Chapter Three

Caught Their Eyes

Notes: I wanted to take some time evaluating and editing the next couple of chapters I have planned. Plus, schoolwork is really starting to take its toll as well, so there's that. Anyways, on with the show. In this chapter, Nathan steps outside Athena's Complex for the first time and I briefly mention where he was born. Plus, he gets to marvel at how the Octarians handle things. Wonderful.

I definitely don't own Splatoon, y'all, and I don't own the lyrics mentioned.

Five Days Later

At Athena's Complex

Nathan had been hard at work in the days since Persephone had left Athena's Complex. As a top notch linguist, he had been able to pick up the basics of the Oceanic language, and while he was far from fluent, he was able to speak broken Oceanic and get his point across. Studying the language for hours on end everyday had most definitely helped, to where stray words and phrases in Oceanic would float around in his head late at night. Plus, he had gotten five days instead of three to work with.

Persephone had also made sure to drop by for a few minutes each day. She would help him hone his Oceanic, and give him an update on what her superiors were thinking about him. He needed the intel pretty badly, and in return, he gave her something small from Athena's Complex. While it was normally something taken for granted in human culture, like an old novel or a photograph of a historic landmark, Persephone ate it all up. He supposed the knowledge he was giving her was why she was so ecstatic.

Speaking of which, there was an absolutely ridiculous amount of random things lying around in the annals of the Complex. Thankfully, this included a lot of styles of clothing, of which Nathan would browse sometimes. He would need them for what was coming; Persephone had showed up yesterday and said that the Queen of the Octarian Empire wanted to see him, so he needed to make preparations.

"Damn, word spreads quickly," he thought briefly. Less than a week since his awakening and he was already meeting royalty.

Currently, Nathan was doing his best to make himself look presentable, but also prepared in case someone attacked him. He was currently trying to decide between tactical gear and a more classy outfit, since both options had their advantages. Obviously, tactical gear would be more beneficial in case a fight broke out while he was out there. A stylistic choice would mean that he could make a better first impression in terms of appearance. If a fight broke out in that outfit, though, he would be more easily spotted and shot at.

He needed to take a moment before he realized something important. "Oh, wait... You'll be easily spotted anyway," he said aloud. "You're the only human that will be out there, in a world that's not yours. Phenomenal. You don't really need to make a choice, do you?" he deadpanned.

In the end, he went with a casual outfit choice, going with a maroon long sleeved shirt, blue jeans and combat boots. Next, he needed to take some sort of weapon along with him, just in case shots were fired at him. A pair of small weapons seemed ideal, so in the end, he elected to go with a pair of handguns, one high caliber pistol to deal damage if necessary and a Dazzler, which could stun enemies by emitting a huge flash of light, temporarily blinding them. Just to ensure his eyes didn't get damaged (those are important, after all), he also took along a pair of military goggles. Gotta keep your vision intact, after all. He stuffed the weapons and the blueprints for power in a backpack before throwing it over his shoulders.

As he walked towards the entrance, the deep voice of Jay Electronica blared over a set of earbuds he had found in the lower floors of the Complex a couple days ago. Over a soul sample and piano keys, it sounded almost like Jay was telling Nathan a lyrical autobiography of his life. With little time left before he was set to leave, Nathan calmed himself by listening to the song's closing lines, letting Jay's words invade his head as he nodded along.

...I'm bringing ancient mathematics back to modern man

My mama told me, 'never throw a stone and hide your hand'

I got a lot of family, you got a lot of fans
That's why the people got my back like the Verizon man

I play the back and fade to black, and then devise a plan

Out in London, smokin', vibin' while I ride the tram

Giving out that raw food to lions disguised as lambs

And, by the time they get their seats hot
And deploy all they henchmen to come at me from the treetops

I'm chillin' out at Tweetstock, building by the millions

My light is brilliant...

As the drums stopped, the piano keys faded and the song came to an end, Athena spoke up, telling Nathan that the moment of truth was upon him. "Persephone is waiting right outside, with eight Octoling soldiers flanking her. I strongly suggest that you keep your weapons away from their sight, and leave the building slowly, with your hands up. This is it, Nathan. Are you ready?"

In broken Octarian, Nathan answered, "Ready as ever."

Then, he opened a door out and took his first steps into the outside world.

—

Outside the Complex

With Persephone

When the other members of the expedition found out that Persephone had met a living precursor, well, it was definitely not the first thing they expected to hear. Far from it. When they heard about how he got up from something that definitely should have killed him, they panicked a bit. When the soldiers spoke about how terrified they had been fighting him (their take on things was greatly exaggerated, Persephone thought), that panic had reached a crescendo. The decision was made to let the higher-ups know straight away.

"In hindsight", Persephone thought, "I probably should have expected my coworkers to freak out a bit." However, they had elected to freak out more than just a little, calling in a squad of highly trained Octoling soldiers just in case the precursor decided to try anything dangerous. "His name is Nathan!" Persephone had said multiple times, but no, they decided that it was better to consider him a dangerous animal than a sentient being.

Sadly, not all of the Inklings were much better with them.

This was how she had found herself standing with the aforementioned set of Octoling troopers, who each had multiple weapons on themselves. Some held ink (which didn't make a lot of sense, since Nathan had shrugged it off) and some held water (a high risk move), but all of them were absolutely strapped with things designed to harm and kill. Persephone, by contrast, was unarmed, only holding some sort of handheld loudspeaker. She had argued that Nathan would appreciate something that was even a little familiar to him. She had only met him once, for a few hours, but she had taken a liking to him, albeit in a friendly yet professional way. She thought he knew what he talked about, and he was normally calm and collected.

Snapping out of her internal musings, Persephone raised the microphone to her mouth and spoke. "Attention, precursor!" She shouted out in Oceanic, hoping that he would hear her. "We know that you are currently inside this building. We would like to request that you come outside immediately, on the orders of the Octarian Queen Retvi."

Yes, the order had come from the Queen herself. Apparently she wanted to meet Nathan. While Persephone was glad he could present his plans to royalty, she knew that she would probably need to join him, and the idea gave her a headache. Apparently the Queen could be very temperamental.

"If you do not comply within twenty minutes' time, the soldiers with me will have no choice but to storm the building with water-based weapons," she continued. "Now, I don't know about you, but water is generally considered really deadly to us. This will be your only warning."

Only a few minutes later, the large door they were standing in front of slowly opened, and Persephone could see Nathan, clothed casually and wearing weird headgear that covered his eyes and a wire that split into both of his ears. Something was on his back, and his hands were covered as well.

Slowly, he walked over to Persephone and the squad of Octolings, making sure to make no sudden moves. His hands also remained above his head, in the universal symbol for "I mean no harm, please don't shoot". Strangely, he was smiling at them, which put the group off a little.

Slowly, he pulled the headgear off of his eyes, letting it fall to his neck. When he spoke, it was not very well articulated, with a deep voice and a thick accent that was distinctly human. "Sorry, Oceanic is very bad," he said, slowly, "I only had few days to learn language. Had to make use of time."

This made the hardened exterior of her surrounding Octolings drop a little bit, giving way to curiosity and awe. One of them actually said the words "he can speak" aloud. Slowly, those Octolings (six females and two males, Persephone noted) began to break away from their characters and start peppering him with questions.

"Hi, my name is Kailani! What's yours?"

"What did your species call themselves?"

"Did they have any cool weapons?"

"Why are you wearing that wire?"

As the questions became more quickly and quickly paced, Persephone had to suppress a sigh. If she had to accompany Nathan around (and she probably would), then it was going to be a long day.

—

A Few Hours Later

The Heart of the Octarian Empire

With Nathan

The Octarian Empire, Nathan had decided, needed serious work. He had come to that conclusion pretty quickly while being escorted through their capital.

It was rather unfortunate, as the people showed serious promise and were very efficient, but as a whole, they just didn't have much. Even though it still seemed alien to him, the whole Empire reminded him of the inner cities in his former hometown of Detroit.

Nathan had seen the inner cities of that town and they were far from pretty. Like the current state of the street he was walking down, some of the smartest, friendliest people that he had ever met were from the city's underbelly. Unfortunately, they were bogged down by rampant crime, poverty and vice. In contrast, the Octarian Empire's issues boiled down to one thing: power. The Queen had done a pretty good job keeping everything else in check.

Speaking of the Queen, one of the Octolings that had been sent to keep the expedition safe had informed him that the Queen had wanted to meet him as soon as she had heard about him. Granted, this had been after about twenty minutes of answering rapid fire questions from her and her squad mates, so it came as a welcome change of pace. He didn't know how long he could keep answering questions thrown at him.

So, after being checked for weapons (he had freely admitted to having two, to help gain trust), he was being led to the Queen's palace, where the squad of Octolings and Persephone would also meet the Queen. Some were excited, some were tense, and Persephone was unimpressed, which made Nathan raise his eyebrows and ask her why.

"This is Queen of your nation, right?" He questioned, internally hating his struggles with the language. He had studied a ridiculous amount of words in Oceanic, but he still was surprised that he was even able to comprehend and speak it. Didn't mean that he couldn't wish for better skills when he spoke. He probably sounded like a towering toddler, and he was being forced to use hand signals to compensate.

"Yeah, and?" Persephone's flippant response was still off-putting, even though he knew that she was unimpressed. Why wouldn't you be nervous about meeting the leader of your society?

Nathan wanted to voice these thoughts. "She is powerful person in your society. It is natural to have nerves when you meet someone with that power," he said, moving his hands around for emphasis.

"Well," Persephone said, sporting a cheeky grin, "I guess I'm just not all that intimidated."

That was unfortunately all the words they were able to exchange, as the squad of nine Octolings and one human had finally reached her Majesty's home. It was one of the grandest buildings that Nathan had seen yet, seeming absolutely massive despite lacking height. It seemed that buildings that housed important people hadn't gotten any less flamboyant since he'd gone under.

The party just stared at the building for a few minutes before one of the more excited Octolings (Nathan thought that he remembered her introducing herself) snapped them out of it.

"What are we waiting for, guys? We have a meeting to attend with the Queen herself! Let's not waste too much time!" She said excitedly, her small tentacles fluttering around her hair.

"Yes, let's go," Nathan agreed, trying to maintain his calm facade. "The Queen should not be kept waiting." Internally, he was sweating. This meeting could make or break humanity's chances.

—

The Queen's Throne Room

With Retvi

Heavens, she hated this throne. She hated the fact that it looked so fancy, with precious metals adorning it. She hated that the throne had a higher net worth than some of the people that worked at the palace. She wanted it gone.

Unfortunately, that was just a minor problem. She would get to that at a later date, once the big problems had been sorted out. For now, she needed to focus on the current task: a meeting with the Precursor. She had armed herself to be safe, since she knew he was armed. However, he had no motive to harm her, so that was low on her list of possible outcomes.

No, she wanted to know what he was like firsthand, whether or not he would be an ally to her and what he could teach them about his species. Maybe things would end well, maybe they wouldn't. She would find out when he arrived.

One of her guards entered the room and announced, "Your Majesty, they are here. What do you want me to do?"

She grinned widely in excitement. This meeting could go down in history.

"Send them in."

It was showtime.

—

So, uh, there's chapter three. Less than stellar, obviously. This fic just feels like it's missing something, but I'm unsure what.

Anyways, Jay Electronica's "Exhibit C" is a real song, and one of my favorites. I've already established that Nathan is a hip-hop fan, so I've decided to build his tastes around my own. Plus hip-hop is fairly big in Inkopolis, considering Off the Hook is a rapper-producer duo similar to Eric B. & Rakim in real life.

Also, the Dazzler is a real life weapon, albeit less advanced than the one I mentioned in this story. I figured that Nathan could have a weapon like that because he wouldn't want to kill someone yet. He wants to give humans a good reputation.

Anyways, what did I miss? Does the pacing of the story need adjustments? Are the characters still too bland? Please let me know what I can improve.