Getting closer to an actual new chapter that isn't just replacing the one that was here before. Getting closer...
The darkness was swirling around him. Somewhere he was dimly aware that he should be swimming, trying to reach the light, but everything hurt. The final dying sparks in the debris that he was trapped amongst where fading like the hope he'd cling to that he was going to get out of this - preferably alive.
He was running out of time fast, as he tried to drag some of the heavy metal away from him. There was something else in the water, yellow, but familiar. He knew it like the back of his hand.
Ironic really...he was going to end up dying with something that could, with some repair work, save him. It was getting cold as well - he was sure that wasn't good. Damn, he was freezing. He couldn't think straight.
'Come on, you have to get out of this.' He thought to himself and blinked, the water trapping him. 'Okay, just don't panic, then you'll need to breathe even sooner. Oh damn, help me! Anyone? Well obviously not, I'm at the bottom of the ocean...'
"Come on, swim towards the light..." The voice was familiar, like from a faded happy memory...or from a video of their childhood. Technically, this wasn't possible. He shouldn't even have survived the initial explosion, God knows how he had, but now he was hearing her voice.
'Mum, I can't. I'm trapped, and no one can help me.' He thought desperately, landing one last kick at the metal for the sharp pain in his chest made it obvious he was going to have to breathe.
He had to breathe. Clenching his jaw as he automatically told himself not to breathe, he set his now blurring vision on the yellow object spiralling down in front of him. The pain in his chest was getting worse...
Thunderbird 4. That was the name of the yellow thing and ow, ow, ow, yep he had to breathe...
The water was all around him and then the darkness was as well. Just something from a dim memory clamped down on the metal around him, dragging both it, and him towards the light, but he was still surrounded by the water, and it was still too dark.
"Gordon. Gordon! Come on goddamn it, I didn't just save your life for you to die on me...please, kiddo, just breathe..."
Huh? Don't you get it? It hurts to breathe, and the darkness is quite comfortable...
He knew the voice. John.
Wait, was his brother upset about something? Wonder what that could be...
"Gordy!"
Whoa, John, stop panicking. Seriously dude, chill out...I'm just gonna relax here for a bit ya know?
That was weird, he had never actually heard his brother panic before. Oh well.
'I guess I could give breathing a shot.'
"Come on, your brothers need you.."
Wait, what the-
"Mum?" He asked incredulously. His vision began to swim into focus again.
"Object co-ordinates locked, firing safety line." Solaris confirmed, the AI bringing up the image on the screens and control panel.
"Thank you," John muttered to the electronic voice. The green light flashed up on the controls, and he reached forwards. Okay, so he had only done this on simulators, but what could be so hard? His younger brother did it all the time!
Okay, so this was harder. It had been easy to rescue Gordon, as he'd been trapped amongst debris. Just lift out the debris, and then pull it to the surface, thus rescuing his brother from drowning.
And then getting him to breathe, and jeez, he didn't think he'd ever felt so scared in his life before. It had seemed like his brother was dead, no wonder he'd got so emotional. And yes, so he had been panicking. Panicking big time, because he couldn't lose him at the last hurdle.
"Johnny?" A weak voice called out to him. "What's happening?"
"Nothing. Just rescuing some other, uh, very familiar people."
"Why are you flying Thunderbird 2?" He didn't reply and Gordon blinked, frowning as he tried to put two and two together. "Wait, John, where's Virg?" Damn the kid was smart. He may have got C's in maths but in real life situations he was as good as John when it came to figuring stuff out.
"Um..." John gripped the controls tighter, despite Solaris warning him that he needed to focus, trying to block out the thoughts of things that could go wrong right this second out of his head. "Okay, sorry Gordy, but you're going to feel pretty sick in a few seconds."
"Hmm?" Gordon was still pretty out of it, something which was probably a good thing in reality.
"You hate roller coasters," John whispered as a way of explanation before slamming his hand down on the other controls, and sending Thunderbird 2 plummeting to the churning seas below and activating the VTOL's just in time.
"Right, let's get you guys outta there." Swiping forwards, he let the scanner skip over his finger prints before bringing up the heat sensors. Weird, where were his brothers? Well there was one heat spot being brought up on the screen in front of him. Solaris drew his attention to it by using a holographic image.
A flashing yellow light brought his attention back to the control panel in front of him. Right, brothers first, then he'd get back Thunderbird 4 for Gordon. Which he would do, because he owed his brother at least that much over the years.
"Targets locked, and we are FAB." Focussing entirely on the rescue in front of him, he hoped desperately that Gordon was still alright. He hadn't had chance to check his brother for injuries yet.
"And three, two, one, contact! Yes! What the-?" John jumped as the alert sounded. "Solaris, what's going on?"
"Close proximity warning!" The AI yelled back at him, her voice clear in his ear-piece. The audio-links were still hazy.
"Yes, I can tell that," he muttered at the warning light as the shape of a small but fast aircraft with a reinforced fuselage appeared on radar. "Oh damn." The aircraft crashed against the Thunderbird, without enough force to cause damage, but enough to knock them off course. The 'targets' that were shown by the heat sensors were slowly fading.
"Hey Thunderbird 2, we thought you could use a little help there!" John glanced out of the window to where the silver Thunderbird was hovering, the pilot alert to start attacking the unknown craft with just a single signal.
"Alan, I thought I asked you to stay behind with Penny?" He called into the radio when the small unidentifiable aircraft came crashing into Thunderbird 2 again and he winced. Oh yes, Virgil was going to kill him. There were long deep gashes in the side of the aircraft. "On the other hand, I think that help might come in handy after all."
"Okay, stand by. Come on, come on, let's get a good shot at you. Three, two, one, contact!" Thunderbird 1 flew closer towards the object before making contact and dragging the smaller aircraft away from the green Thunderbird next to them. "Take that you evil little sucker - this will teach you for messing with my family."
John watched as Alan sent Thunderbird 1 up and above the cloud level before plummeting back down towards the sea, and then doing a series of sharp turns. For once it seemed his younger brother's love of practising manoeuvres that would normally be found on roller coasters that he performed in Thunderbird 3 (much to John, Brains and Jeff's annoyance) were coming in handy. There was a laugh over the radio.
"This is like a video game!" Alan yelled. He was fully in control of the situation. The kid was turning into a great pilot.
"Right, back to business. Where the hell are you guys? Come on..." They were out of time, and deep down he knew it, but in typical Tracy style, he was being stubborn and refusing to give up.
"John, let me have a shot at them? If I can stable them for five more minutes to stop them sinking further, then can you use the magnetic claw to get them out?"
John stared at the vid- link. Sometimes Alan scared him with ideas he came up with, namely because they were good. But he was open to suggestions at the moment, before they were fully out of options.
"Good thinking. What happened to our little friend?"
Alan raised an eyebrow at him. "Um, do you really want to know?"
"Let's just get Scott and Virgil out from that water first." John muttered, allowing Solaris to clear the holographic display. It was just a distraction now.
"Yeah, that's probably a better plan. Okay, activating whatever this weird thing Scott's got Brains to install...nope, I have no clue what it is."
To normal people, it would seem like they were both happy and relaxed as they performed the rescue. To John, it was all too obvious that his youngest brother was really worried...and upset.
"Well the kid better be ready for some serious smothering when we get home," he murmured, grinning at the audio-link.
"Thunderbird 2, I think I have them on my scanners. You are good for rescue attempts." Alan called through, backing off in the silver Thunderbird.
"FAB. Oh great, there always has to be a complication, doesn't there?" John groaned, as Solaris announced the problem, regret obvious in her voice. Hell, she was Virgil's AI, she was probably as worried as John. A bit like EOS had been last New Year after that particular problem.
"What's wrong?" Alan asked him, frowning.
"Thunderbird 2 is deciding to malfunction. I'll go in and try to free them myself. I need you to keep them from sinking, got it?" John decided, swinging around to collect the equipment.
"FAB. Wait, how are you planning to go under water?"
"I'm in Thunderbird 2. I'll borrow one of Gordon's diving equipment."
"Uh, Johnny, you're creepily taller than Gords. How the hell are you-"
"Who says I'm not just going to use the breathing equipment. I don't necessarily need a diving suit."
"Oh great. There are still explosions going on down there, what if you get trapped too? Look, just stop, I'll go down. I've used his diving stuff before, I'm more experienced then you."
"Alan. Look kiddo, I'll be fine. Hey, I've survived nearly being blown up on Thunderbird 5, how's a little bit of water going to harm me?"
"Famous last words. Oh, and let me remind you what happened the last time you took a swim in the ocean? It didn't end well. EOS freaked out big time. So did Scott."
"I'll be fine. By the way, if Gordon regains consciousness, then keep talking to him."
"John..." Alan began and then trailed off, sounding tired.
"Yes?" Maybe it was the quiet acceptance in his sibling's voice that made him stop or maybe it was the fact he sounded...lost. John hated that. It didn't sound right, compared to the usual happy go lucky kid he was used to hearing. The same teenager who used a rope swing off a palm tree above the pool because of dares, and ate the last piece of cake to annoy Scott after rescues.
"Just bring them home. Please. And don't get hurt." There was silence for a few moments. "I can't lose you as well."
For the first few minutes, all he could hear was ringing in his ears as the sounds of the explosion slowly died away. Closing his eyes, he placed his hands over his ears, desperately wanting to be able to hear again. Being deaf was only a little bit worse than being blind in his mind, although he may as well be blind right now as there was just a dim light slowly filtering down. It was murky in the water which didn't help either.
Removing his hands from his ears, he was relieved to find the ringing could stop and that he could hear again. When the submarines had crashed into each other and then the Research Sub had exploded, he'd been thrown backwards, into one of the reinforced rooms used for prisoners so the explosion had caused the door to shut. It was watertight because of that, so he could breathe, but his air time was running out, and water was beginning pour in as the metal buckled under the pressure of all the water pressing down on it.
Attempting to calm his breathing, he focussed on the small, narrow cracks now spreading out across the walls surrounded him. Considering how freezing the water outside was, it was boiling inside.
Where was Virgil?
Oh damn.
He needed to get out of here, and fast. Another eerie wailing sound echoed around him as the metal buckled inwards. So if he didn't drown, then he would be crushed, and if those didn't work, then hey, he was going to run out of air in five minutes anyway, so he'd suffocate.
Oh wow Scott, those are such positive thoughts.
Okay then, let's try and get out of here. If I take a breath before getting out into that water, then I might be able to reach the surface first.
The water was cold, he thought, wincing as the icy liquid came crashing in faster from the wall, which was beginning to give way. He backed away from the main cracks, and hit the other wall. He now understood how hamster felt when they were put in those little plastic balls.
Right, go for the middle of the metal wall, it'll be weaker there as it's less reinforced as the hinges and corners. Except I can't punch metal...yeah, I found that out the hard way a couple of years ago...focus. Get out of here.
It turned out he didn't really need to worry about attempting to get out as the wall finally gave way and the water came crashing down on him. Taking a deep breath, he dove straight through the gap and headed for the light, only for another piece of wreckage to come sinking down and crashing into him.
Oh I hate water. That's it - next time Gordon goes and nearly gets himself killed, I am so not coming to rescue him. Shit, it's cold!
And that was when something else exploded, sending sparks and god knew what else down on him.
Seriously? Oh come on. Jeez, this is really not my day.
Annnd, ah ha, one brother found. Ducking into the wreckage that had his younger sibling trapped, he grabbed part of it, attempting to tug it away, and thus freeing Virgil. He was right when he'd thought it wasn't his day - the metal moved, but came crashing back on him instead, trapping him against one of the metal plates that made up the sub's sides.
Then two wide eyes were staring at him in shock.
Oh hey Virg. Nice to see you too. He thought to himself. He was going to have to breathe sooner or later...oh great, so he was going to drown. It was getting darker and colder. He was getting colder, actually, come to think of it. Focus on something, anything other than the cold. Training. Survival training. Hold your breath, bro, we're in for a storm.
It was too cold.
Too dark.
Then something hit the debris they were both trapped in, something metal, something familiar.
"Scott!"
What the hell? John?
Then suddenly he could breathe again.
John watched him worriedly, thankful that he'd brought the extra breathing equipment as it was certainly needed. After he'd caught his breath, and his vision had cleared (much to his relief) he recognised the flashing light in the corner of the breathing mask. Radio link. We're back online?
"John?" He asked, coughing as he attempted to catch his breath. A robotic voice told him to calm down, and wait second. An AI? Yes. His AI. Xeon. Thank God.
"Don't ever scare me like that again!" His brother murmured, frowning at him. "Where's Virgil?"
"Come on. Got a laser cutter?"
"Yep." He was automatically slipping back into Field Commander role, Scott realised, but hey, John didn't seem to mind. It was some form of normality in the mad and freezing hell they'd found themselves in. Everything burnt with the cold temperatures that ate away and your consciousness. Dammit. Xeon?
"Good. Get one of the breathers to Virgil. I'll cut myself outta here. Got it?"
"FAB." John agreed, reaching through the debris with the laser cutter before turning and swimming towards the now unconscious form of his younger brother. Freaking out wasn't going to help anyone, he needed to remember that.
Satisfied that Virgil would be okay for a couple more minutes and that he knew the oxygen he had wasn't going to last forever, Scott switched his attention to the laser cutter. Slicing through the metal easily, the red glow of the laser cutter illuminated the cloudy water and Scott caught sight of someone else nearby.
"John, how's Virg?"
"Okay...ish. We need to get him out of here and fast."
"Guys." Alan's voice sounded through their radios. "You need to hurry up. Thunderbird 1 can't hold you for much longer. You have ten minutes max."
"Well it's a good job we'll only need seven," Scott told him and there was a yell that sounded like 'hell yeah!' in the background.
"I knew you'd be okay." Alan told him, grinning madly. "But you have no idea how good it is to hear your voice."
"Heeey..." A voice announced quietly and Scott grinned at its owner, trying to figure out how John had got yet another oxygen tank down here?
"Hey yourself kid." He replied back, relief making him dizzy.
"Don't call...me that...makes me feel like Alan. Ow."
"Alright, sorry. You okay?"
"No."
"Why...what's wrong?" John asked him. "Apart from the obvious fact that we're currently trapped underwater and that you've just been in an explosion."
"There's more smaller explosions going on and they're getting closer. We're getting out of here, right now." Scott told his immediate younger brother, glancing back over his shoulder at the wreckage.
"Five minutes." Alan reported.
"Will you please listen to me?" Virgil asked them.
"No." Scott replied, concentrating on cutting through the rest of the debris that had his sibling trapped. The laser cutter wasn't cutting as easily, although he was putting that down to overuse. The proper cutting equipment was back on Tracy Island.
"Who's that?" John asked him suddenly. "Is he dead, or what?"
"Dan. He was in charge. And I have no idea."
"I'm going after him. Get Virg out, I'll meet you on Thunderbird 2. Gordon's already the, but I don't know if he's hurt or not."
"John! I'm ordering you not to go after him!"
"I never listen," his brother shot back with a grin before plunging into the icy depths.
"Damn him, why's he have to be so stubborn the entire time?"
"Yeah, must run in the family, his older brother's like that too." Virgil commented as the last piece of metal gave in to the laser cutter. "Look, go after him. I'll be fine."
"Now is not the time to be a hero kiddo, so no way."
There was a small flashing light on the oxygen tank, announcing they had three minutes of air left. They needed to get out, and sooner rather than later. The good thing was that they weren't sinking deeper, but getting to the surface without being able to swim? That was near impossible.
"For crying out loud, what part of get yourself out of here is not sinking in?"
"Um...maybe none of it?" Scott muttered back distractedly. He figured he'd hurt his wrist. According to Xeon, who appeared incredibly relieved that the pilot was alright, he had sprained it. The explosions were getting ever closer when someone suddenly appeared next to them.
"Hey," John announced, grinning at him. "Thought you could need a hand."
And just because I'm kind, I'm uploading the next chapter again tonight. :)
Kat x