Remember how I said that this chapter would be longer than the last? I lied. Definitely next chapter though, because I'm going to combine the next two chapters. Minor spoiler alert: This means you're going to get a mostly transformed Squidlox, and let me tell you, it's going to take quite a few words to explain what THAT mess looks like.

"Rise and shines, dirt."

"Five more minutes." Ty groaned, rolling away from Barney and folding his pillow so that it covered his ears.

"Oh yeah, that's gonna get you the cure faster." Barney scoffed. Ty thought about this for a moment.

"All right, I'm getting up." he said, pulling himself out of the bed with some effort. Barney walked out of the room, and Ty prepared for the day. When he was ready, he walked outside, where everybody was standing around with their supplies. Ty realized that they were waiting for him. He ran to join them. As they set off, Ty cast a reluctant look back at the Vision Squad house, knowing that he might not be human by the time he saw it again.

The day passed uneventfully, and it seemed like forever until the sun started to hover low in the sky and a camp was set up. Ty volunteered to be the first on watch. It was partially because he could make zombies keep their distance, and he was quick to detect other mobs. The other reason was because so far, all the stages in his transformation seemed to happen while he was sleeping. Maybe if he could stay awake, he could postpone it? No. It was a childish, stupid idea, and even if it worked, he couldn't stay awake forever. He was sitting on a flat rock a few feet away from the camp. The camp was set up next to the shoreline, so that it would be easy to keep track of where they were. If Ty looked towards the tents, he could also see the sea, moonlight shimmering on water as gentle waves lapped at the sand with soft slapping sounds. It was oddly comforting to him, but he had to keep his eyes on the forest.

Ty frowned, yawning. Something was off about the air around here. It was hard to breathe, and he was starting to feel lightheaded. Should he alert someone about this. "Guys!" Ty yelled, starting to stand up. "I think-" That was all he could manage to get out before he collapsed, the air becoming harder and harder to breathe in. He could see Sky coming out of his tent to see what was wrong, blinking sleepily before seeing Ty collapsed and running over. The sides of Ty's neck were itching, and it soon became a burn, with a sharp spike of pain just as Sky reached him. Sky fell to his knees, his fingers ghosting over the slits on Ty's neck, which were pulsing with each frantic, useless breath. Sky gasped, making some connection that Ty would have made if the lack of oxygen wasn't getting to him, making it harder to think. Suddenly, Ty was being picked up, and he could feel cool water washing over him just before the world spun into black.