Team Muffin has landed on their S.P.A.W.N pad in Walleye warehouse. Soon after they reverted back to their humanoid forms and a moment later the match started. "So, what's the plan captain?" Tal asked in a mocking tone.

"Um... we just run in...?" Numi nervously answered.

"Heh. Simple. I like it"

"I'm taking left path!" Coco exclaimed.

"Then I'll take the right path." Arlie said.

"Sounds like a plan... aaaand, she's gone..." Tal said and pointed at an ink trail left by Numi's mini roller. "Wait... " he added as he rubbed his eyes. "She's running on it... HOW does she not fall off?!"

"Either she has a good sense of balance, or it's something to do with her roller." Coco commented flatly. "Anyway, let's get going. Turf isn't going to ink itself." He added and the trio charged forward.

Numi was speeding forward like a fighter jet, almost as fast as an inkbrush would but still far slower than her running speed. She bounced on her roller like ball with each lowering 'step' from her base, causing a wide smile to form on her face and in mere moments she was already in the middle of the area. She would have stopped to ink more turf, but "How do I stop...?" was Numi's thought, as she was going far faster than in the range, making it impossible to stop the same way she did in the range. She continued to roll her way forward, turning to the left to not roll into the side of a large crate, to the unfortunate surprise for two inklings from the enemy team.

"WHAT?!" one of them shouted. Both of them were rolled over and splatted before they could even react, which didn't slow down the speeding mini roller in the slightest.

"Sorry!" Numi shouted as she glanced back. She saw two miniature squid ghosts floating out of the large ink puddle, indicating that the re-S.P.A.W.N process has begun. When Numi looked back where she was going, she gasped and sharply turned right, narrowly avoiding speeding into a wall. She was now going up a small ramp, which slowed her down to about the normal speed of rollers. An inkling jumped to the side as Numi rolled her way further into enemy turf. She rolled her way to the next ramp. She run out of ink on the first quarter of the ramp and the very moment her roller touched enemy ink, she stopped dead on the spot. She panicked, closed her eyes and hugged the handle of her mini roller, offsetting her balance and causing her to fall forward. "Owie..." she whimpered.

"Never thought that rollers could be that fast." a male voice said from behind. Numi quickly opened her eyes, raised her head and looked behind her. "How did you even have enough ink to reach this far?" the voice added. The owner of the voice was the inkling that jumped out of Numi's way. He was taller than Pumi, had green eyes and had all his tentacles moved to the left side of his head. "Much has indeed changed in these four years."

"Whaaaaat...?" Numi said and tilted her head.

"Huh, oh right, you're still here."

"What four years?"

"Four years of break from turf wars and anything related."

"Why?"

"Reasons. Since you like question, then I'm gonna ask this: do you see that splat bomb rolling to you?"

"WHAT?! WHE-" Numi couldn't finish as she got splatted by the splat bomb in question. The inkling gave a thumbs up to his teammate before turning around and running into the middle area, where the opposing team was busy inking turf that Numi left uninked.

---

Callie and Marie were on top of the roof of Walleye warehouse. While Marie was checking her automap to check which vents they should take, Callie was observing at a turf war through a roof window. "I see Pumi's sister." Callie beamed. "I've never seen anyone use a roller like that before." she added.

"How is she using it?" Marie asked without looking away from the automap.

"She runs on it like on a log or a boulder. She's fast too!"

"...what..." Marie got out, unable to picture that in her head.

"She ran out of ink." Callie commented. "Aaand, she's splatted."

"Poor ink management is typical for newbies. She'll learn soon enough."

"It's kinda funny how she's also here."

"HOW is that even remotely funny?"

"She thinks she's an agent and Walleye warehouse is one of the locations we need to check, so it's kinda like she's on the mission too." Callie explained, to which Marie facepalmed.

"Anyway, I know which way it is now. Let's go." Marie said as she crawled into the vent with her hero charger."

"This'll take ages with my roller..." Callie groaned as she imagined the painful process of moving her giant roller through the vents.

---

After de-splatting, Numi blinked rapidly as her mind processed what happened. A moment later she was about to run back, but realised something. "Where's my roller?" she mumbled to herself, and just then her roller has been warped back by the S.P.A.W.N pad, which Numi didn't notice until it fell on her, for it was warped above her. "Owie..." Numi whimpered as she rubbed her head. She got up, grabbed her mini roller and got into her stance. At the same time, Coco has been de-splatted.

"Wait!" he shouted when he saw Numi.

Numi turned her head to him and asked "What?"

"Can't you use the roller normally?

"No!"

"Why?"

"It's more fun my way!"

"But it's less effective."

"And?"

"Just use it normally."

"No!" Numi refused and puffed her cheeks. Coco sighed, turned around and ran towards the centre of the arena, with Numi passing him moments later on her roller.

"At least she's a big distraction." Coco thought.

---

Callie and Marie crawled their way through the vents, with Marie checking her automap whenever they encountered a junction. Surprisingly for them, it took only two minutes to reach the section of Walleye warehouse they had to check. Marie opened the grates and crawled out, with Callie crawling out a moment later in her squid form. Callie reverted to her humanoid form. "I wonder where our clothes and gear go to when we're in our basic form." Callie said to herself as she stretched.

"I don't know, and I don't think I want to know." Marie said as she looked around. They were in a medium sized storage room, which still had some tools, empty boxes and crates lying around, along with some shelves, most of which were broken or overturned. There was a doorway without a door on the opposite side of the room, which presumably lead to a corridor. Paint was coming off the walls, revealing the brickwork it was meant to hide, and the ceiling was missing some tiles, exposing the cabling and piping above, with some damaged cables dangling from the holes in the ceiling. "I can see why they want this part demolished. Did they even bother fixing anything here?" Marie mumbled. "And the stench..."

The duo begun rummaging through the room, looking for anything that would indicate Octavio's presence or anything suspicious. Callie also looked for cool things to 'borrow'. They found some old batteries, a box of nails, a crowbar, some damaged radio parts and other such things. Callie took the crowbar and walked up to one of the crates. "Rather convenient." Marie commented as she watched. Instead of opening the crate with the crowbar, Callie started madly swinging the crowbar, hitting the crate randomly and causing many chippings to go flying. "Callie! What are you..." Marie begun, and just then the crate fell apart. Something was covered by the debris of the crate, and Callie momentarily started digging through.

"Ooh, that's fresh!" Callie exclaimed as she pulled out what appeared to be a black and orange power suit, made of a strange mix of metals and synthetic materials.

"Looks like old biohazard suit. Like the ones they used 30 years ago." Marie said as she stared at the suit in disbelief.

"I wanna keep it." Callie beamed. Marie facepalmed.

"Callie, no. We can't go around with that, it wouldn't fit through the vent, it's too big for you, not to mention that it would be theft." Marie listed, to which Callie puffed her cheeks.

"How are you so sure it's too big for me?" Callie argued. Instead of pointing out the obvious, visible size difference, Marie walked over to the suit and after a short inspection pointed to a small inscription on the back that, among other details, read "Size 3, man".

"Put the crowbar away. We've got to check more rooms, and I'd rather not stay here. The ceilings looks like it wants to crumble." Callie did as told and put the crowbar on one of the shelves, before heading for the doorway with Marie, which lead to a corridor. Opposite to the doorway, on the other side of the corridor was a half opened door. They looked to the left, and saw nothing more than a dead end. They looked to the right, and saw several rooms on either side of the corridor and a door at the end of the of the corridor.

"I think we should split." Callie suggested. "It'll be faster that way."

"Hmm, yeah, you're right. I'll take this side of the corridor, you do the opposite side and we stop at the last door." Marie said, hiding a small smirk and hurried to the next room.

"Sounds like a- hey! You get less rooms to check! Not fair!" Callie puffed, but Marie was already in the next room. Callie puffed her cheeks and move to her side of the corridor. The first room to check was the one opposite of the doorway. Callie kicked it open, and jumped when the door smashed some crate. This room was emptier than the first one, having only a few crates, most of which were open. Callie looked to the left, to see the crate she smashed with the door kick. The pile of smashed wood contained nothing interesting. It took Callie a minute to check the other crates, which were all empty, say for one which had a small bag which Callie took before moving to the next room. This room was empty and didn't even have a door in the doorway, so Callie skipped it.

---

"I can't believe that we've been sent here 4 times in a row..." Tal murmured. Team Muffin was unlucky with the matchmaking system of the lobby and was sent to Walleye warehouse yet again. They won the first two matches, with the second one being a crushing victory, and lost the third one.

"Could've been worse. We could have lost all the matches and not just one. But yeah, this place is boring." Arlie chimed.

"Chilly..." Numi shivered.

"Yeah, it is rather chilly this time..." Coco agreed. "Maybe vents are on?"

"Whatever. It's just a minor annoyance. Now, let's kick their as-butts!" Tal exclaimed with his splattershot Jr. raised in the air and got a loud BOOYAH from his friends as an answer. A moment later the match started. Numi bolted down the middle path again, this time using the roller properly. Coco switched to his octo form and jumped into the ink path Numi made, and swam closely behind Numi. Tal was about to sprint to the right, but Arlie grabbed him by the shoulder, making him look at her. "That was too close!" Arlie whispered in an annoyed manner.

"I know, I know. It's kind of amazing how she still doesn't know a single, even the tiniest swear." Tal half-whispered as he scratched the back of his head.

"Yup! And I want to keep it that way for as long as possible! And her sisters want that too! So don't ruin it."

"Hey, I never ruined anything!"

"Oh really? Don't you remember the plants in our first school year? The ones you watered too much?"

"That was a long time ago! And we all agreed to forget it ever happened!" Tal protested, clearly annoyed. Arlie hid a small smirk that was forming on her face.

"I know, I know 'Mr. Cool kid'. Hmmm, I think that I'm gonna look for my old diaries later today." Arlie said. Just at that moment Numi has de-splatted in between the two inklings.

"Chargers are mean!" Numi said and puffed her cheeks. "Wait, why aren't you helping?" Numi said and did her annoyed face. Tal took the chance and gently poked her nose.

"Boop!"

"Ah-achoo!"

"Bless you." Arlie beamed.

"Thank you!" Numi cheerfully said as she readied her roller, before bolting down the left path.

Tal turned to Arlie, "Now's not the time for chat, let's go!" he said and ran down the right path with Arlie in tow.

---

Marie was in the last room on her side of the corridor. She wasn't expecting that checking all the rooms would be so fast. There was nothing suspicious in any of the rooms so far, unless she'd consider trash to be suspicious. There was only one large, half rotten crate, which broke apart the moment Marie touched it. It contained some old, broken and beat up radios. "Is this the landfill of Walleye?" Marie thought. She kicked the pile, causing some dust to rise, and walked out of the room. She bumped into Callie who was struggling to open the door of her last room.

"Eek!" Callie exclaimed as she jumped. She turned around, and her face momentarily switched from one of fear and surprise to that of annoyance. "Marie!"

"Sorry Cal, forgot that you still react like a child." Marie said with her signature smirk, to which Callie puffed her cheeks. Marie noticed that Callie was wearing a golden bracelet, with many gems embedded into it. "Did you find anything?"

"Nah, only trash, nothing, trash, trash, more trash and a locked door" Callie listed.

"Oh really? Nice bracelet. Is it trash too?"

"Uhhhh..."

"You know it's stealing."

"B-but this place is abandoned!"

"No it isn't."

"But-"

"Callie. No." Marie cut Callie off, with a dead serious face.

"Uh, I can't open this door." Callie said, changing the topic. This was the only closed door on her side. Marie walked up to the door and opened it inward, unlike outward like Callie was trying to, making Callie turn deep red in embarrassment. Marie smirked but didn't say anything. The room was empty.

"It got rather chilly." Marie murmured to herself. The duo proceeded to go over to the door at the end of the corridor and open it. It put up quite the fight, but a solid whack with Callie's roller proved to be enough to get it open. At first it seemed to lead to a large room, but the many tools and remains of several walls suggested that this room used to be another corridor with many rooms. "I'm no expert, but I can tell that whoever was tasked with demolition of this place wasn't a professional. That's a huge safety hazard." Marie commented.

"The dust looks like it's very recent." Callie noted. The dust was a very fine powder, which wouldn't be the case if it lied around for long. There was nothing else that looked interesting, other than another door at the end of the room. Marie charged a shot and made a trail of green ink that lead to the door. She switched to her squid form and dove in the trail, jumping out moments later at the end of the trail to extend it. Callie changed her ink colour to match Marie's, did the same and followed Marie's trail, which was much faster than walking over to the door. Due to the size of the room, Marie had to repeat the process two more times, which made her slightly anxious.

Marie reverted to humanoid form and said "I don't like this. The roof could collapse and-"

"Don't be silly, roof can't collapse just like that." Callie cut her cousin off as she reverted to humanoid form, before trying to open the door. It creaked as Callie put more and more force into to it to counter the door's resistance. The room behind this door was almost identical, with the main difference being a large hole in the floor. "Uh... that doesn't look safe. Who woul-mmm!"

"Shh! I hear something." Marie, who covered Callie's mouth, whispered and listened. She could hear voices coming from the hole in the floor. She charged a shot, made an ink trail to the hole and swam over to it with Callie in tow. The duo reverted to their humanoid forms and carefully peeked over the ledge. Their eyes widened.

"Are those... staff members? Held hostage by octarians?" Callie whispered, but Marie payed no attention. There was a total of nine staff members: three jellyfish and five inklings and a single octoling, all tied up and seated in a row. Next to them were four octolings, one of which was male, three octotroopers and a single octocopter. Male octoling and one of the female octolings seemed to be younger than the other two, and appeared to be quite nervous. There were also three large, metal crates nearby.

"They seem to have new kind of weapons and armour." Marie whispered. The octotroopers and octocopter had full body armour, which was of a dark grey colour and seemed to be made of something in between plastic and metal. The octolings had similar, but heavier looking armour, with large neck guards, and carried strange looking weapons. The two younger octolings carried what looked like a sleeker variant of the octarian version of splattershot pro, one carried a weapon that looked like a missing link between jet squelcher and rapid blaster. The oldest octoling, presumably an officer in her late 40s, had a weapon that differed from the other ones. It had a long, triangular body with cut edges, with three small rectangular holes on the top and both sides with something emitting a faint cyan glow from within them. The barrel was a short hexagon and had many symmetrical holes on all of its sides. It had a simple pistol-like grip and trigger. It had a long stock with a longer big sticking out of it, presumably to be positioned on the shoulder, with what looked like a rounded counterweight at the end. The body was of a dark-silver shade, while the stock and grip were black. It was a massive, and clearly heavy weapon, being nearly as large as the octoling that was holding it. All octolings had medium sized backpacks, as well as several small pouches. Callie and Marie perked their ears and listened carefully to what was being said. Octotroopers chatted with the younger octolings, without dropping their guard.

"Why exactly are we here? We could've been kicking some asses right now, but instead we're sitting here, in some ruined warehouse, waiting for that dumb robot to come get the cargo." one of the octolings groaned. The octotroopers and younger octolings stared at her in disbelief, then fearfully glanced at the oldest octoling in the group.

"Dumb robot you say?" the officer asked in an emotionless tone without turning around.

"Yes ma'am. With all due respect, but why couldn't-" the octoling couldn't finish, as the officer spun around and knocked her down with a powerful side blow with her weapon.

"Watch that filthy mouth of yours Sergeant." the officer hissed. "This 'dumb robot' is one of our benefactors. And insulting our benefactors is a far worse crime than insulting our former supreme commander, Octavio. The armour that just saved you from a lethal blow was made by our benefactors. Our weapons were made by our benefactors. Almost all our gear was made by our benefactors. What we're doing, is repaying them by doing tasks that they give us. I don't know who you served under before and what rules they had, but under me there's a simple rule: there's two warnings. After that there's no more chances, no more warnings, only a swift execution on the spot. And that's your first warning, so better behave." the officer barked.

"I-isn't this a bit extreme ma'am?" Sergeant spat as she got up. She then murmured something under her breath.

"What was that?"

"N-nothing ma'am!"

"Do we want a second warning?" the officer asked in a mockingly cheery voice.

"N-no ma'am."

"Did I hear a yes?" The question was met with a nervous silence. "Good. I don't want to hear another word from you." The officer said and glared at her other soldiers, who all looked away to avoid the glare. She then turned to the tied staff members. "I don't recall jellyfish being needed. Privates Daro and Oriata, step forward." the officer ordered, and the younger octolings nervously came forward. "Walk up to one jellyfish each."

"Uhhh, why ma'am?" male octoling asked.

"Are you questioning my order?"

"N-no ma'am!"

"THEN DO AS ORDERED!" the officer yelled. "NOW-" the officer cleared her throat "Now, take aim." the two took aim, "Ready." they readied, although their aim was rather shaky, "Fire!" A moment passed, aim of the two was extremely shaky. They closed their eyes, mumbled "Sorry." and fired. No ink came from their weapons. Instead of ink, their weapons fired a bolt of concentrated plasma each, which cooked the jellyfish alive the moment they came in contact with the bolts. A moment later they begun to evaporate, as their bodies were almost completely made of water. Now there was only one jellyfish left, and it was terrified. "Well done Privates. You earned your first kill. That's the first step to toughen you up." the officer commented. "Now, this fellow here. UP AND GET OVER TO THAT WALL!" she yelled. The last jellyfish jumped up and hopped over to the wall the officer pointed at. It took a minute due to the jellyfish being tied up, which greatly annoyed the officer.

"Hey, newbies! I suggest you back away!" Sergeant said, and the two Privates complied. The officer took several steps forward, putting herself at a distance from her soldiers and prisoners, but also kept her distance from the jellyfish. She motioned her head in an odd fashion, and her helmet, which until now was only visible as neck guard, shifted and moved into its proper position, sealing itself one officer's entire head was completely covered. She took her stance, balanced her heavy weapon and aimed. She pulled the trigger, and a few moments later a barely visible, foggy beam shot out from her weapon. The temperature around it and her plummeted below freezing in moments, and the jellyfish was nothing more than an ice statue. The officer let go of the trigger, waited a short moment and walked over to the frozen jellyfish on the paper-thin layer that formed on the floor directly under where the beam was. She inspected the jellyfish for a moment like an artist would, before taking a swing at it with her weapon, smashing the frozen jellyfish into hundreds of small and large ice shards. A moment passed, the officer motioned her head again and her helmet reverted into neck guard, before she turned around and walked back to where she was a few moments ago.

"W-was that necessary ma'am?" Oriata nervously asked, earning a glare from her officer.

"Did you say something Private?" the officer hissed.

"N-nothing m-ma'am." Oriata stuttered, looking away to avoid the glare.

"Good."

"Oh. My Cod." Marie mumbled. Both her and Callie couldn't believe their eyes and ears. Just then a strange, mechanical sound could be heard, accompanied by what sounded like multiple metal pipes being banged on concrete, and the sounds were approaching the octarians.

"It's time. Better behave soldiers." the officer said. With that said, the soldiers all stood at attention. A moment has passed, which felt like hours to everyone. A strange machine walked out of the shadows, with its legs creating a distinct sound as it walked. Its body was roughly the size of an octostamp, had a wide, flat oval shape and 16 legs that looked like thick strings of metal, four were on each side with a total of eight on the bottom side and another eight sticking out of the top side. Each leg ended with a small, mechanical X shaped foot. It had four arms, each ending with a mechanical base, with four claws in sticking out from one side each, and appeared to also have a single suction cup in the centre of the base. It also had three tendrils of sorts, each ending with a different tip, around the same area as its arms. Although all limbs were made of metal, they all bent and moved in an odd manner that shouldn't be possible for metal. Like an organic being, yet at the same time unnaturally, like a machine. The robot didn't appear to have a head of any sorts, nor did it have any visible cameras or sensors.

It slowly approached the octolings, stopping for a moment to inspect the prisoners before turning back to the octolings. "We have the cargo, as ordered." the officer said as she bowed. The machine didn't move for a brief moment, as if it trying to hear something. It then leapt to the crates, climbed onto them and took a strange stance, all the while emitting what sounded like some kind of radio chatter of sorts. It turned around to face the octolings and raised one of its tendrils, which ended in a needle-like tip. It aimed at where Callie and Marie were and shot what looked like a golden stream of electricity. Marie seeing it immediately jumped back away from the hole, pulling Callie with her just as the stream hit. The spot where they were a moment ago has been mostly vaporised, while what didn't has turned into molten slag.

"What was that about?" Daro awkwardly asked as he scratched the back of his head.

"Think dumbass! Someone's up there!" Sergeant spat, and just then a splat bomb landed between them. instead of jumping away, both motioned their heads like their officer did, and by the time the splat bomb exploded their helmets have sealed. They were covered in green ink, but weren't affected by it in any way.

"Senata, Daro, cut them off!" the officer barked. Instead of switching to their basic forms they used jetpack boosters, which were on the sides of their backpacks, to reach the floor above. At the same time, the robot has seemingly vanished along with the crates, as if it dissolved into thin air with the crates.

Callie and Marie were swimming in Marie's ink trail, speeding for the door from which they came in. They heard two thuds behind, followed by the sound of fast paced steps, and rightfully assumed that they had company, which made them swim faster. When they passed the doorway, Callie reverted to her humanoid form, slammed the door shut and reverted back to basic form and continued her escape.

Without stopping, Senata aimed her weapon at the door and pulled the trigger. A stream of orange, gel like substance left the barrel of her gun and covered the door. Smoke could be seen and sizzling could be heard as the gel did its work on the door. Senata kicked the weakened door with great force, boosted by her jetpack, causing it to break off its hinges. It crashed right next to where Callie was, which startled her and caused her to jump out of the ink trail. "There you are!" Senata shouted and threw something in Callie's direction.

Time slowed down for Callie as the red-hot door crashed next to her. Moments later, which felt like eternity to her, a spiky blue ball landed right next to her. A second later it let out a buzzing sound, soon followed by intense strikes of electrical discharges. Callie was hit many times. The intensity of the shocks has forced her to switch back to her humanoid form, and she momentarily broke out crying. She had difficulty breathing, which wasn't helped by her crying. The electrical discharges ended after about 15 seconds and left Callie partially paralysed. Senata ran up to Callie, and shouted at her in a very intimidating tone "How much have you seen?" while pointing her gun at Callie.

"I-I..." Callie managed to stutter. Streams of tears started to pour from her golden eyes.

"Wait a moment... that voice..." Senata pulled off Callie's mask. "Well, well, well. What do we have here? A spoiled idol! You know, if you were someone else, you'd just join our small group of 'recruits' for our benefactors. But you! Oh ho ho, no." she said in a tone that scared Callie. Without a warning, Senata stomped on Callie's stomach, making her yelp, her eyes widened from pain. "I cannot stand spoiled idols and celebrities like you. So much good could be done with all the money you greedy fucks hoard! You selfish fuckers separate yourselves from the common people, away from everyday struggles, surrounding yourselves in luxury. You do literally NOTHING of importance and earn more in a day than what most will earn in their lives by doing actual work that benefits everyone!" Senata on Callie's stomach. "Say goodbye to the world, you worthless ink stain." Senata hissed.

"N-n-no! P-plea-se! I'm n-no-t like-like t-t-that-t!" Callie pleaded. She had a full blown panic attack. She was terrified, hyperventilating and in a lot of pain. Her eyes got wider when Senata brought the barrel of her gun closer to Callie's face. Callie's life was flashing before her eyes.

"Shut the fuck up!"

"Ma'am, calm down. Don't do anything hasty." Daro tried to reason with his superior, trying to calm her down. "Think abou-"

"SHUT UP PRIVATE!" Senata snapped. Just as she pulled the trigger Daro tackled her to the side, with the shot landing on the roof. "WHAT ARE Y-"

"STINGRAY!" Daro yelled and pushed Senata away and rolled to the side, closer to Callie. "You have to turn! Now!" Daro whispered to Callie. "Now's your chance to flee, go on! She'll kill you!" The last words echoed in Callie's mind. She mustered all the mental and physical strength she could and turned to her basic form. It hurt. Daro pushed her into the trail of green ink and gave her a push as she swam away in the ink. At that moment the stingray, which was targeting Senata, died down.

"Both of them are here." Senata mumbled to herself. She heard something cracking. She looked up, and to her horror her missed shot has severely weakened the already weak roof. "Daro. Run." she said in a shaky voice. Just as they got up the roof above begun to crumble. They madly bolted back and the Squid Sisters did the same, as bits of the roof begun to fall. Not long after the roof collapsed, raising a huge cloud of dust as it crashed onto the floor, breaking it and falling onto the lower floor.

Marie slammed the door shut after helping Callie get to the room. They were back were they came from, in the first storage room. "Callie, are you ok? Are you hurt?" Marie worriedly asked as she checked her cousin for injuries. No response. "Callie?"

"Uhhh, oh! I-I'm not hurt. J-just shaken, I guess." Callie said and gave Marie a faint smile.

"Callie."

"N-no, really."

"I would believe you, if half your face wasn't paralysed." Marie said. Callie didn't even realise that the left side of her face was paralysed. "Now, turn back to your basic form. I'm taking you to a doctor."

"Marie, i-it's not n-necessary."

"I am not taking ANY risks. You're going to a doctor."

"But-"

"Callie! This might be serious!" Marie cut her cousin off, with a serious face and a worried look. "Please."

"Ok." Callie said and switched to her basic form. She hissed in the processed. Marie gently picked her cousin up, climbed up a crate and back into the vent.

---

"Can you believe it?! Five! Five matches of turf at Walleye in a row! And it was cold during four of those matches! Not to mention the wild vents in the last one! We had to ground Numi or she'd fly away because of the wind!" Tal ranted to no one in particular.

"We get it. We've been there too. Can you stop ranting now?" Arlie groaned.

"But I wanted to fly!" Numi pouted. "Like a bird!"

"You're scared of heights..." Arlie said, to which Numi crossed her arms.

"I'm not!"

"Then why is there a lift for you on the tree house? Because you're too scared of climbing up the ladder." Arlie smirked.

"I'm not scared of heights! I'm scared of looking down!"

"That's one and the same..."

"Nuh-uh!"

"How would Numi fly away? She's not that light." Kumi asked as she returned to the table with a tray of food. There were four crusty seanwitches and four drinks: inkmelon juice for Numi, iced blueberry smoothie for Arlie, iced peach smoothie for Tal and what could be compared to the extinct coffee for Coco.

"Well, the wind caused by the vents in the last match..." Tal couldn't think of a good word.

"Was ridiculously strong." Coco finished for him. "It knocked down several shelves. And it's the reason why there's another rotation so early. Also thank you for the food." Coco added and bit into his crusty seanwich like the rest of Team Muffin has. A few minutes passed, all the seanwitches have been eaten. Coco was on his octophone, Numi was daydreaming as she slowly sipped her juice, looking up into the sky, while Arlie and Tal were chatting. Their chat somehow changed into a competition of who can drink faster. Arlie sipped a bit of her smoothie, so that she and Tal had the amount of smoothie in their cups. Not even a minute later, they were complaining about having brain freeze.

"Why do you always do that?" Numi asked after being snapped out of her daydreaming. Her question was answered with groans, grunts and hisses from Tal and Arlie.

"Ask them in like, five minutes." Coco said without looking up

---

Licy and Pumi, agents 3 and 4 or Stinky and Snore, were on their way to docks near Grizzco Industries salmon run port through the sewage system. Licy's automap battery died and Pumi's automap was glitching out, due to her slipping and falling on it. "I can't tell what stinks worse: you or the sewage." Pumi groaned.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Licy retorted.

"It means that you stink!"

"I'd rather stink than have sleeping disorders!"

"Never, NEVER, insult sleeping! It's the best thing in the world!" Pumi spat, and chuckled "Right after pranks that is." Licy rolled her eyes. Neither of the agents said anything for a minute.

"If you didn't slip, the automap would be working normally, and we wouldn't be lost in this labyrinth!" Licy complained.

"Well, excuuseee me, I'm not the one insisting on wearing some dumb cape!"

"Whatever."

"Look! Ladder!"

"I am NOT falling for that again!"

"No, seriously, there's a ladder there."

"I'm not looking!"

"Have fun wandering the sewage by yourself then!" Pumi spat and ran over to the ladder, which was hidden away in a corner. She climbed up the ladder, which led her to a manhole cover. Before she even reached high enough to lift it, Licy barrelled right behind her, almost knocking her off the ladder. "Licy!" Pumi angrily exclaimed as she hugged the ladder to not fall off

Licy kept on repeating."I want out! I want out! I want out!" in a panicked, almost hysteric manner. This was rare for her.

"What has gotten into you?!" Pumi asked. Licy ignored her question and continued to repeatedly say "I want out!" to which Pumi groaned. She gently lifted the manhole cover and took a peek. It was a sidewalk manhole, and it just so happened that the sidewalk was empty. Pumi moved the cover to the side and climbed out, while Licy practically jumped out. Pumi set the cover back to where it was and took a deep breath. "Not as fresh as in a forest, but still way better than sewage." Pumi said while stretching. She then turned to face Licy. "What happened? Why are you panicking so suddenly?"

"Something was there!"

"What? Who did you see? Octavio?"

"N-not who. What!"

"What did you see?"

"A big, shadowy figure with many legs and tentacles! It appeared out of nowhere and started running at me!" Licy explained. "Before it appeared there was a bright flash."

"If that's true... then we have a problem." Pumi said and reached for her phone. She left a message on squidbeak chatroom, warning of what Licy described. As she put her phone away, she heard a male voice scream "Monster!" Both of the agents turned to where the voice came from and saw an octosniper on the other side of the road without any military gear. While rare, octotroopers were too living in Inkopolis. They came a few months after octolings.

"Yellow, get away from that monster!" the octosniper yelled. It was obvious that he referred to Pumi as yellow, due to her tentacle colour.

"What monster?" Pumi yelled back.

"The inkling behind you!"

"She stinks, but she's not a monster!"

"Hey! I don't stink!" Licy protested.

"Do you have any idea what that monster has done?"

"What do you mean?"

"That's a genocidal psychopath!" the octarian yelled, with fear lingering in his voice. There was a moment of silence. Pumi looked at the octarian: his face was that of fear and honesty. She then looked at Licy: her face was riddled with many emotions, yet at the same time was oddly blank. Pumi didn't have enough experience to be able to read Licy's face.

"Wish Kumi was here. She'd just take a glance and would know what's going on." Pumi thought, slightly exaggerating her sister's skill. She turned to face the octarian, but to her surprise, he wasn't on the other side of the road. He ran past her, picked Licy up with his tentacle and slammed her against the wall. Licy struggled, trying to free herself, but couldn't move her arms and her feet were dangling above ground. The octarian started repeatedly slamming Licy against the wall, glaring at Licy and shouting something to her in Octarian. "What are you doing?!" wide eyed Pumi yelled, but did nothing due to shock. Licy managed to slip out of octarian's grip, landing on her feet. She collapsed almost immediately due to the beating she just received. She tried crawling away, but the octarian grabbed her right leg by the ankle and started swinging her madly, repeatedly smashing her on the pavement. Pumi snapped out of her shock. She tackled the octosniper, who was over twice her size, bringing him down to the ground, which made him lose the grip of Licy's ankle in the middle of a swing and resulted in Licy being thrown into a wall.

"Why are you helping that monster?!" the octarian yelled.

"Calm down! What the hell do you mean by monster anyway?" Pumi demanded while pinning down the octarian. She glanced at Licy, to see her trying to get herself in a better position while being barely conscious. Her sluggish attempts at sitting up and standing up were all fruitless, as she would collapse each time, hissing in pain. She had many scratches and cuts, and bruises were beginning to show up. Pumi turned to the octarian and hissed "Explain yourself." in a threatening tone.

"She's a genocidal maniac! She brutally tortured and murdered hundreds of octarians!"

"What... are you high?"

"No, are you high?"

"You can't randomly say someone's a genocidal maniac and attack them!"

"I have survived one of her attacks! I am one of the only six survivors!"

"Yeah, sure, I tooootally believe you." Pumi spat. She heard Licy mumble something and turned to face Licy. Licy has managed to sit up, but had to rest against the wall or she'd collapse. "You said something?" Pumi asked Licy. No response.

"That monster needs to be locked away! She's a danger!"

"Shut up or I'm going to show you what a danger is." Pumi hissed, revealing her newer variant of the heroshot, which was more than enough to make the octarian shut up. "Now, who are you to make such claims?"

"I am Ter Torto, and as I said, I'm one of the only six survivors of one of her attacks." Ter said.

"Well then Ter, you've got a lot of expl-" Pumi begun, but stopped when she heard Licy mumbling again. She once again glanced at Licy. Licy was rocking back and forth, holding her head and mumbling something, which worried Pumi and terrified Ter. Pumi got up and walked up to Licy. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Licy didn't react. She kept on rocking back and forth, mumbling incoherent words. Pumi crouched down and looked Licy into the eyes. Her left eye was blankly staring into the void, devoid of any emotions or life. Her right eye on the other hand, was that of pure terror. Licy's mumbling gradually became louder and clearer. "No! No! I didn't do it! You told me it wasn't real! Why did you make me do it?! Why?! I didn't! It wasn't real! No! I didn't do any of that! Get out! Get out of my damn head!" Licy begun by saying but ended screaming hysterically. Ter has already ran away in fear, leaving Pumi alone with Licy.

"L-Licy?" Pumi shakily asked. Licy wasn't reacting, she only continued rocking back and forth while screaming unsettling things. She started pulling her tentacles and hitting back of her head against the wall. "S-stop it! That's creepy!" Licy didn't listen, instead she was screaming louder, pulling harder on her tentacles. The way in which she was pulling her tentacles was dangerous, as she could rip off not only her tentacles, but also the base of tentacles which would cause her to bleed out. Pumi hastily whipped out her phone, set it to recording and attached it to her hero jacket. She then tried to talk Licy out of her madness, which was fruitless. Pumi grabbed Licy's hands, stopping her from pulling her tentacles further. A small streak of blood was already flowing from under Licy's tentacle base, but stopped once her tentacles weren't pulled. Pumi then overpowered her violent rocking, preventing her from hitting her head anymore. "Hey! Look at me!" Pumi shouted, and finally got Licy's reaction in the form of her looking up. Her right eye was crying, while the left eye was blankly staring at Pumi, which creeped Pumi out. "What's wrong?"

"I-I-I... I didn't d-d-do t-that... I-I ref-fuse to b-believe it. I-it was..." Licy stuttered without finishing her last sentence.

"Do what? And who did said 'what'?"

"I-it was t-the voice."

"What voice?" Pumi asked. Her voice gave it away that she was very disturbed.

"A voice i-in my h-head. It t-talks about m-many things. M-m-my eyes f-feel w-weird when it t-talks."

"Does your left eye feel weird now?" Pumi asked and got a nod as an answer. "What is it telling you?"

"T-to... to k-k-kill oc-octarians a-an-and weak-weaklings. I-I d-don't wan-want t-that!"

"Wha-"

"L-last t-time I-I... I l-lost c-contr-rol and... and it... it took o-over." Licy cried and covered her face.

"Last time? Lost control? What happened? When did it happen?" Pumi flooded Licy with questions.

"T-three y-years ago... the voice... i-it c-con-controlled m-me a-and it... it did h-horrible t-t-th-things!"

"What... does Callie and Marie know?" Pumi asked and got a confirming nod. "Why the actual fuck did they not say anything... Can you walk?"

"I-I think." Licy tried standing up a few times, each time being a failure. "I-I can't..."

"Can you turn?" Pumi worriedly asked, to which Licy switched to her squid form. She yelped in the process. "Ok, I'm taking you to a hospital. Someone needs to check if you're injured. And to check your head." Pumi declared as she picked Licy up.