A/N: Luckily I had a lot more free time last week with Canada's Thanksgiving so i'm bringing you guys another chapter.
Inkopolis plaza
"You!"
"You…. "
When Callie and Marie saw each other they both stopped and stared at each other, both had angry expressions on their faces. They were wearing their own Hero suits so nobody recognised them as Callie's included a pair of shades and Marie's included a face mask.
The two the them turned to leave after a moment of silence.
"Hey wait!" a voice came out of nowhere.
Inker came running up to the manhole after seeing the two, he was followed by Kalus, Neon and Sky, who were telling him to slow down
"Where are you going? You guys are going to help me out right?"
"You look like you got all the help you need Agent 3."
"Hey wait, aren't you two inseparable? What could possibly have happened to lead to this?"
"Ask Marie!"
"Ask Callie!"
The two of them left is separate directions.
Inker tried to stop them, but didn't know which one to chase after, they were both good friends and had helped him out quite a few times before, how could he choose one over the other?
Inker and the others watched as Callie and Marie disappeared into the crowds of Inkopolis.
Octo Valley, Cap'n Cuttlefish's shack
Just beyond the manhole was Cap'n Cuttlefish's shack, and of course the snow globe that contained DJ Octavio, you would think that the Octarians who snuck into Inkopolis would have freed him first, since he was along the way.
"Cap'n!"
"Hmm? What is it bucko? Ahh are ya lookin' for that Octarian lady who showed up a moment ago?"
"No, but wait Victoria was here? Where did she go?"
"Hmm, oh she said something about guiding you somewhere, but then got spooked when Octavio said he'd give her brain a good remixing once he got out, so she said she'd rather wait at the rig."
"Looks like we'll be going to the rig again, but anyways Cap'n what do you do as mission control anyways?"
"Well I sit in my cabin, hack into the huge network of cameras the Octarians put everywhere, and speak to you through your headgear."
"That's doesn't sound too hard, good" Inker brought Sky forward "This is my friend Sky, he wants to help without fighting, so I was thinking he could stay and help you out."
"I'm Sky, we've met before though, I would like you to show be how to act as my friends' mission control."
"Oh? Most kids nowadays would rather hog the spotlight, it's rare to find someone who is willing to do the behind the scenes work, sure i'll show you the ropes, come inside."
"Of course Cap'n"
"No need to call me that, you ain't part of the New Squidbeak Splatoon, you can just call me Craig."
"Oh right, one more thing Cap'n" Inker stopped Cap'n Cuttlefish before he entered his shack. "Is it possible to synchronize our ink colours like in Inkopolis Tower? It would really help us if we could work together, and didn't have to worry about splatting each other."
"Ahh you must be looking for a colourizer, I happen to have one in here for when Agent 1 and 2 take on missions together."
Sure enough, inside Cap'n Cuttlefish's shack was a large machine with a casket large enough for an Inkling and various gauges and knobs beside it.
"This? It looks like its a century old!"
"It is!, it's the same one the original Squidbeak Splatoon used back in my day, it still runs perfectly, ya can't go wrong with tried and true technology."
Inker, Kal and Neon all felt uneasy stepping inside a century old machine.
"Wait a second! There is no need for all three of us to do this, we just need to change two of us." Kal pointed out.
The three stared at each other, one of them would be stepping out, while the other two would need to change colors.
"Rock paper scissors!"
"You're on!"
"Rock paper scissors shoot!"
All three of them chose scissors…..
"One more time, rock paper scissors shoot!"
"Yes!" Inker had won with rock
"Kal how about you go first!" Neon shoved Kal into the colourizer
"Hey wait, at least me time to prepare myself for…"
Too late, Neon shut him inside and the Cap'n started the machine
The old colourizer whirled to life and shook violently for a while before coming to a stop.
"Is it over?" Kal asked from within
"Yes! I told you there is no need to worry, this trusty ol colourizer never failed once in the past 100 years."
Kal stepped out, he didn't feel or look any different, in fact he was still red.
"Umm It didn't work, Kal is still red."
"Ahh that is because this is an older model, unlike the new ones in Inkopolis tower, this one wont change the color of your tentacles, ahhh this reminds me of times where you had to memorize the names and appearances of all your teammates in Turf Wars to tell them apart."
Ignoring the Cap'n who was busy remembering something, Neon pulled Kal out of the colourizer and hopped in.
"Come on, time's wasting, start the machine!"
Within no time, Neon was done with the colourizer as well.
They may still have had their regular colours, but the ink tanks they wore were full of blue ink now.
"Alright this will definitely make things easier."
"Hey Kal, let me shoot you!" Neon suddenly aimed at Kal
"Huh why? Wait what are you doing, hey!"
Neon fired, a stream of blue ink left her E-Liter 3k and hit Kal, however he still stood there unharmed.
"Okay, it definitely works!"
"What the hell!? Why would you do that? What if it didn't work, you would have splatted me!"
"Aww calm down Kal, I didn't fire a fully charged shot."
"But you scared the living daylights out of me!"
"Don't be such a baby."
"How about you stop being so hasty!"
While Kal and Neon argued, Cap'n Cuttlefish gave Inker two extra pairs of Hero Headsets.
"I don't have any extra suits, but i've got plenty of spare headsets lying around, get your friends there to wear them so we can help them out from back here, oh and by the way, have you seen Agents 1 and 2 recently? The two of them are refusing to come work together."
"I wouldn't worry about them, they are just a bit cross with each other, they'll be back to normal in a few days, in the meantime you should probably teach Sky how to be a proper mission control."
Sky was curiously inspecting the various computers and monitors the Cap'n had, unlike the regular electronics Sky had previously seen, these ones looked older. Aside from that the Cap'n must have been trying to translate the Octarian language as he had many Octarian articles stacked alongside notes detailing each symbol of the Octarians language, who knows, he may already have succeeded, regardless Sky eyed the stack of Octarian newspapers with interest.
After seeing Inker and the others off, Cap'n Cuttlefish went back inside his shack to show Sky what to do
"Okay, Agent 3 and the other two are heading out, here put on this headset so you can talk to them."
"Testing….."
"I hear you Sky"
"So do I"
"Same here!"
"Alright good, now look here, this first monitor give you a nice bird eye view of Octo Valley, those blips show where your friends are now. The three to the side show live footage from the hidden camera in the Hero suit, since only Agent 3 has one and Agent 1 and 2 have theirs turn off two of those screens are useless, the last one lets you to hop around the Octo Valley security cameras to check out the area ahead of your friends, technology sure is great ain't it?"
"Alright so what do I do now?"
"Follow Agent 3 and the others on camera or look ahead of them for any dangers up ahead."
"What exactly am I looking for?"
"Anything really, Octarians, canned specials, gushers.."
"Canned specials? Come to think about it Neon found an Inkzooka in a can last time we were at the Rig, is that a canned special?"
"Indeedy do. Actually they are looking for that familiar Octoling who keeps coming by right? Jump ahead to the rig and try to find her for em."
Following the Cap'n's advice Sky took control and started shifting through the Octarian lair's camera's searching for Victoria, or any other Octarian.
Rumble at the Rig, Octo Valley
"Guys can you hear me?"
"Coming in clear Sky."
"Alright, i'm looking around the Rig now, there doesn't seem to be anyone there."
"That could be good, or maybe bad, if nobody is there where is Victoria?"
"I don't know, i'll keep looking around, if I see anything i'll let you know."
"Alright."
Inker lead the way through the Rig with Neon and Kal by his side.
The place was still as deserted as before, there was really no reason for anyone to be here.
"If Victoria is here, she probably knows to keep out of sight, that's probably why you can't find her." Inker told Sky
"That would make sense, I recall meeting her in another lair after Callie had saved me from another Octoling, she insisted on standing in a certain place even though it was covered with Callie's ink and she was sinking into it."
Kal's voice interrupted Sky
"Guys, I've found something."
A discarded Inkzooka and a black briefcase lay at Kal's feet.
"Oh that, I found those two last time we were here, I wonder why the Octarians would leave something like an Inkzooka lying about."
"What about this briefcase?"
"There was some stuff inside, not interested."
"Wait that's an armor!"
Inker took the black briefcase and opened it, taking out a thick looking jacket, tough looking helmet and hard looking boots.
"Alright! Now i'm ready for anything!"
"What is that anyway? It kinda looks fresh I guess, but I still think it looks pretty uncomfortable."
"Its a set of armor, what else? It will make it harder to get splatted, since we are looking for Victoria we may as well try and find more of these."
"I don't need it, it looks like it would be hard to move in."
Neon, who's combat style involves alot of damage ups, swim speed ups and a long range weapon to splat people before they could get close, was not a fan of heavy clothes.
"It would still be safer if we could find you a pair of armor though."
"Who are you? My father? I don't need defense." Neon probably thought the armor was just extra clothing with defense up as sub abilities. "I'll just grab that instead" Neon pointed at another canned special in the distance before picking it up.
After a bit more running around, the group finally met Victoria, who was in fact avoiding cameras, she was waiting in a darkened forgotten corner of the large industrial plant known as the Rig.
"There you are, why do you have to hide in a place like that?" Inker asked
"Isn't it obvious? I can't be seen helping you remember? Anyways its best to stay out of sight, we should get going, I heard that Octavia will be recalling the troops guarding their last captive, you can't afford to miss that chance."
"Wow straight to business huh, no greetings or anythings?"
"I can't afford to waste time here okay, let's just hurry to the Undercity, i'll find a place near the outskirts where you three could hide and wait for the right moment. Come to think of it, where is Agent 1 & 2?"
"They couldn't make it here today."
"Hmmm, oh well that's fine, if everything goes right you should have no trouble at all, once that it done you will have no reason to return to Octo Valley right?"
"Yes, is that why you are helping us? So that we would leave Octo Valley alone?"
"Not at first."
"What do you mean "not at first"?"
"I was returning a favor the first time, this time though is to take away your reason to attack Octo Valley."
"Why would I attack Octo Valley?"
"Maybe you won't, but I see some others here that would." Victoria glared at Neon, who promptly looked away."
"Anyways we're wasting time, let's get moving, and keep out of sight okay."
Inker nodded then spoke to Kal through his headset.
'You hear that Mission control? We'll be avoiding camera so you won't be able to see us from here on out."
"Understood."
The three Inklings followed Victoria's steps, keeping out of sight for the whole trip to the Undercity.
Once they reached a more urban area they group started taking the rooftops as there was even less surveillance there.
"Oh! I see the three of you switched your ink colors, why didn't you do that last time?" Victoria said, noticing that all three of them swam together in a single line of ink.
"I had planned on going alone last time, this time though, we are prepared for anything. By the way, could the Octarian army use fake zapfish to repower the Octobot king?"
"I don't think so, I haven't heard about them reactivating the Octobot king at all, Octavia is apparently looking for another way into Inkopolis, which is why she is giving up on luring you back into Octo Valley."
'They are still trying to invade Inkopolis huh, better watch out then.'
As they moved along the buildings got shorter, and the urban landscape soon became a rural one. There was much less surveillance here, although Victoria still kept a sharp eye out for any sort of camera.
It was then that Octo Valley went dark once again.
Sky spoke urgently through the headset.
"I've just lost connection with Octo Valley's security system! Something must have happened!"
Inker, Neon and Kalus didn't need Sky to tell them, because they were also startled by the sudden loss of power, all of them looked around frantically for any Octarians jumping in.
Victoria however, was not worried in the slightest.
"No need to panic, its just a blackout, it happens all the time here, though we should probably hide quickly."
"Why is that? Will there be soldiers going around making sure everyone is safe?"
"No we kinda have a sort of tradition were everyone walks out into the streets to hold hands and chant away the darkness."
They knew what that meant: lots of Octarians would come outside at once, it may be dark but the chances of them being seen would increase dramatically. Not only that but it would be innocent Octarians, they couldn't splat them as they wanted.
Following Victoria's advice, the group of four hid as fast as they could.
As Victoria had said, dozens of families left their homes and joined together in the darkened street and started singing some sort of song. IT was an all too familiar scene to Victoria, but to Inker, Kalus and Neon, this was something none of them ever thought of.
"What are they saying?" Kal wondered
"It's the blackout song, all the Octarians know it."
"Why do you all need to bunch up like that" Inker wondered
"Whatever lurks in the dark is afraid of numbers, at least that what we believe"
"That looks like fun..." Neon said
"Really, I think it's more comforting then fun."
Inker knew that Mission Control could see and hear everything from the Hero suit's hidden camera so he decided to ask them for their opinions.
"Are you seeing this guys?"
On the other end, Sky replied
"Absolutely, we had blackouts before, but we never did anything like that, what are they saying anyways?"
Inker could hear Cap'n Cuttlefish in the background
"I don't think we'll ever know, I tried my best and I could decipher the language that them Octarians other than Octolings speak all the time."
"Really, maybe I could try sometime."
"Well i'll wish you luck on that."
It wasn't long before the group lost interest in the Octarian singing, Inker suggested that they move..
"Shouldn't we be moving while everything is dark?"
"We could, but what would you do if the lights come on while we are in plain sight?"
"How long does a Blackout usually last in Octo Valley?"
"Hard to tell, there have been ones that lasted several days and others that only lasted a couple minutes."
Kal noticed something interesting about what Victoria just said "Wait several days? Does that mean you and a bunch of other Octarians once stood outside singing for days on end?"
"No, usually we stop after an hour or so."
"So we could we sitting here whispering to each other for an hour?!"
"Quiet down Neon, yes it's definitely possible."
"I don't want to wait that long! As long as we stay away from the streets everything will be fine right? Let's get moving."
"Not now, even if we get to the Octobot King's lair there is no guarantee that the troops there have been pulled out."
"We can just fight them off then!"
"You do realize the whole point of them stationing troops there is to set up a trap for you guys right? How can you be so eager to walk right into it?"
"Oh she's always been like that, just leave her be." Kal said
"Hey, if I'm going to be Inkopolis' top Inkling I need to be able to fight off an ambush."
Taking Kal's advice, Victoria joined Inker and Kal in ignoring Neon.
"Still this may not be too good, if a blackout lasts longer than an hour all active splatoons of the Octarian army must reassemble after the blackout for a headcount."
"Okay? What's so bad about that?"
"I'm supposed to be at the Nautilus base okay, getting there from here will take me around half an hour, if this blackout is going to last longer than an hour I need to go back."
Time slowly passed by, and there seemed to be no end to the blackout.
"How long has it been?"
"Seventeen minutes"
"Wow, you can tell?"
"Octarians have a pretty good sense of time, after all we are living underground and cannot see the sun, how else could we know what time it is."
After sitting around for another three minutes Victoria got up.
"I need to start heading for Nautilus base, i'll be back soon.
"Wait but what about us then?" Kal asked
"I'll come back for you as soon as I can, you just need to find someplace to stay hidden."
Hiding in the street was risky, especially for Inklings who did not know the Undercity.
"We could all hide in your apartment, how far is that from here?" Inker suggested
"It's pretty far and also I don't want to leave you with Violet."
"Who's Violet?" either Neon or Kal asked, but they were drowned out by Inker's question.
"Why not?"
"She's a civilian, they are always fed messages full of propaganda to keep them afraid or against Inklings, last time she was worried that the Octarian army would arrest her as an accomplice of mine so i'm worried that she'd report you three as soon as she gets the chance."
"Umm, who is Violet anyway?" Kal asked again
"My roommate."
"Roommate?"
"Ahh right you probably never have roommates in Inkopolis anymore, remember how I told you housing is expensive in Octo Valley due to the lack of power and resources? I can't afford to live on my own, so I share the rent with a friend, who is Violet."
Indeed the concept of "roommates" were a mystery to the Inklings of the utopia that was Inkopolis, a place where you could earn enough to live on your own from Turf Wars alone. Once again Kal was reminded of the vast difference in between Octo Valley and Inkopolis.
"Isn't there anywhere else we could go? If not we will just need to move on the Octobot king lair right now."
Doing such a thing would be risky, leaving three Inklings in the streets would also be risky.
"Sigh, guess it can't be helped, follow me and stay quiet, I think there is another place."
Although there were hundreds of Octarians singing in the streets, Inker, Kal and Neon still make sure to stay quiet.
Since the lights could come on at any moment, the group avoided leaving any ink behind as it would be easily visible should the power be restored.
Every once in a while Victoria would look back to check if everyone was still with her, as well as make sure there was nobody following them.
It wasn't long before they reached a house near the outskirts of town.
As expected of an Octarian home it looked old and run down, it was three stories tall but very thin, the windows were barred and the walls had many jagged white lines running down it, indicating that it had previously cracked and been patched together. The plants in the front garden were probably plastic since it was unlikely anything would grow in an underground city were no natural light ever reached.
It was dark, but Inker could make out the Octarian army supporting graffiti on one of the walls, it was that same house from before.
Victoria reached into the possibly fake garden and pulled out a rock, which was lighter than it looked.
With a twist the rock split into two and Victoria retrieved a key from it and went for the door.
The house was dark, as its occupants were outside with the rest of the Octarian population chanting away, Victoria went to the rear of the house and slid open the glass door leading to the back, where her Inkling companions were waiting.
Following Victoria inside, Inker, Kalus and Neon found themselves standing in what appeared to be a living room, Victoria then led them upstairs into a dining room next to a kitchen.
Once they were all inside, Victoria shut the door and pulled the curtains on every window in the room, she then retrieved a lighter from a drawer and lit a few candles that had been left on a victorian candle holder to ease the mood.
"Alright you three stay here for now, i'll be right back and leave your weapons on the ground okay."
Victoria left the house, leaving Inker and the others to wonder why she told them to leave their stuff on the ground.
It was entirely possible that Victoria would turn them over to her splatoon and the Octarian army, but past events proved that it was very very unlikely, still with nothing else to do , all Inker had the other had was their imagination so they were at least a tiny bit worried that Victoria might be turning on them.
Outside Victoria sought out two Octarians from the crowd and whispered to them to follow her back.
Upstairs in the kitchen, Inker, Kal and Neon could hear the door open and close as well as Victoria talking to someone downstairs.
"Before we go up I want you to know that what i'm doing is to repay a favor and not in any way intended to hurt anyone in Octo Valley."
"What the heck have you been doing since to left?"
"Come with me and find out."
Victoria entered the room where Inker and the others were waiting, behind here were two older Octolings one male and one female.
The male looked familiar as Inker and Neon had briefly encountered him last time, Sky watching through the Hero's suit's camera also recognised the Octoling.
"Mother, Father, meet Agent 3 of Inkopolis' New Squidbeak Splatoon."
The sight of Inklings in their home was already shocking enough, with the added knowledge that one of them was Agent 3 was even more shocking.
Inker could see the fearful expression on the father's face, the mother however didn't seem worried at all, she narrowed her eyes as if suspicious of something.
"When I was lost in Inkopolis, Agent 3 and his friend Kal; the red Inkling behind him, kept me hidden from the rest of Inkopolis and got me back safely, don't believe what Octo news tells you, Agent 3 is not the emotionless killer he is on TV." Victoria continued.
"Why would I believe something so ridiculous? More importantly how could you get lost and end up in Inkopolis? Even before I was an Elite I never got separated from my unit no matter how many enemies I faced."
"Seriously! That's is all you have to say!? Hello! Your daughter got home safe! You keep acting like this ever since I was an Octopus and you wonder why I hang up everytime you call! Could you even care a little about me for once?!"
"Oh don't worry dear, mommy's relieved you made it back, disappointed, but relieved."
"Oh yeah? I don't recall you winning any wars in your time."
"I'm a soldier not an army, I won my battles, that's what mattered."
Inker, Kal and Neon could see Victoria shaking with anger.
"Whatever, i'll leave you guys to get along while I run to Nautilus, i'll be back soon."
Victoria angrily left the house.
"So." Victoria's mother said cheerfully "You're Agent 3? I'm Maria Holter, nice to meet you." and stuck her hand out, all that attitude from before was gone.
Inker was confused by her sudden change in tone, wasn't she acting all high and mighty a second ago? Still he shook her hand.
"Nice to meet you too, I'm Inker"
"That's not a nickname is it?"
"Nope, Inker Cetamari has always been my name…." Inker looked down upon noticing that Maria's hand felt odd.
Under the candlelit condition he hadn't noticed it before, but now that he was standing closer he could see that Victoria's mother Maria was missing two fingers on her right hand.
"Ahh!" Inker jumped
Maria burst out laughing, she brought her right hand up to let everyone see where her pinky and ring finger once was "Hahaha! Surprised? I lost these two fellas in a mission against the zombies of the deep."
At the mention of a mission, Inker guessed that Maria must have once been an Octoling soldier like Victoria is now, it was strange that she would lose fingers though since the Inklings and Octarians both splat each other, also what were there zombies of the deep?
Upon a closer look, Maria also had a large scar that ran down the left side of her face, as if she'd been cut before.
Inker concluded that she was indeed a combat veteran, but she looked much younger than Cap'n Cuttlefish, who was well over 100 years old.
That was when Neon hopped in front of him.
"Zombies! You fought zombies! What was it like?!"
'Ahh right, Neon is always interested in fighting.'
Maria wasn't surprised at this Inkling's sudden enthusiasm, after all there had been a time where fighting and being the perfect soldier was all she could think about too.
"Well we call them zombies because they look just like us and come from deeper underground."
"Tell me more! How did you lose your fingers to one of those? Did they try to eat you or something?"
Inker walked past the glittery eyed Neon who was really wanting to hear Maria's war stories.
'Come to think of it, Neon had me tell her all my stories once she learned that I was Agent 3.'
He went to Victoria's father who had yet to introduce himself.
"Sorry about my friend, she's kinda crazy when it comes to anything related to violence."
"Hey! I heard that Inker! I'm not crazy, im dedicated to my hobbies, you gotta find something you like and stick with it your whole life or you'll end up dazed and confused about what the heck is going on around you!"
Once again Maria laughed "ohhh to be young again…'
"Is there something wrong with what I said?"
"No you just remind me of a younger me, by the way you never introduced yourself."
"Oh right! I'm Neon."
"Also not a nickname?"
"Of course not? Why do you ask?"
"Ohh nothing, I guess we have different ways of naming ourselves."
"Culture shock, interesting isn't it? By the way, I'm Kalus Kogia, or Kal if you prefer."
"Just out of curiosity, how do you choose your names?" Maria asked, after hearing the Inklings' names.
"Hmm? I don't know, my folks named me Kalus right after I was born so I don't know why i'm named that way."
"Ohhh so Inklings are named at birth."
"You aren't?"
"Of course not, many Octarians die from accidents or diseases before we can even think for ourselves, so we wait until we can think to come up with our own names."
"Wow that is….."
"Depressing?"
"Yeah"
"Well like you said; culture shock, Octo Valley ain't sunshine and rainbows, in fact i'm sure most of us don't even know those exist anymore."
"Enough about shocking culture stuff, tell about that mission with zombies!" Neon didn't seem to mind at all that she was talking with an Octoling would could possibly have been shoot them if they had met somewhere else.
While Neon pestered Maria to share her war stories, Inker once again apologized to the father, this time for the scare Neon gave him when she almost took a shot at him when they were passing by to get the Melanin.
"Well I guess it's expected of any Inkling's first time in Octo Valley, by the way i'm Robert."
"Nice to meet you Robert."
"Can I ask why you are here? What are you planning to do with my daughter?"
"Oh i'm just here for the Inklings that your army captured, I won't be doing anything unnecessary."
"What does Victoria have to do with that? You know its a big risk to make her help you."
"I didn't put her up to anything, she was the one who came to find Kal in Inkopolis to tell him where to go and to find her if we couldn't get to the Octobot King's lair."
"So she chose to do it on her own, alright then."
"You're okay with your daughter helping us?"
"My wife and I raised Victoria to be independent and to trust herself more than anyone else, if she made the chose to help then I got no problem with it."
"Speaking of which Victoria doesn't seem to like you guys very much, also why was your wife acting so different when Victoria was here?"
"That is just a little plan to keep Victoria reaching for new heights, when we found out she wanted to follow her mother's footsteps and become an Elite Octoling, we decided that Maria should always make herself better than Victoria no matter what, that way every time Victoria goes into battle she think of how to surpass her mother."
"Yeah but isn't that a bad idea in a way? Victoria even said something about never answering your calls."
"Whatever way she sees us now is fine, she'll become independent and will live long after we are gone."
"And she'll also hate you for her whole life." Kal suddenly cut in, he had followed Neon to hear Maria's war stories but came back shortly.
"Not interested in war stories?"
"I'm not like Neon, but anyways from what you said I don't think what you are doing is a bad idea but if this goes on you will probably never seen Victoria again, are you really okay with that?"
"Yes." the answer was instant but there was a hint of sadness in Robert's voice, if Kal had said the same thing to Maria he'd probably get the same answer…
"So please do us a favor, don't tell Victoria what we are doing, its been hard on all of us to keep this act up for so long, it would be a waste if we told her now." Robert continued.
Inker nodded "Alright"
But Kal wasn't about to agree just yet
"I understand where you are going with the whole independence and unreachable goal thing, but can Victoria really keep going on like this? She can't be honest to anyone in the army, she can't trust her roommate, so family is all that's left for her, I thought family was everything in Octo Valley."
"Who told you that? And also why are you so concerned with my daughter?"
"She's helped me too you know, just about a week ago I was also held prisoner in Octo Valley, I saw other Inklings get dragged off to something called the Boiling pit and never return, if not for her the same could have happened to me."
"Is that really all? Just returning a favor?"
"Yes"
Robert doubted Kal's answer but he didn't pursue it any further
"Well it doesn't matter, at this point no matter what we try Victoria will hate us for raising her the way we did." this time it was obvious that Robert was remorseful of how his family ended up.
'I knew it' Kal thought
"I don't think so."
"You saw the way she yelled at us, there is no way we could ever fix this family again."
"Of course there is, do you know that Victoria did something similar back in Inkopolis? She took advantage of the fact that we were sheltering her to steal the Great Zapfish, luckily we caught her in time. Back then I had no idea what Octo Valley was like, I had lived a carefree life in Inkopolis up to then so I assumed Octo Valley was the same, so when Victoria took advantage of me and Inker's kindness to try and ruin our city's power source I was was mad, I hated her behavior, I hated her personality, I hated everything about her, she was mad too and just like earlier she yelled at us and in doing so revealed what she wanted to do with the Great Zapfish. After that I realized I wasn't on the right side, the next time I saw her we sat down and I learned everything about Octo Valley, the degrading buildings, the everyday accidents, the general fear of living on in such a place…. After that we got along fine, in fact I couldn't bring myself to hate her anymore."
"What does that have to do with us now?"
"Don't you get it? Victoria hides her intentions and only speaks her mind when she can't take it anymore. Sure she could have been hiding it from us because we were supposed to be enemies but I think the same thing could be happening now, after all didn't she just say she wanted you to care about her for once?"
"But we do, she just doesn't know it, that was the whole point, Octo Valley is dangerous, you can't get attached to anyone otherwise you won't be able to move on once disaster finally strikes. Your family may the the only ones who care about your whole existence, but if you lose them, then what else is left? You said that Victoria told you everything about Octo Valley, so you should understand this."
"I do, in fact that is why I can never bring myself to hate any Octarian anymore, in fact I've decided that when I get back and things calm down, I'm ditching my carefree life and someday becoming an ambassador for Inkopolis.
"Whoa" Inker never heard anything about that before, was Kal hiding it the whole time?
Behind Kal, Inker saw Neon peeking around the corner, since nobody was talking she came running around the corner into the room.
"Inker! Inker, come! Listen to this! There is a place even further underground and there are Octarian zombies that come out of a subway like area! Kal you come too."
Neon pulled Inker to the living room and sat him down next to Maria with Kal following out of curiosity.
"Mrs Holter tell Inker what you just told me!"
"Umm okay, there's a place further underground then Octo Valley, a subway that runs undernea-"
"Not just that! Tell us the whole story again!"
"There's no need, sorry about my friend."
"Oh no it's fine, if she wants to hear the story again i'll retell it, we got more than enough time anyways."
In a dark room with nothing but candles providing light, Maria told the story which could have possibly been a ghost story if herself wasn't in it.
"A few years ago there were reports of Octarian soldiers going crazy, attacking and kidnapping the population before disappearing somewhere, at the time I was part of a splatoon made up of six Elite Octolings called Elite Splatoon Beta, we were dispatched to investigate.
What we encountered were Octarians which looked just like any other Octarian, with the same equipment and combat styles, the difference was their colours, they had green skin and blue tentacles and unlike other Octarian soldiers who communicated with each other, these guys moaned robotic phrases and fought without regard for their own lives.
Since we were the first to fight off these weird creatures, Octavio tasked my team with capturing one of these insane soldiers for experimentation, hopefully we could figure out what made them go insane.
By that time several teams had encountered the zombie-like Octarians, we knew where they were coming from; an old subway station that we stopped using after the loss of the Great Turf War, no other Splatoon had dared to go inside before us as rumors had spread that the Octarians we were fighting are the ones who had been led to their deaths during the Great Turf War and that whoever dared to enter would become one of them.
Me and my team entered with caution, we were all Elite Octolings with years of experience behind us, we encountered Octotroopers, Octocopters and Octolings. The conflict that followed saw the loss of two of my teammates, Cassidy and Megan, both who I had known for years by then we were fighting for our lives, there was almost no end to the approaching waves of crazy Octarians, with no other choice we outran the slower Octarians retreated to the surface with an Octoling following us close behind, the rest of the army was waiting for us at the surface to splat anyone following us, but upon realising we had not captured anyone yet they helped us capture the crazy Octoling.
We swarmed the Octoling from every direction taking care not to splat it but to cover the ground around it, it still put up one hell of a fight, when we had covered the whole area with magenta ink and the Octoling was out of places to recover it discarded its weapon, me and my three remaining squadmates made our move to capture it, but to our surprise it had no intention of giving up, it lunged on another one of my squadmates; Laura, at that time Laura had already raised a death flag as she had announced to us that she was engaged to be married and wanted to start a family after this mission. The Octoling had no weapon but it grabbed Laura's neck and wouldn't let go, we still had to capture it alive so we couldn't shoot at it, the remaining three of us pry it off her, after that we held it down with the help of other Octolings nearby, we knew it would transform to slip away so we made sure to hold every part of it down to prevent it, but as I was holding down it's head it kept struggling until my right hand went into its mouth. The thing bit my fingers with all its might, by the time someone came to sedate it it took my fingers off and spat them out at me, still we completed the mission, at the cost of many lives, including two members of my splatoon."
As Maria finished recalling that certain mission, Neon held Inker's hand with shining eyes.
"We should go to that Metro place after we are done here!"
"No way! Why would you want to go somewhere so dangerous? By the way Mrs Holter"
"You can just call me Maria"
"By the way Maria, why did you call those crazy Octarians Zombies of the deep?"
"Well after we had finished the mission the metro was heavily barricaded to prevent anyone from ever going inside from the Undercity, our scientists found out that the Octoling we captured could not be identified as any of our soldiers, they say it had the DNA of not one, but several missing Octolings of the Great Turf War, something happened in the metro where it had been killed and then forcefully reanimated while showing no signs of life, after that news made its way to the public they started calling them the "zombies of the deep" I someone is even making a movie about them in Octo Valley and asked me for the details of that mission."
"You see! They are poor tortured Octarians being forced to wander the deep and fight everyone they see, if we go there and splat all of them we'd be doing them a favor!"
"Why are you so insistent on running into danger?"
"You can't get better without taking risks."
"You got the meaning of that all mixed up! Still I should ask Cuttlefish about this and maybe investigate it someday."
"When!"
"No time soon that's for sure."
"Awwwwwww"
"We are probably going to fight the Octobot King in a few hours so stop looking for more trouble."
"Hey if i'm going to be the best at turf wars I gotta take all the chances I get to practice."
"Turf Wars? You are planning to join the Inkling army?" Maria asked
Inker didn't want to say that Inkopolis didn't have an army anymore so instead "No Turf Wars is just a combat simulation, which happens to be popular in Inkopolis."
"Hey don't forget, I'm replacing you in the New Squidbeak Splatoon if anything happens!"
"Don't talk like i'm going to get splatted!"
"Hey currently, i'm at rank S so i'm ranked higher than you, I'll be much better suited to the New Squidbeak Splatoon than you."
"S rank?" Maria had no idea what this hyperactive squid was going on about
"Players of Turf Wars are ranked according to their skill." Kal explained
"Ahh I see. Neon take it from someone who has served in the Octarian army for thirty years, real fighting is not like that in simulations and games, you won't become a power squid in shining armor with the sun rising behind you,"
Maria used the hand that was missing fingers to point at the large scar on her face
"See this it what it really looks like once you've fought a lifetime of battles, it's not glorious, it's not heroic, it's not even honorable, it's merely doing what you think is right, even if someday you find out you were in the wrong."
"Ohh I didn't notice that big scar before! How did that happen?"
"You didn't hear a word I said did you?"
"No i get it, everything is not what you expect right? Sure, but Turf Wars is a big part of our lives now, anyways how did you get that scar? Inklings?"
'Sigh'
"'ll tell you, since we got time, but for now I want you to remember this: Turf Wars or whatever it is you do may seem important to you now, that is life's greatest challenge, choosing between two things when both mean everything to you."
'That's some good advice.' Kal noted
"Well anyways this scar was from the incursion war with the Salmonids."
"Salmonids?" Inker was familiar with the race of fish known as Salmonids "I thought you guys had a trade agreement with them."
The Salmonids were a race of fish that unlike Inklings, lived underwater and produced the power eggs scattered over Octo Valley, they known to trade power eggs for Octarian machinery.
"We do, the agreement was made after their surrender, how else do you think we got it?"
It would seem that Inklings weren't the only ones who had war with the Octarians.
For the rest of the blackout Inker, Kal and Neon stayed with Victoria's parents, the two groups got along well despite the history between their races, it came to show that without a bunch of misunderstanding the two races could definitely get together again someday.
The power came back an hour later, accompanied by the cheers of Octarians everywhere in their homes, another hour passed before Victoria returned.
'I hope everything is alright, mother and father really aren't the most amicable Octarians there are.'
However when she entered her childhood home she was greeted with a much different atmosphere.
Inker, Kal, Neon and her parents Robert and Maria were happily chatting over dinner.
"Wha?" She was shocked, all her life they never once had such a friendly atmosphere in this household, her parents were always cold towards her, leaving her to learn everything on her own and never once saying anything positive to her. Why were they so different to these unexpected guests?
Aside from that were they actually smiling?
Maria was the first to notice Victoria's return amongst the chatting.
"Oh you're back, well then I guess it's time to say goodbye." Maria sounded displeased
"Yeah do that, the Octarian army is abandoning their last captive so we should go now, plus I wouldn't want to waste your oh so precious life of early retirement." Victoria shot back.
Inker, Kal and Neon quickly said good bye and went after Victoria, who had left right after speaking, unable to stand the presence of her mean and cold parents any longer.
The whole thing must have put her in a bad mood because she didn't say a word the rest of the trip, using only hand gestures to stop the group when she saw something coming.
Cap'n Cuttlefish's shack, Octo Valley
Sky had just returned with a few sub sandwiches.
"Alright i'm back, what's happening now? Are they moving again?"
"Yessire they be near the Octobot King lair in no time, here switch spots, it'll be good practice for you to watch for any incoming threats and warn Agent 3."
Sky who was standing next to a bunch of monitors sat in Cap'n Cuttlefish's spot, watching the live footage from Inker's Hero Suit.
Tap tap tap
Someone was knocking at the door
"Gramps are you there? Or are you sleeping in?"
"I got it bucko, you keep watching."
Outside the shack was Callie and Marie
"Oh Agent 1&2 good to see you here so soon."
"Where's Agent 3?"
"He's already long gone, he's almost at the Octobot King by now."
"Almost? Why did he take so long to get there?"
"The saucer with that Kettle ain't here no more, he had to walk all the way through Octo Valley to get there this time."
"Are you watching them now?"
"Yes everything is going fine."
"That means something isn't right."
Callie and Marie went inside and went over to Sky and the mission control room.
"Oh you guys are here!"
"Yes, quickly tell us where is Inker and the others now?"
"They are already past the Undercity and entering the Octobot King's lair, all we can do now is watch."
Enter the Octobot King, Octo Valley
"I never thought I'd be back here again….." Inker mumbled
Victoria had already left the group for obvious reasons, now three of them continued forward towards the unpowered Octobot King.
The lair was darkened, since nobody was using it, there was still some lights, though they were all dim.
On top of it was a glass capsule with Lila sleeping inside, it reminded Inker of how Octavio kept the Great Zapfish in plain sight to lure him closer, good thing he was prepared for that.
"That's Octavio's Giant War Robot? I was expecting something bigger.."
"Why do you sound disappointed Neon?"
"Only a bit, if it's just one giant enemy I can take it on easily!"
"Stop saying unnecessary things, you'll jinx it."
Inker had planned to fight the Octobot King again, but seeing how it was powerless he breathed a sigh of relief.
Victoria had mentioned that she and her splatoon had hidden inside the Octobot King when they were guarding Lila, so Inker had planned ahead for that too.
"Alright Neon get us closer."
"Right away!"
Neon fired her E-Liter 3k making a long trail of blue ink towards the Octobot King, breaking the silence that dominated the lair.
Inker and Kal used the trail of ink to quickly swim up to the Octobot King and tossed bombs inside, any opening they could find on the Octobot King, if anyone was inside it they would be splatted.
The Splat and Suction bombs burst but nothing was hit, the Octobot King was completely empty.
Lila however had been woken up by all the ruckus from the weapons.
Inker and Kal went to get her out of her capsule, with Neon swimming towards them.
'Oh kraken, what did they do to you?' Kal thought after seeing the heavily scarred Lila, a result of being in the Boiling Pit.
"Don't worry you'll be alright." Inker said
"Kalus!" Lila said upon recognising Kal
"Yep it's me and I brought Agent 3."
Upon hearing that Inker was Agent 3, Lila looked at him with eyes of admiration, he was the hero Kal had mentioned in his stories.
"This is locked, how are we supposed to get it open without a key nearby?"
"Ohh I know, in movies Inklings pick locks with pins, I have one right here!" Neon said pulling out a pin needle out of her pocket."
"Why do you have a pin in the first place?"
'I carry lots of small things that might come in handy! Look! I even got a flashlight, a whistle a small pair of scissors!"
Somehow Neon was once again more useful than expected, at least for a moment, because right after receiving the needle Inker saw the type of lock the Octarians put on the cage.
"It's a combination lock….."
"Dang, they are getting smarter."
"Good thing they didn't have those in Melanin….."
"How are we supposed to get this open anyways?"
"We could probably smash it open if we had something strong enough."
Suddenly the whole area was illuminated.
Startled by the sudden light, Inker, Kal and Neon grabbed their weapons and looked around them.
"Welcome Agent 3!" a voice came from somewhere
Suddenly Elite Octolings started climb onto the platform.
'They were under the platform the whole time? How did they even get there?'
At the same time, all of the Elite Octolings superjumped towards the Octobot King, landing just within Hero Shot and Octoshot range.
"I never let news of this Inkling leave Nautilus base. Not even the Octarians in the Undercity know about this." one of the Elite Octolings said as others made way for her.
It was Acting Leader Octavia
"And only the Octarians at Nautilus base knew that we were pulling back today. So tell me, which one of my soldiers brought you here?"
The whole point of placing Lila here wasn't to ambush Inker, it was to check if someone was leaking information...