Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"We're getting close", Skull muttered, his hero charger slung over his shoulder.

"You said that an houuur ago", Mask said bitterly, his hero roller folded behind his back. Army merely grunted in agreement, the same brand of splattershot held firmly.

"Wow, it almost sounds like you guys aren't having any fun", Aloha chirped, rolling down the Octarian maintenance tunnel with a set of hero dualies. Their footsteps and voices echoed around them.

"We aren't here to have fun, Aloha", Skull corrected. "Stop obsessively dodging. You can walk."

"But whyyyy?" He whined, rolling directly in front of the group and practically tripping him. In response, Skull kicked his leg out forcefully. But Aloha was quicker, leaping into the air and kicking sideways off the wall, bouncing around the channel at a gradually increasing speed.

"Stop." Skull's tone was flat and commanding. With a long sigh, Aloha touched down a few feet ahead of the others, spinning his dualies idly.

"...Why did we take the man-child with us agaiiin?" Mask complained.

"Emperor requested the S4 go, not the S3", Skull reminded him. "He wants those missing zapfish, and we're getting paid, so we'll do whatever he needs us to. Besides, Aloha is more capable of completing this job than Army in terms of skill. If we left anyone behind, it would have been him, not Aloha."

"And yet I am more mature", Army added firmly.

"I can still kick your ass!" He ignored his boastful comment, looking fixedly ahead.

"You aren't anything without your N-Zap", he pressed, ignoring the warning glare he received from Skull. "With these dualies, I can dodge even faster than I could with my gal. You'd stand even less of a chance- not that you'd stand one in the first place, being the weakest of us, and all-"

"Aloha, if you don't shut the fuck uuup right now I will grind you into paste. I swear to coddd." Aloha finally got the message from Mask and stopped tormenting him. His threats were never empty.

Army huffed after a minute of silence. "Skull, are you certain they could not provide us with a hero zap?" He took a sparing glance at Aloha. "... Or a hero gal?"

"Emperor checked in with Callie and Marie about lending us hero equipment more exact to our mains. They said they only made a specific series of hero weapons, and they weren't planning on commissioning Sheldon to create any more." He paused. "Believe me, I would have loved to have a hero scope. This dinky piece of shit is horrible for aim. I don't understand how Headphones can stand this thing."

"...And yet we still have to wear theeese", Mask droned, knocking on his flashing headgear. "What's even the poiiint? We don't have anyone talking to us over theeem, and they just attract attention from the Octaaarians."

"So we don't lose each other. I don't understand how you can see anything through that gas mask." Mask glared at Army, who didn't look back. Skull rolled his eyes.

"Enough fighting. Save it for the Octarians. We're coming up on the first zapfish, anyways."

"There's two, right?" Aloha tossed one of his dualies into the air, catching it. The light at the end of the tunnel was expanding as they approached.

"Yes."

"Should we split into teams of twooo?"

"I call Army!"

"You were just insulting me minutes ago. No, I do not want to team with you, Aloha."

"We aren't splitting up. Now quiet down; I hear electricity." Only the sound of their shoes hitting the steel pipe floor remained as they closed in on the exit. Skull motioned for the others to fall back, and he readied his charger, getting slightly lower and creeping forward. Gradually, he stuck his head out, eyes darting around the area. Eventually, he made a motion with his hand signaling it was okay to go. Everyone remained silent as they piled out of the pipe.

The Octarians' home was something none of them had ever seen before. There were neon lights illuminating dark and dingy platforms. A thin smog was in the air, partially obscuring buildings and objects farther from view. There was no plant life, and the smell of oil and death lingered. They were immediately confronted by a ring of steel buildings surrounding a central area before them, their walls gleaming in the colorful lights. After the others were given time to observe the layout, Skull started walking, motioning for the others to follow. Watching for movement out of the corners of their vision, they carefully approached the buildings. They found a gap between two of them, enough for them to crouch side-by-side behind a pile of thick beams. Pushing Aloha's tentacles down so they wouldn't be visible, Skull peered over what little he could without being seen.

Approximately two dozen Octarians were inside the circle. They stood completely still, not even speaking to each other. Immediately noticeable, their skin was pale green, the ends of their tentacles fading into deep blue. Aloha questioned whether this was normal or not, considering the Octolings he had seen before. Maybe they turned such vibrant colors to scare enemies? In between all of the enemy soldiers, a small zapfish was trapped in a holding cell, crying out as sparks flew from its bright yellow body periodically.

"Alright", Skull said quietly, ducking back down, "First, I need Aloha and Army over on the opposite end, between the two buildings directly across from us. Mask and I will remain here. We'll give you a minute to position yourselves. Once time is up, I'll have Mask jump over these beams and crush the Octarians directly in front of us with his roller. Once all attention is on him, that's when you two will jump out and ambush. I'll stay on the beams and take out any who try to run. Got it?"

"Aye ayeee, captain", Mask said with no enthusiasm whatsoever. Army and Aloha nodded.

"Okay. Timer starts now." The invisible clock began ticking as the normally orange and pink inklings (they were purple for this mission, Skull's ink color, so they didn't accidentally splat each other) sprinted around the buildings. Skull backed up so Mask could position himself to jump.

"This thing is sooo fucking heavy", he huffed, tapping his roller against the pavement.

"You should try my 4K scope when we get back. Weighs as much as one of these beams."

After about a minute, Skull lightly slapped him on the back, and Mask bent his legs before hurdling forward, roller held high above his head. There was a resounding bubbling noise, before a splat, followed by what was barely audible as his breath reverberating in his mask. Sequentially, Army and Aloha jumped out from behind the buildings, opening fire. They went different directions around the circle, effectively trapping the enemy. Skull jumped up onto the stack, firing his charger.

One Octarian tried to escape; Skull attempted to shoot them, but they ran out of range of his charger. "Shit...!" Just before they could make it to safety, Army rose out of the ink in across from them, shooting them down. He repeated the action with a second that tried to get away. A third, however, was all the way across the circle, and Aloha was too focused fighting three at once to notice them run out. After the last Octarian was splatted, the four regrouped around the zapfish.

"Aloha, you let one go", Skull said as he shot the barrier protecting the zapfish.

"Wait, what...?" He turned to glance at the trail of cyan ink leading out of the circle. "Oh, son of bitch!"

"Whateverrr, we've got the first zapfish, and that's all that mattersss." Mask stepped forward to gently pick up the zapfish, holding it awkwardly, unsure of what to do now that he had it. The zapfish wiggled in his arms, gurgling at him. Mask looked down in what could only be disgust.

"Are we all ready to go?" Army asked, proceeding before anyone could answer. "The next zapfish is that way."

"Hey, hold it! I gotta take a victory selfie!" Aloha took out his squidphone from his back pocket.

"Cod, you are such a waste of spaaace." Mask shoved him out of the way. " Mooove ." Everyone else followed Army as Aloha stopped and took a picture of himself in front of the zapfish pedestal before sprinting after them.

He almost ran into them as they suddenly stopped. "Hey, what are we doing? You were just complaining about me for stopping."

"I think we should set up camp for now." Skull glanced back to the circle of buildings that wasn't too far behind them. "According to Army, the next zapfish is about as far away as the drain we came in through is from here. It will take us a couple of hours."

"I'm perfectly fine, not tired at all", Aloha reassured him.

"You say that now", Army retorted. "Halfway to the next zapfish you'll be wanting one of us to carry you."

"Yeah, and not all of us sleeeep like angels", Mask added. " My back is krilling meee ..."

"Maybe if you didn't slouch over that phone every hour of every day." Mask shot Army an exasperated expression.

"Tetris is a lifestyleee. You wouldn't get iiit, normieee."

"Yes, arranging blocks into shapes is such a difficult subject to grasp. You are absolutely right. Do you want a sticker for elevating to squidgarten levels of thinking? Red or blue?"

"You are sooo lucky Skull is here or else I would fold youuu into a cube." Mask got increasingly angry as he scoffed at him.

"Okay, I'm gonna go set up camp. Just don't kill each other." Skull walked off towards the circle, Aloha taking it upon himself to mediate the fighting by making them jointly pissed at him, instead.

Once camp was ready, Skull called them over, and they helped him ink their surrounding area completely. Several randomly strewn crates had been dragged to surround the zapfish pedestal, which were expected to be used as beds – they were safer than the ground, at least. As soon as they were done turfing, Mask threw his hero roller down next to the tallest crate before crawling on top, flopping onto his stomach, and immediately starting to snore. The zapfish squirmed into the crook of his arm and sighed contentedly, its small, beady eyes closing. Army threw his agent jacket over the lowest crate and sat down, undoing the straps on his shoes. Aloha spun his dualies once more before leaning them against the side of his, lightly leaping on top of it and flattening his tentacles. He glanced at Skull, who had jumped up to balance on the top of the zapfish pedestal, charger still held in his arms. "You sleeping up there or something...?"

"No, I'm taking first watch. Get some sleep." Aloha muttered under his breath after Skull stared at him, inferring he was going to take the next one. He curled into a ball, listening to the strange ambiance of the underground as he fell asleep.

He didn't have any dreams, yet he woke up to find himself dangling over the edge of his crate. Regardless, he didn’t move, finding the position comfortable. He sighed quietly, before suddenly picking up voices near him. He heard someone in front of him, and someone to the right.

"I don't know, they just... They seemed off, did they not?" It was Army's voice.

"Yeah, they did." Skull sniffed. "Hachi doesn't exactly look like that."

"Perhaps they contracted some kind of illness that changes the pigment of their skin?"

"Maybe. Information about Octarian society is kept secret from the general Inkling public. If it is an illness, it probably either isn't compatible with Inkling biology, or it doesn't spread in a way that would threaten us."

"But there are Octolings on the surface... Would that not be a health concern?"

"Then maybe it's the latter. Look, I don't know. But it seemed to me that there was more going on than just green skin."

"...You're right. I vaguely recall how... strange they were acting. It was almost as if they were in a daze. Did you see how slow they were to react when we began attacking?"

"Even stranger is how they didn't communicate with each other. We were all giving each other cues, or cursing when our target got away. The only sounds I ever heard come from them were those strange, wheezing gasps when they were splatted."

"And did you hear the beeping that came from some of them? It sounded like a corrupted audio file. It was too distorted to make out, but one almost resonated with me as someone calling out for help."

"...Weird. I wasn't close enough to hear that. Must've been in the undertones. One came directly for me, and that's when I heard what sounded like the breath being sucked out of them. I almost felt bad."

"Well, we're just doing our job."

There was a moment of silence as Aloha continued listening in. When the silence stretched on for a while longer, he was about to fall back asleep.

"I'm mostly concerned for Aloha", he muttered. This redrew his attention immediately. He thought he was hearing things, at first.

'What? Why would he say that? Army hates me. All I do is annoy him. He has no reason to be concerned for me.'

"He's such an idiot."

'Oh.'

"He could so very easily ruin the mission, let alone get us all captured."

"Don't worry about it", Skull reassured him. "I've been keeping an eye on him. Besides, when it comes to actually doing the mission, he can be mature."

"Hardly", Army added.

"Anyways, can you wake him up? It's time for his shift."

Aloha kept his eyes shut as he heard both Army and Skull drop to the floor and felt someone shake his shoulder. He sat up slowly, pretending he had just woken.

"Time for your shift. Order from Skull." He jumped down from his crate, stretched, then snatched up his dualies as Army went back to sleep and Skull walked up to him.

"Hey." He turned around to face the purple inkling. "I know you were listening." He said this quietly enough that Army wouldn't hear.

"Yeah, I figured. Otherwise you wouldn't have defended me like that, huh?"

"I was just telling the truth, Aloha." He scoffed at this. "I mean it. You're a valuable asset to this team. Don't second guess that." He stared at him as the other turned away, climbing his crate. He didn't believe he actually thought that for a second. Skull's primary job on this mission was preventing the team from falling apart. The S4 did not like each other. However, if they needed to work together to get something done, they could. Once Skull was settled, still holding his charger in his arms, Aloha began pacing around the circle, questioning whether what he said was genuine or not.

Eventually, an hour or so had passed, and Aloha got bored, waking Mask for his shift. The other inkling swatted his hand away before slowly sitting up, cursing under his breath. The zapfish in his arms warbled sleepily. He hesitated upon remembering it was still there, before gently patting its head, the creature nuzzling into his fingers. Mask stared down at it thoughtfully before he noticed Aloha was still watching him. He glared, pushing him out of the way roughly. "Shut uppp. I'd punt this thiiiing if it wasn't one of our objectiiives." Choosing to not say anything about it, Aloha climbed his crate and went back to sleep.

Suddenly, it was morning. Skull poked him in the side repeatedly with the barrel of his charger until he rolled onto the ground, waking in a panic. The concrete was hard and cold; the abundance of ink that had surrounded them had evaporated. Skull stuck his head around the corner of his crate, looking down at him. "Calm yourself; we're safe. We're leaving in a couple minutes, so get ready." He jumped to his feet and grabbed his dualies, inking a new puddle before turning into his squid-form, spinning in circles to clean himself. He then rose out of the sea of purple and shook the excess off of himself before walking over to the others. He stopped and smiled at Mask; the zapfish was sticking its head out of the neck-hole of his shirt, perfectly content. He glared at him in return. "It's cooold, okayyy?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say. So, we ready?"

"Almost." Skull aimed his charger at the crate closest to him before firing, destroying it. The debris sunk into the ink that pooled below it, disappearing. "We shouldn't leave evidence we were here." He quickly shot down the rest of them, the occasional vibrantly orange Salmonid egg jumping from the broken wooden planks, until only the zapfish pedestal was left. The fresh layer of ink would evaporate in a few hours. He relaxed his charger and started saying something, but stopped. He craned his neck to look up into the sky. "Do you hear that?" Everyone else turned to look, as well, straining their ears. Gradually, a mechanical whirring sound was getting louder and louder.

Eventually, Skull pointed at something coming over the top of a building. "There… a drone." He aimed his charger at it immediately. Despite this, he waited for it to get close. It came from the direction of the drain, meaning it was most likely not Octarian technology. He was right, it seemed, as it hovered directly over them before dropping a small package, flying back the way it came. Army picked it up, opening it. He gasped, a smile stretching across his face. "It's a scanner!" He said excitedly. "I've always wanted one of these!"

"Well, it's a gift from Callie and Marie, so it's not really ours, I don't think", Skull corrected, studying the packaging that he had immediately discarded to the floor.

"You can point this at a variety of objects and life forms, and it will give an in-depth description of whatever information it can find on the subject." Buzzing with excitement, he pointed it at Aloha, who flinched, expecting it to hurt. Army stared at the screen in awe as Mask peered over his shoulder. "Wowww, it's super accurate", he mused in monotone. "It says here you're a major asshooole."

"Aloha, member of the S4. Ink color: pink. Eye color: pink. Headgear: golf visor-" Army was cut off as he began reading what the scanner actually stated.

"Let's maybe not waste time… although, I'll admit, that's impressive." Army handed the device to Skull, and he threw the strap over his shoulder.

"Alright, now let's go." He nodded to him, and Army began leading the way. He was their designated navigator. Not that the others weren't told where the zapfish was, as well, but Army had a knack for remembering things better and more easily; Emperor held out the map of the surrounding area for him, and he took merely a glance before it was locked in his memory.

They had only been walking for maybe 20 minutes when Army held up a hand, signaling for them to stop. All were silent as he slowly trudged forward before leaning over a small ledge that overlooked a decently sized platform. Dark purple sludge rushed below, and several Octarians stood scattered above. They all acted in the same manner, appearing to barely stand on their own feet, gazing into the void – gazing at nothing. Army motioned the others over, who all joined him and observed what they would be dealing with.

"Okay, let's try this out", Skull whispered. Army watched intently as Skull aimed the scanner down at the Octarians. The screen began sorting information across its interface, and Skull drew it back to study it. "It's almost done loading-"

Before he could finish, a roaring beam of cyan ink blasted right through the middle of their clustered group. Aloha yelped in surprise, dodging backwards with incredible reflex. A few splatters of enemy ink stung on his skin, and he quickly wiped them off before checking to see where everyone else was. Army had rolled to the opposite side, completely drenched, but okay regardless. Mask was hardly tainted at all, sitting up on a crate next to Army, his roller unfolded. The zapfish gurgled worriedly from his shoulder, and he rested a reassuring hand on its head. Skull had turned into his squid-form, resting directly below the beam, unharmed. He quickly swam over to Aloha, turning back. The scanner was coated in enemy ink, and a few sparks flew from it. He glared at the source of the attack, eyes wide in shock as his teammates leaned forward to follow his gaze.

“...What the fuuuck?” Mask mumbled.

An Octarian sat atop a towering pillar at the very edge of the platform, gripping a stingray. They must have been hidden in the ink, waiting. "Shit!" Skull muttered. "I should've known!" All eyes were on them, now, as the other Octarians began clambering towards them. "It's an ambush!" Skull shouted. "Get away from the ledge and regroup! Just don't let the stingray get you!"

With no hesitation, everyone threw ink ahead of themselves before plunging in, swimming away from the mob behind them. They took to the tactic of jumping out at the end of the ink trail, throwing more ink, and then diving back in. Aloha squeaked as he felt the heat of the stingray right behind him, specks of cyan peppering his back as he bounded out into the air. He dodged to the left twice with his dualies, leaving the stingray user disoriented for a moment. He then continued inking and swimming forward. He looked to his right as he emerged again. Army was directly across from him, inking in a straight line. Skull was keeping up easily as he shot a long streak of purple across the cement in one direction, swam across it, then shot another the other direction, zigzagging and effectively avoiding the stingray. Mask could not dive into the ink, unlike the rest of them, due to the zapfish on his shoulder, so he instead slammed down his roller and outran the beam whenever it zoned in on him.

Finally, they reached another clearing surrounded by a series of short pillars, and Skull dropped into the middle, whistling. The other three drew near him before leaping out, flanking him. Mask gently set down the zapfish on clean ground before diving into the ink, refilling his tank. Skull aimed his charger across their trails as he emerged. The zapfish, shortly after being put aside, slapped its fins against the concrete, demanding to be held once more. Mask obliged as Skull spoke.

"Their stingray ran out of power. We'll hold ground here." It was silent for a moment, before a very faint bubbling sound could be heard in the distance. "Here they come. Don't let them isolate you."

Cyan was hastily covering the purple carpeting in splotches, and Octarians could be seen approaching with a variety of weapons. Quickly, Mask backed up, setting up a splash wall in a corner where two pillars met. He then placed the zapfish behind it. "Stay." He rejoined his team as the Octarians closed in.

"When I say 'go', we're all going to throw a burst bomb directly ahead of ourselves. Got it?" Everyone nodded to Skull's order. "Okay. Get ready." In seconds, the Octarians were within range. Aloha spun his dualies in anticipation. A lead Octarian, one with decorative kelp emerging from behind their mask (a symbol of higher authority), ascended from the ink with a charger. Skull grimaced; he couldn't risk it now. "Nevermind, we won't bomb them." He watched as the Octarian raised their charger, the weapon buzzing.

"GO!"

Skull immediately dodged to the side as the enemy charger fired, shooting at them in return. He missed, and they proceeded to bounce back and forth with missed shots. Aloha dodged around the right side of a cluster of four, shooting at them from behind. Mask slammed his roller down aggressively onto an Octarian that came from the left side before sticking to the surface and rolling over a few more in quick succession. Army ran straight up the middle, taking out enemies one by one in precise hits.

Mask turned to look back at the zapfish only to see an Octarian had managed to sneak past and climb one of the pillars overlooking it. It squeaked in panic, spinning in frantic circles in its corner. "NO!" He roared, barreling straight ahead. He slammed his roller onto the side, throwing a streak of purple long enough for him to swim up. The Octarian seemed completely unaware of his presence, instead peering down at the zapfish, perplexed. They didn't seem to understand what they were supposed to do. They were so encapsulated that they hardly flinched as Mask rose up from behind them, crushing them in an instant. He gasped as he looked down and saw flecks of ink now scattered on the zapfish's skin. It stared up at him, cocking its head to the side. He jumped down immediately, reaching through the splash wall to gingerly wipe the purple off the top of its head. It didn't understand what he was doing, but bumped its head up into his hand affectionately regardless.

"Mask! We need you over here!" He glanced over his shoulder to see Skull had finally splatted the lead Octarian. He then quickly patted the zapfish on the head before rolling back towards his team. Aloha managed to roll between two different enemies, aiming one dualie at each of them and firing. Skull focused on taking out members that strayed from the general group, leaping up onto a pillar for better aim as Mask rolled past, crushing one that was heading for him. At this point, almost all of them had been splatted. Out of the corner of his eye, Skull saw Army backing up and away from the rest of the team, shooting at a group of dualie-wielding Octarians that were forcing him back. He couldn't quite hit them, as they kept dodging. The most odd thing he noted about this was that none of them were shooting. He was clearly starting to panic, and he eventually ran out of ink. His eyes flashed with fear as, suddenly, two Octarians rolled behind him, grabbing under his arms and trapping him. He was lifted from the ground, kicking and fighting against them; ensnared the way he was, he couldn’t turn into a squid and slip away. The two others in the front faced the rest of the team defensively. Then, maintaining formation, they began hauling him away.

Aloha only noticed this was happening when he heard him yell in frustration. He gasped, lunging forward and attempting to chase them. Skull fired several shots at them, but the dualie wielders dodged, instead enveloping Army in purple. Mask came to stand next to Skull as they dragged him off. Aloha angrily hollered, thrusting ink ahead of himself in order to follow them. He stopped as he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Skull, staring at them as they went. "Don't follow them. It's a trap."

"What the hell do you mean?!" Aloha shouted at him. "They're taking him!"

"He'll be fine." Skull let go of him, trusting that he wouldn't take off. "He's one of us – one of the S4. He'll be back soon, and he knows the routes to get to us. We'll meet him at the second zapfish."

"They're just tryiiing to distract us, Aloha", Mask added. "They waaant us to follow. We can't afford to waste any tiiime. Army would agreeee with us." He threw a disbelieving look at the two of them. Mask sighed, folding his roller and resting it over his back. "We have a zapfiiish, and they're trying to get it baaack. They're trying to luuure us away so they can grab iiiit." He paused. "I won't let theeem." He spun around to collect the zapfish where the splash wall had already run dry of ink, sinking into the depths. Skull and Aloha rested until he came back with it. It seemed to be aware that someone was missing, swinging its head around to survey with small, beady eyes. He stroked a hand over it, calming it immediately.

"Alright, let's go." Skull took a step forward before halting, throwing a glance over his shoulder. "...You know I'm shit with directions."

"That wayyy." Mask pointed, and the three of them trudged off through the blend of purple and cyan to their next objective.

Chapter Text

It had been several more hours when the three inklings finally found the last zapfish. As they approached, Aloha persistently expressed concern over Army's disappearance.

"Shouldn't he have come back by now?" His dualies swung idly at his sides, too focused on watching for that familiar purple beret to bother spinning them. "What if something really bad happened?"

"He's fine", Skull reassured him. "Those Octarians don't know who they're messing with." He paused. "They don't seem to know anything, for that matter. That illness is really weighing them down...They don't even flinch when they're shot at."

"One almost got the zaaapfish", Mask huffed. "But they were just staaanding there, menaciiingly. They didn't even notice me come up behiiind them. My swimming was very louuud. Aaanyone would have noticed." The zapfish in his arms warbled in what appeared to be agreement.

"You aren't making a very good argument here", Aloha said impatiently. "Army is GONE. We are down a whole member, and it should be bothering you!"

"Like I said, he's fine." Aloha muttered under his breath as Skull continued. "We will meet him at the next zapfish. Speaking of which..." Everyone came to a halt as he raised an arm and pointed ahead of them.

A large, dark gray, steel building stood in front of what looked like a clearing, which gradually sloped to the center, where the zapfish was held. Neon purple lights were strung up and around the tower, flashing on and off at a fixed interval. Three octosnipers were stationed at the top of the building, too far out of their fields of vision to see the three inklings below them as they swept their crosshairs methodically across the ground. Skull crouched, looking over his shoulder.

"Wait here. I'll signal when to come to the base of the tower. Once you make it, hide in the ink." Mask and Aloha nodded before he loaded his charger, firing a straight shot across the pavement before diving in in his squid form, surging towards the structure. The octosnipers didn't see him as he quickly submerged at the end of his trail, only to fire another shot and recover himself in the purple substance. Eventually, he reached the base. At this point, he jumped up against the side, firing ink straight up. It stuck to the wall with ease, as did he as he scaled it, still invisible to the octosnipers. He had to jump out several times to extend the trail before he was finally a foot from the top. The end of the purple extension was motionless for a few seconds before a squid could be seen popping in and out of it enthusiastically: their signal.

"Let's gooo." Aloha entered his ink trail and swam up to the base of the tower, while Mask rolled after him, zapfish on his shoulder. Skull quickly flung himself to the surface, taking out the octosniper directly in front of him and surprising the other two. He had enough time to reload once more and splat the one to his right before dodging the one on the left. He managed to take this one down, as well, and started for the other end of the rooftop before stopping in his tracks. A large pool of cyan ink covered the other half of the building. He gasped quietly as it began bubbling in several places. 'They're hiding!' Quickly, he fell back into his own ink, obscuring his presence, as a dozen Octarians rose from the sea of cyan. Two cried out in wobbly voices before falling into confused hums as they looked around for the inkling they could have sworn had just swam up. With no enemies in sight, only three completely normal purple streaks of ink adjacent to where their three comrades had gone, they rumbled in discontent and descended back into the depths.

While Skull sat petrified in his murky curtain, trying to determine a plan to successfully win a one-versus-twelve battle, Mask and Aloha reached the building. As Skull had instructed, they remained in the trail, staying completely still, the zapfish tucked against the wall on clean ground. Mask rolled his eyes as Aloha eventually broke the silence, his voice high-pitched and broken under the ink. "I don't think waiting for Army to find us is a good idea."

"Going out to look for him is not a good idea, either." His voice, which usually echoed behind his mask, sounded slightly less muffled with his headgear absorbed by the ink.

"Skull has got this handled, I guarantee it!" He heard the other inkling shift slightly in anticipation. "You're the best navigator we have, as of now. If we go out, we can-"

"Splitting up is the dumbest fucking idea I have heard come out of your mouth today." He fell into silence as Mask snapped at him. "We are going to follow Skull's orders, and nothing else. Army is the best navigator we have, ever. He's going to have a better chance of finding us than we have of finding him."

Aloha sulked in the purple fluid as he continued. "You don't trust Army. You realize that's what you're saying when you whine like that, right? You don't trust him."

"Of course I don't trust him!" The ink bubbled as if it were upset, too. "He's the weakest of us! The man can barely function without his stupid squid-shit manual or whatever it's called!" He paused, and Mask was surprised to hear genuine worry in his voice. "What if he's hurt? Like, really hurt? And he can't respawn?"

"Just try not to think about it, okay?" Mask grunted as the zapfish suddenly stumbled past him on tiny fins, trudging through the sludge to reach where Aloha was hidden. It gurgled somberly before gently headbutting his form in reassurance. Aloha sighed, accepting this gesture. All three looked up as the sound of wailing came from the top of the building. Up above, Skull had jumped out of his hiding spot, throwing two burst bombs into the cyan and effectively splatting all Octarians at once. He slid back into the ink for a moment to refill his tank before peering over the side of the rooftop. He gave a thumbs up, motioning the others to swim after him. Mask and Aloha rose from their cover, shaking excess off of themselves, the zapfish flinging itself to the side to avoid the spray. Aloha swam up the side of the building as Mask scooped up their whining objective.

He reached the top and joined Skull in looking down. Mask glanced from the zapfish and then back to them. He couldn't safely take it up with him.

"Just throw it!" Aloha shouted, and Skull quickly snapped at him to be quiet.

"You need to go down there and hold it while Mask comes up. Him and I will ambush the Octarians behind us, and I need you to just stand to the side and watch. Getting the next zapfish is important, but keeping the one we already have safe is even more important." Aloha groaned before entering squid form, flipping off the roof and diving into the puddle on the ground with a splash. He emerged, shaking himself off as he took the zapfish from Mask. "I'll stay here while you guys go get the next one." He gestured upwards, and Mask breathed a heavy sigh before going up. "You better keep it saaafe..."

Aloha walked around the side of the building, crouching down immediately before the decline. The two dozen or so Octarians stood idly, oblivious they were about to be attacked. After another minute had passed, a splat bomb was thrown to the far side of the small valley. Every Octarian in the area turned their head to look as it exploded, taking out two. With the enemy distracted, Mask jumped down, slamming his roller onto the nearest Octarian, who happened to be one of the high-ranking officers, as a fast beam of purple struck an adjacent one, Skull recharging from the roof to strike again.

Aloha huffed, wishing he could be out there. He should be out there. He kicked a small rock against the side of the building angrily, cursing under his breath. Couldn't they just set up another splash wall and leave the zapfish in it like last time? All the enemies were in a secluded area, so there was no way they could get out without any of them noticing. Sitting down with the zapfish and sulking as he watched the Octarians fall one by one, his gaze eventually drifted to the other side, at the crest of the hill.

That's when he saw it. Someone was standing directly across from him, their back turned. They were too far away to completely make out, but he could only assume it was an Octarian. He stood up, pointing in their direction. He opened his mouth to shout "hey!", but his voice quickly faded as he realized something. He took several steps forward, each increasing in speed, until he was teetering on the edge of the slope, fixated on the figure. There was something on their head, something no Octarian should be wearing while on the job.

A purple beret. He felt his heart skip a beat. He was okay! But... was it him? No one else wore gear as dorky as Team Orange did. He didn't stop to see the state of the battlefield before him; he hurdled off the landing and slid down the side, the zapfish emitting a short squeal in both surprise and glee. Mask and Skull had successfully defeated the Octarians, Mask approaching the zapfish pedestal as Skull swam up next to him and emerged. Their heads swiveled as Aloha shouted at them, sprinting across the uneven ground. "Here, hold it!" Mask didn't even have time to protest before the zapfish was shoved into his arms, nearly causing him to fall backwards as Aloha rushed past, firing his dualies ahead of him and diving in. Skull yelled at him to wait, pursuing him, as Mask set the zapfish on his shoulder and rolled along. The zapfish in containment seemed disappointed as its heroes left.

Aloha bounded to the top of the rise, where the figure stood a few yards away. "Army!" He began running over to him as Skull and Mask clambered up to the surface. Relief washed over them to see their missing teammate again.

"Thank coddd, now he can shut up about him-" Mask was abruptly cut off as the zapfish did something it had never done before: it growled. He glanced down at the docile creature in shock. It was staring directly at Army, as Aloha continued approaching him.

"Wait just a second", Skull called to him, both him and Mask alarmed by the zapfish's reaction. He pulled the broken scanner out, tapping it lightly. The ink had mostly evaporated from its surface, but two large cracks stretched across the screen. "Come on, come on..." He muttered, knocking on the body of the mechanism lightly. Suddenly, the screen flickered, then lit up. Although the interface was glitchy, it seemed to be working. He glanced back up to Army. Something was... off. He wasn't moving, just standing there. It was unlike him to not immediately respond to his voice, let alone any of their voices. With uncertainty, he aimed the scanner at him, and it began the short process. Mask gently squeezed the zapfish, but nothing seemed to calm it as a cacophony of growls left its throat. After a long, tense moment, Skull's eyes widened, the light of the scanner reflecting in his expression. Mask leaned over his shoulder and read the screen as Skull's head snapped forward, gaping at Army.

"Aloha, STOP!" The other inkling ignored his commands, rushing up to his teammate.

"Army! Hey, dude, it's me, Aloha! Hey!" There was no response. He was eerily still. Aloha didn't take notice of this, too excited to see him. He reached out with one hand, grabbing his forearm, the other grabbing his hand to force him to turn around. "Hey-" His voice faltered suddenly and fell into silence. Something was wrong. Mask finished reading the report on the scanner, his attention immediately shifting to the others. They were frozen, Aloha still holding onto him. A strange noise came from Skull; he seemed to be trying to speak, but nothing decipherable would come out. Mask gripped his shoulder, figuring he was no more able to. They watched helplessly as Aloha grasped their teammate.

He couldn't understand why. It just didn't make sense. He wanted to turn him around, but now he wasn't sure. He didn't know if he wanted to see. "Aloha." The broken voice barely registered with him as Skull. "Step away." He didn't move. "Come back here." His thumb brushed across his friend's hand. "Now." Aloha grimaced, taking a deep breath. "NOW." The urgency in Skull's voice did not phase him. Because he just didn't understand. He didn't understand why his hand felt so, so cold.

"ALOHA!" The practical scream from Skull set him off, and he violently twisted Army around to face him.

"He's dead." His words did not have meaning as he stared into his lifeless eyes. His black, lifeless eyes, with piercing cyan pupils. The ridges of his tentacles that curled from under his beret were a deep blue. The ends faded into green, his skin about the same shade... but the eyes. He couldn't draw his gaze from them. They did not blink. They did not move. And yet, somehow, they weren't glazed over; they were deep and vibrant. Slowly, his gaze fell down, mouth parted slightly.

"Army... Why are you..." He almost lost his balance, staggering forward to close the gap between them. He wrapped his arm around his lower back, pulling him into a hug. "You... You can't..." He rested his head on his shoulder, tears falling down his face. "Army..." He failed to hold back a choked sob, eyes squeezing shut for a moment. He shuddered violently while slumped against him, clutching his hero jacket tightly in closed fists. "I'm so sorry..."

He was in so much shock that he was only snapped out of it when he felt a hand smooth his shoulder. He slowly turned, still gripping onto his friend's hand.

Mask was trying to gently lead him away. His eyes were soft, for the first time Aloha could remember. He didn't say anything, just lightly tugged at his sleeve. As everything hit him at once, Aloha shrugged his hand off. Mask's arm remained outreached.

"Alohaaa, come with me." His voice was just as soft. He only shook his head, his face contorted in anguish.

Skull took several paces forward, and alarms went off in Aloha's head as he raised his charger. "Move." His voice was unsteady. He refused, striding to stand in front of Army, facing him. Skull sucked in a breath. "I mean it." He continued guarding him, glaring at the other defiantly.

"Aloha, the scanner said he's..." He paused to regain composure. "No signs of life. He's... He's just like those Octarians. He's dangerous. I don't want to do this, but we need to-"

"NO!" He equipped his dualies, sharp teeth bared. Skull glanced down at them before dragging his gaze back up with a questioning expression.

"Aloha, don't do this-"

"And what if I do?" Before he could speak, Aloha's ink color changed. It faded from purple to pink. Now, if they shot at each other, damage would be dealt. Skull's eyes narrowed.

"I don't know what you're trying to protect. He's gone."

"Stop saying that!" He yelled. "Don't you hear it?!" They fell into silence for a moment.

Skull eventually spoke. "What..?"

"He's breathing." As he said this, Aloha heard rasping noises coming from Army's slightly ajar mouth.

He looked angry as the purple inkling scoffed. "If he is, it's not doing anything. No heartbeat." He pointed his charger at him, the weapon creating a whirring sound as it loaded. "Move. I'm not telling you again."

"We are NOT leaving without him!" Aloha insisted. Skull did not falter. Understanding, he tilted his visor farther down on his head, aiming both of his dualies at the other. They stood in silence, waiting for an opening. Mask stood to the side awkwardly. He glanced between the two of them, before placing the now whimpering zapfish on the ground, his roller unfolding.

"Just let me handle this", Skull said, his eyes not leaving his target. He blinked in surprise as Mask stood in front of Aloha, his tentacles turning the same shade of pink. He held his roller over his head, taking a defensive stance. Skull stayed quiet for a moment.

"Mask", he said slowly, "What are you doing?"

"Army has yet to attaaack us", He immediately shot back. "It is possible we could turn him baaack. As long as he isn't a threaaat, we should take him with us. It's our responsibilityyy."

"Our responsibility is getting the zapfish and getting out", Skull retorted through gritted teeth. "If we don't get this over with now, I don't know if we'll be able to do it later, when he turns on us."

"I think we should take a vote." Aloha stepped out from behind Mask, standing next to him. "All in favor of taking Army with us, raise your hand." The two of them did so, and Aloha grabbed Army's wrist, raising it for him and trying not to shudder at how limp it was. Skull's fingers drummed against his charger with a riveting glaring. They lowered their hands, waiting expectantly. A long time seemed to pass. Aloha prepared to dodge and throw a burst bomb if he made any sudden movements.

Finally, Skull sighed, long and loud. "Fine. We'll take him." Mask folded his roller, relieved, as both Skull and Aloha lowered their weapons. Skull looked from Aloha to Army as his two remaining teammates changed their ink colors back to purple.

"How are we going to move him?" Aloha glanced at him, then walked up to Army. He grabbed his hand, slowly pulling him forward.

"Come on, buddy, let's go", he muttered, and Army slowly stumbled forward, his feet landing unsteady. He picked up the pace until, eventually, they were at a normal walking speed, Mask and Skull following alongside. Aloha managed a small smile, which Army did not return, gazing emptily over his shoulder. It was only a few seconds before Army tripped on a small crevice, practically knocking Aloha over as he fell. He was lucky the other had such good reflexes, as he caught him before he hit the ground.

He struggled to upright himself as Army lay completely limp in his arms, feet dragging on the ground. Skull merely glared at him. "Figure it out or leave him." Both him and Mask continued walking. Fueled by Skull's lack of sympathy, he positioned one arm under his friend's knees, the other up by his shoulders, and then lifted him from the ground. He stumbled for a moment with his weight before regaining balance. Once steady, he sprinted up alongside the others. "This works fine." Skull rolled his eyes before gesturing for Aloha to walk ahead, behind Mask. He obliged, taking note of Skull following behind him.

'He doesn't trust him, still. In his own words, Army is dead. He's not a danger to us. Why is he being so weird about this?' He glanced down at the cyan inkling in his arms. His black eyes and searing pupils stared up at the sky, mouth slightly parted. 'No, he won't do anything. He isn't acting like them. He won't attack us.'

They reached the center area once more. The zapfish on Mask's shoulder warbled in excitement. The one in containment looked up before vibrating joyously, warbling back. Their volumes escalated as Mask swung his roller into the barrier, the electric bubble fizzing and popping, and he reached through, carrying the zapfish on his hand and setting it on his other shoulder. The two of them gurgled at each other in excitement as the inklings continued onwards. No one said a word until they had leaped up and over the ledge.

"Skullll." Mask called for their leader from the front, and Skull speed-walked up to him.

"What?"

The masked inkling huffed. "We need to discuss this... situaaation."

"Right, right..." He returned with bated breath, gesturing behind his back for Aloha to go in front of them. He was annoyed, but held his tongue and obliged, regardless. He noticed their pace picking up as their conversation went on.

"Sooo... This whole time, all those Octarians we've been fightiiing... They were all-"

"Dead. Yes, it appears that way."

"But... Howww?"

"I don't know, but it seems like something is definitely controlling them. I really don't want to think about it, but what if this is a zombie situation?"

"Then we need to repooort this to Callie and Marie immediatelyyy."

"I still just can't..." Skull glanced over his shoulder. "Fuck. Mask, they were all dead. Every single one of them. We've been fighting puppeteered corpses for the past two days. And what if..."

Aloha inhaled sharply as Skull trailed off. He was obviously thinking about Army.

"Don't think too hard abouuut it." Mask gingerly set a hand on his shoulder. "We just need to get hiiim to the surface, and then we'll gooo from there." There was a short pause. "Besiiides, look at his ink color." He pointed with his other hand at Army, specifically his beret. "It's still purpleee. If it were actuallyyy the blue-green color that's only visible to usss, his gear would have changed color tooo. He couldn't huuurt us right now unless he managed to chaaange it. I don't thiiink he has the higher brain functions needed to accomplish thaaat."

"...You're right." Skull sighed as Mask drew his hands back, the zapfish gurgling quietly at their leader. "...Okay. But I'm not about to let my guard down. The second his beret color changes, I'm sounding the alarm."

"Obviouslyyy."

Aloha's grip on Army tightened. He drew his ear to his face. "You hear that? We're going to fix you. You're safe." A short, raspy breath was the only response he got.

They grimly marched onwards to the first zapfish containment area. It had only been half an hour when they were stopped, at a point about two miles from the pillars they used to fight the stingray.

"Hold on." Everyone halted at the sound of Skull's voice. They turned to watch as he veered to the right, slowly approaching a small building in the distance. He stopped a ways away from the group, withdrawing the scanner and aiming it. Within seconds, the screen flashed, and he studied it. Mask and Aloha walked up behind him to also read the results. Aloha peered over the screen with both hope and fear.

"It's a surveillance room." Mask hummed behind his gas mask, equipping his roller and heading towards the entrance. Skull followed in squid-form, Aloha forced to run behind them. They all realized what this meant: they could possibly see what happened to Army. They lined up alongside the door, weapons ready. Everyone paused as Skull took his protective earphones off his head and rested them around his neck, pressing the side of his face to the door and listening. He then backed up, letting Mask stand in front. He counted down from three on his fingers.

The door caved in as Mask smashed his roller down, folding it. It hit the floor with a loud thud as Skull jumped out from behind him, aiming his charger around the room. Aloha dodged past Mask, preparing to shoot. The dust that was kicked up from the impact settled, and they were left with a small and dimly lit unoccupied room before them.

Cautiously, Skull approached what looked like a control panel, Aloha slinging an arm around Army's shoulders and guiding him forward as Mask stood guard where the door once was. Skull took one long look at the buttons before calling over his shoulder. "Mask, we're gonna need you." The other inkling grumbled, folding his roller and trudging over to them. He glanced at the panel before tapping a button in the far right corner. Aloha jumped in surprise as a large section of the wall was illuminated brightly, revealing itself as a screen. "Wowww... This technology is super outdateddd..." They watched as Mask did his thing, tapping buttons rapidly, boxes popping up and closing on the screen just as fast. Eventually, Mask full-screened on a window that harbored a variety of live videos. Aloha immediately began scanning through them, looking for anywhere familiar.

"There." Skull pointed at a particular one, and Aloha immediately recognized it. It was the area with the pillars, the one they had passed to get here. The place where Army was taken. Mask hovered the selector over it before choosing an adjacent one. It was only a moment before he then selected the next one. And then the next one. He kept going, each video playing a blurry and low-quality rendition of events that happened earlier that day, cyan shapes surrounding a purple one as they moved across the screen. He stopped on one at the far right. Aloha sucked in a breath as he opened it, setting it in full-screen. The quality became much better, enough that details came into view.

Army was being dragged across the ground by the Octarians, fighting wildly. Everyone was silent as they watched, Mask glancing away only to tap a button on the panel. Suddenly, there was sound. The Octarians could be heard bubbling, incoherent, especially over Army's yelling. "GUYS! HELP! GUYS!" Aloha covered his mouth with his hand, finding it hard to watch. They hadn't heard him; they didn't hear any of it. He remembered Army was actually here with him, and pulled him closer, studying his face. He had no reaction to what he was watching. He turned him towards the screen, hoping it might snap him out of it.

He was struggling against them, an Octarian on each arm, the other two trying to hold his legs, which he was kicking fast and hard. Aloha was so focused on him, he gasped when he looked at the other portion of the screen. There was a large, exposed tank of what looked like nothing but cyan ink, and they were dragging him towards it. "LET GO OF ME! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" He continued yelling at them, trying his best to get out as they pulled him up a ramp. There was a short glitch in the video feed, and they were suddenly up at the top, on the edge of the pool. Army saw the substance and screamed angrily, attempting to dig his feet into the cement ground to keep himself from being shoved in. Regardless of how much he tried, the Octarians tossed him in, and he landed feet-first.

He immediately attempted to surge out, but the ink stuck to him, trapping his arms against the surface as he was slowly sucked in. The Octarians stood motionless as they watched, not unlike vultures watching a sick animal. He grunted as he tried lunging forward, backward, any direction, but nothing was working. He just kept sinking. His fighting became less methodical and more panicky, desperately looking around for something, anything. His head whipped in all directions as his arms were completely enveloped. He had finally realized he wasn't getting splatted; he was in real danger.

"GUYS! OVER HERE! I'M OVER-" He coughed and sputtered as some of the stuff got in his mouth, his voice hoarse. Aloha shuddered, his mouth agape as he watched his friend dying. The Army on the screen stared up at the sky, no longer able to look anywhere else. They watched tears spring to his eyes. "S-SKULL?" He coughed violently. "MASK?" The two of them tensed, holding their breath. "A-ALOHA!" He doubled over as he heard his name screamed so desperately. He felt like he was going to be sick. He should have been there. Army was now completely breaking down, the ink reaching above his neck. Aloha choked on his own spit as the other cried in the video, looking nothing like the strong inkling he knew. "I..." He gritted his teeth and covered Army's eyes, not wanting him to see anymore. "...I don't want to die...!" He sobbed and choked, the ink now entering his mouth. He tried to scream, but it was gargled, his eyes wide and terrified, nearly popping out of his head. The last thing that was seen was the tip of his beret, the shiny golden fish emblem on the front disappearing under the surface. There was bubbling where he went under, but eventually, it ceased. The ink was calm. Slowly, the Octarians turned and left, unsteadily walking off the screen.

Mask paused the video, but only for a moment, before he set it to fast-forward. The zapfish were trembling on his shoulders. Aloha was about to tap him to tell him to stop. To tell him that he couldn't handle seeing any more of it. Skull's hand shot forward and grabbed his wrist, squeezing it tightly. He slowly redirected his gaze to him. His face was shadowed over, staring at the screen. More than that, he felt his hand quivering. He eventually let go of him, and Aloha turned his attention back to the video, having to hold back a gag from the scene that unfolded. Mask stopped when there was movement on screen: an hour after Army had drowned. He pressed play. In the corner, hardly visible, there was a pale green hand on the side of the pool. Then another. There were two clutching the edge. Suddenly, something was pulling itself from the tank. They watched in horror as Army slammed down onto the cement, cyan ink evaporating off of him. He opened his mouth and retched, more ink spilling, some from his nose. His eyes were pitch black, pupils shaking rapidly as his body was attempting to adjust. Once he had spit up enough, he staggered onto his feet, standing still for almost five minutes straight. Then, suddenly, he turned, behaving in the same odd way the Octarians did. He stumbled around the pool, then off-camera.

The screen cut to black. Aloha glanced down. Mask's unsteady hand had powered off the machine. He eventually reached for his head, unclipping his gas mask and setting it on the control panel. Aloha would've acted more surprised if he weren't already shocked beyond belief; Mask had only taken off his headgear in front of them twice before. His friend grasped his head in his hands, eyes fixed downwards with heavy breath. The zapfish cowered into the sides of his neck, quiet. Aloha turned to Skull. He had pulled his bandana down, resting it on his shoulders. He was still gawking at the now empty screen. His mouth opened, then shut, then opened again, as if he were trying to say something. But nothing ever came. Aloha shakily peered at Army, who was slumped against him. His lifeless eyes returned his gaze. His lip quivered. He had been through so much. He hugged him again, allowing himself to cry into his jacket silently.

"We fucked up..." Mask said breathlessly as he stared down at the control panel. "We fucked up so badly... How…?"

"It's my fault." Skull's voice was sorrowful but relatively collected as he finally drew his gaze away from the screen.

Aloha marched over to him, letting Army stand by himself. "No, it's not, no it's fucking not, don't say that...!" He went to put his hands on his shoulders, to shake him, but Skull dodged backwards. There was so much regret painted across his pained expression, Aloha started crying harder. He put his face in his hands, crumpling to the floor. "Skull...!" He managed to choke out. "It's all our fault... None of us went after him... We all let it happen..."

"I didn't let you go." He balled his hands into fists, shaking. "You would've gone if I hadn't stopped you."

"And then he would've died." Skull peered over to Mask, who had looked up from the control panel, staring at him insistently with unusually wide eyes. "If we didn't go together, the ones who went would've died. I wasn't going to go. I needed to protect the zapfish." He stood, taking a step towards him. "Skull, which is better? One dead teammate or two?"

"None." Skull scooped up his charger, walking past him. Mask locked onto his arm, violently turning him back around.

"That's not one of the options. Which is better? One or two?"

"None", He repeated. He shrugged him off, gazing around the room before his eyes landed on Army. He pointed at him. "And now... We know exactly what he is."

"Dammit, Skull, would you stop?!" Aloha stood up, glaring at him. "He isn't going to hurt us! He's not capable! He can't think for himself!"

"And how the hell do you think he got to the second zapfish?!" Skull barked. "Did you think the Octarians just dropped him off, wrapped in a bow? He found us! He's being controlled, somehow, and he was sure as hell able to track us down!" He gestured to the screen. "You saw it yourself! He just stood there... Like he was waiting to receive orders..." He sneered at Army. "...That's not Army, anymore. It looks like him – hell, it doesn't even look like him – and it isn't him. And since we don't know what it is, it can't be trusted."

"Skull, I hope this doesn't mean you're thinking of leaving him..." Mask's voice was cold. His tone was returned.

"I'm just saying, if we manage to lose him, we are not going to go looking for him." Skull angrily tugged his bandana back over his face and readjusted his hero headphones as he walked out of the building, heavy footsteps slamming against the metal door, creating a loud echo. Mask glanced at Aloha, his expression sympathetic. He didn't say anything as he trudged over to the control panel and put his mask back on. He took a loud breath before flashing a look over his shoulder, resting his roller across his back. Then he nodded, pursuing Skull.

Aloha couldn't process his emotions, too tired to do so. He wrapped his arms around his friend and lifted him again, carrying him out. There was no way to tell time underground, and they weren't equipped with watches before they left, but he could tell it was most likely night. He stopped next to his teammates as Skull studied their surroundings.

"Let's just get to the first zapfish containment area and we'll set up camp-" He was cut off as Aloha shoved him out of the way, going ahead. Skull sighed, following behind him with Mask. They didn't speak until they reached their destination.

The ink in and around the circle of buildings had evaporated, leaving it spotless. The neon lights continuously flashed from up high as the inklings below settled down, first scaling a ridge to a platform overlooking the area. Mask threw his roller beneath him, collapsing on top of it and immediately snoring. The zapfish curled up together on the middle of his back, a few small sparks flying off of them. Aloha glared at Skull as he stared off into the distance, balancing on a crate they missed in the center.

"If we head up now, Army will have less time to suddenly attack us like you keep saying, you know."

"Just go to sleep."

Aloha clicked his tongue, sitting down and giving Army's wrist a tug, forcing him to be seated next to him. He then carefully pushed him onto his back, folding his arms across his chest and straightening his legs. Once he looked like he was in a decent sleeping position, he lay down a foot away, facing him. He realized he still had his eyes open, so he reached out and forced his eyelids down. At least this way he looked like he was asleep. He sighed, about to shut his own eyes.

"I wouldn't sleep so close to him, if I were you."

He didn't even regard Skull; he merely flipped onto his other side so his back was facing Army, then settled down. He could practically see Skull rolling his eyes. The last thing he heard was Mask snoring as he fell asleep.

Chapter Text

The inkling sat up, groggily wiping his eyes and readjusting his golf visor. He must have only gotten an hour of sleep or less, although it felt like he didn't sleep at all. Running a hand over his tentacles, he looked around. The first figure he saw was Mask, still passed out on top of his hero roller, still with both zapfish curled up on top of him, still snoring loudly. With lidded eyes, he turned his attention next to him.

It took him a moment to process the empty space. He blinked slowly. Army was gone. His head whipped around, searching for his friend, expecting to see him standing idly against one of the walls, or at least somewhere. His breath quickened, turning to Skull. He remained perched on the stack of crates, charger in his arms. His eyes stared distantly at nothing, and Aloha quickly became angry with him.

"Dammit, Skull, what are you doing?!" He stuttered.

The purple inkling finally drew his gaze downwards to the practically steaming teammate below. "Hmm?"

"Army! You were supposed to be keeping watch, and Army is gone! How did you not see?!"

"Oh, Army. I saw him."

Aloha was plunged into a state of confusion. He saw him? "...What? What happened? What the hell do you mean?!"

Skull shifted, leaning his arm on his knee. "It was only about ten minutes after you fell asleep. I heard movement, and I aimed down at where you were. That's when I saw him." Aloha could hardly comprehend what he was hearing. "He stood up, and I kept my charger trained on him. I nearly thought I was hallucinating, but his pupils moved. He looked directly at me. And then..." He sighed, turning his head to look towards the darkness, the other following his gaze. "He walked away. He didn't look at anyone else: not you, not Mask, not even the zapfish. He just turned and stumbled away."

Aloha's mouth parted in concealed rage as he continued, acting nonchalant. "I honestly should have shot him. Now that he seems to be self-aware – or, at least, he's no longer pretending he's not – he's a major threat. We don't know anything about this goop that seems to be controlling all these Octarians, and, with Army's training, if all that knowledge was retained... we need to be on our fucking guard."

"Why..." Aloha asked through gritted teeth, fists clenched. "Why didn't you do anything? You let him LEAVE?"

"What the hell was I supposed to do?" Skull retorted. "Do you wanna keep him on a leash and collar? You can do whatever the hell you wanna with him, since he's your little science project, but I have no responsibility when it comes to him, unless he decides to attack us."

"I can't fucking believe you right now!" He shouted. "The least you could have done is woken me up, then! Asshole!"

"Not my job."

"You're despicable", Aloha sneered. He spun on his heels and snatched up his hero dualies.

"And just where are you heading off to?"

He tossed his head over his shoulder, eyes slitted. "It's not your responsibility, so don't fucking worry about it."

"Aloha, no. You aren't going off on your own."

"Fine, let's put it to a vote." He faced the sleeping form of their teammate. "Mask! Hey, Mask!" The inkling responded with a loud snore. Aloha walked up to him, lightly kicking him in the side. "Hey! Hey! Hey, Mask! Wake up!" He scoffed when the other still did not awaken.

"Well, if the two of us were to vote, it would be a tie. And, since I have the authority here, that means we go by my say. So..." He seemed to relish in Aloha's anguish as he gestured downwards, pointing at the ground. "Stay. If you leave, I'm gonna beat you up so bad you'll be blue and green like those Octarians."

With a frustrated groan, Aloha threw his dualies down in disdain, flopping onto the ground. He forgot it was rock solid, so it hurt, but he didn't care, remaining motionless as he huffed, casting a glare at Skull, who was still watching him.

"What? You gonna throw a tantrum or go to sleep?"

He flipped him off before turning his back to him, sulking. He felt Skull's eyes on him for a while longer, but, when he finally looked away, his fatigue caught up to him. Overpowering his rage, his eyes shut, and he fell into an uncomfortable sleep.

He woke up in dark silence, unaware how much time had passed. He breathed a heavy sigh upon remembering that Army was gone. Sitting up and hoping he had returned, he gazed out into the darkness.

That's when he saw it. Although his vision was still blurry from just waking up, it was difficult to miss. Out in the pitch black, there were two glowing eyes. They were luminescent green and blue, fixated on him. Relief flooded over him, and he quickly stood. "Army! What are you-" He stopped abruptly. There was something... different... about him. He squinted his eyes, struggling to make out details in the dark. The shape of his head looked morphed, as if it had been deformed somehow. It seemed to have a dull shine, almost metallic looking. He stood idly, just the same as he always did. Still, Aloha couldn't help but find it... creepy. Despite his mannerisms remaining the same, the way he hid in the shadows seemed almost threatening in nature. He remembered what Skull had warned him of. Reluctantly, he turned to look at the stack of crates, but his eyes stopped on something else.

The spot Mask had been occupying was empty, including the missing zapfish and his roller. Confused and worried, he turned back to look at the figure. He squinted yet again, cautiously taking a step forward. He felt his stomach flip as the figure mirrored him, leaning as if it were about to run at him. In retaliation, he took an uncertain step backwards, and the figure followed suit. The eerie glow of the underground finally cast the figure in a light shadow, illuminating it just enough that Aloha's mouth dropped open.

They were wearing a gas mask. Along with this, broken hero gear, the lights out, adorned their body. Most menacingly of all was the huge hero roller that they dragged limply behind them, creating an ominous scraping sound that echoed and bounced off the enclosing walls. It was Mask. He didn't know how, but it was Mask, and he had been turned into one of those things. His eyes, despite their bright glow, looked tired and cold. He was dead.

"M-Mask...?" Aloha whispered, voice breaking. He hardly uttered his friend's name, watching as he continued taking slow steps towards him. He felt tears edge the corners of his eyes: he was scared. That was two of them, now, that were dead, so it was just him and-

"Skull!" He urged quietly, refusing to rake his gaze from Mask, who was eventually raising his roller over his back. He felt his teammate behind him, and his hand rocketed to the sleeve of his hero gear, tugging. "Skull, we need to go...!"

No response. Reluctantly, he whipped his head around; now was the worst time for Skull to freeze up like this. "Hey!-" Before he even saw his face, his hand brushed his arm. It was like the temperature plummeted upon contact. He felt a shock-wave rivet up his spine, immediately letting go of him as the other inkling turned.

Skull was cold. His dead eyes, up close, were much more lively and animated than Aloha remembered Army's being. Despite the bandanna covering the lower half of his face, he could hear raspy breathing. He could've sworn his ink must have turned white as his friend's clammy hand slowly reached up to grab his wrist. With a horrified shout, he dodged backwards, snatching up his dualies and dodging further away from the both of them. He grunted as he thudded into something in the darkness, and looked behind him.

Army's icy stare met his. The only other detail he took in was the color of his beret. It was no longer purple; it was cyan. He could splat him, now. He nearly started crying, panic escalating as he realized his situation. Struggling to breath, he dodged again, barely avoiding Army's lunge to grab him, and managed to get behind Mask. His former teammates eerily spun around, and it was only then it truly hit him. As Skull loaded his charger; as Army aimed his heroshot, and as Mask unfolded his roller, he realized: he was the only one left. The S4 had fallen, and now, they were going to kill him, too.

In several messy maneuvers, he managed to launch himself across the ground and over the ledge, inking a puddle beneath him and diving in. He surged out and away from the overhang, circling around the zapfish pedestal for some sort of cover. His breath caught in his throat and his eyes darted around before fixating on their looming forms rising overhead. Their eyes were so bright, Aloha felt like he was frozen in pairs of headlights. He braced himself as the three of them jumped down, slamming into the concrete.

His teeth were chattering as he heard Mask take a wheezy breath behind his gas mask, their hawk-like stares never leaving him. "G-guys…!" He begged, feeling the world around him spin as he shouted at these animated corpses. "Please..! You have to remember who you are...!" They remained motionless... until Skull raised his hero charger. With a horrified gasp, Aloha dodged to the side twice, barely avoiding the jet of cyan that was fired. With no time to recover, Mask was already above him, roller readied. He scrambled to his feet just fast enough to dodge out of the way as he slammed it down violently, ink ricocheting in all directions. Panting, he shrieked as he felt sharp shots against his back, spotting Army a few feet across from him as he rolled backwards. Army followed, Mask rolling towards him and Skull lining up his next shot.

Aloha didn't get tired easily, but he knew if this continued much longer that he would collapse out of exhaustion. And yet, he noticed something strange about the way they were fighting him. It didn't seem like they were trying to completely splat him; this only made him even more fearful, as they somewhat mimicked the way the Octarians that took Army were behaving. They were going to do the same to him. He couldn't let them catch him.

He tripped over his own foot as he tried to avoid Skull's charger, and it splattered his feet. He struggled to unstick himself from the ground as Mask and Army closed in. He aimed both of his dualies, but they seemed to know that he just couldn't bring himself to shoot. With nowhere else to go, and as Skull centered his charger beam, he was overcome with a sense of guilt. This was his fault. He squeezed his eyes shut, beginning to sob.

"Skull..." He spluttered. "I destroyed your team... I killed everyone... I'm sorry..." He inhaled, coughing as tears rolled into his mouth. "I'm so sorry..." He felt an icy hand grab one of his wrists, dragging it from his face. "Take me... Just take me already..."

He waited. And he waited. He wanted them to grab him; he wanted these walking corpses that had once been his friends to drag him to his death, to make him like them. He deserved it. He deserved to die scared and alone, because it was what he had done to them.

After what seemed like hours had passed, and the hand gripping his wrist did not move, he finally looked up, through blurry, teary eyes.

Skull's beam was now relaxed and aimed at the floor, right below his feet. His eyes still seemed cold, but he looked... confused? That was something they had in common, then. What had happened? What caused him to stop? Sniffling and wiping his eyes with the back of his free arm, he looked up at Army, then to Mask, seeing their expressions mirrored Skull's. He swallowed hard as he considered what might have caused it. Was it what he said? No, it couldn't have been... but it was worth a shot. Taking labored breaths, he turned his attention to Mask next, who had also paused. "Mask..." Hope stirred inside of him as his friend's eyes seemed to dilate slightly, hinting recognition of his name. "I... I always say I hate you, but... Now I'm upset..." He sniffed again, eyes beginning to water again. "...I'm upset I'll never get to say it to you again... And I'll never get to tell you I didn't mean it... Because..." He took a shaky breath. "Because I never did..."

Mask's roller slowly dropped until it rested on the floor, being held gingerly in his hands. With developing courage, Aloha lastly turned to Army, who still gripped his arm. "Army-" It startled him how the muscles in his hand twitched as he addressed him, but he kept going. "Army, I... I've always looked up to you. It doesn't matter what our ranks are... You're something incredible. Something I could never be... And I..." He stifled a sob, gripping his friend's hand back, his voice painfully desperate. "I miss you... Please come back... I... I need you guys back... I can't go on like this... I need someone to berate me for being dumb... I need someone to say they hate me... I want someone to constantly fight with... Please, I- I just-" He broke down, falling against his friend's leg, crying. He wasn't so upset, however, that he didn't notice the pent-up emotion he was unleashing seemed to stir something in his friends, and they all lowered their weapons until they stood idly, gazing down at him. He was relieved; still too frightened to move, but relieved.

Blinking away tears, he quickly tracked a sudden movement from Skull. Frozen, he watched as the cyan inkling slipped a finger under his bandana, pulling it down to hang around his neck. He felt his ink turn ice-cold as a small, sinister smile spread across his face. Then, he spoke.

"Maybe you will be useful, after all."

Taking a quick, shaky breath, Aloha instinctively dodged backwards from Army, narrowly avoiding a huge blow from Mask's roller. He didn't even see the attack coming, he felt it. Whatever was controlling them wasn't going away, it seemed. Nothing was working. The only thing he knew was that he wasn't about to abandon them, even if it killed him. He would make them remember.

He watched in awe as all three of them dropped their weapons. They clattered to the ink-soaked ground, now completely disregarded. Somehow, this only made Aloha more nervous. What were they doing? He only realized when Army suddenly lunged forward, arms outreached. He dodged to the side twice, and Army practically fell as he closed his arms around where he had been. Whatever their motives had been, it was now clear: they were going to capture him and take him to the place they had taken Army.

He shouted in frustration as Skull slid up to him through the ink, almost getting a hold of his ankle. All three of them were attempting to corner him, now. He figured it wouldn't be long until they succeeded. Their attacks were becoming more confident, more persistent.

It was only a matter of time until his entire body was screaming for him to stop moving, to rest. He was exhausted, and he knew he couldn't keep going any longer when Mask managed to actually grasp his forearm. He hardly managed to rip his hand off before Skull was upon him, as well. He kicked him backwards with a pained grunt, swimming away from Mask through his own ink as he dived on the spot he had previously stood. When he emerged, he saw Army approaching him, while the other two were still disoriented.

He knew he wouldn't be able to escape this time. He could hardly breath, he was dizzy, and he felt like his legs would give out at any moment. Every memory he had ever had with Army flashed through his mind: their fights, their training sessions, their passing conversations. Every ounce of energy he had left was gone watching his friend walk up to him with such malicious and cold intent. He didn't want to keep going; he knew what he wanted. It was a primal urge, something every person neglected and ignored until they could no longer. So, with one final breath, he moved himself forward to meet him in the middle. As Army reached out to grab him, Aloha reciprocated, and pulled him into a desperate hug.

A hug: that's all he wanted. He wanted to be held, and he wanted to be told everything was going to be okay. Realizing how selfish that was, he painfully, quietly, laughed to himself.

"It's going to be okay", he said quietly, his voice breaking. "I'm... I'm right here..." His fist tightened around the collar of his hero jacket, just wanting him to hug him back. A hug: that's all he wanted.

He was so dazed, so miserable, so mentally clouded, that he hardly registered the sharp pain in his stomach. His eyes fluttered open. The view from Army's shoulder was strange.

'Why is everything so blurry?'

He backed up from Army slightly – no, fell backwards. As he took an unsteady step back, he looked down. Army's hand was extended to his stomach. He was holding something. Then, suddenly, he wasn't holding it. He had withdrawn his hand. Aloha took another step, his legs going numb. Something was sticking out of his stomach.

'What is that? It's so blurry. Why is it so blurry?'

Shaking, not from fear, but from fatigue, his hand reached down to the object. He brushed his fingers across it gingerly. It felt hard. Hard and cold. And yet, his hand touched something sticky. Sticky and warm. Something coated the object.

'What...?'

He brought his hand to his face. He didn't feel it, but his knees buckled, and he finally lost his balance. His eyes adjusted to focus on his hand. He blinked.

'Oh. It's blood.'

His gaze fell back to the object. He now recognized it.

'A knife.'

Slowly, he located Army. His piercing eyes were the only thing that he could really see as he fell. Everything clicked. His brain felt like it was full of cotton, but singular coherent thoughts came flooding in. Army had stabbed him. He stabbed him with a knife.

But he didn't have time to wonder where he got it. "Army", he whispered hoarsely. "Why...?" No response. As his back hit solid ground, the last thing he thought he saw were two pink shapes falling from the ledge and rushing towards them.

Chapter Text

Everything was fading in and out, fast and far, dark and blurry. There was no sense of direction, no sense of smell, no vision. However, there was a resounding ringing in the Inkling's ears.

It sounded foreign, warped and strange; a sound he could recognize – comforting – yet he did not comprehend it. He tried to move, but he couldn't feel it.

Suddenly, there was a sharp pain in his stomach. The pain sent a shockwave through his body, until he recognized the sensation of something hard and cold underneath him. It also occurred to him why he couldn't see: his eyes were closed, except, before, he hadn't felt that they were. He opened them with delay, surprised to find the light level had hardly changed.

His blurry eyes adjusted to the two figures hunkered down in front of him. The hum he had been hearing became reprehensible as he distinguished one of their mouths moving; they were speaking. As both his eyes and ears began creating a more vivid picture, he could eventually hear individual noises, then words, until he could fully listen to the conversation, motionless on the concrete ground.

"...it's whether or not we can take him down again." Aloha's eyes locked onto the figure to the right; he was an Inkling, sporting a top-knot hairstyle. What shocked him was the fact that he was dressed in hero gear, the same kind the S4 were given for their mission. He seemed like the more serious of the two as his companion responded to him.

"I'm... not worried." He immediately recognized this person as an Octoling; he had a single tentacle running the length of his head, curling slightly at the front. He also wore entirely black leather clothing, a large, yellow band adorning his ankle. He looked... familiar...

Both of their ink colors were pink, and Aloha could feel his was still purple.

"Really? Of all people, I'd expect you to be the most concerned."

"Mm... Tin can. Crush him."

"Yeah, a tin can, but a tin can with the intelligence of a supercomputer. Are you a super computer?"

"Maybe."

The corners of the Inkling's mouth tugged upwards into a slight smile; at this point, Aloha could tell they were close. Finally, he struggled to sit up, resting his weight on his elbows as he gently pushed himself forward. He grunted and shuddered as another sharp pain shot through his stomach. He came to a stop, looking down. His torso was wrapped in white cloth, stained blue in the center from blood. His eyes widened as he remembered. 'Army.'

The noise he made attracted the attention of the other two, and he watched as both their heads swiveled to look at him, the smile immediately gone from the Inkling's face. His eyes practically pierced through him.

"You're awake."

Aloha quickly, painfully shuffled backwards as the Inkling stood. However, he paused and stared at the Octoling as he followed. He had known he recognized him from somewhere, and, finally, it clicked.

"Hachi?"

Both stopped approaching. The Inkling passively turned to look at his partner, quirking an eyebrow. The Octoling's eyes squinted in confusion.

"...Hachi?" He echoed.

"Yeah, Hachi..!" The Inkling took up a defensive position as the purple one rose enthusiastically, although a bit labored due to his injury. "It's me, Aloha! Don't you remember? Team Blue introduced us! You're good friends with Goggles, right?" He paused, his smile vanishing as the other's expression failed to change. "...Are you not Hachi?"

"No." The Inkling's voice was stern as he answered for him. "Neither of us have met you before."

"Sorry", the Octoling added. Now knowing neither of these cephalopods were his pre-established friends, he became cautious once more, his mind set on teammates. He glanced inconspicuously at the heroshot and charger that lay on the ground next to either of them; a horrible thought entered his mind.

"I see..." He started with an accusatory tone. "...Do you happen to know where my friends are?"

"Friends?" The pink Inkling muttered, tracking the other's hand as it gradually slipped behind his back.

"My teammates", he said deliberately. "Did you see where they went after the battle? I passed out, so I don't remember what happened. I'm assuming they ran away..." His arm rested directly behind his back, eyes locked onto the other. "...Right?"

The mood seemed to shift; the Octoling opened his mouth, then shut it again, glancing sideways at his partner, who seemed completely indifferent to what he next said.

"Oh. The sanitized? I splatted them."

Aloha stared blankly, eyes seeming unable to focus, staring right through him.

"...What?"

"It's not that hard to understand; they were infected, and they were attacking you. Those weren't your teammates."

"What?" Aloha repeated again, horror beginning to twist its way onto his face, followed by sheer rage.

"Don't even think about it", he warned him, reading his expression. Before he had even finished his sentence, Aloha took a step backward, and the pink Inkling reached down, swiping up his heroshot. He immediately aimed it at him as Aloha braced, his fingers twitching as he hesitated to pull a burst bomb. He had only met this other Inkling a minute ago, and he already wanted to tear him apart. The Octoling rose from the ground, blocking the Inkling's potential shot and rapidly looking between the two of them.

"Pointless", he said firmly, before raising both hands, pointing at each Inkling in turn. "Explain!"

"There's nothing more to it", his partner muttered, motioning with the barrel of his gun for him to move to the side. "They were nothing more than pawns."

"I was going to take them to the surface to fix them!" Aloha shouted, the Octoling jumping and covering his ears at the sudden escalation in volume. "Just because they couldn't remember in the moment doesn't mean that it's all gone!"

"Smaller!" The octoling quickly interjected. "Smaller voices! Ow..."

The pink Inkling promptly lowered his heroshot, striding up to his partner to set a hand on his shoulder. "Okay, okay, smaller voices..." He said quietly, providing support as he sat back down. Aloha relaxed, allowing his hand to fall limp to his side. The Inkling glared at him as the Octoling looked up, wincing, but uncovering his ears.

Aloha took a breath, resisting the urge to attack him. "Who the hell are you guys?"

"We work for the Squidbeak Splatoon." He looked the wounded Inkling up and down. "...And it appears you've been using our gear."

"My team needed to borrow it for a mission", he fired back, disliking the tone of his voice. "Callie and Marie gave the person who hired us permission to use their equipment; we got clearance."

"They gave you permission…?" He pondered aloud. "A mistake... You've completely wrecked it. You apparently don't know how to utilize it correctly. I'll have to report this back to them. Sheldon won't be too happy..."

"Three." The Inkling faced his companion. He raised an arm to point a sharp finger towards Aloha. "Friend."

The Inkling sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Eight, we don't even know-"

"Has our gear!" The Octoling insisted. "Friend!" He stood and approached Aloha. He motioned towards himself with both hands. "Eight." He then gently gestured to him. "Your name?"

Aloha hesitated for a moment seeing the way 'Three' glared at him from over Eight's shoulder. "...I'm Aloha."

"Aloha", Eight echoed. Then he softly smiled. "Good name."

Before Aloha could ask, Three intervened and answered his question for him. "Eight came from down here, not too long after the hive mind began spreading. He could understand Inkling right away, apparently, but he has issues speaking it... be patient with him."

Eight's eyebrows furrowed, appearing to be deeply concentrating. After a few seconds, he faced Three. "I can speak fine!" He argued. "It just takes time!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know", Three huffed, rolling his eyes. "I was a toddler, once, as well."

"Not to interrupt", Aloha interrupted, "but you said something about a hive mind? Also... you called my friends sanitized. What the actual fuck is going on down here?"

"Yes, the hive mind. You've already come into contact with it." Three casted a wistful stare over his shoulder into the barring darkness, and Aloha glanced around for a camera crew. "We thought we destroyed the main entity, but it looks like it's back..." He glanced back to Aloha. "Those 'teammates' of yours... They were sanitized. That means the hive mind killed them and took control of them. They weren't your friends anymore." Aloha grimaced, and Three solemnly redirected his gaze to Eight.

"I was partially sanitized, not that long ago. It had control of me, but I was still alive." Eight turned to make eye contact with him. "Because I wasn't entirely infected, I was much more agile, and my cognitive functions were still strong. Eight had to fight me. According to him, it was the most difficult task he ever faced."

"No big deal", Eight gloated, and he giggled as Three narrowed his eyes at him.

"You're lucky I didn't kill you..."

Eight raised a finger and pointed at him. "More lucky."

Three rolled his eyes again. "Anyways... Aloha." He turned to him. "What mission were you hired to complete?"

"There were two missing zapfish we needed to retrieve, because the Octarians took them. We got both of them, and were on our way back. At that point we had already lost one of our teammates to them; they had dragged him off. We..." He decided not to disclose their mistake. "...We couldn't save him. We went to sleep for the night, and the next thing I know, the other two are sanitized, and the first one showed up again, also under control. The zapfish were gone, too. That's when you guys found me."

"And at no point were you given a communication device? Callie and Marie should have been keeping touch with you."

"Apparently those were in use with someone else."

Three glanced at the equipment attached to his belt. "Oh. That sucks."

"Y'know, I've been wondering a lot, recently..." Aloha changed the subject, his voice breaking, "about what happens to these 'sanitized' people when they get splatted. They're dead, right? So... How is their soul supposed to find a spawn point again?"

"They don't", Three said curtly. "Or, at least, they're not supposed to. So don't go blaming me for whether or not your 'friends' come back. We saved you, so have some respect."

"You don't gotta worry about me blaming you", Aloha sighed. "It really is my fault they were sanitized in the first place. I don't understand why they didn't take me, too."

"Then at least that consciousness wasn't knocked out of you", Three muttered, pulling out some sort of device from his vest.

"Going home?" Eight questioned.

"Yeah, in a bit. I have to call up the rest of the splatoon." He glared at Aloha over his shoulder. "Don't try anything funny. You aren't getting your dualies back until we return to the base. You're gonna have a lot of explaining to do. I'm sure your boss won't be too happy about your failed mission, either..." With that, he turned his back to the rest of them, walking a few feet away and onto an incline, supposedly for a better signal.

Aloha's eyes met with the Octoling's, and Eight smiled at him, sitting down. "Home soon. Come here?" He patted the ground next to him.

He sighed, trudging over to him and lowering himself to the ground. "Look here", he said, pointing at himself, and Aloha turned towards him. Eight reached forward slowly, towards his bandages. "Helping." He nodded, and the Octoling began undoing the wrap, throwing the discarded scrap behind them. He turned his head over his shoulder, and shouted "bandages!" at Three, who immediately slipped his hand into another vest pocket, chucking a roll of it towards him, all without turning around. Eight caught it, beginning to re-wrap Aloha's wound. "Healing fast..." He muttered to himself as Three began speaking into the device.

"Agent Three, reporting in." He paused. "This isn't... Who is this?" Another pause, and Aloha could sense the obvious annoyance that edged his voice. "Oh. Four." He sighed, putting a hand on his hip. "Do me a favor, and go get Marie for me... What do you mean 'no'? Stop being a brat." He continued getting more and more irritated. With Three thoroughly distracted, and Eight finishing the wrap, Aloha gave in to the temptation that ran endlessly in the back of his mind.

"Thank you, Eight..." He hesitated. "...And, I'm sorry."

The Octoling gave him a puzzled smile. "Hmm?"

"For this." He shoved the other, causing them to fall backwards with a grunt. Then, as fast as he could, trying to ignore the pain in his stomach, he darted towards the heroshot lying on the ground. He scooped it up, immediately heading in the opposite direction of the way to the surface.

"Wait!" Eight shouted, and he heard Three yell some not-so-nice things at him, two sets of footsteps hitting the concrete behind him.

"I have to go save my friends!" He yelled back, firing ink ahead of himself and diving in. Given that neither of them picked up their weapons – and Three couldn't have since he had his heroshot – it wasn't long before he outpaced them, swimming through ink most of the way forward and determined to find his friends once more.

Chapter Text

Once the pattern of footsteps behind him ceased, and he had winded around several abandoned buildings, he began slowing down to a more reasonable pace, heading out towards the main path. Once he reached it, he emerged from the ink, looking to his left and recalling this being the way to the second zapfish's containment area. He decided if they really had respawned, they would be deeper in the underground, so he continued in that direction. He refrained from picturing what would happen if he got caught; he was all by himself, and he wasn't exactly acquainted with the stolen heroshot.

After a long time of walking, passing both the area with the pillars and the room with the cameras, which he went into and attempted to activate but failed – if only Mask were there – he reached the place where they had rescued the second zapfish. He came to a stop near the edge, between two buildings, and peered across the overhang. Luckily for him, he was right on time. Beside the still-empty zapfish cage, all three inklings stumbled along in a straight line; Army stood in front, Mask in the middle, while Skull was at the back. They were so in sync with one another that it was creepy to watch. Although they were heading towards Aloha, it didn't appear they had seen him yet. He stared at Skull's hero charger nervously; one hit was all it would take for him to be splatted, and then he might never find them again. Not to mention, he could only assume Army still had that knife, and the others might have their own.

Clutching onto hope, he skidded down to them, aiming his heroshot. Their neon cyan eyes shot straight to him, each slowly tossing their weapons in their arms, taking up offensive stances. They froze like that for a few seconds; no one moved, no one said anything. Then, the silence was broken.

"Alohaaa. Come with usss." He was shocked to hear Mask speak. It was only the second time he had heard one of them use their voice, although it didn't exactly sound like them. It was clear someone was speaking through them.

Determined, he gestured his heroshot at them, trying to be intimidating. "No! Come with me!"

The three of them paused. Then, Mask raised his roller over his head, Army aiming his heroshot as Skull's charger beam centered on his chest. Feeling more prepared than last time, he dodged to the side the best he could – heroshots weren't dualies, after all – avoiding the wave of ink that fell where he had been standing. He stood shakily, his wound continuing to ache, as he watched their bright eyes track his movements. He remembered how they seemed to enter a state of confusion when he started talking to them. If it would help them fight this hive-mind, he figured it was worth another shot.

"Wow, you guys really have to work on your aim." He dodged to the side again as Army attempted to shoot him; as he came to a stop, he saw that his mouth had opened slightly wider, as if he was thinking about what he said. He tried again. "I'm not surprised by your lack of skill, Army. I've always been better than you."

He could have sworn he heard him huff impatiently; he froze for a moment, surprised, because it sounded exactly like how he used to react when he'd annoy him. He snapped back into focusing when Mask slammed down his roller, a barrage of ink splattering across the concrete straight towards him. A few drops hit his shoes, and he jumped backwards, fearful, as he saw his figure gliding through the path. He dodged to the side several more times. "That's not gonna work, Mask! I know you too well!" The sanitized inkling emerged from the substance, jumping out and attempting to crush him, following where he had heard his voice. But Aloha had already moved yet again, jumping to the other side of the ink trail. As his roller hit the pavement, he growled in frustration, glaring at him from under his mask, eyes piercing the protective cover. In short, it was terrifying; however, he felt like he was making progress. Riling them up seemed to work last time, so he would do what he did best: be an annoying asshole.

"Too slow! Rollers are sooo lame. Just thought you should know."

Mask glared yet again, raising the hero roller up slightly just to slam it back down in anger.

"What? You gonna cry?" He made an exaggerated sad-face at him. "Do you suck ass without your little carbon roller?"

Mask began running straight at him, and Aloha simply jumped over his head, although it was a struggle with the weight of the heroshot. He managed to land on his feet, twisting around; he caught a glimpse of Skull and Army, who were simply watching. Mask re-folded his roller, facing him, his eye twitching.

"This must be so embarrassing! Everyone else is watching, and you're doing terrible. If I were you, I would-"

"Shut uuup! Just shuuut the hell up!" He smiled as Mask finally broke; his voice sounded like his own. "You little shiiit! I'll fuck you uuup!"

"Wanna bet?" He said, his voice elevating. He tossed his head over his shoulder to look at the other two out of the corner of his eye. "Why're you just standing there? Scared of looking stupid?"

"Calm yourself." Skull said this demandingly, staring straight at Mask. It was still the hive-mind speaking through him, and Aloha waited with baited breath as Mask turned towards him.

"Caaalm myself?" He echoed. "Caaalm myseeelf?!" He entirely dropped his roller, making angry hand gestures as he pointed at him. "Youuu sit there and don't even heeelp! Youuu could have shot at him! I was distraaacting him for you, you moronnn!"

"I..." Skull trailed off, and, as he started talking again, his voice gradually shifted from unfamiliar to the one he knew all-too well. "You need to stop pointing fingers, and take some of the blame, Mask. Don't guilt others for your own shortcomings."

"The only guilttt I feel is not being close enough to youuu to hit you right nowww!" Skull froze. Then, his sickly green hand rose to his bandana, nearly ripping it as he pulled it down to hang around his neck. As his voice grew louder, some of the cyan gunk that infected them flew out of his mouth. It was disgusting, but it seemed promising.

"Why are all of you so incapable of cooperating?! I try so hard to keep this team together, and I get little to no effort back!"

"Oh, stoppp acting all high-and-mightyyy! Just because you're our leaderrr doesn't mean shiiit!"

Army groaned impatiently, pinching his nose.

"You're all so senseless and prone to fighting! Quit blathering! We're supposed to-" He paused, stuttering. "We're... We're supposed to..." His hand slowly lowered from his face before his head twitched violently.

Mask suddenly clutched his gas mask with both hands, shaking. "Whyyy do I feel like... What's..." He practically screamed, doubling over, eyes wide. "What the fuuuck is happening to me?! Wh- What the-" He made a choked noise and began frantically scrabbling at the clips on the back of his mask. Skull and Army stared in confusion, Aloha equally unaware of what, exactly, was going on. After he undid the clips, he tore the mask off his head; his cheeks were puffed out, his eyes watering. He collapsed onto his hands and knees, and then... vomited. A waterfall of turquoise-colored sludge came from his mouth, as well as from his nose, tears streaming down his face. Once he was done, he fell back onto his knees, staring forwards blankly, his mouth ajar. Then, slowly, he fell completely onto his back, motionless.

Aloha gasped; it had worked! That weird substance was ejected from his body, and, sure, he would probably need a lot of recovery, but he seemed to have lost the hive-mind's influence. Skull caught his attention as he stumbled backwards, looking disgusted. "Oh... That's fucking sick... " His hand flew to his face, covering his mouth, and he spun around, bending over as he puked, the same stuff coming out of his mouth that had come out of Mask's. When he was done, he collapsed, also motionless.

One left. Aloha faced Army. He was sweating nervously, his mouth agape as he glanced between Skull and Mask. "No... No! You imbeciles!" He shouted, his voice breaking as he tried to hold back the urge to vomit. "We were so close!" He turned to Aloha, glaring and gritting his teeth. "You... You ruined everything. I swear I'll-" His mouth shut quickly, and he held his stomach. There was a long moment before he finally swallowed, gasping. He took one last look at Aloha; then, he turned and began staggering away.

"Oh, no you don't!" Aloha sprinted up to him, wrapping his arms around him to prevent him from leaving. Army immediately began fighting against him, trying to grab his arms and push them off.

"Let go, dammit...!" He gagged, immediately shutting his mouth and holding his breath.

"Come on, quit being difficult! Spit it up!" He shoved his fingers under his vest, tickling him.

He started struggling harder, eventually unable to keep himself from giggling. "What- what are you- Stop!-"

"This body doesn't belong to you, bitch! Throw up!"

He doubled over, trying his hardest to continue holding his breath. Finally, he gave in, convulsing before puking. Aloha immediately let go of him, not wanting any of the stuff to get on him. He gingerly placed his hand over his half-healed wound, watched as his friend spit up the last bit of sludge before falling onto his side. All three of them were down.

He waited a moment, gazing across their motionless bodies. He was expecting at least Mask to have gotten up by now... Slowly, quietly, he walked up to his position on the floor. He stared at his face; his eyes were open; they were glazed over, the bright cyan pupils seeming... different. His eyebrows furrowed, exhaling shakily. He recalled how the sanitized had been described... they were just dead bodies being controlled, akin to puppets on strings. He realized how stupid he had been. There was never a guarantee that releasing them from the hive-mind's control would bring them back to life... not after they had been dead this long. Then what about those sudden changes in character right before they puked? Frankly, he didn't understand how this worked, so all he could assume was, in the small fraction of time the hive-mind was losing grip of their influence over them, the brain that they had been using to control the body slowly slipped back into having somewhat of a mind of its own. Looking down at the three of them, he was certain he didn't want that to be his last glimpse of what was going on in his friends' minds.

He gently knelt, a hand on his head in exasperation. Hesitantly, his hand reached forward, grasping his. Mask's skin was cold. The slight lifting of his limb showed just how limp he had become; there was no twitching, no pulse, even as he pressed two fingers to his wrist. An eerie feeling cascaded over him, and, in a panic, Aloha weakly stood, clutching his chest. There was a deafening silence. The last sound he had heard was Army's corpse falling to the ground. Now, there was nothing. It was like looking at a photograph, the way all other senses, all indicators of life, were missing entirely. The quiet stretched on, until there was thudding. Aloha's hand shakily rose from his chest, his body moving after remaining still for so long, as if he were trying to blend in with his teammates. He recognized this thudding. It was his heartbeat. It pounded in his ears, and got faster as it clashed with the image before him. This wasn't right. It wasn't right for his to beat while theirs stood still. It wasn't fair. He felt alone. He was alone.

He repeated the phrase in his mind.

'I am alone.'

He clenched his hand into a fist.

'I am alone.'

Wincing as the lights around him were suddenly much brighter, he shifted himself to turn away from them.

He was alone. There was no reason to be here anymore. He was the sole survivor of their mission. It wasn't safe to attempt retrieval of the zapfish by himself. The one task he had left, the one in priority, was finding Three and Eight again, and letting them take him to the surface so he could report on their failure.

His eyes lifted from the corpses, fighting back tears. Although difficult as he turned around, he swore to himself he wouldn't look at them again, his heroshot held so gingerly that it was sure to slip from his fingers.

A cough was all it would take to break his promise to himself. He froze and stared at the ground in front of him. He felt like time froze. The sound had come from behind him. No – he was hearing things. He took another step forward. He heard a sudden series of coughs, and, this time, he recognized the way it sounded. Feeling like the world was spinning around him, he turned to look back at the fallen squids.

Mask's slumped-over form slowly rose and fell as he lifted himself with one arm, his posture curved. His free hand was stiff, as it normally was, as he drew it to his face, very unsuccessful in covering his coughs. His eyes squeezed shut, breath labored, and, when they opened again, they drifted aimlessly across the two still bodies in front of him, before veering suddenly to the right, locking onto Aloha.

They were frozen, staring at each other for a while. He studied the eyes of the sanitized inkling. They were still black, his pupils remaining the vibrant, sickly color. But there was something there that wasn't there before. He could see the way his pupils expanded looking at him, as if they were actually processing who they were looking at. There was a lot going on in his head, and, somehow, he knew there wasn't a stranger running his thoughts through a filter anymore, just him. Just his friend. It was as if neither could believe what they were seeing. Then, stumbling into a run, Aloha came to him, throwing himself onto him and wrapping his arms around him in a hug. Mask did not reciprocate, but Aloha felt him lift his arm, hesitantly hovering over his back, as if pondering whether he should touch him.

After a long moment, Aloha veered back, grabbing Mask by the shoulders, his fingers clenching the fabric of his hero gear. Tears dotted the corners of his eyes as he berated him. "Mask, you fucking bastard, don't you ever scare me like that again!" His voice broke unevenly, racked with sobs. It was a complete contradictory sight to Mask, who maintained a surprised, and yet confused, facial expression, remaining silent. Despite this, his eyes softened, and, after a moment of processing, tears sprung to his eyes, as well.

Aloha smiled crookedly, relieved to see his friend mirror his expression, when, suddenly, he sneezed, head tilting down violently as he did so. He looked back up at the purple inkling, whose face fell slightly. Just as quickly as it had vanished, however, his smile was back.

"Of course, hay fever..." He muttered, sniffing. "Can't even cry for me, huh? Just as unwilling to open up as before. Never change, loser." His attention snapped to behind Mask, as Skull suddenly spluttered awake, looking around in a panic. After his gaze flickered over Army, his eyes landed on the other two. Aloha smiled again, scrambling away from Mask, hugging him. Skull also did not reciprocate; he could tell he was in the same state of confusion and shock Mask was.

His eyes flashed open as he heard Army wake up. He immediately released Skull, who fell backwards, and ran up to his friend. Army rubbed the back of his head, wincing, and grunted as Aloha tackled him into a hug. He was surprised when the other actually growled at him, fearful for a moment. But the tone of his voice was familiar; he sounded more annoyed than angry. Still wanting to be cautious, he reached into a couple of his vest pockets until he felt the handle of a weapon, taking it out and throwing the knife far away from the group. This way, no one could be hurt, at least, even if it was an accident.

After a moment, he let go of him, standing back and looking around. All of them were peering curiously at one another; there was no air of unfamiliarity, but Aloha figured they were all wondering what happened. From what he'd seen so far, it didn't appear any of them could really speak. He could only hope they would understand him. He cleared his throat, attracting their attention.

"Okay, guys, so... Uh..." He paused briefly. "...We're going to head back to the surface. I need you to stick close to me. I'm not about to lose any of you again." He clapped his hands. "Alright, stand up! We're going."

They stared at him blankly. Then, slowly, Army pressed his hands flat on the ground, attempting to push himself up, and Aloha felt triumphant that he had actually understood him. He wobbled for a moment, his legs looking like they might give out underneath him, before managing to stand up straight. Aloha smiled at him, looking expectantly at the other two.

Mask was the second to get up. He went though the same process Army did, maintaining his horrible posture as he balanced himself. Finally, Skull glanced between the other sanitized inklings before standing straight up without even using his hands. He stood perfectly still for a moment, before falling forward, flat on his face. He groaned from his spot on the floor, and Aloha tried not to laugh as he helped him back up.

The ordeal became much less funny to him when he had to re-teach them how to walk.

"Okay, okay, just put your foot like this- no, Mask, that's too big a step, you're gonna- hey! Listen to what I'm saying, dammit!" He groaned in frustration as Mask fell to the ground, although he quickly stood back up, not very elegantly, but efficiently. Army was the closest to having it figured out, and was slowly able to up his pace as he did so. Skull could at most stumble around; Mask could also only stumble, but he did so with much more balance. Skull constantly had to kick off the ground in front of him to prevent himself from falling, only to then have to worry about falling backwards.

"This is like teaching squidgartners..." Aloha mumbled, before snapping his fingers, having an idea.

"If you guys are gonna act like squidgartners, then let's do it this way." He grabbed Army's hand, who glared at him as he disrupted how well he had been walking around. He then motioned Skull and Mask over, instructing Mask to hold Army's hand, as well as Skull, who would be at the back of the chain. It wasn't difficult to get them to cooperate, but it was a challenge to get them to actually succeed in their orders when both their mental and physical capabilities were behind.

"Alright, let's go- and do not let go of anyone's hand. All you have to do is follow the person in front of you." With that, he slowly started walking forward, tugging the other three behind him. They seemed to be much more balanced this way; he frequently checked behind him to ensure they weren't missing anyone and that Skull's charger was still slung over his shoulder, Mask's roller was on his back, and Army's heroshot was in its holster. As Three had told him, he was sure Sheldon would have his head if he lost any of the weapons lended to them.

They continued walking for a long time, and he impatiently went faster as they continued along, the other three struggling to keep up without tripping. By some miracle, none of them ever fell, and they eventually reached the site where the first zapfish had been. Aloha figured he should probably give them a moment to rest. Did sanitized Inklings get tired? He had no idea. He peered over his shoulder.

"Okay, guys, let's rest here for a bit-" He cut himself off with a gasp. Army still held his hand... But Mask and Skull were gone. Looking past his friend, he saw two turquoise figures stumbling away together. Mask was in the front, tugging Skull behind him. If it weren't for the fact that they were being a major pain in the ass, Aloha would have been proud of how fast they were running.

"Dammit!" He exclaimed, stomping his foot. He glanced to Army. He had no idea how fast he could go, at this point, and he wasn't about to leave him by himself.

"We're gonna run. You ready?" He could've sworn Army's grip on his hand tightened in response.

"Okay. On three-"

"Stop right there!" There was an explosion of pink in front of the Inklings, and both instinctively dodged backwards, Aloha shocked by how swiftly Army reacted.

Before he could look up at the nearest ledge, they had already descended upon them. Three thudded to the ground before them, Eight making a much lighter landing behind him. Aloha was surprised to see both of his own hero dualies aimed at them. He immediately took up a defensive position, ushering Army behind him. Even with this new threat presented, he couldn't stop thinking about how Mask and Skull were getting away.

"You are no longer simply being escorted by us", Three barked. "By order of the Squidbeak Splatoon, Aloha, you are hereby stripped of your privilege to use our gear and weaponry. Put down the heroshot or be splatted."

"Please?" Eight said much more politely from behind him.

"No", Aloha said stubbornly. "You're going to send my friend back, either way. I'm not about to let you do that!"

Eight wore a worried expression as his grip on his charger tightened, glancing at Three. The Inkling's eyes narrowed.

"This is your last warning."

Aloha grimaced, aiming his heroshot directly at him. If it came down to splatting these two, so be it.

The two stood frozen, staring down the other in an attempt to intimidate. Out of the corner of his eye, Aloha saw Eight slowly draw his gaze from his heroshot to Three, his eyebrows furrowing. Nothing else moved. In his mind, he started counting down from five. That's when he would splat them.

Before he could attack, there was suddenly something blocking his shot. Aloha took a step back, shocked. Army was no longer behind him. Instead, he took up a stance in front of him, his back facing him. He aimed his own heroshot directly at Three... but his other arm was held out to the side, blocking any potential shots that could be taken at Aloha. He was protecting him. Slowly, he looked over his friend's shoulder.

Three's arms rested at his sides, his finger off of both triggers. He also looked surprised, his normally lidded eyes wider than before, as he took in the marvel before him. One of the sanitized defending a living being? This was something no Inkling or Octoling had ever witnessed before, he was sure of it.

"See?" Aloha stuttered, relief beginning to wash over him. "He's my friend! It's a long story, but he's able to make his own decisions again-"

A bright and narrow beam centered on Army's head. Aloha followed the origin. Eight had his charger trained on him, his grip on the weapon fierce, matching the look on his face. He almost didn't recognize him. His eyes were wide, pupils small; there was something almost feral about the way he was looking at Army, as if he were in a trance. He was so caught by surprise by his sudden change in demeanor, he failed to notice his finger's eventual pulling of the trigger.

The sound of a charger firing echoed off the buildings around them. It happened so fast, Aloha didn't even see it. When he looked down, he saw Three's hand gripping the barrel of the weapon. He had shoved it to the side as it fired; a long spray of ink lay to the right of them. Through it all, Army did not move, his gaze locked with Eight's.

"Eight."

The Octoling didn't react. Instead, he muttered something quietly in Octarian, his arm shaking slightly as it tried to retrain his charger.

"Eight!" Three said this much more sternly. Although it appeared he had seen this happen before, he still sounded concerned. When his friend still did not snap out of it, he quickly pushed the barrel of his charger upwards, pressing it hard against his shoulder. He grabbed the single tentacle on his head, yanking it so he was facing towards him, forcing him to meet his gaze. The Octoling shuddered violently at the sudden gesture, eyes darting around, yet not looking at anything in particular.

"Eight, I'm right here. You're safe. You're safe." They paused. Eight was focused on him, now. Then, slowly, both of their grips on the charger loosened, and Three let go of the barrel, Eight allowing it to fall gently to his side. His eyes softened, guilt riddled on his face. He looked back at Army; Aloha saw his pupils dilate back to their normal size. The feral and threatening look in his eyes was gone.

"Our apologies", Three muttered. "This... rarely ever happens... not anymore."

"...Why did you stop him?" Aloha questioned. "Weren't you, like, following orders or whatever? Weren't you ordered to splat us?"

"There are several different variables that can decide whether or not orders can be ignored in any given situation", Three explained, gesturing to Army, "And something like this is one of them."

"What are you gonna do, ship him off to a research lab somewhere?" He asked, anger edging into his voice.

"No", Three replied. "But your friend here has definitely become a special interest of the splatoon. I'm sure a number of members will be very interested in this... development."

"And what does that mean for him?"

"Why do you ask so many questions? It's annoying." He paused. "They'll want to meet him. Considering he seems to have free-will of some kind returned to him, he is less of a threat. In fact, he could help us turn on the hive-mind itself, given he still has a connection to it..." He studied Army. "But, again, that's a given. We'll need an expert to analyze him when we get back."

"And if he no longer has any connection to the hive-mind?"

"...Then we'll still need to keep an eye on him. I'm not making any promises, but, if you work with us–" He glared over his shoulder –"and make no further aggression..." Aloha rolled his eyes. "Then we could possibly help you 'turn him back', or however you worded it."

"Friends?" All three turned to Eight, who still looked apologetic from his previous actions.

Aloha smiled. "Sounds like we have a deal- with both of you, I mean." Eight looked relieved, Three simply nodded, and Army glanced between all of them, seeming confused.

"Great. Glad everything is sunshine and rainbows now." Three spun his dualies – or, more accurately, Aloha's dualies – while quickly surveying the surrounding area.

"Three, one more thing." The pink agent turned towards him.

"My other teammates, Mask and Skull- they regained free will, just like Army did. But that also became a bit of a problem, considering just before you guys showed up, they ran off somewhere. We were about to go chasing after them before you stopped us."

"And you're wanting us to go get them?"

Aloha grimaced hearing his tone of voice. "Yeah, of course! More little test subjects for you, right? Aren't they an interest of the splatoon now, too?"

"Our missions have gone on too long. We've stayed down here two days longer than was planned. In short, the elongated duration of this mission is screwing with the schedules the two of us have. In addition, if they ran away, they can come back, can't they? How do you know they're not returning to the hive-mind? If we were to find them, if their behavior even slightly resembled that of the enemy, I would have to splat them. 'Armond' or whatever his name is the only exception right now. If your teammates come back, they do. If they don't, they don't. Understand?"

Wanting to maintain good behavior so he could get his dualies back, Aloha simply nodded, no matter how badly he wanted to run off with Army to go find them.

"Good. Let's get going." Three took a step, then stopped. He looked back. "...I have a proposition for you."

"Alright, let's hear it."

"If I give you your dualies... And you give me my heroshot..."

"Go on?"

"Then, maybe, we'll both be able to tolerate each other a little more."

"I thought we weren't allowed to use the splatoon's gear anymore?"

"Do you want your weapons back or not?"

"Sounds good to me!" Three gave him a rare smile as they swapped weapons. "By the way, his name's Army."

"I'll keep it in mind." Once everyone had their weapons settled somewhere on their person, and Aloha had changed his ink color to pink to match theirs – a polite and peaceful gesture in Inkling society – the four of them were off.

"So, we heading straight for the tunnel?"

"Both yes and no. Right around these buildings we set up a camp. It's close to the tunnel; we'll be taking a rest there."

Aloha nodded. If they spent a few hours there, it should offer Mask and Skull a little more time to come find them. He considered running off while everyone else was asleep, but he didn't exactly want to get caught and have his dualie privileges revoked. Once they reached the camp, Eight immediately threw himself on top of a crate, hugging his charger as he passed out.

Three scanned their surrounding area before facing the other two.

"Alright, you guys will be sleeping on the floor. I'll take watch the rest of the night, since I don't trust either of you."

"Cool. See you in the morning, I guess." Three turned and leaped on top of his crate, resting his arm on his knee, his heroshot held loosely.

Aloha looked back at Army; his expression wasn't blank, but there wasn't much discernible emotion, either. He was clearly taking in what was happening around him, however, as Aloha tapped him on the shoulder, and they sat down simultaneously. He inked a small puddle beneath him, careful not to get any on his friend, before settling down in it. He watched as Army mimicked him, both of them dropping their weapons in front of them.

"Go to sleep, okay? I mean... If you can do that." Army stared back, very small eye movements his only reaction. Aloha sighed, turning onto his back and resting his arms under his head. He was about to shut his eyes when he felt something slightly heavy slam onto the center of his chest. He looked up in a panic, before realizing that the object in question was actually a squid.

"Army? What are you doing?" When there was no response, Aloha gently picked him up, sliding him into his own puddle again.

"I need to sleep, and so should you. Goodnight." He turned his back to him, hearing Army return from squid-form.

"A."

His eyes reopened, peering behind him.

"...What?" Once again, no response, but he was sure he had just heard him say something. Sitting up, he urged him on. "What are you trying to say?"

Army blinked. "A."

"A?" He quirked an eyebrow. "Aloha? Army?" He paused. "Asshole?"

Army gave him a stern look. "Yeah, yeah, no cursing. But you can't exactly say anything about it right now, can you?" With a huff, Army faced away from him, slamming himself down into his puddle and pouting.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." He laid back down. It wasn't long before he fell asleep, no further noises from his friend disturbing him.

He woke up to exactly three cyan squids lying on top of him. In his haze, he yelled, swatting them off of himself and dodging backwards. It took him a moment to realize who they were as they stared up at him innocently.

"Mask? Skull?"

"It's them, alright." He jumped and clutched his chest as Three suddenly spoke from beside him, cursing under his breath from how badly he had scared him. He stood, brushing stray flecks of ink off of himself, before stomping over to them. He pointed an accusing finger at each of them, scolding them like children. "Don't ever run off like that again! You scared the shit out of me!" He threw a glance over his shoulder. "...When did they get here?"

"It was right in the middle of the night", Three answered, glancing between the squids on the floor. "The two of them came walking up, and, if it hadn't been for what they were carrying, I would have attacked them. I didn't recognize them in the darkness."

He was going to ask what they were carrying when he heard warbling behind him. He turned to see the two zapfish they had failed to rescue held gently in Eight's arms, who was cooing at them in Octarian.

"So that's what you two were doing?" His teammates returned from squid-form; Mask and Skull looked proud of themselves, or, at least, as proud as they could with their near-expressionless faces.

"The one with the... Well, Mask, I guess... refused to let his go. Had to practically pry it out of his arms."

"Yeah, he's pretty attached to them", Aloha muttered, watching as his friend narrowed his eyes at him. It was strange watching the three of them interact. They never spoke, but their mouths occasionally made movement, as if attempting to. They used mostly body motions, although even those were very lax, and, as he struggled to interpret what they were saying, it seemed like they were having as much luck understanding each other, often responding by cocking their heads to the side or hesitantly shrugging.

"Skull", Eight started, pausing as he thought. "Gave us... these?" He held out one of his hands, the zapfish leaning forward curiously at the candy he revealed. Aloha looked from it to his friend, who stared blankly.

"Oh yeah, he always has candy on him."

"Maybe he was sorry?" Eight returned Skull's gaze. The cyan Inkling made a very quiet noise, as if confirming it.

"I wouldn't eat that if I were you..." Three called out, and all five turned to see he was already heading for the tunnel. He stopped to answer Eight's question.

"Why?"

Three sighed. "You can, if you want, but I wouldn't-" Within seconds, Eight had unwrapped a piece of chocolate and eaten the entire bar, staring Three in the eyes as he did so. He giggled as his friend rolled his eyes. "Come on, we're going, and your friends better be able to keep up."

"Not gonna be an issue, trust me", Aloha fired back, rolling forward with his dualies, only to wince and get up as his wound was stretched. The other three took out their weapons, holding them idly as they followed. Three nodded, turning his back to the underground as Eight bounded to his side. The five Inklings and the Octoling marched past the set of buildings and into the tunnel, their footsteps echoing to the bottom as they disappeared inside.

Chapter Text

There was a short burst of pink from a grate somewhere outside of Inkopolis Square. Three small figures shot out from the opening after another eruption of ink, transforming mid-air into humanoid forms, heavy and flashy gear revealed as the pink encasing them evaporated. Two planted their feet on the ground firmly, professionally; the third stumbled a bit before finding their footing, clearly not as familiar with this sort of travel. Once adjusted, they faced the tunnel from which they had just emerged.

"...Are they coming?" Three's expectant gaze landed on Aloha, who huffed from beside him.

"I'm not sure they're able to super jump just yet", he responded, crouching down and peering through the mesh. "Hey! You guys having some trouble?"

A grunt of frustration echoed up from the darkness, followed by a quiet sigh.

"...Do you need me to come back down?" There was a long pause, before a series of thuds, accompanied by several other unpleasant noises.

"Alright, alright, get out of the way, I'm coming!" He transformed into a squid before sinking through the grate, disappearing while Three and Eight waited above.

The tunnels used for transport by the agents were sometimes built by the Octarians, although most normally built by Inklings and simply connected to practically untouched and old Octarian framework, disguised as drains. However, unlike drains, the openings to these tunnels were elevated high enough to prevent water from flooding in, except in the case of rain, but those who used the tunnels were always weary of what the weather would be. Aloha slid against the smooth, metal surfaces as he headed down, before very abruptly barreling into a thick jacket.

He transformed back, a hand on his head as he looked up at them. In the dim light of the tunnel, their eyes, which once would have glowed, were still very clearly visible given how bright their pupils were, and their black sclera gave the illusion of two cyan dots projected over a void. What little light reflected off the metallic walls casted them in an eerie monotone glow, their skin seeming somehow paler. He didn't want to think about how the stretch of time the hive-mind had been out of them might be affecting their bodies.

"Can you super jump?" He grimaced as Army hesitantly shook his head, looking around in exasperation. The other two mirrored him in turn, their faces remaining untouched by emotion.

'I could probably just throw them to the surface, if I tried', he thought, not noticing the way Army was studying him. 'They can't be that heavy . '

There was suddenly a wet, slapping sound, and he felt a few stray drops of ink hit his face. Looking down, Army had scurried into the opening of his vest, peeking out. He made a few angry noises, seeming annoyed that he had to resort to this method for transportation.

"I don't think that's gonna work. I have to transform in order to super jump, remember?" He moved to pull Army from his vest, but his hand froze in place.

"Cold..."

He was quiet, then stuttered, struggling to find his voice. "...What? What did you just say?" There was a pause.

"Cold!" Army mumbled this much more aggressively, upset that he had to repeat himself. Shocked that his friend had just said a full word, his hand slowly lowered from his vest.

"You're cold? I mean, from when I last felt you, you were cold, but I didn't think you could feel it."

"Cold."

"Is that all you can say?" No answer. "Dude. You've spent the past few hours in practical silence, and that's what you've been working towards being able to do? Complain?"

"Hurry it up or they're gonna give our next mission to someone else!" Three's voice echoed down from the opening.

"Okay, I didn't want to throw you like a football, but it looks like that's what we're gonna do." Army squirmed in protest as he was picked up, and, as he began walking towards the opening, he transformed back from the palm of his hand, causing both of them to fall backwards.

"Dammit, Army, we need to get you guys up there!" He snapped, sitting up. The other crossed his arms stubbornly, managing a glare.

"Mask? Skull? You up for trying it?" With a lasting sigh, Skull stumbled up to Aloha before transforming, and he carefully picked him up. "Alright, make sure you stay still, I don't want to fuck up and chuck you into the wall." He trudged up the incline, careful not to slip, Skull sliding onto his head so he could use both hands for balance. Army and Mask followed, curious to see what they assumed would be a disaster.

They reached the section of the tunnel that turned upwards in a steady curve, shaped so a super jumping squid would follow the shape and be shot out the top. He held out his hand, Skull dropping himself onto it, and he encased him in both, slowly moving him over his shoulder.

"Okay, I'm gonna throw you. Try making yourself aero... aero-susceptible?" Mask and Army physically cringed, probably because they were unable to correct him and call him an idiot. Skull fully understood, pointing his tentacles straight out behind himself the best he could, keeping them together and still, straightening his mantle.

"On three." He counted down, and, as he shouted 'go!', he threw him as hard as he could, and the inklings stood and watched. Skull flew slightly upwards, mostly forwards, with great speed. The main obstacle, which was to slide along the tunnel, passed, as Skull hit the metal wall, angled just right that he followed the curve towards the surface, a spark of hope in the dark passage. He went so high up he disappeared. The three inklings waited. Then, a shout came from above.

"One down!" Aloha smiled as he heard Eight's voice echo, and he motioned for the next person. Mask begrudgingly walked up to him, and he scooped him up, repeating the process until Eight called down yet again that he had made it. Once Army reached the surface, he super jumped to meet them, landing on the concrete outside.

"Took you long enough", Three grumbled, pulling his communicator from his belt. All five waited patiently as he tapped the screen several times, reading messages.

"So", he eventually said, putting it away. "Who's going where?" Aloha remembered back to the long conversation they had had in the tunnel.

• • •

"So what you're saying is you're a bunch of sports stars?" Three asked this from the front of the group, sarcasm edging into his tone. Eight walked along beside him, the three sanitized inklings between Aloha and the agents.

"Yeah, and we each have our own teams. We're all the most skilled out of our teams, though, so we get into a group like this when we need to."

"Which is why just the four of you went on this mission?" He questioned, then mumbling, "And why Marie figured you'd be experienced enough to enter enemy territory and come back fine..."

"We are the best in our field, trust me. Turf war is serious stuff, and it extends into all walks of life."

"And, because of that, of course, your mission went perfectly." Aloha didn't like the half-assed way he continued mocking them, making exaggerated hand gestures as he began recapping what happened from his perspective. "You're hired by some pompous asshole who calls himself 'Emperor' to retrieve creatures who are nothing more than lightbulbs to the majority of the population, you come down here with your paintball diplomas and weaponry and gear you aren't even qualified to be using expecting it to be just like a sport, just to find out what you're fighting aren't actually Octarian soldiers, they're the corpses of octolings being piloted by a hive-mind who is currently committing genocide, and you panic, and three-quarters of you die, and here we are."

"Can you stop ripping on us and help us figure out how we're gonna fix this?" Aloha snapped.

"Alright. What do you suggest?"

"I..." He trailed off. There was nothing but the sound of their footsteps for a moment. "I don't really know. I haven't had much time to think about this. I've been too busy trying to get to this point."

"Well, the splatoon has had better luck coming up with what to do." Aloha rolled his eyes. As if a team of professionals wouldn't have some sort of solution by now. Three began a long explanation of what the plan was, which really could've been summarized into a few sentences, given that he probably didn't even understand half of what he was saying, just quoting whatever he had been told.

" Well... " Aloha interjected as soon as he had the chance. "I'm sure their teammates would be more than happy to help. So, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna need you to stop talking for a moment as I call them. I know how hard that is for you..."

He couldn't see Three's reaction from the back of the group, but he was sure he was pissed. With no further interruption, he pulled out his phone, relieved to see they were close enough to the surface to finally get a signal.

• • •

They had discussed many different things before the conversation had turned to that. It had led to Aloha calling up the co-leaders of each of his friends' teams, shortly informing them of what had happened. Of course, they were all shocked, and, to Aloha's annoyance, thinking it was a prank call, but all of them eventually accepted the matter, and agreed to meet up at a specific turf war stage in a few hours.

"I'll go with Army", he said, glancing at his friend. "Team Orange wants to meet up at Triggerfish."

"And what of the others?"

"Team Cyan wants to meet up at Walleye, and Team Purple is going to Blackbelly."

"Skull belongs to..?"

"Purple."

"Then I'll go to Blackbelly." Three motioned for Skull, who came to stand at his side.

"Walleye!" Eight said excitedly, and Mask trudged up to him.

The plan was for each of them to escort one of the sanitized to their team, and then for them to attempt, as a group, to 'cure' them. They didn't know for sure how it would work, but they had an idea of what to try. Aloha had been given a communicator to stay in touch with the agents, and Eight had been entrusted with the zapfish.

"I would suggest that we take the back-way to our intended locations, given we can't super jump, but no one on the surface will recognize or even know what a sanitized inkling is or looks like. We'll be fine traveling in public." Everyone agreed with Three. "Alright, let's go."

With that, the pairs split up, depending on which direction their intended stage was. The camp wasn't far from the grate they had exited, so Aloha didn't have much walking to do. Army walked freely beside him, glancing around as they headed down the street. It was early in the morning, and there weren't many people awake. A few cars drove down the road, but the sidewalks were near desolate. Turf War stages had to be booked for use before-hand, and luckily for him, Team Orange was able to snag a spot, requesting a private battle so they wouldn't be interrupted.

As they walked briskly past building after building, getting closer to the stage each second, Aloha found himself obsessively thinking about his friend, eventually talking to himself, considering Army couldn't really respond.

"...I don't even wanna think about it but... is it even you anymore?" He huffed. "That sounds stupid, but this whole thing is stupid. The only word you've said so far is 'cold', and, although you're acting at least kinda normal, I still can't really tell... If you could just answer me when I ask..."

He threw a glance over his shoulder, locking eyes with him. "Do you remember me? I mean, do you actually?" Nothing but a blank stare, seeming to be lost in thought. "Are you Army? Can I even call you that..?" When he redirected his gaze to straight ahead of him, he sighed, looking forwards. He was silent for a while.

"I wish I had said goodbye."

Nothing else was said until they reached the shoreline. Camp Triggerfish sat right on the edge of the water, the wooden support beams submerged in the gentle waves a few yards away. He glanced at Army, who rolled his eyes, transforming into a squid and allowing himself to be thrown. He tried to calm his nerves as he threw him, not wanting to think about what would happen to him if he fell in, since there weren't any Octarian spawn points nearby. He landed on the deck, and Aloha super jumped over to him, splattering him with a bit of pink. He got up and looked around.

"Well, I don't see your team..." He muttered as Army brushed himself off. He went to sit. "Let's just wait until they-"

An orange squid came raining down from the sky, smacking him across the face, and he fell flat on his stomach. He looked up, dazed, to see two others drop into the spawn point, the color flashing to match their ink, before hastily jumping out, transforming. Aloha sat up slowly, watching as the one that hit him transformed.

"Captain!" Forge cried out, running up to him. She quickly pulled him into a hug, burying her face in his shoulder. The other two, who Aloha knew as B-Sailor and W-Sailor, mirrored her on either side, quite practically crushing him. Despite all of this, Aloha stared at Army, watching him closely. His expression was neutral, and a bit confused, if anything, a complete contrast to how his teammates were sobbing, overjoyed to see him. He bit his lip. There was no way he could tell them his suspicion, not when they had just gotten him back. He'd just have to wait and see how everything went.

"Aloha!" He was pulled from his thoughts as Forge turned extremely quickly to face him, grabbing onto him before he could react. It was shocking to have her hug him, given that they hated each other, but, in the moment, all of that was gone. He shakily wrapped his arms around her. The entire time they were in the underground, no one had hugged him. No one had comforted him. He didn't count the times he threw himself onto his brainwashed teammates as hugs. He exhaled unevenly, failing to hold back a small sob. Everything was hitting him all at once. It was hitting him like a brick wall.

He tried not to cry. Forge's voice sounded from his vest, choked and muffled. "Thank you for bringing him home!" He couldn't stop himself after that. He let himself cry. He let himself because it was the only thing he could do, Army's other teammates hugging him, too. Words were failing him. The guilt that washed over him was immeasurable. If only she knew – if any of them did – that he didn't bring him home. He couldn't prove that he had. For all he knew, Army died days ago in the underground, and the inkling standing before them was simply the empty shell of what was left. He couldn't imagine how angry they would be, how different towards him, if they knew this was practically his fault. He could've saved Army, and yet he didn't.

He wanted to tell them, but he couldn't physically bring himself to. He needed the hug. Even after deceiving them into thinking he was the hero, he was still selfish, wanting reassurance that wasn't deserved. So he let Team Orange hold him. With his walls temporarily torn down, the horror of everything that had happened came rushing into his mind, and he completely collapsed, trembling, the fear and pain he should've felt to this extent before only now catching up to him. And when they stepped back, when they turned towards the sanitized inkling, he had to pretend that it was his friend.

The small gasp that came from Forge, quiet and reserved, told him that they probably hadn't taken any time to really look at him before hugging him. He glanced awkwardly to the side, feeling like he was folding in on himself, feeling their gazes slide past him as they took in what had happened to their leader for the first time. And what was worse was that they didn't understand he was dead. He wasn't about to let them know. It was better if they remained unaware of that part. There was a stretching silence, and it didn't help that Army stared back at them blankly with his dull eyes.

Aloha eventually spoke, eager to get past this initial shock and willing to say anything to end it. "He's sick."

Forge slowly, hesitantly, tore her gaze from her captain to look at Aloha. Her eyebrows were furrowed, mouth slightly parted, confused and scared. He sharply inhaled, unable to stop himself from looking to his right, where his other two teammates shared the same expression. Avoiding their gazes, he loudly continued. "The sooner we start doing this, the better, so let's get this going-"

He was cut off and prevented from walking away as Forge gripped his arm. Hard. He suddenly felt light headed, peering over his shoulder at her. To his surprise, she seemed angry, but not at him. There was almost understanding in her voice.

"What really happened?" Her words cut like daggers. He couldn't get out of this one, but he could try meeting the truth half-way.

"There's... Something like sickness, spreading in the underground." He swallowed nervously. "It's... It's taking over Octarian society, and... They thought they had gotten rid of it... Otherwise they wouldn't have sent us down..." He paused, trying to think of how to word it. "We were outnumbered... They took all three of the others, one by one..." She looked at him questionably, and he struggled to maintain his composure. "The disease makes you forget who you are... It makes you dangerous." Hoping it would earn him some sympathy, he slowly lifted his vest and shirt, revealing the stab wound Army had given him. "...This came from Army. They almost killed me." Her expression seemed to relax slightly. "The disease can't spread now, though – it's a long explanation", he quickly added.

Still locking eyes with him, she slowly said 'okay' before turning towards Army. It was shocking to him how fast her entire demeanor changed. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw B and W-Sailor hesitantly redirect their gazes from him, and he breathed a silent sigh of relief.

"...The container is this way." She began walking left along the wooden platform that supported the spawn point, B and W following.

"Come on, let's go." Army nodded and they pursued them . Below them, in place of where the wooden table would have been, there was a large plastic container, roughly the size of a small underground swimming pool. Looking down into it, it was empty, but soon it wouldn't be. It would be filled with ink.

"Let's get started." Aloha changed his ink color to match theirs as they all pulled out their weapons: Forge with her rapid blaster, B-Sailor with his splatterscope, W-Sailor's dualie squelchers, and Aloha's hero dualies. After making sure Army was standing to the side, they began firing straight into the container. It was clear how long it would take to fill up, but that didn't matter to them. All that mattered was doing it before the ink started evaporating. At some point during the operation, Aloha temporarily stopped in order to take Army to the other end of the map, to see if he could claim the opposing spawn point in his own ink color. However, it didn't work, the surface remaining a solid grayish-white.

No one kept track of how much time had passed since they had started, but, once they were finished filling the container, they were sore from holding their weapons at attention for so long, allowing them to hang limply at their sides.

"By the way, Aloha", Forge began, breaking the silence that had stretched on for the longest time. "I'm not stupid." Her tone was not threatening, but concerned. "I don't know if it's because you don't want to remember, or if you can't say it because it's classified information, but I can tell he isn't just 'sick'. I don't think I want to know, either. Maybe we can discuss this another time, once he's back to normal." Despite his relief from knowing she was understanding of his situation, his heart sank hearing the way she put it. That time might never come.

All faced Army, who still lacked any discernible emotion. Forge breathed a heavy sigh.

"Should we just... Throw him in?" B-Sailor's voice wavered as he gave his suggestion. W-Sailor grabbed his hand, squeezing it reassuringly.

"I'm not sure if it matters... Co-captain, it's up to you." Forge slowly nodded, then took a few steps towards Army, seeming hesitant. She studied his face, before slowly grasping his wrist, placing his hand in her's. Her voice was gentle, barely audible. "Army..." Aloha didn't think he had ever heard her refrain from using his title before. Although still not reacting, his eyes met with her's, and, even as she pulled away, he seemed to be thinking about something. She cleared her throat before turning back around.

"No. It's up to him." She pointed at Aloha. "He knows the most about this. I trust him to make the right choice."

'This is a mistake', Aloha thought as he opened the palm of his hand to Army, gesturing for him to transform. He obliged, the cyan squid flopping onto his hand, positioning himself to be thrown as Aloha prepared to do so. The container was maybe two feet away from the platform, so he would only have to lightly toss him. He couldn't help but notice the way his hands were shaking; he quickly stilled them, but, meeting Forge's gaze, he knew she had seen. He was terrified.

'This isn't going to work. This isn't going to work.' It repeated over and over in his head, the rest of Team Orange waiting patiently. He hesitated, then, slowly, brought the sanitized squid close to his face, who looked back up at him innocently.

"This is gonna fix you, alright? You're just gonna go for a swim..." His voice broke a bit, and he didn't bother waiting for his lack of a reaction before finally tossing him into the middle of the container. Right before he hit the surface, he transformed back, heading feet-first into the substance. It took him a couple seconds to become completely submerged. Aloha froze up, becoming completely stiff, as he watched, terrified. All he could see was the surveillance video where Army had drowned, as the sanitized version of him opened his mouth, as if silently screaming, eyes widening slightly. There was a final spray of ink, and then he was gone.

The group intently watched the waves of orange rock gently against the walls after the falling figure had set them into motion. Eventually, the waves ceased, replaced by singular ripples along the surface. And then it was completely still. It was like the ink wasn't even liquid, but a solid surface. They waited, and Aloha counted down the seconds as they passed by. He got to ten; the growing fear he felt kept him paralyzed. And then, he got to twenty – still no movement from the container. The four inklings watched the gleaming, orange surface for a full thirty seconds.

• • •

"Almost there", Eight repeated for the dozenth time, hoping that Mask would stop dragging his feet and speed up. The zapfish warbled in his arms, and he gave them a gentle and reassuring squeeze. They were just outside the massive warehouse, and it only took them a couple minutes to find the entrance (since Mask couldn't super jump, they couldn't take the usual route). Upon entering, they walked up a series of ramps to get to the secluded area used for turf war. They climbed up to the top of one of the beginning platforms. Eight figured he would claim the spawn point in preparation of the other team's arrival, but it was already glowing a bright cyan color. Confused that he hadn't even seen the other team yet, he turned around to find Mask was gone. A loud cacophony of wails sounded from down the set of platforms, and he urgently ran across them in the direction of the noise.

Who he could only assume was Mask's team were gathered around him, frantically asking tons of questions and hugging him. Eight stood to the side awkwardly, flinching as the zapfish became excited watching the commotion before them, sparking and squealing. It took a while for them to realize Mask wasn't responding. A girl with extremely large and round glasses shook him a final time, her semi-nasally voice finally heard by itself.

"Mask?" She paused, before asking more urgently. "Mask?!" Finally, she turned, surprised to see Eight. Her two friends seemed to mirror her.

"Are you... Agent Eight?" An inkling boy with purple headphones asked quietly. Eight nodded, feeling out of place. He thought he should leave, but he needed to help their teammate.

"Oh! You're..." Another girl wearing a visor on her head began with an exclamation before stopping herself. The one with the headphones glanced at her awkwardly. It was apparent to all of them what she was going to say, and Eight couldn't blame them, even though it made him feel a lot worse. He assumed she might have never even seen an octoling before besides Marina Ida. She recognized it might’ve been rude, and so she didn't say it. That was all that mattered to him.

After another moment of silence, the one with the glasses coughed. She walked up to Eight, nervously scratching her neck. "Um, hi... I'm Full Moon Glasses, but you can just call me Moon..." She held out her hand limply, which Eight hesitantly took in his, shaking it.

"Nice to meet you", he responded, smiling at her, which she returned. He hoped the Inkling grammar lessons Three gave to him would help him in this situation, since he wouldn't be there to translate if needed.

The other two stepped forward, introducing themselves.

"I go by Desi", the one with the headphones piped up. "It's short for Designer Headphones."

"My name is Jersey", the other returned.

Eight nodded. "Nice to meet you all."

Another awkward pause. Eight hated it. He felt like it was because of him. He stuttered, trying to remember which order the words went in.

“We should start soon.” The three of them nodded, glancing uneasily at their leader. He was sure they had questions, but it wasn’t his place to answer. At least they hadn’t taken much notice of his appearance, thanks to his gas mask and long-sleeved hero gear.

“The container is right there.” Moon pointed to a shipping container that sat off to their left, the top removed and resting against its side. They walked over, Mask trailing behind them. Eight glanced to the side as someone poked him in the shoulder. Jersey was staring up at him with wide eyes. He prepared himself for questions regarding his species, but instead, the quiet inkling asked “Are those real zapfish?” Her eyes lowered to the bright yellow creatures in his arms.

He nodded, holding one out. She hesitated, glancing to him for permission, before gently taking the creature in her arms. Its beady eyes met hers, and it warbled deeply, squirming a bit. She smiled and gasped, hugging it, small sparks flying. It seemed completely content being squeezed a bit, eyes closing. Eight couldn’t hide the grin on his face. Inklings were just as cute as zapfish.

They immediately got down to business, the octoling taking out his hero charger and changing his ink color, Moon retrieving her Luna Blaster, and Designer and Jersey holding a Tri Slosher and N-ZAP ‘89. After the zapfish were given to Mask to hold, who sat with his back against another shipping container, they began filling the one they would use. It was a long time before it was finally full, the Tri Slosher dropped to the ground with a clunk as Desi shook out his hands. There weren’t any words exchanged; everyone turned to the sanitized inkling.

Mask stood up, carefully setting the zapfish on the platform, before trudging over, transforming into a squid. Eight scooped him up with one hand before slowly walking to the edge, the opening of the container a few feet away. He paused before tilting his arm back, preparing to toss him, when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked back to see Moon, her expression worried.

“...This will work, right?” Eight’s lips parted, not at all prepared to answer that question. He eventually nodded, feeling horrible about his white lie. Moon looked away, stepping back. “...Okay. We’re ready.” With a deep breath, Eight tossed the squid into the ink. He sank like a stone; it was difficult to see since his cyan color hardly differed from his team’s, but after the splash of ink quickly being displaced, he was gone.

Thirty seconds passed. There was no movement. There was no sound. Eight didn’t have high hopes in the first place, but now it was clear. He tore his gaze from the pool, turning his back and walking to the zapfish. He rested his arm against the container, bent over with a hand to his forehead. His eyes squeezed shut. They had failed. He had failed. An innocent inkling’s last chance at life was gone, and he had no excuse as to how he let it happen.

He glanced back behind him. They were staring at him, lost for words – all of them were. They were depending on him. He was supposed to be the one who knew what he was doing- the professional. They thought he knew what was going on, what was going to happen. He shouldn’t have lied; just looking at them, they weren’t even angry. Just disappointed. Just betrayed. Just in mournful agony beyond belief.

He was angry at himself. All sensibility left him as he suddenly strode forward, inhaling sharply as he straightened out his sleek top. He was heading towards the container and showing no signs of stopping.

“Eight, it’s okay, you tried- you don’t have to-” Moon’s sentence was cut off as he broke into a run, lunging over the gap and transforming into an octopus. He glided through the ink, all outside noise muffled, and waited for the bubbles to rush past him as his eyes adjusted to the lack of light. He would grab Mask and drag him back out. If he was already dead, he couldn’t just die again. He wouldn’t let the ink break down what was left of him.

His eyes searched through the murky turquoise. It was as if he were hiding; he couldn’t find him anywhere. He checked every corner, every foot of the middle. He cursed sharply in Octarian. His darting around the container became more frantic, more thorough, as his frustration rose. And then he stopped. He couldn’t find him. He was gone. Mask was gone.

Just before he could get sick wondering what he was swimming around in, he twitched in surprise at the sound of loud, muffled shouting above him. Panicking and thinking a decomposing Mask had dragged himself out of the tank as he jumped in, he shot up to the surface, bursting out with a loud splash. As the ink droplets soared back down onto the waves below, he looked up. He was just in time to see all three members of Team Cyan super jumping to the end of the stage they had entered through. Confused, he watched as they dropped down, then very suddenly came to an understanding. He swam to the edge of the container, leaping over the side and landing on the concrete, before quickly super jumping over to them.

There, on the spawn point they had claimed, was Mask. He was on his hands and knees in the ink, head hung low. His team was crowded around him, their initial yelling now hushed into silence as they watched. Eight took initiative, recognizing it was his job to check if it had worked. He walked forward before crouching down in front of him. He took note of how his chest was deeply rising and falling – a good sign. Then, carefully, he reached to the back of his head, unclipping his gas mask. He held the pieces together with both hands before slowly sliding them forwards, allowing the mask to leave his face, which was still pointed downwards. He set it on the concrete, then froze in hesitation.

If his sclera was still black…

• • •

“I want you to shoot him.” Eight’s lips parted, eyebrows furrowed, as Three told him this over the device, walking towards Walleye Warehouse.

“But… There must be a way? Other way?”

“If this doesn’t work, we don’t know what it will do to them.” Three’s voice was low, careful not to let Skull hear him, although Eight could also hear the sympathy he was trying to hide. “We don’t know if they will attack us. Coming into contact with enemy ink in such high amounts might trigger them, might make them think they’re being attacked.”

“Three…” He murmured, his voice almost a plea. He heard the other agent sigh.

“You know how the sanitized are. They function like machines when left on their own. They are given a goal, and that’s all they do until they either accomplish it or receive new instructions–” He heard Three pause, probably to look around –“and you also already know how convincing they can be if Tartar is directly controlling them.”

“I know”, Eight reaffirmed, “But I can handle one . Just one? Nothing. I can just tie him, if it can’t work.”

“Think about how Mask’s teammates would feel seeing him try to attack them. They’re not going to understand. That’s why you have to be the one to shoot him. No tying him up- you can’t let anyone stop you from keeping them safe, even if it means splatting them while they try to protect their leader.”

There was a pause.

“I need you to take responsibility, okay? For Mask and the safety of his team. Those civilians are more important. Understand?”

“…Okay.”

“Good. Call me when it’s over; whether that means once it works or once he’s been shot is still in the air.” He took a breath. “Stay safe… okay?”

“You too”, Eight insisted. He heard Three chuckle.

“Alright, I’ll see you in a bit. Bye.”

“Goodbye.”

• • •

He let out a shaky breath. It must have worked. If it didn’t… He would have to follow Three’s orders. He really, really didn’t want to do that. Still hesitating a bit, he slowly reached back to Mask’s tentacles, grabbing them. His other hand twitched near his waist, preparing to grab a burst bomb. He eventually pulled back on his tentacles, forcing his head to rise and face him. His eyes widened.

Mask sneezed directly in his face. He let his tentacles go, wiping off whatever got on him with the back of his arm, before returning his attention back to Mask. The inkling looked normal – well, normal-ish. His sclera was white, his pupils still cyan, but darker, more closely resembling the eye color of his team, his eyes themselves lidded, making him appear exhausted. His skin was sickly white (was it even possible to be this pale?). As he stared back into Eight’s eyes, he sniffed. His face was a blank slate until his eyebrows suddenly furrowed. His voice, a bit raspy, was the first one to break the silence.

“…Octolinggg?”

Pleasantly surprised, Eight smiled widely, rapidly nodding. “Yes! Octoling!” He jumped to his feet, gesturing to Mask. “Fixed!

His three teammates began buzzing with excitement, Moon squealing before grabbing ahold of him, pulling him to his feet and into a tight hug, the other two joining. The three of them were quick to start crying, all while Mask, finally displaying clear emotion, looked incredibly confused.

“Guysss? What’s this all abouuut? Can… can you at leaaast hand me my mask back?” He sneezed again, his team completely ignoring him.

Eight sighed in relief, happily watching their overjoyed reunion. It wasn’t often he got to see the people he saved; usually, he was fighting threats that were far from their intended targets, unless the target happened to be him. He was sure they were grateful, but he would feel bad hearing any praise. He still felt like he didn’t belong; it wasn’t his team, after all. He turned and began heading down the ramp to grab his charger and the zapfish.

“Eight!” He stopped, peering over his shoulder. Moon was calling for him. “Come here!” She unwrapped one of her arms, holding it out in welcome. The octoling had to do a double take. They… wanted him to join? Practically beaming, but still unsure, he took a step forward before suddenly breaking into a sprint, barreling into the group, where Mask was finally smiling – still confused, but smiling regardless.

• • •

Blackbelly Skatepark was the closest stage to where they had emerged, so the stubborn agent and sanitized turf war player had no trouble at all getting there. He couldn’t complain about Skull; although he didn’t exactly move normally, he was able to keep up. After a silent ten minute walk (except for a call in between), they reached the fence gate, Three opening it and motioning for Skull to go in, glancing around to make sure no one was paying them much mind. He took care to shut the gate behind them all the way, turning to face the skatepark after he heard a resounding click .

He wasn’t sure what he expected Skull’s team to be like after Aloha told him that, despite being a bit of an airhead, he was the most skilled of them, an absolute monster with his E-Liter. He had vouched to take him because he hoped being the most skilled would mean having the most professional team, the most easy to work with. It appeared he was right. Three purple inklings stood around the spawn point a few yards away, already having claimed it. They paused their conversation as a girl with a purple bandana held up a hand and pointed towards Three. Immediately, the eyes of the girl wearing a cap locked onto him, and the boy who had his back turned to him pivoted, his aviators glinting in the sun.

“Skull!” He exclaimed. Three expected more energy from them as they rushed over, but it seemed they had already noticed what was wrong. They came to a halt a few feet away, worry painted plainly across their faces. Skull emptily stared back at them, his eyes trailing over each before landing on the boy. Although half his face was hidden, his mouth hung open, giving away his fear as he stood frozen in the unnatural gaze of the other. Eventually, Three cleared his throat.

“...You may approach him. It’s safe.” The inkling took a deep breath before hesitantly closing the gap between them. He didn’t do anything for a moment. Three noticed his shaking hand slowly rising to his face before quickly snatching his aviators, holding them to the side awkwardly. He was surprised to see his pupils were completely devoid of pigment, the deepest black imaginable. His eyes themselves were wide, eyebrows furrowed as he stared at his leader. Their gazes were locked, never once leaving the other. His breathing became heavier, then came in wheezes, before he tightly wrapped an arm around Skull’s shoulders, hugging him with gritted teeth. It was a difficult thing to watch. When Skull did not reciprocate, he drew back, hand still gripping his shoulder. He swallowed, eyes glancing quickly to the floor, then to Three.

“What…”

“Classified information.” When he solemnly nodded, Three looked away before quietly adding, “I’m sorry.” He didn’t look back up, allowing them to have a moment. He could hear the other two inklings speaking in hushed tones across from them. Losing track of time worrying about how things might be going with Eight, he was drawn back to the situation suddenly.

“Umm…” He looked up as the one with the aviators, which were now back on his face, stood in front of him, hand outstretched. “I’m Aviators. Nice to meet you… Three?”

“Three”, the agent confirmed, firmly shaking his hand. “I wish we were meeting under different circumstances.”

Aviators nodded before gesturing to the inklings behind them. “Paisley is the one with the bandana–” she shyly waved –”and the one with the hat is Stitch.” Three pretended not to notice the way she was glaring at him.

“I see…” He gazed out over the skatepark. “So, where are we doing this?”

“This way.” The five of them skidded down the sloping pavement, Aviators making sure Skull didn’t fall flat on his face. Then they walked to the right hand side of the stage, where a sponge had been placed at the opening of the alleyway, creating a small stretch of concrete that dipped down just enough for an inkling to stand in and just barely see over the tops of the surrounding walls.

“Alright.” Three unveiled his heroshot, his ink color turning purple. “Let’s get started.” The other three pulled out their weapons, firing down the small slope. There wasn’t any talking for a while, just the sound of ink hitting the pavement.

“Hey, Three…”

The agent didn’t look up, but hummed in response.

“Do you know if this will work… for sure?”

He huffed. He had really hoped he wouldn’t ask that question.

“No”, Three admitted. “But we don’t have any better ideas.”

Aviators was quiet for a moment.

“Alright.” There was a long pause, and Three thought they had finished the conversation.

“I’ve known Skull since we were kids.” Three glanced at him this time before returning his attention to the slope. “I mean, if I lose him…” He trailed off, starting up again with a breathless laugh. “Like – it feels like losing part of yourself, you know? The thought of something like that happening?”

Three winced at the image of Eight that flashed through his mind. “Yeah. I do know.” More silence. “We’re gonna give this our all...” He pointed his heroshot upwards, finger releasing the trigger, as the last few drops of ink interrupted the slowly shifting sea of purple they had created. “Even if our all sometimes isn’t enough.” The sound of weapons firing ceased, and Three turned to the other.

“It’s time.” Aviators took a deep breath before stepping towards Skull, who watched him approach with cold eyes. He put his hands on his shoulders, just looking at him for a moment before speaking.

“Skull.” Despite how hard he tried, his voice still slightly wavered as he said his name. “I need you to do something for me, alright?” He raised his arm, pointing at the pool of ink, Skull’s eyes following his gesture. “I need you to jump in there.” Skull’s gaze returned to him. “But… I need you to promise me something, too.” He paused. “I need you to come back.” Paisley whimpered behind them as she tried to keep her composure. “We got you something: a gift. But you can only have it – you can only know what it is – once you come back. Okay?”

Three was surprised when Skull nodded; it was such a small movement that he couldn’t tell if he had only imagined it or not. It looked like Aviators saw it too, because his lips twitched upwards in a smile before quickly returning to a nervous grimace. “Good.” He managed to tear his eyes from the other, the best friends facing the pool together.

“Okay… I’ll be looking out for you, just like you look out for me through your scope. We’ll all be right here.”

For a moment, there was stillness. Then Skull took several steps forward. He hesitated at the edge. Suddenly, at a rapidly increasing rate, he plunged straight forwards onto his face, hitting the surface with a wet slap . Then, he slid in. After the small waves that disturbed the calm subsided, there was nothing.

No one dared move while waiting for Skull to emerge. Once half a minute had passed, Three sighed. He figured it wouldn’t work. He lowered his gaze to the ground solemnly, eyes closing. He didn’t want to tell them; letting them pick up on it would be less sudden, better taken. Instead of hearing quiet sobs, his eyes shot open when he heard small gasps from the three of them.

He immediately raised his head, but didn’t notice anything different. Looking back, he followed their eyes, which were fixated above them. Before he had the chance to ask them what they were looking at, they were super jumping back to spawn. When he looked up, there was nothing there. Confused, but intrigued nonetheless, he followed them.

When he landed, he saw a figure curled up on their spawn point. It took him a moment to recognize it was Skull. With a purple ink color and skin that no longer had a green complexion, it hardly looked like the one he had been introduced to. Despite his team’s collective hopeful murmuring, his lack of movement was concerning. He could see his chest rising and falling, so at least he was breathing, but he certainly wasn’t doing anything else. Maybe he was just recovering?

“Does he… always do this?” Three asked.

“It’s pretty common, yeah.” He quirked an eyebrow at Aviators as he reached into the pocket of his satin jacket. “That’s what the gift is for.”

He crouched next to Skull, lollipop in hand. He ripped the wrapper off before gently pulling down his bandana. He waved the piece of candy in front of his face, and-

Skull’s head snapped forward, teeth crunching down onto the stick as Aviators pulled his hand back just in time, laughing. After a moment, their leader sat up, looking around.

“...What?”

Ah. So he was recovering. Three didn’t know what he expected him to sound like, but definitely not that deep.

“It’s good to have you back, Skull”, Aviators grinned widely, offering his hand to him and helping him to his feet. He was acting surprisingly calm compared to Paisley, who was bawling her eyes out as she ran up and hugged him, and Stitch, who was very clearly struggling to keep it together. Three smiled softly. And there he was preparing to shoot whatever crawled out of those purple depths.

Aviators turned to him, as well as the others. “Thank you.”

“Just doing my job.”

• • •

Aloha couldn’t take it. The struggle to get them home, getting stabbed by one of them in the process, calling their teammates and getting them in on it, throwing everything away just for this one chance: it was all for nothing. It wasn’t just Army, either. He could so vividly picture the horrific scenes unfolding at Walleye and Blackbelly, Team Cyan and Team Purple wrapped in such mournful sorrow as they quickly realized their leaders, their friends, were dead, gone forever. Even worse, Three and Eight would probably be blamed for it, just because they were there, when it wasn’t even their fault. It was his.

He stared at the orange expanse of ink in front of them, racked with sobs as tears ran down his face, struggling to remain standing. Forge had collapsed onto her knees, her face cradled in her hands, muttering his name and apologizing over and over. B-Sailor and W-Sailor held each other beside her. They had all accepted the fact that, after a full five minutes of nothing, he was gone. Even more was yet to come, as Aloha knew Forge would have his head for this. Hell, she might even just kill him – he deserved it, too.

Wallowing in his own misery, he looked away just before something caught his eye. His attention was drawn back immediately. Suddenly, the tears stopped flowing, eyes wide in disbelief. There, in the center of the pool, something was gradually pushing up against the sticky surface. Aloha fell onto his hands and knees as he stumbled forward, crawling up to Forge and shaking her violently, eyes never leaving the pool. He couldn’t get any words out. She looked at him, her face wet and defeated, before following his gaze, her expression shifting to shock. And then she tugged at W-Sailor’s shirt. Eventually, all of them were fixated on the growing bubble at the center of the pool.

Pop . And there it was… a single fleeting figure, semi-transparent, a bright orange that contrasted with the soft blue sky: the soul of a squid. They watched, expressions shifting more and more, as it slightly turned in its ascension. It was heading towards the spawn point.

Scrambling over one another, they ran along the thin wooden path a few yards back to where the metallic disk waited. They screeched to a halt a few feet away, staring in awe as the soul swirled down and into the orange substance, disturbing it slightly. Then, gliding over an invisible form, the ink stretched and reached upwards, shaping and molding an inkling, one with punk cherries, a Forge inkling parka, and a special forces beret. Finally, the complexion was completed, and the ink melted off to reveal Army. His pupils, which were visible for a second before he squeezed his eyes shut, were a bright orange, his sclera back to white. His skin was no longer green, his ink color matching everyone else’s. He rested his head in his hand, groaning.

Simultaneously, Forge and Aloha, who both exploded into screams and cries, lunged forward and captured him in a hug, Army screaming in return, although it was most likely out of shock. B-Sailor and W-Sailor were quick to follow, Army eventually gathering himself enough to form words.

“What the bloody hell?” He stuttered, his voice soft as he realized it was a hug, yet still surprised. “…Why are you all acting so sappy?”

“Please, don’t worry right now”, Forge sobbed into his vest, her voice muffled and her hands fumbling for a hold to pull him closer to her. “I just… I need you…”

Still confused, his expression shifted slightly regardless, worry worn on his face as he eventually wrapped an arm around her convulsing figure, his other arm around the rest of his team. He tried to remember what happened, but his memory was blurry, and his head hurt if he attempted to recall. His eyes went wide when he realized there was someone who didn’t belong on his right.

“Aloha?!” His voice broke slightly in shock. What was he doing here? Aloha didn’t respond; instead, Army listened to the endless stream of mutterings that came from his mouth as he shoved his face farther into his vest. “Oh my cod… It worked… I’m so sorry…I’m so, so sorry…”

His worry grew, at first alarmed by the fact that Aloha, of all squids, was this worried about him, meaning whatever happened must have been absolutely horrible… and then subsided as he landed firmly on the belief that, whatever it had been, it was over, meaning he was safe. He sighed, once again shifting his arm to hesitantly hug him back, now encompassing everyone. He had so many questions, but Forge…

“Okay”, he murmured, allowing his suddenly heavy eyes to shut and his head to rest against his co-captain’s, “I won’t ask…”

It was a long moment, it seemed. It was difficult to think coherently, in general, his head feeling like it was stuffed with cotton, so he let himself rest, figuring he must have taken a heavy toll mentally. Maybe he had a concussion? Instead of pondering that, he gently stroked Forge’s back, hoping she would stop crying. Besides himself, she was the anchor of the team: if Forge was calm, B-Sailor and W-Sailor were calm, too.

Eventually, Forge very suddenly separated from him, the other three backing up in turn. She grabbed his hands, folding them in her’s. “Are you alright?” She stuttered, eyes glancing over him quickly, thoroughly. “Do you feel hungry? Thirsty? Do you have a headache? Does anywhere hurt?” He felt his face flush slightly having her fuss over him like this in front of the others, even though none of them reacted, seeming to agree with her worries.

He breathlessly chuckled, eyebrows still kneaded together. “No, no- I’m fine… Are you okay?” He glanced at the other three, since this was a question for them, as well.

Forge laughed in turn, tears still springing to her eyes as she answered as if it were obvious. “Yes! Yes, I’m okay.” She wiped her face, sniffling. “As long as you’re okay, I’m okay, too.”

Army paused, looking to his teammates; Blue and White nodded, the corners of their smiles met with tears all the same. Finally, he turned to Aloha. It might just be how slow his brain was working, but he was finding it incredibly hard to read the usually pink inkling’s expression.

Forge suddenly coughed a bit, walking forwards to stand next to Aloha. “Captain, you probably won’t remember this, but, I know you’d be grateful to know…” She paused to meet Aloha’s eyes. “He is the one who saved you. If it weren’t for him, you wouldn’t… I mean…”

Army blinked, taken completely by surprise, which played clearly on his face as he looked from Forge to Aloha. The party animal, who very clearly hated him, saved him? From what, he didn’t know, but he could assume from this entire ordeal that it would have been fatal. Slowly, almost expecting the other to back up, to refuse his offer, he approached, before putting his hands on his shoulders. He looked him in the eyes, trying to read the confusing expression on his face. It wasn’t that it was empty; in fact, it was so full that he couldn’t pick apart what, exactly, he was feeling, unable to decipher whether his tears were from relief or anguish. There was simply too much.

Before he could even say “thank you”, Aloha pulled him into a tight hug, again surprising him. He felt the tears on his face, the way his body was wracked with small sobs.

“I’m sorry.”

This confused him even more.

“For what?” His hands slowly drifted to his back, reciprocating the sudden gesture. This only made his friend cry even harder. Army clicked his tongue, squeezing him.

“Hey- hey, it’s okay…” He kept crying. He very suddenly remembered the expensive gear he was wearing, which definitely wasn’t his, and pushed him back so his tears wouldn’t damage it, still holding his shoulders.

“Look at me.” Aloha wiped his face. “Please?” Hesitantly, the other looked up at him. Finally, he could read him. There was relief, but, for the most part, there was pain. He figured he shouldn’t ask what happened, not wanting to make his emotional state even worse. Instead, he tried to help.

“Aloha”, he said gently. “I forgive you.”

His friend stopped crying, eyes widened in horror. He rapidly shook his head, frantic. “No, no, you don’t understand – I mean, you really don’t!”

“You’re right, I don’t”, Army admitted. “Because I don’t remember what happened.” That silenced him, and he stood there, dumbfounded.

“And I don’t think–“ he glanced at his broken teammates –“I want to remember. So, it’s okay. Really.” When Aloha didn’t speak again, he shook him gently.

“Besides- you saved me, isn’t that right?” He sighed when the crying started up again, opening his arms for the other. “Okay, okay, let’s stop talking about it…” He mumbled. He glanced to Forge; she gave him a saddened look. All he needed to know was that something happened, and Aloha didn’t want to discuss it.

Eventually, Aloha pulled back, still sniffling. Army didn’t really know how else to comfort him, feeling awkward as he rubbed the back of his neck. He was surprised when his friend looked up, a confident smile on his face despite the tear streaks across his skin.

“Sorry to be so out of character”, he joked, choking back a final sob.

Army returned his smile, relieved that he was finally beginning to recognize him. “It is a bit weird... But I think you’re just weird, in general.”

Aloha giggled weakly, lightly punching him in the arm. “Shut up, nerd.”

The atmosphere lightened up significantly as the two began playfully bickering, a comforting sense of familiarity. Blue and White came walking up to Army, starting to talk to him, too, Forge quick to follow, although appearing a bit shy, as if everything she had said to Army was finally sinking in. Aloha paused as he felt the communicator vibrate in his pocket. “I’ll be just a sec”, he said quickly, walking away from the group before picking it up.

“Three?”

“Yeah, hey. Skull is back, and so is Mask. So…?”

“So that’s all of them”, Aloha sighed, smiling. He heard Three breathlessly laugh.

“You know, I’ll be honest… I didn’t think this was going to work. I guess sanitization works differently on inklings.”

“I guess”, he muttered. There was a bit of silence, except for the sound of Team Orange excitedly chattering behind him. Finally, Three spoke.

“Well, you’ve been… tolerable to work with.”

“That’s pretty generous. You’ve been less than that for me, personally”, he joked.

“Similar opinion, enough. Anyways, in about an hour, meet up with me at the same grate with the gear, including the pair your friend is wearing. Then we’ll part ways.”

“Alright, but… What about the zapfish?”

“Oh, you mean Three and Eight junior?”

“…Wait, what?”

“Called up your stupid ‘Emperor’. He said he didn’t need them anymore. You’re still getting your payment, and, in addition, Mask volunteered to keep the zapfish… and he named them after yours truly.”

“Shit, I mean… I’m sure Mask is happy. As long as we get paid.”

“I asked Eight to tell him he could make even more and sell those things, but Eight said he refused.”

“Yeah, that sounds like Mask.”

“Hang on, I’ve got someone here who wants to talk to you.”

Aloha waited in anticipation, until a much deeper voice echoed from the communicator.

“…Hello?”

“Skull?” He said, unable to hide his excitement.

“Hey. I’m still not sure what exactly happened down there after Army got taken, but-“

“Please don’t thank me.” There was a pause after his demeanor changed so quickly. “…But, I’m happy you’re okay. Really.”

“Me too.” There was commotion on the other line before he heard Three’s voice.

“Alright, back at the grate in an hour. See you there.”

“Got it.” Click .

Before he started walking back, he paused, sliding his communicator back into his vest before pulling out his squid phone.

‘Shit… How did I forget?’

After he made the necessary phone calls in the tunnel, he quickly sent a text to Diver, telling him he was on his way home. Once it was done, he didn’t check his phone again, too preoccupied with the current situation. Now, staring down at the screen, he saw the response: excited and assuring him all three of his teammates couldn’t wait to see him again, followed by at least a dozen exclamation marks and completely unrelated emojis. He grinned widely, tucking his phone back into his pocket. He couldn’t wait to see them, either.

Aloha returned to the group, feeling much more like himself. He slung an arm around Army’s shoulders, interrupting their conversation.

“So, how do we all feel about a party tonight?”

Army quirked an eyebrow, still smiling regardless. “You know we aren’t very big fans of parties.”

“Aww, come on! Stop being such a shut-in! Just this once?” He stuck out his bottom lip. “Not even for the person who saved you?”

Army shrugged him off, chuckling. “Alright, alright, fine. I guess we can attend just one…”

“And a dozen more after.”

“I still won’t hesitate to splat you, you dolt”, he warned with a sharp smile.

“Yeah, sure, Army…” His ink color suddenly faded from orange to pink, and he equipped the hero dualies he definitely shouldn’t be allowed to use outside of the mission. “You can try.”

Army slowly reached to his waist to retrieve his heroshot, his lips curving upwards. “Are you suggesting…?”

“Four-versus-one? No big deal! You in?”

“Bloody hell, you’re full of yourself!” Army laughed while pulling out his weapon, and the other members of Team Orange followed suit. Aloha’s eyes were practically shining. This… there was nothing else he could ask for. He was surprised when Forge’s ink color suddenly faded to his own, and she stood by his side, rapid blaster in hand.

“No offense, Aloha, but I think you’re gonna need some help.” Her friendly smile took him off guard, and he felt like he could cry again. She super jumped to the other end of the stage, claiming the spawn point before coming back, continuing. “We’re still outnumbered; think we can win, anyways?”

“Just three?” Army rolled his eyes as that familiar smugness edged his voice, B-Sailor and W-Sailor glancing to each other. “I can take three down, no problem.”

Forge nodded. “Good.”

“Enough talk.” Army aimed his heroshot; Aloha pulled his visor further down onto his head. Everyone else readied their weapons, taking up fighting stances. There was a long pause, each waiting for the other to make the first move.

Finally, someone threw a burst bomb, and the sounds of ink hitting the wood below exploded. For the first time in a week, Aloha felt happy.