Thick metal plates suddenly blocked the doors and walls.

"I thought that the number of slaves had gotten smaller" Draguna suggested, "Guess I found the reason why..."

"The Octarians, huh? Well, you did take two of their princesses…" Bailarein laughed, "Well, make it easier to get rid of them since the heir to the throne is here."

The mechanical arm tried to seize Aria, but she evaded them. More come from the walls. Everyone desperately started to evade or destroy the arms.

"Well, this is getting us nowhere! Friendly Fire, let's bring down this wall!" Acrilic commanded her and Cauldern blasted a hole in the wall.

Chomp changed into her metal shark armor. She took a hold of many arms in her jaws and used her body to create a barrier between the arms and everyone. The arms wrapped around her, and they started to crush her armor. Chomp flailed around to grab as many arms as she could.

"GET OUT OF HERE NOW! I'LL HOLD THESE THINGS OFF!" She shouted out at us.

"No! Your armor can't take that much pressure, you'll be crushed!" Connie cried

"THERE'S NO TIME FOR THIS! GO!"

Connie ran to Chomp, but Aria stopped her. She carried Connie away from Chomp and everyone followed after her. Chomp's piercing scream echoed and silence followed soon after. For the first time, Aria's tears were visibly ran down the mask onto the floor. She was shaking with every step. Connie was wide eyed and silent, she was trying to understand what had just happened.

"Darn, they got away because of that little distraction." Leaf replied, "Not that it matters… They are still heading right where we wanted them."

We found ourselves in a huge glassy dome. The door slammed shut behind us, and behind the glass were a live Slugger audience. They were cheering and shouting as Draguna, Leaf, Bunny and Bailarein stood in the spotlight.

"Bunny!" Rabbit ran over to her, "You are okay! Thank goodness! You need to stop this! You guys don't realize what you are doing! The world could be forever lost if this continues!"

"Brother… What are you doing?!" Bunny shouted at him, "You are a fool to take their side! They can kill you!"

"I don't care if they do! If it means, you will be save then so be it! Please stop this madness! I don't want to lose you again!"

Her antennae lowered and she looked away. She walked away as the other three glared at Rabbit.

"I'll give you two choice, Rabbit" Draguna crossed her arms, "We can spare you if you step away from those filthy monsters or you will meet your end here. Now, what will it be?"

Rabbit looked down for a minute, and then he looked right at them.

"I can't live in a world where my sister dies! I know if I let this happen I could never look at our parents' faces ever again! As long as Bunny lives, I can face death just fine!"

"Very well. Now, about the rest of you… I wonder how you would feel about killing one of your own? It's funny, that you didn't just leave the thing to just die… What if I told you that everyone who has been 'killed' here was actually turned into real mindless slaves? Take a close at your precious friend."

We all looked at Corol's body jumped out of Nana's arm and stand in front of us. He took an aerospray and he opened his blank eyes, and stared at us.

"No…" I ran up to him, "Corol! This isn't funny!"

"I wouldn't get too close to it if I were you…"

Ari's barrier stopped Corol's black ink from hitting me. I fell onto my butt as I stared at the black stains.

"C-c-corol…"

Cauldern roared at him and she flared up as her blacked body beneath the flames bulked up. Ari stood in front of her, blocking her way. Behind Corol, there was black ooze from the ground that form black inkling. They all just stared back at us.

"You guys will have to kill him and everyone, before they kill you." Bailarein giggled, "Oh my, this is really exciting!"

The blacken inklings started walking towards us. Cauldern smacked Ari out of the way and charged up a blast. Ari tackled her causing her shot to completely miss. She snarled at Ari. Ari growled back and bared his fangs at her.

"Shoot up at the sky!" Comp suddenly chimed in.

Ari's ears flickered and he looked up. He saw the ship and barked at Cauldern. Cauldern looked up and charged up a fireball. Everyone looked up at the Octarian ship. Cauldern shot up the fireball and the glass resisted it for a bit before shattering. A rope ladder was dropped to us.

"Come on!" Link called down to us, "Hurry! Wait-"

A slugger on board strung up her bow and jumped down. She splattered some clear ink into the sky and made it rain over everyone. Her wing like antennae blew against the wind. All the black inklings cried out and writhing in pain as their black ink dissolved away.

"What did you do to them?!" I shouted at her,

"Worry not child, I have only null the poison with some ink medicine from the witch doctor." She replied, "Let us take your friend, before he too fully succumbs to the poison. I will hold them back. Please quickly grab your friend."

I quickly took a hold of Corol's arm and started dragging him away. The winged slugger shot at any sluggers and blackens inkling that tried to attack me. I finally reached the ladder and got pulled up. The Slugger followed behind and continued to shoot at attacking tainted Inklings. Ari leaped into the air and landed on the icy platforms, he made. As he leaped one of the hatchlings fell from his back. The teal hatchling squealed with delight as it fell. Ari skipped to a stop and dove after the child. He caught the child in his mouth, but landed so hard on the ground that his arms and legs cracked. He tried to move, but yiped in pain when he did. He placed the hatchling back on his back. He slowly got up and attempted to leap up. He just whimpered and crumpled to the ground.

"Ari! Jump up! Hurry!" Connie called out to him.

"He's hurt!" Pastelli gasped, "Is there a way to change him back to inkling form?"

"Yes, but he's not going to like it..." Comp replied.

A small vibration sent Cauldern and Ari cause them to painfully rubbed their ears onto the floor. After a while they lost consciousness. Ari's icy body shattered into a bright blue inkling surrounded by colorful hatchlings. Cauldern's fire extinguished and revealed a reddish orange inkling.

"OWWW! NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!" Acrilic growled at Comp

"Sorry… I forgot about you two..." Comp replied

Jet took a hold of Ari, and Till took Cauldern. Wave took the hatchlings that started to cry from getting taken away from Ari.

"Sorry little dudes, your papa needs me to hold you for now!" Wave hissed as one of them bit her," OW!"

"Well whatever, let's just get the ink outta here!" Acrilic shrugged, "Hurry your fat butt up, Till!"

"Hey!" Till whined.

They got pulled up. Wave ran around as the six hatchlings bit into her and loudly cried, and the ladder was lowered again. Everyone quickly climbed up the ladder and boarded. Acrilic and Pastelli were the last to climb up the ladder. Suddenly, mechanical arms shot out at Acrilic. He didn't seem to notice them as he took hold of the ladder.

-Author's Notes-

Hey how is everyone? I hope you all are doing great. Thank you for being patient. I'm sorry I am taking a while to update. I was going to try to do 3 chapters this week. That is pretty much my goal. If writer's block doesn't make it harder for me. But feel free to suggest things! It actually helps quite a bit. In fact thanks to Darkstar248, I was able to finish this chapter and half of the other one. Well, I hope you like these chapters and cheer for the next ones.

So same as always and thanks for reading!