Sorry my darlings, but this is not the Floor Is Lava episode, but a different one that I suddenly woke up with the idea for. Hopefully no one is disappointed. Don't worry, there's plenty more to come. Enjoy.

Chapter Nine - Fury

"John, what happened?" Penny asked as soon as the video started. Her voice was strained, and she was standing in the middle of the back hall of the lounge floor of Tracy Villa, John standing in front of her.

He turned, face stoic, green eyes blazing. He was in uniform, the skin-tight blue and orange rather bright in the gray of the hall. "Why are you filming?" he asked, his tone just short of sharp.

"Because I'm angry," Penny replied. Her voice was sharp, stilted and so very angry. It wasn't directed at John, but his eyes narrowed regardless. "You're angry. All of your brothers who are currently conscious are angry. And the world should hear why. So, what happened?"

"Langstrom Fischler happened," John spat. His face twitched and he sucked in a breath. "Fischler and his stupid experiments and disregard for anyone's safety. This isn't even the first time. It's just the worst."

"How bad?" Penny asked, swallowing heavily.

"Six people are dead, Pen. Four in critical condition, including Virgil. Twelve others injured. We just barely managed to get out them and the other twenty-three out," John answered, the anger leaking out of him as he looked down the hall towards the infirmary. "And Fischler is trying to foist all the blame on us again."

Penny snarled, a sound that was very un-ladylike but carried easily to the camera she was holding. "It was his robotic water purifier that went haywire and tried to kill everyone. He's the one that called for help. How is that in any way the fault of IR?"

"How was the CIRRUS incident the fault of IR? Or the comet? Or his solar collector" John asked, throwing out an arm. "He's never been reprimanded for any of it though, regardless of the danger to civilians and the fact that he's nearly killed at least one of us each time he tests something new."

There was silence for a moment and then Penny sighed. "How is Virgil?" she asked softly.

John ran a hand down his face, slumping against the wall. "Four broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, torn rotator cuff, trauma to his lungs and spleen, and a bad concussion. He's going to be out of commission for a while."

"And Fischler?" Penny asked.

John's face twisted and the anger flared back to life for a moment. "He's fine. Uninjured. Doesn't seem to care that six of his employees lost their lives to those machines, and that Virgil nearly lost his. Already talking about his next idea."

"Can we see Virgil?" Penny asked.

John eyed her for a long moment. "I'm not sure how appropriate that is for YouTube, Penny," he responded. "He's not even conscious at the moment."

"I'm aware, dear," she replied. "But the rest of your brothers are in the infirmary with him and I think the world needs to know just what they're thinking at this time."

There was a long, considering silence, and then John waved her into the infirmary. "I need to get back to Five," he said softly. "I didn't exactly give myself time to reacclimatize, so I need to get back before I make things worse." The camera shifted to the side and just barely caught Penny giving John a kiss on the cheek in the corner of the screen, before he turned and walked away.

Penny stepped quietly into the room, training the camera not on the still form on one of the beds, but on Scott, sitting next to that bed. He looked exhausted, his head resting in his hand as he just focused on breathing calmly. Gordon and Alan were nearby, speaking softly with Brains. There was the soft, steady beeping of a heart monitor in the background. "Scott, darling," Penny spoke, gaining the attention of the eldest.

Scott looked up, saw the camera and kept his silence. He shifted in his chair and Penny came a little closer. Virgil came into view on the screen and it wasn't pretty. The blankets covered him up to his chest, but the bandaging and wires were clearly visible beneath the cloth. His face, what could be seen of it behind the oxygen mask, was heavily bruised and blood had dried into his hair. "Scott, I've spoken to John and he agrees that the world needs to know just what happened today."

Scott looked past the camera, presumably to Gordon and Alan and Brains. And then he huffed. "Fischler created a machine that he said would purify large amounts of water. It was supposed to identify contaminated bodies of water and clean them." He gave the camera and look and rolled his eyes. "It went wrong."

"How?"

"Did you know," Gordon softly drawled from behind the camera, "that humans are roughly sixty percent water?"

Scott scowled. "I don't know how he could have messed up so badly, but Fischler's machines started attacking the employees. We were called in to help with the evacuation. Fischler demanded to be rescued first." He rubbed at his face, the bags beneath his eyes stark against his pale skin. He was still scowling, anger evident in his blue eyes, along with fear and resignation.

"Six people are dead," Penny said quietly.

"Three were already gone when we got there," Scott sighed. "The others are the result of a failure of evacuation practices and Fischler literally pushing one of them into the path of the machine as he was trying to get out."

"Frankly," Alan nearly snapped, "I say next time we get called in to fix his mess, we just leave him behind."

"Personally, I uh, I agree," Brains spoke up. Scott, for his part seemed to be considering it before he shook his head and slumped into his chair. Virgil, for his part, was still unconscious on the bed throughout this all. There was some shuffling from behind the camera and Alan came into view, leaning against Scott and absently grabbing Virgil's hand where it rested above the blankets.

"You're in the saving people business," Penny said, although from the tone of her voice she very much agreed with the idea. "And, last I checked Fischler is a person."

"We had to listen to Virgil scream," Alan said softly, his voice choked. Scott wrapped an arm around his brother's shoulder, pulling him closer. "I don't want to ever hear him scream like that again."

"And there's debate as to whether someone so stupid can be human, Pen," Gordon grumbled, coming into view on the other side of Virgil's bed. Someone behind the camera cleared their throat and Gordon rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to apologize, Grandma, because I'm honestly not sorry. I could say so much worse."

"Do so and I won't let this video be posted to the internet, Gordon," Grandma warned. She took care to stay off the camera, though, and Gordon gave a small sigh.

"Darlings," Penny said, her soft voice soothing and drawing a small sigh from each of the boys. "Everything will be okay. Virgil will heal and the world will know what happened."

The screen went black.

Langstrom Fischler Sues International Rescue for Defamation of Character

By Mark Minsterluff

In what could either be considered a daring or a stupid move, Langstrom Fischler of Fischler Enterprises has sued International Rescue following the posting of their latest YouTube video. The video stated that Fischler's experiments were the cause of multiple deaths and injuries, including some rather severe injuries to one of the IR Operatives.

Fischler stated that the video was making him out to be the badguy, when his experiments are largely focused on making life easier for the general public, with water purification being the aim of the latest one. Needless to say, the IR Operatives are clearly not as taken by the idea. Fischler has also stated that he suspects that IR is stealing his designs for Tracy Industries, although there has been no evidence as of such.

The case was an interesting one to follow as Fischler demanded that IR not only was defaming his character, but responsible for the loss of his experiments in multiple cases. IR, in an interesting turn, agreed that they had destroyed many of his inventions, but only in an effort to save people from them. The evidence they provided was shockingly clear.

As it turns out, IR doesn't just film videos for YouTube, but they have recorded every rescue they've ever been on. The multiple cases of Fischler's blunders were plain for everyone to see. Before this last rescue, there had been no loss of life, largely in thanks to International Rescue. However, during this last occurrence, six people tragically lost their lives and many more were injured.

The judge clearly ruled Fischler's case of defamation as fraudulent, and in turn had the man arrested for voluntary manslaughter, civilian endangerment, lack of proper safety procedures, and forging government documents.

Fischler, in a fit of rage, attempted to physically attack the youngest Tracy brother, only to be thwarted by a punch to the jaw from Gordon Tracy, the second youngest. Scott, the eldest, was heard to mutter that he wished he had been able to get a hit in. Virgil Tracy was not at the hearing, as he was still recovering from the rescue. John Tracy is said to have still been in space at the time as well.

Both Fischler and the Tracys refused to comment when asked about the proceedings.