It looked very much like Hollywood's image of a werewolf: Tufted ears, gleaming teeth in a long snout, large paw-like hands with sharp claws. Its thick fur was reddish, and its eyes were blue… the same blue as Rip's eyes. "Is that…?"

"Captain Hunter? Yes," Stein replied, peeking around the far corner where two passages intersected. "Gideon says he must have been exposed to some kind of mutagen."

"Are you hurt, Professor?"

"Only my dignity, Dr. Hall. Best we worry about Captain Hunter." Stein held up a hypodermic. "I got a sedative from the medbay, but I haven't been able to get close enough to administer it. Do you think you can keep him occupied?"

Carter nodded as Rip's growling turned into a whine. "He sounds like he's in pain." He stepped closer, gingerly extending a gloved hand. Rip growled again, snapping at him. Carter snatched his hand back.

"I think your headgear is frightening him," Stein suggested, edging out from around the corner.

Carter pulled his mask off and tossed it to the side. "Is that better, Rip?" he asked quietly, crouching down to get at eye level with him.

Rip panted and then whined again. Those almost-human eyes watched him closely. Carter moved a little closer and again extended his hand, not looking up at Stein as the professor snuck up behind Rip with the sedative. "It's going to be all right, Rip. We just need Gideon to take a look at you…"

Rip yelped and snapped as Stein jammed the needle into his arm. Carter fell back, and Stein did as well. Rip pulled the needle out, roared at the two men and ran away down the stairs.

Right toward the open hatch.

"Dammit!" Carter swore, getting to his feet and running after Rip. As he reached the open hatch he extended his wings and took off.

Holland huffed as he pulled himself up onto the roof of the aquarium, pausing to bend over with his hands on his thighs for a moment. He wasn't used to this kind of exercise. He'd barely caught his breath when a roar startled it out of him again. He looked up to see a bayou legend come to terrifying life before him.

"Rougarou?" he gasped.

The rooftop security lights were dim, but he could see the gleam of the werewolf's eyes… and teeth. The creature took a step toward him…

Then swayed and fell, sprawling where it landed.

"Took long enough for that sedative to work."

Holland looked up from the creature to get his second shock of the night as Carter Hall landed on the other side of it. "Dr. Hall? You're Hawkman?"

"Long story," Hall said. "Very long. For now, just help me get him aboard the Waverider."

Ray had vanished into the crowd of milling plant-people, which seemed to be getting larger. And those who hadn't been turned into plants were pushing toward the exits in a panic. They'd have to get that under control.

"Try to find Ray!" Kendra told Mick before flying to the dais, where the others had gathered, their masks now removed.

"Are you all right?" Len asked as she landed. "It looked like you were about to get grafted."

"I'm fine," she answered. "Where did Carter go?"

"He went to the Waverider to check on Gray," Jax told her. "Something was wrong, but I think they fixed it. I'm only getting worry from him now. He's not scared any more."

"They can handle themselves," Sara said. "We should worry about what's in front of us. I see Mick-" it was hard not to; the big man had plucked one of the torches from the stage and was moving through the crowd with it, "but where's Ray?"

"He's one of them," Kendra said, pointing at a cluster of shambling plant people. "But I don't know which one now."

"They don't seem to be hurting anyone," Jax said.

"No, but somebody will get hurt if we don't get this panic under control," Sara said. "Look!"

She pointed to where a woman had fallen, pushed over in the crush. Luckily for her, Mick was near enough to clear some space and help her to her feet, still brandishing his torch.

"We can work with Mick and security to corral these plant things in one place," Len said, motioning to himself, Sara and Jax. Then he pointed to Kendra. "But I think these people need Hawkgirl to calm them down."

"Len's right," Sara said. "They know you. You're the hero in this town, and they need you now."

Kendra nodded. "All right, I'm on it." She flew over to the main stage and grabbed one of the microphones abandoned by the musicians when the trouble started. "Everyone, listen to me! Listen!"

The din lessened just a little, and some hopeful faces turned her way. "I know you're frightened. But under all the vines and leaves, those-" she motioned to the knot of plant-things- people, she corrected herself- now being rounded up by her friends, "are still your friends and family. Something has happened to them, and they are probably just as scared as you are. We are going to do everything we can to help them. For now, please just do what the security guards tell you."

The panic seemed to be subsiding, and the pushing seemed to stop. Kendra put the microphone down and flew to join the others.

"Nicely done," Len complimented her. "You sure you used to be a barista?"

Kendra snorted at him. "Shut up."

Together, they steered the plant people toward a single gathering place.

Holland helped Carter lift Rip into the Medbay bed. Stein clipped the IV bracelet to the captain's arm, and a blue light played over his still form.

"Well, Gideon?" Stein asked.

Holland started as Gideon responded. "As I thought, there is a mutagenic substance in Captain Hunter's bloodstream."

"Hunter? You mean… this is the movie guy?" Holland asked. "What… how…"

"I'll buy you a beer and explain later," Carter answered, putting up a hand to forestall any further questions, while Stein asked, "Do you recognize it?"

"It appears to be some form of bacteria, and it is not of this Earth," Gideon said. An image appeared on the screen next to the bed: a round, shimmering blue-green organism with spikes like dandelion spores.

"That was in the tarp you brought me!" Holland exclaimed. "I came here to look at it with the aquarium's electron microscope."

"We found the sceptre in that tarp," Carter said. "Gideon, is it still in Rip's study?"

"Yes, on the table."

"I'll be right back." Carter half-ran, half-flew through the corridors to the study, where the box with the artifacts still sat on the table where Rip had left it. Quickly, he brought the box back to the Medbay and set it on the empty bed. "Gideon, take a look," he said, opening the box and stepping back.

The blue light played over the ancient objects, and a second image of the bacteria appeared on the screen. "As you would say, 'bingo,'" Gideon told them. Carter slammed the box shut, and Gideon went on, "There is no need for alarm. The bacteria is dormant without moisture, and in any event it would have to be absorbed intravenously or ingested."

"Intravenously?" Stein asked. "Didn't Captain Hunter say he'd been bitten by a wolf cub?"

Carter nodded. "Wolf DNA plus alien bacteria-"

"Equals werewolf," Stein finished. "So how do we cure him?"

Slowly, as if putting together a hypothesis, Holland said, "Well, in the movies you'd need a silver bullet."

"We are not going to shoot our Captain!" Stein answered sharply.

"Of course not!" Holland said, just as sharply. "But I think…"

Gideon interrupted him. "Excuse me, but I have a call coming in from Miss Saunders."

"Miss Saunders?" Holland asked, his eyebrows going up. "Of course. Hawkgirl is your girlfriend."

"Later!" Carter growled. "Kendra, we've got things under control here. Stein is fine, and Rip… will be."

"Then you might be doing better than us," Kendra answered. "We've got a convention center full of plant people here, and we don't know what to do. We're not scientists!"

"Plant people?" Carter shook his head. First Rougarou, now Père Malfait en masse. "I thought Ray was a scientist."

"Well, yes, but… He's one of the plant people."

There was silence on the other end of the line. "Carter?" Kendra asked, looking at the smartphone display to see if they were still connected.

"I'm still here, Kendra," Carter answered over the speaker. "Listen, those artifacts we picked up today were contaminated with some kind of mutagen…"

"It's a mutagenic bacteria," Stein added. "And it's turned Captain Hunter into a… I don't believe I'm saying this… into a werewolf."

Kendra exchanged a wide-eyed look with the others, who'd moved closer to hear the conversation. Sara said, "Carter, you handled the sceptre too. Are you feeling all right?"

"Gideon thinks the bacteria has to be ingested or get into your bloodstream, so I'm pretty sure I'm safe," Carter answered.

"Ingested?" Jax asked. "We found the medallion in that spinach! It must've been contaminated and then cooked into..."

"The oysters!" Kendra exclaimed. "Ray had a few of those."

"Plenty of people probably had a few of those," Jax agreed.

"So all our leafy friends here just have an exotic variety of food poisoning," Len drawled, waving a hand at the crowd.

Mick grunted. "Like I said, bad things happen when you eat green stuff."

Kendra huffed at him. "The question is, how do we cure it?"

A new voice answered. "I think I have an idea."

"Is that Dr. Holland?" Sara asked in surprise.

Carter shrugged even though he knew she couldn't see it. "Don't ask. Let us work on this, and we'll call you back in a few." He turned to his colleague. "What's your idea?"

"Your friend here gave it to me," Holland said, jerking a thumb at the professor. "Silver bullets."

"We're not shooting-"

Holland cut the older man off in irritation. "Legend tells us silver kills supernatural creatures like werewolves. But legends have basis in fact-" Carter snorted, thinking Holland didn't know just how true that was, "and history tells us silver was often used by the ancients in medicine, for keeping things purified-"

"We stored water in silver urns in the Middle Kingdom," Carter remembered. When Holland just stared at him, he said, "Part of the very long story. Go on."

"Yes," Stein said, "and get to the part where this will help the Captain and all those people!"

"Silver is an antibacterial," Holland concluded.

"Dr. Holland is correct," Gideon announced. "I have already run a simulation of the effect of colloidal silver on the bacteria. You can see the results on the screen."

They turned to the screen to see an image of tiny, dark particles surrounding the blue-green fuzzballs of bacteria. The fuzzballs were engulfed and disappeared.

"So you think this will work, Gideon?" Stein asked.

"I do. There is a hypodermic with what I have determined to be the correct dosage of colloidal silver for Captain Hunter waiting in the medical fabricator."

Stein opened the case and withdrew the needle. Returning to Rip's side, he let out a sigh and said, "Well, may fortune favor the foolish."

He inserted the needle with considerably more care than when he'd sedated Rip earlier. After administering the dose, he asked, "How quickly-"

He'd barely gotten the words out when Rip began to shake in the bed.

"Hold him!" Carter said, grabbing Rip's arm and shoulder on one side. Holland followed suit on the other, and they all stared as Rip howled through his transformation. The tufted ears shrank and disappeared, the elongated snout shortened back into Rip's own face, the clawed paws became human hands again, and masses of red fur began sliding off the captain's body, falling to the deck.

Rip finally stopped shaking. Carter and Holland released him and stepped back. "Well, Gideon?" Stein asked in a low tone.

"The bacteria have been eradicated. I am discontinuing the sedative," the AI answered.

Rip moaned, then put a hand to his forehead. "What the bloody hell?" He opened his eyes. "Why am I in Medbay?" His gaze fixed on Holland. "What are you doing here?"

Then he looked down at himself. "And why am I naked?"

Carter's lips twitched with the effort not to burst out laughing. Stein pulled a silvery blanket out of a drawer and draped it over Rip. "Sorry, Captain, but we were a little more concerned with your health than your dignity. You, sir, have had one hell of a night."

"Might have been better off going to the party," Carter told him. "Speaking of which… Gideon, can you please call Kendra back?"

"Carter! Did you figure something out?"

"We did, and Rip's back to normal now."

"Was that the best you could do-ow! Sara!"

Carter did laugh at Len's suddenly cut-off joke. "Listen, I need to know how many… plant people we need to treat."

Rip frowned. "Plant people… what?"

"Later, Captain," Stein soothed.

"Security thinks it's about two thousand," Kendra reported.

Carter and Stein exchanged a stunned look. "That's a lot of hypodermics," Carter said.

Holland held up a finger. "I have a better idea," he said, and grinned. "You familiar with crop dusting?"