Title: V. T. Green

Part One

Author: Gumnut

24 - 25 Aug 2019

Fandom: Thunderbirds Are Go 2015/ Thunderbirds TOS

Rating: Teen

Summary: "Did you discover this, Brains?" He frowned. There was something familiar about this. Maybe they had discussed it recently.

"Oh, no, this is V. T. Green. The man is brilliant."

Word count: 1946

Spoilers & warnings: None.

Timeline: Standalone

Author's note: This is one that I have been meaning to write for some time. I hope you enjoy it :D

Disclaimer: Mine? You've got to be kidding. Money? Don't have any, don't bother.

-o-o-o-

The world was blurry as he let his head slide on one hand and stared out through the kitchen window. Gordon was in the pool, swimming his morning laps. The sun had yet to rise and Virgil had broken several laws of physics rising himself. This time of day should not exist. But then it didn't, because it wasn't day yet because there was no sun!

But no, supersonic big brother wanted to do some special training today. Training that for some reason had been scheduled at sunrise.

It was possibly important, likely scheduled just to get his ass out of bed at this godawful hour. Occasionally there were some issues with having your brother in command. Brotherly love only went so far, brotherly snark had more mileage, and Scott did have that twist of his lips when he announced the schedule.

Four pairs of eyes had immediately turned to him and his return glare had been insufficient to deflect the amusement that followed.

But it was okay. It was fine. He had his own skill drills up his sleeve. Two am would be convenient for him next time, definitely. After all, they all had to keep their skill sets up, didn't they?

In the meantime, it was black coffee and repeated attempts to focus on Mateo. Mateo was distinctly blurry, and dark and,,,,

"Hey, Virg!" Alan whacked him on the back.

His face nearly ended up in his coffee. "Alan? What the hell?"

"And good morning to you, too, big bro. Ready for this morning's run?"

He stared at his bright and peppy, yes, peppy, youngest brother. Augh. "Go away."

"Aww, did the big bear have to get out of bed a little early?"

"Alan..."

"C'mon, Virg, it's gonna be fun. A race around the island, wind in your hair, blood pumping...it's gonna be awesome."

Virgil stared at him, his brain slowly picking up that something wasn't quite right. "Alan, why aren't you comatose?"

"What do you mean, big bro?"

A slow blink. "You hate mornings almost as much as I do. Who are you and what have you done with my little brother?" His eyelids drooped all of their own volition.

"It's called prepared, bro. I'm in it to win it."

Virgil's eyes narrowed. "Are you on something? Because if you are, Scott's going to kill you, and once I'm awake, I'll resuscitate you so I can kill you again."

"That's violence, bro. It's cool, I promise."

An arched eyebrow that almost hurt. "What did you do, Alan?"

"Nothing. Well, nothing you aren't already doing."

"You drank coffee."

"Noooooooo."

"What did you do?"

"A little caffeine is all."

The arched eyebrow flipped into a frown. "How much?"

"Enough."

Virgil's back straightened. "Alan."

"I'm fine, bro, I promise. I know what I'm doing. I'm not stupid." A blond frown. "Besides, it's not like you don't do the same with your coffee after coffee after coffee technique."

Virgil's lips thinned, but to be honest, the kid was right, he didn't have a leg to stand on. But... "You're not yet an adult, Alan."

"Yet, I take the responsibilities of an adult, Virgil."

"Your body isn't fully mature!"

"Well, thanks for that, Doctor Virgil!"

"You have to look after yourself!"

"Hard to do anything else when I have four brothers mother-henning me all the time!"

"We worry about you!"

"Well, don't! I can look after myself."

"Alan!"

"Virgil!"

"Hey! What the hell is going on here?!"

Virgil found himself looming over his little brother, one brain cell after another slowly catching up with what the hell was going on. Bright blue eyes were staring up at him defiantly, his little brother's shoulders tight and fists clenched at his sides.

Virgil forced his own fists to uncurl. There was a reason why he preferred not to see this time of day. Disturbed sleep disturbed his calm, his control, and things like this happened.

Scott loomed over the both of them and Virgil took a step back, slumping back onto his seat and hulking over his coffee almost in a pout. "Better ask Alan, he's the one being stupid."

"Speak for yourself, Virgil."

"Both of you, shut it." Scott could glare with the best of them, but Virgil had exhausted what little energy he had and ignored him. "Alan, dosed himself with caffeine."

"Virgil!"

He could feel the laserbeams shooting out of Scott's eyes switching targets and landing on Alan. There was no satisfaction, just blergh. Here we go.

And sure enough, Scott started in on his little brother. There was, of course, shouting. Virgil idly wondered how come Scott got to yell and he didn't. But then Virgil didn't really like yelling anyway.

Coffee. Its warmth drifted down his throat and spread into his bones. Oh god, he needed it. Maybe a second one after this? But then the word 'caffeine' came up amongst the explosions beside him and he reconsidered. No need to become a target himself.

He let his foggy mind drift a little. It was all his fault really. He could have gone to bed early, but he had made the mistake of getting into a discussion online with an engineering idiot. The topic had become heated, chemical formulas launched like bombs and laced with reactive equations enough to take out half the engineering community. In the end, he'd thrown a hissy fit and sat up to three am writing up his argument. He'd chucked it onto his blog with a great deal of satisfaction and was looking forward to rubbing it in the man's face.

Just as soon as he could boot his brain.

Coffee, give me strength.

Gordon wandered in at some point, a damp towel around his neck. Being Gordon, he prodded the conflagration in progress and got burnt. The argument became three sided.

Virgil considered snoozing on the counter.

Then he hit on the idea that he could possibly sneak back to bed. He stood up slowly.

Brains bounded into the room, tablet in hand. "Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Brilliant, so b-brilliant!"

The argument came to a sudden halt, four pairs of eyes turning towards the engineer.

The engineer didn't notice, eyes glued to his tablet. Max bounded in behind him, whirring excitedly. It was the robot who prevented the distracted Brains from walking into the kitchen counter.

"Oh, thank you, M-Max." His eyes didn't leave the tablet. "Did you see the p-polymer ratio? Amazing! Such elegance. You know, I am quite d-disap-pointed that I didn't think of this myself. The applications are going to b-be in-numerable."

The distraction was enough to break the fuel lines of the argument and Scott settled for a final threat, Alan a final glare and Gordon, a snort of derision. The moment to escape was lost and Virgil slumped where he sat.

Damn.

"Virgil, you going to eat before we run?"

Alan was right, Scott mother-henned.

"Maybe." Ugh, c'mon coffee kick in. He needed operational braincells.

Scott was peering closely at him. "Earth to Virgil."

"Shut up, Scott. You got me up at the ass end of the day, I'm here. Don't expect much more."

His brother grinned, and Virgil had the odd urge to thump him. Just because this was his element, didn't mean he had to be a smart ass about it. "Your next physical is going to be hell."

The grin faltered. Aah, that's better. Hmm, perhaps his brain was slowly booting. Go, coffee.

"Virgil! You h-have to see these equations. They are brilliant!"

What? Brains' tablet shifted the remains of his coffee to one side and Virgil found himself staring at a series of numbers that made little sense at this time of the morning. "Brains, looks great. Can I review them later? I'm not all here yet."

The engineer didn't appear to hear him. "Look at the polymer decay to reaction ratio! This is a self-healing polymer!"

Huh? He frowned and forced himself to focus. The appropriate neurons clicked into place in his brain and suddenly what he was seeing made sense.

Shit.

He grabbed the tablet, eyeing the equations and spinning calculations in his head. Brains was right. This was perfect. The polymer would be able to self-heal with the application of a mild electrical current. Give it a pattern to follow and it would populate and keep it populated, even after disturbance.

"Did you discover this, Brains?" He frowned. There was something familiar about this. Maybe they had discussed it recently.

"Oh, no, this is V. T. Green. The man is brilliant." There was that word again. Brilliant.

But it still took a second for it all to click into place.

V. T. Green was his blog. V. T. Green was his pseudonym online, used for obvious reasons to keep his identity hidden. The blog had been for amusement originally. A place to stash his favourite music and art, but at some point, he had found himself venturing into engineering circles and getting into discussion with the online community. It made for interesting discourse and he was able to keep up to date with some of the latest innovations. Not that he could share his own much and IR was well ahead of the majority of the world thanks to one Hiram Hackenbacker, but on occasion he would fiddle with ideas and make suggestions. It was also a great place to postulate out-there concepts.

The equations on Brains' tablet were Virgil's.

"Where did you get these?"

Brains was full of far too much energy for this time of the morning. "Green p-posted them during the night and they have h-hit the world by s-storm."

"What?"

Brains frowned at him. "Haven't you heard of V. T. Green, Virgil? He is o-one of the leading engineers on this p-planet. I have been f-following his b-blog for over a year n-now. You r-really m-must check it out."

"Um, must have missed that one."

"H-how could you m-miss such an important s-site? I know you k-keep up to date. The man is at the centre of a massive discussion about polymer cohesion and decay. Last night, Coloncous in Spain had the nerve to challenge him in the most ridiculous manner. I was so close to cutting him off myself, he was embarrassing us all, but Green replied with this. As expected, it is a brilliant explanation and Coloncous had no choice but to concede and crawl back into the hole he should never have come out of in the first place. He was a fool to think he could go up against Green. But this solution has so many possibilities. Do you realise this could be integrated into Two's cahelium hull and she would be able to heal damage midflight? Four would be able seal herself in an underwater emergency. So brilliant."

Virgil stared at the engineer. He didn't think he had ever heard Brains say so many words in a row. And his stutter had disappeared two sentences in.

"What did you say about sealing Four, Brains?" Gordon's ears had obviously pricked up at the mention of his 'bird.

Brains' attention was immediately drawn to the aquanaut, his verbal diarrhoea spilling all over Gordon and freeing Virgil.

Taking the opportunity, he pulled out his phone and brought up the website.

Shit!

He had notifications enough to clog his inbox. Due to the early hour, his phone was still on silent and he hadn't heard any of them. A quick glance identified several prominent names and universities.

Shit. His eyes widened.

He glanced up at his family who were now eagerly discussing safety seals for Thunderbird Four. Even Scott's eyes were wide and enthusiastic.

Shit.

Um.

Yeah.

He needed more coffee.

-o-o-o-

End Part One

Part Two

He didn't get more coffee because they were called out not five minutes after he swallowed the dregs of what he already had.

Everything was dropped and International Rescue deployed. They were in the air within minutes and on their way to the Canadian Rockies to save a party of climbers caught in a rockfall.

It was pretty standard. Well, as standard as any rescue could be except his littlest brother was stoked on caffeine and did something really stupid.