Michael stepped back, looking around.
There were more Octarians than he had ever seen, and they now surrounded the whole team.
"Anyone got any ideas?" Randy said, his voice cracking in fear.
Everyone shook their heads.
"Well, thanks anyways."
"Did you all really think I wouldn't have a backup plan? Why, you all had me on the ropes back in that room. But you all ran straight into my trap." Micheline laughed. "I had no idea how eager all of you were to die!" She began speaking to her troops. "Kill everyone, but leave Michael alive, I want him for myself…" She grinned.
The team looked around, with their backs to each other.
"Dammit, dammit, dammit." Randy cursed to himself. "We've come all this way, just to die here."
"A-At least we'll have a good afterlife, eh, R-Randy?" Angela stammered out.
"There has to be some way out of this…" Shelly said.
"H-Heh, yeah, there…" Angela sniffled. "There has to be, right?" Her voice was quavering. "Oh god I don't wanna die…" Angela began to break down. "IdontwannadieIdontwannadieIdontwannadie" She repeated to herself, grabbing her head. "I haven't even said goodbye to my parents yet…"
"It'll be okay, Ange, it'll be okay." Randy said trying his best to calm her down.
"NO! IT'S NOT GOING TO BE OKAY! WE'RE GOING TO DIE HERE AND NOBODY WILL KNOW!" She snapped at Randy, tears streaming down her face.
Micheline roared with laughter. "What's that? The big, strong Angela fears death? Oh, how precious!"
Michael couldn't comprehend what was happening, his friends were breaking down. Angela was in tears and speaking gibberish, Callie was looking to Marie for comfort, but even Marie was shaking in her boots, and Shelly practically scratching gashes into her face trying to think of a way out.
And Micheline was laughing at them all.
Michael hope was shattered. Even if they did escape this situation, could Micheline even be saved at this point?
Was she even worth saving at this point?
Michael needed time to think, but given the team's current situation, time was the last thing he would get.
Micheline had calmed down. "Well," She shook out the left over laughs. "With that over with, I suppose it's time for you all to die. Octarians… FIRE!"
"WAIT!" Michael thought he heard a voice call out from above. Was it actually there? He didn't know.
The shots were fired, and Michael clamped his eyes shut, hard, waiting to be splatted.
…
Tink!
…
Tinktinktinktinktinktinktink!
Michael opened an eye, a huge bubbler had formed around him and his team. He tried remembering who had the Bubbler weapon. He looked back.
Junko was standing in the middle of the group.
"Junko!?"
"In the flesh." She responded.
Angela looked up at the team's savior. She started laughing in joy. "Junko!"
"Let's save the thanks for later, eh? Right now, I think we all have beef with a certain Octoling." Junko looked up to Micheline.
"Junko…" Micheline hissed through her teeth. "I should have killed you first."
"Yeah, well, we all make mistakes, huh?"
The team, now with their confidence restored, picked up their weapons again.
"Let's do this."
All seven of them started firing into the lines of Octarians. Splatting them left and right as they tried desperately to shoot through their bubblers.
When the shields ran out, the Octarian forces were gone.
"It's seven versus one now, Micheline!" Angela called out.
Micheline hung her head down. Then started laughing once more.
"Yes, Angela, you are right. It is seven against one."
She pressed a few buttons. The Octoweapon brought out two robotic arms, a Gatling cannon, an oversized Inkzooka, a massive Killer Wail, and now sported a gargantuan bubbler shield around it.
"But don't mistake that for an advantage.
The REAL battle begins here."
Micheline fired the Gatling cannon, covering the platform in ink. The team was scattered when the firing stopped. She then began firing the Inkzooka. Massive tornadoes of ink came flooding down towards the team. The team narrowly escaped their paths.
"What the hell is in that thing!? I've only seen shots like that come from a Rainmaker!" Angela yelled, jumping out of the path of one tornado.
"Octoling technology! We do these kind of things on a daily basis!" Micheline called back while continuing to fire.
After one shot she continued to fire the Gatling cannon. Randy responded by firing his Splatling. The ink shots clashed in mid-air, sending ink out every which way.
"Even if he can equal that cannon, we won't get any shots in with that shield protecting her." Shelly said.
Michael noticed something on the platform while the clash was going on. It looked like a jump pad.
"Callie! You're using the Krak-On roller, right?" He called out.
"Yeah, why?" Callie called back.
"I have a plan! Get your special ready as quick as you can!"
Callie nodded and started running her roller across the platform as much as she could, when she was done her special gauge was halfway full. "I almost got it, but I need a bit more area to cover!"
"We'll have to wait her out then."
Randy was almost out of ink now, he dove down into the ink Callie had rolled out and started to refill his tank automatically.
"Hiding now, are we? This will bring you all out!" Micheline hit a button and the Killer Wail started vibrating. The whole team jumped out of their ink and scrambled to the very edges of the platform. The Killer Wail let out an ear-piercing screech, almost knocking the team off balance. The sound wave dissipated. Micheline fired the Gatling cannon in a sweeping pattern across the platform. Callie leaped out and covered the platform back up in Inkling Ink again. Her hair started to ripple and blow in a non-existent wind.
"Special's ready!" She called.
Michael took initiative and started shooting at the jump pad, it started to glow and caused ink particles to start rising up into the air. Callie jumped in and was launched off into the air, at the peak of her jump, Michael called out again.
"Now! Activate it now!"
Callie pressed a button on her roller and transformed. She became a threatening black-colored Kraken, she spun in mid-air, making her look like a drill. She came down hard on the Octoweapon's Bubbler, and continued to spin. Electricity shot off the Bubbler as it glowed brighter than the sun.
"GET OFF OF THERE!" Micheline yelled, fury in her voice.
Callie continued to pick up speed in spinning, the electricity being generated routed into the ceiling and all throughout the room. The Bubbler began glowing a bright white.
Callie broke through. The Bubbler shattered, pieces of it falling into the abyss before disintegrating.
Callie's special ran out. She landed behind Micheline on the Octoweapon itself. Micheline hit the autopilot and auto-aim functions and went to face Callie herself. She kicked open a compartment on the control panel and pulled out an Octobrush. The two ran at each other.
The Octoweapon was now piloting itself, it strafed around the room while firing its Gatling cannon. The jump pad was quickly deactivated. Junko kept a path inked for the rest of the team, making sure they wouldn't be caught from being slowed down. The machine started firing from the Inkzooka, its strafing adding unpredictability to where the shots would come from.
Micheline diverted her attention from her personal scuffle to sound the facilities alarms once more. Multiple Elite Octolings came flooding into the arena, but stayed hidden in the ink that had been spread by the Octoweapon.
Shelly thought of something, she started spamming shots from her E-Liter, trying to fill up her special gauge as fast as possible. After a few shots, her hair began to ripple and glow. She pressed a button near the handle on her gun, setting off her Echolocator. Lines came from all her teammates and ended in rings that surrounded all Octolings in the area. They attempted to attack, only for most of them to be splatted. The team formed a circle at the center of the platform, being able to splat every Octoling that tried to attack.
The team stayed in the same formation for a moment. No Octolings seemed to be left.
Then the team felt a rumble underneath their feet. The ink turned from their colors to an Octoling's fuchsia. The team took this as a bad sign and shambled away, their feet getting stuck in the enemy ink.
With a huge blast of Octarian ink an Elite Octoling jumped out. She was breathing heavily and looked around. She then pulled out two Octoshots and disappeared in a cloud of violet vapor.
The team looked around, they covered up the platform in their ink again. But the Octoling didn't appear.
Suddenly she appeared in another cloud of vapor, behind Randy. She grabbed onto him, locking her legs around his chest. She put both Octoshots to his head and fired. Randy was quick enough to dive down into his ink before getting splatted. The Octoling landed on her feet and disappeared again.
Reappearing behind Angela this time, the Octoling kicked both feet into her back, jumping into the air and starting to fire. She hit every teammate with her ink with scary accuracy. Before landing she once more disappeared and reappeared, messing with the team.
"Rrgh! I've had enough of this!" Marie said. She then shot around the room wildly, hoping to hit the Octoling. The Octoling decided to have fun and started appearing right in Marie's sight and disappearing before she could aim at her. Marie continued firing around the room, getting angrier and angrier.
The Octoling was able to get in a few shots, bringing Marie dangerously close to being splatted.
Marie had something in store for the Octoling that she didn't expect, however. Her hair began to ripple and glow. She pressed a button on her Splatterscope. With a manic grin on her face she then began to crazily toss Splat Bombs around.
The Octoling appeared right above one and was blasted into the air before she could react. Her Octoshots went flying. Junko caught one.
Marie loomed over the Octoling when she landed and jammed the barrel of her Splatterscope into her head, charged, and fired, splatting the Octoling.
The battle raged onwards.
Micheline's Octobrush clashed against Callie's Roller. The two hit their weapons together, locking them in place. Micheline was stronger, knocking the Roller out of Callie's hands. Callie then went in for a punch, hitting Micheline in the face, knocking the Octobrush out of her hands as well.
"Gettin' physical, huh?" Micheline responded by running in, throwing in hooks repeatedly from the left and right. Callie grabbed Micheline by the shoulder and head, reared her head back, and slammed it into Micheline's face. Micheline's eyes rolled back into her head. She stumbled back, beginning to bleed from her face. Callie ran in further and threw in a punch, but was quickly blocked. Micheline brought up her knee and crashed it into the side of Callie's head. Micheline went for a hit straight to the face, knocking Callie dangerously close to the edge of the Octoweapon. Micheline ran up and began trying to push Callie off. Callie was sitting precariously on the edge.
"Why do you keep on trying, Callie? Is it for Michael? Do you think that just because you fight me, keeping with that sweet determination of yours, you'll earn his love? Let me tell you something, nothing's EVER that easy!"
The Octoweapon rumbled, knocking off Micheline's balance, setting Callie free from her grasp.
"Dammit! What was that!?"
She checked the Octoweapon's status, the Killer Wail had been blasted off. Callie took the opportunity to grab her roller and super jump back to the group.
Micheline sat back down in her seat and turned the Octoweapon back over into her control.
"Curious. You're all still alive."
"You bet!" Randy said, defiantly.
"Well, I certainly love your enthusiasm. But don't get ahead of yourselves now. I'm still alive, and as long as that holds true, none of you will be leaving." Electricity started to spark from the Octoweapon. "Everything that's happened up to now has merely been a practice round, a tutorial level, for what is going to happen next." Micheline pressed more buttons. The Octoweapon's robotic hands grew giant steel spikes at the knuckles and the destroyed Killer Wail was taken away and replaced by a huge cubical rocket launcher. It seemed to hold 15 Inkstrikes in it at once.
"Now the fun really begins."
The Octoweapon started firing its Gatling cannon and Inkzooka once more. The rocket launcher fired five Inkstrikes around the platform in a circle, blocking off all of it except the center. Then in a plus formation, and finally in a cross formation. The rocket launcher dove down and restocked its supply of Inkstrikes.
The two robotic hands launched themselves like rockets. Michael began firing at them, remembering his fight with Octavio from before. The rockets were repelled like before but just before hitting the Octoweapon they did a complete 180 and came back, faster. Angela jumped in to help, shooting at one fist while Michael shot at the other. They re-routed again, even faster this time. Randy started firing at Angela's and Shelly started aiming to Michael's. The fists continued to re-route, getting progressively faster and faster. The entire team was beginning to fire at the fists.
Then, finally, they didn't re-route. They impacted the Octoweapon and blew up, one destroying the Inkzooka.
"DAMMIT!" Micheline said, smashing the rocket firing button in retaliation.
The rocket launcher shot five rockets at a time, now in a Z formation, then a W formation, and finally launched the last five in the clip one at a time, instinctively tracking the team.
Micheline continued firing the Gatling cannon while the rockets restocked once more. She only had these last 15 rockets to launch. After that, it was all up to her Gatling cannon.
Michael looked to his special gauge, it was nearly full. 'Angela and Randy's should be ready soon, too.'
Michael quickly told the two to fill their special gauge as quickly as they could. The three began counter-inking the Gatling cannon. Angela's filled up first. Her hair began rippling and glowing.
"Angela! Get the rocket launcher!"
"Oh no you don't!" Micheline fired all 15 rockets left at once. Angela pressed a button on her .52 Gal and quickly aimed her Killer Wail. It vibrated and then let out another ear-piercing screech. It splatted all of the rockets and broke the rocket launcher to pieces.
Michael was up next, his hair began to ripple and glow as he pressed a button on his Octoshot, bringing out an Inkzooka. Michael thought for a moment, then thought of something new. He took out a Suction Bomb, filled it with ink, and set it off. He then placed it firmly on the barrel of the Inkzooka and held down the trigger. The gun began to rumble fiercely. The Suction Bomb detonated and let loose the tidal wave. The Inkzooka shot a tornado the likes of which would've made the Rainmaker look like a water gun. It surrounded the Gatling cannon and pulled it straight off its hinges, smashing the weapon into the wall, causing a mini-earthquake.
Now Randy's hair began to ripple and glow. "RANDY! NOW!" Michael shouted.
Randy pressed a button on his Splatling. His ink tank then transformed into an Inkstrike. He pulled out an aiming device and mashed his finger into the area where the Octoweapon floated. He covered his ears as the missile launched.
Micheline panicked, she piloted the Octoweapon towards the platform. The Inkstrike was headed straight for her.
At the very last moment, she jumped. Just as the missile hit.
The cyclone of ink sucked up the Octoweapon. The ink inside the massive machine mingled with the ink from the Inkstrike. The two forces imbalanced each other, and then burst in a spectacular combination of color and electricity.
Chunks of metal flew across the room. The team ducked down to avoid a piece hurtling their way.
The last Great Octoweapon was destroyed. Along with its destruction was the death of the Replica Great Zapfish.
Micheline was hanging on the edge of the platform. She pulled herself up just barely. She scrambled and activated the control panel bringing a certain passageway out and connecting it to the platform. She ran away.
The team gave chase.