THE pulley-line that Marv and Harry were going to use was now fully fixed and secured in place. Marv fixed his harness to the line.

"You ready?" asked Harry.

"Yeah, I'm ready," said Marv. "Let's do this." He lifted his legs up and Harry began to pull on the rope. Each pull moved Marv an inch at a time through the hole in the wall and into the vault itself.

Hayley and Amanda continued to tug at their bonds, making the crate they were sitting on scrape the floor a little. Harry was too busy concentrating on what he was doing to notice.

Marv's greedy little eyes were initially fixated on the gold on the shelves on the opposite side. But halfway across, he got distracted. "Hold it!"

"What is it?" Harry asked, annoyed.

Marv had spotted a tray with several piles of wrapped banknotes sitting upon it. He began to reach out to grab them.

"What are you playing at?" Harry snapped. "Leave the money and get to the gold!"

"Alright, alright, alright!" said Marv in defeat. "It was just a thought."

Harry started to pull on the rope again. Marv continued to make his way across and was soon on the other side of the vault. On both sides were shelves stacked with heavy gold bars. His greedy little eyes twinkled with glee. He'd been waiting for so long to get his hands on this.

"Heheheheheheh!" Marv cackled with delight as he reached for one of the bars. "Merry Christmas to me! Merry Christmas to me! Merry Christmas to-"

"What the hell are you singing?" asked Harry.

"Just my happy song," said Marv as he placed the bar into the large sack strapped to his front. "Merry Christmas to me!"

Harry rolled his eyes. He then looked over at the two captives and snickered. "If you're both very good, maybe Santa will share some of the gold with ya." He then cackled himself.

Hayley and Amanda just glowered at him and made muffled grunts behind their gags, which did nothing except amuse Harry.

Alan made his way down the stairs into the lounge. He was bleary-eyed and struggling to open them. "Ugh, it's 2am!" he complained. "Why did we have to be up this early?"

"You heard what Dad said, Alan," said Gordon who was just ahead of him. "We got to be at the hospital early so we can see the arrival of the Christmas Rocket."

"I get that, but why do we all have to go?" asked Alan. "Surely just a couple of us would have sufficed?"

"Oh, cheer up already," said Gordon. "It's Christmas! Merry Christmas everyone!"

"Uhh, Gordon, not so loud, please!" said Scott. "But, Merry Christmas regardless," he added with a grin.

"Ah, I see Scrooge has joined us as well," teased Kayo.

"HEY!" said Alan indignantly whilst the others laughed.

"Settle down, everyone," said Jeff. "I know it's early, but trust me, it'll be worth it."

"Just think of the kids' faces in the hospital when they see us," added Virgil.

"It'll make spending Christmas in hospital worth it for them," agreed John.

"I couldn't think of a worse place to spend Christmas," said Scott.

"I can," said Gordon. "Prison?"

"Well…there is that," agreed Scott. "But those guys in prison are there because they made bad choices in life. The kids in the hospital are there for reasons nobody can control."

"Ah…yes, of course," said Gordon.

Grandma came in. "You'd all better be going," she said. "Don't forget the change in time zones by the time you get there."

"You're right, Mother," said Jeff. "I'll go with Scott in Thunderbird 1. John, Gordon and Alan will go in Thunderbird 2 with Virgil. Kayo will take Thunderbird Shadow. Everyone happy?"

"F-A-B," said everyone.

Jeff smiled. "Then Thunderbirds are GO!"

Scott went to the revolving wall panel and turned before going down his express elevator to the underground hangar where Thunderbird 1 was. As he headed out on the gantry, he saw a cherry-picker elevator lifting Jeff up in his own uniform towards the open cargo bay where he could gain entry to the craft. Across the hangar, Kayo was rising into Thunderbird Shadow aboard the Shadowbike. Meanwhile Virgil was dropping down into Thunderbird 2 from his launch tunnel and getting into his seat. He knew that afterwards they'd be bringing FAB1 back to Tracy Island so he selected Module 6 as it was the only module to not have anything inside of it. Once the main body had settled over the module and locked into place, Virgil looked back over his shoulder as the floor elevator arrived bringing Alan, John and Gordon with it. Thunderbird 1 was now heading up its diagonal tunnel to the launch bay whilst the swimming pool moved out of the way and Thunderbird Shadow was being taken up to the revolving cliff which turned to place the craft out in the open with the turntable spinning it the right way up. Thunderbird 2 taxied out of the hangar and passed the folded back rows of palm trees before being lifted into place with extended wings on the launch ramp and the blast shield in place behind the thrusters.

5! 4! 3! 2! 1!

Thunderbird 1's engines roared into life and it rose up out of where the swimming pool usually was. Thunderbird 2's engines then thundered as it was pushed off the ramp. Finally it was Thunderbird Shadow's turn to fire its engines and then be released from its platform. The three Thunderbirds climbed away from Tracy Island, forming up and heading through the night sky on an Easterly course towards the United States.

Brains and Grandma watched from the area by the pool which was now closing up following the launch of Thunderbird 1.

"I'd like to have gone with them," said Grandma. "But there's still food that needs preparing."

"And I'm n-not exactly great with kids," said Brains. "They can be a little r-rowdy for my liking."

Grandma laughed. "I get where you're coming from," she said. "But those kids are gonna get the surprise of their lives when they see the boys later today."

"Now that I would like to have s-seen," said Brains. "Along with the C-Christmas Rocket of course."

"I doubt you'd see much of it anyway," said Grandma as they went back inside. "It'll be a brief flash as it passes by and drops the crate full of presents. Then it'd be gone again."

"I g-guess you're right, Mrs Tracy," said Brains.

Grandma yawned. "Well, I'm going back to bed," she said. "I suggest you do the same. Goodnight, Brains."

"Goodnight, Mrs T-Tracy." Brains watched as Grandma headed up the stairs from the kitchen and then up the second flight towards the bedrooms. He waited until he was sure he'd heard her bedroom door close before going back outside. "It's okay. She's gone n-now."

There came a rustling in some nearby bushes and The Mechanic then emerged. "I saw the ships leave," he said.

"Have you f-found the right locations for our little surprise?" asked Brains.

"Yes," said The Mechanic. "One on the roof of the house. One over in the memorial garden and another in the trees just behind us here."

"P-Perfect," said Brains. "Then let's get started."

Harry was getting impatient. Marv was on his sixth visit inside the vault. He'd already filled his sack up with gold five times and emptied one of the stacks of shelves completely. He was close to finishing off the other, but was putting more in than he had before. The gold was heavy, and with each bar he added, his weight increased and he began to drop closer to the floor.

"Not too much, Marv!" warned Harry. "You won't make it back!"

"Oh, yes, I will," said Marv with determination. "Just a few more." He reached out, took another bar and placed it in his sack. Then he reached for another. And then another. Soon there was only one bar left but he was already getting dangerously close to the floor.

"That's more than enough," said Harry.

"I ain't leaving just the one!" snapped Marv. he reached out, grabbed the bar and placed it in his sack. But the weight was enormous and his feet dipped right down.

"Watch the floor!" hissed Harry.

Marv could feel the great weight of the gold pressing against his chest. "I'll…be…fine…" he said whilst slightly struggling to breathe. "Pull me back."

Harry began tugging at the rope. But trying to move Marv back with the added weight of the gold was proving a struggle even for him. He wasn't exactly the fittest of men. He had to pull with both hands, then take a breath and then pull again so the progress of getting Marv back was painfully slow.

Hayley and Amanda had stopped struggling for the moment and were instead watching Harry with interest. They were secretly hoping he was going to pass out meaning Marv would be trapped in the vault.

"What's…the problem?" Marv asked when Harry stopped pulling.

"That gold's…too heavy…" Harry panted. "You should've…left some…behind."

"Just…get me…out of here!" urged Marv.

Harry got his breath back and began to pull again. Marv was halfway across the vault, but the suction cup that held the rope to the far wall was starting to lose its grip due to the weight of both Marv and the gold. His feet were edging ever closer to the floor. There couldn't be more than two inches.

Harry was sweating a lot. Partially because of how hard he was having to work, and the other half due to the nerves he was experiencing. His eyes were more fixed on Marv's feet than anything else.

The weight on Marv's chest was almost becoming unbearable. He gave a gasp and then coughed loudly which caused him to spin a little. One of his legs caught a table and dislodged a pencil that was sitting on it. It rolled right to the edge with the sharp end hanging over the edge.

"THE PENCIL, YOU STUPID MOTH-" Harry shrieked but the final word escaped his mouth before he could even say it.

Marv too was shaking after the close call. He seemed unable to take his eyes off how dangerously over the edge the pencil was. "GET ME OUT OF HERE!" he cried.

The GDF Flyer carrying Captain Liberty, Captain Lavender and their squad flew over New York and descended towards Central Park.

"Put us down in the park," said Captain Lavender. "We can then approach the toy store on foot. They won't hear us coming."

"I just hope we're in time to stop them," said Captain Liberty.

As soon as the Flyer had touched down on the grass and the ramp door had opened, Captain Liberty was straight out before any instructions could be given.

"Follow me," Captain Lavender told the soldiers as they sprinted down the ramp and headed in the direction of both the Second National Bank and Harman's Store. Captain Liberty wasn't waiting around. With his suits' advanced abilities, he could run a lot faster and was already halfway across the street before Lavender and the squad were even near the edge of the park.

"Captain Liberty. Don't enter the building without us," Captain Lavender said over the radio.

But Rigby chose instead to turn his ear communicator off. "Who does she think she is?" he growled to himself. "I'm the senior Captain here. I'll do what I want. And what I want is my wife back!" He soon reached the Harman's Building and began scrambling up the wall to the floor where he knew his wife and fellow colleague were being held captive.

Desmond had finished his work and gone up to the office where Harman had been working. "All the presents are loaded into the canister, Mr Harman. Everything's set to go."

"Excellent," said Harman. He glanced at his watch. "Go and send the canister up to the roof. Blast-off is in five minutes."

"Yes, sir."

Desmond left the office and Harman got to his feet. He picked up his smart winter jacket and put it on before making his way up to the roof where the rocket was waiting.

This rocket was identical to the test one in every way except for the colour scheme. The original was mostly a dull, grey colour. This one was green, red and yellow with a white Christmas Tree shape painted on the main fuselage.

Marv was now out of the vault and the two men were excitedly jumping about at how much gold they'd been able to remove from the bank.

"Six sacks of gold!" Harry said. "There's got to be at least a million in each one!"

"Six million dollars!" jeered Marv. "We did it, Harry! WE DID IT!"

"Yeah, Marv, we sure did!" cackled Harry. "And nobody is gonna stop us now!"

SMASH!

Both the thieves and their captives jumped as a nearby window was shattered. A figure in a red, white and blue suit came barrel-rolling in with a large metal shield.

Both Hayley and Amanda began crying out through the tape over their mouths. Captain Liberty saw them, but then his gaze fell upon the thieves…and he saw red. "YOU!" he bellowed.

Harry had managed to pull his gun.

"SHOOT HIM, HARRY! SHOOT HIM!" shouted Marv.

Harry tried to pull the trigger, but Captain Liberty threw the shield in a rage. The two men yelped and ducked, narrowly avoiding getting struck by it. The shield instead hit the wall, bounced off and zipped right over the heads of the two tied up girls. Both squealed in alarm as the shield bounced again off the window frame and back to Captain Liberty.

Suddenly an alarm started wailing. Everyone froze. Then they realised it was coming from inside the vault. Harry and Marv then realised in horror that in ducking to avoid the shield, Harry had let go of the harness Marv had been wearing. It had slid back along the rope through the hole and knocked the pencil that Marv had dislodged off the table where it had hit the floor and triggered the alarm.

"THE ALARM!" cried Marv.

"GET UP!" bellowed Harry. "WE GOTTA GO!" The two men jumped to their feet and began sprinting towards the nearest exit.

"WAIT, THE GOLD!" cried Marv.

"FORGET THE GOLD, YOU MORON! RUN!" roared Harry, grabbing Marv by the arm and dragging him out of the room.

The sound of footsteps coming from another door soon caught the attention of Captain Liberty, Hayley and Amanda as Captain Lavender burst in followed by the soldiers. She looked angry. "I thought I said-" she began before seeing the bound captives. "Never mind. Get after them!"

"Glady!" snarled Captain Liberty, setting off in pursuit of the thieves.

Captain Lavender then peeled the tape off Amanda and Hayley's mouths.

"Alexa!" said Hayley. "Are we glad to see you?"

"Sorry, it's taken us so long," apologised Alexa. She then saw the smashed window that Captain Liberty had used to enter. "I told him to wait for us!" she said as she untied the ropes.

"That's typical of Wayne," said Amanda. "Don't take it to heart."

"Maybe, but if he'd waited, we could have caught those thieves on the spot," said Alexa. She then spoke into her watch radio. "This is Captain Lavender. Keep all exits sealed. Do NOT let anyone out of this building!"

Harry and Marv were running down a flight of stairs, still arguing. "WE PLANNED THIS FOR MONTHS!" Marv was yelling. "WE CAN'T LEAVE EMPTY-HANDED!"

"YOU WANNA GO TO JAIL?! HUH?!" shouted Harry. "NOW, SHUT UP OR THEY'LL FIND US!"

Just then the door ahead of them burst open to reveal two GDF soldiers. "Captain, we have them!" said one of them.

"AAAAAAHH!" Marv and Harry yelled, turning to run back up the stairs. But as they rounded to the next set, they both looked up in time to see an enraged Captain Liberty diving at them.

"Oops," said Marv as Captain Liberty slammed his shield right into their torsos. His momentum pushed them back and unwittingly shoved them right over the metal railing.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!" the two thieves cried out as they fell backwards and crashed through a window into another room.

Scrambling around to untangle themselves and get back to their feet, they tried desperately to find a way out, knowing full well they were about to be set upon by Captain Liberty again.

"That guy's trying to kill us!" cried Harry.

Then Marv noticed something. "Hey, what's that?"

Harry looked. "An elevator, stupid! What does it look like!"

"Then what are we waiting for?" asked Marv as they sprinted towards it. They entered the elevator and found a large metal container with two red doors on it. "What's this?"

"Our way out!" said Harry. "Open it!"

Marv pushed the button and found it was full of presents. "We'll never get in that!" he said.

"Then throw some out so that we can!" snapped Harry.

Acting quickly, the two thieves threw as many of the presents out as they could before climbing in. Harry then reached out and pushed the 'close' button before bringing his hand quickly back in so that it didn't get caught in the closing doors.

No sooner had the doors closed when they felt a sudden jolt as the elevator started to move.

"We're going up!" exclaimed Marv..

"Relax!" said Harry. "We'll bluff our way out!"

Captain Liberty jumped into the store room seconds after the doors to the elevator had closed. He began smashing around the crates and boxes to try and find them. "YOU CAN'T HIDE FROM ME!" he roared. "I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN!"

The only other door to the room then opened and Alexa, Hayley and Amanda came in.

"Wayne!" cried Amanda as she and Rigby began kissing each other.

"I'm so sorry, babe," said Rigby. "I should have been there to protect you!"

"Never mind that now!" said Alexa. "Where are the thieves?"

"I knocked them into this room," said Rigby. "But I can't find them anywhere."

Hayley looked around the room. "There's no place in here for them to hide," she said.

"They must have gone through there," said Alexa, pointing to the large double metal doors.

"What the hell is going on here?!"

All turned to see a man in a white suit coat enter the room, looking confused.

"You work here?" asked Alexa.

"Er…yes?"

"Captain Lavender, Global Defence Force. You have a couple of escaped thieves that have broken into the bank next door."

"We believe they've gone through there," said Amanda, pointing to the doors.

"What's through there?" asked Hayley.

"The elevator to the roof," said Desmond. "It had the canister in there!"

"What canister?" asked Alexa.

"The one for the Christmas Rocket," said Desmond. "It's due to launch in less than a minute."

The four Captains exchanged alarmed looks.

"We have to stop that rocket!" said Hayley. "Is there a phone?"

"Over there," said Desmond, pointing to a red telephone on the wall. "Top right button."

Hayley grabbed the receiver and pushed the button that would call the telephone on the roof.

Harman was on the roof of the building near a Fire Escape which was the furthest and safest place to be away from the rocket. The fuelling of the rocket was complete and the canister had just been locked into place. The gantry was starting to tilt away and smoke was starting to emit from the rocket's engines. The buzzer on the phone started but Harman and a second man up there with him did not hear it.

"There she goes!" said Harman before a loud roar announced the ignition of the chemical rockets. The huge force caused the canister to vibrate, and it was only now that Harry and Marv realised their mistake.

"HAAAAAAAAARRY!" screamed Marv above the noise. "WHAT'S HAPPENING?!"

Harry went pale. "SSSSSSSHIT! THIS IS THE CHRISTMAS ROCKET CONTAINER!" He then began to pound frantically on the side of the canister. "HEY! LET US OUT! LET US OUT!"

"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!" wailed a now terrified Marv.

But the chances of them being heard were impossible. The clamps had now been released and the Christmas Rocket was rising off the roof of the Harman's Building. It continued to accelerate as it climbed higher and higher into the golden sky of what was going to become a beautifully sunny Christmas Day over New York City. Anyone from New Jersey or the other suburbs outside or looking through the right direction window could see the trail the rocket was leaving behind as it climbed to its cruising altitude.

The rumbling for the rocket's engines firing were also felt a little down inside the building making everything not attached to something shake and rattle.

Hayley's heart sank as she knew what this meant. "We're too late. The rocket's taken off!"