Arc 3 Chapter 9
Izzy was splatting Octotroopers and going through obstacles through the dome she was in. She had collected more power eggs and almost had enough for an upgrade Sheldon said he would offer. She made it further through the dome going through more obstacles and platforms. Moments ago things seemed pretty easy. Izzy was traversing through foggy dome until some octarians spotted her. They waited for the inkling agent to get closer until she reached another crate full of power eggs. It was then when one octotrooper decided to shoot at the unsuspecting inkling girl. A shot ink landed in front of the agent and she jumped back and spotted the octotroopers moving in on her position.
A small skirmish ensued and Izzy managed to take down the duo of octotroopers. Ahead she saw the platforms end but something caught her that was platform above. It looked like a fishing lure with a propeller on top of it causing it to hover.
"That's a grapplink, Agent 4, shoot it and it will grab you. It will allow you to get over large spaces or platforms you jump to," explained Sheldon.
She shot at the grapplink which pulled her up to another platform above and she jumped off to it. "Wow, that's handy," said Izzy.
"You can use those to get to places you can't reach," said Sheldon.
She continued on thrg aough the dome shootint more grapplinks she came across. She had reached the center of the dome as the air started getting hazyier. She spotted a large circular platform above her surrounded by small platforms that had some kind of drum-like objects attached to them. She was curious and made her self upward with another grapplink she shot at. She landed on another platform that was level with the large circular one that was still a distance away.
She spotted something in the center of the giant disc-shaped platform. It appeared to be a large Octarian, one she'd never seen before. "What is that thing?" she asked herself. She jumped across more platforms and onto on that had the drum-like device on it.
"Agent 4! Keep quiet! That's an Octohurler!" shouted Sheldon.
"Octo...hurler?" replied Izzy in confusion.
"It lobs rolonium at you! large paint roller-like munition, It would be best to stay out of its range if you can," said Sheldon with deep concern. "Those look like ink switches on the surrounding platforms. They look like drums but shooting them will pull you to another object to a platform nearby, maybe you can use them to get around that big octarian," said Sheldon.
Just then the Octohurler woke up and spotted Izzy. It gave a loud groan and the platform under it revealed to be a spinning ink spreader coating the floor around it with purple ink. It bent back on it's bench spitting out a roll of rolonium and shot it toward Izzy. "Oh no it saw you! Get out of the rolonium's impact area!" shouted Sheldon.
Izzy jumped out of the way barely getting hit. "You can't face that octohurler with that spreader under it. You'll have to take it on from a longer range," said Sheldon. "Just shoot those ink switches to move from platform to platform dodging its rolonium shots," said Sheldon.
The octohurler spat out more rolonium for another attack while Izzy shot an inkswitch to get her to another platform. The rolonium missed her and she turned back to the giant octarian. "Just keep moving!" shouted Sheldon. Izzy kept up moving from platform to platform evading the rolonium until the octohurler changed its tactics. It then decided to launch its rolonium to the next platform ahead of Izzy. The platform was coated with ink causing her to become immobilized in the octarian ink if she were to land in it.
Izzy saw this and decided to move back to the platform was before until the octohurler hit it as well. "Oh, no I'm trapped!" shouted Izzy. The octohurler was preparing to strike the platform Izzy was on. "Agent 4! I just thought of something! Shoot at the rolonium itself! It might fling it back at the octohurler!" said Sheldon.
"I hope you're right Sheldon," said Izzy.
The rolonium was shot out of the octarians mouth and was hurling toward Izzy. As the rolonium got closer Izzy shot at it until she coated it with her ink and deflected back to the octohurler. The octohurler was unable to move and got hit with the ink coated rolonium. It was knocked out momentarily and shook itself off. "Down but not out! One more rolonium hit will finish it off!" said Sheldon.
"Got it!" replied Izzy. She shot the inkswitch to get to the next platform and coated it with her ink. The octohurler looked back at Izzy and shook out of anger. It spits out another rolonium and flings it at her. She got to another platform and repeated the process as the octohurler kept hurling rolonium at her. Soon Izzy was getting tired and one of the roloniums landed on her platform knocking her down. "Izzy!" shouted Sheldon.
She slowly got up and was shaken up from the attack. "Izzy, are you ok!?" shouted Sheldon with distress.
"Yeah, I'm ok," said Izzy.
The Octohurler prepared to shoot another rolonium at her. Instead of moving to another platform to avoid the attack. Izzy glared at the octarian and threw her hero shot down. "Izzy! What are you doing!" said a shocked Sheldon. The rolonium shot out of the octohurler's mouth and headed for Izzy. She jumped up in the air and kicked the rolonium back at the octohurler knocking it off the stool. It burst into yellow ink and the spreaders shut off.
Izzy jumped back down and headed for the platform the octohurler was sitting on and collected the power eggs it left behind. "Izzy...that was...Amazing!" shouted Sheldon gleefully.
"Thanks," said Izzy. "Guess I'm not the scared little squid I used to be... thanks to Blake's confidence in me," said Izzy.
"Well, I'm glad you believe in yourself. Hey! You've got enough power eggs for an upgrade.
"Finally, what can I get?" asked Izzy.
"Well, you can upgrade your armor for more protection. 4 hits instead of 3 or upgrade your tank to hold more ink before running out. You can also upgrade your hero shot to make it more powerful or shoot a higher rate of fire. purchase more splat bombs or change your special. It's your choice," said Sheldon.
"Hmm..." pondered Izzy.
After a moment she decided to upgrade the armor on her hero suit.
"Good choice, a good defense can be the best offense. Now you can take 4 hits instead of 3 from an enemy before you're splatted," explained Sheldon.
"Awesome!" shouted Izzy.
"I spotted another tea kettle ahead, make your way there before anymore octarians show up," said Sheldon.
Izzy shot another grapplink on the other side of the platform boosting herself up to more platforms. She spotted the tea kettle at the end of her path and made her way there with no incidents. She hopped in the tea kettle and was shot off to the next destination.
Blake was back on the street level after talking with Sergeant Maxie on the communicator. He looked around and saw the area was clear until he heard a loud humming around the corner toward the factory. He slowly headed toward the noise with his weapon drawn and saw a squad of octotroopers being led by a twintacle. Behind them was a large suspended robot that had ink spewing below it, covering the ground. "What is that thing?" asked Blake.
"That's a flooder. It coats its path with ink wants it spots you. They're very dangerous and once you get caught under it, it's too late. I'd advise finding another route into the factory not to mention you would draw more attention," said Marie.
"There's no time to hunt for another route. I gotta get inside that factory. I can deal with those tentacles and flooder. Their ink doesn't have that much of an effect on me," said Blake.
"Agent 0, I would suggest you not do that!" said Marie with a little irritation.
"Sorry, Agent 2 but I've got octarians to deal with," said Blake.
"Agent 0, I..." started Marie as Blake cut her off.
Blake jumped out and shot at the octotroopers. He managed to splat two leaving two left and the twintacle. "Intruder! Get him!" shouted the twintacle. They converged on Blake as he jumped up and shot the wall of a building with ran across the wall of a building in the ink path he made, shooting down on the octarians. "What the!" shouted the shocked twintacle seeing Blake wall run and dodging their fire. Blake splatted the last two octotroopers and jumped down to kick the twintacle off its platform. He shot the twintacle on the ground and splattered it before it got up.
The flooder locked on Blake and started towards him. Blake peered up and saw the advancing robot. He shot at it but it proved futile. "Shit! My shots didn't do anything!" shouted Blake as he backed away from the approaching robot. It flooded ink below it covering the ground like a wall of ink heading towards him. He ran down the street but the flooder was gaining on him. Ahead he saw more octotroopers block his path and fire at him. He shot the ground with ink and fast slid to avoid the octarian's ink. He copied what he did with the wall and made an ink path to wall run and get around the octotrooper barricade.
The flooder was still pursing him as the octotroopers got out of its way. Blake jumped back down and ran down another street hoping to lose the flooder. He spotted an octocopter descend down in front of him lobbing a splat bomb towards him. He shot ink below it, making another ink path and slide under the octocopter. "Ha! is that the best you got!" sneered Blake as he stood back and turned to shot the octocopter. The octocopter splatted in the air and turned back around to see the flooder was now in front of him.
"Oh Shit again!" shouted Blake as he was almost under the flooder. He darted back in the direction he came from to see the octotroopers block his path again with a twintacle this time. "That won't work! Dumb tentacles!" shouted Blake. He jumped up and inked the side of the building. He wall ran above the octotrooper's blockade and made it back into the town square where he would have a lot more room to maneuver.
He jumped off the side of the building and landed back down. The octotroopers converged on him from the other side of the square. They shot ink at him but he jumped back and inked another path on the side of the building. He jumped and wall-ran down the wall of the building evading octarian fire. He shot back splatting one octotrooper and lobbing a splat bomb down on them splatting two more.
"Splat that human!" shouted the twintacle. As Blake was wall running his squidwatch was making noise and glowing. "What's going on with my watch?" asked Blake.
"Your special has been activated!" shouted Sheldon.
"Special?" replied a confused Blake.
"Just jump off the building and smack that watch! land around those octotroopers!" ordered Sheldon.
"Ok!" shouted Blake as he hit the squidwatch. His hair looked like a yellow flame and his body was glowing. His speed grew and he jumped up landing down around the octotroopers at great speed. Once he hit the ground he punched it causing an ink explosion around him, splatting all the surrounding octarians.
"WOAH!" shouted Blake as he stood back up.
"That's splashdown! It allows you to jump down on your enemies and splat them into a huge explosion of ink similar to an inkstrike only this time you're the missile," explained Sheldon.
"That was awesome!" said Blake in excitement.
He soon heard the flooder come out of the street and head towards him. Blake went to cover the wall with ink but his ink was depleted from the splashdown. "oh carp! I'm out of ink!" shouted Blake. "That special used up the rest of your ink! Get out of there agent 0!" shouted Marie appearing back on the radio.
Blake high tailed it, away from the flooder but it was gaining on him. Blake was getting tired and his movement was slowing down. He tripped and fell with the flooder right behind him. Blake turned back toward the flooder in horror as he didn't have time to get up. The flooder was just about on him, seeing the approaching wall of ink. "Oh No, Marie!" shouted Blake as the flooder covered him. "Blake! No!" shouted Marie.
It was too late. The flooder ran over Blake and all that was left was a large path of purple ink.
All of Inkopolis was without power. The inklings panicked as the turf wars were put to a halt and shops were closed. Pearl and Marina were in their studio unsure what to do. "This isn't good Rina, how am I supposed to get on social media to adore my fans while the cell network is down?!" shouted Pearl fretting over not having cell service.
"Pearly, you're worried more about your idol status than the entire city?!" shouted an irritated Marina.
"What! I gotta keep my fans adored and keep up with the freshest and hippest stuff!" shot back Pearl.
"(groan) What am I to do with you?!" she said as she shook her head in disbelief.
It was moments ago when Marina headed into the backroom. Unable to get on her laptop and chat with her octoling friend back in the valley, she laid her head on the table. Pearl was getting stir crazy if not having withdrawals from not being able to check on her web page since the squidweb was down. She sunk into her beanbag chair tapping her fingers. Pearl growled as she back in her chair until she yelled and jumped out of her seat. She managed to jar Marina awake and the octoling opened the door to see her friend throwing a fit about not being about to get on the squidweb to check her idol status.
Pearl and Marina were disputing until the octoling got enough. Marina walked over to her station and grabbed her laptop. She was making her way to the door when Pearl shouted at her. "Marina! Where are you going!?" she asked frantically.
"Well, there's no power here at the studio so I'm heading back to your place to see what I can do," said Marina.
"Wait! I don't wanna be alone, I'm coming too," said Pearl as she followed Marina out the door.
The two of them walked back to Pearl's with the short inkling groaning and complaining the way there since they had no means of transportation. "Pearly, you need to get out more and do some exercise like me," said Marina.
"What! And miss out on my video games and my adoring fans, please," said Pearl.
"Well, maybe if you would stop eating so much mayonnaise, you'd be in better shape, " said Marina.
"I've never been in better shape, Rina. I could beat up a salmonid with an arm tied behind my back," said Pearl. As she grabbed her arm from punching the air obviously out of shape like Marina was saying as she jeered.
Marina sighed and shook her head. After an hour of a grueling walk of Pearl not shutting up. The two of them arrived at Pearl's mansion. The Pygmy Mansion bought for her from her rich parents. Pearl was in fact a trust fund child and inherited much of the money from her parents' stocks in Tentatek and other companies that provided goods to the turf war games.
The pop duo walked inside the luxurious mansion. It was small but lavorius as it was perched on a hill just outside of Inkopolis. Marina headed toward her room while Pearl just jumped on the white leather couch exhausted from the long walk. She picked up a jar of mayonnaise that had been left out. She forgot to put it back in the fridge as it had soured. She threw the mayo back up and tossed the jar on the floor. "Yuck! Hey Rina, wait for me!" she shouted as she got up and followed Marina to her room.
Marina's room was large but average looking for a pop star but unlike any pop star, Marina was very intelligent and had constructed a secret lab behind a wall in her room. She had a hidden handprint scanner on the wall which opened a secret door to the lab. There she laid her laptop down and headed over to some computers. Pearl followed behind her looking around. "Rina, I'm not sure why you fool with this stuff. I know your smart and all but looks like a waste of talent to me," said Pearl in indignation, crossing her arms.
"Pearly, it's not a waste of time. It's what I enjoy; if you remember me telling you, I was an engineer in the octarian army. I admit I was pretty advanced in the octarian schools and made my way to designing and constructing octoweapons. I...wasn't always happy about it. I always wanted to come up to the surface and use my talents for good. That's why I have this lab Pearl," said Marina.
"Rina, I didn't mean it like that, it's just... I don't understand why you need all this. I let you stay in my mansion and perform with me, isn't that enough. Sometimes you stay down here more than you do than spending time with me when we're not giving the news or performing concerts," said Pearl.
"It's just... this is important too. I regret being in the octarian army and I wanted to do something to redeem my past mistakes. There's something else I never told you Pearl," said Marina.
"What's that, what have you left out now?" asked Pearl crossing her arms as she gave marina an uneasy look.
"I was assigned to a team of researchers after I was in the engineers, seeing how smart I was. They were digging up remains of the ancients or humans as we found out they were called and their technology. We stumbled onto a metal pod with something inside. We opened it and found a frozen subject inside; a human to be more precise. Unfortunately, we couldn't revive it back so we took DNA samples and... dissected it," said Marina squeamishly.
"Wait a minute, you talkin' bout like the fossil in that museum?" asked a stunned Pearl.
"Y...Yeah, we were fascinated by it. We were hoping to somehow clone it, but we had no luck. The project was stopped once the octarians saw they couldn't benefit from it," explained Marina. "Since then I've always wanted to meet a human, they seemed intriguing and I was heartbroken to hear that the research was cut and I was put back with the engineers," finished Marina.
"Who cares about some dumb fossils. All I know is they're probably not around anymore because they were stupid or something, " said Pearl with discontent.
"Pearly, our technology, even the city of inkopolis was constructed by humans long ago even the underground octarian domes were. They must have been very smart to do all that, I don't understand why you don't see that," said Marina.
"Whatevs, Rina. Best there aren't any humans around. I mean yeah, sure, all of our stuff came from them but their gone and we just took it and used it, no sense in it going to waste. I don't know what the big deal is with those fossils," said Pearl.
Marina just remained quiet and turned back towards her desk. "Well, I'm going to see if there's any more mayonnaise in the fridge yo! peace out," said Pearl as she headed back to the kitchen.
Marina pulls out her laptop and places it on the desk. She pulls out a flash drive and places it in the laptop causing a window on her screen to pop up. "Now I have some time to catch up on the research I've been putting off, (sigh) the price of publicity I guess. I hope the great zapfish is brought back soon, this could jeopardize peace between the inklings and octarians," said Marina with deep concern.
Flash, Ben and Jazz had just witnessed the octo rebels capture the great zapfish. "Oh no! The great zapfish!" shouted Ben as Jazz gasped at the sight. The inklings soon panicked at three of them were snapped out of their trance on the octarians diabolic act. The inklings scattered and stampeded out of the square with Flash and Ben getting shoved down by their scarred inklings. Jazz was pushed to the ground, almost getting trampled on. "Flash, Ben, help!" she cried.
Flash and Ben fought their way getting up and turned to the direction of Jazz. Once they saw her the two of them helped her up and brushed themselves off, staring back to the Deca Tower, now unvacant and the big electrical fish gone as well as the octozeppelin it was loaded aboard.
Flash and his friends were sitting at a table in the square since they couldn't play in the turf war games with Inkopolis having no power. "What do we do now?" asked Jazz as she fretted over the power outage.
"This sucks! No more turf wars until we get the power back! What will we do now!?" asked an agitated Ben.
Flash was too busy stuck in thought to care or hear what his friends were saying. "Flash?...FLASH!" they both yelled in unison as Flash jolted out of his concentration.
"W...What!" shouted Flash as Jazz and Ben looked at him. His agitatation resolved and he turned back around away from his friends. "Sorry you guys, I've just been...thinking about things. Now the great zapfish is gone and things have gotten worse," said Flash as he buried his face in the table.
Jazz approached Flash and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Flash, you haven't been yourself since Izzy left. You haven't trained or even browsed inside Ammo Knights like you normally do but right now Izzy isn't a priority. She's probably out there scarred like everyone else right now and you need to stop dwelling on that girl and think about the fate of Inkopolis. I think losing the turf wars is the least of our problems," she said.
"Yeah, dude. Look, I think we outta leave and head home. Hopefully the army will do something about this," said Ben.
Flash rose his head and turned to his friends. "(sigh) I guess you're right, there's nothing we can do right now. I just hope Izzy's safe wherever she's at," said Flash.
"I'm sure she is dude, hey! What about we all just over to my place. We haven't, you now...done a sleepover in a while, we'll find something to pass the time," said Ben.
"That's like a good idea, Flash how about it?" asked Izzy.
"I'll pass you guys, I'm just going to go home. I'm sure my mom is worried sick," said Flash as he turned away.
Just then an inkling with short pink tentacles walked toward the group. It was Suki looking at all three of them. Flash looked at her and just sulked "What do you want?" asked Flash in an unpleasant tone.
"Just wanted to come over and say hi, is all," said Suki.
Jazz and Ben bit their lips to not say anything with Flash just glaring up at the inkling girl. "So where's the rookie?" she asked.
"Gone thanks to you...what did you tell her?" asked Flash still agitated by Suki's presence.
"The truth," she responded.
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Flash getting more agitated.
"I guess I can't say I blame her for leaving," said Suki. "I told her you were all flash and no substance is all," she continued.
"Suki if anything happens to her, it'll be on your head. What happened between us is none of her business. I wish you would let it go!" shouted Flash as he faced the inkling girl.
Suki could see Flash clenching his fist as if he were ready to strike her. She decided to back off and gave the inkling boy a fake smile. "I guess I better leave then, since their's no turf war games anyway. Be seein' ya round," said Suki as she turned and walked away.
"What's her deal?" asked Jazz in irritation.
"You ok Flash?" asked Ben as he saw Flash's face darkened.
"I'm fine... I just need to go," said Flash as he started leaving the square.
"Flash wait!" shouted Jazz as she started to stop him. She was soon grabbed by Ben who shook his head.
"Let him go Jazz, he needs time to himself. Let's just swing by my place for a while," said Ben as Jazz nodded. She looked back with Ben, worried about their friend as he disappeared past the entry into the square.
Marie watched in horror looking at a video screen that was being fed from Sheldon's drone that was flying over the dome Blake was in. She witnessed the flooded running over Blake leaving nothing but a big trail of octarian ink behind it. "Blake! Come in! Blake!" she shouted on her radio. She pounded the table in frustration.
There was no response as Marie stared back at the screen. She downed her head until static could be heard on the radio. "Agent 2," said a muffled voice on the radio. "Agent 2!" it said louder.
"Blake! I mean Agent 0, are you there!?" she exclaimed.
"Yeah, I'm here, I managed to get out of its way at the last second," said Blake.
"Oh Cod, you're alive," said Marie in joy. "I thought you were dead," she continued.
"Alive and kicking," said Blake as he looked to the flooder which quit dispensing ink and shut down. "Must have run out of power or something, now's my chance to get to the factory before any more of those dumb tentacles show up," said Blake as he turned back to the factory. "Unfortunately I'm out of ink, I think the recycler got damaged during the fighting. (sigh) I guess I'm going to have to do everything the old fashioned way," said Blake.
"I'll let Sheldon know, please be careful Blake and try not to killed, I'll never hear the end of it from Callie or gramps if something were to happen to you," said Marie.
"You sure it's not you who is deeply concerned about my well-being, Agent 2," said Blake as Marie blushed on the other end.
"Well... of course, I am, you're like family to me too, what are you insinuating?" asked Marie as she was starting to get flustered.
"I didn't insinuate anything, it's just you've seemed a little overprotective of me than usual," said Blake.
"What? Of course, I would be, you can't respawn and your the only one I can trust to save Callie, Just, Just, hurry and make your way to the factory, I gotta go, Agent 2 out," said Marie as she hurried to get off the radio.
"What was that all about?" said Blake seeing through Marie's defensive behavior. He shrugged and made his way to the factory's main entrance. Once there he saw it being guarded by more octotroopers and two octosnipers on the roof scanning the street below. "Should've known much, they would be guarding the factory and I'm out of ink, what do I do now?" pondered Blake.
For a moment, Blake wasn't sure what to do. He then thought of a way to lead the octotroopers away from the main doors of the factory. He jumped out of cover and taunted the tentacles. "Hey you stupid tentacles!" shouted Blake.
"Huh!" responded the octotroopers as they turned toward Blake.
"I bet you can't catch me you dumb tentacles!" he shouted again.
The octotroopers jumped and gargled. They went after Blake leaving their posts as he led them away from the main gate. He hopped behind a junked car and the octotroopers stopped looking around for the human. Blake pulled out a splat bomb and peered over the car to see the octotroopers look around. "Where'd that fossil go!?" one of the shouted in frustration. When they turned away from his direction, he jumped on the roof of the car and lobbed the splat bomb at them. They turned around and didn't have enough time to react as they were splatted off their platforms.
Blake admired his work and headed back to the factory. He hugged the wall as not to get spotted by the octosnipers as he slowly crept to the front doors. He opened the doors and snuck in entering a front lobby area. Walking past the empty lobby and down a hallway he could hear movement ahead in the side rooms of the hallway. He snuck into one of the rooms before someone spotted him. An octotrooper came out and looked down the hallway and saw no one. It went back into the room and Blake peered out to the hallway to see the octotrooper gone.
"How am I gonna get past the guards?" he asked himself. He thought of a plan and hugged the wall near the doorway the octotrooper went through. He could hear the multiple octotroopers talking to one another. "Seen anything?" asked one octotrooper.
"Nothing but I've been hearing about the recent intrusion of a squidbeak agent inside the dome," said the other octotooper. A twintacle stepped in and looked at the two octotroopers. "Alright you two, stay sharp! Multiple reports of a squidbeak agent defeating our forces outside the factory and not only that it appears to be the human. If this is true this is deeply troubling," said the twintacle.
"The human! How are we supposed to take on a human, I'm sure our ink is ineffective on it!" said the first octotrooper.
"Yeah! How are we supposed to fight that fossil!" shouted the other.
"Stop your complaining and stay on guard! That human is not make it inside this factory! Got it!" ordered the twintacle. The two octotroopers nodded and gulped as the twintacle turned away. They looked at each other then sepearted. One octotrooper went in one direction while the other went out the doorway to the hall.
When Blake heard the octotrooper come back he grabbed it off its platform as it came out and slammed it against the wall, knocking it out. Blake hoped on its platform which he couldn't figure out how to move. "How do you work this thing? There aren't any controls," said Blake with irritation. As he moved his feet across the pad on the platform it started to move in the direction his feet would move.
"Wait, that's how you drive this thing, ok, I think I got it now," said Blake. He directed the platform to move him down the hallway hoping that he would also be able to utilize the ink blaster on it. Just as he almost made at the end of the hallway another octotrooper appeared. "Oh, Carp!" Blake shouted. The octotrooper spotted him and shot towards him. "How do you shoot this thing!" shouted Blake trying to get the platforms's blaster to work.
The octarian continued to shoot with Blake kneeling down behind the platform as cover. The platform weaved and bumped back and forth on the walls as Blake was making his way toward the octotrooper. "What do I do!" shouted Blake. The octotrooper kept firing as Blake decided to bail off the platform, while it headed for the little tentacle. "Oh shit!" it shouted as it tried to evade the runaway platform but didn't have time. The platform rammed into it's and into the next room. The two platforms flew off the ledge of the balcony with the octotrooper thrown off it's platform and splatted on the floor below while the platforms crashed below and exploded.
"That was close! I'll never try to steer one of those things again!" said Blake as he pulled himself up. He made his way down a staircase to the floor below and continued to the octoweapon assembly line. As he headed down the staircase he didn't notice that a camera was monitoring his progress. A group of octolings were watching him through a TV screen in what appears to be a monitoring station in the factory. One octoling elite in the room was looking at Blake through the screen and gives a grin through her goggles. "The human is resourceful, I'll give him that much," said the elite after seeing how he dealt with that octotrooper through his clumpsy antics. She turned back to the octoling regulars in the room. "He's headed to the assembly line, cut off his route and ensure he doesn't take the zapfish powering up the factory," ordered the elite.
"Yes, Ma'am," the said in unison before leaving out of the room in octo form. The elite turned back to the TV screens seeing Blake move through another camera. She grinned behind her goggles. "Let's see what you're made of," she said sinisterly before chuckling.