INVASION


by Dawn Underwood (Thunderbird), Robin Ryder (Range Ryder), Pat Weier (Sparks), Karen May (Maydock)-Nighthawk Commandos


Back at Nighthawk HQ, Murdock noticed that the Nighthawks were
 getting restless.  Things had been quiet lately.  Too quiet.  Some of
 the commandos had been taking lessons from Billy and Thunder on the art
 of invisibility.  As they were walking around he could hear them mutter
 "white paper, white paper".  They were progressing well on this, they
 should become invisible any time now.  But they needed something more.
 Something that has been unattainable until recently.  Tree, our spy in
 the field, was busy making top secret coffee and accidentally came into
 contact with someone making top secret donuts.  She found out about from
 this person, that the TEMP's had become lax in their security.  This
 anonymous person, who makes top secret donuts for the TEMP's, didn't
 realize he was talking to a member of the Nighthawks.  Tree thought
 'this guy could be Frankie's double.  He is just as inept.'

      Murdock gathered a few of the Nighthawks, who were grumbling about
 a way to get rid of Frankie, and proposed a mission for them.  At least
 this way, they would get their mind off of his friend Frankie for
 awhile.  "Now I have a mission for you.  It's very dangerous.  Some of
 you won't be coming back for pumpkin pie.  And those of you that do,
 will be back.  Some of you that aren't coming back, won't be back, but
 those that are back will be coming back.  But that's only for the few of
 you that have come back and will be coming back.  Not those who haven't
 come back, because they're not coming back.  Does everyone understand?"

      As usual the Nighthawks shook their heads several different ways,
 because as usual no one understood what he was saying.  But it didn't
 matter, because they would do the mission with glorious success.  They
 would follow their leader anywhere.

      "Okay, now Maydock as co-pilot I need you to go warm up the
 chopper.  You’ll be flying this one.  Thunderbird, you come up with the
 plan.  Sparks and Range Ryder, since you two have been mastering the art
 of invisibility the best, you’ll go and scout out the TEMP headquarters.
 Take Billy and Thunder along," Murdock said with confidence in his group
 of commandos.

      Sparks spoke up, "Sir may I ask what our mission is?"

      "Yes, you may.  It’s the invasion of TEMP headquarters, and to
 obtain the SILK JAMMIES," Murdock replied with much enthusiasm.

      Sparks didn’t look to happy, "Sir, I hope we don’t have to take
 Frankie with us again.  Do you remember what happened LAST time?  He
 shot poor Maydock out of the sky, then he tried to sell Thunder to the
 glue factory, and to top it all off he tried to drink some of the top
 secret coffee.  He didn’t even have a proper clearance for it!"

      Murdock contemplated this.  It probably would be best to leave
 Frankie here.  Mainly for his own protection against the rest of the
 Nighthawks.  "Okay, I’ll find something for him to do around here.  Now
 you better get going on this.  Dismissed."

      Tree came running up, "Sir, wait.  I should come along just in
 case.  If we're captured, we'll need to drink some of the coffee.  It's
 much better than cyanide.  If not, we can always throw it at the TEMP's.
 It's so strong, it would knock down an elephant."  Murdock nodded yes,
 and she joined the group.

"Well, this new mission is destined to go down in history as one of the
most difficult, yet rewarding, from a cowboy's point of view, especially
when that cowboy is invisible and has a view point, but can't be
 viewed..." Thunder would have continued, but he was interrupted (somewhat
rudely he thought) when Range Ryder clamped a hand over his mouth.

  "Shhhhhhh..." Range Ryder hissed, "Save it for later.  Right now we've
  got to get invisible, Oh, that's right, you already are invisible....white
  paper, white paper, white paper..."  Range Ryder winked out of the
  visibility plane and into another reality altogether.

"Say, Range, where ya at?" queried Sparks who was also no longer in plane
sight.

"Over here, beneath the surface of the  visible spectrum. Awaiting
orders," RR replied.

In the background Frankie could be heard mumbling "okay, what was that
invisibility thing again?  let's see...oh, yeah, I remember now the white
ballot, the white ballot...no, that's not it, let's see...I know it was
something white..." he continued to mumble as the team, led by Murdock
 headed out.
 
 "That's white Paper, Frankie, Paper," Murdock called over his shoulder as
 they left headquarters.  "Keep practicing. You'll get it." *maybe* Murdock
 thought to himself *jeez, the crystal skull had more solid stuff between
 it's ears than that boy does.*
 
 "Huh?" Frankie paused briefly, when there was no reply from Murdock he
shook his head, causing droplets of oil to spatter the room.  "Oh well, it
couldn't have been too important or they'd have taken me along...now let's
see...plain paper, plain paper...nope, still not invisible," he sighed and
redoubled his efforts.
 
 "Billy, get over here and stop flirting with Thunder," Sparks stamped her
 foot to get Billy's attention "Now, here's what we have to do...first, we
 need to infiltrate TEMP headquarters, determine the location of
 the donut deep fry machine and replace the hot vegetable oil they've been
 using in it with this gallon of oily drippings I've obtained from
 Frankie's hair. That'll put the donut eaters in the group out of
 commission for a while..."

 "Excuse me," Tree raised her hand, "we aren't getting into deadly
 maneuvers here, are we?"
 
 "No," Range Ryder answered.  "Sparks and I have determined that
 putting Frankie's oily drippings in the donut machine will not cause any
 fatalities. It will, however, cause all who partake of the said donuts to
 develop a severe case of acne.  In other words, all members of the TEMP
 agency will suffer a breakout!"

 "I see," Tree said, momentarily stunned by the sheer brilliance of the
 scheme, "yes, that will certainly cause a distraction. Their skins
 will be a mess. They'll be so busy squeezing those zits, rubbin' on the
 clearasil and concealers they'll never know what hit em."
 
 "Right," Sparks said, "Now, while all members of the TEMP agency are
 involved in the big squeeze we go in, determine the location of the silk
 jammies and get word back to Thunderbird so's she can come up with that
 plan like Murdock said."
 
 Range Ryder, Sparks, and Tree silently crept past the TEMP agent seated
  outside.  They quickly made their way to the front door of the Agency
  head quarters.

  They quickly decided to wait for someone to open the door, thinking
  that, should one of the TEMP agents stop preening infront of one of the
  many mirrors that lined the walls -- between the life-sized pictures of
  Face -- they might notice the door seemingly opening and closing by
  itself.

  The three fearless, and invisible, Nighthawks did not have to wait long.
  When the door opened, they quickly filed through.

  Sparks left in search of the doughnut fryer, Frankie drippings in hand.

  "This is so easy," Tree snickered.

  "Shhhh!" hissed Range Ryder.

  TEMP agent Serenity looked up from her desk near the door, hearing the
  Nighthawks speak.  When no one was in plain sight, she returned to her
  paperwork, a cup of awful coffee sitting on the desk.

  Looking around, Range Ryder noticed a bright light in a room at the end
  of the main hall.  Quietly moving toward the light, the two were careful
  to avoid as many people as possible.  They were joined half way down the
  hall by Sparks, who gave her partners a thumbs-up, signaling that the
  drippings were in the fryer.

  When they reached the end of the hall, they all looked in the room.
  There, on a pedestal, with lights shining on it, was the shrine to the
  Silk Jammies.  They could not believe their good fortune -- it was easy
  to get to and it was unguarded!

  Sparks gave the signal and the three Nighthawks made their way carefully
  back to the front door.

  Once outside, Sparks whispered, "Ok, now that we know where the Jammies
  are kept, lets get back to HQ and see what kind of plan Thunderbird and
  Maydock have come up with."

Maydock was sitting in the cockpit of the plane, getting pretty
 irritated at Frankie's ramblings.  He was sitting in the back cargo
 hold, muttering "White ballot.  No it's pink paper,  no it's blue moon."
 Her hand was slowly inching , very close, to the switch that would eject
 everything out of the cargo hold.  'A few more minutes of this,' she
 thought, 'and this dude's history.'  She still hadn’t forgotten their
 last mission.

 Meanwhile, her cohorts were sneaking back out the front door.  Sparks
 had silently thrown the drippings in the donut maker.  Tree had  thought
 about replacing the coffee with the Nighthawk coffee.  "Tree don't do
 that to the TEMP's," Sparks reminded her.  "We just want to take the
 jammies, not hurt anyone."

 Once they were outside Range Ryder looked around.  "Where's Thunder?"
 she asked.  "I don't see Billy around either.  I hope they're not
 fooling around again."

 Sparks looked around, "Maybe they went back to headquarters without us.
 Billy has been behaving himself lately, ever since I threatened to take
 him to obedience school.  Remember the mess they made, when they
 redecorated headquarters for us?  Took us weeks to find anything."  When
 they got to the plane, they saw Murdock struggling with Maydock at the
 control panel.

 "Come on, Maydock.  You can’t eject Frankie?  He really doesn’t mean any
 harm.  Just because he accidentally spilled the top secret coffee on
 you.  Why that could have happened to anyone," Murdock pleaded.

 "Well that coffee is a deadly weapon, and he doesn’t have a license to
 even hold it.  Besides, I just thought of a better idea."  She got up
 and walked to the back of the plane.  "Oh Frankie," she inquired.
 "Wouldn’t you like a nice hot cup of coffee right about now?"  It took a
 couple of hours, but they finally got Maydock to leave poor Frankie
 alone and fly them back to H.Q.  Once back there, they realized Billy
 and Thunder hadn’t returned.

 "Thunderbird!  You haven’t seen Billy and Thunder, have you?"   Sparks
 asked.  "This means that we left them at TEMP headquarters."

"Well, there are certainly pros and cons to having a couple of operatives
  inside the TEMP agency," Thunderbird replied.

  "Yeah, and since they're permanently invisible the TEMPtresses'll never
  know they're there," Murdock added for good measure.

  "Buuuuut, you're forgetting something very important," Sparks and Range
  Ryder broke into the conversation, "The Man!!!" they shouted in unison.

  "Right! I forgot!"  Murdock slapped his forhead in frustration.  "Of all
  the A Team members he's the one I was always pretty sure could see Billy.
  Remember what he said to B.A. that time about Billy being real when we
  took the mission to save the watermelon farm?  It was right after Billy
  got that flea festation and he told me maybe a flea collar would help.
  Aaaargh!"

  "Murdock, are you sure about that?"  Thunderbird asked.

  "Absolutely, I can say without reservations there's a 99% chance that the
  supreme TEMPtor can see Billy.  Don't know if he can see Thunder.  Oh, We
  in trouble now boys and girls,"  Murdock spun toward Frankie who was
  busily muttering

  "piece of paper, piece of paper, nope, not yet...this is harder than it
  looks...piece of..."

  Reaching toward the young, inexperienced and greasy special effects man,
  Murdock forced himself to take a deep breath, thinking to himself, *calm
  down, breathe deep, just like the VA nurses told me to do whenever the
  doctor is out, that's it.*  When he was once again in control of his
  emotions, Murdock said, "Frankie, please be quiet a minute, we've got to
  think."

  "Huh?"  Frankie replied.  "I've got an idea.  How about if..."

  Range Ryder made a move to shush Frankie, but Sparks intervened, "Whatcha
  doin' Range?"

  "Well Sparks, I was gonna shut Frankie up before Maydock over there
  decides to pour some of our secret coffee that Tree just made a fresh pot
  of down his throat," Range Ryder replied as Maydock advanced on the
  hapless (and somewhat inept) special effects man with a steaming cup a
  joe.

  "I'll go calm Maydock down, you and Murdock work on coming up with a plan
  to rescue Billy and Thunder while Thunderbird comes up with a plan to get
  the jammies," Sparks moved toward Maydock.  "And, maybe you should listen
  to Frankie's idea, it's probably pretty dumb, but he gets so few I hate to
  see you waste 'em."

  "...see, we dress up like the Aquamaniac and then we play some serious
  mind games with those sly little TEMPtresses..." Frankie elaborated on his
  idea.

  "Right,"  Murdock looked at Range Ryder. "What do you think? We'll take
  the jet, it's faster."

  "Sounds good to me.  Frankie can be Aquamaniac, since he still doesn't
  have the secret to rearranging his molecular structure thereby preventing
  him from becoming invisible.  Yeah, we can work with that.  He can be the
  decoy while we..."  Range Ryder replied as she, Murdock and Frankie
  (wearing the Aquamaniac costume) climbed into the Boeing and took off for
  TEMP headquarters.

  "Okay, we're there.  Now some of us will be coming back, but some of us
  won't be back,"  Murdock began the Nighthawk pep talk, "and those of us
  who don't come back for pumpkin pie won't get any, but those of us who are
  back for pumpkin pie will get some, and the pieces that were supposed to
  be for the ones who don't come back will make more for the ones that do
  come back.  Have I made myself clear?  White paper white paper..."

  "Transparent," Range Ryder replied as Murdock's molecular structure faded
  from the visible spectrum.  "White paper, white paper..." Range too had
  reached the point of no return wherein opaqueness becomes a thing of the
  past.

  "Legal pad, legal pad..." Frankie the Aquamaniac muttered as all three
  made their exit (including Aquamaniac/Frankie as the beast) from the belly
  of a boeing 727.

  "yellow pages, yellow pages..." Frankie/Aquamaniac brought up the rear as
  the trio approached the TEMP stronghold, "yellow pages, white pages, white
  paper, white paper whitepaper...."

  "Okay, now, Range, I want you to slip in the next time they open the door,
  and Frankie here..." Murdock looked over his shoulder where
  Frankie/Aquamaniac had just been standing. "Oh, for *&#%^ sake, where is
  the monster when you need him?" Both Murdock and Range began to look
  frantically around for Aquamaniac/Frankie....


 "Frankie! Where aaaaare you?"  Murdock and Range both called.

 "Huh?" Frankie replied, "I'm right here, behind you...uh, I think I got
  the invisible paper thing down."

 "Well, the plan calls for you to be visible!" Murdock hissed.

 "Huh?" Frankie's invisible brow wrinkled in confusion. "How do I do
 that?"

 "Hmmmm, I think you're gonna have to demonstrate for him, Murdock."
 Range put her 2 cents worth in.

 "Okay, Frankie pay attention!" Murdock ordered.

 "Huh?"

 "And someone get Frankie here a copy of the rule book.  If he says
 ‘Huh?’ one more time he’ going to be drinking some of my coffee!" Tree
 said as she grew more and more frustrated with Frankie’s limited
 vocabulary.

  Soon, both Frankie and Murdock were fully opaque.  Before they knew it,
 Frankie was at the front door to TEMP headquarters.  "Maybe if we're
 lucky, they'll adopt Frankie," Maydock said hopefully.

 Murdock was not amused.  But this was the distraction they needed to get
 inside.  "Frankie's going to need some help, so I'll just put on this
 bearsuit and join him at the front door."  He tried on the bearsuit but
 it was too big.  So he then slipped a black glove on his right hand.
 "Well, maybe lefty will work instead."   Meanwhile, Thunderbird, Maydock
 and Tree will slip around and go through the back.  Range and Sparks
 will go through the front door when it's opened.  Any questions?"  All
 of their hands went up to ask but immediately Murdock said, "Good, lets
 go."  Murdock got to the front door and joined Frankie just as he was
 about to knock.  As the TEMP’s opened the door, Frankie started
 muttering again.

 "What’s wrong with your alligator friend here?" one of the TEMP’s asked.

 "Oh, he’s not feeling well.  He just got finished eating Las Vegas and
 let me tell you, it was a desert out there.  Now he’s got an upset
 stomach.  If it isn’t any trouble, could we come in and sit down for a
 little bit?"

 The TEMP eyed them suspiciously, "Well this place is for members only,
 but I guess just for a few minutes wouldn’t hurt."  She couldn’t help
 giggling at Frankie/Aquamanic's suit.  "Nice skins.  Would any of you
 care for a donut?"

 Frankie/Aquamanic and Murdock/Lefty yelled out in unison, "NO!  Ah, that
 is we’re not very hungry at the moment.  Besides, my friend’s stomach is
 on fire after eating a whole town."

 "Well then how about some coffee?"

 Again, they cried out, "NO!" in unison, fearing that some of Tree's
 coffee might be lurking around TEMP headquarters.  "Ah, that is no thank
 you," Murdock replied.  While Frankie and Murdock were keeping the
 TEMP’s busy, Sparks and Range slipped in quietly.  They snuck around to
 the back door to let the others in.  Sparks keep pushing on the door,
 but it wouldn’t budge open.

 "Here, let me try.  There’s always a catch to these.  I picked up a few
 pointers from Thunder." Range said as she kicked the door open.  The
 others soon piled inside.

 Thunderbird had come up with a plan, "Us three will make our way towards
 the shrine.  Sparks you and Range will try and find Thunder and Billy
 before they get into trouble, if they haven’t already.  Then we need to
 get out of here as soon as possible.  It’s a nice place to visit, but I
 wouldn’t want to stay here for long.  Also, I couldn’t help noticing.
 There’s an awful lot of mirrors around here."

 Thunderbird, Tree and Maydock slowly made their way towards the shrine,
 using the map that Range and Sparks had provided for them on their
 earlier jaunt to this place.  Sparks and Range went the opposite
 direction to look for their lost pets.  Sparks pulled out her dog
 whistle and started blowing.  "I hope this gets Billy’s attention.  It
 didn’t work last time when we took that holiday in the hills."  After a
 few minutes she gave up.

 "Just try it one more time Sparks.  They have to be in here somewhere.
 Let’s keep walking around too, maybe they’ll see us and come a running."
 Range and Sparks proceeded.  They hoped that The man wasn’t around,
 because if he could see Billy, there was a chance that he could see them
 also.  And they weren’t ready for a showdown with him.

 When Thunderbird, Tree and Maydock reached the shrine room, Tree said
 she would keep a lookout for any TEMP’s and/or fire that might breakout.
 "A fire?" Maydock inquired.

 "Sure," Tree answered.  "If there was a fire, then the sprinklers would
 go off, then we would have water water everywhere."

 "What does a fire have to do with our situation?  Besides that fact that
 right now we're probably moving targets for the TEMP'S?" Maydock said
 inquisitively.

 Thunderbird’s eyes lit up.  "Then the man himself would be running out
 of the building.  He wouldn’t want his hair all messed up I’m sure.  Why
 that’s a brilliant idea.   That’s how we’re going to do it.  You just
 gave me the idea for a new plan."  She took out a match and lit it near
 the smoke detector.

Murdock glanced nervously at his special signal-receiving watch, hoping with
 all his might that they would still be alive at five. Whatever - he then
 thought back to the vows he and his men had taken - Till death do us part!
 Hmm, that didn't provide much comfort, though. How much longer could he &
 Frankie possibly sit here playing mind games with these TEMPS? Just then,
 Frankie doubled over and, with his arm around his stomach, began to moan
 incoherently.

 This began to arouse suspicion with the TEMPS. One of them spoke up: "NOW
 what's wrong with your friend? He looks like he is having labor pains!" 

 Murdock was struck with the fearful realization that maybe Maydock had
 indeed succeeded in slipping Frankie some of the secret coffee! "Oh no!"
 thought he, as he wondered if Frankie had been gullible enough to ingest the
 pure-dee poison! "I, uh, well, I mentioned before that...that he just ate a
 whole town! So of course it's only natural that he have a stomach ache,"
 quipped Murdock.

 The TEMPS, still eyeing their visitors suspiciously, accepted the
 explanation & let it go at that. After all, they were highly trained
 operatives who would most certainly clue in to any sort of trouble
 brewing...wouldn't they?

 All of a sudden the alarms went off, the sprinkler system deployed, and
 there was water, water everywhere! Total chaos had broken out! The TEMPS
 were running in all directions, creating a noise so earth shattering that it
 resembled the sound of thunder! Murdock felt a sudden pang of fear inside,
 thinking this mission of peace [and undesirable intentions!] was harder than
 it looks. What should they do now? What had caused this sudden outburst of
 excitement within the TEMP confines? If he & Frankie were to make a break
 for it, would they become moving targets? If they were to begin running
 within the confines of this TEMP fortress, would they manage to meet up with
 the rest of the team? Or would they  meet with misfortune
 and...and...the point of no return?

Murdock quickly made up his mind.  He grabbed a nearby TEMP agent and,
  turning to Frankie, who was still doubled over in the seat next to him,
  asked her to help Frankie/Aquamaniac outside.

  He watched as the two moved off through the sprinklers, toward the front
  door.  "White paper white paper white paper."  Murdock was quickly
  invisible again.  He moved off toward the main hall, deciding to try to
  find the rest of his team.

  Thunderbird, Maydock, and Tree made their way quietly down hall, hoping
  to avoid a showdown with any TEMP agents.  They reached the room where
  the shrine to Silk Jammies was held, and looked up and down the hall,
  making sure no one was in plain sight.  Tree and Thunderbird, each armed
  with a cup of top secret coffee, stood guard at the door while Maydock
  went to retrieve the Jammies.

  Maydock walked up to the shrine, opened one door, and peeked inside.
  "Oh no!"

  Thunderbird and Tree both spun around, nearly spilling the top secret
  coffee on themselves when they heard Maydock's exclamation.

  The Man had been infront of his mirror, fixing his hair and
  straightening his already perfect tie, when the sprinklers went off.  He
  immediately headed for the nearest exit, trying to keep his hair dry.

  As he was running down the hall toward the door, a movement caught his
  eye.  He stopped.  He couldn't have seen what he thought he saw.  Billy?
  In the TEMP agency?  And what was that pink thing he was carrying?  He
  dismissed the idea, quickly continuing down the hall, trying to get out
  of the water.

  Murdock made his way to the back of the building, quickly becoming
  visible again.  He started looking for the missing members of his team.

  Suddenly Maydock, Thunderbird, and Tree came running up to him.
  "Captain Murdock!  Sir, we've got a problem."

  Murdock looked at Thunderbird.  "A problem?  What kind of problem?  And
  where are Sparks, Range Ryder, Billy, and Thunder?"

  Maydock spoke up.  "It's the Jammies, sir.  They're gone."

Meanwhile, out in the real world...

 Frankie/Aquamaniac noted that something pink flashed past him and headed
 straight for the Boeing 747.  Though he thought he also heard a distinct
 gallump, gallump, gallump pounding away at the same time, he was too busy
 congratulating himself on his performance to give either what he saw or
 what he heard much thought. "I am a genius.  Yessirree, look out!
 Frankie's in town."

 Back inside TEMP agency headquarters...

 The Man paused in front of the last mirror before the exit to straighten
 his jacket (and to engage in one more moment of self admiration).  At that
 moment, a sprinkler (which he had failed to note due to complete and total
 absorbtion in the nearly perfect reflection which he was so busily
 admiring) cut loose with a deluge, soaking the perfectly coiffed silky
 golden hair.  "Ah, why me?  Just when everything was going my way?"
 Thinking quickly, he whipped out his cellular phone and dialed the number
 of BA's youth center. "BA?  Oh, good, you're there.  Listen, this is an
 emergency...What? no, Hannibal's fine.  Murdock?  He's okay too...No,
 Decker is not on his way over to wreak havoc on your youth center...Look,
 the problem is this, there've been some strange goings on here at
 headquarters and I need that blow drier I gave to you last week to soup
 up...Yeah, that's it, the one I asked you to add the double heat setting
 to.  No, no, I'm not going to turn it into a weapon of mass destruction by
 adding some colored wires, a can of hairspray, fifteen assorted bolts,
 three screws, a handful of cocktail peanuts, some fertilizer that got left
 by the lawn service and the pop tab off of a soda can that just happened
 to be floating around in the teeny tiny room that the bad guys have locked
 me in...what do you mean if I'm not going to put it to a creative use I
 can't have it?"  At this point, The Man stomped his feet, pouted and began
 to whine slightly.  "B.A. This is an emergency!...Yes, a bona fide really
 and truly emergency!...What?...My hair is what!...That's right, I said 'MY
 HAIR!'...Well, it's soaked is what!  How'm I gonna get the girls if my
 hair's a soggy, limp mess?...Let me remind you, B.A. that without my hot
 styles you and the rest of the team would have to work for a living...well
 don't get huffy with me.  You know what I mean...without my special
 talent for obtaining the items we need on a daily basis, and I might add
 at no cost to yourself...what do you mean I should go visit Harry 'cause
 you're busy?  B.A., you know good and well that the trouble with Harry is
 his lack of artistry and complete inability to keep up with modern hair
 style trends..."

 The Man was still standing under the sprinkler as Range Ryder and Sparks
 rushed by.  "Ya know, Sparks, TEMP headquarters would be a nice place to
 visit if it wasn't so soggy," Range snickered.

 "Yeah, too bad about the water, water everywhere," Sparks added.

 "B.A., don't hang up, listen to me...Last time I went to Harry's salon he
 went on a chopping spree and gave me a shag haircut...A SHAG!...They've
 been passe since the 70's..." The Man continued to whine into the phone as
 the Nighthawk Commandos made a mad dash for the plane.

 "Okay, let's see, is everyone accounted for?" Murdock began counting
 noses, "That's one little nosy" pointing at Maydock, "two little nosy,"
 pointing at Tree, "three little nosy," pointing at Thunderbird, "four
 little nosy," pointing at Sparks, "five little nosy," pointing at Range
 Ryder, "six little nosy," pointing at Thunder, "seven little nosy,"
 pointing at Billy who was curled contentedly on the oh so soft and silky
 pink jammies, "where's Frankie?"

 "Come on! Let's leave him," Maydock was still pretty upset over the last
 mission.  "Do I have to say it one more time?  The boy's a liability.
 He's always doing stupid things...remember when he got the diamonds 'n
 dust mixed up and I got stuck having to explain to our client why the
 knights of the road managed to destroy the only church in town while on a
 mission of peace without recovering her diamonds?  She was pretty peeved
 when she opened up that jewlers bag and saw all that dust..."  Maydock
 would have continued cataloguing every single Frankie screw up, but she
 was interupted by a rustling sound as Range Ryder jumped out of the plane.

 Murdock quickly assessed the situation and ran to the door yelling at the
 retreating figure, "When ya coming back, Range Ryder?"

 "Just as soon as I recover the Aquamaniac costume," Range called back.
 "It shouldn't take very long.  Let's synchronize our watches.  What time
 you got?"

 "It's six now," replied the fearless Nighthawk leader. "Now remember,
 you'll be moving targets out there once those TEMPtresses figure out the
 jammies are gone. So be careful."

"Okay, if I'm still alive at five after six then I'll be back and my piece
 of pumkin pie will be for me, but if I'm not back, then my piece of
 pumpkin pie will be for someone else who is back.  And if I'm back, but
 someone else has eaten my piece of pumpkin pie then I'll get my friend
 Cowboy George to body slam the offender.  Did I ever tell you he's a rodeo
 champ?  Yep, specializes in bull wrassling, so don't let anyone eat my
 pumpkin pie, unless I won't be coming back...white paper white paper white
 paper...I think I see Aquamaniac..."

 "Whee! That's right, your man Frankie's hitting the big time.  This white
 pages invisibility thing is guaranteed to get me the special effects job
 on Bruce Willis' new movie 'Die Hard with Bullets and Bikinis!' Hollywood,
 here I come!"  Frankie continued to exclaim happily to himself as the
 sodden, screaming mob of TEMPtresses suffering from really bad acne and
 flat, stringy, wet hair began to converge on his position.

 *********************************************************************

"White Paper, white paper", Sparks muttered then took off behind Range.

 "Where ya goin?" asked Murdock.

 "Well, I think there's trouble brewing with Frankie. We might just have
 to body slam him," Sparks hollered out as she jumped off the jet.
 "Oh, I don't want to miss that," Maydock and Tree said in unison, and
 took off running to see the action.  Sparks and Range caught up with
 Frankie, just as he was taking off his Aquamaniac costume.

 "Oh, no, we're too late.  This might mean curtain calls for us.  Well
 let's grab him and see if we can make it back to the jet before all  the
 TEMP's make it out of the building," Range was saying to Sparks as they
 ran even faster to get to Frankie.

 As Frankie was trying to struggle out of the costume, he starting
 talking to some nearby TEMP's.  "You know, this is harder than it looks.
 Hey, what’s that bell that's going off?  It's a timber alarm."

 "No, dummy, it's a fire alarm," Sparks whispered in his ear.  "Now let's
 get going before there's a showdown with the TEMP's.  Range and Sparks
 grabbed an arm and dragged Frankie back towards the jet.  They almost
 ran over Maydock and Tree.

 Murdock stuck his head out of the jet and was motioning to the group to
 get inside.  "Come on, I think they can see us.  In fact they're yelling
 something at us.  Get in quick, before they start saying it with
 bullets."  One by one, they hopped into the plane, dragging Frankie with
 them.   Murdock eyed Frankie then turned to the rest of the group.
 "Okay, let’s see.  We have one Nighthawk," he said to Maydock as he was
 counting the group.  "We have two Nighthawk," to Sparks.  "We have three
 Nighthawk,  and four," he said as he got to Tree and Range.  He then
 heard a neigh and a bark.  "Oh yeah, how silly of me.  We have one
 Wacko, wait I mean Waco,  and Billy.  Sorry guys, also one beast in the
 belly of a Boeing.  Okay Maydock, let’s take off.

 **********************************************************************

 Meanwhile back at TEMP headquarters…

 Face had hung up the phone, no actually he flung it against the steel
 wall.  "I can’t believe BA won’t rush over hear with that blow dryer.
 No what am I going to do.  Would someone please turn off that darn bell?
 Where is everyone anyway?"  Face stepped out into the hallway and way
 TEMP agents running everywhere.  "What’s going on?  What’s all the
 excitement about?"

 One of the agents stopped, "It’s a trick, there’s no fire and the
 Nighthawks were just here, in plane sight even.  We’re on our way to the
 shrine to make sure there wasn’t any water damage there.  Are you
 coming?"

 Face touched his sopping wet hair.  "Ah, yeah, I’ll be there shortly.
 As soon as I scrounge up a blow dryer.  Carry on, girls."  He went back
 to the phone and called Hannibal.  "What do you mean he’s not there?
 This is an emergency."

 The TEMP’s continued down the hall.  They flung open the door and they
 were shocked.  The SILK JAMMIES were gone.  "This is an outrage.  Look
 there’s an envelope in place of  the jammies."  They walked over to the
 shrine and opened it.  "It says ‘To whom it may concern, and Faceman.
 We, and when I say we I mean me and the Nighthawk Commandos, have
 commandeered the SILK JAMMIES away from you and have taken them to
 Commando Headquarters.   I hope you understand that it wasn’t anything
 personal, we just needed something to do.  Thanks for all your help.
 Your friend, H.M.  P.S. This was more fun than the time the rabbit ate
 Las Vegas.’  The TEMP agents wadded up the note and threw it on the
 floor.  Then went to inform Face as to what has happened to his favorite
 possession.

 **********************************************************************

 The jet landed at headquarters.  Maydock looked at Frankie.  "Just one
 more time, Frankie boy.  You screw up one more time and I’ll put a
 bounty out on you."

 "Huh?" Frankie just looked at her blankly.  As usual, he was totally
 clueless.  He stayed on the jet as the others disembarked.  "So like,
 how does one get out of this thing anyway?"  He stayed there the rest of
 the night, trying to squirm out of the costume.

 Thunder and Billy were the first ones in the building.  Billy had the
 jammies in his mouth.  "Come on Billy, be a nice doggy and give me the
 jammies," Sparks said as she tried coaxing the jammies away from the
 dog.  "Does Billy want some nice doggie treats? Hmmm?"  She grabbed one
 end of the jammies and tried wrestling it  away from him.  Soon all the
 Nighthawk’s were busy trying to get the jammies away from Billy, who
 just kept running around with it.  Occasionally, giving it to Waco, who
 would run around with the jammies on her back.

 Murdock just smiled and thought, ‘Well that should keep them busy for
 awhile.’   "Anyone want some pumkin pie?" he said as he came out of the
 kitchen with a couple of pies in tow.

 "Oh oh," Tree frowned.  "Looks like we’ll be needing some coffee to go
 with the pie.  I better go make a fresh pot."

 Everyone stopped dead in their tracks and yelled in unison, "NO!"

Meanwhile back at TEMP headquarters.  Thunderbird was walking home.  Fuming that Frankie had told her the Nighthawks were still waiting for her and that Murdock wanted her to stay behind in the bushes for a little while.  "When I get my hands on Frankie, he's going to wish he had learned to make himself invisible.  I'm having a real bad day at the border and he is definitely, gonna drink some of that top secret coffee.

After many hours in the jet, trying to get the costume off.  Frankie finally succeeded.  When he stepped out, he saw Thunderbird coming up the walkway.  "Oops, I better hide.  "White pencil, white pencil."

"Oh Frankie?"  I’m baaccck!"

***********************The End**********************************


 ****************************The End***********************************


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