"Gordon!" Scott's yell was echoed by John
Virgil didn't think, he just moved.
Two was banking before he was even fully in his pilot's seat, her massive thrusters firing to accelerate her down and around the listing platform.
"For Christ's sake, hold still, you idiot."
It was said under his breath, but Gordon's voice carried over comms like a wave of reassurance. As Two darted under the platform, Virgil was both relieved and horrified to find the rescuee dangling from a hastily deployed grapple line.
Gordon was clinging to mangled superstructure not far below the hole he had leapt through. "Uh, hey, Virg. Need a little hand."
Further up, Scott was peering through the hole in the tarmac.
An exhalation. "FAB, Gordon."
Mental calculations and Virgil managed to squeeze Two up and under the victim. The collapsed runway was far too close for comfort, but he managed it with an inch or so to spare.
Rising out of Two's top hatch, he was greeted with a wriggling wreck of a man. "About time."
Virgil bit back his response. "Please hold still, sir."
"Finally, I can get off this boat."
Virgil felt no guilt at his urge to want to slap him. Gordon's grapple, as always, had been right on target, snagging the victim's belt in its claw. The guy obviously had no idea how close he had come to dying…or the danger to Gordon.
If he cared at all.
The fact that there were at least three holocams buzzing around filming them was, oddly, a little reassuring. Perhaps Jack could press charges.
As Virgil took the man's weight and released the grapple, the groan of pain from Gordon over comms only emphasized what the man had done.
Virgil bit his lip until it hurt.
Definitely pressing charges.
He held the man until his feet touched the hatch plates and made sure he could take his own weight before lowering them into the cockpit.
He fingered his comms. "Scott, are you able to reach Gordon? I can try, but its tight up there. Two will not be able to get close enough without further structural damage." Not that he would let that stop him, but the platform was unstable and a thousand lives were still dependent on it.
"FAB, Thunderbird Two. I have him secured with a grapple line. Gordon, status?"
Their aquanaut brother grunted, but Virgil lost the rest of his answer as the rescuee started protesting that he was fine and no, he didn't need to lie down and could he sit in the co-pilot's seat?
Virgil's abrupt 'No!' apparently wasn't enough to shut him up.
Virgil did not have time for this.
Deploying the seat furthest from the dash, he strapped the man into it.
"Hey, I want to sit up front."
"You will sit here." And shut up.
"Do you know who I am?"
An idiot? "I don't care."
Virgil turned his back on him and did his best to ignore the man's protests as he realised that, no, he couldn't undo his seatbelt.
There was no way Virgil was going to have this moron free to wander around his ship.
"Thunderbird Four? Status?"
Instead of Gordon, Scott answered. "Pulling him up now, Thunderbird Two. Gordon is secure."
Oh, thank god.
Virgil couldn't help peering up out of the windows and checking for himself. Far above, Scott could be seen hauling Gordon up with his own grapple gun.
Virgil needed to be topside now.
Two responded to his touch as she always did, smoothly and immediately, the great ship banking away from the structure in a controlled fall. He fired her thrusters launching her up and around the massive platform just in time to see Gordon emerge from the hole in the tarmac.
"Medical report, Gordon." He had to know.
Again, Scott cut in before Gordon could answer. "Possible sprained wrist, definitely some issue with his right arm. Some bleeding. For goodness sake, Gordon stand still!"
"I'm fine, Scott, we have more important things to do."
"I'm aware of the situation, Gordon. I want you evacuated to Two."
Hissed over comms. "Forget it, Scott, I'm not leaving you down here with this mob of idiots by yourself."
"Gordon!"
Virgil sighed and switched Two into a secure hover. "Thunderbird Five, you have Two, monitor and secure, please."
"FAB, Thunderbird Two."
"Have Eos keep an eye on the two patients in the medbay and advise immediately of any change."
"Monitoring already. Internal cockpit cams active. Eyes active."
Virgil's lips twitched as he stood up from his seat. John knew exactly what he was talking about. Leaving Idiot alone on his 'bird was not ideal, but he couldn't actually throw the man back into the danger zone.
Grabbing a medkit, Virgil strode back to the hatch and lowered himself down enough to catch a descent line and secure it to his harness.
"What? Where are you going?"
"I'll be back shortly, sir. No need to worry, you are in safe hands."
"Hands? Whose hands?"
Virgil didn't answer before he leapt off the hatch and began his descent down to the platform.
Gordon and Scott were sharing a few stubborn words as Virgil strode across the tarmac. There were still people milling about. He caught sight of Penelope's father desperately trying to talk several suited individuals into returning to the pods.
It was enough to frustrate even Virgil's patience.
He was almost to his brothers when the first words were thrown his way.
"That's the one who killed all those people in New York!" That same woman's voice from earlier. Virgil forced himself not to look, focussing instead on his brothers. The crowd began muttering. His name was mentioned several times.
The moment he reached Gordon, Scott handed him over and returned to attempting to handle the crowd.
That didn't want to be handled.
"Hey, Gords. What have you done to yourself?" A visual inspection revealed a limp arm being held by a tight hand indicating pain. Several tears in his uniform and a glare with enough energy to ignite the air around it.
Worst of all, Gordon was strangely quiet, eyeing the crowd.
Scott again urged everyone to return to the pods. As if to emphasize his request, the wind suddenly picked up and the whole platform shuddered.
John, ever the eagle eye, immediately tagged them on comms. "You might want to hurry up that evac, guys. The weather is stable for the moment, but the forecast for the evening is the arrival of a front. There will be turbulence ahead of the change."
Virgil was aware of that and had factored it into his calculations when deploying the airjacks.
Didn't make them impervious to the jostling. "FAB, Thunderbird Five." He turned to Gordon. "I want you up on Two. Now."
Gordon's eyes were still on the crowd and their muttered complaints. Scott was deploying full commander mode and several had backed away, heading towards the stadium, but a core group were either begging to be taken aboard a Thunderbird, glaring at Virgil…or yelling accusations at him.
Gordon pushed past his brother and strode towards the crowd.
"Gordon!"
"Who the fuck do you think you are?!" Gordon's comms were on loudspeaker and his voice hushed the crowd immediately.
Almost.
One angry man in a GDF uniform stepped forward. "I'm your superior, lieutenant, and I demand-"
"You demand? You have no right to demand anything!"
Virgil reached for his brother, but his hand was shaken off. Scott spun and narrowed in on the both of them, worry the foremost in his expression.
But Gordon ignored it.
"My brothers have done nothing but try to help you, to save you, THAT is what we do. But you assholes won't listen!" Gordon took a step forward, the hand on his arm white knuckled.
"If you don't return to your pods now, you are going to die! Is that simplistic enough for you? My brothers will, no doubt, try their best, risk their lives, trying to save yours, but they are not fucking miracle workers. You will DIE, if YOU DON'T MOVE YOUR ASSES!"
That got several people moving.
But not all.
"Gordon!" Scott's voice was more worried elder brother than commander.
That earned him a scathing look. "No, Scott, I've had it! Did you hear what they are saying about Virgil? They called him a murderer!" His anger turned back to the crowd. "You have no fucking idea who you are talking about. Virgil is the kindest of us, the gentlest, he can't hurt a damned fly and you accuse him of purposefully killing all those people. He tried to save them." His brother's shoulders wilted. "He tried so hard."
"They still died." It came from that same world councillor who wanted his own private Thunderbird ride.
Gordon staggered up to the man and Virgil hurried to follow. The tarmac shook again. "Gordon, we need to get these people off the platform."
His brother ignored him and instead pushed into the councillor's personal space. "Yes, they did. But you don't care, do you? You have your own fucking agenda. It's not about lives, is it? It's about money. It's about power." A rough indrawn breath as the man took a step back. "Well, newsflash, asshole, we don't care! We have the power, we have the money, and we don't care. My brothers only want to help. Every life is important, even your mediocre and pathetic one. Now, move your ass AND RETURN TO YOUR POD SO WE CAN SAVE YOUR FUCKING LIFE!"
Gordon staggered with the force of his yell and Virgil was moving. He grabbed at his little brother just as the aquanaut's body suddenly folded.
Virgil caught him before he could hit the tarmac.
What the hell?! "Gordon!"
Voice whisper weak. "Virg."
He held his brother in his arms while fumbling for the med scanner. "Gords, what the hell are you doing?"
Beneath plexiglass reflecting the sky above, carnelian flickered up at him. Gordon blinked slowly. "They hurt you…" His eyes closed and didn't open again.
-o-o-o-