Brandon had ignored Alan all the way back to the camp he was staying in with Goose, whose real name was Gabby, and Virgil was beginning to notice the tension and sadness radiating around the cockpit. The vlogger left the ship and Alan watched him fist bump Scott before his brother got back into Thunderbird 1 and gained height to wait for Thunderbird 2, Virgil looked across at Alan and smiled.

"Don't let it get to you Al, fame isn't important."

"Yeah, I've learned that today."

"Brandon is at that age where he wants to impress everyone with anything. Do you believe Scott and I were impressed at the stuff he was doing?"

"No."

"Exactly, no. At the end of the day he just wanted to show off to his followers that he was being rescued by us, and that isn't that important," Virgil watched Scott fly off into the distance, "so much for waiting."

Scott entered the lounge to wait for Virgil and sat down at the piano, he smiled as he began to play a piece his mother had taught him and Kayo walked up the steps, "hey Kayo."

"So you weren't going to let me know when you got home?" Kayo smirked as she draped her arms around his shoulders before sitting down on the stool beside him pressing her knees against his.

"I was getting around to it," Scott smiled at her before kissing her gently, "guess who we dealt with today?"

"Hmm, Fischler?"

"Nope."

"Lemaire?"

"Last guess," Scott smirked at her.

Alan crashed into the lounge almost in tears and shouted up to Scott, "how could you let Brandon be so mean to me!?'

Kayo nodded, "ah, Brandon Berenger."

Scott bowed his head and turned around on the stool as Kayo stood up and walked down into the ring, "Alan, I'm sorry, I didn't realise he was upsetting you so much."

Virgil walked up from the hallway and saw that Alan had beaten him to the conversation, "Al, come on."

"I thought brothers were meant to stand up for each other!" Alan fled from the room barging past Virgil as he did.

Scott stood up from the piano stool and grabbed Virgil's arm, "see you later K."

"I'll be here," she smiled and walked down to the pool where Gordon was lounging.

"If only I saw," Scott sighed as he walked with Virgil to Alan's room, "I thought Alan could handle it. Did he say anything to you?"

"He told me cool means everything to him, and he desperately wanted to be in the vlog."

"Maybe he misses the things a normal teenager does, I mean we do have to maintain secrecy a bit," he knocked on Alan's door and heard sobbing from inside, "we're too late."

Virgil pushed the door open pushing aside a chair Alan had forced up against it, "Al?"

"Go away," the teenager was hunched over on his bed.

Scott walked over to sit on the bed and wrapped his arms around his little brother tucking his head under his chin, "I'm sorry I didn't stand up for you, I've dealt with Brandon before, he didn't act like that then."

"What's really troubling you Alan?" Virgil asked as he sat down on the other side of the teenager.

Alan sighed, "you guys are so cool, and I'm nothing compared to you. Brandon was impressed because you're so much better than me."

"You know that's not true, Alan, you do space missions all by yourself and that's something Virg and I have very little experience in."

"He was jealous of me, but still didn't let me be in his stupid video."

"I'm going to message him later," Scott ran his fingers through Alan's hair soothingly.

"Don't," Alan replied miserably, "he hated me, I can just tell."

Virgil rested his hand on Alan's, "he didn't hate you, you rescued him. That kid has a lot to thank you for, did he actually thank you?"

"No, he thanked you two. Why does everything happen to you two?"

Scott shared a look with Virgil as the boy began to cry again, "Ali, we're really sorry we weren't there for you, and you're right, we should stick up for each other, I was stupid and thought you would be able to take care of everything, only I didn't see that you needed me."

Alan's blue eyes welled with tears as he looked into Scott's before he buried his face into his shirt, "life isn't fair, and I miss dad."

Scott rocked the boy gently and sighed, "we all miss him, but we know where he is now and as soon as he's back, things will get back to normal, we won't have to deal with people like Brandon because dad will know what to do," he kissed the top of Alan's head as Virgil smiled tearfully at them, "you've got our toughest crying now, Alan."

Virgil smiled as he brushed tears from his eyes, "at the end of the day Alan, Brandon is just a spoilt kid who lets his jealousy affect his judgement."

"Thanks, I guess I just let him get to me."

Scott ruffled his hair as the youngest Tracy sat back wiping away tears, "want us to stick around?"

Alan shook his head, "I want a nap."

Virgil stood up from the bed, "come on Scott. Oh and Alan, you need to apologise to Max."

"Urg come on!"

"If you had just done the work on Thunderbird 2 then we wouldn't be having a go at you," Scott smirked as he stood beside Virgil, "we all have to do our part for that ship."

Alan waved them goodbye out of his room, "yeah yeah."

"I'm an idiot Virgil," Scott sighed as he walked round to his bedroom.

"Overall or just sometimes?"

"I'm serious, I can't believe I let Brandon walk all over him, some of Alan's expressions today were so heartbreaking I thought he was going to cry on the mission," he collapsed into his desk chair as Virgil sat down on the bed, he ran a hand over the tears soaked into his shirt and sighed.

"What would you have said?"

Scott shrugged, "I don't know, these things don't come to you until afterwards. I wish I had said something at the time."

"It wouldn't have taken effect."

"What Brandon did to him in the module was cruel, photoshopping Alan's face so that the audience wouldn't see him."

Virgil frowned, "why did he do that?"

"I overheard Brandon telling Gabby that he said he didn't want Alan to get all the popularity."

Virgil got out his phone, "let's see shall we?"

"What are you doing?" Scott wheeled his chair over to the bed.

"Checking out the comments on the live feed. It's finished so I can just scroll through," he slid his finger across the screen, "here we are. There's us so the comments will be, there," he read aloud, "those International Rescue guys are so handsome. Wow, the guy on that pod thing is gorgeous."

"Virgil!"

"Okay okay, I am looking. Most people are praising Brandon for getting to know us and one person has called Alan cute, the rest of the comments are asking the bear if he's okay after the avalanche ordeal."

"That little brat."

Virgil closed the feed down, "I wish you had said something now."

"I have an idea. I'll message Brandon, he's got a direct message service," Scott logged into his computer and found the vlogger's details, "hey Brandon?"

"Scotty, dude! How's this for a direct message, wow I didn't think you guys messaged the public, this is totally wild!"

Scott rolled his eyes, "yeah but this isn't why we're messaging you. Can you confirm you're not live streaming this?"

"Dude I live stream everything."

"Stop it now or we'll remove the entire video. We have something really important to discuss with you."

Brandon gulped and cut the feed, "okay I'm alone."

"What makes you think it's right to be such a brat to our brother?"

"I didn't mean to, he's just so cool and I'm not a member of International Rescue, having him on my feed would ruin me."

"We just checked the comments on that feed you did and most people are talking about you and asking if you're okay. Do you read any of your fans responses?" Virgil leant back against Scott's desk folding his arms tightly across his chest.

"Of course I do, what kind of a vlogger would I be if I didn't take notice of my fans?"

"You really upset Alan, Brandon, he rescued you and you didn't even thank him. You thanked us sure, but it was Alan who did all the work."

"But?"

"No buts, the next time we rescue you, buddy, you should be more gracious. Actions can hurt feelings just as much as words," Scott crossed his arms matching Virgil's stance.

"I'm really sorry dude, I was just trying to be popular. It won't happen again, he can be on the feed."

Virgil sighed, "he's a teenager like you Brandon, and an excited one at that, there are four of us he looks up to and tries to be like."

Brandon smiled, "that's awesome."

"And a lot of pressure on him, if he didn't feel cool around you he's feeling twice that with us. You two are so similar, he just felt excluded, I hope that clears things up?"

"Tell him I'm really sorry, and I owe him for saving me Scotty, and thanks for getting us out of that avalanche Virgil, that was an awesome manoeuvre."

Virgil smirked, "no sweat."

"See ya, Brandon," Scott hung up the call before Brandon could respond, "we'll tell him later. Do you need a hand with Thunderbird 2?"

"Don't you want to check your ship?"

"I can do both," Scott slung his arm around his brother's shoulders and they walked down to the hangar.