Sanitized

Chapter 26; Different

When I woke up, Elliot was awake. It was 6:00 AM, and he obviously hadn't gotten any sleep.
"Morning, sunshine." he said, "You slept for a while. What's up with that? I was bored."
"Well, turns out, that if you want to be healthy, you've got to sleep." I said teasingly.
"But I wasn't tired." Elliot said jokingly.
"Elliot, you should have woken me up, then I could have driven, and you could've gotten some sleep." I said condescendingly, "I'm not a baby, I can drive."
Elliot smiled at me, "Well, it'd be no use now, we're 15 minutes from home."
"Good. We should probably go to Cap and Marina when we get back." I said, grabbing my phone.
I texted Marina.
Hey, we're almost to Inkopolis, where are you and Cap?
Marina texted me back.
We're at the abandoned Blackbelly Skatepark, Turf War course.
Okay, we'll be there in 15.
I looked over at Elliot and said, "Marina is at an abandoned Turf War course with Cap."
"Okay, wait look." Elliot said, pointing out the window.
Outside were large smirky clouds, dropping green rain.
"What?" I said confused.
"What the heck?" Elliot said.
"What if it's the Octarians' sanitizing ink?!" I screamed, "That would explain everything."
"Yeah... it would." Elliot said.
We looked outside.
"How are we supposed to get out of the car?" Elliot asked.
"I don't know." I responded.
Elliot drove to Blackbelly Skatepark, and stopped in front of the gateway.
"There's no rain in the Turf War stages?" Elliot mindlessly asked.
"If we go quick enough we should be able to avoid the rain." I said.
Elliot nodded, and we quickly ran out the car doors, and into the course.
"Thank cod." I said, looking around.
I saw Marina and Cap sitting on one of the skating hills.
"Tres? Elliot? Thank cod!" Marina said, turning around.
We ran to the hill, and stood next to them.
"Three! Eight!" Captain Cuttlefish said, "You're here!"
"Thank goodness you guys are safe." Marina said, standing up and hugging both of us.
"We've got bad news about the others." I said, holding my hands in front of me.
"They're sanitized, aren't they..." Marina said solemnly.
"Yeah." Elliot said.
"Agent 7's ink was our only hope!" Captain said.
"You know you can call her Opal, right?" Elliot said.
"At work we call her 7." Captain said.
"Okay? Well, what are we supposed to do? There's nothing we have that can turn them back to normal." Elliot said.
"What about when I was sanitized? What did you use then?" I asked him.
"Opal's ink and mine were the same, but when we made it to the surface, Opal's ink color changed slightly. Her ink separated its bond from mine. Now, we don't have the same ink." Elliot explained.
"Well, then... WHAT ELSE CAN WE DO?!" I screamed.
"She's a little... meh today." Elliot explained to Marina and Captain.
"But seriously, what else can we do?!" I asked.
"I have no idea..." Captain said.
We all looked downward in defeat.
"Well... there is one thing." Captain said.
"You just had to make this cliche, didn't you?" I said sarcastically.
"There's said to be an ink connector." Captain said, "But the Octarian Menace owns it."
"Of course they do." Elliot said, rolling his eyes.
"You two can go get it," Captain said, pointing to Elliot and I, "and Marina and I can man it."
"Won't we have to find out which Octarian base it's in?" I asked.
"And find a way to withstand the rain?" Elliot asked.
"And get a specific weapon?" Marina asked.
"And figure out how we even keep the ink connector?" I asked.
"And-" Elliot said, but was cut off by Captain Cuttlefish saying, "You're not a Squidbeak Splatoon Agent, unless you run into things unprepared!"
The rest of us stared at him blankly.
"Um. Okay." I said unsure.
"Well, shouldn't we put on our hero suits?" Elliot asked.
"We're giving you new ones!" Marina said excitedly.
"Oh um, okay." I said, "Thank you."
"Go put em on!" Marina said, handing them to us.
"Where would we put them on?" Elliot asked, "I don't see a changing room."
"You guys can just go change on the other side of the stage." Marina said.
"Okay..." I said, embarrassed.
Me and Elliot walked over to the other end of the stage in silence.
"So, What are we supposed to do here?" Elliot asked.
"I guess I can go on one side of the pillar, and you can go on the other..." I said, still unsure.
"Sounds good." Elliot said, giving me a thumbs up. He walked over to the other side, and I walked over to my side.
After changing I said, "Hey, Elliot? You done yet?"
"Yeah. You?" Elliot said.
"Yeah." I said, coming out from behind the pillar.
We both had on black sweatshirts, gradient into green sleeves.
I had on black shorts, with punk blacks, and silver octophones.
Elliot had on black leggings, punk whites, and a golden toothpick.
"Ready for Marina to tell us, "WOW THATS SOOOO CUUUUUTE ''?'' Elliot asked, imitating Marina with a high pitched voice.
I laughed, "I'm honestly not sure."
We both laughed and walked over to Marina and Captain.
Marina dropped her shellphone.
"Oh. My. COD! That. Looks. So. CUTE!!!!" Marina squealed.
"Do you mean it? Or is it the normal squeal?" Elliot asked her.
"I mean it! It looks so fresh on you! You look so cute!" Marina said, jumping up and down.
I blushed, and looked down, as she was looking straight at Elliot.
"Tres. I didn't even see YOU! THAT IS SO FISHIN CUTE!!!!!!!!" Marina squealed, shaking me.
"Thanks?" I said, putting my hand to the back of my neck.
"ITS SO CUUUUUUUUUTE!" Marina said.
"Thanks." I said, blushing slightly. People didn't usually scream in my face about my outfit being cute.
Marina squealed, "IT LOOKS SO CUTE! Doesn't it, Elliot?"
Elliot looked at Marina, surprised, and then at me. I blushed a little more.
"You're asking me?" Elliot said to Marina, confused.
"Yeah, tell the truth!" Marina said, giving Elliot the puppy eyes.
"Yeah, I guess." Elliot said, looking away, answering Marina.
I blushed madly, and looked surprised at everyone else.
"Um, what?!" I said, looking at Marina.
"Everyone agrees! Even Elliot! You're sooooo cute!" Marina said.
I angrily looked over at Elliot. He was looking downward, and covering his face with his hands.
It was then that I remembered Isaac. Isaac's sweet smile, his bright teal eyes, his bouncy yellow tentacles. I thought more about him, the more I talked to Elliot. The way that Isaac cares about me too, and how much all of my friends cared about me.
"Thanks..." I said quietly, holding my hands behind my back, looking downward.
"Awwww, Tres!" Marina said sweetly.
I smiled and looked up at her.
Elliot was looking at me now, awkwardly, and I looked at him angrily back.
"Where are we headed first?" Elliot asked Marina and Captain.
"I was just looking it up." Marina said, pointing to her shellphone, "here."
Marina pointed to a pulsing red dot on her screen, that was pinpointed on the map as Octarian Base 11. Marina zoomed in on her screen to show pictures of the base.
"This base is different from the rest, it's got Elite Octolings and is placed on a mountain, where the weather is quite cold. Luckily, your new hero suits are insulated." Marina said.
"Here's your weapons," Captain said, handing me a silver Aerospray, and Elliot a gold Aerospray. He also handed us our ink packs, and our ink and tentacles changed to white.
"Ready?" I asked.
"Yeah." Elliot responded.
Marina and Captain nodded.
We all looked forward to the gate, solemnly.
We know the low chances of Captain's query, but we would hold onto any hope we had.
We know the possibility of the inkling race dying, but we would try to keep it alive.
We know that our friends are goners, and that they're never coming back.
We know that there's awkward tension in the air, but we let it rest peacefully.
We know the clear, adamant, chances of dying, but we don't go down not trying.
We know that there's something more to what's happening, but we need to continue.
We know the world has already died once, and doesn't want to die again.
We know that this mission could cost us more than being splatted.
We know that we are the last hope.
We know our responsibilities.
We know that the world depends on us, the odds are against us immensely, our friends are gone, we could die, and the world could too.
But as a Squidbeak Splatoon Agent, we have to thrive on hope.