Chapter 27: Trapped in Atlantis
"Can't breathe down here, but you can scream."
After barely avoiding death from the jaws of Boris, Marina lowered the UFO close to the ground between the decrepit buildings of the Residential Zone.
It took a while for everyone, Callie especially, to calm themselves.
After Akikta's heartbeat slowed, he spoke. "Now what?"
"Now we find the others," Marina responded.
"How?" He questioned, knowing her headphones broke way back at the Rejuvenation Zone, which was currently up in flames—if not already reduced to ashes.
"Ricky, do it," Marina instructed, with Ricky nodding in response and then opening his mouth.
It looked like he was about to scream, but nothing came out. After a second of hanging his mouth wide open, Ricky closed it and stared ahead.
"What was that?" Akikta asked, but Marina held up a finger, signaling him to be quiet.
After a moment of silence, Ricky pointed his fin to a random broken road. The road in question had a ceiling made of destroyed buildings hanging over it like a canopy. Marina piloted the UFO through the road, moving at a glacial pace.
"What just happened?" Marie was the first to ask, which Marina happily explained.
According to Ricky, he and his brother share an exact genetic mutation within their DNA. This mutation allows them both to speak through extremely high-pitched sounds that travel vast distances. The thing is, these high-pitched sounds are on frequencies that no other living thing can detect.
The best way Akikta could understand was by imagining two men living in a huge valley, but on opposite ends from each other. Instead of using a phone or at least mailing letters to one another, the two communicated by screaming and listening to each other's echoes. What made their screams special was the fact that no other animal, no matter how close they were to either man, could hear them—so long as they screamed at a perfect pitch.
Apparently, this was how Rick and Ricky communicated with each other through Atlantis. Akikta wasn't sure how their sounds traveled through all these solid structures, but he determined it was best not to question it.
After a few minutes of slowly hovering through the ruined landscape, the group came upon a large observatory-type building. There were cracks along the observatory's walls, and the massive telescope that Akikta was so used to seeing on observatories was not present.
"They're in there," Ricky stated as the group peered up at the ruined observatory.
There wasn't any way to get inside, at least not from the bottom on their side. The other side of the observatory was blocked off by a massive wall, which wasn't actually a wall, but rather the rubble of multiple destroyed structures. Thankfully, there was a small crease in the makeshift ceiling, allowing the group to hover through and get above the ruined sectors.
They were met with red skies, and a terrifying black serpent in the distance—Boris. He was moving in their direction. While he obviously hadn't seen them, they didn't want to stick around for that to change.
Luckily, the observatory had a small panel missing, which served as an opening for them to get inside. The UFO quickly darted into the building, and they got a good look at the circular area below.
The whole building looked just as bad on the inside as it did on the outside. To make matters worse, this was the first building Akikta had seen where the interior lights didn't work, so the only light source was the red sky seeping in from the broken roof panel.
A sudden scream caught the group off-guard. "YOU'RE BACK!" it shouted from below. The voice was Pearl, who jumped enthusiastically at their return. Akikta saw Marina smile wide, wider than she usually does.
Before the platform could even fully touch down, Pearl lept onto the UFO and tackled Marina into a tight hug, which she graciously accepted with one of her own.
"BOSS!" Pearl's hug was immediately followed by the members of Deep Cut, except instead of tackling Marina, they tackled Marie, knocking her to the ground.
"Hey! I'm fine! Quit it!" Marie wasn't quite as welcoming to the hug as Marina, but she didn't seriously fight from it either. Akikta was warmed by the scene unfolding in front of him.
So much so, he didn't notice Eight creep beside him. "Thank cod, you're alive." Akikta got startled and briefly spazzed, then turned to face her.
"Damn! Don't you know not to sneak up on people like that?!" He huffed, but she responded by tilting her head. She was probably confused since she wasn't trying to sneak up on him. Not this time, anyway.
Akikta calmed down and saw the other three agents behind Eight, along with Rick. Coral had on an emotionless expression, like always, but it was less serious than usual. Misaki looked a little worried, whereas Metta seemed paranoid about something. The latter was funny since Little Buddy was propped on her head, lightly bopping up and down without a care in the world.
He noticed that the agents were mostly healed from their wounds. It wasn't just them—all the others that stayed behind didn't have as many bandages as before, and their bruised skin was either mostly or entirely healed. "Well, good to see you guys made a full recovery."
"Yeah..." Eight rubbed her shoulder. "Luckily, we didn't get attacked by any salmonids, so we got some much-needed rest."
"Wait, you didn't get attacked by salmonids? Not once?" Akikta said, surprised.
"Surprisingly, no." Eight confirmed his question, shaking her head.
Akikta had suspected salmonids attacked them at least once while he was gone. Otherwise, what reason would they have to relocate? "Why'd you guys move then?"
"Well, this spot is more secure than that apartment building. And also, our supplies were running thin, so we moved further inward to find more resources. For such a ruined place, you'd be amazed at how much loot you can find when you're not being hunted down."
Akikta was envious that Eight and the others practically sat on their asses and relaxed that entire time. Of course the salmonids would choose not to mess with the Splatoon the moment he's gone.
He let out a defeated sigh. "At least you guys are alright."
"Yeah, but what about you? Are you alright?" Eight asked, and Akikta nodded.
"Y-yeah. I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"
"Well, after the Rejuvenation Center exploded, we couldn't get ahold of you, and well..." Eight eyed his left arm, not verbally expressing her curiosity about what happened.
Ah, that explains the other's reactions. At first, he thought they were being overdramatic just because. But in reality, they probably assumed he and the others died in that explosion. "Right, guess there's a lot of explaining to do..." And so, after everyone settled down from the small reunion, Akikta and Marina explained everything.
To say the group was shocked would be an understatement. They were outright baffled.
The whole thing with Akikta and his brother being fused was definitely a highlight for most of them. Rick was more so torn over Biggie's death. Why wouldn't he be? The two were close friends, after all.
While Akikta and Marina caught everyone up to speed, Inka and Marie dropped some bombshells of their own.
Akikta had suspected something was up with the Steel Twins, but Marie confirmed his suspicions when she and Inka recounted everything that happened in the cloning chamber regarding Masu.
If it hadn't been for all those times she came close to killing him—not to mention the fact she took his arm—he would've felt sorry for her.
On the bright side, the Steel Twins, Clod, and Chaska were out of the picture, so things should be pretty simple from here on out—
"One question." Metta said after everyone had been caught up to speed, "You guys kinda glossed over this, so I thought I'd ask myself, but—" Before she asked her question, the whole observatory rumbled quietly. As the building shook, the room darkened, causing everyone to look up.
Boris flew right over the observatory, thankfully unaware they were inside. Regardless, his mere presence caused a few of them to tremble. Even Shiver, who was normally nonchalant like Marie, made a cartoonishly loud gulping noise.
Little Buddy was the only one who didn't seem remotely afraid. Unlike the others, he was staring with curiosity. At least, that's what it looked like to Akikta—he couldn't really tell what facial expression Little Buddy was making. All he knew was that the smallfry showed less fear to Boris than he did to Sal.
After Boris passed, the rumbling stopped and light returned to the observatory. Everyone remained silent.
Eventually, Metta pointed to the red sky. "What in the great book of Madai is that?!" she exclaimed in a whisper, fearful of Boris hearing her if she was too loud.
Akikta was caught off-guard, not by her surprise at Boris's appearance, but by the fact she mentioned a book. He knows it's wrong to judge people before you get to know them, but Metta didn't look or seem like the type to read, in his opinion.
"That is Boris. The usurper's greatest warrior." Rick answered, moving to his brother's side, who translated for the group. Some of them, like Eight, were surprised Ricky could speak their language.
"You don't seem very fond of him." Akikta pointed out, noticing the disdain in Rick's voice when mentioning Boris.
"He is an outsider, like the usurper. Though, we didn't know of his existence until the usurper came into power... Boris is like his trump card." Rick looked up. "He normally sleeps in the lowest depths of the central tower, but if what the green and blue squid say is true, it makes sense Boris is awake now."
Ricky stepped up, now speaking instead. "Like brother said, Boris is the toughest asset to the usurper. So if you have anyone that could help us, I'd suggest calling them now."
"No can do." Eight shook her head.
"What? What do you mean no can do?" Akikta questioned with a raised brow.
"Something about Atlantis is blocking our signal." Eight said, whipping out Marina's laptop from—wait... where did she pull that out from?
"We can't receive or send anything."
"Ah," Ricky clicked his tongue, as if remembering something important. "That's the Chain of Command's doing." He blurted. Eight and Akikta turned to the salmonid, expecting—and unintentionally pressuring—him to continue. "I-it's the central tower. The usurper did something to make the Atlanteans' old code react negatively to unapproved foreign signals. I admittedly know little. All I know is that unless you're trying to link to something within Atlantis, only devices built at the Chain of Command will connect to outside sources."
"Ah." Eight nodded understandingly.
Akikta didn't catch a word Ricky said. Even though he was somewhat of a technical genius, he was still a novice at best.
As long as Eight understood everything, then that's all that mattered. "Well, we got Marie and Inka! So we should just get the hell outta here while we still can."
"Yes, I agree." Eight said, looking over to everyone else. "Let's get out of—"
An ear-piercing alarm trumpeted throughout all of Atlantis, making everyone, even Coral, jump. "Oh no!" Rick and Ricky shouted in unison, which Akikta just barely heard.
Akikta looked up and noticed the red skies were shrinking—no, that's not right. They were getting further away.
Akikta wondered why... Until he witnessed the interior of Atlantis's dome creep its way into his view. "He didn't..." He muttered, which no one heard due to the loud alarms.
The alarms didn't stop until the white dome walls sealed with a resounding 'slam.' The red skies were replaced with fluorescent white lights, which beamed down onto the metropolis and, thus, the observatory.
"W-what just happened?!" Callie said, flabbergasted.
"The submersion protocols...were activated..." Ricky mumbled, causing the whole group to look at him.
"The what?" Frye said.
"It's a code that activates Atlantis's submersible gears. That's what gives this place the ability to submerge in the ocean..." Eight clarified.
Marie's face paled. "So, in other words..."
Akikta stepped forward, looking straight up at the dome's ceiling. "We're trapped."