Chapter 4: Pin-point Inaccuracy
"Same year, too? That fucking sucks dude, I'm sorry," said the purple-tentacled inkling girl sitting against the back outer wall of Fin's Foster Home.
"Yep, Dad died doing one too many unsanctioned Grizzco missions and Mom croaked to the Salmonid Corpse Rot a few months later," replied the green-tentacle inkling boy sitting next to her.
"Unfair, bullshit."
"Heh, appreciate the sentiment."
"Anytime…"
The boy idly picked up some grass before tossing it.
"Say…what about your folks?"
The girl hugged her knees to her chest.
"What about 'em?"
"What were they like? And how'd they pass? I-if you're comfortable sharing that is…"
"I…honestly wish I had the answers to any of those questions."
The boy blinked.
"Really?"
The girl sighed.
"Yep. I mean, I know they were present in my life at some point otherwise, I wouldn't be here. But I don't know a thing about 'em. What they were like is a huge question mark, and why they left me here is an even bigger one."
The boy was silent for a few seconds while that thought hung in the air.
"Do you think you'll ever find out?"
The girl chuckled dryly.
"I think I might go insane if I don't eventually."
"Yikes, well nobody wants that so you'd better get on that soon."
"Ha, trust me, I won't let anything get in my way, bro."
SOTR
Ikalia Galaxy trekked through the lobby of Xavier's apartment complex. But she wasn't here to see him, per se, not today at least, he was working anyway.
No, she was here to see a girl who lived a floor above him.
A girl who…may or may not be classified as insane by most of the general public.
But that didn't really matter to Ika, they were friends anyway. The girl was a little much at times, but she was cool and that was all there was to it.
She was also smart.
Extremely smart.
Like smart enough to have secret agents refer to her as a source of expertise in tracking down threats; secret agents such as Ikalia right now.
Ikalia and the rest of the NSS had hit a wall in tracking down the Black Levoctus. It was so bad that Marie and Marina, who were taking the lead in the endeavor, had determined the best course of action was to try to predict where the Levoctus would hit next and go from there.
But even then, predicting the Levoctus' next hit was easier said than done, and Cuttlefish wanted to make sure that they got it right on the first call, so as to keep his own superiors from breathing down his neck any more than normal.
Which is why Ikalia now found herself outside of the apartment door of Toksin Quadrone, renowned genius and lunatic.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
"Yo Tox, you in there?" Ikalia called out to her friend, lowering the hand she used to knock at the door.
There was no answer for a few moments so Ika raised her hand to knock again only to almost knock in the face of the girl who suddenly swung the door open.
"Ikalia Galaxy?" asked the short yellow-tentacled girl in the doorway. She looked at Ika with a suspicious glare, as if she didn't remotely trust who she was talking to.
Ika was very used to this sort of behavior from Toksin.
"Yep, that's me," Ika responded to the girl.
"Not a robotic clone created by the government to kidnap me and steal my brain?"
"Not that I know of."
Toksin stared at Ika's unbothered form for a second longer before stepping to the side and gesturing into the apartment.
"Enter," Toksin said, with a noticeably less amount of skepticism in her voice.
"Sweet, thanks," Ikalia accepted the invitation, stepping past Toksin and into the apartment's living room.
The living space didn't look far from what Ikalia expected. Various books and papers with unintelligible scribbles on them lay scattered and strewn across the hardwood floor. Whiteboards and chalkboards either were nailed to walls or standing upright on their own with more of Tox's discarded equations or theories.
Toksin's handwriting was notoriously kind of trash, but even if Ikalia could read what was on the papers, it was definitely pertaining to stuff high above her normal thinking range.
"Friend Ikalia, welcome in," Toksin began, shutting the door behind Ika, "Have you been doing well?"
"Eh," Ika shrugged in response, "about as well as I can be. Job kinda requires that I look into the terrorist attacks happening lately, but it's uh…not going so well."
Toksin quickly took out an eraser and erased the jumbled contents of one of the whiteboards on the wall, clearly eager to help out her friend. Ika semi-followed her and sat on a tan couch facing the board.
"Well what's your issue?" asked Toksin, as she uncapped a black dry-erase marker and aimed it at the board.
Ika let out a quick sigh and began speaking.
"Well, the thing is, the Levoctus is just randomly hitting shit."
Toksin clicked her tongue in disagreement.
"There's no such thing as random, especially when it comes to people."
"Well, how do you explain their hits then?"
Toksin pressed her marker to the board to begin writing.
"Well, what do we know for sure?"
Ika sighed.
"Well, they definitely don't have an infinite supply of resources since they keep hitting weapon manufacturers' factories. Toni Kensa almost went bankrupt because of how many times they were hit."
Toksin made multiple notes on the whiteboard pertaining to what Ika said.
"Makes sense, Terrorist groups function essentially the same as a cult, which means they have a guarantee of gaining more members over the passage of time. And the stronger the cause, the stronger the influx of new members-slash-believers."
"We don't even know what the Levoctus' 'cause' is."
"That isn't important at the moment. It all means that if the Black Levoctus has more members, they need more weapons, period."
Ika's eyebrows furrowed.
"And this means..?"
Toksin wrote 'WEAPONS' in big letters on the whiteboard and circled it.
"It means…the Black Levoctus will never not need more weapons. This is important since we're unsure of their primary directive. We've now instead confirmed a primary objective."
Ika blinked.
"...Uh huh?"
Toksin stopped writing for a moment and sighed.
"You now know that they're going to need to hit another weapon manufacturing plant eventually."
Ika crossed her arms.
"Well that's all well and dandy but that doesn't tell where they're gonna be next, Tox."
Toksin capped her marker and placed the end of it in her mouth, seemingly lost in thought for a moment.
"There has to be a pattern…" the yellow-tentacled inkling spoke aloud to herself before turning to face Ika, "When were the last few times a weapons factory was hit?"
"September 2nd, a Kensa heavy weapons plant was robbed, and thirty-thousand dollars worth of weaponry was snatched," Ika recited the details that she knew, "And a Tentatek factory before that on August 2nd."
"Ha, well isn't that conveniently easy," Toksin sort of half laughed and uncapped her marker again. She wrote some more personal gibberish and rambling before writing a name in big letters on the board and circling it, "Shellendorf Industries is the next robbery and it's taking place in two days on October 2nd."
Ika blinked in surprise.
"How do you know where-"
"The attack on Goby Arena."
Ika's face scrunched up even more.
"How does that correlate?"
Toksin capped her marker again and walked over to some other boards to begin…organizing maybe? Ika couldn't tell.
"Think about it, the attack on Goby Arena happened literal days ago. Even criminal organizations have schedules to adhere to," Toksin spoke as if she were saying the most obvious thing ever, "Since the dates of the hits were planned to be so close, why not the locations too? Definitely makes the Levoctus' job easier. This means that when they were scouting out the underground tunnels for the arena, they were most likely planning their attack on Shellendorf as well."
Ikalia considered the information carefully. Her mind was admittedly less complex than Toksin's so any flaws in the theorist's logic weren't gonna be found by her.
"Works for me, appreciate the help Tox," Ika said standing up. She pulled out her cell phone and snapped a picture of the whiteboard Toksin had written on.
"Of course, friend Ikalia, always happy to help," Toksin said with noticeable pride in her voice, "...as long as you don't get brainwashed by the EM waves in our televisions that will make us revert to our original squid ancestors' behavior."
Yep, there it was. There was definitely a good reason everyone thought Toksin was crazy, but Ika knew better. Toksin's intellect was always a useful tool to have on hand, and the girl made for an interesting companion whenever Ika was off duty.
"I'll see you around, Tox"
SOTR
Ika returned to Commander Two with the information she'd gained from
Quadrone. A plan was immediately formed off of it as pretty much everyone in the NSS respected the paranoid scientist's intellect. Reese Reilley was among those people.
The factory where the next Black Levoctus attack was predicted to happen was right on the outskirts of Inkopolis city halfway in city limits and halfway out. For some reason, when Director Cuttlefish learned about this he seemed to be really against the notion of Ikalia being a part of the mission, but of course, with Ika being…herself, she ignored the Director's concerns, seeming really adamant to go on this mission. And of course, this mission was quite important, so sending Ikalia alone would be a less than tactical decision.
Which is why Reese Reilley currently found himself sitting on a factory catwalk bored out of his mind while Ikalia Galaxy paced back and forth behind him. His second-generation hero shot sat in his hand resting in his lap and the freshly healed Vicky Terrace sat a few spaces to his right, fiddling with her third-generation Hero shot.
While Quadrone could give them a location and date, even she couldn't pinpoint an exact time of attack, so the three agents had been present at the weapons factory since eight in the morning. Upon arrival, they had evacuated all of the factory staff and Marina was tasked with negotiating the workers with paid leave for the day. Now with the clock striking 2:30 pm, it was beginning to look more and more like the hit wasn't coming. But Reese had heavy respect for Quadrone's brilliance, he'd hold out faith in her predictions, at least for a little while longer.
Reese and Ika probably could've handled this mission fine on their own, Vicky was just extra insurance and they all bore the same NSS lime-green ink color for convenience.
Though, Reese and Ika weren't exactly on the best of terms right now. But then again, when were Reese and Ika actually on good terms?
Reese didn't want to hate Ika, even though it seemed really easy for her to hate him.
No, he could acknowledge her overwhelming strength, no matter how undeserving of it she was, and she wasn't incompetent in a fight by any means.
But she was impulsive and egotistical. Those were not the qualities of a leader…a captain.
Reese's mind wandered to a few days ago when he…kinda sorta accused Ika of being a terrorist…Which was not his goal, by the way!
He just wanted to…consider all the options available to them. As a world-protecting organization., he felt it was kind of important to look at situations from multiple angles.
Ikalia doesn't do that, though.
Ikalia makes half-baked decisions on the fly.
Ikalia jeopardizes safety for cool points.
Ikalia is a selfish prick who doesn't consider consequences.
Ikalia is a-!
"I know how hot I am, that doesn't mean you get to stare, Grease."
In Reese's spiraling thought highway, he failed to notice that he was glaring holes into Ika's form. The sound of the purple prodigy's annoyed voice crashed Reese's neuron train.
"Ahem, uh…sorry… Captain," Reese attempted to diffuse the situation before anything started, they should just focus on the mission-
"No no, it's fine, Four," Ikalia, apparently, wasn't sharing the same sentiment, "besides, it looks like you got something on your mind. Why not share with the class?"
"It's nothing really-"
Ika walked closer to where Reese sat.
"Oh, c'mon, agent. It seemed like it was real important to you."
By now Ika was directly behind Reese, who refused to face her.
"You wanna call me a terrorist again, Four?" Ika almost snarled out the accusation, "Maybe you wanna tell me how shit I am at my job? The job that I still consistently outperform you at."
Reese's fists clenched around his hero shot.
"Maybe you wanna tell me how lazy I am, or how weird you think my friends are," Ika continued her verbal jabs, "You seem to feel the need to voice a lot of your opinions about my life."
…
"...Maybe I wouldn't say most of those things if they weren't true…" Reese muttered a retaliation through grit teeth, but he knew Ika heard him.
"Oh yeah?" Ika's voice sounded almost sinister with the amount of malice that was dripping from it,
"If I'm sooo flawed, then why are you still below me?"
Reese stood up on the catwalk in the blink of an eye, now standing face to face with Ika and staring her down with a pissed expression.
Ika mirrored his expression with a smug one of her own, though she did look a little ticked herself.
"Hit a nerve, Geese?" challenged Ikalia.
"You hit every nerve, all the time, Ikalia," Reese gripped his weapon tighter.
"Well, why don't I hit more than just your nerves, then?" Ika threatened, finally un-doing the holster straps on her first-generation Hero shot.
Well then, Reese had initially tried to avoid it, but it seemed like a fight with Ika here was inevitable.
But in all honesty, he'd be lying if he didn't feel a little inspired to throw down right now, in fact, he'd already completely forgotten about-
"Um…g-guys.., the mission?" After all of the commotion, it seemed Vicky had finally mustered the courage to speak up.
Reese blinked.
That's right, they have a job to do. Both Ika and Reese's eyes snapped to Vicky and then back to each other. A look of knowing flashed across Reese's eyes, as did Ika's.
This bullshit could be handled off-duty.
Just then, the sound of vehicles pulling up could be heard from outside the factory. All deliveries for today had been paused for this location, courtesy of Marina.
That meant the Black Levoctus had arrived, it's go time.
"Alright let's move," Ikalia also recognized what the noise meant immediately, and went to action, "Stay hidden, and don't attack until I signal."
"Understood," Reese responded.
"Yes, ma'am," Vicky followed up.
The three agents split up and hid themselves among the factory's ceiling beams and scaffolding. Vicky was the last one to hide herself and as soon as she did the large cargo doors meant for the factory's trucks slid open extremely quickly and a little over a dozen armed, black-tentacled soldiers stormed into the factory. They each wore matching black combat gear and carried various military-grade weapons.
The soldiers all piled through the door with their weapons at the ready, seemingly expecting a fight, but many of them looked confused upon being met with an empty factory.
"The fuck?" said a female inkling Levoctus wielding a charger full of black ink. She turned in confusion to an octoling male behind her, "What, they havin' a fire drill or somethin'?"
"I'm not sure, but this would explain the lack of vehicles in the parking lot," responded the octoling male, loosening his grip on his splatana stamper, "Our intel didn't say anything about anything special happening today."
"Tch, whatever, Levoctus! Sweep the area! Kill anyone you find! Once the perimeter is secured, continue with the original plan," the female inkling addressed the rest of the Black Levoctus members present, seemingly as some sort of authority figure. Once done, she turned back to the octoling guy again, "I'll be outside, I'm gonna tell Lady Blake about this."
"Wait, seriously? Why? Doesn't this just make our job easier?"
The female shifted her weight.
"Yeah sure, but gaps in our intel like this could lead to fatal catastrophes later down the line. Like think about it, we know there's another Rainmaker out there, and she's trying to track us down."
"Oh yeah, the purple girl from Goby, right?"
"Yeah, her being one of them means she's dangerous if we make too many mistakes. Mistakes like gathering incorrect intel on a hit."
Out of the corner of his eyes, Reese could see Ika perk up at what the Levoctus squad leader said. He honestly couldn't blame her. If he had to guess, 'purple girl from Goby' had a pretty high chance of referring to Ikalia, and when you're mentioned specifically by the enemy, you're bound to get at least a little curious.
But that was neither here nor there. The Levoctus squad leader and her octoling compatriot had already left through the open cargo doors, presumably to call this 'Blake' person. This was good, that meant the rest of the Levoctus were going to be roaming the factory without their authority figure present. Attacking while they're split up and orderless would be the best course of action, especially with the overwhelming amount of enemy forces present, so now all they needed was Ikalia's signa-
The hell?
"What're you doing!?" Reese loudly whispered to a Captain Three who was now scrambling across the factory's high beams in the direction of the cargo door.
What the hell was she doing!?
"Captain Three!? Ika!" Reese whisper-shouted in the defiant girl's direction, "What are you doing? We need to act now!"
"Can it, Four!" Ika whispered back, a bit louder than Reese would've preferred, "This is important!"
"No, this is important! You know, the mission!?" Reese let his irritation shine through, "the mission you're currently jeopardizing!?"
Ika spun her body to face Reese's.
"The only one 'jeopardizing the mission' is you, Shoe Crease! Now quit whining and let me work!"
As Ika turned away again, Reese reached out and grabbed ahold of her arm.
"Captain, your rank does not mean you get to do what you want! And I will not argue this with you!"
"Get your fucking hands off me!" Ika wrenched her arm out of Reese's grasp with palpable frustration. So much so that Reese nearly lost his footing on the scaffolding beam they were on.
Unfortunately for the agents, Ikalia's jerky movements had caused the first-generation Hero shot that she had already un-strapped to free itself from its holster confines.
Time seemed to slow down for all three agents as the Hero shot went careening toward the ground.
The Levoctus members directly under the hidden NSS agents only had a moment to even register the sound of a weapon hitting the floor before a twenty-foot wide splash of lime-green ink engulfed them, splatting all nearby soldiers instantly.
"There's your signal, Jackass! Now move!" Ika yelled at Reese before shoulder-checking another confused Levoctus soldier.
Reese squeezed his head in frustration before hopping from the scaffolding and splatting a few Levoctus soldiers from mid-air with some well-placed shots from his Hero shot.
By the time Vicky was able to join the fray the Black Levoctus broke from their astonishment at being surprise attacked.
Black ink now flew at the NSS agents from all directions as they dove and ducked around each other to dodge and return fire.
Reese decided his current frustration was much better used against their current enemy. A Levoctus octobrush user charged Reese from his left, prepared to swing at the agent.
With barely a glance Reese dropped his hero shot and kicked it forward, and then ducked the swing and grabbed a hold of the brush as well. A quick knee to the gut rendered the brush user stunned enough for Reese to move the brush to a more advantageous position, blocking the suppressing fire of a .52 gal and advancing on the blaster's position, with the dazed octobrush user still in tow.
Upon reaching his intended destination, Reese planted his feet and drove the handle of the brush into its own user's face, knocking them back slightly. Reese then pulled the brush from the Levoctus soldier's grip completely and used it to block a right hook from the .52 gal wielder, who had closed the remaining distance between them.
Reese pushed back with the brush, letting the weapon fly from his hands as it and the attacking soldier were pushed back. The original holder of the Octobrush, now weaponless, charged an equally weaponless Reese.
Without missing a beat, Reese back-stepped and countered the swift jab from the Levoctus soldier with a left-hand jab of his own, pushing the soldier back. The NSS agent then grabbed the soldier's arm and pulled them in for a powerful uppercut, before spinning around and tossing the unconscious brush soldier into the blaster soldier.
Reese wasted no time after decommissioning the two Black Levoctus soldiers. He instantly kicked his Hero shot, which he had kicked forward earlier, up with one foot up above his head as he simultaneously dropped prone dodging the horizontal slice of a Black Levoctus Decavitator user.
Reese rolled over, caught his Hero shot, and splatted the Decavitor user with two shots of lime green to the head.
However just as the Decavitator fell, Reese heard a charger click.
The Agent panicked slightly, as there was no way he'd be able to dodge the shot in time from his position.
Reese gritted his teeth in preparation for the incoming torrent of black ink.
That never came.
Instead, Reese turned his gaze toward where he heard the charger click and he was met with the sight of the charger wielder exploding in a volley of lime-green ink.
Reese looked to the right and saw Ikalia with an open palm outstretched, facing where the charger user once was. A brilliant glow in her lime-green tentacle dissipated as she turned an angry gaze on the NSS agent.
"The fuck are you doing, Four?" Ika shouted as she was charged by an inkling Levoctus Splat roller soldier. The girl parried the slam of the roller with a concentrated wave of lime-green ink from her left hand. She then brought up her first-gen Hero shot with her right hand and pressed it into the soldier's stomach before pulling the trigger, "Get your head in the game!"
Ikalia pressed a button on her ink tank and summoned a splat bomb that fell into her hand. She then turned and tossed the bomb directly at Reese.
Reese knew his captain was right, no matter how mad he was at her, at this point, they were in a life-or-death fight so he'd have to stifle his emotions for now.
Reese immediately jumped from the ground onto his feet and caught the splat bomb lobbed at him. He over-surged it with some of his own ink and chucked it at an approaching Aerospray user.
The bomb exploded with tremendous force, instantly splatting the Levoctus soldier and sending Reese flying backward and landing the heel of his foot into a Levoctus Splatter shot user's face.
The stunned soldier then suffered a devastating charge tackle at the hands of Ika, before the NSS captain unloaded two shots of lime green into a different soldier as Reese performed a falling roundhouse on them, knocking them out.
"What the hell are you even doing here!?" The octoling from earlier yelled, raising his splatana stamper.
"Wouldn't you like to know? " Ikalia replied in a mocking tone as she checked her weapon for damages, barely even regarding the armed soldier as a threat. Reese landed next to Ikalia in a ready position; this clearly wasn't over yet. "Where's your leader?"
"You won't live to find out!" responded the octoling as he revved his stamper and prepared to lunge before suddenly exploding in a volley of lime-green.
As the ink fell it revealed Vicky with her third-gen Splatter shot raised where the soldier's head once was.
"There's more Black Levoctus members coming from the south wing of the factory," Vicky relayed, refilling her ink tank with more lime-green color, "We're extremely outnumbered. Personally, I think we should retreat, ma'am."
"I agree," Reese quickly spoke up, thankful that he could still at least rely on Vicky to have some sense, "Captain Three, Let's get out of here while we-"
"Like hell, I'm leaving here without answers!" Ika cut Reese off. The NSS captain then took off with a burst of speed in the direction of the cargo doors. She was going for the leader girl they saw earlier!
Reese mentally cursed. Then outwardly cursed. There was zero chance there weren't more Black Levoctus cronies waiting around with the leader. Why, Why were they taking disadvantageous battles!?
Ikalia. That's why.
"Cod damn it! Agent Three, let's move!" Reese shouted before he and Vicky began to tail Ika.
By this point, more Levoctus soldiers had converged on the agents' path so they had to fight their way through to continue.
Ikalia moved like an unstoppable force of nature, her tentacles glowed wildly as she shifted in a Kraken Royale and barreled through enemies by the dozen. Reese and Vicky brought up the rear, splatting any visible stragglers with deadly accuracy. The NSS agents flipped and rolled around one another, their experience working in the field and on the same professional turfing team showing in full tandem as they danced around the battlefield complementing each other with nigh perfection.
SOTR
Ikalia's heart pounded in her ears as she fought her way through any Black Levoctus member in her path.
This was the first lead in years she'd gotten about who her parents were, or who she was, there was no way she could pass up this chance to learn something.
The NSS captain crashed through the factory cargo doors, nearly blowing them off the hinges. She dropped her Kraken Royale form and skidded to a halt on her feet, leveling her Splatter shot at a small group of Levoctus soldiers who all already had their various weapons trained on her.
Ika gritted her teeth as she scanned the crowd. She found her target immediately. The inkling girl in command wielding the charger was surrounded by three other Levoctus soldiers.
It took all of a second for Ika to close the 20-foot distance between her and the group; all of three more seconds to render the leader alone and surrounded by the lime-green ink of her splatted comrades.
"There's only one real way this is gonna go, so I suggest you start talking," Ika said in a dark tone. The barrel of her Splatter shot rested against the Levoctus member's forehead, and her finger never left the trigger.
"What makes you think you'll get anything out of me?" The inkling spat back with malice in her tone. Her hands were up in surrender with the charger still in her grip, but her demeanor didn't betray the slightest hint of fear.
"I don't know, maybe the gun to your head?" Ika replied.
The Levoctus girl scoffed.
"You think we're afraid of you? Ha! Your entire force is a joke, just like your old fart of a leader!"
Ika blinked. Why did she know..?
"Quit with the nonsense!"
The inkling's face pulled into a smug grin.
"You told me to talk."
Ika pressed the nozzle of her weapon against the girl's head harder.
"I'm losing my patience here."
The Levoctus member's face then went horrifyingly serious.
"No, you're losing your chances, Rainmaker."
"Huh? What are you talking about-"
"Shukujo ni eikō are."
In the blink of an eye, the Levoctus inkling attempted to aim her charger at Ikalia, but never in a million years would Ika be outsped by a normal inkling. She pulled the Splatter shot trigger and quickly after the Levoctus squad leader was no more.
The sound of crackling static caught the NSS captain's ear. A small electronic device lay on the ground next to where the leader once stood. The girl must've dropped the communicator when she died.
Ikalia picked up the device and pressed the relay button, presumably sending crackles and feedback to whoever was on the other end, if anyone.
Just as Ika was about to give up and toss the communicator it crackled and again and an all too familiar voice rang through.
"Lieutenant Brookes, Little Blake informed me that you're having a rather pressing setback," The silky yet commanding voice of Shara Victur spoke through the device's speaker, "What is your situation?"
"Trust me, I'm a lot more than just a setback," Ika responded in a cocky tone. If Shara made any noise of surprise, she didn't relay it through the communicator, which was unfortunate, because Ika really loved hearing the appalled sounds of an enemy who thought they were winning.
"Oh my, now isn't this an interesting surprise," Shara spoke with calm amusement, something that irked Ika to her core, "I hope my soldiers at least provided a little challenge to someone as strong as you, dear."
"Cut the carp! Why were your lackeys talking about me? Why am I important? What…what am I?"
Shara snickered at the inkling's rambling.
"Oh honey, I think it'd be much more productive to have this conversation in public, hmm?"
Ika gripped the communicator tighter. This bitch was playing with her.
"No, we're having this conversation now!"
Shara chuckled again. Ika almost activated a special right then and there.
"I'm sorry sweetie, I really am, but I'm a busy woman."
"You're a fucking terrorist!"
"Tell you what, I'll be doing some…sightseeing at the top of Nouveau Tower let's say…in three days at midnight. Show up there, alone, and maybe we'll chat in more detail about this whole ordeal. Sound good, honey?"
"What the-! No, it-!"
"Great! Until next time, darling"
Ika was on the verge of hyperventilating in frustration.
"Don't you fucking dare!"
"Self-destruct."
Ika was dumbfounded by the command for far too long before actually realizing what was about to happen, but before she could do anything, Reese came from her left, snatched the communicator from her hands, and chucked the thing high into the sky.
The device exploded in a five-foot radius of fire and electronic bits at the crest of the throw.
"Captain," Ika finally looked at Reese, and then at Vicky, both of the NSS agents were dotted with bruises and black ink splotches. They also looked to be winded and the fact that there were absolutely no more Levoctus members firing at them told Ikalia exactly why. Reese stared her down with an unreadable expression,
"We're going home."