Arriving in the same dome they were in before, Nathan and Diana, alongside Agents 1 and 2, decided to investigate the dome again for hints on the key's location.

"So...where do we start?" Diana asked.

"The boss key won't be in this one most likely," said Agent 1, "I think it'll be in another one."

"But to unlock the kettles ahead we need to get to the area it leads to or activate them manually," said Agent 2.

"What?" Nathan said in confusion.

"Think of it like a checkpoint," said Smith over the headsets, "When we reach one, it'll activate a new kettle. Otherwise, we need to find the kettle ourselves. We can do that by shooting ink at the Octarian symbols on the ground in Octo Valley. There are three boss kettles in total, and the rest is found..."

"Found where?"

"Uh...hehe...We don't know yet..."

"That's fine, we don't need that info right now," said Diana.

"Focus on your mission for now," said Cuttlefish, "We'll find Octavio soon. Over and out...Oh wait, by the way! Use those wristwatches on your arms if you need help. They're wireless connected to your headsets, you can use them to activate them and contact your allies."

"Really?"

"Yep! You can contact all of us at once or you can choose to contact only certain teammates. You can also send a distress signal with 'em. The signal

"Got it!"

"Okay, Cuttlefish out!"

"Okaaaaaay," said Agent 2, "Sooo we look for the key and look for more kettles if we don't find it?"

"Sounds like it," said Nathan.

"Soooo should we look around?" asked Diana.

"We looked here before and found nothing, but I guess a second look wouldn't hurt. Let's split up, we can cover more ground that way."

"Sounds like a plan," said Agent 2. The four split up and looked for any sign of a key. Nathan returned to the broken container that he and Diana found the last time. He examined it closer, now that the yellow ink had faded it was easier to analyze what happened. He figured that the container must've dropped from above, and it must have been from a height high enough the break the glass on impact.

He looked at the back of the container and found another stain of red on the ground and on the edge of a glass shard. He realized that the stain was definitely blood, and that both this stain and the previous one were likely from the impact. Glass shards could easily cut through flesh, Nathan knew that from experience. He sighed.

He knew that Octarians probably didn't cause the blood stains, but he still didn't know why they were taking Inklings in the first place. Nathan thought about it but couldn't think of a reason off the top of his head. He had to really think. He examined the container itself more, hoping that it might shed some light on the situation.

He moved the container onto it's side. Being cylindrical, Nathan had to keep it from rolling away. He discovered a small but broken tube on the bottom, and upon farther inspection noticed more smaller tubes inside the container.

"What the hell?" Nathan thought to himself. He couldn't figure out why tubes were in the container. Perhaps it was for ventilation? Nathan looked at the top of the container to find what looked like a label sticker on it. It read "019", which Nathan guessed was some kind of label for whoever was in it.

Nathan had a feeling that whatever they wanted with these Inklings, it couldn't have been good. But the same question kept flying in his mind: Why? Why were Inklings being captured. Nathan looked around for more hints, eventually ending up on the large platform were he encountered Nero.

Looking around, he noticed another container that wasn't there before at the corner of the platform. This one was in perfect condition, but it was empty. Nathan saw that there was no big tube connected to the bottom, but the smaller tubes were still intact and each of them were connected from the top of the container's interior to the bottom of it.

Nathan scratched his head, thinking, but then noticed a camera placed on a pole nearby, facing him. That's when Nathan realized he was right in the middle of a trap. Several Octarians surrounded him. The container opened up behind Nathan, and he quickly realized that they were trying to get him inside it.

Nathan moved away from the container and fired at the surrounding Octarians. Taking them out with ease, he headed back for the main path when a team of six Octolings jumped from an area above and ambushed Nathan. Outnumbered, but still with a strong spirit, Nathan fought them all one by one.

He had to get physical more than once, as some Octolings seemed to prefer violence over an ink battle. Nathan was displaced, but managed anyway. However, after three of them were defeated, the remaining three ganged up on Nathan. They completely dropped their weapons and headed for Nathan with their bare hands.

Nathan opened fire, but one Octoling managed to somehow knock the weapon out of Nathan's hand. Desperate, he looked around for something, anything, that could help him. He then noticed an orange crate. He sent a distress signal to his teammates via a wristwatch that came with his suit, and rushed for the crate. Meanwhile, the other three met with each other by the spawnpoint.

"Did ya find anything?" asked Diana.

"Nope," said Agent 2.

"Nothing!" said Agent 1, "It's annoying."

"What about you Na-" said Diana, "Nathan? Nathan!"

"Where did he go?" asked Agent 2. Suddenly, the distress signal came in.

"A distress signal!" said Agent 1, "It's from Agent 4!"

"That's Nathan!" said Diana, "The watch says he's located that way! Come on, let's hurry!" Diana rushed through her ink at full speed in speed form, and the other two agents did the same.

Back at the platform, now a splatterfield, Nathan broke open the crate to find some armor and canned special weapon, an Inkzooka. With the three Octolings headed right for him, the armor equipped itself when Nathan opened the case and he activated the super weapon.

"Get a load of THIS, Octolings!" yelled Nathan as he fired the tornado-shaped projectiles at the incoming soldiers. The Octolings barely dodged them, and one of them got splatted. Nathan kept firing, but the Inkzooka ran out of power and Nathan was left defenseless once again.

Noticing his gun, Nathan slipped past the Octolings in squid form and picked up his weapon, firing at them again. The two Octolings spread some of their own ink while fighting Nathan, and one Octoling equipped a large weapon. It was a Triple Blaster, capable of firing three shots at once at a single target.

One Octoling closed the container, and the other Octoling fired the Triple Blaster at Nathan with full power. The triple blast hit Nathan in the gut with full force, and it hit so hard that not only did it break the armor right off of him, but it knocked him back quite far. He smashed into the container and went right through the glass, yelping in pain as a few glass shards cut his flesh. If not for the armor, he would've been dead.

Nathan quickly got back up, ignoring the pain. He tried to fight back more, but he was weakened. After just a short time, the Octolings knocked him down. One of them had the tip of their gun right on Nathan's forehead, and his finger on the trigger. Nathan was very still.

"You shoulda stayed home, kid," said the Octoling, "Shouldn't of gone into all this mess. You know we're gonna win."

"You know," said Nathan, "I'm here for a reason. I don't fight for glory." Suddenly, the three other agents arrived and splatted the other Octoling within seconds. The Octoling with his gun towards Nathan was surprised and looked away. Nathan then smacked the gun away and used his own Hero Shot to finish off the Octoling. "I fight for my home and friends."

"Nathan!" said Diana as she rushed over to him, "Are you okay?"

"Ah...more or less."

"Oh my gosh! Nathan, your arm! It's bleeding"

"Huh?" Nathan looked at his arm to see his sleeve torn and a cut along his arm, bleeding. A glass shard also came out of the sleeve. "Oh my-!"

"Oh jeez!" said Agent 1, "We gotta get that patched up!"

"Yeah, tell me about it!" Diana helped Nathan up and the team returned to HQ, leaving without a sign of the boss key.