Chapter 5: Intermission 1: A Quick Battle in the Deepsea Metro

Seven watched the dispenser assemble around him as a holographic interface formed in front of him, giving a selection of three weapons. The test description implied he was fighting a singular opponent, so he decided to go with the Dark Tetra Dualies. He always felt he had an affinity for Dualies, even if he also felt he was pretty good with any other weapon type. It was one of the few things he hadn’t forgotten.

Seven had woken up alongside Eight in this strange, dark metro system, with only the old Captain Cuttlefish for company. Of course, Seven and Eight weren’t their actual names, but since they had somehow lost their memories, due to circumstance, those were the best they could come up with for the time being. After a bit of exploring, they had encountered a strange telephone that seemed to be an interface for an AI, which had told them that if they passed a series of tests and collected a bunch of “thangs”, they would be able to ascend to the “promised land”. They figured that meant the surface, and considering they were lacking in other options, they decided to go along with it. And as it happened, they weren’t entirely without help, as they were in regular contact with two people from the surface, Pearl and Marina. The latter was a familiar name to Seven at this point, though only vaguely.

Unfortunately, the three of them didn’t realise how many tests there would be. They had split up to cover more ground, but even that only helped so much.

He ended up paying the toll, and went through the gates with his twin weapons in hand. A respawn point and a launch-pad awaited before him, leaving him with no way back unless he was splatted or triumphed. The pad indicated that he only had three ‘lives’ before he had to restart the test.

He sighed, and launched himself to the arena. It was large, and a few big cubes were around for cover.

“So you’re the little octopus I was told was coming to fight me,” spoke a male voice, coming from a figure standing on the cube in the centre, arms crossed. “I was told you were pretty good, which was why I was woken up.”

Seven stared up at the figure, noting that he wasn’t an Inkling or an Octoling - he sorta looked like either, and yet different. He wore distinct red, yellow and black armour, with a large crescent on his helmet, and what looked like some kind of launcher on his right arm. He was also pretty tall.

“Hold on, that’s not an Octarian… Who or what is that?” Marina wondered in Seven’s communicator.

Seven frowned, Dualies ready, “and you are?”

As Quick Man leaped off the cube, he fired a trio of boomerangs from his arm launcher. Seven did three consecutive dodges, firing back with the Dualies, though the last boomerang cut through his arm, causing him to wince. Those things were sharp… And painful!

“YIKES! Keep away from those things, Seven!” Pearl said.

Quick Man twisted in midair, but he was still splattered with ink. He took off at a run immediately after, firing more boomerangs, “you Octolings aren’t half bad after all, I see! I might actually get a decent challenge for once!”

Seven sprayed the ground around him with ink, switching to octopus form to evade the incoming projectiles, retreating as he began switching forms and spraying everything around him. He needed to cover as much ground as possible if he was going to be able to fully use his abilities.

“Okay, I see what you’re up to! Smart. But I’m not gonna give you an inch!” Quick Man was in hot pursuit. Seven had never seen anyone move so quickly just on foot.

Seven was swimming and leaping as he scattered ink across the battlefield. His attempts to evade the incoming projectiles were mixed at best, and he wasn’t sure he could take many more hits. He took note of how Quick Man didn’t seem to even be slowed by the ink. He’d have to try and finish this quickly, then.

Seven suddenly performed an Octo Roll back towards his opponent, spinning in the air to evade multiple incoming boomerangs as he popped back into Ocotling form and sprayed Quick Man with a barrage of ink at point-blank range. “Gotcha!”

Quick Man just grinned, only briefly staggered, and just kept shooting.

Seven rolled to the side, but his opponent was ready for that this time, and he caught a boomerang right to the chest, causing him to explode into ink.

The Octoling boy panted as he reformed back at the respawn point. That should’ve been enough to take him out, surely. How sturdy was this guy?

He launched himself back into the arena. Quick Man laughed, standing there, not much worse for wear. “You’re gonna have to do more than that to take me down. I’m not some weak fleshbag like you. I’m robot designed for combat. And unluckily for you, I’m the strongest robot there is. One life down, two left. Let’s see if you can hold out long enough.”

“That explains why he’s so durable… Are ink-based weapons even going to be enough to-hold on, wait, I’ve got a reading on his systems… Your ink is draining his energy. Hit him enough times and he’ll completely shut down!” Marina said.

Seven chuckled, gripping his Dualies, “alright, then, I’ll show you what I’m really made of, pal.”

He dashed right for Quick Man, performing quick rolls to evade incoming boomerang blades as he continuously fired. Right before Quick Man had him dead to rights, he suddenly transformed into octopus form, sliding right between his opponent’s legs, leaving a little ‘gift’ in the process, and immediately transforming back, sliding on his back across the ink as he blasted Quick Man repeatedly in the back.

“Ugh, you cheeky little-” Quick Man turned around, but immediately noticed the Autobomb about to explode right at his feet. His attempt to leap away only mitigated the resulting damage, causing him to tumble across the ink before he got back on his feet. He suddenly took out a significantly larger boomerang, brandishing it like a blade with his left hand. “Alright, now you’re getting me excited, kid. I’ll have to actually stop holding back.”

Seven and Quick Man began a dance of death, dodging and countering each other’s attacks in quick succession. But Seven realized that he couldn’t keep this up for long - Quick Man was taking damage, and Seven couldn’t take as many cuts by comparison. Each hit just brought him closer to losing his second life.

So he started darting around cover, blasting his opponent with ink when he came around before taking cover once more.

But this didn’t last either. On the fifth try of this tactic, Seven heard something land right behind him, and he spun around, only to be impaled right through the chest with the large boomerang, and exploded.

Quick Man was laughing again when Seven returned to the arena. “One last life, little octopus! It’s been fun, but I think it’s high time we end this.”

Seven took a deep breath… And sped away in Octopus form, dashing behind one of the larger cubes, and spraying his surroundings with ink. He then flattened himself against the wall, and focused on controlling the ink around him.

You are reading story Inky Future at novel35.com

“You can’t run and hide from me!” Quick Man yelled from the other side. Seven heard him leap up and over, as the young Octoling covered himself in a layer of ink, perfectly camouflaging himself against the wall, as he performed a secondary morph behind it.

The other thing Seven remembered was that he was descended from a species of Mimic Ocotpus. Most Octarians had mostly lost their ability to camouflage, but some Octoling families could not only consciously do so, but also control their bodies to a degree and the ink around them to solidify to allow them to take on disguises and mimic various forms. Seven formed a layer of ink that he could see through, hoping it would protect him for just long enough, as he dropped something onto the ground.

“GOTCHA NOW!” Quick Man laughed as he bombarded the floor and wall with boomerangs, only to realize that he was unable to stop himself from landing right on top of another Autobomb, which exploded right in his face. He snarled, looking around as he tried to find his target, “where the hell did you go, you cowardly little-”

Seven bit his lower lip, feeling the pain from multiple boomerangs slicing into his flesh, but fortunately the ink layer had blunted the impacts enough. When Quick Man had his back to him, Seven dropped the makeshift ink layer and immediately blasted him in the back with the Dualies.

“GAH! How did you…?!” Quick Man spun around, striking with the blade. His eyes widened the moment he saw that Seven had somehow taken on Quick Man’s own form.

Seven leaped right over the strike before it hit, using the longer, more powerful legs, doing a somersault as he bombarded Quick Man with ink. Unfortunately he completely fumbled the landing, landing on his back painfully as he continued to fire until he was out of ink.

Quick Man slumped over against the wall, looking back at Seven as the disguise melted away. “That’s a pretty cool trick you have there. You’re… Pretty good, for a meatbag…”

The lights in his eyes went out, and he collapsed, completely deactivated.

“HOLY CARP! I was seriously holding my breath for a few minutes there!” Pearl gasped. “You weren’t kidding about being a Mimic Octopus!”

“Are you sure you can get back to the station by yourself, Seven? The train is on its way,” Marina asked.

“Yeah… Just gimmie a mo,” Seven groaned.

❖

He had taken the large boomerang for himself, figuring he might as well have an additional trophy after that mess. Maybe he should make a sheath for it, it was pretty sharp, how Quick Man actually held it properly was beyond him.

He took the Mem Cake and recorded the points added to his CQ-80. It took a few minutes for the train to arrive, but he stumbled aboard.

“SEVEN! Holy carp, are you okay?!” Eight rushed to his side, keeping him upright. Seems she had been through a rough test as well, judging from the bruises. “That test must’ve been really rough!”

Eight was his companion in this dark metro, and someone who could keep his spirits up when things felt hopeless, which he was not remotely short on gratitude for. She was a light-skinned, green-eyed girl with a variation of the ‘tentacurl’ hairstyle, with her two back tentacles being significantly larger and partially tied back with a blue hair tie with yellow spots.

“Fought a guy claiming to be a robot… Quick Man, his name was. He wasn’t that tough,” Seven tried to fake a smile through the pain. “Though his boomerangs hurt. A lot.”

“Looks like we both fought robotic enemies,” Eight said, guiding him over to one of the seats. “Fought a guy calling himself ‘Air Man’. Boasted about being unbeatable and such. I shut him up when I plugged up his fans with too much ink.”

“They’re definitely serious about making us prove we’re worthy of reaching this ‘promised land’,” Seven groaned, sitting down. Eight started spraying him with a medicinal spray kindly provided by the train’s conductor for post-test healing.

“Welcome back, Agent 7,” spoke the elderly Inkling approaching them. Captain Cuttlefish looked the boy over, “that’s not the work of Octarian weaponry, that’s for sure. You said you fought a ‘Quick Man’, correct?”

“Yeah, even took a picture of him,” Seven said, showing him using the CQ-80.

Cuttlefish stroked his beard in thought. “That form, that technology… That’s human, alright. Did Kamabo Corp get their hands on some ancient lost human technology…? I guess that doesn’t matter right now.”

“Human technology, huh…? I can’t help but think there’s a lot of technology down there that isn’t made by Inklings or Octarians,” Marina said. “I’m seriously wondering who or what Kamabo even is.”

“You two should rest, you guys look absolutely pooped after all that,” Pearl said. “Like, not gonna lie, those fights were kinda scary.”

“If only I could get this weapon to work,” Eight frowned, holding the weapon she had on her belt. It wasn’t a ranged weapon, but it needed to be extended before it could be properly used. “I know I used to use it, but I can’t remember what it was or how I used it before…”

“Well, at any rate, get some rest, you two,” Cuttlefish said. “We’ve still got days ahead of us at the very least before we finally collect all four ‘Thangs’.”

Seven was glad that there was free food and drinks for passengers, and the central station had a side-area where they could sleep. Still, enduring all of these tests was a trial in and of itself.

But he wasn’t going to give up. The surface was in sight, and all he had to do was push forward.

You can find story with these keywords: Inky Future, Read Inky Future, Inky Future novel, Inky Future book, Inky Future story, Inky Future full, Inky Future Latest Chapter