"Calling International Rescue…" it was the tone of the voice that caught John's attention however. He was used to callers sounding urgent, tense. But this one… rarely had he had a call where the voice was so terror-filled.

"This is International Rescue," he responded and was amazed as the response was a small scream and the words "No, no, no! No you don't! Don't you dare move! Ohshitohshitohsit".

Tiredly he rubbed his eyes. He hoped this wasn't going to be one of "those" calls. "Ma'am? What is wrong?" He activated the video centre, having learned that for many callers, the human face on the other end of the call served to calm and reassure.

After a startled "Oh" his own screen activated and he saw his caller – a woman about 10 years older than he, with dark hair and eyes. And definitely a look of panicked horror on her face.

"Thank goodness! Please! I need help! I'm desperate."

"What's wrong?"

"It's got me trapped here! I can't move…. Oh my god! There's another of them! Please! I need somebody…. No! No! Stay there! Don't you move!"

"Trapped? Are you being held prisoner?"

"Yes! A hostage in my own home! Keep away from me, you ugly son of a bitch!" She screamed again and appeared to be writhing somehow.

"Ma'am! Please – I need to have some more information. Who is holding you prisoner? Are they hurting you?"

"No…. not hurting… But….. Another one! Really? What is this? An invasion? What have I ever done to you?"

John tried to remain calm and patient and set the trace on the call. "Stay on the line, I'm trying to get your location. But I need to get information so that we have the right equipment to help you." A tap on the screen showing set of coordinates. "Ma'am? I have found your location as being in Australia… Queensland." He looked again at the location. Ahhhh…. Right. "We actually have a team on the ground there. I believe that your district is experiencing severe flooding." He tapped some keys and rattled off a street address. "Is that you?"

"Yes… Yes that's me…."

"So – can you talk –can you tell me what is happening?" John started transmitting information to Scott.

"I'm being deliberately terrorised by them! There's a whole horde here now! Ugly eight legged sons of bitches!"

John felt his skin crawl – for more reasons than one. It was, indeed, one of "those" calls. He hated spiders. One of his favourite things about Thunderbird 5 was the lack of spiders. Unlike home with its tropical spiders... its brightly coloured, sneaky, evil eight-legged furry fiends he swore came from the depths of hell just to make his life… well, hell on Earth.

John shook himself and dragged his thoughts from a nightmare worthy image of eight beady little eyes watching his every move and concentrated on what was going to happen. It was one of those calls… and he would soon be having a conversation with his father and older brother about activating a full rescue over a spider. Or two. Or… "Holy shit!" burst from him as he looked at the screen. It seemed full of them.

Huge…. Hairy….. invading…..

"See! I'm being invaded! I am stuck here and if I try to move they come at me!"

"I completely understand," he said, having been in a similar situation. Fortunately for him, thanks to a cigarette lighter and a handy can of bug spray, the "kill it with fire" option had been possible. "You don't have bug spray?"

"In the other room….. They're looking at me! Watching!"

"Don't show any fear!" John's mouth dropped open even as he finished his sentence. What was he thinking! They were spiders. Ok. Lots of spiders. From the looks of the video he was receiving, there were at least 20 or 30 very large spiders. Massive… hairy…. Could only have been spawned by a she-demon… He cleared his throat and tried to look more professional. "Do you have a neighbour you can call? You know, who can scare them away. Or something."

"No… I'm cut off because of the flooding, and anyway the nearest neighbour is a few kilometres away. Oh yeah. That. I'm cut off. Going on the third day now. I think that I've been forgotten. I tried to call the emergency services, but I can't get through." She screamed. "There's something else here now! I saw something move….. They're climbing the walls!"

John took a mental deep breath. OK. A beep caught his attention. Scott. Advising that he and Gordon would be heading to the location. "Ma'am? We have a team heading to your location. They will be about 15 minutes. Can you stay on the line? Have you got enough power?"

"Yes. I'm running power on a generator, but I'm down to the last of the fuel for it." The woman looked annoyed. "I was expecting a tanker load, but the water got here first."

"How long do you think you have fuel?"

"Only another 4 hours or so. But that's not important. What about this invs… Arrgghhh! There are now pitched battles happening! What is it with these things!"

"Please ma'am. Stay calm. Help is on the way."

"I'll swap places with you, and you can remain calm while…. No! No! Get away from here!" There was the sound of loud thumping and the picture jerked violently.

"Ma'am? Ma'am?" John was worried. The fear in the woman's voice had increased to the point where he could tell she was rapidly reaching hysteria. "You need to calm down. Please. Take a deep breath."

"There was one on my chair! On my chair!"

"Did you kill it?"

"Are you kidding? This is woollen carpet. Have you ever tried to get spider ick out of wool carpet? Besides, if I kill one of them, the others will come after me in revenge."

John managed to keep from whimpering. "Then what were you doing?"

"Hitting the chair to get it to move! The problem is, it was being chased by a gecko and abseiled from the ceiling down to the chair." The woman sounded quite reasonable, as if it was something that happened every day.

"Of course," John said and then he remembered. "Australia".

"Too bloody right mate. Now what are you people doing to get me out of this battlefield?"

"We have a team on the way," John reassured her. "They should be there any minute."

"Can you contact them?"

"Yes, of course."

"Good. Tell them to use the back door – the front door is probably swollen shut and I don't want it damaged. And to wipe their feet. I don't want mud tracked through."

John's lips were twitching violently. He was going to love passing these instructions onto his brothers. "I'll let them know. Could you give me a couple of minutes, Ma'am?"

"Yeah. And call me Maria. Ma'am sounds far too old."

"Right… Maria… OK. I'm John." John switched channels. "Thunderbird 5 to Field Command. Come in, Scott."

"This is Alan, John."

"Where's Scott?"

"He was needed to fly a chopper – one of their rescue pilots was injured and Scott's the only other one who is checked out to fly that particular whirly."

"Who's heading to help Maria?"

"Who?"

"My trapped woman."

"Virgil and Gordon. They just left again for her location. On the way there, they found a family stranded on a roof and had to get them out. I'll get an ETA if you like."

"Please."

"John? They said they think they are about 2 minutes away – they just need to tie off the boat and then make their way to the house."

"FAB. Oh – Al? Tell them that Maria said to come in the back door, and to wipe their feet and not track mud through."

"Are you serious?"

"Hey, I'm just relaying a message here!"

"John? Stop smiling. At least until after I tell them."

"Make it fast, Alan. She really does seem terrified."

"FAB."

John left the connection open and re-opened the audio to Maria, who was now huddled in the chair, shaking. "Maria? Maria? Look at me? Our team is there. They are on their way up – and I've told them about the back door and the mud. What is that?" John was startled at the vision he saw.

"I mentioned the gecko? You know – the one the spider abseiled to get away from? Well, he seems to have rounded up some friends and they appear to be squaring off against the spiders. I hate geckos."

"As well as spiders?"

"More. They shit everywhere. Spiders don't leave shit after them. Get away! Why can't you take this outside? What is it with you and wanting to turn my doorway into a battlefield?" Her voice was rising in pitch.

"John? It's Virgil. We're coming in the back door – we can hear shouting."

"Hurry, Virge! Apparently things are getting out of hand – Maria's terrified."

Virgil and Gordon exchanged glances. "Maybe we should separate? I think I saw a window," Virgil said. "How about I try to get in there, and you try the door?"

"Why me?" Gordon asked.

"You're the hand to hand combat trained one, Gordon. Remember?"

Gordon smiled a slow, menacing smile. "Oh this will be fun!"

Virgil activated the camera mounted on the shoulder of his bandolier so it would transmit to John. "John, this place is huge. It won't take me long to get to the window, but it may take Gordon a little bit longer to get there through the house – he can't go direct."

"FAB – I'll let her know." John sounded relieved as he turned back to Maria. "Maria – not long now. Hang on. Can you get to the window and open it? Virgil is coming through there, and Gordon is coming through the house."

"The window's open. Oh crap…. There are spiders and geckos at the window!"

"That's OK – they won't worry Virgil."

There was a moan from the woman. "So many of them!" The picture was shaking and John realised that it was her hand shaking.

"Nearly over, Maria." Suddenly he could see another viewpoint as Virgil apparently arrived at the window. "Virgil is at the window now and is going to climb in."

"Holy crap, there's a lot of these!"

"And that would be Gordon," John reported dryly.

"Maria?" Virgil clambered in the window, brushing large spiders out of his way. He looked around, confused. "What happened to the people holding you hostage?"

"People?" Maria sounded confused as Virgil looked. "It's these spiders! And the geckos! I hate them. KEEP AWAY FROM ME!" she screamed suddenly at Virgil, whose confusion was now increased a hundredfold.

"What?"

"On you! You're covered with spiders! Keep away from me!"

Virgil moved back to the window; for the first time in his life his charm hadn't worked on a woman. He could hear John snickering though the feed in his ear. He began to brush spiders off himself. "OK – I'm getting rid of them!"

"Not in here! Get them away!"

"Gordon? Where are you?" Virgil tried to get rid of the spiders out of the window and hoped Gordon could help salvage this situation. How had this gotten out of hand so easily? Virgil made a mental note to get himself checked out to fly everything that Scott could. It was all Scott's fault he was in this situation.

"Finding a broom," came Gordon's voice. "These things are everywhere!"

"Oh god! I am being invaded!" Maria shrieked loudly. "They're moving towards me!"

"It's OK!" Gordon's head and shoulders appeared around the doorway. "It looks like the geckos are forming a defensive flanking manoeuvre."

"And driving them in here!"

"Look, I didn't say it was perfect."

In Thunderbird 5, John grinned broadly. Trust Gordon to get totally into the whole thing.

"OK – Maria! Look – no spiders on me now." Virgil came close to the woman. "We're going to get you out of here." There were loud thumping noises from outside the door. "Gordon? What is going on?"

"I've formed an alliance with the geckos against the spiders and we're managing to drive them away."

Virgil choked and he could hear John chortling. "Gordon, this isn't a time for joking."

"Who's joking?" Gordon appeared in the doorway holding a broom and started to attack the spiders in and around the door. "The geckos are doing a great job. Their defensive manoeuvre turned offensive and they have most of them on the run. Except they keep getting distracted when they catch one."

A gagging noise from Maria made Virgil turn to her. "Maria? You're looking a little green."

"I feel sick," she said.

"Can you hang on until we get you outside? Come on – look. Gordon's got the doorway cleared. We can get out of here – back to somewhere safe."

Virgil put his arm around the woman and helped her out of the chair, supporting her as they crossed the room. He felt her pull back as they approached the doorway where Gordon was dealing with the last of the spiders. "I can't…"

"Yes you can. Look… I'll carry you. They won't touch you. You won't touch them." She was shaking violently and Virgil hoped he wouldn't drop her. "Nearly there. Yes, Gordon will turn off the lights as we go. And the generator when we leave."

Her face was hidden in his shoulder, and she was trembling. "John – you still there?"

"FAB Virgil."

"Can you talk to her?"

"Maria?" John activated the audio channel to her phone, and he could see her lift her head. "Maria, nearly there. Virgil won't drop you. Trust us, Maria." John saw the picture move and realised that they were in the flood boat. "There – not long now."

"John? Thank you. Thank you for staying on the line with me."

John smiled. "It was my pleasure Maria. You needed my help. It's what we're here for."

"Thank you anyway."

Some hours later…..

"Thunderbird 2 to Thunderbird 5…. Come in John."

"John here Virgil. What's up?"

"John – did you actually tell father what Maria was trapped with?"

"I sent him a message about a trapped woman. Then went straight to Scott, because you were all in the field. Why?"

"I was talking to Scott… I think we can probably leave a couple of things out of this report, don't you?"

"What bits excactly? Gordon becoming the Gecko General?"

"Oh yes… definitely that bit. In fact, I was thinking everything after the "Woman trapped in her house requires rescue" bit."

"What did Scott say?"

"It was his suggestion, and he said that he wants to have a chat when you are next home."

"He would. But yeah… I think it might be a good idea to heavily edit this report."

"Definitely a good idea. Otherwise we'll all be having a chat. But with Father."

"How is Maria?"

"Gordon and I stopped by to see her just before we left – like you asked. She's recovered and is arranging for her house to be fumigated for spiders."

John shuddered. "I don't blame her," he said.

"Neither do I," Virgil said, and John could hear Gordon in the background agreeing. "I don't think I ever want to see a spider or gecko again."