GENERAL Olsen watched the radar screen with unblinking eyes. The two icons showing the positions of Thunderbirds 1 and 3 were getting extremely close to the limit he'd given. The other members of his staff watched him anxiously.

"Any change to their course?" the General asked.

"No, sir," replied one of the operators. "Still on a collision course."

"It looks like the other ship has failed, sir," said the Sergeant.

The General lowered his head. Despite his verbal threat, deep down he knew that what needed to be done was probably something he would regret for the rest of his life. But equally, if he didn't do it, he knew what the consequences would be for him and many others. He took one last look at the screen. "Are the missiles ready?"

"Yes, sir."

There was a pause. The tension was almost too much to bear.

"Fire."

The operator, equally unhappy with the task, reluctantly pushed to the two buttons in front of her after some hesitation.

At a concealed missile base located outside of New York, two large white and sleek interceptor missiles were fired from their launchers. They roared upwards away from the ground and headed straight for the two much larger rockets that were hurtling down towards them.

General Olsen and his staff watched in silence as the icons of the missiles rose upwards towards the icons of the two Thunderbirds.

"Missiles away," said the operator. "Time to target - ninety seconds."

The General made a sign of the cross. "May God have mercy on us all," he muttered.

Scott had still been struggling to get Thunderbird 3 to alter its trajectory after slamming his ship into the back of it. But now his attention was grabbed by the alarms in Thunderbird 1's cockpit, warning him of the incoming danger. His heart skipped several beats it felt like when he saw the two objects rising from the ground towards them. "DAD! NEW YORK HAVE FIRED THEIR MISSILES!"

Now it was Jeff's turn to swear. He banged both his fists on the desk. "DAMN YOU, OLSEN!"

There was nothing anyone could do. The missiles were too close now for anyone to do anything. All Scott could do was close his eyes and accept the fate of him, John and both the Thunderbird ships. "I'm sorry, John," Scott muttered, tears starting to form in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Dad. I'm sorry, everyone."

"HANG ON, SCOTT!"

Scott's eyes snapped open at the sound of Kayo's voice. He then watched in amazement as Thunderbird Shadow appeared out of nowhere and fired a small demolition missile at one of the interceptors. It exploded with a powerful BANG. Then she spun her craft around before taking out the second missile as well.

"KAYO!" Scott cried with relief. "How did you get here so fast?!"

"I left not long after you," Kayo said. "I'll keep any more missiles from coming your way."

Scott grinned and felt a glimmer of hope. "Am I glad you're here?" he said.

"You'd better save that for later, Scott," said Kayo. "New York?"

Scott looked at his holographic radar screen. The State of New York and in particular the Island of Manhattan was very clear now. He knew he had to act fast.

"What the hell was that?!" demanded General Olsen.

"The missiles detonated prematurely, sir!" exclaimed the operator.

"Did you press self-destruct?!"

"N-No, sir!"

"DID ANYONE PRESS SELF-DESTRUCT?!" he bellowed at the entire room. But nobody answered. General Olsen then turned his attention back to the screen. "LAUNCH THREE AND FOUR!"

"Sir, the missiles are out of arc!" said the Sergeant. "They've gone past! There's nothing we can do."

The General's skin went pale. He looked back at the monitor screen once again, his entire body shaking. "God help us all now…"

Thunderbird Shadow flew just alongside Thunderbirds 3 and 1 as they continued their crash-course towards New York.

"Thunderbird 1, the city's coming into sight!" Kayo said. "If you're gonna try anything, now's the time!"

Scott grimaced. "Been…trying…for ages…" he said. He wrestled with every control, sometimes not moving the correct one. The underside thrusters fired by mistake, but he didn't realise until Kayo shouted.

"SCOTT, YOUR ANGLE'S CHANGING DOWN! KILL YOUR THRUSTERS!"

Scott quickly did so. "DAMN IT TO HELL!" he roared. But then he had an idea. "Wait…THAT'S IT!" He adjusted the controls again. Only one side of the main thrusters activated and the flaps were deployed.

Kayo watched as Thunderbird 3's body started to turn along with Thunderbird 1 so that the latter was now flying upside down. "Scott, what are you doing?"

"The only option I have…" Scott answered. Then he fired the underside thrusters again. This time they were pushing upwards, which pushed Thunderbird 1 down. Slowly, very slowly, Thunderbird 3 began to level out.

"It's working!" Kayo cried. "You're doing it, Scott!"

"Kayo, talk to me!" Jeff barked over the radio. "What's he doing?"

"He's turned both ships upside down and is using Thunderbird 1's underside thrusters to level them out."

Brains clapped his hand to his forehead. "OHHH! Why didn't I think of that?!" he grumbled loudly.

"Hey, don't beat yourself up, Brains!" said Grandma. "You can't always have the answer."

Brains took some comfort in that, but was still annoyed with himself.

The two and Jeff watched as the icons of Thunderbird 3 and 1 levelled out. "My God, he's doing it!" said Jeff. "Keep it up, Scott! Keep it up!"

But Scott was struggling. Now that Thunderbird 1 was upside down, so was he, and the blood was starting to rush to his head. He started to feel dizzy, but he tried to fight it off. "I…can't…fail…I…can't!"

The people on Manhattan Island had been completely oblivious to the danger that had been fast approaching. No evacuation order had been given due to General Olsen's belief that the crisis would have been resolved before it even got close to the city. But now as they drew closer, people in the tall buildings and down on the ground finally began to realise something was up as the distant rumble of rocket engines gradually grew louder. Soon the massive red bulk of Thunderbird 3 burst out of the clouds barely a hundred feet above the tallest building in the city. Panic began to break out and people began to run.

Scott's use of the thrusters had done the trick. Thunderbird 3's nose was no longer pointing downwards, but its momentum was still causing them to lose altitude so the collision danger wasn't over yet.

"S-Scott!" Brains said over the projector. "You're at an angle to escape. D-Divert all power to your aft thrusters! NOW!"

Scott couldn't take the sickness in his head any longer. He cut the underside thrusters and spun the two Thunderbirds back the right way up. Then he threw the two control levers forwards as far as they'd go, diverting all the power he had to the aft thrusters. A bright orange ball of flame erupted out of the back of Thunderbird 1 as the force pushed it and Thunderbird 3 upwards just as they passed over the city. He only hoped he was high enough to avoid any impacts.

The people on the ground stopped running and panicking once they saw the large rocket, as they only believed it to be one, had passed overhead and raced away. Thunderbirds 1 and 3 only just managed to avoid a collision with the masts of one of the skyscrapers before soaring out across the harbor towards the Atlantic Ocean.

"You're clear!" Kayo said. "The city's out of danger."

Scott heard Kayo's words, but found he had no energy to answer. His vision was going blurry and Kayo's words began to get quieter. Then to Scott, everything went black.

"Scott?" Kayo repeated. "Scott, can you hear me?"

No answer. And then Kayo's eyes widened in horror when she saw the exhaust from Thunderbird 1's engines cut out. The weight of Thunderbird 3 then began to pull it down again, straight towards the ocean.

"SCOTT, YOUR ENGINE'S OUT!"

Brains did some quick checks on the holographic display in the lounge. "He's out of f-fuel!" he said.

"Mr Tracy, you'd better get Thunderbirds 2 and 4 out here!" Kayo said. "I think they're gonna end up in the ocean."

"That was the outcome that was preferred," Jeff answered, surprisingly calmly. "Stay above to mark their position for when they arrive."

"F-A-B."

There was nothing Kayo could do now but watch as the out-of-control combination of Thunderbirds 1 and 3 got lower and lower in height. Closer and closer they came to the surface of the Atlantic. Her heart was in her mouth. Despite their strong construction, would the speed and force of the impact cause either of the two ships to break apart?

Impact! The ships hit the water, but didn't break up. The speed and angle caused them to skim along the surface for several miles, gradually getting slower and slower until they finally came to a stop. Whilst both ships remained airtight and were unable to flood, their weight caused them both to quickly sink beneath the waves and disappear from view.

"They're down," Kayo said. "But visual contact is lost."

"Don't worry, Kayo, I'm on that," answered Alan.

Thunderbird 5 had been following the two runaway Thunderbirds as well but from above in space. Now Alan, with EOS's help, could make an underwater scan and observe them as they sank to the seabed. Luckily the depth wasn't too major and a recovery should be fairly easy.

Thunderbird Shadow remained in a hovering position above the crash-site until Thunderbird 2 arrived on the scene.

"This is Thunderbird 2, arriving on the scene now," said Virgil. "We'll take it from here, Thunderbird Shadow."

"I'll stay until the recovery is complete," said Kayo.

"No, Kayo," Brains cut in. "You used a l-lot of your fuel to get there in time. If you stay, you w-wont have enough to get back to the island."

"I can manage it if I'm careful, Brains!" Kayo said stubbornly.

"Kayo…" it was Jeff who now spoke. "There's nothing more you can do there. Let Virgil and Gordon do their job. Come on home."

Kayo sighed heavily and hung her head. She looked at the fuel gauge. It was only just over a quarter. She relented. "F-A-B…"

Once Thunderbird Shadow had left, Virgil positioned Thunderbird 2 just above the water. "You all set, Gordon?"

"F-A-B," Gordon replied from inside Thunderbird 4. "Drop me."

Virgil released the docking clamp and Module 4 dropped out from the main body to land with a splash on the surface. The door opened and once the ramp was raised, Thunderbird 4 slipped down into the water. Gordon dived his craft steep and fast towards the ocean floor, and it took him no time at all to locate the two sunken sister-ships.

"I've found them, Thunderbird 2," Gordon reported.

"How do they look?" asked Virgil.

"As intact as can be," answered Gordon. "I'm gonna check on John and Scott. Can you send down the remote Airbag-Pods?"

"Already on it," said Virgil. He pushed a button on his control panel and a number of large Airbag-Pods were fired from launchers inside Module 4.

After putting on his helmet, Gordon exited Thunderbird 4 and swam over to Thunderbird 3's cockpit windows. He peered inside. "I see John," he reported. "He's still in his seat. No flooding."

"That's a relief," said Jeff. "What about Scott?"

"Going to check on him now," answered Gordon. He swam along the length of Thunderbird 3's hull towards where Thunderbird 1 remained buried in its back-end. "Sheesh!" Gordon remarked out loud to himself. "I'd forgotten just how big Thunderbird 3 is!" He soon reached Thunderbird 1, but found the cockpit area was buried within the mangled ion-engine of Thunderbird 3. "I can't gain access to the cockpit," he said. "Not without flooding it, and Scott wouldn't stand a chance if he's out cold."

"Run a scan and see if he's alive," said Jeff.

Gordon did so. "Confirmed! He's alive, but like John he's not moving. Must be out cold."

"What could have knocked him out?" Jeff wondered out loud. "John, too for that matter."

"I would n-need to run a full investigation to try and find out what caused John to pass out, Mr Tracy," said Brains. "I do have a theory about Scott though. He w-was upside down for a bit. It's p-possible that dizziness or exhaustion could have caused him to pass out."

"I'd fully agree with that," said Grandma.

Jeff seemed satisfied. "The sooner we get those boys some medical treatment, the better," he said before turning back to the hologram images of Virgil and Gordon. "Thunderbirds 2 and 4, as soon as Thunderbirds 1 and 3 are on the surface, I want you to get your brothers aboard Thunderbird 2. I don't care how you do it, just so long as they're not in any more danger."

"F-A-B!" Virgil and Gordon said in unison.

It took a few minutes for Gordon to make sure that all of the Airbag-Pods had arrived and were locked in their correct positions. A total of twenty had been launched with eighteen from the Module and the final two from Thunderbird 4. Fifteen were placed around Thunderbird 3 whilst the remaining five were attached to Thunderbird 1. Gordon returned to the safety of Thunderbird 4 and remotely checked that all the lights on each Pod were showing green. "Okay, all Pods are good to go, Thunderbird 2."

"F-A-B, Thunderbird 4," said Virgil. "Let's bring them up!"

The Pods were activated and the Airbags were inflated. Slowly but surely, they began to lift the combined weight of Thunderbirds 1 and 3 up off the ocean floor. As they went, Gordon moved Thunderbird 4 underneath and began to attach additional inflatable devices to the undersides of the hulls.

Virgil watched his screen as the ships rose, but Alan then drew his attention to something else. "Er, Thunderbird 2? You've got company!"

Virgil turned to look and saw a formation of ten military Helicopters heading in his direction. "Oh, great!" he said with frustration. "Thunderbird 2 to base, it looks like we're gonna have a problem."

"If it's General Olsen, direct him to me, Virgil!" said Jeff sharply. "I'm not having him interfere with this operation!"

It was indeed General Olsen aboard one of the Helicopters. They flew and formed a wide circle around Thunderbird 2, but they didn't seem to aim any weapons towards them.

"International Rescue, this is General Olsen. Don't worry, we've not come to interfere with what you're doing. We're just gonna keep the Press Helijets away."

Virgil and Jeff were surprised by this.

"Er, thank you, General," said Virgil, hiding his distrust. "Most obliging of you."

The crews of the Helicopters watched as Thunderbirds 1 and 3 then broke the surface as the inflatable bags underneath them activated, keeping them on the surface. "Well, I'll be damned!" exclaimed the General, very impressed.

Thunderbird 4 emerged shortly after Thunderbirds 1 and 3 had done and together with Virgil, Gordon managed to gain access to both ships and remove the unconscious Scott and John and transfer them to Thunderbird 2. General Olsen had offered medical help but it was politely declined. The Tracy's really didn't trust him after he'd tried to shoot two of their own down, something which the General couldn't blame them for.

Virgil and Gordon laid Scott and John down on separate beds inside the cockpit of Thunderbird 2 and ran medical scans which were sent back to Grandma.

"No broken bones. No traumas detected," Grandma reported. "Physically they seem to be fine."

"We'll keep them under observation until we can get them back, Grandma," said Virgil.

"Whilst we're on the subject," Gordon cut in. "How are we gonna get Thunderbirds 1 and 3 back to Tracy Island?"

"Thunderbird 2 can carry Thunderbird 1 if we can free it from Thunderbird 3," said Virgil. "But as for Thunderbird 3…that's too big, even for Thunderbird 2."

"Don't worry about that, boys," Jeff said over the projector. "I've made some calls and some old friends who owe me favors are gonna help us out."

Virgil and Gordon felt relieved that their task was going to be made much easier.

A soft groan soon caught their attention. "Hey, Scott's waking up!" said Gordon excitedly.

Scott groaned and opened his eyes. He tried to sit up but Virgil caught him. "Woah, easy big brother," he said. "Just lie still."

Scott blinked. "V-Virgil?" he said hoarsely. "What…happened to me? Gee, I've got one hell of a headache!"

"Well, you're safe now," said Virgil. "And so is John."

Scott's eyes snapped open. "John?!"

"He's right there," said Gordon, pointing across the cockpit.

Scott turned his head and saw John still out of it on the other bed. "Is he?"

"He's fine, Scott," said Virgil. "Seems you're in a worse state than he is."

"What do you mean?" Scott asked.

"As weird as this sounds, he just appears to be asleep," said Virgil. "Maybe he can tell us whenever he wakes up."

The words had barely left Virgil's lips when John's head twitched. The three brothers looked over eagerly as John's eyes very slowly started to open. Then he let out a big yawn and began to stretch. "Gee…" he remarked. "That was a good sleep."

"Hey, John," said Virgil. "Good to see you."

John turned his head, then blinked in surprise. "Virgil?!" Then he looked to his left. "Scott?! Gordon?! What's going-" He broke off, suddenly realising where he was. "Wait a minute…this is Thunderbird 2! Why am I in Thunderbird 2?!"

Scott, Virgil and Gordon looked at each other and grinned.

"It's a hell of a story, bro," chuckled Gordon.

John was just dumbfounded.

The recovery operation took well over a week to complete. Working together, Virgil and Gordon had been able to retrieve Thunderbird 1 from the back end of Thunderbird 3. Its nose had lost all its paint and there was a lot of external damage around the front but otherwise it wasn't bad. However they weren't going to risk flying it back to Tracy Island so after recovering Thunderbird 4, Thunderbird 2 carried it back to the island. Whilst this was happening, a number of Jeff's old friends from his military days sent a large formation of Helicopters and Helijets to lift Thunderbird 3 out of the water and carry it across the entire US Continent to be loaded onto a remote-controlled cargo ship which got escorted by a pair of World Aquanaut Security Patrol vessels across the Pacific to an uncharted island some three-hundred miles North of Tracy Island. It was here that International Rescue had a secret repair facility and Brains spent up to five days with his maintenance robots as well as help from The Mechanic to get Thunderbird 3 fixed up in order to at least fly it back to Tracy Island.

Scott and John had made swift and full recoveries from their ordeal, mainly just to the fact that they'd not suffered any injuries. As they played Water-Polo in the pool along with Gordon and Virgil with Kayo acting as a referee, Jeff came down to visit them. They stopped playing and swam over to the side of the pool to hear what he had to say.

"Good news, boys," Jeff began. "I've just spoken with Brains. Thunderbird 3 will be ready to come back tomorrow."

The brothers cheered.

"I don't suppose he found out what caused me to fall asleep, did he, Dad?" asked John.

"Actually, son, he did," said Jeff. "Turns out the special gas he uses for the cooling systems had sprung a leak. It must have been a slow leak for you not to have noticed it. Same with the instruments not detecting it."

"I was gonna say, surely Thunderbird 3's systems should have detected a leak?" asked Virgil.

"Not if it was very minor," said Jeff. "It may have started before John boarded for the journey back to Earth. Alan says he remembered feeling tired on his way up there."

"Well I'll be," said John. He then turned to his three brothers. "I can't thank you guys enough for coming to get me," he said. "Especially you, Scott. You know you could have killed yourself doing what you did?"

"If it meant saving you and millions of people in New York, I would have done," said Scott. "I had no intention of failing that mission."

"You made us proud, Scott," said Jeff. "You all did. I'm proud of all of you. And you, Kayo," he added, smiling at Kayo. "Well done."

Kayo smiled back.

Jeff returned to the house to let them continue with their game.

"So, John," said Gordon. "Are you enjoying being on Earth? Or are you itching to get back up into space?"

John checked to make sure Jeff was out of earshot before replying. "Believe me, Gordon, I'm best suited to a life in space," he said. Then he grabbed the ball. "But not until I've beat you at Water-Polo!"