A Captain Scarlet Story by Marion Woods.

Chapter One

THIS IS THE VOICE OF THE MYSTERONS. WE KNOW THAT YOU CAN HEAR US, EARTHMEN. WE HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN YOUR UNPROVOKED ATTACK ON OUR MARTIAN COMPLEX AND WE WILL BE REVENGED.

OUR NEXT ACT OF RETALIATION WILL SEE PILLARS OF FIRE DESTROY ALL AROUND THEM WHILST RINGS OF FIRE WILL ENGULF MANY SEAS AND DARKEN ALL THE SKIES.

Scarlet woke with a start and tugged at his earlobes, believing his ears were deceiving him – or maybe that he was dreaming. Moments later the yellow alert signal flashed and he knew that the threat had been for real. He glanced at the bedside clock which showed 4:27. Wonderful, he thought. At least the last time I heard that threat I was wide-awake and ready for action. He dragged himself out of bed and groped about for his clothes. A glance in the mirror showed him he needed a shave and he was thankful he had showered before he turned in last night. He zipped up the tunic and stamped his feet into his boots, then left the room and, momentarily disorientated, wondered which way was quickest for the Conference Room.

Along the corridor other officers were starting to emerge, still dozy with sleep, and slowly he realised he might not be expected in the conference room. He was not one of the colour captains after all. He wondered where his station was and was on the verge of turning back to his quarters with the intention of checking the duty roster when a gentle voice with the unmistakable lilt of the West Indies came over the tannoy.

“Lieutenant Scarlet, please report to the Conference Room immediately.”

He was the last to arrive. A quick glance around the room showed him Magenta and Blue side by side at a distance from Ochre and Flaxen, whilst Grey hovered uncertainly between the couples and Colonel White murmured to Symphony Angel. Lieutenant Green gave him a cheerful smile as he sidled in and he blushed as he returned it. Her face broke into a broad grin as she said, “All present and correct, Colonel.”

Blue looked across at him and gave the slightest of nods, whilst Magenta stared at him with a calculating expression. Scarlet guessed that Blue had told him something about his claims to be from a different reality – although, meeting the shrewd dark eyes of the Irish-American, he found himself echoing Ochre’s hope that Blue had kept some of it back, as insurance against the ruthless nature of his ally.

There seemed to be nothing of the genial Patrick Donaghue he knew in the brooding figure across the room. He swallowed compulsively, as he acknowledged, for the second time in as many years, that, after all, Pat had been a very prominent member of a profession not known for their people skills, and that there was definitely a core of steel beneath even Pat’s sunny nature. Surely, this Patrick Donaghue was simply as much an exaggerated version of the original, as Blue or Symphony or even Green appeared to be. He wondered what choices this man had made to have caused so radical a shift in his character.

There was movement across the room and Magenta turned his penetrating gaze on to Symphony Angel. As he watched her, his eyes appeared to grow even darker with – Scarlet realised in surprise – an almost desperate yearning.

Well, Scarlet mused, he knew that, in his World, Pat Donaghue had always had a ‘soft spot’ for Karen Wainwright – and had, briefly, held cautious hopes that she felt the same, but he’d eventually accepted that he was not the man she really wanted and that particular daydream had been laid to rest, or so Scarlet had always imagined. Since then Pat had escorted several of the young women from the base’s support staff, without ever appearing to get too deeply involved with any one in particular.

Scarlet studied Symphony, remembering what the colonel had said about her refusal to join the Agency. There was no way she could fail to be aware of Magenta’s intense look, but she pointedly ignored it and her bright eyes met Scarlet’s with the merest hint of a wink as she chewed on her ubiquitous gum.

Feeling surprisingly reassured, he continued his examination of the group. Ochre’s febrile eyes were fixed with obvious animosity on Magenta, until, sensing he was being studied, he glanced towards Scarlet and his tense expression relaxed slightly. Obviously, he now saw the Englishman as an ally, but Scarlet still found it hard to come to terms with the fact that the animosity, between two men he knew to be close friends in his world, was fierce enough to be almost tangible. But then, Richard Fraser was not one to compromise his standards for purely diplomatic reasons, after all.

Captain Flaxen was sitting beside her partner. She noticed his astonishing reaction to Scarlet and she stared, frowning, at her compatriot. Scarlet wished Ochre had had the foresight to warn his partner. Flaxen was obviously well in tune with his moods, and she recognised the unexpected relaxation of hostilities between the two erstwhile rivals for Claudia’s affections and could not imagine what had brought it about. She certainly knew that, in Ochre’s private Hell, the innermost circle had been reserved for the triumvirate of Blue, Magenta and Scarlet – with equal venom.

He hoped that Ochre had the sense to hide their new rapprochement from the canny eyes of the Agency bosses. Whatever else people had told him about Blue and Magenta, no-one had called them stupid, and they were unlikely to miss the development of a new alliance between their opponents.

Colonel White coughed to attract their attention and looked around the room at his warring officers. He had decided, at the last minute, to include Scarlet in the conference. The chilling words of the Mysterons’ threat had struck a chord in his memory as he recalled the young man’s story of just such a threat and how it had been handled in his World – and its unexpected consequences. So far, he thought, it is additional proof that, however unlikely the facts might seem, Scarlet does appear to be telling me the truth – or at least a version of it. He speculated that this young man’s inclusion in the forthcoming mission might – possibly – be helpful in bringing down the Agency Bosses, once and for all. After all, he reasoned, hindsight is an exact science.

Before his silence provoked comment, he said,

“I trust everyone heard the Mysterons’ threat? Good. I want to know if anyone has any ideas as to just what they could be planning this time.” He turned to his right. “Captain Blue, any thoughts?” Scarlet breathed a sigh of relief, the colonel wasn’t letting on that he had heard tell of a similar threat, or where his prior knowledge might have come from.

Blue gave the merest smile. “It would seem to be targeted at volcanoes, sir. At a guess,” he added, with a conspiratorial glance at Scarlet.

“I agree with Captain Blue, sir,” Scarlet interjected. “What’s more, I suggest they mean to start with Etna, where, as you know, the new volcanic pacifier has recently been installed, in an attempt to deter what have been forecast as major eruptions. Should the Mysterons – or anyone else – succeed in tampering with the pacifier and inducing these eruptions, it would be catastrophic for the region. I imagine, if the scheme proved successful, they would move on to other locations; the area is rich with active volcanoes, such as Vesuvius, or they might even take on a wider range of targets… for example, the volcanoes along the Pacific Rim.” He couldn’t resist the temptation to steal Blue’s thunder for once.

“You took the words right out of my mouth, Lieutenant.” There was a hint of amusement in Blue’s voice as he uncrossed his long legs and strolled across to the World map displayed behind the colonel. “Neighbouring pillars of fire – and we know Etna is already active to the point of being a danger to the surrounding area, that was the reason it was chosen to pilot the effectiveness of the pacifiers – or so I believe. And let’s not forget Stromboli -the latest reports say that volcano has been more active of late, as has Vesuvius… across the bay here, very close to Naples.” He tapped the map with one finger. “It is just conceivable that a major eruption at Etna would destabilise the area and provoke the other volcanoes into erupting too – with, as the good Lieutenant so aptly says, catastrophic results. Apart from that, sir,” he glanced at Magenta with a satisfied smirk, “I am as much in the dark as everyone else. I really know very little about volcanoes. Isn’t that the case, Captain Magenta?”

Magenta barely looked up from the folder he was studying and growled, “No doubt, Captain Blue.”

“If you read the daily update reports, Captain, you would know rather more than you claim to. You would know, for instance, about the possibility of a ‘terrorist’ assault on the pacifier. Warnings have been received by the Italian authorities and that is why Spectrum already has a presence on Etna.” The colonel looked with grave warning at the two Americans. “I do not want another incident to explain to the World Security Council.”

This time Magenta did look up, and growled, “Your meaning, Colonel? Are you suggesting we have any connection with this threat?”

Colonel White met the challenging stare with a forthright one of his own. It was Magenta who looked away, a dull flush on his cheeks as he studied his folder once more.

Blue ignored them and walked back to the colonel’s desk. “How do you propose we combat this threat, Colonel?”

Scarlet glanced surreptitiously at the colonel, wondering how he would deal with such a leading question.

Colonel White kept his tone as neutral as Blue’s had been. “There is already a security cordon in place around Etna – it comprises of a few of our men and a contingent from the local WAAF base. Therefore, as the threat is now from the Mysterons, it would seem prudent to increase our presence – to prevent any Mysteron agents from destroying or interfering with the pacifier. I also propose to send a second team down, to protect Professor Gaspari – Captain Grey, you will lead that team,” he paused, “and as for the Etna team…”

“I would like to volunteer, sir.”

“You, Captain Blue?” The colonel’s surprise was not feigned. “I understood you are still on the sick list.”

“Happily, Doctor Fawn has certified me as fit for duty this very evening. I am sure the paperwork is on its way, as we speak, sir.”

The colonel gave the tall American an icy stare. Blue worked when he wanted to and if he told Fawn he wanted to be declared unfit, a certificate would duly appear on the colonel’s desk the next morning. He had no doubt that a certificate of fitness could appear just as readily.

“How fortunate, Captain. Very well, I think you ought to go along – with Captain Ochre, Symphony Angel and… Lieutenant Scarlet.”

“Do I have to work with him?” Ochre protested, glaring at the smirking Blue with genuine loathing.

“Captain Ochre, now is not the time for personal animosities,” Colonel White said sharply. “Many thousands of lives will be at risk if we fail to stop this Mysteron threat. I trust you and Captain Blue to work together with all diligence.”

“I have no problem with that,” Blue said, looking hurt. “I am only sorry that Captain Ochre still finds it within himself to harbour such a grudge against me. I was only doing my duty at the Car-Vu, after all.”

“Oh, can it, you sanctimonious hypocrite!” Ochre snarled.

“Captain Ochre!” The colonel’s anger was not feigned this time.

Ochre’s dark eyes met the colonel’s fierce blue ones and, after a short struggle, fell. “I apologise,” he muttered.

“And I accept,” Blue grinned.

“I wasn’t apologising to you…”

“Hey, when you two schoolboys have stopped playing one-upmanship games with each other, we have a job to do.” Symphony Angel stood and tugged her uniform jacket down over her ample hips. “Come on Sky, Oaks – let’s get a move on. Lieutenant Scarlet, can we leave you to sort an SPJ out? Half-an-hour in hangar two, you guys, and the last one there is a cissy!”

She strolled out of the room with an air of indifference and Flaxen, following her out, was heard to mutter, “Sometimes, I think she’s the only one around here with any balls.”

The men all avoided looking at each other and busied themselves gathering their belongings, prior to leaving the room.

Apparently in a hurry to get to the hangar and perform the pre-take off checks, Scarlet hurried after Symphony. Hearing his call she stopped and waited for him. He saw the gleam of intelligence in her hazel-green eyes as she watched him approach. Remembering Ochre’s assessment of her, he found himself warming to this woman. He had always liked Karen Wainwright; they had a lot in common in many ways – quite apart from their friendship with Adam Svenson.

“I need your help…” he began with a quick smile.

“Forgotten if the hangars are in the same place in this universe?” she asked quietly, a sceptical smile on her unusually pallid face.

He grimaced. So Ochre had guessed right and Colonel White had told her. “Very funny, Symphony.” He returned her smile. “No, I’m thinking about Lieutenant Garnet… as you are aware of our predicament, you must realise that this may be our best chance to get back through the portal. I have no idea what triggered the switch between my reality and yours, but I’m betting it won’t be there for ever…”

“You intend to use this opportunity to leave us, Captain?” There was an edge to her voice that revealed her disapproval.

“Believe me, I want to stop the Mysterons any way I can, and anywhere I can. But, once that part of the mission is over… would you deny that I have the right to seek a way back to my own world?”

She glanced away momentarily. “No, I guess you have the right to do that – after you’ve helped us sort this threat out. Fair’s fair, after all.”

He smiled at her. “Yes,” he said, thinking that Symphony was not always so level-headed. “So you must understand that I can’t leave Garnet here. Yet, I’m sure I’m not authorized to sanction her discharge from sick-bay.”

She nodded. “And you assume I am?” She drew a deep breath and said, “I don’t pretend to understand what game you are playing, Captain Scarlet, but the colonel says you are to be trusted – for now – so… you can leave it to me. I have my orders too. It would be for the best if only we two knew about this for now. I wish I had been in time to stop you telling everything to Captain Blue… the Agency may have other plans for the pair of you, and we don’t want them interfering.” She paused and dropped her voice to a whisper. “By the way, you have realised you’re being followed, haven’t you? Magenta isn’t going to risk losing you or Garnet, if you are from another dimension and if you are our Scarlet, he still wants you dead. I would advise you to keep clear of Lieutenant Cobalt; he is not a nice man. I’ll fetch Garnet, whilst you go and get the jet sorted. We’ll meet you in hangar two in ten minutes. If you can distract Cobalt for a while, it’ll make it easier.”

“Distract as in… render unconscious?”

She shrugged. “Whatever you can manage, Scarlet. If Cobalt doesn’t carry out his orders he’ll end up having to explain it to Magenta and Patrick will, no doubt, express his annoyance in his usual way. Still, broken fingers do mend… eventually.”

“Symphony…”

She looked up at him, “Yes?”

“Thanks… for everything.”

“Wait until we’ve done it, Paul, then you can be as grateful as you like!” She suddenly reached out and patted his cheek, winked and resumed her unhurried stroll to the escalators.

Scarlet watched until she had disappeared and the others had pushed past him and gone their separate ways. He turned towards the conference room, where Ochre and the colonel were still busily discussing something or other and caught sight of Cobalt hovering along the corridor. With a sigh he turned and walked slowly towards the hangar, planning exactly how he would distract the young Nigerian.

By the time Symphony arrived at the hangar ready to depart, the other members of the away team were already there but, Scarlet grinned, no-one called her a cissy as she threw a holdall into the passenger compartment and moved to the cockpit.

“If I can’t fly myself, I want to be where I can prevent anyone else crashing the plane,” she said, looking sourly at Captain Blue who was going through the final instrument checks. “I don’t suppose…” she began.

“Quite right,” he replied absently as he reset a dial and then glanced up at her. “I fly my own plane, Symphony. Always have done, always will.”

“Don’t I know it,” she replied. She strapped herself into the co-pilot’s seat and tapped a series of codes into the console as the jet was raised to the flight deck. “Ready when you are, Sky. Let’s take her up.”

Lieutenant Green gave them flight clearance and the jet taxied smoothly along the deck and sailed seamlessly into the wide, blue expanse of the cloudless sky. Scarlet gave a slight nod of acknowledgement – Real Adam couldn’t have handled the take-off better – the colonel had been right to say Blue was a good pilot.

The SPJ banked away from Cloudbase, framing the huge craft in a halo of brilliant sunlight before the base disappeared from sight as they headed for the Italian coast. Sitting next to Ochre in the passenger seats, Scarlet mused on the forthcoming mission with some trepidation.

Chapter Two

Symphony was waiting for Captain Blue as he emerged from the cabin in his wetsuit. Silently she handed him his mask and fins. He smiled his thanks, too unsure of her mood to risk speaking. She threw her arms round him and whispered in his ear, “Take care of yourself and I hope you find Paul. But if it is a choice between him or you, I am going to be really selfish and hope you make it back.”

He hugged her. “Oh, I’ll be back; someone has to keep you in check…”

She thumped him playfully, and then presented her face for his kiss. Oblivious to the audience they had acquired, he kissed her and she broke away with a smile. Troy indicated the entrance to the airlock with a gesture that invited the Spectrum officer to go first and, as Blue turned to go, Symphony playfully slapped his backside.

“No flirting with any pretty mermaids…” she teased, hiding her fears for his safety under levity – as usual.

The divers left Stingray using the sea-bugs. Captain Blue had never used one before and it took him a few attempts to manoeuvre the individual jet-motor correctly and stretch out behind it so that it towed him along through the water. He could hear Tempest chuckling at his ungainly actions over his microphone. Having finally mastered the technique, he gave the aquanaut the thumbs up and they moved away from Stingray into the open sea.

The current was even stronger than Blue remembered and controlling the machine was quite a task initially. He followed in Troy’s slipstream as the aquanaut led the way towards the jumble of jagged boulders that lay at the foot of the volcanic coastline. They searched along the sea-bed but saw no sign of Captain Scarlet.

Suddenly Tempest waved Blue to a halt and, handing him his sea-bug, he dived to the sea-bed, coming back with the underwater map the Spectrum officers had used for their initial search of the wreckage area. “I’ll give this to Phones, it’ll save his duplicating the effort,” he said over the radio. Blue nodded and watched as Tempest turned his sea-bug around and headed for the sub once more.

Left alone, Blue decided to use the time investigating his immediate surroundings. He could see how the escarpment seemed to fall away into a precipitous trench, a few metres beyond where he was. He edged forward to determine the extent of the drop. He had not moved very far when there was a deep, bone-shaking rumble and the water around him began to seethe. Huge jets of boiling water exploded from crevices, like some geological Jacuzzi, and his surroundings grew perceptibly warmer, as the sudden flood entered the straits. Influenced by the rising tides, a strong wave buffeted at him and he began to spin uncontrollably in the undertow. The sea-bug was torn from his desperate grasp and spun away to crash onto the rocks below. He tried to swim against the insistent pull but made little headway against the increasingly turbulent current. Then the water seemed to heave, as if a giant wave was breaking over him and he was hurled towards the serrated rocks. Desperately he kicked out and sobbed with relief as he cleared the razor-edged outcrop. He felt sure he could break clear now, but without warning the current changed and the water, spinning him like a top, dragged him down into the inky depths beyond the ridge.

“S.I.R!” he screamed into his radio mic as he fought the overpowering force of the tide. His regulator was torn from his mouth and he was slammed against a cave wall, with a force that expelled the remaining air from his lungs. He saw a distant bank of shingle, against which the ‘wave’ was breaking with a force that deafened him, and he struggled towards it, desperate for air. This was worse than anything he’d experienced in all his years of diving and water sports, and he was as close to drowning as he had ever been. Bracing himself for the impact, he let the water fling him up on to the bank. Gasping for breath, he struggled to crawl a few feet away from the drag of the retreating tide but lay too exhausted to move further as the next breaker roared into the cave and pounded him into unconsciousness.

~oo0oo~

Arriving at the WAAF base on Sicily, the Spectrum away team disembarked and started unloading their equipment from the SPJ, whilst auxiliary ground agents stowed it into the vehicles already waiting for their use.

Captain Ochre was over-seeing the operation, issuing orders in a stentorian bellow. Scarlet smiled to see that even Captain Blue was lending a hand with the manual labour. He got the distinct impression from Symphony’s expression that this did not happen very often.

Whilst everyone was busy, he went back into the plane and knocked briefly on the door of the emergency medical compartment, which he had configured in the adaptable space of the passenger cabin, before they left Cloudbase.

Lieutenant Garnet opened the door and emerged into the main cabin with a tentative smile. “We’re here?” she asked. When he nodded, she continued, “Do they know I am here?”

“No, I thought we would let that be our little surprise…” Scarlet winked at her. “There was no way you were going to be left behind, Claudia,” he reassured her. “If Symphony hadn’t been prepared to collect you from sick-bay I would have found a way to fetch you myself. There is no way of knowing if we can ever find a way back, but I am sure as hell that if anyone has a right to be here when we try – it is you.”

“Symphony told me that Colonel White has stipulated we must help deal with the Mysteron threat to the pacifier, before we could begin to look for the portal,” she explained. She wondered if he knew that the Angel pilot had pumped her for information all the time she was accompanying her down to the hangar bay. It had been a relief to explain about her captivity and escape to such a sympathetic listener, that she had, perhaps, said more than she should concerning Captain Scarlet’s remarkable abilities. But Symphony had shown so little surprise on hearing the information that she suspected the captain had told her himself.

When they had reached the hangar bay, Symphony had noted with satisfaction that Scarlet was alone and had left him to stow Garnet away on the plane – hurrying away to collect her own things before her tardiness became too noticeable.

Now, as she emerged with Captain Scarlet into the bright, Mediterranean sunlight, Garnet wondered if she had done the right thing after all. No-one seemed very pleased to see her, indeed, Captain Ochre’s face showed a mixture of alarm and concern at the sight of her.

He began to berate Scarlet. “What on earth are you thinking of? I’m sure Lieutenant Garnet can’t have recovered enough to undertake this mission. Besides, we don’t have time to make allowances for any officers unable to keep up,” he insisted as he gazed at the young woman. Garnet blushed with embarrassment, although whether it was caused by his words or his gaze it wasn’t possible to say.

“If anyone has the right to be here when we investigate the possibility of making the return journey to our own dimension, it is Lieutenant Garnet,” Scarlet said calmly, in the face of Ochre’s continuing bluster. “And if you must know, I asked Symphony to fetch her to join us. She was doing me a favour.”

Ochre turned angrily towards Symphony. “I was happy to do it,” the Angel pilot commented blandly, with a look at her colleague that should have been enough to calm his agitation. It didn’t, primarily, she imagined, because he was actually more unsettled by the presence of the woman than he was worried about the consequences to his mission. She pursed her lips and held her tongue realising that, even knowing that this woman wasn’t the same Claudia Vecchio as the one he had been in love with, was not making it any easier for Ochre to ignore her.

Then, much to everyone’s surprise, Blue echoed Ochre’s doubts. This was one reproof too many for Symphony – she wasn’t prepared to make allowances for this captain’s feelings – and, in response to his reproof; she jerked one hand towards him, the middle finger extended.

Scarlet smothered a laugh.

Garnet sighed and wondered if Captain Ochre didn’t have a point after all. She was feeling much better than when the rescue team had found them; but she knew she was still weak. When Symphony had arrived in sick bay with the news that Captain Scarlet was returning to Etna, she had panicked, wondering if she would to be left alone in this new reality. But now, in the face of Ochre and Blue’s disapproval, she began to doubt the wisdom of her decision and she moved to stand closer to Captain Scarlet. He gave her a reassuring smile and she felt grateful that he seemed to understand her.

Ochre continued to look angrily at the Angel and said, “Then I hope you will do me the favour of explaining that to the colonel, instead of expecting me to do it. He thinks we are all here primarily to stop the Mysterons from carrying out their threat. And, anything that might hamper that aim is to be regretted. Besides, I don’t believe he expected you to turn this into a chance to go inter-dimensional pot-holing. At least, not until we have definitely stopped the Mysterons dead in their tracks…”

Scarlet interrupted peremptorily. “If I can do anything to help stop the Mysterons carrying out their threat, I will, rest assured, Captain. Yet, I am sure you’ll understand if I say, to me, getting myself and Garnet back to where we belong is equally important.”

Ochre shrugged and turned his back on his companions; it had unsettled him to see Claudia and he was fighting hard to stay in control.

Anxious to patch things up with the – at least nominal – commander of this mission, Scarlet moved closer and glanced surreptitiously at Blue before adding quietly, “I can understand why you are concerned… you doubt his intentions?”

Ochre shrugged. He did not yet trust Scarlet enough to confide everything to him. Besides, it was too late to do much about it now. Claudia was here and he would just have to make the best of it. He considered that his mission was already hampered by a team that consisted of an independent and strong-willed woman, a man determined to go his own way and a fellow officer, whose primary allegiance, it seemed, was to the enemy. Now he had the additional burden of a semi-invalid. He knew he was going to have to exert himself to keep command of this eclectic group.

He turned to the SSC the auxiliary had brought across the tarmac. “It is gonna be a squash in there,” he grumbled.

“Three in the front and then there is still room in the back for the equipment,” Symphony said briskly. “Who’s going to drive?”

The three men glanced at each other. “Me,” Blue said firmly and demanded the keys from the hovering security guard.

“Nothing new there, then,” Scarlet muttered and followed Blue to the car.

After a certain amount of discussion, Scarlet and Ochre ended up amongst the equipment in the back seats whilst the women sat with Blue in the front.

Scarlet noticed that the three security guards who had met the plane followed behind in a second SSC; clearly, Ochre was taking no chances of being outnumbered by others with differing aims on this mission. Although he knew he shouldn’t have been surprised the colonel had given instructions that the search for the portal must wait until after the resolution of this mission – it was, after all, what he would have expected from his own colonel, if he was honest about it – he couldn’t help feeling worried that any delay in getting back through the portal might jeopardise their chances of ever returning.

He was cautiously hopeful that they would find a way to get back, but quite how he was going to communicate with his Captain Blue and the rescue team he was sure would be searching for them, was another matter. He could only hope that although he had travelled back in time, when they found a portal it would take them back to the date he had disappeared…. Otherwise they could spend a year waiting for Adam to even be in the right place… always assuming his disappearance hadn’t altered the timeline in his own dimension, of course. It was a nightmare.

Squashed in the back of the SSC, nursing a kit bag on his lap, Captain Scarlet frowned and tried to look on the bright side of things… before deciding, with uncharacteristic pessimism, that he couldn’t think of any.

~oo0oo~

At the camp at the base of the volcano, where restless waves crashed against the black shoreline, sending perpetual clouds of steam hissing into the air, Scarlet recognised the outcrop of jagged rocks that guarded the entrances to the interlocking tunnels and caves which honeycombed the mountain. There were more Spectrum Auxiliary guards around the area and a portacabin not far away – which was obviously their HQ – a far cry from the hi-tech surroundings of Cloudbase, he thought, as he surveyed the area.

Under the watchful eye of the guards they unloaded the ropes, hard hats and powerful flashlights from the SSC. It quickly became apparent that there were not enough hats to go around.

“You can use mine,” Scarlet said to Garnet, automatically holding out the bright yellow headgear, with its distinctive Spectrum logo at the front.

She reached to take it from him, but Ochre stopped her and handed her his. “Better that you use mine,” he said brusquely, with a significant twitch of his eyebrows at Scarlet. “I’m not likely to get killed by falling rocks, am I?”

Scarlet, remembering that Blue – and possibly Symphony – remained in ignorance of his power of retrometabolism, obediently plonked his hat back on his dark hair and winked at Garnet. She cringed at the thought that she might have ‘blown his cover’ with the Angel pilot. With a sinking heart she put her hat on and watched as the others finished the preparations for their entrance to the tunnels.

The entrance was wide and easy to negotiate but within a few metres, the passage divided. The wider of the two was almost completely blocked by a rock fall and the other was a mere crevice. With Ochre leading the way, they shuffled along in single file and frequently had to crawl. There were frequent clangs as hard hat met rock and Captain Blue was not the only one cursing fluently by the time they emerged into a small, dark cavern.

Scarlet found it hard to remember the exact route they had taken, but he couldn’t recall the way out being quite so treacherous.

Garnet, already wilting with the heat and exertion, leaned against the rock face and said to him, “I don’t remember much about being carried from the caves earlier, Captain, but it never seemed this bad.”

Ochre turned at hearing her comment, and answered before Scarlet, “No, it wasn’t this way. We came out before via a more direct route, which was subsequently blocked. You saw, back there, that wider passage, blocked by the rock fall? We came out through there; it intersects with the passages we used, some way down the tunnel system. This is now the only way down into the main cavern, and from there we have to climb back to that intersection to link with the tunnel with the pacifier in. It’s possible that the whole tunnel will be blocked by a fall eventually, so there are plans to drill a secure route through to the pacifier’s chamber but they hadn’t got very far when the tremor brought this roof down.”

“He waits until now to tell us that,” Blue muttered, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Hey, you know what? I am hoping that whatever happens here, you manage to get trapped inside this mountain until you learn some manners!”

“Oh, now I’m worried,” Blue mocked. He straightened up to his full height in response to Ochre’s aggressive stance.

“Hey!” Symphony moved between them. “If he gets trapped we’ll all be trapped – so unless you two want to spend your last hours fighting each other, stop it!”

“They won’t be my last hours…” Ochre taunted. Blue darted towards him, but Scarlet stepped next to Symphony and they formed a barrier between the warring Americans. He laid a hand on Blue’s chest and pushed him away.

“She’s right, Blue. We all want to get out of here in one piece, and to do that we need to co-operate. Now, let’s move on again, shall we? Does anyone have any idea where we go from here?”

Ochre produced a sketch map and waved it under their noses, “This is as good as it gets… Flaxen and I drew this before we left Cloudbase. We based this on the official charts the authorities produced, when they installed the machine, but of course, since then some tunnels have collapsed and others opened. We simplified it, to make it easier to follow,” Ochre explained to Symphony as she took the paper and squinted at it under the light from her torch.

She grimaced, “You failed then, Oaks… this looks like nothing so much as two spiders dancing a jig…”

Sniggering, Scarlet peered over her shoulder. “I see what you mean, all right, but look, I think you’ll find that…” he turned the map the other way round, “now it looks slightly more comprehensible… that circle must represent the cave we are in now. The pacifier looks to be over in that direction, through those tunnels coming off from the next large cave, the entrance to which, ought to be in that direction. The cavern Garnet and I are looking for, to find the portal, is across there and down a further tunnel,” he said to Symphony, who nodded her head in rueful agreement.

“What is it with women and maps?” Blue murmured to no-one in particular.

“You are coming to check the pacifier with me?” Ochre sought confirmation from his colleagues.

Blue gave a derisive snort. “Are you saying you’d trust me anywhere near it?” he asked Ochre.

“Personally, I wouldn’t trust you anywhere,” came the immediate reply.

“Stop it!” Symphony snarled at them both, “Before I knock your heads together.”

“I will come with you, Captain, although I suggest that Lieutenant Garnet remains here. Perhaps you would be kind enough to stay with her, Symphony?” Scarlet said.

“Hey, no…” the Angel protested.

Ochre over-ruled her, “Scarlet is right, she can’t traipse about after us… please, Karen, stay with her…” He placed a hand on the Angel’s arm. Her indecision was clearly visible on her face, but as she glanced across at the exhausted Garnet, she nodded her head. “Thank you,” Ochre said simply.

“I am sorry,” Garnet said to her. “I know how much you’d rather be going with them…”

“It’s all right,” Symphony replied. “They’ll need someone to protect their cute butts for them, anyway and you need to conserve your strength for the climb to the other cavern and the portal home. Let’s move over there and find a better place to sit this out…”

She shouldered one of the canvas knapsacks and started across the rock-strewn floor in the direction of the far tunnel entrances. Garnet trailed after. Their progress was slow for the floor of the cavern was littered with fallen rocks of all sizes, many with edges sharp enough to slice the flesh of any unwary person who slipped and fell.

The officers watched the women until they were the best part of the way across the cavern. Symphony stopped frequently to assist her weaker companion and at one point they both turned and waved at the officers. All three men waved back.

“She’s a nice girl…” Scarlet commented. Ochre glared at him and with a smile he explained, “Symphony is a nice girl. She really wanted to stay with us, but she knew Garnet couldn’t have kept up.”

“Yeah, well, she’s responsible for bringing Claudia along in the first place. And as I told you – except for one unaccountable weakness – she’s the best of the Angels.” Ochre cast a glance at Captain Blue.

The tall American sighed. “I’ve known far worse women,” he agreed.

Scarlet’s eyebrows rose as he detected a softening in Blue’s expression. Maybe this Adam wasn’t as indifferent to this Karen as he liked to make out?

They shouldered the other knapsacks and turned to begin the steep climb to the mouth of the tunnel that led to the pacifier. They had barely gone a few metres when a gunshot echoed around the cavern and there was a scream from one of the women.

Three heads spun around. Symphony was down, shielding Garnet. That they were both alive was confirmed as they began to crawl up the slope to the mouth of a large tunnel. Several shots hit the rocks around them, causing them to drop flat again.

Peering in the direction of the shots they were able to make out the figure of a man near the mouth of the first tunnel. He was armed with an automatic weapon and was firing at the women. To reach him they would have to cross largely open terrain, which would be suicide, but, Scarlet realised, there was a slim chance he could reach the women and try to protect them.

He didn’t hesitate. Dropping his kit bag and his hard hat, he set off at a run towards Symphony and Garnet, dodging behind boulders and zigzagging across the open ground. Captain Blue, following close behind, stopped after a few paces, crouched behind a sizeable rock and drew his pistol from his holster. He fired off a few shots in the general direction of the gunman, which, although he was too far away for them to be very effective, did succeed in diverting the gunman’s attention and drawing his fire away from the women.

It also put both Scarlet and himself in the firing line.

Pausing to fire off another round, Blue squinted at the distant figure and gave a gasp of recognition. “Ruffolo!” That can only mean that Magenta is behind this attack…which could make things difficult, he thought. Doggedly, he followed Captain Scarlet, who was now some distance ahead.

Ochre watched the other officers disappear with exasperation. His shouts of “Wait!” had been lost in the echoes of further shooting. Cursing, he began to follow, but a series of near misses from a second – and so far unseen – gunman forced him back towards the tunnels leading to the pacifier. Realising that this second gunman could easily outflank his colleagues, he drew his own pistol and fired off a blistering hail of bullets in the general direction of the assassins.

Come on, Punk, he thought desperately, you come after me and I will have you!

He glanced back into the darkness of the cave’s interior and, praying that Scarlet and Blue would be able to protect the women, he darted into the tunnel leading to the pacifier and waited at the first bend, confident that his assailant had followed him.

~oo0oo~

Oblivious of the drama being played out in the caverns beneath their feet, the Italian security guards on the surface watched with some surprise as an SPV approached their portacabin HQ. They had had no notification from Cloudbase, or even the office in Naples, to expect reinforcements. However, any addition to the complement here was welcome. They all had to spend their thirty minutes in the tunnels close to the pacifier and even with the ear-defenders the noise and unrelenting thump of the machine was unbearable after the shortest time. The possibility that they would have less time down there was a welcome one.

So it came as a complete shock when the SPV cannon slid from the front grill and blasted the portacabin to smithereens. The surviving security man from Cloudbase tried desperately to contact any member of the tunnel party, but there was too much interference for his personal radio to be effective and the base’s powerful radio was in the smoking ruins of the portacabin

Those men who had not been in the building ran for cover. They watched as the SPV driving seat descended and a tall, dark-haired man emerged from the SPV – a man dressed in a black Spectrum uniform. With ruthless concentration, he moved across the site, and picked off every surviving agent. As the last man drew his final breath, two pale green rings of light shimmered over the devastation and the ruined building rose once more on its foundations.

Captain Black watched with an expressionless face as the green rings travelled over the dead bodies and one by one the Mysteron agents clambered to their feet. They turned their dead eyes on their leader and, in obedience to his unspoken command, dragged the corpses of their human selves towards a gaping fissure that had recently opened in the volcano wall. With no apparent sentiment, they slung the bodies into the molten rock beneath their feet and watched them incinerate in the primordial furnace.

Captain Black then walked towards the entrance to the warren of tunnels and disappeared inside. Two of the newly created Mysteron agents followed him.

~oo0oo~

Once the officers had opened fire against the assassins, and the bullets had stopped flying around their heads, Symphony encouraged Garnet to crawl along towards the nearest tunnel mouth. “We can hide in there, Claudia… it’s not far.”

There was the sound of more gunshots echoing around the cave and they could just hear Scarlet’s voice yelling, “Get under cover! Hide!”

“The men’ll be coming to help us,” Symphony said with more assurance than she felt. They edged their way to the tunnel, and as another flurry of bullets bounced around them, Symphony pushed Garnet into a narrow fissure in the tunnel wall. “Quick, hide in there!”

The dark-haired American slipped into the gloom and moments later Symphony followed….

From the sparse cover of the boulders on the cavern floor, Scarlet saw the women vanish into a slit in the rock face. “Good girl, Karen…” Scarlet muttered. “Now, what do we do about the gunman?” He turned to Blue.

“There are two of them; one has just gone after Ochre… he went into the tunnels leading to the pacifier. Maybe we should go after them?”

“And leave the girls to the mercy of that madman?”

“It’s Ruffolo,” Blue admitted, “one of Magenta’s main henchman … I suspect he’s under orders to kill us all.”

“Carlo Ruffolo is the second in command at Spectrum Naples. He’s a nice guy who wouldn’t hurt a fly,” Scarlet said with some surprise.

“Maybe your Ruffolo wouldn’t,” Blue said sourly. “That man – that Ruffolo – is a member of Magenta’s agency. He’s killed several times on command, to my knowledge. Magenta moved him to Naples when the colonel posted Garnet there. If he is here, it’s because Magenta sent him – he wouldn’t leave the command HQ without instructions from the Agency.”

Almost as if he had heard the words, Ruffolo suddenly extended his gun arm and fired towards the crouching men. The bullet went wild and ricocheted around the boulders at the foot of the shingle bank. The officers dived for cover. Ruffolo fired again.

“Well, that proves he’s probably been told to kill us all,” Blue called to Scarlet where he was hiding behind a nearby rock.

“Me, sure and even you, at a pinch, but why harm the women?”

“If you are from another dimension, so is Garnet… As for Symphony – Well, Pat’s patience is easily exhausted and she’s been a thorn in the side of the Agency for some time now. I’m afraid that he doesn’t put his personal feelings before his money making schemes,” Blue explained absently as he busied himself reloading his pistol. He glanced up at Scarlet. “Besides, she may have told him to go to Hell once too often.”

“Would you care if she’s hurt?”

“Of course I would!” There was a flash of anger in his face. “She’s my friend.”

Scarlet gave a thoughtful glance. “If you say so,” he agreed mildly.

He yelped in surprise as another bullet whizzed past. “He’s not really aiming anywhere,” he snapped. There was a distinct rumble behind them as the noise and the impact of the bullets unsettled the fragile stability of the cavern. A large boulder rolled ponderously down the slope. “If he goes on like this he’ll have the roof down,” he concluded.

“What makes you think he isn’t aiming on purpose?” Blue commented, fixing a device to the barrel of his gun. He shifted his position and rested his arm on the rock in front of him, closed one eye and took careful aim.

“You’re too far away to make the shot count…” Scarlet advised just as Blue pulled the trigger. The bullet hit Ruffolo’s arm and he dropped the gun. “Nice shooting,” he complimented with some surprise. “That will certainly win you a goldfish…” He peered at the Spectrum issue pistol, wondering if it was the same as the one he carried. He doubted that would have made the shot.

Blue’s teeth flashed in the gloom as he grinned. “No thanks,” he said, “I gave up goldfish for Lent… besides, I was aiming for his head…”

Ruffolo, hurt, angered and frustrated, began to spray bullets wildly in their general direction. More rocks began to tumble down the slope.

“Let’s get out of here,” Blue suggested. “We should be able to find another of those crevices to slip into. Then, if Ruffolo wants to carry on with his assault, he’ll have to come closer and… I’ll have him!” He led the scramble towards the nearest part of the tunnel and slid into the narrow crevice on the opposite side of the wall from that the women had chosen.

Following close behind Scarlet edged into the gap too and experienced an unusual crackle of static. He glanced back and to his consternation saw that the wall seemed to be closing behind them as the tunnel they had entered became indistinct and hazy. He turned to alert Blue, but the American had vanished. Now thoroughly disconcerted, he shuffled along until he could see a dim light ahead. With a gasp of astonished relief, he stepped out onto a paved street.

Chapter Three

Captain Blue was standing a short distance away, his hand raised to his head, his hard hat pushed back from his brow as he stared around at their surroundings. Scarlet remained where he was for a moment and then, gingerly stepped backwards into the crevice… he felt the static electricity spark over his body as the distant light diminished once more. It seemed that he could move through the crevice unhindered and so he stepped out once more onto the street and looked around him with interest, making good note of just where the entrance to their escape route was.

The first thing that struck him about their new location was the devastation. All around, the buildings were in ruins and the streets littered with debris, burning cars and dead bodies. In the distance, sirens wailed and the sound of gunfire was just audible.

“We must’ve landed in a war zone,” Blue said, wrinkling his nose against the smell.

“Whereabouts do you think we are?” Scarlet asked, surveying the ruined landscape with a frown. “I have to say I don’t remember Adam and me coming to anywhere like this.”

When there was no answer from the man at his side, he turned to look at him. The colour had drained from Blue’s face and there was a look of horror in his pale eyes. He was staring at the partially demolished gate of a house across the road and he moved towards it in a kind of daze. Sensing his companion might have recognised the location, and that it might not be a good idea for them to get separated in this devastation, Scarlet followed him.

After a few minutes of intense silence, he ventured to ask, “Captain Blue, do you know where we are? Is this a part of your life?” It was a silly question really, Blue was moving with a definite purpose.

He turned and looked with bleak eyes at the Englishman, and nodded. “Yes, I know where this is. This is Boston and that,” he pointed at the gutted wreck of the house beyond the wall, “that is what’s left of my home.”

Scarlet turned in shocked alarm to look at the house again. Now that he was really looking at it, he could recognise what was left of the house he had visited a couple of times with Adam. The windows and door were blown out and the gardens, which had always been so immaculate, were full of bomb craters and debris.

“Adam, before we go over,” he ordered, “hand me your hat… we’ll leave it just by the tunnel… I don’t want us to get lost here.”

Blue nodded and spun the hat like a Frisbee across the gap between them, and then strode across the pot-holed street.

Scarlet caught him up as he marched up the drive, his hand resting on his gun – Blue was obviously taking no chances.

They pushed their way over the rubble and into the hallway. From unconscious habit, Blue turned left into what Scarlet remembered as the comfortable main living room. The place had obviously been looted after the bomb damage – broken pieces of furniture and torn fabrics scattered the floor. He jumped as Blue gave an inarticulate cry and suddenly strode across to the ruins of a picture, thrown down by a marble fireplace. He picked it up and wiped it with his hand, gently brushing the dust and rubble from the canvas.

One side was torn from its gilt frame completely and the other side bore a jagged hole in one corner, evidently where someone’s heel had ripped through the canvas. It was a portrait and Scarlet, coming to investigate, could see enough of the face to recognise the wavy, light brown hair and bright, grey eyes of Adam’s mother. No motionless picture could really do Sarah Svenson justice – her beauty came from the animation of her features and the particular brilliance of her warm smile – but he could see that this had been a fine portrait, painted by someone who had understood the sitter and striven to give an illusion of her vivacious charm.

He looked at Blue and wondered if he knew the portrait. He had no idea how old Sarah had been when this was painted but he knew that in Blue’s world she had died when he was young.

“Your mother,” he whispered. “It’s a good likeness.”

Blue glanced at him with a fierce possessiveness in his eyes. “You said you knew her – is this the woman you knew?”

Scarlet nodded. “Yes, I would say so. It looks like the Sarah I have met.”

“I have never seen this before. This woman is older than my momma was when… when I lost her.” There were unshed tears in his eyes as he gazed at the ruined picture.

To Scarlet, his comments held the proof that they had managed to change dimensions by stepping through the crevice. He wrestled with the questions that presented. If Blue doesn’t know this portrait – is this the future of my world? The thought sent chills down his spine. He looked around seeking some indication of when this was and how the place had come to be ruined.

Blue was murmuring to himself, as he cleaned the debris from the picture and gently set it on the chipped mantelpiece. “She looks…happy. My poor, darling, momma was never happy. Not after we lost Pete.” He looked at his silent companion and asked the same question Scarlet had been pondering on. “Is this the dimension you expected to find?”

“No, when I left my world, Boston, and indeed everywhere else, was very much intact. Unless…” he paused, “the Mysterons somehow managed to use the pacifier we thought we had destroyed to set the world’s volcanoes into action and… this is the result. You see, when I arrived in your dimension, the date was a year behind the place I had left…”

“You didn’t think to mention that?” Blue frowned at him.

Scarlet shrugged. “It never struck me as important until now.”

“So, this might be your future…” He turned back to the picture. “I wonder if she is still alive here. I would give anything to see her again. You see, Scarlet, I never even got to say good-bye. My father never even went to the funeral and he refused to allow me to go – ‘needlessly parading our private grief’, he called it. I was twelve years old – I needed someone to notice my grief! I didn’t care how she had died!” He looked apologetically at the surprised Scarlet. “I guess it’s no great secret – it’s a matter of public record, after all – but my mother killed herself. After Pete’s death and the still-born baby – she suffered a series of miscarriages and it was all too much for her, I guess. My father was devastated and he destroyed everything he had that reminded him of her. I have nothing, nothing left of my mother.” He brushed a hand over his eyes and rested his head against the cold marble.

If that has been festering in Adam’s mind for twenty-odd years, it explains a lot, Scarlet thought. He rested his hand on the tall man’s bent shoulder, only to have it shrugged away. Feeling like an intruder in such a raw grief, Scarlet turned away.

Watching them from the doorway, a gun pointed towards them, was an unkempt, bearded figure of a man – a tall, blond man – wearing an ill assorted collection of clothes over a gaunt frame. His long hair was drawn back from his face in a rough ponytail and Scarlet could see that one eye was useless, cloudy and dead in that stern face. Scarlet moved a step closer and stared in a horrified disbelief as he made out the faint line of a scar along his temple.

“My God,” he breathed. “Adam….”

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” the man croaked, cocking the pistol. At the sound of the voice, Blue spun round and stared across the room at the untidy figure before him.

The stranger narrowed his one good eye and stared back, a fearful terror beginning to flow over his features. “Filthy Mysterons….” he spat.

“No, Adam, wait!” Scarlet cried, stepping into the line of fire as the man aimed the pistol at Blue.

“Why should I? Your kind has killed everyone I cared about and destroyed everything good in this World. I didn’t think you’d bother to come after me after the last encounter we had, but, God knows, your malevolence knows no bounds, does it?”

“We are not Mysterons…” Scarlet attempted to reassure him. “Please, listen to us and if you don’t believe us – we will go and leave you in peace.”

Svenson’s laugh was heavy with hate and scorn. “Peace? There is no peace in the world anymore, thanks to your kind!”

“Where is my mother?” Blue asked urgently moving towards the door way. “The woman in that portrait – where is she?”

“She is not your mother, scum