ladc- thanks for the review. Alan wasn't plyaing with chemicals he was just "trying" to do his school work.

Queen of the Elven City- glad you are enjoying it. As for Alan getting hurt you'll have to wait and see what happens.

Iniysa - thanks for reviewing. here's the next part.

star-shimmered-dragon - There was a reason I didn't name the chemicals or go into details - I'm completely making things up!

May Portland - no lectures in this chapter although one will be coming shortly. Did you expect monopoly to come into the story? Read and find out what I mean.

AngelMouse5- glad you're enjoying the story and for not getting on my case about leaving it as a cliff hanagar like people do. I think cliff hanagars keep things interesting. Thanks!

vampiress66613 - thanks for taking the time to let me know you're reading the story. Really appreciate it.

Marblez- yeah you needed a break. Wouldn't want you to lose your voice now!lol!

Hwesta - glad you like my version of Alan.

moonlightbear - thanks for reviewing. hope you like this chapter!

IloveSam- thank-you for your wonderful compliments. Its nice being appreciated. I'm also glad to see someone liked (or noticed) the similarity between the begining of the story and the part of the last chapter. Needless to say that was the eaiest part of the chapter to write, lol! You'll be happy to know John is back in this chapter.

John's POV:

"You two are ganging up on me aren't you," Gordon said as he looked around the board.

I was in the living room with him and Virgil. We had moved the coffee table off to the side and had set up the Mononopoly board on the floor.

"Why would you say that?" Virgil asked looking across the board at me and giving me a wink. The two of us had already made one trade that gave us both a monopoly and both of us were currently working on building them up. Not to mention I already had all four of the railroads. Virgil and I hadn't set out to gang up on our younger brother but it now looked like that was what we were doing.

"All the properties aren't even bought up yet and the two of you are trading properties and building up. It's a conspiracy," Gordon said as he moved his piece six places and landed on the go to jail square. "Oh look I get a second chance at both of your houses," Gordon said as he picked his piece up and placed it on the jail tile. "I think I'm staying there for awhile."

"Chicken," Virgil taunted as he picked the dice up off of the game board to roll them.

"For once I'm not going to argue with you," Gordon told him.

I laughed at my brothers antics. Leave it to us to not even be able to play a board game without it getting competitive. I looked up from the game board to see my dad standing in the doorway.

I could immediately tell that something was wrong.

"Dad what is it?" I asked.

Both Virgil and Gordon turned their attention away from the game and looked in my father's direction.

"Scott just called. There's been a fire in the chemistry lab at Alan's school," he told us. "I'm taking Thunderbird 1 and flying out there."

"Let me come with you Dad," I said getting up off the floor and hurrying over to him. Virgil and Gordon were right behind me the board game completely forgotten.

"Okay," he said with a nod as he turned to head back to his office so we could launch Thunderbird 1. "Besides if Alan is any way responsible for this I'm going to need you to keep me from killing him," Dad said as we hurried up the steps.

I didn't comment. Knowing Alan, it was very likely that he was involved in it somehow. Trouble just seemed to find my youngest brother. I knew our father loved Alan even though he was frustrated with him right now. Still, I could very well have to run interference between the two of them which was why I had suggested coming along in the first place.

"Virgil get a hold of Lady Penelope and ask her to meet me there. I'm going to have to land Thunderbird 1 somewhere out of the way and I'll need transportation to the school."

"You got it Dad," Virgil said as the four of us entered the office which had already been switched to command and control.

Brains was waiting for us which didn't surprise me. Alan wasn't the only one at the school. Fermat was there too. It was only natural that Brains would be worried about his son.

Within minutes Dad, Brains and I were aboard Thunderbird 1. Dad and I were up front with Brains in the passenger seat behind Dad.

On the flight to New York, I took the time to read over the information that had been sent down from Thunderbird 5, information that my dad and Brains had already looked over.

There wasn't much to go on yet. What Scott had picked up on with Thunderbird 5's sensors were the radio communications between the firefighters and the police officers on the scene. From the looks of it not even the news stations were on to the story yet, but I knew that wouldn't be the case for long, no matter how remote the area around Churchill School for Boys was.

A beeping sound indicated a call coming in from the island.

"Go ahead," Dad said hitting the button that opened the communications link with the island. Virgil's face appeared on the screen located in the center of the front control panel.

"Dad, Alan's school called asking for you. What do you want me to do?"

"Route the call through to Thunderbird 1," Dad replied.

"FAB. Call being rerouted," Virgil replied.

"Hello," Dad said as a light turned green indicating that the phone call had been rerouted to Thunderbird 1.

"Mr. Tracy, this is Mr. Troken. I'm afraid I have some bad news. There has been an incident in the chemistry lab today. It happened during Alan and Fermat's class period. We have rescue personnel on the scene now but we are still trying to straightened everything out. However, we are trying to contact all the parents of the kids in that class before the media gets a hold of this."

"So Alan and Fermat have not been accounted for yet?"

"Ah, no they haven't. Not yet. I'm sorry," the headmaster from Alan's school stammered. I could tell he was nervous and worried.

"I'm actually on a business trip in New York City. I'll be up there as soon as I can." my father told him, the small lie would explain our arrival at the school.

"Of course. We'll be expecting you and I'm sure we'll know more by the time you get here," Mr. Troken said quickly. He was even more nervous now that Dad was actually showing up. Something told me they knew more about the accident then he was saying at this point.

It wasn't long before we were landing the rocket ship in a clearing in the mountains about fifty miles from Alan's school. Lady Penelope's pink car was already there waiting. Parker was standing beside it, but I saw no sign of the secret agent herself.

"Parker, where's Lady P?" my Dad asked as we disembarked from the rocket ship and walked toward FAB1.

"Milady regrets that she was not able to come in person due to previous obligations but sent me to be of service," Parker replied.

"Be sure to send her my gratitude Parker," Dad replied as he and Brains climbed into the back of the car and I sat up front.

"Of course, Mr. Tracy," Parker replied getting behind the wheel of the car.

Soon we were on our way from our landing site to Alan's school, flying part way and then driving once we got closer to the school. I saw the smoke long before I saw the school. The black smoke was rising above the tree tops.

By the time Parker drove up to the parking lot in front of the building that had the chemistry lab in it, the media was now on the scene. I counted about four different news vans and at least one radio station. Not to mention the newspaper reporters. The police had there hands full trying to keep all the media personnel out of the way.

Dad, Brains and I got out of the car and headed toward the building, while Parker stayed with the car. I let Dad lead the way as we headed away from the group of reporters and over to where the emergency vehicles were located.

I spotted Mr. Troken and Alan's science teacher talking with the fire chief. There were three fire trucks on the scene and the fire personnel seemed to have the fire contained, although I could still see some flames. It was weird being on an accident scene and not being involved in it but we weren't here as International Rescue, we were here as Alan and Fermat's family.

"Ah Mr. Tracy, Professor Hackenbacker," Mr. Troken said as he spotted us walking toward them. "I have good news both Alan and Fermat have been accounted for and are being treated by the paramedics now."

I felt a wave of relief go through me. I was glad to hear that they were no longer inside the building.

"What about the other students?" my father asked.

I had to fight back the smile that threatened to come to my face. Even when he was suppose to be just a civilian, his mind was in field commander mode. It wasn't just Alan and Fermat he was worried about but all of the students.

"They're all accounted for," the fire chief spoke up. "Only minor injuries. Overall we were lucky. This could have been much worse."

"Do you know the cause?" my father asked. I noticed Mr. Troken start fiddling with his tie as he looked over toward the fire chief.

"From what we can gather it was an accident. Seems a student got the wrong chemicals. From what the chemistry teacher tells me, the chemicals reacted to cause a explosive reaction and when the mixture made contact with certain materials those materials caught on fire. I've given Mr. Troken some suggestions that the school can make to keep something like this from happening again."

"Which student had the wrong chemicals?"

I knew what my dad was getting at. He wanted to know if it was Alan. As much as I wanted to give my brother the benefit of the doubt, I just had a feeling that it had been him. It sounded just like Alan. He never had been one to pay attention in school, and from my conversation with his chemistry teacher yesterday, I knew Alan was suppose to have been working by himself today.

"Um, we'll need to discuss that later," Mr. Troken said quickly before the fire chief could say anything.

"It was Alan wasn't it?"

Mr. Troken just nodded.

"Mr. Tracy, let me assure you that as far as the fire department is concerned this was an accidental fire. Other than trying to prevent something like this from happening again we've come to an agreement that neither us or the police are going to get involved."

"I appreciate that," my father replied.

"If you excuse me, I need to go make some kind of statement to the media," the fire chief told us and then headed toward the line of police officers trying to keep the media under control.

Brains had already disappeared, probably to find Fermat and see for himself how he was. I couldn't blame him. As Dad and Mr. Troken continued talking I disappeared myself, in search of Alan.

I found Brains and Fermat first. Fermat was lying on a gurney in the back of an ambulance. He had on an oxygen mask and I saw bandages covering his hands.

"He going to be okay?" I asked Brains stopping by the back of the ambulance.

"Y-y-yeah the paramedics think so. Th-th-they're going to take him to the hospital just as a precaution but he just suffered minor chemical burns and the smoke aggravated his as-as-asthma."

"We'll come by the hospital as soon as we get things figured out here," I told him. Brains nodded as I stepped away from the ambulance allowing the paramedics to close the doors. I watched the ambulance drive away and then continued my search for Alan amongst the students, teachers and concerned parents who had gathered outside of the chemistry lab.