An Octarian Princess

Beyond the sea

Chugging along the railways of the DeepSea Metro, Naida fidgeted with one of the buckles on her boot. She was now officially not single, and it was even more motivation to get out of here, wherever here was. It almost reminded her of the few mentions of humans during her education. Sure, Octarian knowledge on humans and their ways of life were limited, now nearly gone because of the great turf war. But still, in the few journals she'd read by them, after learning the languages they were in, seriously, what was even the deal with Japanese? Or was it Korean? Either way it was a pain.

"Hey, sweetheart, here's our stop." 401 put a hand on her shoulder to snap her out of whatever daze she was in.

401 was still worried about Naida, from what she'd gathered from Octavio. Someone had taken her, and messed her up pretty badly. She hadn't known Naida for very long, but she was Tavi's daughter, she couldn't just let her flounder. Plus, Naida had even managed to help her with the help of DJ Hyperfresh, or Marina. The names seemed to be going back and forth.

"Oh, coming 401." Naida said, getting up from her seat, and then stretched

"What's this station called?" Cap'n Cuttlefish asked

"Uhhh, lemme check again." 401 looked back at the projected screen again "B26 Confusin' illusions station." She said

"Quite the name." Cap'n replied

"It'll get us one step closer to the next line, or our first thing." Naida said "and that's all that matters."

"I'll be here. Take your time." Cap'n said

With a brisk wave the two stepped off and scanned in. The weapons load out popped up with a white crossed out circle.

"No main or subs. That's a bad sign." 401 said

"Maybe we have to collect them ourselves? I've done a few training ops like that before. This place seems a lot like one weird dilapidated boot camp." Naida replied

"We'll find out, sweetie. Now c'mon." The older octoling said as she pressed onward, shooting herself forward out of the gate after paying her fee

Naida did the same. Although, when she saw 401 go through, they seemed to be in some large cube, when Naida shot herself through, the structure shifted, causing her to be separated from her companion.

"401? You ok?" Naida shouted

"Fine, sweetie! See if you can find something to get out of there!" 401 yelled back.

The thick glass between them already made it hard to hear, trying to see the other was also impossible as the glass was tinted a deep black. Naida placed her hand on it, hoping that 401 was ok. She hadn't seen any kind of threat when going forward. Although you hardly ever could, usually going to fast. Looking to her left she found an unactivated switch. That should at least do something, Naida was then snapped out of her thoughts by a slight thunk from 401's side of the glass.

"401!" She yelled

Silence followed.

"Crud...Okuto!" Naida shouted again, hoping to get some kind of response "Marina? Can you see if 401's ok? Wait, Marina? Pearl? Cap'n? ...Dad?"

Something had blocked out her friends. That definitely hadn't happened before. Naida could feel the panic setting in. But she had that switch, so, what time better than now to go see what it did? Naida swallowed her fear and walked out and stepped on it. Then darkness followed.

Naida opened her eyes and was back in Octopia Palace's throne room. Although she wasn't on her throne, that honor went to Dr. Gros. The already dark room was tinted further by the pair of hypnoshades across her eyes. Panic started welling up in her, especially when in a kneeling position looking extremely beat up, was Agent 4. His mouth was moving, but Naida couldn't hear him over the pounding of her heart.