Octo Valley, Guerilla hideout
Eliza was not feeling so fresh.
Sure she got her family out of Bassoon, well what was left of it at least.
But it didn't feel right.
Because once again she got careless and Agent 3 had to help her.
First at the rig, he distracted an overwhelming force so that Eliza and her squad could escape.
Now he went to find her when she ran off on her on in Bassoon prison so that he could alert he that the Octarian army was coming.
Although indirect, anyone seeing these events would note that it was thanks to Agent 3 that Eliza was still alive.
This really didn't sit well with her.
Eliza had made destroying Agent 3 her life's goal ever since her younger sister Elieen's 19th birthday.
That was the day Eileen was supposed to come home to celebrate her first year in the army.
Eliza and her family had planned a surprise party that day, they had cake ready, candles lit and an eagerness to see Eileen's surprised face, but Eileen never came home that day.
Because on that same day, Agent 3 attacked the Kelp Dome, where Eileen was stationed.
It wasn't until the next day that an Elite Octoling would show up to inform them that Eileen was killed in the line of duty.
A day of celebration was turned into a day of mourning when the Elite handed to them a note left behind by Eileen shortly before the battle.
Although the entire remaining family mourned their loss, Eliza's bloodline had been full of soldiers, so the rest of her family had been prepared for losses.
But not Eliza and not on that day. She was shaken by the news and took some time away from the army, by the time she returned she was determined to face Agent 3 someday and make him pay.
She had dreamt of countless battles with Agent 3, all with a different outcome.
Sometimes 3 would fight to the death.
Other times he would beg for mercy.
Maybe Eliza would splat him right away, or maybe she would have fun tormenting him while keeping him on the verge of death.
Out of all the possible outcomes, Eliza would have never imagined being forced to work with the guy.
'And what was with that personality of his? Why does he go around putting his life on the line while assuming that by some extraordinary event, Inkopolis and Octo Valley will make peace?'
She hated to admit it, but Lynn had been somewhat right.
Agent 3 saved her life and ruined her revenge.
Twice now.
It pissed her off.
Eliza felt that Agent 3 had no right to be here, especially since he was the one who captured Octavio in the first place, putting them in this mess.
He was supposed to be their greatest enemy, a final boss type character who you were supposed to fight to secure peace and power for the valley.
Killing Eileen was proof of that, at least to her.
Eliza was angry and a bit confused, but mostly angry.
So when she passed by the sparring room and saw Agent 3 training with his Inkling buddies and Captain Vale, she lost it.
She couldn't stand just sitting idly by as this interloper, who killed her sister, went around playing hero.
It didn't matter if he saved her twice, she was going to knock him down a peg or two.
Although Octobrushes were considered obsolete compared to the Octoshot, Captain Vale had taken quite a lot of the old Octobrushes out of storage for conversion into Rollers.
Taking inventory was part of Eliza's everyday job, so she knew where they were stored and how many were still left as brushes.
They were mostly used for ceremonial purposes in the army now, but Eliza knew how to use the old weapon and she was quite good at it.
With a brush in hand, Eliza returned to the sparring room and tossed one of her gloves at Agent 3.
He stood there with a clueless face, while the Octolings and Octotroopers around them went silent.
As for Vale, she took a stern and commanding tone.
"Eliza stop! I forbid you from cause any more infighting between us!"
But Eliza ignored her.
She knew that the captain would punish her later, she'll probably be forced to run laps and then clean all the toilets in the lair, but she didn't care.
In the midst of everyone, Agent 3 held and stared at the thrown glove with confusion.
"Why is everyone murmuring? What's going on?" Inker asked
One moment he's getting tips from Captain Vale on how too fight, then all of a sudden somebody threw something at him. Now Vale was shouting at someone and Octarians were gathering around them.
"Octoling trooper Eliza Pierce, I order you to stop at once!"
Despite Vale's orders, Inker found himself facing Eliza in the middle of the sparring room.
Eliza pointed the tip of her Octobrush at him.
"Defend yourself."
"Seriously what is going on?!" Inker exclaimed.
"Before the Great Turf War, Octarians would challenge each other to Octobrush duels in a similar manner." Victoria explained, she had been coaching Kal a moment ago but now they were also part of the crowd.
Inker somewhat understood now.
"Sky, pass me your Roller." Inker said, Sky did just that, he hurried out of the crowd and quickly passed his Splat Roller to Inker before hurrying back.
Inker had not used a Roller in a long time, though he was confident he would come through.
He attached the Splat Roller to his Ink Tank and swung it around to check it's balance, then he rolled the tip on the ground to get rid of the remaining Cyan ink.
By now Captain Vale had stopped trying to order Eliza to stand down, instead she stood by with an annoyed expression as she watched Eliza tune out her surroundings, focusing solely on Agent 3.
Inker held the Splat Roller firmly, letting the tip roll on the ground, but before he could open his mouth to say 'ready' Eliza charged at with with tremendous speed.
"Whoa!" Inker barely had time to react, he changed to squid form and passed under Eliza and reappeared behind her.
He thought this would put him in a better position, since he would no longer be on the dangerous side of the Octobrush, if this was Turf wars he'd be right.
But this was not, there weren't really any rules at all here, Eliza jabbed the back of her Octobrush into Inker, then she raised a foot and kicked him back, turning around to face him in the process.
It was not like any Inkbrush user Inker ever fought before.
Eliza didn't focus on covering turf, nor did she use any bombs, she used the Octobrush like a spear, attempting to keep Inker at a favorable distance while swinging the tip of the brush at him.
She could even intercept Inker's swing's mid way using the brush.
Inker quickly realised this was a different type of battle, it wasn't about rolling over your opponent or covering turf, it was more akin to fencing but with longer weapons.
Still that didn't bother him too much.
Inker's Roller had an advantage of covering a wider area, he used this to his advantage when Eliza was flailing the Octobrush in front of him, successfully blocking any ink from getting to him.
When Eliza slashed at Inker, he would knock it down using the wide end of the Roller.
However Eliza had her advantages too.
Eliza's Octobrush was much lighter and easier to swing around, allowing her to attack from different directions and putting Inker on the defensive.
She slashed at Inker, while Inker used the wideness of the Roller to block her strokes.
On the sidelines, Captain Vale, Victoria, Lynn, Kal, Sky and Neon were all there watching.
Vale remained wordless as she watched the blue and dark magenta ink fly every time the brush and roller clashed.
Kal and Sky watched with awe, as they had never seen anything of the sort before.
Neon on the other hand, was cheering as if she was watching a sports game, which drew the attention of everyone else.
Lynn on the other hand, was worried.
"U-umm Victoria, should we maybe try and stop them?"
"What's the use, Eliza won't even listen to her commanding officer anymore."
"But at this rate, somebody is going to get hurt."
"Yeah I think so too, I just hope Inker catches on before she can splat him."
"Umm I was referring to Eliza, can she really beat Agent 3?"
"Under normal circumstances no, but Inker is the kind to hold back since he really wants to show that he doesn't want conflict between our races. Because of that he doesn't seem to notice that Eliza isn't attacking him directly, but rather stalling as she covers turf around him."
Now that Victoria pointed it out, Lynn noticed the ground.
Inker was still standing on a patch of blue ink, but since Eliza was flailing the Octobrush around, dark magenta ink dominated the floor.
Inker was able to block Eliza's hits, but only because Eliza was slashing with the brush.
Though Lynn wasn't sure what Eliza was planning to do here, neither did Victoria, they only knew that it had something to do with turf.
With Inker surrounded by a ring of magenta, Eliza balanced herself and thrust her Octobrush like a spear.
She knew that the Roller and Octobrush were both technically pole weapons, so parrying a thrust would be much more difficult. Instead of parrying Agent 3 would have to step back.
Inker did just that, he took a large step backwards and leaned backwards to avoid the thrust, when he did, his foot snuck into magenta ink.
Just like in fencing, balance was important here, lose balance and you'll be wide open for an attack.
Inker felt himself fall backwards, he couldn't focus on Eliza anymore, he brought his Roller down to the ground to help stabilize himself as his feet moved awkwardly to even himself out.
Once he had recovered, his roller clashed with Eliza's brush once again.
He couldn't stay on the defensive like this, especially with Eliza limiting his movement so much.
Inker would fling ink with the Roller, taking care not to hit some random Octoling in the crowd, Eliza was easily fast enough to dodge, but this way Inker had more room to work with.
He had to find a way around Eliza's range advantage.
Inker took a step further back and hooked Eliza's brush using the wide end of the roller.
Of course Eliza would just retract her brush to free it.
Inker took this opportunity to close the distance, forcing Eliza to step back to avoid the roller.
Then all of a sudden, Eliza tossed away her Octobrush.
"It's my loss." she said, turning away and leaving without another word.
"?" Inker was confused.
"What just happened?"
Inker thought it was game over when he slipped, but somehow he won?
Did he? He just started fighting Eliza so suddenly that he wasn't sure what his goal was.
Inker handed Sky his Splat Roller back.
"Did you guys make any sense of that?" Inker asked.
"It just looked like Eliza's usual self." Kal said
"I think Eliza will need some time alone." Lynn added.
Victoria nodded. "Yes of course, let Vale punish her and maybe she'll take the time to learn. By the way Inker did you notice anything strange?"
"Uhhh, I was too focused so I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Did you?"
"U-umm not me." Lynn replied.
Sky and Kal both shook their heads.
"Yep!" Neon proudly said.
"You did? What happened?" Inker asked.
Victoria answered in Neon's place "you lost that duel Inker."
"I did?"
Inker's first guess was 'is there some kind of rule I didn't know about?'
"When you lost balance, Eliza should have taken you out. I'm not sure why she didn't." Victoria explained
"Ahh I see, truth be told, I was really worried when I stepped into her ink back there."
"You probably won't notice it yourself, but you were wobbling for a good three seconds there, more than enough time for Eliza to take a stab at you."
"You don't have to keep emphasizing that part."
"What i'm trying to say is, Eliza hesitated for some reason, that's probably why she's left. Likely out of frustration or regret, or possibly both."
Inker wondered if Eliza would try something like this again.
"Well looks like that's over with, we should get back to training. Train like you fight and fight like you train." Captain Vale said, dispersing the crowd that had gathered.
Inker and the others asked her about Eliza and what she was planning to do about her.
Vale shook her head. "I'm not sure, the thing is Eliza never acted out like this before, she was always well disciplined and knew the consequences of insubordination. Besides what can I do in this situation? We aren't part of the regular army anymore so I can't just kick her out, then she'd end up captured by Octavia and squeezed for intel or killed."
"At least do something to prevent this from happening again!" Inker said
"I'm trying! Actually I'm not even sure if I can do so. As much as I hate to say this, I've noticed that sometimes I do things that go against my usual self and it usually involves getting rid of you and the other Inklings."
"Huh? Wait so that's why you put us with Eliza during the Bassoon prison raid?"
"Yes and I'm unsure what's the reason for it. Maybe Octavia is screwing with me somehow, or maybe it's the pressure from having to constantly watch our backs. Bottom line is I don't know what I should do now."
Vale was quiet for a moment as she considered everything going on.
"I'm going to see what I can get out of that Elite Octoling you captured. With any luck we can get some dirt on Octavia and win some support from the Undercity's populace."
"What about Eliza?"
"She already knows the consequences of acting out like this. She has probably started running laps or scrubbing the toilets on her own. Lynn you should go check."
"Right away!"
After that incident, Lynn found Eliza cleaning the toilets as punishment, though she had started on her own without Vale giving her the order.
Lynn tried to speak with Eliza to figure out what happened but Eliza wouldn't say a word.
Inker didn't run into any further trouble with Eliza after that.
Though he really wanted to know what had happened that day, why did Eliza just snap and then suddenly leave?
That would have to wait for later, because for now they had other problems.
Since they had rescued so many Octarains from Bassoon prison, they needed three times more food to keep everyone fed, not only that but the lair was slightly cramped now.
Vale and her splatoon were outlaws, so the only way they could get more space or food was by raiding Octo Valley.
This puts pressure on Captain Vale to figure out how can they justify their actions against Acting Leader Octavia.
Vale couldn't get that Elite Octoling to talk, as she would only state her name and rank repeatedly.
As she and Inker were wondering what to do, Victoria showed up along with Kal, she held a pair of goggles in her hand.
"Captain, there is something you should see. Kal you should probably leave."
"Huh? Why?"
"It's well complicated."
"I'll stay, I hate feeling useless in situations like this, so I'd like to know what's happening."
"Alright then, just so you know I won't mind if you cover your eyes."
"Just what are you planning on doing?!"
"Watching whatever is on these goggles."
Victoria knew that it could possibly contain footage of her parents burning to death, as much as she didn't want to see it, she wanted to know what happened.
Captain Vale had mentioned serving alongside her mother in the army, so Victoria felt that it was right for her to find out what happened to her former comrade.
For some reason Kal had come with her. Victoria wasn't going to complain since she did trouble him quite a bit after her parents' deaths.
After explaining what had happened before, Vale understood what she was about to watch, though there was something else she was interested in.
For now she would watch and find out what had happened to her former superior officer.
From an Elite Octoling's point of view, Victoria watched as she was brought back to her childhood home.
She watched as the team of Elite Octolings blasted the front door to smithereens.
She watched as they took note of the soggy ground, only to cover everything in ink.
Finally she watched as they searched every room for her, when they didn't find her they confronted her parents who were sitting calmly at the dinner table, as if the presence of the Elite Octolings didn't bother them at all.
"Where is your daughter?"
"Victoria? She doesn't visit anymore. You should probably start cleaning the mess you've made."
"Don't lie to us, we know she was here, we got a reliable source telling us that she came to visit you with two Inklings just hours ago!"
"My, aren't you being rude for a bunch of uninvited guests, if Victoria isn't here there's nothing we can do about it."
"Take them away, for questioning."
Victoria watched two Elite Octolings approached her parents, only for her mother Maria to fight them off.
"Raising a fist against Elite Octolings is a crime, one that will be added to treason against the state if you don't tell us where your daughter is."
"Don't think you can bully everyone around just cause you got seaweed in your head." Maria replied
"We have full authority and may do whatever we see fit, if you continue to resist we will use force to bring you and your husband in for questioning."
"Try it, I took all my skills with me when I left the army."
"So i've heard, former first lieutenant Maria Holter, you had quite the number of accomplishments before you left, but there's only one of you, that schoolteacher you married won't do much, and we are all Elites, we all had the same training as you."
"Really? Well you've done your homework, you seem to know everything." That was her father Robert speaking, both Octolings stood up from their seats now.
"Surely you can't be so stupid as to try and take us on with your bare fists." the lead Elite said, almost laughing at the pitiful bit of resistance Maria and Robert could offer. "Oh well, it doesn't matter whether you talk or not, your daughter is a criminal, who has helped Inklings act against us, we will find her and execute her with or without your cooperation. Don't think you can escape, we know how you'll fight, and we have weapons."
"That you do" Maria replied "But there's two things you don't know, number one: you are standing in oil."
Whoever was wearing the goggles at the time must have looked away, because the footage was too shakely to watch for a while, then they heard the voice of Victoria's mother again.
"Number two." Maria and Robert glanced at each other before speaking at the same time.
"We'll do anything to protect our daughter."
Victoria saw a split second of what appeared to be the sight of her parents flipping over the dinner table, then there was flames, lots of flames.
Flames and screaming, the footage once again became extremely shaky.
Kal had closed his eyes by now, while he resisted the urge to cover his ears.
Victoria also wanted to stop, but kept watching.
When the image was clear again, they had a clear sight of the room.
Pretty much everything was blaze, but in the midst of all this, Robert and Maria righted the flipped table which was now half burning.
Even though there was fire all around them, both Robert and Maria looked calm.
"Well this is it" Robert said, "Too bad we couldn't live a bit longer."
"Yeah, real shame, haha. I wish I could see what kind of guy our daughter would fall in love with."
"I wish we could see her on her wedding day, wearing a white dress, as happy as can be."
"I wish we could have held our grandchildren in our arms, telling them stories while rocking them to sleep."
"Oh man, we should stop, otherwise the regrets will start piling up..."
"Do you think we made a mistake, reuniting right before this happened?" Robert asked
"No… Even if it was just for a moment, I'm glad we were able to sit down and have dinner like a family."
"You still miss your folks don't you."
"Of course I do, and now that we are about to join them, Victoria will miss us too, history repeats itself doesn't it?"
"Yes, hopefully Victoria won't feel devastated like you did."
"She will, but it's fine, she's found some great friends, they might be Inklings, but they are different from the citizens of Octo Valley, they'll look after her for us, especially Kalus."
The fire kept spreading, getting closer to them with every passing second, it wouldn't be long now.
Robert smiled "Well then, at least we can say our family lives on with Victoria."
"Yes, are you okay with this? You were the one who convinced me to leave the army since you wanted to avoid any danger, yet here i've dragged you into this." Maria said
"Of course."
"Really? So you have no second thoughts? You're satisfied with the life you've had?"
"Definitely, after all I married you, what else could I have possibly asked for?"
The two shared one last kiss as the roof collapsed in a storm of embers, burying the two Octolings…
Victoria's eyes squeezed shut when that happened, so Vale stopped the recording.
When Victoria came to she realised that someone was holding her hand.
She shook off Kal and stood silently for a while.
"Well, at the very least we can say that they passed away without regrets." Kal assured her.
Victoria thought that after getting over her loss and spending these last two months doing other things she wouldn't be affected this much by that footage.
Well she was still glad she watched it, now she felt some sort of closure knowing exactly what had happened.
While she was thinking about this, Vale rewinded the footage.
She was interested in something else, as mentioned earlier.
That was the footage of the Elite Octolings breaking into Victoria and Violet's apartment, accusing Violet of treason and thrashing the place before Violet finally gave up what she knew.
She rewound it further.
The Elites had actually been going door to door, barging into people's property at random and accusing them of treason and destroying their belongings just like they did with Violet.
Watching this worsened Victoria's opinion of the Elite Octolings.
"I can use this.." Vale muttered
"Say, how far have you gotten with that Elite Octoling?" Victoria suddenly asked.
"Hmm? Nowhere really, I do have some surefire methods of getting someone to speak, but I lack the tools."
"What are these methods?"
"First I'll use a knife to make cuts on each of the subject's arms and legs, that usually won't do the trick, but if then you switch to a chainsaw and saw off one…"
Kal, not wanting to picture such things silently left the room.
Inker didn't like it either.
"I really didn't need to hear that."
"It works though, you won't die from losing an arm, at least not right away, nobody wants to spend the rest of their lives missing limbs they could have kept, so once they know you are serious about amputating them they'll talk once you start removing another…"
"You sound like you're speaking from experience."
"I am, I became an Elite Octoling during the Salmonid war, so is it really that surprising that I'd have done enhanced interrogation with Salmonids?"
"Please stop explaining these things, I don't want nightmares thank you."
"It's not that gruesome once you're used to it, oh but you're a kid from Inkopolis so it can't be helped."
'Ahh! Watch yourself Vale, no need to act hostile towards Agent 3.' The captain told herself.
"Speaking of Inkopolis, do you think we can bring the Elite there?" Victoria suggested
"I don't think that you can convince an Elite to change sides by showing her Inkopolis." Inker replied
"Not that. I think I know how we can make her talk without chopping her up."
Vale was intrigued, what could this young Octoling come up with?
"Well, I'd like to see it. I'll have Lynn take a squad and distract the Octarian army while we head back to Inkopolis."
"I'll let the Cap'n and the others know we are coming."
Cap'n Cuttlefish's shack, Octo Valley
Victoria, Inker, Kal and Captain Vale quickly made their way over to Cuttlefish's shack while the Octarian army was busy with a 'certain group' trying to sneak into the Undercity again.
By the way Neon had volunteered to join the group, which is why she wasn't present, as for Sky he was still trying to learn the Octarian language.
Victoria was now wearing her Inkopolis outfit again, making her look just like any Inkling wearing a helmet.
The one who stood out most was Captain Vale, who still wore Octoling armor and had an Octoshot slung across her back.
Vale was also carrying the Elite Octoling over her shoulder, who had been tied up so well it was like she was in a sleeping bag made of rope.
Still that Elite looked somewhat familiar to Victoria, though she didn't know from where.
Whatever if anything she should focus on how Vale would be incredibly suspicious in Inkopolis.
When they arrived however, Callie ran towards them waving her hands for them to stop.
"Ahh! Agent 3 you are too early."
"Early?"
Inker peeked behind Callie and saw that Marie and Cuttlefish were quickly trying to conceal DJ Octavio's snowglobe.
Vale was curious as to what was happening over there, but Callie would not let her look.
Suspicious, Vale decided she would return later to see what they were trying to hide.
"By the way Captain, shouldn't you at least try to look less conspicuous?" Victoria asked.
"Oh there is no need, I convinced Crusty Sean to let me borrow his food truck." Callie said
"Crusty Sean has a food truck?" Inker wondered.
"Oh yeah, apparently he was thinking of leaving Shrimp Kicks to someone else and starting up a new business. By the way, since I'm the only one with a license and the one who borrowed the truck i'm driving, so you gotta tell me where we're going."
Inker turned to Victoria, since this was her idea, so she should know where they were headed.
"Calamari county." Victoria replied.
Callie gasped "Oh my cod! why didn't you guys tell me we were going there! Hey Marie! We are going back to our home town!"
"Hey we aren't going on a pleasure trip, we just need to head out there and find a sugar cane field."
"Okay I know a place, but why a sugar cane field?" Marie asked.
"You'll find out when we get there."
"Just don't cause any trouble."
Victoria could have told them already, but not with the Elite Octoling present.
The group left Cuttlefish behind and passed through the manhole, they found a food truck parked right in front of the manhole, so the group quickly got in before anyone could really spot them.
Even if someone did spot them, Cuttlefish had already told Defense Minister Arcus about their arrival, so there shouldn't be any problems.
With everyone on board, Callie put the truck in gear and they were off.
"Good idea bringing the food truck, the back is a bit cramped but there is enough room for everyone here." Kal said.
Callie beamed at the compliment "I know right! If I had brought my convertible we'd be even more cramped!"
"Yeah that's it, totally not because you hit a curb driving your car two days prior and broke a control arm. Right?" Marie remarked.
"I told you not to mention that!"
"Hey eyes on the road Cal! Don't crash again!"
"I didn't crash! Hitting the curb doesn't count!"
It had been a while since he last saw the Squid Sisters, Inker grinned at the familiar sight of the two squabelling.
Captain Vale would just observe silently.
'So that's Agents 1 and 2? 1 is strangely cheerful and relaxed for a veteran agent. I thought 3 was naive because he was young, but it looks like the others are equally naive. Or maybe it's those personalities that give off that impression? Actually 2 seems much more serious, she'd probably be the most dangerous among them…
Why am I treating them like enemies again?
They don't appear to be on guard even though I'm here, how very strange, I haven't met them before or have even spoken to them yet, they should be more aware that an armed and dangerous Elite Octoling is standing right here.
Huh I'm doing it again. I should stop.
Though the way they aren't even bothered by my presence is strangely infuriating because….
Why? It's never bothered me before when Octarians treated me the same way.
"Why do you have to turn the radio up so loud!?"
"It sounds better this way!"
"No it isn't! My eardrums are going to burst."
"The driver gets control of the radio!"
Callie and Marie were arguing over the radio volume, which was blasting Calamari Inkantation.
As Vale watched the two supposed Agents fight over the volume adjuster, she decided her lower her opinion of the New Squidbeak Splatoon.
'No I should stop, I'll look away and distract myself, I feel as if I'd go hostile any moment now.'
Calamari County, farmlands
By Victoria's request, Callie and Marie brought the group to a sugar cane field.
Victoria had Vale, remove some of the constraints binding the Elite Octoling and ungag her before they carried her out into the field.
Curious, Inker and Kalus followed.
Victoria found a place where a lot of sugar cane had fallen for some reason, that's where she and Vale set down the Elite Octoling.
"Are you going to tell me what you're planning?" Vale asked Victoria.
"Ahh yes, just give me a second."
Victoria had with her, a simple butter knife and a jar of peanut butter.
When the Elite saw the knife she simply laughed.
"And what do you plan on doing with such a dull blade? Make me a sandwich? No wonder you couldn't become an Elite."
That's when it dawned on Victoria, this was one of her splatoon-mates back when she was serving in Nautilus base.
This was that young girl who was so excited about becoming an Elite Octoling back then, who also recommended Victoria to Octavia for promotion to the Elite ranks.
"Oh I remember you now, guess they are really scraping the bottom of the barrel."
Victoria didn't expect that such a green and inexperienced Octoling could become an Elite, perhaps Octavia was lowering the requirements to become and Elite Octoling due to recent losses.
Even if she knew this girl once, Victoria was not going to hold back. After all Victoria didn't hesitate to use her squadmates before, nor did she hold back in splating Elite Octolings as long as she thought she was doing the right thing.
To Vale's confusion, Victoria began to spread peanut butter over the exposed parts of the Elite Octoling, such as her midriff, arms and face.
"Say Vale, did you know that birds were present since ancient times? Some archaeologists even theorize that birds existed long before Inklings and Octarians did, they are technically prehistoric animals." Victoria said
Vale was even more confused, though she'd play along because she was curious as to what Victoria could come up with.
"Uhh no."
"Well neither did I, I'm not a bookworm or anything, but when I came to Inkopolis for a second time, I couldn't head outside thanks to the Vanguard movement, so I stayed with Kalus and read some stuff he had like magazines and travel brochures. In one article about Calamari County, there was something about birds and mice. You see, they say that the reason that birds didn't go extinct during the great floods like mammals did, was because they could fly. But even though most larger mammals died out, there was one small mammal that didn't: field mice."
As Victoria began what was quickly becoming a nature documentary, she continued to spread peanut butter over the Elite Octoling's skin.
Victoria continued "Now the reason for this is still unknown to Inklings, but that aside field mice have been cause trouble for Calamari County's sugar cane farmers for centuries, they love the taste of sugar cane after all, that's why there are so many fallen canes here." Victoria said pointing at the fallen canes around them.
"Since Inklings know that mice are pretty much prehistoric, some farmers thought that bringing in eagles would get rid of the problem, since they are the natural predator of the field mouse. Sadly field mice are nocturnal, which means they are active at night, so they should have brought in owls cause the eagles couldn't do anything, you know what that means? Anyone?"
Victoria paused and glanced at everyone present, as if she was a teacher giving a lesson.
"Nobody? Well then."
Victoria finished slathering peanut butter on the Elite Octoling, she sat in front of her and said to her directly.
"It means that at night, those little mice are crawling everywhere in these fields nibbling through canes with their sharp little teeth."
Victoria picked up a fallen cane and showed the part where mice had chewn right through.
"Feels bad for whoever owns this place right? Well luckily for him or her, that won't happen tonight, because there is one thing field mice love even more than sugar cane. Know what it is? I'll give you a hint."
Victoria slowly licked the peanut butter off the knife she was holding, savoring both it and the look of fear in the Elite's eyes.
Captain Vale, knowing what Victoria had planned, couldn't help but smile.
The Elite Octolings in the past never encountered a method like this, since they aren't aware of this method they aren't trained to deal with it.
If Vale had been left to stab and dismember this Elite Octoling she may have resisted it, since Elite Octolings go through counter-interrogation training, which they must resist being whipped and beaten.
But Victoria isn't doing any of that, it was really clever.
Vale made sure to commend Victoria later.
Instead, she left the Elite tied up on the ground and turned away.
The Elite was prepared to be beaten, but she wasn't prepared for this.
Victoria had suggested an unfortunate scenario to the Elite, that suggestion alone was like a see which would sprout quickly and take effect.
"Hey aren't you supposed to get something out of this?" Kal said as Victoria walked by.
"What are you talking about? I just wanted to show off some random knowledge like Neon did. Come on let's get back to the truck."
That was a lie, though the way Victoria said it so casually to Kal made it all the more believable.
Victoria left, with Captain Vale in tow.
"Wait you are both leaving? What if I decide to speak? What did you even want to know?!" the Elite shouted behind them.
Neither Octoling replied as they hiked back out of the field and back towards the truck.
Kal and Inker had both come along and neither of them wanted to leave this Elite behind after what Victoria had just revealed.
"This isn't a crime is it?" Kal wondered
"I don't know but I sure don't feel like we're the good guys anymore."
"Victoria will come back for her, probably.. I hope she will at least, I don't think Victoria is that kind of person."
"Yeah okay let's head back and…"
"Agent 3!" the Elite Octoling called out. "You aren't okay with this right?! I'm an Elite you know, I know what are rumors and what aren't. You are actually a noble warrior of justice right? You won't just leave me here like those two traitors?"
"Uhhhhh."
Though Inker wasn't sure if he could be described as a "warrior of justice" after meeting Octarians like Eliza, it went against his conscience to leave a living being behind to be devoured by rodents.
Inker couldn't decide what to do…
That's when he felt someone grab his hand.
Vale had returned and pulled Inker away from the Elite, leaving Kal alone doing double takes before chasing after Inker shouting "wait for me!"
Inker and the others returned to the food truck, where Callie and Marie were waiting.
"Hey what's wrong Agent 3? Why the long face?" Callie asked
"I think I just witnessed a crime."
"?"
Victoria corrected him "Oh don't worry, Elite do things like this all the time. By the way we aren't leaving her to get eaten alive out here, let's go for a tour around Calamari county and come back just as the sun goes down, by then that Octoling will be scared and tired, she'll be more than ready to talk."
"Are you really okay with this? I mean you are basically leaving one of your own kind defenseless."
"It's fine, even if the mice come out early we can have Violet treat her once we get back."
In response to this Kal stared wide eyed at Victoria.
"What?"
"Remind me never to get on your bad side."
"You shouldn't be surprised, you of all Inklings should know how serious I take being a soldier."
"This is beyond that!"
"Just trust me on this. Callie get us out of here."
"Okay!"
They left their prisoner alone in a sugar cane field.
"I'm impressed Holter." Vale said.
"Thank you captain." Victoria replied.
"To think that you'd be able to avoid all the counter interrogation training an Elite Octoling goes through by using an indirect method. You planted a powerful suggestion into that Elite's mind. A suggestion that will soon spread fear and anxiety in the subject's mind as she slowly awaits nightfall. If this was a test in the Elite program, you would have passed with flying colours."
"Yes well, I kinda experienced something similar before, so I figured it might work on someone else."
Meanwhile in a completely opposite mood was Inker and Kal, who were still trying not to think about that poor Elite Octoling.
One side felt proud, the other felt wrong.
"It's strange to see them so divided by a single event. Guess that comes to show the Octos aren't going to mix well with us." Marie noticed.
"That doesn't matter, it's harder than I expected but I'm sure we can stop the fighting between us. Slowly the Octarians around Captain Vale are taking a liking to us you know." Inker said.
"I wouldn't know, Cal and are too busy to know what's happening in Octo Valley. You know, with the final splatfest and all."
"Final splatfest? Wait when did?"
"Don't worry you haven't missed it, we announced it just days ago, you still have time."
After spending a few hours around Calamari county, Victoria and Captain Vale returned to the sugar cane fields to retrieve the Elite Octoling.
Drenched in cold sweat, the Elite kept repeating her name and rank as a means to distract herself. When she caught sight of Vale and Victoria she began to say anything that might get her out of her predicament.
At first the Elite only gave statistics, like the amount of soldiers at Nautilus base, or how many Elite Octolings are still active, when that didn't work she began to repeat Octavia's previous plans.
Those included using Lila as a sleeper agent, using the Octo Valley News Bulletin to discredit any uprising Octarians and constructing new weapons based on those taken from the Vanguard Inklings.
Captain Vale was somewhat mad when she found out that Octavia was now perfectly fine with equipping Octolings with Rollers, as Octavia didn't approve of it at all when she made the initial suggestion.
"Enough about the past! Tell us what Octavia is planning now!"
"H-how am I supposed to know that? Octavia hardly ever reveals anything and when she does, it's only to the highest ranking Elites."
This upstart Elite couldn't provide much, in the end they had no choice but to return to Octo Valley without any useful information.
Inker and Kal said goodbye to Callie and Marie while promising to return for the final splatfest with Neon and Sky soon.
As the group continued back towards the lair, Vale started to slow down.
"Keep going, I'm just making sure nobody is watching." Vale said.
Vale handed over the captured Elite to Kal and Victoria, while Vale disappeared in another direction.
The Inklings were hiding something from her earlier, she was going to find out just what it was.
Making her way back to Cap'n Cuttlefish's shack, she first made sure the old squid wasn't around.
Then she searched for that sphere thing that Marie and Cuttlefish were hiding earlier.
It took a while but soon she found it hidden under a tarp.
With a quick tug, Vale exposed what was actually a giant snow globe.
One that contained DJ Octavio, former leader of Octo Valley.
The century old leader lay sleeping in a prison of glass.
Vale was surprised, why didn't they put him somewhere more secure?
Actually, now that it was on her mind, Vale realised Inkopolis itself had little in terms of security.
With this information, all she needed to do was free Octavio then they could invade….
'Not again! What am I even doing here? I got needlessly suspicious of my allies again! What is wrong with me?'
Realizing how badly this would affect her alliance with Agent 3, Vale slowly backed away from DJ Octavio's snow globe.
Then she stopped.
'Octavia is only an Acting Leader, if I free Octavio he could restore my position in the Octarian army.'
Vale stepped back towards Octavio's snow globe.
'The only reason I agreed to work with Agent 3 in the first place was to get rid of Octavia, freeing DJ Octavio would be a shortcut to that.' Vale assured herself that she was staying on task.
She wanted to go back to the Octarian army, she wanted to spare her subordinates from looking over their shoulders everyday.
Octavio was the easy way to that goal.
If she freed him, she could get back to the fight that mattered, Octarians vs Inklings.
'Why does fighting Inklings feel so right? I don't get it?'
Vale wasn't sure what to do, she had never been stuck like this before, usually she wouldn't hesitate to make important choices.
'Free Octavio or not?'
If she had found him earlier, she would have done so without hesitation, but recently Vale had been doubting herself a lot more than usual.
She was constantly catching herself going against her own plans, so what if she didn't actually want to free Octavio?
Vale had many questions arising, but nobody could answer them since they were about herself.
As she pondered what to do, DJ Octavio moved.
The old leader tried to stretch his arms, only to remember he was trapped in a snow globe.
A few moments later Octavio opened his eyes.
Captain Vale found herself staring into the large green eyes of the Octarian army's one true leader.
DJ Octavio crossed his arms, though there was the slightest hint of a smile forming in the corner of his face.
"Well... if it isn't the hero of Ark Pelaris."
And Vale stood there wondering what she should do.
'The easy way out? Or the other?'