Diana rushed into the kettle and charged forward. She fired a charged shot forwards, creating an ink path down the multiple levels of platforms. She raced through them in squid form, using the Swim Speed boosts the suit provided her. Agents 1 and 2 were following her, but lost sight of her as she was using a Ninja Squid ability as well.

"Where did she go?!" said Agent 2.

"There!" yelled Agent 1 as she spotted Diana jumping out of the end of her ink trail and for the edge of the platform. "Diana, stop! You're gonna seriously get hurt!" Diana ignored them and continued rushing for the edge of the lowest platform. Grabbing and equipping an Octoglider that was carelessly left out in the open, she jumped off. Extending the glider and heading into the air current, she darted upwards into the Ultra Vent.

"Oh come on!" said Agent 1.

"How are we gonna-" Agent 2 began to say when a call from Smith came in.

"Agents 1 and 2! What's going on?!" he shouted.

"Diana just busted out! She's after Nathan!"

"Why?"

"Have you seen the supercomputer screen?!"

"Yes, I have but-"

"We're trying to go after her, but she just went up that giant vent!"

"Stop following her, I'll take care of it!" Smith redirected his call to Diana. When she heard the ring, she sighed.

"What do you want?!" she said.

"Diana, have you gone mad?! You're gonna get yourself killed! And it's only the second mission!"

"Screw that! Nathan's in trouble, and I'm not leaving him behind!"

"Wait...are you saying this is all for HIM?!"

"Pretty much! Back in Inkopolis, an Octoling from the ambush was gonna shoot me in the head. If Nathan hadn't been there, I would've been splatted and likely die! But that's not the first time he's saved my life... He's done a lot for me...Now it's my turn to do something for him!"

"...But you're injured!"

"Forget the injuries! I can bare the pain for as long as I need to! An Inkling's LIFE is on the line, Smith! I don't care if I'm hurt or not! We need him if we're gonna finish this mission and finding out what's going on and stopping those Octarians from invading Inkopolis! And to be honest I- err...Nevermind! I'm just gonna get to him before it's too late! Diana out!"

"But w-" Smith started to say before he was cut off.

Diana continued her ascent, ignoring the Octoling that clearly saw her. Some even started chasing after her. "Oh for the love of-" said Diana as she equipped her weapon and started firing at the Octolings while also dodging the debris falling from above.

Meanwhile, Nathan was dealing with his own problems as Edith kept brawling with him.

"You know what," said Nathan, "I've had it with the hand-to-hand combat!" He drew out his weapon and started firing.

"Fine then," said Edith as she too equipped her weapon, "I need to save energy, anyway." The two fired at each other, and ground around them was quickly coated with blue and purple ink. Edith was faster and stronger, being an elite, but Nathan could handle her. He fought and defeated four out of six Octolings just yesterday, after all.

Nathan sneaked through his ink, trying to deliver surprise attacks, but Edith seemed to be able to track down his every movement. He figured it was the ripples in the ink that resulted from swimming in it that exposed him. Edith herself entered her octopus form to try and surprise Nathan, but he spotted her for the same reason: the ripples exposed her.

"I'll kill ya when I'm done with ya, Ink boy!" she said.

"The name's Nathan, for your information!" Nathan scolded back.

Meanwhile, Diana had finished off the last Octoling chasing her and arrived in the Octarian Camp's vehicle lot. Landing, she headed for the door, when she heard something from inside.

"Who's there?!" Diana said as she pointed her weapon around, looking for the source of the sound. She found nothing, and continued, bursting out the front door. She tried to stay as hidden as possible, but also moving fast enough to get to Nathan.

He and Edith were still in heated battle as Diana made her way around the camp, searching for them. Nathan and Edith just couldn't hit each other, both were equally matched. Eventually, Edith's patience ran out and she dropped her weapon, but then realized something: Abby had not returned or even sounded the alarm.

"What's takin' Abby so LONG?!" Edith thought to herself. She quickly forgot about it however, and again charged at Nathan, intending to attack. Nathan fired at her as she charged at him and a few shots hit her but didn't slow her down. She headbutted Nathan in the gut with as much force as she could.

Rather than falling over, Nathan stayed standing, though he was winded by the blow. Nathan was used to shooting ink, not throwing punches or kicks or being physical in general. Deciding to fight back, he threw two punches to the face at Edith. Both connected, but when Nathan tried to punch her a third time, she caught Nathan's fist in her palm. She threw the fist back and followed with a flying kick to the face.

"Can't ya just use ink as a weapon instead of your fists and feet?" Nathan said.

"It's just how I roll!" Edith answered as she performed a flip kick, with her heel connecting to Nathan's jaw, launching him upwards a bit and knocking him down again. Edith then pinned him to the ground, her eyes staring directly into his. "You made a big mistake comin' here, dude! And guess what, we're gonna take Inkopolis, and you'll all be exterminated!"

Edith prepared to deliver more blows to Nathan's face in an attempt to KO him, but she was interrupted when something forceful hit her in the back. Diana had arrived, and had just thrown a Burst Bomb at Edith. She converted her color to blue to make sure she wouldn't harm Nathan.

"Diana?!" Nathan said, surprised.

Edith turned around, only to have another Burst Bomb thrown at her face. Angered, she rushed at Diana, who slammed her in the face with her E-Liter. She was dazed by the hit, but she continued anyway. She swung a bit until she slammed Diana in the face. Nathan got up and slammed Edith in the face with his Hero Shot, knocking her down onto her back. Admitting defeat, she lay there, grinning, having seemed to have calm down.

"Dammit...I thought I'd win that one," she said calmly, "Shame."

"We want answers now!" Nathan scolded, "Why are you taking Inklings? What are you using them for? Why do YOU go so far as to try to beat us violently?"

"Heh! I'm afraid I can't answer those first few questions. I WILL say, however, that we are using those Inklings. We wouldn't just capture 'em for no reason."

"Why?!" yelled Diana.

"I'm not allowed to tell you, I'm afraid."

Diana grabbed her. "Tell us, now! Why are you-"

"Enough!" yelled a voice. Nero approached. "You kids have been having a bit too much fun here. I'm afraid I'll have to put it to an end."

"Nero!" yelled Nathan.

"Well, well...I should of known you'd sneak into our little camp here. And I knew that if you were here, your little friend would be here too." He walked up to the fallen Edith. "Edith, stand up...if you can that is."

"Yes sir." said Edith as she stood up and stood next to Nero, who towered over her.

Nero sighed and then chuckled, "Oh...you stupid Inklings. I know what you want. Both of them."

"Both?!" said Nathan.

"Yes, both. You want to know our plans, and you want this." He held in his hand the Boss Key that lead the two Inklings to the kettle in the first place. They had completely forgotten about it. Nathan and Diana wee wide-eyed.

"The Boss Key!" said Diana, "I forgot about that!"

"Normally, I'd do something to crush your plans. But you two don't seem to be major threats, so I'll give you this one." Nero tossed the key to Nathan, who caught it flawlessly. "If you two can make it past that Great Octoweapon we've prepared, I'll be most surprised. But for now, I'll let you go. But next time, I won't take it so lightly."

"Thanks," said Nathan, "But I'm not done yet! Why are you taking Inklings?!"

Nero chuckled again, "It's a bit early for that, don't you think?"

"Early? EARLY?!" said Diana, "This is only the SECOND MISSION and we're ALREADY getting into all this?! This is insane! You're throwing too much at us!"

"My, my, my! You need to work on your temper...ya little ass."

"Oh you piece of-" yelled Diana as she charged at Nero. He simply delivered a punch to Diana's face, launching her a few feet away.

"That was just a tap. I can't wait to meet again. I promise, it'll be a lot more interesting from here on out. Heh heh heh..." Nero walked away. "C'mon, Edith. We're done here." Edith followed him and they left the scene. Diana got up.

"Oh ow..." she said.

"Are you alright?" said Nathan.

"Never better..."

"Time to head back to HQ. I think we've had enough for one day."

"And to believe all this happened within like...two hours..."

"Yeah..." Nathan then looked at his damaged headset on the ground and picked it up. He tapped it, but the entire right side fell apart. Nathan sighed in annoyance. "Damn..."

"We'll get 'em fixed once we get back. C'mon, let's go."

"Right." Nathan and Diana headed back for the warehouse/parking lot, taking their time and trying to be as stealthy as they possibly could. Eventually, they made it to the Ultra Vent opening.

"So...what do we do here?" Diana asked.

"We take the same way we got here. Do you tr-"

"Of course I trust you."

Nathan smiled at her and the two jumped down, plummeting downwards. They didn't equip their gliders, as it would just launch them back up. After a long journey downwards, they reached the dome again and maneuvered their way out of the air current. Equipping their gliders, they glided to the spawnpoint and headed back to HQ.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Yeah...sorry if the story's getting kinda odd. I'm trying to fit all this stuff in it and I think I'm starting to get too into stuff too early. The story's likely gonna be pretty long due to this, maybe up to even 30 chapters. I don't know, it's too early to tell as of now. But I'll try to fix it in later chapters guys, and I'll try giving both Nathan and Diana their moments in the spotlight! As usual, I'll try to have a new chapter out every day/other day; and favs and reviews are always greatly appreciated! I hope you'll enjoy what's to come, I'm working very hard to make the story worth reading!