Chapter 7: The Night Before Part 2

Arnold's POV

It's been hours since we got captured. We were locked in a room, chained to chairs, our stuff next to the door. I was also trying to wake Otis up.

"Otis!" I kept calling out. "Otis!"

He slowly woke up.

"W-where are we?" He looked around.

"Still in the dome." I told him. "Only chained to chairs."

"Where's Sieg?" He asked. "And why does my head…ooooowww…and stomach…hurt?"

"Sieg left and Cass knocked you out with a baseball bat." I explained. "Afterwards, she proceeded to kick you in the stomach several times and spit on your face for almost killing her that one time in Octo Canyon."

"Oh...so what now?" He asked.

"Well, luckily I brought a lockpick for in case this happened and…yep, I got my hands free." I informed him, sliding the lockpicks over. "Your turn."

He was about to use the lockpicks when the door opened. He quickly hid them under his feet. I, on the other hand, had no way to hide that I broke free. In the room came Cass, sans the baseball bat, but she still had her Dualies. She drew one when she saw me.

"Already breaking free, huh?" She smirked. "Maybe I should give ya another smooch to make ya sit back down."

"Not happening again, Cass." I told her.

"Oh, don't act like you didn't like it." She taunted me. "A real shame you broke it off when you did."

"I lost my phone because of that!" I shouted.

"You could've lost something else if you hadn't stopped it." She shrugged. "Now back in the chair."

I sat back down and looked at Otis.

He picked up the lockpicks and mouthed out: "Distract her."

I can't believe I'm going to do this…

Otis's POV

Cass was about to chain him back to the chair when Arnold got back up. She aimed her Dualie at him.

"Heh, you caught me." He grinned.

"Caught you for what?" She raised an eyebrow.

"What, you think I came for Sieg?" He smirked. "Nah. I came here to see if you were here."

Now that was a lie.

"Me?" She tilted her head. "Oh, come on. I only kissed you so I could escape."

"If that were so, then why did we make out for ten minutes?" Arnold smirked. " You could of left at any time, but you waited until after I paused it. Admit it. You felt something back there. I mean, you must've even before then when you asked me what I thought of you."

"Oh, come on." Cass was unconvinced. "You only said yes to my drunken 'am I hot' question to shut me up."

"I didn't say you were hot." He said.

"Knew it." She was probably rolling her eyes.

"I said you were beautiful." He leaned in towards her.

"W-what?" She seemed startled by that.

Oh come on, Arnold. These are Cass's tricks. There's no way it'll work on her.

"R-really?" She asked.

Oh Carp, is it? Seriously?!

"Cassandra, why do you wear those goggles?" Arnold asked. "They cover your eyes."

She paused a second before raising her goggles.

"W-what do you think of them?" She raised an eyebrow.

Well, I'll use this time to pick the locks.

"Your bright, blue eyes are your best feature." He grinned. "I could look into them all day."

Cass looked around for a second before turning her head towards me and mouthing out: "What do I do?!"

I just shrugged.

"You're useless!" She mouthed out.

"Where are you looking?" Arnold asked. "I'm right here."

"Uuuuhhh…" She didn't know what to do.

Wow Cass. You really can't take anything you dish out, can you?

I kept picking at the lock, hoping she wouldn't hear.

"Next is your voice. Cass, swearing and telling belittling people is a waste of that beautiful voice of yours." I'm sure he was lying to her. "It'd be much better spent singing."

"Well, it's not like I haven't asked…okay, I haven't…" She admitted.

"You should." He told her. "People would love to hear it."

"R-really?" Cass blushed.

"Absolutely." Arnold put a hand on her cheek. "You'd do great."

"…Tell me more…" She grinned.

Wow. Cass manipulated someone who was desperate for affection, but it looks like she is too…

Alright, Arnold. I think I'm getting close. Just keep feeding her ego until I can bust out of-carp! One broke. I hope she didn't hear that…

"What was that?" Cass turned her head.

Carp!

"Doesn't matter." Arnold said.

"Let me just check." Cass was about to walk over.

"C-Cass!" Arnold grabbed her hand.

"Wha-mmm!" Cass was interrupted by Arnold pressing his lips against hers.

"Holy smokes!" I was startled by that.

Cass was about to aim her Dualie at him, but ended up dropping it and slowly putting her arms around his neck.

I just sat there, dumbfounded.

Arnold then used his free hand to signal me to hurry up. I quickly got out another lockpick and got to work, trying to ignore the kissing sounds. Eeewww…I think I can hear their tongues…

Come on, Otis, you can…yes! I successfully picked the lock. I then started unwrapping the chains.

"Cass…" Arnold pointed behind her, a smirk on his face.

"Hm?" She looked behind her. She looked completely disinterested in what I was doing. "Yeah, cool, now where were we?"

Arnold then dropped her and we grabbed our stuff and booked it out of there.

"Hey, get back here!" We heard her yell. "Hey!"

I looked behind me to find she was just sitting on the floor watching us leave.

"So are you two a thing now?" I asked, not at all serious.

"No." He assured me. "If anything, I got back at her. She'll definitely be mad after this."

We hurried to the edge of the building and Superjumped to the exit.

Tentakeel Outpost…

We soon made it back to the Cabin. Marie was looking at a laptop.

"There you are!" Marie shouted. "We were worried sick!"

"I wasn't!" Octavio Shouted.

"Well, I was worried." Marie corrected herself. "What happened?"

"We got captured for a bit, but we escaped." Arnold explained.

"Find out anything?" Marie asked.

"Oh, the tournament!" I remembered. "Look up the attendees and the team roster. They seem to be looking for someone specific. A girl."

"Really? Are you sure?" Marie wondered.

"Yeah, we heard it in a conversation between still-unidentified spy and Sieg." I told her. "Right before we tried nabbing Sieg and getting captured…"

"Right…" Marie rolled her eyes at the last part. "Still, you met the enemy face-to-face. First impressions?"

"He was…honestly a bit unnerving." Arnold said.

"Yeah," I agreed. "We had Splattershots pointed at his head and it didn't look like it phased him at all."

"He's also pretty fast and strong." Arnold added. "He swiped my Splattershot before I could react, grabbed me by the neck with one hand, and lifted me up."

"Hm…" Marie thought about this new information. "Well it's late and you have a tournament tomorrow. Get some sleep and I'll get back to you later."

We nodded and headed off.

Octo Valley…Another POV

"S-sorry Captain." An Octotrooper apologized. "But the prisoners managed to escape…Captain?"

I was barely paying any attention. My face was red, I felt hot, and my hearts were pounding. I just…I felt weird, but…good…I can't describe it…

"Captain?" He leaned over me. "Are you alright?"

"I…I think so…" I told him. "I'm not sure…I…need to talk to someone…where's Gracie?"