It was another beautiful day in the South Atlantic, where International Rescue’s secret island base sat innocently in the clear blue waters.
Inside, however, Geoff Tracey sat with a tense expression on his face. John had just called in from Thunderbird 5, the huge orbiting spaceship. It meant trouble, big trouble.
A large volcano was erupting on the remote tropical island of Aprilla, the first of a chain of thirty such islands in the Go’Cha archipelago and it threatened the lives of many inhabitants.
“Allen, with Scott away, you’ll have to fly Thunderbird 2. You’ll need the Vole and the Firefly, so load up Pod 4.”
“Right, Father.” Allen said, crossing to the couch that disguised the entrance to Thunderbird 2’s entry chute.
“Oh and take Gordon and Brains with you, they’ll be useful!”
Allen nodded as he replied, “P.W.O.R!”
Immediately, the couch with the three brothers on it sank into the floor and emerged moments later inside Thunderbird 2’s silo.
The huge green plane sat on six sturdy legs above the four spherical pods, which were already beginning to move along below it.
When Pod 6 was locked in place, the freighter ship lowered down onto it and then the whole machine tilted upwards to an angle of 90 degrees, waiting for the swimming pool to finish retracting to make way for the craft to emerge from its secret hangar.
With a roar of jets they were off and flying low over the water on the way to the emergency zone.
On the far-off island, the lava was creeping nearer to the village, could it be that International Rescue were already too late?
“There’s the island, dead ahead!” called Allen over the noise of the three engines.
“L-Looks like the village is already under threat,” his brother Brains added, “Let’s land over there.”
“I’ll get into the Firefly, you two get into the Vole.” Gordon added, his long dark hair swishing luxuriously behind him as he ran for the access gantry to the Pod.
With a cacophony of noise, the mighty craft settled down and lowered its Pod near the village.
The Firefly emerged first, its brilliant blue and white hull reflecting the sinister red-orange glow of the advancing lava stream.
“Gee, this is gonna be a tricky one. Maybe we should have brought Virgil along, she’s the expert when it comes to natural disasters…” he thought with some apprehension.
The Vole followed the Firefly towards the lava stream, its huge teal-hued drill screw already spinning in preparation for the gruelling task ahead.
“All set, Brains?”
“S.I.G, Allen!”
“Right, let’s start digging that trench!”
The rugged machine tipped off its carrier sled and began slicing up the ground, forming an overflow trench.
“Hurry, Allen!” Brains cried, “That lava is moving fast!”
Allen snatched up the radio, “Gordon, push that lava back! We need a few more minutes!”
“S.P.A!”
Gordon revved the Firefly’s engine and lowered twin blades at the front and rear of the machine. Using all his skill, he managed to divert the flow away from the nearby village towards the trench that Allen and Brains were digging.
“All set here guys!”
“W.I.N!” came Allen’s reply.
As the Vole emerged back onto its carrier, the leading edge of the lava stream reached the trench and plunged it, flowing along until it reached the sea with an almighty hiss.
There were cheers all round, the village had been saved.
“Nice work guys!” Allen said with a smile, “Spectrum will be sending Stingray with Captain Shore along in a day or so to keep an eye on things, so we’re ready to go!”
“Sir, wait!” a small voice said.
Allen looked around and spotted the child who had spoken.
“I just wanted to say thank you for what you did here today! If we’d waited for the motor launches from the other islands to reach us, we would not have survived.”
“You’re welcome. It’s what International Rescue do. Glad we were able to get to Aprilla first”.
THE END?
Hold on a moment, seems like there might be something a little off about this particular story… Perhaps you should check the date it was published.
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