Hope you like the next chapter!

"Base from Thunderbird 1."

He watched as Scott's portrait flickered into life. "Go ahead, Scott."

"Hey- Alan? What are you still doing up?"

Alan swigged his father's lukewarm coffee. "I can't sleep. Got too much on my mind. How are you?"

Scott laughed. "Feeling as bad as you look."

The blonde rolled his eyes. "Is there something you needed?"

"Company, to be honest." Scott told him. "A cup of Kyrano's coffee wouldn't hurt either."

"Things still rough your end?"

"Yeah, I'm just cooped up in the cellar of some Greek hotel. Virgil's driving himself mad waiting for contact with Gordon, and I'm just waiting it out until the storm passes."

"It's a little calmer this end, I guess. Everyone else is in bed, apart from dad and Brains who are in the lab. I received an odd transmission on my watch and they're trying to work out if it came from Gordon or not."

"So that's why you're up then, huh? Hopefully they can work out where the transmission came from soon. Didn't dad tell you to get to bed?"

"He did, but when do I ever listen to dad, really? I waited for them to leave then came back in here, just in case we received a call."

Scott sighed, figuring his little brother was struggling with the lack of response from Gordon. "I still think you should get to bed kiddo, you must be exhausted."

"I'm not!" Alan complained, trying to disguise a yawn.

"Uh huh." Scott rolled his eyes. "Go to bed, Al'. We'll let you know if we hear anything."

Alan yawned again, conceding. He finished his father's coffee and stood up. "What about you? Didn't you want some company?"

"I'll go harass John. He's probably still up."

"I'm not good enough, am I?" Alan pouted.

"Alan-" Scott started, giving him a tired look. He couldn't be dealing with his younger brother's complaining right now.

"Fine. Love you. Stay safe and let me know if Gordon calls you." Alan replied bluntly, the exhaustion in his voice setting in.

Scott smiled. "Goodnight Alan."

Commander Shore gave his deputy a blank stare. He was stressed out and in no mood for Fisher's sudden excitement. "You mind repeating that, lieutenant?"

"The weather patterns around Checkpoint 7 don't make any sense!" Fisher replied eagerly, youthful features meeting with his commander's craggy ones. "I've worked it out!"

"You've had too much caffeine, Fisher. And just why don't they make sense?"

Fisher held up an electronic tablet. "Okay so I've been studying the data sent into us by the weather boys and I noticed the way that the hurricane is moving doesn't make much sense."

"Care to elaborate?" Shore asked, taking a swig of his coffee.

"Usually, hurricanes in the northern hemisphere of the Earth turn counterclockwise. I know because I recently watched a documentary about the weather and it established that the southern hemisphere produces hurricanes that go clockwise, and the northern ones go in reverse. Something to do with gravity and air flow, I think - I can't remember that bit, but-"

"Is there a point to all this, Fisher?" the commander deadpanned, too tired to have to put up with the young man's ramblings.

"That's just it, sir! The hurricane over Greece - it's turning clockwise. It should be turning counterclockwise as it's above the equator, but it's not!"

"Meaning?"

"I think it's man-made, sir!"

Marina sighed as she once again found herself standing in the dress room, being accessorized by Aquanas' servants who were circled around her. After her failed escape attempt she'd been brought before an unimpressed Anath, who had scolded her and ordered her to be made up once again in preparation for the wedding.

Unfortunately for the mermaiden, the group had almost finished their task of beautifying her up, which meant the wedding would be starting soon. Marina glanced towards the doors to find more guards standing there than before, limiting her chances for escape.

"Oh princess, you look ravishing." Anath complimented as he re-entered the room. "It's too bad your two aquanaut friends won't be joining you."

Marina looked up in shock, not understanding what his words meant.

Anath smirked, "But do not worry, the orange-haired terrainean will still be able to watch the ceremony. He and the librarian are awaiting your reception in the church."

So Troy and Phones were out of commission? Unless the man was trying to trick her… She figured that if Gordon had namely been captured and was waiting in the church for her and the others were not, that meant that her other crewmates were actually still safe and Aquanas didn't know where they were, right?

A feeling of hope built up in her chest for the first time since she'd arrived back in the dressing room. She knew Troy and Phones would do anything and everything in their power to keep her safe, and stop the wedding, so probably had some sort of plan up their sleeves. Perhaps they'd drop in during the final vows, which is something she'd witnessed before in one of Atlanta's favourite moving picture films.

She just hoped they'd save her soon.

"This way, Phones!" Troy hissed as he jogged his way down the narrow corridor, trying not to let the heel of his boots make too much noise on the marble floor.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Phones replied, taking up the rear.

The two aquanauts made their way into the main chamber of the palace which Troy recognized as the room they'd first been brought into after being taken out of the cells. He looked towards the several entrances lined up out of the room and came to a stop with a sigh.

"What's the matter, Captain?" Phones halted beside him.

"This place is like a maze. We need to find where Gordon and Marina are and I don't fancy splitting up again." he exhaled, hand on his hip.

"When I was holed up in one of the other storerooms, I heard some of the Aquaphibians talking about the ceremony taking place in a church." he said. "Those language tapes the Commander made us study really have come in handy on this trip."

"You actually studied those?" Troy's bewilderment shone through.

"You didn't?"

"No! Anyway there's no time for that now, did they say where the church was?"

"No."

"Well that's helpful." Troy groaned, taking his cap off to run his fingers through his hair.

"But they did say they were going there. I know what direction they were going in."

Troy placed his cap on his head. "Well that's great! Let's go then!"

"Well, I know what direction they were going in relation to the room I was in, just not from here." Phones added with a sheepish grin.

"Whatever would I do without you." Troy replied, sarcasm lacing his voice.

"But I know where that storeroom is." Phones grinned.

Troy turned to him. "From here?"

"From here." Phones gave him a cheeky grin.

Troy's mouth turned up into a smile. "Well now I mean it. Whatever would I do without you?"

"Suffer, probably." Phones chuckled, leading the way.

"I do that enough with you around." Troy replied with jest, following his friend.