Edric sighs as he works on the generator under Callie's watchful eye with the other Octolings. Edric was glad they seemed very tech-savvy and helpful. Even though it had been a week, he still hadn't found an opening to escape with Callie yet.
Course, the feeling of having them breathing directly over his shoulder really wasn't helping. "Guys…a little space," he pauses and frowns before feeling their presence step back. "Thank you," Edric says before closing the hatch. "Behind the barriers everyone," Edric instructs getting up.
Every single octoling starts to run over to the barriers and hide behind it while Edric calmly walks over to them. "Can't believe I have to work like I am a prisoner of war…" he mutters to himself while casually tossing the control box in his hands that was making the octoling very nervous if he hit something.
"Alright, activating," Edric says pressing a button and the generator starts humming for a bit before a section near the bottom starts to slowly spin then a section above it follows suit and the next three sections soon follow as well, gradually starting to pick up speed. Everyone watched even from the apartments. Soon the motion started to blur before spikes extended from the bottom of it and then electricity started to jump from the spinning section and the spikes. "Moment of truth. Turn off the generators currently powering the area," Edric says putting on safety goggles.
Everyone starts to follow suit and someone at the controls flips off the line for the main power in the area and they can hear generators powering down in the distance. Soon the entire area went dark with the only light coming from the experimental generator sparking electricity through its parts. "Hooking up it to the grid now," an octoling says throwing a switch.
Nothing happens for a few seconds and even lights being turned on. But then the platform lit up and everything came back on with the buildings nearby following suit. Every octoling looks around excited as, block by block, the electricity was flowing again. Cheers start to ring out among the octolings by Edric who kept watching the generator until he looks in the distance and sighs. "Three…two…" he starts, counting off the remaining blocks. "One," he finishes and something blew up, sending sparks in the distance and leaving a few blocks without power. "You guys need better grid parts," he comments, locking the control panel away.
"It's too powerful?" an octoling asks in shock.
"Someone hook up the printer. We are going to be working all day," Edric says.
Every octoling rushes off without a word, reconnecting the printer to the power lines now and it starts to power up without a problem of taking out the whole city.
"Alone at last, huh?" Edric asks looking to Callie, knowing they would take a bit to get that working.
Callie takes a small deep breath. "And me wanting to treasure every bit of it," she says moving over and hugging him.
"I say we got five or so minutes before they get stumped and come back asking me how to work the thing," Edric says petting her, trying to sneakily grab her glasses when a tentacle smacks his hand, making him stop and knowing he got caught.
Callie smirks into his side. "Remember, I was an agent."
Edric says nothing, trying to think around her defenses as she loved on him. But another matter came to mind, how was he going to escape? Obviously, the octolings wouldn't let him easily leave and only go around this apartment and to the work area. And which would be a way out. If he can find at least one exit, he's on some kind of trail which can take him somewhere.
So that would mean… "Callie?" he asks, making sure he has a grip on her.
"Yes?" Callie asks.
Edric sighs and lays his head back. "Let's go for a walk. At least give me that. Or I might end up stir crazy."
"Is this another escape idea…I think this would be number sixteen if it is," Callie says picking him up.
Edric tries to sit up but she pushes him back down. "It's not…Callie…I'm stuck in here. I can't even leave without being met with guns. It's starting to feel like the facility again…and now I'm forced to stay inside," Edric sighs, rolling away from her before smirking where she can't see.
"Oh?" Callie asks holding him close.
Edric breathes out easy, trying to see the octolings where they are around the area. "…never mind. Never going to happen with those guys walking around. Probably won't even let me go to the bathroom without having to face a guard eventually."
Callie nods and moves to take him back to their room. "You can relax now," Callie says before starting to kiss him.
Edric sighs in a relaxing tone. "Yeah…now I just need to end up not stir crazy in here…" he summarizes and gets Callie to move behind him, wrapping her limbs around him as she is now trying to kiss his cheeks and neck a lot. Which he found out that octolings do a lot. Seems they are more touchy and instinctual than inklings when it comes to being with each other or even trying to get together. Caveira is going to have a field day with him once this is over. "And no. This isn't enough," he says, turning his head to look at her.
"Relax," Callie says reaching up and starts rubbing his ears.
Edric stiffens up a little and tries to resist it all. "Call…don't you…dang it…" he groans, trying to pull himself away from her wrapped limbs but can't do it.
"Feel better?" Callie asks smirking.
Edric groans softly, trying to move away but she kept wrapping her limbs together around him. "Callie…this is…way too much…" he says, breathing hard and trying to reach her hand.
"Nothing is too much for you," Callie says smiling as she kept stroking, practically feeling him melting in her hands.
Edric grits his teeth, trying to resist and pull away, but it wasn't happening with him. His sense of strength starting to fade as he slowly leans back against Callie and falls back onto the bed with her. "C…Callie…stop…"
"Don't worry love. I got you," Callie says holding him with affection now.
Edric tries to breathe and looks over his options now. He could change into a human and take her out but then would have to deal with the octolings and them guarding the way out. But there is also the fact he only has so long left on the bracelet. So he has to find a way out or they could put him someplace where a human can never get out. So he has somehow get Callie to follow him someplace and get those glasses off. After that…run. Just after he finds out which way is the exit.
"You keep doing work as you have been and I may be able to convince the rest to let you head back up to the spa," Callie whispers into his ear.
Edric immediately snaps to attention and slowly looks at her. "But how long will that take? I doubt by tomorrow. And you say convince. Convince and making things happen are two different things."
"Well, making more of those generators will probably do as it means they don't need the zapfish to power residential as they do right now," Callie says before kissing him.
Edric then blinks before grabbing her and pulling her into his lap. "Answer me truthfully. What's it like without the zapfish down here?"
"Constant power outages. The goggles they all wear have night vision because it's quite common for them to be without power," Callie informs.
Edric now stands up to her surprise and pushes his way past her. "Why does no one ever explain?!" he yells and kicks open the door. "Is that way? These constant problems? Caveira is probably out there worried her head off and shooting her way down here and you tell me this is the base reason why?!" he yells through the windows at her. "Next time, just ask. You might surprise each other," he huffs and grumbles while walking down the platform.
"Come here," Callie says walking up behind him, rubbing his ears again to get him to calm down.
"No," Edric says turning around and getting her hands off him to her surprise. "You should have just asked. And not given me all this smoke and daggers," he scoffs and walks up to the platform. "Your cable is loose in the printer," he grumbles. "Start making five of each generator part as listed in it. Make space and more cables. But I will say, you are going to need a heck of a lot more ways around to get the materials here. It's not magical," he orders and lectures to the octolings who rush to follow his now authoritative command. 'I'm in over my head…but if it gets them to stop early and release Callie…maybe…'
"Edric, come with me and I will explain why," Callie says using her strength to take him back inside.
Edric frowns heavily now. "You will explain everything and don't hold back because I will know."
Callie sets him back on the bed before locking the door. "The reason why is because the octarians do not trust the inklings," Callie said before telling him about the great turf war from a hundred years ago, keeping him calm by holding him down and rubbing his sensitive spots.
After she was done, he swats away her hands and huffs. "I was really hoping you know. Back then, when you two took me out for karaoke. Maybe you inklings and octolings aren't that different from humans."
"Well, isn't that a good thing?" Callie asks with a seductive tone and Edric knew where that was about to lead.
"No…Callie…it isn't," Edric sighs and slowly felt her grip on him weaken. "You shouldn't be like us. But yet, here you are. Maybe hating one another is a normal trait in anyone. Because I sure hope so."
"Well, I am glad we are enough alike to have fun," Callie says pushing him down onto the bed before straddling on top of him.
"Callie…that's not a good thing," Edric says trying to push her off.
"Oh, but it is. Don't you remember what you told me your desires were?" Callie asks refusing to budge.
"…you don't mean?" Edric asks after thinking about that for a few minutes.
"I think I am a good match for you and you wanted to have a family. So a few squishies would be nice, wouldn't it?" Callie asks leaning down.
Edric stops her by pushing on her shoulders. "But what about Caveira?"
"I think I can arrange to get her. If you want her of course," Callie says smirking.
'Ok, those shades really messing with her as this would make Callie be practically glowing blue, right now,' Edric thinks as his arms were moved and pinned by her tentacles. 'I'm still amazed she can do that.'
Callie giggles as she leans again without any resistances and starts to kiss his cheek and neck. "Maybe it's time we enjoy ourselves. Something fun. Something great," she whispers into his ear.
Edric was about to respond when there was a knock on the door. 'Oh, sweet god! Thank you! I am not fucking Callie when she's like this…even though its a bit sexy.'
Callie growls and looks towards it. "What?!" she calls angrily at being interrupted.
"We can't figure out how to work the printer," an octoling calls.
'Even better, saved by tech support,' Edric thinks.
Callie keeps growling before looking down to him and smirks. "Don't think this is over. I know how fast you work and the moment I notice you not working your hardest, I will drag you back here and finish what we started," she warns smiling and giving a small kiss to his lips. "Now get going and you better be back," she says moving off of him and lets her tentacles let go of him.
Edric quickly rushes out and blows past the octoling that she didn't even have time to react to him moving past her enough. "Oh…were we interrupting…" she stops as she gets a glare thrown her way. "Right…none of my business," she says doing an about-face and walking off.
'Ok, from what I have picked up, someone is going around retaking the zapfish like what Lucky did nearly two years ago,' Edric thinks, noticing the security forces of octarians had more than tripled around the generator building platform. 'But with everyone I built, it's almost enough of those little guys to help bring even just basic power around here,' he thinks as he turns on another and hears cheers from the apartments around the place before the clicking of breakers from another announcement. 'And that's another…but they can't stay down here. Living in darkness…fear of not having it for possibly a week to months on end…heh. Feels like me and humans in general,' he thinks smiling to himself before shaking his head. 'Caveira is not obviously doing the raiding. She would be blowing everything up just to get to me and the zapfish. Marie…she's more precise. Maybe they got a new one,' he thinks to himself before slowly turning his head to look at Callie as she gives a lusty wink his way. 'And still horny…great…wait? Can inkling's even get heat?' he thinks before looking to an octoling working right beside him. "Hey…girl…?" he asks.
"Yes?" she asks in a welder's mask over her face.
Edric nods his head over to Callie intensely watching him for any signs of being lazy. "Is…that normal for octolings…and inklings? Chasing after guys like that?"
"Oh…she wants a child?" the girl asks turning to look at him.
Edric shrugs around. "Kinda…yeah…"
"I can't speak for an inkling, but that is the way we octoling pursue a mate," the girl answers.
"Ok…that explains quite a bit," Edric says before looking back and seeing Callie on a phone instead of watching him. And she doesn't look the least bit happy. "How far would they go?"
"Have you been trying to avoid it?" the octoling asks.
"Yes…" Edric says slowly.
"That explains why I saw her with restraints," the octoling says smirking.
"There are restraints?" Edric asks in surprise.
"Yeah, we usually get them close to running out of patience," she informs.
Edric blinks slowly. "Can I have some? I feel like I need some just to get to work around here," he requests.
"Only females," the octoling informs.
"She's going to kill me," Edric hisses, leaning down to her. "I won't be able to give you the power and work like this if it keeps up."
"Oh, she won't kill you. We just won't see you for an entire day," the octoling says smirking before looking to a male who started whistling innocently.
Edric gulps before sighing carefully over to the guy. "How…did you survive?"
The male octoling didn't say anything for a few seconds. "Perseverance…and trying to keep it to kisses…"
"Shhhhh…" the girl says going over to him and places a finger on his lips, stopping him. "No spoilers to the future mate over there."
'Mostly female-dominated society, huh?' Edric thinks.
Another set of lights flicker in the distance before going out and a set of groans from the area. "Seems they got another big zapfish," an octoling says.
Edric frowns as he watches the lights flicker before sighing. 'And we did this the last time…shit…' he sighs, trying to collect himself. He then looks up towards Callie and sees her kicking a poor metal box being tossed around by her. 'I got to do something or these guys might be left in the dark again.'
"At least this time we have these. With them, we won't go back into the dark," the commander says.
'Will it if the great zapfish is gone? That experiment supplies more than enough power for an entire city than what we have currently…I need to inform them,' Edric thinks before getting up. "Alright everyone, stop. We all need to talk," Edric informs.
Every octoling working stops and even the commander turns to him. "What's going on? We are working on time," one of them says.
"We are out of some very essential parts for the generators. Parts that the printer can not produce without schematics for," Edric informs.
"What…how many do we have left?" the commander asks in some hope.
"Not enough to finish the closest one to completion. What's more, it's made by inklings," Edric informs.
Everyone grumbles and even throw some tools, the commander kicking an empty box away.
"There are three options if we want to continue. One, launch a few raiding parties to steal the items we need. Though that is too high profile for the stage of your plans as I understand. Second, open contact with the inklings for the first time in a hundred years and try to see if an agreement can be made. Or three, have Callie use her connections to order the items, but since she is technically missing, that also brings too much attention," Edric informs.
Many wore a different expression, but it was obvious that none like this turn of events, but they had to concede. Because without these parts it was too dangerous after having been informed how volatile these generators could be without doing it right. Callie, though, looked a bit happy of this occurrence as it meant Edric could not work.
Edric frowns before sighing. "I can not make the decision for you, but at least do it where both can be happy one day. And something more than whoever left you this place to live and grow," he says sitting down now.
"You heard him. Put protective material over them and post guards for now," Callie says walking up before leaning down to him.
Edric sighs and hangs his head. 'Crap…think…'
"I have to go to work soon, but we will be eating together," Callie says patting his head.
'Why do I have a feeling it's worse?' Edric thinks to himself, looking up to her with an unconvincing look.
"We won't have enough time to play, so come on," Callie instructs getting him to follow.
"Why? What else is new?" Edric asks unconvincingly. "I have a feeling it's more than that…DJ is going to do what he did with Lucky and me only with you backing him up, isn't he?"
"No more questions," Callie says putting a finger to his lips as they enter the room.
Edric follows what she said for a little while before sighing. "Callie…please don't go."
"Shh…it will be fine," Callie says now holding him with her arms and tentacles.
Edric slowly turns to her. "Callie…please…just this once…stay here. Don't follow his orders for once. I'm worried about you."
Callie seems to hesitate. "This time, I have to. I was disobeying him the entire time I stayed here with you. The only reason I didn't get in trouble was that you were producing results," Callie said before kissing him deeply.
Edric returns it happily before letting go. "Then for one more time…stay. Or I will fight every octoling just to get to you," he promises, gripping her arms tight.
"Edric," Callie says before he felt something wrap around his arms.
"Please…just this one more time…" Edric begs, wrapping his arms tighter around her.
"I am sorry but not this time, but I will give you some fun before and after to make up for it," Callie says smiling as he felt a tentacle rubbing his back.
"But I don't want it like this," Edric says, shaking his head before slowly stepping closer to her.
"Oh, we won't be going that far, but I will give you a sample," she says.
"Still…seriously, not like this. Not if Octavio wants you for something bigger than last time possibly," Edric says, sounding almost begging.
Callie sighs. "Alright, you win. But I still must go," Callie says before pushing him onto the bed and lays there on him.
"And I can't let you go…I will fight you to keep you here," Edric promises, grabbing a hold of her tentacles.
Callie smiles before kissing him again before he felt her rubbing his ears again. Edric tried to fight the feeling, not noticing that Callie had stopped kissing him and had cloth and a bottle in her hands before she gently placed it on his face.
Edric groans as he looks to see her watching as he starts to lose his strength. "Callie…" he groans, trying to stay upright and hang onto her.
"I will be back before you know it," Callie says.
"I…never…" Edric groans before falling back into her tentacles, his breathing slowing to a crawl.
"Sleep well. I will be back soon and when I do, we get started on that dream of yours," Callie whispers to him before giving one last kiss to his cheek before tucking him in and proceeds to pack a few things.
Edric slowly opens an eye at her before closing them as quick when she looks over. As she packs the last bag, she starts to walk out and heads for the door, only taking one last look and then turning off the lights. Edric quickly changes and jumps over to the door and then slipping through it as the door closes. Seeing the bag on her back, he hops right in and slowly and quietly zips it up. 'Not enough sweetie. Sorry.'
Edric hums as he kept feeling the bag around before he was dropped suddenly. He quickly moves to the edge as the bag opens and a hand reaches in to grab some binoculars. Edric slips through after the hand leaves and sees the area he is in. Another dome-like place which was filled with mostly what looks like a storage warehouse. He hums to himself before looking around and freezes as Callie is right there next to him. Her eyes were glued to the binocular as she frowns and overlooks something. Edric then hears ink being splattered around and peers over the flag before becoming slightly confused as he saw another inkling in the hero suit, taking on a few octolings.
Edric, seeing as Callie was preoccupied with watching over the possibly new agent, slips away and hides behind a crate. He looks back and sees that Callie is still watching away, not noticing that her bag is more open than normal. As he slips away crate after crate, he sees that most of the crates were opened up and empty, some even tossed around. 'This has to be food and energy storage,' he thinks to himself while jumping onto a platform and hides behind the current one that is trying to be taken by the possible agent and octolings. 'Think…'
He then spies Callie taking something out of her bag and aims it back towards the agent. 'Wait…that looks like…' Edric thinks as he changes back and gasps silently while it looks like the agent is still busy with the octolings pinning her down. He then hears some beeping and the rushing sound of a rocket heading towards the platform. Edric rushes out of his hiding spot, he goes over to the agent and then tackles her to the ground as the missile flies overhead and hits a stack of crates, painting them in ink and even blowing a hole in one. 'Now Callie knows…' he thinks but then realizes that he's behind the cover and Callie can't see him on top of the…girl.
"Off…now…" the girl under warns, pointing her gun under his chin.
"I just saved your life. Give me some slack," Edric counters, rolling over and pulling her up, but not allowing her to stand. "You almost had an ink rocket fly right at you so maybe best to head back for now as you only have that gun and I have none," he points out and gets a harsh glare from the girl. "I…"
"Just shut up and let me do my job inkling. Why not you head out of here while I give some cover? Least I can do for you," the girl says poking his chest before trying to see where everyone is and then ducks as a few shots of ink flies overhead.
Edric was about to protest before sighing. What she says is true. He has no weapons and he has to get out before Callie notices him. He would even get in the way if that was true. Plus, that chloroform is leaving enough marks to make some sluggish movements. "Alright," he sighs and the agent points back the opposite way, letting him see a grate of the sort.
"Get in there once you see the signal," she says.
Edric sits up a little and braces himself against the wall. "How will I know the signal?"
She smirks and reaches into her suit pocket. "You'll know. Prepare to be impressed," she says taking out a few small ink grenades.
"Bomb rush?" Edric asks and the girl looks at him annoyed. "It is…isn't it?" he asks bluntly.
The girl sighs and shakes her head. "Just run," she orders before glowing brightly.
Edric takes off without her even throwing the first one and she glares towards him before jumping into the open and throwing what she can into the air. A stream of ink and explosion of ink flying towards Edric and the agent. "You owe me!" she calls back as he doesn't jump high but instead reaches for it and falls right in as he changes into a squid. "Newbie," she spits, dodging an ink strike and gets behind cover again.