Thunderbirds Rewritten

1: Back on Tracy Island

Alan was daydreaming again. Fermat was paying full attention. This was the norm in Wharton's School for Boys, where the last Tracy dragged himself through every day of school hoping for it to be his last. His teacher was droning on about something or another in her lesson, probably something he already knew, being the top of the class. Or he would be if he paid attention. His grades were pretty average without him putting the effort in, not that Jeff Tracy really knew about it, having all his attention on International Rescue.

Ah yes. International Rescue. Made up of five Tracys. Not six, he wasn't included in the family. Of course not, why would he be?

"Mr. Tracy!" His teacher yelled.

Alan galcned over at Fermat who he only just realized was trying to gain his attention before the teacher noticed. Not that he had much luck, clearly.

His teacher picked up the paper he had been doodling on in front of him, eying the imagery and text quoting 'THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO'.

She assigned him a hefty amount of homework for over Spring Break, of course.

In the hallway, Alan was sulking as his locker with Fermat next to him. He was grumbling about the injustice when Fermat gave him a firm enough push to warn him of teachers walking nearby and eying him suspiciously.

"Why can't I tell them I'm a Thunderbird?" Alan grumbled.

"W-well technically you aren't one y-yet," Fermat said. "And if your identity was discovered, it would be a d-d- very bad."

"I know, I know." Alan muttered. He was broken out of his thoughts by a smaller kid than Fermat, running through the corridors shouting about Thunderbirds being on TV. As he made to run past Alan, the Tracy stopped him in his tracks, demanding to know where they are.

"They're in Russia at an oil rig fire!" He exclaimed, pulling out of Alan's grip and continuing to run.

"Great, I'm stuck at school and my brothers are on another cool mission," Alan said.

"Wanna watch?" Fermat asked, knowing Alan idolizes his family anyway.

"Yeah!" Alan replied as they took off running towards the hall where many other students were gathered and watching the mission on a screen. As he fought his way to the front to watch, he glimpsed Thunderbirds One and Two approaching the scene of the accident.

'At least Scott and Virgil are there then'. "Come on, swign round, you cant get close enough taking that approach angle." Alan muttered, gaining the attention of one of his classmates. It seemed as if his brother heard him, as Thunderbird Two moved away from the scene to circle back and attempt another rescue.

"What now Alan?" Fermat whispered.

"I bet they drop the rescue platform from Two." Alan whispered back. As if on cue, Two did just that, causing Alan and Fermat to grin at each other.

They continued to watch the screen, Thunderbird Two performing the rescue in harsh weather conditions as Thunderbird One was standing by to assist.

Once the rescue was complete, the room of students cheered, including Alan and Fermat.

"Oh I wish I could be a Thunderbird! Thunder-turd." Mocked the student that was watching Alan.

"Not a good one, diaper boy," Alan retorted, gaining a few chuckles.

"Tracy! There is someone here for you!" Bellowed the voice of their headteacher. A path was carved through the students and Alan saw a glmpse of his headteacher and...pink?

An elegant woman walked on the path carved for her by the staring students, and stopped at Alan, smiling gracefully. "Hello boys. Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward at your service. Alan darling, your father's been unexpectedly detained so he's asked me to pick you up. Is that alright?"

"Definitely!" Alan and Fermat chorused.

For her own amusement, Lady Penelope had to ask, "Now will any of these gorgeous young men be joining you?"

Hands shot up alongside a chorus of "Me! Me!", much to Alan's own amusement. Alas, he knew this routine, and so answered the same as he always did.

"Just Fermat." He said, pulling the smaller boy into his side and making them both smile.

"Quite right." Lady P smiled.

~
Of course she brought the highly noticeable FAB1, a bright pink car with six wheels and secrets to die for hidden in every inch of her. Perhaps quite literally.

Lady P's butler was waiting by the car, and shook hands with Fermat quite strongly in their way of greeting.

"Hi Nosey." Alan smirked.

"Less of that attitude or I'll be obliged to deliver the Parker Haymaker." Parker teased. He smirked as Alan took on a boxing stance, stopping after a few seconds to enter the car with Fermat.

The drive was uneventful until they got closer to Tracy Island. Thunderbirds One and Two appeared from the clouds behind them, Scott in One deciding to show off by looping twice around Two, much to Lady P's amusement. All the aircraft landed, with Alan and Fermat arriving in the lounge first, while Alan's brothers performs their post-flight checks. Already there were Jeff and Gordon, who stayed behind on this particular mission, being as they weren't required. In Jeff's case, he rarely went out on missions, instead overseeing from his office and handling communications between them all and John in Thunderbird Five.

When Alan entered the lounge, he immediately spotted his father and ran over to him. They exchanged a heartfelt hug before Jeff pulled away to look at him properly. "Let's look at you – uh oh. Incoming."

Just as he said that, Gordon ran in along with Scott and Virgil, having met them along the way, and they all bombarded Alan and Fermat with greetings of "Hey Sprout!" and "Hey Buddy!" before they all started to settle for dinner.

Alan bombarded his father with questions about the mission, only to be shut down a bit by Jeff asking him about school, to which Alan replied was fine and uninteresting. He hesitated before asking his next question.

"I've been thinking, maybe I could be home educated now. Then I could sit in on missions from time to time."

"No shortcuts Alan. No school, no rockets. And why aren't you wearing your retainer?" Jeff asked as he walked away to sit with the rest of the family. Alan sighed before doing the same, catching enough of the conversation to add his own input about adjusting the flaps of Thunderbird One.

"That's the first thing I did. It's not my first day on a Thunderbird you know," Scott replied.

'Yes, I'm well aware," Alan thought.

"Try to keep up," Gordon said, patting Alan on the back condescendingly.

"Yeah, don't you have homework to do or something?" Virgil asked.

'Ah yes, deflect and keep me out of the conversation once again. Treat me like a child.' Alan thought.

"Unless he's blown up this school like the last one." Gordon joked.

'Dude, that wasn't even my fault!' Alan thought.

Then after a comment made jokingly about keeping Alan away from the Thunderbirds and being a hazard, thanks Scott, Jeff saw fit to end the jokes before they went too far. The conversation changed to past missions, all of which Alan recalled only watching on TV at school and not even being given the details of by his family after. Feeling like his stomach was full without having eaten much, he excused himself from the table, pulling Fermat with him who stole a few chips from his own plate before following.

Jeff observed all his sons watching as the two kids left, thinking it strange that Alan would skip a meal all of a sudden like that.

The conversation slowly but surely resumed between the boys, allowing Jeff to sit back and think.