"And you're sure you got the coffee orders correct?"

In the early morning light, two Inklings wandered through the streets of Inkopolis.

One of them, a short inkling with smaller yellow tentacles framing her face, clutched a small collection of sealed thermoses. She limped alongside her companion, a tall woman with long, cerulean tentacles swaying at her side.

The shorter inkling stifled a yawn, nodding, "Of course. I double checked and everything!"

Her companion shook her head, "Yeah, of course you did. You said the same thing last time. Kinda find it hard to believe you after what happened to Two."

"Oh, stuff a pineapple in it, 'Vannah! You don't even drink this coffee! Don't act all kinds of offended for her!"

The taller Inkling rolled her eyes, "First off, I'm Avanna, not 'Vannah. We're not like that, okay? Second off, if I can't trust you with my coffee, how am I supposed to trust you with, y'know, our work?"

"Come on! Like you've ever helped me! 'Sides, I'm fine on my own."

"Riiiiight. Like when you were mugged last night." Avanna said, smugly.

"Oh for the love of- I thought we agreed we wouldn't talk about that!"

"I don't need to say anything, your limp gives it away." The dumb squidhead had the nerve to chuckle at her misfortune.

"Line of duty, Avanna!" she shot back, "This isn't the worst I've had."

"Alyssa, you still got robbed. Besides, why were you even out shopping at two in the morning?"

"Late night study binge, I needed some snacks!" she excused, as if Avanna would even buy it.

Avanna sighed, "I know you're doing online classes, but holy carp at least take a little more care of yourself!"

"Cut me some slack, will ya?" Alyssa said, venom in her tone. "Besides, that's what the coffee's for."

"Still real unprofessional of you, Four."

Alyssa rolled her eyes, "Whatever, Three."

"Marie won't be happy." Avanna replied, curtly.

That thought made Alyssa flinch. Fortunately for her, there was no one else around save for herself and Avanna.

"Of course, what she doesn't know won't hurt her~!" Avanna sang, a smile creeping across her lips, "Maybe if you're willing to change your ways, I might be merciful."

Alyssa rolled her eyes, trying to hide to bluster through her fear. "Ok, ok, fine! You win. Sheesh."

"Good."

They lapsed again into silence. Before too long, they had arrived at Inkopolis Plaza, an all-too-familiar hangout place for them. In the early morning, almost no one was around, and as such, no one noticed as they discreetly slipped into an inconspicuous-looking grate.

Even now, after everything that had happened, Avanna still couldn't quite believe this was her lot in life. To think that at the young age of fourteen, having just gained her humanoid form, she would be sucked into the dark underbelly of their world.

It was a tough and thankless job, working for the New Squidbeak Splatoon. And, occasionally, horrifying. Scarring in both mind and body, literal in some cases.

Her eyes would never be the same color again, and she didn't have any convincing excuses to use when they'd start glowing.

Of course, the job did have its perks. Never had she thought she would actually get to meet her idols, much less finding out they led double lives as secret agents. Conspiracy, conspiracy. She lived for that squit.

Reality truly was stranger than fiction, and now, there was no going back for her. She had peered beyond the veil.

She and Four had emerged onto the other end of the grate, both morphing back into their humanoid forms. Three grimaced, shielding her eyes from the sudden, bright light. While traveling via the sewers certainly was faster, it still took time to travel to their outpost outside the city in Octo Canyon.

Meeting at the Canyon itself was strange; usually, if they needed to hold a meeting, they would do so at the Sister's apartment. Something had to be wrong if they were eschewing such a tradition.

The fact that it was only Marie who greeted them cemented that fact.

"There you two are," the idol-turned-secret agent said, her voice it's usual dour. She was leaning against the doorway of their small outpost. She had forgone her traditional gray kimono, instead wearing her actual agent gear. Another bad sign.

"Two," Three stated impassively. She had grabbed Four by the wrist, who winced at the touch, and dragged her to the shelter. Marie had already disappeared inside.

The shelter's innards, as usual, were a cramped affair, with barely enough room for them to sit at a small table. The rest of the space stored equipment and weaponry. Utilitarian in function, nothing more.

Marie was already seated at the table. Three and Four followed suit, Four handing over the thermoses of coffee. Marie took one, taking a deep sip.

"...Mhm, not bad. Not bad."

Four nodded, eagerly chugging from her own thermos. Three, however, left hers untouched. The last thing she needed was to be jittery for whatever bad news was to come their way.

"So. Why'd you call us here?" Three asked. Marie held up a hand as she took another sip of her coffee. She brought it down, smacking her lips.

"I was watching the Canyon all night. Something's up."

Oh dear.

"Two, what's going on?" Four asked. It seemed she was finally realizing how odd things were.

Marie thought for a moment, before answering, "Nothing good."

Four balked, "Nothing good? What's that supposed to mean?"

Marie didn't answer. Rather she pulled out several printed pictures from the folder, laying them on the table. Avanna and Alyssa silently stared at them.

The ruined remains of a pickup truck.

A destroyed portable respawner.

A heavily reinforced door set in rock, fire and smoking pouring from the aperture.

Ravaged government body armor, a charred hole blown through the chest.

An obscured figure, wreathed in flame.

Four looked up to Marie, brows furrowed, "What is this?"

Marie sighed, hands folded, "Three days ago, a previously unknown facility up in the mountains was discovered by a few locals. Naturally, the government sent a heavily armed and armored team to investigate. They had fears it was an Octarian base, as did we."

"And was it?" Four asked, picking up one of the pictures and looking at it, "It looks like a fight went down."

"There was," Marie sighed, "but it wasn't Octarians."

"Then… what was it?" Three asked, already dreading the answer.

"We don't know," Marie admitted, "Gramps' sources don't have any real idea of what happened, either. The facility was destroyed and most of the team's equipment was unsalvageable. These pictures were what we could get off the body camera footage. What we could recover, at least."

Three tepidly picked up the photo of the destroyed armor. What could have done this…?

She couldn't tear her focus away from it. From each burnt fringe, every torn contour, every punched hole...

Four was still staring at the picture she had picked up. The mysterious figure, flames flashing around them. "Who is this?"

Marie fell silent for a moment, before answering, "...We think this person is the one who killed them."

Four blinked, "...You think? They were captured, right?"

Marie's silence answered that.

Three finally tore her attention from the photo, "So, this person, or… persons, is loose?"

"Yes."

Three couldn't help but feel uneasy. An unknown facility discovered, the team sent to explore it all but massacred… and the ones who did so were free. Were they Octarian agents?

Or… was this something else entirely?

"Oh…" Four mumbled, "That… explains some things."

Marie blinked, "What do you mean?"

"Um… I was…"

"She was mugged last night," Three interjected.

Marie barely had any time to process that information before Four shot back, "The person was wearing something like that gear the person here's wearing. Isn't the same make, though."

"...We'll get someone on that," Marie finally said, looking vaguely disturbed. "For you two, though, we've got something much more important."

"And you don't think we should be handling this?" Three protested, "What could be more important than capturing a murderer? Or, at the very least, an accomplice?"

"The ripple effects from that incident are what we're concerned about," Marie admitted, "Let me show you something." She got up from the table and went outside, Three and Four tepidly following suit.

The two of them joined Marie at the edge of their little island hideout. Far below them, the various districts of the Canyon were buzzing with activity. Octarian troopers and Octolings loaded en masse into their UFOs, a few of them already departing from the Canyon. Three noted an Octostomp being ushered into a larger one, along with a few large light bulbs and zapfish.

"That's what we're worried about."

"...Oh." Four muttered, "What has them up in arms?"

"A new dome was discovered. One out in the mountains, on the other side of Inkopolis." Marie replied, a bit of worry breaking through her demeanor.

"A new dome? What's that supposed to mean?" Four questioned, pacing, "Why would the Octarians build a dome there, then abandon it?"

"You ever read the Sunken Scrolls?" Three asked, eyebrow raised. "Do you even know about the history behind them?"

"Um… no?"

Three sighed, before saying, "The Octarians never built the domes. They were human structures originally."

Marie nodded, adding, "That's where the undiscovered facility comes in. Before being destroyed, we think it emitted a distress signal, of sorts." She turned to look at Four.

"It in turn caused every Octarian dome to release a… a response signal, if that makes any sense. All the signals coming from the Canyon and Valley were quickly dealt with, but one remained."

Four nodded, "This new dome, right?" Marie nodded. "I'm still confused though. Wouldn't that mean the discovered facility had something to do with humans?"

Marie nodded, "We're thinking it was. Though without being able to examine it, we can't know for sure."

"If it was, perhaps it was best that it got destroyed." Three said, "We don't need another homicidal AI or world ending catastrophe." And I don't need to see anybody else with eyes like mine.

"I agree," Marie said, "Even if several unknown actors are loose..." She sighed, bringing a hand to her forehead, "I figure they could shed some light on this whole mess."

"If they don't kill you, that is." Four butted in.

"I still think we should focus on them, though." Three added.

"We'll worry about that later." Marie said, "For now, we're sending you to survey the new dome. Unfortunately, the Octarians haven't set up any connecting kettles yet, so you'll have to travel on foot."

Two groans, but two nods.

"That's everything. Good luck." Marie turned back to the canyon, taking another sip of her coffee.

They were almost gone when a thought hit Three, "You get in touch with Eight about this?"

Marie shook her head, "Unfortunately, no. She's still AWOL."

"...I see. Thanks for trying, at least."

And with that, they were gone.

Three couldn't help but think back to the pictures of the destroyed armor. Whoever did that was still out there, still loose. Anyone willing to kill a strike team, and having the ability to do so…

Combined with Four's thought that they had actually been in Inkopolis… She dearly wished they could have been hunting them down instead. Make sure they didn't kill anyone else.


To see the sunrise was truly a treat.

He was sheltered in a small copse of trees overlooking a small gorge. The pseudo-human city was still visible in the distance, but far enough to provide him a measure of comfort. And with no obvious paths leading to his little resting place, he felt comfortable enough to finally forsake the ERA suit and change back into his regular clothing, now that he was out in the wild.

Minus the boots, of course. He was not about to go wandering about in dress shoes. Preferably, he wouldn't be hiking around in what essentially amounted to dress clothing either, but it was much less bulky and constricting than the ERA.

It wasn't like he had to worry about dress codes now, anyways. He was going to be wearing his shirt untucked, and HR wasn't going to be able to stop him this time. Truly, a positive.

That was right. Focus on the positives, so that way, he wouldn't lose his goddamn mind.

He had taken the opportunity to rest a bit, as well as break into the groceries he had stolen. It may have been immoral and probably illegal to take them, but what could he say? He was starving, and she was the one who stalked him across town. While he normally wasn't one to use the phrase "the ends justify the means," it certainly did apply here. What were a few lost groceries and some bruises to the potential salvation of his entire species?

Of course, it was only junk food and soda, but it was better than nothing. Not like he was worried about any dieting. After all, he needed every calorie he could get. It being surprisingly similar to human junk food was an unexpected plus. Silver linings.

Like the groceries, hitching a ride with an unsuspecting pseudo could have been viewed as immoral as well, but he was out of options on that one. He could have walked God knows how long, or he could have just hopped into the bed of a stopped truck, and maybe…

Well…

He got to be lucky sometimes, right?

The signal he found could be considered another lucky break too.

He wished he held the same luck with trying to decipher its origin, however. For the past several hours, he had been hunched over, scribbling equations and diagrams into the loose dirt.

His brows were furrowed while he muttered various numbers under his breath. He could barely remember the formulas he was using, and with so many equations, he was bound to get a few numbers wrong, which would only impede his progress.

He actually had a calculator with him, originally, but like many of the delicate electronics he had possessed, it had been destroyed during that spat on that island. Which meant he was having to do all of the calculations by hand.

It was… infuriating.

But necessary. If he wanted to find the origin of that signal. And he had all the time he needed to decipher its secrets.

If it held secrets at all.

Earlier, he had been fiddling with his ERA suit's inbuilt radio, trying to pick up anything he could find. There had been a lot of pseudo garbage clogging most of the frequencies, no doubt broadcasting from their city. News stations, music stations, radio talk shows, they meant nothing to him. Always that same, damnable bubbly gibberish.

Granted, he spent a bit longer listening to the music than he would have liked to admit. He couldn't understand any of the lyrics, but they certainly had taste. No classical pieces, much to his chagrin. Instead, it was mostly synth and chiptunes. Pretty decent stuff if he had to say anything about it, but nothing that'd help him concentrate on finding this signal.

It was near the high end of the radio frequency, almost brushing up against the microwave spectrum where he found it. An encrypted signal, judging from the seemingly garbage noise behind its public messages. Three short beeps, followed by three long beeps, then three short beeps once again.

SOS

He couldn't fathom any of the pseudos using it, or even knowing what it meant. What were the odds they had developed the exact same morse code, and used the exact same signal? He felt confident in saying it was of human origin. Polaris' warden AI woke him from stasis because it heard a distress signal, and being the response to it was one of his key objectives. Perhaps this was the same signal?

There was no living hope he could get past its various encryptions, so he was doing the next best action; triangulating the signal.

It had taken more than a fair amount of walking to get the measurements he needed, but without the ERA bearing down on him, it wasn't too bad. If nothing else, it got plenty of kinks out of his muscles.

And of course, more math.

Blegh.

What he wouldn't have given for an internet connection.

Marginally annoyed at this point, he decided to take a quick break, setting his drawing stick aside…

…only for it to start floating. As in, honest to God zero-gravity type floating.

What the hell?

This was new, whatever it was. New, and testable, if his scientific instincts still worked correctly. Ordinarily, such a thing would have elicited a greater response from him, but equally, it was small potatoes compared to this new world. He leaned down, picking up a pebble and gently tossing it in the direction of his floating stick.

Much like the stick, gravity stopped applying itself to the rock at a certain point.

"Hm…"

Experimentally, he tossed another rock into the open air, a bit harder this time.

Just like the one he had thrown previously, the trajectory skewed when it hit a certain patch of space. The natural curve of the rock temporarily suspended, before plummeting once more to the Earth. Hardly noticeable if he wasn't looking for any discrepancies.

Interesting. I wonder…

Putting his ERA's helmet back on and making sure it was secure, he took a few steps to what he gauged to be the edge of the anomalous area, a new rock in hand. Gently, he reached his hand in. If he was correct about his suspicions…

He let go of the rock, dropping his hand back down to his side. Instead of falling, the pebble remained where it had been released, spinning slightly.

Somehow… impossibly, this patch of space, this "anomaly", was without gravity...

Was Great Uncle actually onto something with those stories…?

He had long since gotten to the predicted signal location, only to be enraptured by this oddity. Gravity couldn't just be turned off like this. As far as he knew, sure, but this…

He sighed, a hand coming to his forehead.

He didn't have time for this. This was nothing but another thing to add to the pile of current mysteries that he would invariably never solve. An interesting detour, nothing more. Another piece of evidence for his "reality was breaking down" hypothesis. Though, why here in particular?

Though…

He took a tepid step into the anomaly. Even if he was a grown adult with the burden of responsibility, he still had that inner-child urging him onward. Trying a bit of zero gravity wouldn't hurt, right? What could possibly go wrong?

"OH GOD GET ME DOWN DOWN DOWN DO-"

Thud!

Bad idea… Ouch…


Considering this newly discovered dome wasn't connected to the Octarian's kettle network, getting there was a bit of a chore.

The fact that the area outside of Inkopolis was criminally undeveloped didn't help. Not that Three blamed anyone for that. The land didn't have much use outside of housing acres of trees, hills, gullies, and shady business. Not hilly enough to be unlivable, but the land only permitted the occasional house. The fact that a few roads existed here was miraculous enough.

Three was bundled into the back seat, while Four sat in the passenger's seat of a small, blue car driving down one of those miracle roads. Not their car, of course. They weren't that rich. Or knew how to drive, for that matter.

But Callie and Marie were rich, and they did know how to drive. While Marie stood watch at the Canyon, Callie was chauffeuring them. Though, personally, Three wished Marie was driving instead.

Because then, she wouldn't have to deal with this sickening pop music.

Four was sitting in the passenger's seat, singing with Callie to some inane, catchy dribble. Three might've liked it if she wasn't in her current mood. While Alyssa and Callie rode the waves of the song, she was a stone stuck in the bottom of the current.

How in the shell were they so torqued up during this?

There was a dangerous lunatic (or lunatics) on the loose, and if Four was to be believed, they had been in Inkopolis; Surrounded by thousands of innocents. They had killed a highly skilled strike team permanently. They could brute force past a respawner's defenses.

Why inspect a stupid new dome when there was a very real threat in the city!? She and Four could always raze the dome later! Why didn't they see it that way?

Could they at least turn off that coddamn music!?

She wanted to shout, to yell, but the response was strangled by her discipline.

Patience… Think…

Idly, she wondered what that stranger, the one who mugged Four, was doing.

What nefarious plot were they up to?

On one final, high note, Four and Callie finished their duet. Before they could start on another song, Three shot forward, turning off the radio.

Words were already coming out of her mouth when she did so, "This ain't a road trip. Take this a little more seriously."

Callie pouted, "Threeeeeee, this is an easy mission! Just get in, look around, get out. Nothing too dangerous!" She moved to turn the radio back on, but Three stopped her hand.

"C'mon!," Four pouted, "We don't get out much, let us have our fun!"

Three rolled her eyes, but didn't relent, "How much do we really know, though? For all we know, we're walking into a trap."

"You're beginning to sound like Gramps. Take a chill pill!" Callie protested, looking back to her, "We're certainly being care-"

"TREE!" Four shouted, jerking Callie from her conversation. She swerved back onto the road proper, having almost driven off.

"That's what I mean," Three said, trying to ignore the sudden shock of fear, "You two really aren't taking this seriously at all!"

Callie was about to say something, but Four cut her off, "Three, calm down! I know you're a bit more high strung than the rest of us, but seriously, you're freakin' out over nothing!"

Three huffed, sitting back, trying to wrestle her emotions back under wraps. "Just sayin'. Nothing about this seems fine, or normal. Something's up, and I'd really like it if you two realized that, too." she muttered.

The car lapsed into a tense, if almost blissful silence.

...

The car finally pulled off to the side of the well beaten road, the afternoon sun beating overhead. The stop nudged Three from a small catnap she had fallen into.

"We're walking from here," Callie explained, turning off the car, "The dome is deeper within the woods."

Four blanched, "Do we really need to?" She looked nervously at the trees, "I don't like that thought."

Callie sighed, but nodded, "Neither do I, but we don't have much of a choice." She walked to the trunk of the car, opening it.

Callie pulled out her NSS kit from the trunk, "C'mon, let's gear up."

While putting on her own uniform, Three glanced into the thicket. How long had it been since she had last been hiking?

Too long, if that instinctive twinge of fear she still had was any indication. She supposed it was only natural. Some primordial part of her recognizing it wasn't their spot in the world. You can take the fish out of the ocean, but you can't take the ocean out of the fish.

Too enclosing, too… empty. It always set her on edge.

There was always something wrong, something twisted about this countryside. She supposed it was partly why so few people lived out here. Places like Camp Triggerfish were one thing. That forest? Full of life. These eerie, desolate woods? Not so much.

She put on her headgear with a sigh. The sooner they were done here, the better. Then she could get back to what mattered; bringing that murderer to justice.


It was about time he found it.

He'd spent several hours combing the area his calculations narrowed the search down to, butto no avail. It was about a two square kilometer area, and he had severely underestimated how much space it actually contained. He knew his calculations were flawed, but not by this much.

Running into several more of those gravitational anomalies (quite literally) didn't help.

It had taken him performing the same calculation again to find the origin within the area. Even then, it was largely chance when he stumbled upon it, buried amidst a metric ton of bushes and trees.

A small, rusty tower blended in extraordinarily well with the foliage, but he had the luck to find it. It was a (relatively )tiny thing, only twice his height. It was covered in small dishes, and a few small lights were still lit up on it.

A small thrill went through his chest. He had found it!

He was fairly certain it was the transmitter. How it had stood, let alone worked this long, he wasn't sure, but then again, how had he survived so long in stasis? The materials must have been of their more "high-quality" stock.

But the real question was; what else was here? This transmitter tower couldn't be the only thing here, right? It needed to be connected to a computer, a power source. And why else would there be a (presumably) human transmitting device in the middle of these hilly woods?

Looking closer at the tower didn't reveal much. A few shielded wires ran along one leg and dipped into the dirt. A bit of digging revealed a concrete base underneath. Not surprising.

No doubt there was more here, but how to find it…

If there was anything to find.

He sighed. Time to take more shots in the dark...

It was around nightfall when he had a revelation. As it turned out, the shielded wires attached to the tower weren't secured in the concrete. Rather, they were buried, and not too deep, either.

Following their direction had led him to a particularly nasty thicket, growing on a steep slope. They were covering something, and a cursory defoliation revealed a rusty heavy duty door, outlined in steel and enshrined in a concrete alcove of sorts.

Yes!

...Though, how was he going to get it open?

There weren't any obvious handles or buttons on its frame. Clearly, it wasn't meant to be opened willy-nilly. A good sign, and if it was magnetically locked, even better, albeit a pain. He withdrew a magnetic coilgun slug from his bag and tepidly tossed it at the door. It almost hit, but an invisible force threw it back.

So, magnetically locked.

Great. Just. Great.

On one hand, that indicated the place was still intact and operational, but on the other hand, he hadn't come all this way to be turned away by a locked door. Still, if it was locked magnetically, he didn't have many options. He stood for a minute, thinking.

The idea that came to mind wasn't exactly a fantastic one, if he had to admit it, but…

Oh, what the hell. It was worth a shot.

He sat his backpack on the ground, fishing out some stuff; his ERA and two mag rifle magazines, their internal batteries both charged with precious, precious energy. It took large amounts of power to fire a single gauss round, and each battery could fire about fifteen of them apiece. As such, there was one very notable catch when it came to them.

Not long after he first set foot in Polaris, the company received all manner of batteries and equipment to test, as part of the program behind the development of coilguns like his MRX Watatsumi rifle. Suffice to say, they didn't exactly go well, at first.

All the explosions, the severe collateral damage, the setbacks, and finally the months of work to make the batteries both cost-effective and stable. They'd eventually managed to achieve the former, but the latter… not so much. Compacting so much energy into a completely stable form was simply impossible with their current technology. They could store it, sure, but it was about as safe as a box of dynamite in a candle factory.

And more or less, he was about to turn two of them into a makeshift bomb. Great Uncle would be proud of him, wherever he was.

But alas, building a bomb was easier said than done.

He rooted through the scrap that were his broken gadgets, eventually (and luckily) withdrawing a pair of long, unshielded wires. The main issue with the batteries' stability partially came from the lack of energy inhibitors; as a consequence of the chemicals used to store the energy itself, they hadn't found a way to natively prevent energy input. Each one was topped off with almost its maximum energy capacity, and going over it, even just a little, had been rigorously proven to be catastrophic.

And with how much energy each one held, his box of dynamite allegory wasn't too far off. It took plenty of power to fire a single coilgun slug, after all, and some of the chemical concoctions used were, to put it lightly, a hairs thread away from reacting like cesium does in water.

Explosively.

And, if he did this correctly, he was about to dump another battery's worth of energy into one, making those metaphors a reality.

Night was about to fall, and with how vacant the area was, he was confident an explosion would go uninvestigated for some time. Still, he slipped the rest of his ERA back on, just in case someone was indeed around. What he would do if that were the case was… well, he had no idea. Give up?

Of course, the ERA was also for safety. The last thing he wanted was to be electrocuted to death, especially by the amount of electricity a coilgun battery would send through him.

He was pretty sure that much energy would much less electrocute him, and more actually just explode him. Humanity's only hope, subjected to rapid matter-to-energy conversion in the middle of a depressing forest in the middle of nowhere. What a way to go.

A pit of nervousness had opened up in his stomach, making him shake as he walked to the door, batteries and wires in hand. He was essentially taking a dull stick and thwacking it over a grizzly bear's hindquarters. There were so many ways this situation could go, most of them bad, but he didn't have a choice.

Even now, the fact itself that he was resorting to cracking a door open with an IED was worrying. The place still had power, yet there hadn't been any attempt to respond to him. He had tried, too; every signal he could send out, in fact. All in vain. Not even an automated response, either.

Something was wrong here. And yet, he still had hope.

He had no choice but to hope. He had no real choice in any of this.

Squatted down at the door's base, he placed the two batteries close together. Beforehand, he had wrapped a few spare wires around them to keep them together during the whole process. It was messy, but it would be good enough.

What he would have given for some duct tape...

Now... the scary part. He took several deep breaths.

He could do this.

He. Could. Do. This.

With shaking hands, he carefully wound the unshielded wires around the positive and negative terminals of the first battery. It took him a while, considering he didn't have any proper clamps, as well as having to work with the ERA's bulky gloves, but he eventually got it. Positive, positive, other terminal.

Everything was set. With trembling hands, he held up the negative wire, the last to be set. When he set it to a piece of freestanding metal, there would be no turning back. During the trials, it usually took about nine seconds on average for the battery to spontaneously combust.

So, set the wire. Run like hell. Pray it breaks through. It was far from a shaped charge, yet the door wasn't a spring chicken.

Simple in theory, terrifying in execution.

He glanced back to a fallen log a good fifty meters away or so, his pack resting behind it. A reasonable distance from the explosion, if it was going to be as small as he remembered the explosions from Polaris' tests being. Considering how unreliable his luck was, he wasn't exactly confident the log would do much, but once more - he had no real choice.

Ok…

Go time.

He jammed the wire against the door, hooking it on one of the indentations. A flurry of sparks flew from the connection.

Time to go!

He ran, tearing across the ground. Terror propelled him forward, mind focused solely on getting to the log.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

Eight.

He vaulted over the log, diving behind it.

He shifted slightly, slowly peering up over the log.

Why hadn't it explo-

BOOM!

A shrieking explosion of fire and energy obscured the door, sending stone and metal shrapnel everywhere. One piece shot straight at him, hitting him square in the head. His helmet absorbed the worst of it, but sent him back under the log.

He lay there, dazed. Vaguely, one hand went to caress the affected spot.

Ow…

That… ow… another one to add to the collection…

Gingerly, he raised himself up. It didn't hit nearly enough to cause a concussion, but he would be damned if it didn't bruise.

Seeing what was left after the explosion raised his spirits, though.

A nice, jagged hole had been blown through the metal, more than enough to crawl through. Its surroundings, on the other hand, had been pulverized. Cracked stone caked the area, and dust much more so. Even in the twilight, it was easy enough to see, almost like snow.

Holy shit.

A small smile crept up on his face. It wasn't a breaching charge or anything fancy, but it certainly did the trick.

He screamed in triumph, devolving into laughter. He couldn't help it. He needed to release all of his pent up worry, transfigured into relief.

Today had its ups and downs, but…

Another glance was sent the way of the breached door.

...This was a nice way to end it.


"Come on, Avanna, sit with us!"

Three shot a baleful eye at Callie. She had set up a small campfire, and was warming herself by it. Four had joined her, and was sitting up against a log.

Three simply shook her head. She herself was a few meters from the rest, in the trees, Hero Shot at the ready. Secretly, she was teetering with weariness, but her pride refused to let it show.

She should've been resting, but a few anxious butterflies fluttered in her stomach. Earlier, they had found where the Octarian UFOs were heading. A large pile of boulders had been cleared away in a particularly deep gulch, revealing a very substantial-looking entrance, one a Great Octoweapon wouldn't have issue getting through.

And considering it was the only way in they could find, they would have quite the fight getting in, never mind what lay within. The Octarians were already firmly entrenched inside, after all.

A night-time assault seemed best. Slip in, kick some ass, slip out, then go from there. Which led back to Callie's damnable campfire.

In the twilight, it wasn't so bad, but when night truly settled, it would stand out like a beacon. They were far enough away, but it still really didn't help her nerves. Even with her on guard duty, it set her on edge.

"~-o sing our campfire song!~"

And the singing. She was really beginning to hate that song.

"~Ou Song-~"

Oh, sure, it wasn't like they were on a secret mission, or were, y'know, AGENTS.

"~And if you don't think that we can sing it faster than you're wrong~"

Callie looked right at her, those big golden orbs lancing holes through her glowing teal ones.

"~It will just help, if you sing, along~"

If it wasn't for the fact they were miles away from the nearest respawner, Three would've splatted her right then and there, hierarchy of power be damned.

She had earned her instincts, her experience. She was Agent Three, renowned amongst her few comrades, feared by the Octarian race. Surely, the others would allow her to throw that weight around from time to time!

Anything to stop that sickening, overly cheerful melody.

If they were going to sing, at least sing something good! Not some stupid campfire song.

"Alright, double time!" Callie cheered. Three groaned, covering her ears.

"~Let's gather 'round the campfire and sing our-"

BOOM!

A shriek of an explosion tore through the dusk, sending Callie and Four scrambling for their weapons. Three shot up, nerves immediately alight. Already, the echoes of the explosion were fading.

They stood in a state of shock, weapons ready to fire at anything.

Slowly, the tension faded from the group as no threat presented itself.

"W-what was that?" Callie hissed, all joy and bubbliness gone from her tone.

"Explosion." Three responded simply, "Judging from what I heard, it came from…" She pointed into the forest, "That way."

Four groaned, but nodded, "I-I think so too?"

Three rolled her eyes, but continued, "Probably caused by an Octarian, or something. Four, on me. We're going in. Callie, hold down the fort."

"Three," Callie said, taking a tone a parent would to a disobedient child, "I'm the one in charge here."

Three nodded, not breaking eye contact.

"...But, I think your intuition is correct."

She mentally gave herself a pat on the back. Small victories.

"Keep in touch by radio, 'kay?" Callie said, donning her headgear. Four nodded, doing the same. Three, who was already wearing her gear, nodded as well.

"Come on, Four." Three said, motioning for the younger agent to follow, "Stay on your toes."

Soon enough, Three and Four were stalking through the forest. With the night creeping up on them, they both brought out flashlights. Nothing too powerful, but enough to see, and quick enough to turn off. The Octarians probably wouldn't have disturbed campers, yet flashlights straying very close to them?

Even with Four's presence and the weight of her Hero Shot by her side, she couldn't help but feel a bit creeped out. Cod, she really did hate this forest. There was almost nothing here, but what it could be hiding was what kept her up at night. They had already found out about some Octarian bunker or dome here, so who knows what else might be out here? Could that murderer be here, stalking them right now?

She looked behind her, shining her flashlight around. Inky darkness, shadowy trees. Nothing.

She shivered, reorienting herself. Four gave her an odd glance, but kept on track.

...

"I… think we should head back, now." Three said, finally stopping, "We'll never be able to find anything when it's this dark out."

Four nodded, shifting on her feet. "Y-Yeah, I like that idea." She turned back, footfalls crunching.

Three paused. Crunching?

It was late summer, there weren't any leaves on the ground. A few sticks, maybe? She shone her light down.

Chunks, powdered rock. All around them.

"Four!" She hollered. Before Four could turn to glare at her, she added, "I think this is where it happened."

"What makes you say that?" Four asked. Three simply gestured to the ground.

"Oh."

They began shining their flashlights around, looking for anything else. A lot more powdered rock, and progressively larger chunks.

What happened here?

By chance, a stray beam of light reflected off metal. Four yelped in surprise, getting Three's attention.

Another flashlight lit up the metal, revealing a structure hidden in the bush.

A metal door, set in cracked rock. A large hole had been punched through the metal.

"Oh… shell." Three mumbled.

Four took a step back, "Should I radio Callie?"

She nodded, keying her own headset to listen in.

"One, it's Four. Come in, over."

Static.

"One, come in, over!"

More static.

"Great. Line's dead, I think. This forest's probably playing shell with our signal." Three said, watching as Four all but visibly deflated.

"S-So what do we do, then? Sit and wait?" the younger agent squeaked.

Three looked to the doorway, at the gash in the metal that was conveniently the right size for an Inkling to crawl through. She took a deep breath, then stepped towards it.

Nerves be damned, they still had a mission to complete.

"We do what we do best, Four. C'mon."


Something was definitely wrong here.

He hadn't wasted any time after cracking the door open. He had crawled through the hole he'd made, and for the past half hour he'd been walking nonstop. Behind the door had been some kind of unfinished passageway, dirty and cracked for as long as he could see. Which wasn't exactly much, thanks to the lack of working lighting.

The use of his flashlight easily rectified that.

It was… surprisingly eerie to walk through. The light of his flashlight barely made a dent in the darkness. The echoing of his steps was the only sound. If it wasn't for the knowledge this was his only real lead, he would have turned tail as soon as he saw the passage; It had been a gradual downward slope the whole way, barring the odd few twists and turns here and there.

How long was this tunnel, anyway?

Ugh… as much as he was loath to think it, this was all reminding him too much of Polaris.

If he had a nickel for every time he was in a human-made facility that was dead silent and completely pitch black, he'd have two nickels. It wasn't a lot, but he felt like he'd be getting quite a few more before the day was over.

Almost right as his nerves were about to break, the tunnel mercifully terminated with another mag-lock door, a series of green lights indicating it was unlocked. Sliding it aside revealed a small, actually finished room made of steel and concrete. Even better, it was lit!

Was it depressing that a lit room was enough to alight him with joy? Yes.

Did he care? No.

He shook his head, bringing himself back. For now…

Looking around the room, he took stock of the place. The room was surprisingly barren, only holding cleaning supplies on a sturdy shelf. A sign in Japanese on a nearby wall read 管理人室.

Janitor's closet?

But then, why would the tunnel behind him even exist? Was it an emergency escape, or something? It was more recent, he was sure about that? An emergency expansion?

He looked to the other door in cramped space, an actual, honest-to-God normal door. It was held on actual hinges. Hinges!

He wanted to cry. It was so simple, yet so beautiful.

Quietly, he opened the door, hinges creaking.

Simply divine. It had been too long since he had heard that familiar sound.

The door had opened into a spacious concrete hall, similar fluorescent lights and more doors lining the walls, numbers printed above them in a format he'd never really seen before.

16F-12, 16F-13, 16F-14, and so on.

Sixteenth floor? So, this was a Shelter? Specifically, one of the larger ones?

From what he knew of those, the massive bunker complexes the Japanese government had built were spartan, but undeniably comfortable. More comfortable than Polaris, at least. Polaris wasn't purpose built to hold hundreds of people in relative comfort while God-knows-what raged outside, after all.

Speaking of people…

This place seemed empty. His footsteps echoed uncomfortably loud as he walked down the hall. It was… actually kinda creepy. An uncomfortable, dull din permeating the space didn't help. Like he was inside some great machine.

He knocked on a few doors, but didn't receive any kind of response. All of them were locked as well. Unsurprising, yet unhelpful.

Where was everyone?

He had blown through one of their doors to the outside. Any rational group would've been monitoring those doors, yet no one had come to check. They would've already been here if that were the case. One didn't lock a door with magnets, only to leave it unmonitored.

Something was wrong.

He had begun exploring the tunnel with the assumption he would be able to rest in here tonight (sleep was already calling to him,) but it looked like he would be staying up a bit later...

Shaking his head, he reached the end of the short hall.

Another door, this one composed of an alloy, and a bit thicker than the rest. 中央の部屋 was printed on the door. Testing the handle, he found it to be unlocked. If this was what he thought it was, there should be-

The din immediately grew to a roar of machinery and engine as soon as he opened the door. He stepped back in surprise, but shook his head and went through.

Woah.

Massive couldn't begin to describe it. The door had opened directly onto a catwalk suspended high, dizzyingly high over a large series of catwalks and a severely damaged floor below, if the pitch black holes in the floor were any indication.

The rounded ceiling stretched high above him, the walls curved, circumference unmeasurable. Catwalks criss crossed over the floor and along the walls. A comically large light bulb had been hung from the highest point, lighting the whole area up in a sickening glow.

He took a shaky breath, head swimming, legs weak. He fell to a knee, hands clutching the railing. His eyes were scrunched shut.

Chriiiiiist, heights aren't my thing…

On instinct, he crawled back to the door, getting back into the secure, stable hallway.

He sat for a moment, getting his bearings back. Eventually, he returned to his feet, ill feelings squashed. From the door, he properly observed the space.

Same as before. Catwalks all around, with massive geometric support structures keeping the dome shaped ceiling up.. The hall he was in probably wasn't in the dome itself, but was just underneath it. Trying to comprehend the geometry of it all hurt his mind.

He figured Shelters like this would be big, but this big? This was new, whatever it was. New, and terrifying.

Carefully, he stepped back onto the catwalk. Mind over matter, mind over matter…

He screwed up the courage to look downward. The floor, stretching at least a hundred meters below him, was a wreck. Messes of twisted metal, scrap, and dirt. Several portions of the floor were a simple metal mesh over impenetrable darkness, while many large pipes lined the bottom most walls.

And… a veritable army was gathered. Figures, odd… blobs, purple coloring; he couldn't make it all out from his perch. More figures walked along the lower catwalks.

Their forms were off, but… familiar.

No…

No.

No!

He carefully leaned back from the walkway rail, lower lip bitten.

Of COURSE. He couldn't have been the only one to have found the signal, and they'd beaten him here!

...

This explained it, why the place was empty.

They…

They must have rounded up all the humans, for whatever reason! That's why there hadn't been any reaction to his arrival.

Yes! That's what happened!

And, all he had to do was rescue them!

Yes! And after that, everything could be resolved!

But… he had to get past these intruders first.

How in the hell was he going to pull that off?


/ REWRITE A/N: /

Falk here. Oh boy, this one's where things start to get interesting.

There were a few complaints I personally had about this chapter's original form, mainly once the scenes inside the Shelter started to play out. This'll get worse after next chapter, but once again I can't say why because of spoilers. You'll see.

For now, though, I'll tell you that the Shelter didn't have any signage in the original release, which didn't make sense IMO - hence the addition of Japanese text. We did go back through in earlier chapters and specify that this fic takes place in Japan, so it only made sense to throw in some cheaply translated text and hope it works. Better than nothing, I suppose.

Those of you who're returning readers may notice some visual adjustments to Three. You probably know why, no thanks to your supernatural precognitive abilities reading this fic has given you. For those of you who're reading this for the first time, all I'll say is, uh… Chekov's Gun, smile!

Anyway, beyond the usual general enhancements and structural tweaks, this chapter definitely came out much better than the original one did. I'm going to be saying that a lot, but it's true - we're grinding hard to make sure THE POLARIS PROJECT's first act can be as good as it can get.

With that, I'm going to let 2021 Piston get to work saying his piece, and I'm going to also hope (on behalf of Piston and the rest of us here updating the fic) that you enjoyed this chapter! Have a good one!

/ ORIGINAL A/N: /

It is good to be back!

Allow me to apologize for the three month gap between chapters, but believe me, I was busy during that interlude. The previous chapters have been refined and updated, as well as the story plan being mostly plotted out. Going forward, we now have a map and a proper base to build with. AncientDragonDuelist was definitely a great help getting this all set up.

Anyways, some things to address. The rewritten chapters are mostly the same, just some details and scenes changed or tweaked. Nothing major, but some information (such as our lovable human having stolen Four's groceries) has been added. Feel free to read these rewritten sections if you want, or not if you don't. I would recommend doing so, personally, but it isn't a requirement.

Once again, I apologize for this chapter taking so long to come out! But, now things should be back on track schedule wise. And with what is to come next, I think the wait will have been worth it.

As always, thanks for reading and giving your kind words! They're always a great inspiration! I hope you've enjoyed this chapter, and please, have a good day!