Chapter 3: Attack of the Steel Twins
"They'll always seek. They'll always find."
After drinking the awful concoction Rick whipped up, the effects kicked in quickly. The pain that plagued Akikta subsided after a few minutes, allowing him to take a much-needed nap. Unfortunately, his rest was interrupted by a loud boom and a violent rumble.
At first, he thought something might've dropped within the shack. But Nakji, who was sitting on a chair across from him, stood up to attention. Then another boom happened, accompanied by another rumble that nearly shook him out of bed. Akikta realized the noises were coming from outside.
"W-what's happening?!" He yelped and stuttered out of fright.
"I don't know!" Nakji answered, clearly as shocked as he was.
"Where's Rick and Biggie?!"
"They went outside minutes ago!" Akikta was afraid they had gone somewhere else. The shack had no windows, meaning they'd have to leave to find out what all the commotion was.
Akikta stood to his feet, noticing the pain wasn't half as bad as it used to be. He could actually stand and walk normally! ...Somewhat.
"What are you doing?" Nakji questioned.
"I'm going to see what's going on!" Nakji frowned at his answer, but didn't stop him. Instead, she unsheathed her blade and followed close behind.
Upon exiting the shack, a large splash of ink hit Akikta right in the face. Luckily, Nakji hadn't fully exited the shack, so only he was hit.
He wiped the greenish liquid off his face, only to see war raging on across the trash city. Salmonids, big and small, engaged each other in fierce combat. Smashing, slamming, and stabbing one another with their assortment of kitchen tools. The bigger and more unique-looking salmonids used much worse brutal tactics to attack.
The large and menacing-looking salmonids, covered in heavy-duty armor, inflated large green bombs at the top of their heads, then tossed them a short distance. Those same bombs would explode shortly after landing, taking out a massive chunk of salmonids while also emitting a loud boom that shook the ground—creating the same noise and rumble that woke Akikta.
Some of these explosions would completely destroy or cripple the large towers made from trash. Resulting in the collapsing debris to completely crush any unfortunate salmonid caught underneath while making the steel ground quake wildly, nearly knocking Akikta off his balance.
There was another type of salmonid, though this one was much smaller. These critters had to be no bigger than Little Buddy—some looked exactly like him, albeit with greener pants.
The tiny fish were in a small spherical ball, acting as a cockpit for some larger mechanism that hovered above the ground by discharging ink downward. Attached on either side of the cockpit were red and blue-colored dumpster bins.
Akikta wondered why anyone would make trashcans that could fly. Then the lids opened, revealing rows of loaded missiles. They fired and most impacted the battlefield filled with salmonids. A few headed towards Nakji and Akikta.
While Nakji was quick to evade, Akikta stood there, dumbfounded at how the salmonids could make weapons out of literal trash containers. The same thing responsible for dousing his face in ink would hit the area around Akikta, only this time, there was enough force to send the teen flying backward. He landed with minimal injury, groaning in annoyance rather than pain.
"You do know you're supposed to dodge a Flyfish's missiles, right?" Nakji commented, kneeling next to Akikta and helping him up.
"Bleh. Some of it got in my mouth..." He ignored Nakji's remark, instead focusing on wiping his face as he rose.
Once on his feet, the echoing sounds of cannons firing grabbed his attention. He looked up to see large gray balls traveling through the air, completely decimating any Flyfish that happened to get caught in its trajectory.
Any Flyfish hit by the cannonballs would spin out of control before crashing into the ground or surrounding buildings, creating a big, inky explosion upon impact. Akikta did not see any of the pilots eject.
He turned to see groups of Big Shot salmonids passing large steel balls to each other. The balls would be passed along until they reached a Big Shot behind one of the many yellow-colored cannons from which they were launched.
Were one of those Big Shots Biggie? It was impossible to tell. They all looked the same.
Though he wondered where Rick and Biggie were, a far bigger question filled his mind. "Why are the salmonids fighting each other?" He asked no one in particular as he scanned the active battlefield.
It didn't make sense that the exiles were fighting each other... Or were they under attack by Sal's troops? No, that couldn't be the case. This place was hidden, wasn't it?
"I don't know. But we need to find–" Nakji snapped her head to Akikta, though he could tell she was looking behind him.
Suddenly, she shoved him out of the way. "Watch out!" she shouted, holding up her blade to deflect a beam of reddish-orange ink aimed at him. Her katana would redirect the beam of ink to a destroyed tower. The pressure of the ink was so intense it cut right through the building.
Akikta's eyes widened at the sudden attack. How durable was Nakji's blade? And... what could've made an attack like that?
"Human." A growly feminine voice said, making Akikta turn his head to the source.
Ahead of them were two figures. One was covered from head to toe, sporting a hockey mask, black armor, and boots. Akikta almost mistook them to be a human, but he knew better by now. Plus, their smooth orangish-red hair and brown curved fin-like ears reminded him of Sal.
"You have nowhere left to run now." The same voice said, coming from the entity beside the masked one. Unlike the one with the hockey mask, the one who spoke had their face partially covered by some strange mask. Or was it a device?
Regardless, Akikta saw the entity's eyes—one of them, anyway. It had a yellow sclera with blood-red pupils and a black marking surrounding the eyelid, similar to Nakji, with the only difference being there were two dashes instead of one on the outer ends.
Their face was a brownish-gray, dotted by white freckles. And their ears were the same shape as the masked one's.
The rest of their body was covered by black metal armor, giving them a slight robotic look.
"Aki...?"
"Yeah, I know..."
Nakji didn't have to tell him a thing. From appearance alone, he knew these were the twins Rick had warned them about. His only question was: How on earth did they find them?
"Since you've led us right to the traitorous den of the exiled, we will give you one chance to come with us peacefully, human." The metal girl covered in armor stated. At least, Akikta assumed it was a girl. Her voice was scratchy and growly, reminding him of a heavy smoker.
"What? So that you can kill me later? No way." The two twins side-eyed each other at Akikta's response, only for the metal-armored one to puff out her cheeks. He tilted his head in confusion.
"Dodge!" Nakji shouted. Then, the tip of the twin's strangely shaped mask ejected a powerful beam of reddish-orange ink. Instinctively, Akikta dove to the side, narrowly dodging the ink beam. The rough landing caused him to wince in pain.
Then he heard a crazed warble coming from his side. He looked to see a salmonid chum charging at him from the opposite direction of the twins, a murderous glint in their eyes. In one of their fins was a large frying pan.
Akikta raised his arms to shield himself, though before the chum could land a swing, another chum came in and whacked the offending salmonid with their own pan, knocking them out instantly.
The defending chum then turned to Akikta with squinted eyes. "What are you doing out here?!" it shouted in both concern and anger—it was Rick!
"Don't you see we're–" Rick's anger quickly dissipated after laying eyes on the twins, who were steadily approaching them. "Oh, seven rings." The chum muttered before hurriedly helping Akikta to his feet. "This went from bad to worse. You must flee."
Akikta looked at Rick, surprised. "Flee? To where exactly? We're better off fighting those two together!"
"There could be a thousand of us, and we'd still lose! The Steel Twins are not to be taken lightly!" Rick rejected the idea, turning to Nakji, who took a battle-ready stance.
"Risky!" Biggie's voice called out from behind, making the three turn. "All the cannons have been destroyed, and there's too many of them! The goldies have signaled a full retreat." The Big Shot explained, sounding a bit panicked. Rick shook his head with a quiet grumble before facing the twins.
"Sharp Shooter, take the human and escape with the others." He glanced at Nakji, then faced forward. "Take the octarian too."
"What?!" Akikta practically yelled. "You just said a thousand of us can't beat them! What makes you think you can?"
"I can't."
Two and two suddenly clicked for Akikta, sending shivers down his spine. "No. There's gotta be some other way to slow them down. You don't have to throw your life away needlessly!"
"I'm not throwing it away if it's for the greater good." Rick nodded, only for Biggie to pick Akikta and Nakji up in his massive fins. Although they both squirmed, Biggie's grip was a lot stronger than Akikta thought possible.
"C'mon Rick! I just met you... What happened to helping me?!"
"Sharp Shooter can take it from here."
"No! That isn't fair! We can all get out of this together!"
"And how do you expect that to happen? Miracles don't just drop from the sky, Akikta!"
Suddenly, a long, oval-shaped object dropped in between the twins and the group. It bounced from the road right over to the base of a still-intact skyscraper. This grabbed the attention of everyone, even causing the twins to halt.
Strapped around the oval-shaped object were eight triangular devices filled with a hot-pink-colored liquid inside the center.
"Are those...splat bombs?" Nakji said, tilting her head.
All eight of the bombs glowed before exploding in one enormous bang. The hockey-masked twin grabbed the metal-armored one, forcefully pulling them away from the explosion.
"MOVE!" Rick shouted in a panicked tone, resulting in Biggie moving as fast as he could away from where the bombs exploded.
Akikta used whatever wiggle room he had to look over his shoulder. When the bomb exploded, it had taken out the skyscraper's foundation, causing it to tumble right over the group. The tower destroyed any and every other building on its way down, causing the ground to rumble like a massive earthquake.
The four were able to avoid being crushed, albeit barely. Fortunately, in addition to staying alive, they were separated from the twins.
Biggie gently set Nakji and Akikta down, panting. The big fella probably never ran that hard before... it was probably hard to run with no legs in the first place.
The teen turned to Rick, who was also out of breath and panting. "Looks like one of the exiled was looking out for us."
Rick shook his head. "Those... were splat bombs, used by the colorful cephalopods. It couldn't have been one of us..."
"Huh?" Akikta became confused. "What do you mean? I saw those big armored salmon chuck bombs earlier."
Rick looked at Akikta. "The Steelheads? No, that is different. They excrete explosive saliva and funnel it into a pouch atop their heads. The color is always green..." The chum pointed out, further confusing Akikta.
"Then who..." Before Akikta could ask the question everyone wanted the answer to, a shuffling noise came from above.
They looked to see a figure slowly dropping from destroyed rubble to destroyed rubble, eventually landing on the ground a short distance from them.
Everyone was surprised, but probably not as much as Akikta. "You..." He said, unable to conceal his baffled tone. It was the octoling agent from the Deepsea Metro.
She was... here? But how? Last he checked, her whole group was overrun by salmonids back at the Manta Maria. Actually, why was she here? They didn't exactly leave each other on amicable terms, so what reason would she have to save them? Another thing, how did she find them?
Akikta had a million questions running through his head, but none actually left his mouth. The agent took a few steps closer to the group, causing Rick and Nakji to raise their weapons hesitantly. The agent stopped and raised their hands. "I'm not here for a fight..." she spoke, her voice quiet and soft, exactly how Akikta remembered it.
Though it was the same, the two salmonids looked surprised. "Did she..." Biggie started, only to be cut off by Rick.
"She did..."
"What? What'd she do?" Akikta asked, not seeing why they were so shocked.
"She spoke our language..." Rick answered.
Akikta didn't know much of anything about the octoling agent. But he certainly didn't expect her to know how to speak the salmonid language. Then again, she probably learned it from Sal.
There was silence amongst the group, with the only sounds being the distant noises of fighting.
A far-off explosion makes the octoling take action. "I know this is all random... But I'm here to help. So please, follow me..." she said, making a poor attempt at persuading the salmonids.
Rick scrunched up his nose, giving the octoling a suspicious glare. Before any assumptions could be made, Akikta spoke up. "I think... we should follow her."
Rick turned to him. "Follow her? She could've killed us with that stunt! And why are–"
Akikta raised a hand to interrupt the chum. "She tried to warn me of Sal beforehand... I didn't listen to her then. She's only been trying to help me from the start."
Rick's disapproving squint disappeared. "Wait, she knows about the usurper?" Akikta nodded. Rick turned back to the agent, whose hands were still held up. After eyeing the octoling up and down, Rick lowered their weapon.
"Wait, you... You've been here before..." The skepticism in Rick's voice disappeared, as he seemed to remember the octoling somehow. The salmonid's demeanor completely changed after he came to a revelation.
Rick blinked, looking between Akikta and the octoling repeatedly. After a quick pause, he spoke. "We'll follow you." He agreed, suddenly changing tunes.
Akikta wasn't sure what just happened, but he didn't question it either.
The octoling stared Akikta down briefly; their gray eyes reminded him of Inka's. However, he couldn't tell if those eyes were filled with anger or concern.
The agent turned away before waving the group over. "Quickly." was all she said, leading the group away from the ongoing conflict.
This day just kept getting weirder and weirder.