Hina wanted to gut Mario, take all his nerve ends and turn them inside out before slowly submerging them in water.

That slimy bastard bad behind her back informed the council of her findings.

In return she received direct orders, capture the creature for interrogation, those old, greedy fools had no idea what they were even ordering! When she tried to explain the situation she was told to stop following delusions and get them more energy sources, they didn't believe good relations with the precursor were valuable enough or should be wasted time on. They died out for a reason they say, they can't possibly have anything more valuable than the Zapfish they say.

She really wanted to know what they would say once they realize they doom their whole species, she doubted they would ever admit it but one could dream.

Still, she needed to deal with this. She doubted that she could get the meaning across to the creature of the danger coming towards it, however she could try to get it to come with them by more peaceful means, should they reach Octovalley she would call in a few favours and turn the situation to her favour.

The hardest part she had yet to accomplish namely talking to the creature and getting it to come with them, she hammered at the door for a while now and honestly she doubted that she was heard.

Her persistence was awarded as the door opened, she was expecting the fully clothed Human again, she needed to remind herself that this is what it wanted to be called.

What she got was what she wanted kinda, it only had one layer of fabric on as far as she could see, also its eyes looked strange with many red lines running through them, she was fairly sure that before that part of its eyes was pure white.

Also Hina was about 90% sure it was angry the way it looked at her, she would apologize later after..., although, no, she would be thanked if this worked.

Quickly she tried to start a communication."Human!" she shouted out pointing at him and then at the papers she prepared.

The first pictures showed had the human depicted and herself walking, the second one had had them depicted again only the background was houses and similar, the third one had them standing before the throne and the queen.

In truth the council wanted to get the human first and get his information under the nose of the queen.

Hina wouldn't let that happen.

It would result in them crediting the discoveries to themselves. While she was worried that they could also use it to however her standing and importance, the worst was that she had no idea what they would do with the knowledge they gained.

Hina knew that the Queen was far from the best choice for their race but her regiment so far got more done for their race in a few months as a whole then the council in years.

Even if it was a military dictatorial one.

She hoped that the Human would understand her.

It looked at the drawings for a while and then closed the door disappearing again.

I was ruedly awoken, again.

This time by loud knocking to the front door.

I don't know if sleeping on the lobby couch was a good idea or not, having the whole building to my disposal felt strange to say the least, but I wanted to be able to hear if they figured out the door and came walking in.

Anyway, the knocking ripped me out of my peaceful sleep and grumpy me moved to the door slightly sleep deprived and opened to reveal octopy/human/gremlin thing waiting for me. It could be my imagination but I think it was panicking.

I should try to learn their expressions for different emotions quickly to avoid misunderstanding.

Still the message was clear, I was officially invited to meet their leader. I suspected it was a queen with what I knew how female dominated Octopy as a species were back in the day, queen in regards to female ruler that is.

I needed to prepare myself.

I decided to go with the basic gear I had yesterday including gas mask, overcoat and all the other stuff and quickly put it on.

Now the more complicated part was what else I would take. One has to make an impression in front of royalty after all.

Maybe some gift? But what…?I could go for music the problem with that was that I had no idea if we even had the same frequency range of hearing. The lexicon for the scientist was already a book gift. If I was religious I would give her a bible but that spelled out trouble with big bold letters.

In the end I couldn't really decide so I just picked something I liked and hoped it would be seen as a nice gesture.

As I was about to leave but ran past the weapons locker, normally just picking up a gun would be out of the question but I reminded myself that I was going out into a world where everything was unknown and I had no idea what to expect. I decided to take a stun gun with me with the fitting holster and hid it under one of the layers of clothing.

Declaring myself ready I went to the door where the small octo-thing was waiting for me while walking up and down.

I think it didn't even noticed me lost in thought.

I had to fix, by getting into its path and letting it run straight into me and land on it's butt.

The glare it shot me was adorable, although I couldn't really call it a IT all the time so I settled for a HER for now. First she has kind feminine clothes, and also she was larger than all the others, looked also way more humanoid and I think those were feminine features.

We moved out with her being visibly nervous, and by now I was fairly sure that it indeed was nervousness. It was night for one, and for I am pretty sure she tried to tell me that we need to be quiet.

Frankly I had no idea if I should play along. The problem was that if I just go back I am still surrounded and it would only be a question of time until they got the door open. So right now I was asked to sneak through a camp by a nervous octogirl that pointed all the noise traps placed.

We seemed to have made it out without pulling any attention and for now I chose to just go along.

We moved at a relatively slow pace, probably because of the shorter legs of my companion, who now seemed to be a bit more calm.

We walked for about thirty minutes as we reached as something that looked like door on a waste pipe, a big waste pipe at that. I was a bit reluctant to go in there. However it looked like the octogirl had problems opening it alone. As the gentleman that I was I decided to help.

The door moved easier than expected and it earned me some disbelieving looks as I just moved it with one hand.

On the other side she pointed me to close it again and so I did.

The surrounding area was pretty dark, I theorized that something that evolved of a sea creature could have better eyesight in the dark. Well I didn't, as such I turned on my flashlight which scared the my companion to literally jump to the ceiling.

I didn't even know something could jump so high, that was at least six times her own body height.

She quickly came down again as she reliced the light came from me and we continued.

After a short march downwards we reached another door. This time it was opened for us by what I assumed to be guards, the had what looked like night vision goggles and most importantly guns.

They looked strange, a bit like toy guns to be honest, however I didn't want to test the effects on myself as such i just stayed back as my companion talked to them before they ushered both of us in.

After that a escort accompanied us in what I could only assumed was fast steps for them.

We reached what looked like one of the pictures drawn by octogirl when she knocked at my door so I assumed this was it, of to meet royalty then.

Hina couldn't believe that she pulled it off without any complications.

But here she was, she pulled a favour from one of the guards that she knew since her childhood, got an armed escorted to the palace and she was not followed, or at least she hoped she wasn't.

She entered with pride in her chest, of course the queen wasn't there she was probably asleep right now or doing business somewhere else, she couldn't expect her to sit on the throne all the time.

As such she waited, she was only told the the Queen would see to her shortly.

Meanwhile the human seemed to get bored, it started to walk around the room inspecting the things on the wall. This being the throne room it was very decorated with many things and many rulers added their personal touche making its history traceable on the walls.

The human walked up to the section that one of the more aggressive rulers decorated, it was filled out with skulls of many kinds, it was a collection nearly more extensive than the one the museum held.

Hina was sad that The queen turned of the power of most of those culture centers but she understood that they needed to preserve it, same with the throne room. O

riginally it was shining so bright that one could believe it was always day, now barely a way to the throne and the throne itself where lit.

It traced some of the skulls with its fingers, did those creatures means something to it? Did the skulls hanging like that offend it? Hina had a bad feeling as she was pretty sure among them were some precursor skulls as well.

Luckily they were interrupted by her majesty as she walked into the room.

Although judging by the look on her face how much luck she had was debatable.

She quickly bowed down and awaited the princess word, the human had yet to move from the spot but it's masked face was turned to them.

"Hina." She said acknowledging her presence."Raise. I really hope you have a good reason to drag me here at this hour. Also I assume that whatever that is..." she pointed at the human."...has to do with it."

"Yes your highness." Hina said raising her head slowly."This creature is at the center of it. First I regretfully have to inform you that the guard assigned to me wanted to commit treason."

"A very grave accusation, I hope you don't make one of those empty Hina, I have high hopes in you and your expeditions after you promised me so much."

"Promises I can deliver. However sadly no prove for the accusation, All I ask for you to hear me out on what has happened."

"Speak." she said sitting down on the throne. Hina did her best to tell the exact events that happened it the last few days and the Human came to her side while she spoke and placed it's backpack on the ground before going to its knees its face still turned towards the queen.

As Hina finished the story the queen studied the human for a while, it started to dig in its backpack and took something out that was backed into some foil and started to unpack as the whole room looked at it with interest.

It revealed a figure that the queen doubted anyone knew what it was supposed to represent and approached the throne placing the figure at her feet before going back it it's backpack.

"It still doesn't speak our language but I think it understood that we would be meeting royalty and prepared a gift for you I asume." Hina quickly explained as the queen took the figure the head offered some resistance and started to wobble back and forth as she placed it next to her.

Not the most interesting thing but she appreciated the gesture, it showed that the creature understood its position.

"So you believe that this creature, if we can reason with it, could solver a great deal of our problems and you also say that the council tried to move behind my back to get the creature to them, with violence if necessary, and then take full advantage of it."

"I… yes you highness, how did you know? I didn't..."

"Oh please,..." the queen interrupted."I have read your work, you are an interesting Octoling after all, most just join the army and fight, letting their agressions lead them. You on the other hand decided to continue like you did before your transformation and succeeded in become such a renowned scientist that the council had no choice but to appoint you, their dislike for Octolings be damned." She explained and watched as Hina blushed over her whole face."Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I want this creature to be studied, you are to teach it our language, failing that learn its own and uncover all its secrets, if there is anything of value in its head I want to know it."

"Yes your highness, I will not disappoint you." she practically squealed bowing down again. It was cute to watch, for the queen and the guards as well. The poor girl had to deal with hatred from her own kind for so long that she practically super jumped at the opportunity to support the queen.

The biggest reason why Octolings went to the army was not because of their innate aggression and strength compared to the rest of their kind, but because a girl that transformed into a Octoling instantly where feared most of the time, it was rare that a Octoling keep any social contacts with people that knew before they transformed.

It was ugly prejudice that run through their society that Octoling compared to regular octopy couldn't be trusted and one you transformed there was no way back, one was forever branded a aggressive abomination that only had a place as a warrior.

Hina ignored all of that and followed her dreams anyway.

However the girl was starved for attention, she maybe didn't even notice how much she needed the queen.

"I know you won't." she said lifting up her chin with a finger and smiling at her sweetly.

The interactions between the leader and the octogirl looked like something out of a evil empire movie. Even the dimly lit hallway fit right in.

Not that I minded, I was thankful for having all recording devices switched on.

That said I was unsure what to do now.

My guide was still awestruck with the queen who still spoke to her while scratching her chin, I really hoped I could use this as blackmail one day. I swear I saw the guards aping them in the corner of my eye.

They talked a bit more and finally they turned their attention to me again, the Octogirl came over to me and with some paper and pens. She then started to write down something, it was symbols this time, she then pointed at them and made a sound while looking at me, she then reported it and pointed at me.

I suspected she wanted me to do the same. I wanted to try but everything sounded horrible through the gas mask, I checked all my scanners again before taking it of, doing the slow process I had all their eyes glued to me.

Understandable, but still a bit uncomfortable.

I placed the mask into my backpack and took a deep breath before recreating the sound she made.

The first few were easy and I think I learned the word for yes or correct and no or wrong as she always said them when the sound was ok or not and repeated the ones she was not satisfied with we continued that for a while and while the queen was watching with interest, I think she used this as a excuse for a break.

We continued this for a while until I got most of the alphabet down, with all of it recorded I was confident in being able to memorize it later and as such turned the game around and made her try my alphabet.

She had a significantly easier time with my sounds considering that they didn't involve much gurgling and similar, also most of their sounds had a really high pitch which I suspected was related to how small they are, I hoped that they didn't have sounds that were in a to high frequency for me to hear.

Again we changed it up as I got a somewhat devious idea. I took out the paper that had the numbers noted on them and revisioned them with her she was able to remember all of them but the number five, and then we reached seven and I am pretty sure that I could categorize their face become the color of their tentacles, yellow in her case, as blushing and that it conveniently ment the same for them as for us humans.

She had turned around to the queen and talked with some stuttering. They talked a bit before she reluctantly turned back to the paper and said seven.

The whole room erupted into laughter at that, I was really curious what it meant.

We continued for a while until I looked at my clock and it actually was already morning, I for one was tried and wanted to go back to bed. I started packing and pointed at the door to get my point across.

Again she only reluctantly agreed, adorable.

I bowed to the queen who I think understood the gesture and my study buddy and I left the building, I already forgot where we came from and started looking around with some confusion.

My internal musing was interrupted as I completely disoriented and stunned landed on my back as something impacted my face, and I heard a loud high pitched scream next to me.

I felt something on my face and refused to open my eyes for now, I twisted around to face the ground and removed some of it with my gloved hands before taking fishing around in my jacket for the water bottle, I found it and splashed it into my face. I carefully opened my eyes and found that I had no problems seeing, however as the surprise faded the sounds appeared, I turned around and found that there was what I at best could describe as a paint fight between the queens guards and some other octopy of the smaller nonhuman variant.

I would think this to be a prank, kids playing with paint, however that ilusion was quickly shattered when I saw some of the fighters literally blow up in paint.

Only then it finally clicked that I just have been shot with said paint that this is a attack that can kill me, in panic I grabbed my stun gun and hecktickly started to look around for cover.

One of the attackers noticed me and screamed while aiming his gun, paint started to fly in my direction and I fired my stun gun at the same time while covering my face and pressed the trigger.

I heard screaming and the sound of the stun guns charge going off.

After that a sound similar to something melting was heard.

I finally dared to look and saw my attacker literally melting into the ground, gun abandoned where he stood.

I had all eyes at me and only a few moments before another scream erupted and this time all the weapons started to fire at me, naturally I started to run to where I believed the exit to be.

I through shear luck didn't get lost and recognized the door, sadly it was closed however I was confident, and scared.

With full speed I ran past the guards and ramed the gate shoulder first aiming close to the locks, and to my satisfaction it gave in and was sailing to the ground with me on top.

I got back up and ran, faster and farther with my adrenalin high. The door on top of the tunnel was ripped asided as I charged tracing our footsteps. The camp in front of the building ignored.

I quickly got back up and ran up the stairs and back to the base, ignoring the camp and its resistance completely. Only when the door was locked behind me and I slowly slid to the ground I allowed myself to breathe.

"What in the name of the damn great Zapfish happend, can someone explain that to me in fine detail." The queen raged after the battle was over and the attackers were captured or dealt with.

None of the guards really wanted to deal with that and so a unfortunate Hina was pushed forward to explain the situation.

"M-My queen?" she asked shily and the queens rage filled face was turned towards her."A-Allow me to explain what happened."

Seeing Hinas stuttering fearful face evaporated some of her rage, she would never admit but she was protective of that girl."Speak." she said simply.

"As we left the palace a charger was fired at us." she started to explain,"It hit the human right in the face and it collapsed, fearing that it died I panicked, then your guards ran out and the fire fight started. The it stood back up and started to defend itself by..." she looked at the molten puddle that was struggling to take form again.

"It's ok Hina, you did the best that you could." The queen said patting her head and turning her head away. "Go inside for now, we will discuss what to do later."

"I-I am so sorry my queen." Hina started apologizing.

"You have nothing to apologize for Hina, no go inside." the queen urged and pointed one of her guards to go with her.

She waited until the door after Hina was closed, she hated to admit how much of a influence that girl had on her."Now that that is out of the way... Report!" she said turning to the second in command.

"The attackers numbered in 10 to 12 armed octosoldires, military grade equipment and training, no designation for now but I want to start a full investigation and interrogation of the prisoners." the Saluting Octoling said.

"Do it, look for any connections to the council, what happened to that 'Human' as Hina likes to call it?"

"It was presumed to be dead or unconscious after getting hit with the charger and many shots of follow up ink, however it got backup and after a short moment of confusion engaged on of the attackers with unknown weaponry,... we are still not sure what to make to the results." The octoling said glancing at the results fearfully.

"What is that supposed to mean, is he splated or not?" The queen asked, she didn't want to deal with any kind of beating around the brush right now.

"He is splattered, we think. However we believe the attackers had a respawn beacon close by. The thing is that even though he was clearly splatter, it seems like he fails to form again, as if his brain is not properly cooperating with the rest of his mass."

"What you are telling me makes it sound like that creature has a gun that somehow can kill you without triggering the respawn beacon and can disrupt our natural ability to flow back together, and I don't like that." The Queen summarized.

"None of us do mam, but so far this is the only explanation." The idea of something like that scared the queen, because she just spend the entire morning with that creature in a room and it just could have killed her whenever it wanted to, however she had to give Hina props, she was definitely right when she told her that this creature had many things invaluable to them, now it was a question of how to get them.