MONSTROUS.
010. | ❛ fighting your fears. ❜

"Nice job blowing up the Time Pirate's escape pod. Put another win in the mission column." Ray greeted them with a smile on his face.

"Did you not see what happened next?" Jax asked as Crystal pushed past him with Sara trying to figure out what they actually saw.

"No, I took a break. Had to go to the bathroom." Jax sighed, through his hands up in the air.

"You okay?"

"We were attacked by zombies." Crystal turned back to face Ray with her hands on her hips making her way over to the rest of the team.

"And someone put sprouts on my sandwich." Mick seated himself on the stairs leading up to the common room.

"The Time Pirate's distress call referenced something called a TX-90. It's a futurist bioweapon. The infected's condition represents strongly those things... that... I can't say." Martin stammered in the last part while Sara continued for him.

"And if that infected Time Pirate is out there spreading this virus, then our work is not done here." Sara said.

"No kidding. Having zombies, or whatever they are, running around the Civil War is not a good thing." Nate added on while Crystal saw a ill looking Mick leaning over and falling onto the floor.

"Speaking of not good." Crystal said as she ran over towards him to lift him up with the assistance of Ray. "Let's get him to the MedBay."

Getting to the Medbay, they laid Mick down and hooked him up to check vitals with a clear sweat appearing on his face.

"What's going on?" Mick asked with a gruff tone while Martin, Ray, and Crystal all looked at each other.

"Apparently, uh, you were wounded during our encounter with the infected." Martin broke the news to him.

"Impossible. Those creepy bastards didn't lay a finger on me." Mick refuted while Crystal went to pull down the side of his shoulder to reveal a piece they've missed.

"But they might have gotten in a tooth. Or 30." She pointed out with Mick overlooking his shoulder seeing what she saw.

Mick pulled on Ray's arm bringing him down to him, having the strongest grip on him and scaring Martin.

"Oh, my God. He's already starting to turn." Martin covered his mouth due to his phobia of zombies.

"Ray, you gotta fix me. I don't want to be turned into a frickin' zombie." Mick pleaded with Ray holding a frightening look to Mick, Crystal, and Martin.

Once Mick let go of him, Ray quickly managed to get items to start a cure as the beeping of the alarming vitals kept Ray in a hurry.

"Raymond, please hurry. I don't like the way this is going." Martin held a frightening look.

"You don't like the way this is going?" Mick talked back to Martin, who wasn't at the receiving end of the stick.

"How close are you to formulating a workable vaccine?" Martin kept asking questions while Crystal hovered over Ray's work.

"Very. I think."

Crystal but into her wrist and let a couple of blood drip into the cure. "A vampire's blood has the power to heal but then again I haven't been trained in being a full vampire yet." Raymond nodded and headed to Mick's side to inject the serum.

"Raymond. I'm counting on you." Mick voice wavered a bit having hope that Ray was smart enough to save his life.

"Don't worry, Mick. I got you. Here we go." Ray said and almost immediately the vitals started spiking scaring Martin even more.

"What's happening?"

"His heart rate's spiking. Gideon, administer the sedative now!" Crystal said as she headed to the other side to where Martin and Ray were seeing that Mick was in transition and spazzing out. His eyes started to distinguished from his brown ones, and turned a weird shade of purple as well. And he gained enough force to break free from his chair, one armrest at a time. Once he broke free, Martin started screaming the one word that he said he couldn't, "Zombie! Zombie! Zombie!"

"Screaming isn't helping." Crystal said as they all exited the Medbay trying leaving Mick trapped in there as he slowly stood up.

"Zombie!" Martin kept going while she led him out.

"Gideon, put the ship on lockdown!" Crystal commanded.

"Lockdown mode activated." Gideon confirmed as they all stood outside the door catching their breath, and reassessing the situation that they're in and how they're going to get out of it.

"He was... he was... he... he..." Martin stammered continuously before Crystal tried to calm him down.

"Calm down, calm down."

"We're going to die." Martin started to make his movie in his head while Ray kept pacing.

"You just need to calm down." Ray also said to him with Martin gaining a cold shoulder in his back.

"I will not calm down. He was threatening enough before he was one of the walking dead! Why didn't your vaccine work?" Martin yelled at him.

"I-I-I don't know. It could be that subcutaneous delivery needs more than one dose."

"Oh, and that didn't occur to you while formulating your serum?"

"Martin, turning on each other isn't the way to defeat whatever is in there." Crystal gestured weirdly to the Medbay.

"At least I'm not the one with an irrational fear of zombies." Ray kept on attacking disregarding Crystal's comment.

"There's nothing irrational about my fear of zombies. He's a zombie!"

"Look, I'm pretty sure that I stunned him."

"Oh, you're pretty sure?"

"And if he's knocked out cold in the MedBay, all we have to do is go back in there and inject him again." Crystal caught on while Martin still looked spooked at the whole situation.

"And if he's not, I'm pretty sure he'll kill us! So, me and my irrational fear are staying right here."

"Listen to me, Marty..." Ray said before he and Martin shared a look, "Can I call you Marty?"

"No."

"You have to help me. If you don't, and Crystal and I get bitten, then you'll have two zombies to deal with." Ray tried to snap some sense into him eventually Martin had an epiphany of sorts.

"Oh, my God." They all have Martin a couple of minutes before they alerted their plan of action.

"Okay. You ready?" Crystal asked Martin who replied with a simple nod followed by a ,"Mm-mm."

"Just relax. He's unconscious, remember?" Ray said, calming Martin down a bit more as he stood behind Ray and Crystal. Crystal opened the door with a swipe of her hand, and seeing no body or unconscious body in the room.

"Raymond." Martin called.

"Yeah?"

"If he's unconscious, wouldn't he be here?"

[•]

The lights seemed to have switch off possibly due to Mick, hence why he escaped the Medbay. But even with flashlights, the trio was still a little frightened of what might pop out around the corner.

"Damn, it's dark." Crystal said shining the flashlight around, keeping a look out as Martin and Ray did the same.

"Even if Mr. Rory wasn't in a zombified state, I doubt he possesses the intelligence to operate a light switch." Martin sarcastically said being very eerie of his phobia.

"Well, he probably just destroyed a conduit or something." Ray said not comforting Martin's fear.

"Well, that's hardly comforting, Ray. Considering that Mick doesn't even know what any of those words mean." Crystal said as she shone in front of her revealing a very dead Mick and going to attack Ray, as Martin faded into a corner screaming. Ray possessed enough strength to push his back and onto the floor as they escaped. Crystal led Martin and Ray to the galley before getting stopped by Mick crawling towards them.

"He got me! He's got my foot." Mick yelled.

"You're going to have to forgive me for this, Mick." Crystal said as she kick his side instantly letting go of Martin as they rushed in.

They could hear pounding coming from outside as Martin tried to gather himself once again much like before.

"This is a nightmare. If Mr. Rory's intention is to eat our brains, can you imagine the feast we'll provide him, given our combined intellects?" Martin leaned against a table before feeling a rush causing him to hold his head.

"What is it?" Crystal asked.

"It's... it's... it's Jefferson."

"What's happening to him?"

"I'm not sure but I-I've never felt him so... So frightened or angry before. I knew I should have gone with him."

"Well, Sara and Nate are still out there. Maybe they can get to him." Crystal assured him and an immediate speak of the devil through their comms.

"Crystal, Ray, Martin. I've lost contact with Jax and Amaya. I really could use some help out here."

"I suppose there's your answer." Martin looked at Crystal who smiled a bit before informing Sara of their current situation.

"Here's the thing, Sara: we'd love to come help. But Ray's vaccine didn't work, and Mick got turned into one of those things. And he's confined us to the galley." Crystal said with the constant growling and pounding hitting the door. "Until we can cure him, you guys are on your own."

"Yeah, looks like we all are."

[•]

"We told Mick that we would save him. Plus, I still have the vaccine. We just have to figure out a way to get it to work. The vaccine wasn't effective when we injected Mick. But if we can aerosolize the serum, and deploy it using something like a... A fire extinguisher, we could deliver the cure as a spray." Ray spoke to Mick and Crystal, the only one who spoke.

"I'm not even going to pretend to understand what you said, Ray. But I can confirm that I agree with your plan 100%."

Martin on the other hand didn't share the same excitement as Crystal, "W-we're not doing anything. But you two, on the other hand..."

"Look, Marty, I know that you're scared. I've been nothing but scared since my suit was destroyed. I've been terrified that I have nothing to offer the team. But you have to get over your fears if we're gonna survive this."

Martin nodded seeing Ray's point about fears, the best way to beat them was to face them. But Martin and Crystal stayed in the galley as Ray went out the duct and into the Medbay, awaiting his information on hi last suicide mission.

"I'm in the MedBay."

"Be careful, Raymond. It won't take long for Mr. Rory to figure out where you are."

"Tell me something I don't know."

"Don't be a wise ass, Ray. Just spray Mick so that Martin here will stop moving his leg up and down." Crystal spoke over the comms and not hearing a respond from him.

"Ray?" Crystal continued to call him over the comms but after minutes of silence it was evident that Martin and Crystal had to go out and search for him.

"Well, Martin. It's time to face your fears." Crystal said as she slowly opened the door of the galley and stepping out at a pace with Martin creeping up behind.

"Raymond? Raymond, where are you? What happened?" Martin tried over the comms while Crystal led them to the Medbay. Once she shone her flashlight down, she came to a halt and Martin had a lump in his throat.

"Oh, no. Don't be dead, Raymond. On the other hand, if you are dead, please stay dead." Crystal said kneeling down and checking Ray vitals, "Oh. Just unconscious, well done."

"Now, where's that fire extinguisher?" Martin said snooping around until seeing it a couple of feet ahead of him and starting to talk to himself as he walked towards it, "Okay, Martin. Just do what they did... in those zombie movies... that you never had the courage to watch."

"Remind me when we get home that you need to watch more of those zombie movies." Crystal joked as Martin gave her a unpleasant look before she chuckled to herself as they played hide and go seek with Mick.

Martin held the fire extinguisher close to his chest while Crystal lightened the way for them. And quickly turning a corner appeared once again a dead Mick. The two slowly backed up still being in range to spray him. "This will all go smoother if you cooperate."

Mick lunged forward causing Martin to spray him but nonetheless still attack the two to the ground. Having a strong grip over the two of them, mostly focusing on Martin.

Martin tried wiggling free and getting over his fear of zombies, "You may be stronger, but I assure you, you will not eat me today."

And as they both thought that Mick was going to bite them, the purple haze started to disappear from his face. And the brown eyes that were once noticeable started to come back and Mick looked awkwardly at the position that the three were in.

"Professor, Witchy, what's going on? Was I just trying to kiss you?" Mick confusedly asked as they still remanded on the ground as Crystal let out a sigh of relief.

"Uh, I could only hope, Mr. Rory. I can only hope."

[•]

After Ray gained consciousness, Crystal made sure to touch him up and make sure that there were no injuries or bruises. One zombie was enough for the three and dealing with another isn't going to be a walk in the park. Crystal wiped a small wipe across his cheek, "And you are all cleaned up."

Crystal smiled promptly before tossing the wipe aside and watching Ray look at her weirdly.

"What?" Crystal asked.

"I told you I'm fine," Ray said brushing off his shoulders showing that he wasn't going to turn into a zombie. "No zombie teeth, nothing."

"As your co captain, I have to make sure that my team is okay. Or else Sara will kill me. I take that back she wouldn't, but I wouldn't be able to deal with another death."

Ray leaned forward and grabbed her hands, "You aren't going to deal with another death. You're not going to lose anymore of us. You won't have to grieve again."

Crystal refused to look up to his eyes, "Well, I know grieving. I have it to a science at this point. It's just sometimes I wonder, about the Waverider, being a good captain, finding Rip, brining justice to Laurel, -"

"I suppose Leonard?"

Crystal finally looked up to him and gave him a sadden smile, "I'd be kidding if I said never. I always think of him, I couldn't imagine a day that I won't but that's what you have to do at this point. You have to learn to live with it even if it tears you apart sometimes. Against fate and destiny, you just hope that the pain will subside even if a Time Villain told you it was going to happen."

"What do you mean?"

"When I talked with Vandal, he talked about the future. The future I had with Leonard and our kids but I guess that I shouldn't have trust someone of his credibility."

"Crystal, you have to lose yourself before you find yourself. And I'm sure that being captain of this ship, is a sign from Leonard that you're meant to be here and deal with the pain because he knew that you'd be able to handle it. Not go off the deep end but embrace the pain and learn to be a Huntress once again." Ray said as he lifted Crystal off the table and landed her on her feet, gaining another dizzy spell and holding onto Ray's forearms for support.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I probably need more sleep." She said slowly releasing her grip on him as she started to slowly walk out alongside Ray.

"Always looking out for me, aren't you Ray?" Crystal asked.

"Someone has to, without Leonard now you're more crazy and chaotic but nonetheless more sophisticated and refined. Although you and Sara both have that fierce edge personality."

"That also reminds me, Mick might have something for you." Crystal reminded herself.

"What's that about?"

"Let's just say that you might become a newly built hero again."