Guerilla camp, Octo Valley
Having already gotten used to getting up early, Inker was awake before any of his friends.
Inker expected the same Octolings from before to show up and do someone over the top to wake them up, so he remained awake while letting the others rest.
It would probably be difficult for Kal and Sky to adapt to waking up this early, as for Neon, Inker thought that since she was always so full of energy she could probably pull an all nighter and still be fine.
The clock struck six and Inker could hear the lair coming to life as all the Octarains in the base woke up.
This time however, nobody barged in and assaulted them or anything.
Strange…
'Well we shouldn't keep the Octarians waiting.'
Inker gentily woke up his friends, somewhat glad that Kal and Sky wouldn't have to go through what he and Neon did during their first night here.
Once they were up, the group went for breakfast, where Inker was once again on the lookout for any Octarians trying to pull something.
Nothing, no nails in their seats, no shoulder bumps or anything.
What was happening here?
Actually it looks like the Octarians around them were getting fewer in number.
Inker spent the rest of the day on guard against anything the less friendly Octarians might try to pull but they didn't try anything.
Which meant that Sky and Kal had a peaceful first day in the lair.
Everything here was new to them.
Kal and Sky found the room where the Octarians marched in formation while singing their songs.
"What are those Octotroopers and Octolings doing?"
"Parading or something, not sure why though." Inker replied
Sky tried to think of a reason why the Octarians would need to practice moving together like that but just couldn't, he felt that it was not important, but since he didn't know a thing about combat and kept his mouth shut.
Kal and Sky also passed by a group of Octolings playing what appeared to be soccer, except they used a live Octoball as well... The ball.
As it was kicked about, the Octoball left trails of ink on the ground.
"That looks painful, did you ever try that." Kal asked
"Nope, I don't think I could without hurting myself."
Unless Inker could become dark magenta like the Octolings and Octoball, he could not join in such a sport.
Or he could just find them an actual ball.
Sky took a wild guess that maybe they were using the Octoball as the ball so that it wouldn't feel left out, but as usual he kept his thoughts to himself.
Plus he had already seen all this via Inker's hero suit back then so it wasn't so surprising.
When they travelled to the firing range they immediately noticed that the Octolings had started using Rollers again.
A line of Octolings moved about trying different ways to use the Roller.
Even though a Roller was a new concept for them, they seemed to be more adept in using it compared to Sky.
"Huh, I expected Neon to be here." Kal said
Unlike Inker who stayed with them, Neon ran off on her own as soon as they were done breakfast.
Kal and Sky were both certain that she would have ran here.
"I think I know where she is."
Inker led Kal and Sky to the sparring room and sure enough he was right.
"Hyah!"
"Gah!"
Neon was being knocked around by a group of Octolings.
Inker rushed forward to see what was going on.
Sky on the other hand wondered…
"Doesn't it look like Neon's doing just fine?"
"Really? Well I can't tell but I can see someone like Neon enjoying that."
Inker pulled an Octoling off of Neon.
"Hey stop it! Why are you picking on… huh Lynn?"
To Inker's surprise the Octoling he was holding was the pony tailed adjutant of Captain Vale.
Inker thought she was friendly to him and Neon, why was she here?
"Inkerrrr! Why did you have to jump in and ruin everything?" Neon complained
"Huh?"
Inker looked around, all the Octolings had stopped beating down on Neon.
Actually Neon didn't look hurt in the slightest, instead she seemed to be pouting.
Also among the Octolings was another familiar face.
"Victoria? Umm, what's going on here?" Kal asked.
"Isn't it obvious? Captain Vale is known to be the best hand to hand combatant Octo Valley has ever known, yet Neon fought her to a standstill, so naturally everyone would want to practice with her."
'Shouldn't it be the opposite?' Sky wondered
"Wait, but I saw like twenty of you guys piling on top of her." Inker pointed out
Neon smiled
"Well yeah cause you know, they'd kinda all lose in a 1v1 so I figured let them all fight me at once."
"It's really weird seeing you say that with such a wide smile on your face. How do you even expect to beat twenty Octolings attacking you all at once?"
"Trained ones too, just saying." Victoria added.
Neon shrugged "I don't know, I think I can take on five and win with certainty, but going up against twenty is pretty fun in it's own way. Wanna try?"
"Yeah why not give it a shot Agent 3?"
"Come on, don't be afraid."
"Don't worry, we'll be gentle… mostly."
Several of the Octolings were smirking and cracking their knuckles.
Seeing this Inker nervously replied "Uhh... heh… I think I'll pass."
He could only see an outcome where he became a punching bag for Captain Vale's Octolings.
Inker then noticed another Octoling glancing into the room.
It was that same one who shot him when he first came here, the same one who came to Lynn's aid and ended up needing help at the rig.
Eliza.
Eliza immediately turned and walked off when Inker spotted her.
Inker guessed that something along the lines of a 20v1 beatdown probably caught her attention since he knew that she hated his guts.
He understood how difficult it would be to lose a family member, but Eliza and her sister Eileen were both soldiers, unless one was forced into the army they should have already accepted that they might lose their lives at any given period.
Well at least she hadn't been harassing him at every corner.
Inker was still determined to make peace with the Octarians but if there were more like Eliza…
Actually there were definitely more like her, he just hadn't met them yet.
Or they just haven't acted out yet.
Who knows?
Well so far Inker had encountered two kinds of Octarian, the ones that hated him and the ones that feared him, so far he had managed to get along with both.
If he was going to make peace with Captain Vale's splatoon, he would need to get along with Eliza somehow.
With that in mind, Inker left Kal and the others in the sparring room while he followed Eliza away.
'Now what should I say?' Inker wondered.
He didn't have very long to wonder, because Eliza sped up her pace and rounded a corner.
Not wanting to lose sight of her, Inker speedwalked after her….
...Only to get a face full of fist as soon as he rounded the corner.
"Ow…."
For a moment Inker felt like his face had caved in.
"Why are you following me?"
"..I just wanted to talk.. You didn't have to hit me so hard."
"Your fault for trying to sneak up on me."
Inker was still reeling from the pain in his face.
"Ow…. that really hurt.
"Get over it." Eliza snapped, she rapidly turned and stomped away from Inker with a "hmph"
"Come on now, what's with that? What is it you want from me?"
"My sister back."
That again.
It was an unreasonable demand, not only that but her entire grudge was unreasonable to begin with.
Honestly Inker found Eliza's grudge to be very annoying.
"That again? You realize that it could have been anyone else getting splatted by me right? In fact I bet there are a hundred more Octarians who feel the same way as you, there are probably some in this splatoon, but I don't see them going out of their way to screw with me at every turn."
Eliza stopped
"What? Are you trying to tell me that I'm being unreasonable? I already know that. I know that it could have been anyone else in Eileen's place, so what? If we can like something without a good reason, then I can hate without good reason."
"Woah, umm no offense, but you sound really petty right now."
Eliza felt like punching Inker again.
"Listen up buddy, I don't care what you think about me. You might have fooled a few others with your whole "go on without me" stunt at the rig, but not me. I know the Captain has got plans for you, but mark my words, I'm going to see you die in a ditch somewhere before this is all over and you can bet that I'm going to be the one to put you there. For now the Captain has got something for me so you probably won't see me around. But I swear, when we meet again, i'm putting you down."
With that, Eliza stomped off in search of Captain Vale.
Undercity, Octo Valley
"..."
It hadn't even been a day since Eliza threatened Inker and now...
"So we meet again! Now what was it you were saying earlier?"
"Shut up! Don't talk to me, don't look at me, don't even think about me!"
"Wow you hate me that much huh..."
As Eliza had said, Captain Vale did have something for her.
But she never expected this.
Right now Eliza, along with Inker, Kalus, Neon, Sky, Victoria and Lynn were hiding in one of the many abandoned structures in the Undercity.
To think that the Undercity was supposed to be the one part of Octo Valley that was still inhabitable, yet had many structures that were abandoned yet couldn't even get boarded up due to the lack of resources.
The captain had divided the splatoon into several small groups, which each took positions in a different part of the undercity.
The idea was to take positions around Bassoon prison and move on without the captain giving orders, since the captain didn't want to risk getting discovered as her face would have become well known to all Octarians by now.
So the captain had to leave her subordinates to themselves, as long as they didn't do anything suspicious there should be no trouble, after all it wasn't possible to have a wanted poster for every single member of such a large group.
Under the assumption that they won't be spotted, all of Captain Vale's groups were supposed to be in position by 24 hours and move in as soon as those hours had passed.
Eliza understood all that, but why was she paired up with this Inkling sympathizer group? Which could only hide in a rotting farmhouse that could barely be considered within the boundaries of the undercity?
'I swear, the captain is just trying to tick me off, or maybe this is sort sort of punishment for abandoning Agent 3?'
'No it wouldn't be suitable for punishment, I'd just abandon him again. Besides there is always a reason behind the captain's actions.'
Eliza began to wonder if she was supposed to fulfill some sort of unspoken role here..
Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, Inker was also questioning the captain's orders.
When Vale had shown up and ordered him to head to the undercity with Victoria and Lynn it was no big surprise, but then she ordered that Kal, Neon and Sky go as well.
Inker protested that Kal and Sky were not meant to be fighting, but Vale simply told him that they could just stay behind him and that it would be safer than staying in the lair.
Did that mean they were discovered already?
Looking at the others, one could tell that both Sky and Kal were not okay with being here.
Sky kept his hands together the whole time and would not stop making movements with his fingers, giving the impression that he was nervous.
Kal as well, would react to almost every noise they heard. Well to be fair, in addition to being in enemy territory they were in a dark and abandoned house which could easily pass for a haunted one.
Lynn and Victoria were used to the gloomy atmosphere of Octo Valley so this didn't bother them in the slightest.
As for Neon...
"Hey Sky, whatcha doing? Having a thumb war by yourself?"
She was not concerned in the slightest as she tried to make conversation with Sky, who was nervously twiddling his thumbs.
Sky assumed Neon was probably oblivious to how dangerous it was being here. Why did Captain Vale force them all out here anyways?
"You do realise we are in Octarian territory?"
"Yeah duh."
"Then why aren't you showing it?"
"Huh? I'm supposed to show something?"
"Yeah of course! Look at everyone else keeping their guard up! Meanwhile you are here acting as if this is some sort of vacation."
"Ohh Sky, haven't you realized by now that I'm always like that no matter where we go? When you're as happy as can be, everyday can feel like a vacation!"
"Troublesome girl."
"Why do you keep calling me that!?"
"Well it's not like i'm wrong, or should it be something like "obnoxious girl"?. Hey! Let go of me! Ow!"
To Inker and Kal, It was strange seeing to normally quiet Sky act so outspoken towards Neon.
Perhaps Sky had gotten fed up with Neon's normal self after all this time.
Ignoring the scene of Neon throttling Sky, Inker pondered the captain's motives.
Like Eliza, he couldn't understand why Captain Vale had insisted on sending a group like this.
Guerilla hideout, Octo Valley
Most of Captain Vale's troops were gone now, she only kept one small squad here for defense.
The captain didn't like leaving her troops on their own, but she didn't have a choice considering how everyone in Octo Valley was probably on guard against her.
Well if everything goes correctly, they'd free all their family members and close ones who had been unfairly imprisoned.
If Eliza would also allow Agent 3 and his friends get killed in the confusion that would be icing on the cake.
'Wait what?'
The silence that filled the room was shattered by a surprised gasp from Captain Vale.
'Oh no! What did I do? Didn't I want to keep Agent 3 as an ally for now? No forget that, why did I send all the Inklings in a group? That's not going to go well! They'll be spotted!'
Vale had sometimes caught herself going against her own plans, but it seems this time she caught herself too late.
'Eliza and Agent 3 are like two compounds that should never mix! Either Eliza's going to let Octavia's troops splat him, or Agent 3 is going to snap and end her!'
Infighting was the last thing she needed.
'Dammit! Why did I do such a thing!?'
Now that she thought about it, didn't she want to make sure Agent 3 wasn't second guessing her?
No wait, she wanted to do that, but instead she started making sure they were second guessing each other.
The captain couldn't understand.
One moment she is being as rational as possible, the other moment she is trying to get rid of Agent 3 despite how useful he'd be…
Actually the captain was doing that ever since being saved from execution by the New Squidbeak Splatoon.
'Okay now, clear your head and focus, Emily. What are your priorities here?'
The captain tried to clear her mind by reasserting her current goals.
'First off is the safety of the splatoon, no first off should be DJ Octavio, no the Octarians as a whole…. Right?... What the hell?!'
She couldn't even get a clear grasp of her goal.
Why didn't she think of that earlier?
She had been running what was supposed to be a small group of Octarians rebelling against Octavia right?
Something was really wrong here.
'Okay now, why do I want to bring down Octavia? Because she gave me a suicide mission? Because she's secretly trying to take power for herself? Because she's ignoring Octavio's safety? Because she won't ever listen to others?'
For some reason, there were a dozen reasons popping up, it confused Vale even more.
'Gahhh! Screw it!... ALL OF THE ABOVE!'
Now to the issue with Agent 3.
'Why did I send him to the Undercity?...'
'...'
Nothing…
'Okay then, why should I NOT send Agent 3, his Inkling friends, Victoria and Lynn, with Eliza in their group?'
It took a moment, but Vale soon had tons of reasons pouring in.
'Agent 3 is much more resourceful than he seems, although a bit naive, he is willing to work with me under the pretense that doing so will lead to peace between our two races. I'm not worried about him turning on me, since I was able to toss him around like a ragdoll in sparring. All in all he would be much more useful alive, since he could make use of the New Squidbeak Splatoon's resources to help us.'
'The red and sky blue Inklings don't give off that same confident vibe that Agent 3 and my troops give, Agent 3 said they weren't really fighters and it's probably true. They will likely just end up being a burden and hold the others back.'
'Victoria is the daughter of Maria Holter, who I was fond of in the past, Lynn is nervous around strong individuals, but she's quite promising, so I've been using her as my adjutant ever since Claire died. In short, both are great young Octarians with a lot of potential, yet I put them with Agent 3 in a city full of hostiles. Octavia might be the type to do something like that, but not me.'
The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to hit herself.
But doing so was meaningless, at this point, Vale could only sit back and pray that everything works out.
'Eliza hates Agent 3 with a blind passion, therefore she may end up jeopardizing the mission by allowing her group to be discovered, then slipping away leaving Agent 3 and the others to the Octarian army. Now Eliza may be irrational and emotional, but she hasn't gone against my orders before. So there may be a chance that she'll overlook being near Agent 3 until her mission is complete.'
Comforting herself with that last thought, Vale would wait eagerly for her troops to return, hopefully with Agent 3 and his group still breathing.
'Wait a second, If I was trying to keep them out of sight, I would have had them take position much later.'
Unlike the combat groups that were comprised completely out of Octarians, Inker's group was waiting on the outskirts of the Undercity.
So there was no reason for them to leave this early.
'Just what was I thinking?'
Undercity, Octo Valley
With too much time to spare, Inker and the others could only wait away the remaining hours until the rest of Vale's splatoon was in position.
Well since Inker still didn't have much knowledge on their mission, he made use of this time to ask Lynn and Victoria.
So as night began to fall, Inker and co sat on some old furniture left in the abandoned farmhouse and mingled.
"So this Bassoon Prison? Is it similar to Melanin?"
"No" Victoria began "Bassoon is a normal prison, unlike Melanin which was a military prison made for holding prisoners of war. I'd tell you more but I really don't know much on the subject either."
"U-umm, the captain was saying that Bassoon should be as well guarded as Melanin, so it shouldn't be too hard breaking everyone out, the trouble is making sure we aren't followed back to the lair." Lynn added.
Even though they weren't eager to fight, Sky and Kal were paying close attention.
"Isn't a bassoon an instrument?" Sky mumbled
"Hmm?" Lynn and Victoria looked at Sky, who seemed to have a comment.
"Oh nothing." Sky dismissed
He still wasn't exactly familiar with Lynn yet, so he was going to be his usual quiet self.
Kal wasn't sure what Sky was going to ask, but he guessed that it had something to do with him being forced to come along.
So he asked in his place.
"Yo Lynn, why is it that your captain made me and Sky tag along? I mean I'm fine with it really, but Sky is here to learn your language, not fight.."
"Oh right there was something like that… Well I'm actually not sure why the captain did it. As for Sky, well u-umm, I guess I could start by teaching him a few basics while we are waiting here."
Sitting far away from the group was Eliza.
As much as she didn't like being in the same room as her sister's killer, she felt it necessary to keep an eye on him, just in case…
For the sake of Lynn and Victoria of course, she wouldn't mind if anything happened to the others.
Inker could feel Eliza staring holes into him.
As much as he wanted to talk to her again and try to smooth things out between them, Inker just couldn't see Eliza as the type for forgive and forget.
That punch from earlier made that clear.
Then Neon showed up again.
"Hiya!"
"Where have you been?" Sky asked
"Me? Oh I was just checking the ration thingys that we left in the barn. It's all the same yucky food so nothing interesting there. What up with you guys?"
"Just talking about the upcoming mission." Inker replied
"Booooring! We can worry about it when the time comes! If we are going to talk, let's talk about something more interesting! Hmm lets see… Ahhh I got it!"
Neon's eyes locked onto Lynn.
"Lynn! That's your name right? Are you a tomboy or something? Why do you put your hair like that?" Neon pointed at Lynn's ponytail, which was somewhat similar to the ponytails Inker, Kal and Sky had.
"Whaaa? Do I really look like a guy to you?! Wait why are you bringing this up all of a sudden?!"
"That's just Neon being herself, you'll get used to it eventually." Sky said.
"Yeah yeah! Besides we are friends right? Friends talk about things like this!"
"Ummm…"
Neon's strange attitude really confused Lynn.
One moment she is here explaining things to Agent 3 and preparing to teach an Inkling the basics to the Octarian language. Then all of a sudden this strange girl jumps in and asks if she's a tomboy.
It was a very strange way to make conversation.
"Umm does my hairstyle really make me look like a guy?" Lynn asked the others.
"Not really, though it's true that male Inklings like having hairstyles like that, it has more to do with the fact that it's trending at the moment. I think in about two years there will hardly be anyone still putting their hair like this… Wait why are we suddenly talking about fashion?" Inker responded.
Neon smiled "Why not? I just wanted to point out how Lynn is the only Octoling to have a ponytail like you guys."
"I just find it convenient for me, it's not like I wanted to look like an Inkling boy."
"Don't worry about that Lynn, though what do you mean by convenient?" Victoria asked
"Well it keeps my hair from going all over the place."
That caught Neon's attention once more "Ohhhh! So if I rubbed my feet on some carpet, then poked you, would your hair explode!?"
"No, not that. Umm, my hair is feisty? I don't really know how to explain."
"Feisty? How can hair be feisty?" Neon turned to Sky
"Why are you looking at me?"
"I thought you would know something."
"I'm not a connoisseur of hairstyling."
"No I just thought… You know what nevermind. Hey Lynn, let your hair loose! I wanna see what "feisty" hair looks like!"
"U-umm is it really necessary? I mean it's hard enough already getting my hair to stay like this."
"Ahh so your hair does explode easy."
"I guess that's one way to put it, they are full of energy?"
"Full of energy?"
"Is there some kind of misunderstanding here? I feel like this is one of those moments where our common sense doesn't line up." Kal interjected.
"Leave it to Kal to know when our two races aren't on the same spectrum. He is the only Inkling with an Octo-girlfriend after all! Isn't that right Victoria?"
Kal sighed "Not this again…"
Everyone else was now used to Neon shipping Kal and Victoria together constantly, except for Lynn.
Lynn stared at Victoria, wide eyed.
"Wait what? You and…. Well the captain did say you were close to some Inklings, but I didn't know she meant that close… Actually it makes sense! So that's why you can't take your eyes off Kal when we are in the mess hall!"
"Huh?" Kal squeaked
"That was out of concern! Not affection! And why are you suddenly out of character? Go back to being that shy girl who begins all her sentences with "u-umm" whenever the captain or Agent 3 is present!" Victoria shouted.
"Okay, how about we just put Neon's fantasies away and go back to the earlier topic." Kal suggested.
"Yeah let's do that." Victoria agreed
Though now both were beet red.
"What a troublesome girl…" Sky commented
"..."
"... uhhh so, back to what I was saying earlier.. Do Octolings have moving hair or something? They don't just hang around like ours?" Kal said, showing his hair tentacles pulled back and secured in a ponytail.
"Well yeah of course, after all you can't expect a living being to stay still forever." Victoria replied.
"What….."
"What?"
"Say that again."
"What?"
"Not that."
"You can't expect a living being to stay still forever?"
"Yeah that, are you saying your hair is ALIVE?"
"Huh? Is that really so strange?"
"Of course it is!" Inker and Kal exclaimed at once.
Victoria and Lynn exchanged glances and shrugged.
"So hold on, you are telling me that each tentacle of yours has a mind of its own?" Inker asked.
"U-umm yeah of course, don't you have a separate brain for each tentacle of yours?" Lynn sounded confused.
"Wait a sec, so what would happen if you got a haircut?" Kal asked
"Where do you think Octotroopers come from?" Victoria replied.
"I thought they were just some sort of lesser Octarian species."
By the way Neon had gone silent now, she was poking at one of Victoria's tentacles with curiosity.
After a bit of poking, Neon waved at the tentacle, which promptly waved back.
Victoria took note of Neon, but did her best to ignore her for now.
"Okay correct me if I misunderstood, but Inkling tentacles don't have their own will?" Lynn asked
"They don't." Inker replied. "You were right Kal, this was a big misunderstanding."
"Well we gotta get used to these kind of things if we want Inklings and Octarians to quit fighting."
"Okay then I'll explain what I meant earlier. I have a ponytail because if I don't tie up my hair it goes every grabbing and touching everything, that what I meant when I said I have feisty hair."
"Just Octoling problems am I right?" Kal said.
"What?"
"Oh nothing."
Kal was imagining a #justoctolingproblems popping up if Octarians started living in Inkopolis.
"So that's why you never let your hair down even in the showers." Victoria added
"It's a pain for me you know. Sometimes i'd go out for a walk, then when I get home and look in the mirror, i'd notice that my hair stole someone's hat or something."
Around this time…
"Pat a cake, pat a cake, baker man. Bake me a cake as fast as you can."
'Clap clap clap'
Neon was singing a children's song and appeared to be playing a game with two of Victoria's tentacles.
"Hey, could you maybe not play with my hair?"
"Sorry!"
Since she was bored again, Neon skipped over to Eliza and started a conversation with her.
Well she tried to.
Inker and Victoria felt that something would go wrong, so they both kept an eye on Neon.
After a moment she hopped on back, removed her ink tank, grabbed an old cushion and laid down.
"What are you doing?" Sky asked
"The grouchy Octoling said it was time to get some rest, so I figured I'd sleep now."
What Eliza actually said was "Isn't it past your bedtime? you Inklings love your beauty sleep after all." It was supposed to be a jab at how she couldn't wake up as early as Octarians, but Neon seemed to take it seriously.
"Sleep? You'd sleep on the floor in an abandoned building? Well I am starting to feel a bit sleepy, what time is it anyway?"
"About eleven thirty." Lynn and Victoria replied together.
Octarians did have a great sense of time.
"Oh already? Well we are supposed to be fighting tomorrow, I guess we could get some rest."
One o clock in the morning.
Everyone in the group had fallen asleep.
Except one of them.
Neon wasn't sure if it's normal for someone to stay up on guard in situations like this, but she felt it was right.
Even Eliza had fallen asleep by now, though Neon didn't really care.
She was focused on the others.
On Inker, Kal, Sky, Victoria and Lynn to some extent.
They were her friends after all.
Despite Neon's happy go lucky attitude, she was actually well aware that she's a weird one.
Yet these guys put up with her usual antics everyday and cared for her.
Like that one time when she thought she was being too reckless to help, so she ran away and started playing turf wars on her own.
They had actually gotten worried and were looking for her.
Neon still remembered sitting alone, watching the sun set over Inkopolis, until Sky found her and gave her a wake up call.
She still thought her friends were better beings than her, all she could do was fight.
And fight she shall.
Neon watched the others, confirming that each one of them were asleep already.
Her eyes settled on Sky, well actually on the roller that was lying next to him.
"Okay, i'll just borrow this."
She took the Roller and swung it around a couple times.
Taking note of how the weapon handled, Neon quickly recalled how it was supposed to be used.
She did use the Roller a few times back when she was starting out, but she always found the Charger type weapons to be more fun for her.
Getting a feel for how the weapon handled, Neon silently crept away.
She didn't like leaving her Custom E-Liter 3K behind, nor did she enjoy taking Sky's Roller without permission.
'Oh well, if I used my charger it would wake everyone up, besides I'll put this to better use than Sky ever will.'
Neon left the farmhouse, and in the light of the artificial sky above Octo Valley, crept over to a barn that was equally abandoned.
She was here earlier, since Captain Vale had apparently hidden some rations somewhere in there, but she was here for a different reason now.
It was all quiet, around here, only Neon was awake….
Along with one other person.
"Alright, I know you're there, you should come out now."
'That's what Inker would have said right?'
"..."
"You are going to keep hiding? Why don't you come out already?"
"..."
Nobody was answering, but Neon still felt like somebody was there.
She had felt like somebody was watching them for a while now.
There wasn't really anything in this barn, aside from a few piles of debris.
Their rations was hidden in one of the piles as for the others…
Neon approached the largest pile of rubble.
She had only needed to remove a few bit and pieces before she saw a strand of fresh seaweed.
"... So you really did notice me."
Neon leapt back, laying down a trail of ink with her Roller.
At this moment, an Elite Octoling burst out of the rubble.
She was carrying one of the Octorollers that Vale had made before her betrayal.
"... And here I thought you were just looking for a midnight snack."
The Elite had been determined to stay hidden at first, but now that she was spotted, her mind was filled with killing intent.
Neon on the other hand was getting excited.
Vale was an Elite Octoling and she was fun to spar with, so Neon expected something similar from this unknown Elite Octoling.
The Elite flung ink towards Neon, who countered with her own.
Since that didn't work, the Elite tried to rolled over Neon, but Neon managed to block the attack with her own Roller.
The two were now in close combat, using their rollers to melee each other into submission.
They swung their rollers as if they were hammers or battleaxes.
The silence of the night was broken by the sounds of clashing rollers, though there wasn't anyone around to hear it.
It wasn't nearly as loud as a Charger after all.
The Elite Octoling had seen Neon with a Charger earlier, so she assumed Neon was not familiar with a Roller.
With that in mind, the Elite observed Neon's movements, searching for an opening.
When she thought she had seen one, the Elite thrust her Roller at it.
However Neon was too quick and could read her movements perfectly.
In other words, Neon had no opening.
Neon easily parried any attack from any angle that the Elite could attack from, after a few moments of clashing, both Neon and the Elite leapt back, only to charge at each other and clash again.
As for Neon, she saw an opening and went for it.
The Elite dramatically leapt to the side in order to avoid the attack, but the leap made her lose footing.
Neon swung at the Elite, who was only narrowly able to avoid the attack, although some ink managed to hit her.
The Elite wiped Neon's ink of her face.
"Damn, I thought Agent 3 would be the one to watchout for…"
Despite her best efforts, the Elite could not get past Neon's defense.
As they kept attacking and blocking, Neon found a wide smile making its way onto her face.
"Hahaha!" Neon suddenly burst out laughing.
The Elite wondered what that laugh meant for her.
However Neon remembered what time it was and quickly covered her mouth.
Before blocking another attack from the Elite.
Neon had gotten to a point where she could speak and fight at the same time.
"My bad, it's just that well… I love fighting, it's all I can do, but everytime I come to fight, someone is always holding me back. Now finally, I can fight alone without anything stopping me. So sorry, but I really can't hold back now!"
The Elite assumed Neon would try to make some sort of complex move after saying those words, so she rushed towards Neon before Neon could attack.
Since she couldn't just roll over her, the Elite tried a sword move, slashing in a V shape with the roller.
Neon however rotated her Roller horizontally, and blocked the attack, then she held the Roller like a spear and thrust it at the Elite's neck.
The Elite ducked, but Neon anticipated that, she brought her foot up and landed a kick square in the face.
With the Elite reeling from Neon's kick, Neon recoiled her roller, then rapidly thrust it into the Elite's chest then pinned her down to the ground.
The Elite struggled under Neon's roller, she squirmed as much as she could but she could not get herself free.
As for Neon she had stopped before the Elite could get splatted, an act which even managed to surprise herself.
But she was satisfied.
"Game set, match!"