PARKER returned to where he'd created the makeshift shelter to hide Fiona in. His heart skipped a beat the instant she discovered it was empty. He started looking around, trying to find a clue as to where she or her captors might have gone. He didn't get a proper chance though because he began to hear the hum of engines from above. Looking up, he could just make out the Helijet moving through the trees.

"THERE HE IS!" yelled the man with a machine-gun who was hanging out of the open side of the Helijet.

The pilot brought the aircraft into a hover as the man then opened fire, shooting down towards Parker who was now running for cover. He performed a forward roll, which was impressive given what he had with him. He pulled out the pistol he'd stolen from Latrine and began shooting back up at the Helijet. It didn't do anything and the man with the machine-gun kept shooting back. Parker rolled over sideways and hid himself behind a tree.

"GIVE UP, OLD MAN!" the machine-gunner shouted. "IT'S OVER!"

But Parker wasn't going to surrender. He then reappeared from his hiding place, brandishing the Big Gun and aimed that at the Helijet instead. It rapidly fired rounds which began bouncing off some parts of its bodywork, but some managed to rip through and damage the Port-side engine.

"HOLY-" the pilot exclaimed as the powerful BANG from the exploding engine caused the Helijet to lurch violently, causing the machine-gunner, who it turned out wasn't using a safety-harness, fell right out and began to plummet towards the ground. "MURRAY!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGH!"

There was a CRACK as the man hit the ground. Parker winced. He knew that sound too well. He did not need to go and check on the man. He was gone. He looked back up at the Helijet which was now moving away with thick black smoke billowing from its left engine.


A short distance away, Gomez, Fred, Hudson, Vernon and Maddox were gathered in a small opening with Fiona who was tied to a tree with rope. They'd heard the gunfire and then all looked up to see the damaged aircraft flying overhead.

Gomez raised his radio and was about to demand where it was going, but the pilot spoke first. "Gomez! That damn acquaintance of yours has just damaged my bird and killed my buddy! You're on your own. But kill him for me, will you?!"

"Don't worry, Mackay, we'll get the job done," Gomez answered and put the radio back in its holder.

"You'll never get away with this," Fiona said.

"You keep your trap shut, Charley-Girl," Gomez answered sharply.

Fiona glared at him. "What…did you just call me?"

Gomez turned back and smirked slyly. "What? You think I wouldn't remember you?" he said. "I remember you when you came to visit your dear old pa. Shame he couldn't join us on our revenge mission, but you know. He can't do that if he's dead now, can he?" He started laughing. So did the others, except for Fred who scowled at Gomez instead. "What?"

"Did you really have to bring that up?" Fred asked, disapprovingly.

"You ain't going soft on us too, are you, Fred?" asked Gomez. Fred didn't answer, but continued his look of disdain. Gomez then turned to face the jungle. "PARKER?!" he called out. "NOSEY?! WE GOT YOUR GIRL! YOU GOT TEN MINUTES TO SHOW YOURSELF, OR SHE DIES!"

Parker was closer than they realised, concealed in the undergrowth, watching their every move whilst grimacing as he tried to think best how to make his own.

"MR PARKER!" Fiona screamed suddenly. "HELP ME! HEL-MMMMMMPH!"

Hudson stuffed a camouflage-coloured sweat-rag into Fiona's mouth. "Shut up!" he spat.

"Calm down," said Gomez. "He'll come."


FAB1 had long crossed over the border into Scotland and was making its way towards the danger zone. Penelope was on-edge. She was worried about the danger Parker and Fiona were in and could only hope that she would make it in time. The car's radar then beeped, alerting her that she had company. The icon was green which told her it was friendly. She looked up as she saw the familiar shape of Thunderbird Shadow coming alongside. "Haven't we done this before?" Kayo remarked.

"This time it's without Parker and not Mrs Tracy's orders," Penelope answered.

The two women gave a chuckle.

"How far are we?" Kayo asked.

"About sixty miles according to John's positioning," replied Penelope.

"Then we'd better step on it then," said Kayo, shooting ahead of FAB1 with the pink car close behind.

It was at that moment that John called in. "Thunderbird 5 to Thunderbird Shadow and FAB1. Do you read?"

"Loud and clear," said Kayo.

"Go ahead, John," added Penelope.

"I've just been doing some research," said John. "And I think you're gonna want to hear this…"


Gomez kept looking anxiously at his watch. Seven minutes had passed since he'd given Parker the ultimatum. And yet there was still no sign of him. Fiona was now fully gagged with the camouflage cloth wrapped tightly around her head and stuffed into her mouth. The rest of The Shiners were equally getting edgy, especially Hudson.

"Come on, where is he?" grumbled Vernon.

"He's playing with our minds again!" said Hudson.

"Relax!" said Gomez. "Parker knows as soon as he shows his face, he's done for. He'll have to kill all of us to save her."

"Yeah, well he's already taken four of us out and caused the Helijet pilot to run away!" said Hudson bitterly. "That wasn't a problem for him, was it?!"

Gomez lowered his weapon and walked up to his old comrade. "You're a wuss, Hudson," he said. "I thought you were made of stronger stuff than this! Look at us! Look at her," he pointed at the bound Fiona. "He knows no matter what choice he makes, he gets killed. And he can't leave her behind so he doesn't know what to do. So who's messing with who, huh?" He turned back to address the others. "I've just forced our old friend Parker to show his true colours. Ye-"

"MMMMPH!" Fiona suddenly squealed and reacted, staring wide-eyed in terror at the ground.

The others looked down and Fred saw something land at Fiona's feet. "GRENADE!" he bellowed.

At once The Shiners took off, running towards the neighbouring trees. Fiona shut her eyes tightly and waited for the end to come. But nothing happened. She opened one eye and looked down to see that the pin was still in place.

The Shiners turned back and were also confused. Then Parker burst out from the opposite trees and tossed a second grenade in their direction.

"GRENADE!" Fred bellowed again and they started to move again, except for Vernon.

"Ah, GIVE OVER!" Vernon shouted at Parker. He raised his weapon. "DO YOU REALLY THINK WE'RE GONNA FALL FOR THAT AG-" BOOM! "AAARGH!"

This grenade did go off, exploding close to Vernon and causing him to go flying. He fell down a small slope and was severely injured.

Parker ran up to Fiona and pulled out a knife to cut the bonds. "Run!" he ordered.

Fiona didn't need telling twice. She legged it, pulling out the gag and tossing it aside as she went.

The Shiners began to return fire, shooting towards Parker. He'd abandoned the Big Gun and instead used the pistol to return some shots before running off after Fiona. A glance back and he saw Maddox closing in, having grabbed Vernon's weapon. Despite being a medic, he seemed enraged and wanted to take Parker down himself. But before he had a chance to use it, Parker threw the grenade he'd initially thrown, now with the pin taken out. It exploded in front of Maddox, taking him out as well.

Hudson wasn't far behind and let out a bellowing roar of rage as he fired indiscriminately into the trees as Parker vanished from view. He didn't know it, but one of his bullets hit Parker in the left shoulder. "ARGH!" Parker cried out. He fell over in pain and began rolling down a slope where Fiona had already reached the bottom of.

Fiona let out a gasp when she saw the bullet wound on Parker's shoulder. "Oh, my God!" she gasped.

"Yeah, I'm h'afraid one of them got me," Parker said.

Fiona took hold of him and together they moved further into the trees out of sight of The Shiners. Once they were certain they were safe for now. "Are you okay?" Fiona asked.

Parker started taking his coat and shirt off so he could see. But it turned out he couldn't see properly due to where it was. "'ow does h'it look?" he asked.

Fiona cringed at the sight of the blood but she was brave and had a look. "Actually, it looks like just a graze," she said.

"Good," said Parker although he kept winching in pain. "H'I've 'ad worse."

Fiona stared at him. "What?!"

"I was almost blown to pieces by h'a rock-creature from Mars," said Parker. "A small bullet won't stop me now."

Fiona's mouth was open in aghast. "Those…creatures that attacked London last Christmas?"

Parker nodded. "Don't tell me you 'adn't noticed the village behind the Creighton-Ward estate had been wiped out by those critters?" he said. "One of them fired h'its 'orrible breath at me. Nearly incinerated me. It would have gotten Lady Penelope if h'I 'adn't taken the h'it for 'er."

Fiona was speechless. She didn't know what to say.

Parker ripped up parts of his shirt. "Can you make a bandage out of this?"

Fiona stuttered at first but eventually found the words. "S-S-Sure," she said.


Thunderbird Shadow and FAB1 were closing in on the area. Both Kayo and Penelope were quick to notice the smouldering wreckage of the Hurricane on the side of a hill.

"What was that?" asked Kayo.

"No idea," answered Penelope. "I hope whoever was in it got out though."

They continued on. Soon the loch and the woodland began to come into view.

"There's the loch," said Penelope. "How do you want to play this?"

"Stealth," said Kayo. "We'll leave FAB1 and Thunderbird Shadow in a clearing and take out these guys before they even know what's hit them." She moved a lever that activated Thunderbird Shadow's optical camouflage whilst FAB1 went into its black stealth colour.

But what neither of them realised however was whilst they'd seen the wreckage of the aircraft responsible for the crashing of Parker's plane, they did not notice the Helijet sitting on an open field nearby. Its damaged engine had forced its pilot to make an emergency landing and he had seen the two vehicles flying in the direction of the woods.

Hastily, he grabbed his radio. "Mackay calling Gomez, do you read?"

Gomez grabbed the radio. "I thought you'd cleared off?" he said.

"You've got company!" Mackay said. "Some black stealth jet and a pink flying car are headed your way."

Hudson stared in confusion. "Pink flying car? What the hell?"

But Gomez and Fred exchanged a look. "FAB1!"

Gomez cursed. "Parker must have alerted his Thunderbird buddies," he said.

"THUNDERBIRD?!" exclaimed Hudson. "What the hell are you talking about?!"

"Parker works for International Rescue," said Fred.

Hudson couldn't believe what he was hearing. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US THAT BEFORE?!" he yelled at Gomez.

"It wasn't important," retorted Gomez. "Now shut up, you'll give us away!"

But Hudson had had enough. "SCREW YOU, GOMEZ! THANKS TO YOU, PARKER'S TAKEN US OUT ONE-BY-ONE! AND NOW INTERNATIONAL RESCUE ARE COMING?! NO THANKS! I'M OUTTA HERE!" He turned and ran off into the trees.

"Let him go, Fred," said Gomez. "He's not going to go very far without a ride."


The two men continued to make their way through the undergrowth, keeping their eyes open for any sign of Parker or Fiona. Then Gomez held up his hand to stop Fred before pointing down a slope. Below them they could see Fiona. She had her back to them and appeared to be making something like another fire. As silently as they could, they began to creep down towards her. There was no sign of Parker, but both were on high alert. No doubt he was not far away.

Fiona had just finished when she began to sense she was no longer alone. She had moved around to the side and then looked up and gasped before standing up to see Gomez and Fred approaching her. Gomez had his weapons raised. However, remembering Parker's bravery, she decided not to raise her hands, but instead to try and swallow her fear and stand up to them.

"Where is he, Char?" asked Gomez.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Fiona replied, trying not to rise to the use of a different name.

"Yeah, I would," snarled Gomez.

"LOOK OU-" Fred began to shout, but before he could finish, Parker came swinging down on a tree branch and double drop-kicked his two former comrades to the ground. Stunned, they both let go of their weapons. As Parker landed, wincing at the pain in his shoulder, he began to battle Fred in hand-to-hand combat now that he no longer had his weapon in hand.

Gomez scrambled to his feet and got ready to help Fred who was trading blows with Parker. But Fiona had grabbed a piece of the branch that had snapped off and used it to hit Gomez across the back. "ARGH!" he cried out before turning to face her, his face contorted with rage. "I'LL KILL YOU FOR THAT!"

Parker had managed to pin Fred to the floor. Fred laughed nervously. "Here, here, there, Nosey, wait!" he said. "We don't have to do this, you know?"

But Parker wasn't going to fall for it. "Too late, me h'old China!" he said before striking an elbow into Fred's face, causing his nose to start bleeding.

Satisfied that Fred was down for now, Parker turned his attention to Gomez who had just drawn out his side-arm pistol to use on Fiona. Parker punched him in the back, causing him to cry out in pain again and briefly fall to his knees after dropping the pistol. He quickly got back up and turned around again, this time to face Parker. "You…You…" he began to hiss. However he would not get to finish for Fiona then kicked him right between the legs. "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Parker then began swinging his good right arm like a windmill before striking Gomez under the chin. The tall man was almost thrown up into the air before falling backwards onto the ground, completely knocked out.

Fiona was open-mouthed at the manoeuvre Parker had just made. Parker stood triumphant over his former friend. Then they both heard chuckling from behind Parker. He slowly turned to see it was Fred, sitting upright with a slightly bloody nose. He slowly began to walk towards him, but Fred made no attempt to try and stand up.

"You know," Fred began. "After all these years, I never thought I'd get to see the old Parker Haymaker get used again."

"Don't make me use h'it on you," Parker warned.

"Relax, Nosey," said Fred. "I'm all tapped out here." He paused as he looked round at something behind Parker. "Although…I don't think it's me you're gonna have to worry about."

Parker's eyes narrowed. "I h'am not falling for any tricks 'ere, Fred."

"I'm serious, Parker," said Fred, now sounding it as well. "I think she wants to shoot you."

Parker then heard the sound of a gun's safety-catch click. He turned round to see Fiona, now holding Gomez's pistol, aimed right at his head. Her face was full of hatred. His voice seemed to escape him.

But before Parker had a chance to react, or Fiona had a chance to pull the trigger, a figure suddenly appeared from Parker's right field of vision, striking Fiona and knocking her down to the ground, causing her to drop the gun.

"M'LADY?!" exclaimed Parker in shock.

"Parker!" Penelope answered. "Oh, thank goodness I found you in time!"

Fiona saw the gun laying a few metres away. She began to scramble across the ground towards it only for it to suddenly go flying away from her seemingly all by itself. "WHA-?!" she cried before Penelope then leapt forwards and pinned her down with her right boot. "AAAH! GET OFF ME!" she shrieked.

"STAY DOWN, MISS HIGGINS!" Penelope thundered.

Then a flash of blue light appeared before Fiona as Kayo deactivated her suit's optical camouflage. "It's over," Kayo said.

Fiona screwed up her face and let out an ear-piercing scream of despair.

Parker just stood by looking utterly bewildered. "M-Miss Kyrano? M'lady? What on h'earth is going on 'ere?"

Penelope and Kayo looked at each other. "Can you deal with her?" Penelope asked, nodding at Fiona.

Kayo nodded. "With pleasure," she said.

Penelope took her foot off Fiona's back and left Kayo to start restraining her whilst she struggled desperately against her. Penelope came over to Parker. "I'm sorry, Parker," she said. "But I'm afraid we've learned something about her on our way to find you. She's not who she said she was. Her real name is Charlotte Higgins."

"'iggins?" repeated Parker. "You mean the geezer who we stopped stealing from Professor Moffy?"

"I'm not sure those two words are meant to be used together, Parker, but yes," said Penelope. "I knew there was something not right about her, so I asked John to do a background check on her. It turns out her father committed suicide in prison not long after he was returned after he, Gomez and Fred fell in the Thames and had to be rescued."

Parker looked over at Charlotte who had been bound again by Kayo and was struggling to free herself. He began to feel sick and stupid for having been fooled so easily. He began to walk over towards her, fixing her with a glare. She looked up at him, giving an equal look of disgust back at him. "Is this true?" he asked. "Are you really not the person you said you were?"

Charlotte spat at him, but he was too far up for it to go anywhere near his face. "You disgusting excuse of a human being!" she said furiously. "MY FATHER WAS EVERYTHING! MY WORLD! AND YOU TOOK HIM FROM ME! HE WAS JUST TRYING TO EARN AN HONEST LIVING!"

Kayo scoffed. "I would hardly call stealing valuable material from his boss an honest living," she said.

"HE DIDN'T STEAL ANYTHING!" Charlotte roared. "HE WAS FRAMED! YOU FRAMED HIM!" she bellowed at Parker. "I KNOW YOU'RE A CRIMINAL!"

"Ex-criminal," Penelope said. "He's reformed, can't you see?"

But Charlotte wasn't listening. "I don't care," she said, tears starting to trickle from her eyes. "Because of you both, my father is gone. And I will NEVER stop until I get my revenge."

Kayo rolled her eyes. "Revenge, revenge, revenge. I am beyond sick of those we stop wanting revenge. How about doing the sensible thing and letting it go."

Charlotte glared at Kayo. "I have no idea who you are. But what makes you think you can talk to me like that? You haven't suffered like I have!"

Kayo knelt down and fixed Charlotte with a hard stare. "My mother died because of my uncle," she said. "I watched her die with my own two eyes. Me and my fath-AARGH!" In a split second, the strange flashes that she'd experienced before appeared once more. In her mind, several unexplained images including what looked like a man suspended in a tank of liquid appeared. The man's eyes opened just as it came to an end and she fell over.

Penelope and Parker rushed over to her. "Kayo! What happened?" Penelope asked.

But Kayo just groaned, holding her head which was throbbing.

Charlotte began to smirk maliciously. "Oooooh. Did I just touch a nerve?" she asked. She was about to say more but Penelope pulled out her stun-gun, aimed and shot Fiona, zapping her into unconsciousness.

"What happened, Kayo?" Penelope asked again.

Kayo's head began to clear a little. She shook it to try and clear it more. "I…I don't know," she said once her voice had returned.


Penelope and Parker watched as the GDF Flyer that had come to assist loaded up the surviving members of The Shiners as well as Charlotte before taking off to take them to a maximum security complex for interrogation. Kayo had already left in Thunderbird Shadow, having not been able to explain the mysterious seizure she'd suffered.

It was only now that Penelope noticed Parker's injury. "Oh, gosh, you're hurt!" she exclaimed.

"Nah. It's only a flesh wound, m'lady," Parker answered. He looked at FAB1. "'ome, m'lady?"

"Yes, but I'm driving," said Penelope. "And no arguments, Parker."

Parker subsided. He was not going to argue with Penelope. "Yus, m'lady."

As they took to the air, their thoughts returned to Kayo. "What do you think 'appened to Miss Kyrano, m'lady?" asked Parker. "H'I've never known 'er 'ave h'anything like that 'appen before."

"I have no idea, Parker," replied Penelope. "But it was alarming none the less."

"Should we tell Mr Tracy h'about it?"

"I'm going to mention it to him so long as he's the only one to hear it," said Penelope. "I would hope that he already knows about it if it's happened before. But if it hasn't, then he needs to! If Kayo can't do her job properly, the security of International Rescue could be in serious trouble. And I don't like that."