#Octo Orvokki

[splattershotsundae]

Ink is Thicker Than Water --- Chapter 9: Are you Skwidding me?

Bato had been browsing his computer when he’d gotten his next text from Stacey. His last mission had been a few days ago, and he hadn’t told her he’d been discovered by Oana, and honestly he didn’t think she needed to know. Everything had gone well, perhaps better than planned, and now he didn’t have to worry about the secret getting out, at least in his own house.

What really concerned him was the contents of Stacey’s texts.

3: 4, I need you. 3: Suit up, then sit down. This is a lot to take in.

He quickly got to his feet and pulled his agent gear out of the back of his closet, texting her back when he sat down to put on his shoes.

B: Suited and sitting. What happened?

3: Someone broke into prison and freed a prisoner. From the sounds of it... It must have been Orvokki behind it. 3: Don't have the details of how, but that's not the concerning part. 3: I've narrowed down where she might have gone, but she won't be there for long, and we have three places to check. My old man's home, so he can watch -her- while I'm in the field.

B: Alright B: ... what's the concerning part?

3: You sure you can take it?

B: I asked to join you, didn't I?

3: She's taken Yuri.

He let out a strangled sounding gasp as he read these words, glad that she’d told him to sit.

B: What!? B: Why?

3: Don't know, can't be good. 3: One of the possible places she may have gone is our old warehouse. 3: apparently 1&2 got all the sensitive information out after the last raid, but then we abandoned it. She's high enough ranking she could have known about it, and it's out of the way.

B: Okay

3: Exercise extreme caution. 3: Switch to the official communicator when you're on scene.

B: Understood.

3: Good luck.

He took a deep breath and grabbed his brush and inktank before hurrying out of the house with only a rushed call to his mothers before he left. What could Orvokki be planning? Obviously she wanted to do more… water… ‘shenanigans’, but to what end? Revenge? Probably. He felt his throat dry, and wished he’d had the forethought to grab some water. He didn’t have time to go back now, and so he rushed to the train station.

---

The ride to walleye warehouse was full of many stares, and shushed whispers, but he did his best to pay them no mind as he sprinted for the agent’s warehouse. As he ran, he spied an old shipping crate, laying dejected off to the side. Was that the one he’d hid from the rain in? Dear Judd, it seemed like an eternity and a half ago that he’d been here after they’d met Hachi, but he supposed it had only been two, three weeks? Oh how much the world had changed. From there he was able to quickly find the warehouse, blending right in with all the others, except for the fact that it was borderline run down. He ran for the keypad, reaching for it… only to find that it had been broken off. This was less than ideal. He pulled out his sleek, new, agent communicator and fumbled for a moment while he tried to remember how to use it. “Agent 3? Agent 3 this is 4, I’ve reached the target location, but the keypad has been broken off.”

He was almost about to try sending his message again when Stacey’s voice crackled through the speaker. “That’s new, and probably a sign that you’re on the right track. Circle around the building, there’s a wooden crate counterclockwise from the main entrance which had a trapdoor under it, it’ll be quieter.”

"Got it." He said, jogging around the corner and up to the wooden crate, freezing when he saw that the crate was next to a trapdoor, and not on top of it. He knelt down to take a better look, bushing his hand over a metal pull ring which was embedded into the surface, next to another keypad. “What’s the code to get in?” He asked.

"The code on that keypad is 1376." She replied.

He nodded and entered the code, then grabbed the handle as it popped out, hauling up the heavy metal door with a slight grunt. Inside was a ladder leading down about eight feet, then at the bottom there was a sort of tunnel, so small that he’d probably only be able to fit if he squidded. He gave a quiet sigh, then carefully climbed down the ladder, allowing the trapdoor to close behind him, plunging him into darkness. He felt around carefully for the tunnel, then squidded and slipped through as fast as he dared.

Even has he felt like he was rushing, it was still agonizingly slow, with no way to gauge how fast, or how long, he’d been going. Eventually he heard a muffled sound above, like someone’s voice. A moment after he emerged into a small chamber like the one he’d come in from, and he found the ladder before climbing up and feeling for the exit. As he found the handle for the trapdoor and opened it a crack, he was finally able to make out the voices he’d heard.

"-ous about why? About how? You were a breakthrough!!" Shouted Orvokki. “You changed the world!”

"S-Stay away from me!!!" Yuri yelped. It was surprising how a voice he barely knew was so terrifying to him, and yet so full of terror itself.

"There's nowhere to run, all the doors are locked and broken. You're stuck with me." Ovokki continued.

"NO! I'M- YOU'RE-... I won't cooperate!! So.. Meghh!"

Bato carefully pulled himself out of the tunnel, lowering the trapdoor as quietly as he could, praying it would be quiet enough that Orvokki wouldn’t hear.

"I don't understand why you're being so modest about it." Orvokki said. "I can return your ultimate power to you!"

"I'm. Not. Why won't you just LISTEN to me??" Yuri said, on the brink of screaming.

He let out a quiet sigh of relief as the two kept talking, then carefully sidled along the crates toward where the two were talking.

"Think about how many people you could dominate!" Orvokki said. “You can overpower everyone who stands in your way if you would just HELP ME!”

“NO!” Yuri shrieked.

He peered around the corner, looking into the central area of the warehouse, where planning of many sorts used to take place. Instead a lantern was on on the central table, now otherwise barren, and Orvokki had cornered Yuri, advancing at him slowly. It was then that he realized he had no part 2 to this plan, he hadn’t asked Stacey what to do if he actually found them. Contacting her now might give himself away.

He looked up quickly as Yuri lunged at Ovokki, only for her to wrap her arm around his neck and flip him onto the ground. "That's not very nice of you. And after I offered you such generosity!" She exclaimed, giving him a small kick on his side. “You don't have a choice. You're going to help me. Do you understand?”

Okay, that was it, he had to act. Bato drew his brush and stepped forward, yelping as Orvokki immediately turned and pulled out a pistol. She fired, the shot arcing wide and hitting the crate wall behind him. “You.” She grimaced. “You’re the one who broke into my room...”

He pulled his brush close and ducked behind the wall of crates as she fired another shot, trying to keep his composure. “You’re the one who tortured my friends!” He called back, surprised at how firm he sounded, despite his legs beginning to shake as Ovokki’s tentacles began to come around the corner.

“So you are that one...” She murmured. “The one with the odd ink.”

He felt his ink run cold, swinging his brush instinctively as she came around the corner, but all he succeeded was in painting a line between them. In everything that had been happening, he’d forgotten about that.

“Well then… you’re a siren.” She commented as she leisurely aimed the pistol at him. “So tell me, where’s Ophelia?”

He kept his eyes fixed on her, slowly edging his foot into the ink he’d left, taking some solace in the idea of a quick escape. "She's safe, and that's all you need to know."

"Safe?" Orvokki gave a short chuckle, though there wasn't any amusement in it. "She's not safe, not as only as my sister’s on the loose."

He felt that chill again. “Onella, where is she? She’s still water, and out there!”

“You think I don’t know!?” Orvokki demanded. “You think I don’t know the trouble she’s causing out there with my tech!?”

“I mean… you might not.” He said, then yelped as she raised the gun to fie again, transforming and slipping into his puddle of ink while the bullet zipped overhead. That felt close. He changed back, slapping his bush down. "Dear Judd, you are a miserable shot, aren't you?" Now face-to-face with Ovokki, he found the barrel of the gun pressed against his forehead.

"Well, I'm not going to miss this time am I?” She asked. “Now… would you care to be more respectful?”

He took a shaky breath, thinking through his words carefully. “What are you planning? Why do you need… Yuri?”

“Hm.” Orvokki murmured. “How about I ask you this; Where is Ophelia?”

His breath caught, mind racing. "... Orvokki, they took her to protect her, from people who actually do want to hurt her.  If you really care about her safety, you need to stop looking." He watched her even as he spoke, ready to squid if she so much as twitched.

"And I said, she's not safe. So you TELL ME WHERE OPHELIA IS." Orvokki shouted, tentacles changing... texture. Small bumps began to rise on the surface of her tentacles, like small ridges…

He didn’t have time to understand that now; he met her gaze, the gray steel circle eyes of the mask she was wearing. "... You're not the only one who wants someone to be safe." He growled, then squidded and swam quickly through the ink, cringing as another shot went off. He popped up behind her, grabbing the gun and pulling it from her grasp. Immediately after however, Orvokki’s tentacles lifted up and then grabbed his face, pulling him into relative darkness. Her font two tentacles wrapped around his neck, beginning to cut off his air.

"You underestimate my sister, squidling!" She exclaimed. “She knows exactly what’s going on, and she--” Bato took her opening to slam the butt of the gun down onto Orvokki’s head, causing her tentacles to pull away. He began to run, only for her to grab his arm and twist it backward so hard that the pistol slipped from his hand. He screamed, then felt her foot drive into his gut, and he crumpled to the floor, attempting to catch his breath through the pain. “YURI! WE’RE LEAVING!” She called, turning and running back into the clearing. “YURI!?”

Bato clutched his arm for a moment, then grabbed his brush and made himself stand and run after her, quickly catching up and swiping a puddle of ink at her feet. “You’re not going anywhere!” He grunted, then shoved the handle of his inkbrush at her, knocking her of balance and sending her sprawling into the puddle, getting rather stuck. Satisfied that he had a bit of time to get his barrings, he looked around for Yuri, frowning when he was nowhere in sight. Since he hadn’t run past them while they were fighting, there were only two places he could have gone; over the walls, or into the other half of the maze.

“You better be here when I get back!” He said, then touched his brush to the ground and ran into the maze, stopping in his tracks as he reached a fork in the crates. Here had to be some way to tell which way he’d--

“EEP!” He heard Yuri squeak, and saw him dart off around the corner down the right fork. He touched his brush down again and ran after him, he couldn’t waste any time, no matter how much his leg complained around his now mostly-healed stab wound.

As he turned the corner, he saw Yuri slip on a few loose pieces of newspaper, sending him sprawling to the ground in a heap. He flipped over as he drew close, beginning to crawl backward in a desperate manner, not breaking eye contact. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, It’s… it’s you! No no no!”

"Yeah, the feeling's mutual, kid." He said flatly, trying to keep as much of a ‘power posture’ as he could. "Come on, get up, we don't have time for this."

"I won't go back, s-she's crazy!!" He protested, eyes wide with fright.

"I know. Believe me, I know," He replied, casting a quick glance back over his shoulder. "My current plan isn't to take you back to her; hell, if it means she can't go ahead with whatever she's doing, I'd rather keep the two of you separated for as long as I can... And hopefully get a chance to talk to you before she finds us again."

"How do you expect me to trust you!?” He demanded. “Also; The squid sisters called and said they want their outfit back."

Bato’s eyes went wide in moderate horror; How had the Sisters-- oh. Wait. He was making fun of the uniform. He tried to cover up his moment of surprise, rolling his eyes. "Very funny, smartass… Look, it's either you behave, or I’ll tie the both of you up together, which I don’t think you really want.”

He cringed, raising his hands quickly. "Ok... Ok!" He slowly stood up, treating one of his arms a bit gingerly; perhaps Orvokki’d pulled a similar grab on him. "Doesn't mean I'm going to be happy...”

"Good, 'cause neither am I." He replied, then cast one more quick glance over his shoulder before pulling out his phone, he didn’t want Yuri to hear any plans they had for him. “Now sit tight for a moment, I have to talk to… an acquaintance of mine.”

“Whatever...” He mumbled, hunching over and breaking away his gaze.

Bato just huffed, typing as fast as he could without typos.

B: Found the targets, unsure how to proceed.

(NOT DELIVERED: RESEND?)

B: I currently have Yuri with me, however Orvokki is somewhere in the maze, I trapped her, but it’ll only last for so long.

He grimaced as he checked his signal; he’d forgotten how bad signal could be down by the coast. He waved his phone around in a vain attempt to get a stronger signal, then jumped and almost dropped it as a loud slamming sound echoed through the warehouse.

“EEP!” Yuri exclaimed, sticking both of his hands behind his back.

“What was that?” He asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

“What?” He demanded. “I didn’t make that sound!”

“But what are you hiding behind your back?” He pressured.

“It’s nothing!” Yuri said, taking a few steps backward.

{"Agent 4, do you read? Agent 4!"} Stacey’s voice rang out.

Bato blinked, then felt at his waist for his agent communicator, only to find that it was gone. "... What the hell, man?" He growled, holding out his hand. “Give it back!”

Yuri lifted up the blue and back communicator with a grin. "Oh, this?” He asked, then pushed down the talk button on the side. “'Agent 4' isn't here right now, can I take a message?" He snickered.

{"What? Who is this? What have you done with 4?"}

"Yuri, this is not the time!" Bato snapped, starting towards him quickly. "Do you want Ovokki to find us because you decided to screw around?"

"Is this your acquaintance? You didn't tell me she was a lady with a pretty voice." He teased, holding it as far away as he could. “I bet you wish you could talk to her!”

{"You're Yuri Sqwidd, aren't you?"}

As soon as Stacey said that, Yuri froze, and Bato successfully reached around him and snatched the communicator away from him. "I'm here, 3. I forgot how much someone likes to mess with things that aren't his.”

{"Can you flip him off for me? I was pretty worried there."}

"No problem." He said, doing so with his free hand.

{"Are you in a secure location?"}

"As secure as we can be for the moment." He replied. “I’m in the middle of the maze, with Yuri.”

{"So you found him. Has Orvokki been detained?"}

".. No, not yet."

{“That needs to be top priority. She's causing more than enough trouble and it has to stop."}

"Understood." He said, though he did cast a quick glance at Yuri; how was he going to keep an eye on him while he was taking care of Orvokki? ... Though, he didn’t know there was a trapdoor, and the maze otherwise was such a mess that it would be quite a feat if he got out of here.

{"I'm on my way to assist; Keep me updated, I’ll be there soon as I can."}

"Got it." He said, then put it back at his hip. “I suppose you heard all that?” He asked, looking back at Yuri.

“Maybe...” He huffed. "You are NOT going to use me as bait, I REFUSE!"

Bato hadn't really considered that... it was pretty tempting, if he was perfectly honest. "... If you were, though, I would be close enough to you that I'd be able to stop her before she got too... much more creepy." He pointed out. "If I left you here and went to find her on my own, I could be on the other side of the warehouse by the time she found you."

Yuri's eyes widened. "She gets more creepy!?" He asked, noticeably paling at the thought.

"Ooh yeah." Bato replied, then sighed. “We don't have time to just stand here. Are you going to help me find her or not?"

Yuri hunched his shoulders, kicking at a piece of newspaper on the floor."... Fine... But if she hurts me... You're.. you’re going to regret it!"

"I'll.. keep that in mind." He replied dryly, looking Yuri up and down for a moment before turning to the crate wall. "... First thing, we have to get to the center of the maze; then we can get an idea of which direction she went.”

“Fine...” He mumbled, hands still in his pockets.

He sighed, then began to follow his ink trail back, glancing over his shoulder multiple times to make sure Yuri was still following. Eventually he made it back to the center room, but Ovokki was nowhere in sight. He should have secured her better! “Stay here for a moment.” He told Yuri, walking toward the ink puddle to investigate… only to find that it was no longer one ink puddle, but several, spelling words out across the floor.

‘Marianas street X Puffer drive 00:00 Hide’

What? Was she telling them to... Damn it! He pulled out his communicator again. "3, she's gone."

There was a split second of silence. {"What?"}

"I'm where I stalled Orvokki and I don't see her anywhere; she left a message in the middle of the room and left." That bang they'd heard earlier... had it been a door closing? Shit, this was all his fault.

{"What's it say?"}

" 'Marianas street X Puffer drive, 00:00, hide'." He said. “She wants me to meet her it sounds like.”

{“She wants you to hide in a park at midnight, that doesn’t sound like a meetup, she didn’t even say to bring Yuri.”} Stacey said. {“Something’s not right about this.”}

“Yeah.” He agreed. “… I think I’m going to go.”

{“Are you sure? This is a risk we don’t have to take.”} Stacey said.

“This is going to give me a chance to capture Orvokki; I’m going to take it.” Bato said. “I let her get away, I’ll fix this. And even if I don’t catch he again, if it might give us an idea of what she's planning to do next, than I think it's worth the risk."

Stacey gave a long pause. {"Alright. Get prepared. Take a nap, scope out the area for good hiding places, get there -early.- We want to give her as little of an upper hand as possible. Keep the exact words of her message on a photo or written down, memory can be unreliable sometimes."}

"Understood." Bato said, then paused. "... What are we going to do about Yuri?"

{"We’ll take him back to jail."}

"You're going to WHAT?" Yuri yelped.

“Are you honestly surprised?” Bato asked. “Think about what you’ve done! Besides, Juvie’s not that bad, is it?”

”They won’t put me back in there!” He yelped. “I heard about what they did to Alison!”

“Who?” Bato asked, blinking a few times.

“She tried to get out and they put her in grown up jail!” He exclaimed. “Don’t take me back!”

He was surprised at the twinge of guilt he felt, he’d never expected to sympathize with… Yuri of all people. But for the sake of his friends, he decided that he needed to turn him in again. “Yuri, there are.. consequences for actions...”

“I was being good!” Yuri said. “She took me out! I didn’t do it!”

He took a deep breath. “… I’m just doing my job.”

Silence fell for what felt like several minutes before Stacey cleared her throat. {“Ahem, I’m still on my way to look for Orvokki, let’s start dealing with Yuri.”}

“… Yeah, on it.” Bato said, then clipped the communicator back onto his vest. “Come on, let’s go.” He said, pointing down toward the way he’d entered the warehouse, his other hand gripping his inkbrush threateningly. Yuri looked like he was going to protest, but then thought better of it and followed his directions, carefully edging around the ink puddles on the floor. Bato kept a constant eye on him, especially as they turned a corner. Up ahead the newspapers on the floor had been swept aside dramatically and seemingly in a frenzy, leaving the trapdoor clearly visible. Bato felt his hearts sink just a bit; this was certainly where Orvokki had left from. He gave a heavy sigh and bent down to open the door, urging Yuri to go ahead of him once it popped open. "There's a tunnel at the bottom, just big enough to squid through, and at the end of that there's another ladder and trapdoor that opens up on the outside.” He said. “Don’t try anything.”

“What can I try?” Yuri asked as he deliberately slowly began to climb down the ladder. “Oh no, He’s biting my face off! Help help!”

"Keep going, Skwidd." Bato sighed, then climbed down after him once he’d slipped into the tunnel, unable to keep from worrying that Yuri would in fact actually bite his face.

As he came out on the other end of the tunnel and changed back to humanoid form, his face slammed into the sole of Yuri’s shoe, and he had to stop himself from gagging. “Yuri, what are you doing?”

“Trying to open the door!” He exclaimed, perhaps a bit too loudly for this small of a space.

"There should be a lever you have to pull first." He said. "That unlocks it from this side."

"Yeah, I'm PULLING ON IT!" He snapped, voice strained from effort.

Bato almost suspected Yuri of trying to fake it, except that it... certainly sounded like he was really pushing on it. But why else would it--Oh... oh no. "She put the crate back over the door, didn't she?" He said quietly. “Get down before you hurt yourself, let me try.”

There was a jarring ‘clank’ sound, and Yuri yelped in pain. Looked like his warning had come a bit late. Regardless he climbed the ladder, pulling the lever, and then pushing his shoulder into the door as hard as he could, but it barely budged. He took a second to catch his breath, then pulled the communicator out again. "The outside door won't open, I think she might've put the crate back over it."

A sigh came through the communicator. {"I'll be right over. Hang tight."}

"Got it." He said, leaning back against the wall; he didn't trust himself to try and hook the communicator back on in the dark, so he just held it, faintly comforted by the dim blue light it gave off. "So, how much did Orvokki tell you about what she was planning to do? Why did she need you?" He asked, he might as well try to get info while he was here.

“Why should I tell you?” Yuri huffed. “I’m going to be stuck in jail forever anyway… But maybe if you let me go…”

"You seriously think I'm even going to consider that?" He demanded, carefully climbing back down the ladder. "A good part of everything that's happened is thanks to you, who knows what else could happen if I just let you go off into the world!”

“I won’t go back! You can’t make me!” Yuri said. His voice had some sort of edge to it which… he wasn’t quite sure what it was.

"You're not in any position to be making demands." Bato said, his voice rising a bit in volume. "Why did Orvokki need you?"

“I DON’T KNOW!” Yuri screamed, stomping his feet. “I don’t know who she is! I don’t know what she wants! I don’t know why she cares so much about what happened to me! I don’t know why she wants me to do that again, I don’t know ANYTHING!” He gasped for breath, and Bato frowned, lifting the communicator a bit, revealing long streams of tears flowing down his cheeks. “I don’t want to be around her…!”

He didn’t know what to say.  He felt bad. For Yuri. Orvokki was quite the frightening person, he had to admit… but he was also still angry with him for everything he’d done. He finally decided to just keep pressuring him for information. He’d cracked, maybe he’d spill something. “You got us targeted by octarian soldiers, if you think I’m going to go easy on you, you’re wrong.”

“… I got you what?” Yuri sniffled. "... I've been in jail. How could I have done anything to you from in there?"

Bato sighed. "You got into my friends' heads after the octarians turned you to water. After that, they tried to find us, and sometimes tried to kill us.”

"Get off my back! I found out they did this to me half an hour ago, I didn't know that was going to happen!" He said, more tears flowing down his face.

“Yeah, I get that now.” Bato said. “It’s still a point of bitterness.”

“You just want to blame me for everything!” He exclaimed. “You want to feel good about yourself for putting me away! You want to feel good about what’s going to happen to me, because you’re a sick asshole!!!”

He gritted his beak, these insults hitting hard. Was he right? He didn’t break out, he shouldn’t be punished for that… but at the same time he felt a wave of guilt for even considering being sympathetic to Yuri; like he was betraying his friends. His friends, who would feel so much safer if they knew Yuri was doing time.

… Time which he didn’t deserve.

He began to feel dizzy. There didn’t feel like there was a right answer. “We’ll talk to 3.” He said, voice croaky. “See what she thinks.” She was his commander, wasn’t she? It was her job to make the choice.

“I hope you die!” Yuri sobbed, slumping to the floor and putting his face into his knees.

Needless to say, that reaction did not make him feel any better.

A few minutes passed… and then there was an ear-grating sound above them, and finally the trapdoor popped open. "Need a hand?" Stacey asked.

Bato glanced up, then wiped a bit of the wateriness out of one of his eyes. "Yes please."

“Don’t take me back to jaaaaail!” Yuri sobbed, finally looking up, rows of tears still falling from his eyes.

“I… told him you’d decide if he went back to jail or if we let him go.” Bato said.

“We’re not letting him go.” Stacey said, extending her hand. “I’ll handle this.”

Yuri sobbed louder, covering his face with his hands. Bato had to haul him up to the ladder to get him to start climbing, and he tried to pull away from Stacey as she took his hand and helped him up. “4, go home, find that address, and nap; you’ll need plenty of rest for tonight.”

“Alright, I will.” He said as he climbed the ladder, and then watched as Stacey began to drag Yuri away, still feeling twisting guilt inside of him. Stacey had made the choice, there was nothing he could do now without making things worse, and very awkward. He sighed, and started for the train station once more. He had a lot of work ahead of him.

---

“Where have you taken me?” Yuri sniffled, rubbing his face as ‘agent 3’ stopped outside of an apartment door.

“Shh! Keep your voice down.” She hissed, squatting down to look him in the eye. “My colleague and his friends hate you, you have to listen to me if you want to stay out of trouble, okay?”

Yuri nodded, sniffling again.

“You’re going to be living here.” She said, opening the front door of the apartment. “But you can’t leave, or else people are going to catch you. I’ll do my best to keep you happy, but you have to remain a secret to everyone outside this house, understood?”

“Yeah, understood.” He nodded, wiping his face on his sleeve as he followed her inside. “… Who’s that on the couch?”

“That’s just the Octarian queen, don’t mind her.” Agent 3 said, and then closed the apartment door.

Bato is Knitter’s character.

Stacey, Orvokki and Yuri are Shuckle’s characters.

Splatoon belongs to Nintendo.

Please consider liking or reblogging if you enjoyed, it’s nice to know we’re doing things right.

Shuckle has a patreon if you would like to provide additional support!

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#Splatoon #inkling #Octoling #splatoon fanfiction #splatoon oc #SS Bato #BS Stacey #Octo Orvokki #misc yuri

[splattershotsundae]

Better Eight Than Never --- Chapter 40: Oh shit, the recap one

The car ride to Coral Riff apartments felt incomparably short. One moment the car had been packed, Jill and Simon had clamored into the car, Toda was back to normal, phone calls were being made to parents, and in general it was a total bustle. But then Hachi closed her eyes for just a moment, and when she opened them again It was near silent. Jill and Simon were gone, and the car had just pulled to a stop. Another moment and they were at the apartment’s door, and she was supporting herself against Bato’s shoulder.

"They... would've taken things from you, right?” Tanya’s voice faded in. “What did you have to leave behind? Wallet? Keys? Phone?"

"Yeah, all of those." Bato replied.

"Well, phones and wallets and such can be replaced... them having your keys might be a problem, though..." She murmured as she unlocked the door and stepped inside. "We're back!"

There was the sound of three pairs of feet standing and moving towards the entryway all at once, and Leah, Scott and Anita all came into view, running forward to embrace their children, and Hachi found herself pushed to the side in the rush.

"Oh thank Judd!"

"We thought you might be..."

"Where have you been!?"

She leaned against the wall and watched, a frown forming on her face. This... this was a normal squidling reaction to hearing someone wasn't dead... It wasn't just 'hey, welcome back'. Or 'nice!' It was... she wasn't sure what to think, she just felt alone again… and still dizzy. Ink loss sure was something.

"What on earth happened!?" Leah demanded, examining the nick in Bato's ear with concern. "Where have you both been?"

"I-it's a long story, Mom." Bato said, as he wiped his eyes.

"Right, the sooner we get a full explanation, the better." Tanya said as she glanced at Hachi. “Do you need anything before we begin?”

She paused. “… Pain pills? And… water… and… a chair?”

“We can do that.” She nodded gently.

"... Hachi?" Leah asked after a moment. “Is… that you?”

"Last I checked.” She huffed.

She blinked, and looked like she was about to ask something else, when Tanya stopped her. "Leah, let's all sit down first, alright? It's been a long day for these kids."

Leah paused, then nodded a bit and lead the way to the living room, holding Bato’s hand as if she were to let go she’d lose him again. Hachi felt herself wishing someone would hold her hand like that as she stumbled after them, hanging back as she tried to figure out where to sit. Toda and his parents were busy taking the couch, Antia with her arms still wrapped around her son, and Bato and Leah were busy pulling in chairs from the dining room… That left the soft armchair. She paused a moment more before hobbling over, sinking gratefully into the cushions.

A moment later and Tanya came over to her, handing her a glass and three small red pills. “Take your time… I can fetch you one more pill if that’s not enough.”

She nodded gently and took the medication and water, then looked around at the dozen eyes watching her. “… W… Where should I start?”

“From the beginning.” Bato said. “I’ll help fill in.”

She took a deep breath. “… Okay, so… I’m… I’m Hachi. Though um… Until… today? Actually I was… Olympiah Windsley. I was… a surface reconnaissance agent of mid level classification for… the… the octarian military.” When the parents just stared uncomprehendingly, she pulled the beanie off her head, cringing as she moved her tentacle stubs.

This time the reaction was more what she expected, gasps arose from Leah and Anita, and Scott’s eyes widened so much that it looked like they were about to pop. “Octarian?” Anita asked, gripping Toda tighter. “But aren’t they…?”

“Extinct? No.” Hachi said. “I was… shocked when I found out you thought we were gone. Your war over our lands in the cataclysm-- er, the ‘great turf war’--” She couldn’t say that with a straight face. “--forced us deep underground, into the domes we built. The domes are running down now, so we… might not be alive much longer if we don’t take action. It started simple, at… at least from what I’ve been told… We stole zapfish, to power our domes, but it… wasn’t enough, so we stole the great zapfish to power our home. The ‘sea sirens’, your ‘agents’ stole it back, and… killed king Octavio in the process, may he rest in peace...” She paused for a moment, formulating her next words. "We... Needed a different approach. There were talks of a device which could change ink into other colors, but word died quickly. There were no applications other than the revolvers... or so we were told. I was sent to the surface to find the location and nature of the main threat to our operations, the Sea Sirens, They'd been stopping us for hundreds of shifts, killing us, destroying some of our kettles... Ah, ways up to the surface, and... in general just hoping to kill us all off. We hoped with them out of the way we could find out how to survive. As well; If I were to find out any information of so called 'associates' of a particular squidling named 'Yuri', I was to report back immediately."

At the mention of Yuri, Leah sharply inhaled a little, Anita frowned, and Scott straightened up a bit, almost simultaneously. "Yuri?" Scott asked, "How would... how would your people know about him?"

"It was their device that was behind his... condition." Bato explained. "They were the ones that turned his ink into water."

“Well, not me personally...” She continued. "I only had limited knowledge of what it could do, but I was aware that he was.. made of water. At least for a time... Progress was slow in my work until... Well, I crossed paths with Bato's splatoon. Err, Squad. They figured out what I was, and accidentally brought me right to the Sirens. The Sirens made them all take care of me. Keep me under wraps, but alive, since I might have info. And that's how I came to stay in your houses... Everything went fine for the first shift, then Orion, my superior officer, came to the surface to retrieve me. It didn't go well."

"... Shift?" Leah asked with a small frown.

"A day, more or less." Bato explained.

"So... wait, when was it that your.. 'superior officer' came? What happened?" Scott asked.

"That was... Wednesday, I think... it's been a long week." Toda answered. "And... well, Jill and I were going to meet up at Humu mall to hang out for a while, since Hachi wasn't feeling well that morning. But before she got there, she realized she was being followed by this Orion fellow, who took her captive; I managed to find where he was keeping her, but I wasn't able to fight him--I'd left the house so fast that I left my weapon at home--So he ended up taking me prisoner instead, letting Jill go so she could bring Hachi her mask."

"Mask...? Why would he want her to have a mask?" Leah asked.

"An octoling mask is everything. I had mine taken away from me by the sirens.” Hachi said, avoiding eye contact. Her face felt so barren. “It works like your 'phones', allowing for textual and vocal communication, as well as low light vision, vital readings, optical focus, identification, calculating, note keeping, information storage, threat detection, maps, and several others. An octoling without a mask is... Unheard of. Even disgraces have one, with minimal functions."

Leah nodded slowly. "I see… Wait, disgraces?"

She sort of froze. “… I… Can we go back to Toda’s part in the story?”

“Oh, ah...” Toda said. "So... yeah, he took me hostage, then told Jill to get the mask to Hachi so she could contact them, let them know she was still alive."

"So, wait, why did he take you and Jill captive to begin with?" Scott asked, frowning a little himself.

"At first, it was so they could get Hachi back." Bato explained. "The plan was to exchange hostages and leave it at that, or so they told us... but when Hachi got the mask back and contacted them, she told them that we'd met Yuri, and... that's when things really went south."

"Wait... Wednesday..." Anita said slowly, starting to grip Toda tighter. "That was... I thought you said that was when you went to Port Mackerel, and you got run over by the forklift?"

"Yeah... that wasn't a forklift. That was Orion," Toda muttered sheepishly.

Hachi swallowed. "Bato and 'the twins' found one of the sirens again, then made me take them all to the hideout I suspected they were keeping him at. I was right. I wanted to go home so badly, so I alerted my allies inside that we were coming. At the time my actions were completely reasonable, but then they stole the siren and abandoned me.” She pressed her palm against her eye, trying to keep it dry.

"So it... it was just you, Bato, the two twins, and one of these... Sirens? You just went in there?" Scott demanded.

"You should have called the police!" Anita said. "Or us!"

"We were told not to." Bato said. "Bringing the authorities into this would likely have just put Toda in more danger than he already was, and we were told not to tell anyone about the Octarians."

"By who!?" Anita demanded. "By these 'Sea Sirens', whoever they are?"

"Yes, by the Sea Sirens." He nodded.

"I was... honestly surprised when I found out that nobody up here knew of the Siren's existence...” Hachi said. “They brought you the great Zapfish back, you can trust them." She gripped the arm of the couch. She wasn't so sure that she could trust them herself, but... These squidlings could.

Silence fell for a moment before Scott continued."So, you got Toda back out safely, though one of these 'Sirens' got captured. Then what?"

"Then... well, Thursday was pretty uneventful, as far as all that goes." Bato said. "Simon wasn't feeling well that day, so we checked in briefly with the other Sirens, then just got lunch and went home. That was when she went to Toda's house."

"... So when you... ran." Anita said slowly. "That wasn't because you and Toda got into an argument? You were... trying to escape?"

Hachi slowly nodded. "Toda told me that inkopolis had 13 million citizens. Using incomplete data I overestimated the population to 6 Trillion, and panicked. With this data, we didn't stand any chance against your kind, and I tried to run for home to tell them this, that it was hopeless. That we were all doomed."

Scott whistled a bit. "6 Trillion... Yeah. Wow. That’s way off."

"So... yeah." Bato continued. "Friday, we're going to check in with the Sirens again, and... well, Hachi managed to get away… Wait, how did you do that? I had only taken my eyes off of you for a second, and you weren't exactly... feeling well that morning."

She huffed, unable to keep a small smile from her face. "Oswald came and picked me up. He’d been waiting for me… He hid me in a containment tank, and we walked right back to the domes." She wondered if he still cared...

Bato shook his head a little, chuckling. "Huh... no wonder, I was looking for the wrong person."

"Oswald?" Leah asked.

"The one that attacked the Underpass." Toda said, then paused. "Oh... we didn't mention that, did we? The Octarians were the ones that attacked the Underpass, near the Sundae Shop."

"No, no you didn't." Scott said, frowning again. "... What was the point of attacking the underpass? To scare us?"

"...You don’t want to know." Hachi said quietly.

Scott's frown deepened, but Bato pressed on. "Anyway... After she escaped, we talked briefly with the Sirens about what to do. They told us to try and stay low, not to tell anyone, and to keep in constant contact with each other; we were sure we were in much more danger now that they knew about our involvement with Yuri, and now that Hachi could tell them everything else she might've learned up here." He sort of glanced at her briefly as he said this. "And... Well, Simon and I decided that if they didn't give us something to do, we were going to go looking for these underground domes ourselves after Splatfest. We were in danger already, and we thought there wasn't much point in waiting around for them to come and find us."

"You should have told us." Tanya said, placing a hand on Bato’s leg.

"We were told not to. And we couldn't risk getting the authorities involved." He said, not meeting her gaze.

"That's what the police are for." Anita said, somewhat exasperatedly. "To deal with this sort of thing!"

"To fight militia?" Hachi asked, genuinely curious.

"... To deal with threats." She replied, though not quite as firmly anymore it seemed.

"This is more than just the police force can handle." Bato said. "This isn't just a few rogue squads, these are trained soldiers."

“... You still shouldn't have just... gone down there without telling anyone." Leah said.

"We... didn't. Not exactly.” Bato said. “On the day of Splatfest, we were playing at the Kelp Dome arena, and... And they attacked again. They splatted us, all of us, and we were respawned... somewhere else. We were put into these containment tanks, which are sort of like modified ink tanks, and sent down to the domes."

"There are hundreds they've taken now." Hachi said, frowning. "At the time I was taking things into my own hands. There was something I was missing, something nobody was telling me. I broke into the classified files and did some looking around to find out more about Yuri..." She sort of trailed off.

"... While they had told her about the water-into-ink part of it." Bato said, "They didn't tell her about the... ah..."

"The... possession part of it.” Toda cut him off. “That he could get into other people's heads."

All four adults became even more uneasy. "So, that's... Why they wanted to know about anyone that had met him..." Scott said slowly.

"... I'm sorry." Hachi said quietly.

Leah sat up a little more, a small hint of anger joining the confusion, "So, they... they know about that part. What else did you tell them? Do they know where we live?"

"If they do, that would be my fault, not hers." Bato cut her off. "I didn't know they could track her mask."

"Be that as it may, she was still the one that put you in danger like this." Scott said, straightening up a little himself.

"No, it wasn't." Bato argued. "We were the ones that revealed her in the plaza, we were the ones that offered to watch her--"

"Preeeeeety sure that was mostly you, B." Toda muttered.

Bato huffed, then continued. "We were the ones that got involved, even after we said that we wouldn't. And besides, if it weren't for Hachi, we would likely still be down there, if not already dead."

"If it..." Scott broke off, glancing between her and Bato.

She hunched down as once more all attention went back on her, half expecting one of them to attack her. "... I... I didn't like that they were doing so I freed Bato and let him have a chance to get his friends back..."

"She gave me everything that I needed." He said. "Clothes, armor, mask, as much information as she could. She put her life on the line to give us a chance to get away. She got me back into the facility again, and I went looking for the others. Not long after I got inside, though, this alarm went off and I was told to look for an escaped inkling, who turned out to be the Siren that had been captured on Wednesday. We managed to find a place to hide while the commotion died down, and I found this... scientists journal, that belonged to an octoling named Orvokki."

"A journal?" Tanya asked.

"Sort of. It was like a mask, but it went on over another mask." He sort of mimed putting it on. "After they learned about what happened to Yuri, they were taking Inklings and trying to... recreate what happened to him. It... wasn't going well." He and Toda both shuddered, almost simultaneously. "So she decided to take matters into her own hands, and she turned herself into water. It worked, and she was able to find out why the results had been so mixed previously; how well it worked depended on two things, state of mind, and ink color. Purple was the most stable, for both being turned into water and being... controlled by it. It makes sense, I guess, considering Octarian ink is purple." He blinked, "... of course... purple ink... that's why they struck during Splatfest. All those purple inklings, it would be the perfect time… But even with this information, she couldn't figure out how to take someone over without killing them... until she... until she got into Toda's head." Bato continued, casting a brief glance over at him before continuing. "When she was in his head, she was able to find out who else Yuri had controlled, as well as how to control someone herself without killing them… That was about when Orvokki found us where we were hiding, and we had to make a run for it. We managed to get away, barely, and we found where they were doing the testing. They had turned Toda to water, and... and put him in Simon's head."

"They did what!?" Anita pulled away a bit and stared at Toda, as if she could tell this just by looking at him.

"It's true." Tanya told her. "I saw him before they changed him back."

Hachi still had nothing to say, but at least the parents weren't staring at her anymore...

"After Simon woke up, Orvokki came into the room as well... but she was controlling Jill. She threatened to hurt her if we didn't stand down, and so we did, until... until Toda got out of Simon's head and into Jill's as well." He glanced at Toda, as did the parents, but when Toda didn't appear ready to talk, he continued. "I... assume what happened was that Toda was trying to get Orvokki out, and she was trying to make Jill hurt herself in order to get him to stop..." Another glance at Toda, who just nodded slightly."… Well, okay, long story short, he was able to get her away from everyone else, and get into her head, even though she was still water.”

"Just her central brain." Toda said. "Octolings apparently have four other brains too, one for each of the tentacles on their heads. I couldn't control those."

"Multiple brains?" Leah asked, glancing at Hachi again.

Her gaze shifted to the floor, her tentacles twitching just the slightest. She knew where this story was going. She didn’t want to talk about it. She didn’t want to hear it. She felt her breathing grow more rapid in fear.

Bato continued after a moment’s pause. "We were able to use this new situation in order to get the Octolings who were about to detain us again to leave us be, though after that Orvokki managed to get Toda out of her head and get away. He was able to find out, though, that they had managed to capture the other two Sirens and that she planned on controlling one of them."

"Why?" Scott asked.

"They were used as backup singers during a... performance, a little later." Bato said, sounding disgusted.

"... That... can't be the only reason, can it...?" Toda said with a small frown, "I mean, if they're under their control then they would no longer be a threat, which is something, but..."

"If the MC didn't need them, they’d be dead.” Hachi said, finding herself short of breath. “Can I… I need to… go…”

“What?” Leah asked in surprise. “Go where?”

“Another room, I… I’m...” She trailed off, gripping the arms of the chair tightly.

"... You may, Hachi." Tanya said, nodding gently.

She sighed in relief, then stood and hobbled out of the room, choosing to lock herself in the bathroom. She slumped against the wall, tears welling in her eyes. She felt so… broken. Of course the MC wouldn’t have saved her tentacles to make new octo troopers, not after what she’d done… why was she even surprised? No… it wasn’t that she was surprised, it was that she had to see it. Not even a small bit of her legacy would remain down there. She’d betrayed her own species, she had no place left with them… so she’d either have to stop them… doom all of them to death… or they’d overtake the surface, and kill her along with Bato and the others. She sniffed and stood up, pouring herself another glass of water, but just held it in her hands for a moment, as if she expected it to come to life. There was no right answer. She had no place she could live. No home to call her own. She had nothing. She’d given up everything for a future that wasn’t even hers. A pair of tears slipped from her eyes, and she felt powerless to stop them, sobbing as she watched the tears drop into her glass.

After a few minutes she tipped her glass into the sink, feeling a touch guilty for not drinking such a valuable resource, but she was too depressed to care. She took a deep breath, wiped off her face, then stepped out of the bathroom and made her way back to the living room.

"She doesn't deserve to die! It's wrong!"

Bato’s voice caused her to freeze, just short of the doorway.

"Bato, I'm not saying that it would've been right." Leah said firmly. "But you can't just..."

“I already did. And we’re both fine. I saved her.” He said.

“Fine? Her tentacles were cut off!”

“She’s… alive.” Bato said. “That’s what’s important. We don’t know what they’re planning. They have the Sirens, and they have this ink transfusion weapon, which they're learning more about all the time. And by what Ophelia said after the performance, they plan on trying to take the surface again. But how, and when, we don't know. We need all the help we can get."

Hachi took a deep breath, then peered into the room, just in time to see Tanya stand up and begin to pace. "And... they won't leave you alone. Not with all you've been through, not with all you've learned."

"Right. And they most likely know where we live. We're not safe, not anywhere..." Bato agreed.

Tanya frowned. "It can't be helped... we'll just have to be ready. Keep weapons with us at all times, even here around the house. Especially around the house. And we'll look into getting your phone replaced as soon as possible."

Bato nodded. “In the meantime, we have Jill and Simon’s Skope accounts, and we gave them Tanya’s number, just in case.”

"What about the... Octarian girl?" Scott asked. "What will we do with her? Should we... call the police?"

Her breath caught, and she pulled back around the corner, feeling like her hearts were about to jump out of her chest.

"No." Bato said firmly. "We're not calling the police."

There was a brief pause, then Leah spoke. "She'll stay with us, for as long as is needed. Bato’s right, we need all the help we can get.”

"You trust her, then, Leah?" Anita asked, the first time she'd spoken in quite a while. "After she betrayed so much information about us to them?"

"... I do, Anita." She replied. "She clearly has no reason or desire to go back to her own kind, not now that she knows what they're doing, not after what they did to her. And she did help our children escape, almost at the cost of her own life."

"... I still don't like it..." Anita muttered.

Hachi swallowed, gripping the corner tightly. There would be nothing stopping those two from calling the authorities once they left... especially if they sent soldiers to assault their houses... She didn't come all this way and get rescued for nothing...

"She's in just as much danger as we are right now, Mom." Toda said. "... Actually, probably even more so."

"It wouldn't be right to just hand her over." Tanya said. "Not after everything she's done for us. She's on our side now, she wouldn't have told us all of this if she wasn't."

There was another pause, then Scott finally spoke. "... Well, I'm not so sure about her yet, but... I do trust you four. We trust you four.” There was a long pause before he continued. "Very well then, we won't call the authorities."

"Good. I'm glad we could get this sorted out." Tanya said.

Hachi let out a held breath, feeling relieved.

“Hachi, is that you?” Asked Bato.

She yelped as the voice broke through her thoughts. And she leaned around the doorway, feeling her ears pull back. “...Yes.”

“How much have you heard?” He asked.

“… A bit.” She admitted. “… Thanks Tanya, Leah...”

Tanya nodded and smiled softly, "It's the least we can do, for bringing our children home again," She paused, her expression growing serious again, "Would... you happen to have any information about what the Octarians plan to do next? Or when they plan to do it?"

She frowned. "... No... I might know how to get it, but there's no way I could make my way down there to do it. Everyone will be looking for me, it would be a suicide mission... And I'm not sure I'm emotionally ready for that type of commitment."

Tanya nodded. "Alright then, that's fine; no one's asking you to. I just wanted to make sure." She turned back to the others. "So, I suppose for now, all we can do is be alert. Keep weapons close, and stay in contact with each other at all times."

Bato and Toda both nodded in agreement.

“… Um… All octolings have the same ink color.” Hachi said. “I can’t exactly be armed.”

Tanya looked back to her, frowning."Right... what else would you prefer to use, then?"

She thought about this for a moment. "Something sharp, do you have any knives?"

Leah and Anita both blanched a bit, and Scott's eyebrows went up.

"Ah... yes, but..." Tanya started slowly.

Bato cleared his throat. "The, um.. the Octarians can't respawn either way. Whether you use an ink weapon or not."

"Still, though..." Leah murmured.

Hachi sighed. “Yeah, I get it... Maybe I can finally use a fork for something.”

The corners of Tanya's mouth twitched up into a small smile. "We'll see what we can do."

"I... suppose that's all we have to discuss? At least, with the information that we have right now." Scott said, standing up.

Tanya thought for a moment, then nodded slowly. "Yes, I suppose it is."

Scott nodded, "Then I think we'd like to head back to our own place, if that's alright; we'll need to get prepared ourselves, and... we should probably talk about a few more things, just between the three of us."

Tanya nodded again. "Right, of course."

"We should get online fairly soon, though." Bato said. "Let the twins know what we've decided on our end, that sort of thing."

"Right." Toda nodded, starting to stand.

Hachi sighed quietly and began to walk back to the armchair, when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She quickly looked up, finding herself face-to face with Scott.

"... Thank you, Hachi. For helping to bring our son home again." He said gently.

She paused, then gave a little nod. “Um… sure.” She’d been thinking more about Bato when she’d done it, but she wasn’t going to argue.

"Talk to you later, Bato," Toda said with a small wave as he and his parents walked out of the apartment. Just before the door closed, you could hear Toda asking his parents. "So... do we still have any of that Mochi left?" Followed by a loud laugh from his Dad.

Bato chuckled. "Classic Toda."

Leah sighed. "Right then. I.. suppose we should get armed up."

Tanya nodded her agreement, and the two of them slipped down the hall towards their bedroom, arm in arm.

"... You doing okay?" Bato asked.

"... There's... not much really stopping them from calling the authorities...” She muttered, walking over to the armchair to sit down.

He frowned, nodding slightly. "I understand your concern... I know it probably won't be much comfort, but Scott does keep his word as long as he is able to, I'm sure he won't be the one to call them. And he will try to keep Anita from doing so if she tries... but, yeah... I guess all we can do is hope they do stay true to their word."

"... You're right, it's not much comfort." She muttered. “... But It... makes me glad I'm staying down here. Despite the abnormality of two mothers, they are kind and I respect them. W-wait, I mean- abnormal to... me? I... it appears it's… I… Ugh...” She sighed, suddenly growing awkward.

"Ah... yeah. Are... same-sex couples illegal down in the domes?" He asked.

"Pairing up is an abnormality in general... But… I’m pretty sure it’s illegal." She glanced at the hall. "... I want to believe that it's solely for population reasons... but now I hesitate... It... It is beginning to seem like it is solely for control... I don't know what’s right anymore..."

Bato sat down on the couch, facing her. "There's... probably going to be a lot for you to learn, and unlearn, about both of our cultures." He said quietly. "But it'll get a little easier with time."

She nodded just a little.

"So... is there something you want to do? Watch a movie? Get some more sleep?" He asked.

"... I... I'm not sure... I'm still lightheaded..." She admitted.

“I’m not surprised...” He murmured.

"Judd, I don't remember this thing being so heavy..." Leah muttered as she came back into the room, Tanya in tow. She fiddling with a tank on her back, and she had a splattershot at her hip.

Meanwhile Tanya had a much bulkier weapon Hachi was unfamiliar with, with a bright pink handle and a massive tank, it must pack a punch. “Honestly, me neither.” She said. “But it feels good to get it out again, I haven’t used it since I was part of the Gal Pals.”

Bato laughed. “I forgot that was what your squad was called!”

Hachi frowned in confusion. "I don't get it."

Tanya flashed a grin at her, placing a hand on her gun. "Gals being pals as they take down the competition."

"... What?" She asked, glancing around.

Tanya chuckled. “Lesbians, Hachi!”

“… OH.” Hachi blushed, taking a moment to cover her face.

“It’s alright!” She said gently. “Are either of you hungry?”

"I'm good." Bato said. “Those sandwiches were more filling than they looked.”

"Alright then." Leah said. "I guess... if either of you need anything, just let one of us know." She and Tanya walked on, grabbing the dining room chairs as they passed, returning them to the table.

After a moment or so, Bato cleared his throat. "I should... probably get on my computer. It might still be a while before everyone else is on and ready to talk, but it wouldn't hurt to be ready."

"Are you asking me to come with you, or was that a strictly prisoner thing?" Hachi asked, glancing up.

"Ah... strictly prisoner thing." He said after a moment. "But you're welcome to come with me if you'd like."

"... I suppose I have nowhere else to be, and I can always come back out here..." She murmured as she stood. “Do you have any socks I can use?”

"Oh, yeah, absolutely." Bato said as he lead the way down the hall.

"Good, my feet are cold." She admitted as she followed him into his room and sat down on his bed. It was so much softer than she’d remembered.

“Yeah, I can't say I'm surprised..." He said as he tossed her a pair of black socks. "We'll probably have to find some sort of shoes for you to wear too, next time we go anywhere... hm... your feet are about the same size as Stepmom's, she might be able to lend you something."

"You can tell by looking?" She asked, slipping on the socks. These were soft too!

"I'm just sort of guessing," He admitted with a small smile. He then turned and sat in the chair at the foot of his bed, opening the flat computer that had always been sitting there. She watched curiously as the screen came to life with the word ‘Welcome’ on a bright blue background, and then it faded and changed to a black screen with several ink splatter designs all over it. There were a few icons here and there, and after waiting a moment, she saw him click a blue and white one.

It took a moment to boot up, and then Bato began to type in some things on the all-too-loud manual input. “Toda’s not on yet, I’m not surprised.” He commented. “Could still be talking to his parents… Or eating Mochi.”

She rolled her eyes. "... So is this what came before phones? It's not very handheld."

"Not... exactly." Bato said. "Phones have been around for a long time, though it used to be that the only thing they could do is call other people; the sort of phones that we have--or, well, that I had- is sometimes called a 'smartphone' and is a more recent thing." He pulled a napkin out of his pocket and looked it over. “Alright, so Simon is… ‘SloshmasterV3’, and Jill is ‘4PawzAndMeow’.”

“And who are you?” She asked, wrapping a blanket around herself.

"… HollyJollyInkbrushNinja0519... I haven’t used Skope since Squidmas.” He chuckled.

“What’s squidmas?” She asked.

“Ah, Squidmas is one of our holidays; everyone gets together with their families, eats dinner, exchanges gifts with each other, that sort of thing. And then there’s ‘Father squidmas’. who’s a fictional person that, according to the legend, flies around the world in a magical sleigh the night before Squidmas and gives gifts to all the kids that have been good that year." He sort of paused. "Which... may have just been a way for parents to try and get their kids to behave, actually."

“Huh.” She murmured. “What’s Toda’s weird computer codename?”

Bato huffed. “His username is… "PuppyD0gEyez", he must've used Skope more recently than me.”

Just then, there was a bling from the computer, and Hachi jumped.

S: it's not even Squidoween yet, father squidmas. B: lol, It's been a while since I've used Skope S: I shouldn't be one to judge... S: I haven't touched this in years. S: brb, updating my profile. B: Okay.

Hachi yawned. “You know, we have holidays, but they're only when something's happened. Like a few shifts after we got the great zapfish, everyone got some time off, and they put on a play... I was able to go see it. It was amazing." She paused. "I... Suppose this shift became one as well..."

"Yeah..." Bato grimaced. “Ours happen once every year, on a specific date, but we have lots of them. Like Valentine’s day, and Squidoween, and Father’s day and Mother’s day and--”

“Stop! Too much!” She laughed. “You’re going to make my head explode or something.”

He chuckled, turning his attention back to the screen as there was another bling.

T: hey Bato, hows it going? B: It's going alright, just settling in again. You? T: same. it's good 2 b home again B: Agreed B: Looks like we're all online, let's see if I remember how to get multiple people onto one chat...

Bato typed, and clicked a few times, then switched to another chat. B: Alright, I think I've got everyone in here? B: Judd, it's been a long time since I've used this. T: u shouldve said "roll call" or something B :P B: lol, true S: looks like we're all here to me. J: hey T! hey B! T: hey! B: Hey Jill J: the only good thing about this outd8ed username is th@ me & T match. B: Hah, I hadn't noticed that B: Toda's has a sort of double meaning, though :P

A short pause. J: ooooooh. Clever! :3 S: ahhh. S: I see you are embracing your past self, Jill. J: :3c A Double meaning…? Hachi wasn’t sure she understood, but she was too tired to ask about it. Besides, she was sort of snooping in on Bato’s conversation. T: :P B: Haha B: So... did you guys get everything explained okay? S: Mostly. J: Sort of...? S: Until we get confirmation from Stacey I think we're technically grounded. B: Ah T: Oh J: 3 may need 2 bail su out Bcause we r grrrrounded. J: S u stole my spotlite! S: Stop saying what I'm about to say! T: lol B: Yeah, I honestly can't say I'm surprised... T: Me nether S: Yeah. I think he's just afraid, I can't blame him. J: How did it go 4 u 2? B: Pretty well, all things considered. B: They seemed to believe everything B: well, having Hachi explaining it with us helped, for sure T: nd frankly, Im not sure if we cold've made something lik that up if we tried... B: Fair enough B: But yeah, they're going to be on the alert too B: My Moms both found their ink weapons and pulled them out. T: Same w my parents B: And Hachi's staying with me for as long as is needed S: Yeah, think our dad got his too. J: oh totally. S: I suppose now we need to either plot our next move or just take a bit of time to relax. S: I guess it depends on what Hachi knows. J: I bet she knwos lots of things. J: LOts OoOoOOf TThhhINNgssS. S: the question is, is it HELPFUL things?

She sighed, laying down on her stomach. "... No. It's not.”

Bato briefly glanced at her. "It's alright. You can’t know everything."

T: I don’t think it is B: She said it's not T: it didn't seem like it earlier T: oh T: is she reading this ovr ur shoulder B? B: Yeah, for the most part J: Hey Haaachiiiiii! B: But anyway, yeah, unless Stacey knows something, I don't think we know enough to try and plot our next move. J: Im glad you're alive! B: lol S: hm... I'm going to do some thinking anyway, even if we don't make much progress. S: as soon as me and Jill can get out of the house we're changing our ink color. B: Yeah, good idea J: I want blue. XP B: No J: wh@? B: stay with purple if you can B: It's safer J: Y? B: I mean, yes, change from the Splatfest color, but stick with purple B: Oh, right, I didn't get to tell you two B: In Orvokki's journal, after she turned herself to water, she found out that there were two things that determined how well it worked B: For... both parties involved B: State of mind, and ink color. B: And purple was the one that handled it best. J: O J: Yeah, purple souns good S: just to clarify; the purple is to make us better able to survive. S: not to make us a bigger target? B: Yes B: To be honest, I'm not sure if we could be a bigger target right now. B: They won't leave us be, not with all we know S: Good point. J: mayB we should bored up th windows J: buy cans&cans of food S: Jill if it gets to that point I think it'll be already too late. J: 3: B: I have to agree with Simon B: For now, all we can do is be alert B: Keep a weapon close at all times, stay in contact with each other as much as possible B: This will have to do until we all get our phones replaced B: And if you have to go anywhere, don't do it alone. J: got it J: also J: Aerospray or custom dual scuelcher? S: 'squelcher' J: Im not using a charger in the houze the lest u can do is not correct m spelling. S: Toda, you've been quiet, you ok? B: I vote squelcher. J: mayB I should use BOTH T: Oh, yea, srry. T: I was still thinking bout the ink thing... T: B, did she say anything bout how well other colors handled... that? B: It’s… complicated. B: I don’t really understand it. J: ??? S: ... The sisters. J: !!!! B: Oh Judd T: Yea B: I don't think even THEY would know how well that would've worked B: C&M are the only ones that I know of with that ink color B: if... if they are planning for something big, they must have been VERY confident in their ability to keep them both under control and alive B: From what I remember, Callie should be fine, I think darker colors have a resistance? B: So we should be worried about Marie... J: I dont want them 2 die S: Focus. They're both experienced with Octolings, they're bound to be at least somewhat prepared. S: And strong. They both sound like they've got willpower. J: S, nobody is prepared 4 Orvokki J: th@s how u spell it right? B: Yeah, that's how you spell it T: ... J's right... T: no 1 is... S:... S: you would know better than me.

Bato sort of sat back, gaze having dropped to his fingers.

"... Should I be asking if you're alright right about now?" Hachi asked.

He sighed, then glanced over his shoulder briefly. "I'm fine."

She paused. "… We say that all the time. You're not fine, but you don't want to talk about it... And that's ok…?" She waited for a reply, and when she didn’t get one she sighed. "... I did miss you you know."

He turned to look at her at that, surprised. "You...?"

"Yeah." She said quietly. "Why I'd miss someone as silly as you, I have no idea."

He chuckled a bit, shaking his head. "Can't say I know either."

"If it makes you feel any better I could just say I missed having people make my food for me." She paused. "It's not true, but..."

"If that works for you, I guess.” He smiled a bit and shrugged, but then his attention was diverted by another message from the computer, and having nothing better to do, Hachi continued to snoop.

J: Hey, R U all still there? B: Yeah, still here T: yup S: yep. J: I was wondering iiiifffff J: we all wanted 2 streem somthin 2gether! J: ther R sites 4 that. J: we could all watch a movie J: the 4 of us S: Five, if Hachi's still with Bato. J: oh, right. 4-5. B: Sure B: Just let me ask Hachi.

He turned back in his chair to look at her again. "Hey, you want to watch a movie with us?"

She paused. “… Which one?”

He briefly glanced back at the computer. “Sounds like they want to watch the inkdredibles. It’s a super hero movie. Yes like Batman.”

She snorted. “… Sure.”

“How about we make some popcorn?” He asked.

“What’s popcorn?” She asked.

“Oh, you have to see this.” He smiled as he stood up. “C’mon, I’ll show you.”

Hachi frowned thoughtfully as she stood up and followed Bato to the kitchen, where he reached up into the cupboard and pulled down a plastic package with something inside.

“So, the popcorn is packaged in these little bags.” He said, tearing the plastic off with his beak. "You just stick it in the microwave for a few minutes and it's ready to eat."

“Like half of your crazy cuisine.” She huffed.

Bato laughed, then placed the packet into the microwave, setting it for ‘200.’ Wait, no, ‘2:00’. Right, because it was two minutes. She’d wrap her head around that eventually. A few seconds after he hit start, the packet began to sizzle, and she squinted warily.

POP!

She squeaked and stepped back, her tentacles shifting to bright yellow. “It really pops!”

Bato chuckled. “Yep! There are little dried kernels inside, and they heat up in the butter in the bag and explode.”

“Whoa...” She murmured as the popping began to quicken. “How many are there?”

“Well, there’s not a strict count, but I’d guess a hundred. Some of them don’t pop though.” He replied.

“Wow…” She said, watching as the pack inflated, and then eventually the popping slowed, and Bato opened the door to the microwave, a cloud of steam escaping and rising to the ceiling. “That looks hot.”

“It is, you have to be careful opening it up, there’s a lot of steam inside.” He said, carefully picking the pack up by a fin-like corner and pulling on the opposite end to open it. He then dumped the fluffy white contents into a big bowl. “Go ahead and try one.”

She paused, then took a piece and bit into it, smiling somewhat at the crunch. “Mm!”

“You like it?”

She nodded, taking another piece. “Not as good as oranges though!”

“Can’t say I’m surprised.” Bato said. “I bet you Jill’s gotten the movie ready by now. Let’s go watch, you can hold the bowl.”

“How kind of you.” She joked as she scooped up the large glass bowl in her arms, breathing in the salty scent of the popcorn.

Maybe… she could learn to like this place one day.

Bato, Toda, Leah, Scott, Anita, and Tanya are Knitter’s characters

Simon, Jill, Hachi, Orvokki, Orion, Ophelia, Yuri, Stacey, and Orvokki are Shuckle’s characters.

Splatoon belongs to Nintendo.

Please consider liking or reblogging if you enjoyed, it’s nice to know we’re doing things right.

Shuckle has a patreon if you would like to provide additional support!

[<PREV] [INDEX] [NEXT>]

#Better Eight Than Never #Splatoon #splatoon fanfiction #splatoon fan character #SS Bato #SS Toda #SS Simon #SS Jill #Octo hachi #Misc Tanya #Misc Leah #misc scott #misc yuri #Misc Anita #BS Stacey #Octo Ophelia #Octo Orion #Octo Oswald #Octo Orvokki

[splattershotsundae]

Better Eight than never --- Chapter 37: Stop being meme to me!

“I’d be careful if I were you~!” Orvokki taunted, causing Jill’s body to wave.

Toda felt Simon begin to tremble with fear and rage, he’d never known they could be this mad…

“Let her go!” They shouted.

“I wouldn’t take that tone!” Orvokki said, and then Jill’s arm twisted back on itself, causing her to scream.

Toda braced himself as he felt Simon stand, and then a wave of dizziness crashed over them and sent them careening toward the floor. He just managed to make them extend a hand to catch themselves the impact. ‘Simon, are you okay?’

‘No!’ They replied immediately. ‘Jill’s in trouble, she’s hurting!’

‘You can’t take on Orvokki like this, we’ll think of something!’ Toda reassured, his own mind racing. There had to be something he could do...

"Stop hurting her!” Bato yelped. “What is it that you want?"

"Kneel, and disarm yourselves." Orvokki said.

Orvokki was water, and in Jill’s head. She’d been able to hold on well in the past, but somehow Orvokki was stronger… but he was water too…

‘Toda, finish your sentences, what do you want to try?’

Toda took a second to gather his thoughts. ‘If... if I could get out of your head now, the way he could, I could... I could try and get Orvokki out of hers; She's been in my head too, I might know how to get her out... but I don't know if it works like that, there's every chance I would only hurt her more, and I don't know how long I've been in yours, what if you splat when I try to leave? There might not be a spawner close enough for you to...’

Simon started to get up to their knees. ‘Do whatever you have to do, I can take it! Jill needs help right now.’

He hesitated, then made them nod slightly. ‘Okay.’ He tried to think, how could he leave Simon's body? When Yuri had left his, they were in his subconscious, and he'd been dragged away by his own fear; he was pretty sure that wouldn't work here. Well... he'd imagined himself rising back to consciousness... maybe it was like that, except he would just keep going? Maybe… a super jump? That seemed like it would work. There wasn't much time, he had to try something. ‘Brace yourself.’ he directed one last thought at Simon, then tensed, aimed, and sprang forward.

As he flew through the air he was met with cold, filtered air, a dull gray world, and the sound of Simon shrieking behind him. He gritted his beak, but didn’t have much time to regret what he did before he slammed into Jill’s head.

There was a moment of stillness… before Toda heard a voice.

‘Well. This is unprecedented. I never thought of such a thing, this could open a whole new set of outcomes and algorithms to calculate… In theory this would be more dangerous as well, especially if Y-1 is as capable as a surface test showed.’

He could feel her nearby, but he couldn’t see her, like being shoved into a dark closet. Likewise, his surroundings felt disorienting, nothing was where he felt like it should be, and he realized he’d just had Jill shout ‘Snickerdoodle’ accidentally.

‘Toda? Is that Toda? You keep calling me Y-3, Y-1 must be Toda, is Y-2 Simon?! Forget it! Just give it back! Give me back my body!’ That was obviously Jill, she was scared and in pain, her head hurt so much from him being here, he had to act quickly.

‘Get out of Jill's head, you sick freak!’ He ‘shouted’ then cringed as he felt tentacles wrap around him and pin him against some invisible wall.

‘What I do is my business Y-1.’ Orvokki huffed.

Toda struggled against Orvokki’s grasp, trying to wrap his own tentacles around hers and keep a firm grip on them. ‘When you're hurting my friends it's my business too! Now leave, before I have to drag you out!’

‘Ow ow shut up!’ Jill stumbled backward and fell down against the wall, fists clenched in pain.

‘I won’t be silenced! The both of you shall die together!’ Orvokki shouted. Jill’s tentacles flipped up over her mouth and nose, and squeezed much like a snake who’d just caught prey.

‘No stop it let me go!’ Jill cried out as she tried to pull the tentacles off of her face. ‘Toda, do something!!!’ He could see Bato trying to help on the outside, but Orvokki seemed to have anchored herself quite firmly in Jill's head, and wouldn’t budge. He had to catch her off guard.

He ran through his own mind, and thought of the first random thing that popped into his mind. A few days ago, he’d watched the Lego Movie with Hachi. He just had to--

‘EVERYTHING IS AWESOME! EVERYTHING IS COOL WHEN YOU'RE PART OF A TEAM!’

He felt Orvokki falter. ‘What is this!? What is this squid propaganda!?’

"EVERYTHING IS AWESOME, WHEN YOU'RE LIVING A DREEEEAAAMMM~"

Toda felt a bit smug, and tried to bring up something else, a picture of a pet staring at the camera. ‘Wow, much cruel, very invade privacy’

Orvokki’s grip on his tentacles tightened, and he felt a surge coming from her. ‘I have memories of my own, Y-1!’

All of a sudden Toda was faced with a surge of fear. It was like ones that he’d felt in increasing frequency lately, the type of fear that came in a life or death situation. He saw an inkling strapped to a table, screaming as a machine over them drew ink from their body--

‘Stop!’ He shouted, forcing himself to think of more random thoughts. ‘WHO WANTS A MUFFIN!? Caaaarrameldansen, ooh ohhh owa owa! Papyrus realizes he doesn't have ears. I don’t always reference memes, but when I do I do it way too much.’

‘What even is a ‘meme’?!’ Orvokki demanded, forcing a memory of what she’d done to one of her victims back at him.

‘TODA, SHE’S HURTING ME!’ Jill screamed.

These thoughts bombarded him, and he shied back, grip loosening. He was just making this worse. He was just having Orvokki fight back harder. Jill was loosing air quickly, this was getting him nowhere… Maybe if he stopped resisting she’d stop hurting her...

“C’mon, you got this…!”

Toda tensed. Bato. He was cheering them on as he tried to pull Jill’s tentacles off her face. He couldn’t give up now, Jill needed his help. He tightened his grip on Orvokki’s tentacles and crouched down. It had worked the first time, he was going to jump out of here, and pull Orvokki with him!

‘What!? Let go of me!’ Orvokki said. She tried to pull away from him, but his grip was too strong, he jumped forward, knocking Jill’s tentacles away from her mouth like a cork from a bottle.

Once more there was a free falling moment, cold, dry air surrounded him, but then he felt embodied again, tumbling against the floor. He briefly heard Simon crying out, but he was struggling to get his barrings. Orvokki was still with him, and he… was still gripping her? No, she was still gripping him-- Filled with horror, he found that his tentacles had fused with Orvokki’s, tying them together.

‘Look what you did!’ Orvokki snapped. ‘We have no skin, our limbs have incorporated each other, don’t you understand the health risks this could pertain!?’

‘Yeah? Well don’t you know the health risks to entering someone’s fucking brain?’ Toda retorted.

‘Toda?’

Toda paused and felt around briefly, then cringed. He was in Bato’s mind! ‘I’m so sorry!’

‘I can handle it, take care of Orvokki!’ Even as he said this though, he was digging his fingers into the floor in an attempt to stop them from shaking. He had only bought himself a little bit of time.

‘Stop getting in my way!’ Orvokki said, forcing memories of one of her previous encounters onto Bato, the pain she’d caused them before their inevitable demise.

‘I know what you’ve done Orvokki, you’re not going to get through to me that easily!’ Bato huffed, but Toda could tell he was still straining regardless.

‘Hey Bato, wiggly!’ He said quickly, and then all of Orvokki’s memories were forced away as they both remembered a brief memory, of the two of them when they were still pretty little; they were eating jello, and still being little toddlers at the time they'd both found it incredibly amusing to watch how much it jiggled if you shook the plate, and little Bato had had fun imitating it. And like many things throughout the years, it just sort of stuck.

‘Well, keep trying, Autobutt!’ Bato chimed.

Another memory, the two of them during the Transformers Splatfest, the way they'd laugh along with everyone they teamed up with when their 'Squad' name was read aloud, the way Jill and Simon had laughed when they'd explained it to them just two days ago... That day seemed so distant, just like everything that Orvokki was trying to force on them. They were so close, their shared fond memories kept flitting around like butterflies. The day they decided to form a squad, their first victory with Jill and Simon, a sleepover several years ago when they’d slept in a makeshift tent they made in the living room, the time they’d tried to make cookies and they’d mixed up half a teaspoon with half a tablespoon of salt and had to start over.

‘Oh dang, I actually forgot about that one.’ Bato laughed.

Toda huffed a little. ‘Well, you didn’t try to eat the batter!’

Just then, fear struck. They remembered the park. Bato fell from the tree, slamming his head against a rock on the ground with a sickening crunch, one which they’d never figured out why it had happened.

Bato groaned in agony from the memory, fingers clawing at the floor again.

‘I didn’t do that!’ Toda said quickly, his attention drawn to Orvokki. She’d seen that memory… Oh no.

‘I see… so what if I had more of your memories?’ She asked, then sprang at him.

Toda yelped as he felt Orvokki try to enter his head, was that even possible, given the circumstances?! He pushed back, gritting his beak from the effort. If they had to fuse completely to save Bato, then so be it!

As soon as he had that thought, Bato seemed to vanish away. He felt like he was in an entirely alien landscape, which was rapidly filling with fear. This wasn’t supposed to happen, this hadn’t been her intention at all.

Oh Judd. she hadn't gotten into his mind. He'd gotten into hers. While she was in Bato's. Possess-ception.

‘That portmanteau doesn’t even make sense!’ Orvokki declared. ‘And just because things haven’t gone according to my plan doesn’t mean I don’t have the upper hand!’

Toda cringed as he felt the memories of Orvokki’s experiments bombard him. He had nowhere to run, he was alone, he saw people bleeding, screaming, he felt her exhilaration and joy as it happened, and it made him feel nauseous. How could anyone feel happy seeing this? Revenge. That thought just came out of nowhere, like she’d answered it without wanting to. ‘Revenge for what!?’ Toda demanded.

‘For her.’

He saw her laughing smile. Her name was Olwen, and in the briefest of moments, he felt like he knew everything about her, and he knew that she was gone forever. For a moment he felt guilt, she was grieving.

He made himself shake this feeling off. ‘Someone dying is no excuse to do something like this! Would she want this!?’

A brief hesitation. He saw Olwen working alongside Orvokki. He saw them building the machine, the one which turned people to water, keeping notes, suggesting hypothesizes.

‘She would want the furthering of science, she would want to answer the questions of the universe and see our research come to fruition.’ Orvokki said. ‘Yes. She would want this.’

‘Oh. Yeah, sure enough.’ Toda cringed. That hadn’t worked. There had to be something else he could do. What was she doing? She seemed to be ignoring him now for the most part… Wait, octolings had five brains, and he was only in one of them! What was she doing right now!? He fought against her to see outside, and saw that she was using her other brains to flail her tentacles around, hurting Bato more and more. ‘NO!’ He screamed, managing to grab hold of one of her tentacles and using it to pin another ‘down’.

‘Be still Y-1! I’ll deal with you shortly!’ Orvokki huffed, wrenching control away from him again.

‘I won’t!’ Toda said. Random thoughts didn’t work, neither did talking, and he was separated from Bato’s reassurance. She claimed to be a scientist... Could he use her curiosity to his advantage? Still trying to take control of her tentacles, he tried a different approach. ‘Hey, Orvokki! Did you know that my Monochromacy helped against Yuri?’ He asked.

‘What?’ Orvokki replied.

Like throwing a stick for a dog, Toda spewed facts about his colorblindness off to the side, and he felt her attention drastically shift.

‘Only 1 in 30,000 squidlings was affected with his eye condition? Intriguing...’ He heard her murmur. ‘Monochromacy can mean you can only see one color, like blue, or you might only be able to see black  and white, what an interesting classification...’

Toda kept feeding her facts, struggling to wrench control of her limbs away from her. C’mon…! He grabbed control of one tentacle, and thrust it forward, out of Bato, and then suctioned it to his face. That was one step!

‘What the-- No! I refuse to be outsmarted by a single-brained squid!’ Orvokki exclaimed.

Toda felt himself become more disconnected, and he gritted his beak and held on as hard as he could, grabbing onto a second tentacle and forcing that one outside as well. ‘Hey, Orvokki, is the answer to this question ‘no’?’

‘I’m not a computer, of course not!’ Orvokki exclaimed, but she was still thinking it over, her grip briefly loosening on him.

He lashed one more tentacle outside, and felt something tug. Simon! He made her tentacles wrap around their hand, and then pulled.

‘NOOOOO!!!’ Orvokki screamed as the pair were pulled outside into the lab once more, and Toda felt very briefly safe… until Simon flung Orvokki across the room, causing them to splash into a puddle on the floor.

“What did you do to Toda!?” Simon shouted. “Where is he!?”

‘You can’t hold onto me forever squidling…’ Orvokki said to him. ‘And you can’t leave me, or I’ll just attack you again… whatever will you do?’

Toda shuddered a little, and had Orvokki compose herself, and then transformed her to a humanoid form. She was right, he felt exhausted already, he couldn’t hold on forever… he jumped back as the end of a brush was held right in front of his face.

“Answer me!” Simon said, brandishing Bato’s brush. “Where’s Toda!?”

“I’m right here!” He managed to say. “I’m here, I’m in her head!”

Simon stared, momentarily uncomprehending, then slowly lowered the brush. “Toda?”

“Yes!” He exclaimed, then leaned back sharply as thoughts swirled around him.

[You have (1) new messages from (Oshea Cromwell)]

‘What? Who's Oshea?’

Two of Orvokki's tentacles twitched. Ophelia never contacted anyone directly. It was always through Oshea. Something big was happening. Had happened. Something. ‘Don't you DARE read it squidling!’

There was a loud bang from the door, and it began to buckle. “We’re running out of time!” Stacey called.

‘You know what, I think I will, octoling!’ Toda retorted, thinking hard about opening the message.

[Miss Vitrel

You have been summoned to the golden kettle with posthaste.

Signed by

Oshea Cromwell]

‘Wait what? The golden kettle is open!?’ Orvokki asked.

‘What does that mean?’ Toda demanded.

Orvokki didn’t try to reply, but he heard it anyway, it meant that she was going to meet with the queen. He didn’t really like the sound of that.

Bato staggered to his feet, then walked up to them. “Where does that drain in the basin go?”

Orvokki thought about it once again, without Toda having to pressure her.

“Those pipes are filled with water, it’s not safe.” Toda said. “They go all around the facility, but there’s no way you guys can go through there.”

"Did she tell you all that?" Stacey asked.

"She thought about it when Bato asked her." Toda replied.

"Orvokki, what's your rank?" Stacey asked.

Class 2 elite- ‘Stop it!’

"Class 2 Elite." Toda relayed.

Stacey smirked. "We can use her to walk right out of here. She's high ranking. They have to at least listen to her. And she's under our control."

"Just have to parrot her replies..." Simon finished. They cast a glance at Toda. "But can you do it?"

"Yeah, I think so." Toda replied. ‘And if you try and make me screw up and put them all in danger, then I'm going to make things hell for you, he told Orvokki, I'm the one in your brain now, and you've given me some pretty good tips already.’ It was unlike him to be so brutal, but he was exhausted and afraid of what would happen to everyone if things went wrong...

The door creaked sharply, and Jill winced. It was the first time he’d gotten a clear look at her in a while, she looked pretty shaky and rough around the edges. "We're going to need to try to look like she detained us."

"Right." Toda agreed, carefully making Orvokki walk to the center of the room.

" 'Kneel and disarm yourselves'." Bato quoted quietly, slowly kneeling, though he didn’t look much better off than Jill. The others began to follow his lead.

‘I refuse! I refuse to just let you deprive me of my power SQUIDLING!’ Orvokki yelled, making them sway and almost tip over. ‘This will never work, you don’t even have the right posture!’

‘Well, I refuse to let you refuse. Wait, right posture?’ Toda asked.

"Straighten your back." Bato hissed.

Toda blinked, then stood up as straight as this watery body could manage, right as the door buckled and fell inward.  Octolings streamed into the room, several stopping and saluting when they saw Orvokki, others fanning out and securing the room. Several clustered around the scientist, who was now unconscious on the floor, and aimed their weaponry at them, just to be safe.

Orion strode in, with another octoling, Oana, like he owned the place, expression in his usual disdain. His gaze rested on Orvokki, and his frown deepened. “You’re out.”

'Not my choice' She thought.

Toda was preeeeety sure that parroting that back wasn't a good idea, so he tried to rephrase it. "It was important."

"Obviously. What happened, where's Y-1?" Orion asked flatly.

Orvokki almost thought that was funny. ‘In my head. Look closer. How are you feeling squidling? Am I helping you escape yet?’

Toda was starting to get concerned about how this was going to work out. He thought quickly, finally answering with a short. "Dead." And nodding to a purple ink splatter on the other side of the room. “These squidlings thought he was me.”

‘You know.’  He said to Orvokki. ‘I'm pretty sure it wouldn't go over well for you if your colleagues found out you were overpowered by a squidling. Especially with that... summons? That you just got? So maybe you should actually try and help?’

Orvokki froze. A fear settled in. She could lose everything couldn't she? They... couldn't replace her on such short notice though. Even though they had Onella... Ugh! Why did she tell her so much!? It was her job to, they had to have two!

‘Two, two for what!?’ Toda asked.

Orion gave a slight nod at the octolings by the splatter, and they fired, changing it to octarian purple. Thank goodness nobody was hiding in there. "You better get ready. I look forward to seeing your performance. I know you've been practicing." He then pointed at the row of disarmed squids by the wall. “Put Y-2 and Y-3 back into storage, execute the others.”

“Wait!” Toda shouted before he could help it. He then shuddered as he was faced with Orion’s steely glare. “I… still need those two for testing!”

“What sort of tests?” Orion asked, tentacles swishing.

‘Orvokki, I can’t come up with something, if you don’t help, I swear to Judd I’m going to rat you out!’ Toda snapped.

‘Give me my mouth.’ Orvokki demanded.

Toda hesitated a second; what if she betrayed what was really going on? ... But he didn't have any better ideas. ‘Don't say anything to give this away or you’ll pay dearly’  He said, letting her have control of her mouth again, but ready to take it back if he needed to.

“Someone contaminated my lab with sodium hypochlorite, and it may have gotten into my body, and by extension these heinous squids.” Orvokki said. “And I need to do some tests on them before I can do the performance, or I could die!”

“What is Sodium hyperchlorite?” Orion huffed.

“BLEACH!” Orvokki snapped. “Why don’t I pour some down your throat and see how you like it?” She asked.

“If I were you I would watch your tongue.” Orion snarled.

“And if you were me, you would be furious that someone put poison in my laboratory! Who did this!?” She demanded.

A few of the octolings around, the ones which had been working in her lab, started to look extremely awkward.

"Who did this?! You should KNOW the effects that compound has on my body! If you all make me look like a FOOL because of your petty mistake, I will personally make sure you never get a single ration again!!" She snapped.

“I-I’m sorry...” One octoling whispered.

Orion snapped his fingers and gestured out of the room, the octoling who'd spoken up darted out, awfully pale.

Orvokki then quickly continued. "The sooner you get out, through my BROKEN-" A few octolings jumped at this. "-door, the sooner we can all call it early. Unless you want the MC herself to be furious for ruining her show!"

Several octolings ran out of the room, though Orion didn't quite look like he believed her, but after a short pause… "The same applies to you, might I remind you." He gestured for two octolings to stay, then briskly walked from the room, other troops carrying out the unconscious scientist behind him.

‘… Well done.’ Toda admitted grudgingly.

Orvokki gave a slight frown. ‘I get what I want. Usually.’

The two octolings stepped forward and saluted, only for Stacey to suddenly sweep her legs and knock both of them over like bowling pins, she then flipped around and slammed her heels into their heads to knock them unconscious. “… Th… That wasn’t Toda...” She concluded as she flopped out on the floor.

Bato nodded slowly. “Agreed.”

"It... was an emergency." Toda made her say, tone a little sheepish.

‘I'll be missed if you don't let me go soon, squidling.’ Orvokki reminded. ‘I have more important things to control.’ She tried to be subtle about it, but 'siren' and '1' passed rather quickly through her head.

Toda blinked. ‘Wait, Callie's here? I mean, 1? Where is she? ‘

Several possible places for both Callie and Marie passed through her head, but nothing definitive. ‘That's it squidling. I've had enough!’ She wasn't sure if what she’d planned would work, but she seemed determined to try.

‘Try what!?’ Toda demanded.

Just then, he felt her tentacles shift, and then the tips plunged inward, into her own head. Toda screamed in agony as the tentacles wrapped around him, and then flung him out onto the ground.

"Ugh.... Finally…" Orvokki murmured, stumbling to the drain. "It's been fun, squids. Maybe we'll officially meet later, Y-2." And with that she transformed, vanishing down the pipes.

“Get back here!” Simon snapped, pouncing at the drain, too late to catch Orvokki. “Damn it...”

Toda gathered himself up and transformed, fists clenched. “I let her get away...” He muttered, a little startled at how gurgly his voice was.

“We need to get out o—AAHHH!” Jill yelped, clapping her hands over her mouth. “Toda! Y-You’re…!”

“I know...” He said. “I don’t like it either...”

“Um.. Toda, no, not the water...” Simon said.

"What?" He asked, looking between her and Simon... Something was off, but he couldn't quite place it...

Bato frowned and took a few steps closer, seeming to tower over him as he got close. "You're tiny, dude." He said bluntly.

Toda’s eyes widened and he looked himself over. Apparently Orvokki had taken a toll on him as well. "... Oh."

"D-Does it... Hurt?" Jill asked cautiously.

"I don't... think so." He replied slowly. He was hurting a little, but that might've just been from being thrown... Maybe?

“I read Orvokki’s journal.” Bato said. “We can try to find some water for you to swim in, that should help you... Refill? Like an ink tank?"

“I don’t know if we have time...” Toda said.

“If you don’t, you’ll evaporate!” Bato said hurriedly. “I can’t let that happen!”

Toda stopped for a moment, then looked around. “… The only place with water is that tap, and I can’t swim there, or I might go down the drain like Orvokki.”

“Fill up that tank on your back, Bato!” Jill pointed out.

Bato hesitated, then nodded, pulling a containment tank off his back, and then after fiddling with it, opened it up and filled it with water before turning back to Toda.

He took a long look at the tank, then sighed. “Okay, but don’t close it.” He said, then squidded and jumped in.

The splash felt so soothing, his aches all began to fade as he swam in small circles. It felt wonderful...

“Stacey, how are you doing?" Bato asked.

Stacey gave a light sigh. "Everything hurts... And I'm going to have a lot to explain to my dad... But we're all alive... That's a plus. Jill is... right though, we need to... get... get out of here before these... two guards are missed."

“I got an idea, we can dress up as them!” Jill exclaimed. “Just like Bato!”

“There’s only two of them, and three of us. Four, if you count Toda.” Simon pointed out. “We’d have to be clever.”

“Once Toda’s done with the tank, I can carry Stacey in it.” Bato said. “And before you argue, you can barely stand, you shouldn’t be cartwheeling people right now.”

Stacey sighed. “I know, just please be gentle.”

“Also, those masks won’t work unless they’re hacked. I’ve been around Hachi, I might be able to figure it out.” Bato added.

“That sounds like a good idea.” Simon said.

Once the pain seemed to have subsided, Toda jumped out of the tank and de-squidded, a single ripple going over his body like a shudder. He side stepped over to Bato and looked himself over. “… Well, I’m still shorter than you, but at least now I’m the right sort of shorter.”

Bato huffed and tipped the tank out into the drain, leaving it upside-down to dry out a little while he worked on the masks.

Toda turned back to the group. "They have the Sisters." He said grimly, "I think Orvokki is planning on trying to control Callie."

"Ugh.... No.…" Stacey groaned, trying to sit up.

Simon grimaced. "Why am I even surprised."

"Is... Is there anything we can do?!" Jill asked.

"I don't know." Toda shook his head. "I tried to ask her where they were, but she thought of a few different places, not one in particular..."

"... 'Performance'..." Simon said slowly. “Orion mentioned a show.”

"Oh Judd..." Stacey stiffened. "Ophelia is putting on a show... If they're going to be anywhere, it's... Probably there… I went to the DJ’s performance last year, and I only just made it out of there alive. It’s going to be packed, and if anyone figures out who we are… we’re dead. But… everyone will be invited. The rest of the domes will be deserted.”

Toda rippled again, then frowned a bit. "Orvokki was supposed to meet her, I think. She got a message saying something about the kettle being open? A... Golden kettle?"

Bato looked up. "There... Was a gold-colored kettle, in one of the other domes... And it was closed when we--," He broke off.

".... We?" Simon asked.

Bato hesitated, glancing at the unconscious octolings for the second, then muttered. "... Hachi. She's the one that got me out of this facility to begin with, and the one that got me back in."

"Why?" Jill slowly asked. "Why would she do that?"

"She said she did some... Illegal searching on Yuri.” He explained. "She didn't know about the whole... In-people's-heads part. And she didn't like it when she found out."

"Can't blame her." Toda muttered.

"So you're saying you trust her again?" Simon snapped.

"I didn't exactly have a choice." Bato replied, his tone even. "I'm sure there was more that she didn't tell me. But I wouldn't have been able to get this far if it wasn't for her."

Simon took a deep breath, then let it out slowly in almost a growl.

"No time." Stacey said quietly. "We need to keep working on our plan.”

Bato glanced at Stacey, then nodded as he unscrewed the back of one of the guard’s masks."I... Don't have access to a map anymore." He said slowly. "The mask she hacked for me only had access to the main area, and they cut out Orvokki's journal."

"Keep the... Journal anyway." Stacey said, trying again to sit up. "… Could be something valuable on it."

Toda began to pace. There was no way they could disguise him… would he… have to go back into one of their heads? He cringed at the thought.

“Hey guys, good news! This person’s shoes fit perfectly on my feet!” Jill exclaimed. “Man, Octolings have great taste in boots! I love it!”

Simon shook their head. “Oh Jill…”

“Someone’s got to have the smile!” Jill said. “And that’s me. Come on, let’s put on these clothes, fit the part!”

Simon paused, then nodded, pulling the boots off the other octoling. “… You know, Toda...”

Toda glanced at them, then looked away again, "... We'll think of something else. I won't... I'm not going to..."

Simon sighed. "There’s not going to be another option. Just be careful, it’ll only be until we get back to the surface.”

Toda rubbed his arm. "... I won't make you do it. I won't make anyone do it."

Simon laced the shoes, slowly thinking. "... We need to get out of here. What will we all do without each other?... I... I'm willing to do it for you."

Toda looked at them for a moment, then sort of ‘sighed’. "If you're sure." He said quietly.

“Hey guys, which way’s the front of this armor?” Jill asked.

“The curved side. The flat side’s the back.” Bato said. He was on to the second mask by now.

“Got it.” Jill said. “How are we going to hide our tentacles?”

“I see some tentacle caps over there on the wall.” Simon said. “We should be able to look slightly less suspicious in those.”

“I’ll get them!” Toda said, running over and picking up two of the caps for a few moments before they both sunk through his hands. He went silent for a second, then gave a little snort... which sounded pretty weird in this state. "Probably should've expected that."

Jill looked up. "Was... That you snorting?" She asked. "Like, as in laughing? "

Simon covered their mouth for a moment. “Judd, that was adorable.”

Toda blinked, then felt himself grow warmer.

“Um… Toda, your cheeks are steaming.” They added.

"Odd..." Bato said with a small frown. “Are you okay?”

“It’s nothing!” He said quickly.

“Well… I got these masks done.” Bato said. “Go ahead and put them on.”

Jill took one, then slipped it on. “Whoa! Can’t you zoom with this? How do you do that?”

“Oh, um, I don’t think you can anymore. Hachi left me with some instructions, and it had me take out the optic reader, so now I think it’s just headgear.” Bato said.

“Awwww...” Jill said, disappointedly.

“As long as we have a disguise, we’ll be okay.” Simon said as they slipped on the mask.

"… Hey, Toda? You think splatting you will return you to normal again...?" Jill asked, putting the mesh cap on her tentacles. "I mean, it worked with him."

"I don't see why it wouldn't..." Toda said, though he hadn't thought about that. He certainly hoped it would...

Jill voiced the thought that had passed through his head. "But... but what if it doesn't?"

"It WILL." Simon grimaced. "It has to. It can’t just work for Yuri and then NOT work for Toda! That's just.. not fair...”

“… I think life’s proven to not be fair recently...” Toda said.

“We’ll deal with this once we get out of here.” Bato said, picking up the containment tank. “Stacey, you ready for a ride?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be...” She grunted and then transformed and let herself be scooped up.

"Don't drop it." Toda said quietly. “I almost died in one of those...”

Bato nodded, clipping the tank to his octo belt.

Simon gave a little sigh and looked at Toda. "I think we're about ready to go... so..." They tensed and held out their hand. “I’m ready.”

"Right..." Toda turned towards them, then stepped forward and squidded, jumping to their head.

Simon took a deep breath and slowly opened their eyes, it hurt a little bit more than they remembered. ‘You there?’ They asked, even though the answer was pretty clear.

‘Yeah, I'm here.’ Toda replied, once again feeling the weird sort of two-places-at-once sensation from earlier. ‘Sorry, I was trying to be careful.’

‘No, no, it's not your fault, we barely understand how this stuff works... maybe I was almost trying to fight it... that's when it hurts most.’ They gave a little thumbs up to the others.

‘I don't blame you, for trying to fight. I know it hurts...’ He still wished there had been some other option.

Jill nodded. "I guess we're good to go. Unless we're missing something... But I don't think we are."

“Well, we are missing something.” Bato said. “Straighten your backs you two, you’ll stand out for a mile.”

Bato and Toda are Knitter’s characters

Simon, Jill, Hachi, Orvokki, Orion, Oana, Onella, Ophelia, Yuri and Stacey are Shuckle’s characters. (Whew, that’s a lot)

Splatoon belongs to Nintendo.

Guess what, none of the lyrics in this chapter belong to me either.

Please consider liking or reblogging if you enjoyed, it’s nice to know we’re doing things right.

Shuckle has a patreon if you would like to provide additional support!

[<PREV] [INDEX] [NEXT>]

#Better Eight Than Never #Splatoon #Inkling #Octoling #SS Simon #SS Jill #SS Toda #SS Bato #BS Stacey #Octo Orion #Octo Oana #Octo Orvokki

[splattershotsundae]

Better Eight Than Never --- Chapter 35: Orvokki Vitrel

Warning: The following chapter details gore.

[Entry 1

This is the first entry since that blasted Harlequin incident that my experiments have bared any fruit. As such, I am starting anew. To begin, after that wretch escaped me, I figured I needed to move my plans to the surface, and placed devices which broadcast the ink transfusion signals (Quite an upgrade from the tubes, if I do say so myself) into ink battle arenas. I tried to pick ones that were near large amounts of water… which sure took some doing.

However, as I waited for results, one by one the machines seemed to fail. It is only now, several shifts later, that the surface news has told of a squidling named ‘Yuri Skwidd’ who had clear ink. I was astounded, not only had the machine worked after all, but the subject had survived! The downside is that these results seem to only be temporary, though it might only end upon being splatted. Due to the report… however, this is outshined by the news that not only can he merge with water, it sounds as though he could merge with squidlings themselves, and take control of their bodies.

The uses of this could be limitless, we won’t just have super soldiers, we could have squidlings fight each other in the war! This technology could save thousands of Octarian lives. After giving these results to the lab’s managers, I have been given permission to access the lab’s full potentials once again. Our first mission is to rebuild the machine while soldiers take squidlings from the surface. Hopefully we shall yield further results.

– Orvokki Vitrel]

[Entry 2

Construction in lab 32 is going agonizingly slowly. Don’t these workers know how to do their job? Which is work? I can see the sweat dripping from their brow, so how come progress has been at a minimum? The only thing keeping me from screaming at them this moment is Olwen’s hand on my shoulder. In one sense, I’m grateful. In another, I am sure the push these fools need is stern words. No matter! While they’re busy attempting to put together the frame to my dream machine, I am overseeing the more delicate parts, as they seem unable to comprehend my genius. I wrote everything down exactly how it is supposed to be done, and yet… ugh. If I made the calls, we wouldn’t be hiring the gunk I scrape off my boots to do such important work! It’s fine. Until we get in our subjects, I would undeniably still be pacing. I hope that the machine shall be recreated for the next shift.

Unlike MK I, MK II attaches to the ceiling or walls, with the subject positioned in front, with their torso in front of the core. The core will replicate pulses like a spawner, and steadily draw their ink from them and replace it with water. However… subject Harlequin still had her skin, organs, everything. Her skin was soft, but still firm. This Yuri… reports say he was water through every fiber of his being. I am uncertain what this could entail.

– Orvokki Vitrel]

[Entry 3

I couldn’t sleep, and returned to the lab to find the machine was almost complete, and my first subject has arrived! At long last, I can test to my heart’s content! I shall return after the results of my experiment.

Nothing has gone according to plan. Such is the nature of science, I am left thoroughly disappointed. It seems as though someone in this crew assembled my Ink Transfusion machine improperly, so it short circuited and fried a few wires. Not only that, but the core released a pulse which promptly caused the subject, subject 1, to explode into a burst of water. Through analysis it can be concluded she is deceased.

Subject was female, with green ink, type A positive.

One test in, and already I’m wasting squidlings due to incompetence. I will check over the machine myself, and from this point forward, only I or Olwen shall operate it.

– Orvokki Vitrel]

[Entry 4

Still unable to sleep,  I am quivering with excitement; I have in two more subjects; Subject 2, Male, Orange ink, type B positive, and Subject 3, female, blue, type AB negative.

I have checked the machine at least a dozen times while waiting for Olwen to arrive. She seems concerned for my well being, perhaps she is right. After these experiments I should try harder to rest, a visit to the bathhouse to relax and then back to bed. I asked if she would like to come with me, and of course, she said no. I can’t tell if she thinks I’m joking. Why would I joke? Aside from the fact that we’re furthering technology right in this very room, she is the most important thing in my life.

Regardless, we have now positioned Subject 2 beneath the machine. He’s straining himself against the restraints with all of his might, and seems rather adorable in doing so, though such an action is dealing severe damage to his wrists and ankles. What a fool.

We have turned the machine on, and it is functioning properly, I hear his screams, and I can’t help but smile. That means that it’s working. On more cooperative patients, I’d ask what it felt like, so I could get a better sense of how it was working. He passed out, and a minute later, all that remains is a pool of water on the table. Upon containing the puddle, it began to thrash around and squeak in fear. How adorable. We’ve begun the process with the other squidling, and the results appear positive. Now with two of these things, we must remain cautious. If one of them were to escape and enter one of our brains, the lab might be torn apart.

Subject 3 is much more calm than subject 2, we’ve put her into a larger chamber for analysis, and we shall attempt to revert subject 2 to his previous ink, of which we still have samples of.

Subject 2 has been reverted to orange ink, however he did not survive the process. Either way, this is valuable intel, as his body remained intact. Upon conducting an analysis, the tears in his flesh from pulling against the restraints are all but gone. It is possible that being in this water state has corrected any minor wounds he had. We’ve sent his body to lab 22 for an autopsy, and Subject 3 shall remain under close watch until my return.

– Orvokki vitrel]

[Entry 5

I slept too long, subject 3 died between shifts, but at least we recorded the entire thing. She’s not a puddle like I first thought, she did actually have limbs, and as time went on she began to shrink until she fell apart completely, leaving only a puddle. (For sure this time) It seems that an evaporation process caused her to simply die. I’ve sent what remains of her to undergo analysis, but I suspect that by now she’s merely returned to water.

On the brighter side, they’ve brought me not one, not two, but four new subjects today. I shall continue the naming process as per usual.

Subject 4, Female, Green, A-

Subject 5, Male, Purple, B-

Subject 6, Male, Dark blue, A-

Subject 7, Male, Pink, O+

Now that we have more subjects, I can finally begin implanting. We decided to transfuse subject 7, a process which has left him rather delicate, more so than the others so far. After some deliberation, and much frustration, we managed to secure subject 4 to a table and forced subject 7 into her mind.

I’d never seen an ink reaction like this, even in the thousands of shifts I’ve been working in ink research. Her skin simply dissolved, allowing her flesh to bubble and pop, much like hostile ink. I’ve saved the footage to the journal for reference, and we’ve collected the ink that remained for further testing. We were unable to find subject 7, and so far, subject 4’s ink seems… perfectly normal.  This perplexes me, I must learn more.

Under consulting with Olwen, we decided to turn both 5 and 6 into water. 6 is fairly sturdy in form, and we’re able to make out distinct limbs, whereas subject 5… is perfect. His form is pristine and clearly defined, and he appears to have a fierce spirit. We put the both of them into containment tanks, a true feat in the case of subject 5, who not only appeared to have seen what we did earlier and tried to jump at one of our scientists, but was able to temporarily change into humanoid form. I suspected this was possible, but to see it confirmed… He looks nothing like Harlequin, I wonder if she could even enter another’s mind, her humanoid form had skin and rigidity in a way he simply did not.  Regardless, any further subjects shall be kept in a separate room, perhaps the room where empty containment tanks are stored could be filled instead of left to collect dust. Olwen presses me to sleep, she’s right, under my mask I feel the dark circles, and my nose runs. We added some water to the containment tanks, which should, theoretically keep them alive. Perhaps we should have only transfused one for the time being… It’s too late now, all I can do is sleep and see what happens.

--Orvokki Vitrel]

[Entry 6

I can’t see. Never in my life have I felt so… Empty inside.

I can’t stop crying, she’s gone, she’s just gone.

This morning, we went to retrieve subject 5, and he broke out of his container and jumped at Olwen.

He killed her. There was nothing I could do.

I can’t believe that she’s gone. How am I going to keep going without her? She was the one person who meant anything to me, and I’m never going to see her again.

They took her to have an autopsy, and gave me the rest of the shift off, but…

I wish we’d done more together. There was so much we could have done once the surface was ours.

We could have even gone up now, I was tempted to ask her today, if she wanted to go up to the valley and look at the real sky. But she…

I feel like… nothing.]

[Entry 7

They brought me more subjects while I was away, but I hardly care. They can fill out most of the operations themselves…

It’s not that people around me haven’t died before, it’s just… this once, the shift-long grieve doesn’t feel long enough. How can I let go of her in this short of time? They expect me to be focused under these circumstances? How can they keep working while she’s gone? I’m listening to some audio I took of her, a long time ago, over and over and over again, but it’s not enough. How can this, and a few pictures, be all I have left of someone so full of life?

Subject 6 has been put into another subject without my authorization, what could go wrong? Well, the two fell unconscious, and nothing anyone can do will rouse them. For once it feels as though I won’t succeed. Olwen always cared more about me than my projects. She wouldn’t want me to simply give up, would she?… What if she’d been hesitant in the past, but never told me?

They came to me, and told me the results of the autopsy of my dear, sweet, Olwen. Her brains had all been torn to pieces, and then he’d done as much damage to the rest of her body as he could, they couldn’t even find one of her lungs.

It doesn’t feel fair to have to see this. To see what he’s… done to my beloved. The ooze seeping from her body...

I’m taking another shift off, sick leave.

I can’t do this.]

Bato was pulled from the journal by the sound of snapping fingers, and looked down to see Stacey trying to get his attention. “Huh, what?”

"What’s going on?" She asked. "I've been trying to get your attention for like, five minutes."

"Oh..." He'd temporarily forgotten about their current situation. "This mask, it has these... entries? Like, a scientist's journal sort of thing. And they're about these... experiments, that they've been doing on inklings, trying to recreate what happened to Yuri."

Stacey grimaced. "Of course... Well, you seem to have turned the lights on with that thing... it can probably open the door. I... Don't think I'm ready to go anywhere yet though. You doing alright? You look shaky."

Bato nodded a bit, lifting the helmet a bit and wiping his forehead, "Some of these entries… they were dealing with some… dark stuff.” He explained, groping behind him for the table and leaning against it for a second, "... Toda and the twins were lucky... I've only read through seven of these and I can already tell that it could've been so much worse..."  He frowned, thinking about this Olwen person… He felt like he was intruding on some very personal things by reading this… but if there was going to be information about where his friends were, he had to.

Stacey winced. "I’d offer to read it.. But at this point, I don't think we should risk you taking that off. If you have low clearance, the fact that you can use that might be a fluke."

"I think you're right." He agreed. "It almost didn't let me in to begin with but..." He shrugged, Hachi must've messed with his mask quite a bit in order to let him use it. He took a deep breath, "Let me know when you're ready to go." He said, as he opened Entry 8.

[Entry 8

I can’t. I can’t keep acting like this. She’d want me to keep going. But how can I? I’m still sick, so I decided to look over the ink samples this shift… as well as my own. There’s always been an irregularity in my ink I haven’t been able to identify… But I think I found something. Something that my ink has in common with the ink of subject…. 5.

The fact that I have anything in common with that hideous muck worm makes me nauseous… If he wasn’t already dead, I’d kill him myself.

No, I’d kill the person who meant the most to him.

A child, a spouse, a mother, anyone.

Can’t I still do that?

There would be no way I can find them… but if we storm the surface, there’s a chance that my revenge will be carried out by my work.

I’m prepared to take a gamble, and I won’t tell anyone what I’ve done, unless it’s a success.

Not even you, my journal.

--Orvokki Vitrel]

[Entry 9

I can’t feel my body]

[Entry 10

I’m still alive… I banked on that connection between mine and subject 5’s ink, and I’ve emerged victorious. My body is made of water, which admittedly makes it hard to write in my journal now, but other good things are happening, it feels as though I’m finally being taken seriously. No, I know I’m being taken seriously, there’s talk of a sponsorship from Ophelia, and I may get as many test subjects as I need. They’re going to adapt the facility to my needs, to allow me to travel through the pipes. Walking around like normal causes me to lose pieces of myself on the floors. I’m also being reassigned to lab 26, maybe for the best… the old one is… highly traumatic. That’s the only way I can say it, I don’t want to go back in there, I can still see her dying face.

I don’t recognize my voice, no longer low and smooth it’s… like a gurgle. Some people can’t even understand me, and they’re terrified of me, which in a way I like, but… I feel so alone, without her here…

Beside me…

In a way, I’ve become what killed her.

Did I ever deserve someone like her?

--Orvokki Vitrel]

[Entry 11

Subject 6, and the subject she was implanted in, have both finally died, so it was time I took their place, and got in-depth with the minds of these squidlings. I was put into the mind of subject, apparently 11, and attempted to control them. With their singular brain, I had no idea which spots controlled what, so I simply wriggled around, and soon I felt them dying around me, so I jumped out, which was difficult, the rig is set up so it’s hard to escape… but it feels as though that may be why I’m still alive, while subject 11 is now dead. I don’t understand why this is, but it might be something to look into.

Oh no, I forgot to grab an ink sample from subject 11 before they died. Shit. I need to stay focused. I’ve ordered ink sample collections from every single test subject as soon as they enter the facility. I must find more links between these ink samples.

--Orvokki Vitrel]

[Entry 12

I’m glad that I’ve always kept a journal as an outside mask, because it’s occurred to me now that… should I die, my journal would simply dissolve if it was on my main mask. I’ve saved everything I have of Olwen to it now, just in case. She should never be forgotten.

Onella, my sister, has been hounding me however, Says I’m not acting the same. It’s not like her to care, I don’t understand what this is.

Regardless of her intrusions, I’m currently overseeing the remodeling of my new house inside the laboratory. It feels empty, but I need a more permanent bed than a bucket of water. They are supplying me with an entire pool.

Most of what I did today was compare samples. This irregularity… it seems to be consistent with purple inks, but none are as close to mine in this way as subject 5… Why am I the closest thing to that slime ball? That murderer? That…

If I don’t embrace this, it will eat me alive.

--Orvokki Vitrel]

[Entry 13

I transfused two purple squids today, and I’m beginning to let these samples be public record so they don’t have to be mixed with my personal thoughts. We did two experiments today, one in which the squid could escape its host, and one where they could not. The one who could escape was the only survivor out of all of them. So if I escape a host, even if they are dying, I can live. Quite valuable information.

We took the survivor, and put them into another mind, of a different color ink, and… different results emerged. I’ve given authorization for them to continue using this squid while I performed my own experiments. I allowed myself to be dropped into the mind of a squidling and, to my surprise, they retaliated against my efforts inside their brain, so I fought back, physically, I made them claw at their skin, and bite off their own tongue, and worst of all---] Bato swallowed and exited that entry, sweat pouring off of his brow. Dear Judd, he couldn’t imagine the horror that poor person must have felt, or what could have been worse. He didn’t have time to read every entry, he decided, just to give himself an excuse so he wouldn’t have to read something like that again, and proceeded to skim the rest.

And he was glad that he did, these entries detailed the gore, more and more graphically each time. She’d begun to have her subjects put into a special room so that way they wouldn’t be bound, but still couldn’t escape. She’d been made an elite due to the amount of damage she could cause to a person being ‘elite level skill’. She was mad that she couldn’t wear the kelp, as it sank right through her.

A few entries later, he paused. This entry was different.

[Entry 19

I have finally assembled a chart, of how the ink of the subjects effects this process.

Transfusion subjects; Purple ink is the best suitable subject for this, and as of now it’s the only subjects I want from the surface, as it contains a protein which can withstand the process. I get the honor of naming it, but I’ve yet to decide…  Regardless, other ink colors don’t have this, and as a result, they are unstable, and may have less control or fall apart entirely.

As for being a host, the color seems to be a determining factor as well; the darker the ink color, the more dense it is, and the harder it is for the infiltrator to manipulate. Purple ink seems to have an innate resistance, perhaps because of this same protein. If a host and an infiltrator have ‘rival colors’, the two will begin to dissolve, such as Pink and Green, Orange and Blue… Purple and Green also seem to count as rival colors, but the repercussions might put them on level footing. I don’t understand it.

What I need is more proof, I need the survivors of Yuri, as I have yet to be left with a surviving host.

--Orvokki Vitrel]

He skimmed some more before something else struck his interest, entries from the past few days.

[Entry 22

We found one. Today we finally found one of Yuri’s victims, I will be calling him Y-1, and I’ll be taken up there as soon as possible. However… We are unsure how to best do that… as putting my water body through a kettle would… boil me. I’m not sure how that would effect me, would I even survive? There are plans of having a guard take me up in a containment tank, but even that might be risky. We may have to bring the squid down here. That should be fine.

I’m furious. We were so close, but apparently Orion decided to leave him on the surface so he could do one of his ‘revenge’ things against one of the sea sirens. I have a revenge to fulfill as well, over here! Not to mention not only do I have Onella pestering me to let her in on everything, but Ophelia breathing down my neck and rushing my progress so it’s hard to get anything done. What can’t wait a few more shifts?

… She has a voice though, as sweet as Olwen’s…

I must get close to her, I’ll do whatever it takes to record some sounds from Ophelia She’s the closest I have to my one true love…

…

Perhaps the fact that I sit here and write so much is why she is getting testy. Doesn’t she realize how this is a vent? I’d never say any of this to her, of course, I want to keep my tentacles.

– Orvokki Vitrel]

[Entry 23

They’re all dying. I’ve been in so many today, I’ve killed a dozen squidlings, a fact which I’ll go into more detail in a moment, but… I’m still no closer, and Orion is ignoring my orders to pick up the fucking squidlings I need. It’s not fair, You’re supposed to respect me you big-headed lump of slime. I need to go to another one, I need to rip them apart! I’m so mad!!

To make everything worse, just because Onella’s in on this project now, she thinks she gets to call the shots! I hate her! I hate everything!

--Orvokki Vitrel]

[Entry 24

Orion’s told me that some defect made her way back to the domes, she’s been in contact with Yuri’s hosts. She was able to bring down an ink sample from one of them, thanks to being around his tank.

I’ve examined it.

He’s… He has the same irregularity as mine. As subject 5. As my sister.

I need him. I need him now. There are so many questions that need to be answered.

--Orvokki Vitrel]

[Entry 25

The ‘splatfest’ happened, and not only did we get more purple test subjects than I could ever use, but…  finally, we know right were Yuri’s hosts are. They’re here. In this very building, and I’ve just finished dealing with Y-1, and as of now, he’s the first subject I’ve ever left alive. My approach was all wrong. I was… flailing, and wriggling, I never considered fight fire with fire. Attack him with thoughts, my thoughts, his own thoughts. Act like… not like I’m a pilot, but that I was him. It was my body. It felt so… powerful, and soon I shall test with another survivor what I’ve learned… though… these three hosts, know each other, and I have plans for implanting one into another. Perhaps the connection between them will herald different results. I may not have too much more time for experimentation, hearing news that someone I controlled remained alive, we’ve been given a go ahead from Ophelia, and she’ll be sending a very special squidling my way shortly.

In addition… there was a ping on the squid who matched my ink, but he’s… gone. Someone stole him from right under my nose. I was so close, and I need him back! This is personal now, I’ve sent people looking for this thief, and I will stop at nothing to find my specimen. Someone is actively trying to thwart me, I feel…

I’ll find you, squidling.

--Orvokki Vitrel]

Bato found himself gripping the table, shudders running down his back. She… She needed him…. She needed him. There was something weird about his ink? Weird how? He felt light headed, and frightened, and he made himself take a deep breath. Toda was alive… and when this had been written, Jill and Simon had been alive as well… but who could say how well they were doing… What sort of irregularities did his ink have?

Focus. He began to run his hands over his tentacles. If he wasn’t here, where was she? Probably lab… which one? 26? If he had more clearance with her mask, could he see where that was? He pulled up the map, which flickered and then cleared up. He frowned as he looked the map over, noting that the lab was quite a ways away, but he was able to bookmark it so his mask could give him better directions. Turned out it was a GPS as well.

He was shaken from his thoughts by a gurgle of water, and he stiffened, looking over at the pool, and seeing that it was beginning to fill with more water. A thick clump came out of the pipe in a rather un-water-like fashion, and he swallowed. Oh no, it was her. He glanced down at Stacey, realizing for the first time that she’d fallen asleep. She must be exhausted, but… he had to wake her. “Stacey!” He hissed as he knelt down.

She groaned and opened her eyes, squinting.

“Squid!” Bato hissed. “I can carry you in my helmet.” He said, flipping it over like a bucket. As she transformed, he helped her into the helmet, not taking his eyes off the pool as a rippling woman made of water arose. He quickly stood as she approached, free hand hovering near his ink tank. "So, you're Orvokki, I assume?" He asked, carefully edging toward the door.

"What are you doing here, give me back my journal!" She shouted as she began to rush toward him.

"I'm afraid I need it right now," He said, turning toward the door to unlock it, and then laying a mine down in the doorway as he backed through it. As she drew near the bomb went off, sending splatters of purple ink through her body, and caused her to start steaming.

"SECURITY! LOCKDOWN FACILITY!" She screamed as she stumbled backward, falling over and writhing on the ground in pain. As the door slid shut, the alarms began to blare again, and this time, he was sure it was for him.

“Hold on tight! He grunted, clutching the helmet to his chest as he began to sprint down the halls, following the mask’s instructions through the corridors. He heard Stacey squeak as he made a particularly sharp turn, but as long as she stayed in the helmet, he told himself he wouldn’t stop running.

He heard a gunshot, followed by a ping off his armor, and he grimaced and turned a corner before he was prompted in an attempt to break away from his pursuers. He could hear them shouting and running behind him, but all he could think of was getting this mission completed. “Stacey.” He said, using what breath he could spare. “ They're going to experiment with the others, They’re probably in lab 26. If nothing else, you need to make it.”

She squeaked, and then one of her tentacles weakly swatted his arm. “It’s a worst case scenario, you know th-- AAAHHH!” Bato screamed as a bullet flew through his ear, but he didn’t have time to stop now, and pushed himself to run even faster. He wasn’t even sure if it was possible, but he had to. He dropped another ink mine behind him to deter pursuit, but knew there was only so much he could do, lab 26 was in a corner of the facility, the guards would close in, and he’d have no way to leave soon enough.

He heard another ping off his armor, and he felt once again grateful that Hachi had told him to put this breastplate on the right way around. He turned a corner into one final hall, seeing his goal dead ahead of him. Behind him, he heard a massive explosion which made his ears rang, and probably gave him some sort of degree of hearing loss from it’s intensity.  He stumbled and staggered, having a hard time staying focused, but he had to make it. This door was his only hope. In a daze, he slumped against it, beating his fist against the metal door. “Open! Open! Open!” He shouted as his legs trembled. The second it took for the door to recognize Orvokki’s mask felt like an eternity, but finally it opened, and he stumbled through the door, and made it shut behind him, thinking a very loud ‘YES’ when it asked if he wanted to refuse access to other octolings. As soon as the door closed, there was an explosion on the other side, which dented it and let a small bit of octoling ink ooze through, but other than that, the door remained seemingly solid. Slumping against the wall, he took a moment to feel his left ear, which now had a notch in it, and hurt like all hell. That had been too close…

He did a sweeping look around the room, seeing rows of counters and machinery, and empty space filled with all sorts of threatening looking tools, and he vaguely remembered a few from when he was skimming the journal, a fact which caused him to shudder. On one wall, there was a valve, which had a small basin under it, and then on the far end of the room was a glass wall which allowed him to see into a test chamber that had an inkling resting on a metal bed, with all sorts of equipment pointed at their head. They sort of looked familiar, but his attention was drawn to an octoling scientist, who was looking at him with an expression of horror. He set the helmet down on one of the counters and grimaced, drawing his inkbrush. “We don’t have to fight, let me into that chamber.”

The scientist swallowed, then grabbed a knife off a table and rushed at Bato, thrusting it in a fairly novice fashion.

Bato flicked his brush, causing the scientist to stumble into a pool of ink, and then swiped at their hands to knock the knife away, causing them to yelp and fall over backward as they tried to escape. He huffed and reached up pick up Stacey, only for everything to go black as Orvokki’s journal was cut from the system. He swore under his breath and hurriedly pulled it off, which was just enough time for the scientist to get up and grab the knife again. He dropped the mask and sidestepped to dodge the scientist’s next swing, then spun his brush around and swiped it at the backs of their knees, sending them sprawling onto their back once again. “You done yet?”

The scientist nodded, covering their face with their tentacles.

Bato nodded, and looked back into the chamber, grimacing as the test subject began to look more and more like Simon. Crud. "Get up," He said sternly, prodding the scientist none too gently with the back end of his brush. “And unhook them from the machines, get them out of there!”

The scientist scrambled to their feet and darted over to a control panel, quickly pressing buttons. “It’s waking….” They murmured.

Bato grimaced, casting a brief glance at the door as someone on the other side began to pound at it. He scooped up Stacey and then followed the Scientist over to the panel, lightly poking them with the brush. “Don’t call my friend an it.”

The scientist yelped. "Heheh, Yes! Of course!… Don’t call the brutish squids its, why would I ever do that?” They asked, tone betraying how frightened they were. They twisted a knob, and a door in the wall opened with a hiss as the pressure equalized.

Bato hesitated just a moment, then ran forward, setting Stacey down so he could shake Simon’s shoulder.  “Simon, Simon wake up! Are you alright?”

There was a moment of stillness, then their eyes slowly opened. They took a small shaky breath and whispered to seemingly nobody in particular. "It wasn't just a dream..."

Bato and Toda are Knitter’s characters

Simon, Jill, Hachi, Orvokki and Stacey are Shuckle’s characters.

Splatoon belongs to Nintendo.

Please consider liking or reblogging if you enjoyed, it’s nice to know we’re doing things right.

Shuckle has a patreon if you would like to provide additional support!

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#Better Eight than never #Splatoon #Splatoon OCs #Splatoon fanfiction #Fanfiction #SS Bato #SS Toda #SS Simon #BS Stacey #Octo Orvokki

[splattershotsundae]

Better Eight Than Never --- Chapter 39: Resurfaced

The trip upward took even longer than the one to come down, and was almost constantly at a slope, heading ever upward, and upward, and upward. When Bato emerged, he was hit with a dusting of misty raindrops. It felt almost refreshing, but instead he ducked under a warehouse’s awning next to Simon and Hachi. “Where’s Toda? And does anyone know where Jill went?”

“Toda’s in that puddle, we’re lucky we came up after the rain.” Simon said with a quick gesture. “And Jill… She left before the fight broke out, she decided that worst come to worst, Stacey needed to make it out of there…” Their ears drooped, betraying their worry.

“Then there’s a chance she got out.” Bato murmured, wishing there was more he could do.

“Hey, you idiot, why the fuck did you do that!?” Hachi asked, lightly punching his arm.

He yelped, and rolled his eyes. "I wasn't going to just stand there, I’m just sorry I couldn’t make it in time.” Almost as soon as he finished talking, she wrapped her arms around him, beginning to cry. He felt a little startled, but regardless he hugged her back. “How did they find out?”

"... They realized who you were, after I took you... They know you have a connection to me, and... When I came back to the facility they got suspicious... You've seen how good I am at lying..." She sniffled. "Th-They took everything… They took my soulmate..."

“I’m so sorry...” He said, casting a glance at her tentacle stubs, a dull gray, and still dripping ink. “… We’ll get you patched up.”

“Hey… Hachi...” Simon said. “Not to intrude but, why the hell did you take us here? Is this near that hideout they took Toda?”

She nodded gently. “It’s the closest one I kn-know to Bato’s house.”

They sighed. “I guess that’s okay reasoning.”

Bato raised his head a little and looked at them. "What about you? Are you okay?”

They glanced at their arm, and the trickle of ink running down it. "… I’ll be fine, we’ll just have matching scars now... Hey Toda? You doing ok over there?" They continued, looking out into the drizzle, which was slowing every second.

After a moment or so, Toda slid back out of the puddle and resumed humanoid form, looking over himself for a second; He was back to normal size, and no longer had swirls of purple ink running through him, a fact which caused Bato to heave a sigh of relief. "I think so." He replied, slowly walking over to the three of them.

Simon gave a relieved nod, then paused. "... I guess now we figure out how to get to one of our houses... We have no train pass, no phones..."

Bato glanced at Toda, then at himself, Hachi, and finally Simon. "And... going out like this would likely cause people to call the police."

Simon took a deep breath."... Ok... Let me see..." They took off the octoling armor they were wearing, then lifted off the black shirt they had slipped on over their splatfest tee earlier. "Wrap her head in this, it'll at least slow the drips."

Bato nodded, taking the shirt from them and started to wrap it around Hachi’s head, doing his best to be careful. “Stay still, the pressure will help stop the bleeding.”

Hachi winced, little tentacle stubs twitching. “Trying...!”

Simon began to pace back and forth. "This part of town is old... If we can find a pay phone, we can call one of our parents collect, and they can drive out here. Do... Either of your parents have cars, Bato?"

He nodded. "Mine do."

“… What’s calling collect?” Toda asked.

Simon paused. “You know... When the other end pays for your call."

"Oh, right." He nodded a little.

"And... Uh... How opposed are you to... Buckets and bucket-like objects?" They added. “We need to disguise you.”

"I'm not." Toda replied quickly, shaking his head. “Buckets are great!”

"Right... Keep an eye out." They sighed. "Too bad I lost my other slosher. I guess we're gonna have to start looking for something soon."

Movement caught Bato’s attention, and he glanced down to see Hachi shifting around in her bare feet. "You cold? I can carry you on my back again." He offered.

She paused, then nodded. “Fine...”

He nodded back and crouched down so she could get on.

Simon tested for rain, seeming satisfied with the results."Alright... Hachi-… Or... Should I say Olympia?"

Hachi sighed as she climbed onto Bato’s back. "I don't know... Olympiah is my real name, but Hachi is my surface name...Olympiah died down there. She has no place on the surface. She has no experience with trains, movies and refrigerators. I do. And my name is Hachi."

Simon huffed. “There’s a small part of that I can relate to. Anyway, if we're as deep in the maze as we were last time, you're gonna have to get us out."

“Oh, yeah… take a right.” She said.

Bato nodded and began to walk, making sure his arms were firmly looped around her legs to support her. “The sooner we get out of here, the better, I imagine.”

"Yes. It's only a matter of time before they try this kettle." Hachi said slowly, wearily. "I almost took you to the plaza one myself... There are so many places to disappear there... But I thought... That's not what we need. Take a left."

"So there is an entrance near the plaza?" Simon asked.

"Yes... There was two, but then the guard at the Octo valley route got a little more strict, leaving one."

"Octo Valley?" Bato asked her curiously.

"Yes. It's the only part of the surface I think we can say is actually our territory. It is beautiful." Hachi replied. "Maybe I can show you when this is over."

"That would be nice." He replied.

“Hold up.” Simon said, then darted ahead and picked up a discarded old ceramic mixing bowl. It had a few chips out of the rim, but otherwise looked ok. "You think you can fit in this?" They asked, looking over at Toda.

Toda studied the mixing bowl for a second, stepping close. "I can try." He said.

Simon nodded and lowered the bowl for Toda, allowing him to squid and jump inside. It was a tight fit, there was only about half an inch of extra room at the top of the bowl, but it would work. "... Right then." They said. “Bucket-like object it is.”

"At the next T, take a right." Hachi said quietly. "Then it'll be one more left and you can just go straight."

Bato nodded, making sure Simon was ready before continuing on.

They walked in silence for a while before Simon finally spoke up again. "Bato, did that journal mention a 'Onella' at all?"

He frowned. "Yeah, a few times; it sounded like Orvokki was telling her about what she was learning about this... state. Why do you ask?"

"Because Toda said that Orvokki was thinking about how they 'needed two'..." They grimaced. "Your context fits too well for comfort."

His frown deepened and he cursed under his breath. "... That would make sense..."

"Great, like we needed any more monsters-" Hachi started, then glanced at the bowl. "... Who... Abuse their newfound abilities...."

The water in the bowl rippled a little bit, but there was no reaction otherwise.

"...Hey, Bato, am I still your prisoner...?" Hachi whispered.

He paused for a second, then shook his head. "No, you're not a prisoner."

She nodded slightly. "... Then I guess you can finally be my friend."

He chuckled, almost caught off guard. "And you can be mine."

She smiled slightly and rested her chin on his head. "You're still stupid… Am I going to have to tell your moms I’m an octopus this time? Compared to your friend it's sort of small business."

He thought for a moment, then nodded slowly. "Yeah... I know the Agents said not to tell anyone about this, but all things considered I don't think I'm going to have a choice."

She fell quiet for a moment. "... Can we make it so they both learn at the same time...? If they ask about things, I only want to explain once."

"We'll see what we can do." He replied. "Chances are it's just going to be my Stepmom in the car, but I might be able to ask to hold off from asking too many questions until we get back..."

"... Thanks." Hachi mumbled.

Bato nodded, looking both ways as they finally reached the streets. “… What do pay phones actually look like again?”

“Look for a booth.” Simon said.

“Okay.” He agreed as he began to walk again. “How exactly do you know so much about this?”

“Dad gave us some emergency training. At this point, I’m glad that he did, but he should have learned some first aid with us.” They said.

“Don’t worry, I have you covered… hopefully.” He replied.

“Is that one over there?” Hachi asked.

Bato blinked and looked up, following Hachi’s pointing finger to a phone booth across the street. “Yes! Oh Judd, hopefully it still works.” He looked both ways, and then jaywalked, jogging over to the box. “I’ll make the call, I’ll need to set you down Hachi.”

Hachi’s grip slowly lessened, and he helped her to the ground, letting her rest against the wall of a building as he stepped inside the phone booth and put the receiver to his ear as he dialed an operator. He held his breath, waiting for anything, and then finally let it out when the call went through, and he was able to ask for a collect call. Once again, he was plunged into a waiting game, but finally, the call was accepted.

“Bato! Bato is that you!?” The voice of his stepmother crackled through the old speaker.

His grip tightened on the receiver. "... Stepmom! Yes, yes it's me" His voice started to shake a little, he was so glad to hear her voice again. "Yeah, I-I'm fine, I... I-it's a long story and I'll explain, I promise, but I need you to come pick us up, we’re a few blocks down from the old train station by Bluefin Depot."

“Okay, I’ll be right there honey. Stay right where you are, don’t move!” Tanya said quickly, sounding close to tears herself.

"Yeah, I don’t think we’ll have much of a problem with that.” He said, casting a brief glance over his shoulder.

“I’ll come as fast as I can, GPS says around twenty minutes, I love you.” She continued.

“Alright. I-I love you too. See you." He hung up the receiver, rubbed his eyes for a second, then took a deep breath and turned towards the others. "Twenty minutes, tops." He told them. Hachi was unresponsive, and Simon was on the curb, bowl of water--Toda on their lap, and they looksed close to tears. He quietly came over and sat down beside them. "We'll find her." He said softly.

They took a shaky breath and then sobbed.

He reached out and squeezed their shoulder, frowning as he thought. "... Where did she go? Did she go right to the kettle?"

"... Yeah... I... I didn't think about the idea that she might not come up at the same spot we did... O-Or might not get out at all... M-Might get lost…" They sobbed again, tears flowing down their cheeks.

He frowned a little more, still thinking. Jill would've had Stacey with her, though she wasn't exactly in any condition to be giving directions... heck, for all he knew she might've slept through that whole thing. After a second, he looked over towards Hachi. "Hachi? Where did those other kettles lead?"

"MmmMM?" Hachi mumbled, quickly lifting her head. “What…?”

"The other kettles? Where did they come out?" He asked again. He felt sort of bad for waking her, but this was important.

"Uhh... Just the ones that went to the surface or...?" She asked.

"Crud..." He muttered, he hadn't even thought about that. "All of the ones that were near that golden one we came out of; Jill might've taken one of them when she left the stadium, if we know where they came out we might be able to find her."

"Mmm.... I'm so dizzy, I'm not sure I even... remember which domes those ones connected to... not to mention there are different connections from each of the four gold kettles... Plus... I think you're... forgetting how isolated my knowledge of the surface is... until recently, each of the kettles seemed an infinite distance apart...”

"Right... okay..." Bato closed his eyes and ran his hands over his tentacles. “... I'll ask Stepmom to drive around the city for a while." He said after a moment. "There's not a great chance we'll just catch sight of her randomly, but it's better than nothing... If she is still in the domes, though..."

"If she's in the domes she's good as dead." Hachi said.

"SHE CAN'T." Simon snapped, they looked like they wanted to hit something. "SHE THINKS I'M STILL FURIOUS WITH HER."

Hachi flinched and curled back a bit, hugging her legs.

"... She had Stacey with her..." Bato murmured “... There's no one else we can go to... They have both of the Sisters, and as far as we know there's no one else that even knows the domes exist..."

The group fell silent, aside from some gentle thoughtful swishing coming from the mixing bowl. Bato wished he had more words, but all he had was worry. That wasn’t helpful in the slightest.

He was shaken from his thoughts as a horn honked, and he looked up in time to see a dark green car pulling to a stop. “Stepmom!” He exclaimed, standing up and running over to the driver’s side so he could hug Tanya as soon as she stepped out of the car.

“Bato!” She said, with just as much urgency, and hugged him tightly, hand on the back of his head. "Oh thank Judd." She sobbed, kissing him on the head.

He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment while trying to fight back his own tears. "I-I'm alright Stepmom, really."

"You're alright!?" She pulled back a little and looked at him, lightly touching the nick in his ear, which made him flinch a bit. "What do you mean you're 'alright'? You're hurt! What happened? Where have you been? What... what are you wearing?"

“Um...” Bato looked down at the octoling armor he was still wearing, and averted his gaze.

"Hi Tanya." Simon muttered.

Tanya stared at Simon, then looked over at Hachi. “Hachi? Is that you? I didn’t recognize you without your hat, are you bleeding!?”

“… Am I…?” Hachi murmured as she stood up, leaning most of her weight on the wall behind her. “I hurt so much I forgot...”

Tanya stared a moment longer, then stepped back and looked sternly at Bato, arms folded. "You had better have a good explanation for this, young man. Your mother and I have been worried SICK! Where on earth have you been the last 24 hours?"

"Like I said, it's a long story." Bato said. "But there isn't a lot of time to tell it. There are some places we need to go before we go home."

"Yeah, no kidding! All three of you need to be taken to the hospital!" She said.

"No." He said firmly.

"Excuse me?"

"We can't go to the hospital, there's going to be too many questions. But we do need first-aid supplies, for both Hachi and Simon. And food. And... and we need to look around the city; Jill didn't come out with us, she might be somewhere else and we need to find her."

"Come out? Come out of where? Bato, you're not making any sense." She was looking more concerned by the second, and he wasn’t sure what to tell her.

Hachi stepped forward. "Your idiot son is right... Y-You need to listen to him. There are plenty of things to explain, but it is best explained as.. few times as possible... I also don't know when I'm going to pass out, can we please hurry?"

Tanya looked at her for a moment, then sighed. "... Alright. Get in the car, all three of you. There's a store few blocks down that will likely have some medical supplies and some snacks, I'll stop there and get some things for you."

Bato nodded, looking at Simon. "You... two." He glanced briefly at the bowl. "Should probably sit in the passenger seat; there are three seats in the back, but it's a little snug, and once we get the supplies I'll need room to help Hachi."

"Right." Simon said. "Someone open the door for me."

"This isn't going to be like the van, is it...?" Hachi asked warily as she walked up to the car and experimented with the door handle.

"No, it won't be," He reassured as he opened the passenger door. "Stepmom doesn't drive that fast, and there are seats and seat belts." He opened the back door for Hachi next, watching her slide in and yank on the seat belt. “Whoa, no, not like that, it’ll lock. Pull it slow, and then clip it into the buckle on the seat.”

“… Okay, I think I get it.” Hachi said, following Bato’s instruction.

He nodded and walked around to the other side of the car, acutely aware that his mother was watching Hachi with intense confusion.

“So what’s this belt for?” Hachi asked.

“It’s to hold you in the seat if we come to a sudden stop, so you don’t hurt yourself. That’s what the lock is for.” He said as he clipped in his seat belt.

"Oh I hope that doesn’t happen." Simon muttered, balancing the mixing bowl carefully on their legs.

“Everyone buckled?” Tanya asked.

“Yep.” Bato nodded.

Tanya cast another look of confusion at the bowl on Simon's lap, then shifted the car out of park and started off down the road. "So what sort of injuries are we talking about here? What supplies do I need to get?"

"I got shot in the arm." Simon grimaced.

She glanced at them again. "Was it... the same sort of thing Bato was shot with last week? With the strange ink? They couldn't get all the ink out of that until they Splatted him…"

"Yeah, it is. But I'm sure me splatting will happen sooner or later..." Simon muttered. "There are bigger things to worry about...."

Hachi swallowed before speaking up. "I was-.... My tentacles were... cut off."

“They were what?!” Tanya asked.

“Chopped off, removed, severed--” She said, trying to find the best synonym.

“Bato, please, let me take you all to a hospital.” Tanya said, tilting the rear-view mirror to get a look at him.

“Please trust me when I say we can’t.” Bato said. “We know first aid, we can keep this from getting worse for a day or two, and then we can go, I promise.”

“Alright, I’m holding you to that.” Tanya said as she put the car into park. “I’ll be back as fast as I can, what sort of snacks do you want?”

“Just cover the bases.” He replied. “Some of us haven’t eaten since the waffles you made.”

Tanya gave a small gasp, but nodded and got out of the car. “Love you hun.”

Bato nodded, and watched her go. She was so worried… Some movement at the side of his vision caught his attention, and he looked over to see Hachi gripping the seat. "Are you okay?"

"... I... I've hoped all my my life that... th-that... I'd..." She took a deep breath. "She stomped on my tentacles Bato... S-She stomped o-on them..."

"... I... I saw..." He said quietly, glancing away for a second. He wished he would've had the time to get to the stage before it'd happened... the glee of the crowd that the disgracing had been met with made him sick.

"I... It was her p-plan to kill m-me all along..." She said quietly. "I-I knew too much... even if... she would s-say I could live, she would kill m-me off stage, I-I know it..."

Bato's hands clenched into fists for a second. He wouldn't have been surprised, honestly... He hesitated, then rested his hand on her shoulder, though lightly enough that she could still pull away. "She won't be able to while you're up here. You'll be okay." He felt her lean into the touch, and rubbed her with his thumb. “You’ll be okay…”

"Sooo... If our squad was the Justice league I guess you'd be Aquaman, huh?" Simon murmured as they looked down at the bowl.

This caught Bato so off guard that he burst out laughing.

“What? What is it?” Hachi asked frantically.

“Oh… oh boy…” Bato said, wiping his eye. “Aquaman is a superhero.”

“Like batman?” Hachi asked.

“Yeah, same universe even.” He chuckled.

She slowly tilted her head at him, but then winced and straightened it again. “Okay, what are your rules for laughing?”

He blinked. “I’m… not sure I follow.”

Hachi took a deep breath. "We have this thing back home were if the person who said something doesn't laugh, but you do, you're... making fun of them? In a not-friendly way? It's... Something that's been... very confusing lately... I've been going back and forth on it and it's almost gotten me punched."

"Oh..." He nodded a little. "Yeah, it... can be like that sometimes up here. Generally, if the other person shows some form of amusement, like a grin or a chuckle or something like that, then it's okay; everyone has a different way of expressing amusement, and a different sense of humor, so it's certainly something to be aware of, especially around people you don't know very well." He paused, then added; "And sometimes you might go too far, or laugh at something you shouldn't have, and that's okay as long as you apologize and promise to try and be careful about it in the future; it's when you disrespect the other person's feelings and insist it's their fault for not finding something funny that it becomes a problem."

“Ah...” She said. “I’ll… try to remember.”

Just then, the driver’s door opened and Tanya climbed back into the car. “I’m back! I hope you’ll eat packaged sandwiches.” She said, holding out two plastic bags.

He took the bags from her and checked the contents. Everything he'd need was in the first bag; gauze, bandages, disinfectant and so on.  The other had some cold plastic-wrapped sandwiches, sodas, and chips. “Looks good stepmom.”

Tanya turned in her seat, looking into the backseat."Do you need any help, sweetie?"

"I've got it." He replied, passing the food bag back into the front seat. “You can eat some now Simon.” He added, then unbuckled and slid over to Hachi, pulling some supplies out of the bag. “Hachi, go ahead and get that shirt off your head.”

“Okay...” She murmured, then pulled the ink-soaked shirt off, revealing the rows of suction cups on the top of her head and her mangled tentacles. She winced, then screwed her eyes shut.

Bato heard a gasp, and did his best to ignore his Stepmom's reaction and began to get to work, trying to be quick but also to be careful. He made sure that the tentacle stubs were bleeding as little as possible before putting on gauze and bandages. It took a little longer than he would've hoped, what with the stubs twitching away from his hand every so often, but he did eventually get them all patched up to the best of his ability. "Alright, I think that'll do it." He said softly, sitting back a little. “Simon, should I patch you up?”

Simon glanced at him, then down at the bowl. "... Can I do it while sitting? I don’t want to risk spilling him."

“… Him?” Tanya asked.

“It’s on your right arm, right?” He asked. “I can treat it from the door so you don’t have to set him down.”

"... Yeah, that should work." They nodded.

"Him?!” Tanya asked again.

Bato nodded, opening his door and stepping outside. He should explain at least some of this part now; there were already so many questions as it was. "So, ah." He began, as he opened Simon's door. "You remember what I told you and Mom about Yuri? And his... condition?"

"... Yes...?" Tanya said, looking confused.

"Well, um... the same sort of thing happened to... to Toda." He continued, pointing to the bowl.

Tanya's gaze dropped to the bowl in Simon's lap, and she stared at the water inside. "... That's... that's Toda?" She asked slowly.

"Yeah." Simon said. "He's much more polite about it. Whenever you’re ready Bato."

He nodded and knelt down, applying pressure to their arm. “Sorry if this hurts.”

They sharply inhaled. “You can say that again.”

“Sorry...” He said as he continued to treat the wound, doing his best not to let any of Simon’s ink drip into Toda’s bowl. Toda’s body? It was too confusing to think about right then. “I have some good news.” He said as he began to wrap the bandage around Simon’s arm. “That bullet didn’t have time to put much ink in you, I think you’ll be okay.”

They nodded. “Thank Judd… and thank you.”

“Your welcome.” He said, going back to his seat before looking around the food bag. “Hachi, which sounds better, chicken or ham?”

“Hm…? What…?” She asked, lifting her head.

“Which sandwich would you like?” He asked again, holding out the sandwiches.

“… Um… that one…?” She said, grabbing the chicken sandwich.

He nodded and began to unwrap the other one.

“… Can Toda eat?” Simon asked. “Things just seem to pass right through him. Was there anything like that mentioned in the journal?”

"She said they pumped nutrients into the water, and she was able to absorb them that way..." He said with a small frown before biting into his sandwich.

“That’s not very helpful.” They muttered. “He might have to wait until we turn him back… speaking of which, Tanya, can you look up splatfest spawners?”

“Um, alright, why do you ask?” Tanya asked.

“If we splat Toda, he should turn back to splatfest purple.” Bato said.

“Ah… on it.” She said.

“… Bato, do you have something I can put over my tentacles…?” Hachi asked.

“Um…  hold on.” He said, turning in his seat to look into the trunk. “… I see a beanie, I just… have to...” He stood up and swung his arm around until he was able to grab it. “Okay, got it… Try this on.” He said, passing it to Hachi.

“Okay...” She said, then yawned, slipping the knit fabric onto her head. Within seconds, the thread’s color changed to match her deep purple ink, but at least now nobody could see her suction cups. “A… little tight… But it’ll do.”

“Alright, glad I could help.” He said, getting back to his sandwich.

“Sorry Toda, I’m getting crumbs on you. In you?” Simon asked.

“Mmph, I had that same word problem.” Bato grunted.

The water bubbled, and Simon huffed. “Glad to see you think it’s funny.”

"So after that spawner, where do we go?" Tanya asked. "Should I get you all home? To the police?"

"Not the police." Bato said firmly. "After that we need to look around for Jill.”

“Where exactly?" She asked, frowning.

"Everywhere; the ports, the plaza, near the arenas. We don't know exactly where she is, so we need to look everywhere we can." He said. “Those are some of the places it sounds like there are kettles.”

"Kettles?" She asked, "As in, the thing you make tea in? What does that have to do with Jill? What on earth happened to you all!?"

Simon sighed. "It's very complicated."

"It... would be best if we waited until you and Mom can both listen." Bato said slowly. "So we don't have to explain everything twice. But we will explain, I promise."

Tanya didn't look like she was wholly satisfied with that answer, but all she did was sigh and start the car. “Alright, everyone make sure you’re buckled, there’s a splatfest spawner not far away.”

“It feels so weird eating again already…” Hachi murmured. “You squidlings and your strange eating habits...”

Bato huffed as he buckled in. “Right back at you, I wouldn’t have dreamed of eating crickets.”

Simon spluttered. “Crickets?”

“Squidlings?” Tanya murmured.

“Jokes on you, this would be better with crickets...” Hachi huffed.

Bato couldn't help chuckling a little, "I can't say that I agree."

"... Bato, did she make you eat bugs?" Simon asked slowly, sounding grossed out.

"I'm not sure if I'd say she 'made me', but yes." Bato said, glancing at Hachi briefly. "It... wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be, to be honest. But it's not something I'd eat every day, if I had the choice."

"Just when I thought that place wouldn't get any weirder...." They muttered.

"You're the weird ones!" Hachi said between bites.

"What place?" Tanya demanded.

"... Hachi's... house." Simon said slowly.

She glanced at them briefly. "... And where is Hachi's house...?" She asked, also slowly.

"Can we not talk about my home right now?" Hachi asked. " I did almost just get publicly executed."

"Publicly WHAT?" Tanya demanded.

Bato took a deep breath and rubbed his forehead. "Stepmom, I said we would explain when we got back..."

"Bato, none of us have heard from any of you for 24 hours, there were these... terrorist attacks? During Splatfest, and you finally show up and you're not only hurt but you refuse to say anything? I think you can see why I'm more than a little upset and scared right now!" Tanya replied testily, gripping the steering wheel.

"FINE!" Hachi snapped, unbuckling the seat belt and moving forward to grip Tanya's seat, causing the car to swerve. "You want to know what's going on!? I'm an octoling! An OCTARIAN! And my kind wants to kill everybody up here, since you forced us to run underground MC knows how long ago! And I'M not going to let them!"

"A... an Octoling?" Tanya asked, gripping the steering wheel tighter.

"They're like Inklings, but they're Octopuses instead of Squids." Bato explained. "Hachi, please sit down.”

"I know what they are." Tanya replied. "I almost majored in History when I was in College, remember? Or have I never told you that? Anyway, I just thought... I thought they'd all died out a long time ago."

Hachi huffed and sat back down, fumbling with her seat belt. "Well obviously not, since I AM ONE."

"Obviously," Tanya muttered. "So, wait, the attacks yesterday were done by Octolings too, then? And the one at the Sundae shop last week?"

"Yeah, both of those were Octoling attacks." Simon said. "And... Toda didn't get run over at port mackerel. That was also Octolings. They've been hunting us pretty much all week."

Tanya glanced briefly at the bowl, then back out at the road. "But... why you four?"

"At first it was because we had Hachi." Bato said slowly. "She was our... prisoner, basically. Then it was... it was because of our involvement with Yuri. It turns out that they were involved in that as well, it was their technology that made him like that to begin with."

"Is that enough answers for now!?" Hachi snapped.

Tanya took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "... For now."

"Good." Hachi muttered.

[“Take a left turn on Brain Coral Road”] The phone blared. [“Your destination will be on the right.”]

“Alright… looks like we’re about here...” Tanya said, turning and parallel parking in front of a small, open park. Despite the very light weather, nobody was out today. A normally bustling and loud park, now dead quiet, in a mostly quiet city.

Bato unbuckled his seat belt. "You need me to hold Toda so you can get out?" He asked Simon.

"Yeah." They replied simply.

Bato nodded, stepping out of his door, then opening up the passenger door for them, carefully taking the bowl from them.

".... Should I be getting out too..?" Hachi slowly asked.

"No, you don't have to." He reassured. “You should probably just stay here and rest.”

Hachi nodded a little and shrunk back in her seat, closing her eyes.

Bato frowned a little at her for a second, then slowly turned and started to walk towards the spawner, Simon on his heels. He gave one more quick look around, then set down the bowl. “Alright, the coast is clear.”

There was a moment’s hesitation, then the water rippled and Toda jumped out of the bowl, resuming a humanoid shape, but with a frown placed firmly on his face.

Bato reached back and grabbed his brush, holding it with both hands. "You ready?" He asked.

Toda’s gaze dropped, and it looked as though his brow furrowed. "... If Jill and Stacey are still down there, someone's going to have to go get them..."

“What?” He asked, lowering the tip of his brush.

"I... I was thinking... what if I went back like this?" He continued, lifting his head again to meet his gaze.

“Alone!? Toda that’s--”

"You can't go back." Toda cut him off. "After what happened in the stadium, you'll be recognized no matter how good your disguise is." He turned toward Simon. "And you're hurt, you have no weapon, and you might be recognized too. The only ones that will recognize me like this is Orvokki and maybe Orion."

"Toda, given a few days, all the splatfest spawners will be gone! What if by the time you come back... you can't turn back!?" They replied in an increasingly worried tone.

"... We don't know anyone else that can help us with this, and even if they call in the army or something it might be too late." Toda replied. "If they're still down there then someone has to go back, and soon! And... well, Orvokki's apparently been at it for quite a while, and Yuri said he'd been like this for about a week before we met him... I can figure something out."

"I don't want to lose you too!" They shouted. “We have to stick together!”

Toda's body rippled a little bit, his expression pained, "S-Simon, what other choice do we have?"

“Toda, if you go back down there, you could die!” Bato exclaimed. “Remember how much you shrank after using the kettles!? They’re going to be on high alert, if they see you, you’re dead!”

"And if either of you go back then you will!" Toda's hands clenched into fists, his rippling getting worse.

“Toda, listen to me!” Simon said. “It means so much that you’d risk everything for Jill but… You’re risking everything for Jill! She’d… She’d hate that…”

“… I bet she’d hate being dead more...” Toda muttered.

“It’s not like she’s helpless!” They snapped.

“No, she’s not, but she’s probably lost, and alone, in a world we don’t understand! Maybe she’s stuck, I can go and get her out!” He said. “I can go down and get her back!”

Just then, Bato heard a low hum, and he lifted his head. What was that…? It was hard to hear between Simon and Toda bickering, but it was steadily growing louder… and louder. “Guys, quiet down.”

“What, are you siding with him now!?” Simon asked. “It’s a suicide mission!”

“Shhh!” He hushed. “I think something’s coming, Toda, hide!”

Toda opened his mouth to speak, but stopped when the humming grew into a roar, and he quickly transformed and hopped back into the bowl.

As he did, the source of the roar came into sight. A cluster of motorcycles tore down the street around the park, and the one at the front made a sudden sharp turn and caused the group to begin circling the block.

“What’s going on?” Simon asked, stepping protectively in front of Toda’s bowl.

“I don’t know.” Bato said, holding his brush at the ready as the bikers deftly dodged some blockades meant to prevent cars from crashing into the park, and tore down the path toward them. He backed up to the spawner, looking around worriedly as the group of motorcycles began to drive around them, circle after circle until finally the lead motorcycle, which had handle bars shaped like the claws of a mantis shrimp, and one such decal on the side, skidded to a stop directly in front of them.

The driver pulled off her helmet, letting her short tentacles hang down. “This them?” She asked, glancing back at a smaller figure who was clinging to her hip for dear life. She was wearing a helmet, just like the driver’s, and a set of… octoling armor!?

“Simon!” The passenger exclaimed, pulling off her helmet and then scrambling off the motorcycle.

“Jill!?!” Simon yelped, flabbergasted as Jill ran up and gave them a hug.

“You’re okay!” She said. “I was so worried, I had no idea what had happened, I was going to go home to grab a gun and I was going to come back down and find you!”

Bato shook his head in disbelief. “I can’t believe it… Who are these people…?”

She glanced up quickly. “Oh these guys? They’re the mantis crew! They’re the gang I fight with! This is Meg, she’s an amazing battler!” She said in a rush, pointing at the lead driver. “And over there is Harold ‘The Crusher’, and the goblin shark there is Yolt, and that’s Darrick, and man, they’re so cool! They were holding a fight in the neighborhood and postponed it to take me home!”

“Nice to finally meet you.” Meg said, taking off a glove and extending her hand toward Simon. “Don’t worry, Roderick’s no longer affiliated with us.”

Simon paused, then carefully shook her hand. “… Uh… nice to meet you too.. I guess.”

“And this is Bato!” Jill continued, reaching over and patting his shoulder. “Where’s… Where’s Toda?”

“Um...” He said awkwardly. “He’s… alright, don’t worry.

“DON’T YOU HURT THEM!”

Bato looked up sharply at the sound, and saw his stepmom punching Yolt in the face. “Whoa! Stepmom!” He yelped, running over to her. “It’s okay! These are Jill’s friends!”

Tanya froze, slowly pulling her fist away from Yolt’s face. “… Sorry about that...”

The goblin shark rubbed her snout. “… Fuck lady, you have a good punch.”

“Sorry...” She repeated, taking a step back.

“This is my mom.” Bato said awkwardly.

“Hm… good Mom.” Meg said, revving her bike. “Alright crew, let’s get going!” The motorcycles all sprang to life, one after the other and began to spiral out of the park. “Bye Jiiiiillll!”

“Byyyyyye!” Jill called back, waving both of her arms.

“… You do still have Stacey, right?” Simon asked.

“What? Oh, yeah, of course!” Jill said, pulling the containment tank off her hip. “Um… You doing okay?” She asked the orange squid within.

Bato leaned over and peered at Stacey, who seemed… shaken, but ‘alright’. “We should get her someplace she can sleep.”

“She can sleep on the couch at our house!” Jill said quickly. “It’s big and soft, and…. She can help explain to dad why we were gone.”

Bato nodded and looked down at the bowl. “Okay, they’re gone, are you ready to get splatted now?"

The water bubbled, then Toda came up out of the bowl. “Yeah… Sorry about that.”

“Toda!” Jill exclaimed. “You’re okay!”

“So are you!” Toda grinned.

“Hold on, lets get him back to normal so you can hug him.” Bato murmured, then pressed the sub button on his tank to place a mine on the ground. “Alright bud, go on.”

Toda looked at it, then took a deep 'breath' and gave a joking salute. “For honor!” He said before stepping onto the mine, causing it to explode into a gush of ink.

The few seconds it took for the spawner to work seemed like a small eternity, but sure enough, the spawner started to spin rapidly, and Toda popped right out. He stumbled and dropped to his knees, coughing up a small glob of water before gasping painfully for air.

"You alright, Bud?" Bato asked, kneeling down to give him a hand.

"... Y-yeah." Toda managed after a moment, grabbing onto his hand and getting to his feet just in time to get a hug from Jill.

“I’m so happy we’re alive! I can’t believe there was a doubt there for a while!” Jill exclaimed.

“Well, it’s far from over.” Simon said. “We have to get home… we need to prepare for whatever’s coming next.”

“Agreed...” Bato murmured. “Hey stepmom, think you can swing by the Grace house before we go home?”

Tanya nodded, wiping a tear from her eye. “Of course.” She said, turning to look back at the car. “It’ll just be a tight fit to get all of you into the back seat.”

“Friend Tetris!” Jill exclaimed, running toward the car. “Last one in’s gotta lay on everyone else’s lap!”

“You make that sound like that’s a bad thing!” Simon said as they ran after her.

Bato chuckled and ran after them, reciting in his head over and over again what he was going to tell his moms. It might still be a long night.

Bato, Toda, and Tanya are Knitter’s characters

Simon, Jill, Hachi, Orvokki, Orion, Ophelia, Yuri, Stacey, and the Mantis Crew are Shuckle’s characters.

Splatoon belongs to Nintendo.

Please consider liking or reblogging if you enjoyed, it’s nice to know we’re doing things right.

Shuckle has a patreon if you would like to provide additional support!

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#Splatoon #Inkling #Better Eight Than never #Octoling #SS Simon #SS Jill #SS Toda #SS Bato #Octo Hachi #BS Stacey