On Tracy Island
Jeff Tracy stood on the pool deck watching his second youngest son swimming in the pool. Gordon had just come back in thunderbird three from dropping John off in the newly rebuilt thunderbird 5. They had finished the station faster than they expected, and were now starting to get used to John not being around again.
"Hey Dad" Scott's voice said from behind him. Jeff turned to look at his oldest.
"Hey Scott. How's John settling in?" he asked. John had radioed, and asked to speak to Scott about one of his experiments that he had left behind. Scott had volunteered to continue it. They had been talking for about three hours now, which made Jeff believe that they had talked about more than just his experiment.
"Good. He thinks that it is a bit strange to be up there again, but will be okay if we just keep calling him."
"Good. That was what I was hoping" Jeff said, relieved. Scott walked over to the bar for a glass of orange juice before coming back to his father. Gordon was just coming out of the pool.
"Hey Gordo, John wants to talk to you. He's with Virgil at the moment." He called out. Gordon nodded, and quickly dried himself before running into the house for his father's study. Jeff and Scott chuckled as they watched him go.
"He can't walk anywhere, can he?" Jeff asked rhetorically.
"Nope. Hey, shouldn't we call Alan to let him know?" Scott asked as they started to walk inside.
"Yes. I'll call him after you lot stop hogging the communicator"
"We just want to make sure that John is fine. And anyway, you were the one that talked to him first."
"I know." Jeff replied just as the entered the study.
"Hey Dad" Virgil said looking from his brother's portrait.
"Hang on guys, I'm getting something about Alan's school on the frequency" John's voice said, worried. Back on Tracy island, everyone looked at each other, wondering what their youngest could have done now. After all, it was well past eleven at night in America. "Dad, they're reporting an earthquake! They say that at least one building was destroyed, and that there at students trapped inside."
"Dad, we have to get there! Alan and Fermat could be trapped" Virgil cried.
"John, have their emergency signal's gone off yet?" Jeff asked, worried for his son and friend.
"No."
"Boys, we can't do anything until we're called. But get into your uniforms and your birds ready. We will be able to go at a moments notice for them. I'll go get Brain's and tell him" Jeff ordered his sons.
"FAB"
Back at Wharton Academy
Alan coughed as he looked around the room that was once his dorm. He couldn't see past the giant slab of concrete that was about a meter in front of him. The dust was still swirling around, making it hard to see and breathe.
"Alan, w…w…what do we do now?" he heard Fermat ask.
"I don't know Fermat. Hang on, we need to send of the alarm on our watches" Alan replied, saying the last bit quietly so that the other boys wouldn't hear it. Fermat nodded and they both manipulated their watches until the beeped twice. That done, they then turned to look at the other boys. Fermat had Hadrian and Benny next to him, while Alan had the four other boys. He turned and saw that they were covered in dust, but looked alright.
"Hey, you guys ok?"
"I think so. Your Alan Tracy right?" the one next to him replied.
"Yeah. What are your names?" Alan asked quietly.
"I'm Will Ourlands. Nathaniel Johnsons in next to me, and the other two are Marcus Dale and Phillipe Pascal. Our dorms were a few doors down from here. Do you think that we'll be saved?" Will asked after he introduced his friends.
"Sure. The Thunderbirds will be here soon. When the teachers realise that were missing they will call for help. This job is too big for the emergency services. We just have to hang in there." Alan replied.
"How can you be so sure?" Nathaniel asked him.
"Because they're the Thunderbirds. Have you ever heard of them failing?"
"No"
"There you go. Now Fermat, what do we do?" Alan asked his friend.
"W..we can try t..t..to see if we can f..f..see any water. We'll need it. And Alan, if you can get to my bed, there's a first aid kit on it." Fermat replied. Alan nodded, before inching out from under the table.
"I can see a way around this block" he said as he reached the concrete in front of them. "I'm going to try to go around it. I'll be back soon." With that, Alan disappeared from sight.
Tracy Island
Jeff and Brains were in the study, which Brains had changed to command and control, anxious about any information about their sons. They had patched the emergency call through to them so that they could hear any news as it came. Suddenly, a beeping sound came from Alan's portrait and the computer in front of them.
"Alan and Fermat's emergency signals have been activated. It means that they're alive" Jeff said in relief. They had heard unconfirmed reports that bodies had been found.
"Dad, are you getting they're signals?" John asked.
"Yes son, we are. Have they asked for us yet?"
"No Dad. But they just found another body. And they apparently haven't started looking on one building yet. They should be asking soon. You'd better suit up" John told his father. Jeff looked at him, amused before leaving to do as he was told. When he walked back in, in his green uniform, John called out.
"Dad, we have been called in! Go!" Brains sent off the alarm, which brought all of the boys to the control room. They quickly moved to the portraits, which rose to let them into the lifts behind them. Jeff activated them with the phrase.
"Thunderbirds are go" The ships were quickly in the air and heading at top speed for Massachusetts.
Scott gasped when he saw the damage done to his baby brother's school.
"Dad, this school is a mess. All but one building is collapsed. And that building had no top floor. There is a section to the left where the emergency services are. They have cleared a spot for us near the wreckage." He told his father in thunderbird two.
"FAB Scott. Put her down and see the person in charge. Our ETA is in 10 minutes." His father replied.
"FAB Dad. But how are we going to stop ourselves from being recognised?"
"Put your helmet on. That will work for now" Virgil replied.
"FAB" Scott landed and grabbed his helmet from behind his seat. He then left his bird and headed to the emergency services area. "Who's in charge here?" he asked the first man in uniform he saw.
"Commander Tich." The man replied, pointing to an African American man on the phone. Scott nodded his thanks as he moved over towards the commander.
"Sir?" Scott asked. Commander Tich turned around and sighed in relief at the sight of Scott.
"Thank god. We desperately need you here. There are fourteen students still missing, and all from that building. I have there names on a list here for you. My men will do anything you ask of them." The commander said as he handed over a piece of paper with the names of the missing on it. Scott quickly read them, flinching when he read Alan and Fermat's names.
"Thankyou Commander. The rest of my team will be here in a matter in minutes. Do you have a map of where these children's rooms are?"
"Yes." The commander led Scott to the pin board next to him and pointed out the dots. "The dots indicated who was in what room, and where the exits are around them. As you can see, most of the missing are in the area away from any exits. We can only hope that they survived the ceiling collapsing on them." Just then, Scott heard the tell tale sounds of Thunderbird two coming in. It landed softly beside his bird, immediately unloading the mole (Virgil) and domo (Gordon). Virgil quickly jumped off and came to stand beside his brother.
"What do we know?" he asked as Gordon and Jeff came up behind him.
"These are the names of the missing, and they're corresponding rooms." Scott told them, watching his father's hands shake. "They're both on the list."
Alan Tracy was slowly exploring the collapsed sections of his floor when he heard someone crying out. He made his way around a corner, and saw a boy trapped under a piece of the concrete.
"Hey" Alan said, crouching down beside him.
"Hi. You're Alan right?" the boy asked as another wave of pain swept over him.
"Yeah. Who are you?"
"Daniel Jasob. Can you help me get this block off of my leg? It hurts" Daniel asked.
"Sure" Alan and Daniel slowly lifted the block off his leg, and Daniel slid back so that he was free.
"Thanks. Now, where do we go?" Daniel asked as he tried to stand. Alan moved next to him and put his arm around his waist.
"Come back with me. There are eight of us that are unhurt. I'll take you back to them and go searching for more survivors. Come on" Alan and Daniel hobbled around to where the other were waiting. Fermat and Hadrian came forward and took Daniel off of Alan and sat him down under the table.
"Alan, c..c…please get the first aid kit and water" Fermat stuttered as he looked at Daniel's leg. Alan nodded, and disappeared again. This time he came back in a matter of minutes with the first aid kit and two bottles of water from the bathroom where they stored them, just in case. Fermat took them off him, and used half of one to wash the dust from Daniel's leg. He then passed the other drink bottle to boys for a small drink. Daniel's leg was red and had almost no skin on it from where they pulled the concrete off it. Fermat also splinted it just in case. After that was done, Fermat looked at Alan.
"How bad is it?" he asked.
"Pretty. It's really bad out there. You almost can't move because of the amount of wreckage in there. I wouldn't be surprised if there were fatalities out there. Just as Alan said that, he heard the most welcome sound ever. The sound of Thunderbird 1. "The thunderbirds are here!" he said grinning.
"How do you know that?" Philippe asked, the first thing he said since the earthquake.
"I just do. We will be rescued soon." Alan replied.
"I hope that they have some medical facilities" Daniel said.
"Of c..c..course they would" Fermat told him, not telling him that all of the Thunderbirds also had EMT training. They would be able to help him more than Fermat had. Fermat then got up to talk to Alan quietly.
"Do you think that my Dad is with them?" he asked.
"No, he will be back at base. He is needed there. He will be frantic though, just like my family will be. I mean, how will they be coping knowing that we're involved. And how will they be keeping their identities secret?" Alan asked.
"Probably with their helmets. They will be here soon, right?" Fermat asked, worried.
"Yes." Fermat nodded, and went back under the table. Alan started to follow, when another tremble came.
"Aftershocks! Alan, get under here!" Fermat screamed. Alan started to move, when something came crashing down, right where Alan was. "ALAN!"