Sorry about the short chapter; the next one will be longer!
Sky knew that the evidence that Ty was turning into a squid was weak. He walked up to the door of the Vision Squad house, uncertain as to what to do. Was it really worth sending everybody into a panic over something that might not even be true? Before Sky could open the door, it flew open, revealing Jerome, who looked more than a little stressed. "Where have you been?" Jerome demanded, dragging Sky inside. "We need you to help figure out what's going on!"
"Wait, what happened?" Sky asked.
"Ty got sick, and now he's barfing up ink. We figured you would know more about this than any of us." Jerome said in a matter of fact tone. "He's lying on the couch." Sky tore himself out of Jerome's grip, racing towards the living room. As Jerome said, Ty was lying on the couch, looking nauseous, with a bucket on the floor next to him. As Sky snuck closer, he saw that the bucket was indeed partially filled with ink. Ty looked up at Sky.
"How are you doing?" Sky asked. A smile curled onto Ty's face.
"I just threw up half a gallon of ink. Never been better." Ty said sarcastically, a slight rasp to his voice.
"How'd you get so sick?" Sky wondered out loud.
"I ate all of Jerome's fish." Ty said, deadpan. "Can't wait until he finds out. Then again, he might take pity on me. Ugh, it feels like all my organs are rearranging themselves." That's probably pretty close to what's actually happening. Sky thought ruefully, only realizing he had spoken out loud when Ty's head jerked up. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"Have you finished throwing up for now?"
"I think so, but why are you asking?"
"Don't want you to stain the carpet. I'm getting all of Vision Squad into the same room. I think this is something I need to explain to everyone."
A few minutes later, Sky stood in front of Vision Squad. He cleared his throat. Best to get start to the point. "Ty is turning into a squid," Sky said bluntly. "It started when he was kidnapped, as far as I can tell, and it's only going to get worse as time goes on. I've done some research, and I think I've found something that can help. There's a stone at the tip of the Northern Fang that's said to have the ability to reverse transformations. The stone starts to lose effectiveness once the transformation is complete, so we have to be fast."
"Hold on a minute," Ty said. "The only thing that could possibly stop me from becoming a squid for the rest of my life is a freaking rock?"
"It's rely on that, or give up all hope," Sky said helplessly. "The Veraform Stone is the only thing I could find." This started everybody talking, questions and fears flying across the room like arrows. By the time everybody calmed down, they had all come to an agreement. The Veraform Stone was their only hope. They would leave in the morning. Sky was up late that night, working to get everything prepared for the trip. Nobody had asked him to, but he couldn't sleep, and he wanted to minimize the delay while everyone got ready in the morning. The work kept him busy, but as he stumbled into bed, his worries swarmed his mind again. There were so, so many ways things could go wrong. How could he guarantee things would go right? He couldn't. Thoughts like this haunted him as he sunk into a restless sleep.
