Field's family household, Inkopolis

Lila was worried, she hadn't seen Laven for a while.

Well in this case it was Kal not Laven, but still.

Apparently he had something he needed to do and couldn't bring her along.

Lila stared at her phone screen, reading the last message Kal had sent her.

"Don't worry, i'm coming back now."

Though it was only received a few minutes ago, Lila felt like hours had passed.

Even though she was worried, she wasn't about to run outside and possibly miss Kal's return, so Lila sat around waiting, impatiently tapping the coffee table as she waited.

'Why is he taking so long?!'

Many thoughts ran through her head, did he get into trouble? An accident? Did he get hurt? Was he in danger?

Those thoughts were interrupted by the mechanical sound of the door unlocking.

"I'm back!"

Lila, who had been worried for nothing, immediately perked up again upon seeing Kal.

Well she didn't actually see him.

"Laven!"

Lila felt as if they had been apart for months, she ran and embraced Kal at full speed, nearly knocking him off his feet in the process.

"Whoa! Easy there Lila."

"Sorry! You were gone for so long, I was getting worried."

'I was barely out for an hour…..' Kal thought, perhaps Lila was becoming too dependant on him.

It would be worth mentioning to Dr Asio.

Lila, who had her face buried in Kal's chest, looked up at him.

For some reason Kal had a sad looking face.

"Laven? You look sad, what's wrong?"

"Huh? I do?"

Kal didn't realise it.

He was still thinking about Octo Valley.

Victoria, Inker, Sky and Neon were all there, all his real friends, not whoever Deep or Aurip was.

"Yeah, is something bothering you again? Come on stop trying to hide stuff from me, i'm your sister!"

'No you are not,.' Kal wanted to say.

"Well remember how I said one of my friends was leaving town? She just did, maybe I'm a little sad to see her go."

Lila nodded

"Yeah yeah, saying goodbye is a hard thing to do, especially when someone moves out, since you can't see them as often as before. Don't worry, I'll always be here for you!"

Kal had to fake a smile

"Thanks."

It wasn't that he didn't like Lila's company, but rather because he didn't like the idea of being Laven forever.

Besides it was much more complicated than just seeing Victoria leave.

Would she really fit in with the rebelling Octarians.

And how would those Octarians see Inker and Neon? Both had splatted many of their kind.

Kal wondered how they were doing.

Not that things would have been different if he went along with them, but at least then he would know what's happening.

Guerilla camp, Octo Valley

It took a few hours to reach the main camp.

Captain Vale and Lynn lead the way, constantly keeping an eye out for any Octarian scouts.

Finally they reached a kettle, one that was mostly buried into the ground for better concealment.

"Well, here we are." the captain said.

She leaned over to the kettle, which appeared to be inactive.

"Honor to the valley."

The kettle powered up again.

"Come on everyone, get inside quickly."

Lynn entered first, followed by everyone else, the captain entered last.

What awaited them on the other side was an underground lair serving as the captain and her splatoon's base of operations.

It looked like an underground dome, almost reminding Inker of the kelp dome, but there was not really any vegetation here.

Well that was to be expected since it was underground.

There was a good number of Octarians here, they varied between Octotroopers and Octolings.

They were alerted to the captain's arrival and quickly made ranks, saluting as the captain walked by, followed by Lynn, Victoria, Inker and Neon.

"This is my rest of my splatoon or what remains of it, 24 Octolings, 3 Octoballs and 70 Octotroopers." the captain told the newcomers.

"It may be odd that a splatoon has such a large number of troops in it, but since we lost many Elites in defending the Zapfish, so we have had less officers capable of leading separate splatoons and battalions, so many splatoons were merged together." Captain Vale explained

Inker was mostly responsible for that, having splatted many Elite Octolings during his quest to save the Great Zapfish.

Inker noticed many gazes shift his way as he followed Captain Vale.

The troops glanced and whispered among themselves at the sight of Inker and Neon.

They had not expected their captain to return with Inklings.

Inker felt uncomfortable under the eyes of so many Octarians.

Suddenly, Inker felt a strong burning sensation in his left arm.

"Ow! What the!?"

Neon, Victoria and Lynn all turned towards Inker, who had cried out for some reason.

Someone had shot him.

There was bright magenta ink on his arm.

Inker shook his arm and looked at the many Octarians to his left, all of which averted their gazes to the captain.

The captain noticed this as well, she glared at a specific Octoling, who continued to salute the captain, acting as if nothing happened.

"Lynn, take our guests to the spare rooms."

"Right away ma'am. Come on guys."

Lynn led Victoria, Neon and Inker away, though Inker kept glancing back over in the direction where the shot came from.

Once they were gone, the captain turned to the other troops.

"Soldiers, you may be questioning the recent events, but everything we have done was done with purpose. Over the past week we spent our time a limited resources on creating fake camps throughout Octo valley, that was to trick Octavia into spreading the army thin and give us a better fighting chance. Now I have went and gotten help from another wanted Octoling, one with connections in Inkopolis which could prove useful. As always, there must be trust among ourselves, so if any of you have any concerns, speak up now."

Almost immediately, there were a dozen voices.

"Why did you reveal our location to Agent 3?"

"This is our fight, why did you bring Agent 3 into it?"

"Octavia is bad enough, but Agent 3?"

"Agent 3 has to have an angle here, why else would he save us in the first place?"

"This is an Octarian problem, you didn't need to bring Inklings into it."

And much more like that.

They were not too fond of the idea that they would be working with Inklings.

"While I appreciate your concern, the truth is that we have a common enemy, so it makes sense to have some sort of co-operation with Agent 3. I'm not saying that it will last however, I am aware that Agent 3 is ultimately our enemy, when the time comes we will deal with him."

There were more murmurs among the troops

"I don't like this, this feels wrong."

"Well this is the captain's choice, I'm sure she has considered everything."

"I suggest we splat him when he goes to bed tonight."

"Now that's a bit too far, even Agent 3 wouldn't do something like that."

"Agent 3 won't help us unless it benefits Inkopolis, we should watch our backs."

"Maybe it would have been better if we all opened fire on him earlier."

"He probably would have splatted us all then."

"I can't tell which is worse, Octavia or Agent 3?"

"If we get rid of Octavia we can return to our usual lives, but if we get rid of Agent 3 we could save thousands of Octarians…"

"Honestly I think the captain already has something planned for him, we should follow along."

"Maybe, but i'd feel much safer without Agent 3 in the lair."

Opinions were divided, some were willing to trust the captain, others wanted to get rid of Agent 3 ASAP.

Considering one of them had shot at Inker earlier, it wouldn't be a surprise if somebody else tried something.

"I don't want any of you trying anything with Agent 3 until I say so, for now just bear with it. Once Agent 3 is no longer useful I'll give the order to splat him, but for now you should all rest up, we will be moving out soon."

The captain scanned the troops, searching for the Octoling who had shot Inker earlier.

Although it may be difficult to tell one Octoling from another, the captain was well used to this, she valued her troops to a point where she knew each of them individually.

She found the Octoling standing among the others and pointed at her.

"You, Eliza, come with me."

"Yes ma'am."

"The rest of you, carry on with whatever you were doing."

The captain took the Octoling named "Eliza" away from the others.

As that was going on, Lynn had led Victoria, Inker and Neon to the rooms they would stay in.

Victoria would bunk with several other Octolings, something she was already used to during her time in the army, while Neon and Inker was given their own room, probably because the other Octarians would not want to share a room with Inklings.

"We will be having dinner shortly, I'll be back to show you to the mess hall once its time." Lynn said, leaving Inker and Neon to themselves.

As soon as she was gone, Neon threw herself onto her bed.

"Fwahhhhh! That took forever! My feet are sore, I don't think I've ever walked for that long!" Neon cried, glad to finally get off her feet.

She then took note of the hardness of the mattress, hitting it repeatedly a few times.

"This is too hard, we may as well sleep on the floor."

Inker in the meantime, simply sat down and watched Neon.

"This isn't a hotel you know, the stuff here is probably made from anything the captain could salvage." He said

"Huh? So you're telling me we are going to live in a place made of junk and scraps? This sucks!" Neon whined

"Hey you were the one who wanted to come."

"Yeah but that's because I thought there is going to be fighting!"

"Don't head back to Inkopolis yet, there will be soon."

"Yeah yeah I get it, this just isn't turning out to be as fun as I expected….." Neon said, lying down.

"This isn't a game Neon, please take this seriously for once."

"Yeah I got it…. Hold on a sec! Did you say "for once?" Neon shot back up

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yeah you did! You totally did! Even I can take things seriously, just watch!" Neon pouted

"Heh okay."

Inker checked his hero headset.

"Cap'n can you still read me?"

"Readin' you loud and clear bucko!"

'Good, it still works'

Inker was worried that he may not be able to contact Inkopolis from here, but all was well.

Now that it was on his mind, Inker noticed Neon had brought her hero headset too.

Cap'n Cuttlefish didn't have enough hero suits for everyone, so he was only able to give them headsets, Neon and Kal both got one for the mission to rescue Lila.

It seems that Neon was better prepared than expected.

Meanwhile Eliza, the Octoling who had shot Inker, was following the captain through the lair.

Eliza was not worried one bit, she could already guess why the captain was calling her away and she didn't regret it.

Captain Vale took her to the captain's quarters, shut the door, and took a seat.

"Now Eliza, why did you think it was a good idea to fire at Agent 3?"

There could not have been an easier question.

"He was just standing there, how could I not shoot him, you know how much I hate him."

"So i've heard, I understand your hatred for him, but shooting him isn't doing us any good."

"Maybe not, but it makes me feel better."

"I see, so you think that your feelings are more important than the rest of the splatoon?"

Those words caught Eliza off guard "N-no, not like that."

"And what would you have done if Agent 3 had decided to fire back? Or worse, what if he and the other Inkling went hostile?"

"Well I hadn't thought of that but-"

"I want you to think before acting out like that again, if what you do does not benefit us as a whole, then don't do it." the captain said, her voice growing increasingly stern.

The Octoling grew increasingly annoyed

"He splatted my sister, what did you expect me to do? Kiss his feet?"

Captain Vale already knew what happened to this Octoling, she knew the stories of all her troops, it was her way of making sure they wouldn't be forgotten if they were splatted.

"I know that he took the life of your younger sister, and that it was during her first battle which happened to be on her birthday, but that is not even a valid reason to hate him. Both Agent 3 and your sister were soldiers of opposing armies, it's only natural that one would fall if they met on the battlefield."

"Well yeah, but that doesn't mean I'm okay with losing my sister."

"And what if the roles were reversed? If your sister managed to splat him instead, should there be Inklings going after her for revenge?"

"Well no, it wouldn't be fair since she was just doing her job."

"Yeah? Well Agent 3 was also "just doing his job" yet it's fair for you to hold a grudge against him?"

"What are you trying to do? Convince me to like Agent 3 and stand by his side?"

The captain shook her head.

"I expect you to put aside your grudge and work with him for the time being."

"No, i'm sorry captain, but I just can't do that. I can't stand that guy and I don't want to be anywhere near him."

"Jeez, I'm just asking you to work with him, not marry the guy. Like I said this is only temporary, when the time comes Agent 3 will be brought to heel, begging for mercy. When that time comes, you will have your shot at revenge." That last bit was to encourage Eliza to bear with Agent 3's presence for now and it worked.

'Agent 3 begging for mercy?'

Eliza liked the sound of that.

She imagined a scenario where Octavia was defeated, with that she and the rest of the 202nd splatoon could go home. But first they would turn on Agent 3, there would be a fight and in the end Agent 3 would lay battered and bruised at her feet.

Eliza imagined Agent 3 pleading with her to let him go, but she would toy with him like a cat toying with a mouse, giving him a chance to crawl for his Hero Shot only to kick his battered form around at the last moment, watching him roll and groan in pain, before finishing him off in her sister's name.

Eliza liked that idea, she liked it alot.

"Well alright then, I'll bear with it for now…"

"Good girl, now get back to the rest of the splatoon, it should be time for dinner soon."

"Yes ma'am, right away."

Eliza left with a smile on her face.

Meanwhile Lynn went to go get Inker and Neon.

"Come on you two, it's time for dinner."

Lynn led them to the mess hall, where many other Octarians stood in lines, waiting to get the rations for the day.

Inker spotted Victoria in another line, she was chatting with an Octotrooper and an Octoling.

Victoria seemed to fit right in to this splatoon.

As for Inker and Neon, they were constantly shot mean looks from the Octarians.

Everyone was given an equal share of jerky, hardtack and porridge, even Inker and Neon surprisingly, although the Octoling serving the food seemed nervous giving it to them.

Inker didn't say a word until they had gotten their food and were seated.

Inker sat next to an Octoling, who immediately took her rations and went to another table, shooting him a dirty gaze and she walked away.

Neon joined Inker, since she couldn't make conversation with anyone else.

"Why is everyone here so unfriendly?!" Neon complained

Inker sighed "Honestly I should have expected this, I knew the Octarians didn't like us that much, but this…"

"And why don't they serve a salad or something?"

Ignoring Neon, Inker looked around, he could see many Octarians eying them, some nervously others angrily.

He could guess that everyone here either hated his guts or were afraid he'd splat them.

Well everyone except Victoria and Lynn.

However those two were too busy chatting with other Octarians to talk to Inker and Neon.

Silently Inker and Neon ate.

Or at least they tried too.

Like Kal had discovered before them, rationed foods were not particularly tasty.

Inker almost spat out his jerky because of how salty it was, he covered his mouth and swallowed it down. seeing this reaction, Neon resolved to sample the jerky first by licking it.

"Salty! Its saltier than Marie after burgers vs pizza!"

After that she observed her piece of hardtack.

She tapped it with her fingers

The hardtack made a loud 'Tok tok tok' noise.

It didn't look edible at all.

Inker tried to bite his hardtack, but it was so tough that he stopped in fear of chipping his teeth.

Neon struggled with the hardtack, after a while she finally managed to snap it in half.

She and Inker moved on to the rice porridge, which was so thin you could barely see the rice.

Actually to call it porridge was an overstatement, it was basically just water that was barely thick enough to be non lethal if you were to jump into it.

"Are we really supposed to eat this?" Inker wondered.

"Beats me." Neon said, still playing around with her hardtack.

She started grinding the two pieces together, reducing the tough hardtack into crumbs, which fell into her porridge and almost expanded to twice their size.

Neon now had a porridge of soggy cracker crumbs, which she and Inker stared at wordlessly for a moment…

"..."

"..."

Inker on the other hand, gave up on the hardtack and decided to try and make the jerky less salty by rinsing it in the porridge.

Around two thirds of the jerky dissolved, turning the porridge into a light brown colour.

Now Inker had a bowl of strangely coloured porridge.

"..."

"... Was that jerky or soup stock?" Inker wondered.

"I don't know, but i'm getting hungry… Oh well, maybe if we just throw everything together it won't be so bad."

With that, Neon added jerky to her soggy breadcrumb porridge.

She stared at the now light brown porridge with breadcrumbs floating in it.

"..."

Reluctantly, Neon ate a spoonful.

"..."

"...So? How is it?" Inker asked

"Not bad actually, it's better than eating everything separate that's for sure."

"Huh, let me try then."

After a brief struggle, Inker broke his hardtack in two as well, like Neon he grinded the two pieces together and let the crumbs fall into his porridge.

Reluctantly he took a bite as well.

"So?" Neon asked

"You're right, it's not that bad."

"Alright! That solves our food issue!"

Even in these conditions, Neon remained cheerful.

Inker wondered where she got all that positive energy from.

As Neon threw a fist into the air, the Octarians around them all looked over with curiosity.

"? what?" Neon made a confused face upon seeing that almost the entire room was now looking at her.

The Octarians returned to their meals, leaving Neon to wonder why they had all looked at her.

Inker amused, laughed bit.

"What?"

"Oh nothing."

"Tell me! What's so funny."

"Nothing forget about it."

"Tell meeeeee!"

As Neon shook Inker, some other Octarians commented on the strange sight.

They knew who Agent 3 was and wanted nothing to do with him, but who was the girl he brought along?

A friend? A sibling? A lover? An agent?

The only one who knew was Victoria, who was seated with Lynn and many other Octarians across the room.

Like the other Octarians, Victoria was used to eating the rationed foods, so she had no problem with her jerky, hardtack and porridge.

Hearing the Octarians talk about Neon, Victoria joined in.

"That's Neon." Victoria told the other Octarians at her table.

"What's Neon?" an Octoling wondered

"The Inkling girl's name, its Neon. She's a friend of Agent 3."

"Really? Huh, strange name."

Victoria nodded in agreement.

Even though she knew Agent 3 personally and had been living in Inkopolis for a while, the other Octarians did not dislike Victoria, in fact she was treated just like how any other Octoling would be treated.

"Why is she here in the first place? Is she a new agent of the New Squidbeak splatoon?" An Octotrooper asked.

Another shuddered "She's more than just that, that girl is a monster."

"What are you talking about?" Lynn asked the shivering Octotrooper.

"At Melanin prison… That girl transformed into a huge squid and literally crushed a dozen of us."

He had probably mistaken Neon's Kraken special to be her actual squid form

The Octotrooper shuddered has he recalled Neon diving into their ranks in Kraken form, causing mass panic amongst the Melanin prison guards.

Of course, nobody here knew what a Kraken was, and so nobody believed him.

"That's impossible, i've never heard of an Inkling possessing an ability like that." an Octoling laughed

"Yeah, Neon has a weird personality, but she's just a normal Inkling." Victoria added

"Could it be because you are small, so she seemed big to you in squid form?" Lynn wondered

"Oh it's true.."

Lynn, Victoria and the others turned and saw their captain standing there, having just arrived and overheard their conversation.

"!"

The Octarians immediately stood up, saluting the captain, while Inker and Neon wondered what was happening, Neon even stood up just for fun.

"As you were." the captain said

The Octarians and Neon all sat back down.

"Well then, I hope you don't mind if I join you." Captain Vale said, taking a seat next to Lynn and Victoria.

"Ahh, no problem captain." Lynn said, making a bit of room for her commanding officer.

"Well now, back to the topic of that girl's squid form." Captain Vale gestured at Neon.

"It's true I tell you, I saw it myself!" the Octotrooper exclaimed

"And I believe you, I saw the recordings from the goggles of the Octolings she splatted." The captain continued, turning to Lynn "you remember Madison right? She was splatted by that green Inkling when she transformed into a seemingly invulnerable giant squid form."

"So, what he says is true?" Victoria asked

"I told you, we have two very dangerous Inklings amongst us."

"I wouldn't worry too much about it, other Octolings also spotted her with a normal squid form, it seems that her giant squid form can only be used for short bursts of time. It seems more like some kind of weapon rather than a natural ability."

"Weapon? So you are saying if one of us were to use her gear, we could transform like that too?" One of the Octolings appeared very interested in the Kraken special.

"Who knows? The Inklings have some very different and strange weapons, along with strange personalities, names and beliefs. We are very different from them. It's good to plan for the future, so we should try and learn as much about them as we can, so that we will be better prepared for when we eventually attack Inkopolis."

Attacking Inkopolis…. it's been a while since Victoria last heard about that.

"Captain, why do you insist on being enemies with the Inklings, they really aren't that bad you know."

Looking at Victoria, the captain guessed that her time in Inkopolis may have affected her judgement, they were friendly at the moment, but the captain believed that ultimately the Inklings were still their enemy.

"Ahh, our new recruit, Victoria Holter. I've heard that you've been to Inkopolis several times now, you've even made some friends over there. But remember not to let your emotions cloud your judgement or you may end up making a fatal mistake. Your mother taught me that."

"My mother? You knew her?"

"I fought alongside her during the Salmonid war, she had been called back to active duty despite retiring early to take care of you. I was a recruit at the time, I learned alot from her."

"Huh, I never knew my mother that well. Is that why you wanted me to join you? Are you expecting me to be just like her?"

"I just need all the help I can get at the moment. I figured we aren't too different so we should stand together."

"Hmm." Victoria looked over at Inker and Neon, talking among themselves. "And what about them? Why did you agree to bring them along if you only see them as enemies?"

The captain wondered as well.

On one hand, Agent 3 has proven himself to be an incredibly strong soldier in the past, so he may be useful here and could compensate for their fewer numbers.

On the other hand he was Agent 3, he splatted entire battalions worth of Octarians in the past and took out the great Octoweapons and even DJ Octavio's Octobot King, all to take the Zapfish back to a race that didn't deserve it, he could not be easily forgiven.

"He could be a useful tool, but that doesn't mean he isn't an enemy."

"He doesn't have to be an enemy you know. He said it himself that he doesn't want to fight us if he doesn't need to."

"And you believe that?"

"Not at first."

The captain looked over at Inker.

Right now he was talking with the strange Inkling girl and laughing.

'If he really doesn't want to fight, then he wouldn't have wanted to come here in the first place.'

The captain decided to keep an eye on Inker over the next few days.

"Even if he doesn't want to fight, him being a part of the New Squidbeak splatoon puts him in our crosshairs."

Victoria glanced at the captain

"Are you saying your going to splat him sometime?"

"Yes, preferably when this is all over."

Now Victoria had a huge look of suspicion on her face.

"You don't trust him at all, yet you trust me enough to tell me this. What's stopping me from telling Inker about it?"

"Nothing, that's the point, trust is important if you are going to be a member of my splatoon. If you have any doubts about our goals, then leave, I won't stop you, it's a simple as that."

Victoria noticed that Lynn and the other Octarians nearby nodded when they heard that.

"The captain has always been that way." Lynn explained "With her, you always know where you stand, she doesn't hide anything from us and cares for our well being. She also won't hold grudges against you if you did something like making deals with Inklings."

'Interesting.' Victoria thought "But how can you trust Inker if you are constantly making an enemy out of him?"

"I never said he was part of my splatoon." the captain replied.

'Yet I am? Strange, why is it that she can't tolerate Inklings, but she'll trust an Octoling she's just met? She even knows that I led Inker and the others to Melanin prison, yet she's still trusting me so easily.'

Victoria watched her new captain, she had previously only heard of her exploits during the Salmonid war, to think that she would be such a strange character.

But if she was planning to backstabbing Inker in the end, then Victoria wouldn't stand by.

Once dinner was over, the splatoon had some time to themselves.

Inker and Neon had retired to the room meant for them.

They had to rely on memory to get around, since they couldn't read any of the signs.

As for why they went back to their room..

"Hey guys, how's everything?" Came Sky's voice through the hero headsets Inker and neon were wearing.

Sky and Cuttlefish were checking in on them. Inker felt that speaking to mission control while in plain sight would draw even more suspicion towards him and Neon, so they had to return to their room before speaking.

Before Inker could say anything though, Neon cut in.

"Sky! You should be glad you didn't come here. The food is bad, the rooms are bad, the company is bad and the showers are just buckets of Magenta ink! I can't even use that!"

"What else did you expect going into Octo Valley with a bunch of wanted Octarians?" was Sky's response.

"Well for one I thought there would be a large scale turf war…."

"Seriously…"

Then came Cuttlefish's voice.

"Agent 3! You haven't ran into any trouble have you? Let me know if that Captain Vale starts mistreating ya."

"Oh no it's fine, at least for now. The Octarians here aren't too fond of me."

"How about Victoria?" Sky asked

"She seems to be getting along with the others perfectly."

"Yeah! She's forgotten all about us the moment we arrived!" Neon exclaimed

"No she didn't, she's probably just getting to know everyone else first."

"Hmm okay, it's a shame everyone here is so unfriendly. Oh! If I splat lots of enemies during a battle, do you think they'll like me more?"

"Considering the "enemies" down there are other Octarians, I think they would end up staying further away from you." Sky said.

"Waaaa, you're so mean Sky. Alright! Tomorrow I'm going to try speaking with some of the Octarians!"

"Good idea, just keep in mind that only the Octolings speak the Universal language while all the others speak Octarian."

"Oh? Do you think you could learn Octarian and teach me?" Sky seemed curious, he probably wanted to learn that language.

As for Neon she had no idea what the different Octarian species were.

"Oh there you are."

Victoria was at the door.

"Victoria! You didn't forget about us!" Neon yelled

"Why would I forget about you two? Anyways quiet down, this is important."

"Okie..."

Victoria shut the door behind her and sat close to Inker and Neon, talking in a quiet voice.

"It's not safe for you two to be here, Captain Vale is planning on splatting you once she's done with Octavia."

Inker wasn't surprised in the slightest.

"I was expecting that."

'You did? Then why did you come with me?"

"Well to be honest, I wouldn't have come if Neon didn't jump in."

"Huh!? So its my fault again?" Neon stammered

"Don't worry about it. Anyways is it really okay for you to be telling us this Victoria?"

"Would you have preferred not to know about the captain's plan?"

"Didn't I say I expected it already? It's obvious that Captain Vale is planning on getting rid of me once i'm not useful anymore, I thought that maybe with some time, Vale could learn not to hate us Inklings, just as you have."

'Of course Inker would try something like that.' Victoria thought

"But unlike me, Vale an Elite Octoling, she's loyally bound to Octavio and our race."

"Octavio huh…. Do you think she'll try and free him?"

"I'm certain she will, once Octavia is gone, there will be nobody left to be our leader, so naturally all focus would go towards freeing Octavio. The only reason why nobody has tried to free Octavio so far is because Octavia is here." Victoria was certain that it was the case.

Inker pondered for a moment

He had gone through alot to get back the Great Zapfish and capture Octavio.

So much senseless violence to stop the actions of one Octarian leader.

He didn't think this little group of rebelling Octarians would still be loyal to Octavio.

Who was worse? Octavio or Octavia?

One stole Inkopolis' main power supply, the other squidnapped and splatted many Inklings.

'Tough choice, but wouldn't Octavio be less of a threat?'

"Well then, I need to head off before anyone notices me. Tomorrow i'll be assigned some base duties so I probably won't have as much time to talk. Right now however, everyone else should be gathered in their rooms or the main room. You should come as well, maybe if you make a few friends here you'd lessen the chance of being shot in the back."

"You say that, but i'm Agent 3 and these are Octarian soldiers. It was hard enough convincing you that I meant no harm back then, now there's an entire splatoon of Octarians."

"Well you should try at least, oh and I suggest you both get used to sleeping early and waking up early. Technically you're soldiers now."

With that, Victoria left.

"Wait I need to get up early too?!" Neon complained

"Looks like this isn't turning out to be the fun trip you had in mind."

"Oh shut up….. I know! I'll follow Victoria to where the other Octarians are. I'm no Agent so they'll be more friendly with me right?!"

"We won't know until you give it a shot."

"Alright!"

Neon ran off.

"I feel bad for you Inker." came Sky's voice "Being stuck babysitting a troublesome girl like her."

"Hey!"

Neon came running back into the room, grabbing Inker.

"Where's the camera!" she said, searching Inker's Hero Suit with her eyes.

"Umm right here." Inker pointed to the hidden camera on his Hero suit.

"Sky look here! I'm wearing my Hero headset too! Don't think you can say things behind my back!" Neon yelled into Inker's hidden camera, pointing at her headset.

Sky was busted "Sorry about that..."

Neon satisfied, grinned and ran off again.

"Hahaha, you gotta give Neon some credit though, at least she made sure to wear the hero headset and hasn't splatted anyone yet. Not even when someone shot me out of spite. She's doing better than before."

"I guess."

"Well anyways I'm going silent now. It will be hard to earn the trust of these Octarians if i'm constantly speaking to someone else through my headset. Talk to you later."

"Alright, good luck!"

By the time Inker made it to the main room, Neon was already there and trying to make conversation.

The main room was large and empty, if they weren't training, the Octarians could do pretty much anything they could think of here. It was like a courtyard but underground in an already underground city.

There was a group of Octolings and an Octoball on one side, standing in front of a net made of rope. Neon ran up to them.

"Hiya!"

"What do you want Inkling?" one Octoling replied

"Oh i'm getting to know everyone! I'm Neon! Nice to meetcha!"

Neon stuck a hand out to the Octoling, but she just snorted and ignored her.

"Okay the teams are ready? Let's play."

The Octolings split up into two groups, one on each side drew some lines into the ground using a small piece of chalk.

Once that was done, they took positions and one picked up the Octoball.

"Ready? Here it comes!" The Octoling tossed the Octoball up into the air and smacked it over to the other group.

They were playing volleyball with an Octoball.

Even though she was straight up ignored, Neon stood by watching as the Octolings send the Octoball back and forth.

Finally one Octoling smashed the Octoball over the net, another dived trying to send it back but failed.

"1-0"

The Octoball bounced away, after a brief struggle it rolled back onto its feet coming face to face with Neon, who had crouched beside it with curiosity.

"That looks like fun! but doesn't it hurt being a ball?" Neon asked the Octoball by her feet.

The Octoball replied in a language Neon could not understand.

"?"

"He said, mind your own business!" an Octoling shouted

Neon looked back at the Octoball, seeking confirmation, however the Octoball had already rolled back into the hands of another Octoling.

"Come on guys! Don't ignore me! I can play too! Come on, put me in the game! I'll prove it to you!"

"We already have equal teams, go pester someone else."

"Aww."

Neon left with a dejected face, but perked up again about two seconds later.

She went over to a group of Octotroopers.

One of them had jury rigged one of their hovercrafts to move around randomly on their own.

Two dozen others tried to hit it with the weapons on their own hovercrafts.

Neon went over to the one Octotrooper without a hovercraft.

"Hiya! I'm Neon! What's your name?"

The Octotrooper did not understand Neon, he looked up at Neon in confusion, replying in a language Neon could not understand.

Neon tilted her head "Hmm? I don't understand you, or is that your name?"

The Octotrooper said something else Neon didn't understand.

"You know, my friend Sky wanted to learn that language someday. He might be dull and boring but I think it would be useful at this point."

The Octotrooper, not understanding a word Neon was saying, looked back at his fellow Octotroopers firing at the unmanned hovercraft.

Neon followed his gaze

"Oh! I see! That's target practice right! My aim is perfect! Watch this!"

Neon pulled out her E-Liter 3K custom and ran towards the group of Octotroopers and the unmanned hovercraft.

With a loud BANG, Neon sniped the unmanned hovercraft.

Her fully charged E-Liter shot was enough to knock it over and leave a long trail of green ink on the ground.

It also scared the daylights out of all the Octotroopers already shooting at it.

"Woomy!" Neon cheered.

She couldn't celebrate for long though, because her loud E-Liter had drawn the attention of everyone in the room, Neon was immediately surrounded by half a dozen Octolings.

"What are you doing you stupid Inkling! Firing a weapon like that here? You could have splatted someone!" One Octoling yelled at Neon.

"Hmm? No way, I made sure nobody was in the way, see!" Neon pointed at how the shot had stopped before it reached any of the Octotroopers.

The direction she had fired from had no Octotrooper between her and the hovercraft as well, so there was no way she would have hit anyone if she missed.

Despite that, the Octolings didn't let her go.

"No weapons of different colours here! Give me that!" another Octoling said, grabbing Neon's E-Liter 3K.

"No! Hey! Stop that! That's mine!"

As Neon struggled to pull her E-Liter back, another Octoling grabbed her arm.

"Come on! Grab her! Pin her down before she does anything else!"

"Ow that hurts! Stop that!"

The six Octolings were all over Neon, pulling, pushing and grabbing her while one tried to take the E-Liter from her hands.

Neon struggled to hold on to her precious E-Liter, she tried her best to shake away the Octolings.

Getting fed up with the Octoling trying to take her E-Liter, Neon kicked the Octoling really hard in the shin

"OW!"

As the Octoling grasped her knee, Neon yanked her E-Liter back and transformed, leaping away from the other Octolings.

The six Octolings went after Neon again, this time with Octoshots drawn.

They covered turf as they made their way towards Neon, backing her against a wall.

"Drop that weapon or we will open fire!" One of them shouted at Neon.

Neon however, just giggled.

She always made sure to charge her special before entering Octo Valley, since there was o rule saying that you had to enter with your special gauge empty.

Neon turned into Kraken form.

"?!"

The Octolings, who had just seen her in a normal squid form, were shocked by the size of Neon's new form.

Neon swam slowly towards the Octolings, they opened fire on her to no effect.

"Hey! All of you! Stop it! Cease fire immediately!"

Captain Vale had appeared, along with possibly everyone else in the lair, drawn to all the racket.

Noticing her, the Octolings stopped shooting at Neon.

Neon stopped as well, her Kraken form expiring a second later just as Inker arrived.

"What's going on here Neon?"

All Inker saw was six Octolings, Neon coming out of Kraken form, as well as bright magenta and green Ink all over the place.

He took a guess as to what happened.

As for the captain, she was just about to lecture the Octolings when Inker showed up.

He lowered his head in apology "I'm sorry for the trouble my friend has caused."

"Hey hold on! Why do you assume I did something wrong?" Neon exclaimed

"Maybe because I heard you shoot your E-liter and now there's ink everywhere." Inker turned back to the captain "I'm really sorry for whatever Neon has done."

Neon grabbed Inker's shoulders and shook him with extreme vigor.

"Stop apologizing! I did nothing wrong!"

"Then why were you chasing around a bunch of Octolings in Kraken form? Why do you even have Kraken fully charged?"

"It pays to be prepared so I always make sure to charge my special before coming to Octo Valley. Besides I wasn't trying to splat them or anything, they cornered me with their shooters so I just tried to scare them off."

Now Inker was somewhat convinced that Neon wasn't to blame.

"Huh, well... Why were they chasing you in the first place?"

"That idiot was firing her weapon near some Octotroopers!" came the voice of the Octoling who was kicked in the shin.

"Neon…"

"Yeah! But they were in no danger, I made sure nobody was in the way so that even if I do miss nobody would get hurt. Besides you should know that when it comes to aim, my aim is perfect!"

Inker agreed

"True, other things aside, your skill with a Charger really is first class."

"Did you just say "other things aside"?"

"Not at all. Regardless you scared everyone with your E-Liter, so you should probably apologize."

"I was not scared!" one Octoling shouted

"Yeah, none of us were! Why would we be scared by some random Inkling with a weapon? It's just dangerous to be firing weapons of different ink colours outside of the firing range!"

"Hmm? Do your spawn points not reach this room or something?" Neon wondered

"Spawn points?"

"Neon come with me for a second." Inker said, taking Neon out of the room.

Inker took Neon to a more secluded hallway, where they wouldn't likely be overheard.

"What's up?"

"Neon look around you, Octo Valley is not Inkopolis, do you think they could afford something like respawn points?"

"? I thought respawn points were for everyone. Every city I've ever been too has had spawn points constructed in dangerous areas."

"Well not here, if you get splatted in Octo Valley its permanent, for us and for them."

Neon gasped, bringing her hands to her cheeks

"That's horrible! Wait so all the Octarians we splatted before don't respawn?"

"You thought they did?"

"Yeah! There were so many of them so I thought they were respawning somewhere nearby!"

Neon seemed to be in shock.

Inker sighed

"Now you see why I hate having to fight the Octarians?"

Neon nodded "Yeah yeah! Totally, why didn't you tell us earlier?"

"Neon, everyone else knew, I thought you did too. In fact I thought I mentioned it before."

"Huh? Everyone knew? Well then we should head back to Inkopolis now."

Neon had completely changed her mind.

"Wow that was unexpected, I thought for sure you already knew and kept on splatting Octarians because you found it fun."

"I've been meaning to ask this for a while now, but what do you think I am? I'm not some monster who would permanently splat others for fun."

"You're right, well if you want to head back to Inkopolis then you should go, I think i'll stay here for a while."

"Huh? Why? Didn't you say the reason you came in the first place was because of me?"

Sure Inker didn't want to fight if it was unnecessary, but he also wanted to convince the Octarians that they didn't have to be his enemy.

If anything, being accepted into Captain Vale's splatoon was a rare chance to convince more than just Victoria.

"I'm going to stay and try to befriend the Octarians here. With a little luck, we won't have to fight each other in the future."

Since he was already here, he may as well take a shot at it.

"Really? But they even shot you earlier, that's gotta be the biggest sign saying "I don't want to talk to you"."

"At first, Victoria didn't want anything to do with me and Kal, but now she's not only our friend, but she even helped us rescue Kal and Lila. I think we shouldn't be quick to shoot down the idea that maybe, with enough time, we can convince these Octarians that we aren't their enemy."

"Wow, even with the bad food, bad bed and bad living conditions in general you're going to stay?"

"Yep." Inker's answer was as quick as could be.

Neon smiled, once again pumping a fist into the air.

"Alright then so am I! But i'm going to turn in early today, I have a lot to think about."

"Huh, that doesn't sound like you."

"Once again, what do you think I am? Even I get troubled okay! I thought that maybe if I bragged about fighting at Melanin prison I could show my skill and get along with some of the Octarians. But now I know that they don't respawn so I need to think of other things to talk about."

"You were planning on saying what?! You realize these Octarians were the ones guarding Melanin prison right? The ones that survived at least."

"Ehhh!? Whoa! Thank goodness I didn't manage to brag about breaking Kal out of jail."

It seems that Neon was still unaware of many things.

"Well like I said i'm going to turn in early. Victoria did say we have to get used to it. Let's try our best to get along with the Octarians tomorrow!"

Neon was full of enthusiasm.

"Alright you go on ahead, I think i'll go speak to Lynn or Captain Vale and try to find out what we'll be doing in the upcoming days."

"Okay! Good night Inker!"

Inker watched as Neon skipped away to their room.

'How does she manage to stay cheerful and positive even though she just found out that she basically killed dozens of Octarians? When I first found out that they didn't respawn I couldn't stop worrying and wondering if I was really the bad guy here.'

Inker started to wonder, but there were other things to worry about.

'Victoria mentioned base duties, I have no idea what that is but I bet Vale has something in store for me and Neon.'

If it was something dangerous could he refuse?

He'd have to wait till tomorrow to find out.

A/N: Alright so after Kal, Victoria and Lila had the spotlight, its time for Inker and Neon to take the center. I have to admit, writing about Neon's character is strangely amusing, she's slowly become my favorite OC to write about. Probably because of her peculiar personality and strange behavior.

Once again I'd like to thank everyone who's been reading up to now, once again the story has changed a bit and is focusing on something else. Thank you all for staying with me.