HAWAII was known for beautiful weather. Regular sunshine made it the perfect vacation spot for those who loved to spend time sunbathing or swimming. However, if the weather turned nasty - and sometimes it could very badly, things tended to go badly wrong for anyone not prepared for it.

This day for instance was no different. One hour it had been glorious weather, and an hour later, the sky had turned black and a howling wind began to batter one of the smaller outer islands.

One person not heeding the warnings, as usual, was thrill-seeker Brandon Berrenger. He was out on a surfboard off one of the beaches whilst his girlfriend and camera-tech person Gabby 'Goose' Gosling was sitting on the beach. 'Goose' was watching a weatherman giving a report. It didn't sound good to her.

"Well, a storm warning has been issued for the Hawaiian Islands with winds potentially reaching up to sixty miles per hour. Now this is a big one, folks. So to any surfers out there, you'd be wise to stay out of the water."

Brandon was listening via the webcam that was attached to the prow of his board. He simply laughed at the weatherman's report. "Ho-ho! The waves are high, yo! Fifteen-footers, easy!" He lay himself front down on the board and began to paddle forwards before then adjusting the camera. "How's the feed, Goose?"

"Clear video and audio at this end," answered Goose. She then looked up, slightly anxious at the vicious black clouds in the distance. The wind was already picking up and all the palm trees were swaying madly. Raindrops began to fall and there was a distant rumble of thunder from somewhere nearby. "Okay, Bear. We'd better make this the last run," she went on. "There's one heck of a storm coming our way."

But Brandon wasn't worried. "You worry too much, Goose," he said. "Remember - big storms equal massive BREAKEEEEEEEEEEEEERS!" He said that as the waves picked up and soon he found himself surfing on them. "WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOO! YEAH!" he jeered happily as he surfed through a wave tunnel and put his left hand through so it was splashing out the other side.

Goose occasionally had sight of Brandon from her position on the beach, but the best way to see him was on the webcam footage on her laptop, which she was now having to hold under the anchored beach umbrella to protect it from the falling rain.

Brandon's cheering continued on for a few moments before the wave suddenly broke all around him and he disappeared from Goose's view. When the water cleared, Goose let out a gasp of horror. The board had managed to escape from the wave. But Brandon was no longer on it. He'd disappeared. Throwing the laptop aside, Goose ran out from under the umbrella and down to the water's edge. She looked to the left and then to the right, but there was no sign of him anywhere. "BRANDON?" she called out as fear flooded through her veins. "BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANDON!"

5!

4!

3!

2!

1!

"Thunderbirds Are Go!"

"ADRIFT"

GOOSE ran further out until the water lapped around her feet. She was beginning to panic because there was still no sign of her boyfriend. She lifted up her hands and clapped them over the sides of her mouth in the hope of directing her voice. "BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANDON?!"

Suddenly there came a coughing sound coming from the laptop. "G-G-cough-cough-Goose?!"

Goose ran back and flipped the laptop back upright to see a completely drenched Brandon coughing and spluttering up water as he slumped himself over the board. "BRANDON!" she squeaked with relief. "Oh, my God. You freaked me out there!"

"Yeah - sorry about that, babe," Brandon said as he coughed up a bit more water. "It snuck up on me, it did."

Goose giggled, but then turned serious. "Say, where are you?" she asked, turning to look out across the ocean. "I can't see you out there."

"Uh, yeah, slight problem there," replied Brandon. "I think I'm stuck in a riptide and it's pulling me out to sea."

"I'll contact the harbor patrol," said Goose. "Or better still, International Res-"

"NO!" Brandon cried. "Not them! Please, not them! I really don't want to see them again." He pulled himself up onto the board and kept himself flat. "Besides, being rescued just makes me look stupid. Just come and get me."

"Errrrr, how am I supposed to do that?" asked Goose.

"There's a boathouse along the beach," said Brandon. "There's bound to be something there."

"Okay…" said Goose, not sounding too keen on the idea. "Hang in there, Bear. I'm coming."

Goose ran along the beach to the boathouse. She looked around to see if there was anybody there but a big sign next to the door reading 'CLOSED' told her that there wasn't. So with great reluctance, she had to kick down the door in order to get in. There was a white motorboat with a big outboard engine on its back sitting in there so she jumped aboard, pulled the cord to start the engine and once it was going, drove it out of the boathouse, all the while trying to ignore the fact that the breaking down of the door had set off the security alarms. She knew that she and Brandon were likely going to get into big trouble for this, but all she cared about right now was finding Brandon and bringing him back to safety. Driving across the choppy surface of the water, Goose looked from left to right for any sign of Brandon.

Brandon continued to hold onto his surfboard and also looked around for any sign of Goose. Despite his reputation for being fearless, he was strangely getting anxious about being stuck out at sea. "Goose? Goose? Are you there?"

"Yes, I'm here!" Goose answered via the webcam. "I've got a boat. Can you see me?"

Brandon lifted his head and began to look around. "No. I can't even see the shore!" he said.

"Don't worry, Bear. I'll find you," Goose promised. "Your wetsuit has got flares, hasn't it?"

Brandon clapped a hand to his forehead. "Ding-dong-dang. Why didn't I think of that?" he asked himself. He reached round to pull out one of the red flare-sticks from the utility belt on his wetsuit. He then laid on his back and aimed it up at the sky before pushing the button and sending the red flare off into the sky.

Goose kept her eyes peeled, then they lit up when she caught sight of the flare off to the left. "I SEE IT!" she cried and pushed the boat's engine up to full power, turning the wheel sharply too in order to get there as fast as possible. "I'M ON MY WAY!" The boat raced forwards, riding the waves and leaping over them. It hadn't been built to run in these kinds of waves and each bump as it hit the water shook the hull. Goose ignored the unhealthy noises the engine was starting to make as she continued her search for Brandon. "Send up another one!" Brandon did so and Goose adjusted the course again. She could tell she was getting close now. "One more, and then I should be with you."

But this time, Brandon let out a groan. "Sorry, Goose. I only had two," he said. "I thought *crackle* I'd got *crackle* more."

Goose's heart skipped a beat when she saw the interference on the screen. "Brandon, I'm losing your signal!" she cried. "BRANDON?!"

Brandon didn't seem to have heard her. Goose's eyes then fell upon the boat's radio and the microphone. She thought about calling for help, but stopped herself, knowing that it would likely lead the authorities to them as well as the rescue crews. However, she then changed her mind, knowing that what she was doing was dangerous and shouldn't be done by amateurs. Despite Brandon not wanting to be rescued by the professionals, times like this meant that he wouldn't have a choice in the matter.

Goose turned on the radio and picked up the microphone. "I need the Harbor Patrol," she said.

Inside the Harbor Patrol Headquarters Building, several people were at computer screens, monitoring the storms and keeping their ears open for any distress calls. One of them heard a faint message over one of the radio frequencies and tried to get the caller's attention. "This is Harbor Patrol. What's your situation? Over?" He waited for a reply. But none came. "Hello? Is anyone there?"

Like for the Harbor Control Man, a message was faint over the radio set in the boat. "Hello?" Gabby said. "Can you hear me? Mayday!"

But this time there was no reply. The storm was interfering with the radio waves making communication virtually impossible. Goose threw the microphone down in frustration and set off again to continue looking for Brandon. But without the flares, finding him was like looking for a needle in a massively wet haystack.

Tracy Island was unusually quiet. Scott, Virgil, Alan, Kayo and Grandma were the only ones there. Jeff and Brains were out visiting Professor Moffat at the Supreme Hadron Collider in Switzerland and Gordon was on a date in London with Lady Penelope. John as usual was aboard Thunderbird 5 keeping to himself.

Scott and Virgil entered the lounge to find Alan had set up Virgil's easel and had placed a board with some paper on it. He appeared to be writing out a chart of some kind.

"What's this, little brother?" asked Scott. "Trying to remember your Times Tables?"

"Oh, very funny, Scott," retorted Alan. "Actually, I'm making a graph of our most rescued subjects."

The two eldest brothers came to have a look. On the left side of the graph were four names. Ned Tedford, Langstrom Fischler, Francois Lemaire and something that puzzled them.

"Who's Him?" asked Virgil.

"Him?" said Alan. "Well, you know? Him?"

Virgil and Scott looked at each other in confusion. "No, I don't think we do?" said Scott.

Alan sighed in frustration. "Aw, come on! You must know Him? The one whose name I cannot say!"

Still his eldest brothers looked confused. But then the penny dropped for Virgil. "Ohhhh, wait. You mean Bran-"

"SHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" hissed Alan hastily. "Don't say his name!"

"Brandon," Kayo said cheekily from where she was sitting at Jeff's desk.

Alan screeched and covered his eyes. "GODDAMN IT! KAYO!"

"CUT OUT THE SHOUTING!" Grandma's voice bellowed from the kitchen.

Kayo wasn't bothered. She smirked smugly.

"Why did you have to say it?" Alan asked, almost disparagingly.

"Because I could," Kayo answered. "You really need to let what happened go, Alan."

"But I CAN'T!" Alan protested. "I wanted nothing more at the time than to feature in one of his vlogs. And yet when my chance came, he blocked me out with that stupid laughing bear icon of his!"

"Yeah, and look how well that turned out for him," remarked Scott. "Didn't he lose a large number of his followers because of that?"

"He sure did," said Kayo. "Serves him right, if you ask me."

"Yeah," agreed Virgil. "Bringing him back to the island after we rescued him the first time was a bit of a mistake on our part."

"You mean your part," Scott said.

Virgil spluttered indignantly. "What do you mean by that?" he demanded.

"Well, it was your idea," Kayo reminded him.

Virgil thought for a moment. "Oh, yeah…it was," he said, clapping his hand to his head. "Silly me."

Grandma then walked in with a tray of morning coffee. "You have to remember that like Alan, Brandon is a youth with many ideas," she said, ignoring Alan's flinch at the sound of his name. "And when people's egos get too big, they slip up and then pay the price. That's exactly what he did when he was mean to Alan."

Scott sipped his coffee. "I don't think we've heard anything from him since the fallout took place," he said. "I wonder what he does these days?"

"Who honestly gives a f-" Alan hastily stopped himself as he remembered swearing wasn't allowed in this family - at least not around his Dad and Grandma anyway. "Sorry," he said.

"He's still active," Kayo said. "I'm looking at his YouTube page right now. He's still making vlogs and doing some stunts. But I can tell he's not got the following he once had." She then looked at a page on Brandon's account. "Interesting," she said. "His latest update says he'll be surfing in Hawaii."

Alan tensed up. "What?! Why is he there?"

"Alan, you don't control his life," Grandma said sternly. "He has freedom to go where he wants and to do whatever he wants. Within reason, obviously."

"Yeah, I know, but," Alan was trying to find the right words. "Sorry, it's just he's a lot closer to where we are than I feel comfortable with."

"Alan, relax," Virgil said. "So long as he keeps himself out of trouble, he won't be a problem for us."

"Hmmm," Kayo said. "He'd better be safe. Look at the weather for the Hawaiian Islands." She threw the hologram to the central table for the others to see.

"Wow. Big storm!" remarked Scott. "High-velocity winds. Heavy swells. Sheesh. Yes, he'd better not be trying to surf in that."

"But he is dumb enough to do so," Virgil replied.

Just then they heard a familiar beeping sound. They all looked to John's portrait and saw that the eyes were flashing.

"If this is about Brandon, I'm staying here," Alan said.

"Hey, you said his name," Kayo observed.

"GAAARGH!" cried Alan in fury.

John's hologram appeared from the portrait. "International Rescue - we have a situation."

"Go ahead, Thunderbird 5," said Scott. "Hawaii?"

"Hawaii?" repeated John. "No, Scott. Distress call from Northern India. A Hot-Air Balloon has been blown off its course and the controls aren't responding. Its occupants are in great danger of being smashed into some mountains unless they are caught in time."

"Sounds like a job for Thunderbird 1?" Virgil said.

Scott stood up. "Okay then. Solo mission for me," he said as he headed for the revolving wall panel. "See you in the sky!" He pulled down the lamps and the wall panel turned him around where he disappeared from view.

John turned back to the others. "Why did he ask about Hawaii?" he asked.

"Probably because we were discussing an old friend of ours, John," said Kayo.

"He is NOT A FRIEND?!" shouted Alan.

"VOICE!" Grandma snapped, silencing Alan.

"Figure of speech, Alan," Kayo said. "I just learned that Brandon Berrenger posted that he was to go surfing in the Hawaiian Islands."

John checked the hologram map of the world. "Well, there's one heck of a storm raging around there," he said. "You don't think he could be out there in that, do you?"

"We're hoping not, John," Kayo said. "But this is Brandon we're talking about."

Alan had his hands pressed over his ears. "Please…stop…saying…his name…" he hissed quietly.

"I see," said John. "Let's have a look." He scanned the radio frequencies. "Nothing that I can see," he said. "A fair few rescues do seem to be going on though. I'm detecting some rescue ships and a couple of helicopters are moving about. Well if Brandon is one of them, let's hope that the Coastguard will pick him up."

"Agreed," said Kayo. "I know how touchy some of us can get when his name is mentioned."

Everyone looked over at Alan who turned away and huffed grumpily.

A rumbling announced that the swimming pool was opening up. Kayo, Grandma, Alan and Virgil turned to watch as Thunderbird 1 then rose up from the launch bay underneath and climbed rapidly into the sky.

"Thunderbird 1 is GO!" Scott called over the radio.

The rain fell harder, the wind blew stronger, and the waves were getting a lot bigger as Goose continued her frantic search for Brandon. She was trying desperately to make radio contact with the Harbor Patrol again but wasn't having much luck. One giant wave splashed over the boat, almost filling it with water and nearly washed Goose overboard. She shivered but tried her best to ignore how unpleasant it all was. She grabbed the microphone again. "I repeat, this is Gabriel Gosling. I'm about three miles offshore searching for my boyfriend Brandon Berrenger."

To her relief, a voice responded. It was crackly, but still just about audible. "Gabrielle Gosling - confirm position…"

But then another smaller wave splashed over the console and caused the radio to short out. Sparks flew and Goose had to jump out the way as it began to catch fire. She almost panicked, but then she saw a small red fire-extinguisher which she quickly grabbed and used to put out the fire. "Damn it!" she cursed.

Then Brandon's voice was heard over the laptop. He sounded tired. "Goose? I've just found another flare. My board has some built into it. Going to try and set it off. Look for it."

"Okay, I'm ready," Goose said and began to scan the area for the flare. A flash of lightning caught her attention and startled her, but in doing so it meant she was looking in the right direction to catch the red glow of Brandon's emergency flare shooting into the sky and exploding. "You're close!" she said to Brandon. "Here I come!" She pushed the boat's throttle back up to maximum and it raced forwards, battling against the powerful waves but continuing to soldier on. Just then she heard a gargled cry over the laptop. She turned and saw that water had covered the camera on the board. Then when it cleared she cried out in horror because Brandon was no longer on it. "No!" she cried. "Brandon? BRANDON?!"