Hello again! This is my second story for TAG. This time, it's a two chapter tag to the episode Crosscut. I'm afraid as soon as I heard Scott say how much he loved Grandma's chicken wings (along with his sheepish "oooops", that scene was so funny!), my own sense of the sillies took over. Left alone with my plot bunnies, it came up with this.

I've included a couple of lines of dialogue from the episode itself - the first of which has, unfortunately for Scott, fallen on equally mischievous ears.

I hope you enjoy - chapter two follows on right after this!

Winging It

Chapter One - Wingman In Waiting

'Careful, you never know who's listening... and for the record, I looove Grandma's chicken wings...'

Say what?!

Virgil stared at his comms unit, wondering if all that old uranium was starting to affect him too. Yes, that was it. It had to be. There was no other explanation, for Scott to say what he'd just said.

Still too low to cause any serious damage, the uranium in that mine had made his big, brave brother go ga-ga. Frazzled that razor sharp mind. Turned the head of International Rescue into a delirious zombie.

That last thought made him laugh out loud. Zombie-fied Scotty? Oh, the possibilities! And with Hallowe'en just around the corner... oh, yes. The plan was already forming in his mind.

After last year's shenanigans, where some evil genius had turned his 'bird into a giant spider web - yes, revenge against the brother who'd found it just too damn funny would be especially sweet.

It had taken hours for him to clear all that webbing out of his cockpit. Not to mention the spiders. Freakishly life-like plastic arachnids. Hundreds of 'em. Lurking unseen, until several had dropped onto his head.

And no, he hadn't screamed. No way. Absolutely not. Virgil Grissom Tracy had. Not. Screamed.

There'd be no shortage of help either. Gordon would definitely be up for some fiendish payback. For one thing, he had his pride and reputation to consider. No-one, but no-one, out pranked the family prankster.

Of course, finding his pool filled with some bright green gunge that had made him glow in the dark - well, that was even more reason to teach his would be successor a lesson he'd never forget.

Alan, too, would be itching to get his own back. No, really, he really would be itching to be in on this. Okay, so, it was the oldest one in the book, but... God, the powder-down-the-shorts trick took some beating.

Damn funny, though. Even now, Virgil suspected his brother frisked out every piece of clothing he had before he put it on.

So, then, he had the help. Three against one. Perfect. Now he could really start to plan it all out.

Their biggest obstacle, of course, would be Scott himself. It was long running joke between them, that their eldest brother slept so lightly, they had to tie one of his feet to his bed to stop him floating away. So, then, a potential hitch - but one that already had its solution. Against three little brothers with mischief in mind, their hapless victim would be hopelessly outnumbered. Cocooned in his own bedclothes, powerless to escape.

Damn it, yes - this was brilliant! Rip up some old sheets, a few daubs of paint, maybe some fangs for good measure, and... voilà. By the time he fought them all off enough to get out of bed, their mummified brother wouldn't know what had hit him.

Yet something about this scheme of fiendish brilliance didn't quite feel right. It felt a bit... off. Oh, it was a brilliant plan, and it was definitely going to happen, but... nope, not yet. With five more days to wait until they carried it out, they needed something a bit more... now.

What, though? What inspiration could he possibly find out here, in the middle of nowhere?

'...and for the record, I looove Grandma's chicken wings...'

The smile on Virgil's face magically returned. And it didn't just come back, it grew bigger. It grew into a grin that could barely contain the mischief, the pure evil, that brewed beneath it.

Oh, yes. Yes, yes... yes! This was a prank to beat all others. The mother of pranks. No, scratch that, it was the grandmother of pranks. Literally. Or, in this case... grandma.

Thank God its target couldn't see his brother's face right now, or he'd have surely recognized the mayhem that was headed his way. As it was... well, it sounded like things had gotten serious down there. A lot more serious.

Crashes, bangs, yells, more crashes. Something that had made Scott groan. Again. Not mumbling gibberish, at least, but the kind of protest he'd made when he'd last been dragged to the dentist.

'Aww, this is gonna huuurt.'

From that alone, Virgil sat bolt straight in his seat. All thoughts of pranking his brother disappeared. If Scott was in trouble down there, it would take several minutes to reach him, and - hello?

He had company already? Female company, who clearly knew how to get them both out of there?

Well, with that ladykiller charm, and those famous dimples, Scott would surely win her over, and - hmm, maybe not. That likelihood exploded, like one of Grandma's cookies, into an increasingly heated argument.

Rolling his eyes, Virgil hit the commlink on his sleeve. Sheesh, a peacemaker's work was never done.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! You might wanna save the arguments 'til you're topside."

Bingo. Toss in a quick warning over 'microwaved organs' and... yes, peaceful order was thankfully restored.

Still, Scott had his hands full with that one, for sure, and Virgil didn't envy him for it at all. More to the point, his brother was still facing God knew what down there, and... damn, he hated that.

Yes, he had told him to stay put. Yes, he had told him to stay away, but... hell, he didn't like that either.

Through the side of Thunderbird Two's windows, he could see Thunderbird One rise into the sky - sweeping to the mine's other entrance, and the shaft that would bring his brother, and Miss Van Arkel, safely to the surface.

That settled it. Virgil rose from his seat, and strode to the hatch that led to the pod below. If Scott seriously expected him to just sit on his butt like this, while he risked his life on a dangerous rescue... well, he had another thought coming.