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It had been a long, tiring day of back-to-back meetings that had been put off until they couldn’t be put off any longer. Plus a very important school meeting.
Which meant John had cut Scott out of iR comms. His brother needed all his concentration for TI meetings. It wasn’t because they were too difficult for Scott - far from it - it was to enable him to focus on getting through the day…
Which was also why Scott was unaware when Alan went temporarily offline during the rescue.
It had been a long and tiring one, a wildfire blaze that had spread in the summer heat on parched foliage that was like a tinderbox. It had taken the best part of the day to fight, and being one short hadn’t helped. Although…they weren’t really one short as Kayo had dropped in for a while to help.
She wasn’t there, though, when Alan went dark.
Fifteen agonising minutes he disappeared for, reappearing just as John had got Five into position to drop and Kayo was about to turn around.
Alan insisted he was fine, that he’d found a small cave in the small rocky hill that must have masked his signal. Both John and Kayo were dubious, but Alan’s suit showed normal stats considering the heat and length of time they’d been on the ground, so they reluctantly stayed where they were and let him finish the rescue.
It was pretty much over by then anyway.
Virgil, seeing how tired Alan really looked, shooed him home in One while he and Gordon finished up and Alan gratefully accepted the reprieve. Two wouldn’t be too far behind since this was their back door anyway.
John waited for Scott to sign off his last meeting before appearing on the holo, smiling as his brother yawned widely and stretched out.
‘Hey Scott. Just a heads up. Thunderbird One is due back in ten minutes.’
‘Rescue over?’
Pretty much. Virgil said Alan looked tired so he sent him home. He and Gordon can manage the handoff.’
‘FAB, John. sigh’
‘Meeting not go so well?’
‘TI was fine. Everything is all signed off for another Quarter. It’s Alan.’
‘Schoolwork?’
‘He’s behind again. I know he’s busy with iR but he needs to do his homework and the school are laying down the law.. I’m going to have to temporarily ground him so he can catch up.’
‘I don’t envy you that conversation, big brother.’
‘Gee thanks…’
‘My pleasure. And Alan has clearance to land.’
‘FAB. Thanks, John.’
John smiled and disappeared, and Scott steeled himself. Alan would be tired and achy, and he really didn’t want to add to that, but this wouldn’t wait. So he positioned himself by Alan’s launch tube and waited.
He didn’t have long. Alan’s chairs rose up and Scott looked at his baby brother. He was so incredibly proud of Alan, of the man he was becoming. Scott’s heart ached.
‘Welcome home, Sprout. How’d it go?’
‘Was good. Could really have done with you there.’
‘Yeah…sorry about that. But at least that’s the business side of things up to date. I’ll be there for the next one.’
‘But?’
‘What?’
‘I hear a “but” there.’
‘Al – the school has called. You’re behind on your work.’
‘I know I am but…’
‘No, Alan. The school are laying down the law. They want you to make up your work before the end of the week.’
‘What! I can’t possibly do that!’
‘Unless I pull you from rescues.’
‘No, Scott…you can’t!’
‘I don’t want to, Sprout, I really don’t, but schooling is important.’
‘So is saving lives! So is iR!’
‘I know! I know…but I have no choice. You’re off rescues until you catch up.’
‘But Scott…’
‘No, Alan. I know it’s not fair. I know it’s not all your fault, but this has to be done.’
Scott watched as Alan clenched and unclenched his fists and tried to breathe to calm down. His face fell as he realised it wasn’t working. Scott stepped forward to embrace Alan but his brother took a step back.
Later Scott would recall a flash of yellow in Alan’s eyes, but for now…
The fist came out of nowhere and almost floored him. Metaphorically.
Scott froze and wasn’t prepared for the second blow that split his lip and drew blood. And then Alan went berserk.
At some point Scott found himself on the floor, arms curled around his head as blows and kicks rained down, unable to work out what was being said above the roaring in his head as Alan screamed and kicked and punched.
All there was was noise and pain and suddenly it stopped. Scott hadn’t registered Two landing, hadn’t heard John trying to get Alan to stop, nor Virgil and Gordon storming through the villa.
When Scott opened one eye he saw Alan clasped firmly in Virgil’s hold. Their youngest brother was trying desperately to get back to him and Virgil was barely holding on to him as his arms and legs flailed and he began to scream himself hoarse.
Gordon was shocked at Alan’s behaviour but concentrating on helping Scott up. His brother was sluggish to move but eventually he got Scott over to one of the couches.
‘What the hell as gotten into you, Alan?’
But Alan wasn’t saying anything other than screaming.
Gordon snatched a tissue from the table and passed it to Scott who gingerly held it to his lip. There was blood running from his nose and lip, one eye was puffing up already and he could barely open it.
They were both concentrating on Scott’s injuries, Gordon running a Medscanner over Scott, which was why when Virgil slipped neither noticed until Alan had practically thrown Gordon over his shoulder and set on Scott again.
This time his hands were around Scott’ throat.
Scott didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want to hurt Alan but he was rapidly going to lose consciousness if he didn’t do something…something was off, Alan shouldn’t be this strong!
His vision was beginning to black out when both brothers managed to haul Alan off and fall backwards onto the floor. Alan was still screaming.
And suddenly John was there, plunging a syringe into Alan’s arm and adding his weight to Virgil and Gordon until Alan succumbed completely to the sedative.
Virgil carried his brother to the infirmary while Gordon helped Scott limp in and John brought up the rear, thankful that neither Kayo nor their Grandma were here to see this.
They gathered around Alan’s bed as Virgil hooked him up to the monitors. Then while Gordon sat with Al the medic set about checking Scott over.
There were pretty heavy bruising around his neck and a crack to one of his ribs, and his facial swelling wasn’t going to go down soon.
‘What the hell happened?’
‘I don’t know. One minute I’m talking about giving him a week off of rescues so he can catch up on his schoolwork, the next minute he was attacking me.’
‘You didn’t notice anything?’
‘No – I don’t think so. John?’
‘That’s what it sounded like to me.’
‘So there was nothing? No trigger?’
‘Not that I saw.’
‘John?’
‘EOS?’
‘There is something wrong with Alan’s brain.’
Everyone stopped and turned to the monitors. Alan’s brainwaves…well, they shouldn’t look like that…
‘What the hell?’
‘What’s that?’
‘I don’t know. What happened at the rescue?’
‘Nothing out of the ordinary.’
‘Well…not nothing. Alan disappeared for approximately fifteen minutes.’
‘What? Why wasn’t I informed?’
‘Scott – shut up and rest your voice. He was fine.’
‘He obviously isn’t. John?’
‘John – I know what that is.’
‘EOS?’
‘We have seen this wave before.’
‘Oh. Oh you’re right.’
‘Are one of you going to explain?’
‘We’ve all seen this before. This is the same as the wave the Hood used to control the Mechanic.’
There was a stunned silence for a second before Scott’s croaky voice broke it.
‘Does…does this mean that our baby brother has been brainwashed by the Hood? Or worse?’