Chapter 9: The Hardships of Being Green

The universe was much larger than any of them could imagine. On Earth, people believed they had an idea of how big this universe was, and they questioned if they, and the Humans before them, were the only sentient beings to ever see it. Of course, they actually had no idea how absolutely, utterly massive the universe was, and how many souls filled it; The brains of Inklings and even Octolings were not enough to even comprehend it. Trillions of galaxies lined the cosmos, each one holding its own batch of millions to billions, even trillions of stars, planets, and other celestial bodies. Every single part of the universe held something new, something real, and it amounted to more living beings in the world than one could possibly fathom.

This massive universe was a very busy place, and in the middle of all of it, somewhere in the Milky Way Galaxy, not too far from the planet of Axcia, was a bizarre, big building-like structure that sat still in a small asteroid belt. It was a colorful little section of the galaxy, and was decorated by gorgeous clusters of stars around it. This "building" was both tall and wide, and its walls were made of a strong, sturdy glass that allowed one to see inside, with stacks of floors lining the structure up and down. Colorful party-like lights protruded and flashed from this structure, mainly with tints of purple, blue, and red, as if trying to capture as much attention as possible. Several advanced spaceships surrounded it, creating a cycle of ships that were entering and exiting, uncaring of the asteroids around them.

Among all of this was the partially destroyed Ray, which was left floating in place like a discarded piece of debris, facing its new discovery. Another ship, which was sphere-shaped with two poles sticking out up front, slowly approached the Ray, shining its lights in through the window.

As the lights became too bright, Marie and Marina winced and covered their eyes, while Callie and Pearl became overwhelmed and looked away entirely. They then felt the ship buckle a bit, as the ship latched onto their own. The ship began carrying the Ray backward, into the building structure.

"...Aliens… aliens…" Callie backed up again.

"...What are they doing?" Marie asked.

"Oh, no… no, no, no..." Marina ran toward the ladder. Marie watched before she followed, as did Callie and Pearl. They climbed the ladder down out of the cockpit.

The sphere ship carried the Ray directly into the structure, backing up into its glass walls. Except, it wasn't quite the type of glass the cephalopods were used to. Both ships passed through, and the glass morphed and contorted, adapting to their presence like a liquid, or like a jell-o mold that they were passing through. As soon as both got through entirely, it shot right back to its straight, solid state. The sphere ship set the Ray on the ground in what looked like a giant parking lot like landing deck, with tons of other uniquely-shaped ships around them.

Inside, the four agents ran into the Ray's loading bay, again grabbing their weapons. Marina, however, was instead on her tablet, scanning around the ship. The device was making a small alarm sound.

"What's going on? What are you picking up?" Pearl asked, preparing her dualies.

"...I'm picking up signs of life… all around us." Marina replied, looking at her nervously.

"Where the hell did those coordinates send us?" Callie asked.

"The cosmic map listed this point as a 'safe zone'." Pearl replied. "I didn't know what it was, but I was panicking, and I read it on the thing, and… well… this has been a ridiculously long day, and I'm barely even phased anymore…"

"Everyone quiet." Marie interrupted. "Listen…"

They all paused, able to faintly hear a weird… garbling sound outside the door. And it sounded very alien. Their eyes all widened as they pointed their weapons at the exit.

The ship rumbled for a moment, before the ramp suddenly opened on its own, revealing an actual, real-life alien unlike anything they had seen before. It was a small, grey blob-like creature, with green eyes, no legs, and small, stubby arms. Its mouth opened wide and it made a croaking sound at them, before it started slithering up the ramp.

"Eek! It's coming!" Callie backed up, but Marie grabbed her arm, trying to keep her calm. They all stared down the creature, ready to attack if it turned out to be hostile.

However, it wasn't. It respectfully slithered up to them, one at a time, and its body and arms suddenly stretched upward, sticking small, black disk objects onto their hands. With each disc it placed, they blinked red before suddenly transforming into watch-like bracelets, wrapping themselves around their wrists, perfectly matched to their size. They didn't hurt, and fit perfectly. Marie lowered her weapon and watched this happen, curiously.

Callie, however, wasn't so calm. She screamed as it latched onto her, and she dropped her roller, desperately trying to pull it off. "Eek! Get it off! Get it off!"

Noticing that the alien seemed scared by her sudden outburst, shrinking back to its prior smaller state, Marie again grabbed her arm. "Callie, stop!"

Marina stared down the alien, which gave them a respectful bow before slithering back down the ramp. The four of them looked at each other.

"...What the hell…?" Pearl asked.

"...I've never seen something so ugly yet so cute…" Marie commented.

They then fell into silence as they glanced at each other.

A Few Minutes Later

"Ow!" Pearl suddenly screamed as some sparks flew out past her hand, partially burning her. "Motherfucker!" She shook her hand before backing off.

The four Splatoon members were in the parking garage of the Safe Zone, assessing all the damages done to the Ray. Marina was scanning it with her tablet, while Marie was on top of it, playing with some of the wiring. As they worked, a few more of the glob-like aliens passed them, curiously looking at Pearl. Noticing, Pearl looked back and gritted her teeth, growling at them.

"...Well… this isn't good." Marie jumped back onto the ground. "The ship is fried…"

"...Can we repair it?" Callie asked.

They all looked at Marina, who looked back.

"...Of course we can repair it." Marina finished up her scan. "I brought an emergency kit, and we're lucky we're not stuck dealing with it in the void of space, but… the problem lies with our power source." She lowered her tablet, now angrily looking at Marie. "Because someone thought the jump button was a toy."

Marie looked back at her. "Would you rather have given the enemy exactly what they wanted?"

"Yes, actually. If that jump did land us in the void, we would actually be stranded. Left with our remaining food supply until nothing's left and we starve together." She tossed her tablet onto a crate in the Ray's loading bay. "Even now, I'm not sure it can be jump-started. We have no idea what all is here. On top of the attack damage we took, that premature jump literally sucked up all our juice and damaged the wiring."

She paused. "...Oh…"

"Yeah." She folded her arms and leaned toward her, giving her a death glare. "Oh."

"...At least we didn't explode?" Callie gave an awkward grin to ease the tension.

Marina looked at her as well before groaning and sitting down.

"...Well… no point in fussing now." Pearl shrugged, looking around the landing deck. "We're literally surrounded by alien ships. We might be able to find another power source."

They all looked at Marina again, who sighed. "I mean… if we're lucky. We should definitely look…"

"...But that means…" Callie blinked nervously. "…Interacting with the aliens…"

"...Oh, yeah…" Pearl replied.

"...Yeah, even for space, we're in very uncharted water here." Marie rubbed her forehead. "We already almost got killed by those Xenomorph things on Axcia and that… whatever the fuck that thing we just saw was. Who knows what else is waiting for us here?"

Marina sighed, looking around. They didn't have much of a choice, so they had to just make their move. She hesitantly stood up. "…Guess we'll have to find out." She went to grab her weapon, just in case.

The other Agents looked at each other, dread starting to flood over them, before they reluctantly did the same.

Meanwhile

On another floor below them, things were far more dark and quiet, and the floor instead seemed to be used as some kind of storage, where crates and other objects of all shapes and sizes rested. A subtle, colorful tint filled the floor from the still, calm cosmic visuals from the other side of the window. With no one else around to see, a figure calmly floated up into view outside the window; Shadow, with her armor and helmet that protected her from space's ice-cold deathly hug, subtly drifted forward, until she passed through the glass, which morphed to let her through just like it did with the ships. As she came inside and into the range of the artificial gravity, she fell through the window and onto her knee.

She stood up straight, looking around this unusual new environment. Using her helmet, she scanned around the floor, making sure she was alone, as she searched for the signatures of the Splatoon agents that it was now her mission to find. Confirming nothing of use around her, she continued forward on her search.

An elevator sped up through the center of the Safe Zone, passing by multiple floors almost as if it was a rocket, before coming to a screeching halt in front of a specific floor. An automatic yet alien voice spoke to its passengers through a small, invisible speaker, before the doors opened.

The four Splatoon agents were all inside the cylinder-shaped elevator, completely thrown off by the speed that they had just gone. With her jaw dropped slightly, Marie held onto the handrail for a moment, trying to keep the contents of her stomach down, before she wobbled out with shaky legs. Marina and Pearl followed her; Marina was now a bit sick just like Marie was, but Pearl was, for some reason, relatively unaffected.

Callie was the last one out and also the sickest of them all; Covering her mouth, she darted her eyes around for the closest thing resembling a trash can. Noticing something out of the corner of her eye, she ran over to what appeared to be a black, sleek trash chute made out of a metal substance, and let herself barf inside. Getting out what she needed, she panted and wiped her mouth, resting for a moment, before it suddenly spat back out some flames in her face. She yelped a bit and fell backward onto her butt, staring at it in surprise.

The others, however, didn't notice as they walked forward, instead infatuated with the chaos around them. Bright, disco-like lights filled the floor, except some of them didn't even appear to be regular lights, but rather slow-moving multi-colored lasers that floated through the air, against the backdrop of what appeared to be an alien mall-like area around them. The windows combined with some kind of illusionary effect on the ceiling above them made it look like they were standing outdoors in space itself, with multi-colored galaxies and other light sources that surrounded them. The floor was swarmed with many alien creatures, going about their usual business through what appeared to be many stores that were spread around. The stores themselves weren't separate rooms, but rather many different stations that made up the segments of the floor. Marina looked around, with her jaw dropped; This was far more than even she had imagined.

"...Eat your heart out, Arowana Mall…" Marie muttered, just as wide-eyed.

"...More like a big, bloated, space-themed Squid-Con." Pearl replied.

Marina then suddenly tripped, stumbling a bit before keeping her balance, and she looked down to see a spider-like creature at her feet. It looked up at her, reaching its legs up at her with a high-pitched growl. She screamed and backed off.

Marie backed up as well, backing up into another, much larger creature of the same species. She turned and immediately fell down onto her butt as she saw it, crawling away. The creature simply growled at her like a disappointed mother before turning back into its own business.

Pearl, distracted as she looked around at all the different species, came to a realization. "…Uh… where'd Callie go?"

Marina helped Marie up. "Did she not follow us?"

"I'm sure she did. Did we get separated?"

"Don't know." She looked around.

Marie brushed herself off. "She has been acting a bit… unlike herself today…"

"Weird how?" Marina asked.

"Well, when we were in the Octarian station, she said she felt dizzy… I think she might've had a bad panic attack or something."

Pearl sighed. "…KK, I'm gonna go find her… You guys can go find that energy source." She backed up, pointing at them. "Don't get cooked-"

Instead of responding, the two of them both glared at her, as if telling her to focus.

"...Man, I miss when that was fun." She turned and walked away.

"...Come on." Marina turned and walked with Marie.

Minutes passed as the popstars explored this new society. They passed many species, of all shapes and sizes, each one with their own unique behavior and posture. Few of them seemed to resemble anything close to humanoid, and instead felt like a collection of monstrous creatures from the imagination of the craziest person ever. Hairy, mammal-like creatures. A skeletal-like figure whose rib cage opened to reveal its arms. A giant eel-like snake with a wide mouth that slithered around, sucking up litter and dirt. It was all far beyond even the unique races they had seen on Earth, and all of them seemed to be wearing the same black bracelets that the agents had been given.

"...I'm starting to miss those things on Axcia…" Marie remarked, in disbelief.

"It's fascinating, though… these are all creatures that came to be from evolution in presumably their native habitats." Marina replied. "It's a lot of variables at play."

She sighed, rolling her eyes and rubbing her forehead. "I need a drink…"

She noticed. "…Do you need to sit down?"

"...Maybe… this is all a bit much…"

She looked around, soon seeing what appeared to be something similar to what would be a bar on Earth. She pointed at it. "There."

Marie followed her as they walked over and sat down, both seeing that one of those eel-like creatures was here as well, acting as a sort of bartender. They watched as it suddenly barfed up a yellow-ish red liquid into two bowls, which it slid over to them. Marie just stared at hers, feeling a new level of disgust she had never felt before.

"...Um…" Marina replied, tilting her own bowl a bit. "…I'm… sure it's edible…" She examined it. "…Not that I want to try it…"

Marie just shivered before shoving hers away. "…All this technology around, and they couldn't invent proper soda? Or cups?"

Marina played around with it a bit, quickly discovering it was acidic. "No, no, not edible…" She shoved hers away as well, sighing.

Marie did as well, and they just rested for a moment, looking around. As they sat, she came to notice a couple aliens across the bar that were staring at them. They were partially humanoid, yet elephant-like creatures, with multiple hands and long, trunk-like noses. She blinked a bit as she noticed them, and watched as the aliens both inhaled their drinks with their noses before standing up and walking away. She sighed and returned her attention elsewhere.

"...I really miss the bars back at Inkopolis…" Marina said.

"...Yeah, at least they didn't barf up their drinks…" Marie replied, resting her head on her fist as she started playfully running her hands along the metal. "Was never that much of a drinker, though. I kept some beer in my fridge, but never really hung out at bars that much…"

"I could tell."

"Hm…" She replied, as the conversation died there. The air between them did still feel a bit tense after, well, everything lately, and she could still hear some of that spitefulness in Marina's voice. They sat in silence for another moment, as Marie wondered what to say next. "...Hey, Marina?" She turned to her, swiftly deciding on giving her an apology first. Marina, however, had already mysteriously vanished. "…Marina?" She looked around.

It was then that she felt something prick her neck, and her hand shot up in surprise. She stared forward for a moment, at nothing, before her eyes rolled inside her head and she blacked out. She fell limp off her seat, but was caught by one of the aliens that had been staring them down previously. One of the creatures held her up and walked away, right alongside its partner that was carrying Marina.

While this was happening, Pearl remained completely oblivious to what was happening, and was instead wandering around on her search. "Callie! Yo, Callie!" Looking around and finding nothing, she again tried to speak into her comms. "Callie? Come on, pick up. I'm looking for ya."

When she again received no response, she groaned nervously and kept walking around, occasionally turning in circles. She heard an explosion-type sound behind her, and she turned around, walking backwards as she tried to identify the sound. "Woah…"

It was then that she and Callie backed into each other, and they both screamed as they turned around.

"Callie!" She sighed in relief and pulled her into a big hug, practically crushing her.

"Uh… hi?" She awkwardly hugged her back, patting her arm.

"You had me worried, girl!" She broke off.

"I was looking for you."

"But I was looking for you. Marie said you've been acting weird, and like, well, that's never a good sign for anyone."

"Oh… Right, I'm… sorry…"

"So, you ok?"

"I'm fine…" She looked around. "Today's just been a lot to take in… a lot… to take in…"

"...Fair 'nough. And why weren't you answering comms?"

"What?" She reached into her ear, noticing her earpiece was missing. "…Must've fallen out…" She looked around a bit.

"Huh… first time that's happened."

She sighed. "So, uh… Where are the others?"

"Looking for ship repairs."

"Right…" She looked around again. "They should be close, right?"

"Should be. Come on." She walked with her, speaking into her earpiece. "Yo, 'Rina, I found Callie. Where you at?"

Callie just walked with her, looking around.

"'Rina." Pearl continued. "You hear me? Marie? Anyone?" She aggressively tapped her earpiece. "Marina. Heellooo."

Callie kept looking around, but as she listened to Pearl's ramblings, a dizzy feeling started to come over her again. She briefly reached up to rub her head, before she took another more desperate look around to distract herself, her eye catching onto something.

Pearl looked around herself, wondering where they could have gone. "…Well, this is fucking weird… I just spoke to them a mome…" She was interrupted as Callie tapped her arm. She looked at her. "What?"

Callie pointed over toward one of the elevators. Pearl looked over to just barely see Marina and her dangling arm as the bizarre creature carried her inside. As the second alien followed it in, they could also briefly see Marie.

She gasped. "Hey!" She whipped out her dualies. "Hey!" She then ran over. Callie followed as fast as she could, but they were already too late; The glass door slid shut, and the elevator sped upward, with nothing but an alien symbol that appeared on the wall above the door to let them know where the elevator was heading.

Pearl ran directly into the glass door. "NO!" She looked as far up the elevator shaft as she could. "MARINA!"

Callie caught up to her a second later, eyes wide. "Oh, no… was that-?" She looked around. "Marie!? Marie!?"

An annoyed alien screeched at them in response.

"I-I'm sorry!" She awkwardly gestured her hand toward it as she turned away.

"That was both of them!" Pearl rushed to look at the elevator controls, again figuring out how to call one. She hadn't been paying attention the first time Marina figured out how to summon the elevator, but she really should have paid attention. "Oh, fuck, what do all these buttons mean again!?"

"Oh, no… oh, no…" The realization started to fall over Callie. She looked at Pearl. "What are… what are they gonna do to them!?"

"I don't…" Pearl fell silent, as both of them started to think the same thing.

"...C-Call the elevator…"

"I-I'm trying!" She kept playing with the buttons.

"Call it, call it now, come on!"

"I-I don't understand these…" The elevator buttons suddenly turned purple in error. She hit the wall. "FUCK!"

Minutes passed before Marie's eyes soon drifted open, with her neck and head feeling extremely sore. A groan escaped her mouth, and she attempted to reach up and feel her head. However, in her attempt, she quickly realized that she couldn't actually move her hand, and she looked down in confusion. To her fear, some of her armor had been stripped away, leaving her in the simpler clothes she had on beneath, and her limbs were strapped down to the table beneath her. She tried to break free, even trying to use her squid form to do so, but to no avail. She started flailing around more violently, desperately trying to get up. She looked around, seeing that they were in a secluded, white room, and then noticed Marina, who was strapped up in the same situation nearby, still unconscious. "Marina! Marina!" When Marina still didn't respond, she whistled at her.

She then heard a ZAP sound, along with an intense pain in her wrist, as the alien bracelet she was wearing electrocuted her. She groaned in pain.

One of the elephant-like alien creatures was in the room with them, pointing a bizarrely-shaped remote in her direction. It shouted some incomprehensible alien gibberish at her before returning to its business.

Marie looked over at it, confused, before seeing what it was up to. It was at a table, preparing an array of unique surgical tools like a drill, knives, and other weirder utensil-like objects. Her eyes widened and she started struggling more aggressively. "Hey! Hey! No! Let me out of here! Put those down! In fact, get out of here with those! Hey!" She turned back to Marina. "Marina! Marina, wake up now!"

The alien yelled something at her again before turning and again shocking her with the bracelet. She screamed in pain this time, before a black restraint suddenly appeared from the table, yanking her head down and holding her still. She gasped and panted.

The alien made another bizarre noise as if it was crying, but as Marie listened in horror, she realized it was probably actually laughing. It turned to Marina, shocking her with her bracelet as well, and she screamed awake, panting as she looked around. The alien made its "crying" noise again before turning back to its equipment.

Marie darted her eyes around, in absolute panic mode, as she desperately searched for some means of escape.

Meanwhile

Shadow soon came up to the destroyed Ray in the landing deck, instantly recognizing its color and shape. She walked over to it, and her helmet automatically began doing a scan, detecting no signs of life inside. But that wasn't a problem for her. As her attention shifted to where they could've gone, the helmet now began running a scan for clues to search with. It didn't take long for it to bring up the results of their footprints, and her HUD brought up a trail, tracing how the agents had left the Ray and travelled toward the elevator. Seeing the elevator and how the trail stopped there, she walked over.

It took a couple more minutes for Callie and Pearl to figure out the elevator controls, and they too were flown up to the floor where their friends had been carried. Callie gripped the handrails tightly until the elevator finally stopped, fighting the sick feeling back once again.

"C'mon." Pearl dragged her out as they stepped into the large facility-like room before them.

This floor was considerably more complex than the others, as it was made of multiple levels and several floating walkways, and it directly contrasted the colorful high-spirit energy of the mall floor with a blindingly white and orange color palette instead. Pearl and Callie both stared at the maze-like environment, their eyes wide, as Pearl gripped her dualies extra tightly. They looked around at the different alien species, who all seemed to be keeping themselves busy, tinkering with technology and other bizarre experiments behind glass walls.

The two of them were completely overwhelmed, but regardless kept moving forward. Pearl looked to the side to look through some of the windows where the aliens were working. They passed things like botanist aliens working on alien plants, they ignored a Fox-shaped mannequin and a more humanoid orange power suit that was being worked on, and more interestingly, they came across aliens that were keeping watch over a beautiful floating orb object, that was channeling lots of purple and green electricity. It was vaguely familiar to the same one Pearl had seen on the Octarian station. "Oh, shit…" Pearl muttered.

Callie looked through as well. "…Is that… crystal energy?"

Pearl looked around. "Hell, I wouldn't count anything out at this point. Better question is… could it help re-power our ship?"

They stared at it a moment before one of the aliens behind the glass wall turned to look at them. Callie gulped and patted Pearl's arm. "Let's keep moving…"

She nodded before they continued walking together, looking into more rooms. It wasn't long at all before they were exposed to a much more gruesome sight, from one of the rooms where two of the aliens were poking around inside a new type of alien, who was clearly still alive. Callie gasped, and Pearl pulled her to the side as soon as the aliens looked up at them.

Callie immediately started hyperventilating. "…Oh, shit… oh, shit…"

More desperate to find Marina than ever, Pearl quickly re-collected herself and aggressively pulled her along. "Ok, n-no time to waste."

Callie took a peek back into the dissection room before quickly moving along with her.

Marina struggled against her restraints, trying to find any sort of way out, while remaining as silent as possible to not catch the attention of the alien. Eventually, the alien walked out, finally leaving the two alone. She looked at Marie. "…Marie?"

"...Hi, Marina…" Marie replied, her voice a bit shaky. She was more restrained than Marina, currently unable to freely move any of her limbs, and she couldn't even turn to look at her.

"...You don't… do you think Pearlie and Callie are-"

"I don't know…" She replied instantly.

"...Dammit…"

Despite her attempts to stay calm, the thoughts of getting dissected alive kept coming back to her like a hammer to the face. She suddenly choked up, starting to cry. "…I'm scared, Marina…"

"...Me, too…" She paused, before looking at her. "…I'm sorry…"

"...No… I'm sorry… I shouldn't have pressed the stupid button…"

"...I shouldn't have yelled at you for it… We're… supposed to be a team… I was in the minority opinion…"

"And I still shouldn't have pressed the fucking button…" She sniffed. "…If I had known this mission would end like this, I wouldn't have let anyone come…"

"...I still would've come… I just would've… done thing differently." She looked up at the ceiling.

Marie thought about that. She was right… and she seemed to be right about pretty much everything so far. The mission held a greater sense of urgency than she had previously imagined. "…Oh, god…"

"...What?"

"...What's going to happen next? If we failed the mission?"

Marina took a moment to respond. "…I… I don't know…"

She started breathing heavily, tears falling down her cheeks. "Is everybody going to be ok…? What happens if the Octarians-…? What about Cal-" She stopped herself, having to take a breath.

Marina remained silent, turning to look at the wall.

"...Marina…?"

"...I'm here."

"Your silence is only scaring me more…"

She fell silent for another moment. "…I'm thinking about Eight… she… last time we spoke, she didn't want to stay in Inkopolis without me… she… She wanted me to give her a pinky promise that I'd be alright…" She nervously chuckled. "Whatever that's supposed to do…"

"...An unbreakable vow…"

"...Yeah… an unbreakable vow… I didn't give her one… I just… grabbed her shoulders, looked her in the eye, and said… I'll be fine…" She sighed. "…She's never going to forgive me…"

Marie tried her best to turn her eyes toward her direction. "...Forgive you for… leaving?"

"...For everything…"

"...Marina…" She paused. "...I… I never fully understood the relationship you two have… admittedly… but, what I do know is… she's strong… She loves you and would miss you, but… I believe she'd understand your decisions…"

Marina didn't respond, again falling silent.

"...This job is a lot…" She gulped. "But she handles it… she'll… she'll bounce back… I know she will… So will, Four, I… God, I have to believe he'll bounce back…" She closed her eyes to fight back more tears. "He has to… Otherwise, I haven't ever done one god damn thing right with this job…"

Marina was fighting back tears as well, getting closer and closer to opening up her hearts to her. To telling her things she had never told anyone before. But she was prevented from saying anything more as her bracelet suddenly zapped her again, and she yelped.

At that moment, the alien returned to the room, this time with its partner. The two creatures exchanged some indistinguishable conversation, and the alien pressed another button. Another restraint appeared over Marina's head, yanking her down. She groaned in annoyance, and the two creatures made their bizarre laugh noises again, preparing to get to work. Tears streaming down her cheeks, Marie closed her eyes.

Luck was mostly going sour for Callie and Pearl as they looked everywhere they could; It was a big place, and they had quickly gotten lost as they began climbing the steps to the upper levels.

"...Oh, man…" Pearl looked around. "…Have I ever told you about that time I got stuck in a corn maze?"

"...Are you trying to lighten the mood?" Callie asked.

"Just trying to say I'm not good at navigation…"

Before Callie could respond, that same dizzy feeling started to come over her once again. Taking a deep breath, she slowed down as she reached up to hold her head. She started looking around at nothing.

Pearl looked back at her. "Cal?" She turned and grabbed her shoulder. "Cal. You ok?"

She briefly looked back at her. "Oh, oh, I-I'm fine… Just… thinking."

"...About what?"

She looked around some more. "…I… I feel dizzy…"

"Uh… Girl, that doesn't sound fine…"

Callie kept trying to walk forward, but her legs buckled slightly as if she was about to pass out.

"Woah, woah, woah, Cal why don't you-" She grabbed her and pulled her over to a wall. "C'mon, sit down, before you pass out on me."

Callie shakily slid against the wall until she rested on the ground. She curled up, hands around her legs.

Pearl knelt down next to her, extremely concerned for her friend. "Girl. What is wrong with you?"

"Uuugh, I don't know… something's wrong… I don't feel right…" She leaned her head back against the wall. "Something's wrong… Something's wrong, I can feel it…"

"I know something's wrong, we- we have to find Marina."

"A-And Marie…"

"Right, and Marie, sorry, I do have priorities. Look, I need you to focus, alright? We're not getting any closer to finding them like this…"

She aggressively nodded. "…You're right… you're right, I'm sorry…"

"Good…" She offered her hand, and Callie took a moment before taking it and standing up. "You good?"

She nodded yet again. "…I think so…"

"Good, now let's-" She was interrupted as she was suddenly tackled, by a large net that came from the side. Held down to the ground, she looked around in confusion, struggling to move. "What the-?"

Callie turned to the direction of the source just in time to notice another net coming toward her. She just barely dodge-rolled to the side before she pulled her roller handle from her belt, pressing a button. The full roller unveiled and assembled itself as she held it up. Shadow was standing up on the next level up, dropping the weapon she was currently holding as she swapped to a taser gun, firing at her. Callie turned to her squid form to dodge, before blasting off into a super jump directly toward her, with the intention of striking her. Shadow reacted to the attack swiftly, whacking her aside midair like a baseball. Callie's squid-form awkwardly tumbled across the ground before she swiftly turned back to her humanoid form. She shook her head before she pressed a button on her roller, causing it to start rapidly spinning like an ink piston. She jumped and swung it at her, but the hunter swiftly dodged as they engaged in a melee battle.

Callie did her best to keep her on her toes, and the fight thus carried on for a few moments, but Shadow was simply too fast for her. She dodged as Callie continued swinging at her, managing to get plenty of ink on her armor, but none of it was enough to splat her. This continued until they managed to grab each other.

"Who the fuck are you?" Callie asked as they came face-to-mask.

Shadow responded by striking her with a green blast of energy from her hand. The roller fell from Callie's grip as she tumbled back down to the lower level.

She lied there in pain, groaning to herself. "…Owww…"

Shadow jumped down after her, landing before her and pulling her gun toward her face. "Don't move."

"Hey!" They then heard Pearl's voice. They both turned to see Pearl, who had cut her way out of the net already and stood up. She twirled her dualies. "Don't fuck with the Splatoon, bitch."

Shadow groaned, and moved to tase Callie to keep her out of the fight. This time, however, she wasn't fast enough to do so before Pearl attacked her, shooting some high-pressure ink at her. The ink simply bounced off of her, and Shadow retaliated by turning and throwing a series of needles from her belt at her, which Pearl used her squid form to dodge. As soon as she turned her attention from Callie, Callie kicked her as she got back up, rejoining the fight. Pearl joined the fight as well, as they both landed several hits on her, battling her together.

Marie and Marina both remained trapped as they waited for the aliens to begin the dissection. Marie had her eyes closed most of this time, but occasionally opened them again to check their status.

Marina did as well, able to see as the aliens got their tools ready. One of them held up a large, full syringe before turning toward them.

"...W-What is that?" Marina couldn't help but ask.

The alien only responded with its language, and Marie whimpered as she tightly shut her eyes again, trying her best to turn her head and her body away. Marina, on the other hand, just watched in utter suspense as one alien went up to her, and the other went up to Marie. This time, she couldn't help but shut her eyes herself as she also tried to turn away. She braced herself for something to enter her, but a moment passed as they only heard the aliens starting to talk to each other.

She opened her eyes again, seeing that a third alien had entered the room. As they all talked to each other, the two of them set their tools down and followed him out. She sighed heavily in relief, while Marie opened her eyes again to look around. Shakily, Marina managed to give a slight smile. She knew their friends were coming for them.

Pearl grunted as another green energy blast struck her, sending her rolling away across the floor. She collapsed away from the fight, groaning.

Shadow turned her attention solely back to Callie, continuing their violent skirmish. Callie super-jumped back up to where her roller had been left behind, and Shadow wasted no time in performing her own super jump to follow, but Callie quickly grabbed her roller and started jumping to even higher levels, leaving her to chase her.

She chased her all around the facility, eventually managing to climb to the same level as her and snag her armor with a well-timed shot. Callie fell down, holding her shoulder, and Shadow aimed another more lethal shot at her, before feeling something wrap around her. She briefly looked down before she was pulled hard, grunting as she was dragged across the floor.

Callie watched as Shadow was pulled by the lasso-like string, into the unwelcoming grasp of one of the elephant-like aliens. She screamed and struggled with all her might as it picked her up, hugging her with all of its arms, while its partner moved over, getting ready to cover her with a large bag.

Pearl arrived with her own super-jump to their level at that moment as they watched everything unfold, but of course, Shadow had other plans. A small but fairly long blade emerged from a slit in her glove, and she slashed at the alien behind her to break free, before turning and stabbing its partner who was still holding the bag. It screeched in pain.

Other aliens in their vicinity watched as the alien collapsed, and the alien that had grabbed her started to crawl away in fear. Out of spite, Shadow walked over and stabbed it as well, running her blade through its skin as it screeched loudly. Other aliens that were watching made moaning sounds in horror as Shadow withdrew her blade and turned back to the agents, with alien guts sprawled across her frontside.

She wiped some of it off, sighing. "Wanna keep making messes?"

Pearl briefly twirled her dualies. "Bitch, whoever you are, you picked a really bad time to come after us-"

"And you've tested my patience long enough. You and Marina Ida are coming with me, or you're going to join those things on the floor here."

"Or you can help us find Marina for ourselves, we'll knock your head against the wall, and then be on our merry way."

She tilted her head, cracking her neck. "Your choice…" She stepped toward her again, but was interrupted as Callie jumped toward her, screaming as she again slashed her roller at her. The fight between them continued just as it did before, but this time, it wasn't long before Shadow managed to disarm her, throwing the weapon aside. Callie winced before Shadow punched her multiple times, and she was knocked backward, unconscious.

"You MOTHERFUCKER!" Pearl attacked her next, screaming as she engaged her in another duel. She tried leaping up to wrap her legs around her neck, but Shadow was too quick for her, and she instead grabbed her out of the air, flinging her toward the ground. Pearl grunted as her back and her head both collided with it, and Shadow stepped over her, again drawing her blade. She stared up at her, wide-eyed.

"You asked for this." She thrusted it forward, and Pearl desperately covered her face with her arms before Shadow was suddenly thrown off of her by a brief energy surge. She was knocked through the ledge's fence before she fell, careening the whole way down toward the bottom level. The back of her helmet cracked slightly as she hit the ground, and she was left lying there, limp.

Pearl panted as she turned to notice that it was actually the aliens who just blasted Shadow with some kind of ray gun, standing there triumphantly. She slowly sat up. "…Hey, thanks, guys…"

They responded with a croaking sound.

She looked around. "Cal?" She groaned as she stood up fully, running over to her unconscious friend, who was bruised and bleeding on the floor. "Cal!?" She shook her.

She snapped awake, sitting up. "H-Huh? Huh!?"

"God, you look awful girl…" She regardless sighed in relief and hugged her.

She hugged her back, sighing. After a moment, she suddenly broke off. "W-Where's that hunter chick?"

"Those elephant things took her out, I don't-…" She looked over, before standing up to look over the railing.

Shadow was indeed still lying there where she fell, but she wasn't down for the count. As she stirred, she groaned a bit to herself as she slowly got back up, but stopped as she noticed she was utterly surrounded by lots of angry-looking alien scientists. She stared around at all of them, weakly holding up her blade in a defensive manner, before she felt something prick her through a small slit between her helmet and armor. She jolted a bit in surprise, before finally slipping unconscious, again collapsing limply. The aliens all looked her over, humming to each other, before they grabbed her, dragging her away.

During this whole conflict, Marie and Marina had still been desperately trying to slip free of their bonds, to no avail up until Pearl's voice screeched through the room.

"'Rina!" Pearl shouted, before desperately looking around for a way to free them.

She couldn't help but laugh in relief. "Pearlie…"

Callie went over to Marie. "Marie! Are you ok!?"

Marie turned her eyes toward her, unable to move otherwise. "Never better…"

Pearl found the remote and pressed random buttons until all of their bonds released, and both of the prisoners sat up immediately. Pearl ran to hug Marina, while Callie and Marie hugged tightly.

"Oh, I've never been happier to see you…" Callie sniffed. "We- We thought you might've…"

"I'm ok… I'm ok." She pet her hair, before breaking off to look at her bruised appearance. "W-What happened to you?"

"I-It's ok… the girl who did it is gone… I think… for now, let's worry about you. And getting the fuck out of here."

"I'm allowed to be worried about you too, you know." She groaned as she tried standing up, her legs weak.

"Here…" Callie put her arm over her shoulder and helped her up.

Pearl did the same with Marina, but Marina didn't move much otherwise, her face appearing more disheartened. "…I'm sorry…"

They all paused to look at her.

"...We should've stayed closer together."

"More moving, less sulking, babe." Pearl pulled her along. "The Octarians somehow knew to follow us here, so we're kinda sitting ducks… also, we might've found a potential power source. But we'll leave that to your review."

"I'll take a look…" She nodded as they headed out.

Many of the aliens outside the lab room turned to look at them; a few of them made noises at them, but none of them seemed hostile. They almost seemed welcoming at this point, grateful at their assistance in helping take down the hunter that killed two of their own.

Marina stared at some of them, before she turned to Pearl again. "…You said the Octarians followed us?"

"Just one chick." Pearl said as she helped her along. "She had this really black armor… like a…"

"...Like a shadow…" Callie mused.

Marina stared at her.

"...She's gone, though, so… no worries from her." Pearl continued.

"...No…" Callie suddenly replied, prompting them to look at her. "…She was determined… very determined… and she was strong…" She looked at Marina. "She's not going to stop coming after us. No matter what. Not until she has you."

They all looked at each other, silently, as they thought about that.

At that moment, Shadow was still unconscious, laid down on a metal floor. In front of her, two of the alien scientists were in seats, in front of a large control panel. It was a small space ship, that was being flown away from the Safe Zone to some unknown location so that the hunter could be properly punished for her crimes against their race.

The two aliens would occasionally glance back at her, making sure she remained down, before flipping some switches, exchanging some quick talk in their own language, and continuing on their way.

Every time the aliens glanced back at her, their prisoner seemed to be down, but all it took was a quick jolt in the ship as it sped up to awaken her. Her eyes snapped awake, and they were filled with lots of anger.