Chapter 20: Chapter 15: Hostile Takeover (V)

Orion took slow, deep breaths as he took aim with his Hero Charger Replica. This was just another normal Rainmaker match. Why did he feel so stressed?

It was a match on The Reef. It was mostly even in terms of scores, but the enemy team were ahead and were making a push. Orion was on the level with the goal, covering his team while they tried to stop the push.

The opposing team had a similar set of weapons to his own - a Roller, a Splattershot, Dualies and a Charger. Unfortunately, the guy with the Charger was using an E-Liter 4K, which meant sniper duels with an enemy who could outrange Orion. However, things were made easier by the fact that Axl had decided to make the poor dude’s life utterly miserable. He was great at flanking.

The Splattershot user came into Orion’s line of fire. He took a deep breath, and focused his aim.

Marie whistled, nodding approvingly as Orion finished quick-sniping the test balloons. “Not bad. You’ve got talent. Who taught you to snipe like that?”

“Mom. She used to be a pro before she married Dad,” Orion said, letting himself take a breath. “Taught me to hold my breath when taking aim and such.”

“Seems she knows her stuff,” Marie remarked. “You’ve got a bad habit of overshooting your aim and having to correct your shot, though. That’s not a hard one to break, though, you just need to practice stopping your swing at the right time. Alright, from the top again, let’s see you beat your time.”

He stopped his swing right on target, releasing the trigger. The girl yelped as she was splatted immediately. The guy with the Rainmaker was swiftly rushed down and splatted by Liam and Koji immediately after, since he was alone without backup, with Axl having rushed down the Charger.

“Nice shot, Ori! Koji, grab that Rainmaker and start pushing! I’ll cover you! Axl, keep them busy as they respawn!” Liam said over the communicator.

“You got it, Liam! Let’s move u-wait, where’s their Roller?” Orion could see Axl on the bridge, looking around, and his eyes widened as he saw something. “Ori, behind you!”

Orion spun around, charging up again as he saw the girl with the Dynamo Roller coming up behind him. She had managed to slip past and flank him using the side ramp. His stress peaked as he realised he had made a rookie mistake with using a Charger - tunnel vision.

He didn’t have time to properly take aim, she was already raising the Roller to strike. Even with the slow Dynamo strike, he didn’t have time to aim or flee in his ink.

Time slowed to a crawl as his mind raced a million miles a minute.

He recalled what Ayane told him. “Dualies roll because it’s way easier for that kind of weapon. There’s no special trick to it. It’s just a matter of practice.”

He hadn’t practised it at all. But what other option was there? He decided just to do what came naturally to him. He knew how to roll with Dualies, he just needed to apply the same principles here.

Orion kept his weapon straight so it wouldn’t touch the ground, and dived to the side, rolling against his shoulder so it would take most of the force. He was clear just as the Roller came down, splashing ink where he had just been, though some of it still got on him, but not enough to take him out.

The roll wasn’t perfect. He ended up landing on his side, wincing as he hurt his shoulder - nothing serious, but he’d be sore for a bit. But he refocused his aim on the girl, whose eyes were wide as she stared at him in panic. “What the shell-”

BANG. She was splatted in an instant.

“Holy carp, Ori, what was that?! Are you alright?!” Liam called out.

“I’m okay! Keep going, I’ll catch up in a moment!” Orion groaned as he got back up on his feet. His shoulder hurt, but not enough to make it harder for him to aim. As his team pushed, he rushed as quickly as he could to the next vantage point.

❖

Despite the fierce and gruelling battle, Orion’s team had managed to barely claim a knockout victory. The relief Orion had felt was utterly palpable.

Still, he was trying to de-stress on a bench back in the lobby as his team celebrated their victory. One step closer to ranking up.

“Hey, you with the Charger!” One of the opposing team members walked up - the double-bun girl who had been using the Dynamo. Orion was about to panic, but what she said next blindsided him completely. “That roll was absolutely sick! How’d you do it with a Charger?”

Orion laughed sheepishly, rubbing his shoulder. “Um… I know someone who can pull it off, she told me it just takes practice. I just did it as a panic move, though, I still kinda hurt my shoulder doing it…”

“Yeah, it’s way easier with Dualies because of the small form factor, much easier to move with,” the girl nodded in agreement.

That piqued the interest of the team member with the E-Liter. “Maybe I should practice doing it… Then again, probably would be hard with an E-Liter, would be way more cumbersome than with a regular Splat Charger.”

“Hey, what can I say, Ori’s shy but he definitely knows how to pull his weight in a fight,” Liam chuckled, patting Orion on the shoulder.

“I saw that match. Congrats on the victory, fellas!” Ethan came walking up, Roller over his shoulder.

“Thanks, my dude,” Liam grinned, as he and Ethan exchanged a high-five.

“Gotta say, Ori, Ayane’s gonna be eager to train you when she hears about this. Your shoulder okay?” Ethan asked as he came up to Orion.

“Y-Yeah, should be okay, thanks, Ethan,” said Orion with a nod, feeling a small swell of pride from being praised by his senior.

Ethan chuckled, ruffling Orion’s hair, “good to hear. You should do some practice on softer terrain before you try rolling with a Charger again, though, don’t want to hurt yourself again.”

“You mind giving us some pointers on how we did later?” Koji asked.

Ethan nodded, “sure, we’ll go over the replays later. But I gotta get to a match. Seeya.”

As Ethan walked away, Orion noticed the other team were gawking in shock. Double-Bun turned to him again. “That was Ethan Springs. You know him?!”

“Didn’t he imply you guys also know Ayane Higashi?!” Said the other team’s Dualies user. “What gives?!”

Orion had never realised how famous Ethan and Ayane were on the ink battle circuit until now. It was actually kinda mind-blowing.

Koji immediately took point explaining. “It’s a secret. You’d never believe us even if we told you, anyway.”

This explanation held up despite some prodding. The other team gave up, and settled on exchanging Splatnet IDs. Making friends with an opposing team was not what Orion had expected to happen today, but it was nice.

❖

Orion popped out of the manhole at Tentakeel Outpost, right behind his teammates. It was sunset, and the atmosphere was lively - everyone from the Splatoon was here, along with Off The Hook, having a good time. It seems like Artemis’ team had a good day when it came to their matches as well.

He caught but nearly fumbled a soda tossed to him by Pearl, who grinned. “And the conquering champions return! That Charger dodge of yours got on the daily highlight reels, Ori!”

“Please don’t make a huge deal of it, it was just a fluke and I hurt myself doing it,” Orion blushed. “I don’t know if I could handle becoming a celebrity overnight.”

“I think you’re worrying too much, bro,” Artemis laughed. "Seriously, settle down and relax.”

“It’s just a matter of practice. And we’ll be doing a lot of it next week,” Ayane said, with a smirk that sent shivers down Orion’s spine, and yet simultaneously a feeling of pride in him? Ayane could be weird like that. He noticed Ethan give him a reassuring smile.

As Orion got settled down on one of the couches with his teammates, Marina changed the subject, “what’s the news on Ahato, by the way?”

“Professor Gaudile says she’ll need more time before they can allow visitors, but no complications with the treatment so far,” Marie replied.

With that question satisfactorily answered, Liam spoke up, “so are X and Zero are moving into their own place soon?”

“Still got to make some final arrangements, but yeah,” Callie said. “Shame, I liked having X around.”

Speaking of whom, Orion noticed X was practising some kind of martial arts style against the training dummies. It wasn’t anything he had seen before. “Uh… What are you doing, X?”

Zero spoke up first, “he went to give Dr. Light the armour parts back for safekeeping and upgrading, but the doc gave him some martial arts data, saying that ‘since his soul is nearly human’, he could master it.”

“Uh… What does that have to do with anything? It’s just martial arts, right?” Koji blinked.

X stopped, turning to everyone else. “Not that simple. It’s a style that requires the use of spiritual energy, that only a few people have mastered through intense training. Dr. Light was lucky enough to master it in life, after being taught by a previous user, a former CEO who set up his own dojo after retiring from business. It was originally a martial art rooted as an art of assassination, but became a tool of self-defense. Allow me to demonstrate.”

X then turned to the largest dummy, bringing his hands back to his side, cupping them. Everyone was watching with interest, as a blue light briefly formed, and he thrust his palms forward together. “HADOKEN!”

Orion’s jaw dropped as an almost spherical wave of blue energy surged forth, slamming into the dummy and bursting it immediately.

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It was his sister who spoke her thoughts first. “ANIME IS REAL!”

“What is ‘anime’?” Iris asked.

Most of the group stared at Iris in surprise. Hinata remarked, “we are totally binging anime this weekend.”

“That is still ridiculously cool, though,” Ethan remarked. “You gonna be teaching us how to do that?”

X rubbed his chin, “maybe. You guys all could do with some martial arts experience. It might come in handy.”

“No objections from me,” Marie remarked. “Still, I imagine it’s gonna take a while before any of you can start throwing fireballs.”

“Nah, it’s gotta be pretty easy! We can use Booya Bombs and stuff, a little thing like that’s gotta be easy!” Artemis grinned as she got up, and tried mimicking X’s motion. “Ha… DOKEN!”

Nothing happened.

“It’s got to be more than just the motion, Artemis,” Iris giggled.

X nodded, “you need to reach inside yourself and draw out your spiritual energy. Not a lot of people can do it, especially not that easily. It’s the sort of thing that requires practice, and usually formal instruction.”

Draw out my spiritual energy, huh? Orion thought to himself, closing his eyes and bringing his hands together, only a few inches apart from each other. He took deep breaths, trying to attune himself to what he felt when X used the Hadoken. Control it. Focus it into a point.

“Uh, hey, you guys seeing what Ori’s doin’?” Karlene said.

Orion opened his eyes. There was a glowing, swirling orb of light concentrated between his palms - it was small, but it was something. He took another deep breath. Okay, just let it loose, like a punch…

He thrust his palms forward, away from anyone else. “HADOKEN!”

The aiming wasn’t necessary, as it turned out. The resulting surge of energy was only as large as his palm, and only went about a meter before it fizzled out.

It was still more than enough for everyone else to cheer, and he was immediately swarmed by his utterly thrilled friends, especially his sister, who was practically demanding to know how he pulled it off. It was a bit of an ego boost, but Orion still felt pretty astonished that he somehow pulled it off at all.

Dinner ended up being an incredibly lively affair, with all of the junior agents instantly being on board with the idea of learning ‘Ansatsuken’…

❖

“Friday night, no more school till Monday!” Liam sighed with relief as the four of them returned to their dorm. “Man am I gonna relish this weekend.”

“You still have a bit of homework left over, boss,” Koji said. “And don’t try to put it off, you hate doing homework on the weekend, remember?”

Liam groaned. “Don’t remind me… Alright, fine, let’s just get it done.”

“Come on, Ori, let’s just watch a movie or something while they wrap up homework,” Axl chuckled, putting a hand on Orion’s shoulder.

“U-Uh, sure,” Orion said. The Octoling boy was just so tall compared to him, and even taller than Liam or Koji. Iris was on the tall side as well. Were Octolings all this tall?

They sat together on the couch as Orion began taking a look at what was available.

“You’re shaking a bit, still,” Axl commented. “You’ve been kinda doing that between our matches and after them, and it ain’t just the shoulder. Are you alright?”

Orion lowered the remote with a sigh, leaning against him. “Sorry, it’s just… I feel like my body can’t differentiate between the aftermath of a regular ink battle or a mission, and it’s still kinda stuck in that mode right now. I’m just used to putting my life on the line enough that I just feel the same kind of stress even when fighting for sport.”

Axl nodded. “Yeah, I totally get that feeling. It’s just something you gotta get used to, being able to feel the difference between knowing when things are just for fun and when your life is in danger. I’m just more used to that, since I’m a soldier. You’ve only been doing this agent gig for less than a month.”

“Ah. I guess I gotta figure out how to handle that stress in a healthy way, then,” Orion frowned.

“You’re shaking less, now,” Axl said. “I guess being around a friend helps you feel safe?”

Orion realised he was right. Just knowing he was right there through touch was enough to alleviate some of the stress, but not all of it. “It’s not quite enough, though…”

“You could sit on my lap. Maybe that’d help? Um… If you’re fine with that, of course…” Axl suggested, blushing a little.

That caused Orion to also blush, but after a moment of consideration, despite how nervous the idea made him feel… He shifted over, sitting on Axl’s lap. Axl brought his arms around Orion’s waist, and that was what finally did the trick.

“Is this better?” Axl asked.

“Um… Yeah, it is,” Orion said awkwardly. But he liked this. It just felt… Good. “Let’s pick a movie already…”

They went with a simple action flick, and began to settle in, making small talk and commentary as the movie progressed. It was easy for Axl to see over Orion’s head, so it wasn’t at all a problem for him.

Orion barely even realised how much Axl was cuddling up with him. Having the Octoling boy at his back and being held in his toned arms made Orion feel so… Safe. Like there was nothing in this world that could make him feel afraid or stressed. In general, it just felt… Really nice. If only they could do this forever. But that wasn’t possible. For now, though, Orion just enjoyed this feeling.

“Hey, Axl… Are we really gonna have to keep fighting? Surely there aren’t a lot of Octarians left still loyal to Octavio,” said Orion quietly.

“I wish I could say no, but… They’re only gonna get more desperate from here on out, Ori,” Axl sighed. “Take it from me, I know. We just gotta keep fighting until we can convince them there’s a better way.”

Orion wasn’t sure how to respond to that. He was right, certainly, but Orion understood how X felt - why couldn’t people just get along and be nice to each other?

Axl smiled, holding him closer, “but it’ll be okay, even if things seem scary. I’ve got your back if you’ve got mine, right? I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Orion blushed, “thanks, Axl.” It was hard to describe how being with Axl like this felt, other than ‘good’. And knowing that was enough for him. But he had one more thing to say in return. “And you belong here with us. You earned that right, it wasn’t luck or some fluke. I’ll keep telling you that as many times as it takes for it to sink in.”

Axl’s eyes widened momentarily, before he smiled. “Thanks, Ori.”

After a while, Liam and Koji joined them on the couch. While there was space for all four of them, Orion being on Axl’s lap helped with space. Orion noticed that both of them had smiled at him in a way like they knew something, but he wasn’t sure what it was. Not that it mattered. Just being like this and enjoying the night with his friends was all he really wanted right now.

❖

Commander Tartar observed the preparations from above, as the blender was assembled and tested. He had some spare resources Kamabo set aside in a case like this, and nothing would be spared for his revenge.

The Genesis Unit (consisting of Buster Rod G, Mega Water S and Hyper Storm W, based on characters from the Chinese novel Journey to the West) had initially been apprehensive about following his orders, but without Dr. Wily to serve, they ended up falling in line as well.

“Nearly all of the preparations are complete, Commander Tartar,” Enker said as he walked up to him. “But I am concerned about the first step of the plan. Even if you do have the body of ‘Mega Man V’, I’m worried that you may not survive a clash with X. Quint was defeated by Mega Man the first time around, and X is far more powerful than he was.”

Tartar chuckled, shaking his head. “Quint was just used as a blunt instrument by Wily without properly taking advantage of what Mega Man’s true strengths were. I won’t make the same mistake. Besides, I’m not fighting to win. The crux of our strategy will depend on your two teams succeeding in your mission.”

“You underestimate us, Tartar. We’re not like those meagre Robot Masters who failed to bring down a couple of cephalopods,” Enker snorted. “We will get the job done, without question. I can promise you that.”

“Then you better be able to back up your promises more readily than those Robot Masters did, because they’re now sleeping at the bottom of the ocean,” said Tartar as he glanced at Enker. “Triple-check our preparations. I want to make sure absolutely nothing goes wrong outside of our control.”

“A prudent decision, Commander. It shall be done,” Enker nodded as he walked away.

Tartar nodded, and continued overseeing operations. The time was soon at hand, and that everything would be right again.

This timeline is completely wrong… It has to be corrected.

Tartar blinked. Where did that thought come from? Sure, the notion wasn’t wrong, but it’s not like the past could be changed. Even Wily couldn’t pull that off. He had tried to recreate the Time Skimmer as a special weapon and give it to Quint, but it simply didn’t work.

All that could be done was to steer the future in the right direction. And only he knew the right way to do so… No matter how many lives were trampled upon.

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