In Thunderbird Five, John Tracy was tuned into every radio frequency in the world, and was on regular monitor duty, listening for any calls for help, or indirect indications that International Rescue might be needed.

Soon it came:  a desperate message.

“Calling International Rescue… Calling International Rescue. This is Central Coast Diving Society. We desperately need your help.”

John reached for a microphone.

“Go ahead, Diving Society. This is International Rescue.”

“Two of our divers were exploring a coastal underwater cave, when they radioed us in trouble. They said that they have been prevented from leaving the cave by a shark too large to follow them into the cave. When their air supply runs out, they will be trapped breathless and still watched by the shark. The water is too shallow for us to send any rescue craft of our own.”

“We understand, Diving Society. What is your exact location?” said John Tracy.

“Just outside Terrigal Beach.”

“We’ll be there with help as soon as we can,” said John.

On earth, at Tracy Island, Jeff Tracy and Scott and Virgil were in the lounge room at the time John called with the news.

“Virgil, tell Gordon and Brains we need them up here now,” said Jeff.

“Fetch And Bring,” said Virgil, and left the room.

“Now, let’s see,” said Jeff, “Speed is of the essence, and we can’t use Thunderbird Four in that area. But our aquanaut is still the best person to handle this job. Scott can take Gordon there in Thunderbird One as soon as Brains has loaded whatever he thinks we should use from our equipment, in order to handle the sharks.

Gordon and Brains arrived in time for a recap of the situation. Brains and Virgil and Alan were soon transferring equipment from Pod Four’s Thunderbird Four in Thunderbird Two hanger into Thunderbird One.

Scott stood against a wall panel and held onto two bars beside his head. His father pressed a button. The panel rotated, and Scott was soon watching the sliding platform which led to Thunderbird One. The panel rotated back, and Gordon took the rare opportunity to repeat Scott’s boarding sequence. Gordon looked down and saw Virgil and Alan and Brains leaving Thunderbird One Silo in a small tram like craft that had last been used to give two boys a tour of International Rescue in order to explain the need for them to avoid using their radios to play International Rescue games.

As soon as the silo was cleared and Gordon was aboard, Scott moved the controls, which sent the great ship sliding down a sloping underground pathway and onto the launching pad. Scott took off, with Gordon in the passenger seat which had once been used by Brains, and headed for Terrigal Beach, Australia.

Thunderbird One reached the spot quickly, and spread its blue wings and prepared to land vertically on the shore. Suddenly the craft sustained an artillery shot. Both Scott and Gordon were injured, as Scott overshot the shore and lightly crash landed in the shallow water. Then they heard an electronically magnified voice from a hand held device.

“The Central Coast Diving Society was just a farce to lure you here, International Rescue. You will leave your craft and hand it over to us.”

“They can’t do us too much damage. They want Thunderbird One,” said Scott. Let’s see if the gun still works. Scott pressed a button and found that the gun turret was underwater.

“We’ll have to use our hover bikes,” said Gordon.

“Not yet,” said Scott, “Let’s get the lie of the land first.”

Scott sent the remote control flying camera out of Thunderbird One and over towards the shore, where he saw three men manning a cannon.

“It’s such a simplistic set-up,” said Gordon, “They only disabled us, because they took us by surprise.”

“I know,” said Scott, “We didn’t crash hard enough to impair our take off and flight capabilities. I just don’t think I can walk too well now. But the moment we lift off, they’ll fire another round. Let’s sneak out the far side with the hover bikes and get as close as we can to them. Then we’ll use the hover bike canons. I’m going to call Dad first. We may need help from Thunderbird Two.”

Soon Jeff Tracy was talking to his son.

“Virgil, Brains and Alan are on their way, with Pod 2 and the repair equipment, in case you do need the ship repaired for the flight home. Be careful, boys. You’ve been ambushed by Thunderbird seekers before, but don’t take any careless chances.”

“F.A.B. Dad,” said Scott, and opened the side door of Thunderbird One.

He and Gordon made their way to the hover bikes and headed away from the shore at first, using Thunderbird One for cover, and then snuck around and surprised the villains. Gordon fired a shot that would have killed a giant alligator. The cannon was completely destroyed, and the villains shaken up with similar injuries. They weren’t going anywhere. Jeff had promised to send the local authorities to help. They would arrive only in time to cart the criminals away. Many people around the world owed their very lives to International Rescue, and these men would not be looked on favourably by any court.

“Thank goodness we got the drop on them,” said Scott, “We’re far too injured to get off these bikes and fight them with hand guns or fists.”

“Scott, I didn’t want to worry you before, but … I’m starting to cave in,” said Gordon.

“Can you make it back to Thunderbird One?”

“I think so. But I feel sure I’ll pass out when I do.”

Scott led Gordon quickly back to the ship, and waited for Thunderbird Two to arrive. Brains looked over the ship and said that it would be alright to attempt a return flight, but only with Thunderbird Two flying close by in case of trouble.

“I think I should take Thunderbird One,” said Alan, “That way Brains can look after Scott and Gordon in Pod 2. Scott’s had a rough time of it, and I’ve piloted Thunderbird One before, when we went to the drilling rig.”

“I’ll check with Dad,” said Virgil, and soon got Jeff Tracy’s approval.

Scott and Gordon were both so badly injured, that they had to go to a mainland hospital for a month of surgery, nursing and recovery. They explained their injuries as a flying accident. 

On Spectrum Cloudbase, Colonel White and the members of Spectrum heard an ominous voice, that they were all only too aware was coming from the Martian invaders who had been threatening earth for some time:

“This is the voice of the Mysterons. We know that you can hear us, earth men. We will no longer confine our attacks to the Spectrum organisation and earth’s defences. We will launch a pair of simultaneous attacks against the World Aquanaut Security Patrol and the London Agent of International Rescue. We are stepping up our campaign which will lead to the total annihilation of all life forms on the planet known as earth. You will pay for your unprovoked attack on our planet Mars.”

“If they only knew what hypocrites they were!” said Captain Blue, “The first Zero X mission to Mars mistook the Mysterons for pieces of rock and were just trying to cut off a sample with the laser gun. After being so badly damaged that Zero X needed International Rescue’s help to save the crew, they were reluctant to return to Mars. The later Zero X mission, manned by Spectrum this time, had three men who were more cautious and alert. Expecting an attack, they mistook a movement in the Mysteron complex for a rising weapon, and naturally fired first. For that one mistake, we’ve seen so many people murdered and replaced with Mysteron duplicates who worked against us.”

“I know it’s unfair,” said Colonel White, “But we can only do our best to stop them. I didn’t even know International Rescue had a London agent. We’ll call International Rescue and warn them, but we won’t know where to find their agent to provide our protection, and they’re not likely to tell us. We’ll have to hope we can do more for W.A.S.P.”

Deep beneath the surface of the sea, the unseen force of the Mysterons’ power killed Titan and his surface agent X-2-Zero. These two Aquaphibians had been plotting and implementing endless schemes and attacks against the World Aquanaut Security Patrol. Now they had been replaced by two Mysteron duplicates, who had observed X-2-Zero’s ability to disguise himself and infiltrate Marineville.  Now they used Mysteron science, and the duplicate X-2-Zero’s disguise skills to lure Troy Tempest, Phones and Marina out in Stingray, where the Mysterons’ powers attacked the ship and stranded it at the bottom of the sea, completely immobile, at a depth where no other craft could reach them … except one.

At Marineville, Commander Shore called International Rescue for help.

“Thunderbird Four could do it, Dad, but none of us has Gordon’s skill to pilot the craft at that depth and tow Stingray back to Marineville where the team could evacuate Stingray safely,” said Virgil.

“I guess we just can’t help. I’ll contact all the known government channels and see if anyone else has the resources,” said Jeff, “We can’t put an untrained person in Thunderbird Four to risk their life and end up having to rescue them too. In the light of what Spectrum told us, we’ve also got to worry about what might happen to Penelope. We don’t want to spread ourselves too thin.”

“Shouldn’t we guard her?” said Alan.

“We can’t just land a Thunderbird on her estate without drawing even more trouble than we’ve got,” said Jeff, “Parker’s with her, and FAB1 has a good arsenal of devices designed by Brains.”

Soon Jeff Tracy received an offer of help from Shane Weston of World Intelligence Network.

“Mr Tracy, we have just as much need as you to protect our own secrecy,” said Weston, “We should be able to trust each other. We have a device which could record the brain pattern of your injured aquanaut and then transfer them into our agent. We normally keep the recordings, but in this case we’ll destroy them as soon as the WASP rescue is done.”

“We’ve always avoided putting our privacy ahead of an endangered life,” said Jeff, “We’ll tell you where to meet our man for the brain pattern recording, and then Thunderbird Two will take your agent to the danger zone.”

Gordon checked out of the hospital, still in no condition to pilot Thunderbird Four through a complex rescue, but able to meet the others to carry out the rescue plan by remote control. In an isolated landing strip, Gordon met the approaching Thunderbird Two with Pod Four. They waited for the approach of the World Intelligence Network operators, namely Sam Louvre, ‘Mac” McClaine and his ten year old son Joe.

“I’m surprised you brought your child on this trip,” said Virgil, “Do you really let him in on your agent’s activities?”

“He IS our agent,” said Sam.

“But he’s just a kid,” said Gordon, “How can he pilot the most advanced underwater craft except possibly for Stingray itself?”

“He’s not a kid when he has brain patterns,” said Mac, “Believe me, I wouldn’t risk my own son if I hadn’t seen the success of every mission he’s ever done.”

Sam and Mac set up the recording gear, and recorded Gordon Tracy’s brain pattern. Then they raced back to the McLaine house and sat Joe in the B.I.G.R.A.T. and got Joe ‘brained up’ with Gordon’s knowledge of Thunderbird Four.

“Okay Joe. Thunderbird Two’s waiting,” said Sam.

“F.A.B.” said Joe.

“What?” asked Mac.

“It’s something he says a lot,” said Joe, “Maybe it means Fashion Apparently Blue.”

Joe boarded Thunderbird Two, and was flown to a spot just above the reported position of Stingray. Virgil dropped Pod Four from Thunderbird Two. It hit the surface, and opened a flap and released a small track which led from the Pod to the water. Thunderbird Four was soon sliding into the sea and descending. Soon Joe 90 used the controls to extend two magnetic clamps towards Stingray, and pushed the craft back to Marineville, much to the joy and relief of Atlanta, who had been in love with Troy Tempest for some time and recently learned of his reciprocating commitment. Phones had finally felt that he could admit his feelings for Marina, without upsetting Troy.

Joe returned to the B.I.G.R.A.T. and was soon his usual self. Sam handed the brain recording over to Virgil. Marineville were not told of W.I.N.’s involvement in the rescue. With their plan to destroy Stingray and her crew defeated, the Mysteron versions of Titan and his stooge left earth for Mars. One thing was certain. Marineville would have to take stock of the Mysteron threat, but they’d never again be bothered by Titan.

Meanwhile, in order to carry out the other part of their attack, the Mysterons killed and duplicated the man with the best resources to attack Lady Penelope … namely Masterspy. With Mysteron knowledge of Lady Penelope’s location, the fake Masterspy attacked her mansion before she or Parker could even get near FAB1.

“Milady, look!” said Parker, suddenly, pointing out the window.

Approaching the estate was a man in a flying car!

“Even FAB1 can’t do that,” said Penelope, “It looks as though Virgil and Alan won’t make it in time to help us.”

To their pleasant surprise, Mike Mercury dived at the Mysteronized Masterspy with Supercar and soon cornered him with help from Parker.

“You’ll never beat us, earth men!” said Mysteron Masterspy, and simply disappeared.

“I’d been trailing him for hours. He’s my number one concern,” said Mercury, “But I never knew he could do that.”

“I don’t think that was the man you know,” said Lady Penelope Creighton Ward, “I think it’s time that the world’s best organisations pooled their resources. I’m going to suggest it to Jeff Tracy.”

Like Titan, the real Masterspy would be no more threat to Mike Mercury.

One positive thing came out of the recent increased level of Mysteron threat and action. International Rescue had, in the events already detailed, created positive working relationships with several of earth’s intelligence organisations. WASP, WIN, Mike Mercury and Spectrum had all worked with International Rescue. Jeff Tracy spoke to Colonel White and suggested it would be wise to get all of the known sympathetic organisations to pool their resources to find a way to stop the Mysteron attacks once and for all.

“Well there are only two other teams that should be let in on our alliance,” said Colonel White, “The British Intelligence Secret Headquarters Operation Priest. I’ll get in contact with the B.I.S.H.O.P. and Steve Zodiac and then invite representatives from each organisation to be flown to Cloudbase for strategy talks.”

Father Stanley Unwin only doubled as a secret agent on special assignments for B.I.S.H.O.P. for the rest of the time, he was the Senior Minister and regular preacher at a beautiful English country church, which had lasted for centuries, when many other buildings had given way to modern architecture and urban expansion. Right now, he was finishing a sermon for his attentive congregation.

“So in conclusion, can I say that God is calling everyone to turn to Jesus and repent. All have sinned and fall short of God’s expectations to be deserving of eternal life. God’s son Jesus lived a perfect life on earth and paid the price for those sins on the cross. When he raised himself from death, he went to prepare the kingdom of eternal life in heaven for all those who accept him as their Lord and Saviour. All you need to do is invite him into your hearts. Look around us in the world. There are frequent freak weather conditions, natural disasters, crime on the rise, the boundaries of marriage ignored and disrespected to so many people’s pain, murders in the news all the time, terrorist attacks and so on. These are the signs of the end as prophecied in the Bible. The Devil knows that his time is short, after 6000 years of rebelling against God since he was kicked out of heaven for starting a war against his creator. He has been taking it out on God’s people ever since, but he knows the world is soon facing the end of time and the return of Jesus to judge all and save his people. So if you’d like to become one of his people, stand with me now and invite Jesus into your life.”

As soon as the altar call was over, Matthew walked into the church and watched Father Unwin take his seat.

“I’ve had a call from Spectrum!” he whispered excitedly, “We’re needed like never before, Father.”

“Oh nortyinteruptylode of a lostymornyteabold,” mumbled Father Unwin.

“Speaking in tongues again, Father,” whispered Matthew.

“You know from my past sermons that the gift of tongues isn’t gibberish. It’s the ability to hear a foreign preacher in your own native language, to help the spread of the gospel and the growth of the church,” said Father Unwin, “I only feign gibberish as a code for you to follow on our missions.”

Soon a meeting was held at Cloudbase convened by Colonel White. In attendance were Jeff Tracy & Hirum Hackenbacker aka Brains (of International Rescue), Commander Shore and his daughter Atlanta (of W.A.S.P.), Shane Weston and Sam Louvre (of W.I.N.), Mike Mercury (pilot of Supercar), Steve Zodiac and Venus (of Space City), Father Unwin and Matthew (of B.I.S.H.O.P.), and finally Colonel White and Captain Scarlet (of Spectrum).

 Several secrets were laid out on the table, lest earth simply have none left to protect after a final conflict with the Mysterons.

Hirum Hackenbacker came up with a master plan.

“I believe I can modify the shrinking device that Father Unwin uses to conceal Matthew on his assignments,” said Brains, “I can increase its capability dramatically, so that it could shrink an entire planet and its population right out of discernible existence. They’d still be alive in a plane so small that they would pose no more relevant a threat. Then International Rescue would use Thunderbird Three to transport me and the device to Space City, where I would help their technicians to fit it to Fireball XL-5’s armoury. Then Steve and Venus and their Robot would take it into position to shrink the planet Mars and all the Mysterons. Then we’ll reverse all of the modifications to restore the device with its original reduction and enlargement capacity to Father Unwin.”

“Shrink the whole planet and its population,” summed up Colonel White, “It’s a daring plan. In the mean time, Spectrum, W.I.N. and W.A.S.P. could cope with any coming Mysteron threats, and keep them busy thinking that we’re dealing with those, so that they don’t suspect our real plan. I don’t fully understand the Mysterons’ power for observing us though, or how much it depends on Captain Black’s whereabouts.  They may yet get wind of our plans. I think that Steve Zodiac and Venus should take Captain Scarlet and Captain Magenta with them to Space City now, and have them accompany the regular Fireball team on the mission to shrink Mars.”

“WIN will provide our regular agents,” said Sam Louvre, “I can’t put a ten year old boy at risk of being killed and replaced by a Mysteron. He’s used to doing temporary replacements himself.”

Alan Tracy had just recently taken over from John for the monitor duty, which they shared in monthly cycles in Thunderbird Five.

Father Unwin explained the shrinking device’s principles as best he could to Brains, who then took it back with Jeff to Tracy Island, modified it, and loaded it aboard Thunderbird Three. John sat on a couch in the Tracy lounge room, which began descending on a moving pole, at the touch of a button from Jeff Tracy. Soon the couch reached an underground conveyance and moved sideways to another pole and was raised into the lower cockpit of Thunderbird Three, where Brains was waiting … with one more passenger: Braman his robot.

John took Thunderbird Three’s elevator up to the upper control room and launched the great craft out of its silo and through a circular recreation complex with perfect accuracy, up into the clouds and then into space, until it reached Space City.

“I brought along a robot of my own,” said Brains to Steve, “I’ve tested him against my own chess playing abilities, and his calculations helped us on the Sun Probe rescue, when we suffered complications. I’d like to see how he interacts with your robot.”

Eventually Fireball XL-5 was armed with Father Unwin’s now modified shrinking Bible. Steve and Venus and Captain Scarlet and Captain Magenta flew Fireball into striking distance of Mars and fired the device.

“It’s unbelievable. It’s reducing the whole planet just as International Rescue said it would,” said Captain Magenta.

This time the Mysterons were the ones caught off guard. Within a very short time, the planet was shrunken right out of sight.

Captain Black contacted Spectrum and said that he was now no longer under the Mysteron influence and deeply regretted all the trouble and damage he’d been involved in causing. He was readmitted to Spectrum after a thorough physical and psychological examination by Dr Fawn. Both Black and Scarlet retained their retrometabolism power, but need never fear being taken over by Mysteron mentality again. Now Captain Blue had time to date Symphony Angel. Captain Scarlet responded to Destiny Angel’s advances, and Captain Black slowly gained Melody’s trust enough to court her too. In Space City, Venus and Steve Zodiac were very much in love as well.

When all was back to normal, a much larger meeting was held with all members of the organisations, except for International Rescue, who did not class themselves as a spy or military organisation, and wanted their privacy maintained.

In the meantime, a new planet moved into the position once occupied by Mars and became the replacement 9th planet of the solar system of earth. This planet had been discovered by astronauts Glenn Ross and John Cain years earlier. Fireball XL-5’s crew visited the new planet, and learned that speech was relatively forward and easy to understand, but visually everything on the planet was reversed. Eurosec’s original leader had died in a hospital after a wheelchair collision with a wall mirror, but his chief security operator had taken over, and kept the organisation functioning in a limited capacity. With the new planet now in the old position of Mars, and the Mysterons gone forever, he was convinced that Eurosec could liase with Fireball XL-5’s crew to study the planet further and develop relations with its leaders.

With the Mysteron threat gone, Spectrum soon became obsolete. Several of its retrenched members went to Father Unwin’s church to ask for some guidance about their purpose in life. He introduced them to one of his parishionners named Sylvia, who has been working with Father Unwin on a special kind of superior marionation. Using Father Unwin’s shrinking Bible, they had reduced certain people and used them as stringless puppets in Sylvia’s new television puppet series called Poor Weather Falls.

Sylvia had once made a puppet movie called “The Men from MI-5 and Special Branch.” Having dated Scott Tracy without knowing of his International Rescue involvement, she had modelled British Secret Service Agent James Bonson’s puppet on Scott Tracy and based the Special Branch Chief Inspector’s puppet on Alan Tracy. Nowadays, with the use of the shrinking Bible, she was able to use real shrunken people.

Captain Ochre and Lieutenant Green and Lieutenant Maroon chose to be shrunken and take new roles on the show. They immediately began working on the pilot episode of Poor Weather Falls, which Sylvia titled called Special Ranch.

Somewhere in the headquarters of World Intelligence Network, Shane Weston was wishing he’d had the chance to record the brain pattern of Hirum Hackenbacker.