Ending a stressful day with a stress-filled chapter!

"Virgil to Gordon. Come in, please!"

Silence.

Virgil sighed and rested his head against the pilot control column, exhaustion settling in. He sat up straight and shook himself back to his senses, dull eyes focusing on the rain smashing against his cockpit window, illuminated by the lightning behind it. The stress of losing Gordon was physically draining him but the pilot was trying his best to remain in control and think positive thoughts. He just had to.

He had to for Gordon's sake.

"He's fine. He just can't reach the radio or whatever." he told himself for the hundredth time that afternoon as an attempt to calm his nerves, "He'll get in contact with me when he can and he'll laugh at me for being such a worrywart when we're back on the island because that's the kind of thing Gordon does. "Stop it, Virg, he's fine."

He sighed.

His attention was snapped back to Thunderbird 2 when he felt a particular harsh gush of wind against the cockpit, causing the aircraft to drop a few hundred feet. He quickly steadied her height and got to work moving his baby to a safer flight level, thoughts of his brother temporarily forgotten.

"Are you sure this is the way to the radio room?"

"Yes, it is just down here!"

Gordon allowed himself to be lead through the maze of corridors in the palace by his new companion, who was thankfully pretty adept at avoiding the bad guys littering the halls and passageways.

Sequalibra approached an embossed metal door. As Gordon went to open it, the Sargassian held him back, silencing the aquanaut when he went to complain. The subterranean held his ear against the door and listened hard, then signalled over to Gordon that someone was inside. The man then pointed towards a storage compartment just down the way and silently ordered Gordon to hide. When the young man was out of sight, Sequalibra knocked on the door and it shortly swooshed open.

Two aquaphibians greeted him. One of them scowled at the older man. "Librarian? Why are you not at your post?"

"Forgive me, but our leader urgently requests your presence in his royal chamber. He asked me to send for you."

The two guards shrugged at one another and left the room unguarded. Gordon watched them leave and grinned at his companion as he left his spot. "Great job 'libra! Come on!" he hurried into the radio room and Sequalibra locked the door behind them.

"Now what?" the librarian asked, cluelessly looking over the controls. "I hope you know what you're doing - I've never been in here before."

"You've lived at this palace your whole life and never ventured around before?" Gorodn asked, heading over to the controls mounted against the far wall.

"It is forbidden. We rarely leave our posts."

Gordon was curious. "Just how long have you been trapped here for?"

"340 marine years; long before the current prince was born."

Gordon whistled, "Now that's impressive." the aquanaut started fiddling with the control panels. "So what's the difference between human years and marine years then?"

"Nothing."

Gordon almost choked on the air in his mouth. "Wait, so you're telling me you're actually 340 years old? Wowzers! That takes you back to like… the Renaissance period or something!" he nodded impressively, and added off-handedly, "I think John would know more about that. He's the history nerd."

"Who is John?" the Sargassian queried.

"Oh… er… just… a person I sort of know." Gordon glanced his eyes over the computer screens, inwardly surprised at just how advanced the technology was. He tried to cover for his slip of the tongue. "Forget I said anything."

"He is your brother, yes?"

Gordon sighed. This guy wasn't giving up. "…Yeah, one of them."

"You have four. He is second, yes?"

Gordon turned to him. "How do you know all this stuff?"

Sequalibra smiled. "As I said before, your thoughts betray you. I can sense your emotions… memories… of them. You also contain admiration for that other human trapped here. You were good friends, but something… big happened."

"You could say that, yeah." Gordon replied breezily. The 'big thing' in question had been part of the reason he'd retired from the WASPs in the first place.

"An accident!" the creature continued. "It almost… destroyed you." he looked up sombrely.

Gordon tried to push the sudden intrusive thoughts to the back of his mind. "Can we not do this now? I have to-" a screen suddenly flickered on in front of him, showing a familiar green aircraft whose pilot was known for bugging him from time to time. He gasped. "Virgil!"

"Another of your brothers?"

Gordon's eyes were fixated on the screen. He couldn't take his eyes off Thunderbird 2. It was hovering erratically, being knocked around by the hurricane surrounding it.

"Like what you see?" came a cold voice from behind him.

Gordon turned to see Prince Aquanas, dressed in some sort of sparkling green and purple tuxedo, with a weapon pointed at the back of the librarian's head - the same weapon he'd used to cut the door open without being seen or heard. "So you say the pilot of that incredible flying machine is your kin, eh?"

Gordon's eyes widened.

Aquanas chuckled. "Well we wouldn't want anything to happen to him, would we now?"

Gordon gritted his teeth.

"Like, shall we say for instance - getting shot down by my sting missiles?"

A barrage of thoughts hit Gordon at once. The flight. The way Thunderbird 2 had dropped out of the sky, on fire, a huge trail of smoke following her as she practically nosedived onto the runway. Virgil's pleas. The aircraft uncontrolllably careening towards the cliffs. The fire. Finding Virgil's body. All because of-

"Missiles?" Gordon accused, fury overcoming him. He stepped forward and went to punch the sea prince but was quickly subdued by the guards. "You dare do anything of the sort and I'll-"

"What? Threaten me to death? You have no weapons, terrainean. Are you willing to risk the life of your beloved brother?"

Gordon lowered his head.

Aquanas smirked. "I thought not. Face it, boy, I have the upper hand now."

"Gordon, please…" Sequalibra begged, praying the young man wouldn't do something rash that would further endanger him or his brother.

"Now come along, clownfish. You have a wedding to attend."

"Clownfish?" thundered Gordon, trying to yank himself free of the guards. "I'll give you clownfish!"

The Prince cackled loudly as his prisoners were dragged away.