Tommy parked his jeep in front of Mercer's home. After talking with Hayley he thought it was time to bite the bullet and just go up and talk to Anton. What harm could it do?
He walked up to the door, knocked, and rang the doorbell, but no one answered. Figuring they hadn't heard him he tried again and again. But still no one responded. He turned around, thinking maybe they weren't home, but he found Mercer's car along with Trent's. "Weird. Where are they?" Tommy looked at his watch; it was 4 PM. Trent should be at work by now, but his car was here and it wasn't like Trent to be late. He took out his cell phone and called Hayley.
"Hey Hayley. It's Tommy. I was wondering if Trent is with you at work?"
"No. He was supposed to be here twenty minutes ago, but he hasn't shown up."
"I'm here at his house, I've rung the doorbell three times, no one has answered and both Anton and Trent's cars are in the driveway."
"That's odd. You think something may have happened to them?"
"I don't know. Hang on a sec." Tommy turned the knob on the door; it opened. "I'm inside." He walked into the front entrance of the house; all was quiet. Too quiet. He couldn't hear any sound, no voices, nothing. He walked around the hall until he came across what was left of Anton's office. Tommy's eyes widened with fear and terror. "Ah man. Hayley, I got to go!" He quickly ended his call with Hayley before she was even able to respond. He quickly dialed 911 and told the person on the phone to send an ambulance to Mercer's home.
Tommy moved through the rubble to get into the office. Everything was a mess, there was a huge opening in the wall showing the outside; broken glass and pieces from the wall lay everywhere.
"Dr. O, is that you?"
Tommy turned around and found Trent trapped under a piece of boulder. "Trent!" He rushed over to him and lifted with all his might, getting the boulder off of Trent. "You alright? Anything broken?" Concern filled his eyes.
"I'm fine, just a little sore, but my father..."
"Your father…" Tommy followed his eyes over to where Trent was looking. He saw Mercer's desk, or what was left of it. "Stay here. I'll go check."
He moved slowly around the desk, fearing the worst. In the distance he could hear the faint sound of the ambulance heading towards them. He found Anton Mercer lying limp on the ground, pale and torn, like the very life had been pulled from him. Sighing heavily he got down on his knees to feel for a pulse.
"Is he..." He heard Trent calling from behind his shoulder.
For what seemed like forever, Tommy didn't answer. Then… "It's there, just barely." He turned to face Trent. "What happened? Did Mesogog do this?"
Trent's head fell low. He shook his head. "No, it was Janixsaur."
"Janixasur? Why would he have gone after your father? It doesn't make any sense."
"Because…Because..." This was hard. "There's something I should have told you a long time ago…"
Tommy's eyes widened as if he were afraid of what Trent was about to say. It wasn't possible, it couldn't be, but it was written all over Trent's face.
"My father is Mesogog, or was…"
"Was?"
"Janixsaur took the powers of Mesogog from my father. My father tried to stop him, told him he wouldn't be able to control the power…" Trent bowed his head, sighing. He had been powerless to stop any of it from happening. Why didn't he morph? Why didn't he protect his father?
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"I wanted to, but my father, he didn't want you to know. He was afraid if you tried to help him, that when Mesogog emerges from him, you could get hurt. He said he didn't want to put anything else on your shoulders than he already had. I'm sorry, I know I should have told you and the others sooner, but he's my father." He bowed his head down sighing. "He's all I have..."
Tommy sighed heavily. He could see where Trent was coming from. How could he have gone against his own father? No one should have to choose between their family and duty. "It's alright. I understand." He gripped Trent's shoulder. "We're going to get through this, Trent."
"And my dad?" Tommy sighed heavily as he and Trent looked down at Mercer's limp body, just barely there. Tommy didn't answer. He didn't know what to say or how to handle this situation. As the two sat there not moving the paramedics arrived on the scene.
"I should have seen it!" Tommy paced back and forth outside of the hospital. "How could I have been so blind?"
"Tommy, this isn't your fault. There's no way you could have known," responded Hayley.
"Yeah man, don't be so hard on yourself," added Eric. He knew the last thing they needed was for Tommy to blame himself for this.
"Yes, I should have!" He eyed the two hard. "You weren't there. You didn't work alongside of him everyday. I should have known something was up. I should have seen it," he responded harshly in a hard tone. "I can't believe I was so stupid!" He punched the wall hard, ignoring the pain.
Hayley watched as Tommy bowed his head down. She started to head over to him, but Eric stopped her and shook his head. There was nothing more they could say. Tommy had made up his mind that this was his fault and nothing would ever change that. Over Eric's shoulder they saw Conner, Ethan and Kira running towards him.
"What's up? Alex said for us to meet you guys here right away. Did something happen?" asked Conner.
At first no one answered. "Dr. O?" said Conner, looking over at his mentor.
Tommy barely turned around to acknowledge his young teammates. He opened the front door of the hospital and walked in without saying a word to anyone.
The three teens looked at each other and then to Hayley and Eric. "What's going on?" demanded Conner.
Kira looked around and didn't see Trent anywhere. "Where's Trent?" At first Eric and Hayley didn't respond, just shared a brief glance to one another. Kira's eyes widened with fear. Something bad had happened. "Did something bad happen to Trent? Is he…?"
"-He's not hurt," answered Hayley quickly, wanting to reassure the three that their teammate was going to be okay, well, almost okay.
"Then what is it? Alex wouldn't tell us what was going on," said Ethan.
Eric sighed heavily. What he had to tell them they weren't going to like, but they had to know the truth. He just hoped everything would turn out okay. "Come on, we have something we need to tell you."
Tommy found Trent sitting in the waiting room, with his head down. He couldn't help but blame himself for this. He should have seen this. He should have known there was something Trent wasn't telling them. He was his mentor and teacher. He was supposed to see these kinds of things. But he hadn't. He started to walk up to Trent just as one of the doctors approached.
"How is he?" asked Trent as he stood up.
Tommy could tell by the look on the doctor's face things hadn't gone well. Taking a deep breath he walked up behind Trent. "Please tell us," said Tommy as he gripped Trent's shoulder to let him know he was there for him.
The doctor sighed heavily. "I'm afraid Mr. Mercer has fallen into a deep coma." Both Tommy and Trent bowed their heads down; this wasn't good. "He has severe swelling around his brain, and also something we are unable to explain is in his bloodstream; it seems to show signs of a mutation of some type, but we can find no possible reasons as to why. Do you have any ideas?" asked the doctor.
Trent didn't answer. He was still too much in agony over what had happened. "It is possible he may have been experimenting on himself with some chemicals," stated Tommy.
"And what is your relation to Anton Mercer?" asked the Doctor.
"I'm an old friend, a few years back we were business partners," answered Tommy.
"Do you know what chemicals he may have used on himself?" asked the doctor.
"No," he shook his head, "I don't."
"I see." The doctor sighed. Without knowing what Mercer had done to himself, there was little he could do for him. "I'll see what I can do. But if you start to remember anything, please do tell me."
"Of course."
"Can we see him?" asked Trent.
"Yes. I'll show you the way," said the doctor, motioning for Trent to follow him. Tommy watched as they disappeared down the hall, as he sank into one of the chairs.
A few minutes passed, and the doctor returned to the waiting room. "Excuse me sir, I didn't catch your name."
"Tommy Oliver." He stood up and put out his hand as the doctor shook it. Tommy could tell just by the look in his eyes that what had happened to Mercer was really bad. "He's not going to wake up, is he?"
"It's hard to tell. Whatever happened to him all those years ago changed everything inside of him; everything mutated and is unstable. Even if he does wake up, it might not be possible for him to survive. It might have been possible if he only had these changes for a short time, a few months at most, but a few years has already done too much damage to his organs."
"And if he wakes up, how long would he have?"
"My guess, a few days at most, maybe a week, if he's lucky. I'm sorry."
Tommy nodded his head. "Me too."
Without another word, the doctor disappeared once again down the hall. Tommy sank back down into his chair. Everything he had feared from the moment he learned that Mercer had been Mesogog was coming true.
"So there's nothing we can do?" asked Tommy, looking to Alex for advice.
"No, I'm afraid not. Even though the cases of Mercer and the victims that Janixsaur had turned into lizard mutants are similar. Even we didn't have the technology to save them. Most of them died very quickly after being turned back into their human form. The damage had been done and it was only a matter of time before they died."
"And the few who survived?"
"Were very few, one out of a hundred; their body organs were able to revert back into their rightful state."
"So there could be a chance that Mercer could pull through."
"A very slim chance." Alex bowed his head down. "You should expect the worst and prepare Trent for what's to come." As cold as it may have sounded Tommy knew Alex was right. One out of a hundred isn't very good odds.
"How do you tell someone so young that their father will die?"
"No one ever said it would be easy, which makes our jobs just as hard," responded Alex softly.