Grunt Work

Wild Bird Chase

Given that the Thunderbird had sworn to kill me, I probably shouldn't have run straight towards the fires. But I'm a grunt. It's my job, you know? I don't think I could disappoint the kaptain by not doing what was expected of me.

I made a quick stop by the armoury to put on my body armour and equip myself with a machine gun, then headed to the dungeon.

There was no more dungeon.

There was a crater. I stood at the lip and looked down to see a huge abyss that was lit only with stray fires here and there. I couldn't even see the bottom.

'What happened?' said a voice behind me, and I turned to see my Beasties running towards me and hastily putting on their armour.

'Thunderbird escaped,' I said.

'We know that,' Johnnie moaned. 'Bloody alarm told us so. But how? And where are they?'

I shrugged, but then something in my brain told me to look up. In the ceiling far above me was a hole. 'Let's go,' I said to the others, and raced for the lift. As we made our way up, I tried to think of where they would have gone. This was a secret island base, after all. There could be only so many places they could hid- oh. Right. They're not hiding.

We stopped on the third floor and raced off to the main hangar. It was mostly empty, save for the skeleton of the Kaptain's new airship and some jet planes. No Thunderbird either. I was about to tell the others to set up a defensive ring around the lift, when the sound of gunfire drew me to the open hangar doors. Standing at the edge, I could see the whole of the island below me. I could see VIP hotel. I could see the entrance to the secret base. And I could see the hole in the side of the base and the black smoke pouring from it.

And I could see the Thunderbird.

They stood just outside the hole and spewed jets of fire from their hands back into the base, then turned away, apparently unconcerned with the grunts who were returning fire from inside. The Thunderbird just aimed their hands at the ground as fire burst from their palms, and flew up into the sky.

Right. I forgot they could fly.

Our automated anti-air defence system responded and several turrets popped out of the ground from the edges of the base and began to fire at them, but the Thunderbird just weaved through the air, avoiding everything the turrets could throw at them, then flew away.

'That was a close one,' said Theo, heaving a sigh of relief.

I winced. I knew it wasn't over. I leaned out to give our base a proper look. Aside from the exit that the Thunderbird had made, the rest of our base appeared intact. Looking up, I saw our communications antennae still in one piece. I knew comm technicians would be giving the Kaptain a heads up even now, but telling him that the Thunderbird had escaped and where exactly the Thunderbird was were two different things.

'Everyone to the carrier jet,' I told my Beasties.

'You what now?' Johnnie said, horrified. 'Problem's over. They're gone. Our job is done.'

'We still have a job to do,' Katya hissed at him, then nodded to me. Without another word, she raced off to start up the jet. I had no idea that she had had training to fly. I wondered briefly if they taught that at the university she had studied at before signing up.

'You're nuts, the lot of youse,' Johnnie grumbled, but followed us all the same.

I sat in the co-pilot's chair beside Katya, and just stared at the controls. I'd figured it was just like a car, but with the added option of up and down, but nope. It did look more than a little bit like Mr Huggle's controls, though, just with the added options of engine control, and Katya and I together managed to get the jet into the air and out of the hanger without scraping across the floor all that much. I looked behind. 'Everyone strapped in?'

'absofuckinglutely,' Johnnie yelled, and I saw he had several harnesses wrapped around his chest. Theo and Manish were happy enough with just the one.

As we headed out over open water, I began to feel a bit more comfortable at the controls, and increased our speed to catch up with the flaming yellow dot that was the Thunderbird. But as we got to within a mile, the yellow dot grew larger, and larger until it was a giant fiery Thunderbird.

I remembered the Thunderbird's death threat, and decided to ease off on our acceleration.

The Thunderbird paid us Thunderbeasts no attention as we both raced over the Pacific, which was absolutely fine by me. Katya spoke to flight control the entirety of the way, telling them of the Thunderbird's trajectory, as well as ours. But besides fearing that the Elemental would suddenly take a dislike to our following them, it was a pretty pleasant flight, and I was pretty sad to see the US coastline after only a couple of hours. I saw the Thunderbird begin to descend, their great wings angled so that they coasted to the ground, then becoming smaller and smaller as they approached a city - though which city, I couldn't be sure. Finally, as they made landfall, their Qi forme disappeared as they became human once again, disappearing into the mass of buildings.

'What do we do now?' Katya asked me.

'Report our position, and just wait,' I said. It was all I could think to do. We didn't have long to wait, though, before the Thunderbird took flight again, heading east. I don't know how to explain it but somehow the Thunderbird, a great fireball in the sky, seemed angry. It was like the fire burned brighter, hotter, more intense. And somehow I knew, too, where they were headed.

'Follow the,' I told Katya. 'Tell the Kaptain that the Thunderbird is coming to him.'