*Don’t tell me what I mean!* he bellowed.
Taylor shuddered at the mess in Isaac's mind. A horrible blending of him and Carla, all twisted and festering.
*Ike -*
But Isaac merely let off another stream of what he thought of their interference and insults to his person and so on and so forth. Being so close to the source, empathically and telepathically, Taylor felt sick to the stomach.
"Taylor? Taylor?" Jessica asked, eyes wide in alarm.
She did not like what she was sensing at all.
*What's wrong little man?* Isaac taunted.
*You're wrong… Ike… Carla… you're both wrong…* Taylor replied.
His search was desperate. He had to find something soon. His eyes fluttered open and then his physical body retched for real, co-ordinated with a telepathic image of the event. Evil Isaac/Carla laughed.
Jessica reached over, ignoring the smell and her own reflex to gag. She put her hands on Taylor's.
"I'm only here for one reason… to heal," she said softly. "I'm sorry you're my first patient."
She closed her eyes in concentration, and sensed in co-ordination with her empathy that it was an emotional sickness rather than a physical one. So she continued that co-ordination and set her healing to work.
That healing came as a blessing to Taylor, who felt it come into him like an unknown strength. And then, all of a sudden, it came to him. The road to victory seemed as clear as day.
*Well, Isaac,* he said weakly. *You may kill us all today.*
*I will! I'll -*
*But I want you to know something, you slimy, hideously ugly bucket of fried fish, seven days old."
*And what's that you -*
Taylor couldn't complete with that kind of insult.
*We, your family, love you.*
It was the kind of soppy thing you get at the end of an episode of the Brady Bunch or during the Care Bears or something. And yet, despite ones desire to start snickering and chortling at such scenes, Taylor was finding his own version to be rather effective.
And to add to its effect, Taylor started projecting that underlying love that he and Zac and Jessica all felt for their brother.
*Nooo! Nooo, stop it! Stop it!* Isaac wailed.
In his efforts to fight off what Taylor was doing to him, his concentration on his force field faded. Carla, who had been the path he had been walking on all this time, shapeshifted into liquid and influence Isaac's body into joining hers.
A weary Zac trotted over just as the last of Isaac disappeared into liquid. He threw out one final bolt of volts and activated his restoration at the same time. He didn't know which method would be the best, so he just decided to do both, just to make sure.