A/N: Wassup readers, it's ZygardeFusion, back with another chapter, and a default intro! Also, if you remember the one-shot collection that I mentioned last upload, I'll share more about it later. Okeydokey, let's-a go!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except Antonio and his squadmates, and the roller mods.

Chapter 7: Masked Heroes (Part 2)

I signaled Logan and Marie, and I met up with them at the kettle. Alex was already hacking away at the defense grid from inside the grid. On a private channel, he filled me in on all of the things he took down.

"So, I got some of the bigger things down, like the distress beacon and the lockdown mechanism, but there still are some minor traps like splash walls or toxic mist containers, and they still can communicate with each other, just not outside of the kettle." Alex gave a rundown of all the defenses that had been taken out or were still around.

"You did what you could, Alex." I responded. "Besides, the walls and mist containers are sensor operated. You couldn't take them out without possibly comprising our mission."

Wow, you really are acting like a military leader. My father noted.

Yeah, I was considering asking for a promotion. I joked.

We had arrived in the kettle, which looked like Humpback Pump Track. For once, a kettle looked easy. I began turfing the area for control, and I snagged a Mini while I was at it. I wasn't after the Zapfish scattered throughout the area, though. I was making it to the rendezvous with Alex, so we could secure the area.

"Hey, just wondering, did you tell anyone else about what I'm doing?" Alex asked. "I don't want to get splatted because I'm an Octarian."

"It's fine. I know you'll be able to make it into the NSS." I assured him. "We need people like you."

"Alright. Let's go!" He yelled while splatting two Octolings. We began opening fire on the Octolings and grabbed two more Mini Zapfish. With the numbers of our enemies dwindling, we began pushing for the last Mini near the spawnpad. We saw Logan, and he stopped dead in his tracks along with Marie, who pointed her Hero Charger at Alex.

"Alright, why do you have an Octoling soldier next to you?" Marie questioned. "We can't afford to fail due to a leak!"

"Technically, he's an engineer." I began. "And second, he's a defector. Did you see him wearing those glasses?"

"Guys, we have no time to argue about whose side I'm on." Alex barked. "We need to eliminate the leader, now!"

I then noticed him grabbing a power egg, and then putting it in a metal glove with a white circle on it. I asked his what it was, but he told me just to wait and see. It started glowing the second he inserted the egg, and we began charging at the Elite, who's tentacles were filled with seaweed, more than the two stocks on most Elites.

"Well well well," she began. "It seems like we have a little traitor on our hands."

"Stand down, Hana." Alex spoke in almost a whisper. "I'll make this quick."

"Now, now. Is that how you talk to your lieutenant?" Hana rebuked. "I'll have you all out in seconds."

"THEN TRY ME!" Alex roared, shooting a bolt of electricity at his old leader. She barely got hit, and he began shooting his Octoshot and electric laser at all of the Elites in sight. While I began swinging my roller at her like a sword, she professionally blocked everything with her Octobrush, so I decided on using some more advanced techniques. I let her thrust her brush at me, then I kicked it aside, hitting her with the ink column on my end.

"Not bad!" Hana exclaimed. "Let's see how you take this, then!" Hana then threw a bottle of Toxic Mist, then hit me multiple times with her brush. If it weren't for the strength of my Hero Suit, I would've been splatted. I rushed in, then extended my roller, then pulled of a Hero's Spin, splatting everyone except for Hana, who looked like she was nearly splatted.

"Good luck." Hana said while breathing heavily. "I'll… I'll be back soon! HAHAHA!"

As she laughed, she splatted herself and flew away.

"That little…" Alex began. "When I see her again, I'll be more ready than ever."

"Alex?" Marie asked. "I'm sorry for calling you a spy. Furthermore, I welcome you to the New Squidbeak Splatoon as Agent Alpha."

"Hey, why don't we get fresh codenames?" I complained.

"To be honest, I just came up with it on the spot." Marie replied. "If you want, get your own nicknames."

"Alright!" Logan cheered. "I'm now Agent Gamma!"

"Well, suit yourself." I told him. "I'm now Agent Omega!"

"Wait, does that mean I have to be Agent Beta?" Marie asked.

"Well, if you want." I replied. "You're technically the leader."

Well, for once, we had achieved peace between all of us.

Hey, I was thinking the same thing!

Well, we've still got more to do before it's over.

Good luck, then.

We had returned to Beaker's Depot. After putting our Zapfish away, we all jumped into the Boss Kettle, ready for anything.

[Scene Change, Octarian Base]

Wait… where are we?

I noticed that we were in a tall Octarian base, partly made with glass.

"Nice job so far, New Squidbeak Splatoon." I recognized Hana's voice. "So, we decided to step it up. Welcome to Skystriker Base."

"Wait, that was real?" Alex gasped. "I always thought it was a myth!"

"Well, it's also fully functional, so good luck ascending!" Hana taunted.

"Guys?" Alex looked extremely pale. "If what she said is true, you need to follow me, right now."

We then noticed sections of the wall that were rotating, within certain areas.

"This is the area where Elites are trained." Alex began, while inking the sections. "The strong survive. The weak… nobody knows what happened to them."

"Wait, you were an Elite?" I asked.

"No, only females are able to become soldiers." Alex explained as we were riding the sections. "I met some defectors who told me stories."

We had made it to the next phase, where some jerks called Octosnipers were trying to hit us with their chargers. It also had the same mechanism as the last part, we had to climb rotating treadmills on the walls, this time while evading sniper fire. Marie was able to take down a few with her Charger, and Logan was able to blind some of them with his Toxic Mist. In the end, we ascended to a flat area, with the circular area surrounding us made of glass, so we couldn't climb the area.

"Congratulations on passing this last section." Hana said over an intercom. "Not many can make it through the Sniper's Cage without falling once." I then saw her in what appeared to be an incomplete version of an Octoseeker. "Good luck getting through this last part, though."

I heard an alarm go off, and many blocks began to float and hover, some with Squee-G's on them, some with nobody on them, some with Twintacles, and some with Octosnipers on them.

We began to start climbing them, and we found that some were still, while others were rotating in place, others in certain areas. Using their weapons, Alex and Marie could take some enemies out, while me and Logan began securing blocks for us to climb, and we then pulled the others up. We almost were at the top platform, but then we came under heavy fire, some coming from Octosnipers and other Octolings with Chargers on UFOs. We managed to take them out with some quick Splat Bombs, and I then used my Yellow Mod to pull us all up. We were on a platform, and Hana was clearly impressed, as her jaw was wide open.

"That was single-handedly the most impressive performance I've seen." Hana began. "But, I've still got orders."

She pressed a button, making some metallic parts fly on and attach themselves to the incomplete war machine. Some had turrets or what I recognized as burst bomb launchers, or were just pieces of armor.

"This was supposed to be a civilian transport vehicle." Hana explained. "But, this is now the Octohunter!"

She began firing the launchers and turrets at us. We began dodging her attacks, and we managed to take off pieces of armor. Logan then fell back before Super Jumping onto the Octohunter, blasting a bomb launcher off the top. I then exposed a large patch of armor by using my grappling hooks, by grappling around the armor, then pulling back. Marie started to loosen the next turret by sniping weak spots, then blasted it off with a bomb and opened up another weak spot. Alex was activating his Inkjet that he had charged, and he was wreaking havoc on the armor. Now that the Octohunter had taken critical damage, Hana Super Jumped out of the war machine, right before I pulled hard enough to force the Octohunter to crash. After that, a large glass circle opened in the middle. We stepped onto it, and then we started to move up to a large glass dome, with a hexagon shaped arena to match with the hexagon shape of the glass. We then saw a Zapfish dangle down from the ceiling.

Is it just me, or is there something too simple about this? My father asked.

Hana's P.O.V

I'm shocked. How did those little brats manage to floor the base? No matter, I'll be done with them soon.

"DJ Octavio!" I called through the system.

"What is it, Lieutenant Hana?" He groaned. "Don't you have something else to do besides bother me? Imma makin' some spicy beats right now!"

I cursed at myself. If I didn't have a good reason to contact him, I could get in serious trouble.

"I'm at Skystriker Base, and the enemy has entered the Zapfish arena!" I barked. "I'm requesting the activation of the nearest Octoweapon!"

"Look, I trust your judgement, but do we really have to?" Octavio asked. "We don't want to waste power. Riots from the civilians are already enough."

"Should I flood the base, then?" I asked. "We activate a boss, flood our base, then evacuate any of our remaining troops. Really, it doesn't matter if they capture the base, if there's nothing they can get from it."

"This is why I personally promoted you, Hana." DJ Octavio complimented me. I felt happy. "You now can begin the evacuation, my niece."

With that, I ran to the briefing room and began the evacuation. Everyone else took their equipment, then used the kettle network to escape to Celphalon HQ. I, however, returned to my control room, and set the base to flood. I also sent our next Octoweapon to prepare for battle. Our first purely mechanical Octoweapon… they're done for.

Antonio's P.O.V

I saw that the void below us had filled up with fuschia ink, and the Zapfish had been captured. The glass area that we had ridden up was now turfable, as well as the whole arena. Two parts of a spiky sphere pulled up, and were now connected with Octarian ink. I saw two piercing eyes gaze through us all, and Marie gasped.

"The Octowhirl is back?!" Marie exclaimed. "I thought Agent 3 got rid of it! Follow my instructions, it's the only way to stop it!"

According to Marie, we had to turf the area that it would roll at us, so it would slow down. We did that, and then it rolled into the middle. The top flew into the ink, and we shot at the energy barrier that surrounded the Octowhirl's core. We jumped out to four corners of the arena, and we saw the two halves spinning and spraying ink at us. With this, it made it harder to focus on how to force it out of the ink. I then found a blind spot that the halves couldn't see. I noticed a gem that looked like a weak spot. I was checking what I had to hit it from a distance when I found a Burst Bomb Launcher in my pocket. I didn't have time to take a guess as to how it got there, so I activated it and returned fire with the most powerful ranged attack I had. The half stopped spraying ink, but the other side was now going for me. I would've been a goner if it wasn't for a precise snipe from Marie's charger. That forced the two halves to reunite in the middle with a slam. That caused some of the ground to lose its covering, revealing glass areas that couldn't be inked.

Dodge to the right!

I narrowly dodged a roll and turfed the area behind it. The Octowhirl was blindly attacking whoever hit it. With that revelation, I opened a path and tricked it into following me. Marie and Logan helped me do this, and he stopped in the middle, leaving us to attack its core. It launched into the ink, then began spinning itself around. This time, we had to shoot it to flip it over, and the gem was flipping sides almost every five seconds, so it took us a while to de-submerge the weapon. After that, it ejected the Zapfish into the middle. I then noticed that purple lines were symmetrically spreading and forming a circle. The glass sections were now the middle section that we rode up, two rectangles extending out into a circle, and a new outside ring. Man, these Octarians are in love with glass. The Octowhirl began mobilizing the area, and that's what dragged me out of my thoughts.

"Marie!" I yelled. "Be careful, the glass will mess up your sniper dodges!"

"You're right!" Marie took note and began aiming differently. "Thanks, Agent Omega!"

The turfing finally managed to slow down the Octowhirl, thanks to a well-aimed bottle of Toxic Mist from Logan. This time, the core automatically lifted up, due to some internal pistons. We all shot or bombed the last barrier, removing all protection from the dark purple core. Before we shot or bombed it, however, I managed to pull a strange part that looked like a small engine from it. It was surprisingly lightweight, and it almost seemed similar to the material of our Hero Suits. We jumped back to our corners and expected it to erupt with green light. However, it's holes began spewing Octarian ink, and it roared, turning the arena completely to glass. It also began spinning, so it was harder to not get hit. Even as we dodged the relentless assault, it was obvious we couldn't last forever against it. Logan began screaming at Sheldon to bring out the attack helicopter. Sheldon warned that it would take him five minutes to make it there, so we were dodging really fast bullets. I then realized that it was time to end it, so I placed my emergency Squid Beakon at one end of the arena, then stood at the opposite end.

"HEY GIRLY-WHIRLY!" I screamed. "COME AND GET ME!"

That taunt was it, as it came rolling with impeccable speed at me. I then jumped to my Beakon, keeping me alive. The same couldn't be said for the Octowhirl, as it fell into the ocean of ink, effectively drowning itself. We pulled the Zapfish out of the arena core, then all escaped in the helicopter with almost no injuries.

"Wait, since when did we have a heli?" I asked.

"Well, we may or may not have stolen an Octarian helicopter and refurbished it for… reasons." Marie said. "Reasons being we needed something stealthy and dangerous."

Dang Marie, you have something for everything.

[Scene Change, Beaker's Depot]

We jumped off the helicopter and went to the kettle, which we blocked off with a lid. Where we had one, no clue. I also handed my part to Sheldon, who eagerly snatched it. He was mumbling things such as "this is incredible!" and "how is this possible?" Man, that little guy loves technology.

"Well, I hope that whatever he builds is good." Marie said. "Also, concerning Agent Alpha, I think it would be better for him to stay here, as we can't risk his safety, between Octarian spies in the city and groups that think the Octarians are still around and want them dead."

"Wait, that's still a thing?" I asked. "I thought that everyone had given up on that idea a while ago."

"Well, ever since Callie went missing along with the Zapfish, we've been looking for anything regarding anti-Octarian propaganda, or any suspicious behavior that leads to the Octarians." Sheldon explained. "I forgot, but I think that the name began with 'Van' or something."

"You're right, the last thing that we want to start is a massive panic." Logan noted.

"Well, I think that is everything we need covered!" Marie exclaimed. "And with that, The New Squidbeak Splatoon is dismissed!"

Me and Logan swam through the manhole and went our ways.

All in all, son, you're making me proud. You're doing this all, and it is amazing.

Thanks so much. I thanked my father. The rate things are going at, our city will be back to normal.

I opened up my apartment and made myself something simple to eat. Normally, I just go to bed, but I needed time to think. Or, in this case, I read up on our database on the enemy. I learned about Octavio, who ruled the Menace and tried to wage war upon us. I really just was skimming through the history that we had. A majority of the basic stuff I had covered in an online class about history, but I found some interesting things about the humans. Apparently they had quite the imagination, and there was this site completely filled with stories in English. I decided to take a look at it later, maybe after I finished looking up how to read that strange human language.

With that, I decided on going to sleep. I had quite the strange dream that involved meeting Inklings from a world like ours. I decided on writing it down sometime, maybe when we had achieved peace.

A/N: Okay, first, what was I thinking? Why would I replace a (not) perfectly good boss battle with the Octowhirl? Well, I wanted to insert some creativity into this, so yeah.

With permission from Obliterwrite, I hid an Easter Egg in this chapter involving his story, Old Hatreds. If you found it, PM me and I'll tell you if you got it.

Moving on, I will say this about the SWC One-Shot Project- we will post it at the end of the month. I'll also add a list of the authors participating on my profile, so look for that too. Also, I'm going to actually be writing about six projects as of today, those will be noted on my profile, so chapters in my story might be shorter. I'm pretty sure that's about it, so until then, bye!

Fight For all Fiction,

ZygardeFusion

P.S: If anyone catches grammar or spelling mistakes, let me know in a PM and I'll fix them.

P.P.S: 3,331 words? Man, that's impressive by my standards.