Gothstrike's Return Part 11

Guardian Hall was silent. Gothstrike sat on the ground, tears in her eyes. She knew everything that happened. She could not control her actions, but she remembered every single one of them.

Polygirl was tending to the bruises on Gordon's body. He had quite a few after the fight. Natell sat in the corner, silent.

Gothstrike finally managed to speak "Gordon, I..." She paused, forcing down a fresh set of sobs "I am so sorry. I didn't know ... I couldn't control myself." She was at a loss for words. Nothing like this had ever happened to her. She was always in control. She depended on it. She had spent years training her body to react to every command she gave it. She had honed her reflexes to peak efficiency. All of that, taken away. She felt violated in a way that made her want to curl into a ball, to shut herself away from the world, so it would never happen again.

Gordon looked at Gothstrike with pity in his eyes. No, not quite pity. Understanding. "It's OK Gothstrike. I know what the Occupant is capable of. I'm just glad I didn't hurt you too bad."

Gothstrike replied "Hurt me? You look like you went a few rounds with Mike Tyson and lost! I feel awful! I should have been able to resist. Should have been able to warn you. Something. Anything." The last word was a whisper, almost inaudible to Gordon.

Gordon walked over to Gothstrike and put a hand on her shoulder. "Listen. This is what the Occupant does. He manipulates people. He touches their minds, and messes with them. He brings the worst out in them, believe me. He has a lot of power Gothstrike. There was nothing you could have done."

Polygirl piped up. "Nothing then, but I am working on something now that will help next time. I am trying to modify our comm-pieces to project a psychic field. To help protect against psychic intrusion. I think I'll have to call on some favours to get it tested though."

Gothstrike smiled at Polygirl's enthusiasm. She looked at everything as a puzzle. A challenge to be overcome. "I'm sorry to you to. I destroyed one of your duplicates."

Polygirl waved it off with two hands. "Don't worry about it. You weren't yourself. I understand."

Gothstrike stared at the ground for a moment and then asked "So, now what? What do we do now?"

Gordon smiled "We find out who's trying to off us. Then, we get them. Tartarus has a lot of openings."

Polygirl nodded "Yeah. I have figured out part of the plan. It looks like whoever it is, is trying to get everyone at each others throats. They are setting us up."

Gothstrike was a very intelligent person, but next to Polygirl, she felt stupid. "That makes sense. But who? And Why?"

Polygirl frowns "That part, I haven't been able to figure out. I've got Bardak and Brandi looking into things. I hope they can dig some information out."

Then, the alarms went off. Polygirl rushed to the monitor. "What's happening Lin?" She asked.

Suddenly Polygirl ran to the door. "Someone tried to attack Thunderbird!" A copy popped into existence and ran to the lab. "I'm going to get some things, we need to get to the hospital.

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James McDermitt watched the hubbub around the hospital. Something had happened there. He had a strong feeling it happened in a room he had recently visited. Somehow his delivery was behind it. James' mouth was dry. He knew what he had to do. Why was it always so hard to do the right thing.

Steeling himself, he walked to the hospital entrance.