
"Why don't we play hide and seek? In an old house like this there have to be some great hiding places."
"Hmm, I don't know Gordie, who knows if there are places we aren't allowed to enter?"
"Oh come on Virg, don't be such a spoilsport. Lady Penelope said we were allowed to investigate the castle all we wanted and we already did that, now this is just the same"
"Well I think I'm a little too old for this game" the oldest tracy brother said. " I'll sit this one out and have a talk with Lady Penelope." He left his brothers and went looking for the pink-loving girl.
Virgil sighed, "I knew it, the older they get the duller they become." This caused his two youngest brothers to giggle and his older brother to smile.
"You'll play with us, won't you Johnny?" John just smiled at Alan and nodded reassuringly.
They agreed that Virgil would stay in the lounge and count to one hundred then he would come and look for them. The three other boys would go and hide during that time.
Laughing quietly, John ran through hallways until he felt he had put a decent distance between himself and Virgil. He opened a door and entered the room as silently as possible, looking to see whether anyone was in there and preparing to apologize if necessary.
It was completely empty, its only contents were thousands of books and John felt like he had hit the jackpot! The blond teenager closed the door and started reading the titles of the books, not noticing what he was doing he went deeper and deeper into the labyrinth of bookshelves.
In the middle of the huge room he found some cozy looking couches and settled down with a book that seemed rather interesting. He soon forgot all about his brothers and the game they were playing.
In the meantime, Virgil had found Gordon and Alan who had just discovered the kitchen and had succeeded in making a huge mess. The cook caught them and they promised to clean it up themselves even though she said it wasn't necessary. When they were finally finished it was time for dinner so they went to the dining room.
Dinner was served and everyone started eating and talking until suddenly,
"Virg, where's John?" Scott asked with a bit of concern. "It's been a while since I saw him. I hope nothing's wrong."
"Oh no!I totally forgot about him! He must still be hiding!"
"What! You mean you forgot to search for him?" The younger boy nodded guiltily.
"But John must have realized, mustn't he? I mean he is the smart one, shouldn't he have come out of hiding and searched for you a long while ago?"
"Not if he's hurt or if he's still looking for them."
"Then we should hurry and look for him."
So they did, and looked everywhere. The castle was very large so they split up, Scott looked on the second floor, Penelope on the first, and Virgil and Gordon on the third.
Scott kept running through the hallways, opening doors and looking into rooms. But all of them were empty. Then he came into a huge room filled with books.
"If he's not here, he has to be on one of the other floors. John! Are you in here? JOHN!"
He heard a faint response. After a while John appeared between the bookshelves, a book in his hands.
"Oh, hi Scott? Is something wrong? Do they want to quit the game? Or are you with them and have I just been found?"
"What? You mean you thought they were still playing?"
"Of course. Aren't they?" John blinked.
"God damn it Johnny, they finished hours ago, we already ate dinner! We were worried sick for you."
: end flashback :
The rest of the evening Scott had been nagging on about him and his love of books.
He hadn't had the opportunity to visit the library since that time.
Finally he found the room. Walking between the books once again, one of them caught his eye. It seemed like a rather old one. Leather cover with a lot of strange signs on it. When he began to read it, it appeared to be about the old myths and mysteries of the world, specializing in those of Japan - something about some warriors and a Silver Millennium? He kept reading it, since it seemed to be an interesting subject.
++++++++++++++Tracy island++++++++++++++++++++
Alan was so glad to be home again. He wanted to joke with Gordon, get advice from John, prank Scott and laugh with Virgil. Also he couldn't wait to hug Tintin, they had got together shortly before he left for school and a whole term was way too long for a young couple to be separated. Already he was planning to take her out for a picnic on the beach one evening. He was shaken out of his thoughts by the voice of his best friend, who was sitting next to him.
"We are l-l-l-landing. Alan."
The moment the engines stopped, the boy was out of the machine and running to his father and brothers.
"Dad, Scott, Virg. Great to see you"
"Hey! Easy there sprout, wouldn't want to see you fall. Concrete isn't exactly soft you know!"
'..And we're back to the teasing. Man, can't believe I almost missed them… almost'
The five guys went to the mansion, joking and talking all the way. When they entered the kitchen, Tintin ran up to Alan and almost cracked his ribs hugging him.
"Missed you too Tintin."
She was about to say something back when they heard someone scream from the other end of the house.
Virgil and Tintin looked at each other and said one word: Gordon. Then they ran towards the Medical Bay.
"Dad, what's wrong with Gord? He didn't hurt himself did he? What happened?"
"It's not Gordon who's in the sick bay, it's a mystery!" Scott said. They all went to the sick bay, only to see the redhead himself being kicked out of it and the door being slammed closed.
"Hey bro, what happened? What did you do? Better yet, what did she do?" Virgil asked as he knelt down next to his younger brother.
"Well, she woke up, saw me, slapped me! Jumped out of the bed and said something in a strange language while taking up a fighting pose. To say she doesn't really trust us would be an understatement."
"Well you probably scared her. I mean it's not like we had already introduced ourselves."
But suddenly Tintin groaned. "Oh no, she jumped out of the bed? Gordon don't tell me…"
"Sorry Tintin, what was I supposed to do? I hadn't noticed i while she was just lying there."
"No wonder she's angry! If it were me you'd have a black eye now."
"Tintin, what are you talking about? I thought you said there wasn't anything wrong with her."
"There isn't, but after checking up on her I decided to wash her clothes. I didn't think she would wake up before they were done. She should have been knocked out for hours last time I checked, but apparently I was wrong, so she was standing there in that room with, eh, well, nothing? I assume the sheets fell off of her when she jumped out of the bed?"
"They sure did," Gordon said.
"Gordon!" Virgil, Tintin, Scott and Jeff all yelled.
"Would someone please tell me what is going on here?!" Alan screamed, with Fermat and Brains nodding next to him.
"Scott found a girl on the beach this morning, we don't know how she got here nor do we know why. She's a complete mystery."
This made the three newcomers fall silent. The silence was broken however when Tintin sighed.
"Look I'll go get her some clothes. We can't let her stay in those sheets and since hers aren't done yet… then I'll go in there and try to calm her down."
"That might be a problem, you see I don't think she understands English."
"And how would you know Scott? I thought she was unconscious when you found her."
"Well she was Sir, but I shook her awake and asked her who she was. She didn't seem to understand what I was saying and was out cold again before I knew it." Only Virgil seemed to notice that Scott seemed really uncomfortable saying this.
"Gordon or Scott, can you recognize what language it was?"
"Yes Sir, I believe it was Japanese," Gordon said.
"Oh great. And John's the only one who can speak Japanese."
"Wait, John's not here?"
"No, he was invited to spend a few nights at Lady Penelope's home. He needs this vacation, so unless it's absolutely necessary I prefer not to get him back here."
Tintin left to get some clothes while the rest thought about a solution with frowns on their faces.
After a while a small smile appeared on Brains' face.
"P-P-perhaps I can h-h-he-hel- solve this problem, Mr. Tracy."
Everyone looked at the genius in wonder. He left just as Tintin came back. When she asked where he had gone, nobody could answer. They didn't have to wait long for his return, however, since soon afterwards, he returned, two small devices in his arms.
"I-I have been working on this for a while and I'm not' s-s-su- certain if it works yet, but.."
"Come now Brains, I know you. I'm sure it'll work. What does it do?"
"Well I-it translates. T-T-these small receptors t-t-take in every language other then the one of the user and g-g-give the translation into the h-h-headphones."
"Great, I'll use that then. Now if you'll excuse me, I believe I know someone who'll want to get some clothes." Tintin said. She took the equipment, put one set of headphones on, and entered the room, snapping the door shut behind her.
When the redhead just stood still without leaving, Ami got a little pissed off, so she kicked him out of the room and slammed the door shut.
Leaning against the door, the poor girl slid down to the floor. She had heard people arriving and heard them talking. Apparently she was on the Tracy island, all the names were the same as in the information Setsuna had given her. She hadn't recognized that Gordon guy because she hadn't been provided with any photos of the family. When she heard the girl was coming in, she quickly went to sit on the bed, looking out of the window.
The girl didn't say a thing, but gave Ami the headphones and signaled for her to put them on. Brains had already set the language to Japanese, if Gordon was right about the young woman then they could finally have a normal conversation.
"I really hope you'll understand me, cause otherwise we really have a problem."
"Yes I can, thank god for that, but what is this? Where am I? And most importantly, who are you people?"
"Well let's see, you're on Tracy island, home of Jeff Tracy's family and mine which serves them. I'll introduce you to the rest of the inhabitants soon, but I think you'd prefer to get dressed first. I'm sorry for that, by the way, but I took your clothes to wash them"
"Thank you... Sorry, what's your name?"
"I'm Tintin. What's yours?"
"My name is Mizuno Ami"
Ami got dressed. She was glad that Tintin chose some loose clothes since she herself was a bit bigger and she couldn't take any of the clothes out of her sub-space pocket. She ended up wearing a knee-length white skirt that was a little too short for her and a light blue tank top which must have been too big for Tintin since it fitted Ami just right.
Then came the time she had dreaded. Getting out there and meeting the islanders.
Okay this chapter is a little shorter, but on the other hand, it does have a bit more John in it ^_^ hope you liked it and I would love some feedback.
Truth is I'm not really sure if I should continue this fic. No one seems to care about it, and I feel like I'm not writing the character as I should be.