Aboard thunderbird 2, Alan was restless. He had been thinking about what John had said. He'd successfully managed to distract his brothers from worrying about him in the loading hanger, but now, he just let his thoughts run wild. He was the youngest and the one with the least experience. How on earth would John think he'd not make a mistake? It might even be fatal and someone might die, like he almost did when battling the hood and like his brothers did too. He shuddered at the thought but stopped concentrating just long enough to notice that Virgil had come to sit next to him in the back seat.

"Alan?" he asked putting a hand on his shoulder. Alan looked up and saw him smiling. "Welcome back to the land of the living sprout!" he joked. Alan wanted to glare at him for calling him "sprout" but was too worried about everything else at the moment. He hung his head again Virgil's expression softened. "Let me guess." Alan looked up at him "You got the prep talk with Johnny or Scotty?" He guessed. Alan nodded his head weakly, and he replied just as bad.

"John." Virgil wrapped his arm round Alan's shoulders. Alan unconsciously lent into a hug. Virgil wasn't really expecting Alan to do that but still wrapped his arms around the depressed teen.

"Allie, let me assure you, even if you do mess up, it's not always gonna be fatal or gonna be your fault." Alan still didn't look persuaded. "Alan, do you remember when me and the boys went on a mission a Spain with the floods and everything?" he asked.

"Was that the time Gordy came home all depressed and wouldn't swim for at least a week?" Virgil nodded then explained as to why it happened.

"You see Allie; we had one more victim to rescue and we were all pre-occupied with something else, so that left Gordy to do it. Unfortunately the weather was pushy and so was the victim, she kept saying about not trusting Gordy enough. Because of that Gordy lost his grip on her because of all her thrashing. Poor guy was feeling so guilty after that. But what I'm trying to get at is that even if we do lose somebody, although we don't like it, it's not often our fault. So if you make a mistake. Don't stop doing something just because of it." He let Alan take in all he said then smiled when Alan did.

"Thanks Virgie." Alan said pulling away from him. Virgil went back to the controls and motioned for Alan to come and sit with him, just as Scott's voice came over the speaker.

"TB1 to TB2, what's your ETA over?" he asked.

"Hear you loud and clear Scott. ETA about 20 minutes. Have you reached the rescue zone yet?"

"Yeah, Gordon and I have managed to get most of the victims into TB1, but there are a lot more here than we thought, we could really use a hand. Firstly to put out these annoying fires and second to get some of the more injured victims somewhere that the medics can reach them." Virgil turned to Alan and nodded.

"FAB, Scott, me and Al are on it." Virgil smiled and looked towards the navigator again. "Ok we're about 5 minutes from you now, see you there." He was about to turn of the speaker when Scott spoke again.

"How's Allie doing Virge?" he asked. Virgil looked to Alan for an answer

"Erm…yeah, I'm doing good Scotty." He said tensely, but smiled when Virgil patted him on the back.

"Great Al, Oh wait, I see you guys now!" Alan looked out of the window to see that Scott wasn't lying as he waved at them. Alan gave him a wave back and proceeded to help the boys.

The rescue was finished successfully within the hour. Alan and Virgil brought TB2 back to the other 2 Tracy's after getting the other victims to safety. Gordon ran up to Alan and gave him a pat on the back.

"Hey, not bad Sprout, you controlled some of those loony victims like a pro. Couldn't have done better myself!" he complimented. Alan smiled.

"Thanks Gordy" he said tiredly. Gordon put an arm round him and led him behind the others. All of a sudden Alan thought he saw another Victim hiding behind one of the trees. "What do I do?" he thought "if there's one there, I should really help him, but if there isn't the guys are never gonna let me live it down about how I'm seeing things." He had to make up an excuse, but what? He reached into is pocket and felt his portable navigator. "That's it!" he thought

"Erm guys, I think I left my navigator over there, I should go and get it unless I wanna get killed by dad." The other's nodded, Alan went ahead and smirked. That was probably a really lousy excuse and they still believed it.

Alan 1 – Big brothers 0

"Hello" he called quietly. Nobody seemed to answer so he headed back. He didn't seem to see what happened but he somehow tripped on his way back. Alan lifted himself of the ground but found his left ankle hurt as he tried. Luckily he could stand and walk ok, but how was he going to convince his brothers he was fine? "If I don't make it obvious about my injury, I'm pretty sure they won't notice, or else dad'll never let me go on a mission ever again" in the end he came up with the lousy excuse of a stone in his shoe. He slowly boarded TB2 with Virgil, trying not to attract the paranoid doctor's attention. Luckily it went by without a synch. Unfortunately Alan didn't see; or for that matter no one did, a strange dark figure hanging round by the shadows.

"Your family caused me pain Alan Tracy. Now you will pay the price!"