We all just stood there, staring at the Octarian in emotions ranging from confusion to fear, it didn't take long for the rest of me to start questing who the octopus was talking to

I knew it was me, I just didn't say anything.

"Oh come on now, I know you have something to say." The Octarian said as they started to slowly walk towards me

I held my ground however, not letting the Octarian see any sign that I was going to back down, the rest of them however back away slightly

For some reason I felt responsible for this so I couldn't blame them or call them cowards, not that I would anyway, Though it still felt like all of this was on me

"This was not our plan, my plan at the least. The chances of running into you again though makes most of this… worth it"

I gripped my splash and raised it up to her, only holding it to show that she wouldn't shut me down and if I had to, was willing to fight

"…Hm." She chuckled "At no point have I showed any sign of harming you, touching you or even disrespecting you. I'm not even holding a grudge for what you did last time."

What I did last time? What was she talking about? Running away? There would be no way that 3 Octolings would be able to take down 8 Inklings, not unless they are all trained as highly advance assassins in the style of turf war

"You seemed confused, don't you recall splatting Fang? Now, I have no doubt that she gave you a run for your money but still, splatting her? If anything I should be angry at you, but I'm not. I'm just saying hi and you are ready, just waiting for your chance to splat me"

"Your allies had just as good of chance to kill me as I had to kill them, she started the attack and I… we ended it" I was through with waiting for her to go on and on, I assumed the Fang person she talked about was the girl I faced off with, and how Bris came and got me out of that pickle

"Yet you couldn't spare her? If you faced off with her then I'm sure you saw her perfectly. She is young, only but a child and you still had to take her out with maximum brutality. You just couldn't find another way could you?"

"Why should her age matter in all of this? She is a solider as any of you are! Who would go and send someone who can't hold their own ground into battle! It's just like throwing away money but more valuable, a Life! She gave me a good fight and either way it's not like it even matters" I looked up to our dysfunctional spawning pad, it was crushed by a more advance looking Octarian rocket then the last one I saw

I pointed up to it, the Octarians gaze followed the direction "She respawned right in front of us, from inside that rocket thing, it shouldn't have mattered if I splatted her once, twice or 100 times over! She would just be able to come back" I took a silent breather as the Octarian turned back around and faced me

"So why would it even matter if I splatted in the first place?!" the Octarian just stared at me, I stared back at her, the river waves were silently sloshing as we kept our eyes on each other, she turned to the right and looked over to the gates

I couldn't see it but it felt as if her sight was staring off into something that I couldn't understand "You're right." The answer surprised me "I guess it doesn't matter, now does it..."

She turned back to me "The point however was your aggressiveness, and how even when I was having a serious conversation with you, 1 on 1" she looked down at my Splash-O-Matic

"You had to hold me at gun point to what I can assume was fearing for your own life" I listened to her words and thought them over, was she trying to present me as the bad guy?

Sure she was right about the offensiveness but the reason was way off "I'm not fearing for my life" I waved my behind me "I'm just making sure you don't hurt anyone, and I'm willing to lay down a lot to make sure you don't"

She just looked at me and started laughing calmly into her hand "I'm not the only one you know"

And then it hit me, I didn't hear one of these things fall, I could have sworn I heard 3, maybe even more but without a doubt three. If there were more Octolings and we haven't seen them on our side…

"What's going on with the other team?" the Octarian didn't say anything, they just smiled at me and stared at me with the little pink dots for her eyes

"I'm sure they are fine, but to be completely honest with you, I have no clue" this Octarian was starting to get me upset, they could be in serious danger right now, all of us could be

"But I do have something else to tell you Inkling." She got even closer to me this time, her armor almost hitting my gun "I like you."

I was lost for a bit, I wasn't sure how she meant what she said so I fell back a tiny bit to get some room between her "You are interesting to talk to. Unlike your friends hiding behind you, scared that at any second I would splat them but you took your placement and didn't falter. Well until just now that is."

I didn't give her the reply she wanted back "Stop wasting time. What are you here for and why are you attacking us" I felt like that hurt her, or maybe it was just me, With her glasses on it was hard to see her real emotions apart from what was hidden behind the metal mask

"At least I tried…" she mumbled something under her voice but I couldn't hear it. "Look, if you just give me an Inkling we will be on our way" she looked among us and noticed the Inkling who had fallen before, she laid in our ink looking at the Octarian in fear, when she saw her turn towards her she truly looked terrified

"I wouldn't mind her" she pointed to the Inkling and I jumped over in front of her "Then you better be ready to fight for her, and you know what? How about we change the prize to me?" I felt my blood starting to race, it felt strange, in a bad way but felt good, in a really good way

The Octarian smiled and nodded "Sure, I'll take that deal, and you along with it" she took out what most Octarians use, an Octoshot and jumped back from me, I backed up myself until I was met with the others on my team

"Guys, while I fight her you all go out and see if the others are okay, alright?" it took a bit for an answer, evenrually the whole team nodded but before they had a chance two redish tentacles came out of nowhere with some type of eye scope, they locked onto the team with snipers as the Octarian sucked her teeth

"Tsk Tsk, don't try anything like that now, all of you will stay right where we can see you"

My teammates now stood spread apart, getting out of the way of our battle grounds as we both prepared to go at it with everything we had."You know you are our enemy, right?" the Octarian looked up at me and smiled

"Yes. Yes I do." She flicked her Octoshot in her hand letting it twirl "On your call"

I was allowed to move first, maybe a disadvantage but if I could land the first blow it would be worth it without a doubt. We stood each other off, staring and both awaiting for my key movement

The waves fell one last time and then I lunged forward in an orange dash of ink, the Octarian spent no time waiting, she quickly started over to her right in which I followed her to jump hook her

I rose up at a crazy speed and started to spray at her but she wasn't there anymore, in a panic I turned around and noticed her behind me, she started to shoot but luckily for me I was ready

With hard bobs and weaves I dodged most of the ink, a lot still got me, good to. In reaction to reclaiming land I threw down a suction bomb and dashed back in, I was instead greeted with several Octo ink pellets

I didn't back out, I ran up to her and fought neck and neck, one wrong move and everything would be over. My spraying speed was a great counter to her mobility but her range was enough to hold me off from killing her or getting myself killed instead, it was quite the game

Finally after continues shots from everywhere I noticed her firing calmed down, this was the time I had to take her down and possibly my only chance

I felt my body drag into a blur, I started to swing and splat all of the ground around her until I noticed she was finally stuck, she now panicked and shot the ground from under her, leaving her back completely open, I started to swim as fast as I can and then jump into the air for the finishing attack

But before I could I felt to planks land firmly on my stomach. Keeping me from landing, she who had placed her boots on my chest and threw me back, it didn't hurt but right after I heard a splatbomb go off

It came from the direction that I was about to engage, the exact point, and it wasn't my friendly orange either, it was the marron pink

I got up and took back to my position as the Octarian stared back at me, the whole area I had trapped her in now covered in her ink, none of us showed much emotion but both of us were somewhat tired

I couldn't figure out why she kicked me back, most likely for defense but it's not like she ran back and finished me off

"You- *Huff* you are pretty good…" I said through stuttered breathing, this fight really pushed my limits

"Thank you. It would be a lie to say that you aren't one as well." She didn't present it much in her tone but the way she carried her body said that she had been pushed to the limits

I fell down to one knee to get some breath, I didn't want to get back up, but form the side of my ear I heard someone, calling out to me

"Come on! You can do it! We all believe in you!" I turned to see the girl who I took the place of calling out to me, cheering and egging me on. The laser was still held over her, planted directly on her head right between her eyes, the eyes that had her orange tinted tears hanging from the brim

I started to think back to when I got attacked, if she would have took me out I would have died, right? The ink they shot me with didn't hurt a ton but I would have died, right? My mind started dashing around again, trying to find an answer or something but I just stopped it all, it was a waste a time

Because I was not about to let any of my team find out for themselves

I got up off my knee and stood tall, the Octarian stood up a bit taller themselves as we both stared at each other and slung the opposing ink off our guns

"Let's end this." I said with a ready smile

The Octarian copied it on her own face "I agree"

Then we both went for a mad dash at each other, ready for the finish. For better or for worse this was it, the final attack.

"LAUNCH DOWN NOW, GO GO GO!" right before me an orange splash wall fell down, separating me and the Octoling, an Inkling fell down next to me with what looked like a .96 Gal

"You are to stand where you are, Octarian. Do not move unless you are instructed to do so." His voice was calm and rugged, hidden behind a black and neon mask as he talked

The Octoling didn't seemed to be fazed at all, she just dropped her arms from her battling position and waited

I turned to the rest of my team in a panic, to my relief they were all fine, a 2 more squids were protecting them, one holding a fancy squiffer and the other with a sick looking blaster but everyone was protected by a bubbler that had been activated

"Come on, kid. We don't have much more time to feed off without someone here getting hurt" I looked over at him, he was staring up at 2 helicopters above us with one large flat ship like figure floating in the middle

"Super Jumps are set for the Helicopters, let's get going!" and as the words left his mouth he was gone, I watched him fly up but before I could do the same I looked over at the Octarian I was facing

She just looked at me, holding her Octoshot at her side with no attempt to break down the wall or go around it, just staring as I looked back at her as well

"Do you understand now? The chances of you beating us…" But I didn't say that. I didn't say anything. I wasn't sure how I felt about her, she wasn't good, but her intentions of doing harm didn't seem the same as what I had heard of other Octarians, not at all.

Her stare turned into a smile "I know" she caught me off guard, did she… did she know what I was thinking? I didn't say anything, I just stared and eventually I even showed a little smile, confused and scared but a smile

I changed form and started to charge up my super jump, before I launched I noticed two laser fly over to me, I couldn't see much of what was going on after that but milliseconds before I flew off I heard her say one last thing "See you later, Inkling."

I didn't exactly pay attention as I flew up but when I looked up and saw the blades of the helicopter I freaked out, luckily I noticed that we jump zoom up and into the Helicopter instead of going to high and crashing in

"And that's 8. Do we have a full count?!" a small pause was taken as multiple Inklings around us started to talk and count all of us from helicopter to helicopter "Full count confirmed"

"Alright, move out!" And we were moving, I sat back and thought about the events as the Helicopter knocked the breeze around through the open doors

I finally looked down at the whole field, it was nearly all magenta. Little metallic flares shined in my eyes as we flew over, I only assumed that it was from the Octolings that laid below us

And there were a lot of flares.

As we flew away I couldn't shake the feeling that the Octarian was still standing there, looking off at the same spot I had saw her. None of that went as I would have expected, today did not turn out the way I expected it to

We got back to the outskirts of Booyah base after about a 30 minute ride, transporting was really efficient in these situations. As we landed I noticed a small greeting of people, mostly people who seemed to be with this force were standing around, awaiting for our arrival

On landing we all hopped out the Helicopters, most of us were over out little pities and on to bigger questions, most of them just being "Why?!" but I don't think anyone currently had that answer

As I walked through the crowds of people I felt someone tug at hoddie, I turned around in mid thought to be met with concerning gaze, it was the girl from earlier

"Th-Thank you for earlier..." she looked directly in my eyes, I could tell that this had stirred her up by the whole thing, she reminded me of one of the people from the first attack

"Its fine, seriously, don't worry about it at all. You just happened to get the short end of the stick in that situation" I gave her the best smile I could, it was enough to make that look in her eyes fade as she gave me a smile back herself

The tides of the crowd tore us apart and we took off our separate ways, I let my mind fill with questions again until I split off from the semi large swarm of people, leaving me in a clearance of space

I realized we had landed on a roof top, I wasn't sure how I hadn't noticed before, but as I stared off I noticed another inkling standing in front of me

I just looked at her and she stared back at me, she seemed normal and I knew I looked fine, other than the Octo ink that stained my clothes

She slowly started to walk towards me, and it seemed to turn into a run but slowed itself back down to a walk until she was right in front of me, for some reason none of us said a single thing as we stood there in silence

"I'm sorry." Bristle finally said "I couldn't get back to you… and warn you in time."

"News spread that fast?" it was my first reaction I was confused as we went back into silence "I'm sorry, I'm… look, It's not your fault, not one bit, don't go blaming yourself on this, okay?"

She didn't say anything and had looked towards where the helicopter had flew In from, though it felt like she wanted to, I knew that something was eating at her, maybe it was that if she would have let me go with her…

She looked back at me "We have a problem now, don't we?" I nodded my head softly "… Then let's get going"

She turned around and started to head down to the stairs, I didn't fully follow her though "Wait! I still have a couple questions. About all these guys and how they knew what was going on! I don't even know who these people are, what happened on the other team's side and what is actually going on!"

Bristle turned around to me, she stood in silence for a bit then replied "Some of the things you said, the obvious things, we have answers to… but in the big picture…

We have no idea what is going on"

That made me feel the truth of this all, it was an attack, and it had to have been intended. Everything was completely lost and nothing made sense but if I didn't make sense of it then I'm sure I would be lost in it

"Well then we need to start somewhere"

I walked back to the crowd of people and went to talk with my teammates and others in the game, including whoever had come to pick us up, I didn't expect to put anything together, I was only gathering the lost puzzle pieces

Bristle watched as I walked through the crowds, she walked back a bit a stood next to someone, it was only then that I noticed she had come in with somebody else as well

They looked like an older squid with some strange get up, he gazed into the crowd, observing, he looked somewhat stressed and as if he had a lot on his mind. He also seemed as if he wasn't trying to be seen

It would only add onto my questions for later

Right now I needed as much information I could get, because though everything was fine for now as this rate

It wouldn't wait forever

AN: Hello again guys and (Though its a bit late) HAPPY SPLATOON 1 YEAR INK-IVERSARY! Yeah, it's hard to believe that we have come such a long way, whether you play the game or are just part of the community it sure has been a trip! So, on note of the chapter! This was actually laying around for a while in wait of check to get it going, which was finally done! Sorry about the wait! So the Octarian leader, huh? It just seems like as soon as things get good something happens or somebody steps in to save the day, oh well, Luck only last for so long. That's enough of me talking, so how did you guys like the chapter? Good? Bad? Anyways, if would like to, leave a review but I hope you all enjoyed and see you next time!