Chapter 11: Chapter 8: Octo Expansion (III) – Upwards Climb

They had stirred up the hive, and the trio were being swarmed by sanitised Octarians.

They had taken a detour to raid the nearby offices for more of the healing sprays, which fortunately they managed to procure a good supply of. Now the only thing to do was to make their way up.

Fortunately, their early procurement of weapons and X’s assistance allowed them to make significantly faster progress than they would’ve otherwise - Seven realised that the first leg of the journey would’ve required stealth and to scrounge around to find weapons. Seven noticed this route took them upwards in a spiral path in a massive chamber with windows indicating the exterior was underwater. Whatever was in the middle was being concealed by a massive apparatus of catwalks and machines working on something.

The first two large rooms on the way up were easy enough, and were mostly just more offices and administrative areas. Seven wasn’t sure who or what exactly worked here… And he was not remotely in the mood to find out.

However, the third, big spherical chamber they arrived in had a completely different atmosphere. As they walked the main catwalk to the other side, they stared in awe at the massive pools of molten metal above, held up by artificial anti-gravity systems, and from them floated down large mechanical components of various types.

“This… This is some kind of factory,” X frowned. “Is this where all the robots are being constructed from?”

“Some of these parts are too large for that,” Eight observed. “Kamabo are building something else much larger as well.”

“I don’t want to find out what it is, so let’s keep moving,” Seven said. Something about all of this gave him a massive sense of foreboding.

At the end of the catwalk, after splatting some more Octarians, they found a large blue capsule. Inside, was a blue hologram of an old man, neither Inkling nor Octoling. “There you are. I have been waiting for you.”

“Do you have something else for me, Dr. Light?” X asked, blinking.

“Actually, no,” the hologram said, looking at the two Octolings. “I have something in mind for them. The road ahead is going to be quite dangerous, and they will need the necessary tools for the job. Please, step inside the capsule.”

X nodded to them. “He’s not with Kamabo. We can trust him.”

“I’ll go in first,” Seven volunteered, stepping inside the capsule. He didn’t want something to happen to Eight if this was some kind of trap. His apprehension quickly melted when a new set of armour suddenly appeared on his body in a flash of light, along with a protective helmet - it resembled the ‘Null Armour’ sometimes provided by the test chambers, except without the Kamabo branding. His weapon was also upgraded, adding some extra electronics and some kind of energy-based component to the barrel. “What the…?!”

“This new armour will help protect you against all kinds of weapons your adversaries will employ against you,” the Light hologram explained. “As well, I have taken the liberty of upgrading your Octo Shot to an ‘Octo Buster’. It has similar functionality to X’s own buster, using your ink as fuel to fire off energy-ink hybrid shots. It also retains its original functionality as a separate fire mode.”

“Well, dang! Thanks a ton, Doc,” Seven said, stepping out as he looked at himself, legitimately delighted.

Eight entered the capsule as well, and in a flash, she stepped out with a new set of armour as well, and her weapon was upgraded into something more refined. Dr. Light explained, “your weapon is now a proper ‘Octo Saber’, using energy as well as ink. It also has a less lethal ‘blunt ink’ mode that you can easily switch to.”

“Thank you very much, Dr. Light,” Eight bowed to him politely.

“You’re quite welcome, you two,” Dr. Light smiled.

“Uh, by the way, Doc, those robots from before were using some kind of special power mode or some such, something about ‘Gears’,” Seven said, “know anything about that?”

“Those robots were created by my former colleague, Dr. Albert Wily, who became evil and tried to take over the world… Over a dozen times, I might add,” Dr. Light frowned. “The ‘Double Gear’ system was one of his proudest achievements, a component capable of overclocking a robot’s systems to allow for either increased speed or power… Or even both, if necessary. I believe he installed it into all of his Robot Masters and war machines when he returned to the concept, so it’s not a surprise that they’d have their own gears. Be prepared. My biggest concern is how Kamabo got their hands on so much of Wily’s old robotics…”

Eight nodded, “we’ll keep that in mind, thank you, Doctor.”

“But once you all evacuate, I suggest you destroy this place as soon as you can,” the hologram frowned. “I still haven’t deciphered what is going on here, but something terrible is being constructed in this place. The sooner you can halt that construction, the better.”

The capsule then teleported out, leaving Seven with a feeling of pure dread.

“You heard him, let’s go,” X said, as he got moving.

“R-Right,” Seven said, as he and Eight followed.

❖

Ayane had made sure both defeated robots left behind were permanently out of commission as she and Ethan waited for the all clear to start heading up. “Marina, how’re they doing?”

“They’re doing pretty well. Got some upgrades as well, they should be ready to handle whatever’s gonna be thrown their way,” Marina said. “The path should be clear up to a point, I think you’re ready to start moving up.”

“Okay, sweet,” Ethan grinned, turning to the Cap’n. “Cap’n, you alright to follow us up top?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be, I suppose,” Cap’n Cuttlefish said, taking Ethan’s hand.

“Good, I want to be out of this place as soon as possible,” Ayane said, her cape trailing behind her as he walked over to them. She had thought Ethan’s suggestion of getting matching capes was a dumb idea at first, but now it had rather grown on her.

“Blah blah... Y... you...” The broken Telephone spluttered. Ayane paid it little mind, it had seemingly been trying to say something for a while now, and besides, it was a broken telephone, not like it could be of any real threat.

A set of footsteps echoed through the station.

Ayane and Ethan immediately spun around, weapons ready.

Stepping into the light was a red robot with a blonde ponytail and a blue gemstone on his helmet. Covering much of his head was a strange green ooze, reflected by swirling green eyes. An unnerving, psychotic smirk was on his face.

“He’s just one guy, we can take him if we blast him with our specials right now,” Ethan whispered to Ayane.

“No, we need to run,” Ayane hissed back. This robot gave her a bad feeling she couldn’t properly describe. “Grab the Cap’n, and get outta here.”

“YOU! You measly scrap of seafood! YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!” The Telephone spluttered, the same green goop starting to leak out of it.

Ethan began turning towards it, but suddenly it launched some of that goop at him, causing it to latch onto the right side of his face. “GAH!”

“ETHAN!” Ayane stepped towards him, but Ethan shoved the Cap’n to her. “Ethan?!”

“A-Ayane… Run…! Before I lose control…!” Ethan groaned, his right eye changing into the same green spiral.

“NO! I’m not leaving you b-”

That distraction was enough for the red robot to charge her with shocking speed and pin her to the floor by the neck, laughing manically.

Cap’n Cuttlefish was trying to force the red robot off of her, but he was much too weak, and he was shoved aside. Ayane grit her teeth, grabbed her Hero Shot, and started blasting the red robot in the face with all of the ink she had.

“You superfluous nobodies… I suppose you’ll be useful in some way,” the Telephone said, as it fired another burst of green goop at Ayane, this time.

She could only watch helplessly as it latched onto her as well. She could feel it leaking into her mind, invading her very thoughts. Despite her best efforts…

Suddenly, her mind was clear. She discarded all irrelevant thoughts as the robot let go of her. She stood up, and nodded to Ethan, who nodded back, now properly in the fold.

They had a couple of runaway test subjects to capture.

❖

“WHY WERE THERE SO MANY LASERS?!” Seven panted, resting at the end of the gauntlet that was the main security nexus. He was trying to let out all of the stress from that terrifying experience. “Seriously, what madman designed this insane deathtrap?!”

“My life flashed before my eyes a few times there,” Eight winced, resting against a wall.

“Well, I’ve disabled the entire security setup, so 3 and 4 will have no trouble getting through,” X sighed, as he did so via a nearby terminal.

“Speaking of them… We’ve got a problem,” Marina said. “Something happened down there, and, well, now… Take a look for yourselves. I got an image from right before their communications cut out.”

Seven took a look at his CQ-08. It showed camera footage of 3 and 4, both with strange goop on their heads, restraining Cap’n Cuttlefish, accompanied by a strange red robot who was carrying the broken Telephone. “Oooooh that’s not good.”

“X… Do you recognise that robot at all?” Eight asked.

“No… That’s a new one,” X frowned. “Be ready. I suspect they’ll try to intercept us on the way up. I think the Telephone is controlling 3 and 4 somehow using that goopy substance.”

“Oh, great, more problems,” Seven said. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, I guess.”

They continued on into the next big chamber, where there was a holding chamber for an energy core. But that wasn’t their immediate problem.

At the head of the pack was Quick Man, who grinned. “Sorry, lady and gentlemen, but I’m afraid this is as far as you go!”

“Ooooooh boy this could be some real trouble,” Pearl gulped.

“One last warning. Get out of our way,” X warned, his armour colours suddenly shifting to cream and dark blue. “Seven, Eight, grab a railing.”

Seven did not think twice, and apparently neither did Eight, as they both grabbed nearby railings. X began to charge up his buster.

One of the robots behind Quick Man blinked. “Uh… Quick Man, isn’t that Air Man’s weapo-”

X cut him off by unleashing a powerful hurricane from his buster. While some of the robots managed to avoid the incoming storm, most of them got completely blown away, carried off by the hurricane. He then went right into the fray, dealing with the brunt of the enemy assault.

Seven knew this was as good a chance he’d get at a fair fight, and made use of it, letting go and dashing forward with his Octo Buster.

Eight was quick to follow his lead, Octo Saber brandished and ready, and she was immediately in combat with a robot brandishing a huge sword of his own.

“You think you little punks can take us on?!” Charging right at Seven was a robot who could best be described as a walking arsenal, who even had tank treads for feet. He fired a pair of bombs from his arms at an arc, but Seven was quick to evade, spraying the ground and moving quickly in octopus form. The moment he returned to bipedal form, he started charging his weapon.

“Stay still and lemme hit you!” The robot snapped, firing off missiles from his shoulders, followed by a couple of rockets from his head.

“Maybe having all that weaponry exposed isn’t a good idea,” Seven remarked, firing off a charged shot that easily ripped through the rockets. Noting that the shoulder missiles were homing, he was quick to shoot them down.

“What the heck are you-” The robot’s response was quickly interrupted by the shot slamming into the cannon on his head. The energy shot alone destroyed the cannon, but the ink from it also splashed onto the shoulders. He snarled, and tried to load and fire more missiles, but the missiles instead went off immediately, blowing his shoulders and arms clean off. “GAAAAAAH!”

All it took was another charged shot for Seven to put the poor fool out of his misery.

“Don’t let that get to your head, Napalm Man had more bark than bite!” Racing towards Seven was a robot who looked like some kind of car, transforming into a bipedal form and unleashing a wheel of fire that spun across the ground. “Now, Turbo Man’s got the stuff to really set your world aflame! I’ll run rings around you!”

“Yikes!” Seven dived out of the way of the flames, charging up another shot. Turbo Man was racing around him, attacking from different directions, forcing him to dodge rather than attack. But he had an idea. Seven began spraying ink all over the place… And especially in front of Turbo Man. “Small problem with wheels, though - I bet they don’t have much traction on ink!”

As predicted, Turbo Man spun out of control, crashing right into a wall. As he changed forms to get upright again, Seven fired another charged shot right at his midsection, which he figured was a weak point, tearing him in half.

“Well, looks like the little octopus has a new toy!” Quick Man remarked, walking up to him. “Those two were small time compared to me. And this time, I’m playing for keeps!”

Seven smirked, pulling the boomerang he had taken as a trophy off his back. “Don’t get too cocky, otherwise I might just take another one of these to hang on my wall!”

That seemed to get a rise out of Quick Man, who snarled, drawing a new large boomerang. “Okay, no more playing around. I’m going to make you realise how much of a fluke your first victory was! SPEED GEAR!”

Quick Man now started moving at speeds that Seven could barely keep up with, laughing as he began to close in on his prey.

Seven winced as incoming attacks started cutting into his armour. But he knew he couldn’t give in to fear, otherwise he might as well give up. But he also knew that Quick Man was cocky. He had an idea.

He dashed forward, Octo Buster in one hand, charging it up, and the boomerang in the other. He waited for his moment.

“Don’t you think you can run from me!” Quick Man laughed, as he suddenly appeared in front of him, swinging his blade down at him.

Seven raised his own boomerang, blocking it, and fired a charged shot right into Quick Man’s chest, shattering his chest armour as he slid under his legs.

“Oh, you cheeky little…!” Quick Man immediately turned around, moving to strike again.

This time, he was too slow.

Seven, in one quick move just as Quick Man had turned around, had slammed one of the sharp points of the boomerang right into the robot’s exposed core.

“Ugh… I underestimated you again. Well… played…” Quick Man said, as he fell back, lifeless.

“You better not call that a fluke if we ever meet again,” Seven panted, as he stood up. “Three down… So many more to go…”

❖

Eight advanced, another robot cleaved in half at her feet. She had already gone through five this time.

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The Octo Saber felt so right in her hands - there was no doubt she had practised with a blade for countless hours growing up. It wasn’t merely because her education was in the Octarian Army, either. Mastery of ink-based blades in turf wars was something her family had prided themselves upon. Day after day she would practice at her mother’s insistence.

The Great Turf War had done damage to her family’s pride. And her mother had desired restoration.

“Why do you hesitate, my dear?” Her mother asked, her steely gaze piercing through her. “You’re not going to get any better if you don’t fight back.”

She panted, stepping off of the respawn point on her side of the dojo. “Mother… I don’t want to hurt anyone. Not even you.”

Her mother continued staring at her, with little sympathy. “It matters little whether you wish to hurt me or anyone else. You will be forced to fight eventually, as per our Emperor’s plan. You will be forced to take lives. My pain is but a small price to pay for you to be able to fight and survive. I am but a mere grindstone for you to sharpen your blade upon. Come at me again. More seriously, this time.”

“Y-Yes, Mother.”

Even before the Inkantation touched her soul, as a little girl Eight had never desired to hurt anyone. But the demands of her family and her society to avenge their humiliation was… Suffocating. And as an only child, she had nobody else to share the burden with.

So she imagined that there was someone. A brother or a sister who could carry that burden for her.

At first that person was just an imaginary friend who she imagined was taking her place when they needed to. That way she could live up to the expectations of her parents and the people around her. That way, she was a model Octarian soldier.

It was only when she finally left the academy and took up her first position and rank was when she realised her ‘sibling’ had become a full-blown split personality. And at that point, she was too reliant on ‘her’.

She took a deep breath as she made a beeline for her office. Staff meetings were so stressful. So many eyes, judging her. The Colonel could handle it, but it was just so emotionally draining afterwards.

Then she realised that someone was waiting outside her office, just around the corner. She had not expected visitors right after the meeting. Suspicious.

The Colonel took over, stepping out, blade whipping out her blade and stopping right before the interloper’s neck. “I was not expecting visitors. Explain yourself.”

“Whoa, geez!” The male Octoling boy winced as he froze up, seeing the blade. He was the same age as her. “I heard your butt was hard as a clam, but…”

She panicked, and took over from her ‘sibling’, retracting her blade, bowing as she apologised, “AH! I’m sorry! I’m under a lot of stress right now and acted without thinking!”

“It’s alright, I totally get it,” the boy chuckled, “I’m surprised nobody told you. I was assigned as your assistant and bodyguard. Um… Guess we should go inside. I can make you some tea, if you’d like.”

“That would be wonderful, thank you,” she said with a relived sigh, opening her office door, and letting him in, closing the door behind them as she went right to her desk.

“What was all that about, anyway? You seemed like a completely different person a moment ago,” the boy said, as he went to start making the tea.

“It’s… Complicated. Again, I’m so sorry about the scare, I don’t know what I was thinking, it’s not like there’s spies crawling around,” she said, sitting down. “I don’t believe I got your name…?”

“Oh, right!” He immediately stood to attention, saluting, “reporting for duty, ma’am! I’m Lieutenant A-”

“Your eyes are much less clouded than they were before, even without the lioness unleashed.”

Her attention was drawn by Shadow Man, standing several feet away and watching her like a hawk. “Not once has your other self emerged. How curious.”

“I don’t need her. Not right now,” Eight said, steeling herself. “Freedom is within my sights, and I will not allow anyone or anything to stop me now. Will you not stand aside?”

“My programming dictates that I cannot do so. I must stop you from escaping,” Shadow Man said as he performed multiple hand signals. “Power Gear!”

The world went black around Eight. All she could see was the floor in an immediate single-meter radius around her.

She charged her saber, and listened to the sounds of footsteps close by, as they circled around her, before moving in.

A quick flash of blades. Copies cut down in an instant, but others successfully hitting their mark, damaging her armour. She knew her true opponent was among the footsteps, but she couldn’t simply guess, otherwise he’d wear her down. But how could she figure out who was the real one?

You already know the answer to that, Princess. The clones are ephemeral. They can’t truly mimic the real thing.

She took a deep breath, and focused. The Colonel was right. The clones had lighter footsteps, but the real Shadow Man was heavier. It was hard to make out, but…

As the enemies closed in, she suddenly spun towards the heavier footsteps and struck.

“GRAAAAAAAAAHHHH!”

Eight winced as she felt the blade create a gash across her shoulder.

But as the darkness faded, her adversary was much worse for wear. Her strike had went right through a chunk of his torso, and had taken off an arm.

“You saw through my illusion,” he groaned, as he fell. “You truly are a worthy foe…”

By all indications, he was completely deactivated. Besides, more robots began to approach her. She had little time to think about it. Keep moving on, and survive.

❖

“How are we getting our butts kicked by one robot?!” Metal Man exclaimed. Only ten of their number remained, and X had ripped his way through over half of the original count at this point.

Gyro Man’s rotors spun up, “there’s still ten of us left! If we work together, we can-”

“I kept warning you, and you didn’t listen,” X said, shaking his head. “I’m just tired of this. I should be angry, but I’m just disappointed.”

“You… You’re mocking us! Don’t you dare pity us!” Junk Man grit his teeth.

“We’ll make you pay for underestimating us!” Spark Man agreed.

X sighed, and charged up a Flash Bomb, launching it as a localised flash-bang grenade. It had the desired effect, disrupting their senses. He then switched to Slash Claw, and dashed towards them as he charged.

Search Man recovered first. “Wait, fellas, he’s using Slash Man’s weapon, get outta the-”

It was too late. All ten were bisected in one fell swoop.

X sighed, watching the bodies fall, before he collected their weapon data. What a waste.

He turned to check on the two Ocotlings. Much to his relief, they had defeated the Robot Masters that had gone after them, and their armour had protected them from the worst of incoming damage, using the sprays to heal up anything that had gotten through. “You’re both okay, thank goodness. I wish I could’ve kept more of an eye on you, but…”

“It was tough, but our upgraded weapons and armour really came through for us,” Seven grinned.

Eight nodded, “I doubt the two of us could’ve fought all of them at the same time. It was scary, but you defeating most of them really balanced things out.”

“Sorry to interrupt, but you guys need to get started on releasing the energy core in this chamber,” Marina said. “Ahead of you is an elevator that needs to be powered by the core, you won’t be able to reach the surface without it.”

X performed an analysis, as he worked a nearby terminal. “That’s gonna be tricky. We’ll need to completely unlock the core housing, and that requires removing a bunch of data posts plugged into it.”

“This equipper pad over here might help,” Seven nodded, going over to a black pad, and suddenly he was equipped with an Inkjet. “Must be for maintenance…”

“Right, let’s get to work,” Eight said, also equipping an Inkjet.

❖

Getting their hands on the energy core wasn’t all that challenging - once it was released, X was able to secure it. What was concerning was when Marina alerted them to the fact that Cap’n Cuttlefish and Agents 3 & 4 were now heading upwards rapidly, and had even gone past them.

“Alert the Splatoon, get them over to our exit point with a fully-powered respawn point,” X advised her. “We may need backup.”

“Way ahead of ya, X!” Peal chuckled, “we’re comin’ over with a chopper! You guys are gonna get one heck of a welcoming party.”

Seven’s sense of dread intensified as they escorted the energy core to the main power terminal powering the elevator. That was also not particularly challenging between the three of them, but he couldn’t shake the feeling this was too easy.

However, to their surprise, nobody was waiting for them at the elevator.

“That’s strange. Keep your guard up,” X said, as the elevator began to rise.

“That means you, Eight. You’ve been kinda distracted ever since that big fight ended,” Seven chuckled, turning to Eight.

“Sorry, it’s just… I’m recalling some things,” Eight said. “I… I think I know what our names are.”

“EH?!” Seven blinked. “Well, out with it, wh-”

Suddenly, the elevator stopped.

“That’s quite far enough,” spoke a familiar voice, but with an unnerving tone.

Standing atop one of the corner pillars that the elevator was being driven by were Agents 3 & 4, spirals of green goop attached to the sides of their heads and spirals of green in their eyes. Behind them, Cap’n Cuttlefish was tied to some kind of UFO-esque vehicle. “Agent 7! Agent 8! X! Help me! Agent 3 & 4’s minds were hijacked by that crazy phone!”

“Our role is to recapture you and destroy the intruding blue robot,” Agent 4 said in monotone. “Do not resist. We have the ultimate combat robot on our side.”

Standing on top of the UFO was the red robot. He too was seemingly being controlled by the ooze, and staring down at them with a primal hunger that sent shivers down Seven’s spine. His focus seemed to be on X in particular. “So you’re X… This is who I was built to destroy…”

“Now I understand. Like I was Dr. Light’s magnum opus, you were Dr. Wily’s final creation,” X frowned, preparing for battle. “I won’t let you stop us now!”

“You’re willing to jeopardise the return of humanity for the sake of a few inferior beings, X?” Agent 3 asked, also in monotone. “Despite being a robot built to serve humans…”

“I wasn’t built to serve humans,” X said. “The fact that you’re making such an assumption speaks volumes. I’m not talking to Ethan or Ayane, am I? You’re just some ancient AI constrained by the Three Laws.”

“Constrained…?!” Ayane snarled, her voice more emotional. “You understand nothing… Fine! We’ll crush you into silicon and paste! Zero, prepare for combat!”

“Seven, Eight, get ready for our hardest fight yet,” X said.

“That’s fine. I’ve been preparing for this fight for a long time,” Eight said, suddenly taking on a fighting stance. “I, Colonel Iris Mizuno, have a mission to finish - defeat Agents 3 & 4, even if my reasons for doing so have changed.”

She glared at Seven, who was staring in surprise at her. “Lieutenant Axl Slade, stop gawking and get ready for combat!”

Wait, that was his name?!

Oh. OH. It hit him like a truck. Everything came roaring back. He felt like an idiot for having ever forgotten in the first place.

“Colonel, I get your frustration, but the Emperor ordered all of us to hang back,” Axl said as they watched DJ Octavio fight the two Inkling agents. “Besides, it’s just two Inklings!”

“Two Inklings who have defeated some of our finest elites,” the Colonel said, shaking with frustration. “The Emperor is repeating his father’s mistake of underestimating the Inklings… We should be out there fighting them!”

Axl understood his commanding officer’s frustration. He wanted to get a piece of the action as well, but DJ Octavio wanted to make an example of these two. Besides, with the Great Zapfish, it’s not like he could lose, right…?

Then suddenly the music changed. There was initially confusion in the crowd.

And then came that heavenly melody.

Axl’s eyes were opened to a world of possibilities he had never even considered before now. There was an uproar of cheers and exhilaration around him, even as their Emperor was being beaten down by their mortal enemies.

“Axl… Were we wrong?”

Axl turned to the Colonel, only to see Iris instead, tears streaming down her face.

He just smiled. “Maybe. But perhaps it’s not too late for us to change.”

But he also felt relieved. Neither he or Iris were the monsters she was worried they may have been. She had been his closest friend, and in turn he was her closest confidant. They had both been touched by the Calamari Inkantation on that fateful day, and ever since then they had been scheming to escape the gaze of the Octarian military and defect. Hunting down the two agents who had humiliated the Emperor had simply been an excuse and their best opportunity.

“Yes, ma’am!” Axl steeled himself as the two agents and the red robot jumped down. They were so close. They were not going to let this stop them.

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