Chapter 8: The Octostalker

"It's gonna stalk ya. It's gonna squash ya."

After a short resting period, Sal and Co were back in action, this time under the alias of Team Hardbeak. As such, their team's designated color was yellow.

Despite not being a member of Team Hardbeak, or an agent, Pacifica was still charged with leading the team through Octo Canyon.

Their target assignment was to retrieve a zapfish from one of the canyon's many outposts—the outpost in question being Suction-Cup Lookout, the same facility Sal and Cal had barely managed to escape from last time.

Callie had mentioned she was ecstatic about them taking on this assignment again. It wasn't clear why until she revealed that the enemy octolings who occupied the outpost had cleared out abruptly. Judging by the timing, it was soon after their raid on the Oct. Co Facilities warehouse.

The only ones who seemed bothered by this development were Pacifica and Sal. Pacifica had probably spent enough time in the field to know when a prospect seemed too good to be true, and Sal had dealt with his fair share of ambushes—enough to know when one was being set up from a mile away.

Even then, this opportunity was far too good to pass up, so they went.

Sal was only genuinely worried for the Sam twins, whose agent armor seemed ill-equipped.

Samuel wore large black futuristic cone-shaped headphones around his ears, a long-sleeved black shirt underneath a gray lightweight vest armor, and black leggings with green-patterned sneakers.

Samantha wore something similar, with the only difference being her vest had yellow highlights, her leggings were baggy rather than skin-tight, and instead of sneakers, she wore gray armored boots, which also had yellow highlights. Another thing Sal couldn't help but notice was that Samantha swapped out her cyan lipstick in exchange for a cinnamon-brown lipstick.

Maybe he was just picky, but he felt like the twins could do better in terms of picking gear. Sal sighed, knowing it was too late to make either of them change now.

The group traversed through Suction-Cup Lookout with relative ease. With no guards around, they made it much further than their first attempt. In half the time, too.

The eerie quietness of the facility nestled a bad feeling deep within Sal's gut, but he wouldn't comment on it.

Eventually, they came across a large circular room. Despite its vastness and the many lights that lined the ceiling, the room was still incredibly dark. That didn't stop Pacifica from heading inside. "The zapfish should be in here somewhere. Keep your eyes open." She gestured for everyone to fan out.

Pacifica went right, the Sam twins broke off to the left, and the Octo Bros kept straight. Their bioluminescence was all they had to light their way.

Cal suddenly stopped when they came face-to-face with an offputting wall. Sal couldn't tell what was wrong with it. It just looked eerie to him. He was about to go elsewhere before Cal tapped him with the edge of his hydra splatling and pointed up.

Sal jumped back when his brain registered the wall wasn't a wall. It was the blank face of some octarian drone. "What the..." He muttered, but because of the silence, his voice traveled much further than he would've liked.

As if the facility heard him, a loud click echoed through the room, followed by the lights brightening. The darkness vanished, giving Sal a better view of the unsettling face in front of him.

"Well, well. Look who I caught snooping around." A feminine voice called out from above, their tone slightly raspy.

Sal and Cal looked up, seeing a figure sitting on the edge of the large face. From the voice alone, Sal knew the figure was a woman. Unfortunately, he couldn't make out any other feature of their silhouette, as the ceiling lights beamed right into his eyes, forcing him to squint.

"You must be the ones who broke into the warehouse."

Sal stepped back, keeping both the woman and the giant face in his field of view. Cal did the same before responding. "So what if we are?"

The woman seemed to pause as she stared at them. During her moment of silence, Pacifica and the Sam twins quickly regrouped to the sides of either brother.

Finally, the woman stood, giving Sal a better look at her appearance. She was an octoling, about the same height as everyone else. No doubt, she was another enemy soldier, but for some reason, she looked drastically different from the others they fought previously.

She had tannish skin and took on a black ink-color. Furthermore, she didn't wear any shades like the other enemy octolings, revealing her eye-mask was purple rather than black. Her eyes were golden in color, and her pupils were shaped like a plus sign, which looked identical to Samantha and the Squid Sisters.

The enemy octoling also wore a black combat jacket, leaving her muscular stomach and a portion of her forearms exposed to the elements. The only other thing of note, aside from the black and white boots, was the two kelps flowing out of her black tentacled hair.

She crossed her arms, giving the group a mischievous smile. "That makes my job a whole lot easier."

Sal squeezed his splattershot tightly, already seeing a fight ahead of them.

"Sorry, who're you again?" Samuel chimed in an unamused tone.

"Kuda..." Pacifica answered with a scowl.

"You know this girl?" Sal asked, looking at Pacifica, who never took her eyes off Kuda. The lieutenant was practically barring her teeth at her.

"She's Marinus's best lapdog."

"Ooh." Cal gasped. "So she's like his second-in-command?"

Kuda smiled widely at Cal's guess. "Right you are, agent. And speaking of Marinus, he didn't quite like the stunt you pulled back at the warehouse."

"If he's got such a problem with it, tell him to come deal with us himself!" Pacifica yelled, itching for a fight.

Kuda rested her hands on her hips. "You're beneath him, Sepia. Besides, what do you think he sent me for?" She laughed, shaking her head. "Honestly, I knew you guys were getting desperate, but I didn't think you'd actually waltz in here with more than two people—Let alone with your precious agents. I mean, come on! I didn't even try to hide it!" Kuda laughed harder.

Apparently, walking into her obvious trap was just such a riot. Sal frowned, already finding Kuda annoying.

Before anyone else could respond, she continued. "Let me guess, you're looking for this?" She casually pulled out the zapfish they had been looking for. It squirmed in her hand, struggling to escape. Judging by its facial expression, the zapfish didn't want to be there any more than Sal did.

"We're gonna need that." Cal declared, taking a step forward.

Kuda's eyes curled in delight. "Oh? You want it? Sure! You can have it."

Cal's confident smirk faltered. "R-Really?"

"Of course!" Kuda tossed the zapfish behind her. "You'll have to take it from my friend here, though."

A strange noise echoed through the room shortly after Kuda tossed the zapfish. Sal quickly realized the noise was the zapfish landing in something, possibly the face Kuda stood on.

His guess was proven correct, as a moment later, the top of the face glowed brightly. When the light dimmed, the face vibrated wildly.

"Have fun with The Octostalker!" Kuda waved before shifting into her swim form and super jumping away. Sal watched as Kuda landed on a faraway platform. She seemed content with watching the fight from her vantage point.

He turned back to the face. A sinister green glow shone from within, seeping out its hollow eyes and empty mouth like light from a lighthouse. The green light contrasted heavily with its purplish skin.

Then, in a defying act against physics, the square hovered off the ground and into the air, emitting a low hum as it did so.

When it lifted, it revealed another square-shaped object behind it, only this one was without a face. This square also vibrated before lifting into the air, revealing yet another square-shaped object. This repeated a few times, revealing the face had six square-shaped segments, which Sal assumed was its body.

It was no mystery that the octarians in Inkadia possessed advanced technology. However, neither Sal nor Cal would've ever predicted they had stuff like this in their arsenal.

"Okay, anybody got any idea what this Octostalker-thing is?" Sal asked, a little unnerved.

"That's... no way," Pacifica muttered, biting her bottom lip. Judging by her expression, she definitely knew what it was.

"Lieutenant, if you know, now would be a great time to enlighten us!"

"It's... a great octoweapon..."

Sal and Cal weren't sure what reaction to give that answer, considering they had no idea what a great octoweapon was. However, Samuel and Samantha's frightened expressions clued them in.

"H-Hang on a damn minute. A great octoweapon?! Like the ones from the Great Turf War?" Samuel stammered.

Pacifica nodded.

Despite the mood of the atmosphere, Cal didn't seem to get it. "So... is that bad or...?"

"Yes! Very bad!" Samantha shrieked.

Pacifica's gaze stayed trained on the Octostalker, but the emotion in her eyes screamed utter confusion rather than total confidence or fear. "This one seems more modern... I can't believe Marinus is making his own now! What on Earth would he need great octoweapons for?"

The Octostalker shuddered, and Sal finally put two and two together. It was a machine that had been in the process of activating itself ever since Kuda threw the zapfish in it. What's worse, it looked to be in its final stages.

"Okay, lieutenant. What's the move?" Sal turned to see Pacifica frozen, not necessarily with fear, but he'd be lying if he said she looked brave. He looked back at the Octostalker, seeing the green light coming from its mouth and eyes was brighter than before.

Finally, it stopped vibrating. Despite having no eyes, Sal had the eerie feeling the thing was staring right at them. "Lieutenant!?" As if responding to his plead for a command, the Octostalker let out a booming mechanical roar that shook the whole room.

"SWIM AND SPLIT!" Pacifica ordered, firing her weapon and fleeing in the ink. It didn't take long for everyone to follow suit, all spreading out in separate directions.

The Octostalker reacted accordingly. Four of its six body segments split off, each separately targeting Sal, Cal, Pacifica, and Samantha. Its head and the remaining two segments went after Samuel.

Samuel looked over his shoulder as he ran with his inkbrush, seeing three blocks go after him while everyone else only had to deal with one. "Aw, now come on! That just ain't right!"

Sal heard him complain in the distance. Unfortunately, he was too busy fleeing his own segment to assist.

Since it flew after him, covering the ground with as much ink as possible was meaningless. Instead, he focused on running away. However, each time he focused on splatting the ground, the segment sped up, forcing him to move in short bursts. This depleted his ink faster than he could replenish it.

Eventually, he ran out of ink and had to hide in the yellow puddles that coated the ground. He thought maybe staying still would save him, but somehow, the segment knew where he was at all times.

When it hovered over him, it angled itself to where Sal was smack-dab in the center. Afterward, an audible beeping noise emitted from the segment, getting louder and more urgent with each beep. Without thinking, Sal blasted out of the ink, diving and rolling away from the segment's shadow. Seconds later, the ground shook heavily, jostling him around.

The segment had smashed itself in the exact spot he was hiding in mere seconds ago. "Damn," Sal said in a hushed tone.

A tinge of unease crept into him as his brain registered just how close he was to becoming a piece of graffiti. Sure, Sal had been splatted a number of times before during Salmon Runs and his spars with Cal. But something was off this time around.

That's when a passing comment from Marina randomly replayed itself in his head.

Their spawn points. They were offline.

No wonder Kuda had been hanging safely in the back, away from all the fighting. She probably wasn't a big fan of permanent death. Frankly, neither was Sal.

To distract himself from his near-death experience, he focused on the body segment's exterior, only to notice something odd. On one side of it was a circular hole. A bright green light shined from within, similar to the Octostalker's eyeholes.

A rather devilish idea sprouted in his head from the sight of the hole.

Sal stood back up as the body segment returned to the air. Instead of running away like last time, he held his ground, allowing the segment to hover over him once again. When it emitted its beeping noise, he waited, wanting to time when it'd come crashing down.

When it finally plummeted, he quickly used his ink to swim out of the way instead of diving and rolling. With quick reflexes, he transformed again and threw a splat bomb directly at the segment's open hole.

It clattered inside with multiple clangs and bangs. Then, just as the segment was lifting off the ground, the splat bomb exploded. The whole segment shuddered before crashing back down, only for the green light within the hole to dim immensely. After a quick look over, Sal confirmed his segment was inoperable.

He turned, and as expected, each segment chasing the others had its own hole with a green light shining from it. Sal cupped his hands together and shouted, "The holes! Throw a bomb in the holes!"

Pacifica was the first to hear and the first to act.

By now, she had become surprisingly skilled at baiting her segment into slamming the ground. She did this by using her E-Liter, creating a straight path for her to swim through. Once she baited her segment, she easily swam out of the way and tossed her own splat bomb. Like Sal's, her segment shuddered, and the light within dimmed. Afterward, the whole thing remained unmoving.

Cal was next, except unlike Sal and Pacifica, he didn't even need to bait his segment. He used the ink-covered terrain to his advantage, swimming a great distance away. Fortunately for the group, once a segment was on a specific individual, it didn't go after anyone else, regardless of how far away its target was.

Once Cal was at an appropriate distance, he used his absurd arm strength to launch his autobomb at the open hole. Like an artillery strike, it hit dead-on.

The segment shuddered, then slammed to the ground much more violently than the others due to how high it was. It slid to Cal, scraping off any ink as it did so. Sal's breath hitched when Cal didn't move, but he quickly calmed down after seeing the segment stopped mere inches away from his brother. Cal turned, giving him a smirk and a thumbs up.

Sal shook his head and focused on Samantha. She did just as well as Pacifica when it came to baiting and taking down the segment. Actually, it seemed like she had an easier time than the lieutenant—probably because she wielded a slosher rather than a charger.

Finally, it was just Samuel, who had yet to deal with any of his segments. It wasn't because he was slacking. He just couldn't afford to. Every time he baited one segment, either the other segment or the head would move in, giving him no time to throw a splat bomb. Even if he had thrown one, it would've depleted too much ink, leaving him vulnerable to an unpleasant end.

So, while everyone else was dealing with their segments, Samuel ran laps around his. Luckily for him, he had an inkbrush, therefore, the mobility to do so. Still, Sal couldn't help but watch Samuel run for his life in slight amusement. Little Sam was never one to run from a challenge... Until today, it seemed.

Eventually, Samuel noticed Sal watching (and most definitely the smirk on his face), quickly furrowing his brows in frustration. "You just gonna sit there and look stupid or what? Move your ass, Sal!" He shouted. Though angry, the slight crack in Samuel's voice exposed his fear.

After chuckling quietly, Sal and the group acted fast.

The two remaining body segments and head continued solely targeting Samuel, but after he baited one, he continued moving instead of trying to throw a bomb in it. Samantha came behind after the first bait and threw her splat bomb, taking care of a body segment. Cal handled the second body segment, leaving just the head.

Suddenly, Samuel's speed dropped significantly, and his eyes widened in horror. Sal quickly realized what was going on, and his expression also became mortified.

Now that the group was helping Samuel, he prioritized baiting the Octostalker over his safety. As such, by the time it came to bait its head, he ran out of ink. Worst of all, the Octostalker was already on top of him.

"SAM!" Samantha yelled, now seeing the predicament her brother was in. But by then, the head was already beeping, mere seconds away from slamming.

Right when it plummeted to the ground, a yellow blur launched at Samuel. It was Cal!

He super-jumped to Samuel horizontally, probably after hearing Samantha shout his name. Mid-jump, he morphed into his humanoid form and snatched Samuel off his feet. They both narrowly avoided getting crushed as the head slammed into the ground with a resounding thud.

Sal ran up, splat bomb primed and ready. Luckily, the Octostalker hadn't slammed into the ground face first, leaving its two eyeholes wide open. However, there were two of them, and Sal only had enough time to throw one.

Just as the thought crossed his mind, Pacifica slid right up next to him with a splat bomb in hand. She didn't say anything, instead giving him a silent nod before turning to the Octostalker. In unison, they tossed their bombs, each one landing in a separate eyehole.

They went off with a bang, and the Octostalker... was still rising?!

Despite Pacifica and Sal's efforts, the great octoweapon rose in the air with dim eyes. Their splat bombs did something to it, but it wasn't enough.

Suddenly, a bomb passed by overhead, flying right into the Octostalker's mouth. It was Cal's. Sal knew so because the bomb was an autobomb. Plus, only he had the arm strength to throw stuff at something that high and actually hit.

Seconds after the autobomb landed, the face crashed back down, shaking the ground near Pacifica and Sal. Instead of the green light dimming, like last time, all the lights in the face changed to yellow. The face then jumped, vibrated, and jumped again. Each time, the yellow light intensified.

Before anyone knew it, the face exploded, pushing everyone back. Pacifica and Sal were the only ones knocked off their feet, as they were the closest. Everyone else just slid.

The two quickly got their bearings, seeing all that remained of the Octostalker was the zapfish entrapped in a barrier of some kind.

"Did we..." Sal didn't want to jinx it, but after taking a quick glance around, he saw the dim green lights in the other segments had vanished completely.

"Oh my cod..." Samantha started in disbelief, soon replacing her flabbergasted expression with a wide grin. "We just beat a great octoweapon!" She cheered.

"Of course we did." Cal crossed his arms, his hydra spatlings resting elsewhere. "We're just that good," He gloated.

Sal rolled his eyes, accidentally putting the platform Kuda retreated to in his peripheral vision. He looked back at it, catching the briefest glimpse of the back of Kuda's head before she disappeared.

Considering she was still there, that meant she had watched them beat the great octoweapon. Sal imagined she wasn't happy with their victory at all. "We're not out of the sea yet, guys."

"Right you are, agent," Pacifica answered, followed by the shattering of glass. He looked over to see she had effortlessly broken the barrier, now holding the squirming zapfish in her hand. She then turned, giving the whole team a short glance. "Let's move out."

Cal jolted, as if shocked by her words. "W-Wait, what about the second-in-command?"

Pacifica shook her head. "We got what we came for. Let's not push our luck and overstay."

Cal looked ready to say something in protest, but Sal gave him a stern look to dissuade him from speaking his mind. After a moment of hesitation, Cal nodded. "Aye, lieutenant."