Order had won.
A shock for every member of inkopolis.
Team chaos had so many people on it. So much hopes for it. Marina had to admit she was a little upset to see Pearl's disappointed face when the shocking news flashed on the screen, shown to all of inkopolis.
Team order won the final splatfest.
And while callie and Marie had grown distant, marina and pearl stayed the same. They were married and in love. Nothing could change that. Marina had already made the announcement on the news. Her version of inkopolis, was nothing but the way it's always been. Just that she wanted everyone to be treated equally. She had said this not just for her, as at that moment memories of what had happened in her first tour around inkopolis flashed through her mind, but for 8. Her daughter. And all the other octolings coming to the surface still. She wanted them to be happy here. She wanted them to come in with a warm welcome, and not live in fear. Different to how her thoughts and experiences were when she first visited the surface.
All other members of Marina's little team order squadron had gone back to their regular daily lives. Except marina, agent 3, and Marie. 8 would of joined them, but the younger octoling had insisted on taking the day to hang out with agent 4, Pearl, and the other chaos members. Marina admired her daughter's kindness.
"So, you sure you want inkopolis to stay like this?"
Marina snapped out of her thoughts at agent 3's words, giving a small smile and nodding. "Mhm. I'm positive. Inkopolis is great how it is! It's a nice city with something for everyone. I don't want to change that."
3 had her arm propped up on the table, resting her hand against it as she popped open the soda she was drinking, taking a sip before placing it down on the table of the studio. They all currently were hanging out there. "I just think you could of thought about it more. Literally this city could be however you want. But hey, your choice marina." Marie shrugged. "Personally I like Marina's choice. I think we should just celebrate our victory while we can before the salty chaos try hards ruin everything." The sentence was punctuated with an eye roll from the cuttlefish.
Marina rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Pearlie won't let that happen." Marie shrugged, leaning back in her chair. "More then half the city chose team chaos. Pearl won the popularity vote even. She can't be sure almost half the whole freaking city doesn't get out of control. Especially with the condition she's in now."
Marina sighed. It was true. After more then a day of singing non stop with the concerts in the square, and having to do thousands of killer wails in the shifty station stage, pearl was drained. Her voice blown out. She couldn't even speak, and marina had been forcing her to rest in bed, hence why team chaos was hanging out at their mansion. She had to admit though, it was cute seeing pearl and 4 talk together a bit more with sign language.
"Still. A lot more people like pearl now then they used to. If she says not to bash on our team, they'll listen." Marie rolled her eyes again. "Whatever mar." The octoling smiled slightly, before standing up. "Where are you going?" 3 asked, sitting up more slightly. "Mizuta told me before I go pick her up that there's something in the metro she left behind. Says she's too afraid to go down and get it herself." Marie nodded. "Got it. Be back soon ok?" Marina nodded as well. "Will do."
* * *
Marina slipped into the abandoned studio silently. Kamabo co had a lot of creepy stuff in its labs, but the studio Mizuta was being held captive at when she was sanitized was one of the creepiest in Marina's opinions. She made quick work of grabbing the other octoling's headphones she'd left behind, and the box of music discs. Balancing the items, marina made her way back through the corporation's rooms and back to the metro, where she took a seat and gave a friendly smile towards C.Q cumber as the train began back to the surface station. Marina nearly dropped the stuff in her arms as suddenly, the metro jerked to a halt. C.Q slithered his way towards marina, as the metro door's opened.
"We're experiencing technical difficulties. This might take a while to fix, so if you want to Mrs. Iida, you are free to wait outside in the station if you like."
"Anything I could do to help?"
"Nothing we cant handle mam!"
Marina nodded, placing the items on the seat before moving outside, curious to see which station the metro broke down at.
Ah, of course. Out of every one it had to be this one.
The familiar broken glass and plastic of the destroyed blender lied not too far form her. She was just glad 8 wasn't here to see this. Marina was about to sit down until something caught her eye.
In the distance. Behind the blender, was a telephone poll.
Marina shakily stood, quickly speeding off towards it. Once she reached the telephone, her eyes widened in disbelief.
It looked just like tartar.
But of course, there were a lot of old phone models that looked like tartar. Marina couldn't be too sure.
That is, until the phone started ringing.
Marina gave a startled yelp, jumping backwards. Curiosity taking over, she shakily outstretched her hand to grab the golden phone, only to nearly fall over in fear.
[Greetings marina Iida!]
Marina took a moment to just stare at the phone, hand over her chest as her hearts sped up faster then ever. "H.. How..? W-We killed you! 8 killed you-"
[Applicant 10008 destroyed the statue I was using to create my perfect world, as well as my other vessel. Did you honestly think my professor would of been so stupid as to only put my chip in a silly piece of scrap metal?]
Suddenly, before marina could register all this, the familiar color of teal glowing goo started bubbling out of the top of the telephone, stopping when it melted over one of it's eye looking things, a blue and green tentacle sprouting out. The tentacle was curled up, holding some kind of computer chip. Wires were attached to the chip, poking out from the top of tartar.
[My AI lies in here. The moment I realized I was drowning I simply used the tentacle to crawl out and find the tunnel I used to bring the statue up in the first place where I quickly reprogrammed myself into another model of the telephone]
Marina shuddered. "So your not actually a-"
[A telephone? No. I'm nothing but this computer chip. The tentacle is connected to the sanitization ink which is connected to the wires which is connected to the chip]
Marina nodded. Starting to understand. "Ok.. interesting. But why are.. why are you telling me all this?" Marina crossed her arms. "I can easily kill you now myself now that I know what to do."
As quick as that, tartar retracted the tentacle back into the telephone. The slime still stayed.
[Its because you are smart, Marina Iida. You creatures have curiosity and it's causing you to stay and listen to me. I am here because I heard you won the final splatfest for team order. Congratulations!]
Marina raised an eyebrow. "And?" If telephones could sigh marina imagined that's what tartar was attempting to do with the little noise he made. [Word gets around. I have been wanting to speak to you about this for a few days now, and I am fortunate your deep sea metro broke down here. Marina Iida, with splatfest law you can still change and shape inkopolis to how you see fit. Team order won, Yes. But with your opponents it might as well be team chaos has emerged victorious]
Thoroughly confused, marina lowered her crossed arms. "I.. don't understand?"
[Team chaos will probably not have it this way. With pearl unable to voice her opinions on the matter properly because of her current condition, cepholopods who only joined because of wanting chaos will rebel anyway. Try and take back what they are claiming should be their victory. Cephalopods who joined because of pearl will join in that mindset to try and impress their 'queen.' Eventually you would have to give in and surrender your victory to your co host, And with the chaotic mindsets her followers have, I believe we both know she could get carried away in the fame, putting inkopolis in danger]
Marina, in all her life, never thought she'd be finding she's agreeing with commander tartar. Still, she was suspicious. She tried to keep a stern gaze on her face as she stared the AI down. "Didn't we try to stop you from literally destroying all of inkopolis? Your just trying to get in my head so you can do it again and I refuse to listen."
[Yes and no. I was trying to destroy the current inkopolis and it's mindsets. I felt and still do feel like your species is less intelligent than the one before it, and all I wanted to do was use the knowledge my professor gave me to pass down to your species to help with this. With my sanitization formula, I can easily control any ink containing cephalopod, bringing the knowledge from my brain into their's. Of course, I'm aware you don't wish for this to happen. So I've been wanting to speak with you because I came up with a compromise]
"....which is..?"
[Let us shape inkopolis together! Bring our thoughts and opinions into one city. A team effort. I can help you secure your order. We can save inkopolis together. Your friends will be safe if you want them to be. In the end you'll still rule. Queen Marina and King TarTar. I like the sound of it. Don't you?]
Marina blinked, confused. Her mind was coming up with all sorts of scenarios.
'What if it's a trap.'
'What if he turns on me.'
'What if he's lying.'
'...what if he's not?'
Marina inhaled, glaring again. "If your tricking me I can easily just destroy your AI chip, you know that right?" TarTar did what looked like a nod. [I am fully aware. No tricks. I am true to my word] marina took a shaky breath. His words.. made sense. And maybe if she kept an eye on him, this could be his way of trying to be good. This was an opportunity for marina. And she had multiple back up plans, like just destroying tartar if this failed. Looking up at the phone, marina crossed her arms and slowly nodded.
"I accept your offer."
Meanwhile, C.Q cumber had found what was disrupting the engines of the metro.
Goo.
Teal, glowing, all too familiar, goo.