The Octotron landed on the outskirts of Inkopolis, smashing two buildings with its huge tentacle arms on its back at it did so. Surrounding Inklings looked at the mech, some running away and others trying to fight back. The Octarian Airship arrivied seconds later, dropping off Octarians. Inklings all over Inkopolis halted, the ongoing Splatfest went silent. The Octarians had crashed the party.
"Splat them!" yelled Octavio, "Splat them all! Leave the destruction to me!" The Octotron smashed through buildings one at a time, killing as many Inklings as he could. "Annihilate all of the squids! Make sure none are left! Gave our species the peace that we deserve!"
Octarian forces landed on the ground, attacking everything in sight, covering the area with their dark fuchsia ink. Nero commanded the main ground squad, hoping to capture all of Inkopolis's land. But to their surprise, multiple Inklings fought back, using whatever ink weapons they could found, even though they weren't agents. They would not let the Octarians ruin the Splatfest, or worse, take their home.
Even after all the fear and disappearances the Octarians had caused, the citizens refused to let the Octarians take the city so easily, even as the Octotron killed the ones in the numerous surrounding buildings.
"Ugh..." Octavio said, noticing the Inklings attacking. He stopped wrecking Inkopolis apart and started firing its multitude of ink weapons at the attacking citizens. "Deal with them first. We'll destroy the city AFTER we kill 'em. That way we don't get any surprise attacks. But if you want to rip a chunk outta something to help kill them, go for it! That would be perfect!" The army continued to attack the city. Meanwhile, Diana and Titan were still heading forward for Nathan.
"You see anything?!" said Diana.
"...Nope! Not yet!" Titan replied.
"Dammit! Keep looking!"
"...Uh...WHOA! Over there to the north!"
"What?! What is it?! Nathan?!"
"Nope...Something...Oh my gosh..."
"What is it?! Wha-" Diana looked to see what he was talking about. Both vehicles stopped in their tracks at the sight of the giant mech Nathan had found and restored rising. He had gotten inside the mech's cockpit and was now operating it after figuring out thanks to a rather simple control system.
"Huh..." Nathan thought, "It's like controlling a video game almost. This should be easy to get the hang of...thank gosh!" Nathan manged to get the mech on its feet and its eyes glowed blue with power. Nathan looked at saw amazing the mech was. It was like he was a new body completely. Almost like virtual reality, he wore a special mask that let him "see" out of the eyes of the mech.
"Sweet!" he said, his voice projected out of the machine's speaker, covered by a mask-like face. He looked around him, and scanners picked up signals of Diana and Titan. "Diana? Titan?" He walked in their direction before speeding up into a sprint. He knew somehow that Diana would follow him, she was too attached to him for her to simply leave him, and Nathan knew that fact.
"Hey guys!" he yelled as he approached them, "Look what I found!" Skidding to a stop near them, he could tell from the look on their faces that they were shocked.
"N-Nathan?! Is that you in there?!" said Diana.
"Of course it is!"
"How'd you-"
"I found it in the middle of nowhere and restored it with the Power Spark. Apparently it can do more than just power up and repair broken technology! It completely revamped this thing!"
"Then that Spark has just one charge left!" said Titan, "Use it wisely!"
"I will. There's just one final task I have to complete."
"Defeat Octavio and save Inkopolis!" said Diana.
"That's right!" He activated the mech's thrusters, located in the feet similar to the Octotron.
"Hey, by the way...what are you gonna call that thing?"
"It's called the Megasquid. Not the name I would've chosen, but I'm fine with it. Now c'mon!" Nathan activated his headset to contact everyone else. "Everyone, listen! I've got my hands on something that can challenge the Octotron! Gather up all the agents and get to Inkopolis immediately!" With that, he flew off to Inkopolis, charging forward like a missile.
"Guess it's time to stop hiding," said Titan.
"Huh?" Diana said, confused.
"You'll see. Just get on the aircraft for now. We'll be the first to defend the city with him."
"Right!" Diana jumped on board the aircraft and it rushed to the city. The other agents were rushing back to Octo Valley to take the manhole back to Inkopolis, as didn't have enough aircraft to carry everyone to the city and they had no boats at all. The valley was somewhat close by, anyway.
"Destroy them all!" yelled Octavio, "Soon, this city will be ours!"
"Yes!" said Nero, "Kill them all! Kill them all! Kill th- SIRE! LOOK OUT!"
"Huh?" Octavio turned around to see ink missiles being fired straight at him. They hit the Octotron's shoulder, leg, and torso. "UGH! What the-?!" The Megasquid landed in front of the Octotron, glaring at him. "What?! Impossible!"
"Not impossible!" said Nathan, "This is real!"
"Shoulda known you'd show up with that. But I'm still more powerful, just you wait!"
"Even if this mech itself doesn't defeat you, you'll still go down somehow!" Nathan charged into battle, trying not to cause too much destruction to the city. Diana and Titan arrived shortly after, among other agents arriving through the manhole. Diana and Titan jumped out of the aircraft, Diana landing safely on a tall nearby building.
Titan, however, intentionally avoided the building and landed in an ink puddle he made using a Hero Shot. He took out the Octarians and Octolings that surrounded him. After they were all subdued, he was silent for a moment.
"Time to subdue these guys the old fashioned way!" he said before pressing a button on his Custom Hero Watch, one he himself created. His armor was instantly removed, revealing an Armor Jacket beneath it. The armor on his boots popped off as well, revealing black boots with green soles. His mask seemed to break in half as it was ejected off Titan's face, revealing it.
The back of the armor jacket had a large "3" printed in green on it. Titan was no doubt Agent 3 all along, as if his skill hadn't already exposed that fact. He took out two Hero Shots. "Agent 3 reporting for duty!" He charged back into battle.
"I knew it!" said Cuttlefish, who just arrived at the scene, "I knew it was him! I felt it in my gut the whole time!" The agents were joined alongside citizen willing to claim back the night. Smith and Abigail used their own inventions and machinery to their advantage, taking out multiple Octarians at once. Leo put his samurai skills to good use as he slashed away at the incoming enemies. Callie and Marie worked as an individual team to take out as many Inklings as possible.
"You will not claim this city!" said Nathan as the Megasquid and Octotron fought, spraying ink everywhere and every time a blow connected with something.
"You will not defeat me!" Octavio yelled back, "My mech is more powerful than yours! WAY more powerful!"
"It can still take you down, though! And I refuse to go down easily!" The Megasquid fired its multitude of Splatlings and Blasters, while the Octotron did mostly the same. Both also threw punches at each other, often wildly in Octavio's case, whiel also causing more damage to the city than Nathan had hoped it would. He wanted the war over so that the Linklings could live peacefully again, but that quite clearly wouldn't happen too easily.
"Agent 3!" yelled a voice. Titan turned around to see Nero behind him.
"Back for more, eh?" said Titan, "You don't know when to quit!"
"That's because I will not give up so easily!"
"You won't see mercy from me!" Titan rushed into battle, firing his weapons at Nero. The two started a brutal battle against each other. As the two giant mechs continued to fight, getting closer and closer to the city's central plaza, the war seemed to follow them.
"You...You're reckless!" yelled Nathan, "You're care for nothing! You...You have no soul!"
"That is why...I have no fear!" yelled Octavio, "Now you die!" The Octotron threw the Megasquid to the ground, and happened to crash right into Blackbelly Skatepark, nearly destroying it.
"Damn you!" Nathan said as the Megasquid got up and started throwing punches again. "Why can't you just find your own land?!"
"Because we...deserve THIS land!" The Octotron violently attacked the Megasquid. Nathan was having trouble keeping up, but managed to stay standing. Firing weapons and throwing blows, the Nathan was trying desperately to take Octavio down. But he realized that Octavio was right, the Octotron was more powerful. However, Nathan didn't let that fact bring him down, as he had managed to do cause some damage to the mech.
"Don't you ever quit?!" yelled Octavio angrily, "JUST DIE ALREADY!"
"Not without a fight first!" The Megasquid delivered a major blow to the Octotron's torso, removing the metal and revealing a glowing red sphere. It didn't take Nathan long to figure out what it was. "That's it! The core!" He continued fighting the giant mech. Meanwhile, Diana was taking out Octarians, alongside Abigail.
"What do we do about these elites?" said Diana.
"Just fire at 'em!" said Abigail. Diana did just that, firing her charger at the approaching Octoling Elites.
"Hey, ever thought of a team attack?"
"Of course!"
"Then lets get on with it! Should we try a combo?"
"Yep! And I know just how to execute it!" Abigail fired two Aerospray XGs at the elites, kneeling down as she did so.
"I knew what you're thinking!" Diana jumped onto Abigail's back and Abby launched her upwards. Diana fired at the elites coming from the back, and Abby had the front. The team of elite was splatted in seconds.
"Yeah! That's what I'm talking about!"
"Ha ha! Girl power!" The two high-fived and continued onward. Abigail dealt with another group while Diana headed in another direction towards the two giant mechs. Meanwhile, Titan and Nero still fought.
"We never encountered each other two years ago," said Nero, "But I saw you defeat my master! Octavio! You were strong...but we've gotten stronger!"
"But that doesn't mean I can't defeat you!" Titan said, "As Agent 3, I will crush you!"
"You'll have to fight your way through me!" Titan delivered multiple blows to Nero, who blocked some of them. Nero charged at him again, hoping to kill Agent 3 at any cost so he could then help Octavio with defeating the Megasquid.
Meanwhile, Diana, midway into her sprint, had her weapon suddenly knocked out of her hand by a Charger shot. He pulled out her secondary weapon, a Hero Shot, but that was shot too. Three Octoling elites cornered her, the leader of the squad pointing a Charger right at her face. Her armor was stained with what looked like blood. Not a good sign.
"You were among the ones who killed Edith," she said furiously, "I saw you orange girl! You, Abigail, and that damn blue boy fought her! Abby may have killed her, but you and the blue one set it up!" Nathan noticed Diana, and slammed the Octotron's head and smashed the mech against and into a building, buying him a few seconds of precious time.
"Diana!" he said.
"There are no exceptions!" continued the Octoling, "You helped kill her, my greatest friend. And now I'm gonna avenge her! You're dead, squid girl! Dead!" Before she could pull the trigger, she and her squadmates were blasted and splatted by one of the Megasquid's blasters. Diana looked at the large puddle of dark fuchsia ink in front of her.
"Glad that happened," said Diana as she reclaimed her weapons. Nathan returned to battle, but was caught off-guard by a sucker punch from the Octotron. He realized the Megasquid had received severe damage, as did the Octotron. But the Octotron wasn't was damaged as the Megasquid. Nathan continued to fight, still managing to stand strong, but then...