hardyboyfansrock, firestorm - thanks for the feedback. Glad your enjoying the story
criminallycharmed - my thought is that Scott's wrapped up in the events right now. I plan on having him react later though its not in this chapter yet. Glad you're enjoy Rising from Tragedy. Look for an update on that story on Sunday as I'm working on chapter 13 now and plan on trying to update that story every sunday. Glad you're enjoy the both of them.
Boleyn - Glad you enjoyed the memories. They were fun to write. I plan on doing a movie P.O.V. for Jeff, John and Gordon though in what order I'm not sure. Thanks for the feedback.
KateMaxwell - I rewrote the begining of this chapter just for you. Had started it further on as the line I ended with is in this fic's sister story Longest Day which is from Virgil's point of view and for those who have read it would know what goes on after it. However, seeing as some may not have read it I explain it some. Hope you enjoy.
montogma - glad you're enjoyed the flashbacks! Guess the beginning of this chapter is also written for you as if it wasn't for your and Kate's reviews the chapter would have started further into the future. Enjoy!
Brezo-1816 - Glad you are enjoying the story. I respect you're opinion about not seeing Scott as someone who would turn his back on his family after his mom's death and appreciate the fact that you are trying to accept my point of view for the sake of this story. As for that storyline, I am exploring it in another fic entitled Rising From Tragedy. If you are interested the first chapter of that story can be found on the homepage link found in my profile. It would be in the forum called Thunderbird Movie-verse Stories. Hope you enjoy the rest of this story!
shadowwolf919 - This soon enough for you! I do have other stories going on too so I can't promise when you'll see Chapter 5 but I'll try not to leave you waiting to longs. Thanks for taking the time to review.
ladc - hey! I'm happy to see you reviewing again. I remember you reviewing my story Painful Memory and maybe a couple of other ones though I'm not sure. Glad you're enjoying this story. At some point I plan on doing one of these from John's POV so that will definitely satisfy your John fix! As for the baseball terminology - hey I did my best! I played the game in gym class and softball for a few years but it was all for fun. don't mind playing it but I can't stand watching it! glad you enjoyed it anyways! Hope to hear from you again.
"Yeah," Virgil replied as he slowly got to his feet. He looked about how I felt, worn out.
Reassured that he was going to be okay I moved to Gordon's side who wasn't stirring yet. Kneeling down next to him I put two fingers to his neck looking for a pulse and praying I would find one. The oxygen deprivation had started to affect him first. Had it come back online in time?
I let out a sigh of relief as I felt a pulse. "Gordon, its time to wake up," I told him shaking his shoulder slightly.
"I don't want to go to school, today," Gordon murmured sleepily. I grinned. Evidently Gordon had been reliving his own memories. He never had been a morning person.
"Gordon, wake up," I tried again.
I saw his eyelids start to flutter and then open. He looked around a confused look on his face. It didn't take long for him to recognized where we were at.
"What's going on?" he asked starting to push himself up off of the deck.
"Alan came through. We have control of the station again," I told him reaching out to help him to his feet. Virgil had joined us by this time.
"Let's start getting the emergency packs together, so we can get off this thing," I told them. As I moved to start doing just that I heard Alan on the link.
"Let me go after The Hood. He'll destroy everything you've built, everything the Thunderbirds stand for."
"Negative it's too risky," Dad replied.
This was one time I had to disagree with my Dad. Yes, it was risky but there was a lot at stake. Not just the reputation of the Thunderbirds either. There were innocent lives at risk. The Hood could do a lot of damage with Thunderbird 2 and the Mole and we had already seen how little regard he had for human life. He had to be stopped. Even if all Alan and his friends did was stall him even that could save lives.
I stayed quiet though. This was Dad's decision. It was one I felt I had no right to interfere with. I couldn't imagine how Dad felt right now. I know he felt responsible for all of us. I had seen the guilt on his face during this whole ordeal. The guilt on his face back on the island when we had first found out that Thunderbird 5 had been hurt.
"Okay, Alan," Dad finally conceded. "We'll meet you there. Thunderbirds are go!"
"F.A.B.!" Alan replied.
Virgil, Gordon and I had gathered everything by this time and we were all gathered around the airlock. All we needed was Dad's signal and we were ready to leave. I was sure my brother's were just as anxious as me to be off the station.
"Okay, boys, we are outta here," Dad said looking over at us.
Within minutes, the five of us were onboard Thunderbird 3 and ready to go.
"Undocking sequence complete."
There was no denying that I hated Thunderbird 5 the most out of all of us. I always felt so cut off from what was going on. Leaving was always the highlight of my tour of duty up here. Still, I had never been so relieved to leave the station as I was this time.
"Gordon, heat 'em up," Dad said.
Soon Thunderbird 3 was headed toward Earth. The combination of only two boosters and a faster than normal entry speed into the Earth's atmosphere was making for a bumpier than normal ride. Re-entry had never been my favorite part of a space flight and this was on my list of worst trips ever.
With an effort, I was able to look over at John in the back seat beside me. My brother's eyes were closed and I could see the pain on his face. I knew this reentry was going to be harder on him than the rest of us.
"Ride it out boys," Dad said from his center seat.
I was relieved when I felt the rocket stopped shaking. Gordon leveled the rocket out as we continued on our course for London. What was going on there?
"Brains, come in. What's the situation?"
"The Hood has caused a major disaster with the Mole. The momo-mono-mono– one-track railway is down in the Thames."
"Where's Thunderbird 1?"
"It's on the ground," Brains reported. I felt a little bit better. At least Alan hadn't managed to wreck my 'bird on his way to London. "The ki-ki-kids are in Thunderbird 2."
"F.A.B. We're right behind 'em."
I sure hoped they were ready for this. They were those people on the monorail best chance. By the time we got there, it would probably be too late. I still had my doubts as to whether Alan, Fermat and Tintin could pull this off. They had no training. Sure, Alan had been sneaking onto all the Thunderbirds for that last couple of years. Had studied the controls. Still, learning the controls and actually performing a rescue were two different things.
"Prepare for landing," Gordon announced.
"Landing gear engaged," the computer announced.
Thunderbird 3 came to rest gently on the ground. "Landing complete," the computer announced.
"Mr. Tracy," came Brains' voice over the radio.
"Go ahead, Brains," Dad said even as we all started releasing the restraints. I knew the rest of my family was just as anxious to get on the ground as I was. Being the closest to the exit, I opened the hatch. I then let Gordon go ahead of me, as I turned to check on John, who was already on his feet.
"Just thought you would like to know that Alan is now in Thunderbird 4 trying to retrieve the monorail car," Brains informed us over the radio, as I let John move past me, allowing him to exit the rocket next.
"F.A.B. , Brains," I heard Dad replied as I exited the rocket. On the ground I followed my other two brothers who were hurrying to the railing.
What was going on underneath the water? Local rescue workers had their own boats in the river. The boats were circling what must have been the area the monorail car had gone down in. Thunderbird 2 hovered over the river.
Suddenly, I saw the monorail car and Thunderbird 4 break the surface. "There they are!" I called out in relief. Alan had done it! Maybe he wasn't such a hazard to have around after all.
"He did it," Dad said beside me. Looking over at him, I saw that he had one arm around Virgil. The elation on his face, I knew mirrored my own. Things seemed to be going our way now.
Following John and Gordon, I headed for the steps that lead down to the river. It wasn't long before Alan and Tintin were coming up the steps to join us. I didn't miss the pure joy on Tintin's face or the smug look my younger brother had.
"I'm glad you could finally join us," Alan said. That was something I'd be likely to say. Whether I wanted to admit it or not, my baby brother was a lot like me.
"Don't go getting cocky after one mission. We still have a dangerous situation here," Dad said. He turned to face the rest of us one hand still across Alan's shoulders. He let his gaze drift from one of us to another. "I need you boys to close down this accident scene. Tintin, go get Fermat. Meet us at Thunderbird 1. Alan, you come with me.
As Dad and Alan headed off toward Thunderbird 1, I sent Gordon down toward the river to help with getting the victim's off the monorail car. John, Virgil and I scattered to help with crowd control. Thunderbird 2's sudden arrival in Jubilee Gardens had caused some injuries along with separating kids and parents. There were several kids standing around looking loss, some crying. Frantic parents were making their way through the crowds looking for their kids.
My third reunion found me near the river. I decided to take the time to check on things down there.
"How are things going?" I asked Gordon as he helped paramedics load someone on a stretcher into the back of an ambulance.
"Another set of hands wouldn't hurt," Gordon answered even as he turned to head back down to the monorail car, still being held on the surface by our mini-sub which was probably on autopilot.
I helped evacuate the rest of the passengers. The more seriously injured had already been taken care of. Those left had minor injuries or were simply just shaken up. I knew the London paramedics would want to check everyone out though just to be on the safe side.
Finally, all the monorail passengers were off the monorail and either in the triage area that had been set up or being seen by paramedics.
"Excuse me," a police officer asked approaching me. "Is there anyway to get the monorail car up on the river bank?" he asked.
"Of course," I replied knowing that Thunderbird 4 could easily get the monorail car up on the river back. "I'll go see to it right now," I told him, as I headed off to find Gordon.
Gordon wasn't far away and as soon as I told him what was needed he hurried off to Thunderbird 4 to see that it was done. I headed to the command post that the emergency workers had set up to see if there was anything else they needed assistance with. I found the police chief halfway there.
"One of our agents is seeing that the monorail car is put up on the bank. Is there anything else you require our assistance for?" I asked him.
"Not really, things are pretty much under control. We're looking at a few more hours of clean up but it's all routine. Your assistance has been much appreciated."
"It's the least we could do. I just regret this was caused with our equipment."
"Things happen. It's just good to know it was someone else in control of Thunderbird 2 when it first arrived. No one knew what to think at first."
"You can be sure we'll help repair the damage to the monorail car and any other damage that has been caused," I assured him. Virgil calling my name kept me from saying anything else.
I turned to see Virgil standing next to John. It was clear that Virgil was holding John up and that was just barely.
"Excuse me," I told the police chief quickly and the headed toward my two brothers.
John was pale and clearly in pain. I silently scolded myself. I had forgotten all about his injuries. He never should have been helping us. Hell, I probably should have gotten one of the paramedics to take a look at him.
"Virgil, what's going on?" I asked as I put an arm around John's waist taking some of his weight from Virgil.
"He's going into shock. We need to get him onboard Thunderbird 2," Virgil told me.
Together we headed toward the green rock. I helped Virgil lay John down across the seats and as he grabbed the emergency medical kit I went to grab a blanket from one of the storage lockers. When I came back, Virgil was taking John's pulse. "What is it?" I asked him as he finished. I held the blanket out to him.
"One hundred and ten," he said taking the blanket from me. "Scott we need to get him to a hospital."
"Dad should . . ."
"We can't wait for Dad," Virgil said interrupting me. "We've already waited too long."
I nodded, knowing he was right. "Let me go get Gordon," I told him already turning to leave Thunderbird 2.
I hurried back to the river bank. We need some way to communicate with each other when we aren't on the Thunderbirds or have the helmets on, I thought as I went.
Gordon was on the riverbank standing next to where Thunderbird 4 sat in the water. The monorail car was now on the bank and firefighters stood nearby trying to figure out what to do next to move it from where it was at.
"Scott, what's wrong?" Gordon asked as I joined him.
"We need to get John to the hospital. Secure Thunderbird 4. We'll pick it up later. I'll see if the police can keep a guard on it until we get back," I told him.
He nodded and disappeared on board the mini-sub. I spotted the police chief with the firefighters and hurried over to him. He assured me he would keep a security detail on site to keep an idea on the sub. Thanking him, I started back to Thunderbird 2 with Gordon right behind me.
"Dad know yet?" Gordon asked.
"No, we're going to have to inform him en route," I told him as we hurried up the ramp of Thunderbird 2. Both of us headed toward the cockpit. "You take the controls," I told Gordon. I wanted to be able to talk on the radio without the distraction of trying to fly. "We'll head for Walt Disney Memorial," I told him.
We wouldn't have to worry about security as much there. Dr. Mark Harper was a close family friend and our primary physician. He knew about International Rescue and he had a medical team of people that he trusted. I knew John would get the best care possible in his hands.
"F.A.B.," Gordon replied sitting in the pilot's seat, his hand immediately started moving over the control.
I put in a call to Dr. Harper first. I wanted to let him know we were heading his way. After that I would try to get a hold of Dad or let Brains know what was going on.
"Scott is something wrong?" Dr. Harper asked immediately as his face appeared on the screen in front of me.
"Uncle Mark, John's hurt. He's gone into shock. We're leaving London now and heading your way."
"We'll be ready," Uncle Mark replied. "Who's with him now?"
"Virgil's with him," I told him.
"Good," he replied. Uncle Mark had trained us all in first aid but had given Virgil more advanced training. "We'll be ready and waiting on this end, but Scott don't waste any time. The sooner you get him here the better."
I nodded. "We'll be pushing Thunderbird 2 as fast as she can go," I assured him.
"I'll see you when you get here then," Uncle Mark said closing the link.
"Thunderbird 2 to Thunderbird 1," I tried, seeing if I could get a hold of Dad first. As I expected, I got no answer. "Thunderbird 2 to base."
"Base here," Brains replied. "Wh-wh-what's going on, Scott."
"We're leaving London on Thunderbird 2. Our destination is Walt Disney Memorial. John's gone into shock and needs immediate medical attention. I haven't been able to inform Dad."
"F.A.B. Mr. Tr-Tr-Tr your father is still at the Bank of London. I will inform him of the situation as soon as possible."
"F.A.B. Brains," I replied. "Thunderbird 2 out." I closed the link. "I'll be back. I want to check on John and let Virgil know what is going on."
"F.A.B," Gordon said his eyes not moving from the controls in front of him.