Prologue: Of Clones and Stasis

Splatoon? Owned by me? Feh.

I trailed him down the stairs, and into a room that seemed like a cross between a space station, a nuclear bunker and a laboratory. Empty vials and electronics were strewn across tables, models of engineering feats stacked on a shelf, and on the far end, shelves upon shelves of scientific research material, along with one filled with sealed food. I walked over to the scientist as he sat down next to a rather large metal contraption, labelled 'JUDD'.

'Good-bye my purrfect little kitty cat. May your meows echo through the ages.' Engraved in the side of the capsule, those words seemed to be made to last thousands of years. I turned to the man in his stark white coat, already tapping away on his keyboard.

"So… what do I do?" I asked, glancing around the room for anything remotely human-sized, everything was either too big or too small. The man chuckled, seeing what I was doing, and pointed me to a helmet on my left.

"The helmet will allow me to read your brain and transfer the data into a time capsule," he explained, pointing at the cables leading from the helmet to his desk, "A live subject has the best chance of staying intact through the ages, but I'm lucky I even have a person willing to do this."

"I'm assuming that cat does not count," I joked, picking up the helmet.

The man barked out a laugh, "Oh, the cat can count, at least the first hundred numbers."

He turned to me, adjusting the straps beyond my reach. "I suggest you take some anaesthetic, you clearly don't want to wait ten hours," he said, as his eyes roamed across the data-laden screen. He eventually passed me a pill and a cup of water.

I took the pill, and immediately felt like my brother had knocked me into tomorrow. The edges of my vision started to fade, and I fought to keep my eyes open a few seconds longer.

"My name is Joanne, what's yours, kid?" the man asked, extending a hand.

"Carol. Carol Geier," I replied, shaking his hand, and let myself fall into the darkness of sleep.

*0*0*

Morales stared at his screen, scanning for patterns in the incomprehensible lines of letters, helpfully translated by Judd during his last visit to the intact laboratory of his former home. After searching for what was probably the hundredth time, Morales groaned, and dropped his head into his hands.

A bell sound, and he turned to face the door, not expecting anyone at this time of his day. Standing outside was an Octoling in agent armour, dragging glass tanks, filled with glowing green ink, in a net.

"Agent 8, how kind of you to add to my already growing collection of green sludge," Morales joked, mirth in his eyes. Agent 8 rolled her eyes, and pulled the canisters into the room. Morales, deciding to investigate, pushed himself up and walked over to the net, picking up a canister to examine.

"Thank you, but why the bio-ink?" Morales asked, not sure why Agent 8 had gone out to collect more blended remains of mostly Octolings.

Agent 8 pointed to a poster next to the door, and after stacking the other canisters, walked out of the room. Morales sighed, and took a second look at the poster she had pointed out.

The poster was one of many relics of the Human Era in the room, supposedly made by Judd's former caretaker. The room was one of the few remaining rooms in the ruins of the city. His grandfather had told him stories of great discoveries that happened in this very room, from his first discovery of it sealed within lead walls to reviving Judd from his cryostasis.

Morales studied the poster closely, and that was when he noticed something strange. The poster depicted a human wearing a helmet of sorts, with a line leading from the top of the helmet to a screen which had lines that looked just like the one he had been looking at a few minutes ago. The line continued down to the bottom and split into ten chambers which he had assumed were similar to Judd's cryostasis pod.

Except it contained a liquid that looked very similar to the sludge Agent 8 had brought back, but a dark red. It was at this point he realised that the code he was scanning just minutes ago may not have been encrypted at all.

The bell rang again, and he turned to find Agent 8 wheeling in with what appeared to be the exact same machine from the poster.

"Agent 8, would it be possible if I sampled some of your ink?" Morales asked, his mind racing at the sudden revelation that just maybe, the former sentient species of this planet could return, albeit in the form of a different species.

*0*0*

Judd stared at the octoling-shaped body suspended in water. Suspended in water. When he received the call, he had expected Morales had found a simple discovery, like the evolution of squids or a new weapon model. What he definitely did not expect, was an amorphous blob floating around in the large glass chamber, about to be inhabited by a brain from twelve thousand years ago.

"Eight, are you ready?" Morales called from the other side of the room, one hand on the lever to direct additional power into the machine. The final process, which Judd had so helpfully translated, required large amounts of power to transfer the data into the body, and a simple small zapfish would not have cut it.

Which was why they had plugged in an extension cable leading to the Great Zapfish's power line.

Agent 8 gave Morales a thumbs up, and they both pulled their respective levers with a resounding click.

Immediately, Judd witnessed lightning course through the body, wave after wave crashing down on the vague body of ink. And he saw, slowly, clearer octoling features grow in the blob of inkly remains. He watched as the body shook and shuddered, contracting and relaxing newly grown limbs. At moments, he even saw it flash into its octopus form several times.

Recalibration. Morales had pulled out a book on the shelf labelled 'Biology'. He had then explained to Judd exactly why the body would do what it was doing. Put into a foreign enough body, the brain will start to test each and every nerve it has a connection to, testing the compatibility of the body as well as scan for any obvious damage.

The electric pulses slowed, and the machine whined as it came to a halt. Judd winced at the hiss of various gases as they left the machine, and the glass compartment screeched, giving away to the body that collided into it.

Agent 8 knelt down next to the kid, who was female, an octoling, and incredibly small for her age, which Morales had confirmed to be close to Agent 8's own age. At least, physically.

The young girl opened her eyes, and met the gentle face of Agent 8. Judd watched as they stared, and slowly, for the first time since she woke up underground, Agent 8 spoke in her species' dialect.

"Welcome to the world, my little one."

The door slammed inwards, followed by Agent 1 and 2 as they cried, "Squidbeak Splatoon, hands in the air!"