Welcome to Chapter Five, Everybody! Merry Christmas! Or Squidmas if I should say! I am on Christmas Break finally and another semester completed. Not much can be said but, enjoy the chapter as my gift for you viewers.

Chapter Five: Antiquity and Ambitions

Madison was speechless as the leader named Cuttlefish had lead the splatoon with the rank of Captain. The word splatoon clearly meant platoon. Since this was a platoon of soldiers; Did they awaken in the middle of a war? A battlefield? Did they manage to stumble onto the facility at random? Maybe she was overreacting to this too quickly. These cephalopods were showing kindness to both of them and to suddenly turn hostile would be a disaster. She came to a conclusion and hoped that whoever side these cephalopods were on, she hoped it was for the better. Cuttlefish could read the look on her eyes, seeing fear and running assumptions. "Now don't be alarmed lass, we're not here to cause harm, that I can assure you."

Mark decided to question the old squid, not convinced of taking the words. "Squidbeak Splatoon?!" Mark opened up.

"Yes?"

"Some sort of military unit?"

Marie responded to the human, holding her hand up. "Well! The splatoon WAS a military unit but it's more of a secret organization now." This meant to Madison that they weren't official, although the feeling of them bring undercover was still tingling in the back of her head.

"Your secret organization, what are you guys then?"

"Simply, we just a group of random teenagers, tasked to defend our city of Inkopolis through vigilante work."

"Oh! You mean like Batman then?"

"Huh?"

"Nevermind... I know what you mean."

"Why you then? Don't you have a police force?"

"Yes lass but I don't trust the Inkopolis Police Department as they are slow, corrupt, and incompetent. They lack the proper guidance when dealing with the octarians."

Madison and Mark understood why the splatoon was would go as far as not trusting the police. While the police may have all that high tech stuff, it came down to the skill of the operator. Both understood this as they seen this behavior repeatedly show itself based on how humanity would fight for ideals and etc. Unreflectively, this rose a further question for Mark to ask the old squid.

"Octarians?"

Cuttlefish explained that the octarians was a race that emerged as one of the dominant species of the planet, the other being the Inklings. Inklings were the evolution of the squid, the language that they spoke was Inklish. Octolings, a subspecies of the octarians was derived from the Octopus. The language being categorized as Octoese.

Cuttlefish went back to the topic of the octarians and inklings. He explained that there were attempts for both species to cooperate but a conflict that came to be known as the Great Turf War ended up being fought and resulted in a victory for the Inklings. As the conflict was fought a hundred years before, this created bitterness from the octarians. Obtavio, the leader of the octarians had attempted to steal the great zapfish, which had greatly supplied the power to Inkopolis but was stopped two times by Three and Four. He also added that Octolings, once enemies were now living with inklings on the surface and adapting. While Three and Four were Inklings, Eight was an Octoling. Cap'n pointing to Three and Four, marking the two squids for their bravery. He then pointed to Eight, looking shyly at the humans.

He gave a brief introduction of the members of the splatoon. Beginning with Three to Eight and then on to Callie and Marie. This reminded to Madison that she forgot to give the splatoon both her and her father's names. "Oh! Sorry for not introducing ourselves... name is...

"Madison and Mark Russell..." Marie responded.

"Huh?"

"We saw the video you left on the computer and viewed the history that it recorded." Three said directly to the human, fingers still crossed.

"I suppose you saw why he saw our race as destructive, why we deserved to be wiped out."

"You could say the same for that AI that tried doing that to us as well."

"What do you mean by that?"

"What they say is true, Professor... I recorded everything."

"You did?" Madison asked.

"I would have remained shut off if it wasn't for some cephalopods had managed to find this facility four years ago. I had the facility on lock down and the blast door closed while I deployed small micro drones to the outside world. I managed to record everything that has happened." To the splatoon, this meant that the AI had recorded the events from when Cuttlefish recruited Agent Three to right now. The thought of small drones following them around the whole time was creepy. Nevertheless though, Maddie had programmed this AI to be clever. It was evident by the videos playing on several television screen showing the events.

"It seems that another AI named Tartar was created to help spread the knowledge of humanity. But instead threatened to destroy their city."

One of the screens was showing Agent Three punching the blender that held Cuttlefish and Agent Eight. Another screen was showing Eight fighting a mind-controlled Three on a elevator from an overhead perspective. A third screen was showing the battle to save Inkopolis from doom. Eight was seen speeding by on a inkrail and firing at a hyper bomb. "Based on my calculations, Tartar seemed to have been built just prior to when the last of humanity was driven from Earth."

"How were you able to do it without him noticing?"

"Alas, Tartar seemed that he wasn't built with the proper scanners needed to detect my drones during that time down in that subway station. And I must insist, he strayed from his original programing and did a crap ton of stuff."

"Here is a question, Monarch. What were you able to see in them differently?" Mark asked the AI.

"Tartar have seen cephalopods all unworthy based on their desire for violence and fashion, but I am different! Despite the similarities that they display to humans, I know humans have done far worse things then them. I observed that their kind is willing to accept change, change that includes learning the knowledge that I have."

"And you were right about it." Callie said to the AI.

Off to the side, Marie took off the mask that hid her mouth, showing a downward curved expression. "So Madison..."

"You don't have to call me that, call me Maddie."

"Okay...so Maddie, can you tell me why you and Mark have decided to come to the future?"

"How about you tell your side of the story first?"

"We came looking for answers about a creature that suddenly appeared and saved our city from Obtavio after he somehow managed to grow huge. We thought the creature had something to do with the demise of the humans and whether we would meet the same fate or not."

"Who was the creature that saved you?"

"That creature that saved us was the one you call, Godzilla..."

The older human was silenced by what Marie said. There was no way for anyone to live that long. But there was no denying it. He just gave a nod to the pop squid as best as he could.

"Is there others?"

"I don't think so... He could be the last one alive."

If that was correct, Godzilla was the only titian to have lived for this long while all the others had died naturally. Mark began to think more about this. These cephalopods were definitely the next life forms after humans, at least until something happened. There was a chance that Godzilla would turn against the cephalopods. But these 'Inklings' had seen Godzilla as their savior and would do anything to respect him. While they did fight a war of some sort, it was minor compared to the numbers that humanity had. To the inklings... and Octolings, Godzilla was sort of like their god now. Anger him and they would be punished severely.

"Where is he?" Mark asked Marie.

"He disappeared back into the ocean after defeating Obtavio so we don't know where he is."

"Can you get him back if something happens?"

"Well, I am pretty sure we could calm him down with our singing."

Three, Four and Eight all explained that Callie and Marie were the famous Squid Sisters, pretty famous with their heavenly melody; the solo that captures the heart of inklings and octolings.

There was a chance that their singing would inspire Godzilla to come to their rescue. Speaking of inklings and octolings, Mark realized that he and Maddie needed to see what the world looked like outside. How far did the cephalopods get in terms of technology?

Upon their request, the splatoon agreed to led the two humans out of the facility, to see how well developed Inkopolis was. Though the humans might begin to question the style of turf war battles, it was the start of a new journey for the two.

Somewhere in space, near Mars

In the vase undisturbed section of space, a sudden flash of light had announced the arrival of a fleet of ships. The ships were advanced in design, measuring four-hundred and fifty meters in length or more. A total of twenty ships were surrounding four of the ship in the middle that had been painted green, sporting the flag of a United Earth.

On the bridge of the lead ship in front of the green ships, several humans were going about, preparing for the journey back down on the planet they once called home. The admiral of the leadship was Zek R. J Jonah. The story for him goes by that for thousands of years, based on a stupid belief that his own ancestor believed in.

"Captain...your orders?"

"No orders for now, carry on with previous duties."

Zek had people depending on him, looking up to him at this moment. His train of thought buried him deep in his mind. All is life was dedicated to this moment, the countless suffering he faced due to his ancestor's grandfather.

His fist was in anger at the thought of his ancestor. It was because of him that his whole family was torn apart. His ancestors final moments were captured on video, describing he wanted to undo the mistakes of his own grandfather.

He had one goal, he was going to fulfill the dream and settle humanity back on Earth. He would do it, even if it meant killing creatures that had now roamed the Earth, including the Titians, if they were still alive.