Chapter 20: Useless

"You have zero purpose."

Meanwhile, back at the Superiority Complex, Sal was wildly shaking his radio. "Come on! Stupid thing!" He whacked it a few times, trying to get the transmission to patch back through to Masu, to no avail.

With Sal back in the cloning chamber, all the other salmonids vacated the premises, leaving Inka and Marie with just him and Clod. Even Atla and Koka returned to wherever they came from, though Sal had to order them to do so. It seemed their presence was as annoying to him as it was to Inka.

"Lord, the terminal is fixed," Clod informed.

Sal almost didn't pay Clod any mind until the room slightly rumbled, making him perk up.

Marie's face paled.

During Sal's conversation over the radio with Masu, she and Inka had heard everything. They knew what the rumble meant—the Rejuvenation Center exploded.

"Callie..." Marie mumbled, sliding down to her knees with a distraught look on her face.

Inka wasn't as devastated as the idol beside her, considering Akikta had already been captured beforehand. Though that didn't stop her from feeling bad for Marie.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Clone Ikayaki so we can celebrate!" Sal cheered, tossing the radio, which Clod barely caught.

"Lord? Celebrate?"

"That's what I said."

Clod fidgeted with the radio before tapping a few of its buttons. "I don't mean to doubt the loyalty of your spawn, my lord, but... you did just sentence them to death. What makes you so sure Masu will send the human over?"

"Masu has been vying for my approval for years. Even if it meant death, she wouldn't dare pass up this golden opportunity! Not after what I just told her."

Clod tilted his head. "And you're certain she won't hop in the pod herself?"

"HA!" Sal's tail smacked the ground, causing a wet slap to reverberate through the room. "That girl's dog-like devotion outweighs her self-preservation skills. Besides, she wouldn't abandon her brother. She needs him. The two are inseparable." Sal smirked with his back turned to Clod.

The fifteen-foot king salmonid blankly stared at Sal before speaking. "My lord, what's a dog...?"

"Wh—" Sal paused before relaxing his body, letting out a tired sigh.

Before he could respond to Clod's question, a low whirring noise filled caught everyone's attention. They all looked to see a brown oval-shaped pod enter the room.

Sal's hands clasped together, a big grin stretching across his face. "Who woulda thought! Kids that take too long to mature doing what I couldn't. I guess second time's really the charm."

Inka raised a brow, confident that the Steel Twins failed at retrieving Akikta more than once.

The pod hovered over to the Cloning Chamber's central terminal, landing softly on the triangular platform.

"You gave me quite the goose chase, Akikta." Sal slow-clapped while walking to the pod. "The only other people to do that were Ikayaki and the pink one. So congratulate yourself on getting added to that special little list!" He gripped the pod's door, denting the metal heavily. "But the chase is over." With a mighty heave, he ripped the pod door clean off.

The glass had been smeared by black smoke, which no doubt came from the Rejuvenation Center, so nobody could see who was inside until the door came off. Inka, and probably everyone else, was shocked to see not Akikta, but Masu, sitting up from the pod.

Sal stood there, frozen in time with the pod's door still in his hand. It took him a few seconds to realize who he was looking at. "WHHHHHHHAAAAAT?!" His voice boomed so loud that it shook the room slightly. Sal dropped the pod door, and it fell off the platform into the abyss below.

Clod immediately hid behind the terminal's pillar.

"H-huchen..." Masu sniffled, and Inka noticed she was crying. She guessed what for pretty easily, especially since Huchen's mask was in Masu's arms.

"W-where's Akikta?! You said you had him!" Sal slammed on the side of the pod, but Masu hardly reacted.

"H...huchen..." she whined. "He...he put me in...h-huchen..." Masu continued to sob after giving her meek response, bringing the mask up to her face.

Sal's brows curled as he slowly put two and two together. "No... wait... that means..." He suddenly tensed.

Inka's heart dropped, as she also knew what that meant.

"No...NO NO NO NO!" Sal hopped around like a literal child who didn't get what they wanted at the grocery store. His muscles bulged underneath his biker outfit, nearly causing the spiky collars wrapped around his ankles and arms to pop off.

Inka felt terrible, and not just for the loss of Akikta. Masu lost her brother mere minutes ago, and her father wasn't the least bit concerned about her emotional state, let alone the death of his son.

"MY PLANS! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU AND YOUR IDIOT BROTHER JUST DID?! YOU RUINED EVERYTHING!" Sal screamed, but Masu continued staring at her brother's mask.

"Huchen..." she sobbed.

A scary look dawned on Sal's face. "And even after that... YOU DARE IGNORE ME?" He grabbed Masu by the hair, causing her to yelp.

His yellow teeth were bared at her as she struggled to escape his grasp. Before she could say anything, Sal slammed her against the pod and then the ground.

"SEVENTEEN YEARS! THAT'S HOW MUCH TIME I WASTED ON YOUR ASS, JUST FOR YOU TO DO THIS TO ME!" He began kicking her while she was down.

Masu squirmed, attempting to plead with her father. But each time she tried to speak, he smacked her in the mouth with his tail.

"DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU!" He roared, breaking bits and pieces of Masu's armor off her. Even if she tried to fight back, which she didn't, it would've ultimately been futile. The power difference between them was night and day.

"YOU'RE WORSE THAN THOSE DAMN HARDBEAKS!" He grabbed her by the head, repeatedly bashing her face into the ground. "YOU SHOULD'VE DIED AT BIRTH!"

The brutality inflicted on Masu was terrible. Inka couldn't bear to watch it, but at the same time, she couldn't tear her eyes away from the gruesome scene.

Sal continued to pummel his daughter like a ragdoll; a thick reddish-orange liquid, which had to be her blood, was getting everywhere. The beating got so bad that the armor she wore tore off gradually from the intensity of each blow.

By the time he was done, Masu was severely bruised and in nothing but the slim black fabric she wore underneath her armor, which had also been practically shredded. Despite all that, Masu was miraculously still alive. Moreover, she somehow managed to hold onto Huchen's mask that entire time.

Sal breathed heavily, standing over his beaten offspring with fists still clenched. "No amount of pain I can inflict on you will ever get you to understand just how badly you screwed me over." He growled, kicking her closer to Clod's UFO.

"Y'know, Masu, I really thought you'd be better than your brother. Better than her. But you turned out to be the worst of the worst. Completely insignificant. Useless. Just like your mother." Sal grabbed Masu by the throat, lifting her with ease. "Since I know how much you loved her, I have a confession to make." He brought her closer to his face as she weakly strained to pry his hand off. "She never died an honorable death. She never even died in a run." He paused, letting his words sink in. "It wasn't Grizzco that murdered her, Masu. It was me."

Masu's swollen face reacted angrily to Sal's words for the first time since she had arrived. Noticing this, he smiled. "That right there—What you just felt. Times that by eight hundred. That's what you made me feel."

He hurled Masu into a large pillar-shaped weapon standing upright on Clod's UFO. She cried out in pain as her back impacted the metal harshly.

"I killed your mother because she lied to me about her capabilities, same as you. But granting you death would be too merciful." Sal looked at Clod's weapon, then back down to Masu, who twitched and shivered in pain. "Let's see how you fare in a world where lone salmonids like you are eaten alive."

He grabbed Masu and shoved her into the top of the pillar-shaped weapon. Then he used the crank on the back of the weapon to aim it upward at an angle, like a cannon.

"Congratulations, Masu Sake of the Tidal Wave clan. You are the first royalty ever to be banished on account of being utterly useless. NOW GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!" He pulled the lever on the side of the weapon, launching Masu through the air like a cannonball. She smashed right through the ceiling, disappearing into the red clouds.

Assuming she didn't die from the impact of her fall, it was unlikely she'd survive out in the world. Especially since she'd be landing somewhere in the Splatlands, based on the direction the cannon faced and the position Atlantis was in.

"M-monster..." Marie whispered, making Inka stare at her with worry and fear. "What kind of monster does that to their own kid...?" she continued whispering, but evidently, not quietly enough, which is what Inka was afraid of.

Sal snapped his head in their direction and approached the glass jar. Inka saw his red pupils had dilated to the point where they were hardly visible. Red veins bulged on his green sclera, further emphasizing his anger.

Before he got within arm's distance of them, Clod cleared his throat. "M-my lord..." Sal instantly turned to him, making Clod jump. "I-I don't mean to interrupt, but... the human is on the move."

"W-what?" He said, flabbergasted. All his rage that was at the surface suddenly disappeared as his pupils returned to normal.

After that, Sal ignored Marie and Inka, rushing to snatch the radio from Clod's fins. A look of surprise appeared on his face. "If he's still moving, then..."

Inka's eyes lit up with Marie's. If the tracker they put on Akikta was moving, that meant he was still alive somehow. And if he was alive, by proxy, so were the other agents.

After staring at the radio for a few seconds, he charged down the catwalk.

"W-where are you going?!" Clod called out.

"I'm waking Boris up! That human has evaded capture for far too long." Clod tensed up at Sal's response but didn't protest since he was already at the nearest exit. "Clone Ikayaki while I'm gone! There better be a whole group of her by the time I get back with Akikta." Sal hollered before fully disappearing from view.

Inka and Marie were left wondering who this Boris person was. Another salmonid, no doubt, but was it one they'd seen before? Another king, maybe?

Whatever the case, the duo weren't given time to ponder who or what Boris might be, as a looming shadow blocked out some of the cloning chamber's light. They both turned in unison to see Clod towering over them.

"Don't make this difficult."