'Allo! Thanks, Bow Echo, Susan, and Thunderbird Shadow, for reviewing. :)

34

Dropping like a powered, bright yellow rock, along with the draining Pacific-

Those last fifty feet used up over half his remaining fuel, because Thunderbird 4 wasn't meant to land on her tail like a rocket. Not in a frickin' tidal wave, anyhow. Maybe no one else on the planet could have managed that white-knuckle, half-controlled fall… but Gordon Tracy knew his Bird and his element, and he had every reason to survive, sitting right there on his lap, holding tight to his yellow sash.

Came down… kid you not… maybe an arm's length away from a snapped and crumbling building. Debris was everywhere: chunks of cement, long shards of glass and corroded steel, plus office furniture and a matted tangle of snapping plants rained down around him, each blow draining 4's shields even further.

Gordon persevered, piloting his way through a maelstrom of water and junk. No clear view of what lay below until, BLOOSH! and then WHUMP! as 4 struck the surface, plunged in, and then flopped horizontal, once more. Thundering water, bubbles and crashing debris drove the sub downward, into the midst of a flooded and turbulent plaza. His lights scarcely penetrated that cyclonic murk, which looked like Titan or southern California, on a very bad day. But, they'd made it. They were going to be…

Teeth. No, jaws. Gaping wide and moving fast, right at the struggling IR submarine. Size of a city tour bus, had to be. Charlie was panting hard, two seconds from screaming aloud, but Gordon had no time to comfort his son. Just hit 4's harpoon cannon, firing the barbed, steel-alloy weapon straight into that cavern-sized maw.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Higher up, meanwhile-

There was an old, pre-conflict saying: it never rains, but it pours. Not sure they'd had a bucketing ocean in mind whenever they mentioned it, though. John had barely collected those med-stuffs… had just got himself fixed to set out…. When the sky unzipped once again, gushing water with a roar like Last Day, Armageddon and Ragnarok rolled up together in one gotcha package.

Not directly on top of the sweeper (thank whoever's task was keeping one battered astronaut alive and functional). Off to one side. The resultant pressure wave sent his rust-bucket refuge reeling and tumbling through the night sky. Inside, alarms blatted and croaked. Stressed hull plates screeched a metallic whale-song. Faded warning lights sputtered feebly, as something big and yellow fell past. Looked almost like... Nah. Couldn't be.

John would have got tossed like dice in a cup, but he had his exopod. Was a tough guy to disorient, too; used to all sorts of weird angles and sudden changes in motion. Managed to keep himself upright and stable… hung onto that salvaged med-gear, even… as the sweeper cartwheeled around him. He could sense the computer's distress and confusion. It did not understand what was happening, and that thought went straight to John's heart. Okay, see, he'd promised, right? So, the astronaut zipped across to the sweeper's instrument panel, meaning to help get it righted and de-fragged. Used his sash data-port to forge a link and jack in, only to get a very perplexing surprise.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Thunderbird Shadow, stooping shrill and swift as a hawk-

She'd had some sort of contact from Scott. Kayo was willing to swear to it. Maybe because she'd been thinking so intensely about him… or because that brush with Nikorr Kyrano had prodded her growing "powers". Possibly owing to sheer emotion, or the sudden release of tears, once wrapped up in Wayne Rigby's arms. (Tougher than it sounded, in a two-seater, fore-and-aft cockpit.)

Now, her face wet, cheek yet tingling from the brush of his scratchy square jaw, Tanusha flew like she'd been let out of hell on a three-day pass; fast, direct and straight to the point.

Captain Rigby 'd barely had time to return to his seat and strap in, before Kayo went hunting. That contact, brief as a whispered prayer, led her straight down to Japan. Specifically, to Kyoto's massive, ornate Nijo Castle, site of an ancient capital. Reconstructed since the conflicts, the palace rose many stories into the late morning sky; girdled by towers and parklands. A monument, not a center of power.

Kayo didn't question the source of her information; how Scott had been able to reach her, how she'd known right where to go… but Nijo Castle could be thought of as a fortress, right? Maybe that's what Rigby's security bot had been trying to tell them?

At any rate, Thunderbird Shadow plunged from the sky in partial-cloak. Invisible to the eye, though radar would pick her up, if anyone happened to look. Kayo brought her Bird down to just above roof level, scanning for robots or guards before she committed herself. Saw nothing but wildlife… strange, for a major Japanese city. No humans or mechs, at all. Then,

"Holy smoke, would you look at that," muttered Rigby, staring through Shadow's canopy at a pagoda roof teeming with silent birds. Most of them dark, one or two golden as sunlight. Kayo chuckled.

"What?" Wayne demanded, all at once very self-conscious.

"Nothing," she told him, reaching around to brush his face with a trailing, gloved hand. "You're… really different, is all. It's kind of sweet."

Those watchful birds weren't doing any harm that she could see, and as far as her psionic skills, Kayo was busily reaching for Scott. Wouldn't have known a bird's mind from a caterpillar or background E-M ripple. Every creature, every being was different. They had got to be learnt, like a language. At any rate, Scott was here. He had been, at least. Kayo could feel nothing, now, but perhaps they'd moved him again, leaving clues she could pick up and track.

Turning to Rigby, Kay put her helmet back on, saying,

"Give me five minutes, then follow. Be ready for anything. We're dealing with criminals, kidnappers, and the gloves are off, no matter what Scott told you in practice."

Rigby's blond eyebrows drew together in a tense, nodding frown.

"So, more Marine, less lawyer?" he hazarded.

"Exactly," Kayo agreed, popping Shadow's canopy. "A lot more Marine."

Wind… fresh, cool and scented with pine… came swirling inside, as Kayo unstrapped and got up. Shadow's left wing was just over the castle's graceful, tiled and curving roof. No problem at all.

"Luck," Wayne told her. "I'll be right behind, with a Marine's primary weapon."

Having been raised with five rowdy brothers, Kayo braced for the sure-to-come joke, but Wayne only smiled and said,

"His brain. Whatever happens, I'm coming in after you, Kitty. You won't be alone."

Kitty? Her room still abounded in stuffed, blank-eyed Japanese cats, and she had a tattoo, even, but… Nickname. He'd nicknamed her. Maybe that meant something good?

"Mind on the mission, Captain," she rebuked him, though not very fiercely. "We're here to find and rescue my brother."

Only, that wasn't quite how matters worked out.