Unlike so many teenagers, Three always woke up early. At 5:30 AM she forced herself out of bed – not easy when it was so warm and the house was only just starting to warm back up. The temperature was always allowed to go down at night. It made sleeping easier and saved electricity.
Three changed out of her pyjamas and donned a simple t-shirt and pants. Nothing special, just what happened to be on top of her drawer. It was still dark outside, not even a trace of twilight; only the bright lights of the city and the reflections off the snow.
Three knelt next to her end table and touched her forehead to the silver picture frame on top of it.
"Good morning, Mama."
She pulled back and the portrait of Fulvia Scarletteri smiled at her as a familiar longing pulled at Three's soul. She forced it aside and swiftly turned her back to leave the room.
Silvie was already making breakfast. She too was an early riser, a sharp contrast to her daughter who could comfortably sleep until mid-afternoon were she feeling lazy enough.
Three sat at the kitchen island where a place had already been set for her. She had barely sat down when Silvie dumped a pan of eggs onto her plate. Three flashed a guilty thanks but Silvie indicated that she shouldn't worry about it and poured a second pan of eggs onto her own plate.
They didn't speak, they rarely ever did. In many ways, Three saw Silvie as a look into her own future. They were so much alike, Silvie had even said so once. Neither of them were particularly sociable, they had both lost their mother at a young age, and both of them had killed crabs. Not the most likely of similarities but they felt significant in their uniqueness.
Three drank some of her orange juice and imagined what her life would be like at Silvie's age. She was in her late forties now and she had been in her late twenties when she'd mothered Marie – which was unusually young since inkyora generally didn't start having children until their thirties, but unlike Three, Silvie had been dominating a household since she was nine-years-old, taking over as head of the family after her mother Soreela's passing and raising a little brother – Callie's father, all while attending school, leaving her no room for a life of her own. Three could not imagine herself surviving in such a situation.
To start, Three wasn't very good at housework. She had always struggled to keep her room (and herself) clean; she had no idea how to cook, and her few attempts had resulted in unmitigated disasters. On top of that, Silvie, despite her ruthless behaviour and strict attitude, had beauty, while Three had always considered herself plain, uninteresting, and many people had described both her behaviour and appearance as masculine. Three had never really cared about any of that except for the one tiny piece of femininity she clung to, her desire to carry on her mother's genetic legacy, and she had no confidence in her ability to attract mates.
Even if Eight became her mate, neither of them were particularly skilled socially, and she had learned from her time with Callie and Marie that sociability was essential for proper integration into Inkling society, and both of them lacked it. Three was starting to think it would be necessary to have a third member who could compensate for their weaknesses and form a fully functioning family. Silvie at least had Mora living right across the road, but Three didn't really have anyone quite like that.
Three took care of the dishes while Silvie checked on Callie and Marie, ensuring their breakfast buckets were ready. By the time Three was done, Silvie was calling for her to help in the pool room.
Callie was already awake, stretching her limbs and working the last sleep out of her body with some warmup swimming. Three greeted her with a pulse of pink and green, which Callie returned.
Marie was still dozing at the bottom of the pool and Silvie was trying to wake her up by using the other end of the pool skimmer to prod her. The result was Marie biting off the end of the pole and Callie remarking that they would need a new pool skimmer.
Eventually, they managed to get both Callie and Marie up, washed, dressed, and into the living room for their breakfast of healthy, filling, but disgusting pligrei.
"Anything to report?" Marie asked. There was a hint of desperation in her voice, hoping for something to occupy her mind while she forced her breakfast down her throat.
Three retrieved her notebook from her bedroom. Four always gave her report at the end of the day unless there was something urgent, and Three made sure to write down every item to report to Callie and Marie in the morning. Trapped in their home they liked to be kept abreast of what was going on.
"Two more octolings were released from hospital yesterday and have been moved to the new Octarian quarters in Xapheerell. Three more have returned to active duty. No problems with the Octarians moving into the area, in fact, they've felt very welcomed.
"Scylla has been getting a lot of visits from community leaders outside of Xapheerell, and she's going to be getting visits from matrons representing the people living and working in the bay area. Apparently, stragglers from the crab gangs were seen there and the sailors are afraid of the crabs attacking their families while they're out at sea."
Marie's mantle turned red. "Their concern is valid. Even with the crab gangs gone there's just too much ground for IS to cover by themselves. They can't deal with everyday demands and have a reaction force ready to deal with any crab raiding parties."
"Consortium raiding parties," Callie corrected. "We gotta' remember that not all crabs are associated with the Consortium."
"Right," Marie mumbled, pinching her brows together. "Xapheerell is fairly secure with Scylla's crew basically running their own security and all the Octarians moved there too, but that won't really help the surrounding wards much."
"And nobody's figured out how that horde of little crabs ambushed Four's splatoon either. Work Detail, Scylla's shoal, IS, and the NSF have all looked but found nothing. We can't rest easy until we figure that out."
Marie flashed green. "And neither can anyone else. Since Scylla's bastion fought them the longest, they're probably hoping she has answers. Oh, did she manage to appeal to any matriarchs?"
Three flashed red. "She did make an appeal to Matriarch Danasta but she was rejected."
Marie pulsed dark-blue. "Somehow, I'm not surprised. Honestly, until Xapheerell gets some strong footing underneath it, they're going to be a touchy issue so–."
Marie was interrupted by the blaring of Three's cell phone. Three recognized Four's distinctive ring. She wouldn't call this early unless it was important, so she hurried to answer.
"Three, get over to work detail, pronto! Kifi called me and said a bunch of matrons and people from the surrounding wards are forcing their way in. I told 'em to just let them do it for now but not let anyone onto the second floor. A lot of them had already gotten in anyway."
Three's mantle lit up with alarm and her body tensed, mind racing. "What do they want?"
"To talk to whoever's in charge, but I don't really think this is something we should force on Kifi. Dealing with inklings is more our job."
"I'm on my way. If you get there first then try to hold things down 'till I get there."
"Yes Ma'am."
Three put her phone away and grabbed her coat, all the while hurriedly explaining the situation to Callie and Marie.
"They aren't hostile?" Marie asked.
"Doesn't sound like it, but they must be very motivated to force their way into Work Detail's warehouse."
"Don't do anything crazy, Three," Callie warned. "And make sure you let us know what happens right away."
Three flashed green, grabbed the keys to Marie's car and hurried out.
—-
Foame had barely woken up when she'd heard the commotion on the street outside. People had been gathering around Matron Bluegrass as she entered the neighbourhood and began speaking earnestly with her, but she couldn't hear what was being said and she wasn't about to open her window to find out, not in the middle of winter.
Foame got dressed in a flash, grabbed a slice of toast and hurried outside with the toast still in her mouth. The sun was up but the distant roar of a commuter train was the only telltale sign that the city was awakening this far into the city's core. Matron Bluegrass was speaking to the assembled crowd.
"People are forgetting that the first murder, that poor young octoling and inkling couple, happened right within our own ward, just outside this very neighbourhood! We don't know where these Consortium pawns might spring up next, and people in Xapheerell have been saying there might be an even bigger group than the one they fought during the Liberation hiding somewhere!"
"That's what we've been saying," Argued one of the neighbours. "Our question is what we're going to do about it?"
"Inkopolis Security is investigating, trying to find out where some of the crabs might have come from, but they don't have enough people to cover everywhere and the NSF is refusing to put people out on patrol. They're trying to maintain enough officers in a group able to respond to any roving crab gangs that might show up. Until and unless this militia of Patriarch Keeper's gets up and running, they won't be able to spare enough people to patrol."
"They can't just hang us out to dry!" Cried someone else. "What about our kids? We can't let them walk to school if a bunch of Consortium fanatics are out there trying to eat them!"
"Even our older kids are vulnerable! Remember those orphans that Callie saved? They were between sixteen and fourteen."
"I have a friend in Inkopolis Security and he said that the crabs might have been planning to hit Inkopolis Square! They're definitely targeting our kids!"
"Isn't anyone going to do anything?"
"That's why I'm here," Matron Bluegrass answered. "The only people we know who can help are the people who beat them back in the first place. I came here to see if anyone else was willing to come with me to see them and ask for their help. Several other matrons are doing the same thing. So, is there anyone else who wants to come with me?"
And so, that was more or less how she and a few couple hundred other inklings, including matrons and other community leaders, ended up barging into a warehouse on the edge of their ward and people began yelling at the bewildered Octarians inside, demanding to speak to whomever was in charge.
Now they stood in a single large group on one side of the building while the Octarians stood on the other, speaking to each other in hushed tones. Foame, perhaps due to her pedigree, was given a spot in the front row, giving her a good view of the Octarians opposite her.
Honestly, to Foame, the Octarians looked frightened and they'd seemed rather timid when dealing with the matrons and community leaders. It was understandable given the peculiar situation they were in, but not at all like one would expect of the people who had beaten back a small army of fearsome crabs that Calachora's own security forces had been afraid to deal with.
"How much longer are we going to have to wait?" Someone demanded.
The Octarian who called herself Kifi, answered, "we have two officers on the way already. They have to cross a large portion of Inkopolis to get here." She answered with more confidence than she probably had, hiding her anxiety behind a mask of professionalism.
"Why would your 'officers' live so far away from your headquarters," someone else demanded.
"You have no right to act impatient," one of the Octarians shouted back. "You are the ones who came without warning!"
"It's an emergency! Do you really think we had time to make an appointment?"
"Nobody else has had any problems!"
Foame shrank a little, feeling the tension mounting as the arguments piled. The matrons tried to keep order but not everyone who had come was part of their shoals, and the one Octarian seemed determined not to back down either. This was going badly already, and they were the ones who needed the Octarian's help.
"Zorostno!"
The loud bark sliced through the arguing and all at once, every Octarian slammed their right foot down, creating a single, powerful boom which silenced all voices.
Foame stood wide-eyed, marvelling at how a single command had brought all the Octarians to the stiff, rigid position of attention, and at the same time, all the apprehension and fear that had been in their eyes was gone now. Clearly, The Boss had arrived.
Foame peered down the aisle between the two groups and saw two girls walking in her direction from the direction of the loading dock.
She didn't recognize the yellow-orange girl in the back but the one in the lead looked familiar to her. She had a green mantle and fierce red eyes that threatened to set afire anyone whom they looked at for too long. She wasn't pretty, in the traditional sense, but Foame thought there was a kind of subtle beauty to her, the way one might admire the form of a dangerous predator, yet she couldn't have been any older than Foame.
The girl stopped in front of Kifi, and despite being taller and older, the Octarian somehow looked diminished. She spoke in a language Foame didn't understand but guessed it was the Octarian's native tongue. Only when she was done did she turn around and search the front rank of inklings in front of her.
"What do you want?" She asked them all.
"You're the officer we've been waiting for?" One of the earlier loudmouths demanded. "You're just some kid."
Three forced herself to ignore the slight and maintain a stoic front. "In the absence of the executive committee, I am the one in charge. If you think this issue is important enough for them, you must convince me first."
Foame sensed another explosion of arguments coming, she'd been the peacemaker of too many groups to not notice it. She needed to defuse things before they got out of control again. That was when she remembered where she had seen this girl before.
Taking in an anxious breath, she stepped out into the aisle. "Um, hey, you're Cortina Scarletteri, aren't you? The Squid Sisters' bodyguard?"
Scarletteri fixed her with a hard stare, those fierce eyes of hers threatening to set Foame alight like a piece of kindling.
"Yes," she answered evenly. "And I was a company commander during the Liberation of Xapheerell. I assume you're here because of something related to that."
So, it was as Foame suspected. This girl was close to Callie and Marie and she had been involved in the Liberation. There was no doubt then that her authority and credibility were very real.
Matron Mender cleared her throat and glanced at the other matrons before she spoke. "Without getting too deep into it, we need help. Our children are in danger from the Consortium. All the other crabs are telling us we have every reason to be afraid and that we need to do something to protect them, but we don't know what we can do. That's why we wanted to ask the Octarians for help."
Scarletteri flashed green. "We are already cooperating with Security as best we can. We still haven't found out where the cra- the Consortium… forces might be hidden."
"That's not what we mean," Matron Bluegrass spoke up. "We need a way to keep our children safe until all this is over. Security can't be everywhere at once, many of the parents work, and even if they can escort the children to school and back, we don't think they would be enough of a… a deterrent."
"You want to hire Work Detail as bodyguards or private security?"
The matron's mantle turned maroon as she glanced at the others. "Well, that might have been the idea at first, but there are so many of us that it doesn't look like that would be practical. So, we were hoping they– you would have an idea."
Scarletteri's mantle rippled and her eyes seemed to become unfocused. She was thinking, probably trying to come up with a solution herself or at least calculate her next move. That was not something one would typically do in the middle of a conversation like this, especially when talking to matrons. Did this girl not care or was she just that unaware?
Finally, she turned around to face the Octarians. "Mena klid. Pohod." As one, the Octarians spread their legs again and placed their hands behind their backs before they began to move easily now.
"I'm going to make a call," she announced. "Four, keep an eye on things."
"Yes, Ma'am."
'Four' was apparently the name of the other inkling girl who had come in with Scarletteri. She had to be at least two years younger, obvious from her adorable, round, little, face and big bright eyes. A sharp contrast to her older counterpart.
Scarletteri vanished into one of the rooms at the back of the warehouse. Foame wondered if she was going to call one of the executives in charge of this… company? She wasn't exactly sure what all this was.
Four began speaking jovially with some of the Octarians. Foame couldn't understand anything they were saying but they all seemed to be on friendly terms and it seemed to help the Octarians feel more at ease.
It was about fifteen minutes later when Scarletteri returned, and despite not giving any commands, the Octarians all stiffened again. Even Four dropped her pleasant expression and turned serious, standing stiffly in front of the Octarian ranks.
Scarletteri stopped where she'd been standing before and faced the assembled matrons. "The executives have decided they will meet, along with a few other advisors and they'll try to decide what they can do. In the meantime, you might want to discuss how willing you would be to have your children able to defend themselves."
The matrons all looked at each other, then back at her.
"You mean, train them to fight?" Matron Mender asked warily.
"You can't expect children to fight deadly crabs!"
"I did," Scarletteri answered. "So did Four. Many of the octolings here are also between fourteen and twenty. Barely half are over twenty. They aren't afraid of the crabs, the crabs fear them."
They all looked over the Octarians. Foame couldn't help but pick out a few that might be her own age. They looked proud, but not arrogant. Some of them had injuries, probably from the Liberation.
Foame tried to imagine herself taking part in that bloodbath, or any other inkling she knew. It was difficult to imagine, and yet, these people had done it. She then found herself looking right into Scarletteri's fiery eyes. It caught her by surprise and she flinched a little, but she didn't look away. She realised that the question was actually being asked of her. Would she be willing to learn, to defend not only herself but others from those terrible crabs? She wavered.
"Try to think of a person you care about," Four said to her. "Try to think of that person getting their limbs torn off one at a time and eaten in front of them. Screaming, begging for someone to help them."
"Stop it!" One of the inkyora in the crowd shrouded. "Don't frighten her with such things. No creature, not even the Consortium's lackeys would do something so terrible!"
"They do!" Scarletteri's harsh rebuke silenced everyone. "Ask the octoling still in intensive care at the hospital, who survived exactly that only thanks to the quick actions of a few. It's a miracle she survived all that. She'll need a year to regain full use of her limbs, and with no arms or legs she's completely dependent on others for her survival."
She walked right up to Foame. They were the same height, but Foame suddenly felt a centimetre tall. Her eyes bore through to her soul as she spoke. "Now imagine someone you know, someone you love in that same position and you see that happening in front of you. Would you want the power to do something about it or would you just run away?"
Foame clutched her arms as she felt a terrible chill, and she couldn't tear her eyes away from the other girl's gaze. Her mind rapidly placed people she knew in the very scenario she described, crying, begging for help. Wren, her mother, her brother, her little niece.
The icy chill transformed into boiling hot fury. Her hands went to her side, balled into tight fists as she bared her beak. "I'd want to save them."
Something Foame couldn't quite identify seemed to flash in Scarletteri's eyes. Had it really been there or just her own imagination? Regardless, the other girl flashed green and stepped away.
"Let's hope the rest of your children are as resolved. I suggest you go and speak to your shoals and talk about it amongst yourselves. What lengths are you willing to go to? What risks are you willing to take to make sure your children are safe? When you have the answer to that, see us again." She stopped walking and slammed her foot into the floor with a bang. "But next time, make an appointment, and only a few people."
Everyone seemed to take the hint and they all began to file out. Foame's feet, however, remained planted. She couldn't leave, not yet. There was something she needed to know.
Kifi turned to her Octarians and began giving out commands. Four remained where she was while Scarletteri headed to the back of the building once again. Foame followed her, up a set of stairs to the second floor. Scarletteri was waiting for her at the top, staring at her with that same intense gaze of hers.
Foame fought off a small burst of timidity and said, "I need to talk to you."
Scarletteri's mantle darkened but she ushered Foame into the nearby office, a room that, judging from the mess of papers, maps, and other things, seemed to be where much of the administration work happened.
Foame sighed and faced the other girl again. "So, the Consortium is really coming for us, right? What's left of them here really will come for kids our age?"
She flashed green. "[Yes]"
"Just because they want to scare us into not stopping their invasion of Bellchora?"
"[Probably]"
"And you're still looking for them? You're still going to fight them when you find out where they're hiding out?"
"[Yes.]"
"Why?"
The question seemed to catch her a little off guard, so Foame elaborated. "You were part of the Liberation, you obviously know how to fight, but you must have gotten in trouble because of what you did. Callie and Marie were even placed in custody. Everyone's asking why Callie and Marie had to be the ones to do something about the crab gangs, but I want to know why they did it at all. Risking their own lives to save the city when they could have just told the authorities what was happening, (whether it would have worked or not) and left it to them. Nobody would have blamed them. Gods, that's what people are saying they should have done."
Scarletteri stared at her for several moments, as if studying her, then answered, "because it's the right thing to do. If all you do is wait for other people to do the right thing, then everyone gets stuck in a game of musical chairs, and by the time the music stops, it's usually too late. Callie's words."
Foame gave a small smile. "I guess she's right."
"And Marie says that there are some times when doing things yourself is better for everyone. Sometimes there are situations you are best to handle, and when those situations come, you can't hesitate."
"And that's how it was with the Liberation?"
"More or less. Everyone in the Assembly seems to think they're running some kind of angle. They can't imagine anyone doing what they did out of selflessness."
"And you?"
"I did what was necessary. We might not have gotten them all, but we took the initiative from them, and now they're scared of us, not the other way around."
Foame flashed green and nodded her thanks. She left the office and made her way outside, into the cold. The sun was much higher now and the city was very much awake, the roar of traffic echoing off the walls of the nearby warehouses.
As she made her way back home, she wondered if she too would be capable of sticking her neck out for the greater good. Her pedigree probably expected it of her, but could she fulfil that?
My pedigree, hm?
Foame doubted most inklings who hatched in a bowl even had to learn the word 'pedigree', but that was what she and her older brother had done, their family unable to afford a big tank for their mother to lay their eggs in. Even living in a house was a relatively recent development. But it wasn't her family's wealth that affected her pedigree, it was her actions, and at least she had been taught ways of dealing with its burdens.
We can't just learn how to fight off the crabs ourselves, that's being too reactive and it doesn't actually solve the problem.
The Liberation of Xapheerell had been different. While it might not have eliminated the threat entirely, it had badly dulled the enemy's hooks and put them on the back foot, and despite being Calachoran, Callie and Marie had used a force of Octarians, surely knowing what a frenzy that would cause in the Assembly and media.
Because there was no force of inklings they could use, or even the government could have used effectively. That isn't right. The Octarians shouldn't be the ones that have to protect Inkopolis, it should be us.
She didn't know why they could, but Callie and Marie had been able to figure out what was going on and create an effective response, and Scarletteri had to be quite something herself for the Octarians to have so much confidence in her.
If we're actually going to change things, if we're actually going to put the Consortium or whoever away for good, then we can't just be a bunch of kids who know a few self-defence tricks, we need to help them all fight the Consortium, we shouldn't expect the Octarians to do it for us! If Callie and Marie need an army to get things done, then we should be that army.
Author's Notes:
This chapter sets up a series of events that will lead to some rather significant conflicts later in the story. Foame might not be one of our main girls but she still has an important role to play. We also see Three having to adopt more of a leadership role with Callie and Marie incapacitated and Pearl and Marina busy with their celebrity lives and news duties. The octolings still aren't terribly comfortable dealing with sensitive situations like this, especially when there's so much at stake.
