Arc 1 Chapter 11
waves of ocean water could be heard, splashing and flowing onto and off the beach. The sound of seagulls, calling and flying overhead looking for food. The scene was that of a beach, it was calm and tranquil, it made you feel as if all the worries of the world could disappear.
A figure could be seen laying on the beach. They soon start to open their eyes and slowly sat up, looking around at the scenery. After a moment they got up off the sand and brushed themselves off.
The figure stepped closer towards the water until the waves could hit their feet and stared out towards the horizon.
The figure gave a sigh. "I guess the dreams have stopped coming, the images are unclear now, I can't make nothing out anymore...does it have something to do with leaving Cuttlefish and the inklings," said the figure.
It was no other than Blake. Who left Cuttlefish and the others hours ago, to look for any clues about the whereabouts of his family that he had been seeing in his dreams. Blake was conflicted, he didn't want to leave Cuttlefish, but he felt that maybe it was for the best and sometimes he wishes he was never found in that beached pod from two years ago.
Blake soon turned and walked further back on the beach and sat back down. He was unsure what to do and saw no signs of his family or anything. He laid back spread across the sun-baked sand and thought to himself.
"come on, give me some kind of hint or clue, where could they be?" asked Blake to himself smacking his head.
Minutes passed as he still laid there when he heard leaves rustling behind him towards the forest. Blake stood back up and shouted, "who's there?!".
The rustling was getting closer as Blake anxiously waited for whoever it was to jump out. Blake was on guard, preparing to fight or not.
The figure finally emerged and Blake was in disbelief. It was Mimi.
"Mimi? What are you doing here? How did you find me?" asked Blake in surprise.
"The pheromones from the bite I gave you, squids can track their mates like that, just in case they got into danger," explained Mimi slightly pink.
"oh...well, you shouldn't be here, you should be with others," said Blake after he rubbed his neck.
"Blake, we need you to come back, Cuttlefish, Ammoses, the inklings, and...me," replied Mimi.
"Mimi... I can't, Cuttlefish said..." explained Blake while his head was down as he was cut off.
"I don't care what Cuttlefish said! Your agent zero, a squidbeak and you've managed to get us to safety and protected us from the octarians. Squidbeaks make a vow to protect all inklings and the valley," said Mimi trying to convince Blake.
Blake downed and turned his head unsure what to say.
"I love you Blake and I want to fight alongside you to take back our home. Do you remember what I said back at the camp when the war was over?" asked Mimi.
Blake looked back up towards Mimi and nodded.
"You might not find your family Blake, but...you can start a new one," said Mimi as she stepped closer to Blake until she was face to face with him. Before Blake could give a response, Mimi grabbed Blake's head and pulled it to hers, locking lips. Mimi leaned over and knocked themselves back onto the sand still lip-locked. This went one several seconds, until they pulled apart. Mimi looked at Blake with a compassionate expression.
"I love you, Blake, please come back," pleaded Mimi with affectionate eyes.
A smile appeared on Blake's face as he looked at his inkling girlfriend. "I love you too, Mimi," said Blake as he reached over and gave her kiss and said "I'll come back,"
Cuttlefish, Ammoses and the inklings made it pass the farmlands and were on the outskirts of the village. Thye scanned and saw that the octarians were setting up defenses around the village to impede them.
"Alright, we'll have to find a way around those fortifications, I want a handful of inklings to be scouts and find a way in," said Cuttlefish. Cuttlefish picked four inklings and ordered them to sneak towards the village and find a way past the octarian defenses and give the signal when they do.
The inkling scouts left and Cuttlefish turned to the rest of the inklings. "Alright, squidbeak!, when our scouts find a way in, we'll catch those octopi by surprise and take back our home!" shouted Cuttlefish with the inklings cheering.
Ammoses was stuck in thought after they cheered and hoped that Mimi would find Blake and that they would get back soon.
The scouts managed to sneak past some of the fortifications in squid form slithering around on the ground evading the octarians as the went. They spotted an opening that was guarded by a handful of octotroopers with an octocopter flying overhead. An octosniper was also spotted on a tall platform overlooking the area.
"what do we do?" asked a female inkling.
"I say we go behind them and splat them with their backs turned!" insisted a male inkling.
"what about that little flying tentacle and that big one perched on that tower, you dumb squid, we'll give ourselves away!" scolded another female inkling to the male.
"I say one inkling needs to make their way up the tower and splat the big tentacle, while another shoots down the flying one when they aren't looking. Me and the last squid will take the rest of the ones on the ground after those two are dealt with," said another male inkling.
"Okay," agreed the three other inklings.
One inkling shot ink up the tower to swim up and shoot the octosniper from behind. It was splatted first.
Another inkling got to a good vantage point behind some cover and shot the octocopter down before it noticed that the octosniper was gone.
The other two inklings squid formed and snuck behind the octotroopers positions and ambushed them splatting them one by one before an alarm could go off.
The inkling scouts regrouped and cheered themselves and moved up to make sure there weren't anymore octarians that had to be dealt with. After deciding that it was clear enough the scouts gave the signal and Cuttlefish, Ammoses and the rest of the inklings made their way to the scouts, then into the village.
As they pushed through they soon stumbled across octarian forces taking positions among the buildings. The inklings hunted for cover and fired upon the octarians. The octarians fired back taking hits as well as some of the inklings. The inklings squid jumped on the roof of buildings to gain the high ground while others squid formed and slithered from cover to cover sneak past the attacking octarians. The engagement ensued for minutes before it was over with the octarians defeated with some taking casualties.
Cuttlefish ordered the inklings to push on until they reached the village's council hall where the inkling council governed the valley and the inklings. The building was unoccupied and the inklings decided to take a quick rest before fighting anymore octarians.
A figure was peeking behind the corner of a building and watched the inklings go into the council hall. The figure sneered and said "good, they've fallen for our trap,". The figure was the black-headed octoling with a large unit of octarians around the corner.
She turned to them and ordered," they've entered the building, we have them right where we want them, now surround the building! Don't let a single inkling get away!"
Blake and Mimi were running through the farmlands towards the village hoping they could get to Cuttlefish and the others without stumbling across any octarians. So far they didn't see any and they managed to reach the outskirts of the village. They spotted fortifications that the octarians built and scanned to see if there was a weak point somewhere. They spotted the area where Cuttlefish and the inklings went through with no octarians around.
"There! Let's go before any octarians show up," Blake told Mimi as she nodded.
Blake and Mimi made their way to the opening, only to be ambushed by some octolings.
Blake and Mimi hunt for cover, but Blake is hit in the leg by some ink.
"Blake!" shouts Mimi as she picks her bamboozler up and shoots the octoling that hit Blake.
Blake crawls to cover while being gunned down by the octolings. Mimi shoots at whatever octoling she could hit. She manages to splat two more octolings, when all of a sudden she is shot in the shoulder and falls backyards.
"Mimi! Bastards!" yelled Blake. He rushes over evading ink from the octolings to check on Mimi.
"Mimi! Are you Ok!" shouted a very concerned Blake. All Mimi could do was mumble with her eyes closed.
"No, Mimi!" said Blake as he gritted his teeth and clenched his fist. He pickup Mimi's bamboozler and ink tank and aimed towards the octolings.
"You're gonna pay for that!" shouted an enraged Blake shooting the octolings until there were none left.
Blake gave a deep sigh and turned back to Mimi. Mimi slowly opened her eyes and looked at Blake. "Blake?" she said.
"Mimi, I'm gonna get you to Cuttlefish as soon as I can," exclaimed Blake as he picked her up bridal style and continued on to the village.
The two of them reached the garden and Blake laid Mimi down in the tea house in the center of the garden. Blake wiped what ink he could off her and bandaged her shoulder.
"Mimi, I'm gonna see if I can find Cuttlefish and the inklings, I don't want to have to carry you and run into any octarians, I'm gonna leave you here, I'll be back," said Blake while grabbing her hand that was laying on her chest. Blake let go even though Mimi didn't, who wanted him to stay.
Mimi tried to reach her arm over to him as he closed the door behind him. "B...Be...careful, Blake," she said weakly before she closed her eyes.
Cuttlefish, Ammoses and the inklings found themselves defending the Alamo. Octarians had surrounded the council hall and made attempts to breach the inside only to be splattered at any attempt at the doorways. Inklings sniped at any exposed octarians they saw and threw ink bombs at any that made a rush towards the building. This went on for a while now, and the inklings weren't able to fill their ink tanks between shots. Cuttlefish was soon accepting that this may be their last stand and prayed for a better outcome.
Cuttlefish almost got hit by an octosniper perched on top of a roof of a building overlooking the council hall. The octarians were overwhelming the inklings and he ordered the inklings to pull back further into the building as one last stand.
As the inklings made their way to the main hall in the center of the building they set up defensive positions, they heard fire coming from the direction of the main entrance. Then silence for a moment. they heard footsteps rushing towards the doorway of the main hall they were in. The inklings pointed their weapons at the doorway and prepared for the octarians to breach. All of a sudden the doors were kicked open and an ink-covered figure stumbled in front of them.
"Hold your fire! That's...Blake?!" yelled Cuttlefish.
Cuttlefish, Ammoses and the inklings were utterly stunned that it was Blake. As Blake was about to collapse, Cuttlefish rushed over and caught him before he could hit the floor.
"Bucko?... What, are you doing here?" asked a shocked Cuttlefish.
"Is that...anyway to...thank me for saving your squid butt," said Blake getting his words out.
"hmpf...talk about me not changing, I'm glad to see you, bucko," said Cuttlefish as he stood Blake up and hugged him.
"I'm fine Cuttlefish, but Mimi took a hit on our way here and she needs medical attention now!" exclaimed Blake.
"Where is she lad?" asked Cuttlefish.
"I left her at the garden in the tea house, we need to hurry!" exclaimed Blake.
"Blake, Me and a couple of inklings will go treat her, You and Cuttlefish go get Octavio, she'll be fine, I promise, oh and I think this belongs to you," said Ammoses as he handed Blake's bamboozler and ink tank back to him.
Blake took his Bamboozler and tank back and handed Mimi's back to Ammoses. "then here, take Mimi's Bamboozler and tank back to her," said Blake as he handed over Mimi's weapon and tank over to Ammoses.
Ammoses nodded as he and some inklings left the hall and made their way to the garden.
Blake looked at Cuttlefish. "we'll, I guess its time to end this," said Blake.
"yeah, Octavio has a lot to answer to, let's do this," said Cuttlefish as him, Blake and the remaining inklings left the council hall and towards the octarian's base.
At the octarian base Octavio is going over plans about the domes and the valley to the octarians, when all of a sudden the main doors burst open and a black tentacled octoling covered in some ink, stumbled clutching her shoulder as she made her way in front of Octavio falling down.
"What happened! Report soldier!" demanded Octavio.
"Sir! We had the inklings surrounded and near defeat when... that inkling-loving human flanked us before we could storm the building... and finish off those inkstains," explained the black-headed octoling clenching in pain.
"You have failed me yet again! I should toss you into the sea and watch you dissolve!" roared Octavio.
"Sir, forgive me! I..." she pleaded as Octavio waved her off.
"You have one more chance to redeem yourself! Now, take some of the octarian reinforcements with you and stop Cuttlefish and the inklings from reaching our base! Now go!" ordered Octavio.
"Ye...ye...yes, Sir, I won't fail!" the octoling saluted and hurried out.
The black tentacled octoling gathered up the octarians and left to fight the inklings before they reached the base.
After they left. Octavio was brooding, frustrated by Cuttlefish, the inklings and Blake.
"Our ink may not be effective on you, but I have something in store for you Blake," said Octavio as he peered at the cryostasis pod that Blake was found in by him and Cuttlefish two years ago. "It's time for you to stay extinct, human" jeered Octavio as he looked at the pod.
Cuttlefish, Blake and the inklings slowly made their way to the octarian base which was located underneath Octavio's house. minutes passed and they finally arrived in front of it and stopped, preparing to face Octavio.
"Alright squids! Let's Go!" shouted Cuttlefish
As they stepped forward. Octarians popped up from around them behind trees and bushes. The front doors of Octavio's slid open and a squad of octolings led by the black tentacled octoling came out and faced the inklings and human.
"This is your last chance to surrender! now drop your weapons or we will shoot you where you stand!" commanded the black-headed octoling.
"Well, what do we do now, captain?" whispered Blake.
"I'm not sure bucko, they got us surrounded, I can only pray for a miracle," whispered Cuttlefish.
"you have three seconds to comply!" shouted the black-headed octoling.
"I think I have a plan," whisper Blake.
Blake approached the black tentacled octoling while her guards aim their weapons at him. "We, surrender!" shouted Blake.
"What? Bucko?" quietly shouted Cuttlefish surprised at Blake.
"Just follow my lead," whispered Blake as he turned is head to Cuttlefish and winked.
"I hope you know what you're doing, lad" whispered Cuttlefish as he laid his bamboozler down.
The other inklings soon followed suit and laid their weapons down with their hands up.
the octoling guards started to walk towards the inklings but were halted by the black-headed octoling. "wait! this may be a trap! be on your toes with your weapons up!" advised the octoling.
Just as the octolings go closer. Cuttlefish noticed an ink-bomb under Blake's ink tank. It dawned on him what Blake was going to do.
Just then Blake reached behind his back and lobbed the ink-bomb towards the black tentacled octoling. she managed to octo jump back, but some of her guards weren't so lucky.
Blake grabbed the closest octoling near him and fought for their weapon until he turned behind them and grabbed their arm and guided them shooting their ink gun at the remaining octolings in front of them. He hit the octoling behind the head he had a hold of and knocked him down retrieving its ink gun.
The inklings took no time to snatch up their bamboozlers and fire at the stunned octarians. The small skirmish lasted for minutes with both sides exchanging fire and taking casualties.
Blake noticed that the black-headed octoling disappeared during the may lay. Then all of a sudden he heard a whoosh and she landed behind Cuttlefish with malice in her eyes.
"I won't let you get away this time, inkstain!" yelled the black tentacled octoling as she pointed her ink gun at him.
Cuttlefish turned towards her and froze. "Captain!" shouted Blake as he lined a shot on the octoling.
"Any last words, squid?!" she sneered.
All of a sudden before she could pull the trigger, she burst into ink.
Cuttlefish shielded himself with his arm and looked, then turned toward Blake. Blake shook his head to signal Cuttlefish that it wasn't him that splatted the octoling.
Cuttlefish then turned and looked in the opposite direction and saw an orange tentacled female holding a bamboozler up one armed with the other arm in a sling.
Blake turned and looked. His eyes went big. "Mimi?!" he exclaimed and rushed over to hug her.
"Mimi, I'm so glad to see your ok," said Blake in joy.
"I'm glad to see you too, Blake, Ammoses told me everything and we made it back here as fast as we could," said Mimi.
"Lass!, you saved my tentacles," said a grateful Cuttlefish
"It's no problem Cuttlefish, As long as you and Blake are ok," said Mimi. Blake kissed her on the head and she giggled hugging Blake.
"Well, Bucko I hate to break up your little reunion with the lass, but we have a war to end," said Cuttlefish.
"quite right, captain," said Blake as he and Mimi exchanged kisses and he and Cuttlefish made their way to the base.
"Good Luck you two!" shouted Ammoses as he and Mimi waved.
Ammoses, Mimi and the inklings stayed back to ensure that the octarians didn't retaliate and Cuttlefish and Blake could defeat Octavio.
Blake and Cuttlefish make it inside Octavio's and Blake guided Cuttlefish to the hatch that would take them down to the underground base.
Blake and Cuttlefish kneeled down and opened the hatch.
"You ready to do this, Bucko?" asked Cuttlefish seriously.
"I'm ready, Captain, let's go get Octavio!" shouted Blake as they both made there way down the hatch, ready to fight the Octarian leader and their former friend.