Chapter 36: Love and Betrayal
The power plant beneath Octo City was finally left in ruin as the Splatoon, under fire from multiple Octarian ground and ship forces, made their way back into the airborne Goldship and made their escape with the Great Zapfish in tow. The Octarians' attempts to not hurt the Zapfish made their escape easier, and before they knew it, they were well on their way out the way they came and toward their next destination.
"Octo City's main power has been deactivated. Mission is a go, I repeat, mission is a go." An Inkling soldier spoke into the radio. "All available New Squidbeak Splatoon forces converge on Octavio Tower, I repeat, all available New Squidbeak Splatoon forces converge on Octavio Tower. We've got one shot at this. Good luck, everyone."
As such, the Splatoon agents onboard were left with limited time to lick their wounds as they once again prepared their gear for the upcoming, much larger battle. Marie was in the process of fixing up her charger when next to her, Pearl shakily moved over to the Goldship's wall, pulled out a black briefcase, set it down, and started typing in a keypad. She was panting a bit, still not fully recovered from her enlargement feat. "Marie. Over here."
Marie just stood up and went over, curious.
After a couple failed attempts, Pearl got the code in, and opened up the briefcase with the Laursen Labs logo on top. "I need you to-" She suddenly coughed. "I need you to help inject this into my neck."
She knelt down next to her. "What… is it?"
"It's a serum." She shakily pulled the syringe out and put it together. "I need it to-" She paused as she looked closer inside, seeing that… all of the vials inside were empty. She froze.
"Pearl?" Marie asked, more and more concerned, as she looked in as well.
Pearl started desperately pulling out some of the vials to empty the case and see if there were any more hidden away somewhere, but there was nothing. The case was already empty. She let out a long, nervous breath.
"Pearl?" Marie asked yet again as Bridgett came over with her own concern. "What the hell?"
After a few moments of thinking, Pearl just took in another deep breath, puffing up her chest, as she put the syringe back and slammed the case shut. She stood up to put it back where it was.
"Pearl, are you ok?" Marie stood up with her.
"...I will be." She looked her in the eye. "Let's just get this done. No matter the result."
Marie and Bridgett stared at her, both growing more worried as to whatever she was talking about. When Pearl stepped away, they turned to look at each other.
The sun was rising more and more as the Goldship ascended back to the surface, where they passed the Great Zapfish along to another Inkling-allied Goldship, turned, and made a beeline straight for the city and Octavio Tower in the center.
It didn't take long for it to push into the center of the city, where they were joined by other Inkling-allied Goldships as they closed in on Octavio Tower. As she ships lined up for their assault, each Splatoon soldier inside was already prepared for battle, including Bridgett, Marie, and Pearl.
Pearl went up to the front of her ship and pressed on the radio. "On my mark."
As they were in the process of lining up, Octoling soldiers inside the tower were also preparing for their counter-attack as King Octavio, on his mobile throne, sat in the hall with several Eightfolds and Tartar-Bots by his side.
A Tartar-Bot came up to him, holding its spear tightly. "The Splatoon have arrived, my King."
Octavio nodded somewhat. "Attack."
"Attack!" Pearl shouted within her own ship as, finally, her team made their push forward. They were of course met with immediate resistance from Octarian-allied Goldships that were assigned to defend the Tower at all costs, resulting in a brutal air battle with lasers flying all over the place.
On the ground, civilians on the central island of the city erupted into a panic as some of the battle ended up making its way more to ground level, resulting in further mass hysteria as everyone ran to either take cover or straight-up evacuate.
While in any normal circumstances the Splatoon would have of course been shredded like cheese by this point, the Octarians instead found themselves at a disadvantage without their usual energy, and were unable to hold back multiple of these ships from breaking through the defense and then, finally, breaching the tower itself.
Among these ships that made it through was Pearl's ship, which smashed through the window on one of the higher-up floors before coming to settle.
Pearl, closing her helmet to seal herself inside her suit, wasted no time in opening the ramp. The ship opened up as the Splatoon agents, with Bridgett and Marie among them, poured out and pointed their weapons.
They were of course met with fast resistance as they headed down the hall, and they all took cover as they opened fire, while Pearl of course shrunk down and leapt forward to take out several of these Octarian soldiers with relative ease.
Of course, after they took out this first wave, taking multiple hits and losing multiple soldiers in the process, Pearl grew back to normal size, leaning against the wall as she panted somewhat.
Regardless, she stood up as straight as she could. "We all know our targets, but in the meantime, we have multiple prisoners here to look for, including Jaxon and Lucy. Find them."
Bridgett stepped past her, still holding her gun forward. "Are you sure you're gonna be ok?"
"Just go!" She suddenly shrunk down once again as the next wave of Octarians and Tartar-Bots came up to them, opening fire. Bridgett returned fire and took cover.
In the more fortified areas of the tower, Octavio was making his way down to the labs, with his ever-present bodyguards accompanying him as he joined up with Hugh Ward and a few Wolfhounds in the hall.
Ward, despite the noises of war that could already be heard from a distance, had remained fairly casual about the situation, simply holding his arms behind his back as he walked with him. "I trust that your emergency plans are in play?"
"As we speak." Octavio nodded.
"Good. The Inklings are fighting a losing battle. Jaxon's interrogation has already revealed their most major weaknesses."
"Worry about the tower first. Go. I don't want a single Splatoon punk left alive in this building, you hear me?"
"Loud and clear." Motioning to his team of Wolfhounds, he walked off with his team to establish a perimeter. "Glory to the Octarians."
Octavio ignored him as he made his way into Marina-2's labs.
Marina-2, just like Ward, had remained strangely casual about the situation, to the point that as the battle raged outside, she and her team hadn't even halted their work, still working diligently on their Axcian crystal projects. Of course, everyone present in the room turned and slammed their boots down as Octavio came in to meet up with Marina's native counterpart.
"How are we looking, Ida?" He asked as he stopped before her.
"We're still making good progress, my King." Marina-2 replied.
He nodded somewhat, looking around. "The Tower has been breached. No one is going to make it into these labs and jeopardize our work. So you know what to do. Detach these labs and get us cloaked."
"That's going to leave a big opening in the tower." She warned. "Your empire will be exposed."
"We have more important things to worry about in here." He nodded toward one of the glowing crystals that was stored behind a glass wall. "Just do it and be quick about it. And don't you dare stop your work in the meantime."
"Yes, my King." She nodded and turned away, raising her arm to speak into her watch. "Activate emergency protocol 830. Detach the labs."
In an almost immediate response, the floor's alarms went off, all entrances and exits to the lab were sealed tight, and they felt the building buckle beneath their feet.
Slowly, using a process that drained nearly the rest of the tower's emergency power, the labs were disconnected from the rest of the tower, breaking off and floating into a more open space. Then, with Marina-2 and Octavio still inside, it blasted off toward the sky, turning invisible as its cloaking was activated. A large, gaping hole where it was once placed was left in the tower. As Marina-2 predicted, this hole only left a much larger opening, enabling more Inkling forces to get inside.
The brutal battle for supremacy around the tower continued, resulting in plenty of casualties on the Inkling side, but not without a fair share of casualties on the Octarian side as well. Both sides were supplied with frequent reinforcements as well, keeping the fight ongoing.
Marie at this point had broken off from Bridgett, and was heading down with a team of Inklings to find their imprisoned teammates, taking on any Octarian foes that came their way, including Tartar-Bots. Marie's moves remained desperate yet on-point, as she focused extra hard on aiming, firing, dodging, and whatever she needed in the moment. Slowly, using what resources they had, they all fought through each wave that came their way.
As they approached their destination, they were just wrapping one up, and an Inkling helped Marie to her feet as they all panted. "Prison should be just down here, hang in there!"
Marie nodded as she quickly followed, with her eagerness to see Callie and the others stronger than ever.
Finally, they were coming down the prison hallways when, turning a corner, a small team of Wolfhounds came into view. The one up front, with a smirk on her face, suddenly held up a silver metal staff which grew in her hand, topped with a glowing red light.
"Duck!" The Inkling upfront quickly dived onto the ground. The Wolfhounds further back ducked as well, in a more calm yet swift manner.
As the front Wolfhound herself ducked and slammed it down, a red shockwave with the Killer Wail-like sound erupted through the air, splatting the Inkling soldiers before them that didn't duck in time. Marie slid across the ground as she dived, holding her charger close as she barely dodged the attack, then without hesitation, aimed at them and opened fire.
The remaining soldiers on both sides all held their own weapons as they fired upon each other; Despite the smaller team, these Wolfhounds were indeed some of the fiercest in the building, and multiple Inkling soldiers were swiftly taken out as they took their formation and made their attack.
Just down the hall, not far away from all, the battle could be heard clearly even in the cells, and in response, Dylan, Samantha, and Oliver all stood up to look out their windows.
"W-What's going on?" Samantha asked.
Oliver didn't respond as he looked down, thinking, and even Callie sat up curiously. Could it be…?
After a moment, more determined than ever, with no guards outside their immediate cells, Oliver made another attempt at shoving his cell door open. Callie got up and went over to help him.
Marie's silent fury was only coming out more and more as, along with her teammates, they slowly made their way closer to the Wolfhounds, dodging their quite accurate fire as they ran from cover to cover, until finally, she got close enough to chuck a powerful Splat Bomb, breaking their formation.
The ink exploded through the hall as the Wolfhounds broke formation, allowing Marie and the others to get closer and take them out with better precision.
As Marie got closer and helped trim down this Wolfhound pack further using her own exceptional aim, they were eventually left with one last Octoling, who again pulled out her Wail Staff. Using the opening, Marie aimed at her and pulled the trigger, but finding she was low on ink, instead dived forward and tackled her, stopping her attack at the cost of dropping her charger.
This led to an angry fist-fight on the ground as they fought for control of the Wail Staff. In terms of hand-to-hand combat, however, Marie was no match for her, and found herself getting punched hard multiple times before getting knocked to the side. She coughed on the ground and spit out some ink, accepting her fate as she saw the Wolfhound point her high-pressure gun at her.
She flinched as a gunshot rang through the air, and the Wolfhound was splatted by another Splatoon soldier, as her Wail Staff shrunk to its small metal tube state and rolled away.
Marie sighed in relief, but only for a moment as Octarian reinforcements arrived down this hall, unleashing more gunfire upon them. Turning toward the Wail Staff, which was too far out of her reach, she desperately crawled toward it, only to be surprised by an Octarian boot that stepped on it just as she reached her hand out toward it.
She looked up in confusion as Oliver kicked the Wail Staff into his own hand, pressed the button the make it grow, and then slammed it down without hesitation. Marie covered her ears, and the other Inkling soldiers ducked as the shockwave again blasted through the hall, taking out the reinforcements, who couldn't react in time.
Oliver, relieved to be reunited with such a handy weapon, couldn't help but smile a bit as he again shrunk it back down to its tube state. "Marie."
"Oliver." Marie slowly stood up, then froze as he saw Oliver's allies who were themselves coming down the hall at that moment. Her eyes widened. "Callie…"
Indeed, Callie made eye-contact with her as she ran up. "Marie."
"C-Callie!" Tearing up, she ran up to her, and they embraced each other, squeezing each other as if they hadn't seen each other in years. Unable to hold it back, she started straight-up crying, trembling as she reached up to pet her hair. "Y-You're ok!? I-I didn't think I'd ever…"
Callie was tearing up as well, squeezing her to the point of making it hard for her to breath. "I-I'm ok!" She suddenly laughed out of bliss. "I-It's been… quite the ride, though…"
Marie chuckled a bit herself, and after a moment, they broke off just enough to face each other. Marie cupped her cheeks. "We… are never leaving each other's sides again… I am never going to lose you again, this is never going to happen again… I promise."
She shakily nodded. "M-Marie… everything I did before, getting us into this… I-I'm sorr-"
"Don't you fucking dare." She squeezed her arms. "I'm sorry. E-Everything I was saying before, I was… I was just angry, and I wasn't considering everything that might be going on in your head-"
"No, don't apologize to me." She shook her head. "I'm sorry. Because this is all my fa-"
"In case you haven't noticed, we have a lot of stuff going on here!" An Inkling soldier interrupted.
They broke off fully. "W-Who are these guys?" Callie asked.
"Long story." Marie stood up as at that moment, Dylan and Samantha came down as well. "Four."
"Marie!" Dylan smiled widely as they also embraced.
"Wow. Uh…" Samantha looked around at their new allies, waving slightly. "H-Hey, everyone."
"You're both alive." Marie commented as she broke off. "H-How? How'd you heal her?"
"Another long story." Dylan said.
Oliver, in the meantime, suddenly rushed back down the direction where they came. "It's nice to see you again, but we've got more prisoners." He announced.
Marie and the others followed him as next, they started helping to free several of the Octarian's prisoners here, getting as many cell doors as they could open. Marie and the others headed to Jaxon and Lucy's cell, which they pried open as well.
Inside, Lucy was still holding onto Jaxon as they sat in the corner of the room; Jaxon had a somewhat distant look his eyes, visibly traumatized and absolutely devastated.
"Jaxon?" Marie knelt down with the others.
He slowly looked at them, gulping somewhat. "I-I'm sorry…"
"Sorry for what?"
He gulped louder, hesitating. "They made me do it… I told them everything."
"...What? What'd you tell them?"
"Our location in Inker Valley… I gave them our location." He started crying. Lucy just pet his head.
Although Marie indeed felt a lump in her throat, pausing for a second, she nodded slightly. "This isn't over yet, there's still a fight to be had." She held her hand out. "Come on."
Although Jaxon stared at it, he didn't move.
"Jaxon, Pearl is here and we've come to rescue you, please."
"Pearl?" Lucy leaned forward somewhat. "B-But did she have enough of her serum left?"
"Well, no, she…" She paused.
"Oh, no…" She suddenly stood up.
Jaxon looked at her, then back at Marie, as he grabbed her hand and allowed himself to get pulled up.
As they all rushed out, with Jaxon holding onto Lucy, they headed out of the prison and back toward the rest of the battle. Along the way, they stopped to grab weapons, where Marie grabbed her charger again.
"You guys go on ahead." Oliver told them all as he grabbed a gun from one of the fallen Wolfhounds. "I've still got to find Eva's children. They got taken away somewhere."
"D-Don't you need help?" Samantha asked him.
"This is something I've got to do. As a member of the Tecca family. Go."
"Oliver, we need to-" Marie tried to interject.
"Go!" He ran off.
The rest stared in disbelief.
"We've got to go as well." Lucy said. "Without Pearl's serum, she's not going to last long out here."
"Don't need to tell me twice." She huffed as, with the rest of their team, she pointed her weapon and continued on.
As Oliver headed back down the prisons, he pointed his weapon all around, searching through all the cells to see if Eva's children were being held anywhere here. As this journey eventually led him down a more isolated hallway, he was unaware that he was being watched… and as he came down another corner, Lydia suddenly leapt at him from behind it, kicking him and knocking him to the ground.
He looked up and then dodged as Lydia again leapt forward and tried stomping on his head. She drew both her blades in her gloves. "I've been looking forward to this for a while. Another face-off with my precious replacements."
Oliver tried firing up at her, but she disarmed him, then slammed her boot down to pin him. He groaned.
"Just tell me this one thing." Lydia hissed, kneeling down somewhat as she glared at him. "What did you do to Eva to get her to betray us like she did? To give up her own life like that? What was so special about you that made her prefer you to me?"
"I didn't do anything." He shook his head, bravely maintaining eye-contact with her. "She made her own choice."
She tightened her hold on him. "You're lying."
"It was for her children…" He grunted. "I'm trying to find them… we can still put this aside and you can help me…"
She paused, considering that for just a moment… before she curled her lip. "She's dead… because of you. That's another thing you've taken from me." She moved her fist in preparation to stab him. "You wanna know how that feels?" Before she could move further, she was interrupted.
"Get off of him, Lydia." The voice that sounded all too much like her own said behind her.
Pausing, she slowly turned to see that she was being held at gunpoint by Bridgett herself. Bridgett and Oliver briefly looked at other, even without words clearly relieved to see each other again.
Lydia looked between the both of them, as an expression of absolute fury grew on her face. She screamed as she instead suddenly rushed in Bridgett's direction, using her armor to block her gunshots, before she slashed at her.
Set free, Oliver got up to attack her from behind, and although he wasn't fast enough to stop Lydia from disarming Bridgett, she was forced to turn some of her attention to him as well, teamed up on as both of her remaining clones fought her at once throughout the hall.
As the battle raged throughout the tower, and more Splatoon forces were starting to break through into the facility's more secure areas, one of the Inkling's greatest allies remained to be Pearl. She had become a one-woman army as, using her shrinking suit, she continued to surprise-attack and knock out many Octarian soldiers, even among the most trained Wolfhounds, as she fought her way into the center of the tower.
She was in the process of wiping out yet another wave of these before, growing back to normal size, she leaned against the wall, panting heavily as she caught her breath. She painfully rolled her shoulder, and then briefly closed her fist a couple of times, testing out her finger strength. Taking a breath and standing straight to continue on her way, she was suddenly stopped in her tracks.
"Pearl." She heard that familiar voice behind her.
She stood there for a solid moment, wondering if she even dared to turn around, before ultimately, she forced herself to. Indeed, standing at the end of the hallway was Marina, in her new Octarian robe, simply staring at her. Gulping, Pearl stepped toward her, clenching her fist.
Marina held her hand up. "Before you do anything-" She gulped a bit as well. "I just want to talk. Like we used to."
Pausing yet another moment as she took that into consideration, she hesitantly opened her helmet as she walked closer. She stopped before her. "Then talk."
Marina took a moment to select her words. "I guess I'll start with… well… I wanted to say I'm sorry. For everything. I… from the moment I got close to you, I had an awful feeling things were going to go like this from the beginning… even if I tried to steer things differently. It was with you, and with Eight, that I…"
"...Had a home?" She cut her off bitterly.
She just sadly nodded.
She paused. "I had a home with you too. For a time… I saw a whole future with you. I thought that nothing would upend that. But then you threw that away."
Marina sighed. Another moment of hesitation, and then… "…So come back to me." She held her hand out toward her. "This hasn't all gone the way I've planned… I'll admit that… but… we can still fix it. All of it. We can still be partners together, we can… we can even restart Off the Hook." She smiled somewhat. "Like the good old days."
Pearl just huffed and shook her head, looking down.
"I haven't stopped loving you, Pearl. This entire time, I've wanted you by my side. We could've done all of this together. We can still have a home together." She held her hand out further, fingers apart. "Please… give us one more chance."
Pearl tightly closed her eyes, desperately trying to fight the urge that this gave her… and with one more moment… she instead remembered everything else that she had been through since. She opened her eyes again. "I already have a home."
Pearl lunged forward to grab her, but her arms grabbed at nothing, and Marina's image before her faded away with slight holographic lights.
"And what home is that?" She heard Marina's voice behind her, prompting her to turn around and see that Marina was now standing on the opposite side of the hall. "One where Inklings are discriminated against? I want to help you fix that problem."
Somewhat confused, but still determined, Pearl again walked toward her. "You created the problem."
"Pearl, please." Marina's voice again said behind her. She again turned to see that the previous image of Marina had reappeared. She gave her a teary-eyed smile. "…I love you."
"If you really loved me, you wouldn't have done any of this. All those lives, all this pain… I'm putting an end to it." This time, she closed her helmet, dove forward, and shrunk down in an attempt to strike Marina before she disappeared, but Marina disappeared just as she flew through her regardless.
As she again grew to normal size, she looked around in fear as all around her, more images of Marina were appearing. Different Marina clones were now flooding the hallway, surrounding her.
In a desperate move to find the real Marina, she started punching around at the various illusions, which all disappeared upon contact. She growled in anger. "What annoying toy did you make this time, Marina?"
"I call it the Hologrid." One Marina illusion spoke to her. "It projects Subgrid simulations into the real world."
Pearl moved to punch that one, but it of course disappeared.
"I would've liked to show it to you for fun." Another Marina illusion said. "Just like when I originally showed you the Subgrid."
"You call that fun!?" Pearl continued as she kept punching various illusions.
Then, all of the illusions disappeared. She again looked around.
Marina, this time accompanied by her six silver drones, faded in directly behind her. "We had all sorts of fun, Pearlie… did you forget?"
Pearl of course turned to punch her, but was instead surprised as the drones struck her with an energy blast. She was sent flying back down the hall, where she rolled to a stop, coughing. She slowly got back up, holding her side as she did.
"I didn't want it to come to this…" Marina held her hands up somewhat as she backed up. "But do you really want to see what else my 'toy' can do?"
Pearl took a battle pose in preparation as again, Marina and the drones faded out of sight. In their wake, the hallway around her turned pitch-black as the illusion took it over, leaving Pearl in darkness. She panted and again rolled her shoulder as she looked around.
As more illusions came for her, it quickly became apparent that Marina was coming for the attack now. Out of the darkness, an exact replica of Bridgett appeared, running toward her. As Bridgett 'punched' her, Pearl was struck by another energy blast, which again knocked her back as Bridgett promptly faded away. She coughed and quickly scrambled to her feet once again.
A Marie illusion came for her next, which she dodged this time. She looked around, as more illusions based off of the Splatoon agents she knew came at her. As she came to grips with the situation, trying to estimate where the apparent drones were in relation to the illusions, she changed to a more offensive strategy, shrinking down and diving at more illusions in an attempt to strike them. Most of the time, she hit thin air or instead collided with the wall, but once or twice, she was able to make contact with one of the invisible drones before getting knocked back by another blast, letting her know she was at least on the right track.
As she caught on more and more to the drone's movements, the illusions became more intense, producing more monstrous illusions like Tartar-Bots, fast-moving zombies, and literal monsters, which even included the form of tall, horrifying 'Forest Whisperers': Fictional monsters from the story that Pearl herself had created before.
Pearl panted as she looked around. "You taking a liking to messing with my mind!?" She shouted.
"There's no escaping this, Pearl." Marina's voice said from nowhere. "How else do I convince you to stand down?"
"There's not a CHANCE!" She kept as she was, becoming increasingly exhausted, slower, and angrier.
It was shortly after she said that a much calmer illusion of Marina, in her classic Off the Hook outfit, appeared before her, hand raised. "Pearlie, please." She said tearfully.
Pearl was actually a bit stunned by that, blinking as she stepped back, overwhelmed by the memories that such a simple image gave her. For that second, she almost thought it was real. Shaking her head, she again moved to see if she could attack the drone, but was knocked back by another blast before she could. The image of Marina disappeared.
Pearl screamed in absolute rage as, pushing past her exhaustion as much as she could, got up to continue the battle.
As the battle continued all around the tower, Marie, Jaxon, Lucy and the others were still fighting through the halls themselves in their attempt to find Pearl, albeit with Jaxon still pretty weak and clinging onto his sister.
"Pearl, please, can you give us your location!?" Marie pleaded into her earpiece for the umpteenth time when she found a break from shooting in the current battle with some Eightfolds they were in. "Dammit, why isn't she answering!?"
"Must be some kind of comm interference." Jaxon pondered out loud.
"Or… worse…" Lucy could barely even say it out loud.
Marie looked down as she heard that, before narrowly avoiding a blast of ink that brought her attention back to the battle, and she aimed her charger from behind her cover to take that Eightfold out.
Down the halls not too far from their current location, Ward and some of his Wolfhounds were walking down by the large stair-case, as Ward continued listing off orders to his different forces. "You three, head down to Station 6. You four, head down to Station 11. We let those Inkling forces get any closer than they are, the risk to us will grow."
"Yes, sir!" The Wolfhounds slammed theirs boots down as they held their guns, going their separate ways.
Ward turned to his own daughter's group. "You continue to hold this perimeter. And do me proud."
Camila nodded. "We won't fail you, father."
"I know you won't." He briefly caressed her cheek.
She gave him a smile before she held her own gun and walked away with her group.
Ward turned around to the window to stare out at the sunrise outside. He held up his arm, speaking into his watch. "Does anyone have an update on Lydia Tecca's location?"
Lydia was screaming as she constantly slashed and stabbed at Bridgett, going for all sorts of lethal spots, as Bridgett dodged and backed up from her until she found an opportunity to kick her with a backflip. She was knocked back into Oliver, who tried grabbing her and restraining her. Screaming angrily, Lydia kicked off the wall into her own flip, ejecting himself from his grasp and knocking him down in the process.
She turned as she felt some of Bridgett's ink strike the back of her head, from the gun that Bridgett had stolen the opportunity to retrieve, and she of course blocked the remainder of her shots with her arm, kicked Oliver in the face to daze him, and leapt at her.
The fight continued on just like this between the two of them until Lydia managed to land a pretty nasty gash directly on Bridgett's cheek, and then kick her to knock her down. Bridgett had only a split second to check how much she was bleeding before Lydia, with another scream, dived at her and tried to stab her face. She narrowly rolled out of the way, and Lydia was further distracted as Oliver came back for another attack.
Unable to hold both of them, Lydia tried desperately slashing around her as the two clones found another opportunity to gang up on her, knocking her against the wall. Her slashes only became more erratic and unpredictable as she tried warding them both off, but she was unable to do much as Oliver found an opening and gave her a hard punch to daze her.
Ward continued to stare out the window, watching the battle that was still going on with some of the ships against the sunrise backdrop outside, as he listened to every update over comms. He turned away and stepped more toward the staircase as he heard the update on Lydia's battle with Bridgett and Oliver.
He nodded somewhat. "Leave the three of them to their battle." He went up to his nearby briefcase, which he opened up, pulling out his brainwashing goggles. "When the fight is finished, I want all three of them-" He was interrupted as a strange shadow started to overcome him and the hallway. Squinting, he turned back and looked out the window.
A Goldship, directly locked on his path, was soaring toward him. Although he couldn't directly see this, Daniel was inside, screaming as he made his speeding approach.
Ward set his briefcase down and tried to run, but wasn't nearly fast enough to get away before the Goldship crashed through the wall, immediately running him over as it aggressively slid across the ground and then crashed into the large staircase, where it came to a halt as rubble collapsed around it.
Shaken from the collision, Daniel slowly let go on the controls, angrily panting to himself.
Although Ward had been taken out just like that, the large crash, and the shaking it had caused in the building around it, was not without consequences to the Splatoon team.
During her fight with Marina's drones, Pearl was thrown off just as she was preparing an attack, nearly knocking her down. As she struggled to regain her balance, the drone successfully landed a blast on her, knocking her back.
Completely dazed, Pearl fell to her knees, groaning, before another drone came to her and unleashed yet another blast.
From there, she remained unable to defend herself as more drones struck her, knocking her back and forth like a ragdoll. She eventually was sent careening straight into the wall, which finally cracked her helmet wide open.
She started straight-up wheezing as she desperately tried pressing the shrink button on her glove, but was only reminded that while her suit was cracked open, thus being unable to seal her completely inside, the shrinking system was deactivated as a safety measure. She darted her eyes around, starting to panic.
In the other hall, Lydia once again found the upper hand as Bridgett and Oliver were both thrown off-balance as well. It wasn't long from there when Lydia managed to once again knock Oliver out of the way before successfully tackling Bridgett.
Bridgett's eyes widened, and then she flinched as Lydia tried bring her knife directly upon her face. Holding her arms back as much as she could, Bridgett then opened her eyes once again to stare at her blade, inches away from her pupil.
Smirking sadistically, Lydia brought her other hand forth and tried shoving the blade closer to her. "This was fun. Wasn't it?"
Bridgett was filled with dread, grunting and straining herself as she pushed back. "L-Lydia…"
"You two may be 'special'… but I have training." She also strained further and further to plunge the blade in. "I actually have years of experience. I fought to get where I am today. What do you two have? Huh? Unnatural births and a team of Inkling clowns? Do you think that makes you better than me?"
Bridgett whimpered in complete fear, gritting her beak.
Lydia leaned her head in closer. "I offered you mercy last time." She hissed. "Do you remember? I offered you your own life while I went to get mine. I almost had a family! I was almost accepted!" She gave another push to get the blade further. "If you and your clowns had stayed put, I would've had it! Do you know what you took from me? Do you know everything that you took from me!? Gideon… Eva…"
"S-Sondra…" Bridgett tried the same tactic as last time.
"Shut up." She gave yet another push. "You think I care? She left my life early. She wasn't there for me. This, however… I've been looking forward to… ever since I saw your smug face on the Inkling news. I'm going to enjoy this."
Bridgett held out just long enough for, finally, Lydia to get pulled back as Oliver returned once again. She screamed angrily as she tried stabbing back at him, but Bridgett took the opportunity to attack as well, as they both once again ganged up on her.
Finally, after a few more failed stab attempts, Lydia found herself getting knocked back further and further down the hall, more and more beaten, until Bridgett jumped into the air and gave her an extra-hard kick. Her head collided with the wall and she slid down, unconscious.
Bridgett and Oliver both panted as they stared down at her, slowly turned to each other. In a surprise, Oliver suddenly pulled his so-called sister into a hug.
Bridgett was indeed a bit surprised, but sighed somewhat as she decided to sink into it, putting an arm around him.
He held the hug for a moment before they broke off. "I'm glad you're ok."
She nodded. "Me too…"
"But we have to-" He turned to notice that, during their hug, Lydia had apparently already woken back up and slipped away. They looked around, but… she was gone. They looked at each other.
As Bridgett stared ahead in disbelief, Oliver pulled on her arm. "Come on." With that, the two of them ran off to continue his search for Eva's children.
As it happened, Eva's children weren't too far away, locked in their own unguarded prison cell in the corner, absolutely terrified.
As Oliver and Bridgett ran up, they looked over the cell door before desperately pulling it open. Oliver stepped inside.
The kids both screamed and curled up upon seeing them, but Oliver held his hand out. "It's ok! It's ok! I'm here to help you!"
They both leaned back, trembling violently.
"Do you recognize me?" He stepped forward calmly.
After a moment, they subtly nodded.
"Good. Because I'm here to help you. We both are." He briefly motioned back to Bridgett. "We're both Teccas… just like you."
They both certainly still seemed petrified, but were at least easing up somewhat upon hearing his words.
"Come on." The two of them went to grab the children, holding their hands as they led them out.
Amid all of the chaos, with multiple commanders taken out and the Octarians finding themselves at more and more of a disadvantage, more Inkling forces continued to break through more and more into the more secure areas of the tower and unleash stronger attacks. Explosions rocked the tower from within, vibrating the floors and walls, as the battle began to reach its later stages. As this happened, Marie and her team were approaching the Goldship crash-site to investigate, where they saw Daniel slowly climbing out the ship through the window at that moment.
Marie didn't dare take her charger off of him as they approached him, confused. "Daniel?"
Daniel looked at them, holding his own charger. "Is he dead?"
"W-Wha-"
"IS HE DEAD!?"
In response, one of the Inkling soldiers went over to the rubble to find Hugh Ward's arm barely poking out from underneath. He slowly reached down to pull off Ward's watch and looked it over, before he looked back at the others, surprised. "Ward is dead."
Some of them sighed in relief, while Marie again faced Daniel. "Where's Jessica? And what the hell are you doing here?"
Daniel huffed and lowered his charger. "I pushed him out. Like she told me to."
Before the conversation could continue further, Lucy suddenly looked to the side and pressed on her earpiece as she heard some strange noises over comms. "Pearl? Pearl?" She asked.
As everyone looked at her, she looked back. "Something's wrong with Pearl."
Immediately, Marie again pointed her weapon as she and the others rushed down the hall to find her.
It was mere moments after they left that Camila and some Wolfhounds came to investigate the crash as well, and it wasn't long at all before Camila's hearts nearly skipped a beat as she saw Ward's limp hand peeking out from under the rubble.
"Father!?" She rushed over to investigate, checking the hand's pulse. Quickly realizing what happened, she started crying as she rubbed and then squeezed it. "F-Father…?"
Pearl was in the process of slowly getting up, holding her side, as the illusion around her dissipated. As she looked over, Marina and her drones, fully real, appeared and stepped toward her. Pearl glared up at her as Marina knelt before her.
"...So this is it, then." Marina told her. "After everything we've been through… you won't give me one more chance?"
Pearl just maintained her glare, too weak to move much.
Marina slowly reached to touch her hand. "Pearlie…"
Pearl pulled her hand away, trembling. They stared at each other, and Marina let out a deep sigh.
She hesitated before she stood back up. "Fine…" She told her, on the verge of tears. "Whatever happens next to you after you get taken into custody, that's… on you." She shook her head. "You did it to yourself. I don't see another way around it. But I…" She finally did start crying somewhat. "I… will always love you… even if we're not the same as we were. I hope you know that."
Pearl looked down, wheezing.
Marina motioned her hands toward the drones. "Goodbye, Pearli-" She suddenly screamed as a high-pressure ink shot struck her shoulder. She grabbed her wound and turned to see that a Splatoon back-up team was finally coming for her, firing more shots at her. At once, she and the drones suddenly disappeared again.
"Pearl!" A Splatoon soldier shouted as they all ran up to help her up. As they quickly found, however, she was far too weak at this point, and as they reached to take off Pearl's helmet, their eyes widened upon seeing her face. "Oh god… we need evac, now!" They carefully helped her up, carrying her.
As the Splatoon continued to help Pearl down the hall, they met up with Marie and her team, and then another moment later, with Bridgett, Oliver, and Eva's children, as everyone rushed over to converge on Pearl's location.
All of the Splatoon agents that Pearl used to know, one after the other, froze in complete shock as they also saw Pearl's face. Not only were her eyes heavily ink-shot, but her skin was wrinkling up, ink was draining from her hair, and her body was slowly but surely shriveling up. Right before their eyes, she was transforming back to her true form: Nothing more than an extremely sick, elderly Inkling woman, who looked as if to be on the verge of death. She looked at everyone, still wheezing.
"W-…" Marie gulped. "Pearl…?"
"The anti-aging serum… she ran out of it." Lucy replied with her own terror. She and Jaxon were both tearing up as they held each other.
Bridgett stepped back and covered her mouth, as everyone stared ahead at Pearl in silence.
A trail of bled ink was left behind Marina as she desperately rushed down the hallways on her own escape path, desperately looking down both ways in each intersection she passed and holding her wound the entire time.
As she got close to her destination, she ran into Lydia, who was limping somewhat, with a nasty bruise in her forehead where she had gotten hit. Lydia glared at her. "It's happening… Inklings are taking over the tower."
"I noticed." She replied as she rushed with her into the parking garage, where multiple Octarian forces were already in the process of evacuating. Together, the two of them boarded a small, empty ship, and Lydia went to access the controls. Marina groaned as she immediately sank down into a seat.
Lydia glanced back at her. "Where are we supposed to go now?"
She stared out of the ship as the ramp started to close, unable to get what had just happened with Pearl out of her mind. "…We go to finish this."