[Issue] Going Viral

[Narrator]

The first thing Ainsley and Sam notice upon going through the door is the crow-man slumped against the wall by the door controls, holding a piece of blood-soaked cloth to his side.

"Don't worry about me... just stop him," Jack urges.

[Samantha McManus]

"He's retreating from here. I can feel him," Sam says.

She gives Jackdaw a look that probably doesn't come across as intended on a mongoose's face, then continues on.

[Ainsley Green]

"Coal, you're faster than I. Go ahead and see if you can pin the Doctor! He's probably in a long white coat."

He tells the crow-dog. He spares Jackdaw a glance, but follows his instruction to press forward.

[Narrator]

Coal races ahead and, pausing briefly to sniff around, takes a left at the nearby intersection. Following his lead takes them past several doors and around a corner, the strange barks of the creature indicating an unseen chase. Eventually, they find Coal barking/cawing at a door labeled "Laboratory B". This one has a keypad, but with bloody fingerprints giving away the numbers used.

Coal turns his head towards them and lowers it apologetically. "Got away," he tells Ainsley.

[Samantha McManus]

"Didn't get away yet," Sam assures, stepping up to the keypad and trying several combinations of the numbers pressed.

[Ainsley Green]

"It's okay Coal. He's crafty." Ainsley stated, hoping to make the canine feel better about the situation.

[Narrator]

On Sam's fourth try, the light turns green and the door unlocks. Inside is a small antechamber with a pair of lockers for biohazard and the entrance to a decontamination chamber. One of the suits is gone.

Coal trots in after Ainsley. He just looks around.

[Samantha McManus]

"Listen Ainsley, I can't fit in one of those suits and if I shift I might be dead. I'm going to have to take the other risk, here..."

She starts towards the decontamination chamber.

[Ainsley Green]

Sam didn't have to tell him twice. It was almost as if Ainsley had started dressing before she said anything.

"Go back out into the hall Coal. It'll be safer for you there.

I'll be back soon." He says encouragingly, then signals Sam that he's ready.

[Samantha McManus]

Sam leads the way into the chamber, keeping all senses peeled.

[Narrator]

The door shuts behind them and the decontamination process begins. While the perfect opportunity for a trap, it merely goes as expected. Entering the lab proper, however, presents them with a seventy-something Japanese man with graying hair in desperate need of a comb, standing in front of a row of drones holding metal canisters. He has a gun trained on them.

"I won't let you stop me. This needs to happen."

[Samantha McManus]

"You don't have to do this," she says, trying to reach out to his mind to give her words more weight.

"You don't have to be this monster, this nightmare to your grandson. To everyone. You're a brilliant man. Why can't you think of another way?"

[Narrator]

He looks back with a sorrowful but somehow cold sort of madness. "Human nature as it is, there is no way left to save this planet than to change humanity into something more in tune with that it is otherwise fated to destroy. Our species can't be permitted to continue as it is now, and the roulette wheel of the X-Gene will take far too long. Shiro... Shiro will understand when all can unleash their true inner beasts like he can. He will be the progenitor of a new humanity! He's special! He should be proud!"

[Ainsley Green]

Ainsley remained silent (surprise) with his hands up. However, as Sam proved to be an ample distraction to the good Doctor, he began slowly sidestepping towards the man's blind spot.

[Samantha McManus]

"Humanity's already changing. If human decisions are what got us here, why should another human decide to put his thumb on the scale?"

[Narrator]

"Someone has to," he answers, "That change is too slow. The planet will be reduced to a lifeless husk before then, or at least we'll be extinct. If I can save sapient life on this world, it's my duty to do so!"

Ainsley seems forgotten as he flanked the doctor. From his new vantage point, he can see that the disturbed man had been all but finished transferring a rack of vials into the canister behind him.

[Ainsley Green]

Ainsley's movements are slow and deliberate. The cleansuit's shoes work like sneakers in terms of audibility.

Ainsley did not send his intentions to Sam directly, but it was obvious. He only needed to doctor to move a skosh away and he could get the canister away from him and to safety.

[Samantha McManus]

Sam lets out a growl in frustration.

"Your problem..."

She tugs at his madness, trying to make him feel small and insignificant.

"...is you've vastly overestimated your importance."

The mongoose seems to loom larger, dwarfing him.

"You say you're serving the natural order, but you're just another human meddling where he."

"Doesn't."

"Belong."

[Narrator]

Muto cringes. "No... I... I have to... why does no one understand... I need to..."

Then he catches Ainsley's reflection on the visor of his hazmat suit and the insignificant feeling is replaced by anger. He whirls towards Ainsley, intending to shoot. In the process, his elbow knocks over the rack with a single vial in it It rests precariously close to falling to the floor.

[Ainsley Green]

Being that this wasn't the first time Ainsley had a gun on him, he didn't even flinch, diving for the rogue vial.

[Samantha McManus]

Sam meanwhile likes Ainsley un-perforated and thus she leaps for the good doctor.

[Narrator]

The gun goes off just as Sam plows into the doctor, bullet punching a hole in a cabinet behind Ainsley. And just as Ainsley's fingers brush the vial of virus, the doctor falls into the lab table and knocks the rack to the floor where the vial shatters. The viral medium splashes across the floor, releasing it into the air.

Muto laughs. "Soon you'll see, girl," he says spitefully, "just how right I am."

[Samantha McManus]

"I'm tired of talking to you," Sam growls, pressing down on the air hose for the doctor's suit.

[Narrator]

The doctor brings the gun around to fire at Sam, but her close proximity leads him to awkwardly pistol-whip her instead. But the maneuver causes the gun to go off anyway, nearly hitting Ainsley's air hose. Combat prowess clearly isn't what makes him dangerous.

"Get off! I can't... breath... "

[Ainsley Green]

Ainsley takes the bold move, and comes up behind the doctor to get the gun while Sam cuts off his air supply. He doesn't move quick enough to stop him from pistol whipping her, but he's on top of him as quickly as he can be, grappling him from behind in hopes of disarming the other man of his weapon.

[Samantha McManus]

Sam takes the clumsy pistol-whipping to the jaw, knocked back in an arc of blood.

Which doesn't really make her less mad at him, but he probably gets in a good breath or two before she lunges again.

[Narrator]

The doctor struggles to maintain his hold on the weapon but Ainsley is the stronger person and the gloves of a hazmat suit don't allow for the best grip to begin with. So when the giant mongoose tackles him as well, he loses his footing and Ainsley wrenches the gun from his hand as he falls, trigger tearing the finger of the doctor's glove.

[Ainsley Green]

Ainsley would probably feel bad about what just happened, except The Doctor was intending to destroy everyone not him but three seconds ago.

Instead, he kicked away the other man and fumbled to empty the gun of any rounds left by fiddling awkwardly with the magazine release.

[Narrator]

Muto scrambles back from the pair, making a last-ditch effort to go for a big red button labeled "RELEASE." He's fast but hesitates briefly when he sees the hole in his suit.

[Samantha McManus]

"Little man, it's time for you to sleep," she growls.

The way she's pressing on his mind, it isn't a request so much as an order.

[Narrator]

"No! I... must..."

With no mental protection, the doctor falls asleep.

[Samantha McManus]

"Let's get out of here," Sam says, grabbing the doctor's shoulders and starting to drag him to decontamination.

[Narrator]

The doctor must have disabled some of the safety protocols because the lab isn't filled with fire or anything as they again cycle through basic decontamination. Or perhaps he hadn't yet made a properly contagious strain. Either way, they emerge into the antechamber without difficulty, where the others are just opening the door from the hall.

[Will Stanton]

"Everyone OK back here?"

[Ainsley Green]

Ainsley seems a little on edge, but no worse for wear otherwise. He made a sort of jaunty head movement that might be a stand in for 'yea, I guess'.

[Samantha McManus]

"Well as can be expected. Don't go back there. We'll need a cleanup crew."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"The virus?" Tosh asked with an involuntary step back, "Were you exposed?"

[Will Stanton]

"Do we need to quarantine or something?"

[Samantha McManus]

"I don't know what he thought it would do to me, but I'm fine. Maybe I wasn't exposed long enough."

Tereza can sense that in spite of her current restraint, Sam is still roiling inside.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"We should play it safe and all get checked out before risking spreading it," Tosh said worriedly, "We can't let anyone else have their life ruined by this madness."

Not because of me...