This chapter is dedicated to the legendary voice actor David Graham, who sadly passed away last week.
RIP David.
Gordon found his knee cramping up from where he was uncomfortably hunched on the sand-dusted undergrowth. Scott was standing beside him, arm brushing back a large overhanging palm as he scouted their surroundings, watching the rainforest entrance like a hawk.
After scaling Scott's bedroom and reaching the outskirts of the jungle, the two brothers attempted to gain entry to the house from a secret passageway within Thunderbird 1's silo, but found the access was blocked by some of the aquaphibians patrolling the area. They'd then doubled back towards the jungle with another plan in mind, but were waiting for the coast to clear.
"Anything?" Gordon whispered.
"Nothing." Scott murmured back, eyes locked on the brush. "I don't think they're in the jungle."
"You still want to head for the junkyard then?"
Scott nodded, "It'll be the best place for us to set up a temporary base of operations whilst we regroup."
"And figure out what the heck's going on." Gordon added, slowly rising to his feet. "On your mark."
Scott slipped past the leaves and slowly made for the jungle trail. To the naked eye, the jungle looked untouched by man, but the Tracy family had embedded discreet markings into the trees to forge a path through the jungle only they could navigate. Scott made it to the first marker tree and skidded down the moist soil, Gordon trailing behind him.
After following the path for some time, the two men made it to the junkyard of the island, where bits of redundant scrap was housed. They dipped inside the small garage cove and once they'd watched their surroundings to check they were totally alone, breathed a sigh of relief.
"Oh man." Gordon ran his hands through his tousled ginger hair. "This is crazy."
"Too right. I mean, these creatures being real is one thing, but taking out our security like that?"
"Their technology must be way in advance of our own, which is incredible when you think about it."
"How do you mean?" Scott asked.
"Well, Troy mentioned that some of these undersea creatures are quite primitive in some ways, but in others, well…" he trailed off. "If they can breach our impenetrable security measures Brains of all people developed with that much ease then-"
"Brains- that's it, Gordon!" Scott raised his arm. "Brains is performing maintenance aboard Thunderbird Five. If we can get in contact with him he may he able to help us figure out what to do next, or even get in contact with some of our land agents!"
Gordon nodded enthusiastically. "Call him!"
Scott pressed a button on his watch, sending a signal to the Tracy family's errant space station. "This is Scott calling Brains. Scott calling Brains."
It took a few seconds for his watch face to turn into an image of their resident engineering genius, who was currently sitting almost 22,500 miles above them inside International Rescue's satellite, orbiting Earth. Brains' surprised face met Scott's concerned one, seeming confused by the eldest Tracy brother's leafy surroundings.
"S-Scott?"
"Brains, listen up. The island has been invaded by a bunch of creeps known as- what were they called?" Scott looked over at the redhead.
"Aquaphibians."
"-Aquaphibians from under the sea. We think they've got everyone cooped up in the living area, but me and Gordon were able to escape. We're hiding out in the jungle scrapyard which seems to be a safe spot at present."
"Hi Brains." Gordon chirped.
"Don't ask me how they were able to penetrate our security field, we don't know. We just need you to confirm to us where our folks are so we can think up a plan to try and get us all out of this mess. Do you understand?"
"I-I understand, Scott. These intruders must b-be using some s-sort of a-advanced cloaking technology for t-them to have breached the island's defenses like that - particularly without notifying u-us in some way. I did think it quite odd w-when John missed his evening call. He always likes to see h-how things are before going to bed."
Scott raised an eyebrow and Gordon snickered.
"Well that at least tells us John's probably out of commission in some way. I think he would have tried to contact you if he was able."
"I-I'll see if I can g-gain access to the Tracy Lounge without them n-noticing me."
"How are you going to do that, Brains?" the redhead piped up.
"B-By hacking John's portrait, s-so I'll be able to see them, but t-they won't necessarily be able to see me."
"Good man. Let us know what you find out. In that case, we'll try and stay put until we hear from you."
"FAB, Scott."
Scott's watch face went blank.
Gordon ruffled his hair again. "Now what?"
"Now, we wait…"