CHAPTER FOUR

Jeff and the team managed to get the power going again, and Jeff just received word from Penelope about her findings and even got to see the snapshots she took. Grandma recognized the town as "Why, that's Batesville."

"Batesville, Grandma…?" asked Alan.

"Yes, my grandmother showed me pictures of when her grandmother used to live there. I recognize it from the photos I saw."

Suddenly, everyone began to realize what was going on, but Brains was the one who actually spoke. "As hard as it is to believe... We have, somehow... traveled back... through time!"

"Back through time?" asked Scott "But that's crazy."

"Yeah, but nothing else can explain it." said Virgil "I mean those buildings, those telephones, even that car with that licence plate on it."

Jeff even tried the TV, but no stations they were attuned that could broadcast, and he checked with John, but he too couldn't seem to intercept any radio calls as they were operating on principles completely different than anything they could detect. "I guess that does it." Jeff said "Here we are in the Nevada desert, a-hundred years out of our time."

Brains corrected him "A-hundred and four to be accurately precise, uh, Mr. Tracy."

"It's all so fantastic." remarked Tintin. "It sure is." added Alan "Look, here comes Penelope."

FAB-1 managed to make it onto the island and everyone was together again. As exciting as it all seemed they knew this was serious. Brains could only figure that his experiment with the formulas caused a chain-reaction in the space-time continuum which sent them there, but he couldn't understand much of how it worked and it would take time to work out.

"...Meaning we may not be able to ever go back to our own time?" asked Gordon.

"That is, uh, a high possibility, Gordon, but I won't know for certain until I've made my tests."

"Right, Brains. You better get to it immediately." said Jeff "It's not safe for us to be in this time period. We don't belong here. Nobody knows us, and they've never seen our kind of technology before. If by some fluke we do something to change the past, here, we'll alter the future in ways that could have serious consequences for us all.

International Rescue... all of us- may never come into existence!"


Meanwhile, The Hood had finally come round from being knocked out, only to find he was in a strange room and in bed, and two men, a very fat one, and a very thin one, were watching over him.

"Masterspy, he is coming round." said the thin man.

The fat man came over, "Good, Friend Zarin; Very good!"

The Hood sat upright "Where… Where am I? Who are you gentlemen?"

The two men explained that they found him unconscious in the road as they drove by, and felt it would be most unkind to not give him medical attention.

The Hood felt relieved, but also frustrated "International Rescue has outwitted me again!"

Masterspy and Zarin gazed each other in confusion. "International… what?" asked Masterspy.

The Hood almost felt insulted. "Surely, you gentlemen have heard of "International Rescue", and their famous fleet of "Thunderbirds?"

Zarin shook his head "No, we have not. All we have heard of is, Supercar."

Masterspy looked ready to explode for Zarin giving away information regarding Supercar, but The Hood looked intrigued. "I have never heard of this "Supercar" before, but I admit, it sounds rather interesting."

"So do your Thunderbirds." said Masterspy. He was starting to tell that maybe this man was more like him and Zarin than he thought. "Friend Zarin, I think we have made ourselves and new friend today."

The Hood and Zarin both felt the same. They felt that by working together would mean that both Supercar and International Rescue would never know what hit them.

The three men couldn't help but laugh sinisterly.


Meanwhile, Supercar had followed FAB-1 far behind, and what the crew saw next really shocked their brains. "Holy smoke!" cried Mike "Take a look at that."

"Good heavens!" cried Beaker.

"I don't believe it!" added Jimmy, and Mitch gave a little shriek.

There, in the middle of the desert, was a rocky mountain. It had to at least be the size of a small town, and as tall as the sky scrapers in New York. The Professor could hardly believe it himself when Mike radioed in.

"I know it's hard to believe, but it's there Professor. It's really there. I think we should go down and investigate."

The Professor tried to talk him out of it until they knew more, but even Beaker couldn't resist. "Where is your scientific curiosity, Professor?" he asked "What harm can ten whole minutes do?"

Supercar was set down at a short distance away from the mountain, and the team decided to walk the rest of the way. "Gee... It's even bigger up close." cried Jimmy.

"Yeah, but how did it get here?" asked Mike. "What's a big rock like this doing in the middle of the desert?"

Even Beaker had no clue, but suggested "Perhaps we should... er... venture forth. Perhaps we shall find clues of this phenomenon."

"Say, you don't suppose anyone lives here, on this rock, do you?" asked Jimmy.

"I think it is possible." Mike said "Take a look up there…!" He pointed to what seemed like a villa perched high atop one of the cliffs. "Magnificent." Beaker exclaimed "I wouldn't have believed it possible."

"Hey look…" Mike said "There's more." All ways they could see a runway, a round house, even tall antenna with satellite dishes on it. This place was becoming more and more interesting by the second. "Jimmy, you and Mitch go back to Supercar and radio the professor at the lab. Dr. Beaker and I are going to check this out some more."

"All right, Mike. Let's go Mitch. Mitch…? Where are you Mitch?" but Mitch was nowhere to be found. "I fear Mitch may have run off while we were distracted." Beaker said.

"Oh, no!" groaned Mike "Well we've got to find him. Jimmy you get back to Supercar."

Jimmy did as he was told while Mike and Beaker explored the mountain.


Meanwhile, the Tracy family knew nothing of what was going on.

Their equipment wasn't attuned to pick up signals from the time period they were in, and exciting or not, everyone did decide to make of the best of things and prepare for the worst if they could never get back to the future, even if that meant having to stay in an unfamiliar world.

Tintin had just finished feeding Madelynn her bottle of formula. "...All gone." she cooed. She went go wash the bottle out in the sink and left Alan to pick up and burp the baby. He walked around with his little daughter draped head over his shoulder and gently patted her back until she burped. "Aw, good girl honey!" Alan cooed "Who's a good girl, huh?"

As he walked by the window, Madelynn saw something watching her from outside the window- it was a monkey and it gazed at her and hooted making her giggle, more than usual. "Wow! Someone sure is happy." Alan said.

"What's wrong?" Tintin said as she came over and noticed Madelynn laughing hysterically. Then they saw outside the window. "It's a monkey." said Alan. "But Alan, monkeys don't live in the desert." Tintin said.

"Well, where did he come from?"


Mitch was still playing outside, and unexpectedly set off one of the outside alarms in case intruders came onto the island.

Mike and Beaker heard the whirring of the alarms. "Uh, oh…! I don't like the sound of that." said Mike.


Jeff located the signals and the equipment was able to detect body heat form living things. "Look!" he said pointing at the screen. "We've got three intruders on the island."

Scott, Virgil, and Gordon, knowing the procedures, armed themselves. "Give them a hand, Parker." Penelope ordered.

"Yes, Milady."

The four men stood at the door with their guns with Jeff and prepared to interrogate the intruders. Jeff spoke into a megaphone "You down there! Stand right where you are and put your hands over your heads!"

The two men down below stood where they were. "Oh, dear…! I fear we are in deep trouble now, Mike."

"Yeah, sounds like it." Mike agreed as he kept his hands up. He looked up at the house and saw many people up there pointing guns at them. "Don't try anything funny!" one of the men called down to them. "Stay right where you are! We're coming down."

Alan and Tintin came into the lounge and asked what all the trouble was about. Penelope explained about the intruders just down from the house. Alan and Tintin gazed out of one of the windows; one of them men they saw made Alan's eyes nearly bulge out of his head. "Tintin… is… is that...?"

"Alan! It is…!" cried Tintin, nearly unable to believe it herself.

Alan quickly passed her the baby and ran "Father…! Boys! Don't shoot!" and then he quickly dashed outside and down the stairs heading to where the two men were. "Alan! Alan, get back here!" snapped Jeff, but Alan didn't stop until he reached the two men.

"I can't believe it. It's… it's really you." Alan said in near disbelief. "You're Mike Mercury."

Mike blinked once and put his hands down. "Yes, I am. How did you know that?"

Alan felt like he was going to faint with excitement, while up at the house everyone else felt confused.