Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It had only been an hour since I had been in Splatsville, and I had already gotten extremely mad at that Weaver guy, only stopped by Ezra. I was waiting for Splatt, who said she had an idea to distract Ana and stall for time, I of course didn’t stop her, it was only a few minutes before I saw her running back.

“Hey! Amelia guess what I just managed to do!”, she shouted, seeming filled with glee.

 I tried to answer. “Uh, throw her in a washing machine?”. 

She laughed, “No, no- I just tricked her into thinking you went somewhere you didn’t, simple really! Now that we have the time, watcha wanna do?”

I thought about the question, and Ezra seemed to as well. “ Oh! OH! Ask her about custom weapons! ”

I mentally raised an eyebrow.

“ C’mon you wanna know too! please…? ” she asked, appearing next to Splatt while making huge puppy eyes.

“Do you know how I can make a custom weapon?” I asked calmly, trying to appease Ezra, it was so weird how she could turn from cold to childish in seconds.

”Hey! I heard that”.

Splatt nonchalantly put her hands behind her head, staring up into the sky. “Well we can probably just go to a junkyard or something” she muttered. “We can just make something from junk, doesn’t need to be fancy as long as it works-,” she shrugged, “besides, you’ll get better in time.”

“Really? I don’t know anything about engineering!” I said.

Splatt just laughed. “Oh please, Amelia, ink weapons are just fluid thrown out the end of a barrel, you just need duct tape and a wrench.”

I stuttered, slightly embarrassed from thinking that it would be complicated, “O-oh, really?”

“Yeah! Doesn’t matter if it's deadly or not, all that matters is if you made it! I've only made one and it sucked, I still love it though!”

“But where should we go? Are there even any junkyards in Splatsville?” I asked, it was apparently a new city, at least from what I heard.

“Used to be, until everyone started using the trash to make customs, they all dried up, owners became rich though-,” she muttered. “But I digress, I know the perfect spot!, the infamous- Deadman’s Yard OoOoOoOo~”, she whispered, wiggling her fingers in a sPoOkY manner.

 “Deadman's Yard? Who named it that?” I asked.

She just shrugged. “Buncha people say it’s HaUnTeD, it's all rumors of course-”

“Oh, where is it?”

Splatt seemed to shrink at the question, “Well, that depends. If you walk, it could take hours but if you take the train, it's only a twenty-minute walk after that…”

“Oh that's not that bad, you made it sound like it was gonna be awful!”

“It's through the desert-,” she stated.

“I retract my prior statement…” I said, I could see Ezra stifle her laughter from the corner of my vision.

“Train station?” I asked.

“Train station”, she affirmed.

…

The walk towards the train station was quite nice without the threat of a sociopathic vivisectionist on the loose, it was actually very peaceful. For a city of chaos at least, all around I could see crowds of friends and randoms mingling, most talking about the Splatfest and the like. All around were little shows of the city, small banners, graffiti, and even Shops exclusively selling customs.

Each of the shops had some creative and funny name, ‘chop ’n shop, Splatana Central,’ and then there was- “sigh”, ‘bill’s big bashy bloblobber’s’.....

“Why is it named that,” I asked with sheer tiredness.

“Oh that guy? Apparently lost a bet, real shame, he was gonna name it ‘Gear’s up’, ‘cuz he made all of his stuff with gears”.

“ Poor lad, cursed forevermore with such a name ”, joked Ezra, doing a dramatic pose feigning a faint.

Eventually, we made it to the train station, it looked- oddly normal, almost suspiciously so, almost everything in Splatsville was either made of trash or fixed with trash. Yet this was just normal, no graffiti, no hastily affixed plating, not even some color, it was honestly surreal and oddly lifeless in a way.

“ You said it ”, muttered Ezra, as she stared at the train, “ why’s this thing feel so out of place? ”.

Splatt paid for my ticket. Apparently, it was some kind of tradition for first-time scavengers to have their ticket paid for by the older Individual.

…

The car they were in was rather empty, the only other passenger dead asleep despite bumpy-ness, “so Amelia- tell me about yourself, what's it like being human?”.

“Honestly, a little depressing, almost everyone is stronger and faster than me, my brother has amnesia from being turned into an octoling, and- why am I telling you this?”.

I could hear Ezra cough before muttering a slight ‘ sorry ’.

“I- he was turned into an octoling? Who would want to do that? and why? And how would they even get their hands on the serum, let alone use it on a nearly-extinct-”. Splatt seemed to see my rather distressed face, before reassuring me, “don’t worry, it's not like i’ll tell anyone, I didn’t let Ana get to you did I?”. she said, trying to cheer me up.

“That's not why I'm worried, I- also was injected with the serum- its been making me more trusting of Octarians for some reason”, I admitted.

Splatt didn’t seem confused, in fact, she seemed to understand, “I suppose that makes some level of sense, Octarians are naturally social, for someone who has only had those instincts for a little while, they would probably be rather strong…”.

“What exactly do you mean?” I asked, “well- think of it like this- an average Octarian lives with those instincts since they’ve been born, they’re used to it, you haven’t had that time”.

“ Damn, she makes too much sense ”, said Ezra in the back of my head.

“There's also the matter of um-”, I stuttered, I wasn’t sure if I should tell her about Ezra.

“ You better not snitch on me Amelia ,” she muttered.

“Yeah? What is it?”, Splatt asked innocently, unaware of the internal turmoil. 

“Er- well- it's a sort of side effect of the serum-”, I stuttered while Ezra gave me the stink eye in my peripheral vision, “uh-”. Splatt motioned to continue, beginning to notice my nervousness, “I- kind of have a second mind in my brain created by the serum…?”.

“Like a split personality?”, she asked.

“Oh- I guess that's one way to put it, but it’s more like she’s my roommate, her name’s Ezra by the way”, Ezra flipped me off, grumbling angrily.

“Hi Ezra!” said Splatt.

Ezra stared angrily.

“She’s mad at me for telling you, I can’t blame her honestly”

Splatt nodded.

Suddenly the train began to slow, the screeching causing the man from prior to wake up loudly, over the intercoms a woman spoke “Now arriving at station T7, all passengers with corresponding tickets please exit the train”. 

“Oh- that's us, let's go”, Splatt muttered, “hey if Ezra’s your brain-roommate because of the serum- what would happen if it was… cured…?”

“I- would rather not like to think about that, we don’t get along very well, but that’s only because she has to be the way she is. We almost have a way out, but it’s taking a while, neither of us know when it’ll be done…” I admitted.

“Sheesh, imagine having to compete for the same brain, has to suck”, Splatt mumbled thinking I wouldn’t hear, or simply just because.

“ She doesn’t know the half of it-”, Ezra growled.

“ Oh hush, it’s half your fault”, I said, Ezra opened her mouth to protest, only to shut it and grumble silently after realizing that it was true.

“Well well well, looks like sis grew a spine”, she teased.

I was confused. “ Sis? Are we sisters?”

Ezra shrugged, “I mean- we are basically family”

Splatt snapped her fingers “You good?” she said.

“Oh yeah just- distracted that's all”, I muttered.

Right outside the train stop was a massive expanse of desert, dunes stretching for miles, -and if you squinted just hard enough, you could see pillars of scrap and junk. The only thing breaking up the miles of sand being the occasional tire track, likely from a scavenger of some sort. Me and Splatt exchanged looks before beginning the trek, today was going to be a long day…

…

After twenty minutes–

“Felt like twenty hours…”

Hush, you.

–We finally stood before the gate of the Dead Man's yard, it towered above us. Extending from its sides was an impenetrable wall of scrap and stone, unyielding and unchanging, like a bad omen. Splatt gently shook the gate door, but unsurprisingly it did not open, “gimme a sec-”, she muttered, before inking the side of the wall and traversing it in octo-mode.

A few moments later, the gate creaked open, with a smiling Splatt on the other side, simply overjoyed at her idea having worked.

“I can’t believe that worked! I thought it would be locked but it’s just a giant wooden brace on the other side” she said, still somewhat excited. Her face was instantly replaced with shock as she gazed upon the literal towers of junk and metal, standing impossibly high in the air.

“HOLY SQUIT! LOOK AT ALL THIS JUNK!”, she screamed as she ran towards the piles, “c’mon start digging!”, she said, motioning for me to join. I did so happily, digging through the trash, finding several instances of inkling-octoling- and even human technology.

Actually- now that she was looking at all of it, it looked oddly organized, weapons with weapons, octo-trooper platforms with octo-trooper platforms. So on and so forth-, but the strangest thing was the large pile in the center of the yard, composed almost exclusively of random soft objects. But who would go through all this trouble? Especially for junk?

“Hey, maybe we could use these octo-platform nozzles as the barrel!, and- and- oh a hose that would let us-”, Splatt seemed a little too excited for someone who apparently never did this. I was having a hard time finding anything, but in the pile of couches I saw what looked like a pristine ink tank, “oh hey Spla-”.

However, what concerned me was what surrounded the small tank, curled around its plastic body, were five, massive, gray glove covered fingers. Said fingers attached to a large arm that sank into the pile, I was just about to tell Splatt when–

“I FOUND YOU!” screamed a voice from far away. Standing in front of the gates was Ana, a massive, sadistic grin spread across her face. “I KNEW you lied, you- octoSLOB!, now little one just stay still and-,”

Suddenly from the small floating speakers came a blast of ink, just barely missing me as I lept to the side. The laser-esque blast instead smashed straight into the pile of soft couches, knocking them off and revealing what was underneath.

Emerging from the pile, having been rudely awakened, was perhaps the most terrifying thing I had ever seen. It was at least ten feet tall, with a tiny welders mask strung on its head, covered in scrap metal and armor, it roared in the deepest tone I had ever heard.

But what scared me the most, was the crude writing on the front of its armor.

“H A n k”

…

“Hey, Hank! Been a while hasn’t it?” said my father, his voice and face obscured from my vision by his height.

“Sure has pal! Say what’cha gonna use all this junk for any-how?” inquired the man, as an eyebrow raised on his massive head.

“Something they have me on overtime for, it’s gonna be big- I wish I could tell you, but I’m under contract,” my father responded.

The man laughed in a deep, chuckling manner. “Oh, course- sorry for asking, how’ve the lil’uns been for ya?” he said.

“They’ve been great, infact- here’s one now!”, my father said, pointing me out in a presenting manner.

“Well hey there, lass! I’m-”

…

“HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANK!”, the behemoth screamed, charging head first towards me, I was unable to move- unable to think- unable-.

Suddenly, something smashed into my side, knocking me out of the way of the rampaging giant, right before it smashed into the adjacent pile of trash.

“I’d prefer it if you kept your head on –BEFORE– I took it off, sweetie!”, muttered Ana as she helped me up, “I’m- not gonna question that…” I blurted. 

Hank stumbled, trying to wrench himself off of the pile, but not before Splatt peppered him with volleys of ink from her Explosher. Despite the screaming that erupted from him, it only seemed to make him angrier, as he whipped around and began chasing her down. She managed to ink a path before jumping into it, leading the behemoth to smash into another pile.

However, Hank seemed to become somewhat aware of this trickery, as instead of immediately running after her again, he stomped over towards a pile.

Out from the trash he pulled a large scrap club, the end composed of a car axle, with the handle made of an assortment of materials. “rgrgrgaRrarGrARG KILL!”, he screeched before attempting to smash the club into her, missing just barely, not even a second later he swung it to the left, throwing her into the air.

“SPLATT!”, I screamed, as she soared- and landed into a pool of ink… only for Hank to scream, and throw a washing machine at her, It missed, but not before she could make it over to us.

“Hey Ana quick truce- let's get the hell out of here-”, Ana didn’t have the time to nod as Splatt took her and myself by the hand and began to book it. Splatt’s plan only lasted a few seconds before Hank jumped through the air, landing right in front of the gate, smacking his club in his hand like a ruler.

“HEY, YOU THREE! OVER HERE! QUICK!” screamed a voice from behind. Lo and behold, emerging from a man-hole was a large cloaked man. Everyone, even Hank, took a moment to blink, “C’MON BEFORE HANK PUTS TWO AND TWO TOGETHER!”.

Before Hank had the time to react, we made a mad dash for the man-hole, Hank took about five seconds before resuming his own chase.

Ana made it first, the cloak-guy helping her down, while Splatt managed to get in second, “guys- don’t leave me behind!” I screamed. Splatt and Ana were both screaming for me to go faster, but I couldn’t- too much- I felt the ground leave my feet as massive hands wrapped around my torso.

Staring me, right in the eyes, was Hank, he was filled with pure unflinching rage, before I noticed something- his eyes-, they were clouded...

I begged in what little English I remembered, “Hank, stop! It’s me, Amelia! Please, just stop this!”

Hank's eyes turned from bloodthirsty to understanding in seconds. “l- lass?”

Hank’s realization was cut short as his face was struck by an Explosher shot-, instantly burning his eyes and dropping me.

The ground was approaching rapidly and then- “I knew you’d fall for me sweetie!” Ana said teasingly, her face showing an odd combination of relief and pure insanity. 

She immediately jumped into the manhole, just managing to get in far enough before Hank began trying to grab them with an arm he stuck in.

“LASS, COME BACK! PLEASE!”, he screamed, trying to force his head into the small hole, only serving to bruise himself. 

Finally safe, I realized just how strange the helpful man looked, he was covered from head to toe in cloth, only showing two, unevenly sized eyes.

“Howdy, I'm Packrat! But you can call me Packrat!” he said, offering a hand to shake.

Splatt leaned over to me, “Any clue what he’s saying?”, she muttered.

I looked at her confused, “All he said is that his name is Packrat.”

“You just spoke gibberish”, she said plainly.

Ana butted in, “No, she didn’t, you idiot! She was speaking English!”

“How would you even know what english i-”, suddenly the walls shook loose a layer of dust as Hank tried to collapse the tunnel to gain entry.

Packrat rubbed the bridge of his nose angrily, “You can bicker in a tunnel that isn’t collapsing! C’mon get on my back!”, he said, offering his hand to help them on.

“What's he doing?”, said Splatt.

“Getting us away from that supersized specimen, you moron,” mumbled Ana as she climbed on with me, and later Splatt.

After everyone was onboard, Packrat started lumbering forwards, going further down the tunnel “I hope you guys like travel songs because that's all I know! Oooooohhhhh, 1000 bottles of shine on the wall! 1000 bottles of shine! Take one down and pass it around 999 bottles of shine on the wall! ” he sang off-key.

“On second thought- existing is overrated. Kill us now PLEASE!” Ezra begged.

Chapter Text

“78 bottles of shine on the wall! 78 bottles of shine! Take one down, pass it around- 77 bottles of-”, Packrat stopped singing as he came upon an exit. “Oh hey we’re here!, normally it takes seven songs to get here!”, he exclaimed joyfully, completely oblivious to his foaming passengers.

“Thank cod it’s finally over”, Ezra exulted as Packrat gently picked up his passengers before putting them down.

Packrat helped us all up into the manhole so we could leave, his head poking out of it afterwards, “safe travels! Oh wait one more thing!”.

Ezra groaned, “what is it now?”.

“Your paint guns might be useful distractions, but they’ll get nothing done in the ravine”, he stated, holding out several Melee weapons.

The first was some manner of spiked club, similar to Hanks, only much smaller, Splatt joyfully took it before swinging it around to test it. The second was effectively a Saw-Axe hybrid, Ana pounced, ripping it out of Packrat’s hands, staring at it with reverence and joy.

Packrat reached behind himself and pulled out a long box, “and this ones for you lass!”, I opened it, revealing the weapon to be an incredibly well cared for Katana.

I muttered “holy crap!”, as I carefully examined the blade, it looked sharp enough to cut through steel, metaphorically of course. “Holy carp Amelia! That thing looks awesome!”, Splatt exclaimed, jumping about, even Ana seemed Impressed, “such a fascinating blade-, no doubt of high quality…”. Ana stared at the Katana for a moment, before reaching out, I instinctively pulled it away, accidentally pointing the tip at her neck, much to her surprise.

“Sweetie, point that somewhere else would you”, Ana growled, her face twisting into animalistic rage, “or we could gang up on you psycho”, angrily growled Splatt.

Ana grumbled “I’d like to see you try octo-”, I stomped my foot, distracting them both, “will you two stop it? We need to work together”.

They both grumbled before giving an approximation of “sure” or “alright”, with that out of the way, I had some questions for Packrat.

“Packrat- how is Hank alive, and- and why does he look like that?”, Packrat seemed to zone out for a moment before speaking. “After the end times, everyone got all- irradiated, Hank was hit the hardest, he grew huge!”, he expressed, waving his arms wildly.

“Though- there's not much left of his mind-, if he hates you, he’ll kill you and add you to the hoard-,”, he muttered solemnly.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know what he did to those he liked, “-and if he likes you?”, Packrat shrugged, “dunno- never happened”.

“Well- I used to know him when I was younger-”, Packrat held up his hands, “hold on hold on- you’re a cryo-podder?”. 

“I- yes, I was put into a cryopod when I was younger, I- haven’t met a single human as friendly as you”, I admitted.

Packrat however seemed to shrink, “im- im not human, not anymore, many of us are mutants, the radiation killed almost everyone-”. “And those left…”, he pawed at his other hand, revealing an unusual second thumb, “weren’t left intact, all I can tell you is to be careful and-, beware the boblins”. Packrat dramatically disappeared into the manhole, his two eyes squinting nearly closed. 

Splatt looked between myself and the manhole cover, “What’d he say?”, I didn’t want to talk about it- this was too much, “later please”. 

Splatt just shrugged, heaving her new mallet over her shoulder, while Ana practically vibrated in place, holding her own weapon like a maniac.

“Wait”, Ana muttered, “what did he mean by ravine-”, Ana was cut off as we all looked up, revealing our surroundings to be contained within a giant ravine.

“Well these are certainly intriguing testing grounds”, muttered Ana, unfazed by the massive walls of rock. Splatt scoffed, “testing grounds, specimens- jeez you’re not even a doctor”, Ana’s head swerved and gave her a look that could kill. Ana rolled her eyes skipping about in front of the small group, humming some manner of tune I didn’t recognize. 

…

For a while, it was nothing but sand, surprisingly not very warm despite the pounding sun, the ravine’s walls cast a large shadow, cooling it down. Other than rocks and sand, was the occasional mangled cactus, as if someone had released years of rage upon the plants. But most obvious of these characteristics were man-made, graffiti littered the walls, not holding the funny life of Inkopolis, or the nonsense of Splatsville.

Instead it depicted something somber, the dead, their killers, and their sins, but most foreboding of all was a large mural depicting a figure with antlers.

S A L V A T I O N

It read below, the silhouettes hands surrounding a skull, it’s antlers strung with something colorful, though it was hard to tell what it was in the art. Beneath the mural was an assortment of candles, offerings, and bones, but most of all was a praying man, completely oblivious to the outside world.

He prayed hysterically, repeating one saying again and again, “in the hall of the mountain king I will be-, in the hall of the mountain king I am free-”.

He only continued, “Blessed is the sinner in their arrogance-, cursed is the true believer in their wisdom-, for the king is coming, coming for all of us-”. 

Ana and Splatt exchanged looks between myself and each other, “(what do we do?, don’t need to speak english to recognize crazy-talk)”, whispered Splatt.

I spoke quietly, “(I’ll try talking to him, you to keep an eye on him, got it?)”, they nodded slowly running off to hide behind a boulder or trash pile. 

“Hey”, I said plainly, the praying man went silent, standing up slowly, drawing a rusty blade with a wooden handle, “be you sinner or arrogant?”.

I wasn’t sure how to react to that, “Um- arrogant?”, he turned revealing two glowing green eyes, and a strange symbol on his forehead. “Only liars whisper behind another’s back in the tongue of Neptune’s spawn…”, he growled, he outstretched a single hand, before lifting it upwards.

Suddenly from behind I heard the yelps of my companions, as I saw them raised into the air by a strange ball of green smog. “Amelia what's happening!?!?!”, screamed Splatt, the stranger drew his rusty blade, his green eyes glowing violently.

“PURGE THE NON-BELIEVERS, FOR THE OLD WORLD!”, he screamed, thrusting his blade forward, I just barely managed to jump out the way. My Katana followed suit, he seemed surprised at my weapon, before simply continuing another swing. The attack found purchase as my sleeve was ripped asunder, and cut into my flesh, the pain stung, but I'd had worse-.

Ezra spoke up in my mind, “Hey, notice how he’s not using his green smoke junk on you, but Ana and Splatt are still preoccupied?”. Low and behold, the stranger hadn’t used his abilities on myself, yet still had my companions trapped, another thing to note were his green eyes-. When he first looked at me, they glowed softly, but now they were practically radioactive, even now, having only thrust twice he seemed tired.

“Stand- still you little- heretic!” he shouted, gasping, swinging once more, missing even more than the first time. I ran around him like a hyper-active cat, confusing him greatly, “I said- STAND STILL”, he screamed, a small shockwave of green mist pushed me off balance. It was however weak, as I only stumbled, while that stunt seemed to drain him entirely, he fell to his knees, blade still in hand. 

The stranger screamed in panic “Help! Heretics!, I need reinforcements!”, his voice panicked and strained.

And yet no one came.

I walked up to the sorry excuse for a human being, he had tried to hurt me, he had tried to hurt my fellow octari- friends!, he looked into my eyes with fear. Only a moment ago had this man seemed powerful and terrifying, and now he was gasping for air, having exhausted all of his energy for a stupid gimmick.

I wanted to stab him, I wanted to rip out his eyes- I wanted to kill him-, “hey, maybe don’t do that sis” muttered Ezra, for a moment I wanted to ignore her. Though only a moment-, I sheathed the Katana, and smacked him upside the noggin with it, he then fell over unceremoniously.

From a few feet away I heard the sound of my two companions slamming into the ground.

I nearly had a heart attack as I ran up to them, Ana had been strewn onto Splatt, “oh- shit! Are- you guys alright?”, Ana Jumped up, clinging onto me like a maniac.

“YOU DID SO WELL SWEETIE!”, she screamed into my ear, causing ringing, only a second later Splatt was already trying to wrench her off “Get off of her you goblin squid!”.

As we all celebrated by annoying each other, I managed to catch a glimpse of the stranger trying to crawl away. I immediately tried to point it out, “guys- GUYS he's getting away!”, Splatt held Ana back with her arm, “I've got it psycho”. She ran up to the now partially standing stranger, bapping him on the head once, causing him to fall limp once more.

While Splatt rummaged through the strangers belongings, I found Ana staring at me with a wide eyed grin. “awww baby's first knock-out! I'm so proud!”, she said as she grabbed me in another bear hug. 

Splatt had been walking back to us while I was trying to wrench off Ana, she dropped the pile of stolen clothing and sighed.

Splatt managed to grab her right as she left of her own volition, “ACK- your hands are so cold get off!”, she shoved Splatt off violently. “Hey you- actually… you’re right, my hands are- c- c- c- cold-”, Splatt said as she began to shiver, her beak clattering violently.

Ana spoke up, “What are you talking about octo- s- s- so c- cold”, she began rubbing her hands together violently.

I was beginning to get worried for them, “Are you alright?, it’s not even that cold!”, Splatt seemed somewhat offended, “e- easy for y- you to say, m- mammal”.

“Hey- d- don’t call MY spei- specimen th- that!”, Ana stuttered as the cold got to her. 

“Need to- get to shelter-”, Splatt muttered, just barely holding back shivering as she ran to grab something, “w- we can use the c- crazy guys cloak to keep warm- b- but where?”.

We all started looking around, the once only slight fear being increased exponentially by the howling as dusk approached.

“W- w- we need to hide- and f- fast!”, chittered Ana, just barely able to speak through the clattering of her own beak. I followed my companions as they moved towards a large hole in the ravine’s walls, “i- in here- quick-”, chittered Splatt.

We all clambered into the hole, the sound of howling echoing from whatever creature created the source, it sounded almost like screaming, but low and strained.

I hate to admit it-, but we huddled as closely as we could, hiding under the cloak Splatt had stolen, Ana and Splatt clinging to my warmer body.

And they were right-, their skin was as cold as ice, I guess being made of porous flesh had disadvantages like that…

I can’t necessarily remember how long we spent there, just huddling in fear, when sleep finally came it was strangely- wrong.

I could only hope for pleasant dreams as sleep took all of us…

Chapter Text

Darkness surrounded Safaia, she had been unconscious, but why? Why return her to that- horrid void , she needed answers. One thing she had learned after her… revival, was that even in sleep she retained some level of consciousness. Which she despised, the only thing that had kept her from losing sleep was the possibility of losing progress, progress on finding her killer.

Though- she could still feel her body when asleep, sometimes she could feel it moving-, but that was probably just because she was a restless sleeper.

Another thing was that it felt like someone was pulling on her leg-, wait a minute.

Safaia forced all of her will power into opening her eyes, trying to focus on the feeling of her limbs, and just barely prying open her eyes. She could see the offending individual, though most jarring was their appearance, they had no skin or flesh, instead being a brain suspended in a jar. They only had one arm, the other seemingly having been ripped off, instead of legs they simply levitated, dragging her with it’s only functioning arm.

Even though the arm seemed intact, it was obviously in very poor condition, duct tape lining the metal plating, with several part’s replaced haphazardly. 

It also looked- kinda like a teacup, comically so, with a handle present on the back of the round jar, making it look as if it were upside down. It- she he they- whatever, they dragged her for at least a few more minutes before her struggling became apparent.

It stared at her for a while, its two submerged eyes showing no emotion or cognitive thought.

Until it began tapping into a little orange device it had brought over, it seemed to take a minute of tapping until it was done.

From the toy-esque device came a few synthesized words, “YOU, ALIVE”, the device sputtered in an artificial tone.

“...yes”, the floating cyborg immediately returned to typing, “HELP, ME, FIX, ME, I, HELP, YOU, EXIT, TOGETHER”. “VOICE, BOX, ARM, ALL, MISSING, PLEASE, HELP”, it croaked a second time, panic somehow displayed through the machine.

She pondered the brain containing machine, before speaking, “You’ll… help me out, if I help you?”, it merely shrugged. “WHAT, CHOICE, WE, HAVE”, it croaked again

She nodded, and said “Ok, what do you do?”, it floated about, before swerving behind her quickly and attaching itself to her backpack. 

“GUIDE, YOU, NEED, VOICE, PLEASE”, its orange device said in mimicry of speech, “BUT, DANGER, NEAR, GO, SAFE, PLACE”.

It extended its hand in front of her face, holding out a small, black device that read simply: “ S.S.M.S.”, that showed a map on its front screen. A little X blinked on the screen, showing a little green arrow point forward, it didn’t take rocket science for Safaia to figure it out.

She followed the map's directions, making sure not to go down into any halls with weird sounds coming from them.

Eventually, she came upon a single large crate, the map said it was past it but-, there was nothing here?.

“There's a box… in the way…”, the brain-jar lifted itself out of Safaia’s backpack, levitating over towards the crate, before pushing it out of the way, revealing a hole in the wall.

It entered the small hide-away, beckoning her to enter, she hesitated, until she heard some manner of groaning scream in the distance. The floating brain began to panickedly wave for her to enter, panic somehow evident on its artificial eyeball. She nearly dove into the hole, before the brain pulled the crate back over the hole, obscuring the small hide-away from prying eyes.

“THIS, MY, HOME, MAKE, YOU, AT, HOME”, chittered the cyborg, trying to show hospitality even with limited means.

“PLEASE, HELP, VOICE, NEED, TWO HAND,”, it croaked, pointing towards a small speaker with several cut wires, it didn’t seem very complex. It looked simple enough-, just re-attach the wiring, the Cyborg handed her some tape and a screwdriver, pointing at a drawing of wires being taped together.

She picked up the speaker, twisted the wiring together, taped it so it wouldn't move… and then she just put back in the screws!

“bZzzZzErT- hello? HELLO?”, they practically screamed, causing Safaia to cover her ears, “sorry sorry, haven't been able to talk in- ''. The cyborg tried snapping its fingers, resulting in a silent tapping sound, “-a while, sorry about this-”, he gestured everywhere.

“Some crazy guy kinda took over the place-, like seriously, everything is falling apart”, the cyborg chittered, before snapping around. “OH- I never told you my name, sorry- im THOMAS!”, he said, using his only arm for ‘jazz hands’ before extending it for a handshake.

Safaia, instead, simply stared at his mechanical hand.

“It's a handshake you're supposed to-”, Safaia growled, “I know what it is…”, Thomas held his only arm up in surrender, his eyes opening wide in surprise. “Hey I didn’t know! Different cultures and all that-”, he muttered, articulating surprisingly well with one hand.

Safaia seemed confused, “You- octarian?”, she mumbled tilting her head, the brain seemed half offended, “what? No- but I'll give you a hint- inklings think I'm extinct!”.

“What…”, was the only thing Safaia could care to say, “bah! Whatever, I could care less so long as we agree not to stab each other's backs- Capiche?”. 

Safaia nodded, she could agree on that, Thomas spoke up again, “by the way- I have no intention of looking for my arm today, I would bet you haven’t slept either-”.

“No.. I- was brought here…” she mumbled, she clenched her fists, she couldn’t begrudge him, he somehow even looked tired.

“I could sorta tell, considering you have a massive bruise on the back of your cranium…” muttered the levitating brain. He floated over to a small table, before pointing over to his left, “I have a hammock you can sleep on, I would use it but-” he gestured towards himself.

After Thomas flipped off the lights he slumped onto the table, shutting his two disembodied eyes, not realizing Safaia hadn’t gotten into the hammock.

She stared at the small brain-jar, slowly making her way towards the hammock before finally deciding any threat to be gone. She slumped into the fabric, noticing the coarseness instantly, it felt ancient, and oddly intact despite such. She decided she would think about that another time, probably tomorrow…

…

Thomas electronically groaned as he felt some kind of movement, he opened one of his eyes- and what he saw made him shit his jar. Standing perfectly still, upright like a lamp post, was the weird girl he saved from a non-consensual lobotomy, her face twisted into some kind of visage of hatred. He didn’t dare move or breathe, which was pretty easy, thankfully she wasn’t looking at him yet- oh god she’s looking right over here .

Don’t move don’t move don’t move don’t move don’t move-

…

Safaia stretched as she left the hammock, turning to see a shivering cyborg, his metal chassis clanging against the table repeatedly. His eyes kept track of her movements constantly, even the slightest movement garnered flinching, she didn’t know what to do…

“... Thomas?” she asked, causing him to flinch at her speech, he seemed to relax however, his arm no longer held up like she was going to hit him.

“Your- not gonna hurt me right?” he said, “cause- you were up all night and-” he was obviously quite stressed, his chassis still vibrating anxiously.

Safaia gasped in confusion and slight guilt, “No! Why would I?” he only levitated up slightly, moving over towards her, and carefully poked her nose. After he did so, he immediately retreated upwards into a corner of the ceiling, despite having done nothing to him, he was completely afraid of her.

“You stood there, for the entire night, and stared at me…”, he whispered, his voice uncharacteristically quiet for the first time since she heard it. “Why…?” he questioned, pointing at her accusingly, “are you in league with HIM???”, whoever “he” was, Thomas feared him greatly. “Who’s he?...” Safaia questioned, her curiosity overriding confusion or empathy, the Cyborg 

shivering at the mention.

“Don’t speak of him with such- disregard, he’s the reason this place is the way it is…” he mumbled hysterically, still hiding in the corner of the ceiling.

“I- I don’t understand” she admitted, tilting her head ever so slightly in confusion, like a lost puppy, or curious kitten.

“Just- lets go find my arm-” he managed to sputter, floating downwards to push away the large crate, motioning for her to follow. He quickly handed her the device from earlier, retracting his arm ratherly quickly afterwards, before simply continuing pretending nothing was wrong.

“Last I saw it, one those bastard-dog looking things had it-, little shits love tearing into metal…”, he muttered, angrily shaking his fist. “You know- I actually designed them, of course they were far friendlier- until he butchered my beautiful creations…”, he continued. 

“You… make this place…?” Safaia asked, pondering how he managed that, he did not seem very strong.

“Oh no no no… I just- I was the only one that was still awake, everyone else-... that story’s for another time…” he muttered silently.

The two meandered about the halls, the cybernetic of the pair somehow knowing where to go despite not holding the device. He also seemed uninterested in the several scientific marvels they passed, cubes of stone levitating without any visible source. Strange abominations sleeping within vats of stranger liquids, sometimes even twitching, one of them seemed completely crystallized. 

Entire parts of the massive structuring seemingly decided to move at random, hallways closing off as the rooms physically change location. Occasionally, speakers would spark to life and spew words Safaia did not recognize, seemingly unpronounceable to her. This- of all things, seemed to garner a reaction from Thomas, as he would mumble angrily afterwards, usually something about “stupid intercoms”. 

“I remember when this place was pristine, when the drones flew about repairing even the slightest scratch” he muttered. “Now look at this place, it's only been five decades and it's already gone to shit…” he rambled, mostly unaware of the confused hybrids' newfound fascination.

“How old… you?”, she muttered, curious as to the cyborgs nature and history, fascinated by his confusing actions.

He stopped moving as the question hit his audio receptors, what could he tell her, what would she even believe? And more importantly, what would she no t? “I- am very very old, now let's get a move on” he blurted, trying not to sound suspicious.

Safaia squinted her eyes, wondering if she should really be all that trusting of her new friend. considering he was unfazed by all that she had seen, and thought that fifty years was not very long, and had a general vibe-.

Thomas rapidly ducked behind a wall, motioning for her to join him, “you see that?”, he muttered pointing towards a large hair covered animal. The creature had an unusually round face, with black fur, it appeared to have separated teeth, like a shark, and most of all, was furiously shaking a small metal arm.

“ That's my freakin arm!” he whispered, shaking his only arm furiously before turning towards her, “Listen- here's the plan”, he began. “You take this wrench-” he said handing it to her, “and I’ll pelt it with rocks from above, then you smash its brains in capiche?!”.

Safaia nodded, gripping the wrench in her hands, Thomas levitated behind and above the oblivious creature. “HEY FUR-FUCK!” he screamed drawing the creature's ire, causing it to leap spectacularly in an attempt to grab him, he only screamed another insult.

Thomas threw the large rock, smacking it straight in the forehead with unusual precision, “NOW SAFAIA!”, he screamed. She did as requested, running towards the staggered animal, and smashing the wrench into its head, it yelped in pain as she smashed it again, and again… and again. 

Thomas practically shouted in surprise, “Woah woah woah its dead!” he reasoned, “just cause we needed my arm doesn’t mean you needed to be…”. He struggled for the right words, “so- brutal - it's just unnecessary like- c’mon” he mumbled trying to properly convey such thoughts. “Now help me get my-” he grumbled as he attempted to re-attach his arm, “stupid arm back on!” he practically screamed.

Safaia moved over to the cyborg, pushing the mangled arm into the slot he couldn’t reach, “thanks, needed that now lets get-”. Suddenly from around the corner a scream could be heard, the sounds of smashing glass and barking- thingies… echoing.

She definitely asked Thomas what they’re called shut up.

Both him and Safaia rushed over to the source of the sound, Thomas grabbing the rock from earlier on the way. Someone was screaming-, someone was in danger, she rushed through the halls, somehow outrunning Thomas, which surprised the cyborg.

They jumped and turned as they followed the echoing yells for help, hoping that maybe, just maybe, whoever this was could help them escape. As they finally came upon the scene, they realized the source of the commotion, surrounding an urchin were two large Abominations. One was partially crystallized, while the other was covered in limbs, both had a vague humanoid appearance, with both having a large metal machine in the back of their heads.

The urchin had Smashed his way out of a glass vat, and was currently defending himself with a shard from said vat. Safaia ran up to the crystallized one with terrifying speed, managing to catch the creature off guard, Thomas however took a different approach.

“Hey you! You do know HE was gonna use those two to abandon the facility and blow it up right?” the many limbed creature took a moment to process this. Before it began to flail about in existential panic before running off, proceeding to ram into a pillar and fall unconscious.

As Thomas took a surprisingly pacifistic approach, Safaia had been smashing the crystallized entities' shards off. Before it managed to wriggle out from under her and hastily limp-run away, making strange sounds comparable to a violin.

They both turned to the urchin, who could barely talk, “brain- and zombie lady-” he coughed, before falling over.

“OH SHI-”

Chapter Text

Deep within madness Amelia dreamed, she saw men and women rip and tear at the fabric of causality, breaking all that made sense. She saw them become things no one could ever comprehend, flesh and bone contorting into inexplicable monstrosities. She saw arrogance and folly passed down generation to generation, passing itself to the prodigy of mankind in a sickly parasitism.

Echoing through these discordant memories was a distorted song, its purpose and origin long forgotten, only spoken in mumbling and boredom. Yet it held onto the existence it had stained, refusing to be left forever, to be- replaced. It was a song of nothing and everything, its very meaninglessness gave it meaning so great it was incomprehensible…

As the mineshaft folds.

 we scream below.

and we yell, for salvation to behold.

But help never came, so we sit here and wait.

For the blood, old and great.

As our bones bend and buckle.

The old gods only chuckle.

As the abandonment kicks in.

we realized the sin.

Of the remnants within.

But as our blood stains the stone.

To the beat of broken bones.

Hypocrisies all we own.

A pact is formed.

No longer will we cry, no longer will we die.

Ascending story after story.

In a land dead and gory.

and yet we find glory-.

glory in the old covenant.

They were screaming- screaming at me, they were dead- at least that's what I knew, yet here they were- screaming. They yelled at me, to kill my companions, my friends, my family , yet I felt something trying to pry me away, to get me out of this hell. The voices only screamed louder, grabbing me violently as they forced their way into my mind-. 

And just like that, it went silent.

A soft green glow replaced the violent screaming, and strangest of all- was Ezra, who had so far only appeared in normal dreams.

“Amelia what the hell just happened?” she asked, obviously very shaken by suddenly being ripped out of Amelia’s unconscious mind.

“ I believe I can explain your current predicament ” echoed a voice, both Ezra And I swerved around to see the imposing figure.

“Hey! Get out of our head!” screamed Ezra, obviously not very happy about her current predicament.

“ I would, but you’re not currently there right now are you? ” he explained, gesturing to the unusual landscape that bore little resemblance to my own.

“Hey yeah… where are we?”, I asked, it was a little unusual to possibly be in another's mind.

“ Well, the answer is simple isn’t it? You’re in my mind! ” he said plainly strolling about, “ much preferable to that screaming cess-pit I would say ”.

Ezra looked at me with suspicion, “screaming cess-pit you say…” she muttered with an accusing tone of voice.

“Well- thanks I guess?” I muttered, the figure simply bowed, grinning with large mismatched teeth.

“ My pleasure, I never really liked them anyways… ”, he muttered, sitting down in a chair that wasn’t there before.

I stared at the strange figure, I wanted to ask who he was but- I noticed his head, large antlers grew from his skull… just like that mural…

“Are- are you the mountain king?” I asked, not expecting him to seem so- somber and the names hearing. He sighed quietly sinking into the chair, almost as if he were shrinking, he groaned loudly in dramatic disgust.

“ That title… it has been a very long time since I was last called such ” he grumbled, making his disdain VERY evident. “ Imagine if you will- creating a set of teachings, hoping PRAYING that what you make could help others… ” he rambled.

I wish I never asked.

“ All I wanted to do was help- I preached peace, nature, and even cycles and such! ”, he muttered angrily. “ But those IDIOTS somehow turned it into the most violent thing possible! ” he screamed loudly. “ How they turned a book about how humanity's golden age is over- into a prophecy about humanity's return is beyond me! ”  he gargled in his chair.

“Like really? How do you turn- ‘the world lives in cycles, humanity's own has been over, and in our place are the newest children of chaos”. “Into- HEY THE CEPHIES HAVE HAD THEIR TURN, LETS KILL EM’ ALL!”, he shouted, throwing his hands into the air.

“ Look- maybe you two should just- wait, two? ” the Mountain King sputtered as he looked at the second person that had entered his mind.

“Yeah, when you take Amelia I go with her, we’re a package deal” Ezra muttered, seemingly offended by the question.

“ Well excuse me for being confused on why there is an Octarian within a human being’s  MIND ” he scoffed angrily. “ Though I would enjoy an explanation ” he continued, gesturing towards myself, “ is she perhaps a manifestation of what you want to be? To… fit in? ”.

“OK THAT'S IT!” Ezra yelled, charging towards the large man, failing miserably as she felt herself being pulled towards a chair, and forced to sit down.

“ Please, we need not act like animals… violence has only solved the problem of too much peace ” he said carefully, gesturing towards two cups of tea.

Ezra grabbed one angrily, while I myself took one as well, sipping as quietly as I could, somewhat forgetting that it made no sound. The Mountain King carefully browsed through a selection of records, before carefully taking a single one out and placing it on a record-player.

The song had obviously been played on a church organ, it was rather fast and whimsical despite this, in fact I actually enjoyed the old song. Ezra however seemed to be growing more and more nervous as the song picked up pace, slowly creating an aura of panic and escape. To my surprise, our mutual host seemed to notice this, placing a single finger onto the old machine looking down at both of us from his chair.

“ So, Amelia, Ezra, what's your story? ” he asked, seeming rather interested, literally on the edge of his own seat.

“Uhm well-” I looked to Ezra for help, she simply shook her head no violently, I wanted to listen- but she kinda tried to steal my body so-.

“Ezra is- this sort of- split personality I have, she was created by a serum injected into me..” I began. “She was supposed to replace me in a sense, but- now she’s getting weaker…if we don’t get her a body…” I began to stutter. “I’m afraid-, if her body isn’t complete she might have to take mine… or she’ll die”.

To my surprise his face changed to one of Empathy and sorrow, “ Oh… I wasn’t expecting something so… ”

Ezra spoke up, “horrible? Torturous? Knowing that you might have to kill the only person you know to have a chance at life?”.

“ I- was going to say unusual… but what about a body? ” he asked, rather shaken by Ezra’s forwardness.

I wasn’t sure how to respond, “well- a friend of our's marina- (is she our friend?) is trying to make a new body, but it's taking her a while…”.

“ So… she's having difficulty cloning… hmph, I think I could help ” he stated, looking at us with determination.

“How and why would you help us?” Ezra snapped, “how do we know you won’t hurt us?” she continued.

He seemed quiet at that, he stood up before lowering to one knee, gently placing a hand on both myself and Ezra. “ What have you two gone through to react with such suspicion? No child should be subject to such fear ”.

Ezra and I were rather confused, “Is- that not normal?” his eyes twisted with fear as he sputtered in disbelief, before he inhaled deeply.

“ NO! IT'S NOT NORMAL! Are you two alright? Do you need somewhere to stay? ” he shouted in fear.

Oh…

“ You two should really wake up- I’ll handle the body thing, try to find someone named ‘Dokta Clokwirkz’ he can help ”.

I wanted to ask what he looked like, but before I could even open my mouth, I found myself staring at the sleeping forms of my companions. Splatt was well- asleep curled next to me to grab some of my heat and-.

Ana was just straight up clinging to me.

I tried gently pushing her off, but  it didn't work plan B then-, “Ana please get off” the only answer I received was grumbling. “Splatt, Ana won’t let go” however instead of helping, Splatt proceeded to snuggle closer herself, smushing her face into my arm.

“Guys get off!-” I screamed, before I heard the gargling roar of something nearby, both Splatt and Ana immediately jumped off. Now energized by fear, we all cautiously made our way towards the mouth of the small hole in the ravine, the sound of gears and anger filling our ears.

As we leaned by the entrance of our sleeping spot, we caught sight of something terrifying.

It was covered in metal, its body hunched over a now dead cultist, viciously ripping at its flesh with its teeth before horking down the meat. Gears turned angrily as it moved, flesh sloppily tied to components to act as muscle, with an engine churning furiously on its back.

“BRaoOoW…” it slurred, slamming the body into the ground repeatedly before bringing it up to its face for inspection.

Splatt spoke up, “O-k here's the plan, we try our frilling best to stay quiet, got it??” she said glaring at Ana, surprisingly Ana nodded.

We slowly creeped away from the safety of our sleeping spot, tip toeing through the quiet sand, trying our best not to garner the beast's attention. Fortunately it seemed VERY dedicated to its game of “slam the corpse into the ground repeatedly”, so it wasn’t very aware. Splatt was carefully strolling, trying her best to avoid sticks and the sort, while Ana tip-toed in a comical manner, I tried to mimic Splatt.

The beast simply continued to roar and scream as we made our way to the only other path, said path had a big sign that read: “TRACH TOWN”. We were at least half way through! Until Ana stepped on a stick and caused a loud cracking sound.

The beast looked nowhere near us, quite literally looking in the opposite direction, before sticking a finger into its ear in an attempt to clean it. However, it proceeded to recoil in pain due to the sharp talons, it angrily screeched holding its now bleeding ear as it reeled about. 

As it did so it took a double take as it realized our presence, a staring contest insued, the beast vs Splatt, Ana, and myself. As it stared, I got a better look at its face, it had one normal eye with the other seeming a bit too small, stitches ran along its face. Its chest had a small glass panel, showing a beating blood submerged heart, along with several other organs, said panel was armored with strips of metal.

The beast clicked and shuffled as it moved to two legs, despite its humanoid form- its two legged movement looked unnatural. Akin to a gorilla attempting use of its two smaller legs, or a dog trying to stand on its hind legs, it oddly ambled about growing closer to our group. Soon enough it was right in front of us growling angrily, its eyes showing a small level of understanding and suspicion.

Splatt whipped out her Explosher, running up to the beast before reeling back her arms and-

A second later the Explosher had been thrown against the wall in several pieces.

In one swift motion the beast had swatted the Explosher out of Splatt’s hands, startling the Octoling severely. Splatt staggered as the beast grinned with its metal teeth, chuckling in a low unnatural manner. Splatt spun around before screaming, “RUN!” in less than two seconds myself and Ana were complying.

The beast took a moment to begin its chase, two roars erupted from it, one mechanical, and the other filled with rage. The sound of clanging metal could be heard from behind me, as the beast clambered about, I looked behind to see the beast neither outrunning or losing us. It’s voice and gears screamed in tandem, as it clambered about it swapped tactics, grabbing hold of the walls as it began to climb them.

The abomination skittered across the walling as we ran, metal scraping against sandstone, horrid roaring echoing. Its roaring was however, not purposeless, as soon it was joined by faded farther roars in the distance, still the beast continued. In the distance, I saw a large scrap-metal gate, with the words: “TRACH TOWN” above, almost tauntingly.

“GUYS THERE’S THE WAY OUT!” I screamed, my lungs burning from the adrenaline coursing throughout them. 

Ana turned around for a second, aiming her Killer Wail at the abomination, the beast screamed in rage as ink covered its face. This however only slowed it slightly, as it attempted to clean its face, only to stab itself again several times. Unfortunately despite it being occupied more abominations showed up, They were much smaller, and even more haphazardly constructed. One with only a single arm swiped for Splatt, failing as she ducked and slid under it, another with a saw attempted the same with Ana. only for it to learn the true meaning of pain as she took her Saw-Axe and plunged it straight into its groin plate, garnering a panicked yelp from the beast.

It took the monster at least a few seconds to remember it lacked any genitalia, more than enough time for Ana to slip past. Both Ana and Splatt had managed to get through the gate, before I was faced with a beast of my own…

The monster was the shortest of the bunch, its jaw particularly misshapen, I skid to a halt, grabbing for my katana from PackRat. The beast swiped upwards in a sluggish manner, missing me by quite a bit, I swung the blade easily cutting through crudely attached flesh. The beast groaned in pain as its left arm lost proper mobility, I felt- alive strong POWERFUL, I slashed again striking the slow beast in the face. 

It snarled, beginning to whimper, “ hey- sis?” it was slow, small, weak , honestly fighting something equal was nice- “ SIS” . I took my Katana raising it for the beast's face before-.

In the back of my mind I heard a panicked cry, “ SIS!”.

Suddenly my entire body jerked forward, but why? What could cause such a motion-, suddenly I felt something running down my stomach. I looked down without thinking, before realizing that even though I thought it missed- the beast had struck my stomach. Suddenly pain finally registered, before I met unconscious, I heard the screaming of my companions, and the sudden closing of a metal gate.

…

Horrid pain flowed through my very being, it was agony, like my insides were spilling out.

“First of all, quit being a baby, second of all, LIVE DAMMIT!”.

Ezra…?

“Yes, Ezra, now you stay alive or so help me I’ll-”.

You’ll what… we share a body…

“You know what I meant just- please stay with me!”.

Wah…?

“If you die I’ll- the serum will restart your body, and- I’ll be alone…”.

Are- we friends Ezra…?

I swore I heard her choke, “we’re family clammit, now hold on”.

Ezra… take care of Henry and Nem-Nem for me…

She laughed, before screaming, “YOU ARE NOT DYING AMELIA”.

Ezra’s voice grew distant as consciousness left me, and the last thing I heard from the waking world was- barking?

Chapter Text

Nem-Nem stood staring at a bowl of cereal, she hadn’t touched it, Amelia had been missing for two days, and from what Bram had told her, Safaia was missing. One daughter she might not see again, another she hadn’t seen in years, she felt so- so- stupid-. maybe if she had talked to her own daughter she could have-.

No, now was not the time, she needed to find them and fast, who knows what was happening to either- considering the reasons one might take them at all. They could be chopped up, sliced and diced or even-, actually… Speaking of chopping and slicing… Nem-Nem knew who to question first.

She grabbed the bowl of cereal before chugging its contents, swiping her car keys and walking through the door with a determined look.

She would find her girls, no matter who suffered as a result.

…

Dr. Scalpel had been quietly working on some paperwork when Nem-Nem slammed open the door, scaring the Dr. quite badly doing so. “Couldn’t you have entered less violently” he asked with vitriol, his face twisted into one of misery and contempt.

“Amelia and Safaia, any leads?” she said with zero prompt.

Bram’s face lifted a single eyebrow before he responded, “she’s missing as well? That's too close to not be suspicious…”. He pulled out a few papers, “it is well within the realm of possibility that this may be linked to a recent break-in at the local museum…”.

Nem-Nem scoffed, “How in the world is that related to-” she looked down at the brochure in his hands “new human exhibit!” it read. “Oh” she muttered silently, yeah- that was pretty suspicious.

He spread out a small news-paper onto the table, “It gets stranger, not only did this individual steal specifically from the Human Exhibit-”. “but he intentionally defiled any plaques or papers on the way” he specified, pointing at a picture of a demolished history board.

She nodded, “But what would a human obsessed weirdo want with Safaia?” she asked, staring at the man with a raised brow.

“Because- the process for reviving individuals involves human DNA, for some reason respawn machines simply react better to it” he stated. He walked up to a small screen, “but there’s more” he stated, turning it on, revealing footage from the very same museum they were discussing.

The Museum was completely silent, with a single night guard standing watch, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, at first. Suddenly from the vents came an unusually thin individual, cloaked from head to toe in cloth and bandages, before they tackled the guard. The guard was carelessly smashed into the floor, knocking them unconscious due to the sheer violence of the action.

The intruder crept about, smashing through display cases and pocketing the contents, they reached for one before taking a look at a board behind it. The board was illegible from the camera feed, but whatever it said drove the intruder mad as they proceeded to rip the board off and smash it in half.

Suddenly, sirens blared as security arrived the intruder turned swiftly as ink pelted their back, trying desperately to preserve the artifacts. They seemed unaffected by the black ink, running through the many halls of the museum, jumping from display to display in an effort to leave. They scrambled through across the ground, scurrying over a terrified guard-in-training before scampering into a vent. 

And then the feed simply… ended…

Nem-Nem inhaled placing her hands together, “what the fuck is that thing”.

“I have no clue, current theory is it's a mutant of some manner” he voiced soullessly.

She pointed towards the paused image of the thief “and I should…” she wanted to speak but hesitated.

Scalpel simply stared at her with zero care, “Find it? Yes” handing her one of his map-watch things-, before motioning for the door.

Nem-Nem only sighed, pinched her nose, and left the office in anger.

…

The drive home did not take her mind off of things, she kept thinking all of these horrible thoughts that simply wouldn’t leave. What if she had talked to Safaia? what if they had become sisters with Amelia? what if she never saw them again-.

Nem-Nem’s thoughts ended as she saw her apartment buildings parking lot, she gently turned the wheel, skillfully parking her car like the many times before. She walked with little energy, she simply sort of- meandered really… she had only one plan and it wasn’t even good. Simply put, claim on the internet that there was a human artifact at the pier, and then just wait there- that was it, that was her plan.

She walked to the pier, pulled out her phone and spammed the lies onto what few internet related sites she knew of. She grabbed a lone pan from the sand, likely from some poor salmonid-sod that died in a salmon-run. She dusted it off, scratched some nonsense into the back with her car keys, and planted it into the sand in a tantalizing position.

Nem-Nem sighed, “now I just need to-” less than even a minute later, a single head popped out from a nearby gutter, surveying their surroundings.

“No way no way-” she mumbled as she hid behind a trash can, watching the skeletal figure slowly drag itself from the gutter. It carefully looked around, before spotting the pan and booking it with zero self-preservation, stretching out its arms like a mad-man. Right as it grabbed the cook-ware she sprang into action, pulling out a Bamboozler and pointing it straight at the offending individual.

She never got to pull the trigger as they crouched and swung their leg through her own, throwing her onto her ass as they ran off. “Oh we got a runner don’t we?” she laughed as she hopped up, “you caught me off guard with that!” she taunted.

The stranger swerved around and pointed at her, “sSsSshUT THE fu-CK UP You… oVER EVOLVED FLESH PLANT!!!” they screamed. 

She just threw her head back laughing, “aren’t you a creative word smith!” she laughed as she gave chase.

“I KNOW MORE LANGUAGES THAN YOU SEA-SCUM HAVE CREATED YOU BONELESS NICHE-FILLER” they screamed again. They hopped over railing while carefully avoiding bumping into innocent bystanders, hopping with a skip every once in a while. Nem-Nem slid under a road block as the target jumped over, cackling like a madman all the while.

“STOP FOLLOWING ME!” they screamed in a high pitched tone as they turned and ran into an alley, Nem-Nem followed suit. The sight she was met with was pretty funny, the Stranger was scurrying about, looking for an exit that couldn’t be found.

Nem-Nem coughed before speaking, “that was- huff - fun and all but I’ve got you cornered” she said, grinning widely.

The Stranger however paid no attention as they began to scale the dumpster, and then the window seal, and then well- they climbed. Nem-Nem took a minute to process this before she followed suit, just barely managing to twist her arms and legs to achieve the same. She huffed as she pulled herself onto the roof of the building the stranger had scaled, taking a moment to breathe as the stranger did so themselves.

The stranger coughed violently before taking out a small inhaler and using it, Nem-Nem used her Bamboozler as a cane to rest somewhat. They both stared at each other with vitriol before the Stranger spoke, “WHO EVEN ARE YOU?” he coughed.

“Nem-Nem, you?” she said, leaning on the bamboo-weapon.

He seemed surprised she answered, “I am the Archivist… AND YOU’LL NEVER CATCH ME! eHEHAHEAHehAEHEA-”.

Nem-Nem sighed as she shot him in the face with a stream of pink ink, sending him to the ground. He screeched in rage and fury as he leapt back up, wielding the pan like a club he charged towards the offending individual. Nem-Nem jumped back as he swung, before she smacked him with the side of her Bamboozler, to her surprise he barely flinched.

Her hair turned to a vibrant blue, watching as the maniac swung with both vigor and rage, pushing her back somewhat as the pan met her own weapon. He began to froth as he watched her actions, trying one more swing before taking a step back.

And running away.

“Wa- HEY GET BACK HERE!” Nem-Nem screamed, taking chase after the Archivist, he jumped from roof to roof, and she did as well. He cackled loudly, doing cartwheels and jumping over anything nearby, she took some pot shots managing to hit him a few times. Otherwise he was unaffected simply shaking it off, her face began to twist into an angry frown, hair tips turning red ever-so slightly.

“SAYONARA SEA-SCUM!” he screamed, diving from the top of the roof into the scenery below, for a second Nem-Nem wondered if she pushed him to suicide. However only a second later she heard crazed laughter, looking down she saw the completely intact Archivist diving into a manhole.

She slapped herself, dragging her hand down her own face in annoyance before she clambered down to the ground below. She quickly whipped out Bram’s Watch, before jumping down and following the Archivist, only to realize she had lost him.

“Frill, what am I- oh right…” she muttered pressing some buttons on the watch, the screen flickered on, displaying a vague outline of her surroundings. A single moving dot appeared on screen, betraying the Archivists location, ...which was behind the wall in front of her.

“Cod Clammit”.

She ran her hand over the cobble wall, its grooves betraying only ancient construction- wait, looking around, no other wall shared these traits. Sure they blended together rather well, but the rest of the tunnel used uniform bricks, while this used random stone.

“Not very inconspicuous are ya?” she laughed, pressing a single oddly round stone, causing the wall to retract and move away. Revealing what looked like a hastily constructed slide made from metal sheeting, carefully positioned so as to not harm the slider. She hopped in rather thoughtlessly, for a minute she wondered if jumping into a strange slide was a bad idea… too late. She was spat out into a pile of pillows and blankets, she stood up, cracking her knuckles after doing so.

What she saw next surprised her, all around she could see isles upon isles of bookshelves, signs with seemingly meaningless writing. The writing didn’t even look like writing- it was just unusual symbols connected in a branch like manner, it also covered the wood of the shelves. She walked slowly, completely enamored by the endless tomes that could contain who-knows what, until she heard a slow clapping.

“Well well well, looks like someone new has finally found their way here, rather soon compared to last time at least” he chortled. Nem-Nem swerved pointing her Bamboozler at him, only to be surprised when he made no motion, only holding his hands behind his back.

“Put that down” he gargled, “if you damage any of these books I will-”.

“You’ll what? kill me? what if I choose to shoot anyway?” she laughed.

“First of all…” he said, raising a pointing finger, “we both know that ink has zero effect on me-” he continued, “second- if a single book here is harmed-”. He inhaled deeply “I will force feed your closest family member your own heart…” he spat.

“How do I know you can even do that?” she taunted, only for her hair to flash yellow as she witnessed him take a bite from the pan he had been holding.

“Crunchy…” he mumbled, chewing through the iron cookware.

She stared at the bite-shaped hole now in the pan, “Oh… that's- certainly intimidating” she said coughing into her hand.

“M’anywayz watcha doin here?” he slurred, speaking through a full mouth, disgusting Nem-Nem with the lack of manners.

“I am looking for my children, do you have them? ” she asked bluntly, the Archivist simply stared blankly, before laughing loudly.

“What” he muttered between bites.

Nem-Nem stomped her foot, her hair flashing red for a moment, “MY CHILDREN” she screamed.

“I have literally no clue what you're talking about” he said plainly, taking another bite from the pan.

She ran right up to him, grabbed him by the collar of his cloak and screamed “MY CHILDREN, THE ONES THAT ARE MISSING- ONES HUMAN THE OTHER IS UNDEAD!”.

“Oh, why’d you follow me then? I just collect things and write down history” he said eating the final piece of the pan.

“BUT- BUT YOU HAVE AN INTEREST IN HUMAN HISTORY!” she yelled.

“I have an interest in history PERIOD, I only steal the human artifacts because of how wrong you lot are about them” he said.

She growled as she gripped her head, “HOW DO I KNOW YOU’RE NOT LYING???” she screeched.

He simply shushed her, pointing at a sign she couldn’t read, “no yelling- also I don’t lie, I took an oath against such so my writings are accurate” he stated.

“Then where in the world can I find them” she said, eyes growing dark, “you’re an archivist correct? You would have a clue right? ”.

He placed a hand upon his chin, humming in thought “well- if there’s one place that involves Humans and the undead the most-” he said motioning for her to follow. “-it's the metro, TarTar ran that place, until his stupidity got him killed- at least I think he's dead, not sure” he mumbled. “He loved defiling corpses, it was his favorite pastime next to being a hypocrite” he said laughing loudly.

“And where can I find this metro exactly?” Nem-Nem questioned, seriously considering just trying to kill this weirdo.

“You know that giant destroyed statue?” he asked rhetorically, “just go into it, leads straight into there” he said. 

“Huh, if you say so-” she muttered, “but if I find out you’re lying-” the word alone seemed to make him shiver.

“Yeah yeah you’ll kill me and stuff- heard that a million times, especially during that stupid Great Turf War ” he said.

Nem-Nem took a double take, “I'm sorry, what was that last part…?” she asked with glaring eyes.

The Archivist simply brushed her off, “Yada yada, just go and find your kids so you can leave me alone” he grumbled pushing her towards an elevator. “Oh and quick word of advice- the Sanitized hate loud sounds…” he whispered, before pressing a button just outside her view.

As the elevator began to rise, Nem-Nem could only wonder if Bram had a boat.

Chapter Text

An ache traveled through the very fiber of my being, my eyes fogged by fatigue and pain, I couldn’t hear anything other than buzzing…

“Sis?” a voice spoke, panicked in tone, I could just barely tell it was si- Ezra.

I coughed trying to speak out loud only to remember I didn’t need to with her, “yeah… holy carp I feel awful” I managed to croak.

“ Yeah uh- your insides weren’t exactly inside you… ” she hastily admitted.

I coughed, though not from pain, “ WHAT? I WAS- “ coughing interrupted my train of thought, blood spilling from my lungs. I could just barely make out a voice, gruff and distorted, It sounded reassuring in the manner a doctor would comfort you before surgery.

“Be careful- ###### keep #### breathing zteady alright?” I could barely make out from the ringing. “## you’z #### ### ringing?” the voice asked, “C##Z#blin- ### rough with ###” the voice continued speaking, trying to get an answer.

“Can’t… hear- can’t see- at all…” I managed to spit out before having a fit of coughs. The sound of shuffling feet followed soon after my words, I could barely make out a drawer being opened and closed, or- closed and opened?

I felt something press up to the side of my ear, before a liquid entered it, the same was done to the other. “Can you’z hear me better now?” the voice asked, an obvious accent of undetermined origin evident in his voice.

“Yeah… loud and clear-” I said before coughing violently.

“Ah! exzellent- do- do you’z feel any- numbness in your legz or armz…?” they asked.

“I- uh…” I wiggled my arms and legs, both seemed to feel fine despite the pain, not necessarily numb or anything, “no not really”.

“Hmmm- have you experienced any form of dizzociation or mental issue?” he asked rather bluntly.

“Uh- why are you asking” I asked, admittedly it was very specific.

I was met with a suspicious silence, before they spoke again, “look, itz not every day you’z zee a human with three zeperate zetz of DNA”.

“You- know about that…?” I asked, I hate to admit it but I was already pretty scared.

“Well- I am ze Dokta…” he stated.

“Doctor- Dokta clokwirkz?” I questioned, my confusion was already pretty bad.

“Yez that iz my name, why do you’z azk?” he said, tilting his head.

It was somewhat hard to process much of anything, and yet I spoke, “I- was told to find you…” I admitted.

He smiled from under the mask, causing the sides to bend“Well here’z I am! Anyways- ze health teztz should only take two or three hours-”.

Ezra groaned in exasperation, “ uuuugh I hate this place ”.

…

Ana smashed her hands against the metal walling, screaming loudly as Splatt simply stared in disbelief at the situation. “NO- I WAS SUPPOSED TO SAVE THEM! SAVE THEM ALL- NO no no no no…” she muttered falling to the ground. She continued pounding her fists against the metal gate, silently sobbing Amelia’s name.

Splatt wrapped her arms around the sobbing inkling and pulled her away from the door, Ana only mumbled as she wiggled in her grip. She soon already stopped trying to escape Splatt’s grip, replacing her tears with hopelessness and lethargy. “C’mon Ana you’re crazy- you were gonna chop her up anyways-” Splatt attempted to reason with the inkling.

“You don’t get it- no one does, I was supposed to save them all, make her immortal- with the others…” she muttered.

“I- ok… and that entails dissecting them how?” Splatt asked sarcastically.

“I only ever harmed their bodies… they’re safe by now… safe yes safe… hahAHahHAH!” she laughed, before slumping over again. Splatt simply stared into the distance as Ana laughed, slowly growing anxious as she realized she could see no housing.

Splatt stood up, patting Ana’s shoulder to get her up, “Hey- Ana, isn’t it a little suspicious that no one is here?” she muttered. Ana looked around, surveying the landscape, other than a lack of people or housing, nothing seemed out of place-.

Her thoughts were disturbed by the sound of crashing metal.

Instantly, both of them sat up lightning fast, holding up their mutual weapons looking around frantically to find the source of the sound.

They were not expecting what they saw next.

It seemed like a human at first, until its head swerved around, Metal plating covered its head, with a rotational bearing instead of a neck. It shivered violently as it twitched, eyes frantically moving from spot to spot, hands shaking vigorously in fear. Its legs were not of flesh and blood, instead being mechanical, flesh and bone hap-hazardly replaced with synthetics.

The sounds it made were not any language either of them recognized, almost robotic and artificial in tone and manner. “VVVV er-er-er- E A O JAR-KWIT nar-nar-nar” it clicked as it slowly limped away, staring them both down with immense paranoia. “ERR- ERR- ERR- ABRO-KWIT RRRRR” it clicked and whistled with mechanical precision, still shaking madly.

“Hello..?” Ana said cautiously in english, the cyborg froze at this, its head locking onto her instantly.

“ENGLISH???” it said, “ENGLISH?!!” it repeated in a crazed fashion, “WHO- WHY WHERE?” it screeched, spinning its arms frantically.

Splatt looked at Ana and spoke with panic, “Ana- what in the world is it saying?” she asked in confusion.

The cyborg blathered as Ana came up with a translation, “something something- intruder?” she said with confusion at the last part. The cyborg ran and ducked behind a pile of trash as the piles surrounding it began to shake, emerging from said piles was a horde of cyborgs. The small horde was composed of many different sizes and shapes, most of which shared the same paranoid and frantic look.

As the horde surrounded them, they all stopped approaching as the sound of thundering footsteps was heard. It was only seconds later they found themselves unconscious, their limp bodies dragged to a large metallic cage. The cyborgs all returned to their collective piles, hiding deep within the trash and scrap metal for fear of discovery.

…

A pained groan could be heard from the inkling of the group, rubbing her own head from the pain of being knocked unconscious so ruthlessly. Ana surveyed the area, sticking her head through the bars of the cage before hearing the pained grunts of the octoling behind her.

“Are you awake?” she spat, they might need to help Amelia, but that didn’t mean Ana hated Splatt any less than before.

“Ugh, unfortunately yes..” she griped, shooting Ana a look of hatred and disgust, “those things did a number on us… hurt like shell-”.

As the two bickered, a small group of cyborgs began to gather, watching the two argue and yell, “-and if it weren’t for your stupidity we wouldn’t even!-”. Splatt froze as she and Ana noticed the large crowd of cyborgs, their beady eyes scrutinizing their every action. Suddenly Ana proceeded to slip on some oil, causing one of the cyborgs to scream in fear at the sudden movement, bringing the attention of another…

A single massive cyborg emerged from behind another pile, wielding a large hammer with spikes on its flat ends. “INTRUDERS! EXPLAIN- EXPLAIN- ” it screeched, holding the mallet above the two in a threatening fashion.

“Wait!” screamed Ana as the mallet neared the two, stopping right as she responded, looming over the two of them with the threat of death.

“EXPLAIN! EXPLAAAAIN!” the giant cyborg leader barked, demanding an explanation for their mear presence.

“We- we only came here running from two large monsters!” Ana said, trying to calm the beast, “we mean no harm!” she reasoned.

It studied her with scrutinous eyes, still holding the hammer above them both. “LARGE? METAL? WHITE SKIN, SHARP TEETH, GEARS?!” it screamed, seemingly in some kind of questioning manner.

“Yes! Our- friend was caught by them! Please open the gate, we have to help her!” Ana practically screamed.

As if it suddenly understood everything, the largest cyborg took out a pair of comparatively tiny keys and opened the cage door. As the two cephalopods exited the cage, the horde of half-machine men shuffled away in fear and anxiety, still wary of them.

The cyborg shuffled anxiously, however, the behavior didn’t seem to be fear, instead it seemed to be some manner of sympathy. “TOO LATE…” it bellowed, “SHE IS LIKELY DEAD” it continued, “LOST TOO MANY TO BOBLINS… HORRIBLE FATE…” 

Ana sputtered, “Please- she can’t be-” the large cyborg only turned away with a look of shame  as it made an unusual grinding sound.

Suddenly a single cyborg stumbled through the crowd, “PRIME! WEIRD DOG BOBLIN- TOOK PERSON WITH OUTSIDE INSIDES!” it relayed.

The large cyborg, now known as prime turned to Ana and Splatt, “THAT YOUR FRIEND MAYBE?” it mumbled.

Ana ran up to the messenger, who was now cowering at her approach, “WAS SHE WEARING A HELMET?!!” she screamed.

The cyborg cowered as it spoke, “Ye- yES? MAyBE Go- gO AWay…” it clicked in a glitching mechanical tone.

Ana swerved around to look at Splatt, “Splatt we have to go! My sweetie could still be alive!” she said in Inklish, laughing hysterically.

The cyborgs backed up slightly at her laughter, she turned around again to ask the direction they took Amelia. The messenger seemed to notice this, he pointed a shaky finger in the general direction, before falling over in tears. Prime walked them towards a second gate, which apparently led to the same area as the direction the “boblin” took Amelia. 

The prime took one good look at the two as they left, before he pulled the gate lever, causing it to slam shut behind them.

Perhaps, in the past he would have liked the company, enjoyed it even.

Nowadays, he only experiences fear, and sleep, so he felt nothing but relief at the two’s departure.

Chapter Text

As it turned out, Bram did not have a boat so she had to rent one, it was- a lot of money, not that she cared right now. Nem-Nem did not need any manner of license to drive one apparently, as the loaner showed zero care, or maybe he just didn’t care. But that wasn’t the point- point is, she has a boat now, and she’s been driving it to the statue the archivist told her of.

Normally the water was green-ish from all of the Salmonids, and it was, but as the boat drew closer to the statue, it began to grow- teal?. Something was staining the water, and the statue was the obvious source, the statue itself was tipped over, destroyed in an event no one saw. Yet- Nem-Nem swore she saw smoke-stacks lining the top, as the boat grew closer she finally managed to reach the shore of the dilapidated statue.

It was less of a shore and more of a massive chunk of metal plating, said plating had only been partially removed, causing it to slant in a ramp like manner. She quickly exited the boat, just before swerving around to grab the keys-, she wouldn’t want it to get stolen, she had enough money problems as is. With her Bamboozler in hand, and a desire to find her missing children, Nem-Nem made her way across the statues impromptu shore.

It was- an unusual trek to say the least, the metal plating was covered in a strange teal-ink like substance. She was wary to touch it so she simply shot her Bamboozler until it washed away, making a path she was able to cross properly. She still didn’t entirely trust this place, as the strange ooze seemed to glow in the dark of the night, as if radioactive.

She stared at the teal substance, grimacing, “this squit better not be radioactive…” she muttered angrily to no one at all. 

“DEE dee DEE dee DEE-”.

What the fuck, what the fuck is that? WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT????.

Nem-Nem swerved around to find the source of the offending sound, revealing it to be a fish-stick, with several Small-Fry flying it around.

“Small fry… of all the things it had to be…” she muttered as the stick approached, planting itself into the ground its little pilots began their unholy song.

“DEE dee DEE dee DEE dee” the song sounded slightly different, less discordant and more… mocking, its singers repeating the same two notes. Nem-Nem braced herself, before realizing the fish-stick was nowhere near her and posed zero threat.

However as she looked it over, it seemed different, it lacked the green sludge of the Salmonids, instead spewing a teal-ink ooze. The stick itself was round instead of boxy, lacking the ram-shackle aesthetic Salmonids were so known for. But most alarming was the strange round antennae-esque pole extending from the center of the stick.

A beam of teal light shot from the antennae, soaring right over her head and behind her to its apparent target. Said target appeared to be another Salmonid, like the Small-fry from before, the chum was a sickly teal, leaving behind a trail of said teal. The beam connected with the Chum’s body, causing a shimmer shield akin to Ink-Armor, Nem-Nem swiftly shot her bamboozler, removing the layer of armor.

However only a second later the armor returned, the Chum advanced quickly wielding a metallic club in place of its usual pan. Nem-Nem ran back, trying to keep out of its club range, she tried to kill it in between the shield charge, but the invincibility afforded afterwards prevented such. The fish-stick- it had to be the weakness, if she could destroy it the chum would become a regular run-of-the-mill chum. 

Nem-Nem inhaled as she turned and ran towards the fish-stick, ignoring the searing pain from stepping into the unusual substance. Each time she shot at the small fry, only one was splatted, meaning she needed to wait for a refill she just needed more time-.

However, the chum from prior did not care it swung its club, connectings its course with her head resulting in a.. “CLONK-”.

…

The chum from prior carried the anemone through the depths of the KAMABOco facility, not that it was called such anymore. He didn’t want to carry her like this, if it were up to him, she’d be dragged by her colorful hair, he just did not like those egg-stealing land dwellers.

Well- he didn’t actually know if she was an egg thief, anemone weren’t particularly known for such behavior, due to well- a lack of ink. Even then, the “ink” Salmonids like him used was more of an oil they slid on while on land, it just so happened to dissolve cephies as well. In the end it did not matter, the ancient defier of death cared not for the past or present, only what was and has been.

He passed by legions of his brethren, all different after their resurrection, some thought of it as a curse, others? They were glad to be free of the dark void. In the end, they all agreed on one thing, the defier is to be obeyed, for he holds the keys to your life- and your death. The chum shuddered, remembering the deep rumbling roar the defier called a yell, such a thing was to be heard if he was angered.

He eventually made his way to The Conductor, who agreed to take the anemone with him to the defier’s lair. He was just glad he didn’t need to see the defier in person, though the defier was without use of his legs, he was stern and powerful. He did well- defy death after all, as per the title implies. 

C.Q. Cumber nodded as the chum left his train at his corresponding station, leaving the conductor to bring the Anemone to “the defier” himself.

C.Q. Cumber only sighed, “I need a raise… Steel, change course to the sanctum” ordered C.Q. the Steel-Eel pilot nodded, shuffling away to change the train's course. “Steel” known by his brethren as ‘son of the horrendous king's slayer’, shuffled away towards the controls, changing the train course with a few button presses. The train lurched slightly as it took a moment to process its new commands, before it began chugging towards the sanctum.

Luckily for the two the anemone still hadn’t woken up, C.Q. however still found it necessary to place her onto one of the benches. Just because “the defier” didn’t like intruders did not mean that C.Q. shared his feelings, really he was just a new boss to him. As the train shook, the anemone stirred slightly, flopping onto the ground below, forcing the conductor to help push her back on.

Eventually the train began to slow, the screens showing, “now entering the sanctum” as they usually did at any stop. Of course, they normally said “now entering (blank) station” but the sanctum was an exception to this rule. As the train finally slowed to a halt, Steel returned and slung the anemone onto his back, shuffling away into the sanctum.

He passed the decontamination machine, slithered through the hallway full of statues, The Defier never told anyone who was depicted by them. It was obviously an octoling, but not any of the sanitized ones, as none of them looked the manner that the statues did. The statue depicted what was obviously an Elite, with two tentacles slung behind their head in a ponytail, something was written, but it was unintelligible. 

He wondered who held such significance to the ancient defier to warrant a statue…

He finally met the end of the hallway, reaching the massive metal door at the end, he held up his fin to knock, but hesitated. This anemone did not look like a soldier, and very few non-inklings participated in ink games, he did not want to imagine what the defier would do to them. He contemplated their unconscious face, before a decision was made for him, because the large metallic door opened suddenly.

Instead of the Defier, he was met by his one-eyed steward, “-and as I have mentioned PRIOR IGOR-, I need a 14 gigavolt capacitor- NOT AN 8 VOLT!”. Igor stared at Steel, who stared at Igor, who stared at the anemone, “what are you waiting for Igor I- oh… an intruder…”.

Behind the steward was the defier himself, he did not bother walking forth as he lacked the capacity to do so. Instead, he was lifted by a small crane that held him in the air with a cable and vest, though his legs simply did not work, they were unharmed. What was harmed, however, was his jaw, or rather the lack thereof, instead of a flesh beige jaw, was a metallic half oval with multiple flat steel teeth.

His face was otherwise obscured by a series of bandages and cloth, with his hands covered by two large black welding gloves. Speaking of welding- he was wearing a welding apron, in this apron was an assortment of tools, both mechanical and- medical… Other than this clothing, the only other descriptor for the Defier was dirty, he was absolutely covered in ooze stains.

The defier gave Steel no time to react as he commanded Igor to take the intruder, “-Igor, set them down on that one table- yeah thats one, thanks”. Steel simply shuffled away anxiously before anyone could notice, still feeling terrible for the anemone’s likely horrid fate. The Defier threw the anemone onto the  table, locking her onto it with the several leather straps present on the crude table.

The defier sighed, cracking his back before speaking, “That's more than enough security to return to my work- oh right, IGOR”. The one eyed creature quickly ran off to grab something, leaving his master to his own work, likely something explosive.

As the mad-man worked on his creation, a certain anemone began to regain consciousness, slowly opening her heavy eyelids. “uUuuUgh- where the shell am I?” she muttered looking around the room as her hair began to shift blue.

“Aah the intruder’s awake, quite quickly too- I should make a note of possible higher neural stability in you-” he muttered.

Nem-Nem however did not care about what he was saying, “when I get out of here I’m going to-”.

“Going to what? Rip off my jaw? Break my legs?” the figure taunted, turning around to show the former missing and the latter dysfunctional. “You can act as high and mighty as you want, but that doesn’t change the fact you are an intruder” he spat angrily.

“You still kidnapped me you son of a-” the figure grabbed a single knife and plunged it into the wood by her neck, causing her hair to flash yellow.

“Hold that for me would you” he said as he turned around, hooking a pipe to the strange body he had been working on.

“Why do you even care about intruders?” asked Nem-Nem, the angry staring soon had her questioning if that was the right thing to ask.

“Why? WHY? Have you seen this place?!!” he screamed, flinging his wrists in the air, “it's filled with knowledge and horrors you sea scum would steal!”. “If even a fourth of what is in this facility fell into your kind’s grimy hands, neither of us would be alive to even be here!” he yelled. “It's my duty as the only human here to protect those affected by this place- and if I have to keep you an inkling like you locked up in a rusting-”.

“I’m not an inkling” Nem-Nem stated blankly, her hair a solid blue.

The figure looked her up and down, putting a hand to his chin, “oh- I hadn’t noticed- some manner of… anemone?” he mumbled. “What would cause such an evolutionary response- especially in only- 12,000 years?” he spoke aloud to himself.

“Well, how long did it take you humans to evolve?” she asked with a tone of snark and sarcasm.

“Well- according to the last updated records of my kind, around six or seven million years…” he answered, still working on the limp body.

Nem-Nem just stared at him for a moment, it was a little hard to believe her adopted daughter's species was THAT OLD. She was fortunately distracted by the sudden presence of a short one-eyed dwarf covered from head to toe in cloth, its one eye staring judgingly at her. “Holy carp  what is that thing?” she nearly yelled, causing the cyclops creature to stare at her with anger instead of judginess.

“That “thing” is my assistant- and most successful creation, IGOR!” he yelled dramatically, holding his arms in the air like a mad scientist.

“Why does it only have one eye?” she asked, wiggling in an attempt to put more distance between herself and the cyclops.

“HE has only one eye for two reasons-” he began, “FIRST- biologically eyes are very expensive to grow” he said before inhaling. “-AND SECOND, it helps him spot details and problems, LIKE YOUR WEIRD ASS EYES! AYO-” the stranger laughed, sharing a high-five with his assistant. “But seriously, how do you even see with white pupils, you should be blind” he stated bluntly after turning toward her again.

“How do you speak with a tin jaw?” she laughed, only to shut up as he removed his false jaw, and placed it down onto the table.

“Like this” he said, using his tongue to act as the chamber for the sound to change and warp, allowing him to speak jawless. “It's pretty useful for puppeteering actually” he admitted out loud before reattaching his jaw, as he placed it back in, it made a sickening click.

She looked at him closely, before seeing the rig holding him in the air, causing a rather rude joke to appear in her head. “Heh, you know for someone that acts like a puppet master- you sure have a lot of stri-” she yelped as a single scalpel soared and sunk into the wood next to her.

“You- YOU- I was going to let you go- I was going to dump you into some random alley unscathed… BUT NOW?!?!” he screamed laughing. “NOW IT'S PERSONAL YOU SLIMY LITTLE FREAK!” his voice was louder than any other time he screamed, the screaming akin to a drill sergeant. “IGOR” he yelled, causing the one eyed imp to flinch, “BRING OUR LITTLE GUEST TO THE TESTING CHAMBERS! C.Q. HAS A JOB TO DO!”.

The Cyclops hastily saluted his creator before quickly replacing the leather straps binding Nem-Nem down with rope ones. Carefully, he slid her off the ramp and onto a metal sick-bed, scurrying around behind it and beginning to push through the sanctum’s only exit. Despite seemingly lacking vocal cords, Nem-Nem could tell from the creatures' panicked breathing that he was very anxious, or didn’t like yelling.

Either one really.

She was wheeled through a hallway of marble statues depicting an octoling, afterwards they turned past a door towards an elevator. The cyclops frantically shuffled over and pressed the button, both waited for around two minutes before it arrived and the cyclops wheeled her in. The elevator was more akin to a lift, as it lacked any walls and only had railing, as it descended she could see legions of sickly blue-green salmonids. Each one was doing something, from something as complex as chemistry, to as simple as the pull of a lever, it was- a factory.

Conveyors haphazardly placed about, moving metal plating, which became cut parts, which became part of something else. Machines upon machines being constructed hastily, from Steel-head gear, to scrapper cars, all this… just to defend one place? Either the weirdo was lying, or he took his job very seriously, Nem-Nem wouldn’t get the time to contemplate as the elevator reached the bottom.

The small cyclops signed hastily to two Steel-heads who positioned themselves behind her as he untied the ropes. Nem-Nem stared at the small one-eyed monstrosity as it shuffled behind the two in fear, the two Steel-heads grunted at her, pointing forward.

“Go to testing area…” the salmonid gargled, having great difficulty with the Inklish language, “or we have to hurt you” the salmonid said, showing no real malice.

She turned around and complied, she had a better chance of survival if she listened to what they said, especially without a weapon…

Chapter Text

A soft airy noise escaped the metro doors as they opened, Allowing Nem-Nem access to the slightly soggy inside of the train. She winced as the bright lights of the train assaulted her eyes, the next thing to assault her eye’s were the other passengers. Who- she had never prior seen the species of, was there an entire other society that this statue was connected to somehow? She was having only the slightest existential crisis, when a small sea slug wearing a tiny conductors hat shimmied its way towards her.

“Ah hello, you must be the new test subject Kevin spoke of-” the apparent actual conductor stated.

Nem-Nem took a moment to blink, “Wait- who’s Kevin?” she asked in confusion.

“I uh- I meant the defier… please don’t tell him I said that, he’s embarrassed by his name” he admitted, seeming slightly afraid of what he said. “But where are my manners? I’m C.Q. Cumber, the conductor of the Deepsea Metro” he said, explaining his title and job. He wasn’t finished either, “it appears you’ve made K- The Defier rather angry, as instead of sacking you he’s decided to force you into testing” C.Q. explained.

Nem-Nem crouched to get to C.Q.’s eye level (did he have eyes) “what do these tests entail exactly?” she asked, putting on a false naivety in her voice. 

“Most tests involve the use of ink weaponry, but a few are more unusual, as long as you can pull a trigger they shouldn’t be impossible”. “Though do expect the presence of Salmonids in said tests, usually opposing your victory” he explained rather smoothly, leaving nothing to ask. “Other than that, you will need a C.Q. 80 to access the tests” he articulated, moving a single small nub-arm to extend horrifically far and hand her one.

It was a small device that displayed a hologram, seemed a bit like Octarian tech, it was also shaped like a fish-. The only controls present were a single joystick, to select something she needed to press down on it as if it were from a game controller. Displayed on the rather large hologram were several stations, she could only assume these were the tests. The majority were locked, however one seemed available, said available test was dubbed “Pseudo-Stinger Station”.

She really did not want to know what a pseudo-stinger was…

“And- I have to do this?” she muttered silently, really really hoping the pseudo-stinger’s weren’t did fire sting-ray lasers as well.

“Do you want to go home? Yes, at least he won’t lie and try to throw you into a blender like our old boss” he said rather plainly.

The Metro’s screens began to blink with neon wording “ now arriving at Pseudo-Stinger Station ” it bellowed.

“Well… that's your stop” C.Q. stated, though Nem-Nem could’ve swore he said- “good luck” under his breath.

She walked through the door as it opened with a, “shhffff” closing behind her rather quickly afterwards, rude. Before her was- another door… Coddamnit, stupid doors stupid- hey since when was C.Q. there? She could’ve sworn he was- bah. 

“Please select a weapon and pay the TurnStyle fee to enter” and just like a moment ago, she swore she heard him mutter “good luck”. After his words, a small cylindrical chamber arose around Nem-Nem, encasing her and demanding for her to choose a weapon. The first was- this horrible trash mop called the “Kill-Deather 900” surprisingly it was apparently the strongest weapon of the bunch.

The other three were a Bamboozler, a Brella, And a slosher, each more expensive than the last. Though why was the slosher last? It seemed an odd choice to make certain weapons more expensive than others, so she decided to choose the Bamboozler as it was more familiar. As the transaction completed with the strange, “C.Q. points” an ink tank materialized, along with the Aforementioned Bamboozler.

She gently shook the straps of the ink tank, before she realized something about the straps, they were locked on . “Uh- Cumber pal, why the shell is this locked onto me?” she asked, slightly concerned, the look C.Q. somehow gave her was not helping.

“... it’s a remnant of- the facilities… old ruler” he said quietly, as if afraid to even mention this person's existence.

Old ruler…? Could that have the one the Archivist spoke of? “What was he like?”.

The conductor's silence was deafening.

 “...no one could stomach the things he did, Kevin found his deeds- unforgivable, and took his place” he mumbled. “Though he may be- aggressive, I prefer Kevin’s company over his, please- he may seem… irrational, and dangerous, but he’s just confused”. “I can’t explain everything here… just please, continue with the test…” he explained, his slight movement somehow showing immense sorrow and angst.

As asked, she pushed through the TurnStyle and- HOLY CARP IT LAUNCHED HER HAHAHA!

She skid to a stop at a checkpoint, laughing her bass off from the suddenness of being LITERALLY LAUNCHED! As she took a moment to fall from her adrenaline high, a large screen suddenly crackled to life, displaying a familiar false-jawed individual.

“Hey uh-” he stuttered as he slid in place nearly falling over, “ack- hey uh, I just wanted to say, sorry for screaming and all that- normally I just act annoying”. “But- I’ve been called a puppet by some pretty horrible people so- please never say something like that again” he admitted awkwardly.

Nem-Nem shrugged, “of course no hard feelings kevin ” the resulting face of rage was worth the screaming.

“HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT- PSEUDO’S GET HER! GET HER!” he screamed, prompting a group of three Salmonids to approach. They had pots similar to a stinger, but each only had two, an oddly tall pot with a beaker above, their nozzles also appeared different somehow. The Salmonid pilot sat in the beaker, sloshing around in the ink substance, the nozzle seemed similar to an OctoTroopers, slightly at least-.

There was also a single small joystick in each one's fin, likely controlling the movement of the machine, it seemed to move using a little propeller in the ink. The front-most fired first, instead of a sharp beam, it was three balls of ink, similar in shape to an OctoTroopers, but not in speed. The orbs were significantly faster, at least twice as much, zipping past her as she moved to avoid the fast moving pellets.

She charged her Bamboozler, and in one swift shot the offending Pstinger was dead, its pots blasted away, forcing its pilot to fry on the open flame. Within a split second, the Pstinger popped into a burst of pink ink, the other two moved to intercept, but met the same fate. She followed the obvious black and yellow line to continue across the test, fending off several more Pstinger’s and accompanying Chum.

She made her way to a launch pad, which- launched her, because that's what they did, she soared through the air, landing on a large rectangular platform. At the end was a regular Stinger and- Sma- Small- SmallFry- oh dear, she managed to splat a few easily, before they- they-.

“aAaaaaaAAaAAAAA!” she yelled as they climbed all over her, jumping up and down and slamming their bodies against her like tiny bowling balls. It was only a second later the (regular) Stinger’s beam cut through her body, splatting her instantly, oddly painless for a boiling beam. She took a moment to process that, she was splatted that never happened- of course it didn’t, she never had to fight those- demon children.

She walked over to the side of the platform she respawned on, over a massive pit, was the platform she was taken to by the launchpad. On the platform were the same Smallfry, exactly as they were before, presumably respawned somehow (at least- she assumed such). The Stinger was looking at her, surprisingly it didn’t fire, instead it seemed confused, as if to say, “why are you here if you're afraid of the SmallFry lady?”.

Because they’re demons that's why… she walked over to the launch pad once more, properly mentally prepared this time. She jumped out the way as the little monster’s lobbed themselves at her, before splatting them in quick succession, she turned around to see the Stinger. She noticed something strange about it, its augmented eye had a laser-pointer trained on her head, a beeping came from the Stinger before-. She just barely managed to avoid the quick burst of Boiling Ink, unlike a normal stinger, its beam only fired for a split second, allowing multiple shots.

It aimed and fired, and of course missed again as well, it was only a quick jog and the pull of a trigger for it to go down. Behind where the Stinger was standing was a large collection of floating bits and pieces, she inked them quickly before they coalesced into a giant pen. “Test complete” a robotic voice boomed from somewhere above as she was teleported suddenly, waiting at the very circle she started at was C.Q.

“Congratulations on your success” he said blankly.

Kevin however did not agree, the intercoms crackled online, “IF IT DIDN’T MAKE ME A JERK I WOULDN’T LET C.Q. GIVE YOU THE MEM-CAKE!”. 

“What he means to say is congratulations on getting your first Mem-Cake” C.Q. said, “they are wafers of compressed memories”.

Kevin’s Intercom crackled again, “when I eat them my brain feels tingly…” he mumbled, sounding like an addict.

“...yes they are edible, when consumed they transfer the contained memory, most given for tests contain poems, or random facts” C.Q. explained.

Nem-Nem took one good look at the tiny cake, it was a miniature version of kevin, with comical eyebrows and a bear-trap jaw. It looked simple enough, a little weird, but she had made plenty of weird pastries herself, so she opened her mouth and threw it in. She was not expecting what came next…

You wade, I wait.
Hook line and sinker, I’ll fry those stinker’s.
Until then, I cast my bait.

“Woah” she muttered, stumbling slightly after the experience, she didn’t just hear that poem- she felt some kind of rage behind it. But even weirder was- the way it expressed a concept without words… like it was biding its time, waiting for an opportunity.

“So like- was it good?” Kevin said, interrupting Nem-Nem’s miniature existential crisis, “I worked hard on that one it better be great-”.

“It was fine- Kevin” Nem-Nem could only laugh as she returned to the DeepSea Metro with the sound of Kevin's screams. For about twelve seconds until she realized he wasn’t stopping, even on the train she could hear him yelling, screeching like a banshee.

“WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU- GRANDOL’CHAMBRO’CANI’CANI!- #&#$(#)(@_#$* )(&#$%) ()*($)(#@$!!!!” he yelled for all to hear. She had to deal with his trilingual-yelling for at least five whole minutes, before he finally realized the Intercom was still on.

Nem-Nem was sitting on a bench, body slumped and willpower drained, “hey C.Q.-” she began, “how long do Test-Subjects have to stay…”. The question seemed to cause a silence in the slug, his normal eagerness to answer gone in favor of an ominous lack of speech.

“You are the first Test-Subject during Kevin’s reign, the others…” he explained, before catching himself, seeming to choke a little on his own words. “They- never left, made part of something… bigger, something horrible” he mumbled, seeming horrified, “never knew… until Kevin came…”. “I don’t think he’s perfect- but as long as he doesn’t follow the path of his predecessor-, I could care less of his actions” He admitted, returning to soft spoken-ness.

Suddenly the Intercom crackled to life, “IF I SEE THAT PHONE I WILL EAT HIS MOTHER BOARD” he yelled.

Nem-Nem scoffed, “are you always listening to us?” she spat, staring upwards as if he was somewhere in the ceiling.

“YES HAHAHA!” he laughed, cackling loudly, there were at least fifteen seconds of insane sounding laughter until he spoke up again. “But that's mostly because I can’t figure out how to turn it off, OH that's the button fi-” he said, before being abruptly cut off, presumably having found the off button.

“...don’t enter the areas with caution tape, his creations roam there” C.Q.said, voice barely a whisper, staring intently at Nem-Nem. 

Nem-Nem blinked, “I’m sorry what?” she said, what in the hell did he mean by: “his creations roam there” the hell did that mean?!!.

“Just- don’t, please, he used some junk to make Igor and then never stopped, It’s madness” C.Q. complained with an unusual tone of anger. “Seriously, someone needs to help him break that bad habit, he could get hurt- or worse! Start using it on himself!”.

Nem-Nem just blinked again, “bad habit? He’s making monsters and you’re calling it a bad habit?” she said, throwing her arms into the air in exasperation.

“My last boss had a bad habit of blending children, I would call it mundane in comparison!” He snarled, his unusual high-pitched voice squealing. “Besides, you should go to the resting area, you’re most likely tired from that test” he mumbled, a hint of sarcasm over the monotone voice.

Nem-Nem scoffed, like she was tired, she could go for hours! “I don’t need to rest-”.

C.Q. Cumber’s legs extended like that of a spider, taking up the entire width of the train, “please… I insist ” he spat, voice full of vitriol.

Nem-Nem’s face scrunched into a facsimile of a smile, giving an awkward thumbs up in agreement, not that she really had a choice. She slumped back into the (admittedly comfortable) foam bench, thinking back to why she was here, did the archivist know this was here? Did he just never leave home and consequently never learned such?, she had no idea, mostly because she didn’t have the context needed. She turned around, leaning her shoulder onto the back of the bench, in this position she could see out the train window properly.

Every once in a while something would pass by, the farther from the train, the longer it took to disappear from view, she almost felt like a child again. She counted the salmonid worker’s to pass time, trying to see how many she could spot with a scarred eye. So far she had counted eight, she looked closely through the glass, trying to spot another for her impromptu internal game. Until- she something strange, it looked massive, a large hunched over figure, it looked- just like the corpse kevin was working on .

Its entire torso swung around, as if attached by a bearing, it held a massive sheet of metal, the other limb occupied by a drill. And worst of all, was its head, or lack thereof, in place of a head was a large metal bear trap with no visible means of sight. As it began to leave sight, it reared its false head and roared, it screamed like the groan of a collapsing building rather than a living thing.

“C.Q…” Nem-Nem asked, still staring out the window, “what was that thing?”.

Chapter Text

Splatt and Ana had been walking for around fifteen minutes, the Former growing more and more concerned as her companions panic grew. Her hands fumbled angrily along her weapon gifted by PackRat, and her eyes darted from side to side, her head twitched furiously as if it would fly off. Splatt could only watch as the inkling she almost-kinda-sorta considered an ally shook like a mad SmallFry in a car's headlights.

Splatt carefully turned her head, afraid that even that slight movement may cause a violent reaction, “uh hey- Ana”. Ana’s head snapped to look Splatt in the eyes, it was rather intimidating, especially considering the inklings… “hobby”.

“Fine- FINE?!! AMELIA COULD BE DEAD!” she screamed, gripping her head with one hand and dragging her nails down her face. “No no no no- I WAs supposed to save them aaaaaall” she muttered silently as she shrank into a crouched position, mumbling silently.

Splatt’s face scrunched with some kind of- I want to say empathy? She knelt down to the inkling's side patting her awkwardly on the back. “Uh look- I still kinda don’t trust you- but if we’re gonna find Amelia we need to work together” Splatt said, trying to use reason.

Ana slowly turned her eyes towards the Octoling, grinning widely, Splatt was genuinely afraid of being cannibalized right now.

“Uh- did I say something wrong…?” to Splatt’s horror, that only made her grin wider.

“I can’t believe I’ve been letting these emotions get to me- I need to forget about that- she must still be alive right?!! Then I can save her-”. Ana laughed, clutching the weapon and starting on the sandy path without Splatt, causing the octoling to stumble before following.

“Hey- uh, for no reason at all, what happens to humans you get your hands on…?” Splatt asked, causing Ana to look at her with a raised brow. “I mean- other than dissect them violently-” she laughed anxiously, “I mean- I’ve done some bad things but- it seems Erratic…?” she muttered.

“Like you could understand- octoslob ” Ana spat, grinning as Splatt frowned.

The two bickered as they walked, neither noticing the small figure now falling close behind, skittering about quietly on four legs. The small creature followed while they talked, looking back and forth as each spoke, understanding not a single word of the conversation. It wondered if these squishy ones knew they were speaking gibberish, what kind of talking sounded like drowning any ways? Not any kind they knew of.

“-and that's why you inklings can be so- hey uh- how long has that little guy been behind us?” Splatt asked, looking at the four legged individual. Said individual only smiled dopely, eye’s looking in different directions as it smiled with many mis-matched large teeth. It was rather humanoid, though it lacked arms, only having four legs, their body was draped with a crude cloak holding a small bag. Ana contemplated the creature, before speaking in English “Do you understand me?” the little being’s eye’s focused with recognition. 

“Why’z was ya talkin all funny like? I don’t know doez wordz are doez wordz?” it mumbled through large teeth, revealing a tooth lined mouth. Ana grimaced at the sight, for a shark something of that sort was natural, but this poor little creature's mouth was overgrown with its own teeth. “Anywayz are you’z like dat funny lady dat Rover found?” he asked, genuine innocent curiosity on his face.

“Wait-” Ana quickly muttered in inklish to Splatt “he’s talking about someone looking like us- he could mean Amelia-”. “Hey little buddy!” Ana said, trying to mimic a happy and welcoming appearance, “why don’t you tell me more about this funny lady?”.

The four legged being’s smile disappeared as he looked at Ana with slight anxiousness, “uh- I dunno- da Dokta says dat people that ask dat could be bad”.

“No no no no-” Ana tried to reassure, trying a little too hard, “we’re her friends! We just want to help! That's all!” Ana said as she approached him.

“You’z scaring me- quit it-” he snapped, backing up as she closed the distance.

“You- you- HAve TO TELL ME!” she screamed, grabbing the pale little creature by one of its legs, it retaliated by kicking her three times at once in the gut. She summarily dropped him causing him to scutter off out of her range, before he turned and snarled.

“You’z a bad sort! I’m’z tellin da Dokta!” he spat, scurrying off hastily with his four legs.

Splatt elbowed Ana in the side, “great job, you managed to scare off our only lead” she snarled deeply, “and he’ll probably tell his friends”.

“Thats not all- he spoke of someone called the “doctor”, and more importantly haven’t you noticed its similarities to the larger cyborg creatures?”. Ana said, seemingly not caring for the anger and confusion she had caused, “it has the same round head and pale skin, it can’t be coincidence-”.

Splatt silenced Ana as a crackle resounded from above, as it turns out there was some manner of Speaker system suspended above. It crackled to life as someone on the other side spoke, “ attention all medikal staff, it appears zat suspicious individuals have been spotted near zee Hozpital. Do not hesitate to apprehend with extreme force, I will not loze another patient to zee whims of zome cephies, is zat clear?”.

Ana groaned, rubbing her nose bridge furiously, “well that's just SWELL-”.

They were both surprised at the appearance of another creature similar to the last, unlike the prior, it had two legs and two arms. However the normalcy ended there, as a small ball on its head moved, revealing itself to be an oddly grown third eye. It wore a simplistic cloak, and skittered forth in rage filled battle hunger, Ana and Splatt both braced themselves.

Until it stopped with a sudden bang, and fell over, further behind were two more creatures, both wielding a weapon of some sort. One seemed rather angry at the other, smacking them upside the head for their friendly fire, before aiming their own weapon.

“Shoot da flippin Cephies, ya idjit!” he screamed at the other, firing his weapon resulting in a cloud of dust right next to the two. They suddenly realized standing in front of incoming fire was a poor decision, and ran for cover behind a boulder. 

Splatt’s eyes widened as an idea struck her, “wait, link up our colors, let's hide in ink” Ana nodded, changing color before laying down some ink. The two quickly shifted to swim form and hid, only moments later they heard the sound of footsteps and shifting sand.

“Where did dae go?” muttered the angry one, the other one just shrugged silently grimacing with a mouth of fake teeth. The Angry one squinted and spoke, “hey- iz dat paint-” he was silenced as Ana sprang from the ink and grabbed him by the throat. His “friend” panicked and raised his weapon, but Ana was already using the Angry one as a meat shield.

Splatt sprang afterwards, startling the Angry one’s “friend” into nearly dropping his weapon, she swung her club into the side of its face. He was struck so hard he dropped his weapon and lost his shoddy hat, falling over into the sand with his hands on the ground. Splatt raised her weapon to finish him off, only for the mutant to swiftly turn around, eye’s glowing a vivid red, snarling and growling like an animal.

An unusual bubbling roar sound from its lungs, hopping up speedily and diving for Splatt, knocking her over onto the sand below. “ANA HELP ME!” she screamed, trying to keep the beast from biting her face off, Ana quickly bashed the head of her meat shield before moving to help.

She revved her saw-axe watching the blade spin rapidly as she lined up a swing for its head, she took the opportunity and- its head was no longer attached. The now disembodied head rolled off of it’s shoulder’s as Splatt shoved the dead mutant off, causing the body to fall limp on the ground.

“Thanks Ana, I might hate you but I have to admit you saved my bass” Splatt said, half gratefully.

“That’s not going to be the last time, look” Ana said, before pointing further down the path, bringing attention to a small horde of the little beasts.

Splatt sighed, face twisting into a grimace as she gripped her mace, “stupid- mutant things”.

…

I listened to the unusual doctor ramble on and on, going on about, “genetic remnantz” and, “shoddy work” and a bit of, “utterly nonsensical”.

“Not to mention za sheer unlikely hood zat you don’t have any human DNA left-, all it would take is one meazly cell and the whole thing could be reversed-. I mean- do zay think zat DNA iz zome kind of life force? Zat changing one part irreversibly changes zee whole?”. He rambled on and on about DNA and the absurdity of my situation, a little ironic considering what he had told me of his own species.

“So uh- what's that mean doctor?” I had asked hesitantly, somewhat untrusting of the doctor’s credentials and qualification.

“Vwell-” he started, “considering zat you claim to have consulted several highly intellectual individualz, zat didn’t have the most basic understanding of DNA-. And zat you have zupposedly developed a split personality from zee effects of zis zerum, AND- were accompanied by two Cephalopodal individuals-.” he muttered, tapping his fingers across a desk, “including zee fact zat these two individualz JUST ZO HAPPEN to be zee same species az zee DNA effecting you…”.

Ezra muttered silently, “ Amelia- I don’t like where he’s going with this-”.

“It iz very likely zat you and your “cranial room-mate” suffer from extreme PTSD az a rezult of painful experimentation by your “companions””.

I shot up as fast as her body would allow, “WHAT?” I was screaming, “I’ve only been traveling with Ana thanks to a truce!. I didn’t even know her until yesterday-” I pleaded, attempting to gain sympathy from the doctor, and seeming to succeed.

“-Vwell, I could alwayz be wrong- until zen, you muzt ztay here, you are ztill recovering” he reasoned, “and please- let me handle it”.

I nodded, I wasn’t really ready to get up if she was honest, There wasn’t much for Me to do-.

“You two should really wake up- I’ll handle the body thing, try to find someone named ‘Dokta ClokWirkz’ he can help”.

Shit.

“ Ezra, can’t you speed up the healing or something?” I pleaded mentally, asking for her help despite my worries of complication.

Ezra shrugged, “ holding your anger back from that Weaver guy took a lot from me, but strangely enough I’ve- actually been feeling fine? So- I’ll try”.

I felt what could only be described as my flesh being re-spun, stitching back together like a torn dress, as if not truly damaged at all. “Amelia- did that feel… different somehow? ” Ezra asked, a hint of suspicion in her voice, I could only nod, it was different somehow…

I quickly hopped up with little stopping me, it was still kinda weird how well that worked-, if I was being honest about that weird experience. I was dressed only in simple clothing, it seemed however that the Dokta didn’t want to confuse me about my belongings were-abouts. As they were laying neat and clean on a simple wooden table, I quickly changed with no one in the room, trying my damndest not to acknowledge Ezra.

Finally in comfortable clothing, I turned towards the door the Doctor left through only a moment ago, and walked up to it. For a moment I hesitated, these Boblins were not like the Inklings and Octolings I had come to know, violence was not only their nature, but their way of life. Without the Doctor, what was stopping a Boblin from eating her alive? From tearing into her flesh and ending her right then and there?

“ Not to intrude- ” mumbled Ezra, “ but you are- in a hospital, I doubt they’d attack you out of nowhere ” she stated with exasperation in her voice.

I opened the door, outside of my room was- a hallway, I wasn’t exactly sure of what else I thought I’d see, a corpse? The walking dead? Honestly I really was making this more difficult than it needed to be, I strode down the hallway quickly, hoping not to draw attention to myself. I carefully hid behind a strung-up gown as two nurses passed, both had four legs and four mechanical arm’s, an unusual trend.

Their eyes were strained and bloodshot, mouth’s covered with medical masks, multiple scars and stitches present in seemingly random places. The prior mentioned mechanical arm’s were affixed to a small chugging engine grafted into the nurses spine, hastily attached onto the comparatively well-made machine. I quickly ran out from behind the gown, running as silently as one could for it to still be considered running, eventually I quickly went behind a door.

I quickly turned around, meeting a sight I might never forget, there were cradles, hundreds of small little cradles. Each one containing a baby Boblin. either wiggling, sleeping, or unusually still, I carefully weaved through the tightly packed cradles, I thought I managed to avoid attention until…

I found three beady eyes staring me down, standing up straight in one of the Cradles was a bundled baby Boblin, three twitching eyes looking right at me. It had one arm poking through the primitive cloth swaddling, it babbled quietly as it shook the wooden slats, its plague read: “Fyip”. While Boblins were in fact seemingly horrific mutants that smashed everything in their way- (doks words not mine).

It was still a baby, and without even realizing I was doing it, I reached out my arm towards the baby Boblin, its bugging eyes looking at my hand as it extended.

And then it screamed, loudly , in a chain reaction thousands more began to scream and cry, the doors I used to enter the room burst open. Three Nurses entered, eyes red with rage and hatred, they used their many legs to scurry forth rapidly as my own legs began to run. Their legs stomped about in uneven steps, betraying their mutant nature as they chased me down the rows of crying Baby Boblins.

As I ran my eyes caught sight of an exit, a door to be specific, I quickly turned as I frantically scrambled for the door. Barely taking notice of the quickening pace of the footsteps behind me, muffled by the screeching of thousands of baby Boblins. I threw the door open and quickly slammed it shut behind me, fumbling to look for a way to lock it as I saw and used the sliding latch lock.

I braced myself against the door as my pursuers slammed themselves against it, sounding more like the scrambling of rabid animals than people. They muttered some curses, before I heard them stomp away, however I knew I wasn’t safe, from how they spoke, they would definitely return. I needed to somehow escape this room, but how was the question… I looked around for anything of use, mostly nothing as it seemed to be a closet.

I rummaged through the shelves, finding nothing but bottles of nearly acidic vinegar and chemicals that were probably banned somewhere. Honestly, how in the world did these guys even organize anything? Did they just- function solely by remembering where it was?

…

…

…

“well-”

Don’t answer that question.

I finally managed to find something halfway equivalent to an escape, a chute, a garbage chute to be specific, leading straight to a dumpster. “ Oh shell no! Do not throw our body through a LITERAL GARBAGE CHUTE!” Ezra was silenced by the sound of the door being busted down.

“GO DOWN THE GARBAGE CHUTE! GO DOWN THE GARBAGE CHUTE! ” she screamed at me, I was already doing so anyways.

As my head passed the lip of the chute, I caught sight of the nurses with a much larger Boblin trying to scramble and grab me. Fortunately I was already too far down the chute to be caught, sliding down I was thrown about, spinning left and right and back and forth- it hurt like hell. Eventually I was thrown straight into a massive pile of trash, and this is were my consciousness left me, right after being chased, yaaaaay.

Chapter Text

Slowly but surely, consciousness returned to me, it was like drowning in reverse if that made any sense, which it likely didn’t. The only thing I could hear was the light sound of shifting metal, and some kind of beeping, did somebody throw a clock down here or something? I shoved myself up from the pile of metal and cardboard, to be met with the sight of a strange beeping- drone thing.

It had four solar panels hastily attached to its top, with a cylindrical body hastily patched and taped together, it was also trying to move. It droned mechanically, “assistance required, this unit is unable to move” its words were understood, but emotionless, and very artificial in tone. I grabbed a small pole and shoved the metal sheet off of it, causing it to zip upwards and stare at me as lights shot from its camera and studied me.

It buzzed, “Scan complete, profile confirmed” before zipping off through a vent that had a hole in it, leaving myself (and Ezra consequently) all alone.

“Wow, gee thanks robot guy, thank you for helping us after we helped YOU” Ezra spat mentally, angry at the robot’s inaction.

Suddenly the front door of the trash- area- thing, opened to reveal the small levitating drone right there, doing a little happy motion. “Thank you for your assistance, I would like to accompany you” it droned bluntly, before flying over to my side, and looking at me. “I am repair drone NT93, however my original functionality has been rendered null” it buzzed, glowing in an odd manner as it spoke.

I nodded slowly and cautiously, giving the drone a thumbs up as I moved around it to leave the trash filled room as fast as I could. However the small robot followed behind closely, staring ahead like a watchful bird, trying to spot a worm in the dirt to peck at. As I strolled through the hallway, somewhat uncaring if I was caught at this point, and partly delirious from the stresses I have gone through.

I could hear the sounds of smaller Boblins scurrying about nearby, I had already learned that the young ones were as dense as lead. You want to know what else I had learned? That Dokta can’t stop talking once he starts, seriously he has a disturbingly large breath capacity. “ I know way too much about the anarcho-capitalist economy of these shits because of him ” Ezra mumbled in a tired fashion.

I saw one skid across the floor sitting down, seemingly pushed by another Boblins, before it hopped up and ran after its assaulter. Another just sort of wandered nearby and stared at me, its eyes betraying no form of recognition or confusion, just the stare one might give to a neighbor. Beady little eyes stared at her, red skin unusually, at least for a Boblin, and a small instrument, grinning like they knew a secret.

Two little horns poked out the top of its head, making the discolored Boblin look like an imp of legend, ready to create havoc. The little instrument in its hands is crude and janky, a little wooden wheel with strings running over it and into a wooden box laid with many buttons. I could barely make out an old sardine can as a part of its construction, as well as numerous bits of wood and metal, and what looked like a gutted clock.

“Who are you?” he asked, looking up at me with curiosity, “are you one of the newbies? You’re pretty tall!” he exclaimed, holding up a hand to measure. “Anywayz- my friend Bigz Hughguy found a buncha old movies! Wanna see ‘em?” the child like Boblin suggested innocently. I remembered the words of Clokwirkz, that even Boblins as young as seven were fully developed adults, stunted by their normally short lifespans.

Yet- they acted so childishly, like kids running around and bumping into things, only pausing for a few precious moments before regaining momentum. The little Boblin hopped off, playing a strange little ditty on its instrument, leaving a weird cloud of sparkling dust in its wake. I followed them as they hopped and skipped, leading other Boblins towards some manner of unseen movie area for their collective viewing.

I was led to a large room full of multi-layer bunk beds, with several boblins already laying on them and staring at a large old tv. In Front of it were two Boblins, one was rather large and bulky, holding several old brown boxes while a smaller Boblin fiddled with the tv. The smaller one snarled with a mouth filled with teeth, “GrAGh- HOW dA FUCK DOES THIS WORK?!!” he snarled loudly.

I walked up to the two, leaning down it was rather obvious how he had messed up, several wires were in the wrong hole, and he hadn’t plugged it in. I was so exhausted at the whole thing that I just waltzed over and fixed it, pressed the play button, and moved as an old movie began. As I sat down in a vacant spot out of the way, I noticed all of the Boblin seemingly transfixed by the titles that began to move across the screen.

And that's when I noticed what was playing.

Cloudy with a chance of meatballs.

…

“So- he made da food machine, but It turned evilz?” one Boblin asked, pointing at the tv as the credits rolled.

“Yes” I answered, my face was beginning to sag, I had to answer every one of these Boblins questions, if I didn’t they would believe nonsense.

“Let them believe nonsense!” I heard Ezra insist, “it's not our problem is it? Not like they're gonna kill themselves” she whispered. A second later a Boblin began crying because he wasn’t allowed to eat a knife, to the annoyance of the slightly older caretaker.

Ezra’s mental silence was deafening.

“Anyways- we should probably try to find our companions” Ezra said, trying to redirect the conversation, “It won’t help to just sit around”. I nodded when no one was watching, waiting for another brawl to commence between the runty boblins, not that I had to wait long. The large one and toothy one got into an argument over who put the Tv together wrong, it was only a minute later they went face first for each other.

I stood up from my spot, stretching slightly with a popping noise, I walked away looking for an exit, none of the nurses seemed to care to stop me. The little floating drone from before seemed to appear from nowhere, joining my side again after it hid away while I watched movies with the boblins. “Oh your back, thought you left” I muttered, giving a passing glance at the levitating machine, before turning back towards my stroll.

It beeped, “Affirmative, exit located, requesting immediate departure” I nodded, I wasn’t exactly sure why they were asking, but I did want to leave. The robot motioned for me to follow, so I did, surprisingly none of the nurses seemed concerned about the drone, like- at all. The drone puttered about as I followed, seeming to keep a consistent distance between myself and itself, even if I Went faster or slower. Finally I was met face to face with a large wooden door, covered in scratch marks and copious amounts of duct tape.

I pushed on the door, the heavy wooden frame taking some effort to force open, until eventually I managed to accidentally blind myself with sunlight. I threw my arm up in front of my face to block the brightness, I had apparently been inside long enough for my eyes to adjust to the indoors. Looking around I could see Boblins going about their days, calmly and rationally walking about, why did Dok make such a big deal? 

I walked out into the open streets, the Boblins bustling about without a care in the world, it filled me with a sense of familiarity and safety. To know even in this chaotic unholy place was a respite of civilization, a fragment of society, a place- to be safe and rest. But I still needed somewhere away from it all, so I ran to the nearest alley way, only trash and rats to listen in on my secrets-.

“Amelia!” shouted the sudden figure, causing me to jump back and scream, only for the large imposing figure to cover my mouth. Only a few seconds later did I realize who it was, the Mountain King, with a large tank affixed to his back with rope and tether. “My sincerest apologies I could not find you in a less startling manner, but I’ve secured the cloning vat! ” he explained with glee.


I looked over his shoulder after he removed his incredibly large hand, the tank on his back looked oddly familiar to me, almost like-. “Mountain king, is that- Marina’s?!! ” I practically shouted, causing him to cover my face with his head sized palm a second time and shush me.

“We must be exceedingly quiet, the Boblins do not trust my presence” he explained, looking around for any eavesdroppers. “I mean no insult to your friend Marina, but her cloning work was rather shoddy, I’ve managed to partially accelerate and stabilize it. I did not however manage to get it old enough-, so Ezra’s going to have to settle on- you smell different-” he mumbled silently before shaking his head. “As I was saying, the body will not be quite too old, so she’s going to have to settle for a tweenager,” he admitted sadly.

“ Wait wait wait- no one told me about being twelve!” she angrily growled.

The Mountain King hissed, “do you want a body or not you ungrateful brat!” I did not want to question how he heard her words.

“ Ok ok! I’ll take it, I'm sorry! ” Ezra hastily said, attempting to calm the Mountain kings ire.

He placed the vat to the side, holding his hand on the top, compared to myself it was so big, but to the Mountain King it was rather… small. “Then take my hand Amelia, and allow your sister the flesh and blood she so craves” he said, hand outstretched towards myself. His hand was massive, so massive that my entire hand was only as wide as three of his fingers. After I placed my hand into his, I felt nothing, but then his eyes began to glow a bright red, and I realized my own were as well as a red glow cast from me.

Ezra felt something to, “Amelia are sure this is A- ” in an instant I felt something leave my head, travel through my arm, into the King's hand. I realized that whatever had left me was Ezra, she glowed red as her- essence I suppose, moved through the King's hand, and into the vat. The vats liquids glowed that very same red, as if it was being imbued with her very existence, as if she was being materialized this very moment.

And then, as quickly as it began, it was done, the vat ceased glowing, I grasped my own head, “...Ezra…?” I asked hesitantly.

Silence.

Suddenly, the vat clicked, releasing gallons upon gallons of greenish blue liquid, spilling onto the dirt floor and making a horrid bio-mud. A mist as well exited the machine, myself and the King coughed as it neared us, strangely the king pulled out a small shirt and pants. After taking out the clothing, he shoved it into a mist, and I heard someone yelp, and then I realized the one who yelped was Ezra.

“Stop touching me you!-” she stopped talking, the mist finally cleared enough for me to see, dressed in baggy clothing was my sister, Ezra. “I’m- alive…. I’m alive!” she yelled jumping for joy, “Amelia look! I’m real! I’ve got flesh and ink and- I was so-” she stopped as she started to sniffle. “I was so mean to you- and- and- hic- why am I cryiiiiiing!” she managed to blurt through her own loud sobbing.

“For the first time in your life, your feelings are your own, you are no longer affected by Amelia’s own emotions, for your mind is solely yours. This new self may not behave as you had, as your body has a much different chemical balance, thus allowing a higher sense of individuality. It may be jarring at first, to realize things you had done in the past may now seem cruel, or strange, but that is simply a part of living.” The mountain king explained these words plainly, like a surgeon might deliver news of cancer to one's family, as if he was numb to it.

“I feeheeheeheel like a jerk! I’m a terrible si- HIC- sister! ” she cry-yelled, I picked her up, though I wanted to comfort her, this change was jarring even to myself. Her appearance was similar to a young inkling, one solid red color, two large tentacles instead of arms, and the same for her legs. I remember Nem-Nem saying something about it technically being their true form, but they normally reach a second more useful one past maturity. I tried to console Ezra, but I soon found that difficult with the Mountain King looming over us, and- was he sniffing me?

I snapped my head over to look at him, and found his face right up next to mine, he backed up but still looked at me with fascination. “I can’t believe it- no wonder you smell different” he mused, I just looked at him with a bewildered expression.

“Did- you just call me smelly?” I said somewhat sarcastically, pointing at him and then myself.

“No no- you’ve taken after the ravine, you’ve absorbed some of its power, and consequently Ezra has as well it seems. I would suggest you let me teach you the basics of this madness before any- consequences emerge from your lack of understanding.” he explained, yet I understood none of it, was- was it like his powers? Like that crazy cultist from before with the rusty old sword?

“Like- that cultists’s magic?” I could hear vitriol from the ensuing scoff, Mountain king obviously did not like that comparison.

“No, it is not magic, it is the manipulation of potential so as to skew certain outcomes, to make the unlikely likely, to make the impossible possible. The most basic kind of potential manipulation or- ‘psionics’ is Attunement, I can explain it rather easily actually. Each home, each country has a… ‘song’ so to speak, a representation of its nature and life, to attune is to match its beat, and strengthen oneself. To do so, all one must do is close their eyes and listen, pay attention to the way the dust settles, to the footsteps all around. Listen to the discordant harmony hidden in the world, notice both its flaws and perfections, and then you just might hear something… more.” I understood enough of his words to give it a try, though I was… somewhat scared of the possible side effects of this.

I looked to Ezra, still in my arms, she had closed her eyes to try and ‘Attune” so I did as well, I closed my eyes and began to listen to the world. All I could hear at first were Ezra’s tiny breaths, and the shuffling of boblins, but soon I began to notice the way the shuffling moved the sand. I heard talk of news, the chatter chatter of gossip, but then it started getting stronger, I could hear the King's heart beat, along with the Boblins. Different steps no longer sounded discordant or chaotic, but began to accrue a pattern, synchronizing and differentiating into different beats. But then it went one step farther, I could hear the prayers of the Ravine’s denizens, their hopes and whispers, all accrued into a song I could barely explain.

The firing of guns became the striking of drums, boblins speaking began to sing, gears turning brought way to the thrumming of an engine. It was as if… the ravine itself was singing, millions of different sounds, together like instruments, beating irregularly, but with the beauty of life. In this chaotic land of agony and hatred, I felt love and understanding, I realized, that these beasts, so often hated and despised, were people just as I was. Looking for a home, for friends, for family, never realizing that those like them were so close, and yet they seemed so far.

But as I stared into the abyss, it stared back .

I couldn’t see it, I couldn’t hear it, but it was there , smiling at me, how I knew I might never find out, I tried to open my eyes, but I found them gone. I was no longer in my body of skin and bone, I was somewhere else entirely, where neither strength nor senses mattered, where reality frayed. I turned towards the looming presence, or was it away from it? And I saw the very same thing the Mountain King dragged me away from.

The Old Covenant.

Suddenly I was pulled down from the heavens, but it did not scream, it did not yell, because it followed me back .

…

I gasped as vision came back to me, my heart was beating- my blood was pumping- I could feel my fingers and my toes. Ezra and the Mountain King stood above me, clearly worried, even the King's oddly shadowy appearance took on a frayed tone of concern. I quickly patted myself down, paranoia setting in from all those stories of stolen organs, told by the Dok, because he has a problem. And most fortunately, I’m almost sure that thing didn’t find me, lucky considering it followed me back down by the hairs on my neck.

But honestly? I was just glad to be alive.