Chronicle easily took down the next floor boss, which was a giant ball hidden in three progressively smaller shells that only popped open when it hit one of the bumpers in the course; for the price of summoning a bunch of Jelletons in the process. It didn't really attack much itself besides aggressively rolling towards Chronicle, tossing a Splat Bomb or two, and firing off a Sting Ray special that increased in amount fired after every shell shattered.
Tartar believed he had finally got the Tartar Unit to work. The design now was a mixture of his and Marina's ideas. It collected power, and used the said collection as a power supply in case if one of the main supplies was damaged. The main supplies were held in lights on the back of its head, the hands and antenna being the backups. The antenna would be used as a last resort, as it drew the least amount of power.
Tartar had added a second one to make sure the unit would be able to last for a while.
The energy units were marked by lights in the shape of Kamabo Co.'s logo, the two wavy lines. Marina really wanted to put her Off the Hook octopus symbol on it too, but Tartar brought up the fact that the unit was technically 'Kamabo Co tech' and should therefore be shown as such.
Ron and Pearl started chanting for him to turn the unit on.
In order to fully repair the unit, Tartar had to scrap its original body-only keeping the head the same-and build it an entirely new one. This one came with the added perks of a longer body, arms and legs, and a neck. Lights were added to the new body to give it a stylized look and Apocalypse had been sewing it a suit for a while, in which lights were also added.
Ron and Pearl still wouldn't stop chanting, and wouldn't let Chronicle leave the elevator until they were sure the unit now worked.
Tartar moaned softly. "[Fine, I just want you two to stop pestering me! You're giving me a headache...]"
He clicked the remote and they all waited in silence. The unit's screen displayed the same rebooting display as before, and it went black again when it finished.
But it didn't move.
Tartar screamed at kicked it. "[Why is this happening?! I built the entire Deepsea Metro in a few years, and I can't fix a stupid AI from my own creator?! Graah!]"
Apocalypse stopped him from punching it. "Hang on."
Apocalypse picked it back up, as it fell when Tartar kicked it. He wiped some dust of the screen and tapped it lightly. The screen flicked back on, to something everyone was taken by surprise from.
The screen was a pale, light blue with two thick rectangle eyes and a pointed mouth with a goofy grin. Both the eyes and mouth were white, the small glow coming from its face illuminating the tiniest bit of the elevator. It fixed its small hat.
"Hello, hello! Who are all of you finely fresh people? I see a lot of octopus-looking folks, and is that a squid? Are you alright, everyone? Two of you are looking pretty-" Its face glitched. "-[buy one get one free!]"
Its voice sounded like a TV infomercial voice-over.
"[It worked! Haha!]" Tartar jumped, pumping his fist. "[Take that, depression! Who can't do it now, huh? Not this guy!]"
Apocalypse gave Tartar a weird look.
"He sounds...busted still," Pearl said.
"[I don't blame him. I sound busted with this robotic voice.]"
"I was a robot," Ron said.
Chronicle left to finish another floor.
Once Pearl and Chronicle finished all the floors up to the thirty-ninth, Marina decided to give them a motivational speech.
"Alright, we're reaching the end. I hope Chaos hasn't started its plan yet, otherwise we're in danger."
Apocalypse went to the doors as they opened, staying silent for a minute. "I think he already has, Marina. The signals coming from this floor were unreal, and now I know why."
Marina poked her head under his wing. "Oh no, I thought he would have been on the top floor, not this one. That means bad news is coming."
Chaos was in a strange shape of an octopus, tapping away on a red holographic screen. He didn't notice any of them as they stepped out the elevator.
Apocalypse held up a black orb. "Let me finish him off. This will be easy."
"Easy?!" Pearl gasped. "How strong did you say you were again? I remind you, that thing possesed Rina! Who says it can't possess you too?"
Apocalypse's arm shook lightly, and he crushed the orb. "Fine. Chronicle can try to face him if she wants, but I have a feeling this isn't going to go well without my help."
The newly-reactivated Tartar unit stared at Chaos. "This doesn't feel the same..."
"Hm? Something wrong?" Pearl asked.
Acht folded their arms. "This is the final showdown, so I'll be on the side cheering you on." They signaled towards their bandaged arm. "I want to help, but I shouldn't."
"You can stay behind," MArina said. "And the Tartar can stay with you."
"We need to give it a name," Ron said. "How about something cool? A 'v' name sounds cool, right?"
"What event was coming up soon?" Apocalypse pondered. "Valentine's day, was it? How about Valentine?"
"That sounds totally [corporate greed is a terrible thing]!" It hesitated. "You really need to fix that, brother."
"[Br-brother?]"
Valentine nodded. "You would be my younger brother, but yeah. You and I are related, no? [Stay fresh cheese bags are on sale now!]"
Chronicle hopped onto the cage and rode it down. Ron came down with her. Marina, Acht, and Valentine stayed behind. Apocalypse insisted on carrying Tartar there.
"Chaos!" Pearl yelled loud enough to shatter glass. "Stop your crazy plan right now, or we'll beat you up! Yeah, that's right! We'll kick you right to the curb!"
Chaos turned, losing some shape. "Ah, you've returned. I've no time for you, begone!"
He sent some sort of shockwave at them, Apocalypse using his wings to shield them all. He swiped the remaining debris away.
"You're strong, I like that." He vanished suddenly and Apocalypse jolted.
"Get...out...You're weak." He held his head, digging his claws into his head.
"Apocalypse?! Is he actually trying to possess you?!"
Ron rushed over. "Apocalypse, no!"
"Don't worry, Ron...He's nothing compared to what I had to fight already...He's only doing this because he's too much of a coward to fight us himself..."
Apocalypse collapsed, and Chaos reappeared. "Not him, his will is too strong. But you, you're perfect. Oh, yes you are!" He vanished again.
Tartar suddenly jolted and grabbed his head. "[N-no! Please, no! I just fixed myself, I can't go back there!]"
His hair was dripping excessively, and he was shaking his head occasionally. Chronicle went to try and help him, but Apocalypse held her back.
Tartar finally calmed down after a minute. "[Now that I have his body, once I'm done with him, I can take the rest of his code and expand this to the rest of the multiverse!]"
Pearl flinched. "No way! We have to fight him? Again?!"
Apocalypse immediately slapped Tartar upside the head. "Get out of his mind! Even an AI like you couldn't handle the knowledge he has!"
Tartar got off the floor almost like a puppet. "[How about no? Not until I'm done with him, anyways. And that'll be soon, no doubt. I only chose him because he knows all of your kill codes. He was programmed with that information.]"
Apocalypse tried to tackle him, but he dodged.
"[Oh, and he's agile too. And his ranged weapon will work wonders against you all. I just need to get to a higher ground. Where in his memories is the ability to Super-Jump? Oh, there it is.]"
He melted into a puddle of slime.
"[That wasn't supposed to happen.]" The puddle rippled. "[How do I fix this?!]"
The telephone's body fell on top of the puddle.
He stayed silent for a minute.
"You're an idiot," Apocalypse sighed.
He lifted the telephone from the puddle and pulled out the tentacle. It was attached to a gear and a few other small electronics. He handed it to Ron.
"Eww..." Ron held it out from him as far as he could.
"Bye, Chaos." Apocalypse completely destroyed the puddle of slime and faced back to Pearl, Chronicle, and Ron. "I told you this would be easy. He doesn't seem like mastermind material, though. He wasn't the real villain here."
"You mean that Chaos..." Pearl said.
"Was a fake. Possibly an AI made to distract us. The real enemy is likely to be on the top floor, the one right above us. So I suggest we better get going before it can finish Chaos' plan."
The tentacle wriggled in Ron's hand.
"EWWW!"
Apocalypse grabbed it. He poked the tentacle a few times. "Can you hear me?"
It wriggled again.
Apocalypse smiled a bit. "Good, so that didn't kill you. Come on, we're going back to the elevator."
When they got back, Marina looked baffled and horrified. Acht moved away from Apocalypse a bit.
Valentine poked it, which it wriggled angrily in return. "Uh, what is that? Where'd you get it?"
"It's Commander Tartar. This is his actual body. But it's unprotected like this, so we'll need to safely put it back inside the phone without damaging it."
"So that's his brain?" Pearl asked. "Creepy."
Apocalypse nodded. "The slime was supposed to protect it from damage. He can't talk, or see. He's lucky he's able to hear us. So we need to refrain from touching the tentacle as much as possible. If needed to come in contact with it, we do so gently. Understand?"
The people in the elevator nodded.
"Great. Does anybody have anything thick and soft?"
Everyone stayed silent.
"Nobody, huh?"
"Actually, I do. I didn't wanna give up my jacket though." Pearl flew over to Apocalypse.
"I'll make sure to give it back, Pearl."
Pearl turned back into herself and took off her big, white, puffy jacket. "Here you go."
Tartar was wriggling much more intensely now, Apocalypse nearly dropping him twice as he took the jacket from Pearl. "Calm down, Commander! I'm hurrying!"
He carefully wrapped Pearl's jacket around it and shoved it into the telephone's empty head. He stomped on it to shove it in there further and slammed it shut.
"There." He dusted his hands off.
"That was really aggressive!" Marina exclaimed.
"He was protected, it's fine."
Tartar slowly rose from the floor as the elevator slowed to a stop. "[Th-the...it...]"
"Are you okay?" Ron asked.
"[The...the music...]"
"What's up?" Acht asked. "Did it change again?"
He shook his head, a slight look of horror on his face. "[The music stopped.]"