"Tsunami"
By LMC
Rating: FRM for strong language and character death
Synopsis: An unnatural disaster strikes Tracy Island, leaving International Rescue dead in the water and wide open for the Hood to put an end to them once and for all.
Dedicated to my beta Samantha Winchester – without her my stories would be so much fuel for the fireplace. And thank you SO MUCH to MCJ who found some BOTH Sam and I missed that I've fixed!
Prologue
The oddest thing was that it was so very calm. The sky was that unique shade of blue found in their corner of the world; the leaves of palms and various plants and bushes around the island didn't move an inch in the still air. The sun was shining brightly, its warmth penetrating the thin cotton of the white tee shirt he wore.
Yet in that perfect, tranquil moment as his eyes darted to the left, he saw something so impossibly huge, something he'd never witnessed in all his thirty-nine years as a rescuer, Air Force man and older brother of four men; something that took his breath away at the very same instant it set every alarm in his head to ringing.
Stay up high and hope it didn't tear apart every stick and stone of the structures they'd built on their paradise? Or go into the depths of the island where those vehicles which were at the very heart of International Rescue lay silent and helpless? This was the choice with which they were faced, and all scientific evidence pointed to staying above rather than below.
But they'd only had eleven minutes' warning. Thunderbird Five's sophisticated monitoring and imaging hadn't been sufficient. The island's equally high-tech systems hadn't been adequate. Somewhere two hundred kilometres east of an island called Tonga, the Earth's crust had shifted twice in a row, sending calamity on a collision course with Tracy Island.
The hurricane shields were going up. He had just enough time to hurdle the one in front of the door that separated him from the relative safety of the villa. Scott turned to run, only then hearing the cry from behind him. He stopped as though some higher power had hit the pause button, and in the blink of an eye took in the gigantic five-story wave nearly upon them, and Jeff Tracy taking the steps three-at-a-time.
Scott glanced back to the shielding which had nearly blocked his escape, then to his father again. He would never make it. There was no way. "Dad!" he yelled, as a sound akin to a rushing freight train deafened him. Launching himself toward the staircase, Scott reached out and for a sweet, happy moment felt Jeff's fingertips touch his.