Aenon woke up feeling fairly well rested from his test flight last night, in spite of the heartache he made himself go through digging up that time capsule left behind by him and his friends. He knew he had to dispose of all 499 bodies from the stasis room at some point; all it had become was a meat freezer reminding Aquarius of his failure.

Voltare was just as rested as Aenon, though he was already feeling hungry from both last night and from sleep. After a quick meal of apple slices and raspberries, he was ready to power Neptune once again.

He really liked powering the suit for the human boy; not only did he save the zapfish from being lost in the ocean but gave him food and a place to rest. He didn't mind providing power to the Inklings, but he felt more important with Aenon than he ever did with them.

Aquarius filled in Aenon on the data Neptune managed to obtain last night in regards to the human-squid species. While it wasn't much, it did explain why the hair looked more akin to tentacles than actual hair.

After Aenon lifted Voltare into the power chamber, Aquarius caught his attention. "I know this hasn't been needed up until now, but may I suggest taking one of the headsets in this room with you? That way, I'll be able to keep in touch with you even if you disembark from Neptune for whatever reason."

Said headsets were pure white and wrapped around the back of the head. It also had a glowing blue logo on both ear pieces that looked similar to an eye with two tildes in the pupil; the mark of his family and father's side business. He was aware of their functions; it basically acted like a communication device that can also act as a translator.

Aenon was unsure if the translator would work for the new species but being able to communicate with Aquarius will be vital. As such, he heeded the A.I.'s advice and took a pair and put it on after some adjustments. "Hopefully this thing had good battery life. I don't want to rely on Voltare to power everything."

"Worry not. Unlike the suit, the headset was built to last a whole month on a single charge. Even if it runs low on energy, it can connect with Neptune to recharge if needed."

"Good to know. Alright, time to see what the deal is with that hollow island and, just maybe, see if we can't find Voltare's family." The catfish let out a joyful warble at those words; he misses his family despite finding a new family in Aenon and Aquarius.

After some quick adjustments to the clasps and jets of the flight kit and grabbing some maintenance tools to put in storage, Neptune launched into the ocean for a third time. After reaching shore in order to take to the air, they were well on their way to the hollow island. As they got closer, Aenon noted that some of the rock formations looked like octopus tentacles and there were various platforms attached to them.

-WARNING: FLIGHT JET OVERHEATING. LAND IMMEDIATLY

"Bugger! I guess I didn't check the jets good enough." Aenon spied the closest platform and decided to land on it before one of the jets exploded on him. Once he landed on a grate near an oriental hut with a thud, he immediately cut power off to the jets to prevent any further overheating. "Guess that's why I brought some tools this time. Foresight doesn't always work, but when it does…"

The HUD suddenly alerted him of movement to his right and he whipped his head around to look. He, or rather the suit, locked eyes with one of the human-squids that now resides on the surface and, for the first time, he was able to get a good look at one of them.

This one, most likely a female, had black markings around the eyes that were connected across the bridge of her nose. Additionally, her tentacles were grey in color as opposed to the bright pink and green he saw from the other two he saw at that campsite. She wore what appeared to be a green kimono and was holding an oriental parasol.

Both parties stood there frozen in place, looking at each other and waiting for the other to make a move.

Marie had never seen such a mechanical monstrosity, even in spite of one of its shoulders smoking as if there was overheating. Her very first thought was wondering if it was a new weapon or suit the Octarians developed; she could see a zapfish powering the thing in the chest. With Coral, Agent 4, off on a mission in one of the nearby kettles, she had no real way of defending herself.

"Marie, I'm back from-" Coral had just came back from her third mission as Agent 4 with another zapfish rescued. When she headed back to the Cuttlefish hut to talk to Marie about the "boss kettle", she found a bipetal machine staring right at her. Her first reaction was to point her pathetic excuse for a gun at the thing with shaky hands. "D-don't you d-dare hurt her!"

Aenon heard some sort of dialect as the HUD informed him of the second person; a shorter, presumably younger, human-squid with yellow tentacles made to look akin to a short bob cut and decked out in what looked like safety gear. The main difference was the small stick she was holding: the suit identified firing mechanisms inside of it, marking it as a firearm.

Coral had started shuddering even more when the machine turned to look at her. Marie quickly realized what was going on and tried to say, "Agent 4, don't fi-" The machine had started raising a claw and Coral shot out of pure panic and fear.

The ink bullets deflected off the armor, not even sticking to the surface. Seeing the machine as uninkable, the young inkling let out a very distressed woomy as Marie facepalmed.

Neptune was quick to pick up on what just happened:

-RUNNING DIAGNOSTICS…

-PROJECTILES IDENTIFIED AS INK. NO DAMAGE SUSTAINED

-RE-EVALUATING THREAT LEVELS…

-THREAT LEVEL TO SUIT: PAINT-JOB RUINER

-THREAT LEVEL TO PERSONELLE: CLOTHING WASHER NEMESIS

Aenon let out a sigh at the re-evaluated threat levels. "Aquarius, did you tamper with the suit's systems?"

"Negative. From my understanding, Neptune's operating system was programmed by a very snarky programmer."

"Oh, for the love of…"

Marie sighed as she walked over to Coral and lowered her hero shot. "Agent 4, I really don't think this thing is hostile to begin with. If it was, it would have attacked me on sight."

Coral let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. "O-oh… s-so I was just being hasty?"

"Very much so." She observed the machine for a little bit longer when it suddenly started kneeling down and deactivated.

Aenon figured that staying in the suit wouldn't get him anywhere with these creatures. Since they clearly can't do much harm to him with their weapons, he decided that getting out would show them that he truly meant no harm to them.

The older one reacted with surprise when she beheld what he actually looked like while he got a good look at the two. To his surprise, he realized that he was almost double the size of the larger one; the squids apparently didn't evolve to become as big as humans.

He heard one of them start saying something to him, but since he didn't understand any of it, he merely shook his head and shrugged, hoping it would convey his inability to understand. He was delighted to know that they, at the very least, shared the same body language even if oral language was currently beyond them.

"Aenon, it would interest you to know that I've already finished the translator program for their language. Sending it to your headset now."

This baffled Aenon. "Wait, you barely heard them speak, and you can ALREADY translate their entire language?!"

"I'm just as confused as you are. It seems that during my development, someone inserted a highly efficient, highly advanced translator program into my data frame. Compounded with the more advanced scanners on Neptune providing me with excellent data, I can already upload the translator program for this new language."

The inklings were confused by the male having a conversation with himself in a language unknown to them. They jumped in shock when he suddenly said, in their own language, "- erstand how only a few spoken words can allow you to do that! It utterly defies belief!"

Marie decided to speak up cautiously. "Uh… stay fresh?"

Aenon stopped in his tracks when he heard the older female suddenly speak… and he can understand her now. "Uh… always fresh, never frozen?"

Marie giggled; she would have to remember that one for later. "It seems we can understand each other now somehow."

"Chalk it up to my A.I. companion, who I was talking to just now through my headset. I guess as long as we can talk to each other normally, I can… overlook it. My name is Aenon"

"I'm Marie and this is Coral, a.k.a. Agent 4. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're a human, aren't you?"

Coral and Aenon looked at her in surprise. Aenon spoke up first, "Uh… I didn't realize I was that identifiable to your kind, whom I know little about outside of you being decedents of squids."

Coral decided to speak up, fear forgotten due to how non-threatening Aenon's voice was now. "You're correct. We call ourselves Inklings, but we identify as squids as well." Looking at Marie, she frowned. "How did you guess his species? He looks similar to us outside of his hair not looking like ours and being massive; taller than even the colossal squids back in Inkopolis."

Marie shrugged. "I have my sources."

"Being cryptic I see. Ah, well…" Aenon shook his head. "Regardless, I don't intend on being a threat to your kind; I have enough to worry about already and the last thing I need is enemies."

"Don't worry, I figured as much when you never attacked, even after Agent 4 shot your suit." She gives the younger Inkling a flat look, who coughed awkwardly. "Weren't you about to talk to me about something?"

"OH! Yeah, after clearing the third kettle, the giant kettle in the middle of Tentakeel Outpost opened up. I was coming back to ask you about it when Aenon showed up."

Marie nodded. This whole scenario was shaping up to be very similar to that incident two years ago with Agent 3. "That kettle will more than likely lead you to a very tough Octarian weapon. Before you start panicking, no, I doubt they're completely uninkable. Just keep calm and you'll find victory, for eel this time."

Coral nodded and suddenly disappeared into her yellow ink, baffling Aenon. He decided to ask about it soon but was too amused by what Marie said. "Wait, your kind speaks in puns? You've got to be squidding me!"

Marie grinned at his words. "Don't be such a fish out of water."

"Your kind clearly are. I'm betting that it's an agillity unique only to you."

"Err… not exactly. I suppose we can take this time to properly explain things to each other and get ourselves caught up to speed. Last thing we need is confusion getting in our way of communicating."

Aquarius spoke up suddenly, "I have to agree. Information on the new dominant species will, no doubt, give us a better understanding of their culture."

Aenon nodded and Marie beckoned him. "We can talk over here by this shack since there is no danger."

Aenon learned quite a few things about the Inklings during his conversation with Marie. He found out that they can switch between their humanoid form and a cute squid form for traveling through ink of their color; this was possible because Inklings were mostly comprised of ink. Additionally, the battle Aenon saw at that campground, identified as Camp Triggerfish, was a turf war battle and that getting "splatted" wasn't a permanent death for Inklings as long as a "respawner" is nearby and active.

He found it fascinating that Inkling society, despite being obsessed with fashion and ink battles, were far more peaceful than the humans ever were. If humans could have played paintball without the worries that came with the game, he figured that people would do that to blow off steam rather than use more concussive weapons. Plus, ink battles never harmed the environment long-term; the ink evaporates within 20 minutes of landing on the ground.

Coral had ringed Marie up to inform her of her success with the Octo Oven, a name which earned a snort out of Aenon. Marie contacted someone named Sheldon over upgrading and using new weaponry in Octo Canyon, before returning to conversation with Aenon, not wanting to reveal his presence to anyone else at this point in time.

After that, Aenon also learned of other species who evolved alongside the Inklings to live on land, including the Octarians who they were fighting. After hearing the whole story; between The Great Turf War, the incident two years ago, and now, Aenon let out a sigh. "Sure, it's easy to just villainize the Octarians. But, speaking as an outside third party, is the situation really as nuanced as you think?"

This confused Marie. "Care to explain?"

"Well, they were forced underground after The Great Turf War with no real way of providing themselves with sustainable power. Don't you think these attacks were more so out of desperation to improve their condition?"

"That doesn't justify them stealing someone else's power source…"

Aenon shook his head. "I know it doesn't. But fear and desperation can overwrite one's concepts of morality if their situation is bad enough. What's more, taking back what they've stolen with force will only serve to further justify their fears."

Marie let out a sigh. Deep down, she knew Aenon was right, at least for the incident two years ago when Agent 3 wound up rescuing zapfish both from military bases and civilian kettles. "Two years ago, you may very well have been right. This time, however, they didn't donate any of their zapfish to civilian kettles as far as I know. In fact, Octo Canyon, which is where we are now, is entirely a military district for the Octarians."

"I see. I guess they're just straight up out for revenge rather than improving their lives this time. That kind of makes my sentiment earlier ring hollow…"

Marie patted him on the arm. "At least you made a fair point that I never considered. I suppose it's best if we can retrieve all of the zapfish from them to prevent their mad plans from falling through."

Aenon nodded before horror crossed his face. "Oh no! I forgot about Voltare!" He bolted to his suit and managed to extract the zapfish from it, earning a joyful warble and a cuddle from the fish.

Marie hummed to herself. "I saw you had a zapfish powering that suit and I'm glad you're treating it well, but I'm wondering where you found him."

"I saw him fall out of the net the Octarians were transporting him in with his kind. I looked out of curiosity and now I have a new companion." Aenon realized what that meant. "I'm… sorry about taking one of your zapfish."

Marie giggled; she liked his honesty. "It's completely fine. You treat him well and he likes you a lot. If he wants to stay with you, who am I to say no?"

Aenon breathed a sigh of relief as Voltare let out another happy warble. This brought a question to his mind. "I have to wonder something. How was Voltare able to understand me even before I used my translator headset? I was practically an alien to him, yet he always acted like he understood my words, or at least what I was trying to convey."

"That… is a mystery to us Inklings too. Some scientists have tried to explain that zapfish are capable of processing soundwaves in a very advanced way, but I think they're just spit balling that as an explanation rather than hard fact."

"I'm an engineer, not a biologist, so I have no way of knowing. Unless Aquarius decides to be a hero again."

The A.I. grumbled in his ear before saying, "The scans don't show any details in regards to that particular biological function. The most notable things about these creatures, now catalogued as zapfish, is their ability to breath in and out of water and their electricity-producing organ."

"Figures as much." Aenon shakes his head. "Not even our tech can explain it… as miraculous it can be if earlier was any indication."

Marie giggled. "Easy goes for me. Anyways, want to talk about your side of the ordeal? The most we know about humans is that they left certain artifacts behind and that they were wiped off the earth rather unexpectedly… at least according to some of the fossils we found."

Aenon felt very strange and unsure about the bones of his kind being considered fossils. "Well… we weren't wiped out suddenly. Guess I should start from the beginning."

Marie had learned a lot of things about the human race that scholars of that field would splat to know. Humans evolved similarly to squids in that they emerged from the sea from their common ancestor, where they eventually evolved into the mostly hairless apes capable of creating great and terrible things. What caused humanity's extinction wasn't the rising sea levels, but a world war that caused the rising sea levels to begin with.

What really caught Marie was when he mentioned humanity's attempts to preserve themselves, only to fail due to the self-same world war. He brought up his vessel; a stasis submarine capable of holding 500 individuals for an extended period of time in order to ensure a future existed for them. It had also failed. A virus had infected the pods, causing the machinery to kill their occupants. All except for him.

Aenon was the last human alive, possibly in existence. Marie felt sympathetic towards the human; to be alive in a world where he's the only one left. The loneliness of Callie's absence couldn't compare to his suffering.

Aenon felt a tug on his sleeve and saw that Coral had already come back. "Didn't you go to the next area already?"

"I did, but I figured I would save going through the kettles there later. Moreover… you don't have to be alone here."

Aenon was confused by her words. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that Marie and I will be here for you in case you need anyone to talk to besides Aquarius. I don't know how much I'll be able to do this, but I'll do my best to try and help you adapt to Inkling society during your time here!" She strikes a confident pose, earning a chuckle out of Aenon.

Marie nodded. "Indeed. That way you can experience our culture first-hand." There was a loud grumbling and everyone looked at Aenon, who blushed. "Someone hasn't eaten in a while."

"Not since this morning. Voltare and I have been making due with the fruits and berries found nearby Camp Triggerfish, but I doubt they can sustain me forever. Man… I could really go for a hot dog right now…"

Marie could tell the two of them are going to get along just fine. Coral spoke up, "I have an idea! I found a bunch of meal tickets in some of these kettles that I can redeem for crusty seanwiches! Be right back!" She bolted to the nearby grate and dove down in squid form.

Marie let out a snicker at Aenon's confused look. "You haven't lived until you tasted a seanwich. I'm sure it'll tide your hotdog craving over."