Chapter Text
She couldn’t do this. Fuck.
The stage was blinding . What used to be calm, plain concrete floors were now encompassed with rays of pink or green, watching as it’s substance hypnotizingly churned in pattern before settling, almost taking her out with it. Her face was sodden with what could’ve only been the enemy’s weaponry as she dashed behind a wall, regaining her stamina and her breath. She could hear their laughter, echoing and bouncing off each surface as their poisoned minds led them astray. It caused nausea to swim in her stomach, and she had to shake herself out of it because she has to save Inkopolis for the better. And she’d better do it now , whilst the Zapfish is, you know, alive . She’d snatched a quick break to regroup herself, reloading her dualies, although wishing she’d taken the sniper. But she didn’t have long.
Suddenly, a spark shot within her, and she lept up in the air, firing with all her might. She’d taken out at least 6 of the 10 Octolings waiting behind her already, so she only had four more. Two of them had been on the bad end of her attack, getting killed almost immediately . But she had no time to think about that - She could only keep going. Hurriedly taking out another one (with some expert dodging, if I do say so myself), she had stopped dead in front of the last one, assessing its features. How it’s mask was hung tightly on its face, almost sucking the life out of its expression, how her hair was tinted pink at the bottom, and-
In a flash, her dualies were abandoned beside her as she felt her head give a sharp crack against the concrete. Black started to invade her vision. She was out of time. It was too late.
So, she did the best thing she could’ve done, since she had no weaponry, and barely any consciousness to spare. She tried to run. Her feeble attempt was sunk even lower as she realised the ink below her wasn’t pink, it was green , and oh god , this is where she dies . But that didn’t stop her from trying. Crackled cries of distress came from deep within her headset, which was definitely broken by now, far beyond repair. She could feel her strength seeping out of her, through her blood, the sleek trail of azure leaking into the enemy’s ink, but by God did she try. The Octoling above her was chuckling at the sight, like a sick monster would it’s prey. Her head fell back weakly against the ground, and at this point, she didn’t care if ink was creeping into her skull, intoxicating her brain, because she’d failed . She’d failed Inkopolis, she’d failed Callie and Marie, Pearl and Marina.
And with that thought, she grunted weakly, and let the darkness consume her.
;-;
“Shut up, she’s probably waking up now!”
“Oh god, oh god, oh fuck, why did we do this,”
“We?! It was just Cassie, might I add-”
She’d pushed herself up, but despite her best efforts, fallen back down again onto a soft pillow, eyes still shut.
Wait. A pillow ?
Letting the light take over, she’d opened her eyes o be met with the neon strips on the walls, and three fucking Octolings staring her down, “Hey!” One of them chirped, a smile gracing their features, “We totally saved you once Cassie here called us to help,”
“Yeah, yeah, shut up,” The- Well, Cassie, as she’d found out - rolled her eyes, before adopting a regretful expression, “I am so sorry , I really didn’t want to kill you, but it just, well, you were just, and- and I-”
“I get it,” Her voice was scratchy, hoarse, from being asleep for god knows how long, “I didn't wanna either,”
“Well, what’s your name then, freshie?”
“I-It’s, uh, Sammie, I… Am I underground?”
They helped her sit up, “Yep! The Octo Grounds themselves, full of green ink and neon lights!”
Fuck , Sammie thought to herself, rubbing her head wearily, noticing one of her eyes was covered. This is where they were? “Wait, wait I need to get out of here, I need to tell Cap’n, I-”
“No no! Let’s, haha, let’s maybe not do that, huh, freshie? Maybe we should just, you know, be careful and not let people know you’re here,”
“But they’ll find you anyway! Inkopolis has the best pastoral team!” She yelped, struggling weakly against the three of them.
“Let’s get to know each other, you’re gonna be down here for a while, get used to it!” Her tone was light and carefree as she stuck a hand out, “I’m Phoenix Azura, but people call me Phoebe or just Fee!” Sammie shook her hand cautiously.
“I’m Dara Hustina, but Dot’ll do!” The second one smiled.
“And you know I’m Cassie, the reason you’re down here,” She sighed, “Look, your wound is gonna take a while to clean, Sammie, so I think, unfortunately, we’re gonna have to train you for now to look like us. And, not to brag, but I think we can do somethin’ with those… Inkling tentacles of yours,” At this, she prodded her hair, which was completely drained of colour, “You know how to change their colour? And the rod between that nose?”
“I’m not five , you just have to give me a weapon, I can do it,” She seemed surprised at the second element, “My nose?”
Fee pointed to the bridge of her nose, “Look! We don’t have any weird-conjoining bridge thing! See?”
“Some foundation will do the job,” Carrie smiled nervously, “Ready for a makeover?”
;-;
“Aaand,” Cassie gave her hair a last, sharp tug, “Tada! Good as… Well, good as you’re gonna fuckin’ get down here,”
Sammie could barely recognize herself. She had Octoling tentacles, her eye was a sharp green instead of pink, the bridge of her nose was plain and she had Octoling tentacles , “This… This will help my squid form?”
“Yep! Now we’ve changed your hair, but maybe we should check it in secret just before you go,”
When they stepped out, Sammie realised that the houses were shaped like china vases, teetering on an angle yet very against falling over. The place was rather dark, but her eyes were able to adapt. It could’ve been night, since she didn’t know what time it was, “Uh, could I have the time?”
“Oh sure! 66-past-sundown,” Dara chirped.
What.
“What,” Sammie said, pretty sure her face was that of the most bewildered anyone had ever seen.
“Oh, is your time different? We can give you a translation-watch?”
She tapped the screen of the watch, observing as it’s digits went from 66-past-sundown to 00;06 .
“Oh, sundown, like, uh, you count each minute from The hour of sundown until it rises? Well, when’s that?”
“Usually, in these months, um, 240-past?”
“So that would be four o’clock in my time,” Sammie sighed, smiling wearily when Phoenix sent her a worried glance.
“I know it’s a lot to get used to, but you can-”
“Watch it!” Suddenly, Cassie was slamming them full-force into an alleyway, leaving Sammie to slam head fucking first against a wall, hissing in pain. She was about to give Cassie a piece of her mind when she saw it. An eerie, ghostly red strobe light was scanning the floor, leaving nothing but the silhouette ingrained into Sammie’s eyes in its place, “Fucking Octotrooper patrol, always after sundown,”
That statement sent a flurry of goosebumps over Sammie’s body, remembering the amount of times she’d been on the tail-end of their attacks, inkjets and guns alike, “Wait, they fucking patrol?” She whispered harshly, waiting for it to pass.
“Yep. Nearly every night. Looking for… Shit people like you- Cassie, we can’t do this,”
“Yes, we can, I know a place,” She smiled at them, “Trust me,”
When they arrived, it looked quite like the training grounds each kid was hurried onto as soon as they could walk. Except with vulgar art of the Inkling species pressed onto each wall, making Sammie wince.
Noticing this, Fee piped, “Yeah, sorry about that. It’s harsh training, from day one,” She chuckled, “But I bet you have just as much, right?”
“Actually, no. No we don’t,” She murmured as she paced over to the wall, reading each comment of “They’ve taken our lands. Take it back,” And, “Watch your back, prepare for attack,” But, the best one? A picture of Marina, with the words, “TRAITOR,” Scrawled across in black ink.
A voice came from behind, “Okay!” And with that, the floodlights shut off.
Fuck. This is where they kill her. She’s dead. No hope. Nuh-Uh. Nothing.
Then, a spotlight shone on only her, and when she spotted the colour of the ink, let her hair ombre delicately into a vibrant green, squinting past the light to see two figures jump down from above, “Sammie,” She noticed it was Cassie’s voice, “You are wanted for plenty of crimes here. Escape these Octotroopers, and we will let you go,”
A siren suddenly sounded, and Sammie, out of reflex, reached for her guns that we’re definitely behind her back. Until they weren’t. Well, fuck! This is it then! She’s gonna become food for these guys for the next month, and the only thing that will be left of her is her boots which cost God knows how much, and-
Before she knew it, she was turning into her squid form out of habit, and- Wait. Her squid form. She… Didn't have the right colour ink for her squid form? But there was no time to think about that now. She swam as fast as she could, hurrying through endless seas of green and dodging wall after wall, feeling their presence loom over her every move. Oh my god, oh my god , she knew there was something fishy about these guys, of course they wanted to kill her, no Inkling gets out of here alive! She hoped up, suddenly too tired of swimming, and saw three choices of weapon laid out before her; Splat dualies, a Splat Roller, and a Sniper. Her hands itched for the familiar weaponry of the dualies, which she chose, and she hurried to the nearest high point. She knew this weapon as well as she knew herself: She was going to have to use the special. A sudden wall of pink emerged, and she’d forgotten that it wasn’t her colour, until crippling pain shot through her legs, and she jumped back.. So far back, in fact, that she hit one of the Octotroopers square in the chest. She’d begun to carve out a path when she was hit in the back of the head, sending her forward with a “Fuck!” The more she splatted, the higher she felt the energy building inside of her, and then it peaked. All she could see was glowing green as she lept high into the air, curled her hand into a fist, and slammed to the ground with a deafening crack! The Octotroopers were sent flying backwards, perishing as they went, and her chest was heaving, yet she was grinning. Cheering sounded from above.
“Go Sammie!” Cassie hollered, beaming down at her ah the lights were turned back on.
“Were you trying to kill me?!” She wheezed, hurrying towards them.
“No! We just wanted to see how well you can use your octoling side! And look at that! You did it! You turned into an Octo to swim through ink!” Fee cheered, bouncing on her toes.
“Now, get some rest. And tomorrow? We take you out onto the grounds,”