Standard disclaimer: I don't own the thunderbirds or any part thereof.
Battle of the brothers.
Follow on from Scott's Revenge...
The clash of the titans has nothing on the Tracy brothers when they have a score to settle, and Gordon and Alan have just stepped over the mark, Scott and Virgil are out for vengeance. John sits on the sidelines, enjoying the show, but does he have more at stake than either party realises.
Chapter One: Growls and Cold Showers.
A devastated landscape of collapsed burning buildings stretched as far as he could see, the rubble and wreckage of human habitation was mind blowing, even for someone who had witnessed some of the worst disasters in resent time. The huge earthquake and subsequent fires that had devastated Tokyo's business districts, the residential areas coming in for some heavy damage as well was overpowering. The vast scale of the disaster had occasioned the request of international rescues assistance as well as the assistance of the United Nations. Thousands had been killed or maimed, while tens of thousands were left homeless, the sheer size of the emergency had overwhelmed the field commander of International Rescue when he had first arrived five days earlier, but with a determination that belied his years, Scott Tracy overcame his own emotional response to the disaster and coordinated the use of International Rescues unique equipment to the best advantages of the survivors.
Now having completed another meeting with the emergency department heads he was returning to his brothers with good news, 'well as good as it got in situations like this.' He thinks to himself packing up the laptop that serves as mobile control, he smiles tiredly looking at the small machine, 'I'm glad Brains has updated this, I wouldn't have wanted to lug the old one around this site.' Tugging the bag securely over his shoulder Scott set out across the devastated city centre towards Thunderbird two
The acidic stench of smoke and ash filled Scott's nose and burn his throat, coughing roughly he stumbles down the incline towards thunderbird two, in the distance between the swathes of smoke he can see the firefly rumbling back into its pod, John and Gordon following in its shadow. Shouting above the noise of the emergency vehicles and radio traffic, Scott waves to his brothers looking up Gordon nudges John and points to their eldest brother as he approaches. "How's it going Scotty." John asks tiredly. "Fine, I've just spoken to the emergency services chief, he believes the situation is under control, for now, they say we should be ok to leave them to it." He turns towards Thunderbird two where Virgil is climbing out of the Firefly, "Com'on let's get loaded up, I wanna get outta this uniform. I swear I can't smell anything except smoke." Gordon looks around the emergency site, the collapsed smouldering buildings creating a haze in the darkening sky, "How many didn't make it?" the redhead looks at his eldest brother, torment in his eyes. "They haven't got a complete count yet Gordon." Scott threw an arm around the younger man, "We got everyone out we could, those left where already gone, you know that." Scott felt bad about the loss of life, but it was a fact of the business they were in that they would be faced with death and defeat. "We saved a lot of people that wouldn't have made it otherwise" Scott looks at his other brothers, "Virgil you ready to go?" Virgil nods from his place beside the firefly, tightening the last of the latches that secures the large machine. "Yeah, I've seen enough." Yawning widely John picks up the last box of equipment and tosses it in the locker at the side of the pod, before heading for the lift to Thunderbird two's cockpit. "I'll start the pre-flight..." he murmurs as the door closes. Frowning Virgil looks at Scott, then hastily follows John towards the cockpit, "Hey... wait up."
Grinning Gordon looks at Scott, "Want a bet Virgil's gonna toss his ass out of the pilots seat?"
"Uh ah, no argument there, I'll see you back at home. OK" Scott pats Gordon on the back in farewell as he leaves the pod, heading towards his own ship a hundred metres beyond Thunderbird two.
Wearily climbing into the cockpit of Thunderbird one Scott pulls off his jacket and changes his shirt for a clean one, then collapses in his seat and starts pre-flight checks, he listens as Thunderbird two confirms lift off with Alan on Thunderbird five. He watches as the mammoth machine rises heavily from her resting place, hanging in the air for a moment as if unsure that gravity is going to let her go, then with a whoosh of high pressure air she shoots off into the rapidly closing night.
Scott smirks, "Thinks he's gonna beat me home does he." Finishing his pre-flight, Scott initiates contact with Thunderbird five, "Allie, I'm lifting off, asks Onaha to put the kettle on would ya?" Alan's grinning countenance appears on the screen to the side of Scott's heads up display. "Yeah, already done so, Virgil's in a hurry."
"No kidding." Scott grins, relaxing back into his seat as the gravitational pull of Thunderbird one's liftoff pushes him back, "He left in such a hurry he didn't even say good-bye, I'm hurt." Scott grumbles jokingly.
"Yeah, I can tell." Alan returned, "Want me to tell him?"
"Nah..." Scott beams, "I'll let him know on my way past." Having reached sufficient altitude Scott pushes Thunderbird one's throttle to full power propelling the ship across the vast night at high speed, he quickly overtakes Thunderbird two, slowing enough to buzz the larger vessel. He drops down in front of the cockpit of Thunderbird two matching speed easily, then wiggles Thunderbird one in a mocking manner, "Hey guys' eat my dust." He smirks over the open link between the two ships. Opening the throttle again Scott increases his speed slowly, before doing a stage stopping barrel roll.
In Thunderbird two Virgil watches Scott's antics disgruntled, "He just can't help it can he?" he asks, John shrugs, "Never could, never will."
Behind them Gordon eyes the bright burn of Thunderbird ones rockets as she rolls over, 'Cocky sod.' He thinks with a smirk, waiting...
As Thunderbird one rolls into an inverse position the gravitational forces push Scott into his seat, with practiced easy he tightens his lower body to compensate, maintaining control of his ship, the unexpected deafeningly loud growl that reverberates around the cockpit unfortunately make him jerk back on the controls causing Thunderbird one to do a abrupt dive, quickly Scott regains control of the ship stabilizing her trajectory.
In sudden panic Virgil yells over the open link. "Scott, Scott what's wrong, Scott." Behind him Gordon sits grinning manically, stifling his hysterics, and sharing a conspiratorial grin with John.
As Thunderbird one rolls to regain her horizontal flight position the growl again echoes around the cockpit. Scott nervously looks over his shoulders trying to locate the origin of the noise, wondering what creature he could have brought back with him, "Ah... I'm OK Virge", he responds to Thunderbird two's hails, "Just... Um... it's nothing, I'm OK." He looks around as far as his position will allow not seeing anything; he shrugs and nervously resumes his rapid flight back to his island home. "See you guys at home."
As the bright light of Thunderbird one's rockets disappear over the horizon Gordon finally gives out and doubles over laughing. Glaring at his younger brother Virgil asks, "What's so funny?"
"Nothing..." Gordon chokes out. Virgil looks towards John in exasperation; hastily John plasters a calm look on his face, shaking his head in mock vexation.
----
Scott having showered and changed sits waiting in command and control for his brothers to appear, tossing the noise maker he found under Thunderbird one's pilots seat, as it spins in the air it gives out a loud growl. Scott contemplates his revenge on his brother, wondering if it was just Gordon this time or if Alan was involved, it's certainly Alan's style. As three of his younger brothers file in to the room followed by their father, Scott throws the noise maker at Gordon, "Think quick Fish!" he calls as the object flies at Gordon's head. Gordon dodges and grabs the projectile, looking at it he grins at Scott, with a shrug. "We'd you find this Scotty?"
"You don't know?" Scott snaps.
Gordon shrugs with a grin, collapsing into a chair as far away from his irritated eldest brother as the room will allow, and nearest the door. "Boys please, can we get on with this," Jeff asks firmly giving a warning frown to his redhead son.
The post mission conference is mercifully brief, after which Gordon beats a swift retreat, Scott watching him go slouches out of the office.
"What happened?" Virgil asks, matching Scott pace down the corridor.
"The little shit put a growl under my seat."
Virgil looks at his brother, "A growl?"
"Yeah you know those things they put in kids teddy bears that make a growl noise when they are turned upside down. It went off as I rolled, totally threw me, I thought I had a passenger."
Virgil stifling a smile looks at his eldest brother, nodding in false sympathy.
Noticing the lack of real sympathy Scott mutters, "I kept expecting some bloody animal to jump out the whole way home."
Following behind John overhears the conversation, taking perverse pleasure at his brother's grumpy tone, "You gonna let him get away with it?" he asks.
Stopping Scott looks back at his next younger brother, "No. I just have to come up with something he won't see coming, Allie too, I'm sure he was involved. I'm pretty sure I heard him laughing his stupid head off up there." Scott states venomously.
Nodding in satisfaction John pushes past his brothers, "Well I'm gonna get something to eat, then hit the sack." He continues down the corridor.
Patting Scott shoulder in commiseration Virgil follows John, "Coming?" he asks, Scott follows grumbling about the lack of respect given to him by his younger brothers.
----
The sun rises on the pristine beaches of Tracy Island, the surf rolls in bathing the white sand in a glittering necklace of foam, while brilliantly coloured birds carouse calling to each other with the wonder of a new day. In the Tracy villa situated on the smallest of the three hill of this beautiful island, the Tracy family waken to the sounds of pots and pans clattering in the kitchen and the smell of freshly brewed coffee and warm cinnamon buns. Scott ever the first to appear for breakfast sits at the table sipping on a hot mug of coffee and picking absently at a cinnamon bun while reading the latest reports of the Tokyo disaster on his laptop. Jeff Tracy soon joins him with his own coffee and bun, "Any news?" Looking up Scott shakes his head, "Numbers of dead are still rising, and they think it will top the five thousand mark by the end of the week." Scott looks at his father, distressed, "It should stabilize at that."
Shaking his head in dismay Jeff looks more closely at his son, "You did the best you could son. You know that right?"
Scott nods, "Yeah. But..."
"No buts Scott, you and the boys did all you could, we're only human, you can't save everyone no matter how much we'd like to. Let it go." Jeff states firmly, his hand resting on Scott's shoulder in support. Their rapport is broken by an unholy wail and the sound of a slamming door. Standing abruptly Scott and Jeff race towards the corridor while Onaha taken aback at the noise appears at the kitchen entry wooden spoon in hand, "What...?" she begins to ask.
"Gordon!" Virgil's voice reverberates down the corridor into the living areas; Scott and Jeff stop and look at each other as Gordon comes racing down the corridor bursting between them and into the living area.
"Gordon, what have you done?" Jeff asks sternly.
"Me?" Gordon turns his most innocent look on his father, "Why is it I always get the blame?"
Stepping towards his second youngest brother Scott frowns, "Gordon..." he warns.
Grinning Gordon looks over Scott and Jeff's shoulders towards the corridor as an irate Virgil marches into the living area, "Sorry gotta go." The redhead laughs grabbing Scott's cinnamon bun and dashing out onto the pool deck.
"Where is he?" Virgil growls clutching a towel around his middle, water dripping from his damp hair and running down his muscular frame.
Jeff looks at his middle son, he can't see any immediate signs of abuse, but then Gordon's pranks can sometime be quite subtle, not often, but sometimes. Frowning at his middle son, Jeff shakes his head, "He's gone son, go get dressed."
Looking around the room in anger Virgil stomps towards the table picking up Scott's coffee and stomps back towards the corridor, "Little shit, he's gonna pay, big time." Sipping the coffee, he passes John at the entrance to the lounge, turning to watch his next youngest brother John grins, "Get outta the wrong side of the bed Virge?" he asks.
Virgil just gives him a rude gesture, and then clutches the towel that has slipped down; giving up on trying to wrap the towel around his waist single handed, he tosses it over his shoulder and stomps naked up the stairs.
Jeff shakes his head, sitting and picking up the newspaper, trying to pretend nothing has happened.
"What's got his knickers in a knot?" John asks.
"Gordon" Scott replies.
"Oooh." John grins, "What he do this time?" he collects a mug from the kitchen bench and fills it handing it to Scott then gets one himself.
"Don't know. I guess we'll find out. Virgil was pretty pissed."
"Yeah, I got that." John picks up a bun and bites into it with a grin.
----
Down on the beach Gordon rests against a palm tree eating the bun his stole from Scott while chatting on his wrist communicator with his only younger brother.
"Well how'd it go?" Alan asks excitement in his voice.
"Like a dream, he didn't even notice until it was too late. Walked right in to it, you should have heard him scream." Gordon laughs, "You know what his like in the morning."
"Did you see Scott's dive yesterday." Alan queried, "All I got was the look on his face, I got it recorded if you want to see it."
Gordon smiles with elation "Yeah send it to my email, could be good for blackmail or something. He found the growl by the way, nearly took my head off with it."
"What you got planned next?" Alan queries, a huge smirk on his face.
Grinning manically Gordon looks at his youngest brother, "You'll just have to wait and see."
TBC...
I hope you enjoyed the start of this battle, believe me when I say the line in the sand has only just be drawn and that things are gonna get bloody. Please review.
Thanks TBZ.