Your Mutt, M'Lady 10
by crystalquirt
*I own nuttin' and no body.

THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!

Two men appeared at the sliding glass door with Kayo and Gordon following closely. Kayo pushed them inside. Alan limped along more slowly on the way back from the beach. The others had been watching on the monitors and saw them coming. Virgil opened the door for them.

Gordon and Kayo forced the men who attacked Alan to sit down on a sofa in Control.

Kayo stood in the middle and addressed everyone.

"We know what's happening now," Kayo began, "These men were happy to tell us the whole plan after a little persuasion – and John is in bad trouble as we feared. He is with The Mechanic and The Hood!"

"Both? Together? Oh man, just what I was afraid of," Gordon said, "poor John."

Kayo continued, "They say that The Hood has something for John to do so he had The Mechanic take him from of Thunderbird 5," Kayo said.

"What could he possibly want from John?" Scott said, anxious to hear more.

Kayo continued, "These two idiots were supposed to get me off of Tracy Island so that if John didn't cooperate with the Hood, and he killed all of you that I would be safe. I'm sorry, but I can't help what my Uncle does."

"We know Kayo. Don't even worry about that," Scott said, repeating, "What is The Hood want from John? Where did they take him?"

"They weren't as forthcoming with that information, but they think it has something to do with The Bank of London."

"Alright!" Scott said, "I will take everyone able to go in Thunderbird 1. It is the fastest. "Thunderbirds Are Go!"

"Wait," Virgil stopped everyone, "Scott, you are probably the most injured of any of us, you shouldn't go at all let alone pilot Thunderbird 1," Virgil warned him.

"There is no way I'm not going, John is counting on all of us. I'll say it again, Thunderbirds Are Go!"

Alan got to the door and Virgil opened it for him too. Lady Penelope saw him coming inside and said, "Good work Alan, we saw what was happening on the monitors."

"It wasn't anything I did," Alan said.

"It was, you fought well, cast on your leg and all." Parker said.

Alan smiled weakly and limped on through the room on his way to Thunderbird 3 to get Sherbet.

The little pug was on his back on the floor, playing with a roll of gauze he'd found in a compartment that Alan left open. Alan smiled, picked him up and hugged the stuffing out of him.

Back in Control, the others were getting ready to leave.

"FAB 1 is going too," Parker said.

Lady Penelope calmly volunteered, "We will follow, in case we can be of any help."

"FAB Lady P.," Gordon said as he ran to gear up.

Lady Penelope and Parker turned to go out to FAB1, when Alan called, "Just a sec, Lady P."

"Yes Alan," Lady Penelope turned to look. Alan was hopping up to her with Sherbet in his arms.

"Bertie!" Lady Penelope said. "They told me you were safe with Alan on Thunderbird 3 the whole time! Thank you Alan."

Parker turned, "Oh, your mutt, M'Lady?" Parker held out his hands like he thought she would hand over the dog.

"I'll carry Bertie, Parker - Thank you so much Alan for keeping him safe all these weeks. I didn't worry about him one bit."

"He can visit any time, but I don't think I 'need' him anymore, if you know what I mean." Alan admitted.

"I'm glad, Alan." Lady Penelope smiled and left with her dog and Parker.

THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!

Alan ran-hopped to his comfy chair and rode down winding up on board Thunderbird 1 with the others.

Compartments opened up along the sides of Thunderbird 1's, interior. Usually used as stretchers for injured rescues, this time the family sat sideways along the narrow beds.

Virgil sat at navigation right behind Scott. He was keeping an eye on his brother in case he couldn't fly as well as he hoped.

"This feels weird to go on a mission without John monitoring. You know, keeping an eye on us." Gordon said.

"Yeah, we'll miss having John's help, but we're all here and we will save him and stop the Hood from whatever he's doing," Scott said.

Kayo noticed, "Since we are all here, it looks like no one felt so injured that they weren't able to go."

"As long as I'm breathing, I'll be there for my boys," Grandma Tracy said.

"And Brains decided to fill in for John. He'll be monitoring us from Tracy Island if we need him," Alan added, "and he has MAX getting rid of the Mechanic's mechas that I missed after I was attacked on the beach."

"We all know what we have to do," Scott said, "Rescue John, and stop the Hood!"

THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!

"We're here - the building over there is the Bank of London." Scott said pointing, and frowning as he glared at it.

"Look over there, that's the Mechanic's ship!" Alan said pointing across the river.
Scott veered off and dove down to hide ONE behind the trees and buildings until they were ready.

"Lady Penelope, Parker do you read?" Scott said into the comms.

"This is Lady Penelope, what do you have Scott?"

"The Mechanic."

"FAB, Thunderbird 1," Lady Penelope answered.

Like she knew what Scott was thinking, she said to Parker. "Let's go annoy the Mechanic while the others deal with the Hood and rescue John."

Parker smiled a crooked smile and turned FAB1 to head straight over the Mechanic's ship, still sitting in the vacant parking lot about three blocks from the Bank.

"Missiles if you please, Parker."

"Right M'Lady."

Parker activated the missiles and sent them to the Mechanic's ship. They exploded right on top of him. He launched quickly as he could while Parker was turning for another strike.

The second missile attack got the rear of the ship smoking. The Mechanic sent repair mecha back to the damaged area and kept flying.

"I am enjoying this, M'Lady."

"Yes, I can see," Lady Penelope said and Bertie growled.

THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!

"What is all that noise!" the Banker said, annoyed. It was the sound of missiles spanking the Mechanic's ship as he tried to get away from Lady Penelope and Parker.

"Must be fireworks. The blond, disguised Hood said, sounding a little nervous. To John he said, "Now, do you have everything signed for me?"

"Yes, Uncle," John said angrily.

"Well then, let's wrap up this business."

Walking so fast he was almost running, Scott entered through the Bank's front doors first followed by Kayo and all of the others. Some limped, some wore their arms in a sling, but they were all moving very quickly.

Everyone in the bank turned to look at the weirdly costumed family as they went straight back to the Bank President's office. Virgil had his crutches and had no problem keeping up. Alan had to hop-skip to keep up with the others.

The Banker's secretary stood up to try and stop them, but Scott ignored her like she was a gnat buzzing at his ear.

"NOBODY MOVE!" Scott yelled as he burst through the Banker's office door, so hard that the frosted glass broke when the door hit the wall.

"Hey how dare you barge in here! I'm conducting business with these people."

"John!" Scott exclaimed and went to his brother. "Are you alright?" Scott asked looking into his brothers eyes knowing his eyes would tell him if he was okay or not.

"What took you guys so long?" John smiled when Scott gave his shoulder a tight squeeze.

The two fake GDF Officers shrunk back and tried to sneak out of the office. They ran into Virgil's fists.

"These aren't officers," Virgil said, "I recognize this one from the last time, The Hood, tried to get Tracy Island."

Kayo was happy to see John, but was looking for the Hood. She turned to the Banker, "Where is he? I know there was someone else here with our brother!"

"You're the Tracy's! Look I'm sorry you are all having a rough time, but I insist all of you leave."

"We're fine!" Kayo said, "Where is the other man that was here?"

The Banker looked around nervously, "I don't know – he was here a moment ago."

John stood up with Scott. Scott's adrenaline was lessening, now that they found John and his pain was coming back. He and John leaned on each other.

"He was a blond fat man this time," John said, "I didn't even see him leave when you all came in." John added and his hand went to his bruised cheek. "I think the Mechanic knocked my teeth loose."

"You should sit down," Scott said.

"So should you," John answered.

"But you are all too late," John said sadly, "The Hood made me sign contracts, selling him Tracy Island and our Thunderbirds."

"It doesn't matter – we were in time to save you." Scott said to John. "We'll sort the rest out in court if we have to."

"The Hood even had a perfect forgery of Brains signature, notarized and everything so that he even owns MAX now." John said sadly.

The Banker interrupted, "From what I've heard, this was all coercion and espionage and probably other legal situations that i could mention."

"Kidnapping – and assault," Kayo added.

Scott said, "That man is responsible for hurting every member of my family - and he's tried to take our stuff from us before."

Limping around the back of the Banker's desk, Alan made his way to John and without a word grabbed his brother around his middle, hugging him tightly.

"Alan," John whispered, but stood still, letting Alan hug him he wrapped his arms around Alan's shoulders. Alan was too choked up with tears of joy to say anything.

THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!

"Well, of course with this new information," The Banker began, "these contracts are null and void."

The Banker was feeding stacks of all the paperwork on his desk to the paper shredder.

Everyone let out the breath they'd been holding, relieved.

"I'm glad to see that the Tracy's are still a strong, close-knit family with only one mission," the Banker continued, "To help anyone in trouble. Your father would be proud."

The Banker and Grandma Tracy exchanged a knowing smile and he winked at her.

Lady Penelope and Parker entered the bank. Displaying a regal, calm stride to her walk, Lady Penelope joined the others with Parker staying close behind her.

"I'm sorry, we lost the Mechanic," She said, when Gordon turned to greet her.

"But we stung his backside good before we lost him," Parker added.

"What happened?" Gordon asked.

"We chased him, he chased us and when the GDF intervened he flew off into space again." Parker explained.

"Thank you for keeping him off of our backsides, Lady P." Gordon said.

Colonel Casey and a group of her officers came in next followed closely by Captain O'Bannon and some more of her officers.

With a wave of her hand, Colonel Casey's officers took over custody of the two GDF impostors from Virgil.

Colonel Casey walked over to learn more about what happened from Scott, Kayo and the Banker. She began adding data to the report on her tablet.

Relieved to see John standing, taller than everyone else as usual, Ridley smiled from the doorway.

John was being hugged by Gordon and Alan when Ridley looked in. "Good, you're okay," Ridley whispered, smiling.

Grandma Tracy sat down, and looking at all her boys together again, she got tears in her eyes. They'd all been through a ringer, but made it through.

"Are you dizzy?" Alan asked John when his brother swayed a little and leaned on his shoulder.

"Maybe a little, " John admitted. Gordon and Alan held his arms while John sat down by Grandma Tracy.

Alan stayed close to John. Gordon went looking for Lady Penelope.

"It's good to see you boy," Grandma Tracy said and found his hand to hold. John smiled kindly at her. John sat quietly for a moment but Grandma heard his breathing change and looked at him.

"Crud," John put his head back and squeezed his eyes shut, tears fell down his temples into his hair.

"John! Where does it hurt?" Grandma Tracy asked urgently. Alan looked concerned too.

"All over, but that's not the problem," John answered.

"What's the matter? We stopped the Hood and all of us are together again.

"I am grateful for that, but I was afraid for EOS, and I deleted her when I thought the Hood or Mechanic would take Thunderbird 5."

"I completely wiped all of Thunderbird 5's systems before they took me."

"I'm sure Brains can restore Thunderbird 5's systems in just a couple of days - although he's still not fond of being in space." Alan said.

"I know, but EOS wasn't part of Five's systems that Brain's keeps backups of. She was a separate, more recent program – more than a program." John explained.

It had been almost an hour since the GDF showed up and began interviews and questioning by the GDF, Grandma Tracy had enough and knew her boys had more than enough. She said suddenly, "Come on boys, we're going home." She got up holding John's hand and headed for the door.

"Mrs. Tracy," Colonel Casey interrupted. "we still need our reports complete. There is still work to do."

"Not now there isn't - my boys, Kayo, everyone needs some rest and recovery time starting now. You know where to find us later."

Grandma Tracy led the way with everyone following her back to Thunderbird 1 and FAB1.

THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!

Back at home base, John, Virgil and Scott took the sofas, leaving Gordon and Alan the floor.

Alan sat with his back against the sofa where John stretched out. John's long legs hung over the end of the sofa and Gordon sat on the floor by Virgil.

They had barely got comfortable when there was someone at the door. Grandma Tracy let them in. Lady Penelope and Parker came in with bags of cheeseburgers and fries for everyone.

"Thanks, Lady Penelope," Alan said.

Sherbet came in behind Parker and ran to Alan. The little dog jumped into Alan's lap before he could get up for a cheeseburger and Alan chose to sit and pet the dog before going to get food.

THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!

After everyone had some food and rest, they felt much better. John was still moping and grieving over losing EOS.

Thinking he should let Brains know what happened, John went to Brains lab and found Brains already back to work.

"Brains, I don't know if the guys told you yet, but I wiped all of Thunderbird 5's systems before the Hood forced me to leave."

"Yes, I know John," Brains said. "I saw from down here, the instant that you did it. Don't worry, it is easily restored."

"But . . ." John started to interrupt, but Brains continued.

"I will get on it first thing in the morning. Alan has already volunteered to take me up and help with the repairs. First thing we have to do is retrieve the Space Elevator. Its still floating around up there someplace."

"She's GONE," John said, interrupting loudly.

"Who's gone?" Brains stopped talking about Thunderbird 5 and asked.

"EOS - I deleted her and the backups she made of herself too."

"John, it's no problem," Brain's answered.

"To me its a problem - there's no hope of retrieving her." John said.

"You must know that from here on Tracy Island, I remotely make secure complete backups from Thunderbird 5's systems every night, John."

"I know," John said, sighing, "that's been procedure since Thunderbird 5 went into service. EOS came on board long after that, and the beginning as you know, was pretty rough."

"John, our backup procedures include all of EOS's files now. I included her as soon as you two became friends. It should be no trouble for you to restore her."

"Wow, Brains thank you! I didn't realize that she would be part of what you backed up."

"Of course she is. I know she is important to you and has been helpful," Brain's led the way to his lab where he and John could access the last backup copied to the main server.

"Now John, EOS won't remember that happened after my last backup, but she should remember almost everything. A backup ran early this morning, but you may have to fill her in on what happened after the backup."

"Why Brains? I'd rather that she didn't know I failed her so completely."

"You didn't fail her John. Even deleting her programs was part of your promise to protect her. You did what you had to do, even though at the time you believed that she would be lost forever.

"I guess you're right Brains, how did you get so smart?"

"Hanging around the Tracy family for a long time, helped." Brains smiled.

Brains brought over a laptop and opened the screen when he sat it down on the counter. He typed in a few commands into a terminal and said, "John, this is EOS."

"Hello EOS," to Brains he asked, "Can she hear me?"

"Of course she can. She has access to this laptop's web cam, speakers and microphone." Brains assured him.

"EOS are you there?" John asked.

"John, I must be malfunctioning - I cant seem to move about. Oh," EOS said when she realized where she was, "Why am I on Tracy Island?"

"I brought you down with me since I would be staying a while longer. Brains is doing maintenance on Thunderbird 5's systems." John lied, panicking.

"Did you miss me, John?" EOS asked.

"Wait, EOS - you know? Do you remember all that happened?"

"Of course John, it's all in Thunderbird 5's records for a few moments after you deleted me. Then you shut down Five. I processed the records the instant that you just accessed my program through this rather confining device."

"Oh EOS, I'm so sorry that I had to delete you, but I didn't know what else to do! I couldn't let the Hood or the Mechanic have you!"

"Understood John, remember, it was me who asked you to do it in the first place. I appreciate your putting it off until you were sure there wasn't any other way. But the decision wasn't as final as you thought it would be, did you forget our systems backups?"

"Yes, EOS, I guess I did." John said, simply, smiling.

"I'm glad to see that you made it, John. I trust that the Mechanic and Hood won't be a problem anymore?"

"Not for a while hopefully, but The Mechanic and The Hood escaped again."

"That is unfortunate," EOS stated.

"How about, since you can't move about on your own, I take you up to see everyone. I don't think you've even met everyone face to 'virtual' face yet."

"Yes John, I'd like that." EOS confirmed.

THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!

Back in control, EOS was at Jeff's desk with Grandma Tracy and most of the others gathered around her talking. John was grinning proudly.

Sitting on a sofa together Alan spoke with Lady Penelope.

"How is your leg, Alan? You had to use it a lot last night and today."

"It's a little sore I guess."

A light on the console in front of the sofas, beeped and Alan leaned toward it, answering on a secure line. He listened privately for a moment, and said, "Yes, he's here, Just a sec."

Loudly Alan yelled, "Virgil! Call for you!"

"I'll get it in the dining room." Virgil said as he hobbled down the steps.

Moments later, Virgil came back up the steps. Alan and Lady Penelope looked at him expectantly.

Talking loudly enough to get everyone's attention, he said, "We have a mission, NOW! - Alan – get geared up, Lady P and Parker, you might want to come too. Anyone else who wants to go, get ready! I'll be lifing off in Thunderbird 2."

"What's going on?" Alan asked.

"Yes, what is the situation, Virgil?" Scott asked.

"The Lion his fully recovered and has been waiting for me to take him home. Now is as good a time as any!"

"Right!" Alan moved from the couch to his comfy chair and Kayo sat next to him.

In only moments, Thunderbird 2 was in flight with everyone, including Lady Penelope and Parker on board and ready to take the Lion that had been injured and caught by the poachers back to South Africa.

The End . . .