The next video posted was just of Gordon humming to himself while doing the dishes for ten minutes. It was obviously posted as a joke in retaliation to a few of the comments from the last video. (Also, those dishes were gnarly; Grandma must have been trying to cook again.) Millions of people still watched the video and there were tens of thousands of comments.
The revenue from the video sent fourteen kids to college on full ride scholarships. Tracy Industry's official Twitter thanked the YouTube community for their support, even if the video had been a joke.
The video after that was back to normality, or whatever passed for it at the Tracy house. Well, actually, this one was pretty different from what could possibly constitute for normal on the ThunderbirdsAreGo account too.
It was in space.
Or, well, a spaceship.
And Gordon was singing to himself, a litany of repeating, "I hate space!" over and over again.
"You," Alan said, and the camera turned to show Alan concentrating as he piloted the rocket. "Are very annoying. And distracting. Please shut up."
Gordon shut up, directing the camera to show both Alan, still piloting, and the scene outside the window. It was of an asteroid field, or something similar, and the ship was doing zero-gravity acrobatics around the large chunks of rocks. Alan looked entirely unbothered, if a little more concentrated than usual, as he navigated the rocket.
The controls were blurred out (and those that had tried to reverse-edit the previous videos of the 'Birds had found it completely impossible—IR had some intense security) but it was obvious just how natural Alan was at piloting Thunderbird Three, despite his age. Those that had had any doubts about the kid before now knew that they were completely unfounded.
It was a few minutes before they left the field and Alan sat back a bit, flipping a few switches. "Okay, we're clear."
"FAB Thunderbird Three," John's voice said over the com. "I'm sending you the coordinates for the downed ship. Don't film anything classified."
Apparently, they were changing their opinion on what might be considered classified, because this was obviously a mission. "FAB," Gordon chirped, the camera bouncing just a little. "See ya later, Johnny." Alan cut the coms with a roll of his eyes, glancing over at Gordon and the camera. "Want to tell what we're doing today?"
"Supposed to be an easy tow," Alan replied. "Which for some reason we've gotten permission to film."
"Easy tows don't usually involve asteroid fields," Gordon pointed out.
Alan shrugged. "This asteroid field isn't actually supposed to be here," he said with a frown. He was already typing something into a console at his side probably recording the new location of the field.
"I'm just co-pilot today," Gordon said into the camera. "I don't actually enjoy going into space all that often."
"Ha," Alan snorted. "Tell the truth, Gordon. Fishy here did a prank that made it so that it would be better to leave orbit."
Gordon grumbled a bit, manipulating the camera so that it could see both him and Alan, but not outside. Instead, the viewers were greeted with a view of Thunderbird Three's cockpit, all classified information blurred out. "Guy had it coming. Trying to sue us for not rescuing him from his own stupidity while we were grounded."
Alan rolled his eyes, checking a few things and changing their course just a tad. "I'm not saying I disagree with you," he commented lightly. "Guy was a bit of a moron." He glanced at the camera. "We were offline, and someone decided to try and sue us because we didn't respond to his stupid situation. The GDF picked him up instead; it just took longer than we would have taken." No names were mentioned, but it was clear that both boys didn't like whoever it was they were talking about.
(Fracois Lemaire was an entirely frustrating individual that was now going to be so tied up in the courts that he wouldn't be able to afford to do anymore stupid stunts. Hopefully.)
Gordon was still grumbling, something about hating zero-G. Alan shot him a look and then grinned into the camera. "Would you believe that this guy used to be primary for Thunderbird Three?" he asked.
Gordon squawked. "Hey! That was before you became full-time pilot, Sprout." He frowned. "And, really, it was Dad that was primary. I was mostly secondary. Why he didn't make John secondary for Three was beyond me."
"Dad couldn't convince Johnny to leave his tin can for anything, Gords, you know that," Alan said, giving Gordon a bit of a smile. "It was Scott that changed that."
Gordon nodded, sitting back a bit, looking more comfortable in zero-G than he had been professing. "Yeah, that's true. Scott made Alan primary, and John secondary and let me just be a backup so I could focus on taking primary for Four and secondary for Two. It's a better situation all round."
"Except when Johnny's busy and I need a co-pilot," Alan responded. "And you're much better in space than Scott or Virgil," he said.
"True," Gordon nodded. "Alan's not allowed past the moon without a co-pilot," Gordon shrugged, looking straight at the camera. "I mean, that's just common sense. But anything within Earth orbit he can usually do on his own."
"Everyone's co-piloted with me before, I think," Alan said, concentrating on something other than the camera for a moment. "Even Kayo. But I really try not to get Virgil in space unless I need his demolitions experience. Virge really isn't good in space. Even Scott is better than Virgil and Scott gets space sick pretty easy."
Gordon hummed, quirking a grin. "Who out there knew that our Mozart was our demolitions and explosives expert? Quick, raise your hands."
"You're ridiculous," Alan laughed. "But yeah, Virge likes things that go boom." He shrugged. "So do I but I don't really care about how they go boom, so much as that they do."
"And yet, you're still able to disarm an active bomb," Gordon said, a little incredulously.
Alan shrugged again, still grinning. "Kayo and I got bored one day. So, Virgil taught us. I think he was trying to keep us from building one of our own."
"You and Kayo should never be left alone together," Gordon grumbled. He sat back. "What's your most harrowing space adventure, Allie? Let's regale the audience with some tales while we search for our broken-down ship."
Alan frowned a little. The fact that he couldn't seem to locate this broken ship was a little annoying, if not worrying. "Um. Harrowing…let's see. I think the time I sling-shotted around the sun was probably the most harrowing."
"More so than the time you had an active nuke on your tail?" Gordon asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, I forgot about that," Alan replied. He was concentrating on something outside the window, frowning to himself.
Gordon shot him a befuddled look and then turned back to the camera, mouthing, "He FORGOT about an active nuke." He shook his head. "And what about Fischler's comet?"
"That wasn't so much harrowing as it was stressful," Alan responded. "I mean, life of all on Earth involved and what have you." They didn't actually expand on that topic, but it had a lot of people scrambling to find out more information. You couldn't just casually mention something about a life and death situation for everyone on Earth and not have people wonder, after all.
Alan sat back with a huff, shaking out his hand, which people were a little surprised to see was no longer casted, but was strapped with an elaborate brace. "I'm fine," he grumbled before Gordon could even ask. "I can't find our ship. They're not responding to any hails."
"That's…"
"Not good," Alan finished grimly. He turned the ship and then froze. "Ah shit," he cursed softly. "Turn the camera off, Gords."
The scene jumped a bit, obviously having had the camera be turned off. They were in the hangar now, although Gordon was standing outside the large bay doors marked with a giant white '3'. "So, for most easy tow jobs, it's just what it sounds like," he explained softly. "Something breaks down and no one else can get to it so we go out and tow it back. Easy-peasy. Sometimes, though, we don't get all the information and stumble upon something we're not prepared for."
Alan came up at that moment, looking a bit tired but overall fine. Just like Gordon. "The ship didn't tell us it had experienced a catastrophic hull breach," the younger pilot said, rolling his neck on his shoulders. "They managed to get a message to John before they lost communications. So we weren't working with full information." He shrugged a little. "Thankfully, we managed to locate the crew and aside from a few broken bones, there were no other casualties. They were all suited."
"Had we taken any longer to find them, though, we'd probably have been on recovery," Gordon said with a bit of a grimace. "They didn't have much oxygen left between the six of them."
"We got them though," Alan said, giving a tired thumbs up. "Dropped them off at the Mars base. All six will be fine. Their ship was left behind; not worth towing in right now. We'll send in a team of scrappers later."
"Guys," Gordon said with a sigh. "Information is key. If you're going through a catastrophic hull breach, tell us more than that you need a tow back."
"If you're halfway down a mountain with two broken legs, don't just tell us you're lost," Alan pointed out, rolling his eyes.
Gordon nodded. "And if you're stranded in a sinking sub that's taking on water, don't just say you've lost power." He rolled his eyes as well, the two brothers making almost the identical face. "Information, guys. We rely on it to know what situation we're going into."
"Hey!" a baritone voice called out and Virgil tromped into view. "You guys good?" he asked, looking them over. Virgil was also in uniform, covered head to toe in what looked like soot. At Gordon and Alan's nods, he hummed. "You've been out for over twenty-four hours. You know the rules."
Alan huffed but gave a small smile. "We know. Shower, food, bed. You okay?"
"Good. Just messy. Brush fire in Australia," Virgil shrugged with a bit of a grin. "Got too near a settlement." He gave an oof as Alan slammed into him with a big hug, wrapping his arms around Virgil's waist. "Whoa there, Sproutling. Glad to see you too."
Gordon gave a small smile, watching. "Well world, that's your little insight into rescues. Remember, give us all the information next time."
And the camera went dark.
GiveMeABlanket 9 hours ago
Dude, Alan is GOOD at piloting. He didn't look like he was breaking a sweat while literally dancing through asteroids. That's so cool.
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HappyToMeetYou34 8 hours ago
I wonder how many situations they end up in without knowing what's really going on. That's got to be really dangerous.
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TempleHanson99 7 hours ago
A live nuke? Sling-shotting around the sun? Fishler's asteroids? I'm beginning to think that maybe they should declassify all their missions, because some of these sound WILD.
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FairlyBarelyThere 6 hours ago
Gordon was primary/secondary for Three? And he hates space? Sounds like Scott's decisions were the right ones then. Poor Scott and Virgil getting space-sick, though. That's gotta suck.
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HoldMyHandForever88 5 hours ago
Alan's a hugger. It's cute.
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