Chapter 20

Sarah's POV

It wasn't long before we got back to Marie with Arnold in tow. We quickly up him in the Cabin. He definitely needed some rest.

"How exactly were these controlling him?" Otis wondered, looking at the headphones.

"Octavio uses mind controlling music to make Octarians do whatever he wants." Marie explained. "They maintain a degree of free will, but his music sways them to his way of thinking."

"That's horrible!" I shouted.

"It is." Marie said. "And the ones who aren't brainwashed mostly follow him either out of fear or they try to exploit the system to benefit themselves.

"He mentioned people leaving over a song?" Otis brought up.

"Yes, the Calamari Inkantation." Marie said. "That song has weird powers even I don't understand. One of its effects is it breaks Octavio's mind control. We played it during Agent 3's fight with Octavio and it freed many Octarians from Octavio's control."

"Well, that's good." I commented.

"Unfortunately, not entirely." Marie continued. "While many of those freed were able to escape, many others were captured and had hypnoshades put on them. Some straight up disappeared."

"Hypnoshades?" Otis asked. "You mean most of those Octolings we fought were brainwashed to do so?"

"Unfortunately, yes." Marie explained. "As a punishment for trying to abandon the Octarian army, they had brainwashing sunglasses put on them and put on the front lines.

Geez, the more I hear about the Octarians, the worse it gets.

"So wait, if he controlled Arnold with music, does that mean he'll control us soon?" I was getting scared.

"Well, fortunately Arnold seems to be his only Inkling musical hypnosis test subject." Marie told us. "So far, it needs to be applied directly to the ears and it doesn't even control him fully. You seemed to stop that plan at the early stages. Good work."

That calmed me down.

"Now that that's out of the way…" Marie changed the subject. "You two need to take down the Octoboss. I'll watch 3.5 in the meantime."

We both nodded.

"We'll be back before you know it, Marie!" I called out while we headed off.

"Please use the codenames!" Marie shouted.

I'll try, but no promises.

It wasn't long before we got to the boss kettle. We dived right in.

The boss room this time had some small towers. What exactly are we supposed to fighting here?

Another puddle of enemy ink with a Zapfish above it and….a rubber ducky! I want that rubber ducky!

"Hey Otis! I got his attention.

"Yes?" he asked.

"I want that rubber ducky over there!" I pointed towards it.

"Well, get the last hit and you can." He stated.

"Alright, but who gets the first hit?" I wondered.

Otis took a stance, facing me. I knew where this was going.

I took a stance too.

"Rock!"

"Paper!"

"Scissors!"

"Shoot!"

I threw scissors, Otis threw rock. I made my pouty face. He just laughed.

We jumped over there. A tentacle pulled the Zapfish under, then, NO! The rubber Ducky went under too. Suddenly, pulled by three Octocopters, the boss came out, Ducky on its head.

It was the Cleanser of Inklings: The Octo Shower!

Otis swam up the tower to use his charger on the Octocopters while I ran around with my brush to distract the Octoshower's sniper shot. After two Octocopters went down, it flew away while Otis had to dodge missiles.

I kept distracting it while Otis took the shot at the last Octocopter and the boss came crashing down. I ran up to smash the tentacle, but before I could touch it, it burst.

"What?" I was confused.

"We agreed I'd have the first shot, remember?" Otis called out.

Well, he wasn't wrong, but that didn't mean I had to like it.

Then, four Octocopters pulled the boss back up. Time for round two.

As we repeated the same process, it pulled out a cannon that it had to manually spin.

"He has some sort of hand-crank cannon." Sheldon pointed out the obvious. "Talk about low-tech."

"Low-tech or not, make sure you don't get his by it." Marie warned.

Luckily I was too fast with a brush to get hit by that thing.

Otis splatted two Octocopters when it suddenly retreated. It turned around and revealed an ink shower and went straight for Otis. He jumped off the center tower just in time to get away.

I noticed rails near where it flew and hopped on. They took me so close to it that I splatted the last two Octocopters , jumped off, and brought my brush down on the tentacle.

Again, Octocopters came to pull the boss back up. I'm pretty sure machines can't feel emotion, but it looked mad. First thing it did was pull out a Sting Ray. As before, Otis swam up a tower and Splatted two of the Octocopters while I distracted the boss. It tried using its ink shower on Otis again, but he jumped away in time again. He actually managed to splat another Octocopter while making an 'I'm so pro' face. It was then I noticed that these Octocopters must be really strong if one can hold that huge thing. I have nothing but mad respect for them.

The Octo Shower took no more chances and unloaded everything it had. It fired several missiles, tried running over us with the ink shower, and then spun around to use the Sting Ray. Again, it flew near some rails that I gladly hopped on. I flung ink at the last Octocopter and jumped off to splat the tentacle right before Otis splatted it himself.

We jumped back as the boss exploded.

Wait, where's the…the Ducky landed in front of us.

"Yaaay!" I squealed, picking it up.

Then I remembered…

I handed it to Otis, who just put it back in my hands.

"You keep it." He said. "Rubber ducks are no fun when you only take showers."

"Yeeeeesss!" I squeezed the Ducky.

It squeaks!

Best Day Ever!

Otis grabbed the Zapfish and we were on our way.

Back At The Cabin…

"Good work agents." Marie complimented. "Now all that's left is Cephalon HQ."

"And once we take out Octavio, things will be better, right?" I asked.

"Unfortunately not. He's been captured before and not much has changed." Marie explained. "In fact, hypnoshade usage has actually increased while he was in captivity."

"All this because they lost the Turf War?" Otis asked. "You'd think they'd be over it by now."

"Well, losing what was left of your home on the surface isn't something one can easily forgive." Marie continued. "Also they've been experiencing an energy crisis and their underground domes are deteriorating."

"Seriously?" I asked. "Is that why they've been stealing Zapfish?"

"Partially yes, and partially to fuel weapons to get revenge." Marie explained further. "There're probably better solutions to the problem, but no one wants to talk to each other."

"Wow…" Otis said.

"Geez…" Was all I could say.

Suddenly a message played on the radio. It was hard to understand.

"Are…Uh…Are you holding the phone upside down?" Marie wondered.

"Ugh…I totally was." The voice on the other end admitted.

Suddenly Marie's eyes widened.

"CALLIE?!" She shouted.

"Um…Nope, this definitely is not Callie!" Definitely not Callie said. "So just…leave. It's dangerous here! And it's not safe at all!"

"Ummmm…Don't those mean the same thing?" Marie asked.

"WHATEVER! JUST GET OUT OF HERE!" Totally Callie snapped. "I'm not calling again!"

"W-wait! Don't go!" Marie begged before the phone on the other side slammed a couple timed before hanging up. "Callie?! CALLIE!"

"I…I can't believe it. Could Callie really be working with the Octarians?" Marie lamented. "Agents, I need your help now more than ever."

"Right!" We said in unison.

"But can we eat first?" I asked. "And maybe get a caffeinated drink or something?"

"Sarah, are you ser-" Otis was cut off by his stomach growling. "We'll just order another pizza and drinks and head off, is that okay Marie?"

"Sounds good to me." Marie agreed.

After another pizza party, we were off to Cephalon HQ

Elsewhere…

"Real smooth, girl." Octavio quipped. "They definitely don't know you're Callie."

"S-shut up!" Callie snapped. "I panicked, okay?"

"Sir?" An Octoling boy got his attention. "The agents are expected to arrive at Cephalon HQ soon. What should we do?"

"Hmm…" Octavio was thinking. "I got it! Squashing those agent punks'll be the perfect show for our first concert!"

"Now that's a beat I can jam to!" Callie cheered.

"B-but sir, the agents are coming this way…" The Octoling continued. "Shouldn't we, I don't know, ATTACK THEM?!"

Octavio glared at him.

"Yer showin' a lotta sass, boy." Octavio commented. "Yo shades busted or somethin'?"

"Sir, I'm just showing concern!" He defended himself.

"I said…" Octavio started playing his turntables. "Are your shades busted?"

The music flowed.

"A shot hit me in the face during practice and they got cracked…" The Octoling said before regaining his senses. "B-but that does that have to do with the ag-"

Octavio started playing a slow, menacing version of Now or Never. Callie started singing along.

"Laaaaa-lalala-la-laaaaaaaaaa!" Callie sung. "Laaaaa-lalala-la-laaaaaaaaaa!"

The Octoling head was swaying to the music.

"Now, you're gonna go to the barracks and get yo'self a new, fresh pair of shades, right?" Octavio asked.

"Yes sir…" He responded.

"Louder." Octavio ordered.

"Yes Sir!" He yelled.

"I said LOUDER!" Octavio roared.

"YES SIR!" He screamed.

"Now get outta here!" Octavio commanded.

The Octoling boy saluted, and then marched out of the room to get new shades.

"GYA HA HA HA HA!" Octavio laughed. "And that is why I. AM. THE BEST!