GORDON entered the lounge inside the Tracy Island house. It was mostly empty except for Virgil who was playing the piano, and Alan who was on one of the sofas playing one of his interactive games. Alan still wasn't speaking to Gordon following him pushing them all away at Christmas. Gordon had apologised to him and Scott but only Scott had accepted. Alan, for reasons that he refused to reveal, could not seem to forgive his brother for it, despite having been spoken to in private by several of the others.
Alan ignored Gordon as he walked past behind the sofa and pretended that he wasn't there. Gordon was not bothered. He'd come to speak to Virgil anyways.
"Sweet tune, Virgil," Gordon said as he approached the piano.
Virgil looked up and greeted his brother with a grin. "Thanks, Gordon," he said. "Thought I'd do my own take on a classic piece."
"Hall of the Mountain King?" Gordon asked.
"Ah…impressive," said Virgil. "Didn't know you knew any of the classics?"
"Not many…" Gordon admitted. "But Penelope has taught me one or two during my times with her."
Alan scoffed but neither of them paid attention to him.
"If anyone would, it would be her," smiled Virgil. "Her parents love the classics I believe. Say, aren't you going to be having some time with her soon? Or is she coming here?"
"Dad and Lord Patrick are trying to arrange for me to spend a week with them," said Gordon. " I don't know when, but it'll be swell - especially after what we went through at Christmas."
Virgil opened his mouth to answer but the sound of a raspberry being blown had made them both look over at the sofa where Alan was sitting. "You got something to say, Alan?" Virgil asked.
"No," came the blunt reply.
"It's okay, Virgil," said Gordon. "I'm not bothered."
"No, of course you're not," Alan said without looking at either of them. "You didn't bother with any of us over Christmas, did you?"
Gordon sighed heavily and rolled his eyes. "Alan, I've already apologised. Please just drop it."
Alan snorted. "Yeah, dream on, bro," he said, still not looking. "We're nothing to you. Nobody is more important than your girl, are they?"
Gordon decided not to get angry and decided to walk away. "At least I still have one," he muttered.
"What did you say?"
Gordon froze. He thought his remark had been quiet. But clearly it wasn't. He turned to Alan, who had finally removed the interactive game headpiece from his eyes and was now glaring at him. "What?"
"What…did…you…say?" Alan asked dangerously.
Virgil suddenly started to feel tense. "Guys, ease down," he said uneasily.
But Gordon, deciding to no longer hide his feelings, blurted out what he'd said before. "At least I still have a girlfriend unlike you," he hissed.
That was enough. Alan threw down his headset, let out a bellow of rage and charged at his brother. "YOU BAS-"
5!
4!
3!
2!
1!
"Thunderbirds Are Go!"
"FEUD"
SCOTT was in the kitchen sipping some coffee whilst Grandma wiped some plates to get them ready for lunch. He recognised the ingredients on the kitchen countertop and knew instantly what she was going to cook. "Are we having Meatloaf Surprise again?" he asked.
"You bet," answered Grandma. "It is my specialty after all."
Scott smiled. He then went into some deep thought. It had been a few days since he'd bumped into Kayo at the top of the stairs and he'd hardly seen her since. At least, not to talk to anyway. He didn't bring up his feelings because he couldn't bring himself to. What made him feel worse was that Kayo hadn't tried to ask him what was going on. Kayo didn't seem bothered though. Perhaps she'd taken his weird behaviour as having been tired out and she'd forgotten about it. But he felt the need to talk to someone about it first before he tried to find the courage to talk to her about it. He knew there were only two people who would be able to convince him - his Grandma and his Father. But Jeff was away on business so it was going to have to be Grandma who he asked. He cleared his throat. "Grandma?"
"Yeah?"
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure. What is it?"
But before Scott could reply, they heard a shout coming from upstairs followed by a loud CRASH. Then they heard Virgil's voice calling out. "HELP! I NEED HELP UP HERE!"
Scott and Grandma ran over and up the stairs to the lounge to see what was going on. When they arrived, they froze in horror at what they saw. There were Gordon and Alan, literally attacking one another. They were throwing punches, grabbing objects and kicking each other whilst Virgil had been trying to get in to break them up.
"ALAN! GORDON! STOP!" bellowed Scott and ran forwards just as Alan landed a hard right-hook on Gordon's left cheek. Gordon spun round and fell to the floor where Virgil went to protect him.
Alan tried to charge again. "MOVE, VIRGIL!" he roared, but he was grabbed by Scott.
"ALAN, STOP THIS!" Scott ordered.
"Stay OUT OF THIS!" shrieked Alan and then punched Scott right in the nose.
"ARRGH!" Scott cried and fell away, clutching his nose.
"SCOTT!" shouted Grandma, rushing to tend to him.
Gordon used the distraction to get away from Virgil. Now he lunged at Alan and drop-kicked him back into the statue of a Buddah by the window. The statue shattered into several pieces and Alan was temporarily winded. But as he saw Gordon advance menacingly, he grabbed pieces of the broken statue and began throwing them at him. One cut Gordon's left leg and another hit him on the wrist.
"OUCH! ARGH!" Gordon cried as Alan leapt to his feet and pounced on him. He knocked Gordon to the ground and wrapped his fingers around his throat.
Virgil, Scott and Grandma couldn't believe what they were seeing. They'd seen fights between Gordon and Alan before when they'd been younger. But those had been brief and only out of annoyance for each other. But this was different. From the fury in their faces, especially Alan's, it looked like they were intending to kill each other.
Grandma tried to go over to stop them. But before she could, a small black ball appeared out of nowhere and landed next to Gordon and Alan. Neither of them noticed as it released a thick white knockout gas which caused both of them to start coughing and spluttering and then they passed out, with Alan slumped a few feet away from Gordon.
Grandma and Virgil quickly moved Scott out of the lounge before the gas affected them too and then they saw the extent of the damage to Scott's face. His nose was broken and blood was streaming out of it.
Kayo then appeared as the cloaking device on her suit deactivated and she put her fingers on Alan and Gordon's necks to make sure they were still alive. They were just unconscious. Then she went to check on the others. "Scott…your nose!" she gasped.
"I'll…be fine," Scott replied. "Gee, Alan sure packs a punch."
Brains and The Mechanic then appeared. "W-W-What's going on?" Brains asked.
Grandma pointed to Alan and Gordon. "They happened," she said.
"What happened?" asked The Mechanic.
Everyone looked at Virgil as he looked the most troubled out of all of them.
"Virgil, what happened?" asked Kayo.
Virgil was silent for a few moments before he finally answered. "They went too far," he said grimly.
Several hours had passed since the punch-up had occurred. Both Alan and Gordon were bloodied and bruised but had no serious injuries. Scott had had his nose bandaged up by Grandma and then he was sent to bed to rest. John came down at Grandma's request and both he and Virgil were not afraid to voice their displeasure at the two brothers for what had happened.
"How could either of you have let this happen?" John asked Gordon and Alan who were both now awake and made to sit on opposite sides of the lounge.
"Why don't you ask him?" Alan said, pointing an accusing finger at Gordon.
"Shut up," Gordon snapped.
"If you'd shut yours to begin with, none of this would have happened!" Alan snapped back.
"Why don't you both shut up?" said Virgil angrily. "You've both done enough damage as it is."
Brains and The Mechanic were in there too. All four of them standing like security guards and watching the two youngest Tracy brothers like hawks.
Gordon got up. "Screw this. I'm going to bed," he said. But he found MAX blocking his way. "Excuse me, MAX."
But MAX warbled in an angry way and refused to move.
"Er, Brains, could you get your robot to move, please?" Gordon asked.
"S-Sorry, Gordon," replied Brains. "But I'm afraid I c-can't do that."
"We were told you two need to stay where you are for the time being," added The Mechanic.
"By who?" demanded Alan.
"Good evening…boys."
The room suddenly seemed to go very cold at the sound of a very familiar voice. All eyes turned to the entrance to see Jeff standing there, and he looked madder than any of them could ever remember him being.
"Oh…D-Dad!" stammered Alan. "I didn't know you were back?"
"If you had, would it have made any difference?" Jeff asked as he walked slowly around the back of the lounge past the row of portraits towards his desk.
"That depends on whether Squidward over there had kept his stupid mouth shut," said Alan, indicating to Gordon.
"Why don't you shut yours for a change?" retorted Gordon.
"ENOUGH!" Jeff bellowed. "We are going to discuss this little predicament. And we will stay here until we get some kind of result!" He then addressed the others in a more calmer tone. "Virgil, John, Brains, Mechanic, please leave us. I wish to speak to these two…alone."
"Yes, Dad," said John as the others headed for the exit of the lounge.
"Good luck you two," Virgil said in a low voice. "I think you're gonna need it."
As soon as they were gone, Jeff stood behind his desk. "Alan, on your feet!" he ordered. "Stand on opposite sides of the table!"
The two brothers did. Then Gordon spoke up. "Dad, if I may?"
"No, Gordon, you may not!" Jeff snapped. "I will speak first. First of all, just let me tell you how VERY disappointed I am in you both! You are both grown men and members of one of the most advanced and highly respected organisations on the planet. I expect you both to act with the utmost of profession…not like goddamn children!" He paused for a moment. "However…I am not entirely blameless for what's happened."
"Say what?" asked Gordon, confused.
"I have been aware of the tension between you for some time," Jeff explained. "I should have addressed it straight away. But instead I let your animosity build up. I guess it was inevitable that something like this would happen. You're both lucky you didn't suffer any serious damage or injuries…with the exception of Scott's nose," he added, throwing Alan a look.
Alan shifted uncomfortably. If there was one thing he did have deep regrets for was breaking Scott's nose. That was something he'd not intended to do.
"I apologise for not making you address your issues sooner," Jeff went on. "Now…who's going to be the first to apologise to the other?"
Silence fell as Jeff looked at his two sons. Both gave each other a glare, but neither of them said a word.
"I see…" said Jeff, unimpressed by the silence.
"Dad…" said Gordon, "I have nothing to apologise for."
"Even after you made that thoughtless remark to Alan?" Jeff asked.
"Too damn right!" said Alan furiously to his brother. "How DARE you bring up Sophie?"
"Don't think for a second you're blameless, Alan!" Jeff said, now turning to his youngest. "No matter what Gordon said, that did NOT give you the right to start attacking him! Or BREAK Scott's nose!"
"Okay, I'll admit, punching Scott wasn't intended," Alan admitted. "In the madness I didn't think. But as for what HE said, I'll have a go at ANYONE who mocks the woman I loved!"
"And you think Sophie would have been proud of you for it?" asked Jeff.
"Hell yes!" said Alan defiantly. "She was a fighter, Dad. She took no crap from anyone! If she'd been here, it would probably have been her who tore Gordon a new one!"
"Okay, ENOUGH!" Jeff burst out, slamming his fist on the desk for silence. "Never can I ever remember being so ashamed of any of my boys as I am now."
Even though he'd said that quietly, both brothers had heard him, and the words really hit them hard. But still they couldn't bring themselves to apologise to each other.
"I will not have this family torn apart by a pathetic feud between any of my boys!" Jeff finally said. "You two are going to sort this out in the only way I see fit."
"Which is what?" Gordon asked.
"By going on a survival training mission," said Jeff. "You're not just brothers, you're part of a team. An important team. And I'm not going to let your petty hatred of each other get worse. You will therefore go out on an extreme survival course tomorrow and you will learn to work with each other again."
"What?!" exclaimed Alan. "But, Dad-"
"But nothing, Alan!" Jeff snapped. "My mind is made up and you're not changing it. Neither of you will! For the time being, you will both go to your rooms and stay there until I call for you tomorrow morning. Now…GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!"
"Y-Y-Yes…D-D-Dad," the two brothers said timidly and they left the lounge without another word. They didn't look at each other or say anything to each other as they headed for their rooms. But it was safe to say that they could feel the anger of their father. It wasn't something they'd felt for a very long time, and they'd both forgotten how frightening he could be when he was furious.
Jeff watched them go and then sank into his chair. He let out a huge sigh and buried his face in his hands.
Virgil and John appeared shortly after Gordon and Alan had gone. Grandma followed them up with a cup of coffee for her son. "Here," she said as she placed it on the desk. "I've made it extra strong. I have a feeling you're gonna need it."
Jeff was very grateful. "You're damn right, Mother," he said. "Thanks."
Grandma kissed her son on the top of the head and then headed out to finish cleaning up the kitchen.
John and Virgil could see how troubled their father was looking.
"That's a lot of regret I see in your eyes, Dad," Virgil said.
"You have no idea, son," Jeff replied. He let out a sad sigh. "You know…whenever there was any trouble when you boys were young. Fights…disagreements. Trouble at school. It was never you two. It was always Scott…Gordon…and Alan."
"It's never been like this though, Dad," said John. "This was different."
"Not just different," said Virgil. "Worse. Scary. You didn't see the looks in their eyes. They weren't just fighting out of anger, Dad. i do believe if Kayo hadn't stopped them-"
"You don't need to say, Virgil," Jeff interrupted. "I could see the hatred in their eyes whilst I was talking to them. We can't let this continue."
"With all due respect, Dad, I don't see how we can do that?" said John. "This is going to take more than just letting them cool off."
"Which is why I'm going to make them work together on an extreme survival challenge," said Jeff. "But I will need your help with it. John, can you go back up to Thunderbird 5 and find an ideal location that is remote and as far away from Tracy Island as possible, please?"
"F-A-B," said John. He turned and headed out of the lounge to change back into his uniform and return to Thunderbird 5 via the Space Elevator.
"And me, Dad?" asked Virgil.
"I'll need you to take them to where they're going and then bring them back again once it's done," said Jeff. "Normally I'd get Scott to take them as the trip would be a lot quicker, but-"
"Scott's in no fit state to fly at the moment," said Virgil.
Jeff nodded grimly. "And the space inside Thunderbird 1 is much more limited to that of the cockpit of Thunderbird 2," he said. "At least there they can sit with some distance between them."
Virgil nodded in agreement. "Do you think it'll work?" he asked.
Jeff finished his coffee with one big swig and then put the cup down on the desk. "It has to work," he said. "Because I don't know what the hell we'll do if it doesn't!"