A POLICE Car raced onto the site where the Ambulances, Fire-Trucks and Thunderbird 1 were standing. The passenger door opened and a young surgeon sprinted out. Dawson met him. "Come with me, this way," she said. She then spoke into her radio. "Chief, the surgeon's here!"

Boden turned to Scott. "Tracy, the surgeon's here."

"At last!" Scott said. "Virgil, good news. The surg-" He broke off as a whirring sound from inside the hole caught his attention.

One of the Jaws of Life emerged from the hole. Then came the second one, and then Virgil hauled himself out before getting to his feet.

"Virgil?" said Scott.

Virgil didn't answer at first. His expression looked very solemn. Then he turned to Severide and Boden. "It's a recovery now," he said. "I'm sorry." He then walked sadly away, just as Dawson and the surgeon appeared. They stopped dead and watched in confusion as Virgil was hoisted away into Thunderbird 2 which was still hovering overhead. Boden looked across at Dawson and shook his head, making hers and the surgeon's hearts sink like the rest of theirs had.

Scott turned away and activated his radio. "Thunderbird 1 to base."

"Go ahead, Scott?" Jeff answered. "How's the rescue going?"

Scott hesitated before answering. "Rescue completed. Two saved. One fatality. Thunderbird 2 is on the way back. Virgil's gonna need you, Dad." He signed off.

Jeff slumped back in his chair and let out a sigh. Kayo, Gordon and Grandma had also been in the lounge and heard Scott's words.

John, Brains and Alan had been listening in. Nobody could think of anything to say. This was never the after rescue report they wanted to hear.

"He…didn't make it…?" Alan asked in a quiet voice.

"Great…" said John miserably. "That's the second person we've failed to save today."

"Second?" repeated Jeff. "Who was the first?"

"Professor Kwak, M-Mr Tracy," answered Brains solemnly. "Her attempt to break the space record has failed. Her ship blew up upon re-entry."

Everyone's hearts sank even further.

"Is everyone else safe, Scott?" Jeff asked.

"At the construction site? Yes."

"Then come on home," said Jeff. "I think Virgil's gonna need all our support tonight."

"Guess he's going to have to cancel his night out with Hayley then."

"What do you mean, Gordon?" asked Grandma,

"He and Hayley were going out for a meal tonight in London," said Gordon. "After this, I hardly think he's gonna be in any state to go on a romantic meal."

"We can deal with that later, Gordon," said Jeff. "Come on home, Scott."

"Yes, Dad."

Alan and Brains headed for the door that led out of the control room. "We'd better get back," Alan said to John. "Looks like you'll have to wait for us to help you with whatever's in the boxes, John."

"I can wait, Alan," John replied. "I'll be down myself to give Virgil some support."

Just then, EOS spoke up. "John, wait! You're not going to believe what I've just picked up!"

"What is it?" John asked.

"Listen!" said EOS and she played a message she'd just picked up.

"May…day…this is…Professor…Kwak…Need…help…"

Brains, John and Alan all looked at each other in astonishment.

"W-What?!" exclaimed Brains, floating quickly back over. "H-How has she survived?!"

"EOS, where's this coming from?" asked John.

"Trying to triangulate it," said EOS. "But it appears to be coming from somewhere in South-East Asia. I will try and get a better fix."

Brains turned to John. "You'd better alert T-Tracy Island," he said. "We m-might need to conduct a search and rescue of whatever area she's landed in."

"I'm still trying to figure out how the heck she's alive!" said Alan, who'd finally found his voice.

John was quick to inform Tracy Island of the new development.

"How the hell could she have survived an explosion like that?" asked Gordon.

"That we can find out later, Gordon," said Jeff. "Where exactly is she, John?"

"EOS is trying to get a fix on her signal, but it's weak," said John. "Ah, hold on. I think she's got it. EOS?"

"I haven't been able to get an exact position," EOS explained, "but I have narrowed the area down. It is coming from the Malaysian Jungle."

Kayo almost choked on her apple juice but managed to hold it together. She hoped nobody had noticed, but she quickly saw that Jeff had done.

"Malaysia," said Jeff. He scratched his head. "Difficult. Very difficult. That area's vast. She could be almost anywhere."

"Shall we divert Scott and Virgil to try and locate her?" asked John. "I could get local authorities and the GDF to assist if need be?"

"Get the GDF and local authorities involved, yes, John," said Jeff. "Not Scott and Virgil thought. Virgil is going to need some time to get over what he's had to deal with today."

"Ahh…yes, of course," said John, feeling silly at having even suggested it.

Kayo put down her glass, composed herself and then stood up. "I'll go and search for her," she said.

Everyone looked at her. Jeff frowned. "Are you sure, Kayo?" he asked.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

"You do know what's in that-"

"I know," Kayo cut him off. "But so what, Mr Tracy? A woman's life is in danger. That's all that matters right now."

An awkward silence followed for a few seconds as Gordon, Grandma, John, Brains and Alan turned their eyes towards Jeff.

Jeff was worried, but he could tell Kayo wasn't going to take 'no' for an answer. "Very well, Kayo," he said. "Find Professor Kwak and then when you do John can guide the nearest medical team to you if you can't get her out yourself."

Kayo nodded, then left without a word.

"What was that all about?" Alan asked.

"Yeah, that was weird," agreed Gordon. "What connection does Kayo have with Malaysia?"

"That is something between Kayo, myself, and your father to know only," Grandma said sternly, which only left Brains and the brothers even more confused, although Brains was quick to guess the reason why.

As the Shadowbike made its way along the tunnel towards where Thunderbird Shadow was located, Kayo was stern-faced and silent. She was trying very hard not to think of the reasons why the Malaysian Jungle wasn't a good place to be. She knew that she had to focus on one thing. The mission. The mission to rescue Professor Kwak was all that needed to matter.

Soon, the cliff-face was swivelling round so that Thunderbird Shadow was now outside in the open. The yellow turntable that it was mounted on then turned one-hundred-eighty degrees so that it was now pointing upwards towards the sky in readiness for launching.

5! 4! 3! 2! 1!

The twin motors of Thunderbird Shadow fired up and the clamp was released. The sleek, black stealth aircraft dropped away from the cliff before flipping around from flying vertically on its tail to horizontal and away from the island. "Thunderbird Shadow is go," said Kayo, not with any of the usual enthusiasm that the team had whenever they launched normally.

It wasn't too long after Thunderbird Shadow had left when Thunderbirds 1 and 2 returned. Virgil was clearly upset at having failed to save Dale's life, but he wasn't the emotional wreck some of them thought he was going to be in.

"I'm sorry, son," said Jeff warmly. "Guess it wasn't to be this time."

Virgil shook his head. "No. No, it wasn't, Dad," he said, looking at the floor and running his fingers through each other. "Even if the surgeon had made it. He'd probably not have made it." He sighed heavily.

The others were respectively silent, until Alan finally broke it. "What are you gonna do now, Virgil?"

Virgil looked up at his brother. "What am I going to do, Alan?" he asked. "I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm gonna carry on with my duty - and deliver the message to his wife."

"Message?" repeated Scott. "What message?"

Virgil pulled out his phone. "Mr Abbott asked me to film a goodbye message for his wife," he said. "I need to go back to Chicago and show it to her."

"Errrr, not that I want to complicate things or anything," Gordon said awkwardly, "but…don't you have a date with Hayley in England?"

Virgil suddenly went pale. In all that had gone on, he'd completely forgotten. "DAMN IT!" he suddenly bellowed, making everyone jump. "God DANG, HOW DID I FORGET THAT?!"

Scott quickly took control. "Virgil, calm down! Deep breaths. Look at me. Listen to me!"

Virgil took some deep breaths and calmed himself a little before looking to his left at his older brother.

"This message you need to take to Mrs Abbott is more important than your date with Hayley," Scott said. "You made him that promise, didn't you?"

"Yeah…but I also promised Hayley I'd be there with her," answered Virgil.

"Hayley's gonna understand something like this," said Scott. "Leave it with me. I'll set things straight with her."

"And I'll take you to Chicago so you can deliver the message, son," added Jeff.

Virgil still wasn't happy, but he was prepared to accept that this is how it needed to be. "Thanks, Dad," he said gratefully. "Thanks, Scott." He managed a smile.

Jeff and Scott lovingly returned the smiles.

Thunderbird Shadow was now flying over the dense Malaysian Jungle. The weather seemed to match Kayo's feelings. The clear blue skies above the South Pacific when she'd left Tracy Island had turned dark as heavy clouds covered the jungle. Kayo looked down at the mass of green treetops and felt uneasy. "Thunderbird 5 from Thunderbird Shadow. Any luck on locating Professor Kwak, John?"

"EOS has narrowed the field of search to an area of ten square miles north of your position," John replied. "The exact location is impossible to pinpoint."

Kayo looked uneasily at the dark clouds ahead. "The weather's not looking great ahead of me," she said.

"No, it's not," agreed John. "There's heavy rain forecast for that area for the next seven hours. You'd better find her quickly."

"Oh, don't worry, Thunderbird 5. I'm not planning on staying," Kayo replied and ended the call.

She made her way further north, deeper into the jungle. As she reached the designated search area, she began to look around at the treetops for any sign of Professor Kwak, or even any wreckage that might have been a part of the XLR-8.

It was at this point that the rain began to fall, bouncing off the canopy and distracting Kayo. "Ugh, for the love of-" she complained. "I know my suit can protect me from getting wet but OH, MY GOD!" She had let out a loud gasp as she saw something that caused her to let go of the controls for a moment. Thunderbird Shadow began to nose-dive towards the ground and Kayo only just managed to get a grip on herself before regaining control and then pulling back on the control stick. The wings clipped the tops of some of the trees as it roared back up into the sky.

Once at a safe height, Kayo began a wide circle around what she'd seen that had caused her to gasp out loud. Below in the jungle was an open clearing. And in the clearing was something she'd not expected to see. It was a large stone temple. But not an old abandoned one being reclaimed by the jungle. This one was almost pristine clean like it had only just been built.

Kayo's eyes were wide with shock. "What…?" she said in a hushed, spooked voice. "That's not…" She suddenly felt her heart racing rapidly and began to gasp for air. "No, no, I need a moment!" she decided. She saw another small clearing close by which was open so she hastily landed Thunderbird Shadow in it before scrambling out and hiding underneath the aircraft where she removed her helmet to get some fresh air. She was almost hyperventilating."

"Kayo, what's going on?" John's voice suddenly said over the radio. "Your vitals are going crazy?"

Kayo started to take some deep breaths to try and calm herself down before answering. "Sorry, John," she said. "I got…distracted by the weather. I almost hit some trees. Had to react quickly to save myself."

"I…see," answered John with a confused expression. "Well, according to my scans you're in the very area where Professor Kwak's signal came from. She must be close by."

Kayo put on her helmet again. "F-A-B," she said. "I'll get back in the air and-"

"HEY! ARE YOU GONNA HELP ME OR WHAT?!"

Kayo and John looked at each other.

"Did I just hear someone?" asked John.

"You did," Kayo replied. "And I recognise the voice." She moved herself out from underneath Thunderbird Shadow and started to look around. The voice was female, and it seemed to have come from one of the nearby trees. And then she saw a figure in a yellow and black jumpsuit waving frantically at her. "I've found her!"

"How does she look?" asked John.

"She looks fine, but is stuck in a tree," said Kayo. "I'm gonna get her down. You'd better get Scott or Virgil out here to pick her up. I won't be able to take her anywhere in Thunderbird Shadow."

"Ah…no can do at the moment, Kayo," said John grimly. "They're both out on important missions of their own. Not rescues, but personal ones."

Kayo grimaced. "Oh, great! So what the hell are we supposed to do?"

"You'll just have to find shelter until we can get one of them to you, I'm afraid," said John. "I'll see if I can find any GDF units in the area to come and extract Professor Kwak. In the meantime, I'd suggest you use Thunderbird Shadow as a means of sheltering from the rain. You'll be safe there. There's no other life for miles around you."

Kayo shifted uncomfortably as she approached the tree where Professor Kwak seemed to be trapped. She had a feeling what John said wasn't true. However, she didn't want to mention the strange temple that she'd seen. "Understood, Thunderbird 5," she said. "Please don't leave it too long though. She seems agitated."

"Good luck," said John. "Sounds like you're gonna need it. Thunderbird 5, out."

As John's hologram disappeared from her wrist controller, Kayo looked up the tree towards where Professor Kwak was.

"ARE YOU JUST GOING TO STAND THERE?!" Professor Kwak shouted angrily down.

"NO, I'M COMING TO GET YOU!" Kayo shouted back, trying not to get angry herself. She clapped her gloves together, producing one of Brains' more recent additions to her suit - mini sharp nanotech spikes that could grip onto the trunks of trees. She also bumped the front ends of her boots together and the same thing happened. Now she was able to climb up the tree without fear of losing her footing and falling back down.

Professor Kwak was about twenty metres off the ground. As Kayo discovered when she reached her, she wasn't actually sitting in the tree, but dangling from it. Her parachute was further up in the branches.

"Hang on, Professor," Kayo said as she drew level on the tree-trunk. "I'll get you down."

Last time when they'd met at the Air Show, Professor Kwak had been a kind, co-operative and grateful person to talk to. This time however, she was the complete opposite. "You took your damn time getting here!" she snapped.

Kayo tried to ignore the remark. "We didn't know if you were alive or not," she said as she shimmied along the branch behind where the Professor was. "Not many people tend to survive explosions at high altitude. How did you survive the XLR-8's destruction?"

"I don't know, and right now I don't care," replied Professor Kwak shortly. "All I want right now is to get out of this stupid tree and get back to my headquarters."

"Well I can certainly do the former," Kayo said. She got hold of the harness that was attached to Professor Kwak's body and began to pull up.

"Hey, what the hell are you doing?!" Professor Kwak demanded.

"Trying to get you onto the branch," replied Kayo. "What do you think I'm trying to do?"

"I don't want to be in the tree!" said Professor Kwak. "I need to be down there." She pointed at the ground. "Just cut me loose and I'll drop down."

Kayo stared at her. "Are you crazy, Professor? You'll injure yourself if I do that."

"I AM NOT CRAZY!" Professor Kwak shouted. "Although…" she added, more calmly. "I did just try and break a record in space. But that's irrelevant! I know what I'm doing. Look at that ground! It's soft. The rain is making it soft. It'll be a safe landing. Just cut me loose and I'll drop down."

Kayo gritted her teeth. She didn't want to do what Professor Kwak was telling her to do, but she couldn't be bothered to argue. "Well, we're gonna be stuck here for a while, so what the hell?" she muttered to herself. She took out a small knife from her tool-belt and got ready to cut the harness. "Brace yourself," she said.

Professor Kwak braced herself for the drop as Kayo cut the harness loose. She dropped down…and as she hit the ground, she found that it wasn't a soft landing after all. Her right leg twisted horribly in the wrong direction and broke with a sickening CRACK! "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGHH!" The scream that Professor Kwak made as her leg broke seemed to spread out for miles. Several birds in the trees were disturbed by it and flew away in fright despite the heavy rainfall.

Kayo sighed and rolled her eyes as she climbed back down the tree. "I totally didn't see that coming," she remarked to herself. She reached the bottom and went to check on the Professor whose face was screwed up in agony.

"OWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" shrieked Professor Kwak. "Son of a-"

"I did warn you, Professor," Kayo said. "But you didn't listen to me."

Professor Kwak snarled at her. "Don't get all smart with me, International Rescue!" she snapped. "Now you're gonna have to get me to a doctor!"

"If I could, I would," replied Kayo. "Now we're gonna have to get extra help in."

"What do you mean extra help?" asked Professor Kwak. "Just fly me to the nearest hospital in your ship!"

"I would if it had two seats," Kayo replied. "But as you can see, she doesn't. I'm gonna have to shelter you underneath until another rescue ship can reach us. And DON'T start having a go at me about it!" she added sharply as the Professor had opened her mouth to yell again. "You got yourself into this mess, Professor. Live with it! Now, please wait there whilst I call for assistance."

Professor Kwak called Kayo a foul word as she sat , wincing in pain under the tree.

"I heard that," Kayo said, which caused the Professor to fall silent. Kayo tapped her communicator. "Thunderbird 5, it's Kayo. Come in, please?" But John didn't answer. In fact, as Kayo tapped the communicator again, a 'No Signal' icon appeared and buzzed at her. "Huh? No signal? That can't be right." She tapped it again and again but it was the same. "John, it's Kayo. Do you read me?" But there was still nothing. "Ugh, for God's sake!" Kayo cursed. "Sorry, Professor. It looks like we're-" She cut off after turning around. Professor Kwak had vanished. She was no longer at the bottom of the tree where she'd been leaning against. Kayo opened up her helmet as she ran over. "What the hell?!" she exclaimed and began looking around to see where the Professor had gone. "Professor?" she called out. "PROFESSOR KWAK?! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

No reply came. And then, as Kayo turned around again, she only just managed to see something black flying towards her face before it struck her, and then everything went dark and silent.

The hire-car pulled up in the residential street on the outskirts of Chicago. Jeff and Virgil looked over at the house with the little red door and the number 2537 on it.

"Are you sure you don't want me to come in with you, son?" Jeff asked.

Virgil hesitated. "No, thank you, Dad," he said. "I need to do this alone."

Jeff nodded understandably. "Good luck," he said.

Virgil said nothing. He opened the door and stepped out before walking over to the steps leading up to the front door. He stood still for a few seconds before walking up to the door. He then hesitated yet again before finally getting the courage to ring the bell.

"Is the blood off?" Dale asked. "I don't want her to see the blood."

Virgil's hand appeared in shot and helped wipe the worst of the blood off the right side of his head. "There, that's the best I can do."

Dale then felt his hair. "Knew I should have had this cut," he chuckled. He then took a breath and turned his head to look directly into the camera. "Georgie, my love. God, I wish I were better at this."

Virgil sat on the Abbot household's couch next to Mrs Abbot who was holding Virgil's phone and watching the video that had been recorded. Her whole body trembled as she watched her husband's face smile back at her and speak. "Oh…my God…" she whimpered, covering her hand over mouth as she sniffled.

"I made a lot of promises to you over the years. Some…were harder to keep…than others. I promised you…that house in Monte Carlo…I'm so sorry…you worked so hard on your French. But the one promise that I ever made about you…you were the last piece…of my puzzle. A promise that has been kept…to this day. Every day. I know…I know what you're thinking about Virgil here…cause I thought it too. He's exactly the son that I pictured for us."

Hearing these words again pulled at Virgil's heartstrings as badly as it had done the first time when Dale had said it.

"And if it weren't for him…I wouldn't have had this chance…to say goodbye."

Georgie looked at Virgil tearfully for a moment before turning back to the video.

"You remember how I made you promise me…that you'd let me die before you?" Dale gave a grin. "Well, thank you, my love." He paused. "Because I couldn't live a day in this world without you."

Georgie sniffled. A single tear trickled down both her cheeks as Dale fell silent. His loving eyes still gazed back at her and his big warm smile spread across his face. Even though the video still had five seconds left to play, she knew he wasn't going to say anything else. She then put the phone down on the coffee table and turned to Virgil. "Thank you," she said, opening her arms out and hugging him tightly.

Virgil said nothing. He didn't need to. He could tell how grateful she was for what he'd brought for her.

Kayo could still feel her head pounding slightly from whatever it was that had knocked her unconscious. Soon she began to regain her senses and tried to move only to find that she couldn't. She soon realised that her hands were tightly bound behind her back and a piece of black duct tape had been placed over her mouth. Looking down, she saw her feet were also bound by a thick rope that was attached to a metal floor. Right beside her boots were another pair of bound feet. Looking to her left she saw Professor Kwak sitting nearby, also bound and gagged. On her right leg however was a make-shift splint that was supporting her broken leg. Both women grunted but were unable to speak. Kayo then looked around at where they were. They were no longer outside in the heavy rain, but inside a dark space that at first she thought was a room, until she realised it appeared to be bouncing around meaning that where they actually were was in the back of some kind of vehicle. It had to be a truck. But who had captured them, and where were they being taken? Kayo immediately began to try and wiggle her hands free of the ropes that tied them. But they were tied tight. Whoever had caught them were very swift and well organised.

It was very late when Jeff and Virgil returned to Tracy Island. Everyone else was in bed, except for Scott, who despite having been off the island at the same time as them, had agreed to do Jeff's night shift until he'd gotten back. "How did it go?" he asked.

"As well as can be, thanks, Scott," answered Virgil. "Mrs Abbott was very grateful that I did that for the two of them."

Scott nodded. "I'm proud of you, Virgil," he said.

"You are?" Virgil seemed surprised. "I was only a messenger."

"It's not that," said Scott. "What you did took guts. Not many would have the courage to do that."

Virgil shrugged. "I made a promise to Mr Abbott," he said. "I sure as hell wasn't going to break it." He paused for a moment. "I'm gonna go to bed," he said. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, son," said Jeff.

"Goodnight, Virgil," said Scott. Then he remembered something. "Oh, Virgil?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't worry about Hayley. I've settled everything out for you."

Virgil smiled gratefully. "Thanks, bro."

"Anytime. Go rest up."

Virgil nodded and then headed up the stairs.

Scott waited until Virgil was out of earshot before breaking some concerning news to his father. "Dad…Kayo's missing."

"What do you mean?" Jeff asked.

"John says she found Professor Kwak…but then lost radio contact. He's not been able to reach her for hours. Now there's a severe storm over the Malaysian Jungle so it's possible that they're taking shelter and waiting for it to pass. But it's not like Kayo not to report in for so long."

Jeff walked about, anxiously thinking. "Give her until morning, Scott," he said. "Once the weather is clear and if we've still not heard anything, we'll go out there and search for her."

"F-A-B," said Scott. However, he had a really strong urge to get into Thunderbird 1 and launch straight away.

Virgil had not heard anything of what Jeff and Scott had been saying. He'd already entered his bedroom by this point. He closed the door behind him, went over to his bed and sat down on it. He began to reflect on the day's events. Dale hadn't been the first person that International Rescue had failed to save, but this was the first time that he'd witnessed someone who he possibly could have saved pass away in front of him. And that hit him hard. He didn't know how he'd managed to keep himself together whilst he'd been with Mrs Abbott and yet he had somehow. But now all the emotions were starting to build up within him. He was sad. He was angry. He was depressed. And the fact that he'd had to let Hayley down made him feel even worse. Now that he was alone, he felt he could finally let himself go. He closed his eyes and sniffled as he began to well up with tears. But as one began to trickle down from his right eye, he felt something touch his right cheek just under the eye, catching the tear and wiping it away. Virgil opened his eyes and realised that someone in a smart red dress was standing in front of him. Slowly, he looked up, into the eyes of none other than Hayley herself. "H-Hay-"

"Shhhh, my love," Hayley said softly as she sat herself down on his lap. "No words. Scott brought me here. He's told me what's happened."

Virgil found himself unable to say anything for a moment. The tears were really building up now. "I…I couldn't…save him…" he said before finally starting to sob.

Hayley put her arms around him and pulled him into her chest. "Let it out, sweetheart," she said as she comfortingly rubbed his back gently and rested her chin on top of his head. "You need to let it out." She felt sad for him. She didn't care that this wasn't the date they'd planned. Virgil's duty had to come first and like Scott and Jeff, she was proud of Virgil having been able to deliver Dale's last message to his wife.

The dark grey caterpillar-tracked truck that Kayo and Professor Kwak were tied up in had reached its destination. It came to a stop outside a large building and waited whilst a concealed door opened in the wall. It then proceeded to head inside and the door closed behind it.

Neither woman made a sound as they felt the truck was now driving on much smoother ground than it had been which told them they were now likely at their destination. Soon the truck came to a stop and the doors at the back were opened to reveal their captors. Four slim figures in jet-black stealth suits climbed inside and untied their feet. Kayo was then pulled to her feet whilst she muffled in protest and tried to wriggle free but they held her tight as they carried her out of the back of the truck. The captors were surprisingly a lot more gentle with Professor Kwak. they must have realised that she had a broken leg and very carefully removed her from the truck. A larger, beefier figure in a black suit was waiting for them and took Professor Kwak in his arms to carry her.

As the figures took their captives out of the vehicle bay and into a long corridor, Kayo's eyes widened as she suddenly realised where they were. Although she hadn't seen the outside of the building that they'd been taken to, the interior could easily answer that. A huge stone statue of a grotesque troll-like figure with vicious teeth and brandishing a spear whilst the base had small flame-lit torches around its base was enough to tell her that they had been taken into the mysterious temple that she'd seen from the air. She then began to take closer note of what their captors were wearing. The black suits looked very familiar to her now for like the temple, they were things she'd seen before. This is impossible, Kayo thought to herself. These guys are Shadows! But they were wiped out after The Hood tried to take them over. How are they back?

Professor Kwak made a muffled cry. The large person carrying her had moved her leg the wrong way and caused it to hurt massively. For Kayo, that was the last straw. She wasn't going to remain their prisoner. She tripped herself up and fell to the floor.

"Get up!" growled one of the captors through a voice modulator. "Now!"

But Kayo made her move. She performed an upward kick causing him to fly backwards into the other and knocking them both down. The two that had been leading the group darted around the one carrying Professor Kwak and tried to grab hold of Kayo. but she had not only got back onto her feet but also jumped in a way so that she'd slipped her bound wrists under her legs so that they were now in front of her. This made it a bit easier for her to dish out some double-handed punches as well as a drop kick on one of them. Soon all four of the strange captors were on the floor, dazed and surprised at having been taken down.

The large Shadow saw what was happening and decided he needed to intervene. He carefully placed Professor Kwak down on the floor. "Stay there," he told her and then began to advance on Kayo who by now had peeled the tape off her mouth.

"You're big," Kayo remarked. "Thought bigger though."

The big man let out a battle cry and lunged at Kayo, only for her to perform a forward roll under his feet and tripped him up. He went head over heels and then landed on top of two of the other Shadows who had been about to get up and re-join the fight. Now they found themselves pinned to the floor and unable to move due to the stunned muscle-man's weight.

Kayo used this chance to make a run for it. She hurried over to Professor Kwak and managed to activate her nanotech battlesuit before picking the Professor carefully up off the floor. "Sorry if the leg hurts at any point, Professor," she said before making a run down a corridor that went off to the right.

As the Shadows started to recover themselves, more arrived, including one with a red band on her left arm. This was the leader "What is going on?" the Shadow Leader demanded.

"They got free," said one of the other Shadows huffily. "One of them knows how to fight. And fight well."

"Fights…better…than we do," added another one breathlessly.

The Shadow Leader was furious. "UNACCEPTABLE!" she shouted. "I'll be dealing with you later about this. In the meantime, FIND THEM!"

The Shadows spread out and started searching the corridors of the temple looking for Professor Kwak and Kayo. None of them had noticed that Kayo had managed to locate and open a secret door concealed in one of the corridor's walls and had managed to close it up again before any of the Shadows had even come down the corridor to search for them.

Kayo carefully peeled the tape off Professor Kwak's mouth.

"Thank you," Professor Kwak said as she gasped for air whilst letting Kayo untie her hands. Then she used her freed hands to untie Kayo's. "Who the hell are these guys?" she asked.

"A group of people who should no longer exist!" Kayo replied shortly, leaving the Professor puzzled as to what she meant.

Kayo made sure that the door was sealed securely before going to check on Professor Kwak. "How's that leg?" she asked.

"What does it look like?" snapped Professor Kwak. "It hurts like hell!"

"Don't worry. We'll get out of this," said Kayo.

"How?!" Professor Kwak asked sharply. "If you'd just gotten me out to begin with we wouldn't be where we are now!"

Kayo tried not to lose her cool with the angry professor. "I admit, this is a setback," she agreed. "But I have been in tighter spots than this. Let me send a distress signal to Thunderbird 5, then they can come and get us out with the help of the GDF." She activated her communicator. "Thunderbird 5, it's Kayo. We have a situation. John, do you read me?" She grimaced. "Ugh - still no signal. Damn it!"

"OH, MY GOD!" Professor Kwak suddenly exclaimed.

"SHHHH!" Kayo hissed. "Don't give us away, Professor!"

Professor Kwak's pain and anger seemed to have escaped from her and had been replaced by one of pure shock. She was looking across the room at something. Kayo turned to look and then she froze as well. On the far side of the room was a large tank full of a strange blue liquid. But it was what was inside the tank that had alarmed Professor Kwak. Kayo thought she was imagining it, but as she moved in closer for a better look, she let out a gasp to see that the object inside it was a man! Or at least, most of one. There was a full torso, head and a left arm. But there was no right arm and no legs at all. The man was wearing some kind of black metal outfit around his torso and left arm, had hardly any hair on his head and had some kind of breathing mask over his nose and mouth whilst a pair of protective goggles shielded his eyes from the liquid he was suspended in with several plastic tubes coming out of various parts of his body. The man was making a strange breathing sound through the mask which caused bubbles to come out of the small vents whenever he breathed out.

"What…the…hell?" Kayo asked out loud as she came right up to the glass. She tried to peer inside to see who the person was, but the mask and goggles made it impossible to identify. She couldn't see any eyes which suggested they were closed. Kayo tapped on the glass. "Hello? Can you hear me?" she called, wondering if she could be heard.

The man's eyes suddenly snapped open and his head lifted so that he was looking right at Kayo. The eyes were very strange. The pupils were glowing almost bright yellow and they stared, unblinking almost at Kayo.

Kayo had gasped out loud and jumped back when the eyes had opened and it took her a moment or two to pull herself together before gazing back at the man in the tank.

"If you can hear me, don't worry," Kayo said. "My name is Kayo. I'm with International Rescue. I'll get you out of there somehow." Her attention was grabbed by Professor Kwak who'd moved the wrong way and caused her to notice the pain again. "I need to check on her," Kayo said to the man in the tank. "I'll be back." She began to hurry back to check on Professor Kwak.

"Daugh…ter…?"