A Tangled Web 3
By Crystalquirt
Thunderbirds Are Go! Fan Fiction
I don't own anything or anyone.


In flight, pushing Thunderbird One as fast as she'd go, Scott gripped his controls so tightly that his fingers hurt. But he wasn't even aware of it. "I have to get there before I can figure out how to help! John! How is Gordon?"

"Suffering from extreme stress," was John's simple answer.

"Have the radiation levels changed?" Scott asked.

"No, still only trace amounts. Gordon is working his way around the cargo hold trying to find a way out," said John, running a hand through his hair in worry. "Or I hope he is. He's scared Scott."

"I know he is. Do you think he can he get himself out of there?"

"I don't know. He may need some help. What is your ETA?"

"Only sixteen minutes, Thunderbird Five."

"I'll let Gordon know. That may make him feel better."

"I'm on my way back to Earth too now, John." Alan called in.

"Good, go straight to Gordon's coordinates. You may need your deep water exo suit too, Alan," said John.

"Sure, I've had it on board my ship since Gordon and I went to Europa and rescued the Pendergasts."

"FAB," John said, switching frequencies. "How are you doing Gordon?"

"I'm getting tired, I never thought spiders would be so heavy underwater." Panting and having chest pains by then, Gordon guided the dive jet he wore on his back to propel himself slowly down the wall.

The yellow dive jet that Brains made as part of his deep water dive suit stuck up a little farther than the top of Gordon's helmet. He let the jet that he wore on his back bounce and rub along surfaces to help him find his way while he couldn't see out of his helmet.

Pushing his way along slowly, he had managed to get out from under the largest pile of sea spiders. Still there were sea spiders hanging onto his dive suit six or seven deep and they were pulled along with him. Gordon's thumb suddenly slipped from the jet's control. He stopped and sunk to the floor. "Oh - I can't do this! My chest hurts, I...can barely… breath. Sorry guys," he said, bordering on exhaustion.

"No! Gordon! You have to keep trying!" John begged.

Gordon wasn't listening to him, closing his eyes and expecting to go to his fate.

A Siren's voice did beckon - but did not beckon him to his doom.

"Yes! Gordon - I will not have you giving up!" A feminine voice interrupted.

Gordon opened his eyes again when he heard Lady Penelope's voice in his helmet. "Hey, Lady P. is that really you?"

"Yes, it's me - John said you were having a bit of trouble with some bugs." she said with a smile in her voice.

"I… I - bugs haha," Gordon chuckled softly. He switched the jet back on and it pushed him against the wall and he started slowly sliding along again.

"Do I need to come down in my 'pink submarine' and dig you out of trouble again?" asked Lady Penelope.

"No – I'm trying - I got this," said Gordon with renewed energy.

More sea spiders fell when he started to move. The simple creatures were figuring out that they weren't going to get anything to eat from the big blue and yellow fish that had swam among them.

After a short while Lady Penelope called again, "Gordon, can you still hear me?" she said, "I will not have you giving up on us! Do you hear me?"

"I… hear you." Gordon said barely above a whisper. "I found... the door, I think. I should be back out in the hold now."

"Good Gordon. Can you move your arms? Clear your face shield!" Virgil asked, holding his breath while he waited for an answer.

"Trying…" Gordon gritted his teeth and with a tearing sensation, got his arm out as he sank to the deck again. "Oh! My arm is free... but I think I just tore my suit!"

"No - Gordon are you sure?" Brains asked, looking at John's concerned holographic face.

Gordon pulled his arm up and making an 'icky' face, as gently as he could, pulled sea spiders from his face shield. He was a little surprised to find his helmet lights were still on. He sure couldn't see any light before he moved the thick layer of sea spiders. He looked down the rest of his body and legs and saw most of the remaining sea spiders crawling or swimming away.

He exhaled loudly and let his head rest on the deck. He was mostly on his side, the dive jet on his back keeping him from rolling over.

"Gordon! Report - Are you okay? - Is your suit compromised?" Virgil called urgently.

"No Virgil, suit's okay or I'd be wet in here. I'm afraid I hurt some of the sea creatures though," Gordon said tiredly. He may have hated spiders, but he hated harming any creature more.

"FAB - It couldn't be helped, little Bro." Virgil said, smiling.

"I'm directly over your location Gordon," Scott said, "Can you make it back to Thunderbird Four on your own?"

"Yeah, I just need a minute… to breathe."

In Thunderbird Three, Alan frowned at how faint Gordon's voice was. "Do not pass out down there Gordon!" Alan warned. "I'm almost there if you want some help!"

Gordon had his eyes closed trying to wish the pain he felt in his chest away. "John, can you scan me yet? Why does my chest hurt?"

"Sorry Gordon I can't detect you at all - Scott, can you use Thunderbird One's sensors to relay data to me?"

"I'm still looking for him, Thunderbird Five. I'm not picking anything up either - Brains what could be blocking our scans?"

"Unknown at this time. Difficult to tell without more data." answered Brains.


Without waiting for orders and as soon as Alan landed Thunderbird Three on the nearest land to Gordon's location, he put on his red deep water exo suit. Leaving Thunderbird Three he slipped and slid across the ice and half dove - half fell into the icy water. Underwater he pushed his red dive jet as fast as she'd go.

"Alan, where are you? Why did you land?" John asked, though already pretty sure of where his little brother was.

"I couldn't wait - I'm on my way down to find Gordon." Alan reported, swimming as hard as he could in addition to being propelled by his dive jet. He felt a ping on his wrist and then saw a holographic image. "There! I'm picking up Thunderbird Four's signal straight ahead. The water sure is nasty looking down here. I bet it stinks."

"FAB, but Alan, you should have waited to see if you were needed - Now you're swimming in that muck with Gordon and we still don't know what caused it." Scott scolded.

"Actually we do," Brains interrupted, startling the brothers. "Forgive the delay, but Gordon's immediate safety became a priority. I've analyzed the data from the water and gas sample that Gordon took from the vent."

"What does is show Brains?" Scott asked, looking for Gordon's and Alan's signals on his scanners.

"A lot of bacteria. Pseudonymous Fluorescens to be precise." Brains said, repositioning his glasses as he stared at his tablet. " There is also a lot of nitrogen, and sulfur dioxide. Nothing unknown, but you don't want to go swimming in it with holes in your suit."

"So they will be okay?" John asked for verification.

"Of course John, they should be fine. To be sure, they can both decontaminate when they get back on board their Thunderbirds," said the engineer. "The high concentration of Pseudonymous Fluorescens usually only affects saltwater aquarium fish. But in this case, seems to be in such a high quantity in this one area that it is killing fish and growing, killing more fish and the decaying fish is polluting the whole area."

"Is there any way to clean it up?" Virgil asked, concerned.

"We can distribute water treatment capsules that I am preparing now, but we will have to know what started all this to keep it from starting all over again," Brains said.

Alan suddenly yelled into the comm, "I see Thunderbird Four, and the sunken ship!" making John wince at the volume of his little brother's voice.

"Easy Alan. Watch for the sea spiders or they'll come for you too." John said.

"No sweat, I"m not afraid of land spiders, let alone stupid sea spiders! Gordon's the chicken!"

"Don't say that Alan," Scott said sternly. "Gordon is in serious trouble - you can tease him when he can tease back - for now, get him out of there!"

Gordon heard Scott scold Alan and in spite of his current situation and the pain he felt, he smiled.

"Fine! Er, FAB," Alan answered, chagrined. He shut off his dive jet and drifted under Thunderbird Four where he found the old ship's hatch. Lighting the way were the lights on his diving helmet.

"Gordon? Can you hear me?" called Alan. Gordon's soft answer was music to his ears.

"Yeah, I hear you, but I think I still have a thousand plate-sized spiders trying to drown me."

"You have got to be exaggerating!" said Alan.

"This is real Alan, believe me or they might get you too," said Gordon, seeing Alan's suit lights nearing.

Alan saw his brother lying below deck, just outside of the room where the spiders attacked. There were a few still hanging on Gordon's body and legs. Alan scoffed at the sight thinking the spiders too few to have scared Gordon so badly. "Common Gordo, let's get you out of here."

"So you can tease me later?" Gordon groaned. "Fine. Tease me - but don't let them get me again!"

"I didn't mean it! I thought it was funny that you were scared of them in the haunted house and then, now… well you know. I had no idea that you were this scared."

Alan let his dive jet bring him down to a near-kneeling position next to Gordon and he slipped his hand under his brother's arm to help him rise from the deck. With his other hand, he touched each of the few remaining sea spiders making them crawl or swim from his brother's body.

Alan couldn't help but chuckle when he saw how easily the spiders would run away.

"Funny," Gordon whispered when he heard his little brother laugh. "Just get me out of here - my chest really does hurt. It hurts just to move my arms."

The astronaut cleared his throat, growing serious. "We'll hurry and get you up where John can do his medical scans - I'm sure you'll be fine though. You're chest pains are probably from stress, but John can make sure. I know you had a scare." Alan had just repositioned himself to hold onto Gordon as they got ready to go up, when he heard millions of faint tapping sounds on wood that meant the sea spiders were coming back.

"No…" Gordon started breathing fast again and tried to force his arms and legs to swim - fast. Alan didn't know what it was until he looked around and his helmet lights caught the cause of the sounds in their beams.

"Aah! Gordon! Those? Let's Go!" Alan pulled Gordon's arm across his shoulders and swam up, engaging his dive jet for speed. He kicked two sea spiders off of his feet when they tried to hitch a ride.

"Gordon, I'm sorry!" Alan said, regretting his teasing. "Those things are huge! I mean, all legs, but huge! And there really are thousands!"

"See? Oh, ow - grnn." Gordon groaned.

Alan quickly got his brother up and inside Thunderbird Four and closed the hatch before swimming spiders got to the sub.


They both fell to Thunderbird Four's floor as Alan sincerely apologized. "I'm sorry Gordon! Really – I had no idea! I'll never tease you again." promised Alan. He threw off his dive jet and helmet and rode the pilot's seat inside the cockpit.

Gordon mumbled, "He'll forget his promise, but it was nice to hear an apology."

On the floor near the hatch, Gordon fell over on his side, breathing and holding his chest like he was really suffering. Alan set Thunderbird Four to rise to the surface on auto pilot and returned to Gordon as quickly as he could.

"What's wrong?" he asked, quickly pulling his brother's helmet off.

Gordon wheezed, "I think I was... out of air."

"No, the gauge shows that you still had a quarter of the full volume. Alan said when he checked. He rested his hand on Gordon's back while he caught his breath. "Try to take slow, deep breaths."

"F… A… B…" said Gordon between gasps.

Alan tapped his comm button, "I have him John, and everyone. Were back on board Thunderbird Four. Thunderbird One, can you pull us up when we surface?"

"I'm coming down instead," Scott said. "I'll take care of Gordon while you pilot Four home – And John, complete medical scans on Gordon as soon as you can read his signal."

"Understood, Scott," said John.

"What about One and Three?" Alan asked, worried about his ship.

"John, can you remote pilot them home?" Scott asked.

"Yes, I've already gained access to both machines and am sending the commands."

"FAB, John," said Scott. He was already hanging below Thunderbird One. He stood in front of his lowered pilot's seat when Thunderbird Four surfaced. He immediately shot a grapple connected to One down to Four's roof and executed a controlled slide down to land on the roof. As soon as he released the grapple cable, John had his plane heading for Tracy Island.

Scott jumped down to the thruster to wait for the aft hatch doors to open for him. Inside he found Alan sitting on the floor with Gordon, helping him hold an oxygen mask over his face.

"I'll help Gordon, Alan - get us heading home." ordered Scott, taking his helmet off and painfully sitting with the aquanaut.

Alan let Scott take over administering oxygen and nodded.

Scott continued, "And Virgil said he's ready to leave Belgium. He said that if he can, he'll met us and pick us up to get us home faster."

"Which way do I need to go?" asked Alan.

The pilot had another thought, "Thunderbird Five, can you compute our course and the expected location to meet up and let Alan know?"

"FAB," John answered as Alan went to the cockpit.

"What about this… situation here?" Gordon asked, sounding exhausted.

"Will be back. We need to re-group." Scott said looking at Gordon's pale complexion.

"We can help now," said Gordon, starting to get up.

Groaning, Scott stood up and helped Gordon the rest of the way to his feet when he tried to stand up. The oxygen mask fell to the floor.

John heard an alert from EOS and looked at the ongoing medical scans. "Thunderbird Four, Scott! Gordon's BP is dropping."

"Gordon?" Scott asked, turning in alarm.

Gordon seemed dizzy, swaying as he looked up at Scott. His eyes lost focus as his legs collapsed out from underneath him.

Scott caught him as he fell, just in time for Gordon to pass out in his arms.

"Ahhgnnn!" He groaned through his teeth as he strained to keep Gordon from hitting the floor, and going with him. His still healing leg muscles were causing him great discomfort but he pushed through the pain, and whining through his teeth, he pushed and lifted Gordon up into an open dry pod.

"Oh no, not again," said Scott, pained.

"What's wrong Scott?" asked Alan, concerned for both brothers now.

"Gordon is the second person today to look at me and pass out, Gordon?!" Scott shook him gently. "Can-you-hear-me?"

"Do you need me back there, Scott? I can put it on Autopilot for a while." Alan asked, ready to assist.

"No, but I'll call you if I need to." Scott gently shook Gordon's shoulders again with no response. "John what's wrong with him? - it can't be his heart – can it!?"

"It looks like he just fainted, Scott," said John. "The scare is over, so the adrenaline in his system dropped, then his blood pressure fell when he stood up. But it's leveling off."

"John," said Alan, "Gordon said his chest hurt - Are you sure it's not his heart is it?"

"Yes, I'm sure, Alan. Both of you stop worrying. According to medical scans, Gordon's heart is fine. The pain he felt was from the intense stress he experienced for so long without being able to escape."

"Yeah," Scott said quietly, "I guess I know that feeling."

Scott stretched his legs, wincing. It had only been a few months after the backs of Scott's legs were seriously burned, and while they had healed, they still ached.

In addition, the day he already had in the mountains his legs felt weak and he struggled a bit getting Gordon into the dry tube.

He left the lid open since Gordon wasn't going anywhere, but adjusted the heat to be a little warmer in the pod.

John looked at the monitor. "Scott, elevate Gordon's feet slightly," he said. "He should recover in a couple of minutes - most."

"FAB," Scott looked into Gordon's face, worried. He kept his hand on his little brother's chest. Feeling his heartbeat made Scott feel a little better.

After a long few minutes, Gordon groaned softly and began to regain consciousness. Scott looked at his face and saw that color was returning to his cheeks. "Hey Gordon, can you talk to me?" asked Scott.

Gordon nodded sleepily, but didn't open his eyes or say anything. Scott wasn't sure he understood his question.

"As soon as you feel able - when your blood pressure goes back up, we can talk about what happened and what to do next."

Gordon nodded.

"Do you think you can drink some water? It'll help you recover faster."

Gordon nodded again, this time a bit firmly.

Smiling, Scott got him a bottle of water from the locker, opened it and after lifting his brother's head up slightly, put the top to Gordon's lips to take a sip.

Some of the cool water spilled and helped Gordon wake up some more. He opened his eyes and tried to sit up to drink. Scott helped him sit up on the dry tube bed and watched his brother gulp the water down quickly.

"More?" Gordon asked. Scott rested his hand on Gordon's chest. He could feel his brother's heart rate still beating very fast. "Wait a couple of minutes for more water. You might get sick if you drink so much so fast." said Scott gently.

Gordon grew more alert, and started to remember what had happened. "No! I have to get up - we have to go back." Gordon said urgently. He grabbed his brother's arms to be sure he paid attention.

"Easy Gordon, rest a while," Scott said, easing him back to the cot.

"I feel fine Scott… "

Seeing his second youngest try to get up again, he held his brother down on on the dry pod's cushion. "Humor me bro - we don't need you falling out on us again."

The aquanaut glowered. "We can't rest - I know what, or who is down there!"

"Too many sea spiders?" Alan answered over the comm, showing he was listening to their every word.

Gordon blinked his eyes to fight off slight dizziness, but continued, "Not them, Alan! Before the sea spiders covered my helmet - I saw the logo on the metal crates - the same one The Mechanic uses!"

Scott and John looked at each others holograms, skeptical. "Concussion?" mouthed the pilot. John looked at the scan and shook his head.

"I didn't hit my head," said Gordon. "I know what I saw."

"The Mechanic is down there? And you were down there alone... again... Gordo?" Virgil said regretfully. "I'm sorry."

"You couldn't have known." Scott said. "Gordon will be fine, Virgil."

"This time," Virgil said.

"Scott- Scott," Gordon repeated like he didn't realize that Scott was standing right next to him.

Scott noticed his little brother's dizzy countenance and leaned over the pod. "I'm right here Gordon. Can you see me?"

"I can now," Gordon smiled, blinked looking up at Scott. He rubbed his eyes, embarrassed as he realized what all had happened. "Oh man, I did a girly faint after all."

"No, you fainted because you were stressed and exhausted." responded Scott with a smile. "John said you'll be okay though,"

"But Scott - the Mechanic is doing something down there. About the time I saw the sea spiders - I saw the logos on the metal crates and wondered why inside an old shipwreck there were metal walls and floor. I'm sure I saw another, modern hatch going below that ship - under the sea bed!"

Gordon pleaded, "We have to go back now and stop whatever he's doing before he hurts the environment more!"

"Not until you feel better," said Scott, still not sure about Gordon's story. Seeing his brother wince and cover his chest with both hands, he leaned forward. "Gordon?"

Gordon took a deep breath and groaned. "No, I'm not going to be okay," he said, remembering the suit issue. "I'm in major trouble here! Do something!"

Scott said, "John, can you run another medical scan on Gordon, he's not feeling well."

John quirked an eyebrow and did another scan.

Scott however kept calm as he talked to his brother. "What's wrong now?" he said gently.

"My chest hurts - It feels like I'm going to have a big huge spider force it's way out of my chest," he said, wincing in pain. "Kill it before it rips me in half!"

"Spider come out of your chest? ...Gordo, your chest hurts from the stress you were under for so long… John said there is nothing wrong with you."

"No... I'm doomed. One of them got me and while I was out, put their eggs in me to have one hatch," he moaned.

Scott glanced at John's hologram appearing over his wrist, catching the reference. "'Aliens?'"

John shook his head, chuckling. "Gordon, you're not going to have a spider come out of you. a. the spiders can't bite you, b. you were out briefly because you fainted. The spiders didn't drug you," he said, laughing a bit harder. "You watch far too many horror movies."

"So I'm not going to have a spider burst out of my chest?" he said, and both brothers, near and far shook their heads.

"No - but John, I'm sure can do a pregnancy scan if you're that worried," kidded Scott. The aquanaut however, cuffed the back of his head. "OK, I get it..."

John chuckled at the exchange, but then grew serious. We do need to check you out though, Gordon," he said. "The Mechanic will have to wait."

Gordon, seeing the brother's looks, reluctantly nodded. "FAB."

Scott switched to Alan's frequency. "Alan take us toward Thunderbird Two's present location as fast as you can!" he ordered. "Don't worry Gordon, we will stop The Mechanic!"


To Be Continued . . .