"Will, wake up!" "Come on, let's go!" "You're late for the staff meeting!" "Oh, son of a bitch!" "What's going on in there?" "You okay?" "Yeah, yeah, I'm just..." "Just overslept!" "Tell Magnus I'll be right there." "Okay." "...several cases of laminitis amongst the Borzels, caused by overfeeding." " I can't help it." " They're cute!" " That may be the..." " Will!" "Nice of you to finally join us." "Yeah, sorry, I, uh, slept through my alarm." "Dude, what's with your face?" "What do you mean?" "Well, did you sleep on a tennis racket or something?" " Wait, stop!" "Don't..." " Don't touch it." "What is it?" "The placoid structure is similar, but the enamel is completely different." "Henry, pass me a syringe." "Magnus, can you just, please..." "I need to take some blood." "That's all very fine and good, but can you fill me in here?" "I mean..." "You're acting like I walked out of a Salvador Dali painting or something." "You've got something on your face." "Now... it could be nothing, but I need to run some tests to find out." "Well, can I at least see it?" "Doc?" "Yeah." "What the hell's happening to me?" "Will!" "I wouldn't do that if I were you." "Now you tell me." "Hey, uh, what about your helmet?" "Turns out you're not contagious." "Well, isn't that a slice of good news?" "How about the fact that I seem to be turning into some sort of lizard?" "The blood and DNA tests came back inconclusive." "A search of your quarters revealed nothing." "I'm still waiting for the results of the full-body scans." "So, in other words, you have no idea." "When did you first notice the symptoms?" "I didn't." "I first found out about it when you guys so kindly pointed it out to me this morning." "Anything else out of the ordinary?" "Any headaches, any fatigue?" "Yeah, a bit of both, I guess." "I'm thinking, though, that Tylenol and a power nap aren't gonna cut it for this." "Have you done anything unusual this past week?" "You mean aside from everyday normal activity here?" "Hm, right." "The important thing, not to panic." "We'll know more when the results of your scans come back." "And what about the meantime?" "And what about the meantime?" "Ah, in the meantime, you can work... on these reports that you owe me." "What?" "...left this trail of gooey..." "Hey!" " Hey!" " Well, there he is." "So, Magnus finally let you out?" "Yeah." "I think she, uh, just put me up there to get caught up on some work." "Cool." "What?" "Am I interrupting something?" " No." " No!" "Not at all." "We're just, um, talking about, uh..." "Baseball!" " Baseball." " Baseball." "You guys were talking about baseball?" " Uh-huh." " Mm-hm." "Yeah, uh..." "Jays are looking good this year." "Uh-huh." "Yeah, strong middle relief." "Get some production out of the back end of the order, they might do well." "Aw, come on, give me a break, guys." "Cubbies, Rays, Red Sox, and I know for a fact that you guys would rather watch cricket than a Jays game, so what is going on?" "It's true." "Really, were you talking about me, or what?" "Uh-huh." "Yeah." "Sorry, dude, we..." "We didn't know how comfortable you'd be, and..." "Why?" "Look, I-I'm the same person," "I just have a few more scales, that's all." "Just treat me like you'd normally treat me, all right?" "Okay." "How does it feel?" "Doesn't really feel like anything." "I mean, I can't even really tell it's there." "Magnus know what it is yet?" "No, she's doing tests." "Okay, this might be an uncomfortable question, but..." "No, no, look, you can ask me anything you want, I promise." "Um... any way you can save us 15% or more on car insurance?" "Geico?" "That's funny." "You should see your face." "Glad you're having a good time." "Wow... it must be bad if you're eating down here." "It's hardly a reliable indicator." "Actually, I've made some progress." "Ah." "What are those?" "Spores." "From some sort of plant-animal hybrid creature." "Huh..." "Are they what's causing this?" "They appear to be altering your DNA one cell at a time." "Into what?" "Well, that I don't know." "The resulting chromosomal structure is still evolving, and so far it doesn't match anything in the Sanctuary database." "Okay, so how long do I have?" " Don't worry." " It's still early stages." "I'm working on an anti-viral flush that should kill the spores." "After that, your body will likely rid itself of the mutated cells naturally." "Hmm." "Right..." "No..." "It couldn't work like that, could it?" "Oh, yeah..." "Will?" "Do you want some breakf..." "Oh!" "Oh, my God." "Interesting." "I used a different word while scraping scrambled eggs off the floor, something with four letters." "I already apologized, and you need to learn how to knock." "I did!" "You need to not hang out on the ceiling." "This is going to help you find out what's causing this, right?" "Actually, this rather confuses the issue." "I'd originally thought these spores were from an offshoot of the Frilled Coral Rat, but their habitat is entirely aquatic." "These..." "These are clearly meant for climbing." "And scaring the crap out of people." "So we're back to square one?" "Well, not exactly." "With this new variable, I don't need to waste my time testing the theories I was working with." "Yeah, that's kind of what square one means." "Here, this is a mild antimetabolite." "Let's see what effect it has." "There we go." "Right." "I'm going back to my lab." "Try to relax, and let me know if there's any changes in your physiology." "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa..." "You see that, right there?" "What?" "That look." "You're going all Marcus Welby on me, and I know you only do that when you're really worried about something." "Don't be silly." "I'm running some tests." "I'll come back and check on you later." "Dude..." "Are we not knocking anymore, or what?" "I heard about your special ability." "I have a job for you." "What kind of a job?" "You're going to love it." "Come with me." " Yeah, sure." " I'm going crazy in here." " Exhibit A..." " Baccarat crystal chandelier given to Magnus in 1938 by the Marquess of Linlithgow." "Exhibit B..." "I think I see where this is going." "Magnus has been hassling me for months to change the bulbs in that chandelier, but I am telling you, dude, there is not a ladder on the market that is tall enough to get up there, and all the flying residents wanted cash, so..." "I'm your lizard." "Yes!" "You're a lifesaver." "Check this out." "Dude, this is amazing!" "You're like Spider-Man, but without the tights, thankfully." "This may come in handy." "Ow..." "Hey, what's wrong?" "I don't know, it's just really bright or something." "Will!" "Will!" "Hey!" "You okay?" "Help!" "I need help here!" "All right, all right." "Take it easy." "Yeah, so much for the Spider-Man routine." "Count yourself lucky." "Your hardened bone structure and the scaling on your body protected you from a more serious injury." "What were you doing up there, anyway?" "He was changing a light bulb on that chandelier." "It's on a winch!" "There's a control panel under the staircase." "Yeah, I probably should have known that." "What the hell?" "You've developed a sensitivity to UV rays." "Yeah, you think?" "This is a good thing." "Yeah, I know, Magnus, it's another symptom." "When are we going to find out what it is?" "Actually, I have a theory." "First, we need to take precautions to protect you from direct sunlight." "I really appreciate this, guys." "Aw, hey, man, it's the least we can do." "Yeah, sunshine's overrated anyway." "Ah, there." "You're good from here to your room, all the way to your office, including the elevator." "Just remember to press "down."" "Right..." "There you are." "I've been looking everywhere for you." "All you had to do was follow the trail of black fabric." "What is it?" "I finally figured out why the DNA of this creature you're turning into isn't in any of our databases." "It's not from Earth." "You mean, like..." "like...aliens?" "Your experience with the sunlight gave me the idea, so I scanned through the records that Tesla was able to glean from the holographic map, and I found a perfect match." "Don't tell me." "I'm afraid so." "I appears that the creature that infected you is from Hollow Earth." "I wanted to show you this before I talked to Will." "It's called a Cillobar, a predatory plant-animal hybrid." "Boy, that is one ugly weed." "Comparatively rare, even by underworld standards." "It reproduces by infecting its victims with its spores." "You did not run across any Cillobar." "We didn't have to." "According to the data, the creature blooms at the end of its life, spreading hundreds of spores over a wide area." "Now, most aren't viable, but the ones that are can survive outside a host but the ones that are can survive outside a host for up to six months." "So Will just picked one up along the trail to the city?" "We must have crossed through its habitat at some point, perhaps while we were running through the Basilisk field." "Okay, what about us?" "Your scans came back clean." " You?" " As did mine." "Remind me never to go camping in Hollow Earth." "What can we do about it now?" "Well, unfortunately, there's very little information in the file about how to treat a suspected contamination, but now that we have an idea where this is headed, we have options." "Such as?" "Henry..." "I'd like you to get in touch with Ranna." "Okay..." "Um, wait, as in Praxis, Hollow Earth Ranna?" "She'll put us in touch with my father." "Now, if anyone can provide us with information on a treatment, he can." "Okay, but is this a good idea?" "I mean, Ranna was pretty firm on the whole "Don't call us, we'll call you" dynamic." "I don't care." "She can yell at us all she wants when we reach her." "Quick sidebar." "Um, how exactly am I reaching her?" "You said you'd been working on something since we got back." "Well, yeah..." "Speed it up." "Speed it..." "Hmm." "You know, most people choose to rest when they're sick." "Yeah, not me." "I, uh, just thought" "I'd catch up on some filing here." "And how's that going for you?" "Not well." "My eyes hurt, and, uh, there's also this..." "Oh..." "When did that happen?" "A couple hours ago." "What did Magnus have to say about it?" "It doesn't matter." "I'm still turning into that thing, so..." "Did you want something?" "No, it can wait." "No, but really, what is it?" "Um..." "Abby called." "I told her you weren't feeling well, but she..." "she asked to see you." "Yeah, I don't know." "Know what?" "Don't worry about it." "I'll take care of it." "Thanks." " H." " Hey." "How's it going?" "Oh, yeah, good." "You don't have to lie, man." "Now I know how Marconi felt." "Can't get the signal there?" "Getting it there is not an issue." "Just have to create a modified ultra-low-frequency wave, hijack a little time on the U.S. Navy's Seafarer transmitter, and then boom." "However..." "What's the problem?" "The city's the problem." "If you'll recall, it's surrounded by massive lodestone deposits which effectively make it impossible for an EM transmission to go in either direction, so in order to punch through that," "I have to find a high frequency wave, somewhere in the region of 150 to 200 exahertz." "So, low to get there, high to get in." " Yup." "Oh, man." " Forehead, meet brick wall." "Henry!" "Yeah?" "I need you to gear up the van." "We've just had a report of a Terrakopolus on the loose in Trench Park." "Okay, I'm on it." "Listen, dude," "I'm going to jump back on this when we're done, okay?" "It's gonna take some time for the data to compile anyway, so, uh, just hang in there." "Yeah, I know, I can't go." "Don't worry about it." "I'll, uh, hold down the fort here." "Thanks, Will." "Come in." "Hey..." "It's not easy, huh?" "Being left out of the action." "No, it sure does suck." "Come on." "Come on, I want to show you something." "After you." "Wow." "What is this place?" "What is all this stuff?" "Whiskey." "Found the remnants of an old still about 40 years ago." "Been refining it ever since." "...so Magnus comes in and shuts the window, and he's stuck out there naked for two hours!" "I had to climb up and knock on his window." "What were you thinking?" "I've never been so happy to have fur." "What about you?" "Sons of bitches, you..." "Oh, I think he's had enough." "You guys really know how to kick it back here." "I tell you, this is..." "This is great." "Oh, this is just one of the many ways we spend our time." "Speaking of which, they'll probably be back soon." "Right." "Wait for it." "Wait for what?" "The song and dance." "Yeah." "Song and dance?" "Every time you guys come back from an op, all you can do is talk about it." "What?" "No..." " Yes!" " Yes." "It's not really that bad, is it?" "You go on and on about how spectacular the latest takedown was." "In minute detail." "...so we chase it down an alley, right, we got this thing cornered, okay..." "And it starts to freak out because it's got nowhere else to go, right?" "And then all of a sudden..." "It splits into two!" "Right there in front of us." "I was going to tell them that!" "Yeah, but you can tell them the other thing." "Okay, so all of a sudden, we're fighting this thing on two ends, right, because there's me on one side, there's Hank on the other..." "Yeah, and it's ugly, I mean, it's so..." "Hey." "Oh!" "God..." "I'm never gonna get used to that." "Hank said you didn't eat dinner." "Yeah." "Wasn't hungry." "Still, you should eat." "Okay, Mom." "I'm just sayin'." "What's wrong, you're not hungry?" "Yeah, just... my hands." "I can't control my grip." "Okay, um..." "Here." "No, no, no, no." " No, relax." " Just... just eat." "Just eat." "Don't make me make the choo-choo sound." "Thank you." "Okay, I came up with an algorithm to modulate the transmission between the upper and lower ends of the EM spectrum." "The tricky part was encoding a binary message that could just..." " Okay, all right." " What do we do?" "You just type your message into here." "Um, I've taken the liberty of composing one already, if that's okay?" "Yeah, good." "Okay, so, uh, well, we just hit "send."" "And now..." "And now we wait." "Once they get the message, they're going to have to decode it, they're going to have to decode it, get it into Ranna's hands, then find a way to transmit it back, providing they get our message at all," "or choose to reply." "Well, I don't think Ranna would ignore a direct request like this." "Well, either way, it's going to take a little bit of time." "All right." "What the..?" "This is them." "They're writing back." "Can you translate?" "Yeah." ""No cure for Cillobar infection." "High risk for further exposure." "Terminate subject immediately?"" "Write them back, tell them it's Will who's infected." ""Subject is Will." "Please advise."" "Did we lose them?" "No." "Getting a lot of interference, though." "Ah, here we go." ""Forbidden communication under Senate authority..."" ""Kill subject immediately."" "84 chromosomes and counting." "He's transforming faster than I can catalog the changes." "His sensory neurons are starting to mutate." "God knows what's going on in the rest of his brain." "Treatment?" "I've tried a combination of chemotherapy, radiation, angiogenesis inhibitors, and ultrasound, and nothing... nothing makes a damn bit of difference!" "You have to keep trying." "I know, I'm sorry." "How about the latest round of tests?" "12 failures." "Only one showed a minor reduction in the mitosis of the affected cells." "Promising." "It's hardly enough to slow down the disease, let alone stop it, not to mention reversing its effects." "It's something." " You're right." " You're right." "Prep a syringe." "That's more like it." "How you feeling?" "I'm fine." "I-I've got something else" "I'd like you to try." "Okay." "I'm not going to lie to you." "This is a bit of a long shot, but this particular treatment did show some promise in the most recent set of tests that I did." "Well, then, let's hope this is the one." "Let's hope." "I'll check back with you in about an hour." "Magnus..." "Do you think you could, uh..." "dial this number for me?" "Please?" "Of course." "Thank you for everything." "Hey, I'm checking messages when I'm back in cell range, so leave me one." "It's Will." "Uh..." "I know you probably won't get this for a while, but..." "I've been thinking about you a lot lately, and... next time you're in port," "I need you to call that number that I left for you." "Ask for Helen Magnus." "It's important." "Bye, Dad." "Hello?" "Hey!" "Wait!" "Hey..." "Wait." "Stop!" " Will?" " Will, what's wrong?" "Help!" "Help, someone!" "It's okay, it's okay." "You're all right." "Will..." "You've lost the ability to speak." "Your vocal cords must have fused during the transformation." "We'll figure out what all this means in the morning, all right?" "In the meantime," "I'm going to give you something to help you sleep." "Hey." " Shh..." " No habla, remember?" "Hold up, I have an idea." "Um..." "Okay, I'll ask you some questions, and you just point to "YES" or "NO."" "Okay?" "Just..." "Just give it a chance." "Are you hungry?" "What do you need water, do you need-do you need food?" "Will!" "Will, no!" "Will, we're just trying to help you!" "No!" "Will!" "Down!" "Stay down!" "Relax!" "This is for your own safety, Will." "I hope you can understand that." "It's going to be okay, dude." "We're going to figure this out." "You just hang in there." "Hey, what are you doing?" "Just filing a few things." "I wanted it to look nice in case..." "You want some help?" "Yeah." "Pfft." "You know I haven't lost anyone since my father died?" "I mean, guys I used to run with, but nobody... nobody close." "Will's not dead." "I don't really know how to deal with this." "You just do." "Magnus?" "I just... had a thought." "S-Something I wanted to check out." "Now, it turned out to be a dead end, but it gave me another idea..." "Magnus..." " Don't." "All right?" " I know what I'm doing." "You haven't slept in days." "What's your point?" "You're in denial." "Why?" "Because I'm not huddled in a corner somewhere wailing aw..." "I need to work." "You know this." "Will is gone." "Leave me alone." "Stop putting on a show." "How dare..." "What did you just say?" "We are all of us in pain." "No, no, no." "No, you just said, "Stop putting on a show."" "Yes." "Of course." "Of course she would do something like that." "Come on." "Henry!" "Can you pull up that message that Ranna sent?" "Okay." "Uh..." "Is that the whole thing?" "Yeah." "Why?" "There's an underscore here at the end of the first sentence." "Why would she do that?" "I don't know." "Maybe she's a bad typist." "She typed it in cuneiform." "Clearly this was intentional." "I think she's trying to tell us something." ""Forbidden communication under."" "You don't think..." "Wasn't there some interference when the message came through?" "Yeah, but I screened it for binary data." "We got everything she wrote." "What if the interference is the message?" "Like a sound file?" "I don't know." "Anything she sent would have been scanned by their outgoing data filters." "I think the Senate would have caught that." "Play it for me." "It's just gonna sound like static, so..." "Slow it down." "Morse code." "You've got to be kidding me." "Ranna would have known that the data filters wouldn't be looking for something so primitive." " Henry..." " I'm on it." "Yup." ""Gooban?"" "That's what it said." "Are you sure?" "Yeah, I checked it twice." " I don't believe it." " It's in here." "This is the data Tesla collected from the holographic map." "What does it mean?" "Well, apparently he was a botanist of some note over 600 years ago." "He resurrected an extinct species of mushroom that now bears his name." "Gooban." "What does this have to do with Will?" "Oh, my God." "It might actually work, I-if we hurry." "Find Kate and get Will." "Sedate him and bring him to my lab." "You're with me." "What can I do?" "I need an untainted sample of Will's DNA." "Dr. Gooban's technique was to use the spores of a living species to stimulate cell growth in an extinct one." "You think we can do the same thing?" "The Cillobar spores are essentially a delivery mechanism for the creature's DNA." "Once introduced, they initiate a rapid reproductive cycle which is impossible to control, but... if I can inject Will's DNA into the spores..." "We may be able to use them to reverse the process." "It's a long shot, I grant you, and even then, we still don't know if any of Will's original chromosomes exist in the creature." "All I need is one cell." "Hey, buddy, it's time to wake up." "Hank..." "What the..." "Oh, man, how the hell did he get through that?" "Hank?" "Oh, crap." "It's working." "The cells are starting to revert back to their original state." "Where the hell are Henry and Kate?" "Perimeter sensors!" "What happened?" "Sorry, he caught us by surprise." "Up you get." "Where is he now?" "Gone." "All right, so as you can see, we have our two sightings here." "Support teams are in position, 10-block radius." "Good." "We have a chance of containing him, at least." "What about the treatment?" "Four doses each, mixed with a powerful sedative." "How sure are you about this stuff?" "Well, we've never tested it, so... you all have to be prepared if it doesn't work." "What do you mean?" "She means we may need to use lethal force." "What?" "We can't risk further contamination." "We've no idea of the life cycle of this creature." "If it reaches maturity, it could release its spores at any time." "All of us need to be willing to do whatever's necessary." "If not, you can recuse yourself now, no questions asked." "We're good." "Henry?" "Yeah." "Spread out and stay in radio contact." "He can't have gone far." "Will?" "Will, it's Magnus." "I know you're near by." "Stay back!" "Stop." "I will shoot." "Is he out?" "We have to get him back to the Sanctuary right away." "There you are." "How do you feel?" "My, um, my throat hurts." "It's only been a few days." "It'll take a while before your recovery is complete." "On the positive side, this will do wonders for your Bruce Willis impression." " Jokes..." " That's a good sign." "Can I, um..." "You gave us all quite a scare." "Easily took 10 years off my life." "Yeah, well, I think you can afford it." "Magnus..." "You don't have to say anything." "I do." "Thank you." "You don't know what it was like." "Being trapped inside here, watching all of you slip away from me..." "I don't ever want that to happen again." "It won't, I promise you." "Except... you know that whole climbing the wall thing?" "That was really cool." "You think maybe we could..." "No." "Really?" "W-what about, um, uh, the super strength?" "How about that?" "No." "Hey, how about a-a claw?" "A claw on my left hand!" "Magnus!" "Magnus!" "Didn't hurt."