Ivory explained the situation to the rest of the team, including Moxxie.

"I see," Aniya said. "That's rough. But if we can somehow retrace your steps, I'm sure something will kick in."

"I'm so sorry to hear that, buddy!" Moxxie rested a hand on her cheek. "If only I wasn't so busy with work, I could help more."

"We can all help!" Hiro cheered. "I'll gladly do so!"

"Oh look! Moxxie's back!"

Aniya sighed. "Not Kite again..." She folded her arms. "Did you finally find a fourth, or did you manage to keep winning with your team of three?"

"Demencia, Blackhat, 5.0.5, and Dr Flug, all in one place! How special."

"Aniya, if ya leave him alone, he'll back off." Moxxie instructed.

Kite sneered. "I found something cool. It might help with this virus thing Flug Slys gave me." He held up a black USB drive. "Pretty cool, right? I found it on the beach. It says '#8' on it. Maybe I can figure out how to infect other with this."

"[I need it.]"

"What? Flug Slys wants a dumb USB?" The Octoling returned. "My name is Roxanne. Nice to meet you, Team Yellow. You're so uncreative that you couldn't come up with a better name!"

"I'm Jack!" An Inkling with matching gear and hair color came out from behind Kite. His hair was styled like a short mohawk. "Nice to meet you!"

Roxanne smacked the air near his arm. "Not literally, you idiot!"

Jack looked minorly upset.

"[I don't know why, but I need that chip. Give it to me, now.]" He reached for it.

Kite moved away. "Ah, but you need to fight me for it, because I don't away anything for free. A Turf War, Team Yellow versus the Yellow Jackets. Winner keeps the USB. Deal?"

"[Fine, whatever!]"

"Ya sure this is a good idea," Moxxie asked.

Commander nodded. "[I'm completely sure.]"

"Alright, see you in a few!" He waved as he turned to leave. "I'll be keeping this in the meantime. Bye!"

"Why does he hate you so much?" Ivory asked, rubbing away the slit pupils.

"I used to be a part of the Yellow Jackets," Aniya explained. "I left when I noticed how badly he treated everyone. He never forgave me."

"[Then it'll be worth more when we beat his [SLANG NOT FOUND] We'll beat him.]"

The course was Pacific Path. This map had many side paths that always led to the main area in the middle. The map, altogether, was shaped like a squid and octopus with the tentacles entwined.

"Commander!" Aniya called before the match started. "Whatever you do, never aim for Kite! Got it?"

"[O-okay!]"

"Pacific Path, my favorite level!" Tako exclaimed over the speaker. "Let's see who's battling-Wait! What's this?! Is that the Yellow Jackets?!"

"It looks like Team Yellow's leader has finally had enough of them," Yaki pointed out. "They're battling against her after all this time?"

"You're going down!" Hiro exclaimed as he turfed his way to the center of the course. "Commander, you think you can fight these guys? They're the best in Splatopia and this is only your second battle!"

"[Don't underestimate me.]" He picked a high point and set up the charger.

Jack fell victim of Commander's first shot, receiving cheers from the crowd watching.

"What an incredible shot by Error!" Tako congratulated. "But Jack quickly returns with that quick respawn!"

"[Tch. You'll regret that.]" He splatted Roxanne instead.

Ivory stopped next to him. "Hey. Don't mind me."

Commander looked over to see Ivory's hair had black mist coming from it and was floating up slightly.

"Since you're here...Do you want to see how a Special Weapon works?"

He blinked at him. "[Your hair...]"

He pulled off a circular device from his Bloblobber. He held it out to Commander.

"This is the Special Weapon. What kind you get depends on the weapon. All weapons give you access to one when you turfed enough ink."

"[Okay.]"

He prepared to throw it. "Then, with the Special Weapon I have, you need to toss it somewhere."

He tossed it more towards the middle of the battlefield. When it landed on the ground, it broke open and a giant screen of ink popped out of it.

"That's called a Splattercolor screen. It distorts your vision if you walk through one that's not from your team. It also does damage too. If you need help figuring out how to get yours off, you can ask me. Bye." He jumped backwards off the ledge. Commander noticed the mist had vanished when he pulled out the screen.

"[Hmm...A Special Weapon? Sheldon didn't mention anything about that to me earlier...]"

His attention was grabbed, once again, by that strange Inkling he had seen before. He was standing amidst the crowd, staring down at him.

"[Who is that, and why does he seem so familiar?]"

"Commander, watch out!"

Hiro's yell snapped his attention back to the battle. A ripple of ink was coming up a slope towards him.

"[Ah! What did Sheldon say about bombs?!]" He did his best to figure out how to use the bombs. "[He didn't tell me how to [ERROR] them!]"

He, out of panic, pressed and held down a button on the side of the E-Liter. Splat Bombs landed around him.

Roxanne jumped out of the ink, her Splatana drawn. "I've got you now!" She spotted the bombs. "Wait how did you-"

All of them exploded at once, Roxanne being transported back to the Spawn Point. Commander pulled his leg closer to him and uncovered his eyes; as he had blocked them with his arm out of instinct.

Team Yellow was overwhelming the Yellow Jackets now, the Yellow Jackets being forced back.

"You're all nothing but a bunch of outcasts!" Kite yelled before being sniped by Commander.

"Commander!" Aniya shouted. "I told you to not go after him! He's mine!"

"[Aniya-]"

"So listen to me and do what I said!"

He did, and stayed silent the rest of the round. The Yellow Jackets had almost won, but Team Yellow won by three points. Roxanne screamed and tossed her Splatana to the ground, sat down next to it, and began pouting. Jack seemed pretty unperturbed by their loss, but Kite was the most infuriated of them all.

He marched right over to Commander, forcing him against the railing of the boardwalk. "Listen here, you freak. I don't know what the shell you are with your green skin and deformed tentacle, or where you came from, but Aniya said you came from the sea right? Then it's back to the sea with you!"

Commander moved away as he attempted to shove him over.

Kite chuckled. "Oh, poor old Slys is scared to crash another plane?"

"[I'm sorry, what?]"

"Whatever." He held out the chip as the rest of their teams came running over. "Then I guess you give me no choice." He moved it closer to Commander.

He reached for it.

"Just because I lost, doesn't mean you're getting it."

Kite pulled it away from Commander right as he closed his fingers to grab it and tossed it out to sea. Commander shoved him aside and tried to grab it before it hit the water, but it was far too out of reach by then.

"[No!]"

It stopped, it being held in the air by a blue hand.

"Huh?" Hiro gasped.

"What? Why isn't anyone crying yet?" Kite stood and peered over the side.

A figure emerged from the water, and Commander recognised them immediately. It was the same Inkling that had been inviting him to follow. He walked from the water, holding the chip. He shook the water from his head, the color returning to him. He walked right over to Commander and placed the chip into his hand with a bow.

Commander shot a quick glance between the Inkling and the chip. "[I-I...]"

"For you, sir. I know how you've been searching for it." He still stayed in the bowing position.

Commander examined it. "[T.A.R.T.A.R. Unit 8 [ERROR] [SLANG NOT FOUND]?"

"Oh, that doesn't sound good, sir. That chip should help fix that."

"[Who the [ERROR] are you?]"

He sighed and straightened his stance. "Alright sir, I'll show you how to do it. This must be the reason you told me about this..." He pointed at Commander's head. "It goes in there."

Commander gave him a strange look.

"Sir, you have to trust me. This will all make sense once you do as I say."

A small beep came from Commander's eye again and the words 'Objective updated' appeared.

"[Alright...But only because you seem to know what you're doing...]" He held it to his head. "[Hm?]"

The Inkling nodded. "Push it in, sir."

"[Wouldn't that hurt?]"

"It shouldn't, sir."

Commander hesitated, but complied. He twitched as the chip vanished into his head, and the life in his eyes completely vanished.

He slouched further than he had been and muttered "[System repairs activated. Deactivating contemporary speech mode.]" He fully straightened his stance. "[Scanning for vital damage...None found. Reactivating systems...]"

The Inkling bowed again.

The color returned to his eyes. Commander blinked, rubbed his eyes, and looked around. His gaze locked onto the bowing Inkling. He flinched back slightly. "C. Q.? Why do you look like that?"

"Sir, welcome back. I'd been trying for a while to find you again after the accident," he stood, "Commander."

Commander looked at the teams nearby next. "Vermin!" He backed away from them. "And I'm...Wait no. It's coming back to me now. Aniya and her team...You all won the Championship battle, right? Or was that a glitch-induced hallucination...?"

"Vermin?" Hiro asked.

"No..." He shook his head. "That was real, because Aniya showed me how to use the E-Liter 4k..." He looked at Kite next. "And I infected you with the same glitch that destroyed my prototypes...You should be fine, but I'll still need to-Wait, what am I doing? That isn't my duty, helping you...cretins!"

"Sir?" C. Q. came closer. "Sir, they didn't do anything wrong-"

Commander pulled out a gun and aimed it at Aniya's head. "You crustasions need to die for what you've done to me!"

Aniya froze.

Commander's hand began shaking, and he dropped the weapon on the ground. "Who am I kidding? In a strange sense, you did help me."

"Sir, you should really see yourself right now. And I suggest you calm down or you might overheat." He dug through his pockets. "Let's see...Where did I put that?"

"Wh-what the shell was that for?" Hiro stuttered. "She didn't do anything and you almost kill her?!"

"Hiro, I-"

"I found it, sir." C. Q. held out a small mirror.

Commander accepted it and inspected his reflection in silence for a second before screaming. "Wh-what did they do?! They turned me into one of-one of th-them!"

"Sir, you need to stay calm. S-sir...!" He pat Commander's shoulder as the Octoling began breathing heavily. "S-Sir!"

Commander slowed his breathing and stood straight again. "Apologies for my behavior, I tend to...'lose my cool' quickly. D-did I use that right?"

"I believe so, sir."

"Then why are they staring at us like that? Should we introduce ourselves?"

"I believe so, sir." He bowed. "I am known as C. Q. Cucumber."

Commander bowed as well. "And I, Commander Tartar."

"You!"

He looked up to find Aniya pointing an angry finger at him. "Oh? You recognise me?"

She shoved him into the railing. "I know what you did, you genocidal maniac!"

"Oooh...You know about that?"

"Of course I do! I know Hachi, you creep! What are you planning? To infiltrate our society and destroy us from the inside?"

"Aniya, wait-"

"No! I'm not going to sit and wait for you to kill us all or turn us into mindless slaves! That's what you needed those tentacles for, huh? I'd bet you're running some sort of freak show with those test subjects!"

"Test subjects?" He landed over to C. Q. Cucumber. "Have I been running tests on anything while my memory chip was missing?"

He shook his head. "None I know of, sir. I know you had to recreate the Sanitization to keep your body stable."

"Huh? Why?"

"I'm not sure, sir."

"One second, I'm running a scan on myself." He moved away from Aniya a bit. A screen popped up in front of Tartar, showing a detailed image of himself. "Everything seems okay with my computer systems...It must be this new body. Let's see..." He tapped a few things on the screen. "Yes, it looks like the Respawn Points I built for Kamabo Corp. worked too well and dragged us both in. We lived thanks to them. But my body's unstable. If I don't keep repairing the damage with Sanitization, I'll melt into just my computer systems, and I'm sure nobody wants to see that. That's what I get for creating that blob of Sanitization to protect myself..."

"Sir, Aniya's very furious. I suggest explaining the situation to her."

Aniya exhaled harshly out of her nose. "You want me to trust you, fish?!"

"I'm not a fish, actually. I'm a crossbreed between an Octarian Super Soldier and Artificial Intelligence-"

"It's a saying!" She grabbed him by the collar, forcing him further over the railing. "And if you want me to believe in the slightest that you're telling the truth, you need to beat me in a round of Splat Zones. One-on-one, using only Dualies. You win, I'll trust you a little, but if I win, you get the shell out of Splatopia and never come back. Deal?"

"Deal."

She let go of him, shoving him back a bit. His hat fell into the water below, melting into a green ripple.

"Aniya, look. I understand why you don't trust me, but you helped me. You've shown me how you Inklings and Octolings truly are, rather than what I recovered from the Octoling test subjects I had used."

"If you want to uphold your end of the deal, the Lobby's this way. Now shut up."

Tartar's shoulders slumped a little. "Objective updated...Win the battle."

"We'll see about that."