Chapter 1
"Gough's cave, right?" Scott asked his, at this moment, holographic brother.
"Yes. It's in Cheddar Gorge. A small group of cavers had gone deep into the cave to see if it was possible to extend it to the public. Without warning the ground collapsed from under them they managed to loss all of their equipment apart from a radio which they used to contact us." John replied.
"Have they tried the emergency services?"
"Yes, but they can't get there equipment into the cave, the gorge is too narrow."
"Very well then, tell them we're on our way." Scott said decisively getting up and heading for the light fittings. "Virgil, I think we're going to need Gordon and Alan with us for this. just in case that cave collapses while we're in it!
Miles away, hidden in an overgrown Malaysian jungle, animals scattered in all directions away from a dark force that was forming. A dark force from within a dark temple. At the source of it all, a bald man wearing a jewel encrusted outfit was meditating. In front of him where five candles in a line with different coloured flames. First was blue which was followed by orange, green, yellow and finally red. His plan could not fail, not like the many times before. Time and time again he had tried to take one of the world famous Thunderbirds for his own while they were out on rescues. He now saw that this was simply not possible. In order to get what he wanted he would have to go to their base.
But, He thought, that would be too easy, nowhere near satisfying enough.
Belah Gaat had a pure burning hatred of the Tracy family, his new power bestowed on him by The Dark Masters could destroy them emotionally as well as physically and all he would have to do is sit back and watch the show. When it was over he would be free to go and simply take whatever he wanted. Yes, he was thoroughly looking forward to that day. The day that International Rescue destroyed itself.
With a little menacing smile, he opened his glowing eyes and stared into the red flame. He would start with the youngest. The flame started to flicker slightly even though there was not even the gentlest of breezes. Gradually the flame began to grow, it's light burning brighter…
The eyes of Gordon's portrait began to flash. The rescue was well under way and everything was going well from what they knew back at base. Brains opened up the line and watched as Gordon told him that they were heading out now. However Kayo was more concerned with what she saw behind Gordon in the image. Alan seemed to be packing away the equipment with a bit more force then required.
"Is Alan all right?" She asked, butting into the conversation. Gordon frowned slightly and glanced behind him taking in his brother's behaviour.
"Are you all right their Al? You look a bit on edge."
Alan stiffened and put on slightly guarded expression.
"Yeah." He replied, a hint of venom evident in his voice.
Gordon shrugged and turned back to the hologram.
"I'll talk to him later." he mouthed. Virgil suddenly appeared on the camera covered in dirt.
"Are we ready to go?" He asked.
"Yep!" replied Gordon before turning back to those back at base, "See ya soon!"
Gordon turned from Thunderbird 2's window to his older brother who seemed to be fairly happy piloting his giant green plane, unaware of his youngest brother's condition.
"I'm gonna go find Alan, Virg. See what he's up to." He told him before heading towards the pod.
"F.A.B." Virgil replied and started to quietly whistle a tune to himself.
Gordon found Alan cleaning the Mole fixtures for the pod, His back to him. He was scrubbing so hard Gordon thought he was going to start chipping off Brain's unchippable paint.
"Alan? Are you OK? What's up?" Gordon asked cautiously. He had had plenty of first-hand experience of his brother's hot head. When Alan turned around Gordon visibly flinched. It was a lot worse than he thought. Alan's face was bright red with rage, his eyes burning.
"YOU! THAT'S WHAT'S UP! YOU AND MY OTHER PERFECT BROTHERS!" Alan literally screamed, "YOU ALL TREAT ME LIKE I'M STILL A KID AND I HATE IT! I HATE YOU!"
Gordon's eyes widened with fear.
"Alan, no."
Gaat cackled as the red flame suddenly burst into a raging fire completely melting the candle. The youngest was complete. But his work was not done. He focused his stare on the yellow flame…
Gordon suddenly began to feel a hint of anger toward his brother and before he could stop himself he snapped back, "Oh yeah! Well I could have not stuck up for you at school and watched you get your lights punched out!" Gordon felt the flame of his own anger start to grow inside him and his hands balling into fists by his side.
"I COULD HAVE LOOKED AFTER MYSELF!" Alan roared and on the last word, Gordon suddenly found himself surrounded by fire.
Right. That had just about ticked him off. Gordon finally snapped as somewhere far away a large yellow candle flame turned into a raging, angry blue fire like a storm at sea.
Gordon hated fire. Really, really hated it. Being a water lover himself, he hated how it dried out everything. But water could also put a fire out. Instinctively, Gordon flung out his hand in his brothers direction and watched as gallons on water seemed to shot down his arm and out of his hands with such force it slammed into his brother and pinned him against the Mole.
Gordon suddenly stopped and staggered back as his brother collapsed.
What's happening to us?
Gaat grinned and decided that he would stop for the night. He stood up and glanced at the 3 remaining candles. He'll get round to them soon enough, but for now he'll let them get worked up about their youngest siblings…
Virgil jumped when Thunderbird 2's fire alarm started wailing and many red lights lit up the control panel.
"What the…?" He thought out loud. What on earth where his brothers up to down there? Well, according to the warning lights, it must be bad. But just as he was going to start the emergency procedure, all the alarms stopped as one.
"This is Thunderbird 1 to Thunderbird 2. Virg! Are you alright? What was that?" Scott's worried voice asked.
"I'm fine, but I have no idea what the hell that was." Virgil replied.
"Can you make it home?"
"Yeah, I should be able to. Instrumentation shows no damage to the ship. Strange." Virgil replied, wondering why Gordon or Alan hadn't called him yet.
"Good. Well, I'm almost home now so I'll see you when you get back."
"F.A.B. See you Scott!"
Alan and Gordon could only stare at each other in shock. Thunderbird 2's fire alarms suddenly stopped blearing, snapping Gordon out of his trance. Breathing heavily, he glanced down at the pool of water covering the scorch marks on the floor and stumbled towards the exit breaking into a sprint. Alan stared at his watch as it started to vibrate in a daze, his eyes catching the evidence of the events of the past seconds. He then glanced up at the exit, catching Gordon's retreating form before scrambling over a pile of crates and curling up behind them.
Virgil tried to open a channel to Gordon again. Why weren't they answering? He would call base and inform them but there wasn't must point seeing as they were only 10 minutes away now. Still, something wasn't quite right.
Alan curled up even tighter behind the crates as he tried to make sense of his scrambled thoughts. They had finished the successful rescue at Cheddar Gorge and he was packing away the equipment when suddenly he felt angry. Why? Anyway, he tried to ignore it but it just kept growing and growing for no apparent reason. Then while he was cleaning the pod fittings Gordon had come in. His best friend. All he wanted to do was say hi but he had screamed at him. Something about being treated as a kid. No he would never do that, would he? But then Gordon shouted back which made him really angry. Red hot with anger. And then what? He projected his heat to the ground around Gordon causing it to burst into flame? No, that was impossible. But then he'd seen the water coming from Gordon, slamming into him. That was impossible too, but he had seen it with his own eyes. He wanted to think it was a hallucination, that he'd been drugged or something, but his dripping wet IR uniform and aching body wouldn't let him.
Unable to think anymore, Alan dropped his head onto his folded legs and cried.
Once again, Gordon ignored his vibrating watch and instead chose to continue to stare at the palm of his hand. After running out of the pod, he had ran straight to the sick bay, just encase there was an after effect like vomiting or something, you could never be too sure. What the hell had come over him? It was like something out of one of his childhood comics but it was real, it had actually happened.
Experimentally, he curled his fingers slightly so it looked like he was holding an invisible ball and focused his mind. He closed his eyes for a bit to help his focus and when he opened them, a small ball of water had appeared in the centre of the non-existent ball.
Gordon gave a little yelp and jumped away in surprize. The water fell to the ground and make a quiet splash on the sterile surface.
Okay, Gordon thought, so I have somehow developed the ability to manipulate water and it seems that Alan can do the same but with fire… or something. The question is how and what was that anger all about?
Scott frowned. Virgil had arrived back on Tracy Island with no problems despite the earlier fire. But when he had returned to the lounge, he had stated that he had lost contact with their two youngest brothers.
With little hesitation, he opened up a line to Thunderbird 5.
"Hey Scott! What's up?" John inquired, his hologram suddenly blinking in to life.
"I have no idea," Scott replied, "Can you tell us where Gordon and Alan are?"
"What? You think you've left them at the rescue zone? Please, tell me you have!"
Scott rolled his eyes. "Just do it."
"Ok. Let's see…" John replied, still chuckling at his own joke, "Gordon's in Thunderbird 2's sick bay and Alan is the far right corner of the pod." A confused look then crossed his defined features, "Why are they there?"
"All we know is that there was a bit of a fire in the pod, that was soon sorted out, but since then we haven't been able to contact them. The call's getting through all right, they just don't answer." Virgil informed him.
"Anyway, we better go and find out what's going on, thanks John! I'll call you when we know."
"F.A.B."