Chapter 15: Interrogation

A cold breeze swept through the woods, creating a rustling sound among all the trees in the dead of night. The night in these woods wasn't so dead, however, as despite it being around 1 in the morning, multiple Octolings were navigating through the trees, in full armor and with chargers ready to shoot, which were complete with flashlights.

They mostly found nothing so far, at least nothing that they were looking for, but eventually, they came across something. "Get Ayesha over here!" The Octoling who noticed called out.

Within a few moments, Ayesha walked over curiously, having been looking with them. "Found something, babe?"

"I found this…" She held up a discarded Splattershot that had Jessica's black ink in it, that was disabled.

Ayesha took it and examined it, before looking at the ground by where the Octoling had found it, kneeling down by the leaves. Although it was kind of hard to tell, there was some black ink there, and the grass was a bit folded as if someone had been lying there for a little while before taking off.

"Looks like Agent 3 did indeed super jump here… and was injured…" The Octoling continued. "Orders, ma'am?"

Ayesha grinned, feeling some of the ink with her fingers before bringing it up to her tongue and licking it. "She tastes good… like I imagined…" She then stood up, looking around. Unfortunately for them, Jessica hadn't exactly left a trail. "Get Ward's permission to send out the choppers and we'll find her."

"Should we get the Executioner in on this, ma'am?"

"Danny boy is on his own mission, leave him be. We can find her perfectly fine."

The Octoling nodded and went to do as she said, as Ayesha and a few other Octolings continued searching the woods.

The Lab

Flashing red and blue lights paired with the screech of police sirens pierced the otherwise dark and quiet night, as a couple police cars pulled up to the now abandoned laboratory. Detective Grant Johnson quickly opened his car door and stepped out, eyeing down the mess before him. "…Holy shit."

Not only was the laboratory abandoned, it was absolutely destroyed now. Metal spikes were protruding from all around the building, having cut through all the walls before they stopped growing, and any and all windows had been shattered as a result, leaving the building surrounded by the shards as a result. They walked up to where the front door used to be, and although it was hard to see inside, it looked like all the indoor hallways were completely overtaken by whatever these spikes were.

"Check the perimeter!" He called out to a couple other police officers, while he and his partner stayed to observe the building. "Every time we think we've seen it all… What the hell do you think happened here?"

"Looks like some kind of… advanced technology… like these… spikes grew out from inside the building." She observed. "…I'd suggest something like… nanotechnology, but…"

"Yeah, no. Shit like that is fiction." He sighed. "…If those blueprints we found that led us here are indeed tied to the Underdogs, then… this case just got a whole hell of a lot weirder…"

"Nothing is impossible these days, sir." She commented toward his 'fictional' remark.

"It'd make our job easier if they were." He said, beginning to walk around the building. It didn't take them long to come across something a little bit shocking. "Hey, we need some medical attention over here!" He said before he got a good look, but once he did get a better look, he sighed. "…Never mind…"

The Octoling guards, that were previously standing by the front doors that had been attacked by Jessica, had apparently been caught directly by the spikes as they grew out, because both of them had been fatally stabbed in multiple areas by accident. They themselves didn't even have any of the same spikes grow out from inside them, making their fate that much more unfortunate, but they had obviously been deceased for many hours at this point, since both of them were ghostly pale, and the ink that was pouring out of them was more dried up.

Johnson sighed and checked their pulses as if there was any hope left of their survival, of course only further confirmed that there was no heartbeat. "…Get an ambulance here and we'll roll out the bodies… I wanna have these two Octolings here evaluated for potential ties to the Underdogs." He stood up.

"Understood." His partner replied before she walked off to do so.

Johnson, at that moment, then received a call on his radio. "Detective?" The officer on the other end started.

He grabbed it and held down the talk button. "This is Johnson."

Inky Cheeks

"We've evaluate the crime scene here at the strip club… and it's not looking good at all…" The officer on the other end continued. He was standing among many Inkling and some Octoling corpses, there once again being an obscene amount of ink everywhere, pouring out of half-naked strippers and club attendees alike. Many officers were going around, continuously examining the massive crime scene.

"Explain." Johnson commanded.

"Whoever these terrorists are, they once again came in and massacred everyone they could. We don't think a lot of people made it out, sir."

Johnson let out a defeated sigh of frustration.

"We're pretty sure these are the same guys who attacked the bank and the office, too."

"Well, I doubt it's just a coincidence, so we're taking 'pretty sure' as an absolute certainty here. Start looking on clues for literally anything that will lead us to the Underdogs. I want all our men on this case, because I don't want another single innocent body going into the morgue because of them."

"Well, if there's any good news, sir… we think we know why they attacked the club this time. Unlike the other two times, this one seemed more targeted, they were definitely looking for some reason. We've accounted for all the strippers in the building… most of them were killed, but one instead went missing during the attack, and we believe from the security footage that she was kidnapped."

"Who?"

"Mia Harper."

Meanwhile

Mia groaned as she finally woke up, and the first thing she did was look around. Her vision was a bit blurry, and there was a strange stabbing pain in her stomach now, but a long enough stare confirmed that she was… back in her apartment. Thank god.

She then attempted to move, but she wasn't so lucky with this part. Upon attempting to move her arms, she quickly noticed that they were tied up behind her, and that she was also tied up around her chest, pinning her down on a chair. Now was the part where she attempted to ask to anyone who could hear why she was tied up, but quickly noticed that she had duct tape over her mouth as well.

In absolute panic mode, she attempted to scream out for help and escape her bonds, but of course was unable to do much.

"Squirming won't get you anywhere." An unnaturally deep voice, as if from a voice scrambler, spoke to her from somewhere in the apartment.

Her eyes widened in fear. She could tell from the voice scrambler that it was the same person who kidnapped her in the first place at the club. She turned her head to the source of the voice.

As she did, Daniel walked up to her with his own chair, setting it down in front of her and sitting down. "It's time we have a chat, Ms. Harper. I'm… sorry for having to imprison you like this, but… I'm under orders. If I had a choice, I would've made things easier on you."

Mia just stared at him, unable to do anything else.

Daniel sighed. "I did at least get you dressed. Wanted to show you some respect. At least." He looked down. "…Let me make one thing perfectly clear. You're going to die tonight. Begging about it won't get you anywhere either, so I suggest you start mentally preparing for whatever's on the other side. Do you understand?"

Mia just broke down crying, and struggled even harder against her bonds, entering complete fight or flight mode.

Daniel started to get irritated. "I asked if you understand, shake your head yes or no."

She desperately shook her head no.

He sighed. "Ok… so you want the hard way…" He stood up and suddenly punched her right in the face, paused for a moment, grabbed her hair to hold her still and hit her again in the same spot, paused for another moment, and then punched her one last time in the stomach. Mia groaned out in pain, and he sat back down. "Let's try this one more time… Begging won't get you anywhere, and if you want things to go smoother here and for your death to be less painful, then I suggest you answer with a yes."

Not seeing any other options, she reluctantly nodded her head yes. He leaned forward and took off the duct tape, and she immediately began begging despite what he had told her. "Please, sir, you don't have to kill me… I didn't do anything… I promise…"

"You did do something. You told Agent 3 where to find us."

"I didn't… I swear, I only told her… about the nanotechnology… I pointed her in the right direction…"

"And you did so under your own free will?"

She didn't respond.

He sighed and pulled out a small remote from his belt, which he used to press a small button. Suddenly, a sharp pain erupted in Mia's abdomen. "I told you to cooperate if you want things to be less painful."

She groaned, puking up a bit of ink. "…W-What did you do to me…?"

"...I put a bomb inside you. One of you own nanotechnology." He lifted up her shirt for her, revealing a small cut just above her belly button. "I press this button, it causes you pain. I press the other button… the nanotechnology bursts out from inside you in the form of large spikes. It's… quite a gruesome sight… one that I'd prefer you not go through…"

Feeling shocked and incredibly nauseous from just the thought, Mia leaned her head back and started crying a bit.

Daniel then continued his interrogating. "What else did you tell Agent 3?"

Mia decided to just go along with it, not wanting to be burst open like he described. "…All I told her… was about how I knew Hugh Ward… and how he got a hold of my nanotechnology designs…"

Daniel assumed she was being truthful, having been brave enough to mention Hugh Ward like that. "…Anything else?"

She shook her head. He pressed the button again, and the pain in her stomach got worse. "That was all, I swear! I swear!" The pain only got worse, and she began screaming, puking up more ink onto her lap. "I swear… I swear…"

Daniel took his finger off the button, and she gasped as if for air as the pain relaxed, puking up some more ink over her lap.

"...Fuck…" She choked and started crying again. "Please just let me go… I won't mess with your gang again…"

"...Where can I find Agent 3?"

"...Her name is Jessica Murdock…"

"I know that."

"...She has a friend named Vanessa Reyes…"

Daniel sighed, knowing full well that he had threatened Vanessa to keep her out of this as well, but no one ever wants to listen to him anyway, do they? "Go on."

"They're trying to find some weapon of mass destruction in the city so that they can stop that… and Jessica is looking for someone named Daniel Murdock… Something about an Executioner, I don't know…"

A pause ensued as Daniel stared at her, actually a bit surprised. Jessica… was looking for him specifically?

Mia began sobbing, realizing how she just sold Jessica out like that. "Oh my god… I-If you find her… Please don't kill her… She's such a good person, and… She just wants to do the right thing, I know she does…"

Silence. Daniel looked down, a million thoughts going through his head right now, as well as the voices. Some voices were screaming at him to ignore it, but other voices were telling him to take off the mask.

"...She… wants to find me…? Why…?" He finally asked after a solid couple minutes.

"...I was thinking it was a family thing because of the last name… I don't know… Just please don't kill her… Please…" She continued sobbing.

"...I… won't… well… I don't know…"

Mia stared him, a bit surprised and confused at the same time. Then, even more to her surprise, Daniel completely dropped his bad guy interrogator attitude, and took off his mask, revealing his face. She could definitely see that there was a bit of a similar look to Jessica, as if they were siblings of the opposite gender or course.

"...Are you… Daniel Murdock…?" She asked.

He sighed and nodded.

"...W-… Why…? You're related to her, and you… turned to terrorism…?"

"...I don't know… and it's… been hard…"

"You shot up my strip club, you… blew up that bank…"

"I know."

"Why…? Why would you do that…?"

"...It's a long story, but honestly… Jessica herself is to blame…"

"J-Jessica is to blame?" She couldn't believe it. "Jessica? To blame? She doesn't fucking terrorize people and shoot up banks and offices for the sake of killing people! She… she goes out of her fucking way to help people! Unlike you! She stopped Octavio! She helped free me! And what, you're just trying to pin the blame on your fucking sister? Is it because she's the hero hotshot and you're not?"

"It's not that simple…" He growled, standing up in frustration.

"Then explain it to me! Explain to me why Jessica is to blame and you're not!"

He paced for a moment, trying to clear out the voices in his head, which of course didn't work. It never worked, really. Then, just like he did with Hugh Ward previously, he sat down to tell her his backstory and his motivation.

Inky Cheeks

Detective Johnson stepped into the club, now able to see all the corpses that Daniel and his gang left behind. He sighed and looked around; there were still many officers in the building, investigating for all the details they could possible muster in the crime scene. "…If I see one more collection of bodies like this…" He growled a little to himself. It was days like today where he just really hated his job.

One officer, the one who called him there, waved out to him. "Detective!"

Johnson walked up to him. "You think whatever you have to report to me is stranger than whatever the hell happened at that lab?"

"I don't know, sir… but it is pretty strange… and I think it's something you and everyone in the police force needs to know. I just wouldn't let the public in on it yet in case it turns out to be nothing…"

"So what is it? Is it related to the Harper girl? Did you find her?"

"We didn't find her. We've tried investigating into where the kidnapper might've taken her and so far we have nothing. But this is related." The officer showed him his tablet, pulling up security footage from the attack in which the Executioner kidnapped Mia. "This is footage from the attack, where Mia disappeared tonight."

"...And why are you showing me this?"

"Because we looked into her previous visits as a part of our investigation, and we found out that the other day, Mia Harper was also forcefully pulled out of the club by two female suspects in a similar fashion."

"Two female suspects? Who?"

He showed him the footage. "…The black-haired girl doesn't match up with the hairstyle, but the face and the body type is definitely dangerously close to-"

"Agent 3." Johnson cut him off as he eyed the footage. "Jessica Murdock. I'd know that face anywhere… I memorized it just to make catching her easier…"

"...Do you think it could actually be her, sir? Because if she's still alive, and if this is connected to our terrorists like we think it is…"

"Then either Agent 3 is hunting them down still, or the New Squidbeak Splatoon has been tied to the Underdogs all along." He began walking away, now desperate and putting on what almost looked like a battle-ready face. "Keep investigating the crime scene."

"Yes, sir." The officer went back to his work.

Johnson stepped out of the club and turned to his radio. "All officers, we just received evidence that Jessica Murdock may still be alive and may be connected with the Underdogs case. I want the Agent 3 case reopened and I want choppers in the air looking for her. Subject now has black ink and short hair. Also, I want Craig Cuttlefish prepped for another interrogation round." He spoke into it.

At that moment, he then heard a helicopter that was doing a search go right over the strip club, and he looked up at it, although it wasn't quite a police-allied helicopter. Instead, unbeknownst to him or anyone there, it belonged to the Underdogs.

On board the helicopter, Ayesha was whispering a little tune to herself as she watched the streets below intently, looking for anyone who even remotely looked like Jessica. "The knives on the chopper go round and round… round and round… round and round… The knives on the chopper go round and round… all through the town…"

The Octoling who was piloting the helicopter just ignored her.

"Find anything yet, babe?" She asked.

"No…"

"Hm…" She went onto the com system. "Anyone find Jessie girl yet?"

She just got a chorus of 'no's.

"Fuck…" She groaned. "Why can't this just be easyyyy?" She whined in a strangely childish way.

"You're the one who's always telling everyone about how life is just pain and that things are never easy." The pilot remarked, only realizing two seconds after he said that that he really should've just kept his mouth shut.

Ayesha suddenly pulled out a knife and held it to his throat, and although he jumped and flinched, he quickly regained his senses and continued to safely pilot the helicopter.

"Honey, don't forget that I can open you up like a bag right here and right now, and totally bring this bird crashing down… I can put our damn mission aside just for the sake of the satisfaction of doing that if you want, babe…" She said, holding the knife in such a way that it was nearly cutting his skin. "Is that what you want, sweetheart…?"

"...No, ma'am…" He gulped.

She scoffed and put the knife away. "Fine…" She then went back onto the com system. "Hey, Danny boy… how about you? How's your mission going?"

She got no response.

"...Danny?"

"Danny boy, you better answer me…" Ayesha's growl whirred through the Executioner mask, but unbeknownst to her, Daniel had actually tossed it aside and was unable to hear it. Instead, Daniel was sitting on Mia's couch casually, chatting with the still tied-up Octoling.

"Well… there was one time where Jessica actually broke my action figure. Broke it right in half." Daniel continued his lengthy story time.

Despite her current situation, Mia had actually gotten quite into his stories. It wasn't every day a dude that had tried to kill her would show off his nice side, right? "So what'd you do…?"

"I taped it back together and called it David Inkerfield."

"Like the magician?"

"Yeah…" He actually chuckled a bit. "Jessica didn't even touch it after that point, she thought the name was funny… We grew up watching David Inkerfield together."

"Ah… I wish I got along that well with my siblings, to be honest… Mine just hated me… and I, in turn, hated them…"

"Well, our relationship wasn't smooth… I wanted way more out of it…" Daniel frowned. "…I just wanted to be friends with her… but most of the time, she just spit it back out in my face…"

"Daniel, she was just a kid… and she's definitely matured a lot since then."

"...I know…"

"And what you did to your family, that's… frankly I don't know what to think about that…"

"...Me neither these days… I keep thinking about… how if I had just held on for a little bit longer, things might be better these days… but… the voices got to me first…"

"Voices?"

Daniel realized now that he had been keeping that out of his storytelling but forget. "Um… yeah… I'm schizophrenic…"

"Oh, shit… that… explains a couple things, actually…"

"Yeah…" He nodded. "…I get the voices basically all day, every day… they never shut up…"

"I'm sorry to hear that…"

"...Thanks…"

They paused for a bit before Mia spoke again. "...Is that why you do it? Kill people?"

"I mean… yeah…" He looked down. "I've spent a lot of years wanting to kill Jessica for ruining my life, but… I think there was always a spark of violence in me… I think Jessica has it too, with how she became Agent 3 and used to beat up criminals every night…"

"Huh… Probably, yeah… You too aren't even that different, really… when you think about it…"

"...I guess not…"

"...Hell, maybe there's… even some kind of alternate universe out there, where you're the one who wears the cape and Jessica is the one who became a crazed schizophrenic terrorist…"

"...I mean… maybe… but this is the universe we're stuck with, huh?"

"Maybe it doesn't have to be…" She said.

Daniel looked up at her curiously.

"Look, I'm not saying that I forgive you for killing all those people, I'm not even saying you're a good person, honestly, but… you can stop what you're doing… you don't have to live under those Underdog people anymore… you can maybe even start making up for all the shit you've been doing… be someone better… for once… You only have this one life to make up for it anyway, and I can see it in your eyes that you don't want to do this anymore…"

Daniel looked back down.

"So please…" Mia finished. "Please stop this…"

"...I…" Daniel replied, a million thoughts racing through his head. He closed his eyes in preparation for the oncoming loud chorus of voices he was getting used to… but strangely…

Silence.

He couldn't hear anything. The voices were no longer bothering him. He gulped and opened his eyes again in surprise, looking around as if for a physical presence.

"...What are you looking at…?" Mia asked.

"...N-Nothing…" Daniel replied.

Mia sighed and kept staring at him, waiting for him to make his choice.

Daniel, meanwhile, was staring in a completely different direction; he was now hallucinating a young Jessica again, who was standing a little ways from the couch. He gulped. "…Jessica?"

"...What are you waiting for, Daniel?" Jessica asked. "Remember what we used to talk about? To dream about? About being heroes?"

"...I remember…"

"I already did the hero thing… now it's your turn…" Just like that, 'Jessica' disappeared. Daniel gulped and looked down.

Mia opened her mouth to say something, but ended up staying silent, aware he was probably just hallucinating something. Then, finally, after a few moments of painful silence, Daniel stood up and pulled out a knife. She gulped. "No, no, please… Daniel…"

Daniel walked up to her. "Hold still… it won't hurt…"

"Daniel, please, please, you don't have to do this, please, please..."

To Mia's surprise, Daniel wasn't coming to kill her at all; he instead used the knife to cut her bonds, freeing her from the chair. She looked up at him in surprise, and was even more surprised when Daniel pulled her up into a hug. She didn't exactly return it, but sank into his chest.

"...I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…" Daniel finally spoke.

"...Are you really letting me go…?"

"...I… yes…"

She began crying from the relief. "…Thank you…"

He broke the hug. "…Get out of here…"

She nodded and turned to the door, but stopped to look at him. Daniel had also stopped, listening closely to the distance; police sirens. He was afraid of it, that the police would decide to investigate the apartment to find Mia. As he listened to the sirens, all of a sudden… his own mind came back to attack him full-force.

"...Daniel?" Mia asked awkwardly.

"Daniel." 'Jessica''s voice suddenly pierced Daniel's mind as adult Jessica, in her full hero outfit, appeared before him. "What are you doing?"

"What are you doing?" The chorus of whispers he could always hear continued as if they never stopped.

"The fuck are you doing?"

"Stop this."

"What, are you trying to be nice now?"

"We don't do nice around here."

"We are the villain, Daniel."

"We are the terrorist, Daniel."

"We're an Underdog, Daniel."

"What do you think Ward would say when he finds out?"

"You wanna be gutted like a fish by Ayesha?"

"Suck it up, you big baby."

"You can't let her go, Daniel."

"Kill her, Daniel."

"Kill everyone, Daniel!"

"KILL JESSICA, DANIEL!"

"Shut up… shut up…" Daniel said to the voices, to Mia's confusion and concern.

"...Daniel, what are you doing?" Mia asked. Wait, did she really ask that, or did he hallucinate it? Daniel didn't know.

It didn't matter. The cops were coming. He was in danger of being caught. He had to do something. He couldn't let Mia leave now. He had a mission.

"...I can't let you go…" He finally spoke.

Mia's eyes widened when she realized that he was going through a psycho episode, and attempted to flee from her apartment and escape before he caught her again, but was stopped as Daniel pulled out his remote and triggered the pain in her abdomen. It was quite sharp, too; Mia screamed out in pain and fell to her knees, quickly puking up ink.

Daniel rushed to grab his Executioner mask and put it back on. "…I'm so sorry…" He then pressed the other button on the remote.

"D-Dan-" Mia attempted to say, but was interrupted as the spikes burst out from her stomach and continued growing. A single tear escaped her eye, before it was quickly replaced as her eyes began bleeding furiously along with any other hole in her body.

Daniel rushed to the window and smashed it open, before heading out on the fire escape, leaving Mia for dead. He looked down at the city streets; the police were definitely coming to find Mia. As he silently planned out his escape, he sighed and spoke into his com system.

"...Mia Harper has been executed…"

Vanessa's Apartment

Vanessa, meanwhile, was nervously sitting around in her living room, waiting for Jessica to get back. She was absolutely exhausted, but Jessica wasn't supposed to be gone for this long, and it was driving her nuts. What was worse, she was even pretty sure she could subtly hear helicopter sounds in the distance, which she automatically assumed was for Jessica. She had also been watching the news for any potential updates, but they weren't saying anything of use for her, instead just talking about the massacre at Inky Cheeks; something that only stressed her out more.

Several minutes passed like this before she heard something in the back of the house. "…Hello?"

No answer.

"Son of a…" Paranoid that the Underdogs had gotten to Jessica and were coming for her next, she pulled out a Splattershot she had hidden under her couch, and slowly walked toward the sound. "…Whoever's there… I'll splat you, I'm not kidding… so get out…"

She then heard a crashing sound, and jumped nervously as she then backed up instead.

"...I'm warning you… I'll fucking hurt you… especially if you hurt Jessica… I'll fucking-"

She was interrupted as Jessica came into view, who had apparently snuck in from the back window.

"Jess!?" She dropped the splattershot.

Jessica couldn't say anything in response, instead suddenly collapsing to the floor as she fell into a seizure.

"Jess!" Vanessa immediately went to help her.