Tartar didn't finish the first prototype of the Tartar unit's body until the twenty-fifth floor. They had to ascend to forty. Tartar was able to safely remove their memory and data, thankfully, which he said made the whole process much easier.

Meanwhile, Ron and Chronicle proved to be a good team. They tackled the increasingly difficult floors like they were nothing. Even Pearl was impressed. Marina had been trying to help Acht's injury, as she grew concerned when they said it hadn't gotten any better since they got it.

Tartar held up a small remote. "[Alright, let's see if this guy turns on.]" He crossed his fingers. "[Here's hoping its circuits don't fry!]"

He closed his eyes and clicked the power button on the TV remote. The screen flashed on for a second, but then turned back to static and their new body completely collapsed. Tartar sighed.

"[What did I do wrong now?]"

Marina went over to examine it. "Hey, check this."

Tartar crouched down next to her. She held up the Tartar unit's hand. There was a small bit of smoke coming from both of them, their head, and the antenna.

"Maybe it isn't getting enough power in here. So maybe we could put some backup power supplies on the smoking parts then..."

"[Backup power won't work here. We'd have to attach something that stores it and continues to use it when the power source in unavailable. To use it like a heart, you could say? How it keeps moving the energy around, like that sort of thing.]"

Marina nodded, considering it. "Yeah, I can see that working. Could we at least try my option first?"

"[Of course! I thought it was a wonderful idea!]"

Marina's idea took less time than actually fixing the unit did, and they had it ready by the twenty-seventh floor. Tartar greeted Chronicle with a smile.

"[Ready to see if it works?]"

She nodded. She'd been worried for the unit.

Tartar tried again, this time not bracing like he was expecting something awful to happen. The unit actually stayed on for a minute, restarting its systems, but died again before it could finish. The face flashed the blue screen of death before it had officially died again, displaying an error code that the Inklings and Octolings couldn't read.

Tartar sighed heavily. "'[Ran into an error while restarting.' Of course you did.]" He banged his hand against the side of its head. "[You were so close! Why must technology turn against me now?]"

Acht pat him on the back, a little confused about the situation but unsure on how to help. "You'll get it. Marina could do all of this, so I'm sure you can fix a busted computer."

Tartar and Marina agreed to work on Tartar's idea next, and they started right away.

Acht leaned back into the corner. "Say, I've heard your voice before, Pearl. I don't know where though."

"Me? Huh." Pearl tapped her drone wing against her body. "Me? Out of everybody here, you remember my voice? Is it really that iconic?"

"Acht, you better not be flirting with Pearl in front of Chronicle!" Marina said.

"Relax," Apocalypse said. "They're not. You can stay fresh, Marina. If anybody is going to flirt with Pearl, it's probably going to be-"

Ron jumped. "The elevator's on the next floor! Let's go, Chronicle!"

"So, what were you saying?" Marina asked Apocalypse.

"Uh-it's nothing!" Apocalypse covered his face with his wings, the best he could anyways. His Jelleton wings couldn't bend well.

"[Huh? Do you like Pearl?]"

"Unit 8! How dare you turn against me like this!"

"[You can just call me Commander.]"

"You did nothing worthy of the title. So stop calling yourself that and embrace your status."

"[I'm not just number eight. I've done things worthy of being acknowledged.]"

Marina stepped between them. "Hey, no need to get aggressive here! You two don't need to fight!"

"And speaking of Pearl," Acht said, "the name Tartar seems kind of familiar too. And mister telephone-head over there. Your voice sounds vaguely familiar, like I heard it exactly once."

Tartar tugged at his collar. "[There's something I should tell you, in case we don't make it to the top. Tartar...well, he's me and I him. And he sounds familiar because he-I Sanitized you. You asked me to, so you could focus on your music. That's why you uh...look like that.]"

Acht got quiet.

Tartar took off his hat, letting his slimy body become visible, and the tentacle as well. "[So you can beat me up if you want. I deserve it for how I treated you all.]"

Apocalypse leaned against the opposite wall. "But that sounds pretty commander-ish to me. It takes a big Celephod to apologize, and a bigger one to admit he was wrong and change."

"[I hope this Tartar unit is savable. I'll feel bad if it fell to Chaos' grasp of disorder.]" Tartar straightened his headphones. "[Hey, I think the music changed.]"

"Really?" Marina asked. "What is it now?"

Tartar hummed a bit of the tune. "[I don't know this one.]"

"That's Into the Light! Pearl and I sang that on our way back to Inkopolis Square after we-um..."

"[Nearly killed me?]"

"Yeah."

Acht tapped their chin. "Huh. So you fought him? I thought he was just a crazy telephone."

"[Well, I am, kind of. The tentacle is my brain, you could say. It's attached to the telephone's inner gears. After I was revived from a respawn point, all the inner workings I was connected to were kept inside of my body. Unfortunately, the respawn also forced my body into an Octoling form, as that's how they're designed. They regroup your dead...ink?]"

"Kind of creepy, but I think I get it. It's like those little robotics Marina used to build in class. Even though our teacher didn't want you to..."

"At least I was paying attention," Marina teased. "You never wanted to be there."

"True."

Pearl, Chronicle, and Ron retuned. "Alright! Another one d-"

Tartar placed his hands on Ron's shoulders. "[Stop going with Chronicle and Pearl, please.]"

"Huh? Why?"

"[I am terrible at working under pressure, and in a small amount of time. And you-you are making me do both at the same time. I appreciate you helping Chronicle, but I'm getting extremely stressed out and nobody wants to see me stressed out right now. Trust me. Oh, where's C.Q. when you need him?]"

"Oh, uh...sorry. I guess I'll stay in here then. Have fun on the next floor, guys!"