He'd lost her. In a blink of an eye, Thunderbird 4's consoles had gone from a glowing array of blues, reds and white, to all encompassing darkness. Gordon had felt the life drain from her as she slowed, the momentum carrying him forward as he heard the telltale thud of Scott hitting something in the rear compartment.

"Ow! What the hell! Gordon?" The heat was aimed directly at him and might've been warranted any other time, but this wasn't a little brother's trick.

"This isn't me," Gordon shouted back, fingers sliding blindly through reset settings and manual startup that were ingrained into his memory. Not even a flicker of life, "All of Four's systems are dead."

The sound of his brother's movements was accompanied by the manual latch to the front compartment snapping free and the door opening. "Comms are out, too," Scott slid in behind the pilot's seat, his hand landing on the blonde's shoulder for assurance rather than feeling his way around. "You okay?"

"Yeah," but it came out strained as Gordon tried another route to restart his 'bird to no avail. "You?"

"I'll have a bruise on my elbow, but nothing worse," that was good at least. They could do without a medical situation in the middle of their current dilemma. Scott's tone lowered, reliance playing through the darkness, "You're the expert down here. What do you think's going on?"

He knew his girl better than any of their Thunderbirds and they'd practiced just about every emergency scenario they could think of. System blackout had been one of the few that required outside assistance. He'd already had first hand experience with the other situations. Twice.

"Well," Gordon started, unbuckling his lapbelt, "Without active systems, we can't make our next check-in. Virg will get suspicious that I've somehow incapacitated you and try to call." In the dark, the grin would be missed, but that didn't stop it from spreading over his face. "Let's head to the back. I've got supplies for this."

Scott backtracked clumsily and Gordon's imagination was already coming up with a way to mess with his brothers later, once they had his 'bird up and running. As far as he was concerned, this exercise was over and Virgil would be picking them up, hopefully soon. That meant plenty of down time to amuse himself with.

"What do you think caused this?" Scott asked, likely to release the concern building from the unfamiliar situation.

And maybe Gordon was trying to suppress his own fears, the answers to that question being limited and mostly man made. The potential of it being a problem with Thunderbird 4 was highly doubtful. Feeling his way over to a storage cabinet, he pulled out a flashlight and clicked it on. Nothing. Gordon groaned before he could stop himself, "The flashlight's dead… which means…"

"EMP," they both spoke in unison.

"Someone's either set it off without knowing what would happen," Gordon's expression became doubtful as his brother spoke. "Or this was intentional."

"So we assume the second option and hope for the best," reaching back into the storage compartment, the aquanaut located the pack that was rarely used on any other Thunderbird except Two and Four. He tended to find other uses for its content than what it was designed for. Cracking one of the sticks, Gordon handed it to Scott.

Who immediately shoved it into his pocket, "Are you crazy? If someone's out there, we don't need to make it easier for them to see us."

"Scott, relax," Gordon cracked a second glow stick, filling the back of the sub in bright pink. He'd already latched the door to the front closed and in a few short strides had the reinforcement shade over the air lock window. "I'd rather we be able to see what we're doing. Whoever we're dealing with isn't going to come in blindly hoping to catch us off guard."

Eventually, pink became orange as the brunette retrieved his own light once more. Shadows played over his brother's face, catching at the lines pinching at his brow. Scott was worried, but capable. Gordon might be the one trying to calm him down, but there was no doubt he could rely on his commander if things got rough.

Squaring his jaw, Scott focused on what came natural, "We'll need to defend ourselves."

"Close quarters, we'll need something small," digging into another cabinet, he came back with a large wrench and a few smaller wrenches, "and heavy." Handing Scott the large tool, Gordon reached back into the pack for the electrical tape. It wasn't used often since Brains was adamant about keeping their 'birds updated regularly, but the potential need for repairing wires was still there. Or in this case, wrapping together a few tools to make a decent club.

The brunette tucked his weapon into his baldric, blue eyes still regarding Gordon for their next move. It felt somewhat unnerving, having big bro so keyed in on what he had to say. Memories of the last time Scott had been in control of his 'bird floated up. The fear and helplessness of not being able to do anything as the ocean floor swallowed the sub. The anger that had led to the assisted descent into the hangar. The talk afterwards about listening to the people with far more experience.

Gordon didn't like being mad, not if he could help it anyway. He could be upset at himself for any number of reasons, annoyed at his brothers, sure, but anger towards them hurt. It had taken him longer than he liked to get over the incident, because this one involved so much more than his hard headed brother getting into trouble. Penny had been down there.

Sensing old feelings making themselves known, Gordon busied himself with securing his weapon before sorting out the next issue. Swallowing the unsteadiness, he found Scott still waiting, "We'll need comms if they come back up. Think you can manage those?"

"No problem," a dimpled smile helped calm Gordon's nerves. "What are you gonna do?"

He returned a grin, "I'm gonna get us some electricity." Hopefully. Though he knew his girl inside and out, engineering was Virgil's forte. Gordon had an idea, though that was simple in design, just risky in application. Thankfully, Scott's trust extended enough that he didn't press for logistics.

"Sounds good to me," a firm hand landed on the blonde's shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "Let me know if I can do anything."

"FAB," holding out his hand towards the yellow glow stick, it took his brother a moment to place it in his palm. "Sorry, Scotty, you'll have to work blind for a bit."

"Great, remind me to get everyone night vision goggles when we get out of this," Scott groaned, opening the hatch into the helm. As it closed behind him, a deepening silence fell over the room. In a matter of seconds, Gordon felt the discomfort and wished they could keep the door open. Any amount of noise was better than the quiet.

Before he knew what he was doing, Gordon began to hum. At first it was nothing, only a tune to break the tension, but slowly turned into a song he'd heard Virgil practicing at the piano. The melody was on repeat as his brother worked to perfect the first few lines and it was enough to spur the aquanaut to action.

He had a job to do if they wanted to get out of this alive. Closing his eyes, Gordon could see the calculations. Two emergency tanks if the O2 converter went down, four rescue masks, and ten mini rebreathers. Two hours from the emergency tanks, fifteen from each mask, two minutes per rebreather. If they could space it out right, they could get three and a half hours of air. After that, they'd be out. No one left to save.

A shallow breath and he turned, digging into the storage cabinets. With any luck, they'd be up and running in less than two hours. Nothing to it.

OoOoOoO

Stifling the grunts brought on by the ache in his stomach were becoming difficult to suppress, but Virgil was determined to not alert the two figures patrolling the boat house. Dad had stopped their group just behind a supply closet and the fear that his father might try something crept into his chest. Granted, they outnumbered the invaders, but there was no telling if they held weapons or what they could do. It wasn't a risk any of them should take unless it came down to escaping or not.

A breath and the wetness over his fingers grew, forcing Virgil to hold the wound a bit tighter. His jaw clenched with renewed focus as the pain spiked before dulling once more into a burning throb. Whatever had hit him when the hangar ceiling blew was still wedged somewhere in his abdomen, but without access to the infirmary, there was little else he could do but keep pressure on it. The boats would hold something more substantial at least.

A tap to his shoulder drew dark brown eyes to blink at Jeff who'd positioned himself by Virgil's side. Another hand came up, silently signing his intent, Going to find a boat. Pick you up when I find one.

Virgil frowned, not liking the idea of Dad going alone, Too dangerous.

His father's hand caught his, grey eyes stern as he wordlessly agreed, but something had to be done. These people would eventually realize they weren't in the villa or hangar and find them. They had to go now.

Jeff caught Brains' attention, directing him towards the manual latch for the boat house doors. Once that was hit, the interna waterl current would send them outward. As the output for Thunderbird 4's tank, they could also use that same current to move the boat as quietly as possible. They just needed to stay out of eyesight until they reached the doors.

Biting back the urge to protest further, Virgil signed to both men, Be careful.

A salute and Dad was moving, checking at the edge of the container for the patrols' locations and disappearing a moment later. Virgil carefully slid over, peeking around the corner to see if the intruders were aware of the movement. Both were on the far side of the large boat house, far enough that the tension eased his aching gut. Their lights were as rudimentary as the glow sticks and worked against them more than helped. The men would be lucky to see a boat moving across the water, much less three people hiding.

Virgil strained to listen, wondering if the men had communications that worked beyond the EMP. There was no doubt they were talking, but the distance and the sound of water lapping against his little brother's boat collection made it impossible to discern the words.

The minutes ticked by, the two men pacing back along the platform. Still, there was no sign of his father, Virgil squinting in the low light for any movement. A glance in Brains' direction and he could just make out the outline of his friend.

A bump, soft and not entirely unexpected when boats were around, and Virgil turned to find a large shadow had appeared at the edge of his platform. With a grunt of effort, he didn't hesitate, eyes darting to the glow of the two intruders before shifting back to the sailboat that was lazily floating towards the exit.

Strong hands caught him as Virgil jumped into the boat, suppressing a hiss of pain as it arked through his stomach. Dad's voice was soft, "I gotcha kiddo. Stay down and we'll be out in no time."

He gave a nod, mostly out of habit, but also to keep the groan from escaping as the pain began to dull and used the bench seats to guide himself towards the front. Silence filled the boathouse for a minute, Virgil feeling the slight rise and fall as the boat rocked onward. The soft padding of steps sounded to his right and he strained to see the shadow of his father as he quietly knelt over the bow. Virgil couldn't quite find the reasoning for it until they came to an abrupt halt, the boat bouncing back without a sound. They'd hit the doors. His father must have used a buoy to soften the blow.

As the engineer's thoughts connected, he glanced around the mast and over the sails that had yet to be unfurled. The two men still stood, oblivious on the far side of the docks. If they were going to escape, it would have to be now.

On que, the sound of the manual door controls clicked, missed amongst the water and boats bumping against their walkways. What wasn't impossible to miss was the blinding light that spilled through the crack as the doors began to open.

Shouts echoed off the walls as the intruders caught sight of the boat and Virgil turned to find Dad motioning for Brains to jump.

A shot and metal sang with the impact just above the scientist's head. It was all he needed to spring off the walkway and into the boat. More bullets collided with the vessel and walls, anger searing through Virgil as he realised these people had guns. Actual weapons long since banned from society. It wasn't impossible for them to still exist, but it meant whoever was in their home had spent a small fortune on them.

Dark brown eyes squinted into the daylight, locking onto his father's. Jeff was on the ground, covering a visibly shaken scientist. Once they were through the door, the gunfire ceased. They were either out of bullets or he and his family were out of range. Either way, Virgil's heart jumped when the elder man began moving towards the controls. The engineer was up a second later, coming up beside his father to help initiate the sails.

Except there was no power.

"We'll need to do this by hand," Dad was already moving. "Grab the wheel while I hoist the sails."

"FAB," at least he could do something, watching on while Brains joined his father. Within seconds, the material was rising to catch the wind blowing over the caldera. The wheel jerked for a moment, Virgil slowly redirecting them North, towards the Kermadec ridge and hopefully the outpost.

A hand landed on his shoulder, drawing Virgil's eyes from the horizon. Dad's voice lost the whisper, the need for hiding over as they made their escape, "I'll take the helm. Let Brains see to that wound." When Virgil didn't budge, Jeff continued, "It doesn't look like they're following us. We're safe. Now go so we can start trying to contact the GDF."

A nod, Virgil setting off into the lower decks where he could hear the scientist searching for supplies. They would take care of this inconvenience and then find a way to save their home.