Chapter 10: The Magistrate of Order

Owen, Chris, Corey, and the Pearl Drone return to the elevator from floor 29.

"Woo, we all cleared the floors easily," Chris cheered.

"I'm glad you two joined us. Now we have no issues with the Jelletons' overpowered numbers," said Owen.

"And with all of the required Color Chips in everyone's Palettes, they might leave cyberspace to join us," said Corey.

"Top floor, everyone," said Acht.

"Order must be waiting for us there. I'm partly responsible for what's happening, so…I'll go out there with you, Agents," said Marina.

"Huh?!" said Owen, Chris and Corey.

"Without a weapon?! Forget THAT!" said Pearl.

"I know, I know! But I have to," said Maria.

"Look, it's almost impossible to change Marina's mind once it's set. But she can handle herself without a weapon. There shouldn't be a problem," said Acht.

"That's so sweet of you, Acht," Marina complimented.

"Alright, I can see when I'm outvoted. No big blazes of glory, though, OK?" Pearl said.

"You got it, Pearl!"

"That's Pearl, alright. She's very protective of her Octoling bandmate," Chris commented.

"You coming too, Acht?" Pearl asks.

"Nah. I'd rather not get in your way. I'll watch from here in case things go south," she responded.

"Good looking out. And yo, if things go real bad, keep Marina safe! Get hyped! Get psyched! Get ready for a big ol' messy FIGHT!"

"Team Owen! We have a problem. It's about Prince Octavius!" Terry called.

"My boyfriend?! What happened?!" Owen worried.

"Order took him. And now the others in cyberspace are on their own. So, we need to keep an eye on them," said Taylor.

"Oh no! Then the Prince must be at the top floor with Order too," said Marina.

"Let's hurry up!" said Chris.

Once the elevator opens to the Control Room, Order is at the center of the battlefield with a tentacle holding Prince Octavius.

As three Agents and Off the Hook head over, Pearl said, "Yo, look! It's Order!"

"And there's Prince Octavius," said Chris.

When the group reached them, Prince Octavius shouted, "Everyone, be careful! This AI is more cunning and dangerous than it looks!"

Order then said, "A perfect world is a stable world. It has no need for change. For variation. It has no need for desire. For conflict. In this world, no one desires what might be. They embrace what is. Their lives are peaceful ones. I will achieve a quiet and peaceful world. Reasons to oppose this include: … ERROR: no reasons found."

"And by grayscaling everyone in the real world to make it possible?! You're insane!" Owen complained.

Then Marina said, "I can't deny that a chaotic world is unstable. That uncertainty can tire you out and make you fear what tomorrow might bring. There've been times when I wished everything could stay the same forever. Sometimes, when colors clash mix, and you end up with mud. But every now and then, you get to see a beautiful rainbow! And in the end…that's a gamble I'm willing to take! With Pearl, Owen Eight, Chris, Corey, Acht, and everyone else!"

"You tell 'em, Marina," Corey encouraged.

Then Order answered, "This world's architect…my creator…would deny me. Illogical. Irrational. ERROR."

But soon, the order begins to glitch and spark while continuing, "ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. An unrecoverable mentality error has occurred."

"I don't know if this should be a good thing, " Chris said, taking out her weapons.

As Order goes up into the air, it says before going into a spawn point, "The sentence for interruption of order is eradication."

Everyone gasped before Order came out of it as the Overlorder.

"I bet you're itching to take this on. Let's get to it, Agents," Pearl said.

"Chris and Corey, go for the portals. I'm going to free Octavius," Owen said before heading over to her boyfriend.

However, like Parrel Canon, an evil counterpart of Owen and Octavius appeared to stop her.

"Pearl, back me up!" said Owen.

"Got it!" the Pearl Drone appeared.

In cyberspace, Prince Octavious's group is running until they find a code for Order, floating above a computer for the Grayscaling.

"This is it. Should we destroy?" Callie asks.

"Who cares?! It's the only to save my son," said DJ Octavio.

But then, similar to Parrell Canon's appearance, evil versions came out of the computer while saying, "SECURITY ALERT! Battle formation engage!"

"Keep a tight formation, everyone. This is what we trained for," said Sheldon.

Back with Owen's group, Chris and Corey destroyed the portals while Pearl said, "We smashed 'em both! Bow, do you like THAT?!"

With the barrier gone, both Inklings begin to attack Overlord as it defends itself, saying, "Generating tentacle modules to suppress target."

"Look out!" Taylor called.

As Owen and the Pearl Drone fight the duo counterparts, Prince Octavius manages to slip his limbs free and summons his laptop to begin typing. His typing made the counterparts explode, and the tentacle released him.

"My Prince!" Owen jumped into Octavius's arms.

"Owen Babe! I missed you so much!" he cried with joy.

But after hearing a splat noise, they look to see Overlorder respawning and saying, "Activating restoration process."

"It's regenerating?! Not cool!" Pearl commented.

"Romance later, we need to help Chris and Corey," said Owen.

"Right. Let's splat at it!" Prince Octavius summoned his Order Ink Brush.

"Come on, you two! The portals are moving on their own," Chris shouted.

"All three of them are," said Corey, splatting the 1st one.

Back with Prince Octavius's group, they are struggling with their evil counterparts.

"They're too strong," Marie yelled.

"Help me! Help me," Murch pleaded while being chased by his counterpart.

"Sammy, do something," said Tyler.

"(Due to the others being close to the Grayscaling computer, all I can do is create Smallfry viruses. It must have some anti-virus field surround it.)" said, Sammy.

Soon Smallfry viruses appear so the team can throw them at their counterparts.

Overlorder's voice was heard as cyberspace shook, "These chaotic dissidents are a potential threat."

"What was the heli was that?!" Frye shouted.

"That must've been Order," said Shiver.

"Ay ay ay ay ay! (The others must be fighting it as we speak.) said, Big Man.

"We need to keep pushing, everyone. For the sake of the world and its people," said DJ Octavio.

Back with Owen's group, they destroy the final portal for Overlorder to say, "WARNING. Barrier dissolution confirmed. Danger… r…"

"This the final push, everyone," said Owen.

"Agents, the cyberspace owners are confronting their counterparts and are close to grayscaling control. You need to keep stalling the Order," said Terry.

"Alright, everyone. Together," said Prince Octavius.

The four Agents splatted Overlorder with one clear shot, but it's still standing.

"Looks like you're donzo, Snore-der!" said Pearl.

But it answered, "Such chaotic strength. It is fearsome. But the program is now fully executed. The rebooted world will know the tranquility of order."

Overlorder begins to spark and glitch to activate the grayscaling. Everything begins to fade into gray within citizens' minds in the real world.

"No… After all that, we were too late?!" said Marina.

"I don't want a blank world…Maybe I can shut down Order's program!" she continued while typing.

As soon as Acht came running to Marina, Marina said, "No good! It's propagating too fast! …Pearl…I… …"

As it looks like Acht is about to push a button on Marina's keyboard, Callie accidentally crashes into a grayscaling computer, and Sammy quickly turns on a playlist to play Off the Hook's song, Ebb and Flow. But everything went gray… However, a rhythmic heartbeat was heard from the unconscious Owen and Prince Octavius when the music played. The sounds of it made everything come to light.

"(It's working!)" said Sammy.

"I crashed into the computer, and the grayscaling stopped," said Callie as the evil counterparts disappeared.

A window opens for Octavious's group to see the out-cold Octoling pair, Chris and Corey.

"Come on, you four! The One Slight Catch is still open," Callie shouted.

"There's still a chance for The Second Restoration," Marie added.

"Don't let History Threepeats itself," said DJ Octavio.

"The Foursaken Remnant won't stop until you beat it," said Frye.

"Pent-Up Frustration to fight Overlorder," Shiver yelled.

"AY! (It's up to you, so we won't go Back to Basix)," Big Man shouts.

"Don't Acsept No Substitute from that fiend," said Sheldon.

"I don't know what you are saying, but I'll go along with it. It's Increasingly Despereight about fixing the grayscale process," said Murch.

"Be the Saturnine Squatters," Squid Cuttlefish cheered.

"You can beat that Tentacled Troublemaker," said Taylor.

"This won't be my Last Order to give you guys. Please, get up!" Terry exclaimed.

"It's an Obstructive Ordeal! So come on and wake up!" Tyler shouted.

When Owen, Prince Octavious, Chris, and Corey's eyes flutter, Sammy is overjoyed, "(They made it!)"

Pearl, in her true form, then said, "There it is… Guys! I'm feeling your vibes. And Marina! Your backing track SLAPS with Sammy's recommended song to remix it with! Cancel that snooze button! Hit me with the beat, DJ!"

"Coming at you, Pearl!" Marina respond.

After typing, Marina summons her DJ set and heals Acht's wound. The Octoling DJs begin remixing Ebb and Flow to create the song Spectrum Obligato ~ Ebb & Flow (Out of Order).

Ovberlorder then said, "Of what use is this resistance. Happiness is stasis. Unchanging. Forever."

As the four agents got up, Pearl said, "You kidding? We're still on tour! The show don't STOP! Keep your boring gigs for boring people. We're out here LIVING, loser! Right, gang? Crank it up!"

"Mic check!" said Marina, while turning the volume up.

"Boo-YAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Pearl's booyah was so powerful that the color returned to the Memverse, and Overlord's limbs began to dance to the beat.

It responds to it, "My limbs are self-animating. Why. This is outside my parameters. An undefined error is occurring."

"It's called jamming to beat, bub!" said Chris.

"Even we are moving to the melody," said Corey, moving his hips.

"Ha! This world you dreamed of is so boring, you can't even stand it anymore!" Pearl continued before transforming into her drone form. "But we got the ink to fix that. Don't get cooked… Stay off the hook!"

"Useless. Try all you like. The result will never change," said Overlorder.

Once Overlorder summons a barrier, Acht says, "Hey…the Palette's empty! Did Order do this?"

"What a cheat code!" Prince Octavius shouted.

"Look! I think I see color chips trapped inside those portals," said Marina.

"Aww, yeah! We're turning the intensity on this fight! It's encore time…Ready to take a bow, Agents?" Pearl said.

"It's time to beat this buffoon! GO SQUIDBEAK SPLATOON," said Owen.

While Off the Hook sings the song, everyone else dances to it as each member of Owen's group goes to a portal and gathers color chips by destroying the portals.

"Sammy, give them a hand," said Tyler when Jelletons appeared from the portals.

"(Already on it, Tyler.)" said Sammy while bouncing on the keyboard.

HugeFry viruses appear to eat the Jelletons, so Owen's group can get the color chips easily.

"Alright, Sammy," said Chris, getting the Mobility Chips.

"What are those, Mobility-tone chips?" Acht asks.

"Whoa, the color chips are more saturated than usual!" Pearl commented.

"Who cares?! Let's get the chips to beat the computer chip on Order!" said Corey, taking the Range Chips.

"These look like Range-tone chips!"

"New portals are pop up. Meaning we can get more color chips," said Callie.

"I wish we could sing along, but our song is trapped in the Palettes," Marie said.

"How unfair!" Deep Cut commented.

Once Prince Octavius had obtained the Lucky Chips, Marina commented, "The Lucky Chips! You hit the jackpot, my Prince."

"That leaves 3 more types to find," Prince Octavius replied.

"That's my boy! Give it the splatting special," DJ Octavio cheered.

"What is happening. Running diagnostics…Error!" said Overlorder.

Owen takes the Support Chips with Marina said, "Oh, this time, you got the Support Chips!"

"We'll give you the support with cheering, Agents. Keep going," said Squid Cuttlefish.

"Grayscaling is running in reverse. Impossible," said Overlorder.

"That's because Callie crashed into your power supply for your grayscaling. You already lost your chances before you even started," said Sheldon.

Chris and Corey splatted one portal together to be granted the Drone Chips.

Pearl commented, "Oh, sweet, we snagged the Drone chips! Just what I was waiting for!" said Pearl.

"Good, now. The drone can do more than fly and hold," said Murch.

"The last portal is ours," said Owen and Octavius as they fired at the final one.

"We got your back," said Chris and Corey, attacking the Jelletons coming out of it.

With Power Chips at hand, Acht said, "Think you found the last chips!"

As the barrier breaks, Overlorder says, "Ngh. Hrgh. ARGH. Color…overflow…"

"Awww yeah! CRANK IT UP!" Pearl shouted.

"Go, Owen, Octavius, Chris, and Corey," everyone cheered.

As the four attacks Overlorder, the Pearl Drone summons the Pearl Killer Wail, and she says, "You folks ready to see a Color Wail?"

"Ha! This gonna leave a stain," said Acht.

"Oh, this will be good," said Taylor, pressing recording on the laptop.

Before Pearl attacked, Marina said, "Pour it on, Pearl!"

As the Pearl Drone does a colorful BOOYAAH and the four agents back her up, Overlorder said, "Incompatible…with program… ?=&/\b8d* #/\|||…!"

Once its screams were heard, a colorful explosion occurred.

Overlorder begins over glitch and sparks while shouting, "Warning. An undefined error is occurring. Warning. An undefin3d error is occurril!nnnggg."

Soon, the window was opened for the cyberspace people to join everyone in the Memverse.

"We're out of cyberspace," said Callie while her group jumped out.

"Well done, Agents. 4, 4.5, 8, and 8.5," Marie coagulated.

"Uh, Squid Sisters, now's not the time, but it's going to blow," said Sheldon, seeing Overlorder about to explode.

Everyone soon witnessed Overlord exploding into light, blinding everyone.

Once it cleared, Pearl asked, "Did we win?!"

"Looks like it to me," Frye answered.

But everyone looked up and became shocked as Pearl continued, "What the…"

They see Smollusk with Marina saying, "Wait, what's that? It's…it's…IT'S SO CUTE!"

"AWWWWWW," Terry, Taylor, Terry, Sammy, Chris, Corey, Owen, and Prince Octavius commented.

"(Pffft! Not as cute as me.)" Sammy annoyed.

"You wuined everything. I was so cwose to my perfect world of order," said Smollusk.

"It even sounds adorable. Like a baby," Shiver squealed.

"It's like Order, except…a lot less scary. I don't think we have much to worry about here," said Marina.

"Sweet! Case closed, then! Yo, babypus! You were down with our music, right? We can getcha VIP seats to our show…IF you promise to be on your best behavior!" said Pearl.

"Awww, Pearl!"

"Awww, Peawl!" Smollusk continued. "Maybe I got a wittle cawwied away back there. But this isn't over yet! They still want their coworwess world of order. And I'm gonna give it to them!"

"Ay aye aye. (That's a no.)" said, Big Man.

"Listen here, whiny baby! I'm tired of beating all those Jelletons, dodging your black ink, and hearing your constant ranting! You lost, so get used to it! If you don't like it, then go sit in the corner or have a time out," Owen crossed her arms.

"Wow, easy there, Babe," said Prince Octavius, holding his girlfriend's shoulders to calm her down.

Saddened by her words, Smollusk said, "So, that's it, huh? You meanies beat…I mean, you folks beat me fair and square."

"I guess Agent 8's words kicked into the tyke," said Sheldon.

"The Memverse is gonna be a place to save Octolings. Just like Mawina wanted," Smollusk continued. "So much for the dweams of evewyone who wanted a place for order… But hey! Sticking awound as the "big boss" of the Spire won't be so bad."

"Uh, what do you mean by that?" Murch confused.

"I hope your lives go good in the weal world! Pwease? And, um…if you wanna make me smile sometimes… come back to pway with me?"

"Awright, it's time for us to bounce. We gotta get back to the REAL Inkopolis Square!" Pearl said while Marina nodded.

"(I got you covered)," said Sammy, making an elevator appear before everyone.

Soon, they all entered and went upward to return to their minds.