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hebuiltfive · 3 months ago

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Deflector-In-Place

AO3 link can be found here!

The Hood has broken Fuse out of prison to aid him with his new scheme, only Fuse has a plan of his own.

I've been drafting many Chaos Crew redemption arcs over the last few months. I believe those siblings deserve one, Fuse the most, and thus this story was born.

This piece was inspired the other day by this prompt that can be found here but it's more of a prequel. There is a lot more to the story... I just need to finish it!!

CW (from the very start): implied abuse, verbal abuse

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Clarence was used to the yelling. He was used to the insults and the waving hands, used to flinching when fists were formed. They were never thrown in his direction, yet Clarence knew better than to try and second-guess the Boss’s next move. Erratic and unpredictable were understatements of the century when the Boss was in this kind of mood. A better description for the actions of the criminal could be found in the words certifiably unhinged, borderline sociopathic. There was never, could never be, any reasoning with him when he was this off kilter, when he was in a fit of pure rage. Clarence had tried once, many months ago, but he quickly learned from his mistakes and had not tried since. For the foreseeable future, he had no plans of trying again either.

So there he stood, on the other side of the Hood’s large mahogany desk. He was currently out of his purple uniform, dressed in casual clothing, and his hands were clasped together in front of his body. His fingers squeezed his palms tightly. Clarence was sure to find the imprint of half-moon crescents on his palm later, courtesy of the nails that were biting into his skin. It wouldn’t be the first time they appeared, and he doubted today would be the last. He focused on the sting, of the sensation of nails pinching his palm, as the Hood continued his vitriolic abuse.

Yes, Clarence was used to the yelling, but it didn’t make it any easier to take. His anxiety still peaked and the fleeing part of fight or flight seemed incredibly appealing, but he knew he had to bare the brunt of it.

The plan wouldn’t work otherwise.

“I should have left you in the gutter.” The Hood spat, his eyes full of fury, so convinced that Clarence had failed his mission. “I shouldn’t have tried to lift you up, give you something more. I should never have been so philanthropic. You’re not worthy! You’ve never been worthy! I should have left you to rot away in that cell. You’re a waste of my time and my energy, Fuse, nothing more and nothing less!”

As always, Clarence swallowed his desire to retort, to yell back. If Hannah had been here, she’d have defended him. Time and time again, she had fought back for him, her brother. Clarence had pleaded with her after every event to never do it again, for fear that the Boss wouldn’t be so lenient. Uncharacteristically, Hannah had never received a punishment for her defensive yelling. Then again, it had never been a secret that Hannah had been the Hood’s favourite. Still, Clarence lived in fear that one day the Hood would eventually tire of Hannah’s ruthless guardianship of her brother, and subsequently the admiration he assumed the Hood felt for his sister would dissipate. Wrath would take its place and his sister would suffer a fate worse than death for simply giving the man a taste of his own medicine.

Thankfully, that day had not yet come and he was grateful that Hannah wasn’t currently here. She was still locked away in the penitentiary, with no idea that her brother had been unshackled by the Hood, which meant Clarence had to deal with the onslaught the Hood sent his way on his own. He was perfectly fine with it though.

He had to be.

For the plan.

“I’m taking you off Project Mandible. We will have to cope without your expertise.”

Bingo!

To his credit, despite the fear that was bubbling away inside, Clarence played his part well. He stared at the Hood, mouth agape in shock, though he didn’t truly feel it. He had been expecting such a punishment, had been counting on it, if only so the next phases of the plan could work.

Not the Hood’s plan. Not the monstrous vision he had designed with Project Mandible.

But for the GDF.

For the recently promoted Major Rigby’s plan.

“I didn’t want to get caught.” Clarence offered up his ‘reasoning’ as pathetically as he could. He emphasised the begging, hoping the Hood wouldn’t see through the lie it was. “I wouldn’t be of any use to you if they’d caught me and locked me up.”

“You’re no use to me here empty handed and grovelling either!”

Even if he wanted to smile at how easily the Hood had bought his lies, Clarence didn’t dare. Instead, he kept up his pretence and shrugged his shoulders. He resembled a toddler being put in their place after disappointing a parent. In many ways, in the past, Clarence had played into the role of the Hood’s unappreciated child well. The position still fit him like a glove.

He hoped today would be his final curtain call for it.

“… I didn’t come back empty handed, though.”

The Hood’s prominent brows rose suspiciously, but he said nothing. Silently, he waited for Clarence to further elaborate what he meant.

Not wanting to keep the Boss waiting longer than necessary, Clarence reached into his pocket. “It wasn’t what you wanted but… I nabbed it in case it was useful.” He tugged out a device that sat snug in the sore palm of his hand. A tiny LED light flashed intermittently in red, reflecting off the cool silver of the device, and Clarence held it out towards the Hood in offering.

Slender fingers reached out and retrieved the prize from his hand, scraping Clarence’s already sore palm along the way. The Hood examined the device with a devious glint in his eyes and then turned the device over in his hands. Clarence had no doubt that he was already scheming devilishly about what he could achieve with such a seemingly insignificant piece of technology. With one singular button the device appeared as though it was nothing special, but Clarence’s eye was untrained. His expertise lay in explosives, not… whatever that device was.

Rigby hadn’t been too clear about the purpose of the device when he’d handed it over. He only promised that the Hood would recognise the gadget, and that it would be a decent alternative to the weapon he had wanted, that it would keep him from completely flying off the handle.

Clarence was relieved that Rigby was right.

“So, am I back on the team?”

Piercing eyes shot up from the device and locked on to Clarence with a ferocity that had him shrinking back. “What? You thought this was going to make me forgive you?” The Hood waved the instrument around before slamming it down on the table in front of him. Something cracked, but it was unclear whether it was wood or plastic.

Clarence jumped. He wasn’t afraid to show his fear; it made his act all the more believable, after all. “I… I didn’t mean…”

“Do you think you’re even worth forgiving?”

He dared not reply. The plan wasn’t to get back onto Project Mandible, but Clarence had to appear to at least try. It suited him, and Rigby’s plan, just fine if he remained off the team, so he bowed his head in defeat.

“Now, leave. Your failure isn’t entirely a lost cause but I need to do some rethinking in order to make this fit my plans instead.”

The Hood turned his back on him, the conversation truly over, and Clarence scurried out of the office as fast as his feet could carry him.

The corridors of the depleted manor house ran for what felt like miles, but Clarence continued down them until he found a small nook he could hide away in. Only when he was certain he hadn’t been followed and that he wouldn’t be heard, he pulled out a small transmitter. He lifted one earpiece to his ear and inserted it. When he turned the small box on, it squawked and Clarence silently cursed. Two taps later and he was in touch with Rigby.

“Did he buy the bait?” The assured voice of the American was crystal clear in Clarence’s ears. There was no interference and it sounded for all the world like Rigby was standing right next to him. For an old piece of technology that had been given to him by Rigby purely because it would remain undetected from the Hood’s unauthorised technology scanners, it was in fairly good condition.

“Yes.”

“Well done. Now we just need to make sure he doesn’t try to use it. If he finds out its fake…”

Clarence stuttered. “It’s fake?”

“Well, duh. You didn’t think I wasn’t about to allow you to hand him access to one of our experimental defence weapons, did you?”

He doubted the Boss would use the ‘defence weapon�� in defence of anything but his egotistical plans. Clarence gulped. “How long until he might find out?”

Rigby sighed. “That depends on how closely he looks at the thing.”

Clarence could feel his heart begin to race again. “But… You’ll get me out of here before that will happen, yeah?”

“If you meet us at our usual spot at midnight, I’ll have a team there ready to extract you.”

It only made him feel marginally better. With the new knowledge that the Hood might realise he’d been deceived sooner, Clarence felt even more unsafe than he had done before he’d handed over the device. “Can’t you make it sooner?”

“Not with the Hood’s goons hanging around. It will be better after dark. Midnight, Fuse. We’ll be there to take you.”

“It’s Clarence.” He reaffirmed. “Fuse is dead.”

Rigby didn’t clarify that he’d heard him. The line clicked and Clarence was met with silence.

Midnight. He had to survive until midnight. That was… He glanced down at his watch quickly and tallied up the time. Six hours. The Hood needed to not discover his betrayal for six hours, or, at the very least, the Hood needed to be able to find him if he did work it out.

He could do it. He’d stowed away somewhere hidden for longer periods of time before. Granted, those times he hadn’t been hiding from the Hood, but the basic principle still applied.

His thoughts drifted to his sister momentarily. If she knew he was working as a double agent for the GDF, the very people who had hunted them and locked them away, would she have despised him? Or would she have understood that he had no alternative? The deal he had made was invaluable and he would see it through until the end.

Six hours.

He only had to play the part for six more hours.

Then he’d be free.

#thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds are go fanfiction #thunderbirds fanfiction #fuse #the hood #wayne rigby #five fics #fic: deflector-in-place #fic series: set my world on fire

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