Disclaimer: I do not own the Thunderbirds, the Tracys, any of it. I only own the story line.
It was 8:47 the next morning when Alan got up, he would have slept in but he was hungry. He walked around the corner into the kitchen to see Gordon sitting at the table and fidgeting with his dive mask. "Hey," Gordon stated as Alan opened the fridge and pulled out the milk.
"Hey, why are you up so early?"
Gordon yawned, "actually I never went to bed, well never really went to bed. I was up waiting for Virgil and fell asleep on the couch. The John phoned with a rescue of a scientist of a collapsing rig late last night. I must have missed him come in after I crashed on the couch."
"Wait," Alan said at those last few words, "you went on a rescue, but Virgil had your ship, did you take Thunderbird 3?" Alan's lip curved up in curiosity as if he was going to tackle his brother for taking his ship.
"Hmmmm," Gordon replied, "maybe…." A grin plastered on his face ear to ear.
Alan put his glass down and started a light run to the docking bay, "if you put a dent on my baby I'm going to kick your ass!" Gordon just sat there chuckling. "Hey Gordy," Alan said as he rounded the corner, "Virgil still isn't here, it's not like he can still be out his fuel would have run out by now right?"
Gordon's eyes widened in confusion, "wait what?" He got up from his chair and went down the the control console in the living room. Scott was just coming down the stairs to see his two youngest brothers frantically type at the keyboards.
"Hey guys what's going on?" Scott asked as he stretched.
"Virgil didn't come back last night," Gordon stated.
"He didn't? Well where is he?"
"I don't know his locator isn't working. Tracy Island to Thunderbird Two, Thunderbird Two come in. Virgil? Virgil!" Gordon yelled into the comm set. Although instead of the middle brother coming onto the screen, Johns figure filled the empty space above the table.
"Hey guys, what's with the yelling?"
"It's Virgil. John, he didn't come home last night," Scott stated.
"That's weird. I've got his last known location here, do you guys want to suit up and go check it out?"
"Sure thing John, Alan and I will go check it out, Gordon…" Scott nudges awake the drifting Gordon, "Gordon, you'll stay here and wait for Virgil if his comes back."
"FAB Scott."
"Alan, we'll take Thunderbird Three, Thunderbirds are go!" As Scott and Alan disappeared into the floor, John transmits the coordinates of Virgil's last known location to TB3. After loading into the bird Alan acknowledges the coordinates and sets a course for their lost brother.
"Arriving at the coordinates…. No!" Alan cries out, Scott abruptly looks up from his wrist display and spots Thunderbird Two, crushed on the sea bank. "Virgil," Alan sounded weak, defeated.
"Alan, you have to focus for one minute, you need to land, we need to see if he's ok? Alan?" Alan was in awe. He had just lost his dad, the thought of losing, his brother just made him froze, but he did as he was told. After landing his Thunderbird Alan lept out of his seat, Scott close behind him. Although once they had gotten to the ship, Scott thought it best to include the others. He radioed John and Gordon because if anything had happened, they deserved to know.
"No…" John said weakly, "that can't be his ship, it just can't be."
Alan had froze in the entryway of the ship. "Scott, I can't, if he's not ok, I just, I can't." When Alan turned to Scott his eyes were misty. Alan began to blink rapidly trying not to cry, but to no avail. With the crushed ship in front of him, no communication from Virgil in 12 hours, things were not looking up.
Scott placed a hand on Alan's shoulder. "Do you not want to come in," he asked. Alan stood there, on one hand he wanted to know, but on the other hand, if he was half as bad as his ship, Virgil could potentially never be the same. After pondering for a minute Alan said he wanted to go in, in case Virgil needed him. In case Scott needed him. Although the "older brother role" fell on Scott to always put on a brave face, Alan was growing up, he wanted to help Scott. Even if that meant facing something unimaginable.
Scott made his way to an entry point, and right now on Virgil's ship there were many of them. He steadily put his hand along the ragged green edge of the ship and carefully crossed the terrain of broken ships parts inside. Alan not far behind him did the same. Water had covered the floor, it must have come in through the windows when Thunderbird Two crashed.
"Wow, it's, it's totaled." Alan stated, "Virgil will need a whole new ship." Scott looked back at Alan and grinned, he liked how Alan was focusing more on a brighter future than one potentially without… anyway. "Here, the control console is over here i think, it's really hard to tell."
Scott spotted the pilot seat and his pace quickened, "Virg? Virgil, are you ok?" As Scott arrived at the seat he spun it slightly making sure not to shift things to badly in case Virgil was badly hurt. "Vir…" Scott trailed off.
"He's not there."
"What?" Gordon was trying to comprehend that last statement. "What do you mean he's not there?"
"John," Scott started, "can you do a thermal scan of the ship? Is Virgil here?"
"Hold on, thermal scans indicate that you two are the only ones on board, but there is a faint heat trail leading to the entrance you just came through.
"But John, that door is not supposed to be there, I mean it's clean cut like a door, but last I checked there was no hatch or anything." Scott stated.
"Do you think someone could have cut the haul to get in? Or maybe Virgil cut it to get out! He's got the proper tools, he could have!" Alan piped up excitedly.
"Let's not get our hopes up yet, even if he did, we still don't know where he is or what condition he's in." Scott said, trying not to put all hope in Alan's theories.
"So either way, where is Virgil?"
A bright light was awaiting Virgil when he woke up. He groaned and grimaced at the amount of pain he was in. Every time he tried to move felt like he was pinned down and unable to move any part of his body. There was a pounding on his head. Probably from the concussion. The room was dark no windows, so Virgil couldn't even tell if it was daytime.
It was musky in the room, damp almost. Vigil assumed it was because the last thing he remembered was crashing on the shoreline, so it was probably from the humidity. As his eyes adjusted Virgil could make out that there were some objects in the room, he just couldn't tell what they were. The only noise was the droning hum of machinery far in the background.
"Mr. Tracy, what a wonderful surprise." An older, husky, British voice said. Virgil had jumped in the sudden noise. He tried to sit up bt realised it wasn't hard to move because of his injuries, but because Virgil was strapped to a table. In sudden shock he began to struggle, but unbeknownst to Virgil, regardless of his injuries, Virgil could not escape without a plan. So struggling right now would be pointless. Virgil calmly set his head back down on to what he realized was a metal table. A cold, flat, metal table.
"Aw. How, cute. Well I guess it's not that much of a surprise to me that you're here, since I brought you here. Ah, but I guess you can't tell who I am, not in all the, darkness. Here, let me put on a light."