Chapter 5:

(So, I'm late to the party, but Team Rice for Life! Sorry, Klonoa, but our team won! Anyways, anyone excited for the Grand Festival?! I'm going Team Future! Anyways, I have nothing more to say, so enjoy the chapter.)

Eight awoke slowly, feeling heavy vision when he saw two silhouettes over him. When his sight became clear, he saw, "Eight! Eight! Please be okay!" Marina said to him, shaking his body, both her and Pearl's eyes trembling with worry. "M-Ma…rina…?" Eight asked, seeing the two members of Off The Hook standing over him with a smile. "Oh, thank goodness! Pearl! Eight's woken up!" Marina said, he lifted himself up to see Pearl was returned to her Inkling form. "Eight! Thank you so much for freeing me." Marina said, hugging her friend. "I'm elated enough to see you're yourselves again, Marina." Eight said. Marina smiled, turning to Pearl. "Surprised to see me in the flesh? Marina worked some magic and BAM! I'm back, bay-bee!" Pearl explained, raising out a fist, to which Eight smiled and bumped. Marina pulled out her laptop and opened it, "I'm really, really sorry. It was the Dramatic Days of Orderland module that stuck you in drone form. And…did all the other stuff, too." Marina explained, to which the two of her friends were in intrigue and confusion. "Say what? "Dramatic Days in…"?" Pearl asked. Marina typed a few keys on her computer, "Uh, right. Let me back up a bit." Marina began to explained, before showing areas of this colorless Inkopolis Square. "This is the Memverse. It's a prototype VR…that is, a virtual reality that I made." Marina said. This revelation stunned the two, "Your virtual reality? Hold up! You're saying we've been in a fake place this whole time?!" Pearl asked, Eight tried to make sense of it, all. "My theory ended up being correct, then." Eight said, suspecting this was where they were. "That's right. The only "real" thing in the Memverse are our minds." Marina said. It all made sense now. The computer program code upon entry to a new floor, holographic projections from the elevator and the weapons, the lack of memory of Inkopolis Square becoming THIS place, and the way that Order being presented itself. Eight had figured once they had finally found and freed Marina that they were in a world of her own making. "Yo, you figured it out, Eight? Why didn't you spill it?!" Pearl asked. "I wanted to confirm the conjecture, firstly." Eight explained, taking a breath. "And that being we saw emerge from that machinery? It refers to itself as "Order." Were you responsibly for that one's creation, as well's?" Eight looked to his friend.

"Unfortunately, yes. Order took control of me and caused the whole Memverse to go haywire. It forcibly connected who-knows-how-many people to the Memverse. Their minds are all in here now." Marina pulled out a page that showed a bunch of Inkling and Octoling silhouettes. Eight looked horrified, he had worried for anyone they were close to that had their mind trapped in here. What if Three was trapped in here, or Four? What about Father, Grampa, Callie, Marie? Eight's inner voice silenced itself when he saw someone walk up to them. "Which is how I got pulled into the is situation, I take it?" Acht asked, placing a hand on her hip, trying to get a good look at the computer.

"Acht…I'm so sorry. I never intended for you to get roped into my mess." Marina apologized, though it sounded like she was apologizing to everyone.

"It's fine. We have other problems. Like what to do about the situation we're in." Acht said, focusing on the next objective. "You're absolutely right! We need to do something about Order." Marina said, explaining the this colorless world they're in currently is Order's goal: To create a colorless world of order. "A place where nobody has a will of their own. They just do whatever they're told, day in, day out." Eight brushed and looked at his pale colored hair once again. "So, Order is exploiting the Memverse to make said dream of an unchanged world a reality?" Eight asked, Marina nodded. The two of them had felt shame in that moment, "What's its beef with change? Actually, hold up. I thought the Memverse isn't real?" Pearl asked, "Even if it gets what it wants in the Memverse…who cares? The real world stays the real world, right?" Pearl asked. Marina had switched to her digital art app and showed a display of herself and Pearl in both the Memverse and the real world, it seemed. "Yeahhh, about that…Order is using what it calls "Grayscaling" to neutralize the will of everyone that's trapped here." Marina explained. Acht looked at the art, "So if someone goes through Grayscaling here in the Memverse…it has an effect on the real person. That about sum it up?" Acht asked, Marina changed the layer, and the red line connecting the visual aid Memverse selves with the real world selves went from orange to blue. And the real world versions of Pearl and Marina lost their green and pink colored outlines, turning to black, with happy faces turning to sad and anxiety ridden ones.

"Yeah. Anyone who goes through Grayscaling will slowly start to lose their will in actual reality too." Marina confirmed Acht's thoughts. "And Order's just getting started. It plans to keep pulling people into the Memverse." Marina explained, showing the next layer of Inklings and Octolings starting off happy before becoming Grayscaled.

"If we don't stop it, people all over the world will lose their wills. Life as we know it will be over!" Marina said, Pearl stood up. "Yo, that sounds BAD. Not on our watch, Order!" Pearl said, determinedly. "We're going to stop it! That's will be guaranteed!" Eight said, almost angrily.

"Again, I'm REALLY sorry. This is all my fault…" Marina apologized again. "Nope! Nah! I know you had good reasons for making the Memverse." Pearl said to her bestie, "If that creep Order hijacked your work…it's gonna be sorry it ever tried!" Pearl said, now pointing at the Spire of Order. "We're all gonna kick that loser out together!" Pearl said, Marina smiled. "Aw, Pearlie! You say the coolest things." Marina had said, closing her laptop.

Eight nodded, "Indeed! We're about to kick that loser out together!" He said, determinedly. "Whoa-ho! Eight's agreeing with me! You know I'm extra pumped now!" Pearl said.

Marina looked on at Eight. She understood that response. Both she and Eight were ashamed that they were ever sided with a world of order, this would never have been a world they envisioned with that ideal. But what if it was? Marina didn't know what to think and pushed those thoughts aside to deal with the issue. Their new mission would be to shut Order down. And thankfully, Pearl has enough chaos in spades for this kind of situation.

(Later)

Marina and Acht had moved a bit ahead of Pearl and Eight, with Marina staying near the pillar, and Acht returning to the elevator.

"Hup!" Pearl had switched back into drone form, forming through a low polygon cocoon. "Niiice. Don't worry, Eight—I got your back. Let's get this show on the road!" Pearl said, Eight smiled. "Glad I can counter you, Pearl." Eight said, "Wha—You tryna fight? O-Ohhhh...My b, you said you're glad you can "count on me.""Pearl said. Eight looked sheepish, but returned to his calm exterior to be more levelheaded. Eight and Pearl walked ahead to see so many things about this place had changed. "Hey, Eight, do you have a sec?" Marina asked, Eight nodded his head, "What is it?" Eight had asked his friend.

"I've been running some scans. Somehow, Order jacked up the threat level as high as it'll go." Marina explained, Eight looked up at the sky. "Not just that, Order's risen the Spire to greater heights." Eight said, the spire was glitching out with a darkness taking over the top of the building. "Really?! Why's it gotta go and do that to us?!" Pearl said, annoyed that this will take longer than they'd hoped.

"That's not even the worst part. Run out of Lives even once, and you'll get kicked out of the Spire. And that'll probably happen, since enemies hurt more." Marina explained. "Ok, yeah. I'm seeing some challenges here." Pearl said, Eight slightly agreeing. "That said…I built the Memverse to begin with. I don't have to take this sitting down. Now that I'm outside the Spire, I can hack the system, overwrite the changes and lower the difficulty!" Marina explained. "Whoa, you ca do all that?! Glad to have you back on OUR side!" Pearl said, Eight nodding.

"Thing is, I'll need Prlz to get any hacking done." Marina said, "Pearls? Are they a collectible item here?" Eight asked, Marina nodded, definitively. "Yeah, and you should have some Prlz already, I think." Marina suggested from when they cleared the first ten floors of the Spire. Eight thought of the Lucky Chain gauge and looked all around his vision for anything. He say a gauge in the top right corner of his eye and saw an icon of a pearl and a netted amount of 50 available. These were the Prlz Marina spoke of, "I can see a gauge of them. How do I retrieve these?" Eight asked.

"Every time you leave, Eight. Your color chips and Membux will be automatically converted into Prlz." Eight nodded, "So like…we're probably gonna bite it in the Spire, but if we kick some butt first, we get more Prlz?" Pearl had asked, "And giving Prlz to Marina for hacks to make it easier will help us next time. Even losing helps us win! I like this plan!" Pearl did a front flip. "Here are the settings I've figured out how to hack so far. Want me to fix anything in your favor?" Eight looked at the list on Marina's computer. A few booster abilities for Eight such as an added life count, damage reduction, armor, and a broken armor jump. Pearl saw a few things for herself as well, "Added specials? Marina, you've thought of everything, yo!" Pearl said.

"In the spirit of fairness, let's spend one on each of us." Eight said, "Marina, may you reduce the damage rate for my…uh…me?" The Octoling asked. Marina nodded and got to work on that. "This should help us with our fish in the long run! 'Rina, add more slots so I can light some fishes up!" Pearl said. "You got it!" Marina said, adding the hacks. "I'm certain we'd be well even without hacks." Eight said, a little overconfident in the moment. "Sorry, Eight, but even you'd have a hard time getting to the top of the Spire. But my hacks should smooth the way." Marina explained, "That's the best I can do. It'll be up to you to put a stop to Order!" Marina had one more thing to give Eight.

"Here, I have a Palette for you." Marina pulled out a Palette, to its side was a Brella Weapon. To Eight, this made sense, seeing as that was Marina's go to weapon.

"One of those things color chips go into? Didn't know you had one of your own." Pearl said. "Yeah, I do. Anyways, setting this Palette to your drone—I mean, Pearl—will let you use a new weapon. I did some research, and this doesn't seem to be the only other Palette in the Memverse." Marina explained, which shocked Eight. "Where do I find those?" Eight asked, Marina pointed and told Eight and Pearl to look at that new set of lockers by the Spire's entrance. "My early scans of those lockers over there show signs of other Palettes inside." Marina then explained when her friends saved them, she had found herself with some keys for these new lockers. "Here, Eight. You should have them." Marina said, handing the keys to her friend. Eight nodded, seeing that there were three keys to open.

"I wonder if we could switch the Palettes out while we're in the Spire? I'm surely that would give the Jelletons and Order an unpredictable disadvantageous…" Eight said, messing up a few words.

"Unfortunately, we can't, Eight. If you want to switch, make sure to prepare before getting in the elevator." Marina said, but did like the idea for a viable strategy. Eight was already skilled with most of the weapons.

"I'll see if we can unlock any of the Palettes before we head in." Eight said, "Right behind ya, dude." Pearl said, excitedly.

Eight and Pearl went to the lockers and placed one of the keys in. They watched the first locker door open and saw something that looked like a file. It said it was Marina's Dev Diary. "Hey, what's this? Yo, Marina! It's your diary!" Pearl shouted, "Shouldn't you keep this under lock and key?" Pearl asked, before catching what she just said and where the entry had come from, "Wait, I guess you kinda did."

Marina looked a little embarrassed, but took a breath. "Oh…Well…Maybe it's for the best. It's a little embarrassing, but…if you two want to read it, feel free."Marina said, offering a smile. "You sure, 'Rina?" Pearl said, "Here, I'll leave this with you, Eight. If you wanna read it, you can do that by accessing the menu on your side." Eight nodded, but with how curious he was about Marina's development of the Memverse, he would not be overstepping his boundaries. "I won't read it. We have greatest matters to deal with." Eight said, placing another key in the lock. They watched another locker door open and saw a banner was now available to them. "Hey, a banner! They put all kinds of stuff in these. We got one more key, right, Eight?" Pearl asked, seeing the next locker looked like it was glowing. Eight put the last key in the slot, and the next door swung open. A new Palette was available to them, and they were surprised by who it belonged to. It was a Splattershot belonging to Agent 4 of the New Squidbeak Splatoon.

"What in the world? That's Agent 4's, right?" Marina asked.

"Indeed. I didn't to see Agent 4's Palette." Eight had said, "Oh yeah, Agent 4. Uh…who was that again?" Pearl asked, a little confused.

"One of the New Squidbeak Splatoon Members. Alongside myself, we started five years ago when Grandpa introduced us. Pearl, Agent 4 was on YOUR team during the Splatocalypse." Eight explained, "Ohhh yeah, the one who was supposed to be a big shot. Uh, what's Agent 4's Palette doing here?" Pearl asked. Marina straightened her headphones.

"Well, Palettes are actually a representation of part of someone's soul. I guess Order somehow pulled a part of Agent 4's soul into the Memverse, turning it into a Palette." This stunned Eight and Pearl. "What, for real?! Man, we better keep this with us. Wouldn't want anything happening to it." Pearl said.

"Right."Eight had said, remembering when they had once fought in the Splatocalypse. "I'm still getting signals from other Palettes in the lockers. Let's keep opening them as we find keys." Marina suggested. Eight nodded, now taking a moment to think about all of this.

"Do…I have a Palette here? If I could find it…would I regain some of my memories?" Eight thought to himself. Although, he didn't take too long to think about that, there were other matters at hand. Once again, the objective was to climb the Spire, with the new goal of obliterating a shameful ideal of Order.

(Okay, we're at the end! This went on for a little bit, but it's fine! Anyways, I can't wait to write what Eight thinks of all the other characters. Anyways, I wanted to leave this one to fan choice, but what do you want Agent 4's gender to be? Should it stay canonically female or should 4 be male? Let me know! Thx! :D Stay strong and awesome!)

Ephesians 5:1 KJV

Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;