The Creation of Diplomacy

Chapter XI: A Mystery Unfolds

"DON'T LET THE MOTHERSHIP TAKE MY EGGS!" Mr. Grizz roared on the radio as the flying object in the dark, night sky above everyone was making its way towards the egg basket.

It was the last wave of salmonids for Lazarus and the girls to fend off, and it's been rough for everyone in his group, thanks to the constant movement, shifting locations on the Spawning Grounds, switching out with other co-workers after every third wave, as well as keeping a count on the amount of eggs required. The hordes of salmonids were constantly popping out of the crates the chinooks carried, smashing the boxes alone to drive them away while keeping an eye on the mothership making it even more of a chore for the four to collect the amount of eggs needed, along with the amount of time they had left being only half a minute left.

"LILY, USE THE STINGRAY!" Lazarus ordered as Lily did what he ordered her to do, having previously used it when the mothership went to the egg basket the first time as everyone were heading to where it was going, readying their weapons with Lily standing on the highest point of the island, aiming her special at the oncoming hovercraft as its vacuum was dangling from the bottom.

"SHE'S GONNA TAKE 'EM FROM ME! DO SOMETHIN', QUICK!" Mr. Grizz yelled his lungs out as it approached, the hair on Lily bubbling with a fiery orange color as a transparent ray shot through the salmonids' creation.
"NOW!" Chloe yelled as with one, long-lasting ray of orange ink being shot at it from Lily's stingray special, many golden eggs began popping out of the mothership as Chloe activated her special, taking to the skies with her inkjet, and shooting at the vacuum that was sucking out the eggs.

Immediately after the first shots from Chloe, though, a thing began to strike them as odd.
The object wasn't retreating like it used to, and it kept sucking up the eggs from the basket despite the continuous onslaught of ink splattering on it, sweat dropping from everyone's foreheads as Lazarus saw the number on the basket's counter dropping.

"THEY'RE TAKING OUR EGGS!" Lily and Lazarus screamed at the same time.
"HIT HARDER, COME ON!" Chloe yelled in response while Mr. Grizz was shouting on the radio for them to get the vacuum out of his basket in his most furious, explosive voice, just before everyone could hear some garbled screams from the salmonids piloting it. It sounded as though they were panicking about something as the vacuum kept sucking up the eggs despite this, sparks of electricity coming out of it with every strike from the inklings below as Lazarus felt his arms getting tired with each swing from his roller.

"IT'S NOT LETTING GO!" He yelled out, trying to lift his roller for another swing.
"WE'RE NOT GONNA-" With a sudden scream from nowhere, 'Ariel', their freelancer for the night, started throwing a bunch of splat bombs into the mothership after activating her special, the bombs landing into the carrier blowing up from within as one, last muffled screeching could be heard from within, just before the hovercraft exploded in a large shower of glowing, orange ink a few seconds later after its engine began whirring loudly.

Shards of flaming scraps of metal and crates flew everywhere, along with a money's worth of golden and power eggs dropping onto the ground as even the salmonids coming out of the boxes looked up in a mix of horror and shock, halting their attack to witness this disaster they, and the inklings haven't seen before.

The mothership remained at the basket for far too long to even retreat, a moment of silence filling the air between everyone as debris kept falling from the sky, nearly crushing Lazarus in the process as he barely dodged the metal that fell into his place with a jump to the side.

"Well, I'LL BE DAMNED!" Mr. Grizz said on the radio after stunned silence, sounding just as shocked as everyone else, followed by a short laugh from him. "NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL A FIREWORKS SHOW! GAHAHAHAHAHA!" Mr. Grizz laughed wholeheartedly on the radio, followed by distant applause from inklings on the boats surrounding the Spawning Grounds as the team of four kept standing where they were, shocked by what just happened.

Needless to say, Lazarus and everyone else applauded each other for their accomplishment after overcoming their brief astonishment, happily complimenting each other before heading their way towards the docks where all of the golden eggs were scattered around, a group of snatchers trying to scurry up any eggs they could find as quick as possible.
"Come on, guys! LET'S NAB 'EM!" Lazarus said, acting as a means of protection against the incoming salmonids trying to scoop any of the eggs up, splatting anyone that tried to interfere with his, or the girls' jobs as everyone picked up as many as they could, swimming back and forth between the basket as they did so while avoiding the remaining onslaught, watching the numbers on the basket quickly rising past the quota.

"Just one more, come on!" Lily yelled as Chloe raced towards the basket with a golden egg on her lifesaver, just in the nick of time of depositing it inside before the basket disappeared into the ground along with the golden eggs they missed disappearing.

"BOOYAH! TAKE THAT!" Chloe cheered, repeatedly shifting between her squid and humanoid form along with Lily after the group had defeated their recent horde of salmonids, the swarm of them as a result beginning to run for their lives, trying to get to the waters as quickly as possible while Lazarus and their freelancer descended upon them with their weapons.
A few of the unfortunate cohocks were too slow to get away from the group of inklings, their power eggs being collected as a result as the squadron of inklings gave each other a group hug afterward, laughing with each other as they heard their co-workers yelling for them from the distant boats nearby before a siren went off after their squid party, right after the waters became still and unmoving.

"Right, that's enough for today, kids! Get back to your boat, at once!" Their boss announced on the radio, the four of them turning into their squid forms as they prepared to propel themselves towards it.
The girls and Lazarus responded by jetting towards their boat before landing onto it a few seconds later, a sigh of relief coming from everyone upon arrival.

Lazarus, tired of tonight's work, laid on the cold, hard ground, sweat rolling from his hair as he took off his cap, feeling his body going numb from the whole shift he'd been through.

"Freaking hell..." He huffed, the girls giving him funny, yet, concerned looks as Chloe went over to him, a tired smile on her face as she knelt over him.

"You okay there, Laz?" Chloe questioned as she helped him up to his feet, a painful feeling searing over Lazarus' head as he clutched it.
"Ughhhh, it hurts..." Lazarus mumbled, placing a hand over his head as Chloe answered by helping him over to one of the benches on board the ship, sitting next to him as Lily and 'Ariel' approached them.

"Hey, what's wrong with him?" Lily asked, concerned about her friend as Chloe looked up at her, somewhat worried on her expression.

"Just a headache, Lil. Can you get him something to drink?" She replied, keeping Lazarus close to herself as Lily did what Chloe asked, running into the boat's interior to find anything for Lazarus he could drink.
Just as Lily went through the door, the trio could hear Mr. Grizz's voice coming on their headphones.

"Alright, I've tallied up the eggs you've collected tonight, and... well, I'm DAMN impressed!" A faint chuckle came out of the radio, their boss sounding ecstatic despite the gruffness in his voice.
"89 eggs in total! That was actually some of the best professional work I've seen from you all in quite a while!" Mr. Grizz paused, a rough exhale coming from him after he held his breath for a while.
"I've also RARELY seen kids like you destroy a mothership, too! That, I am most amazed with, coming from your work tonight!" Chloe's eyes widened at this statement along with her mouth opening slightly. If she could picture Mr. Grizz in front of her right now, she'd see him smiling at her and the others, proud of everyone's recent achievement.

"Really?!" Chloe grinned, ecstatic about her superior's statement as Lazarus, even in his tired state, felt proud of himself for hearing that.

"Well-"
"Wait... you've never seen inklings destroy a mothership before...?" Lazarus asked, curious about his employer's statement before feeling the pain in his head returning. The trio of inklings could hear Mr. Grizz let out a humph, followed by a cough.

Chloe looked at Lazarus sternly, to which he uttered out a simple: "What?"
He soon realized, that he had cut his boss off, to which he scoffed at himself for doing, wanting to apologize to Mr. Grizz before his voice came back on.

"I have, actually." He broke the excitement for them as Lily came out with a glass of juice in hand, the expressions of everyone fading into disappointment before he continued.
"Now now, don't get too upset! Usually, the adults are in charge of that, while you kids simply drive it back for repairs. As I said, I've almost never seen inklings your age demolish it like that." Mr. Grizz genuinely sounded impressed on the other end, the faces of each inkling lighting up once more as they knew, they've done something that their co-workers couldn't do while Lazarus simply half-smiled, grabbing the juice that Lily handed over.
"That alone proves, you have a very, VERY special future here, kids. You seriously should consider a professional career here if you can pull somethin' like that off!" Their boss let out a single chuckle, followed by what sounded like him smoking from a cigarette.

"Thanks, Mr. Grizz! You hear that, girls?! We're gonna have a very special future here!" Chloe asked excitedly, Lily and 'Ariel' responding with positive remarks while Lazarus smiled at their jovial attitudes, sighing as he rested his head, drinking from his glass as he saw a jet of pink ink flying towards the Spawning Grounds from a different ship in the yonder.

"Anyways, I've got quite the payment waitin' for ya at home for pullin' that off, as well as collectin' all of those eggs for me tonight. Have a safe trip back home, and good night!" With that, the feed cut off, and everyone were left by themselves as they spectated their co-workers fending off the next salmon run. Lily and 'Ariel' were chatting with each other, the former of the two remarking on how well their freelancer did despite her speech impediment while Chloe was tending Lazarus, who was still feeling dizzy after swinging his roller at the mothership so much.

"Hey, feeling better, Laz?" She sat next to him, curious about his current condition.

"Yeah, thanks..." He smiled at her, finishing off his drink with a swig before placing the glass next to him.
"Glad you're okay!" She patted him on the shoulder, which Lazarus gladly embraced as she looked at him for quite a while, her smile looking to become more timid as she looked back to the girls.

"So, um..." She trailed off after giving the inkling boy a good bump on the shoulder, gathering a response from him looking at her, curious about what she wanted.
"...you, uh... ready for that... date, or what?" She couldn't help, but grin at him with blushed cheeks, her smile being sheepish as Lazarus felt his heart skip a beat for a second, wanting to say something before the ship's horn let out a blaring noise, causing him to let out a yelp out of shock as he felt the boat's engines revving up. It was time to go back to Inkopolis City.

"Y-yeah! Heh, gee, that horn's pretty loud sometimes..." Lazarus mumbled, inciting a short chuckle from Chloe, who was covering her ears as he subtlety inched himself a bit towards her.

"Yeah, I know." Chloe responded, just before she and Lazarus felt the boat starting to move, thanks to the wind blowing onto them becoming more apparent.

"Holy mackerel, I still can't believe we destroyed a mothership today!" She continued, clearly wanting to continue the conversation while Lazarus nodded at her, rubbing his hair as he put the Grizzco cap back on.
"It just went KA-BOOM, KA-BLOOSH! Like, wasn't that so awesome?!" He responded with a giggle at Chloe's enthusiasm, feeling his appendages having calmed down from all the work he put into today.

"Yeah, it was! Shoulda seen the looks on those freaks when we were collecting the eggs!" He answered back, enjoying his ride back home as he and Chloe kept their conversation going while Lily and 'Ariel' continued with theirs, Lazarus finding himself smiling at not just Chloe having found tonight's salmon run fun and enjoyable, but Lily finding herself a new, potential friend of hers.

"Heh, kind of a shame we didn't collect all of those eggs, though..." Chloe sighed, regarding about all the eggs that they didn't collect after the mothership blew up, to which Lazarus placed an arm over her shoulder.

"Hey, don't worry 'bout it! We'll collect them all next time, right?" He beamed at her, to which Chloe's expression brightened up, nodding at him with an optimistic remark as they saw their capital city approaching in the distance.

Having changed their clothes after returning to Inkopolis, the group walked out of the Grizzco building together, looking fresh as new with glistening hair and skin as they went over to the window to get their payment for today, excited to see what they'd get.

"Welp, ya ready, girls?" Lazarus asked as he opened up the window, the girls behind him eagerly waiting for their payment with the exception of 'Ariel', who had a neutral, but interested look on her face.
"Come on, let's see what we get!" Chloe said encouragingly, anticipating for their payment as the gachapons for each inkling rolled out, along with something else that caught everyone's attention.

A job application for them that only inklings around the age of 18 can apply for, along with a personal note from their boss near the bottom-left corner.
"Come apply for this job when you're 18. You all have great potential." along with Mr. Grizz's signature and logo at the right corner, as well as a picture of the mothership they destroyed.

"Huh, would you look at that!" Lazarus exclaimed, smiling at the application as he looked at Chloe and Lily around him.

"Eeeee! He must be really impressed with us destroying that mothership!" Chloe answered back after her squeal of enthusiasm, readjusting her built-in gloves of her jacket as the inklings went down to the square, noticing their freelancer heading to the Crust Bucket with her recently-earned tickets to buy herself something to eat or drink.

"Y'know..." Lazarus folded his arms, watching 'Ariel' lining up in front of the trailer.
"I feel kinda hungry, to be honest." Lazarus mumbled as he covered his mouth with his hand, tapping one of his cheeks as he watched the freelancer using up all of her tickets, despite the food being too much for her to eat as they pointed at what they wanted.

"Me too! Hey, Lily!" Chloe turned towards her, seeing Lily looking up from her phone, a perplexed "Hm?" coming out of the inkling.
"You wanna come with us?" Chloe asked, pointing at the trailer while Lily looked at it.

"To the Crust Bucket...?" Lily questioned her, to which Chloe answered with a happy "Yeah!".
"Sure, I guess..." She muttered quietly, following the pair as they waited for their turn, seeing as everyone in the square looked to be a little hungry themselves for tonight.

As they waited, Lazarus couldn't help, but notice 'Ariel' walking past them over to Ammo Knights with boxes full of food in a bag, looking at her surroundings before opening the manhole nearby.

"Hey, Chloe." Lazarus whispered to her, grabbing her attention as she turned to look at him, apparently noticing his curious expression.

"What's up?" Chloe wondered, taking a step forward as they neared the front window of the Crust Bucket.
"Look over there for a sec'." Lazarus said as he pointed at where their freelancer was, an interested Chloe staring at his direction, seeing them throwing away the boxes into the manhole.
"The heck...?! Why is she throwing them away?!" Chloe whispered out loud to her friend, Lily noticing their confusion on her before looking at where her new one was, noticing them dumping the food, becoming just as confused as Chloe was at what she was doing.
"What is Ariel doing?" Lily questioned quietly, to which Chloe shook her head before shrugging her shoulders as they saw them close the manhole before turning into their squid form, hopping inside it with a splash of ink coming out.

The three of them didn't say a word to each other, only staring at the manhole 'Ariel' jumped into before looking at each other, mystified by what she saw.

Strangely, Lazarus didn't seem too affected by what he saw, much to the girls' suspicion until they heard someone coming from the Crust Bucket.
"Hey, squiddo! Are you comin' over here, or are ya just gonna make me wait?" Crusty Sean called out to the trio, waving towards them. Just now, Chloe noticed, that she and the others were next as the line of inklings behind them were getting slightly impatient.

"Sorry!" She grinned to herself, putting on a smile as she and the others walked over to the crustacean with the line of customers following them.
"Yeah, hi, I'll have a..."

In Octo Canyon, at Tentakeel Outpost...

While Marie was outside, keeping watch for anyone suspicious, Callie was busy comforting Ariel after her traumatic meltdown while she and the octoling were watching some shows together on her computer in near-darkness, one show in particular they were watching, was a documentary about aquatic life, allowing them both to learn everything about the underwater world and its inhabitants from the past and their evolution.

"Wow... so that's what our ancestors look like?" Ariel asked as a squid and octopus appeared on the picture together, intrigued about the documentary as Callie took a sip out of a juice box, watching the squid that was displayed finding its latest meal onscreen.

"Yep! Gramps' ancestry, as well as ours, is the cuttlefish squid!" She claimed, her tone being optimistic and happy as she laid back on the couch.
"Pretty cool, huh?" She pointed out while the squid changed its colors to blend in with the sand as it was fed on a crab, Ariel looking at the creature in awe and interest.

"Yeah..." The octoling mumbled, nodding as she took one last bite from her sandwich before nothing was left on the plate.
As it changed scenes to the octopus having a battle with another of its kind, they were interrupted by Marie opening the door to the cabin, turning their heads towards her.

"Hey, Agent 4's back, you two." Marie uttered, holding the door open for her student as they walked in, holding a bag in her hand as she waved at them, a glee on her face as she did so.

"Oh, welcome back, Agent 4!" Callie welcomed her as she saw the Crust Bucket logo on the boxes they were carrying, the smell of fried hot dogs and baked waffles filling the cabin she and the others were in.
"Anything new from Crusty Sean?" The squid sister asked, to which Agent 4 nodded happily as they placed the food onto the table, to which Callie went over to get some for herself, leaving Ariel on the couch to watch the documentary that interested her so much.

As Marie watched her cousin take out a waffle and nibble on it, she saw Agent 4 pulling out her notepad, writing on it before presenting a paper to her.

"Hey, I just met that Lazarus boy today at Grizzco, and he said, that he was gonna come here with one of his friends tonight." Marie's expression turned into that of surprise, and not in a good way as she stared at Agent 4 after reading it, then at Ariel.

"Wait, seriously?" The pop star asked, confused in her tone as Ariel looked at her, wondering why she was acting weird once more. Was it because she did something wrong that upset her?

"Why didn't you tell me about this, Agent 4?!" Marie questioned her student, who shyly looked at the floor below her before writing her answer to her, albeit slowly as her mentor waited, glancing over at the octoling.

"Ariel said to Lazarus, that she'd tell you about him coming here. Please, don't hurt Ariel again..." Reading the last part of her response, Marie laid her eyes on Ariel, who was glancing at her, only to look back at the documentary, moving her face close to the screen upon noticing the squid sister looking at her as she made her way towards her.

"Ariel?" Marie called her name out, the octoling continuing to stare at what was displayed before she sat down next to her with a cup of tea in hand, giving her a prod on the arm.

"H-huh?!" Ariel looked at her, already nervous of her intentions as the idol kept a tranquil look on her expression.

"Don't act like you didn't look at me, you." She chided sarcastically, giving her a bump with her fist upon getting comfortable on the sofa.
"I just wanna talk, that's all..." She calmed her down, succeeding in doing so as Ariel's limbs stopped tensing up after realizing that she wasn't going to be as scolding or angry with her like before.

"Oh, I... sure, I guess...?" Ariel mumbled, an exhale coming out of her as she turned her body towards the idol.
"W-what do you want?" Inquiring the squid sister, Ariel expected whatever question Marie might ask of her, whether it be personal or not.

"It's actually about that boy you met today. Lazarus, was his name?" Marie half-smiled reassuringly, crossing her legs together as she took sip from her cup.

"Y-yeah...? What about him?" The octoling blinked awkwardly, knowing who they were going talk about.

"I heard, that he's coming here tonight, right?" She raised an eyebrow as she said this, seeing Ariel's face change into that of disturbance as they opened their mouth a bit, as if they didn't expect her to know about this.

"H-how'd you-?"
"Agent 4 told me about it." Marie answered, cutting her off.
"Don't know where she got the info from, but she said, that Lazarus is coming with a friend, too." The squid sister explained as she eyed the documentary Ariel was watching, watching it shift to a view of the ocean with seagulls and other birds flying over the body of water.
"And stop acting so scared, Ariel. Sheesh, seeing you like this is kind of depressing, to be honest." She added on as she watched what was displayed on the laptop, humming a small melody as Ariel sighed, looking away from her.

"So... I gotta hide again?" Ariel asked, sounding annoyed, but nervous at the same time as Marie gave her a shrug with her shoulders.

"I dunno, if you feel like going back to Cephalon HQ, then yeah." She replied bluntly, taking out her phone as she began scrolling through whatever was on it.

Ariel remained quiet, thinking about what Marie said before hearing something outside, coming from the manhole as she saw the squid sister's ears perk up.

"I'll be right back." Marie uttered as she got up from her seat, walking over to the window to look out at it as Ariel saw her sassy expression shift to that of bewilderment.
"Callie?" Marie called out, sounding alarmed as her cousin walked over to her.

"What's up, cuz?" She asked, to which her eyes laid on two figures approaching the cabin after Marie allowed her to see through the window she was looking at.

She saw a pair of inklings, a boy and a girl with orange tentacles, the former of the two she recognized almost immediately from the prune parashooter, eye color and hairstyle alone as Lazarus.

Author's Note: I'm back, everyone! After a month of waiting, the story continues!

I want to clear up a few things regarding my absence, and I really do apologize for taking so long with the update. I've been trying to get into a competitive highlander team for TF2, with some luck so far, actually! I've also been focusing on college more than I do on this story, as well as spending my weekends with my friends online, as well as real life.

Really, I don't want to get too personal about stuff, so I'll just cut to the chase. I've been really busy this past month or so, and it's made you all tired of waiting. All I can say, is sorry for keeping you all waiting. I can't promise, that there will be more chapters coming your way soon, but I'll try to make them as fast as possible, while still putting my care and love into each chapter.

Glad to be back here, everyone. Let's see how well these next 10 chapters will do!