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“You did what?” Scott stared down at the page his tablet screen displayed, seeing the numbers but not quite registering them, like he brain refused to process such madness.
“I bought us some costumes,” Gordon shrugged.
“You spent $3,479 and 15 cents on dress up costumes?”
"Cosplay outfits," Gordon corrected.
"On the business account? The one that's for expenses? The account that is for all of us? And you bought costumes?"
“Yes, for us,” Gordon explained patiently, putting special emphasis on the ‘us’ part.
“Why?” Scott wailed, shaking the tablet in Gordon’s general direction.
“Because they looked cool, they’re perfect replicas from the movies.”
“What are you planning on doing with them?” Virgil asked, once again walking in on a conversation and wishing he’d stayed in bed.
“Wear them, obviously,” Gordon said slowly, like he was telling him what two plus two equalled.
“We never go anywhere,” Virgil pointed out.
“We can wear them on a rescue!” Alan yelped excitedly. “Did you get me a Spiderman one?”
"I did!"
“I’m not wearing some skintight spandex nightmare out on a rescue,” Scott huffed.
“Yeah, because you guys never wear tight jumpsuits, do you?” Selene snorted, flicking to a fresh page of her magazine.
Scott shot a glare at his best friend where she lounged on the couch opposite him. As always she was immune to such looks and paid him not the slightest bit of attention.
“Come on, Scott, I got you a Captain America one,” Gordon wheedled. “And I got a Batman for John-”
“No,” John’s voice popped up out of nowhere, making them all jump and look towards his portrait until they realised that Selene was holding her comm out on her outstretched hand, John’s holographic torso floating out of it. “No way in hell am I wearing anything of the sort.”
"You called John?" Gordon gasped in shock. "You actually ratted me out?"
Selene shrugged, totally unrepentant as she readjusted the cushion behind her back, the comm now pillowed on her chest.
“I’m not wearing that," Scott continued, "so you can just pack them away in Two ready to take back to the mainland, you aren’t keeping them.”
“Spoil sports,” Gordon pouted, but his older (and he would say more boring) brothers would not be swayed.
***
“Once again, we can’t thank you enough for taking the time out of your busy schedules to be here with us. The children were so excited to hear that you would be coming.”
“No problem at all, Nurse Greyson,” Scott assured her with one of his super smiles, patent pending.
“It was our pleasure,” Virgil added. “The charity has done a wonderful job, it’s not every day a new wing is opened, let alone an entire hospital.”
The Anderbad City Children's Hospital was a marvel, containing state of the art machinery for both the diagnosis and treatment of a large number of rare and complicated illnesses as well as the more common ones. Boasting fifteen operating theaters each one containing the most up to date equipment, thirty-six wards, physiotherapy centers, rehabilitation and mental health units, it was one of the premier children's hospitals in the world.
Even though the hospital had already been operating at a reduced capacity for almost a year this was to be its official opening, now that the last of the wards were completed and fully staffed. The committee had approached International Rescue through the charity branch of Tracy Industries to request the presence of a member of the organisation to be the official ribbon cutter. They would have been delighted with one Tracy, but to get four and Kayo had exceeded all their expectations.
Not only had the boys cut the ribbon but Scott had prepared a little speech which was very well received and, most special of all, was the fact that they had planned to take some time to spend a couple of hours touring the wards and visiting the patients that were already installed. They just had to find the missing member of their band.
"Where's Gordon?" Scott asked, still suspicious of every move his brother made. He couldn’t be trusted to be left alone, not any more.
“I don’t know,” Virgil frowned, looking around for a moment or two before spotting him. “Oh, over there,” he pointed to where Gordon had just appeared, emerging from the crowd, jogging towards them.
“We said we’d be on the wards ten minutes ago,” Scott grumbled as the aquanaut skidded to a stop beside them.
“Sorry, but there’s been a change of plan,” Gordon told them “I’m gonna need you to come with me. Grab Allie and Kay, we don’t have much time.”
“What? What’s happened? Did John call?” Virgil called after him, following along at a quick clip as Gordon weaved his way through the crowd.
“Are we needed for a rescue?” Scott demanded to know. He had, for once, left his ‘bird at home, all of them piling into Two for the journey and now he was worrying that it would be needed when he had no access to it. Maybe he could call John and get him to drop the space elevator and swing him over the island?
Gordon didn’t say anything until they were safely inside Two’s cargo hold and then it happened.
“No way!”
“Yes, this is awesome!”
“Why am I the Hulk? I thought we agreed on Superman?”
Gordon continued to drag the accessories out of the storage locker where he had stashed the costumes, tossing things in the general direction of their new owners without a care as to where they landed.
“And why are we doing this exactly?” Kayo asked, catching the Black Widow costume out of mid air as it flew at her head.
“I overheard a couple of the nurses saying that the entertainers they hired to meet the kids never turned up.”
“So you volunteered us,” Scott sighed, seeing exactly where his brother’s mind had gone.
“I didn’t think you’d mind. Come on,” Gordon wheedled. “It’ll be fun, just like how we all dressed as superheroes to go trick or treating that one time.”
“That wasn’t fun for us, Gordy, we were only there because Dad made us promise to take you and keep an eye on you, and we only dressed up because Alan kept crying that we would stop him getting candy,” Virgil reminded him.
“Well, this time will be different,” Gordon promised, waving their concerns away. “Look, we’re a rescue organisation, this is us coming to the rescue. These kids have been looking forward to meeting their favorite superheroes and they aren’t here. We can do something about it, so we should. You don’t want to be responsible for letting down a bunch of sick kids, do you?”
Eyes darted this way and that, catching each other's gaze in silent question, debating.
“Fine,” Kayo snarled, making the decision for them as she headed to the bathroom to get changed.
“Gimme the damn suit,” Scott sighed, holding out his hand.
“Why do I have to be The Hulk?” Virgil asked again. “Can’t I take the Batman one?”
“Don’t have it,” Gordon shrugged cheerfully, already yanking on the green stretchy leggings that made up the bottom of his costume. “Sent it up in the space elevator to bug John.”
“Typical,” Virgil huffed reluctantly unzipping his uniform suit.
***
“Captain America! Where’s your shield?”
“Where’s Bucky?”
“Spidey, can you hang from the ceiling?”
“Can you Hulk Smash through this wall?”
The same barrage of questions hit them with every ward they entered and they’d done their best to answer them to the best of their ability, trying to stay in character as much as possible.
Everywhere they looked were children in various degrees of health. Some looked to have nothing wrong with them at all, running around and driving the doctors to distraction, while others were too sick to move from their beds, requiring their chosen Superhero Tracy to go to them.
They had allowed themselves three hours for the visits and they were already half an hour over that and feeling very uncomfortable in suits that hadn’t been designed with the levels of comfort and practicality that they were used to. By the time they had finished in the last ward even Gordon had reluctantly admitted that the suits weren’t as amazing as he’d first thought and they could think about nothing other than getting out of the costumes and back to the island for some much needed rest and hopefully somewhat edible food.
“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Scott said, trying to round up his siblings and hustle them out of the door.
They waved to patients and staff the whole way to the front doors, striking poses when appropriate and shouting out a catchphrase or two, though not their usual F.A.B.
“I’ll be so glad to get home,” Kayo sighed, shaking out her hair which she’d taken down from its customary ponytail to help her black widow look.
“I just want to take off this mask an- gak!” Virgil choked as Gordon elbowed him solidly in the side. “What was that for?”
Gordon nodded to a small boy sitting in a hover chair near the entrance, having apparently been abandoned there. Virgil got the hint and immediately dropped back into the grunting one word format he had adopted as his Hulk voice.
The boy looked decidedly fed up, his pout could have put even Alan’s to shame.
Alan, the only one that was still loving his costume and relishing his time in it, took off running, leaping up and racing along a bench before sailing off the end to land beside the kid in a classic hero landing pose.
“Hey, I’m your friendly, neighbourhood Spiderman.”
The boy barely spared him a glance before turning away to look back at his phone.
Confused, Alan glanced at the others for help.
“Hey, litt man,” Scott said in his best all american voice, adopting the power pose of fists on hips before striding over.
The boy’s eyes flicked up to watch him but they soon shifted away, dismissing him.
From the brief glance Virgil had gotten of the boy’s face he could tell that the young patient wasn’t in the best of health. His eyes were visibly sunken, ringed with dark circles, making his face look almost skull-like. His cheeks had hollowed so much that his skin looked to be too loose for his bones. The image was only heightened by his closely shaved hair. He was wearing a hoodie over his T-shirt and a warm blanket was spread across his lap even though it was a relatively warm day, warm enough to ensure that all of them were sweating in their costumes, but the boy still appeared to be shivering. A cardboard bowl sat in his lap, indicating that sickness was likely a common occurrence for him.
“By the beard of Poseidon,” Gordon exclaimed dramatically, waving his trident, “Great neptune! This boy must be greeted by my most amazing self.”
“No thanks,” the boy muttered under his breath.
“What’s your name, son?” Scott tired again, doing his best to keep his Captain America persona in place.
“Give me a break,” the boy groaned, rolling his eyes so hard Alan actually worried they might fall out of his head.
“Now, Ricky,” a lady that had been hovering nearby chastised gently. “Let’s not be rude. These superheroes have taken the time to visit so we should be polite and grateful.”
Ricky snorted in annoyance, not looking up from his phone.
“I thought you wanted to meet your heroes,” the lady continued in that false cheerful tone they all seemed to adopt. “It’s been all you've talked about the whole day.”
Ricky declined to comment, choosing to ignore them all in favour of whatever was on his phone screen.
The woman sidled over to where the Tracys had all converged back into a power huddle.
“I’m sorry about him,” she said, wincing apologetically. “He’s usually much more cheerful than this, not to mention polite, but the chemotherapy takes it out of him. He'll be wanting to get home but we can't go until the doctor signs us out.”
“Think nothing of it,” Scott assured her. “There’s nothing to apologise for, he’s not under any obligation to talk to us.”
“Today was his last session for this round, hopefully it’ll have done its job and he won’t need any more, but you can never tell for sure. He should perk up in a day or two.”
“I’m sure he will,” Gordon agreed, watching as Alan continued to try to engage the young boy in conversation only to be ignored the entire time as if he weren't even there.
“I really don’t understand it,” the woman, obviously his mother, mused, watching Ricky carefully. “He’d been talking about seeing his heroes for the past four weeks, so I’ve no idea why he’s acting this way now.”
“Can I try again?" Gordon asked, receiving a nod of agreement from his mother. Leaving his trident with Kayo he strutted over, making sure he added a confident swagger to his walk.
"Hey, kid, what are you looking at? Are you reading about how awesome I am?" Gordon struck a pose that he clearly thought was heroic but didn't quite cut the mustard. Ricky obviously felt the same as he continued to ignore Gordon completely.
"Ricky," his mum snapped, losing patience with his attitude. "These nice men are trying to talk to you and you're being very rude by ignoring them. Show them a little respect, please."
"Why should I? It's not like they are real heroes, they’re just normal people dressed up in stupid costumes.”
" But you said you wanted to meet them!" his mum argued.
"Not them," Ricky snorted. "International Rescue but we missed them."
"I know, and I'm sorry, but you know you had to complete your treatment.”
“I miss everything,” he huffed, crossing his arms sulkily. “All this stupid treatment does is make me puke and feel bad all the time.”
“I know, but you have to keep being brave a little longer, OK?” his mum crouched down to his level, kneeling beside the chair, her hand on his knee to force him to look at her.
Virgil gently nudged Scott, who raised an eyebrow in question, not wanting to disturb the scene that was playing out in front of them. Virgil nodded awkwardly towards the pair, unable to do much more with his hulk mask on. Scott took the hint.
Nudging Alan and Gordon aside, Scott squatted down beside Ricky’s chair.
“Your Mom’s right, you’re very brave.”
“What do you know about bravery?” Ricky snorted. “All you do is make believe that you’re a hero, you’re not a real one. Anyone can put on a costume and pretend, that doesn’t make you special.”
“No, you’re right, it doesn’t,” Scott agreed. “What makes someone brave is when they do things they don’t want to, things that are scary and make them feel bad, but they do them anyway because it’s the right thing to do. Being brave is something that is easy to talk about but harder to do, the real strength and bravery comes from not only taking those first steps but in finding the strength to keep on walking until the end.”
“What do you know about bravery?” Ricky asked, but his tone had lost a little of that sneering tone and gained a little curiosity.
“You’re right that we’re just wearing costumes today, but I promise you we know more about doing scary things than you would believe.”
Ricky didn’t look like he believed him.
“Can you keep a secret?” Scott whispered to him.
Ricky nodded, his eyes wide.
“Good,” Scott nodded once and straightened, ignoring the way his knees popped, making him feel far older than he was. “Does he have to stay here until he’s discharged or can he move around the grounds?”
“He should be able to go anywhere on the grounds as long as he doesn’t exert himself,” his mother answered.
“Then can we borrow him for a while? We’ve got something to show him.”
In the time that it took the mother to find a nurse and make sure that Ricky was both allowed to go off and that the man dressed as Captain America was safe to leave him with the other Tracys had slipped away to change out of their costumes and back into their mum more comfortable uniforms, and were ready and waiting for their guest when Scott guided the hover chair up the ramp into Two’s module.
“Bet you never knew that Spiderman worked for International Rescue,” Alan called, waving to Ricky.
“Or that Aquaman was a real aquanaut,” Gordon added.
“Are you really International Rescue?” Ricky goggled, unable to believe that, not only was he meeting them but he was inside one of the famous crafts.
“You’d better believe it,” Scott grinned, reaching up to pull off the blonde wig that had been itching his head all afternoon. “Why else would we have this big green bathtub?”
“Hey, less of the bathtub,” Virgil yelled, but his smile showed he didn’t really mind in the slightest. “Hi, Ricky, welcome to Thunderbird Two. How would you like a little tour?”
***
“That took a lot longer than you said it would,” Grandma scolded mildly when they eventually dragged themselves home and out of the hangar to the lounge. “I had to throw your dinner away two hours ago so you’re just going to have to make do with whatever you can scrounge up from the freezers.” If she heard the sigh of relief that followed she didn’t let on.
“What's the likelihood of us enticing Selene into cooking?” Alan asked, flopping down on the first seat he found, his stomach grumbling loudly.
“If we get John home, then I’d say pretty high,” Gordon answered. “Someone call him.”
“I’ll do it,” Virgil offered, sitting up a little straighter to push the comm button on the projector on the table in front of them.
Almost immediately the hologram flared into life, showing them the inside of the gravity ring on Thunderbird Five, but no John.
“That’s weird,” Scott observed, sitting up too. “Maybe we should call aga-” the camera began to move, starting its automatic tracking to find a life source with which to connect the outside world to. It was this feature that had left John (and sometimes Selene) in slightly embarrassing situations when it popped up unexpectedly. John and the mouldy bagel incident sprung to Scott’s mind as the camera zoomed along its tracks in search of Five’s operator.
The camera skidded to a halt, panning around to show the back of a head, a head that was black and sported pointed black ears…
“John?” Alan gasped.
The figure jumped in shock, the black cowl a stark contrast to the bright blue of the uniform underneath.
John closed his eyes in utter horror. Why? Why did they have the worst timing in the history of the world? Why did all brothers seem to come with an inbuilt knack of knowing exactly when you were doing the most embarrassing of things and chose that precise moment to pop up, witnessing it in all its horrific glory? Honestly, he’d rather be caught with his pants down (again) than like this.
He’d only tried it on out of curiosity after finding it in the supply box that had been sent up from the island. He wasn’t even intending to wear the whole thing, just the mask because honestly, that was kinda cool.
What a man did in the privacy of his own ship should be for his eyes only and he should not have to explain himself to annoying brothers than never felt the need to announce their presence before popping up out of nowhere. Ok, so he did the exact same thing to them all the time, but he had boundaries, dammit, he only popped up for emergencies and almost always gave them a tiny amount of warning first.
He had a few choices, cut the feed and ignore them for the next month until they gave up on it, snatch the thing off his head and pretend it was all an illusion, explain himself and deal with the teasing, or brazen it out.
“John!” Gordon had seen too, oh the humanity, there was no hope for it now, there would be no explaining this away.
His first instinct was to go with option number one, hiding away from them forever, something that would actually be possible for him and almost enjoyable given the circumstances. But his pride wouldn't allow it, he was better than that…
Slowly he turned to face the camera.
“Who’s John?” he said in as gravelly a tone as he could manage.
“What?” Scott frowned, wondering if space madness had finally claimed his brother.
Undeterred, John delivered his last line.
“I’m Batman.”
The hologram went dead as the feed from Five was cut.