Chapter 35: Our Property
Nothing but defeat was in the air for the Splatoon agents when they were hauled into Octavio Tower after their arrest in Seashore Twentletine. They were led down the bright halls, yet again in a single-file line, by an abundant amount of Tartar-Bots and Eightfolds that had them completely surrounded. Eva was in front of the group, her eyes and face red from her tears as she stared blankly ahead. Her children had already been hauled off to God knows where… and she knew she wasn't going to see them again.
As they were led down the halls on their designated path, it wasn't too long before they came across Lydia and Marina, who were standing off to the side, waiting for them to come by. Eva and Oliver both made eye-contact with Lydia as they passed, but they said nothing to each other, only allowing their eyes to do the talking. The look between Eva and Lydia was particularly sad; It was tragic how quickly their relationship had come to an end… and for what, Lydia wondered? Was she truly destined to never have a family?
"Marina?" Callie asked upon seeing her former co-agent.
Marina looked down and avoided eye contact with her former team.
"Marina, you have to tell them to let us go!" She struggled against her energy bonds. A Tartar-Bot held her back and kept them moving. "Marina, please! This isn't you! You don't have to do this! Please, Marina! MARINA!"
"Quiet." A Tartar-Bot replied.
Marina and Lydia followed from behind as they were led down the last halls and toward the red entryway outside of Octavio's throne room. The team of Eightfolds of which Eva was once a part stood in a line in their designated spots along the walls.
As they stood in silence, Oliver stared ahead at Eva. He hadn't had a lot of time to process that she had the Tecca surname, just as his own lineage did. All he could do now… was hope for the best for her. He couldn't imagine what kind of pain she must've been in right now. He leaned forward slightly, whispering to her. "It's ok, Eva… we'll get out of this. I promise you we'll get out of this."
Eva didn't respond. She didn't even so much as move her eyes. She was even holding her breath. It was like she had died inside.
"You are here to be sentenced by King Octavio himself." An Eightfold announced. "You will take no action, you will mind your manners, and you will answer all of the King's questions without lie. Glory to the Octarians."
When the large double-doors opened, the prisoners were all led down the thin walkway in the large, dark throne room. As per Octavio's usual presentation, the room was slowly lit up as they walked down, until they were met with Octavio's massive throne, which turned to them.
Octavio stared them all down. The Splatoon agents, especially Jaxon and Lucy, all stared back, with fury in their eyes. Eva's stare remained more blank.
"Well…" Octavio finally spoke. "There's been so much that just happened, I don't even know where to start with this one. This one's a doozy."
Marina gulped before she stepped up. "My King-" She was interrupted as the guards in the room turned their weapons on her.
"No, no. Let her talk." Octavio waved them off.
As they stood down, Marina looked up at him again. "I wanted to apologize for allowing things to get to this point… a lot of what has happened here is my fault… but you don't need to proceed with these punishments."
"And why's that?"
"Because there's a more civil way we can do this-"
"What do you know about civil ways, Ms. Ida?" He inched the throne forward, facing her down.
She sighed. "Look. Whatever you do next, I just think you've been taking this too far. The shields over the city are still raised, but you can still lower them. We can lower them."
"We? Hehehehe." He suddenly bellowed. His throne was still inching closer and closer. "There's no we… do you know why those shields are raised, Ida? Do you know why we take such extreme measures here?"
Marina didn't respond.
"...It was that day when I found Cap'n Cuttlefish's body, that… I had a realization." Octavio continued. "It never would've happened if I had taken better control of the situation from the beginning. The way that he was just… left there… so senselessly… how lifeless he was when I last held him… the senseless war could have, and should have, been avoided from the beginning."
Marina sighed and looked down once again.
But Octavio wasn't done. "Then it wasn't until you two showed up, 100 years later, that I had another realization."
"And what realization is that?" Lydia asked.
"That perhaps his death was necessary. He never saw my plans for this city… not the way that I do. He never saw just how beautiful the world could become. He never believed in it… he believed in his own selfish world views, that he was the one in the right and that the way he saw the world was the correct one. He cared only about himself. His death… was what gave me control. His death was what ended the war. So do you know what I've learned that you do with people with those views, Ms. Ida?"
Marina stared up at him, growing increasingly horrified, as at that moment, the Eightfolds that were at Eva's side suddenly started shoving her down onto her knees. Eva closed her eyes and started crying. Marina backed up once again.
"No…" Oliver tried to step forward to no avail. "Don't do this!"
"These are the people who start wars!" Octavio announced. "We are the ones who end them. With no tolerance, and no apologies!"
"I started this, please, take me instead!" Oliver begged as he was pulled back. His mouth was covered, and his voice was muffled.
Lydia just stared ahead at Eva, frozen.
Eva didn't move as an Eightfold pulled out her gun and held it at the back of her head. She clenched her eyes as tightly as she could.
"...My King…" Marina could barely even whisper. "…Don't do this…"
As Eva worked to catch her breath, sighing to herself as her tears fell onto her lap, she was left with one last moment. Not only did she think about her children… but her mind went back to the people she had fought for. She thought back to what she knew the Octarians should be… what she knew they could be… and with that, she suddenly opened her mouth.
"Glory to the Oct-!" She shouted, cut off by a high-pressure gunshot.
Marina and Lydia both jumped. Oliver started crying and screaming, but his voice remained muffled as the Tartar-Bots pulled him back further. Samantha started hyperventilating as she looked to the side, not even looking at the carnage.
The rest watched on as Eva's body was sent toppling off the platform and into the dark pit below, never to be seen again. Lydia's eyes welled up with tears as she watched, before she closed her eyes and turned away.
"Get the rest of these fugitives out of here!" Octavio commanded. "There's more in store for the rest of you, I promise."
Marina stared up at the King, glaring at him, as the Splatoon agents were all hauled back down the platform and out of the room. She and Lydia slowly followed, leaving Octavio behind as the doors closed behind them.
The Splatoon agents were all hauled down more halls and out of sight. Lydia, walking silently along, found herself a private place in the corner before she leaned against the wall and sank down, curling up. With no one around to see her, she broke down sobbing, clenching her own face.
The Splatoon agents were all fairly stunned themselves, as they were dragged all the way down into a different area of Octavio Tower, with dark, menacing walls, and promptly thrown into heavily fortified prison cells. Jaxon was thrown into a cell with Lucy, Dylan was thrown into a cell with Samantha, and Oliver was thrown into a cell with Callie.
"YOU WON'T GET AWAY WITH TH-!" Oliver tried shouting before his cell door was slammed.
Callie leaned back against the wall and curled up, trembling as she stared at the door.
Oliver stood up and punched the door in anger, staring out the cell's window. He looked around the outside hall from every angle that he could, then analyzed the door itself, thinking of any way out of this.
It was like he was once again just the scared, masked G2PL19, trapped in isolation, with no viable course of action to escape… and with all hopes he had of seeing his so-called sister again waning.
It was outside of Octo City's force-fields that Pearl's team, still inside their Goldship, were circling the city from a distance, still calculating their next moves.
The soldiers were all waiting inside, as Bridgett sat with Marie, patiently listening for their next actions.
One soldier that was studying their map on a hologram turned to Pearl. "Ma'am. We found the opening."
Pearl went up to the controls. "Good. Let's dive."
The Inklings in control of the ship pressed some buttons, and the others went up to the window to watch as the front of the ship formed a large drill and some laser cannons. As they once again flew closer toward the city, a few moments passed before finally, the drill started rapidly spinning as they dived straight down into the ground. Red lasers were blasted from near the drill to make tearing through the ground even easier.
It was a fairly long, arduous trip as the ship drilled through the underground for them, and the ship shook violently as they all waited inside in silence. The holographic map on the floor showed them their position in relation to the power plant, with their ship signified by a red dot.
"We're closing in." An Inkling said after a few minutes.
Pearl again reached for her radio to contact Jaxon and Lucy. This was probably going to be her last opportunity to do so before they infiltrated the plant, after all, and it was with some eagerness in her voice that she announced they were close to their destination.
As a moment passed, however, no one responded. No one was on the other end of the line.
She pressed the speak button again, concerned. "Jaxon? Lucy? Do you copy?"
Another moment passed with no answer. They all looked around at each other in fear.
Marie felt a lump in her throat. If Jaxon and Lucy had been caught… then the others…
"Damn…" Pearl simply turned back to the window, clenching her fist and keeping on her poker face to hide her worry. It was moments later when finally, the ship drilled violently through some last, harder walls, before they emerged in a large, underground dome. The dome's walls were lined with silver metal, and before them, within this dome, was the large, floating, purple facility, that itself was encased in a yellow protective force-field.
Again, everyone went up to watch as the Inklings at the controls again pressed some buttons. "Stand by."
Using their laser systems, the ship opened fire upon the shield, breaking away at it. The shield turned slightly red and began bouncing somewhat as it puffed up, much like an Octarian Zapfish cage.
"Let's make this quick." Pearl walked toward the back of their ship, with more noticeable anxiety in her voice than before. She prepared to press the button to open up. "Once this first shield's down, we'll be exposed. So get ready."
In obedience, everyone grabbed their weapons and also moved to the back of the ship.
It took a few more moments as the shield was weakened. "In 5… 4… 3… 2…" The soldier at the controls counted down.
A second later, the massive shield burst open like a popping bubble. The Goldship immediately charged forward through the newly created hole before the rest of the shield even fizzled out and, on cue, they were immediately fired upon by automatic turrets on the power plant walls. They controlled the ship to fire back, taking out multiple turrets as they closed in toward the plant entrance.
As they moved to touch down in the plant's landing deck, Pearl pressed the button to open up the ramp. "Move, move!" She then closed her own helmet, sealing herself in her shrinking suit.
Immediately, they were met with a team of Octarians outside that were already firing at them as the Goldship's ramp assembled and lowered. Pearl shrunk down and disappeared as the rest moved in, firing back.
Although some Inkling soldiers were already downed, they regardlessly made quick work of this first wave, which was largely thanks to Pearl who, in her miniaturized form, was going around and surprise-attacking several of these Octarians, taking them out before they could react.
Once the floor was clear, everyone paused to catch their breath. Pearl grew back to normal size, panting, as she slowly turned back toward the Goldship.
"Wait here for the extraction plan!" She called out.
"Yes, ma'am!" The pilot called back as the Goldship was again closed and lifted into the air.
The team all held their weapons as they turned toward the entrance of the facility, which was blocked off by large, fancily-shaped purple doors. They all headed forward.
Inker Valley
Jessica was hurriedly making his way down the hallways of the underground dome, looking around everywhere she could. She had checked the meeting rooms, the cafeteria, the barracks, and even the bathrooms, but her brother was nowhere to be found.
"Daniel!?" She called out. "Daniel!?"
There wasn't even that many Inkling around in this particular dome at this time. It seemed everyone was distracted with the Octo City situations currently going on, but when she finally did see some people, it wasn't in the way she wanted at all.
Two Inkling guards laid limp on the ground near the wall as she came down this hallway. She slowly walked up to them and knelt down to check their pulse. They were alive, but deeply unconscious- possibly sedated. If that was the case, they weren't going to wake up anytime soon.
Suddenly, at that moment, she jumped as one of their earpieces buzzed to life. Blinking, she took it out of the guard's ear and put it in her own.
"It's annoying. Isn't it? Not knowing what's going on?" Daniel's voice told her on the other end.
"Daniel…" She kept her breathing steady. "What are you doing?"
"I'm taking my stand. For once. All these people that stood in my way, they got what's coming to them. You ready for yours?"
At this point, Jessica pulled out her gun and pointed it forward as she inched down the hall, continuing her search. "Daniel? Do you remember what I said about this being a very bad time to have a mental breakdown?"
"Why won't you just admit it? That you've been keeping me here? Huh? What have you been planning?"
"Listen to me. Just come over to me, and we'll talk this out. As siblings. Alright?"
"With a gun in your hand?"
She looked around. Daniel definitely wasn't anywhere in her vicinity, but she did look up to see that a security camera was on and watching her. She took another deep breath and redirected her search to find the security room.
"It's just the same as it was before. Isn't it?" Daniel continued. "You all have something against me… you've all been conspiring against me… keeping me here like some god damn experiment… and you even got Ward involved? Why?"
"I wish I could explain that…" She said as she tried checking multiple doors. Many of them were sealed up tight, so she just kept her gun pointed forward as she inched along. "But if I tried, I'd probably sound just as crazy as you."
"You're lying."
"I've never, ever lied to you, Daniel. Not last time, not this time. This time, we still have an opportunity to fix things before they get out of hand. Don't you want that? Or do you want things to get out of hand?"
"They've been out of hand, Jessica. I'm the only one of us who's actually strong enough to stand up and do something about it. You're gonna get what's coming to you… all of you will!"
She shook her head. As she found more unconscious guards in the hall, she followed that trail to find him. "If that's the case, I guess I'll have to find my own strength to fight you again. It's the same old merry-go-round with us, I guess. But you can still stop and think about this. I don't want to fight. So don't make me."
At this point, Daniel was no longer responding.
"Daniel?" She asked after another moment, soon enough coming across the wide open security office from there, with the lights on and everything. The small room utilized very dated technology, with old television screens that displayed the security footage in this dome, but there was otherwise nothing in here. Daniel himself had clearly been here, but was now gone. Lowering her gun somewhat, Jessica leaned over to peek at the screens, and mess with the controls to check the cameras.
To her fear, Daniel could be seen running down the halls, in the direction of the garage.
"Shit." She immediately ran out and gave chase.
Daniel had more than enough of a headstart to reach the garage long before her, which further added to her confusion when she ran in after him and was once again met with complete silence, and no further signs of her brother. Walking by all of the Inkling's stolen ships, she pointed her gun in all directions, searching every hiding spot that Daniel may have been hiding. She didn't even dare call his name this time, in fear of revealing her own position.
A few silent, painful moments proceeded as Jessica kept this up; It was during one of her searches that she was met with a high-pressure charger in her face, and she narrowly dodged its blast. With a scream, Daniel lunged forward from his hiding spot to further attack her, but she grabbed him first, wrestling with him and disarming him. Daniel retaliated by punching her multiple times, swatting her gun out of her hand as well.
This continued into a brutal hand-to-hand fight as Daniel kept punching at her, forcing her to counter all of his hits as she backed up. Upon finding an opening, she kicked his leg, grabbed him, and shoved him face-first into one of the ships, pinning him down.
"You're right, I lied!" She hissed. "Ward is dead! I killed him! You're just hallucinating again, you can stop this!"
"You're WRONG! I SAW HIM!" This time, he pulled out a knife and tried slashing at her, forcing her off of him. "I KNOW YOU ALL SAW HIM!"
Jessica dodged his slashes with a couple of flips, backing up further. Occasionally taking advantage of his openings, she moved to again disarm him, but every time she did, he pulled out another knife, ready to attack once again.
After sustaining a few small cuts from him, this led to them getting backed into a wall where Daniel finally got the advantage over her, just about plunging the knife into her face. She grabbed and held his hands back as much as she could, before giving up and dodging her head out of the way as he stabbed at the wall next to her. Taking advantage once again, she kicked him, disarmed him a last time, and punched him, knocking him down.
Daniel wiped the ink from his lips as he growled on the floor. Jessica stood over him. "Daniel, look at me. Ward doesn't control you anymore. You need to push him out of your mind, and I can help you do that! Just for once, let me help you!" She stepped over and held her hand out toward him. "Please."
But Daniel wasn't done. Pulling out his last weapon, he let out an angry roar as he got up once again to attack her. "You don't KNOW MY MIND!"
Jessica again dodged backward as Daniel tried to stab the syringe in his hand into her. This time, he managed to once again corner him against one of the ships. Once again trying to hold him off and disarm him, Jessica gave him just enough of an opening to, even if just briefly, snag her arm with the syringe needle, and press down to inject some of the sedative.
Jessica of course swiftly knocked him back and then desperately pulled the needle out. She smashed the syringe and threw it aside. As Daniel kept trying to punch her, the dazed feeling then hit her a moment later. It wasn't enough to knock her out like the other guards, but the effect it had on her was just enough. Her counters and her punches grew slower, to the point when nothing was stopping Daniel from repeatedly punching her face.
He screamed as he punched her, then punched her again, hurting her face. Jessica leaned against the ship, groaning as she tanked these hits, until finally, Daniel knocked her down to the ground entirely.
"You don't LISTEN!" Daniel kicked her in the stomach multiple times as she tried getting back up to no avail. "YOU NEVER LISTEN!"
Jessica coughed, finally left defeated on the ground. There was no way she was going to defend herself now.
Daniel went back to grab his discarded charger, then came back to her, pointing it at her head. Jessica, now bruised and in pain, sat up ever-so-slightly as she faced him, panting.
Daniel gritted his beak tightly as he squeezed the weapon, ready to open fire on her face.
She coughed again, unmoving. If this was her end, after everything that's been going on, and… if this finally got Daniel to move on from their feud, then… maybe… she could accept it. She didn't like it at all, but she could accept it. She waited for him to pull the trigger.
However… a moment passed, and they were still in this position. It was just like last time he had held Oliver and Samantha at gunpoint… his finger wasn't even quite on the trigger.
"...If you're going to do it…" Jessica coughed again, her voice weak. "If that satisfies you, then… do it… I… was a terrible sister… I did this to you…"
Daniel didn't respond, steadily tearing up.
"Just don't… let Ward hold you the same way I did… push him out… please…"
Another horrible moment passed. Daniel tried multiple times to move his finger toward the trigger, but each time… he held himself back. Finally, after another moment, he stepped back entirely and lowered the gun. A tear fell down his cheek.
Jessica watched as, after yet another moment, Daniel just took his charger and walked toward another ship without a word. She sat up further and stared as Daniel got it open, went inside, took his sweet time figuring out the controls, and, with somewhat shaky, unsteady flying, got the ship in the air. She looked up as it slowly lifted up and out of the room, briefly scraping along the wall as it did.
Then… she was alone. Unsure if she could even get up with this partial sedation, she just leaned back against the ship she was next to in defeat, allowing herself to break down crying.
Octavio Tower
The Splatoon agents inside their cells had all largely surrendered themselves to their fate at this point, and were now simply waiting for whatever was going to happen next. Samantha in particular had been freaking out and crying quite a bit, but this time, Dylan was there with her the entire time, comforting her as best as he could. The others sat in worried silence in their own cells, largely just sitting around, until Ward and a couple Wolfhound teams came up to them. Some of them got up and looked out their cell windows curiously.
Jaxon and Lucy watched as their own cell was opened up, and they stood up defensively.
Ward stepped in, standing before them with his hands behind his back. "You two ready to talk?"
"Talk about what?" Lucy played dumb.
"Pearl Houzuki's New Squidbeak Splatoon has been eluding our soldiers for give or take 100 years now… you two must know where they're based." He stepped somewhat closer. "We want to know everything about them. Especially where you've been hiding. Do you want to tell us? Or do you want to be forced?"
"We don't know that information." Jaxon did the same. "You can just sit and relax a while. They'll be coming for us. I know it. Then, speaking of Pearl Houzuki? I'll introduce you to her."
He gave his usual sarcastic smile. "You think they'll make it all the way here, huh? Are you hoping for a miracle?"
"Miracles happen all the time. Sometimes big, a lot of the times small. You just need to know where to look."
"How do you plan to see this one through?"
"You'll see."
"Do you think we don't know about their plant attack? That's currently going on?"
Again, they didn't respond.
"Hm… if you don't want to tell us the easy way, then…" He ushered to the Wolfhounds behind him, and Camila carried in the mechanical briefcase, which she set down and opened. "Guess we'll have you make you want it. Tell me… how good are you at resisting brainwashing goggles?"
As the siblings backed up, and saw Camila pull out the device, Jaxon suddenly pulled Lucy behind him, shielding her. "You'll never get everything that you want!"
"I don't mind getting what we can." Ward continued as he himself pulled out a pair of gloves from the case and put them on. "I'm not a spoiled man."
"You look pretty damn spoiled to us!" Lucy interjected, as she tried getting in front of Jaxon to instead shield him.
"You don't know me." Ward continued as Camila handed him the big, bulky brainwashing goggles. "But I'm about to know everything there is to know about you."
As multiple Wolfhounds went up to grab them, Jaxon and Lucy both fought back to their best ability, until Lucy was grabbed and pinned against the wall. Lucy panted and whimpered somewhat. "J-Jaxon!"
Jaxon was being grabbed and held by multiple Wolfhounds, incapacitated. "You'll be surprised how much of a fight I can put up! I still have will! You hear me!? I'll never lose it!"
"Sure you do." Ward said, powering on the goggles. "We all do until we're challenged a bit too much for our own good." It made a terrifying whirring sound as its lights turned on, and some electric bolts fired out where the eyes would go. He went up toward Jaxon.
"No!" Lucy cried as the Wolfhounds held her head in such a position that forced her to watch.
Jaxon leaned back and hyperventilated as it was inched toward his face. He closed his eyes as it got closer and closer, but that didn't stop his pained screams as it finally made contact with his face.
His horrible, ink-curdling screams could be heard down the hall and in the other cells, where the other agents listened in horror. Callie covered her mouth, and Samantha again started crying as Dylan moved to block her ears.
They all knew that the Splatoon was very quickly running out of time.
The Power Plant
Upon getting the big doors open and infiltrating the facility, Bridgett and Marie followed closely behind Pearl, pointing their weapons everywhere as they turned corners, navigating the hallways here as they got deeper and deeper into the plant.
This place wasn't actually very occupied by many people; It was instead run more as an automatic factory, with lots of machinery that they passed working to control and channel the energy here, dispensing everything out of the plant and toward the city for its usage there.
It wasn't until they got deeper into the center of this plant that they started to see the source of it all: In a large room that they came into, where they stood above on a catwalk, they could see a plethora of live Zapfish, dragged along by conveyor belts that took them to have their energy drawn. It did seem to be an extremely efficient process, where freshly charged Zapfish were grabbed by mechanical hands, placed into purple battery-like machines, drained almost instantaneously of all the electricity in their bodies, then dragged away to recharge, left with pale, weak, sickly appearances. Occasionally, they could even hear Zapfish scream as they were drained.
"My god…" Bridgett muttered as she looked over the railing down at these machines.
Marie silently stared as well. Sure, the Inklings in her own reality were also known for using the Zapfish like this, but the Zapfish here certainly looked far more worked and tortured than she had ever seen, and it was heart-wrenching to both her and Bridgett. They looked at each other.
"They're not what we're here for." Pearl admitted as she kept them moving.
As they made their way through more halls, getting closer to their destination in the center of the plant, they were paused in their tracks as multiple force-fields suddenly formed from the walls, completely blocking off the passageways further. Bridgett turned back, only to see that more of them were forming where they had come from as well.
Then, with the agents right in the middle of their trap, multiple gadgets emerged from the slots in the wall, including a laser mount that pointed at them.
"Booby!" Marie shouted as they dived out of the way, barely dodging the continuous red laser that ran down the floor toward them.
Pearl jumped just as she shrunk down, disappearing into the air to dodge herself. The rest were left to fend for themselves, using their cephalopod forms to weave out of the way, until a moment later, the turret suddenly shorted out, and Pearl reappeared beside it, panting somewhat.
They were left with only a small moment to relax as the rest of the gadgets also came to life, activating electric sawblades and other weapons. Pearl again shrunk down as she jumped into action, while the others worked to dodge the chaos coming for them.
Although Bridgett and Marie were doing a good job staying out of harm's way, multiple of the Inkling soldiers that accompanied them weren't so lucky, with some of them getting taken down by the traps. A couple of them even stepped into particular booby traps that suddenly grabbed them and then pulled them into a briefly-opening slot in the wall, never to be seen again, with nothing but a cut-off scream to announce their disappearance. Bridgett's eyes widened as she witnessed one of these traps in action.
Pearl continued using her shrinking suit to take out the traps one at a time, until eventually, she also used her ability to smash through the wall, where she found the source of one of these shields and powered it down. Everyone left looked over as that shield fizzled out, allowing them move forward.
"Move!" Marie pressed on, holding her charger forward as she led the pack.
Bridgett briefly paused when Pearl re-appeared in the hall, panting heavily and leaning against the wall. She grabbed her arm. "You ok?"
"Yeah." She nodded, forcing herself back into a straight position. She hissed a bit as she painfully rolled her shoulder. "Let's keep moving."
As they moved along together, taking care of anymore traps that they came across, they soon came up to their destination at the large control center in the center of the plant where, visible through multiple windows, the Great Zapfish sat in its spherically-shaped room, hooked up to multiple powered conductors that were sapping its energy at all times. The marvellous creature, encased in its own force-field, wasn't anywhere near as lively as the one from the timeline they knew; It was exhausted and weak, looking to be almost on the verge of death, with its energy being constantly sapped regardless. Everyone stared through the window at it.
Pearl straightened her gloves somewhat. "The Great Zapfish will need to be fully disconnected for this to work. This is our chance to set it free."
"How do we do that?" Bridgett asked as several of the Inklings went to access the controls, finding the button to shut down the shield.
They were interrupted as gunfire rang through the room as multiple Eightfolds came in, prompting them to all take cover. Bridgett and Marie emerged to fire their weapons, holding them at bay, while Pearl again shrunk down to take out a couple of them herself.
Although they soon enough cleared out this first wave with Pearl's help, they all knew there was going to be more coming. Pearl turned to the others. "Wait for my word to shut down the shields!" Once again, she shrunk down as she dived toward the wall that blocked them off from the Great Zapfish, disappearing.
"Pearl!" Bridgett turned as, a moment later, more Octolings came for them, forcing them back into the fight.
In her tiny, miniaturized form, Pearl managed to slip in through the wall-cracks, where she further navigated into the wall's tiny air ducts, and began going through the absolute maze that waited for her here. She was surrounded by lots of bright electrical wiring, that threatened to fatally electrocute her if she so much as touched them in the slightest at this size. Taking a breath and rolling her shoulder, she continued onward as carefully yet quickly as she could.
In the meanwhile, the brutal gunfight continued through the different control rooms, where more and more waves of Octarian enemies kept coming in, keeping the Splatoon agents on their toes as they fired back.
Bridgett was rolling from cover to cover, firing at and taking out any enemies within range while taking on anyone that got too close with her fists, disarming them and then knocking them out if she could. By this point, she had sustained multiple cuts as she reunited with and took cover with Marie, groaning as she leaned back against the wall.
As this went on, Pearl eventually emerged out the opposite side of wall and came into the Great Zapfish's room, where she looked up and around. From her perspective, the already large room of course loomed over her, but that didn't stop her from taking a leap of faith forward, diving toward the bottom of the room. Her dense body at this size allowed her to land safely as she slid down the wall and then came to her feet at the bottom of the sphere.
Again, she looked up at the massive Zapfish above her. "I'm in position. Are you ready to turn the shields off?"
Bridgett pressed on her earpiece. "Negative, we're not in position!" She turned and fired again as more ink nearly struck her.
Marie came out with her own charger to fire upon them as well, firing at any Octoling she could with great accuracy, as they steadily took the rest of this wave out.
The wave was ended when Bridgett came out and tackled the last Octoling, shooting him in the face to splat him as she aggressively panted. Standing up from his puddle of ink, she went over to the control panel, lifted up the glass case, and slammed her hand down on the big red emergency shutdown button.
Immediately, the lights in the room turned red with emergency lights as the big metal doors to this room slammed shut. They all looked around, then out the window as finally, the big device that held the Great Zapfish, including the shield that surrounded it, fizzled out as they turned off. The Great Zapfish panted as it was released.
"It's off!" Bridgett announced into her earpiece.
Unbeknownst to all of them, at the moment that everything in the room shut down, multiple tiny ports all over the bottom of the Zapfish's room were opening up around Pearl. Although they were indeed small, to Pearl's perspective, they opened up like massive chasms in the Earth with a vacuum effect, and she had no time to react or press the enlargement button on her glove before she was sucked into the hole closest to her. She screamed all the way down as she was dragged down further in the ducts below her.
"Pearl?" Confused as to where she had gone, Bridgett stepped toward the window, looking outward. "Pearl?"
Pearl could hear her voice over comms, but was completely unable to respond as she was sucked deep into these ducts, falling down multiple paths, until she was eventually shoved face-first into the end of one of these paths, and pinned there by the intense air pressure. She panted as she tried pushing off of this wall to no avail. Then, she lost her breath entirely as she was shoved further into the wall, and as the pressure around her mounted, her visor and other parts of her suit began to crack slightly, signifying mere moments left to live.
"Pearl?" Bridgett kept pleading on her earpiece. "Pearl, please answer."
"Manual override confirmed." An automated voice spoke over the speakers. "Great Zapfish energy reactivating in 10… 9… 8…" It continued to count down.
Bridgett immediately turned back to the controls to find a way to reverse that process, but found no luck. "Pearl, if you can hear me, get out of there, it's reactivating! Pearl! Pearl, if you can hear me, please GET OUT!" She shouted.
"3… 2… o-"
Suddenly, the plant around them shook and the floor beneath the Great Zapfish was torn open as, from the ducts below, Pearl suddenly reemerged in a massive, grown form, tearing through the walls around her like a big kaiju monster. The force from her sudden growth was so large that she crashed through and destroyed the wall with the windows, sending some broken glass and rubble flying all over the place, and interrupting the reactivation process.
Bridgett and the others backed up in complete surprise. "Holy SHIT!" Bridgett put her hands on her head, with extremely wide eyes.
Pearl panted somewhat; In this extreme enlarged form that this suit gave her, she was extremely slowed, but that didn't stop her from delicately grabbing the Great Zapfish in her hands. Holding it close to her chest, she then waved her free arm around to further destroy the facility and create a path for herself.
As the facility fell apart in her wake as she desperately trudged through, the others, finding a path out of this current room through the rubble and damaged walls, ran out to follow where she was going, through the now-powered down hallways.
When they eventually found her again, Pearl was in the process of setting the Great Zapfish down safely in the hall, before she leaned against the floor, panting heavily. She was already extremely exhausted.
"Oh my god." Marie muttered as they all stared at the situation.
"Give me some space…" Pearl begged.
They and the Great Zapfish all backed out of the way as Pearl, barely fitting through the massive hole she had created, crawled further into the hall, before she pressed the button on her glove to shrink back to normal size. From there, she was left lying on the ground, limply.
"Pearl!" Marie shouted as they all ran up to her.
Bridgett got down to cradle Pearl in her arms, and found the button to retract Pearl's helmet, revealing her face. "Pearl?"
Pearl was still panting heavily as she leaned back, tiredly blinking as she looked her in the eye. It took her a moment to respond. "…I'm ok…" Even her voice was somewhat weaker.
"Are you sure!? What the hell was that?"
She grunted as she started slowly pushing herself up. "We need to get back to the ship… We need to get the Great Zapfish out of here, before they come for it…"
"What about you?" Marie asked.
"Help me along." She continued, grasping Bridgett's shoulder. "I need to get back to the ship, too."
Bridgett nodded a bit as she helped her up. "Come on."
From there, Marie pointed her charger and led the charge, and Pearl clung onto Bridgett as they all headed out and took the Great Zapfish along on their extraction path.
Indeed, Pearl's plan had worked, and above the surface, all around the city, civilians noticed as not only did many of the city's lights shut down, but the shields around the city fizzled out as well. They all looked up and around, further confused by what was going on.
Octavio Tower itself wasn't spared by the outage either; Everywhere inside, everyone's attention was caught as the main lights were turned off, and were replaced by emergency lights.
In the prison, Hugh Ward and his Wolfhounds, still in the process of interrogating Jaxon, looked around as they too caught on to what was happening.
"Well, then." Ward rose his hand, and on cue, Camila pulled the goggles from Jaxon's face.
Jaxon was left panting heavily, in excruciating pain, as Lucy came up to his side and hugged him. "J-Jaxon…"
"I-I'm ok… I'm ok…" He responded.
"We'll be back for more later." Ward told them as he motioned the Wolfhounds out. "Until then… rest up. We'll have plenty more to discuss." With that, he and the others headed out, closing the cell door.
Oliver and the others in their cells watched as the Wolfhounds left, leaving behind a couple of guards. As Oliver subtly looked down, further studying his own cell door, it was then that he noticed that in the power outage, the cell door wasn't locked quite as tightly as it was before. Hatching an idea, he looked back out at the two guards.
Throughout the tower, Eightfolds and other soldiers were rushing around in a panic in reaction to the outage, and word had already spread about what the Splatoon had done to the plant.
Among the people going to their lockers and grabbing the gear was Marina, in a somewhat more isolated, quiet room, where she thought things over as she changed her clothes. After what she had just seen in the throne room, there was plenty more hesitation in her actions, leading her to occasionally pause and sigh as she wondered: What was she even supposed to do from here? Which side was she going to take? In what possible way was this going to end without disaster at this point?
She knew she was going to have to confront that eventually… but for now, she realized, she had more immediate things to worry about. She knew at this point that Pearl had been at the plant… she knew what she had to do… because it was just as she estimated: Pearl's presence was making the situation worse. Pushing all other thoughts aside, she put on a brave face as she eventually closed her locker and walked out.
Outside in the hall nearby, Lydia was sitting at the bottom of a large stair-case, working on some of her own gear and making sure everything was ready for the inevitable fight that now waited for them. There was still tears visibly dried on her face… with that horrifying memory of when she had last seen Eva now seared into her brain forever… and she closed her eyes, letting out a deep sigh.
After a moment, she opened her eyes again, wiped her face, and turned around as she heard slow footsteps coming down the stairs. She then suddenly stood up as she was greeted with Marina's brand new look.
It was an outfit that Marina had designed completely by herself before these recent events had happened; Inspired by Marina-2's outfit, it was a long, black, scaly robe, with a long skirt that covered her fancy high-heel boots, long, skin-tight sleeves that stretched out and stopped just before her fingers, and a hole in its chest that revealed some of her cleavage. Accompanying her new dress was her usual green finger paint, new green, sparkly eye-liner, and a new beautiful hairstyle with her tentacles brought back and somewhat pushed upward. By her side were six somewhat small, floating, orb-shaped silver drones that flew automatically and followed her every move, like loyal bodyguards. She stopped before Lydia, making eye contact with her.
"Well, well…" Lydia tilted her head with a somewhat mocking tone, acting as though she wasn't upset at all. "You've settled in nicely after all."
"Pearl and the others will be on their way here while we're exposed." Marina told her. "We both know that. The time is coming quickly… whether we want it to or not."
She thought about that for a moment. "And will you be ready to face them?"
Hesitating one more moment, Marina stepped past her and toward the nearby window. They both walked over and looked out toward the darkened city where in the distance, the rising sun was just barely beginning to peek over the horizon to bring light once again.
"...Yes." Marina finally spoke, nodding somewhat. "I'm ready."