April 13th, 2060 - 06:35 NZST
"System check complete, all lights show green," Virgil says as he prepares for launch.
5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Thunderbirds are Go!
"Thunderbird 2 is go," Virgil says as he flies away from the island in a north-west direction.
April 13th, 2060 - 06:52 NZST
"Thunderbird Two to base. I'm cruising at 40,000 feet, en route to London." Virgil says.
"FAB, have a great trip." Gordon says, "How's your precious cargo?"
"Well, we're a bit behind schedule so I'd have to say... pretty volatile," Virgil says looking at Grandma Tracy with a worried look.
"Can this thing go any faster?" Sally asks, clearly annoyed.
"Your wish is my command," Virgil says as he pulls on the throttle and speeds up towards Thunderbird 2's maximum speed of 5,000mph leaving Sally smiling.
"This... is... more... like... it!" Sally says from the intense speed.
April 12th, 2060 - 20:47 BST
"We got a late start, but we're nearly there, Lady Penelope," Virgil explains to Penelope over the coms, "Making our final approach into London now."
"That's good to hear, Virgil," Penelope says, "Unfortunately, we are a bit behind schedule ourselves-" she the gets cut off by Parker who beeps FAB1's horn in annoyance.
"Parker, is that really necessary?" Penelope asks.
"Sorry, milady. London Traffic," Parker complains, "Believe me, it took all the restraint I had to press the button for the horn instead of the one for the flame-throwers."
"We'll meet you, Grandma Tracy at the tea room," Penelope sighs before ending the communication.
"FAB," Virgil says.
"I've got my map, compass and my guide book. I'm all set," Sally says, making sure that she had everything on her.
"Why do you bother carrying that stuff? My wrist controller has got all of that on it and more," Virgil says.
"I'm not about to change just because Brains makes some new-fangled device," Sally says with a smile.
"Sometimes new things are better, Grandma," Virgil says, "You have to have more faith in technology." However, as soon as Virgil finishes his sentence Thunderbird Two suddenly loses all power.
"Did you forget to plug it in last night?" Sally asks.
"It's a full system shutdown," Virgil explains as he checks out for the source as to why this has occurred so unexpectantly. "Thunderbird 2 has lost all power," he says confused and looks up, "Look!"
"I don't see anything," Sally says.
"Exactly! It's not just Thunderbird 2. All the power in London is out. It's completely dark down there. We're dropping fast. I'm gonna have to put us down now. Hold on for Emergency landing," Virgil explains.
5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Thunderbirds are Go!
Virgil does his best to find a suitable street that could be long enough for Thunderbird 2 to crash land on, however, it being London this was quite hard to find. Up ahead, he saw Whitehall, the street that ran from Nelson's Column to Westminster and prepared for touchdown.
"Hang on," he says as he struggles to keep Thunderbird 2 stable to land, which causes Thunderbird 2 to spin out of control at landing, before coming to a stop inches from Parliament Square. Luckily, he didn't hit anything.
"Oh boy," Sally says.
"I can't believe I actually pulled that off," Virgil says.
"Good job," Sally says.
"And without a mark on Thunderbird 2," Virgil replies smugly before a bird decides to shit on the front window.
"Well, almost without a mark," Sally chuckles.
They decide to get out of Thunderbird 2 and take a look around. It was eerily quite, something that never happens on the streets of London.
"It's gotta be some kind of sustained EMF," Virgil evaluates, "An electromagnetic frequency knocking out all electrical power in the city...and over it."
"You got the last part right. Look!" Sally exclaims causing Virgil to look over to see a construction worker woman trapped in a crane.
"I've got the best rescue equipment in the world with me and I can't even use it," Virgil sighs.
"Maybe you put too much faith in technology, kid," Sally says, "It's not the gear in there that rescues people. It's the Tracy. Now get climbing." Virgil looks at his Grandma with a smile and with a pat on the back makes his way over to the base of the crane to start climbing.
It takes a while to climb up and get to were the worker was located, seeing as the crane stood hundreds of meters above the ground.
"International Rescue calling," Virgil says as he knocks on the window to get the girls attention.
"International Rescue? B-But why didn't you come in a Thunderbird?" the girl asks.
"It's out of juice along with all my gear and the whole city," Virgil explains, "But don't worry, I'm getting you out of here." He tries the door and when it doesn't work, he looks back defeated. "Or not. Let me guess, the door is electronically controlled?" he asks.
"The door shorted out when the power failed," the girl says. The crane's legs begin to buckle, which causes the whole structure to shake violently. Virgil then realises that the crane is holding a heavy load that would be destabilizing the structure quicker that it had to be.
"Whoa," Virgil cries and he makes sure he doesn't fall down.
"Virgil, hold on!" Sally shouts from the street.
"I'm trying," Virgil responds and focuses on the worker again, "Can you release the load?"
"Not without the power. But it can be done manually. But that would mean climbing all the way out and then down to the coupling that's connecting the load to the cable," she says.
"Awe. Got it. Want me to pick you up anything while I'm out?" Virgil asks, and the girl laughs nervously watching him as he starts heading towards the load, almost falling off several times.
Virgil sighs as he looks across, "No power suit, no pods... I don't know if I can do this."
"You can do it, kid!" Sally yells.
"Well, I guess that answers that," Virgil smiles before he heads down to the coupling, "Should be a snap to uncouple with my ION wrench," he pauses, "If it were working." Virgil looks down to Sally to see if she had any more advice; "If you've got anymore words of wisdom, I could use some!" How am I supposed to open the coupling when my tools aren't working?"
"I don't know!" Sally responds, "Try giving it a good old-fashioned whack?"
"Oh, yeah, that'll work," Virgil says, "Look out below!" He starts whacking at the coupling and Sally makes sure that she was well clear as Virgil starts to whack. He sighs as the load is dropped and crashes down onto the street. However, before Virgil could breath a sigh of relief the crane starts to tip. "All the stress on the crane's legs has cause them to buckle! They're gonna snap!" Virgil calls, "The crane is going to topple. With me on it."
"Virgil! You gotta get off of there!" Sally says as Virgil struggles.
"Yeah, I think that's probably a good idea," Virgil says. The crane begins to fall, and Virgil manages to grab onto the other crane's hook while the one with the worker topples over. Virgil then safely lowers himself down to the worker. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, but I'm still stuck!" the girl replies.
"Hang in there. I'll find a way to get you down," Virgil says and gets back on the street, making his way over to his Grandma. "People in 2060 aren't equipped for life without electricity," Virgil complains, "There's life support going down in hospitals, traffic jams everywhere, food spoiling and I can't stop any of it!"
"Okay, so then lets get the power back," Sally says.
"That's the challenge, but between coms and cameras, I've always had access to my brothers and any expert or piece of data I needed. I've never had to tackle something like this without any help," Virgil says, and Sally raises an eyebrow, "No offense."
"And I may be a little older than your brothers, but I'm still a Tracy," Sally says, "Where do we start?"
"Okay, well first we need to find out what did this," Virgil says.
"I may have found a clue," Sally says and leads them over to a paper poster on a nearby building.
"I don't believe it," she sighs, "This is actually real, old fashioned paper."
"But more to the point is what's printed on it," Virgil says, "We the Luddites demand a world without technology. A world without power. We will return to the better ways of the past."
"This is better?" Sally asks as she looks around.
"Okay, so, we know that these Luddites are doing this. Now we need to find out where they've stashed their EMF generator," Virgil says, "But without any of my gear working..."
"You've still got the greatest technology ever created," Sally says, "Your brain. Use it, think!"
"Well, the source of the EMF would be in the centre of the city that would give it the greatest area of effect. But finding the dead centre of London is going to be a challenge without a GPS," Virgil states.
"How about we try these?" Sally asks, as she gets out her map and compass. Virgil takes the map from her and scans it over.
"That's weird, the compass isn't pointing north," Sally says as she shakes it, "Never had any problem with it and a compass doesn't need power so it can't be that OMG, can it?"
"EMF," Virgil tells her, "Which stands for electromagnetic frequency. Magnets affects compasses! Which means..." Virgil trails off looking at Sally.
"If you're waiting for me to answer, Virgil, you're going to be standing there grinning for a while," Sally says.
"It means... we can follow the compass to the EMF," Virgil explains.
April 12th, 2060 - 21:33 BST
"It's working! The compass is leading us right to—" Virgil pauses.
"A dead end?" Grandma Tracy asks.
"On the surface maybe. I'll bet whatever if causing the EMF is somewhere under here," Virgil states as hescrapes at the ground with his foot, "Oh, without a laser or a particleexcavator, it's gonna take a while to dig our way underground."
"Ahem, Virgil?" Sally says, causing Virgil to turn around and seeing the entrance to Piccadilly Circus Underground Station.
"Or we can just use the Underground," Virgil says as they walk into the underground tunnel.
"That's using your head," Sally says while Virgil cracks a glowstick light.
"Voila! Thunderbirds are glow!" Virgil says.
"How did you do that?" Sally asks.
"I changed Go to glow?" Virgil says.
"No, not that, that." Sally says as she grabs the glowstick from Virgil, "I thought the EKG was shutting off all the power?"
"EMF," Virgil says, "And actually, it shut down all electrical power. The light sticks in my tool belt work on a chemical reaction." He pauses as his stomach growls, "Like the one going on in my stomach."
" I think I brought one of my cookies," Sally says, reaching into her pocket.
"Oh, no, er... t-that's ok. I'm not, you know, actually that hungry," Virgil quickly says and decides to change the subject, taking the light stick back, "Will you look at this place? It's like we've gone back in time, you know, to the dark ages, right?"
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it," Sally says, "This happens to be the oldest operating underground system in the world. Says so right here on my map."
"We'd be sunk if you hadn't brought all this old stuff," Virgil says.
"Just because something is old doesn't mean it can't be useful," Sally says, "That compass is just about as old as I am. It belonged to your grandpa."
"Really?" Virgil asks.
"His compass was often the most high-tech piece of equipment he had," Sally explains, "Grandpa Tracy always got the job done. Not because his gear was the newest, but because of old fashion things like heroism, determination, and knowing the right thing to do. I was going to give it to your father, but I never got the chance—" Virgil grabs Sally quickly into hiding and they watch as some of the Luddites walk by.
"Ssh. Those must be, Luddites, which means we're on the right path," Virgil says trying to stay quiet. However, not all is silent as Virgil's stomach starts to rumble again.
"What was that?" a guy asks.
"Probably just a rat," another guy says, "Come on."
"Okay, let's go," Virgil whispers after the guys are gone and heads after them with Sally not far behind. They are lead into a big room where a EMF generator hangs from the ceiling.
"That's got to be the EMF generator. Now all we have to do is offline it's amp impedance output and we should be home free," Virgil says.
"I have no idea on earth, or under it, what you just said. But I think I see a problem with your plan," Sally says.
"What?" Virgil asks.
"Them," Sally says as she points over to the Luddites.
April 12th, 2060 - 22:02 BST
The pair come up with a plan and Virgil gulps as he looks at Sally.
"Are you ready?" Sally asks.
"Nope," Virgil replies.
"Oh, come on. What are you worried about?" Sally asks.
"All those Luddites for one thing," Virgil says.
"I'm worried about all the people up there in trouble. They don't have time for us to just sit here twiddling our thumbs. So, you ready?" Sally asks.
"Hmm," Virgil says with a shrug.
"Then as you boys like to say... Thunderbirds Are Go," Sally says and walks off to go to distract the Luddites.
"Oi, who's there?" a Luddite asks.
"Hello, er... can anyone point me to Piccadilly Circus? I'd like to see the elephants," Sally says in a high pitched voice.
"It's not that kind of circus, is it?" another asks.
"Of course not, she's no sightseer. Hey!" the first one yells as Sally starts up the stairs, "Stay whereyou are! Don't let her get away!"
"After her!" a third one calls. They run after her up onto the top balcony. Two follow behind her andtwo went the other side to block of her escape. She stops in the middle.
"Who are you?" the Luddite says, "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here because Virgil insisted someone had to draw you away, so no one got hurt," Sally responds.
"Virgil? Who's Virgil?" the Luddite asks.
"He's the one bringing the ceiling down on your machine right now," Sally says, and the Luddites look over to find Virgil on top of the EMF.
"One good old-fashioned whacking should do the trick," Virgil says and then hits the EMF, "Maybe two." Virgil beats on it until it falls, and the power is restored across London. With this Virgil and Sally quickly make their way to Thunderbird 2 where they left the woman in the crane leaning between two buildings.
"Help! The door's still jammed," the girl calls.
"Look, there's still time," Grandma Tracy says.
"Aaargh! It's falling!" she yells as Virgil has Thunderbird 2 lift the module up so he can get his equipment out.
Virgil then hears the sound of a ship launching and looks over to find it's The Hood's ship rising into the air. "That's the Hood's ship," he comments and is com starts beeping. Virgil quickly answers the call.
"Virgil? Are you there?" Penelope asks.
"Lady Penelope," Virgil says, "Are you alright?"
"Just listen to me. The Hood is getting away with the Universal Grid Codex. There's no time to explain what that means, but it's bad. Very, very bad, for the whole world," Penelope explains, "You've got to stop him."
"Save one life," Grandma Tracy says with a smile, "Then save the world."
"All day I've been worried how I can solve problems without the help of my gear, but this is one problem I don't need any help figuring out the answer to. Don't worry Lady Penelope, whatever the Hood tries, we'll try to deal with it then. But there is someone right here that needs rescuing right now and there's no way I'm walking away from that," Virgil states.
"That's my boy," Sally says. Virgil rushes over and helps the girl. They run to safety and make it just before the crane breaks again.
"Phew that was a close one," the girl says.
"No kidding..."
"Nina," Nina says with a smile.
"Well Nina would you like to join me later for tea as compensation for leaving you there for so long," Virgil asks.
"It would be my pleasure Virgil," Nina replies with a smile.
April 12th, 2060 - 22:41 BST
They eventually head back down to help Lady Penelope and Parker.
"Oh yes, if you could just quickly pop the doors open that would besmashing. Thank you Prime Minister," Penelope says and looks over to Virgil.
"The Hood goes through all that rouble to open the vault and all you have to do is make aphone call," Virgil chuckles as the door to the vault opens to find Parker inside the vault with the Luddites all tied up.
"Parker!" Penelope calls.
"Oh, 'ello, m'lady. I was just telling this lot that if they want a world without technology,they're going to love prison," Parker say with a smile as the Luddites groan in pain as the soldiers grab them.
"I am so relieved you're alright. But The Hood got away with the Codex," Penelope says with a sigh.
Not so, m'lady," Parker says as he pulls out the Codex causing Penelope to laughs, "The 'ood may know the old lights out trick, but thanks to hislittle light show, 'e never saw the old switch-a-roo coming. Another trick..."
"...from your misspent youth. You know I've never heard of anyone having done quiteas much youthful misspending as you. But I'm very glad you did," Penelope finishes for him.
"'Ome, m'lady?" Parker asks
"Home, Parker," Penelope confirms.
April 12th, 2060 - 23:21 BST
They head to the mansion and Virgil takes a bite of a biscuit.
"Now this is a cookie," Virgil says.
"Uh, I think you'll find it's a biscuit," Nina says as she watches Parker chasing after Sherbet who had bit his pant leg.
"It seems that London has quite a bit to thank you for," Penelope states.
"I was just along for the ride. It's Virgil you should be thanking," Sally says and she puts a hand on hisshoulder, "I've never been prouder of one of my boys. You showed a lot of your grandfather's oldfashioned heroism today. That's why I want you to have this." Sally reaches into her pocket and pulls out the compass, "Thenext time you face a hard choice, all you'll have to do is look at it and it will remind you which way togo."
"I...I don't know what to say," Virgil says.
"Then why don't you wait until your mouth isn't full? We're at teas with a Lady. Didn't Iteach you anything? Here I was saying how proud I was and you spit cookie crumbs all over thecouch," Sally exclaims causing her, Parker, Nina and Penelope to laugh, "Ah, that's my boy"
"Tea, milady?" Parker asks.