Im so sorry that this chapter took so long, i havent had time to write it. Thank you all for the subscriptions, i promice not to mak you dissapointed. Quite alot happens in this chapter so please review afterwads to let me know how i did. :) And before yo ask, Propetyroline Gas is made up, pretty cool, eh? Hehe. Well enjoy the chapter and i look forward from hearing from you :)
Reunited as … Half.
Finding a place to land on the steep terrain was near impossible, not that you would expect to find a decent landing spot on the peaks of a mountain range. After scanning the nearby peaks for a long period of time, Jeff opted to put Thunderbird 2 into auto-pilot and have it hovering just above the frosted ground beneath, it was risky, but the only plausible option he could think of.
There didn't seem to be any way of getting into the mountain, or any sort of recently worn path. Jeff's eyes scanned the ground soon after placing his feet onto it, followed closely by The Hood.
"Why don't we go this way?" The Hood gestured, pointing towards a small mound on the icy peaks. Jeff nodded, and walked towards it. Finding a small opening hiding beneath the snow. "You first." Jeff said, sending The Hood into the darkness of the tunnel.
"Gordon? Gordon?" John said, shaking his brother, waking him.
"Hmm...?" Gordon replied, sitting up and rubbing his eyes, "Where are we?"
"I don't know, but Virgil is over there, and Scott is behind him." John said, standing up, pointing towards the two sleeping brothers.
"I feel awful..." Gordon muttered, swaying slightly and hanging onto his brother for stability.
"Me too... I have a feeling that green gas has something to do with it... Although, I'm not sure what it was." John said, walking over to his brothers to wake them. "Scott?" John said softly, shaking him by the shoulder. Scott mumbled and sat up, rubbing his head.
"What the f..." Scott stopped at Gordon's glare, "fudge." Scott ended his sentence. Virgil was laughing from beside him. "Awake too?" He asked.
"Yeah" Virgil replied. "What are we going to do?"
"I don't know. We don't even know where we are, and we aren't any closer to finding Alan or Fermat either." Scott said, sighing. After a short silence, Virgil helped his brother off the floor and they all stood in a circle, thinking.
"We need a plan." Scott said heroically, standing on his tip toes to look over John's shoulder. John frowned at Scott and looked behind him, where he noticed an air vent.
"I think Scott, you've given me an idea." John said, looking out the corner of his eye at the vent. "Have a look around for a crowbar or some sort of pipe, were going to need something strong to open the venting system." They all sprang into action, looking around the dark storeroom, full of boxes and items pushed into neglect and storage.
"Alan... I'm scared."
"Me too, Fermat."
"Are they going to come?"
"I don't know..."
Jeff and The Hood walked in silence, down the dark tunnel. The smell of old motor-oil wafted around as they disturbed old canisters. The darkness made it difficult to see where obstacles were, and if there was anything blocking the way. After a few moments of awkward silence, The Hood finally spoke:
"Jeff. What are you going to do? When you find The Opal..." The Hood was walking slower now, almost waiting for Jeff to catch up and give him an answer. For the first time in his life, Jeff didn't know. He was so used to being able to save anyone, and almost everyone spontaneously, but now his sons were involved, it was as if his spontaneous side had vanished, stolen along with his beloved sons. After half an hour of walking and a few unanswered questions in the back of his mind, The Hood was growing restless.
"Why wont this damn tunnel end?" The Hood span to face the entity of Jeff, knowing that he couldn't see him properly.
"I'm sure it will eventually, we are heading into a mountain..." Jeff and The Hood continued walking, when a small light turned on, around 10 meters away from where they were currently residing. Both men walked briskly towards the light. Jeff's curiosity got the better of him and he touched it, causing a green gas to start pouring out of a small nozzle net to the tiny light. Immediately both men hit the floor with a muffled bang, and the last thing Jeff thought, was of his sons.
"Virgil, your the smallest, you should go in first and see if it gets any narrower." Scott whined.
"Well, Scott. I think you should go in, your more flexible..." Things were getting heated when there was a small bang and a sliding noise. They turned around to see Gordon peering down the vent.
"John? Are you all right?" Gordon shouted into the venting shaft. A faint voice came from the bottom of the shaft;
"Yeah, I'm fine. It doesn't get and thinner, slide down and meet me." All four Tracy boys took it in turns to slide down the ventilation shaft and into another room.
The room was different to the one before, instead of boxes of stored material, there were test tubes filled with musky green liquid and bottles full of altered elements and unstable materials. On the far side of the room was a large, transparent container filled to the top with some sort of silver liquid, bubbling and frothing at the top.
"Its some sort of Lab..." John said, wandering around, reading some labelled bottles placed near the large vat of suspicious liquid. He began picking up some of the bottles and placing them back down carefully, continuing along the line; "Pure alcohol, Arsenic..." the list kept going on. "Don't touch anything..." John said, breaking the silence, "Most of the substances in here are highly poisonous, and I'd be willing to bet on that large vat being some sort of unstable concoction of them all..." Each and every one of the Tracy boys backed away from whatever they were standing near at the time, cautious now of the contents of what they were near.
"Hey, John. What do you think this is made of?" Scott was stood near a plain, glass bottle filled with a green gas.
"I'm not sure, but it seems to be the same gas that flooded the room Gordon and I were stuck in up on 5." John spoke, turning to face Virgil.
"Seems familiar to me too..." Scott added. Virgil was listening the whole thing and nodded along, while walking over to a vent in the floor.
"Shhh!" Virgil hissed bluntly, crouching onto the floor next to the newly found vent and looked through the bars. "Who the hell is that?" he whispered, urging the other boys to join him. They were all laying on the floor around the vent listening and watching the strange man walking around in the room below, accompanied by two men, stood authoritatively in the corner. The man was carrying himself around the room with grace in his step, rather flamboyantly.
"Sir." A voice came from over by the door.
"Ah. You found them. Good. Place them over there." The large man that entered the door was dragging two bodies behind him.
"Oh my god, Its Dad!" Virgil exclaimed, but was quickly hushed.
"We know, but what's he doing with The Hood?" Scott was looking towards John, as if waiting for an answer.
"I don't know! Anything is plausible in this place." John laughed nervously before sitting up. "You know what this means?" John asked. " It means that Dad was looking for us... and maybe...No..."
"What, John?" Gordon asked, frowning at his brother.
"Maybe The Hood brought him here, and that guy down there has some relation to him... Maybe Dad and The Hood did some sort of deal..."
"I don't know, John..." Scott added.
"Lets not ponder on it for now. Now, how would they of got here?" John asked, rhetorically. "Thunderbird 2."
All four men ran towards a door on the other side of the room and cautiously navigated their way around corridors carved deeply into the stone of the mountain.
Jeff awoke suddenly, somebody was poking him in the ribs rather harshly.
"What?" He asked, sitting up and fixing his gaze on The Hood.
"He's caught us." He muttered, signalling The Opal on the other side of the room talking to two of his minions. Jeff immediately lay back down, to try and not draw any unwanted attention.
"What do we do?" Jeff asked, desperately.
"Get up and run?" The Hood suggested.
"Your awake then are you?" Came a metallic voice. Both men sat up and looked at The Opal. Four foot tall and in a smart suit he stood, glaring.
"You are probably wondering why you are here. Well, you snuck in to save your sons Mr. Tracy, but as for you Hood, I have no idea you would help him. After what I saw on the news broadcast the last time you two met I would of thought a meeting of a different agenda would be at hand. Never mind though, that is irrelevant. Now, for my story. You see Hood, the last time you saw me was the last time I considered myself fully human, I was involved in an accident you see and I lost the ability to speak myself, that's why this machine is doing it for me. And your such a stupid old fool that you bought the one and only idol in my life to me, so I could rip you of your famous Thunderbird Aircraft's, the passion of my life, I intend to use them to preform a heist at the NASA space centre. Oh how exiting, don't you think?"
"Sir?" Somebody interrupted.
"What?"
"The Tracy boys have escaped. Were not sure where in the building they are." Te conversation continued for a few moments before The Hood got up to go and speak to them, giving a friendly greeting to The Opal. Traitor. Jeff seized his moment and ran as fast as his legs could carry him towards the door and out into the many crafted corridors. Each one weaved into a different direction from the last, eventually leading him out the way he came.
"Dad!" Scott shouted from nearby. Jeff ran to his sons where they all took part in a friendly embrace, before climbing aboard Thunderbird 2.
"Where's The Hood, Dad?" Virgil asked, before the aircraft grew the distance between it and the cold floor below.
"Being friendly with The Opal."
"The Opal?" Gordon questioned, taking the seat near the back.
"I'll explain on the way, but for now, I know exactly who has Alan and Fermat. But getting there is going to be a problem."
"What! Where?" John shouted, raising out of his seat.
"Calm down John, were all eager to get them back. It seems while The Opal thought we were unconscious, he was discussing the whereabouts of them. A man named Luther has them in an old Mine, West of the Grand Canyon. He knows who we all are, which is why its going to prove hard to get in there and get them out. The only reason why The Hood decided to help me was because he wanted part of The Opal's bargain, If he kidnapped each and every one of you, by the forms of Propetyroline Gas, enhanced with transporting abilities, to the location in which he did, it would urge me to go to that location and find you, therefore almost turning myself and the Thunderbirds in. That's all he wanted, The Thunderbirds. He is planning to siege NASA in the hope he will become the most powerful person on the planet, not just on earth, but stretching out to galaxies nobody has even discovered yet. All of this was just part of an even bigger plan, all was set into place by the kidnapping of Alan and Fermat. Now, I suggest we fly back to Tracy Island and inform the girls what is happening, and I can get onto the phone to some old contacts to warn NASA of the upcoming events.
"FAB, Dad" The four boys said in unison, before settling down for the long flight ahead.
Now to let the events unravel... Jeff thought, turning on autopilot and drifting off to sleep.