A Little More Conversation

Evening in the Library Arcanium was still quite full of activity. Mostly because it was still midday for many people, and those who didn't have obligations in Real Life were coming on duty just as those for whom it was past dinnertime were beginning to relax.

Alice was introducing Robert to Enya music and helping him on his archive binge for his exam while Louise sat on the floor of their room and puzzled out a new red Magic deck. Red and Danielle were having a 'dye-off' in one of the largest public bathrooms, challenging each other to get the funkiest colour. There was a large TF2 campaign going on in the Library's main auditorium, plugging the games consoles into the eye-wateringly massive screen.

Down in the basement, Tash and Rhia were trying to make the chore of feeding the Sues into something more fun. The latter was the one officially on duty, but roping in the former's enthusiasm to help with dinner had made things much easier. They had seen a cooler full of ingredients, a portable stove and the largest wok anyone had ever seen being brought down into the duty office and dinner for twenty-four hungry inmates made fresh instead of being boringly replicated from base proteins and sugars.

The smell of the properly authentically-prepared stir fry permeated the prison, chasing away some of the residual sour smells from repeated hoarding attempts. Many of the inmates savoured the aroma, bellies rumbling in anticipation; for several months the food had been very good, but though while many were enjoying the new diet, some of the more cynical Sues were still adamant that it wouldn't last.

But once more, these skeptics were reduced to a chuntering, but mostly semi-grateful silence as the high-spirited Tash began doling out large, full bowls of a delicious-looking jumble of meat strips, vegetables, noodles and sauce, all bound together and glossy with richness and freshness. She started in the cells closest to the door and began to work her way back, often disappearing back for more while those who had been already presented with their bowl fell upon the meal with great relish. Several even called for seconds, to be answered with Rhia's giggle and a reply of "Wait until everyone's fed their firsts first!"

A low, satisfied banter rumbled softly around the basement as Tash gave Block C their dinner. She handed a bowl to McLaren, who gave a grunted "Thank you" in response. It was clear that the Stu was hungry as, after first looking through the contents of the bowl, he twisted some of the noodles around his fork, and shoveled them into his mouth.

It tasted very good, just as good as it had smelt; although there was something at the back of his mind. Like a tiny warning signal. Something was wrong.

He looked around at his fellow inmates. Tash was just finishing off doling out D Block's dinner, and the others were eating with gusto. It was obvious that no-one expected this change of attitude to last, and were going to make the most of it.

McLaren placed a hand briefly on his stomach. He was beginning to feel a little nauseous. Maybe it was the lack of food that had been there previously.

He twisted a second forkful of noodles up, and started to eat them. It was a little harder to eat this forkful. A knot in his stomach was trying to tell him that something was most definitely wrong. He forced the second mouthful down, wincing a little as he swallowed.

Leaning forward, McLaren felt his head spin. His breath was now coming in short gasps, but he was determined to finish his dinner. With slightly shaking hands, he clung to the bowl as he inserted the fork for a third mouthful, but the utensil slipped through his fingers as he picked it back up, and clattered to the floor.

Bending down slightly to pick it up, he heard Holly's voice from the next cell over. Their beds were on opposite sides, and in using it as a seat they faced each other.

"McLaren?" She sounded concerned.

"Fork…" he gasped, still trying to reach it.

"Oh dear," she said, leaning through the bars and collecting his fork, and handing it to him. McLaren's fingers wrapped around the metal, but as Holly released it, there was a loud clatter as it hit the floor again.

Holly was now really worried. She reached as far through the bars as she could. Fingers just brushing McLaren's hand, she gently asked, "McLaren, what's wrong?"

McLaren had leant forwards, his elbows resting on his knees. He was shaking and his breath was now panicked gasps.

"Ryouga," Holly called to McLaren's other neighbour, "can you hold McLaren up? Make sure he doesn't fall off his bed…"

Ryouga turned, saw that something seemed off, and nodded. His bed was practically touching McLaren's on the long edge, with just a wall of steel bars separating them. He reached through his bars to hold on tightly to McLaren's shoulders.

Holly looked around. The leader had long finished dishing up the first round of stir-fry and had retreated to the office to have her own helping. Neither she nor the agent on duty had no idea that McLaren was ill.

"McLaren…" Ash now came to the corner of his cell, which joined on to both of theirs. Reena was watching silently, and Kerrie was beginning to panic herself.

"Leave off him, Ash." Holly defended to sick inmate, but the look on Ash's face told her that he was just as concerned.

McLaren was wheezing, seemingly unable to get enough air. His vision was tunnelling, his arms and legs were tingling enough to become painful, there was a hot feeling in his chest and an inexorable sensation that he was about to die. Holly's fears rose further as she noticed a growing puffiness around his eyes and red welts forming on his skin wherever Ryouga touched him.

Ash looked in shock at the growing emergency, and then down at his bowl.

Ryouga was beginning to find it tough to keep both of them upright. "Holly, we need to get help."

"They won't listen!" shrieked Kerrie.

"They will – there's no way this isn't real," said Holly.

"We need to GET them to listen first," said Reena, thinking logistically. "We're too far down from the office…"

"Hey! B Block guys!" hollered Ryouga suddenly. Somehow, a lot of them hadn't noticed the drama, but at his yell many looked over. "Get the agents' attentions! We need them down here. McLaren's ill. Pass it on!"

Declan, alone in A Block and the only current inmate in green, realised his name was being shouted through his reverie of a good book and a good meal. He could see the struggle playing out two blocks away, and the notes of alarm in the voices of those shouting at him to act.

And act he did.

"TASH! RHIA!" He licked his fork clean and banged it against the bars. "GUYS!"

Rhia, mouth full and hogging a bowl of her own, popped her head out of the office on a wheely chair. "Huhwha?"

"Rhia, someone's become ill. People are worried. They need help. C Block I think –"

"Someone's ill?" said Tash, popping her head out at a taller height than Rhia.

They just about made out a cry of "he's barely breathing!" from somewhere deeper within.

Tash was galvanised into action. Throwing her bowl on the side, she swept up C Block's keys and grabbed the green first-aid box from a shelf. She bounded down to the third group of cells – and paused to take in the scene.

There was only one thing that could elicit such wheezing, swelling and bright red hives like this…

"Oh shit, he's going into anaphylactic shock!" she said, scrabbling for the right key to McLaren's cell. "RHIA! Get the med staff down here!"

Rhia vanished, and a low alarm began to sound that would only be heard in the hospital wing.

Tash threw the barred door open and hurled the box onto the bed. "McLaren? Okay, listen to me – we've got to get you to calm down. Ryouga, keep him up for me…"

She wrestled with the bowl he still clutched, placing it under the bed. He grabbed for her hand and mouthed 'help me'…

"We will. We are. I promise. We need you to breathe. Breathe…" She dug around in the first-aid box with one hand, growing frustrated as she slowly realised this box had no adrenaline autoinjectors whatsoever…

McLaren was beginning to turn blue, almost pleading with Tash silently to not let him go. It seemed an age before she heard Phoenixia and Valerie's voices.

"Tash?"

"Oh God."

"Have you injected him?"

"No! There's none in the box!"

"Damn it! Hold on… Val, take his other hand!"

"Guys, we know you're lovely, can we borrow some pillows?"

They laid McLaren down with a pile of pillows propping up his head, and Phoenixia dug a packet of autoinjectors from her larger, EMT-stocked medical case. The first one she cursed at and tossed away for being out of date. The second was acceptable; she pulled off the cap and pushed the tip of the pen against McLaren's thigh, holding it in and allowing the needle to penetrate the fabric of his trousers and into his skin.

"Will that work?" came Holly's voice again.

"It won't be enough. Get him stable and then we can get him out…"

All they could do was try to keep him breathing, which was a losing battle.

Further up the basement, some of the girls who made up the right-hand edge of B block heard footsteps and a swish of fabric; they saw Adrian respond to the alarm and stop to take in the situation.

"Adrian!" shrieked Deliha, causing the Librarian's head to snap towards them.

"Something's happened to McLaren!" said Aaliyah, kneeling on her bed and clutching onto the bars.

He took a step towards them. The entire block stared at him fearfully.

"Tell me more," he demanded.

"I – I don't know, he was just eating his food, and then – and then he just fell down," gabbled Maria.

"Nixie was saying something about not having enough –"

Tiffany was cut off by Adrian nodding. "Right. Thanks girls – I think I'd be more useful upstairs." And without a second glance he turned and ran for the stairs.

By now Phoenixia had intubated McLaren; despite the adrenaline, it was going to get worse before it got better, and she decided the risks of attempting to get the tube down his swelling throat were not worth the increasing danger of shutting off his airways all together. Valerie and Tash's hands were nearly getting crushed; wherever something touched his skin, violently red wheals rose up.

Finally the three took a stretcher, fed into the cramped cell by Rhia, strapped the Stu to it and the two medics raced for the stairs.

And suddenly the energy in the basement dropped. With no more drama to see, the shock from the inmates was near tangible. Tash and Rhia stared at the empty cell, then looked up at the silent press of yellow, punctuated with orange, blue and a singular green around them. Dinner had been almost forgotten…

…Almost.

Ash broke the silence by hurling his quarter-empty bowl out the slot in his barred door, turning his back on it as it shattered on the concrete floor. He pointed straight at Tash.

"Poison."

Several Sues jumped at the smash, and at that single electrifying word, stared at him in disbelief.

"That's it, isn't it? You've gone through all this pretense of better food and better timing all to cover up the FACT, proven now, that you are planning to kill us all off." He turned to address those in his block and in the block behind. "Better get ready people, this is the beginning. They're bumping us off one by one. We're never going to see him again."

Both Rhia and Tash gaped. To their disappointment, several Sues nodded slowly in assent.

"Are you insane?" choked out Tash. "What would we have to gain from that?"

"Oh I don't know; suddenly a lot less work for you!"

"Our reputation's already down the toilet! Why would we make it worse?" said Rhia, her voice rising through the octaves.

"Look," said Tash heavily, trying very hard to stay coherent. "If we were going to knock you all off – which we're not – why would we go to the trouble of poisoning you and then calling for help?"

"To make it look better, obviously!"

"No! We wouldn't have done it. Look, we cooked the entire thing in the same huge wok, which I don't think has been used before today. The bowls are unmarked, the food is the same, Tash gave them out randomly. Only one has fallen sick!"

"Then how come I've lost my appetite?" came Fabian's accusing voice from behind them.

"Yeah, seems mighty convenient to me," agreed Alexander Whitestone, still in orange, from D Block.

"Rubbish!" yelled Declan from nearly at the entrance.

Many voices rose as the argument threw back and forth. Others were silent, wondering if this was the end of good treatment. The cell at the other end of C Block seemed completely empty, but the girls knew the inmate well enough to know that Tabitha would be hiding under her bed. Her neighbour on the other row was the only Sue in the basement who hadn't bothered to care about the drama and the ensuing argument whatsoever; Roxelana continued eating nonchalantly, reading a magazine.

Tash growled angrily. "This was an allergic reaction, for God's sake! No one else is going to get sick! This was not poison, and it's not an illness. It was bad luck. That's all there is to it!"

"But what could he have reacted to, Tash?" asked Rhia, turning towards her. "Especially to that extent. What did we put in?" She glanced to the ceiling, trying to remember. "Noodles, chicken…"

"He never said he had an allergy this bad, otherwise we would never have fed him anything that could have set him off. It was all normal fresh food, and we'd have known by now if he reacted to any of that!"

Rhia had paused in the middle of counting the ingredients on her fingers, her eyes suddenly wide. "Tash…we cooked it in peanut oil…you wanted it authentic…"

The taller woman's breath caught in her throat. "Crap. That's very possible." She bit her lip and met the gazes of the Sues around her. "But – why didn't he tell us? Oh God, that's stupid, not to mention dangerous!"

"Oh, so you DID poison him!" Ash grinned triumphantly. "That's a confession, you murdering bitch!"

"For the love of Christ!" gasped Tash. "Are you deaf or just stupid? I just said we didn't know! He never told us!"

"Cut it out, Harth!" snapped Matthew Slaymaker, the third blue T-shirt of the basement and in the block behind the two agents. "You're over-reacting. She didn't know of the allergy and neither did we."

"Thank you, Matthew!" said Rhia.

"Believe what lies you bloody want, and more fools you if you keep eating their shit. But you mark my words; no-one's making it out of here alive. And to think I almost believed that this hellhole was getting better."

"Y'know what, I don't have to listen to your garbage. Because that's what it is, GARBAGE!" Tash turned on her heels and almost ran for the exit.

"Tash – where are you going?" Rhia ran after her. She could tell that Tash was about to burst into tears.

"Fuck knows!" she yelled over her shoulder.

As the basement door banged shut, there was a last tense moment, and then several of the Sues sighed, almost deflating. Others glared towards Ash, who looked morbidly triumphant.

"Well done Ash, you twat. Well done," grumbled Reena, staring at McLaren's empty cell.

OoO

The clock on the sterile pale walls read two in the morning. By now everyone was either asleep or beginning to think of it.

Out of the usual inhabitants, one individual had more need for regular sleep than the others. And rather stupidly, but adamant that she could catch up later, she was the one awake enough to watch the clock hand tick over.

Alice yawned and sat back in the padded plastic chair that was one of those seemingly spawned endlessly by hospitals. This room was one of the couple of multi-functional individual units that were tucked away on one side of the hospital wing, and contained little more than her chair, the bed, associated medical paraphernalia, and of course that damned clock.

In the bed was McLaren, still recovering from his severe allergic reaction in the basement – and several subsequent relapses each an hour after the last, just as they thought he was out of the woods. He was being pumped full of adrenaline and fluids, and the constriction had lessened enough to allow him to breathe unaided again, after having passed his breathing test, even though he was still being assisted via an oxygen mask and the monitors kept a close eye on him.

The med staff had adhered to the tenets of their occupation, but they weren't happy with him. Few others could bring themselves to feel much more than contempt for the arrogant teenage Stu, but the leaders were frustrated that all their hard work over the past couple of months could have gone down the drain, as it proved McLaren still didn't trust them enough to tell them such important medical information. Alice herself thought he had been very silly… but there was something else that kept her by his bedside, waiting for him to wake so she knew he would be okay.

Why?

He had been her first and only capture, her only tangible success during her entire time in the Society, and technically it wasn't solely her own.

He was blithely prideful and refused to listen, two things Alice did not value highly. He was caught in the Warhammer 40k fandom, a massive and dangerous universe where any Sue would likely die quickly, and be so obvious that those they could not influence could detect it and commence orbital bombardment, let alone catch the attention of the Society. Or, she smirked as she recalled her first mission, the 'Ordo Maria-Rosa', as had been blurted out randomly on the spot.

She did feel pity, the fearful looks on his face when all had gone wrong – seen against the Crimson Fists, momentarily during his brief rebellion in the Basement Incident, and when he lost control and succumbed to the allergen only a few hours ago – remaining a poignant thought.

As the clock ticked onwards, she finally watched McLaren stir in his bed, and mumble softly.

"McLaren?" Alice rubbed his arm gently. "We had to bring you to the hospital wing. You're going to be all right now."

He glanced around blearily, his gaze settling on Alice.

"Do you remember what happened?" she asked.

"I… I ate…" His voice was muffled by the oxygen mask.

Alice nodded, and he realised what he'd done. Heaving a sigh, his head flopped back into the pillows.

"Why are you here?" he asked; with his lucidity returning, so to was his usual egotism.

It took Alice several moments to respond. "I had to make sure you were okay…"

He didn't reply any more than a shake of the head. Alice patted his arm one last time and stood up. "McLaren, it's half two…I need to go to bed. I'll come visit you later, 'kay?"

"Sure…" he murmured, half-asleep, but clearly not believing her.

OoO

"Well, this is going to be interesting…" Alice murmured to herself as she wandered the corridors.

The meeting called that late morning, waking her up, had summed up a few items of news that they already knew. Unexpectedly a new mission demand had come up at the same time; in her usual exuberance she volunteered to go, pulling Robert in with her. She paused briefly as she wondered whether he actually wanted to go, and hoped he was all right with it…but then she remembered they were heading into Sea Monsters, and always enjoying a well-made documentary, she couldn't resist. She wondered whether she'd get to see a Tanystropheus, her favourite long-necked piscivore archosaur.

After the meeting and the subsequent lifesaving lesson from Harriet, they had gathered in the Wardrobe, and issued with their gear for the boat. Alice wore a bright yellow T-shirt and knee-length blue shorts, belted securely and topped off with a buoyancy aid vest. She was always a little dubious about shorts as they showed off her legs, which she considered to be a little too meaty for viewing…at least she had no need for a wetsuit, as she would not be diving because it was far too great a risk to her epilepsy. Not that she minded.

They had been given half an hour to gather some personal stuff or faff while they finished packing the yacht. Alice, bag in tow, had decided to check one last time on McLaren.

Past the beds of sedated agents recovering from Plot Bunny bites, she slipped past Phoenixia – who was plugged into some personal music player and was bopping silently as she did a few chores around the Hospital Wing – and pushed open the door to the individual unit. She heard the latch click closed behind her.

McLaren was awake, and sitting up in bed. He wasn't hooked up to so many monitors now. A plate strewn with toast crumbs sat on the side table, but he looked bored.

"Morning," she chirped cheerily.

He looked at her, and past the moment of surprise, the usual resentment of his long-term situation settled back in his expression.

"You look a lot better," she continued, suddenly worried about his scowl. "How are you?"

Angrily, he lifted his right hand and tugged furiously on the strap locked around his wrist, handcuffing him to the bed rail. "How do you think?"

Alice's face fell, and she sighed, sinking into the chair by the side of the bed. She clutched her own wrist, memories coming thick and fast…and the singular thought that if Dave knew of this, he would be soundly pissed. "Oh dear…I'm sorry."

"No you're not," he snapped.

"McLaren…I am. I've been in your situation."

"Liar."

"They strapped me to my bed after the Basement Incident." She glanced at the look of cautious surprise, and gave a half-smile. "I was being violent."

"They said it's to stop me escaping," he said, a little less livid then before.

"Well…" His allergic reaction was long over, and after a good night's sleep in an actual comfortable bed and several rounds of buttered toast he was back to normal again. None of the individual wards had locks on the doors, so policy remained to handcuff any potentially mobile prisoner to their bed. She understood why, but knowing the helpless feeling such restraint gave… she didn't like it.

He watched her sigh, and slowly look up to meet his gaze. His eyes switched from black and grey to blue and yellow – matching Alice's clothes. "They said…" she continued, haltingly, "…they said that you're good to go back to the basement tonight."

"Oh, joy," he said, dripping with sarcasm.

"I'm sorry," she said again. "But surely… surely it's not… as bad as it was?"

He glared at her. "I'm not fooled. You'll forget about us soon enough and then it'll be back to starvation rations!"

"No, no…" She shook her head, trying, desperately trying to deny it. "You saw Harriet's big apology to you. We meant what we said… we… I meant it."

He snorted. "Really? We're getting punished now for hoarding."

"But that's really unhygienic!" she protested. "It goes all cold, and mouldy, and icky… I mean, it's not food any more. There are people getting stomach aches from that, how long until we get an E. Coli breakout, and…"

She trailed off under his withering glare.

"I'm sorry…"

"Stop being sorry. You're still lying. I've no reason to trust you or any one of you."

"What about Robert?" Alice asked softly.

McLaren paused for a long moment. "He's not been back since his hearing. What…what have you done to him?"

"Nothing! He's – I'm his – he's doing really well. He's taking the entry exam soon –"

"You've forced him to betray us!"

"No! No, this is his – his own choice! He's desperate to help you!"

"Bullshit!" He rattled his restraint further.

"It's because of what he said at his hearing that things have improved. Harriet wants him to be your go-between. Someone you have as an advocate. She's already preparing to name him Basement Welfare Officer once he passes – I've seen the brass sign for his door and all. This is really happening… I swear it is."

The surprise was evident on McLaren's face, no matter how hard he tried to hide it. He and Robert had been cell neighbours and they had more-or-less got along… as well as anyone in the basement could when faced with all McLaren's bluster. Ryouga had taken Robert's old cell when he had been put up for parole and moved to A-block, and he had not been as diplomatic as Robert.

He sighed. "Why do you care?"

Now Alice was silent.

"I… I felt… responsible. And nobody else… really…"

"You got me locked up here," he said, his voice now lowered, but with a sharp accusatory tone.

Alice nodded. "I did… I know. That's before I knew what it was like."

McLaren made a 'pfft!' sound, but he settled back into his pillows. He still looked very tired. Alice tilted her head at him.

"You need to rest…"

He merely grumbled something about being shocked that they even gave him a bed.

"You trust Nixie and Val? They wouldn't ignore your health just because you're a Stu. I saw you when they brought you upstairs…but you must have had a reaction before?"

"Hmm…" he mumbled. "I was eight. Before my powers kicked in. I didn't know it would come back because of this," he flicked the Prohibitor around his unrestrained wrist, avoiding the drip line in the back of that hand.

There was a moment of silence. Alice watched him go to speak several times. So many things left unsaid…

"What were you doing in 40k?" she asked eventually.

"Are things really going to change?" he asked at the same time.

She smiled for the first time. "McLaren… Robert's said that he wants us to help. He doesn't like the…the stress and the bias of the hearings, he wants us to try a different tactic, almost like rehab… Tash is already inadvertently trying this, because she's been talking to Tabitha about joining this little dance group thing, and she's jumping at the chance…"

"Huh?"

"…because the current parole system sucks monkey biscuits, and, er…" She watched McLaren nod enthusiastically, and she smiled. "I have a Ford KA, and a new little car I'm sending for its MOT before I bring it here…" She was beginning to ramble. "Well, what I mean is, would you want my help? …To start getting you towards parole one-on-one, like Tabby? I mean I really want to try… not keeping you locked up forever."

"I…" Slowly the glimmerings of hope came into his eyes, which changed to an almost normal brown and hazel.

"I'm willing if you are. But – you're still ill, so don't decide yet, mull over it for a while."

His mind was already made up, but he nodded anyway.

"You've got a nice big bed – god those bunks down there are like tissue paper, I think Robert's looking for better mattresses – so I'd enjoy it until tonight. I've got a mission to go for in – " she checked her watch, " – ten minutes, so I'd better skedaddle. I really do mean what I say, you know. Erm, but let's see – here," she handed him a remote control from a drawer.

He glanced up to a television in an upper corner. "What day is it?" he asked. "Anything Grand Prix-related on?"

"Probably, they're near the end of the season…there's always Dave and its constant reruns of Top Gear…"

McLaren nodded. Alice dithered for a moment, still recovering from the heavy accusations of not three minutes ago, and suddenly glad that she had Robert as a trump card. It seemed his coming role might be useful indeed.

"You've got a mission to go on, haven't you?" he said – unusually, almost uncharacteristically quiet.

"Yes. Er, sorry. I'm sorry about the anaphylaxis thing. I'll come see you when we get back from Sea Monsters."

She turned and headed for the ward door.

"Alice?" he said, just as she was about to step outside. It was the first time he'd ever used her name.

"Hmm?"

"I was in 40k… because I was trying to get my hands on a Land Speeder."

"Oh dear!"

Insert Fantastic Rescue Equipment Here

It was a lovely sunny day on Tracy Island, which wasn't that unusual for that part of the pacific to be honest. Nor was the fact that two large rescue aircraft were approaching from the South-West as if the owned the place, which was partly because they did.

The radio message that Scott Tracy sent to his younger brother Virgil in the slower and heavier Thunderbird Two however, was a little out of the ordinary.

"Someone's in your parking place..."

Virgil groaned. It had been a long day, culminating in a tricky operation that had meant cramming twenty terrified children into the Mole before their school collapsed completely as a result of the crash landing of a military re-fuelling tanker in the area. Put simply, his nerves were frayed to breaking point, and he wanted nothing more than to collapse into his own bed and sleep for a week.

Or until he was needed on call again, whichever came first.

"Does that mean we have to land at Mateo Island until they leave?" he asked, "Or is father keeping them out of the way again?"

"I'll check." Scott changed radio channels. "Thunderbird One to Base. Noting unknown aircraft on the runway, is operation cover-up in effect?"

"Negative Scott." came Jeff Tracy's voice. The International Rescue Patriarch sounded strange, as if something life changing had happened while Scott and Virgil had been absent. "Land and come to the lounge as soon as you can."

"Understood..." Scott acknowledged. There was something wrong about this whole affair he couldn't put his finger on. The feeling persisted when he noticed that the aircraft was parked in such a position on the runway that left ample room to accommodate Thunderbird Two, as if the pilot had known about the International Rescue Base when he landed...

oooo

"Where does this go?"

"Top shelf."

Dave reached up to the shelf Valerie had indicated and placed the medicine bottle there. The society healer was still helping him with the jumbled mix of memories and nightmares his unique experiences had planted in his head, but had established that sitting directly across from him as they spoke just made him self-concious. Allowing him to feel like he was being useful by helping to tidy the medical wing at the same time reduced his guilt at taking up so much of her time, and relaxed him enough to open up more than he had previously.

However, despite Phoenixia's insistence that she had spoken to him on the subject, Valerie could sense there was still a lot more he wasn't saying. Was this something to do with his being held hostage less than a week before?

"Any new nightmares?" she asked. "How about this black winged Angel you said you saw?"

"Bits and pieces." Dave replied, "Some battles, some random stuff, some..." he coloured slightly, "...intimate moments..."

"Right..." Valerie paused. This didn't sound like the sort of thing Dave regularly dreamt about. "And you still don't have any clue where it came from?"

Dave tensed, as if the question was an accusation. "I was thinking it might be a side-effect of the Psychic paper. Stormherald, or whoever was using it, accidentally downloaded some of their memories into my head." It sounded like he'd rehearsed this answer before hand.

"Sounds plausible," The healer replied, taking a drip stand from Dave's Luxray, Asuka, who was pushing it into the cupboard they were tidying as best she could in the absence of opposable thumbs. "Is there something else?"

Dave frowned, and Valerie sensed a build up of tension in his mind, like he wanted to say something he was afraid would terminally offend her. He stared at a bottle of an unpronounceable drug apparently containing copious amounts of benzene, as if trying to read something significant in the label.

"Well, ever since the whole... basement thing..." He faltered, seeing Asuka's guilty expression. (She had gone to answer a call of nature at precisely the wrong time, and had missed the incident.)

"You've found it hard to trust Louise?"

"No!" Dave surprised her by saying. "Adrian."

Valerie switched her surprised look to one of polite enquiry.

"The way he dealt with Alice and Louise was way harsh." Dave elaborated. "I'd call it counter-productive in fact. Louise was acting in a way that was seriously out of character for her, just a few months after she'd been captured and tortured, and he either didn't make, or chose not to make the connection. You want to get rid of foreign thoughts in someone's head, you do not give those thoughts a major sympathy in the victim's concious mind to get their teeth into, and make the problem worse!"

That wasn't all of it. He was testing the water, seeing how she would respond. Valerie could see this.

"Well, he doesn't know her as well as you." Valerie replied, trying to make it clear she hadn't supported Adrian's actions whole-heartedly either. "But Adrian's been dealing with this sort of thing far longer than we have. What if Merle had gotten to Alice as well?"

Dave sighed. "You're still..." he faltered, and the society Healer felt a deep anger, accompanied by a strange mixture of emotions, including mistrust, bubbling inside him, which he was trying hard to suppress. The water it seemed was unfavourable...

Dave's eyes wandered to something on the lower shelf of the cupboard. Suddenly, he clapped a hand over them, as if in pain, and his efforts to suppress his emotions became more frantic. Asuka, seeing this, ran up to him and placed a paw on his leg in an encouraging fashion.

"Dave, if you want to talk..." Valerie said, quietly, and slightly worried now.

Dave shook his head. "I'm still not sure what the problem is myself, but ever since Adrian returned, I've had this nagging feeling that something was different about him. I mean, we now know he has... other responsibilities..." Dave seemed to have wanted to say "divided loyalties" at this point, but held off. "I was putting it down to the psychic paper, but now... after all that... I'm just not so sure..."

He wanted to say more, but something was telling him to stay quiet. Something in the back of his mind was telling him Valerie couldn't be trusted... But before she could question this Valerie was cut off by the sound of an alarm ringing through the library, closely followed by a tinny rendition of the first bar or so of Caramelldansen from the vicinity of Dave's left trouser pocket. Every agent had a list of specialist fandoms, and many of them had set up a system that rang their communicators whenever a Sue was detected in one of them.

"Where we off to?" Asuka asked, her translation collar completing the sentence with a high pitched squawk of feedback. Dave's mood seemed to lift as he read the auto-message on the screen.

"To visit some old friends."

As Dave left at a trot, Valerie turned to where his eyes had rested just before the pain in them.

A bag of leather medical restraints.

Valerie understood. She took them and locked them in a cupboard only she had a key to. She felt like she should have done that weeks ago...

oooo

Scott and Virgil entered the lounge of the Tracy Villa, and were confronted with a scene almost reminiscent of a family album. Their brothers, Gordon and Alan, were listening with rapt attention to a young man only a few months older than Alan, the youngest Tracy brother.

He was tall, but well built, with wavy brown hair. His eyes were mildly startling, in that one was a relatively normal dove-grey, and the other a depth less green. I could go on, but I think its now obvious to the readers that this IS the Gary-Stu.

"Welcome home boys." Their father beamed at them. The young man stopped his conversation with the younger brothers and inclined his head to them, willing to let their father explain his presence. Scott, and Virgil exchanged glances. Something was up...

"I'd like you to meet your half-brother on your mother's side." Jeff Tracy went on. "Ryouga Thomas Hikari Ward Chekhov. He's been schooled with his father in Japan for the last twent..."

The Thunderbird Patriarch's introduction slowed to a graceful stop as Scott and Virgil's expressions turned from confusion to anger. There were two, almost simultaneous clicks, and both of them abruptly had their guns out.

"What in the world is going on here?" Virgil asked.

"Boys..." Jeff said, slightly alarmed by their reaction. "I've already expl-"

"Which is a lie," Scott said, calmly and rationally. "And everyone present knows this, so why are you all going along with it?"

The Stu's jaw dropped in surprise. Gordon and Alan looked at each other, then at Ryouga, strange looks of almost-but-not-quite-comprehension on their faces. Jeff subsided into a thoughtful silence. Now that Scott had said it, something wasn't quite right about Ryouga's story...

oooo

The same moment found Dave flat on his back with Asuka under his head. Not something that usually happened in the monitor room you can be sure.

"Hey! What am I, a pillow?" Asuka groaned. "You have a hard head, boss!"

Dave staggered to his feet, and tried the portal again. Again, the rainbow coloured hole in front of him solidified and threw him backwards, baring his entry.

"What's this about?" he asked, as an attempt to insert just his arm produced nothing more than a loud raspberry, which amused Michael's Combee, who was flitting around near the ceiling, no end.

"Not a clue." admitted Miri, as confused as he was. She looked at the read-outs again. "Apparently, you're not allowed in there..."

"Really?" Dave said sarcastically. "I'd never have guessed."

Tash arrived, flash-stepping into the room so suddenly that everyone jumped.

"Dave, were you trying to get into a Gerry Anderson fandom?" she said, in her best society leader manner.

"I can see why I'm not supposed to be," Dave replied, in his best you-have-made-an-error-I-am-distinctly-unhappy-about-and-you are-going-to-put-it-right manner. "but, Thunderbirds is set before first contact with the Mysterons. So where's-"

"Thunderbirds!" Tash repeated. "What's he doing there?"

"He has found the copyrights we gave Scott and Virgil to protect them from Mesha." Dave explained, gesturing to the monitor screen showing the Tracy Brothers holding the Gary-Stu at gunpoint. "And he is only level three, and not powerful enough to control everyone there completely, so there is a risk of a fatal crossfire if-"

Tash reacted instantly. Propelled by fangirl instincts, she tapped a combination into the console too fast for anyone to follow, then grabbed Dave's t-shirt neck. Dave just had time to sigh, before he was yanked off his feet and through the plothole.

"I'll just... wait here then, should I?" Asuka asked the blank wall where the portal had been. "Oh, hello there." she added, finally divining the source of the buzzing noise above her head.

Combee blinked three pairs of eyes at her. "You look like Shmeti, but you've got two voices." she said, thoughtfully, thinking of Tash's Luxray, and noting the translation collar in addition to her normal voice. She thought hard for several seconds, then relaxed, satisfied with her deduction. "You must be a Doduo!" she buzzed.

"Better Doduo than Mousey I suppose..." Asuka muttered to herself.

oooo

Ryouga meantime was sweating. He hadn't a clue why he couldn't influence Scott and Virgil, and nor was he powerful enough to override Jeff's paternal instincts for very much longer, especially since he needed to keep a grip on Alan and Gordon to stop them turning on him immediately. To summarise, he needed a distraction.

It was at this point that Dave and Tash arrived, and since the plothole had, for some unclear reason, opened parallel to the ceiling, they landed in a heap on the floor. A large vase of flowers on a nearby occasional table wobbled ominously.

"That'll do nicely..." Ryouga muttered, moving faster than Scott could aim at him. Tash tried to leap to her feet, just as the vase fell over. Dave instinctively caught it as it fell towards where he was lying, but it was heavy, and pulled his arms over to one side. The water and flowers within drenched Tash, and turned the fire attack she was targeting Ryouga with into a puff of steam.

The assistant librarian glowered at Dave as the Stu fled.

"That's one plothole glitch we can do without..." Dave muttered. Tash responded by pulling a tulip from where it had fallen in her hair, and slapping him across the face with it.

"What... just..." Gordon muttered.

"Hang on." Dave replied, clambering to his feet. "Let me explain..." He pushed his Scene Transition.

oooo

One explanation later, Dave had gone with Scott to lock down Thunderbird One to prevent Ryouga using it to escape the island. Virgil and Gordon had gone to do the same to Thunderbirds Two and Four (simply by selecting pod four and locking the whole of Thunderbird Two down), Alan to Thunderbird Three, and Brains to his lab. Grandma Tracy, Kyrano, Tin-Tin and Jeff were still in the lounge of the villa with Tash (who had used the intervening time to glomp as many of the Tracy boys as she could) watching the communication portraits of the others in the vehicles as they reported back.

Tash hadn't expected to be going on a mission when she had headed for the monitor room, and consequently didn't have any copyrights with her, so in order to mitigate Ryouga's influence as best they could, they had given Dave's two to Jeff and Brains, and recommended that those unprotected stayed in contact with those who were at all times. Jeff had thankfully taken this on board, and given the appropriate instructions.

Of the Stu himself, nothing could be found, although it was clear he had at least passed through Brains' lab on his way into the chambers and hangers under the island.

I don't think I've missed anything there... So, back to the story then!

oooo

"Thunderbird Three secure." Alan reported.

Jeff acknowledged him, and turned back to the picture of the second eldest Tracy boy, John, who was in Thunderbird Five, high above them. "And you're sure the download origin was the island?" he asked.

"Positive." John replied. "What's more, whoever it was used Brain's security code so I didn't think to stop it until it was too late."

"I see," Jeff sighed. "So Ryouga now has a copy of Thunderbird Five's search program as well as whatever blueprints he's managed to pick up..."

Everyone present knew how serious this was. If fitted out for military purposes, Thunderbird One alone could pretty much conquer any fandom with technology roughly contemporary to the present day. Who knew what Ryouga had planned for the specifications he had taken...

"Not that I'm crazy about having our minds twisted around, or technology thievery," John put in, somewhat diffidently. "but I'm not fully sure what the problem with being too perfect is." He looked at Tash, who floundered for a second, trying to come up with a convincing counter-argument. To her surprise, Jeff had a response ready.

"John, that perfection is unnatural, and dependent upon Ryouga. We would have been dependent on him for that perfection for the rest of our lives, like addicts to a drug."

John nodded, conceding the point.

"Isn't that the reason you formed International Rescue in the first place, Jeff?" Grandma added.

"Well said, Mrs Tracy." Kyrano put in, bowing slightly to Jeff's mother.

"I'm... lost now...?" Tash said.

Jeff Tracy sat back in his chair, his brow darkening.

"A few years ago," he said, "I saw a report about an air crash. Eighty people died, owing to inadequate rescue equipment. It was incredible to some that such a thing could still happen in 2063, but I'm in the business of civil engineering and construction, so I knew how dependent the world of today was, and still is upon automated systems. Error and outside interference can wreak havoc on all that, and it seemed that no-one was willing to invest in counter-measures against it..."

At this, the Thunderbird Patriarch smiled. "Then I remembered I was a multi-billionaire, with a family of pilots, divers and astronauts. I could do something about it, and I would." He beamed around the room at his sons, and all those who shared his vision, both in the room, and far away. Then sighed again.

"The trouble is, its as if no-one has learned anything. That those we rescue are just taking us for granted... Doing this is my life... and yet, in a strange way, I will never be happy until the day International Rescue is no longer needed."

Dave, sitting the pilot's chair of Thunderbird One under Scott's watchful eye, applauded.

"I think," he said, "that that is the reason you have all been my heroes since I was five years old."

"I'm flattered..." Jeff replied, "If... a little confused..."

An alarm sounded in Thunderbird Three, and Alan called out a proximity alert.

"Looks like we have more pressing concerns though..." Jeff finished. A quick glance at the screen behind him confirmed that a door in the spacecraft's Silo had been overridden and opened.

"Looks like he's trying to get back to his own jet." Tin-Tin said, noting where the corridors connected and ran to. "If we can cut him off in the pod vehicle storage bay or the Thunderbird Two hanger..."

"Leave that to me." Tash said decisively. Then she stopped in her tracks. "Um... which way is that?"

oooo

A few minutes later, Tash was creeping towards the Pod Vehicle storage bay, the fan girl part of her still bouncing over the fact she had got to ride on the sofa Alan used to get to Thunderbird Three for part of the way.

She entered the bay, concealed from anyone inside by the great blue shape of the Jodrel Six transmitter truck, and moved cautiously along the back wall of the bay, behind a row of parked equipment. She was reasonably certain that starting a vehicle's engine with the intention of running her over would give her sufficient time to move away before the vehicle actually moved at all.

Ryouga was a Stu however, which did put a different complexion on things...

After a few minutes she reached the other end of the hanger, where a security door was still locked, although it had clearly been tampered with. There was however, no sign of Ryouga.

Tash became bolder, and moved across in front of a red fire-fighting appliance with two two-fingered claws on the front. It was as she did this that one of these claws reached out and snapped closed around her. The claw however, had been designed to clamp around trees in order to rip them out and create fire-breaks, and Tash (being significantly thinner than your average Redwood) had ample room to spread her wings and escape upwards before the appliance fired a blast of foam at the closed claw.

The radio earpiece that she had been given to keep her in contact with the others suddenly chattered into life.

"Miss T-tash." Brains stuttered in her ear. "A master r-remote command m-module is missing from my lab. Ryouga may have C-control of the remote vehicles."

"I'd noticed..." she replied, as the fire appliance tracked it's turret-mounted foam nozzle around to lock onto her again.

In the nick of time, Tash noted two other remote appliances tracking her on the other side of the bay, and dodged their streams of foam. A drop of it landed on her bare arm, and began to sting, thus disinclining her from getting any more of it on her. Whatever was in it was probably very nasty. Her right wing felt heavy as well, and a quick glance at it confirmed it had caught a glancing hit from the foam stream, and its fire was dimmed.

At this point, she considered gaining access to the Master appliance, sitting inert where it always had been, in order to override the remote-controlled engines. But the hidden Stu had planned for that, and sent a remote-controlled Elevator Car from the pilot episode slamming into the side of it, buckling the door to the cabin shut with several tons of force.

Tash swooped, slightly off balance from her dimmed wing, over a small vehicle with what looked like two jet engines mounted vertically on the back. As she did so, the jet air transporter (a mobile safety net, in effect) switched itself on, and blasted a strong wind in her direction, almost lifting her into the path of a foam stream. But Tash was ready for that, and rolled in mid-air, allowing most of the air to blow harmlessly past her. Unfortunately, the tip of her left wing caught the foam, which clung to its surface like napalm, dimming it as well. On the positive side, she could now balance her flight properly...

The air filled with foam again, and Tash looked around for somewhere to land, but the remaining elevator cars, the remote recovery vehicle, and a mobile box that looked like a zoo cage had been given wheels were zipping all over the bay, meaning she could only safely land on top of the stationary manual vehicles, just as Ryouga wanted her to do... Unless...

She selected the Firefly Bulldozer/Tank as a landing pad, and was duly targeted by the fire engines, together with a nearby conventional (Well, as conventional as Thunderbirds ever got anyway) appliance. At this point, she feigned a slip, and before Ryouga knew what was happening, she had neatly glided down behind the vehicle's dozer blade.

If he wants to get at me now, Tash thought from under her improvised umbrella and shield, he'll have to get in the cockpit, and I'll be waiting for him when he does.

No sooner had she thought that, the Cahelium Extract X blade of the Firefly began to quiver, ever so slightly. The sonic barrage grew and grew in intensity until it was painful to be too close to it, and it was impossible to concentrate enough to generate a door to anywhere. But Tash had nowhere to go, as the foam continued to flow off the top of the blade, leaving very little space for her to shelter under the convex side of it. Then, as suddenly as it had started, it stopped, as did the foam.

"What did that feel like?" came Ryouga's voice. "How does it feel to know that the tables have turned, and you're the one facing execution?"

"What are you raving about?" Tash replied. Why had he stopped, when he thought he had her?

"Do you think we're just sitting around waiting for you to find us?" Ryouga went on. "No. Some of us have more sense than to draw attention to ourselves."

Tash didn't respond, but peeked around the blade to see if she could act, while he was busy sermonising. But he was too far away to be within reach of any attack she could make without exposing herself to the foam sprays. Come to that, it looked very slippery...

"I thought it would die out," he continued, "this holy crusade of yours. Just keep my head down, and when it all blew over, I could live in peace." he scowled at her, and Tash ducked back, anticipating an attack. But none came. Ryouga went on with his discourse.

"But it never stopped. You continued to hound us, even after your puppet Willowe was dead. Her carefully masterminded betrayal, proving once and for all that our kind could not be trusted, that peace was impossible. You finally had the excuse to hunt us down and slaughter us all without fear or favour."

"We don't kill Sues unless we have to." Tash argued. "Some former Sues are members of the society."

"Only because someone wants to sleep with them," Ryouga shot back, "Or for their political advantages. You make the rules to suit yourselves, and don't even practice them!"

"Wha..." Tash was confused. Political advantages? What did that mean?

"I mean like the clichés you get away with on a daily basis!" Ryouga went on, "Your habitual response to anyone telling you that you are hot, or cute, or any compliment of any kind, is a vehement denial! That's the biggest cliché I have ever heard! You know full well that most of the society either fancies you, or looks up to you as a big sister figure!"

Tash spluttered incoherently, the fact that Ryouga clearly considered this an absolute fact, both arresting the habitual response he had mentioned, and igniting a burning sensation behind her cheeks and ears. But before she could respond, Ryouga added a final question.

"Isn't that right, Dave?"

There was a short pause. Then Dave, standing up from behind the rack of Hoverbikes that had hidden him from view up to this point, spoke.

"I wonder if there's a device in here for disarming loaded questions..."

"Well, we can soon find that out." the Stu sniggered. "Scott? Virgil? Gordon? Brains? Is there?"

"Um, No..." Brains said, slightly surprised, from behind a pile heavy looking equipment boxes.

"Now that's just annoying!" Scott put in, stepping out from behind the Whale deep-sea Bathescape, and levelling his gun.

Ryouga smirked. "Well, I am very good at this..."

"Not as good as you think." Virgil put in, pointing his laser rifle at the shadow beside the D.O.M.O from his prone position on top of the Excadigger. "Gordon is still in Thunderbird Two, so who's that?" He fired.

A feminine yelp issued forth from the shadow of the demolition vehicle as the laser struck it's caterpillar trends. But Virgil had aimed to miss. This might have been a mistake, as an arrow shot out from where the figure had jumped back into, and whistled by close to his head.

Ryouga's surprise at his being wrong was swiftly eclipsed by a devious notion that he could use the distraction to cover his own escape, and he triggered the remote device again. Tash's hiding place was once again drenched with the stinging foam, and the sonic barrage returned with renewed intensity.

Brains, seeing the danger, leapt towards Jodrel Six, it's dish pointed ominously at the Firefly's blade, and pulsing with power. Virgil kept his head down, and remained covering the mysterious intruder. Scott aimed several shots with the intent of bringing Ryouga's legs out from under him, but was distracted by the Number Two Recovery Vehicle charging towards him, and was forced to roll out of the way, placing the wayward device between himself and the fleeing Stu.

Dave had a similar problem with the Number Four Remote Elevator Car, and reacted by throwing himself to the ground in front of it as it smashed through the rack of hoverbikes. It's ground clearance, thankfully, was more than adequate for him to survive such a course of action, although he lay stunned for several seconds beneath it when it struck the wall of the storage bay.

Ryouga meanwhile, in a balletic motion that is impossible to describe, grabbed one of the Hoverbikes as it flew out from the impact, jumped on it, and began to ride away. The security door had to have been opened to allow the others in, so he could easily get out now.

Scott ran to the now inert Elevator Car, as Brains put a stop to the sonic waves, which at least allowed Tash to shelter without covering her ears.

"Hey under there." Scott shouted as he reached it. "You okay?"

"Little shell-shocked..." Dave said in a small voice, crawling out from under the vehicle. "Where's..."

"Your boss is good for now," Scott reported, "But your quarry is making a run for it. Come on."

Scott helped Dave to his feet. They picked up one of the fallen Hoverbikes, and set off in pursuit.

The unknown intruder apparently had the same idea. There was a sound from behind the D.O.M.O of someone stamping on the spot for a second or so, and a figure in a white dress, with long red hair, shot out at a speed that shouldn't have been possible. Her red shoes were a blur, and her Tan-coloured cape billowed out behind her like a banner. She leapt over the spreading puddle of foam, and was propelled by some other factor than her speed, higher into the air than should have been possible.

Tash saw her land, menaced by a couple of speculative shots from Virgil.

"Crap..." She breathed. "Brains, is this foam of yours actually corrosive?"

"Dicetylene? No, b-but very I-irritant." the young scientist explained in her earpiece, "I don't recommend y-you move j-just yet."

Tash sighed, and turned on her society communicator. "Dave, our mystery visitor is Romani. Just so you know..."

oooo

"Thanks Tash." Dave replied, clinging to the Hoverbike for dear life as Scott propelled them through the corridors that led to the row of Thunderbird Two pods, in frantic chase of Ryouga.

Romani was the woman who served Stormherald by killing Mesha, the Sue that had re-made him as a Mysteron in Captain Scarlet. Her presence here was something of a surprise...

He looked back over his shoulder, and saw the running figure of the woman following them, just rounding Thunderbird Six (A Tiger Moth Biplane). As he did so, Ryouga decided he had had enough of the chase, and pointed a gun at them.

There was a bang, a hiss of broken electronics, and the Hoverbike began to wobble and lose speed. A particularly violent gyration sent Dave's Plothole Generator and Scene Transition bouncing out of his pocket, where they clattered to the floor in their wake.

"He's hit the cooling system." Scott explained, "Top speed is automatically curbed."

As he said this, Romani overtook them, just out of range of Dave's axe, and Scott had his hands too full with the controls to fire his own weapon at her. They watched as she ran on ahead of them, already stringing another arrow to fire at Ryouga, just as the Stu himself passed the open door of Pod Four, beneath Thunderbird Two itself.

Hang on. Wasn't Pod Four supposed to be locked down?

There was a whine of engines, and Thunderbird Four powered down the ramp, supported by its emergency hover-jets. It seemed Gordon had tired of sitting on his hands, and his World Aquanaut Security Patrol instincts had told him how he could get involved with a minimum of risk.

Scott, Dave and Romani watched, as the Submarine turned Tank powered after the Stu, who tried to evade the great yellow shape with some difficulty. It wasn't long before the two parties collided, and Ryouga's Hoverbike span off into an adjacent bay where a tank of aviation fuel was stored. Gordon and Thunderbird Four overshot the bay entrance, coming to a stop some 100 metres later, and beginning a slow turn on the supporting cushion of the hover-jets.

Romani, putting the arrow away again, arrived at his crash site first, and was greeted by a bullet. It didn't actually hit her, and was instead deflected by a diamond-shaped blue force-field that had mysteriously appeared around her, and vanished into a nearby tank, deforming the metal.

She slowed down to a semblance of normal speed, almost tripping over her own feet as she did so, and approached a pile of scattered Blueprints, stolen from Brains' lab.

Ryouga spoke two words. One of them was "Off".

"I need those more than you do." he elaborated.

"No, you don't." Romani replied. She dropped several red objects onto the pile of papers, which immediately caught fire, hiding their secrets forever. Then turned towards a dropped computer disk several metres away.

Ryouga made a desperate lunge for it, but Romani jumped again, her cloak fanning out around her as she covered the distance and plucked it from under his fingers. The Stu leapt to his feet and attempted to grapple with her, but to his surprise, she lifted him off his feet with a little effort, and threw him into a corner with her metal-gloved right hand.

No-where near as breathless as she should have been from her exertions, Romani turned to leave at this point, two further bullets pinging off her mysterious blue force-field, only to encounter Scott and Dave entering the bay, Thunderbird Four coming to rest behind them to block her path out to the Thunderbird Two launch bay. It's jets blew sparks from the fire onto a pool of liquid that was spreading nearby.

"Stay where you are!" Scott shouted, raising his gun, but he hovered indecisively between Ryouga and the woman he knew nothing of. Dave ran forward to try and grab her, but she span on the spot, and disappeared in a spiral of green light.

"What was..." Ryouga began, but he was almost immediately drowned out by a blaring alarm, and a solid looking shutter crashed down just in front of Scott, trapping Dave and the Stu inside the bay.

Tash arrived, carrying Brains, to his obvious discomfiture.

"What's happened?"

"Fire." Scott answered her, "In the Kerosene storage area..." Tash boggled at him.

"Well get them out!"

"I can't." Brains put in, miserably. "This s-system only kicks in if an explosion is i-imminent... If I override it, the w-whole hanger complex could..."

"We can't give up!" Gordon called down from the top hatch of Thunderbird Four. "Do it Brains!"

Tash was suddenly torn. If the hanger did go up as Brains said it would, that would do untold damage to fandom canon. But if they did nothing, who knew if Dave's new abilities could actually sustain him. The dilemma was abruptly solved, as the door bulged from the force of the explosion, and a flare of hot gas hissed over their heads as it found a breach.

oooo

Dave quickly grasped what was going on. The gunfight Ryouga had had with Romani had punctured one of the kerosene tanks, and the puddle of Aviation fuel this created had ignited. Already the flames were licking at the dribble of liquid that was still dripping from the hole. The tank was mostly empty it seemed, but that was worse in a way, as there was more explosive potential in the fuel vapour.

"Oh yeah, thanks for telling us exactly how we're going to die." Ryouga snapped.

"Not all the readers are scientists." Dave replied, "and neither of us are dead yet..." he looked around for some form of shelter. His eyes feel on a corner of the bay, as far from the tank as it was possible to get. A chill ran down his spine as he contemplated putting his unlooked for indestructibility to the test in so graphic a fashion.

I can survive no bother... at least I hope I can..., but I can't leave anyone to die like this. Not even a Stu!

"Ryouga! Huddle down in that corner, you mig-" Dave broke off as the Stu hurled a punch at him.

"And have you use me as a shield? No chance!" he replied. "Even if I get out of this, you'll just throw me in that dungeon until you decide to have another purge. I've nothing to lose now!"

Dave took a punch to the jaw which sent him reeling back, and the Stu closed in for another flurry. But Dave grabbed him, and allowed his knees to give way, pulling Ryouga down with him. With a twisting movement that was more luck than judgement, Dave managed to land half on top of Ryouga, while still between him and the now burning tank. Still blind to the agent's attempts to save his life, the Stu continued to punch and kick at everything he could.

As a flare of burning Kerosene flashed over their heads, Dave's thoughts turned to where he was.

Dying here might not be so bad, amongst childhood heroes...

Thunderbird One. The mighty aircraft he had always wanted to fly in. He'd got to do that. And today he'd sat the pilot's chair, in its silo beneath the pool...

The swimming pool in front of the Tracy Villa suddenly seemed to fill his thoughts like a blanket...

A swim would be so nice now... He thought, seeing himself fall into it in his mind's eye, as a loud bang swallowed everything. A sudden wetness enveloped him and the suddenly docile Ryouga.

Dave felt sick, dizzy, disorientated, and received a mouthful of...

Hang on... Since when does burning Kerosene taste like swimming pool water? Dave thought, fighting with his tentative grip on conciousness. At least, I assume it doesn't...

Opening his eyes produced a blurred and fuzzy image of blue and white tiles, and he was aware of a stinging sensation in his eyes, and a sense of floating in something...

Understanding snapped back into place like stretched elastic, and he rolled over onto his back, coughing and spluttering in parallel with Ryouga at the pacific sky above Tracy Island. His boots weighed him down, and he found himself standing up to his neck in the shallow end of the pool. It was a bit of a contrived co-incidence that he should discover that he had retained a Mysteron vanishing ability similar to Captain Black's at this moment, but he wasn't complaining.

The Stu was splashing towards the poolside, and was accosted by a surprised Jeff Tracy before he could climb out. Besides Jeff and his gun, Grandma Tracy stood by her son's side, armed with a large rolling pin and looking positively formidable. Kyrano had likewise armed himself as best he could, with a convenient pair of garden sheers. Ryouga seemed to be held in check by something only he knew about however, as he stared at Dave as he walked slowly through the water towards the little tableau.

"You saved me..." he muttered.

"You sound surprised." Dave replied, still not quite with it yet.

"I am."

Dave missed this, as he had just realised he was missing something else. "Where's my Axe?" he asked. "Oh there... Be right back."

Ryouga watched Dave submerge into the pool to retrieve his weapon, and lapsed into an stunned silence that lasted right up until Tash arrived, clamped a prohibitor onto his wrist, and made a loud and colourful speech in Dave's direction to the effect of "Please don't do that again!". She added that he seemed to have left his right sock behind as well.

oooo

As he watched this, Stormherald let out the breath he had been holding. "That was almost too close for comfort."

Romani was pale. "Good Lord... I almost..."

"You do need to be more careful." Stormherald replied, "But the unexpected happen-stance does seem to have had an effect that benefits our interests. Not unlike the charming Merle's efforts..."

"Can't we deal with her like we did Mesha?" Romani spat, clearly grateful for the change of subject.

"Sadly not, she is too smart for such a course of action to work, and besides, cutting down the tree you stand in is never a good idea..." Stormherald stood up. "But now we have a more immediate concern. The next delivery is due in a few days, and since we underestimated the chaotic anomalies in the vortex, we will need this search program up and running by then in order to find it."

He scanned the computer console through which he had watched Tash and Dave's mission, then looked down at the disk in his right hand and sighed.

"A Nineteen Sixties interpretation of a Twenty Sixties computer disk, and somehow I have to use a Twenty-Three Eighties computer to read it." he said, wearily. "Apparently, whoever built this thing had never heard of inverted-sideways compatibility..."

oooo

Tash and Dave were greeted by the usual cacophony of jeering when they entered the basement with Ryouga. The Sues had become more restive since Merle had induced Louise into starting a failed insurrection. As they steered Ryouga into a vacant cell not far from Reena and Kerrie, Dave couldn't help but feel something was wrong. Was it him, or did some of them look thinner than they had been when they were brought in? What were they saying?

"What did you do to her?" One shouted. Who was he talking about?

"You're just going to leave us to starve here, aren't you!" came another yell from elsewhere.

"When the Lieutenant catches up with you, you'll all be sorry!" another roared.

"Yeah! You and your pet Mercenary, Stormherald!"

Dave snapped to attention and rounded on the Sue who had said that.

"Stormherald doesn't work for the society." he said, "And since he's the reason for my current Mysteron status, he never will."

"Dave, leave it." Tash put in.

"Ah..." Ryouga said, in dawning comprehension. "Indestructible and Teleport, of course..."

"Teleport?" Kerrie said, her eyes widening.

"Ha! If you're going to lie, do it properly!" The Sue snapped back at Dave angrily.

"Dave, lets go." Tash said, grabbing his arm and pulling him away before he could respond.

The sue shouted after them, in a torrent of abuse that is not repeatable. Ryouga decided he had had enough.

"Give him a break."

The Sue turned to him. "Whose side are you on?" This comment attracted a sea of curious and occasionally angry faces.

"Not sure yet." Ryouga replied. "But he did save my life."

"You... did say... Dave can Teleport... Right?" Kerrie asked, in a voice that had all parties within earshot abruptly fall silent.

"Yeah. He Teleported me out of a burning Kerosene store..." Ryouga faltered, taking in the expressions of those around him. "Why? What am I missing?"

A spreading puddle of silence began to descend on the basement cells.

The rumour spread rapidly over the following days; Dave can Teleport. He could have escaped the hostage situation, taken Jess with him, and maybe even come back for more of the hostages... Why hadn't he? Then someone reminded them that Dave was one of the nicer and more principled members of the society. Perhaps he had thought that there was actually problem, and had sought to draw attention to it. Was that why Tash had dragged him away? Was he skating on the edge of the society's Treason laws because he had stood up for them like Louise had?

Many Sues and Stu's began to ask the same hushed question of each other. Did they dare hope they had just found an ally? Some scoffed, it was a ridiculous theory, and shot full of holes to boot. Others held onto it. It was the only hope they had...

oooo

"Tash, she knew something about Stormherald." Dave said, trying to get her to listen as she strode on, away from the Basement.

"Dave, don't get drawn." Tash said, her friendly advice somehow sounding like a telling off to him. "They just want a reaction."

"We don't know that!" Dave insisted. "They're-"

"I'll probably have to answer to Adrian for taking you into Thunderbirds in the first place." Tash went on. "You should have come and told me. That ban was put there for your safety."

"Today was the first I heard of that." Dave said, his eyes narrowing. "Would have been nice to know sooner..."

Tash stopped, and turned to him with an expression Dave saw as being mildly disbelieving. "You didn't know?" she said, in a matching tone of voice.

"I did not." Dave replied, anger mitigating the flurry of apprehension he felt. Tash isn't the same as she was a couple of months ago. He thought. It's like someone's flipped a switch!

A cynical thought crossed his mind that the aforementioned "someone" might have a tail and bewitchingly cute ears...

Tash shrugged. "Guess someone forgot to say." she said, "Oh well, you know now." And seemingly dismissing the matter entirely, she began to walk on. Noting Dave wasn't following, she turned again. "Something wrong?"

Dave remembered Tash leading Alice through the library like dog on a chain, apparently without a trace of shame or regret. The friend he had barely recognised...

"Fine. Just tired." he said, and excused himself as politely as he could, a very bitter taste in his mouth, and a stabbing pain behind his eyes that was frightening him even more now. It had been a very near miss...

oooo

Dave was in a field that was covered in poppies, digging a hole with a mattock.

Thunk, Thunk, Thunk.

Harriet stood nearby, dressed in the robes of a Babylonian King. Adrian stood a little way off, in the robes of the Emperor from Star Wars.

"Is this true, Adrian?" Harriet asked, in regal tones. "You plot the destruction of an entire people because one woman would not flatter you?"

Adrian grinned, diabolically. "Everything is proceeding exactly as I have arranged-, I mean, foreseen it. I don't need you any more. Kill her!"

Dave kept digging.

Thunk, Thunk, Thunk.

Michael, Cristoph and Valerie stepped forward to follow Adrian's orders, their eyes glassy and blank.

"Stop it!"

Alice and Louise stood nearby, weapons drawn.

"You don't want to do this!"

No sooner had they spoken, than roots shot up out of the ground and wrapped around them, until they were both spread-eagled on their backs on the ground.

"You DARE to question me, worms?" Adrian hissed. Silver meteors started to slam down into the ground around them.

Dave was digging another hole. The tenth one in a line. Two metres by half a metre.

Thunk, Thunk, Thunk.

Tash was dressed in a red and gold strapless dress, the skirt of which extended a full two feet out from her in every direction, despite the presence of the carved stone column to which she was tightly bound. Fire ringed the perimeter of the skirt, forming arcane symbols in the flames.

Adrian stepped over to her, and cupped her chin in his hand. Tash stared back at him with frightened eyes.

"But... I Love You..."

"My dear, why do you think it was so easy?" Adrian replied. He leant in, and planted a kiss bordering on the vampiric on her unwilling lips.

Tash seemed to grow pale, her dress turning to rags in an instant. Adrian by contrast, was growing stronger, his muscles growing more defined, wings erupted from his back.

Dave climbed out of the hole, and looked back along the row of them. At the head of each was a stone. They were filled in now.

"One left." said a voice, referring to the one he had just vacated.

"Who...?" Dave asked, looking for the source of the voice.

"Yours." The voice replied. A foot connected with the back of his head, pitching him forwards into darkness.

oooo

Dave snapped awake. He glanced over at his clock, its luminous hands barely visible in the dark room. Three-thirty AM.

"Blast it..." he muttered. He needed to be up at four-thirty to get to work for six. It was barely worth going back to sleep, and yet the lost hour would plague him for the rest of the day.

"Another nightmare?" Asuka asked, from her crouched position on the rug. "This is getting ridiculous!" She wandered over, still a little sleepy, and put her paws on the bed beside Dave's left arm. "Boss, your sleep patterns are messed up enough, and I don't know why you clammed up with Valerie all of a sudden! You need help, especially with the eye stuff!"

Dave shook his head, rolling over to face her. "I just can't trust her any more." he said. "I mean, I'm probably worrying about nothing, but my stupid primitive hind-brain..." he sighed.

Asuka's eyes widened, and she turned her head sideways to look directly at him. "You're annoyed with her for Alice's sake?"

"Well, not exactly, but that too... Part of the problem with that is, I don't know exactly what happened, I wasn't there..."

"Well, look up the camera footage. Find out. You're awake now, and besides," the Luxray added, "I'll get a crick in my neck if you don't sit up soon."

Dave smiled weakly, and did so. "Doubt I have access, but I suppose it's worth a try..." he said, ruffling her mane. "I'm just amazed Harriet allowed Adri-" He stopped short, a disturbing, but interesting thought crossing his mind.

Had Harriet allowed it? Did Harriet know exactly how Adrian had treated Alice and Louise? She relied on reports sent to her from Tash, Valerie and Adrian. All sources had a bias, even if the author was unaware of it, any historian such as Dave knew that, and anyway, the Society Leader had had a traumatised Emily to look after. Perhaps she hadn't thought to ask herself. Maybe she really didn't know what had actually happened. Or more importantly, what the incident had meant...

Come to that, perhaps he was the only one who could see the pattern. He alone, in the forty or so people that made up the society, could see the disturbing pattern. The repeating pattern that had been the reason he had joined the society in the first place. The pattern he thought they had seen when he spoke to them on the deck of Cloudbase. He was no longer sure they had...

The pattern of history. The inevitable, the avertible, the constant and the ever-changing. All dancing before his eyes.

But what if he was wrong? The nightmare had all but faded, but he could still remember the wings that had erupted from Adrian's back as he drained Tash's life-force. Six of them, so black that light fell into them and got lost. The wings of the faceless angel that had come to represent his manipulator Stormherald to him. Were his fears just a result of the psychic trauma?

Maybe that was what Stormherald had wanted all along, for him to lose his trust in his friends?

Sneaky little thing doubt, isn't it?

"Is that an idea?" Asuka asked. Dave nodded slowly. Familiar with this gesture, the Luxray asked him another question. "Well, is there any consequence of acting worse than the consequences of not acting?"

Dave thought about this. The worst case scenario of acting was that the entire society would turn on him, which he would only consider likely if he was in a cynical mood. Which to be fair was most of the time right now. The worst of not acting? Well, again that thought was coloured by cynicism, but it was definitely a more present danger.

If the rest of the society couldn't see where their actions led, then the consequences of their current path ended in a bloodbath.

If something bothers you, then say so. We don't bite, much...

Phoenixia's words of what seemed like a lifetime ago didn't exactly give him much hope, but could he really just sit on his hands and allow this?

This wasn't something to be done in the first flush of rage. It would have to be carefully thought out... but three years of writing Archaeology and History essays had trained his mind for this task adequately.

"Well put." he said, standing up and crossing to the computer that had come with his room. He didn't dare connect his own laptop in the library for fear of @ getting into it.

"Great. So what are we doing?"

Dave smiled at her words. It was good to know he had one ally here...

"Facing consequences, little Lion." he replied, starting the terminal. "Facing consequences."