Melanin prison, Octo Valley
Kal sat alone in his cell, as usual all he had to eat was stale seaweed.
Of course things were different this time, as promised the Octolings he talked to earlier had attached a map of the prison to the bottom of the plate of seaweed.
The writting on the map was written in the Octarian language so Kal couldn't understand the words. However were several areas circled on it, indicating where other Inklings were held, as well as an arrow pointing to were Kal was now. Kal made sure to keep the map out of view from the guards and camera, otherwise the guards might barge in and interrogate him.
In another area was another imprisoned Inkling, Lila.
She had been in the infirmary for a few days now and to her surprise she was treated well.
Unlike the prison cells, the infirmary was relatively clean, the food served to her was actually warm and edible, an old T.V allowed for some sort of entertainment, even though the channels were limited and music was always being played at a low volume during the daytime. The captain of the guard's aide frequently visited her to check on her condition.
Lila smiled as the familiar looking Octoling stepped into the room, carrying her breakfast.
"Good morning Claire."
The two were already on friendly terms.
"Good morning Lila, feeling any better today?"
"No, I still feel awful."
"So same as usual huh, you'll get better, don't worry."
Watching this friendly conversation from a live feed was the captain of the guard.
She hadn't told anyone else yet, but this scarred young Inkling was the perfect candidate for a sleeper agent
Meanwhile patrolling the outer walls of Melanin prison were shielded Octotroopers and Octolings, they were supposed to have a squad of Elites backing them up since Agent 3 was near, but Octavia had pulled them all back to the Undercity to fan out in search of Agent 3.
One particular Octoling looked somewhat nervous, it was Madison, one of three Octolings who planned to make a deal with their red Inkling prisoner to keep Agent 3 away from their families.
'Funny how different you feel after doing something that borderlined treason.' Madison thought as she watched the nearby guards.
'Nobody has come after me yet so I guess that means Lynn got that Inkling back to his cell without drawing attention and Claire should have got the map into the dumbwaiter by now.'
As she was thinking she and the other nearby guards heard what sounded like someone screaming.
"aaaaaaaaaaaaaa"
"?"
Hearing this, all the nearby Octotroopers and Octolings gathered together and looked in the direction of the sound.
"aaaaaaaaaa!"
It was getting closer
"aaaaAAAAAAAAAA!"
A green Inkling was making a beeline for the prison.
"Everyone quick, into positions!"
Since Melanin prison was surrounded mostly by concrete walls with water running down them, the fastest way for an Inkling to get through was through the front gate, which was made of chain link.
Anticipating this the nearby guards converged on the front gate, though they were surprised that an Inkling would be brave and stupid enough to make such a loud entrance.
"Wait isn't Agent 3 blue?' Madison wondered
"Who cares!? just get ready to fire!"
Some waited patiently while others already begun spraying their weapons at the incoming Inkling.
The ones who waited were the ones who were suspicious, they were taught that Inklings are a dangerous foe, why would one try such s suicidal head on attack?
The answer came soon enough
As soon as the Inkling was within range, it transformed, but not into squid form, it became something much bigger; a Kraken.
The Inkling in Kraken form was none other than Neon, who had covered a lot of turf earlier so she had been eager to use her special.
Neon passed through the front gate like it was nothing, she crushed a few Octotroopers who were too slow to move out of the way.
The Octolings and Octotroopers went into a panic, some ran, some shot at Neon and some did both.
At this moment, shooting Neon had no effect as Krakens were impervious to damage, however they did suffer from knockback upon being hit.
Neon however wasn't really bothered by the knockback, because the panicking guards were firing at her from all around and most of them were retreating, mostly because they were unaware that the Kraken special lasted for about six seconds.
After a very short rampage Neon passed back through the front gate before turning back into a regular squid.
"She's back to normal, everyone get her!"
As the Octotroopers and Octolings all turned back to fire at Neon she jumped away to a Squid Beakon she had dropped while running towards the prison.
The guards could only watch as Neon flew away, before realising that Agent 3 and another Inkling had arrived.
Inker and Sky, who had been expecting Neon to run into trouble were surprised to see her superjumping over them and giving them a booyah.
As this happened, a loud siren could be heard, alerting all the guards of Melanin prison to the presence of intruders.
"Well, there's no way we can sneak in now, for now we need to find some way in."
Aside from the front gate scaling the walls was the only other way inside, however Melanin prison's water walls made that a difficult task.
At least there was only water on one side, so escaping from inside should be easier.
Inker did not go for the front gate, instead he circled the walls looking for something, Sky followed him.
That something was a metal cap with a red knob, a Gusher to be exact, an object found somewhat often in Octo Valley.
Who knows why the Octarians built these everywhere, at least they always seemed to be conveniently placed to give an advantage to the New Squidbeak Splatoon.
Inker shot the Gusher making blue ink gush skyward.
"Whoa!" Sky exclaimed upon seeing a Gusher burst for the first time.
"Just wait a while and the ink will stop, then hit with again and it will burst ink in your colour, then just jump inside at it will carry you to the top."
Inker hopped into the blue pillar of ink and successfully making it over the walls.
He was immediately faced with a shielded Octotrooper, but Inker, having fought shielded Octotroopers many times in the past had no trouble getting behind it and splatting it.
Inker waited for Sky to arrive, fending off any incoming Octolings or Octotroopers.
A moment later Sky came flying over the walls, holding one of Neon's Squid Beakons.
Neon superjumped over the walls to join Inker and Sky.
She was probably going to say something but then caught sight of approaching Octarians and went off on her own again.
Neon fired her E-Liter at the wall she just jumped over, there was no water running down the walls on this side so she able to swim up the trail of ink left behind, she then moved towards the Octolings that had survived her Kraken special and were approaching them now.
Sky was about to run ahead to try and help Neon when he felt Inker hand on his shoulder, Inker was holding him back.
"I think Neon can handle herself."
"What? Didn't you say to follow her and help her out?"
"Yes, but now I think Neon is more capable than we expected, look."
Inker pointed at Neon, who was standing on the prison walls and firing down at a few Octolings, and Octotroopers.
Octotroopers could not climb ink trails like Octolings could so Neon was safe from them as long as she stayed on the wall.
The Octolings were close enough to Neon to hit her, but they could not shoot high enough and were only hitting the wall, Neon seemed to have noticed this because she wasn't bothered by their attacks and calmly fired again and again.
If this was Turf wars and Neon was facing Inklings with Splattershots they would have covered the wall with ink and climbed up to face Neon at close range, but for some reason the Octolings did not do that and kept firing.
"Every Octoling I've fought so far has had trouble shooting upwards at elevated targets and somehow Neon seems to know this."
"So you're saying we can leave her on her own?"
"Yes, she will probably draw lots of attention like this, so we should take advantage of her distraction and go look for Kal inside the prison."
With that, Inker left Neon to fight by herself, while he started looking for a way inside.
There were several doors into the building, but since guards were likely to be coming outside Inker decided to find a way in through the roof.
Inker and Sky made their way towards an air vent.
"Just like the movies." Inker said before passing through the cover in squid form.
Meanwhile in the security room, the captain of the guard lept into action as soon as she heard the alarm.
"Get the Acting leader on the line!"
"I'm on it."
"You two, go to the infirmary and get my camp adjutant back here."
"Right away."
The captain then went over to the intercoms
"Several Inkling intruders have been spotted inside the prison walls! All hands prepare to repel invaders!"
The captain and the other Octolings in the room each grabbed their Octoshots and prepared to fight.
"Ma'am i've reached Nautilus base's camp adjutant, she says the Acting Leader is unavailable at the moment."
"Well then ask her where the heck are the other Elites that were supposed to be helping us?!"
The Octoling on the phone quickly relayed the captain's question.
"They are spread out all over the Undercity, aside from that all Octolings from Nautilus are also spread out in the lairs, they were supposed to be on the lookout for Inklings."
"What the heck is the Acting Leader doing at this time?"
"Returning from combat, apparently she ran into some other Inklings while searching for Agent 3."
Realising that she would have no help from the army, the captain of the guard pounded the wall before giving more orders.
"All of you follow me to the infirmary, I don't want any Inkling getting near the one who survived the boiling pit."
"?"
The Octolings in the room looked confused, this was because only the Elites knew about brainwashing, so they had no idea why Lila was being kept alive in the first place.
"Umm, captain should we really be focusing on that one Inkling? Wouldn't the cells be the larger priority?"
"Not this time, I won't say much, but the mind is like a machine; it can be rewired, we just need the right amount of time."
"?"
The Octolings still didn't really understand why the infirmary was their top priority but still followed orders and left with the captain.
Nautilus base, Octo Valley
As soon as Octavia's saucer landed, the camp adjutant ran over.
"Acting leader, we got an emergency transmission from Melanin prison, several Inklings have broken in."
"Impossible! I just fought against Agent 1&2! And Agent 3 should be injured somewhere in the Undercity! How many of them are there?"
"We are unsure at the moment, the captain wanted to know why the Elites that were supposed to be helping are nowhere near Melanin prison."
"They were looking for Agent 3! How could so many Inklings navigate the large and heavily populated Undercity without ever coming here before? Whatever! Refuel the saucer and get as many troops inside as you can. Get the Octocopters and Octobombers ready as well, we move for Melanin at once!"
Overly eager Octarian soldiers all over Nautilus scrambled to get a place inside the saucer, with the saucer's maintenance crew hurried to get a fuel tanker over.
Octocopters and Octobombers took off immediately.
Watching her soldiers scramble Octavia could not help but feel that something was off.
'Agents 1, 2 and 3, and other Inklings, how could they get to Melanin so quick?"
Melanin Prison, Octo Valley
The first thing Inker saw after dropping down from the vents was a grate over a pool of water, Inker quickly changed out of squid form to avoid falling through, before catching Sky, who stayed in squid form.
"Careful now, there's water below here"
Inker glanced around, what room was this? It looked like they had fallen into some sort of pit.
Oh well, there wasn't really an issue since Inker and Sky could just cover the sides of the pit and swim out of it.
Now inside the prison, Inker and Sky found themselves in an unfamiliar looking structure.
Neither of them had been inside a prison before, nor an Octarian building before.
The signs that were hung above doors, or around corners didn't help since they were written in another language.
There were also Octarian guards hastily moving around heading to their designated positions, Inker wasted no time splatting the ones who crossed paths with him.
It took a while, and a few wrong turns, but Inker and Sky finally found Kal's cell.
Inker splatted the two Octotroopers standing outside.
Kal had noticed and had moved to the door, he was saying something but Inker couldn't hear him.
"What?"
"-"
"I can't hear you, hold on let me find a way to unlock the cell."
Assuming that the button next to the cell would do something convenient, Inker pressed it right away.
There was a buzzing sound, then Inker tried the door, but it was still locked.
"Still locked."
"Hey I can hear you now!"
"Same here! That button did something at least."
The button inker had pressed was the power button for the two way communicator.
Since they could now hear each other Kal immediately repeated what he said earlier.
"Anyways I happened to get a map of the prison, from a few Octolings who wanted me to keep you away from certain places in Octo Valley,. Also no offense, but why did it take you so long to get here?"
"We'll talk about that after we get you out of here."
"Right, the Octoling guards seemed to be able to unlock the cell whenever they wanted so they must definitely have a key or something."
"Got it, be right back."
Inker and Sky back tracked to the last place he had encountered Octolings, just like Inklings, Octolings leave their gear behind after being splatted.
"What are we doing back here?" Sky wondered
"We need to find a key or something right? If the Octolings here could enter the cells like Kal said they could, we should be able to find something if we search the gear of the splatted Octolings."
Inker immediately started searching, however Sky was a bit less comfortable with this and stood by.
"Umm, isn't it kind of disrespectful to be going through someone's gear?"
Inker didn't stop, he grabbed anything that looked like it had pockets and checked them.
"Also, the owners of this gear were female so isn't it kinda wrong for two guys to be going through it?"
"If your uncomfortable with searching that's fine, watch that corner, I hear something approaching."
After Inker had mentioned it Sky noticed as well, the sound of Octarian hovercrafts were approaching.
Sky took a defensive stance and brought his roller off the ground, he was still nervous about fighting and was breathing heavily.
Three Octotroopers rounded the corner on their little hovercrafts, Sky steeled himself, closed his eyes, and charged at them with his roller the moment he saw them.
Sky didn't roll his roller on the ground, nor did he fling Ink at the Octotroopers, instead he simply brought the Roller up to chest level, closed his eyes and ran into the Octotroopers, this way he wouldn't splat any of them.
"Sorry sorry sorry sorry." Sky muttered as the two Octotroopers he hit fell over and wiggled their feet trying to get back up.
Inker on the other hand had finished searching the Octoling gear, he grabbed his Hero Shot and blasted the third Octotrooper before going back to Kal's cell with a bunch of stuff that looked like they'd be keys.
After trying a bunch of different keys, and key like objects, Kal's cell was finally unlocked.
The heavy metal door which kept him trapped for so long swung open, KAl was greeted with the faces of his two friends, he felt a wave of happiness washing over him.
"I'm free!"
"We still need to find a way out of here, don't celebrate yet."
Inker was in full Agent mode, normally he'd be much less serious if this was Turf Wars.
Kal showed Inker the map he had received "before we go, there are more Inklings held here, and here."
"Alright, i'll go rescue them, Sky do you think you can find an exit and join up with Neon?"
"Umm, I could try but."
"If you're not sure then stay with me."
"Got it."
"Captain, we have assembled."
The captain of the guard now had ten Octolings with her, they were guarding the area near the infirmary.
Most of the guards understood that their commanding officer must have some sort of plan in mind if she wanted to prevent this one specific Inkling from escaping, so none of them questioned their orders.
Claire, who had been sent back to communications to keep in touch with Nautilus base arrived running.
"Captain I just got off the line with Nautilus, Octarian airborne troops will be arriving in less than half an hour, do you want us to buy time for them?"
"No, the ones who have gathered here will stay near the infirmary, have the others draw attention away from us."
"Yes ma'am, also we lost contact with all units outside the building, we have no idea if anyone outside is still standing."
"We will worry about that later, return to communications and update me on any other developpements."
At the front gate, the last Octarian fell.
With time to catch their breaths Neon, as well as Callie and Marie who had arrived not too long ago, eyed the many doors on the main building.
Inker would be coming out of one soon.
Neon hopped down from her spot on the prison walls and looked back at the two Agents.
"Well? Shouldn't we go inside and look for Inker?"
It was as if Neon had unlimited amount of energy.
"We could, but we would likely get lost, and if Inker finds his way out while we are inside we have no way of knowing, after all Inker's equipment is damaged and we can't communicate with him."
"So all we can do is wait? Aww I should have gone inside."
"Click"
"Thank you!"
An Inkling happy to be rescued pounced on Inker and hugged him tightly.
When he broke free of the Inkling's embrace Inker checked Kal map one last time.
"Looks like that's all of them."
Aside from Kal there were eight other Inklings of varying colours who were just rescued.
"Wait, there's someone missing."
Kal hadn't realized it earlier, but Lila wasn't among those rescued, according to those three from earlier, she should be in the infirmary.
Kal took the map back from Inker, unfortunately the infirmary was not circled and since no Inkling could read Octarian writing there was no way they could find Lila.
"Did any of you happen to see a room that looked like an infirmary?" Kal asked everyone present
Everyone shook their heads.
Inker however gestured at everyone to follow him
"I can't protect a group as large as this, we need to leave as soon as we can, who knows where the remaining guards could be?"
Inker couldn't read Octarian writing, but at least he could guess where the closest exit was by looking at the map.
"Everyone stay close, don't get left behind."
Inker led the way, Sky was the furthest back, making sure nobody came at them from behind.
Kal however kept glancing around, as if looking for something
"What's wrong?" Sky asked
"There was another Inkling, a girl with light purple tentacles, she's not here, so she should have been in the infirmary."
'Light purple? Laven was that colour, it must be his sister, but'
"Why would she be in the infirmary."
"The Octarians had something called the boiling pit, she was thrown in there and made it out alive, she has to be in the infirmary."
"The boiling pit? What is that?"
"I don't know, I never saw it, but apparently Lila, the Inkling i'm looking for was the first to survive it, i'm guessing it's something the Octarians use for executions."
The name "boiling pit" was already enough to make Sky shudder, and Kal said it was something used for executions, Sky hoped he would never find out what it was.
Inker led the group to an exit and the captured Inklings hastily left the building.
"SWEET FREEDOM!" somebody cried out.
Inker could see Neon, Callie and Marie waving to them from the front gate.
"Is that everyone?" Marie asked
Inker nodded
"No its not" Kal replied
Inker turn to Kal, confused
"Its not?"
"We left at least one Inkling behind, Lila."
"We need to get out of here first, no doubt the Octarian army will be on there way by now, and this big group will be far too easy to spot."
"But we can't leave Lila behind."
"We'll come back for her later, for now we need to at least get the the Undercity and hide in the streets."
Since the prisoners had no weapons to cover turf with, the group had to run back to the Undercity.
As they were running, Inker turned to Callie and Marie and brought up an important issue..
"The New Squidbeak Splatoon was supposed to be kept secret, how are we going to do that with this many witnesses?"
In the past, the New Squidbeak Splatoon's existance being known would not cause too many problems, but now it would.
The Inklings who were captured by the Octarians would be interrogated by news reporters once they returned, if the Inkopolis population found out that the Octarians were the ones squidnapping Inklings they would naturally feel endangered, this was inevitable.
But fear would drive Inklings to violence, if they happened to find out that there was a group like the New Squidbeak Splatoon actively fighting the Octarians they would think, 'I can do that too! After all I play turf wars often.'
If such a thing happened, a second Great Turf war would break out.
Without the Great Octoweapons the Octarians would be at a disadvantage but the winners of the war was not the issue here.
The issue would be the overly zealous Inklings fighting in a heavily populated area like the Undercity. The Octarians might have been the enemy of the Inklings, but that didn't mean all of them had to die.
If a second war broke out right now, the Inklings would reach the Undercity in no time, after all, Inker had already cleared all the lairs defending it.
After that there would be a ton of innocents caught in the crossfire.
The Octarians would probably move to another underground city, and they would end up hating the Inklings even more, and more Octarians would take up arms against Inkopolis, peace would become unobtainable.
The prevent such an event from happening, Inker, Callie and Marie had to come up with a cover story, and fast.
Melanin prison, twenty minutes later…
The Octarian saucer descended near Melanin prison, all sorts of Octarians came out and joined the surviving guards, who were collecting the gear of those who had perished and mourn the loss of their comrades.
Octavia approached the captain of the guard, with two other Elite Octolings at her side.
"Explain yourself."
"Ma'am Agent 3 and four other Inklings attacked the prison with a variety of weapons and they succeeded in freeing most of the Inklings we had captured."
"I see, and what were the rest of you doing while this was happening?"
"I had ordered a handful of the guards to defend one specific Inkling, this specific one is recovering after surviving the boiling pit and undergoing re-education."
"So in other words, instead of buying us time to arrive and nab all of the New Squidbeak Splatoon, you were all busying with guarding a single Inkling?"
"Ma'am I believe that this specific Inkling would be most useful once the re-education process is finished."
"Enough of that! These Inklings were supposed to be bait for the troublesome New Squidbeak Splatoon and the Inkling Army, I do not recall ever ordering you to re-educate anyone!"
"But ma'am this Inkling survived the boiling pit scarred and injured, if she were to return to Inkopolis nobody would suspect her to help those who tortured her, she could become a very useful sleeper agent if-"
"I don't want to hear any of that, the Inklings will be defeated by our might, and not by their own people. Use that inkling as bait and set up an ambush for Agent 3, and this time use all your remaining troops, I don't want to see you fail again understood!?"
The captain grit her teeth
'You're the one who got impatient and pulled the Elites back to the Undercity to find Agent 3 instead of waiting for them to arrive at the prison. You're the one who went out to fight Inklings instead of staying at the base ready to give orders and you're responsible for every soldier I lost here today.'
The captain took a deep breath
"As you command, Acting Leader."
The captain of the guard and the remaining Melanin prison guards returned inside the prison to retrieve Lila.
Octavia turned to the Elites around her
"Get a news crew here A.S.A.P broadcast what had happened here, but do not make it seem like we were easily defeated. Also I want the Octocopters to search the Undercity for any sign of the Inklings, they won't do much good in urban area's though, so call back the Octolings we sent out to the lair and have them comb the Undercity's streets."
"Right away!"
Undercity, Octo Valley
The first thing Victoria saw when she returned home was Violet packing a suitcase.
"Umm what are you doing?"
"Leaving"
Violet had packed all her stuff was was prepared to leave.
"Why, and where would you go?"
"I don't know, I just need to get away from here, look at this."
Violet turned on the barely functional TV
"-nd almost half of the prison's staff were lost and as a result, the Inklings; numbering in the dozens, are heavily armed and are believed to have equipped the prisoners with weapons as well, citizens should stay off the streets as the large group of armed Inklings will be passing through the Undercity shortly, Octocopters have-"
The news report showed the pile of gear left behind by the splatted Octarians, a few Octotroopers who were covered in Cyan ink, opened cells and Inkling Ink trails of many colours all over the prison.
"That's what happens when Agent 3 comes to Octo Valley."
"Listen, I know you think that Inker and the other Inklings-"
"Other Inklings? So you helped more than one?"
"Yes but-"
"Look at that!" Violet pointed at the TV screen "you are responsible for everything that is happening."
"Look, there's a good reason for this."
"I'm not going to hear it, the army will find out that you helped them sooner or later, and I don't want to be anywhere near you when that happens."
"WILL YOU LET ME EXPLAIN! Listen, I know you're worried for your own safety, but be honest, if you do leave where would you go? Aside from that, this was a one time thing, if I didn't help Agent 3 and the others move through the Undercity who knows how many Octarians could have been hurt."
Violet stopped at the door, Victoria was right, she didn't have anywhere else to go and armed Inklings wandering the heavily populated Undercity splet trouble for its citizens.
"Just promise me that something like this will never happen again."
"I promise. Anyways relax a bit, I took all the necessary precautions, no one will know that I helped the Inklings."
Another Octocopter flew overhead, its eyes darting around, searching for Inklings.
Inker, Sky, Kal, Neon, Callie, Marie and all the rescued Inklings hid in an alleyway when they heard the Octocopter approaching.
It was hard to move around in this large group.
"We nearly got spotted three times in less than an hour, at this rate we won't be out of the Undercity until tomorrow."
Inker was worried, if they got into a fight now they would lose someone.
Their group numbered fourteen Inklings, nine of them unarmed and after seeing Sky's behavior inside the prison Inker was sure that he wouldn't be able to fight well.
"This won't work." somebody whispered to Inker
It was Maire
"The outer area of the Undercity have small houses, we won't be able to hide there, and if there are Octocopters flying around there ought to be Octarians on the ground somewhere."
Inker knew exactly what Marie was getting at.
There was no doubt that whoever in charge of Melanin prison would have called for reinforcements, and considering how many Elites Inker ran into the first time he tried to attack Melanin prison it must have been something important to the Octarians.
In order to get everyone back to Inkopolis safely, someone would need to draw attention to themselves.
Inker checked the wounds on his legs, he had gotten used to the pain by now and was walking without problem, but he needed to get proper treatment for it soon.
However he was a target of the highest priority for the Octarian army
"I'll go draw attention away from you guys."
Inker said in a low voice, so that only he and the other two Agents could hear.
"I disagree Agent 3."
His fellow Agents weren't about to let him go in his current condition.
"Yes we are probably priority targets too, we can draw attention away, you get these guys back to Inkopolis."
"And if you go, who will protect the group? Sky won't fight, Neon will probably run into trouble, I only have damaged equipment and Kal and the others have no weapons. There's no guarantee that the distraction will work."
"Then only one of us should go."
"Nah you two go back, after all won't everyone in Inkopolis become suspicious if the stars of Inkopolis news time doesn't show up tomorrow?"
"Ahh."
The two celebrities were so caught up in this rescue mission that they forgot all about their schedules.
"Just head back to the Rig and wait for me there, there shouldn't be any Octarains there at the moment."
The Squid sisters didn't want to let Inker go alone in his current state, but it's true that they had to run a show and keep the New Squidbeak Splatoon secret.
"Okay then, we'll be waiting."
Inker turned to Kal, Neon and Sky.
"I'm going to stay and be the distraction, I'll see you in Inkopolis."
"I'm not going back yet."
Everyone turned to Kal who had just said something ridiculous.
'I promised that i'd keep Lila safe, so I need to go back as soon as possible.'
"Right! You didn't really get to fight at all! Take Sky's Roller since he is too cowardly to fight and we'll go help Inker!"
As usual Neon never shied away from fighting.
"It's not because of that! Listen there is one more Inkling in Melanin prison and I want to go back for her."
Sky spoke up
"I remember you telling me about that, Lila right?"
Kal nodded
'I'm pretty sure I heard Laven mutter Lila several times before'
"Inker, I'm pretty sure that Lila was Laven's missing sister, that guy was really kicking himself for losing her the last time I saw him."
"I'll see what I can do about that, but for now we should save what we can."
"If you're staying, then so will I, after all you look hurt."
"I wouldn't mind you helping out, but you don't have any weapons right now."
"He can take mine."
Sky gave Kal his Splat Roller.
"Fighting in Octo Valley is way different, keep that in mind."
"You're giving me your Roller?"
"Yes, Turf Wars in nothing compared to Octo Valley, besides by now I have enough cash to buy a new set."
Sky emptied his Ink tank and handed it to Kal, along with his Suction Bombs and Killer Wail.
"If you're giving Kal a farewell gift I should do the same! Inker take my Ink Tank to replace your damaged one."
"Hey don't call it a farewell gift, you make it sound like we are not coming back."
Inker however had no complaints with replacing his damaged Ink Tank.
"What a surprise." Sky muttered
"What?"
"Considering what happened earlier, I was expecting you to abandon us go with Inker and fight." Sky remarked
"I will! After we get back to Inkopolis, I'm getting a spare Ink Tank and coming right back! Also I admit I make a mistake back then, so forget about it okay?"
Inker, Kal, Sky and Neon all smiled, that conversation made everything feel normal even though they were still hiding in an alleyway.
"Well then it's settled, Kal and Agent 3 will head in the opposite direction and draw attention away from us, good luck."
"Don't forget, we'll be at the Rig by tomorrow, if we aren't there then come and look for us okay?"
"Absolutely!" Neon exclaimed
Inker made his way onto the roof of the large Octarian buildings with Kal following suit, it wasn't long before an Octocopter spotted them.
Back on the ground, Callie, Marie, Sky and Neon saw several Octocopters give chase, leaving the skies clear for them.
"All clear, let's go.'