Chapter 25

"Thank you for the lift back Gordon," Penelope smiled to the red haired boy as he set her bag down in the lounge, "Would you like a drink before you head back?"

Gordon nodded quickly, not ready to return home. There'd only be more arguing between his brothers. He hadn't realised that they found him so unbearably annoying, otherwise he would have left a long time ago. He'd be staying away for as long as possible now, "If it's not too much trouble,"

Penelope laughed and shook her head, "After you've flown me halfway around the world? Not at all,"

The two took a seat on the couch, missing the clatter of the gas cannister that fell through the letterbox as they went.

Alan looked up as Virgil and Kayo came up on the comms, "We're over the danger zone now, preparing to lower the rescue platform,"

Alan sighed and leant back on the sofa, looking back to the TV as he channel hopped. His voice only had a tiny twinge of bitterness in it when he replied, "F-A-B, Thunderbird Two,"

"Don't wait up!" Kayo called quietly, trying to cheer him up.

He groaned internally as his Grandma and Brains came back from their shopping trip, "Where is everyone?"

"Out," Alan snapped, skipping through the channels, not really paying any attention. Receiving a tap in the upside of his head quickly changed his attitude, "I'll have less of that young man,"

He sighed and looked up to his Grandma, "Sorry, we've all just had an argument while you were out."

As Grandma opened her mouth to reply, Brains interrupted, "Isn't that the hotel Scott's reunion is at?"

Alan snapped out of his mood and looked to the TV, "Yeah," He turned the volume up and sat forward to listen to what the reporter was saying, "A call was sent out to International Rescue just now but we are yet to hear if they are on their way. At the Hotel tonight were several functions, including an Air Force reunion party,"

Alan was already up and reaching out to the comms, his heart frozen in fear as he looked to the crumbling ruins of the hotel. Scott had been somewhere in there. They had to find him, to make sure he was alright.

Why did you yell? He was only trying to look after us! He yelled at himself as he called for his next brother, "John! John, come in!"

There was no response.

Grandma wrapped an arm around Alan's shoulder, "It's late," She reasoned, "Maybe they've just gone to bed?"

Alan shook his head, looking back up to the TV screen, "No," He whispered, "We were all arguing, I yelled at John and we yelled at Scott, and now..." He looked to his Grandmother and swallowed hard unable to help the fear that was building in his stomach, "The Hood is coming for us."

John sighed as Evie kissed his cheek, "None of them meant it,"

"I shouldn't have snapped," John sighed as he leant into her, "I just feel so helpless sometimes and they don't understand."

He gained comfort from Evie's hand on his cheek, "It'll be alright, leave it for tonight and you can all talk in the morning,"

The couple pulled away as a new call came in, "Calling International Rescue! The Rutherford Hotel in central New York had collapsed, we need your help!"

John froze, his arm halfway to the comms button as he looked to Evie, "That's where Scott's…"

Evie reached forward and pressed the button, quickly taking control as she also remembered the hotel name, "This is International Rescue, we'll have someone with-"

"International Rescue? Come in International Rescue!"

"John! John, come in!"

John frowned at Alan's panic. He tried on his wrist communicator, all anger at his brothers set aside temporarily, "Alan? Can you hear me kid?"

He looked to Evie in concern when Alan called out again, "They can't hear us,"

John's own fear shot through him as a red warning light flashed on above them and a too familiar mechanical voice announced, "Warning, impact imminent."

Knowing the situation too well, John grabbed Evie's arm, "Suit up, now!" He ordered, knowing that they only had seconds, he looked to EOS's unit and snapped, "EOS, isolate yourself to-" his mind blanked, where could the AI hide from the blast? She was a part of Thunderbird Five itself.

"Don't worry John," Even in an emergency her voice was still so calm, "I'll isolate myself to the docking bay." John nodded to the unit, "Good luck EOS."

Following his partner through the hatch, he slammed the emergency lock down button that was meant to give the satellite some extra structural support, before grabbing his own helmet half a second before the blast hit.

Alan paced as Brains typed on the computer, trying to cancel out whatever it was the Hood had done to their systems. Why had he been such an idiot about it? Now his brothers were scattered all over the world and the Hood was starting his attack.

He paused as the voice he dreaded filled the tense silence, "Hello, again, Alan."

Alan swallowed and looked to Brains and Grandma, both had also frozen in place, waiting to hear what their enemy had to say.

"By now, I'm sure you must be worried about your brothers?" There was a short pause where Alan's nails dug into his palms until it hurt, "You see, Alan, I was too kind to you the last time we met. I made things too easy for you, you only had to save your family from one of your little tin cans,"

Alan was glad his brothers and Kayo weren't able to hear the transmission, or else the Hood would already be dead. Insulting their equipment like that.

Alan didn't have time to think about that though, as he realised what the Hood was saying to him. His family was scattered all over the place. Scott in New York, Gordon in London, John in space. He wasn't even sure where Virgil and Kayo were.

"So, Alan," The Hood continued, "Which brothers are you going to choose to save? I'm sure you won't have time to save them all," Alan took a sharp breath in as the voice turned darker, somehow more evil than it had sounded before, "Oh, and I wouldn't bother going out of orbit, you can't save them all Alan."

As the transmission cut out Alan nodded to Brains, "Get him out of the systems, I don't care what you have to do,"

Grandma looked to him, "Alan, what are you doing?"

Alan looked up to the windows, "Gordon has Tracy Two in London, and I don't have a clue where Virgil and Kayo are. So, while Brains is working on that, I might as well go and find out,"

He saw the tears in his Grandma's eyes, "Bring them home Alan," She whispered, "Please?"

It only took him two steps to be able to wrap his arms around her, "I'm going to do everything I can, Grandma, I promise."

John groaned as he rolled his neck, "Ouch," He lifted a hand to his helmet as his vision refocused. His first thought jumped to his partner, she had been pressed against him when the blast hit. He had tried to shield her from the impact. Yet she was nowhere near him.

"Evie?"

There was a quiet gasp from the speaker in his helmet, and then a hiss of pain. John turned, trying to work out where the noise was coming from. He winced as he pushed away from the ladder he had been thrown against. His shoulder was stiff, bruised at best. It didn't matter though, he had to find Evie.

"Evie?" John called out again, lifting some debris out of his way. Artificial gravity had come into effect, weighing everything down, making John's efforts ten times harder. His attention was drawn to a beam that something was lifting. As cautiously as he could, John scrambled over to it and helped shift it.

Evie lay back in relief as the weight shifted from her aching ribs. Every breath took far too much effort for her liking. She could hear John calling her through the helmet, but knew talking would hurt too much.

"Evie," She felt his hand on hers, a gentle squeeze, "Come on, talk to me."

Her heavy eyes flicked open, instantly meeting John's blue ones. He'd taken his helmet off. The life support systems must have stabilised the section they were in.

A few more blinks was all it seemed to take for Evie to get her head straight. Her eyes flicked back to John's as he carefully removed her helmet. She'd done worse, a few bruised ribs wasn't going to kill her.

"I've bruised my ribs," She murmured as she leant back again, her eyes catching the red bleaching John's blue suit, "Your arm."

John followed her gaze and shook his head, "Just a cut." He stood and held a hand out to her, "We'll get some painkillers and bind your-"

"Thunderbird Five, if you can hear me, I'm on final approach," Alan's voice caught John off guard, it hadn't been that long since the blast, how was he already here? Especially since the argument. John suddenly hated himself for snapping even more when his youngest brother's voice broke, "Johnny, please? Are you there?"

John held Evie tightly as he held back his own sob, he couldn't cry right now. He needed to be strong like Scott normally was. He checked his watch and was relieved when Alan's hologram appeared in front of him, "Allie, it's okay, I'm alright."

Evie swallowed hard as Alan sobbed, giving up on hiding his own tears born from fear and worry, "John. John, it's the Hood again, Scott's hotel. God, John I'm so sorry for yelling at you, John I-"

John cut him off, "It's alright, I know about the hotel, I tried to call you. Evie and I are fine,"

"The Hood left a message," Alan whispered with a quiet sniff, making John's heart twist. Of all the nights, why did it have to be this one that they all fell out?

"The Hood's coming after all of us," Alan told his brother, "He's going to try and..."

As Alan trailed off John and Evie shared a look, if the Hood was going after their whole family, that meant that Alan would have had to have chosen who to come after. There was a quiet sniff over the comms, making John sigh, "Alan?"

"He said I'd be too late John," He whispered, "He said that I shouldn't bother coming up here,"

John flicked the switch to start the docking system, "It's okay Alan, he was wrong." John took a sharp breath, channeling his inner Scott, "Now, what are we going to do?"

Alan looked to his systems, "I can't get in touch with anyone,"

John's fine, he's alive. Alan reminded himself as the docking lights turned green, announcing that he was locked onto 'Five. The youngest swallowed and thought to his other brothers, trying to work out who would be worst off next. Scott would have emergency services with him, working to get people out. Virgil and Kayo weren't responding from 'Two, but Alan couldn't work out what trouble they could have gotten into when they had simply needed to right the trawler and rescue the workers. As for Gordon, he wasn't responding either and he'd only gone to drop Lady Penelope at home.

His head snapped up as he felt a hand on his shoulder, "It's alright, Sprout, we'll work it out,"

Alan looked forward, to the little planet they called home, trying to reassure himself that his brothers would be okay, "I hope so."