Happy day-after-Halloween, have an extra-spoopy chapter. We're nearing the end of the story, but I'm having some serious writer's block, so please send me any ideas you have!
Most of what happened after Ty was dragged into the water was a blur. He tried to summon zombies, his first, instinctive reaction to any threat. For the first time ever since he discovered his powers, he failed. He had panicked, flailing uselessly at his attackers. The feeling of trying to fight with a new body he was entirely unused to only made him panic more. The fact that had barely moved for the last week didn't help matters. Eventually, he had been knocked out, not because he posed an actual threat to his captors, but because his constant screaming was getting irritating.
Now, Ty was huddled in a cage, trying to calm himself down. It wasn't easy, since the moment that the Veraform Stone stopped glowing was playing on repeat in his mind. He had no idea why the Veraform Stone hadn't worked, but he knew very clearly what it meant. His only chance at becoming human again had failed, and now he might be a squid forever.
Part of what frightened him about that, aside from the obvious thing about squids and humans being mortal enemies, was how helpless he was in this form. He could barely move without his tentacles getting tangled up. He wouldn't be able to find food if he got out, which meant that he would have to depend on somebody being willing to help him, and he didn't think he could count on that.
Most of the things he could do as a human were now useless too. He couldn't hold a butter sword properly with his tentacles. Butter actually hurt any squid that touched it, so Ty supposed it didn't really matter if he could hold a sword anyways. He couldn't do parkour underwater. He couldn't even summon zombies anymore.
He could hear squids coming towards his cage, ready to drag him away and experiment on him. Ty felt a familiar sensation well up in him as he closed his eyes, a feeling of tugging at the earth, a feeling of needing to defend himself somehow. Suddenly, screams ripped through the water.
Ty opened his eyes, seeing that he had summoned a handful of zombie squids. They were tearing into the squids sent to get him, snapping angrily and blocking off the exit. Ty stared as he processed what he had done. Since when had he been able to summon zombie squids? All of the other zombies that he had pulled from their graves were made from human remains. Maybe his powers hadn't been removed, just… altered.
When the squids sent to get Ty looked like they weren't going to bother anybody anymore, Ty tried to change his demand from a simple cry for help. Ty stiffened slightly as the squid zombies turned around and swam to him, leaving the bodies of the squid guards floating lifelessly in the water. As the zombies tore at the bars, Ty had to remind himself that he was completely in control, that he could make the zombies turn back anytime he wanted. It still creeped him out though.
When the zombies broke through the cage, and Ty made them stand back a safe distance, he realized he couldn't really move. He could either take the time to relearn how to swim, or have the zombies carry him. He really, really didn't like that second option, so after a few false starts, he got himself swimming. Even the zombies were better swimmers, but he should be fine for the time it would take to free his friends (if they hadn't been killed) and escape. Then, he would have the rest of his life to practice.
As Ty started to leave, he saw one of the fallen squids moving. He turned around to look, and saw one of the squids getting up. He prepared for a fight, but then he realized that the squid wasn't moving to attack. And those wounds were too much to survive… Cautiously, Ty tried to mentally command the squid to move forward a little bit. They did. Ty realized that he might have just caused a potential zombie squid apocalypse. Well, not his problem. He checked over the other fallen squid. They had less wounds close to what passed for a brain, but sooner or later, they would reanimate.
Ty gathered his small army behind him, preparing to break out of the dungeons. It was way too late to save his humanity. He looked over his zombies one more time. Was it possible that he could actually start a zombie apocalypse for the squids? If he was smart about it, then he probably could. He shivered. What was he thinking? Ty couldn't live with himself if he did that. He tried to justify it to himself. If he spread the infection, it would be easier for him to save his friends. He could keep it contained. That could work. Despite this, Ty knew that he wouldn't leave a spot in the ocean untouched.
Because right now, all he wanted was revenge.
