"Everything in order?"
"Yes, my king. Your set list is ready as well. They'll come."
"They'd better. Time we make mince-meat out of this squiddo."
"You all heard our king." Commander Kelly says to her troupe on the coms.
This was it–Seela's last field deployment. The plan was simple–spread some rumors, draw the agent in–then ambush them. Take them down.
"Don't disappoint him."
The city being big as it was meant it had ample space for the field team to spread out. See it from all angles, and to give information as it was presented. The agent wouldn't be able to so much as scratch his nose without it being reported.
A warning light flicks on in the room she was stationed in, using an old charger and her goggles to sight in and get a view of the entrance. He was coming.
The stage was set.
Showtime.
The agent rushed in fast. The coms lit up.
"He's deploying a 'zooka, watch out!"
"Squad two at half strength."
"Flank him! We're sending in octostamps now!"
It was like watching a monster. Bombs flew, ink splattered. He salvaged armor from ransacked supplies. Rushing in and tearing it up like their troopers were made of paper. Seela punches the wall beside her, growing anxious. A crowd had gathered–Per the King–to see them win, not for a slaughterfest.
"Send in the octoling squads!" She says over the coms. "Alpha squad, form a wall before the arena! He can not get past you!"
The Alpha leader answers quickly, the sound of squad chatter echoing behind her. "Understood, Overwatch."
Another voice joins the conversation, "You know what you're doing, ensign?"
"Yes Commander Kelly." Seela replies, "Those squads should know what they're doing."
His assault slowed. But still, he weathered on. Seela scopes in and watches Alpha squad deploy.
"C'mon girls…" She mutters.
The fighting starts, each octoling breaking off in a different direction to get the best of him. But he's so agile. Whatever that weapon was…it was unique, to say the least. They hadn't gotten enough intel on it. Or that suit. Rolling, dodging, ducking, diving…
"My squad is down. Moving to engage head on."
"Roger." Commander Kelly replies. "Stay at a safe di– I'm compromised! Ensign, take the reins!"
Theres the sound of sudden movement, a voice faintly yelling "Take this!" Then the line goes dead. Seela's in disbelief.
"Awaiting orders, standing commander." The Alpha Leader sounds tense.
"Get into their coms!" Seela barks over the radio, "And everyone keep all lines open! I want to hear everything!"
She hears a "Yes ma'am!" and faint chatter, then click, the conversation's wide open.
"Stand down!"
The agent is standing off with the Alpha team leader.
"I can't let you reach the king."
"Alpha leader, don't dialogue, attack him!"
"Don't make me repeat myself."
The Alpha Leader pulls up to shoot, but is slower on the draw, falling backwards. The radio becomes staticy.
"I'm re–ing -er. And –u ca– op me."
"-ou — Callie? Sh– do– re–cuing. She came to us willingly!"
"Liar! Ho– you?!"
"Guess you di– o– her as well as you th–"
"You've stalled long enough. I've got bi– fish to fry."
She had to act now, Seela changes the frequency on her headset. "My King, I–"
"Who is this? Where's the commander?"
She takes a deep inhale. She was terrified. "Her position was compromised. I'm Ensign Seela. She left me in charge, and…he's on his way. I think he has help."
"A rookie, huh? How's the view of my sweet stage? Perfect place to win it all, isn't it?"
"Yes my lord. I'll do my best for you."
"Hey now–for all of us." He replies, unexpectedly encouraging.
The agent walks into the arena, where they spot Callie, and the battle begins.
"Stick to the set as normal." She says to Octavio, "We're trying to get into the rest of their coms."
She doesn't get a reply, but she knows she's heard.
It's intense– the Octobot King 2 was an incredible machine…far more powerful than any other tool in the octarian arsenal. But still…she had doubts. Would it be enough? The crowd cheered as the agent took a hit, but he was oddly in tune with the beat. What was going on?
"He's gonna hit you with his shower attack! Dodge to the side!"
Seela stares in disbelief. They knew the set!
"Remix, remix!" She yells over the coms, in a panic. "They know your moves! Do a bomb rush!"
"Hey! Don't mess with the set!" Callie yells, as the Octobot moves unexpectedly.
Octavio still sounds chipper. "One bomb rush, coming up!"
"He should be–huh?! Agent Four!"
Seela does a fist pump as the bombs slam into the agent, detonating as they hit his right arm, blasting him backwards where he lies still for just a moment. Octavio laughs triumphantly, and the crowd cheers–then gasps, as he gets back up.
She gasps, "No way…what is this guy?!"
With just one functional arm, the agent was back on their feet. The fight continued, and somehow, he kept gaining ground. Even remixing wasn't going to help. A hover car pulls up with a portable stage, and a shots fires–striking the glasses off Callie.
"No! Damn it!" Seela yells. "Why didn't anyone tell me that was coming in?!"
"We don't know! I-I just now saw we'd lost half the scout corp!"
"What?! Your job is logistics! We are part of that! Our lives, for the king!"
"Sorry, standing commander!"
The fight raged on…until the octobot was stunned. The bass started to thump. Seela had to make the call.
"Everyone! Retreat! The King will make his final stand! Don't listen to the music! Evacuate the stadiums through the lower tunnels! We'll await the return of Octavio in the capital!"
It was a critical mission failure.
The king lost. No amount of support could stand up to that agent. Some citizens had to be rounded up and conditioned to believe in the cause again. Many were quiet. The buildings…were low on power.
There were back ups, of course. But they were old, and hadn't been fully charged. They'd have to get the manual plants back online, maybe get the research division to try and get the old fission plant running, but…
They had lost.
Without power to keep the caves dry, moisture began to gather on cracked and damaged screens and drip down like rain. Static filled monitors made for abstract clouds to gaze into, to contemplate where to go next.
Octavio did not return. And the generals that rose to take his place were far more focused on efficiency, than the rhythm of life that Octavio maintained. Her division was relegated to an old office building. All footage was to be backed up to hard copies before the CCTV system lost power, and they were to monitor every single mistake they made. To go over it, day after day, and find what they could have done differently. Some of the data was no longer there–it was like fighting a hypothetical battle with toy soldiers; why bother with a plan, when we didn't have the resources to act on it?
Would we ever again?
Seela wondered this as she listened to a natural underground creek.
So far, society was barely hanging in there. The King had fallen. That thought kept coming to mind. That sense of unity had been damaged at its core.
"We all fall." She says to herself.
"It wasn't your fault." Seela's surprised to see Kelly, bearing an eyepatch and a sling walking downhill to her. "Thought I'd find you here." She says, sitting beside Seela.
"I thought you weren't going to make it." She says to the commander, quietly. "I thought that…"
"I don't go down that easily." She chuckles, kicking her feet a bit. "But this…this is bad. You feel it. I feel it."
"That why you retired?"
"I was told to. With full honors." She replies dryly. "The new command, the generals…they don't get it like Octavio did." She looks out at the gray buildings, lights slowly going out at the city's edge every few minutes, as the dark slowly closes in. "There's no more music. No jams. We don't have a song to play to any more."
"I'm tone deaf." Seela jokes, "So maybe that's a good thing for me."
"Funny. Not." She looks at her, and half smiles. "Can you keep a secret?"
"Yeah. Of course, Commander."
"It's just Kelly now."
"Alright Kells." Seela leans back and rests on her arms to look at her. "What is it?"
"I'm leaving."
Seela blinks, caught off guard
"I'm heading to the surface. And I'm not sure I'm ever gonna look back." Kelly gestures with her good arm. "This life…it's miserable. This isn't a way to be. Being retired in the middle of a crisis…I might as well be useless anyways."
"Where…will you go?" Seela asks "They'll kill you."
"Maybe." She shrugs. "Who knows?"
Seela wakes with a start, panting. Her phone was vibrating, and she answered it quickly. She was getting called in to work all day. Again.
That dream…she heard the static of the coms. The roar of the crowd…replaced with screams. Or was it all the same? The flashes of blue ink.
The recovery effort of so many injured octolings.
They were all shadows, swimming in her mind. Her vision felt blurred, and her head swam. She was starting to get dulled to all this mindless violence and were they fighting for anymore?
She looks out the window of her dingy little apartment at the temporary shelters being built.
Was this it? She thought back to the past. Going out after shifts with her friends–her squad getting to go out for drinks after a job very well done.
The breaks in officers school, where she finally got to breathe.
Kelly stopping in to check on her while she was buried in work.
The smiles of the people that believed in her.
"Just memories…" She says with a whisper.
"Ma'am, like…I'm reeeeaaaallly trying to finish my shift. Can you pay?"
Waverly shakes her head, and apologizes, glancing back at what had caught her eye–a picture on the wall of a convenience store showing presumably other employees posing for a picture–one of them had an eyepatch, and an oh so familiar smile…but shrouded as her vision was it wasn't the most clear.
"Sorry again." She says, grabbing her bag. "Hey, that octoling in the picture there…?" She points. "Do they work here?"
"Oh, Kells?" They nod. "Yeah, you know her? She lives in the Eeltail blocks just east of here. Know'em?"
"Yeah, I think I do." She says, smiling.
"Er…want their number or something? Is she an old squeeze of yours?" The inkling at the counter teases.
"Just a friend."
"Well, here's her address too, for good measure, so you and your 'friend' can meet up."
She slides a paper over to her and winks.
"Thanks." She says, waving. "Have a good day!"
From the outside, the apartments didn't look great, but the inside was far nicer. The floors were easy enough to find. She'd gone home first, digging through her wardrobe to find it–her old octarian outfit. She was hesitant to even put it back on, but it fit. For her own safety though, she slipped a parka over it, and brought a change of clothes,keeping her goggles around her neck.
She knocks.
"Hello? Who's there?" A voice calls from inside. "If it's Danni, no, I don't want a rematch–your tableturf deck is plain shucking bull carp."
"It's uh…Ensign Seela. Reporting."
The door's thrown open practically, and Kelly stares at her in disbelief. "Seela?"
"Well..Waverly now." She smiles awkwardly. "Ta-da?"
"We thought you died."
"We?"
"The others that left."
"Well…should we catch up?" Waverly asks.
Kelly smiles. "Well for starters–why'd you come in uniform, you dummy? Want people to freak out?"
Waverly is immediately fluster. "Uh, well…I hadn't considered that."
"Are you sure you were in my division?" Kelly laughs a bit. "Come on in."
The two talked for hours.
Turns out, when Kelly made it to the surface, she hitched a ride on a smuggler's ship that was supposed to go for Inkopolis–but got redirected to Splatsville. She hopped out expecting a fight and scared the Octoling worker that was unloading the cargo she was in. From there, she was a bit confused, but adapted well enough. She met the convenience store owner, a guy named Shellby, and explained her situation. He gave her a job right off the cuff, and when she earned enough to move out on her own, he actually bought her apartment for her–and told her to keep her savings for personal stuff. It was that moment of kindness, she realized how much warmth she'd been missing out on by living underground still.
"But you…you're some…big time Barazushi model, eh?" She asks Waverly, amused. "That brand's so far from fresh…why not Tentatek, or like…Rockenburg?"
"I do small bits for Toni Kensa, too! They saved my life, remember?"
"Really don't think I do." Kelly shakes her head. "All we did just now was talk a lot about me." She leans forward a bit. "In fact, Ensign…" She looks seriously at her, "I don't really know that much about who you are now, or how you got here." She crosses her fingers now. "Mind cluing me in?"
"Oh wow, I…yeah! I forgot, didn't I?" Waverly smiles a bit, sheepish "...It's a long story, so I hope you've got coffee or something."
"I'll manage fine."
"Alright…well…" Waverly sighs, then launches right into her story…
"When I first came up, I was pretty scared. I thought the elites were on my tail, you know…? I ran into a photoshoot though, ruined the whole thing. But…an exec was there. Real kind man. Still don't know who he was, exactly–slick white hair, gray eyes, old–maybe someone from the Kensaki family? I dunno. But when they heard my panic, my uh…" She thinks of a word; "Fear. He took me in. Took care of me for a bit. He never told me his name, but he was always there, checking on me. Got me a job, and kept me safe till it was kinder for Octolings in Inkopolis."
"I see." Kelly chuckles a bit, shaking her head. "Kind of funny–I stow away and end up somewhere totally wrong, you happen to end up in the right place at the right time."
"I guess so." Waverly sighs. "When I wasn't having to hide any more, it got…tedious." She continues. "They had me do work just like anyone else, but I ended up being a market strategist. It made good money, for sure–even helped out Barazushi when they first came to be, but I was overworked again. I had a good reason though, I guess? I mean…my mom came to the surface too, eventually–had to set her up nicely."
"Of course." Kelly nods.
"But–I realized one day, I was back to doing the same shit I ran away from. Just seeing the sun every so often instead of being stuck underground or worse. I started listening to more music, Squid Sisters, C-Side, and then I stumbled onto Deep Cut. You heard of them?"
"I think everyone has?" Kelly chuckles. "I mean, we're in Splatsville…they're kind of the de-facto heads of the Splatlands."
"Right. But I fell in love with the idea of seeing one of their concerts. But I didn't have a car–and even worse, you know how expensive flights are? Too expensive. I couldn't really…do it." She pauses to collect her thoughts. It got a little fuzzy for her at this point, for reasons she was about to explain "...So I saw an ad for a gig job that included 'travel benefits' it said. I figured if I signed up with GrizzCo, I could get an easy ride over for some hard work."
"GrizzCo? Oh honey, no, that–" Kelly starts, but stops as Waverly closes her eyes and nods
"Yeah, I learned that pretty quick. I didn't have much to my name, and thought maybe this'd be a big break for me. Sold all my stuff, bought out my lease, put everything into the bank, prepaid my phone for two years out–I was ready to head over to Splatsville, see some Deep Cut, and try something new out. I figured if I timed it right, Hammerhead Bridge would be finished up, and the rail line maybe too, so I could visit ma as needed. So here I was, dropping my jobs with no notice, wandering into GrizzCo and telling the recruiter that I basically had nothing. Of course he gets excited, drafts up this fancy employment contract, and I sign it thinking it's exactly as advertised. But…I basically just signed away my rights to'em. They slapped me in a slop suit, took my clothes and promised I'd see'em again, then sent me out on my first gig. We were slapped onto a helicopter, I was given some…knock-off splattershot, and er…" She shivers a bit "...Did you know salmonid, a lot of'em attack with cookwear. Utensils, pans and stuff. You know why?"
"Why's that?" Kelly asks.
"Because eating things is a high honor for them. Nothing goes to waste in their society–grandma dies? Eat her to celebrate her life! Lost a kid? Eat them, to keep them forever with you. Trapped an inkfish somewhere they can't escape? Eat'em!" She looks horribly sad "...My splattershot, on top of being weird to handle, was defective. My first shift, I got surrounded by chum, cohock, smallfry, you name it. They'd…gotten me pinned down to the ground, and were just beating me. Nonstop. Frying pans, spoons, and biting just…all over." She gently taps the side of her head with a knuckle. "It hurt so much. I…I got beaten so bad I couldn't even scream for help. I just tried to cover my head and started crying. I couldn't even think, I was so…dazed. I remember, though, a coworker he ran in with this sword of all things, like some kind of knight in shining armor, and he helped me up. 'Come on, Seela!' he said to me, 'Everyone's first shift's always their worst! We're almost done!' and…"
"...and then what?" Kelly asks, already suspecting the answer.
"Then he died." She smiles tiredly. "He was leading me to the others, and a stinger cut him in half. I grabbed his sword and just started swinging. I wasn't all there, I don't think. Then I remember getting back on the boat, begging to go home and just being told 'when your contract's up, when your contract's up' and being shoved in this…grimy infirmary. I…ugh…I'm sorry…" She rubs her head a bit, wincing "...It ruined my sight. I suffered some major brain trauma, and basically had to relearn how to walk. I can't see normally. My doctors say that there's not really a surgery that can fix it either, since it was so long ago now and healed up wrong."
"I'm so sorry." Kelly says, patting Waverly's leg to offer some comfort "...going through that…sounds like hell."
"Yeah. It was." She sniffles a bit "...one day after living in that nightmare though, they docked and told us we had leave, and they couldn't make us come back. I hunkered down at the docks for a bit, and on the day I was trying to leave for Splatsville, I saw a smallfry getting beating just like I was–little pink guy, all covered in welts and bruises. I don't know what their little spat was about, but…I saved him. Dunno why, but I feel like my coworker would have done the same."
"Did the little fish…thank you for it, or something?" Kelly asks, genuinely curious, "Seems a bit weird to me."
"He's been my sweet little boy ever since. He followed me into Splatsville, and I keep him as a friend and pet. Named him Pina." She chuckles. "Looks like a little pineapple."
"Well that's kinda cute, eh?" Kelly smiles a little now. "So then, the name change…?"
"Oh, that's a lot less interesting." She says, feeling a little better now. "See, when I got to town, I got reception back. And…Toni Kensa and Barazushi weren't fond of me skipping out on them, and my mother…" She pinches the bridge of her nose. "She has dementia, see, and…told them I'd died, mixing me up with my dad. They saw read receipts though, when I checked my phone. So guess what that meant?"
"Corporate fury, aimed right at your head." Kelly replies. "They were pissed at you."
"Yeah. Exactly that–so I wrote down my moms number and canned my phone. Thankfully I could withdraw from my bank account, so I took out a bunch of money, and treated myself to some comfy clothes. Got these boots–" She lifts her leg, showing them off. "This jacket, some shades so my eyes wouldn't hurt so much all the time, and then sat in the turf war lobby having an existential crisis as I tried to think of a new name to start over with and use moving forward."
"So…Waverly?" Kelly asks. "It's a cute one."
"Yeah. Thanks, it just randomly popped into my head and I stuck with it. So…does that…help explain me a bit better?"
"It does." Kelly confirms. "I'll be honest, I was wondering why you looked like your head was stuck in the clouds when you came through the door…"
"Yeah I…I've just…stuck in the past is all. I…you know, I'm glad you're okay. " She takes her glasses off now that the sun had set and sighs. "It feels like a whole other life, so why am I still trying to live it? Fearing it? I…I keep thinking about why I even started down this road. The trauma of seeing our sisters get mowed down, life underground and just…everything else I've been through up till now…it haunts my dreams, Kelly. I've moved on, haven't I?"
"I think it's obvious you haven't." Kelly says, patting her shoulder. "You came for closure. To see I was okay. And it looks like some advice, too." She smiles a bit once more. "So how's about this for a crazy idea…"
"What?"
"How about you see if you can find the people that caused your trauma…and talk to them. Or if they're dead…say your piece at a grave and move on. You can't live in the past and have a good future. You're feeling that right now, in fact."
She pauses. "I…never in a million years considered that." She takes a moment to think of who that'd be. That Agent, for sure. She wasn't close to anyone else save for Kelly. Would it be weird to seek out the Alpha team leader too? She'd never gotten a chance to say sorry for the plan failing. "That's a lot to unpack, I…"
"You're loaded now, right? Pay some people to find those people, or to at least get in touch. That's a thing you can do, y'know." She suggests. "Callie's 'Sister' was the one that was helping the agent that day. Don't ask how I know that." She grimaces a bit. "Maybe you can get a letter off the Squid Sisters PR agent for a more direct line to ask your questions. Maybe not? Who knows. But this is a step you gotta take to recover, I think." She hugs her now, yawning. "I have to work an AM shift tomorrow, so I'm off to bed now, sorry for cutting it short. I'll lock the door on your way out."
She leads Waverly to the door, opening it for her, "It was good to see you, Waverly." She says, rubbing her eye a bit. "Hope I get to see you again soon."