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Chapter Text

I've finally done it. After all of my training, my hours spent honing my craft, mastering the Tenta Brella and Hydra Splatling, I've finally reached X Rank.

It's still unbelievable to me that I, an octoling, that just a few years after hearing the calamari inkantation, was able to learn their language, integrate into their culture, and get a suit that kept my entire body hidden, so I have no fear of being discovered.

Admittedly, I'm still afraid of being discovered. My disguise isn't perfect, and I don't want to join any set-up tournaments, mainly because A. I don't have any friends really, and B. I've seen that they can get very.. physical to say the least, some people are brutal in them. If I were to enter one, I would constantly run the risk of my helmet being knocked off.

But still, X rank is a big accomplishment for me, as the newest person to hit this milestone, one that most people never do, I've already gotten requests to be interviewed by multiple news stations. I'm turning them all down though, it's nothing against them, but I have a feeling all of them are going to ask me to take my helmet off, and I don't have a good enough excuse as to why I can't, and I don't think "freak accident" is going to cut it.

I decided to queue into just one X rank match, Specifically Inkblot Art Academy on clam blitz. And I end up getting a match much faster then I expected, as Clam Blitz is hated by most people. I look around at my teammates, As I see a Nautilus 47, an E-Liter 3K and a Kensa Glooga Dualies, while I'm using the Tenta Brella, an all around solid team for Clam Blitz.

As soon as the round starts, I Rush forwards with the Nautilus, providing him cover while me and him swim behind my brella to push forwards fast. On their team I see an aerospray mg, splattershot pro, E-Liter 4k and Dark Tetra Dualies. Two of them using a very... odd choice of weaponry for Clam blitz, while the Dark Tetra Dualies and the E-Liter 4k being very formidable weaponry in Clam Blitz.
Me and the Nautilus collect 5 clams each in no time, while our E-Liter 3k has Set up in the middle of the map, giving them a good vantage point. Our Glooga Dualies are nowhere to bee seen, most likely in their side of the map, stealing clams and splatting squids.

Speaking of the glooga dualies, it seems like has gotten a Super Clam, and he's surprisingly still near our spawn. "Sorry, but I'm gonna go escort the Glooga Dualies." I say to the Nautilus, before heading over to do just that, helping him get near the basket unharmed, before he throws the super clam, blasting it open. Soon, our entire team is at the basket, trying to keep it open for as long as possible, giving the glooga dualies time to get more. I'm throwing my clams one by one, the E-Liter Spawn camping them, The nautilus doing the same, it seems like we've won this already, because the glooga dualies already have another super clam.

He wastes no time in getting over here, as I've ran out of clams, and we're scarily close to losing the basket, and just a second before it closes, he throws the super clam in, Leaving us with only 5 clams left, the Nautilus quickly comes to the basket, and puts his in, securing us the victory.

"Well, that was pretty easy, huh?" I say to my teammates back in Deca Tower.

"Yeah, they had 2 weapons with horrible kits, the E-Liter could barely aim, and I never even encountered the Dark Tetra." Replies the Glooga Dualies, clearly annoyed that he went up against such a bad team.

"They didn't even put up a challenge, how did they even get into X Rank?" Says the E-liter 3K, also annoyed. The Nautilus doesn't say anything, but he has a Triumphant look in his face.

After the Anti-Climactic first match of X rank, I decided to head home, Slowly walking through inkopolis, constantly checking to see if anyone is following me, which luckily there aren't. Soon I arrive at the outskirts of the city, where my home is. As I open the creaky door, I walk into the living room, before taking off my suit and helmet. As I go to my bedroom, I start to congratulate myself on how far I've come. From first escaping after hearing that heavenly melody, with nothing but my octoshot, I set off into the unknown, eager to live a life that's more then following orders, rather then staying in octo valley forever.

And now, I'm here, X rank, with little worry to anyone figuring out I'm an octoling, I'm finally living my dream. But I should really get to bed, I'm pretty tired, and it's late anyways. Tomorrow, I can play a better mode then Clam Blitz. As I drift into sleep, all I hope for is good dreams...

It's a normal day, as I'm in Deca Tower, getting ready to start a match of Splat Zones Sturgeon Shipyard, I can't help but hear a bit more of a... technological kind of theme in the music, but I shrug it off, blaming it on the speakers getting a bit old.

As we start the match, I see that my team Has a roller, an aerospray mg and Dark tetra dualies, with me using the hydra splatling, due to having plenty of cover. As we get the indicator to start, I hear the music slowly change, from the normally upbeat and fast paced music of the inklings, It starts to slow down, become more... mechanical. Until, when we're at the one minute mark, instead of playing Now or Never, like they always do... It starts playing some of Octavio's music. Suddenly, everyone else disappears. People spectating? Gone. My enemies? Gone. My Teammates? Gone. All that's left is me, and his music. His horrible, horrible music, worming its way through my mind, telling me to follow his command, I curl up into the fetal position, just wanting it all to end, I can't stand it I can't stand it I can't I can't I can't


"GAH!" huff, huff "That... my nightmares have never been THIS bad." I say, before looking over to my side. "Geez, 2:30?" I say, in shock. "I'll get something to drink before I go to bed, I guess." I say, while getting out of bed. Soon I'm in the kitchen, with a handful of kelp chips in one hand, a cup of water in the other. A few minutes later, I've eaten the kelp chips, and I've drunk the entire cup of water. "Best get back to bed, Ranked waits for nobody." I say, before doing just that, Climbing back into bed and closing my eyes, lulling off into a dreamless sleep

Chapter Text

Yawn "Man, X Rank can get pretty boring when the only mode available to play is clam blitz, huh?" I say out loud, while sitting in Deca Tower, Seeing nobody even walk towards the ranked area. "Might as well play some turf war, Tenta Brella can paint good, and I'm never making the mistake of using Hydra with random people again." I say, before starting to head over there.

"H-Hey Mister" I hear, before looking around myself, the voice clearly coming from right next to me. "I-I'm down here sir." The voice, which I can now tell is feminine says, before I now look down, seeing a young female Inkling, Holding a shirt out in front of her. "C-Can you p-please sign my shirt?" She says, clearly embarrassed about this whole ordeal.

"Sorry kiddo, but I can't, don't really do autographs, and I don't think someone as young as you should be trying to get into turf war." I say to her, before walking away, hopefully getting 1 less person, Inkling or not, Into Turf Wars.

"B-But Sir, I'm your biggest fan!" I hear her say, while running up behind me.

"Listen, I said I'm not going to sign it, can you please leave me alone?" I say to her. I didn't know X Rank Would give me people obsessed over me, but here we are.

"F-Fine, but I'm not gonna be happy about it." She says back to me, before turning around and walking outside of Deca Tower.

"Now that that's over with, I can finally play some Turf War." I say out loud, before walking to the Turf war section, and Choosing Kelp Dome.

Hopping into the match, I see 3 aerosprays... "Are you all trying to lose?" I say in Genuine Bewilderment.

"No, It's just this is the only weapon we know how to play." One of them responds back.

"Well fine, it wont be easy, but I can play an assassin while you 3 turf." I say to them.

Just before the round starts, we all give each other a "BOOYAH!," Before running off into the fray, They all take the ground route, while I head up to the top, using the grated platforms. As I head towards the center platform, I'm making sure to turf as much ink as possible, as Bubble Blower can really change the tides of a battle. Soon, I Encounter a lone splattershot on the center platform. I sigh, and tell him "Nothing personal, Kid." Before blasting him point blank, immediately splatting him.

After this, I notice an E-Liter 4k with his sights right on me! I quickly rush towards him, putting up my shield whenever I suspect him to shoot at me. My strategy works, and soon I'm right in front of him. "Just as I said to the splattershot, it's nothing personal, kid." I say, before firing, splatting him instantly.

I look down and see my 3 teammates turfing their side of the map. "Geez, was I too harsh on them?" I say, before hopping down and running with them, giving them a quick "BOOYAH!," Which they promptly return. At this point we're just spawn camping them, as soon as someone spawns their ink armor is immediately broken by an aerospray, and then I just shoot them, splatting them instantly. Soon, the match is over, with an absolute landslide for us, with 82% to just their measly 8%.

Back in the post game lobby, I walk over to my teammates. "Well, that was easy, I didn't even see 2 of their team members." I tell them, Laughing afterwards.

"heh, Yeah, they were some pretty big pushovers, weren't they." Said the only aerospray that talked during the match.

"Well, this match was fun, but I think I'm gonna go enter ranked, just hope its changed off of Clam Blitz. Anyways, bye." I tell them, before heading off to the ranked section.

And when I get there, it's not clam blitz, but Tower Control. "Nice, its finally not Clam Blitz" I say, before choosing The Reef to play on. It's a map that'll make tower control last longer then normal, I don't want a stomp like what happened yesterday with clam blitz.

As we wait to be released into the map, I take a look at my teammates. One of my teammates is using the undercover brella, another is using the splattershot and the third one is using the Light Tetra Dualies, While I'm using the Custom Hydra Splatling, good coverage for the tower via ink mines, good defense so I can charge out of sight, and giving my teammates a view of everyone is strong.

As the round starts, the Dualies immediately rush towards the tower, while me, the brella and the splattershot are lagging behind, due to having heavier weapons and worse mobility. When we get there, the dualies are already shooting down a few of the enemies, while I get on the tower and start placing ink mines. The Light tetra dualies have already splatted the enemies custom splattershot jr. and their own Custom Hydra, while their Splattershot pro and Splatterscope are nowhere to be seen. As I start charging, I turn around and see their splattershot pro coming right for the tower, swimming in squid form. I immediately turn around and start firing at him, splatting him before he knew what hit him.

I go into my octo form quickly, to stop the firing and to regain ink, before turning around, already having reached checkpoint 2. Soon, the Splatterscope manages to take down the Light Tetra Dualies, So the rest of us go on high alert, especially because we just got past checkpoint 3, and we're slowly moving up, making us sitting ducks for them. Soon I see the Custom Splattershot Jr. and Splattershot Pro rushing towards the tower, so i shoot them down, Don't know why they aren't trying to flank, but- And I've been splatted. That Splatterscope is really good, a Formidable enemy. Luckily, the undercover brella and Splattershot were able to ride the tower to the end.

In the post game lobby, I take a good look at the Splatterscope, and it's actually the same guy who was using the Kensa Glooga Dualies yesterday. "Hey man, that was a good game, and you were really good." I say while walking up to him.

"Oh, hey, aren't you the Tenta brella from yesterday?" He responds, looking up from his splatterscope.

"Yeah, I am. Hey, do you want to be friends? I know we can't do ranked together, but Turf War might be fun." I respond, Holding out a hand.

"Sorry, but I'll pass. I don't usually team up with anyone, and I work better alone." He responds.

"Well, can I at least have your name? Mine is Derek, By the way." I respond, while pulling my hand back.

"Sure, mine is Tyler." he responds.

"Well, I might see ya later, bye Tyler." I respond, before walking out of Deca Tower.

"Geez, Today has been a long day, had a really intense match, Figured out I have an obsessed fan, and I made a new.. acquaintance? He said he didn't want to be my friend, but there's no bad blood, so I guess acquaintance would work." I say out loud, before I start heading home, Tired from all the events of today. However, on my way back, I notice that girl from earlier today is following me, so I take a wrong turn into an alleyway, just to see if she was. Lo and behold, she was, as she turned into the alleyway a few seconds later.

Before she tries to slink out of sight, I grab her by the back of her shirt. "Why are you following me? I told you, I'm not giving you an autograph, and I know how to get a restraining order." I say to her, making sure to voice my anger.

"U-Uh I uh- I just really want your autograph?" She says, with a really forced smile.

"Did someone send you to follow me?" I ask her, still not letting go.

"M-Maybe?" She says, with a defeated look in her eyes.

"Look, just tell whoever hired you that the deal is off, I don't wanna have to harm a kid." I say, while dropping her to the ground.

"O-Ok, B-Bye." She says, before scurrying off to who knows where.

"Finally, now that she's out of my tentacles, I can finally go home." I say, before getting back into the street, and continuing my stroll home.

When I actually do get home, I quickly unlock the front door and rush in, closing it and locking it. I make sure all the windows are closed, and then close all the blinds. "Now that everything's closed, I can take this off." I say, before slowly taking off my suit, letting my afro bounce up, and my arms and legs to breathe. As I walk through the house, I pass through the kitchen to grab a bag of Sea Salted kelp chips, one of my favorite snacks.

After that I go to the living room, turning on the tv before hopping onto the couch, and turning on my gaming console, the Splatendo Flip. My favorite game, SquidBeatz 2 already put in. "Man, it's been a couple days since I've played, let's hope I haven't gotten TOO rusty." I say, before picking up my controller, and putting down my dance pad in front of me. "Hmm, what to play, play to play..." I say, while scrolling through all the songs. "Spicy Calamari Inkantation seems good, it IS a remix of what saved me from that... Nightmare I used to live." I say, before choosing the song, and getting ready to dance. 2 Minutes later, I got only fresh, a full combo, and a perfect score. "Well, this IS the song I used to play every time until I perfected it, so I guess it makes sense, but maybe I should try Fly Octo Fly this time?" I say, before scrolling over to that song, and selecting it. 3 minutes later and I've gotten a perfect score, my first time getting it on this song as well. "Man, I'm getting tired already, must've spent a while walking, huh." I say, before finishing my Kelp Chips, Turning off my tv and console, putting away my dance pad, and turning off the lights. As I walk into my bedroom, I immediately hop into bed, get under covers, and fall asleep, Hoping for a dreamless night.

clank, clank "Hey! Get to work! No slacking off on the job, You have a project to build!" The General shouts at me.

"Sir yes Sir!" I quickly respond, before getting back to what we were building. "Cant even rest for a minute..." I mumble under my breath, Before walking back over to the machine we were building. Its a giant mech suit, bigger then the Octobot King, and It would require 5 Octolings just to operate it. Its right arm has a pressurized water canon, while its left arm has a hand that can turn into a splat bomb launcher. It has a giant ink tank on the back, holding 100x the ink of a normal ink container, although it's divided in half by metal, the top half holding water, the bottom half holding ink. "When this is finally finished, the Inklings wont stand a chance." I say, Proud of my, and all of the other engineers, accomplishments.

"They really wont, we'll be invincible." Another engineer says to the left of me.

"Hey guys, I'm going to use the bathroom, I'll be back in a few minutes." I say, before going to do just that. As soon as I open the door and step inside, I realize what exactly is going on. "This... This is a lucid nightmare, Octavio's music playing everywhere, this is even the last project I was working on, before the Inkling reached Octavio, and they had their fight. That's... How I broke free" I say out loud, knowing nobody can hear me. "I should probably wake up, Octavio's music, along with everything else is just... too much for me right now." I say, while closing my eyes shut, ending the nightmare before it gets too bad. "Huh, its 1:15 AM, best get back to sleep. My nightmares are slowly getting better, so that's a good sign." As I'm saying that, I'm already laying back down, getting ready to go back to sleep, wishing for a dreamless rest.

Chapter Text

huff, huff "Maybe, huff maybe I shouldn't of sprinted all the way here, huh?" I say, while panting heavily, as I had ran the entire distance from my home to Deca tower, as I woke up late. "Let me just, huff let me check ranked." I say, before going up to the ranked section of Deca tower. "R-Rainmaker, huh?" I say, before choosing blackbelly skatepark, even though I know nothing about it.

As I look around at my teammates, I can't help but facepalm immediately. "Seriously? An aerospray?" I say, while looking right at him, 2 custom splattershot juniors are standing to the right of him, seemingly not paying attention to us. "That is quite literally one of the worst weapons you could've chosen for this." I tell him, with a look of disappointment in my eyes.

"C'mon, aerospray can help, you just wait, I'm gonna splat so many enemies this round, you're gonna regret those words." He says, with a cocky look in his face.

"Look, I'm just gonna let you know, when we lose, it'll be on you." I tell him, before the round starts, all of us rushing forwards to the rainmaker.

As I get there, the aerospray is nowhere to be seen, while the custom splattershot juniors are playing defense, on each side of the map, while i'm at the rainmaker, with 2 of the enemies at the rainmaker, specifically their splattershot and hydra splatling. As the splattershot shoots at the bubble, I'm successfully able to keep it at bay, but when the hydra fires, I get overpowered, soon I hear both custom splattershot juniors get splatted, and I start to get a bit worried. Soon, I see the enemies inkbrush and .96 Gal deco show up, popping the rainmaker even when I shoot my brella at it to try and stall them out. As soon as it pops, I can see the aerospray show up, with his special ready.

"Oh, so NOW you finally show up, with a useless special, just like your useless weapon." I tell him, making sure to have a hostile tone of voice.

"You watch and learn, punk. I'll easily take down their entire team, you just watch." He says confidently, before activate curling bomb launcher and running into the fray. Not even 2 seconds later, he's been splatted by the hydra splatling.

"Knew that was going to happen." I say, before I start to shoot at the rainmaker, even though nobody has gone for it, hoping to hit someone who tries to go for it. Surprisingly this strategy actually works, and I manage to splat their splattershot, but soon enough I have to recharge my ink, and as soon as I go into octo form, one of them picks it up, just before the .96 gal splats me, sending me back to the kettle. Lo and behold, the aerospray is painting near our spawn, still being useless.

"You know, we might have a chance at winning if you were to focus on getting the rainmaker instead of your horrible special." I tell him, before walking towards the middle.

"Why don't you have anything against the custom splattershot juniors? It's literally a beginner weapon." He responds in a hostile tone.

"Because the junior is underrated, it has good stats, and can play an important role in ranked, unlike you." I respond to him, before noticing that the rainmaker is almost at our goal. "Oh carp!" I yell put, before rushing over there, barely managing to splat the rainmaker in time, not even 2 steps away from the goal. Soon, the rest of the team arrives, and we're able to take out the remaining 3 enemies. "Ok, now aerospray, can you please take the rainmaker?" I ask the aerospray, in a calm, collected tone.

"First of all, it's Brian, and second of all, no." He says, in a snarky, spoiled kind of tone.

"But why?" I ask him. "What do you gain from not helping the team? You're the best weapon for the job, I can escort while the juniors defend from the sky." I continue, in genuine bewilderment.

"Eh, I just don't wanna." Brian says, completely relaxed.

"So you want us to lose? Got it." I respond, before going over to the rainmaker myself, picking it up, and walking forwards, the splattershot juniors to my left and right, while Brian just stands there, doing nothing. Soon enough, we're at the middle of the arena, but.. there's only 30 seconds left before the round ends. "Should've expected this, bad teammates drag out matches like this all the time, just didn't expect to find someone like this in X rank." I say out loud, before continuing my trek onwards, even though I know I've already lost.

25 seconds later, and the round is over. an astonishing 99 points to our measly 25, it's easily their victory. "Told you it'd be on you, your incompetence and reluctance to play made us lose, Brian." I tell Brian, before staring directly at him in Deca tower after the match. "I'm mad, and disappointed in you. Mad that you had the audacity to do this, and disappointed you would even do this" I continue, making sure he can really hear what I'm saying. "The gist of what I'm saying is, You caused us to fail, Brian." I end off, putting it as bluntly as I can.

"W-well why wasn't it y-you! Why wasn't it you who cost us to lose!" He shakily retorts.

"Do you want me to list off the things you did- or rather, last thereof, during this match?" I ask him, still talking bluntly.

"No...." He mumbles, while turning away, a look of shame on his face.

"Good. I hope we never meet again, Brian, you were one of the most incompetent, and annoying teammates I've had the displeasure of dealing with. " I say, before turning around and walking out of Deca tower, as I'm just done for today.

As I'm walking home, I see my "biggest fan" following me still, so I look directly at them next time a turn a corner, and they leave me alone for the afternoon. When I arrive at my home, I quickly rush inside, and peek out all the windows before removing my suit. "Geez, today has been... frustrating, to say the least. I'll just have a light dinner and head to bed." I say, before pulling a half-eaten crab sandwich from the fridge, putting it the microwave for 30 seconds, and letting it cook. After it's done, I take it out, let it cool down for a few seconds, before eating it quickly.

As I toss and turn in bed, I already know I'm going to have another nightmare, but I don't like thinking about that, so instead I think of some of my best games in the past, before lulling off into my own personal hell... "Hey, hey Derek, get up." I hear someone say.

"Huh? what.. what is it?" I groggily reply.

"We only have 15 minutes of break, you said you wanted to tell me something, but instead you're sleeping!" They respond, but with no hostility in their voice.

"Oh, right. Sorry Kevin, I forgot." I reply.

"It's okay, Derek." Kevin replies.

"So, I was thinking.. Why is it that only females get to become the elites? What do they have, that we don't." I tell Kevin, genuinely curious.

"I don't know man, I really don't know, but all we can do is try our hardest to make a difference in the world." Kevin responds, trying to lift up my spirits.

"But we're doomed to be... lesser, just because of a few changes in our genes. Don't you think that's a bit unfair?" I respond, getting into a worse and worse mood as time goes on.

"Of course it's unfair, life hardly ever is, but you know what? The elites are our frontline defense, sure. But they're the first ones to get splatted, as well. We can have the same skill as an elite, yet sent back here, with no threat to out health." Kevin responds, lifting my mood a little bit.

"Yeah, yeah. You're right, dude. We're safer back here, and we can reach their skill level. Thanks for getting me out of that bout of sadness, bro." I tell Kevin, genuinely thankful.

"Any time, dude." He responds, ending our conversation.

As I wake up, I don't cry, or contemplate my existence, I just smile a tiny bit. It's a somber one. "I miss you Kevin. I wish you had gotten to escape with me." I quietly say, before going back to bed.

Chapter Text

"Y'know, doing this every day can get boring once in a while, even if the thrill of battle makes everything intense, it's just the same thing, over and over." I mumble under my breath, while walking to Deca Tower. "And I don't wanna do salmon run, we shouldn't be stealing what equates to their babies." I continue mumbling to myself, before making it to Deca tower, and checking out the ranked modes. "Huh, splat zones, don't play it all that much, but hey, why not?" I say, before choosing MakoMart, as it's a solid choice with a zone right in the middle.

As me and my teammates get teleported in, I look around and see a splattershot pro, the Zink mini splatling, and a carbon roller. "So, you all came prepared to turf, huh?" I ask them, pleasantly surprised this combination could work.

"Yeah, I'm not certain everyone here was thinking this, none of us are friends, but I'm pretty sure we were all thinking that we would have at least 1 damage, and we did." The Zink mini splatling says.

"Well then, let's go win this." I say, before the round starts, immediately rushing behind the others, who start making multiple trails to the middle. As we reach the middle, the enemy team has a dark tetra dualies, a heavy splatling, a splattershot jr. and "Brian...." I say, with anger in my voice, hands shaking a bit.

"Brian? Who's Brian?" The Zink mini splatling asks me.

"Just someone who refused to pick up the rainmaker with the very same weapon he's using now, the aerospray MG, don't even know why he uses it." I respond, still very much mad i have to fight him.

"Ouch, what else did he do to make you hate him this much?" The Zink mini splatling continues.

"Well, he didn't pick it up twice, and the first time, he ran into a group with curling bomb launcher, instead of picking up the rainmaker when I was covering him." I continue, my rage building as I talk more about him.

"Well, he seems like a horrible teammate, good thing we're against him." The Zink responds.

"Yeah, good thing, now I can splat him as much as I want." I respond, getting a murderous glint in my eyes.

"Alright, well, you do you, let's go get that Splat zone." The Zinc responds, before we all rush in. I immediately go for high ground, charging my splatling, before blasting it all at the enemies, but making sure to splat Brian first, then their dark tetra dualies, as they're a threat to me. Soon, my team has the point, and we're starting to spawn camp a little, as we have the power to. As I head back to the middle, I notice Brian trying to head to the middle. "Not on my watch, you wont." I say under my breath, before going back and shooting him down before he can get to the Splat zone. After I splat him, I head back to my teammates. "Hey guys, how's the spawn camping going?" I ask them, a smile on my face. "After all, we only have 20 points left." I continue, while starting to charge up my hydra splatling.

"It's going good. They can't seem to leave spawn, except Brian that one time, but it seems you got him." The Zinc mini splatling responds.

"Yeah, he's pretty obvious once you know how to see him." I respond, just before the game ends.

After the round ends, I walk up to the zinc mini splatling, not before gloating to Brian a bit. "So, do ya wanna be friends, you're pretty good, and we make a nice team." I ask him, while extending my hand out.

"Sure, the names Jeremiah by the way, what's yours?" He responds, while taking my hand and standing up.

"Mine is Derek, it's been fun playing, but I think 10 games is enough for one day." I respond to Jeremiah.

"Well then, I'll see you around." Jeremiah says, before I walk out Deca Tower, and start heading home. When I look behind myself to see if anyone is following me, I don't see anyone. "Phew, that kid isn't following me anymore, I don't wanna hurt them." I say, before continuing my stroll home. Soon I reach an alleyway I pass through, but that's when I hear someone running up behind me, but before I can turn around, I get punched in the head. "Gah!" I scream in pain, before feeling my head and realizing... my helmet isn't there. "You don't know what you've done... do you?" I say while looking at my cracked helmet, with tears starting to form in my eyes.

"What... what ARE you?" I hear a feminine voice behind me, instantly recognizing it as HER.

"You.... why did you do this? I told you to stop following me, to leave me alone, and now LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" I yell at her, turning around and slowly getting up, my fists shaking with rage. "SHE might go after me, l can't stay here anymore, I have to run..." I continue, looking downwards, not wanting to meet her gaze.

"What... what are you? You don't even have tentacles." She says, before I rush at her, swinging a fist towards her head. My fist connects, and she gets sent into a wall, before slumping over against it.

"WHY! WHY! WHY!" I scream, while bashing her skull into the wall, not caring that she's a kid, I just want her to feel pain, I can see my vision going red, The wall is turning red as well, but I can tell it's not from my eyes. Suddenly I drop her, realizing what I've just done. "Oh... oh cod..." I mutter under my breath, the gravity of this situation finally taking hold of me. "I.... I really just killed her, d-didn't I..." I mumble, before covering my eyes, starting to sob into them. Soon, I'm at my home, packing up a new change of clothes, a bunch of food, and a bunch of water, before quickly stuffing it all in a backpack. "I need to go, they're gonna find out soon, and.. and.." I quickly mutter, before quickly running out the front door, not bothering to lock it, and running into the wild.

After a few hours of non stop running, I can see the entrance of octo valley far in the distance, before my body collapses from exhaustion, having ran for hours straight in the middle of the night, it needed some rest. As I drift off into sleep, I don't think anything, as it's nearly instant.

"Hey, HEY! Wake up, sleepyhead!" A mysterious voice calls out to me.

"5... 5 more minutes." I lazily respond still tired, and comfy under the covers.

"C'mon Derek, do you WANT to be late to work?" The voice responds, getting irritated.

"Alright Lucile, I'll get up." I respond.

"Great! Now you just have to get dressed and reporting for duty in 5 minutes!" Lucile happily responds, before I hear her skipping away.

"Oh carp!" I quickly shout, before hopping out of bed, changing into clothes, and running to work, barely clocking in on time.

"Hey Derek! Glad you made it on time." I hear Tyler call to me.

"Thanks Tyler, let's get to work, the OctoGiga mech should be complete soon." I respond, while going over to a stand, and grabbing a wrench, hammer, and toolbox.

"Yeah, it'll be-" "THIS IS NOT A DRILL. THERE IS AN INKLING INSIDE OF OCTO CANYON, ALL OCTOLINGS REPORT TO YOUR BATTLE STATIONS, IMMEDIATELY!" A voice blares out on the intercom.

'SIR YES SIR!" Rings out all around me, before everyone drops what they're doing. The soldiers run over to the octoshots, and run to the frontlines, while us engineers head to the control rooms, to try and stop their progress. When we look at the cameras, we see... "A KID! A LITERAL KID IS TEARING THROUGH OUR FORCES LIKE THEY'RE PAPER!" Our general shouts, in complete distress.

"D-Don't worry! We can make the platforms move!" I respond, before quickly pressing some buttons, causing multiple platforms to start moving, but it's too late, as the inkling has already reached the zapfish, grabbing it before super jumping out.

"Oh cod, they cleared it so fast, the elites got shredded instantly...." The General continues on, getting into a really bad mood, when suddenly...

"GAH!" I say out loud, having woken up during the middle of the day, evident from the sun shining bright in the sky. "So... Thirty..." I say, before taking out one of the bottles of water i stored and quickly chugging it down. "Well, today is a new day, let's hope I have more time to get as far away as possible before they realize what I've done...

Chapter Text

As I slowly walk forwards, what I've done truly sets in. "I'm an outcast now, I killed a kid, I don't know if they've found out, and..." I mumble, before I remember something. "Oh! I have my phone on me, I can just check!" I say, before pulling it out, and seeing the big news headlines... "Oh.. there was a camera there, huh..." I say, while looking at my phone, and just looking at the headlines, I already know it's bad. "No tentacle freak kills girl... Unknown species mauls girl after being aggravated... X-Rank player has no tentacles!? Geez, these people are just soo original, huh?" I say while scrolling, not even bothering clicking on the news stories, knowing that they're all the same.

Soon after, as I wander towards Octo valley, I start to think of how I'm going to ration food. "I can't eat it too much, but it's going to bad sooner or later..." I say, while walking towards octo valley. "Aha!" I say, with resting the side of my fist on my palm. "I can sleep more often! Sure, it'll slow me down, but I'll have to eat less!" I say in a stroke of genius. I am a former octarian engineer, but sometimes even my genius scares me. So putting my plan into place, I get to work on a portable shelter, something like a tent, but I don't need anything to hang it up. I suddenly remember That i packed a piece of tarp, a blanket and a pillow, as long as I have a tree, I can sleep.

After wandering for another hour, taking a few light sips of water, I encounter a tree looking over a cliff, that stares over octo canyon, despite it being miles away. "It's... a nice view." I say, while relaxing, setting up a tarp on the tree, and putting down my blanket and pillow. "Heh, good thing I don't roll around in my sleep." I say, before laying down and going to sleep, completely forgetting my tendency to have nightmares...

"Man, being an engineer is hard work, have to come up with all these designs, and then build them." I say, while sitting down with a sandwich in one hand, pencil in the other, and blueprints laid out in front of me. "The last design for ink turrets didn't work, I'll eventually get them down..." I say, before crumpling up some blueprints I made, for small turrets with a flat top, held up by a metal tripod, that can shoot ink at an incredible rate. Well, it would... if it actually worked. The design was too small, and it had no place to actually store the ink to begin with, making the design a bust.

"Well hey there Derek, what are ya makin?" I hear a voice behind me say, while I jump up out of shock.

"O-Oh! Hey Lucille, I was just trying to come up with another ink sentry design, when-" I manage to say, before Lucille interrupts me.

"Are you still working on those? C'monn Derek, the elite training programs have gone into overdrive, we're learning so many new moves, anyone who tries to fight us won't stand a chance." Lucille says, with a smirk on her face, feeling like she's on top of the world, which she has a right to be, she's the top of her class, scoring the best out of everyone. "I'm even being told I might control the OctoGiga mech when it's finished, while the others get delegated to manual labor and mid-fight repairs." She says with a glint of joy in her eyes. The OctoGiga mech is a project that's been going on for decades. Before we were even created, it's been being built by generation after generation of engineers, all of us adding our own contributions to the gargantuan robot.

"That's... great news!" I say, before turning back to my, admittedly, cluttered workspace, with a bunch of crumpled up blueprints all over the floor. "But I really think if I can design it right, these new ink sentries will make it so, so much harder for enemies to intervene, especially because they're supposed to be portable." I continue, with a shine in my eye. "If I can do this, then so many lives will be saved!" I finish, while holding up my arm with the pencil in it high up in the air.

"Heh, alright Derek, I know it's important to you, so I'll let you continue your work." Lucille says, before closing my door and walking back into the hallway.

"Now I can finally get to it." I say, before lowering my arm, and putting it up against a piece of paper. "I always sketch it out before finalizing it don't know whether or not it'll even look realistic, and blueprints aren't readily available" My first sketch is a dual splatling wielding turret. Mounted on a tri-pod with a metal platform on top of it, it has one splatling on each side, with a foldable compartment where we can store canned tenta missiles for it to use. "That's way too expensive first off, and how would it even know to USE the tenta missiles. Scrapped." I say, while folding up the piece of paper, and tossing into the trash bin.

The next design I scribble down is a 2 barrel turret, but this time it's a lot smaller and more compact. It has an ink tank stretching all around the back of it, which each barrel will fire at different times. There's a compartment that lets you fill up the tank on the top, so we can always run in and quickly re-fill it. "Ok, this is a lot more small and compact, and could actually work, now the problem is re-filling it. Even with the compartment, we don't have a reliable way of getting there." I say, while tapping my chin. "AHA!" I say in a stroke of genious. "I can design the first ink-impervious suit!" I say, with excitement in my voice.

I quickly get to work, whipping out multiple sheets of paper. "The helmet will be the easiest, it just needs to fit the head perfectly.... oh." I say, while drawing it out, before I realize something. If I make a truly ink-impervious suit, it'd have to be air tight, and if it's air tight, you wont be able to breathe. "Dammit. I was so close, I just want a functioning turret to less lives are at risk." I say, with a defeated look on my face.

"Hey Derek, I got you a tacticola-" I hear Tyrone say as he walks in, before seeing me with my hands over my eyes. "Hey, Derek, what's wrong, buddy?" I hear Him continue while putting the tacticola on the ground, quickly running behind me and putting his arms on my back. 

"I-It's nothing, Tyrone, just... I want to make a turret, so less people have to die, y'know?" I say, taking in a shaky breath. "But-but if I do, I'll have to design so much, like something to let people breathe without air readily around them, a way to carry the turrets, it's... really demoralizing, when you realize your project can't work, right?" I finish, with some light sobs coming from me afterwards.

"Hey, Derek, calm down buddy. Everything is gonna be alright." Tyrone says, while crouching down next to me. "Trust me, not everything can be made. You're definitely not the first person to try and make a sentry, and you won't be the last." He continues, still crouched down. "Just... don't let it get to you. Some things are impossible, and some things are possible. I guess the ink turret is impossible, at least not without a glaring flaw." He says, while looking me in the eyes, with a smile on his face.

"Yeah... yeah, you're right!" I say, with my mood lightening up a bit. "I'll just work on something even better, besides, we clock out in an hour anyways." I continue, with a smile on my face. "Thank you for helping me with this, Tyrone." I finish, while letting him help me up, a smile beaming on my face.

"Any time, Derek. Any time." Tyrone says, while he finishes helping me up, before grabbing my tacticola, and handing it to me. "Just... promise me what you'll be able to continue on, even if I'm gone." Tyrone says, before walking out the room.

Yawnnnn "Man, that was some good sleep, and my prediction was right, I'm not nearly as thirsty as I would've been normally." I say, before packing everything up and heading down the cliff I'm on, Desperate to find a place I can call home. "Tyrone... Lucille... I'll never forget you two, even if you both didn't make it out... I'll continue on your legacy. I'll make it so octolings can get accepted into inkling society, for you, Tyrone. I already fulfilled my promise to you, Lucille. I got to X Rank, and showed everyone that it's not only females who can become the best of the best." I say, before walking further towards Octo Valley, further towards my old home, and further towards my old friends...

Chapter Text

As I wander through the desert, getting ever so closer to Octo Valley, my mind starts to drift, thinking about random things. Things like 'When's the next time I'm going to eat kelp chips?,' or 'why hasn't anyone been sent off to go after me?' among others. As these thoughts drift around my head, I get snapped back to reality by my stomach rumbling. "Seems like I need food, I can take a little stop, I guess." I say, while looking around for a tree, finding one in no time.

As I set up my tarp over a few low hanging branches, I quickly pull out a bottle of water and some salted kelp chips. "It's gonna get hard getting used to this lifestyle, and it's not sustainable either." I say, with a somber look on my eyes. "Eventually I'm gonna have to move back to inkopolis, as the newly founded splatsville is across an entire ocean. No way I can make it across that." I say, putting my hand up to my eyes. 

Soon I'm done eating and drinking, the water bottle being half empty, due to eating salted food, I became very dehydrated, and I needed to drink more than normal. "Maybe bringing salted food wasn't the smartest idea..." I say, while wiping off my hands. "Yawnnn Man, I'm tired, I've made good progress since last rest, I should probably take a nap." I say, while pulling out my blanket and pillow. "Just... I hope I keep on having good dreams, like I have been." I say, while drifting off into sleep.

"Oh cod, oh cod oh cod!" I hear the General shout, everyone in a state of panic.

"They took down the Octostomp with ease! What're we gonna do!" I hear an engineer shout.

"Everyone calm down!" The General shouts, but nobody listens.

"Guys!" I shout out, trying to get everyone's attention. "The Octostomp is out weakest weapon, remember? We have so many more, there's no way they can get past them!" I say, trying to lift the morale of everyone there.

"Yeah, you're right! There's no way they can beat the Octonozzle!" I hear another engineer shout, with more energy in their voice.

"That's the spirit!" I shout out.

"C'mon everyone. We need to work on more things to help us take down the Inkling." The General says.

"SIR YES SIR!" We all shout, before running off to our rooms, and drawing up many inventions.

As soon as I enter my room, I know what I have to do. "Thank ink sentry I sued to be so infatuated with... I need to get it done." I say, before running over, and grabbing a few sheets of paper. "If I can get it right, I'll save so many lives, and make it a living hell for that inkling, even if they do destroy it, reinforcements will have time to arrive." I say, with a smirk forming on my face. "It's genius, and I think I have the perfect design..." I say, before getting to work on sketching it out.

Soon, I'm done. It looks similar to the first re-design I had. Standing on a tri-pod, it has a round metal platform, with 1 heavy splatling on each side. The metal platform has a built in ink tank on the back, which not only pokes outside the sentry, but also goes inside it. The finishing touches include 3 pipes leading into the ground, so it can get ink from the ground to fire with. "It's... perfect. I covered the re-fueling weakness by adding pipes into the ground" I say, patting myself on the back. "All that's left is getting the resources for it, and that's going to be... hard, to say the least." I say, while putting the finished design onto blueprints, making sure to make everything as detailed as possible, while labeling it to the best of my abilities.

In the cafeteria, I can hear everyone dreadfully chat about the Inkling, and how skilled they are. "I heard they're just about to fight the octonozzle" I hear one of them say.

"There's no way they are, it's only been an hour." I hear the other one respond.

"THIS IS AN EMERGY ANNOUNCEMENT. IT HAS BEEN AN HOUR SINCE THE OCTOSTOMP WAS DESTROYED, AND THE INKLING HAS JUST DESTROYED THE OCTONOZZLE. I REPEAT, THE INKLING HAS JUST DESTROYED THE OCOTNOZZLE. IF YOU ARE AN ENGINEER, EXCLUDING THE ONES WORKING ON THE OCTOGIGA MECH, WE NEED YOU TO STOP DESIGNING AND TO START GETTING ON THE FRONTLINES. WE HAVE PROVIDED EXTRA OCTOSHOTS FOR ALL OF YOU. ASSIST THE ELITE SOLDIERS IN ANY WAY POSSIBLE." The intercoms then shut off with a click.

"OH COD! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" I hear one octoling shout on the other side of the cafeteria.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!" I hear a different octoling shout, this time closer to me. 

"You're so lucky." I hear someone whisper into my ear, probably because I'm working on the project, which is a rarity in of itself.

Eventually, everyone settles down enough to go and grab their octoshots, while the elites are just sitting there, dumbfounded at the events that just occurred. Soon, the intercom turns back on, with a new message. "TO ALL THE ENGINEERS WORKING ON THE OCOTGIGA MECH, PLEASE HEAD TO THE OCTOGIGA ROOM AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. WE'RE SHIFTING IT'S DEVELOPMENT INTO OVERDRIVE, THERE'S NO TIME FOR OTHER INVENTIONS. HURRY THERE, THROW AWAY LUNCH IF YOU HAVE TO, JUST HURRY THERE." The voice on the intercom says in a panicked voice, panting is audible throughout the entire conversation.

"Well, I guess that's our queue to get going." I say, while standing up, and throwing away my lunch.

"Yeah, I guess it is." I hear a different elite say, from somewhere across the lunch room.

Soon, we're all gathered in the chamber, none of us knowing why we're here. Contrary to what you might think, we're not a very close knit group, we barely know each other. We're a group of engineers assigned to this project.

"I'm sure you're all wondering why we've called you all here." One of the project leaders announces, an Elite going by the name of Tasha. "Well, it's quite simple really. We need this to be completed, and fast. We fear it's the only thing that can stop the inkling." Tasha announces, with a distressed look in her eyes. "The truth is... we announced the octonozzle defeat 15 minutes after it had already happened." Tasha says, with genuine fear in her eyes.

"If Tasha's scared, then..." I hear an engineer murmur, fear evident in their voice.

"Yeah... this is gonna be intense..." I hear a different one respond, also very scared.

"Listen, I know we're all scared, but we can't let that distract us from our goal. We need to stop this freak of an inkling, so let's try our hardest to finish the OctoGiga." Tasha says, trying to rally us all together.

"YEAH!" We all shout in unison, getting ready to finally finish the octo giga.
 
As I close my eyes, and raise my hand in the air, I suddenly wake up. "Right, dreams are dreams..." I say, with a sad look in my face. "I helped create that weapon of mass destruction..." I say, with a somber look growing across my face. "All I can hope for is that it only ever gets used against that freak of an inkling." I say, with a bit of anger in my voice, before slowly getting up, and packing everything away, forgetting to pick up my bag of kelp chips as I walk away from where I slept.

Chapter Text

As I walk forwards, I can feel the sun bright in the sky, beating down upon the same sand I walk on now. I see a patch of water, with a comedically looking palm tree before realizing I'm severely dehydrated. "I... probably huff should've drank some water in the past 12 hours." I say, while panting, before taking out my half drunk water bottle and downing it all. "I just hope, huff, That stupid inkling isn't after me." I say, while looking down at the ground, kicking a pebble I see to who knows where.

Soon after, I decide it's time to get some rest, as I'm getting a lot more hungry and thirsty then usual. "Man, I'm not getting enough sleep during the night. If I didn't know any better, I'd say I'm becoming nocturnal, but that's impossible." I say, while laughing a bit, before feeling a pain right around my stomach. "Yeah, I definitely overexerted myself, should probably have something to eat, and take a nice yawn long rest." I say, while walking towards a cave I spotted, before looking in and finding no inkling or octolings, anything that might attack me, really. "Finally, I don't have to sleep on sans with just a tarp barely covering me." I quickly say, before rushing inside and pulling out my blanket and pillow.

Soon, I'm slowly eating a half-eaten Crusty Seanwich I was able to stuff into my backpack, savoring it's taste, as I know I won't be able to eat another one for a while. "Mmph, so good." I say, with a look of bliss on my face. "It's sad that I'll never be able to experience inkling culture again..." I say, with a sad look on my face. "Most are nice people, not at all like the octarian army told me they were like. Speaking of them, I hope they accept me back..." I say, with tears forming in my eyes. "I really messed up, didn't I..." I say, before laying down, and gently sobbing myself to sleep.

Clank, Clank. Bzzzt, Bzzt. "At the rate we're going, I'm surprised we haven't started cutting corner yet." I say to the engineer next to me, while quickly finishing up some wiring on the back of the OctoGiga. 

"Yeah, but that's the power of the octarian military." They respond, clearly focused on their work.

"Well, I'll leave you to your work." I say, before turning back to the wires, hooking them up to where they need to go. Soon, though, I hear a click on the intercom, already fearing for what's going to come. "Oh nooo." I groan out, hearing a few other groans as well. 

"THIS IS NOT A DRILL. THE INKLING HAS BEATEN THE OCTOWHIRL. I REPEAT, THE INKLING HAS BEATEN THE OCTOWHIRL." I hear the voice over the intercom shout, making sure everyone can hear.

"Oh, cod, oh cod no..." I hear an engineer whisper, although we all manage to keep our cool.

"EVERYONE!" We all hear Tasha shout, before all of us turn to her direction. "WE NEED TO GET THIS DONE AS FAST AS POSSIBLE! CUT CORNER,S DO WHATEVER YOU NEED TO DO, BUT THIS NEED SOT BE DONE WITHIN THE HOUR, OR ELSE IT WILL ALL BE IN VEIN!" We all hear her shout, worry evident in her voice. "Look, just... please, hurry up, don't worry about the outside design, throw on some scrap metal, we don't care just... get it done." She says, with tears forming in the corners of her eyes, before turning around and walking out the room.

"What... what do you think happened?" I say out loud, unable to handle my shock that Tasha, a high skill elite, would ever cry.

"I.... I don't know." I hear someone respond from across the room, just as shocked as me. 

"W-well, Despite Tasha's.. bad mood to say the least, we have to get to work, remember what she said, right? We have to complete this before they get to the Octomaw, so finish up those insides, we'll put on the armor and quickly put on the ink tank. now get a move on!" I hear a different Engineer shout, trying to lift the mood and to make us do our job.

"Yeah, we can do this, we have to finish this, we can't let that inkling kill anyone else." I say, while picking up all my tools, a smile growing across my face.

"Y-yeah! We can do this, we have to!" I hear a different engineer shout, hearing hope grow in their voice.

"THEN LET'S DO IT!" I hear another engineer shout, filling the whole room with hope.

"YEAH!" Me, and the rest of the engineers shout, before immediately getting to work, sounds of wrenches tightening bolts, wires being connected, and many many footsteps making a sort of song around the chamber, making a rhythm that we all work along to. Though, an hour later, when we're all hard at work, some of us taking a break due to overexertion, the thing we feared the most comes true, as we hear a dreadful click over the intercom.

"Everyone, we have good news and bad news. Bad news first, the Octomaw has been defeated, leaving no more weapons of great destruction left." A somber voice says over the intercom. "BUT, I also have good news. DJ Octavio will be taking down the Inkling himself now, by using the Great Zapfish as a lure, he's going to squash them once and for all!" The voice over the intercom finishes, with excitement in their voice. "Now, please head to DJ Octavio's custom arena, as that is where he's going to beat them!" The voice on the intercom says, filling us all with excitement after the somber news. 

Soon, I wake up with cold rushing throughout my entire body, my blanket seemingly having been ripped, or thrown, off of my body. "S-so c-cold." I manage to chatter out, before quickly grabbing my blanket and looking out into the night sky, seeing the moon and the stars shine brightly. "E-Even though I-it's a desert in the middle of the n-night, and I'm f-freezing out here, t-the night sky is s-still beautiful." I manage to stutter out, still dealing with the cold. Soon I pack up everything except my blanket, wrapping that around my body, except for a crunched up bottle of water.

Not long after, I'm walking further towards Octo Valley, the area it starts in just over the horizon, and I know my journey will soon come to a close. "Lucille, Tyrone, everyone, I-I'm coming home. All I can hope for is that you all accept me." I say out loud, before continuing my journey towards my home, Octo Valley, and towards my old friends, who may or may not have ended up... forgetting me.

Chapter Text

Cough, cough "D-dang it, did a s-sandstorm really have to start n-now?" I say, while desperately looking for a shelter, blanket covering my mouth and nose, while my tarp is covering my body. "Geez, if I don't find a cave soon, I'm gonna choke to death." Cough, cough. I say, while shambling forwards, hoping to find a cave, or just some place of rest, while sand berates my eyes. Soon enough, I do, in fact, manage to find one, quickly running inside of it. "Wait... is that my water bottle?" I say while a look of confusion grows across my face. "Wait... this is the cave I was just in!" I say, coming to that conclusion fast. "Well, I might as well wait out the sandstorm.." I say, while rubbing some grains of sand out my eyes.

A few hours later, as I'm scrolling Splatnet, despite having only 5% on my phone left, I look up and see the storm has (Finally) passed, allowing me to continue on my journey. Soon, my phone is shut off, and I'm walking out the cave, everything neatly packed away inside my backpack. "Man, does it yawn have to take so long for a sandstorm to pass?" I say, while having a bored expression on my face, while walking out in the desert, slowly getting closer and closer to Octo Valley, before eventually deciding to go to sleep, as I've been sitting down for a few hours, and my body is tired. Soon enough, I find a little grove of trees, that I quickly set up under. Soon I'm slowly eating a seaweed stick, while setting up my pillow and blanket somewhere comfortable. After drinking a bit of a water bottle, I drift off into sleep, hoping to have another good dream, and not a nightmare. 

As the Dreaded Inkling falls onto their spawn point, we hear the evil murderer that is Cuttlefish tell the inkling, that we now know is named Agent 3, that it's a trap, and that she should stay back, but it seems that she doesn't listen, as she slowly walks towards the great zapfish. Then suddenly, DJ Octavio comes down from the ceiling, and absorbs the Great Zapfish into the Octobot King.

"GYAH HA HA! I'ma remix your face!" Says DJ Octavio, while putting his spicy wasabi stick on his turntable, and playing his signature song, "I am Octavio." Soon, him and the inkling are off, inkling painting turf while Octavio fires his fists and octotorpedos at her, but the inkling manages to destroy those and fire back his fists, dazing Octavio and pushing him further back. Soon enough, he goes into his dj booth, and says "Y'all ready for this?" Before a giant, hexagonal patterned bomb, with tails on it's back fires out the back of it from a hidden compartment, barreling right towards them!

But sadly, the inkling somehow manages to shoot it back at them, but Octavio manages to fire it right back! Along with it, he's firing some missiles, but the inkling manages to shoot those down, and fire back the bomb, before Octavio send it right back, this time with even more missiles, but alas, the inkling destroys them and shoots the bomb back again, exploding it in Octavio's face!

"Graaaagh!?" DJ Octavio shouts, clearly getting aggravated by this. "Slimy little hipster!" He shouts, while moving over to a different set of platforms, that agent 3 quickly super jumps to, landing on a checkpoint.

"Y'know, why do we even have checkpoints and super jump pads here?" I confusedly ask my fellow engineers.

"I honestly don't know, we were just asked to make platforms a while ago, back when we were still building, and we have these ones here now." A an older Octarian engineer tells me in response.

Soon, DJ Octavio is right back with missiles and Fists, but now he also has a killer wail! He fires it at the inkling, but they quickly dodge it because he kind of... can't move it. Soon they fire back 2 fists, and hop on a fan platform, going over to 2 more, where they break some creates that are there for some reason and find... "Armor!? Why do we have armor there?! There is no reason for us to have creates there, let alone armor!" I say in genuine shock, others looking on, just as confused as me. Soon, she fires back 2 more fists, and goes across another fan platform, before reaching another platform, with another fan platform, before going up and landing on the platform below.

"Peep this!" Octavio says, while moving around his sound discs, before firing out another hexagonal bomb, where they repeat the same song and dance, blowing up missiles and shooting it back. "BLGRRARGH!" Says Octavio, as the Octobot King is flipped upside down over and over, before he quickly regains composure and flies to a different platform. "You can't handle my spicy wasabi beats!" He says, while agent 3 just super jumps onto where he went. This time, though, Octavio fires out 2 bombs, each one containing a flying octarian, that shoots out splat bombs! But... Agent 3 just destroys them before they can be released, along with shooting back Octavio's fists, destroying missiles, and dodging killer wails. There's also another crate with armor in the back, just sitting there.

"Again, why do we even have this armor to begin with? We never use it, so just... why?" I say, with a genuinely confused look on my face.

"Well, young man, the answer is... we don't." Says an elder engineer says, with a far out look in his eyes. "Whoever is helping them is able to ship them down, we honestly don't know how." He finishes, still having that far off look, probably thinking about how we can harness that technology for ourselves.

Soon, Agent 3 repeats the same song and dance, before swimming up a wall, when they get up, they open a crate and find... "An Inkzooka!? W-" I start to stay before stopping myself. "Oh right, they're probably using the same technology to drop in canned specials as they did with the armor. After punching Octavio even further back, past a sponge bridge, and 3 pufferfish bombs just sitting there, another sponge bridge, and a platform with 2 ramps and a third pufferfish, with "Another armor crate? Really? They haven't even broken the first one." I say, with disappointment in my tone, on just how much resources they're wasting.

"You 'bout to get MASHED UP!" Octavio says, while spinning his record table discs, before firing off the same hexagonal bomb as before. The agent again dodges everything, explodes the bombs, and shoots back the bomb, again, before the Octobot King. starts flipping over once again. "GHRAAAAARGH!" Shouts Octavio, before regaining his composure and flying to another platform. "Do you even know who you're messin' with?!" Octavio shouts, anger evident in his voice. While the inkling is just standing there on the platform, jumping up and down in squid form, before super jumping to where Octavio went.

This time, the only new thing Octavio adds is 4 octotorpedos, instead of 2. So Agent 3 just carries on what they were doing, destroying torpedos and bombs, shooting back fists, and dodging killer wails. Although this time, she has to ink invisible surface to move across! She stills figures this out easily, and makes sure to shoot at gaps to get across, while gaining another piece of armor. After crossing the first invisible gap, it seems like agent 3 is toying with us, because she doesn't even enter squid form up until after the 3 ink valves are destroyed, as she stand on top of them while she goes up. After that, another create that the agent's accomplices dropped in contained an inkzooka, even though they haven't even used the first one. Soon, Agent 3 and Octavio are on a thin platform, before DJ Octavio says "It's time to... D-D-D-DROP THE SEA BASS!" before firing out another hexagonal bomb, Agent 3 and him basically playing ping pong with it, before it explodes right back in DJ Octavio's face. "GHHROOORUGH!" Yells DJ Octavio, while spinning around in the Octobot King. "How dare you!" He says, very clearly annoyed.

Although this time, the music abruptly cuts off, with a different song slowly playing, getting louder by the second. "What's this? Where mah beats?!" Octavio says, getting confused, the song obviously not his, while he's still bouncing along to the beat, clearly not of his own free will, but of the song's. 

"Agent 3! Can You hear our song?" A glitchy voice mysteriously says around the stadium, none of us being able to identify where it's coming from.

"Radio Override Activated!" A much more clear voice says.

"Huh?!" The murderer that is Cuttlefish says, while breaking out of his ropes. "That heavenly melody... It's the one and only SQUID SISTERS!!" He says, before starting to dance along to the rhythm.

"Don't you ever worry your granddaughters like that again!" The first voice says, with a playful tone in her voice.

"G-Granddaughter!?" I say, with whispers murmuring throughout the crowd.

"Agent 3! Take care of Gramps for us, 'kay?" The second voice says, with a much more serious tone of voice.

"Final push! Chaaarge!" The first voice says, with enthusiasm all in her voice.

Soon, Agent 3 super jumps to the platform Octavio went to, with turfing the ground, destroying the octotorpedos, and firing the fists right back at Octavio.

"As they say-sometimes the best offense... is running for your life!" The second vice says, in a playful tone, as the new music worms it's way inside of our heads, slowly undoing some of the mind control Octavio had done to us, while we all get up and start dancing, all in our own unique style. As Agent 3 makes their way across some ink rails, they destroy another crate and get some more armor, which they still haven't lost any of it, mind you. Next platform they get to is filled with boxes, most just containing power eggs, but 1 orange one contains a bubbler, which I would've complained about, but I'm too busy dancing to really care. Soon Agent 3 is going up a steep and narrow ramp, but while they're doing that, the decades of Brainwashing Octavio had done to us is finally undone, and we all gain true free will, for once in our lives, we're truly free.

"Just a little farther, Agent 3!" The evil Cuttlefish says to Agent 3, whom I still both hate, as they murdered so many Octolings in the past, even if they're setting us free, it's hard to let all of that go.

"I'MA DUBSTOMP YOU INTO OBLIVION!" Screams Octavio, while winding up his turntable as fast as possible, while he's already pulling out all the stops, but it's all in vein, as Agent 3 fires back the bomb one last time, it explodes in Octavio's face, sending him flying out of the Octobot King, and onto the platform in front of Agent 3.

Despite being mute this entire time, I can barely hear him say "Too. Easy." Before firing at Octavio, Shooting him back Into the Octobot King, landing upside down.

"Oh no..." Octavio says, with sadness in his voice. "So sad..." He continues. "Cross-fade... to black." He finishes, before the entire Octobot King starts spinning, a low groan erupting from Octavio, Before it explodes in a shower of Orange Ink.

"GAH!" I say, while shooting up in a cold sweat from the nightmare I just had. "R-Right... that's how it went down." I say, while I slowly calm down, and start to relax. "I really do still hate them... They killed so many octolings, just because we wanted electricity down in our own land." I say, while curling my hands into fists. "They're going to pay for what they did if they come after me." I say, with determination in my voice, before drinking my only cup of Ink-Shore Grape, my favorite drink from the Crust Bucket, before tossing it aside and leaving the cave, determined to continue on my journey, to return to octo valley. "But... maybe that isn't my goal anymore. Maybe I should just visit their grave and... leave, walk back, or maybe build a shack around here, and start a new life? I don't know any more..." I say, with a look of uncertainty in my eyes. "Geez, Re-living those events really changed how I look at things, huh?" I say, before packing everything up and walking out the grove I set up in, Determined to at least make it to their grave.

Chapter Text

Wheeze, cough. "C-cod, do I really get tired this easily?" I say, while stumbling forwards, so close to octo valley. "I-If I can just make it there..." I mumble under my breath, while reaching into my backpack and pulling one of my last few bottles of water. "I r-really suck at rationing, huh?" I say, with a somber look cast over my face, while I unscrew the cap and chug it all down, immediately starting to feel better. "That hit the spot..." I say, with my mood lightening up a bit. "Still, I'm so close, I need to get to their grave, and say my final goodbye." I say, with a serious look growing across my face. "I need to move on. It's been so long, yet I still can't get it out of my head." I say, with a look of determination growing over my face. "I'll see you soon, Tyrone... you too, Lucille..." I say, before sprinting towards Octo Valley.

Soon, I finally make it to the goal of my journey for the past few days. The thing I've been working so hard to get to. "The G-Graveyard..." I say, a look of sadness replacing my determined one, tears starting to appear at the edges of my eyes. "It's been so long since I've been here... Me and the other escaped Octolings made this makeshift graveyard, so we could honor those who died from the horrid Agent 3." I say, with light sobs escaping my mouth. "It's been a year since I last visited this place... and it still hasn't become easier to return to..." I say, before covering my eyes with the back of my arm, as tears slowly drip from my eyes. "T-Tyrone, why did you have to go to the frontlines? Why did you run to the Agent, and try to kill them? You were always a nice person, did you do it so nobody else had to d-die?" I say, before having an emotional breakdown, curling up into a ball while tears drip down from my eyes, turning the sand wet. "Just... why?" I say, before letting all my sobs out, tears constantly streaming down from my eyes, slightly burning my skin and making the sand even more wet then before, while still absorbing all of my tears.

A few minutes later, I finally stop crying, and slowly and shakily pick myself up off the ground. "I need to move on, it's been years." I tell myself, while rubbing my eyes free of tears. "A-And Lucille, you were one of the nicest people I've met... You had the courage and the power to try and take down Agent 3, and... you did, but then they respawned, and when they splatted you when you were un-aware... The respawn machine broke... just like it did with Tyrone... It broke for nearly everyone, only a small few coming back..." I say, while remembering what happened to those who fell in battle...

"Oh cod... oh cod!" I hear an engineer shout, running all around the respawn room, checking each and every respawn pad.

"What's going on!?" I shout, not understanding why he's so worried.

"E-Ever since they defeated the Octostomp, the respawn pads have been going haywire, and I don't know why!" The engineer shouts, back, in a state of panic.

"You do know the Octomaw has been defeated by now, right? I came in here to tell the newly respawned to head the the arena..." I tell him, with the gravity of this situation finally settling in. "Wait... if you're saying since the Octostomp..." I say, a look of dread setting in.

"Yeah... ever since then only a tenth of those who got splatted respawned..." The Engineer Responds, a somber look on his face.

"I-I'm assuming neither Tyrone or Lucille made it..." I say, with a defeated look cast over my face, tears forming in the corner of my eyes.

"W-well, yes and no..." The engineer says. "Tyrone never respawned, but Lucille did, but she ran right back into battle, and then got splatted again, the second time, she wasn't so lucky..." The engineer says, with a look of guilt all over his face.

"W-Well then, I guess... I guess I'll see you in the custom arena..." I say, with 2 voice cracks, before slowly walking off, my head hung down in shame.

"I still don't know what happened, and I probably never will, but I still miss you two..." I say, while running the back of my right arm across my eyes. "But I have to move on. I know it's what you two would've wanted, you were pure souls, born into a time of war, unlike me..." I say, a look of determination slowly growing over my face. "I'm.... not a good Octoling, to say the least. I lose my temper easily, I've definitely manipulated others before, but most of all... I look out for myself more then others." I say, letting out a sigh. "I wouldn't save others unless if it were my very close friends, or it benefitted me in some way." I say, realizing how bad of an Octoling I truly am. "Which is why I'm working on rectifying my mistakes, and becoming better, not only for you all, but so... I don't hurt anyone else, either." I say, a look of satisfaction and comfort slowly appearing on my face.

Soon, I'm at the Octo Valley Junkyard, just outside of it, actually. "C'mon, haven't needed to scavenge like this for a while, but there has to be SOME sort of tech here, right?" I say while digging through a pile of trash, hoping to find scrap metal. "Oh, what's this?" I say, while going to pick up something shiny that caught my eye. "A... pair of glasses?" I say, while picking them up, seemingly having no use. "Eh, doesn't really matter to me." I say, while throwing it back into the pile I found it in.

In a different pile, I find something I'd never expect to see. "Perfectly good metal? Why would they ever throw this out?" I say with genuine confusion, picking it up and examining it. "Yeah, no imperfections, why is this here?" I say with genuine bewilderment. "Well, I might as well take it, that Building a house Idea is becoming more and more viable by the second..." I say, before tucking it under my arm and  moving over to a new pile.

"Man, did they SERIOUSLY throw out a punching bag? It has one tiny opening, and they just throw it out!?" I say, while picking it up and examining it. "Geez, and I thought the agents were wasteful..." I mutter under my breath, in shock that they would throw out something perfectly good. "I can easily repair this with more scrap, staying sharp on hand-to-hand combat is really important." I say, before picking up the punching bag and walking over to outside the graveyard, putting it next to the perfectly good piece of metal.

Soon I have a whole row of barely damaged or perfectly good supplies, that were thrown out for no reason. "So I have a perfectly good chunk of metal, a punching bag, 3 different metal sheets, Thin metal tubes, a shovel and a chisel." I say, while scratching under my chin, as my hands need something to do. "Yeah, building a small home here might actually work." I say, before putting down my backpack, and pulling out my sleeping supplies. "I would've grabbed a mattress, but they were all stained, horribly." I say, before setting up my tarp on the outside of the graveyard, and setting the other corners on metal poles. After that I drag the punching bag under the tarp, in the center, specifically. "More stability, AND I can still use it." I say, before taking the 3 sheets of metal. "Hmm, what to do, what to do..." I say, before lining them up with the openings of my tarp, finding them to be perfect fits. "Well, that works." I say, before aligning them up with it, and resting inside my little room I've made. "This is... cozy. I could live like this." I say, while curling up with my blanket covering me, drifting off into a dreamless sleep, allowing myself to get some true peace while I sleep.

Chapter Text

huff, huff "Geez, forgot how hard it was to build something, huff, without all that fancy machinery." I say, while sitting down in a thrown out chair I found. "But I need to make my "house" bigger then a singular room." I say, before slowly getting up off my chair, and heading over to me metal pile, before strapping on some gloves, and going over to my half-finished "house" expansion, lining up where it needs to go before I weld it together. "Really can't believe the Octarians are so wasteful nowadays, engineers are throwing out tools when they run out of power instead of just charging them, throwing away a welding mask due to 1 crack, so wasteful." I say while pulling down my welding mask, and slowly starting to weld the pieces of metal together.

"Cod, it is really hot today, huh?" I say, while taking a glace up into the sky, and seeing the sun is directly above me. "Geez, it really took me 4 hours just to build 1 room?" I say with a look of shock, reality slowly kicking in that I was heavily spoiled with all the machinery I was given. "Well, I'll just have to learn how to build efficiently without them." I say, before running over to the scrapyard to try and find some sort of soft material to coat the inside of my house with, as sand is itchy and isn't exactly the softest thing in the world. 

Soon, I've managed to find a rug with a few stains, and a 2 thrown out heavy splatlings, each of them only having a few wires loose. "Cod, what have they become after the first escape..." I say, a look of shame on my face, while I quickly rearrange the out of place wires. "Y'know... I could actually make my sentry using these..." I say, while holding 1 splatling in each hand, while looking towards more metal scraps. "Yeah, yeah I could. All I need now is some glass for the ink tanks, and the thing I spent years working on will finally be made." I say, while slowly walking over to the scrap yard, hoping to either find actual glass or something that can superheat sand. 

"Damnit, I can't find any glass that isn't broken!" I say, while throwing my hands up into the air. "It makes sense, maybe I can start a fire or something..." I say, while lowering my hands and head in defeat, before slowly walking away, feet dragging through the sand, when something catches my eye. "Huh? Is that a... guitar?" I say, before walking over to the relatively small pile it's in, picking it up and examining it, finding that It's completely wrecked, the board and actual instrument being shattered apart, likely from it being smashed into the ground. "Don't even know why this is here, but It's trash now. Always wanted to play in instrument too." I say, before tossing it back in the pile and moving on with my scavenging.

Soon, I stumble upon a massive pile, far, far higher then any of the other ones, and the most prominent item I see in the piles are... "Clothes... this pile is full of clothes, ink tanks, and weaponry..." I say, a look of horror appearing on my face. "They didn't even give them a burial with all their stuff, they just... tossed it out." I say, with a look of disgust forming across my face. "I'll just... take 4 ink tanks and get out of here..." I say with tears forming in my eyes, while hanging my head down in shame. "Just, I wish they would honor the dead more..." I say, while finally grabbing the 7 ink tanks I'll need to make this work, and running out of the area.

After a few more hours of work, it's finally dusk, but I have everything I need to build my sentry gun. "Geez, It's dusk already, I should probably get some shut eye." I say, while walking back over to my "house," which now looks more like a small 1 story apartment, having 3 rooms instead of just 1, although each room is still very small. "It's not much, but It's mine, and for now, at least? It's the best I've got." I say, with a smile growing across my face, while I lay on my back, staring up at the stars. "It... It's been a long road, to say the least. I did something I shouldn't of, and now I'm on the run, presumably for life. But I know that I can't give up. I need to keep on going. For Lucille, Tyrone and all of the other dead octolings, I will carry on their legacy, and one day, hopefully kill that agent once and for all." I say, while shutting my eyes, and clenching a fist, ready to face whatever comes next in life. Soon, I'm drifting off into sleep, ready for whatever nightmare I may have.

Yawn. "I think I'll play some turf war today, haven't in a while, and maybe I can learn how to use a shooter properly." I say, while quickly running into deca tower, getting ready to play a match. "Sure, It's the first weapon type anyone plays, but I most definitely wasn't good with it." I say, with a look of embarrassment appearing on my face, before I quickly queue into a turf war match on Kelp Dome. "This is one of my favorite maps for turf war, glad other people also enjoy it, or else it'd be hard to get any sort of mode here." I say, before I'm quickly brought to the respawn kettle.

Soon, I'm in the match, giving a quick "Booyah!" to my teammates, which they quickly return. Then we're off, turfing ground and quickly moving up to middle. I'm using the custom splattershot jr. while my teammates are using 3 Kensa Splattershot Jr's. We very quickly take the lead, as we start to spawn camp the enemy, when suddenly, the music glitches out in the last minute, and instead of hearing the normal music, I start to hear Octavio's music, slowly worming it's way into my mind. 

But, instead of crawling onto the ground, and quickly covering my ears while crying like I used to... I start to remember the Calamari Inkantation, and slowly hum it under my breath, to try and counteract his horrid music. And, to my surprise... it actually works. The music slowly recedes into nothingness, while the actual Calamari Inkantation slowly fades in, becoming louder and louder, as I slowly start to dance along, feeling myself dance in-sync with the beat, dancing all around the stadium, as everyone still disappeared, I can truly dance my heart out, and finally be rid of Octavio's influence once and for all.

"I'm free. I'm finally free from him. No longer will I mope around, and wallow in my own sorrow." I say, with a smile growing across my face. "It's time for me to move on, and start a new chapter in my life." I say, while slowly closing my eyes...

And quickly opening them, while slowly walking out of my house, seeing it's dawn again. "A brand new day, maybe today I'll work on furniture." I say, while slowly stretching out my legs and arms. "Yeah, I'll decorate today. After, of course, I build my sentry gun." I say, while pulling out my welding tools, my wrench and a hammer.

"Phew, doing this is hard work, really miss those fancy tools I had." I say, while finishing up the tri-pod base of the sentry gun, making sure to attach the 3 ink tanks to the bottom of it. "Knowing the ins and outs of those things really comes in handy, know it'll suck in ink from below it instead of doing nothing." I say, before moving over to my other supplies. "Now, to make the main part of the sentry." I say, while picking them all up.

"Alright, now it's time for the finishing touches." I say, while picking up some old paint and a paintbrush I found in the scrapyard, before moving over to my completed sentry gun, 4 ink tanks sticking out the back, while the 2 heavy splatlings rest comfortably on the side. "I think a red base would look amazing on this, while blue heavy splatlings would add some contrast." I say, while slowly painting the base of the sentry red, not being very delicate, just wanting it done. "Alright, time for the splatlings." I say, before picking up 2 buckets of paint, and dumping them on the ends of each one. "And they said laziness will never get you far, this worked just fine!" I say, while a smile forms across my face.

"Alright, now It's time to check if everything works right." I say, while setting up my sentry gun outside, making sure everything works right, which it does. "Yep, everything is working fine, time to go look for decorations."

"Nothing but some scraps, huh? Guess they throw away all the materials they want, but nothing the decorative." I say, while slowly walking through all the piles, trying to find something to use as decorations in my house.  "Who knows, maybe I could've used that broken guitar as one." I say, cracking a small smile at my joke. "But seriously, I know we didn't have many decorations, but there's literally nothing here." I say, while hanging my head down low.

"Geez, 3 hours and I haven't found a single thing, even after my water break." I say, while sitting down and taking a small rest, before I spot something in the bottom of a pile. "Is.. is that an inkling plush?" I say, with a look of confusion on my face. "How did this even get here? this stuff was never allowed in octo canyon, and nobody had the means to get it anyways..." I say, pondering how the INKLING plush made it into the OCTOLING junkyard. "Eh, some scavenger probably stumbles across this and threw it in, and decoration is decoration." I say, before taking the inkling plush with me into my house. 

After a while, I'm digging through what feels like the 100th trash pile today, as all I've found for decoration is the inkling plush and a few weapons, specifically an octoshot, splat charger and N-Zap 83. "Nothing, again." I say, a defeated look appearing on my face. "I've probably found all the decoration in this junkyard anyways, might as well head back home for the night." I say, before quickly jogging back home before it becomes too dark, as I can see the sun start to set over the horizon. "Y'know, if I wasn't on the run and hiding for my life... this would be pretty beautiful, and I'd probably enjoy it until the sun fully set." I say, a somber smile growing across my face.

"This day felt short. But, I guess that's what ends up happening when you spend it doing the same repetitive task over and over again." I say, while laying down under my blanket, pillow under my head. "I only wish that entire encounter with that little girl never happened." I say, before slowly heading off into a dreamless sleep, prepared for whatever tomorrow may bring.