Mano exhaled quickly, gripping his splattershot even tighter as his index finger hovered over the trigger. "Seek and destroy!" The octoling with the roller screeched, jumping down from the pillar along with the other one, all eight of them surging forward.
"Go," Mano murmured, starting to bring his arms back to his sides in a defensive position. "Go!" he yelled, advancing deep into the fray. Mano threw a splat bomb ahead of him, already obliterating two of the opponents.
Krahn followed close behind, also throwing a splat bomb ahead of him as he dove into his ink, recharging it, and leaping toward a cluster of three enemies. The bomb he had thrown didn't kill any of them. The one with the brella blocked it, and the rollers only took minor damage. The three advanced onto him almost immediately, the brella getting a hitmarker on him, and the roller squashing him before he could even take another breath.
"Krahn!" Nora screamed, her tussle with another octoling soon ending as she pressed on the trigger sporadically in a fit of panic and anger toward the octolings, terminating the rollers and scaring the brella off into Mano's direction. "Guys, Krahn got squashed!" Nora yelled, looking around desperately for the toffee skinned boy.
Vai had splatted another octoling that was charging at her before she turned to Nora. Mano finished the one running toward him off with a splat bomb, and another by slipping around it in his ink and splatting it when it was vulnerable. He whipped his head around to face Nora as well, confusion and panic welling up in his chest when he couldn't see the remaining teammate in his peripheral vision.
Painful silence rained for what seemed like an eternity. "Krahn?" Mano whispered, starting to become increasingly worried with every trembling breath. Far from everyone's current location, the ink in the nearby checkpoint stirred, and a form rose up from the spawning point. "Krahn!" Nora shouted, sprinting toward him joyfully. "Ay, I'm not dead?" Krahn asked, sounding just as bewildered as the others.
"Nope, that's a respawn point for us, just in case we struggle," Vai trailed off, seemingly not finished with her explanation. "And?" Krahn pressed, slightly worried at her sudden silence. "There's a limited amount of times that you can respawn before you're kinda done for," Vai murmured, sparking worry among the rest of the team.
"What?!" Nora yelled, terrified of the possibilities. "Yeah, so we have to be careful, especially on the tougher levels with more foes," Vai added, blinking slowly as her yellow gaze trailed down to her boots to avoid eye contact with her now weary teammates. "Let us proceed for now, and we can discuss this matter later," Mano said quietly, shaking his head and turning his head towards the next checkpoint up ahead of them.
"Looks like the last one," Vai murmured, glancing around to analyze as much as she could at her distance. Mano hummed in agreement, smiling slightly due to the fact that he gets to work with Vai side by side. "Aight, then let's get the hell outta here! I'm pooped," Krahn whined, making a pouty face at Vai and Mano. Vai smirked slightly, narrowing her eyes and smiling at him sympathetically.
"C'mon," Vai urged softly, her smile deepening as she turned to face Mano. His crimson eyes bored into her piercing yellow ones, causing the two of them to smile even wider. "Aww," Nora cooed at them, clasping her hands together as a huge grin spread across her pale face. Mano grimaced and averted his gaze, staring off into the distance as a slight blush spread across his face.
"Let's get going, we don't know what will happen if we're here much longer," Vai advised, finally advancing forward and taking the lead in place of Mano. They all activated the next and final checkpoint as a loud ringing sound echoed off of the steel walls, notifying the group of their impending victory; at least as they hoped.
A crash-like sound was heard to the left of the group, causing their heads to flip over towards the noise. "Ay yo, Vai! I found a mask for ya, if you want it," Krahn said, holding up a black piece of fabric. "Oh, sure, thanks," Vai responded quietly, gently taking it from his hand and slipping the loops over her rounded ears.
"It looks great, Vai," Mano commented softly, smiling at her. "Thanks," Vai replied, sounding blunt, yet there was still a trace of thankfulness in her tone. After investigating the surrounding area for any other potential armor or whatever else they could get their hands on, Mano came across a case hidden in another crate.
"Found something," Mano called, inspecting the case slightly, which appeared to be a case for a layer of null armor you could wear. He opened it up and he was immediately protected; a helmet, chestplate, shoulder plates and boots adorning his previously exposed skin.
"Hell yeah!" Mano exclaimed, grinning boldly with satisfaction. "Null armor?" Nora asked, gazing Mano up and down as she took in every detail of the outfit. "Yep, and Lord it feels great to wear," Mano grinned, resting his hands on his hips and staring off into the distance with determination.
"Let's go," Mano announced, slowly walking forward and digging his new boots in the dirt proudly. Vai smiled at him slightly, amused at his newfound determination. The four proceeded forward, scanning the area. It looked quite similar to the other two preceding areas. The crew slowly advanced up to two more brick columns and then suddenly stopped at the sound of another enemy octoling warning call.
"Wait," Mano murmured, his head snapping upwards as his intense crimson gaze scanned the columns for any sign of another life form. There was a mere moment of silence before boots quietly clicked on the bricks towering above them and a shadow was cast over the group, making all four of them look up toward the source. An enemy octoling hovered over them, holding two weapons in each hand, each of them appearing to be a simplified version of an ordinary automatic weapon.
"Vai?" Krahn asked slowly, drawing his splattershot up to his chest. "What are those?" The octoling let out another screech, and three more emerged from the ink and sprayed around the arena. Two were at ground level and another one was standing atop the other brick column parallel to the first octoling.
All four of them charged toward them, all possessing some sort of new weapon that was even unfamiliar to Krahn, who used to work in the weapons department and would manufacture weapons for the Octarians to use in battle.
Mano let out a deafening roar, charging back at the four of them blindly and spraying ink in all directions as he quickly advanced forward. Nora quickly followed suit behind him, her nerves powering her forward as she flung herself into the fray. Krahn trailed behind lastly, leaving Vai to stare in awe at the weaponry they possessed. It fascinated her as well as concerned her.
The three of them lunged in the direction of the four enemy Octarians, all in one formation as they gritted their teeth and clenched the triggers of their splattershots in unison. All at once, though, the four octolings with the unusual weapons dodged away, almost like a roll, and began flanking all three of them at once.
Almost immediately after this moment, the three splattershot users were still in shock, one of the enemies lifted itself off the ground, two streams of ink violently spitting out onto the ground and coating the floor beneath it in ink. It appeared to be some sort of extremely advanced weapon compared to their splattershots.
"Inkjet!" Vai screamed, retreating behind a large crate, out of sight to the other octarians in front of her. "Ink what?!" Mano yelled back, sounding absolutely dumbfounded. The octoling, now rising much higher above the group, let out a maniacal laugh and began shooting huge globs of ink towards the group. "Shit! That's an inkjet!" Krahn screeched, shooting at one of the enemy octolings and taking it out, much to the relief of the team.
"What?!" Nora yelped, her voice shrill and tense. "We better fuckin' run until she's descended!" Krahn hollered to them, taking a defensive position now and shooting at any octolings that attacked him. Nora flinched away from another terrifyingly large blob of ink, trying to shoot at the enemy towering above her. "Nora, no! That's too dangerous!" Mano shouted loudly, taking out the other two enemy octolings while doing so.
"Guys," Nora tried to call someone over, but everyone watched helplessly as she exploded into a sickening puddle of sea foam green. "Nora!" Krahn screamed, agony dragging out his voice as he darted toward her. The Octarian in the sky finally shot back down to the ground and returned to its unusual dual shooters. Vai threw a splat bomb on its landing point, terminating it almost immediately after its boots dug into the dirt.
"Where is she?" Krahn whimpered, landing on his knees next to the ink puddle that would've been where Nora was standing, if it hadn't been for her mix of love for her teammates and her obliviousness to her impending danger.
"Nora," Krahn mumbled painfully. His voice cracked and made Vai and Mano feel uneasy at his sudden grief. "Krahn," Vai murmured, quietly attempting to soothe her distressed friend. Everyone's heads snapped toward the sound of ink stirring behind them, and a familiar ponytail forming above it all.
"N-Nora?" Krahn sniffled, his cyan eyes widening as he gazed upon her inky silhouette. "Bleh, so uncomfortable," she muttered, dusting herself off and straightening her back. "Nora!" Krahn yelled happily, sprinting in her direction and wrapping his arms around her waist, lifting her up off the ground and spinning her around in a small circle before setting her back down and enveloping her in a tight embrace. Nora giggled quietly, hugging him back and nuzzling into his neck.
"Okay guys, this is great and all, but let's get going," Mano said bluntly, already making his way toward the final pair of large doors. "Right!" Nora cheered, relief and exhaustion edging her tone. Krahn and Nora's eyes remained locked for another moment, before they finally parted and trailed after Mano. Vai followed the rest of her teammates, smiling under her mask.
Once the crew got close enough, the two massive doors clanked loudly and slid open slowly, revealing an unusual pole-like object with some sort of shield surrounding it. "What's that?" Krahn queried, approaching it slowly, his splattershot in hand. "That's a data point. Shoot it to break the shield. It regenerates though, so grab it whenever it's exposed," Vai answered, staring at it as the golden sheen of the force field surrounding it radiated a minuscule amount of light around it.
"Great, let's finish this," Mano replied shortly, throwing a splat bomb at the golden protective field encasing the data point. He then lurched forward and snatched it, or at least tried to, since as soon as the tip of his finger came in contact with its cool metal surface, it slipped underneath his hand and below all four octolings surrounding it.
"The hell?" Mano spat, his irritated confusion spreading quickly to his teammates. Krahn's gaze dragged slowly to Vai's, silently asking her for an explanation. "This doesn't make any sense," her timid voice trailed off and her yellow eyes dropped to her boots. She seemed unsure of how to explain what was happening, or how to reassure her friends. An uncomfortable silence rained, a feeling of insecurity rippling throughout the group.
As soon as the quiet came, a distant rumbling sounded to the right of the crew. Everyone's heads slowly turned toward the noise, their eyes narrowing. The ground began to vibrate, and two excruciatingly bright headlights beamed in front of them, the horn of a train echoing in their ears. The four waited, their posture stiff and tense from anxiety.
The train hurled itself in front of them, stopping at last, and to everyone's relief. C.Q. slithered out of the doors leading to the front of the train, gazing upon the four mortified Octarians. "Congratulations," he began, flicking his "head" up to look at all of them a bit easier. "What," Krahn attempted to interject, but C.Q. cut him off rather quickly.
"You have completed your first test," he announced, allowing the octolings before him to absorb this information. "We did?" Mano finally asked tentatively, still uncertain about the sudden disappearance of the data point.
"Yes. I have collected the data point. Let us proceed back to the beginning of the station and to the equipper, so you all may return your weapons," C.Q. finished, turning back around to the train. "Return?!" Krahn exclaimed, seemingly distressed about not permanently owning the splattershot. He groaned at the sudden realization and followed his comrades back onto the train. They revisited the equipper and regretfully returned the weapons, all four of them trudging back onto the train from exhaustion.
They all took a seat, sighing a collective breath of relief and leaning their heads back on the windows behind them. "Finally," Krahn huffed, clasping his inky afro out of an anxious habit. "Krahn, stop that," Nora commanded gently, trying to pry his fingers from his head. "Stop," Krahn whined, swatting her hands away from his pouty face.
As Nora frisked over Krahn's hair, Mano turned his head to face Vai. "You okay?" he asked softly, their gazes meeting. She nodded slightly, blinking slowly at him as they maintained eye contact. "Anything on your mind?" Mano asked after another moment of silence, seemingly concerned for her well being.
"Well, I," Vai suddenly gasped, agony scorching through her head, almost like a migraine suddenly making her head pound. "Vai?!" Mano said, sounding panicked now. Vai held her head in her hands tightly, letting out a cry of pain as it only intensified. Krahn and Nora soon took notice of this, immediately worried at the sight of Vai holding herself.
"Hey, listen to me Vai! Stay with me!" Mano cried, grasping her shoulders and gently shaking her, desperation clearly present in his deep voice. Vai began coughing suddenly, her body jerking aggressively. After a few more moments of this, a thick purple liquid trickled from her lips and dripped onto the floor.
"Vai?" Mano's voice sounded hollow and horrified now, not understanding what was happening to his friend. Vai let out a long whimper, clutching her chest now, as it had started to burn from her violent coughing fit. Her vision blurred, her hearing was fuzzy, and the corners of her eyes began to darken. "Vai," A familiar voice murmured into her ear, making her hold onto her consciousness for only a moment longer, but then almost immediately all of her senses slipped from her grip. "Iso?"