(Ty's POV)

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, rearranging my shirt so that Jason couldn't see my gills. I couldn't let Adam get killed or captured. After my escape, they would reinforce the security so that once you went in, you wouldn't come back. If I let that happen to somebody, I'd never forgive myself. The easiest way to make sure he wasn't captured was to keep him in the group. Speaking of which...

I opened my eyes and turned to Jason, who was looking at us with almost fear, like he didn't want us to be fighting. I ignored that. “Believe me now?” I asked. Jason nodded. “Good,” I said. “You probably won't have to leave now; they'll most likely try someplace different after losing here.” I turned to leave; we had stayed here too long. We had to get to a town or something and warn them. “Come on, Adam.”

I felt a hand on my shoulder and snapped around to see Jason standing there. “If you're going to save the world, I'm coming with you.”

I outwardly was emotionless, but inside I didn't really know what to say or do. A third person would probably seem more convincing, but I couldn't afford to look after two people. Then again, Jason probably could handle himself better than Adam...

“Welcome to the club!” Adam said, patting Jason on the back. I sighed. Apparently I had no choice.

 (Jason's POV)

I walked through the forest, Dillon perched asleep on my shoulder. He was nocturnal, after all. Ty walked in the front of the group, even though I didn't think he'd ever been here before. Adam walked next to me, fiddling with his fingers and constantly removing and replacing his gloves.

It still struck me as weird, terrifying even. Squids... just another creature, and suddenly they wanted to turn all of humanity into squids. It just wasn't right. Subconsciously, my hand reached across to my shoulder and started scratching Dillon behind his ears. He let out a small squeak and hunched his shoulders, so I kept scratching. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that squids had shown up on my front lawn and tried to run off with at least one of us. I still had no clue how Ty had even known that the squids would want to capture a test subject.

I inwardly sighed and stopped scratching Dillon, who returned his wing posture to normal. I cast a look at Ty. What was he hiding? I had seen Adam stare at his neck a couple of times, and he kept readjusting his shirt collar. I shook my head. It probably wasn't all that important, and if he didn't want to tell me, then it was none of my business.

I looked at Adam, who saw and gave me a smile to show that everything was all right. I furrowed my eyebrows, remembering just how loud Ty had yelled at him. I was fairly certain that it wasn't 'all right'.

I looked up at the sky, which was rapidly darkening. Stars were beginning to come out, and then the moon. I briefly wondered what it would be like to go to the moon, or to wear a space suit and be capable of surviving in the vastness of the universe.

Ty also had noticed it was getting dark out. “We should make camp for the night,” he said shortly, starting to set up the tent I had forced him to bring under a tree. He fumbled with it and yelled in frustration. “Have I not had to use my hands in such a long time that I don't even know how to-” He saw me looking and stopped.

I stepped forward. “Let me,” I said, bending over the mess of cloth and stakes. In a few minutes, I had a tent set up. It wasn't all that big, but when we had all crawled inside there was room for one more person to fit comfortably. I removed Dillon from my shoulder, setting him on a tree branch. In a few minutes he would be wide awake. Then I got in with Ty and Adam and closed my eyes. “Goodnight,” I said.

“Night,” Adam responded.

“Mm,” Ty grunted. I heard Adam roll over, and then I drifted off to sleep.

(Ty's POV)

I just couldn't sleep. I stared up at the cloth of Jason's tent, feeling stupid for what had happened earlier. Since I had escaped, the only thing I had really done with my hands was punching things. I couldn't even set up a tent.

I got up and stepped outside, standing. The moon was high above my head, and I felt my gills flap open as I took a long, deep breath. The night air was cool and calming. Dillon the bat flapped around my head disinterestedly before flying off-probably to go eat whatever it was bats ate. I saw my own hair out of the corner of my vision; during the fight, it had fallen over the left side of my face and I hadn't bothered to push it back. I didn't bother now, either.

Out of the corner of my, I caught movement. A flash of... something. I stood up straight and subconsciously curled my hands into fists. I turned around, looking for whatever it was, but didn't see anything. I shook my head. It was probably just my imagination.

Then I saw it again: a definite flash of metal and water.

Without thinking, I launched myself at the tree that the squid was hiding behind. I gritted my teeth and punched the glass; I was used to the ringing pain it brought by now. If I could crack the glass open, the water would drain out and the squid would die. I slammed my fist into it again as the squid made its robot swing a fist at me. I ducked and threw another punch at the same place. A web of cracks appeared; whatever this was made out of, it was strong. I felt stinging pain in my stomach as the robot punched me in the gut, sending me staggering backwards. I felt my gills flare as I launched myself back at the robot, ramming my fist into the tank as hard as I could. It finally broke, and water began draining out. The squid robot stopped moving as the squid itself began to flail around madly, making noises that I couldn't understand. I kicked the hole, making it wide enough for the squid itself to fall out. When it did, I grabbed it around its slimy neck and squeezed as hard as I could. It made more noises I couldn't understand, and then its tentacles stopped moving.

I threw it as far into the woods as I could, kicking the suit behind some bushes just so that I wouldn't have to see it. I didn't feel guilty about killing it at all. It had probably been following us since we had defeated the other two earlier that day-or was that yesterday? I couldn't tell. As I shoved the broken suit through the leaves, something fell out of it.

I knelt down and picked it up. It was a pair of headphones, black with green on the speaker part. I wondered where on earth a squid would get a pair of headphones. The obviously were broken, although I couldn't tell if that was from me smashing the suit or the water. My bet was me—maybe they had been for the 'head squid' to relay orders.

I felt an evil grin spread across my face. I rubbed the water off of them with my T-shirt, then put them on. They didn't push my hair back at all; it remained almost completely covering my eye. But right then, I didn't care. This was my trophy for any more squids to see if they tried to attack: I had killed one of them.

OOOH SCAREH XD C'mon, he had to get his headphones SOMETIME, and tis was way more exciting than having him buy it in the town that--you didn't hear anything. *zips mouth shut*

Shoutout fest: ShadowLykos, misshb123 and Short_Story55!!!! THREE MOAR FOLLOWERS YAI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *starts doing the macerena* A la to cope a la rena I don't speak Spanish! (that was supposed to be singing XD)

Also, aplology fest: My last chapta sucked, I know. AND, I'm going out of town Friday, so no updates then. :( And I might be staying at a hotel, too, so you guys might not even get an update Saturday. I truly am sorreh, I like updating and making whoever it is who happens to read this happy. BUT! Every sandwich has a silver lining! When I get back, I will post not one but TWO updates in one day!!!! How does that make you feel? All warm and fuzzeh? Like a baby cactus? I thought so :3

So, yadda yadda... comments are always welcomed, and votes won't be denied. Please don't think I'm begging for followers or votes; I just want to know what people think of my writing and plot and ALL MAH RANDOM SHTUFF YA.

Welp, my short burst of sanity is fading, so Imma go now~*walks out of room calmly but starts screaming like a maniac the second I am out of the room*