Chapter 7: Another Failure
"Failure is a tough pill to swallow."
Inka's eyes snap wide open upon feeling a sudden jostling sensation. After a short period of disorientation, she realizes she fell asleep during the ride, and the light shaking from Clod's platform landing woke her.
Inka rubbed her eyes to help unblur her vision, and the first thing she saw was Marie curiously watching her. They both were sitting down with their knees tucked close to their chest.
A loud yawn made them direct their attention to the yawner in question, Sal. He stretched after stepping off Clod's platform, extending his dorsal fin and straightening out his tail.
After looking around, Inka recognized where they were: The Superiority Complex. They appeared to be in the cloning part of the tower, as they were on the triangular platform Akikta had tackled Sal off from.
A group of salmonids crowded around the central pillar where the console was. There was a Steelhead, a cohock, and three chums.
"What's going on here?" Sal questioned, and the salmonids jumped at his presence.
"Lord!" One chum blurted. "W-what are you doing back here?" A nervous expression was plastered all over its face as it trembled.
Sal placed his hands on his hips. "Is that question implying I'm not allowed to go where I please when I please in my own home?"
The chum shot upright with widened eyes before feverishly shaking its head. "No, my lord! Not at all!"
"Good." Sal let his arms down. "Now, all of you get out of the way. I'm cloning Ikayaki." A grave expression suddenly befell on all the salmonids' faces. None moved an inch from their spots. "Did you hear me? I said move!"
"W-we can't...clone anymore. The machine is...b-broken." A different chum stuttered.
The same chum covered its face after seeing the abrupt distortion in Sal's face. "WHAT?!" He howled, his voice echoing throughout the dimly lit chambers. "What do you mean?!"
The cohock spoke. "The purple octo damaged the control panel during her escape..."
Sal gritted his teeth, only now noticing the shallow slash mark across the terminal. From the looks of it, the damage was unintentional. "Clod, examine this!" He demanded, angrily pointing at the console.
With a sigh, the goggle-wearing salmonid slithered his way to the terminal. He investigated the damage from all angles, going so far as to zoom in with his goggles by pressing a small button on the straps, which Inka never noticed until now.
After a brief analysis, Clod peeled back from the terminal. "Well?" Sal said in anticipation.
Clod shook his head. "Well, sire, the good news is the terminal isn't critically damaged." He put his fins together anxiously. "The bad news is...it's inoperable..."
Before Sal could blow up—which he wanted to, judging by the visible anger on his face—his radio buzzed. "Father..." The voice of Masu called out. Inka fully honed her senses onto the conversation.
"Please, let this be good news, Masu," Sal responded, bringing the radio up to his ear.
Slight mumbles and whimpers came from the other end, reminding Inka of a scared child. "The human... is being helped by the squidbeaks and got away again." She said extremely fast, probably hoping Sal wouldn't properly hear her. Inka caught what she said and was quite relieved. However, if Inka understood what Masu said, then Sal definitely did, too.
Sal pressed a button on the radio; the noises from the other side abruptly cut off. He put both arms to his side and closed his eyes, inhaling and exhaling deeply. The slower he breathed, the faster his tail wagged. Inka assumed he was trying to quell his wrath, but it was to no avail. "IDIOTS!" He yelled, smashing his fist into the nose of the Steelhead, who stumbled back out of shock and yelped.
"Ow! My nose!" It cried, holding its snout. The rest of the salmonids responded by backing away from Sal.
His stomach growled loudly before he put the radio back to his ear. He clicked the same button, bringing the sounds from Masu's end back. "So, you failed again, and now you're telling me the New Squidbeak Splatoon is aiding Akikta. Is there anything else I should know about?"
There was a pause in the conversation before Masu responded. "We believe... she is with them." Sal fell silent and still. The anger that enveloped him like a raging storm completely disappeared from his face as quickly as it appeared.
"Hm, that's a problem." He huffed, looking at the terminal and then back at Marie. His stomach growled again, but no one said a word about it. "You still have Akikta's location, don't you?"
"Yes, father. It appears the human is heading deeper into the bowels."
Sal groaned in frustration. "The deeper he goes into those abandoned sectors, the harder it'll be to send a substantial force to grab him!" He unintentionally yelled, and soon after, his stomach growled yet again, effectively ruining the tension.
"Father, maybe you should eat something? You know how you get what you're hungry..." Masu suggested in a sheepish tone.
Sal's face fell into a neutral expression, only for his lips to curl upward into a sinister grin. "Ah, Masu. You're such a smart girl." He randomly complimented.
"T-thank you, father."
"Now then, for all your hard work, why don't you and Huchen take some time to rest? I'm sure it wasn't easy fighting those pesky agents."
"W-what?! But father, we're still capable of fighting!"
"Oh, I'm sure you are. But I want the honor of the killing blow to go to my children. You've weakened them enough. Now, let my troops exhaust them further. You two can stand by in the meantime. Don't worry, you'll get to finish the fight in the end."
"But father—" Sal ended the transmission before Masu could protest further.
He holstered the radio back on his belt and faced Clod. "Send Mahy to Akikta's current location."
Clod flinched. "Mahy? You mean that experimental king? I don't think that's a wise decision, sire."
"Sure it is! Just give him the order not to eat Akikta and he'll follow it to a T."
"And what about the rest of the Splatoon?"
Sal waved his hand and turned to walk off. "Let him have 'em for lunch. I don't care about the others. Speaking of lunch, I'm about to go have some."
He abruptly stopped in his tracks. "One other thing, Clod." Sal looked over his shoulder. "Fix the terminal before morning. We'll need it."
"But sire, even with these minimal damages, it'll take hours to repair!"
"Well then, you better get to it." Sal finished and left, leaving Clod with the rest of the salmonids. The large salmonid made a depressing noise, lowering Inka's mood further.
"Heh, quite the boss, am I right?" Said Marie, startling Inka.
It's been a few hours since their capture, and Marie hadn't once addressed Inka until now, so she was reasonably surprised.
"R-right..." she awkwardly responded, avoiding eye contact.
"Hey... I don't think I caught your name. What was it again?" Marie asked, trying to strike up a conversation.
Normally, if one of her favorite idols gave her the time of day, Inka would freak out with happiness. But this felt... wrong. After everything she's done, why was Marie being cordial with her?
"I...Inka. Inka Moray," she finally answered.
Marie smiled. "Nice to meet you."
Inka glared at Marie in confusion. "Why so talkative now...?" she asked, trying not to be or sound rude.
"Well, it's better than sitting here in silence, I guess," Marie responded with her usual nonchalantness. "And besides, thanks to you, we're not cooking in an oven right now, so there's that."
Inka brought her legs closer to her chest, almost curling up into a ball. Sure, she might've delayed their deaths, but she also helped get them in this situation to begin with.
Well, there was no use in thinking about that now. Conversing with Marie was better than letting the guilt eat her up anyway. "Why does that... thing want to eat you so badly?" Inka asked, causing Marie's smile to falter.
She rubbed her shoulder awkwardly. "I don't really know..."
Inka guessed her question touched a nerve. "Sorry, I didn't mean to be insensitive..."
"No, no. It's fine. Not like I have anyone else to talk about him with." Marie sighed and looked up at the jar's lid.
"How'd you meet him?"
Marie closed her eyes, exhaling slowly. "Through bad luck, I guess." She answered sarcastically; a fake chuckle escaped her. After some silence, Marie's expression grew serious. She then sighed, looking directly into Inka's eyes.
"It was a long time ago, right after Inkopolis's first annual YFSC, in fact."
Inka tilted her head. "YFSC"
Marie chuckled at her confusion. "Youth-Folk Singing Contest." she clarified. "Sorry, it's just kinda a beakful, so I thought abbreviating it would be better."
Marie leaned back against the glass jar. "Callie and I were only seven, I think. We won first place and were too excited to sleep. So, we stargazed, like we always did." Marie frowned. "Then, boom. Some men in black swooped us up. I don't know why they wanted us, but they did. And before they could do anything... he saved us." Marie frowned harder as she recounted the events.
"I thought he was genuinely trying to help. If I hadn't noticed what kind of monster he was sooner, I don't think Gramps and that other dude would've ever found us."
Marie sounded devastated over whatever happened back then. It honestly made Inka want to cry on her behalf.
"That's terrible... I'm sorry I made you talk about it."
"Oh, stop it. I said it's fine. It's actually refreshing to tell someone else about it, lets me know it wasn't all a bad dream."
"You don't talk to your grandpa about it?"
Marie shook her head. "Gramps doesn't talk about it, let alone mention it. Whenever I allude to it, he quickly shuts the conversation down. My guess is that he was afraid of triggering some kind of PTSD in me. Y'know, war veteran stuff."
"Why not talk to that guy you mentioned?"
"Wouldn't know where to find him. I haven't seen that squid ever since the incident. I... I think he was part of the group that stole me and Callie in the first place. I can't remember."
"Wait, why not just talk to your cousin about it, then? You two seem close."
Marie looked to the side. "I don't think Callie actually remembers what we went through. Not everything, anyway. She can only recall bits and pieces of the event. Thank cod for that. A lot of things happened. Things I wish I could forget. But I never could..."
Marie weakly smiled. "You know, I used to see Sake in my nightmares sometimes. Always dreaded he might actually get me one day... Guess that fear became a reality, huh?" Inka noticed Marie trembling, despite her subtly hiding it.
She felt terrible for helping aid in Marie's kidnapping. But then again, if she could go back in time, would she really change anything...?
"You don't think we'll die here, do you?" Inka murmured.
"No, not with the other agents here. They'll rescue us soon. I'm sure of it." Although Marie tried her best to sound confident, Inka could tell she wasn't sure they would get out of this alive.
She didn't comment on Marie's uncertain tone; Instead, she looked to Clod, who was organizing an assortment of strange tools. "I hope you're right, for our sakes."