Rain poured down upon Octo Canyon and Octo Valley mercilessly. It was the biggest rain both areas had seen all year. Jewel stared out the window, thinking of how she and Autumn had to leave Derek behind in the evil Octolings' clutches.
"Ugh!" she exclaimed, throwing her head back. "When is this rain going to end?"
"It's been raining since yesterday," Autumn said grimly. "We haven't even gotten a chance to try to go rescue Derek."
"We can't even sneak into their city and plan anything," moaned Jewel.
"I know things look bad," Cuttlefish said from his old recliner chair, "but we can't give up hope. Derek will be okay. If anything, they'd use him as bait for a trap."
"Is that supposed to make us feel better?" asked Autumn.
"What I'm trying to say is, he's way too valuable for them to just execute. If he dies, they lose any advantage they have over us."
Derek sighed as lay in his solitary confinement cell. It was dark, and he could barely see anything that wasn't lit up by his Hero Mindset. Down the hall, he heard a door unlock, followed by a scream. Derek sat up.
"No, no, no, no, no! Not me! NOT ME!" wailed a voice. Derek crawled to his cell's solid metal door, pressing his ear to it. The begging became inaudible as whoever it was had been taken from the prison. Derek sat back and blinked, wondering what he had just heard.
The green Inkling boy found himself not only rudely awakened that morning but taken into what the prisoners referred to as the "Room of No Return." Anyone who was taken here was never seen again, and no one knew what became of the Inklings and prisoner Octolings who were brought here. The boy's arms were strapped to a chair that was bolted to the floor. He struggled against the straps as Skylar Rose and Phoenix entered, along with a few of their Octolings.
"Did Dylan do the adjustments to the goggles?" Skylar Rose asked Phoenix, who nodded as he handed her a pair of metal goggles with small glowing purple dots for eyeholes.
"Yes," replied Phoenix. "They should work now." Skylar Rose approached the trembling Inkling with the goggles.
"Hold still now," she said as the boy stared at her with terrified eyes. Skylar Rose slipped the goggles over his head. Phoenix flipped a switch. There was an electric crackling noise from the goggles and sparks popped and flew everywhere. The boy yelled. Skylar Rose frustratedly raised a hand, and Phoenix flipped the switch off. The boy went limp, with shallow breathing. Smoke from the goggles gently rolled off of his face. Skylar Rose gently lifted the goggles up and looked the boy in the eyes.
"Another failure," she groaned, throwing her hands in the air as she turned around to face Phoenix. Phoenix's Octolings hid behind him out of fear of his sister. Skylar Rose looked back at the boy, who had now regained control of his eyes and was staring at her in fear.
"What do we do with this one?" one of Phoenix's Octolings asked with a scared gulp.
"Take him to the sector where we put the prisoners for experiments. He can be in the next batch of ones we throw into the arena or whatever." Skylar Rose touched her silver toothpick, and two of her Octolings unstrapped the stunned and slightly singed Inkling and hauled him off to another cell to keep quiet about their projects.
"I...I thought we had it this time for sure," sighed Phoenix, as his Octolings quietly slipped out of the room, in case Skylar Rose decided to reassimilate one of them out of fury.
"The upgraded artificial goggles are still a work in progress unfortunately," Skylar Rose said with a distinct tone of disappointment and frustration. She shrugged. "We must keep trying. A way to upgrade our artificials would greatly increase our odds of success for an invasion of the surface." Phoenix nodded.
"In the meantime, we do have the little manner of our special prisoner."
"Ah yes, Agent 5." Skylar Rose was thoughtful for a moment. "I want to know what he can do. And I have a very special Octoling for that job."
Kelly stepped off the subway train and looked at her phone before putting it back in her pocket. Magenta-colored civilians turned their heads as she passed. It wasn't unusual for a GenMo Octoling to venture out outside of the army headquarters, typically in armor, but the sight of a non-magenta Octoling was still hard for some to grasp. Kelly, however, had plans other than getting stared at by strangers. She was headed to a small farm.
The farmhouse door opened. Kelly entered.
"I'm home!" she called into the house. No answer. The Octoling heard the faint sounds of an anime opening playing. Kelly crept around the corner, spotting a young boy on his bed with an old laptop. She grinned mischievously, quietly shifting into her Inkling form as ink swirled around her. The boy was too engrossed in his show to notice the indigo Inkling sneaking up on him. Kelly grabbed him by the shoulders from behind and gave him a quick shake.
"GRAAAHH!" she yelled frighteningly. The boy screamed and whipped around. Kelly burst out laughing.
"Kelly!" the boy exclaimed in annoyance. "You know I hate it when you do that!"
"I'm sorry, Matthew," Kelly said, wiping away a tear from her laughter as ink swirled around her as she shifted back into her original Octoling form. "I heard Attack on Kraken playing and couldn't resist." Kelly's younger brother rolled his eyes and went back to watching the anime. Kelly got on the bed with him and leaned over to watch as well.
"Which episode is this?" she asked.
"The Soldier and the Inkling," Matthew replied. "The one where the lost brigade captures the Inkling Kraken."
"Oh yeah, I love that one!" Kelly said. The two of them watched the anime for a bit.
"Look out! Here comes the Kraken!" one of the characters called out before a massive Kraken tentacle slammed down on the fort's wall. Another character used a Zipcaster to fly in front of the Kraken's face to distract it, firing a shot of ink in its eye. The Kraken roared in agony before falling over the fort's walls and transforming back into an unconscious Inkling.
"It's down!" a third character yelled. A group of the main characters ran over to the Inkling, who was starting to come to.
"They're..." began one of the characters.
"...just like us," Kelly quoted. Matthew side-eyed her and rolled his eyes.
"That part's so dumb," he said. "Inklings are nothing like us."
"I don't know," said Kelly. "They're quite fascinating once you get to know them."
"I disagree. Remember what Agent 4 did to Octopolis City, which caused everyone to move here to Takoyaki Town?"
"Yeah, but that Agent 4 is dead. There's a new Agent 4 now - one who's inexperienced in battle." Kelly playfully nudged Matthew. "And next year you'll be joining me in the army against the Inklings." Matthew hung his head, took a breath, then looked at Kelly.
"About that..." Kelly frowned.
Two adult Octolings were out tending to the wasabi field outside the farmhouse. Kelly exited the house, walking up to the field's fence. Matthew stood in the house's doorway, watching from a distance. One of the Octolings in the field looked up.
"Kelly," he said. "We weren't expecting you."
"Mom, Dad," Kelly began, "is it true you're not planning on letting Matthew join me in the army?" Kelly's parents looked at each other and hesitated.
"Look, sweetheart," Kelly's mom began. "We love you, but..."
"We don't want Matthew to...become like you," finished Kelly's dad. Kelly flinched.
"Wh...what?"
"Look, Kelly. We love you - very much," said her mom insistently. "But, uhh..." She looked at her husband. "How should we put this?"
"It's not you, we promise," said her dad. "It's your...modifications. We don't want Matthew to become a monster."
"You...you think I'm a monster?" Kelly asked, blinking back tears as best as she could.
"Well, not necessarily," her dad quickly said. "It's not just us too."
"While the entirety of Takoyaki Town is grateful you lobbied for His Highness DJ Octavio to not develop over our precious farmlands when Octopolis City fell and this ended up being the only dome available to expand urban and city development upon, the local community is - how do I say this - utterly freaked out by your shapeshifting, to put it mildly," her mom added, not mincing any words.
"Your other form is the one of our enemy, after all," Matthew added. Kelly looked back at him with a hurt expression.
"Look, if Matthew does end up joining the army, it won't be with you," reassured Kelly's mom. "It would hopefully be in a squadron that doesn't involve insane genetic modifications."
"We also don't think you should be stopping by anymore," added Kelly's dad. "Everyone gets on edge because of your shapeshifting, and some believe that if you turned into your Inkling form, you'd - how do I say this nicely? - kill everyone, or at least until you were stopped. I mean, look at what Agent 4 did! That was catastrophic!" Kelly hung her head.
"I, um..." She wiped a tear away. "I'll stay away from now on."
"That's our girl!" praised her dad.
"We'll definitely be certain to visit you in the city the next time we drop off our wasabi delivery," her mom said in a very unconvincing voice. Kelly said nothing, but turned and walked away. She looked back briefly at Matthew, whose face was hard to read, before beginning the trek back to the subway station.
"Hey, stranger," greeted Morgan as Kelly entered the New Octopolis City army headquarters. "How's the fam?"
"What family?" Kelly asked glumly.
"Oh no," Morgan said with a frown. "They gave you the boot, didn't they?" Kelly nodded her head quietly, sniffling and wiping away a tear. "Hey, hey, hey. Don't cry. It's going to be okay." Morgan patted her on the back. "You've got me, and your squad. And I guess also Monica's squad, since you two are on kinda friendly terms now. And- OH COD." Morgan quickly jumped behind a startled Kelly, using her as a kind of shield as Skylar Rose approached the two Octolings.
"Greetings, Number 6," said the one-eyed Octoling. Skylar Rose shifted her gaze to Morgan, who gulped. "Greetings, Number 15. Have you caused any more food fights in the cafeteria lately? Spray-painted your name onto DJ Octavio's ink tub while he was sleeping perhaps? Rebelliously jaywalked and spat chewing gum on the sidewalks for unsuspecting innocent civilians to step on?" She leaned in close and whispered in a low voice, "Maybe flirted with girls?"
"Hey, I flirt with boys too," Morgan snapped, suddenly no longer acting afraid of Skylar Rose. Kelly looked back at her with a raised eyebrow.
"When did you spray-paint Octavio's tub?"
"That's not why I'm here," said Skylar Rose, standing back straight up. She looked at Kelly. "I need someone to gauge Agent 5's abilities. You know, see what he can do."
"M-me?" gasped Kelly. "Why?"
"You lead a squadron of shapeshifters who have already tricked him once. I want him to be battled against in the arena, and - seeing as you have kinda already fought him - I want you to face off against him."
"Is this some kind of experiment?" asked Kelly.
"You could say that, yes," replied Skylar Rose, with a slight nod of her head. "I want you - and you alone, Number 6 - to fight him." Kelly's eyes lit up. She finally had a chance to study an enemy Inkling up close!
Derek stirred at the sounds of footsteps approaching his cell. The door opened slightly, and a purple eye peered in.
"Hello, Agent 5," came Kelly's voice. Derek angled his head to try to get a better view of his captor.
"...Uhh, hi?" he said. Kelly opened the door wider and casually leaned on the doorframe.
"Enjoying your stay?" she asked. Her Dualie Squelchers hung on either side of her waist.
"No," Derek replied, unamused. He stood up.
"Hmm, straightforward. I like that." Kelly pushed the door open more and entered the cell. "I'm going to take you somewhere. We can do this the easy way, where you come willingly, or-" She held up a pair of handcuffs with a kind of chain extension for leading a prisoner around places. "-we can do this the hard way." Derek thought for a moment.
"How about-" He darted for the door. Kelly promptly grabbed him by the back of his suit's collar as he passed her and flipped him onto his back, knocking the wind out of him. "Worth a shot," breathed Derek as he sat up.
"Hard way it is then," Kelly said as she handcuffed him. The two left the cell, and Derek began to realize how cold it was. He shivered.
"Why is it so cold?"
"Usually the reason is energy preservation," Kelly explained. "We lower the temperature at night to save what little energy we have for the day. Every house, apartment, condo, hotel, etc., is provided with enough energy to keep it warm at night. For the prison here, everyone has a heated blanket. We, uh, learned the hard way that Inklings can't handle the extreme cold." Derek suddenly imagined Inklings slowly freezing solid from within and shuddered at the thought. "Don't worry, they did defrost once they were warm enough," Kelly quickly told him before adding under her breath, "Most of them did at least..."
"Why didn't I get a blanket?" Derek asked.
"Solitary confinement is climate controlled. Some Octoling prisoners have gotten desperate for a way out in the past."
"So they-" Derek made a motion of covering his mouth and nose with an imaginary blanket, then looked at Kelly, who nodded with a grim look. "Ohhh."
"As soon as we realized what was happening, no more blankets for solitary," Kelly said. "We also stopped putting Inklings in solitary as well. Now it's for the worst rule-breaking offenders in the army." She made an unamused face. "Morgan actually gets put in there frequently."
"Where are we going?" Derek asked. Kelly opened the door to the arena.
"To the arena to do a little...'experiment' with you."
Meanwhile, down in the arena, Victor and Veronica were currently fending off a half dozen artificials.
"I did not think that Liam guy was going to use us as entertainment today for," Victor grumbled as he splatted a couple of them with a borrowed Heavy Splatling Deco.
"Me neither," Veronica said as she dumped a mess of ink from her borrowed Slosher Deco onto another artificial, splatting it, "but we're almost done." The two uneventfully splatted the last three, and Liam suddenly appeared in the arena behind them.
"Well done, you two," he said, clapping his hands. Victor and Veronica jumped and turned around. "That's enough fun for today. Allow me to take you back to your cell." The two Inklings rolled their eyes but followed the yellow Octoling - they didn't really have a choice otherwise. As they exited the arena itself, the trio happened to pass Kelly and Derek. To Victor and Veronica, Derek was just a weirdly dressed Inkling, probably into some new fashion trend they missed while being in captivity. To Derek, he recognized them immediately.
"Wait, I know them," he said to Kelly as she unlocked his handcuffs. "That's Victor Blackbelly and Veronica Humpback. They're both extremely wealthy."
"Number 8 and her two underlings brought them back last week," Kelly said as they entered the arena itself.
"Yeah, that's around the time they were reported missing. It was a huge national deal too." Kelly pressed a couple of buttons on a keypad as Derek studied the arena. A weapons rack suddenly popped up from the floor. Derek jumped, not expecting it to appear right behind him. The familiar yellow of his Hero Shot caught his eye. Kelly removed it from its place on the rack.
"We didn't have anywhere special prepared to put it, so we left it in here," she explained, looking the weapon over. She held it out for Derek to take. "Promise me you're not going to use the kill switch. Mostly because I don't think I'd like being shot, but also because we have artificials armed with Chargers and programmed to instantly begin shooting at the sound of piercing ink ammo getting fired." Derek looked up at the artificials standing perfectly still around the rows of seating with their Chargers, having not noticed them before, as Kelly leaned in close. "And they don't stop until the source is splatted or dead," she added in a whisper. Derek took his Hero Shot.
"Promise me you won't use any piercing ink ammo yourself and we have a deal," he said.
"I promise I don't, mainly because of the artificials." Suddenly Kelly went from 0 to 100 and began firing ink at Derek, who dodged it last second. He fired ink at Kelly, who skillfully dodge-rolled out of the way and unleashed a barrage of ink. Kelly rolled a Splat Bomb at Derek's feet. Derek leapt out of the way just before it went off. He landed awkwardly and fell backwards, his Hero Shot slipping out of his grasp. Derek reached back for it but froze as he saw Kelly running towards him ninja-style. She jumped up into the air and front-flipped towards him. The Octoling landed right in front of him, pointing one of the Dualies directly at his face. Derek gasped and shielded his face with one hand, closing his eyes and bracing for his life to end as he recalled their first meeting at Octo Canyon. He felt the Dualie's muzzle touch his nose.
"Boop." Derek opened his eyes and looked at his nose, going cross-eyed, before looking up at Kelly. Kelly was smiling at him playfully.
"What," was all the baffled Inkling could say.
"Did you really think I was going to splat you?" Kelly asked.
"Well, uh...yeah."
"C'mon, 5," she said, taking his hand and helping him up. "You're way too valuable alive than dead." Both cephalopods looked down and realized they were still holding hands. Awkwardly they let go of each other and looked away with a slight blush in their faces and their tentacles' tips momentarily turning an embarrassed pink. Derek's stomach growled, interrupting the moment.
"Oh yeah," he said, grabbing it. "I haven't eaten for two days."
"Well, let's get that taken care of then," Kelly said with a small giggle. "I know where we can get something. It may not be to your liking though, just as a warning."
"Better than nothing." As Derek willingly followed Kelly to the exit, Daisy and a couple of her Octolings observed from the announcers' platform in the arena.
"Hmm," said the orange Octoling with a smug look. "This could get interesting."
"Here," Kelly said, handing Derek a packet of seaweed jerky. "Seaweed jerky. It's not much."
"Thank you," Derek said, taking the packet and opening it. He took out a piece and thankfully munched on it. The two cephalopods sat on the roof of the arena, gazing out over the city. The screens around the dome were a light gray, reflecting the storm outside, pummeling the surface with heavy rain.
"I worry for my friends, the other agents," Derek said with a frown as he stared at the overcast screens. Kelly turned to him.
"What are they like? Agents 3 and 4?" she asked.
"I'm not sure how much I should say," replied Derek, looking down at his packet of seaweed jerky.
"It's okay," said Kelly. "I get it. Secret agent stuff." She looked out into the distance and pointed. "You see that farmland area? Waaaay out there?"
"Yeah," replied Derek. "I noticed it yesterday."
"My house is there." Kelly looked at Derek. "You see, unlike a lot of the other Octolings, I'm from here. This dome used to be called Takoyaki Town. It was a farming community that provided food for every Octoling dome..."
It was an early morning, and Kelly's family was out tending to the wasabi field. The rattling of transport trains echoed throughout the dome, and everyone looked up to see dozens of long subway trains rolling into the station. It was this morning that Kelly knew her life would never be the same.
"...City buildings and neighborhoods rapidly went up, and the dome was expanded greatly to be able to fit several million of us instead of a few thousand. Our farms were threatened, and to save the only food source for our people from being developed over, I was sent with a few other Octolings to infiltrate a crowd of youth attending a speech by DJ Octavio in order to lobby to save the farmland. I ended up volunteering to become the sixth genetically modified Octoling solider in existence instead that day. But that fact helped when I did go to confront DJ Octavio about sparing the farmland from development. He listened thankfully, and the last piece of what was once Takoyaki Town - the farmlands - was saved." Kelly looked down sadly, wrapping her arms around her knees. "And today, I was told by my own parents and brother to not visit our home on those farmlands anymore. Because they see me as a monster." Derek frowned compassionately.
"I don't think you're a monster," he said, touching Kelly's shoulder. Kelly shifted her eyes to meet his. "I mean, yeah, the shapeshifting thing is...different, but it doesn't make you a monster."
"You really think so?" Kelly asked, looking at him.
"I do," replied Derek with a soft smile. Kelly smiled back at him. "I do want to know one thing, however."
"Oh? And what's that?"
"Most Octolings seem to use an Octo Shot along with their main weapon, yet you seem to only use the Dualie Squelchers. Why is that?"
"Oh, that," Kelly said with a smile. "Well, I guess I relate to them a bit. They used to be one weapon - the Dual Squelcher." She took her Dualies and put their bases together with a small click. "But now they're two different weapons. Just like how I used to be one thing, but now I'm two things - an Octoling and an Inkling." Kelly took the Dualies apart with another click and laid them down beside her.
"Huh," said Derek. "I guess that makes sense. Well, since you told me about you, I guess it's only fair I tell you about me..."
The Inkling doctor shook his head grimly.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Cephan," he said. "It's terminal. There's nothing we can do." 10-year-old Derek looked up at his mother, who hung her head with a vacant look in her eyes. He wasn't aware of what "terminal" meant at the time, but going by the expressions of his mother and older siblings, it couldn't have meant something good.
"Be honest with me," said Caroline, raising her head after a moment. "How long do I have?"
"What you have is something that you'll be able to live with for a good while, maybe five to seven years," replied the doctor. "You'd never be able to live on your own or take care of your children again however - the stress could speed up the process. Most people who have been diagnosed with this who have young children-" He gestured to Derek. "-often have their children move in with another family member or someone who can take them in and raise them. In the most extreme cases, they've...put their children up for adoption." The doctor took off his glasses and looked away. "My own father did this to me and my brother when he was diagnosed. Of course, he was in the final extreme stages of this illness and there was no family in the country who could take us in before he passed, so I can't hold it against him. He was a man practically on his deathbed who was desperate to give his two sons a future." Caroline began to cry.
"I can't let my kids be separated," she sobbed into her hands in despair.
"Mom, it's going to be okay," Derek's oldest sister Stacy told her, taking her hand. "I'll take care of you."
"And I can take in Derek," offered Kevin, Derek's older brother. "I have my own place - he'd be safe, close by, and still in the family." Derek remained quiet, not understanding the eventual consequences of moving in with Kevin while being named after their father.
"...Eventually, after I moved in, my brother began to show his true colors," Derek continued, holding his right forearm. "Started pushing me to master my Swim Form before I turned 14. It led to heated arguments and 'punishment.' This isn't something I talk about a lot. I might've mentioned it to Agent 3 maybe once when we first met, and even she doesn't know the whole story. Heck, I think you're the first person I've really delved into my past with." Kelly looked at him compassionately.
"I...I had no idea you went through all of that," she said after a moment. "I'm so sorry."
"And just like the doctor, I can't blame Kevin for his actions," Derek said with a sigh. "Our father was an awful man who took all of his anger out on either Kevin, Stacy, or our mom. I was named after our dad, so naturally Kevin would take his anger out on me."
"That's still not right of him at all."
"No, it's not, and I don't think I can ever forgive him for it. But I don't think holding a grudge against him for what our dad did to him first is right. The cycle of hatred has to end at some point with someone." Derek looked at Kelly. "I think if it wasn't for our dad, we'd be close brothers. That's what I tell myself, at least." The gray clouds in the screens began to part slightly, and light from the false sunset poked through. Both cephalopods watched the screens ahead of them turn vibrant hues of pink, yellow, and orange.
"It's beautiful," Derek said.
"It's not as great as the real thing I assume, but it's close enough," Kelly replied. She put her hand on his, and the two of them watched as the "sun" began going down. Derek blinked into the "sun" as he noticed an area without any screens. There were several Octolings working on the barren earth behind the screens.
"What's going on down there?"
"Oh, dome expansion," Kelly replied, squinting into the "sun." "Every now and then, we need to do construction on the dome to make more room. There are a lot of us packed in here, after all." Derek nodded, but felt something was off about the explanation.
Daisy danced into Dylan's workspace, humming to herself. Dylan looked back at her with a slightly annoyed look.
"Do you mind?" he asked. "I'm trying to work on these goggles."
"Kelly's in loooove," Daisy said in a singsongy voice.
"Oh yeah? With who?"
"Agent Fiiiive," the orange Octoling replied with a mischievous grin.
"WHAT?" Dylan and Liam exclaimed at the same time. Dylan turned around and screamed at Liam.
"How long have you been there?!" the tall purple Octoling demanded.
"For like an hour," Liam replied, leaning against the wall like nothing happened.
"What's this I hear about a squadron leader in love?" Everyone jumped at the sound of Skylar Rose's voice as she entered with Phoenix behind her.
"Kelly's in love with Agent 5," Daisy explained, and she mentioned what she had seen in the arena.
"That is unacceptable," Phoenix said from behind his sister. "Although not surprising seeing as Morgan is her informant. Perhaps her behavior has rubbed off on her superior?"
"Unlikely," Skylar Rose replied. She looked at Dylan. "Kelly has always had a weird fascination with Inklings. It was only a matter of time before she became a squid-lover herself. Are the goggles ready?"
"Almost finished," replied Dylan.
"Good. I think I know who we should test them on next tomorrow..."
Derek awoke to the sound of his cell door opening the next morning. He expected to see Kelly's face. But it was not Kelly.
"Get up," came a rough voice as Derek was grabbed by his Hero Suit's collar and forced to his feet. Derek looked at his captors as they led him out of the cell. Two tough-looking masculine Octolings escorted him to a sector of the prison he hadn't been to before. In this sector, curious Inkling and Octoling prisoners poked their heads out to see what was going on. They all looked scared. Derek realized he needed an opportunity to escape. Without much planning, he headbutted the Octoling escort to his right in the jaw. The Octoling reeled back, holding his jaw in pain. The other Octoling went to punch Derek, who ducked just in time, resulting in the second Octoling punching the first Octoling in the face. Derek fled as the two Octolings began fighting each other behind him. The orange Inkling felt the eyes of every prisoner on him as he ran, looking around for an exit to the prison. A hand reached out and grabbed his ankle, tripping him. Derek looked back at his saboteur, the green Inkling who had been taken to the Room of No Return the day before.
"You gotta help me!" he begged Derek, who struggled to free his ankle from his grasp. "They have some kind of special mind control goggles that connects you to some kind of main computer system! You won't believe what I've seen!" Derek freed his ankle at last and stood up, seeing the fear in the other boy's eyes.
"What did you see?" he asked.
"Inklings!" the boy exclaimed, grabbing the ink-proof cell bars and pressing his face against them to get closer to Derek. "They're all Inklings!"
"Who's all Inklings?" Derek asked.
"There he is!" a GenMo Octoling yelled from down the corridor as the two escorts and a handful of more Octolings sprinted towards Derek. Derek would have to learn who was "all Inklings" another time - he just knew he needed to get out of there now! He dashed around the corner, looking over his shoulder at the Octolings who were chasing him down. Derek turned to face forwards again, skidding to a frightened stop. He started stopping too late though, and slammed right into a cyan Octoling. Derek fell backwards, crawling away from the one-eyed Octoling now glaring down at him. The group of Octolings chasing him finally caught up and grabbed Derek, lifting him to his feet while still holding onto him.
"I, uh- Alpha!" one of them began, scrambling for words. "We tried to remove the prisoner from his cell, but he escaped."
"No," scolded the cyan Octoling. "He outsmarted you. There is a difference between escaping and outsmarting. Learn it." She looked down at Derek. "Hello, Agent 5. At last, we meet." Derek glared up into her seeing eye and her blind eye.
"Do I know you?" he snapped.
"No," retorted the Octoling. "But your mentor, Agent 4, knew me quite well. I am Number 1, known as The Alpha. But my name prior to my genetic modifications was Skylar Rose." An orange male Octoling in a lab coat came up beside Skylar Rose.
"Number 1, Number 2," said one of the escorts, "we have reason to believe Agent 5 spoke with the test subject from yesterday. The green male Inkling." Skylar Rose looked at her brother.
"Phoenix," she said. The orange Octoling nodded in understanding, taking off his lab coat and handing it to his sister. Phoenix took an Octo Shot and a small pale-colored sharp little bullet and began to head back to the cells.
"No!" Derek yelled after him. "He- he never told me anything!" Skylar Rose turned his face back to force him to look up at her.
"Awww," she said, squeezing his face with her hand. "Lying won't help you save anyone." Derek strained to wiggle his face out of the uncomfortable grip.
Phoenix stopped in front of the cell, and the green Inkling boy startled in fright.
"So...telling secrets, are we?" asked Phoenix, putting the piercing ink ammo into the muzzle of the Octo Shot. The boy shook his head as he backed himself up against the wall.
"N-no, I never said anything," he said. "I swear!" Phoenix looked down at the Octo Shot.
"Well then," he said, raising it up. "We'll just have to make sure you stay quiet about what you've witnessed. Besides, we can always use more artificials in our ranks."
Derek struggled against the grip of the Octolings as they led him away. There was a loud bang from around the corner, and he froze as he understood what had happened.
"It no longer matters what the Inkling told you," Skylar Rose told him tauntingly. "You've seen too much. You'd never be able to leave anyways."
"No!" Derek exclaimed, pulling against the Octolings' tight grip on his arms. They brought him to the Room of No Return and strapped him into the chair.
"What is going on here?!" Everyone turned to see Kelly as she burst the door open with an enraged expression on her face. Her purple eyes burned with fury and her indigo hair was glowing.
"Ah, Kelly," said Skylar Rose, motioning her to enter. "Come in, come in." She touched her silver toothpick. "Bring in Dylan. With the goggles." Kelly stomped in with Morgan at her heels. Derek pulled his arms against the tight straps and looked at her with terror on his face.
"What is the meaning of this?" demanded Kelly. Just then, one of Skylar Rose's Octolings and Dylan entered holding the pair of goggles, with the other squadron leaders and a few of their underlings curiously trailing the two of them.
"Alpha, the goggles," Dylan said, handing them to Skylar Rose. Kelly pushed aside several Octolings, including Monica, Alecs, and Kimberly, to get to Skylar Rose and Derek.
"Why are you doing this?" she demanded angrily, gesturing to Derek. Skylar Rose turned to the furious Octoling, whose indigo hair was still glowing.
"You're just in time for the new artificial goggles. We're about to run the final test," the cyan Octoling replied with a sly grin.
"On him?"
"I don't see why not. After all, in the last few minutes, he's seemed to have learned quite a bit about our operations. Imagine if he got free! Even if he doesn't have the full puzzle, he has enough pieces to figure it out, either on his own or with the rest of the New Squidbeak Splatoon. He'll help bring us down." Skylar Rose leaned in close to Kelly's face. "This has to be done."
"You...you can't do this," Kelly whispered in a low voice, her voice breaking as a lump rose in her throat. Skylar Rose grinned with a sinister expression, and Derek's eyes shifted from Skylar Rose to Kelly.
"What's the matter?" Skylar Rose asked in a low voice. "Don't want to harm your new BOYFRIEND?" Kelly's hair dimmed, and her eyes shifted from her superior to Derek, her enraged expression turning into a fearful one. Octolings behind her began murmuring. Kelly glanced fearfully back at them before looking back at Skylar Rose. She didn't want her loyalty to the Octarian Empire questioned - no Octoling did, especially a GenMo one. Skylar Rose held out the goggles.
"Do it. Put it on him." Kelly raised a hand to take them, but hesitated. She looked again at Derek, who looked back at her. Both of them were terrified. Tears formed at Kelly's eyes as she took the goggles from Skylar Rose and approached Derek with them.
"I...I'm sorry," she said. Derek opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. He was too scared.
"What are you waiting for?" Skylar Rose snapped, her hand at the ready on the power switch. "Just do it already!" Kelly leaned in close to put the goggles on Derek.
"We haven't known each other very long at all, and you probably will never feel the same after this, but...I love you." Derek looked at Kelly one last time before glancing up at the goggles hovering over his head with a terrified expression. Kelly closed her eyes and turned her head away as she slipped them down over his face. She couldn't look at Derek as she did it. With twisted glee, Skylar Rose flipped the switch. Like the morning before, there was once again an electric crackling noise from the goggles, and sparks exploded everywhere. Derek screamed in pain. Electricity flashed in the faces of every Octoling present: Monica, Alecs, and Kimberly's wide-eyed expressions; Skylar Rose's wicked grin and Phoenix's unfeeling emotion; Dylan's face of horror at his creation, and Daisy and Liam's neutral expressions; and Morgan holding Kelly in her arms as tears streamed down the indigo Octoling's face.
The door to the Cuttlefish Cabin was cautiously pushed open, and Jewel and Autumn poked their heads out.
"The rain has stopped!" Jewel called back in to Cuttlefish. The old Inkling waddled outside.
"I'll go call up Agents 1 and 2," said Cuttlefish. "And maybe Sheldon as well, to let him know what's happened and that you two are at least accounted for."
"What's our plan, Jewel?" Autumn asked.
"First, wait for the Squid Sisters to get here," replied Jewel. "Then, we go get Derek."
Derek's scream began to wane as his voice grew hoarse. The flashes of electricity lessened and then stopped, and Derek's body went limp, slumping over to the side. Phoenix flipped the switch off as Skylar Rose approached Derek.
"Steady breathing," she said. "Already an improvement- oh?" The cyan Octoling took a step back as Derek's body sat up on its own, teeth gritted and head shaking as he tried to get the goggles off. With a sniffle of hope, Kelly craned her neck to see better, hoping that all was not entirely lost with the Inkling.
"Uh-uh-uh," Skylar Rose said in a low singsongy voice, shaking a finger at Derek as he briefly stopped flailing his head to rest and catch his breath. "Don't fight back. You've already lost. Just give up."
Derek was trapped in a void of darkness. He frantically looked around for a way of escape before feeling something wrapping around his ankle. The Inkling looked down at the dark tentacle grabbing him. ...No, was it a hand instead? Whatever it was, another one grabbed him. Then another. And another. Suddenly, dozens of tentacles and/or hands were grabbing him, pulling him down into the darkness. Derek struggled to free himself, straining to even get a hand free. He was now up to his chest in darkness. He was starting to struggle to breathe. Derek pulled an arm partially free and reached up into the nothingness out of panic.
"NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!" he screamed into the void just before his head went under, and his hand soon followed. Derek had been swallowed by the darkness.
Derek's head flopped to the side once more before his body robotically sat up straight and his breathing stabilized. Skylar Rose grinned sinisterly, and Kelly put her hands over her mouth so no one could hear her gasp, fresh tears welling up in her eyes. The Elite Octobeak had succeeded. They had successfully created an elite artificial.
With the rest of the New Squidbeak Splatoon reuniting with Jewel and Autumn after the storm, the plan to rescue Derek would soon be in motion. But would it be too late to save Derek from his living nightmare?