Hal nodded and sat down in the chair once more.

"Again, thank you for your services." he thanked her.

"By the way." he then said.

"How are things working for you here?" he asked.

"How have people been treating you and such?" he asked further.

"Has everything been all right? Any problems or issues?"

Hal just sighed.

"I shouldn't be surprised." he said.

"If you ever feel threatened or uncomfortable, let me know." he told her.

"After all, you are, for all intents and purposes, an employee here. You deserve the same rights at them, the most basic of which is to feel safe and welcome here." he reasoned.

"Regardless, thank you for your honesty." he continued.

"I'll let you get back to work now."

".....odd." Hal muttered.

"That's never happened before." he said.

"Might need to ask Chloe or Lunet about it later if it persists, or if something more happens to the system." he said further.

'Or if it comes up in conversation.' he added mentally, with a shrug.

-Some time later-

"...the hell is going on NOW?" Hal growled, looking through incident reports.

It seems that over the past while, more and more of his staff, across all departments, were getting less and less observant. More air-headed, less alert, and having poor short-term memory.

And none of the medics could identify what was causing it.

"If this keeps up, the Unit will come to a bloody standstill."

"......." Hal was silent, before slamming his fist down on his desk.

"Damn it!" he cursed.

"Damn it, damn it!" he repeated, before sighing.

"I apologise." he said.

"Thank you for telling me this." he went on.

"I just can't believe this is happening. Now key members of this organisation are falling victim to whatever this is." he went on.

"This just keeps getting WORSE!" he exclaimed, before looking at her.

"What about you?" he asked.

"How are YOU faring?"

"I hope so as well." Hal responded.

"We have no idea what this is, or what to do about it." he went on.

"And I've heard some of my staff are even having symptoms that mimic Alzheimer's." he then said.

"But that seems to be a severe case of 1 or 2." he continued.

"However, I'm concerned that whatever this is... is progressive, and practically nobody is safe." he then admitted.

"If we can't do anything about it... and everyone gets worse... this might be the end of the Unit, Rylie." he lamented, sounding helpless and disheartened.

"..." Hal didn't say anything at first, but he then smirked.

And snickered.

Before it turned into outright chuckling.

"You're right." he said.

"We've faced superhuman challenges in the past, and we've survived." he admitted.

"We can face this as well!" he declared, before looking at her.

"Thank you, Rylie." he said, gratitude in his now-changed tone.

Hal blinked for a moment.

"I..." he stammered.

"Hm." he mumbled.

"Yes, I can grant that." he said.

"Admittedly, I'm not sure what form of knowledge the wish will take, but... here goes." he finished.

He then brought his hand forth... and snapped his fingers.

"...I do." Hal responded.

"Thank you." he said once more.

-A little over a week later-

The hallways of the Unit were unnervingly quiet. Mostly because everyone was either affected, or scared of being effected. It meant the med wing was busy, however... but at least it was quiet.

Angela was about to step out of the med wing for a drink from the cafeteria, when she heard footsteps. They were heavy, uneven, and unsteady... like someone who could barely move at all.

Before she could do anything, the form rounded the corner... and she saw it was Jake.

And he was covered in hundreds of bites of various sizes... some of which were bleeding badly.

Jake was silent for a moment.

"Anya..." he said.

"We... we were on the roof... lunch..." he continued.

"She... she started to freak out... couldn't remember who I was for a moment." he went on, before coughing.

"Before she remembered... her spiders... so many different spiders... they swarmed me... all over me..." he continued, his voice getting more and more quiet.

"She tried to stop them... they wouldn't listen... they acted... on their own-" he went on, and then coughed again.

This time far more violently.

To the point where a glob of blood was hacked onto the floor.

"......got it." Hal said after a moment.

"I'll be in the med wing for answers later." he told her, before hanging up.

He was then silent, before bringing out his cell.

He scrolled through his contacts, and sighed.

"Mira... let's hope YOU'RE okay." he muttered.

He then found her contact number, and dialled her.