"Where are they?"

Four had gone through the entire warehouse several times now and still hadn't come across a single member of Cricket Squad. She had started to suspect that they were playing hooky a while ago, but even so, she should have been able to find them. She'd doubled back, cut halfway through and all sorts of things to try and cut them off but there was no sign of them. Could they actually have left the site? This was bad, very bad.

"Agent 4?"

Four heard Kifi's voice. The Octoling looked slightly sheepish about saying her agent name out of habit but she quickly reapplied her professional mask. "I have noticed you've been wandering about for a while now. Is something wrong?"

No sense hiding it.

"I'm looking for Cricket Squad. They went into the warehouse to start work but I haven't been able to find them anywhere."

Kifi frowned. "That's odd. They couldn't possibly have gotten lost in such a simple building."

"I looked outside too but didn't find anyone. I was about to start asking around."

"Yes, let us do that."

There was urgency in Kifi's eyes. It wasn't hard to imagine why. The orphans were her overall responsibility on the job site and it would be bad for Work Detail if something happened to the orphans. Upsetting the Ecclesiarcy was never a good thing.

The two of them began asking around, talking to each individual squad until one of the other orphans told them that they saw the Cricket Squad members going out one of the back doors. Four had checked outside the building of course, but now it was painfully clear. They had left the property entirely, and snuck out the back. To do that right at the start, this had to have been planned ahead of time.

I bet Miazama had a big hand in this. This is where she's from. If she's run away, finding her will be almost impossible with our resources.

She glanced at Kifi who was also realizing that they had completely gone and she appeared to be panicking a little bit. She probably didn't know what the protocol was for this kind of situation in inkling society.

"Kifi," she said. "I'll go after them, but you better keep an extra close eye on the orphans. It's better if you and the other octolings stay here."

Kifi stared at her. "What? But, should we not send out a search party?"

"Normally, yes, but you girls aren't the best choice for that right now. Xapheerell Ward is one of the roughest parts of Inkopolis. You'll all be needed here to protect the rest of the orphans."

Kifi looked even more worried now. "The client didn't tell us any of this. What are we protecting them from?"

Four's mantle darkened. "Crabs. The crab gangs here have been pretty nasty and even though most of them aren't that big, the larger crab species are tough to deal with because they're basically immune to ink attacks. The inkling shoals around here had to fall back and tighten their territory in order to put up a strong fight and stop them from roaming."

Kifi's lips compressed together. "And we are right in the crab's territory, aren't we."

"Yeah. There won't be a problem with such a large group of us. That's why you have to stay here and stay together." She frowned. "Sorry, I thought you already knew."

Kifi's gaze fell. "Perhaps I should have."

Four shook her head clear. "Don't worry about it. You keep an eye on things here and tell Priestess Gallora what's happened. Cali is supposed to come later too, probably with Three. They'll be able to help."

She started walking away. "I'm going after those idiots. I'll have my phone on. First place I'll be going to is the bus stop on the route that goes to Inkopolis Square. If I find them I'll phone!"

Four started running. Kifi didn't call back but she knew her message had been understood. She didn't want to think about the consequences right now, but this was her squad that had run off, so she had to bring them back. It was unlikely that they would come back willingly, but that was fine. As far as she was concerned, this level of stupidity warranted the kid gloves coming off.

And after I apologized and everything.

She swallowed her bitterness and hoped she arrived in time to save those idiots from a messy fate. Even all the way in Little Reef, she knew stories of what happened to inklings who fell into the claws of some of the particularly nasty crab gangs. How they would eat inklings alive from the feet up, snip their limbs off just for fun, and beat them over and over with their claws.

I gotta' find them first. Whatever I do, I've gotta' find them first!

Marie took in the scent of expertly brewed tea, helping her relax in spite of the myriad of pressing issues bouncing around in her head. She tried not to think about the lack of a reply from the Octarians, or what the rotation of troops through their above-ground outpost might mean. She had other, more immediate things to focus on.

The Captain's Mess was an upper-class café and restaurant overlooking Inkopolis Bay. Inspired by the interior design of a Precursor luxury liner, all the furniture and tables were made of polished wood, each staircase was large and featured elaborately carved railings. Soothing jazz music played through high-fidelity speakers, each one in a case of wood and brass, all quite nice in spite of a name Marie thought was more suitable for a fast food chain.

The second-floor lounge, where Marie sat, featured high-backed chairs with large, comfortable cushions, and the large windows offered a spectacular view of the bay which, despite the cold, looked resplendent whenever the sun managed to emerge from behind the clouds.

Despite the jazz, Marie's well-tuned ears easily picked up the sound of approaching footsteps. Setting down her tea, she turned in her chair to greet her guests.

The first was a particularly gorgeous inkling girl with long, light-tan tentacles darkening to a cappuccino brown near the tips, and eyes an alluring golden-brown which seemed to have a perpetually flirty look to them. The second girl was also an inkling, with four long tentacles, each one a different colour – in this particular encounter: neon yellow, orange, eggplant purple, and a hot pink, all cooliding at the base of her mantle which she keptt hidden under a hat.

They were Bibi and Yoko of Ink Theory, and they were good friends of Marie.

"Glad you could come," Marie said.

Bibi pulsed grey and flipped one of the tentacles over her shoulder. "Actually, I don't mind the excuse to escape from the world a little, especially if it means a free tea and snacks at a place like this." She gave Marie a sly wink and Marie gave her a knowing smile in return before they shared a friendly kiss.

Bibi was well known to have expensive taste; however, thanks to her fiscal excellence, she never lacked the means to pay for it. She was also very good at dealing with having a public life and having a thumb on the pulse of the people. She normally used that to keep on top of trends but that skill had other uses.

Yoko wasn't the kissing type so they settled for a brief grasping of hands before they both sat down.

Despite being Ink Theory's frontrunner, Yoko was a quiet girl overall. Raising Three had given Marie more experience dealing with quiet types like her, but Yoko also had to deal with the mutation that caused her to produce four different ink colours at once and her susceptibility to the weather, which could often sap her energy. She was a hard worker though, and Marie admired her silent but tenacious nature.

She and Three really are alike. I should get them to meet one of these days.

"Tea's fresh," Marie said, gesturing to the pot. "Cakes and cookies should be along soon."

"Sounds good," Bibi said, pouring herself and then Yoko a cup. "So, what have you been up to, girl? We've barely seen you since Callie went missing months ago."

"Sorry, we had the tour and then a bunch of things happened after that. Yun'brennen hasn't made things easy either." Marie's mantle flashed a casual but sincere apology.

"Hmmm, kind of a dangerous place to come to if you're having trouble with yun'brennen, isn't it?"

"Cleaned out almost our entire pantry last night," Marie confessed. "I plan on having a big lunch too, just not here, so the monster in my guts is sated for now."

"Look after yourself," Yoko said. "Things can sneak up on you."

"I appreciate the concern, but don't worry, I'm managing it. Besides, my mother's in town with Gramps in the hospital so I have plenty of feedback as it is."

"Oh… I'm sorry to hear that."

Marie pulsed blue with light-green spots, trying to come off reassuring. "Don't worry about it; he's fine. What about you girls? What have you been up to?"

They chatted back and forth for a little bit, trading pleasantries, the usual questions about family and career. Ink Theory had a new album coming soon, so that was exciting.

"So I'm curious," Bibi said after a while. "What's with this bodyguard I heard you girls hired?"

Marie pulsed blue. "Well, you girls know how it is, especially since we'll be adults soon and losing the cover of child privacy. It seemed like a perfectly good measure." She allowed herself a smirk. "You hearing things in the tabloids already?"

"Some overseas," she said, pulsing grey. "But those sorts of things never gain traction outside of an Inkling controlled country. Nothing you need to worry about."

"But you're still curious?"

Bibi arched an eyebrow and displayed a questioning yellow. "She's a kid, Marie. I'm guessing she's at least two years younger than you."

"Four, actually. She's sixteen."

The two girls stared at her.

"Sixteen?" Yoko repeated disbelievingly.

"She's very mature and responsible for her age, and I'd put her up against any enforcer in Inkopolis."

Bibi let out a huff. "That's a big claim."

"One I'll back up in a heart cycle. But speaking of our country's youth, have you two been noticing anything lately? Our statistics are indicating that the average age of our fans is getting older, fast."

Bibi's mantle darkened. "Yeah, well, hardly anybody's having kids these days. You and Callie supporting the government's drive to try and get our generation to breed is only going to go so far. Bottom line is that raising more kids is more expensive and a pain."

Yoko nodded sadly. "I'm one of only two kids and even that's considered above average." She pulsed blue and her shoulders sagged a little. "We're all so busy too, I don't think we have time to even think about having kids."

Marie chewed thoughtfully on one of the cakes. Maybe she could look at this from a different angle. "So? What would make you want to have kids?"

Bibi pulsed grey. "It used to be that having a big family was a status symbol. Found out recently that one of my classmates has an egg count of seven. A lot of the richer families still take girls like that in because it's obvious they're of great genetic stock, and they care a lot more about guaranteeing their legacies." She waved her hand. "But that's old money. We're strictly new money. Even my parents are only upper-middle class."

"I just don't feel confident raising a big family," Yoko said. "So many things to worry about. I was super nervous just babysitting my brother back in the day."

"Another fair point," Marie agreed. "And it also raises the question of what the male perspective would be. They're usually the ones that have to provide for the family, at least, most of the time."

Bibi made a disgusted face. "I hate that excuse."

Marie frowned. "What excuse?"

Bibi glared down at her tea, her mantle a dark brown and rippling with various reds. "Do you know how many lazy moms I saw growing up, or just lazy wives? I knew a bunch of inkyora who wouldn't work other than maintaining the house and then still take years to have just one kid. They just used their husbands as a way of letting them take it easy for a few years before having to go through the burden of parenthood. Treating being a mom more like paying for services rendered to the husband than anything out of love."

"They usually pick up and become devoted moms once the egg comes out though," Yoko pointed out. "And there are plenty of deadbeat dads too."

"Yeah, but you always hear about the deadbeat dads. Nobody talks about the lazy wives except the males and they tell other males, including the younger ones. It's no wonder most of them don't want to bother dealing with that. That's not what a family's supposed to be like."

"The first girl a boy falls in love with is his mother," Marie quoted softly. "Even if his mom was like that once too, he won't think that after she's raised him for so many years as a devoted parent."

Bibi displayed brown with purple spots. "Can't ask the guys to lower their standards. I think girls are just getting lazy with us being the dominant sex."

"And a lot of the girls who actually want to be good wives and moms can't find good guys," Yoko added. "They all just seemed concerned with having fun and doing turf war. No sense of responsibility or anything. Well, I guess that's true both ways."

Marie stared down at her cup, tracing the rim of the base with her index finger. "So, as I thought, it's a fundamental issue with our society."

Bibi eyed Marie carefully. "You're not just asking us to make small talk or to discuss issues we're going to be asked about on talk shows, are you? You're up to something."

Marie smiled. "Honey, I'm always up to something. More than that though, with the amount of heat we get in the Assembly, Callie and I have to be careful to set a good example for all our fans."

Bibi and Yoko both laughed. "So, basically everyone."

Marie's mantle adopted a hue of royal purple. "That's just the situation I found myself in."

"And you're not humblebragging at all," Bibi smirked. "But even your critics in the Assembly can't expect you to work miracles."

Marie poured herself a new cup of tea, her eyes dimming. "From what Nana's told me, and from what Callie's told me about her meetings with the Ministry of Culture, the government thinks it's going to take a miracle to save Calachora from being taken over by the immigrating species in just a few generations.

We've been working with the Octarian refugees to try and stimulate the local economy and help make up the labour shortage but there's only a few hundred of them. We need thousands."

"Never met an octoling other than Marina," Bibi said. "I like her but what are they like in general?"

"Hard working, creative, and determined. Their society is already where ours will be one day if things continue as they have been, except every octoling girl there would love to have kids if they could."

Marie outlined the basics of the Octarian breeding program, how the male and female were matched through the most ideal combination of genetics and how females were selected from among those capable of breeding at all. They looked horrified when Marie told them about the breeding mothers, Octolings whose sole purpose and duty was to lay as many eggs as possible throughout their lives, until they either died or couldn't lay eggs anymore.

"That's awful," Yoko whispered, gently pushing away her plate of cookies and cakes, suddenly not very hungry. "I can't imagine just sitting in a tank for years and laying just more and more eggs. Especially if they lay that many."

"And only one in twenty octolings is a male," Bibi breathed, her expression indicating she could scarcely believe it. "If the government didn't take care of the girls there's no way they'd be able to look after that many wives."

"Haven't you heard of epeso families?" Marie asked. "It's common in our own culture to have a male married to more than one female."

"Like Gyari Trailmaker," Bibi sighed. "Yeah, guys talk about him all the time. They all yack on about wanting to be like him, but they don't really. They don't want to deal with having that many wives and kids."

Marie smirked. "Well, he is held as the epitome of masculinity in our modern age. Certainly his daughter will have a hard time finding a guy to meet those kinds of standards. The way things are now though, she may be forced to lower her expectations."

Bibi groaned. "And we might have to do the same. I'd be lying if I said I was excited to have kids but I don't want to not have kids."

"Then it's up to public figures like us to set an example. We don't just provide something for girls to aspire to, but we can also inspire boys to step up and become better."

Yoko frowned. "How?"

Marie stared down at her tea, watching the wisps of vapour dance in the air before vanishing. "Would you say that most guys consider girls like us to be unattainable?"

Bibi pulsed grey. "Yeah, probably. Sure, they dream about having us or girls like us as their girlfriends or wives, but I doubt most of them imagine it's actually possible. You don't even see it in movies these days."

"There's also the fact that we have money," Yoko said. "Normal guys will feel like they have nothing to offer us if they aren't needed to provide."

Marie winced. "I… hadn't thought of that."

Bibi smirked. "Because we're usually worried about guys marrying us just for our money. Why would we ever think it would be the thing to keep them away."

Yoko slouched a little in her seat. "It's because everyone just considers the role of the inkyar to just be bringing home the meat and teaching their sons how to do the same. Actually, that's pretty much all my dad did. When you think about it, it's kind of a pathetic existence. Why would anyone want that?"

Marie glanced up at the nearby clock. This social visit threatened to go on longer than expected, but the discussion was being so productive there was no way she was going to stop it. She would just have to deal with the ravenous monster in her guts a little longer, if only to maybe find some kernel of a solution.

"Are we almost there?" Gangrin asked. "I feel like it's taking longer than it should."

Miazama flashed burgundy with irritation. "I told ya' it was gunna' take longer. I told ya' the direct way was through clicker turf. Too dangerous."

"If it's dangerous then why are we here?" Tephilla asked. She was looking around, increasingly nervous and vulnerable looking. Part of Gangrin wanted to scoff at her, but really, she had fair reason to be anxious.

Xapheerell Ward as a whole was known as a rough part of the city. The broken and dilapidated buildings, litter in the streets, and the lack of people around was enough to make anyone nervous. Inklings instinctively preferred being near others, at least generally. It was a part of their ancient ancestry, when they relied on large groups for survival.

"Why is this particular part of Inkopolis so deserted?" Vella asked. She seemed to be the least concerned of all of them, but Gangrin put that down to ignorance.

"Xapheerell be where all the warehousin' for the port is," Miazama asked. "Lots'a workshops here too. Used to be, anyways. Mostly non-inklings live here; jellies and clickers."

Vella had an expression that showed she barely understood a word of what Miazama had said. Hardly surprising since the Xapheerell accent could be pretty hard to decipher for many inklings, never mind other species. Somewhat ironically, it was the jellyfish that had the most difficult time understanding it. The accent existed in other parts of the city of course but the name forever stuck.

"I'm not scared of crabs," Marsh said boldly. "I always wanted to fight one."

Miazama huffed. "Punchin' clickers like punchin' brick, some like. T'aint soft like us."

"I'm not soft." Marsh stated it so planely, as if it were a simple fact. Gangrin had a feeling that if he did end up fighting a crab it wasn't going to go his way.

"We can't run into any crab gangs," Tephilla whined. "Do you even know what they do to inklings?"

"Aye," Miazama said, and she grinned over her shoulder at the other girl. "They eat ya' alive from the feet up so they can hear ya' scream longer. Or, something they slice ya' up into bitty bites first with their claws."

Tephilla let out a small cry and covered her ears with her hands. "That's it, I'm going back!"

"Alone?" Gangrin asked. "Nobody's bothered us yet because we're in a group, but the minute you go off alone, you'll be the subject of one of those missing persons reports on the news."

Tephilla whined again, her mantle showing a mix of anger, regret, and timidity. She was probably regretting being talked into doing this and likely realized she had been manipulated. Well, fair was fair on that front as far as Gangrin was concerned. She deserved a taste of her own medicine."

"We be fine here," Miazama said. "This be the edge of Sharpfin turf. No clicker 'd dare come this way."

"Apparently they would."

Vella's words caused the whole group to stop in place and they followed her gaze to a small but growing assembly of crabs appearing just on the other side of a nearby road intersection, and they were all looking in their direction.

"We need to run," Tephilla whispered. "We need to get back."

"We ain't runnin'." Waves of fierce pride washed over Miazama's mantle. "Sharpfins don't give up turf."

"We're not Sharpfins."

"I don't care," Marsh interjected. "I don't back down from a fight."

Vella eyed the crabs warily. "Sometimes it's wiser to fall back and regroup."

Marsh's mantle turned plum-purple. "Well, you lost the war so what do you know?"

Vella's lips curled back in a snarl and she glared daggers at Marsh. He ignored her, instead focusing on the crabs as they started to match towards them. Vella now seemed resolved to staying with them, if only to prove Marsh wrong, but Gangrin could still see the desire to run in her eyes.

Tephyila let out a small cry and then took off running, her tunic coat flapping behind her as she sprinted down the street, but in the direction they had been going instead of the way they had come.

Honestly, Gangrin would have preferred to go with her. He saw no reason to stay and fight a pointless fight if it came to that, but with everyone else staying, his pride as the oldest and his desire to prove himself in a fight wouldn't allow him to leave them now. And Tani's words about him running at the first sign of trouble haunted him.

There were eight crabs in total, three slightly taller than the average adult inkling, one especially tall goliath with huge claws, and four stouter crabs that all had large claws of their own, which they clacked menacingly as they approached. As they got near, the smaller ones started to step sideways with their multiple legs, threatening to surround them.

The big one stepped in front of the rest and clacked it's two large claws as it glared down at them, menacingly.

"Out of your territory," it said amongst a series of clicks and clacks from its mandibles.

"Miazama crossed her arms, her mantle turning a dark shade of red. "No we ain't. This is Sharpfin turf. Has been for years."

The crabs all suddenly started making hissing and light clicking noises, which he knew was their equivalent of a laugh. The noise was enough to make his skin crawl and he could just barely hide his anxiety from showing on his mantle. Whatever Miazama had been banking on, apparently the crabs weren't impressed.

"Sharpfin's not around anymore," the large crab said. "You been away a while, little stainmaker. Crabs run Xapheerell all the way up to the East Tracks. We moved into the empty shells left behind without a fight." Then he let out a more angry sounding series of clicks, punctuated by clacks from his large claws. "But the Sharpfins tore down their own shell instead of leaving it for the victors. Wasteful. Not good."

The other crabs all clacked their claws angrily, the small ones moving side to side in short, quick movements while waving their claws. It was more than a little unnerving. Miazama still looked unimpressed.

"I think yar' messin with mah scales. Granny Sharpfin wouldn't let the shoal fall 'part."

The big crab laughed. "It did," and then with a swing of one of its claws, sent Miazama flying three times her body length. She bounced off the rusty chain-link fence and then fell to her knees before landing face first on the sidewalk.

"Hey!"

Marsh angrily ran at the large crab and took a flying leap in its direction, only to be blocked by two of the smaller, spindly-limbed crabs, who deflected him onto the ground and one of them pinned him in place, raising its snipping claw and drawing it back as if to strike.

Vella suddenly lunged forward as well. The third spindly crab moved to block her but was too slow and she deftly dodged its attack, hardly losing any momentum as she rushed towards Marsh.

The crab holding him down tried to block her with one of its many limbs but she stepped to the side and grabbed one of them, doving her foot into it. It made a wet snap and crack like a tree branch and the crab let out a shrill cry of pain as it scrambled to get away from the furious octoling.

Marsh scrambled quickly to his feet and tried to follow up Vella's attack, only for the first spindly crab to shove him to the side. Vella was busy dealing with the third spindly crab trying to attack her once again. Gangrin soon discovered he had his own problems.

One of the smaller crabs came at him. It didn't jump, it merely moved forwards, trying to bowl him over. He managed to roll out of the way, only to be tackled by one from the other side, causing him to stumble and land on the ground. Barely a second later, he felt the weight of the crab on top of him, it's claw forcing his head against the sidewalk.

In front of him we saw two of the smaller crabs standing on top of Miazama, keeping her pinned, and one of them had their claws around her neck. Miazama looked back at him, her eyes filled with terror and helplessness. Suddenly this confident, gruff, caustic girl was the most frightened person he had ever seen in his life.

The crabs picked him up by his arms and dragged him next to Miazama, pinning him against the fence so he could watch.

Marsh was already in the clutches of the first spindly crab, who was punching him over and over again with its many free limbs. Vella was still up, but she was surrounded by the remaining crabs, including the big one, who swung one of his large claws at her but she rolled out of the way and even managed to avoid one of the follow up attacks from the third spindly crab. One of the small crabs managed to knock her down but she kicked it away and managed to get back up before she could be attacked again.

Marsh suddenly ended up at Gangrin's feet, a bruised and bloody mess. It looked like the crab had avoided hitting his head for the most part, but his whole body was swelling up, his skin now an ugly blue colour. His mantle flashed with distress, the only time he had ever seen Marsh call for help in any capacity.

Vella was now the last one standing, and once she went down, they were done. They might be beaten up for sport, maybe get away with some severed limbs, but Miazama had clearly made them angry, so he doubted it would be as gentle as that.

Gangrin suddenly found himself swamped with regret, feeling like he would rather be cleaning up old warehouses and properly stacking bricks than where he was now. Was it really so bad? Had Tani really deserved all of their ire? She probably wouldn't be sorry to see them gone; although, she would probably end up in trouble. Tephilla would probably be found at some point and manage to somehow spin a story for Priestess Ganni that would demonize them and get her off scott free once she, in-turn, told the story to High Priestess Gallora.

In the end, they would just end up forgotten, left behind, like always.

The crabs had finally managed to back Vella against the fence, cornering her. The smaller crabs got on her flanks, while the big one approached from the front, hanging his extra limbs low to prevent her from diving between his legs. It looked like time was finally up for her too.

The big crab's body suddenly jerked and its eye stalks moved as if to look for the cause of the unexpected movement. Then, a figure appeared atop the crab's back and Gangrin gasped as he recognized her.

Tani grabbed onto one of the large crab's eyestalks, planting her feet on either side of it and then uprooted it like a stubborn weed. The large crab let out a shrill scream as its eye was ripped from its body in a fountain of gore. The other crabs looked on with a mix of shock and horror as the crab tried to punch its attacker off its back.

Tani dodged the large claws that desperately swung at her and then she jumped off the large crabs back, hurling the severed eyestalk at the crab holding Miazama's neck. It struck the crab in the face with a wet slap and some of the bloody spray splashed Gangrin's cheek. The crab cried out and hurriedly tried to remove the blood off his face.

The crab holding him shoved him back to the ground as it moved to try and attack Tani as she kicked his comrade away from Miazama. Gangrin couldn't see what was happening on that side anymore with his head forcibly turned, but he heard the familiar sound of crab limbs snapping and the painful cries that followed. Now though, he could see Vella's fight, only for her to suddenly disappear and then suddenly reappear from nowhere outside the circle of crabs that had surrounded her. As she ran in his direction, Gangrin realized what had happened.

The whole time Vella had been fighting, her funnel had been leaking ink over the ground, and when she was surrounded, she had been forced to fight in a confined space, letting her deposit enough ink to vanish into and swim past her attackers before reappearing.

Gangrin flinched as one of the small crabs was flipped onto its back in front of him, two of it's limbs dangling at disturbing angles. Then he felt himself get jostled as the crab pinning him down was also removed and sent tumbling away.

"Get up!" Vella shouted. "We have to retreat!"

She turned around to face the crabs she had left behind, the large one was still in great pain, covering its now empty eyestalk socket with its claw to try and staunch the bleeding.

Gangrin managed to get up, flexing his muscles to ensure everything was still attached and still worked. He grabbed Marsh and tried to carry him over his shoulder but he was awkward and he fought against him.

"Leave me alone. I can fight 'em," he said groggily.

"No you can't!"

The remaining crabs surrounded them in a loose half-circle, clacking their claws with a mix of anger and trepidation. Clearly they were done playing around. They would attack with all they had now.

There was a deep and angry raspy sound as the big crab staggered in their direction, it's remaining eye glaring at Tani with hateful fury.

"I gonna' rip off all your legs one after one and eat them in front of you!" It hissed.

Tani only sniffed, her mantle a dark crimson. "Is that how crabs propose? Sorry, not impressed."

This only seemed to make the crab angrier, and he raised his claw, ready to move in and strike with the rest; though the others still showed trepidation.

Then, tendrils of the darkest black wrapped around the large crab's raised arm and the goliath screamed anew as the joint holding it to his body was slowly crushed under their mighty constriction, eventually tearing the large limb free from the crab's body.

The other crabs turned as the large one fell onto the ground, revealing the nightmare behind him..

A tall inkling stood there, the severed crab arm held in one arm and one tentacle still coiled around it. Most striking were her eyes: burning gold with barely visible cross-shaped pupils, focused in a blood chilling, malevolent glare.

The crabs seemed to gape at first, stunned that any inkling could be so powerful as to tear such a large crab's arms off with only her tentacles. Then, the girl did something even more disturbing, she bit down on the flesh at the root of the severed arm and yanked on it with a twist of her head, pulling a large chunk of meat out like an arm from a coat sleeve, then devoured it.

The large crab, seeing none of this, struggled to rise again. It could only make bubbling sounds now, as the inkling casually walked up to it and stood on its back, forcing it down again. She quickly slurped up the last of the meat in the arm, leaving it a mere husk, her mouth and chin dripping dark blue with crab blood, and then, in a single move, drove the now empty claw down through the big crab's shell and into its 'head.' Blood squirted out, along with a series of sickening wet rending sounds. Despite the horrible sight, Gangrin couldn't tear his eyes away. He was simultaneously petrified and in awe.

The now very dead crab went limp, and the black inkling tore the other claw arm off the crab while glaring at the rest.

"You have two choies," she said. Her voice was low and thick with contempt, her tone so frigid it made the winter winds seem like balmy summer breezes. "Either leave or be my food."

The crabs didn't wait to see if she was bluffing, and limped away as fast as they could, some of them leaving a trail of blood as they went.

As the crabs ran away, she tore off another hunk of meat and ate it up before discarding the severed limb and running up to them.

Gangrin didn't know if it was an instinct of some deeply ingrained societal norm, but he automatically found himself kneeling as she approached, his head low. The others did the same, even Vella.

"Tani," she said in a kind and gentle voice in shocking contrast to the tone she had used a moment ago. "Are you okay?"

Gangrin glanced up and froze. Without the pure darkness of her mantle and the fierceness in her eyes, he suddenly recognized the unknown inkling, and couldn't believe he hadn't been able to do so before.

"I'm okay, Callie," Tani replied. "They never touched me. I'm probably the least hurt person here."

"Good."

Callie then stood up, and though he couldn't see her face now, he felt her gaze upon him, and thought it might crush him if he lapsed for even a second.

"All of you, stand up." Callie's tone had adopted a new, authoritarian tone, one that expected to be obeyed without question. A measure of the darkness had returned.

Gangrin's limbs seemed to obey the command before his mind had even processed it. It was frightening but also strangely thrilling.

Across the street, he spotted two other people approaching. One he quickly recognized as Tephilla, who was being forced along by another inkling with a dark-green mantle. He couldn't place her but she seemed familiar.

The green inkling shoved Tephilla with the rest of the group as Callie retrieved the crab arm she had discarded earlier, sucking out the last bit of meat in a bloody mess before addressing them again.

"We're taking you back to the work site. There will be no complaining and definitely no trying to escape. Anyone who does try to run, gets a broken leg."

Gangrin swallowed. This hard-edged side of Callie wasn't the one she showed on TV, or what any imagined her being like, but Gangrin couldn't say he was disappointed.

She tossed the broken limb aside and gestured for them to begin marching. The dark-green girl took position behind them, making sure they all saw the ink pistol on her hip as she passed by them.

Marsh managed to limp along, stubbornly refusing help from anyone else. After they'd walked a couple of blocks, Gangrin slipped beside Tani who had yet to utter a word to any of them.

"How did you find us?"

Tani continued staring straight ahead as she answered. "Bunch of teens running away, I figured you'd be trying to get to Inkopolis Square and I happened to come in on that same bus so I knew how to get there from the work site. That's where I found Tephy. After some convincing, I managed to find out where you were, so I left Tephy at the bus stop and came running. I guess I was just in time. Callie and Maiya must have shown up just after I left."

"And how do you know Callie? You seemed like you were with her that first time we showed up at Work Detail too." Tani displayed red spots on her mantle, making it clear she had no intention of answering, forcing Gangrin to back off.

Whatever. Now that the adrenaline was fading, he was too tired to mire himself in speculative thinking. Right now he was just glad to be alive.

When Cricket Squad returned to the work site, things seemed business as usual. Everyone was either working or supervising and even when they arrived the work didn't stop.

Cricket Squad sat in a corner of the property. A medic came and checked all of them for injuries, of which Marsh had a great many, and both Priestess Ganna and Gallora came to find out what happened.

Callie pretty much took over from there, explaining what had happened from their perspective, and Four discovered that Callie and Three had indeed showed up at the bus stop almost immediately after she'd left and quickly went after her, with Three tasked to look after Tephilla until the situation was dealt with.

Four had been nearly as awed as the others when she had seen Callie's display of strength and brutality, tearing the arms off the large coconut crab as if they were made of pizza crust. She knew that kind of strength was beyond what a normal inkling was capable of except in cases of hysterical strength. Given that Callie was undergoing yun'brennen and she had seen young inklings in danger, it wasn't a stretch to assume that strength had been triggered, but such strength came only in times of great stress and Callie had been eerily calm. She had certainly been hungry, not quite managing to hide her bloated middle under her stylish jacket as she spoke to Kifi and the priestesses.

Three stood just off to the side, ready to intercept anyone trying to escape and a few octolings likewise stood nearby, at the ready.

Callie finished speaking and the small group of authority figures broke up. Only Kifi approached them.

"Your assigned tasks have not been completed," she said. She spoke with the sternness of an officer angry to her subordinates, but her professionalism kept it in check. "You will finish your tasks in the remaining time we are scheduled to be at this site. Afterwards, your punishments will be dispensed by the appropriate parties. Failure to complete your assigned tasks in the time allotted will result in additional penalties."

Four waited a few heartcycles before she stood up. "Alright, let's go, Cricket Squad. We've got at least two hours to make up." This time there were no arguments, not even annoyed groans, only the pained grunts of those still suffering injuries. She thought that Marsh at least should be given a temporary respite given how extensively he had been beaten, but perhaps, with the way he stubbornly refused to show any weakness, they hadn't realized how badly hurt he actually was.

With the remaining work of the other squads taking place elsewhere, there was plenty of room left for Cricket to get its work done. Four had Marsh and Vella go about picking up the cans scattered about while she, Gangrin, and Miazama worked on the heavier items. Tephilla was ordered to start on the second task, picking up the trash bags littered about the warehouse and bringing them to the dumpster. She felt she could at least trust Tephilla to get her task done with the least supervision.

Four grunted as she lifted a heavy bag of fertilizer and carried it over to the pallet. They had been stacked on existing pallets so badly broken they could not be moved so they had to be transferred to new ones.

Nobody spoke for a good ten minutes, everyone focused on their tasks. Four understood that feeling of being so overwhelmed by a rapid series of new and terrifying experiences, the way one's whole mind just seemed to shut down and run on some kind of autopilot. Having a near death experience could do that to a person.

Oddly enough it was Marsh who finally broke the silence, by posing Vella a question.

"Where did you learn to fight like that?"

Vella eyed him, her eyes narrowing somewhat before she answered. "Standard army unarmed combat training. We were never taught how to fight crabs, though."

"But you still took on a bunch of them and you were able to fight them off by yourself. You could have gotten away."

"I could have," Vella agreed, only seeming to come to the realization herself in that moment. "But I did recommend we all do exactly that before they reached us. They are big and strong but we are much more mobile than they are." She set down her arms full of cans on the pallet and began stacking them carefully. "Retreating does not make you a coward. What matters is that you can fight again when you are needed. The death of a fool is as bad as the death of a coward."

Marsh said nothing for a moment, then he asked. "So what would you have done if you wanted to beat those crabs?"

Vella took a moment to think but didn't stop stacking her cans. "I would have retreated and reported the encounter to my superiors. Assuming the crabs were an enemy to be destroyed, we would have moved into the area again, conducting reconnaissance to locate their base of operations, with a large mobile force nearby to support us if we were attacked. Once their base was found, we would move in and attack with overwhelming force, destroying them." She shrugged her tentacles. "But that is only an ideal sequence of events and leaves out a lot of detail."

Marsh scowled as he stooped next to her and carefully dropped his own armfulls of cans so as not to disturb the existing stack. "Just sounds like cheating."

Vella snorted. "Cheating? War is not a game. The Precursors had a saying that 'only fools fight fair'. It is a wise teaching."

"Speaking of fighting," Gangrin said, looking at Four. "Where did you learn to fight like that? You even had the guts to rip that crab's eyes stalk out without even hesitating. You didn't even try threatening it first, you just... did it."

Four eyed him, her mantle dull and unmoving. "If I tried to threaten him he would have just tried to punch me off of him or gotten one of the other crabs to do it. He was the biggest threat so it made more sense to cripple him and use the shock value on the others. It was most important I got Mia free from that crab ready to snip her neck. I could worry about the rest later."

Gangrin glanced over at Mia but she didn't meet his gaze, she just carried on.

"Those crabs are unlikely to attack anyone soon," Vella said. "But I imagine further operations in this area will be met with hostility and they will form larger groups."

"Not our issue for now," Four said. "There are other people whose job it is to deal with that sort of thing. Let's just focus on getting this stuff done."

Further conversation pretty much stopped at that point, but at least they had been able to relieve some tension. Mostly, Four was glad Gangrin had forgotten his original question. It wasn't one she would be able to properly answer and it seemed Vella was wise enough not to provide her own take on the matter. That was good. Four had enough disasters for one day.

It took the better part of two hours for them to finish their assigned tasks. They got especially anxious when the other squads had finished their work, and so they forced themselves into a sprint that left them spent by the end.

Despite their exhaustion, Cricket Squad was forced to stand as Kifi addressed them all for the final debrief.

"Well done, everyone. We finished our job well and we believe the client will be quite satisfied. You have proven your worth and we will hopefully soon begin to learn more of your special skills and be able to apply them to more suitable jobs, which will lead to paid work."

Kifi wasn't one for long speeches, and so the assembled group was soon dismissed, the orphans gathering near the priestesses and the Octolings forming up near the front of the small line of busses. In front of both those busses however, Four noticed Callie and Marie's large car parked in front. Was Callie still here after all this time?"

Four looked around for her, but instead of Callie or Three, she found someone quite unexpected: she saw Eight, standing out quite starkly in the filthy lot dressed in her spotless maid uniform. And she was approaching her.

Halfway to her, Eight's gaze snapped to the right and she waved down Vella who had been moving to go with the other octolings. Vella hesitated at first but obeyed, coming to stand next to Four.

"You two will be coming with us."

Eight's frosty tone was very unlike her. The ends of her tentacles were balled up like fists and despite her stoic expression, Four could tell she was seething, fixing Vella with a steely gaze that the younger octoling was unable to meet.

Neither of them asked questions, they simply followed Eight to the car and slid into the back seat. Inside, they found Three in the driver's seat.

"Where's Callie?" Four asked.

"Cooking show," Three replied. "She sent me to pick up Eight and then the two of you."

Acknowledgement and understanding showed on Four's mantle. As Vella's older sister, Kifi probably thought it more appropriate to have Eight reprimand and punish her, given her complicated status. As for herself, she had a feeling her punishment was going to involve a lot of aching muscles and returning home exhausted.

"What will I be doing?" She asked, almost afraid to hear.

"You'll be taking over guarding the cabin with Marie."

Four looked up and nearly asked if something had happened, but she remembered Vella was in the car with them and held her tongue. She would have to find out later.