After a while, the four of them finally got around to completing Line A. After moving on to Line B, things seemed to get a little easier, and the tests seemed to require teamwork for the most part. There were a lot more tests now, and things were getting exhausting for the group. Weeks had passed since they had found Central Station, and all four of them had been working tirelessly in order to escape the underground.
"Hey, the last test we have to do for Line B is 'Rad Ride Station'..." Krahn remarked, leaning over Mano's shoulder as he stared with him at the new station that was unlocked for them, after they all breezed through another 8-ball station, which allowed them to unlock Line G, not long after unlocking Line I a few tests prior.
"What's that?" Nora interjected herself into the conversation, curious about their next task. "Ride the tower.. Hmm.. Seems easy, wonder what the hell it actually means, since there's always a catch.." Mano muttered grimly, glaring at the screen projected in front of him. "It must be tower control!" Krahn yelped excitedly, a huge grin spreading across his face. Mano tipped his head at Krahn, and Nora just stared at him, silence stinging their ears for a few moments. "Ah, right. It's a ranked mode that inklings play on the surface! It's like turf war, but more competitive!" Krahn exclaimed, overenthusiastic about his explanation to his friends. "The inklings have to stay on a tower, and it moves along a preset path. Every once in a while, the tower will reach a checkpoint, and then the tower will stay still for a moment.. That's the scariest part, I think. After a moment, you'll start moving again, and you'll have to get past the other two checkpoints set along the path. It shouldn't be too hard, and I'm sure we'll get through it!" Krahn finally finished, seemingly out of breath. There were a few more moments of silence, before Mano heaved a sigh, and nodded slightly, clicking on the test. He only seemed worn out from Krahn's talking. His determination was strong as ever, his gaze hardened and focused.
After arriving at the train station, the four were able to pick three different weapons. They all had already found out that they could all pick an individual weapon if there was more than one option, and they all took advantage of that. Although they were still exploring what weapons they were good with, even Mano, they picked what looked appealing to them, and usually things turned out fine.
Krahn picked the range blaster & curling bomb, Nora and Vai took the aerospray & splat bomb, and Mano chose the hydra splatling & autobomb. "We ready?" Mano asked quietly, as he always did before they all began a test. Everyone nodded, Krahn noticeably more eagerly than the others, and Mano pressed the button.
They were all flung outside with their weapons, into a stage titled "Snapper Canal." A timer for five minutes flashed over their heads, causing their gazes to flinch upward to it. They all became slightly more anxious at the sight of it, and right when the timer began counting down, Mano huffed quietly and immediately swam on top of the tower, causing it to move forward.
Vai grabbed the special can containing a baller that was sitting in front of the tower, making sure she was prepared for trouble, and almost immediately after she suspected, an enemy octoling superjumped to a chunk of land to the immediate left of the tower, where Mano was left vulnerable while storing a charge of ink for his splatling.
As quickly as it had come, the octoling was gone, and Mano had already obliterated it, using the rest of his stored charge to ink the ground in front of him. Vai and Nora were walking around the tower, guarding it as well as inking the ground around it. Krahn had hopped on top of the tower, sitting in his ink with Mano as they surpassed the checkpoint and moved forward.
Soon after this, another octoling spawned, this time behind an inflatable block. This one appeared to have a brella, holding some kind of shield in front of itself. Mano swore under his breath quietly, and Krahn nodded curtly to him, sliding off of the tower, and quickly approaching the enemy from the left, while Nora flanked its right. Vai was hanging back, staying close to the tower in case there was another octoling that spawned nearby.
Krahn shot at it, getting a hitmarker on it just as it noticed him. It held up its shield and shot at him, causing him to panic slightly. Nora quickly splatted it from behind as it advanced on Krahn, nodding at him as they both quickly retreated back to the tower.
They all moved forward once again, now with Nora and Krahn covering the ground, and Vai climbing onto the tower with Mano. "Hey there, you're doing great," Mano remarked quietly, smiling at Vai slightly. Vai smiled back at him, her face starting to heat up. "Yeah, you too. The hydra splatling looks nice on you," she remarked, causing his smile to widen. He didn't say anything, but just stared at her, even in the midst of something as intense as this.
Another octoling spawning close by ripped them away from their trance, its wretched and soulless call making them shudder. Mano stored up a charge of ink and aimed at it, just as Krahn and Nora were heading towards it. "Another brella!" Nora called, the power of the aerospray being too meager to break through the shield. Vai slid down from the tower in front of the brella, attempting to break it on her own from the front. "Move." Mano commanded quietly, aiming the now fully charged splatling at the sanitized octarian. He finally released his grip on the trigger, concentrated blobs of ink mercilessly assaulting the shield and breaking it almost within an instant, and annihilating the octoling immediately afterward. There was a stunned silence for a moment, the other three octolings in awe at the strength of the hydra splatling, and the strategic use of such a weapon by Mano, which is a difficult feat. "L-Let's go," Mano stammered, seemingly flustered from the amazed stares of his teammates.
They obeyed wordlessly, the tower still moving with just Mano on top of it now, charging more ink to be prepared for another attack. As they quickly approached the other side of the map, another octoling appeared from what seemed to be nowhere, startling the group. As it cackled at their surprise, firing a heated blob of ink toward Vai with its blaster. It almost completely splatted her, if not for its aim being slightly off. This caused all the other three to spring into action, always ready to defend their friends.
As they all rushed toward it, the tower left empty, the enemy octoling lifted into the air, activating an inkjet. "Dammit!" Mano spat, charging up ink and aiming at the now difficult target. "Mano, get the hell out of there! You're too vulnerable!" Krahn shouted, swimming in his direction to attempt to defend him. Just as Krahn arrived, the other octoling was splatted, and Mano was nearly dead himself, covered head to toe in enemy ink and panting heavily. "Let's get the hell out of here, we're almost done anyway," Krahn reassured, patting Mano on the shoulder and urging him forward. Mano grunted as he recovered his ink and health, and Vai was back in shape, now taking the lead. Nora slithered onto the tower, staying hidden in the ink as Vai inked the ground in front of her, Krahn and Mano following close behind.
They all heard an enemy octoling call out, apparently jumping somewhere, but it wasn't seen anywhere on the ground. They all heard a short scream erupt from Nora, and saw enemy ink spread all over the top of the tower. They watched as the soul floated away into the sky, signifying its passing. Nora looked horrified, and was trembling slightly from the fright. "So they can also jump to the tower.." Krahn breathed, seemingly intimidated by this new information. "Guess so," Mano replied softly, his eyebrows furrowed, and his eyes blazing with excitement. "Are you enjoying this?" Krahn queried, shocked at his friend's reaction to this situation. Mano didn't respond, he instead stared forward for a few more moments before running after the tower. Krahn sighed quickly and pursued, starting to become tired and eager to finish.
They had just cleared checkpoint four, and were anxious to finish. Another octoling with a brella jumped to a spot a little further away from them, but was firing ink in their direction. It launched an ink storm directly at them, causing all four of them to gasp slightly. Mano had gotten back on top of the tower, now with Nora there as well. Nora quickly threw a splat bomb up at it while it was vulnerable, and splatted it. They were beginning to run out of time, and slowly become more and more panicked, with only thirty seconds left on the timer.
Immediately after one octoling was splatted, another jumped in, this time to their right, with another brella. Vai climbed up the wall and splatted it, but the ink storm did more damage to her after getting hit by the octoling, and she was splatted as well. "Vai!" Mano wailed, turning back to the spawn point, everyone's anxiety levels sharply inclining at the sight of fifteen seconds left on the timer, and everyone but Vai on the tower almost to the finish.
"We aren't going to make it," Nora sputtered, her body quivering from distress. "She can't swim that fast, no octoling can!" Krahn added, the stress in his voice just as prevalent as Nora's. There were ten seconds left now, and the tower had already reached the final checkpoint, but the test cannot be completed without Vai present.
The numbers continued to decline.
Ten.
Nine.
Eight.
Seven.
Six.
Five.
Four.
Three.
Right as the timer almost ran out, a thud was heard, the tower shook, and the noise sounded for the test being completed. "Vai! Thank God," Nora cried, clutching her friend, mostly trying to calm herself down more so than Vai. "There was a launchpad by the spawn point, I didn't know that until just then. Sorry guys," Vai explained quickly, causing relief to ripple throughout them. "Well thank the heavens for that, otherwise we would've been seafood by then," Krahn joked, his mood reverting back to its original enthusiasm.
They all returned to the station, once again awaiting their next trial, before Vai felt her head began to throb, and a fuzzy voice mumbled something in her mind. "Hey, great work out there. All four of you are doing wonderful," Iso's voice sounded in her head once more. "Thanks," Vai replied shortly, not really knowing what to say, and feeling a bit awkward. After a brief moment, a question flashed across her mind. "How can you see us?" Vai asked carefully, her voice tense. Iso didn't answer for a second. For a moment, Vai thought she heard a quiet chuckle, but she knew she was imagining it.
Soon after this, her left eye began to twitch, and she felt a warm liquid trickle out of it. She froze, her mind going completely blank as she raised a shaky hand to her cheek, where the liquid had dripped. She wiped something off of her face, and felt her heart drop at the sight of deep violet ink smeared on her fingers. "What the hell..?"