Infected

8 - The Affected

"Bad!" Puffy called as he dashed through the spirit wilds. "Bad wait for me!"

But he couldn't wait, this couldn't wait. He had to know if Skeppy was alright. Ant had gone earlier and still hadn't got back to them.

"You know the whole point of me coming was to help you," Puffy said as they reached a wall in the spirit vines. "Sorry, are you okay Bad?"

He didn't say anything and pushed through the wall, the vines gave way and she followed him into this large clearing. A cocoon of vines surrounded, something, Puffy couldn't tell what it was. The vines were red and looked almost sickly. The red vines originated from the cocoon and were slowly spreading to the healthy green spirit vines. With no hesitation Bad ran up to it and started ripping away some of the vines, using his airbending to slice through some of it.

"Bad, I don't think we should do that," Puffy said, it felt colder in the canopy of vines creating a perfect circle around the cocoon, as if the vines themselves were trying to get away from it.

"Skeppy!" Bad exclaimed as he removed the vines enough to reveal the young man. Skeppy looked as sickly as the vines did, his skin had been tainted a dark red and the blue sweatshirt he had been wearing had been turned a bright red.

"Holy Ravaa," Puffy muttered, she could see small red vines running along his face and hands as Bad pulled him free. Where Skeppy had been Puffy could see part of what might have been a large red orb. She could feel it pulsing, something was inside the cocoon. Vines quickly wrapped around the opening, covering it and Bad pulled the vines off Skeppy.

"What are you doing here," Skeppy asked, his voice monotone, showing no emotion.

"We're here to save you," Bad said, "This is Puffy."

"I don't want to leave," Skeppy said, he pushed Bad away from him. "I want to stay with the egg."

"No, you don't," Bad said, "You're sick Skeppy, we have to go back."

"I'm perfectly fine," Skeppy said. "I've never felt better."

"Are you sure, Skeppy," Puffy asked.

"Of course," he said.

"What happened to your sweatshirt," Bad said.

"I don't know what you mean," Skeppy said.

"Well why don't we get out of here, then you can see the sky again," Puffy suggested, "and we could get you some food from Master Jinora."

"I have no desire to see the sky," Skeppy said, he turned away from them and started to walk back towards the egg. "I want to stay here."

"Skeppy no!" Bad yelled, running in front of him and trying to push Skeppy away from the egg. "Come on, don't you want to see Airbender Island again?"

"No," he said, starting to walk around Bad.

"What about your friends?"

"No."

"What about Clay?" Bad tried, surely he remembered that he was supposed to train Tommy.

"Take me to him," Skeppy said, and Bad let out a sigh, finally a reason to get him away from the egg.

It was a long walk across town, neither of them had a car to drive and Skeppy refused to take a cab or to check if Clay was at Airbender Island.

"Hey guys," Clay opened the door to them and was clearly weirded out by Skeppy, but tried to play it cool. "Do you need help at all?"

"Where is he," Skeppy said, showing no emotion as he looked at Clay.

"Are you looking for Tommy," he asked, "he's out with Nick and George."

"No, the other one," Skeppy said, "where is he?"

"Other one? Tommy's the only kid I've taken in, Zak." Clay said, what was Skeppy talking about? Did Tommy have a sibling he wasn't aware of? He'd have to look into that. And if he did, how would Skeppy know.

"Could we stay here for a bit," Puffy asked, Clay was the only thing keeping Skeppy from running back to the Egg as he called it. "Do you have first aid supplies?"

"Yeah, of course," Clay said and stepped aside to let them in. "I'll go get it."

As they went in and Clay disappeared to the kitchen Puffy started to go deeper in the house.

"Where are you going," Bad said.

"To find Tommy's room, something's up with him and Clay," Puffy said, sneaking off as Clay came back in and gave bandages to Bad.
She quickly did, it was the room closest to the kitchen, and the door looked like it wasn't meant to be there. It was a small room that had a bed that took up half the space, a chest of drawers, trash and uneaten food cluttered the surfaces, but there was nothing that explicitly looked like it belonged to Tommy.

"Looking for something," Clay said, making Puffy jump. She hadn't even heard him coming.

"No, I was just curious," Puffy said, "Tommy's my friend and he doesn't talk much about his home life."

"Well that is his choice," Clay said, stepping out of the doorway to let Puffy out. "It's not your business if he doesn't want you to know."

"Huh," Puffy said, she couldn't help but see that he had a point. "I guess that makes sense."

"Well I hope that you guys will figure out what's going on with Zak," Clay said as they walked back to Bad and Skeppy. "I have to go pick up Tommy. You guys need to head out as well."

"Thank you Clay," Bad said, "come on Skeppy, maybe we can check Airbender Island for whoever you're looking for."

"Yes, take me to him," Skeppy said.

"Do you have a name you could give us, or anything," Puffy said, she wanted to help Skeppy but without any more information they couldn't. Then again it might be good they couldn't find who he was talking about.

"No, but the Egg says Tommy knows him," Skeppy said, standing up. "I should go back."

"To Airbender Island," Bad said, hoping that was what Skeppy was talking about.

"No, to the Egg," Skeppy said.

"Why?! Why back to this Egg?" Bad said, he was done, he was exhausted. Why didn't Skeppy want to come back with him? "Don't you want to come back home?!"

"I have no desires, I only want the Egg," Skeppy said, and he left the house without another word and Bad ran after him making Puffy follow behind.

"Skeppy!" Bad called. "Skeppy please! I just don't want this Egg to hurt you."

"Maybe that's what you want but what about me!" Skeppy said, "The Egg won't hurt me, in fact it's made me better. And maybe if you would actually listen to me it could help you too!"

"I-" Bad didn't understand why Skeppy had yelled at him. He'd never done that. Tears started to flood the man's eyes and his voice broke. "Skeppy?"

"It's going to be okay," Puffy said, "I'll keep an eye on Skeppy, but I think you should go home. Or at least go elsewhere to calm down." She also needed to figure where Ant had gone, he was supposed to be there according to Bad.

"Okay," Bad said, he headed to the apartment he and Skeppy owned, but the fact Skeppy had become so attached to this Egg bothered him.

Maybe he just had to go to the source to figure out the problem.

Uh oh, whatchu doing Bad? Only I know. Also this is purely platonic for all you Skephalo fans. Also, I have currently been making a basic map of everything that is going to happen in this fic. And it's pretty long.

QotC: Favorite dynamic other than the bench trio? I already have plans for them and especially the allium duo, I just want to know of there's any other dynamic I should take into consideration.

Thank you all for reading, please vote and comment. Peace out benders and Minecrafters from around the world!