Chapter 25: Chapter 20: Hostile Takeover (Epilogue)

Artemis sighed as she sat down at a table in the Square after her team had finished a round of ink battles. “Man, we sure made up for lost time after yesterday was a mess.”

“I mean, sure, it was crazy, but it was also the coolest thing ever!” Hinata said, as she, Karlene and Iris sat down as well. “It was like something out of a comic book!”

“More like a messy comic book crossover event,” Karlene pointed out.

Artemis nodded, looking over towards the robots cleaning up the damage they caused, “at least it’s over, and the bots are making up for what happened.”

Iris sighed, “being blended was… Not fun in the least. I’m honestly glad I barely remember any of it.”

Artemis shuddered at the thought of it. While the end result had backfired on Tartar, Artemis knew she was going to have nightmares of it for a long time. The experience had been quick, but… Painful. She dared not willingly recollect any more than that.

Karlene noted, “by the way, have you noticed all the new posters being put up?”

Artemis blinked. “No, wasn’t really paying attention to that, why?”

“Because I’m pretty sure the characters on them are-”

Suddenly, they were approached by the team they just fought - Artemis remembered Orion’s team fought them the other day as well. Double-Bun smiled, “hey, that was a good match! Also, we saw what happened yesterday. That looked scary.”

“It was a harrowing experience for everyone, yes,” Iris nodded.

The Dualies user grinned, “yeah, but it was one shell of a show! So when’s the movie coming out?”

Artemis was now very confused. “Wait, what mov-”

Karlene immediately grabbed her and pulled her, Hinata and Iris together in a huddle, whispering, “shush! They think that was a publicity stunt for a movie starring us!”

Oh, that made sense.

Wait.

WHAT.

❖

“Yeah, I was gonna tell you, but Callie and I were busy,” Marie said matter-of-factly. “The government managed to fool everyone somehow by contracting some movie studio to hastily announce a series of films dramatising the adventures of the New Squidbeak Splatoon.”

Callie giggled, “yeah, they’ve actually been mulling over the idea for a bit. Basically they’re trying to convince the public the story is too ridiculous to be true - I mean, what’s more likely, that the Squid Sisters are secret agents and Off The Hook just happened to get involved in an effort to save the world, or they’re just cast in those roles in a bunch of films as themselves? I’m already an actress!”

The whole Splatoon (plus Off The Hook and Ciel) were gathered at Tentakeel Outpost once the junior agents had decided to try and find out what was going on in regards to the movies that were announced basically almost out of nowhere.

“So are we gonna be acting the parts, or is someone else gonna be acting as us?” Artemis asked. She dreaded the idea of having to recreate some of the most harrowing experiences of her life on set.

“Actually, no,” Dr. Light interjected. “In fact, I’m going to be handling the ‘filming’. In this state, it’s actually rather easy for me to engineer lifelike reconstructions of events, especially with assistance from hacked Octarian and Kamabo Corp security data, and donated memories from X and Zero. For the first film, Ethan and Ayane are also volunteering some of their memories for the reconstruction as well for the first film. But I intend to modify the ‘footage’ to make it more dramatic and film-like.”

“Also, there’s a second reason why they’re doing this,” Marina noted, “the films are going to put a spotlight on the conditions the Octarians are living in and how the Octolings left everything behind to seek a better life in Inkopolis. Sure, it’s dramatised, but the government wants the Inklings to feel sympathy towards the Octarians so when everyone figures out the Octolings aren’t just Inklings with unusual hairstyles, they’ll more easily accept them.”

Axl smiled, “okay, that’s actually pretty clever, not gonna lie.”

“And we get to be on the silver screen for no extra effort! Bonus!” Liam grinned. Though something in his head seemed to immediately strike him. “We’re not gonna get royalties though, are we…?”

“We’ll see, but don’t get your hopes up,” Pearl chuckled.

“Good grief, this whole nonsense about time travel is really throwing me for a loop. I actually remember seeing Quint and Leviathan interrupting my battle with Octavio at Arowana Castle,” Cap’n Cuttlefish remarked. “Good times!”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Octavio groaned, rubbing his temples. “Makes my head hurt thinking about it.”

“Wait, you went back to the Great Turf War?!” Koji grinned, looking at Orion, “what was it like?”

“We barely saw any of it,” Orion laughed sheepishly. “We did briefly see the Cap’n and Octavio when they were young, but…”

“Octavio was in Octoling form,” Ethan grinned. “Why do you stay in swim form like that, you big grump?”

Octavio cleared his throat, looking flustered, “none of your dang business.”

Artemis noticed that X was just looking out into the distance. She got up from her chair, walking over to him. “You okay?”

“Not really. Got a few things on my mind.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

X took a deep breath. “I do understand why Quint was so desperate to change the past,” X frowned. “I didn’t want to think about it at all ever since I woke up, because it was something I couldn’t have changed even if I wanted to, but… Humankind is gone, as far as anyone knows. This world has lost so much biodiversity and civilisation. Imagine humans walking alongside the uplifted sea creatures in harmony. We literally just fought alongside a couple of humans yesterday - Geo and Sonia. And then there was Lan and Mayl supporting us…”

“Oh, yeah, you’re right,” Artemis blinked. She hadn’t thought about it but wow only yesterday she had fought alongside actual humans. That was a mind-blower.

Their conversation seemed to attract everyone else’s attention. Koji smacked his forehead, “DANG IT! I can’t believe I didn’t realise it! We’re the first people in thousands of years to meet living, breathing humans!”

“X, why are you worrying about it? As you said, there’s no point making yourself miserable over it, it wasn’t your fault nor could you have done anything,” Karlene asked.

X crossed his arms, “I’m not worrying about it, but… Well, to put it mildly, it’s a massive bummer.”

“Not the words I’d use, but, yeah, you’re right,” Zero said. “No wonder you’d rather not think about it.”

“And secondly… I lost control of myself when I thought I’d lost you guys,” X admitted. “I took sick pleasure in making Tartar suffer, just to make him pay. I should be better than that.”

Dr. Light was the one to speak up, “you’re not a god, X. It’s only natural that you lost control of yourself over in your grief. In fact… Rock would sympathise, if he were here.”

Artemis and X both turned to him. Artemis blinked, “what do you mean by that, doc?”

Dr. Light loaded up a holographic video feed, “because once upon a time, Mega Man nearly killed Dr. Wily in anger.”

“What?! That would’ve violated the First Law!” X’s eyes widened.

“At the time, Dr. Wily was messing around with ‘Evil Energy’,” Dr. Light explained. “This resulted in chaos around the world, and on top of that, the evil robot that Duo had been pursuing and had destroyed was accidentally resurrected because of Albert’s foolishness. Mega Man successfully destroyed it, but when he confronted Wily over it, the combination of his anger over Wily endangering the whole world and the evil energy exposure caused him to consider extreme measures…”

❖

A long time ago, in 20XX…

Mega Man strode towards the cowering Dr. Wily, back to begging as usual. “Wait, Rock, don’t be angry at me, please! I didn’t know that would happen!”

“That’s no excuse, Wily! You put the whole world in danger because of your own stupid ambitions!” Mega Man snapped, his arm forming a buster. “I’ve had enough.”

Wily’s eyes widened, and he scrambled back in panic, “wait, Mega Man, we’ve been through this already! You can’t hurt me, that would violate the First Law!”

“You forgot about the Zeroth Law, Wily,” Mega Man said coldly. “The Three Laws can be overridden if the safety of humanity itself is at stake.”

“You can’t be serious! I don’t want to destroy humanity, I just want to-”

“-you’re so desperate to realise your ambition that you’re willing to take stupid risks like that again. I know you are. I don’t trust you to value humanity’s safety over trying to get the recognition you want. And putting you in jail clearly doesn’t work, you’ll just bust out again somehow,” Mega Man snapped again, his buster charging up. “No more. I’m done letting you get away with putting people in harm’s way. There’s only one way to put an end to this permanently.”

He raised his buster at Wily’s head.

Mere moments away from pulling the trigger, someone yanked his arm away. It was Duo. “Mega Man, stop. This is not like you. This is not justice.”

“NOT JUSTICE?!” Mega Man roared, struggling with his grip, “You’re just gonna let Wily walk away and let him potentially destroy everything?!”

He formed his buster on his other hand, but before he could aim, Proto Man grabbed it. He was so angry he hadn’t even noticed both of them were there. “Rock, that’s enough. You’re being influenced by the Evil Energy. Think about what you’re doing!”

“Proto Man… Why-”

“I hate to say it, but they’ve got a point. It’s not like you, Mega Man.”

Bass teleported in, in front of Wily. Treble was right beside the doctor.

Mega Man had seen this before. Something snapped in him.

He furiously broke out of both Duo and Proto Man’s grips, and charged Bass, firing off the charged shot, “GET OUT OF MY WAY, BASS!”

Bass intercepted it with his own charged shot, and as Mega Man got closer he threw a punch, but Bass side-stepped it and Mega Man was pinned to the floor in a swift grapple. Bass sighed, holding him down. “You’re not even thinking straight. That would never have worked so easily on you before. I’m honestly disappointed. Treble, get the old man outta here.”

“No, Bass, wait-“ Wily spoke, before Treble teleported out with him.

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“NO!” Mega Man cried out, gritting his teeth as he struggled, but it was too late.

Bass let him go, walking away. He stopped, looking over his shoulder. “Rage doesn’t suit you, Rock. That’s not where your strength comes from.” He then teleported out.

Mega Man was helped back to his feet, as he felt Duo’s energy flow through him. He felt the Evil Energy being purged from his systems.

He could think clearly again. And he was aghast at what he had nearly done. “Oh… Oh no… I almost-”

“Your reasoning wasn’t incorrect, but you are not judge, jury and executioner. You reminded me of that yourself, Mega Man,” Duo said soothingly, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Sometimes we lose our way. But that’s why we have friends to lead us back onto the right path.”

Proto Man nodded. “You were right to be angry, but you can’t think straight when you’re consumed by anger. Besides… Even people would be happy if Wily was gone, how do you think they’d feel about a robot able to kill anyone considered a threat to humanity, no matter the tenuous reasoning?”

Mega Man had one more thought on his mind that deeply ashamed him. “How am I going to tell Dr. Light…?”

❖

“When he told me, the poor boy was a sobbing wreck,” Dr. Light sighed, stopping the video. “But I simply told him to be more mindful of his anger, and to think twice before considering such drastic actions. I consider myself a man of peace, but I know force is sometimes required to stop those who would do others harm.”

“As much as I don’t like to admit it, you’re right. To stand by and do nothing in the face of evil when you can do something about it, is to be just as culpable,” Ciel nodded.

“Geez, he must’ve been hating himself for that for a while,” Zero shook his head.

Artemis was shocked at seeing Mega Man at one of his lowest points. Poor kid must’ve been miserable after that.

“I suppose the lesson here is that, well, nobody’s perfect, we slip sometimes and that’s nothing to be all that ashamed off as long as we try to do better,” Orion summarised.

Dr. Light nodded, “correct.”

Artemis turned to X, taking his hands. “X, if something ever happens to us… Please, don’t lose yourself. Don’t ever lose that kindness of yours. None of us would ever want that. Because, well… You wouldn’t be you anymore.”

“One of these days, we’re not gonna be around anymore. Just a fact of life. You’re a robot, we’re just mortal living beings,” Ethan smiled softly. “When that happens, just keep striving to make this world a better place.”

Everyone else nodded in agreement. As X and Artemis looked around at the smiling faces around them, Artemis noticed X’s mood improve significantly. “Thank you, everyone. I promise to remember that.”

Artemis’s heart swelled. She always did like seeing other people being happy, but close friends in particular being happy brought a lot of joy to her life. And if there was anyone who deserved to be happy, it was X.

Though she noticed one person didn’t look so happy. Iris, despite her smile, looked troubled. “Hey, Iris, you okay?”

“All of this reminded me of something… When we were Leviathan… I think we killed a human being during our journey through time,” Iris frowned. “Remember, Dr. Weil, on that space station?”

“Oh, right, the dude who was plugged into that space station who the other Zero said was sending on a collision course with Earth,” Ayane said. “Zero said if we didn’t stop him, a lot of people would die. And the only way to blow the whole thing up safely, well…”

Ciel winced. “Oh dear! That must’ve been… Unpleasant.”

“It sounds like was essentially performing a suicide bombing on a mass scale,” Dr. Light sighed. “If that was your only option, then nobody would blame you for stopping him with lethal force.”

“Dr. Weil was a monster beyond compare. Putting him down was for the best - it was either him, or thousands of innocent people.”

A time portal appeared near them, as two figures emerged - the first was OVER-1. The second was a human girl who Artemis realised was around her age - and she was beautiful. Long wavy blonde hair, green eyes, a lovely turquoise coat and black mittens, along with round blue earrings and some kind of black fur cap.

OVER-1 nodded, “sorry for the intrusion, we’ll be out of your hair soon. We’d like to report that everything’s been sorted out, don’t worry about any loose ends.”

“Hello everyone. I’m Kalinka Cossack, daughter of Dr. Cossack, and I’m a navigator for the Chronos Corps,” the girl smiled. “I just wanted to take this brief chance to meet all of you in person before we part ways for good.”

“I suppose you’re doing your part as well, Kalinka. You grow up to be a beautiful young woman in every timeline, I see,” Dr. Light smiled.

“Humans are real!” Marina squealed in delight. She then recomposed herself. Almost everyone else was just gobsmacked. “It’s a pleasure, Miss Cossack.”

“Likewise, Marina.” Kalinka sighed, “I wish we could socialise more, but it isn’t to be.”

“Aw, can’t we be friends? Surely you can just pop in from time to time,” Hinata asked.

“I wish it were that simple, but no,” Kalinka frowned. “Different timelines shouldn’t be mixing like this for too long. I’m sorry.”

X walked over to her, smiling, “well, it was nice to meet you all the same.”

Kalinka blushed, “you’re just as handsome as your brother… You Light robots can’t help but play with a maiden’s heart, can you?”

X laughed sheepishly, “hey, it’s not like I mean to…”

Artemis was mulling over something that had occurred to her that drew her curiosity. “Excuse me! Before you go… Can I feel your hands?” Artemis asked. “I mean, I hope I don’t come off too weird-”

Kalinka giggled, taking off her mittens, showing her delicate hands to her. “I already knew you’d ask me that, Artemis. And I know why, even if you don’t know the reason yourself.”

Artemis put aside the question of what that meant, and felt her hand and those slender fingers. The unique texture and look fascinated her, her fingernails, feeling her bones, seeing the blood vessels barely visible under the skin… It wasn’t the hand itself she was interested in, but, well, it was the least weird part she could examine, really. But being the first Inkling to be up close and personal with a human was exhilarating.

When she was satisfied, she let go and took a step back, “done!” She noticed her friends were giving her curious looks. “What?! Might be the only time I’ll ever have to see a human up close!”

“Well… Who knows what the future might hold. Maybe there’s a sleeping princess out there waiting to be rescued,” Kalinka smiled.

“Kalinka, our time’s up,” OVER-1 said, though even he seemed regretful that they couldn’t stay, based on his tone and frown.

“R-Right… Farewell, everyone. I hope the future bodes well for all of you,” Kalinka waved, wiping away tears as she and OVER-1 disappeared into the portal.

Silence reigned over the Outpost for several seconds.

“Yeesh. That was bittersweet,” Marie lamented.

Artemis couldn’t help but agree. Maybe one day they might cross paths a human again, but… Well, who knew what the future held for them?

❖

“It’s finally time to move in to our new apartment,” X chuckled, as he stepped out the door.

Callie honestly was sad to see him and Zero, even if she knew they were only a couple of floors down. It was just fun having them around. “Well you can visit as much as you like!”

Zero winked to her, “sure, I’ll consider that an invitation.”

“Don’t go too overboard, I really don’t care for whatever smooching sessions you two want to do,” Marie snorted. “I just want to fully reconnect with Callie. I don’t want to drift apart from her like that ever again.”

X smiled, “well, I hope that works out.”

“We’ve been re-evaluating our work schedules, because the stress of working solo was just… Getting to me,” Callie sighed. “Between the fame and being stretched between multiple things, I think it’d be good for me to just cut back on stuff I’m working on.”

Zero smiled, “too much stress isn’t good for your well-being, so that’s a good call.”

“We’ll sort that out. Go on, get acclimated to your new place already,” Marie smiled. “We’ll have plenty of time to hang out.”

“Okay, sounds good. Seeya,” X smiled, as he and Zero left.

As Marie shut the door, a switch suddenly flipped in Callie’s head. This was perfect. Now that the boys were gone… “Hey, Marie, now that it’s just us, I’ve got a little surprise for you.”

Marie blinked, and then chuckled, “okay, I’ll play along…”

“Just sit on the couch and and close your eyes. Don’t open them until I tell you to~!” Callie grinned, as she headed for her room.

Fortunately, Marie just shrugged and went to the couch, doing as she said.

Callie went into her room and pulled out a box she was hiding in her closet. Inside was the spare hypnoshades that Master Octavio instructed her to keep safe. She also had the mixtape on her phone, disguised as some innocuous sound file. She made sure the wireless headphones were charged, and took her phone, the headphones and the shades back to the living room.

She put the headphones over Marie’s ears, put the hypnoshades on her face as well before turning them on, and then grinned, “you can open them now~!”

“Okay, what are you up to, Cal…” Marie opened her eyes. Her eyes widened as she realised what she was wearing. “Wait, aren’t… These…?” Before she could do anything, her eyes became unfocused as she fell into a trance, the shades swiftly doing their work.

Callie gleefully set the mixtape to start playing. Now to wait for the conditioning to do its work.

She did her own thing for about an hour before coming back to check on Marie. She was very happy with the results - Marie looked blissfully entranced, with a dumb smile as she mindlessly repeated the commands she was listening to. “I am Master Octavio’s slave… Inklings are inferior…”

This was a long-term plan, of course. It would take months before Marie was without a doubt completely subservient to Octavio without the need for the shades - until then she was best served as a sleeper agent like Callie herself. Callie was planning on putting herself through the mental conditioning process further to ensure she couldn’t be reverted back to her previous mental state again.

Step one of the plan was now a success, and everyone else was none the wiser.