It took Marie a while to drag Axel's bloodstained body across the rough ground and into the truck. Once there she was faced with a new issue. Edge's leg was still an open wound. He could not fully stop the bleeding, and had stuffed his shirt into the cut to staunch the flow. Axel on the other hand was already out from blood loss and couldn't afford to lose much more. But he had many torso wounds that could not be stopped by any means. So Marie told Shelldon to floor it for the humans.

"You got it." He said, flooring the gas. Fortunately he had a good reaction time, but his driving display would not be leaving him with a license if the officials were out there.

On the way, Agent 4 saw the van and the agents turned to follow it on foot.

Back at the camp Shelly and Colt were strapped up to a simple machine keeping their missing arms from bleeding further. The arms themselves were not salvageable.
Shelldon soon arrived and Marie ran out to find someone to get Edge and Axel inside as soon as possible. If she had to pull them again someone wouldn't make it.

Several doctors ran out and were able to carry Axel, albeit with a bit of struggle. Edge meanwhile was able to be carried by Marie. After dropping him off, she got back into the truck to take Pearl and Marina to the inkling hospital, because they didn't need any weird intensive care business.

The agents arrived as soon as they could, which was hardly soon. The humans had set up a checkpoint that took ages to get clearance, simply because the guard neglected to wear a translator and didn't know sign language. When they finally got to the hospital, they were already worried but the state everyone was in was completely beyond their expectations.

Agent 8 was worried about everything in general.

"3, are they ok?" She asked.

"No... But I'm sure they will be!" Agent 3 put on a brave face for her best friend. "The doctors are very smart."

Meanwhile agent 4 took the brutal route and asked a doctor directly how it looked.

"Well, big guy is going to be fine, but profuse bleeding is nothing you can shake off. But those other three? One has a gash in his leg as long as my arm, and if he had bones you could easily see them. And the other two both lost an arm. We have only one option to save them, but it won't be the most pretty." The doctor explained, while watching heart monitors.

"What is it?" 4 asked.

"Well, here's the thing. All of em have a limb that is done for. You may have regeneration that I don't know about, but all of them have borderline bled out. There's simply no time to heal naturally, if that's even a thing you can do." The doctor said. "We have to make a mechanical or at least prosthetic substitute. And prosthetics aren't very useful in terms of functionality."

Agent 4 could fill in the blank.

"So they get robot parts. What's that gonna do?" He asked.

"It's not that simple. If you ever talked in depth to Axel, he would tell you all cyborgs have a special substance that basically stops aging entirely." The doctor said. "They will not get any bigger, or do any aging at all really. All cyborgs are several thousand years old, we just clean and replace broken parts. All of the blueprints are saved for this reason."

"They get to be immortal?" Agent 4 looked in awe.

"It's not all it's cracked out to be kid." The doctor said. "Immortality means you live forever. It also means you'll constantly lose relationships with anyone besides another cyborg, while being unable to die yourself. The cyborgs are trained to not care very much, but clearly Axel tossed that out the window. One basically has to live in social isolation to avoid heartbreak."

Agent 4 was silent.

"What if they don't want it?" He asked.

"Well, if we get advanced enough, we will find a way to regrow limbs fast. We already have the technology to extract the substance, but it has a very high fatality rate and isn't ideal. They will have to wait, or commit... Less desirable methods." The doctor said tiredly.

Agent 4 nodded. "Alright. Well, good luck. Save them, please."

He turned and left.

"Alright Macklemore. Get in here and administer that crap so we can get moving. The presses aren't holding as well as they should!" The doctor barked.

Macklemore hobbled in. "Certainly... Ah, Axel. I can't believe he's still alive."

He looked at Axel as he administered the substance.

"Such a fond memory. Such a successful experiment." He doted.

Axel cracked his eye.

"Ah. Mack. Here to ruin my other eye? Or just catch up?" He said sarcastically.

"Not today. I'll be leaving now, just had a simple job to do." Macklemore replied.

Axel looked left and saw the edge of Shelly's tentacle.

"You seriously when with that for them? Tell me you didn't go for the eyes this time." He groaned.

"Not for them. Only the pelvis, or whatever they call it." Macklemore said.

"Great. 3 cases of diarrhea while they adjust... Well, guess I'll be busy. Now if you'll excuse me..." Axel fainted again.

"Well he's still hardy as a bull." The doctor said as Macklemore left.

"Of course. I made him special. There was so much room for improvement after all." Macklemore said over his shoulder.

"Now to get the stuff in fast." The doctor turned back to his work. "Belarus, Sidna, Lee, Rachel, Nate, get in here and save some squids lives!"

3 hours later.

It took a while to just get robotic parts to stick. Considering none of the Inklings had an internal skeletal structure to work with, they all required creative thinking. Eventually, a brave that extended past the area for implantation was made to latch on to the Inklings skin, using their muscles to stay in place. With that attachment, and a different variant for Edge, all three limbs had been placed. Edge's lower leg and Shelly and Colt's arms.

The leg had proved a challenge as well. Because of the nature of the cut, some flesh had to be removed, and some of that grafted above the knee. The other route of chopping off the whole leg was hardly an option, due to Macklemores injection being too close, and the fact that no one wanted to go chopping off legs.

Axel cracked his eye again after the first 160 minutes and watched quietly.

"Done with the hard part." Nate said. "Now for mister celebrity here."

"That's a disgustingly bad nickname." Axel said dryly. "Please never call me that."

"You're awake? How!" Rachel asked.

"Hang on lemme un-awake for you." Axel passed out again, this time on purpose.

Everyone decided to ignore the happenings and do their job. A wise choice, there was a ton to fix. It took another 20 minutes, after the hour it took finding Axel's blueprints. The hard copy was gone because he didn't make it to space, but a backup file was found after intensive data mining.

With repairs done, all that was left to do was wait for them to wake up.

Edge furrowed his brow, and mumbled something in his blood loss induced sleep. The doctors had gotten a supply of ink to help by emptying everyone's ink tanks. They still needed to produce more, however. As for Axel's blood, it wasn't hard to find his blood type. He was the universal receiver. AB+.

Axel open his eye. "Now hang on did they follow the backup file exactly?" He asked.

"Um, yeah." The doctor said. "Why?"

"Those are all flawed in a few minor ways. I can fix it myself." Axel explained.

"How is yours flawed?" The doctor asked.

"I can't open my eye." Axel said. "Also it includes an ignition stone in my fingers, for a feature that wasn't implemented."

"Huh. I'll make that a note." The doctor said.

Groaning from Colt stopped the conversation.

"Why do I feel, feel?" He asked, exhausted.

"Define feel." Axel said.

"Like I'm, so much stronger, but so weak..." Colt said.

"Oh. It's best to explain to someone who isn't about to fall back asleep." Axel said.

Colt was already out cold again.

"Well, guess I'll wait here. Don't bother letting me down just yet..." Axel said.

2 hours later.

Ink production is a fast thing I Inklings, and it wasn't long before ink levels were back to a safe amount in the Inklings. Axel meanwhile had slept off and on, when also watching the doctor go about his work.

Edge was the first on to wake up properly.

"Aaug... My head." He complained. "What happened? Axel? Did we do it? Where are we?" He soon noticed he was strapped to some form of vertical table.

Axel was awake already.

"Oh. You're awake. Welcome to the land of not being dead." He said.

"What do you... Wait. That cut... What happened?" Edge asked frantically.

"See for yourself..." Axel said.

Edge looked down and saw the mechanical attachment on his leg.

"Now hold on. What is this? What's going on!" Edge panicked.

Axel held up his hand.

"The mad scientists decided to save you the only way they know how. You're immortal now, by the way. To an extent of course, like me." Axel said. "Mack was stupid with his injection, so expect loss of control over using the bathroom for a bit."

"Mack?" Edge asked.

"Am adult who made the substance that makes immortality. He used it on himself." Axel said. "He injected it into his left arm. It did damage that didn't heal, so he wears bandages on his arms now."

"Hm. What does the leg do?" Edge looked at it.

"Got me. I didn't get to see your blueprints myself, so you'll have to experiment." Axel said.

"Well first..." Edge said. "You may not mind being tied up, but I do."

"Go fast." Axel said. "I'll see any damages when you do."

"Damages?" Edge asked.

"That leg will not constitute mass to your squid form." Axel said.

Edge went squid form. Nothing was missing. However, he looked queasy when he reverted.

"Hm. If anything's missing it's internal." Axel said.

"That explains my stomach ache." Edge sat down.

Shelly woke up with the noise.

"Hmm? Hang on, what's this?" She asked, nervous.

Axel explained again. Shelly stayed strapped up, not willing to try squid form just yet.

"So the squad will live forever..." She said. "That's gonna be, interesting."

"Whole team or no one at all I guess. At least the other cyborgs and Mack will be familiar faces." Axel chuckled.

Colt woke up.

He decided to joke to relax the mood.

"Axel, I still feel feel. What's going on?" He joked.

Axel cracked his knuckles. He explained the situation a third time, but faster.

"Hm. Does that mean...?" He looked at Shelly.

"Ask the doctor. I prefer not to explore those books..." Axel said.

Colt nodded.

"So what now?" He asked.

"Well, turf war may be a hazard but I doubt it." Axel said. "Can you did form? Shelly won't, and an arm isn't a leg."

Colt left his straps too. When he reverted, he looked fine.

"Whatever an arm takes out is clearly minor." Axel noted. "I'd still die and Edge gets an upset gut for some reason, but you should be good Shelly."

Shelly left her straps too.

"Hey doc! Mind letting me down now?" Axel asked.

The doctor ran over. "Wheres the others?" He asked.

Axel pointed down. The doctor looked and saw all three sitting by the wall.

"I'll carry em home if they can be discharged." Axel said. "I've felt fine since the blood transfusion."

"Well, I can't give them a great diagnosis, but they appear ok if they can get out by themselves. Just take it easy for a while. It takes time to adjust." The doctor said, letting Axel down.

"Can do." Shelly said, falling asleep on the spot.

"Now that's a superpower." Axel joked. "Anyways, off we go..."

It took 20 minutes to get everyone back. Axel opted out of jumping directly to the balcony so no one was jostled around. Once they were safely tucked in bed, he went to his own room and gazed at the rising room from his balcony.

"I wonder what the future holds. It appears I misjudged the universes intent... Or I was right all along. Beat the team down so we come back so much stronger... But..." He mumbled, fixing his eye. "I feel as if nothing is expected to come anymore. Or at least for a long while. But some time off, is what that doc really should have ordered us..."

A loud crash was heard from Shelly and Colt's room. Colt ran up to Axel's room.

"Dude Shelly's arm just launched me out of bed... Is that normal?" He said, half asleep.

"I'd suggest sleeping on her other side until she gets proper control..." Axel said. "There's nothing I can do. It's all personal conditioning."

"I guess. You know, I don't really feel like feel anymore. I feel reborn, in a way. Like a Renaissance, but like, no art." Colt added.

"Well, in the grand scheme, you did come back to life. Anyways, it's bed time. Even I feel like sleeping right now..." Axel said.

Colt left. "That never happens." He said over his shoulder.

Axel chuckled. "A Renaissance huh? I guess. What a funny first thing to think of..."