Chapter 27: The Welcoming Party
The Next Day
A pained sigh escaped the unconscious Samantha's mouth as she fidgeted a little against the makeshift bed, mainly comprised on blankets and a pillow, that she had been laid on.
Marie stopped what she was doing and waited to see if this meant that she was finally going to fully wake up, after several instances of her shifting awake like this, but… a moment passed, and Samantha fell still once again. Marie sighed and got back to putting some medicine on her infected wound, before placing a new bandage over it and lowering her shirt.
Callie, Bridgett, Oliver, Jessica, and of course Dylan were in the room as well, silently watching. Dylan was sitting nearby, anxiously rubbing his chin as he watched them both intently. "And?"
Marie sighed as she looked over Samantha one more time. She had only gotten worse overnight, more than Marie had anticipated, and even more color had drained from her face. As she felt her forehead and then checked her pulse, she just confirmed that she really wasn't getting better. She sighed and slowly shook her head.
Dylan shakily leaned forward and covered his mouth with both hands.
Marie abruptly stood up. "That doesn't mean this has to be a death sentence for her. We've kept her alive for this long, which is always good, we just… need better treatments to keep her that way. That's all."
"You're seriously telling us that for three months isolated in outer space, you didn't have the proper equipment for a situation like this?" Jessica folded her arms.
"It's more complicated than that. That Octarian who shot her used some really strong ink and her infection isn't going down." She looked around. The Ray had indeed been left in darkness ever since they lost all power from their previous jump attempt. "The outage makes this worse, because if she goes into cardiac arrest or something… that's it. She'll be gone."
Dylan suddenly started shaking harder as he heard that, tearing up as he looked down.
She sighed and walked over to rub his shoulder. "I'm doing everything I can, Four."
He tried calming himself, wiping his tears. "I-I know."
They all fell into silence before Oliver spoke again. "We may have to consider going back into the city to find better equipment. They might have something. Likely, even."
"You saw those Tartar-Bots and the ID messages, Oliver." Bridgett replied. "You and I are seemingly wanted, and everyone else is an Inkling. We can't just waltz freely around the place and do whatever we want."
"...Unless they can change their appearance."
They all looked at him in confusion.
"Sheldon designed prosthetics to make an Inkling look like an Octarian. He said it may look off, but if properly used, it may allow you Inklings to go undetected."
"Um… I hate to remind you, but Sheldon isn't here right now-" Bridgett tried to say.
"No, he's right." Marie interrupted. "The prosthetics, they're here on the ship. We moved them over shortly before the Octarian station arrived. Sheldon suggested we might be able to use them."
Oliver nodded. "He's a smart crab, he thinks ahead."
"Yes, yes he does." She rubbed her own chin. "But it doesn't solve the ID problem. Hell, we don't even know where to begin for that."
"Shit." Dylan muttered as he sank down somewhat.
They all looked around at each other, thinking.
"I'd be willing to go." Jessica said.
Callie looked at Marie. "Me too."
Marie folded her arms and looked back at Samantha. "…At the moment, it might still be too dangerous."
"Are you serious?" Dylan looked up at her.
"You all heard how Bridgett and Oliver described the city, and if we make one wrong move right now, we're toast. We still don't have a full understanding of what we're up against."
"If we wait, Samantha will probably die." Bridgett said.
"...Then we may have to hope that doesn't happen."
Once again, nothing but defeat was in the air as they all looked around at each other. Dylan looked over toward Bridgett, wanting her comfort more than ever right now… but to his dismay, Bridgett wasn't even looking at him, and she instead abruptly walked out. The rest simply stood there, sighing.
As the minutes passed, the door to what used to be Pearl and Marina's room inside the Ray was shoved open as Bridgett took a step inside and pointed her light, looking around. It was a small room, with the bed that the former couple used to sleep in, and some Off the Hook decorations around with some of their belongings.
A sigh escaped her mouth as she reached down to pick up Pearl's electric guitar. It of course wasn't plugged in, so as she gave it a strum, no sound came out, and she decided to just set it back where it was.
She looked around at some of the walls where the Off the Hook decorations were hung up: Another guitar. A picture of their first released album. Pictures of home… Shakily, she reached to pull off the picture that was of the three of them in the park, at a picnic… It was her first ever picnic, with her, Pearl, and Marina, back in the days before everything had gone to hell. It had been taken shortly after her escape from the Deepsea Metro, when Pearl and Marina were still showing her that strange Inkling world she would come to call home. They were the days before she was a vigilante, the days before the Underdogs incident… the days when she was just happy to be with them. Either Pearl or Marina had kept this picture, and now… it meant nothing but left-behind memories.
She put the photograph down and sighed, closing her eyes as she slowly sat on the bed. Her experiences of the Subgrid had already made her realize it, but now more than ever… she missed the days before she had moved out of their house. Maybe… if she had stayed, if she had never moved out, things would've gone different. Maybe…
She was deep in thought over this when she heard someone come in, and her eyes shot open.
"Bridge?" Someone touched her shoulder.
She suddenly turned and held her fist up, as if to punch them.
"W-Woah." Dylan held a hand up. "What are you doing?"
She paused as she noticed. "…I-I'm… sorry." She lowered her fist. "Thought you… might've been Daniel or something."
"Did you really think that, or just…?"
She sighed. "I don't-… I don't know."
He lowered his hand as well. "After everything that's been happening between the two of us, is this the part where you say you no longer trust me?"
"D-Don't be like that, I-… If anything, you're the one who has a reason to no longer trust me."
"I was just wondering what you were doing in here."
She sighed and sat back on the bed, looking away from him.
He considered joining her, but… as they sat there in silence, together, he couldn't fight off that feeling that… the air between them was different. Any chemistry they had before was just gone. He didn't really think she wanted to help comfort him, or even be comforted. Thinking on it, he wasn't even sure when the last time they even truly connected was, and it… was probably before all of this had started to happen. Hell, maybe even long before that. If someone that was close to their team getting injured and almost killed didn't help them rekindle, then what would?
Then, as he thought about that, he realized… yeah, maybe she had a point. Maybe he didn't trust her as much anymore. Maybe he had only really come to check up on her to see… if Jessica was in here with her, alone. He looked down. "...I get it if you don't trust me." He spoke up after a moment.
Bridgett just looked at him.
"After getting betrayed like you did, I guess I might… see why it might be hard to look at the team differently."
She sighed. "My entire life is a lie, Dylan. And I think you all know it. No one has even looked at me the same since that little truth came out."
He paused, for a few painful seconds. "So… what happens to us, then? How are we gonna move forward like this?"
She looked down, having no response to that.
"Do you… do you want me to be there for you or not, Bridge?"
"O-Of course, I still want you to be there, Dylan." She said, albeit without looking him in the eye. "W-What I told you about the Subgrid, it… it wasn't real."
He sighed. "…I think you might be lying to yourself, then, Bridge."
She paused and looked down.
He did as well. "Tell me honestly… what do you want?"
She didn't respond. She had no response, no answer. Hell, she barely even had a firm thought in her head. She started steadily tearing up.
Dylan, on the other hand, was feeling shockingly similar. He had no idea how to confront this situation… he had no idea that even if he tried to comfort her, would… she still love him? Would she just be pretending? He sighed. "Well, I guess that says enough, then."
"What do you mean?" She looked at him.
"I mean, that… I don't know what I mean. But… I think we might need time to figure that out. Both of us."
"T-Time?" She was a bit confused by his sad tone.
"Be honest. Neither of us are the same. Neither of us know what we want right now. That's… it, isn't it?"
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying… we need a break."
"A break." She had at least seen enough dramas on television to know what that meant. "H-How long?"
"Maybe…" He hesitated. "Maybe forever. Or maybe just as long as it takes for us to figure this out. I don't know."
She started tearing up. The way that he just… said that cut her deep. One more loss onto the pile. "D-Dylan…"
"Just think about it, Bridge. Think about us and think about Jessica. I'll do the same. And maybe… if there's a future for us… we'll be able to reconvene after."
She didn't respond, watching as Dylan somberly turned and headed back out. She looked down, letting her tears fall.
It was a moment later that Oliver walked past Dylan in the hall, exchanged a glance with him, and then went in to look at Bridgett. They said nothing to each other, but they made full eye contact as they stared at each other. Even in the silence, she could at least feel the slowly-growing bond between them. Perhaps, out of anyone in the Ray, Oliver was the only one she could truly connect with at this point. She sighed before she stood up to meet with him.
The sun shone down upon them as Bridgett and Oliver walked out of the Ray and into the woods to get some fresh air. This time, there was no mission, it was just them finding some time to… bond, they supposed.
Regardless, at first, neither of them had anything to say as they walked a small distance away and found a place to relax at Bridgett's suggestion. Bridgett knelt down to feel some of the grass, and gave a look around. Now that she thought about it, there didn't seem to be much wildlife out here… and she wasn't sure if that just applied to this area or this new world as a whole.
Oliver stood up on top of a large rock that was sticking out of the ground and looked around. "So." He said after a few moments.
Bridgett glanced at him. "So."
"You and Dylan are close, right?"
She looked down and shook her head. "Not anymore, I guess."
"What happened?"
She paused before she slowly picked up a small, smooth rock. "Everything happened." She started playing with the rock in her hands, feeling its texture. "Months ago, Marina and Pearl left, then when they were gone, the Octarians attacked the Square, and it was like I… blinked." She looked around at the forest. "I look around, and… literally everything has changed. Everything still is changing, and I… don't know what will be next."
He nodded a bit. "I suppose that's how I felt when I first came up to the surface."
"Yeah?" She looked at him.
"Yeah. It was a whole new world up here. I could hardly believe it."
She couldn't help but smile a bit. "I remember my first time on the surface. Well, the first real time, I mean, after the Metro. The sunrise I came up to was…" She stared outward. "The most beautiful thing I've ever seen. It was… like I escaped from Hell." She then looked down. A deep sadness started to bubble up inside her once again. "…Pearl and Marina were there for it, too. So was Cap'n Cuttlefish."
He stared at her as Bridgett then fell silent, sadly playing with her rock. "…Is that your favorite memory?"
"...Huh… I… never thought about having a favorite memory… but yeah, it's definitely up there."
"What other good memories do you have?"
She paused. "Well… I can tell you for sure, they all involve the Splatoon. In one way or another. They're… literally my whole life, it turns out."
"That sounds like it was very nice."
"It was."
He kept staring at her. "If… we make it to the other side of all of this, will you continue to stay with them?"
She blankly stared ahead at nothing. "Will we still be a team?"
He didn't respond, having no answer.
As she thought a bit more about that, she slowly looked back at him. "What about you?"
"What about me?"
"If we make it out of this, where will you go? What will you do?"
Again, he had no real answer to that. He looked around at the scenery, thinking intensely about it. The best he could come up with was: "…I don't know. I don't know anything outside of being a soldier."
"Well… neither did I, at first, after I… came to be. Maybe I still don't."
"Your experiences are still different, Bridgett. You found a world to belong to, but for me… it's just been from one fight to another."
She sighed. "Maybe… but don't be so sure that I still don't have experience with that feeling."
He looked at her, and she sadly looked back, before she silently returned her attention to her rock.
As they stood in more silence, Bridgett eventually turned back to him. "Hey. Why did you want to know about my favorite memory?"
He paused a bit. "I was just curious."
She looked down, wondering if she should ask. "Do you… not have any?"
He paused longer this time before he silently shook his head.
She sighed. After a moment of more thinking, turning the rock in all sorts of directions in her hand, she suddenly had an idea. If they really were siblings, after all, then… "…Can I… try something with you?"
"What?" He stepped off the large rock and toward her.
She held up the rock so that he could clearly see. "I've seen this in movies before, it's some kind of tradition among families. A game."
He was a bit confused. "Ok? What's the game?"
She smiled and suddenly yet softly tossed him the rock. "Catch."
He flinched yet caught it with ease, before giving her a saddened, insulted look. "What the hell was that?"
She couldn't help but chuckle a bit. "The game, it's catch. We toss it to each other and see if we can catch it."
"...Oh." He stared at the rock, squinting. "I see."
"C'mon. Throw it back." She stood back a fair distance and held her hands out.
"Are… you sure?"
"More sure than I am about anything else right now."
"Alright…" Winding up a bit, he positioned himself to throw it directly at her like he was a pitcher in a baseball game.
"N-Not too hard!" She suddenly shouted upon seeing his posture. "Remember that it's a rock, we don't wanna hurt each other. Throw it more softly. Up in the air, toward me."
"...Ok." He nodded a bit, hesitated, and then did so.
She caught it. "Great." She threw it back, and they proceeded with the game. Indeed, Oliver found it to be… surprisingly fun. Hell, he damn near cracked a smile as they kept the game going, and they slowly put more distance between them to make it harder.
After a bit, Bridgett nearly missed her catch and screamed, flinching hard as the rock narrowly avoided her face.
Oliver frowned, wondering if he hurt her. "A-Are you ok!?"
Pausing for a second, Bridgett suddenly started laughing.
"W-What? What happened!?"
"I just realized we probably shouldn't be using a rock for this!"
"O-Oh!"
Yet, she really didn't mind. She was having fun. She chuckled yet again as she moved to pick the rock back up, noticing that Oliver too had finally cracked that smile, even if it was a small one. As they kept playing more carefully this time, they remained unaware of the small, silent drone that was spying on them amid the trees.
Octavio's Throne Room
The lights along the path to Octavio's giant throne was again lit up bit by bit as Eva, alongside one other Eightfold, walked down the path. "My King." Eva nodded.
"My Eightfold Order." Octavio nodded.. "Make your report."
"Marina Ida's tracings of the energy exhibited by the ship she called the Ray worked, despite the energy signal going cold last night." She help up a small black box and pressed a button, causing it to display the hologram image of the aerial view over the woods where the Splatoon was hiding. It zoomed in on Bridgett and Oliver as they played catch in the woods. "The two felons were located here. Among what appeared to be a team of Inklings."
"Hm." Octavio clenched his tentacle somewhat. "Are they allied with the rebellion, or-?"
"It rather appears to be related to Lydia's theory about her original timeline's New Squidbeak Splatoon, my King."
"Hmmm." He leaned forward. "You know what to do, then. Take Lydia Tecca's doppelgangers in… and execute the rest."
The Ray
Callie pulled Sheldon's Octarian prosthetics out from where they had been previously placed and opened it, looking inside. She had, after all, quite a lot of make-up and prosthetics experience during her years as a Squid Sister and as a Shellywood star… she knew she could figure out how to apply this. Sorting through some of the tools in here for a moment, she turned back to look at Samantha at the other end of the room.
After a bit, Marie came in, and in her now-natural habit of immediately looking over to see what Callie was doing, she sighed. "Callie, what are you doing?"
"I-I'm just looking."
"I thought we already discussed going back into the city."
She looked down as Marie went over to give her usual check-up on Samantha's status. She looked at her. "What about you? What are you doing?"
"I'm reminiscing about how badly I miss lattes." Marie grumbled.
"No, I mean…" She held a hand out toward Samantha. "Are you really just planning on… leaving her like that?"
"I don't know what I'm planning on right now, Callie."
"I-I'm just saying, that… maybe you should really think more about what you said earlier. About how we should just sit and hope for the best. Because we shouldn't be leaving anyone else behind."
She suddenly turned and shot a glare at her, prompting her to sink down somewhat. "After what you did to get us into this situation in the first place, do you think you have the right to criticize me?"
"I-I…"
She sighed and shook her head. "I don't know what exactly has been going on in your head, Callie. And it hurts my hearts to even think about it. But at least one of us needs to remain clear-headed and think rationally."
"...Were you thinking rationally when you ignored me and tried to activate the jump?"
"Yes, Callie. What else were we going to do? Everyone was in agreement about it except for you."
She didn't respond.
"Yeah." Marie lazily sat back against the wall.
"...I've been trying to fight it, you know…" Callie spoke up after another moment. "Everything that Marina made me do, I've been trying to fight it."
She looked at her. "And did Marina make you take us here?"
"...I don't know." She admitted. "I think that may have just been me."
She shook her head and covered her face. "God dammit, Callie."
"Because I still have hope."
"Hope for what?"
"That we can stop them. Here."
Marie looked at her once again.
"I don't know how." Callie continued. "I don't know where. I don't even know for what. But there's this… feeling… deep in me." She shakily touched her own chest, steadily tearing up. "That we can come back from this. It's that same feeling I tried to hold on to when I was in the Canyon. And during the Underdogs incident. And those both worked out in the end, didn't they?"
Marie stared at her up until they both also turned to see Dylan walk into the room, where he paused and started staring at Samantha. He made eye contact with Marie, before Marie looked back at Samantha, thinking deeply and carefully.
"I'm not going to let another friend go." Callie continued, staring almost blankly at her. "And I don't want you to either."
Marie didn't respond.
As the minutes passed, Bridgett and Oliver had gotten bored of catch but were still in the woods, now playing a somewhat altered form of Hide and Seek among the trees. They were occasionally chuckling to themselves as they did and just enjoying their newfound friendship, trying to keep their minds off of everything else.
Jessica, concerned over how long Bridgett had been gone, stepped out of the Ray herself and walked into the woods, looking around for them. She sighed deeply, unable to help herself from thinking… deeper thoughts about Bridgett. She of course knew at this point about what Bridgett told Dylan about the Subgrid… and although it wasn't confirmed to her, she now had her suspicions they had broken up at this point. Even if not, she knew… Bridgett was going through so much right now, probably more than anyone else here. She wanted… she needed to be there for her, she knew that much.
She didn't dare call out for Bridgett's name in fear of drawing attention, but her hearts fluttered somewhat nervously as she looked around to see where she had gone.
She didn't make it too far, however, before suddenly, she found her path blocked off. As if she wasn't already paranoid about something happening to Bridgett, she paused as a couple golden Tartar-Bots, with their spears just as had been described to her, came out from their camouflage among the trees. "Inkling." They announced in unison as they marched into position and pointed their spears at her. "Don't move."
Although she was struck with her usual bout of anxiety, Jessica kept her cool as much as possible as she looked around. Among the trees, she could see that there was a couple small drones now visibly floating in the air above them, while the entrance to the Ray was also surrounded by a few Tartar-Bots. She could only imagine what had happened to Bridgett.
As it happened, Bridgett was searching somewhat nearby, searching everywhere for Oliver's hiding spot in their game, when she too was surrounded by a few Tartar-Bots. She froze and held her hands up somewhat, eyes wide as she frantically looked around to see if she could locate Oliver.
Onboard the Ray, Marie and the others that were standing over Samantha noticed the intruders upon their hiding spot. Even Daniel came out from the Ray's hallway to see what was going on.
"Resistance is useless!" The Tartar-Bots announced in a chorus. "On behalf of all Tartar-Bots, we will give you only one minute to identify yourselves and your origin."
Eyes wide, Marie looked at Dylan, swiftly coming to her final decision on how to proceed with Samantha's situation. "Go. Grab her. Now. Get the hell out of here, I'll hold them off."
As chaos started to erupt, Dylan took a desperate deep breath as she picked Samantha up, while Callie rushed to grab the Octarian prosthetics and some other stuff.
Marie grabbed her charger from its hidden spot, swiftly cocked it, and came out into view to fire upon them. She was forced backward as multiple red lasers from the tips of the Tartar-Bot's spears were fired at them and into the Ray, which she barely dodged as she retreated behind cover. Callie screamed as some of these lasers struck crates and the walls in the loading bay.
From her cover, Marie fired more shots in both retaliation and as a distraction, before she found an opening to super-jump out the Ray's entrance, leading into her sudden high-pressure Splashdown, throwing each nearby Tartar-Bot off, even if just for a brief moment.
As the Splashdown caught the attention of everyone on the field, Jessica took the brief opportunity to change into her Squid-form and dodge their imminent shots at her. Rolling out of the way as quick as she could, she changed back to her humanoid form and hid behind one of these bots, kicking its spear as hard as she could to deflect its aim before she grabbed it and allowed it to shield her from the incoming lasers that its partner fired. The Bot audibly grunted as the shots tore through some of the armor on its back, weakening it and allowing her to kick it away and make her escape.
Bridgett, however, was even more surrounded than Jessica was, and was forced to do some thinking before she too was able to use her Octo-form to dodge their attacks. She dodged all the way until she found a large tree to duck behind, where she frantically darted her eyes around to see if she could see Oliver anywhere. However, she had only a moment to rest and come down before she felt the tree behind her start to get hot. Looking back in confusion, she watched as the tree started to smoke and light on fire before finally, a large red laser started to blast through the other side of it. She yelped and fell back as the tree's foundation gave out, and then was forced to dodge roll out of the way as it fell forward toward her. Revealed behind it was the Tartar-Bot who had opened its face to unleash the laser, before it closed its face back up and then, alongside its two partners, again aimed its spear.
At that moment, its aim was briefly thrown off as Jessica, in her Squid-form, barreled into its back from a super jump, before swiftly flipping backwards, transforming back, and landing on her knee as she faced it. It turned to her as she took it on in combat, while Bridgett ran toward another one of them, dodging its spear strike as she tried to tackle it. As she and Jessica both came to discover, however, these things were strong and were hard to even attack. Bridgett's eyes widened as she realized this, before the Bot suddenly whacked her with the center of its spear and knocked her back several feet through the air, leaving her to roll across the ground as she landed.
She moved to get back on her feet as soon as possible, but as she did, she looked up to see that the Tartar-Bot had again opened its face and charged up another powerful laser. She dodged as it fired upon her, and was forced to keep running as the continuous laser chased after her, cutting down several trees and starting multiple fires.
Among the fight, multiple Tartar-Bots remained distracted by Marie who used her high-pressure shots to slowly lead most of them away from the Ray and instead deeper into the woods, running through and taking cover behind multiple trees.
With the distraction seemingly putting them in the clear, Callie motioned to Dylan. "C'mon!"
Still holding Samantha, Dylan followed after her as they ran out of the Ray, running in the opposite direction of the fighting to get Samantha to safety. They too were forced to hide behind some trees as they nearly came across Marie, who was still distracting the Tartar-Bots nearby.
A moment later, one of the Tartar-Bots that was chasing Marie, the same one that got partially weakened by Jessica beforehand, found itself jumped from behind as Daniel, having also escaped the Ray, wrestled with it for its spear. Gritting his teeth and growling loudly, Daniel was actually able to overpower it enough to grip its spear and stab it through its chest. Sparks exploded from it as, now more weakened than ever, the Bot was shoved by Daniel face-first into a nearby tree, which the spear also stabbed through, pinning it down.
Kicking against the tree, Daniel struggled to pull the spear out and into his ownership. The Tartar-Bot sank down as it slid against the tree, shutting down its systems, before Daniel swung the spear to decapitate it. Now covered in its splattered oil, Daniel panted as he held the spear up and began his trek to locate Jessica and the others.
Alerted to this fact, some Tartar-Bots that were previously focused on Marie swiftly updated their objective and instead turned to find Daniel.
Finding themselves more and more in the clear, Callie motioned at Dylan one more time, as they kept running to find safety. Not long after they started running, Callie suddenly collided almost face-first into the Octoling that was running toward them, knocking them both down.
"Shit-" Oliver quickly recollected himself, helping her up. "Sorry!"
"Y-You-" Callie stuttered. "What are you-"
"I came to find Samantha, are you good!?"
They were interrupted once more as two Tartar-Bots, having heard them, approached them and pointed their spears at them. "Don't take one more action."
Instinctively, Oliver got in front of his friends and held his arms out to shield them as best as he could, particularly Samantha.
"Come forward with your hands up." The Tartar-Bot continued, unmoving.
Oliver gulped, running through scenarios to get them out of this. Nothing, however, seemed to work, at least not if he wanted to save the others.
"Come forward with your ha-" This time, the Tartar-Bot stopped as it groaned audibly, starting to twitch.
The huddled agents all watched in confusion as, for some reason, the second Tartar-Bot suddenly turned upon the first and began firing upon it, directly into its chest but neither of them could do much as, one-by-one, for no apparent reason, they erupted into some sparks before shutting down entirely and collapsing to the ground. A moment later, the last one twitched a bit as more sparks flew from its neck.
"W-" Dylan was at a loss for words at this point.
"Did… you both see that?" Callie asked.
Oliver didn't really have a response either, but they were once again relatively safe, and that was what mattered. "C'mon." He helped them up and took them to a nearby large tree to hide behind.
For the other Splatoon agents, the ongoing fight was going dismally, as they simply held no match for these stronger Tartar-Bots. Regardless, they did everything they could to stay in the fight for as long as they could, all the way until Jessica was thrown down onto the ground by the Bot she was fighting and pinned down. She looked up in terror as it opened its face and prepared to unleash a massive laser directly into her. She clenched her eyes shut.
Out of nowhere, she heard Daniel's scream as the Tartar-Bot was stabbed through by Daniel's spear, and slowly lifted off of her. She turned to watch as Daniel brutally stabbed it into the ground, before again struggling to pull the spear back as the Bot shut down on the ground. He turned to look at her, and they both made eye-contact as Jessica stared back at him, surprised.
Daniel did nothing in response, and a moment later, they were both forced back behind cover as more Tartar-Bots fired lasers at them, which they dodged.
Finally, realizing that Daniel's actions may have been turning the fight in the Splatoon's favor, the machines changed their entire battle-plan. The agents all stopped in confusion as the remaining Tartar-Bots suddenly fell idle. Putting their legs together, they slammed their spears down in front of them and held them straight, where they proceeded to hold that pose.
They looked around, seeing what was going on as a mere second later, the overhead drones that was surveilling them swooped down into view. Multiple ports on their bottoms opened up.
As Bridgett and Jessica both stood up straight, they looked at each other from where they both stood. "Bridge!"
"Jess!" Bridgett tried to run to join up with her, before they were both suddenly lifted from the ground as if gravity gave out, alongside stray leaves, sticks, and other items on the ground. The same happened to both Marie and Daniel, before a strong blast of energy, like a gust of wind, blew through them all, which knocked them to the ground. They were left there momentarily unconscious.
One of the Tartar-Bots looked down and opened up its face. "I am detecting a directive change. We will take these felons in for questioning."
"We've been unable to find the male Octoling target." Another one said.
"Find him." A third one conversed as they all got down to pick their new prisoners up.
The agents were only unconscious for a mere short moment, but it was enough for the Tartar-Bots to restrain them each, gluing their arms together with strange white energy bonds that held their hands together like a magnet. Marie grunted a bit as she was picked up, finding that these bonds tickled in a static-electricity kind of way. She darted her eyes around in a panic, looking to see if Callie was among the captured.
"No! GET OFF OF M-" Daniel tried to protest, but he too was restrained and picked up.
From the distance, Oliver and the others, who made it away unscathed, watched as best as they could.
"M-Marie-" Callie tried to walk forward.
Oliver stopped her. "No. We have to go."
"I-I can't just leave her!"
"I know it's hard, but we have to go, we can't do anything for them!" He pulled her away.
Dylan gave his own sad stare before he looked down at Samantha and carried her off, following after them.
Oliver paused he briefly glanced back in their direction. Although his facial expression remained as straight as ever, sadness filled him as he thought back to Bridgett… to how little time they had together before they were once again separated… before he ran to join up with the others, pursued by more Tartar-Bots that were now going to comb the woods for them.
The Ray itself was now left vacated, as multiple Tartar-Bots surrounded it. "Evidence secured." One announced, before it paused as it remotely received its new directive. "Understood. We will send it to Marina Ida." It announced as multiple of its partners walked on board to investigate on what it held inside.
The captured agents remained silent as they were detained on a fancy, golden, yet small Octarian ship, which took off into the air as it set off toward Octo City.
Bridgett was forced into a seat next to Marie, grunting angrily, while Jessica was seated next to Daniel on the opposite side of the room, just a few feet away from them.
"We're en route to Octavio Tower." A Tartar-Bot said before it, alongside the other two bots that came along for the ride to act as guards, assumed their same idle poses from before by the walls.
Jessica took a deep breath as she faced Bridgett. "A-Are you ok?"
"I-I'm fine." Bridgett replied.
"No talking." A Bot told them.
Shaking from fear, Marie looked down with her eyes wide. Callie… she left behind Callie… Of course, she wasn't in custody here with them, which could only be a good thing, but she… Callie, Dylan, Oliver, and even Samantha… they were on their own. She was on the verge of hyperventilating as she started to straight-up panic. Would they be ok? How long would they be able to stay safe? Would they be able to fend for themselves? What could she have done differently? Was this her fault again? All she knew for sure was… the team had once again been split in two, and she was once again separated from Callie… like a cursed loop of her shitty life that was just destined to repeat itself again and again and again. This time was probably the worst instance of it yet. She shuddered a bit as she realized this.
Daniel, out of all of them, was ironically probably the most calm, as he was the only one who had not yet even fully grasped the situation. But as he looked up, he noticed something… off about one of these Tartar-Bots. It was twitching a bit, as if something was bothering it, like a bug flying around in front of its face.
He of course figured this to be yet another hallucination, but as he kept staring on, the rest of the Agents' attention were also caught as the Tartar-Bot suddenly groaned, hunching forward somewhat.
The other two Tartar-Bots robotically turned toward it. "Present status."
A moment later, some sparks erupted from it as it collapsed, dead. Concerned, they held their spears forward.
The agents watched on in confusion as, just like what the other escaped agents had witnessed, the Tartar-Bots were taken out one-by-one by this mysterious, invisible phenomenon. As it happened to the second Bot, the third turned its spear and fired upon it, but it couldn't do much until the two were eventually taken out and also collapsed.
Bridgett blinked a bit. "A bit… faulty."
"What, did you all see that?" Daniel asked.
No one responded as they simply waited to see what would happen next, until finally, out of thin air, a white-suited figure appeared in a flash of light in the center of the room. She was wearing some kind of white, full-body mechanical suit, complete with a slick white helmet that hid her entire head. The suit's shape felt… familiar to Bridgett… but she couldn't recall from what.
They all watched as, first, this person went up to the control panel at the front of the ship, plugged some kind of advanced but small USB in, and pressed some buttons, hacking its system.
"I found them and I'm bringing them home." She announced into the ship's radio. She pressed some more switches to change the ship's auto-pilot course. "Tracing's off and all present Tartar-Bots are down."
"Copy that." A masculine voice on the other end replied. "We'll be waiting here."
She stood up straight and stretched a bit, rolling her shoulder.
"Ummm…" Bridgett blinked in complete confusion. "W-…Who the hell are you? Where are you taking us?"
"You're safe now, I'm with the rebellion." The figure replied as she stared out the front window.
"The rebellion?" Jessica asked.
"Ok, let's not be vague, who are you?" Marie hissed.
The person hesitated another moment before she reached up to press a button on the side of her helmet, and the whole thing retracted into the rest of her suit in an instant, revealing her white hair. As she turned to reveal her face, Bridgett leaned back as her eyes widened like dinner plates.
It was none other than Pearl.
