Notice: All characters unless stated otherwise are 18+, on top of that, there won't be any horny shit written in this book.

    The squad return to the truck with the box of elder relics, and radio in what they discovered. Their detour took them about an hour, and the squad was slowly getting exhausted. They continued on their journey from where they left off.

    The squad moved with haste towards their destination. Idiot pipes up after a little while of walking, "Why couldn't we take the fucking truck?"

    Cherep looks back, "In all honesty, I don't fucking know. Command told me not to take the truck for some fucking reason."

    Johnson sighs, "Man, this operation is a shitshow."

    The inkling was dumbfounded at how poorly organized all of this was. Little communications, couldn't use the truck at all, and lack of personnel to fight the hive. "Don't tell me it's like this for every hive..."

    Ustala began talking to Tanya, drowning out the endless stream of Cherep's complaints, "This is not how it usually goes. There's supposed to be more men, and command wouldn't stop us from driving in. This isn't that type of hive."

    "Type of hive?" Ustala hums, "Yeah, There are different types of hives that have been cleared. This is a B type, where it grows over a small area and its sterilized travel far from it. Operations for clearing B types allow us to send a vehicle or few in..."

    The octoling squinted her eyes, "Or it's that..." 

    Tanya raises a brow, "What's up?"

    "Nothing, I'll save it for later."

    'Odd' thought the inkling. So far Ustala had seemed to trust Tanya. Whatever it was, it was either serious and it seemed she needed more time to dwell on it. Or Tanya couldn't be trusted with it. Well, it would have to wait for later. They had a mission to do.

    The squad continued down the street for a while. They were 500 meters away from the hive, and things weren't looking so well. Blotches of sterile ink were dotting the streets, and the squad had to sneak past a few houses infested with Sterilized.

    The increasing number of sterilized wasn't the only issue, as everyone was getting tired too. A mixture of the day getting late and how much they have traveled had fatigued them all. Their legs had become sore with the constant walking. They had no choice but to push past their exhaustion and keep on moving, as stopping for rest would be risky.

    Cherep noticed how exhausted the squad had become, and decided that they would have to rest anyways. She turned around, "Alright guys, we're gonna stop at that blue house up there. We didn't bring any bags so your gonna have to make do with what you have."

    She turns back around, "We'll head up into the attic. Make sure to space out as well, and get comfy."

    Cherep opens the front door and raises her Octoshot. The squad follows and begins to clear the building room by room. After finishing their sweep, Cherep works on opening the attic hatch. It resists for a little bit, before giving away with a metallic creak. The squad clamber up into the attic and all sit down in various places.

    The attic was dark and cool, with boxes of items scattered about and a layer of dust covering the surface of them. The only light to this attic was from the windows that were illuminated with a dull yellow from the streetlights outside.

    Tanya takes a seat next to the window, plopping down across from Cherep. The both of them sat in silence, staring out of the window and into the large cavern that the neighborhood resides in. A faint bluish hue illuminates across the neighborhood before the road's lights turn on and drown it out with a bright yellow light.

    The inkling lays back and shuts her eyes, letting sleep take over and lulling her into a deep slumber

................................................................................................................................................................

    The night sky was full of clouds, stopping anyone from seeing the stars or moon. It was another depressing night for Tanya, full of fruitless attempts at getting her father out of his room. The saddened girl got off the chair in the dining room and set her empty bowl in the sink for washing. She made her way up the stairs to go to sleep for work tomorrow.

    Without warning, the doorbell rang throughout the house signaling that someone was at the door. She went to answer it, and probably yell at whoever was bothering her at this time. Tanya opened the door to be greeted by two police officers. Fear rang out through her body, making her breath hitch.

    She steadied herself and calmed her mind, "Hello officers, how may I help you?"

    "I'm afraid your brother is in the hospital Ms. Van Norton."

    Dread and fear shot through the girls body. Her knees felt weak and she collapsed on the floor. The officers seemed to be calling to her, but their words were an unintelligible static. The space around her began to fade to white and the faces of the policemen began to scramble. The static became deafening, and suddenly...

................................................................................................................................................................

    Tanya was shaken awake by a panicked Cherep. The faint noise of battle rumbling throughout the attic. Cherep hands Tanya her weapon and the two begin to descend the ladder down into the hallway of the house, the feeling of grogginess being washed over by the adrenaline pumping through her veins.

    Tanya rounds the corner into the ink stained living room where everyone else is. Idiot is behind the couch closest to the living room window, unleashing a splatling charge towards the direction of the sterilized while Ustala launches some blobs of ink at the sterilized. Tanya takes cover behind a couch with Johnson while Cherep fires her octoshot towards the Sterilized, nailing one in the head.

    "What's going on?" Tanya asks the panicked Octoling

    Johnson gives Tanya the best reply he could muster, "I-I-I don't know, we were all chilling in the living room when some splat bombs were tossed through the window!"

    A trail of light red ink covers the carpet next to the couch. Idiot hops out of the ink in his octo form next to Johnson. "Shit, that was a close one."

    Johnson sighs and asks, "You good man?"

    "Yea I'm good, just gotta refill." Idiot turns to talk to Tanya, "There's about seven of them out there, only two of them are close enough to do anything."

    The red light on Idiots tank blinks, signaling that he has refilled most of his ink. "Alright, lets fuck em up!" The octoling hops into his ink and swims back to where he was. Tanya cranks the lever on the front of her rifle and changes her color to match everyone else's. She moves up beside the splatling user and peeks over the couch. While he's charging up his splatling, a moderately inked sterilized peeks out hoping to take out Idiot. Tanya aims over and pulls the trigger on her ink rifle, nailing the cyan octoling square on the forehead. Her head pops open like a balloon, releasing a combination of sterile and light red ink.

    Another sterilized peeks over from Tanya's right for a second and quickly pops back down, barely dodging another shot from Tanya. The sterile octoling kicks the front door in and inks a trail towards the couch, hoping to push forward and wipe both of them out. It turns into octo form just as a wave of ink from Cherep covers up its trail and strikes it, turning back into a humanoid. Tanya takes another shot and the sterilized dodges, with Tanya's ink blasting a few of the tentacles on its head away.

    One of the sterilized in the back begin to push forward as another two flank around the back. Idiot unleashes a splatling charge aimed at the sterilized pushing forward, but it dives under the window and dodges the ink.

    Ustala calls out to the squad, "We got two flanking around back."

    "Me and Johnson will take care of them, you three will hold the living room." Cherep orders to the squad. Johnson grabs his Gal and the two begin to take a hold in the kitchen.  Tanya lobs a splat bomb over the window but it gets popped out of the sky.

    Idiot chuckles and Tanya scratches her head, "Nice splat bomb squid kid!" Tanya shoots the octoling a glare.

.....................................................................................................................................    Over in the kitchen, Cherep was taking cover behind the entrance to the room while Johnson was hidden behind the counter. The two had their weapons aimed at the door, waiting for the sterile octolings to enter. Without even being given chance to register it, the door was kicked open and one of the sterilized dived for cover. 

    Cherep reacted quickly and landed a few shots on the first octoling, Johnson's reaction was late however and he ended up coating the door and counter in light red ink. He quickly inked a trail around the counter and submerged as the other sterilized moved in. Cherep quickly tossed a bomb over the counter hoping to hit the first sterilized and began to fire at the new octoling.

    The second sterilized noticed the bomb and slapped it back to Cherep before ducking down, Cherep's burst of ink landing on its head. Cherep reacted by kicking it back in front of the sterilized. It landed next to the cyan octoling's head and detonated, killing the sterile being immediately.

    Cherep's tank light blinked and she tossed another bomb directly behind the counter,  forcing the cyan octoling to duck towards Johnson. He shot her a few times then kicked her towards the bomb, killing her immediately.

    Cherep smirked, "Nice work private, we'll keep watch here for now."

.....................................................................................................................................

    The situation in the living room was growing worse. There were four sterilized octolings pushing in through the front, and they were gaining control over the front part of the room. Idiot unleashes another charge of ink from his splatling. It hits one of the sterile being, but doesn't kill it. The rest dodge away from the ink.

    "God damn these fucks are persistent." Idiot grunted, "Ustala! We need something here!"

    A barely audible grunt sounds from the octoling, "Give me a fuckin minute here!"

    Idiot yells back, "We don't have a fucking minute!"

    A sterilized vaults through the open window, but gets cut in half by a shot from Tanya's rifle. The top half hits the ground lifeless as a wave of splat bombs roll in. Idiot reflexively dives around a corner while Tanya pulls Ustala into a hallway with her. The bombs detonate and cover the living room in sterile ink, giving the attackers enough control to push in.

    Three cyan octopi jump through the front window and into the living room, taking up cover behind the couch closest to the front. Tanya tosses a splat bomb over towards the couch but it gets shot out again, confusing both Tanya and Idiot.

    "How the hell?" Tanya questions.

    The octo scratches his head, "Sometimes they have a device to stop splat bombs, but it's always stationary."

    "Fine, we'll just not use splat bombs." Tanya preps her rifle and peeks around the wall. As she does, one of the octolings walks out of cover to push up. It reacts too late as a stream of light red ink reduces its head into pieces. "That's another one, two left."

    A splat bomb is lobbed from behind the couch and towards Tanya. Before it touches the ground, Tanya kicks it back towards the door and ducks behind the corner. Ink pellets fly towards where she was standing, coating the wall in the cyan octolings signature sterile ink.

    Tanya peeks again in a lower stance, firing off two streams of ink. Both ink streams graze one of the sterile octolings. It ducks behind the couch while the other one moves up closer to Tanya. She pulls the trigger on her rifle, striking a machine on its back and short circuiting it. The octoling angrily swears in a mechanical voice and rushes back to cover, exposing their back. As it does, Tanya dives around the corner and nails it in the back of the head. It's partner pops up aiming to infect Tanya, but is quickly dispatched with another swift headshot.

    Tanya stands up and observes the room, waiting for any more to come out. After a moment she slings her rifle over her shoulder and dusts herself off. Idiot and Ustala come out of the hallway and observe Tanya's work. "Guess we shouldn't piss you off, eh Squid kid?"

    Tanya glares at Idiot, "I'm Nineteen you ass."

    "Twenty-one, still a kid to me"

    Tanya's face distorts in anger and it looks as if she's about to rip Idiot a new one. She drops her rage and sighs. "Well, lets go check in on the other two."

    "No need, we're all done cooking us up some dead sterilized." Cherep walks into the room and looks out into the living room. "You guys seem to have been quite busy yourself."

    Idiot turns to Cherep, "We had to deal with a trophy system on the back of one these fucks. Real pain in the ass too."

    Cherep turns her gaze to Idiot, "You mean you fought a sterilized octoling with a trophy system on their back?" She smirks, "Now they're using their heads, shame its too heavy for them to carry."

    "No wonder it was such an easy target." Tanya says to herself, earning a wider smile from Cherep.

    "Oh don't worry kid, they only get harder to hit."

    Tanya whips her head towards the elite octoling, "I'm Nineteen!"

    Cherep responds, "Twenty-Four"

    Tanya throws her arms up and shouts out in anger. Everyone starts laughing at the inkling's expense.

    Johnson wipes a tear from his eye, "Okay, what now?"

    Cherep recovers her breath from her laugh, "Well, now we take out that damn hive and get home. Everyone pack your shit if you left anything, We're finishing the fight!"

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hey im back lol

quick explanation as to my disappearance:

school happened, finished Magical Girl Site, finished Happy Sugar Life, started getting into Touhou, even more school

yea alot of school, 8-3 everyday baby

updates are gonna be really inconsistent from now on until i either hit a break (and release something) or its the next summer

does that really matter though? like 2 people and their cat read this

alright its 12:40 AM and im starving (at the time of writing this)

2445~ words