Chapter 28
While the battles in Inkopolis were occuring, the two armies fought with increasingly more casualties. A lone Octoling peeks over her cover then ducks back under instantly. A barrage of ink flies over her head, fired by an Octocommander. One of their Octosnipers prepares a stingray, then launches. The beam sweeps over the whole front line and knocks a lot of the enemy Octarians unconscious.
Over on the side in a more isolated area, Kai and Octavio were still fighting hard. The Octarians had managed to get some ink on them, but the two were still going strong. Octavio, using his naturally immense speed and power rockets around the group, knocking down Octarians left and right.
Kai on the other hand had similar devices that Ashe used. Using the ink propelled boots, she would constantly change position and avoid attacks. Even inkstrikes were easily avoided. Kai activates her boosters to avoid another barrage of ink and slams her fist into the Octoling. He instantly falls unconscious.
Kai turns to attack another Octoling, when she hears something roll next to her. She looks down and gasps slightly. A splat bomb had rolled next to her and was close to exploding. Kai bursts backwards, but she is still caught in the blast zone.
Kai blasts backwards and rolls on the ground. She only goes a few feet before falling into a pool of dark purple ink. Since the ink Kai and Octavio were using was light purple, this began damaging her. Luckily, she did not fall into the ink face first.
Kai picks herself up, then reflexively jumps back as a charger shot just misses her. She scowls, then takes off away from the charger. They were her biggest enemy since they were situated behind the giant group of Octarians.
Octavio himself was fairing a little better. His brush's giant spread was able to knock down multiple Octarians at once, but he was also slower than Kai. Natural abilities can take you only so far.
Octavio jumps to the side to avoid a burst bomb, then swings his brush. The ink wave takes out at least seven Octarians before more began firing. It was a miracle he was avoiding all the shots being fired.
The Octo king jumps back to the middle of their little arena, Kai doing the same. Octavio looks back at his number general, then gets an idea. "Kai." Kai glances back once but keeps her eyes on the slowly advancing Octarians.
Octavio shuffles on his feet slightly, then says "I am going to turn into my octopus form. When I do that, swing me around as hard as you can. Once you can't anymore, release." Kai raises an eyebrow but nods. Her king was a master battle planner and she was certain he had something effective in mind.
Octavio shrinks down and turns into his Octopus form. Despite his size difference between forms, he was still the same height as Kai. Octavio gives her a tentacle and Kai grabs it tight. Then, she begins spinning herself around, Octavio following.
Octavio laughs as he turns his body into ink slightly, his tentacle fully solid so Kai doesn't lose her grip. Kai's eyes widen as the ink coated Octavio begins slamming into the circle of Octarians, knocking them all down instantly "So that was his plan!" Kai smiles slightly and spins even faster, causing Octavio to move quicker. And, due to the elasticity shown in an Octarian's octopus form, Octavio reached even farther with the increased speed.
Eventually, after a good seventy Octarians are knocked down, Kai couldn't hold on. She lets go of Octavio and the king flies into the Octarians, every single one in his path knocked down. Octavio reverts back to his humanoid form as he lands and instantly begins coating the enemies in ink. Things were going well so far.
-Elsewhere in Ceph City-
Commander Darwin was an expert in tactics. Along with his quick mind, he was an excellent shot with an N'Zap. He could hit a can from over a hundred meters.
He was with his crew of eight Octarians. He had four Octolings, one male and three female, two Twintacle troopers, one Octocommander, and one Octo bomber.
The Octo bomber looks around and says "How close are we to that last device commander?" Darwin looks at his map and finds the last X to be around the weapons factory. He looks at the blinking dot representing his position and says "We are about three blocks away. Keep an eye out troops. It seems odd that we've met no resistance so far."
All of his squad peers around in caution. It was odd that they hadn't met any resistance with disabling the devices. It stands to reason that at least one would be guarded.
After a couple more minutes of careful walking, the squad opens up to a much larger area. A massive factory loomed over them, a stream of purple ink powering the ink turbine in the back. The X showed that the final device would be inside.
The squad moves cautiously to the door to the factory. Darwin pushes on the door experimentally and the doors swings open slowly. No sounds could be heard, but that seemed to unnerve the troops even more.
Darwin switches a light on his the front of his gun on and swings it around. The factory was massive and he couldn't see the end. There was an assembly line to his left and a large amount of boxes to his right.
He keeps his light moving, searching for any sign of hostile activity. After deeming it safe enough, he gestures for his squad to keep moving. The darkness of the factory kept the squad on edge, each one of them searching for another sign of attack.
These few tense minutes of walking was finished as a large speakers come into sight. It was playing a single note, barely audible through the Calamari Inkantation in his ears. He looks at the Octo bomber and nods. The Octo bomber nods, then spits out a splat bomb at the speaker. The splat bomb lands on top of the speaker and then explodes, ink covering the wires. The speaker begins smoking and soon it turns off.
Darwin breathes a sigh of relief, then looks at his map. According to the data from other squads, that was the last mind control device. Darwin, wanting to be sure, takes a risk. He clicks a button on his shades and the Calamari Inkantation turns off. Darwin listens carefully for any strange noise, then smiles. The note was gone.
Darwin smiles at his group and says "Mission accomplished. We did it." The squad cheers and begins to leave to the factory. They never notice the pool of purple ink in the back, a strange looking metal triangle sticking out from it.
-Ceph City Square-
Octavio slams his brush into another advancing Octoling, then ducks under a bomb that was lobbed at him. He takes out a suction bomb and throws it onto the Octo bomber, taking it out shortly after.
Suddenly, Octavio notices something. The Octarians had all slowed down immensely and were clutching their heads in what appeared to be pain. The Octarian regulars simple were gasping like a fish on land and the Octolings were all gritting their beaks.
Kai moves next to Octavio and looks around in confusion. Then, Kai notices something. Since she was a hybrid, the note didn't have any effect on her. As such, she had no reason to listen to the Calamari Inkantation to drown it out. But now, she noticed that the note was not there. The devices were all off!
The various Octarians eventually stop clutching their heads, then look around in confusion. One Octoling holding a standard Octo shot says "W-What happened?" The crowd begins to mumble in confusion, then they notice their fallen comrades. The confusion quickly escalates to panic as they look around for their attacker.
Kai tells Octavio what happened and Octavio turns his shades off. He then yells. "QUITE DOWN!" The Octarians instantly settle down as they recognize their king. They all look at Octavio as he says "Don't panic! You comrades are all unconscious, nothing is wrong."
"You all were mind controlled by Octavius Corall, the Chancellor. He is a traitor and tried to use you all to war against the Inklings against your wills." The Octarians all mumble to themselves, anger clearly evident in their voices.
Octavio then continues with "Octavius is being taken care of as we speak. He is being apprehended by Agent 7 and Agent 1. He won't last long." The Octarians all make sounds of agreement. The Agents of the Squidbeak Splatoon were legends in terms of abilities.
Octavio then says "Take your comrades and recover. We will sort things out soon." The Octarians look at each other and eventually the crowd disperses. Octavio sighs, then sits on the ground. "I am much too old for this."
Suddenly, a loud beeping is heard. Kai looks at her wrist device and gasps "Darwin's squad is in trouble. Sorry for this Lord Octavio, but I need to help them." Octavio just waves her off. The adrenaline was leaving his body and he was beginning to feel the after effects of the battle. Kai nods in thanks and turns around, rocketing towards the weapons factory.
-Octarian Weapons Factory-
Kai slides to a halt outside the factory. She looks around, then notices one of the Twintacles hiding behind a box. Kai run over and says "What's going on?!" The Twintacle looks at her with fear and says "An Octomaw was in there! It's already gotten Travis and Lyle!" Kai knew the squad well enough to know that Travis was the male Octoling and Lyle was the other Twintacle.
Kai thanks the Twintacle and leaves him there. He was a new recruit and he wasn't going to be thrust into such a threatening situation like this. Kai bursts into the factory and takes in what was happening.
Darwin was running away from what seemed to be a small set of eyes in a giant trail of ink. The Octocommander was trying to slow the maw down, but nothing was working. The Max continues on its chase relentlessly.
The Maw quickly catches up with Darwin and dives into the ink. Darwin instantly thrusts himself to the side, just barely avoiding the circle of metal teeth that pops up from the ink. The Maw closes its mouth and seems to grin for a bit before diving back into the ink.
Kai runs forwards, intent on getting the Maw's attention. The Maw was currently swimming at the Octocommander, finding the pellets of ink to be very annoying. The Octocommander, despite seeing the Maw getting close, did not deter from its job. He would keep fighting until he died.
The teeth appears around the commander and the commander looks out at his comrades. His assault platform wasn't able to get out fast enough and he knew things were ending. The commander smiles and says "It was an honor serving you Darwin." Then, the Maw erupts from the ground and closes its mouth around the commander. It smiles, then dives back into the ink. Only the assault platform remained.
Darwin's eyes widen in tears as he sees the commander go down. He suddenly grits his beak and screams "NOOOO!" He runs forwards at the Maw, ignoring Kai's yells to stop. He sees the Maw dive into the ink, then watches as the metal teeth appears around him. He drops a bomb down below him, then closes his eyes.
Then, just as the Maw begins to come out of the ground, Kai jumps over the teeth and grabs Darwin. They just barely miss the jaws of the machine.
Kai lands on the ground and scowls at the captain. "That was a very idiotic move there commander!" Darwin blushes and simply looks away. Kai lowers him to the ground, then jumps slightly as a boom is heard.
She looks over to the Maw and finds its jaws open wide, the controlling tentacle outside. Kai instantly runs over and charges up a punch. As she gets close, she slams her fist into the Maw and the tentacle explodes.
The Maw suddenly erupts from the ground and its teeth shatter. Kai simply watches, grim-faced, as the Maw begins to expand. It smiles a toothless grin, then explodes in a shower of light purple ink.
The squad is relieved to see the Maw defeated, but they were too upset about their losses to celebrate. The squad all retrieve various pieces of gear left behind by the splatted squad members. They take extra care for the commander's assault platform.
Darwin, still ashamed by what he did, didn't notice the end of the Maw. Then, he suddenly feels a hand on his shoulder. He looks over and finds Kai holding a hand out, a small smile on her face. Darwin hesitates, then grabs her hand. Kai pulls him up and escorts him out of the factory.
Darwin was still unsmiling as they moved along. Kai notices that the expression held more than grief and says "Darwin? You OK?" Darwin frowns deeply and says "I just lost three members, each one an amazing person. I let my whole squad down."
Kai's eyes grow filled with worry. She knew this feeling all to well. She places a hand on Darwin's hand and says "I understand. You feel like since you led the team, their deaths are on you." Darwin looks away, uncertain how to feel. She hit the nail right on the head.
Kai turns Darwin to look at her and says "Don't let it get to you too much. Honor their memory by fighting on, fighting for what you believe is right. They were proud to go down in the service of such an amazing commander."
Darwin blushes slightly and nods. He understood what she was saying, but it didn't take any of the pain away. Kai puts her arm around Darwin and says "Come on, we need to get back. This war is over and you can mourn then. And remember, I am always here if you need help."
Darwin nods again and smiles only slightly. He knew he could rely on Kai for help. She was an amazing person overall, not just a good fighter. The squad continues onto the plaza without anymore disturbances. The war was over and it was time to rest.
-Author Notes-
The war ended in Ceph City, but one more crucial battle is taking place. Octavius is out to kill the Great Zapfish and Ika is the only one who can stop him. The final chapter for this war is coming next.
Also, I can't write emotional stuff well! ~ Still, I hope you all enjoyed!
