A/N: I decided to bump the rating up to T to be consistent with the AO3 version of the story and for the potentially-squeamish scene at the end of the chapter (it will not be the only scene like that). Anyways, I hope you enjoy the second part of "Enforcers of Order!"
Alexis's daily routine since that day was simple. Get ready for the day, patrol Octo Canyon, go to the Deca Tower, scan her splashtag at the lobby terminal, set all matches to be recorded, play with a certain weapon for the rest of the day, email the recordings to herself, patrol Octo Canyon again, go home, and send the data to Marina. It was that simple.
Eventually, Marina let her know that she had all the data she needed. All she had to do now was wait.
And so, she waited.
The days passed by. Pearl and Marina began their world tour, whisking Eight away with them.
No longer did she have a roommate. No longer did she have someone she could talk to so easily so close by. No longer did she have anyone to talk to in Octo Canyon.
She couldn't even talk to DJ Octavio. It had been nearly a year since he escaped at this point, all because Alexis was stuck out in the countryside attending a family reunion. Eight was too occupied with her job at Ammo Knights to watch over Octo Canyon in her place, allowing DJ Octavio to break free from his confines and sneak back underground.
With everyone else in the Splatlands, Alexis worried he would attempt to take over Inkopolis again. But he didn't, if only because his army was stolen and transformed into mammalian mutants.
And with his change of heart, he never would again. The Octarians were now free from their century-long imprisonment underground. Alexis could visit the rest of the New Squidbeak Splatoon whenever she wished. And she did.
Not everyone was happy with the peace treaty, though. That was why Alexis still patrolled Octo Canyon every day. To make sure Inkopolis would forever be safe from the clutches of the Octarians.
Months had passed since Marina finished collecting data. Eight had said they would be back in Inkopolis for a break in the fall.
With the Drizzle Season well underway, she would be back soon. She promised.
Did Eight know about Project Memverse? Alexis should ask Marina. But with how busy she was, she didn't want to bother her.
She chuckled, remembering her school days. Ever since she graduated high school, her workload had decreased significantly. Thanks to Marie, she never had to worry about going without a place to sleep.
As the days went on, however, Alexis began to wonder if she should go to college. She couldn't do turf wars forever, after all. She needed something else to occupy her time with once her body couldn't handle the stress anymore.
Then, Eight came back.
Project Memverse had completely slipped her mind. She was only happy to have her friend back.
They spent the limited days Eight had in Inkopolis doing whatever they could. They rode all the rides at Wahoo World, they patrolled together in Octo Canyon, and they fought together in turf wars, among other things.
For just a little while, she could make her days in Inkopolis a little less lonely.
Most of all, they chatted away in their apartment, lounging on the couch as the television droned on, talking about whatever came to mind.
Then, Alexis received a text. The notification sound chimed over the sound of their voices.
She flipped her phone open to check who sent it. Upon reading the notification, her eyes widened.
It was from Marina.
"Alexis?" Eight sounded concerned. "Is something wrong?"
"I don't think so." She opened the text. "Let me read it."
Could you meet me in the studio? I want to give you something.
Now? Alexis replied. It's almost sunset.
It'll be quick! I promise.
Alright. I'll come.
Alexis closed her phone shut and stood up. "I'm going out."
Eight's tentacles went stiff with alarm. "Did something happen?"
"Not at all!" She held her hands out. "I just need to get something."
The tension in her roommate's muscles relaxed ever-so-slightly. "Alright. If you say so."
She grabbed her bag and waved as she headed towards the door. "See ya!"
Alexis slipped through and slammed the door behind her, taking a deep breath. Marina's text was really bad timing. If she promised it would be quick, then so be it. She just had to trust her.
She began walking down the hall, the sepia halls radiating warmth despite the crisp October air. With the New Squidbeak Splatoon relocating to the Crater and Asher moving out with his now-wife, Eight was left alone in the apartment they all once shared. Thus, she invited Alexis to come live with her.
She missed the home she spent most of her life in. It was so close to the Square, too! But in the two years since moving in, the apartment complex now felt like home. She liked how freely she could talk about agent duties. She liked living with a friend. The extra time it took to reach the Square was worth it all.
Part of her wondered if she would get to stay in that apartment if Geneva ever moved back to Inkopolis. She liked that apartment! She knew Marie would have a place for her if she ever had to move, but she would hate to leave when so many memories had been made in that tiny space.
Entering the elevator, Alexis descended down the complex. She stepped out into an empty lobby, adjusting her bag as her footsteps echoed through the room. Light shined through the glass door, and she squinted as she left the building, entering the streets of Inkopolis. The sky was tinted orange, the sun no longer visible above the line of buildings surrounding her. In the distance, Deca Tower stood as tall as ever, the Great Zapfish coiled tightly around it.
She turned towards the direction of Inkopolis Square and turned into a squid, letting pressure build up in her body. It was a far jump, but she could make it. Years of super-jumping across Octo Canyon had prepared her for this.
She shot into the sky, orange ink trailing behind her. With a twirl, she landed right in front of the Deca Tower, swinging her arms to regain her balance.
Scanning the crowd, though, she frowned. Normally, some bystanders would turn their heads to marvel at her impressive landing. Yet no one did that now. They haven't for weeks. They continued to stare off into space, going about their day without a care in the world.
It was like they weren't even there.
Ignoring the pit of dread growing in her stomach, she made the brief trek to the news studio.
As soon as she stepped inside, she was immediately met with the sight of Marina fidgeting with her tentacles. She wasn't wearing the orange suit Alexis had associated with her these past few years, instead donning a white crop top and jeans. Their eyes met, and those thick, long tentacles twirled out of her hands.
"There you are!" She clasped her hands together. "It was starting to get awkward standing out here."
"Yep." She put a hand on her hip. "So, whatcha want to give me?"
"It's on my laptop." She began walking deeper into the studio, tentacles squirming with what Alexis only assumed to be excitement. "Follow me."
As they strolled through the halls, she found herself looking at the various pictures hung up throughout the years. They depicted Off the Hook across various concerts and Splatfests, easily dated by the expressions they wore. It was simple—the newer the photo, the more enthusiastic Pearl and Marina appeared. It was the perfect timeline of their growth.
Though Alexis once had her apprehensions about Marina over her being an octoling, she eventually came to realize her scrutiny was misplaced. She, and the rest of the octolings on the surface, truly meant no harm. That was what the New Squidbeak Splatoon had also been fighting for the past five years—coexistence between inklings and octolings.
Marina eventually led her into a room with her logo hanging on the door. A white desk littered with empty soda cans was pressed up against the wall, various Off the Hook memorabilia covering the other side of the room.
Marina, of course, made her way towards the desk and opened a laptop covered with stickers. After entering the password, it unlocked to reveal a file directory, Pearl's face in the background.
She turned around to face Alexis. "I'm going to install an app for the Memverse on your phone."
She raised an eyebrow. "An app for the Memverse?"
"I was looking into making sea cucumber phones a viable access terminal," she explained, "so people will be able to enter the Memverse at any time. Since you were able to help me with system security, I thought it wouldn't be fair if you weren't able to see the final product. Well, almost final. I haven't done the trial run yet, so there still could be some bugs."
"Okay..." She scratched the back of her head. "I don't know why I'd go in there, though."
"Well..." Marina locked her fingers together, twiddling her thumbs. Eventually, she shrugged. "I just thought you'd want to check it out. I gave you administrative access, so you would have all the abilities your avatar does."
All the abilities my avatar does...
Alexis nodded and held out her phone. "Alright. That sounds pretty fresh."
"Yesss!" Marina snatched the phone out of her hands and promptly connected it to her laptop. "This should only take a few minutes. The file size is huge, you know."
A window popped up on the laptop screen, and the room settled into silence. Marina sat down, hunched over the laptop as she began to fidget with her tentacles again.
"Marina..." Alexis started. She didn't want things to get too awkward. "What's the trial run?"
"Oh!" She turned back to face her. "I was hoping Eight would volunteer."
"Huh?!" Her eyes widened. "But Eight isn't sanitized!"
"You're not wrong, but..." She frowned. "That's not entirely true."
She blinked. "What do you mean?"
"I did some research." She cleared her throat and explained, "Sanitization is the extraction of thoughts and memories, saved as mem cakes, leaving the structure housing a person's soul a hollow husk. From there, dummy information is injected into that person, enabling total control over them. Even if Eight's body was never taken over, that doesn't change the fact that her memories had been extracted and turned into mem cakes."
"But Eight got her memories back!" Alexis blurted out. "Would the Memverse even do anything?"
"Eight's mem cakes still exist." Marina turned back towards her laptop. "So, they can be converted into data. If everything works as intended, her memories will find her and reinforce them. It's like giving something a new coat of paint."
"But you could still paint it a different color."
She waved her hand. "You get the idea."
"But what if it is a different color?"
Marina stared at her for a few moments, puzzled, so Alexis clarified, "What if it doesn't work as intended?"
She then pouted. "I don't think she'd lose her actual memories, but...I don't know. I'm sorry."
Alexis frowned. The thought of Eight losing her memories again… Not only Pearl and Marina would be crushed, but Cuttlefish, too.
The laptop chimed, and Marina disconnected Alexis's phone and handed it back to her. "It's done."
She stuffed it back into her pocket. "Sorry to bring down the mood."
"It's okay." She forced a smile. "I hope you like Dramatic Days in Orderland!"
Alexis chuckled. "That's the final title?"
"Yeah. It's perfect, don't you think?"
"Sure."
Marina's expression softened. "Well, see you later. Let me know what you think."
Alexis laid her hand on the door handle. "I will."
The idol waved goodbye as she slipped back out into the hall. Alexis paid less attention to the decorations on the wall on the way back, instead keeping her head up high. Knowing what she knows now, she really hoped the trial run would succeed.
And from there, they could finally help the sanitized Octarians trapped within the Deepsea Metro. If nothing else, she knew Eight would want that.
The sky now a vibrant orange, Alexis turned into a squid and super-jumped back to the apartment complex. Again, no one paid her any mind when she landed. Storing away the thought, she entered the place she called home and returned to her apartment at last.
Eight shot up in her seat as soon as Alexis stepped through the front door. "Wow!" she gasped. "That was fast!"
She winked. "I did say I needed to get something."
Pink eyes surveyed her, but Eight's face only fell into confusion. "...What did you get?"
"Eh, it's not important." She plopped back down on the couch. "Wanna watch a movie?"
"...Sure. What movie?"
"You pick."
The octoling nodded and hopped off the couch, reaching towards the wooden rack next to the table the television stood on. While Eight searched for a movie, Alexis took out her phone and opened it.
On the home screen, a white square outlined in rainbow stared back at her, an infinity sign plastered in the center. The writing underneath it labeled it as the Memverse. Contrasting against everything else on the screen, it was just begging for her to press it.
Alexis closed her phone and put it back in her pocket. She would have to try it out when Eight wasn't home.
"Oh!" Eight called, grabbing her attention. She held up a DVD case depicting a ship with the faces of an inkling couple above it. "Can we watch 'Gigantic?'"
She groaned. "Another romance movie?"
"Please?"
She sighed. She couldn't say no to a face like that. "Sure."
Eight was already gone when Alexis woke up the next morning.
She had expected it–Eight told her she was going to Splatsville after work tonight and spend the next day with Geneva. But with how quickly she had grown used to Eight's presence once more, the silence she woke up to was jarring.
There was nothing she could do about it now, though. As she ate her bowl of cereal, she opened her phone and began to navigate to Squidsagram. Yet the Memverse and everything surrounding it still hung in the back of her mind.
Would everything truly work as intended? Marina said it herself: the Memverse could still have some bugs. If something went wrong, who knows what could happen to Eight?
She didn't want to bring herself down, though. She figured the more she thought about it, the more she would begin to spiral.
After she finished eating, she closed Squidsagram. It wouldn't hurt to check out the Memverse now. It was pretty early, after all. Even the Octarians were probably still asleep.
Alexis changed out of her pajamas and headed to the living room, where she sat down and navigated her phone to the Memverse app. Now, with only one more button, she would open it and enter the virtual world Marina had so painstakingly created.
She took a deep breath. Why was she nervous? It was only for a little bit. She would check it out, and then she would leave. If something was wrong, she would tell Marina. It was as simple as that.
She pressed the button, and reality began to shift around her as her surroundings faded to white.
When she came to be, she found herself in Inkopolis Square.
Or, what looked like Inkopolis Square, that is. It looked so, so familiar, but as far as the eye could see, everything was white. Every single building, and even the sandy ground, was white. Coral sprouted around her, bleached the same white color.
But what was most alarming was the Deca Tower. It barely resembled the Deca Tower she knew, every single billboard arranged in an orderly fashion. And it, too, was white.
A shiver went up her back. Inkopolis Square should be full of color. Not whatever this is!
She shifted her foot. She expected to feel the sand between her toes, but instead, her toes pressed against a boot, prompting Alexis to look down at herself.
She let out a yelp of alarm. What was she wearing? The white jumper that had replaced her shirt and shorts was skin-tight, metal rings hanging from the strap running across her chest. Some kind of plastic brace wrapped around one of her forearms, metal pressing against her bronze skin.
Alexis gulped and forced herself to look back at the Deca Tower. Light shifted in the orange sky, outlining the form of the beacon within this strange world. As far as she could tell, there was nowhere else to go but inside the tower. Part of her didn't want to see what horrors could be lying within.
Still, she took a few steps forward. Marina had to have designed the Memverse this way for a reason. Did discomfort really help people regain their memories? Even the Octarian domes didn't look this creepy!
"Commence greyscaling."
Alexis shot her head up. That was Marina's voice! But where was she–
Shock overcame her mind as an oozing black tentacle shot out of the ground, wrapping itself around her. It burned against her skin, her body screaming for relief as the tentacle's grasp grew tighter and tighter.
What was happening?! She couldn't think, she couldn't move. She found herself acutely aware of the three hearts pounding against her chest, the ink pumping through her veins. She was breathing, but she was suffocating.
But then, everything stopped.
"Greyscaling complete."
The tentacle retreated into the ash. Agent 4 crumpled to the ground.
A silver mask materialized on Agent 4's face.
Agent 4 stood up.
There was no threat to the Memverse's security.
Agent 4 should not be in the Order Sector. Agent 4 should be in the Spire of Order.
Agent 4 walked into the Spire of Order.
Agent 4 disappeared.
A/N: Ouch... How will this affect Alexis in the real world? You'll have to keep reading to find out! Next up in the collection is "Followers of Order," which is also two chapters. I wonder if you can guess who and what that story is about? Admittedly I haven't written the story after "Followers of Order" yet due to life getting busy, but with the Christmas season soon to pass, I should have more time to write soon! Well, happy holidays, and Branchwing, out!