Diana dodged the incoming ink blasts of the Octolings as she charged at them. She then made a sharp left and rammed into Abigail, elbowing her in the gut. Edith, now angered, charged at Diana, who fired at her. Edith dodged tackled Diana, pinning her to the ground. Abigail did nothing but watch.
"You little squid shit!" Edith scolded, "I'm gonna tear you apart for that!"
"I'll tear YOU apart for tackling me like THAT!" Diana scolded back and she threw Edith off of her and stood back up. Edith quickly recovered and the two continued to fight each other. Abigail simply watched at first, but then she got up and aimed her gun at Diana and fired, joining the fray once again.
Meanwhile, Nathan was heading down the alternate route as he was advised to. Rushing to see what the signal was, he stayed alert in case something unexpected occurred suddenly. The path was long and twisted, and many parts of it looked very fragile. He hurried, but was very cautious.
He eventually reached an area where the ground seemed sturdy. Nathan had been running nearly nonstop for the past few minutes, and decided to rest even though he was only a little tired. Being a roller user, he had quite a bit of strength and stamina, but he didn't want to overexert himself.
Diana and the two Octolings were still locked in combat, with neither side able to beat the other. Diana and Edith were locked in combat most, while Abby assisted Edith but she didn't have much of an effect otherwise. Edith, with her horrible temper, snapped after many minutes of fighting. She dropped her weapon and charged at Diana, tackling her and pinning her to the ground once again, causing Diana to lose grip of her weapon and dropping it.
Diana tried throwing Edith off of her, but Edith's gripped was much tighter this time, and Diana couldn't even move her or her own body. Edith, realizing she had an advantage, punched Diana in the face a few times before standing up. She quickly and fiercely stomped her foot on Diana's chest.
"GWAK!" yelled Diana, "Get...off me!" Diana could hardly breathe with Edith pushing all her weight on her. She desperately tried to move the feet away, but to no avail.
"Running short on breath, are you?" Edith taunted, "If only you had your weapon you could fight back! Didn't ya see the kelp on my head? I'm an Elite! Far stronger than the others! You never stood a chance!"
"Urgh..." Diana then realized she was in a puddle of her own ink, much to her surprise. Realizing that she had a chance to escape, she grinned at Edith.
"Huh...we have...our ways of...getting out...of these situations!" Diana suddenly turned into squid form, submerging into the puddle and disappearing.
"Huh?!" Edith looked around. "Abby! Get that Triple Blaster ready!"
"Uh...are you sure?" said Abigail.
"Of course I'm-" Suddenly, Diana sprang up from behind Edith and punched her in the back of the head, knocking her down. Breathing heavily, she grabbed her gun and pointed it at Edith. Abigail immediately equipped the Triple Blaster, but hesitated.
"Inklings will win, Octoling," said Diana, "There's no doubt about it."
"Really?" said Edith, "Abby, hurry up!" Abigail warmed up the weapon, but as it was reaching full charge, she turned her head away. Both Diana and Edith caught sight of this, but didn't focus too much on it. To Edith, Abby showed a face of discomfort around the weapon. But to Diana, Abby's face seemed to show pity.
The Triple Blaster fired, its shot traveling at an incredible speed. But because she had time to react before the weapon fired, unlike Nathan did when he encountered the weapon, Diana ducked and dodged the blast. Once it went past her, it went downwards. The triple blast headed straight for the platform Nathan was standing on.
Nathan noticed the incoming blast, and just as he began to retreat, the triple blast hit the edge of the platform with such force that the entire platform broke in half. The knockback also took effect, and Nathan was effectively thrown off the platform by the force of the blow and plummeted downwards towards the rocky bottom of the dome.
Falling at great speed, Nathan quickly grabbed his Hero Shot. He tried firing, but it was jammed. He hit it a few times, and the gun worked again. He fired at the ground, creating a puddle of ink for him to land in. "This may hurt a little bit..." Nathan said to himself as he turned into squid form and plummeted into the ink puddle, making a very large ink splash. He did not emerge.
Diana didn't notice Nathan, as she was too focused on the two Octolings. She didn't even hear the impact of the platform breaking. She was distracted by Abby, however, and looked at her. Edith took this as an opportunity and punched Diana in the gut and then in the face, knocking her down. Completely winded by the blows, she lay there, defeated. Edith sighed.
"Let's go," she said, "She's not worth taking in her current state." Edith pressed a button on a small remote. A small aircraft appeared and Edith hoped inside. Diana looked at her watch to see that the aircraft was the signal the team had had pinpointed.
Abigail looked at Diana before entering the aircraft. With a look of pity on her face, she muttered in a voice too soft for Diana or Edith to hear, "Forgive me..." She then entered the aircraft and it took off, exiting through a large passageway in the roof of the dome. Diana, weakened, tried to get up. She could only get to her knees until she tasted blood in her mouth.
She then coughed up blood for a few moments, much to her shock and horror. she had many injuries, but none of them broke her skin. She was covered in mostly major bruises. But the blows had done some interior damage, but not too major thankfully. But the blood from her mouth concerned her to point where she was shaking in fear. She collapsed, laying there.
"Diana?!" said Smith over the headset, "Diana?! Do you read me?!"
"Wh-Wha?" Diana said.
"Are you alright?"
"No! I'm...not!" She then coughed a bit, but thankfully there was no blood this time.
"Don't worry, I'm heading over!"
"Thanks..." Diana lay there, closing her eyes as she passed out.
Meanwhile, Nathan finally emerged from the ink puddle he created in human form. He had a few bruises, but nothing too major. He was able to walk away pretty much unharmed. After stretching his legs and arms for a bit, he tried to contact Diana was his headset and Hero Watch.
"Diana, this is Nathan. Do you read?" he said. No response. "D-Diana? Hello?!" Again, no response. He began to question if his gear was working properly. "Is this thing working?" He tapped his watch and headset a bit, and realized his gear was fine. He tried again. "Diana! Do you read?!" No response once again.
"Oh no..." Nathan thought. He knew something was very wrong. "What happened to her?!" He then tried once more, this time yelling, "DIANA! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!" The loud voice actually woke up Diana from her sleep, and hearing Nathan's voice, a tear dropped from her eye.
"N-Nath-...Nathan?" she said softly. Nathan realized from the tone of her voice that she wasn't in good condition at all.
"Diana! Wh-What happened!?"
"I-I lost..."
"What's your condition?"
"In pain...a lot of it!...Ow!" Diana tried to get up, but her stomach and chest were consumed in pain, but it was notably not as it was before. But it still hurt a lot. "It hurts!"
"Don't worry! I'll find I way to get to ya!"
"What do you mean?"
"I fell off the platforms."
"WHA- Ah!"
"Take it easy! I'll be right there, ya hear?" Nathan frantically looked around for something that could help him. He spotted a box and ran over to it. Opening it, he found a bunch of gliders inside it that were similar to wings. They were labeled "Octogliders" and were made of some kind of paper-like material. "Hmm..."
Nathan then noticed a large circular grate in the ground, about 50 feet in diameter. He put his hand over it to feel a strong air current. It wasn't enough to propel an Inkling upwards, however. Nathan then had the idea to use the Octoglider to get up to Diana.
He equipped the glider, placing it on his back. They were even retractable. Extending them, they looked with brown, paper wings. Nathan jumped into the air current, and he ascended upwards at impressive speed. "Hey! It works!" said Nathan as he rode the air current upwards. Reaching a point were he could excess the fourth floor, he flew out of the current and safely glided downwards. He then spotted Diana.
"Diana!" he yelled. He dove downwards and landed safely by Diana. "Diana!" he retracted the glider and rushed to her side.
"Nathan..." Diana said.
"It's okay, I'm right here!" On is knees, he held Diana in his arms. "You're going to be alright."
"How...How did you...get up here..."
"This glider here. I can glide in the air with it, now. I used an air current to get up here. They're like wings in a way, and they can even move like them. But enough about that! What did they do to you?!"
"They hurt me real bad...well, one of 'em did. The other was...barely doing anything. When she fired a Triple Blaster at me...ow...she looked away with a face that showed...pity."
"Pity?" Nathan was surprised.
"She had that same face when she left, too...She said something, but it was too soft for me to hear."
"Diana! Nathan!" yelled a voice. it was Smith, arriving with armor and a medical kit.
"Smith!" Nathan said, "How'd you know-"
"I signaled him," said Diana.
"She's definitely in bad condition," said Smith.
"Yeah, that's obvious!" said Nathan.
"We need to bring her back to base."
Nathan looked to see that the air current lead into an opening in the top of the dome, the passageway that the two Octoling used to escape. "She should go back and recover...But I don't think I'm finished here yet."
"What are you talking about?"
"Look. See that opening. It's just above the air current. It's pretty strong, so I'll bet I can use this new glider to get up there."
"The two Octolings...used an aircraft to escape. The aircraft was what caused the signal...that we found. They flew right into that passageway."
"...Then I'm really going up there!" said Nathan, "There could be something up there...Diana, I'm sorry that I wasn't-"
"It's okay...I know...I'll be fine. I'll be all patched up soon. I promise I won't die on you during this quest, okay?'
"...I won't die on you either. Just be careful, ya hear?"
"I will. Now go find out what's up there!"
"Yeah. Smith, escort her to the base."
"I will," said Smith.
"Diana...I'll...I'll see you later. Just take it easy, okay? Don't push yourself too hard, okay?"
"...Right...Stay fresh."
"You too." Nathan jumped from the platform and extended his glider, heading into the air current. The current blasted him upwards into the passageway, and Nathan began his ascent.