This was it.
Michael's team had reached the Presidio, and they were about to enter.
Shelly and Marie worked together to ink a path down the side of the cliff, swimming down, the team slowly swam into the frankly absurdly huge drainage pipe that stuck out of the rocky wall. They dropped down to the side platform, their feet making small splashes in a puddle of dirtied water underneath them. They walked along the narrow path. Junko then halted the group.
She ran her hand against the wall, taking a few steps before stopping.
She hushed her voice. "Mm. They have Ink Mines laid out on the walls. Gimme a second to disarm them."
Junko put her hand to her chin, looking like she was thinking on how to deactivate the mine. For a small moment, her mind lingered, quickly crossing off different ideas. The team was left guessing what her next move would be.
Suddenly, she simply grabbed the mine with both hands, ripped it right out of the wall, and tossed it into the sewer water, where it blew up seconds later. She flashed the group a thumbs-up, then continued down through the sewer, 'disarming' more mines along the way.
Soon, the group reached a small metal ladder. The team quickly climbed it one-by-one. Junko slowly turned the valve on a manhole cover at the top of the ladder and popped it open. The team found themselves in a long corridor, filled with similar covers with valves on top of them, one line on each side of the room. Two lights hung on each side of a door, showing a clear exit.
The door led into a corridor, lit up by lights affixed to the ceiling and the faint luminescence of different tubes in the walls, the liquids in them all flowing to a common point. Michael was confused at this sight.
"The Octarians still have power in here? How? They don't have any Zapfish, do they?"
"It's weird to me too. We were told we lost all the Zapfish back then." Junko's words only supported the strangeness of the situation.
"Well, we can figure it out later, right now, we need to find those captured Inklings."
The team moved throughout the halls of the Presidio. They stopped every now and then to block out different cameras with their Ink. They made note to not fire a lot of ink, just enough to blind the cameras. If any guards found their Ink they'd be hunted down quickly.
They eventually came across some guards, two Twintacle Octotroopers, they were standing completely still, sitting atop their machines, guarding a door. Marie hushed the group, she watched from around the corner, squeezing down the trigger on her Splatterscope until it made a small beep to confirm it had been fully charged. She quickly swung around the corner and fired at the guards, splatting them near instantly.
The team entered the room they had been guarding and found a desk, cluttered with various official-looking papers, pens, and other tools. In the middle of the desk sat two different laptops, one hooked up to a wider monitor and an external keyboard plugged into it.
A small pile of lined papers caught Michael's eye. Picking it up, he steadied it to read their contents.
"To Sorui,
I've made some weird findings these past couple of days. I know I shouldn't have done this but… I sneaked into the boss' office. I think something's wrong with her. There were a bunch of papers where she rambled on about Inklings. I couldn't understand much of it though, her handwriting is really bad. Maybe you can decipher it, you have horrible handwriting, so I'm sure you can help. I'm making a few copies so I'll send them to you when I get the chance.
Thanks, Yutaka."
"To Yutaka,
Jeez, Yu, I might have terrible handwriting but I think the boss might have it even worse. After the sixth line on one of these I can barely even tell what she's saying. One thing I can say for certain right now is that she's really obsessed with the Inklings. The word's in every other line for crying out loud. I'll try figuring out more tonight, ttyl.
From, Sorui."
"To Yutaka,
Hey, Yu, just calling in with some stuff I was able to read from these papers. Papers 1-3 all just ramble on about how the boss plans to take revenge on a bunch of Inklings, killing them and stuff. Not much different from how she is normally. The 4th and 5th ones though, those are interesting. She keeps talking about a few specific Inklings she wants to kill herself, some guys who're Agents and that old bastard Cuttlefish. But who can blame her? We all want to kill him in one way or another. The agents, though, I'm not so sure about. Probably the same guys who took us out in the war last year. I'll try figuring out what the rest say sometime else, they're messing with my brain. Seriously, the boss needs to figure out how to write 'I' and 'L' differently.
From, Sorui."
"To Yutaka,
Hey, Yu. Just checking in to see if you were there. Haven't heard from you in a while, you been busy with work or what? You have vacation days, you know, you should use them if work's becoming too much for you.
Well, just saying 'Hi', see you around.
From, Sorui."
"To Yutaka,
I'm starting to get a little worried now, Yu, where've you been? I don't even see you around the break room anymore. The vending machine's getting over clogged with those steamed rabbit fish dumplings without you around.
Are you okay? If something's bothering you then please come tell me, you know I get antsy when I don't see you for a long while.
Please respond.
From, Sorui."
"Yutaka
I'm so sorry. They came to me today. They threatened to kill me if I didn't tell them the truth. I regret doing this. Please, Yu, if you're even still getting these messages, tell me. I need to know that you're safe so I can calm down.
Please respond.
Please.
Sorui."
"Yutaka
I'm sorry.
Sorui."
It looks as though they tried writing something after that, but stopped themselves. Small wet spots stained the last paper.
Michael was thoroughly creeped out now. It was bad enough that he was in enemy territory, almost certainly outnumbered, but now it seemed like he was now in the plot of a horror movie. He was really not up to the task of fighting zombies, or whatever else the Octarians might have.
Michael showed the papers to his team, who were justifiably creeped out all the same.
They wasted no time leaving the room.