While Axel spent an extensive amount of time recovering, Colt was smart enough to ask to borrow the ARC, for mission safely. Axel gave him it, and was left with his work. Meanwhile, Colt, Shelly, and Edge worked hard with agents 3,4, and 8 to reclaim the Zapfish. Or more accurately, easily took the Zapfish, but had to be carried through the great octoweapons. At the moment they were fighting the Octo Shower, which was a daunting task, as only one agent had a charger.

"C'mon, hold still dammit!" Agent 3 said in irritation.

The other Agents were all waiting for the Shower to fall. Agent 3 was having a hard time hitting, even with everyone else distracting the shower.

Agent 3 scored one hit, then another, before the shower jolted out of her line of sight again.

"3, it's going right over you!" Shelly yelled.

Colt deployed the respawn platform, just before agent 3 was hit by the shower. She respawned, shocked.

"I'm not..." She said.

"Nope, Axel lent me this boi. No one's dying on my watch!" Colt said.

Agent 3 decided being alive still was better off unquestioned. She scored the other hit easily, while the octocopter carrying the thing was stunned. The shower fell, and Colt splatted the tentacle in one shot. Then all 6 fighters scattered. 4 new copters came to grab the shower, but were splatted as soon as they grabbed it. The last 4 followed suit. With nothing to carry it, the shower just broke apart eventually. The tentacle couldn't heal because the entire machine was plugged by ink from the Arc shot.

"Well that was easy..." Agent 8 said, surprised.

"I like that line Axel said. 'Megalomaniacs are so predictable.' I totally get it." Agent 4 said. "I fought these guys myself."

"Yeah, I fought them too, but harder." Agent 8 said.

"I feel for you, but c'mon, there's only one guy left till Octavio!" Shelly said.

"I think we may want Axel for Octavio, considering how he was last time." Marie said over the comms. "And he never does the same thing twice... Well, never the exact same thing..."

Meanwhile at the hospital.

"Yeah, I can't believe how boredom helps spirit work. I wonder how the agents are doing." Axel said to himself. He had already made the special sniper, and was working on his new weapon. It was almost done.

"Then again, being awake all day and all night for 4 days while I recover may have something to do with it... Well, I think I'll be clear for release soon. And this time, they aren't getting then jump on me..." He said, putting the next part into place. "This is a finicky thing. I wonder what Pearl will think about a splat based special, instead of a turf based one..."

A nurse came in.

"Mr. Axel? I'm just here to check on the healing." She said.

"Very well." Axel put down the weapon. "Scan away." He turned into the position she would want to scan from.

A few scans later.

"The X Rays check out. You'll be clear for release tommorow. I envy your healing." The nurse said, leaving.

"Well that's nice. Just gotta let Callie know. I can't imagine how boring another week of hospitalization would be..." Axel thought to himself.

Back at the hideout.

"Guys! Axel just told me he'll be back tomorrow!" Callie said excitedly.

"That's great!" Colt said. "I can't wait to have the hazard machine back with us!"

"Heh." Laughed agent 8.

"Well, I wonder if he ever finished his weapon. I just realized we never visited." Shelly said.

"That's uh... Kinda mean, in a way." Agent 3 said.

"I don't think he'll take it personally." Said Edge. "He had his work, he was very happy with it."

"Well, I guess we fight Octavio tomorrow. Time to put in some last minute practice." Said Colt. "Because he is gonna want the meme machine back."

"Heh. Meme." Said Agent 8.

The next day.

"And do be careful!" The nurse told Axel as he left, carrying his new weapons. One was an extra long, thin barreled sniper with a silencer, air release vents, and a very unique sub and special, perfect for turning the tides. The other was a long scythe, with slots for the ink to come out of, like with the sword, but with compressed jet engines on both the back of the blade and the bottom of the pole, with curling bombs, and 2 specials, one based on coverage, the other on splats. Ink armor was the splat one, but it was the coverage one that was very scary. He ran towards the hideout, carrying the new weapons, named the Sput Shot and the Reaper, as well as the riptide, excited to show off his new danger machines.

Exactly 300000000000001 picoseconds into a realm of reality known as the future, as in, later in the time space continuum.

Axel landed in a perfect Olympic Y pose, in the roof of the shack. Is what would have happened had the roof not caved in when an extra 500 pounds or so fell on it.

"The shell!" Marie yelled.

"Just me... oof..." Axel called from the rubble.

"Can you not kill the roof please? Thanks." Marie said, minorly annoyed.

"My dude!" Colt said. "We missed you!"

"If you missed me so much why didn't you visit?" Axel said with a clearly fake pout.

"I'm sorry, k? We were busy." Said Edge.

"Here's the meme machine back." Said Colt, returning the ARC. "And if I am not mistaken, those are the new weapons? They look... Unique to say the least."

"Yep!" Said Axel. "First is the sniper I talked about. I call it the Sput Shot. Yes, I tested both weapons on the way over here. The Sput Shot is like a charger, but it makes no noise, and no trail. It only leaves ink where I am, and where I hit. The sub is called a magnet node. It lets me lie down on walls or ceilings, to hide from lurking enemies. And the special is Sentry Guns. It looks like tenta missiles, but it places 2 sentry turrets instead. Like the ARC, the same stacks, and the turrets add to my special gauge once placed. They last until they are hit from behind."

"That's crazy op." Said Edge.

"The other?" Asked Callie, intrigued.

"This is the Reaper." Axel said, hoisting the scythe. "In terms of functionality, it acts like the sword when inking, but leaves less ink. However, everytime I swing, the Reaper propels me forward a few strides, even in midair. And I swing fast. The sub is curling bombs, but I can use the scythe to bat them to places they can't normally go. And it has 2 different specials. One for covering turf, and one for getting splats. The splat based one is just ink armor, but the other special is a bit... Op."

"Oh boy." Said Edge.

"What's it do?" Asked Shelly.

"Once I cover enough turf, which takes a long time, it's called shutdown. Nothing fancy, I just insta splat all opponents in my view." Axel said.

"Yeah that's not op at aaallllll." Said Edge.

"Good to have you back." Said Agent 3. "They've been waiting to take out Octavio until you got better."

"Well, I also packed new gear. Let's see what that pushover has in store this time..." Axel said.

"That's the spirit!" Marie said.

"I can't actually carry these 4, they are heavy. So I'm gonna leave the Riptide and Sput Shot here for now. Actually... No I'll just leave the riptide. Gotta make use of multiple subs." Axel said.

"Well, let's go smack this boi." Said Shelly.

"I also brought one more trick." Said Axel, showing a bucket of soap.

"For what?" Asked Callie, confused.

"If I dump it on the ground, I can hit that spot repeatedly. Thus, building up many specials with the ARC. And I brought planks of wood to attach each spawn point to, so I can carry them." Axel explained.

"Why am I not surprised you'd find an exploit to your own weapon..." Edge mumbled.

"Well, go. Octavio awaits!" Said Marie.

Agents 3,4, and 8 stayed.

"I think they need bonding time. And it's not real a competition with Axel back from the dead." Said agent 3.

"Can't hurt..." Said Agent 8. "Scary..."

Agent 4 just wanted an excuse to sleep for more than 5 hours.

Later, at Octavio's kettle.

"Well, time to smack his octo butt." Said Shelly. Everyone jumped.

Upon landing, Axel immediately fell prone, rolled, and rocket punch jumped to a wall, where he stuck with a magnet node. His squad spread out, and Colt shouted "hey trashcan! We're back, to send you back to your hole!"

No response. Unless the floor falling away was a reply. The octobot king V3 awaited them.

"You worms had your fun last time, but now you don't have that tin can to save you! Grahaha!"

"We don't need a metal man to kick tour sorry butt Octavio!" Shelly yelled.

Axel was crawling on the ceiling, right above Octavio. He had all his specials charged, and several spawn pads hidden in nooks and crannies around the stadium. He prepared his combo.

"You puny ink stains have no power without those special weapon crutches!" Octavio responded, like a child.

"Well, I can't say you're wrong, but aren't you even more useless without your big fancy robot and large army of hypnotized followers?" Edge yelled.

That was the cue, the some extent. Octavio was too angry to focus on a surprise now.

"You damn worm! I'll tear you apart first!" He yelled incoherently.

Axel dropped the Sentries, facing Octavio. He didn't notice until they were right there.

"Gah! What is this?" He shouted.

He pumped a fist shot into one, destroying it. Shelly unloaded on his stuck fist, shaking him. His other fist was coated in ink, ready to be knocked back with one shot. He fired that fist, and it was knocked back instantly from the other sentry.

"Ok, now I'm mad!" Octavio yelled in frustration. Axel prepared to drop on him, lined up the angle, and let go.

"You ain't gonna do anything Octavio!" Edge mocked.

Instead of moving, Octavio turned to the other Sentry, and smashed it, but had his fist knocked back again, pushing him right into Axel's path.

Axel yelled from above "so I guess the dead want payback!"

Octavio looked up, and hurriedly dodged to the side. But Axel used then Reaper to stay lined up, and slammed the ARC on top of the Octobot king, clogging up every surface, and splatting Octavio once. He then used Shutdown, for a quick second splat. Octavio fired both fists in anger, and they were knocked back. Those fists combined with Axel's rocket punch knocked him out of the Octobot, where he was decked by Shelly's Splatling again.

"You little... Ink stain... Why the same... Damn... Spot..." Octavio groaned as he fainted.

"I think he has a concussion. I'm tempted to make it a coma, but eh. Let's bring him back." Said Axel. "Before he wakes up and starts griping again.

They did just that.

"I cannot wait to see those new weapons in turf wars, now that that's out of the way." Said Shelly.

"Ranked, Shelly." Said Axel. "Neither of these covered turf very well. But hey, I can sneak around easy."

"Then you're an unstoppable force now." Said Edge.

"Number one team, here we come!" Shelly said.

"But we've been the number one team since forever." Said Colt. "Even before we met Axel."

"Darn. No where to go but down. Well, at least no one will take our spot, ever." Said Shelly. "You gotta make us weapons sometime bro."

"Hehehe. Maybe." Said Axel. "But only Edge doesn't have just one main. But I can try, but don't you think people may complain?"

"So what? What'll they do, sue?" Asked Colt.

"You right." Said Axel. "I think there will be a riot if you get banned from turf wars anyways."

On that note, everyone left for the outpost, while Octavio snored in anger from the sack he was stuffed in.