A certain school bus was on its way to Shellendorf Institute. Inside said bus a certain pink tentacled inkling was day dreaming about seagulls and other birds for reasons unknown to her. Some bird species around Inkopolis such as seagulls, sparrows and ducks are considered living fossils, while other species have evolved into the modern species, many becoming much smaller than their ancestors in the process. Without realizing it, the focus of her day dreaming shifted from birds to the point of this trip. Shellendorf Institute. She has never been there and has only seen a few photos of it. Shellendorf Institute is the largest museum in Inkopolis, with a very varied assortment of exhibits ranging from prehistoric creatures to The Great Turf War and much more. For some strange reason the ground level of Shellendorf Institute is used for turf wars and ranked battles, despite the delicate nature of some of the exhibits. But the trip wasn't going to focus on exhibits on ground level, and instead will focus on some of the lower levels which focus on era during which civilization X supposedly developed and thrived. Supposedly a new, huge level has been constructed for the newest exhibits.

"How many exhibits will we see?" Tal asked.

"Hopefully all exhibits related to civilization X, maybe even some extra exhibits if we'll have some time left." Mr. Jello replied. "And it looks like we have arrived." Mr. Jello added.

"Look, a military truck! That's so fresh!" Arlie exclaimed.

"What is it doing at Shellendorf Institute?" Coco pondered.

"I assume they brought some neutralized exhibits, like the stuff they showed in news that likes to explode. Either that or one of the exhibits wasn't neutralized properly, which would be concerning to say the least." Mr. Jello said.

"Or maybe they want to see the exhibits too." Coco suggested in a joking manner. He then noticed that Numi was once again day dreaming and a wide, devilish grin spread across his face.

However, before he could do or say anything, Arlie gave him a death glare and scoffed "Don't even think about it."

"Don't what?" Numi asked with the face of a curious puppy.

"Nothing." Arlie and Coco said in unison. Numi rolled her eyes and looked out of the bus window, deciding to ignore whatever her friends wanted to keep a secret and the mess called leaving a bus, at least until everyone behind her left. She was gazing at the huge building of Shellendorf Institute, examining all the details, big and small. Shellendorf Institute has been built 20 years before The Great Turf War by inklings, octarians and jellyfish. The construction was funded by Ammoses Shellendorf. Being over a century old, it's only natural that over the years it has gathered one of the largest collections of exhibits in the world. Numi noticed a strange, small statue on one of the corners of the Institute's roof. What was strange about it was that it was shaped like some kind of creature, yet it looked like nothing nature would allow to exist. What made it even stranger was the fact that all statues on Institute's ground were either that of historical figures or iconic creatures of the past, but this particular statue looked like neither.

"Hey, do you see that statue over there?" Numi asked.

"Um, which statue? There's like a dozen or more of them." Arlie replied.

"The one on the roof, over th-" Numi begun, but stopped, her eyes widening "I-it's gone?!" Numi rubbed her eyes in disbelief, but the statue wasn't there.

"Are you sure you didn't just imagine it? I mean, you were practically sleep walking on the way to school, as if you had barely any sleep last night. You even walked into a street lamp." Tal suggested. The last thing he said made Numi's face turn red.

"We should get out, we are the last ones left on the bus." Coco cut in, and he was right. There was no one else on the bus, except the driver. The four friends got off the bus, followed by the bus driver who proceeded to lock the bus. Numi's class was reminded what they can't do in the Institute, to not separate and other things a class gets told on trips. After that, the class moved to the main entrance, where Mr. Jello's friend, Mr. Jellzo guide, was waiting. Mr. Jellzo worked at Shellendorf Institute as a guide. The two jellyfish greeted each other with a knock knock joke and a side of puns, which received mixed reactions from the history class. After a short introduction, the class moved to lower levels of the Institute, and the best part of the trip begun: the tour. The first part of the tour was a left section of a mixed level, where many civilization X artifacts were, all of them theorized to have been ritual tools. And a lonely skeleton, that was lying in an unusual position in its exhibit.

"I know that people X were giants, but this skeleton looks WAY bigger than the ones in our books." one of the students said. Majority of the class was stunned and wide eyed at the size of the skeleton.

"If they get this sort of reaction over a simple skeleton, how will they react to our newest exhibits?" Mr. Jellzo asked no one in particular.

"Mr. Jellzo, what are these new exhibits?" Tal asked, barely holding back just how excited he was, as civilization X was one his favorite topics, with only food, games and ocean toping it.

"Why should I spoil the fun? Not knowing what to expect is more fun!" Mr. Jellzo cheerfully exclaimed. This got him a disappointed look from Tal. The class moved to the next room. This room was dedicated to the first discovery of civilization X, which happened a few years prior to The Great Turf War. "First traces of civilization X were found in Piranha Pit in the form of broken pottery on June 6th 1905, three months after it was opened. As a side note, at the time first jackhammers were being used in mining for the first time. At first it was thought that those were relicts of ancient Inkling or Octoling civilizations, but it was ruled out on June 15th of the same year, when an almost intact cup was dug up. While it was damaged, its size was enough to disprove the first assumptions. For the next few weeks similar things would be dug up, although not many payed much attention to the discovery at first." Mr. Jellzo explained. He paused for a moment to let everything he said sink in, and then continued "It all changed on September 20th of the same year, when almost fully intact bones of an arm were dug up. Said bones had appropriate size for the cup dug up months earlier. This has attracted major interest from scientific community and the general public, as it became very apparent that a lost civilization has been discovered."

"An arm? Not a full skeleton?" Coco asked.

"As I said, the arm was ALMOST fully intact. The bones were broken around the midpoint between elbow and shoulder. There are two theories about it. One says that the rest of the skeleton got simply grinded to dust over time, however if that was the case, then the arm would have been grinded to dust as well. The other, more accepted theory suggests that the arm was ripped away from its owner, which would most likely be caused by whatever killed said owner. You don't need to be the brightest to figure out that for something like that to happen, it would require a huge force behind it." Mr. Jellzo answered in detail.

"Those are the cup and arm?" Arlie asked while pointing at an exhibit that was slightly larger than all the other exhibits.

"Yes." Mr. Jellzo confirmed. Everyone has gathered around said exhibit to have a closer look. Sure enough, the arm and cup were in the exhibit. Unknown to everyone, this cup was an 'I hate Mondays' cup, and ironically the owner of this cup has died on a Monday. The class stayed in this room for 10 more minutes, looking at different exhibits which varied from shattered pottery to old photos of the first discovery related to civilization X while also asking questions. Most of the tour went along the same way, going from exhibit to exhibit, listening to the history behind said exhibits, asking questions and watching the exhibits.

"Hey Numi, are you ok? You're awfully quiet today." Coco asked Numi. No response. "Why are you so gloomy today? That's completely unlike you! Where did your cheerful self go?"

"I'm just tired. I'm fine." Numi replied to her octoling friend. While this was partially true, as she couldn't sleep last night, she was also lost in many thoughts about different things. Among her usual mixture of random thoughts and ideas, there were a few thoughts that were bigger than the other ones. Partially she was still shaken by Pumi's prank, but she was also puzzled by the strange statue she saw earlier or if it was just her imagination. She was also imagining what her first turf war would be like. But new thoughts started to appear. New questions were fueled more and more by this trip. Who were the people of civilization X? What were they like? What caused their extinction? So many questions popping in and out of Numi's head. The combination of tiredness, thoughts and questions drained her usual cheerful personality away. A mess caused by Pumi's prank. Numi didn't even realize when everyone stopped, and walked straight into Coco.

"Are you sure?" Coco continued.

"Yes, I'm 1000% sure" Numi assured, blushing slightly from embarrassment that she walked into Coco. Luckily for her, nobody noticed that or her slight blush.

The class went down the stairs to a lower level, and just outside the entrance to the next room, Mr. Jellzo stopped and turned around to face the class. "The next two rooms have our newest exhibits. I can guarantee you all, your jaws will drop!" Mr. Jellzo exclaimed, unable to hide his excitement. "I won't be able to tell you much about these exhibits, as I didn't spend enough time studying them. I am terribly sorry about that." he added.

"I'm sure that you're not the only one with that problem. Afterall, those are very new exhibits, and even the brightest minds can't come to an agreement what to think of them." Mr. Jello said to his friend.

With that said, the class entered the next room. The room was bigger than any previous room, in fact being twice the size of previous rooms. What was inside was truly jaw-dropping.

"Is this the right room?" Wide eyed Arlie asked.

"Yes, it is. This is still civilization X in this room." Mr. Jellzo answered, and added "Since I can't tell you more about these exhibits than what is written on the signs, feel free to look at the exhibits in whatever order you like."

Everyone was wide eyed at what the exhibits were. These weren't exhibits of a primitive civilization. Most of the exhibits looked modern, some even looked like from the future or a sci-fi movie. Numi and her friends decided to stick together, and went over to the first exhibit. It was a skeleton wearing some kind of damaged armour, a modern looking helmet, remains of a backpack and a belt with some items attached to it. The skeleton itself had only its neck and skull exposed, with some other part being visible through the damaged armour and decayed clothing. The skull was heavily damaged, as if something went through it. Next the skeleton was a stand, on it was some kind of weapon, a knife, a few strange boxes and a few cylinders. There were small signs with numbers next to each item going in order from 1 to 4. Next to the exhibit stood a sign that read:

"Civilization X soldier and her/his gear. Surprisingly well preserved for being approximately 12000 years old, the explanation as to how these items survived to our times will remain a mystery. Except the skeleton. It got fossilized.

 1.) Weapon - it is uncertain how it worked, however what is known is that it did not shoot ink. Remnants of a complex mechanism are one of the only two clues as to how this weapon worked. The second clue comes in form of strange boxes that were attached to the belt, as these boxes fit perfectly into a hole on the underside of the weapon.

2.) Combat knife - The way it was made and designed suggests that along its combat role, it was also a multipurpose tool. The design appears to be much more combat focused than any modern combat knife.

3.) Strange boxes - made of metal, containing a simple mechanism and filled with pointy cylinders. The purpose of these boxes is unknown, but it has something to do with the weapon.

4.) Bombs - splat bombs that instead of ink hold powerful explosive mix. Over time the mix became highly unstable, making it easy to set off an explosive reaction. As a result, some of these bombs exploded when found, luckily no one was hurt by them due to everyone having a lunch break away from them. Army was called to neutralize these bombs before they were transported from the excavation site.

Armour worn by this soldier appears to have been damaged before time even begun to affect it, which along with the damaged state of the skull suggest that this soldier has died in combat. The equipment and damage suggest that combat of civilization X was much more brutal and destructive, which in turn suggest that people X were very aggressive."

Everyone in the small group payed more attention to different items. Arlie was extremely curious about the strange boxes and what their purpose could be, while Coco was fascinated about the weapon and its mechanism. Tal on the other hand was amazed by the combat knife and its aggressive, yet practical design.

"This is the freshest knife I have ever seen!" Tal exclaimed, breaking the silence and making his friends jump. He looked around, and after making sure no one was near, he whipped out his squidphone, snapped a few photos and quickly hid it in his pocket. This earned him a disapproving look from Coco and Arlie.

"You do realise that this is against the rules, right?" Arlie asked.

"Rules are made to be broken. Besides, that's the dumbest rule ever." Tal replied.

"Anyway, I wonder what these boxes were for. There's a lot of them, so they must have been important." Arlie said.

"Maybe these are batteries for that weapon?" Coco suggested.

"Who would need that many batteries? And who would need batteries inside of batteries?" Tal said, while pointing at a box that was cut in half which was filled with pointy cylinders.

While her friends had a small debate over what the boxes were for, Numi backed away from the exhibit to get a better view of it. The skeleton was large to say the least, as Coco who was slightly taller than Pumi, only reached to the skeleton's knees. The armour it wore, alongside the damage of time, had many dents and scratches. There was a hole going straight through the middle of the skull, with areas around the hole being severely cracked. Many questions run through her head, questions which would most likely never be anwered. After a few minutes Numi and her friends moved on to the next exhibit. It was some kind of car. Or what survived of it. Time was not merciful on it, a large part of the car has disintegrated over the millennia, and yet it's surprisingly intact for its age. Its roof was long gone, its front was completely flattened and there were many holes going through the car, many having corresponding hole on the other side. Next to it was a sign that read "Civilization X military car"

"This thing has seen better days." Tal said.

"These holes though. They look very similarly to the hole in the skull of that skeleton." Coco noted.

"Maybe that's what these ancient weapons did? Tal suggested, referring to weapon in previous exhibit.

"Do you think it has something to do with the boxes?" Arlie asked.

"Maybe." Coco replied with a shrug.

This exhibit wasn't as interesting as the last one, so they moved to the next one, which drew the most attention out of all the exhibits in the room. It was in a better state than all other exhibits, and nothing like it has ever been seen before. As a result, a large crowd has surrounded the exhibit.

"What is THAT?!" Coco asked no one in particular, not expecting an answer. His eyes couldn't get any wider. Almost everyone who had gathered around this exhibit had similar reactions.

"What? I can't see it!" Numi said in an annoyed tone. Numi, being very short, couldn't see anything but the very top of the exhibit because of the crowd. And what she could see was not enough for even the wildest guess to be taken as to what it was.

"Neither can I." Arlie added. Arlie was taller than Numi, but was still shorter than average. Tal was the average height, and Coco was taller than average. "Coco, what's the exhibit?" Arlie asked.

"I don't know how to describe it, but it's some kind of huge vehicle." Coco answered. He begun to try and describe the exhibit, which he was failing at miserably, but Numi wasn't listening. She was looking around to see if there is anything she could stand on. And low and behold, a bench and a bin, next to a nearby pillar. The bench was a simple one and the bin had a rounded top, with a hole in the side to throw in trash through. Without thinking Numi run over to the bench, which drew attention of Arlie and another inkling. The moment Arlie saw Numi start climbing onto the bench, she knew what Numi was up to and rushed over to talk her out of it. The inkling too went over to where Numi was, closely behind Arlie, while Tal and Coco didn't notice anything as they theorized what the exhibit was.

"Numi, stop it!" Arlie whispered. Numi was standing on the bench, and still being unable to see the exhibit, was beginning to climb onto the bin.

"No! I want to see the exhibit!" Numi replied and puffed her cheeks.

"This is a VERY bad idea, stop it before somebody sees you!" Arlie continued, still whispering. Numi ignored her, and begun to climb onto the bin. "You chose one of the worst moments possible to be stubborn, Numi" Arlie said in an annoyed tone, now only half-whispering. After a short moment Numi was standing on top of the bin, and after regaining balance, looked towards the exhibit. The exhibit was a huge, tracked vehicle. Although not in perfect condition, it was in the best shape out of all the other exhibits. Numi was stunned by the size of the exhibit, forgetting that she was standing on a bin. She lost her balance, slipped and was going to faceplant the cold, rough floor of the museum. Numi instinctively shut her eyes and moved her hands forward. But Numi never hit the floor.

"Gotcha!" a female voice said. Numi opened her eyes to see what was going on. A female inkling, who appeared to be a few years older than Kumi, has caught her. The female had light-red eyes, dark skin and green tentacles, with one long tentacle being on her left side of her head, and the other side appearing to have no tentacles at all, presumably it was one of the fresh styles. "So, what were ya doin' on that bin anyway?" the female asked.

"I-I wanted to see that exhibit there." Numi answered shyly, slightly blushing from embarrassment.

"I can see why ya would do that. You're so small! At first glance, I'd say ya are even shorter than Pearl. Not that it's bad of course." the female exclaimed. After a short pause, she glanced at Arlie, the at Numi and asked "is that your friend?" to which Numi nodded. Numi looked over at Arlie, who had a face that said "we're doomed". At first Numi didn't get why Arlie had that look, but she knew why once she looked at the female who caught her. She wore an army uniform. Numi's face turned completely red from embarrassment, but also showed fear. "Are ya ok?" the soldier asked, with a confused look on her face.

"I-I-I'm s-sorry, I won't d-do that again! P-please d-don't kick m-me out..." Numi stuttered and lost her words mid-sentence. She covered her face with her hands, and let out a few quiet sobs.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down. Nobody is gettin' kicked out. Why are ya so scared? I'm not a ghost nor a monster." the soldier said in the calmest tone possible for her, trying to both calm Numi down and figure out why she was so scared.

"B-but I'm in trouble now." Numi shyly said.

"Nonsense! You're in no trouble!" the soldier put Numi down and gave her a cheerful smile. This soldier was slightly taller than Kumi. "My name's Minnow. What's yours?" Minnow asked and knelt down, hoping to appear as friendly as possible.

"N-Numi. M-my name is Numi." Numi said shyly.

"That's a nice name." Minnow said, and asked "And your friend's?"

"My name is Arlie." Arlie whispered shyly.

"Ya both have nice names." Minnow said and paused for a moment, after which she asked "Both of ya wanted to see that big ol' exhibit?" and got a nod from Numi and Arlie as an answer. "Well then, it's your lucky day! Follow me!" Minnow exclaimed, and put on the most cheerful smile she could muster. Although reluctantly, Numi and Arlie followed Minnow. They went back to the crowd. Minnow turned 180 on the heels of her military boots, picked up Numi, and in a moment's notice, Numi was getting a piggyback ride from Minnow, while holding onto Minnow's helmet for balance. While a little embarrassed, Numi was thankful as she could now see the exhibit. "Hey Troud, come 'ere and give me a helping hand!" Minnow shouted over the chatting crowd that was still stunned by the exhibit. Numi could see another soldier in the crowd, who proceeded to turn around and start walking towards her, Arlie and Minnow. It took moments for the soldier to walk over to them. Troud was a green tentacled male, with green eyes and even darker skin color than Minnow. His tentacles were barely visible from under his helmet due to his tentacle style.

"What is it?" Troud asked as he approached. "Cute." he thought when he saw an unusually small inkling with pink eyes and short tentacles getting a piggyback ride from Minnow, giving him a curious yet worried look. He then noticed another small inkling, with yellow tentacles in a ponytail and blue eyes, standing next to his friend with the same look. Guessing what his friend wanted, he asked "Really? Why?"

"Ya see the crowd riiight behind ya?" Minnow begun. The crowd was large, and the reason why Numi and Arlie were too short to see the exhibit was because the crowd was mostly adult inklings, octolings and jellyfish with some taller kids from Numi's class in there too, and a bunch of jellyfish children with their legs elongated to be taller. "The crowd is pretty large, but more importantly tall." she said and continued, "And these two, they're just a li'l bit too short to see 'cause of this crowd." Troud didn't say a thing, as he was thinking how to react. Seeing that, Minnow whispered "Do puppy eyes." to Arlie. Doing as told, Arlie looked at Troud with puppy eyes.

After a minute, Troud sighed and said "Fine. But you are the one doing the explaining if anyone asks about this." and proceeded to pick up Arlie.

"I expected that ya would say that, and I was right." Minnow replied in a rather mocking tone, to which Troud rolled his eyes. Now Arlie too was getting a piggyback ride and now too was able to see the exhibit. "Anyway, did ya figure out what exactly that thing is?" Minnow asked.

"Nope. The only thing I figured out, is that this is a war machine. But you don't need to be a genius to figure that one out." Troud replied, and continued "It is very heavily armoured, which leads me to assume that whatever weaponry was used by civilization X, it must have been very destructive." The exhibit was a huge tank. It rolled over the car from one of the exhibits over 12000 years ago, in one of the final battles of a long-gone era. It looked nothing like inkling or octarian tanks, and as a result no one could tell it was a tank. After a few minutes the crowd got a little bit smaller, but it was still a big crowd.

---

"Where's Arlie and Numi?" Tal suddenly realized.

"They're... " Coco started, but paused when he realized that his friends were nowhere to be seen. After a moment he finished "gone?" Both of them panicked at first, thinking that their class moved on, but calmed down when they saw Mr. Jello and a few of their classmates looking at the first exhibit. This meant that their friends were still in the same room. They began looking around, and after a few minutes, they spotted Arlie and Numi.

"There they are!" Tal exclaimed.

"Who are they with?" Coco asked. As if on cue, a few inklings walked away from the crowd, giving Tal and Coco a clear view of their friends. Their eyes widened.

"Are those... soldiers?!" Tal got out.

"What did they do..." Coco murmured. They hesitated for a moment before walking over to where their friends were. They were visibly nervous, and why wouldn't they be. Their friends were with soldiers, and they assumed that their friends did something bad. Why else would they be with soldiers?

---

As they were watching the exhibit in amazement, a question rushed across Numi's head. She asked "Is that truck parked outside the Institute your?"

"Yeah, it is. We brought the last few neutralized exhibits in it." Minnow replied.

"Right now, we're just waiting for our officer to finish the paperwork. We were allowed to have a free tour, because we brought new exhibits." Troud added.

"Hmmm, what do we have here?" a somewhat muffled and distorted male voice said. Troud's face shifted to that of 'Well shit'. He and Minnow turned around to face the owner of the voice. It was a red eyed male octoling, with mohawk style tentacles. Instead of a helmet he had a rebreather. Numi and Arlie made an attempt to hide, which was next to impossible to achieve when having piggyback rides.

"What is it Octario?" Troud groaned.

"Nothing, nothing at all. Who are these two?" Octario replied.

"They're Numi and Arlie. They're a bit too short to see through the crowd, so we decided to help them out." Minnow explained.

"And you appear to be scaring them." Troud added.

"Oh well. Anyway, I'm going to get the engine running, as Octallia is almost done with the paperwork." Octario said, turned around and walked away. Troud and Minnow turned back to face the exhibit again, to find an inkling and octoling standing behind them. The inkling was average height for a 14-year-old, had blue eyes and teal bowl cut tentacles, while the octoling was higher than average, had teal eyes and blue afro. Both seemed to be rather nervous.

"What did they do?" the octoling asked while avoiding eye contact.

"Huh? Oh, they did nothin'." Minnow said and asked "Why? Are they yer friends?"

"Yes." the octoling responded nervously.

"Well, your friends couldn't see through this crowd, so we decided to help them out." Minnow explained. Seeing how nervous the two were, she had a brilliant idea. "My name's Minnow, and that's my friend Troud. What are your names?" Minnow asked with a cheerful smile. Troud thought 'Sometimes you are too friendly Minnow.' and sighed.

The inkling responded with "The name's Tal and this is Coco."

"Are ya a turf war team?" Minnow asked.

"Not until tomorrow." Tal said and then boasted "But once we are, we will be the freshest team in all of Inkopolis!"

"Ya will be the freshest team ever if ya keep up the positive thinking!" Minnow agreed.

"Am I interrupting something?" a female voice asked, to which Minnow and Troud instinctively turned 180 on the heels of their boots, stood at attention and saluted, which was dizzying to Numi and Arlie and almost caused them to fall off. The owner of the voice was a red eyed octoling, with 4 floppy tentacles that seemed to be unresponsive.

"N-nothing Ma'am! You aren't interrupting anything!" Troud exclaimed.

"Oh really? Then why are you two giving out piggyback rides to some kids? Whatever, you'll explain that to me on the way back to base. Now let's go." the octoling said in a commanding voice, turned around and walked away.

"W-who was that?" Numi asked, still somewhat dizzy.

"That was 2nd Lieutenant Octallia, our commanding officer." Troud said. "Usually she is more like Minnow, but the paperwork must have put her in a bad mood." he added.

"Well, we've got to go. Wish I could stay a bit longer." Minnow said, somewhat disappointed. She proceeded to put Numi back on the floor, and Troud did the same with Arlie. "But before I go, I've got to check something." Minnow said, and without a warning, squished Numi's cheeks.

"Whaa?!" Numi said, being completely puzzled by Minnow's sudden squish attack.

"Heh, just as squishy as I thought." Minnow said and stopped squishing Numi's cheeks. She backed up, said goodbye, turned around and walked away with Troud.

"Thank you for help!" Numi shouted to Minnow, while waving her hand energetically and having a wide, cheerful smile. Minnow turned around, waved back and turned back around, just to walk straight into a wall, which caused Troud to chuckle.

"Well, there are still more exhibits to see. What are we waiting for?" Tal said excitedly. And with that the group moved on to the next exhibit, which was a wreck of a battle helicopter.