CHAPTER SUMMARY: In which Mick is proven right in his warnings against eating green stuff, and Rip and Ray are having a really bad day.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the shortest chapter of this story, but plenty happens.

Jax bounded up onto the dais. "Something's wrong back at the Waverider," he announced. "Gray is scared, and I'd swear he's scared of Rip."

Len sighed. "And we thought we didn't need comms tonight. We'd better go."

Carter shook his head. "It'll take you too long. Surface streets aren't back to normal yet after the parade. I can get to the Waverider faster," he said. "I'll call Kendra as soon as I know anything."

Hawkman extended his wings and flew off.

The… werewolf… Rip?... snarled at Stein, and then ran out of the Captain's quarters.

"Gideon?" Stein asked weakly. "Was that really Captain Hunter?"

"I'm afraid it was," the AI responded.

"What happened to him?"

"Without a Medbay scan, I can only theorize that he was exposed to some kind of mutagen."

Stein got to his feet. "Wonderful. Where is he now?"

"In the galley. I'm afraid he's making rather a mess of things there."

"We'll worry about housekeeping later, Gideon. Can you contain him in there?"

Now Gideon sounded apologetic. "I'm sorry, Professor Stein, but those kind of defenses are not part of my programming."

Of course not. If they had been, neither the time pirates nor Vandal Savage would have been able to run amok on the Waverider. Stein sighed and stepped cautiously into the passageway. "Well, then, I'll just hope the Captain's now eaten enough of our supplies that he won't want to eat me ."

Kendra watched her partner soar up over the crowd and out of the main hall. "Now where is he going?" she wondered aloud.

"We probably ought to go check," Ray said, releasing his hold on her. He took two steps toward the dais, then stopped, swaying dizzily.

Kendra put a hand on his arm to help steady him. "Ray? Are you all right?"

Ray shook his head. "I don't know… I feel… strange…"

He pulled his jester's mask off and ran a hand through his hair, then frowned as he looked at that hand. The frown turned into bewilderment as he saw green tendrils tangled in his fingers.

Kendra's eyes widened as more tendrils sprang up through his hair and skin, burgeoning into vines with leaves sprouting from them as they grew and covered him.

"What's going on?" Sara asked as she returned to the dais.

"Something's wrong with Gray and Rip," Jax told them. "Carter went to check it out."

"Are you still getting a scared feeling from Stein?" Len asked.

Jax made a waggling motion with his hand. "A little bit, but I'm also getting some frustration. I think…"

Whatever Jax was thinking got interrupted by a scream from the crowd below. "Père Malfait!" someone shouted, and the cry was taken up by more voices.

Len scanned the floor, and raised his eyebrows at what looked like shambling, people-sized piles of leaves and vines, moving through the crowd. One of them was looming over Kendra…

"Ray? Ray, what's happening?"

Kendra could only hear a moan from behind the leaves that now obscured Ray's face. The vines were still growing, flowing down over his shoulders, covering his body and the arms that reached out to her-

Until Mick rammed into him like a freight train, sending Ray flying into the crowd. Mick whirled toward her, his mask now askew and some of the brilliant feathers broken. "You okay, Birdgirl?" Then he looked around. "Where's Haircut?"

"Mick… that was Ray."

Mick pulled the mask down around his neck, his eyes growing huge. "I told him bad things happen when you eat green stuff!"

Holland was just getting out of his truck at the aquarium when he heard the whoosh of something flying over him. His eyes grew wide as he realized Hawkman was heading for the top of the building.

"What are you doing here?" he murmured. He looked at the tarp and decided it could wait a little longer. Holland ran to the fire escape at the side of the building and began to climb.

The Waverider shimmered into view, the entry hatch lowering just as Carter landed on the roof. He ran up it, furling his wings away. "Rip? Professor Stein?"

"Dr. Hall?" Stein sounded anxious, but uninjured.

"Jax was worried about you," Carter called back, walking cautiously toward the stairway to the upper levels.

Stein gave something of a hysterical laugh. "As well he should be. Captain Hunter is… well, come up and see for yourself."

And Carter did see as he topped the stairs and rounded the corner, to be confronted by a tall, hairy, wolf-like… thing hunching in the middle of the passageway.

Growling.