Chapter 29: His Better Half
"Time to introduce you to his better half."
There are times when Akikta fights; When he does, he does it to protect others, only engaging in conflict when he isn't given a choice. This was not one of those times.
He jumped in and immediately began brawling with a large group of salmonids. To the Splatoon's surprise, he was holding his own. Eight and Nakji thought to tag in and help, but that quickly changed when they witnessed just how brutal Akikta was being.
Whereas the Splatoon would kill their enemies by popping them with their ink, Akikta punched, kicked, grabbed, and occasionally bit the salmonids until they became deceased. He even started taking their frying pans and used them to bash their faces in. It soon became crystal clear that Akikta wasn't the one who needed help.
"Yeah! That's right! Kick their butts, Aki!" Frye cheered, pumping her fist in the air before slashing an approaching chum.
"Get 'em yo!" Pearl followed up, punting a smallfry into a cohock who was about to take a swing at her.
Frye and Pearl's attempts to hype Akikta up didn't reach his ears, but that didn't stop him from fighting harder.
Eventually, his assault grabbed the attention of the surrounding boss salmonids. They all swarmed Akikta, much to his delight. Somehow, they hadn't figured out ink was what strengthened him, and the boss salmonids dished out much more of it than the lessers.
The first to reach Akikta was a Scrapper, who barreled towards him in a speeding car. In response, he enveloped his right arm and both legs in black ink; Then, like Biggie had done in the past, caught the vehicle as it rammed into him.
Akikta slid back a good distance before digging his feet into the ground, leaving behind a rough trail as he forced the vehicle to stop. The Scrapper looked shocked.
It did something behind its barrier, and an engine revved, spurting an excessive amount of green ink from the exhaust pipes. This gave the vehicle more push, but not enough to make Akikta budge. It also showed Akikta where he could get more ink. He smirked and stretched his left hand, covering the hole of one exhaust pipe.
Each time the Scrapper revved its vehicle, more ink shot out, sending waves of a reinvigorating feeling through Akikta's body. In turn, his inky arms and legs bulked up. "Oh yeah, that's the stuff!"
After he got his fill, his left hand returned to its normal length. Then, Akikta kicked the Scrapper's vehicle with immense force, bending and shattering the front of it. The Scrapper flew backward, slamming into the bottom half of a Steelhead. The Steelhead would lose its balance and tumble onto a group of chum, crushing them.
Before Akikta could celebrate the collateral damage he caused, his surrounding area instantly got covered in a perfect circle with green ink, and he was smack dab in the center.
He looked up to see some kind of fish that looked like a dolphin wearing a gas mask. Despite this being his first time seeing that type of salmonid, he instinctively knew it was a Flipper Flopper... How?
He shook his head, pushing his question onto the back-burner for now.
The Flipper Flopper looked around the circle before dive bombing towards the middle. Akikta raised both hands and caught the salmonid by the mask, barely stopping its descent. His knees buckled at the Flipper Flopper's weight, proving to be significantly stronger than the Scrapper. Meanwhile, his legs gradually absorbed the ink beneath him, supplying him with the strength needed to push back with equal force.
The Flipper Flopper realized Akikta was overpowering it and tried to escape. He caught on to its attempts and squeezed down on the salmonid's mask to secure his hold over it. "You're not going anywhere!" Akikta roared, slowly starting to dent the metal on its mask. The Flipper Flopper thrashed about like a fish out of water, desperately trying to escape his grasp.
While Akikta held the Flipper Flopper in place, a loud commotion snatched his attention. He looked over and saw a disc in the air, keeping Misaki and Eight occupied. The disc in question was actually a UFO, with a salmonid pilot at its center on the top.
As it hovered in the air, it projected a green barrier that blocked the two agents' ink projectiles. Though it blocked their ink bullets, the agents could pass through the barrier without trouble—but every time they did, the pilot reacted by slamming the UFO onto the ground, attempting to crush them. It stayed on the ground after each slam for a few seconds before rising back up, giving the agents ample time to kill the pilot each time it missed.
The agents would've dealt with the salmonid by now if it weren't for the reinforcements the UFO periodically dropped. He knew the boss salmonid causing Eight and Misaki issues was a Slammin' Lid; Again, he didn't know or question how.
What he did do was tighten his grip on the Flipper Flopper and spin. Akikta didn't release the salmonid until they were nothing but blurs. The Flipper Flopper hurled through the air, violently smashing into the Slammin' Lid and causing them both to crash.
Misaki and Eight were caught off-guard by the sudden attack. They'd turn to Akikta in surprise, giving him mixed reactions.
Misaki's surprise morphed into a happy expression, and she gave him a small, friendly wave. Eight, on the other hand, had the opposite reaction, giving a small but noticeable frown.
He didn't get a chance to question why she looked sad.
"Watch out!" Metta yelled. That's when Akikta turned his attention to the tube in the ceiling. Instead of spitting out the usual lesser or boss salmonid, it pumped out five large contraptions.
Three of them were literally just oversized grills on wheels. Lids covered the tops of the grills, and a few pink-colored fish stuck out from underneath.
Akikta chuckled, finding humor in the fact that the grills were called Grillers.
Wait, how did he know that?
Akikta stood there, perplexed. It was strange before, but now it was just disturbing. Even though this was his first time seeing these new types of salmonids, he already had extensive information on them—he even knew how to beat them. How the hell was that possible?!
And also, were those salmonids being cooked alive? He hadn't been paying attention, but it got increasingly harder to ignore the pleasant scent of fried salmon filling his nostrils. It didn't take him long to figure out the smell was coming from the Grillers.
To distract himself from the fact he hadn't eaten in a while, he paid more attention to the two contraptions that dropped alongside the Grillers. They matched the Grillers in size and shape but looked drastically different. For one, there was no salmonid of any kind sticking out from it. For two, it looked less alive and more mechanical. To Akikta's relief, he didn't know what the two machines were.
"What the—" Callie blurted in surprise. "Are those Flooders? What are those doing here?!" She sounded surprised at their appearance.
Akikta guessed Flooders were not of salmonid origin, and honestly, they didn't look it. The Grillers and literally every other machine the salmonids had, discounting the Chrome Hog, appeared to be made from junk and scrap metal, but not the Flooders. They looked sophisticated and advanced, like Clod's UFO, albeit a bit rusted and worn down.
Regardless, the Flooders, like the Grillers, poured down a waterfall's worth of green ink underneath them, leaving behind a wide trail wherever they moved.
"Get out of their line of sight!" He heard an agent command, but he wasn't sure who gave it—not that it mattered.
Akikta saw what the agent meant, noticing thin red lasers coming from the Grillers and Flooders. They pointed and practically stuck to different targets, one of which was him.
The Grillers and Flooders zoomed toward their designated targets. In a straight line, they moved scarily fast. But when it came to turning, they were about as quick as a sloth.
Unlike his cohorts, Akikta did not run. Instead, he held his ground and allowed his Griller to head straight for him. Why wouldn't he? With the amount of ink it was spewing, that was basically unlimited power.
He extended his arms as if wanting a hug. Moments later, the torrent of ink washed over him with a surprising amount of pressure. It was broiling hot, which is probably something he should've expected. The searing heat from the ink burned him, but it also strengthened him tenfold.
Akikta subjected himself to this painful yet empowering sensation for a short minute before grabbing the Griller by one of its "legs." With herculean strength, he heaved and tipped the Griller over, making it fall with a loud clang. The lid popped open upon impact with the ground, spilling its contents onto the floor. The pink salmon being cooked flopped around in the hot ink briefly, then went still.
"Huh, they're not so tough," Akikta thought before noticing his changed appearance. "Holy..."
He hadn't noticed sooner, but the Griller gave him enough ink to cover his entire body. To his surprise, the ink gave him a muscular physique instead of simply being an outer layer of pitch-black armor.
His arms were beefier, his legs were toned, and his torso was riddled with abs. Even with the pitch-blackness of his inky skin, anyone could clearly see the detail in his new form. The oddest part was his hands now being faintly more clawed, but that was something he could ignore.
So, this is what it's like to hit the gym? Akikta eyed himself as much as he could, admiring his new muscled body. No gyms existed in Alterna since the populace had no need for them. Akikta only knew what a gym was thanks to various archived media. Despite that, he's always wanted to go to one to get as ripped as some of Alterna's muscular residents.
"I really should give this form a name," he thought, tapping the bottom of his chin quizzically. The first idea that came to mind was "violence form," but that sounded cringy and edgy. There was also the name "ink form," but Akikta felt that was a little on the nose. His final option was "monster form." He didn't like that one either.
Akikta snapped back into focus mode when he heard the whirring sounds of a Flooder nearing. He turned to see one of them heading in his direction, but he quickly deciphered it wasn't after him, as the red laser stuck onto someone else—Marina. She was oblivious to the impending doom speeding at her.
Marina was already occupied with a small group of lesser salmonids, engaging them with a new umbrella-like weapon that proved less effective than her old one.
Knowing the Flooder would reach her before she noticed it, Akikta jumped into action and hitched a ride with it by latching onto one of its legs as it passed by. He shimmied his way underneath the Flooder and found the ink wasn't hot like the Grillers. Still, it'd be a problem for Marina, as his body only blocked and absorbed a portion of the ink it was spewing. The rest that spilled out would be more than enough to kill her.
Akikta looked around for a way to stop the Flooder. His sights landed on one of its four wheels. "What if I just..." He mumbled before stretching out his right hand to grab hold of the wheel. After giving it a light squeeze, it crumbled with ease. Akikta then swung from the bottom of the Flooder and kicked the leg of the broken wheel, bending it beyond repair.
That was all it took for the Flooder to topple over. Akikta dropped and rolled out of the way before it crashed. As it slid across the ground, the glowing orbs on the machine dimmed, and the green ink it spewed out from its bottom sputtered before ceasing to come out at all.
By the time the Flooder landed, Marina had just finished dealing with the salmonids trying to eat her. She turned and jumped after seeing how close the Flooder was to her. Akikta came out from behind its wreckage, and she jumped again.
"You're welcome." He said while absentmindedly looking at the destroyed Flooder. Marina calmed down after realizing it was him.
She eyed him up and down like he had done to himself earlier. "Aki?" she said, gaining his attention. There was an awkward look on her face. "What's going on with you?" she hesitantly asked.
Akikta was about to respond confidently, knowing she was talking about his muscular appearance. Then he realized he towered over her. Before, she was maybe only a few inches shorter than him. But now, he was a whole foot taller than her.
His muscles were self-explanatory, but he didn't expect to get taller. "I... don't know," he replied, figuring his added height was due to the excessive amount of ink he absorbed.
Akikta turned back to the Flooder, shifting the conversation in a different direction. "I do know that whoever built this thing is mentally ill," he commented, squatting next to it. The Flooder went down a bit too easily, so naturally, he was severely disappointed in its design. Especially since it looked so cool. "I mean, seriously. Which brain-dead idiot designed this thing?"
"I-I did..." Marina answered in a meek tone, probably feeling as though Akikta's anger was directed at her.
He quietly looked at her and then at the Flooder. A tidal wave of guilt washed over him. "H-hey! Don't sweat it! Those salmonids probably did something that made them worse. I'm sure the original is great!" He backpedaled on his comment, which only made Marina sadder, looking like she was on the verge of tears. "P-please don't cry... Pearl will kill me..." Akikta pleaded under his breath.
Before he could calm her down, the sight of an incoming ink bomb put him on high alert. "Watch out!" Akikta shouted, only for the strangest thing to happen. Eight tendrils shot out from his head and wrapped around the bomb before it reached them. They then tossed the bomb right back at the Steelhead who threw it; The ink bomb exploded on impact, causing the Steelhead to stagger.
Marina stared up at Akikta in fear and awe, not quite understanding what just happened. Akikta himself was flabbergasted.
The eight tendrils on his head reacted to his thoughts to protect Marina and took defensive actions on their own accord. He didn't feel them move whatsoever, and even now, he still couldn't feel them.
It took him a moment to realize the tendrils on his head were actually his eight braids covered in black ink. "Is this what it feels like for you?" Akikta questioned, referring to how Marina's tentacled hair sometimes moved on its own.
She was too shocked to give him a response. Not that she had the time to.
The Steelhead recovered and approached the two with unfettered rage. Akikta grew annoyed at the salmonid's persistence. He thought about beating it the same way the cephalopods do, only to remember how Subject 7—er, Aku, dealt with them.
"Oh, right! I forgot!" He said to himself, completely forgetting that Aku could absorb not only ink, but living beings as well. Why'd he forget such a crucial skill? He would've had a much easier time dealing with Clod, or even Boris if he had remembered.
Well, better late than never. Akikta rushed the Steelhead, making it stop in its tracks. Before it could form another bomb, he jumped onto the armored fish's chest, slamming it to the ground with unexpected force. His braids then latched onto the Steelhead's fins to keep himself secure and to prevent it from fighting back.
Akikta placed his hands on the Steelhead's snout, and as if knowing what he wanted, ink oozed out from his hands and feet, spreading across the Steelhead's body and slipping through any crevices in its armor. The Steelhead thrashed around to shake Akikta off, failing to do so. It didn't take long for him to cover the entire Steelhead in black ink. The terrible sight caused Marina to look away.
Akikta felt the Steelhead's struggles to wriggle free grow weak, only for it to suddenly go still. Soon after, the mass of black ink that was once the Steelhead shrunk. As it reduced in size, Akikta felt a surge of power course through him, like electricity through a circuit.
"Whoa! This is way better than ink!" He exclaimed with a wide smile. Normally, he'd feel bad about killing any living creature this way, especially since he didn't know how painful it was to them, if at all. However, right now, he didn't feel guilty or remorseful. He felt great.
This gratifying feeling continued until the black mass was completely gone. In the end, all that remained was Akikta.
He opened and closed his palms, feeling the strength pump through him like adrenaline. "I could get used to—" A piercing headache cut him off, causing him to grab his head and holler in pain.
"Aki?!" Marina turned back to look at him before rushing to his side. "What's wrong?!"
All Akikta could do in response was scream in excruciating pain. Any attempt to speak was drowned out by his yells. The headache was equivalent to ten dozen migraines rolled up into one.
Oddly enough, it wasn't just pain he felt. Somehow, through the throbbing headache, Akikta was gaining knowledge. Knowledge that once belonged to the Steelhead. Everything the Steelhead knew, from common knowledge to its darkest secrets, was entering Akikta's brain.
Years worth of information was being crammed into him in a single instance, and it did not feel pleasant.
Akikta fell over while Marina continued standing by his side. His screaming went on for another half minute before the pain subsided. Heavy breathing and frequent gulps replaced his yelling as he tried to calm down.
Marina placed a hand on his shoulder. "Aki?"
Hearing her voice helped reel him in from that torturous experience. He swallowed his excess saliva before panting a response. "I'm... I'm fine." He said uncertainly. Marina made a face that told him she wasn't convinced, but she didn't press any further. "Never doing that again..."
Suddenly, a loud barrage of rockets firing snapped Akikta back into the moment. He looked up to see ink missiles heading straight for him and Marina. "Oh come on!"
Worried for the octarian's safety, he scooped her up and dashed out of there. Marina dropped her weapon when he did this, leaving her no choice but to cling to him for dear life.
As Akikta ran with Marina in tow, he looked over his shoulder to see not one, not two, but five Flyfish targeting them. Dozens of ink missiles struck the ground behind and around them, but fortunately, none ever hit.
"I hate Flyfish," Akikta mumbled under his breath, wanting to deal with this problem ASAP.
He turned to see Coral, who had just finished destroying a Scrapper, a short distance away. "Captain!" He called out, grabbing her attention. Like Marina, she flinched at his appearance. "Catch!" After hearing this, Coral immediately composed herself.
Marina perked up at his word choice. "Catch? What is she supposed to caaAHHHH!" Akikta lobbed Marina over to Coral, hoping Pearl didn't hear or see anything.
He watched Marina until she landed safely in the arms of Coral, after which, he turned on his heel and raced back towards the five Flyfish.
The Flyfish unleashed another barrage of ink missiles, this time only at Akikta. He morphed his left arm into a crossbow and dodged the ink missiles despite not needing to. After he reached a certain distance, he fired off many arrows. Usually, with a crossbow, you'd have to reload after each shot. But Akikta decided he didn't want that handicap, and just kept firing nonstop.
His arrows easily pierced the glass cockpits of each Flyfish, taking down four of the five boss salmonids. For the last one, he jumped and grabbed an incoming missile. "Return to sender!" he spun mid-air and threw the missile right back at the Flyfish, landing a direct hit and causing it to explode.
Akikta dropped to the ground, shifting his crossbow back into an arm before observing his work.
Coral and Marina appeared at his sides. "Since when could you move like that?" The latter asked in slight disbelief.
"Since over an hour ago." He responded with a smirk.
His smirk soon curled into a frown as he looked around the massive observatory. Luckily, all the Grillers and Flooders had been dealt with, but the place was still crawling with salmonids.
Akikta looked up to see more enemy reinforcements dropping from the tube in the ceiling. "We're gonna get nowhere so long as that tube keeps dropping more of them. We gotta take it down!" he pointed, only for his pleas to be answered immediately.
Across the observatory, ink missiles belonging to Misaki launched out and impacted the tube of the square ship. The number of missiles she shot out had to be double the amount of a Flyfish's—maybe three times as much?
Whatever the case, it was enough to take down the ship above the observatory. It spun out of control and crashed elsewhere, evident via a distant boom and light rumble. "That works."
With the ship out of the picture, Akikta and the others made short work of the remaining salmonids. During the last few minutes of battle, he and Coral served as Marina's shield, not letting any harm come to her—though Akikta was more protective of Marina than Coral was.
Six minutes later, everyone reconvened at the center of the observatory. Like Marina and Coral, the others were taken aback by Akikta's bulky appearance.
"Whoa ho! Someone got inked up!" Frye commented. "What did you eat man?"
"A whole lot of ink," he answered, raising his hands to admire their slightly monstrous look.
"Jeez, you were already tall. Why'd you go and get taller?" Pearl pouted, placing both hands on her hips. "Some of us need that height, y'know!" Akikta raised his hands defensively.
Before he could say anything, Marie chimed in. "Is his height really something we should be focusing on right now?"
"Marie's right," Eight added. "I'm as shocked as the rest of you at Aki's new look. But we need to move, and fast."
"Why? What's with the rush?" Callie questioned.
"They used a mother ship." Eight stated.
"And?"
"They only do that as a last resort."
"The usurper is getting desperate," Ricky interjected.
"Getting desperate? He's already locked us in Atlantis! How more desperate can he possibly get?!" Metta angrily exclaimed.
Ricky shrugged his shoulders with a shake of his head. "The usurper is likely to throw everything he has at us, and we don't want to be here when that happens. We must relocate."
Shiver raised a hand. "What would relocating do exactly?"
Big Man fluttered his fins in response to Shiver. "Ay! I hate to say it, but it can't purely be bad luck that they keep finding us."
Shiver nodded. "Precisely what I was going for. They're tracking us."
Frye scratched her head. "I thought it was obvious they were doing that through our scents?"
Rick shook his head. "I thought so too, but we've gone too deep in the bowels and have constantly been on the move. No salmonid's sense of smell is that precise." He said, which Ricky translated.
"Whatever the deal is, we'll figure it out after we've relocated. Let's move," Eight said, leaving no room for debate as she left, leading the way.
Eight was a far cry from the shy octoling Akikta met back in the Deepsea Metro. It was like she was a completely different person. He couldn't help but respect her leadership.
He also couldn't help but admire Shiver's perception. She was right, after all. The salmonids have bumped into them far too many times for it simply to be a coincidence. They were tracking them, but how?
As he pondered that thought, Nakji's voice tugged him into the present moment. "Aki, you coming?" She asked.
Akikta focused in to see Nakji and Inka looking back at him while the rest of the group walked forward. He moved to walk beside Nakji... Or rather, he tried to. To his dismay, no matter how hard he tensed his legs to walk, they didn't move a single inch.
He tried to open his mouth to respond, but nothing came out. Instead, his body turned to face Nakji, and he silently stared into her eyes. Fear grasped him as he realized his mistake.
In his hellbent rage, Akikta did not care about how much strength he gained from absorbing the salmonid's 'ink.' He was content with whatever helped kill them faster. However, this meant he neglected one crucial fact: if ink strengthened him, then it also empowered Aku.
By the time he realized this, it was too late—he had too much ink, and his body wouldn't move at his command anymore.
"Aki?" Nakji called out again, this time causing Eight, Pearl, and Marina to look over their shoulders.
"Hey, um... Do his eyes normally get that white when he's like this?" Inka questioned.
Akikta snapped his head in Inka's direction, then dashed for her.
Nakji and Inka were stunned at his sudden hostility and couldn't react, but not Eight. She jumped and grabbed ahold of Inka, rolling out of Akikta's way. A moment later, the ground Inka stood on seconds ago smashed into pieces.
"Aki! What's the matter with you?!" Eight yelled, still holding Inka in her arms.
It's not me! Akikta wanted to scream, but couldn't. Instead, he readjusted his attention to the group.
"Oh no! It's happening again!" Marina pointed out.
Akikta's inky braids rose and aimed at the Splatoon. "Scatter!" Callie shouted upon seeing this, only for the braids to fire off small black pellets from their tips. Everyone dove for cover.
"Yo! What's goin' on with him?! Why he crazy all a sudden?" Pearl stammered.
"Remember when we said he merged himself with his brother?" Marina asked, and Pearl nodded. "This was the first thing that happened to him! It must be some kind of side-effect... we thought it was a one-off—he said it was!"
"Well, clearly he lied!" Pearl peeked her head out from her cover, only to immediately duck back behind it as an onslaught of inky bullets passed over her. "How'd you guys deal with it the first time?!"
"He snapped out of it on his own last time! But..." Marina peered over, seeing Nakji and Callie try to reason with him, but to no avail. "That doesn't seem to be happening this time..."
"Guess we'll just have to beat some sense into him then!" Marie called out from cover adjacent to Pearl and Marina.
Ever since her reunion with the rest of the Splatoon, she had been equipped with a Hero Charger. She took aim with her sniper-esque weapon and, while Akikta was distracted, fired. The ink projectile hit him square in the mouth, causing him to stagger. "Still got it!" Marie cheered.
Of course, the hit didn't actually hurt Akikta. It just shifted his attention to her.
Though, something was different about the ink she hit him with. While it didn't cause him any pain, it didn't strengthen him either. Noticeably, it weakened whatever hold Aku had over Akikta, albeit briefly. Not wanting this chance to go to waste, he shouted with everything he was worth. "WATER!" His voice sounded incredibly distorted.
Although he said only one word, Eight was able to infer what he was trying to say.
She'd then throw a splat bomb right under Akikta's feet, which detonated soon after. He turned in her direction, and after Eight was sure all eyes were on her, she bolted through the observatory. As expected, Akikta followed.
Nobody knew what Eight was trying to do. Still, she led Akikta away from the group and out of the dark observatory onto the roads of the Residential Zone.
Akikta was fast, but Eight was surprisingly faster. She was probably the quickest cephalopod he'd ever seen.
"Where is it... Where is it..." Eight mumbled, trying to ignore the thumping footsteps behind her. She turned a corner onto a fractured road, then her eyes lit up. "Yes!" Akikta wasn't sure what she was looking for, but part of him knew he didn't want her to get to whatever it was.
As they passed under a large structure with four legs, Akikta reached a hand out to grab Eight. Suddenly, she whipped around and shot at his mask, covering it with ink which obscured his vision in the process.
He stumbled backward, wiping the ink off. By the time he finished doing that, Eight already changed into her octopus form and launched away. He took one step forward to give chase, only to hear a splat bomb detonate behind him.
Akikta turned to see that one of the four legs of the structure they passed under was destroyed. Without all four legs supporting its weight, it began tipping over. As the structure toppled over in his direction, he soon realized that it was a water tower.
Akikta was able to avoid being crushed, but when the tower crashed into the ground, all the old water within busted out and washed over him like a tsunami. His skin burned as he let out a pained roar. The sensation was akin to being burnt by acid.
The force of the water took him throughout the Residential Zone, and he was unable to do anything about it. Part of him was furious that Eight managed to trick him; the other part was relieved.
Soon enough, he blacked out while still being tossed around in the water. The pain proved too much for him to take consciously.