By
Vicki Lister
Captain Scarlet leaned forward, peering out of the screen
before him, scanning through the thick falling snow around him, searching for
any sign of the missing jet. Captain Blue watched him, sighing impatiently.
“Paul, will you please relax, you’re making me edgy…”
“She’s been missing
for seven hours, Adam,” he replied curtly, continuing his search of the
heavens.
“I know, but she’s going to be ok. She’s an excellent
pilot.”
“But look at this!” yelled Paul desperately… gesturing to
the ferocious blizzard that was kicking up around them. “Strong winds… zero
visibility! How can anyone pilot successfully in this?”
“We are.” Adam pointed out quietly, straining against the
controls to keep the helicopter on course.
“Only just. But Rhapsody… what if she crashed?”
“Paul…Paul! Look at me!” Paul sighed and twisted round to
meet the eyes of his concerned friend. “We’re going to find her.” Paul nodded,
anxiously turning back to continue his scan of the surrounding area.
“I hope you’re right.”
The helicopter swooped on… continuing its search for the
missing Angel. As time passed Paul grew increasingly more frantic as Adam
doubled his efforts in calming the worried captain and maintaining control of
the aircraft.
“Come on Rhapsody… hang on…please… we’re going to find
you.”
Rhapsody had disappeared whilst returning from her last
flight patrol, when a sudden blizzard swamped the area. Rhapsody battled her way
back through the wind and snow to return, but her radio had failed and she
hadn’t been heard from since. The rescue patrol had been out for nearly five
hours, and Captain Scarlet was among the first to volunteer to join in the
search for his fiancée. Captain Blue had accompanied him and they had been
battling their way through the ferocious weather ever since. No sign of neither
hide nor hair of Rhapsody had been reported since the rescue team began and it
was beginning to look hopeless. With
each passing hour the chance of finding Rhapsody alive was fading, and Scarlet
was growing frantic. Suddenly the radar bleeped into life and Scarlet’s heart
soared.
“We have something on radar, it could be her!” Captain Blue
yelled into his radio, trying to steer the helicopter on a correct course
towards their find as the wind battered into the side and the snow swept across
the canopy.
“Captain Scarlet to Rhapsody Angel do you read me? Come in
please!” Captain Scarlet spoke swiftly into his mike, fighting to keep the
panic in his voice to a minimum. The radio remained silent.
“It must have been knocked out. I’m sure she’s ok,” Adam
muttered reassuringly, his arms straining with the effort of controlling the
chopper. Paul grabbed onto the side as they swerved violently to the right,
slicing through the snow. He winced as he heard the engine groaning around him
and glanced at Adam biting his lip. Adam noted his worried glance and gave him
one of his own, smiling nervously.
“Come on… its going to be ok… any visual on the jet yet?”
Paul leaned forward… resuming his frantic searching.
“No not yet…” A metal glimmer caught his eye and he scanned
the area quickly. “She’s there! I can see her jet… she… oh my god, she’s crashed!”
His heart pounded as he stared at the crumpled outline of Rhapsody’s crashed
jet, desperately seeking for some sign that she may have survived. Adam leaned
forward to survey the scene.
“It’s not in a bad way… she could be ok, Paul!” Adam
mumbled, noting the minimal damage to the jet. “She was probably just driven
out of the air, or had to make an emergency landing or something!” Paul nodded
silently, his eyes not moving from the flickering image of the partially
submerged jet as it appeared and disappeared through the heavy snow. “OK.
Landing. Now this could be tricky.” Paul nodded again, swiftly moving back into
the safety of his seat and securing the belts around him as the chopper lurched
about in the frozen air. “Oh god, hang on, Paul!” The chopper sliced through
the air, the rotors flailing frantically as the engine spluttered under the
strain. Both men clung on frantically, as Adam battled to regain control. The
chopper span round, plummeting towards the ground, dropping through the
sweeping snow like a rock through the air.
“Mayday mayday, Central Control, we are going down, we have
spotted Rhapsody but are going down!” Scarlet yelled hurriedly into his mike as
Adam desperately flicked various switches, to no avail.
“The engine’s not responding… nothing’s working!” he cried,
pummelling the dashboard with his fist.
“Central control to chopper 091… SIG Scarlet, send
coordinates then eject, repeat eject.”
“Sending coordinates now…” Scarlet began, typing on the
screen. It remained blank. He swore violently. “Central control, that is
negative there is no response…” His words were cut short as out of the swirling
mists of the blizzard, the ground came up to meet them. Both men flung their
arms over their heads as they collided, the canopy around them smashing, as the
force flung them both forward. The engine crashed and erupted brutally,
spurting red-hot flames around them, and as Scarlet lay back, his vision
failing as his flesh burned…
“I’m sorry, Paul…” The last pain-wracked words of his dying
friend echoed in his head as he passed out of all consciousness.
Paul awoke with a scream, tumbling
onto the hard stone floor. His eyes wide, he lay there gasping, clutching his
heaving chest as the sweat ran down his face. It had been nearly a year since
that fateful day, but the dreams continued, never letting him forget, never
letting him rest. He heaved himself into a sitting position, shivering slightly
as he looked tiredly around his dark cell. He pushed himself to his feet and
sat down on the edge of the dark stone ledge on which he had been sleeping.
“ROTA TWO, SCHEDULED FOR WORKING
SHIFT, 6 AM to 10 PM, COMMENCING IN 7 MINUTES.” Scarlet winced as the heavy
Mysteron voice echoed around the cell, pounding through his exhausted and
aching head. He remained still, glaring around the cell waiting for them to
respond. He didn’t have to wait long.
“PRISONER S-012 SCARLET, GET UP.”
Scarlet sighed and leaned back against the wall behind him, knowing what was
coming but not really caring.
“PRISONER S-012 SCARLET, GET UP!”
“Bite me,” he muttered angrily,
staring at the barred door before him, waiting for him to come. Surely enough, a few minutes later the door swung
open.
“Hello, Conrad,” he muttered,
staring at the man in the doorway. The man before him bared his teeth,
snarling.
“Hello, Scarlet. Work refusal
again I see?”
“So it would seem. My, I do
treasure these little get-togethers.”
“As do I. I request you personally,
you know.”
“I’m touched.”
“The pleasure of seeing you writhe
in agony, far outweighs any pleasure I see at the sight of you toiling over our
machines.”
“Well, good. I will have to refuse
more often then, won’t I?” Scarlet replied, watching him with a sigh, as his
old friend smiled in response.
“Every day of the week,” he
whispered, bringing the device out from behind his back. Scarlet had barely a
second to brace himself before he was on the floor, screaming in agony, every
cell of his body on fire as the electric current passed through him. After a
few moments the pain stopped and he lay still on the floor, heaving in great
shuddering breaths, his body aching.
“You do take your time with these lessons,
don’t you, Scarlet?”
“I am a slow learner,” he muttered
thickly, his teeth clenched in an effort to remain both conscious and silent.
“Then perhaps it’s time for
another dose.” Scarlet screamed once more as the current peaked in his body,
screaming violently as he thrashed and writhed on the floor, fighting to remain
conscious as the current soared through his limbs. But it was no good. The pain
rose through his mind, like a knife slicing through his every thought. His mind
shut down and he collapsed, falling down into darkness.
Scarlet stirred softly, groaning
thickly. He opened his eyes a crack, peering around at his charred
surroundings. He coughed thickly, the strong smoke that hung in the air seeping
through his lungs and making him splutter. He rose a little, but the crisped
straps of his belt held him down surprisingly firmly considering the damage
they had sustained. He fumbled with the buckle, releasing himself from the
chair. He gazed numbly around at the blackened walls that surrounded him,
choking on the thick air as he scrambled around, trying to get to grips with
where he was and what he was doing there. He coughed thickly, stretching his
aching limbs, and wincing as his sore skin grated over his throbbing muscles.
His gaze fell on the second charred seat that lay before him, knocked to the
side, shielding the body that it imprisoned. Biting his lip, dreading the sight
that he knew he would find, Scarlet pulled the seat towards him, twisting it round.
The seat swivelled, depositing the burnt body on the floor in front of him, and
Scarlet had to twist round, fighting against the rise of tears and vomit that
he felt battling within him. That was Blue that lay behind him. Captain Blue.
Adam. A friend. Slowly he turned back towards him. Blue was burnt beyond
recognition. His face was distorted; most of his hair was gone and his uniform
was burnt and blackened. His skin was a tangled mass of black and red and his
nose had been reduced to a blackened stump. Only a hint of the sky blue uniform
and a small shock of his blond hair gave any clue to his identity. Scarlet
looked at him sadly, his heavy tears falling through the thick smoke that
snaked through the air.
“Adam,” he whispered, his heart aching with the sadness
seeing the pain that his friend must have suffered, the agony he must
have endured before he was so cruelly released from his life. “Adam I’m so
sorry.” A new fury rose in him, overriding the pain. Another close friend dead,
another one passed on, leaving him
behind. Alone. To face the world, with no relief from his suffering. Alone,
through the ages. Alone through his pain. Alone. Alone. ALONE!
With a sudden jerk, Scarlet came
to. He was lying on the stone floor where Black had left him, curled up in a
protective ball. He groaned, rolling over and pulling himself up against the
wall, his chest heaving. It was a cruel fate that left him imprisoned in there,
he could find no relief, not even in his dreams. His waking hours were filled
with taunts, strenuous work, and brutal tortures whilst his sleep was disrupted
with reminders of that last day that had destroyed his world.
“PRISONER S-012 SCARLET REPORT FOR
MAINTENANCE DUTY IN SECTOR 9. YOU HAVE THREE MINUTES.” Scarlet groaned again,
as the heavy voice echoed round his narrow chambers. Trying not to cry, he
dragged himself to his feet and waited patiently by the door. A few minutes
later it clicked open and he shuffled out into the corridor, plodding with
heavy steps down the corridor towards Sector 9. Mysteron Agents patrolled the
corridors, snarling at him as he passed, jabbing him with their knives. He
fought hard against the anger that was welling up within him, knowing that it
would only result in more pain if it were unleashed. They laughed, taunting
him. They had the most fun with him. His abilities meant that he was the only
prisoner they were allowed to treat so brutally. He could take it. He would
recover. He couldn’t kill himself, or die from blood loss or exhaustion. As he
knew, there was no relief from his suffering. It was a lesson he had learnt
well. No sweet welcome of death and lost friends for him. His eternity was only just beginning.
He went to his work quietly, his
muscles throbbing with the abuse that they had suffered earlier. He sighed.
Some days the only thing that kept him going was hope, hope of escape, hope of
a better future, but right now that was running low. There must be someone left, some people, Spectrum wouldn’t just give up
without me…he thought, trying to shake off the overwhelming depression that
grasped his mind. But without me the loss
of personnel would be catastrophic… and they had already lost two of their best
members that day… “Don’t give up,” he told himself sternly. “You’re going
to get out of here, and soon. You just need to hang on. That’s all. They want
to break you, don’t give them the satisfaction.” He nodded grimly, continuing
his work with a new improved vigour. His mind drifted as he worked, sliding
back through time… back to when it happened…
He crawled through the snow, the bitter wind circling him,
freezing him and throwing him off course. He shivered, his limbs shaking
uncontrollably with shock, cold, and the supreme effort that it was costing him
to keep going. He had to reach that jet. He had to save Rhapsody. The dim outline of the
jet emerged through the swirling drifts of white that hung in the air, fogging
his vision. He scrambled towards it, bellowing out his beloved Angel’s name as
he approached it but it was no good. The harsh wind swept his voice away,
roaring in his ears and drowning out all sound. He continued towards it,
forcing his numb and throbbing muscles to pump harder, determined to reach his
target. The jet was on its front, and seemed to have suffered very little
damage in the crash. His heart rose with hope as he noticed this. She’s
still alive, she must be, I know it! Please, please, let her be ok! The jet was partially buried in falling
snow, and he had to delve slightly in the papery white substance before he
could free the emergency door and heave it open. He staggered inside, pulling
the door to in an effort to provide some shelter from the roaring winds and
blasting snow. Shivering, he shook the excess snow off himself and crawled
forwards, towards the cockpit. Jeez it’s almost as cold in here as it is
outside! he thought to himself as he
crept forwards. The heating system must have packed in. He carefully opened the cockpit door and leant in. “Rhaps? Rhapsody,
are you here? Rhaps…it’s me, Paul…” The words died on his lips as his eyes
settled on the body. He scrambled over
the seat towards it, his heart thumping painfully fast as he felt his world
come crashing down around him. Rhapsody’s body was stiff and white, her hair
and skin laced with a fine frosting of ice. Her lips were blue and her eyes
were wide and staring. She was curled up in the pilot seat, a hollow purple cut
just above her left eye; a memento of the crash that she had endured. She had
escaped the crash landing with minimal injuries, and then froze to death
waiting for a rescue. She was dead. Scarlet scrambled back, his heart
shuddering under the double shock that it had suffered. Rhapsody and Adam were
dead. The two people that kept him going, his fiancée and his best friend. Both
gone. And it was his fault. Gasping for air as his heart struggled to cope with
what he was seeing, he staggered backwards, collapsing to the floor as his
lungs restricted and he passed out, the world darkening around him.
Scarlet jumped as the whip cruelly
lashed into his leg, snapping him out of his reverie and causing him to him
crash to the floor. He clambered back to his feet, grumbling as the Mysterons
hooted with laughter. His fellow workers ignored him studiously, simply being
glad that it was him receiving the beating, not themselves.
“Get on with your work!” one
snarled, slashing his whip once more. Scarlet snarled at them but then turned
back to his work. Don’t rise to it,
he told himself. That’s what they want
you to do. Just sit it out. You’re going to get out of here.
Captain Scarlet had been one of
Spectrum’s finest Agents. After a brief tussle with the Mysterons relatively
early on in his career, his special, supernatural retrometabolisational
abilities had aided him in every mission that he took on. And if that wasn’t a mouthful, then Scarlet
just didn’t know what was. His indestructible capabilities meant he could save
the lives of other Spectrum personnel, preventing any long-term loss of life.
Spectrum Headquarters, Cloudbase,
had received reports of some suspicious activity going on in the Arctic Circle
just before the Mysterons had delivered their final threat.
THIS IS THE VOICE OF THE
MYSTERONS. WE KNOW YOU CAN HEAR US EARTHMEN! YOU WILL PAY THE ULTIMATE PRICE
FOR YOUR ACTS OF AGGRESSION AGAINST THE MYSTERON COMPLEX ON MARS. YOU WILL BE
DEALT A DEVASTATING BLOW. WE WILL CAPTURE YOUR MOST PRECIOUS WEAPON. YOU WILL
BE RENDERED DEFENCELESS. YOUR ACTIONS MAY HAVE HURT US, BUT THEY WILL DESTROY
YOU. WE WILL BE AVENGED!
Assuming that the threat was
linked to the present suspicions of a Mysteron Complex operating in the Arctic
Circle, the Angels were immediately launched and were sent out to the Arctic
Circle to search the area whilst the captains focused on other possible
targets. After the disappearance of Rhapsody, many of the captains assumed that
the threat was referring to the Angels, who collectively were one of Spectrum’s
best weapons against the Mysterons.
It wasn’t until after the
helicopter transporting both Captain Scarlet and Captain Blue went down that
Spectrum began to realise how wrong they had been. After the blizzard had died
down two transports were sent to locate the three members. Only two were found.
Adam Svenson’s mangled corpse was transported back alongside Dianne Simms’s
frozen form.
Captain Scarlet was never found.
His blood was found in the cockpit of the helicopter and his shoeprints in
Rhapsody’s jet. He had clearly recovered from the crash, but the shock of
finding both bodies had clearly been too much of him. There had been much
debate as to the details of what had happened to him. Some thought that the
shock of seeing the two main people in his life dead had finished him and he’d
simply walked out, either dying from the cold, his body packing in from a basic
lack of will to live or still there, drifting between life and death, unable to
die but equally unable to live in the brutal conditions.
They couldn’t have been more
wrong. Spectrum had indeed been dealt a devastating blow that day. A blow from
which they had never recovered. Yet Scarlet, Spectrum’s most precious weapon,
was not killed, as they believed, but captured, as promised. A minor detail,
which no one seemed to pick up on.
Scarlet came to in a dark narrow
vessel, which smelt strongly of gasoline. He was trapped in there for about
half an hour, during which time, he staggered back and forth searching for an
escape route before finally giving up and sitting down to mourn his losses. He
found that he didn’t really have the energy to escape simply because to him,
there was no world worth escaping to. His life had been destroyed that day, but
by a cruel twist of fate, he had to live on without it. Alone.
The vessel turned out to be the
cargo of a large transport truck, which had collected Scarlet whilst he was
unconscious. He was transported back to the Mysteron Complex in the grubby
vessel, where he was then gassed and carried into a cell. Where he had been
ever since. 11 months, 1 week and 4 days. Working for 16 hours a day most days,
and spending most of the rest of that time lying unconscious of the floor
having nightmares about… about…. about that
day. The day that turned his life around. He heaved in a great shuddering sigh.
“11 months I’ve been here. 11 months I’ve spent working for my enemies,
building new machines to destroy everything that I’ve spent my life working to
build, and all because I’ve not had the spirit to fight,” he growled to
himself. “I just gave up. Rhapsody wouldn’t want that. Nor would Adam. Well now
it’s my turn. I’m going to fight and I’m going to get out of here, back to
Spectrum.” He smiled, a grim resolve lingering over his lips as his mind sought
for ideas, searching through the various possibilities. It’s my turn now.
“PRISONER S-012 SCARLET REPORT TO
SECTOR SIX. YOU HAVE THREE MINUTES.”
Scarlet smiled softly to himself,
and rolled onto his side. “Ten more
minutes,” he told the empty room, keeping his eyes closed. He could almost hear
the shocked anger in the room as he muttered this. The voice sounded around the
room once more.
“PRISONER S-012 SCARLET REPORT TO
SECTOR SIX. YOU HAVE THREE MINUTES. FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN
ELECTROCUTION TORTURES.”
“Ooh goody, there’s nothing like a
little torture to give you that extra zap in the morning, is there?” he
replied. The voice went silent. Scarlet smiled. Well at least I’ve got their attention. Moments later, as
predicted, the door swung open, and Captain Black strode into the room,
grinning, his eyes glittering with malevolence.
“Scarlet! I see you took me at my
word!”
“So it would seem!”
Black grinned, crouching down in
front of him. “You really can’t wait to die, can you?” he asked with a smirk.
Scarlet snorted. “As if! Too many people left in this place,
mate. Besides, how would you manage that anyway?”
Conrad smiled, pulling a gun out
of his pocket. Scarlet frowned. It was slimmer than the bulky gun that he
remembered. Black swung it quietly to and fro in front of him.
“There have been a few updates
since you left,” he whispered with a grin. “And too many left? Like who? They’re all dead, Paul… every – last –
one of them.”
Paul froze. “What? No, they’re not…”
“How long do you think they could
have lasted without you, Paul? The world as you know it has ceased to exist.
Spectrum went down about two months after you were captured.”
Scarlet shook his head
determinedly, a slight smile lingering over his lips. “You’re lying. You just
want me to give up, don’t you?”
Captain Black leant forwards until
his face was barely an inch from Scarlet’s. “Now wouldn’t that be just peachy?”
he remarked with a grin.
Scarlet reacted quickly. Slamming
his fist into Black’s face, he leapt off the bed, knocking the gun out of the
Mysteron’s hands. Black reacted swiftly, swinging his fist round and catching
Scarlet hard in the stomach, but as Scarlet doubled over in pain, he kicked
out, knocking Black’s feet from beneath him. As Conrad Turner collapsed to the
floor, Scarlet threw himself across the floor, snatching up the fallen gun.
With an angry yell, Black half rose to his feet, but stopped, crumpling back
onto the floor as Scarlet pulled the trigger. He lay still. Scarlet scrambled
to his feet smiling triumphantly.
“All those years we’ve wasted
trying to catch you… all too easy, my friend,” he muttered, striding for the
door. It seemed that most of the base had already been alerted to his presence
and his actions. He ran along the corridor, shooting each Mysteron Agent as
they came towards him, and twisting round every now and then to catch the ones
that were coming up behind him. He sprinted on, not pausing, despite the fact
that his muscles were screaming in protest at the sudden strenuous exertion
that he was forcing on them. He reached the doors quickly. He swung round,
firing the gun to finish off the last few Mysterons that were running towards
him, and then he turned back to the door. A few clear shots took care of the
lock, and he yanked the door open, stepping outside for the first time in
nearly a year.
Scarlet stared around in horror at
the scene before him. The sky was dark red and streaked with blackened glimmers
of metal. The land before him was open and desolate, a barren wasteland
littered with dead bodies. The musty air pulsated with the stench of the dead,
and the silence was punctured with screams, of the alive and dying. Paul’s mouth hung open as he gaped at the
blatant horror that lay before his eyes. The world, under the rule of the
Mysterons. Black had been right. There was no way that Spectrum could have
recovered from the losses that they suffered that day. They had succumbed to
the Mysterons quickly… once their ‘weapon’ was removed… they were defenceless.
Spectrum was gone, his friends dead, the world doomed… Paul looked down at the
gun in his hand. All these months he had been clinging on, hanging on to an ideal
that some day he would escape, rejoin Spectrum and continue the battle.
“Well... today is that day, and I did
escape. And I will rejoin Spectrum,”
he muttered to himself. He switched his gaze from the gun, up to the skies over
his head. “See you soon, guys,” he whispered, his heart pounding at the thought
of seeing his friends once more. He raised the gun to his head… the one gun
that could finally free him from his torment.
Closing his eyes, he pulled the
trigger. A single gunshot echoed through the air, mingling with the screams of
pain. It went unnoticed. Paul Metcalfe dropped to the ground, finally free from
his pain.
Forever.
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