Evenin' all!

Yup, it's that time of the week already. Shocking, I know. I mean where have all the hours gone? I realised recently that I often spend more time studying than I do sleeping at the weekends. That's - sad. But hey! I guess that's just college life, huh?

Anywho, back to the present. Thanks for all the awesome reviews, I gather that I'm not popular with most people after that evil cliffie I left you with on Saturday? Well sorry, chums, but there are a lot more on the way. Believe me, that was mild in comparison with some of the ones that I have planned for you later on...

And now, on with the show!

(Oh, and as a note; the scene at the beginning of this chapter takes place a few minutes before the end of the last one, okay? We clear on that? Good.)

"Virgil, John, over here!"

John turned at the sound of his older brother's voice, spotting the taller man standing a few metres away beside the doors to the main science building. The metal of the door was charred and blackened, but still intact. The access panel, however, had all but melted as it lay in a shriveled mess beside the wall.

Jogging over to Scott, John glanced down at the ruined device and frowned. "If that's the only access panel, how the heck are we supposed to get in here without blasting the door down?" he asked.

Scott held up a single finger as if to say 'just wait and see', before stepping up to the metal doors and pulling down on a large lever on the right-hand side of the alcove. There was a soft 'hiss', and Scott withdrew his hand quickly, flexing his fingers.

"Dammit, that things hot!" he exclaimed, and Virgil quickly hurried over to see if he had been injured. As Scott waved him off, John heard Gordon's voice filter through the speaker in his helmet.

"Well duh!" the aquanaut laughed, and Scott froze, looking around as though hoping to see the Firefly. "That's usually what happens when metal comes into contact with fire, stupid. I'd be kinda worried if it wasn't hot. Anyway, are you alright?"

Scott brushed his hand against the leg of his uniform and turned back around to focus his attention on the door. "I'm fine, Gords." he grumbled. "My glove has seen better days, but it can be replaced."

"Yeah, well your hand can't." John stated, coming up to stand beside Virgil. "Next time you might not be so lucky. You should try to be more careful, Scott."

"Okay, okay! Can we please focus on the mission, guys?!" Scott huffed, annoyed at his own foolish slip-up. John rolled his eyes and shook his head, turning back around to look at the smouldering left-wing of the complex, where he could see the fire fighters working to put out the remaining flames. The dark night sky was a murky brown, the smoke within the air reflecting the orange glow of the flames on the ground. But there was one thing that caught John's attention the most; the stars had been completely blotted out.

John jumped as he heard a loud 'clang', followed by a stream of curses that echoed in his helmet. Turning around to look at the door, John noticed that Scott was hopping about on one foot, with Virgil hovering worriedly nearby. Glancing at the door, the astronaut put two-and-two together.

"Scott, the doors are all made of polysacharite titanium." he stated, jumping over a fallen metal pole as he hurried back towards where his brothers stood. "Kicking it isn't gonna be of much use."

Scott grunted in response, pushing past John and striding swiftly towards the hover-sleds. Lifting out the gun-shaped laser cutting gear, he stalked back over to the door, powered up the device, and fired. A concentrated beam of highly-charged atoms shot out of the end, striking the door's hinges. There was a high-pitched whirring noise for a few moments, before Scott finally switched off the laser and stood back to admire his handiwork.

"I think that should suffice." he stated, carefully placing the cutting gear on the ground. Then, in once swift movement, he spun around and aimed a powerful kick at the centre of the door. With a resounding 'clang', the metal barrier fell backwards, crashing down onto the floor of the main corridor behind. Without further ado, Scott grabbed the gear, stored it into the back compartment of his hover-sled, and mounted the vehicle once more.

"Guys," he called, determination lining his voice. "Let's go."

Virgil ran over to his own hover-sled, jumping onto it and powering up the engines. Blowing bits of dirt and debris into the air, he sped off into the complex after his older brother. John paused momentarily, his eyes scanning the rest of the danger zone, trying to locate the Firefly amongst the numerous fire trucks and rescue vehicles. Typing in the correct code on his wrist-watch, he opened up a private channel with his younger brother

"Gordon, where are you?" he asked, throwing one leg over his hover-sled as he got ready to take off after Virgil and Scott.

"I'm on the other side of the main complex." Gordon replied, his slightly tinny voice echoing in John's ears as it resounded in his helmet. "The local rescue teams think that they might be able to get in this way, as long as a path has been cleared for them. So that's what I'm doing."

"F.A.B." John said calmly, powering up his engine. "Contact us when you're done, alright?"

"This may take some time, you know." Gordon stated. "There's a heck of a lot of debris over here. It looks like the back wall has all but collapsed onto the primary generators. And it sure is hot over here!"

John nodded silently, pulling at the collar of his own uniform with one hand. "I know what you mean, Gordo. It's like a sauna out here! The metal is still giving off heat from the fire. Not enough to cause us serious problems, but enough to make it uncomfortable. Keep an eye on the external temperature scanners, won't you? If I'm gonna be burnt to a crisp, I'd like to know beforehand."

He heard Gordon chuckle softly. "F.A.B., bro. Good luck."

With a soft 'click', the line disconnected, and John focused his attention on guiding his hover-sled forward. He floated effortlessly floated above the debris and dirt, passing gracefully through what remained of the doorway and entering the complex. John took a deep breath, glancing at the metals doors as he past them by.

"Sorry," he murmured softly. "You were up against Scott. You were destined to lose."

Shaking his head again and smiling in mild amusement, John hovered slowly down the darkened corridor, turning up the intensity of the lights on his hover-sled so that the passageway was illuminated a little more. The place was a mess. Glass and plaster lay everywhere, blackened by the soot from the smoke that had clearly filtered through the corridors when the complex was still ablaze. The walls had huge, wide cracks running from the floor to the ceiling; a reminder of the damage that had been caused by the shift in the building's foundations. Random objects lay scattered about; charred metallic devices and scorched sheets of paper, the latter of which fluttered across the floor as the air from John's hover-sled blew against them. And it was quiet. Far too quiet.

"John, hurry it up!" Scott yelled in his ear-piece.

Okay, maybe not so quiet. But still, shouldn't the main reactor be making some kinda noise? A - I don't know - a humming or pulsing sound, or something like that? But there's nothing. Maybe they were damaged in the earthquake.

Picking up speed, John continued down the corridor until he saw the light of his brothers' uniforms at the end of the hallway. They had stopped just before the point where the corridor forked in two, and were currently using their portable scanners in an attempt to locate the missing scientists. Coming to a halt beside them, John jumped off his hover-sled and pulled out his own device, switching it on and moving to stand beside his brothers.

"Any luck?" he inquired, pointing his scanner down the right-hand corridor and listening the the shrill beep of the device. Scott nodded sharply, slipping his own scanner back into his eqipment bag and dropping it down onto the hover-sled.

"There are strong life-signs coming from that direction." he stated, pointing towards the right-hand corridor. "But I'm picking up fainter signals emanating from that direction." he continued, pointing towards the left. "Which way are we gonna go first?"

John worried his bottom lip, before straightening up and turning to Virgil, who still held the scanner in his hand. "How many life-signs are there in each direction?" he asked calmly. Virgil glanced up at him, before looking back down at the device in his hands and sighing.

"It's hard to say." he replied, pressing a few buttons on the scanner, before lowing it back down again and looking up at John. "The electrical fluctuations that are occurring throughout this building seem to be interfering with our equipment. But from what I can tell, there are approximately fourteen life-signs to the left of us, and two - maybe three - to the right. It's hard to tell."

Scott, who had been listening silently, turned to look at John, a slight frown visible through his tinted visor. "What d'you think, John? Majority or severity?"

John thought for a moment, before pausing and pressing the side of his watch so that he would open up a private channel with Gordon. "John to Firefly." he called. He heard a soft 'click' as the signal was accepted, and Gordon's cheerful voice could be heard over the comm-line.

"Firefly here. Go ahead."

John peered over at Scott's scanner, tapping his leg gently with his fingers as he contemplated the two options. "Gordon," he said at last. "How long until you finish clearing a path to the back entrance of the complex?"

He heard Gordon pause slightly. "Umm - I dunno. In another couple of minutes, maybe. Why?"

"Tell the fire crews that there are two - possibly three - survivors in section G-12 of the main complex. That's right beside the back entrance, so they shouldn't have any trouble getting there. Scott, Virgil and I are gonna head along the side corridor - we think we've located some of the missing scientists. At the moment we're reading fourteen individual life-signs, but there could be more. Have the med-trucks waiting outside the main doors of the complex, we'll bring them out as soon as we find them. Understood?"

"F.A.B." Gorodn replied. "Be careful. That building's still structurally unstable. Avoid using the heavy machinery on things like support beams and doors unless there's no other option. If you move the structure around too much, the whole thing could come down on you. And I am so not scraping what's left of your sorry butts off the floorboards, you hear?"

John smiled slightly, mounting his hover-sled once more. "Acknowledged, Gordon. Over and out."

Scott and Virgil looked at him, and he pointed off to the right. They both gave him a thumbs-up, and started up the engines over their vehicles. A few seconds later, the three brothers were heading off down the corridor once more, the lights from their hover-bikes chasing the dark shadows away before them. It wasn't long before they found themselves at a dead-end. Well, it hadn't always been a dead-end, but a large section of the ceiling had fallen down into the corridor, thus blocking their path. John frowned, jumping off his hover-sled and leaning in closer to peep through the gaps between the beams and poles that lay piled up in front of them, shining a light attached to his right arm into the darkness beyond the fallen debris.

"Hey guys!" he called, glancing back over his shoulder and beckoning his brothers over with a wave of his hand. "There's a set of double doors behind all this! I think this could be the main science lab. In which case, I think we've managed to locate the fourteen survivors."

Scott joined John beside the pile of metal and rubble, pulling out his hand-held scanner and directing it towards the door. Nodding his head, he clipped it back onto his belt and pressed a button on the side of his helmet, activating the external microphone.

"Hello?" he called loudly, his voice echoing in the empty silence of the corridor. "This is International Rescue! Can anybody hear me?"

There was a moment of silence, before a muffled male voice could be heard yelling, "We're in here! The door's jammed, we can't get out!"

Scott nodded towards John, and the younger man moved back over to the hover-sleds, assisting Virgil in removing the laser cutting gear. There's a lot of debris in front of that door, and there isn't time to move it all by hand. We're just gonna have to blast it out of the way.

As John and Virgil began to assemble the three smaller lasers together in order to create one larger machine, the blond-haired astronaut glanced over at his older brother, who had crouched down so that he could yell through the gap between the fallen beams.

"Stay calm, sir." he called. "We'll get you out. But there's something I need you all to do for me, alright?"

"Um - yes, of course, we - um - alright!" came the muffled response.

Shooting a quick glance over his shoulder to see how well his brothers were progressing, Scott shifted his position slightly before turning back towards the doors. "I need you all to get as far away from the door as possible, alright? We're going to cut through with a high-energy laser beam. The door's going to get very hot, and we might accidentally penetrate it, so we need you all to stay at a safe distance. Do you understand what I'm asking you to do?"

"Yes!" the man called back. "Just wait a sec before you start, a couple of our guys are injured and moving them is gonna take time."

"That's fine" Scott replied. "Give a shout when everyone is at a safe distance, alright?"

When the man replied with a determined "Okay", Scott stood to his feet again, switching off the external speaker and heading back over to his brothers. John and Virgil had managed to successfully construct the large laser cutting-machine, and now stood waiting for instructions.

"How long d'you think it will take to blast through all that lot?" Scott asked, indicating the collapsed ceiling behind him with a jerk of his thumb. He stood with shoulders tensed, obviously itching to get into the science laboratory straight away do that he could rescue the missing scientists.

John opened his mouth and was about to answer the question, when Alan's voice suddenly cut through the empty silence, sounding overly loud in John's helmet.

"This is International Rescue to all personnel," the voice yelled, and John sensed his brothers tensing, even as he himself froze to the spot. "The refinery canister in section B-7 is very unstable! Please evacuate areas B-7 to B-9 and retreat back from the main gates immediately! Repeat, the canister in section B-7 is unstable, do not attempt to approach the area! Evacuate immediately! This is a code-red situation, all personnel must-"

Suddenly, a massive explosion rocked the science complex, and John staggered forward as the vibrations threw him off-balance. He fell against the wall, reaching out with his hands to catch himself before he fell. Dust and small debris rained down on them from the hole in the ceiling, and there was the low screech of metal-against-metal as some of the fallen support beams shifted slightly. John felt a few small clumps of plaster sprinkle over his back as the shaking subsided, and carefully turned his head to look at the extent of the damage that had been done to the corridor this time. However, apart from a thicker layer of plaster dust, nothing drastic seemed to have happened during the after-vibrations of the explosion.

Complete silence reined as the last echoes of the explosion died away, and the eldest Tracy-son found himself standing in temporary shock, the sound of his own laboured breathing resounding in his ears as his heart thundered furiously within his chest. Then Scott leaped into action. Pushing himself up and away from the hover-sled onto which he had stumbled, he grabbed both John and Virgil by their upper-arms and spun them around, his eyes running over their bodies as he quickly searched for any sign of injury.

"You guys okay?" he asked hurriedly. Both men nodded, although their chests were rising and falling swiftly as they tried to regain their normal breathing patterns. Satisfied that neither brother was hurt, Scott dialed in a code on his wrist-watch.

"Alan, you alright?" he asked. There was only an empty silence for an answer, and Scott tried dialing in the code again, his voice becoming a little more strained as he called his younger brother for the second time. "Alan, this is Scott, do you read me?"

Again, there was no answer. Scott shot a worried glance at John, who immediately tried to raise his own private channel with his youngest sibling. "John to Alan, please respond." he called loudly. When there was again no reply, John felt his breathing begin to quicken in fear.

"You," Virgil murmured, his shoulders tense and worried as he turned to look at his two older brothers. "You don't think that-?"

"No." Scott said firmly. "It's just a technical hitch or something. He's fine. He's just fine."

"B-7." Virgil whispered. "Alan said that the unstable canister was in B-7, right?"

John nodded, and Scott looked in between them with a frown upon his face. "What about it?" he demanded.

John swallowed, his throat suddenly dry, and took a deep breath to try and quell the nauseous feeling that was beginning to churn in his stomach. "B-7 is the section right beside the main gate." he explained hoarsely. "Right beside Mobile Control."

In the shocked silence that followed, you could have heard a pin drop.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Alan tried his best to stay calm as he hit another comm-button and cleared his throat.

"This is Mobile Control to Firefly. Please respond!" he repeated slowly, clenching one hand into a fist where it lay resting on his leg. "Gordon, can you read me? Gordon? C'mon, Gords, answer me! Please!"

It had been nearly three minutes since the initial explosion, and Alan was having a hard time keeping his emotions under control. He had not yet been successful in contacting any of his brothers, and he was becoming more and more desperate. He wasn't sure just how much longer he could maintain his outward calm. With no other options, Alan hit the comm-button again and sent a signal up to Thunderbird 5. He could have cried with joy when Brains' voice filtered through the speakers.

"Thunderbird 5 here. G-g-go ahead, Alan." the scientist stated. Alan took a deep breath, before launching into his hurried explanation.

"Brains, there's been an explosion in the danger zone." he stated. "One of the canisters blew. I've lost contact with the rest of the team, and I don't yet know if they made it clear in time, or if they were caught in the blast. Brains, I need you to do a site-scan and see if you can locate their life-signs."

"I'm on it." came the swift reply. After a few moments, the speaker crackled slightly as Brains moved close to the microphone once more. "Alan, I'm not d-d-reading any life-signs in the, uh, in the the area."

"What?!" Alan cried, his heart leaping up into his throat.

"Calm down, Alan." Brains soothed. "What I meant was that I, uh, I'm not actually d-d-picking up any life-signs at all. Not you, not the, uh, the other rescue crews. And no, not your brothers, either. But I believe that this might be a result of the explosion you spoke of."

"What d'you mean?" Alan asked, having calmed down a little after Brains' explanation. He heard the scientist sigh slightly.

"It's complicated." he stated, and Alan wanted to scream in frustration at the vagueness of the man's comment. However, in true Brains fashion, he explained it anyway. "The carbon isomers within the syrilium fraction are, uh, highly m-m-magnetised in their gaseous state. These magnetic polarities are c-concentrated enough to interfere with the short-wave frequencies of the, uh, transmitters within the helmets. It's a d-d-distinct possibility that you are unable to contact your b-b-b-, the rest of the team, for that particular reason."

Alan was silent for a moment as he thought these things through. Then he swallowed and took a deep, calming breath. "So they could be fine?" he inquired softly, trying to keep his voice steady. "You're saying that it could just be down to these 'magnetised isomers', or whatever they are, interfering with the comm-signals?"

"That's right." Brains replied. "I can't be, uh, one-hundred percent sh-sh-certain, of course. But this seems to be the most, uh, probable explanation."

Alan allowed his tense shoulders to relax a little, reaching up a hand and rubbing his arm where he had bashed it when he hit the ground. Then suddenly, an idea occurred to him. "Hey Brains," he began. "If you're able to contact me, do you think you'll be able to contact the other guys as well?"

"I should think so." Brains said slowly. "The, uh, frequencies from Thunderbird 5 are a lot c-c-c-stronger than the one's used within the helmets. They r-r-require a different wavelength, and so are able to, uh, pass through the magnetic field that is created by the isomers in the air."

Alan allowed himself a small smile of relief. "Could you see if you can contact them?" Alan asked, his tone hopeful. "Just to see if they're all okay?"

"You got it." Brains replied. "I'll c-c-contact you as soon as I've gotten through to them, alright?"

"F.A.B." Alan said automatically. There was a soft 'click' as the transmission ended, and he slumped down against the console, leaning his helmeted head in his hands. Breathing slowly in and out, he tried to calm his racing heartbeat. Glancing over at the make-shift thermal pressure scanner, Alan noted with satisfaction and relief that none of the other canisters were in danger of blowing up any time soon. So all Alan had to do was sit there until Brains contacted him, or until (if luck would allow it) Gordon returned to Mobile Control; whichever came first. Sighing, Alan gazed out across the danger zone, his eyes flickering over the smoking ruins of the complex, almost as though he were hoping to see the familiar and welcoming shape of the Firefly. But no such sign appeared to him.

Now, he began the longest waiting game of his life.

Will Brains be able to contact the boys before they all fall into panic? Will communications be restores between the brothers? Will the rescue continue to go downhill from this point onwards? And what will Jeff and Thomas think when they discover all that has happened? Find out next time!

Okay, guys, that's it for today. This chapter was a little bit shorter than it normally would be, because the next one is verylong in comparison, and I had to leave it here in order that everything continues to flow. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. PLEASE REVIEW and tell me what you thought. And hey! This ending wasn't as cruel as the last one, was it? Lol.

Note: The next chapter will be up on Sunday evening. See ya then!

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