Chapter 7: Gone
The Ray jolted as it sprung forward, emerging from the light it created as it exited the jump. Marie and Pearl, not buckled in, were shoved forward in their seats from the impact, while Callie was thrown from her feet, falling onto her face.
"Damn, I'm gonna be sick…" Pearl groaned, holding her stomach.
Marie recomposed herself, reaching down to grab Callie's hand to help her back up. "A-Are you ok?"
"I'm fine…" She gripped her hand and allowed herself to be pulled.
Marie then looked out the window, seeing nothing but the void of space and the stars that lined it. "Shit… someone check our surroundings, now!"
Pearl nodded a bit and got to work.
As they started their scans, they heard Marina climb up the latter into the cockpit. "The hell is going on? Did we jump?" She asked.
"Yes, and we don't know how!" Marie responded.
"Ok, ok, ok… We're back outside Axcia!" Pearl announced as she checked her monitors.
Marina joined up with them, looking out the window. "Axcia? Why're we here?"
"Because the ship just jumped on its own!" Marie hissed.
"Where were you?" Pearl asked.
"I was sleeping." Marina ran up to her own controls, where Marie was already working frantically nearby.
"Wait, wait, wait…" Pearl continued.
"What?" Callie asked, looking over her shoulder.
"There's something else out there! Something big!"
Marina and Marie looked at each other. "That doesn't sound good…" Marina said, as they worked to get the ship turned around, sitting back down. As they piloted and turned the ship, Callie and Pearl ran up to look out the window, and their eyes widened as they saw what was in front of them.
Visible from their window, blotting out part of the planet of Axcia behind it, was a massive, purple space station, floating in place before them, waiting for their appearance.
"...Aliens… aliens…" Callie backed up.
"Callie, keep calm." Marie replied, breathing a bit heavily herself. "Let's get out of here, now."
"No." Marina held her arm. "This is it. They're here. We found them."
"Marina, it's more like they found us."
Marina paused as she heard that before they all ran back to their own controls, working to get their flight and weapons system activated. They were a bit too slow in doing so before the ship shook again, and Marie looked out the window. The station before them began opening up, as the Ray drifted forward on its own, toward the opening.
"...What's happening? Why can't we move?"
Marina desperately tried to turn the ship, before giving up and looking back out the window. "…We're being boarded on."
"...This is it…" Pearl was staring out the window, tears in her eyes, before she suddenly broke down. "This is it, we're gonna die! Ohhh god, I knew deep down this mission was a mistake! Why didn't I listen to myself!? Ohhh, god!" She held her head.
"Pearl, will you get a grip!?" Marie hissed again, watching as they edged closer and closer to the station's entrance.
Earth
Splatoon HQ
A Few Minutes After the Earthquake
The lights and monitors in the control center began turning back on, as Sheldon got the generator working again. He sat up, dusting off his clothes. "Got it!"
"Finally…" Cane in hand, Cuttlefish slowly moved over to the radio. His old body ached a lot of after being shaken by that quake like that, but he remained as determined as ever, quickly pressing the speak button. "Agent 3, do you copy?"
He got no response.
"...Agent 3. This is Cap'n Cuttlefish. Do you copy?"
Still nothing.
"...Agent 8. Do you copy? …Agent 4? …Is there anyone on comms?"
Sheldon walked up, eyeing the monitors as he dusted himself off more. He stopped. "…Uh… Cap'n…"
"What?" He looked over at him, before following his gaze up to the monitors, seeing the chaos. Every news channel was on breaking news, recounting everything that just happened. It looked like the apocalypse out there, with smoky, overhead shots of the destroyed Inkopolis Square, which was now being swarmed with KRAKEN agents. There were also other chaotic scenes from throughout the entire city, with panicking people on the streets, the ground cracked in certain areas, and smoke rising from buildings. His eyes widened, as he then looked at the headlines.
7.4 Earthquake Strikes Inkopolis
Inkopolis Square Attacked, Deca Tower Destroyed
Hostage Crisis Turns Catastrophic, City in Chaos
Sheldon sat down, in disbelief. "…It's like the Underdogs incident all over again…"
Cuttlefish turned back to his radio. "Agent 3! Agent 8! Anyone on comms, answer me, now! Let me know you're alright!" He was again met with silence. "…Answer me! Please!"
"...Cap'n… They were at the Square and now they're not… maybe they-"
"No. Jessica has gone missing once before and she still turned up again. They have to still be out there."
He didn't respond, looking down.
The Captain attempted to contact them some more, before angrily slamming down his cane. "Dammit!" He turned back to Sheldon. "We have to find them. As soon as possible."
"O-Ok…" Sheldon turned to his computer.
"We're facing a city-wide crisis. We can't leave any stone unturned."
"Understood." He got to work.
Meanwhile
The sound of police sirens and fire trucks could be heard outside Samantha's apartment, as the news on her TV went on and on about the Inkopolis Square attack aftermath.
Samantha herself was pacing by the TV on her phone, as she tried to call Dylan over and over again. Several call attempts went by, with no answer. "Come on, come on, come on… pick up, pick up…" She rubbed her hair nervously, tears streaming down her face. Why did she ever tell Dylan to go there?
"You've reached the voicemail of Dylan Schultz. So, you know, leave a message at the beep." Dylan's voicemail told her for what felt like the fiftieth time.
"God dammit!" She sobbed, pulling the phone from her ear to attempt another call. "I hate that voicemail…"
She continued frantically pacing, calling him more times while occasionally eyeing the screen. Every time she looked and saw the destruction that it showed, she felt like her hearts skipped a beat as the reality fell on her all over again. She again turned to her phone. "It's fine, he's fine, he… got caught up with some action, and now the earthquake has knocked down some phone towers… that's it… He's still fine…" She told herself, before proceeding to call him again. "Watch, he'll pick up this time…"
She again got the voicemail.
Sobbing harder, she proceeded to give yet another call attempt, before suddenly hearing something from the back of her apartment, like something fell over. Gasping a bit, she fell silent, looking over and listening. "…Dylan?"
At first, she didn't get a response, but after a moment, she heard a slight squeaking noise, coming from the same room. Another shaky gasp escaped her mouth, and she wiped her tears, frantically running to the nearby closet.
All her main weapons that she usually used for ink battles were stashed inside her room, but this closet did have an extra, standard Splattershot from a couple years back. Breathing heavily, she pulled it out and filled it with her ink, before pointing it in the direction of the hallway, inching forward.
"...Whoever you are…" She warned. "I'm armed… I can splat you… and it'll hurt… I'm not kidding…"
She inched forward, slowly nearing the source of the sounds, before an Octoling stepped out of one of the bedrooms. He was an untidy, punk-haired Octoling, who calmly walked in with a pair of dualies. Actually, they were Samantha's dualies, straight from her room. She gasped and opened fire on him with the Splattershot, barely missing her shots.
He held his hand up, pointing one of the dualies at her. "Easy, easy!"
"...Who are you?" She shakily asked as they held each other at gunpoint. "What did you do to Dylan!?"
"Just relax…"
"...You're pointing a gun at me…"
"And you're pointing one at me." He replied, still expecting her to do as she asked.
"A-And not to be racist, but you're also an Octo… So why did you attack the Square?"
He sighed. "…Ok, yeah, I'm an Octo, but I didn't attack the Square. I wanted to stop them, but I was too late. I'm sorry." He finally backed up a bit and raised his guns. "Hey, look. I'm not going to shoot you. But we need to move."
"...Move where? M-Move me to where you took Dylan? I-I'd go there..."
"...You're his sister… correct?"
She didn't respond.
"...Ugh, you Inklings are shy. Are you Agent 4's sister, yes or no?"
"...Tell me who you are first."
He sighed. "…My name is Oliver. And you're in danger."
She was trembling more and more. "...W-What do you mean danger…?"
"The men who attacked the Square. They have a plan, and it involves more than just blowing up that building. They're coming for targets that are close to the Splatoon to ensure they don't try and stop them, which means… you. And now, me."
"...Fuck… Oh, fuck…" She was on the verge of panicking. "…How do you know that…?"
"...Because I used to be one of them."
"...S-So, you helped attack the Square!?"
"No, no! Inkling, I promise you, I didn't want any of this to happen. I worry it may be my fault that it happened so soon, but I learned as much of their plan as I could, I escaped from them, and I'm here to help stop them. But we need to move, now, because their plan is in motion. The Square attack was just to lure the Splatoon in, and it worked. It's not going to stop there."
She gulped. "...You're lying… a-about escaping from them, I mean. I know how they brainwash people. You're taking me somewhere to kill me."
"If I came here to kill you, I would've done it by now. You're not very bright, are you?"
"Well, when a strange Octoling man breaks into my apartment, steals my dualies, and-"
At this point, Oliver sighed and dropped the dualies. "There, if you want your weapons, take them back. I'll get you to trust me eventually, but for now, again, we have to go."
"...Go where?"
"To the Splatoon's leader. You know him, right?"
"...Oh. I get it. You want to assassinate him… Heh. You're not very subtle…" She tightened her grip on her Splattershot, keeping it aimed at him as she slowly went to pick up the dualies. "How about, instead, you just tell me where Dylan is, and I can go find him myself? Huh?"
"...Because you can't do it by yourself." He then paused as they heard a slight bang sound from one of the other rooms. He reared his head, looking around them. "Uh oh…"
"What?" Samantha asked him. "…What!?" She heard the front door barge open and she turned around, seeing a couple of the same armored men from the Square step into the living room. She gasped and pointed her weapon at them instead, backing up.
Oliver turned around to see a few more of the men come in through the other room. He just stared at them.
"Lucky day…" One of them said. He touched his earpiece. "We've found the targets. Both of them."
Samantha looked around, beginning to panic some more.
Oliver sighed. "…Hey, guys… Took you awfully long to get here, I'm a bit disappointed in you. I thought you were better trained than that."
"Hands up, G2PL19." They all pointed their weapons at the duo. "Now."
"G2P2... what…?" Samantha backed into Oliver, looking around with her eyes wide.
"Stay close to me…" Oliver whispered to her, before turning to the others, sighing. "You guys try the smoothies up here yet? Inklings aren't much, but they sure know how to make junk food."
"Mr. Tecca is going to turn you into a smoothie once he has you again. But it's going to follow a very long conversation about loyalty."
"...Fair enough…" He sighed. "…But it's your loss."
What happened next happened in merely a couple seconds: In one swift action, Oliver grabbed Samantha and pulled her as close as possible, grabbing a small, metal tube that was hidden in his belt. Holding it out, it immediately slid and grew into a larger metal staff, which formed a beautiful red light on top. He ducked, dragging Samantha down with him, as he slammed the staff against the floor, and the source of the red light atop the staff exploded; It unleashed a sound similar to that of the Killer Wail as a red shockwave erupted through the room, tossing the armored men into the air, where they were all splatted. Their ink rained back down to the ground as the shockwave subsided, and Oliver and Samantha were left ducked down where they stood, unharmed.
They both looked up to see the aftermath, Oliver still holding her down as the staff shrunk back down to its small tube state in his hand.
"...W-…W-… What the-…!?" Samantha hyperventilated.
He put it away. "…Do you believe now that I'm here to help?"
She frantically nodded. "U-… U-Uh-huh…"
He stood up, pulling her with him. "Come on. There'll be more coming."
She was still trying to catch her breath, wide-eyed. "...Who… what just happened!? Who are you!? Were they gonna kill me? W-Why do they want to kill me!?"
He groaned and grabbed her hand. "We'll talk about it in a bit, now come on!" He finally pulled her out the door.
Samantha glanced at the remains left in the apartment, before Oliver dragged her out.
The Station
The Ray came to settle in a large landing deck, as the station it was just brought into closed back up.
Inside the ship, the agents were running out of the cockpit to their loading bay, to grab their weapons and prepare for the worst. "I'll be honest-" Marina started. "This is not how I expected the day to go."
"How did you expect the day to go?" Pearl replied, picking up a weapon.
"I don't know, anymore…"
Marie grabbed a charger and cocked it. "Ok… We'll have to assume that anyone and anything onboard here is hostile."
"...What if they're super cute alien marshmallows?" Callie replied as she prepared her roller.
"Doesn't matter. In general, we should be ready for the worst."
Pearl grabbed her dualies, putting on her bravest face. "So, shoot on sight?"
"Very possibly."
"I can do that." She twirled one.
They were interrupted as light flashed and a brief alarm sounded, and they all looked over as the ramp started opening up on its own. Marie muttered a swear as they quickly moved to hide behind the bay's cargo, turning to their cephalopod forms.
In the next moment, all of Marina's suspicions up to this point were proven true as two Octotroopers came on board, followed by three Octolings. The agents all watched in secret as the Octarians searched their loading bay. They held their guns just like the common Octarian soldier, though their uniforms, while still black, looked a bit different than what the Agents were used to, and actually looked more slick and "space-y".
"No one here." An Octotrooper stated.
One of the Octolings spoke into her own earpiece. "We have the New Squidbeak Splatoon's ship here, but they're not coming out willingly."
Marie squinted at them.
"They're here somewhere. We'll find them." She paused and then nodded. "…Mhmm. Yes, ma'am. For the Octarians." She hung up. "Search the ship. We're bringing them in alive."
"Yes." The Octotrooper responded as they all spread out. None of them made it far before one-by-one, they were suddenly struck by a green blast of ink, splatting them. The remaining Octarians turned to the source, but had little time to react as Marie shot them, splatting them as well and covering the loading bay in their ink.
The agents all unearthed themselves and stepped into the center of the room. Marie rested her charger on the ground as they looked over the ink puddles. "…Well, Marina… you were right…"
"Yeah, so don't doubt me again, please…" Marina replied. "I told you before, I know the Octarians. I know how they think."
"...I'm sorry…" She sighed. "But now the question becomes that if they're here for Axcia's energy… how close are they to succeeding?"
"Hard to say, you saw the same dead planet we all did…"
"...So, what now?" Callie asked.
Marie and Marina both looked at each other, before they took a peek out to the station's much larger loading bay. It was a large hangar-type room, that housed multiple types of powered down Octarian ships, but not a lot of people. Marie gripped her charger. "…We've come this far…. we need to investigate more; Find out what exactly they're doing."
"I fully agree, and am glad we're on the same page again." Marina held her own weapon.
"...What about them?" Pearl motioned down to the splatted Octarians.
The others looked at each other, wondering what they should do.
A couple more minutes passed as the Octarians reformed, but before they could awaken, they were dragged out of the Ray, tased so that they wouldn't awaken any time soon, and then left them under a random nearby ship. The agents then sealed up the Ray before they all slowly headed out, with their weapons ready for attack. Sticking close together, they headed down the deck, looking around at the different ships that they passed, until they reached the hallway, which split into multiple directions.
"...Ok… so which way?" Callie asked.
Marie and Marina both looked at each other, wondering the same thing.
"...I'll take Pearlie and go this way." Marina said. "Then you can go the other way?"
"Fine…" Marie looked down the other hall, pointing her charger. "Come on, Cal."
Callie, however, paused in her place. "...Hold on, no no no. We're seriously splitting up to get picked off individually? Is that how we operate now?" She got no response. "…We're not even going to have a discussion about this?"
"I def' agree, that sounds stupid." Pearl replied.
Marie sighed. "…We'll put it to a vote, then. All in favor of staying together, raise your hand." She said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
Pearl and Callie both raised their hands.
"And in favor of splitting up…" She and Marina raised their hands. "Yeah. Marina and I have higher authority, so we're splitting up."
"Oh, come on, that is a whole other argument." Pearl replied.
"An argument we're not having. Come on." She pointed her charger again and started sneaking down.
Callie looked back at Pearl and Marina, who were now heading down their own hall. She looked back at Marie. "…Shit…" She raised her roller and slowly followed her cousin.
Pearl kept her weapons outstretched as she and Marina snuck down the many hallways in the direction they were assigned. Marina scanned around with her tablet, pointing it in several directions as she searched for Octarians and other details about the station.
The device soon made a beeping noise as she scanned down one hallway. "I'm picking up interesting signatures…"
"Where?" Pearl looked at her.
"This way. Come on." She began following it.
Pearl aimed her dualies appropriately as she followed her down, as Marina followed the scan down a couple more halls.
"...How long do you think this place was being built?" Pearl whispered to her.
She looked at the walls. "Looks like it might've been a long time…"
"And how'd they even get it off the planet without being seen?"
"They have to have the same jumping mechanic that we do… I'm not going to lie… I may have contributed to a lot of these designs."
"...What… didn't you contribute to?"
Marina didn't respond as they continued inching forward. Marina's tablet blinked again, more confidently this time, as they started to come across a particular room, with its door closed. She again faced her tablet toward it to keep running scans, but it wasn't long before the door abruptly slid open, as two Octolings came out.
This time, Pearl was the one to pull Marina out of the way as they both hid in their cephalopod forms and ducked out of view. The Octolings briefly looked over in their direction, before they walked down another hall. A green, flashing light was visible from inside the room.
Still in their cephalopod forms, the two agents glanced at each other in curiosity before they snuck along, slinking inside.
There was no one inside at the moment besides the two of them, so they both converted back into their humanoid forms as they looked around, amazed. It was a simple, somewhat small control room with windows that led into the next even larger room, which held the true wonder: It was a large reactor, not too unlike the ones the Octarians had used to channel Zapfish energy, but was much larger and more intricate, with multiple spinning rings that surrounded a force field, which itself contained a somewhat large green crystal. It spun around in its floating position, constantly electrocuting the force field around it as its energy was slowly but surely absorbed.
"...Holy… mother…" Pearl stared at the beautiful sight, while Marina stared more silently. "…Did you contribute to this too?" She asked her.
"...Maybe in a concept somewhere…" Marina replied after a moment.
"...My god, girl."
Marina just sighed to that as she started looking around, and Pearl did the same, highly curious about what else this room held. She looked around at some of the machinery on the walls, which said HIGH VOLTAGE in the Octarian language, until she came across a slot in the wall. She looked around at Marina before she turned the handle, pulling it out. It revealed multiple shelves of the same green crystals, all encased in their own little slots. There were several of them, and each of them glowed with similar intensity. "Oh, shit…"
Marina looked over as well. The moment she saw Pearl's hand reach to touch one, she suddenly got in front of her, shoving her back. "Pearl, don't touch those!" She hissed.
"S-Sorry!" She replied, a bit louder than she intended, and they then heard Octarian voices approaching their room. Marina quickly pushed the shelves back into the wall and turned the lever to seal them back up, before pulling Pearl back into hiding.
It wasn't long before they saw the same Octolings return to the room, and they looked around in confusion. "You heard what I heard, right?" She asked the other.
"Yeah." She touched her earpiece. "Be advised, we might have someone sneaking around."
"We did bring in that other ship…"
She paused before she again pressed on her earpiece. "Can someone check the landing deck?"
Upon hearing that, Pearl suddenly came out from hiding, screaming as she rushed her and grabbed her gun. Holding onto her, she flung herself into the air to kick the gun out of the opposite Octolings hand, before throwing the one she was holding down onto the ground. She whipped out her dualie to splat both of them, before standing up straight. "Woo…"
Marina came out of hiding as well, hissing at her. "Was the battle cry really necessary?"
"Don't we have bigger problems?" She shot back. "How many of those crystals do they have in this place?"
She glanced back at the generator. "I don't know, but this is bad either way…"
"...So, what do we do? We have to shut this all down, right? You know, to heroically save the day?"
"That's what we're here for, but we need to take this one step at a time. We're outgunned and close to being discovered." She looked around some more, reaching for her own earpiece. "Guys, we found more of those crystals here. Have you guys been seeing anything?"
"Not much…" Marie pointed her charger down a hallway as she turned a corner, making sure it was all clear, before signaling to Callie behind her to follow her. "We'll keep you posted…" She finished as she inched forward, charger ready to shoot. Callie snuck along close behind, holding her roller up.
Callie was just looking around, amazed at the appearances of all the hallways, although there was a somewhat distant look in her eyes at the same time.
Marie glanced back at her. "You ok?"
"Just… trying to remember that heavenly melody…"
She glanced at her a second time, immediately growing a bit concerned, but didn't have much time to think about it as they soon came to another intersection. As Marie again turned the corner with her charger, she suddenly fell back and hid against the wall, pulling Callie with her.
They both watched as multiple Octolings walked past them. "The New Squidbeak Splatoon may be loose somewhere on board."
"Find them and bring them to Shadow as soon as possible." The Elite told them. "Use lethal force if you must, but not for Marina Ida. Our main priority should be capture."
Marie squinted at them as she heard her orders, but Callie had more of a reaction, covering her mouth. "Shadow…?"
"What was that?" The Octolings turned over toward the sound, pulling out and aiming their weapons. They walked over to see who was hiding, but were then promptly splatted one-by-one by quick, efficient charger shots from Marie.
Marie lowered her charger as the cousins came out from hiding. "Oh, shit…" She again reached for her earpiece. "Marina, things are heating up in here."
"What do you mean?" Marina responded.
"They know we're here, they know you're here, and they want you captured. We need to withdraw."
"Negative, we're not going to withdraw."
"They mentioned someone named Shadow, and then they explicitly mentioned keeping you alive. You ever hear that codename before?"
"No, I… don't think so."
She looked back at Callie. "That ring a bell?"
Callie just shook her head.
"Right, well, the name doesn't sound friendly in the slightest, we walked into a trap."
"We can't just leave, they have too many crystals here and we need to do something about it."
At that moment, before they could respond, the lights in the hallway turned red, and an alarm sounded. They looked up.
Marina and Pearl were still in the engine room when they also heard the alarm, looking up. They then looked behind them as the door to the room slammed shut.
Pearl was in the process of counting the crystals in the room. "Oh, fuck, that's not good…"
"Dammit!" Marina hissed, looking down at her tablet.
"We don't have time for this, Marina, we need to withdraw!" Marie stated over their comms.
"Negative, we can't withdraw!"
They then heard Octolings outside approaching the locked door.
"Ok, we don't have time, we've gotta move!" Pearl sealed the crystals back up.
"We can't stay here, Marina, please." Marie pressured.
Marina didn't respond, still looking around. They heard the room start to unlock. Pearl got her dualies ready.
"...Ugh!" Marina sighed and got her own gun ready. "Just get to the Ray, we'll meet with you." She pulled Pearl along with her as they ran to the side door, fleeing into the next room over.
The alarm continued echoing through the entire Octarian station, with red flights flashing overhead, as several Octoling soldiers ran through the halls, searching for the runaway Splatoon members in packs.
One group ran down a hallway, pointing their guns around, unaware as they passed two hidden squids by the wall. After the Octolings were gone, Marie morphed into her humanoid form and slowly peeked out, looking around. She held her charger again.
"Come on." She motioned to Callie, heading down another hallway. Callie followed her as they navigated back through they way they came from, either hiding from or taking out any Octolings that were close to seeing them along the way.
"The landing deck should be down this way." Marie said as she kept sneaking along, up until she glanced behind her and noticed that Callie wasn't directly behind her. "Callie?" She turned around. "Callie?"
Callie had paused a distance away in the hallway, trembling.
She ran back to her. "Callie, what the hell?"
"S-Something feels wrong, something feels wrong…"
"W-What feels wrong?"
"I-I don't know, I feel dizzy…" She held her head.
Marie didn't know what the hell was wrong with her, and in that moment, she did feel a bit torn between her deep concern for her cousin and the desperate need to get the hell out of his place. "I'm right here, Callie, but we need to-"
They were interrupted as multiple Octolings came into view, blocking their path. They all held their guns toward them. "Don't move!"
The cousins turned toward them, held at gunpoint. Hearing more boots behind them, they slowly turned to see more Octarians march behind them, also pointing their guns. Marie rolled her eyes and faced forward again. "Just our luck…"
"Drop your weapons." An Octoling commanded them.
"My goodness, guys, I am so sorry… I just didn't realize we had the same vacation route… so awfully embarrassing."
"I said drop your weapons!"
She sighed and dropped her charger, slowly raising her hands, while Callie did the same with her roller. They both stood in surrendering positions.
"We have Agents 1 and 2 here. Yeah. Callie and Marie." The Octarians said into their comms as quickly approached them, ready to cuff them.
However, the enemies were stopped as they suddenly heard a splatting sound, splattering some ink through the hall. They turned to the sound, and some Octolings turned their guns, but not fast enough to stop themselves from getting splatted as well.
With a scream, and with dualies in hand, Pearl ran up, splatting the Octolings she saw before turning to her squid form to dodge their gunfire. Swimming through her own ink, she rushed up and transformed back, disarming one girl with a kick before jumping up and wrapping her legs around her neck, using her weight to throw her down. "WOO!" She shouted.
Marie rolled to grab her weapon, joining the fight and quickly splatting the closest Octolings to her. She and Callie both dodged as the Octarians behind them fired at them, but before they could be splatted, a ZAP sounded and an electrical surge plowed through the entire remaining Octarian group. They all fell down, unconscious. The agents watched on as Marina came into view from behind them, holding a small, taser-like weapon they had never seen before.
A flurry of sparks burst from Marina's weapon, and she tossed it aside. "We have to go."
Marie nodded before she turned and held Callie's shoulder. "You ok now? Can we go?"
"Y-Yeah…" Callie nodded, and they all stepped past the defeated Octarians, running back toward the landing deck.
Meanwhile
The sounds of the alarm echoed through the entire station, where at its front, a large command center was located, with a massive window from which the green-tinted planet of Axcia could be viewed.
Shadow stood as still as ever, awaiting results on what was going on. Her eyes remained locked on the window, toward the void of space and the planet outside.
Another Octoling came up to her. "Ma'am."
Slowly pulling her gaze from the stars, she turned to face her.
"The Splatoon is escaping. They're heading back toward the landing deck. What are our orders?"
She looked down and sighed, before suddenly walking past her, toward the wall. Automatically sensing her presence, a door in the wall slid open, revealing a mechanical closet of equipment. She pulled out her black mask and put it on, allowing it to close around her head. Without even grabbing a weapon, she walked out of the command center.