Chapter 2: Chapter 1: Octo Canyon (I)

X’s eyes fluttered open as his systems booted for the first time in over ten thousand years. The disparity between the apparent date in his systems and the rough estimate of his intended awakening was alarming, but who or what had awoken him instead inspired curiosity.

Standing in front of the capsule, looking at him with curiosity, were three figures - they looked human at first glance, but X’s visual scanning systems and the naked eye immediately made him recognise they had biological traits akin to cephalopods. And yet they clearly resembled humans in so many ways.

“You’re ‘X’, correct?” the oldest-looking female asked, in a language that X realized that only been added to his databanks relatively recently. She had white ‘hair’, orange eyes and a distinct kimono under what looked like body armour and other equipment. “I’m sorry if this is disconcerting or disorienting for you. We mean you no harm, we felt it was best to wake you up after we found you. I regret to inform you that the species that created you, humans, is to our knowledge extinct, and has been for thousands of years.”

“Oh,” X said, speaking a word in the… ‘Inkling’ language, was it? That’s what this person was speaking, at least. “That’s a lot to take in. You three are…?”

“Hey, I’m Artemis! And this is my baby brother, Orion!” The other female grinned, putting an arm around the male’s shoulders. Artemis and Orion both had blue eyes, with Artemis having short ‘hair’ and Orion’s being slicked back. They both wore yellow gear and rather stylish headsets. “We’re Agents 5 and 6 of the New Squidbeak Splatoon, nice to meet ya!”

‘Splatoon’? Was that some kind of wordplay? X tossed the thought aside for the moment as the first female cleared her throat. “I’m Marie, Agent 2 and their handler until Captain Cuttlefish returns. We found this lab in an Octarian dig site, chased off the enemy before they could break in and take you, likely to use as a weapon.”

X froze up as he was about to get out of the capsule. “Are… Are we in the middle of a war?”

“I wouldn’t call it a ‘war’, honestly,” Marie sighed. “There was a Great Turf War a hundred years ago, but that’s mostly in the past. The Octarians are mostly acting like terrorists now - they squidnapped the Great Zapfish from Inkopolis Square, which is powering the city, and we’re fighting to get it back before they can use it for their nefarious goals. We’re not asking you to get involved, we know it’s not your fight. The Octarians wouldn’t have given you the same courtesy.”

“I’ll be the judge of that for myself, but thanks,” X said, fully getting out of the stasis capsule. “All systems operating as expected… The capsule did a good job of keeping my body preserved.”

Artemis was grinning like a loon as she circled X, looking at him from head to toe. “That armour looks so cool! And the skin and the eyes look so lifelike!” She then reached up and pinched his chin. “Weird texture, though.”

“H-Hey! Watch it, please…” X couldn’t help but find something endearing about her, however.

“Give him some personal space, sis… Sorry, she can get like this a lot,” Orion said. “But if you really are like a human…”

“As close as human technology could get before they got wiped out, I guess,” X said, taking off his helmet to show a clean head of artificial brown hair.

“WOW! That’s so fuzzy! No tentacles or anything!” Artemis grinned, reaching up to feel his hair, but quickly stopped. “Ehehe… Sorry.”

X put his helmet back on, slightly annoyed but willing to give the squid girl a pass. Actually, that reminded him… “So… You’re evolved squids or something?”

“Inklings, yes. I think it’s best to take this conversation outside - it’s best to show you around Octo Canyon,” Marie said, turning to leave.

X and the two junior agents followed her into the sunlight, as X wondered what kind of world awaited beyond the lab…

❖

“…so we spotted the dig site from Slimeskin Garrison, and I was like ‘I wonder what the Octarians are doin’ down there?’ so we went down, splatted them all and found you!” Artemis grinned as they arrived at the agents’ home base at the highest level in Octo Canyon, which they called ‘Tentakeel Outpost’. “Marie was fussing about getting back to the main mission, but I think we made the right call.”

“So all of these floating ‘islands’ were made by the Octarians?” X asked, as they settled down at Marie’s cabin. Getting up here was fairly easy since X could teleport - without teleportation shielding around, X could go basically anywhere. It turns out some old orbital teleportation satellites were still up and running using solar power, and they were built to last. He was more amazed by how the Inklings could ‘super-jump’ instead.

“Yes, and yes. Octarians are hard-working, and they have incredible technology,” Marie nodded.

“Yeah, it is kinda crazy and cool,” Artemis agreed. “It sucks that we have to fight, it would be cool if we could share technology and culture and stuff!”

“And are you guys using… Water guns?” X asked, looking at their weapons.

“Inklings and Octarians alike can produce a lot of ink in a short amount of time. More often now we use it for sport, but either way, our ink is just as much a weapon as it is an asset,” Marie explained, taking off her agent gear, fully revealing her rather lovely kimono, and she opened up an umbrella.

X looked out over the edge of the platform, seeing the city in the distance, along with the ocean around the canyon. The formation of the canyon and the tentacle-shaped rocks all over the canyon only hit home further that this wasn’t the world he was meant to wake up in.

“I know all of this is probably overwhelming for you. A quiet place like this with a nice view might help,” Marie said. “Take as much time as you need to process.”

“We can talk later, and maybe even show you around Inkopolis Square. Little Bro and I gotta go clear out the rest of Slimeskin Garrison. The Great Octoweapon ain’t gonna blow itself up!” Artemis grinned, super-jumping away, “seeya!”

“Um… Bye!” Orion followed suit.

“We can monitor them from here.” Marie said, pointing to some nearby screens by the shack. “I do worry for those kids, though. They’re pretty skilled, and they’ve got good hearts, but…”

“You’re worried they’ll slip up and get themselves killed?” X said, turning to her.

“There’s not a high chance of that happening with respawn points around, but… Yeah, I am,” Marie said, sitting down at a chair, monitoring the incoming live feeds. “The New Squidbeak Splatoon is a semi-clandestine outfit. Gramps fought the Great Turf War a hundred years ago and brought about the peace Inklings enjoy today - if we don’t succeed here, another war is going to start all over again. And I’m not sure Inkling society is ready for that.”

X said nothing, coming over to the shack, noticing a pile of old files in the shade. He started going through them, noticing that Marie didn’t seem to mind, and she was more preoccupied with overseeing the operations of the junior agents. He found an old binder of what looked like old papers, mainly collages of old newspapers and articles. One Octarian newspaper article stood out to him.

It specifically read: The Department of Energy has announced that further declines in the availability of electric power are likely to occur in the near future. With the underground domes also deteriorating rapidly, the future does not look bright.

He was about to ask Marie about this, but noticing she was busy, he decided to continue reading. He didn’t think she was being dishonest with him, but rather that there was more complexity to this conflict. So he looked for files on the Great Turf War.

Still, his eyes were drawn to the conflict happening on the screen. The Octarians literally exploded with ink when defeated, which sent a shiver down his spine. “That seems… Rather gruesome.”

Marie looked over her shoulder, blinking. “What?”

“The Octarians literally exploding when killed. How do you guys even handle that psychologically?” X asked.

That seemed to give Marie pause, but she smiled softly, turning back to the screens. “Oh, that? You’ve got the wrong idea, nobody’s actually dying unless they, well, just fall over. Inklings and Octarians explode into ink when they’re ‘splatted’, which means they’ll just reform at the nearest spawn point they control. If that doesn’t happen, something has gone horribly wrong.”

“Then I guess you just keep capturing enemy spawn points to push them back,” X said. “That makes some sense, I suppose.”

“I understand if you’re not comfortable with all of this. It’s why I’m not asking you to help us,” Marie said. “This isn’t your fight. I’m not super comfortable with it either, and not exactly comfortable with asking a couple of kids to help save Inkopolis, but if I had other options…”

“I believe you, for now at least,” X said. “I skimmed through the roster. Agent 1… Your cousin, Callie. Where is she?”

“I don’t know. I’m worried the Octarians have kidnapped her,” Marie said. “She went missing while I was away seeing my parents back at our hometown. When she didn’t show up on her day off and she didn’t pick up my calls, I cut my vacation short and went to find her, only to find that DJ Octavio was free from his prison and Callie was nowhere to be found. And before you ask, Gramps went on some expedition with Agents 3 & 4, and I can’t contact them either.”

Suddenly, Marie’s eyes opened, speaking into her microphone. “Oh, no! Careful, you two! It’s an ambush! Multiple Octolings and Octosnipers being dropped in behind you… This isn’t good…”

X could see why she was so alarmed - the two agents were currently being pinned down by sniper fire and multiple bipedal Octarians closing in on them, with little room to escape. He noticed the on-screen coordinates. “I’m going in. They need my help.”

Marie spun around in surprise, “wait, X, you don’t have any weap-”

By the time she finished that sentence, X had already teleported out.

❖

X had successfully teleported just a meter away from the two junior agents, and immediately took stock of the situation while the pair gaped in surprise at his sudden arrival. His right hand changed into his X Buster immediately.

An ‘Octoling’ suddenly charged, Octo Shot raised, but X was quicker, firing off multiple quick buster shots that splatted her immediately.

They were stuck right in the middle of some kind of arena on multiple tall buildings. Pink and green ink was everywhere. There was some cover, but not a lot, especially against the snipers on either side.

“Cut a path through the way you were headed, you two. I’ll handle the enemies behind you,” X said, charging up his buster and firing off a charged shot, splatting a distant sniper.

Artemis’ gleeful squeeing was cut short by something she heard in her ear, and she immediately nodded, splatting an incoming Octoling with her Hero Shot, while Orion used his Hero Charger to start taking out distant enemies. “Roger that! Thanks for the save!”

X focused on the way the siblings had come, firing off more shots at Octosnipers trying to take shots at all three of them. His X Buster easily outranged anything the Octarians had, fortunately, but the Octolings were able to take cover and hide in their own ink. And they had the high ground.

X immediately took off running, leaping at a wall and easily scaling it with multiple wall-jumps thanks to his internal air jets allowing him to redirect his movement in midair. When he landed on the platform above, a couple of Octolings emerged from the ink in front of him, one with a large paint roller and the other with a set of twin pistols. X splatted the one who tried to hit him with the roller, but he was forced to raise his arms as the second enemy dodged his shots and sprayed him with ink, right before he splatted her as well.

He took a moment to shake off the ink, and he noticed something disconcerting in his heads-up-display. Guess that’s one way to find out pink isn’t really my colour, he thought, but this ink can drain my energy at an alarming rate. Can’t just dismiss this stuff as harmless, even if the effects are only temporary.

He noticed the two Octolings had outright disappeared, along with their clothes and equipment. Every splat has come with a brief signal that I detected… It resembles teleportation. I guess Inklings and Octarians stumbled upon old human technology and-no, focus X, you’ve got bigger fish to fry!

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X immediately started scaling the buildings, deciding to lead the Octolings on a wild goose chase. The siblings were doing just fine by themselves now that a lot of the heat was off of them. While wall-jumping helped, he found that the ink on the walls was making it harder to maintain a proper grip, and just standing in ink slowly drained his energy. That was a problem.

Much to his surprise, however, when he reached the top, alongside the respawn point was a strange blue capsule, large enough for him to stand inside. It opened up, as if beckoning him to enter.

Somehow, it felt familiar enough for him to step inside. When he did, it closed, and his leg parts began changing. As enemy ink splattered the floor and area around the capsule, a familiar voice echoed in his head.

“If you've come across this capsule, I fear you must be in the midst of a difficult battle. I have left four powers for you to inherit. I believe that you will use them in the cause of justice. The first of these is the Foot Parts - they will give you the ability to dash and to run without issue on surfaces covered in allied ink. Use this power to steer the future in the right direction. I trust in you, my dear X.”

With the familiar voice still in his mind, X charged his buster as the capsule opened, and performed a leaping dash, his leg parts replaced with gleaming white, blue and gold replacements.

The Octoling with the sniper weapon was the first to be splatted, too slow to shoot him out of the air. As he fell, X splatted another foe with a larger-barrelled weapon. As he landed on a platform below, he dashed to evade ink being sprayed by the Octolings with the roller and the bucket, who he blasted in quick succession.

The Octoling with the dual pistols landed nearby, and immediately moved in to strike at close range, rolling quickly in anticipation of incoming shots. X also was able to dash and evade her shots, however, and in the end, his shots hit their target before hers could.

All that was left was silence. X looked across the arena to check on the two agents, and to his relief, they were waving to him, having dealt with all opposition on their side, and shut down the enemy respawn point by removing their power sources - creatures that he realised were large yellow catfish, though half the size of the Inklings at most.

He simply smiled and waved to them, before teleporting out.

❖

X arrived back at the cabin, shaking off the remaining ink from his body. “Sorry to leave so suddenly, time was of the essence.”

Marie was still sitting there, watching the live feed, and turned towards him. “Thank you. You just jumped in there without even being asked. I think they probably could’ve made it through that situation, but having you back them up really eased my worries.”

X sat back down at the cabin. “As you said, they’re good kids. I didn’t want to see them, well, die, even if I’m not entirely sure what’s going on.”

“By the way, nice leg armour. What’s the deal with that capsule?” Marie asked.

“I wish I knew, it was just there all of a sudden and I felt a comforting sense of deja-vu,” X said. “I know, probably was a dumb idea to just walk into some capsule, but turns out it had leg upgrades. I… I think Dr. Light created multiple upgrade capsules for me, and the capsule automatically teleported to my location.”

“Huh,” Marie shrugged. “Probably should find the others, then. Could be helpful.”

“You mentioned the leader of the Octarians was… A ‘DJ Octavio’, right?” X asked. “I’d like to meet with him. Understand his side of the story and where he’s coming from… and maybe, I can figure out some kind of solution that can stop some kind of conflict.”

“Oh, yes, I’m sure he’d love to meet you in person after that little stunt you pulled today,” Marie said with a slight smirk, making X realize he may have made things harder for himself in that respect. “I’d love for it to be that easy, X, but if you want to meet Octavio, you gotta fight your way all the way to his lair at the bottom of the canyon.”

X frowned, his metaphorical heart sinking as her words sank in. “Oh.”

“For what it’s worth, Octavio isn’t a diplomat - he’s a soldier. He’s not gonna listen to you unless you make him cry uncle,” Marie said, turning back to the screens. “Trust me, he and Gramps go way back. They used to be friends before the war.”

“Well, if I have to, I guess I’ll need to make him listen,” X declared, clenching his fist.

Shortly after, the two junior agents returned, with eight of the catfish in tow. Orion saluted. “Agent 2, eight Mini-Zapfish recovered, safe and sound!”

“We might not’ve done it if it weren’t for X! Like… THAT WAS THE COOLEST THING I’VE EVER SEEN!” Artemis grinned widely, zipping over to X as if she hadn’t just been in an intense firefight. “You didn’t tell us you had an arm cannon that shoots plasma!”

“Compressed solar energy, but that’s semantics, I guess,” X said, forming his buster. “I like to call it the ‘X-Buster’, but technically it’s the Mega Buster Mark 17. I wonder, though… Artemis, can you show me your weapon?”

“Uh, sure,” Artemis blinked, holding out her Hero Shot.

X put a hand on it, and his weapons systems proceeded to perform a full scan. Once the weapon data was added to his system, he pointed his buster away from the others and fired, converting weapon energy into ink that splattered across the ground. “I also have a variable weapons system that lets me copy weapons using a set number of weapon energy reserve batteries. I don’t have an easy way to recharge it, though, unlike you guys.”

X could guess at how Artemis felt about this, based on the delighted squealing coming from her mouth. Orion’s jaw had simply dropped. Even Marie was staring with some visible curiosity.

He decided to change the subject. “Marie. How much time do we have until Inkopolis runs out of power?”

“Maybe another week,” Marie said. “We could be going faster, but these two still need regular training, on top of their studies... It’s the weekend, so we’ve got some extra time, but after that-“

“How much more ground is there to cover before we reach the enemy’s HQ?” X asked.

“We’ve got just one more Octoweapon in the way before we’ve fully cleared Slimeskin Garrison,” Orion spoke up. “I’m not sure if I want to face down that thing today, after what just happened, though…”

“Well, we’ll do it together,” X declared. “You two are skilled. I think you can do it by yourselves, but if this ‘Octoweapon’ is that dangerous, then you’ll want me in your corner. We take it down, and then tomorrow we storm their HQ. I’ve made up my mind - I want to talk to Octavio, even if it means fighting my way through the entire Octarian army to do it.”

“Now that’s fresh!” Artemis grinned. “Sounds good to me! We’ll have that Octoweapon blown to smithereens in no time!”

Orion gulped, but when X looked at him expectantly, he seemed to stop shaking. “Y-Yeah. I’m sure with your help, nothing can stop us!”

“That’s the spirit,” X smiled. “Let’s go take it down!”

❖

“I honestly don’t know what I actually expected,” X said dryly, watching the Octo Shower explode into green ink, leaving behind a rather shaken but unharmed Zapfish.

“What did you expect?” Artemis remarked, as she picked up the Zapfish.

“I dunno, something less absurd than a giant shower head,” X sighed, hands on his hips.

That had been easier than he had expected, almost comically so. Sheldon had requested that both siblings use Chargers for this fight, and to his credit, that had been a good idea, considering how the Octo Shower, carried in the air by multiple Octarian fliers, was content to mostly try to stay out of range as much as it could while it used its varied weaponry. It had not accounted for X’s buster actually having much greater range, however, and between the three of them, the Octoweapon went down rather easily. Well, it was mostly X and Orion who did most of the work. It turned out Artemis was not very good with Chargers compared to her younger brother. Marie had muttered something about “she needs more practice at the range” during the fight.

That’s when someone else spoke on the communications line. “RUN! LEAVE NOW AND NEVER LOOK BACK!” Much to X’s bewilderment, he could swear the sound was inverted somehow.

“Uh… Are you holding the communicator upside down?” Marie asked, equally baffled if her tone was of any indication.

“Ugh, I totally was,” groaned the unknown female voice.

Marie gasped. “CALLIE?!”

“What?!” X said. “You recognise her voice, Marie?!”

“Um... Nope, this is definitely not Callie! So just... Leave. It's dangerous here! And it's not safe at all!” ‘Callie’ declared.

“Ummmm... Don't those mean the same thing?” Marie asked.

“WHATEVER! JUST GET OUT OF HERE! I'm not calling again!” ‘Callie’ snapped, before going silent.

“W-wait! Don't go! CALLIE?! CALLIE!” Marie begged, desperation creeping into her voice.

X stared at the two junior agents, who looked back at him. It was clear all three of them had no idea what to make of this whatsoever.

“I… I can’t believe it,” Marie stammered, breaking the silence. “Could Callie really be working with the Octarians?”

X paused for a moment to think, before responding. “Marie… Does it really matter? You started this to get your cousin back. We’ll just have to take the extra step of bringing her back to her senses.”

“Y-You’re right. Agents 5 & 6, X, I need your help now more than ever. Return to base immediately,” Marie said.

X was now dreading what was to come the next day.

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