(Quentin's POV)

The first thing I noticed about him, besides his hair, was the fact that he was wearing headphones. Why in the world was he wearing headphones? And then I realized that his one visible eye was red. The collar of his shirt was pulled up so that it covered the sides of his neck, and unless I was mistaken, he had a bracelet on each wrist.

He was followed by two more people, both of whom looked strange, although not as strange as him. The first was another boy with brown hair, only he was wearing sunglasses even though it was cloudy out and some sort of amulet hung around his neck. And, for some reason, he was wearing gloves. The second was yet another boy with brown hair, but the only strange thing about him was that he seemed to have a bat perched on his shoulder.

“And why would that be?” Dakota asked, snapping me back to my senses. “If you have no proof, then simply continue on your merry little way.”

I felt like introducing my fist to his face. “Listen to them, would you Dakota?” I asked, feeling hatred in every syllable. I didn't know whether to trust the first two or not, but the last boy, the one with the bat, gave me the feeling that he wouldn't lie unless he had to.

Dakota raised his eyebrows but sighed and motioned for him to continue.

“This is going to sound crazy, but you have to believe it,” the boy with the headphones said, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. “Squids are trying to develop a machine that can turn humans into squids, and they need test subjects to test it on. This is the closest town to the ocean where their lab is located. They'll come here first.”

I had the feeling that if Dakota wasn't so emotionless, he would have burst out laughing then and there. “And you have proof?” he asked mildly.

I glared at him. “Why would you need proof? Nobody would lie about an enemy that they were afraid of.” The rest of the council nodded.

“I am simply debating whether they are trustworthy,” he stated.

“So debate it with your own council!” I said. Dakota sighed and turned back towards the rest of the table.

“And you actually believe these people?”

Dan looked at him. “Look, Dakota, Quentin was right. If you won't even listen when there's a threat to the town, you'll be impeached in no seconds flat.”

Dakota sighed again. “Fine then, how many of you trust them?”

Hands started being raised, mine and Dan's among them. Shortly, almost every hand was raised except for Dakota's and the few people that had theirs down looked like they were still thinking about it.

“If you won't even think about what they're saying, you're an idiot,” I told Dakota. Almost everybody nodded.

(Ty's POV)

I felt my gills flare up, then I quickly readjusted my shirt collar before anybody could see. This would be a very bad place for that to be noticed. What was taking them so long?

Jason was rubbing Dillon's head, which I had come to learn was a sign of nervousness. Adam was fiddling with his new amulet. I closed my eyes and took a long breath. The one person in the gray suit seemed likely to convince Dakota, who I guessed was the mayor, to evacuate or arm the town. I had nothing to worry about. I repeated that to myself over and over. There was nothing to worry about. Nothing to worry about.

Eventually, Dakota turned back to us. Instinctively, I readjusted my shirt collar again, but thankfully he didn't notice. “Well, it seems you have convinced the council of your evil squids story. However, I do not believe this. So tell me,” he looked down at us from his chair, and I had a sudden urge to sock him, “What proof do you have?”

There wasn't anything to use this time. My gills were not going to be revealed-I didn't want people thinking I was a freak. And no squid robots were around this time.

Then Jason did something I had never thought he'd do since I met him.

He told a flat-out, gruesome LIE.

“Um, sir? Dakota?” he asked, stepping forward. Dakota looked at him. “Do you see the bat on my shoulder?”

Dakota nodded. “Yes.”

“Well, he used to be my brother, Dillon. Then the squids came and tested out their morphing ray on him. It malfunctioned and instead of transforming him into a squid, like they'd wanted, he became a bat. The squids left afterward to alter the ray back at their lab. Then I joined my friends here, Ty and Adam, who had witnessed it, on a journey to warn this town so that the squids couldn't attack it very easily.” Jason said this perfectly, with the correct depth and use of emotions in just the right places. If I hadn't known it was a lie, I would have believed it. He was a really good liar.

Dakota blinked. “Well. Thank you for that proof,” he said. Then he regained his former annoying tone and posture. “However, I am not willing to anger the townspeople by organizing an army for the sole purpose of-”

“Then we'd better pick somebody else to be mayor, hadn't we?” the boy in the gray suit interrupted.

“Wha-what—you can't—what?!” Dakota spluttered.

“All in favor of impeachment, raise their hands,” he continued. Every hand around the table was raised. Adam raised his too, and then Jason pulled it back down, shooting him a look.

Dakota's face turned beet red for half a second, and then he shrugged. “Consider me fired,” he said, almost as though he was amused. “You're free to do whatever you want.” Then he got out of his chair and simply walked out.

The Town Council didn't even watch him leave. “So, who's going to be the new mayor?” somebody asked.

“Quentin,” almost all the others said at once. The guy in the gray suit gave them a smile.

“Sorry, guys, but I can't. If there is an evil squid army coming, I'm going with these guys,” he said, gesturing towards me, Adam, and Jason. He couldn't be serious. Another person would only slow us down.

Everybody nodded, like that was perfectly understandable. “What about Dan?” somebody suggested. Within moments, they had elected Dan as their new mayor. He grinned. “Alright, so first things first, we're going to need supplies... and get the message out...” he trailed off into a complicated list and system of what they were going to do, everybody around the table listening intently.

“You might be a good liar, but did you really expect anyone other than Dakota to believe that?” a voice said suddenly. I whipped around to see Quentin, as I assumed his name was, standing there and talking to Jason. I frowned.

“You do believe the squids-being-evil part, don't you?”

He looked at me. “Yeah, I believe it. I'm just saying, that whole bat lie had some major holes in it.”

Jason blushed slightly. “Yeah, I know, it was just the first thing I could think of.”

Quentin looked at all of us. “So, are we going or what?”

RAWR hello everybody. I like jelly beans. .3.

Firstly: I would like to announce hat I now have SEVENTEEN followers. The new additions to my Cactus Squad (yes, that's what I decided to call my followers :P) are AlwaysAshlyn, Myancat12, and jayash5 (who, incidentally, happens to be a really good IRL friend)

Second: I am changing the title of this story to Crafted Origins, thanks to the suggestion made on my last chapter by GalaxyWolf1821. Thank chu for the awesome idea, I really do like it ^^

Third: I can't continue to do daily updates. I'll still try to do five updates weekly, but I have exams coming up and I'm starting to hit writer's block. However, I am planning on starting a new story, so you guys will have somthing else to read :) So, do you guys want me to write:

A) My own twist on an Enderlox, Skybrine and WitherMu fanfiction where they have to save the world using their mutated powers-will be titled Rise of the Void

B) A Hogwarts fanfiction featuring YouTubers and Wattpadders-probably will be titled Platform Nine and Three Quarters

C) A combination of Elox, SkyB and WMu, only in the real world with Adam, Ty and Jason-will be titled Fight Me IRL

Comment down dere what you guys want me to write next. Remeber, you guys are the ones deciding what I churn out!!