"Your patient, for being a paranormal," Dr. Edwards remarks dryly, "looks awful."

"Is that your medical opinion, Doctor, or are you hoping one of the microphones can pick you up from here?" Helena Amory remarks, her voice sounding haggard. And no wonder, Lisa thinks. She'd spent nearly the last 48 hours at the hospital, dealing with one crisis after another. As had Lisa, but at least I have the benefit of a paranormal constitution, the physician thinks, watching her colleagues quibble. The captured VIPER agents had been brought here for observation and the press was waiting for the dean of the newly founded Paranormal Medicine Department at UCSF to brief them in the hospital's hastily arranged press room.

Dr. Edwards, the dean of the new department, shoots his assistant a withering look before mounting the steps to the podium. "Pompous windbag," Helena mutters under her breath, and it's hard not to laugh - he was that, indeed, though he was, in addition to being a Johns Hopkins alumnus, a brilliant biochemist and geneticist who'd worked for PRIMUS on the original Cyberline program.

After clearing his throat, the silver-haired, portly man begins to brief the press. It's nothing Lisa doesn't know already - she'd been assigned the task of supervising the treatment of the agents - but the case is puzzling to say the least. The amphetamine traces in the agents' blood were from a drug that hadn't been catalogued yet, though was of amazing complexity. It had taken nearly the two days since they'd been captured for Lisa to bring them out of the coma-like state into which they'd slipped after being captured. Yet still, their irises remained the blood-red color.

The press there - about fifty reporters and cameramen - are impatient as the physician relates the VIPER agents' condition. "What about Knightblade?" one asks immediately after the physician stops speaking. "Who is he?" another shouts out.

Dr. Edwards shakes his head. "I'm sorry, but we're not at liberty to discuss his condition, only to say it's serious but stable. Are there any questions about the VIPER agents?" The press howls like a wounded puppy, and mercifully, Lisa's pager begins to buzz.

"KB WOKE UP - YOU WANTED TO BE ADVISED - Rick." Rick is the nurse in charge of ICU, and just as Lisa looks up, Helena takes her arm. "Let's get out of here," she says, gesturing to her own pager.

On the sixth floor, Rick is firmly escorting a KTVU reporter - dressed as a CAN - into the arms of waiting security. After the elevator doors shut behind them, the nurse says, "You know, we even had an Elvis impersonator in here a while back." He sighs, "He woke up about fifteen minutes ago. Dr. Johnson's been making sure he's stable. Looks pretty beat up, but," his voice lowers, "a darn sight better than he did only an hour ago." He shrugs at that, then returns to the nurses' station.

Helena charges forward, Lisa only a step behind. The observation glass of Knightblade's room is obscured by privacy screens, and the physician hastily enter. Inside, a very battered looking, bearded man is lying inside.

"How are you feeling today, Mr. Knightblade?" Helena asks, her voice sounding more irritated than Lisa - or Tyler - has ever heard before.

A look of pain crosses Tyler's face. It's impossible to tell if it comes from his wounds or Helena's words.

"I'm sorry, Helena. I never meant to hurt you," he says in a voice filled with the honesty of the weary and beaten. He continues, obviously unconcerned with the presence of Dr. Gardner, "It's just... Well, this whole secret identity thing seemed to be the best way to protect my family.I guess, in retrospect, it was a mistake. The first of many. Some worse than others."

Tyler turns his gaze to the tray by his bed. Both doctors notice that today's special edition paper is laying on it.

Tyler looks back at the ladies from dark, bruised eyes within a pale face, and says, "To answer your question... I feel like crap." And wish I could just hold you and make the world go away. "How soon can I be discharged?"

Dr. Gardner looks down at the chart, squinting through her glasses. "Your friend's healing ability has prevented the need for spinal surgery and emergency organ transplantation." Her voice sounds distant, almost mechanical, as her mind chews on the thought of revealing her identity. "However, your condition may deteriorate without warning. It will be at least a day, before we can even guess, hopefully by then, you will no longer need kidney dialysis and the twenty hour RKG readings will reveal normal heart activity." She pauses as her mind answers her silent question.

"If VIPER had found you without your armor, only your dental records would have revealed your identity." Lisa, then looks up from her chart and realizes that she is being as helpful as salt on wounds and rubs her eyes, "I have the early morning shift tomorrow. Helena, if you need me, I'll be taking a short nap in my office." God, I'm starving! Hope the cafeteria is still open.

Lisa rushes to leave, but decides against it. Instead, she reaches into one of her many pockets and has some sugar cubes. Lisa looked at the broken patient. "I miss the other Knightblade." she says, turning towards them but her gaze towards to floor, "I miss the mythical father figure who would protect the city and me from danger. I wanted to be able to fall asleep knowing that Knightblade was on guard. I guess...that was silly of me." Lisa moved slowly closer. "But I know there are many other people that are walking around pretending to be someone else just for the approval of others. Some dye their hair, some wear the latest clothes, some hide their lifestyles. All of them wondering 'Am I the only one'." Lisa takes off her glasses, revealing very tired green eyes, "No. I think everyone wants to hide who they truly are."

Tyler shakes his head slowly. "Lisa, I'm sorry. I don't think you understand. This isn't about being neurotic or lacking self-confidence. I know that I'm not the only one."

Tyler adjust the bed to a sitting position as he continues, "In fact, I can tell you that exactly nine other people are in my situation. You see, I am on VIPER's Top Ten to Hit List. Let me make this clear. Me, Tyler McBain. Not Knightblade."

"I had hoped that by hiding my paranormal abilities, VIPER might underestimate me, and there would be less risk to the people I...," Tyler pauses for a brief instant and looks towards Helena, "... love."

Looking back at Lisa, he continues, "But I couldn't stand around and do nothing. That really would have been hiding who I am."

Tyler's face takes a pained expression. "I remember the first person that I watched die. I was a paramedic in Hudson City. We got a call for a fire at a tenement. We were only a few blocks away and were there almost immediately. The bottom floors were engulfed in flames; there was no way in. I noticed this little old lady in a window on the sixth floor. Her apartment had filled with smoke, and she was trying to open her window. She fought and fought and fought... and just couldn't get it open. She never gave up though. Eventually, she just... collapsed. It couldn't have been more than a few minutes, but it seemed to last forever. She struggled so hard to live. She didn't deserve to die. You can't see something like that and not try to prevent it from ever happening again. I just figured a suit of armor would protect me... and my loved ones. Anyway, that's what I thought." By his look, it's obvious that Tyler's reconsidering his decision.

"Look, before you decide your wardrobe, you going to have to make some other choices. First off, we don't know how permanent these wounds are. You will have to face the possibility of a loss of 'quality of life'. Our tests are compounded by the fact that we don't know what's normal for your metabolism. We do know that for some reason your body seems to break down the fragments that weren't removed right away. Whether this is some sort of advanced rejection process or some sort of strange property of your armor, we don't know. If we knew more about your armor, it would help."

Lisa looked at Helena, if she hadn't been there, as Lisa, she would have never been able to safely grab her out of the way. But then again, perhaps one more hero would have made the difference, maybe she could have freed Knightblade before he got hurt. Maybe the mech would have turned and sprayed normals with napalm. If only, I could have... Lisa makes a fist. Exhausted and not concentrating on what she's doing, she demolishes her glasses with her unchecked strength. Lisa looks at her hand and under her breath says "Damn it."

After she leaves, Helena contemplates Tyler. "No one is forcing you to stay here," she says. "I'm sure with your superhuman constitution, you'd be fine to recuperate at home. Except, of course, that VIPER completely trashed it. I spent my off time picking up after them, the best I could, so that the cops wouldn't put two and two together. I'm sure they'll be trying again, so watch your back," she concludes. "If you do choose to leave, be warned that there are about a thousand anti-paranormal demonstrators outside, watching everyone coming in and out carefully." She pulls back the heavy curtain for emphasis, and Tyler can hear the shouting below. "It took me twenty minutes to get from my car to the front door."

She turns to leave. "Oh, one more thing. Your armor -- or what's left of it, anyway - is in here." She holds up a duffel bag. "Some of it we had to cut off of you, and the rest was pretty mangled to begin with." She sets it on the foot of the bed. "If you stay, of course we'll be able to study your recovery more effectively for future reference." She gives him a hard look. "You know, Tyler, it's not like you didn't have the opportunity to tell me all of this -- after I'd flown 3000 miles to save your cousin's life. I mean, I lost my job over you!"

Tyler looks down at one of the tubes snaking out of his body, avoiding Helena's gaze. "I had no idea. I'm sorry. I was wrong. I should have told you." He raises his eyes to meet hers. "I told you in North Carolina that I could never repay you for what you had done, but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't try. You deserve the truth, and this is it."

"I've already told you the story about giving the VIPER nest dysentery. What I didn't tell you is that I thought Cyberline-Beta was just a chemical. I injected it in myself thinking we could get the formula later from a blood sample. By the time I knew the truth, it was too late."

"It worked though. I can heal a lot of things by concentrating. This is the first time that I've found a limit to what it can do. It also had an extra effect of making me faster. I've clocked myself at about fifty miles per hour sustained."

"After we found out that I was incompatible with normal Cyberline and couldn't be an Avenger, I tried to think of another way to use my abilities. The armor and sword just sort of came to me. It took all the money I had in savings to build them. I got them finished right after I moved to San Francisco."

"Since that time my life has been going downhill... fast. You're about the only good thing that's happened to me, and I'd do anything not to lose you." At this statement, Tyler's voice cracks, and he begins to speak very rapidly, almost stream of consciousness, "I don't want to leave the hospital out of arrogance. I'm scared to death that they'll attack here, and more people will die because of me. My god, Helena, eight people are dead because of what I decided to wear Friday night. My irresponsibility got them killed. I've become the man I've always hated. The man that killed my mother. I don't think I ever want to see that armor again as long as I liv..." Tyler is cut short as the strain of talking so fast and so hard causes him to have a short fit of coughing.

Helena's face softens. "Tyler, I'm sorr-" just then her pager goes off. "What now?" she sighs, taking it out of her pocket. "Christ. One of the VIPER agents just redlined. I'll be back -" she says, running out of the room.

Tyler drifts in and out of sleep for several hours.  When he wakes up, he finds an envelope on table next to the bed, with a note from Helena sitting next to it. "Protector came by, and left this for you," her note reads.  "When he found out he couldn't talk to you, he left this."  Opening the envelope, Tyler finds his own MRC business card inside. Glancing back at Helena's note, it reads further, "He said you'd be able to get in contact with him through the person on the card."  

PBEM Turns