Mariashades asks for: Whumptober #27, Pushed to the limit, dealer's choice on descriptors, Gordon. Prompts used: Pushed to the Limit | Muffled Screams | Stumbling | Magical Exhaustion

A Thunderbirds AU where the boys have powers

Characters: Gordon

Warnings: Hunted, Wounds, Burns, Dogs, Unconsciousness

He stumbled out of the forest, almost faceplanting into the loam in the process. He groaned in relief as he fell onto his hands and knees.

Loam – Gordon could feel the difference in the soil, the sand and clay gave him hope, hope that he was near a water source. He could feel the liquid through the earth, tantalisingly just out of reach but promising a body of water nearby.

He needed that water. Desperately.

Pushing up onto his feet again was so difficult. He was so exhausted but he needed to move. They wouldn't be too far behind now and unless he got to that water he'd be captured again.

Gordon couldn't go through that again. He'd been pushed to the limit as it was.

Stumbling even more, he lurched forward as the first sound of the dogs they were tracking him with carried across the air. Gordon didn't think he could run faster, but he did, putting on a spurt of speed that he thought would have made even Alan jealous.

Alan.

No, don't think about his brothers.

Once he was free he would come back for them.

There! There was a small pool of water, not enough for him to submerge in but enough for his needs, and Gordon promptly collapsed into it, sitting cross-legged to have the most contact.

The water soothed him. It wound up his body like a snake, healing the smaller cuts and grazes as it went. Gordon was already feeling better, but he bit down hard on his fist when it reached the burns on his back. The fist muffled his screams – healing wasn't without its' own kind of pain – but eventually he felt almost back to normal, if still exhausted. Only time and rest would cure that though.

Opening his eyes he could see the group of men chasing him. They had been reduced in number drastically since he had been 'freed', a euphemism for them releasing him so that they could hunt him down.

No one liked people like him and his brothers, not in this stretch of the woods. Once more he cursed that they had inadvertently come here, but then he also knew better. The man who had introduced himself only as the Hood had a way of controlling a person's mind, and he had made sure they had been within his grasp.

Gordon stood.

Water swirled around him.

Gunshots rang out and water surged. Not a bullet made it through, but Gordon was tiring. Using his powers so consistently was draining him and he knew he needed to finish it.

With a scream of fury he shot the water at them, flinging men several feet back against trees.

For a moment all that remained were the dogs, nervously milling around without leadership, and Gordon, standing in the remains of the pool and breathing heavily.

A twig snapped behind him, but there was nothing he could do as the exhaustion finally overtook him. He collapsed in a heap.

'Thank god I found you!'

He didn't know who owned the voice, but it was warm and familiar somehow and Gordon gave in to unconsciousness.