This was proving to be a bit more difficult than expected.
She tried to stay in squid form and stick to the shadows, and it worked for a while, but the building was crawling with Octarians, even more than she expected. This was getting very frustrating.
Where are you, Michael? she thought to herself. She rounded what felt like the millionth corner…
...and found herself face-to-face with an Elite Octoling.
The Octoling narrowed her eyes. "And what, exactly, are you doing here?"
She didn't bother to give an answer to the Octoling. She simply hit her head with the butt of her weapon, dropped a Burst Bomb at her feet, and sprinted past her.
Yes, this certainly complicated things quite a bit.
Behind her, a loud whooping alarm began to sound. "Dammit," she muttered.
Looks like she'd have to hurry up a little.
{asterisks}
Jake raised his weapon and moved to enter the room, but Michael grabbed his shoulder. "Hold it," he hissed.
Jake stared at him in disbelief. "Look, but don't go in," Michael clarified.
Jake took a quick peek into the room. He saw two other Octolings there. They seemed to be talking to Tori. He breathed a sigh of belief. Everything was fine.
"Pip? Lilac?!" she said with a big smile. "Oh, it's been so long!" The three of them shared a group hug.
"Girl, what're you doing here?!" Lilac asked excitedly.
"I could say the same!" Tori replied. Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. "I missed you two so much…"
Pip gave her a smaller smile. "I wish we could've talked to you, but we've been cooped up in this place for months…"
Tori looked around the room. There were a few other Octolings there. "This is where the respawn pads took you," she realized.
Lilac nodded. "We wanted to tell you, Tori. We really did, but… we couldn't talk to anybody. DJ Octavio told us himself."
Tori shook her head, and watched them with wet eyes. "I don't care… oh, I thought you two were dead… I can't believe this…"
Pip held her tighter in the hug.
Tori opened her mouth to say something else when a horribly loud alarm rang through the room. A voice sounded powerfully across an intercom, which Tori recognized as belonging to Alanis.
"Attention," she said, with a hint of venom in her voice. "All Octoling units, come to the interrogation area immediately. No exceptions." She continued after a pause. "In addition, three Inklings are loose inside this facility. Find them and destroy them all."
Tori barely had time to register what she said before the other Octolings put on their masks and rushed out of the room.
Pip bit her lip. "We should go too."
"No, we can't!" Tori said in a choked voice.
"Why not?" Lilac asked urgently. "If we don't, we'll get in trouble."
Tori debated whether or not to tell them when Jake and Michael burst into the room. "We need to get out of here now," Jake said.
"We can't," Michael protested. "Someone else is here. We have to help them!"
"If they got in here, they can get out themselves," Jake retorted. "We don't have time to worry about them."
Pip and Lilac stared at them, and both took a step back.
"T-Tori?" Pip said quietly. "Why are they with you?"
She held out one hand toward the other two Octolings. "Wait, wait, wait," she said. "You can't still believe that they're the bad guys!" She gestured to the room they were standing in. "This is all the proof you should need!"
Lilac shook her head. "Tori, that's… you can't just expect us to-"
"Yes, I can!" Tori interrupted. The siren continued blaring. "How long have you two been cooped up in this room? Months? Please! Please come with me!"
Pip started to look unsure, but Lilac shook her head. "We can't. Tori, he may as well have killed us. We can't just go with him!"
"Tori, we don't have time for this," Jake warned. "We need to get going now."
She turned to her friends with a pleading look. "Please…" she said.
Pip took a step forward. Lilac looked at her incredulously. "You can't be serious."
"Lilac… she's our friend, and she's right," Pip said in a small voice. "We've been stuck here for so long because of our superiors…"
Lilac stared. "I… I can't side with them. I'm sorry." She leveled an Octoshot in Jake and Michael's direction.
Tori stepped between them. "Then I won't let you do this. You're outnumbered here."
Lilac looked between the four people in front of her and tossed the weapon aside. "Fine." She bowed her head and put on her goggles before running out of the room. Tori stared after her.
Jake tugged on her arm. "Please, Tori."
She shook her head. "Okay."
The four of them ran out of the room, away from the interrogation area.
"Pip, do you know anywhere we can hide?" Tori asked.
"Um…" Pip thought. "There's… a few storage rooms… but I only know one… and it's on the other side of the base…"
Michael swore under his breath. "Aren't all the other Octolings in the interrogation area right now? We should be able to take our pick…"
Jake ducked into a random room. "C'mon," he said.
The others followed him. The room was empty.
"We should be good to catch our breath for a bit," Michael said. He switched to squid form. "I'll watch the door."
Pip quietly chuckled at his voice. She, Jake, and Tori sat down for a rest. Jake massaged his foot.
"I'm not used to all this running…" he muttered.
"So what's been going on here?" Tori asked Pip. "What happened after you got here?"
Pip thought for a second and remembered. "Lilac and I, we were on the same mission when we got splatted. I thought I was done for. And then… I came out of the pad. All the rest of my squad mates were there. Everyone was confused, and then DJ Octavio came in. He said we weren't allowed to talk to anyone else or we'd get exiled. And we couldn't go back to our homes."
Jake and Tori listened intently.
"We weren't allowed to go anywhere but on our missions. It was… lonely. It was nice talking to everyone in the squadron, but I couldn't see any of my other friends. I haven't even been outside in months because there haven't been any missions to complete. I've been sitting in this place for so long…"
She pulled her knees to her chest. Tori put one arm around her. "We can leave now…" she murmured. "We can get out of this place, Pip. You'll get out of here."
Pip returned the hug. Her eyes started watering.
Suddenly, Michael started moving back towards them. "Someone's coming," he squeaked.
Jake looked around for a hiding place. There was a pair of terminals in the corner, and he hauled Michael behind it. Tori and Pip hurried after them, and everyone changed to their respective cephalopod forms and hid.
Footsteps gave away the presence of another person in the room. A voice spoke.
"Come out, come out, little squids," Alanis growled. "I know you're in here."
No one made a single noise. She stalked forward. "Then we'll have to do this the hard way."
It didn't take long for her to reach the terminals. A sadistic grin grew across her face, and she picked up the closest squid, which happened to be Michael. "You can't run away from me. Not you, or any of your friends."
Michael prepared to change back into his humanoid form when he suddenly became acutely aware of a laser sight crawling across the room. A moment later, it hit Alanis, who didn't seem to notice.
Not long after, there was a high-pitched beep. Alanis jerked her head toward the source of the noise, and her eyes widened.
A quiet voice said "They don't have to run," and a powerful jet of cyan ink slammed into Alanis' chest. Her body was dissipated instantly.
The four of them switched back to their humanoid forms and looked toward the doorway.
There was a girl there with an E-Liter in her hands. She lowered it and watched them.
Michael grinned. "Hi, Shelly," he said, and made his way over to her.
