THE air was cold. Frosty. Icy. Below freezing. If the woman could have felt it on her skin, it would have been horrifically painful. She could not feel it however, for she was in suspended animation. Her eyes were closed. Her golden hair lay still and her entire body remained motionless. She could not see the face of the man who was looking forlorn beyond the thick glass that separated the two. The man whose skin was a blueish-white colour and had bright glowing red eyes. The man gave a deep sigh and then turned away whilst the glass frosted over, concealing them from each other.
5!
4!
3!
2!
1!
"Thunderbirds Are Go!"
"COLD HEARTED"
NEW Year's Eve was always a time for celebration, and that was no different for the people of the United Kingdom. Whilst the City of London was going to hold its first New Year's Celebration for over a year due to the occupation of the Rock Snakes, a small group of dignitaries and other important people had instead gathered at the Creighton-Ward Mansion which was hosting its own party for a very special guest.
Bertie Doyle was the guest of honour at the event for being presented the award of 'Humanitarian of the Year'. He stood on the podium, addressing the assembled crowd whilst keeping one eye on the golden trophy of a woman holding a sparkling diamond in her hands above her head.
"People…caring for people," Bertie said to the crowd who applauded. "Compassion. That's what our great country is built on. I have proudly built Doyle Industries on that very same foundation. I will push the boundaries of humanitarianism. We will look to help all the countries that still live in poverty. Help those who are affected by natural disasters. Freak weather. Earthquakes. Tsunamis. Strange rock creatures from outer space! That's why we are called 'The People's Company'!"
The audience erupted in a chorus of cheers and whistles.
Lady Penelope, her parents and Parker were standing behind Doyle, watching his speech with admiration. Some more than the others.
"Thank you so much," said Bertie, humbled. "Please. No, thank you."
"Mr Doyle certainly seems to be England's latest saviour, m'lady," remarked Parker.
"So he should be, Parker," Penelope replied. "The world needs more people like him."
Bertie turned to face them. He was grinning from ear to ear. "Patrick! I am blown away by your generosity!" He had a firm handshake with Lord Patrick.
"It's absolutely deserved," said Patrick. "You're going to change the world, Bertie. And for the better."
"The rebuilding of Creighton wouldn't be at the stage it's at without your help and support," added Lady Patricia.
Bertie smiled. "For you guys, I'll do anything to help," he said.
"Come," said Patrick. "Let us get you a drink, Bertie. Parker, would you fetch Mr Doyle a glass of our finest, please?"
"Yus, m'lord," said Parker and he headed off.
Penelope watched as her parents walked into the crowd of guests, chatting eagerly with Doyle. But now that they and Parker had walked away, she was left alone to mingle with the crowd. The trouble was, she did not particularly like this kind of social event. She was slightly wishing she'd remained on Tracy Island after Christmas. At least she could be with a group of people she knew she could engage and hold a conversation with.
Just then, two blonde-haired women similar to herself came over towards her. Penelope gave a quiet sigh. It was her mother's two sisters, Aunt Sophia and Aunt Rosamund. They were both very different to her mother, Sophia was quite snooty and thought herself above a lot of people. Rosamund wasn't so much, but the two sisters often clashed with Lady Patricia, and Penelope would rather not be in their company so much.
"Penelope," said Aunt Sophia. "It's been a while."
"It has, Aunt Sophia."
"All alone?" asked Aunt Rosamund. "I thought we were going to meet your boyfriend tonight?"
"He couldn't make it," said Penelope.
Aunt Sophia rolled her eyes. "Again? That's what the fifth time we've been told we can meet him and he has not shown up?" she said to her sister.
"I believe that to be correct, yes," said Aunt Rosamund.
"Clearly he's not the right person for you, Penelope," said Aunt Sophia. "If he keeps ditching you like that."
Penelope was trying hard not to get furious, but it was becoming a struggle. "He's a very busy man," she said, trying to remain as calm as possible. "His work comes before me or anything else, and I respect him for that."
Aunt Sophia scoffed. "A man should be there for his woman when she needs him," she said firmly. "If he cannot do that, he has no right to be a part of this family."
Penelope's blood pressure rose up like a steam engine's safety-valve about to go off, but luckily for her, she didn't need to respond.
"For your h'information, m'ladies," said Parker as he walked past with the drinks for Patrick, Patricia and Bertie, "'er ladyship's bloke 'as been very busy 'elping the victims h'in that earthquake h'in India that 'appened the h'other day. And besides, 'e is more h'of a man than your blokes ever were." He walked briskly away before either of the now furious sisters could say anything.
Penelope grinned and finally saw someone she wished to speak to. So she turned to walk away.
"How dare he speak to us like that?" fumed Aunt Sophia.
"Are you going to let him speak to us like that, Penelope?" asked Aunt Rosamund.
Penelope shrugged. "He's not wrong," she said simply. "And besides, whilst my man isn't here, I don't see yours either. Oh wait, they left you, that's why." She then disappeared into the crowd, leaving the two sisters fuming.
What Parker had said about Gordon had been somewhat true. A vicious earthquake had struck in Northern India and the International Rescue team had been working almost every day since the day after Boxing Day when it had happened in helping to rescue as many people as they could. The brothers were all exhausted and as much as they would have liked to have had a night off and gone to the New Year's party, none of them felt up to it. Even Gordon had to admit he was tired and didn't feel up to much.
"Sheesh. I'm beat," Gordon remarked to the others in the lounge.
"We all are, Gordon," answered Scott. "I hope we don't get any calls for at least two days."
"More like a week," said Alan. "I could sleep for that amount of time."
Virgil, despite having worked just as hard as the others, didn't feel as tired as they did. "You youngsters can't keep up," he teased. "You're exempt, Scott. You're an old man."
"Hey!" exclaimed Scott indignantly whilst Alan and Gordon burst out laughing.
"Alright, boys, that's enough," laughed Jeff. "Don't forget a lot of people in India would have lost their lives if not for our intervention. You deserve to have a rest after that."
Gordon sipped on his milkshake.
"I bet you're wishing you were at Lady Penelope's New Year's party right now?" said Kayo.
"You know what, Kayo, I'm not," said Gordon.
Everyone looked at him in surprise.
"Lady Patricia said something about wanting to introduce me to her sisters, Sophia and Rosie I think?"
"Rosamund," Jeff corrected him.
"Eh, close enough," said Gordon. "However, Penelope doesn't get on with them, so I'm kind of glad that I'm not having to meet them."
"Whatever they're like doesn't matter, Gordon," said Hayley. "You and Penelope are together and there is nothing either of them can do to change that. They don't control Penelope's life."
Gordon thought for a moment. "Yeah, you're right," he said. "Still…I think Penelope will be quite happy if I never meet them."
Penelope had managed to get away from everyone for the time being and had gone to her bedroom to cool off. The words of Aunts Rosamund and Sophia still hung in her head. Whilst Parker's words had made her not have to shout at them, she still felt angry for their mocking.
There was a knock on her door. "Come in."
The door opened. But it wasn't Parker for a change. It was Patricia. "Penelope, dear. Why aren't you at the party?"
"I needed some alone time, Mother," said Penelope.
"What for?"
"Aunt Sophia and Aunt Rosamund made some rude remarks about Gordon," said Penelope.
Patricia sighed. "Why did I even bother inviting them here?" she asked herself. "I'm sorry, darling."
"It's not your fault," said Penelope.
"Actually it is," said Patricia. "I told Gordon that they wanted to meet him and that he would if he came to the party."
"But then India happened," said Penelope.
"Exactly," said Patricia. "His work is more important than what's going on tonight. Come now. Stick with me and I'll make sure Sophia and Rosamund don't spoil your evening again."
Penelope hesitated. Then gave a grateful smile. "Thanks, Mother," she said.
They headed out of the room. If they'd remained a second longer, they might have spotted a faint light in the sky gradually getting larger.
Penelope and Patricia returned to the party. They could see the two Aunts sulking on the far side of the room, not talking to anyone. Not even each other. Bertie and Patrick were closer to the steps, laughing and joking away whilst Bertie sampled the wine Parker had brought for them.
"This is truly a most excellent vintage," Bertie was saying.
"A good year 1998 was," agreed Patrick. He then noticed his wife and daughter arrive. "Ah, there you are," he said. "You're just in time."
"In time?" Penelope asked.
"Carol is about to speak," said Patrick, indicating to the woman in charge of the ceremonies that evening who had just got onto the stage.
"Well, good evening, ladies and gentlemen, what a night we're having so far!" Carol was saying. "With Bertie Doyle having accepted his reward, things are certainly looking up for us. Now we're not far…Oooh," she suddenly said, shivering.
Penelope frowned. Then she noticed something strange. The air temperature in the room had dropped quite suddenly, and it was getting colder. Soon, everyone started feeling it and started shivering.
"What the devil's going on?" asked Patrick. "What's happened to the heating?"
Suddenly there came an almighty BANG as one of the room windows suddenly burst open followed by a huge rush of cold air and a cloud of icy smoke coming in with it. Everyone around the stage, including Carol were thrown clear by the force of the blast as a huge iceberg-like shape engulfed and froze them completely.
As the other guests began to panic, several men armed with machine-guns came in through the window and began shooting into the air.
"WE'RE BEING INVADED!" shouted Patricia.
"THIS WAY!" Penelope shouted, her and Parker ushering her parents and Bertie away towards the Drawing Room as quickly as possible.
The gunmen now had several other guests held hostage in the Ballroom, forcing them onto their knees with their hands behind their heads.
"STAY DOWN! DON'T MOVE!" they were shouting.
Parker made sure that Penelope, her parents and Bertie were safe before poking his head back round to see what was happening. He got a close look at the clothing that the men were wearing and he recognised it instantly. He then quickly hurried back to the Drawing Room, only he was spotted by one of the gunmen.
"OI!" shouted the gunman and chased after him along with another.
Parker grabbed a spare Fire-Poker and tried using it as a sword.
"Hey, this one's got some fight in him," said one of the gunmen.
"Are you cowards afraid of an old man?" Parker asked defiantly.
THUD!
A third gunman had snuck around behind Parker and hit him on the back of the head with the butt of his weapon.
Penelope, who had been peeking out through the door, immediately sprung into action. She took the first gunman by surprise, tripping his feet with her left foot and snatching his weapon which she threw at the one who'd spoken. The impact knocked the man out and Penelope was able to drop-kick the third before he had a chance to do anything. She then finished the first one off with a hard punch to the stomach.
"Are you okay?" Penelope asked as she helped Parker to his feet.
"I've been through worse, m'lady," Parker replied. "These are Penguin's men."
Penelope looked at the three unconscious gunmen. Now she could see the black shape of a penguin on each of their outfits. "Cobblepot!" she hissed with gritted teeth. "How is he behind this? I thought he was put in prison?"
"Knowing 'im, 'e's probably got some way h'of giving h'orders from inside," said Parker.
Penelope looked back in the direction of the Ballroom. Things had gone quiet. They could just hear the voices of the gunmen ordering each other about to search the house for anyone who might have escaped the initial attack. "We have to do something," she said, about to head for the Ballroom.
But Parker stopped her. "M'lady, they 'ave guns. We don't. We h'aren't bulletproof. We can't 'elp them now."
Penelope seethed with anger. They then heard the sounds of voices getting closer so they hurried back to the Drawing Room.
Patrick and Patricia were hiding behind the sofa along with Bertie.
"Who the hell are these people?" demanded Patrick.
"Henchmen of Oswald Cobblepot," said Penelope.
"Cobblepot?!" exclaimed Patricia. "But-"
"Shhh!" hissed Parker. "There's someone outside."
Patrick and Patricia kept Bertie hidden behind the sofa whilst Penelope and Parker got ready to defend. But they quickly realised that they could hear panicked whimpering coming from outside. Penelope cautiously opened one of the doors and saw Aunt Rosamund and Aunt Sophia had managed to escape the carnage and were looking for somewhere to hide. As much as she didn't like them, she didn't want to see any harm come to them.
"Psst! Over here!" Penelope hissed.
The two women heard and saw Penelope and quickly hurried over, closing the door again seconds before two of the gunmen entered the main hallway of the mansion.
"Are you hurt?" Penelope asked.
"No, but there were two men after us!" said Aunt Sophia.
"They weren't far behind," added Aunt Rosamund.
Penelope looked around. Then her eyes fell upon the second sofa. "Parker, help me get this up against the door," she said. "We need a barricade."
"Right you are, m'lady."
Patrick helped them in moving the second sofa around so that it was firmly pushed up against the two doors. They then heard the sound of footsteps outside rushing towards it. The gunmen who'd been after the two Aunts had heard the sound of the sofa being pushed and tried to push the doors open. But the sofa prevented them from doing so. One of the men banged on one of the doors. "OPEN UP! OPEN UP!"
"ARE YOU IN THERE, DOYLE?!"
Bertie's blood ran cold. "They're…after me?!"
"IF YOU DON'T OPEN THESE DOORS, WE'LL BLAST IT OPEN!" shouted one of the gunmen.
Penelope looked around again and saw one of the large bookcases with curtains in it. She ran over, pulled open the doors and began throwing all the books out before pulling out the shelves.
"Penny, what are you doing?!" demanded Patrick.
"Making a hiding place for Mr Doyle, Father," said Penelope.
Patricia, realising what her daughter meant, rushed in to help. They pulled all the books out and all the shelves so that the case was empty. "In here!" said Patricia, ushering Bertie into the case. She and Penelope then pushed the doors shut and Bertie drew the curtains making him invisible to anyone in the room.
The sound of machine-gun fire was then heard hitting the doors. Whereas the exterior of the house was built to be strong, the inside was not. Bullets ripped through the doors hitting various objects across the room and forcing the Creighton-Wards and Parker to duck for cover.
"STOP!"
The shooting stopped very suddenly.
"MOVE!"
Everyone was silent and still. They hadn't heard this voice before. It sounded deep, monotone and a bit robotic. It was also accompanied by the sound of heavy footsteps along with the whirring of something mechanical. Penelope edged closer to the front on the opposite side of the sofa to where Parker was crouched with his Fire-Poker. Patricia and Patrick were back behind the other sofa and Aunts Sophia and Rosamund were hiding behind an armchair and the Grandfather Clock. They were all shaking, scared. Even Penelope and Parker were scared despite their best efforts not to be. Whoever was outside the drawing room sounded bigger and a lot more deadly than any of the gunmen.
There came a strange noise and everyone gasped in surprise as a thick layer of ice began to form around the doors and the sofa. Within seconds they were completely encased in it. Then came a loud SMASH as they were shattered into pieces. The whirring sound came again and the broken sofa was kicked aside, one piece trapping Parker underneath. Penelope's jaw dropped as a man in a massive mechanised suit walked in through where the doors had once been. The suit was about seven feet tall, a shiny steel. A glass dome on the top protected the occupant; a man with blueish-white skin. He had no hair. His lips were blue and his eyes were covered by a pair of goggles which glowed bright red. Then he spoke in the same robotic voice that they'd heard out in the hallway. "Where are you, Bertie Doyle?"
Patrick, having had enough of hiding, decided to stand up from behind the sofa, despite the objections of his wife and stared hard at the intruder. "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!" he demanded. "HOW DARE YOU ATTACK OUR HOUSE?!"
The man in the suit wasn't remotely phased by Patrick's anger. "Who I am is of no importance to you." Then, before anyone had a chance to say anything else, the man in the suit raised its right arm to reveal a large gun-like object which was aimed directly at Patrick.
"NO!" shouted Penelope and tried to rush forwards. Too late. The weapon fired, shooting a blast of cryogenic ice from the end which instantly engulfed Patrick and froze him up. "FATHER!"
Patricia, Aunt Sophia and Aunt Rosamund also screamed, but in panic. The two Aunts tried to make a run for the nearby window but the man turned his weapon and froze them both as well with a single blast.
Both Parker and Penelope jumped onto the man's suit and tried to wrestle with him but the suit's power easily shook them both off. He grabbed Parker and threw him clean out of a nearby window before then striking Penelope with his other arm and sending her crashing into the bookcase where Bertie was hiding. The bookcase's glass shattered which caused Bertie to yelp. The man in the suit looked at the bookcase, then moved forwards towards it.
"YOU ANIMAL!" screeched Patricia. Grabbing the Fire-Poker that Parker had had and striking the suit with it. The man simply then knocked her away with the suit's left arm and aimed his cryogenic weapon at her now.
"MOTHER!" screamed Penelope as she was then blast-frozen as well. Enraged by what was happening, she once again leapt onto the back of the suit and began trying to find any form of weak spots it may have. It was tough though. She couldn't find anything.
Two of the Penguin's men then came rushing in through the smashed doors. "DON'T WORRY, WE GOT YOU!" one of them yelled and began shooting his weapon at Penelope. The bullet narrowly missed her leg but hit something on the suit which broke a pipe and caused some icy gas to start leaking out.
"AARGH!" roared the man in the suit, spinning around to face the two men who had stopped dead in their tracks. "FOOLS!" he then boomed before blasting them with his weapon as well.
Penelope was still on the back of the suit but he was quickly able to shake her again. She crashed into the wall next to the Fireplace and fell to the ground.
"You are annoying me," the man in the suit growled.
Penelope was seeing red. The sight of her frozen parents and aunts was more than enough to make her beyond furious. "You've frozen my family!" she snarled. "YOU'RE GOING DOWN FOR THAT!" She leapt to her feet and began to run towards him.
But Penelope had barely moved two feet and Parker had clambered back up to the open window just in time to see the man blast Penelope with his weapon as well. "M'LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADY!"
The man then turned and fired yet again, this time at Parker who just managed to drop himself down before ice covered the gap and sealed it up.
Unlike her parents and aunts, Penelope hadn't been completely frozen by the weapon, her face remained clear but her entire body from the neck down was completely encased in ice. She couldn't move. She could only stare in terror and fear as the man in the suit then smashed apart the bookcase to reveal Bertie Doyle, who fell to the floor. He then tried to scramble away but was grabbed by the mech-suit and pulled back up to his feet.
"At last," said the man in the suit. "I've been waiting for this, Doyle."
Bertie stared up at the face of the man in the suit. "F-F-F-FRIES?!" he exclaimed. "W-W-W-WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!"
"I would have thought that was obvious," said the man in the suit before dragging a screaming Bertie out of the Drawing Room with him.
"HELP!" Bertie screamed to anyone who might be able to hear him. "SOMEONE HELP, PLEASE!"
But nobody could help, least of all Penelope who could do nothing but watch helplessly, trapped in the ice. Then she heard the Penguin's men talking outside in the hallway.
"He's got Doyle and frozen the occupants, boss."
"Good! Then burn the 'ouse down! That'll teach them for 'aving me nicked!"