Octo Canyon
While the Octarians were still living in the temporary settlements the reserve army had set up, the captain was already proceeding with her plans.
A messenger was sent to Nautilus to inform the other battalions of their plans, while the ones at Octo Canyon were busy settling in to their new home.
Inside a tent that the reserve army had set up to serve as the command post the Elites were having a meeting.
There was only six of them but they had all the time they needed to plan for the coming conflict and the captain already knew what to do.
"If we are in Octo Canyon, we must make the Inkling think we are somewhere else. We've been in Octo Valley for so long they probably expect us to still be there, so we should send the bulk of the army still stationed at Nautilus to move in real close to Inkopolis and gather attention." the captain explained.
The messenger sent to Nautilus would tell those remaining there to move on the manhole to Inkopolis Plaza and lay siege to the city, but not to enter it until given the order to do so.
Then the ones at Octo Canyon would forge a path into Inkopolis Square, which was pretty far west of Inkopolis Plaza, this should take the Inklings by surprise as their defenders would probably be too occupied with Inkopolis Plaza to notice.
"So you are suggesting that the majority of our army serves as nothing but a distraction? Wouldn't it be smarter to have the smaller group be the distraction?" another Elite asked
"No, they would definitely suspect something if we did that." the captain replied
"But if we only send the reserve army it won't be long before they are overwhelmed."
"That is why the larger group at Octo Valley will break in as soon as the reserve army draws attention to Inkopolis Square."
The other Elites found themselves agreeing to this idea.
A simple flanking maneuver and with the element of surprise on their side, they may have a chance of taking over parts of the surface. If the defenders at Inkopolis Plaza moved to take back Inkopolis Square, the army at Inkopolis Square would push westwards in an attempt to stay ahead of the Inklings, while the ones at Inkopolis Plaza would move in.
"Good idea, judging by how quickly they dispatched the New Squidbeak Splatoon to help the Inklings we kidnapped, there is no way they would let us run rampant through Inkopolis Square."
"Yes, the Inkling defenders moving to Inkopolis Square is guaranteed."
If that happened then they could envelope whatever defenders the Inklings had nearby and hit them from both sides.
All six Elites could see this plan working out, but there was one problem.
"This will earn us an early victory, but we have no idea how large to Inkling army is compared to ours, nor how well equipped they are." the reserve army's Elite added.
"Yes, it is a shame we lost the Acting Leader, she had someone inside Inkopolis." another Elite added
This got the attention of the captain.
"This is my first time hearing this, who do we have undercover in Inkopolis?"
"I have no idea, though how come you didn't know? She announced it to all of us after that short skirmish in Octavio's boss kettle."
"I was ordered to leave and destroy the Rollers I had made, so I wasn't there, besides Octavia seems to be leaving me out often ever since me and the 202nd was sent to become guards of Melanin prison."
"Ahh I see, well the Acting Leader was suspicious of there being a mole at the time, so she kept the identity of the intelligence officer to herself and the highest ranking Elites, so sadly that spy is lost to us."
"Shame indeed, I feel bad abandoning someone as brave as an intelligence officer to Inkopolis, but we have no choice, hopefully we can pick them up during the invasion of Inkopolis. We shouldn't have any problem but if things really don't work as planned, a few convincing threats to the Salmonids could buy them some reinforcements."
The Salmonids were a species of fish who produced power eggs, which the Octarians used as an alternate power source to zapfish. They were also used inside the fake zapfish once Agent 3 stole all the zapfish back. They had an army of their own, and had several battles with the Octarian army until they were overpowered and agreed to a trade deal and became their allies.
Since then the Salmonids had received Octarian machinery in exchange for power eggs, the machinery the Octarians gave away were useless to them, but the Salmonids had been modifying them for their own use.
They could definitely turn the tide of battle should they be needed.
The other Elites readily agreed with the captain's suggestion.
"Great idea!"
"As expected of the hero of Ark Polaris!"
"Those Inklings don't stand a chance!"
The captain had a joyful expression, likely because she had only been scolded by Octavia before, so she was enjoying the praise, once they were done cheering for her she spoke again. "Well anyways we can't move too soon, first we need the army at Nautilus base to draw attention to them, so in the meantime we may as well get back to helping everyone settle in, is there anything you want to add major?"
"Nope, I think you have things handled, dismissed!"
The Elites left the command post, with the captain meeting Claire outside who was ready with an update on their progress in Octo Canyon.
The captain didn't notice, but Claire did, just over her shoulder, one of the other Elites was suspiciously whispering to a second, both glanced at the captain before heading off somewhere.
'Something is going on behind our backs..' Claire thought.
She wanted to follow those two, but had a duty to the captain and couldn't just go off like that.
Plus she could end up in a dangerous situation.
Then again if she did disappear the captain would notice.
'Maybe I should ask someone to follow them, or I could just tell the captain directly, yeah I probably should, though it could be nothing, i'll keep watch on those two for now.'
Later on Claire would ask several of her fellow soldiers to watch the other Elites..
Inkopolis Plaza
A day had passed
Kal wasn't sure how to speak to Victoria now, so he wandered around alone until he met Inker and Sky again.
Aside from the Octoling in his living room, everything was normal.
The three spent the day playing Rainmaker, sometimes they had fun, other times they complained about their teammates being on the other side of map when they had the Rainmaker and wishing they were allowed to always stay on the same team together.
Sure now that Sky was level 10, they had the option to play as a squad, but since Neon was strangely nowhere to be found they would have to form a tri squad and play in 3v4s.
With both Neon and Inker in a tri squad they could have a chance of winning, but with the current team, no way, even with faster respawns it would end up being Inker doing practically everything, one extra team member really made a big difference.
Another day passed and once again everything was pretty much normal.
However Victoria was still silent and Neon was still nowhere to be found.
Since they couldn't stand a chance as a tri squad, Kalus, Inker and Sky spent the first few games in random matches, then they ran into someone familiar.
"Oh hey is that Laven? Hi Laven!" Inker called out to their potential fourth squad member.
"Oh hey guys!"
Laven was holding a Blaster and was heading for the lobby, he waved back at Inker.
"How are you doing?
"Everything is just great, oh speaking of good news I hear your sister made it back safe, i'm glad you are alright after that whole thing with Vert."
"Yeah I really wasn't myself at that time, well what's new with you?"
"Well we wanted to play a squad battle but we couldn't find our fourth and you know how tri squads are."
"Yeah, hey I was just here for a regular battle but if you want i'll join you guys."
"Sure"
Laven looked behind Inker and recognised Sky, but not Kalus, though he did look familiar.
"Hello Sky.. and…?"
"I'm Kalus, or Kal if you prefer."
"Kal?" that name also sounded familiar to Laven, perhaps he heard it somewhere before.
Oh well, now was time for a squad battle.
Sky however was glancing into the crowd in the lobby.
He could have sworn to have just seen Neon…..
Maybe it was another bright green Inkling, or maybe she was avoiding them for some reason?
Who knows.
Urchin Underpass
It was a tower control match.
One fast moving platform in the center, two teams of four.
Kal, Inker, Sky and Laven were now all purple, while their opponents were all turquoise.
They all made their way towards the center, covering turf along the way.
Sky was first to be splatted, Kal ducked below the platform which was on top of a cube and inked the cube so that they could swim onto the platform from below.
An opposing Inkling leapt onto the platform, but a single splat bomb was enough to clear it again.
Kal leapt on and himself was quickly splatted too.
Inker and Laven had more range so they spent their time moving around and firing on the enemy team, only hopping on to the platform once they had splatted every opposing Inkling.
Inker made good use of his Splattershot Pro, since it handled like the Hero Shot he was so used to using.
While Laven could clear the tower easily with his Blaster.
Sky was using the Inkbrush he bought some time before, it allowed him to move faster than the Roller, but in turn covered less ground.
As for Kal, he was using his Slosher again.
'Distance 90, 89, 88, 87, 86…'
At 76 the newly respawned opposing team arrived again.
At least now they were further away from the middle.
The tower was moving through a narrow path, Laven and Inker splatted one opposing inkling before hopping off.
The next few moments was a battle between the three other opponents and Inker and Laven.
They swam around, hopping up occasionally to fire or throw bombs.
Laven went down first, but not before getting a few good shots in with his Blaster.
Thanks to the splash damage Laven did, Inker managed to splat two Inklings before getting splatted.
By the time Laven and Inker were splatted, Sky and Kal had made it back.
The two easily finished off the last opponent and hopped back on the platform.
'75, 74, 73, 72…'
The closer they got to their goal, the quicker the enemies came.
Kal hopped off the tower early to hide around a corner, as he expected the enemy team to arrive soon, Sky stayed on the tower.
Sky was the first of the two to get splatted, as the opposing team instinctively threw a splat bomb onto the tower to clear it.
Kal got the one throwing the splat bomb, but then was run down by a roller.
The tower stopped at distance 48 and was now moving back as the enemy team controlled it.
Laven arrived first, tossing a disruptor into the tower, after successfully slowing down one Inkling, he landed a direct hit.
Inker arrived shortly afterwards, moving fast and firing his Splattershot pro with precision, even though the weapon wasn't perfectly accurate, nor powerful enough to instantly splat an Inkling, its rate of fire made it perfect for on the move harassment.
Despite this the tower was still being pushed back, after travelling into the purple team's side for a while, Kal, Inker, Sky and Laven had regrouped and regained control.
This would go on back and forth for a few minutes.
Kal and Sky would try to get close to splat the opposing team, Inker would move around, usually behind Sky's Inkbrush and splat someone when the opportunity presented itself, Laven would mostly go for clearing the tower first.
They managed to get the tower distance to 40 before the match was over.
And as usual, they all cheered once the results were announced.
"Wooohoooo!"
"Hey you guys are pretty good!" Laven said
"You were pretty good yourself." Inker replied
"It got really tough for a while there." Sky pointed out
"Yeah tower control will be like that, this was your first time playing it right?"
"Yep, I like it, makes you get close to the enemy spawn and things get really crazy."
"I didn't ask this earlier, but what happened to your fourth anyways?" Laven asked
"Good question, in fact it's so good even we don't know." Inker joked
"but all seriousness, what happened to Neon? I haven't seen her in the last four days." Kal asked.
Inker and Sky shrugged
"Well then, guess i'll stick around for another match." Laven said as the group returned to the lobby.
Then, after yet another win under their (theoretical) belts, Laven suddenly said something strange.
"You guys are really good, you should be taking part in the Vanguard movement."
"Vanguard movement?" Inker, Kal and Sky all asked at once.
"Yeah, how come you haven't heard of it? Since the prime minister won't allow the creation of an army, we are just going to make our own."
'Red flag' Inker thought 'these guys are getting into some dangerous stuff'
"That sounds dangerous, I don't think the IPD will allow something like that."
"Well they can't really do anything regardless, ever since Lila returned I wanted to get back at those Octarians, actually if I recall one of your friends was taken by the Octarians too." Laven's tone was getting angrier by the minute.
"Uhh yeah, that was me, also you know Lila?"
"It was you? No wonder you seemed familiar, I'm her brother, we were on the news the day we returned, of course Lila was rescued much later than the rest of you, didn't you see what they did to her?"
Kal had flashbacks to the boiling pit, Bogs screaming for help and pleading for mercy, but Lila? Lila didn't make a sound, then later she was found heavily scarred, presumably by the pit.
"Yeah, yeah I saw, I was there you know, In Melanin prison, they stuck me and your sister in the same cell, along with a third, he didn't make it."
"Melanin? Is that what they called that place? And the third inkling, it was Bogs wasn't it." Laven's tone was orginally cheerful and inviting, but as he went on he seemed to get angrier
"How did you know."
"The families of the victims have been gathering and sharing their stories, how come i never heard about you before?"
The truth was that Kal was still in Octo Valley and then spent his time worrying about Victoria, so he had no idea what was going on, of course he couldn't say that.
"Well I live alone and my family knows I can take care of myself so they probably didn't even know I was taken."
"That has to be a lie, everyone knew who was missing, well whatever, look first everyone was protesting for an army but that's going nowhere, so the Mire family started suggesting we take matters into our own hands, everyone else agreed, that's why i'm playing turf wars so much more now, we are all getting ready to take on the Octarians."
"Laven, you realise Octo Valley is too far underground for the spawn points to find you, if you go down there and get splatted you won't be respawning." Inker cut in, hoping to convince Laven that he was making a bad choice
"Huh?" Laven was surprised, it would appear that he never considered the possibility of no respawns.
'Seriously did you really think fighting in Octo Valley was the same as turf wars?' Inker thought
"How do you know that?" Laven asked
Inker couldn't say why, so he had to come up with some other reason "Isn't it obvious? There are even places outside of Inkopolis where you cannot respawn."
"Yeah but those are really really far from here, Octo Valley is right below you know."
'I know that, I am the one who keeps going down there to fight the Octarians.' Inker wanted to say it so badly, but kept his mouth shut.
"And we play turf all the time, it will just be the same but with bigger teams."
"No it isn't! There are.. The Octarians… there is no guarantee that the Octarians fight the exact same way as us."
"That's true, but if we sit around who knows when someone else will get squidnapped, it could be you? Heck maybe even the friend you were looking for has been squidnapped."
"Neon? No way that could happen."
"You don't know that, the Octarians can sneak around at their leisure since we got nobody protecting Inkopolis, there may even be one hiding in your own home!"
Kal averted his gaze.
"No, Neon is the best among us, sure her personality might be a bit weird, but she's unbeatable when it comes to a fight."
"Okay you keep believing that, if you ever find out the Octarians took her, come find the Vanguard movement since obviously nobody else will do anything."
For some reason Laven seemed more and more angry as he talked about Octo Valley and Lila, he left the three and went off on his own.
"Vanguard movement huh." Sky wondered
"It's a bad idea, I should tell the Cap'n about this, we can't have a bunch of angry trigger happy squids going into Octo Valley." Inker added
"Now that you mention it, maybe Neon really was taken?" Kal asked
"No, I could have sworn I saw her in the lobby, but i'm just worried Neon might end up joining this Vanguard movement thing."
Kal agreed "Yeah it really does seem like something she would do."
"Have any of you heard anything from her recently?"
"No, I even tried calling her, goes straight to voicemail." Inker replied
"I think maybe we should pay her a visit?"
"I think so too, but I need to tell the Cap'n to block off the manhole to Octo Valley if this Vanguard movement is really planning on running into Octo valley."
"I doubt Neon is home though, if you saw her here then she's probably still playing ranked matches on her own, we should just look for her around Inkopolis Tower, or see if we can find her in the on going matches." Kal suggested
"I'll leave that too you guys." Inker was about to head off, but he remembered something else. "Oh that's right, Kal maybe you should leave Sky to find Neon, you have other problems to deal with, right?"
"What do you mean?"
"You aren't really just going to leave Victoria as she is."
"I don't but what else can I do? I tried showing her around Inkopolis but that didn't help."
"Well don't look at me, surely you would have thought of something else by now."
"No I really haven't, I'm not even sure how much stuff is bothering her at this point, the loss of her family? Leaving behind everything she's known? Thinking that I was permanently splatted in turf?"
Inker shrugged, "if anyone would know its you."
'Has Neon gotten to you too?' Kal thought "I really have no idea though, I need more time."
"Well everyone accepts what happens eventually." Sky pointed out
"That may take too long, I know it was never safe having her here from the start, but it seems now Inkopolis is further away from accepting Octarians than ever, we may need to send Victoria elsewhere." Inker added
'Send Victoria elsewhere? But what could she do outside of Inkopolis, she doesn't know anyone else on the surface, if she could just have a bit more time here she could have a good life in Inkopolis.'
'Could have?'
"!" Kal suddenly realised something, "Okay then, I'll leave Neon to you guys."
"? Okay then, leave it to me." Sky was a bit surprised at this sudden decision, but had no complaints.
"Alright, i'll see you all tomorrow, bye." Kal left in a hurry.
He wasn't sure why he had started caring so much about Victoria, but well he wasn't going to deny it either.
Neon could say whatever she wanted.
But just now Kal had just realised where he went wrong.
It all made sense to him now, why she was wondering what having a family picnic and other simple things felt like, why she still kept that album yet couldn't bring herself to open it.
'Victoria isn't just feeling sad because of leaving Octo Valley or losing her family, it's losing the life she could have had, the one that she wanted, just when it was within reach. Yes that had to be the main reason.'
Octo Canyon
It was almost night, and Octarians all over the camp were starting to settle in.
The main army should have made it to the Inkopolis Plaza manhole by now, if everything goes according to plan then there should be little resistance awaiting the reserve army and the others at Octo Canyon.
In fact the Reserve army had just left for Inkopolis Square.
While the captain stayed behind to watch over the camp, Claire are troubles of her own.
After noticing two of the Elites acting suspiciously about two days ago she had asked an Octotrooper follow them around.
Yesterday the Octotrooper vanished, so Claire requested two Octocopters follow the Elites around and maybe find the missing Octotrooper.
Today they vanished as well.
It was more than enough to arouse her suspicions.
Something was happening behind their backs.
Despite the lack of proper evidence Claire decided that she had to say something to the captain.
She hurried past the scores of Octarians going about the vast array of tents and temporary housing, until she finally reached the one that the captain was using as her office.
"Captain."
The captain looked up from a pile of papers on her desk
"Yes?"
"The other Elites are plotting something, i'm not sure what yet, but-"
"Excuse me!" Came a loud loud from nowhere, interrupting Claire.
She was cut off by the arrival of the four Elites.
"Sorry for interrupting captain, but there is a messenger from the army at Nautilus here."
"Well then? Go see what they are here for, I'm busy right now."
"They say that they want to speak to you directly."
"Tell them that there is no need, just continue with the plan to drawn the Inkling army's attention to Octo Valley."
"We have done that, but still they insist that you speak with them."
"Alright then, but let's make this quick."
Claire wanted to say something, but the captain got up and left.
The four Elites escorted the captain out, as they left, one of them glanced over at Claire giving her a knowing look.
Claire, who could tell truth from lie and read emotions pretty clearly knew that she was too late.
The Elites must have found out about her, she couldn't read their minds or anything like that, but she could tell they were mocking her.
'Too late! What should I do now?'
She was sure the captain wouldn't be coming back, what could she do now?
Exiting the captain's office/tent Claire gathered as many of her fellow soldiers as she could find.
"What's going on Claire?" Lynn asked as she and many others were brought together.
"Something is up, I noticed the four Elites who came with us from Nautilus acting strangely these past two days."
"What was strange about them?" another soldier a shielded Octotrooper asked
"I have no idea, that's what is even more suspicious, I had a few guys tail them to try and find out, but they all disappeared without a trace."
The soldiers all had the same look of shock of their faces
"Did you tell the captain about this?" an Octoling asked
"I tried to, but the Elites had just taken her away as I was about to tell her, does anyone know where she is headed?"
"I saw her just a moment ago with the other Elites heading towards a saucer that had landed to the west of the camp." Lynn said, pointing in the direction where a saucer from Nautilus had landed.
"Okay good, come on everyone, the Elites might be planning their own coup, we need to help the captain incase something bad happens, so bring your weapons too."
All the soldiers present were geared up, they all went in the direction of the saucer.
Claire slowed down a bit to talk to Lynn who was following at the back.
"Are you up for this? If things really are as bad as I think we may end up fighting the Elites."
Lynn paused for a moment to consider everything
"Yes. You keep telling me to decide things for myself, so i've decided I have no problem with following along, it just means less trouble for me I guess."
"That's not what I was trying to point out before, but nevermind that, you'll have more chances to make choices in the future, for now let's hurry to the captain's side."
Kal's home, Inkopolis
When he returned home, Kal kept with the regular routine of placing the equipment he was using back in his gear closet.
Once he was done that however, he took the photo that he had hidden under his Splattershot jr
There were a thousand thoughts going through his head, what if he was wrong about Victoria, or what if she started seeing him as a creep who like to secretly snap photos of everyone?
Kal hesitated for a bit, then pocketed the photo and went back to the living room.
Victoria was a depressing sight, still hunched over that closed album, even though she had been eating correctly, it looked as if the colours was starting to fade from her.
Kal took a seat next to Victoria.
"Feeling better yet?"
Victoria didn't say anything, she would not take her eyes off the album she had brought from Octo Valley.
"You've been staring at that for quite some time now, why don't you open it?"
Victoria moved one hand across the album, but stopped halfway through.
"I can't." Victoria muttered
"Why not?"
"It's nothing but bad memories."
"If so, then why do you keep it so close?"
"Can you please not ask so many questions?"
"Sorry, I know there's a lot bothering you, but honestly seeing you like this bothers me too."
"You have no idea…."
"I'm really sorry about the Turf Wars thing, I forgot that well, you know."
Kal avoided saying the word.
"It's fine, I know you meant well."
"Then can you please tell me what's wrong? I'm going crazy wondering why you sit here all day now staring into blank space."
What Kal said must have had an effect on Victoria, because she finally looked up from the closed album.
"What can I do with this? There is nothing inside but bad memories, but it's also the only thing I have to remind me of ma and pa. I can't bring myself to open it, yet I can't bear to throw it away either."
'If I recall correctly, inside that album is a bunch of family photos, but because Victoria always thought her parents didn't care for her at all, she was unhappy in every photo in that album….
I think I get it now, she found out the truth and was willing to forgive them, but then the fire happened. She can't open the album because she doesn't want to remember the bad times she had with the family, yet she can't toss it away because it reminds her of the first and only happy moment they had.'
That picture that Kal currently had in his pocket could possibly be useful here.
"Let me open it for you…" Kal suggested
Victoria did nothing to stop hi, but didn't reply either.
Sure enough inside was photos of a younger Victoria.
She looked either sad or angry in each photo.
"Why couldn't I have smiled just once?" Victoria muttered
It seemed that she had something to say, so Kal paid close attention as Victoria flipped to the last photo.
"I didn't know i'd miss them so much, I wish I could have smiled just once in one of these pictures…"
Kal was right
Victoria's family album held nothing but reminders of the times when her parents purposely treated her coldly so that she wouldn't miss them if disaster struck.
Victoria didn't want to be reminded of those times, she wanted to remember the only good time she had.
The moment before the Elites showed up and she was forced to run, to run away as the house burned down.
'Well then, guess its time for this.'
Kal took out the photo that was in his pocket and placed it in Victoria's view.
It was taken during that late candlelit dinner Victoria had with her parents, all three of them had reunited and were all very happy.
Victoria's eyes widened for a second, first she took a closer look at the photo, then looked at Kal, then back.
Kal still felt a bit embarrassed to have secretly taken a photo like this, so he looked away.
Victoria however was was more interested in why there was a photo in the first place.
"How? When did you take this?!" Victoria exclaimed
Kal scratched the back of his head as he still felt a bit embarrassed.
"Well you see, I thought that since you were leaving Octo Valley, you would want a souvenir of some kind, so we took that using the Hero suit's body camera."
As Kal spoke Victoria took a closer look at the photo.
To her it was perfect, she didn't mind the slight pixelation if you looked at it really closely, she didn't mind the slight lack of colour, it still captured the joy of that moment.
"But why? What gave you that idea?"
"Umm well, I looked through that album too with you and your father and I kinda noticed how you always looked sad in every photo you had, so I thought it would be a good idea to get a photo where you were smiling, I wasn't expecting something bad to happen right after so the picture is pretty bad-"
"Oh no this is fine, in fact it's perfect!"
Victoria's face lit up as she turned to face Kal, whose face was still turned away in embarrassment.
"Thank you so much!" Victoria exclaimed
Victoria would still feel sad about that night, the flames rising above her nostalgic home…. A scar like that would not heal.
She would still feel sad whenever she recalled those events.
But for now she had the most joyful expression Kal had ever seen before.
After that little burst of emotion, Victoria was pretty much back to normal, after once again thanking Kal, she added the photo into her family album.
Now in a much better mood, Victoria hugged Kal, then skipped over to see what they could have for dinner.
Kal didn't say much, but one thing was clear.
'Well then, that worked out pretty well.'
Octo Canyon
The reserve army was getting closer to their destination
Since they were already below Inkopolis, all they had to do was reach the designated spot and look for a way into Inkopolis Square.
However it was at that moment when the Elite leading the reserve army noticed a saucer approaching.
Curious, the reserve army stopped to see what was happening.
As the saucer landed, the Elite stepped forward to see who had come in such a hurry.
From the saucer came another Elite, and not one that was at Octo Canyon.
She had a message that could not be given through regular transmissions:
"You have been deceived, return to Octo Canyon immediately."
Back at camp, Claire's group was just within earshot of the captain and the messenger from Octo Valley.
They could hear the captain yelling.
"Why was the army not moved? You had gotten your orders days ago!"
"With all due respect captain, your authority was overwritten, aside from the regular army, the reserve army should also be coming back." the messenger; a regular Octoling spoke back to the captain calmly with a stern look in her eye.
"Who ordered this?!" the captain yelled, looking at the other four Elites, "Which one of you gave that order?!"
"Neither of them." came a voice from inside the saucer which had transported the messenger here.
That voice sent a chill down the captain's back, she knew that voice.
The voice of the one she deemed an incompetent leader, one who she hated.
From inside the saucer, Acting Leader Octavia disembarked along with dozens of other Elite Octolings….
They were all alive and well.
The captain was shocked
Octavia just grinned
"Surprised to see me?"
"How did-" the captain begun, but Octavia cut her off immediately.
"Seize her."
Almost immediately, the captain found herself surrounded by over two dozen Elite Octolings; colleagues, sisters in arms, but most importantly, the ones she had betrayed so save her own unit.
They couldn't shoot each other, so what followed was an unarmed brawl.
The captain was known to be an extraordinary fighter even amongst the Elite Octolings, but even she could not take on this many Elites at once.
The captain fought in vain, she had no way out of this, within a few moments she was captured, tied and brought before Octavia once again.
"You put up a decent fight i'll give you that." Octavia said mockingly
"How did you survive?" the captain asked, she had no way to fight now, so the only thing she could do was talk.
"I had no idea you were planning something like this, had everything gone normally that day you would have very much succeeded in replacing me."
"What do you mean normally?"
"That day, soon after you left I got word that a rather large group of Inklings had entered Octo Valley and were trying to make contact with us. So we stopped the meeting early to see what was going on, turns out Inkopolis wanted to hear our side of the story about the recent kidnappings and sent a delegation to negotiate with us."
'I see, so they weren't in the meeting room when my troops splat bombed the room. Though there was no way we could have seen this coming.' the captain thought
"Normally I would have called a saucer to fly by and pick off those Inklings, but we lost contact with Nautilus halfway through, I suspected that something must have happened, so we withdrew."
"So if you knew that something was up? Why did you wait until now to show yourself?" the captain asked
"We will have plenty of time to talk about that later."
Octavia turned to the other Elites standing by.
"Go now, capture every last member of the captain's splatoon."
As soon as they heard this, Claire's group scattered and ran.
Alright, so the fourth part of the story is almost finished, though I got to say I cut this chapter a bit short so the next one will probably end up being longer. No worries I have already started working on it.
On a side note: 新年快乐 (Happy new year) to anyone celebrating Chinese New Year, even though this comes a few days late.
Thanks too everyone reading for supporting me and this story despite the non-existent update schedule.
Stay fresh!